Posted on 12/23/2004 8:09:04 PM PST by SaltyJoe
By Rick Rogers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER December 21, 2004
More Marines are committing suicide than at any time since the Corps started closely monitoring such deaths, prompting the government to step up intervention efforts based on a clear message – set aside your pride and seek counseling.
The challenges of preparing for deployment to Iraq, the stress of combat and the difficulties of returning to postwar life seem to drive up suicide numbers, some counselors and Marine generals said.
To encourage more service members to seek treatment, the Defense Department has beefed up its mental-health units deployed overseas.
It has also hired an outside provider to promote counseling services in the United States that offer greater privacy than on-base consultations.
"Our biggest challenge is to make it acceptable for Marines to seek help without being seen as weak, unpromotable or 'mental,' " said Navy Cmdr. Thomas Gaskin, the Marine Corps' behavioral-health specialist.
This year, there have been a record 32 confirmed or probable Marine suicides.
At least six of these suicides involved Camp Pendleton Marines, Gaskin said in a phone interview. Three killed themselves in Kuwait or Iraq, and three in San Diego.
Until now, 28 was the most Marines to kill themselves in any year. Those deaths occurred in 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan. Two years earlier, in accordance with a Navy requirement, the Marine Corps began tracking suicides more thoroughly than it had in the past, said a Corps spokesman.
Historically, the Marine Corps leads all services in the rate of suicides. It has averaged nearly 25 a year since 1999. The Marines are also the smallest service, with 178,000 active-duty troops.
By comparison, the Army has some 500,000 troops. It reported 54 suicides in 2002.
The demanding Marine lifestyle and the youth of its troops are usually cited as contributing factors.
Despite this year's rise, suicide levels for Marines are still below those of a comparable civilian population.
In 2002, the Marines reported a rate of 12.6 suicides per 100,000 troops. In contrast, the comparative rate for civilian men ages 20 to 24 that year was 20.8, and has averaged nearly 20.9 since 1999, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md.
But the comparison offers little consolation to Gaskin and other mental-health experts.
They're frustrated by troops who equate mental-health problems with character flaws or view counseling as an admission of weakness.
While the Corps has recognized mental illness in its ranks and improved and expanded available psychiatric counseling, most Marines aren't using the service, Gaskin said.
"We suspect this has to do with a variety of factors, but the perceived lack of confidentiality, career stigma and cultural shame associated with seeking help are likely the most significant issues and merit further study," he said.
First death The first San Diego-based Marine death when thousands were deployed earlier this year was ruled a suicide. Pfc. Matthew G. Milczark, 18, from Kettle River, Minn., shot himself inside a chapel March 8 in Kuwait as the Marines prepared to move into Iraq, according to Marine reports.
His friends and family said they never thought the former homecoming king of Moose Lake High School would take his own life.
"I think if he was troubled, he would've gone to counseling," said Sherm Liimatainen, 64, who knew Milczark since he was a boy and eulogized him at his funeral. "In his last letter, which the family received the day of his funeral, there is no sign of anything that he could not cope with."
Marines, Gaskin said, typically suffer in silence until they implode and people around them are left wondering why.
This breaking point can occur just as easily during training in the states as in a war zone or back home after a deployment.
Top Marine generals have told Congress about their worries that long, continuous combat deployments could break the Corps' morale.
Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, has successfully lobbied Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to hold duty tours to seven months. Army troops regularly pull yearlong tours that are sometimes extended.
Marine officials are monitoring the spike in suicides, but insist there is no "direct correlation" between the deaths and service in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Bryan Driver, a Marine Corps spokesman on personnel and family issues.
Just one in five Marines who have killed themselves had served in either war zone, Driver said. In contrast, nearly 45 percent of all Marines have spent time in at least one of the combat zones.
If the war on terrorism were causing the suicides, Driver reasoned, a higher percentage of combat veterans would be killing themselves.
But Gaskin said that the war might influence suicide levels in a less-obvious way.
He theorizes that nonstop military operations stateside since the Afghanistan war in 2001 – either supporting the war or preparing for the next deployment – are exacerbating existing personal and professional problems and leading to more suicides.
Failing relationships Crumbling relationships and financial troubles are the main forces behind most suicides, followed by legal or disciplinary problems, Driver said. Military counselors have long suspected that troops avoid military-based mental-health counseling because commanders can learn of the sessions.
Officially, said Driver, commanders are told about the sessions only when those seeking counseling say they want to hurt themselves or others.
To better serve the Marines, the Defense Department has hired Ceridian Corp. to administer the One Source Program.
This service allows Marines and their families to access a Web site or call counselors for information or referrals across the country. The counselors are based in St. Petersburg, Fla., and outside Philadelphia.
Psychiatric assessments are done over the telephone by mental-health experts who offer callers the choice of seeing a government or private-practice therapist where they live, Driver said.
Since May, when the face-to-face civilian counseling aspect of One Source started, 74 referrals have been made. Neither Marine Corps nor Ceridian officials had a breakdown of who was directed to therapy or where they came from.
While the civilian arrangement affords about the Marines and their families anonymity, there are confidentiality limits mirroring those of the military. For example, counselors must report Marines who say they plan to harm themselves or others.
More people are starting to use the service, said Linda Mixon, who manages the One Source Program for Ceridian.
In the most recent fiscal year – Oct. 1, 2003, to Sept. 30, 2004 – the Web site and the toll-free number received 26,162 inquiries, she said. So far this fiscal year, that number has jumped to 36,633.
The most frequently asked questions are about child care, overseas tours, relationships and life after deployment to a war zone, Mixon said.
One Source has 61 workers answering callers' questions, she said, and 5,000 counselors nationwide are available to take clients.
I pray for them all often.
It could be a lot of things, but the article will spur even more prayers for our devil dogs. If anything, the public will be more interested. If the MSM tries to spin the story, statistics and hard facts will knock lefties dead in their tracks.
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