Posted on 04/01/2015 8:38:30 PM PDT by PROCON
The largest study to date of a rising suicide rate among military personnel, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, found no connection between suicide and deployment overseas in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The findings are the latest in a series of studies prompted by a military suicide rate that has nearly doubled since 2005. The study’s authors and others cautioned, however, that the findings do not rule out combat exposure as a reason for the increase in suicides, adding that more information was needed.
“As the wars went on, the suicide rates also went up and it was very tempting to assume deployments must be the reason,” said the lead author, Mark Reger of the Department of Defense National Center for Telehealth and Technology in Tacoma, Wash. “Our data don’t support that. But there may be important subgroups, including those exposed to combat, that we need to look at further.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bingo.
This study lines up pretty close to my experience (retiring from the Army National Guard next month after 33 years as an Infantry Sgt Maj (CSM in Army-speak) with two Iraq tours and a peace-keeping deployment).
I unfortunately have had to deal with suicides in my units. During the mid-2000s the suicides started rising, most with Iraq vets, but then the number of soldiers doing it who had never deployed surpassed those who had.
As I looked back on the earlier cases of combat vets, each one of them had strong issues other than deployment. One had just lost his job as a teacher and was facing charges for inappropriate relations with an underage girl, another had just been picked up on his third DUI, and so on. How much deployments contributed to that behavior can be argued (I think not much in the case of the teacher). One who attempted several times had alcohol issues long before he ever deployed, and had fallen off his AA wagon.
Non-deployed soldiers who committed suicide one just back from basic training who was found hanging in his parents’ basement. Another ran their car into a light pole at high speed after being picked up for shoplifting. Another had just had a spectacular argument with his wife.
While common sense would indicate that combat veterans would have a significantly higher rate, I have had to conclude that there’s a broader problem than that.
The reason suicides went up is because gays were having unrequited, solo imaginary love affairs and could not live without returned affection from their fox hole buddies.
Remember.....you read it here.
Today’s new thread, no respect, and feeling (being) betrayed is why I believe the suicide rate has risen.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/videos/bill-whittle-sir-i-will-not-obey-order
The purge of honorable conservative officers, lack of data from the earlier wars, especially the congruency in Rules of Engagement with Nam, omitting suicide attempts, and so many other factors make this study very exclusive. The one finding that those who served less than 4 years causing suicide rates to skyrocket among the “boots” (just out of boot camp) who are relieved of duty is the only jewel this study revealed. One article I found last night highlighted the great discrepancy between benefits to illegal immigrants and those volunteers.
If you want to know if combat increases suicide rates then you have to compare combat arms MOS’s with other MOS’s.
How do you know that the link isn’t between anti-depressants and soldiers rather than deployment and soldiers?
I've been out of the Army for 35+ years and would never have thought to disobey a direct or lawful order, because they were all lawful.
My 18 year old son, who participated in JROTC in high school was discouraged by me in joining the Military just for the reasons Whittle expounds.
My family has a proud heritage of Military service, but that heritage will cease until America once again has an honorable Commander-in-Chief.
I tried to talk my son into waiting until there was a republican president but I was unsuccessful. He just got out of the Corps in Dec. His recruiting Sgt just got out yesterday. We last talked at the funeral of a Marine I believe may have committed suicide and he told me that he lost one boot and knew of two others who had been in danger of doing so.
With suicide being the 3rd cause of death in their age bracket those who are looking for hope in the military are going in already wounded. Boot camp tears you down first. Some are already torn down.
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