Military suicides reached their highest recorded level last year, the Pentagon reports, highlighting a crisis affecting both civilians and veterans.
In 2018, 325 military service members committed suicide, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Suicide Prevention Office, surpassing the previous record of 321 in 2012.
“I feel like this is a drastically underpublicized and addressed issue in the military,” one former military member, identified as docgosu, wrote in response to the report on Reddit’s veterans’ board. “I dealt with behavior health issues in the Navy and the chain of command had no respect for it even while working in the medical field as a Hospital Corpsman.”
Suicide among service members and civilians has been on the rise for years, but the 2018 spike in the military rate is unusual. There were 285 military suicides in 2017, a slight increase from the 280 reported in 2016. The rate went down significantly after the record 321 in 2012, with 256 reported in 2013.
A separate Pentagon report found that 95% of those in the military who committed suicide in 2017 were male and 81% were white. Fifty-seven percent were deployed at some point in their careers.
Perhaps most shocking is that nearly half had a documented behavioral health diagnosis, and slightly more than half contacted the Military Health System within 90 days of committing suicide.
The 2018 data show that Army members made up the largest portion of military suicides, with 139 reported in 2018. The Army is the largest service branch, and members have made up the largest portion of military suicides since 2012.
Another veteran, writing under the name ElectrikDonuts, lamented what the vet saw as the military’s failure to look into possible causes.
“Instead the military blames the individual for not maintaining their ‘4 pillars’ of ‘work life balance’ as if you have control over your life while in the military.”
The military’s top brass is not always understanding about the sensitive topic.
Air Force Col. Michael Miller, commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force base in Louisiana, reportedly said “killing yourself is a chickenshit way to go” during a “resiliency day” run with service members Friday. He apologized for the comment Monday.
Total suicides among the reserve components of the military went down in 2018, with 216 reported compared with the 226 reported in 2017. Generally, the suicide rate in the reserves has been independent of the active-duty component, in some years rising when the active component is lowering and vice versa.
While the number of veteran suicides remains significantly higher than the number for those in the military, the overall rate has decreased slightly since 2014, with 6,079 veteran suicides reported in 2016, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Until 2016, veteran suicides were on the rise, with a 25.9% increase from 2005 to 2016.
The Defense Department has been aware of the suicide epidemic for some time, and both Pentagon and VA officials have reportedly been working this summer on a joint report on military suicides. The two departments also plan to hold a conference on suicide later this month.
“My colleagues and I know that every single life lost is a tragedy and each one has a deeply personal story. With each death, we know there are families and often children with shattered lives,” Elizabeth Van Winkle, director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, said during a joint congressional hearing on veterans and military suicide in May.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Like the military’s victims, a majority of those who commit suicide are white males, with middle-aged white men being particularly prone.
