Suicide is one of the most talked about issues in the military but rates are not seeing improvement amongst it’s active-duty members and veterans. The military gives annual courses about suicide awareness but many service members feel like it’s just a check box, giving a “class” just to say that they talked about. Many service members, especially those amongst the lower enlisted feel like mental health is over looked; that you’ll be viewed as weak or a coward if you seek help for injuries both physically and mentally. Don’t get me wrong there are people who actually do care but usually it’s only the people who have lost someone they cared about to suicide. There are multiple factors when talking about suicide rates and there are certainly some things the military could do better not only to improve the suicide rates but to prevent it from happening at all.
Being a veteran, this topic is near and dear to my heart, I have known people who have committed suicide. One was a senior leader and although he wasn’t in the same platoon that I was, he was a well-known and respected marine throughout the company. He lived in the barracks and whenever I would see he would have a smile on his face and he was great leader and mentor to others. After getting the news that he passed away I was shocked and thought that you never know what people are going through in their mind and the things they are holding in, depression wears a mask. Not to long after getting out I had gotten the news that one the junior marines that was in my platoon while I was in committed suicide; I felt that one a little bit more because this is someone who I have trained and spent time with in the field. What if I could have done something different to help that marine to where he didn’t feel the need to end his life. I have served with people who know even more people than I do that have committed suicide some even in the double digits.
In 2019 the suicide rate amongst Active-Duty troops was 25.9 per100,000, according to the Pentagon’s annual report, it was 24.9 per 100,000 in 2018 and 21.9 per 100,000 in 2017(Brooks). The Army has seen a 30% increase in deaths by suicide from 2019 to 2020 with 88 deaths in 2019 and 114 deaths by suicide in 2020(Brooks). According to the report released by the Department of Veteran Affairs officials 17.6 veterans committed suicide every day in 2018 and 17.5 in 2017(Shane). In his article in Military Times Leo Shane states the VA officials have clarified that the “20 a day” reference that we see when talking about military suicide, includes troops from all branches, as well as guardsmen (members of the coast guard), reservists and also veterans. The difference between a veteran and active-duty member is, that a veteran is someone who has completed his contract and is separated from service under honorable condition; and active-duty member is some who is currently serving in the armed forces. According to the report released by the Department of Defense released in 2020 498 active duty died by suicide in 2019, 543 in 2018 and 517 in 2017 (Games). “According to the 2020 Executive Order number 13861, more veterans, Guardsmen, active-duty members, and reservists die by suicide every year than those killed in action while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 combined (Games)”.
Studies show the factors associated with increased risk of suicide are depression, manic-depressive disorder, heavy or binge drinking and other alcohol-related problem; none of the deployment-related factors such as combat experience, cumulative days deployed, or number of deployments were associated with increased suicide risk (LeardMann). Another huge factor is the transition from being a service member to going back into the civilian world. From day one the military builds a culture of camaraderie and brotherhood throughout your whole enlistment, teaching you to lean on and support each other through all the trials and tribulations that come your way. The thing is when you don’t want to re-enlist, they just basically say give us our stuff back and go deal with on your own usually to go back to a home town that has forgotten you and back to “friends” who don’t compare to the brothers you just were with. A lot of its hard for veterans to find happiness and something to look forward to; for the infantry especially it’s hard to transfer the skills you learned in the military into something useful in the “real world” (I know this from firsthand experience). Outside of law enforcement the infantry has no other transferable skills and some veterans find it extremely hard to find that sense of belonging and self-worth.
There are efforts being made to raise awareness and help suicide prevention in the military like with the passage of the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act a legislation “which includes new grant program to encourage collaboration with community organizations on suicide prevention, new hiring rules to quickly fill mental health staffing gaps at the Department of Veteran Affairs, and a host of new data requirements to better track potential causes of suicide (Shane)”. Over the last decade the VA suicide prevention and mental health care funding has increased $6 billion, hiring staff all aimed at providing greater access to care (Boozman). This has helped the VA hire more therapists, psychologists, and other medical doctors so that veterans outside of military can get the help they need.
I’ve talked to fellow service members and got their input on what the military is doing wrong. Tony Guzman felt that “senior leaders on both the enlisted and commissioned officer side should stopped caring about just their careers and actually listened to the gripes and complaints that the lower are telling them about. A lot of people are scared to say anything because they will be ostracized and looked at as if they were cowards.” Also, another area that service members feel that need improvement on is the importance of family; there is only one family readiness coordinator per battalion. Let me put that in perspective, a battalion consist of about 1,000 service members, that’s means it’s up to only one person to keep the members of 1,000 families informed of upcoming training events, deployments, updates on what their loved ones are doing while on deployment when they are coming back, all this and more. The easiest ways to do the is just to write one email and send it out through a data base full of emails. There should be family readiness teams for each company within the battalion that consist of 4-5 people that are responsible of keeping the family of only about 300 service members informed. We also talked about how each battalion should have a team of physical, mental, nutritional, and occupational therapists available to Service members 24/7; people who are not in the military so that way service member feels comfortable talking to them because there are just some things you don’t tell higher ups. Navy Corpsman Nathan Cole told me he feels “mental health is just as important as a torn ACL or any other physical injury. The Marines need to find a way to implement a system that allows for mental health to be treated correctly and effectively without repercussions from the chain of command and disqualifications for special duty assignments and deployments.” I also talked with Sgt Kolakowski, a former platoon sergeant of mine who suffers from PSTD, anxiety, and depression and he told me that the last year and half that he was active-duty he had a mental breakdown and he was “constantly berated by my Xo and Gunny for being weak and un able to perform my duties.” He told me that even after a suicide attempt and being picked up by police and put on a mental evaluation hold by his chain of command only a few people should him any kind of sympathy.
There are people out there who are trying help but it’s not enough. How many people have to end their lives for the military finally stary away from the complex mindset that if you seek help for anything mentally or physically you are seen as weak and coward.
Work Cited
Brook, Tom Vanden. “Suicide rate among active-duty troops jumps to six-year high, COVID-19 stress could make it even worse.” USA Today. 1 October, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/01/suicide-rate-among-active-duty-troops-jumps-six-year-high/5879477002/
Boozman, John and Warner, Mark. “Mental health and suicide crisis among US veterans getting new approach.” MilitaryTimes. 9 November, 2020 https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2020/11/09/mental-health-and-suicide-crisis-among-us-veterans-getting-new-approach/
Cole, Nathan. USN/Corpsman. Personal interview. 14 April, 2021
Games, Katrina and Theargood, Aliyah. “Service member suicide prevention: Why the military must end the stigma on mental health.” MilitaryTimes. 31 October, 2020 https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2020/10/31/service-member-suicide-prevention-why-the-military-must-end-the-stigma-on-mental-health/
Guzman, Tony. USMC/Cpl/Retired. Personal interview. 14 April, 2021
Kolakowski, Christopher. USMC/SGT/Retired. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2021
LeardMann, Cynthia; et al. “Risk Factors Associated with Suicide in Current and Former US Military Personnel.” JamaNetwork. 7 August, 2013. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1724276
Shane, Leo. “Suicide rate among veterans up again slightly, despite focus on prevention efforts.” MilitaryTimes. 12 November, 2020. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/11/12/suicide-rate-among-veterans-up-again-slightly-despite-focus-on-prevention-efforts/
Shane, Leo. “Huge slate of veteran suicide prevention measures set for debate next month.” MilitaryTimes. 25 August, 2020. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/25/huge-slate-of-veteran-suicide-prevention-measures-set-for-debate-next-month/