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2006 Suicide Rate for Soldiers Sets a Record for the Army

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times

August 17, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (AP) — Ninety-nine soldiers killed themselves last year, the highest suicide rate in the Army in 26 years of record-keeping, a new report says.

Nearly a third of the soldiers committed suicide while in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to a report released Thursday, which said 27 deaths were in Iraq and 3 in Afghanistan.

The report said that the 99 confirmed suicides by active-duty soldiers compared with 87 in 2005 and that it was the highest raw number since 102 suicides were reported in 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War.

Investigations are pending on two other deaths.

Officials reported 948 suicide attempts, but there were no comparisons for previous years.

In the 500,000-member Army, the suicide toll translates to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate hit a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

Failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and work stress were motivating factors, the report said. It also found a significant link between suicide attempts and the number of days deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or nearby countries where troops participate in the war effort.

Officials found no direct tie between suicide and deployments or exposure to combat except in how they affect a soldier’s marriage or other relationships, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, said in a news conference.

The increases occurred as Army officials worked to establish a number of programs for mental health care and strengthen old ones for a force strained by the Iraq conflict and the global counterterrorism war.

In recent studies, officials found that a system that might have been adequate for peacetime military had been overwhelmed.

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