(CNN) — A major United States military post is shutting down for three days following a rash of suicides, the post announced. Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, started a three-day “suicide stand-down training event” Wednesday — the second one it has held this year, a post spokeswoman told CNN. At least 11 deaths of Fort Campbell soldiers this year are confirmed or suspected suicides, spokeswoman Kelly Tyler said. That’s out of 64 confirmed or suspected suicides in the entire Army, according to official statistics. At that rate, the Army is on pace for a record number of suicides this year.
The post commander, Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend, addressed all 19,000 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division on Wednesday, Tyler said. His intent was to be able to look them in the eye and make them aware that everyone cares about the issue, and make sure they know — corporal to general — what help is available,” she said. “To make sure that people know we want them to keep living.” Soldiers often refuse to admit they are having problems because of the culture of the military, she said. You still have the stigma in the Army of asking for help — it’s an institution of strength and honor. And they need to understand that there is strength and honor in asking for help,” Tyler said.
“It’s easy to lose focus of that. We are a nation at war, an army at war. The guys around you need you to be there. They need you to ask for help, or for them to ask for help if you can’t.”
Fort Campbell’s commanders are trying to impress upon the troops that this is more than a mandatory exercise. Combat stress manifests itself in different ways, he said, citing the case of a U.S. soldier charged with killing five of his comrades at a mental-health clinic in Iraq earlier this month. The incident in Baghdad brought a lot of attention to combat stress, but this is the other side of the coin,” he said. A record number of soldiers committed suicide last year — at least 133, the Army said. That was up from at least 115 in 2007, which was itself a record since the Pentagon began keeping statistics on suicide in 1980. The statistics cover active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves.
More soldiers killed themselves in January of this year than died in battle, Army statistics suggest.
I wonder how Patton would have handled this?
Anyway, the army not only wants to keep its soldiers alive, just like it wants to keep the prisoners and Guantanamo Bay alive.
Actually it does and spends a lot of time and money trying to do so.
The commander in chief selects the times when both go into harms way.
This is all about using psycho active drugs to keep soldiers in combat.Until the army stops dispensing Prozac and other anti-depressents this huge increase in suicides will continue.This country is so f*#ked up about drugs.
I retired in early 2001 after 20 years in the Army and i can tell you this is a direct result of politicians and those who have never served a day in the military forcing a “kinder, simpler” basic training on the Armed Forces.
Basic training is not supposed to be easy. It’s main purpose is to heap incredible amounts of pain, misery and most of all, STRESS on people. It is supposed to weed out those who cannot handle the incredibly stressful environment that exists in the military. Unfortunately basic training nowadays is a joke. Incredible pressure is put on training commands to fail no one. Kinda like “no soldier left behind”. I said it while I was still on active duty and I say it today. The sorry state of basic training is going to get soldiers and it is coming to pass.
EDIT I also want to say that it appears that the Marines are the only ones who still have the balls to keep up the standards in boot camp. Thats why I am glad my son became a Marine. take a look at marine suicides and I am willing to bet they are much lower than any of the services.
#4 I was under the impression that the “no soldier left behind” policies of late were largely the result of the Army needing every pair of hands they could get, being stretched several different ways as they are. It’s hard to have “Full Spectrum Dominance” without employing a few “Full Spectrum Dimwits.” The joint chiefs surely knows that.
This report is extremely disturbing, though. If the 101st is that psychologically damaged, what about less elite units? Or is it just that the 101st has had so little break the past 8 years?
I served on the USS Okinawa LPH3 back in the early 80’s, we carried Marines and their helicopters and harriers. According to my experience they suicide as much as regular sailors. Used to have at least one per cruise. I used to get freaked out by that. But after years, I’ve come to the conclusion that suicide’s pretty typical among young people especially young people under extraordinary stress. Nothing like a war to put your psyche to the test.
Right, so you feel so screwed up inside you might be thinking about suicide. Somehow I don’t see how having them make that a permanent part of your military record is going to help.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o_12E1EN6fs
One thing that nobody seems to take note of, is that the “help” provided is not as it would be in civilian world. From what I remember of my time (10 years) in the military, sure you had mental health councilors, and even Doctors, and Psyciatrists. But, none of these were held to confidentiality rules.
Basically, the only persons you could trust to keep your conversations private were the Chaplins. Even those were suspect at times.
Anyone else, especially the medical arm could be tasked to report fully to the commander. Ostensibly to keep the rest of the forces safe, but more often than not to find ways to cashier soldiers with a medical discharge, or to threaten them with confinement or loss of pay and grade due to “getting out of doing their job by pretending to be crazy”
Yes military is hard, and stressful, but some folks just can’t take it all the time day in and day out. Should they really be scorned like Mr “airborne” seems to indicate?
Or should they be helped?
From my expeirence 1992-1998 it seemed like one every couple months due to suicide, one a month due to traffic accidents,drinking etc. These suicides were mostly over long distance romances, girlfriends, infidelity, perceived cheating etc.
I had a colonel who always said, “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” I always liked that.
He also said, “”You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you, I like brawling.” Which I also liked.
It’s all Obama’s fault and his socialized health care, this has nothing to do with sending the troops to fight in Iraq based on a lie and then treating the returning troops like dirt.
this is a essentially a non story only 60% of the suicides had been deployed so how is it the other 40% killed them selves because of so called war stress when they had not been to war
the suicides are a problem but the story is misleading about the cause
I heard the following in the past day or two, but I can’t find the source, so take it as rumor.
The group with the largest percentage of suicides were troops who had not been overseas. The more deployments a troop had under the belt, the lower the rate of suicide.
This could back up #4, anticipation of deployment causing incidents.
I went through Air Force basic training, about as stressful as band camp, but the Air Force doesn’t expect to fight face to face. Also the Air Force doesn’t train you for your duties until you pass basic training.
You are expected to bend to military life, some may break. The Military always plays catch-up with the bigger problems.
You’re right Angel. I think Obama’s stepped up bombings of innocents in Pakistan, a country we did not declare war against, has depressed these soldiers.
# 14 MikeN,
Uh-huh! It’s all Obama’s fault, and also Clinton and Carter’s. This suicide rate hike has nothing to do with Bush Jr., Bush Sr. nor Reagan’s.
One cost of war is blowback violence by our own returning soldiers.
Before we launched the Iraq war I reminded my friends that we were STILL playing this price for Vietnam.
You can’t send people out to kill, maim and destroy and expect them to come back untouched by the experience.
They called me a traitor, troop haters and Saddam lover for telling the truth.
But here it is.
The effects of Bush’s elective wars will continue to burden the nation in cost, loss of lives and the family pain they must endure.
This is the result of a failure that today lives happily in Texas wondering what he will BBQ next.
# 10 Angel H. Wong said, on May 29th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
It’s all Obama’s fault and his socialized health care, this has nothing to do with sending the troops to fight in Iraq based on a lie and then treating the returning troops like dirt.
WTF….are you so effing stupid that you think an administration (regardless of party lines) could have an impact on troop suicide in 5 months as compared to 8 years of the previous administration, 2/3 of which included a war that was waged on false information and lies to the American public.
I am a current Active Duty US Army Soldier serving in the third most deployed Brigade Combat Team in the Army at 45 months total deployment time. One of the Brigades that has deployed more that mine is in the 101st at Ft.Campbell. I truly believe that the Army cares about the mental health of it’s Soldiers despite the stigma and culture of male bravado. They take great steps to mitigate risks and try to allow as much time at home in between the high operation tempo of training and deployments.
Politicians are not perfect, America is not perfect. If you don’t like it then either run for office and make the change for the better or leave. The fences are meant to keep people out; you’re free to leave whenever you want!!!
Army suicide rate = 20.2 / 100,000
Civilian rate = 19.5 / 100,000
Marine suicide rate = 16.5 / 100,000
These demographics are for males 18-24 (the average suicide in the military)
Figures don’t lie. Marine boot camp is the difference. As R Lee Ermey said it best “My orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps!” Translation: we are going to do our damndest to crack you before we send you in the real world and get you or somebody else killed.
#19 – airborne
Do you have some data on the life expectancy of the three categories?
When I attended Basic Combat Training at Ft Benning, Ga. My Drill Sergeants were more than eager and willing to chapter the “non-hackers” out of the Army on a failure to adapt discharge.
Of course I wasn’t in the basic “back in the old days” but I believe that the Army’s new combat focused training is better suited to our current mission and is not “soft”. Just because they’re no longer allowed to beat a trainee doesn’t mean the training is less efficient. I was 32 years old when I enlisted and have lived a diverse and professional life before the Army. I think there was plenty of stress and hardship placed upon the trainees. Much more so than the big Army who allows overweight Soldiers to progress by pencil whipping PT and rage cards. I believe the stress comes from sub-standard middle management e.g, junior NCO’s and company grade officers who don’t know how to manage a Soldier’s time so that tasks and details are completed quickly and correctly which then allows the Soldier to go home and relax or spend time with family or friends.
“Forty-one Marines took their lives in 2008 and another 146 attempted to do so, according to Marine administrative message 0134/09. That translates to 19 suicides for every 100,000 Marines. It is “our highest rate … since 1995 and reflects an unacceptable loss of life,” the message states.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/03/marine_suicides_031409w/
The Army’s suicide count considers “active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves.” according to the above article from CNN.
Question: Is the training of the activated National Guard and reserves similar to that of the Army?
Also, the Marine Corps Times article states “The Corps emphasizes its “leave no man behind” ethos in the latest training package.” [of suicide prevention to be completed by March 31]
Turning this into some sort of partisan brickbat is appalling. Failure is failure, and we need to face it frankly without checking how the parties are affected first.
Awesome. I’m always glad to hear bout thug murderers dying.
Some complete and utter steaming pile of shit said:
Army suicide rate = 20.2 / 100,000
Civilian rate = 19.5 / 100,000
Marine suicide rate = 16.5 / 100,000
What hack site are you getting your stats from?
US suicide rate was 11.1 in 2005…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
Has anyone thought of the impact if these people would be suicide bombers against our enemies? Are soldiers just kill themselves, while Middle East soldiers take out a couple hundred of the enemy when they go.
Why is that?
people..do you actually comprehend
what you read?
“Confirmed or Suspected Suicides”
well..?? did they kill themselves or not??
and since when has the military EVER
stated the truth about circumstances behind military deaths when there is no publicly available video of said deaths?
dollars to dognuts, this nothing
more than damage control and tying up lose ends.
11 suicides stateside? i’ll give them 3 at most, the rest knew too much,
or were complicate in questionable orders.
you people are brainwashed beyond
belief.
this is about as believable as the FBI’s claim of idiots they fingered
for the synagogue terror plot last week.
the government is imploding from
corruption and frantically trying
to plug all the holes.
hope your enjoying your guilded
cages. within a few months, you’ll
be naked and in the streets from
your ignorance.
-s
#24
Hey Troublemaker Troll piece of shit. WTF is up with you calling them thugs? You’re a sad animal walking around as a human being.
Go die in a fire.
#4 – Basic training has been a joke as far back as the Vietnam War. I didn’t learn anything in basic training, in 1975, except how to march. Most of the time was spent in marching drills, or correcting the paper work the recruiters f**ked up. Of course, I was in the Air Force, so we didn’t get the Army’s brand of training, as a support service. But the Security Police squads did. And they wound up having the most problems, at the base I got station at. Drug abuse and suicides were frequent with the SPs. So why didn’t the extra tough training weed out their weak ones. Probably because it wasn’t designed to.
I seriously doubt that any of the services have a clue as to what training is effective at correcting or preventing bad behavior. They just concoct some program to satisfy a need. And go with it, until it becomes all too obvious that it’s flawed or ineffective. And then try a quick fix or two (or three). And maybe eventually resort to doing something new. But to actually consult scientists, in creating an effective training program. You’ve got to be kidding me. The military only spend that kind of big buck on designing weapon systems. Ft. Campbell will just “shut down” until the newsmen go away. They aren’t going to solve this problem, in the long term. Just throw water on it, for now. And hope the suicides to reoccur to soon, for the news services to make a issue of it.
This current spate of suicides is probably the result of wearing out the few remaining combat soldiers that the Army has left. The sane and stable ones all got killed, earlier. Only the “lucky ones” managed to return from Iraq, only to be sent back a second or third time as their reward. All this to keep from enacting a draft. Which would really make this war unpopular in a hurry. But by just burning thru the volunteers. Guys like Cheney hoped to prolong the war, as much as possible, with resorting the draft. Which would turn the entire public against it, practically overnight. So these suicides are the price of prolonging this war, with such a depleted force. And for whatever agenda its proponents had in mind (taking over the oil, most likely).
I’ll bet there was a rise in suicides near the end of both the Korean and Vietnam wars. The public’s and soldiers’ growing intolerance, seems to be the only thing that puts an end to wars, since WW2. The politician and generals will happily keep us fighting, until then. Only their own political suicide (if they support an unpopular war), is deemed cause to call it off, anymore. And these days, they just shift the fighting to a new location. Our armed forces have been hopping from one trouble spot to another, for that last couple of decades. With barely a break between them. What ever happened to that so-called “peace dividend” for leaving West Germany? It got eaten up by all the new wars that followed.
Suicide is an act of violence, just like fighting wars it requires overcoming the most basic of all human tabu’s – To not kill. Of all the tabus it’s the most common among all the different cultures and societies of earth. Still those who have a violent nature always seem to find a justification.
“Killing is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
Maybe it’s just nature’s way of culling the herd.
suicide is the only honourable thing these man can do. it must feel so good for them at the end to know that they only have one more life to take. obviously not signing up in the first place would be the smart thing to do. im not sure if i could live with myself for killing people with no just reason. certainly not if i was required to kill more after coming to this conclusion. if that was the case, suicide would be the only option.
#3 made some great points about drugs in the army. im sure a large percentage if not the majority of suicides could be attributed to this. but hey, thats how ‘donations’ get paid back.