I've heard that they can veto your leaving the army (it's called stop loss). I can imagine someone who hates the army, wanting to leave, and not being able to leave, might end his life. It's still very sad.

" failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs"

Isn't that why many of them joined the armed forces in the first place?

Just wonderin'

Shoot for a while there, joining the military to go to Iraq was almost like suicide.

The surge works and suicides go up. Go figure.

When my grandfather was in the army in WWII, his wife wrote him everyday and twice on Sundays. He didn't get mail everyday, but even so he was very determined to be all he could be for his new bride, and she was faithful to him.

Nowadays I find it hard to imagine many women putting themselves out for a man, let alone waiting patiently for him to get done with a tour of duty.

--Ray

Leno showed a picture last night of a soldier who had been away for 400 days greeting his pregnant wife and asked, "What is wrong with this picture?"

Nowadays I find it hard to imagine many women putting themselves out for a man, let alone waiting patiently for him to get done with a tour of duty.
That's just a lame comment on so many levels.  My SIL has waited patiently for my brother during deployments.  My neighbor has supported her husband through two deployments.  Another neighbor "waited patiently" for her husband, even though his tour was extended twice and he was gone more than 18 months.

Sure, you can find examples of cheating.  But you can find that in plenty of couples who aren't in the military.

Kindly don't suggest that all of the military wives are just waiting for their husband to leave so they can jump in the sack with someone else.  Most soldiers don't commit suicide.  Most military wives don't cheat on their husbands. 

" failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs"

Isn't that why many of them joined the armed forces in the first place?
DaKnife joined because he believes in his country.  He joined his father's unit and he is proud of his family's service.  We get together with his unit, and the patriotism is sincere.  The air crackles with respect when they bring in the flag.  The Army isn't something you do to escape problems for Pete's sake!  It's a high pressure job, and you've got to really believe in what you're doing.  Maybe you don't know many soldiers personally.  I do.  And they believe in what they're doing.  

My two brothers joined for patriotic reasons as well.  They make great sacrifices and work hard.  My older brother was actually disappointed that he couldn't deploy to Kuwait two years ago because of health problems (cancer).  He is good at his job, and what he does is important.  My younger brother is looking forward to his first educational training tour in China.  Both their wives support their military action.

It isn't an easy job.  It's easy to get out.  Every time a soldier opts back in to the military, they're doing it because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Yes time apart does contribute to the degree of temptation, and the culture of the military can at time detract from family, that is strongly counteracted by the heavy emphasis on families in military.

Back to the main point of the article though, considering how high the operational tempo has been since 9/11 (and even before then actually) I would have expected far more suicides in the Army than have been occuring. The article mistates the size of the Army because it fails to account for the reserves, but perhaps they are not accounting for reservists (Army Reserves and National Guard) who took their lives. But if as I suspect, that accounts for all suicides by soldiers on Active duty regardless of their normal duty status, the rate should probably be lower. When you consider the combined reserve forces add almost another half million personnel to the picture, of which about 80,000 or more are mobilized and deployed at any time. (That number might be a little high but not very).

Now lets look at the numbers.

According to Wikipedia in 2002 the National suicide rate was 11.0 per 100,000.  Contrast that with the Army's rate in 2001 which was 9.1.  Now add in the stress of repeated deployments into combat, with time frames varying from 12 months to 15 months to 18 months to 22 months (One unit just returned home last august from a record 22 months deployed.)  The military life alone is a very stressful environment.  Add in the incredible stresses of long separations.  And lastly we have to add in the stresses of combat, IED's and other forms of sudden and violent death, and suddenly 121 Suicides out of either 500,000 (as per the article) or more accurately nearly 1,000,000 troops, shows that while things could always be better, the Army is
doing a darn good job, at controlling the suicide rates.  One soldier killing himself is two too many, but 121 could so easily be a lot more.  

And Ray, "Nowadays I find it hard to imagine many women putting themselves out for a man, let alone waiting patiently for him to get done with a tour of duty."
I know many many Women, and Men (Women serve too) who have, are and will do just that, again and again.  My Grandmother, Mother, Mother-in-Law, Sisters-in-law, Cousin, Wife, and many many more whom I am not related to.  Let me share a couple examples:  A former commander of my unit, is going to be deployed, it's his third deployment.  He has a son in the unit who is going also.  He has another son who is recovering from injuries recieved in Iraq, this soldier will be scarred and disabled for life, yet this officer's wife is backing him, and the other son all the way on this deployment, even as she nurses her wounded son back to health.   My Platoon Sergeant, is going on his second deployment.  His son is going as well. And their Wife/mother is their waiting.

As for me, I've been holding off on saying anything because it's discouraged(and I'll give no details), but Janey will be raising our next child alone for almost a year as I go on my third deployment.  And as a soldier who has to leave his pregnant wife and toddler behind, I found your above comment extremely offensive.  I will get to know my son when he is ten months old.  I console myself witht he thought that my Dad was almost two before he met his soldier father after WWII ended.

So please step back before you make such harsh uneducated statements.


What happened to supporting the troops, the way this thread has gone, leads too much in the direction of how our troops were treated during vietnam.