Richard Tafoya
Dec 20th, 2006, 08:24 PM
UPI:
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061219-021131-7675r
After a significant drop in 2004, the suicide rate among deployed U.S. soldiers soared in 2005.
The suicide rate rose to its highest level since the start of the Iraq war, according to U.S. Army statistics.
The numbers are still within an expected range for the demographics of the deployed force -- primarily young males, the population most likely to commit suicide.
The statistics are contained in the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team Survey, the third annual study first undertaken in 2003 when there was an alarming number of suicides in Iraq or Kuwait - 25 out of 78 across the entire Army, which translates to a suicide rate of 18.8 per 100,000 deployed soldiers.
By the fall of 2004, that number had dropped to 11 out of 67, or 10.8 per 100,000 deployed.
But in a study just released by the Army, the 2005 suicide rate climbed to 19.9 per 100,000, or 88 total suicides with 22 of them occurring in Iraq or Kuwait. Five of the victims were on at least their second deployment.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061219-021131-7675r
After a significant drop in 2004, the suicide rate among deployed U.S. soldiers soared in 2005.
The suicide rate rose to its highest level since the start of the Iraq war, according to U.S. Army statistics.
The numbers are still within an expected range for the demographics of the deployed force -- primarily young males, the population most likely to commit suicide.
The statistics are contained in the Army's Mental Health Advisory Team Survey, the third annual study first undertaken in 2003 when there was an alarming number of suicides in Iraq or Kuwait - 25 out of 78 across the entire Army, which translates to a suicide rate of 18.8 per 100,000 deployed soldiers.
By the fall of 2004, that number had dropped to 11 out of 67, or 10.8 per 100,000 deployed.
But in a study just released by the Army, the 2005 suicide rate climbed to 19.9 per 100,000, or 88 total suicides with 22 of them occurring in Iraq or Kuwait. Five of the victims were on at least their second deployment.