http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/01/record-number-o.html
Record number of soldiers committed suicide last year
A record number of active-duty soldiers killed themselves last year,
according to The Wa****ngton Post.
The paper cites an internal Army study that shows 121 soldiers committed
suicide in 2007. That's a 20% increase over the prior year, the Post says.
"The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have placed severe stress on the
Army, caused in part by repeated and lengthened deployments," the paper
re****ts. "Historically, suicide rates tend to decrease when soldiers are
in conflicts overseas, but that trend has reversed in recent years. From
a suicide rate of 9.8 per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2001 -- the
lowest rate on record -- the Army reached an all-time high of 17.5
suicides per 100,000 active-duty soldiers in 2006."
The number of attempted suicides among soldiers is six times higher than
it was at the start of the Iraq war, with about 2,100 soldiers on record
as having intentionally injured themselves or tried to take their own
lives, according to Army data quoted by the Post.
By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there
were 11.05 suicides for every 100,000 people in the United States in 2005.
Last year, the Army re****ted that suicide was the No. 3 cause of death
among members of the National Guard. In December, USA TODAY's Gregg
Zoroya was the first to re****t on the record number of suicides by
soldiers.
Click here for the warning signs that suggest someone is considering
suicide. Army News Service wrote about the increase in suicides in 2006.
Update at 10:33 a.m. ET: The Associated Press is quoting preliminary
figures that show more than a quarter of the suicides took place in Iraq.
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