Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Military suicide reports do not add up!

When I posted this, 516 suicides across all branches for 2012 from a news report, I ended up with a lot of questions because everyone else had the "349" number but number had already been reached in December reports for November figures.

The number of soldier suicides this year has outnumbered combat deaths.
Combat-related deaths in Afghanistan were down to 212 this year, compared to over 400 in 2011, but the number of soldiers taking their own lives continues to rise. According to stats cited by CBS from the Department of the Army, 303 active-duty, Reserve and National Guard soldiers committed suicide.

Here's some more facts. First this report is missing Marines, Air Force and Navy. This was the latest from the Army suicides at 303. There was another report from the Army with this piece of news.

For 2012, there have been 126 potential not on active-duty suicides (84 Army National Guard and 42 Army Reserve): 97 have been confirmed as suicides and 29 remain under investigation.

Bad enough for you yet? Add this in. Of that total, the Army accounted for 168, surpassing its high last year of 165

53 sailors took their own lives, one more than last year.

The Air Force and Marine Corps are only a few deaths from record numbers. 56 airmen had committed suicide as of Nov. 11, short of the 60 in 2010.

There have been 46 suicides among Marines, whose worst year was 2009 with 52.
Military suicides by the numbers
168 Army
84 National Guards
42 Army Reserves
46 Marines
53 Sailors
56 Airmen
This was as of November 2012 and in January this number was released.

Military suicides hit record year
Pentagon figures obtained Monday by The Associated Press show that the 349 suicides among active-duty troops last year were up from 301 the year before and exceeded the Pentagon's own internal projection of 325. Statistics alone do not explain why troops take their own lives, and the Pentagon's military and civilian leaders have acknowledged that more needs to be done to understand the causes.
Navy SEALs commander commits suicide in Afghanistan
Published: 24 December, 2012
There were more but you get the point.

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