Thursday, September 17, 2015

Air Force Record Number Suicides Years After "Preventing" Them?

Air Force Must Do More to Curb Record Number of Suicides, Cody Says 
Military.com
by Richard Sisk
Sep 16, 2015
According to the 2014 Defense Department 4th Quarter Suicide Information Report, the Army had 122 active-duty suicides, the Navy 53, the Air Force 59, and the Marine Corps 34. The 59 deaths in the Air Force were the most in a single year for the service since the military began tracking suicides closely in the early 2000s.

When life gets difficult, suicide can seem like the only way out.

(U.S. Air Force photo illustration/Steven White)
The Air Force has to do a better job of curbing suicides and dealing with quality of life issues that add to stress in the ranks following the worst year on record for suicides, the top enlisted airman said.

When asked what the service was doing to bring down the suicide rate, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James A. Cody said "Obviously not enough to be honest with you. We're struggling with it."

He pointed to an upcoming summit among the services on the issue to "try to figure how we're missing the mark. We lose too many airmen. We lose far too many airmen. I wish I had a good answer on how to get out of this."

Cody and his wife, Athena, spoke Monday at a forum on personnel with Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and their spouses at the Air Force Association's annual Air and Space Conference at National Harbor, Maryland.

A Pentagon report in the spring said that the number of suicides among active-duty military personnel increased slightly last year, while those among members of the Reserves and National Guard dropped by nearly 25 percent.
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Just a thought but do you think he'll figure out they should stop doing what hasn't worked and start doing what does work?

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