Marines see sharp increase in suicides

Marines see sharp increase in suicides

www.stripes.com

Recently released figures show Marines are taking their own lives at alarmingly high rates, and deployments appear to be taking a toll.

Through September, the Marines have recorded 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in 2009. Should the pace continue through the end of the year, the Marines would be facing a 20 percent increase from 2008 figures. Suicides also rose 27 percent from 2007 to 2008.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The Marines started to develop the suicide prevention program before this year’s figures came to light.

"The reason we started doing it is our numbers were higher for 2008 compared to 2007," said Bryan Driver, spokesman for the Personal and Family Readiness Division at the Marines Headquarters.

The Marines will have a pretty good idea if the program is working if the suicide rate drops, Reidenberg said.

Address the symptoms but not the disease.

Typical. I am relieved to see they are doing something about the problem, really....I don't want these guys and gals taking their own lives...and it doesn't look any time soon there will be any end to our empirical aggressions. Bummer, but I'm really glad they are looking at it.

www.stripes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The disrespectful killing of entities and following orders against altruistic values correlates, to me, to the increase in suicides military or not... makes perfect sense.

Another good reason why we shoudn't be sending more troops to Afganistan, Our military guys are killing themselves, I WONDER WHY?????

reply to post by KSPigpen


There's a thread here which would sort of deals with the same topic.

Pretty sad, and hopefully they can start finding ways to help these guys cope with what they see in war.

Originally posted by thaknobodi
The disrespectful killing of entities and following orders against altruistic values correlates, to me, to the increase in suicides military or not... makes perfect sense.

What!?! ok , well maybe you can explain your post to me , because that makes ZERO sense.

I need to look at this more closely , I want to find out if the suicides were on or off deployment. I assume the majority were 03's but I'd like see the MOS breakdown too.

This war cannot be won , just sustained. There's no real objective.

I would like to know how these numbers correlate with the statistics for suicides in the general population. Common sense would suggest that of course the levels of stress endured in combat situations would be much greater and that these would aggravate symptoms like severe depression and feelings of hopelessness.

IMO warfare is not a normal human activity, and while it is unfortunately unavoidable in the world as we know it today, it must inevitably have catastrophic effects on the warriors. It has probably always been so.

There is one thing that is common for just about all soldiers. The first time they go to war. They do it with a excitement and by free will. The second time you have push them to go to war.

The other thing that is quite common for everybody. We dont learn from other peoples mistakes we only learn from our own. EDIT: And by saying that i am being polite to some.



[edit on 27.06.08 by spy66]

I wish these service men could get better help to cope with there situations. They are probably being trained to hard and have seen far too many horrendous acts that they cant erase from their minds.

I too would like to see if it is during or after employment.

Is it possible that some of the people that join the marines have a different prospective of life or their brains are chemically wired different, so that once they reach a peak stress level they just snap from the things they've seen and done.

They are fighting and dieing for us. The governement should be doing more help and relax these girls and guys.

Hang in there!

[edit on 8-10-2009 by tooo many pills]

I think the biggest contributing factor, besides war weariness of course, would be the fact that since 2002 we have put a Stop-Loss that forces servicemen to tours beyond the dates of their enlistment periods that can force "volunteer" men and women in uniform during war or national emergencies to remain in service until December 24th, 2031.

When you signed up for a 2 year enlistment in the Army back in 2000 and later told that Stop-Loss prevents you from going home after those 2 years, and your 2 year enlistment turned into 9 years and counting, how would you feel?

When you signed up for a 6 year enlistment with the Marines in 2000 and later told that Stop-Loss prevents you from going home after those 6 years, and you have already served 2 years above and beyond your enlistment contract, how would you feel?

Our service men and women, despite volunteering via enlistment for the jobs they do, have been taxed beyond their contractual obligations with no end in sight. Without an Exit Plan for either Iraq or Afghanistan and yet more wars and "national emergencies" on the way, it is beginning to look that our volunteer force is barely a step better than conscripted forces.

Supposedly Stop-Loss soldiers are only supposed to be held on the front lines for no longer than eighteen months beyond their End of Enlisted Duty Date.

But Jules Lobel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing eight National Guardsmen in a lawsuit challenging the extensions, says the 2031 date is being used to strong-arm volunteers into re-enlisting. According to Lobel, the military is telling soldiers, "We're giving you a chance to voluntarily re-enlist -- and if you don't do it, we'll screw you. And the first way we'll screw you is to put you in until 2031."

When the only way out of the military is death during a series of never-ending wars and national emergencies (which is why the "War on Terror was classified a "national emergency" by GWB), then is it any wonder that so many choose death after they discover they can't leave and go home when their enlistment is done?

[edit on 8-10-2009 by fraterormus]

reply to post by EyesWideShut


Yeah what I said.. was vague, i guess, but to put it a different way.. those who take lives, esp in a "Yeah git em boys!" -kind of way, will eventually have theirs taken too in similarly destructive fashion. Be it by their own hands, or by what's around the corner: "karma".. this applies to all animals me thinks. Very rudimentary logic on my part.. I'm more just disappointed in the fact that our troops, any troops for that matter be they the "enemies" or "ours," (those are just fancy terms for I against I.) I don't wanna talk about this anymore, because i do not wish to speak for those who have passed.

[edit on 8-10-2009 by thaknobodi]

It's not about PTSD Depression or even extreme stress... but that does happen too just less than you think

Here's the thing... dawn to dusk your adrenaline levels are elevated... get into a fire fight and you get this huge flood coursing through your system...

Day after day after day... your on this adrenaline rush.... for a year maybe 18 months....then they send you home... and you crash... some turn to booze pick fights daredevil stunts, anything to get that high back.... some cant live without it...

This is sad indeed and my heart goes out to both the servicemen and their families.

The VA budget is in shambles these days, too, so its worth contemplating that when (or if) soldiers make it back to the US eventually you will be seeing mass mental and physical problems and the government will basically turn their backs on the vets, the same way they did with Vietnam vets...maybe even worse this time.

My stomach is actually physically tightening as I read this...LITERALLY makes me sick to think about. But not as sick as all the front-line soldiers and vets-to-be.