Suicide rate in the military on the rise since 2005

This epidemic of suicide is not unique to the Marines but also with other branches of the military. Here are a few stories from former Marines with heart breaking stories...

After the sixth suicide in his old battalion, Manny Bojorquez sank onto his bed. With a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam beside him and a pistol in his hand, he began to cry.

He had gone to Afghanistan at 19 as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. In the 18 months since leaving the military, he had grown long hair and a bushy mustache. It was 2012. He was working part time in a store selling baseball caps and going to community college while living with his parents in the suburbs of Phoenix. He rarely mentioned the war to friends and family, and he never mentioned his nightmares.

Manny Bojorquez sitting in the lobby of the church in Las Vegas where Eduardo Bojorquez's funeral was held. Justin Rogers, left, and Mark Briggs also served in the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment. He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.

Still reeling from the news, Mr. Bojorquez surveyed the old baseball posters on the walls of his childhood bedroom and the sun-bleached body armor hanging on his bedpost. Then he took a long pull from the bottle. “If he couldn’t make it,” he recalled thinking to himself, “what chance do I have?” He pressed the loaded pistol to his brow and pulled the trigger.

Mr. Bojorquez, 27, served in one of the hardest hit military units in Afghanistan, the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment. In 2008, the 2/7 deployed to a wild swath of Helmand Province. Well beyond reliable supply lines, the battalion regularly ran low on water and ammunition while coming under fire almost daily. During eight months of combat, the unit killed hundreds of enemy fighters and suffered more casualties than any other Marine battalion that year.

When its members returned, most left the military and melted back into the civilian landscape. They had families and played softball, taught high school and attended Ivy League universities. But many also struggled, unable to find solace. And for some, the agonies of war never ended.

Almost seven years after the deployment, suicide is spreading through the old unit like a virus. Of about 1,200 Marines who deployed with the 2/7 in 2008, at least 13 have killed themselves, two while on active duty, the rest after they left the military. The resulting suicide rate for the group is nearly four times the rate for young male veterans as a whole and 14 times that for all Americans.

The deaths started a few months after the Marines returned from the war in Afghanistan. A corporal put on his dress uniform and shot himself in his driveway. A former sergeant shot himself in front of his girlfriend and mother. An ex-sniper who pushed others to seek help for post-traumatic stress disorder shot himself while alone in his apartment.

The problem has grown over time. More men from the battalion killed themselves in 2014 — four — than in any previous year. Veterans of the unit, tightly connected by social media, sometimes learn of the deaths nearly as soon as they happen. In November, a 2/7 veteran of three combat tours posted a photo of his pistol on Snapchat with a note saying, “I miss you all.” Minutes later, he killed himself.

The most recent suicide was in May, when Eduardo Bojorquez, no relation to Manny, overdosed on pills in his car. Men from the battalion converged from all over the country for his funeral in Las Vegas, filing silently past the grave, tossing roses that thumped on the plain metal coffin like drum beats.

“When the suicides started, I felt angry,” Matt Havniear, a onetime lance corporal who carried a rocket launcher in the war, said in a phone interview from Oregon. “The next few, I would just be confused and sad. Then at about the 10th, I started feeling as if it was inevitable — that it is going to get us all and there is nothing we could do to stop it.”

For years leaders at the top levels of the government have acknowledged the high suicide rate among veterans and spent heavily to try to reduce it. But the suicides have continued, and basic questions about who is most at risk and how best to help them are still largely unanswered. The authorities are not even aware of the spike in suicides in the 2/7; suicide experts at the Department of Veterans Affairs said they did not track suicide trends among veterans of specific military units. And the Marine Corps does not track suicides of former service members.

Feeling abandoned, members of the battalion have turned to a survival strategy they learned at war: depending on one another. Doing what the government has not, they have used free software and social media to create a quick-response system that allows them to track, monitor and intervene with some of their most troubled comrades.

Their system has made a few saves, but many in the battalion still feel stalked by suicide.

“To this day I’m scared of it,” said Ruben Sevilla, 28, who deployed twice with the 2/7 and now works for a warehouse management company called Legacy SCS near Chicago. “If all these guys can do that, what’s stopping me? That’s what freaks me out the most. I haven’t touched a gun since I got out of the Marine Corps because I’m afraid to.”

The morning after Manny Bojorquez tried to shoot himself in 2012, he opened his eyes to sunlight streaming in his window and found the loaded gun on the floor. Through his whiskey headache, he pieced together that his gun had jammed and that he had passed out drunk.

A week later, he stood alongside more than a dozen other Marine veterans at Mr. Markel’s funeral in Lincoln, Neb. The crack of rifles echoed off the headstones as an honor guard fired a salute.

Mr. Bojorquez offered his condolences to Mr. Markel’s mother after the funeral. He thought about how life seemed increasingly bitter. The thrill of combat was gone. Only regrets and flashbacks remained.

Mr. Markel’s mother pressed something into Mr. Bojorquez’s palm at the funeral, a spent brass shell casing from the honor guard. Promise me, she said to him, that you will never put your mother through this. Mr. Bojorquez promised. That began a three-year odyssey in which the deaths of his friends weighed on Mr. Bojorquez, who tried repeatedly to get help from Veterans Affairs but ultimately gave up.“I was lost then. I still am kind of lost,” he said in a recent interview. “I was just trying to look for something that wasn’t there. I was trying to look for an answer that I don’t have — that no one does.”

LINK

Due to the U.S economy many young men and women see no future to support themselves and their families but then to join the armed forces to earn a pay check, it has little to do with patriotism but simple economics. These individuals are then used and abused by the military and then discarded like trash. Remember this at election time!

I doubt its the true suicide rate because I think that the military fudges numbers on deaths to not create a panic with the public.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Very sad - 2 years after the invasion liberation of Iraq and Americas brave young men and women are succumbing to that which is the ultimate solution for problems that an individual can possibly face.

I touched on this (sort of) in a thread I did about why many within the military are calling out the globalists for what is really going on.

These bastards that have created war-for-profit have much to pay for - your OP is a testament to this fact.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: DeathSlayer



It's like some part of their headspace stays in the barracks and back in the conflict zones. Exposure to the highs and lows leaves a comedown that spirals into clinical depression and that soul-destroying isolation.

An end to war would be an obvious solution, but we have to be realistic - it's not going to end. Instead, lip-service and statistical studies should give way to full-spectrum support for the ones who can't cope.

originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
I doubt its the true suicide rate because I think that the military fudges numbers on deaths to not create a panic with the public.

I agree the rate is much higher.

The government is use to hiding the truth.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Excellent post!

Lets remove these greedy and evil politicians and replace them with new ones. If we do this over and over..... maybe after 3 or 4 elections of removing those criminals; those who run will hopefully run an honest platform. This is one of the main reasons why Trump is leading the polls..... the American people are tired of the lies and deceit that comes out of Washington D.C.

Hell with a one million march......lets make it a ten million or twenty million man march to Washington D.C. and put those criminals in jail! I don't think the military and civilian police could even come close to stopping ten million! Drag those politicians out on the streets.....demand justice and it will be served. I think this is what it will take......talking has NEVER worked. It is time for action.

It is time for the American people to take action. I don't support violence but ten million people in D.C. dragging out certain criminals who run our government to be arrested and convicted will work. Lets start at the White house and then on to Congress and the House of Representatives......The press will have a field day!

This topic came up on another web sight and my reply was:

Something to consider besides all the shots our guys get before going overseas:

When you are in the service you become a SOMEONE, a Sargent, specialist, captain, Major etc etc. When you leave the service you are just you without a title looking at a country where in many cases unless you can get a job flipping burgers your job prospects are very limited and thus in your eyes, you have little worth.

Nothing compares with war and it's environment.... it is, and will be the greatest thing a young man will ever do; well in his mind (greatest) anyway.

Any money saved during your service runs out as does what you perceived as your worth in life. Looking out over a barren landscape and being very familiar with death; one 50 cent round chambered and fired can end the struggle in an instant. Some had already made that observation and decisive decision in the event of being captured while overseas. The torture of no self worth and no prospects can be a serious trigger.. Life can and is a struggle; just that for some the struggle and reward is not worth it..

One last thing: The guys who took war personal and were filled with hate are the ones who had the hardest time adapting when they returned... I can only imagine what many may feel when they return back to the world and see the appeasement and apologist for the very same sand people who did things in their everyday lives that would make most westerners puke.

I feel lucky in that I never hated anyone.. Just a job, push a button and make them disappear. Try and get some sleep and do it all over again.

I have told countless people who are thinking about going into the service.. Do something that will train you for a job on the outside.. My decision to join was to be a military pilot; a decision I have never regretted.

Not many positions for a standard issue marksman unless you want to be a cop.

I live with this everyday. Very close to my heart.

The responses on this thread are part of the problem. What those service members experienced was just as real, just as legitimate as anything going on here in the states.

It's when those back here in the states treat those coming back as the ones having to re-adjust. The ones coming back have seen more of life. They have experienced different cultures and ways of thinking far different than what your average person who has never left the good ol' USA has.

Yet they are met with well intentioned but ignorant people who want them to jettison anything they may have learned in favor of getting back to the person they were prior-to. This is impossible. Couple that with possible trauma and youth? Then you have a volatile mix.

a reply to: 727Sky


You are actually onto something here . But not just about being in war .

I went to war as a young man but that never bothered me , and still doesn't . I never took it personally , I was then and now indifferent to it . It just was , that's all .

When I left the Marine Corps I was lost and spiraled into depression , it had nothing to do with any lives I may or may not have taken or what I seen in war . I was lost for a few reasons .

I no longer had a purpose . I was no longer the number one man (the one that fires the howitzer) on an artillery gun . I was no longer one of the "old salts" who the new Marines looked at in awe .

The regimented lifestyle was gone . There was always a constant in the Corps . PT , breakfast , morning formation , inspection , work in the gun park , lunch , work at the armory , evening formation , dinner . Or we were in the field or out to sea . If you did your job then you had no worries (other than when in Combat) . Civilian life made no sense to me , I couldn't find my place in it at first .

But most importantly I lost that brotherhood , that camaraderie . I tried hanging out with my old high school friends but none of them served and our relationship was different .

I tried local vet groups such as the American Legion and found many of the members never served but were family members of veterans . So that was out .

My old unit had a reunion not long ago , we lost contact for many years but we picked up right were we left off as if we just seen each other the day before . When all where in and the party was in full swing , I went off to sit and take it all in , most all of us together again and I broke down . One of the wives asked if I was alright , and I said it was the best I felt in years , I am just happy to be with my brothers again . And after comparing notes , many of us felt that way . We have floated through life but felt like something was always missing since we left the service .

Two from my old unit are dead now from their own hand . Both left notes and both killed themselves for the same reason , they wanted to be back in the Corps , in our old unit where things made sense . A few of us fought with depression when we first got out and many , myself included , still fight with it . My wife sits and patiently listens to my stories over and over and over again . She knows I am slipping into my depression and it is cathartic for me to tell these stories . It is like a pressure valve for me , I tell the stories and the pressure releases and I am alright again .

If i was a baby killer I'd be suicidal as well, just saying...

a reply to: Pinkerton
Just remember who failed to keep his promise to withdraw troops from the ME 8 years ago. Obama and the democrats.

Who has performed the most dramatic social experiments with the military over the past 7 years. forbidding religious expression by Christians, encouraging soldiers to be militantly openly gay. persecuting those who have trouble with it. Obama and the democrats.

Who sent soldiers to the ME to be as you claim "baby killers'' . Obama and the democrats

Who cut the size of the military so drastically that soldiers spend most of their lives at war over the past 7 years? Obama and the democrats

Whose administration sent soldiers to be "baby killers'" and then let them die before giving them medical treatment. Obama and the democrats

Who is responsible ultimately for the massive numbers of suicides in recent years? Obama and the democrats

Who do I know from the military - personally know treated soldiers in their presence with contempt? Hillary

Who then are ultimately responsible over the past 7 years for killing baby's as you said, and causing soldiers to kill themselves? Obama and the democrats.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Stop feeding yourself that crap. Thwere have been less death on both sides(US soldiers and irag civilians), no active full on war, and more troops are back to states.

You must be thinking of Bush and his kiling fields.

a reply to: grandmakdw

What does the left/right/Obama is a Kenyan/Bush is the devil have to do with anything? I'm talking about the soldiers who made a CHOICE to go kill innocent people, it seems personal responsibility is only a buzzword these days.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Just remember who failed to keep his promise to withdraw troops from the ME 8 years ago. Obama and the democrats.

And who screamed bloody murder when he tried to stop the war? The right wingers.

Who has performed the most dramatic social experiments with the military over the past 7 years. forbidding religious expression by Christians, encouraging soldiers to be militantly openly gay. persecuting those who have trouble with it. Obama and the democrats.

Military personnel are not allowed to convert people from their faith.

Who sent soldiers to the ME to be as you claim "baby killers'' . Obama and the democrats

Yes because these wars wasn't going on when he took office. Who started this crusade? Oh yeah he who shall not be blamed.

Who cut the size of the military so drastically that soldiers spend most of their lives at war over the past 7 years? Obama and the democrats

No the reason why they have spent so much time is because how long this useless war has dragged on.
This post is nothing but total nonsense that wants the place the blame on the person who didn't start all of this crap.

Permanent solution to a temporary problem .


With that said , My brother is a 3 time war vet 82nd AB 11 Bravo .

I have always lived with the fear of getting that phone call one day . He has tried to kill him self in the past ,but we were able to catch him in time and safely prevent it . However now he is on his own and no longer living with my parents so I worry .

I have tried to ask him why ? His simple reply was because he could no longer live with the monster the military made him to be .

The long answer was that he essentially "woke up" and realized who he was fighting and killing and can't live with the fact that he killed "innocent people" in his words . He said he was encouraged to kill kill kill .....

He witnessed allot and did allot . I try not to probe to much when talking about it to him , I just listen even though I am curious about the details .

One thing he told me that really stuck with me was the fact that he feels like taking his life will somehow bring justice to the people he killed or hurt .

Sad really .

originally posted by: Pinkerton
If i was a baby killer I'd be suicidal as well, just saying...

originally posted by: DeathSlayer
a reply to: Sublimecraft

Excellent post!

Lets remove these greedy and evil politicians and replace them with new ones. If we do this over and over..... maybe after 3 or 4 elections of removing those criminals; those who run will hopefully run an honest platform. This is one of the main reasons why Trump is leading the polls..... the American people are tired of the lies and deceit that comes out of Washington D.C.

Hell with a one million march......lets make it a ten million or twenty million man march to Washington D.C. and put those criminals in jail! I don't think the military and civilian police could even come close to stopping ten million! Drag those politicians out on the streets.....demand justice and it will be served. I think this is what it will take......talking has NEVER worked. It is time for action.

It is time for the American people to take action. I don't support violence but ten million people in D.C. dragging out certain criminals who run our government to be arrested and convicted will work. Lets start at the White house and then on to Congress and the House of Representatives......The press will have a field day!

Yes, this includes both sides of the same coin. Hope the partisan bickering doesn't derail.



~Moment of silence due to those lost.

originally posted by: Pinkerton
a reply to: grandmakdw

What does the left/right/Obama is a Kenyan/Bush is the devil have to do with anything? I'm talking about the soldiers who made a CHOICE to go kill innocent people, it seems personal responsibility is only a buzzword these days.

Soldiers do NOT make a choice to go "kill" people. They are ordered to do it by threat of jail by their Commander in Chief, ie. Obama.

originally posted by: buster2010
a reply to: grandmakdw

Just remember who failed to keep his promise to withdraw troops from the ME 8 years ago. Obama and the democrats.

And who screamed bloody murder when he tried to stop the war? The right wingers.

Who has performed the most dramatic social experiments with the military over the past 7 years. forbidding religious expression by Christians, encouraging soldiers to be militantly openly gay. persecuting those who have trouble with it. Obama and the democrats.

Military personnel are not allowed to convert people from their faith.

Who sent soldiers to the ME to be as you claim "baby killers'' . Obama and the democrats

Yes because these wars wasn't going on when he took office. Who started this crusade? Oh yeah he who shall not be blamed.

Who cut the size of the military so drastically that soldiers spend most of their lives at war over the past 7 years? Obama and the democrats

No the reason why they have spent so much time is because how long this useless war has dragged on.
This post is nothing but total nonsense that wants the place the blame on the person who didn't start all of this crap.

Obama may not have started it, but he did NOT stop it as he promised 8 years ago.
Remember, that was one of his biggie promises that he failed to keep.
He kept it going and so is personally responsible for all the carnage caused by it.
He could have stopped it but did not. So he IS responsible.

Obama was ultimately in charge of the VA system that let vets die before receiving care, and so is responsible for it.

Obama was in charge of so drastically cutting the military that soldiers had to "live" in and at war practically non-stop with little relief and so is personally responsible for their suicides in my opinion.

It is pathetic in a serious thread you have idiots trying to bring politics into it. It is sickening. The biggest problem with Vets are the Vets themselves, getting help is seen a weakness. And being weak in the military culture is simply not acceptable. I can not count the amount of time young Vets come talk to me because they know me and my back ground and the biggest worry they have about getting help is being seen a weak. It takes some talking but, generally it takes a Vet to get another to seek help. How you change that culture I do not know. All I can say is if you have served reach out to those who are coming out now.