WASHINGTON — Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007 at the highest rate on record, and the toll is climbing ever higher this year as long war deployments stretch on.
At least 115 soldiers killed themselves last year, up from 102 the previous year, the Army said Thursday.
Nearly a third of them died at the battlefront — 32 in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. But 26 percent had never deployed to either conflict.
“We see a lot of things that are going on in the war which do contribute — mainly the longtime and multiple deployments away from home, exposure to really terrifying and horrifying things, the easy availability of loaded weapons and a force that’s very, very busy right now,” said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general.
“And so all of those together we think are part of what may contribute, especially if somebody’s having difficulties already,” she said at a Pentagon news conference.
Some common factors among those who took their own lives were trouble with relationships, work problems and legal and financial difficulties, officials said.
More U.S. troops also died overall in hostilities in 2007 than in any of the previous years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Violence increased in Afghanistan with a Taliban resurgence, and U.S. deaths increased in Iraq even as violence there declined in the second half of the year.
The 115 confirmed suicides among active-duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops who had been activated amounted to a rate of 18.8 per 100,000 troops — the highest since the Army began keeping records in 1980. Two other deaths are suspected suicides but are under investigation.
So far this year, the trend is comparable with last year, said Lt. Col. Thomas E. Languirand, head of command policies and programs.
As of Monday, there had been 38 confirmed suicides in 2008 and 12 more that are suspected suicides but still under investigation, he said.
The rate of suicide continues to rise despite efforts the Army has made to improve the mental health of a force under unprecedented stress from the war in Iraq and the long and repeated tours of duty.
Suicides have been rising nearly each year of the 5-year-old war in Iraq and the nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan. The 115 deaths last year and 102 in 2006 followed 85 in 2005 and 67 in 2004. The rate of 18.8 per 100,000 last year compared with a rate of 17.5 in 2006 and 9.8 in 2002 — the first full year after the start of the war in Afghanistan.
The Army, the largest force serving in both wars, is the only service to release annual figures on suicides as well as lengthy reports it gathers every year by polling troops at the war fronts on mental health issues.
President Bush’s buildup of forces in Iraq last year — the number peaked at over 170,000 — led officials to increase tour lengths to 15 months. With a drawdown underway, officials are returning to 12-month deployments.
Officials said they hoped that would help ease the strain on troops. But other efforts have failed to make a dent in the rising suicide rates. Among those are a bolstered suicide-prevention program, as well as a program last year in which 900,000 soldiers were taught how to recognize mental health problems in themselves and others.
Other findings
•Ninety-three of the 115 suicides were among active-duty troops; 22 were members of the Army National Guard or Reserve who had been mobilized.
•Five were women.
•In addition to completed suicides, there were 166 attempted suicides among troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and 935 over the whole Army.
•Young, white, unmarried junior enlisted troops were the most likely to attempt suicide.
•Firearms were the most common method for those who succeeded in killing themselves. Overdoses and cutting were the most common for all attempts.
•Thirty percent of all cases reportedly involved drugs and/or alcohol; rates were higher for failed attempts.
•The majority of people who committed suicide did not have known histories of mental disorders.
•Six percent of suicides and 8 percent of attempts reportedly were among people who had prior diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder.
•Fifty percent of soldiers who killed themselves had recently suffered a failed relationship with a spouse, girlfriend or other loved one.
•Seven percent of those who killed themselves — and of those who attempted to — had served multiple tours of duty to the wars.
•The highest number of attempts occurred among soldiers who were in the second quarters of their tours.
