The number of troops committing suicide last year exceeded number of combat deaths

[newarkhiphop]

1 per day

WASHINGTON (AP) — For U.S. troops, less combat is not translating to less stress. Members of the military committed suicide at a record pace in 2012 — almost one per day — and some experts think the trend will grow worse this year.
Pentagon figures obtained Monday by The Associated Press show 349 suicides among active-duty troops last year, up from 301 the year before and exceeding the Pentagon's own internal projection of 325.
Last year's total is the highest since the Pentagon began closely tracking suicides in 2001. It exceeds the 295 Americans who died in Afghanistan last year, by the AP's count.
The Pentagon has struggled to deal with suicides, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called an epidemic. The problem reflects severe strains on military personnel burdened with more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is increasingly complicated by anxiety over the prospect of being forced out of uniform as defense budgets are cut.

Suicides in military rise, even as combat lessens - Yahoo! News


thoughts on why this happening

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

hopeless cause, intangible enemy, shyt war.

 

[Shogun]

3 of my buddies have commit that in the past 6 months..all vets

I can't really speak on if it was because of what we saw/did/went through over there. If that shyt was bothering them they never said anything about it. But I really don't think that was it.

I could be wrong, but I've put some thought to this and here is my rationale....
When you're on a deployment for a year in combat zone its physically/mentally demanding, stressful, dangerous, etc., but its also easier than civilian life in some ways. No bills, roof over you're (sometimes), no family shyt to deal with (for the most part), etc. You're only concerns are to complete the mission and keep your buddies alive.

On top of that, you're the fukken man over there. Aside from your chain of command, no one can say shyt to you....not the local police, local army, people, noone. You walk the streets armed to the teeth, you own the roads, etc. You're also making pretty good money.

For 18, 19, 20 year old kids, this is a pretty powerful thing. After living like that for a year they return to civilian life and they have to go back to being a piece of shyt like everyone else. Bills, drama, finding a job, trying to go to school, making shyt money. Its real easy for a veteran to get fed up with civilian life, and at least contemplate suicide.

Once those thoughts start, you have to consider the thought process of a combat veteran. It's some who is much more comfortable and knowledgeable about death than the average civilian, and accustomed to taking extreme action to solve a problem. Where as a civilian might have suicidal thoughts but lacks the balls to actually go through with it, the combat veteran, once the decision is made....completes the mission, so to speak.

that's, my take.

In my opinion this:

hopeless cause, intangible enemy, shyt war.

doesn't have very much to do with it.

the argument may be "well WW2 vets didnt off themselves in record numbers." True, but WW2 vets came home to a booming post-depression economy. Todays veterans are coming home to a shyt economy.