Something to think about

[unixronin]

Per USA Today:

The suicide rate in 2007 per 100,000 people for:

Total U.S. population: 11.1

People ages 25-50: 14.6

Law enforcement officers: 18

Source: Centers for Disease and Prevention, USA TODAY research

Suicide rate in 2007 per 100,000 people for serving US military personnel, including reserves: 350.  (Per a speaker on NPR about ten minutes ago.)

Think about it for a bit.  Then if you know a US serviceman or veteran ... do something nice for him or her today.  Show our troops you appreciate what they do.

UPDATE/CORRECTION:

cymrullewes was listening to the same segment, and confirms (see the comment to radarrider) that I did mishear the stat.  The correct stat was 2100 attempts, of which 300 were successful.

The bad news is, that's still 50 successful suicides per 100,000, still five times the rate for the US as a whole and three times the rate for law enforcement officers.

Comments

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

First of all, few appreciate what our troops do more than I do.

Having said that, I'm calling bullshit on that figure. Either the guy is totally ignorant, or he's telling a deliberate falsehood in order to influence public opinion on the Iraq campaign, and by extension the Bush administration. The suicide rate has increased, but it's nowhere near what you heard. Here are some links to support this.

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502027.html?hpid=topnews), August 26, 2007:
The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its scheduled release Thursday, found there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 the previous year and the highest number since the 102 suicides in 1991 at the time of the Persian Gulf War.

The suicide rate for the Army has fluctuated over the past 26 years, from last year's high of 17.3 per 100,000 to a low of 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4221338), today:
As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a jump of some 20 percent over the year before, officials said Thursday.

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/30/AR2008013003106.html?referrer=emailarticle), today:
Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Granted, I don't know the source he was citing. But he said ... hm, wait. I've just realized I may have misquoted. His number was 2100 out of 600,000, but I've just realized I'm not certain whether he said suicides, or suicides and suicide attempts. (I was picking up my 7-year-old from her school bus at the time, and my attention wasn't wholly on the radio.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

cymrullewes has confirmed I didn't catch all the details. (See update to the post.)

It's not as bad as I heard it in my half-attention. But it's still plenty bad. We're not doing enough for our people.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

My daughter, Elf, is enlisted in the Infantry. She says that most people are very nice and helpful when she travels. We have nothing like the Viet Nam experience for soldiers today. (There are always some idiots in every crowd.)

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

damn. i knew it was bad but that just... hammers it home.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Note the comment to radarrider; I'm not 100% certain I didn't misquote the stat.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

based upon the update, it's still pretty bad. the bbc had an article on it here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7221775.stm). i guess the military's population is small enough that a small change in discrete numbers makes a large change in statistical percentages

[lonewolf545.livejournal.com]

Remember that the core age group for the military is the same age for onset of many mental disorders, in addition to the stresses of military life. There IS stress involved with deployments, even noncombat ones (duty in Korea is generally non-accompanied, so soldiers get sent over for a year without their families, as an example). There is a significant mental adjustment between military life and civilian life, one that people who haven't worn the uniform can find difficult to understand. For a service member, even getting a sunburn can be grounds for punishment (rendering oneself unfit for duty). FWIW, many times the WORST rates for onset of PTSD are for folks who leave the military completely - they're suddenly amongst a group of people who don't understand them, while staying in the military, they have a built in support group. Oh, and some of the worst rates for such are reputedly amongst the NON-combat specialties (jobs that do not specialize in direct combat, truck drivers still see combat, they're just not listed as a "combat arms" specialty). And a military suicide is probably examined more closely, and less likely to be listed as an 'accidental death' (most "gun cleaning accidents" are either suicide or reckless conduct, the first step of cleaning a gun is disassembling it, although Glock's do require that you pull the trigger while doing so, but who looks DOWN the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded?).

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. I'm not disputing any of that. Your point about closer examination is taken, too; I hadn't considered that.

I think the basic point remains, though, that the indications are we're not doing enough for our servicemen. They're putting everything they have on the line, and we should be doing everything we can to help them cope with what it costs them.