More Needs to Be Done to Combat Military Suicides, Expert Says

U.S. soldiers attend an inauguration ceremony by transforming the Area Support Group Poland into the permanent U.S. Army Garrison Poland, at Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan, Poland, on March 21, 2023. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)

The number of suicides among servicemembers has increased in the past decade. Although the number of deaths went down in 2022, there remains a variety of other issues that need to be addressed before significant change can truly occur, according to an expert.

Last month, the Department of Defenses (DOD) released its annual report on suicide in the military for 2022. The number of suicides gradually increased from 2011 to 2022 for all services, dipping slightly in 2022 when compared with the previous year.

Although the total number of deaths decreased because the active-duty force is smaller now than in previous years, the rate of suicides per 100,000 servicemembers increased. According to the DOD report, the Marine Corps saw an 11 percent jump in suicide rates, while the Air Force and Navy logged a 4 percent and 3 percent rise, respectively.

In a September memo for senior Pentagon leadership, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin specified new actions to prevent suicide in the military. Mr. Austin said he hopes to ensure a supportive environment, improve mental health care delivery, eliminate stigmas and other barriers, revise suicide prevention strategy, and promote secure storage practices for firearms.

Robert Beckman, co-founder and executive director of TreatNOW, an organization that helps veterans with brain injuries, applauded these new measures but said the military still faces barriers.

For one, he said, it’s going to be incredibly hard to “eliminate the stubborn stigma around asking for help.”

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“When dealing with depression, sexual assault, or any issue affecting a servicemember, people generally don’t want to talk about it,” Mr. Beckman said. “And it is true, most of these cases are not reported.”

Many women who were sexually assaulted are fearful about coming forward, he said.

“They’re scared the incident will either be whitewashed or their character will be destroyed,” Mr. Beckman said.

“There needs to be a procedure put in place where servicemembers, especially victims of sexual assault, can report to someone outside their chain of command.”

Those in the special forces are also at risk of psychological and physical effects of the unique demands of their role, according to Mr. Beckman.

“A member of a special forces team will do nearly anything to keep their ability to be with their team,” he said.

“[These servicemembers] are carrying around a heavy load, which often leads them down a path of self-medication just to be able to get through the pain and the sleeplessness. In far too many cases, the likelihood of reporting anything like this is going to be very low, so they’re not going to get help. Period.”

Not only should there be a sense of urgency as the secretary suggests in his memo but also “there must also be accountability to ensure someone actually follows through with it,” Mr. Beckman said.

Overlooked Factors

Lt. Ted Macie, a whistleblower and active-duty Navy Medical Service Corps officer, said he’s skeptical of the Pentagon’s stated efforts combating suicide.

Lt. Macie said he’s skeptical because, according to him, “[The DOD] has neglected tens of thousands of thousands of injuries rising in 2021, 2022, and trending upward in 2023.”

After releasing a video disclosing increased heart damage in active-duty fixed-wing and helicopter pilots, Lt. Macie was barred from the Navy’s computer network. Although he complied with the Navy and deleted the video, it remains available on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In data obtained before he lost his access to the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database, Lt. Macie said there was a 111 percent increase in mental disorders and a 46 percent increase in major depressive disorders in 2022 when compared with a five-year average. Adult sexual abuse increased by 54 percent in 2022 when compared with a five-year average of 2016 to 2020.

Lt. Macie emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Navy. The Department of Defense didn’t return inquiries by The Epoch Times.