Obama changes line on US troop suicides

The US military's suicide rate has risen steadily during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Photo: AFP

THE families of US soldiers who commit suicide while on combat duty, or die accidentally, will now receive letters of condolence from the President and the Pentagon, breaking with a decades-old custom in which their deaths were noted only by junior staff.
Barack Obama quietly announced the policy shift on Wednesday after a detailed review that came amid widening concern over the rate of suicide in the armed services, which is exceeding civilian suicide rates for the first time since the Vietnam War.
''This issue is emotional, painful and complicated, but these Americans served our nation bravely,'' Mr Obama noted in a statement issued by the White House.

Advertisement: Story continues below

''They didn't die because they were weak. And the fact that they didn't get the help they needed must change.''
The move was welcomed broadly by military support and family groups as well as mental health specialists, but criticised for not including those who die outside war zones. Advocates also urged the Pentagon to intensify prevention programs.
The military's suicide rate has risen steadily during the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soldiers have found themselves serving repeated tours of duty, many suffering post-traumatic stress and other difficulties. Last year, 270 armed services personnel took their lives - the equivalent of 12.5 suicides per 100,000, which exceeds the US average of 11.1, according to Defence Department data.
But the number of active duty suicides actually fell to 156 from 162 a year earlier, as the Pentagon ramped up prevention programs, including expanded mental health checks.
Mr Obama said US forces had borne a huge burden over the past decade and he was keen to remove the stigma attached to suicide. ''I am deeply grateful for the service of all our men and women in uniform and grieve for the loss of those who suffer from the wounds of war - seen and unseen,'' he wrote, adding that Americans would want to ''honour their service''.
The decision to send the condolence letters to all troops who die on active duty was supported by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and other top brass, including the head of the army, General Peter Chiarelli. He commented in a blog posted on the White House website that the greatest regret of his military career was to have ignored the sacrifice of a soldier in Iraq under his command during 2004-05.
''I lost 169 soldiers during that year-long deployment,'' he wrote. ''However, the monument we erected at Fort Hood, Texas, in memoriam lists 168 names. I approved the request of others not to include the name of the one soldier who committed suicide. I deeply regret my decision.''
Still, the decision does not gather up those soldiers who commit suicide away from the battlefield. ''For families, that does not go unnoticed and is often hurtful,'' said one support group, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
Connie Scott, a volunteer in military suicide support groups, whose 20-year-old son committed suicide the day before he was due to return to Iraq in 2007, told the Los Angeles Times: ''We suffered a loss, too. I'm grateful for this step, but we have a lot of work to do.'' Pentagon statistics show that more than 60 per cent of suicides occur during a soldier's first enlistment, with soldiers in their first year of that four-year term most at risk.
But soldiers entering the army in their late 20s, and not straight from school, were three times more likely to commit suicide.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/obama-changes-line-on-us-troop-suicides-20110707-1h4li.html#ixzz1RUAaimFd