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Suicide by Guard, Reserve Troops Studied
By KIMBERLY HEFLING |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of all veterans
who took their own lives after returning from
Iraq or Afghanistan were members of the National
Guard or Reserves, according to new government
data that prompted activists on Tuesday to call
for a closer examination of the problem.
A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of
ongoing research of deaths among veterans of
both wars — obtained by The Associated Press —
found that Guard or Reserve members accounted
for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from
2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through
the end of 2005.
The research, conducted by the department's
Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides
the first demographic look at suicides among
veterans from those wars who left the military.
Joe Davis, public affairs director for the
Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the Pentagon and
VA must combine efforts to track suicides among
those who have served in those countries in
order to get a clearer picture of the problem.
"To fix a problem, you have to define it first,"
Davis said.
At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard
and Reserve made up nearly half the troops
fighting in Iraq. Overall, they were nearly 28
percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to
Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the
operations, according to Defense Department data
through the end of 2007.
Many Guard members and Reservists have done
multiple tours that kept them away from home for
18 months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday.
"Until this administration understands that
repeated and prolonged deployments are
stretching our brave men and women to the brink,
we will continue to see these tragic figures,"
Murray said.
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the
military's effort to re-screen Guard and
Reservists for mental and physical problems
three months after they return home is a
positive step, but a more long-term,
comprehensive approach is needed to help them.
"National Guardsman and Reservists are literally
in Baghdad in one week and in Brooklyn the next,
and that transition is incredibly tough,"
Rieckhoff said.
The VA has said there does not appear to be an
epidemic of suicide among returning veterans,
and that suicide among the newer veterans is
comparable to the same demographic group in the
general population. However, an escalating
suicide rate in the Army, as well as
high-profile suicides such as the death of
Joshua Omvig — an Iowa Reservist who shot
himself in front of his mother in December 2005
after an 11-month tour in Iraq — have alarmed
some members of Congress and advocates.
In November, President Bush signed the Joshua
Omvig suicide prevention bill, which directed
the VA to improve its mental health training for
staff and do a better job of screening and
treating veterans.
According to the VA's research, 144 veterans
committed suicide from the start of the war in
Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, through the end of
2005. Of those, 35 veterans, or 24 percent,
served in the Reserves and 41, or 29 percent,
had served in the National Guard. Sixty-eight —
or 47 percent — had been in the regular
military.
Statistics from 2006 and 2007 were not yet
available, the VA said, because the study was
based in part on data from the National Death
Index, which is still being compiled.
Among the total population of Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans who have been discharged
from the military, nearly half are formerly
regular military and a little more than half
were in the Guard and Reserves, according to the
VA.
Among those studied, more than half of the
veterans who committed suicide were aged 20 to
29. Nearly three-quarters used a firearm to take
their lives. Nearly 82 percent were white.
About one in five was seen at least once at a VA
facility. |
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