di Redazione
A record of 349 suicides among U.S. military personnel was registered in 2012, making it the third consecutive year in which the deaths by suicide exceed combat deaths.
In an Associated Press report, the Pentagon revealed that 349 active-duty troops killed themselves in 2012, in what makes a 15 per cent increase from 2011.
Calling it an epidemic, Senator Patty Murray, who stood up for legislation last year to improve suicide prevention efforts and mental health care for troops and veterans said it can not be ignored.
The figures , first reported by the Associated Press show that the Army, as the largest service, counted the biggest number of suicides, with 182 soldiers killing themselves in 2012. Also, the Navy had 60 suicides, the Air Force had 59 and the Marines had 48. War Secretary Leon Panetta last year acknowledged that the suicides were the most frustrating issue he had faced since taking over the Pentagon in 2011. “The trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction, “Panetta told at a joint Pentagon-Department of Veterans Affairs suicide prevention conference in June. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that, approximately, a veteran commits suicide once every 80 minutes in America, a trend that may be worsening. Historical information from the Pentagon’s Suicide Event Report for 2011 showed that about ninety per cent of the military suicides that year were among those serving at bases in the United States, not in Afghanistan or Iraq.
