Suicide Prevention

The Army National Guard (link here) is launching a new suicide prevention campaign.

Statistics have shown that suicide is the third highest killer of citizen Soldiers in the past year. 47 died in combat, 45 in accidents, and 42 were lost to suicide.

As the linked article points out, the active duty component has many resources allocated to suicide prevention. For the Guard and reserves, as is often the case, the prevailing resource is the guy or gal to the left or the right. Our units often don’t even have regular chaplains assigned, and a half-trained NCO or commissioned officer assigned as the “unit suicide prevention officer” will never know the troubled troop as well as his or her peers.

It’s always good to keep in the back of your mind that personal problems while in garrison can balloon when deployed abroad. Sadly, we’ve all seen it, too. Marriages fail, custody of children is lost, legal and financial problems arise, or just the malaise and frustration of deployment can take its toll.