A new report lays partial responsibility for the spike in the Army’s suicide rate on a permissive environment that facilitates risky behavior within military units .
The report, compiled by the Army over a 15-month period, zeroes in on the 239 suicides that occurred among active and reserve soldiers in 2009, and links most of these deaths to high-risk activities, such as drug use and binge drinking.
Unit leadership is cited as a contributing cause for the rise in dangerous behavior.
“Institutional education and experiential knowledge of good order and discipline processes in a garrison environment have atrophied among leaders who have operated only in an Army at war,” the report states. “Leaders are consciously and admittedly taking risk by not enforcing good order and discipline.”
The lack of enforcement may in part be tied to the personnel demands posed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the report, since 2001, when combat began in Afghanistan, 25,283 soldiers who committed offenses that would have resulted in discharge in previous years remained in service.
Speaking at a briefing at the Pentagon Thursday, General Peter Chiarelli, the Vice Chief of Staff for the Army, stressed that the Army is pursuing a number of mitigating steps, including better methods to detect and combat drug and alcohol abuse, eliminating the stigma of seeking treatment, instructing officers to keep a closer watch on their units and increasing resiliency among soldiers entering their first tours. The report includes a total of 250 recommendations.
The report in its entirety can be found here.