10 deaths in April thought to be suicide

[unhappycamper]

10 deaths in April thought to be suicide
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 12:43:59 EDT

As many as 10 active-duty soldiers killed themselves in April, the smallest monthly total so far this year, officials announced May 13.

One of the 10 deaths in April has been confirmed as suicide; the other nine remain under investigation, although Army officials have said that about 90 percent of such cases typically are found to be suicide.

Also in April, there were five possible suicides among Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers who were not on active duty during the time of their deaths. That’s four fewer than the nine deaths in March.

The numbers from April are the lowest so far this calendar year.

However, the Army continues to struggle with combat suicide and on May 13 also announced that the total number of suicides of 2009 had gone up.



unhappycamper comment: I really wish there was a serious effort to combat suicides in the armed services. It's not much better at VA hospitals, either.