www.meidling-forum.at

[Eberndorfer]

Stress Takes Toll on US Troops as Suicide Rates Rise!
Washington
06/09/08

The US Army is on track to break last year’s all-time record for suicides, a pace that would top the civilian suicide rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, army officials said Thursday.

The officials said 93 soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, approaching last year’s 115 suicides, the most ever on record in a single year for the army.

“With four months left, we’re probably going to surpass 115,” said Colonel Eddie Stephens, the army’s deputy director of human resources policy.
At the current pace, the army will exceed the civilian population rate of 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005, the latest data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control, the officials said.

The civilian rate is adjusted to reflect the army’s youthful demographics.
The officials said the last time the army’s suicide rates exceeded the civilian rate was in the late 1960s into the early 1970s when the United States was at war in Vietnam.

http://70.86.22.210/khaleejtimes/default.aspx?selPg=190&page=06_09_2008_012.jpg&ed=835&BMode=100&artHigh=9