What Percentage Of Service Members Die In Combat

Silhouette of a U.Southward. Marine praying, photographed from backside. John Thousand. Hunt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

John M. Chase/Getty Images

Silhouette of a U.S. Marine praying, photographed from behind.

John M. Chase/Getty Images

A new report on U.S. armed services deaths contains a stark statistic: An estimated 7,057 service members accept died during military operations since 9/11, while suicides amongst active duty personnel and veterans of those conflicts have reached xxx,177 — that's more than four times equally many.

The data highlights the divide between the dangers posed by war and the persistent mental health crisis in not but the military simply the land at large.

"Fifty-fifty the very conservative estimate that I came up with, it's horrifying," Thomas Suitt, who wrote the paper for Brown Academy'south Price of War Project, said in an interview with NPR. "We should really, really care."

As assistants after presidential administration attempts to get a handle on the ongoing suicides by members of the military machine, the newspaper highlights some of the reasons why people in the armed forces appear to be taking their lives at higher rates, though experts say the root causes of the crisis remain elusive.

What is driving suicides past those in the military

The trauma of being in combat or the crisis of censor that some service members struggle with can cause mental health issues, only Suitt suggested that military machine conflicts since the Sept. eleven, 2001, terrorist attacks are in some ways very different from previous wars.

For example, he said the prevalence of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, creates an atmosphere of fear among service members and the possibility of traumatic brain injuries if they are hurt in an explosion. Modern medical advances accept fabricated it possible for service members to survive more than serious injuries and even be redeployed. (The number of deaths in military operations Suitt calculated includes fatalities in combat as well every bit accidents and illnesses.)

There are reasons why a service member who never saw gainsay might develop mental health issues related to their time in the war machine, as well.

Diminished public back up for the country's ongoing wars, a sexual assault epidemic in the armed services'south ranks, a "masculine" military culture, and easier admission to firearms may likewise contribute to the fasten in suicides, Suitt suggested.

Carl Castro, a professor at the University of Southern California who served 33 years in the U.S. Ground forces, said that while the reasons listed in the paper are risk factors for suicide, the science is less clear on what really drives people to stop their lives.

"If we're actually going to tackle the trouble of suicide in America, in the world, in the military, nosotros've got to arroyo this from a more disciplined framework," he said.

There is also the sheer length of post-9/eleven military conflicts. The war in Afghanistan has been going on since 2001, the longest war in U.S. history.

"I spoke with veterans [whose] sons are now serving in the same war that they served in," Suitt said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson agreed that the post-nine/eleven era was unique for the loftier number of deployments many service members faced during the protracted conflicts.

"The phenomenon of coming domicile, going into reintegration, watching units get taken down and rebuilt merely to go deploy once again," he said, "that wheel over all these years is unprecedented."

Anderson too said the asymmetric warfare characteristic of post-9/xi conflicts and the threat of insider attacks made those redeployments even more stressful on men and women in uniform.

"That wears on anyone over time, when y'all never quite know if you are in a quote-unquote safety environs or not," he said.

There is disagreement over whether armed forces suicides are ascent

Suitt said the rate of suicides amid agile duty service members and postal service-9/11 veterans is outpacing the suicide rate of the noncombatant population, a trend he called a "significant shift."

The but other time that has occurred was during the Vietnam War, Suitt noted, calculation that military suicide rates during previous conflicts accept fifty-fifty been lower than those of the general population.

Just in a statement to NPR, Department of Defence force spokesperson Lisa Lawrence said "military suicide rates typically are comparable with the U.Southward. adult population" when adjusted for age and sex.

"Over time, suicide deaths have increased in the broader U.S. full general population. Our Service members are not immune to trends that occur in order," she said.

Lawrence noted that young people and men were among the higher-risk groups for suicide in the country and too comprised a big part of the armed forces population.

She said the Section of Defence force continues to adapt its suicide prevention efforts and encourages members of the military machine community to seek help and eliminate the stigma effectually mental health bug.

"We owe this to our Service members and military families who do so much to defend our great Nation," Lawrence added.

Anderson is also a board member at TAPS, an organization that provides support and resources to those grieving the expiry of a loved i who was in the military. He said it is crucial to keep electric current and one-time members of the military connected to each other.

He said that every bit a commander he has seen how getting support from those with similar experiences has helped those in crisis.

"Having watched how people take been able to change and arrange and adjust based on having that peer network is huge," Anderson said.

If you or someone you know may exist considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Difficult of Hearing: ane-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting Dwelling house to 741741.