Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans
A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of
Other Americans
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2007
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml
(check out this original link for video clip & comments)
(CBS) They are the casualties of wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who
die of self-inflicted wounds. Little is known about the true scope of suicides
among those who have served in the military.
But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling
rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter
Armen Keteyian reports exclusively.
“I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the
sister of a soldier who took his own life.
"I opened up the door and there he was," recalled Mike Bowman, the father of an
Army reservist.
"I saw the hose double looped around his neck,” said Kevin Lucey, another
military father.
"He was gone,” said Mia Sagahon, whose soldier boyfriend committed suicide.
Keteyian spoke with the families of five former soldiers who each served in Iraq
- only to die battling an enemy they could not conquer. Their loved ones are now
speaking out in their names.
They survived the hell that's Iraq and then they come home only to lose their
life.
Twenty-three-year-old Marine Reservist Jeff Lucey hanged himself with a garden
hose in the cellar of this parents’ home - where his father, Kevin, found him.
"There's a crisis going on and people are just turning the other way,” Kevin
Lucey said.
Kim and Mike Bowman’s son Tim was an Army reservist who patrolled one of the
most dangerous places in Baghdad, known as Airport Road.
"His eyes when he came back were just dead. The light wasn't there anymore," Kim
Bowman said.
Eight months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Tim shot himself. He was 23.
Diana Henderson’s son, Derek, served three tours of duty in Iraq. He died
jumping off a bridge at 27.
"Going to that morgue and seeing my baby ... my life will never be the same,"
she said.
Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists about how
widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military. There have
been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide.
"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total," Bowman said.
Why do the families think that is?
"Because they don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known,"
Lucey said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
"If you're just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves who've
committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers,” Murray said.
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CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a Freedom
of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking for the numbers
of suicides among all service members for the past 12 years.
Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between 1995 and
2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these
numbers included only “active duty” soldiers.
CBS News went to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Dr. Ira Katz is head
of mental health.
"There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem," he
said.
Why hasn't the VA done a national study seeking national data on how many
veterans have committed suicide in this country?
"That research is ongoing,” he said.
So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data,
based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995.
Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.
And what it revealed was stunning.
In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256
suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every
week, in just one year.
Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed
analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and
2005.
It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005
than non-vets. (Veterans committed suicide at the rate of between 18.7 to 20.8
per 100,000, compared to other Americans, who did so at the rate of 8.9 per
100,000.)
One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served
during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans,
estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The
suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans
was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)
"Wow! Those are devastating," said Paul Sullivan, a former VA analyst who is now
an advocate for veterans rights from the group Veterans For Common Sense.
Eye to Eye: Watch more of Keteyian's interview with Sullivan.
Read the Investigative Unit's Data and Methodology behind this story.
Read part 2 of the investigative series.
"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems," he said.
“We are determined to decrease veteran suicides," Dr. Katz said.
“One hundred and twenty a week. Is that a problem?” Keteyian asked.
“You bet it’s a problem,” he said.
Is it an epidemic?
“Suicide in America is an epidemic, and that includes veterans,” Katz said.
Sen. Murray said the numbers CBS News uncovered are significant: “These
statistics tell me we've really failed people that served our country."
Do these numbers serve as a wake-up call for this country?
“If these numbers don't wake up this country, nothing will,” she said. “We each
have a responsibility to the men and women who serve us aren't lost when they
come home."
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An update: The chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Sen. Daniel
Akaka, D-Hawaii, responded to the CBS News story Tuesday.
“The report that the rate of suicide among veterans is double that of the
general population is deeply troubling and simply unacceptable. I am especially
concerned that so many young veterans appear to be taking their own lives. For
too many veterans, returning home from battle does not bring an end to conflict.
There is no question that action is needed."