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Military

Suicide Rate Among Troops Alarms Pentagon

Home Post Blog: Pentagon officials have grown alarmed at the growing suicide rate among servicemembers as Suicide Prevention Month grows to a close. According to a Pentagon Report: 1,100 servicemen and women committed suicide in 2005 to 2009 — one suicide every day and a half. The Army’s suicide rate doubled in that time.

Navy veteran Ann Longboy has joined the chorus of military voices trying to bring awareness to suicide prevention. Longboy shared her story on the Defense Centers for Excellence website about how her own suicidal thoughts in 1987 as a young Sailor were stopped from being put into action by her Navy leadership.

She writes of how grateful she was to her leadership for intervening, because the consequences of suicide hit home for her in 2004 when her younger brother took his own life (Read more at the Home Post).