Army Suicide Rates Go Up, Alarm Bells Don't

Army Suicide Rates ClimbingPosted: 10:27 PM Feb 26, 2008
Last Updated: 6:24 AM Feb 27, 2008
Reporter: David Nancarrow
Email Address: mailto:dnancarrow@kktv11news.com?subject=Army

Army Suicide Rates Climbing
The Colorado Springs community is constantly reminded of the men and women in uniform who are lost in combat. The Army is now reporting a dramatic rise in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.

There is a single diamond set in a black band on the finger where Mia Sagahon expected to wear her wedding ring.

She thought her fiancee, a veteran, Walter Padilla would be by her side forever.
"You wake up and see them daily and then they're just gone," she said.

Visions of the battlefield haunted the medically discharged Padilla. He tried to hide his pain and tormenting questions from the ones he loved. Mia now knows these questions all too well.

"Am I a weak person?" she believed he wondered. "Why is this happening to me? feeling alone, why am I having these dreams?"

Walter silenced the voices in 2007, taking his life with a single shot from his own gun.

"You can't say good-bye, or anything. It's horrible," Sagahon said.

The Army expects 2007 will have been one of the worst in years in terms of suicide among active soldiers. If 32 cases still under investigation add to the 89 confirmed, 121 suicides represent a 20% spike from 2006, more than twice the number reported in 2001, pushing the Army rate closer to that seen among the civilian community.

Even more alarming, according to Department of Defense sources, attempted suicides rose to more than 2,000, up from about 1400 in 2006.

It is an issue that hits close to home for Ft. Carson commanders. Commanding Officer, Major General Mark Graham, lost a son to suicide.

"In every case where there's a suicide, people will tell you I should have seen it coming. I should have seen it," Graham said.

Army investigators say motives are different, but common reasons include stress levels from time put in to the battle.

"The secretary of the Army says our Army is tired that is no secret. I think our nation is understanding that we are a nation at war now for 7 years in Afghanistan, six years in Iraq," said COL Kelly Wolgast, Director of Ft. Carson's Evans Army Hospital.

Investigators report many are linked to strained romantic relationships, or failed marriages. There's also the issue of fearing to admit to loved ones and superiors they need help.
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How much time will they talk about doing something? How much money will they throw at this without results that prove it's working? How many different "steps" will they take before they discover what they are doing is not working? When will they hear the alarm bells going off all around the country that when it comes to them coming home, the military sucks at taking care of them?