Noteboom The Law Firm

Ft. Hood Suicides at Record High

January 17, 2011 - Ft. Hood is the largest Army post in the country. It is also the "front and back door" to Iraq and Afghanistan," the site of a massacre not even 2 years ago, and home to probably thousands of troops with psychological issues. Unfortunately, it is also the site of a record high amount of suicides among military personnel. These suicides come in the face of a large Army initiative focusing on preventing suicides among soldiers and veterans.

There were 22 soldiers who were either confirmed to have taken their own life or suspected of doing so over the last year at Ft. Hood alone. This equals 4447 deaths per every 100,000. The national average among same-aged civilians is 22 per 100,000. Officials have no explanation for the phenomenon.

In response to this disturbing trend, the army deployed a large staff of psychologists and counselors to Fort Hood, which now boasts of the biggest counseling staffs across the Army's bases. The almost 200 health care workers are charged with keeping a mentally balanced community among the 46,500 combat soldiers stationed at Fort Hood. 

Fort Hood suffered more suicides than any other Army base. All of suicide victims were male; 3 of them had just completed a combat tour, and 4 of them occurred in the last week of September for unknown reasons. Things may be changing, however, as the majority of the soldiers assigned to Fort Hood are currently stateside. This has not happened since 2003 and is significant because of the strain family separation historically causes soldiers.

Complete numbers have not been released yet, but it is possible that the numbers will be lower than 2009. However it is thought that once they include suicides by Reserve and Guard non-active members, those numbers may rise significantly.