The number of suicides on active duty stabilizes after the peak of summer, but reserves soar

Last fall, Army leaders went to the Associated Press to announce that they had seen a worrying increase in suicides since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; the data showed an increase of 30% in this service only between the months of July and September.

The Defense Department gave no official explanation for the increase, but it appears to have been isolated that summer, according to new data.

While active suicides jumped about 8 percent in total last year – to 377 in total, compared with a 7 percent jump in the previous year, or 348 in total – the last few months of last year saw a leveling off of that worrying summer peak, with 99 suicides in total from October to December, compared with 100 in the same period in 2019.

The reserve component, on the other hand, remained stable in the first nine months of the year, before exploding with suicide deaths in the fall and winter – an increase of 128 percent, from 25 deaths in late 2019 to 57 in the end 2020. Most of this increase was concentrated in the National Guard, which went from 14 suicides to 39 in the same period; 23 of those deaths occurred in the Army National Guard, specifically.

“At the moment, it is too early to determine whether suicide rates will show an increase or decrease in the calendar year 2020,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday, as the suicide numbers are subject to change as death investigations are completed.

Although the DoD releases quarterly suicide reports in real time, it does not comment on the findings until the fall, when it releases a report on the previous year’s suicide statistics, allowing time for investigations to end and numbers to fluctuate.

The Guard, which saw a general reduction in suicide deaths in 2019, was preparing for an increase in 2020.

“We don’t even know what the impacts of this stress will be,” Major-General Dawne Deskins, deputy director of the National Air Guard, told the Military Times in September.

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At the time, the questions revolved around whether the notable increase in active suicide deaths had anything to do with the pandemic – either out of general anxiety or the order to stop the movement that interrupted travel and permanent changes of season for members military service, potentially separating troops from their families for weeks or months.

“DoD recognizes the potential impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of our service members and families,” according to the report for the 2nd quarter of 2020. “We are closely monitoring potential impacts and proactive measures to mitigate those impacts potentials of COVID-19. ”

For reservists, and particularly the National Guard, there was an entirely different dimension. Millions of Americans lost their jobs in the first months of the pandemic, and by the beginning of 2021, many were still unemployed. This includes reserve troops with civilian employment.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Guard soldiers mobilized in the early days of the pandemic and many of them are still on active orders – they have moved from distributing supplies and testing facilities to responding to protests across the country, equipping vaccination sites in mass and protecting the US Capitol.

More than 2,000 guards are still deployed to the Capitol complex, compared with more than 20,000 in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

The National Guard is postponing comments on suicide numbers or any possible reasons for them, spokesman Wayne Hall told the Military Times on Monday, until the DoD Suicide Event Report for 2020 comes out later this year. .