Rise in Marine suicides prompts new training - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Rise in Marine suicides prompts new training

The number of Marines who killed themselves last year has alarmed the service’s leadership, prompting additional prevention training that must be completed by the end of March.

Forty-one Marines took their lives in 2008 and another 146 attempted to do so, according to Marine administrative message 0134/09. That translates to 19 suicides for every 100,000 Marines. It is “our highest rate … since 1995 and reflects an unacceptable loss of life,” the message states.

The latest guidance directs company, battalion and squadron-level commanders to conduct all-hands suicide-prevention training by March 31. The package was introduced Feb. 27, about three months after several generals, including Assistant Commandant Gen. James Amos, spent five hours discussing suicide prevention.

The two-hour presentation includes videos made by commanders, and a slide show detailing the latest statistics and warning signs exhibited by Marines at risk of committing suicide.

The Corps has conducted annual suicide prevention training since 1997, but officials worry it has become a tired ritual and that too many Marines are simply going through the motions or tuning out the message all together.

“The problem is that since then, it has occasionally become a boring, check-in-the-box requirement,” according to the instructor guide provided by Marine Corps Training & Education Command. “We can no longer afford to sleep through suicide prevention training. We have lost 41 Marines to suicide in calendar year 2008. Think about it. That’s [nearly] one dead Marine a week.”

All of the services experienced an increase in their suicide rates last year. To counter the trend, officials continue to hire more mental health professionals. And for its part, the Corps is adding specialists in forward-deploying units, Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, the service’s top enlisted adviser, told members of Congress in February.

Until last year, the number of suicides across the Corps remained somewhat consistent since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, averaging about 28 each year between 2001 and 2007, according to service statistics. The Corps does not draw a direct connection between suicides and deployments, however, noting in its most recent update to the suicide prevention program that “investigations into this relationship are ongoing.”

Examining each case

Certainly, numbers alone don’t tell a complete story. In 2007, for instance, 12 of the 33 Marines who committed suicide had prior deployments while six killed themselves in theater. Last year those numbers were 21 and seven, respectively. Given the variety of “stressors” that can drive a person to suicide, and the volume of Marines who have recorded one or more combat tours since 2001, it stands to reason that officials would spot a trend only by first examining the particulars of each case.

Wartime stress is one reason why “we want to grow the force fast, and we are, so we can get the Marines more dwell time,” Kent told the House Appropriations subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs. Other factors can include relationship and work-related problems, pending legal or administrative action, and illness, according to the new slide show.

Sgt. Richard Stumpf, a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., faced some of these problems when he committed suicide in 1994, according to information contained in the training. His performance at work was declining. He’d stay out late getting drunk and sometimes showed for duty with alcohol on his breath. He was in debt and cheating on his pregnant wife, according to a narrative in TECOM’s instructor guide.

Stumpf was certain that if he ever admitted to the adultery and was in need of rehab, “he would lose his military career,” according to the guide. “So, instead of getting help, he continued with his risky behavior.”

The night before he committed suicide, Stumpf was involved in his second drunk-driving wreck.

Shortly after he was released from the Parris Island brig Oct. 31, 1994, Stumpf shot himself with his M16. His fellow drill instructors, who tried to save him, witnessed the suicide.

The Corps emphasizes its “leave no man behind” ethos in the latest training package.

“Investigations have shown that although Marines notice signs of trouble, they don’t tell anyone because they fear they will hurt the troubled Marine’s career,” according to a statement made in one training video. “Marines may think they’ve got it covered, but Marines don’t cover for each other, they take care of each other.”