Troops in infantry, explosive ordnance disposal, combat engineers and medical care specialists commit suicide at higher rates compared to other military occupations according to a new Pentagon report.
Enlisted infantry soldiers are at the highest risk of committing suicide, the July report found, facing suicide mortality rates higher than 21 other military occupational specialties. Against the U.S. population as a whole, service members in 14 enlisted occupations had higher suicide rates, the report said.
Across the entire military, officers fare better than their enlisted peers. The Department of Defense found lower suicide rates across nearly all officer positions compared to enlisted troops. Suicide rates for officers tended to be lower than the general rate in the U.S. population, ages 17-59.
The study calculated a “rate” for every occupation in the military, combining data for similar jobs across services, such as Marine and Army infantry or Air Force and Navy pilots. Using the number of reported suicides for each job and the total number of troops who served in those jobs, the study calculated a rate that could be compared between jobs with a high number of troops, like the medical field, to smaller jobs, like data science.
Enlisted infantry had the highest rate at 31.28. Officer helicopter pilots had the lowest at 8.29, just a quarter of the infantry rate.
The disparity between all officers and all enlisted was vast. The officers with the greatest risk of suicide, the study found, were nurses, which had a rate of 14.94 — a number roughly in line with the very lowest rate among enlisted members, computer operators, at 14.3.
The lowest suicide mortality rates were among fixed-wing and helicopter pilots.
The DOD originally aimed to look at suicide rates by MOS for troops serving in the years post-Sept. 11, 2001 through the present in its July report, but found that data was unreliable for the earlier years. In 2011, the Department of Defense implemented standardized reporting for suicides so the report’s analysis focused on data from 2011 to 2022. During that 11-year period, the DOD looked at 5,997 active duty and reserve service members (roughly 61% active duty, 15.5% in the Reserve and 23.5% in the National Guard).
The report also broke down findings by each service. For the Army, the most at risk were infantry, combat engineering, and roles in armaments and munitions; in the Marine Corps, infantry saw the highest rates; in the Navy, it was law enforcement positions; and for the Air Force, all occupations had similar rates across the board. The Space Force, established in 2019, did not have any suicide deaths in the data.
The report comes amid greater scrutiny on the mental health impacts of traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs – caused by deployments or training with weapons and equipment that produce repetitive, concussive blasts or noise, like infantry rifles, artillery systems and other ordnance. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, TBIs, which can range from mild to severe, can increase the risk of anxiety and depression, as well as sleeping problems.
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In the Marine Corps, artillery Marines suffer the most TBIs, the service found, according to a March 2019 report on blast overpressure effects. In the five months before a combat deployment, “TBIs suffered by artillery Marines increase by a factor of 4, and once artillery Marines suffer a TBI, they will suffer, on average, 1.2 additional TBIs per year of service after their initial TBI and become more susceptible to spending extended periods of time on Limited Duty.”
Even when TBIs are mild, people who suffer recurrent injuries “are known to have poorer outcomes” and can face severe postconcussive symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities, one study said. “There is growing evidence that repetitive head trauma leads to an increased risk of suicide and chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” also known as CTE – a growing diagnosis among football players exposed to repeated head traumas. Symptoms of CTE can include erratic behavior, suicidal tendencies, anxiety, sleeping problems, aggression and memory loss.
The report was requested by Independent Maine Sen. Angus King after a suggestion from a Marine service member from Maine. The July report was mandated in the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to but will now be required in all future Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Reports, King said in a release.
“These key findings show trends that will guide the DOD in its efforts to curb suicide rates and hopefully save lives,” King said.