www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/29/eveningnews/main596755.shtml
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for Americans age 15 to 24 behind car crashes and firearm homicides and the second leading cause of death for college students. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has detailed a few signs of crisis that might indicate someone is contemplating suicide: A recent precipitating event that has been particularly distressing, such as the loss of a loved one or a career failure; Depression and intense anguish with an urgent need for relief that expresses itself as rage, anxiety, guilt, hopelessness and/or an acute sense of abandonment; Direct or indirect talk suggesting that the person is contemplating suicide. Sometimes it sounds as if the person is saying goodbye or going away. Or the person might say something like My family would be better off without me; Actions ranging from buying a gun to putting ones affairs in order;
CBS Texas Army Specialist Joseph Suell told his mother he wasnt cut out to fight the Iraq war. He said Momma I havent killed anybody here and I hope I never have to kill anybody, said Rena Mathis. Instead, the 24-year-old husband and father of three apparently took his own life. The Pentagon says self inflicted overdose, said Mathis, reading a military document on her sons death. As CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara reports, since the war in Iraq began, 519 American soldiers have died in the line of duty. The Army has not released the findings of a mental-health team that went to Iraq last fall. The Pentagon counts at least 22 GI suicides in the Iraq conflict - 19 of those Army troops - most after major combat was declared over last May. Its statistically too high and it could be as many as 30 - it could be as many as 30 in Iraq, said Steve Robinson, a retired Army Ranger who is lobbying Congress to pressure the Pentagon to come clean with the true extent of the wars psychiatric toll.
Our leadership is heavily engaged to make sure that we are doing everything possible to take care of even that one soldier that might take his life, said Lt. But what the Pentagon does not count are stateside soldier suicides. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center two hospitalized Iraq war vets hung themselves. An army study three years ago forecast an impending soldier-suicide crisis, but critics say it was largely ignored until more than 600 United States soldiers began being evacuated from Iraq for psychiatric reasons. I tried to blow my head off with my weapon and then one split second more and I would have succeeded, one soldier said. I mean I had the gun to my head with the safety off, with the round chambered. Some blame Lariam, a malaria drug given soldiers and suspected of having suicidal side effects, or that extended duty tours are taxing battle-fatigued troops.
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