The Army looks to quell the rise in Suicides

Even as thousands of U.S. service members were dying in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 12 years of war following 9/11, about 3,000 perished by their own hand, nearly the same as the number of people lost on the day of those terrorist attacks. 

Indeed, suicide is a perennial stain on the military that's growing worse each year, a trajectory baffling to military leaders and devastating to the thousands of shattered families left behind. "It just drives me crazy that we can't figure (it) out," says Army Deputy Undersecretary Thomas Hawley.

The Army, which recorded an average of six suicides per week last year, now stands at the edge of a science-driven answer as radical as it is uncomplicated: predicting which soldiers are likely to kill themselves so they can be stopped before it's too late. This form of health assessment is unlike anything in the civilian world and one that the Army is meeting with a combination of enthusiasm and caution.

Jeremy Johnson

It's also an idea that leaves Deborah Johnson wishing she could turn back time for the sake of her son, Jeremy. 

The 23-year-old Army private died from an overdose of pain pills mixed with alcohol in March 2010, shortly after an instant-message exchange with his mother. 

Jeremy was sent off to war in early 2009 six months after joining the Army. He was medically evacuated from Afghanistan with emotional issues in the summer of that year.

Deborah Johnson

The father of two little girls was eager by 2010 to leave the service with a medical discharge, but he hated the medication doctors had him using. Shortly before his death, his mother says, he seemed severely depressed. But after he spent hours on the phone followed by texting, Deborah Johnson thought he was OK. The death was ruled a suicide. 

"You've got to find a way to identify those people that are at risk," she says, praising the new Army effort. "That would be every mother's hope that there would be something that you could have done differently."

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