By Mark Ford
Special to the News-Post
One of the most serious threats to life that a soldier faces is not on the battlefield. It’s in the soldier’s own mind.
An internal Army study recently cited in The Washington Post reported that 2,100 soldiers attempted suicide in 2007 — an average of five a day. Of those, 121 succeeded, an all-time record. To put that number in perspective, suicide is the third-leading cause of death among soldiers, after combat and accidents, according to the Army National Guard’s Suicide Prevention Program.
“It’s bad enough when we have to fight an enemy that’s shooting at us,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey J. Giannola, Fort Detrick post chaplain. “We certainly don’t want our own people taking their own lives for reasons that are preventable.”
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