Troops whose jobs can expose them repeatedly to blasts have among the highest suicide rates in the armed forces, according to a new report by the Defense Department.
The report, released on Wednesday, lists the suicide rates for each military occupational specialty between 2011 and 2022.
Explosives ordnance disposal team members, who disable roadside bombs and routinely train and work around very large blasts, had the highest suicide rate — 34.77 deaths per 100,000 people per year — followed by infantry and special operations forces; armor crews; and artillery troops; whose rates are closer to 30 deaths per 100,000.
The rates for these combat occupations are roughly twice those of service members who work in noncombat jobs like data processing or food service.
The current national rate for civilians is about 14 deaths per 100,000 per year.
The report released Wednesday does not mention blast exposure as a factor, and it offers no insights into what may be contributing to the different suicide rates. Still, the correlation between deaths by suicide and levels of blast exposure is a common theme in the figures.
Defense Department studies suggest that most blast exposure happens in training, not combat.
“This comes as no surprise,” said Chuck Stansberry, a recently retired Navy master chief who worked in explosives ordnance disposal for most of his career. “I can’t tell you how many guys I know who have died of suicide.”
The report said that 5,997 service members died by suicide between 2011 and 2022 — more than six times the number killed in combat during the same period.
Eight Navy SEALs who died by suicide in the past 10 years, and whose brains were then studied in a specialized laboratory, all showed characteristic signs of damage caused by repeated blast exposure, an investigation by The New York Times found.
The Defense Department report was initiated by Sen. Angus King of Maine, who released the findings on Wednesday. In a statement, King said he hoped the data would guide the military “in its efforts to curb suicide rates and hopefully save lives.”
Suicide is complex and rarely hinges on a single factor, but a number of studies, including some funded by the Defense Department, have shown that traumatic brain injuries can increase the risk.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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