Army suicide rates. NY Times

 "According to the Army, roughly 20 out of 100,000 soldiers have killed themselves, compared with a rate of roughly 19 out of 100,000 for the civilian population.

The report put a large part of the blame on commanders who either failed to recognize or disregarded high-risk behavior among their troops. “There are instances where a leader’s lack of soldier accountability resulted in suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks,” the report said.

In addition, the report said that the pace of constant deployments in two wars had forced a lowering of recruiting and retention standards. Many new recruits were granted waivers, it said, for behavior that would have kept them out of the service in earlier years. Of 80,403 waivers granted since 2004, the report found that 47,478 were granted to people with a history of drug or alcohol abuse, misdemeanor crime or “serious misconduct,” which it defined as felony.

At the same time, the report found that there was a decrease in soldiers forced to leave the Army for misconduct. “This has likely resulted in the retention of over 25,283 soldiers who would have otherwise been separated in previous years,” the report said.

General Chiarelli said that the majority of Army suicides — 60 percent — are committed during a soldier’s first enlistment, typically four years, and that the most dangerous year is the first. “We see more suicides in that first year than any other year,” General Chiarelli said."  NY Times

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Most of the young people whom I see these days do not seem very likely candidates for military service.  They have been raised to be self centered, undisciplined and addicted to immediate gratification.  Even the jocks among them tend to equate going to athletic practice with actual work.  Their parents do all the household chores or hire Central Americans to do them.

In the general atmosphere of self absorbed modern American culture I don't know how they get anyone to enlist in the ground combat forces.  Ah, I know.  They go out to the country where there still are people who think their children have a duty to society.

Britain is even more of  mystery to me.  How does a country that looks down on patriotism find people who will fight for "queen and country?"  And what does the British public really think of such men?

In the context of two wars, the inability of some recruits to adapt to a life in which one is expected to act responsibly on a schedule that does not reflect one's own wishes should not be surprising.

The desire of General Chiarelli to blame commanding officers for suicides of misfits that they have been sent is deplorable.  pl  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/us/30suicide.html?src=mv