The enemy within: Marines battle suicides
SAN DIEGO - The basic rule for Marine boot camp is simple: Keep your mouth shut and mind your own business. But it is different when the subject is suicide.
Drill instructors encourage recruits to share their feelings in what is called "guided discussions," and tell them to watch out for, and promptly report, warning signs in their buddies.
The suicide rate in the active-duty Marine Corps was 16.5 per 100,000 in 2007 - below the active-duty Army and a similar demographic in the civilian population. But it was a jump from 12.9 in 2006.
In the first six months of this year, 25 Marines committed suicide, the most in that length of time since records have been kept. If that trend persists, 2008 could prove to be the most deadly year for Marine suicides since at least the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
"Current prevention strategies are being evaluated and developed to respond to this increase and the ongoing wartime demands and associated stressors confronting Marines," said Navy Commander Aaron Werbel, manager of the Marine Corp's suicide prevention program.
"Training is being conducted for Marines, leaders, counselors, chaplains, family members, and front-line installation staff who have routine contact with young Marines."
In April, representatives of all the military branches came to San Diego for a weeklong conference to hear from civilian specialists and to discuss ways to improve prevention programs.
The Marine Corps provides advanced training in suicide prevention for chaplains, corpsmen, mental health specialists, and career counselors. But the first line of defense against suicide remains the young Marine, who is in the best position to notice changes in a buddy. Learning how to recognize warning signs is a key element of training, which begins at boot camp and is reinforced later, particularly as Marines prepare to deploy.
On a recent afternoon, 72 recruits sat on the floor of their barracks listening to a senior drill instructor talk about suicide. Two days earlier they had heard a lecture from a chaplain about how to spot suicidal tendencies.
The recruits were told that it is the duty of the individual Marine to intervene when a buddy starts showing possible signs that he is thinking of suicide: giving away his possessions, acting unusually listless, withdrawing from contact, getting angry for no reason, showing a preoccupation with death.
Judging from risk factors, Marine enlistees are prime candidates for suicide. They are young males far from home and family support. They are being stressed to their mental and physical limits. Their coping skills are still maturing.
Once recruits graduate from boot camp, the risk factors can increase with easy access to weapons, the probability of repeated deployments to Iraq, the likelihood of Dear John letters from girlfriends who become tired of waiting.
Recruits are told that if a Marine exhibits warning signs, they should inform a sergeant, a chaplain, a corpsman, somebody in the chain of command. If nothing else, they are told, take away the Marine's weapons.
"Every year we lose about a rifle platoon worth of Marines to suicide," Lieutenant Wayne Tomasek, a Navy chaplain, told the recruits in the lecture that preceded their "guided discussion" with their drill instructor.
