WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 115 soldiers killed themselves in 2007, up from 102 the previous year, the Army said Thursday.
Nearly one-third of them died at the battlefront, 32 in Iraq and 4 in Afghanistan. But 26 percent had never been sent to either conflict.
“We see a lot of things that are going on in the war which do contribute,” said Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general.
“Mainly the longtime and multiple deployments away from home, exposure to really terrifying and horrifying things, the easy availability of loaded weapons and a force that’s very, very busy right now. And so all of those together we think are part of what may contribute, especially if somebody’s having difficulties already,” Colonel Ritchie said at a news conference.