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Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

Army officials say they don't have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.

Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.

The U.S. Army tallied 38 confirmed or suspected suicides among its ranks last month--that’s among both active- and non-active-duty members including the Army National Guard and Army Reserve--the highest rate of suicide within the branch yet observed, further underscoring a mental health crisis that the services have yet to get a handle on. But help may be coming in an unlikely form: nasal spray.

suicides have never been so high since data was recorded: up to 349 for 2012.

It exceeded the Pentagon's own internal projection of 325. US government began closely tracking suicides in 2001 through the Department of Defense Suicide Event Report (DoDSER). It exceeds the 311 Americans who died in war zones last year.

Even though the the Army is cutting its budget and slashing 8,700 jobs, they are hiring “internment / resettlement specialists.” In fact they are interested in applicants from among enlisted “Active Duty” as well as “Army Reserve,” which I suppose suggests that they need 'em bad. And just in time for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.

"The Army is on record saying we do not require any additional M1A2s," Davis Welch, deputy director of the Army budget office, said this month. Sean Kennedy, director of research for the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, said Congress should listen when one of the military services says no to more quipment.
"When an institution as risk averse as the Defense Department says they have enough tanks, we can probably believe them," Kennedy said.

The Army said Wednesday it has filed criminal charges against a single-mom soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan last year, arguing she had no family able to care for her infant son.

Four soldiers from the Fort Hood Army base in Texas -- all decorated veterans from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan -- died in the past week, a Fort Hood spokesman said Wednesday.

Metfloquine, also called Lariam, is used to protect soldiers from malaria, but has been known to have side effects including paranoia and hallucinations. It has been implicated in a number of suicides and homicides, including within the U.S. military ranks. In 2009, the army decreed that soldiers who’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries should not be given the drug. But this month, just nine days after Bales’ shooting rampage, the army issued an emergency decree calling for the review to be expedited.

Daily News & Video @ http://RevolutionNews.US - Body-Searching Children: No for the US Army, Yes for the TSA: A US Army staff sergeant, now serving in Afghanistan, writes about the new enhanced pat-down procedure from the TSA. Summary of his very powerful message: to avoid giving gross offense to the Afghan public, and to prevent the appearance of an uncontrolled security state, the US military forbids use on Afghan civilians of the very practices the TSA is now making routine for civilian travelers at US airports...