The U.S. Army lost 176 active duty soldiers to suicide in 2021, figures show.
According to combined data from the Defense Suicide Prevention Office and a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that’s the highest number of active duty Army member suicides on record since 1938.
Suicide rates within all military branches have continued to rise since 2015.
Compounding this trend is the number of U.S. soldiers and veterans who have taken their own life in post-9/11 wars.
Members of the 182d Infantry Regiment load their weapons with live ammunition before heading into the field to train at US Fort Dix in New Jersey on May 16, 2022. (Joseph Prezioso /AFP via Getty Images)
Brown University published a study indicating that 30,177 active duty members and veterans have committed suicide. By comparison, the number of soldiers actually killed in post-9/11 war operations is 7,052….