Army suicides linked to risky behavior, lax discipline

WASHINGTON - A record high number of Army suicides are linked to an increasingly "permissive" environment in the service where soldiers take personal risks in their lives by using alcohol and drugs, committing crimes and refusing to get psychological help, according to a sweeping internal investigation released by Army officials Thursday.

In many cases, the report says, commanders don't do enough to curb the behavior.

The review commissioned last year by the No. 2 Army commander, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, says this "Army-wide problem" is linked to a tally of deaths last year that included 160 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide and 146 more who died during risky activity or behavior such as drug use. Seventy-four of those deaths were drug overdoses. There were also 1,713 attempted suicides last year.

In some cases, the report says, commanders didn't realize soldiers under their control had committed suicide until weeks after the troops had taken their lives. "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 says.

"This is tragic," Chiarelli writes in a directive to be sent out to soldiers. "We must realize that on occasion we need to do the right thing for both the soldier and the Army through firm enforcement of discipline, retention and separation polices."

The report says too many soldiers who failed drug tests or allegedly committed crimes were allowed to remain in the Army. Much of this was an indirect result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This commitment to combat, borne largely by the Army and Marines, caused the force to concentrate more on training and combat and allow routine oversight of soldier behavior on base to lapse, the report says.

Leadership away from the combat setting, the study says, is "atrophied."

"Soldiers who ultimately take their lives have typically been engaging in high-risk behavior long before their tragic end," according to the 300-page internal report. "Ultimately it poses the question: Where has the Army's leadership in garrison gone?"

The study says the scramble to prepare and deploy into war settings over and over again "has eroded the technical skills and experiential knowledge needed to lead and managed effectively in the garrison environment."

That means commanders have failed to follow "good order and discipline" practices such as unannounced visits and checking of barracks, using dogs to sweep for drugs, unannounced urinalysis testing and inspections of private vehicles.

The study tracked the growing rate of both risk-taking behavior and psychological problems within the Army, noting that:

- More than one-third of the Army is using prescription drugs, including 14 percent taking some form of narcotic pain-relief medication.

- Prescription drugs were involved in about a third of all suicides.

- There were 216,000 soldiers assessed or in therapy for behavioral health problems in 2009; another 109,000 used prescription drugs and more than 9,000 were hospitalized for mental health problems.

- Commanders failed to complete paperwork in 36 percent of disciplinary cases, or in 78,410 cases, from 2004 to 2009, making it impossible to track those soldiers' misconduct in criminal databases.

- Since fighting in Afghanistan started in 2001, 25,283 soldiers who had committed violations that would have resulted in them being discharged from the Army were allowed to remain in the service.

- Thirty to 40 percent of drunken driving or failed urinalysis cases from 2001 to 2009 were never referred, as required, to the Army substance abuse counseling offices.

- Many solders who failed drug tests repeatedly were never disciplined. The report says that an estimated 3,000 soldiers are expected to test positive for drugs for the second or third time next year.

The report was particularly critical of the failure to monitor an increase in alcohol and prescription drug abuse.

"Ultimately, if left unchecked, this gap facilitates a population of drug addicts and distributors," the study says.