Interview With Gen. Peter Chiarelli
An in-depth look at military stress and the rising suicide rate among soldiers.
10:10 | 08/09/2010
Army General Chiarelli Tackles Issue of Soldier Suicide
August 8, 2010 Army Suicides in June Hit All-Time High
Christiane Amanpour interviews Gen. Peter Chiarelli on "This Week" (Randy Sager/ABC News)
The number of army suicides hit an all-time high in June, with 32 servicemembers taking their own lives.
A startling 350-page U.S. Army report released last week was stark in its assessment of the growing tragedy: "Simply stated, we are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy."
"We have an army that's, for almost a decade, has been going very, very hard with our operational tempo," Army General Peter Chiarelli told Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on 'This Week.' "[It has] our soldiers deployed for 12 months, home anywhere from 12 to 16 months, and back for another 12- or 15-month deployment."
Chiarelli, who commissioned the report, said there is not a direct connection between multiple deployments and increased risk of suicide. 60% of suicides are during the soldier's first term of enlistment, he told Amanpour. Even so, he emphasized that the growing strain on military leaders increased risky behavior in some soldiers and made monitoring at-risk soldiers harder.
During this period of increased deployments, Chiarelli said, "we've seen an increase with some soldiers, a very small number of soldiers, of high-risk behavior ... the abuse of alcohol, drugs, getting in trouble with the law."
Leaders of those at-risk soldiers, because of the operational tempo, sometimes overlook signs that the soldiers might need help. Continued



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