Army, VA seek answers to rising suicide rate

The wife of an ex-sergeant who shot himself at Madigan Army Medical Center tries to understand

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published November 30, 2008

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"Do you think that God's going to send me to hell for killing innocent people?" former Sgt. Joshua Barber asked his wife one day last summer.

The stress of two wars — and e-mail

Col. Elspeth Ritchie, an Army psychiatrist, said suicide rates are increasing in general society. But he attributed the growth within the military to some of the unique qualities of the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — multiple deployments, the inadvertent killing of civilians during combat in urban environments in which it's difficult to distinguish friend and foe, and even the introduction of e-mail in combat zones. "You can get bad news very quickly in theater," Ritchie said. "That can lead to a sense of helplessness and frustration."
Suicide rates

The suicide rate for active-duty soldiers, including members of the National Guard and the Reserves, reached an all-time high last year and might be surpassed this year, according to the Army.

If this occurs, the suicide rate for active-duty soldiers would top the suicide rate for U.S. civilians for the first time.

Fred Blow, director of the VA's Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center, said the post active-duty suicide rate for veterans of all wars has remained flat in recent years, but it's traditionally far higher than the suicide rate for U.S. civilians.

"We're really concerned about this," he said.

Blow said possible explanations are that veterans have more exposure to firearms — a common method of suicide — and a higher likelihood of developing physical and mental problems — a risk factor in suicide.

Kelly Barber tried to reassure her distraught husband. Nearly three years after a combat tour in Iraq, he was a shell of the loving and fun-loving man she'd married nine years earlier.

Joshua Barber was quiet, withdrawn, constantly fighting demons he couldn't exorcise. His question reinforced her fear that he was sliding further into a well of guilt and despair as she tried desperately to hold on.

The couple had sought help from the Army and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but Kelly Barber said they got caught up in red tape.

"He just had to fight so many battles, and no one would help him," she said.

The 31-year-old soldier killed himself three weeks after asking that terrible question.

On Aug. 25, a day after his wife reported him missing from their home in Lacey, Joshua Barber drove onto Fort Lewis in his silver 2005 Ford F150 pickup, a gift from his wife when he returned from Iraq.

He parked in the lot at Madigan Army Medical Center and shot himself in the head with a revolver, one of several guns he'd taken from home.

Barber's death is hardly an isolated case. In a nearly three-year period, more than half of the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who committed suicide did so at least a year after their deployments ended, Army data show. A large number of soldiers who hadn't deployed also took their own lives. The number of suicides involving veterans ages 18 to 29 receiving care from the VA nearly doubled from 36 in 2005 to 68 in 2006, the most recent figures available, according to the VA.

The Army and the VA have redoubled their efforts to prevent suicides. Both have expanded services and launched initiatives aimed at suicide prevention.

The Army is hiring dozens of counselors and has developed an interactive video so soldiers can identify warning signs and help a distraught colleague through various scenarios. The Army and the National Institute of Mental Health recently announced a five-year, $50 million research program into the factors behind soldier suicides.

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