Marine recruits learn to battle suicide

Drill instructors encourage recruits to share their feelings in "guided discussions" and tell them to watch out for, and promptly report, warning signs in their buddies.

The suicide rate in the active-duty Marine Corps was 16.5 per 100,000 in 2007 -- below both the active-duty Army and a similar demographic in the civilian population. But it had jumped from 12.9 in 2006.

In the first six months of this year, 25 Marines committed suicide, the most in that period of time since such records began to be kept several years ago. If that trend persists, 2008 could prove the worst year for Marine suicides since at least the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

"Current prevention strategies are being evaluated and developed to respond to this increase and the ongoing wartime demands and associated stressors confronting Marines," said Navy Cmdr. Aaron Werbel, manager of the Marine Corps' suicide prevention program.

"Training is being conducted for Marines, leaders, counselors, chaplains, family members and frontline installation staff who have routine contact with young Marines," he said.

In April, representatives of all the military branches attended a weeklong conference here to hear from civilian experts and discuss ways to improve prevention programs.

The Marine Corps provides advanced training in suicide prevention for chaplains, corpsmen, mental health specialists and career counselors.

But the first line of defense against suicide remains the young Marine who is in the best position to notice changes in a buddy. Learning how to recognize warning signs is a key element of training, which begins at boot camp and is reinforced later, particularly as Marines prepare to deploy.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, 72 recruits sat on the floor of their barracks listening to a senior drill instructor talk about suicide. Two days earlier they had heard a lecture from a chaplain about how to spot suicidal tendencies.

Now the drill instructor was checking to see what they remembered from the lecture and encouraging them to talk about their experiences. When he asked how many had known someone who committed or attempted suicide, nearly a third of them raised their hands.

For the session, Staff Sgt. Nicholas Romer dropped the gruff, demanding voice of the classic drill instructor. Now he was an older brother. By prearrangement, two recruits role-played, with one acting as the would-be suicide, the other his shipmate. Then Romer asked recruits to share their views about suicide.

"This recruit knows that in the Bible it says 'Thou shall not kill,' and that includes yourself," said one recruit. "If the last thing you do is to commit a sin, you're going to hell."

"As a Buddhist, this recruit knows that life is a gift from God," another said.

Some of the young men expressed anger and many expressed sadness.

"The people who die like that are the worst . . . people you'll ever meet," a recruit told Romer. "All you're doing is taking your burden and throwing it on other people's burdens."

One recruit said that his grandfather had committed suicide after his grandmother died of cancer. Another said he had come home and found his mother hanging. Several said they had had to wrestle guns and knives away from friends.

Romer listened to them and provided perspective: "There's nothing here that is so bad it's worth taking your life."

He also reinforced the chaplain's message that it's the duty of the individual Marine to intervene when a buddy starts showing possible signs that he is thinking of suicide: giving away his possessions, acting unusually listless, withdrawing from contact, getting angry for no reason, showing a preoccupation with death.