Altman column: Suicide rate for commandos continues to decline

The recent combat deaths of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kyle Milliken in Somalia, and Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar and Sgts. Joshua P. Rodgers and Cameron H. Thomas in Afghanistan, are the most visible indications of the price U.S. Special Operations Forces are paying at the sharp end of the spear.

But with such a high operational tempo there are also wounds unseen -- to both the operators and their families.

The good news is that while suicide continues to be a major concern for the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs, the number of commandos taking their own lives is on the decline, according to officials from U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base.

For SOCom's nearly 70,000 personnel, including about 8,000 deployed in at least 80 nations at any given moment, the suicide rate peaked in 2012. That year, 23 operators took their own lives. That number fell to 18 in 2014, the last time SOCom provided the numbers.

It's even lower now, according to SOCom. But how low I don't know. SOCom won't release the numbers, according to spokesman Ken McGraw.

"The rate has been trending downward for the last four years," he told me.

By comparison, suicide in the military writ large has fluctuated over the past few years. There were 321 suicides in 2012, 256 in 2013, 274 in 2014, 266 in 2015 and 275 last year, according to the Pentagon's quarterly suicide statistics.

In his recent testimony to Congress, Army Gen. Raymond A. "Tony' Thomas III, the commander of SOCom, addressed some of the reasons why SOCom suicides have been decreasing.

"Through our partnerships with the Services and academia, we are analyzing how to better predict and prevent suicidal behaviors," Thomas wrote in his statement to the House Armed Services Committee.

Among the tools employed by SOCom is a contract initiated two years ago with the American Association of Suicidology. The contract calls for providing program support and training in recognizing and responding to suicide risk, recognizing and responding to suicide risk in primary care, and developing and implementing training so military health care professionals can conduct psychological autopsies.

"We recently completed an analysis of SOF suicides over the past four years and are using what we learned to inform our suicide prevention strategy going forward," Thomas wrote. "We will improve suicide prevention training for our military members and their families by addressing the underlying cognitive processes that lead to suicides and providing enhanced screening of our military members."

The command also has its Warrior Care Coalition, an advocacy program designed to increase troops' quality of life and mission-readiness, and transition back to civilian life.

With more than 66 percent of the force married, taking care of families has been a major effort at SOCom, which launched the Preservation of Force and Family initiative to take care of the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of troops and their loved ones.

"Ensuring our families are cared for is a necessary component of our readiness," Thomas wrote, thanking the Defense Department, the individual services and Congress for providing "outstanding resources and support for USSOCOM families."

The support, wrote Thomas, "enabled the command to conduct pre and post-deployment programs, SOF unit orientations, and programs that enrich marital and parental relationships."

And this year the command is doing something new, using the pilot family program authority to develop suicide prevention training for families, "given we have found that spouses are often the first to notice when their partners are struggling," Thomas wrote.

• • •

The Pentagon announced the death of a Navy SEAL last week.

Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kyle Milliken, 38, of Falmouth, Maine, was killed during an operation against al-Shabaab on May 5 in a remote area approximately 40 miles west of Mogadishu.

There have been 2,347 U.S. troop deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan; 36 U.S. troop deaths and one civilian Department of Defense employee death in support of the follow-up, Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan; 30 troop deaths and one civilian death in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the fight against the Islamic State; one troop death in support of Operation Odyssey Lightning, the fight against Islamic State in Libya; and one death under classified as other contingency operations as part of the global war on terrorism.

Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman