Air Force suicide rate raises concern

DAYTON, OHIO » The number of suicides by airmen this year is on pace to reach a high mark set in 2019 that caused the Air Force to order a “tactical pause” at bases such as Wright- Patterson so it could provide discussions and training on suicide prevention.

“From a suicide perspective, we are on a path to be as bad as last year,” Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., the Air Force chief of staff, said in a virtual meeting with the Air Force Sergeants Association last week. “I’ll be honest with you, collectively we’re struggling with how to deal with this.”

In 2019, a total of 137 Airmen took their own lives -a 33 percent jump from 2018.

An Air Force spokeswoman said Monday the service does not share ongoing numbers, but she pointed the Dayton Daily News to a series of Department of Defense quarterly reports on the problem.

According to the most recent numbers the department has made available, the Air Force suffered 19 suicides among active- duty airmen in the first three months of 2020.

That’s down from 25 suicides in the first quarter of 2019, the report said.

Among Reservists, the service has experienced two suicides as of the first quarter this year, the report showed. That’s down from four Reserve suicides in the first quarter last year.

Air Force leaders last year were alarmed enough by the numbers to order a one- day “tactical pause” at all levels to address the problem.

That directive came from the very top, from then- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein.

Col. Thomas Sherman, who was then the 88th Air Base Wing and Wright- Patterson Air Force Base installation commander, declared at the time that Wright- Patterson and its units were taking the issue seriously.

“We received the Air Force- wide directive for the ‘ resiliency tactical pause,’ and we share our leaders’ concerns about the well- being of all of our airmen, officers and civilians,” Sherman said last year in an email on the subject. “Suicide is the leading cause of death in the Air Force, and we must collectively own this problem as we work to take care for those who may be suffering.”

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 800- 273- 8255.