Military suicides in COVID era hit a new high
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Mayra Beltran /Chronicle
Suicides across the armed services rose sharply in the first year of the coronavirus, hitting a record 571 deaths in 2020, but a Pentagon official and others say the stress of the pandemic isn’t the likely culprit.
Just what is behind the steady rise during years of Defense Department efforts to reduce self-inflicted deaths baffles experts, a mystery nowhere near being solved.
The latest mark, released in a report last week, was above the 503 suicides recorded in 2019 and the previous record of 543 set in 2018. It pushed the total since 2003 past the number of troops killed in action or accidents in Iran and Afghanistan, 7,038.