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Every week this year, on average, a sailor has taken their own life.
Mid-way through suicide prevention month, the Navy is staring down one of the worst tolls for self-inflicted deaths in years — and officials are attacking the problem from multiple angles, through training and resources while trying to foster a culture that doesn’t stigmatize mental health.
As of Sept. 6, 42 of the 436,793 sailors in the active-duty and reserve had taken their own lives in 2016. These statistics do not count veterans, with a recent study finding that roughly 20 veterans commit suicide every day.
The Navy’s numbers are on track to be as bad or worse than in the past few years, including a ten-year high of 69 in 2014.
The service is launching a wide-ranging study of sailor suicides and urging everyone across the service to monitor their colleagues and use resources like the Military Crisis Line — 1-800-273-8255 — when they’re in trouble.
Danelle Hackett wanted her Marine husband to focus on the lives he saved disarming IEDs as a military bomb technician during two tours in Iraq.
Maj. Jeff Hackett could only focus on his 16 colleagues who died during the dangerous bomb disposal missions he led from early 2005 through late 2007.
“My husband looked at those guys as his own family, his own sons. Repeatedly losing techs just wore on him and wore him. He blamed himself for every death,” Danelle Hackett said.
In June 2010, after a day of drinking at an American Legion Post in Wyoming near the family’s home, Jeff Hackett downed a couple more swigs of alcohol, said “cheers” and shot and killed himself.