(Aug. 9, 2011) A CBS study put the rate among male veterans aged 20 to 24 at four times the national average—more than 40 per 100,000 per year.

Before 2001, the Army rarely suffered 10 suicides per 100,000 soldiers. The Marine suicide rate has soared since 2001 from 12 to at least 19.5 per 100,000.

By late November 2009, at least 334 members of the armed forces had committed suicide more than the 319 who were killed in Afghanistan —or the 150 who died in Iraq . For every death, at least five members of the armed forces were hospitalized for attempting to take their life.

In July 2011, the White House said they would begin sending condolence letters to those who killed themselves in combat, but the more than two-thirds of military suicides that occur outside of the war zone will still be disregarded.

A year before -- July 2010 -- a Pentagon Report said don't blame the suicides on the war; blame it on the poor quality of the soldiers. (The career desk jockeys have embraced Henry Kissinger’s dictum, "Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.