Collateral damage
Yet another statistic shows that the casualties of the Iraq War are not just as a result of roadside bombs and firefights.
A new study has found that at least nine Utah National Guardsmen have committed suicide in the past three years. It's a rate of suicide several times higher than average for the rest of the population.
Utah Guard chaplain Gerald White says because Guard and Reserve soldiers tend to be older than active-duty troops, they have lives complicated by relationships.
"When you take people who may already be on the edge of crisis - maybe they have family relationship issues, divorce, health problems - and then you add a deployment on top of that, taking them away from their family for six months to a year and a half, you see people who may have been teetering before are now pushed into more of a crisis."Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, says the new statistic shows Guard and Reserve troops need more support in dealing with the wrenching shift between civilian and solider.
"National Guardsman and reservists are literally in Baghdad in one week and in Brooklyn the next," Rieckhoff says, "and that transition is incredibly tough."
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