SUICIDE CAUSE OF MANY CASUALTIES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6811, 15 January 1929, Page 9

SUICIDE CAUSE OF MANY CASUALTIES

IN AMERICAN ARMY,. SURGEON-GENERAL’S REPORT. WASHINGTON, Nov. 24. Suicide was the cause of a greater number of deaths in the United States Army in the calendar year 1927 than balloon or airplane accidents, according to the annual report of Major-Gen-eral M. W. Ireland, Surgeon-General of the Army, which was mado public today. The report also disclosed an increase in the number of cases of alcoholism. General Ireland found the health of the Army was satisfactory, as evidenced by the number of admissions to the sick report for the year. The. admission rate per 1000 from all causes was G51..G4 ns compared to 687.22 in 1920. The 1927 rate of admissions was slightly greater than in 1925 and 1922 but with these exceptions it was the smallest ever recorded for the Army. Deaths aggregated 501, or a rate of four per 1000. Deaths from suicide in 1927 numbered 52, the highest in a decade from this cause and the highest from any single cause during the year. Deaths from balloon un'd airplane accidents totalled 31. Drowning caused 28 deaths. Deaths from suicide in 1926 were<44. In 1925 they numbered 42 and in 1924 they totalled 46. Eleven of the suicides in 1927 occurred among officers, 40 among white enlisted men, and one among the Porto Ricans. The death rate from causes other than suicides, however, was highest in the Air Corps, being more than twice as high as that for any other branch of the service.

There were 1147 sick admissions for the Armv in 1927 on account of alcoholism. The rate per 1000 was 8.03, as compared to 8.01 in 1926 and <*9B in 1925. Seven deaths resulted from alcoholism during the war, all among the white enlisted men. The rate of admission from diseases was highest for troops serving in the Philippine Islands and lowest from external cause for those serving in China.