One of my former students just committed suicide.

[MADem]

46. Look, I am not "hostil" name calling.

I am simply tired, as many of us who served in the military are, of this constant drum beat that there is an automatic association with being in service and suicide. There isn't. You made the association between his service and his suicide in your OP, even as now you try to back away from it:

He joined the navy. He was about to be deployed for the second time. I can't help but feel he is one more of the American military's most common form of casualty.

Frankly, the military suicide rates started going UP when two things started happening. First, we had War Without End, Amen. Second, the standards for accession started going down. We can thank George Bush for that.

The Services are not sitting on their hands. They are working this issue each and every day.

What's been happening lately? First, Obama got us out of one war and is winding down another. Second, the standards for accession are going UP. What's the result? Suicide rates are going DOWN:

Pentagon data provided to Military Times show 296 suicides among active-duty troops and reserve or National Guard members on active duty in 2013, down 15.7 percent from the 2012 total of 351.

Coming off a record-setting year in 2012, the Navy had the biggest drop, nearly 22 percent, from 59 to 46 sailor deaths. The Army also saw a large decline, down nearly 19 percent from 185 suicides in 2012 to 150 last year.

The Air Force and Marine Corps both had near-record years in 2012; in 2013 they also experienced declines, with 55 airmen dying by suicide in 2013, down from 59 in 2012, and 45 Marines committing suicide in 2013, down from 48 the year before.

One suicide is one too many, but they happen in the civilian world, too. Without knowing this sailor's circumstances, it is not appropriate to speculate on why he took his life.