Michel Sartori's PhD thesis informs us on this taboo subject. 58,000 soldiers died in Viet Nam but more than 150,000 Nam veterans commited suicide in the USA. Being alone and pennyless are contributing factors. Sartori's thesis is ethnobiographical. He explains his beginning hypothesis, analyses the data he obtained after much effort (because access to information requests are tedious matters). He provides excerpts wich he kept as a chaplain in Afghanistan (in 2006-2007). He then interviews soldiers who made a suicide attempt and questions padre Major Guy Chapdeleine and army psychiatrist Col. Bottam.
Sartori examines 274 suicides (including 42 reservists) from 1994 to april 2009. Official army data lists only 156 suicides between 1995 and 2009. The suicide rate is higher in the Canadian Forces than in its American counterpart. Col Bottam insists that suicides are no more common in the Army than in the general population. He adds that only half of those with a mental trouble are being treated in the general population. Major Chapdeleine gives us food for thought by saying : "I observe that many prople are looking for a purpose for their life and therefore there are not many non-believers in the Forces.
Protestant army chaplain Captain Michel Sartori's thesis is available for free on Laval University' website. It is 440 pages long.
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