Military Jobs With High Deployment Pace, Blast Exposure Correlated With Higher Suicide Rates

Between 2011 and 2022, military members who were part of the "Infantry" occupational code had one of the highest suicide rates in the armed forces, at 31.3 deaths per 100,000 individuals. During these years, the enlisted job groupings with the highest suicide rates were armored and amphibious vehicle crew members, infantry, combat engineers, explosive ordnance disposal and divers, combat operations control troops, and artillerymen assigned to both guns and rocket units. These specialties had suicide rates at least 50% higher than the general population during that time.

Among the general population age 17 to 59 years, the suicide . . .