Army to look into recruiter suicides

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army will look into a series of suicides by recruiters after the fourth such suicide in three years in Houston, officials said.

The Army Recruiting Command will set up a suicide prevention board to evaluate the mental health of recruiters, CNN reported Monday. The Army is examining recruiters for job- and combat-related stress, the report said.

Douglas Smith, a spokesman from the U.S. Army Recruiting command, said in a statement released by the Recruiting Command that the board's objective will be "to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command."

The announcement follows the suicide this month of a sergeant first class. CNN said the soldier was a member of the Houston Recruiting Battalion and an Iraq combat veteran, but said it has elected not to publish the names of recruiters who have taken their own lives.

Army officials said a staff sergeant who was a recruiters and a combat veteran in Afghanistan and Iraq killed himself in August. A recruiter in Houston killed himself in 2007, two years after another Houston recruiter took his own life, Army records indicate.

Army officials said there were 93 active duty suicides in the Army from January through August. There were 115 such suicides in 2007, the highest for the Army since the Vietnam War, CNN reported.