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Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years
In a service of more than a half million troop, the 99 suicides amounted to a rate of 17.3 per 100,000 _ the highest in the past 26 years, the report said. The average rate over those years has been 12.3 per 100,000.
The rate for those serving in the wars stayed about the same, 19.4 per 100,000 in 2006, compared with 19.9 in 2005.
  Iraqi Army soldiers and U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division run across a street during their joint operation in the Amariyah neighborhood of west Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) (Petr David Josek - AP) 
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The Army said the information was compiled from reports collected as part of its suicide prevention program _ reports required for all "suicide-related behaviors that result in death, hospitalization or evacuation" of the soldier. It can take considerable time to investigate a suicide and, in fact, the Army said that in addition to the 99 confirmed suicides last year, there are two other deaths suspected as suicides in which investigations were pending.
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Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.
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