By the Numbers: 8 November 2021

By the Numbers: 8 November 2021

3,819

The number, out of a total of "1,884,653 male soldiers who separated from service during the study period", who died within 18 months of separation, according to a recent study in the journal Military Medicine -- Mortality Among Male U.S. Army Soldiers Within 18 Months of Separation.

A majority of all separations were Reserve or National Guard (58%), and 62% of decedents were in the Reserve or National Guard. Deaths from natural causes (38%) were the most common, followed by accident deaths (34%), suicides (20%), homicides (6%), undetermined deaths (2%), and legal/operation of war deaths (<1%). For overall mortality, age-adjusted rates were higher among the male U.S. population when compared to male soldiers who had separated from the Army.