Suicide Awareness At Fort Carson Thursday

Fort Carson is holding its third annual Suicide Awareness and Resiliency Forum.

The meeting is scheduled Thursday at the post just south of Colorado Springs.

Speakers will include Brig. Gen. James H. Doty, Fort Carson’s acting senior commander, and Col. Thomas Vail, deputy director of the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program.

Doty said in January that Fort Carson had seven suicides in 2010, which translates to a suicide rate of 31 per 100,000.

In 2009, nine Fort Carson soldiers committed suicide. Because the post had fewer soldiers overall, that translated to a much higher rate of 49 per 100,000, Doty said.

In 2008, Fort Carson had eight total suicides and a rate of 66 per 100,000.