Dear Friends,
Accountability feeds progress, but without consistently maintained and reported data, there can be no accountability. Together, we must demand transparency around military suicide, as transparency leads to accountability.
For more than a decade, the Department of Defense has been publishing quarterly suicide reports (QSRs). Typically, each report is posted several weeks after the end of the respective quarter, showing the number of suicides among active-duty service members in each branch of the military, including the Space Force, Reserve components, and the National Guard.
In addition, the DoD compiles an annual Suicide Event Report (DoDSER), usually published each fall, which is an extensive document including statistical analysis, demographic information, and more for both completed (since 2008) and attempted suicides requiring hospitalization (since 2010) among active-duty, reserve, and national guard components.
When our service members die by suicide, they most often die on base or at sea – events only known to “the military” and to their grieving families. These reports, which, to my knowledge, are available only on the DoD’s website and never published in mainstream media outlets, allow us to take measure of these tragedies and develop advocacy strategies.
By now, all four QSRs for 2025 should have been published, yet only quarters one and two were. One must wonder why. Why this sudden lack of transparency? Why this absence of accountability?
We must question why quarters three and four for 2025 have not been published and request that they be made public without further delay.
Please consider sending an email to each member of:
I expect the current war is keeping them extra busy, but your correspondence will not go unnoticed.
Also, please consider writing to Dr. Alicia Matteson, Acting Director, Defense Suicide Prevention Office:
- Dr. Alicia Matteson, Acting Director, DSPO
- Washington Headquarters Services, Executive Services Directorate
- 1155 Defense Pentagon,
- Washington, DC 20301-1155.
In addition, you may alert your senators and members of Congress that the data has not yet been made public.
As always, I thank you for providing your contact information, expressing your interest in Grieving Grandmothers of Military Suicides’ work, and allowing me to keep you abreast of our efforts to raise awareness and advocate. I am deeply grateful to those of you who made donations, wrote to lawmakers, and shared the website with others. Your continued interest and financial support are crucial to our success.
Please note: We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 100% of your tax-deductible donations go toward website hosting and maintenance, advocacy work, office supplies and equipment, printing services, and postage. We pay no rent or utilities (my office is in my home), and we neither get nor pay wages.
PS – Look for more information in my next update on any progress made regarding Facility/Therapy dogs and possible connection with the graduate program in clinical mental health & military and veterans counseling at William & Mary.