In today's military there are more married members than ever before and there is a strong push to insure that military families have ample resources to deal with current challenges. Single service members can be overlooked because their voice is not as loud or because they are perceived as being more self-sufficient. They do face one unique challenge and that is lack of support from a "family unit." Many still rely on their parent, sibling or other family member for emotional support. However, these people are miles away, which means the service member is turning to fellow service members or community members as a surrogate support system or worse they feel as though they have no support system. This can lead to a myriad of problems for this group which is generally made up of lower enlisted personnel experiencing being on their own for the first time. A great number of them have served in a combat zone and are experiencing things like PTSD and depression. Personnel often use drugs and alcohol in an attempt to cope with stress, boredom, loneliness, and a lack of other recreational activities. Single service members are regularly exposed to predatory lending which can lead to an unstable financial situation and in a high cost of living area like Washington and Baltimore a service member can find themselves in financial problems quickly. The military has identified all of these factors as barriers to readiness and contributing to factors to the highest rate of suicide that the military has ever seen.
The Facts:
1. According to the Department of Defense, in 2011 43.4% of active duty military personnel were single. This translates to over 40,000 single service members in the greater Washington/Baltimore region.
2. Of the single service members, 26.4% are officers and 41.3% are enlisted (64.6% of the enlisted personnel are E-4 or below.)
3. More than half - 53.8% - of all young military personnel reported at least one episode of binge drinking (defined here as having consumed five or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the past 30 days).
4. 65% of military members report stress associated with their current financial condition.
5. There are more suicides among active duty soldiers than there are combat deaths. In 2012 - the US Military's suicide rate grew 15% (349 suicides).
US Army - 182 suicides
US Marines Corps - 48 suicides
US Navy - 60 suicides
US Air Force - 59 suicides
6. A 2011 study suggests that a suicidal soldier is usually an unmarried white man under the age of 25, recently enlisted and with less than a college education. Deployment is not a significant factor
7. For every suicide, there are at least five more service members hospitalized for attempting to kill themselves.
Why is USO-Metro poised to make a difference here?
Our scope, scale, presence, reach and knowledge, and the resulting trust of the US military, gives USO-Metro the unparalleled capacity to meet the wide range of constantly changing needs of single service members. Whether forward deployed in an area of conflict or here in the Washington-Baltimore region, our centers and programs can be uniquely tailored to suit these challenges and presented in fun, exciting, engaging and caring ways that service members have come to know and expect from us. By engaging single service members in program development we are also ensuring that the activities are designed to meet their needs and they are interested in participating.
