Seventy-six members of the U.S. Coast Guard died by suicide between 2014 and 2024, with 14 — or nearly a fifth — occurring in 2024, the most recent data available.
In the decade from 2014 to 2024, the number of suicides among active personnel and activated reservists ebbed and rose each year, with the lowest number of deaths, 3, occurring in both 2018 and 2021, and the highest — 12 and 14 — in 2022 and 2024, according to data released July 16 at the request of Military Times.
The 2024 increase occurred at a time when the service experienced a slight decline in its number of active-duty personnel, the result of recruiting challenges. That year, the Coast Guard had roughly 39,000 active-duty members, according to the Government Accountability Office, compared with roughly 43,000 members in 2014.
The Defense Department issues a report each year on suicides in the armed forces, examining rates of suicide for each service, demographics and trends to provide information for its suicide prevention policies and strategies.
The Coast Guard is not included in that report because it is a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
According to a Pentagon report released earlier this year, 471 service members took their own lives in 2024, down from 531 the previous year. The suicide rate — a measure that reflects deaths relative to the size of the population — among active duty, Reserve and National Guard members declined by almost five percentage points from 2023 to 2024 but increased for the active component.
That rise reflected the increase in suicide rates in the comparable U.S. population, according to the report.
The Coast Guard does not release an annual report on suicides within its ranks, suicide rates or details on the deaths. In a report to Congress in July 2024, officials said calculating rates using “relative low suicide death counts” would result in rates that are “highly sensitive to small changes over time” and are “unreliable for comparison within and between groups.”
The low numbers also limit the service’s ability to glean and release information on demographics because the information may be used to identify the deceased, officials wrote.
In a statement to Military Times, Rear Adm. Chuck Fosse, deputy commandant for personnel, said all Coast Guard members must undergo annual suicide prevention training.
Fosse added that the service had a service-wide stand-down to highlight resources and provide additional training. That event, in December 2024, highlighted a suicide prevention app, the Columbia Protocol, strategies for intervening and support.
“Every suicide is a tragedy that deeply affects our Coast Guard family. The Coast Guard remains committed to reducing suicide risk through prevention, early intervention, and ensuring members and dependents have access to the support and care they need,” Fosse said.
In an August 2022 article in the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine, Coast Guard Lt. (junior grade) Riley Cassidy wrote about the suicide of a friend, Ens. Theodore Frisk, in Alaska earlier that year. Cassidy commended the support he received from his command, Sector Anchorage, but added that the service must be more forthcoming on the subject to help units, colleagues and family members.
“The Coast Guard’s lack of transparency and awareness in the wake of [Frisk’s] suicide, at both the Coast Guard Academy and in the fleet, makes it challenging to find closure. There was no official notification, nor any management to the rumors spreading throughout the organization,” Cassidy wrote. “Multiple Academy graduates and cadets asked me how Teddy died. They were told he died unexpectedly, with no mention of suicide or the resources available to help them process the trauma.”
Cassidy implored the service to institute a system to notify unit commands of suicides across the service so they can assist those who knew the deceased.
“Timeliness is critical to give commanding officers and officers in charge information on the incident and identify service members at their units who may be affected,” Cassidy wrote.
Military Times asked the Coast Guard about reports that are circulating in the service regarding two alleged suicides this year on the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, a three-masted sailing barque homeported in New London, Connecticut, which participated in numerous America 250 events earlier this summer.
Officials denied the reports, saying in the last five years on the Eagle, “there has been one suicide which occurred in September of 2022.”
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
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