Four sailors assigned to Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center - which maintains military ships and is based in Norfolk, Virginia - died by suicide within weeks of each other in October and November, the Navy said. Mental health struggles have also been seen in other Naval commands. That’s more than two times higher than the national suicide rate of 13.5 per 100,000 in 2020, the most recent year with complete federal data. 00031% over the last five years.įrom 2018 to 2022, the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command averaged 150 attempts and 31 suicides per 100,000 people, according to an NBC News analysis of data provided by the Navy. Most recently, a student died by suicide in October 2022, the Navy said, adding that there were no suicides in 20 and that the suicide rate was less than. The Navy confirmed that one nuclear student and two staff members took their own lives in 2019, while another staff member died by suicide in January 2021.
“You have to be ready to respond when you see a body,” Bainbridge said. “Sometimes they wait too long, and that’s what breaks them.”įor some staff members, it was normal to find unresponsive students and bring them to the hospital, one current and one former nuclear instructor said, adding that they’re trained to scan students’ faces in class to identify anyone who may be struggling, as well as keep their eyes peeled when walking around campus, especially at night. The spouse asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation. “They’d rather suffer and still be a nuke than go and get the help they need,” said the spouse of a former nuclear student who struggled with suicidal ideation and depression before transferring out. “No amount of counselors is going to address the underlying issue,” he said. Instructors, students and their loved ones said nuclear-trained sailors, known in the field as nukes, often avoid counseling and mask their struggles out of fear of getting a mental health diagnosis that would lead to their expulsion.ĭouglas Bainbridge, an Electrician’s Mate First Class who taught at the school from 2017 to 2021, said people are “terrified” to admit they may be suffering from mental health issues because they fear they could lose a job they’ve invested years on. The numbers alone might not capture the breadth of the mental health struggles among students and instructors in the nuclear program.
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