A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.
Section 736 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025 calls for “the number of suicides … disaggregated by the military occupational specialty (or other similar classification, rating, or specialty code) of the member,” as well as a compilation of such data to determine which career fields have a higher per capita suicide rates compared to other career fields, the overall suicide rate for each service, the Department of Defense, and the national rate.
Congress passed the provision and the rest of the NDAA on Dec. 18, and it is currently awaiting President Joe Biden’s final signature. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) backed the provision, which comes four months after the Defense Department delivered a report breaking down suicide deaths by job specialty since 2011.
That report was mandated by the 2023 NDAA, which tasked the Pentagon with providing a breakdown of military suicides since 2001 by year, military job code, and status (Active-Duty, Reserve, or National Guard).
Advocates hope releasing that data will help officials better understand the stressors affecting specific military jobs, retired Air Force Master Sgt. Chris McGhee told Air & Space Forces Magazine in April.
“Anecdotally we know [suicide rates are] really bad in certain career fields,” said the former F-16 maintainer, who helped champion the NDAA measure to King’s office. “I consider this to be a starting point to investigate what is going on within those career fields that is driving these suicide rates.”
The Pentagon delivered “Report on Incidence of Military Suicides by Military Job Code” several months late in July. The report identified groups of military jobs with the highest rates of suicide, but it did not break the data down by individual career fields. Fields as disparate as special forces, conventional infantry, and military training instructors were lumped together into one category, as were aircraft maintainers from a wide range of types of aircraft and maintenance specialties.
The Pentagon said it lumped fields together because calculating rates when the number of deaths totaled less than 20 would invite statistical instability. The report also did not include data going back to 2001 as directed by the NDAA—the Pentagon said it did not have a system for reliably tracking suicide deaths before 2011. But a 2010 DOD study of military suicides from 2001 to 2009 suggests otherwise, and also lists suicide deaths even when they were fewer than 20.
In September, King told Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III that the data fell short of what was required by law.
“I am concerned that the Department did not fully comply,” the senator wrote. He requested the Pentagon redo the report with the “raw data” going back to 2001, and to include caveats where it might lead to inconsistent data.
“I urge you to include as much information as possible rather than rejecting all data for a given year,” King wrote. “Including the ‘raw data’ with the rates will help to address the challenges you identified with invalid or incorrect conclusions based solely by comparing rates.”
After the letter, the Pentagon and King’s office began working through how to provide that data. A defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the department was concerned about privacy.
“DOD must ensure that our publicly reported data does not result in the identification of service members who have died by suicide,” the official said. “We have a responsibility to maintain the privacy of decedents and their loved ones. Moreover, releasing data that has been stratified by numerous categories (i.e., job code, age, duty status, year) introduces serious privacy concerns for our service members and their families.”
McGhee pointed out that the 2023 NDAA technically does not require the report be made public, just as long as it is sent to Congress. But with just a month until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the discussion is on hold until new Pentagon leadership comes in.
“We have long memories: we know that DOD fell short, and we will raise that with the next group of DOD officials,” a staffer tracking the issue closely with King’s office told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “We’re focused on the windshield, but we have an eye on the rearview mirror.”
King’s office has been working on the section in the 2025 NDAA requiring job specialty data in future annual suicide death reports since the start of this year, the staffer said. Frustration with the July 31 report drove language in a joint explanatory statement accompanying the NDAA, which closely echoes King’s letter to Austin.
In instances of incomplete data “we urge the Department to include as much information as possible in the report rather than rejecting all data for such years due to incompleteness,” members of Congress wrote in the statement. “We also urge the Department to include raw data in addition to information about rates of suicide as a way to provide some insight on military suicide, even if the full data for a given year is incomplete.”
However, the bill itself allows the Defense Department to exclude “such specialties that the Secretary determines would not provide statistically valid data” in its breakdown of suicide deaths by job specialty. A King spokesperson did not see a contradiction between that clause and the joint statement.
“It actually shifts the pressure on [the department] to provide as much information as they can justify,” he said. “Because if you were to have somebody say, ‘well, I didn’t think that that was significant,’ that would not be a pleasant exchange in a room full of Senators with long memories.”
The bill does not require the Pentagon to explain what it considers statistically valid. Still, the staffer indicated a collaborative relationship between Congress, the Pentagon officials charged with suicide prevention and data collection efforts, and watchdogs such as the Government Accountability Office.
“My assessment is that the department is not trying to hide something. There is no nefarious activity, and Sen. King has never said they’re hiding something from him,” he said, pointing out that the Defense Department proactively met with members of Congress to discuss its annual suicide report before its release this year.
“That is new behavior from the Department of Defense, engaging members ahead of time and not just sending an email to the committee ‘we’re going to release this report tomorrow. Have a nice day,’” he said. “Our approach is, and Sen. King has said this several times: ‘hey, we are working together with you to address this problem,’ and that is our approach.”
McGhee was skeptical, arguing that the department “willfully ignored” the 2023 NDAA’s mandate and may do the same with the 2025 NDAA.
“While I appreciate any progress, the language deeply concerns me,” he said. “Allowing the DOD to determine what is ‘statistically valid’ undermines the intent of the law. Worse, this provision doubles down on passivity. Congress has shifted from mandating action to ‘urging’ the DOD to comply when possible.”
Service members and veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, and those who know a service member or veteran in crisis, can call the Veterans/Military Crisis Line for confidential support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call 988 and press 1; text 988; or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.