The US Air Force Academy has identified 67 known cases of the H1N1 flu, the so-called Swine Flu, and a total of 121 cadets who show flu-like symptoms, as of July 13. Just three days earlier, the academy had positively identified only 15 cadets with the H1N1 virus, which the World Health Organization on June 11 had termed a global pandemic with its spread to 70 countries. Because of the outbreak, Academy officials took the precaution of limiting all cadets to the academy grounds during a traditional downtime known as “Doolie Day Out.” According to the latest CDC data (as of July 4), there have been 211 deaths in the US out of more than 37,000 probable cases of Swine Flu.
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.