. >> general peter chiarelli now retired, took off as army's vice chief of staff in 2008.s suicide rate doubled since 2001. >> this is an area we have to in fact attack. >> he was tasked with battling the epidemic. >> i would be very, very careful in not underestimating the impact of 13 years of war on an all-volunteer force. i think we are seeing in the suicide numbers some of the affect of repeated deployments and high stress and trauma. >> to better understand the issue, chiarelli was briefed on the details of every single suicide that occurred during the four years he was the army's number two officer. in 2010, a moment. >> i do want to express our thoughts and condolences -- >> mullen sent an article to the top brass. >> to show how this top medical association working with a high risk population of people, who could commit suicide, have lowered their suicide rate to zero for a three-year period, solely by recommending to people who were in crisis to separate themselves from their privately-owned weapons p. that was striking to me. >> but when he tried to institute it

suicide is a complex problem, but one thing seems clear, certainly to retired general peter chiarellig the finger at the services and look at this huge national problem. are we putting the resources we need against the research necessary to understand this and to study it. when 38,000 of our citizens take their own lives every single year, this is a national problem that we need to attack, and we can. >> the good news is that active duty military suicides were down 22% this year. that's still meant 245 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines had killed themselves by the end of october. that's 245 too many. the reasons are complicated. increased awareness and vigilance likely play a role, but also the shrinking of the u.s. military. as it draws down in afghanistan, as it deals with the sequester, many active duty are turning into veterans, and there the numbers are not very promising. the most recent statistics show that 1 out of every 5 people who kill themselves in america is a military veteran. that's 8,000 people every year. up next, what to make of all these lessons from all over th