Editor’s note: This report contains discussion of suicide. Troops, veterans and family members experiencing suicidal thoughts can call the 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and dial 1, text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net.
Soldiers in the Army will receive a check-in from their leadership each day during the holiday season to combat suicide and self-harm, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll announced in a memo that was disseminated across the force Tuesday.
Now through Jan. 15, 2026, an officer or noncommissioned officer “will check in on every soldier daily to see if they need help,” Driscoll said in the memo, with a plea for those struggling to “pick up your phone” and accept help during a season he said could leave people especially at risk.
Army officials on Wednesday confirmed the memo is authentic.
In the memo, which has since been posted — and widely shared — on social media, Driscoll, who served in the Army, recounted his own struggles during Ranger School.
“Ranger School’s Winter Mountain Phase nearly broke me. I slipped and fell, couldn’t get up, and the cold crushed me. I was done in that moment. But my Ranger buddies picked me up and helped me start moving again,” he said, adding “that was the inflection point for me: I realized no one can go through life alone, we all break eventually, and we need each other.”
Driscoll called on the force to prioritize supporting each other during the holiday season and noted grim statistics.
“Last year, we lost 260 soldiers to suicide,” he said, adding that “signing those letters of condolence — and knowing we could have helped — is heart-breaking. I wish we never had to write another one.”
Driscoll did not specify in the memo if that number represented active-duty soldiers or those across the Army’s different components. Driscoll also referenced the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska, which he said had not lost a soldier to suicide in over a year.
The 2023 “Annual Report on Suicide in the Military” conducted by the Department of Defense found that 523 service members across different branches and components of service died by suicide during the calendar year.
The report also found that young, enlisted male soldiers tallied the most suicide deaths, and that suicide rates for active-duty service members “gradually increased” between 2011 and 2023.
At the bottom of Driscoll’s memo, he included QR codes that link to mental health support.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
Read the full article here
