Following the surge in Iraq in 2006, the staggering numbers of Suicides in the Army began a surge of their own. Between the years of 2009 and 2012, well over a thousand Soldiers committed suicide in the Army alone. In 2015, the Army saw yet another increase, up 68 percent during the summer months. The following year the Army "stressed suicide prevention by executing a communication campaign beginning in July" (Suicide Prevention Month, p. 1). Unfortunately, that same month the Army lost its highest-ranking Soldier yet to suicide when Major General Rossi committed suicide on July 31, 2016. This event took place only two days before pinning on his third star and assuming command of the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command (Brook, USA Today, p.1). Two months later, the Army conducted Suicide Prevention Month to no avail while the numbers continued to rise. The answer to this epidemic is not in power point slides or mandatory training. To combat something as powerful as suicide, leadership (led by mostly junior NCOs) must understand the millennial generation and train them by answering why.

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