Traumatic deaths during U.S. Armed Forces basic training, 1977–2001

A Recruit Mortality Registry, linked to the Department of Defense Medical Mortality Registry, was created to provide comprehensive medical surveillance data for deaths occurring during enlisted basic military training. Recruit deaths from 1977 through 2001 were identified and confirmed through redundant sources. Complete demographic, circumstantial, and medical information was sought for each case and recorded on an abstraction form. Mortality rates per 100,000 recruit-years were calculated by using recruit accession data from the Defense Manpower Data Center. There were 276 recruit deaths from 1977 through 2001 and age-specific recruit mortality rates were less than half of same-age U.S. civilian mortality rates. Only 28% (77 of 276) of recruit deaths were classified as traumatic (suicide, unintentional injury, and homicide), in comparison to three quarters in both the overall active duty military population and the U.S. civilian population (ages 15–34 years). The age-adjusted traumatic death rates were highest in the Army (four times higher than the Navy and Air Force, and 80% higher than the Marine Corps). The majority (60%) of traumatic deaths was due to suicide, followed by unintentional injuries (35%), and homicide (5%). The overall age-adjusted traumatic mortality rate was more than triple for men compared with women in all military services (rate ratio=3.9; p=0.01). There was a lower proportion of traumatic deaths in recruits compared to the overall active duty military population and same-age U.S. civilian population. This finding could be attributed to close supervision, emphasis on safety, and lack of access to alcohol and motor vehicles during recruit training.