Virginia Naval Center Sees 4 Apparent Sailor Suicides in a Month

The USNS Comfort is docked at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 28, 2020. Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Four sailors assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, have died in suspected suicide deaths within a month. Local and naval authorities are investigating the incident.

The deaths occurred between Oct. 29 and Nov. 26, with the four sailors dying separately. “The circumstances surrounding these separate incidents are currently under investigation by local police departments and the U.S. Navy,” said Lt. Cmdr. Rochelle Rieger, a public affairs officer with MARMC, according to The Hill.

“We mourn the loss of our shipmates and friends. Our thoughts and our deepest condolences are with these Sailors’ families, loved ones, and coworkers during this extremely difficult time.”

Each death is being investigated individually per standard Navy procedures. In addition, a “command investigation” has also been initiated to see if the deaths are tied to common circumstances, Navy Capt. Jay Young, the commanding officer of MARMC, said in a statement to CNN.

The Navy is “fully engaged” with the organization’s sailors and their families to ensure their well-being and health as well as to make sure that a climate of trust is created to encourage sailors to seek help, he added.

The MARMC has roughly 3,000 personnel. Of these, 1,500 are on active duty while a quarter of those are usually assigned to the facility on restricted duty due to their inability to serve onboard ships. The Navy refused to speak about the duty status of the four dead soldiers by citing privacy reasons, according to the outlet.

Change Needed

After the initial two deaths on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, the Navy ordered a mental health stand down. They brought in Kayla Arestivo, president of a non-profit counseling service, to analyze the issue, who ended up producing a grim report about the situation.

“I had definitely made them aware of how inundated our clinical team was with the hopelessness that was happening at that command, and how many people stepped forward and expressed that they also had suicidal ideation with the past year from being at that command,” Arestivo said in an interview with CBS News.

This is the second time in a year that the U.S. Navy is facing a string of suicides. Back in April, three sailors assigned to the USS George Washington died by suicide in less than a week of each other.

According to the Pentagon’s annual report about suicide within the military, there were 519 such victims among service members in 2021, with the year earlier seeing 582 cases.

Speaking to CBS, Robert Decker, father of one of the recent suicide victims, 22-year-old Kody Lee Decker, said that he is “furious right now” and that his son had been depressed due to a toxic leader in the previous command.

“The military’s got to wake up. They’ve got to change,” Decker said. “I want resources for the sailors, and I want leadership.”