Jose Coll, who chairs the Military Social Work Program at the University of Southern California, also blamed the frequent and lengthy deployments.
"And when the soldier comes back, it's not like he's on vacation. He comes back to training and that creates a lot of stress for the family," said Coll, who served in the Marine Corps.
Army officials said they realized that longer tours would increase strains on soldiers and their families, and attempted to head off problems by increasing the money spent on assistance programs from $700 million to $1.5 billion.
"We saw the stress, we recognized it," Geren said. "We could feel the pressure families and soldiers were under."
The Army and Defense Department stepped up mental health screening and hired more mental health professionals. The military also pushed resources into treating post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, battlefield wounds that have compounded stress on soldiers and their families.
Still, critics have said those efforts, particularly the mental health screening, have been inadequate.
"Until the Department of Defense starts taking aggressive action, the suicide crisis will get worse," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. "We are looking at the tip of an iceberg of a social catastrophe unless the military and VA start fighting stigma and start getting help for the veteran."
Cindy Williams, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is an expert on military personnel systems, said reporting a mental health infirmity cuts against the ethos of the Army.
"In the Army, there is a culture that says you don't get sick," she said. "Even if the Army wants to change the culture, it is hard for a soldier to go to a supervisor and say, 'I am thinking suicidal thoughts.' "
Military officials said they are seeking to change the culture, to let soldiers and Marines know it is OK to seek counseling and other help.
