WASHINGTON — The nation’s top military officer said yesterday that he expects suicides by service members, already alarmingly high, and other family crises to increase in the coming months as large numbers of troops return to their bases after years of multiple deployments. 
 
 “I think we are going to see a significant increase in the challenges that we have in terms of our families,’’ Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. 
 
 With the drawdown of US forces in Iraq accelerating, service members are finally beginning to receive a respite from frequent back-to-back tours of duty since 2003 — particularly for Army and Marine Corps units. 
 
 For bases such as Lewis-McChord, an Army and Air Force installation in Washington state, that means an influx of soldiers and aviators. “I was taken aback that at Fort Lewis by the end of October, 36,000 troops will be back,’’ Mullen said. “We have never had that many troops there, certainly not since 2003.’’ 
 
 Yet that also means commanders must deal with a large number of troops with significant personal challenges who are back for the first extended period with their families. 
 
 Mullen remains particularly concerned about suicide rates, which have gone up in every branch of the military since 2004 and have hit record highs in the Army, which has borne the brunt of repeated deployments. 
 
 “The emergency issue right now is suicides,’’ Mullen said. “We had five suicides in the Army last weekend.’’ 
 
 And there are a variety of other well-documented problems facing a ground force that has been stretched thin in recent years, including post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems that have not yet manifested themselves, he said. 
 
 “I think we are going to see a growth in that before we see a decline,’’ Mullen said. 
 
 Military officials have worked to increase the length of time between deployments, both to promote greater stability among families and to provide more training for threats beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
 That is now starting to happen as the US military commitment in Iraq winds down, even as troop levels have grown in Afghanistan. 
 
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 AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF 
 
 — On Friday, a 24-year-old accounting specialist who returned from Iraq in December was found dead from a gunshot wound in Temple. On Saturday, a 29-year-old mechanic who had deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan died of a gunshot wound in Copperas Cove. That same day, a 39-year-old artilleryman who had deployed twice was found dead at his on-post home. 
 
 Then, on Sunday, Sgt. Michael Timothy Franklin and his wife were found dead of gunshot wounds at their on-post home in an apparent murder-suicide. The couple's 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son are in the care of Fort Hood's child protective services. 
 
 On Wednesday, Fort Hood commanders announced that they were conducting an exhaustive review to identify soldiers who are at risk for suicide as this massive Army post reels from a record number of them — including the four suspected suicides over the past weekend. Fort Hood officials said they would also conduct a review of the post's privately owned weapons registration and visit soldiers living off post in hopes of stemming the alarming rise in suicides. 
 
 Since the beginning of the year, there have been 14 confirmed suicides and six suspected suicides of Fort Hood soldiers. That would put Fort Hood on a pace to shatter its annual record for suicides since the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Fort Hood had 14 suicides in 2008 and 11 last year. 
 
 "This is a very frustrating issue," Maj. Gen. William F. Grimsley, Fort Hood's senior commander, said Wednesday. "It's all about leadership." 
 
 Grimsley said that on Monday he gave orders to post commanders to send him their review of at-risk soldiers by Friday. Grimsley also ordered visits of all soldiers at the rank of sergeant and below who live off post, saying those soldiers could be at risk of falling through the cracks. About 70 percent of Fort Hood soldiers live off post. 
 
 More than 38,000 soldiers are stationed at Fort Hood, where the population has swelled this year with the return of thousands of soldiers from Iraq. 
 
 So far, Fort Hood officials say they are at a loss to explain the surge, saying post-suicide reviews have failed to show any definitive trends among the soldiers who have killed themselves. Grimsley said Wednesday that there has been no correlation between the surge in suicides and the Nov. 5 shooting attack at Fort Hood that left 13 dead. 
 
 Instead, suicide prevention experts at the post say a host of stressors , including family situations, financial problems, substance abuse and multiple deployments have played a role in the suicides. 
 
 Fort Hood's surge in suicides comes as the Army battles a suicide rate that doubled between 2005 and 2009. 
 
 Fort Hood has sought to reduce the stigma against seeking mental health help within the Army, introducing a host of programs and campaigns aimed at convincing soldiers to watch out for warning signs among their comrades and get counseling if they need it. 
 
 Sgt. Cassandra St. Amand, 27, of New York, called the recent increase in suicides a blow to the soldiers at Fort Hood. 
 
 "It kind of hurts a little bit," she said Wednesday as she took part in a class to help her unit, which is deploying to Afghanistan, learn the warning signs of suicide. 
 
 "We shouldn't interfere in their lives, but it's OK to ask (troubled soldiers) what's wrong," she said. "Everybody's a battle buddy." 
 
 jschwartz@statesman.com; 
 
 912-2942
– Expect more servicemen and women to take their own lives in the months ahead, Admiral Mike Mullen warned today, in the wake of four such suicides over the weekend. “I think we are going to see a significant increase in the challenges that we have in terms of our families,” Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said at a press breakfast this morning, reports the Boston Globe. “The emergency right now is suicides.” Troops are returning rapidly from Iraq, but many will have difficulty returning to civilian life, Mullen explained. The weekend saw a glut of such tragedy, with a 24-year-old accounting specialist who’d served in Iraq killing himself Friday, followed by a mechanic and an artillery specialist on Saturday, and an Army sergeant on Sunday. The latter also appears to have shot his wife in a murder-suicide, the Austin American-Statesman reports.