York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. She said recent research points to an intimate relationship failure as the No. 1 catalyst for soldier and veteran suicides. She said a whopping 68 percent of U.S. soldiers in Iraq who committed suicide had had an intimate relationship failure. Research in 2008 found that the lengthy terms of deployment didn’t increase the suicide rate; however, deployments of a year or longer “served as a secondary factor in provoking marital disruption and loss of love relationships,” she said.