FacebookTwitterEmail Veterans Jeff Hensley and Colleen Ryan helped set up 1,892 American flags on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 2014. The display, organized by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, represented each one of the active-duty and former service members who had died by suicide up to that point in 2014.JEWEL SAMAD /AFP /Getty Images And the U.S. military still hasn't pinpointed why. Experts do know that this can't be solely blamed on stresses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. According to reporting by Sig Christenson of the Express-News, service member suicides hit a record high of 571 last year after continually rising since the early 2000s — and the beginning of the War on Terror.