A national suicide-prevention hotline may help save the lives of some of America's troubled military veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs said.

During times of war, the U.S. military usually sees a spike in suicides among vets and active-duty troops.

The suicide rate among all veterans is now about twice the national average among nonveterans, according to Michael Koplin, suicide-prevention coordinator for the VA medical center in Salt Lake City. Fewer than 11 out of every 100,000 civilians each year commit suicide, the Suicide and Mental Health Association International reports.

A study published this year by researchers from Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University found that male veterans in particular were twice as likely as civilians to commit suicide.

Among Army members, suicide rates between 2003 and 2006 for soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom were higher than the average Army rate, 16.1 versus 11.6 soldier suicides per year per 100,000, according to U.S. Army Medical Command spokesman Jerry Harben.

The VA's new 24-hour-a-day hotline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255), is for all veterans. But the hotline, which was activated July 25, is especially targeted toward combat vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said. Nicholson recently announced that the VA will spend $3 billion on mental health for veterans this year.

In the Utah National Guard alone, there have been at least 5,000 deployments (some of them repeats) to Iraq, beginning in 2003, and to Afghanistan since 2001. The Utah Guard has about 5,000 soldiers, as well as 1,500 airmen who are part of the Air National Guard.

Utah Guard spokesman Maj. Hank McIntire estimated Thursday that out of all those deployments, there have been at least two but probably fewer than 10 suicides among Utah's volunteer troops who have seen combat.

"We don't keep statistics on it," McIntire said.

The Deseret Morning News recently filed Freedom of Information Act requests on several military members with Utah ties whose deaths were listed by the Department of Defense as non-hostile or non-combat related. Out of the replies, two causes of death came back as "contact" or "self-inflicted" gunshot wounds to the head (one was officially called a suicide).

A third response indicated the death was due to an accidental overdose of medication, but it was not listed as a suicide. All three deaths occurred overseas.

Suicide statistics can be hard to obtain, because sources who keep track say not every case of probable suicide can be confirmed.