Research by the Veterans Affairs Department provides the first quantitative look at the suicide toll on today’s combat veterans.

The ongoing research reveals that at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005 took their own lives.

Today’s homefront suicide tally is running at least double the number of troop suicides in the war zones as thousands of men and women return with disabling injuries and mental health disorders that put them at higher risk.

A total of 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.

That means a total of at least 430 of the 1.5 million troops who have fought in the two wars have killed themselves over the past six years.

That number doesn’t include those who committed suicide after their combat tour ended and while still in the military, a number the Pentagon says it doesn’t track.

-Chris Jones