Washington ? Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli on Tuesday called the Army’s record suicide rate this year “horrible” and said the problem of soldiers taking their own lives is the toughest he has faced in his 37 years in service.

As of Nov. 16, 140 soldiers on active duty and 71 soldiers not on active duty were suspected to have committed suicides. “We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year,” which was also a record for Army suicides, Chiarelli said at a Pentagon news conference.

“This is horrible,” he said. “Every single loss is devastating.”

However, Chiarelli, who has made suicide prevention a priority, said that despite the high total, the monthly suicide rate has declined since January.