CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fort Bragg suffered more fatal overdoses from 2017 to 2021 than any other military base, according to data recently published by the Department of Defense.
A group of bipartisan senators contacted military officials about drug overdoses at military installations following a report from Rolling Stone last September that examined drug-related deaths at Fort Bragg.
The Pentagon found that fatal overdoses increased from 4.2 deaths per 100,000 troops in 2017 to 5.1 overdose deaths within four years. Fentanyl deaths more than doubled across all service branches during that period, according to Defense Undersecretary Gilbert Cisneros Jr. Fentanyl alone or in combination with other drugs was found in 174 cases, or 52.4% of all fatal overdoses.
Fort Bragg, which has an assigned population of around 46,140 soldiers according to Army Times data, suffered 31 overdose deaths during the study period. Fort Bragg had 16.8 annual deaths per 100,000 soldiers over the report's four-year period, which was higher than the service-wide range of 5.0.
"Every drug overdose is a preventable loss of life and we must work to do better," Cisneros wrote.
Pentagon officials didn't release the report's underlying data, according to Army Times. This means several installations' overdose totals weren't disclosed.
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