5 suicides in 5 weeks. What’s going on at Cyber Command at Fort Meade?

Five people whose work supported missions at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency at Fort George G. Meade died by suicide within a month of each other this summer.

The unusual cluster of suicides in June and July follows efforts by the agencies and the Anne Arundel County military installation, where the country’s top cyber warfare units are based, to address the mental health of the 18,000 service members and 41,000 civilian employees there.

Lawmakers, including both of Maryland’s U.S. senators and U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, are asking questions and calling for action to prevent further tragedies.

The nation’s cyber warriors at Fort Meade put in long, stressful hours, often in secure, windowless rooms called SCIFs, identifying cyberattacks and defending against them. The work has been intensified by the war with Iran and the race for new artificial intelligence models. The jobs, however, often isolate them from friends and family.

The recent suicides highlight that while mental health has become an increasing priority, a culture of silence continues to threaten leaders in one of the state’s most critical defense institutions.

“No one’s really surprised to hear about another suicide,” said Ryan Shaban, an Army veteran and cybersecurity professional who said he has friends in U.S. Cyber Command who are similarly struggling with mental health.

Shaban said many don’t report their concerns for fear of jeopardizing their security clearance. He’s running in Anne Arundel’s 31st District for a seat in Maryland’s House of Delegates and says he’s lost multiple friends in cyber and national security to suicide over the years.

“People are worried now because the crisis is so acute and right in front of us,” said Elfreth, who represents the area around the fort and serves as a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

The suicides were first reported by Bloomberg.

Cyber Command and the NSA referred questions about the cluster to the Pentagon, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Kevin Paulson, 40, worked as a cyberspace effects operations officer at the NSA before he died by suicide. The job was a dream for Paulson, whose sister, Leslie Pressel, said he was itching to leave their small town of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Paulson was a fast-talking extrovert with a sarcastic sense of humor, Pressel said. Often the smartest guy in the room, he had a nearly photographic memory and loved solving puzzles from an early age, she said.

Paulson developed an interest in cybersecurity in part because the National Guard, which he joined in Michigan in 2007, offered well-paying opportunities in the field. Around 2018, he moved to Maryland to work for the NSA, while also working as a cyber warfare operator in the state’s Air National Guard. He rose to the rank of captain.

Pressel didn’t understand what he did, but his obituary described him as “one of the most experienced mentors and operators” in the Cyber National Mission Force, a multiagency defense effort under U.S. Cyber Command.

On occasional calls home, Paulson described working up to 16-hour shifts. Some months, she said, he was so wrapped up in the job that he didn’t call home.

In the weeks before he died, Pressel pushed her brother to seek help because he was depressed and having difficulty sleeping. She believes he met with a counselor inside the NSA about his stress, which, she said, increased this year due to a complicated personal situation that he worried might affect his job or cause him to lose it.

“His career was his whole life,” Pressel said.

He was staying with a friend July 6 when he went for a morning run and never returned. That day, Pressel received an email from her brother that he’d scheduled on June 30, in which he asked her to apologize to his boss at the NSA.

At the time, she did not know that others at Cyber Command had also died by suicide.

Maryland autopsy records show that Kevin Stallings, 36, an Air Force technical sergeant at U.S. Cyber Command, died by suicide on June 22.

James Stallings II said his son was empathetic and beloved by his colleagues. He described him as a Green Lantern, after a favorite comic character, for his fearless and honest nature. His peers nicknamed him “Jeeves” for the mascot of the early internet search engine that appeared to hold all the answers.

Stallings II, who acknowledged not knowing what his son did, blamed the ongoing war with Iran and said he believed he was doing things he didn’t want to do, which impacted his mental health.

The Maryland National Guard said the losses, which it still mourns, underscore the importance of its mental health programs.

Elfreth said Congress was not initially notified about the suicide cluster because some of those who died were civilians. The Defense Department’s definition of a suicide cluster pertains only to people in the military.

The congresswoman said she hopes to change that definition and add more resources for Fort Meade through amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, which directs military programming and spending each year.

A 2024 version of the bill called for a study of resources available to Cyber Command’s workforce, which found they were inadequate.

Elfreth and her Maryland delegation colleagues want to expedite security clearances for licensed mental health providers dedicated to the Cyber Command workforce.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another Democrat, also supports an $11 million funding request for psychological support for cyber operators from Gen. Joshua Rudd, who leads U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she’s asked for a briefing from U.S. Cyber Command on the deaths.

State Sen. Dawn Gile, a Democrat running for her second term, met in August with Ed Rothstein, secretary of the state’s Department of Veterans and Military Families, to discuss the strain that the state’s shortage of behavioral health providers has caused.

In 2012, the suicide rate among service members at Fort Meade was six times as high as the state’s, according to a Stars and Stripes report. But in the following years, that rate dropped considerably.

Mental health has become an increasing priority for the base, said Tim O’Ferrall, who leads the Fort Meade Alliance, a nonprofit that connects the base to the larger community.

“When we started there was a tremendous amount of resistance” to acknowledging mental health issues, he said.

The alliance helped raise $5.3 million for a multipurpose resiliency center on base, where civilians and service members could receive counseling and other services.

Since May, a program has enabled up to five licensed mental health professionals to work at Fort Meade’s Kimbrough Ambulatory Care Center.

Shaun Herron, a Fort Meade spokesperson, said the base also set up kiosks with resources and holds an annual suicide prevention workshop.

He recalled a communitywide wellness training that service members, their families and civilians were asked to attend at the base because of the suicides.

The event occurred July 9, three days after Paulson’s death.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or behavior, call or text 988 to contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.