WASHINGTON — The first suicide was in 2007.

Mike Little was preparing to head to Iraq for a year when he heard that his close friend, a National Guardsman who had inspired Little to join the military, had killed himself.

The second was before Little deployed to Afghanistan, about two years later. He couldn’t go to the funeral because he was due on a plane.

The next three came during the naval reservist’s yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. Another suicide happened just as he got home, in late 2010.

He’s up to nine now.

“At this point, I’m taking it personally,” he said. “I deployed twice, I came home, I struggled. I feel responsible that I didn’t reach out to them. Maybe if I had …”

Little, a petty officer 2nd class in the Naval Reserves, fought his own battle with suicidal thoughts and won, as much as any person still struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress can say they’ve won.

He has trouble sleeping. He calls the Veterans Crisis Line almost weekly.

He can’t stop thinking about the others who didn’t make it.

As the military has tackled the problem of suicide, the focus has been on the value of the lives lost and the impact on the family and loved ones left behind.

But the military hasn’t emphasized the dangerous ripple effect that any suicide can have on the force, the unspoken suggestion to unstable troops that if their fellow servicemembers can’t make it, maybe they can’t either.

Little’s psychiatrist tells him he suffers from “vicarious traumatization,” a combination of survivor’s guilt and empathetic engagement with the fallen troops. It’s a common problem among trauma counselors and suicide hotline workers.

He’s lost so many friends, he has started to obsess over the idea of suicide. It’s been the focus of his college assignments, his interactions with veterans groups and his free time.

“No one really wants to talk about suicide,” he said. “But I’ve lost too many people. And I was almost one of those numbers. I’m not OK with that.”

Newly released emails show the lengths to which a top Air Force officer went to help a fellow fighter pilot get a new assignment and advance in his career after overturning the pilot’s sex assault conviction.

The 330 pages of documents reveal how Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, Third Air Force commander, intervened on behalf of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, the former Aviano Air Base, Italy, inspector general, whom Franklin believed was wrongly convicted by a military jury in November of sexually assaulting a sleeping houseguest.

The dozens of emails also show Franklin was cautioned about the potential impact of granting clemency in the high-profile case. And they show Franklin had the support of the head of U.S. European Command, Gen. Philip Breedlove, who wrote to Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh that he could not “think of ANY Air Force officer who would have given this more personal effort than [Franklin]. I stand behind his decision.”

The emails, posted late last month to the Air Force Freedom of Information Act website, rekindled outcries from victim advocates and some lawmakers who say the exchanges by top brass show a biased military justice system in need of overhaul.

The exchanges “show the need to create unbiased system of justice in [the] military so victims of sexual assault get justice they deserve,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in an Aug. 30 Twitter post.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., called the Wilkerson case “everything that’s wrong with the blind protection of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

“The military says taking cases like these out of the chain of command will negatively impact morale,” Speier said in a statement. “I think it’s clear that the chain of command chose the future of one soldier over the integrity of the entire Air Force. Against any measure of better judgment, they thumbed their noses at the victim, her family and justice in general. This closed system of power is truly amazing in its arrogance.”

Two military hospital employees who allegedly stole and sold $1.3 million in medications from work were indicted along with the alleged buyer, according to federal authorities.

Prosecutors on Tuesday announced a five-count indictment against Rodger George Gurdon, 42, of Waldorf, Md.; Issa Wasco Koroma, 61, of Springdale, Md., and their alleged buyer Daniel Mark Wilkerson, 39, of Waldorf. The three men made deals for Botox and the recombinant human growth hormone Norditropin, according to the indictment.

In an affidavit from Shurdell English, a special agent of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, agents with the Food and Drug Administration raided the homes of the hospital employees June 11.

Investigators found 49 pounds of marijuana, $4,900 in cash and various medications at Gurdon’s home, court papers said. Gurdon is a pharmacy tech at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Va.

At Koroma’s home, investigators found hundreds of bottles and packages of prescription medication, $50,070 in cash and winning lottery tickets, according to court documents.Koroma works as a pharmacy tech at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Koroma’s attorney, Howard Cheris, told Army Times that his client “greatly regrets his role in this and he’s working with the government to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The affidavit states agents found the marijuana in garbage bags in the garage of Gurdon’s home.

Along with the medication and other money at Koroma’s home, agents found a backpack that contained $14,820 in bundled stacks and a bottle of blood pressure medication. Koroma was allegedly using the backpack to transport stolen growth hormone from Fort Belvoir.

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Military families say construction workers have fixed only some of the flaws at modular homes they bought in February at Deerfield subdivision, and they’re impatient after waiting for seven months with a laundry list of unfinished repairs.

Spouses whose husbands are serving in Afghanistan still have numerous flaws in their new single-family houses at the site off Route 37 in the town of Pamelia, which cost from $210,000 to $240,000 apiece. An array of flaws was revealed during tours of two homes Tuesday: blatant surface cracks, gaps between walls and flooring, air bubbles and insulation problems.

Five military couples were forced to wait for up to three months to move into their homes this winter because of a construction delay caused by National Grid. Developer Beacon Asset Managers, Jacksonville, Fla., paid for families to stay in hotels during that period. But those already-upset couples weren’t happy campers after seeing construction flaws when they finally took possession in February.

The four-bedroom unit owned by Jessica and Eduardo Ramos at 9947 Aspen St., for example, has about 30 white spots on walls that workers covered with spackling to hide surface cracks. Some cracks still have to be fixed, Mrs. Ramos said, and spots have to be sanded and painted.

During a tour Tuesday, Mrs. Ramos also showed how insulation installed in the crawl space below the first floor droops almost to the ground and is falling apart in some areas. A large puddle on the concrete floor suggests water is leaking.

The Ramoses, who bought the house for $240,000 and hoped to raise their two children there, said they haven’t gotten the dream house they anticipated when they signed a purchase agreement last summer with Hunt Real Estate, Watertown. Construction workers have replaced flawed wooden floors and the kitchen countertop, Mrs. Ramos said, but much still needs to be done.

“This is poor craftsmanship,” Mrs. Ramos said while pointing to a large crack in the wall that was caulked. “I don’t see how this could be acceptable in a new house. And most recently, we were told that no one’s going to paint the walls because all of our stuff is in here.”

Mr. Ramos, who spoke about problems Tuesday during a phone interview from Afghanistan, claimed the developer is taking advantage of military spouses who’ve repeatedly spoken out about problems without any success.

“We’ve been reporting and reporting and reporting these problems since the beginning,” he said. “And I feel that they’re taking advantage of military spouses that are home alone while husbands are overseas. Work crews have left the houses that need to be repaired to work on new homes, and there’s plenty of work to be done on houses they’ve already put up.”