While serving in the U.S. Air Force in 2006, I remember hearing the news that a friend and colleague had gotten into some trouble after a night of heavy drinking. This friend, I’ll call him Joe, was a noncommissioned officer and a highly respected team leader who could seemingly solve any maintenance problem that the E-3 Sentry aircraft threw at him.

On the night in question, Joe left a bar in a drunken haze and allegedly used a knife to slash multiple car tires of vehicles parked outside. Witnesses identified him, but Joe fled the scene before authorities could arrive.

I imagine it hit Joe hard (once he’d sobered up) to realize he would likely face severe disciplinary action for his rowdy night out — above all else the loss of his rank, forfeiture of his pay, and numerous civil penalties. These revelations must have been emotionally crushing to a man who, up until that point, had a spotless record.

I speculate here because I had no way of knowing how Joe really felt. Frantic phone calls to his cellphone went straight to voicemail.

About 48 hours after the incident, our squadron commander entered our ready room with some dire news: Joe was missing, presumed armed, and intent on hurting himself.

Within an hour of the commander’s announcement, Joe had shot himself in the head while sitting in his truck, parked next to his favorite spot at the lake — the location of the squadron’s annual picnic.

Those of us who knew and loved him couldn’t help but feel that we had somehow failed Joe. Why didn’t someone leave the bar with him, especially in the state he was in? Does the Air Force judicial system and its “punishment culture” bear any responsibility?

What could we have done differently that would have saved his life? And how might we prevent future airmen like Joe from resorting to suicide?

Since 2010, nearly 1,000 airmen have died by suicide. Through August of this year alone, 78 airmen have killed themselves — up from 50 at the same time last year. If these rates continue, the U.S. Air Force is on track to lose 150 service members or more this year to suicide.

In a recent letter to commanders across the service, Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein last month ordered units to “stand down” for one day to address the devastating numbers of suicides among airmen.

Standing down for one day of PowerPoint slides and team-building trust falls is not going to solve the Air Force suicide crisis.

In the letter, first reported by Air Force Magazine, Goldfein recalls ordering commanders to visit Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base last year, and asking them to reflect on why many airmen “transition from unlimited hope on that parade ground to hopeless on our watch.”

“I would have never predicted that a year later we would stand today at 78 suicides,” he wrote in the letter. “Hopeful to hopeless… what is going on? It is our job to find out.”