Sorry, but common sense rules here and the this article is bullshit!
This study lines up pretty close to my experience (retiring from the Army National Guard next month after 33 years as an Infantry Sgt Maj (CSM in Army-speak) with two Iraq tours and a peace-keeping deployment).
I unfortunately have had to deal with suicides in my units. During the mid-2000s the suicides started rising, most with Iraq vets, but then the number of soldiers doing it who had never deployed surpassed those who had.
As I looked back on the earlier cases of combat vets, each one of them had strong issues other than deployment. One had just lost his job as a teacher and was facing charges for inappropriate relations with an underage girl, another had just been picked up on his third DUI, and so on. How much deployments contributed to that behavior can be argued (I think not much in the case of the teacher). One who attempted several times had alcohol issues long before he ever deployed, and had fallen off his AA wagon.
Non-deployed soldiers who committed suicide one just back from basic training who was found hanging in his parents’ basement. Another ran their car into a light pole at high speed after being picked up for shoplifting. Another had just had a spectacular argument with his wife.
While common sense would indicate that combat veterans would have a significantly higher rate, I have had to conclude that there’s a broader problem than that.