|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
One in three homeless
men in America is a veteran.
Read More |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
Jeffrey
was a silent hero, touching many lives......
Read More |
|
|
| |
|
|
"Hope For Our Heros"
Rummage Sale! |
|
|
|
Every dollar generated
goes toward helping combat veterans to receive mental
health care and treatment for combat PTSD” See Details |
|
|
| |
|
|
"To thy hands we our souls,
Lord, commend" |
|
|
|
Loved ones lost to
combat PTSD related suicide.
Read More |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Santa
Barbara News-Press
Friday, January 13, 2006 |
Click Here For
Archived News |
|
|
|
|
They came to say
goodbye, and remember a fallen friend
Marine’s mental scars from war never healed
By SCOTT HADLY
News-Press Senior Writer
A FINAL SALUTE
 |
In a sad farewell, friends and family of Jeffrey
Lehner, the troubled combat veteran and former Marine
sergeant who shot and killed his father before taking
his own life last month, said goodbye one last time
Thursday.
In the cavernous Calvary Chapel near Santa Barbara’s
waterfront, Pastor Ricky Ryan spoke to a sprinkling of
Sgt. Lehner’s friends, family, fellow veterans and
Marines.
“It’s a hard day,” said the Rev. Ryan.
They were there to celebrate the Marine’s life, “but
we’re also here to say goodbye.”
On Dec. 7, 2005, Sgt. Lehner shot and killed his father,
Edwin Lehner, a once-prominent pharmacist at St. Francis
Medical Center, before turning the gun on himself.
Sgt. Lehner, 42, served in Afghanistan on an aircrew for
a KC-130 transport plane. After his return, his friends
recalled, he was haunted with survivor’s guilt and his
pain was compounded by addiction to drugs and alcohol. |
In January 2002, Sgt.
Lehner was reassigned at the last minute from flying on
a mission.
The transport plane smashed into a mountain, killing
eight of his fellow Marines. The man who replaced him on
the flight left behind a wife and three children.
Sgt. Lehner went to the accident scene and helped
recover his buddies’ body parts. He had struggled with
the memories of those experiences, according to friends
who attended a veterans support group, and was diagnosed
with post-traumatic stress disorder. |
 |
In a poem he wrote after
his return called “Home”, Sgt. Lehner wrote that he felt
“All my hope is withdrawn. I don’t know what else to say
(do). So many directions to go. But no place to begin.
Times have changed. I am not the same. But I still am.
It hurts so bad. It’s good to be home.”
Pastor Jeff Bullock of All-Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal
Church also spoke at the ceremony. A drug and alcohol
abuse counselor, he said Sgt. Lehner was weighed down by
his experiences in Afghanistan.
“Jeff was scarred, injured and debilitated,” the Rev.
Bullock said. “Alcohol and drugs compounded it. I don’t
know any human burden so easily picked up, but so hard
to put down.”
The pastor remembered hearing the nightmares of his
father, a Marine combat veteran from World War II. He
said Sgt. Lehner could not overcome the pain of his own
memories of Afghanistan.
“Listening to him on the phone, you could hear a man
being dragged down a hole by scaly claws,” the Rev.
Bullock said. “The stress and addiction was too much for
him.”
His lifelong friend Capt. Shannon McGraw-Kuehn recalled
that Sgt. Lehner was courageous and honorable. |
“He was committed
not just to the people he grew up with and loved, but
his fellow man, a stranger on the road, somebody who
lived next door,” Capt. McGraw-Kuehn said.
“Thank you, Jeff. Semper fi.”
His former fiancée, Sarah Farmer, read a letter from
Sgt. Lehner’s former commanding officer about his
commitment to work and to his fellow Marines. Then she
read from a letter she sent as their relationship
faltered because of his struggles with addiction. |
 |
“I want to heal you,” Ms.
Farmer wrote her fiancé.
She told him she worried that she was getting in the way
of his becoming sober but said she was committed to him
and envisioned their future together.
 |
“I love you, Jeff Lehner, and I hope to spend the rest
of my life with you,” Ms. Farmer read from her letter. |
She said Sgt. Lehner’s death and his struggle with
post-traumatic stress disorder has drawn attention to
the problem. She has set up a fund to help those
struggling with the problem. |
|
|
|
