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One in three homeless
men in America is a veteran.
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Jeffrey
was a silent hero, touching many lives......
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"Hope For Our Heros"
Rummage Sale! |
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Every dollar generated
goes toward helping combat veterans to receive mental
health care and treatment for combat PTSD” See Details |
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"To thy hands we our souls,
Lord, commend" |
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Loved ones lost to
combat PTSD related suicide.
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"To thy hands we
our souls, Lord, commend" |
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TAPS
Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily
recognized or more apt to render emotion than the call
Taps. The melody is both eloquent and haunting and the
history of its origin is interesting and somewhat
clouded in controversy. The use of Taps is unique with
the United States military, since the call is sounded at
funerals, wreath-laying and memorial services.
The following timeline compiled by ePluribus Media
chronicles the reported cases of combat PTSD related
suicides since the beginning of Operation Enduring
Freedom. Our prayers, respect, and hearts go out to each
of the families and communities affected by these tragic
casualties of the war within. |
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Day
is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.
Thanks and praise, for our days,
'Neath the sun, 'neath the stars, neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.
Sun has set, shadows come,
Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds
Always true to the promise that they made.
While the light fades from sight,
And the stars gleaming rays softly send,
To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.
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2007-02-08 Ex-GI diagnosed with PTSD dies in
collision
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 possible suicide. A 24-year old
Army Reserve heavy equipment operator based out of Fort
Carson, Colo., with the 52nd Engineering Battalion was
killed after driving her car directly into oncoming
interstate traffic. Authorities determined that she was
intoxicated at the time of the accident. The mother of a
7-year old served in Iraq for nine months, from April
2003 to February 2004, and was medically evacuated for
lower-back pain and PTSD. Although she had attended
group counseling through the VA (a fellow attendee
stating “she was deeply affected by the suicide of a man
…who was in Iraq at the same time … but did not get to
know her until he returned home.”), she was waiting to
enter a facility specializing in PTSD treatment. Friends
say she was very depressed.
Source:
Denver Post [2007-02-11]
++++++++++++
2007-01-17 Soldier, at 23; strove to cope after injury
in Iraq
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old
paratrooper, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq with the
82d Airborne's special forces unit, took his own life
six months after having received a medical discharge
stemming from a Baghdad accident. He had suffered
"severe head injuries...when part of an unstable
structure [he was working on] collapsed," was blinded in
one eye, and doctors "had to shock him to get his heart
going again." He endured a series of increasingly acute
migraine headaches (likely from his metal plates) in the
aftermath, anxiety, and a mild heart attack. Gifted in
physics and struggling to pay for college, he had signed
up with the Army in 2001. Following his accident, he was
treated in Germany, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and
then returned to Fort Bragg, N.C.; "there the safety net
that had sustained him in the military seemed to fray.
No one appeared to grasp the severity of his injury, his
sister said." He spoke of the peace he had felt when he
had technically died in Iraq; as his migraines tormented
him, "while his roommate and a friend were downstairs,
he turned up the surround sound on his television and
took his life in his bedroom."
Source:
Boston Globe [2007-01-30]
++++++++++++
2007-01-16 This Marine's death came after served in Iraq
STATESIDE REPORT: Suicide. A 25 year old Marine
committed suicide just days after seeking care from his
second VA hospital. The Marine, who had earned two
Purple Hearts for shrapnel while on machine-gun duty
during Ramadi's violence of early 2004, was told no
staff was available. After speaking to a counselor over
the phone, he learned he was 26th for one of the state's
12 beds. His parents "heard him tell VA staff that he
felt suicidal." His family doctor said he "suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder, reliving combat in his
sleep, [having] flashbacks. He couldn't eat, felt
paranoid, struggled with relationships and admitted to
drinking alcohol excessively." During his tour, 16 in
his unit - many close friends - "died in two afternoons
of firefights and bombings." He was demoted to private
and later given a general discharge for barroom violence
and illegal steroid use. On the day he took his life, he
had "called family and friends to tell them that he was
preparing to kill himself. [Police] smashed in the door
and found him hanging from an electrical cord."
Source:
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune [2007-01-29]
++++++++++++
2006-10-17 Iraq War Hero Murder/Suicide
STATESIDE REPORT. 1 Murder, 1 Suicide. 28-year old Army
MP, after being honorably discharged, returned to the
French Quarter, LA, haunted by his memories of Iraq.
After bouts of drinking, depression and self-mutilation
he killed himself after killing and dismembering his
fiancé. They both had survived Katrina and had been
interviewed several times as survivors by local news
such as Times-Picayne. His suicide note mentioned not
that he had strangled his fiancé, but he was horrified
at his lack of remorse. Rumors of preparing the body of
his fiancé for cooking were not supported by police
reports. "A fellow bartender told the New Orleans
Times-Picayune that after downing rounds of Miller High
Life and Jameson's Irish Whiskey, Bowen would grow
depressed when talking about his military service,
indicating that there was an overseas incident involving
a child that haunted him." "'I scared myself not by the
action of calmly strangling the woman I've loved for one
and a half years … but by my entire lack of remorse,'"
wrote Bowen in the note.
Source:
ABC
News [2006-10-20]
++++++++++++
2006-07-25 Army Pfc commits suicide in Afghanistan
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 22-year-old Army Spc
serving in Sharona, Afghanistan shot himself in the
mouth with an automatic weapon two years after his older
brother perished in Iraq. After his brother's death, he
"locked up after identifying [his] remains in Iraq,
before escorting his big brother home. ... He was [also]
tormented by the hideous echoes of combat. His marriage
was failing..." He had been given the option of not
returning to combat, but reenlisted and returned to the
fight. But "[h]aunted by flashbacks and prone to
emotional breakdowns, he couldn't shake the war while
[home] between deployments. One time, he held his wife
hostage in a room." Back in Afghanistan, days before his
suicide, he told his father that he'd had "six close
calls" as his unit tracked Osama bin Laden in
Afghanistan, and that he was tired. The "lean, athletic
and fearless" young man had joined the army right after
high school and had served about 5 years at the time of
his death.
Source: Dallas
Morning News [2006-08-06]
++++++++++++
2006-05-24 Coming Home
STATESIDE INCIDENT. 1 AWOL/attempted suicide/police
stand-off. A 23-year old Iraq veteran who had served two
tours in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division based out
of Fort Drum, N. Y., returned home with PTSD. While in
Iraq, he "was a firefight after an ambush near Abu
Ghraib. Three insurgents were killed. [He] took a bullet
to the chest. His Kevlar vest saved his life." The
incident would lead to stateside depression and a charge
of desertion (later dropped to going AWOL) when he
refused to return to base. He told his family, "that he
had nothing left to live for anymore, that his country
gave up on him," and that he was "dead inside" and "a
killer machine now." His family "repeatedly called Fort
Drum and a local military chaplain" for help but were
told by his sergeant that "we've all been through a
lot." The morning of the incident, his mother found him
attempting to hang himself, but "he was too heavy for
the cord and it broke." He then barricaded himself in
his home, "armed with a handgun and high-power rifle."
After a nine-hour police stand-off, he surrendered after
being flushed out with teargas.
Source:
CNN
- Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees [2006-11-13]
++++++++++++
2006-05-16 Pattern of misconduct: Fort Carson soldiers
allege abuse and intimidation
STATESIDE INCIDENT. Self-reported coping w/PTSD. A 23
y/o infantryman from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team based
at Fort Carson tried to commit suicide by hanging
himself. "Less than a year ago, [he] was a hero, a
Purple Heart recipient who'd re-enlisted for six years.
But stationed on a remote highway outpost near Ramadi,
he faced a daily onslaught of insurgents' roadside
explosions. ... Once back at Fort Carson, [he] says he
suffered panic attacks, jitters, sleeplessness and
flashbacks. He turned to drugs, alcohol and sleeping
pills to ease his afflictions. When urine analysis tests
came back positive, the Army began to process his
discharge for "patterns of misconduct." ... [He] among
eight active-duty and recently discharged soldiers
interviewed by the Independent who allege that Fort
Carson hindered or outright denied PTSD treatment. They
say the Army is pursuing or has pursued disciplinary
action to purge them from the ranks. Because of the
nature of their discharges, some stand to lose benefits,
such as the Montgomery GI Bill, which provides money for
college."
Source:
CSIndy.com [2006-07-16]
++++++++++++
2006-04-07 Potential Riverside Barricade Incident Turns
Out to be Suicide Attempt
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide attempt. A 24-year old
former Iraq veteran and Marine attempted suicide by
using a knife to slash his forearm as a number of
friends and relatives tried to stop him. Apparently,
he’d “been drinking heavily and wanted to call his wife,
from whom he was recently separated.” After he was
discouraged by friends, he used his knife on himself and
then “began stabbing the floor of the apartment.” Police
had also been called to the scene, which after hearing
that a gunshot had been heard coming from the apartment
prepared for a barricade or hostage situation.
Eventually, the former veteran came out from his
apartment and collapsed only to be revived later,
fighting off the police as he came to who were trying to
subdue him. They did so with an electric stun gun before
transporting him to a local hospital.
Source:
Riverside/Brookfield Landmark [Oak Park, IL]
[2006-04-11]
++++++++++++
2006-04-00 Healing continues for vet, his nurse
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide attempt. Self-reported
Army nurse and career Army officer “attempted suicide 10
days before her tour was to end. She was diagnosed with
[PTSD]. She spent time in a psychiatric ward at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.” Here’s how
she explains her experience in Iraq: “I can’t describe
the horror…I swiped a wounded soldier’s eyeball into a
trash can…It was never ending. There was no escape.” She
said it wasn’t so much the danger that affected her, “it
was the wounded.” She has not been able “to touch a
patient” since being back from Iraq. She shares, “It’s
so sad. That’s who I was. I was good at it. Others with
PTSD can go on to become bankers or lawyers. But the
thing I am, I can’t be anymore.” She has “good days and
bad days” and “remains on the Army’s temporary
disability retirement list.”
Source: The News
Tribune, Tacoma, WA [2006-04-09]
++++++++++++
2006-03-06 For Soldier, War's Turmoil Continued Within
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 26-year old Army Ranger
serving as a sniper with the 1st Battalion, 128th
Infantry of Wisconsin Army National Guard in Kosovo and
11 months in Iraq committed suicide 4 months following
his return home. Although he’d tried to get help,
getting VA counseling and picking up where he’d left off
as a Milwaukee police officer, he “couldn't sleep. He
pushed away the people he loved and hopelessly turned
inward. … ‘Two wars were too much,’ said his father …
‘The horror of war he went through killed him.’” To a
friend he’d confided, “They're making me into something
I don't want to be.” He witnessed the death of 4
soldiers in his convoy in Iraq and “never got over an
incident in Kosovo in which he killed a boy who
approached and was deemed in that split second to be a
possible threat." Before coming home from Iraq he wrote,
“To shut oneself down from actions and a state of mind
where you no longer do those nameless and unspeakable
acts that one does for survivability. I had to do it
after Kosovo, shut off those tools and instincts and
countless other things…It's certainly easier to turn it
back on than off, which in a way is frightening in
itself."
Source: Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel [2006-04-30]
++++++++++++
2006-03-03 The War Within
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old “2000 Penn
Manor graduate [who’d] served five months with the Army
in Iraq in 2003, [shooting] at a tank, killing three
Iraqis” killed himself after his struggle with PTSD.
“His lieutenant also was killed while he was there. […he
returned home] quiet and very withdrawn. His father…an
Army veteran himself, noticed it immediately and tried
to reach out to him…[but his son] retreated behind yes
or no answers.” Although he attempted college, he later
dropped out. He couldn’t hold down a job, “was sullen
and moody…and resisted…counseling.” He’d separated from
his wife numerous times. His first suicide attempt:
“Just before Thanksgiving, he lit his truck on fire and
got inside. His wife found him in time and stopped him
from killing himself.” He finally agreed to get some
help, and was prescribed antidepressants and a VA
appointment – one month later. He went off his meds, and
committed suicide by shooting himself on his favorite
hiking trail. His family found his a journal of his Iraq
experiences after his death, his mother saying, “He
never got over what he saw.”
Source: Lancaster
[PA] New Era [2006-04-21]
++++++++++++
2006-03-01 Army's Suicide Struggles Continue
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 21-year old Army
soldier serving in Iraq with Fort Hood’s 4th Infantry
Division killed herself with a gunshot wound to the
chest two weeks after saying she was raped by a fellow
soldier. She committed suicide “days after being
diagnosed and treated for ‘Acute Stress Disorder
consistent with Rape Trauma Syndrome.’ The records show
she was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft, the
antipsychotic Seroquel and the sleeping aid Ambien.” Her
“mental health declined sharply after the rape, and
particularly after the soldier she accused was not
confined pending his trial. ‘[She] stated that she can't
do it anymore, that she just wanted everything to be
over with,’ a fellow soldier told investigators,
recounting a conversation with [her] days before her
death.” A 4th ID “chaplain observed [her] exhibiting
potentially suicidal behavior” following the incident,
yet did not warn her superiors. Her mother said, “She
was raped. …I gave my daughter to the Army for this
country, and they let us down."”
Source: Hartford
Courant [2007-01-31]
++++++++++++
2006-02-20 Police Continue Murder-Suicide Probe
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 36-year old
Air Force Tech Sgt. based out of Scott AFB broke into
his estranged wife’s parent’s home (where she and her 9
year old son were staying) by breaking in the door in
the early morning hours. He shot his wife in the
presence of their son, and then turned the gun on
himself. He’d left a recording at his apartment
explaining what he was going to do and why. The airman
has been “assigned to the 375th Aeromedical Evacuation
Squadron, which evacuates injured soldiers from combat
areas and transports them to military hospitals. ...
[He’d] been stationed with them in southwestern Asia and
had flown in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring
Freedom.” His last deployment ended in April 2005.
Source: Belleville
News-Democrat [Southern IL/St. Louis Metro] [2006-02-22]
++++++++++++
2006-01-16 KIA in Alabama
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 37-year old Army
National Guard Iraq combat zone truck driver who drove
“supply convoys along the shooting gallery between
Baghdad Airport and LSA Anaconda in Balad -- a giant
military base…subject to so many mortar and rocket
attacks that the troops have renamed it Mortaritaville,”
committed suicide. Earlier in the day, he’d sounded
upbeat when talking with two friends on the phone; later
he changed his answering machine message to say, “If
you're looking for [me], I'm checking out of this world.
I'll see you on the other side,” telephoned police and
waited for them on his porch with his shotgun. When “the
police wouldn't oblige him with a "suicide by cop" and
tried to talk him down…[he] did an about face, rotated
the shotgun and killed himself.” He’d had a long
two-year struggle with the VA to receive treatment for
his PTSD and was vocal in trying to shine a light on the
condition, writing and working as a member of Iraq
Veterans Against the War.
Source: Huffington
Post, Stan Goff blog [2006-01-20]
++++++++++++
2005-12-22 The War Against PTSD Starts Now!
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 22-year old Army
Reserve soldier based in Davenport, IA committed suicide
a year after returning from an 11 month tour of duty in
Iraq. The soldier’s family states on a website created
in his honor that he left a note behind detailing his
torment dealing with PTSD. Originally joining the
reserves as a step to becoming a police officer, his
family states, “While in Iraq…the conditions where
unimaginable, and worse yet were the jobs they had to
do. [He] was a proud American, loved his country, and
was proud to defend her and the freedoms of its people.
He knew why he had to do the things he and others did,
he just was never able to recover from having seen and
done them. He came home a year ago with PTSD and was
never the same.”
Source: Memorial
website created by soldier's family. [2006-01-07]
++++++++++++
2005-12-07 Time at War Haunted Man Who Killed Dad,
Himself
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 42-year old
former Marine sergeant and Afghanistan combat vet shot
and killed his 77-year old father, later turning the gun
on himself; he’d called his VA counselor in distress
saying he wouldn’t be coming in the next day. His former
fiancé said that after he’d returned home from duty he
couldn’t sleep; continuously paced; started using
alcohol to cover his pain; and dreamed about one
specific incident repeatedly. “Scheduled to fly on a
mission, [a]t the last minute, he was reassigned. [T]he
plane he was supposed to be on, a KC-130 transport,
smashed into a mountain, killing eight of his fellow
Marines. He went on the recovery mission and helped
search for the body parts of his buddies.” Once home, he
participated in PTSD counseling/support group for 2
years where he’d expressed guilt for not being on the
plane that had killed his fellow Marines. His fiancé
explained, “[He] told me personally . . . 'We are all in
for a whole lot of trouble when all these boys come back
from Iraq and Afghanistan'... The military lures them
into service and trains them for war, but they don't
take care of them when they come back..."
Source: Los Angeles
Times [2006-02-12]
++++++++++++
2005-11-30 Suburban Soldier Dies In Iraq
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 probable suicide. A 25-year old
Army soldier based out of Fort Campbell, KY died in Iraq
of non-combat injuries that were ‘under investigation’
at the time of this report – generally meaning this is a
probable combat-zone suicide. The Blackhawk helicopter
crewman was on his second deployment to Iraq and served
with the 101st Airborne Division. “Neighbors say
[he]came here from Poland as an adult and joined the
Army, in part, to get an education he otherwise couldn’t
afford. … and [his] mother died in May, and his father
is critically ill.”
Source: CBS-2
[Chicago, IL] [2005-12-05]
++++++++++++
2005-11-08 After Soldier's Suicide, his Family Calls for
More Counseling
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 20-year old marine
lance corporal -- following 9 months combat duty in Iraq
-- killed himself 6 weeks after returning home to his
family in Oregon. The soldier had gone through the
routine 24-hour debriefing process. His family didn't
realize he was having any serious problems, but now
believes he was struggling with having seen a friend die
in combat. They are now pushing for counseling to be
mandatory for all soldiers returning from combat. The
victim's father said "they teach the soldiers how to
fight, but they don't teach them how to live when they
come home."
Source: KTVL -
Medford/Grants Pass/Klamath Falls, OR [2005-12-05]
++++++++++++
2005-10-08 The V.A.'s bad review
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 57-year old former
Vietnam veteran who served "with the 4th Infantry
Division in 1969 and 1970," and was diagnosed with PTSD
following the war committed suicide. "At his side were
his gun and Purple Heart …[and] a folder of information
on how the V.A. planned to review veterans who received
PTSD checks to make sure those veterans really deserved
the money. … [He] was a member of AMVETS, a service
organization for veterans, whose issues were close to
his heart. He was also one veteran who sent a clear
message back to the V.A. 'The evidence indicated that he
committed suicide because he was frustrated and afraid
that the V.A. was going to take his benefits away,'"
said the cabinet secretary of the state's Department of
Veterans Services. [Although this incident is not of an
OEF/OIF veteran, the suicide is likely linked to the
strains on the system caused by the wars in the Middle
East.]
Source:
Salon [2005-10-26]
++++++++++++
2005-09-16 General's Family Rules Out Suicide
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 53-year old retired
brigadier general who’d served in Grenada, Panama, and
Iraq committed suicide by shooting himself with a 9mm
pistol. When police arrived on the scene, the victim’s
wife told them he’d been drunk and abusive, although he
showed no signs he was thinking about taking his life.
“He loaded two pistols, a Beretta and a .380-caliber
Walter, and placed them in the bedroom for his personal
safety. […] He was argumentative and thoroughly
intoxicated — the level of alcohol later found in his
blood, 0.24, was the equivalent of a dozen beers.” His
wife witnessed the shooting. She had been arguing with
her husband and said he was hurting her by his drinking.
"I wanted him to stop drinking and come to bed. That's
when he said, 'Hurt? I'll show you hurt.'" He pressed
the gun to his temple.”
Source: Express-News
[San Antonio, TX] [2006-01-01]
++++++++++++
2005-08-03 Carson Soldier Kills Wife, Himself
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 35-year old
Fort Carson, CO 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldier who 9
days earlier had arrived stateside after being sent into
combat in Iraq for a year from a South Korea base, shot
his wife five times in the head and neck with a pistol
before killing himself with a shotgun blast to the head.
The couple were the parents of a toddler; neighbors said
the soldier had signed up with the Army in Jan. 2004 for
access to health benefits because his wife was expecting
a baby.
Source: Colorado
Springs Gazette [2005-08-05]
++++++++++++
2005-08-01 2 Iraq Veterans Stationed at Fort Hood Kill
Themselves
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 22-year old Fort Hood
Army radio operator-maintainer who’d signed up with the
military as a teen, “was found dead in his apartment by
Killeen police, who were alerted after members of his
unit tried to contact him when he failed to report to
work. … [T]he cause of death was listed as
asphyxiation.” After spending a year deployed in Iraq
beginning in March 2004 attached to the 1st Cavalry
Division, he was scheduled to return to the combat zone
later that fall.
Source: Associated
Press [2005-08-04]
++++++++++++
2005-07-30 2 Iraq Veterans Stationed at Fort Hood Kill
Themselves
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 24-year old Fort Hood
[Killeen, TX] Army soldier died “from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound. He had been airlifted from his home to a
Temple hospital for emergency surgery, but he died while
doctors tried to save his life. … [He’d] served in Iraq
from April 2003 to March 2004, and … was scheduled to
redeploy when the division return[ed] to the war zone
[later that] fall.”
Source: Associated
Press [2005-08-04]
++++++++++++
2005-07-28 Marine's Military Background is Explored
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 20-year old
Marine based out of Camp Lejeune, NC and mysteriously,
but honorably, discharged in February, killed his
newly-enlisted 18-year old girlfriend with a shot to the
back and then turned the shotgun on himself in
Washington State.
Source: Bellingham
Herald [WA] [2005-08-03]
++++++++++++
2005-07-26 Iraq Vet Gets New Combat Action Badge,
Commits Suicide in Tacoma 11 Days Later
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Iraq combat
vet, only 11 days earlier decorated with the Army's
Combat Action Badge, shot himself in Tacoma, WA. Army
Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker himself had awarded
this badge following the soldier's 15 months of combat
duty; he also received a purple heart and bronze star. A
family member said, "The stress of having to kill while
in battle really got to him." (Additional information
culled from Seattle Weekly: Home Front Casualities at
http://tinyurl.com/7esr9)
Source: New Tribune
[Tacoma, WA] [2005-08-07]
++++++++++++
2005-07-14 Iraq Vet hangs himself in basement 4 months
after returning home
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Army Spc in
the 308th Quartermaster Army Reserve, based in Mt.
Pleasant, Iowa hung himself in his basement 4 months
after returning from Iraq. His mother reported his
haunting memory about an insurgent who executed an Iraqi
child in full view of him and other members of his unit.
She says he had a lot of nightmares and flashbacks, and
his girlfriend reported his waking "up in night sweats,
and she had to take him out for a walk at three in the
morning." Her son "knew he needed help, but he didn't
want to go to the VA." His mother further added that
"she really got worried three days before her son died.
"He called me at work towards the end of the day," she
says. "He was at the mall. He was crying. He was really
disoriented. He didn't know what was happening. He was
afraid."
Source: The
Progressive [2006-07-18]
++++++++++++
2005-07-09 Special Forces Suicides Raise Questions
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Iraq
veteran attached to the 10th Special Forces Group based
at Fort Carson, CO hanged himself in the post barracks
about a month after returning from Iraq.
Source: Associated
Press [2005-10-05]
++++++++++++
2005-06-29 Investigation Begins into Death at Fort Riley
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 possible suicide (death from
natural causes?). A Fort Riley, KS soldier was found
dead in his quarters; no foul play is expected. The
soldier was assigned to the 82nd Medical Company of the
541st Maintenance Battalion, and had served two stints
in Iraq.
Source: FOX 4 News -
Kansas City, MO [2005-06-30]
++++++++++++
2005-06-20 Soldier Shaken by Death of Brother Ends Own
Life
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 19-year old Iowa Army
National Guardsman who was distraught at the news of his
22-year old brother’s death in Iraq, stepped in front of
a highway pickup truck killing himself instantly. He’d
been the family’s spokesman after the news of the combat
zone death -- his brother will be “the first Iowan
killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington National
Cemetery outside Washington, D.C.” The younger brother
was set to be deployed to Iraq himself later in the
year.
Source: Des Moines
[IA] Register [2005-06-23]
++++++++++++
2005-06-04 Soldier's Journey Ends in Anguish
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 44-year old Army
colonel and leading scholar of military ethics (whose
dissertation had been on the meaning of honor) committed
suicide in a military base trailer near Baghdad airport.
Shooting himself once in the head with his service
pistol, he became the highest-ranking officer to die in
Iraq (at the time). A West Point professor, he’d
volunteered for war duty in order to improve his
teaching abilities. While in Iraq in charge of training
Iraqi police, the Colonel had uncovered possible
corruption by US contractors; an investigation followed.
“In e-mails to his family, [he] seemed especially upset
by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional
military values such as duty, honor, and country had
been replaced by profit motives in Iraq.” In a letter
found in his trailer, one question loomed large for him:
“How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq?”
Source: Los Angeles
Times [2005-12-04]
++++++++++++
2005-05-23 Family questions Army ruling that soldier
committed suicide
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 21-year-old Army
specialist with Virginia National Guard's 3rd Battalion,
116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, based
in Manassas, Va., died in Afghanistan from a
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head according to an
investigative report issued by the U.S. Army Criminal
Investigation Command in Virginia. His mother and other
family members would not agree with the mode of death.
She said that “the Army has told her many conflicting
things about her son’s death, starting from the day he
died. On that day, the military issued a brief statement
saying the soldier died from ‘non-combat related
injuries.’ … It's just gone back and forth so many times
it's become very difficult for our family to have to
endure all these things.”
Source: Associated
Press (Marinette/Menominee Eagle Herald) [2006-08-10]
++++++++++++
2005-05-09 Searchers Find Blind, Suicidal Iraq Veteran
Alive
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 attempted suicide, aggravated
assault, other charges. A 22-year old blind, severely
injured Iraq veteran was rescued after being dropped off
at a PA bike trail along the Youghiogheny River and
disappearing a day after threatening suicide. After
losing his eyesight, left leg, and part of his hearing
while defusing a bomb in a dusty Baghdad lot, the Army
soldier came back to a hometown parade and a community
that hailed him as a hero. But, he suffered from
depression and had a couple of run-ins with police --
including a fight with 3 patrons and 2 police officers
in a Uniontown bar resulting in his facing trial on
aggravated assault and other charges.
Source: Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette [2005-05-11]
++++++++++++
2005-04-17 Veteran's memorial website
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 30-year old Delaware
Air National Guard crew chief committed suicide six days
after returning from Uzbekistan. “He was given full
military honors at his funeral where he was awarded The
Delaware National Guard Medal for services rendered
during Operation Iraqi/Enduring Freedom.”
Source:
Memory-of.com [2005-08-21]
++++++++++++
2005-03-28 Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 19-year old soldier
serving in Ar Ramadi, Iraq with the Army's 1st
Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry
Division, based at Camp Greaves, Korea, committed
suicide by balancing the butt of his rifle on a cot,
putting his mouth over the muzzle and firing. The Army
Pfc. from Anaheim, California, "had talked to fellow
soldiers about a dream in which he tried to kill his
sergeant before taking his own life, and of kidnapping,
raping and killing Iraqi children. Three times, a
soldier recounted in a sworn statement, Lee had pointed
his gun at himself and depressed the trigger, stopping
just before a round fired. … After the suicide, combat
stress team of psychological experts arrived at the
outpost. They came not only because of the suicide, but
because the flow of American blood in Ramadi was high."
The Army private had specifically requested an
assignment in Korea so he could see his father's
homeland and was stationed there before deployment to
Iraq.
Source: The Hartford
Courant [2006-05-14]
++++++++++++
2005-02-28 Veteran's memorial website
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 26-year old Marine
who’d personally been reenlisted by the Secretary of the
Navy, Gordon R. England, at the peak of Mount Suribachi
above Iwo Jima the year before, committed suicide. At
the time of his reenlistment, the intelligence clerk in
the 3rd Materiel Readiness Battalion said, “The
experience was definitely a chance of a lifetime and a
great feeling…Not many Marines or Sailors can say they
were re-enlisted on top of Mount Suribachi by the
Secretary of the Navy. Also, knowing who and what I was
representing at such a level was a good feeling in
itself. It was definitely an honor to be in that
position.”
Source:
Memory-of.com [2005-04-20]
++++++++++++
2005-02-11 Vietnam, Iraq Wars Cited For Minister's
Suicide
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 62-year old decorated
Vietnam war veteran and minister who'd lost both legs to
a landmine, shot himself in his WA church office after
calling 911. He'd left a suicide note apologizing to his
wife and kids for not being stronger. "35 Marines died
today in Iraq, only slightly more noticed than my legs,"
the former second lieutenant and Purple Heart/Bronze
Star recipient. His wife said he was anxious about the
soldiers coming home. Six months following the Iraq war,
he'd given a sermon about having faith in what the
government was doing; half a year later he offered a
different view -- one that divided parishioners in the
conservative farming town. He told the congregation he
was no longer sure the country was doing the right
thing. His daughter said: "I underestimated the power of
the war to take his life and I really feel that though
my dad's been in Wenatchee, the war in Iraq killed him."
Source: Seattle
Post-Intelligencer [2005-02-22]
++++++++++++
2005-02-03 At Fort Bragg, Another Violent Suicide
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. 2 attempted murder. A
34-year old Special Forces soldier who’d served in
Afghanistan shot himself “at his ex-wife's home near the
North Carolina base. He first shot her boyfriend several
times, then shot her in the arm.” He’d served in combat
in Afghanistan from September 2002 to March 2003.
Source: United Press
International [2005-02-11]
++++++++++++
2005-01-09 Cop, Gunman Dead
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide (by police
fire). A 19-year old combat veteran and Marine who’d
told family members he didn’t want to return to Iraq
fired on Modesto police officers in an apparent
premeditated ambush. Before being shot and killed
himself, he’d shot dead one and critically injured
another police officer in the 3-hour gun battle. The
Camp Pendleton, CA-based Marine had served in Fallujah
and returned stateside only 4 months prior. On the day
of the incident, he’d told fellow soldiers at his base
that he was going out for something to eat and never
returned. In the police shoot-out, officers estimated
that the Marine, using an SKS assault rifle similar to
the weapon he was trained to use in the military, had
fired more than 60 rounds before his gun went silent.
Source: Modesto Bee
[CA] [2005-01-12]
++++++++++++
2004-12-06 Over My Dead Body
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 25-year old Iraqi vet
based out of Fort Riley, KS, husband and father of two,
abruptly left his family and went AWOL -- only to return
to base after his wife begged him to. Hours after
telling her he would not go back to Iraq, and that she'd
be better off without him, he was found hanging in his
barracks. Consumed by nightmares, he'd told his
stepfather that he'd had to kill during his service, and
that he was torn up about it. He and his wife argued
about her not understanding what he went through -- the
police stepping in twice before his suicide. He was
being treated by a psychiatrist for PTSD at the time of
his death.
Source: St.
Petersburg Times [2005-02-13]
++++++++++++
2004-11-05 Wounds Unseen Prove Just as Deadly to Troops
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. An Army Captain fatally
shot himself in the chest a year after returning from
Iraq. Before his return home to Fort Sill, OK, “he
expressed concerns about emotional conflicts to a doctor
in Germany. The doctor referred him to a counselor. But
on-post counselors were so understaffed that they
couldn't see him before he left five days later. … At
Fort Sill, Capt. Pelkey sought medical help but was
discouraged that appointments were sometimes a month
away. The family contacted Tricare, a program that lets
military families use civilian medical care, and were
told the only outside therapy available was "family
therapy." They took it.” A week prior to his death, he’d
received an off-post PTSD diagnosis. The victim’s wife,
who also served in the Army, testified in July before
the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "We were both
officers. These were things we should have known but
didn't. We hadn't been made aware of what to look for,"
Mrs. Pelkey said in a phone interview. "There had been
no debriefings for family members or forced evaluations
in Germany. The post-deployment evaluation was more a
check-of-the-box and move on."
Source: The Dallas
Morning News (registration free) [2005-12-04]
++++++++++++
2004-10-09 Soldier Just Back From Iraq Hangs Himself In
Jail
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 domestic assault, 1 suicide. A
37-year old Fort Eustis, VA soldier (returned only the
month earlier) from Iraq hanged himself in jail over the
weekend. "Police say [he] hanged himself with a bedsheet
early Saturday in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail
in James City, about 12 hours after being arrested on a
charge of assaulting his wife at their York County home.
... [I]n the four weeks since his return, deputies
responded to about six complaints against McKeehan by
his wife and a neighbor."
Source: Associated
Press [2004-10-12]
++++++++++++
2004-09-24 Kingston GI Brought Home Hidden Injuries
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Army
communications specialist who’d served a 10 month tour
in Afghanistan committed suicide 3 weeks after his
return home to his family. Only after his suicide did
his mother find out he’d sleep for 18 hours a day at his
base in Fort Bragg, that he had nightmares, lost weight,
and that his personality had changed. When he left the
base, he didn’t tell his parents any of this; two days
after returning home, he kept a VA hospital appointment
related to back pain problems. A day later, he told his
parents he was going to visit a friend. 19 days later
they found him dead in his car following a cross-county
odyssey; he’d stabbed himself once in the heart.
Source: Rockford
Register Star [IL] [2006-04-16]
++++++++++++
2004-08-28 Soldier Kills Himself After Arrest on
Child-sex Charge
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide, sexual assault on a
child, enticement of a child, and possession of an
illegal weapon. A 40-year old Army Special Forces
soldier and Iraq vet based out of Fort Carson, CO
committed suicide a week following his arrest “in an
Internet sting after allegedly trying to arrange sex
with a teen-age girl...[He] was also under investigation
by the Army in the theft of government cash in Iraq.”
Source: Associated
Press [2004-09-03]
++++++++++++
2004-08-18 Death Rocks Counselors Who Work With Soldiers
Returning from War
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 48-year old New
Hampshire National Guardsman died of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound a mere day after returning home from Iraq.
Source: Union Leader
[New Hampshire] [2004-08-29]
++++++++++++
2004-08-00 Special Forces Suicides Raise Questions
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 40-year old Special
Forces Seargant based out of Fort Carson, CO shot
himself six weeks after he returned from Iraq. He had
recently been arrested for allegedly arranging to have
sex with an undercover officer who had posed on the
Internet as a 13-year old girl. He was married, and the
father of two.
Source: Associated
Press [2005-10-11]
++++++++++++
2004-06-22 Parents Mourn Son's Suicide After Returning
From Iraq Duty: "He's a Casualty of War"
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Marine
Reserve who fought in the battle of Nasiriyah hung
himself a year after returning home from military duty.
In late May 2004, his parents had involuntarily
committed him to a military veteran's hospital after he
ignored pleas to seek help. The hospital discharged him
after a few days. Three weeks later, he was dead -- the
dog tags of two Iraqi prisoners he said he was forced to
shoot unarmed, lay on his bed.
Source: Democracy
Now! [2004-08-11]
++++++++++++
2004-06-22 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Number of
Cases on Rise
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 36-year old Persian
Gulf War combat veteran, who’d served in Saudi Arabia
and Iraq, committed suicide following a 13 year struggle
with PTSD. “But in the end, he shot and killed himself
last year while sitting in his truck behind a sandwich
shop not far from his northwest Las Vegas home. His
mother blames the Army and the Veterans Administration
for not giving him the proper care soon enough.” Her son
suffered with nightmares and flashbacks of combat
incidents he experienced. She blames long waits,
shuffling from one doctor to another, prescribing
medications that did more harm than good, and monthly
appointments with a physician’s aide rather than weekly
appointments with a psychiatrist for her son falling
through the cracks. “[T]here should have been more focus
from the VA's mental health professionals on her son's
case. If it had been paying attention, she wonders, then
why did the VA call her two months after he died to tell
her he missed his meetings?”
Source: Las Vegas
Review Journal [2005-09-25]
++++++++++++
2004-05-27 Stretched Thin -- Concern Mounts Over
Soldiers' Mental Health Care
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 33-year old staff
sergeant (based out of Fort Jackson, SC), state trooper,
and Gulf War I vet returned from a year's deployment in
Iraq afraid of seeking psychological help because of
what it might mean for his career. His wife, nonetheless
persuaded him to call an Army program that helps
soldiers find treatment; but, he lied on the phone,
answering 'no' when asked if he thought of harming
himself. Just a few hours later, with his stepdaughter
playing outside, the National Guardsman shot himself in
the heart only 5 weeks after returning home as his wife
rushed to try to knock the gun out of his hand.
Source: Associated
Press [2004-12-28]
++++++++++++
2004-03-21 The War Comes Home: Rifleman Couldn't Take
Any More
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 22-year old Marine
combat rifleman hanged himself with is own belt in his
apartment, from his bathroom showerhead, two months
after being honorably discharged. The “young corporal --
who had served in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and
Djibouti and had been part of the first Marine presence
in Iraq last year…was struggling with guilt, said his
father…At one point he told [him], 'You know, Dad, it's
really hard -- very, very hard -- to see a man's face
and kill him.'” Although he sought some counseling, he
didn’t stick with it. His mother “says her son's jump
from military to civilian life was too quick,”There
should have had more one-on-one talks with other vets.
There should have been more realizing that you just
can't kick loose these young boys after what they've
experienced and seen.”
Source: Seattle
Post-Intelligencer [2004-08-13]
++++++++++++
2004-03-20 GI's Suicide Shows Failure By Us All
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 domestic assault, 1 suicide. A
36-year old warrant officer based out of Fort Carson,
CO. Returning to his base following 10 months of combat
duty in Iraq and 3 weeks after coming home, this Special
Forces Green Beret beat his wife and threatened her with
his .357-caliber revolver; put the gun to his head when
police answered a domestic abuse call; and died of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Source: The Denver
Post [2004-03-21]
++++++++++++
2004-03-18 Reservist Commits Suicide After Return
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 6-times decorated
executive officer of the Army Reserve's 909th Forward
Surgical Team having returned from combat duty in
Afghanistan shot and killed himself. He was upset that
he couldn't afford to pay for an attorney to fight for
the City of Columbus, OH promised promotion and raise
offered him in September 2002 before he left to serve.
When he returned, the higher-level job had been filled
and he was forced to resume his old job, which pays
$4,000 less per year.
Source: Associated
Press [2004-03-19]
++++++++++++
2004-03-14 Exclusive: Green Beret's Strange Suicide
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 36-year old Army
Special Forces Chief Warrant Officer and Iraq vet based
out of Fort Carson, CO committed suicide a mere three
weeks after returning home to his wife and three
children. Earlier the day of the incident, he’d fallen
asleep on the couch after feeding his 7-month old
daughter. Later that evening, however, “a 911 dispatcher
received a call from [his wife]: "My husband just hit
me, and he's going downstairs to get his gun." [She]
hung up and slipped out a door, but her husband cornered
her between the garage and their truck parked in front
of it. He took a .357-caliber revolver from his
waistband and pointed it in her face. "You are going to
watch this. You are going to watch this," [he] said to
his wife -- meaning watch as he shot her in the face.
Police were approaching through a neighbor's yard. [The
wife] knocked his hand up and away. In the next moment,
[he] put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.”
While in Iraq, his Special Forces A-Team deployed in
Samarra was under “relatively constant and extreme
duress, including frequent combat.”
Source: United Press
International [2004-05-11]
++++++++++++
2004-03-07 Marine Suicide in Kuwaiti Chapel
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. An 18-year old Marine
was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head while
deployed in Kuwait. He was found in a chapel, military
investigators listing it as a suicide.
Source: Associated
Press [2006-02-15]
++++++++++++
2004-01-17 Pentagon Counts the Psychological Cost of
Iraq War as Survey Reveals Suicide Levels
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 28-year old Army
Specialist who’d recently re-enlisted “walked out of the
101st Airborne base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, checked
into a motel room, and put a Do Not Disturb sign on the
door. The police discovered his body four days later,
along with containers of household poison. Seeley was
28.” He’d come from a long line of veterans (his
grandfather having fought in WWII, his father in
Vietnam) and joined the Army himself in 2001 – before
September 11th – after saying he needed “a change.”
Source: The Guardian
Unlimited [2004-03-29]
++++++++++++
2004-01-12 Behind the Walls of Ward 54: 45-year old Army
Spec commits suicide
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 43-year old Army Spc.,
who’d been evacuated from Iraq due to debilitating back
pain, hung himself with the sash of his bathrobe while
getting treatment for PTSD at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center. “[He’d served] with the 544th Military Police
Company, a unit of the Puerto Rico National Guard, the
kind of unit that saw dirty, face-to-face combat in
Iraq. … [A] doctor who treated him in Puerto Rico upon
his return from Iraq [wrote:] "Clearly, the psychiatric
symptoms are combat related … Outcome will depend on
adequacy and appropriateness of treatment." He was sent
to Walter Reed, where he was put in the psychiatric ward
(Ward 54) “where the most troubled patients are supposed
to have constant supervision. … But less than a month
after [arriving, he] was found dead, hanging in Ward 54.
Army buddies who visited him in the days before his
death said [he] was increasingly angry and despondent.
‘He was real upset with the treatment he was getting. …
He said: 'These people are giving me the runaround ...
These people think I'm crazy, and I'm not crazy ... I'm
getting more crazy being up here.'"
Source: Salon.com
[accessible copy at Veterans for Common
Sense] [2005-02-18]
++++++++++++
2003-12-01 Adopted Paratrooper Originally from Honduras
Dies in Iraq
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 19-year old Army
paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, Battery B,
2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment
who’d planned to attend college after his service was
found dead of a non-hostile gunshot wound. Adopted as a
young boy from a small Honduran village, he dreamed of
returning to build and orphanage so that other kids
might have a better life as he did. His family has vowed
to make the dream come true, and has created a
foundation in his honor.
Source: Hartford
Courant [2003-12-20]
++++++++++++
2003-12-00 Behind the Walls of Ward 54: 25-year old Army
Spec discusses PTSD
COMBAT ZONE/STATESIDE REPORT: Self-reported hospitalised
for PTSD. A 25-year old Army Spc., who’d “served in Iraq
with the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, from May
until December 2003” was evacuated from Iraq due to
severe combat stress and admitted to a treatment program
at Walter Reed’s outpatient clinic. He was not impressed
with the counseling he received at the time saying,
"They started asking me questions about my mom and my
dad getting divorced. That was the last thing on my mind
when I'm thinking about people getting fragged and
burned bodies being pulled out of vehicles. … They asked
me if I missed my wife. Well, … yeah, I missed my wife.
That is not the … problem here. Did you ever put your
foot through a 5-year-old's skull?" He made two suicide
attempts while at Walter Reed.
Source: Salon.com
[accessible copy at Veterans for Common
Sense] [2005-02-18]
++++++++++++
2003-11-27 Iraq Vet Takes His Own Life on Thanksgiving
Day
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 23-year old Army Sgt.
based out of Fort Riley, KS committed suicide while
serving in Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 5th Field
Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. The day this
troop died of a gunshot wound to the head in his
Junction City, Iraq barracks, “he had just received word
that he was being promoted to sergeant, his mother
said.”I was so proud of him," [his mother] said. "I
loved him dearly for his compassion. He definitely won't
be nominated for sainthood, but he was a compassionate,
loving person.”
Source: Honor the
Fallen Memorial Page by MilitaryCity.com/AP [2003-12-09]
++++++++++++
2003-10-01 Soldier Commits Suicide After Fatally
Shooting Man Breaking Into His Vehicle
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 21-year old
Army soldier who’d “spent seven months in the Middle
East as part of the 507th Maintenance Company, the same
unit as Pfc. Jessica Lynch,” with a clean military
record, shot and killed a man who’d broken into his car
parked outside a Tucson hotel. The soldier, who was on
20 days military leave from Fort Bliss at the time and
was on his way home for a visit with his family in San
Diego, “shot him in the back and fled.” The soldier’s
body was later “discovered near his Jeep on a rural
road” which contained “four rifles, one shotgun and two
handguns” – all non-military-issued.
Source: Arizona Daily
Star [2010-03-20]
++++++++++++
2003-09-15 Report: Flagstaff Soldier Commits Suicide
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 27-year old
Flagstaff, Ariz. native, the “third woman to die in
Iraq,” committed suicide “two weeks after objecting to
interrogation techniques being used on Iraqi prisoners.
After reportedly saying she couldn’t carry out the
interrogations, she asked to be reassigned and was
directed to monitor Iraqi guards and interpret for Iraqi
civilians.” She served with C Company, 311th Military
Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Her death had been
listed simply as a “non-hostile weapons discharge.” Her
parents were not told of her objections in Iraq, and
were kept in the dark about the circumstances
surrounding her daughter’s death. An Arizona Republic
reporter investigated the incident, and it came the
suicide came to light in 2006.
Source: KTVK-TV and
AZFamily.com [2006-11-01]
++++++++++++
2003-07-14 Army Knew Accused Iraq Vet Was Homicidal
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder. Four Fort Benning, GA
soldiers – all 23-years old and having returned from
Iraq a mere 72 hours earlier – were charged with the
murder of a fellow soldier following a drunken night at
a strip club. “[The victim] was stabbed repeatedly,
dragged into the woods and his body set on fire after
the group got kicked out of [the] club.” All soldiers
involved in this incident served in the same company
which was considered “the tip of the spear in the
invasion into Iraq in March [2003].” Only 10 days
earlier, one of the soldiers involved had attempted
suicide on his way home; his medical records showed that
he was having “homicidal/suicidal” thoughts. They took
his weapon away, and required someone be with him at all
times. “They diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress
disorder and said that on his return to Fort Benning he
immediately should be escorted to the base psychiatric
unit.” That was not to be. The soldier received one
meeting with a counselor and released. Four days later
he was a party to murder.
Source: United Press
International [2003-12-12]
++++++++++++
2003-07-04 Army Gives Family 'No Answers' in Suicide
COMBAT ZONE/STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 36-year old
Army Master Sgt., who’d been evacuated from Kuwait 2
weeks earlier following an overdose, hung himself while
getting treatment for PTSD. “He told doctors he was
seeing the shattered face of a dead soldier in the
mirror. They diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress
disorder, sent him to a hospital in Germany and then to
their premier treatment facility, Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Northwest Washington. By July 4 he was
dead, hanging from a bed sheet in his room at Mologne
House, a hotel for outpatients and families on the
grounds of Walter Reed.” The soldier had served for 17
years in the Army, earning an OIF Bronze Star. His
family is fighting to get his suicide listed as KIA.
Source: Washington
Post [2004-11-04]
++++++++++++
2003-07-03 Soldier's Suicide Shocks Pa. Town
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 20-year old Army
private first class based out of Fort Polk, LA committed
suicide while serving in Iraq with the 502nd Military
Intelligence Company, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
“[A]n account published by the Gettysburg Times tells of
a soldier…who shot himself July 3 after calling the USA.
The suicide took place in front of other troops waiting
to use the telephone.”
Source: USA
Today [2003-10-12]
++++++++++++
2003-06-16 Stress Epidemic Strikes American Forces in
Iraq
COMBAT ZONE INCIDENT: 1 suicide. A 24-year old combat
veteran intentionally overdosed while in Iraq the day
after Father’s Day. He had served in South Korea,
Kuwait, and Iraq. In a letter to his mother prior to his
suicide, he complained “of the conditions he was living
in, without electricity, water to bathe in, as well as a
fear that he would be killed by an Iraqi sniper.” He was
survived by a wife and two daughters.
Source: Guardian
Unlimited - The Observer [2004-01-25]
++++++++++++
2002-07-19 Fort Bragg - Army Special Operations Command
Veteran Kills Wife/Self
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 30-year old
former Afghanistan US Army Special Operations Command
veteran shot and killed his wife, and then himself.
Source: CNN
Washington Bureau [2002-07-27]
++++++++++++
2002-06-11 Fort Bragg - Special Forces Sergeant Kills
Wife/Self
STATESIDE INCIDENT: 1 murder, 1 suicide. A 32-year old
Special Forces sergeant stationed out of Fort Bragg, NC
and just returned from duty in Afghanistan in mid-March,
fatally shot his wife, and then killed himself.
Source: CNN
Washington Bureau [2002-07-27]
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