Sad news here
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 2:14 pm
Greetings all...
My sister called me last Thursday with the bad news. Her son (and only child) took his life. My nephew was a soldier - after the towers fell he enlisted in the Marines and did 3 combat tours during his tenure. He came out, and spent a year in civilian life - but was not able to readjust. He had flirted with joining a special forces unit as he was leaving the Marines, and ultimately rejoined the military - into the Army as a Green Beret. I asked him about this at the time - as a Marine he could have looked at their Force Recon unit, or maybe the Nave SEAL's. He said he wanted the Green Beret's because he wouldn't have the deploy as long, or as often.
That turned out to be wrong.
For whatever reason - he went to Afghanistan often. I lost count on the number of deployments he actually went on. Each one for over a year. When he wasn't overseas he spent massive amounts of time in schools for additional skills. He family life suffered.
Eventually he broke - and had no choice but the leave the Army. He tried for years to get his mind right. Doctors, therapy, medications - nothing helped. My mother claims she was told that the military gave him (and others) some kind of "drug" - something intended to be beneficial in some way for a combat soldier, but that actually caused mental damage to a lot of folks. I. have no idea what she might mean by this - she can't explain it further. She likened it to a version of Agent Orange from the Vietnam era, but I doubt this. I doubt anyone will ever know.
Matt's paranoia knew no bounds. He could not walk down the aisle at a grocery story for fear of what might lie around the corner. He eventually gave up driving - for fear that "the enemy" was trying to hack his vehicle. He could not hold down any job - how he survived day to day is beyond me.
He attempted suicide a couple of years ago - but the doctors saved him. Sadly, last Thursday he grabbed his backpack and stepped on the tracks in front of an oncoming train. We are told that the engineer tried to stop - and was on his horn non-stop (we are sure Matt knew it was coming at him and heard the whistle - even though he had his back to the locomotive). The detective told my sister that he had 2 Christmas cards - one from my sister and one from my mother - in his backpack, along with some other stuff.
My mom and sister console themselves with the knowledge that his pain is finally gone - but they are pretty crushed by this. I didn't have a deep relationship with him, but I am sad, as well.
My sister called me last Thursday with the bad news. Her son (and only child) took his life. My nephew was a soldier - after the towers fell he enlisted in the Marines and did 3 combat tours during his tenure. He came out, and spent a year in civilian life - but was not able to readjust. He had flirted with joining a special forces unit as he was leaving the Marines, and ultimately rejoined the military - into the Army as a Green Beret. I asked him about this at the time - as a Marine he could have looked at their Force Recon unit, or maybe the Nave SEAL's. He said he wanted the Green Beret's because he wouldn't have the deploy as long, or as often.
That turned out to be wrong.
For whatever reason - he went to Afghanistan often. I lost count on the number of deployments he actually went on. Each one for over a year. When he wasn't overseas he spent massive amounts of time in schools for additional skills. He family life suffered.
Eventually he broke - and had no choice but the leave the Army. He tried for years to get his mind right. Doctors, therapy, medications - nothing helped. My mother claims she was told that the military gave him (and others) some kind of "drug" - something intended to be beneficial in some way for a combat soldier, but that actually caused mental damage to a lot of folks. I. have no idea what she might mean by this - she can't explain it further. She likened it to a version of Agent Orange from the Vietnam era, but I doubt this. I doubt anyone will ever know.
Matt's paranoia knew no bounds. He could not walk down the aisle at a grocery story for fear of what might lie around the corner. He eventually gave up driving - for fear that "the enemy" was trying to hack his vehicle. He could not hold down any job - how he survived day to day is beyond me.
He attempted suicide a couple of years ago - but the doctors saved him. Sadly, last Thursday he grabbed his backpack and stepped on the tracks in front of an oncoming train. We are told that the engineer tried to stop - and was on his horn non-stop (we are sure Matt knew it was coming at him and heard the whistle - even though he had his back to the locomotive). The detective told my sister that he had 2 Christmas cards - one from my sister and one from my mother - in his backpack, along with some other stuff.
My mom and sister console themselves with the knowledge that his pain is finally gone - but they are pretty crushed by this. I didn't have a deep relationship with him, but I am sad, as well.