Iraq Vet & Wife Commit Suicide

Another Iraq Vet Suicide -- And His Wife Soon Joined Him
By Greg Mitchell
May 18, 2008

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003805072

NEW YORK Literally every day now brings a report on a suicide by a
veteran of the Iraq war who served multiple tours there and/or
suffered from PTSD. In most cases, the stories emerge from small town
newspapers, as E&P has chronicled for nearly five years. Today's
example comes from a much bigger paper, the Houston Chronicle, and
probes at length a case that occurred last year.

And in this case, the soldier's wife joined him as a suicide the
following day.

The article by Lindsay Wise on Aron Andersson and Cassy Walton
observes that when the former "killed himself on March 6, 2007, he
became one of at least 16 Army recruiters to commit suicide nationwide
since 2000. Five of those suicides occurred in Texas, including three
at the Houston Recruiting Battalion, where Andersson worked after
serving two tours of duty in Iraq.

"Roughly one in five U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
reports symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major
depression, but only slightly more than half have sought treatment,
according to a recently published Rand Corp. study. Of those who did
seek care, only about half received minimally adequate treatment, the
study found.

"Amid increasing concerns about failure to screen, diagnose and treat
soldiers with mental health problems adequately, Andersson's story
raises questions about the pressures faced by the growing number of
veterans who return from multiple combat deployments to high-stress
recruiting assignments back home."

The article talks about the soldier's experience in Iraq and return
home: "The only thing the father knew for sure was that his son had
changed. He was more frustrated, less patient and harder to talk to.
'Did he come back different? Yeah,' Bob Andersson said. 'I don't think
there's anybody who goes over there and fights on the front lines who
ever comes back the same.'

"The soldier once told his father about working a barricade in Iraq
when a white van barreled toward U.S. troops, ignoring warning shots
and orders to stop. 'It was definitely a suicide mission, and he said
this van full of people came in and they had to, quote, light it up,'
Bob Andersson said. 'And he said there were children in there and
everything. I could tell that really, really, bothered him.'"

The lengthy article is at:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5788103.html

*
Greg Mitchell's new book has several chapters on vet suicides. It is
titled So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the
President -- Failed on Iraq.

Greg Mitchell (gmitchell @ editorandpublisher.com) is editor. His new
book has several chapters on vet suicides.