In Unit Stalked by Suicide, Veterans Try to Save One Another

[n2doc]

Members of a Marine battalion that served in a
restive region in Afghanistan have been devastated
by the deaths of comrades and frustrated by the V.A.

By DAVE PHILIPPS

After the sixth suicide in his old battalion, Manny Bojorquez sank onto his bed. With a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam beside him and a pistol in his hand, he began to cry.

He had gone to Afghanistan at 19 as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. In the 18 months since leaving the military, he had grown long hair and a bushy mustache. It was 2012. He was working part time in a store selling baseball caps and going to community college while living with his parents in the suburbs of Phoenix. He rarely mentioned the war to friends and family, and he never mentioned his nightmares.

He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.

Still reeling from the news, Mr. Bojorquez surveyed the old baseball posters on the walls of his childhood bedroom and the sun-bleached body armor hanging on his bedpost. Then he took a long pull from the bottle.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/us/marine-battalion-veterans-scarred-by-suicides-turn-to-one-another-for-help.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1

[marym625]

1. .

Good for them for helping each other. Where the fuck is the VA?

[The River]

3. Peer to Peer BS Sessions are the Most Effective

Nobody understands you better than another Vet who has been through it too.
Been there, still doing that but I'm also passing it on when I see a need. I still meet
Vietnam era vets who have no clue about the help, they earned, and where it's available.

The VA is doing what it can as fast as it can. It doesn't help to have Republicans
and their business cronies trying to privatize it. Support the Veterans groups and
politico's (like Sanders) who are trying to help.

[marym625]

4. Thank you for your service

And for helping others that served.

I'm sure that is the best way to help, peer to peer. Just seems there should be more involvement by the VA. I support Sanders and others that support our war Veterans and the VA. I can't believe that so many republicans don't. Makes me sick.

[virtualobserver]

2. "He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit"

what a sad reality to face.

I had a conversation with an activist for PTSD awareness and support a few months ago.

His personal story was much like Manny's but in his case it drove him to activism.
His battle with deep depression was ongoing but he channeled all of his energy into helping his comrades.

So many lives have been destroyed, and the casualties continue to mount.