Mother witnessed son kill himself after Iraq and PTSD

Family of GI who killed himself wants changes

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 5, 2008 15:03:09 EDT

HANCEVILLE, Ala. — The family of an Army soldier who committed suicide after returning from Iraq is hoping to use his tragic death to get help for other service members who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dorothy Screws says she witnessed her only son, Army Pvt. Tommie Edward Jones, kill himself on March 25 at Fort Carson, Colo. Later the family learned Jones, 27, suffered symptoms of PTSD after seeing combat in Iraq in 2007.

“I can’t save my son now ... I want to save somebody,” Screws told The Cullman Times. “If I can save one soldier, it will be worth it.”

Screws said she will push for the government to pass a law requiring soldiers to undergo some type of psychological therapy after they return from intense combat. Soldiers returning from deployments receive health assessments, but Screws said many soldiers, including her son, were concerned that asking for mental health treatment would hurt their careers.

“If they can make them tote 150 pounds on their backs and march ... why can’t they make it mandatory to get help?” she said.

Jones mentioned a few of the traumatic events he experienced in Iraq to his mother shortly before his death.

“He said, ‘I wake up every morning angry,”’ Screws said. “He said, ‘My body is here but my mind is in Iraq.”’
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_suicide_jones_050508/

Dorothy Screws is making sure her son's death counts for something. I hope you can understand what it takes for a parent to come forward and talk about something like this. It is what is needed if we are ever going to come close to getting rid of the stigma of PTSD. Other things need to be done but if the families remain silent, afraid to speak out on how their veteran died when it's tied to suicide and PTSD, then there will be many, many more families suffering in silence.

I don't know why there is so much shame associated with suicides caused by this wound. It's not like it was the fault of the veteran or the families. Most don't even know what PTSD is even now. The only shame in all of this is our's. We let the government turn deaf, dumb and blind to their suffering. We let idiots in the upper echelon of the military humiliate the wounded as if it was their fault. We let the media ignore all of this until some great reporters said enough is enough and tried to do something about it. Maybe if we all did what we should have done a long time ago, Mother's like Dorothy Screws wouldn't have to do what she is doing for the sake of her son and visiting his grave instead of giving him a hug.

We send them into the hands of strangers and count on them to take care of those we love. We figure there is a chance they could die in service to this nation and then they will be honored as heroes. We think they could come home wounded and then they will get a Purple Heart, something mechanical to replace what they had to amputate or a patch for an eye. We figure they will treat the burns and use plastic surgery to repair what was damaged. Yet what we never figure on is the wound no one can see.

They have nothing to be ashamed of if they are wounded by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder any more than they would have to be ashamed of driving into a road side bomb or a bullet finding them. There should be no shame in the parents, spouses or children either. How can anyone be ashamed someone they love was wounded? Would you be ashamed if they were in a car accident? So what is this really all about? When will we get out of the dark ages and enter into the enlightened world of truth? We can understand regular people developing PTSD when they were in college and a gun man decided to kill off as many of the students as possible. We can understand a woman being raped never being the same as before. We can understand people surviving hurricanes and tornados changed after it, but we have a hard time understanding when soldiers get sent into the most horrific experiences any human could ever face.

Dorothy Screws and all the other people like her who have come forward and told the stories of the people they loved are heroes in all of this. Because of them, because they were willing to make sure they would do whatever they could so no one else would know their pain, we are that much closer to getting the stigma out of the way of them all seeking treatment.