Gold Star Mother's Day needs to remember the suicides as well

How many mothers who have lost a son or daughter because of their service will not be remembered this day? How many will be left out of the "honor" others receive when a child is buried because they lost their lives in service to this nation?

Shortly after World War I the Gold Star Mothers Club was formed in the United States to provide support for mothers that lost sons or daughters in the war. The name came from the custom of families of servicemen hanging a banner called a Service Flag in the window of their homes. The Service Flag had a star for each family member in the military. Living servicemen were represented by a blue star, and those who had lost their lives were represented by a gold star. Gold Star Mothers are often politically and socially active. Today, membership in the Gold Star Mothers is open to any American woman who has lost a son or daughter in service to the United States. On the last Sunday in September, Gold Star Mother's Day is observed in the U.S. in their honor. USC Title 36 Sec. 111 The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Star_Mothers_Club

If you think it's impossible for this to happen, it's happened hundreds of thousands of times, perhaps even millions of times since this nation formed. The sons and daughters lost because of the enemy within themselves. Post traumatic stress disorder, the wound no one can see with their eyes, has killed men and women with greater determination than any enemy could ever envision.

While we talk about the numbers on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, stunned by the loss, we refuse to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of them took their own lives here back home where they were supposed to be safe and out of harms way. Could you imagine the size of the Vietnam Memorial Wall with hundreds of thousands of names on it? We also don't see the names of those who have died because of Agent Orange.

While we talk about the numbers of the loss of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan under 5,000 combined, we fail to acknowledge that there have been tens of thousands more who have ended their lives by suicide.

Natural mothers, adoptive mothers or stepmothers, who are citizens or legal residents of the United States or of the territorial and insular possessions of the United States, and whose son or daughter has made the supreme sacrifice while in the service of the United States of America Armed Forces, or died as a result of such service are eligible for membership in American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.
http://www.goldstarmoms.com/Join/Requirements/Requirements.htm

While I do not know if they allow parents of those who committed suicide to have the full honor as one who lost a child by a bullet or bomb, there are many in this country who believe that a suicide does not count as a loss due to service of this nation.

How many parents, wives, husbands and children are also left behind because someone they loved was willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation but came home, wounded by PTSD and lost hope enough that they saw their own way out of the pain they felt from this wound? Their way out was to end the life. They died as a result of this wound no less than those who have died as a result of a wound someone could see with their eyes.

We need to acknowledge all of the men and women who have lost their lives because of their service to this nation or we do not honor the loss at all.

We need to take action to save as many of them as we can and help them to heal this wound. If we do not, if we do not count all of them, take care of them, we have honored none of them.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington