Soldier bore invisible scars that made safe return a mirage

Darryl E. Owens
COMMENTARY
Soldier bore invisible scars that made safe return a mirage
September 20, 2008
Friends and family have been coming to the Oviedo home of Peter and Sibille Pritchard all week. Between the long hugs and consoling words, the couple gathered photos of their son, Dominic, for a video presentation.


Soldier bore invisible scars that made safe return a mirage
Darryl E. Owens COMMENTARY
September 20, 2008

Photos shot recently in exotic locales showed Dominic with a hint of a smile -- a smile that offered little hint of his troubled soul.

The video will pay tribute to a life full of promise that came to an untimely end this week. And Monday, the Pritchards will say goodbye to their 33-year-old son in a ceremony at Rollins College. Yet, in a way, the Pritchards knew the upcoming memorial service for Dominic was mere formality. Their brilliant boy had died long before he used a pistol to exorcise the demons that hitched home with him from Iraq in 2004.

Increasingly, tragedies such as this serve as a brutal reminder that not all the war dead fall on the battlefield. More than half of the suicides by veterans who returned home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001-05 were committed by members of the National Guard or the reserves, The Associated Press reported.

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How many more do we lose? How many more families will have to bury their warrior when they still should have been here healing instead? When will it be too many before we get serious on saving their lives?