Sgt. Coleman Bean did not have to die

Sgt. Coleman Bean did not have to die
by Chaplain Kathie

He didn't have to die and another 6,000 more a year didn't have to either.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Remembering a hero Sgt. Coleman Bean
Remembering a hero
Family and friends mourn the loss of Coleman Bean, 25
BY BRIAN DONAHUE Staff Writer
Coleman Bean was a lot of things to a lot of people. He was a son, a brother, a soldier, and to seemingly everyone who knew him, a good friend. He was someone they could count on to be there, in times of need and in happy times.
When he took his life on Sept. 6, he left those who knew him in shock. But he also left them with 25 years of cherished memories, the kind that could only come from a fun and thoughtful kid who became a loving, caring young man. It's Coleman's indelible character, and not the way he left, that his East Brunswick family — his parents Greg and Linda, younger brother Paddy and older brother Nick — will always hold on to.
Greg Bean, who is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers, knows how he'll recall his middle son. Most prominent in his mind is the memory of Coleman stopping by unannounced the night before he died."I was sitting here watching TV, and he poked his face in the dining room window and made a funny face at me,"
Greg recalled, adding that Coleman, living in South River after returning from his second tour in Iraq, had been dropping over for dinner often, knowing Greg was on leave from work and was cooking a lot."He came in and said, 'What'd you make for dinner?' I said, 'I didn't know you were coming, so I didn't make enough for you.' So he made a triple-decker peanut butter sandwich and chips, and sat here and talked baby talk to my new dog, who he had just fallen in love with. … But I'm going to remember that night, because he was just happy and joking, and we made plans to go to the movies the next day and to the gym together on Monday. … I've got a million memories; we went through pictures the other day, and all of them bring back lots and lots of memories, but the one I'm gonna keep with me is just the way he was the day before he died."
In the early hours of the next morning, the family would learn, Coleman got into a one-car accident in West Long Branch, was hospitalized briefly, returned home to his apartment in South River and shot himself. His family and friends would react with shock and sadness, and also with anger that he would leave them this way.
Greg Bean's anger is also directed at the U.S. Army. After Coleman returned from nearly a year in Iraq in 2004, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for issues including extreme anxiety attacks and depression. Despite the diagnosis, the Army sent him back to the war in 2007."He had gone to the V.A. and seen a bunch of people [at] the Lyons campus. … He was diagnosed with PTSD and some other troubling issues, just lingering issues from Iraq," his father said. "The problem is that the V.A. doesn't really have anything to do directly with the Army.
When he got called back, the Army said, 'Well, we don't care what the V.A. says about you. If you want a deferment from that, you have to get it from an Army psychiatrist.' "Coleman feared that if he went to an Army psychiatrist, he'd spend the next deployment cleaning latrines or some other unwanted duty."The fact that he was diagnosed with [PTSD] didn't have any impact on him being deployed a second time. I think that's wrong. I think that's horrible that a soldier could be seeing a Veterans Administration doctor and that carries no weight with our Army," Greg said.
go here for moreRemembering a hero Sgt. Coleman Bean

I had to repost this because of a comment left on the post.

CarlynHelene left a comment that should be a wake up call. She made a video for Coleman, her friend, that is now gone too soon. Coleman, as you can read from above, had a lot of lives left behind because he was not helped the way he needed to be. We've lost too many like him. We'll keep losing them until we finally get it right.

If you look up the symptoms of PTSD, you can find it throughout every history book on warfare and, as a matter of fact, in the Bible itself. It's not new. It's just a human response to traumatic events. Nothing more traumatic than combat and out of the "normal" world the rest of us live in. What has changed is that we are a lot more aware of what makes people tick. We can see inside the brain. We can see chemical changes to it and the way it functions. What we cannot see is the soul. The soul that makes us all unique, special, loving and the part in each of us that also feels pain. Not the physical pain but a pain much deeper than that. A pain so deep most people cannot find the words to explain it. The pain within the soul crying out in anguish.

With two thirds of the American public oblivious to this wound, even though regular people are wounded by it from the other causes, the DOD and the VA have done an abysmal job of raising awareness. Imagine if they informed the whole country about PTSD so that the veterans of combat as well as the public at large finally understood what it was and what was "wrong" with them. Believe me. They know something is wrong when they come home or after a traumatic event, but they just don't know what the "it" really is. What a public service the government could be providing the citizens if they did do all they can!

How many parents will have to bury their children because of PTSD? How many wives and husbands will have to go to an empty bed wondering what they could have done to prevent the suicide of someone they loved? How many friends will have travel to a grave site instead of a doorway to visit someone they cared about? How many will have to do so because they simply didn't know?

I receive emails all the time from people just like that, wondering what they didn't do or what they did wrong. The point is, they did what they could and what they knew how to do. The information was out there but they didn't know how to find it. How could they when they didn't even know the name of it? Two thirds don't know it! With all these years behind us, everyone in the country should know what it is and what it means. Above all, they should know what help is available and how they can help the wounded to live a better life instead of shutting them out or unknowingly making the suffering worse by the way they react to it.
The above video says "rest in peace" but I doubt he can if the rest of us ignore why he couldn't find what he needed to heal or the fact so many more are suffering the same fate he did.


It's time to get this right. How many more centuries of humanity do we need to get it right?

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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