Suicide Rate Reflects Toll of Army Life

Feb 2, Rachel Martin
Consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: Suicide Rate Reflects Toll of Army Life

ABC News

Feb 02, 2009

January 31, 2009 - Three months into his first deployment to Iraq, in November 2003, Army Specialist TJ Sweet was having a hard time -- working intense 18-hour shifts, battling sandstorms and bouts of anxiety.

On Thanksgiving Day, Sweet exchanged some harsh words with his commanding officer. As punishment he was told to do five push-ups and he was dropped from the promotions list.

Not long after that, his fellow soldiers heard gunshots and found Sweet's body under the stairway of the barracks. He had shot himself in the head.

The news devastated his mother, Liz Sweet. She had never wanted her son to join the military because of his health problems: a heart condition and Attention Deficit Syndrome.

She had thought the Army would turn down his application to enlist, but when she told the recruiter about her son's conditions, she said the recruiter told her they could get waivers that would still allow him to serve.

Now her son is gone and she blames the Army, in part, for failing to recognize the signs of his despair and for accepting him in the first place.

"It could have been different," she said.

TJ Sweet is just one of the hundreds of soldiers who have committed suicide since the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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