Marine's suicide shines light on depression, disorder

I need to stop reading these stories. I don't mean that I need to avoid them. I just need to stop seeing them just as much as I need to stop seeing the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides go up. After 27 years, I keep wondering when enough will be enough and we will finally get this right.

None of what we're seeing has to happen. We cannot prevent all attempted suicides anymore than we can prevent all divorces or all homelessness but we can do a lot better job if the leaders in this country finally understood what had to be done and did it.

Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010
Marine's suicide shines light on depression, disorder
By CHUCK CRUMBO - ccrumbo@thestate.com

Mills Bigham was a 19-year-old Marine in Iraq when he made his first kill.

While on a foot patrol, someone hurled a grenade at Bigham's squad. Bigham, who was at the point, turned and fired.

"I pulled the trigger quickly, twice. Pop ... pop," the Columbia Marine wrote in his journal.


Two bullets hit the attacker's chest, knocking him to the ground. Within minutes, he was dead. The grenade was a dud.

Bigham checked the attacker's identification.

He was 12.

Less than four years later on Oct. 19, Lance Cpl. Mills Palmer Bigham sat in his red Chevy Tahoe, put a .410-gauge shotgun to his forehead and pulled the trigger one last time.

He was 23.

Family said Bigham, a graduate of A.C. Flora High School, suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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