Death because of combat should be honored as much as during it

If they added all the names of the fallen because of combat in Vietnam, the entire park around the Vietnam Memorial would be taken up. There are deaths from Agent Orange not listed on the Wall but there are also many suicides caused by living in hell during combat. The military has yet to be able to come to terms that lives lost because of combat are just as worthy of honor as those killed during it. It is time to stop having a second class sacrifice for this country and honor all the lives lost serving it.

Does a Servicemember's Suicide Qualify him as a Combat Casualty?
Written by Geoff Ziezulewicz
Thursday, 28 April 2011 10:06

June 3, 2010 (Stars and Stripes) - Monica Velez sees no difference in the deaths of her brothers, Jose and Andrew. They both died in an Army uniform while serving their country.

The American Legion doesn’t see it that way.

At the Lubbock Area Veterans Memorial in Texas, Army Cpl. Jose A. Velez’s name is inscribed on the black granite wall honoring local residents killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jose, 23, was killed Nov. 13, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq.

His little brother, Spc. Andrew Velez, 22, took his own life in Afghanistan in 2006.

Despite Monica Velez’s pleas, American Legion Post 575 refuses to add Andrew’s name to the wall.

“He’s probably in a better place and doesn’t care about it, but he worked for that recognition,” she said.

Every three or four months, when she asks the group to reconsider, she gets the same answer: Andrew doesn’t belong there.

As the military and families reel under an alarming increase in troop suicides, units and communities across the country are faced with the question of how and whether to memorialize those deaths. The social stigma attached to suicide, and differing views about what constitutes a war death, often play a role in deciding whose loss is commemorated on a wall, plaque or monument.

The Velez family is welcome to buy a commemorative brick for $125, said Jerry Dickson, a member of the legion’s board of directors. But that black granite wall is only for combat deaths.

Andrew Velez “had a choice,” Dickson said. “He took his own life. His brother did not. He was taken by the enemy. All of them up there lost their lives to the enemy.”

There is no military guidance regarding what kind of deaths can be memorialized. Such decisions are left to local groups and military communities, decisions sometimes colored by personal views on suicide.

“When you start looking at the issues of who died and how they died, it gets very complicated,” said Ami Neiberger-Miller of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a group that helps military families deal with loss. “There are a lot of ways you can die in the military.”

Velez will never know for sure, but she believes Andrew’s suicide began when he escorted their brother’s body home from Iraq in 2004. Andrew was in-country with another unit.

Bad weather at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base left him stranded for hours next to the casket holding Jose’s remains. Velez remembers him calling her on a cell phone he borrowed from someone in the terminal, crying and screaming for hours. No one was there to help him, she said, adding that she feels Andrew was treated too callously by the military after his brother’s death.
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Does a Servicemember's Suicide Qualify him as a Combat Casualty