Families of military suicide victims call for widened condolence policy

There are letters a family receives after a veteran dies no matter what the cause is.

Presidential Memorial Certificates
A Presidential Memorial Certificate (PMC) is an engraved paper certificate, signed by the current President, to honor the memory of honorably discharged deceased Veterans.

History

This program was initiated in March 1962 by President John F. Kennedy and has been continued by all subsequent Presidents. Statutory authority for the program is Section 112, Title 38, of the United States Code.

Administration

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers the PMC program by preparing the certificates which bear the current President’s signature expressing the country’s grateful recognition of the Veteran’s service in the United States Armed Forces.
Eligibility

Eligible recipients include the next of kin and loved ones of honorably discharged deceased Veterans. More than one certificate may be provided.

To say that there should be a special class of combat veterans receiving condolence letters after they have been out of the combat zone, you'd have to include everyone. How can one veteran's life be different from all others? Do they want to go back to the days when WWII veterans came home and committed suicide? Korean, Vietnam and Gulf War veterans died after combat because of combat as well but no one was paying any attention. They were also dying as a direct result of combat with illnesses caused by war. Agent Orange is still claiming lives just as Gulf War Syndrome is but there are no special letters above what is given to all fallen veterans.

It breaks my heart that these men and women die after combat and they should be counted as casualties just as assuredly as those who die of physical wounds are later included in the list of names but it can't be one generation over another having a special classification. They cannot go back and undo all of it for all the generations that came before this one. What they can to is to at least go back to the men and women who died while deployed, no matter how they died and send letters of condolence to their families. For those who die after they came home, leave it as it is and honor all of their lives with equal value and appreciation for their service.

Families of military suicide victims call for widened condolence policy

By Steve Vogel, Published: July 7
Marine Sgt. Thomas R. Bagosy returned from a combat tour in Afghanistan in November 2009 suffering from a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Six months later, when officials at Camp Lejeune, N.C., tried to hospitalize him for treatment, Bagosy shot himself in the head during a standoff with military police.

The White House this week reversed its policy against extending official condolences to the families of military personnel who kill themselves, but the change applies only to those who commit suicide in officially designated combat zones.
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Families of military suicide victims call for widened condolence policy