Army silence and censors bring agony to families of fallen by suicide

Army silence and censors bring agony
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: August 24, 2011 - 3:52 PM
The aftermath of soldier suicides can entail a frustrating search for answers and endless anguish for the families.

Corinne Campbell discovered the Army had wiped clean the hard drive of her son Jeremy’s laptop.
Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune

When family members asked for the document, they say the Army referred them to the National Guard. When they went to the Guard, they say they were told to talk to the Army.

For the families of soldiers who kill themselves, the anguish that accompanies the initial news is often only the beginning of their ordeal.

What frequently follows, survivors say, is a string of slights, stonewalling and misinformation that conveys a disturbing message: Their loved ones remain government property, even after their deaths.

Military authorities routinely promise that they will do all they can to help, but some families are left feeling that the military's real goal is to protect itself.

The Campbell family of Cloquet, Minn., came to that conclusion after Corinne Campbell, still grieving after the funeral of her son, Jeremy, her mind reduced to "scrambled eggs,'' started up his laptop. The Army, she discovered, had wiped its hard drive clean. Even his personal pictures from a trip to Germany were gone.

Jan Fairbanks of St. Paul spent months of frustration searching for answers about the death of her son, Jacob. Then one day, a thick stack of investigative files was left unannounced by military officials at her front door -- documents that only raised new questions.

Meanwhile, the Hervas family of Coon Rapids contends that the Army so zealously protected information about their son, Tad, a high-ranking intelligence officer who killed himself, that more than half of the documents the family asked for were edited to the point of being largely indecipherable. Even his parents' names were blacked out.
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For Maj. Tad Hervas, discipline, despair and death
Article by: MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune Updated: June 27, 2011 - 1:01 PM
Was punishment appropriate or excessive for a high-ranking officer who was called on the carpet?

In the fall of 2009, Maj. Tad Hervas was a 17-year military veteran on his third combat deployment, an intelligence officer with top secret security clearance who was in almost daily contact with the CIA.

And his Army career was effectively over.

Hervas, 48, from Coon Rapids, was being forced out of the Army because the National Guard had determined that he'd had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.

On Oct. 6, Hervas was scheduled to fly to Baghdad to begin his legal defense. The day before, he prepared four notes, hiding one of them in his roommate's pillowcase. That morning, Hervas found an isolated room, unholstered his 9-millimeter service pistol and shot himself in the head.

"This was a cold and calculated act. I spoke to nor hinted of this to anyone," Hervas wrote in the letters marked for his commanders. "Do not blame anyone for my death."

Hervas became the highest-ranking member of the Minnesota National Guard -- and one of the most senior officers in the entire Army -- to take his own life.

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