Family members of vets who commit suicide seek understanding

Sometimes, it doesn't matter how much you know or understand. Sometimes, it doesn't matter if you get everything right but they still end up losing so much hope they end their own lives. I know. It happened when my husband's nephew, another Vietnam Vet, took his own life in a motel room. It didn't matter how much I knew about PTSD or how hard I tried to talk to him. He just didn't want to listen. To this day his death haunts me. All of the "would, could and should" questions still come up every now and then. Maybe losing him pushes me past the place where I want to stop doing this but then I think of how my own husband is still here, and I know there are many more who can still be saved.

Family members of vets who commit suicide seek understanding
October 22, 2011 8:38 PM
RYAN MAYE HANDY
THE GAZETTE
Sgt. Nick Pansini did not come home to die.

Pansini, from Littleton, joined the Marines 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) after he finished high school in 2005. After three years in Okinawa and tours in Iraq in 2008 and 2009, he was ready to return to civilian life.

He got a job, a girlfriend and dog, and filled his spare time by riding his mountain bike and putting together two hot rod cars. Nick’s father, Joe Pansini, thought his son had moved on from his war experiences, and was keeping busy.

He learned later that there was one thing Nick was not doing.

“At what point did he deal with his war experience? He did not,” Joe said on Saturday.

Nick Pansini shot himself in his own home in Littleton on July 22, 2010. He was 23 years old and had been out of the Marines for about a year.
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