Mom: Military needs to stop soldier suicides

Mom: Military needs to stop soldier suicides
WRAL.com

LILLINGTON, N.C. — U.S. troops committed suicide at a rate of roughly one a day in the first five months of this year, according to the Pentagon. Lillington resident Angie Selvia knows the sad statistics. She lost her daughter and soldier son-in-law on Feb. 4.

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life,” she said.

The Pembertons’ tragedy is one snapshot in the bigger picture of violence and suicide among active-duty military members.

The Pentagon reported 154 suicides among active-duty military members this year from Jan. 1 through June 3, compared with 124 killed in Afghanistan during the same period. The death toll has exasperated military leaders from Washington to Fort Bragg.

Selvia says she saw no sinister signs and felt no bad vibes last Christmas – the last time she saw her daughter, Tiffany Pemberton, and son-in-law, Jason Pemberton, 28. A little more than a month later, Jason Pemberton shot and killed his 25-year-old wife and then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.

“She was his world, and he was her world,” Selvia said. “I really did not (see any signs) … If he had been in his right mind, he never would have done that. Never.”
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