MP Sgt. Smith's suicide leaves unit in shock

Now maybe you can see that what the DOD is doing to stop suicides is not working!

Sergeant’s unexpected suicide rattles his MP unit
Army Times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 25, 2012

On a Thursday, military policeman Sgt. Derek Smith was in a small conference room at Fort Belvoir, Va., playing the role of a concerned friend in a suicide prevention training session. That Sunday, he was found in his patrol car, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

How Smith could take his own life was a mystery to his commander and others in their relatively tight-knit unit, the post’s 45-member 212th Military Police Detachment.

“From my view, he had not a care in the world, and life was going great,” said Staff Sgt. Steven Finch, Smith’s supervisor. “No sign whatsoever. Zero. I’d spoken to him that Friday and his family had spoken to him that afternoon. Nothing.”

Smith, 29, of Jacksonville, Fla., entered the Army in 2007 and deployed to Iraq a year later for 15 months, then left the Army and re-enlisted in 2010.

At least to his co-workers, he showed no signs of the behavioral health problems, financial distress or relationship issues that often precede a suicide.
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