101st Vietnam vet's suicide at the Wall haunts those left behind

There are plenty of stories published every year about how the Vietnam Memorial Wall heals but there are also stories no one wants to talk about. Suicides because of the Wall happen and too often some walk away more wounded than they were before they stood in front of it.

A 101st Vietnam vet's suicide haunts those left behind
Nov 9, 2012
Written by
Chuck Raasch
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Alice Franks is a long-distance runner.

On Veterans Day nine years ago, while walking to the starting line of a 10-mile race along the Potomac River, Franks suddenly discovered she was in a place she had tried so long to avoid. Before her was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Wall where the names of 58,282 Americans are carved into black granite.

Nineteen years before, Franks’ husband – a decorated Vietnam veteran – had sat down in front of an oak tree facing the Wall and killed himself. The place harbored too much pain, and now Alice was confronting it by accident for the first time.

On Sept. 15, 1984, Jeffery Davis left his shift as a Washington, D.C., plainclothes police officer and, as he often did, went drinking. After midnight he ended up at the Wall he had described as “foreboding.” 

Later, the Bronze Star winner walked away into the night and shot himself with his service revolver.

He was 36, and he left behind Alice and their two children, Kelly, 6, and Scott, 3.

Fellow Vietnam vets holding a vigil at the memorial, which had been dedicated two years earlier, found his body the next morning.
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Too many times a veteran walks away unprepared to face the emotions hidden deep inside of him or her. Yes, remember there are female Vietnam veterans just as wounded as males because of what they had to go through, but we don't like talking about them much either.

There have been many Vietnam veterans' stories you don't hear about and that is why I urge you to read the rest of the story from USA Today. When they see the Wall, they don't just see names. The see the buddies they lost and cannot forget.