Mom talks about son's suicide after deployment and PTSD

Soldiers struggle for peace after duty ends
By Donna Vickroy
November 3, 2012

Sharon Orsborn sits with her son, John Akridge. Akridge, an Army vet, committed suicide in 2007 after suffering from post traumatic stress. Supplied photo

They found his body inside the new car he’d paid cash for in a field in Fort Worth, Texas. A bullet through his brain.

“It came from a gun we did not even know he owned,” said his mother, Sharon Orsborn, of Arlington, Texas.

Orsborn came to the Southland last week to share the story of her son’s suicide and to shed light on some of the darker issues affecting America’s soldiers and their families.

In addition to Orsborn’s candid speech about the death of her youngest child, John Akridge, panelists for Governors State University’s “Before and After Deployment: Trauma and the Impact on the Military Family” forum addressed sexual assault in the military, post-traumatic stress disorder and the effect of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gay soldiers.
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