Navy SEAL told not to report PTSD "issues"

PTSD-Related Suicide Hits Close to Home
The Washington Post profiles Navy SEAL from San Diego who took his own life
By Tony Shin
Thursday, Jan 10, 2013

The parents of a San Diego Navy Seal who took his own life say the mental trauma their son endured from serving overseas -- coupled with the stigma attached to mental illness -- played a major role in his death.

A Washington Post profile of San Diego Navy SEAL Robert Guzzo Junior shows the young man as vibrant and strong, with a beautiful daughter who looks exactly like him.

However in 2006, shortly before serving a tour in Iraq, Robert's mother Robin Andersen said he was struck hard by the suicide of his best friend and fellow Navy SEAL. By the time he returned from San Diego a year later, something had changed, she told the Post.

"I could just tell immediately he was changed," she said in the interview. "His affect was different, you know. The look on his face was a distance away."

Robin said her son was deeply bothered by the horrors of war.

"I was rubbing his back, saying, 'it's going to be okay,' and he said, 'Mom, it's never going to be okay.'"

Robert's father Bob Guzzo was also a SEAL. He said his son didn't immediately seek treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because he was told by others in the military that it could end his career.

"They told him specifically not to report on any worksheet that you are having these issues because if they do, they'll take your bird. They'll take your trident," Bob told the Post.
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Go here for the full interview from The Fold
PTSD, a Navy SEAL and family left behind