Parents share story of son's suicide and PTSD

A soldier's suicide
Stratham parents say their son suffered from effects of war
Seacoast Online
By Christopher Cheney
November 03, 2013

Merrill and Jo-Ann Clark of Stratham remember their son, Chris Journeau, through the many photographs and awards he received during his military service. Journeau, an enlisted infantryman with the U.S. Army who served overseas in Iraq, suffered from PTSD and later died by suicide. Jo-Ann and Merrill Clark

Two days after Father's Day, the Army veteran was alone at his apartment and drinking heavily the night he shot himself to death at age 23.

When Jo-Ann Clark shared her son's suicide note, she stood up from the couch holding the neatly folded piece of lined paper close to her chest. The heartbreaking pain of the final reminder was visible across her face.

"If I do this I'm sorry," Journeau wrote. "I just can't and don't want to do this anymore. I'm sorry but I'm really sick of this. Good bye now."

A simple note was written by Chris Journeau, 23, on the day that U.S. Army combat veteran died by suicide in his Hampton apartment on June 22, 2010. Rich Beauchesne

When Journeau's mother recently invited a Seacoast Sunday reporter into the couple's home to share her son's story, she sat on the living room couch surrounded by more poignant reminders. Jo-Ann Clark had collected dozens of photos of her son from across the house. A large zip-lock bag in her lap held his medals and ribbons. There was a collection of binders and file folders strewn on the couch and coffee table in front of her that held his Army service records.

She also had his suicide note.

"I had no idea of what he was going through," she said at the beginning of an emotionally wrenching two-hour interview. "I don't want him forgotten."

During his nine-month tour of duty in Iraq, the only son of Jo-Ann and Merrill Clark saw comrades killed. He saw the dismembered bodies of U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. Hyper-vigilance helped him survive multiple missions in the restive Sadr City section of Baghdad.

Journeau came home in January 2010 with commendations for his service as an infantryman in his Stryker unit. He also came home with illnesses neither he nor his parents were prepared to face, including post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.

"He didn't talk to anybody about what he had gone through," his mother said. "Everybody thought if he wasn't talking about it, he's alright."
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