Iraq veteran motivated to act to save veterans from suicide

Iraq vet biking across US to raise awareness about military suicide
Austin American-Statesman
By Claire Osborn
Published: December 31, 2013

AUSTIN — He’s had a soda can thrown at him, a logging truck try to run him off the road and a man warning him he might get shot if he rode his bike at night in the town of Sanderson, about 280 miles west of Austin.

Matthew Jarrett, a 31-year-old Iraqi war veteran, survived the perils of cross-country biking and made it to Austin last month as part of a tour to raise awareness about suicide in the military. The Colorado native, who had never pedaled a bike 10 miles before starting his tour April 19 in Yorktown, Va., has now ridden more than 8,000 miles in 14 states.

“I’m not raising money. I’m just trying to spread a message,” Jarrett said while sitting at an Austin Whole Foods store on a sunny December day.

“Twenty-two veterans commit suicide daily,” he continued. “That makes me feel disturbed and uncomfortable and we need to be doing something about it.”

He said veterans who return from war can take years to readjust to civilian life. Jarrett, a U.S. Army veteran, declined to discuss whether he had trouble readjusting after he served in Iraq in 2003-04.
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