Massachusetts National Guardsman Says Get Help for PTSD

Vet: When civilian life is a battle, get help
Sentinel and Enterprise
By Michael Hartwell
POSTED: 04/27/2014

Latest in an occasional series on suicide in North Central Massachusetts

GARDNER -- A 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found 22 veterans kill themselves every day. In 2012, Natanael Radke was almost one of them.

Now 31 and living in Gardner, his message to other veterans contemplating suicide is to seek help.

Radke enlisted in the Army in 2007 and is currently in the Army National Guard. In 2010 he was in a bus rollover crash in Afghanistan that he does not remember. It left him with a spinal injury and a traumatic brain injury that went undiagnosed and has been shown to be linked to suicidal thoughts.

He was redeployed before the traumatic brain injury was discovered and Radke was sent back to the states for treatment in a warrior Transition Unit for 30 months, where he was moved around 33 times and had little contact with his wife, Anna.

He eventually found himself back in Worcester with Anna and their two young children, ages 30 months and 6 months. He put all of his savings into opening a towing company, but that failed. He said his medical issues kept him from getting the few normal jobs that were available, and he didn't use all of the veteran support services available to him.

"We were living in a basement with no heat and no food and no money, and I had nothing to live for," said Radke. The basement had a bathroom and furnishings but no kitchen. They used space heaters for warmth and kept the two children bundled up tight.

His breaking point was when he was at the supermarket. His older son wanted a muffin, but the little money he had was needed for the items on his list.

"I didn't have the $1.79 to get him a muffin," said Radke.

On Oct. 7, 2012, he took some pills and drank alcohol and got behind the wheel. His plan was to speed into a tree in Shrewsbury and make it look like an accident so his family could collect his military benefits.
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