For military families, the wars never end, fighting to keep them alive

How do you explain this to the rest of the citizens of this country? How do you get them to understand that when our husbands, wives, daughters and sons return from combat, the war isn't really over?

It does not really matter to us which war in what decade because the fact is, veterans risked their lives in service to this country, but being home with us is still more dangerous that combat was. More die after combat than during it. Not much has changed since this country began.

We keep hearing about the "price" of war and know the numbers will never show the true total. We keep hearing promises from politicians about fixing what went wrong and wonder what they mean. We wonder what "one" suicide will actually be the "too many" they keep claiming year after year while we wait for them to actually reach the point where they stop what they are doing, fix what is wrong and live up to what they claim.

How many more years will the public let us keep paying the price for those they choose to ignore until they decide another war has to be fought and they remember those willing to pay the price with their lives?

‘They’re Still At War When They Come Home’: Soldier’s Mother Struggles With His Suicide
WBUR News
By Lynn Jolicoeur
September 19, 2014

Tammy Sprague Gallagher, whose son, a Massachusetts National Guard soldier, died by suicide last October, stands among tributes to him in her Raynham home.
(Jesse Costa/WBUR)

“I only have a picture now, a frozen piece of time, to (remind) me of how it was when you were here and mine. I see your smiling eyes each morning when I wake. I talk to you and place a kiss upon your lovely face.”

For Tammy Sprague Gallagher of Raynham, this has become a daily ritual. She spends a few moments in front of her dresser, which is covered with pictures of her son, Joaquin Pereira Jr., and his military medals. She talks to him, or reads this poem to him.

“How much I miss you being here I really cannot say. The ache is deep inside my heart and never goes away. I need to feel you constantly to get me through the day. I love you so very much. Why did you go away?”

Pereira was 25 when he died by suicide last October.

He was a Massachusetts National Guard soldier and did two tours overseas in war zones. He’s one of eight Massachusetts Guard soldiers who’ve killed themselves since August 2012. That’s a big increase in the suicide rate for the Guard, and it happened despite the Guard instituting widespread suicide prevention programs over the last several years.
read more here