LCpl Janos V. Lutz Live To Tell Ride For PTSD Support

Marine mom works for better PTSD programs 
Sun Sentinel
By Mike Clary
January 11, 2015

Live to Tell Ride scott fisher / Sun Sentinel fl-live-to-tell-ride-011115b--Bike riders participate in the Second Annual LCpl Janos V. Lutz Live To Tell Ride, from Western High School to C.B Smith Park in Broward County on Sunday, January 11th, 2015. The ride honors veteran's who have taken their own lives due to Post Traumatic Stress...

Two years after U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Janos Lutz took his own life, his mother said she is determined to leave as his legacy a means through which other war veterans can be saved.

"We are growing and we will do this," said Janine Lutz of her envisioned national network of "Buddy Up" chapters where military veterans can find fellow veterans to help them as they battle PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder.

"When my son reached out to his battle buddies, they were in other states. We have to have people here by their side when they need them." 

Lutz spoke of her plans Sunday at the second annual PTSD Awareness Ride sponsored by the foundation she started to honor her son. Lutz, called Johnny, died Jan. 12, 2013, after taking an overdose of prescription medication at the family home in Davie. He was 24. "I'm sorry," he said in a farewell note he left on his open laptop. "I am happier now."

Just before leaden skies opened up to deliver pelting rain showers, the pictures of 211 veterans who have committed suicide were removed from the back of a hearse and pinned up for all to see. Lutz said they represented just a fraction of military veterans who have taken their lives in recent years.

Live to Tell Ride scott fisher / Sun Sentinel
Former Marine Hipolito Arriaga helps assemble the PTSD Memorial Wall as bike riders participate in the Second Annual LCpl Janos V. Lutz Live To Tell Ride, from Western High School to C.B Smith Park in Broward County on Sunday, January 11th, 2015.

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