Dad Can't Fathom Losing Son After Combat to PTSD

Son's suicide sparks man's crusade to bring PTSD awareness 
Standard Examiner
Mitch Shaw
SUNDAY , MAY 03, 2015

“For him to take his own life — I just couldn’t fathom it,” Vigil said. “I really couldn’t believe it.”

Image by: BENJAMIN ZACK/STANDARD-EXAMINER
Mark Vigil, left, and Beaver Prince lean over the frame of the military jeep that they are restoring at Prince's Hooper home on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Vigil plans to use the jeep in parades and local events to raise awareness about PTSD through his non-profit, Miles of Hope.

HOOPER — Mark Vigil wants the memories of how his son lived his life to outweigh the thoughts of how it ended.

Vigil’s son Miles died by suicide in late 2010 after struggling with severe post-traumatic stress disorder that followed a tour of duty with the Army in Afghanistan. Since his son’s death, Vigil has been on a crusade to raise both money and awareness for military-induced PTSD, suicide and veterans in general.

According to a Department of Veterans Affairs 2012 report on suicide in the military, veterans comprised more than 22 percent of all suicides in the United States between fiscal years 2009 and 2012.

The report used data from only 21 states and noted that the “prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states.” Based on these numbers, the reports says, an estimated 22 veterans died from suicide each day during the time the research was conducted.

Vigil says the late November morning his 28-year-old son became a part of those horrible statistics will haunt him forever, but after many dark hours, he’s found a way to honor the kid whom he simply describes as “one of a kind.”
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