Pennsylvania Veteran Lost Leg, Lost Twin, Fights To Not Lose More

Pennsylvania veteran rebuilds his life
Scranton area man loses left leg at war and twin to suicide
Pennsylvania Observer Reporter
Scott Beveridge Staff Writer
August 30, 3015

“I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in the Middle East. We have to learn to take that uniform off. It's not going to take overnight to learn how to live like a civilian.”

Scott Beveridge Observer-Reporter
Retired Pennsylvania National Guard Staff Sgt. Earl Granville
speaks in June at Mon Valley Hospital about working for
mental health treatment to lower suicide rate among veterans.

MONONGAHELA – Retired Pennsylvania Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Earl Granville spent a lot of time drinking at bars after his twin brother and comrade in arms killed himself.

“That was my low point,” said Granville, who believes his brother, Joe, was unable to cope with the fact that his twin had lost his left leg to a roadside bomb June 3, 2008, while serving in Afghanistan.

“That horrible human that I was. I thought, 'Do I really want to go on like this?'” said Granville, 31, who lives in the Scranton area.

Granville and his brother served together in Iraq and Bosnia, and then, he said, he decided to go his separate way on a deployment to Afghanistan. His brother was preparing to go back to Iraq until the military prevented that from happening after the roadside bomb sent Earl Granville to the hospital.

At the time, Granville said he was “happy to be alive.”

His brother's depression, caused by post-traumatic stress disorder, worsened after the Army sent Joe Granville's wife, who was also in the service, to Iraq instead of him, Granville said in June while speaking about veteran suicide prevention at Mon Valley Hospital.

Joe Granville, who also was a staff sergeant, took his own life by leaping off a bridge on Dec. 18, 2010.
read more here

The National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS) supports planning, analysis, and decision-making activities through the collection, validation, analysis, and dissemination of key statistics on Veteran population and VA programs.