Vietnam Veteran Committed Suicide in Bay Pines Parking Lot

Suicide at Bay Pines shows pain among older veterans
Tampa Tribune
By Howard Altman

Published: August 26, 2015

Ever since leaving the battlefields of Vietnam in 1968, Marine veteran Gerhard Reitmann struggled with the horrific memories of the things he did and saw.

“It was a rough one,” said his brother, Stephan Reitmann. “Emotionally, it did a number on his mind.”

Gerhard Reitmann had trouble holding a job. He often kept to himself and, until recently, cut himself off even from his family.

On Tuesday, Reitmann’s struggle ended.

The man who once served as a guard at Camp David during the term of President Richard Nixon apparently took his own life while parked in his car on the southeast side of the sprawling Bay Pines VA campus shortly after noon, according to officials from Bay Pines and the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office.

It was near Building 37, which houses the hospital system’s human resources, environmental management and inspector general’s offices.

Bay Pines police are investigating,

Reitmann, of St. Petersburg, was 66.

Stephan Reitmann and Aurin moved to St. Petersburg about five months ago from Ohio.

“My partner and I both retired. We were sick of cold and had my brother down here. We were getting the relationship back together.”

Reitmann “was really obsessed with his heath,” Aurin said. “Last month, he thought something was really wrong with him. But his doctors at the VA said he was as healthy as a horse.”

Still, Reitmann was having “a lot of anxiety,” Aurin said.

Last week, Reitmann’s VA doctor increased his anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications, Aurin said.

“They said to up his medications a little bit, but it was not helping him,” Aurin said.

“That’s all we know.”

About a week ago, Reitmann’s brother made a pact.

“Stephan would call his brother every day,” Aurin said. “It made him feel better.”

Just hours before killing himself, Reitmann “got a little out of his routine,” Aurin said. “He actually called Stephan first. He said, ‘I wanted to call you first, and let you know that everything is good.’”

The conversation, said Aurin, “was light and fluffy.”

“One hour later, he was in the parking lot at the veterans hospital,” she said.
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