Q13FOX
BY BRANDI KRUSE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
TACOMA -- Nearly a year after Army private Justin Norton took his life under a bridge in rural Washington state, the Veteran’s Health Administration sent him a letter.
“Dear Veteran,” it began.
The letter went on to ask Norton to rate the level of care he received from the VA.
“Nine months after he died,” said Norton’s sister, Misty, who opened the letter when it came in the mail. “That’s … that’s just comical.”
Misty Norton had informed the VA of her brother’s passing almost immediately after he died. The Department of Veteran Affairs even helped to coordinate his funeral at Tahoma National Cemetery.
The letter was just the latest chapter in a series of personal disappointments involving Norton and the VA, many of which he detailed in a journal he kept in the days leading up to his suicide on Sept. 11, 2013.
Since that time, the VA has been thrust in nationwide ridicule and scandal — much if it surrounding long wait times for care.
In a way, Norton exposed problems with the VA long before they were front-page news.
Justin Norton joined the Army at the age of 18, shortly after 9/11. His sister and mother had reservations, but Norton wasn’t at all scared about the prospect of going to war.
In a suicide note pinned to his Army-issued backpack, left atop the bridge were he hanged himself, Norton left a message for the person who would find his body.
“Thank you for getting the police,” he wrote. ”I’m sure my family appreciates it. If you need counseling for this traumatic event, don’t go to the VA … they are booked solid.”
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