Navy Vet Lives After Suicide Attempt And Heals

One Vet's Sad Truth
The Pueblo Chieftain
CHIEFTAIN EDITORIAL
Published: January 16, 2016

"Wounds of the psyche, wounds of the soul: they can be every bit as disabling as the wounds from a rocket-propelled grenade. That’s what, in the end, Steve Hancock’s unfortunate tale tells."

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT statistics show that after a notable drop in active-duty military suicides in 2013 the number of service members taking their own lives has risen steadily.

We wouldn’t bring up those statistics had it not been for an email we received from paralyzed Navy veteran Steve Hancock, who lives in Pueblo West.

Hancock, a former combat medic who was usually assigned to Marine units, told us in 2013 he was severely wounded during a firefight in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to him.

That wasn’t true.

According to Hancock, the Navy’s official explanation was that he was hurt in a training accident.

That wasn’t true either.

Hancock admitted in his email sent just before the holidays that he was injured after he “jumped off the fifth floor” of his barracks in Bahrain during a suicide attempt in 2010.

“I’m no longer ashamed of how I was injured,” he told us after receiving therapy. “I’ve gone through a lot of healing. And this step, telling the real story, is the last one I need to take.”
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