Veteran Marine's Suicide Leaves Family Asking Why

'If it could just help one person:' Parents grapple with answers after son's suicide
Herald Standard
By Alyssa Choiniere
March 13, 2016

She said he sent Facebook messages to about 100 people in his last hours. For the last few weeks, she said, it now seems like he was preparing for suicide. Shortly before he died, he made weekend plans with four different friends. He wasn’t alive to see them through.

Dan Rush, 26, of Uniontown took this photo of himself. He was a Marine veteran who died by suicide in February. (photo courtesy of Ron and Loretta Rush)

Dan Rush hit send on his last text message to his mom nine hours before he was found hanging in Uniontown’s Bailey Park Feb. 6.

“I guess you just don’t get it, Mom,” he said after she encouraged him to seek mental health treatment after his time in the Marine Corps.

The 26-year-old echoed a sentiment shared by many military veterans, particularly those who are struggling to readjust to civilian life. But why Dan chose to end his life is a question his parents ask themselves incessantly but can’t answer.

Why?

Maybe, they theorize, he felt like a failure despite his strides to be the best at everything. Maybe he felt like a misfit in the civilian world. Maybe he was suffering from post-traumatic stress after witnessing something he never shared.

“I’ve gone through it in my head a million times. But I’m going to be going through it for the rest of my life,” said his father, Ron Rush, in a video interview from their Florida home. “As much as I try, I’m never going to know what hurt him so bad.”
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