Suicide Taking Lives of U.S. Vets

Brut America

U.S. veterans are committing suicide at an alarming rate — and as this ex-Marine explains, it's time to tear down mental health stigmas and offer assistance to those men and women in need.

Transcript

00:00I actually had two pretty close friends commit suicide.

00:05The war got them too.

00:08It just took a little bit longer.

00:25I also lost very close friends on the battlefield.

00:31And that is the traditional meaning behind the day of Memorial Day.

00:39And you're thinking about your buddies who fell.

00:42But in the years since, I also find myself thinking, especially on Memorial Day, more about those who have taken their own lives.

00:51And that's less of a traditional way of looking at it.

01:00Baghdad, it's partly a matter of consolidation, getting supplies, or choosing a position.

01:12The long, what appears to be a 100-mile-wide front to the south of Baghdad.

01:18The major headache continues to be Iraqi paramilitaries underdressed in civilian clothes.

01:24Take the uniform off. Now you're at home, you're starting a new life, you're trying to reintegrate.

01:30Or integrate into civilian society.

01:33A lot of us have been on active duty our entire adult lives.

01:38Shortly after graduating from high school, or shortly after graduating from college.

01:43So it's like this new thing, you're 22, 23 years old, and now you're trying to go to school, or trying to get your first civilian job.

01:50So that support network of your buddies around all the time, those who have that shared experience, that disappears.

01:57The identity of wearing the uniform disappears.

02:01And that can kind of wear you down.

02:03You've been there, you've been at the edge of the abyss.

02:06I think a lot of us have.

02:08I know that many of my friends have also.

02:11So there is absolutely no shame in it.

02:13Because we've been there.

02:28It's okay that you're not okay.

02:31It's okay if you're not okay, and it's okay that you're not okay.

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