Picking up the Pieces After a Soldier’s Suicide in Iraq

I’ve learned suicides make a statement to those who remain: “This person found being among you unbearable and lost hope that would never change. Now there’s peace.” Most don’t want to understand that message. They refuse to listen or shame the person’s memory or call the act a sin. But a few hear it and can’t stop listening. For some soldiers, often already struggling with overwhelming stressors, its message can become a siren song. It mixes with the impulsivity of young men and women and the ubiquity of weapons in a combat zone to create high risk. <a href="https://medium.com/the-memoirist/picking-up-the-pieces-after-a-soldiers-suicide-in-iraq-c8085df0f2ae">Read More</a>