Since the title of this thread is "Joe Grozelle, Suicide or Murder?", I thought it would be appropriate to bring up one example of a military suicide. Because links quickly vanish, I am taking the liberty of copying the article. The individual in question served at 8 Wing, Trenton. There were contributory conditions. There were warning signs. Note the response to the warning signs. Notice how the family was treated. This is one example:
http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2467194
"Military mom says questions need answers
SOLDIER SUICIDES: Mother questions military's ability to help troubled service men and women
Posted By JASON MILLER THE INTELLIGENCER
Posted 2 months ago
In the days after reports of the deaths of three young military men in Ontario in recent weeks, questions are being raised by one military mom about the military's ability or willingness to help troubled service men and women.
One Belleville mother has been grief-stricken since her son, identified for the purposes of this article as PB, an aircraft technician at CFB Trenton, committed suicide Jan. 5.
The young man's mother has filed a letter of concern to Pierre Daigle, the ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces. In a Feb. 3 interview with QMI Agency's Ottawa Sun, Daigle was critical of the Canadian forces for failing to give grieving families the attention and care he felt they deserved after a soldier is killed in the line of duty.
The 8 Wing airman's mother insisted, in a lengthy interview with The Intelligencer, that lack of attention to the needs of military personnel and their families also blocked her attempts to get help for her son.
She said the problems with PB's behaviour surfaced after he returned last summer from his fifth tour in Afghanistan. She said her son became more detached from the outside world and gradually lost interest in socializing or engaging others in conversation.
She said when he returned from his latest deployment last August he complained about becoming emotionally traumatized by the repatriation ceremonies for his fallen comrades who were killed there.
The airman's mother said that her son fell into a "big depression" when he learned from his colleagues -- not military officials -- that his early retirement plans were in jeopardy because of a reported additional five years tacked on, inexplicably, to his initial 20-year recruitment agreement. She said this news was devastating to him because he only had nine more years to go to what he had expected to be his full retirement. She said her 37-year-old son's plans to start a family and settle down at the age of 46 were shattered.
"He wanted to get out of the military," she said.
In September, the mother went away to the family's vacation home in Panama, leaving PB behind. Within days of her departure, she said PB went to the woods behind the family's Belleville home and attempted to hang himself from a tree. It was a failed suicide attempt.
"He ran home and was bleeding and coughing blood," she said.
She said he was taken to Belleville General Hospital before being transferred to Kingston to be treated for what she calls "serious injuries."
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She had hoped he was also hospitalized in Kingston for psychiatric care.
But, the mother became concerned when her son was only treated for physical injuries after he was admitted into Kingston hospital following his failed suicide attempt.
When she asked PB why there wasn't a psychiatric evaluation done while he was in Kingston, he informed her that the military told him they would take care of any psychological issues he had when he was released from the hospital.
She said military officials visited her son during his one-month stay in hospital, but that he received no psychiatric care. The mother was convinced that her son was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Immediately after his release from hospital in October, she escorted him to CFB Trenton to see the military psychiatrist at the base.
She was assured by military personnel her son would receive optimum care from one of the best psychiatrists the military had to offer. She said that assurance persuaded her to wait on her initial plan to enrol PB in private treatment.
She said PB had about five or six meetings with a psychiatrist at 8 Wing. Each time, she said, "he evaluated (PB) and sent him home without any medication.
"(PB) went again and again and again and didn't get any medication," she said. "He said, 'Mom, I have to respond to the military psychiatrist -- he knows what he's doing.'"
The airman's mother said she was shocked when the military psychiatrist came to the conclusion that PB wasn't showing any warning signs of a person suffering from depression.
She conceded that PB's problems were compounded when news about his failed suicide attempt became a subject of discussion among his fellow air force personnel at base.
"Can you imagine how he could feel, going back to work and everyone knows?" she said. "He felt ashamed, embarrassed."
His mother met with the psychiatrist to get an understanding of how they should care for PB. The request came before PB and his girlfriend visited the family in Panama in December.
"Should we treat him with tough love or be very emotional and feeling sorry for him?" she said she recalled asking. But, the mother said she didn't receive any specific answers from the psychiatrist. "I was concerned for (PB) because he was going to spend time with us in a different country, away from military care.
"I still couldn't believe that PB still didn't get any medication," she said.
She said after the family vacation in Panama, he became more "withdrawn" and "less active."
"He was a totally different person," she said.
She offered to accompany him back to Canada the first week of January, but PB insisted he would be fine.
"I spoke with (PB) Monday evening (Jan. 4) on Skype," she said.
She said the next day, Jan. 5, PB reported for work at CFB Trenton. But, some time during the work day, he mysteriously left the base, raising suspicion among some of his close friends. When his mother called him later that evening on his cellphone and via the computer network, Skype, there was no answer.
"I was paralysed," she said.
The following day, two of PB's friends from the base canvassed areas PB was familiar with, places he used to like to go.
His friends found his frozen body hanging from a tree in a Prince Edward County conservation area.
The entire ordeal has devastated the man's mother, who breaks down in tears within minutes of talking about her son.
"Right now I'm taking medication to keep me calm," she said. "If I don't, I blow."
The family has been told by the military ombudsman's office that the ombudsman will await an internal military inquiry into the circumstances of PB's death.
Until then, the airman's mother worries other military men and women are being given less than adequate psychiatric care by the armed forces.
"These young people cannot be ignored," she said. "They should be watched."
She hopes for a drastic overhaul in military culture, so that male soldiers can feel more comfortable in expressing their emotions to senior officers without fear of ridicule or been targeted. She's worried that if all parties involved aren't vigilant about addressing the issue, there will be more suicides or even worse, "murder suicides."
Officials with National Defence and 8 Wing. CFB Trenton, did not return calls regarding PB's case or general questions about psychiatric care available to military personnel at the base.
Few details about any investigation into PB's death were available Thursday.
"It's not a criminal case," said Det. Andrew Goad of Prince Edward OPP.
"We investigate on behalf of the coroner, therefore any information that's released has to be cleared through the coroner," he said.
Coroner Dr. Amber Hayward-Stewart of Prince Edward County could not be reached Thursday afternoon for comment.
Maj. Paule Poulin of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, the unit overseeing military police, said the military is deferring to the OPP on the case.
"They notify us and we just assist them if required, but they have the lead."
Since her son's death, the Belleville mother said her son's friends have been told by superiors at 8 Wing to have no contact with the family and the family has been instructed to deal solely with one liaison officer from 8 Wing.
"He (the officer) has told us not to talk to the media, not to talk to anyone about this," said the mother. "We have to talk to someone.""
