Another Veteran's Suicide - Columbus,Ohio

[eaprez]

www.columbusdispatch.com

VETERAN'S SUICIDE
DENIAL OF NEW CITY JOB MAY HAVE TAKEN TOLL

NEWS 01A
By Jeb Phillips
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Not long before he killed himself yesterday, Lt. Brandon Ratliff sent an e-mail about his fight with the Columbus Health Department.

"Well, I am screwed, I cannot get an attorney,'' Ratliff said in a message to The Dispatch. "No fees to pay them and I'm screwed. I guess the city knows this . . . and they have won.''

A little more than three hours later, Ratliff put a gun to his head.

Ratliff thought the health department had taken away his promotion because he spent nine months in Afghanistan in military service. In his e-mail, he said the fight was over.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Qanisqineq]

1. makes me want to

:puke:
I think suicides of returning troops are under-reported. There are so many causes... I have personally heard of many divorces resulting from the deployments and a few resulting suicides. I think the 18 month to 2 year deployments I am hearing about are OUTRAGEOUS.

Family values my ass.

[Ilsa]

2. Thanks for posting this.

A friend found and sent it last night because "Ratliff" is a part of our genealogy, and we have have family we haven't seen in ages in Ohio. We're still waiting to hear if it was the grandson of an aunt, etc.

The military has never gotten serious about body detail. In PGWI, my friends said their sons were told they wouldn't have to deal with any kind of body detail unless they had been psychologically evaluated for that. It was all lie of course. I think they must still minimize the impact of handling dead bodies, especially those killed by such violence. The PTSD is sinister.

If only he had hung on for one more week, maybe the anti-depressants (provided they were the right ones) would have started to work.

So sad and such a terrible waste. A young man willing to help people with such potentially debilitating and painful illness, and he's gone. The world is a worse place for his death. Without saying it overtly, I can think of a few people who should have taken his place.