She Survived Iraq -- Then Shot Herself at Home (Navy Medic)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003381399

Her name doesn't show on any official list of American military deaths in the Iraq war, by hostile or non-hostile fire, who died in that country or in hospitals in Europe or back home in the USA. But Iraq killed her just as certainly.

She is Jeanne "Linda" Michel, a Navy medic. She came home last month to her husband and three kids (ages 11, 5, and 4), delighted to be back in her suburban home of Clifton Park in upstate New York. Michel, 33, would be discharged from the Navy in a few weeks, finishing her five years of duty.

Two weeks after she got home, she shot and killed herself.

"She had come through a lot and she had always risen to challenges," her husband, Frantz Michel, who has also served in Iraq, lamented last week. Now he asks why the Navy didn't do more to help her.

Michel's story has now been probed by reporter Kate Gurnett in today's Albany Times-Union. It's headlined, "A casualty far from the battlefield.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=534573&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=11/13/2006

A casualty far from the battlefield

Last month, Jeanne "Linda" Michel came home from Iraq. Back in the suburbs, she tried to feel normal.

She'd been homesick for months. She couldn't wait to see her kids, ages 11, 5 and 4. Between her husband's deployment and her own, the children had been with just one parent for nearly three years.

She was 33, with a bright smile and stubborn determination. Reuniting should be easy. In another month, she'd be discharged from the Navy after five years of service.

<snip>

What her family didn't see, and what she herself may not have realized, was the enormity of what she faced.

Like thousands of others returning from Iraq, her mental state was fractured. And it went untreated. Within two weeks, Linda Michel would become a private casualty of war.

Read the 2nd story for how the damn Navy screwed up her depression and medication.

[tabasco]

1. Things like this the chickenhawks cannot understand.

They use our troops like mercenaries for corporate profits and insane imperial fantasies.

[MnFats]

2. how many more are there we have not and never will hear of?

i imagine many, many that will never come to the attention of some newspaper reporter.
families will suffer in private anquish.

[CoffeeCat]

3. OMG...that is so tragic...

I guess she just couldn't turn the war off.

For anyone to do this--much less a mother with three young children--is just tragic. It's
so sad.

Doesn't the military have mental-health programs for soldiers returning home? You don't just plop someone
into their suburban home, after they've witnessed murder and mayhem for months. She was a medic. We can
only imagine the horrors this woman saw.

I'm sure most of our soldiers return with PTSD. How could you not. Some can adapt and move on. However,
some need help and our military has a responsibility to identify those who need help--and get them that help.

*sigh*

[RamboLiberal]

6. The 2nd story details how the Navy had her on Paxil

for depression while she was in Iraq - damn Navy needs to buy a clue. Then discontinued it and didn't give her adequate follow-up when she returned home.

Studies have linked Paxil to adverse effects, including suicide, sparking an FDA warning in May.

Oh and wonderful, let's give people in a war zone with access to guns a drug that is linked to suicide.

[Eric J in MN]

4. If Senator Paul Wellstone were still alive,

...he'd be at the forefront of getting psychological help for veterans who need it.

[acmejack]

5. We have the VA and Congress getting advice from AEI quacks

Like Sally Satel.

snip>
I was flabbergasted to read Sally Satel's March 1, 2006 New York Times Op-Ed, "For Some, the War Won't End," describing the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as creation of a suspicious "culture of trauma" providing veterans a "free ride" as they approach retirement age.

http://www.brianwillson.com/awolptsd.html

[RamboLiberal]

7. Yeah F'in AEI Chickenhawk Quacks who never served a day

in a war zone I bet!

[karlrschneider]

8. 3 kids? Oh, man that is horrible.

:cry:

[benEzra]

9. That is awful...and did everybody catch this part?

Between her husband's deployment and her own, the children had been with just one parent for nearly three years....She came home last month to her husband and three kids (ages 11, 5, and 4)...her husband, Frantz Michel, who has also served in Iraq...

Three young kids at home, they've been taking turns being Single Mom/Single Dad for THREE YEARS. Can you imagine the stress just that by itself would cause, even aside from everything she must have seen while over there?

I wonder, was her husband scheduled to be shipped out again?



This one was absolutely tragic as well (from the second article):

And the third American female to die in Iraq, Army interpreter Spc. Alyssa Peterson, 27, of Flagstaff, Ariz., shot herself with her service weapon. A devout Mormon and Arabic interpreter, Peterson had objected to U.S. techniques after just two days of participating in interrogations.