Slideshow - When Jonny Came home - Marine Pvt. Jonathan Schulze

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A heartbreaking slideshow from Boston.com:

When Jonny Came home

Some background on this sad story http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/11/told_to_wait_a_marine_dies">here:

On the morning of Jan. 11, Jonathan, an Iraq war veteran with two Purple Hearts, neatly packed his US Marine Corps duffel bag with his sharply creased clothes, a framed photo of his new baby girl, and a leather-bound Bible and headed out from the family farm for a 75-mile drive to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

Family and friends had convinced him at last that the devastating mental wounds he brought home from war, wounds that triggered severe depression, violent outbursts, and eventually an uncontrollable desire to kill himself, could not be drowned in alcohol or treated with the array of antianxiety drugs he'd been prescribed.

And so, with his father and stepmother at his side, he confessed to an intake counselor that he was suicidal. He wanted to be admitted to a psychiatric ward.

But, instead, he was told that the clinician who prescreened cases like his was unavailable. Go home and wait for a phone call tomorrow, the counselor said, as Marianne Schulze, his stepmother, describes it.

When a clinical social worker called the next day, Jonathan, 25, told again of his suicidal thoughts and other symptoms. And then, with his stepmother listening in, he learned that he was 26th on the waiting list for one of the 12 beds in the center's ward for post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers.

Four days later, on Jan. 16, he wrapped a household extension cord around his neck, tied it to a beam in the basement, and hanged himself.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[malaise]

1. Nothing but tears here

and raw hatred for those evil men who started this madness. My nephew is lucky I guess -he survived this madness - but that doesn't help much.:cry: :cry:

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2. I am so glad for your nephew

My heart breaks for those who weren't as lucky :cry:

[malaise]

3. Yes we were lucky

but many others aren't lucky. Our darling received no physical injuries and my sis, his dad, his sis, his wife, daughter and the clan all jumped in to help him recover. He's expressive so that helps. Still he changed quite a bit. This sweet boyish exhuberance was gone.

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4. kick

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