Col. Ted Westhusing chose death over dishonor in Iraq

[kurth]

April 27, 2007
'I Am Sullied – No More'
Col. Ted Westhusing chose death over dishonor in Iraq
By Robert Bryce

Ted Westhusing was a true believer. That was his fatal flaw. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, Westhusing had a good job teaching English at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was a devout Catholic who went to church nearly every Sunday. He had a wife and three young children.

He didn't have to go to Iraq. But Westhusing was such a believer that he volunteered for what he thought was a noble cause. At West Point, Westhusing sought out people who opposed the war in an effort to change their minds. "He absolutely believed that this was a just war," said one officer who was close to him. "He was wholly enthusiastic about this mission." His tour of duty in Iraq was to last six months.

About a month before he was to return to his family – on June 5, 2005 – Westhusing was found dead in his trailer at Camp Dublin in Baghdad. At that time, he was the highest ranking American soldier to die in Iraq. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command's report on Westhusing's death explained it as a "perforating gunshot wound of the head and Manner of Death was suicide." Westhusing was 44 years old...

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A469141

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Ted Westhusing's last note to his superior officers

Thanks for telling me it was a good day until I briefed you. (Redacted name) You are only interested in your career and provide no support to your staff – no msn (mission) support and you don't care. I cannot support a msn that leads to corruption, human right abuses and liars. I am sullied – no more. I didn't volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. I trust no Iraqi. I cannot live this way. All my love to my family, my wife and my precious children. I love you and trust you only. Death before being dishonored any more. Trust is essential – I don't know who (to) trust anymore. Why serve when you cannot accomplish the mission, when you no longer believe in the cause, when your every effort and breath to succeed meets with lies, lack of support, and selfishness? No more. Reevaluate yourselves, cdrs. (commanders) You are not what you think you are and I know it.

COL Ted Westhusing

Life needs trust. Trust is no more for me here in Iraq.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A469142

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[rumpel]

1. this breaks my heart..

and it says all that which is wrong - it must be stopped.

[MrSlayer]

2. What a fucked up thing to do to his family.

Why not come home, speak out and expose the corruption? What this guy did was selfish and cruel to his family. Suicide is the coward's way out.

[murielm99]

3. The suicide rate is high

among soldiers who have served in this war. Their rank does not seem to matter.

We need to help the military personnel who are suffering from mental wounds before they take this path. Judging them accomplishes nothing.

A soldier from my community committed suicide just before his second tour of duty in Iraq was due to begin. I know he did not get the help he needed. His family was trying to get the military to do something for his depression.

I watched this person grow up. He was my children's friend. I would rather we help others with similar pain and prevent more needless tragedy.

I know there are DU members who have attempted suicide, or been tempted. They would be better qualified than I to describe and explain the pain that leads to this decision.

I know my children's friend was brave in battle. He was not a coward in any way. A little understanding would be in order.

[JTFrog]

4. Hmmm you can do that?

Just leave when you want and go home and tell folks what's going on?

[MrSlayer]

6. Did you read the story?

"About a month before he was to return to his family – on June 5, 2005 – Westhusing was found dead in his trailer at Camp Dublin in Baghdad."

[rasputin1952]

10. An officer is in a different set of circumstances than an

enlisted individual. They can resign their commissions at almost any point. Some are placed in enlisted ranks to finish out their service contract, but those are few and far between. Most officers who resign their commissions generally return to civilian life w/many a connection so as to make a good living.

The seriousness of this man committing suicide just a short time before returning home, leads me to wonder if tis was really a suicide. I'm not trying to open a can of worms here, or start a CT, but some of this just doesn't add up. Of course, w/o all of the facts, it is hard to come to a conclusion. If he was naming names, anything is possible...:(

[dansolo]

20. And isn't suicide a sin to Catholics

If he was a devout Catholic, then why would he commit suicide, so close to when he was to head home? Something stinks about this whole affair. I think he was "suicided" because he was planning to blow the whistle on a lot of things.

[rasputin1952]

21. Well, I don't want to turn this into a CT, but if he was a

devout Catholic, suicide is definately frowned upon. I had a Catholic friend, (though not devout), that committed suicide under what I consider very odd circumstances just outside of Phoenix. His family essentially refused to believe he considered suicide, as that would condemn him to hell. I was living at the time, some 3 hours from Phoenix and if I had known he was having hard times, I would have gone there immediately. He was a lifelong friend, we grew up together, and I never thought he would be capable of committing such an act.

As for the LTC...Being an instructor at the USMA he could have seen things that made him fall off the edge, but he would have used the Chain of Command to try to remedy some of the situations, and as an instructor, he would have had a huge base of senior officers he could have turned to, and be listened to.

This issue has a stink attached to it, but it is entirely possible that he was profoundly disturbed by what he learned and saw, hence the suicide. Until there are facts that go against suicide, I have to figure all else is speculation. Someone out there received correspondence from this man, and if it surfaces, it will cast a new light on this situation.

[1monster]

11. People commit suicide when all hope is gone. When all hope is gone

and family, loved ones, and friends who could help are thousands of miles away, there is little to talk the problems through. (We've all heard just how much help the military establishment is providing for those who have been traumatized by this war.)

Suicide is usually the result of severe or clinical depression. People suffereing from depression are not able to think clearly and often see suicide as the only solution. (Not the only way out, but the only solution.)

I won't call this man cruel or selfish or coward. He is a man who broke under the extreme stress of the situation as well as finding that the rules by which he lived, which were intrinsically part of who he was, were not true (if they ever were more than an ideal in the first place).

In breaking, he did not go on a rampage commiting atrocities as others have done. He killed himself.

And I think that is both sad and tragic. It sounds like this man is someone who would have been a great asset had he gotten the help that 20/20 hindsight shows he needed so desperately.

[hootinholler]

12. Yeah, I hear you, but...

Ted was a solid guy. Devout Catholic, family guy. He taught ethics at West Point. What situation did he endure that pushed his mind down that slippery slope? He obviously had NO ONE he could talk to about whatever it was he experienced that drove this despair.

Calling him a coward is somewhat trite IMHO.

-Hoot

[shadowknows69]

14. I agree but understand his actions at the same time.

This was a samurai commiting hiri kiri for the dishonor of his emperor.

[TahitiNut]

16. "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ..."

"But in that sleep of death what dreams may come?"

It's somewhat common to react to a suicide with accusations of cowardice ... but it's not something I'd do. We often do not appreciate how completely some will build their lives upon a foundation of beliefs in such abstracts as honor, service, and dignity and, when those foundations crumble, find themselves regarding their entire existence as a 'mistake.' Sadly, as people assume roles in life we tend to assume their scripts as limitless, rarely affording them the support and nurturing they never learned to request.

It can easily be supposed that he regarded his role in relation to his family as accomplished to whatever degree he was able and that he regarded himself has having no more resources to continue. He may have seen himself on a path that led to the edge of a cliff with nowhere else to go.

As a 'devout' Catholic, he would be haunted with the prospect of having committed a grievous sin in committing suicide ... and being denied the prospect of forgiveness. One cannot possibly appreciate the misgivings he would have without living in his skin, imho.


Even further, we know NOTHING of the communications between him and his family. I have had some experience in a combat zone where guys faced the enormous disillusionment finding themselves in "harm's way" for no apparent honorable purpose, counting every day until they could return to the bosom of a loved one ... and having that "loved one" betray them at the very time they were needed most, if only as a pole star in the daily life of a human being whose foundations had crumbled. I cannot possibly convey to someone who's never "been there and done that" how totally devastating a "Dear John" letter can be. In a combat zone, life is both dear and cheap - and the tools of death are easily accessed. Where death is as ordinary a daily experience as a meal and more common than pats on the back, it should never come as a surprise when the human beings thrown into an inhuman context choose death over dishonor.

[magellan]

24. He probably couldn't live with what he'd done/seen

41 is old enough to know these things stay with you no matter where you go or how you try to outrun them. 41 is old enough to have believed deeply in one's country and military for so long that learning the truth completely shatters your soul...particularly when you're the one carrying out some of the acts you believe are wrong.

He felt dishonored. Please don't underestimate how that can weigh on some people, to the extent that you're crawling out of your skin with self-hate and would rather die than inflict your presence on the people you love. What he experienced and his inner conflict over it is a major source of suicide and PTSD.

Counseling could have saved him. As it was he clearly felt he was doing his family a favor. That's how messed up he was. I have only sympathy for him and his family.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. Bush is responsible for the PTSD, irrational thinking of this man

Bush is responsible for the pain and suffering of all
our soldiers and innoncent Iraqi's.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. It gets you right in the throat.

"I don't know who to trust anymore." Ladies and gentlemen, that man has been abused by scholes. I recognize the wording. He went to people he thought could help him and his men, but instead, he was blocked by the ambitions of a schole. Someone who has a leadership position who is suppose to supervise or assist you, but instead, is cutting deals or making decisions for personal benefit - at your expense.

[shenmue]

8. Very sad

:cry:

[fasttense]

9. Suicide appears to be an option when you think there is no way out.

Despite the fact that he only had thirty days to go, he commits suicide to keep from having to deal with these Commanders in Iraq. Perhaps he knew that in the next 30 days, he would have to do something so despicable he couldn't live with it. I've been in the military and seen command structures so corrupt that you think you have lost your soul just by being around these people.

But EVERYTHING CHANGES, nothing stays the same, and you too will get out. If only we could all remember this.

[Cabcere]

15. It's hard to remember, though, sometimes.

I speak not as a soldier, but as someone who has dealt with chronic clinical depression for the past five years at least, and sometimes it is more difficult than others. Sometimes the depression completely takes over, and at that point, you're not yourself anymore - the pain is in control and you will do anything to end it, even if that means destroying yourself. The only reason I am still here today is because I didn't have any means available to me to end my life at that moment, when nothing else mattered - not my life, not my friends, not my family, not even the fear of death. It really can completely consume you at times, and make it impossible to remember that things will get better. :shrug: That's all I'm saying.

[Skidmore]

13. So who was "Redacted name"?

And what was he briefed about?

[flyarm]

17. I REMEMBER WHEN THIS HAPPENED AND THERE WAS ALOT OF SKEPTICISM IF HE DID REALLY COMMIT SUICIDE!!EOM

[glitch]

18. It's not like the military would ever lie to us, right? Saner to remain skeptical. nt

[flyarm]

22. this is a bs story,.he saw something he wasn't supposed to..he was a military teacher for goodness

sake..

he was done in..i remember this and there was so much speculation ..(i know) and questions about how he died..

like A SHOT TO BACK OF HIS HEAD..

HELLO/..ARE THERE REALLY PEOPLE STILL SO WILLING TO BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA OF THIS ADMINISTRATION AND MSM??

[glitch]

23. Amazing that people will continue to give the benefit of the doubt (as if there were any doubt left)

concerning any story coming out of this administration. And I include stories from the military because they are so emeshed with this administration.
It's like no one remembers the original stories of Tillman or Lynch and how they differed from the reality that eventually emerged. I know it's human nature to give a benefit of the doubt but really, enough is enough.
Thankfully The Truth appears to have a will of it's own, and does out eventually. And "eventually" doesn't seem to be taking as long as it used to.

[rumpel]

19. the betrayal was too much for him to bear

Once there he saw firsthand that this administration was lying, those that aligned themselves with the administration out of self interest.

"I didn't volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves."

This to me is the source of his utter despair and sense of betrayal by the systemic corruption inflicted onto his beloved military by those that rule.