What can we learn from such a tragedy that might help others? A trend in such stories seems to be a period of increasing isolation from everyone but in many cases none of the cut out people do anything about it. I find it hard to understand how the family of the wife can just accept losing contact like that, but I've not been in this situation so what do I know?
Either way, grim stuff. At least the deaths were quick and they didn't seem to really suffer that much.
Mental healthcare for veterans is clearly grossly inadequate. Lobby your representatives for better support and keep lobbying until something changes.
If you're concerned about the mental wellbeing of someone you know, act early. Don't let your doubts stop you from acting, don't fall victim to wishful thinking. Talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Keep in touch, even if they're becoming more distant. Encourage them to seek treatment. If you're concerned for their safety, call an ambulance. Find out what your state laws are on involuntary commitment, just in case.
I'd highly recommend taking a course in mental health first aid. These courses are widely available and usually free. In just a few hours, you can gain the skills and confidence to help someone in a crisis.
The public, press and government can pay as much lip service as they want toward "caring" for their veterans. But that's all it is. Some momentary hand waving and noise whilst there's a new story making the circuit about the most recent veteran failure. Five minutes go by and it's a forgotten issue again.
We've treated service members as consumables publicly since the Vietnam war. For those who come back broken, not much has changed since 1955.
I know a lot of messed up vets. I've watched them struggle with their issues while fighting a broken, uncaring system. I've been aware of many enlisted suicides over the years. I know when I was self destructing I was lucky to be in a really good financial position and have a caring and resilient significant other. Without those two things clearing paths for me (which has still been a disappointing, frustrating slog) I'm pretty confident I wouldn't be here right now. If I had to rely on the VA or any other "programs" I probably would have ended up scrambling my own brains about 4-6 years ago.
As a manager most of my time these days seems to get spent in reminding people they don't have to come up with constructive narratives for every complex problem the internet or life dumps on them.
If you are really interested in an issue put in the work. Find an expert. If the experts don't have great answers and you are still interested put in the work. This discipline seems to have evaporated these days.
Every one is programmed for instant gratification that comes from just reacting and being satisfied with the like button counter of the reaction.
Hard problems are hard. Its okay to say you have no idea how to solve it. But don't use it as an excuse to not get an expert involved.
Why does any story need to have an agenda? I didn't get one from this, and I would be hard pressed to find an agenda from most of the fiction I read either.
This is the story of a whole family's life and how they died. You think it's pointless to read or publish it? Why?
'Pay grade' statements weaken your statements fatally so we'll ignore them.
I'm not looking for gratification or some shortcut to a solution for a problem I'm not trying to solve but I can't understand what you're trying to say here..
Are you saying I'm wrong for thinking about what to learn from this terrible tale? Should the only people commenting on things outside their field only be allowed if they're willing to have a field of independent experts backing them up? Eh?
For any given problem, the people who understand the problem are often unwilling to fix it because doing so might not align with their financial interests.
The few expert dissidents that exist in any given area need the support of the uninformed masses in order to change things.
