Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Warning sign

Battle assembly was this past weekend. After training was over, I tried to catch up on some recruiting news. The wife of one of the Houston Battalion recruiters, SFC Patrick Henderson, who killed himself was also a recruiter. The Houston Chronicle wrote about her comments regarding recruiting, her husband, and his death. It's heart-breaking to me to read about the loss this family suffered. As I said before; I've been there.

Something in this though jumped out at me.
"He came up to me and gave me a big hug, and everything was OK."
No. It was not. This is from WebMD
Sudden, unexpected switch from being very sad to being very calm or appearing to be happy.
SFC Henderson went from being depressed after the suicide of a co-worker, to spending most of a week in a hospital under observation and being prescribed several mood-altering drugs, to being taken off of his regular duty, to having his wife talk about a seperation, and one night he says everything is alright? That is a warning sign so bright that it would make someone in Las Vegas go "Wow, that's bright". Maybe nothing could have been done about it, but I don't agree that SFFC Henderson "just snapped" sometime between him hugging his wife and when he put the rope around his neck. He had made his choice and was content that whatever was bothering him was going to be over soon.

Tragic.

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