Soldiers In Need Of Friend

Soldiers and suicide: Widow says despite pleas, help never came

Three months before her husband shot himself in the family's garage, Nicole Simmons said, she met with a chaplain and her husband's commanders at Fort Bragg.

Help me, and help my husband, Simmons said she told Lt. Col. Marcus Evans and Command Sgt. Maj. Herbert Kirkover.

Her husband, Sgt. Adrian Simmons, had changed, she said she told them.

Simmons, who is pregnant with their second child, thought he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He couldn't control his temper, and his memory was terrible, she said.

"I said, 'Something is wrong with my husband. He is saying he wants to blow his brains out. He is getting so short-tempered, so short-fused, anything will make him blow,' " Simmons said she told the commanders. "I said, 'I think he needs a psychological evaluation.' "

Soon after that meeting, the 24-year-old Simmons said, a soldier came to the family's Hoke County home to confiscate her husband's personal guns. Hoke County Child Protective Services visited and determined that the couple's 2-year-old son was safe as long as the guns remained out of the house.

But the Army never sent her husband to a counselor, Simmons said.

Now she's fighting for answers. So far, she said, she's not getting any.

Simmons said that after her husband died July 5, soldiers told her the Army was opening an investigation into what happened. But she wasn't contacted for an interview until Wednesday, hours after the Observer sent an email to the 82nd Airborne Division asking why no one had talked with her.

"How can they be doing an investigation if nobody has been to the most important person who went to the command?" Simmons asked. "I want to know why, when I went to command, no one admitted my husband for an evaluation."

The 82nd Airborne Division didn't respond to questions about Simmons' allegations or requests to talk to her husband's chain of command. It has a policy of not discussing ongoing investigations.

Suicide prevention has been a major focus in the Army since 2008, when the number of soldiers who killed themselves doubled from four years earlier. The Army is spending millions of dollars to study suicides and millions more on programs aimed at treating soldiers who may be at risk.

At Fort Bragg, eight active-duty soldiers are thought to have committed suicide this year, which is on pace to match or surpass the 14 who took their lives in 2010.

A Soldier's Best Friend – American Wartime Museum

Isaiah Schaffer had hit rock bottom. During his third combat tour in Iraq, the Marine corporal was severely injured in a Humvee explosion and sent home on a medevac. He was left feeling alone in his hometown of Spotsylvania, Va., afflicted by TBI, a severe leg injury and a case of PTSD so crippling that he was afraid to leave his apartment. And, to add insult to injury, he didn’t even receive a welcome-home party when he returned stateside.

But that was five years ago. A lot has changed since then. Schaffer, now 25, is leading a normal life, working full time and preparing to start a family. He has an infant child and is expecting another with his longtime girlfriend. The couple will marry in June.

Many people and things have helped make Schaffer’s life completely different from what it was when he returned from Iraq in 2005. But, it’s a four-legged friend – his 3-year-old English chocolate Labrador, Meghan – who has assisted him the most.

Meghan is a canine specially trained to give aid and comfort to individuals who suffer from PTSD. She was issued to Schaffer in November of 2008 by Puppies Behind Bars – a program that trains and pairs dogs with incarcerated prisoners to help them rehabilitate. The organization also provides veterans like Schaffer with service dogs.

Meghan always has a watchful eye trained on her master. She’ll wake him up from nightmares, comfort him in social situations and even remind him to take his medication. Most importantly, she’s given him the confidence to live a normal life.

“It’s almost like having a well-behaved 4-year-old in the house,” Schaffer said. “She reads me like a book. She is always on me and taking care of me.”

Indeed, Schaffer’s life prior to 2005 was a stark contrast to anything that society would consider normal. He graduated high school in 2002 and enlisted early in the Marines at the age of 17, with permission from his parents. He deployed to Iraq and was first wounded in Haditha in 2004, requiring a medical evacuation home. After recovering, he was determined to reunite with his brothers-in-arms. He redeployed to Iraq in 2005 and was again medevacced home, after his Humvee rolled over a roadside bomb in June of that year. The explosion gave him a traumatic brain injury and ended his military career.

Schaffer was often exposed to the mental stresses and anguishes of combat. On several different occasions, he saw extensive action in the bloody campaign for the Al Anbar Province – an engagement that claimed the lives of 1,330 U.S. servicemembers. For his bravery and service to his country, he received a Purple Heart Medal and Combat Action Ribbon. He was honorably discharged in 2006.

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