'Good Night Ryan' - a short documentary about a vet who may have committed suicide
Through my own experiences working as a filmmaker and cameraman in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past nine years, I’ve seen many young soldiers turn into troubled veterans.
Specialist Ryan Yurchison served in Iraq in 2006, and three years after returning home, he overdosed on a fatal cocktail of drugs. His family now believes his death was a suicide.
Ryan was racked with the guilt of seeing three of his comrades die in a truck bomb attack. He was the sentry that day and blamed himself. After returning home, the Department of Veterans Affairs prescribed drugs to help him deal with this trauma; when those weren’t enough, he began using heroin.
A year before Ryan died, he made a short art film that ended with a simulation of his own hanging. He showed this video to his mother, Cherry DeBow, who then begged the local Department of Veterans Affairs in Youngstown, Ohio, for help.
But according to Ryan’s mother, he was told he’d need to wait six months for inpatient treatment for drug addiction. He died three months later. In multiple requests for information regarding this story, V.A. representatives said they had no recollection or records that Ryan had sought inpatient drug treatment.According to a V.A. press officer, records indicate that a provider recommended to Ryan that he “consider additional treatment” a month before he died, but no further details are available. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, refused to be interviewed about veteran suicides.
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The short video and more info at this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/good-night-ryan.html
Bring them home!
Provide the money to set up help for these soldiers.
Damn all the PTB who are wasting these lives. Damn them all to HELL!
