Epidemic Continues: Iraq Vet with PTSD Kills Self, Brother

[babylonsister]

No one can convince me this stop-loss program is good or healthy for anyone. This is killing more soldiers than the illegal occupation.


Epidemic Continues: Iraq Vet with PTSD Kills Self, Brother


Posted May 17, 2008 | 11:23 AM (EST)


The epidemic of suicides among veterans of the Iraq war with PTSD has become so common that I sat down to write about two news ones today and end up writing about an even more recent, and shocking, one. It involves a decorated vet who wrote about his PTSD for the Marine Corps Gazette-- and this week killed himself and his brother after a long police chase in Arizona.

Police have discovered no motive for the killings, nor why the brothers earlier in the week may have planned to commit suicide by driving into the Grand Canyon -- Thelma and Louise style.

Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, 36, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993 and held the combat action ribbon -- and met President Bush a few weeks ago -- wrote a lengthy article in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette detailing his efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. He loved his country so much he named his son America, The Arizona Republic reports today.

His brother was Willard J. Twiggs, age 38.

"All this violent behavior, him killing his brother, that was not my husband. If the PTSD would have been handled in a correct manner, none of this would have happened," Kellee Twiggs, the wife of Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, said. She said he began changing after his second tour of duty in Iraq, and worsened after he returned from his third stint there, when he lost two good friends from his platoon.

"He went and saw a physician's assistant who said that was the severest case of PTSD she'd seen in her life," Kellee Twiggs said, according to published reports. Twiggs had been absent without leave since May 5.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/epidemic-continues-iraq-v_b_102232.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Sigh. :(((((

[Faygo Kid]

2. It's OK, though. Bush gave up golf.

Forgive the gallows humor. I am outraged beyond belief at this and all the ramifications of this goddamned war and this inhuman administration.

[grace0418]

8. I understand. I bitterly thought of that same thing.

After awhile what do we have left except gallows humor?

[barbtries]

3. the blood of both brothers

is on the hands of the gwbush administration. splashing onto the do nothing democrats who were elected to put an end to the madness, and have not.

oh it's so sad! RIP. i hope their mother has already passed on and i speak as the mother of a homicide victim. i always thought the one thing that could have made my daughter's death worse would be if she had killed herself. to have a child kill another child, then kill himself, that - that's beyond the pale. this is devastating, mind-boggling.

[babylonsister]

4. I can't even imagine the grief and horror a parent

would feel.

And I'm very sorry to hear about your daughter, barbtries. :hug:

[beezlebum]

5. "I pray that no Marine or sailor, or any service member..."

"I pray that no Marine or sailor, or any service member for that matter, ever has to go through what I went through." -- Travis N. Twiggs, RIP, 5/14/2008.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=259&topic_id=14866&mesg_id=14891

[anigbrowl]

6. I was just reading this elsewhere. I'm weeping with anger.

So many brave patriots like this staff sergeant have unselfishly served the country. This sergeant was dealing with his own problems, taking responsibility for working on his own recovery, and extending a helping hand to his fellow soldiers. The Marine Corps itself is trying to face up and deal with these problems in a way that they've never had to before, and dignifying them instead of belittling them.

And Bush says he's given up golf while McCain offers pretty pictures of the world in 2013. It is sickening.

[anigbrowl]

7. Meanwhile, VA PTSD program coordinator asks staff to save money by not diagnosing PTSD

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/05/va-psychologist.html You have to see this shit to believe it.

[babylonsister]

9. Yep. I was just going to correct your first post with the grim reality.

Here's a thread you might find of interest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3296664&mesg_id=3296664