Military Veterans and Suicide by Gun: The Tragic Toll on Our Heroes

Watch this episode on YouTube here https://youtu.be/r5zul4X0pQ8?si=oqvXKhg2DAeB4XKD

Do You Ever Wonder about the tragic statistic of 22+ military veterans dying by suicide every single day?

The Do You Ever Wonder host Mike Haltman, as Board Chair of the Heroes To Heroes Foundation (https://heroestoheroes.org/), is all too aware of the veterans who return home suffering the invisible wounds of moral injury and PTSD.

Often, losing relationships with loved ones and friends, dealing with depression, isolation, and loneliness, they may believe they have nowhere else to turn other than alcohol, and drugs.

22+ times each and every day, these American heroes turn to taking their lives, and it is very often suicide by gun!

We saw today's Do You Ever Wonder guest Chris Jachimiec, an ambassador for End Family Fire, being interviewed about the need for safe and secure firearm storage.

Campaigns many may be familiar with include Service Never Stops and Safe Stories.

This is his story that brought him to where he is today...

'Growing up, my brother and I were like a dynamic duo out there. We both would end up joining the military. I enlisted in the Air Force in ‘99 and Adam joined the Marine Corps in 2006. For the longest time, we were each other’s best friends. It’s like he was that person that was just connected to me all of the time.

By 2012, he was struggling through a crisis with the Marines due to some things he experienced in combat, along with medical issues. It would eventually lead to his departure from the military. He struggled a lot with the transition.

I was halfway around the world in Afghanistan with my deployment about to be wrapped up when Adam first attempted suicide. I got a call and immediately departed Afghanistan to my home in Las Vegas where I met my newborn son for the first time. We then drove together to San Diego to visit my brother in the ICU. We didn’t quite know if Adam was gonna make it.

For years after, Adam continued to struggle. Then, in 2017, I received a text from my stepmother. She's like, hey, I need you to call me as as soon as possible.

And that's when I found out my brother had died by gun suicide. It took me a long time to deal with losing my brother. And in the year that followed, several other Veterans that I was friends with died by gun suicide, as well. I was probably naive in getting the right help that I needed at the time. I knew all the resources. I think it was the shock of it all which was there for quite some period of time, where I’m like, “Oh, I’m strong enough. I can go back to work.” I coped with it initially with work and alcohol.

Eventually, I cracked. And that’s what led me into some some bad decisions and some legal issues of my own.

And that's where my story of having the firearm locked up probably ended up saving my life.'

Learn more about gun storage and gun safety by visiting End Family Fire here https://www.endfamilyfire.org/. 
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