My father, a Marine tunnel rat in the Vietnam War who i revere so much talked to me about this; ONCE.
“You go to a foreign sh!thole, fight for your life and your friends. You see horrible things that scar you. You make it home in one piece.”
“I’ll never understand how you could kill yourself after making out alive out of that hell.”
What do you say to that?
The thing is many veterans that commit suicide don’t see it that way. Some cannot deal or process with things they saw and did. Some feel like they cannot live with those things in their head, and they cannot get them out of there.
I served during the Vietnam era but *not* in SE Asia.A couple of buddies *did* serve there,one a Marine who was in Khe Sahn during "Tet".
They told stories of fear,anger and remorse that still ring in my ears.Fear of death...anger at watching their buddies die...and remorse at having to kill others.
IMO that could be,for some at least,a recipe for depression of a magnitude that I cannot imagine.
I'm no combat veteran...and I'm no shrink...just sayin'.