Green Beret's Strange Suicide

UPI ^

[hardhead]

MONUMENT, Colo., May 11 (UPI) -- Early one Sunday evening in March, Army Special Forces soldier Bill Howell fed his 7-month-old daughter a bottle and fell asleep with her for half an hour on the couch. It was a minor moment of domestic tranquility, a contrast to his most recent five-month deployment in Iraq. Home just three weeks, Bill was settling back into the family life he shared with his wife, Laura, and three children near Fort Carson.

But by 9:27 p.m., things had gone horribly wrong. That is when a 911 dispatcher received a call from Laura Howell:

"My husband just hit me, and he's going downstairs to get his gun."

Laura Howell hung up and slipped out a door, but her husband cornered her between the garage and their truck parked in front of it. He took a .357-caliber revolver from his waistband and pointed it in her face. "You are going to watch this. You are going to watch this," Bill said to his wife -- meaning watch as he shot her in the face.

[hardhead]

This is heartbreaking - as if our troops didn't have enough problems.

[bmwcyle]

;>(

[pabianice]

AP somehow overlooked the fact that, the same day as this shooting, over 80,000,000 US gun owners didn't shoot anyone. Guess they didn't have room for that story...

[newsgatherer]

agreed.

[Cap Huff]

Actually, the way I took the story is that the anti-malarial drug (and other substances used) is the main focus and not the firearm.

[hardhead]

Maybe I'm reading it differently (it's a UPI story) but it seems more to be about the effects of a drug that the military administers?

[Cicero]

But according to Food and Drug Administration warnings, Bill's symptoms also appear to match the side effects from Lariam.

This seems to be the key to this story. It's still not proven, but a drug that can cross into the brain and dissolve cells isn't something I'd want to take. Regretably, this wouldn't be the first time the military has given unsafe or experimental shots or drugs to personnel.

[antiRepublicrat]

It's not about guns, but the malaria drug these guys are given. SF training is designed to weed out people who can't handle the kind of stress they'll see. I know some current and ex SF guys, and the worst I normally see is that they just don't want to talk about what they've done. So five SF guys from Iraq going psycho is definitely something to look into.

[arthurus]

What is the incidence of murder or suicide among troops who were deployed to combat zones wgo did not take lariam?

[hardhead]

Thats just what I was thinking. When did the Army start administering Lariam? It seems that the CWO was not a stranger to combat.

[Cap Huff]

About six or eight years ago I knew a Christian missionary who took an anti-malarial drug prior to to short visit to West Africa, and he had to be shipped back home and took several months of convalescence for psychological and socialogical problems that resulted. At the time I recall people saying that this is a known side effect that occurs in a very small number of people who take the drug. I don't know what the drug was, so I don't know whether it is the same one that the U.S. military uses.

The point here is that it may not be a question of only military being given this type of drug.

[dead]

I was reading this story, and thinking it was the drug, but by the end I wasn’t so sure.

He had a history of beating his wife and was legally drunk at the time of the incident. Hardly the sort of “test case” around which to build a theory on the drug’s side effects.

[hardhead]

Side Effects of Lariam

[paul51]

Doesn't that just make your radar go 'beep, beep, beep'?

Yes it does. I hope someone is taking a serious look at the side affects of this drug

[ClearCase_guy]

The best anti-Malarial drug is DDT.

[Blzbba]

"AP somehow overlooked the fact that, the same day as this shooting, over 80,000,000 US gun owners didn't shoot anyone. Guess they didn't have room for that story..."


Indeed they didn't have room for that story, given that the story's main focus was on the mind-altering properties of a malaria drug the suicide victim had been taking.

Or did you not bother to actually read the story at all, but rather give a push-button gun-control answer to the headline?

[kayak]

.

[Jemian]

I have taken lariam for malaria. It is a dangerous mind-altering drug which should NEVER be given to anyone. The effects on me lasted well past the malaria and plunged me into a depression which took me at least six, and possibly nine MONTHS to recover. I can well believe this sad, sad story.

[Jemian]

A few people have experienced disabling attacks of anxiety, depression, confusion, hallucinations, panic attacks, restlessness, forgetfulness, psychosis and paranoia, emotional instability, aggression and agitation. However, alarming as these may sound, they are very rare reactions to the drug.

These indeed are side-effects of lariam, but in my experience, MOST people have experienced them. They are alarming and NOT RARE at all.

[Cicero]

It sounds horrible. I'm glad you recovered.