Posted on 07/10/2020 4:00:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Edited on 07/10/2020 4:01:44 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
The enemy could never break him, but what this decorated Green Beret eventually found was that his enemy was within. Friends who served with him in the military say he was the real “Captain America.”
Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano served six full tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and the Ranger regiment and a half dozen more combat tours overseas. He rose to become a decorated Green Beret and a Silver Star recipient. He had just moved to Washington, D.C., to start a coveted job at the Pentagon. Two days after the Fourth of July on Monday night, after having dinner with his former battalion leader, Marckesano returned home from dinner in Old Town, Alexandria, and died by suicide in front of his wife. He had three small children and was still on active duty.
His death sent shock waves through the military. His friends, family and military leaders were at a loss. Many told Fox News that Marckesano never got over his tour in Afghanistan's Arghandab Valley in 2009 with the 2-508, a battalion that had one of the highest casualty rates of any unit during the war. “That deployment was like being in the ring with Mike Tyson for a year,” according to the battalion’s former Command Sgt Major Bert Puckett.
He sent a passionate appeal this week to the rest of the battalion: “Text me, I told you before my door is open... my phone is at hand. We did things that people make movies about and in some cases, writers and producers wouldn’t even try to write our story... the rucksack is heavy... and when it gets heavy we [&$#*] help each other, but you have to reach out... Don’t let the Valley win.”
Stop it,just stop it.
Man, that’s cold.
Suicide is the one choice we all have, that’s why
they take it away from you in prison.
I think he could have spared his wife that experience
though. If you want to end your suffering that’s ok
but why make others suffer.
At least he was successful. The father of someone I knew
tried and only managed to blow off part of his face.
His daughter heard the shot and found him in a pool of
blood begging her to finish him off.
She wisely called 911.
Marckesano’s suicide was the 30th from this battalion. ”
Thirty Soldiers from his battalion have committed suicide. That is beyond tragic. Snide comments from the two of you is not helpful. There is a severe problem that is not being addressed. Who knows what was going on between the couple.
I am sorry for your loss and what you and the rest of your family is going through. Given that and the memories and thoughts that this thread bring up, the fact that you have commented says much about the strength of your character and your concern for others. Thank you for your perspective.
BS. All of us have personal knowledge of suicide. I guarantee, every single one of us. Only you saw fit, on an anonymous internet forum, to broadcast his own, more pristine, virtue and judgment, and for what? What was your purpose in posting that, other than self-aggrandizement?
No offense but there ought o be limits on how many tours someone does. If this is going to wear good guys down, its something that either needs to be spaced/paced or limited. Put em in training or in testing new things, or totally diferent types of missions, something other than the same thing again and again.
And maybe cap it and give them a cooling off season. Hell we let the fields lay fallow every 7th year. Recharge the batteries and let the mind declutter.
?
Wow. I could not have said it any better. I fully expected a lot of knee-jerk reactions to my post number 4 and boy did I get them. But I knew a few people would truly understand the hurt, the lifelong hurt that families go through after a suicide. Thank you for posting this.
Killing yourself in front of your kids is a cowardly move unbecoming any soldier.
It is perhaps the ultimate display of poor character.
America’s boot-licking love affair with “warriors” trumps everything, though - including facts and achievements.
Having one of the 22 in my family, with a similar situation to the Mstr Sgt, all I can say is that they left something on the battlefield that they couldn’t get back.
I know someone still around who’s in a similar situation. Still around but much changed.
A little cleanup in case some Karen gets annoyed at your language and your post is deleted. I plan on referring back to this comment if necessary. Thanks again.
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Back in the early to Mid 90’s at 2nd Amtracs they asked to have a Psychiatrist from the Naval Hospital come out to our Staff NCO and Officers call to give a talk of what to look for.
So he come out and delivered the following opener to his lecture,
“Suicide is the ultimate way to say to those who love you most, **** YOU, I don’t give a **** about you.”
I doubt that you could be more heartless or uncaring if you tried - but hey, you did your best, so good job there.
May God show you the mercy you fail to show your fellow man in their time of need.
Yes...my paternal grandfather hung himself in the family home...it affects generations.
I feel for the grief of his family but I try to
think of the families of the men who are alive today
because of him, do you not think he felt the grief
of the men and families he could not save?
Suicide has affected my family as well. I am a big enough man to know that my own nephew was a coward and a liar fag millennial whose last big self-centered move was to injure his family forever. Alas, this is the USA where a service medal or a TSA badge - or a pharmacist’s uniform - makes you a goddamned hero.
“No offense but there ought o be limits on how many tours someone does. If this is going to wear good guys down, its something that either needs to be spaced/paced or limited. “
It is a damned tragedy that it takes lots of deaths and suffering to correct things that seem pretty obvious to most people. It’s not all that different from putting a light up at a dangerous intersection...after the child of some rich or powerful person gets t-boned there and dies, but not when 10 “normal” people die there over a number of years.
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