Marine pleads for action on veterans and suicide

Source: Air Force Times
Published: Wednesday 12 November, 2014

HOUSTON — A Marine veteran who lost 20 members of his battalion in Afghanistan is searching for answers and searching for help after losing 20 more to suicide after they came home.

"Nobody expected to deal with it 20 times," said Sgt. Will Rollins, now a deputy with the Montgomery County (Texas) Sheriff's Office. "We've lost 20 Marines, 20 men in combat and we're now up to 20 on suicide. I just don't think that should be a number that's even close to each other."

Rollins, 31, deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines in 2008. An ambush battle in Dowlatabad ended with two fellow Marines dead and Rollins receiving the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for gallantry in battle, for knocking out a machine gun nest and helping save the remaining members in his unit.

"That's what they say, yes sir. But I believe we saved ourselves," Rollins said.

By the time the 2008 tour was over, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines had lost 20 men in battle. Rollins sometimes wears a commemorative shirt with each of their names on the back.

But within weeks after that tour ended that December, the Battalion recorded its first suicide. Then, just this last week, another member of the unit ended his life with a handgun. To date, 20 of Rollins' comrades have committed suicide.

“We've lost 20 Marines, 20 men in combat and we're now up to 20 on suicide. I just don't think that should be a number that's even close to each other.”
Sgt. Will Rollins, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines
"I wish I knew why it was happening. I believe if I knew why it was happening we wouldn't have this problem to begin with," said Rollins in an appeal for help for his fellow Marines.

"They were from all over the country. Some were married, some weren't married. Some had children, some didn't have children," he said.

"It's pissing us off. And we want to know why. And what can we do to prevent this and stop this. We're sick of losing our brothers. Whether it's two or 20 it's too many, too many."

Rollins and his fellow Marines have started a private group on Facebook where Marines can share their concerns, their nightmares, their struggles. But even with that outlet for the Marines to talk to each other about the problems they brought home from war, the most recent suicide happened anyway.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' own estimates indicate that as many as 22 veterans commit suicide in the United States every day.

"A lot of these guys they got nowhere to turn to," Rollins said. "They got nobody to talk to. They don't have parents. They don't have friends who support and appreciate them and pat them on the back. There's gotta be somebody out there with answers, somebody out there who can help these Marines."

Camp Hope in Houston was founded five years ago by a group of pastors, corporate sponsors and veterans. Camp Hope, which is run by the PTSD Foundation of America, provides temporary housing for veterans struggling with PTSD and other issues.

"We're working very diligently at the basic of just keeping them alive," said David Maulsby, executive director of Camp Hope.

To date, they have offered services to more than 100 male and female veterans, providing peer-to-peer counseling and life-skill retraining to ease them back into civilian life.

"We've had some tremendous success stories of guys and girls who have gotten their lives back, and are very productive in life today because they got the help they needed," Maulsby said.

Camp Hope is designed as a 16-bed facility but currently has 24 residents. In January they hope to break ground on a new building to provide an additional 24 beds. Their programs also include family counseling — allowing a soldier/marine and his/her family to take part in on-site counseling sessions as well. The program is free of charge, provided through donations from various faith-based groups and private corporations in the Houston area.

Each building is also dedicated to the memory of a fallen U.S. serviceman or woman. One of the buildings is named after Sgt. Clay Hunt, a Houston-area Marine who was one of the comrades Rollins lost to suicide.

"Anything we can do to prevent one of those from occurring is worth whatever the cost is in keeping those folks alive," Maulsby said.

"Four people in the United States who have been diagnosed with Ebola? Four? Everybody knows everything there is about Ebola, how you contract it, how you avoid it. We're losing 22 veterans every day! And people just go on with their lives," he said comparing figures that would qualify veteran suicide as a pandemic.

"It's a dark, dark story that we need to work at changing. We can turn the light on. We can turn the story around and make a much better ending," Maulsby said.

"I want them to know that, I don't feel like suicide should be an option," Rollins said. "There are brothers out there who care about them. Who want to hear their problems, want to help (with) their problems. If they feel like they're at rock bottom, they can't go any further ... why not climb up?

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