As of Jan. 17, veterans thinking about hurting themselves can get free crisis care, including inpatient, for up to 90 days at Veterans Affairs. They do not need to be enrolled in VA care. For immediate help, dial 988, then press 1.
Editor's Note: This is the second story in a multipart series. Read the first and third stories.
Army Sgt. Maj. Thomas Campbell didn't intend to live long enough to make it to Afghanistan with the 182nd Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit out of Massachusetts.
Campbell, a career infantryman in the Army, returned from Iraq in 2009 to an ended 20-year marriage and orders to head to the Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas.
“When I get down to Fort Bliss, I'm by myself, I'm not busy, nobody's in charge of me,” Campbell says. “I'm not in charge of anybody else—and I started to self-medicate.”
Campbell, who suffered mental and physical pain—in part, he says, from traumatic brain injuries during previous Iraq and Afghanistan deployments—rehearsed his own death: an accidental drive off a cliff on a Texas road with a tricky turn. The Army would not list his death as suicide, and that's the way he wanted it.
“I don't know how many times I rehearsed it, so when it came down to the execution, it would be flawless,” he says. “I had to get my affairs in order before I executed my suicide so my kids would get the benefits.”
The day he didn't want to…
