In both 2009 and 2010, more soldiers died by suicide than were killed in combat. On this Memorial Day, as we pause to remember the men and women killed in combat, we choose also to remember the soldiers lost to suicide.
And in an effort to do more than just remember, we want to invite you to use your voice to urge President Obama to reverse the White House policy on military condolence letters. In short, we believe that the current policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who lost their lives to suicide is insensitive and we believe it needs to change.
The grieving families of soldiers who die by suicide deserve to be met with kindness and compassion. For these people, the reality is that someone they love went to war and they did not return. Compassion shouldn’t hinge on the circumstances of the death, whether they died by enemy fire or died trying to escape the memory of what they saw and felt and lost at war. Love should not be withheld based on where a bullet comes from. Those soldiers that died by suicide, they were sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends. They were people living stories and their stories ended tragically too soon.