Check Your Six
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- Category: English: Creative Writing
- Date Submitted: 10/03/2015 01:20 PM
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Check Your Six
By: David Gatesby and Kaleigh Child
It’s Saturday night around 8pm. I had just walked outside to sit on my porch when I noticed my phone lights up. It was a Facebook notification alerting me that a fellow veteran from my old unit had posted something in one of our private chat groups. See, a lot of guys have trouble readjusting to civilian life, and decompressing after combat deployments, and since we are all spread throughout the country, Facebook tends to be the best way to keep tabs on each other. We’re able to offer support and resources to the groups that we may not have been able to otherwise. And on this night, one of my brothers desperately needed support. For privacy, let’s just say his name is Mikey. Mikey posted that he had hit rock bottom. His marriage was failing, and he was contemplating ending his own life. A U.S. Marine, a combat veteran, a husband, a brother, a son, and a best friend, all brought to his knees by the invisible scars he bares from life, and his time in uniform. We don’t always know what motivates an individual to get to this point, but this was the second veteran this weekend alone that had come to us for help. We spent a large portion of that night trying to get ahold of Mikey and find his location to no avail. Luckily we got in touch with his girlfriend, who immediately gave us his home address. Fortunately we were able to get another vet from our group out to his house just hours after his post on Facebook. Mikey sat down and spoke to this fellow combat brother and was able to calm down and re-evaluate his situation for the better. Crisis averted for the night. And Mikey continues to be doing better. The purpose of this research paper is to make you aware of the ongoing suicide rate among veterans and introduces you to multiple groups and theories on ways to best support American’s veterans and suicide prevention. We’ll discover which ideas have the best turn around,...
By: David Gatesby and Kaleigh Child
It’s Saturday night around 8pm. I had just walked outside to sit on my porch when I noticed my phone lights up. It was a Facebook notification alerting me that a fellow veteran from my old unit had posted something in one of our private chat groups. See, a lot of guys have trouble readjusting to civilian life, and decompressing after combat deployments, and since we are all spread throughout the country, Facebook tends to be the best way to keep tabs on each other. We’re able to offer support and resources to the groups that we may not have been able to otherwise. And on this night, one of my brothers desperately needed support. For privacy, let’s just say his name is Mikey. Mikey posted that he had hit rock bottom. His marriage was failing, and he was contemplating ending his own life. A U.S. Marine, a combat veteran, a husband, a brother, a son, and a best friend, all brought to his knees by the invisible scars he bares from life, and his time in uniform. We don’t always know what motivates an individual to get to this point, but this was the second veteran this weekend alone that had come to us for help. We spent a large portion of that night trying to get ahold of Mikey and find his location to no avail. Luckily we got in touch with his girlfriend, who immediately gave us his home address. Fortunately we were able to get another vet from our group out to his house just hours after his post on Facebook. Mikey sat down and spoke to this fellow combat brother and was able to calm down and re-evaluate his situation for the better. Crisis averted for the night. And Mikey continues to be doing better. The purpose of this research paper is to make you aware of the ongoing suicide rate among veterans and introduces you to multiple groups and theories on ways to best support American’s veterans and suicide prevention. We’ll discover which ideas have the best turn around,...