Heartwrenching: Veteran’s Suicide Note Read On Air By Parents, CNN Anchor Breaks Down

The Blaze’s Jason Howerton reported this weekend on a CNN segment on Friday featuring the parents of a veteran who committed suicide, and the role the poor care of the VA played in that death.

The veteran, Daniel Somers, was a combat veteran who survived over 400 missions. He described his ordeal after the war, here at home, the care and support networks that were supposed to await him, in chilling and terrible terms.

“Is it any wonder that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook, every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn’t the president standing with those families at the State of the Union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic, but rather by his own system of dehumanization, neglect, and indifference.”

Neglect and indifference. Somers demands answers for what he views as the cruel and vicious legacy of both President Bush and President Obama. Indeed, it is clear his note indicts the entire system, both the mechanism of war, and the structures of rehabilitation.

This was a man who faced death. And in the end, chose death. This was a man who needed help, care, support and therapy. What he got instead was what is at the heart of this scandal. Whether it is fake waiting lists or just plain inadequate care, he suffered harshly and was not helped.

What a failure. What a loss. What a tragedy.

What a legacy.

h/t IJReview


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