Military Comes Under Fire In Lakewood For PTSD Suicides

Tears and accusations flowed heavily at a Lakewood coffee-house Friday as current and former soldiers and loved ones condemned the U.S. military and government for ignoring service-connected mental-health problems.

Hosted by the on Union Avenue in Tillicum, the event drew a few dozen community members to a panel discussion featuring members of the “March Forward” advocacy group, which has been rallying for an end to the war in Afghanistan and better health-care treatment of returning service members and veterans.

Among the seven speakers were four veterans, one active-duty serviceman, the wife of a recent military suicide victim and the mother of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Derrick Kirkland, 23, a two-time combat veteran who hung himself in his barracks at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March 2010.

Kirkland was sent home midway through his second tour in Iraq for putting a shotgun in his mouth. He also attempted suicide during a layover in Germany. 

A Madigan Army Medical Center psychologist diagnosed him as low-risk for suicide and he was assigned to a barracks room by himself. He hanged himself less than 48 hours later.

“March Forward” co-founder Kevin Baker accused the military Friday of paying lip service to—and even mocking—soldiers like Kirkland, who have suffered combat-related mental illness.

“We’re demanding justice for Sgt. Kirkland…and also for every single active-duty service member and veteran…and for the rights of those in the military who’ve yet to be deployed and traumatized,” he said.

“It’s our assertion that Sgt. Kirkland did not kill himself,” Baker said.  “He was killed by the Army’s criminally inadequate mental health services and by the chain of command who exhibited such callous disregard for his life.”

Baker, who served with Kirkland and left the military in December, urged active military members who are dealing with PTSD symptoms to refuse deployment to the war zone—as he did.

“I wouldn’t consider that mutiny if the military isn’t capable of providing soldiers with the help that they need,” he said. “They (service members) have a unique responsibility to stand in solidarity with each other.”

Baker said drastic change is needed both in the military and Veterans Administration to properly address service-connected mental illness.  His group plans to continue rallying public support for that change, he said.

Military officials were not immediately available for comment Friday night. However, two military investigations following Kirkland’s death found no wrongdoing by his superiors.

Yet Kirkland’s mother, Mary Corkhill Kirkland of Indianapolis, said the Army has failed in its responsibility to protect her son and other U.S. troops from harm.

“Rumor has it that there have been at least eight other suicides at Ft. Lewis in the 17 months since my son’s death,” she said. “I just want the public to tell the Army, `Your programs are failing.’ Our loved ones are still committing suicide.”

The number of suicides could not be confirmed immediately.

Corkhil Kirkland also accused the military of sweeping the suicide problem under the carpet. In reading her son’s death announcement from an Indiana newspaper to Friday's audience, she noted the Defense Department was quoted as saying her son had been “killed in action” and that “the family declined to comment publicly.”

“I just met another wife whose husband committed suicide after the Army implemented their new (suicide prevention) program,” Corkhill Kirkland said.

That wife, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, was also part of Friday’s panel discussion, recounting the death of her husband, Army Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, three weeks ago.

Wiping away tears, Joppa-Hagemann said her husband went into some bushes in a training area at JBLM and fatally shot himself in the head.

The seven-year Ranger, who had been diagnosed earlier with PTSD, was scheduled to be re-deployed on his ninth combat tour of duty and had sworn an oath that he would not go. In addition to his widow, he left behind two young children.

The Army has refused to give Hagemann a memorial service, his wife said, because it does not want the news media drawing more attention to service-connected suicides.