[W]hen Jeff [Lucey] returned to his parents' home in July 2003 after serving six months in Iraq as a truck driver, there was nothing ordinary left about him.
He started drinking too much. He became withdrawn, depressed and distant.
In June, after what his parents describe as months of mental and emotional torment, the lance corporal went down to the basement and hanged himself.
He was 23.
[...]
[T]he Luceys don't spend too much time wondering what may have happened to their son in the desert, where he told his family he was ordered to shoot two unarmed Iraqi prisoners at close range.
His parents are asking themselves what went wrong when he came home. How did their happy, well-adjusted son lose the good humor and emotional stability he always had? Did they miss too many signs of his suicidal tendencies '' the red flags that were suddenly new to them? Did the military and Veterans Affairs Hospital do everything they could to help save their son?
''We're in so many emotional places, we can't make any decisions about who to blame,'' his father, Kevin Lucey, said.
How's that again? The problem arose when he came home?
As of early September, 29 troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom had killed themselves while in Iraq. Air Force officials say they're sure of only one airman - Sgt. David Guindon, 48, of Merrimack, N.H. - who took his life soon after coming home. Spokesmen for the Navy and Army as well as the Pentagon say they don’t track such numbers.
But the Marines say there have been 12 known suicides among soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan.
[...]
''Military people are heavily vetted for any psychological problems before they enter the service,'' said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. ''They're screened very well when they come in, and they're supposed to be screened very well when they leave. So when a Marine takes the ultimate step of checking out by taking his own life, it should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. These are the guys who aren't supposed to do that.''
[...]
Jeff was never much of a drinker in high school, Lamory said. But when he returned from Iraq, his drinking became ''disgusting.''
The two friends were taking classes at HCC. One day, they found a place on campus to smoke a cigarette and talk. Jeff pulled out a whiskey bottle filled with wine and started drinking.
Lamory was stunned.
''What's going on, man?'' he demanded of his friend. ''What are you doing to yourself?''
As he drank, Jeff told him about a small Iraqi boy he saw, riddled with bullets and lying dead in the street with an American flag clutched in his hand. Jeff said his truck was being shot at while he was driving by the boy, but he jumped out and brought the boy's body into an alley - sparing it from more bullet holes.
When Jeff came home, he brought the bloodstained American flag with him.
''He said whenever he goes home at night he just goes into his room and cries and stares at the flag,†Lamory said. ''I figured it was something Jeff had to work out. I didn't understand it when he killed himself.''
[...]
Christmas Eve, [Jeff] sat down with [his sister] Debbie and gave his first account of being told to shoot two unarmed Iraqi soldiers.
The way he told the story, Jeff was about five feet away from two Iraqis - each about his own age - when he was ordered to shoot them. He said he looked them in their eyes before closing his own, then pulled the trigger.
''He took off two dog tags around his neck, threw them at me and said, 'Donâ't you understand? Your brother is a murderer,''' Debbie said.
The dog tags, which she said had Arabic letters scratched in them, were the ones her brother claimed he took from the soldiers he said he shot.
No, Jeff, it's obvious they don't understand. They're still looking for someone to blame.
Capt. Patrick Kerr, a spokesman for the Marine Forces Reserve, said the military's investigation found nothing at all to back up Jeff's claims that he shot the prisoners.
''There was no documented evidence to support that he had any engagement with the enemy, whatsoever,'' Kerr said.
Then it didn't happen. Stuff like that isn't happening.
