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 The Uncounted Casualties of WarPosted on Aug 1, 2007By Amy Goodman U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey is not counted among the Iraq war dead. But he did die, when he came home. He committed suicide. His parents are suing the Department of Veterans Affairs and R. James Nicholson, the secretary of veterans affairs, for wrongful death, medical malpractice and other damages. Kevin and Joyce Lucey saw their son’s rapid descent after he returned from combat in Iraq in June 2003. Kevin said: “Hallucinations started with the visual, the audio, tactile. He would talk about hearing camel spiders in his room at night, and he actually had a flashlight under his bed, which he could use to search for the camel spiders. His whole life was falling apart.” Jeffrey told his family that he was ordered to execute two Iraqi prisoners of war. After he killed the two men, Jeffrey took their dog tags and wore them until Christmas Eve 2003, when he threw them at his sister, calling himself a murderer. A military investigation concluded the story is without merit, but Kevin Lucey says: “An agency investigating itself, I have a lot of problems with that. We fully believe our son.” Joyce Lucey added: “It really, to us, didn’t make a difference what caused Jeffrey’s PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. We know that he came back different, so something happened to him over there.” Jeffrey got worse, secluding himself in his room, watching TV and drinking heavily. Jeffrey was reluctant to seek care, fearing the stigma that he felt accompanied mental-health treatment. Finally, on May 28, 2004, the Luceys had Jeffrey involuntarily committed. The Veterans Affairs hospital released him after three days. On June 5, 2004, Jeffrey had deteriorated significantly. His sisters and grandfather brought him back to the VA. Joyce said the VA “decided that he wasn’t saying what he needed to say to get involuntarily committed. Later we were to find out that they never called a psychiatrist or anybody that could have evaluated him. And they have this all on the record. It said that the grandfather was pleading for his grandson to be admitted.” The Luceys later learned from staff notes that Jeffrey talked about three ways to commit suicide. His father explained: “He told them that he would suffocate himself, he would overdose or he would hang himself. He also shared with the psychiatrist how he had bought a hose. And, of course, on June 5, when we tried to admit him the second time and the VA declined, Joyce and I went through the house, we took everything that he could hurt himself with, but we never thought of a hose.” Turned back by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Jeffrey spent his last two weeks alive at home. Kevin Lucey describes the night before his son killed himself: “It was about 11:30 at night, and I was exhausted, Jeff was exhausted. He asked me if he would be able to sit in my lap. And so for 45 minutes we rocked in silence, and the therapist told us after Jeff died that that was no doubt his last place of refuge, his last safe harbor that he felt that he could go to.” The next evening, after returning home from work, Kevin raced inside: “I went to his bedroom, and the one thing I noted was that his dog tags were laying on his bed.” He made his way to the cellar, where he found his son Jeffrey dead, a hose double-looped around his neck. Three years later, his parents have filed suit. They are not alone. A separate class-action suit was filed by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been denied medical benefits. Jeffrey Lucey’s suicide note begins, “Dear Mom and Dad, I cannot express my apologies in words for the pain I have caused you but I beg for your forgiveness. I want you to know that I loved you both and still do but the pain of life was too much for me to deal with.” Supporting the troops means taking care of them when they return home. Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America. © 2007 Amy Goodman Distributed by King Features Syndicate Previous item: A Call to Service Next item: Impeaching Alberto Gonzales Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
By Theresa Isidro, August 12, 2007 at 5:44 pm # Thank you so much, Amy.
By Gusto, August 5, 2007 at 9:28 am # Amy has usual is did a great job informing the public of the truth of war. The american people have gotten used to see war as some aircraft firing off a “smart bomb” that goes through a window, but never saw the victims, so therefore, did not give two biscuits of the consecuences of war. The american corporate media in its efforts to sell the war has ommited the gruesome scenes of war under the claim “to sanitize the war”. You cannot sanitize a war; war is about killing, destruction and suffering, period. This current administration didn’t even wanted us to see pictures of the coffins returning from the wafr as if no one was dying over there. This is supposed to be the country were freedom of information is one of our greatest achievements. The more seriuos thing about this war, is that the people that placed our children and loves one in Iraq are a gang of cowards whom NEVER SERVED this nation in any capacity other than politics, yet they love to call themselves “patriot and hawks”.
By Denise, August 5, 2007 at 9:13 am # I cried when I read this article. The tears kicked in when Kevin described holding his grown son in his lap for forty-five minutes in order to comfort him. Can you imagine the terror that must have flowed through that father as he tried to comfort his child knowing that he couldn’t help what ailed his son?
By B Ayres, August 3, 2007 at 6:57 am # It is unfortunate that the larger population of the U.S. needs stories like this before they see that war has no benefit for the people. Has anyone ever raised the question of requiring 2/3 of the U.S. population to vote for war before we enter into conflict? I still doubt that I would support any war even if something like that was added to our defunct Constitution, but at least I would feel that the soldiers that are thrown to the wolves -that we’ve created -are thier because of us rather than because of the rich looking to get richer. We have lost our souls to improving our individual lives rather than improving the human condition.
By Bill Larsen, August 2, 2007 at 2:27 pm # As a combat veteran rated as 100& disabled by the V.A., I spent many yars as a psychotherapist working with post-traumatic veterans of Vietnam and our other--smaller--wars. But no war is small to the soldier or civilian brutalized in it, and the vets I treated suffered for years what my wife calls our conutry’s “instant amnesia” of veterans’ needs, once the fighting has stopped. My heart bleeds for Jeffrey Lucey and his parents, and I support any and all efforts to force our government to fulfill its sworn obligation to its disabled vets. HOWEVER, if we truly want to “support the troops”, our primary goal must be to NEVER involve then in avaricious, ill-conceived, unilaterally declared wars waged outside the guidance of the democratic process. Unfortunately, the only venue in which this can occur when the government has been co-opted by a single arm of the government is no longer the ballot box but the streets. The greatest shame of the Iraqi War is the fact that the American public so wholeheartedly backed this immoral invasion that has so decimated the honor of this country, and ravaged the bodies and families of so many in the human family, Iraqi and American alike.............William Larsen
By Bobby Taylor, August 2, 2007 at 2:26 pm # It seems like we are caught up in a vicious cycle of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of destruction to be able to maintain Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The single biggest threat to all life on earth today is Iran and their nuclear program.
By Richard Harlos, August 2, 2007 at 1:26 pm # All living things on this planet will die or be in wheel chairs. Depleted Uranium will kill us for 4.5 billion years. This planet is under self- destruct. It is a matter of time. We are very sad that most of us will live to see it. The stupid jelly-bellied population did it to themselves by doing nothing to stop the idiots. You have your 40 hour week, and your six-pack, and ball games. Enjoy it while you can. The DU has traveled over 50,000 miles, heading for every country in the world. You let them kill you. Get our Constitution back. We still have a chance. A slim one. But a chance.
By Chaseme, August 2, 2007 at 8:24 am # #91514 by vet240 on 8/01 at 3:41 pm Bravo! Very well done. Your comment reminded me of the film I saw about the USS Indianapolis. Here’s the link to that story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35) When will America abandon the killing business?
By Mayfly, August 1, 2007 at 7:47 pm # what vet240 says fits what I know. My husband was a combat vet of WW 11 (the “good” war.) He slept with a gun under his pillow and woke in a sweat when a jet broke the sound barrier over our house. He believed (and he was right) that war is the failure and shame of nations’ leaders. Add Your Comment |
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