Famous author and Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield, also a military veteran, were both killed at a gun range south of Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday. At the time Kyle was doing charity work with Eddie Ray Routh, who's a veteran Marine. The Marine, suffering from PTSD after his service, allegedly shot and killed his two friends. The motive is unclear.
In a time where gun violence is becoming almost commonplace, this is still a shocking murder.
Kyle was a well-known sniper who held a record number of killings in Iraq and even wrote American Sniper, a bestselling book, about his experiences. Kyle was reportedly mentoring Routh through the FITCO Cares Foundation, an organization he co-founded to help those suffering from PTSD.
It's a horrifying story from start to finish, but it says so much more about PTSD and the effect it has on returning veterans, especially given recent suicide statistics that reveal 22 veterans commit suicide a day.
That isn't a small number. Clearly, this is a national issue that needs major attention.
My heart goes out to Kyle's wife and two children. It's unimaginable to lose your father and husband in such a horrific way. But maybe they can take comfort in his good deeds. Though he spent his life killing, he always said he was a better family man than a killer.
Clearly, he put a lot of people's needs before his own and he died doing something they loved.
Of course, one could question whether bringing someone suffering from PTSD to a gun range was the best plan. And I am sure many will question that over time. They will also likely question what this country is doing to help veterans. Because truly, that part is just unconscionable.
Why, in a country as rich as ours, would we NOT do more to help our veterans? I have no doubt that Kyle would say the same thing. Obviously PTSD was important to him and something he wanted to help eradicate.
The best way to honor Kyle seems like doing him the respect of focusing on these issues and placing more resources toward helping the mental health of returning veterans. This is an important thing we have been neglecting and it's starting to hurt us all.
My heart goes out to all the families suffering after this horrific crime.
Do you think the government does enough to help victims of PTSD?
Image via Erath County
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Comments 28
The government has done very little for PTSD since WWII when it became a wide-spread phenomenon. My father suffered horribly from PTSD after returning from Viet Nam and received no help mentally or physically. He was unable to find work because veterans were practically blacklisted. He became a violent alcoholic who ended up homeless more than once. He eventually died from liver disease (from alcoholism) while in prison on gun charges. That was my father AFTER the war, not how he was before it. Before going to war he was good looking, charismatic and all the ladies loved him. PTSD ruined his life... and the government did nothing to help. We do not know all the details of this story but I feel sorry for everyone involved, including the murderer. The military builds monsters to fight their war... and then somehow expects them to not be monsters when they come home.
It's not just this administration, though, Billsfan. This (as MamaHasWings has attested to -- I don't even know what to say. What a terrible thing to have lived through for all of you) has traversed administrations and parties for years. The US has a very swept-under-the-rug attitude toward mental illness, but it seems like it finally might be on a track to perhaps one day get the attention it needs. We need an entire societal change/acceptance/overhaul on this.
Of course all soldiers deserve help for any ailment. However, handing a gun to guy who has PTSD is a really monumentally stupid idea.
My uncle still suffers to this day from PTSD after fighting in Vietnam. It is absolutely criminal the way we treat soldiers in this country, made so much worse by the fact that they suffer so deeply from the direct result of fighting for our country and freedom only to be repaid with shame, neglect, and mistreatment. It took us almost 4 decades to get him the help he needed and it was brutal every step of the way. Of course in those 4 decades he developed an alcohol problem, crippling sleep disorder, and chronic back pain from shrapnel still lodged in his shoulder. Thank goodness he is slowly but surely getting better now that he has the treatment he needs, but so many stories end the way Mama's above did and it is heartbreaking and so unjust.
And to Lyle, my uncle did not sign up, he was drafted so no, he did not willingly agree to be dropped in a jungle, kill or be killed only to return home injured both mentally & physically, be spit on, and then left to his own devices by a government that refuses to treat the very men that protect the grounds they walk on. That is bullshit.