A July 4 Tragedy: Wounded Marine, Who Helped Other Iraq Vets, a Likely Suicide

Sean Webster was helping other severely wounded Iraq vets cope with their injuries but, in the end, could not save himself.

For the past year, Sgt. Sean Webster, 23, had worked in Wounded Warrior Battalion at Camp Pendleton, aiding sailors and Marines wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan get much-needed medical and psychological care.

Just two weeks ago he was featured in a front-page story on this effort in the local North County Times newspaper. "I'm a wounded Marine and I know what these guys are going through,'" he said.

Webster had been severely injured by an anti-tank mine explosion in September 2005 and underwent 14 surgeries on an arm and a leg.

The Los Angeles Times reports today:

At the Wounded Warrior Battalion, he felt at home. He was the barracks manager and provided encouragement to the other guys, urging them not to get despondent. Forty-one troops live at the barracks. Staffers are tracking another 600 to make sure they're getting appropriate help.

Like many wounded Marines, Webster wanted to remain in the Corps. "What I'd really like to do is stay as a staff member here," he told the newspaper.

On June 23, Webster's body was found in an isolated part of the base. It was quickly ruled not an accident and homicide was not immediately ruled out. But now the Naval Criminal Investigate Service is probing the death as a "probable" suicide. As I have reported here for months, there is a veritable epidemic of suicides among Iraq vets these days.

His father told The Washington Post today: "He didn't really talk much about his work, but he seemed to like it a lot, and he seemed to really have a sense of camaraderie with the guys who were there. He himself almost never complained about his injuries. The only thing I really heard him get angry about was he couldn't put deodorant on... and he couldn't really tie his boots."

His funeral is set for 2 p.m. tomorrow at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Va.

Greg Mitchell's book So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Fails on Iraq includes several chapters on "nonhostile" deaths in Iraq.

Comments

[AshevilleVoice]

Really, really sad. We have a new homeless shelter in Asheville specifically for returning vets- how wrong is that??? It is funded by local church donations. I am so appalled that these young men and women are tossed aside so carelessly. Does life mean absolutely nothing to the Bush admin?

[Charley2u]

Although I am a severe critic of yours, I come today with a request to you, Mr. President:

I ask you to devote your entire farewell address to the nation with a reading of the names of all the American military dead on your watch, ending with your thanks to them, and their families, for their sacrifice.

I would suggest a format:

Name, Home Town, Date and Place of Death

It would, according to my calculation of ten seconds per name, take a mere 125 hours of your time.

Thanking you in advance,

Charley

[XME]

I have a friend who's 100% Republican and every time I mention these types of cases to him, he gets annoyed that the press "focuses" on the "rare" instances of vet suicide. When I hear his say this, all I can think is that I doubt his father cares if suicide among Iraq vets is officially rare or not. Just one is too many, and any more than that it something we should be looking at. Seems to me this is one more thing that Republicans would like swept under the rug because it doesn't fit it with how they want war, and vets' post-war lives, viewed (not to mention the help they don't get!)

[drgrph]

Could it be that while in country these men and women find courage and comfort in dealing with their new found demons from their comrades, only to return home to a land divided? Didn't we see this before, the veterans of Vietnam returning home to the criticism and hatred of the left? Frankly if the left would shut up and expend their energies on actually helping those returning home from Iraq or Afghanistan maybe we would see fewer lost at home. Instead of running off mouths and burning up keyboards why not work for the election of Senator Obama and like minded other candidates? You would end up with what you proclaim are your goals without servicemen and women feeling your vitriol.

It's easy to talk, or blog, or protest...these are for the most part passive activities. What's hard is to take action...to help retrofit a home for a wheelchair-bound vet or to knock on doors day after day to obtain an electoral victory. I understand this as I, too, am still in that passive phase - helping to provide for free phone cards our servicemen and women or buying the occasion soldier a meal before their departure. Generally I wouldn't even bother posting here because it is a total waste of my time. I'd rather discuss or debate with an open-minded individual and there simply are not many here.

[brooklyncitizen]

While I can appreciate the sentiment in your post it's kind of skewed and uninformed.

Maybe the reason they are committing suicide is their conduct in this "war"; maybe its from being tired out by continuous tours even though promised a respite or a leave; maybe it's what happens when a man/woman cannot live with their actions, so unlike those in power who put them in this position to begin with.

http://www.democracynow.org/features/winter_solider

After watching this it's really apparent that we are screwing up; royally.I cant wholeheartedly "support" the troops.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Another such case came to my attention this week. A family in Florida, whose Army son had served six tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan came home to them, at last, ... and committed suicide.

These numbers are not minor, and magnify the losses of which we are already aware. The ultimate toll of these wars will easily double when they are fully known.

That Bush and Cheney has committed these crimes in our names is infuriating. That my friends and neighbors have given their daughters and sons in the effort, is tragic to me, and devastating to them. To the families, I send my heartfelt symapathy, always.

[brooklyncitizen]

That the Democrats just okayed spending for covert operations in Iran by Bush Crime Inc. assures as that the intention is indeed "100, 1,000 years or more"- McCain

[shep1900]

My God, it's endless. How many of our brave men and women do we have to lose--at home, as well as overseas, before someone _stops_ this madness?

[IntrepidReader]

In my small town in North Carolina, people gathered on Wednesday to pay their last respects to Joseph Dwyer. Though it's unlikely that anyone reading this knows who he was, many may remember seeing his picture. It was widely broadcast in 2003, showing him in his full gear carrying an Iraqi child to safety as a battle raged around him. He was a medic, and was honored for his conspicuous bravery that day.

His body lived to return home to his wife and his family, but something inside him did not, and it spread like a poison until, at age 31, he overdosed on prescription medication and aerosol inhalants and Iraq had claimed another victim. He left his wife Matina and daughter Meagan to mourn him and ask why there was no help forthcoming for this young man-- who gave so much to his country-- when his turn came and he needed to be carried to safety.

[shep1900]

My sincere condolences to the Dwyer family--and to all who knew and loved him.

[brooklyncitizen]

He gave to his country a misplaced commitment.

[peacekitten]

requiscat in pace, sgt. webster.

rest well.

[blueinannarbor]

Can't somebody convince Bush that the GOP gods are no longer displeased and we can stop with the human sacrifices already?

[Liberoservative]

Bush and Cheney should be required to attend every single funeral of these brave men and women... He's playing tee ball? While our military die for the illegal war they started......... END THIS WAR!

[Kynn]

Bush and Cheney wouldn't care, even if they were forced to attend. The grief of the families, and tragedy of the deaths, even the family members crying and screaming "why?!" wouldn't make them care.

They'd simply stand there looking at there watches every now and then, muttering under there breath "will they hurry this up?"

Few, if any, at the top of the administration will ever show actual compassion for what has happened. They will not show regret for what they have done. No second thoughts about how they allowed our veterans to be treated by the VA health services after they served with honor in their war.

You cannot make them feel shame, or horror, or regret, or compassion, or even express a doubt.

[jcmoore99]

I have a good friend who is a Vietnam vet. He survived being blown out of the air while in a helicopter and survived tripping over the body of one of his beheaded friends (a minute earlier and it could have been him), but it looks to me that if anything will get him, it's going to be the health care he gets now. I don't think it is necessarily the fault of the doctors, but someone or a group of someones has decided that it is way cheaper to manage their physical pain with drugs than to help the men and women out.

Preserving funds appears to win over preserving livable life. It wouldn't surprise me if the view within the veterans affairs leadership is that "suicide is cheaper than care". What really surprises me, and my friend has tried to explain this to me as a "different kind of pride" is that the vets themselves don't make a bigger issue of this than they do.

The leadership of this country has placed our own people in harms way, ostensibly to protect the people of the country, and they are repaid with neglect. and it continues. I see no way out.

[brooklyncitizen]

Well, isn't military training ultimately "brainwashing"? It's not exactly "be all you can be".

It's about removing one's values and ability to make decisions to replace them with total obedience even in the face of decency. The recruits are so young- they are unformed and vulnerable and seeking a model to live their life.

A couple of years ago a New Yorker piece , written by an ex-Nazi who is a writer living in Germany, recounts his decision at age 17 to join the SS... ...he describes the brutal training they underwent...and tells a story about another recruit who was the epitome of Aryan :blonde , blue-eyed, athletic, strong, fast, intelligent, etc...but when they were given guns to learn to shoot he would drop the weapon and say "Not this sir!".

He refused to learn to kill. All sorts of punishment ensued , and even his squadron was punished and they began to retaliate as well...he lived through every humiliation and each time a rifle was placed in his hand for training he dropped it and replied "Not this sir!".

He dissappeared and most likely was sent to his death at one of their camps.

I often wondered how many conscientious objectors would be this bold and extreme ; or even how many troops when could take a stand when as they discover part of their mission is to terrorize civilians, bomb women and children, and torture.

[DeWayne]

The longer the illegal and immoral war in Iraq continues, the more disasters it will cause, the cause of these disasters called the "Lucifer Effect."

The US Corp-Gov and Pentagon are well aware of this progression, it was noted in Korea and brought home forcefully during the Vietnam Police Action, the beginning of the Pentagon Pheonix and Project-X torture manuals. These manuals the expected outcome of a war based upon evil.

So do a web-search of keyword "Lucifer Effect", where evil become more evil, and every day that it is allowed to continue, becomes still more evil.

[demfriend]

Another sad tragic tale about the soldiers coming back either wounded physically or mentally or both. The suicide rate is shameful in this country of what we think to be first rate in so many area but the soldiers killing themselves just shows how poorly equiped we are to deal with a war and the victims, the soldiers injured so badly. The Pentagon has lied to us about this and the umber of soldiers killing themselves since the war started and now it is hard to believe they take this problem seriously. You also would think that in the company of the healthcare providers he was living in he would have been ID'd earlier as a suicde risk. How many soldiers get passed over by the people who are supposed to be there to help them in such a serious acute setting where so many are injured and potential suicides? I have no doubt commanders routinely refuse to ID those in their own group who might kill themselves.

[MikeMidCity]

Another American tragedy, but in a war that wasn't needed .... every death is a tragedy. That

These brave self-sacrificing men and women who serve in uniform were owed a duty by the Congress and the President. They have been failed by the very people who have sent them in harms way.

What does it tell our troops when we will not levy taxes to pay for the war nor will we start a draft to relieve the troops of never-ending rotations into and out of combat zones.

I am a supporter of the troops. I served eight years in the uniform of the United States Marine Corp.

There is a difference between supporting the troops and supporting the immoral and unjustified war of preemption that they are being ground down in.

Happy 4th of July.