Tragic Report: U.S. Doctor in Iraq Driven to Suicide

Of the thousands of "noncombat" American deaths in Iraq - and I have covered many of them for almost six years, here and elsewhere -- one of the most haunting involved Army Capt. Roselle M. Hoffmaster. Now the Army's investigation into her death on Sept. 20, 2007, has finally been released.

Hoffmaster was young (age 32), a 2000 graduate of Smith College, a surgeon commissioned into the Medical Corps in 2004. She went to Iraq because, while happily married, she had no children so far and thought she should take the place of someone who did have kids. She appeared to be widely liked, admired, treasured. I've written about her twice in this space.

Last month, her husband notified me privately that he had just received the results of the probe and that, indeed, her death had been ruled a suicide. Now a local paper in Massachusetts, The Republican, has received the report and posted a summary. It reveals that she took her own life by shooting herself in the head while alone in her room.

Just hours before she killed herself, Hoffmaster, a surgeon commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in 2004, had been berated by a senior officer, the report shows. She later told another officer who counseled her that night that she "couldn't do it anymore" and wanted to quit the military, the report states.

The report includes a statement from one officer who believes the Army did Hoffmaster a disservice by failing to properly prepare her for duty in Iraq.

The investigation includes numerous interviews with military colleagues and family members, many of whom attested to Hoffmaster's positive attitude and expressed disbelief that she would commit suicide.

Hoffmaster was found dead on her cot by one of her roommates, whose M9 Beretta pistol was still in her hand. Several witnesses said that she had broken down in tears that day after being yelled at by a supervisor for failing to carry out one of her medical duties.

One officer told investigators that Hoffmaster was "swamped from the day she arrived at the unit" and "had about four of five months of catching up to do with a new Army program that she was completely unfamiliar with."

Because Hoffmaster was a last-minute replacement for another surgeon who left the unit, she was not able to attend a readiness training center in Louisiana, the officer said, or to get acclimated to her new unit. The officer told investigators he felt the Army did Hoffmaster a disservice and called the situation "a 'perfect storm' to create tension and anxiety."

Despite her distress that day, Hoffmaster was by all accounts a strong, positive, focused person who worked hard to achieve her goals and put the needs of others before her own.

The story reflects my own experience. Whenever I wrote about her (including in my book on Iraq and the media) old friends of her would email to say what a truly great person she was and how they just can't believe she would kill herself.

Now The Republican relates that family members say she gave no hint of being anxious or depressed and that they did not believe she would take her own life.

"She was a positive person and would not have committed suicide," Hoffmaster's mother says in the Army's report. "I believe that Roselle fumbled with the gun after a long day, and it took her life."

Hoffmaster's husband, Gordon Pfeiffer, said: "It was as if we were best friends rather than a married couple. All of our buddies wanted to have a marriage like ours."

Greg Mitchell's book on Iraq and the media, which carries several chapters on soldier suicides, is "So Wrong for So Long." His latest book published this week is "Why Obama Won."

Comments

[armydoctor]

My last sentence was truncated. It was supposed to read, "However, to think that there was some sort of foul play w/ her death (what are you implying when you say it is odd that she used her roommate's pistol & that it took nearly 30 min for the doctor to show up?), is offensive to every single person wearing the uniform and serving this country.

[armydoctor]

As I stated in my posting on the Legacy webpage after Roselle's death, I worked w/ her & admired her greatly. I mourned her death, and I'm glad that the Army released a statement about it b/c it provides closure for me.

I am saddened by the suggestion that there has been a cover up in her death or worse that there was foul play. To believe that, you would have to believe that a lot of good people - to include the soldiers & the medical personnel there - conspired to lie about the events surrounding Roselle's death. From my experience, that would never happen.

Roselle was sent into a very stressful situation. If you have never been a physician deployed w/ a line unit you cannot know. You are way out of your comfort zone & often have no peer group for support. The beginning of the deployment, making the huge adjustment into the role of a combat physician, is the hardest. I believe that those few wks were miserable for Roselle & we will never understand how that affected her. In my opinion, the Army has a duty to try to identify people who aren't handling the stress of deployment well. However, to think that there was some sort of foul play w/ her death (what are you implying when you say it is odd that she used her roommate's pistol & that it took nearly 30 min for the doctor to show up?), is offensive to

[GertrudeStyne]

Isn't it odd that she used her roommate's pistol rather than her own, which was within easier reach? That strikes me as odd, to say the least.

And I'd like to know why it took nearly a half hour from the time her roommate reported Roselle's injuries to the time a doctor showed up in her room.

This military report was heavily redacted and it flies against everything I've read about the psychological makeup of this very exceptional young woman. She was accustomed to rising to the occasion, no matter how stressful.

The fact is, there have been a number of deaths in Iraq ruled suicides that were not, and I'm not at all convinced that Roselle Hoffmaster's falls into that category.