Monday, April 15, 2013

At Army base, an aggressive campaign against suicide

Los Angeles Times
Army Pvt. John Jeffery stumbled into Kyle Boswell's barracks room at Ft. Bliss before dawn one day in February, his eyes glassy. "I've done something," Jeffery mumbled to his buddy. "I can't tell anyone. It's going to happen." He had just learned his girlfriend was cheating on him. The Army had decided to kick him out for using heroin. Now the 21-year-old veteran of Afghanistan had downed more than two bottles of Vicodin and Oxycodone, powerful prescription painkillers. Boswell rushed him to the emergency room, and he remains in the hospital psychiatric ward.