This is an extremely sad story about Jonathan Schulze, a Marine from central Minnesota who recently returned home from Iraq. Unfortunately, Jonathan came back from Iraq completely different.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
At first, Jonathan Schulze tried to live with the nightmares and the grief he brought home from Iraq. He was a tough kid from central Minnesota, and more than that, a U.S. Marine to the core.
Yet his moods when he returned home told another story. He sobbed on his parents' couch as he told them how fellow Marines had died, and how he, a machine gunner, had killed the enemy. In his sleep, he screamed the names of dead comrades. He had visited a psychiatrist at the VA hospital in Minneapolis.
This is where the story takes an extremely sad, and angering turn.
Two weeks ago, Schulze went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud. He told a staff member he was thinking of killing himself, and asked to be admitted to the mental health unit, said his father and stepmother, who accompanied him. They said he was told he couldn't be admitted that day. The next day, as he spoke to a counselor in St. Cloud by phone, he was told he was No. 26 on the waiting list, his parents said.
That is bullshit. A Marine who recently returned from Iraq, threatening to kill himself, is turned away at the VA hospital? That really pisses me off. And i'll let the article explain why.
Citing privacy laws, Veterans Affairs officials wouldn't comment specifically on the case, nor would they confirm or deny the Schulze family's account. However, Dr. Sherrie Herendeen, line director for mental health services at the St. Cloud hospital, said Thursday that under VA policy, a veteran talking about suicide would immediately be escorted into the hospital's locked mental health unit for treatment.
Jonathan committed suicide just 4 days after being turned away for treatment. Had the VA hospital followed policy, Jonathan would have been in treatment on the day he took his own life.
Schulze's family doctor in Stewart, a farming crossroads in McLeod County, said he was convinced that Schulze suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, a disabling mental condition that can result from military combat.
Rest in Peace Jonathan Schulze, you will be missed by all. I can only hope that your story may prevent this from ever happening to any of our servicemen again.