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WILLIAMSTOWN-Williamstown lost a hometown hero last week, and now, the community remembering the young fallen soldier said his death shines light on the need for better mental health care for veterans when they return home.
“For a lot of us, he’s very young,” said Williamstown High School Athletic Director Jeff Givens. “He’s only 31, and it brings awareness to some issues that the nation has been facing for awhile.”
On Friday evening, dozens of motorcycles and vehicles representing the Patriot Guard Riders, along with area fire and law enforcement personnel, led a processional to carry the body of SFC Tyler Milam Westbrook home to rest.
Westbrook, a 2002 graduate of Williamstown High School assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, Colo., took his own life Aug. 28, and was returned home with the full honor of his community and his country Friday evening. Family, neighbors, friends and even strangers lined Highland Avenue as a massive processional crossed the bridge into Marietta to transport Westbrook to Cawley and Peoples Funeral Home.
“I think that everybody really understands the suicide rate for the military is very high,” said Lacey Matthey, a former classmate of Westbrook’s and a Navy veteran. “The military does not receive the help they need.”
Matthey enlisted in the Navy herself in 2003 and went to school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. She returned home to Williamstown in 2010.
“They have the funding, but to help with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), the medical support just isn’t there,” Matthey said. “They don’t give them the support and structure they need when they come home.”
Of all 1,282,074 veterans on active duty between 2001 and 2007 who left the military during that time, there were 1,868 suicides through the end of 2009, according to an analysis published in the Annals of Epidemiology this year.
That’s an annual suicide rate of 29.5 per 100,000 veterans, or about 50 percent higher than rates among civilians with similar demographic characteristics, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times about the analysis.
In Westbrook’s memory, donations are being accepted through 22 Vets, an organization dedicated to preventing veteran suicide. The organization’s name is based on the estimate from the Department of Veterans Affairs that 22 veterans commit suicide each day.
The risk is highest in the first three years after leaving the military. While, the estimate of 22 veterans includes many older veterans, the Annals of Epidemiology analysis shoes that just among those young veterans studied, the rate is one per day.
Not long after the end of his initial training, Westbrook met up with his unit near Talil Air Force Base in Iraq, completing his combat deployment during 2008. After completing several special assignments, among other accomplishments, Westbrook was deployed again to Iraq from December 2010 to January 2011.
“Basically, when you stop and think about it, almost nobody can lead their normal lives, go to a combat situation, come back and be the same person,” said Roy Ash, director of veterans services for Washington County. “You can’t unsee, unhear and unfeel those things, and it’ll affect everyone differently depending on their experience.”
Ash said the veteran services office mostly provides referrals, sometimes in an urgent situation to a clinic, for veterans that suffer from PTSD or other medical issues, but sometimes, people come in not really knowing what their own needs are.
“Anytime you’re in a situation where someone is trying to kill you, you might have to kill them or something like that, it will leave a scar,” Ash said. “Unfortunately, there’s a high incidence of stuff like that happening now.”
Ash said veterans services provides basic information and education on PTSD and related mental health issues to veterans.
“We ask if they had accidents or injuries or if they were exposed to certain things or if they have any distress,” he said. “If so, we might recommend they file a claim.”
A study by the RAND Corporation points out that at least 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have PTSD, depression, or both.
With that number, the study says that 50 percent of those with PTSD do not seek treatment, and of that, half get what is considered “minimally adequate” care.
April Westbrook, Tyler’s sister-in-law, said the support from the community and Patriot Guard was overwhelming.
“It’s what we expected, because he is a hometown hero,” she said. “Having just moved back to town, this is overwhelming.”
The Patriot Guard Riders created an escort with the help of both Ohio and West Virginia chapters to meet the Westbrooks at Akron-Canton Airport Friday, leading the processional down I-77 into Williamstown before heading to Marietta for weekend funeral services.
“We do this just to show support, honor and respect to this young man for his service,” said West Virginia and Ohio Patriot Guard member Barbara Haught. “We stand for those who stood for us.”
Givens was close to Westbrook when he served as a wrestling coach, a sport that highlighted Westbrook’s strength and work ethic at a young age.
“Tyler’s always been extremely smart and extremely aggressive and an extremely tough kid,” Givens said. “The outpouring of support for Tyler doesn’t surprise me because he was a well-known young man and very successful. But he was so tough, and this was just so unexpected.”
Westbrook is survived by a wife, Heather, and son, Milam Grant, in addition to his parents, brothers and other family members.
“He was the type of person that was friends with everyone and would help everyone out,” Matthey said. “He had a smile that you’d never forget, and he was a very genuine man and a good person.”