A soldier's story: Nowhere to go

[Kadie]

A soldier's story: Nowhere to go
Struggling to find a family he can keep, a former foster child joins the Army and heads to war

By GINA KIM
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

last updated: November 02, 2007 12:15:09 PM


More service members killed themselves while serving in the Iraq war last year than in any year since the war began, and the suicide count for 2007 is on track to surpass that. The dead are generally junior enlisted soldiers who are single, white and male. They are Mike Crutchfield.

It's two days before Christmas 2006, but it doesn't feel much like the holidays in "The Suck," what soldiers sometimes call Iraq, where the days blend together -- broken up only by brilliant sunrises and sunsets.

Michael Crutchfield taps out a final e-mail to his family 7,392 miles away in Stockton. It is a suicide note -- to his mother, brother, sister and nephew. He hits "send" at 12:13 p.m. Then the 21-year-old Army specialist picks up his military-issued M9 Beretta. He presses it to his chest. And he fires.

Two soldiers passing Mike's office in the Balad motor pool hear the gunshot and a shell hit the floor. Then groaning. They kick the door in and there's Mike, sitting in his chair, his arms hanging limp, his head tilted back.

more...
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/109830.html