As the tragic pace of military suicides continues across the United States, as profiled in the TEGNA series ‘Charlie Foxtrot’,multiple organizations formed to combat the problem, often staffed by veterans themselves, continue to grow in North Texas.
They are battle lines that Charles McKinney wishes had been drawn more aggressively back in 2007. McKinney doesn’t think his son Master Sgt. Jeffrey McKinney would have had a chance even if he’d made it home alive from his final tour in Iraq. He doesn’t think the services afforded veterans in 2007 would have been enough to keep his son from taking his own life.
"It hurts. It still hurts. It hurts a lot still,” McKinney said from his home in Hurst near Fort Worth.
McKinney keeps a memorial room in his home complete with his son’s dog tags, photos of his time in Iraq, the American flag given to him at his son’s funeral.
"I look at that sometimes and I say, you know, I know he had a full life but 20 years of his life is wrapped up in one little box,” he said touching the flag.
Jeffrey McKinney was a respected career soldier. But in Iraq he survived the concussions of at least five roadside bombs. He witnessed unspeakable death, picking up body parts of his fallen soldiers.
"They had like 32 killed in that year,” his father said. “And he felt like, responsible for each one of them."
[For more of this story, written by Kevin Reece, go to http://www.wfaa.com/news/inves...amp;utm_medium=email]
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