In a tragic display of the effects of post traumatic stress disorder, a Marine shot and killed his own brother before turning the gun on himself. Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N. “T-Bo” Twiggs, 36, and his brother Willard, 38, after failing in an attempt to drive themselves off a cliff at Grand Canyon National Park, hijacked a car and led police on an 80-mile chase into the Tohono O’odham Native American reservation, where Travis took both his brother’s life and his own.
According to The Associated Press, Travis Twiggs had served five tours of duty – four in Iraq and one in Afghanistan – and had even met the president at the White House. His widow, Kellee Twiggs, recalled how her husband told the president he had served “many times” and “would serve for you any time” before giving him a hug. Two weeks later, Twiggs went AWOL from his military job in Quantico, Va.
Twiggs, a contributor to the Marine Corps Gazette, openly discussed his struggle with PTSD, writing that he was on roughly a dozen different medications to help cope, according to the AP.
“PTSD is not a weakness. It is a normal reaction to a very violent situation,” he wrote.
Despite his candidness on the subject of his struggle with the disorder, his wife said more needs to be done, that “something needs to be fixed” and “things need to be changed” in terms of how the military cares for troops and veterans dealing with mental health issues resulting from combat.
It is unfortunate that it often takes a tragedy or death to reignite legitimate discussion of mental health issues or to illustrate the severity of the military’s increasingly difficult plight.
If the U.S. government is as committed to our troops as it claims to be, it needs to offer them outlets and treatment options to help remedy the afflictions it caused when it so callously authorized the use of military force.
