Parents battle growing combat-related suicide issue

Military families spent the weekend raising awareness for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in soldiers.

“The out pour of support they have been receiving is beyond words, it's beyond words,” said Valerie Pallotta lost her son, Josh, just 6 months ago, to combat-related suicide.

“It's greatly affected our family, our lives will not be precisely the same,” Pallotta said. “You wonder the things you did wrong. What you might did to make a difference.”

With help from her colleagues from blue star mothers, Pallotta organized a weekend of events to increase money and understanding of the devastating outcome of PTSD.

“The money raised will certainly specifically be taken for PTSD Vermont veterans,” said Blue Star Mother, Beni Twitchell-Stephens.

Because every soldier is unique, they each settle back into way of life differently.

“They've seen their buddies lose their lives and after that they have to come back and they have to view that,” said Amy Connelley, who has had two sons join the military.

She says the outcome of being toward the front line will affect all the family.

“As a parent, it's hard you ought to be careful of just how much you step upon their toes, because they'll get angry then they'll push away more, which then are able to make it worse, so it's a balance,” Connelley said.

Pallotta says soldiers need more support before and after their service.

“It's one of the things that shouldn't happen,” she told me. “There really should be a lot more done once they come back home with reintegration. I do think that needs to change, I do think there should be more tools to them before they go. To make sure they include some resiliency tools.”



She says a good dose of each day kindness could go well.

“If quite a few people are a bit more compassionate with somebody they meet who may be a little less patient with him or her or maybe a sec angry, take into consideration the actual fact they might look to become a veteran and these people could be experiencing PTSD,” she said.