Fireworks Trigger Veteran’s Inner Demons, Results In Suicide

By R. Brownell

VALDOSTA, Ga.- It was just another Independence Day weekend, Jon Kreft and his brother Mike were relaxing, playing pool until the celebratory fireworks began to go off in the distance. While Jon and others celebrating simply saw the bright lights and sparkles, accompanied by the explosive bursts which followed, Mike Kreft, a US Army combat veteran, was experiencing something different, something far and few between can contemplate.

According to Mike’s brother, things took an unexpected turn, “I was walking behind him, and every time a firework would go off, he was covering his ears and he would jump and flinch…Then he just started crying and started running down the road.”

Eventually, Mike and Jon both ended up at their house; knowing that music could help rest his brother’s troubled mind, Jon walked over to a nearby stereo to play some music.  As Jon was about to press the play button, he suddenly looked at his brother, looking straight back at him, when Mike said “I love you”.

Mike Kreft, 27 years old, proceeded to fatally shoot himself.

According to a family friend of the Krefts, Scott Crawford, “”He would have lived life to the fullest and wouldn’t let anyone bring him down. He would do what he wants to do.” In an interview with local8now.com, Mike Randall, who treats veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at the Hopes and Dreams Riding Facility, commented on the sudden tragedy:

“You do things that you don’t want to do. You see things you don’t want to see, that your brain’s not ready for, and you bring it home with you”

Veterans suicide are the leading cause of military deaths outside the warzone. According to the organization SPEAK:

  • 18 American veterans kill themselves a day.
  • 1,000 former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month.
  • More Veterans are completing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.
  • In 2005, over 6,200 veterans completed suicide-120 per week.
  • Veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as non-veterans.
  • Veterans aged 20 to 24 who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, had the highest rate of suicide among all veterans.

If you are a veteran in need of support, please call the Veteran Crisis Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.  For more information on this tragic issue, please visit http://stopsoldiersuicide.org/

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