National Guard SPC Jacob Sexton – Responding to the Epidemic of Suicide

I had the privilege to speak and perform at Camp Atterbury, IN tonight for the about thirty members of the base command group. They are an outstanding team who help prepare our troops for combat and then help them prepare for life after combat when they return. After my performance a Master Sergent approached me and wanted to share a poem his wife had written the night before for a family friend, SPC Jacob Sexton of Farmland, Indiana. On Tuesday, Jacob, 21, while home for a 15-day leave from Afghanistan, shot himself in the head with a 9mm pistol. He did this while sitting in a movie theater watching the film, Zombieland, with his younger brothers and friends. By all accounts, something snapped watching the movie and in a moment of panic he took his own life. No one saw it coming.

As I travel around the country meeting with our troops, I’m in awe of their character, honor, duty, and willingness to sacrifice for our great country. But they need our help. War is ugly and inhuman and it takes a toll on even the strongest and bravest. Please, do whatever you can to support our troops at home and while they are abroad. Send care packages, say thanks and hug them when you see them. Invite them into your home for dinner, write them, do whatever you can to share your love and help penetrate the darkness they might be suffering from. Get down on your knees and pray for them. When they are in harms way and when they are home trying to make sense of what they have experienced, make it your war to help and support them. When they are tired, afraid, and missing home they must battle on. When you are complacent, comfortable, and thousands of miles from danger yourself, fight the urge to forget about them -get up and do something.

There is no title to this poem, but I think it speaks for itself. I hope Jacob is now free. God bless you Jacob. I wish I could have known you. May your memory be eternal.

“Please forgive me for what I feel I should do.
My body is just a shell of a life that it once knew.

I love you all dearly, and I tried to care.
But, the task I’d been given was just too much to bear.

Think of me happy, when life was more kind,
as you search for answers; solace yet to find.

Think of the good times, the joys I shared with you.
My mind is free now, of the battles it’s used to.

My soul is redeemed, the pain has lifted too.
I am free from this shell, of a life that it once knew.

By Amanda Adams

In memory of SPC Jacob Sexton”