WASHINGTON -- Army Sgt. Coleman Bean was at home in New Jersey after serving two tours of duty in Iraq, but in a way, he was lost in a no-man’s land. The 25-year-old South River man, suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder, was part of the military’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a pool of tens of thousands of service...
Sgt. Coleman Bean, photographed in New Jersey after his first deployment to Iraq in 2003. Citing a critical gap in the military's suicide prevention efforts, Rep. Rush Holt has introduced a measure named for Bean, who took his own life in 2008, after serving two tours of duty in Iraq.
WASHINGTON -- Army Sgt. Coleman Bean was at home in New Jersey after serving two tours of duty in Iraq, but in a way, he was lost in a no-man’s land.
The 25-year-old South River man, suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder, was part of the military’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a pool of tens of thousands of service members who have finished their active-duty stints and returned to civilian life but who remain military property, available for call-up when necessary.
Cut off from his buddies, removed from the Army’s on-base psychologists and ineligible for treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bean careened through life, not quite sure how to deal with his frequent panic attacks, nightmares and inexplicable rages, his family said. On Sept. 6, 2008, after an arrest for drunken driving, he shot himself in the head.
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“This is just a heart-rending case of someone who, in his father’s words, fell through the cracks because he had no advocates, and the organization of the military is such that those in IRR are disconnected,” said Holt (D-12th Dist.).
While the military has made strides in responding to a record number of suicides in each of the past two years, Holt said, more must be done to monitor and treat people like Bean, one of an estimated 11,000 IRR members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003.
“Two federal agencies charged with helping prevent suicides among our returning troops utterly failed Sgt. Bean and his family,” Holt said of the VA and the Army. “We cannot allow another family to lose a son or daughter, a father or mother, a husband or a wife because of bureaucratic buck-passing.”
Under the measure, officially named the Sgt. Coleman S. Bean Individual Ready Reserve Suicide Prevention Act, every member of the IRR who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan would be contacted by a trained counselor at least once every 90 days.
The counselors would be required to assess the emotional, psychological, medical and career needs of the service members and provide guidance and help. Those service members deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others would be immediately referred to the nearest military treatment facility or to another mental health provider.
Holt’s bill has four Democratic co-sponsors and one Republican co-sponsor. There is no Senate version, but Holt said he is confident the measure will win Senate backing.
The bill has the support of G.I. advocates, who say members of the IRR are among the most isolated and at-risk.
“I feel optimistic about the possibility that men and women who are in essence lost ... will be provided with the care that we owe them,” said Judith Broder, founder of the Soldiers Project, a nonprofit that provides free counseling to veterans.
Bean’s mother, Linda Bean, said she hopes the bill is enacted, calling its passage a matter of life and death for some members of the armed forces.
“Since Coleman’s death, we have come to know that one phone call — just one honest expression of compassion — can help catch and hold someone who is at the edge of despair,” she said. “For us, if the phone calls mandated by this legislation help save one life, then that is blessing enough.”
Tomas Dinges contributed to this report.
| Military suicides: U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war |