Op-Ed in Anchorage Paper Reveals Suicide of Eskimo Who Served in Iraq

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Op-Ed in Anchorage Paper Reveals Suicide of Eskimo Who Served in Iraq

By Greg Mitchell

Published: May 16, 2008 9:45 PM ET

NEW YORK For nearly five years, E&P has tracked the growing number of suicides among U.S. military personnel in Iraq and after they return home. The deaths are usually branded as simply from "nonhostile" causes by the Pentagon, and the real news often emerges only from local newspapers. It has happened again, via an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News.

There, Soren Wuerth tells the story of a friend named Merlin, who had graduated from the village school where Wuerth teaches. Merlin had returned to the school, where he had run cross country, to talk about joining the Army and surviving basic training.

After he left the village, "I wondered if Merlin would return home," Wuerth writes. "He was the first Cup'ik Eskimo to go to Iraq with the Army....While some in the school flaunted students who, like Merlin, join the military, I was concerned -- a naive young man entering what I knew to be a horrifying, ignoble and illegal war.

"I wrote Merlin's e-mail address on the board and encouraged students to correspond regularly. The last time a senior left his village, to attend college on a full-ride scholarship, he was back after six months -- homesick. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003804972