A decorated Green Beret who served a dozen combat tours committed suicide last week in front of his wife.
Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano, 34, went to 6 trips in Afghanistan.
He is the 30th member of his elite battalion to commit suicide.
Known as “Captain America” to his fellow soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division, he earned a Silver Star for bravery and had recently moved to Washington, DC, to work at the Pentagon.
However, he committed suicide after having dinner with his former battalion commander.
Marckesano committed suicide on July 6, 2020.
He was still on active duty and leaves behind 3 small children.
It is still not clear how Marckesano committed suicide.
Days before he died, he reportedly sent an upbeat text message to his fellow soldiers, where he said:
Text me, I told you before my door is open . . . my phone is at hand. We did things that people make movies about and in some cases, writers and producers wouldn’t even try to write our story . . . the rucksack is heavy . . . and when it gets heavy we [&$#*] help each other, but you have to reach out . . . Don’t let the Valley win.
Friends and family said that Marckesano never really got past his 2009 tour in the Arghandab Valley of Afghanistan with the 2-508 battalion, which had one of the highest mortality rates in the war.
The battalion’s former Command Sgt. Major Bert Puckett said:
That deployment was like being in the ring with Mike Tyson for a year.
Marckesano is reportedly one of 20 combat veterans that are committing suicide every single day.
Last month, President Donald Trump launched the PREVENTS Task Force to aid veterans that are having to deal with mental problems, such as post-traumatic stress.
Trump said:
My administration is marshaling every resource to stop the crisis of veteran suicide and protect our nation’s most treasured heroes. They’ve been through so much, and it’s such a deep-seated problem.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Marckesano, may his soul rest in peace.