Early in his deployment to Mosul, Tom Voss experienced the loss of two of his squad leaders—men he considered father figures.
‘When you’re in a combat zone, you don’t have time to process loss, you drive on and move on,” Voss said. “You experience survivor’s guilt.”
Voss served three years of active duty in the U.S. Army with the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, one of the Army’s first Stryker Brigades. After deployment to Mosul in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Voss returned home struggling with the invisible wounds of war, including PTSD and moral injury.
“Coming home from war, sitting on my mom’s couch in Wisconsin trying to process what it I just experienced was difficult,” he said. “I started to self-medicate with alcohol and hearing about my friends dying by suicide. Five friends died by suicide, overdosed or drank themselves to death”
He threw himself into school and work full time and did not allow himself time to process his combat experience yet still struggled with the core wound of moral injury.
While PTSD can be described as symptoms resulting from experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, moral injury goes deeper.
“It involves witnessing, perpetrating or failing to prevent acts that transgress their own moral and ethical values or code of conduct,” Voss said.
The effects of moral injury can be devastating, including high rates of suicide. The VA reports that 60,000 Veterans died by suicide in 2019.
“I was in the same boat and experiencing suicidal ideation. I didn’t know what else I could do to stop feeling what I’m feeling,”
Describing it as a last-ditch effort, Voss embarked on a 2,700-mile walk from Milwaukee to Los Angeles, a journey chronicled in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Almost Sunrise. He shared that learning from friends along the way, including a pastor, monk and native American leader, he began to forgive himself and started to trust again.
Voss encourages Veterans to share their experiences and learn from each other.
“Less than one percent of the population serves and event less are in direct combat,” he said. “It will take time and effort, but you can share this is how it happened and this is how it impacted me.”
Voss said the stigma of mental illness is still strong and is often job related. “No one wants to lose their job if they speak up and this tends to stick with Veterans,” Voss said. “Younger Veterans are better at asking for services that are owed to them.”
The breakfast event was sponsored by Foundation 214 and promotional assistance was provided by The Patrick P. Lee Foundation.
Several Coalition members shared resources about resources for Veterans and community members, including the VA Western New York Healthcare System.
“Tom Voss explored his unique journey as a Veteran.,” said Christopher Ramnauth, LCSW, community engagement and partnership coordinator, suicide prevention, “Peer perspective can be powerful, and the VA has a team of peer support specialists available to provide this invaluable support to our Veterans in Western New York.”
