Despondent GI fell through system's cracks to his death

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http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1167368.html

SEATTLE — Last August, Spc. David Ramsey, a hospital nurse serving in Mosul, Iraq, tumbled into a pit of despair. He penned a suicide note that spoke of his weariness of war and strains upon his marriage. He dry-fired a rifle, and locked and loaded the weapon.

Then he backed down and asked for help.

Front-line leaders took strong action: Ramsey spent several days in a hospital ward and was put on a medevac flight away from the war zone.

"I am confident you are in good hands, and with appropriate treatment ... you will overcome this issue and continue to be a model soldier," wrote a first sergeant in Mosul in a counseling record obtained by The Seattle Times.

But two weeks after his arrival at Fort Lewis, Ramsey killed himself while on home leave at his parents' house in Spanaway, Wash.

[EFerrari]

1. What is it going to take.