Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano served six full tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and the Ranger regiment and a half dozen more combat tours overseas. He rose to become a decorated Green Beret and a Silver Star recipient. He had just moved to Washington, D.C., to start a coveted job at the Pentagon.
Two days after the Fourth of July on Monday night, after having dinner with his former battalion leader, Marckesano returned home from dinner in Old Town, Alexandria, and died by suicide in front of his wife. He had three small children and was still on active duty. More
I’m sorry, but a guy who kills himself in front of his wife is not a hero.
I’ll be praying for the Sergeant and his family.
Please pray for them also. Heartbreaking.
We cannot judge him. That is up to God.
Veteran suicides will continue until the govt stops sending the valorous on deadly fools’ errands, with insane rules of engagement, for political and ideological points instead of on missions to defend the United States and its citizens.
RIP Master Sgt Andrew Christian Marckesano. May God be merciful in judging the needs in your heart when you entered eternity. What a profoundly sad ending to a life that mattered.
He might have physically been in front of his family but obviously he wasn’t there. I wouldn’t be disparaging a man like this. Stomping on that man’s legacy is a pretty shitty thing to do.
Did you even read the article and the next story about Staff Sgt Allen?
I wonder how many of these warriors realize they are fighting the wrong enemy.
@ MMinAR
Well said. After killing neighbors, he could easily have thought he could kill loved ones. My heart goes out to all involved. “Until you walk a mile in his boots”…, applies .
Those that knew the Master Sgt. talked of a 2009 deployment in Afghanistan that was particularly harrowing, saying he was changed after that.
Despite that Marckesano went on more tours and managed to keep himself together for 11 years. So, yeah the Master Sgt. killed himself, the fact that he kept it together that long and continued to serve his nation is more than should be expected of anyone.
Sorry @PJ, but I have to respectfully disagree with you. Those people were NOT his neighbors, and they are NOT your neighbors either.
If Christ had wanted us to love “everyone” he would have said so. After all, Almighty God always chooses his words carefully, and He never makes mistakes.
What Christ said was for us to love our “neighbors”, which has a very different meaning than “everyone”, or “all people”, etc. And then as he so often did, he uses a specific, detailed parable to illustrate just who is, and who isn’t your neighbor.
Remembering that every detail in one of Christ’s parables has meaning, it is probably safe to conclude that only about one out of every three people are your neighbor, and then only the ones who would go out of their way to help you, or more specifically help a complete a stranger.
The people Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano faced and killed in battle where actively trying to KILL HIM! And that clearly means they were NOT his neighbors.
Sorry to be such a stickler about language and words, but he who controls words controls thought, he who controls thoughts controls actions, and he who controls actions controls the world!
Remember, the king of lies is all about using the perfectly wrong word to deceive us. “The Devil has many tools, and a lie is the handle that fits them all!”
They should change the name Post-traumatic stress disorder back to Battle Fatigue.
There’s help. Sad story about a sad man. I respect his service, but that last selfish act ruins it. He told his family to go to hell. He quit caring.
I can’t confer hero status on him.
Read every word. You go it chance. Christ talked about what a man is expected to do with a “thief in the night”. The narrow road … the list is long to back your statement
We won WWII in slightly less than 4 years in two theaters.
There were many emotional scars, but we are asking our bravest to fight in a war with no end.
Next September it will be 20 years since 9/11.
We should have nuked Afghanistan and not put one boot on the ground.
The man was obviously tortured or he wouldn’t have been so theatrical. Not excusing his actions, but I understand.
Presently, I have a USMC friend who is about to go on his 4th deployment to another international garden spot that is starting to boil over. I am worried sick about him.
To survive 12 tours only to die by your own hand… that is pain I cannot begin to imagine.
I will not judge him, but I will say a prayer for him, and his family. They all have had a lot of hard days and nights for many years. It’s got to be tough!
I agree with PHenry.
America is still engaged in wars that never should gone to the ground and lasted this long.
Bomb the fuckers from far away & high up the way trump did with the Iranian General and however Israel did the nuke labs in Iran. Sending these soldiers back into the shitholes of the world with no clear goals, purpose or objectives is national suicide.
I am stretching here, but then going to the Pentagon from multiple tours in the field could have triggered a severe sense of survivors guilt if this was a “dream job” as the article says. If his new job required him to order troops to die, that could even be worse.
I pray for kids kids & wife and will not even attempt to judge a man who is better than myself and saw thing I have never had to witness.
Gods Rest Master Sgt. I hope he found peace.
I pose the following questions.
Is your mental health better or worse because of government intervention and mandates by our dictators over the last few months? If you lost your job or cannot perform your job because your kids cannot attend school?
Yes. The stress level for all us are elevated and it has been a relatively few minutes in contrast to the stress level this warrior has endured for years, mates killed and maimed for life.
I’m giving the man a wide berth.
It just saddens me that he was so lost that he did himself in in front of his wife and family.
I also wonder about the man who he met with prior to returning to his home. Did he not sense the man’s struggles? Maybe he was good at masking his emotions. Seems improbable.
Aw people please stop blaming the service.
Data points: (1) Six tours; now had just moved to Washington DC. (2) Was out to dinner with a buddy without his wife, who he presumably left home with the three kids. (3) Came back and killed himself in front of her.
Try marital problems.
Lo, There do I see my Father
Lo, There do I see my Mother and
My Brothers and my Sisters
Lo, There do I see the line of my people back to the beginning
Lo, They do call to me
They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla
Where thine enemies have been vanquished
Where the brave shall live Forever
Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death.
No one here can even think of this persons experience and really comment on it. Why? We live.
YES, there are people on this site that HAVE experienced PTSD in some form or another, some in a battle of war and some not in a battle of war but another extremely traumatic experience.
This man had devils and demons that he could not escape from.
Bless his troubled Soul. His Family and his buddies that served with him.
Thank you for your Service, Sir. May your soul and all the souls of the faithfully departed rest in peace.