Nadia Prupis
Truthout
More than 1,000 veterans in California under 35 died after returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan between 2005 and 2008 – three times as many California service members who were killed in conflict overseas, according to a recently published Bay Citizen report.
Investigative journalist Aaron Glantz studied the cases of Reuben Paul Santos, Alex Lowenstein and Elijah Warren to shed light on a growing trend among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who have died through high-risk behavior and suicide after being discharged. In particular, veterans who returned home to California died through motorcycle and motor vehicle accidents and unintentional poisoning; in addition, veterans were two and a half times as likely to commit suicide as Californians of the same age who had not served in the military.
Glantz, who has reported on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since 2005, decided to focus on veterans in California because “it’s important to look at our own community. [Santos] was this young man that was from a community that was literally right down the street. That’s how silent this epidemic is.”
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