Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Words of comfort, call for pullout

The death of a 19-year-old Las Vegas Army infantryman by his own hand last week inspired words of sorrow and comfort Tuesday from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who reiterated his call to end the Iraq war.

"We have heard countless examples of our troops receiving inadequate mental health care being sent back into battle like this young man, Pfc. Travis Virgadamo," Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor.

"My heart goes out to his family," said Reid, whose father committed suicide. "That's what they said when he was trying to stay here, not go back. They suffered so much. We owe them a change of course. Many of my Republican friends have long held September is the month for policy change in Iraq."

Services for Virgadamo are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Monday at Palm Mortuary-Jones. Open-casket viewing will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at that location. Services with full military honors will be at 1:20 p.m. at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Palm mortuary and the family confirmed Tuesday.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., spoke to Virgadamo's grandmother Katie O'Brien during the weekend , offering condolences and assistance, her spokesman David Cherry said.

Berkley, a member of the House Veteran s Committee, has promised that the committee will investigate military suicides in Iraq, Cherry said.

In addition to looking into Virgadamo's death, Berkley is following up on the suspected suicide of a soldier who had returned to Southern California . Recently diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, he had received antidepressants while in Iraq and apparently overdosed back home.

Virgadamo recently was prescribed the antidepressant Prozac by military doctors, his family said.

The United States was not prepared for what would happen to military health care after the invasion , let alone mental heath, and both fields have been neglected, Cherry said.

Reid said the war toll "hit Nevada hard last week," with the death of Virgadamo, who is thought to be the first Nevadan to die by self-inflicted gunshot wound in this war.

He was the 54th Nevadan to die in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the local chapter of the Blue Star Mothers, a congressionally chartered veterans organization that assists soldiers with care packages from home.

The Blue Star Mothers have since World War II worked with the Gold Star Mothers to honor war dead.

"To us, a loss is a loss is a loss," said Linda Garrison, the Blue Star Mothers of Southern Nevada's Blue to Gold liaison, noting that gold star banners will be awarded to Virgadamo's parents regardless how their son died. "Our eligibility involves any person serving as active military who dies in areas of combat or conflict."

Virgadamo's mother lives in Pahrump, his father in the Philippines. Garrison said each will receive the traditional memorial banner featuring a red border around a white field containing a gold star trimmed in blue.

Reid further honored Virgadamo on Tuesday by saying : "Travis loved his country and loved serving in the military. He saw it as his calling."

Virgadamo "sought therapy and mental health care while overseas," Reid said, confirming what was reported in the Sun on Saturday .

Reid said that last year Veterans Affairs reported that more than 56,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan had been diagnosed with mental illness.

During a visit to his family in Pahrump in July, Virgadamo shared the horrors he experienced during recent service in the war, including being ordered to go into houses not knowing what was inside, narrowly surviving missile attacks , being in a vehicle accident , and walking along roadsides fearing he would step on land mines.

Virgadamo, who as part of his regular duties drove ammunition trucks, told his family he had sought and received from the military psychiatric counseling and Prozac in Iraq. He received more counseling in late July before he returned to Iraq, his family said.

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