Monday, May 27, 2013
By Mickey Friedman
Edward Passetto came down from Pittsfield to The Best Small Town in America to find some peace, to end his pain. A Marine, at war in Afghanistan, he saved two civilian victims of a helicopter crash. But here at home he was just another casualty.
Without realizing it, the Berkshire Eagle published Edward Passetto’s suicide note. Clear, concise, his letter to the editor told a simple, sad story: “I am a proud veteran who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was medically discharged from active duty in 2011. I returned home and no one noticed. So I went on with my life, filed my papers with the Veterans Administration and started the waiting game. The same waiting game hundreds of Berkshire County veterans are struggling through along with millions of vets across America.”
No one noticed. Imagine: one moment, far from home, there’s the hypervigilance of combat, IEDs and suicide bombers, and the reality that the Afghan soldier we just trained could turn killer. The next moment, back in the Berkshires, nobody wants to know where you’ve been, what you’ve seen and done, and how you’ve managed to survive.




