Our guest, Scott DeLuzio, served in the Connecticut National Guard as an infantryman. Scott, like many of his generation, was deeply affected by the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11. His younger brother Steven joined the Vermont National Guard and Scott followed shortly after, joining his home state’s NG. In late 2009, Scott’s unit was called up to deploy to Afghanistan. While there, he learned that Steven had been killed in action. Scott shares this tragic story and the effects on him and his family and how it ultimately led him to start his own podcast, Drive On.

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There are 3 comments.

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  1. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Decades ago, psychologists thought the fear of heights was the one fear that is inherited. Now we know there’s a genetic component to fear generally. But it makes sense that fear of height is especially vulnerable to genes because your sense of balance, vision, and such are inherited.

    Interesting story. Thanks.

    Do either of you think you have learned much about veteran suicides since interviewing soldiers in podcasts? DeLuzio’s advice is good in regard to suicidal people generally. But there must be reasons that veteran suicides are so much higher now than ever before.

    From a civilian perspective, I don’t see that war is more horrible now than before. Are the support networks back home different? Is it the much greater disconnect between the prosperity and culture at home versus life in the warzones? Is it the loss of faith and religious framework that gave meaning to suffering, and hope? What do y’all think has changed?

    • #1
  2. Max Ledoux Coolidge
    Max Ledoux
    @Max

    This was the most emotional episode to listen to so far. 

    • #2
  3. Nick Plosser Coolidge
    Nick Plosser
    @NickP

    @aaronmiller

    First off, thanks so much for listening. All great points/questions you bring up. I think Scott would be in a much better position to talk about mental health issues with the military. He has quite a few guests on his show dealing with mental health issues.
    https://driveonpodcast.com/

    The sense I get from talking to soldiers who have seen combat, is that mental health is taken far more seriously by the military at large in the last decade. That said, the oft-quoted number of 22 suicides a day deserves a bit of context (as does any stat quoted too often by the media).

    Here are a few:

    https://www.stripes.com/news/us/va-reveals-its-veteran-suicide-statistic-included-active-duty-troops-1.533992

    https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/1972793/dod-releases-report-on-suicide-among-troops-military-family-members/

    And here’s the latest Annual DOD suicide report I could find, from 2018:
    https://www.dspo.mil/Portals/113/2018%20DoD%20Annual%20Suicide%20Report_FINAL_25%20SEP%2019_508c.pdf

    As usual, methodology and context matter.

    Regarding the issues your brought up in the last paragraph, I think you hit on a few key points. I would add to what you wrote, a larger portion of our population generally on prescription drugs (I would argue in place of strong, larger families, communities and religious congregations), and the culture of social media, which thrives on the enhancement of virtually all of the Deadly Sins. There is also a larger question as to whether the over-sharing of everything in our culture in successive generations leading to now, has been a net good or bad for soldiers specifically, and the public generally. I’m not so sure. I have to consider the fact that I may play a part in that by doing this show.
    I’ve purposely tried to steer away from fetishizing traumatic experiences of guests, and I hope I haven’t done that with Scott’s story. There are plenty of shows in the space dealing with PTSD, and that’s great. But my intention with this show was to showcase the stories of our fellow citizens who stand on that wall for us, no matter what their job in the military. And to do so in a very proud, warrior tradition.

    • #3
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