Anthony Passaro testimony: son Adam's military service, PTSD, and suicide

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for being here.

You're welcome.

And I just want to thank this council for recognizing Dr.

Megan Nelson today and myself.

And it's just amazing the work that she's doing.

When you said she was a role model.

She's a role model to her daughter, who was three years old at the time, and how she brought her up with the values.

She never turned to drugs.

She never, you know, this could happen.

You lose your father, and, you know, you get bitter.

But she didn't make that happen.

You know, she stood on top of it.

She's one of the reasons I'm here.

Because I was a goner.

You know, you lose your son.

It's a tragedy, you know, because he was going for therapy.

And one of the mornings...

He was in therapy.

That afternoon, he took his own life.

And he suffered from PTSD, and he suffered from survivor guilt.

His army buddy got killed in front of him, and he took it very bad.

And he had that guy's dog tags tattooed on his own arm.

That's how much it affected him, you know.

But he persevered.

And he, you know, he was a sergeant and he went from human resources type of thing in the Army to intelligence.

And so when he had to leave the Army because of PTSD and he had gotten injured,

Homeland Security scooped him up.

And he did really, really well with them.

So everything was going wonderful, you know.

And then he actually did a really great thing with Homeland Security, and he got a big award.

We all had to go to Washington.

So, but anyway, if it wasn't for Dr.

Nelson here, she took me under her wing at the beginning.

And, you know, she went through exactly the same thing.

And she schooled me on what was coming, each process was going to happen.

You know, and then all the services that you people provide is so important for not only veterans that are still living, but the veterans that took their own lives or

died because of the Army or the Navy or the whole military.

And then to get this revelation here about a white star day, I mean, it's mind-boggling, and it means a lot to me, you know?

Just like my...

Therapists and psychiatrists would tell me, you know, you got to tell people, you got to talk about it, but it's impossible.

It's so hard.

But how many people could you tell?

I could tell you and you and you, but you're piecemealing it.

But when she got me on, it was on television on a Friday night on Channel 2, I believe, Channel 4.

And I got to speak about my son.

And it's like now I told the world, you know, like it's so things like this.

It's so important when you lose a child.

I just want to thank everybody here, and especially Dr.