First Name: Louis
Last Name: Berreyes
Middle Initial: J.
Date of Birth: 07/21/1948
Sex: Male
Martial Status: Married
Number of Children: Two
Home Town: Los Angeles, CA
Education Completed: High School
Other Occupations: Child Care Worker, Auto Mechanic, Carpenter
Branch of Service: Marines
Highest Rank: Not sure
Serial Number: Not sure
Platoon: Not sure
Age at Start of Service: Over 21
Years of Service: Not Sure
Combat Veteran: Yes
Time in Combat: Two years
Place of Combat: Vietnam
Awards:
Date of Suicide: 04/13/2008
Suicide Method: Gunshot to the head
Veteran’s Story: John had survived the war, including being a POW for four months, but had on-going PTSD symptoms for the rest of his life. After three failed marriages and struggles with alcohol and other drugs, he had barely patched his life together when he met me in 1990. (He told me how one of his marriages had been completed damaged by his PTSD. He and his wife couldn’t sleep in the same room because he’d be up at night trashing the room or walking through plate glass windows.) We were married in 2001. Although we were very much in love, issues regarding past trauma and Vietnam PTSD continued to plague him. He could only talk about the war in fits and starts. He’d get two or three sentences into it and then say, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” When he drank, he would dissociate and think he was back in Vietnam, asking me to make him MRE’s., etc. Once his therapist called me to warn me that she thought he was suicidal.
In late 2007 and early 2008, things started to go badly for him. He was injured at work and on disability; when he finally went back to work he was in constant pain. His sister died; his mother was having struggles. I was having stress on my job. On 4/13/2008, he began drinking, got into an arugment with me, pulled out a gun and began firing it in the house. During the next 45 minutes, my son and I tried to de-esclate him. One of the things he said was, “You don’t know about the things I did and saw in Vietnam.” Before we could stop him, he shot himself.
He was a funny, wise, wonderful, kind and loving man–one whom I miss with all my heart every day. I always admired him so much for surviving the things he had survived, but, in the end, the war claimed him too. It just took a little longer.
Submitted By: Ingrid Scott Berreyes
Relationship to Veteran: Spouse
