Families face grim reality of loss

On Dec. 12, Cpl. Nevin Moreira spoke by phone to his mother, Joanne Phillips. He was struggling with depression after two deployments with a Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade but his outlook was positive that day.

He had seen a counselor and told her, "If I had known I'd feel this good going and talking to someone, I would have done it a long time ago," she recalled. Another counseling session was scheduled for after Christmas.

Within days of the conversation with his mother, Moreira was dead.

Moreira, 23, shot himself as a police officer pulled him over for speeding after leaving Red Wind Casino near Yelm, according to a police report. He died after paramedics transported him to Providence St. Peter Hospital. The suicide stunned his family.

"I don't know what happened," Phillips said. "I know what happened, but I don't know what he was thinking."

His brother, Jason, a sergeant assigned to a different Stryker brigade based at Fort Lewis, told a police officer his brother had been struggling with anxiety and depression after two deployments to Iraq in three years, according to a police report. He also had been arrested for drunken driving two months earlier, shortly after he returned from his second deployment.

Moreira was living with his brother and wife at Fort Lewis until his enlistment was up.

At the casino, gaming agents told an investigator that Moreira had consumed three beers and two mixed drinks while playing blackjack for more than seven hours, according to the report.

Phillips has tried to reconcile the suicide with her son's optimistic words about the future. Moreira had told her he wanted to become a nurse after leaving the Army.

She recalled his telling her about being in the midst of combat and noticing a flower — a "little symbol of hope and happiness," as she put it — in the midst of the chaos.

As the first anniversary of his death approaches, Phillips dearly misses the son who saw such beauty in all things.

Spc. Scottie Marin, 22 at the time, nursed a beer in the garage while watching a friend's son play during a homecoming party in October 2007.

Marin had served 15 months in Iraq with a Stryker combat brigade based at Fort Lewis, and he was ready to leave the Army. December couldn't arrive soon enough.

He quietly talked about serving in Iraq and the heartbreak he suffered there. On leave, when he had planned to propose to his girlfriend, she announced the relationship was over. He talked about losing his "little brother," Cpl. Kareem Khan, one of four soldiers killed when a bomb-rigged home exploded during the closing days of his deployment.

Marin said he had taken Khan under his wing when he had arrived, just two months before the brigade deployed. He recalled that Khan wanted to become a doctor. "I just wanted to watch over him as much as I could," Marin said.

Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, mentioned Khan last month during a television appearance when he formally endorsed President-elect Barack Obama. Powell said he saw a photo in a magazine of Khan's mother resting her head on his grave, which denoted his Muslim faith.

Powell was voicing concerns about anti-Muslim sentiment during the presidential campaign.

Asked by a reporter how he dealt with the loss of Khan, Marin responded at the time, "I know they would want me to get on with my life. Just like I'd want them to get on with their lives if it had happened to me."

In the end, however, he couldn't.

On Aug. 6, the first anniversary of the explosion that killed Khan and the other soldiers, Marin shot himself in the head during a heated argument on his cell phone with an ex-girlfriend, according to a police report.

He was living at the time with roommates in Maricopa, Ariz., south of Phoenix. His mother lived nearby. Marin's brother did not respond to phone messages left on his cell phone. Other family members couldn't be located for comment.

One of his roommates told police that Marin had been drinking heavily all night and talking to his ex-girlfriend for more than four hours.

The roommate said Marin was "very emotional and very upset" during the conversation, the report said. The roommate went to bed about 3 a.m. after Scottie told him to set his alarm for 7 a.m. so they could go shopping. Shortly before 7 a.m., police found Marin's body in the back yard.