I'll roll with that, sure, that something is wrong. But if someone's thought it out and made a decision that he'd just rather do without life, sometimes that's his choice.

I've talked a soldier through a suicidal patch; it's actually one of the most impactful and important things I've ever done in my career. She was young and just coming to terms with being a lesbian with a very religious and judgmental family. Her buddy called me to the Presidio and I walked up and down and all around DLI with her, letting her talk out her problems, swapping experiences with her, but mostly letting her vent her fears and frustrations.

In her case, she was up against fear and changes and judgment and what she needed was to realize there were other people like her, that she could live her life how she wanted to, and that her family home wasn't the end all and be all of her life experiences. It meant the world to me that I was able to help her out.

But not everybody who struggles with suicidal ideation is just up against a coming of age story, or a problem that needs a different perspective. Some people are stuck in a dank well of depression with nobody who genuinely cares about them and they've tried the drugs and they've tried the therapy and they're still just miserable and they'd rather not. So they don't.

Was something wrong? Yup. Was is something that could be solved? Well, not by any means the guy had tried. Is it sad? Yup. Could it have been prevented by anybody else? Honestly, probably not.

Just because you think a guy has something to live for doesn't mean he has to agree with you, and sometimes you have to accept that. If you weren't close enough to him to know what it was he had to live for, then you probably couldn't have been much help, anyhow.