An officer's suicide

Army investigators believe Col. Ted Westhusing, age 44, committed suicide in June 2005 near Baghdad. In Sunday's L.A. Times, T. Christian Miller tells Westhusing's story. Relying on "a copy of the Army investigation of his death that was obtained by The Times"—Westhusing's family declined to be interviewed for the article—Miller gives a detailed account of Westhusing's time in Iraq.

A professor of philosophy and English at West Point, Westhusing volunteered for duty in Iraq in 2004. He wound up overseeing a private security company that was contracted to train Iraqi police corps.

Miller writes:

His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong.

The Army's investigation suggests that Westhusing began to encounter emotional difficulties after allegations against the company he was overseeing.

By June, some of Westhusing's colleagues had begun to worry about his health. They later told investigators that he had lost weight and begun fidgeting, sometimes staring off into space. He seemed withdrawn, they said.

His family was also becoming worried. He described feeling alone and abandoned. He sent home brief, cryptic e-mails, including one that said, "[I] didn't think I'd make it last night." He talked of resigning his command.

Related: A report from the Army Surgeon General's Mental Health Advisory Team-II (MHAT-II), released in July, found the suicide rate for Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers during 2004 to be 8.5 per 100,000 soldiers, down from 18 per 100,000 in 2003.

The MHAT-II appears to have used a strict definition of suicide, however. The report notes that "Firearms were the only confirmed method of suicide for OIF soldiers in 2003 and 2004 with the exception of one drug overdose case in 2003." Some mental health experts believe that many friendly-fire incidents can be considered suicide, although it can be difficult for investigators to confirm such cases.

Also: The Dart Center has a tipsheet on covering suicide.