Monday, June 02, 2008

Army Maj. Lance Waldorf

Remember Our Heroes

Michigan veteran's suicide spotlights toll of repeated deployments
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News

June 2, 2008

HOLLY TOWNSHIP -- Lana Waldorf took calls from concerned family and friends Wednesday evening and tried to make sense of her husband's apparent suicide in a military cemetery in Oakland County.

Lance Waldorf, a 40-year-old major in the U.S. Army Reserve and a resident of Bingham Farms, was found dead Monday afternoon of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township.

"The war had a great deal to do with this," said Lana Waldorf, about her husband's death. Waldorf said her husband suffered from post-traumatic stress and increasing depression after returning home from serving as a civil affairs specialist in Afghanistan.

"He had nightmares," she said. "He didn't tell me the details. What husband wants to share the horrific ordeals of war with his wife?"

Lana Waldorf, 51, said she alerted authorities after finding a note from her husband. His body was found shortly afterward at the cemetery. He was wearing military fatigues; a handgun was found nearby.

Authorities also found a note, a will, a backpack and photographs of Waldorf with his wife as well as family and friends, said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Gary Muir.

Waldorf, a chartered financial consultant for Merrill Lynch, served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was expecting orders for a third deployment. He returned home in March 2007 from his last assignment in Ghazni, Afghanistan, as a part of the 414th Battalion, a unit from Southfield.

She said she only learned the severity of her husband's depression from post-traumatic stress when she discovered a document on their printer referring to an appointment at a Veterans Administration hospital.

"He was not sharing with me what he went through mentally and emotionally," she said. "He did not disclose to me the extent of what he was going through as a result of what he saw and experienced over there."

Post-traumatic stress syndrome has become an increasing problem for veterans returning from the Middle East, experts say. U.S. military officials say the rate of suicide among more soldiers is rising.

The 115 confirmed suicides in 2007 among active-duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops activated amounted to a suicide rate of 18.8 per 100,000 troops, the highest since the Army began documenting such statistics in 1980. And the numbers are growing higher this year with extended deployments.

Lana Waldorf said her husband had been seeing doctors at veterans' hospitals in Detroit and Ann Arbor. She did not specify the treatments he was receiving.

The couple had been married seven years; they had no children.

She said her husband's apparent suicide represents the "down side" of war. But she comforts herself with the good he did in Afghanistan.

"The upside is what we're doing," said Lana Waldorf, a real estate agent. "We're building hospitals, building roads and building schools. My husband was a supporter of the military. I am still a supporter of the efforts over there."

She said her husband felt he was making a huge difference in Afghanistan.

"They were bringing hope to the people there," said Lana Waldorf.

"In Afghanistan, they love Americans and Lance remembered how the villagers once traveled for four hours to say goodbye to American soldiers."

Lance Waldorf especially liked visiting the children in the Afghan orphanages.

"They loved him," she said. "There was a little girl in one of the orphanages who would just hang on to his hand."

Lance Waldorf is also survived by his 18-year-old stepson.

Visitation will be from 1-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Friday at the McCabe Funeral Home, 31950 W. 12 Mile in Farmington Hills. The memorial service will be 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the NorthRidge Church, 49555 North Territorial in Plymouth.

The Associated Press and Detroit News Staff Writer Mike Martindale contributed to this report.

2 comments:

CAROL M said...

TERRI, i am so sorry to hear about you husband, he will always be a hero. I KNOW WHAT HE MUST HAVE BEEN GOING THRU BECAUSE MY NEPHEW CAN NOT TALK ABOUT CERTAIN THING AND CAN NOT LISTEN TO CERTAIN SONGS. HE IS IN THE ARMY AND DID 2 TOURS AND WAS ON HIS WAY HOME AND HAD TO RETURN WITH A MOMENTS NOTICE. YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE IN MY PRAYERS. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. GRATEFULLY YOURS AND WITH ALL RESPECT, CAROL M., A SOLDIERS ANGEL WHO CARES.

Anonymous said...

Lana, Please email me..Lance brought you to syracuse to my house just before you were married. I just don't believe it. please email me and let me have an address to send pictures....my email address is mkzurbruegg@hotmail.com...