Didn’t see the suicide coming

We were on base one night. I had just been promoted, so I was there celebrating with my Marines. We stayed up that night until about 2am and then went to bed.

“See you guys at 0600 for PT,” we all agreed.

We each retired to our bunks.

Less than 2 hours later, I received a call from my supervisor. “We need you to come down to the barracks,” he said.

“Everything OK?” I asked— I could tell by the tone of his voice it wasn’t.

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

I got up and quickly made my way over. One of my men— one of the Marines I was just celebrating with— had gone back to the barracks and hung himself with a belt.

I couldn’t shake it…

•  What did I miss?
•  Why didn’t I catch the signs?
•  Was I too focused on my own happy moment that I missed something he was trying to communicate?

We had all been together less than 2 hours ago and I never saw the signs that anything was wrong…