Michael Mantenuto passes
According to People Magazine, Michael Mantenuto was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound earlier this week. He is best known for his role in “Miracle” – a Disney film about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team.
After a short career in show business, Mantenuto joined the Army. He was a Special Forces sergeant stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington at the time of his death. He was 35.
The actor was found on Monday afternoon after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the King County medical examiner’s office in Seattle, Washington, tells PEOPLE. His death has officially been ruled a suicide. He’s survived by his wife, Kati, and two children: daughter Ava and son Leo.
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Lt. Col. Robert Bockholt, Director of Public Affairs for U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, tells PEOPLE, “Our deepest condolences go out to Michael Mantenuto’s family, friends, and teammates,” adding, “The cause of death is still under investigation.”
Mantenuto enlisted in 2010, two years after making his final film, Surfer Dude. He attended special forces training in 2013, and went on to become a communications sergeant. He was assigned to 1st Special Forces Group, where he was stationed as a communications sergeant until his death.
Thanks to Bobo for the tip.
Category: Blue Skies
Rest In Peace, Soldier.
Rest in peace young warrior.
Damn! This sucks!
I wish he had been able to reach out to someone before he did this.
RIP, Green Beret, and I would offer my condolences to family and friends who are now struggling with this loss, too.
He COULD have reached out to someone….JESUS!…now he leaves his wife and too children! and he also now knows, his life was not his to take, it belonged to God….when will people wake up and READ GOD’S WORD…..answers to everything there if anyone is intelligent enough to look!!
Had a 26 year-old neighbor put a bullet in his head in January. Not a day goes by that I don’t want to dig him up and scream, “Why did you not give me a f’n hint? Any f’n hint!”
Had a friend and coworker do the same a couple of years ago and I still say the same thing.
It’s the unconsidered piece of the legacy suicides leave for others. I guess that they have no idea that by ridding themselves of their anguish and pain, they transfer it–in a different form–to those they leave behind.
Yes, unfortunately they do.
And it feels a lot like guilt.
One of the most tragic things about suicide is that it is a permanent solution to what far too often turns out to be only a temporary problem.
They truly believe that they are doing their families, friends, and everyone around them a favor by offing themselves. They truly believe that everyone would be better off without them.
AMEN 2/17!
A nurse tried to commit suicide and did in fact die, however she was shown her life after suicide and allowed to return, a life afer suicide is destined to live the life that was so terrible OVER AND OVER AND OVER, they escape nothing! Seek Jesus!
in 2007 , while in Fob Echo-Iraq, I had an MP that shot himself in the head with his service pistol. He had got caught messing around with a woman in his unit while being married. he was going to get an Art. 15 and was going to have to explain to his family.
I was senior medic in my BAS and had let everyone else go so i could clean him up before the medevac would get there the next day. i found my self yelling at this kid, i mean really yelling at him and i didn’t even know him. Having survived that place for the better part of 14 months, the RPG, Mortar and Rocket attacks, getting shot up as you leave and enter the base just made me angry. i was also angry because if you get killed by the enemy you get a Angel flight but this kid was going to be just part of the medical mail run.
After i put him in the body cooler i sat with him for the whole night. i was still mad as hell at the kid but if our places were reversed, i knew i would not want to be alone. My LT helped me out and got an earlier bird to come take him to the green zone.
10 years later when i think about him i am still mad at him but i can’t remember his name anymore. Like 2/17 Cav i wish he would have said something, i would not be mad now and he would still be alive…
Sometime around 1986 three young Sailors rented the house next door. Beautiful young lady Sailor killed herself b/c she got a ‘Dear John’ letter from her boyfriend back home. Two guys living with her got me b/c, being a Corpsman, they thought I could help. She had shot herself in the head while standing in the hallway (letter was found by her side). Her brains were in two rooms and hallway. Such a senseless act brought about by the loss of a guy who she possibly could not name today if alive. Jeez, what a loss.
This is more than extremely sad.
Folks, there are some things you cant fix, soem -people- you cant fix. There are those that have that whispering monster in their head, saying “do it!”, and it drowns out anyone else.
Hard to accept, but there it is. Some folks just won’t listen to “I can help” but instead listen to “do it!”. It sucks, but there it is.
And still we try. Help who you can, and be glad there are those that will help you.
Medical types, please re-iterate “expectant” to the audience, as it also applies to some folks not yet wounded physically.
11B…this is hard…even the ones trained to help sometimes get overcome.
I was in Iraq 06-08 with a damned fine mental health officer..Cpt Pete Linnerooth was always there for the ones that needed it, but I think the pressure to “save them all” is tremendous….and he didn’t save them all; in the end, we couldn’t save him because we had no clue.
When I became a medic, I was told by my instructor that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you WILL lose some….perhaps its ego that makes us say to ourselves ” the hell I will”….but more often than not its the constant replaying in your mind and thinking “if I had only….insert your option of choice” I could have saved them.
It never works like that….we tell ourselves its defeatist to think that you really cant save them all, but in the end, we really cant.
Some will get by us…some will lose the battle with their demons and never give you a clue that they are struggling.
Those are ‘expectant”…no matter what you do, no matter how close you look for the signs or give the mental health presentation about talking to someone about getting help.
You cant triage or treat those wounds because there simply are no external symptoms in every case.
“When I became a medic, I was told by my instructor that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you WILL lose some. . . perhaps its ego that makes us say to ourselves “the hell I will”. . . but more often than not its the constant replaying in your mind and thinking “if I had only. . . insert your option of choice” I could have saved them.”
Very true, Doc. Read some of the stories at http://codegreencampaign.org/category/stories/ sometime. Every one of these is written by a first responder. Don’t ever believe that PTSD comes only from combat.
Amen Doc. I went through Ft. Sam back in 1988, and heard much the same.While never used my medicine much n the military (mostly reserves, and inactive) I’ve been an EMT and Paramedic since then, and everything you said is right. and the rough part is, some of us can deal with and accept the fact that we can’t save em all and unfortunately, some hold it in till it consumes them, and we loose them too.
On http://www.everyonegoeshome.com, life safety initiative 13 is psychological support. It’s something that the Fire/EMS service is working to combat, but we’ve got a long way to go. I’d encourage everyone to take a look at the site, they have some great resourced that could help troops as well as firefighters.
Stationed at the Guam Naval Hospital, ’69-’70, we got the cases from Nam that could not make the trip to the States – in other words the bad ones. Anyone who works an ICU finds out quickly that you will lose some, and we did. On the other hand, we sent more home who shouldn’t have made it home than those that did not make it. It really helps one’s psyche to latch on to the wins and I can still remember a bunch of them. If first responders are struggling with their loses, remind them of their wins. Not sure how this would work with those who have suicidal thoughts, but you have to wonder if someone had gotten to MM and focused him on his accomplishments (many) whether that would have gotten him through his depression.
I have lost innumerable friends and acquaintances to suicide and I still am angry about every last one of them.
It is the ultimate voice of selfishness to inflict the pain on your family, friends and even enemies as they feel that they actually won whatever it was bugging them.
This is just so sad, so incredibly sad, yet it still makes me angry at him…
I have known young men that came home to find their Dad’s brains all over the floor or wall in the basement as they didn’t even have the common decency to go outside where someone other than their family would find them…
If that isn’t selfish, I don’t what is. Those young men will live with that sight for the rest of their lives and possibly contribute to their early deaths too…
I’m sorry if this attitude of mine offends anyone, but, it is my point and if you had worked with as many drug addicts and alcoholics, Veteran and civilian as I have, you would be affected in the same fashion…
I went on a suicide call early in my LEO career. The guy set up a trap gun in the basement, it was fired by the basement door being pulled open.
He sat down at about 3:30pm, and waited. When he heard the upstairs entry door open and close, he hollered for his 13yr old son just home from school to come downstairs.
The poor kid lasted about 5 or 6 years before he started the car, then closed up the garage.
This guy knew he’d screw his kid up, he just didn’t care.
For all you medics- thanks for all you did.
As has been said, there are those you just can’t fix.
I once spent over 6 hrs talking a buddy out of pulling the trigger.
Took him another 25 years, but he finally did.
As you know, you can win the battle,
and lose the war.
This got me thinking about my former neighbor. I saw her almost daily and she would always say she was fine. After her death, I found out from her adult offspring she wasn’t fine. She was so poor she could only afford to eat two to three times a week. She wasn’t that old and she could still be alive if she had only said, “I’m hungry”.
So. Her family knew, and did nothing. That’s no better than us shrugging off a friend when he intimates he needs help.
I never posted this anywhere else but I tried but fortunately was found before I went through with it. You are all correct, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I caused a lot of pain to my family and I let my Shipmates and most importantly, our country down. The Navy must have seen something in me to allow me to continue to serve. Sorry for putting this out but thanks for the venue.
Glad you are still here RM1, and thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Shipmate. Prayers to all.
I’m thankful you’re still here, too, RM1.
Thank you, Eden.
Glad you made it through swabbie, it’s good to have you here!
Movie Star
Special Forces Soildier
Very handsome
Wife and two kids
Some would say he had it all.
You just can’t tell…
My son suffered from severe depression for 14 years. He fought demons none of us could imagine. He was a romantic, a poet, artist and with the funniest sense of humor a family could ask for. He loved his family and made it show by his concern and kindness. He gave us XMAS cards and hand delivered several to his friends on Christmas Eve.
The day after Christmas I found him dead in his room at our house. He overdosed. He was 31 and a tall beautiful man. No CPR, I am a physician and I know death. I sat next to him and pulled him over to me and I told him how much he was loved and cried as I hugged him and finally said goodbye. Fortunately his mother was away at the store. After 30 minutes I called 911 and got the process going. His younger brother was a Navy Officer and looked up to his older brother. He was home on XMAS leave.
Almost six years later I am no smarter about depression. All I know he tried without success to make us understand for years the horrors and pain that others cannot understand. If they thought we could, they might make other decisions. I don’t know, every journey is different. I would never wish it on any parent . You do get THRU it, but you NEVER get over it. Life is never the same again sadly.
The “what ifs..” are the worst.
CAPT Bones USN (ret)
CAPT McCartney, I’m so sorry. I cannot imagine your pain and that of your family.
I wonder if he ever really wanted to get married or just did the right thing. Why did he join the army, to be away from her? If she loved him, she would have found him and brought him back to her. A 3 line message isn’t from someone that felt valued…..I believe God will bring him back to get it right in another situation and he will then go to heaven. HEARTBREAKING he felt so alone. There’s a story here and a reason the 3 line message isn’t published. God is benevolent and I believe he will be given another chance to see God and find his happiness. RIP soldier…..Go find yourself somewhere in time♡