This is my brother, Daniel Alexander Hamilton shown on the left in this picture.

His last name is different than mine because he has a different Father. He served bravely in the 1st Infantry division of the United States Army, for two tours. Over the course of two years, he saw many of his friend die. He killed people, as a soldier is trained to do, and couldn’t get over the spiritual and mental effects of that which he had done.

When he came home, he was torn up by the things that he had done. He turned to substance abuse to try and cover up his pain. But after a few weeks of civilian life, and time of reflection on the deeds he had done for his country, he decided he couldn’t go on living anymore, and committed suicide. It’s been 5 years now. I was 11 years old when my father came through the door and told me what my brother had done. He went through two years of duty and combat to come home, and not be able to handle what he had done took his own life.

He was a kind, nerdy kid, and he used to play videogames with me all the time. We used to goof around and have fun all the time, but afterwards when he came home on leave the first time, there was this time where he like went into this kind of mode, where I guess he didn’t realize he wasn’t in a situation, and I started to wrestle with him, and that was probably a mistake because he put my arm behind my back HARD and it hurt really bad and I started to cry. But he felt really bad afterwards and apologized and hugged me.

He was such a good person. I remember one time, when I was ten years old, he told me that when he was going through a village in Iraq, a kid ran at his squadron with a knife, and they shot the kid, he was about my age at the time. And Danny told me, that he used to dream almost every night that the kid was me..

I love him so much. I wish every day that I could have him back.
~ James McCormick

We welcome you to share your family photos of those who served both past and present, so we may feature and honor them on our COMES A Soldier’s Whisper Veteran tribute page www.facebook.com/ComesASoldiersWhisper/

God Bless all who serve and keep us safe.

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