Barnes, an Iraq War veteran, died at age 24 in Mount Rainier National Park.

Would we have known the name Benjamin Colton Barnes if he hadn’t killed someone else before rushing to his own death in Mount Rainier National Park on New Year’s Day? Or would he have been just another young Iraq War veteran on a suicide trajectory?

Columnist Alex Limkin, also a vet, asks this question in his column From the Foxhole.

A veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes, according to a study published in November. It also indicates military suicides have been on the rise since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.