by Jack ReinhardFriday, August 30th 2019
https://fox56.com/news/local/lehighton-family-shares-tragic-story-to-save-veterans
WILKES_BARRE TWP., LUZERNE COUNTY — An estimated 22 veterans commit suicide in America every day.
This afternoon, a Carbon County family shared their tragic story at a veterans suicide discussion to prevent it from happening to anyone else.
Michael and Sally Wargo from Lehighton were just two of many people who came out today for a veteran suicide prevention roundtable at the VA Medical Center.
“This is a huge problem, when we lose 6,000 of our best men and women in combat, but we lose 120,000 that have come home and taken their own lives,” said Michael Wargo.
Their son Michael among those 120,000 soldiers after he took his own life in 2013.
This morning, while wearing dog tags with a picture of their son on them, they fought back tears as they shared that tragic story, hoping nobody will have to endure the pain they’ve gone through.
“He had his two arms, he had his two legs, he wasn’t shot. Physically he looked okay, but mentally we didn’t know until later,” said Wargo.
Michael joined the Army following the 9/11 terror attacks, as a non Commissioned Officer, training infantry on how to survive chemical and nuclear attacks.
Before enlisting in the military, he graduated from Lehighton High School and then attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, where he met his wife.
“Smart though, smart he could do anything,” said Sally Wargo.
Mr. and Mrs. Wargo had no idea what their son was going through when he returned from Afghanistan.
They found out when he sent them a four-and-a-half-hour-long video detailing what he was going through.
By the time they got to him, it was too late.
“I think it took a lot of his energy to hide it,” said Sally Wargo.
“We got to get the message out there, we got to start talking about it, start shouting because if we don’t talk about it nobody cares,” said Michael Wargo.
