Video: Area Family Working to Raise Awareness of Suicide Among Combat Veterans

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) -Families will gather across the nation this weekend to celebrate Memorial Day…and honor our servicemen and women.

For a Starkville family, it will be their first Memorial Day without their Marine.

We sat down with his sister to talk about his life and why her family wants to make sure veterans get the services they need.

“He lived a very good, kind, prosperous life. He would help anybody. He was a kind brother. He was the leader of our family. It’s very hard to talk about that because we miss him so much.”

Peggy Rogers shares memories of her brother, Lt. Col Melvin Rogers. The retired marine had struggled with traumatic stress syndrome. He ended his life in February.

I can recall my brother leaving home going to the University of Tennessee and he went to service from there. And he served 30 or more years in service. And he went through the ranks. And he left the service as a Lt. Colonel of the United States marines.

Lt. Col. Rogers then spent his retirement helping other veterans in the area get the services they needed to return to and thrive in the civilian world.

Making the transition is very important for all service people and I don’t think they get enough help from us as Americans for their return after they have defended this country.

rogers family hopes his life and death will bring attention to the numerous struggles veterans face when their military careers end.
for him not to get the services he needed, when he needed them, how he needed just as other veterans…I think that’s very poor on our part as Americans.

Lt. Col Rogers wife and daughter recently launched a website in his memory to share his story.

The annual Richard Holmes Veterans Memorial Foundation is also honoring Lt. Col. Rogers.

The foundation’s annual walk will be in his memory. It’s tomorrow at the Columbus Soccer Complex. Registration is at 7am. The run starts at 8.