Nov. 20--Soldiers who fought alongside Spc. Brandon Barrett for a year in Afghanistan had no clue where they could find him two months after they came home to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in summer 2010.
They knew he had disappeared after he was disciplined for driving drunk just after they returned from their combat tour in June.
He told them that he had 450 rounds of ammunition for his semiautomatic rifle. They could find him by watching the news, he told them by text message.
Barrett, 28, was "about to show the world why they shouldn't (expletive) with a soldier back from a deployment," he told one platoonmate in a conversation over MySpace.
His ominous text messages set off alarms at Lewis-McChord. The base contacted Barrett's family members in Tucson, Ariz., though not as soon as it should have. His platoonmates stayed in touch with him, urging him to cool down and come back to Washington. Officers warned law enforcement agencies near the base and issued a warrant seven days later.
But their efforts came far too late. Barrett died in a shootout with Salt Lake City police nine days after he sent those foreboding messages to his comrades at Lewis-McChord.
He was traveling around the Southwest, and he said he had no intent to return to his home base. He suited up in his combat gear the day of his death and appeared intent on getting himself killed, according to an Army investigation obtained by The News Tribune.
Barrett fired 10 rounds from his rifle and injured one police officer before he was shot to death outside a hotel Aug. 27, 2010. The incident is an apparent suicide by cop.
Previous reports in The News Tribune showed how investigators determined Barrett was deeply affected by seeing his comrades killed and wounded in combat. Officials at the base were slow to react and failed to notify the soldier's family when the first hints of trouble surfaced, an investigation found.
The documents obtained by The News Tribune last week reveal the emotional pleas his friends made to try to bring him back safely to the Army base.
"I can't come back. If I do, I'm weak. It's fight or flee," Barrett wrote to a friend.
"Fight what Beezy, nobody wants to see you get hurt. You're our brother," the friend replied.
"I love you guys, but sometimes you just have to let go of things you love," Barrett wrote.
"You don't need to let go of us. We are family. Let me help you."
The messages also showed Barrett was still smarting from discipline he was given as a result of his post-deployment DUI -- a dressing down that was administered while he stood in formation with fellow soldiers, 10 days before he went AWOL.
Barrett "said he was humiliated in front of the company," a specialist who served with him later told an investigator.
Barrett was one of nine Lewis-McChord soldiers who took their own lives in 2010. His suicide launched a review that led to new standards at the base south of Tacoma aimed at helping military police track down AWOL soldiers and communicate more effectively with law enforcement agencies.
Lewis-McChord now has procedures to share information more quickly with police departments outside of the region if it's searching for a deserter, the base's provost marshal said last week.
In Barrett's case, "we issued a BOLO (be-on-the-lookout), but it only went to local agencies. It should have gone to other states where the soldier had family or that he might have been traveling through," Lt. Col. Ted Solonar said.
Barrett's death also lent momentum to a call for a suicide hotline that could help soldiers just after their deployments.
Lewis-McChord has since refined its behavioral health outreach, though it continues to struggle with soldier suicides. This year likely will see the base record its highest number of suicides, according to crime reports and information from lawmakers.
Barrett's suicide appears different from other recent soldier deaths in that he showed no signs of emotional distress before he returned to Lewis-McChord with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, according to soldiers who served with him.
"He always seemed very calm and rational, and did not seem the violent type," a specialist who was among the last to communicate with Barrett told the Army investigator.
Yet Barrett's Stryker company saw intense fighting in southern Afghanistan. Two soldiers from the company were killed in combat; another dozen were wounded or injured.
Barrett arrived at Lewis-McChord's Wilson Gym for his homecoming ceremony June 26, 2010. A military police officer arrested him within 48 hours on suspicion of driving under the influence.
His company's top noncommissioned officer did not cut Barrett slack for the DUI. He denied Barrett the 30-day leave all soldiers receive after yearlong combat deployments, and the company sergeant highlighted Barrett's arrest in front of the unit July 9.
The Army ordered Barrett to attend alcohol counseling, and he enrolled in the program. He did not show up for work July 19, and the Army declared him absent without leave the next day.
By July 23, the rest of his unit would begin its post-deployment leave. No one notified Barrett's family that the Army considered him a deserter.
Without any reason to assume Barrett was in trouble, his family welcomed him home to Tucson for what they thought was his approved leave. His brother later said that Barrett seemed relaxed during the 21/2 weeks he was home, though he avoided the combat video games he used to enjoy.
"Everyone commented on how Brandon had grown up and matured," his brother, Tucson police detective Shane Barrett, later wrote to his congresswoman. "The Army was good for him. Looking back on it now, Brandon was making peace with his loved ones."
Barrett began to reveal signs of stress in text and Internet communications with his platoonmates Aug. 18, after he'd been AWOL for a month.
Lewis-McChord arranged for Tucson police to visit Barrett's family home within a day. Brandon Barrett avoided them, later telling a friend he didn't want to go to jail.
He still had his stash of weapons and armor,
He contacted his platoon leader and an Army chaplain to say he was on his way back to Lewis-McChord but first planned to visit a friend in Utah. Around Aug. 25, he sent text messages that indicated he intended to hurt himself or others.
Army officials have said they couldn't have anticipated where or when he would show up, let alone that he would engage police in a violent public confrontation.
Looking back, soldiers who tried to talk Barrett back into the fold felt they did all they could.
"Once he made the decision to go AWOL, it was next to impossible to do anything other than try to talk him down, which we did, and rely on local law enforcement to interdict him, which they didn't," a lieutenant who knew Barrett told an Army investigator.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646
blog.thenewstribune.com/military
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Copyright 2011 - The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
