Offline 17 Days... Published Sept. 11, 2015 By Lt. Col. Michael D. King 337th Air Support Flight US Embassy, Canberra, Australia -- Being stationed so far from Yokota, it may surprise you that I feel personnally impacted by a suicide there. As I was about to undertake another of my tasks, I came across an email reference claims against the member's estate. I was taken back to navigator training when I had just returned from Vale, Colorado with the Naval Aviation Choir performing a Christmas Concert for President Ford. Who would have known that the next week we would performing at a homegoing service for one of our own choir members. The idea of washing out of flight school was more than he could take. I took a moment to ponder what I would say to the young man if I could have prevented this tragedy. I could tell him that God loves him, or that his family would miss him. Maybe I'd invite him to go lift with me, take him over to see a chaplain, or buy him a cheese steak. I typed his name into the outlook address bar and expected to see an out of office note or some direction to contact his chain of command if there were any questions on his whereabouts. I simply saw the standard out of office tracker that said "Offline 16 Days". Surely this young man had a job where he communicated with people throughout the course of the week. Some of those people are probably wondering why he's not responding to their requests. Try as they might, neither they nor I will ever get a response from this young man, there is only silence. As of September 11th 2015 he's been offline for 17 days and is not coming back. He won't answer anymore, his decision is made. There are others pondering whether or not to go offline permanently. For anyone in that boat I ask you to consider giving life one more chance, one more minute, one more hour, one more day at a time. Whatever the circumstance is, I cannot promise it will get better in a day's time. But perhaps a day, a week or a few months down the road, haze will give way to focus and perspective, darkness will give way to light, obstacles will yield to opportunity. Someday the challenge of today will be a lesson of encouragement for how you made it through. Please know that if you can matter to someone so far away who has never met you, there is someone next to you to whom you matter greatly. To those who can not fathom thoughts of suicide, please look around you. You may be the happiest person on the planet, but perhaps one of your teammates is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide. Talk to them, get to know them. Lend a hand, a word of encouragement, or a spare moment to help them find joy, peace, and purpose.