DETROIT — He decided to kill himself.
“I had everything that was needed,” said Kevin Bittenbender, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “I had the rope. I had my letters written. I had a plan to go to the woods and hang myself and direct my family there and say, ‘This is what I’m doing and this is where I went.’”
The 59-year-old veteran, who spent 34 years in the Army, served on more than 200 combat missions over two tours in Afghanistan. One day, in an Afghan combat zone, he was talking to his team leader, Maj. Henry Ofeciar, who asked him something that touched a nerve…