Kevin Lucey (KL) and Joyce Lucey (JL)

KL: I can remember that evening on the day of deployment. We drove him. It was about four o’ clock in the morning, very dark, but it was eerily lit up with all the headlights of everybody who was dropping off their Marines. And I just remember him walking away into the darkness and the darkness engulfing him. I had a tremendous fear that was gonna be the last time I was gonna to see my son again.

JL: He returned and there were balloons. They got an escort from the police. It was magnificent. But on Christmas eve, we went to my mom’s. He didn’t come. His sister went home to see him. And uh, when she got there he threw his dog tags at her and said, ”Don’t you know your brother’s nothing but a murderer?” And he started having nightmares.

KL: I think you found the flashlight underneath his bed?

JL: At night he was searching his room for spiders because he said he could hear them.

KL: He started staying within the house, and sometimes he would stay just within his room. It was like the perfect storm converged. On June 21st that evening about 11:30 he came into the front room, and he asked me if he could sit in my lap and if we could rock. Which we did. And I, I wasn’t even thinking that this was his way of saying goodbye. When I came back from work, I saw the cellar door open. And um, I saw Jeff hanging from the beam. I went under him and pushed him up, and he was in my lap for the last time.

JL: Ya know he was very social and outgoing, always smiling. So you just didn’t think Jeff would have any problems, ya know, dealing with emotional side of war.

KL: We never saw that he was mortally wounded within his spirit.