Photo By Staff Sgt. Daniel Brosam | Senior Airman Christopher Wy, 341st Security Forces Support Squadron convoy response...... read more read more
Subscribe
One of the priorities at Wing One is taking care of the Airmen and families who execute and support the mission. For one Airman and his fellow Wingmen here, the call to arms went outside the normal hours of duty and saved his life.
Senior Airman Christopher Wy, 341st Security Forces Support Squadron convoy response force lead, is a superb Airman according to his fellow Airman and friend Senior Airman Cassi Dornon, 341st SSPTS CRF team member, and supervisor Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Bowen, 341st SSPTS CRF team leader.
“I got to learn about him as a person,” Dornon said. “I already knew he was outgoing, loved to have fun, a very hard worker, and it showed a lot at CRF.”
Little did everyone know, Wy was dealing with hidden relationship problems and internal issues that were beginning to spiral out of his control
“I was in a very toxic relationship for about five years,” Wy said. “Before seeking help, I was turning a blind eye to it, kind of living in a fantasy thinking everything was sunshine and rainbows and I kept it in my head over and over again no matter how much pain I was going through. It eventually caught up to me about last year.”
When Wy, Dornon and Bowen returned from a temporary duty to Camp Guernsey, Wyoming, Wy began to show signs that things were out of control.
Wy and Dornon were having phone and text conversations over a few days and Dornon said Wy was beginning to make jokes and statements that were getting darker.
“I started getting a little bit more worried and I tried taking him to the chaplain but he didn’t want to,” Dornon said. “I told him he needed to keep talking to me then.”
Afterwards, Dornon gave Wy space to gather himself and thought allowing a couple of days of little communication would allow Wy to pull himself together, however, it did the complete opposite.
“I just couldn’t take the fighting, the constant arguing, staying up late and barely getting any type of sleep,” Wy said.
One day Wy texted Dornon that he was sorry about everything, things were too much for him to handle and he wasn’t O.K.
“I asked him if he was thinking about hurting himself and he just said he was sorry,” Dornon said. “And then he stopped talking to me.”
After numerous repeated texts to Wy went unanswered, Dornon contacted Bowmen and told her something was wrong with Wy.
“I don’t think he’s okay and I think he needs help,” Dornon told Bowmen.
Bowmen immediately contacted Dornon, got additional information, contacted Wy’s brother who was stationed at Malmstrom at the time and made her way to Wy’s dormitory.
“I went to his dorm and started banging on his door,” Bowmen said.
Bowmen said her knocks were not small knocks. She was also yelling for Wy to open the door.
“All I’m thinking is ‘God, please don’t let something bad be behind this door’,” Bowmen said. “Please let him open the door.”
Bowmen continued knocking and Wy finally opened the door. Wy was only sleeping.
“I swear I thought the worse,” Bowmen said. “I’ve never been more scared as a person and a supervisor to come that close to thinking one of my own could be dead behind that door.”
Afterwards, Wy and his leadership sat in the dormitory dayroom for three hours discussing the severity of the issues Wy had been dealing with.
“That started my progress to where I’m at right now,” Wy said. “Seeking mental health was scary at first. I didn’t know what would happen to me career wise and just how everyone would see me.”
Wy began attending group therapy and speaking to a therapist about his problems, meeting people along the way who shared similar stories of troubled pasts.
“It really helped me push to get better,” Wy said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for [Dornon and Bowmen] I wouldn’t be here.”
Bowmen said she is thankful Dornon was available to Wy in his time of need, and is proud of Wy for his decision to get help.
“He is very brave to open up and seek the help,” Bowmen said. “I’m thankful for the help he sought and for the friends and family that he has.”
“I think the biggest piece in coming back from something like that is the people you surround yourself with and Wy surrounded himself with all kinds of family,” Bowmen continued. “I’m really glad because he is such an exceptional young man and I’m very glad he is my Airman.”
Dornon said she feels it is important to always have a support system t
“The biggest thing is everybody needs someone to talk to whether it is big or small,” Dornon said. “I was lucky that [Wy] was O.K. talking to me about it.”
Through it all, Dornon said her and Wy are now even closer.
“He’s become part of my second family up here and it would be different if he wasn’t around anymore,” Dornon said.
Wy continues to improve every day and emphasizes the importance of seeking help from available resources.
“Honestly mental health was the biggest thing that kind of helped guide me because they listened and they want someone like me to get better,” Wy said. “They want you to get back to work and be with the people you love and care about.”
“It’s something that I really want people to realize that mental health is there for us,” Wy continued. “Mental health is not going to do anything to get you out of the military. They are going to do everything in their power to get you back up and get you well.”
Wy said he is thankful for all of his support system and credits them for saving his life.
“If it wasn’t for [the mental health clinic], Dornon, Sgt. Bowmen, my flight and family, I wouldn’t be here,” Wy said. “I want people to take suicide and depression seriously because we can preach about it every single day but it takes that one moment where someone doesn’t take someone seriously and it could be a life.”
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.13.2019 17:06 |
| Story ID: | 310585 |
| Location: | MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, MONTANA, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Support and mental health saves Airman, by SSgt Daniel Brosam and Kiersten McCutchan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
