PORT ROYAL, S.C. (Tribune News Service) — When a town gathers to cut a ceremonial ribbon, it’s usually to celebrate a new business, the completion of new road or some other community victory. But when members of the Port Royal Town Council, local military leaders and a veterans group met in front of the Elementary School Friday, it was not to salute an accomplishment. It was a step in writing a wrong that has been going on for many years.

The leaders unveiled a single new speed limit sign that brings attention to a national tragedy: Veterans who become suicide victims after putting their lives on the line for the country.

But town officials and a veterans group hope an unusual number for a speed limit sign — 22 mph — will raises awareness about the loss of these veterans and spark conversations about and solutions for the problem. The 22 was chosen because it is the figure that is often cited as the number of veterans who die by suicide each day in the United States.

Directly below the new speed limit sign is this statement: “22 veteran suicides per day is 22 too many.”

“This isn’t something to really celebrate,” Mayor Kevin Phillips said of the unusual situation.

Several 22 mph speed limit signs are now being erected along Paris Avenue and the first was unveiled to the public Friday. They will replace 25 mph signs.

The problem of veteran suicide prompted the Port Royal chapter of AMVETS, a nationwide nonprofit that serves veterans, to ask the town last year if it would consider the 22 mph speed limit signs. Phillips, noting the town’s deep military roots, said the signs are a small gesture.

Janice Shelton, who heads the Port Royal AMVETS group, hopes the unusual signs will lead residents and motorists who spot the 22 mph speed limit signs to ask questions about “what that 22 means.”

“It’s about getting the community aware,” Shelton said.

Shelton and John Norman, a member of AMVETS, came up with the idea, then Shelton wrote a letter to then Mayor Joe DeVito. “I”m glad the letter worked,” Shelton said.

Shelton and Norman were on hand when town council members and community members including two representatives from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island slipped a plastic hood off the first 22 mph sign.

Afterward, a smiling Norman shook hands with Col. Mark Bortnem, the commanding officer of the Air Station. He said he was ecstatic about the speed limit signs that carry a bigger message.

“There’s a lot of people I’ve lost,” said Norman, an Army veteran.

The country, said Bortnem, is losing veterans at an “alarming rate” and the Air Station supports any effort it can to bring attention to the issue. He noted that the military community in the Port Royal-Beaufort area is as significant as any in the nation. During World War II alone, he said, 250,000 recruits went through Parris Island. His own children went to school at Port Royal Elementary, which served as a backdrop to the unveiling of the new sign.

Sgt. Major Joshua Toles of the support battalion at Parris Island said military members face significant stressful experiences including combat and long separations from their families that can have life-long impacts. Protecting mental health, he said, is vital to them and the readiness of the nation’s military. The 22 mph signs, he added, are visual reminders to veterans and civilians to take advantage of mental health resources.

“Thank you for your recognition,” Toles said.

In 2021, there were, on average, 17.5 suicides per day among veterans nationwide, according to a 2023 suicide prevention report by Veterans Administration. It was the leading cause of death among veterans under 45. Some studies say the suicide rate for veterans is much higher. Research, Duke University report says, shows suicide rates are 52.3% higher among veterans than those who never served in the military.

Roy Brown Jr. of Operation Patriots Forward Operating Base, a Lowcountry-based organization dedicated to supporting first responders and military veterans, asked people in the crowd to raise their hand if the new a veteran who had killed themselves. Several went up.

“It’s unacceptable,” Brown said.

(c)2024 The Island Packet (Hilton Head, S.C.)

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