Editor’s note: This story discusses suicide and substance use. Reader discretion is advised.
The Hunter Whitley Butterfly Initiative held a roundtable on Thursday at Izzy’s Coffee and Collectibles in Northport to discuss suicide awareness in relation to excessive substance use among veterans. The event featured several speakers who shared their experiences with military service, substance use, and recovery.
Following the speakers, the roundtable opened into an open discussion, giving attendees the chance to ask personal questions and share stories.
The initiative is named after UA student veteran Hunter Whitley, who served in the Marines for four years before dying by suicide in November 2022. His family founded the organization in December 2023 to educate and spread awareness about suicide prevention and mental health.
This was the third roundtable the organization has held since its creation. Speakers included Sgt. Brett Quinn, a U.S. Army Veteran and Johnny Licklider, a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, both of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with Lonnie Layton, a peer support specialist with a new suicide prevention initiative in Alabama called SAFER Together.
SAFER Together, which stands for Storing Ammunition and Firearms to Enhance Resilience Together, works to prevent suicides among active duty service members, veterans and first responders. The program assembles a network of free storage sites for firearms, one of the leading causes of death by suicide.
At the roundtable, speakers shared personal stories of struggles with substance use and suicidal thoughts.
Quinn, who served numerous tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, explained that substance use started in his youth and continued after he joined the Army at 20.
He said alcohol and drugs, though contraband, were readily available during his deployments and became a coping mechanism for his platoon.
“You see a lot of things in combat,” Quinn said. “It was hell. It was pain.”
Returning home, Quinn said, things turned “dark” and “ugly.”
“There’s only a handful of guys left of my original platoon. That’s it,” he said. “Some of them died in combat. The rest of them decided to check out. That’s just a fact, and over the years, I’ve watched it happen one by one.”
Quinn credited his daughter, Ariel, with saving his life after alcohol led him down a path to “destroy” himself.
He said that when he was at his darkest moment he said, “I had to call my best friend. I told him, ‘I need you to come get every firearm out of my house.’”
Quinn said he eventually sought care from the Veterans Health Administration, where he was introduced to EMDR therapy. Though reluctant at first, he said, “Those sessions changed my life. I am 2 years sober now.”
Layton described how SAFER Together provides safe storage options for veterans who may be in crisis, such as Quinn’s case.
“A lot of times, people isolate themselves. They become so hopeless, they don’t know that they have friends anymore,” he said. “They can bring in and sign in their firearms. The weapons are stored safely until they want them back, and then they can retrieve them.”
Layton said when veterans turn in their weapons, they are given “a stack of resources and a peer support person that they can reach out to, to be able to connect with and help guide them and put them in the right spot.” Layton is one such person who provides peer support services.
“I don’t care if some soldiers ever go into combat,” he said. “It’s the sacrifice they made for our country. They miss their kids’ birthdays and first steps, anniversaries, Christmases, and I have so much respect for that.”
Licklider also spoke about his recovery and highlighted how The Butterfly Initiative saved him.
“The alcohol and drugs were the thing to suppress the demons in my head,” he said.
Licklider said that being a part of the Butterfly Initiative significantly helped him, citing that he hasn’t had any alcohol in three years.
“It’s a community,” he said. “It’s a united we stand, divided we fall. And I really believe in that.”
If you are in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to speak with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If you are a veteran in crisis, dial 988 and press 1 or text 838255 to speak with the Veterans Crisis Line.
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