Scott Kroenke notes his Memorial Day speech Monday may sound a bit different than what folks have heard in the past.
Part of that is because Kroenke isn’t what you’d call an eager public speaker.
“I’ll step out of my comfort zone,” he laughed.
The other reason — one that strikes a personal chord for the Iola native — is the subject matter at Monday’s 11 a.m. Memorial Day Service at Highland Cemetery in Iola.
“Memorial Day, to me, is a day to reflect on the service members we’ve lost,” Kroenke, 44, said. “What we’ve lost is very important.”
Kroenke, who is retiring after 26 years in the military, includes in that loss the servicemen who continue to suffer the mental consequences of war.
The invisible scars.
Kroenke made note that May is also known as Mental Health Month.
“It’s an issue we don’t like to talk about,” Kroenke said. “You have too many veterans, and those who aren’t veterans, who are falling by the wayside. We’re losing people to suicide or self-inflicted harm.”
In preparation for his speech, Kroenke found some staggering numbers.
Of the 680,000 service members who have died while serving their country over the past 155 years — dating back to the Spanish-American War — Kroenke said nearly one-third died of “non-hostile” injury, such as accidents, illnesses — and suicide.
In 2020, for example, more than 6,000 American service members committed suicide. Kroenke found a study that noted within the first year of leaving the service, 50 out of every 100,000 veterans committed suicide.
Those numbers hit home for Kroenke, who has worked individually with service members of all ranks under his command who have had thoughts of self-harm.
“I’ve lost soldiers to suicides and drug overdoses,” he said. “I’ve kept soldiers from committing suicide, because they felt comfortable to have the tough conversations. They knew they could come talk to me, even though I was their boss.”
To that end, Kroenke hopes to establish in southeast Kansas a loose-fitting network of current and former service members, first responders or anybody else to get together on a regular basis, just to talk.
The nearest such groups are based in Manhattan and Topeka, Kroenke said.
“It is just like-minded individuals with veterans and first responders who meet at an outdoor location, where they can fish, hike, whatever the case may be,” he explained. “It gives them the capability to know there’s somebody for them to talk to.
