Special Forces Marine vet shares his struggle with suicide

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Frank Casciotta,
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
It is 2004 in Afghanistan and two U.S. special forces servicemembers in civilian clothing armed only with pistols are driving down a road outside Kabul when they notice they are being followed by a truck full of men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers.

The Force Reconnaissance Marine driving the truck heads into a nearby city where he expects to lose the Taliban members, but it does not take long for the plan to fall apart as traffic crawls to a halt with the enemy warfighters right behind them.

The men in the truck tailing the two servicemembers seize the opportunity and pull out in front of them and start piling out of the truck. With guns drawn, they start to surround the two special forces members.

“I remember vividly the passenger door opening seeing a guy with an AK-47 and locking eyes with him,” said Chad Robichaux, the Marine and driver at the time, who was the guest speaker during HARB’s Wingman Day event Sept. 10. “That’s when I knew we were in a bad situation. In my training, we call that stuck in the ‘X,’ which is what we call the ‘kill zone’ and I knew we were standing in the middle of it.”

Having trained for situations like this before, he knew what to do. Slamming his truck into gear, he stuck the enemy vehicle in such a way that it launched the men clambering out of the vehicle into the air and cleared an escape path for the pair.

By 2007, Robichaux was headed home from his final deployment and about to be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after serving for eight years.

“At that time and with the small group I worked in, things like that weren’t talked about,” said Robichaux. “It was seen as weakness. It was that mentality that almost cost me everything.”

After separating from the military, he went on to find success as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter.

The training regimen involved with the sport helped stifle the inner pain he was battling. In reality, it was just a distraction – a way for him to avoid dealing with the problem.

“It literally felt like a cure because it gave me focus,” said Robichaux. “I spent 10 or 12 hours a day on the mats training to avoid dealing with the anger, rage and anxiety that I suffered from. With my success, I built up this façade and surrounded myself with people who only told me what I wanted to hear and pushed those away who told me what I needed to hear.”

This type of lifestyle resulted in him feeling isolated and ripped his home life apart. In one instance, he recalls throwing his daughter’s birthday cake across the room because she didn’t like the icing.

“I blamed everyone else around me for my troubles,” said Robichaux. “Eventually, I realized I was the problem, not everyone else.”

At this point, Chad decided to commit suicide, but his wife unknowingly ended up saving his life when she served him with divorce papers.

“The reason I’m standing here today is because of the time when my wife brought over the divorce papers and before giving them to me, she challenged me,” said Robichaux. “She asked me how I was able to do all the things I had done in the military and MMA, but when it comes to our family, you’re willing to quit.”

That was the day Robichaux started turning his life around and working with his wife to save their marriage. Together, they created the Mighty Oaks Warrior Program, which helps veterans with PTSD, pre and post deployers, and struggling marriages.

This is the story Robichaux shared with more than 1,000 Team Homestead Airmen during the September Unit Training Assembly as part of the Wingman Day events where he reminded them that “No man fights alone,” which is the motto of his program.

“You don’t have control over certain circumstances in our lives, but what we do have control over is how we choose to move forward,” he said. “I tried everything. Pills, counselling—I went through all the programs, but nothing worked for me. It wasn’t until I aligned my life with the way I wanted to live that I found hope, I found restoration but what I also found was purpose. Without purpose you wander through life without a clear direction on where to go. Spending time here with Col. Garfield has shown me that you guys have a very clear purpose that unifies you as a unit.”

Robichaux was invited to share his story because it aligns with the Wingman Day’s theme of suicide prevention.

After his speech, Robichaux joined members of Team Homestead near the Sam Johnson Fitness Center for the base’s Wingman Day activities where he spent the rest of the day offering advice and spending time with Airmen.

Among the activities were a 40-yard dash, tug-of-war, a water slide and flag football games. Alongside those activities were booths that had resource providers who were offering guidance on good practices to improve mental health.

September is Suicide Prevention month, and days like this are being set aside all across the Air Force Reserve Command to help build unit cohesion by allowing Airmen to strengthen their relationships with each other over a UTA weekend.