On May 3, 2010, Joie Gates’ boss entered her office and abruptly ordered a co-worker she was chatting with to leave with him.
Three uniformed Air Force officers then entered the room, and Gates knew she was about to get some bad news.
They told her that her only child, Airman Austin Gates-Benson, had died in Afghanistan of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. To hear the news he was dead was shocking enough, but to learn he had committed suicide left her in disbelief.
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