(upbeat music) - Coming up next on this special Memorial Day edition of "Arizona Horizon", a nonprofit works to help provide financial assistance to military service members and their families.

Also tonight, we'll hear about research into ways to prevent suicides among military service members.

And a roadside installation recognizes Medal of Honor winners with ties to Arizona.

Stories and more, next on this special edition of "Arizona Horizon".

- [Announcer] This hour of local news is made possible by contributions from the friends of PBS, members of your PBS station.

Thank you.

- Good evening, and welcome to this special Memorial Day edition of "Arizona Horizon".

I'm Ted Simons.

The Military Assistance Mission, or MAM, is a nonprofit effort that works to offer financial and moral support to service members and their loved ones.

It's also a mother's tribute to her son.

Margy Bons founded the Military Assistance Mission after losing her son in an ambush in Iraq.

It's good to have you here.

Welcome to "Arizona Horizon".

- Thank you so much, and I love the red, white, and blue backdrop.

- There you go.

- I appreciate that.

- Not bad, not bad.

Give a good definition, a better definition of your group.

- We help service members in Arizona when they run into a financial need, and we also provide baby showers and holiday events and tickets for games.

And so, we're just there to make sure that they can focus on their mission and not what's their finances.

- So, financial assistance, and also morale is a part of your help as well.

Talk to us about that.

- Yes, well, we hold a baby shower quarterly and we have five expected parents come.

And they get everything from car seats, to Pack 'n Plays, to diapers, to little items that are knitted from people in churches that get donated, and they get just all kinds of stuff so that they can start off with that new baby.

- So, if a service member needs help with rent, or maybe mortgage or utilities or food, how does it work, how do they get ahold of you, and what happens next?

- We have an online application, so they just have to upload an LES, which is a pay stub.

They have to upload their orders, their ID, so we make sure they're Arizona because we only serve Arizona, and they upload the bill.

Once we check everything, we pay the bill directly to the lien holder.

Whether it's an electric company or landlord or a mortgage company or an auto payment, we pay the bill directly.

- And how many- - If it's food, because there's a lot of food insecurity with military, I don't know if you know, but one in seven military families have food insecurity.

But down at Papago, down on 52nd, McDowell, one in three.

- Whoa!

It hits the guard pretty hard, huh?

- [Margy] It does, yes.

- [Ted] Do we know why?

- Well, we get a lot of people that are, they're going between active duty and reserve duty and just that kind of thing, so.

- And how many folks are you helping right now?

What's the goal, and have you reached the goal?

How's that working?

- We don't have a goal.

We just help as it comes.

And so, over this weekend we had, see, it was rent, utilities, and auto insurance.

- Interesting, okay.

Now, and I mentioned in the introduction, this is a mother's tribute to her son.

Talk about your son.

Talk about how you founded this organization.

- It's Military Assistance Mission, which is MAM, we call it MAM for short, which is my son's initials, Michael Adam Marzano.

And he was, he went to, he volunteered to go to Iraq in 2005. and then on Mother's Day, there he is, sitting there.

He's at the Euphrates, right there.

He was very excited that he went to the bathroom in the Euphrates.

- [Ted] (laughs) Okay, well, all right, then.

- [Margy] He's a Marine, I don't know what to say.

- [Ted] Yeah, there you go.

- [Margy] But he volunteered to go to Iraq, and two months later, I got the knock on a door, Mother's Day, that he had been killed in an ambush with two other Marines and a corpsman, and that was it, yeah.

- That was it, but it wasn't it for you because you got to where, how long did it take for you to get, obviously, you're never past it, but how long did it take for you to get past it enough to get this thing going?

- Well, I was working or volunteering with another nonprofit, sending care packages overseas when this happened.

And then, I was approached by a national nonprofit to be the president of their organization.

And from there, I started MAM, because I wanted to be able to help when we needed to help.

whenever we get that call.

I just wanted to do that.

- Did it surprise you a little bit how many people need it?

'Cause it surprised me how many members of the guard need food assistance.

That's a little bit surprising.

Did it surprise you at first?

- No, because there were times when he would come to me and he'd say, "Mom, I don't have any money for gas to get to drill."

When he left active duty in North Carolina and moved to Arizona, he joined the Bulk Fuel, which is a reserve unit, and he didn't have the money to get to drill.

Or if he didn't have money for his car repair, we don't do car repairs, but if he didn't have money for that, or he would come out and eat my food.

(laughs) - Yeah, well, but that's what moms are for!

I mean- - That's right!

- And that's what MAM is now for.

- Yes, yes.

And I love it because a lot of times, I get the mom, you know?

So, "Hey, mom."

Once you're a Marine family- - I was gonna say.

- You're family.

We serve all branches, but I'm forever tied to Marines.

- [Ted] Yes, once a Marine, always a Marine.

- Absolutely.

- Response from folks who have gotten the help, here, and where do you go from here with your group?

- We're just continuing to walk the path that we need.

We're always looking for a gap, something that may not be filled with, whether it's the VA or whether it's education or whatever.

We have an education program because we didn't realize that, I didn't know.

At ASU, the parking is almost $1,000 for, and it's like, well, I want them to go to school and I want them to transition to civilian world, so we will help with that.

We will help with certain things that have to do with school.

We'll give a scholarship for that.

So, we look for areas that need help.

- Well, Margy Bons of, again, Military Assistance Mission.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Congratulations on the success of this group, because obviously, it's needed, and obviously, you're doing a great job.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

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(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Suicides among military service members are on the increase.

A new study is looking at the psychological autopsies of these service members to better learn why the military suicide rate is climbing and what can be done to address the issue.

Recently, we spoke to ASU psychology professor Dr. Rebecca Blais, who was among those selected by the Department of Defense to conduct the research.

Military suicides, we have talked about this issue on this program.

It does seem like it's increasing.

Is it increasing?

- It continues to increase.

A number of years ago, serving in the US military used to be protective against suicide risk.

But what we've seen over the last 20 years is it's steadily increasing, and at this point, the risk of death by suicide is a bit higher among those who have served in the military, compared to civilians.

- I find that interesting.

Protected in the past, explain that, please.

- It's challenging to understand why it might have been protective in the past.

One of the things that makes military research difficult is that wars are different each and every time.

Some of the Vietnam-era veterans will tell you, when they came back to the States after deploying to Vietnam, they were not welcomed back.

They were not thanked for their service.

We are seeing something much different with the folks who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We're also seeing warfare change substantially.

So, the war environment is an ever-changing culture.

We're also seeing one of the most diverse fighting forces that we've had in our history, so there are so many factors at play where it's almost like a combination lock.

As one part changes, another part changes.

And so, it can be difficult to pinpoint exact causes.

- And that those can all be stressors, true?

- [Rebecca] Absolutely, they can all be stressors.

- Yeah.

As far as the increase, is it a steady rise?

Was it peaks and valleys?

Was it a spike?

- Yeah, it certainly wasn't a spike, and we are seeing there are some dips in it.

A number of years ago, actually, during the pandemic, we did see it go down just a little bit.

But when we've looked at it over the past 30 years, it looks like it's a more rising trend.

- Okay, this study for the Department of Defense, what did you look at?

What did you find?

- Yeah, so our team was tasked with looking at all policies and procedures related to how the Department of Defense handles suicide.

We reviewed all policies and procedures.

We visited 10 high-risk military installations, interviewed over 2,500 people to understand what they thought was going on.

And then, we spent about four months as a team trying to understand what is it that needs to change in order to see this trend go down.

- Yeah, what does need to, I see guns are in here as well, a different kind of, and this is interesting, for firearms, maybe a different kind of method in terms of gun control, if you will, for service members, because they come from a different kind of background with firearms.

- Yeah, that's one of the things that we definitely looked at, and I think it's a particularly hot topic because when people hear about this, they might think that our recommendation was to limit gun ownership.

And that wasn't what we suggested at all.

Simply, what we suggested was thinking about the times in which service members could purchase firearms.

And so, having a delay period in terms of when you purchase and when you pick up, or not being able to buy firearms at the same time.

One of the things that I would say that's probably most important, or the thing that I noticed the most across these installations is death writ large is very challenging to talk about.

It doesn't matter how someone dies, but when someone dies by suicide, people had a particularly hard time knowing how to talk about it.

And so, what we often saw was that people wouldn't talk about it 'cause they didn't know what to say.

And so, what that sends a message to the survivors is that the life was expendable, when really, it wasn't.

So, a lot of what we talked about was trying to teach people how to talk about suicide even when it's difficult, and being really careful not to insert your own personal beliefs about suicide when you're giving that message.

- That's really interesting.

And I go back to the original point of how, maybe, in past generations, being in the military was a protector in terms of, did people address suicide back in the '40s, '50s, '60s, whatever it was, differently?

- I can't say that they did.

One of the things that I think we've seen over time is that we do tend to get a little bit better in our methods.

And so, mental health-related difficulties were not necessarily discussed in the '40s and '50s, so I don't think that that was probably what was going on.

I think it's a changing demographic and I think our understanding of how suicide occurs has also changed.

- Yeah, I noticed the report also mentioned making the military better-suited for families.

- Yes.

- Explain, please.

- Yeah, if you look at the constellation of what the military has been over the past hundreds of years or since the inception of our country, it's largely made up of family members where the male or the dad will be serving and he'll have a family at home.

There'll be a wife taking care of children.

But we're seeing more than ever that there are dual-career military families.

And what we've seen is that there were occasions where one spouse would be deployed to one country and another to the other.

And then, when there are children involved, it's not necessarily easy to figure out who stays home when the kiddo's sick.

- Yeah, yeah.

As far as hazing incidents, as far as sexual assaults, we read about these stories.

Are they more common or are they just being reported more often?

- They're being reported more often and sometimes they're becoming more blatant.

A number of service members relayed stories.

There was an individual who went into the military to secure citizenship to our country, and when he handed in his papers to his officer to get the paperwork going, his officer took a lighter to it and threatened to set them on fire.

And so, this is someone who is coming to our country to live and to be a serviceman and to give up their life, and that's how they're being treated.

There were also, when it came to sexual assaults, people would say it's just as hurtful and damaging to report it because of how they're treated afterwards.

And so, people are reporting, but it does come with a number of consequences.

- Yeah, wow.

Department of Defense wanted this study.

They got the study, what are they doing with it?

- What are they doing with it?

We spent six months after, I was part of the implementation committee, and so we came up with a plan to institute about 87 of the recommendations.

The recommendations that were not put forward were things that would've been just logistically impossible or are actually already in the pipeline.

And so, we put together a plan to institute those 87 recommendations, and those will be put into place over the next two to three years.

- We only got about 30 seconds left, here, so I can't get all 87.

I can't even barely get one.

Give me the elevator speech on one.

- Elevator speech.

I think you need to know how to talk about suicide when you're in a position of control.

And so, tell people that they matter.

And when you lose someone by suicide, it's important to acknowledge the loss and to take care of those people that are around them.

- Very good, Dr. Rebecca Blais from ASU, thank you so much for being here and sharing your information.

It's good stuff, thank you.

- Of course, thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (stirring music) (stirring music continues) (stirring music continues) (stirring music continues) - A roadside memorial recognizing Medal of Honor winners with Arizona ties can be found in North Phoenix near Pinnacle Peak and Cave Creek Roads.

The Medal of Honor is the nation's most prestigious military decoration, awarded to those who risk their lives above and beyond the call of duty.

Phoenix City Councilman Jim Waring was instrumental in creating this signage.

We spoke with Councilman Waring about this roadside tribute.

The Arizona Medal of Raw Honor is Arizona Medal of Honor Row, that's what it's called?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Give me a better definition and a better description.

- Well, I don't know if there's a better definition, but it's the 37 Medal of Honor recipients who have Arizona ties.

This actually was brought to me by a constituent, the idea, Archie Dicksion.

He saw it up in the Pacific Northwest, I believe in Oregon.

He saw something similar, suggested it might be appropriate.

The National Cemetery is out in District 2, and so there was what we thought was an appropriate space.

The question was funding.

Where would we get it?

I'm cheap, but in public life, they call you conservative, but family call you cheap.

But so, we don't spend all of our office budget every year, and so we had money basically left over that would've been turned back to the city.

So, we spent some of that money to create these signs.

And that's what you see out there today.

- I would imagine not too much pushback on something like this.

- No, no, but you do have a lot of rules to follow.

Signs can't be too big.

You have to be respectful of the colors and so forth.

We did get one complaint.

A fellow offered to pay to totally redo the signs and make them bigger and flashier.

But we used the official logos and the colors.

But also, there are rules about how big signs can be so they don't distract drivers.

- Yeah, and how separate they have to be as far, okay.

- Yeah, there are a bunch of different things that we had to be cognizant of as we came up with this project.

- Let's mention some of these recipients, here.

William Alchesay, the White Mountain Apache leader.

Isaiah Mays, Buffalo Soldier in the Arizona territory.

Talk to us about some of these folks.

- Yeah, well, some of the acts of heroism are just, really, just phenomenal American stories.

Joe Foss, if you're familiar, I got to know him quite well.

Really enjoyed him as a person.

Just a pilot who shot down a lot of planes in World War II in a very short period of time, was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt and went on to become a commissioner of the American Football League, for those who remember- - Quite a lot.

- American Football League, and there was a Joe Foss Way I just drove by coming back from church just the other day.

Realistically, he was a phenomenal man.

And if you get to meet some of these American heroes, you realize they put it all on the line for their comrades, really, in a dangerous setting, and earned their honor.

- A couple other mentions, here.

Manuel Mendoza, the Arizona Kid, honored for his actions in World War II.

We mentioned the Buffalo Soldier and the White Mountain Apache leader.

The Phoenix, I mean, is that basically literally how this got started?

You got a phone call from a Phoenix resident?

- I did.

- "I got an idea for you?"

- That's it, and I really appreciate Archie bringing it to me.

I've known him for years.

He travels in political circles.

But he was just out driving, I believe, visiting relatives or some such up north, and saw this.

And he said, "Why don't we have something like this?"

And you know what?

I didn't have a good answer.

And so, we were determined to do it.

I really appreciate the streets department, Sasha and others in that department who may be watching this know who they are.

But they worked very hard on this to make this happen.

It's not as easy as it sounds when you look at all the rules and so forth, and we wanted to be respectful of everybody, too.

And this was all happened during COVID, so we weren't able to do any kind of big kickoff like you might normally see.

So, it didn't get the publicity for the recipients that you might have expected.

But I remember, I got emotional the first time I drove and just realized, these are the signs.

I mean, you know they're coming, but still, there they are.

- I was gonna say, how long a process does this take?

You mentioned streets and transportation.

It has to go through all the, I would imagine a number of hurdles.

- I believe it was about eight months.

We also wanted to, frankly, be respectful of Archie's desires, so we ran everything by him.

He's a private citizen with his own life, so sometimes responses weren't immediate.

But we did get it done in what I think is a timely fashion.

I believe, start to finish, it's been a couple years now, maybe eight months.

- What kind of reaction have you had so far?

- Yeah, people have written and called and said, "Hey, this is really," out-of-state people have looked up, not necessarily myself, but have found outlets at the city to say, "Hey, I saw this, this was really great."

Maybe they take it back to their state, just like Archie took his experience back to ours, and you might see this in other states as well.

I haven't heard that, but it's certainly a possibility.

- Last question on something like this.

Is there a permanence involved?

I mean, we all know that if there's open land, it's gonna be developed in some way, shape or form, eventually.

If that land gets developed, it's out there.

But if it gets developed, do the signs stay, do they move, do you move 'em somewhere else?

How does that work?

- The signs stay and we'll take care of the maintenance as well, because, have you've ever seen a really old stop sign?

They've made a better product now, but the sun will bleach the color right out.

I've seen completely white stop signs, and not for the city, but in parking lots and so forth.

Now, they've got better products that, frankly, last longer, and that's what we tried to do here.

But those signs should be there, I would argue, in perpetuity.

- Wow, well, congratulations on this.

It must be very satisfying to go out there and see that.

- Well, I hope it's satisfying for the families, because that's sadly mostly what we're talking about in the case of a Medal of Honor recipient.

So, just really appreciate Archie's work, really appreciate the citizens who have written in to say that they have gotten something out of the signs.

And really, the target audience is kids.

To me, that's, "Hey, what are those signs, dad?"

Well, this person, maybe they look up to people and so forth.

That's really what you're aiming for, ultimately.

- Very good, Jim Waring, Phoenix City Council.

Councilman, good to see you again.

- Good to see you, Ted, thank you.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues) - People put their faith in PBS because they know that it is constantly delivering quality.

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(upbeat music) - [Gordon] Every little bit helps.

If we can do a whole lot of little bits, then we've done a great service.

- And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of "Arizona Horizon".

You have a great evening.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)