GI who died of suicide to receive long-sought combat recognition

WASHINGTON — Spc. Jacob Andrews was the only soldier in his platoon who wasn’t awarded the combat infantryman badge, though his unit mates insisted he earned it.

Now, two years after Andrews was discharged from the Army and more than a year after he committed suicide, his family will finally be able to pin the treasured CIB on his Class A service uniform — thanks to the perseverance of an Army officer who never met him.

Andrews suffered a traumatic brain injury during his 2009 deployment to Afghanistan and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after he returned, though neither was diagnosed until he was discharged in Sept. 2010 after a string of alcohol-related incidents and arguments with his superiors. He hanged himself with a climbing rope in the woods near his childhood home seven months later. He was 22.

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