I Hope That It’s Cancer… And Not Something Else
Another veteran influencer has died by suicide, shedding light on the harsh realities of the veteran suicide epidemic.
“How routine it feels like
Like I fell through the floor
Crushed by another passing
It’s all happened before
I hope that it’s cancer
And not something else…
So what does that say about myself?”
—Cancer, The Devil Wears Prada
Sergeant Major Greg Shanahan passed away on Friday, August 25, 2017. A longtime friend from the military, he called in late May 2017 to let me know the cancer was back, this time in his esophagus. His first bout with cancer was while we were in Ramadi, Iraq, during the 2006 Surge. While setting up an ambush, he climbed over a fence only to rack himself so hard one of his testicles swelled to an abnormal size. Shanahan ended up at the medics a few days later, only to discover he had testicular cancer.
Somehow, during our fifteen month long deployment, he returned stateside, underwent chemotherapy, beat cancer, and flew back to Ramadi to take our team home. Afterwards, we all called him “Superman” or “‘Ol One Nut” depending on whether we wanted to give him accolades or hell. However, when he got diagnosed with cancer the second time, he withered under the weight of chemo and radiation treatment. The…
