COMMANDER’S CORNER: SUICIDE PREVENTION AND AWARENESS - PAGE 2 Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Vol. 62 No. 19
BREAKING THROUGH ABUSE:
Airman overcomes past trials By Audrey Jensen 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Stephanie’s roommates looked up to see she had come back downstairs and was now standing across from them, saying ‘goodnight,’ for the second time that evening. This time, Stephanie asked if one of her roommates, her best friend Rachel, would check on her before going to bed. She told her roommates she loved them and walked back upstairs. “Rachel knew something was off,” Lt. Col. Stephanie Forsythe, 21st Medical Support Squadron diagnostic and therapeutic flight commander, told the audience at the Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, Storyteller’s Conference, March 30, 2018. “I had already said goodnight.” After getting up the stairs and laying down in her bed, Forsythe, who was 23 at the time, knew her life depended on that last interaction. The next time she opened her eyes, Forsythe said she remembered feeling a plastic tube in her throat. In the process of becoming fully conscious, Rachel had to repeat several times what happened before Forsythe re-
alized she was lying in an emergency room hospital bed. Before she walked downstairs to say what could have been her last farewell to her roommates the previous night, Forsythe was in her bathroom, staring at the bottle of Ambien she had been prescribed a month before to help her sleep. “I remember for a split second having a thought cross my mind — I could just take this whole bottle of pills and that will change something,” Forsythe said. “Something needs to change, so I grabbed it and that’s what I did. I took the whole bottle.” An hour after Forsythe asked Rachel to check on her, “She came up to my room to physically check on me. She turned on the light and tried to wake me up and couldn’t,” Forsythe said. “She woke up our other roommates and called 911.” It was only after Forsythe took the bottle of Ambien she realized the seriousness of the situation, so she tried to help the best way she knew how in the moment. “Before I got back into my bed, I left the empty bottle on my night stand and had written a note about what and See Trials page 8
(Courtesy photo)
SOUTH KOREA — Lt. Col. Stephanie Forsythe, 21st Medical Support Squadron diagnostic and therapeutic flight commander (right), is pictured in 2006 with her wingman and best friend Rachel (left), who saved her when she attempted suicide at 23 years old. After working through intensive therapy, Forsythe was able to work through abuse she went through in high school and worked her way up to where she is now.
Peterson Airmen form LEAP club By Staff Sgt. Emily Kenney 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
(Courtesy photo)
BUSAN, South Korea — Capt. Sean Sindler, 21st Medical Support Squadron, takes a photo during a four-week Language Intensive Training Experience in Busan, South Korea in 2016. Sindler went on the LITE as a member of the Language Enabled Airmen Program. LEAP is a career-spanning program that identifies, selects, educates and trains Airmen who can speak, read and understand foreign languages to accomplish specific Air Force and Department of Defense missions.
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Airmen in the Language Enabled Airmen Program held their first club meeting April 11, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. LEAP is a career-spanning program that identifies, selects, educates and trains Airmen who can speak, read and understand foreign languages, to accomplish specific Air Force and Department of Defense missions. “The intent is that the Air Force identifies Airmen who speak foreign languages so they can be utilized to do Air Force or Department of Defense missions with their language expertise, experience and knowledge,” said Capt. Sindler, 21st Medical Support Squadron. “There are also a lot of language-capable Airmen who are not considered language-enabled. This program helps those Airmen through online and in-person [Temporary Duty] training to increase their level of language proficiency to meet mission needs.” See LEAP club page 7
INSIDE News Briefs Classifieds Crossword
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Peterson AFB prayer luncheon
From humble beginnings
AF week in photos
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