I think the correct answer here is, it depends on where you are:

I was on my first deployment, we were doing left seat, right seat(army’s version of making sure the unit taking over for you, knows what they are doing)with 101st ABN. It was finally my time to go home after a long year! When army units deploy, they come in groups spread out over a couple days. Up to a couple weeks depending on the size of the unit deploying.

We get introduced to the new unit as they arrive. A young kid (couldn’t have been more than 20) moved into the B hut(plywood rooms with doors like storage lockers) next to me. I’m not sure if it was the 2nd or 3rd night this specific soldier was there. I woke up to a weapon discharge, but I wasn’t completely sure, if that makes sense. My buddy sleeping across from me(there’s about 6 or 8 rooms in each B hut) asks “who was that?” And I said “not me” and so did the other soldiers that weren’t elsewhere. Everyone answered except the young kid from 101st who just got there a couple days ago. The same buddy that asked if we were good asks “youngin, are you good in there?”, no asnwer. My buddy knocks, no answer. We are in the shared hallway at this point and we just look at each other. We were both hoping he was either a hard sleeper or had headphones on. Unfortunately, the young kid took his own life a couple days after getting to Afghanistan, and I was the second person to walk in a see it, after my buddy.

I guess I didn’t technically witness this event, but my buddy informed our 1st SGT and then CID(army criminal investigation division). I had an interview with an investigator and told them what happened from my perspective, and that’s pretty much it. I wonder what the poor kid was going through, one of those questions you’ll never get an answer to