by Christine Sexton, Florida Phoenix
May 26, 2025

Michael Terhune, who served as a hospital corpsman in the Navy Reserve, is not a statistic. But he could have been after putting a loaded pistol in his mouth in October 2021.

Terhune had been deployed to Iraq in 2003 and again in 2007. His second two-year mission was cut short in 2008 after he contracted leishmaniasis, which causes skin lesions and ulcers, and was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment.

He retired from the Reserves in 2015 after 24 years in service and later from his position at the Tallahassee Fire Department, where he worked for 28 years, in 2020.

The separations, though, left him feeling lost.

“I couldn’t take it anymore and the hurt, the pain,” Terhune said. “It was physical pain that was eating my gut, my kidneys. I walked out on my back patio with my pistol, and after my wife and kids went to school, and I said, ‘I’m done. I just can’t do this.’ 

“And as I’m sticking the pistol in my mouth, Tyler, my friend who killed himself the year prior, was standing in front of me. And call it divine intervention or whatever. But he said, ‘Doc, stop. You have so much more to give.’ And then he was gone,” Terhuune recalled in an interview.

“It was almost like a slap in the face. And I thought it was the bullet honestly going through my head — that’s what I thought the slap in the face was. But I realized at that point. I said, ‘What am I doing?’ And I threw the gun down.”

Terhune immediately called a counselor he and his wife had been seeing for couples therapy. While he had been going to counseling, he’d never been put on medication. He found, however, that that was a necessary part of the solution for him.

Now Terhune runs a nonprofit organization, Team Guardian Inc.

“I feel like I’ve been given this opportunity to tell this story, because everybody who knows me is like, ‘What? There is no way that I would have ever thought that you would have gone down this road.’” Terhune said. 

“And so now I run a nonprofit, do a bunch of veteran stuff. But basically it’s about being there. I’m willing to get up in the middle of the night, and I’ve had people call me, you know, crying and saying, ‘You know, I need help.’ And I’m willing to get up in the middle of the night, go to your house, and sit and talk and get you through this.”

The Fire Watch

The National Library of Medicine notes that “suicide is a major public health challenge that disproportionately affects service members and veterans.” And for the past 12 years, suicide rates have been consistently higher among veterans than nonveterans.

Six hundred and twenty-two Florida military veterans killed themselves in 2023, the latest available data. That’s a dip from 655 veteran suicides in 2022 but an increase from the 612 Florida military veterans who killed themselves in 2021. 

But another effort to identify and help veterans at risk of suicide is showing signs of success in Florida.

Veteran suicide rates in the state dropped by 5% between 2019 and 2023, compared to just 1% nationally. But in a five-county area in Northeast Florida, the suicide rate dropped by 25% between 2019 and 2023, from 81 to 61, Florida Department of Health data show.

Nick Howland maintains that his organization, The Fire Watch, is helping to drive down the suicide rate in Duval, Clay, Baker, St. Johns, and Nassau counties through its “Watch Stander” program.

Since starting the program in Jacksonville in 2019, Howland and other founding members of The Fire Watch took a page from the American Heart Association, which in 1960 launched a closed-chest cardiac resuscitation course for physicians. It was the forerunner of CPR training for the general public.

Under the model, participants take a 45-minute course learning what is called “SAVE” training, teaching the “SIGNS” of crisis: ASK the veterans if they are considering suicide; VALIDATE the veterans’ experience; and EXPEDITE getting the veteran help. 

“Basically, what we do is train community members to recognize the warning signs of a veteran in crisis, to ask them if they need help, and to give them the help they need,” Howland said.

“It’s inspired by CPR, because, you know, CPR basically isn’t training you to be a paramedic or a cardiologist. It’s training you to recognize when something’s different and to get help quick. And that’s what we’re doing.”

For Howland, the key to the program is broad community involvement, not just buy-in from the veterans community.

“There’s only 9% of the country who has served. So, if you’re relying on that 9% of the country to get veterans who are showing risk science to help, you’re leaving out a whole section, 91% of the people, who could be helping,” he told the Florida Phoenix.

“What we do is train community members to recognize the warning signs of a veteran in crisis, to ask them if they need help, and to give them the help they need. “

Half of the 9,000 volunteer watch-standers, he said, reside in northeast Florida.

The program expanded to Hillsborough, Pinellas, Broward, Palm Beach, and Escambia Counties two years after its launch. The expansion locations have collectively experienced a 12% reduction in veteran suicides, according to Howland.

The other 57 counties lacking The Watch Stander program experienced a collective 2% reduction in veteran suicide rates, he said.

All of Howland’s statistics are based on Department of Health CHARTS (community health assessment resource tools data) and U.S. Census American Community Survey data. 

Meeting its goals

The Fire Watch has a vision statement: To end veteran suicide by preventing veteran suicide.

But that takes time.

The Fire Watch’s goals this year are to train 10,000 volunteers through its Watch Standers program, hoping that 70% of them interact with veterans quarterly and that 30% of the veterans with whom watch-standers interact will be referred for health care services.

It appears to be on track to meet those goals. 

The Centers for Disease Control Foundation developed a quarterly survey for The Fire Watch to track volunteer watch-standers’ efforts. The data show that since the second quarter of 2023, at least 76% of watch-finders have engaged with a veteran and that there’s never been under than a 31% referral rate (with a high 48% referral rate in 3Q 2024).

Howland’s third goal is to reduce suicide rates by 25% for three consecutive years in the 10-county area.

To date, that goal has proven more elusive.

Although there’s been a 25% reduction in veteran suicides between 2019 and 2023, the number per year has gone up and down. The number in Northeast Florida dropped to 38 in 2021 but jumped to 59 the following year, mostly due to an increase in Duval County.

The number of veteran suicides in Duval County nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022 jumping from 22 to 41, respectively.

As for Terhune, he said he has a list of people he contacts weekly.

“Whether they have medical issues or they’re struggling mentally or whatever else. I go down this list and I call them, and that could be that slap in the face, you know, someone sitting there with a pistol in their lap, getting ready to shoot themselves. And that could be that time that makes them rethink that, or stop, or realize that they do have more to give.”

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article presents a human-interest story focused on veteran mental health and suicide prevention, emphasizing personal experience and community-driven solutions without overt political framing. The tone is factual and compassionate, highlighting nonprofit efforts and statistical data without attributing blame or promoting ideological positions. The piece centers on bipartisan concerns regarding veteran welfare, with no evident lean toward progressive or conservative agendas. The language is neutral and informative, aiming to raise awareness and encourage community involvement rather than advocate for specific policy changes, supporting a centrist rating.