Mateo Donaldson

Sergeant, United States Army

October 19, 1981 – February 19, 2015
Age – 33
Fennville, MI

Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Became “One of 22 A Day” on February 19, 2015

Sgt. Mateo Daniel Donaldson was born on October 19, 1981 in the Talua Valley of Colombia. Him and his brother were adopted by John and Joan when he was approximately 4.5 years old. He would then spend the next 14 years learning how to become an organic blueberry farmer. He was gifted with strong Mechanical abilities that made farming come as second nature. He was able to learn from watching others and would only need to be shown once. His fields of blueberry bushes were always perfect because he was a perfectionist. He was kind, loved animals, gifted artist, and loved nature.

When he turned 18 years old he decided to join the military. He served 2 tours during his time with the military; one was aboard the USS Carl Vinson and one in Afghanistan.

The following was written by his wife, Mayme.

Here is my story. For some it maybe hard to read and I’m not done touching it up..but this is “it” so far.

My late husband, Mateo Daniel Donaldson, enlisted into the U.S. Navy in November of 2000. He was deployed several times aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and U.S.S. Frank Cable. He switched from the U.S. Navy into the U.S. Army in May of 2010.
Iraq
Afghanistan
Guam

Mateo seemed okay until 2013 when his behavior started to change. He began to do things that were out of character for him. His anger started to escalate. He wouldn’t have much patience with our 3 children and had none at all with me. Once Mateo returned home, in December of 2013 from Afghanistan he seemed “normal”. He was his typical self for a while. Then in Sept of 2014 while I was at work, I got a phone call from Military One Source telling me that Mateo wanted to talk to me and that he was suicidal. He wouldn’t tell them where he was. They patched our calls together so Mateo was on the other line, he was crying and saying over & over again “Baby, I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t do this anymore”. I was finally able to get him to tell us where he was and they were able to dispatch the police to his location.

On my way to Mateo, I also called his SSG to meet me there. That was Mateo’s first time in the hospital for his PTSD. His PTSD was too complex for Madigan Army Hospital and they weren’t able to treat him. They decided to send him to a facility in Aurora, CA for a month. After returning home in Oct from Aurora, Mateo was a completely different man. I didn’t even know this man! His anger was 100% worse. He bought two guns within the week of being back. I was able to alert his chain of command about him having those guns. At that point Mateo willingly gave them over to them. Mateo’s PTSD just continued to increase over time and unfortunately all I could do was watch the man I love spiral more out of control. Between his chain of command and I, we were able to get him hospitalized 2 more times for his suicidal behavior. November of 2014 was the last time Mateo was hospitalized.

On Feb 19, 2015 I got a knock at my door asking if I knew where Mateo was. I texted him and received no response. His SSG said he would keep me posted on the situation. He had helped me in the past to look for Mateo when he went “missing” My 3 daughters were home that day from school. They obviously heard that their Daddy was missing. This was at 8am in the morning, so we all got our shoes on and started to go to all the places we could think of that he might go. By 10am I just knew. I could feel it! I called my best friend in the middle of the Target parking lot freaking out and hyperventilating. I just knew at that moment that I would never see Mateo alive again. I kept calling his chain of command for an update. I kept getting the run around from them until I lost my temper on a poor innocent SPC that happened to pick up the phone. I was finally able to talk to Mateo’s LT and she asked me if she could just come over and talk. That confirmed my feelings were correct. Again I started freaking out and hyperventilating. She offered to come get me but I didn’t want anything to do with that. A few hours later I texted her to tell her I was finally home.

Within 40 minutes I saw a white Lexus with two men dressed in their dress blues looking for an address. My childrens’ reactions were all different. My oldest started vomiting all over the place. My middle one was angry, kicking anything and everything in her path. My youngest just wanted to sleep and for everyone to stop talking. As for me, I was numb and felt like I wasn’t even really there but I was there and this was my life. The military did an investigation and Mateo’s death was deemed in the line of duty.

My husband was the strongest man I have ever met, died by what he thought would be CO2 poisoning but he actually died from a overdoes of Benadryl while parked in his truck that he loved so much, at a graveyard.

Now I will try my very best to try to prevent this from happening to any other families. There are too many of us “22” families out there already. I will spread my story in hopes that if you are feeling like self – harming or having suicidal thoughts that you will please, please seek help. The strongest thing you can do is reach out to your support resources, recovery is possible and your loved ones want nothing more than that. Keep fighting! I know it is hard and you want the pain to end but all suicide does is pass that pain on to your loved ones.