Mass native, Iraq War victim, by suicide

Michael Bramer, at 23; strove to cope after injury in Iraq
An accident in Iraq blinded Michael Bramer in one eye.
By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff | January 30, 2007

The first time that Michael J. Bramer died, he was serving in Iraq, his sister said, and he felt a tranquillity that was elusive in the months after he was brought back to life.

"What he talked about in the beginning was the feeling he felt when his heart stopped," said Barbara Bramer of Boston. "He said it was just very peaceful for him, and that was his expectation of what he would have had if they didn't revive him."

Then a sergeant first class in special forces with the Army's 82d Airborne Division, Mr. Bramer suffered severe head injuries in October 2003, when part of an unstable structure collapsed as he was helping string barbed wire outside Baghdad, his sister said. The impact blinded him in one eye. During surgery, plates were placed in his head. Soon, a series of migraines, each more acute, disturbed his days and nights.

Discharged from the Army in June, Mr. Bramer had been living in a Fayetteville, N.C., apartment. At 23, he had set aside his hopes of attending MIT, where he had taken summer courses during high school in Boston. On Jan. 17, while his roommate and a friend were downstairs, he turned up the surround sound on his television and took his life in his bedroom, his sister said.

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