{"id":24604,"date":"2017-11-05T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/05\/green-berets-family-pushes-back-against-armys-suicide-ruling\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:23:33","slug":"green-berets-family-pushes-back-against-armys-suicide-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2017\/11\/05\/green-berets-family-pushes-back-against-armys-suicide-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Beret\u2019s family pushes back against Army\u2019s suicide ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year ago, a Special Forces soldier serving in Kenya, who was days away from coming home, signed out a Toyota Hilux truck and a Glock pistol, drove to a shooting range and ended his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 78-page investigation by Army Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by Army Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, found that Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Bannister was a friendly, outgoing operator who loved his job and his wife, and had no ongoing financial or personal issues to speak of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, there were \u201cobvious signs of a suicidal thought process, but … it\u2019s only really shown just prior of the incident occurring,\u201d according to one behavioral health expert who reviewed the investigation for CID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His family, however, has appealed the Army\u2019s finding, his widow, Lindsay, told Army Times. She declined to elaborate on the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSgt. 1st Class Bannister was and will always be a valued member of our organization,\u201d Capt. Chris Webb, a spokesman for 3rd Special Forces Group, told Army Times in a statement. \u201cOur deepest condolences are with the Bannister family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webb added that Bannister\u2019s family received a \u201ccomplete brief\u201d on the findings of the investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bannister, 33, was a weapons sergeant with 3rd Special Forces Group, whose team had been deployed to a Manda Bay, Kenya, navy base since late spring 2016 to train local forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 17, 2016, members of the Kenyan ranger regiment discovered his body at the Camp Simba Firing Range, just after 7 a.m. local time, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the same day Bannister and his team were scheduled to begin the trip back home to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where the soldier\u2019s wife of nearly a year \u2014 whom he spoke to every day \u2014 was preparing for a vacation to Hawaii, a fellow Green Beret told the investigator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent three quarters of the deployment with Zach, and he was an awesome instructor, always cheerful, and he always told me \u2018good job\u2019 for what I did at the end of the day,\u201d the staff sergeant, whose name was redacted, told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent who originally responded to the case.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That morning, the unit got a call that a Kenyan ranger had been shot, so they headed out to the range to help. But their wires had gotten crossed, and when they got there, they saw Bannister on the ground next to the truck, the Glock in his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when we found Zach was laying on the ground in uniform, with blood coming out of his head,\u201d the staff sergeant said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t do anything else at that point because it was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Joyful as usual\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow soldiers had last seen Bannister the night before, at dinner after packing up their gear in preparation for the trip home, or passing from the shower to their tent later that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZach seemed joyful as usual,\u201d one soldier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bannister had packed up his personal belongings and added them to one of the shipping palettes in preparation for redeployment, according to the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the next morning, just after 5 a.m. the gate guard saw Bannister leave the compound in one of the base\u2019s Hilux trucks, which he described as \u201cunusual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNormally, you call the camp commandant and let them know you are going to the range,\u201d one staff sergeant told the investigator. \u201cNormally the whole team would go. At least [redacted] and [redacted] would go with him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Bannister hadn\u2019t told anyone he was leaving. He had signed out the pistol and the truck, but neither required another person to give access to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs soon as we got back to the camp, myself and Sgt. 1st Class [redacted] went to Zach\u2019s room and saw that he laid out his wallet, knife, wedding ring, watch and sunglasses on a shelf on the wall,\u201d the soldier said. \u201cWe also noticed he wrote a password on a sticky note, and stuck it to the top of his laptop computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was as if he had wanted to make everything easily accessible, the report found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past decade, the Army and the Defense Department have undertaken a massive effort to reduce the suicide rate among service members, through training, resources and a cultural shift away from the stigma traditionally put upon people who ask for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, experts say, the services need to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\t