Fresh out of highschool, Xavier Hunter Sandor radiated with satisfaction as he enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 24, 2021.
He beamed in his uniform, figuring out his grandfather and uncle had additionally as soon as worn the identical gown blues. And he sailed by means of boot camp, shining brightest as a sharpshooter, his father mentioned.
Then he received his orders. On Jan. 27, he left his household’s dwelling in Shelton, Connecticut, for the primary time to serve on the plane provider USS George Washington, because it underwent an in depth overhaul at a Virginia shipyard. He was onboard when he took his life three months later.
Sandor was the third sailor on the ship to die by suicide in the span of per week this April, in line with the Navy and the state chief health worker’s workplace. He had simply turned 19, mentioned his father, John Sandor. Sandor beloved being in the Navy, and so far as his father knew, solely the situations at work had been upsetting him.
“He was such a happy, proud person,” the elder Sandor mentioned. “What else could it be?”
Since 2017, the USS George Washington, one of many world’s largest warships, has been docked on the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia, the place it’s present process a multiyear overhaul. Such an overhaul is completed as soon as throughout a provider’s 50-year service life, the Navy mentioned, and it consists of important repairs and upgrades, and the refueling of the ship’s two nuclear reactors.
While many of the roughly 2,700 sailors go dwelling after their shifts, a whole lot who reside out of state or don’t have off-site housing keep on the George Washington. Those onboard endure practically uninhabitable situations, together with fixed development noise that makes sleeping after lengthy shifts inconceivable and a scarcity of scorching water and electrical energy, in line with a number of sailors.
Sandor, a master-at-arms seaman recruit, was a kind of who stayed.
When Sandor wasn’t working 12-hour night time shifts on the George Washington, he slept and stayed in his automobile, the place he saved a thick blanket and his garments, in line with his father.
“Xavier was alone,” his father mentioned. “There wasn’t much to do there at his age. He’d go to his car and isolate himself.”
During each day telephone conversations with his father from his automobile, Sandor regularly expressed frustration with his dwelling and dealing situations.
“He always said it sucked, and I’d always say to ask for help,” John Sandor mentioned. “He’d say, ‘Dad, they don’t give a f—. They don’t care.’ That was always his response to me.”
Every different weekend, Sandor would drive eight hours again to his household’s dwelling and by no means need to depart when he received there, his father mentioned.
In a press release to NBC News, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Myers, a Navy spokesman, mentioned a “certain number” of sailors have to remain on the ship to run important gear, preserve hearth and flooding watches, and safe the vessel. The Navy has directed leaders on the ship to establish sailors who may benefit from morale and private well-being applications, Myers mentioned.
Several present and former George Washington sailors have advised NBC News that their struggles had been straight associated to a tradition the place in search of assist isn’t met with the required assets, in addition to the situations aboard the ship.
John Sandor, 49, mentioned he knew the situations had been “bad” however to not the total extent. It by no means crossed his thoughts that his son was contemplating suicide.
“If I would have known that, I could have changed it somehow,” he mentioned. “That’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life.”
On April 15, Xavier Sandor texted his family members goodbye, minutes earlier than his death.
“His mother started screaming. I chased her down the hall,” John Sandor mentioned. “I can’t wrap my head around it. That that’s his only way out is just mind-baffling to me.”
At the time, John Sandor mentioned the Navy had not talked about something to his household concerning the back-to-back suicides of two different shipmates simply days earlier than.
Sandor’s death got here 5 days after Natasha Huffman, an inside communications electrician, died by suicide off-base in Hampton, officers mentioned. The day earlier than, Retail Services Specialist third Class Mika’il Rayshawn Sharp additionally died by suicide off-base in Portsmouth, mentioned his mom, Natalie Jefferson.
John Sandor mentioned he discovered of the opposite suicides by means of social media posts and news stories. “I’m sick to my stomach,” he said. “I haven’t slept. I don’t eat.”
Since Xavier Sandor’s death, the Navy said it sent a special 13-person psychiatric rapid intervention team to counsel those serving on the George Washington from April 16 to April 19. Sailors on the ship are currently being provided tele-mental health opportunities and expedited appointments for mental health referrals, according to the Navy.
John Sandor said they should have deployed those resources after the first suicide, which he said could have saved his son. He also said junior sailors should not have been put on the boat in those conditions.
“He had such a future ahead of him,” he mentioned, including that his son was a born chief and athlete, and had been the quarterback of his highschool soccer group.
In a statement, the Navy said, in part, that it was a “resilient force,” but “not immune from the same challenges that affect the nation that we serve.”
“We remain committed to ensuring our carriers are manned, trained and equipped to optimal levels including embedded mental health providers,” said Rear Adm. John F. Meier, the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic.
In a recent address to the George Washington crew, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith, the service’s senior enlisted leader, told crew members that he knew their working conditions during the overhaul were “not pleasant” or easy, and he acknowledged there was a suicide problem.
“Beating suicide is like beating cancer,” he said, according to a transcript of the address, released Monday by the Navy. “There are many different causes, many different reasons.”
In 2020, the most recent year for which full data is available, 580 military members died by suicide, a 16 percent increase from 2019, when 498 died by suicide, according to the Defense Department. Nineteen out of every 100,000 sailors died by suicide in 2020, compared to members of the Army, which had the highest rate, at about 36 per 100,000, Pentagon statistics show.
Myers, the Navy spokesman, said a larger Navy team is being built to assess quality-of-life conditions on aircraft carriers undergoing overhauls.
“Their recommendations will inform potential future action, identify areas for improvements, and propose mitigation strategies to optimize [quality of life],” he said.
When John Sandor thinks about all the memories he will no longer get with his son — a wedding, grandchildren — he breaks down into tears. When he regains his composure, though, he makes a pledge: “There’s going to be a time when my sadness turns to anger,” he said. “I won’t let his death go in vain.”
“Maybe his death can change the Navy,” he added. “If we could keep this from happening to another sailor’s family, that’s what I want to do.”
If you or somebody you recognize is in disaster, name the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, textual content HOME to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/assets for added assets.