Retired Private Tyler Hulme

Age: 27 years old

Hometown: Petawawa, Ont.

Resided: Petawawa, Ont.

Unit: 2 Service Battalion, CFB Petawawa

Retired Private Hulme was the comedian in the family, keeping his parents and sister laughing with wisecracks. He was compassionate, had a lot friends and could fit in anywhere, his mother, Jackie Hulme, said. He was working at Burger King when he decided to join the military. He had finished high school and wasn’t sure what to do with his life. His parents were both in the army and enjoyed their work. So, at 19, he followed in their footsteps, joining the same supply-technician trade. His parents were happy that he enlisted. “I knew he was going somewhere where he would be fed, learn skills, and have a sense of discipline that every teenager needs,” his father, Bruce Hulme, said. The young private deployed to Camp Mirage, a Canadian Forces base in Dubai, in March, 2009. The base was part of the Afghanistan mission, and his job was to collect and distribute weapons.

After Afghanistan: He was scheduled to go to Kandahar in 2010, on the same tour as his mother. She had already been to Afghanistan in 2003, while his father deployed to the war zone in 2008. Their son seemed excited to go, but he tested positive for marijuana and was taken off the mission. The failed test scuttled his promotion to corporal. His behaviour became increasingly erratic. He was drinking heavily, getting into trouble with the law and taking steroids to bulk up. He had hallucinations and became paranoid. He thought he was being spied on. Military doctors suspected he was depressed and prescribed antidepressants in April, 2010. But the medication made him feel worse and triggered manic episodes. It was his mother’s online research that uncovered his illness: He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in mid-2012.

Last Post: Pte. Hulme was having trouble at work because of his health. Veterans Affairs concluded in 2013 that the stress of the Afghanistan mission may have contributed to the onset of his “depressive and anxiety symptoms.” The military, however, had labelled him a malcontent and wanted to dismiss the private for being unsuitable for service. With the help of his father, he fought to get a medical release, and was discharged on March 22, 2014. “My destructive demeanour was far removed from the true person that I am and the person I wish to become,” Pte. Hulme wrote for an administrative review before his discharge. “I was not in control of my thoughts and actions due to my bipolar disorder.” A little more than a month after his release from the army, Pte. Hulme took his life by overdosing on medication. He was facing a four-month wait for a civilian psychiatrist. Heartbroken, his mother cried every day for five months after his death. The Hulmes believe many institutions failed their son, from the military and its medical staff, to the public-health sector, law enforcement and the courts. “The mental-health system is broken,” his mother said.

Remembrance: Pte. Hulme wanted to get better, staying sober (except for a brief relapse) for much of 2010. During this time, he went rafting and zip-lining and started dating again. He wanted to be a person others could look up to as a leader, he wrote for his alcohol-support group. Titled “The Man in the Mirror,” he also wrote he wanted to be, “a person who can truly look himself in the mirror and with no question call himself a man.”

THE GLOBE AND MAIL