A mother will hold a candlelight vigil at a local park Monday to remember her veteran son who killed himself three years ago while struggling with PTSD. He left behind a wife and two young sons.

Debra Reber says the small ceremony is tied to a larger effort to push the federal government to change its policy on how it honors veterans who die while enlisted in the military.

Her son, Staff Sgt. Jeffery Reber, served four combat tours as a U.S. Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen; he was still enlisted when he died in August 2014 at 29 years old. After his death, Debra began searching for ways to memorialize her son.

She was devastated when she learned his name could not be added to the Honoring Our Fallen Memorial Wall because his death was ruled a suicide.

“He had a military funeral with a 21-gun salute and full honors, but yet I can’t get him on a wall so people can see his name and know he gave his life for his country,” Debra said. “That’s not right.”

The U.S. Department of Defense publishes the names of fallen soldiers killed in the line of duty, and those are the names engraved on local, state and national memorials. The federal government has strict guidelines for whose names appear on that list.

Names on petition adding up

Debra is now petitioning U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to change a policy she said is wrong and discriminatory. An online petition she started has quickly grown to over 37,000 supporters from around the nation.

In it, she cites a staggering statistic: 22 veterans commit suicide every single day.

“There is an epidemic in our country and we are losing our loved ones to it,” she wrote.

It’s not just those individuals who she wants to see the federal government include on its list.

“My thing is I want all the fallen soldiers who served, and who served honorably, to be included,” Debra said.

‘It’s a tough call’

Laura Hertzog, founder of Honoring our Fallen, a nonprofit that helped create the memorial wall at Rosie the Riveter Park, said she often works with widows and mothers who have lost loved ones to suicide. And while she wishes she could add each of those names to the wall, her hands are tied.

“It’s a tough call but we work with active duty military and they all agree, ‘If you’re going to list one name, you better list them all,’” she said, “and there is no way we can accurately list them all unless the Department of Defense includes those names on its list.”

The wall commemorates local service members who died serving the country since Sept. 11, 2001.

Hertzog said she is in the process of working with the city of Long Beach to create and install several additional plaques that honor fallen police officers and firefighters, as well as veterans who struggled with PTSD. The plaques would not include names, but rather a general tribute that could include a poem or other honorary symbol, she said.

Debra and her daughter, Sara Reber-Bastedo of San Pedro, will light candles in remembrance of Jeffery, and all veteran victims of PTSD and suicide, on Monday at 6 p.m., at Rosie the Riveter Park and Interpretive Center, at 4900 E. Conant Ave.