Military suicides: Service member tells story of survival

Cliff Bauman wants to show you his life. He almost lost it.

He wants to show you the fire pit in his backyard, where he and his family roast s'mores in the winter, and the patio where they eat dinners on warm Virginia nights. He pulls up photos on his phone.

Bauman wants to show you his family. His older son, Cliff Jr., 14, a wrestler. He swipes right. A picture of them working out in his basement gym. They run together, too. But not the long run – Bauman does that one alone. His younger son, Lloyd, 4, is always on the move. His wife Krystal is his rock. He doesn’t avoid cliches – it was love at first sight, he says, when he spotted her in the chow hall in Kuwait more than a decade ago.

This is the life that nearly eluded him.

“If you would have told me in August of 2001 that by December of 2002, I would try to commit suicide, I would call you a damn liar,” he says.