Stephen Coning, a 26-year-old former Marine, took his own life this summer, leaving behind a wife and a 2-year-old son.By chance, it was the same week the Department of Veterans Affairs released conclusive data showing that the rate of suicide for those who served is now much higher than for civilians.Despite that connection, the VA does not presume all suicides to be "service connected."Sounds like red tape — but that means Coning's family has so far received little formal support from the VA."We were under the impression that should anything happen to my husband the VA would take care of that," says his widow, Sky Coning.Stephen Coning served five years in the Marine Corps, including a combat deployment to Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan. He got out in 2013, went to school on the GI Bill and got a job as a veterinary tech.But Sky says he had become a very different person from the young man she met in high school."He hardly ever slept after he left the Marine Corps. He
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