HARMONY — Deb Smith lost her son, an Army veteran, to suicide.

More than 200 golfers turned out Saturday to help her remember Andrew “A.J.” Smith and raise awareness and funds to combat veteran suicide.

“We feel we had to do something to help other families,” explained Smith, who started the AJ's Stop 22 golf outing in 2016. Smith said statistics show an average of 22 veterans commit suicide in this country every day.

The fifth annual outing was held at Strawberry Ridge Golf Course, two miles north of Harmony.

According to his mother, A.J. Smith joined the U.S. Army shortly after his graduation from high school in 2008 and was deployed to Iraq in 2010. While there he saw combat as part of the infantry contingent attached to a tank striker force.

After leaving the service, A.J. Smith was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

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