Deb Smith of Evans City lost her son, Army veteran A.J. Smith, to suicide in 2016. On Thursday morning, she gathered with a group of about a dozen people outside St. Peter’s Reformed Church in Zelienople to plant 660 American flags in the ground to represent the estimated number of veterans who die each month because of suicide.

According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 20 to 22 military veterans end their own lives each day.

The volunteers are part of Smith’s organization, A.J. 22 Too Many, which is named in memory of her son and a reference to the daily veteran suicide count.

With the morning sun hitting the flags, Smith said she hoped that events like the flag planting would help shed light on the struggles of veterans and active duty members of the country’s military.

For many service members, the fighting doesn’t stop when they come home. Issues like post-traumatic stress disorder, struggling to reintegrate into civilian life and long-term injuries can all push veterans to suicide, experts say. Both male and female veterans committed suicide at a higher rate than the general population between 2005 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

A.J. Smith returned home in 2010 after serving in Iraq. Part of his tour of duty, from 2006 through 2010, came during the 2007 surge ordered by former President George W. Bush which increased the number of soldiers in Iraq and extended the tour of duty for many others.

Her son struggled with PTSD, but Smith said everything seemed fine after he became a firefighter in South Carolina. However, an injury in 2015 left him handicapped and unable to keep his job.

“That kicked his PTSD back up,” Smith said.

Within a year of his injury, Smith said, her son took his own life — an outcome she believes could have been prevented had he received the help he sought from the VA shortly before killing himself.

“My son was in crisis and no one helped,” Smith said. “They fought for us; now we need to fight for them.”

Founding A.J. 22 Too Many and working to raise awareness about veteran suicide is something Smith hopes will save lives.

“We’re trying to stop others from feeling the pain we went through,” Smith said.

The flags will stand in the church’s grass for the month of September, which is also Suicide Awareness Month. The church also holds a support group meeting for survivors of suicide on the third Wednesday of every month.

“The sad part is suicide is starting to touch younger and younger lives, and we need to stop it because that’s just unacceptable,” said Pastor Jim Bertoti of Cranberry Township. Bertoti has been a pastor at St. Peter’s for 15 years.

Being a survivor of suicide himself, he said he understands the need for a support network for anyone who is at risk.

For veterans, Bertoti said, that’s especially important.

“It’s a mental illness and people need to be aware that (veterans) experienced something that most of us have no idea about and will never experience,” he said about the combat element and coming back to civilian life. “There’s a whole other layer for vets.”

Scott Garing of Zelienople helped his son, Leo, stick flags into the ground Friday. Garing, a veteran who served for eight years, agreed that there could be more done to help veterans.

As the fire chief for the Harmony Fire District, he and Scott Frederick, who is also a veteran serving in the Air National Guard and with the fire district, drove over to the church in a fire engine to attend the flag planting event.

An idea struck Garing that morning to help elevate the presence of the flags: hang a big flag over the small ones using the fire engine’s ladder.

“The numbers don’t lie. It’s a serious epidemic that our nation is facing and we need to do something about it,” he said. “When you’re the one experiencing these issues, it seems like you’re alone but you’re not. There are people out there who want to help. That’s what makes this kind of thing important.”

Over the years, the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention has kicked off initiatives to address the problem. These resources can be found at www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention hotline is 800-273-8255.