Some 7,000 U.S. service members have been killed in combat since 9/11, but more than four times as many active-duty personnel and retired veterans have died by suicide in that same time.

Last year alone, the number of suicides among active-duty military, reservists and National Guard members jumped by 15 percent over 2019, according to an annual Department of Defense report. Some branches had much higher rates, such as 34 percent in the Marine Corps and 35 percent in the Army National Guard.

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Gay Murga, whose son's September 2020 suicide was part of that increase, said she believes pandemic-related restrictions erased what little reorientation efforts the Army usually conducts to help soldiers decompress after deployment.

Austin Murga, 26, was a born leader and soldier, a Virginia Military Institute graduate and a captain at Fort Bragg. His mother said he was doing in the Army what he was born to do.

“[He was] always very patriotic. He had a giant flag on his wall since he was in second grade," she said.

During a tour in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division, Austin Murga led 114 paratroopers assisting special operations. But he returned home to a hidden darkness.

"That’s so much part of the problem with the military,” Gay Murga said, noting that she had no idea her son was struggling with mental health issues.

Eventually, she said, she learned he had been experiencing panic attacks, had bursts of anger, wasn't sleeping well and was abusing alcohol.

“So often, people don’t see the signs,” said Shauna Springer, a psychologist who specializes in treating military post-traumatic stress.

Training doesn't prepare soldiers for every battle, Springer said.

“Warriors are professionally good at hiding their hidden pain," she said. “Sometimes, warriors don’t see the threat in their own blind spot."

Gay Murga said that description fits her son.

"We found out after he died that, even though he was silently struggling with his own PTSD, he was out many nights helping his brothers," she said.

She has now turned her grief and guilt into a mother's mission, arguing that the military lacks sufficient mental health counseling and that what's offered is stigmatized.

"They’re not going to go to that counselor because they know it’s going to be a career breaker," she said of active-duty personnel.

A Fort Bragg spokesman said that, despite the pandemic and quarantine restrictions, the process for soldiers returning from deployment hasn't been affected during the past two years.

Gay Murga countered that, saying the process has been broken for a while.

"What our military branches are currently calling integration is not cutting the mustard," she said.

She now counsels soldiers on seeking out help and presses the military to treat post-war trauma as the norm, not the exception.

“I am determined that my son's death is not going to be in vain, and I am determined that I'm going to scream on top of every mountain to spread the awareness," she said.

Despite Defense Department objections, Gay Murga fought to include the words "PTSD WARRIOR" on her son's headstone at Arlington National Cemetery. She said she hopes her fight raises awareness in the ranks and creates some change.

“Our culture, our society and our military branches have to start recognizing that war is traumatic," she said. "Who is to expect someone to come back normal?”