Australian Lance Corporal Ryan Goodwin returned home from Afghanistan in 2012 with no welcome-home parade, no fanfare, and no support for the traumatic injuries he suffered. Tormented by the horrors of war and unable to seek help from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), Goodwin took his own life in December 2019. Goodwin’s family told his story to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Monday, saying that military personnel returning from combat were “almost made to feel like a villain” and that the lack of support for transitioning defence members to civilian life meant families were left to pick up the pieces alone. “When he got back, he was not the same person … you would get glimpses, and you would think, ‘Oh my goodness, that would be the most horrific traumatic thing’,” Lauren Goodwin, the veteran’s sister, recalled. “It was almost constantly walking on eggshells with him… he …