When Private Thomas Halloran sent a suicide note by WhatsApp, his family spent the next hour desperately trying to raise the alarm with police, the army and anyone who might have been able to stop him.
Giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide in Darwin on Tuesday, the 21-year-old's parents recalled the chaos and "scrambling" after they first saw the message about midday one day in April.
John Halloran said he and wife Robyn kept trying to make contact, hoping there was still time for someone to get to his room at Darwin's Robertson Army Barracks.
"We just kept ... ringing him on the off chance, maybe there's time," Mr Halloran told the inquiry.
"We knew what he intended to do, but we didn't know how, so we thought there was a chance we could catch him, so to speak."
During the excruciating wait for news of their son, Mrs Halloran said an army chaplain called to say defence personnel were heading to his room.
"I will let you know once I know something. I will be in touch," she said the chaplain promised.
But it would take another three-and-a-half hours before the army confirmed his death. By then the Hallorans were already in full grief, having learned of their son's fate from his sister after she called Darwin police.
"The whole way it was put together was a mess and an horrendous way to find out from our daughter crying on the phone," Mr Halloran said.
The inquiry was told Thomas Halloran's suicide note referred to the "constant pain" he had experienced, a reference to a serious back injury which had resulted in him ending his first overseas deployment.
Mr Halloran said his son suffered the injury early in his career while training at Kapooka. But he had been so worried he would be forced out of the army on medical grounds, he tried to hide the pain.
When Pte Halloran finally sought treatment for his injury in November 2021, his worst fears were realised: medical advice to leave the army and "look after your back", the inquiry was told.
"When Tom told us that, it was not a diagnosis, it was more like a sentence," an emotional Mr Halloran said.
Pte Halloran was placed on reduced duties as his army colleagues headed on an overseas deployment.
Mr Halloran said his son, who had been popular with his army mates, suddenly found himself feeling completely isolated with no future.
His injury also left him open to being taunted on occasion for being a "linga", which is army slang for malingerer.
But he said the army support systems for young injured soldiers were so "broken", his son felt he had no one he could turn to for help.
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