One of the two friends who were acting as guardians to his kids while he's de[ployed. Basically one was taking care of the day to day household needs, the other was handling the bills/accounting etc. The day to day household operations guardian who was taking care of things is the one who killed himself.

I've heard other horror stories from friends, of two parent families with both parents deployed over seas in different units and either having to leave an older child more or less in charge of things with very elderly grandparents left in guardianship on paper.

The concept of hardship exceptions are pretty much non-existant. They've even dragged doctors who had been retired from practice for a decade back into service in some cases.