Speaker 1: Multiple people in my family clean my father, are veterans
Speaker 1: and the troops.
Speaker 2: That have been de war and now they're back and
Speaker 2: think and be grateful for their service, sacrifice, love for
Speaker 2: the country, just unselfishness, all that they do for us.
Speaker 2: There are some people in this country who take extraordinary
Speaker 2: steps to provide for their freedom and security. We forget
Speaker 2: that those people exist.
Speaker 1: We know them as the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines,
Speaker 1: and Coastguard. They call themselves soldiers, seals, rangers, airmen, sailors, devil.
Speaker 3: Dogs, and so much more. We call them.
Speaker 1: Fathers, brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives.
Speaker 1: We call them friend and neighbor. These veterans answered the call,
Speaker 1: now we answer theirs. They are the best our country
Speaker 1: has to offer, and.
Speaker 2: We love them.
Speaker 1: Today, we honor them and we start them. David maulsbys
Speaker 1: your host, and he welcomes you to this community of veterans,
Speaker 1: as together we are building the road to hope.
Speaker 3: And indeed we are glad to have you along. On
Speaker 3: a Sunday afternoon on the kPr C the nine to
Speaker 3: five on the AM dial, thank you for joining us,
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Speaker 3: some strangers coming into your house to you know, do
Speaker 3: some cleaning. Uh, same thing you want people you can trust,
Speaker 3: oopsteam dot com. Then when it's time to get that
Speaker 3: little piece of Texas where you're gonna bid your dream home,
Speaker 3: Republic Grandranch dot com. Republic Grand Ranch dot com. Not
Speaker 3: only is it beautiful, beautiful acreage that you can own,
Speaker 3: but a great place, great people all around you. Republic
Speaker 3: Grand Ranch dot Com. This past week, last Wednesday, actually
Speaker 3: marked eight years from the very first show, Road to
Speaker 3: Hope Radio. So eight years of this and if you
Speaker 3: go to the Road to Hope Radio Facebook page, you
Speaker 3: will see a mention of it there and a link
Speaker 3: to the iHeartMedia app version of Road Hope Radio. But
Speaker 3: where again, wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for
Speaker 3: Road to Hope Radio. But there's eight years of stories there.
Speaker 3: So while you're waiting for you know, the next show
Speaker 3: to drop, you got eight years to get caught up on.
Speaker 3: So appreciate you doing that. Appreciate so very much our
Speaker 3: show sponsors that pay for the time but can't help it,
Speaker 3: say a big shout out and thank you tremendous appreciation
Speaker 3: for Michael Barry, who voices the introduction for us. But
Speaker 3: if it were not for Michael and his passion to
Speaker 3: help get this thing launched, the show never would have
Speaker 3: been a possibility. So great thank you to Michael Berry
Speaker 3: for his support of the show, obviously his support of
Speaker 3: the foundation. I think this coming week will be I
Speaker 3: think it's the twelfth anniversary of his first visit to
Speaker 3: Camp Hope and we could never ever fully express what
Speaker 3: he has meant to this organization, to Camp Hope in particular,
Speaker 3: but his influence, his massive listening audience that he brings
Speaker 3: to bear in what we're trying to get accomplished in
Speaker 3: the veteran community. Forever thankful to mister Michael Berry for
Speaker 3: helping us get this show going and for all that
Speaker 3: he does for the PTSD Foundation of America and Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: And the guy he had to help convinced was ed Martini.
Speaker 3: Got to say a great, big thank you to Eddie.
Speaker 3: He has been a fantastic friend through the years as
Speaker 3: well well. He does much for Saint Jude. He's also
Speaker 3: been a great supporter of what's going on in Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: Invites our guys, it's crazy, invites our guys to come
Speaker 3: out and play golf at the Saint Jude fundraiser. The
Speaker 3: guys always have a great time every December when they
Speaker 3: get a chance to do that. So a big thank
Speaker 3: you to Eddie Martini because he had to approve it
Speaker 3: and get the final Okay, let's make it happen. And
Speaker 3: of course iHeart Media, big thank you to iHeart Media.
Speaker 3: This is where our show is recorded each week. This
Speaker 3: is where we air KPRC nine to five. Oh. iHeart
Speaker 3: Media radio station. I think it's the oldest in Houston.
Speaker 3: I believe the oldest radio station in Houston, and we
Speaker 3: are proud to have the opportunity to be a part
Speaker 3: of that and part of the great history of KPRC
Speaker 3: and iHeart Media here in the Houston area. And I
Speaker 3: got to say thank you to Robert Reees. Robert's the
Speaker 3: guy that always makes sure we have our show fully
Speaker 3: sponsored and we are grateful for all the work he
Speaker 3: as everybody else that I heart. I mean, I hate
Speaker 3: to start naming people because everyone we've ever worked with
Speaker 3: that I heart everybody has just been extremely supportive and
Speaker 3: not just of the show and helping make the show happen,
Speaker 3: all the things that have to be done pushing all
Speaker 3: the right buttons. There's a lot of buttons, and I
Speaker 3: would never get that straight. So, but everybody that's been
Speaker 3: a part of it, Robert's been a good friend to
Speaker 3: the foundation from the beginning of Michael's involvement, and we
Speaker 3: just are truly grateful. So a reminder wherever you listen
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Speaker 3: it'll download automatically each and every week. You'll have it there.
Speaker 3: You can listen to it at you're convenience. You can
Speaker 3: even speed it up and make it sound really literally fast,
Speaker 3: so you can get through an hour show in a
Speaker 3: pretty quick amount of time if that's the way you
Speaker 3: choose to do it. But again, thank you for being
Speaker 3: with us, Thanks for everybody who's been a part of
Speaker 3: establishing Road to Hope Radio sustaining it. We are excited
Speaker 3: about having completed eight years now of broadcasting this show.
Speaker 3: Look forward to all the years coming up. It's going
Speaker 3: to be a fun ride. All right, we'll come back.
Speaker 3: We've got a couple of v's in the studio with us.
Speaker 4: Will write back with more of Road to Hope Radio.
Speaker 3: And we're welcome back Rode Hope Rio. Glad to have
Speaker 3: you along.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 3: We got a couple of guys in the studio with
Speaker 3: us that are super excited about getting a chanced to
Speaker 3: talk and tell some of their stories. It's always fun
Speaker 3: to try to draw it out of them. Meach Week, Lindburg,
Speaker 3: welcome back. Not your first rodeo.
Speaker 2: Here, No, no, sir, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Remind the world branch and where you're from and where
Speaker 3: you're deployed.
Speaker 2: Linburg Freeman, the third United States Army fifteen Juliet Mos
Speaker 2: does not exist anymore, but that is air cavalry for
Speaker 2: the Army.
Speaker 3: And where are you from?
Speaker 2: Originally originally born and raised in New York, Long.
Speaker 3: Island, Okay. And where'd you deploy?
Speaker 2: I deployed to Iraq for Operation nu Dawn. Okay, gotcha,
Speaker 2: all right, New York. We we love, we love you.
Speaker 3: We have to limit how many Yankees we allow and
Speaker 3: at any particular time.
Speaker 2: Well, I've adopted wearing the Astroe.
Speaker 3: There you go for you. So the program does work,
Speaker 3: works if you work it. So there's a couple of
Speaker 3: guys around there. I keep threatening me that CAP's gotta go. Man,
Speaker 3: you gotta know where you're at now. Glad to have
Speaker 3: you here, and what do you do for the foundation now?
Speaker 3: Because you're you came through the program? When you did
Speaker 3: you come through?
Speaker 2: I've been through the program twice. My first time was
Speaker 2: at the end of twenty nineteen into twenty twenty, twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: second time was twenty twenty two, graduated twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: and currently right now I am a yellow phase mentor
Speaker 2: for the program.
Speaker 3: Okay, very cool. So we may come back to that
Speaker 3: a little bit, because folks driving around sixteen right now, I
Speaker 3: have no idea what yellow phase means, but we may
Speaker 3: come back and talk a a little bit about the
Speaker 3: phases of the program. Also in the studio with us,
Speaker 3: we've got Jeremy who's currently in the program at Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: You want to tell everybody in the world who you
Speaker 3: are and all your good stuff.
Speaker 6: My name is Jeremy Holt. I'm from Mace, Arizona. Served
Speaker 6: in the United States Marine Corps First Battalion, six Marines.
Speaker 6: I served in Ramadi, Iraq in two thousand and six
Speaker 6: and then down in the Hellman Province in Afghanistan city
Speaker 6: of Garmentshire in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3: Okay, so let's back up in just a second. When
Speaker 3: did you join the Corps?
Speaker 6: I joined the Corps two thousand and five. It was
Speaker 6: August two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: Right out of high school or no, I.
Speaker 5: Kind of went in a little later.
Speaker 6: I was about twenty one when I joined, and uh, yeah,
Speaker 6: I just felt the calling to to answer you know
Speaker 6: what happened, uh after nine to eleven. I just felt
Speaker 6: the conviction to serve my country.
Speaker 3: Why did you choose the Marine Corps?
Speaker 5: Because, uh, it was.
Speaker 6: Just my my grandfather was a marine in Korea, and
Speaker 6: you know some of the stories he told me, and
Speaker 6: just like seeing the uniforms and and uh just you know,
Speaker 6: the Marine Corps to me was the best in the
Speaker 6: best branch.
Speaker 5: So I wanted to walk in those same footsteps.
Speaker 2: You agree, history can repeat itself, you know with his
Speaker 2: lineage coming from the Marines's My ground father was army
Speaker 2: in World War Two, so it was kind of inevitable that.
Speaker 3: So is that a big reason why you chose the Army?
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Family, Yes, sir, got you? Okay, all right, It's always
Speaker 3: interesting you know what I mean. Sometimes it's something like
Speaker 3: that that makes a lot of sense, and then sometimes
Speaker 3: it's just how in the world did that just come
Speaker 3: out of his mouth? That that's why he chose that
Speaker 3: particular branch. Okay, so family history, marine Corps, goodness, going
Speaker 3: back to Korea.
Speaker 5: That's Uh.
Speaker 3: Those stories are sometimes really difficult to hear if you
Speaker 3: can ever get them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was here. Yeah, my he was injured over there.
Speaker 6: He got hit with a grenade. Luckily he didn't lose
Speaker 6: any limbs, but he had trap metal in him.
Speaker 5: He's a prople heart recipient. Uh, he just was. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 5: he he's a role model to me.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 6: I kind of followed in his footsteps after I got
Speaker 6: all the War two. He was an engineer, and uh
Speaker 6: I kind of chose that path after I got on
Speaker 6: the Marine Corps as well, kind of followed in his
Speaker 6: footsteps there as well.
Speaker 3: So what did you do in between high school and
Speaker 3: the Corps?
Speaker 5: Uh? Trouble, Yeah, I was, I was. I was getting
Speaker 5: in a little trouble.
Speaker 6: I was working construction mainly, Uh, in and out of jobs.
Speaker 6: I was just still young. I had no Yeah, no,
Speaker 6: I knew I wanted to join the service. I got
Speaker 6: in a little bit of trouble, so it delayed it,
Speaker 6: uh for about a year and a half. Uh And
Speaker 6: you know, once that, once I put that behind me,
Speaker 6: I was full steam ahead and uh yeah I went
Speaker 6: in right away.
Speaker 3: Okay. And what were what were you doing? Typical day
Speaker 3: out there's it was a typical day, but kind of
Speaker 3: the main thing you were doing while you were deployed.
Speaker 6: So, uh, I was communicatations. I was uh. Uh I
Speaker 6: was in the first Town six Marines Infantry.
Speaker 5: Uh. You know.
Speaker 6: Two thousand and six, I was attached to Bravo Company,
Speaker 6: uh as a radio operator. Uh again in uh two
Speaker 6: thousand and eight, Uh, I got attached to a weapons company,
Speaker 6: and I mainly was a dismount hervey. I uh helped
Speaker 6: sweet for IEDs uh you know uh h helped with
Speaker 6: communication between the platoon and uh yeah just uh.
Speaker 5: Just uh yeah. This is the this very difficult with deployments.
Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly, neither of those countries are on my bucket
Speaker 3: list in any way, shape or form. Not a place
Speaker 3: I want to go, not people I want to have
Speaker 3: to interact with. What were you doing on your deployment, Lindburgh,
Speaker 3: Your basic job at typical day as if they were
Speaker 3: typical day.
Speaker 2: I was a fifteen Juliet which was an avionic electrician
Speaker 2: and weapons tech on the Kyawa Scout helicopter. So a
Speaker 2: typical day was me on the flight line oftentimes, you know,
Speaker 2: we serviced electronics, you know, cockpit instruments, things of that nature,
Speaker 2: like things I can't really go into. But then you know,
Speaker 2: we had the weapons component of the job, which I
Speaker 2: really love. I just didn't you know, you know, uh,
Speaker 2: I had to understand, like you know, working with things
Speaker 2: that can make me disappear, you know. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: was a It's different than being with the infantry unit
Speaker 2: tremendously because I was typically stationary one spot in the
Speaker 2: on the flight line, unless you know, we had a
Speaker 2: split fob operation which required driving or we had to
Speaker 2: fly out of the camp camp site itself. So with
Speaker 2: us being stationary, anybody that's stationary over there, you are
Speaker 2: prone to attack, you know. So we definitely were attacked.
Speaker 2: I came very close to, you know, not making it
Speaker 2: back home. Grace of God saved me.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: My grandmother died before the deployment, and I was not
Speaker 2: allowed to come home to New York for her funeral,
Speaker 2: and so I wrote a letter for my older sister
Speaker 2: to read at her her wake, and you know, I
Speaker 2: just believed that she was there with me on that day.
Speaker 2: You know, tell a lot of people that you know,
Speaker 2: my life hasn't been mine since that day. You know,
Speaker 2: like all this is borrowed time, is God's time. So
Speaker 2: very thankful, thankful that you know, I was able to
Speaker 2: get through that. I was one and done after that deployment.
Speaker 2: I came back and I was diagnosed with the sarcoidosis
Speaker 2: after I PCs from the unit that I deployed with.
Speaker 2: And you know, I was out of the military within
Speaker 2: two years. What year was that I was diagnosed in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen? I was out by twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: Okay, those are you listening on KPRC. We're going to
Speaker 3: take a quick news break those listening through the podcast
Speaker 3: the Little Music, and be right back with more Road
Speaker 3: to Hope Radio, and we welcome you back Road to
Speaker 3: Hope Radio. Got Lindbergh, United States Army Jeremy United States
Speaker 3: Marine Corps veterans. Glad to have both of you all.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you sharing some of your story. I know
Speaker 3: it's not the most favorite parts of what you do
Speaker 3: in a day. But a quick reminder as we do
Speaker 3: go through these stories not only of time and combat,
Speaker 3: but the struggles coming home with the mental health diagnosis
Speaker 3: and that type of thing, we know these can be triggering.
Speaker 3: So we want to ask everyone if you would please
Speaker 3: get out your phone put this phone number in it.
Speaker 3: Whether you think it's something you'll ever need or not,
Speaker 3: you never know whom you might come across someone who
Speaker 3: needs the number. And the great thing is when someone
Speaker 3: calls this number, a combat veteran will answer the phone.
Speaker 3: So for anyone struggling with combat related trauma, that will
Speaker 3: mean the world to them to know that when they
Speaker 3: call a combat that's going to answer the phone that
Speaker 3: numbers eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD or seventy
Speaker 3: eight seventy three. There's a lot of seven. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: give it to you one more time eight seven seven
Speaker 3: seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. And the website
Speaker 3: for the foundation PTSD Foundation of America and our interim
Speaker 3: housing facility called Camp Hope. That website is PTSD USA
Speaker 3: dot org. PTSD usa dot org. You can also follow
Speaker 3: along through our social media PTSD USA both on Facebook
Speaker 3: and uh formerly known as the Twitter currently known as
Speaker 3: the x PTSD USA on both of those platforms and
Speaker 3: on Instagram. Oh also on YouTube, I should have that
Speaker 3: PTSD USA on YouTube, and then the PTSD Foundation of
Speaker 3: America on Instagram. So two deployments you mentioned. I don't
Speaker 3: remember these act words, but there were some difficult times. Obviously,
Speaker 3: Limberg went into a little bit of his and I'm
Speaker 3: not asking you go into yours, but clearly, if you're
Speaker 3: at Camp Hope for veterans who are dealing with combat
Speaker 3: related PTSD, now we deal with everything else in the
Speaker 3: world while they're with us. But that's the shared experience
Speaker 3: that everybody there has for you after two deployments. So
Speaker 3: maybe it was, you know, during a deployment. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but when did you first notice something's something's not the
Speaker 3: way it should be.
Speaker 6: It was after my first deployment to Ramadi. Uh I
Speaker 6: lost some brothers there. It was a really difficult deployment,
Speaker 6: very dangerous. Uh I d threats, indirect fire UH firefights
Speaker 6: on the on a daily basis, you know, then losing
Speaker 6: and losing people close to me. When I got back,
Speaker 6: you know, at the time, I didn't have time to grieve,
Speaker 6: and uh, I started noticing it when I got back
Speaker 6: from my first deployment a little more detached. My my
Speaker 6: drinking started to pick up. And yeah, I was kind
Speaker 6: of just not following orders the way I used to.
Speaker 6: Just was kind of had some anxieties depression.
Speaker 3: Did you talk to anybody about it while you were
Speaker 3: still in.
Speaker 6: I didn't talk to anybody until after my second deployment.
Speaker 6: I had some other difficult things that happened while I
Speaker 6: lost my My grandfather passed away right before I went
Speaker 6: to Afghanistan. And then my father passed away about a
Speaker 6: week after I got back from Afghanistan. So, you know,
Speaker 6: coming back home, I was grieving with you know, my
Speaker 6: deployment to Afghanistan and getting out of the core.
Speaker 5: Didn't know.
Speaker 6: Too many people anymore, had been gone for a long time,
Speaker 6: and uh, yeah, I uh, you know, and then my
Speaker 6: dad passed away. And once he passed away, you know,
Speaker 6: I was there for about a week and then I
Speaker 6: went back to Campbell's Une. Uh and uh the last
Speaker 6: about three or four months before getting out, it was
Speaker 6: just dealing with the loss of every everybody, and and
Speaker 6: uh I started drinking. Uh you know, UH kind of
Speaker 6: got put out of the unit.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: So I was in another unit with a bunch of
Speaker 6: people I had uh not served with. Uh wasn't it
Speaker 6: wasn't close to anybody.
Speaker 5: Uh. I was drinking. Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, were either of you guys married when you
Speaker 3: were deployed?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: No, I was? Were you?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 3: I think that made it more difficult for you or
Speaker 3: find strength in that. How do you look at that now?
Speaker 2: Oh, my wife and I at the time we are
Speaker 2: now divorced. But during that time period we actually communicated
Speaker 2: a lot better, and the communication between us was a
Speaker 2: lot stronger. Uh, being that my grandmother had just died
Speaker 2: before the deployment. I had a goal, you know, because
Speaker 2: before that I was not a model soldier at all.
Speaker 2: I was actually on my way to getting chaptered out
Speaker 2: of the army before the deployment, But it came down
Speaker 2: to a numbers game and I ended up deploying. But
Speaker 2: you know, I decided to turn my loss into success,
Speaker 2: and communication with with my ex wife during that time
Speaker 2: definitely helped. So Yeah, Like, you know, being deployed and
Speaker 2: setting goals for the both of us, achieving them, being
Speaker 2: able to talk, you know, whether it was a good
Speaker 2: day or a bad day. It definitely helped during that time.
Speaker 3: Okay, Uh, Jeremy, so you were struggling while you were
Speaker 3: still in when did you finally decide to reach out
Speaker 3: to get some some real help.
Speaker 6: So when I first got out, I moved back to Arizona.
Speaker 6: I lived there for about a year, and I was
Speaker 6: really having a hard time. You know, I ended rolled
Speaker 6: into school right away and I was flunking out of classes.
Speaker 5: I was partying too much.
Speaker 6: And my mom decided to taught me into coming back
Speaker 6: to Texas, and so I moved in with my mother,
Speaker 6: and I was still having a hard time, and uh,
Speaker 6: you know, I ended up abusing prescription drugs from the VA,
Speaker 6: and uh, you know, I ended up going to the
Speaker 6: mental hospital.
Speaker 5: For a.
Speaker 6: Couple of weeks there, and then I enrolled into a
Speaker 6: PTSD program about two thousand and twelve in Waco, Texas.
Speaker 5: It was about a four month.
Speaker 3: Program and we had guys come to us from there
Speaker 3: in the early days.
Speaker 5: And you know, I did that program.
Speaker 6: But you know, honestly, after I got out of that program,
Speaker 6: I went back into isolation drinking still. You know, just
Speaker 6: kind of just wasn't present in the moment and at
Speaker 6: the time this is when I first met my wife
Speaker 6: and we were raising two kids, young young boys, and
Speaker 6: and uh, you know, my drinking was a lot heavier.
Speaker 5: I was depressed all the time.
Speaker 6: I just had a lot of anxiety and uh and uh,
Speaker 6: you know, I just kind of just stuffed everything that
Speaker 6: happened to me in my past and just just didn't
Speaker 6: really deal with the thoughts and the feelings that were
Speaker 6: you make me kind of self medicated with alcohol, and so.
Speaker 5: You know, it is fifteen years of you know, avoidance.
Speaker 3: That's always the part that just kind of hurts my heart, Linburger.
Speaker 3: You know, like your story, like, thank God for where
Speaker 3: you're at today and what you're able to do. And
Speaker 3: that's inspiring. It brings a lot of joy to a
Speaker 3: lot of people. To see where you are, to see
Speaker 3: how you are, what you're doing with your life. It
Speaker 3: truly is just an inspiring thing to get to see.
Speaker 3: But to think about all those years in between where
Speaker 3: there was such a struggle and such you know, self
Speaker 3: harm and to you know, in whatever form or fashion,
Speaker 3: but stroying a life, not building a life, and just
Speaker 3: seeing that much time take place in between, it just
Speaker 3: always kind of hurts my heart to hear that a
Speaker 3: little bit, but we're going to uh in just a
Speaker 3: moment where we could take a break, but we'll come back.
Speaker 3: I want to talk a little bit about the program
Speaker 3: at camp. You mentioned your yellow face will give a
Speaker 3: real high level, real fast version of the different phases
Speaker 3: of the program, but what you are able to do
Speaker 3: and how you're able to interact with the guys and
Speaker 3: help make some serious life choices as they start their
Speaker 3: journey of looking forward for the next phase of their life.
Speaker 3: All right, we're going to take a quick break, come
Speaker 3: back with more in just a moment, road to Hope Radio,
Speaker 3: and we walk me back road to Hope Radio. Glad
Speaker 3: to have you along. So how long have you been
Speaker 3: at camp, Jeremy.
Speaker 6: I've been at camp for crap. I just added that up.
Speaker 6: Oh that's all right, I think like seventy five days.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you are still in rid I am yeah, okay.
Speaker 3: So black phase just kind of the real fast. The
Speaker 3: first thirty days of any veteran coming to the programs
Speaker 3: a black phase, and it's basically just we're shutting them
Speaker 3: out from the world during those thirty days. No communications,
Speaker 3: no cell phones, no Internet connectivity, none of that. That's
Speaker 3: just and a big part of that is just to
Speaker 3: stabilize and to familiarize with here's who you're with, here's
Speaker 3: kind of how a day goes, and you know, all
Speaker 3: the stuff that was anxiety, uh pushing for you that
Speaker 3: led you to come to Camp Hope, let's just we'll
Speaker 3: deal with that in time. Right now, we're just let's
Speaker 3: let's let's calm down, Let's just take a breath and
Speaker 3: know you're in a safe place.
Speaker 5: Black phase.
Speaker 3: Red phase is really kind of the meat of the program.
Speaker 3: It's the bulk of the time in the program, generally speaking,
Speaker 3: and that's where they they're really digging in and learning
Speaker 3: and understanding a what PTSD has actually done to your
Speaker 3: brain and then you do start the whole how do
Speaker 3: you process all this? And that's why, yes, we will
Speaker 3: always say we're a program that serves combat related PTSD,
Speaker 3: but life We've all experienced trauma in our life and
Speaker 3: you can't pull one apart from the rest of them.
Speaker 3: So while you're in that, particularly the red phase of
Speaker 3: the program, we're going to work on all of it.
Speaker 3: We're going to work through every whatever the traumas were
Speaker 3: and for for all of us, I mean lived a minute.
Speaker 3: You've got multiple traumas in your life. So we'll work
Speaker 3: on that once Red phase is completed, which is a process, uh,
Speaker 3: and they enter into yellow. You want to talk a
Speaker 3: little bit about what happens in yellow.
Speaker 2: Yes, So Yellow phase is the late phase of the program.
Speaker 2: It is a tu month phase before graduation. During this phase,
Speaker 2: residence of Camp Hope are able to get their phones back.
Speaker 2: You know, with the US mentors also being past residents
Speaker 2: of the program, we understand where you where you need
Speaker 2: to get to where you uh the how down in
Speaker 2: the depths you know you have to go to come
Speaker 2: somewhere where you're willing to give your cell phone away
Speaker 2: in this day and age, but it is it is
Speaker 2: vital because you know, people that do not understand may
Speaker 2: not be the best to help during that period in time.
Speaker 2: So we help reintegrate residents with it and to happen
Speaker 2: their cell phones once again. We kind of limit the
Speaker 2: time that they do have it initially because it can
Speaker 2: be overload on the senses and provide too much stimulus
Speaker 2: at one period in time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of. I mean there's ups and downs
Speaker 3: in every phase of life, in every phase of our program,
Speaker 3: but Yellow. It can get really extreme because they are
Speaker 3: they are reintegrating, they are starting to have those conversations
Speaker 3: and sometimes those people are having to have conversations with
Speaker 3: are part of the problem. So that can come with
Speaker 3: some really tremendous highs and some really difficult lows. The
Speaker 3: emotions can be all over the place during that time.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, we do our best to give our residents
Speaker 2: the tools to help with these tough situations where they
Speaker 2: are repairing relationships with the family, spouses, children, you know,
Speaker 2: people that were there in their corner before they came
Speaker 2: to Camp Hope. We we do provide classes that that
Speaker 2: we as Yellow Phase mentors do teach. We do provide
Speaker 2: outside resources to come in and help them with different things,
Speaker 2: whether it be financial management, you know, education on how
Speaker 2: to manage their own finances, education on how to get
Speaker 2: enrolled in school, take them to different job fairs, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, get them in touch with different outside organizations
Speaker 2: and register with them so that should they need assistance,
Speaker 2: they know who they can go to. All that as
Speaker 2: well as you know, managing them today as they begin
Speaker 2: to speak with family and speak with their kids, their children,
Speaker 2: their spouses on a more consistent basis and dealing with
Speaker 2: a lot of things that they were weren't weren't present
Speaker 2: to see, you know, because they've been in program, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to help them communicate more effectively, assertively, helping them
Speaker 2: to understand what their role is, you know, reintegrating you know,
Speaker 2: you can jump on the horse and go full gallop.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Jeremy, so you been read for a little bit. Is
Speaker 3: there anything that's kind of changed in your mindset yet?
Speaker 3: Is there some there a moment of victory somewhere in
Speaker 3: the program where like this really helped.
Speaker 6: Or yeah, so right now it's coming into the program,
Speaker 6: I have got a reconnection with my uh Lord and
Speaker 6: Savior Jesus Christ. Uh, growing more spiritual uh in this journey,
Speaker 6: just started going processing some of my trauma with counseling,
Speaker 6: so you know, learning about some of my behaviors, and
Speaker 6: you know why I was doing that, and and uh
Speaker 6: you know uh and then also sobriety, yea, that helps
Speaker 6: a lot by itself. Yeah, And and the main thing
Speaker 6: that that that I've that's helped me here is just
Speaker 6: the other veterans that are in the program, peer to
Speaker 6: peer being able to have conversations with them Uh, day
Speaker 6: day in, day out, just getting closer to these guys
Speaker 6: and and uh, you know kind of experience and a
Speaker 6: lot of us the same similar experiences and and so
Speaker 6: uh just I'm basically reconnecting back with the world.
Speaker 3: How did you hear about Camp Hope?
Speaker 5: My wife?
Speaker 6: Okay, Yeah, we we were having some marriage uh problems,
Speaker 6: and my wife was just worried. You know, she's watched
Speaker 6: me go do this for thirteen years that we've been together,
Speaker 6: and you know, she just ah, she had she met
Speaker 6: one of the outreach guys, Jake, at an event, and.
Speaker 5: He he called me.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: I was reluctant to come to the program the first time.
Speaker 3: Nothing just about everybody.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And I mean that six months scared me a
Speaker 6: little bit, but you know, I kind of backed myself
Speaker 6: into a place where, you know, it was a saving
Speaker 6: grace for me. So you know, I'm happy that I
Speaker 6: chose to come. I gave up my job everything to
Speaker 6: come into this program and work on myself and you know,
Speaker 6: stop looking at the past and and focusing more on
Speaker 6: the present and being present for there, for my kids,
Speaker 6: my family, you and my mom, my sister.
Speaker 3: You're you're very fortunate because you've been there long enough,
Speaker 3: seeing enough guys coming into the program and guys exiting
Speaker 3: the program. Not everybody has family support like you appear
Speaker 3: to have, so you're very blessed in that. Thank God
Speaker 3: for Yeah. All right, well, thank you for sharing, I
Speaker 3: know you know again sharing these kind of stories and
Speaker 3: talking about mental health diagnosis and all that stuff. It's
Speaker 3: not really oh boy, this is what I get to
Speaker 3: do today. It's going to be great. Hopefully wasn't too painful.
Speaker 3: I try to It can be heavy, it can be
Speaker 3: like a really like you mentioned lots of several guys
Speaker 3: on that first deployment. I hear this all the time
Speaker 3: from guys. Yeah, I lost two or three or twelve
Speaker 3: whatever the number is while we were deployed, and I've
Speaker 3: lost multiples of that since I'm coming home. And that's
Speaker 3: a dark, heavy conversation. So try to let lighten it
Speaker 3: up before we can insert some humor along the way
Speaker 3: and try to make it not too all the painful.
Speaker 3: So thanks for sharing some of your story. You being
Speaker 3: fed while you're there, I mean food in again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the food.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've gained some weight here and it's good food.
Speaker 6: I mean a lot of protein, a lot of carbohydrates.
Speaker 3: So I'm grateful over for our community that helps make
Speaker 3: it all happen. It's a great community. Ptsd us a
Speaker 3: dot org. If you're looking for help, if you're looking
Speaker 3: for a way how you can help make these stories
Speaker 3: continue to happen. PTSDUSA dot org. All that information is there.
Speaker 3: We thank you for listening and look forward to being
Speaker 3: with you again next week for more of Road to
Speaker 3: Hope Radio