Speaker 1: Multiple people in my family clean my father, are veterans.
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Speaker 3: Sacrifice, love for their country, just unselfishness, all that they
Speaker 3: do for us. There are some people in this country
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Speaker 1: We forget that those people exist. We know them as
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Speaker 2: with us today. We've got a couple that's with us. Max.
Speaker 2: Always good to have you back. Other than the cap
Speaker 2: uh uh. Anyway, glad to have back, going to reintroduce
Speaker 2: yourself to the world.
Speaker 4: Yes, once again, my name is Robert MacLean. I'm from Bronx,
Speaker 4: New York. My call sign is mac.
Speaker 2: Thank you, and you served.
Speaker 4: I served in the Army Airborne. I've been to quite
Speaker 4: a few places, a couple of wars. I really don't
Speaker 4: want to try to go back into it. But if
Speaker 4: you want to have a good, good, nice story, come
Speaker 4: see this. Come come listen to my story.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, understood airborne means you fell out of an airplane.
Speaker 4: No, sir, you jump out of the airplane.
Speaker 2: Jump out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Savina's fall out. No. Never, They don't push you out.
Speaker 4: They give you the boot, sir, a nice shiny boot.
Speaker 2: Goodness. I never understood that, but thank you for doing it.
Speaker 2: Is your back? Remind you my knees? Is your knees?
Speaker 4: Yes, bone bone on bone? Yeah, yes, sir, But you
Speaker 4: know what, that's a young man's game, and I'm glad
Speaker 4: I was young. Ones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we all used to be young.
Speaker 4: Leave that.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was a minute ago, but.
Speaker 4: As long as we can remember, we could talk about
Speaker 4: it happened.
Speaker 2: We went through that stage I didn't jump out of
Speaker 2: airplanes though, uh no, not me. All right, Kelly, want
Speaker 2: to enter yourself of the world.
Speaker 3: Kelly McMillan's staff sim United States Army paratrooper as well
Speaker 3: knees in a breeze. Fort Bragg has spent my whole
Speaker 3: career and pleasure to be here. And where'd you deploy
Speaker 3: Iraq in Afghanistan? You got you got both of them, yes, sir, oh.
Speaker 3: First one was two thousand and one, two thousand and two,
Speaker 3: four the really seven, O, eight, nine and ten.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, so four? Yeah, good grief. No, I
Speaker 2: got six total, sixth total.
Speaker 3: But most of them was all of them actually was
Speaker 3: with use of sock. So our longest deployment was only
Speaker 3: seven months, so it wasn't a year long like Big
Speaker 3: Army did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, only seven months. Yeah, that's seven months more than
Speaker 2: I would want to be there. God Lee, all right,
Speaker 2: we'll glad to have you along. And you're from where
Speaker 2: exactly originally Ohio, Ohio. So we've got two Yankees in here, man,
Speaker 2: that is you're safe. Sorry, we gotta we gotta, we
Speaker 2: gotta clear this up, not let this happen again. You
Speaker 2: are so many people from the other side of the
Speaker 2: Mason Dixon line for uh.
Speaker 4: Don't worry and we'll come now because of the terrace.
Speaker 2: Oh man, uh all right, see high school? You like
Speaker 2: the drama guy? Football player baseball?
Speaker 5: Played football? Did you?
Speaker 3: McKinley Senior High School? My My high school stadium is
Speaker 3: Fossett Stadium where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is nice.
Speaker 5: That's where I played football.
Speaker 2: Were you any good?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, quarterback? Absolutely, you're the quarterback, yes, sir.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we got we got the star.
Speaker 5: In here and played wrestling too.
Speaker 2: You wrestle, yes, sir? Uh yeah. Uh. My old one
Speaker 2: of my brothers, he's the youngest of my brothers and
Speaker 2: he's seven years older than me, and he was like
Speaker 2: all state in high school. He always liked to try
Speaker 2: out his new moves on me. I was seven years
Speaker 2: younger than him, so you just think, you know, he's
Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen, I'm ten eleven years old. That never worked
Speaker 2: out well for me, never does, but he's a little brother.
Speaker 2: Never worked out well for me, but I learned a
Speaker 2: lot about wrestling. One don't mess with one who is
Speaker 2: an actual wrestler. You don't want to mess with that.
Speaker 2: They're small like my brother. He was always cutting weight
Speaker 2: all the time. I think he was one o eight wow,
Speaker 2: and then like one whatever. The next one was one
Speaker 2: thirteen or something like that. When he was like a senior,
Speaker 2: like just couldn't eat food. I mean, it was just ridiculous.
Speaker 2: My mom would boil a Hamburger patty for him, boil it.
Speaker 2: It was crazy. He's always cutting weight.
Speaker 4: Crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't mess with those guys though they will,
Speaker 2: they will turn your eight. Anyway, We're gonna take a
Speaker 2: quick break and when we come back, we'll get into
Speaker 2: a little bit of these guys' stories and what brought
Speaker 2: him to Camp Hope and what we're doing going forward.
Speaker 2: So this is Road to Hope. Ridy will be right
Speaker 2: back and we welcome you back Road to Hope Radio'd
Speaker 2: glad to have you along. Quick reminder follow us. We
Speaker 2: have Road to Hope Radio on Facebook. Follow us there.
Speaker 2: We will always post a link to the shows. We
Speaker 2: will also share some on occasion, we'll share some veteran
Speaker 2: related news stories. At times. We will also share some
Speaker 2: events going on about the PTSD Foundation for America. But
Speaker 2: for more up to date on that if you just
Speaker 2: follow PTSD Foundation so on Facebook. And on the X
Speaker 2: formerly known as Twitter ptsd USA. Also on YouTube, ptsd
Speaker 2: USA is our YouTube channel, so we encourage you to
Speaker 2: sign up for those. Again, all that is free, as
Speaker 2: we charge nobody anything. Everything we do is for free
Speaker 2: for the veteran and for the families, So all of
Speaker 2: that's free. So Facebook X formerly known as Twitter, YouTube,
Speaker 2: ptsd USA websites ptsdusa dot org. That's a great way
Speaker 2: for you to follow all the events going on in
Speaker 2: support of the PTSD Foundation of America and Camp Hope.
Speaker 2: Camp Hope is the interim housing facility and program that
Speaker 2: we bring veterans in such as Kelly, from all across
Speaker 2: the country, every era of combat, every military brand. We
Speaker 2: haven't had Space Force yet. I'm sure, I'm sure it
Speaker 2: will happen at some point in time, but we haven't
Speaker 2: had anyone from Space Force yet, but we've covered all
Speaker 2: the other branches, So again, all of that is absolutely free.
Speaker 2: But you can get all the information about those programs,
Speaker 2: not only Camp Hope, but also the support groups that
Speaker 2: we run were we also have first responders law enforcement
Speaker 2: involved in some of those groups. So all that information
Speaker 2: is available at our website PTSDUSA dot org. Appreciate you
Speaker 2: checking that out. One other thing I want to give
Speaker 2: you is our combat Trauma Support line eight seven seven
Speaker 2: seven one, seven seventy eight seventy three. You may not
Speaker 2: be a VET. You may think you'll never need that number,
Speaker 2: but please put that number in your phone. You never
Speaker 2: know when you may come into contact with somebody that
Speaker 2: could really use that lifeline. I guess you could say,
Speaker 2: And then you don't want to be kicking yourself thinking well,
Speaker 2: what was that number? So put it in your phone.
Speaker 2: Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three.
Speaker 2: And here's the important thing to know about that number.
Speaker 2: It's going to be answered twenty four to seven a
Speaker 2: combat vet, so with someone who truly understands. This is
Speaker 2: not a psych or someone just reading answers off of
Speaker 2: a screen, some sort of AI driven sort of a thing.
Speaker 2: A combat vet who's been through the program also has
Speaker 2: received a great deal of training, suicide like assays, training
Speaker 2: how to deal with all that. Eight seven seven seven
Speaker 2: one seven seventy eight seventy three. A combat vet is
Speaker 2: going to answer the phone, all right, Kelly, So, star
Speaker 2: football guy, why'd you join the army?
Speaker 3: I ended up getting some trouble in high school, and
Speaker 3: my brother had already joined the army, and he came
Speaker 3: home on hometown recruiting, and he brought home his recruiter,
Speaker 3: so end up talking me into it. So I got
Speaker 3: my ged and I left for the army. And I
Speaker 3: want to be airborne, and so I did.
Speaker 2: When did you sign up in two thousand? In two thousand?
Speaker 2: Why do you want to be airborne?
Speaker 5: Because my brother wasn't. I want her to be better
Speaker 5: than him.
Speaker 2: Step up. They gotta beat the brother. I love it.
Speaker 2: Why did you choose to go airborne?
Speaker 4: Because excuse me, my name is Mack once again, because
Speaker 4: my father was air calve and he always talked about
Speaker 4: how did you used to be airborn? And I sound
Speaker 4: like him because my dad didn't do it? So I
Speaker 4: did it? Got you to prove? Yeah, sure of course.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little little competition that gotta one up them
Speaker 2: right to work more than beating all right? Uh so
Speaker 2: you joined up in two thousand, you deployed in two
Speaker 2: thousand and one. I mean that was that was fast.
Speaker 2: There weren't many, right.
Speaker 3: We uh laid Constantina tripplestrand Constantina wire around four brag
Speaker 3: and then in about forty five days we was in Usebekistan.
Speaker 2: You deployed pretty fast too, didn't you? Pretty early?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Sir, Well, year did you go? I went in
Speaker 4: eighty four and Hondors was my first one, and then
Speaker 4: we went, yeah for Honduras, and then we uh did
Speaker 4: Panama way before we did the invasion, and then we
Speaker 4: had a does a shell does a storm? I was
Speaker 4: a line in the sand on that one. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: that's where we stopped. I ROCKI freedom. Excuse me. It
Speaker 4: was my last, very last one. Yeah.
Speaker 2: What year was that?
Speaker 4: That was two thousand and one. I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so very both of you guys, like very early
Speaker 2: in all that very because there weren't many that were
Speaker 2: deployed that quickly.
Speaker 4: No, no, because you know we we we were real
Speaker 4: quick respondors, you know, eighteen hours or less, you know,
Speaker 4: light infantry. Yeah, so we get there quicker than anybody else,
Speaker 4: get everybody there on top on the trains and stuff
Speaker 4: like that to get there.
Speaker 2: Where'd you go into another one?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 3: We staged and used Bakistan for the initial push into
Speaker 3: Bogram and then went in with tenth Mountain one hundred, first, uh,
Speaker 3: third and seventh group when we staged in Bogram for
Speaker 3: first boots on ground for Operation Anaconda, and that was
Speaker 3: the initial push to get to push them out of
Speaker 3: the mountains around Bogram and Marzak.
Speaker 2: So what were you doing what?
Speaker 5: I was supposed to just be a mechanic, but was.
Speaker 2: Supposed to be doing something else than.
Speaker 3: And they definitely they were a lot stronger force than
Speaker 3: was to be expected. So we had like three helicopters
Speaker 3: that got shot down that we had to go up
Speaker 3: in the mountains and retrieve. And it was a whole
Speaker 3: lot bigger operation than they anticipated in the beginning for Anaconda.
Speaker 5: So it was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: So you went up after the after the choppers went down,
Speaker 2: retrieving the bodies. I was meeting with the gold Star dad. Mmm,
Speaker 2: so it was last week. His son was a marine
Speaker 2: and was killed in a chopper over there. Crazy story
Speaker 2: they gave him. You know, they're getting shot at all
Speaker 2: the time, right, I mean, it's just it's kind of
Speaker 2: a low easy target to shoot at, right, So they're
Speaker 2: shooting these things all the time. You know. They told
Speaker 2: the family, you know, mechanical failure, Like, yeah, well you
Speaker 2: get hit enough times, I guess you have mechanical failure.
Speaker 2: I guess that's how that rolls. I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's what the story you want to tell, but that's
Speaker 2: the story you want to tell. I guess the Marine
Speaker 2: Corps had a reason for saying it that way. I
Speaker 2: don't know. That doesn't makes much sense to me. Uh
Speaker 2: So just that in and of itself is traumatic, just
Speaker 2: having to deal with the fallout of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that we set up the first CCP
Speaker 3: casualty collection point there.
Speaker 5: In Bogroom, and for.
Speaker 3: The first like, we couldn't land fixed wing because the
Speaker 3: only runway that was there with Boggra met was so
Speaker 3: mortar rid ol dat you couldn't land fixed wing, so
Speaker 3: you could only land shanooks and coming like that for
Speaker 3: the first couple of months there until it got repaired.
Speaker 3: So getting people in and out of there wasn't really capable.
Speaker 3: Could only get helos. So it wasn't the ideal situation
Speaker 3: there in February of O two, you know, especially with snow.
Speaker 2: On the ground, and I cannot imagine it was an
Speaker 2: ideal And you were there how long that one was?
Speaker 5: Eight months?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll pass on that one if I can.
Speaker 2: All right, So eight months there and then four six
Speaker 2: total deployments for RACK Afghanistan. Right, yeah, okay, all right,
Speaker 2: when did when did you begin to realize something was
Speaker 2: up on your mental health?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: As soon as I came back from the first.
Speaker 5: Tour, Yeah, I was. I was only eighteen, and.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask how old were you when
Speaker 2: you hit So eighteen, that's way too young, that's just stupid.
Speaker 3: But everything revolved around drinking after that. And I mean
Speaker 3: my dad drank. He was the commander at the VFW.
Speaker 3: Back home, so when I'll go home to visit, of course,
Speaker 3: everybody's putting tokens downs, drink tickets, you know, at the BFW.
Speaker 3: So I didn't buy a single drink the whole time
Speaker 3: I was home, and that was not normal. Get back
Speaker 3: to Fort Brag and everybody's drinking every night, eighteen or not,
Speaker 3: it didn't matter. And uh that's how you just cooked
Speaker 3: and it was an everyday thing. We could drink. I mean,
Speaker 3: smoke bomb Hill Class six had the highest alcohol sales
Speaker 3: of the year.
Speaker 5: In the whole United States.
Speaker 3: I mean, they sell the most alcohol on Fort Brag
Speaker 3: in the whole United States.
Speaker 5: For a reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so all right, we're going to take a quick
Speaker 2: news break for those of you on the nine to
Speaker 2: five O you listen through podcasts. Just a quick little
Speaker 2: musical interlude and we'll be back with more of Road
Speaker 2: to Hope Radio in just a moment, and we welcome
Speaker 2: you back Road to Hope Radio. Glad to have you along.
Speaker 2: Got uh, Robert, I'd like to call Mac.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: So. United States Army Vet. Kelly also United States Army Vet,
Speaker 2: both airborne jumping out of airplanes. Yeah, so you mentioned
Speaker 2: after that very first deployment you you were already hitting
Speaker 2: the bottle pretty hard.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you ever talked to anybody about anything in the
Speaker 2: army or no?
Speaker 5: No, No, it seemed normal.
Speaker 2: Because everybody, everybody was doing it was the normal way
Speaker 2: to cope.
Speaker 3: So and even my brother who hadn't already deployed, he
Speaker 3: hadn't had a first deployment yet, he had been in
Speaker 3: longer and uh he was in Korea though, but when
Speaker 3: I talked to him, he was doing the same thing,
Speaker 3: still drink or drinking over there.
Speaker 5: So it seemed normal.
Speaker 2: So you had five more deployments after that. What were
Speaker 2: you doing in those other diployments?
Speaker 3: Uh, those are all with the USASAK. Some of them
Speaker 3: was out doing some raids. The ones in Iraq were
Speaker 3: a lot of driving. I was doing driving, going out,
Speaker 3: picking up to our hits and stuff with the third group.
Speaker 3: But uh, they're they're a little more in depth than
Speaker 3: just going out and you know, just fired they were.
Speaker 3: I really don't want to talk too much about it,
Speaker 3: but it's fun.
Speaker 5: There. There's still stuff that I'm breaking through right now
Speaker 5: with my.
Speaker 2: Sure, not mechanics. Stuff not mechanics. Yeah, that signed up
Speaker 2: to be a mechanic and here.
Speaker 3: Is Yeah, well let's see. In Usak they send you
Speaker 3: through a lot more training though. Like that's the best
Speaker 3: thing about about USACK the money, the budget for schooling
Speaker 3: is there. You can go to any school you want
Speaker 3: when you're in Usaka is definitely a good place for training.
Speaker 2: And how long were you in the army to twenty fifteen?
Speaker 5: Twenty fifteen, so.
Speaker 2: You stayed awhile like mac mac went in state awhile?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: How long were you.
Speaker 4: In mayby four to one when it came back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a long time.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So if you go in like you were eighteen when
Speaker 2: you joined, and you're there for how long? Fourteen fifteen years,
Speaker 2: fifteen years, that's all you knew as as an adult,
Speaker 2: that's all you knew, and that's your world, that's your
Speaker 2: whole frame of reference of seeing the world and existing
Speaker 2: in the world. So we run into what had become
Speaker 2: did become the obvious issue of our post nine to
Speaker 2: eleven global war on terrorism, that reintegration into a civilian world.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing your story is going to be similar to
Speaker 2: most that I've heard in that timeframe. There wasn't a
Speaker 2: whole lot Like you took a lot of classes for
Speaker 2: training for doing your job in the army. What did
Speaker 2: they do for you when it was time.
Speaker 5: To go, Oh really nothing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of I assume that'll be there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you're just well to the world. Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 2: it's interesting and you've seen it both as a coming
Speaker 2: through the program but being now on the other side
Speaker 2: and being a mentor and working with guys coming through
Speaker 2: the program. These guys, I mean, so many of them
Speaker 2: came through. They'd never bought an insurance policy, they'd never
Speaker 2: done any of those things they did. It was all
Speaker 2: done for them exactly right, And here's your clothes, Like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a whole new world when you get out. How
Speaker 2: much how much of that was a problem for I
Speaker 2: mean clearly PTSD, but in addition to how much was
Speaker 2: that an issue for either of you guys, Just all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you're a civilian now.
Speaker 4: I mean one, you're basically like being kicked out the house,
Speaker 4: and two where am I going to go? I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: we have family and stuff like that. But once you're
Speaker 4: good for family, they don't understand you anymore. So what's
Speaker 4: And I'm thinking, what's wrong with them? And all of
Speaker 4: a sudden, you know what, My only friend is my addiction.
Speaker 4: I find an addiction that I knew well in the
Speaker 4: military at least I remember that, so I carry that
Speaker 4: with me on the outside and find the wrong people
Speaker 4: after that, and you find a different world. But to
Speaker 4: you it is normal because you've never been in any
Speaker 4: other world but the war and the dark side of
Speaker 4: the dark side of the should I say civilian world?
Speaker 4: It's just like being at the war, so you fit
Speaker 4: right on that, you know, until you learn something to
Speaker 4: new way, you get the faith back in your heart
Speaker 4: and then you understand everything else around your end civilians,
Speaker 4: but other than that, they throw you back to the walls. Basically,
Speaker 4: I feel because when I was home in New York.
Speaker 4: That was the jungle when the military left, let us go.
Speaker 4: That's the jungle because you don't know where you're at,
Speaker 4: trying to find yourself, trying to find people that understand you.
Speaker 4: Scary to side.
Speaker 2: See how you were early thirties when you got out,
Speaker 2: six deployments under your belt and you know, welcome to
Speaker 2: the world. What what was it? I mean, you were
Speaker 2: already using alcohol, you were doing that while you were in.
Speaker 2: But once you came out of the out of the military,
Speaker 2: what was your what was going on? What'd you do
Speaker 2: when you got out? First? Did you get a job somewhere,
Speaker 2: go out of school? What did you do?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean obviously I got a job.
Speaker 3: I ended up getting out on a five Dasha, which
Speaker 3: is a family care plan because my wife had got sick.
Speaker 3: She had got breast cancer and we had two kids,
Speaker 3: so I couldn't take care of her and the kids
Speaker 3: while I was active duties. So that's the reason why
Speaker 3: I got out. We left Bragg and went back to
Speaker 3: Georgia where she grew up. So that and getting out
Speaker 3: on five Dasha family care plan, I was able to
Speaker 3: get my separation bay.
Speaker 5: That's what helped us get our setup.
Speaker 3: So my first job once I got out was down
Speaker 3: in Coming, Georgia working for some Belt Rentals. And like
Speaker 3: you said, there's no transition from the military. So my
Speaker 3: very first job was some Belt Rentals, which is an
Speaker 3: amazing company, and I had in my first month, I
Speaker 3: had two hr complaints from other people because I was
Speaker 3: so abrasive, you know, being in the military. My whole
Speaker 3: demeanor talking to somebody. You can't call somebody stupid, you know,
Speaker 3: and they don't. That's highly frowned upon. So got these
Speaker 3: young kids in there, and I expect them to have
Speaker 3: the mentality and work ethic that I did and my
Speaker 3: guys did when in the military.
Speaker 5: Can't can't call somebody stupid and say.
Speaker 3: Hey, you know, even though he's acting like it, you know,
Speaker 3: you can't do that. So it was a lot to
Speaker 3: get myself a mac uh, I guess uh tailored to
Speaker 3: civilian world and uh. But once I did, you know,
Speaker 3: it took a little while, but I excelled. I mean,
Speaker 3: became uh employee of the month five months in a row,
Speaker 3: you know, once I learned how to mm hmm tailor
Speaker 3: to it. So my drinking still was a daily thing,
Speaker 3: even I mean the stressors of life instantly got worse.
Speaker 3: You noticed, Sacre, she got the more stressors, and then
Speaker 3: when she passed, it just everything overtook me. And that's
Speaker 3: how Camp Hope had to fallen, because I lost.
Speaker 5: Just control of everything.
Speaker 2: When did she pass?
Speaker 3: Valentine's Day, twenty twenty two?
Speaker 2: So sorry, thank you, sir. I hate cancer me too.
Speaker 2: I hate it in every way you possibly can. Okay,
Speaker 2: So you're you come out of a you know, the
Speaker 2: only career you knew at the time, military. You come
Speaker 2: out because of the diagnosis of your wife's cancer. So
Speaker 2: you're dealing with that. You're trying to figure out how
Speaker 2: to get along in a civilian world and then eventually
Speaker 2: lose your wife to the camp answer, that's a lot.
Speaker 2: That's a lot on the plate. You said that was
Speaker 2: in twenty two. What happened after that?
Speaker 3: I made it to about Christmas time of the end
Speaker 3: of twenty two, and come January twenty three, I couldn't
Speaker 3: make the hours at work to maintain the level that
Speaker 3: I was providing for me and the kids started closet drinking,
Speaker 3: you know, under the bed once I get the kids
Speaker 3: to bed and stuff I'd hide in my room and
Speaker 3: drink until I fell asleep. My mom saw the came
Speaker 3: over to the house. All the liquor bottles that I
Speaker 3: had hit under the bed caused concern. She was concerned
Speaker 3: for the kids and started that whole thing, and it
Speaker 3: got brought to the light. You know, what I did
Speaker 3: in the dark was brought to the light, and which
Speaker 3: was it needed to be. You know, I'm glad my
Speaker 3: mom was there to care about me and started this
Speaker 3: whole thing. So I went to a rehab up in
Speaker 3: North Georgia and Helen called Jericho House, and that's that's
Speaker 3: first time I opened a Bible. You know, I wasn't
Speaker 3: raised in a religious house, so never really have religion
Speaker 3: ever and opened the Bible up there in Jericho House,
Speaker 3: and it was nice.
Speaker 5: I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that I looked forward to
Speaker 3: the most about coming out here to Camp Hope of
Speaker 3: it being a faith based program and being a loan program,
Speaker 3: because I only went to Jericho House for three months
Speaker 3: and then I had made it nine months, was doing
Speaker 3: pretty good and then I relapsed and then that's how
Speaker 3: I ended up out here at Camp Hope with it
Speaker 3: being a twelve month or seven or nine month, but
Speaker 3: possible year program.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, we've had some take up basically up to
Speaker 2: two years. We've had a couple guys to take them.
Speaker 2: All Right, we're gonna take gonna take a quick break
Speaker 2: here in just a moment. Just a reminder eight seven
Speaker 2: seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three is the
Speaker 2: Combat Trauma Support Line eight seven seven seven one seven
Speaker 2: seventy eight seventy three websites PTSDUSA dot org. We're gonna
Speaker 2: take a quick break. Be right back. More of Road
Speaker 2: to Hope Radio. You know I need joll love.
Speaker 1: You got a.
Speaker 3: Hold of me.
Speaker 2: Jall you know that. And welcome back Road to Hope Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you again for sharing. If you'll just hit that
Speaker 2: subscribe button wherever you listen to podcasts up the Road
Speaker 2: to Hope Radio, if you hit that subscribe button, that
Speaker 2: will automatically download, and we appreciate you sharing it. Look,
Speaker 2: you're gonna come across people that maybe you don't know someone,
Speaker 2: but maybe someone you know knows someone that needs what
Speaker 2: we do PTSDUSA dot organ Again, we remove every barrier
Speaker 2: we possibly can that would keep someone from coming. So,
Speaker 2: uh did you come from Georgia? Okay? So you came
Speaker 2: to us from so for instance, coming from Georgia or
Speaker 2: in your case, coming from New York. Uh, we we
Speaker 2: buy the airplane ticket, we'll get you here. We'll take
Speaker 2: care of everything while here. Sometimes we eat pretty good too.
Speaker 2: It's our our quote unquote tagline, uh, Hope and healing
Speaker 2: for the unseen wounds of war, which you have TBII
Speaker 2: well right, you know, so multiple diagnosis, Hope and Healing
Speaker 2: for the Unseen Wounds of war. Uh, the unofficial taglines.
Speaker 2: We like to eat uh. So we really appreciate some
Speaker 2: of our partners who from time to time bring out
Speaker 2: some amazing meals. We had one last week that was
Speaker 2: just off the charts. Our friends at True Lucks brought
Speaker 2: out some lobster and some some prime rib. It was
Speaker 2: that was a day. That was a day right there.
Speaker 2: Then Del Frisco's brought out dinner like this. That was
Speaker 2: a day. Man. You guys live like kings Like that
Speaker 2: was awesome. No, we don't. It doesn't happen all the time,
Speaker 2: but we do eat good. I mean to say that
Speaker 2: food's good all the time. We have a great chef
Speaker 2: and you never know what it's going to be because you
Speaker 2: never know what's going to be donated, but he's able
Speaker 2: to turn it into something good each and every day.
Speaker 2: I try to stay away around lunchtime because I just
Speaker 2: I don't want to be tempted, Like, if I'm there
Speaker 2: around lunch, I'm gonna want to at least look at it,
Speaker 2: at it like what's going on. I try to avoid that.
Speaker 4: It's kind of hard to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure, But one thing I don't want to
Speaker 2: mention is so like the family support we want to
Speaker 2: help the family members as well. So we have a
Speaker 2: team at our organization that's complete. That's our whole job
Speaker 2: is to support families while their loved one is in
Speaker 2: the program, and you know, even both before and after.
Speaker 2: So sometimes in the early years when I was running
Speaker 2: a family group, sometimes it was the family member coming
Speaker 2: to understand what happened to the loved one because you
Speaker 2: talked about that a little while ago. The family just
Speaker 2: didn't get it. They don't understand, right, and why would they.
Speaker 2: So we were in those family support groups to help
Speaker 2: them understand what happened to your Johnny when he came home.
Speaker 2: We had both of his arms and legs and eyes
Speaker 2: who looked good but different war changed them, and we
Speaker 2: try to help the families understand what happened to their
Speaker 2: Johnny when they came home from war. So those support
Speaker 2: groups happen as well. Many times as a family member
Speaker 2: that starts to get the understanding and the support before
Speaker 2: the veteran never does. So we encourage you. You're a
Speaker 2: family of a veteran that's struggling. I see this so
Speaker 2: often in ours, particularly in our Vietnam that population. So
Speaker 2: many times family members were watching and now you know,
Speaker 2: when they came home from Vietnam. There was obviously what
Speaker 2: happened here in this country which was unforgivable. The way
Speaker 2: we welcome to our Vietnam veterans home is just uncompletely unforgivable.
Speaker 2: But I think the VA and the country has learned
Speaker 2: at least a little bit, not as much as you
Speaker 2: would like to think, but the coming home issue and
Speaker 2: what's going on and family members seeing the veterans and
Speaker 2: now they hear about PTSD because it's become, you know,
Speaker 2: a known thing, I'd say, over the last ten years
Speaker 2: or so. It's everyone's aware. They don't necessarily understand it,
Speaker 2: they at least have heard the terminology of PTSD and
Speaker 2: post traumatic stress, so they at least are familiar with
Speaker 2: that to to some point. But they say, oh, that's
Speaker 2: my that's my dad, that's my granddad, that's exactly what's
Speaker 2: going on. And they hear about all these years later, and
Speaker 2: sometimes they're the ones that will reach out and get
Speaker 2: support before the veteran ever does, and that could be
Speaker 2: a great leading veteran getting help. Now, you'd gone to
Speaker 2: a rehab you mentioned and stayed sober for a while,
Speaker 2: how did you eventually hear about Camp Hope?
Speaker 3: By God's grace? Honestly, I had got in trouble. I
Speaker 3: tried to commit suicide in my truck in a parking lot,
Speaker 3: eight sleep meds and tried to drink a lot and
Speaker 3: go to sleep where I want to wake up. Did
Speaker 3: it strategically to where my life interns would still pay out,
Speaker 3: you know, not eat a bullet or anything like that,
Speaker 3: And somebody told me and going to ambulance and they
Speaker 3: saved me. Ended up going to jail because I had
Speaker 3: a liquor bottle April sixteenth of last year, and because
Speaker 3: of the liquor bottle in the truck in a parking lot,
Speaker 3: I ended up getting a d UI. Uh that's how
Speaker 3: I ended up in jail, and my attorney turned me out,
Speaker 3: told me about it, and uh, that's when the representative
Speaker 3: Jason at Ohall County, Georgia came and talked to me
Speaker 3: about it. And if I would have known about Camp
Speaker 3: Hope as soon as Megan passed and I lost, you know,
Speaker 3: my whole support system after my dad passed away. He
Speaker 3: was my primary on my support system with everything that
Speaker 3: happened to me in the military, you know, telling me
Speaker 3: everything that I had done. It was my job, and
Speaker 3: you know, I did what I had to do. And
Speaker 3: then Megan, you know, she told me everything I've done
Speaker 3: was you know, I did what I had to do.
Speaker 3: And you know, when she gone, every everything that always
Speaker 3: supported me was gone. You know, I smoked and then
Speaker 3: when I lost all that, if I would have known
Speaker 3: about Camp Hope, then would have been saving grace for me.
Speaker 5: But that's how I found out.
Speaker 2: We have a great team in Atlanta, yes, sir, a
Speaker 2: great team. They're rocking it. Absolutely, they do great, great
Speaker 2: work in our Atlanta outreach and yes, what is one
Speaker 2: of the things we often talk about is like how
Speaker 2: can we get and we're talking with some folks currently
Speaker 2: at the Fort Cavasa's formerly Fort Hood. But how can
Speaker 2: we can get involved in their transition out of the military,
Speaker 2: How can we get to meet them there in hopes
Speaker 2: that we can help guys like you before you have
Speaker 2: that criminal activity, whatever that may happen to be, or
Speaker 2: other issues. We want to try to get out in
Speaker 2: front of that. So that's something we're constantly working on.
Speaker 2: So you when did you get to Camp.
Speaker 5: Uh August ninth? Okay, was the first time?
Speaker 2: What what are you learning? What's what's changing for you?
Speaker 3: I'm learning a lot being appeered a peer, having somebody
Speaker 3: talk to. Since Megan I got sick in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: I really had lost connectivity with my brothers with a friend.
Speaker 3: I mean, she had been literally my best friend everything,
Speaker 3: the one person I talked to, and I haven't had
Speaker 3: that in a long time until I got here and
Speaker 3: started making friends and having mentors to talk to and
Speaker 3: just building relationships again. I'm learning that I'm learning to
Speaker 3: trust people again and having a love for one another
Speaker 3: and faith in other people again.
Speaker 2: What's your hope going forward.
Speaker 3: To continue this, continue my faith, continue bettering myself, and
Speaker 3: continuing to want to live a better happier life with
Speaker 3: joy in every single day.
Speaker 2: Well, keep doing the work.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 2: As you can see with who you showed up to
Speaker 2: the show with, it actually can work again, it can
Speaker 2: happen and doesn't mean life doesn't have its moments because
Speaker 2: we all we're all living life in a world that's
Speaker 2: really broken. So we all have all that stuff that
Speaker 2: goes on. But you can maintain one sobriety, you can
Speaker 2: do that. But you can also maintain, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: an attitude and an outlook of hope and you know
Speaker 2: some some happiness along the way. So keep following that
Speaker 2: guy right there is he's a great example. He's a
Speaker 2: great example of what can what can be done when
Speaker 2: you do the work. Thank you, guys both for sharing
Speaker 2: a little bit of your story today. Really do appreciate it. Again,
Speaker 2: wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for Road to
Speaker 2: Hope Radio. We appreciate it. If you hit that subscribe button. Uh,
Speaker 2: it's a great way to share our story with someone
Speaker 2: who maybe needs us. And let's let's let's get that
Speaker 2: story out there before they are standing in front of
Speaker 2: a judge. Let's get that story out there, so help
Speaker 2: us do that. PTSD USA dot org is the website,
Speaker 2: and we thank you for joining us on Road to
Speaker 2: Hope Radio. Look forward to being with you getting next
Speaker 2: week for more of a Road to Hope.
Speaker 5: Mama Jo