Speaker 1: Multiple people in my family clean my father are veterans.
Speaker 2: The troops that have been to war and now they're
Speaker 2: back and think and be grateful for their service.
Speaker 3: Sacrifice, love for their country, just unselfishness, all that they
Speaker 3: do for us.
Speaker 4: There are some people in this country who take extraordinary
Speaker 4: steps to provide for the freedom and security.
Speaker 1: We forget that those people exist. We know them as
Speaker 1: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. They
Speaker 1: call themselves soldiers, seals, rangers, airmen, sailors, devil dogs, and
Speaker 1: so much more. We call them fathers, brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters,
Speaker 1: sisters and wives. We call them friend and neighbor. These
Speaker 1: veterans answered the call. Now we answer Theirs are the
Speaker 1: best our country has to offer, and we love them. Today,
Speaker 1: we honor them and we serve them. David Malsby is
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 2: And indeed we are glad to have you along.
Speaker 3: On a Sunday afternoon, the k p RC the ninety
Speaker 3: five oh on the AM dial, thank you for joining
Speaker 3: us as you as you circle endlessly on Luke six
Speaker 3: ' ten or the the Beltway or the ninety nine,
Speaker 3: whichever one you care to circle on the most. Thank
Speaker 3: you for joining us. Those of you listening to us
Speaker 3: through the magic of podcasts, Thank you so very much
Speaker 3: for listening. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for
Speaker 3: Road to Hope Radio.
Speaker 2: There we are.
Speaker 3: We got eight and a half years I think of
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Speaker 3: of lots of lots of hope to share it, and
Speaker 3: it's absolutely free. You never know who might come into
Speaker 3: the awareness of the organization. What we do with the
Speaker 3: PTSD Foundation of America and Camp Hope, or our Warrior groups,
Speaker 3: our family support groups. All of that, by the way,
Speaker 3: is at zero cost to the veteran or their family
Speaker 3: member because we live in the greatest community in the
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Speaker 2: We love these people.
Speaker 3: Awesome folks, the right values, the right location, the right price.
Speaker 3: Republic Grand Ranch dot Com. Couple of veterans in the
Speaker 3: studio with us today. We're glad to have you back. Andrew,
Speaker 3: want to reintroduce yourself to the world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So my name is Andrew. I'm a Navy veteran.
Speaker 4: I'm a graduate of the Camp Hop program and I'm
Speaker 4: currently a mentor within the Foundation, and I'd like to
Speaker 4: thank you for having me here.
Speaker 2: We're glad to have you back.
Speaker 3: And if I have time, I'll go back and find
Speaker 3: you were on not too long ago, a month or
Speaker 3: so ago, and shared a little bit of your story
Speaker 3: about how you got here.
Speaker 2: And it's a really unique story.
Speaker 3: Yes, I love it, so I won't ask you to
Speaker 3: do that again today, but I'll try to find that
Speaker 3: and post that. By the way, follow us on Facebook
Speaker 3: just Road to Hope Radio. We share some events that
Speaker 3: are coming up for the PTSD Foundation of America, and
Speaker 3: we also will share some.
Speaker 2: Veteran related stories.
Speaker 3: But if I can find that show, I'll put that
Speaker 3: on our Facebook page because it's a great story of
Speaker 3: how you found your way to.
Speaker 2: Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: It's a great, great story also with us. Todd, want
Speaker 3: to introduce yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my name is Michael Todd Elliott. I go by Todd.
Speaker 5: I'm a resident right now at Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: And you are from the Marine Corps veteran from from Katie,
Speaker 3: so not too far away from here from justin you
Speaker 3: could almost I mean you could, but I wouldn't buyse it.
Speaker 3: So you could almost walk there in here, but I
Speaker 3: wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2: Don't do it.
Speaker 3: It tend gets a little crazy on a rare occasion,
Speaker 3: like every day.
Speaker 2: Uh but yeah, okay, And you deployed where.
Speaker 5: I went to Iraq and then was on a mew
Speaker 5: that went to several different places. When you were when
Speaker 5: in two thousand and four, it was during the second
Speaker 5: invasion of Flusia, Operation Phantom Fury.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have a good friend that died as a
Speaker 3: result of some wounds from Fallujah in that second attack. Anyway,
Speaker 3: glad to have you in the show. How long you've
Speaker 3: been at Camp.
Speaker 6: By the way, about three months?
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, all right, So we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about that So were you born and raised in Katie.
Speaker 5: I was born in Lansing, Michigan. Moved to Katie when
Speaker 5: I was about one years old.
Speaker 2: Okay, well then you get grace, Yeah.
Speaker 6: Thank you. Yeah, I consider myself a Texan.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We can only allow a certain number of folks from
Speaker 3: the northern parts of the country at a particular time.
Speaker 2: We have to kind of ration that.
Speaker 3: One of the things I think one of the great things,
Speaker 3: and don't talk about this all the time, one of
Speaker 3: the great things about what we do at Camp Hope
Speaker 3: bringing in veterans from all across the country, but we
Speaker 3: bring them in from every era of war, every military
Speaker 3: branch that we don't have Space Force representative. We haven't
Speaker 3: quite got anyone from that yet.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it's coming. I'm sure it happens someday.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 3: But yeah, like there can only let a certain number
Speaker 3: of people from up north end of the time, but
Speaker 3: we're gonna let We'll count you as a Texan.
Speaker 6: Okay, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Yes, Uh so high school experience anything great, creative, just
Speaker 3: like star quarterback.
Speaker 5: No, I mean, growing up in Katie, they have a
Speaker 5: huge well, Texas in general is huge on football and Katie,
Speaker 5: But I didn't. I didn't dabble in football. I did
Speaker 5: a lot of skating. I grew up on a little
Speaker 5: crew all right. And we traveled around in Austin, San Antonio. Here,
Speaker 5: Oh cool, shot a few videos.
Speaker 3: We'll have to check that out. All We got to
Speaker 3: take a quick break. We'll be right back in just
Speaker 3: a moment. More of Road to Hope.
Speaker 6: Rate you.
Speaker 2: Andrew.
Speaker 4: You a skater, road BMX bikes for most of my childhood.
Speaker 2: You're a bike guy.
Speaker 4: Bike Teddy actually convinced me to buy a road bikes
Speaker 4: so me and him go ride on the weekends.
Speaker 2: Now I've seen a little bit of that.
Speaker 3: He always posts awesome yeah about some of his rides.
Speaker 4: Never thought I would do it, but it's nice getting
Speaker 4: out back in the nature, and he did. We did
Speaker 4: a twenty six mile ride last on Sunday, which was
Speaker 4: pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And again, you know when we talk about Camp Hope
Speaker 3: and what goes on there a lot of times, and
Speaker 3: we will today too, talk about stories a little bit
Speaker 3: about you know what happened or you know your deployment,
Speaker 3: and we don't we're not the worst story thing, but
Speaker 3: we'll talk a little bit about that and we talk
Speaker 3: a little bit about what brought someone to Camp Hope,
Speaker 3: why they needed it, But one of the beautiful things
Speaker 3: about Camp Hope that we rarely really touch on is,
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like, in many ways the luckiest
Speaker 3: man in the world, just because I get to experience
Speaker 3: firsthand a lot of some true redemption stories, tremendous life
Speaker 3: trajectory change, and those are the kinds of things we
Speaker 3: typically talk about on this show. But one of the
Speaker 3: just beautiful things that happens is you get to meet
Speaker 3: some of the most amazing people in the world, and yes,
Speaker 3: certainly in our veteran population. And you know, when you
Speaker 3: say Fallujah and the common the common person, the common
Speaker 3: civilian out there, they've heard of Fallujah, so you know,
Speaker 3: some bad stuff went down there. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: other places that some bad stuff went down to but
Speaker 3: didn't make the news.
Speaker 2: But if it made the news, you know it was rough.
Speaker 3: So you hear some of those stories, and you meet
Speaker 3: some of those people and you realize and recognize what
Speaker 3: they did, what they had to do. But then also
Speaker 3: just the people you meet and going about the day
Speaker 3: to day work of our programs, and one of the
Speaker 3: things I love to see is you mentioned Teddy and
Speaker 3: you guys doing the bike thing like you had never
Speaker 3: met Teddy, right, I mean, there would have been no
Speaker 3: reason to meet him if it weren't for Camp Hope
Speaker 3: and just to see you know, years later Teddy came through, man,
Speaker 3: I mean probably ten years ago. It's been a minute.
Speaker 3: You came through, graduated in twenty two.
Speaker 4: The first time. I arrived in twenty twenty, graduated in
Speaker 4: twenty one, and then I came back through the program
Speaker 4: in twenty.
Speaker 3: Two, twenty two, So I mean that's probably eight years
Speaker 3: after Teddy came through. I mean, it was literally that
Speaker 3: long ago and he came through and now both of
Speaker 3: you on staff. But you know, just that camaraderie, the friendship.
Speaker 2: I just love those stories.
Speaker 3: I just I think that's the coolest thing in the
Speaker 3: world because everybody needs that, and that's what It's one
Speaker 3: of the big things we do at Camp's peer to peer.
Speaker 3: But we always teach you can't stop doing what you've
Speaker 3: learned to do at Camp Hope when you leave Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: So maintaining some sort of friendship relationship like that's just
Speaker 3: it's cool on a thousand levels. But it's also important
Speaker 3: to maintaining the positive change in your lives. So it's
Speaker 3: cool to see. I like it when you guys post
Speaker 3: that stuff.
Speaker 2: Look at those idiots out there right and that bike
Speaker 2: for four hundred hours.
Speaker 4: He convinced me to buy some some like Spandex and
Speaker 4: all of that get up.
Speaker 2: You did it right to go ally.
Speaker 3: If you're gonna do it right, this is the way
Speaker 3: you do it is okay. So skating was your thing,
Speaker 3: all right, So you traveled, So what what what? I'm
Speaker 3: not familiar with the skating world. So is that like
Speaker 3: some sort of a team and in competition type deal.
Speaker 5: No, I was never like sponsored or in competitions. It
Speaker 5: was just a group of us that from around the
Speaker 5: Houston area that would get together a lot and go
Speaker 5: skating in the street or at the time, they had
Speaker 5: a huge skate park, Vanced skate park here in Houston.
Speaker 5: It's not here anymore, but we would go there a
Speaker 5: lot and uh and and and skate.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And then eventually it got big enough to where we
Speaker 5: you know, we got old enough that we had our
Speaker 5: own cars and then we'd take weekend trips to you know, Austin,
Speaker 5: San Antonio. Got kicked out of the Capitol in Austin
Speaker 5: for skating and jumping out.
Speaker 2: They didn't they didn't care for that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, not too much.
Speaker 2: I wonder.
Speaker 3: How in the world, what's what's wrong with that? It
Speaker 3: is public property, right, Okay? Uh did you join the
Speaker 3: Did you join the Marine Corps right out of high school?
Speaker 6: Or yeah? I joined right out of high school.
Speaker 5: I was not the best student, graduated somewhere in the
Speaker 5: bottom of my class. I didn't have an idea of
Speaker 5: what I wanted to do, and I joined because the
Speaker 5: recruiter bought me Burger King. So well, your price was low, yeah,
Speaker 5: Burger King. It could have been at least been Waterberg.
Speaker 6: I had no thoughts of joining.
Speaker 5: No one in my family was in and uh yeah
Speaker 5: he uh picked me up one day and there's a
Speaker 5: Burger King in the same pocket parking lot.
Speaker 6: Bought me a whopper and I said, okay, Jeff.
Speaker 3: Forgetting Yeah, getting in a car with strangers. Let's see
Speaker 3: what happens. Burger King Marine Corps IRAQ.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what year did you join?
Speaker 6: Two thousand and two?
Speaker 2: Oh too?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So it had to dawn on you. This
Speaker 3: is going to end me going someplace that really don't
Speaker 3: want to go.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it was a thought, but that's all
Speaker 5: it spoke. Yeah, I mean that was my mindset back then.
Speaker 5: I was and still now A lot is just going
Speaker 5: with the flow and I guess just really being in
Speaker 5: the day that I'm in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, seventeen ish yep, yeah, yeah, well you know,
Speaker 3: not the first person at seventeen to not really think
Speaker 3: long term. Yeah, on some decisions life decisions like.
Speaker 6: That turned into a twelve year career.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, you know that's something to be said for that.
Speaker 3: I mean you turn and look at like that's pretty
Speaker 3: pretty awesome.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: Burger King should probably turn that into some kind of
Speaker 3: a promo. I mean, we got to be able to
Speaker 3: make some sort of a deal with Burger King on that.
Speaker 3: Come on, guys, you got a guy off to Iraq
Speaker 3: and Flujah for that. For a Burger King, it's got
Speaker 3: to be for something, all right. So what were you
Speaker 3: doing in a right? What was your day to day?
Speaker 5: I was in communications, Actually I was data side six
Speaker 5: fifty six. Most didn't even exist anymore and most of
Speaker 5: the time, like we went to haditha Dam. We were
Speaker 5: there for about three months, and then I was also
Speaker 5: at a little place asp Wolf with Bravo Company. I
Speaker 5: was a first Battalion, eighth Marines. Stayed there for a
Speaker 5: bit and then Flujah kicked off and they put me
Speaker 5: on ECP duty and QRF team.
Speaker 3: Okay for someone driving around six ' ten right now
Speaker 3: that those letters mean nothing to them, help them understand
Speaker 3: what you were doing.
Speaker 5: Well ECP, Well, my main job when I was there
Speaker 5: was wiring up a lot of the buildings. The dam
Speaker 5: in particular, it had no power, so and I was
Speaker 5: the only non NCO. I was the worker in the group.
Speaker 5: There's only four of us there, and I just wired
Speaker 5: up the whole damn with Cat five data, set up
Speaker 5: the servers, program the routers, the servers are switches, everything
Speaker 5: to get it going in there.
Speaker 6: And then.
Speaker 5: When Fallujah kicked off, yeah, I got put on Entry
Speaker 5: Control Point duty, which was just maintaining the INTR control
Speaker 5: points to Camp Fallujah, the main base. And then on
Speaker 5: our off time that was I think we did sixteen
Speaker 5: hours of watch and then the rest of our time
Speaker 5: was for sleeping and then stand by QRF, which you
Speaker 5: know I got called out a couple times for that.
Speaker 2: You mentioned you were the worker. I just in my mind.
Speaker 3: I just conjured out the image of a road work crew,
Speaker 3: one guy working in four or five guys standing around
Speaker 3: overseeing the one guy working.
Speaker 2: It's just what pops up in my.
Speaker 3: Brain before we run to the news break on the
Speaker 3: nine to five O. Those listening through the radio, a
Speaker 3: reminder PTSD post traumatic stress disorder PTSD USA dot org
Speaker 3: is the website you can find out all the information
Speaker 3: regarding Camp Hope, the interim housing program for our combat vets,
Speaker 3: as well as our warrior support groups, our family support
Speaker 3: groups which by the way, and our warrior groups online.
Speaker 3: There are also first responders, law enforcement contractors. It's not
Speaker 3: just constricted only to combat related PTSD, so ptsdusa dot
Speaker 3: org for all that information, all of it again at
Speaker 3: zero cost to the veteran or to their family. Check
Speaker 3: it out. We'd love to have you join up in
Speaker 3: one of our groups. We right back with more of
Speaker 3: Road to Hope Radio, you know indeed, and we welcome
Speaker 3: back Rode to Hope Radio.
Speaker 2: Glad to have you long.
Speaker 3: David Malsby here, big thank you to our friends. iHeart
Speaker 3: Houston Media. Not only do they work with us to
Speaker 3: allow us this opportunity to have this show every Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 3: But they do a lot of a lot of airtime
Speaker 3: for us throughout the week on several of their stations
Speaker 3: here in the Houston area, to the tune of over
Speaker 3: I think last year was over two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 3: of donated airtime to the foundation. We cannot think them, literally,
Speaker 3: cannot think them enough. The awareness deal. Our thing is,
Speaker 3: we cannot afford to be the best kept secret down.
Speaker 3: We are still losing, according to research, up to forty
Speaker 3: four veterans every every single day to their own hands.
Speaker 3: That could be suicide, it can be overdoses. Whichever, all
Speaker 3: those forty four are preventable, and whatever you happen to
Speaker 3: believe the number is, we all agree that the number
Speaker 3: is way, way too high and we have to do
Speaker 3: everything we can to lower that number. And part of
Speaker 3: that is just letting veterans their families know that they
Speaker 3: have the awareness that we are here and it's not gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, bankrupt them to do our program. So big,
Speaker 3: big thank you to our awesome, awesome friends here. iHeartMedia
Speaker 3: Houston been such great friends for so many years now
Speaker 3: and we are forever indebted to them for their support.
Speaker 3: All Right, So you joined in O two. You said
Speaker 3: you were in for twelve Yeah.
Speaker 2: Was Iraq your first employment? Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, Then you mentioned you had several other views. Obviously
Speaker 3: because since you're at Camp Hope. There's a mental health issue,
Speaker 3: mental health diagnosis. As you look at it today and
Speaker 3: you look back on your time in the military and
Speaker 3: in combat situations, when did you begin to notice And
Speaker 3: you may not have noticed them, but as you look back,
Speaker 3: when did things begin to happen for you the mental
Speaker 3: illness side.
Speaker 5: Looking back at it, I I mean I noticed right
Speaker 5: away when I got back from my rack, spending time
Speaker 5: on leave, you know, with my wife at the time
Speaker 5: and family, like loud noises would startle me. I remember
Speaker 5: one time walking in the mall and I don't know
Speaker 5: what caused the noise, but it almost caused me to
Speaker 5: hit the floor, you know, drop to the ground. I
Speaker 5: was always pacing at night, peeking out the blinds at night,
Speaker 5: looking out the windows, always feeling like there was impending
Speaker 5: doom just around the corner. But I felt like it
Speaker 5: kind of went away after a bit, and then it
Speaker 5: wasn't until I got out of the Marine Corps that
Speaker 5: it really started hitting me hard, like depression and the
Speaker 5: anxiety and then the self isolation. Was My biggest thing
Speaker 5: that came out of having PTSD was I eventually ended
Speaker 5: up pulling away from everyone really, family, friends, my wife,
Speaker 5: my son, I held your boy.
Speaker 6: I have two sons, ones twenty and the others thirteen.
Speaker 3: Okay, So as you start realizing these symptoms, and I know,
Speaker 3: I just don't know your store of it. I know,
Speaker 3: having talked to a lot of guys, when something like
Speaker 3: that happens you mentioned at the story at the mall,
Speaker 3: when there's that visible physical reaction, there's the obvious of
Speaker 3: just that, but there's also the resulting. It's embarrassing for
Speaker 3: you know, you don't want your family to see that,
Speaker 3: you don't want people to view you that way.
Speaker 2: Were you dealing with some of that?
Speaker 5: I don't think I was ever feeling embarrassed when that
Speaker 5: kind of thing happened. It was more of a rush
Speaker 5: of you know, anxiety over my body really just not
Speaker 5: wanting to be in that place or situation, you know,
Speaker 5: which I think self isolation is.
Speaker 6: You know, where it.
Speaker 5: Led to or where I thought I would be safe,
Speaker 5: you know, or wouldn't hurt anybody you know, or be hurt.
Speaker 6: Yeah, what did you do.
Speaker 3: To try to cope with all that or to mitigate that?
Speaker 6: I tried, you know, group therapy with my ex wife.
Speaker 2: Was that at the VA.
Speaker 6: No, this is.
Speaker 5: Actually when I when I got out, I moved to Canada.
Speaker 5: My wife was Canadian, or is Canadian. My ex wife's Canadian.
Speaker 5: We moved up to northern BC. And you know, I,
Speaker 5: I was starting to get in a place where we
Speaker 5: weren't communicating at all. I was kind of a stone,
Speaker 5: a statue, and I it was making it rough for her,
Speaker 5: rough for us to even have a relationship. And I
Speaker 5: had gone through you know, five or six jobs while
Speaker 5: I was there, getting fired from some, quit from some Uh,
Speaker 5: just did not want to really do a thing, not talk,
Speaker 5: not get up from the couch, just be isolated by myself.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I went. We we got counseling. Ultimately, it
Speaker 5: didn't it didn't work out. It didn't stick, which led
Speaker 5: to us separating and then you know it, it we
Speaker 5: were still on good terms, we still loved each other
Speaker 5: really much, very much, and I made the decision to
Speaker 5: move back here so I could start getting help through
Speaker 5: the VA. Uh and uh, yeah, it took me five
Speaker 5: years to get to Camp Hope when I moved back here,
Speaker 5: going to the VA, and little spurts like, yeah, I
Speaker 5: was going to the KDVA. Yeah, and really I was
Speaker 5: going in when I was having pretty much like a
Speaker 5: mental breakdown. You know where I was living. Uh, I
Speaker 5: was with a buddy and I was just I was.
Speaker 5: I was living in the backyard a lot in a
Speaker 5: in a hammock and cooking out of a fire pit
Speaker 5: I made from from bricks, and uh, yeah, I would
Speaker 5: some days it would get so bad that you know,
Speaker 5: I I'd be crying, I'd be able to function, hardly walk.
Speaker 5: And those were the days where I'd make myself over
Speaker 5: to the VA and they'd check me out and eventually
Speaker 5: they told me you might want to look into Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: Is that how you heard about us?
Speaker 5: I did, Yeah, through my therapist, having a one on
Speaker 5: one with her.
Speaker 3: By the way, as we mention these stories and go
Speaker 3: through these stories, we understand these things can be triggers
Speaker 3: to you. You can see the effect on the other
Speaker 3: people as they hear these stories. We have a combat
Speaker 3: Trauma Crisis line eight seven seven seven one seven seventy
Speaker 3: eight seventy three. I'll give you a number. Again, I
Speaker 3: wish everybody would put this number in their phone. You
Speaker 3: never know when you might come across someone who really
Speaker 3: could use the connection. Eight seven seven seven one seven
Speaker 3: seventy eight seventy three. It is answered twenty four to
Speaker 3: seven by a combat veteran. And I cannot over emphasize
Speaker 3: that for those of you are not veterans and like,
Speaker 3: this isn't for me.
Speaker 2: If when you.
Speaker 3: Tell somebody about the number and hand the phone and
Speaker 3: say just here, just call them and tell them let
Speaker 3: them know a combat that's going to answer the phone,
Speaker 3: that will completely change their willingness to uh to make
Speaker 3: that call. Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight
Speaker 3: seventy three. All right, So did they when they're when
Speaker 3: you were going back to them? However often with those
Speaker 3: serious issues, those days where it got really rough, did
Speaker 3: they diagnose you at the time or.
Speaker 6: I was eventually diagnosed by the uh.
Speaker 5: By the therapist I was speaking to okay, or the
Speaker 5: psychiatrist I was speaking to you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Did they set up any kind of regular appointments with
Speaker 3: them or just encourage you to check out camp?
Speaker 5: Hope?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It turned into regular uh like uh skype or over
Speaker 5: the computer?
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 6: Appointments.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 6: It was once a month that I was doing that.
Speaker 2: Okay, what I.
Speaker 3: Mean, And everybody's different, So I'm just curious, Skype, did
Speaker 3: that work for you or no?
Speaker 6: Not?
Speaker 3: I mean technologically it did, but I mean did it help.
Speaker 6: No, I'd say it's for me.
Speaker 5: I I need the personal approach of being physically present
Speaker 5: with someone, you know, whether it be in group or
Speaker 5: one on one, you know, not not over the computer.
Speaker 5: I mean I have I haven't even own a cell
Speaker 5: phone in ten years, you know, I'm not. I I
Speaker 5: like to stay away. I like to stay away from
Speaker 5: it as much as I can.
Speaker 2: On the way over the Yeah, all.
Speaker 3: Right, we got to take all the sleep we got
Speaker 3: a minutes ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I can't read my clock or I can't read my clock.
Speaker 3: I just don't know how much time with it.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Just to reminder ptsd USA dot org and the phone
Speaker 3: number eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy
Speaker 3: three on Facebook Road to Hope Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that with therapists.
Speaker 3: I guess at the VA you were talking to mentioned
Speaker 3: Camp Hope to you when they first mentioned that. What
Speaker 3: what was your thought?
Speaker 5: I thought, I don't I don't think I will do this.
Speaker 5: You know, it's nice, nice that they gave me this information.
Speaker 5: It wasn't the only place they gave me. There was
Speaker 5: three or four different places, and honestly, Camp Hope wasn't
Speaker 5: my first choice. I can't remember the name of the
Speaker 5: first choice I had. But they never reached back out
Speaker 5: and contacted me.
Speaker 3: And uh, okay, we're going to take the break now
Speaker 3: we'll come back. I want to hear why you ended
Speaker 3: up choosing to h to check out Camp Hope.
Speaker 2: I'm going to take a quick break.
Speaker 6: We ride back with more of Road to Hope Radio.
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Speaker 3: Okay, Todd, So you mentioned the service mentioned a couple
Speaker 3: of places to you. Camp Hope wasn't the first thought
Speaker 3: on your mind, the first choice, So I guess I
Speaker 3: should say, Uh, was there a reason like.
Speaker 6: Not there not Camp Hope?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I saw that it was you know, Christian based
Speaker 5: faith program, and you know I'm not Christians.
Speaker 6: So that is what threw me off a bit.
Speaker 5: You know, at one point I was, but now I'm seeking,
Speaker 5: I guess my own path, trying to figure things out spiritually.
Speaker 6: So yeah, that that was.
Speaker 5: My main deterrence was all you know, I'm going to
Speaker 5: be flooded by uh, you know, prayer circles and and and.
Speaker 6: Preaching the whole time there.
Speaker 5: And yeah, so that that's what made me stray away
Speaker 5: from it. But it was my second choice. It was
Speaker 5: because it was on the list, is second on the list.
Speaker 5: So I just went bout down that list, and as
Speaker 5: soon as I called Camp Hope, you know, someone was
Speaker 5: there to answer and right there willing to accept me
Speaker 5: in the program. So that's where that's where it went.
Speaker 3: And I think it's important to share with folks. Yes,
Speaker 3: we are as an organization a couple of things unashamedly
Speaker 3: peer to peer as our DNA, the christ centered faith
Speaker 3: based aspect of our program. We believe it is very
Speaker 3: critical to what we do and what separates us and
Speaker 3: helps us be more effective at what we do.
Speaker 2: With that said, I.
Speaker 3: Always tell people you don't have to agree with what
Speaker 3: I think or anybody else thinks.
Speaker 2: You don't.
Speaker 3: That's that's not it. That's not what it's about. There's
Speaker 3: not some creed you have to agree to or sign
Speaker 3: or like.
Speaker 2: I believe this.
Speaker 3: I don't believe that you don't have to believe anything.
Speaker 3: I mean people who claim to be agnostic or atheist
Speaker 3: or whatever. We've had a little bit of everything comes
Speaker 3: through our doors. And so yes, while that is, you know,
Speaker 3: part of who we are, an important part of who
Speaker 3: we are, it's not an exclusionary thing, at least from
Speaker 3: our point of view.
Speaker 2: And I've.
Speaker 3: For me when I hear you say that, it actually
Speaker 3: it excites me in a way. There's nothing more important
Speaker 3: than in my view, than your your faith and where
Speaker 3: you place your faith, in whom you place your faith.
Speaker 3: So it should be wrestled with right. It shouldn't just
Speaker 3: be well somebody said, so, so that's it. It encourages
Speaker 3: me when I hear you guys like I'm I'm checking,
Speaker 3: I'm in endeavoring to come to some sort of a
Speaker 3: here's where i'm at, here's where I need to be,
Speaker 3: and here's where I want to go.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: That just that makes me happy, Like at least you
Speaker 3: haven't just rolled over and said I'm out. I'm glad
Speaker 3: you're doing that. That that that thrills me, That makes
Speaker 3: me happy. But so you've been at camp for three
Speaker 3: ish months. Three months, okay, So that means you came
Speaker 3: through the holidays, which is always crazy.
Speaker 6: Very active.
Speaker 4: There's a lot going on during the holidays.
Speaker 3: And it's all good stuff, but it is also there's
Speaker 3: no way around it. It's also a bit distracting from
Speaker 3: what you're trying to do in the program because there's
Speaker 3: just so many things that happen. And again they're all
Speaker 3: good things, but yeah, there's a lot that goes on. Yea,
Speaker 3: now we've come through January, we're already second weekendo February.
Speaker 2: Now, what's what's changing.
Speaker 3: In your mind? What's the way you approach a new day,
Speaker 3: the way you feel when you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 3: What what's changing for you?
Speaker 5: I will say that I've never noticed how much spiritual
Speaker 5: faith is is extraordinarily powerful in someone's life, and I'm
Speaker 5: I'm really leaning into figuring that out for myself. I'm
Speaker 5: you know, meditating now and ah, just waking up and
Speaker 5: and being thankful that I'm able to wake up and
Speaker 5: breathe and live.
Speaker 6: Every day and.
Speaker 5: And and learning how to love myself is a big one,
Speaker 5: you know, since I've been here.
Speaker 3: And it's probably an unfair question, but I'm gonna.
Speaker 2: Ask it anyway. As you said, you've you've you.
Speaker 3: Came through the second time, graduated back in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: so it's been a few years now, so you got
Speaker 3: a little distance in between.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir h.
Speaker 2: When you look back on.
Speaker 3: Camp, your time there as someone in the program, can
Speaker 3: you point to one thing? I'm sure it's a thousand
Speaker 3: and one things. Can you point to one thing, like
Speaker 3: if the only thing I got was this, This changed
Speaker 3: my life, This helped me, This turned me in a
Speaker 3: better direction.
Speaker 4: I would say, where I'm at today, obviously I have
Speaker 4: to put my faith on the top. That is the
Speaker 4: most important thing that I've gotten out of the program.
Speaker 4: Which I didn't have in the beginning, you know, coming
Speaker 4: into the program in a very dark, dark place.
Speaker 2: Which is typical.
Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, you know it's I would I mean,
Speaker 3: from my point of view, it seems typical.
Speaker 4: And immediately secondary to that would be the sense of
Speaker 4: connection and family that I've developed through this program, both
Speaker 4: with you know, the the guys that I went through
Speaker 4: with that I'm still connected to today, but also the
Speaker 4: guys that I now work with. Like it's it's become
Speaker 4: the family that I never had and you know kind
Speaker 4: of taught allude to with the the the the self
Speaker 4: isolation that was a big problem for me, and you know,
Speaker 4: I just really didn't want to be around people for
Speaker 4: a long time, and I was okay with that, but
Speaker 4: I don't have that today.
Speaker 2: Like I look forward to to.
Speaker 4: Doing things with people and and just really being connected
Speaker 4: on a level that I never thought I could have
Speaker 4: ever had.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Andrew you mentioned or Todd you mentioned, Uh, what you're
Speaker 3: learning and what's changing for you? Decided it's a new day.
Speaker 6: You're alive.
Speaker 3: You know, new opportunities in front of you, and you're
Speaker 3: I don't know where you're at in the program doesn't
Speaker 3: matter but three months it's in. You've been around long
Speaker 3: enough that some things are changing, you are learning some things.
Speaker 3: I'm guessing you're not yet in the phase of the
Speaker 3: program where you're really starting to look forward. So this
Speaker 3: is probably also not a fair question. But today, sitting
Speaker 3: here in the studio, when you think of whenever you
Speaker 3: do graduate, whatever that ends up being whatever month doesn't
Speaker 3: really matter. But once you're there and you've seen graduations,
Speaker 3: now you've seen guys get up there and you know,
Speaker 3: say whatever they're going to say, sometimes funny, sometimes serious,
Speaker 3: and sometimes crying and sometimes laughing. But when you stand
Speaker 3: there and graduate, and then you go forward in your life,
Speaker 3: what's something you want to have, Something you want to
Speaker 3: look forward to, something you want to aspire to going forward.
Speaker 6: What I'd like to have is.
Speaker 5: Or to keep, is that sense of adventure and to
Speaker 5: really dive into it. You know, I don't ever want
Speaker 5: to own a home, but I would like to own
Speaker 5: a vehicle that I can turn into or I should
Speaker 5: say I don't want to own a house.
Speaker 6: I'd like to own a vehicle and.
Speaker 5: Turn it into my home again, try it and then
Speaker 5: you know, live like a vegabond, or you know, what
Speaker 5: I mean, like travel, go searching across the country.
Speaker 2: You know there's a lot to see.
Speaker 6: A sprinter van, put some solar on the top.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 6: Absolutely And now.
Speaker 3: I used to drive a lot, not quite to that extent,
Speaker 3: but you just drive the country a lot.
Speaker 2: Those are my younger days. We are out of time.
Speaker 2: I hate this.
Speaker 3: This clock runs so fast every time. Thank you for
Speaker 3: being here man, Thank you for what you're doing. Thanks
Speaker 3: for sharing a little story and you're always great to
Speaker 3: see you. Thanks for doing you what you do, Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us. Look forward to being with you.
Speaker 3: Gain next week for more of Road to Hope Radio