Speaker 1: Multiple people in my family clean my father, are veterans.
Speaker 2: Troops that have been to war and now they're back.
Speaker 3: And think and be grateful for their service.
Speaker 2: Sacrifice, love for their country, just unselfishness, all that they
Speaker 2: do for us. There are some people in this country
Speaker 2: who take extraordinary steps to provide for the freedom and security.
Speaker 3: We forget that those people exist.
Speaker 1: We know them as the Army, Navy, air Force, Marines,
Speaker 1: and Coast Guard. They call themselves soldiers, seals, rangers, airmen, sailors,
Speaker 1: devil dogs.
Speaker 4: And so much more.
Speaker 1: 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, and they.
Speaker 3: Are the best our country has to offer.
Speaker 1: And we love them. Today, we honor them and we
Speaker 1: serve them. David Malsby is your host, and he welcomes
Speaker 1: you to this community of veterans, as together we are
Speaker 1: building the road to hope.
Speaker 5: And indeed we are glad to have you along. On
Speaker 5: a Sunday afternoon, those of you listening on the kPr
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Speaker 5: supporters of all things PTSD Foundation of America. All right,
Speaker 5: we got a couple of guys in the studio with
Speaker 5: us today. Tyrone's back with us. Tyrone, when reintroduce yourself
Speaker 5: to the world.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, thank you, Pastor Mo. My name is Tyrone Brown.
Speaker 6: I'm served in the US Army. I went to Somalia
Speaker 6: in nineteen ninety three. Currently am a mentor at the
Speaker 6: PTSD Foundation of America Camphip Camp Hope site.
Speaker 5: Excuse me, and you came through Camp Hope wind, Yes, sir,
Speaker 5: I came to.
Speaker 6: The program myself in March of nineteen of twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: Two, twenty two. Yes, sir, so it took you a
Speaker 5: little while to find us, Yes, sir, after your last deployment, sir,
Speaker 5: has a long time in between, Yes, sir. And we
Speaker 5: also have a gentleman that's currently in our program at
Speaker 5: Camp Hope right now, Joe, you want to give the
Speaker 5: world a grand introduction.
Speaker 2: My name is Joe Rowe and I'm currently a resident
Speaker 2: at Camp Hope and I'm eternally grateful for the program
Speaker 2: and Pastor himself and Tyrone, who's my mentor. I'm a
Speaker 2: changed man.
Speaker 5: I don't believe in luck, but if you use the
Speaker 5: term luck, you got lucky, you got a good You
Speaker 5: got a good mentor over there, Yes, sir, all right,
Speaker 5: so you served in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 2: I was in the Navy, but I volunteered for service
Speaker 2: with the Marine Corps. I've been involved in Desert Shield,
Speaker 2: Iraq times two other deployments that don't need to be mentioned,
Speaker 2: but eighteen and a half years of service in the
Speaker 2: Navy over thirteen with the United States Marine Corps. I
Speaker 2: am known as a devil, not a devil dog. So
Speaker 2: Hospital Corman serve along with the Marine Corps. They don't
Speaker 2: have a medical department, so they borrow them from the
Speaker 2: United States Navy. You know, Joe, when I look back through,
Speaker 2: you know, over thirteen years now that Camp Hope has
Speaker 2: had its doors open, we've probably had a higher percentage
Speaker 2: of Corman medics than any other job I can think of.
Speaker 2: It's we've had a lot come through our doors. Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: we see the worst of what happens in combat. I've
Speaker 2: been in paramedic since nineteen ninety two. I stopped serving
Speaker 2: in whatever state I'm in in twenty fourteen. But with
Speaker 2: the service that I provided aid to marines that get hurt,
Speaker 2: they do get hurt their first in, last out, and
Speaker 2: I see the worst gunshots, explosions. I must be a
Speaker 2: good teacher because my Marines who patched me up saved
Speaker 2: my life when I got injured in combat. I got
Speaker 2: blown up by a roadside bomb, very big one that
Speaker 2: made a twenty four foot crater.
Speaker 4: And like I.
Speaker 2: Said, I saw the worst what we have to do
Speaker 2: with the spread of democracy throughout the world, and to
Speaker 2: protect our nation and its liberties and freedoms, I had
Speaker 2: to put my life on the line and I do
Speaker 2: that for my fellow man, my fellow marine, because I
Speaker 2: took an oath as a hospital corman, not only to
Speaker 2: protect a constitution against foreign enemies foreign and domestic, but
Speaker 2: I took an oath to protect my patient. And anytime
Speaker 2: a service member is injured, there has to.
Speaker 4: Be somebody that give aight.
Speaker 2: So they were after me pretty hot and heavy. It
Speaker 2: just so happens I took three steps away from the
Speaker 2: humve and I found the ID that day with the
Speaker 2: giant explosion and reminder, as we go through the course
Speaker 2: of a show, we understand some of these things can
Speaker 2: be triggered.
Speaker 5: For some who are listening. Let me ask you to
Speaker 5: get out your phone. Put this number in your phone
Speaker 5: eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three.
Speaker 3: That is our.
Speaker 5: Combat Trauma Crisis line. You may never need it. You
Speaker 5: may come across someone, however, that does need it. Please
Speaker 5: put the number in your phone eight seven seven seven
Speaker 5: one seven seventy eight seventy three. Here's the thing you.
Speaker 3: Need to know about that phone number.
Speaker 5: When you call it, someone will answer it, and it
Speaker 5: will be a combat that a combat that will answer
Speaker 5: the phone. Three hundred and sixty five days a year,
Speaker 5: twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, eight
Speaker 5: seven seven seven one, seven seventy eight seventy three. All Right,
Speaker 5: we've got to take a quick break and we back.
Speaker 3: With more Roadhope Radio. M hm m m.
Speaker 2: M.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back Road Dope Radio. Glad to have
Speaker 3: you along.
Speaker 5: All right, Joe, So you're one of the older guys
Speaker 5: around camp, how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2: You got to learn how to deal with the youngins.
Speaker 3: Okay, this should be fun.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: The younger generations that are behind me, they have a
Speaker 2: certain way of doing things, a certain way of talk,
Speaker 2: certain way of entitlement. Well, I was I'm very old school.
Speaker 2: I respect my elders. I've always respect my elders. I've
Speaker 2: always and raised that way by my mom and daddy
Speaker 2: and my grandparents. Filled in because my parents died and
Speaker 2: I was forced to be an orphan. But the military
Speaker 2: helped me grow up to be the man I am,
Speaker 2: and the man I am is a man of my word.
Speaker 2: I helped fellow mallonkind whatever they need, if I can
Speaker 2: provide it, I know where to get it.
Speaker 4: That's what a doc does.
Speaker 2: And the younger generation, they got a certain slight on
Speaker 2: that they're they're a little different breeding. But I like
Speaker 2: to say that us gray beards got gotta stick together.
Speaker 2: I a very money, many of us. And when you're
Speaker 2: over fifty, you find those similarities in people. And Tyrone's
Speaker 2: life story when he became my mentor, we have a
Speaker 2: lot of similarities. And he's my brother from another mother.
Speaker 2: And a lot of the young ones don't understand when
Speaker 2: I give respect, I expect respect, and some people don't.
Speaker 2: Aren't trained that way, aren't taught that way, to respect
Speaker 2: your elders and yes, sir, yes ma'am. No sir, no, ma'am.
Speaker 2: But I respect all and I understand that. And I
Speaker 2: used to talk a lot when I first got the camp, but.
Speaker 4: I talked yeah.
Speaker 2: But now it's like I've been taught that the Lord
Speaker 2: has a hand over my mouth and hand on my shoulder.
Speaker 2: Speak less and lessen more. You learn a lot more
Speaker 2: what a guy is struggling with by just listening to him.
Speaker 4: What they have to say.
Speaker 2: You know, give the opportunity of people to be honest
Speaker 2: with you. You know, I don't give up a lot
Speaker 2: of advice.
Speaker 4: I just got.
Speaker 2: This is what worked for me, This is what helped me.
Speaker 2: We're reminded of the selfish program. And I was told
Speaker 2: by mister Tyrone to my left here, you got to
Speaker 2: stop trying to help everybody else until you help yourself.
Speaker 2: And I learned that the hard way, and I started listening,
Speaker 2: and I started helping myself, and I'll be daring. Joy
Speaker 2: came back into my life. I am an ambassador of Christ.
Speaker 2: My responsibility is to let Jesus Christ shine out of
Speaker 2: me because He's my Lord and savior. I pray daily
Speaker 2: on behalf of the brothers at the camp, on behalf
Speaker 2: of the staff, that they get that extra power source
Speaker 2: from the Holy Spirit, that they get what they need
Speaker 2: on Camp Hope property, because the Holy spirits, you know,
Speaker 2: seven three sixty five twenty four hours a day. And
Speaker 2: if I wake up from bad dream or something, I
Speaker 2: know who to go talk to. It's another combat veteran.
Speaker 2: You know you mentioned you mentioned the younger generation.
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna take a second and step or dip
Speaker 5: into our mail bag real quick. This is this is
Speaker 5: written from one of our our guys that came through.
Speaker 5: I think it was about three and a half years ago,
Speaker 5: and he wrote it this last Sunday.
Speaker 3: So we could go today, So today's the day we look.
Speaker 5: We took a reaffirmation of faith today at church by
Speaker 5: getting baptized as a family. Randall, reader, you inspired this.
Speaker 5: Thank you for sharing your journey. The kids took their
Speaker 5: first step toward God. Me and future Missus wanted to
Speaker 5: renew our vows to God before saying them to each other.
Speaker 5: Now we're on the way, our way to where my
Speaker 5: vision of life took shape Camp Hope. I stood at
Speaker 5: the cross out there many times. Let's see, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: get this messed up here, So at the cross many times,
Speaker 5: out there trying to see the life God had for me.
Speaker 5: I had no possessions, no car, mountains of debt, but I.
Speaker 3: Had a relationship with God.
Speaker 5: Through that I gained a path to walk that hasn't
Speaker 5: been easy, but so fulfilling. Things found and lost, along
Speaker 5: with choices that always bore consequences. I've learned to surrender, accept,
Speaker 5: and forgive all things taught to me there that have
Speaker 5: continued fueling my passion for this amazing life I very
Speaker 5: nearly gave away. By the end of this day, I'll
Speaker 5: be married to the one I know God put in
Speaker 5: my life and for better or worse. We'll ride our
Speaker 5: lives out together. Couldn't be happier, albeit a bit nervous,
Speaker 5: how about that. I love hearing those stories from guys
Speaker 5: who come through the program, and you know, like anything
Speaker 5: else I think you go through. When you're in the
Speaker 5: middle of something, you don't really realize just it could
Speaker 5: be how great it is or how awful it is.
Speaker 5: But you give yourself a little space and you're able
Speaker 5: to look back and you appreciate it so much more.
Speaker 5: And so I think it's one of the reasons I
Speaker 5: like hearing from some of the guys that have been
Speaker 5: through for a little while and come back. Did have
Speaker 5: a beautiful ceremony out at Camp Hope that last Sunday
Speaker 5: night out by the Cross. A lot of things have
Speaker 5: happened at that cross, some good and some some rough
Speaker 5: moments as well. I like to tell people, though, you know,
Speaker 5: it's a it's a metal, it's made out of steel.
Speaker 5: It's just a steal cross. It's nothing really beautiful about it.
Speaker 5: It's just to steal cross. All it represents as obvious.
Speaker 5: But at that cross, that cross has been I would
Speaker 5: tell people, it's been yelled at, it's been cussed at,
Speaker 5: it's been spit on, uh, but it also has become
Speaker 5: a place for so many veterans to find some peace,
Speaker 5: some solitude, some quiet, some ability to reflect and to
Speaker 5: listen and to receive. And so it's a it's it's
Speaker 5: quite the place. And when I when I tell people that,
Speaker 5: I always kind of look at me like I said.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, don't worry about it.
Speaker 5: God's shoulders are big enough to handle these guys cussing
Speaker 5: him out. He's gonna be okay with it. And his
Speaker 5: mercy's never ending. Read the song, his mercy never fails.
Speaker 5: Over and over and over again, we're reading his mercy
Speaker 5: never fails.
Speaker 3: So he's big enough. So why did you.
Speaker 5: Join the navy?
Speaker 3: What was what? What drove that?
Speaker 2: Every male figure, including my father, served in some servers.
Speaker 2: I later found out that his sister, who married Bob
Speaker 2: or Robert, my uncle Bob, was a naval officer, but
Speaker 2: my father was on the US Enterprise.
Speaker 4: He was a nuclear machinist mate he was radiated.
Speaker 2: He was in the hospital for two months. I knew
Speaker 2: at age eight that I was going in the Navy.
Speaker 2: It was just a forbearance because of everybody in every
Speaker 2: male figure in my family has served in one way
Speaker 2: or another, So at age eight, I knew I'm going
Speaker 2: in the Navy, and I kept saying that growing up. Well,
Speaker 2: my dad died when I was eleven, he was thirty
Speaker 2: five years old because of lung cancer. I as a
Speaker 2: hospital gorman. Later on, when I joined the Navy got
Speaker 2: to be a hospital corman. I tracked down his medical records,
Speaker 2: found out that he spent two months in the hospital
Speaker 2: in Italy at the Naval Hospital, and he subsequently retired medically.
Speaker 2: And that's what ultimately happened to me. I retired from
Speaker 2: military because you know, my bomb blessed my combat injuries.
Speaker 2: But I found out more about my dad from those
Speaker 2: records that you know, he never complained about it.
Speaker 4: He never complained about his service.
Speaker 2: He kept his patches, you know, I used to have them.
Speaker 2: He taught me the night before he died. He's like,
Speaker 2: I need to see my kids. I want my son here,
Speaker 2: and that conversation I've never forgotten.
Speaker 4: He told me.
Speaker 2: He's like, boy, you're the man in the house now.
Speaker 2: And I wasn't too friendly because my mom was still
Speaker 2: young and I didn't understand it until I was more
Speaker 2: mature that she had to date, you know, she had
Speaker 2: to date these other these other gentlemen. She married one
Speaker 2: of them that that I struggled with, because any man
Speaker 2: that came into my house, in the house I was
Speaker 2: growing up in.
Speaker 5: We'll catch up on that. Okay, we're gonna take a
Speaker 5: quick break. It's a hard stop here the news on
Speaker 5: those on nine point fifty. We'll take that quick news
Speaker 5: break and we'll be back with more Road Hope Radio
Speaker 5: in just a moment, and we welcome you back.
Speaker 3: Glad to have you along.
Speaker 5: All right, Joey caught you up in the middle of
Speaker 5: the story, so keep going.
Speaker 2: I wasn't very likable, no gentlemen, no, no, no, there's no.
Speaker 3: Way that's possible.
Speaker 2: I did not see or I wasn't mature enough to
Speaker 2: realize that my mom was lonely.
Speaker 4: She lost the love of her life.
Speaker 2: She had a date, and me, being the man of
Speaker 2: the house that I thought I was, I was not
Speaker 2: enjoyable to be around because I was growing up. I
Speaker 2: was a teenager and I was trying to date girls too,
Speaker 2: and I didn't want anybody interfering with my mom. And
Speaker 2: I was very adamant about that. And I wasn't very
Speaker 2: likable with the activities that I caused their vehicles. So
Speaker 2: they ultimately left at some of them because of me.
Speaker 2: But I've just protected my mom. So all right, So
Speaker 2: you join the Navy at age eighteen, two weeks after
Speaker 2: I graduated high school? And what year was at nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty six? Eighty six in the Navy? Eighteen and a
Speaker 2: half years, son, Yes, sir, breaking service for five years.
Speaker 5: How many deployments you mentioned?
Speaker 3: Three?
Speaker 4: Three?
Speaker 2: Okay, three combat tours. I've deployed to the Virgin Islands.
Speaker 2: We were doing drug ops, helping out the locals on
Speaker 2: the Virgin Islands. There's a lot of islands that are
Speaker 2: kind of are frifty for states, right, you know, But
Speaker 2: America's present there. We own the seas, we protect the seas.
Speaker 2: Now I've gone through like three different motivational you know,
Speaker 2: it's not just a job. It's an adventure, you know.
Speaker 2: Now they're saying it's America's Navy. But the Navy's one
Speaker 2: of the oldest. We're a month older than the United
Speaker 2: States Marine Corps seventeen seventy five. The Army's the oldest,
Speaker 2: their two hundred and fifty years. We're making it up there.
Speaker 2: But the service has always been there. When I raised
Speaker 2: my right hand, I knew what I was doing.
Speaker 4: I knew what it entailed.
Speaker 2: I was giving up certain freedoms. But the routine, the structure,
Speaker 2: the chain of command taught me how to be a
Speaker 2: good man. I'm matured in in my service. My first
Speaker 2: four years, the USA Stark was hit by an exercise
Speaker 2: missile from an Iraqi warplane. At nineteen years old, I went.
Speaker 2: I raised my hand again. They needed volunteers, and I
Speaker 2: went over and fought fires for three and.
Speaker 4: A half days on a ship.
Speaker 2: I had no idea where any anything was. I just
Speaker 2: knew we were mutual aid. Like in the civilian fire
Speaker 2: fighting world, when a big fire happens, either a house
Speaker 2: fire or building fire, commercial property, you called for mutual aid,
Speaker 2: you called for extra people. So they called our ship
Speaker 2: and we got underway with just the the duty crew,
Speaker 2: which is a skeleton crew. We manned the ship, cut
Speaker 2: everything away from it, and we took off.
Speaker 4: I was not on duty.
Speaker 2: I said I was tired and I didn't want to
Speaker 2: go out and spend any more money. But I stayed
Speaker 2: on the ship, and thank god I did, because I
Speaker 2: knew the damage controlment. I knew the whole technicians. They
Speaker 2: were the first ones to go over to help fight
Speaker 2: fires when they asked for volunteers at like three thirty
Speaker 2: four o'clock in the morning. My hand went up, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, why am I doing that? You know what why?
Speaker 2: I didn't mean raise my hand, but I went over
Speaker 2: to a ship. I had no idea where anything was.
Speaker 2: You go on a small boat. You go over to
Speaker 2: the ship, and with the swelling of the of the water,
Speaker 2: the waves of the water, you have to time it
Speaker 2: to jump up and grab the ladder. I lost my
Speaker 2: firefighting boot, so I climbed the ladder with one boot on,
Speaker 2: and I got to the deck of the ship, and
Speaker 2: it was listing to the starboard side, which is the
Speaker 2: right side twenty seven degrees, because it was on fire.
Speaker 2: It had been hit, it'd been damaged. All the decks
Speaker 2: were open. Those weren't my first deceased sailors I've ever saw.
Speaker 2: That was the first trauma besides my dad's death, that
Speaker 2: I'd ever witnessed. I fought for three and a half
Speaker 2: days because I knew this had to be done. There's
Speaker 2: only one one direction for the ship to go when
Speaker 2: it's on fire. And that's down, and we weren't going
Speaker 2: to lose that shit. And I busted my butt to
Speaker 2: help give aid. I even doctored the executive officers wounds
Speaker 2: from shrapnel. I recovered the deceased. You know, I saw
Speaker 2: all that, and it stuck with me. I knew when
Speaker 2: I was I got out a month before a desert
Speaker 2: storm started, and I kept calling back and calling back,
Speaker 2: and finally they're like, well, we need you, we'll call you.
Speaker 2: You know, stop calling us, stop bugging us.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: But I was involved in Desert Shield where we protected
Speaker 2: the tankers. We were a tanker escort servers and uh
Speaker 2: when when those tankers wouldn't listen to our commands, they'd
Speaker 2: fire an attention, get her over the boy the ship
Speaker 2: and they listened because we got a big gun on
Speaker 2: a guided missile destroyer, but on a strike team that
Speaker 2: they taught me how to shoot a forty five and
Speaker 2: a moss bird shotgun. We took over ships and we
Speaker 2: told them where we wanted them to go, because oil
Speaker 2: is a commodity, it's a cash product, and we protected
Speaker 2: those lanes. And the Navy continues to protect the seas
Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form now coach guard's a
Speaker 2: little different. They don't even work hard. But that's just
Speaker 2: that's just my joke because I was in the Navy.
Speaker 5: I want to kind of move the conversation along just
Speaker 5: a little bit, just because of time.
Speaker 4: We don't have this, sir.
Speaker 5: I'd love to sit here all afternoon and chat with
Speaker 5: you on this. But you've already alluded to a number
Speaker 5: of traumas, yes, including the childhood, lost your father at
Speaker 5: age eleven, so multiple traumas, multiple trauma. I was in
Speaker 5: service also obviously exemplary service. Eighteen and a half years
Speaker 5: you served, then you went into you said, you became
Speaker 5: a paramedics that right, Yes, sure, okay, so no doubt
Speaker 5: more trauma there.
Speaker 3: Sure, But.
Speaker 5: Those first lives that you just mentioned that were lost
Speaker 5: on that ship that was eighty seven, Yeah, almost forty
Speaker 5: years ago.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of time in between before you between
Speaker 5: those moments, correct, even from the moment you left service
Speaker 5: in the Navy. Still a lot of time between then
Speaker 5: and stepping foot on camp Hope. What brought you to
Speaker 5: the place you decided this is what you needed.
Speaker 4: I need help.
Speaker 2: Besides serving my country, the bravest thing that a combat
Speaker 2: veteran can do is step forward and ask for help.
Speaker 4: It makes a big goal for your pride.
Speaker 2: And I had to swallow that pride and I was
Speaker 2: attempting to get help and I was a simulating a
Speaker 2: toolbox bo I heard about Camp Hope from another graduates
Speaker 2: run another program that I attended. And because of this
Speaker 2: program and because of what it gave him, I needed it.
Speaker 2: I needed the extra because I've been diagnosed with complex PTSD.
Speaker 2: It's like trauma upon trauma upon trauma, and with all this,
Speaker 2: you know, trauma work that I've done, it gets to
Speaker 2: you after a while, and nightmares, flashbacks remembered. I was
Speaker 2: blown up January twenty eight, two thousand and five.
Speaker 4: It took me.
Speaker 2: Twenty years to find the correct hope, the correct help
Speaker 2: that I needed the most. And when I came through
Speaker 2: those gates at Camp Hope, I had an open mind,
Speaker 2: in an open heart. I knew I believe in God.
Speaker 2: He's always had my sex. There's no there's no everybody
Speaker 2: believes in the foxhole. Everybody praise in combat. But once
Speaker 2: you're done, what do we do with this? And we
Speaker 2: will pick up there right in just a moment. But
Speaker 2: a reminder, if you'd like information on Camp Hope. Uh,
Speaker 2: because we're telling a story here day, we don't really
Speaker 2: talked about Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: What it is all about.
Speaker 5: All the information about Camp Hope, as well as our
Speaker 5: outreach programs across the state of Texas, across the country
Speaker 5: online virtually so you can jump on literally anywhere and
Speaker 5: be a part of one of our warrior support groups
Speaker 5: or our family support groups. All the information is available
Speaker 5: at our website ptsd usa dot org. Also, if you'll
Speaker 5: follow us Facebook, Twitter, or x YouTube ptsd USA, ptsd
Speaker 5: USA and all three of those would love it if
Speaker 5: you'd go and follow us, subscribe to us, retweet us whatever.
Speaker 5: It's all free and it's great way to share the story.
Speaker 5: Ptsdusa dot org. All right, I'm gonna take a quick break.
Speaker 5: We'll come back and pick up more just story in
Speaker 5: just a moment, and we welcome back Road to Hope Radio.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: Reminder eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy
Speaker 5: three is our combat Trauma Crisis line of combat veteran.
Speaker 5: We'll answer the phone. Eight seven seven seven one seven
Speaker 5: seventy eight seventy three.
Speaker 3: Joe, A little while ago you were.
Speaker 5: I don't remember the exact wording you used, something along
Speaker 5: the light you felt like you needed to be a
Speaker 5: light for Jesus Christ at Camp Hope. Again, back to
Speaker 5: the you drew the right card with getting.
Speaker 4: Tyrone Tyrone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, obviously it's very important to Tyrone his faith,
Speaker 5: and that's the.
Speaker 3: Beauty of the peer to peer.
Speaker 5: Like you said, it's not passing out advice. It's just
Speaker 5: this is what helped me. This is my experience, and
Speaker 5: that's been true for Tyrone and it's true for you.
Speaker 5: But I'd love to hear from either or both of
Speaker 5: you really just briefly, because it is where you know,
Speaker 5: we declare to be a faith based organization. We don't
Speaker 5: apologize for it. And truthfully, Christ's centered program, everything you
Speaker 5: read in our material you'll find very quickly it's Christ
Speaker 5: centered that said, you don't have to believe anything, and
Speaker 5: we accept anything and everything. You just have to come
Speaker 5: in wanting to change your life. You don't have to
Speaker 5: agree to a code or a creed or anything like that.
Speaker 5: But your faith and trying to be an example of
Speaker 5: that can certainly be tested around there because there are
Speaker 5: guys who are very very angry with God, which is
Speaker 5: you know I won't do it in front of them,
Speaker 5: but you know, in my mind, I chuck a little
Speaker 5: bit best like, how can you be so angry with
Speaker 5: somebody that doesn't exist? Because you keep saying there's no
Speaker 5: there's no God, but you're awfully angry at God there
Speaker 5: doesn't exist. But how has that worked out for you?
Speaker 5: And how'd that work out for you?
Speaker 2: Tyrone?
Speaker 6: You know, I was raised in the Church. I had
Speaker 6: a love hate relationship with God at first through all
Speaker 6: the things that I've been through in my life, and
Speaker 6: I just what I didn't understand was this. I used
Speaker 6: to say, why does God allow these things to happen?
Speaker 5: Well, it's the most natural question, I asked, right.
Speaker 6: But what I didn't realize was that the greatest thing
Speaker 6: about our God is that it gives us free choice,
Speaker 6: you know. And some people in this world have chose
Speaker 6: to choose other things, you know. Me myself has chose
Speaker 6: sometimes in my life to do other things, you know.
Speaker 6: And so I tell the guys that I talked to,
Speaker 6: is that, man, the only thing I had to do
Speaker 6: to start my journey on recovery from my mental health,
Speaker 6: from all of my trauma from my substance abuse was
Speaker 6: surrendered to God. I don't have the answer why it works,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. I don't have the answer
Speaker 6: to why my grandmother died before I met her. I
Speaker 6: don't have those answers. But however, like you said, God's
Speaker 6: shoulders are big enough that I don't even I don't
Speaker 6: need those answers. What I needed from God was peace.
Speaker 6: Now it doesn't mean I'm happy about everything, but I
Speaker 6: have peace no matter what happens to me. Nowadays, I
Speaker 6: am able to accept the the the answers that I
Speaker 6: get from people, the yes, the nose, you know. And
Speaker 6: I can still sleep at night peacefully. My rent can
Speaker 6: get raised and you know, and I don't like it,
Speaker 6: but I can sleep peacefully. And God, this is this
Speaker 6: is some of the things that God has given me. Man,
Speaker 6: I can't even count high enough to the blessings that
Speaker 6: He has given me, you know, I can't count that high.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what about you, Joe?
Speaker 2: You mentioned that cross on Camp Hope, And when I
Speaker 2: first got to the camp and talking to the tyrone
Speaker 2: and meeting him and hearing some of his stories, he
Speaker 2: always tells us that the fights up.
Speaker 4: Here in your head.
Speaker 2: But I made it down to the cross and I
Speaker 2: hit my knees and I just said, my way is
Speaker 2: not working. I don't know how to do this. I'm
Speaker 2: asking for help. I surrender. And when I said that,
Speaker 2: it's like slowly on God's timeline, it started happening. Blessings
Speaker 2: upon blessings upon blessings. I mean, like Tyrone said, it's
Speaker 2: so numerous. My life has been saved so many times.
Speaker 2: I've lost coun I mean when I was blown up,
Speaker 2: I don't know how I got out of the canal.
Speaker 2: I'm busted up and bruised and bleeding. I got metal
Speaker 2: on my face. But when I got to the top
Speaker 2: of the berm that you could not walk up up,
Speaker 2: you know as a human, I looked down and I
Speaker 2: saw bare footprints in the sand. We all have combat
Speaker 2: boots on, we all have uniforms on. And I knew
Speaker 2: who got me out of that canal, whether it be
Speaker 2: divine intervention, Christ himself, an angel, or God that got
Speaker 2: me out of that canal. And I was at peace,
Speaker 2: taking small arms fire in a combat zone in a
Speaker 2: dangerous place. CNN nicknamed it the Triangle of Death because
Speaker 2: there was a lot of life lost on both sides,
Speaker 2: but it was it was a war that we were
Speaker 2: in to help the country of Iraq. And not all
Speaker 2: Iraqis are are bad. I mean there's some people that
Speaker 2: came out I protected the voting boost the pole station,
Speaker 2: and they would come out with their fingers. They had
Speaker 2: to dip their fingers in chalk, blue chalk, and they
Speaker 2: would touch us. And I had I looked like a
Speaker 2: Dalmatian because I would blue dots all over my flack jacket.
Speaker 2: Should be an improvement, yeah, but.
Speaker 4: I mean, I had.
Speaker 2: I had. A local Iraqi woman in broken English, asked
Speaker 2: me what is freedom? And I just I shook my
Speaker 2: head and I looked at her and through the interpreter,
Speaker 2: I said, that would take too long for me to explain.
Speaker 2: But you can do whatever you want now. There's no tyrant,
Speaker 2: there's no dictator.
Speaker 4: You're free.
Speaker 2: And they didn't understand it at first. They do now better,
Speaker 2: you know, in this day and age. But when they
Speaker 2: first voted on their first government, they had no idea
Speaker 2: what they were doing. We didn't tell them who to
Speaker 2: vote for. We didn't, you know, put R two cents in.
Speaker 2: The Only thing I did is protect the area, you know,
Speaker 2: if somebody got hurt, that was my job. But when
Speaker 2: I got hurt. I must be a good teacher because
Speaker 2: my marines passed me out. Everybody was a combat life
Speaker 2: service and I my shirt. Just because I retired doesn't
Speaker 2: mean my services is finished.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely, whatever life you got in front of you,
Speaker 5: there's opportunity.
Speaker 3: We only have a minute left. But how long you've
Speaker 3: been at camp? Now? For my what's changed for you?
Speaker 4: Again?
Speaker 2: I got one minute. I'm proud, I'm happy. Joy has
Speaker 2: returned to my life. Talking to my family.
Speaker 4: I got. I got an avenue to keep helping.
Speaker 5: Where's your family?
Speaker 2: Uh? North Carolina where I retired from. But I'm not
Speaker 2: talking to him again. My kids still love me. My
Speaker 2: wife's talking to me. I heard three little words that
Speaker 2: I haven't heard in years, and she told me, I
Speaker 2: love you too, Joe, And that means the world of me,
Speaker 2: because I'm a changed man. Wait looking forward to after
Speaker 2: you're done here, seeing them spending some time on that beach,
Speaker 2: you know, enjoying the tide that I helped serve the ocean.
Speaker 2: You know, I helped serve the sea. But I'm a
Speaker 2: lot older now the tides are a little rougher. You
Speaker 2: got to be in shape, so I'm working on it. Mind, body,
Speaker 2: and soul, sir, means a little more to he though, Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: all right, thank you for sharing some of your story
Speaker 2: with us today, Tyrone, great to have you back.
Speaker 5: Thank you again for being here with us. A reminder
Speaker 5: where of you listen to podcast, if you just look
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Speaker 5: You never know who might hear what we do and
Speaker 5: need to hear what we do. And again, everything we
Speaker 5: do is absolutely at zero cost the veteran or their family,
Speaker 5: no cost whatsoever. Camp Hope is a lengthy, complex program
Speaker 5: sixty nine months by design. Some it takes up to
Speaker 5: two years to go through the program, so it's very individualized,
Speaker 5: but again at zero cost. It can absolutely change your life.
Speaker 5: PTSDUSA dot org. Also on Facebook, Twitter or x and
Speaker 5: YouTube PTSD USA, PTSD USA and on Instagram. PTSD Foundation America.
Speaker 5: Thanks for joining us. Look forward to being with you
Speaker 5: gain next week for more of a Road to Hope
Speaker 5: Radio