Speaker 1: Multiple people in my family clean my father are veterans.
Speaker 2: And the troops that have been to war and now
Speaker 2: they're 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. There are some people in this country
Speaker 3: who take extraordinary 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, and they
Speaker 1: are the best our country has to offer, and we
Speaker 1: love them. Today, we honor them and we serve them.
Speaker 1: David Malsby is your host, and he welcomes you to
Speaker 1: this community of veterans, as together we are building the
Speaker 1: road to hope.
Speaker 2: And indeed we are glad to have you along. Those
Speaker 2: of you listening on the KPRC, the nine to five,
Speaker 2: OH and the A and DAL thank you for joining us.
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Speaker 2: Republic Grand Ranch dot Com. Okay, we're gonna jump into
Speaker 2: it because we've got a full studio here. Uh three
Speaker 2: veterans here with us today. It's a couple of staff
Speaker 2: and one is currently in a program at Camp Hope. Uh, Justin,
Speaker 2: we'll start with you and work away around the room,
Speaker 2: or by introduce chef.
Speaker 4: Good afternoon. My name is Justin Lewis. I'm the lead
Speaker 4: Resident of Liaison at the PTSD Foundation of America Camp Hope,
Speaker 4: and I'm an Army veteran and i served two tours
Speaker 4: in Iraq seven oh nine. I did a fifteen month
Speaker 4: tour and then pretty much we came right back and
Speaker 4: we got right back out there. Twenty ten, twenty eleven,
Speaker 4: I went back right back to Iraq again for Operation
Speaker 4: Iraqi Freedom and a little bit of Operation New Dawn.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I've been at Camp Hope for about four
Speaker 4: and a half years now and twenty twenty when I
Speaker 4: got there September twenty nine, twenty twenty, and then i
Speaker 4: graduated the program April the end of April twenty twenty one,
Speaker 4: and I've been working there ever since.
Speaker 2: And I'm just.
Speaker 4: Grateful to be here today, and I'm grateful to be
Speaker 4: a part of the program.
Speaker 2: Derek, Camp Hope, grateful for what you do.
Speaker 3: Brother Miname's Christopher P. D. Peters. I am a Camp
Speaker 3: Hope graduate. I graduated in April. I currently am filling
Speaker 3: a role as a mentor in training at Camp. I'm
Speaker 3: an Army veteran. I did a tour in Afghanistan in
Speaker 3: two thousand and one and two tours in Iraq the
Speaker 3: invasion and seven and eight. It's route clearance. Happy to
Speaker 3: be here today, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, glad you are. You're up.
Speaker 5: William Kerr, a resident of Camp Hope, US Army veteran,
Speaker 5: two tourist to Afghanistan, first one in twenty ten to
Speaker 5: twenty eleven, second one in twenty thirteen to twenty fourteen,
Speaker 5: doing route clearance as well. Glad to be here today.
Speaker 2: Glad you are so all three of you two deployment
Speaker 2: seats right, that would have heard good three. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of deployments in this room right now. Oh man, Sir.
Speaker 3: Peter.
Speaker 2: Why'd you doin the army? Why did you choose the army?
Speaker 3: I took college level classes for architecture, doing computer aided design,
Speaker 3: and I thought maybe I could do it for the army.
Speaker 3: And when I met with the career counselor, he said, oh,
Speaker 3: you want to be an engineer, how about a combat engineer,
Speaker 3: and I was like, so I designed tanks and planes
Speaker 3: and stuff, right, He's like sure, oh gosh, but originally
Speaker 3: for college money, you know, and then it turned into
Speaker 3: serving something greater than myself.
Speaker 2: What year did you join? Two thousand? Two thousand? Okay,
Speaker 2: so if you deployed in one, that was fast first
Speaker 2: year in Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I joined something they called the delayed Entry program
Speaker 3: in November. My first day of basic training was my birthday,
Speaker 3: January twelfth of two thousand and one. Made it to
Speaker 3: my unit about April. Then September eleventh happened, and uh,
Speaker 3: it's funny story. We were actually slated to do the
Speaker 3: Multi Force National Observer Mission mission on the Sinai Peninsula
Speaker 3: between Egypt and Israel. And we were slated for that mission.
Speaker 3: They were like, oh, yeah, on R and R you
Speaker 3: can you know, go scuba diving in the Red Sea.
Speaker 3: And then nine to eleven happened and they were like, nope,
Speaker 3: that mission scratched. And I was part of the hundred
Speaker 3: and first Airborne And with a name like the hundred
Speaker 3: and first Airborne, you know you're getting deployed.
Speaker 2: Yeah goodness, Uh, well when did you join it?
Speaker 5: I joined December two thousand and five. Five, Yes, sir,
Speaker 5: what what prompted you to do that? I grew up
Speaker 5: an army brat. Okay, my dad went to Vietnam, he
Speaker 5: had gotten out, became a minister, and then joined the
Speaker 5: Army reserves and became a chaplain of the Army. I'm so.
Speaker 5: Our first duty station we lived at was in Fort Sill.
Speaker 5: Moved from California to there, and so I just kind
Speaker 5: of grew up around the military.
Speaker 2: And there's a move to Fort sil Yeah. Oh goodness,
Speaker 2: uh yeah, uh. Just a quick reminder for all information
Speaker 2: about our foundation. That's our outreach programs, Camp Hope, our
Speaker 2: Interim Housing Program for Combat related PTSD ptsd usa dot
Speaker 2: org is the website ptsd usa dot org. On social
Speaker 2: media would be Facebook x and YouTube PTSD USA PTSD USA.
Speaker 2: And our combat Trauma Support line is eight seven seven
Speaker 2: seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. Please put that
Speaker 2: in your phone. Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy
Speaker 2: eight seventy three. We were back more of road to
Speaker 2: Hope and welcome back Rode to Hope. Brady got three
Speaker 2: Army that's in the studio with us today. Let's see
Speaker 2: four seven combat deployments between the three, so you guys
Speaker 2: kept punching the frequent flyer card. How long were you
Speaker 2: in petie? How long are you in the Army?
Speaker 3: I did four years active and then five years.
Speaker 2: In the reserves. What'd you do your reserves?
Speaker 3: Well, actually between a drill sergeant unit in Philadelphia and
Speaker 3: a mechanized engineer unit in Kentucky, which the mechanized in
Speaker 3: engineer unit in Kentucky gots which to a route clearance
Speaker 3: company and we worked in a bar province under the
Speaker 3: Marines because they were short route clearance packages.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, justin I forget. How long were you an Army?
Speaker 4: I was in the Army for six and a half years.
Speaker 4: I joined in two thousand and five. I did a
Speaker 4: late entry program as well. In two thousand and four.
Speaker 4: I was just like man. I went to school for
Speaker 4: a little bit and then went to school for about
Speaker 4: a year and a half after I got out of
Speaker 4: high school. But then I just worked a couple of
Speaker 4: jobs like home depot and stuff. And then I was
Speaker 4: around with nine to eleven.
Speaker 2: Happened.
Speaker 4: I had just graduated from high school in May, and
Speaker 4: then I started going to Peyview University in August and
Speaker 4: then nine to eleven happened, and I was very kind
Speaker 4: of like, man, that was very traumatic situation that happened,
Speaker 4: and I just thought I just kept seeing all the
Speaker 4: good guys on TV fighting and going to war, and
Speaker 4: I was just like, I think I can do this.
Speaker 4: But I've always wanted to do something with aviation, so
Speaker 4: I chose aviation. I thought about the Air Force, and
Speaker 4: then I thought a little bit about the Marines because
Speaker 4: my dad's a marine, and then and then overall, I
Speaker 4: was just like, the Army had the best kind of
Speaker 4: aviation that I was thinking about doing. So six and
Speaker 4: a half years in and then I could have did more.
Speaker 4: But I thought I was ready to get out, but
Speaker 4: I really wasn't ready to get out come to find out.
Speaker 4: But I finally made it to Camp Hope. And it
Speaker 4: took a little while because I got out in two
Speaker 4: thousand and eleven August around August twenty eleven, and then
Speaker 4: from August twenty eleven all the way to September twenty ninth,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, that's how long it took me to figure
Speaker 4: out the place that that could help me the way
Speaker 4: I needed to help to get on my feet and
Speaker 4: get back go in the right direction.
Speaker 2: What was the first time I guess that you really
Speaker 2: remember something's not right, something, something's messed up here. It
Speaker 2: didn't take long after I got out, so was after
Speaker 2: you got out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was right immediately because I was like, well,
Speaker 4: nobody can tell me where to do no more, so
Speaker 4: I'm gonna just sit around for a little while and
Speaker 4: go on a long vacation. And then I went from
Speaker 4: drinking some corpse lights to smoking a little bit of
Speaker 4: marijuana to I got in a motorcycle accident. Then they
Speaker 4: gave me some hydro coaton, so I was mixing all
Speaker 4: three of those, and I was up in Kansas, and
Speaker 4: then I for a Raleigh, Kansas area and then I said, well,
Speaker 4: I think I need to go back home to Houston.
Speaker 4: And I come back home to Houston thinking things didn't change,
Speaker 4: but it actually got a lot worse with the people
Speaker 4: that I knew from two thousand and five and then
Speaker 4: so I kind of fell back into.
Speaker 2: Whatever they had going on.
Speaker 4: And it was just a long journey about six and
Speaker 4: a half years of being homeless, and the first about
Speaker 4: three years I was just kind of like keeping my
Speaker 4: head above water, you know, I was paying my bills,
Speaker 4: but I wasn't you know how that goes, and for
Speaker 4: I knew what I got. I had to go to
Speaker 4: a mental health facility to get some help. And then
Speaker 4: when I came back to my apartment, they had a
Speaker 4: padlock on the door because I couldn't pay the rent.
Speaker 4: And that was the first time I experienced homelessness. But
Speaker 4: it took a while, and finally just being at Camp Hope,
Speaker 4: I didn't know how it was gonna go because I've
Speaker 4: never been in a program. I had never did naaa,
Speaker 4: I never did anything like the program itself. For being
Speaker 4: in the military, that was the only program. And then
Speaker 4: my mom always makes a joke where it's like you
Speaker 4: grew up like the military as well, So you military
Speaker 4: wasn't very hard for me, you know, because my dad's Marine.
Speaker 4: And then my mom the way she grew up and
Speaker 4: where her family is, she kind of like get about
Speaker 4: that bit, you know, And so I mean, Camp Hope
Speaker 4: kind of put me back into mind state of I
Speaker 4: need to, you know, wake up at a certain time,
Speaker 4: get up, read, write, have some goals, and lead a
Speaker 4: little bit when I can, you know, I asked, asked
Speaker 4: for help when I needed not to be afraid to
Speaker 4: talk about the things I got going on. So I
Speaker 4: still live by those those values too right now, and
Speaker 4: I gotta keep keep doing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, Well for you, when when did you start
Speaker 2: recognizing something someone right?
Speaker 5: Probably during the first deployment, if not immediately after, Like
Speaker 5: I guess the old term for it was like shell shops.
Speaker 5: So my first tour, uh, we took over an area
Speaker 5: that was surrounded the three Taliban commanders.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: The villages were named after him, and so we used
Speaker 5: to we built that little combat outpost. We used to
Speaker 5: get moordered a lot and rocketed a lot.
Speaker 2: They try to.
Speaker 5: Overrun us, so loud noises would startle us. And like
Speaker 5: we returned back from the from the line back to
Speaker 5: Bograam to you know, process out and go back out
Speaker 5: of country. Like even just a dunk truck driving down
Speaker 5: Disney Boulevard, second main road on the air base there,
Speaker 5: it hit a pothole or something that loud little of
Speaker 5: noise like our whole platoony like jump. So he kind
Speaker 5: of knew like we had a little bit of something
Speaker 5: going on, but we weren't really sure what exactly, you know,
Speaker 5: came along with it. And then when I got back
Speaker 5: my dad, you know, being in Vietnam. But he used
Speaker 5: to be like, man, you got PTSD. I was like, nah,
Speaker 5: I don't have that, And I guess he's seen it
Speaker 5: may before I really started to recognize some of the
Speaker 5: problems with it.
Speaker 2: How was he from his time in combat?
Speaker 5: He's gotten a little bit better about some things, but
Speaker 5: like even now he has like a sleep avenue machine,
Speaker 5: and my mom says, like he starts fighting with it
Speaker 5: like it's a snake in the jungle and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: I know he's still he's still suffering with that all
Speaker 5: the way. You know, however many years later it is.
Speaker 5: And so I think he got out in nineteen seventy
Speaker 5: from Vietnam and he's still dealing with stuff from then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well Vietnam in particular. Just about any time you
Speaker 2: ask one of them, when did you? When did you
Speaker 2: leave Vietnam? And the typical responses last night, that's just
Speaker 2: the way it is. Okay, so your dad mentioned something,
Speaker 2: you're not really into all that, But when did you
Speaker 2: finally start looking for some help or didn't help have
Speaker 2: to come find you.
Speaker 5: After my second deployment, I started knowing there's really some
Speaker 5: bad changes because I became like a deploy what they
Speaker 5: call a deployment jumper, Like I would find a unit
Speaker 5: that was deployed and I would transfer to that unit.
Speaker 5: So some of my time back wasn't very long, and
Speaker 5: I was just staying deployed. So like I was noticing
Speaker 5: I was having some issues, and I was like, man,
Speaker 5: things are kind of get out of control. So I
Speaker 5: went to the chaplain and asked him for help, because
Speaker 5: that's what they said one of our resources were there.
Speaker 5: So we got to the VA and he tried to
Speaker 5: turn to an impatient like substance abuse thing. I said, man,
Speaker 5: I asked for mental help. And so I kind of
Speaker 5: that's what kind of got me pross out to the
Speaker 5: military because I flipped out on them. They try to
Speaker 5: threaten tak an the MP's and police to come get me.
Speaker 5: I told him I'd do what I did overseas.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: They're like, yeah, are you armed. I'm like, I'm armed
Speaker 5: and all this stuff, and so they kind of backed
Speaker 5: off of me and just kind of labeled me a
Speaker 5: wall and stuff. I kind of just told my sidy,
Speaker 5: I can't come and talk to y'all right now. I'm
Speaker 5: not gonna hold military bearing very well. I felt like
Speaker 5: I had been betrayed and stuff like that, and I
Speaker 5: asked for help and I'm not getting helped, and I
Speaker 5: was kind of frustrated. I didn't know where to go
Speaker 5: for help at that point.
Speaker 2: So after you're out, what happened.
Speaker 5: That as I was processing out, a lot of stuff
Speaker 5: would kind of happened, like end up losing my job
Speaker 5: because injury I got on my second deployment and I
Speaker 5: do us stuff all my time off and stuff. I
Speaker 5: lost a relationship, just like a lot of personal stuff
Speaker 5: was happening compound on top of just coming back from
Speaker 5: a rotation. So I kind of just went out there
Speaker 5: and I defaulted back to a lifestyle I used to
Speaker 5: know before I joined the military, and I went back
Speaker 5: to selling drugs to try to make ends me since
Speaker 5: I didn't have a job, and thats been a long
Speaker 5: road in and out of jail in prison for probably
Speaker 5: the last ten years because of that, being homeless and
Speaker 5: everything else going along with it.
Speaker 2: All Right, We're gonna have to take a news break
Speaker 2: for those of you on the U nine to five
Speaker 2: O and the AM dial here in Houston. When I
Speaker 2: take that quick break, we'll be right back get more
Speaker 2: into all three guys stories of what brought you to
Speaker 2: Camp Hope and for you, how it's going. How long
Speaker 2: have you been at Camp Hope, by the way, how
Speaker 2: long since Junie thirty? Oh? Okay, all right, so month
Speaker 2: and a half. All right, we're gonna take a quick break,
Speaker 2: be right back road to Hope Radio and were welcomed
Speaker 2: back David Malsby hero I would hope. We've got Justin,
Speaker 2: got Peter, you got Will, all three United States Army
Speaker 2: combat veterans. Well, how did you first hear about Camp Hope?
Speaker 2: First heard about it?
Speaker 5: I was incarcerated in Gwinnett County, see like late October
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four. The guys from the Foundation was doing,
Speaker 5: I guess, like a warrior group, which was new when
Speaker 5: I was rested there previously in twenty twenty three. They
Speaker 5: didn't have all that stuff, but they had a veterans pod.
Speaker 5: I got released on prob, went back to South Carolina,
Speaker 5: ended up getting a violation, so I had to go
Speaker 5: back down there to address that. And he was kind
Speaker 5: of breezing through it and he's like, anybody want to
Speaker 5: hear about Camp Hope?
Speaker 2: And I was like, what is that?
Speaker 5: So he showed us kind of like a YouTube video,
Speaker 5: like the introduction video showing the campus and stuff, and
Speaker 5: you know, spoke to us about it and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: And what really spoke to me, I guess was he
Speaker 5: was also another route clearance guy. He was a combat engineer,
Speaker 5: military brat, went through a lot of similar stuff, you know,
Speaker 5: got blown up overseas. Life kind of just went to
Speaker 5: crap after the military, especially when you're not ready to
Speaker 5: get out. So I thought I was gonna be a
Speaker 5: career guy. That's all I wanted to do. Is the
Speaker 5: only thing that ever fell right, like the right fifth life.
Speaker 5: And I was like, well, man, if he went through
Speaker 5: something like that too, and he went to this place
Speaker 5: and said it changed the trajectory of his life and
Speaker 5: helped him out, you know, I'd be willing to check
Speaker 5: it out see see what kind of help I could
Speaker 5: get from it. End up having to go to Georgia
Speaker 5: Department at Corrections finish up my time, and then stayed
Speaker 5: in contact with James and contacted him when I was
Speaker 5: getting ready to get out, and kind about about two
Speaker 5: and a half weeks and made a decision to pull
Speaker 5: the trigger on it and come out here and see
Speaker 5: if I can get some hope.
Speaker 2: James does great work, great work over there. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: does really good work. And we talked so much about
Speaker 2: Camp Hope. We should address what we do outside of
Speaker 2: Camp Hope a little more than we do. But we
Speaker 2: run outreach groups for instance there in the Atlanta area,
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay, we're in Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, San Antonio.
Speaker 2: Of course, we're in groups all across the Houston area,
Speaker 2: and then we have a virtual couple of virtual groups
Speaker 2: also support groups for the family members. It's imperative for
Speaker 2: that long term success that we're looking for in our
Speaker 2: veterans general with PTSD, that you've got to help the
Speaker 2: family understand of what's going on and how they can
Speaker 2: help and not make it worse. So those support groups
Speaker 2: are run all again no charge, and all that information
Speaker 2: is available on the website PTSD USA dot org. But
Speaker 2: just it's interesting to me because we get so many
Speaker 2: guys from veterans courts across the country and that's part
Speaker 2: of what you handle, right.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, definitely, me being the lead resident liaison, you know,
Speaker 4: trying to break this down as as quick as I can.
Speaker 2: But a lot it's a different day every day.
Speaker 4: In it, so I have to meet guys, what are
Speaker 4: at and so many different situations every day. But like
Speaker 4: when they told me about the job that they wanted
Speaker 4: me to become the lead resident liaison, it was like,
Speaker 4: I just remember this I have to do help out
Speaker 4: was illegal, the financial and the medical concerns of the residents,
Speaker 4: you know, and those If I just remember those three things,
Speaker 4: then I could be I would be okay. So when
Speaker 4: something happens, like maybe it's a child support, maybe it's
Speaker 4: a guy just having the traffic ticket, maybe it's a
Speaker 4: guy dealing with financial issues he never had addressed in
Speaker 4: about ten years, you know, kind of like all these
Speaker 4: are my situations. So I kind of like to say
Speaker 4: pass on the blessings I've received. I have to live
Speaker 4: by that too, and just meet guys where are at
Speaker 4: and and just talk to them and listen active listening,
Speaker 4: and like Veterans Court, Harrison County Veterans Court, that's a
Speaker 4: big one.
Speaker 2: There's one in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: We have a lot of guys with that court out there,
Speaker 4: Montgomery County, Galveston County. But we really do just help
Speaker 4: all over the nation. And then we've helped out guys.
Speaker 4: That's coming from, you know, in taking out of the Philippines, Brazil.
Speaker 4: So we definitely can just meet guys wherever they are
Speaker 4: at and we will get you here free of charge.
Speaker 4: And we've reunited families that haven't seen each other in
Speaker 4: twenty thirty years. So that's about I think those are
Speaker 4: some good bullet points about how we help with the
Speaker 4: intake and the legal department, but we always are here
Speaker 4: to help, like everyone. We all kind of like Romans twelve.
Speaker 4: That's like one of my favorite parts of the Bible.
Speaker 4: It just says, be good at what you are good at.
Speaker 4: You know, some good guys are good at listening, some
Speaker 4: guys are good at talking, some guys are good at
Speaker 4: just driving. Guys places, they got good driving skills, so
Speaker 4: we put them guys in those positions and we just
Speaker 4: try to do our best. Be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 4: I've learned all this at Camp Hope. Everything I'm saying
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be able to say if I hadn't come
Speaker 4: to Camp Ope and just hear these things over and over.
Speaker 4: Progress is not perfection, the best version of yourself, you know,
Speaker 4: and one day at a time, these are just things, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I learned each and every day. How long were you
Speaker 4: in the program at Camp? I got there September twenty nine,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty. So I was just like like these guys
Speaker 4: when they say, man, I've been here four months, I
Speaker 4: need to go to Yellow.
Speaker 2: I was thinking the same way.
Speaker 4: I stayed in Alphabet for five months, and I thought
Speaker 4: I was gonna be four months. But then we got
Speaker 4: here with COVID in twenty twenty, we had COVID going on.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty one, we had COVID going on. So I
Speaker 4: did seven months in the program Camp Hope, and then
Speaker 4: like my last couple of weeks, they were already talking
Speaker 4: to me about what's your plans next. I'll say, I'm
Speaker 4: not going nowhere. I can't go nowhere right now. I
Speaker 4: still got tickets I need to pay for. I still
Speaker 4: got My percentage was at ten percent and I was
Speaker 4: trying to get you know, and I'm at one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: So I know that how guys feel when they coming
Speaker 4: there's that guy zero. You can do it. You just
Speaker 4: got to just keep at it and keep asking questions,
Speaker 4: keep listening, keep your eyes and ears open, and you know,
Speaker 4: take a little bit from each person like you might
Speaker 4: take a little bit from me, take a little bit
Speaker 4: for pet, take a little bit from passor Mosby, take
Speaker 4: a little bit from everybody, and then just form your
Speaker 4: own program that where it works towards you and your goals.
Speaker 4: And I can keep on going on about it, but
Speaker 4: I think that's we got a little more time left.
Speaker 2: Right Well, you know, when I think about though, seven months,
Speaker 2: it's pretty remarkable understanding what you came through because you
Speaker 2: touched on the homeless department. When it's that long and
Speaker 2: you're in that mindset for that long, it's pretty impressive
Speaker 2: to get through the program. And certainly where you're at today,
Speaker 2: thank you. That's seven months. That's pretty it's pretty good.
Speaker 4: It wasn't easy at times, like I could relate it's been.
Speaker 4: It was a couple of times where I'll even give
Speaker 4: career Brendan Harsberg like we were in the same base.
Speaker 4: Let's go take a walk to the cross and we talked,
Speaker 4: and I've had that happen where it'd be people that
Speaker 4: you don't really think it's gonna be that person to
Speaker 4: help you that it comes to your aid. Let's pray
Speaker 4: about it, Let's let's read the AA book or in
Speaker 4: a book, let's let's talk about this, you know, and
Speaker 4: it's a peer to peer support program, definitely.
Speaker 2: So Petie, how long did it take you could go
Speaker 2: through the program?
Speaker 3: It took me eight months, and then I did a
Speaker 3: Green phase for two months before I actually applied to
Speaker 3: the MIT position. So I was already doing mental health
Speaker 3: peer support training in a part of my Green phase
Speaker 3: and a mentor came to me and said, you know,
Speaker 3: hypothetically there was a position open. Would you be interested?
Speaker 3: And the first thing I said, well, hypothetically, yes I would,
Speaker 3: and I mean to give back to the place that
Speaker 3: help me save my own life.
Speaker 2: When you look back on that time, the eight months
Speaker 2: in the program and then two in green, what's the
Speaker 2: most What's the thing that stands out the most to
Speaker 2: you about that time?
Speaker 3: Learning to be honest with myself. That was a big
Speaker 3: thing I had to deal with. Learning to be honest
Speaker 3: with myself made it possible for me to be honest
Speaker 3: with everybody else. That was a really big deal for me.
Speaker 2: Okay, so how long you've been in my Tina?
Speaker 3: I am about to round out two months and it's
Speaker 3: a three month program.
Speaker 4: So all right, he's doing a great job. He was
Speaker 4: on weekend duty with me this past weekend. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: did him a shout out right now. He did a
Speaker 4: great job of being available and just being the best
Speaker 4: version of him and that's what we try to allow
Speaker 4: guys to do.
Speaker 2: It's uh, it's a wild ride at camp uh both
Speaker 2: as it either as a resident or on the staff side.
Speaker 2: Either way, but on the staff side that's rough. It's
Speaker 2: a rough job and it's not for everybody. But between
Speaker 2: weekend duty, do you guys share the bat phone some
Speaker 2: or is that all outreach we share? You are sharing? Okay,
Speaker 2: so I.
Speaker 3: Haven't been put on that yet.
Speaker 2: Get ready. It's another eye opener. You get a little
Speaker 2: bit of everything on that phone. Reminder. PTSD us a
Speaker 2: dot org for all things PTSD Foundation of America and
Speaker 2: Camp Hope. Big thank you to everybody here that supports
Speaker 2: what we do in some way form or other. Lot
Speaker 2: of church groups, a lot of businesses come out and
Speaker 2: do a lot of volunteer projects. Sometimes they come out
Speaker 2: and provide a meal for the guys. However you wherever
Speaker 2: it works for you and your company, We love to
Speaker 2: have you. PTSD USA dot org. Right, we canna take
Speaker 2: a quick break and we'll be back with more of
Speaker 2: road to hope right here? All right, Well, taking pretty
Speaker 2: easy on you so far. Let me hold you guys. Carry.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about you for a minute, right all right.
Speaker 2: So you were in a court system when you heard
Speaker 2: about us, right, Okay, after you're done and you're out
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, you make the decision to come
Speaker 2: to camp. Mhm, what's happened so far? I mean you
Speaker 2: still have long ways to go. What's happened so far?
Speaker 1: For you?
Speaker 5: We've got to learn some things from these classes, some
Speaker 5: different coping skills, like grounding techniques, things like that.
Speaker 2: What's your go to usually walking? What about you? PETI?
Speaker 3: I'm a rock marker, Yes you are, so I with
Speaker 3: everything on my rock mark.
Speaker 2: What's yours?
Speaker 4: Justin Well, I got a lot of tools in my
Speaker 4: tool bag and toolbox and I do need them all.
Speaker 4: So it might go from reading, it goes a little
Speaker 4: bit of going outside mindfulness, like being with my dog, walking,
Speaker 4: just writing, talking. I found somebody to talk to about
Speaker 4: my safe people. I find them and we just have
Speaker 4: a conversation and just it comes kind of like muscle memory.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: But during the program, I think it was mostly like
Speaker 4: going down to that cross and maybe looking at my
Speaker 4: seats HM and working on that book and my AA
Speaker 4: big book and twelve and twelve, so those like things
Speaker 4: in the program. That's what I did, kind of like
Speaker 4: you will walk and yep, that's about it for right now.
Speaker 4: But I got more to keep going, try to keep
Speaker 4: it short.
Speaker 2: Well, not an easy way to bring this up, but
Speaker 2: the you had at least one attempt at your own life, right,
Speaker 2: I've done it five O my life? Five? Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 2: When was the first?
Speaker 5: When I was in the fourth grade?
Speaker 3: Oh? My yeah?
Speaker 5: My first two attempts were in the fourth grade. The
Speaker 5: third one was in the seventh grade.
Speaker 2: And two of them.
Speaker 5: One was in between the deployment and one was after
Speaker 5: the last deployment.
Speaker 2: Did anyone know the one in between at the army? No? Okay,
Speaker 2: your last one was how long ago?
Speaker 5: Probably about two thousand and nineteen.
Speaker 2: I think. What do you think was the driving force
Speaker 2: behind that?
Speaker 5: Just a lot of stuff from the Deployment's also like
Speaker 5: the depression about not being in and against you know,
Speaker 5: some lack of some more felonies and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: So it's getting harder to get in. I've been trying
Speaker 5: to re enlist and stuff like that, just it's still
Speaker 5: really not ready to be out.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: That was actually a harder transition that I do more,
Speaker 5: have more trible to dealing with that than I do
Speaker 5: most anything else. Like the employments, for the most heart
Speaker 5: didn't bother me a whole lot. It was not being
Speaker 5: able to be in anymore, losing like that sense of purpose,
Speaker 5: sure that that brotherhood that I had and stuff like that,
Speaker 5: and then just ruining my life. I'll call them drugs.
Speaker 5: Just kind of was sick of the way I was living.
Speaker 5: How's a relationship with your family? It's on the mend.
Speaker 5: It's been a couple of years really since we had talked.
Speaker 5: I was locked up in Georgia though, started speaking with
Speaker 5: my mom. I'd call her once a week, so we
Speaker 5: started speaking again. And then before flying out here, Uh,
Speaker 5: me and my dad hadn't spoken at all. Was not
Speaker 5: good last time we talked, and I kind of asked
Speaker 5: because I had to take a Greyhound up there to
Speaker 5: get my last court case under control and finished up
Speaker 5: for me to fly out here. I was like, Hey,
Speaker 5: we'll be okay if I hung out at the house
Speaker 5: until I could, you know, check into a hotel. Sometimes
Speaker 5: they got laid check ins and she was like, well,
Speaker 5: it's coming from your dad. He says, you can't stay
Speaker 5: here the night, We'll get you to court the next
Speaker 5: day and all that. So that was a big step.
Speaker 5: I was able to call them my Father's Day this
Speaker 5: year and say Happy Father's Day. It's been the first
Speaker 5: time in several years because we just hadn't been on
Speaker 5: speaking terms with each other. I think the more they
Speaker 5: got looking at this place and researching about it and
Speaker 5: seeing it, they were at first night, we're on board
Speaker 5: with it. I think they were thinking it was like
Speaker 5: another cop out of me trying to make it look
Speaker 5: like I'm doing the right thing, because I've seen me
Speaker 5: do well before and then you know, relapse or something
Speaker 5: like that. But they're brilliant pressed with Camp Hope. They're like, yeah,
Speaker 5: they're kind of start getting all on board for it,
Speaker 5: and I think they're seeing the changes and they're actually
Speaker 5: wanting to switch where they're donating with all of our
Speaker 5: gospel mission to start donating to Camp Hope. Now tell
Speaker 5: about CA Hope help out o their veterans. When you
Speaker 5: look in the mirror today, what do you see see
Speaker 5: myself working on trying to be the best version I
Speaker 5: can be. You know, I heard his saying some time back.
Speaker 5: You know every setbacks that set up for a comeback,
Speaker 5: make this my last comeback. I don't want any more setbacks.
Speaker 5: I know there's stole meat bumps in the road ahead,
Speaker 5: but oh yes, you can use those as jumps, maybe
Speaker 5: make them a little fun or.
Speaker 2: Some sure, nothing wrong with that, man. Uh yeah. We
Speaker 2: don't talk about this very often on the show, but
Speaker 2: I think every now and then it probably a good
Speaker 2: reset for people listening. Maybe this is the first time
Speaker 2: you heard the show, maybe it's the hundredths of time.
Speaker 2: But studies tell us we're losing up to forty four
Speaker 2: veterans every single day to their own hands. That's suicide,
Speaker 2: it's addiction, it's it's a problem, and we're trying to
Speaker 2: do everything can to put a stop to that. So
Speaker 2: there's a reason we do what we do and the
Speaker 2: way we do it. Petie, talk to the guy out
Speaker 2: there that's struggling and a little too pride prideful, what
Speaker 2: would you tell him?
Speaker 3: Ask yourself one question, It is your way working? Because
Speaker 3: I know what brought me to camp was my way
Speaker 3: wasn't working. So you need to ask yourself is your
Speaker 3: way working. And I didn't know anything about Camp Hope
Speaker 3: until a fellow veteran told me about it. He was
Speaker 3: actually my platoon leader in Iraq. I didn't know a
Speaker 3: place like Camp Hope existed. And I think it was
Speaker 3: God's plan for me to be told about Camp Hope.
Speaker 3: It was God's purpose for me to be there and
Speaker 3: get the help that I needed.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you did, and glad for what you're doing
Speaker 2: today because now you're going to have the opportunity. I
Speaker 2: hear this quite a bit from some of our staff,
Speaker 2: and the first time I heard it's kind of set
Speaker 2: me back a little bit, like are you pulling my leg?
Speaker 2: You're just trying to, you know, make me feel good,
Speaker 2: or what are you doing? But I've heard many of
Speaker 2: them say a couple of things that were shocking to me.
Speaker 2: One was choosing to go to Camp Hope was scarier
Speaker 2: than going to war. I had many say that to me.
Speaker 2: I've also had many say that their job as a
Speaker 2: mentor or whatever I Camp Hope it was more purposeful
Speaker 2: to them than their time when they were interact Rafghans.
Speaker 2: And I've heard that many many times, and again both
Speaker 2: times I kind of like are you are you serious
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, absolutely, absolutely, Well we just got
Speaker 2: a little bit of time left, but again you got
Speaker 2: a little ways to go still in the program. What
Speaker 2: are you hoping to get out of this? Learning?
Speaker 5: Learning better tea techniques to deal with my triggers, which
Speaker 5: majority of those are like auditory triggers, some smells, things
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 2: Learn how to.
Speaker 3: Use better behavior.
Speaker 5: I guess a better reaction when I'm dealing with it,
Speaker 5: or recognizing when I'm getting out of control, re acting
Speaker 5: out of just kind of what comes with is sometimes
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say instinct, it's not really an instinct, but
Speaker 5: I guess I'll learned behavior.
Speaker 2: Well, I know there's always a thousand reasons to leave,
Speaker 2: and you're doing what you're doing as you see around
Speaker 2: our place all the time. It does pay off in
Speaker 2: the end. Ptsd us A dot Org. Ptsd us A
Speaker 2: dot org Crisis Line eight seven seven seven one seven
Speaker 2: seventy eight seventy three. Thanks for joining us. With you
Speaker 2: again next week for more of Road to Hope Radio