Vietnam veteran from Orlando inspiring all generations

Triple amputee Vietnam War veteran from Rochester shares testimony; inspires thousands

FOX 47 News

“I think if you have a passion and a drive and a courage and a willingness to live and move forward. I think that’s my message to everybody out there is don’t let anything stand in your way of a burning desire that you’ve got to accomplish something. Mine was just to live life.” Jim Sursely

ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX47) – Triple amputee Vietnam veteran Jim Sursely is shared his story of perseverance, courage and hope Thursday.

Sursely, a native of Rochester, is a former National Commander for the 1.3 million members of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

After graduating from Lourdes High School, Sursely joined the army in 1966. Two years later, he was sent to Vietnam assigned to the Americal Division’s 17th Armored Cavalry.

During a combat mission in January of 1969, Sursely’s life changed forever when he stepped on an enemy landmine during a perimeter check.

“At like 6:15 in the evening, bang. And you know blew me about 20-25 feet in the air, tramatically amputated all three of my limbs just because of the force of the explosion. ” Said Sursely.

“The thing that actually saved my life was it went up in a gigantic ball of flame. It was not shrapnel. It was not a metallic landmine. And that gigantic ball of flame helped cauterize my arteries, keep me from bleeding to death.”

Sursely says 3-4 weeks after the explosion, in a Japanese hospital, is when he fully comprehended the trauma he experienced. He credits sharing experiences and physically training with other amputees as a major help to his recovery.

After returning to the country and recovering from his injuries, Sursely met and married his wife. They have 4 children and 12 grandchildren.

Now Jim spends much of his time sharing his story in hopes of helping others overcome their challenges.
read more here

Clean gunk out of your engine

PTSD Patrol Clean gunk out of your engine

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 24, 2019

What is gunk in your engine? Well, if it is the engine is in the vehicle you drive, then it is usually oil. If it is in the engine that is in the "you" vehicle you live in, then it is anything negative that is clogging your way toward healing.

If you keep letting your past dictate all the reasons to not get up in the morning, then you are clogging up the imagination you need to fuel healing.

5 Symptoms of Oil Deposits
How Stuff Works
BY AKWELI PARKER
...We know that a sloppy diet and too little exercise cause sticky deposits called cholesterol to block our arteries. But what's the culprit behind oil gumming up our engine -- isn't oil one of the good guys when it comes to car engine health?

Well, yes, it is. But when oil is subjected to a high enough temperature, it can solidify and become baked onto the surface of whatever is close by, like for instance, a narrow engine oil passageway or critical engine parts themselves. It can also lose its viscosity and become a tar-like goop that makes life hard for your vehicle's engine.

When enough of these deposits collect, the possibility of a vehicle engine underperforming or even dying, go up dramatically. Thick or solid oil can have the reverse effect that clean, normal oil has. Instead of cleaning, lubricating and cooling your engine, it can pollute, hinder and contribute to overheating.

read more here 

Giving up or living it up with PTSD?

PTSD Patrol Highway Construction

Wounded Times and PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 20, 2019

There is movement going on right now on the road to healing but it has not made it onto every road map yet.

The movement is driving away from the long line of frustrating road blocks (suicide awareness) and onto the freeway (healing awareness) more people are getting on.

A couple of years ago, a group of us were talking about how all the suicide awareness was not only blocking hope, it was pushing too many into the dead ending. Facts back that one up. If you doubt that, here are some things you need to know.

Military suicides, all branches, 10 year high.

Known veteran suicides, percentages increased over the last 20 years, while population of veterans decreased.

Police Officer suicides increased.

Firefighter suicides increased.

All you have to do is read Wounded Times and know, we have the proof. If not, then you can GPS (Google portable search) it and find it for yourself. Type what you want to know, and then click the "News" tab, since that search produces the most current news reports.

It was time to change the conversation with my first book published in 2002, then in 2006, when I put up some of the first videos on PTSD. Back then it was easier to get the truth out because the roads were not blocked by traffic jams.

So, having little faith in social media to verify anything, we knew the only way to change the outcome, was to change the conversation.

Everyone can understand the vehicles they drive, how they control where they go and how they get there. They also know that someone had to clear the road before anyone got on it. Some of the best experts cleared the way when I was learning how to drive on this road back in 1983. I just had to learn how to navigate on it.

It is the same with the vehicle you live in. You actually control where you go and how you get there. You decide if you want to stay parked right where you are, or just coast downhill in neutral.

Popular Mechanics Mike Allen wrote about this notion.

"I get mail. I've said, on the record, many times, that it's a bad idea to coast downhill or up to a stop sign in neutral. It's unsafe. You need to be able to use the accelerator to avoid an unexpected road hazard; cars don't handle well in neutral during sharp cornering maneuvers when the engine isn't connected to the drivetrain. So why on earth would you put the transmission in neutral—whether on manual or automatic—when coasting? Apparently there are a lot of people out there who think they are saving gas by doing so. They're wrong."

That is what the Suicide Awareness groups have been doing for a very long time without being aware of how unsafe it actually is.

All of us, at one time or another, have had to endure construction aggravation when highways are being changed to improve driving conditions. Between the year they start and the year the finish, there is an increase in the number of accidents...and traffic jams. 

Living in Florida, I work near I-4 in Maitland, subjected to the I-4 -Ultimate Project. At least once a week, there is a traffic helicopter hovering above due to a bad accident, along with daily blares of sirens from emergency vehicles rushing to help.

Anyway, after all these years, the idea of PTSD Patrol came up as a way to clear all the stuff out of the way so veterans could heal...and it has been lighting spark plugs to empower creative thought.


The key is to help them learn how to drive the rest of their lives the right way.

We are giving them their lessons, so they can learn how their vehicles work. Then explain what PTSD is, is not and how to #TakeBackYourLife.

With that, they have a learners' permit, so they can experience the control of their "vehicle" and how to handle road hazards.

They learn how to navigate to the mechanics who can properly maintain their "vehicles" (mind body and spirit) and be empowered to become a master of their own journey.

So, which do you think will work the best? Having them hear about how others gave up or how to switch gears and live it up?

The Glock was loaded with a round in the chamber, now veteran offers empowerment

An Indiana veteran sat in his kitchen ready to take his life. Then he looked at the clock.

Indianapolis Star
Holly V. Hays
March 14, 2019

Two days later, while he was still contemplating how best to kill himself, Eric received a phone call. One of his former platoon sergeants, a close friend, had killed himself.

The Glock was loaded with a round in the chamber.

U.S. Army veteran Eric Donoho sat in the kitchen of his Carmel home, trying to decide where he was going to die.

Not here, he thought. My family's gonna have to live in the house I just killed myself in.

Eric had been to war. Survived three bomb blasts. Lost children and friends. Was on the verge of losing his marriage.

Would the yard be better? Should I get in the car?

The minutes ticked by as he deliberated. Something made him check the clock.

2:15 p.m.

Time to pick up the kids.

He walked away from the fateful decision that day but remained committed to following through with it.

The death would later upend his family. But the death would not be his.

Bliss and heartbreak
A native of South Bend, Eric enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004, when he was 26. He trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, completing infantry, airborne and shoulder-fired missile training. On a flight to his assignment in Fort Richardson, Alaska, he met the woman who would become his wife.

They spent much of the eight-hour flight between Atlanta and Anchorage laughing, Jenn Donoho said. They married nine months later, March 2006.

“We had so much fun in our early relationship and marriage, and whenever things were tough, he always had the right amount of humor to lighten those moments,” Jenn said.

They had less than a year together before Eric was deployed in October. Jenn was 28 weeks pregnant with their first child, a son they would name David.

"We said goodbye at base," Jenn said, "and that night, I dreamed that David died."

A Red Cross notification upon landing in Kuwait had Eric back on a flight to Alaska. There was trouble with the pregnancy. He arrived just in time for his son's stillbirth.

The couple buried their son at Fort Richardson National Cemetery before Eric redeployed to catch up with his platoon in Iraq.

“That was horrible for everybody,” Jenn said.

Eric was rattled by an explosion his first night back.

He returned to the things he loved before war: photography and the outdoors. During a veterans retreat and expedition to New Mexico he took a photo he now calls “The Canyon of Hope" along the Gila Fork River.
read more here

Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide

The new plan to prevent veteran suicides: new grants, better research, more community focus
Military Times

Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
March 4, 2019

Officials from the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are scheduled to hold a roundtable with administration experts on the issue later this week. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced new legislation on the issue last week.

WASHINGTON — The White House is creating a new high-level task force on preventing veterans suicide which will include new community outreach grants aimed at former service members and expanded projects across a host of government agencies to coordinate research and prevention efforts.

President Donald Trump will sign a new executive order on the initiative — dubbed the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide, or PREVENTS — on Tuesday afternoon at the White House.

It’s the latest in a series of steps by his administration to address the problem, which claims an estimated 20 veterans lives every day. Last year, the president signed a separate executive order providing more counseling and mental health care for recently separated service members, who face a significantly higher risk of suicide than other military groups.

According to senior administration officials, the new order will give agency officials a year to develop plans for a more aggressive approach to suicide prevention, with a goal of more state and local community engagement.

The task force will look to develop a new grant system for mental health support and outreach similar to the Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing program, which provides funding directly to local charities and city programs to help individualize assistance plans for veterans.

The research work will also include pushing the Centers for Disease Control to provide more up-to-date information on veterans suicide research. Currently, the latest available data on the problem typically trails at least two years behind current efforts. Senior administration officials are hoping to cut that wait down to no more than six months.
read more here

Gee, where did I hear this one before?

Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide

Trump reads staggering veteran suicide statistics 
President Trump signed an executive order aimed at creating a federal task force that will tackle how agencies can help prevent veteran suicides.

"Hard to believe an average of 20 veterans and servicemembers take their lives everyday..."

And that President Trump, is because it is NOT 20 A DAY but is much higher when the facts are actually put together!

Plugging in!

PTSD Patrol: Participating in the journey

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 24, 2019

I have been unplugged for a few days to spend time with some very dear old friends of ours. Over the weekend we talked about old times and how our lives have changed since we were young.

My friend Ellen and I shared how much we have taken active places in the lives of our husbands and unwilling to settle for just being along for the ride. 

This morning I was wondering why so many younger family members are not taking an active part in the journey too. Then it occurred to me that maybe no one ever explained to them how much power they do have over everything.

Passenger Passive is just along for the ride and not paying attention to where they are going, or noticing how they got to where they were.

Passsenger: a person who is traveling in a vehicle but is not operating it or working as an employee in it.

Captain Cruel takes advantage of the vulnerability of the person they are with instead of helping them.

Navigator Knowing charts the way to get everyone to their destination as quickly and safely as possible.

Navigator :a person in a vehicle who decides on the direction in which the vehicle travels.

Point Man Partner acknowledges the needs of someone they care about and finds a way to make their journey a much happier trip.

So which one are you? If you are a family member, you are part of the journey and you can change the trip for everyone. 

Yes, without knowing it, you play a major role in all of this. You can make it worse for everyone or you can make it so much better.

While peer support is one of the best ways for recovering from PTSD, what Point Man International Ministries discovered is, family support works better than anything.

read more here

What is your dash telling you?

It is the middle that matters

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 17, 2019

When you look at your dash, there are a lot of things it can tell you. In the center, you see how far you've traveled and how fast you are going at this very moment.

THE DASH by Linda Ellis is one of those poems that is usually delivered when it is too late for the person being remembered to benefit from. It is not so much for the person being buried, but for those gathered to be able to think about their own lives.

This is part of that poem.

"He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years."

While we have no control over when we arrive into this world, we do have control over what we do between the dates used to acknowledge we were here at all.

"FOR THAT DASH REPRESENTS ALL THE TIME THEY SPENT ALIVE ON EARTH AND NOW ONLY THOSE WHO LOVED THEM KNOW WHAT THAT LITTLE LINE IS WORTH."

Question; What is your line worth? Can you see it all or is it mostly a blur with symbols you cannot really understand?
read more here

#BreakTheSilence, no one can help you because you will not give them the chance

You are not driving an empty bus

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 10, 2019

Last week on PTSD Patrol Change the Road You Are On I used a video of the road, filmed at 5:00 am, showing how lonely the road can be when there are only a few people on it.

That is the way it can seem when you have PTSD.  You can feel as if you are alone, but the truth is, everyone you know is tied to you in one way or another.

I used the road film because my ego took over. I have been in a lot of pain again because of my back. I didn't want anyone to see me in pain, so, I used that video. Ashamed of myself ever since. Not because of being in pain, but because I wanted to hide it from everyone.

Yes, imagine that! The one who is constantly preaching on letting people know you are hurting, did a lot of work to hide it. No one ever said I was the brightest bulb in the box.

So, yesterday, the pain is actually worse than last week. I apologized for my stupid decision, and then went on to talk about how if you do not #BreakTheSilence, no one can help you because you will not give them the chance.

If you think that deciding to leave the pain by committing suicide, you need to be aware of a so many things, it would take a year to post! 

The first thing is, picture yourself as a bus driver. They do not have empty busses for very long. More and more people travel where the driver takes them. That is the way your life is. 

More and more people are connected to you. Family, friends, people you work with, are all obvious connections, but there are many more. Add to the list of passengers your family members' friends. Your friends' families. Your coworkers' families and friends. See where I'm going with this?

read more here

The road you can choose is waiting

Change the road you are on 

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 3, 2019

Whatever happened to you that started PTSD was out of your control. That is the only way to get PTSD. It hits you! It is not something that started inside of you. It just ended up there.

The fact you have PTSD means you survived something that could have killed you. Isn't it time you started to live like a survivor?

You have the ability to determine your own destiny from this moment on. It is up to you to suffer in silence, more afraid to ask for help, than you were of what set off PTSD in the first place, or, take control of the rest of your life.

Just like learning how to drive your vehicle and control it, you can learn how to drive your life and heal it. Just spend as much time discovering a new way of living instead of spending so much time suffering.

It isn't easy and will take a lot of hard work. Then again, it has not been easy feeling as if all hope has vanished. I can assure you it has not. You just stopped looking for it.
read more here

Personal note: I am in a lot of pain right now with my back and did not want to show it on video. I just wanted to let you know that no matter how much you are hurting, there is always something positive to find if you look for it.

Marine Corps Suicide At 10 Year High

update from Military.com

The U.S. military finished 2018 with a troubling, sad statistic -- it experienced the highest number of suicides among active-duty personnel in at least six years.

Without the Army reporting the number of soldiers who died by suicide in the last quarter of 2018, a total of 286 active-duty members took their lives during the year, including 57 Marines, 68 sailors, 58 airmen and, through Oct. 1, 103 Army soldiers.

The deaths equal the total number of active-duty personnel who died by suicide in 2017. With the Army's fourth-quarter data, could reach the record 321 suicides recorded in 2012.

update from CNN Sixty-eight active duty Navy personnel died by suicide in 2018 with 57 cases among the Marine Corps, according to data obtained by CNN. Another 18 Marines in the Reserve forces either are confirmed to have committed suicide or their deaths are being investigated as suspected suicides.

No More Excuses

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 27, 2019

The number of service members committing suicide continues to rise. The number of veterans committing suicide continues to rise. The number of people actually in charge with a clue of what needs to be done, continues to be absent without leave!!!! Yes, they are AWOL!

How is it that there are people all over this country knowing exactly what works, what the troops need to hear, what veterans need to hear, YET WE ARE NEVER HEARD BY THOSE IN CHARGE? How is it that we have known what works for decades but the "experts" are clueless? 

They come up with slogans when we come up with results. They come up with excuses, when we come up with plans.

What makes all of this worse for us is, we know there is absolutely no need of all this suffering when they could be healing and still serving.

This is totally unacceptable because all of these suicides were preventable!

Suicide rate among active-duty Marines at a 10-year high

CNN
Barbara Starr
January 25, 2019

"While there is no dishonor in coming up short, or needing help, there is no honor in quitting. For those who are struggling ... our Marine Corps, our families, and our Nation need you; we can't afford to lose you." General Robert Neller

(CNN)The number of confirmed and suspected suicides in the active-duty Marine Corps reached a 10-year high in 2018 with 57 cases, according to new Marine Corps data obtained by CNN.

The United States Marine Corps emblem hanging on a wall at the Joint Detention Forces Headquarters at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba, April 09, 2014. AFP PHOTO/MLADEN ANTONOV

Another 18 Marines in the Reserve forces either are confirmed to have committed suicide or their deaths are being investigated as suspected suicides.

Marine Corps sources say the service is concerned that 2018 may have seen 75 suicides even with the extensive mental health programs available. Many of the cases are young Marines who have not deployed overseas and have not been in combat -- a situation that has been seen in other branches of the military as well.

"Don't make them just numbers," one Marine Corps official pleaded when making the data available to CNN.
read more here

Yet again, one more reminder that when the DOD bought all the FUBAR "resilience" BS, they failed to notice that if it did not work for those who did not deploy, THEN IT WOULD NOT WORK FOR THOSE WHO WERE DEPLOYED MULTIPLE TIMES!!!

Here are a couple of videos from a Marine veteran with PTSD. Listen to him and know that you can #TakeBackYourLife and live stronger!

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Dec 31, 2016
This is Jonnie. He has survived three attempted suicides and spent time as a homeless veteran. A year ago, he never thought he would be where he is today. He is healing and he wants to make sure other veterans get the message of something worth living for instead of the message spread about suicides. Spend next year healing and let this New Year be the year you begin to change again, only this time, for the better!

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Mar 11, 2018
Sunday morning empowerment zone features Marine veteran filmed yesterday at the Orlando Nam Knights bikeweek party. His simple message is empowerment! Take control of your life from this moment on. It's up to you where you go from here!

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Apr 14, 2018
My buddy Jonnie has been fighting to take his life back from PTSD. He is doing everything possible to make his life better. Working on his mind, his spirit and his body! He is at the American Combat Club in Downtown Orlando.

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Jul 22, 2018
PTSD Patrol Sunday Morning Empowerment Zone Jonnie shares his message of getting in control over the road you choose to be on. You can sit back and feel miserable as a victim or you can choose the road to heal as a survivor.

Cross posted on PTSD Patrol

Get the stigma of PTSD out of your way

Putting the PTSD stigma behind you

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 21, 2019

Apparently you got the wrong message about PTSD.

Is there something wrong with being a survivor? 

Isn't that supposed to mean that you lived through something? 

That is supposed to mean that you were stronger than whatever it was that tried to kill you. Right?

Someone gave you the twisted thought that having PTSD meant you were weak instead of strong.

Did you know that PTSD has more to do with strength than weakness?

PTSD hits you after you survived something. It hits the emotional part of your brain, and that is where your soul lives.

The stronger you feel good stuff in life, the stronger you feel pain. That is why other people can walk away from the same thing changed in other ways.

No one survives something and remains unchanged by it. Some react differently, including becoming real jerks about anyone who felt it more than they did.

Maybe they are jealous because you could feel love more deeply, happiness more joyfully or marvel at something as simple as a sunrise? 

OK, now for the getting rid of the stigma part of PTSD.

It is OK to grieve. It is OK to feel sad. It is OK to have a million thoughts run through your head. 

It is NOT OK to give up on the life that survived the thing that started PTSD.

It is NOT OK to allow someone else to put roadblocks in your way when you are trying to heal.

It is NOT OK to spend your days regretting something simply because you do not understand it.

It is NOT OK to settle for fools defining you by PTSD when they refuse to learn what has been available online for decades.

It is NOT OK to let them talk about something they do not understand while you remain silent instead of educating them.

It is NOT OK to only look at what is "wrong" in your life, when you could be seeing what IS STRONG within you.

Stop giving power back to the thing that already lost. YOU WON and it is time to #TakeBackYourLife from PTSD.

It is time to take another road!

Stay out of the wrong lane

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 20, 2019

This morning I was thinking about how people in the wrong lane of traffic can mess up everyones ride.

I go into work at 5 am, which is great most mornings. With only a few cars on the road, it is really a nice commute. That is, until I get behind someone without a clue where they are going, and blocking the passing lane.

That happened Friday. The driver in the right lane was obeying the speed limit. The driver traveling in the passing lane was doing a little under the speed limit. There was no safe way to pass either of them.

Soon there was a group of us trapped behind them.

That is the way it is in life too. You are having a nice trip until someone gets in your way and blocks the road ahead of you, making it take longer to get to where you need to go.

If you are hearing about how many veterans someone thinks committed suicide today, you need to wonder what their point is. Who does it help when they just guess? How serious is the subject them when they cannot answer any questions? 

The most obvious question they should have been finding the answer to, is, "What will change the outcome?"

read more here

Getting rid of the stigma of PTSD is like melting black ice.

PTSD Patrol Sunday Morning Empowerment Zone
Kathie Costos
January 13, 2019

Black ice looks like a puddle but it makes the driving conditions dangerous. The stigma attached to PTSD is like black ice in your life. Facts can melt it so you can heal it! #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife
Read it here and watch the video of my office back in order again.

PTSD Patrol Time for You Turn

Making A YouTurn

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 6, 2019

If you risked your life protecting and saving others, and you give up on yourself, what kind of message does that deliver to us?

Over 7 million Americans have PTSD because we survived something that could have killed us. It didn't because someone like you put your lives on the line to make sure that did not happen.

So now, when the life you need to save is your own, it is time to make a YouTurn and ask for help because if you don't, then we'll wonder how much we are supposed to feel ashamed you got PTSD because of us!
read more here

2019 Happy New You

A new you can begin today

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2019

Last year did not start out so great. Pasco County Deputies were dealing with the death of an Air Force veteran, John Sellinger. His family was trying to comprehend what happened. Others who served with him, and knew him were shocked.A foundation was dealing with the loss as well.

Sellinger's wife, Laura, had reported him missing that day. He lived in a Seminole Heights house recently donated to his wife by the Gramatica Family Foundation. Both Sellingers had served in the Air Force. An improvised explosive device had detonated near Laura Sellinger in Iraq in 2006, causing a severe brain injury.

Over in Texas, it was a positive ending because  Judge John Roach Jr. decided that he should treat veterans like more than just a number.

"When I was accepted into the veterans' court, it was the first time I was treated like I wasn't just a number in the system." Richard Ress 

It seems like every year I wonder what it will be like at the end of the year for veterans, much like I did last year.

"I have witnessed veterans doing as Artaban did, giving all they had intended for God to be used in God's name because someone needed them. They are by "brothers" in Point Man International Ministries running around the country offering hope, showing veterans how to heal and then standing by their side when everyone else has walked away from them."

Today I think it is time for something new. Something that will prove what is possible when people decide to take control over their own lives, especially when those lives were willing to die for the sake of others. Imagine that? So, here are some of the best stories from last couple of years!

Rafael Semmier used his training as a combat medic to save a life at Walmart after someone decided to shoot others.

Disabled Vietnam veteran Mike Elliot discovered how much he mattered to his neighbors after his house caught on fire in Pennsylvania.

In Kentucky, Veterans chose to dance to heal PTSD and spend time with others rejoicing instead of regretting.

Another disabled Vietnam veteran, survived Hamburger Hill, losing his home, but found help and then, helped others.

Fort Carson soldiers risked their lives to save a woman trapped by her SUV after a rollover accident.

A homeless veteran living on the streets of Sacramento used his military training to save his own foot instead of letting it be amputated.

Marine Master Sgt. Clifford Farmer decided that he wanted to live and battle the enemy inside of himself as much as he fought the enemy in Iraq. PTSD was not something he was willing to surrender his life for.

Veteran William Goliher depended on those he served with in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then his community to help survive his battle with PTSD.

A disabled veteran in New Hampshire asked for help to fix his home, and the community responded big time!

Another veteran trying to heal PTSD discovered the power to fight for her own life from a cat who was an amputee!

A disabled veteran with a PTSD Service Dog won for the sake of all people with service dogs when he fought American Airlines.

IraqVeteran Jame Trumble decided to fight to take back his life and with the help of the VA. He did exactly that.


Bill Wedekind lost both his hands and eyes at age 18 from an IED in Vietnam, but his drive to live and inspire others helped heal other wounds.

Minnesota National Guard and a St. Paul police officer Eric Reetz found a homeless veteran and gave him a challenge coin so that he could stay in touch with the veteran.

Double amputee, Brian Mast is an example of determination and inspires as a Congressman from Florida.

A veteran of Afghanistan, Maj. Lisa McCranie is a pilot to the core, so steeped in the culture of never showing weakness that she hid every symptom of post traumatic stress disorder even as the weight of war began to crush her spirit. Years in uniform and the bulk of 2,800 hours in the cockpit went by — 1,100 of them in combat — before she even realized she had PTSD. McCranie found herself in yet another war, to get help.

Veteran Joe Clemens decided that he didn't need such a big house, so he started offering veterans in need of help a place to stay...and heal.

And Vietnam veteran Dave Roever was inspiring soldiers at Camp Casey with the story of how he recovered from being burned.

And those stories just happened in January of 2017.

And then there are police officers; Chris Sutherland and Jeremy Wood, school resource officers of Marysville Pilchuch High School. 

Orlando Police Officers fought to have PTSD covered for first responders, unafraid to come out, talk about what what came after Pulse, and the won.

Firefighters did it too. Kern County Fire Department Captain Derek Robinson talked about his battle with PTSD, so others would break their own suffering in silence.

Phil Hall talked about his battle with demons.

UPDATE: I used 2017 because last year was not such a great year on good reports. 

The Crew of the North Dakota did whatever it took to save a sailor after he tried to kill himself. Imagine that? He shot himself instead of turning to those he served with, but they proved how much they cared about him.

A Marine veteran, Wendell Blassingame, known as the Saint of Skid Row, made sure that other veterans were not left alone, and proved they mattered.

I think my favorite stories from January was of veterans reaching out to the Sheriff's Office to help them with PTSD. Budd Huffman and Jim Muhr decided that reading stories was not going to cut it, so they decided to do something about it. Share what they were going through and #BreakThe Silence.

There are so many more of them because more and more are discovering the power they have to help others, just as they did in the services they dedicated their lives to.

That is the thing that gets missed way too often. Your jobs are all about doing for others, so how about you take that seriously now? Heal for others and then show them the way toward something to hope for~

Note to readers...updated to add in more since, as I said, I was struggling with trying to just do a positive post today.