"Peace has come to this country," he said, "and I know peace has come to a lot of vets. And I'm looking at the fellas here, I see peace sinking in."
MEKING DELTA, Vietnam (WBAY) - Thursday, a local Vietnam veteran paid an emotional tribute to his brother and the Old Glory Honor Flight tour spent its final day in southern Vietnam.
In our Return to Vietnam coverage, Jeff Alexander takes us to the Mekong Delta, where the vets received a cultural experience and emotions ran high.
Vietnam veterans tour canals on the Mekong Delta aboard small, low boats called sampan boats (WBAY photo)
The fertile soil in the Mekong Delta makes it the heartland of agriculture in Vietnam, where rice, fruits and seafood are exported around the world.
It's an area Keith Johnson's older brother served in and fell in love with.
"He appreciated the people and their hard work, and he could see beyond the war," said Keith, who's from Appleton.
To honor his late brother Duane's wish of returning to Vietnam, Keith brought his ashes to spread.
"He was a... the real deal... over here," Keith said, getting emotional.
"This gentleman's brother was with the 9th Infantry Division," Tom Sharp of Green Bay said.
A Navy gunner, Tom transported troops up and down the rivers throughout the delta.
Coming back is tough, he says, but a gift toward healing.
Vietnam Veteran Had PTSD For Years Without Knowing
Huffington Post By Chai Dingari February 27, 2019
Today, Smallwood is an accomplished actor and writer. His book Return To Eden discusses his Vietnam experiences extensively to share with others who might have gone through the same thing. He still lives with depression and takes each day as it comes. At the end of it all, he acknowledges, “I’m a survivor.”
As Tucker Smallwood explains, when Vietnam veterans returned home, oftentimes they were met with the words “baby killer” and “cry baby.” Those unwelcoming sentiments only added to the severe psychological trauma that many of them were coming back with.
Smallwood’s story shares elements of many American soldiers’ experiences in Vietnam. Drafted into the army in 1967, he was wounded in action on Sept. 14, 1969. He was left for dead on the operating table before a second doctor saved his life. He came home and threw himself into a new life as an actor, quickly finding acclaim.
For years, Smallwood had a high-functioning and successful life. Then, an incident in 1978, eight years after his wartime injury, triggered a decade-long cycle of severe depression that he suffered through until he was persuaded to seek help.
As Smallwod explains, “There’s lots of kinds of PTSD. Anyone can be traumatized [...] You might break down right then. I might not break down for 10 years. It’s post-traumatic.”
The trigger for his PTSD came in the form of two young kids who pointed a gun at him one day in New York City and attempted to shoot him. Thankfully, the gun misfired and Smallwood was left standing there in confusion. Shortly afterward, while he was onstage performing in a musical, he broke down in tears in front of 600 people and had to be led offstage. At that point, Smallwood realized he had some issues he needed to resolve.
For more than 20 years, Smallwood experienced what is known as “anniversary syndrome.” Every year on Sept. 14, the day he was wounded in action, he would experience visceral flashbacks to the jungles of Vietnam. Smallwood lived with this annual trauma for two decades until he began talking about Vietnam in his regular therapy. It wasn’t until 1988 that he was formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here
"It helps me a lot of times just to talk about Vietnam": Vets return to country for first time since war ended
CBS News By JEFF GLOR February 27, 2019
Hanoi, Vietnam — Most who served in the Vietnam War have never been back since the war ended. Some have no interest but for others, returning is a crucial part of the healing process.
CBS News was there as 52 U.S. veterans from Wisconsin came back to Vietnam for the first time. Their tour around Saigon is far different from the last. It began where the war finished, at the presidential palace in Ho Chi Minh City, or as many still call it, Saigon.
Marine Sgt. Wayne Pierret served three tours.
"I was born and raised on a farm. I never had anybody shoot at me until I got here, when I got to Vietnam," Pierret said. "A 19-year-old kid shouldn't have been here, back then fighting a war. What do I know about war back then at 19."
The tour organizer warned the veterans that their journey would be stressful, especially as they got close to where they served. But there are demons that endure.
"We got into a fight, it was up in the DMZ and and there was a young man, he was dead and I went through his pockets and he had a picture of his wife and his children," Pierret said. "That hit home. Boy did it ever. He was no different than I was. He had a family."
Pierret said he suffered from nightmares.
"It helps me a lot of times just to talk about Vietnam. Like I said it'll tear me up but it gets here, on my chest gets it out," he said.
For Pierret and thousands of others, time goes by. It doesn't go away.
"My nightmares aren't as pronounced as they were when I first got out, but I still get them," he said.
He's hopeful this trip will take some away.
The trip was possible thanks to the Old Glory Honor Flight. As part of their two week tour, they will also make their way to Hanoi. read more here
Mike Buckley makes his way from the Roosevelt Marina where he met a very friendly and helpful bar owner.
Mike Buckley stared at the gun on his desk.
“It was the night I started to crack,” he said in front of more than 200 members of the Arizona Trail Association at its annual meeting recently.
The 30-year Army veteran commanded a bomb squad in Afghanistan, but after months of sending his boys home in pieces, he’d reached his breaking point.
Sitting with the gun and his despair, he had no way to know the Arizona Trail would save him.
Little did he know a bartender on a golf cart, an Australian woman with body odor and a Pine winemaker with a bathrobe encountered along the trail would restore his faith in humanity — and heal the wound in his soul.
He ultimately found himself again in a charred burn scar, near the end of the 800-mile-long trail.
“At Telephone Hill, passage 41 runs through a burn scar,” said Buckley. “It incinerated ponderosa pines. Even to go out through the devastation is profound because you see life. I became overwhelmed. It was like a chrysalis of new life and I realized it was who I was.” read more here
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 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 fromCNN 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.
WAVY 10 News By: Marielena Balouris Posted: Jan 24, 2019
"The world got really dark. It was gray. There was no color, I felt no joy. I had absolutely no sense of the future. It dawned on my one day that I wasn't willing to fight to save my life." Lisa Crouch
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) -- Imagine experiencing the worst moments of someone else's life -- every single day at work.
That's what many first responders do on a daily basis.
For Lisa Crouch, those traumatic experiences started to add up.
A career firefighter and paramedic, she dedicated her life to helping people in our community.
But what happened when everyone else's traumatic events started to affect her?
"You're afraid to go to sleep at night, because you know the nightmares are coming," Crouch said. "So you don't go to sleep, because you're fighting sleep because you're scared of the nightmares. But when you do fall asleep, you have the nightmares. And then you wake up the next day, and you're a mess."
Crouch spent 20 years working as a firefighter and paramedic in the Hampton Roads area. After decades of dealing with trauma, something shifted.
"The world got really dark. It was gray. There was no color, I felt no joy," said Crouch. I had absolutely no sense of the future. It dawned on my one day that I wasn't willing to fight to save my life."
Doctors found nothing physically wrong, but Crouch new something was off.
Then came her first suicide attempt.
"Die, be miserable for the rest of my life, or I can make something good out of this hell I went through," Crouch said. read more here
Local Purple Heart recipient shares important message about suicide
KKTV 11 News By Dianne Derby Dec 28, 2018 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - A local veteran's message about suicide is now spreading around the world.
11 News viewers have shared Kenny Bower's story over and over again on social media. The three-time Purple Heart recipient and former Army Ranger has been through more than 600 combat missions overseas. On one mission he was blown up and left paralyzed. He even flatlined for 97 seconds. More than 150 surgeries later he's proving no obstacle is too big to overcome.
One of the first things you notice about Kenny Bower is his unstoppable smile and positivity.
"If you can accept that life isn't easy and it's hard, you can overcome anything. You can make it easy with a good mindset," Bower explained.
Behind Bower's bright smile is a man who once considered ending it all. Fourteen years ago his vehicle was blown up during a deployment to Iraq. Nine soldiers died, two survived. Kenny was left burned and paralyzed.
"I was told I would never walk again. I would be lucky to even get feeling back," Bower recalled.
Kenny credits a firefighter who stayed by his bedside, helping him to push forward. read more here
Turning heartache into action requires more than love
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos December 15, 2018 When you suffer a loss of someone you love, the pain can be so great, the only way to relieve it, is to find something else to fill the void left behind. While it is totally understandable to want to do something, doing the right thing requires so much more than the desire.
After more than half my life has been dedicated to defeating PTSD, it began because of the pain I was introduced to when I fell in love. I knew what was attached to the stigma preventing veterans from seeking help. What I did not know was how to get it out of the way. It required a couple of years of research before I began to write about it. About ten years later, personal computers connected people just like me across the country, and we learned more. We shared more and then we began to change the conversation. To say it is heartbreakingly frustrating to see the outcome today, is far from adequate. Putting my fist through my computer is closer to how I feel every time I read about someone starting a charity because they are hurting. How many more do we need before people finally wake up and take all of this as seriously as it deserves to be taken? I was reading a report about a firefighter's Mom in the process of starting a charity because her son committed suicide. It has not even started yet, but managed to get the attention of the Chronicle Herald. It has a lot of claims in it that have been proven to have already failed, but that is not even mentioned. The Mom knows what pain she feels, but did not know the pain her son was carrying, and lacked the knowledge to know what his job was doing to him. But this Mom decided that experience should be turned into yet another effort, based on what failed so she can share it?
(The Mom) highly praised the assistance (her son) received from Halifax Regional Fire services.“I can’t even begin to tell you how supportive they were,” she said. “Within the resources they have and the skills and tools they had, they over-performed by 500 per cent.”
She praised it after her son was failed by it? Then she talked about how there are things in place that work? We have got to stop being silent when so much of what works is not worth them mentioning!
Here in the US, we have far too many just like her, and that is our biggest problem. Wanting to do something and knowing how to do it are two very different things.
Preventing suicides requires a serious effort, but we have not seen as much dedication toward discovering what is already available and what has been proven to have failed. Resilience training failed with catastrophic results. The DOD began that "effort" over a decade ago, yet ever since 2012, we have seen more service members commit suicide, than those killed in two wars every year.
This "effort" actually hinders them from seeking help because they are told they can "train their brains" to be mentally tough. Since they do not actually understand what PTSD, they end up believing they are mentally weak, instead of knowing PTSD hit their core because of the strength within them. How long do we allow all of this to go on because we do not want to hurt someone who has suffered a loss? How long do we let people, with good intentions, spread what failed, because we feel sorry for them? The number of known suicides has gone up because we have simply allowed grief stricken people to do whatever they wanted to do, blindly supported them in their "efforts" because we did not want to inflict more pain? Seriously? We managed to allow the pain to spread out so that more families knew exactly what the provider had been through the hard way. It happened to them! If we keep failing to get serious about all this, we will continue to see more and more take their own lives because we failed to show them the way to take control of their healing. Too many never even knew they could! #TakeBackYourLife
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos December 13, 2018 This has become very strange times in this country. PTSD is now so popular on social media, there seems to be a contest on how much worse one person has it over others. It used to be something that was kept secret but apparently, the only secret folks seem to be keeping, is that lives can be healed.
Post Traumatic, means after trauma. Trauma is Greek for "wounded" so it literally means, after wound. Surviving something terrible, causes stress in every part of the survivor. Mind, body and spirit are all involved in the second "it" happened and every second after the event happened. The disorder comes when nothing is "normal" within your sense of how you perceive it was. The trick is, to get out of the terrible moment and begin the healing moment as soon as possible. That is why Crisis Intervention works best when available as soon as it is safe to have that type of aid respond. OK, that said, it can happen after just one time. If you survive something and the symptoms do not ease up within 30 days, or go away, then that is an indication you should seek professional help. It means the event has attacked deeply inside of you. Like an infection, sometimes you just need something to help the wound heal and it is available within your own reach. Other times, the infection is so strong, it spreads out without getting stronger help to heal it. The scar left behind is determined by the strength of the infection and the response you apply to heal it. As for how many Americans have PTSD, this is from the Sidran Foundation.
Facts at a Glance
An estimated 70 percent of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives and up to 20 percent of these people go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
An estimated 5 percent of Americans—more than 13 million people—have PTSD at any given time.
Approximately 8 percent of all adults—1 of 13 people in this country—will develop PTSD during their lifetime.
An estimated 1 out of 10 women will get PTSD at some time in their lives. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop PTSD.
Extreme Trauma and PTSD
PTSD may develop following exposure to extreme trauma.
Extreme trauma is a terrifying event or ordeal that a person has experienced, witnessed, or learned about, especially one that is life-threatening or causes physical harm.
The experience causes that person to feel intense fear, horror, or a sense of helplessness.
The stress caused by trauma can affect all aspects of a person’s life including mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Research suggests that prolonged trauma may disrupt and alter brain chemistry. For some people, this may lead to the development of PTSD.
Now you know how many others have it, but also consider how many do not know they have it.
This is a good place to begin the next part of what you need to know. While you have just read how far reaching PTSD for just regular Americans, after surviving one time, there are others who have faced so many of them, it is hard for them to remember all of them or know exactly which one hit them the hardest.
They are the responders to the events the rest of us needed to be responded to. EMTs, Firefighters, Police Officers, Military Service Members and National Guards as well as Reservists, top the list.
There are also those who develop PTSD because they live with, or treat people who have it. That is called "Secondary PTSD" because they were hit by too. The Atlantic has a pretty good article that should help you understand this one.
"Whether an altered world view is ultimately destructive, Pearlman writes, “depends, in large part on the extent to which the therapist is able to engage in a parallel process to that of the victim client: the process of integrating and transforming these experiences of horror or violation.” She recommends that all trauma therapists undergo therapy of their own."
It is why I constantly have people I can talk to so that I can keep doing this work without falling apart. After 36 years topped off with living with it in my husband, I lost count on how many times I needed help too.
"Trauma after tragedy is nothing new: Evidence of PTSD in soldiers and commanders is present in ancient Greek and Roman texts. The pages of many Greek tragedies, like Sophocles’s Ajax and Euripides’s Heracles, are rife with veterans maddened by war. In the Roman army, suicide attempts were, strangely, punishable by death—unless a soldier was found to suffer from shame, sadness, or “weariness of life.”"
Really good summation there!
Years ago, I had a veteran tell me that since I was never in combat, I couldn't understand what it was like for him. In other words, he challenged how I could dare assume to know. I was in one of those "bitchy" moods and decided I was not going to take that from anyone. He wanted a contest, so, I brought my A-game.
First, I admitted that he was right and I did not know what it was like to be in combat. Then I proceed to run down the list, going back 50 years of many times when my life was on the line.
And then I asked him if he could understand what each thing was like for me. He said he could not.
But then I asked him if he could understand what it was like afterwards. That he could understand. The clincher was when I told him that I did not have PTSD and the 30 day window was shattered. I asked him if he wanted to know what that was like. He said he did.
So, we proceeded to change the conversation into how I healed so that he could do it too. So that he could recover most of the control of his life and what could not be healed, he would have the tools to prevent their power from taking over.
These are the conversations all of us should be having instead of who has it the worst. Aren't you tired of fighting the wrong battles? Then join the right fight to make it oh, so much better for so many more people!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos December 12, 2018
When you are depressed, feeling as if there is no hope, someone will eventually become frustrated because they do not know what to say. Sooner or later, the words "Get over it!" pop out of their mouths. While you may have been offended by those words, as if you are supposed to just forget and move on, there is power in that message when you think about it. You can get over it by overcoming it and making peace with it.
Back in 2012, there was a fundraiser out at the Orlando Nam Knights and MOH Sammy Davis Jr. was there. I know Sammy and his wife Dixie. I was talking to them about the PSA Sammy had done with some other Medal of Honor Recipients trying to get the troops and veterans to seek help for PTSD. I asked Sammy if he wanted to add to what he said, and he agreed. This is the message he and Dixie wanted to give.
Kathie Costos DiCesare Published on May 8, 2012 Vietnam Medal of Honor Sammy Davis has a message to all the troops coming home. Talk about it! Don't try to forget it but you can make peace with it. Dixie Davis has a message for the spouses too. Help them to talk about it with you or with someone else.
Why stay down there with the pain? Why surrender your power and remain trapped by what "it" is doing to you?
The only reason you have PTSD is because you are a survivor of something horrible. No shame in being a survivor! So, no shame in you unless you choose to have it control what you do now. The next time someone tells you to "get over it" tell them that is exactly what you are doing by working to overcome it!
Considering the "experts" could not even get this right... not hard to guess why they did not know that groups like Point Man International Ministries had been doing exactly this work since 1984!
Glickstein highlighted the way government efforts have failed—and offered a possible solution. He said that in the last 10 years, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have together run 1,100 different programs addressing PTSD and veteran suicide, at enormous expense. During that time, the average of 21 veteran suicides per day has not changed.
Point Man International Ministries proved this worked back in 1984 and has been doing it ever since. So what else did these "experts" miss?
What Faith-Based Efforts Can Do to Help Prevent Veteran Suicide
The Daily Signal Steven Bucci December 10, 2018
I don’t often quote sources from The New York Times, but in mid-November, David Brooks wrote a piece called “Fighting the Spiritual Void.” He stated without equivocation that “[t]rauma is a moral and spiritual issue as much as a psychological or chemical one.”
He could not be more correct.
The Heritage Foundation convened a panel to discuss post-traumatic stress disorder and veteran suicide from the faith angle. The panel was chaired by myself, a 30-year veteran of the Army Special Forces, and the members included Richard Glickstein, an advocate working to move the government to appropriately address the crisis; Dr. David LeMay, a medical doctor who specializes in rehabilitation; and Lt. Col. Damon Friedman, an active-duty Air Force special operator, who also leads a veterans service organization called Shield of Faith Missions.
The panel laid out quite a story. read more here
No matter how many different ways you can discover how to get to where you want to be, you will not look for them, unless you have hope that place exists. The road to heal is real! #CombatPTSD and #TakeBackYourLife When I was going on a road trip, first I had to have the will to go, then get directions on how to get there from where I was. Back then, we went to the gas stations to get a road map. Not easy to read and really too large to hold it while sitting in a vehicle. Trying to refold it was nearly impossible! AAA came out with TripTik planners. We'd go, tell them where we wanted get to, and they would plan out the entire trip. We'd flip the pages until we arrived. To get back home, we'd just flip the pages backwards. Now we have GPS directions in our cars and on our cell phones. Makes getting where we want to go easier to find. Where do you want to go? Sometimes find out how to get someplace is not your biggest problem. Sometimes, having the desire even think about changing where you are is the hardest thing to find. When I was new on the road, it did not make much sense to look both ways before taking a right turn, because I assumed no one would be coming the other way. That is, until I almost hit someone trying to cross in front of me. Then I understood there could always be something I am not seeing, because I did not look for it.
It is the same way with answers. First you need hope there is an answer to find for whatever you want to know, or change. If there is no hope, you will not look. Hope is what gets us moving each morning. It causes us to open our eyes, but it is the desire to seek something better, that begins the search for what we hope for.
If you know there is a better road to take, then you will look for it. If you know that other people have been there, and can show you the way, you are not traveling alone. read more here
Alignment refers to an adjustment of a vehicle’s suspension – the system that connects a vehicle to its wheels. It is not an adjustment of the tires or wheels themselves. The key to proper alignment is adjusting the angles of the tires which affects how they make contact with the road.
That got me thinking about how veterans can do an alignment of their lives. They can adjust the angles and make different contacts with other veterans on the road.
Right now the most powerful tool to prevent suicides if not being used. Too many have just jumped on the "suicide awareness" stunts while veterans are left wondering where hope is. What is going on? We see so many groups talking about veterans killing themselves, but the outcome is more suffering and less healing. Do these people really care? That is clear for most involved that they do. The problem is, they did not care enough to know what to do to change the outcome. The answer was already inside of them. read more here
