June 25, 2023 • 39 mins
We welcome back to the show this week, Anthony and we welcome in John. John shares his story about his journey on his road to hope. We discuss PTSD awarness month. We notice an upsetting trend where PTSD awarness month is not covered like the latest flashy news story. Actually, it's not even covered at all.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Multiple people in my family, clearmy father. Our veterans and troops that
have been to war and now they'reback, and think and be grateful for
their service, sacrifice, love fortheir country, just unselfishness, all that
they do for us. There aresome people in this country who take extraordinary
steps to provide for the freedom andsecurity. We forget that those people exist.
(00:27):
We know them as the Army,Navy, Air Force, Marines,
and Coast Guard. They call themselvessoldiers, seals, rangers, airmen,
sailors, devil dogs, and somuch more. We call them fathers,
brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. We
(00:49):
call them friend and neighbor. Theseveterans answered the call, now we answer
theirs. They are the best ourcountry has to offer, and we love
them. Today, we honor themand we serve them. David Maulsby is
(01:12):
your host, and he welcomes youto this community of veterans, as together
we are building the road to hope. I'm glad to have you along.
On a Sunday KPRC the nine fiveon the AM dial your Tuston, Texas.
Glad to have you along. Thoseof you listening through the magic of
(01:33):
podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for Road to Hope Radio.
There we are absolutely free, andwe're there because Ramone is a genius.
It's free because Ramon is generous.And then I don't know what the
point of the third one is,but according to Ramoney's good looking face for
radio. But how are you,sir? Well, thank you, mister
(01:56):
mom. You survived Father's Day.I see I survived my wife's birthday on
Wednesdays. Wow, that thing willsneak up on you're sitting there getting aaculated
on Sunday, the emergency phone calleda Connie happened at what time? I
broke the glass? At eleven thirtyTuesday. Yeah, she delivers something personally
to something shiny. Appreciate our friendsat a Corey Diamond at as I am
(02:17):
billing Connie Stagnant for all those specialmoments, the special peep in your life
a Corey as Acri Corey Diamond Designtwo A one four two forty seven fifty
five. Also because you spilled thembroke the glass. There was a spill,
so that that means oops steam dotcom, which we keep on speed
dial around our place. Oops,Steam dot com two eight one eight two
(02:39):
two zero five six one and areawesome friends at Jimmy Chong Gets Fresh Mixed
Fun. Every day is a greatday for some caso. It is PTSD
Awareness Month, which we're gonna talkabout here in just a moment. Next
Tuesday, PTSD Awareness Day, andit will be once again, as declared
(03:00):
the great folks at Greenoes and JimmyChonga's, to be every caseo counts day.
You buy however much case so youwant to buy on that day,
one of that will go directly tonot not the cheese, you get to
eat the cheese, but if it'sten dollars worth, okay, so we
get the ten dollars, you getthe case so pretty good, sweet deal.
(03:22):
That's fantastic. We love our friendsat Jimmy Chonga's Fun. Yes,
so last year I think it wasaround I'm all right, one of the
years it was like ninety grand whichI'm just thinking, that's a lot of
cheese. That's ow. It's like, it's yeah, because I'm not real
good with math, you know,but ninety thousand dollars that's a lot of
(03:46):
that's a lot of cheese. Almostimportantly, science has proven as a matter
of fact that the cheese consumed inthe name of kindness and generosity doesn't count
towards calories added to your gut.It's amazing, Yes, sir, it's
wonderful science. Look it up.Yeah, I'll have to during the next
break, I'll have to check thatout. I will quickly say this.
And we've got a couple of guysin student we're gonna talk to them.
(04:09):
It is PTSD Awareness month, soI want to I we'll do that after
break because I'm not sure how longit's gonna take me. Let's introduce our
magical, amazing gentleman in the studiowhere it's good to have Anthony back with
us. Want to Yes, it'sgood to be back. Anthony muro Us
Army deployed to Afghanistan and a leadmentor camp hope. What is what's the
(04:33):
difference in mentor and lead mentor?Well, a lead mentor actually leads mentors,
where a mentor leads residents to yourmentor to the mentors. Correct,
I like it. Do you havea mentor? I do? WHOA,
that's crazy. That's like three levels. Well, I actually even goes higher
than the come on and down andsee us sometimes. Will that's what happens
(04:56):
when you got a hundred guys livingon campus and you gotta anyway, also
with us today, John, youwant to enter your stuff? Yes,
so were? My name is JohnWages, United States Army. Um,
I don't not just by is that? Is? That? Is that good?
Or should I? Is it true? That's sometimes and it's good.
I've been told that a few times. Yeah, but so I'm trying to
(05:17):
work it on that though, youknow, I'm just asking. He's a
good I don't know if it's goodor not from John, I'm from Georgia.
Say again it was it wasn't bychoice, you know, it was
definitely by by selection, I believenaturally as I was told. Yeah,
okay, we're about in Georgia,just outside of Athens, Georgia. Okay,
so I also didn't have, youknow what, didn't have a choice
(05:39):
of picking on a college football team, just just just by by birthright,
Yeah, just part of it,that is? That's right? Yeah,
Well, in ever real life,some rain must fall. You opened the
floodgates, John, I mean backto back PCs champion. Yes, that's
a different kind of rain all daylong. That's good. How many of
that total for you guys, nowthat that's a big three. Yeah,
(06:00):
all right, So the first onewas the year before I was born,
so it's been forty years coming,you know what I mean. That's good,
No, it's certainly enjoy I amhappened for another Not too many teams,
not too many. Not too manyteams get to say they get them
back to back. That's correct,that's correct. That doesn't happen too often.
But it's a total of three.That's that's what I mean, in
my lifetime, total of three.Yes, so you're almost halfway to wear
(06:24):
my Oh there it is. Idon't even want to know. Six and
a half minutes into the show.Let's keep this peaceful. Why he's just
bitter because he saw the twenty twentyfourth schedule the well, but we didn't
get his team. We didn't gethis team for twenty four, which I
guess means we'll get him in twentyfive. That's probably. I don't know,
(06:45):
we'll since we're getting Bam at homethis year, will probably have to
come to Athens. Yes, beprobably my guests in twenty five. Probably
not that they're asking me, well, my guess is educated any truly nothing
more than a guest. Uh okay, so army Athens Georgia other than the
football team. What's Athens Georgia allabout? Well, I mean it just
(07:09):
depends on a Pinocchio team, ora pickleball or under underwater basket weaving and
water polo is really popular. Whichis number one graduation diploma out of the
university, I believe is underwater basketleaving. That's what the sixteenth century poetry,
I believe is another popular one rightnow. It's a dropping sixteenth century
(07:30):
poetry. There's still possible way thatthis show's train wreck. We're gonna scrap
it. I start over again slowlyafter we have a little commercial break.
We remember this is an honest program. We run here and I'm working on
that again. Sixteen poetry. Ididn't know what that means. We'll go
(07:53):
back with more Road to Hope radiojust a moment. It's a little calming
(08:18):
music because both well John and Anthonyhave been put into the corner for a
while. You might let him outhalfway through this segment sufing. I feel
like I'm at the little kid's tableduring a Thanksgiving dinner. You would be
so lucky, so lucky. We'llget back into that conversation here at just
(08:43):
a moment. I do want totake just a minute, and I guess
what I want to do is appealto you. And I'd love some feedback
on this um because I contemplate onsome of these things from time to time,
and I just wonder if I'm justcompletely off base, if I'm just
completely nutted out and I'm just Ihave no idea who I am, aware
(09:07):
I am, or what's going onanymore, and just completely at loss with
the world. So I love honestwith me back. I'd you know,
I love to hear what I'm Imissing. It is PTSD Awareness Month,
and I look, the reason Ikind of preface it that way is this
is the world in which I liveand operate literally all day every day.
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It's it's my life. It's whatwe do deal with combat related post traumatic
stress. And I know, Iknow, I know it's not the only
kind of PTSD I got, thatI understand it, But that's just the
world in which I live and operate. It's everything we eat, breathe,
sleep, it's literally everything. Uhwhat if we're reading it's about what's going
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on in our veteran community, PTSD, the prescription issues, the drug issues,
it's that's what we do. It'sit's what we do. So I
understand I'd come at it from abit different angle than John Doe. I
certainly understand. But it is PTSDAwareness month, and I'll ask you a
(10:20):
couple of questions. I guess he'lldo this. So one question is,
have you heard outside of those ofyou who follow the foundation or this show,
have you heard that anywhere else?Like anywhere else? Have you heard
anyone talk about it? Have youseen anything about it? And again,
(10:45):
I know it's not the only thing. I don't watch the news. I've
made that pretty clear for a lotof reasons. That's just about what happened
stupid all day yesterday and last night. Not really finding that helpful or even
news. As far as i'm canoes, nothing nothing I can do about it,
(11:07):
Nothing going to change my life.There are things that are going on
in the world. What's happening inour politics in America today, certainly I'm
aware of I'm not gonna get mylife in a train wreck over it.
I'm not gonna get wrapped around theaxle about it. I'm aware of it.
I'm semi educated voter when it's timeto vote, speak out on occasion
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about some of the major things goingon in this country, but it is
not my all day everything. Iknow that no matter what, there's really
nothing I can do to affect politicians. I've talked to too many of them,
and I know how it goes.So I'm aware of what's happening in
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the world. I just don't getsuper strung out about it. I do
end a lot of time in dealingwith We're losing up to forty four veterans
every single day in America to suicide, up to forty four every single day.
Now, nobody wants to talk aboutthat because we love our veterans,
(12:16):
our veterans, our heroes. They'reawesome, they're great, they're wonderful,
everything's great. They went to war, they're awesome. There are heroes.
We love them. But we don'twant to talk about reality. We just
don't. Oh, we don't wantto talk about the fact when they end
up in court or whatever. Wedon't want to talk about they survived four
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deployments but couldn't survive four years afterthey got home. We don't want to
talk. We don't want to thinkabout it. We sure don't want to
talk about it. So what dowe talk about? So? I did
something this week, a little Ido it from time to time, but
(12:58):
this being PTSD aware this month,what I'll generally do to be aware of
what's happening in the world, I'llgo to Twitter or Facebook and just scroll
for three minutes and I'll see what'strending, what's happening so and if there's
anything out there that is of importanceand interest to me. I know I'm
(13:22):
supposed to be losing my mind becauseJoe Biden's son got a slap on the
wrist. I know I'm supposed tolose my brain over that. I just
don't have the bandwidth to do it. I just don't. But what I
saw ramone as apparently there was asmall submarine. I don't even know how
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many people are on the submarine.It appears to be just from the scroll.
I saw one diagram looked like maybethree or four people on it.
I saw one headline that only oneof the people on that could even stretch
their legs. So I can tellyou it's a really small, small little
vessel. However many people on it. You know it's a tragedy. It
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is. I think it's awful whenanyone unnecessarily dies. I do. On
the other hand, I looked whenI saw that just coming up repetitively.
I went to every single news agency, local and national, and you know
what I found rom On every singlenews agency was reporting on a small submarine
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of people who chose to get onit to go look at a shipwreck that
happened, however, many years ago, and to view something up close and
personal, which their choice. Theygot the money to do that and the
time to do it. Man,that's your choice, go do it.
Every news agency covered it all dayevery day in America. How many were
(15:05):
on the boat four, four orfive whatever? It was again tragic for
their families. It's it's awful.I just I try to put myself in
the mind. I don't want tobe on a submarine period. I don't
one that small, No, thankyou. I don't think I'm claustrophobic,
but I don't want to find outthat way. Yeah, and I think
(15:26):
of the top hundred ways to goout of this world into the next.
That's not that's not it. Iwould not that would not want to be
No, but on every single oneof those news sites. I searched PTSD,
which you can pick your news site. Just go and see when was
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the last time they did a storyon PTSD, and none of them had
one. One local station had one, um none of no the rest of
them had anything abou PTSD in themonth of June. Now again, I
understand, in the grand scheme ofthings for a lot of folks, it's
not the biggest thing in the world. But don't don't they all love to
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say we love our veterans. Don'tthey all say we want to take care
of our veterans. Don't they allget angry and up in arms when they
hear stories about a nonprofit that theythink's not handling their money right, or
the VA's not taking a good enoughcare of our veterans, and they all
get all bent out of shape.But here we are, no one's talking
(16:37):
about it. We're all stuck ona submarine. Or what's happening in politics
that none of us can do anythingabout. And I just wonder, what
what is the message? What isthe message to our veterans who see the
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bumper sticker we support the troops.I just wonder what the message is that's
all? And then I wondered,am I missing something? Is it?
I get it? I'm I'm atI'm involved in this all day every day,
so it's going to be a differentlevel for me. But can it
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not even just be mentioned? Ijust can we not even whisper the words
it's p D as D awareness amonth? Is that? I don't know.
Maybe it's just a personal thing.I don't know. It's not a
personal thing. I can say asa combat vet that we the message we
get is that it's up to us. It's up to us to be there
(17:41):
for each other. It's up tous to spread the word. It's up
to us to be aware and connect. And that's what we're doing. Yes,
so we're gonna take a quick break. We got the news, and
I'm sure it'll be about PTSD awarenessa month. I'm certain that it will
be right back with more of RhodehopeRadio. Just a moment. There must
(18:18):
be like burning brighter somewhere. Gotto be birds flying higher in the sky
blue. If I can know whatI else I don't understand. Ramon,
Yes, sir, what does thesong mean? Jimmy crack Corn and I
(18:41):
don't care does anybody know, becauseI've asked and nobody nothing. Yeah,
nobody really knows. Maybe a I'llfigure it out. We all lived in
a yellow submarine. Well why whywould you? I don't I don't get
it. We used to sing thatwhen I was like in kindergarten. I
don't know why. We'd sing thatsong and Puff the Magic Dragon. Kindergarten,
(19:04):
we'd sing Puff the Magic Dragon,and then we'd sing Home on the
Range. Like it was weird?Is that Oklahoma? Like I had no
idea what any of those songs mean. We're just singing Home Home on the
Range and then Puff the Magic Dragon? Like what does what does that even
mean? So this was in Oklahoma? Sure, okay, here you go.
Yeah that kind of explains. Goahead and try and go ahead and
(19:26):
try. Yeah you're feeling it,Yes you have. It's been good annoying
you hats coats, canna Yeah later, chuck, Yeah, welcome back.
I wrote to Hope Radio um PTSDUSA dot org for information on the foundation.
(19:48):
Uh we do. We're gonna delvein a little bit too, um
to John's story in uh joking aside, We do like to joke around here.
We got to because We live ina pretty dark world sometimes of what
we deal with all day every day, so you got to have some levity
here and there. So sometimes itmay seem like it's really out of place,
but it's just for you know,our own mental health. And let's
(20:14):
get through this show and before itgets too dark. But we do have
a crisis line answered by a combatvet twenty four to seven, and I
cannot over emphasize it is answered bya combat vet eight seven seven seven one
seven seventy eight seventy three. I'llgive that to you again. I wish
every person on the planet would putthis phone number in their phone. You
(20:38):
never know when you may come acrosssomeone and you'll think, what was that?
Who? What? Would just putit in your phone? And when
it comes time you meet that betteromthat's in struggling, you can just hit
send, hand them the phone,tell him, look, a combat vet's
going to answer the phone. Eightseven seven seven won seven seventy eight seventy
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three. Now the combat that maybefrom Pennsylvania or Georgia. I can't control
all that. There's only so muchI can do to filter stuff out.
Only the best are sir, ohokay um so Georgia. And when did
you join the army two thousand andfour oh four? Why why the Army?
Well, well, I mean honestly, it was a generational thing.
So I was born in Columbus.My family got there via my grandfather.
(21:26):
He was a retired army He losthis uh, both his legs and his
fourth toward Vietnam um. And it'sjust one of those one of those things
where almost you know, I dida was that the DNA background check in
funny or not? But I waslike that Lieutenant Dan story, you know
what I mean. I had someonethat was involved in in every military campaign
(21:52):
going back since the beginning, SoI mean it to me it was it
wasn't more like the guts and glory. It was just, you know,
I was twenty one and like mostof the stories, I need something,
something to do. You know,it sounded good, you know, like,
you know, let's see the world. That was the slogan at the
time for the army. Oh itwas an army strong, that was that
was ours. Yeah, I grewup with the ball you can be right,
(22:15):
but Army of one that was Iremember that. I really took that
to heart. I believe if Ithink about my first tour. I'm sure
you did. Yeah, I was. I was came in like a wrecking
ball, you know, like thatwas me. We don't need C four,
we got wages, you know,just let him, let him do
his thing. Yeah, and nowI feel all that all down my spine
every morning, all the good decisions. You know. How many deployments,
(22:41):
So my one, my first onewas to the Pest Valley and poor and
Golf, Afghanistan and oh six andwe got extended on that one. So
we got there in March six andwe left the Juno seven. I then
did a quick tour to the Republicof Georgia eight, where I got to
uh experience some good times with Putinand his uh his his way. So
(23:07):
it was a it was a precursorto what we saw in Ukraine. So
it was quite quite interesting. Gotyou okay, when'd you get out of
the army? So I did?Um eight years. I got out in
twenty twelve. Um, but thatwas not because of anything other than I
ended up having cancer and UM,I had a malignant tumor on my liver.
(23:29):
And that was one of the hardestthings for me because the way I
got put out was. I wassitting in a parking lot at home deep
I'd had about fifty six staples inmy stomach, and I got a phone
call and they said, uh,you know, thank you for your service,
but you're no longer needed because atthat point I was not mission capable.
So that was that was a hardthing, and I'd deal with that
now, you know. That wasthat was what I was gonna do.
(23:52):
I was gonna I had no otherno other thought in the world. And
it was just like literally having youridentity stripped from you for no other reason
than you know, you weren't abad soldier. You've just got sick and
we can't use the wages wrecking ballanymore, so to speak. So it's
a hard thing. Yeah, sure, your purpose, your identity, all
(24:15):
of it, all of it,all of it was it was gone because
prior to that, you know,I was like a lot of us that
joined the service, you know,we're just young men trying to navigate life,
you know, and and like forme, I didn't have a lot
of male influence positively, and atthat point in my life, i'd already
you know, I'd been homeless sinceI was fifteen, so I'd always been
(24:36):
on my own terms and and itjust I got tired of you know,
bouncer from couch to couch or andreally had no direction, structure or anything.
So I was like, hey,you know this, this sounds like
something something good to do. TheYeah, the funny thing is is that
when I joined, I joke aboutthis. Sometimes I joined as a sixty
three Bravo, which is a lightwheel mechanic. But the Army has a
(24:57):
funny way of letting you know youpicked wrong, you know, So I
tell you, guys, this isthat all the time I spent in the
military, I'm still waiting on mytools. You know, never never once
got my issue. My rounch isissued to me. So I'm still waiting
on those. All right, Sowe got to back up a minute.
Uh, how much can you tellus about how you ended up homeless at
(25:18):
age fifteen? Well? Um so, uh I my uh, my story
is long, but um, Ididn't have a good home life. Um
my parents separated when I was prettyyoung, and uh, I think it's
more common than not. But youknow, being the oldest child and being
(25:38):
raised by children so to speak,Um, they just used me as kind
of a Ragdall and the people aroundme weren't very good, and so it
was just, uh, it wasmy It was either my options were to
stay there and continue taking abuse ortaking my chances out out on the streets.
So I you know, I livedon people's couches or I mean,
(26:00):
this is real, Like the firsttime I had my own bedroom since I
was a child was when I gotto the barracks and the Army at twenty
one years old. And the reasonI wanted you to expound on that a
little bit, and that was plenty. I was in a no I mean,
I know it gets dark. Igot it, understand it. I
(26:21):
was in a meeting this week withsome folks and we were going through you
know, what we're doing at CampHope, and there's always kind of the
just the sort of the obvious ofyou know, combat related that's and we're
dealing with PTSD all day long.But when you have a few minutes,
she's like, hey, let's letme peel it back just a little bit,
(26:44):
not too far, but just alittle bit. Because when a VET
comes in and dealing with combat relatedtrauma, which clearly you had, I
don't know what the percentage is butit's high of the guys that land at
Camp Hope who had some sort ofchildhood trauma, abuse, sexual or otherwise
there was some sort of abuse,introduction to some pretty strong drugs before they
(27:08):
hit puberty. I mean, justsome crazy. To me at least,
it's just crazy stuff, like,how in the world does this happen?
You know, not only in athird world country. How does it happen
here? How do these things happen? But so you take someone that's had
some type of very traumatic childhood trauma, and we've seen this happen many,
(27:33):
many times, guys coming through aswe hear their stories, they joined the
military to get away from the insanitythat they were involved in, the trauma,
the abuse, the neglect sometimes ofa home or the lack of a
home. So they're leaving years perhapsof sustained, deep life altering trauma.
(28:03):
They leave that to go into themilitary. Then we're gonna send them to
Afghanistan. And war happens. Andit's not the glamorous you know what you
see on TV and the romanticized versionof war. It's war. They say
war is hell for a reason.No one wants to actually talk about what
(28:25):
that hell looks like but it is. And then we bring them home and
we wonder what in the world.And my simple question is, on what
level of logic would you expect anythingless than this? And so it involves
an awful lot more than just hey, sit on the couch and tell me
your problems. There's a lot ofpeeling back and that's what we do all
(28:52):
day, every day. We'll beback with more of Roadehope Radio after this
quick break, Chief Charga, AllLouis still you ain't nothing wrong with little
(29:27):
Louis Armstrong either? After then wrongwith that? Welcome back to Road to
Hope Radio. H Ramona's taking usdown memory lane on the on the jukebox
over there? How much? Howmuch that costs us? Jun? Just
a quarter just to you put adollar in so you get five songs?
Alright, Well, I got tostay over for the rest of them.
I guess glad to have you back. Got Anthony whose Army vet lead mentor
(29:53):
at Camp Hope, the residential programwith the PTSD Foundation of America. Got
John United States? Are me veteranfrom State of Georgia, current resident at
the program? How long have youbeen at Camp Hope? Now? Um?
Coming up on AOW ninety days willbe the fifth of July. All
(30:14):
right, so you got a littleways to go. That's that's correct,
That's correct a little bit. ButI'm looking you know, I'm not actually,
uh, I like taking it dayby day. Yeah. I find
myself every once in a while overin there and I'm like, like,
you know, it's going too fast. If I got to do, I
have to go to the next stage. If I don't want to, you
don't like you know, It's oneof the things I think that the guys
(30:36):
don't. Well, it's like mostanything in life, you don't really necessarily
appreciate things as much as we shouldwhile we're going through them. Later on
in life, we look back onit and we think, man, that
was really something special. That wasreally a gift, that was really cool.
And I see that with a lotof our guys who've come through the
program, and they look back onit and they recognize after the fact that
(31:00):
was truly a gift of time.Of Like, there are days I would
like to chunk my phone into thedeepest where's that submarine? I could put
my phone and that submarine and getit lost for eternity. Uh, there
are days like that. Uh,and guys coming into the program when they
(31:22):
have to surrender the phone, it'slike you're asking them to give their their
first child, you know. It'slike it's not that bad, It's gonna
be okay. Well I can Ican say this though. This is my
second time, UM, but myfirst time was I was I wasn't ready.
Yeah, And that's really the differenceis having a perspective change because last
time it was, um. Youcan ask some of the mentors that were
(31:45):
hearing me last time. John wasvery angry individual, and it was you
know, I was still in thatmindset of like, you know, you
can't tell me I know at all. I'm an all knowing wizard. You
just don't know yet, you know, And so you look like one I
do off they read they call meon CAMPT you know it's my thing.
No, um, but yeah,it's it's really UM. It's different being
(32:07):
back this time and knowing why I'mhere. You know, I've been in
a lot of places since getting outof the military, and it's always been
because I'm being told I have to, And so it's different being somewhere and
doing it because I want to andthat's that's that's what changes for me.
That's what changes. I mean,even um, you know, I'm in
(32:27):
the same bay in the at campthat I was last time, and it's
it brings up some old memories.But it's like, man, I laugh
at myself sometimes I'm like, Ican't believe this is what got me upset.
You know, I'm like, andnow I'm like, I'm so thankful
I have it, you know.Yeah, and Tony, you know this
what the story he just gave isa story that's been repeated a thousand times.
(32:52):
It is not at all unusual forwhen a guy first hits very brigade
bull Art on our campus, theyare angry, angry men at whatever the
issue is, the driving issue they'rejust it turns into angry at everything.
And so the response out of emotionis very vitriolic in response, and it
(33:20):
takes a little while and for many, again not an unusual story. Verbiage
we've used off and on some throughoutthe years is sometimes guys got to go
out and get a little more pain. That's correct. I love the fact
that it's a place where a combatvet can be with other combat vets.
(33:43):
It's free and when he wants toleave and come back. He can do
that. Now. We have certainthings in place to ensure the safety of
everybody, but there's no stopping anycombat vet from coming back to this program.
And to me, what would John'slife look like if he didn't have
this program to come back to.And knowing that maybe some of the guys
(34:05):
it's not just that they need pain. Maybe they just need that one time
to see what it's like, seetheir frustrations, see where that frustration leads
them, and then they realize,you know, they have the epiphany of
like, hey, you know whatI do need to listen, I do
need to process, I do needto do this. Where do I go?
And how am I going to getthere? And how much money is
it going to cost? And who'sgonna be there. Well, guy that
(34:27):
comes in and then comes back,he knows what to expect. There's gonna
be combat vets. It's free andcome on in. The doors are wide
open. And I think sometimes itcan be that just the initial anxiety,
the fear of the unknown. Whatam I stepping into? Right? I
heard one of our guys this weekverbalize it in the way of, you
(34:50):
know, an anxiety about the ideaof entering into a program. They've never
been into a program since they've beenin the military, when they were in
programs all the time, and therewas just this hesitancy, I don't want
to enter a program, which wasthe first time i'd heard it verbalized that
way, I don't want to goto a program. So there's a lot
(35:12):
of those kind of initial fears,and it's a little different for different guys,
but you got to work your waythrough it. But the cool thing
is, I mean, again,you've got a waste to go, but
you've got a completely different outlook.So and I think this is important to
what I mean. So the firsttime I came here was just I was
(35:35):
riddle with that fear of the unknown. I didn't know what to expect.
They didn't know what was going tohappen. So I came with everything but
the kitchen sea. And this time, after searching again for two years to
just for anything that elseid existed thevia, many people said, well,
what you're looking for, mister Wedgesdoesn't exist, and I said, well,
yes it does, but I gotto be ready to do it.
So this time coming here, Iliterally walked out with the clothes on my
(35:57):
back bag with my books and andI even left my wedding ring and said
that, like, I don't needanything where I'm going because I know that
there is nothing I really need thatthey're not going to be able to provide.
And so that was just again,like Tony said, it's it's sometimes
you know that perspective that seeing whatand the knowing what to expect this time
(36:17):
is totally changes changes the game completely. So I want to talk about that
word program real fast. It's inour preamble for our warrior groups that we
read and it says that this isnot a treatment program yet, it is
a peer to peer support program.And to me that's amazing because Camp Hope,
(36:37):
what it truly provides is a venue, a house, a community of
combat vets that can help each other. And that's really it in a nutshell,
and the community is involved, itwants to be. And that's the
part you're bringing up earlier, sir, about you know what they're promoting,
what they're talking about, and forus about vets looking at a bumper sticker
(37:01):
or hear in a video ad,we're actually seeing here in Houston, Texas,
the real community getting involved and beingon site and inviting us to uh,
you know, nonprofit events and tosymposiums. And that's the difference is
that we combat vets want to seeit, we want to see it in
(37:22):
action, We want to fill it. We want to be in the community.
But we need to do it together, and we need to do it
to where we're wanted, not justin words, but in action. And
Tony, we actually talked about uson way over here. One of the
things that I like about is mostinstitutions that we go to they blocked the
outside world out, and here isthe total opposite that the outside world is
(37:45):
welcomed in. And that's that's abig, big difference, because that's one
of the things that happens is weget isolated from our society and we feel
that we're not welcomed in our owncommunities and sometimes our own homes. Indeed,
and our time is done went byfast. It's always the fastest hour
of my week. But I'm sothankful for both you guys being here and
(38:07):
sharing some of your story and hopefullysomeone shares the podcast and it comes across
somebody who could really use it,and maybe they'll put the gun down the
bottle of pills down the bottle thatyou're drinking. Pick up a phone and
give us a call. And wedon't have a magic wand to make it
(38:28):
all go away, but we canwalk the path with you, and a
path that's into a much better placethan you believe right now you could ever
experience. It can happen. PTSDUSAdot org. The crisis line is eight
seven seven seven one seven seventy eightto seventy three. Ramon, thanks for
letting us slide in that side doorone more time. Hope everybody has a
great week. We look forward tobeing with you again more next week of
(38:52):
Road to Hope Radio
Multiple people in my family, clearmy father. Our veterans and troops that
have been to war and now they'reback, and think and be grateful for
their service, sacrifice, love fortheir country, just unselfishness, all that
they do for us. There aresome people in this country who take extraordinary
steps to provide for the freedom andsecurity. We forget that those people exist.
(00:27):
We know them as the Army,Navy, Air Force, Marines,
and Coast Guard. They call themselvessoldiers, seals, rangers, airmen,
sailors, devil dogs, and somuch more. We call them fathers,
brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. We
(00:49):
call them friend and neighbor. Theseveterans answered the call, now we answer
theirs. They are the best ourcountry has to offer, and we love
them. Today, we honor themand we serve them. David Maulsby is
(01:12):
your host, and he welcomes youto this community of veterans, as together
we are building the road to hope. I'm glad to have you along.
On a Sunday KPRC the nine fiveon the AM dial your Tuston, Texas.
Glad to have you along. Thoseof you listening through the magic of
(01:33):
podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for Road to Hope Radio.
There we are absolutely free, andwe're there because Ramone is a genius.
It's free because Ramon is generous.And then I don't know what the
point of the third one is,but according to Ramoney's good looking face for
radio. But how are you,sir? Well, thank you, mister
(01:56):
mom. You survived Father's Day.I see I survived my wife's birthday on
Wednesdays. Wow, that thing willsneak up on you're sitting there getting aaculated
on Sunday, the emergency phone calleda Connie happened at what time? I
broke the glass? At eleven thirtyTuesday. Yeah, she delivers something personally
to something shiny. Appreciate our friendsat a Corey Diamond at as I am
(02:17):
billing Connie Stagnant for all those specialmoments, the special peep in your life
a Corey as Acri Corey Diamond Designtwo A one four two forty seven fifty
five. Also because you spilled thembroke the glass. There was a spill,
so that that means oops steam dotcom, which we keep on speed
dial around our place. Oops,Steam dot com two eight one eight two
(02:39):
two zero five six one and areawesome friends at Jimmy Chong Gets Fresh Mixed
Fun. Every day is a greatday for some caso. It is PTSD
Awareness Month, which we're gonna talkabout here in just a moment. Next
Tuesday, PTSD Awareness Day, andit will be once again, as declared
(03:00):
the great folks at Greenoes and JimmyChonga's, to be every caseo counts day.
You buy however much case so youwant to buy on that day,
one of that will go directly tonot not the cheese, you get to
eat the cheese, but if it'sten dollars worth, okay, so we
get the ten dollars, you getthe case so pretty good, sweet deal.
(03:22):
That's fantastic. We love our friendsat Jimmy Chonga's Fun. Yes,
so last year I think it wasaround I'm all right, one of the
years it was like ninety grand whichI'm just thinking, that's a lot of
cheese. That's ow. It's like, it's yeah, because I'm not real
good with math, you know,but ninety thousand dollars that's a lot of
(03:46):
that's a lot of cheese. Almostimportantly, science has proven as a matter
of fact that the cheese consumed inthe name of kindness and generosity doesn't count
towards calories added to your gut.It's amazing, Yes, sir, it's
wonderful science. Look it up.Yeah, I'll have to during the next
break, I'll have to check thatout. I will quickly say this.
And we've got a couple of guysin student we're gonna talk to them.
(04:09):
It is PTSD Awareness month, soI want to I we'll do that after
break because I'm not sure how longit's gonna take me. Let's introduce our
magical, amazing gentleman in the studiowhere it's good to have Anthony back with
us. Want to Yes, it'sgood to be back. Anthony muro Us
Army deployed to Afghanistan and a leadmentor camp hope. What is what's the
(04:33):
difference in mentor and lead mentor?Well, a lead mentor actually leads mentors,
where a mentor leads residents to yourmentor to the mentors. Correct,
I like it. Do you havea mentor? I do? WHOA,
that's crazy. That's like three levels. Well, I actually even goes higher
than the come on and down andsee us sometimes. Will that's what happens
(04:56):
when you got a hundred guys livingon campus and you gotta anyway, also
with us today, John, youwant to enter your stuff? Yes,
so were? My name is JohnWages, United States Army. Um,
I don't not just by is that? Is? That? Is that good?
Or should I? Is it true? That's sometimes and it's good.
I've been told that a few times. Yeah, but so I'm trying to
(05:17):
work it on that though, youknow, I'm just asking. He's a
good I don't know if it's goodor not from John, I'm from Georgia.
Say again it was it wasn't bychoice, you know, it was
definitely by by selection, I believenaturally as I was told. Yeah,
okay, we're about in Georgia,just outside of Athens, Georgia. Okay,
so I also didn't have, youknow what, didn't have a choice
(05:39):
of picking on a college football team, just just just by by birthright,
Yeah, just part of it,that is? That's right? Yeah,
Well, in ever real life,some rain must fall. You opened the
floodgates, John, I mean backto back PCs champion. Yes, that's
a different kind of rain all daylong. That's good. How many of
that total for you guys, nowthat that's a big three. Yeah,
(06:00):
all right, So the first onewas the year before I was born,
so it's been forty years coming,you know what I mean. That's good,
No, it's certainly enjoy I amhappened for another Not too many teams,
not too many. Not too manyteams get to say they get them
back to back. That's correct,that's correct. That doesn't happen too often.
But it's a total of three.That's that's what I mean, in
my lifetime, total of three.Yes, so you're almost halfway to wear
(06:24):
my Oh there it is. Idon't even want to know. Six and
a half minutes into the show.Let's keep this peaceful. Why he's just
bitter because he saw the twenty twentyfourth schedule the well, but we didn't
get his team. We didn't gethis team for twenty four, which I
guess means we'll get him in twentyfive. That's probably. I don't know,
(06:45):
we'll since we're getting Bam at homethis year, will probably have to
come to Athens. Yes, beprobably my guests in twenty five. Probably
not that they're asking me, well, my guess is educated any truly nothing
more than a guest. Uh okay, so army Athens Georgia other than the
football team. What's Athens Georgia allabout? Well, I mean it just
(07:09):
depends on a Pinocchio team, ora pickleball or under underwater basket weaving and
water polo is really popular. Whichis number one graduation diploma out of the
university, I believe is underwater basketleaving. That's what the sixteenth century poetry,
I believe is another popular one rightnow. It's a dropping sixteenth century
(07:30):
poetry. There's still possible way thatthis show's train wreck. We're gonna scrap
it. I start over again slowlyafter we have a little commercial break.
We remember this is an honest program. We run here and I'm working on
that again. Sixteen poetry. Ididn't know what that means. We'll go
(07:53):
back with more Road to Hope radiojust a moment. It's a little calming
(08:18):
music because both well John and Anthonyhave been put into the corner for a
while. You might let him outhalfway through this segment sufing. I feel
like I'm at the little kid's tableduring a Thanksgiving dinner. You would be
so lucky, so lucky. We'llget back into that conversation here at just
(08:43):
a moment. I do want totake just a minute, and I guess
what I want to do is appealto you. And I'd love some feedback
on this um because I contemplate onsome of these things from time to time,
and I just wonder if I'm justcompletely off base, if I'm just
completely nutted out and I'm just Ihave no idea who I am, aware
(09:07):
I am, or what's going onanymore, and just completely at loss with
the world. So I love honestwith me back. I'd you know,
I love to hear what I'm Imissing. It is PTSD Awareness Month,
and I look, the reason Ikind of preface it that way is this
is the world in which I liveand operate literally all day every day.
(09:31):
It's it's my life. It's whatwe do deal with combat related post traumatic
stress. And I know, Iknow, I know it's not the only
kind of PTSD I got, thatI understand it, But that's just the
world in which I live and operate. It's everything we eat, breathe,
sleep, it's literally everything. Uhwhat if we're reading it's about what's going
(09:56):
on in our veteran community, PTSD, the prescription issues, the drug issues,
it's that's what we do. It'sit's what we do. So I
understand I'd come at it from abit different angle than John Doe. I
certainly understand. But it is PTSDAwareness month, and I'll ask you a
(10:20):
couple of questions. I guess he'lldo this. So one question is,
have you heard outside of those ofyou who follow the foundation or this show,
have you heard that anywhere else?Like anywhere else? Have you heard
anyone talk about it? Have youseen anything about it? And again,
(10:45):
I know it's not the only thing. I don't watch the news. I've
made that pretty clear for a lotof reasons. That's just about what happened
stupid all day yesterday and last night. Not really finding that helpful or even
news. As far as i'm canoes, nothing nothing I can do about it,
(11:07):
Nothing going to change my life.There are things that are going on
in the world. What's happening inour politics in America today, certainly I'm
aware of I'm not gonna get mylife in a train wreck over it.
I'm not gonna get wrapped around theaxle about it. I'm aware of it.
I'm semi educated voter when it's timeto vote, speak out on occasion
(11:33):
about some of the major things goingon in this country, but it is
not my all day everything. Iknow that no matter what, there's really
nothing I can do to affect politicians. I've talked to too many of them,
and I know how it goes.So I'm aware of what's happening in
(11:54):
the world. I just don't getsuper strung out about it. I do
end a lot of time in dealingwith We're losing up to forty four veterans
every single day in America to suicide, up to forty four every single day.
Now, nobody wants to talk aboutthat because we love our veterans,
(12:16):
our veterans, our heroes. They'reawesome, they're great, they're wonderful,
everything's great. They went to war, they're awesome. There are heroes.
We love them. But we don'twant to talk about reality. We just
don't. Oh, we don't wantto talk about the fact when they end
up in court or whatever. Wedon't want to talk about they survived four
(12:37):
deployments but couldn't survive four years afterthey got home. We don't want to
talk. We don't want to thinkabout it. We sure don't want to
talk about it. So what dowe talk about? So? I did
something this week, a little Ido it from time to time, but
(12:58):
this being PTSD aware this month,what I'll generally do to be aware of
what's happening in the world, I'llgo to Twitter or Facebook and just scroll
for three minutes and I'll see what'strending, what's happening so and if there's
anything out there that is of importanceand interest to me. I know I'm
(13:22):
supposed to be losing my mind becauseJoe Biden's son got a slap on the
wrist. I know I'm supposed tolose my brain over that. I just
don't have the bandwidth to do it. I just don't. But what I
saw ramone as apparently there was asmall submarine. I don't even know how
(13:46):
many people are on the submarine.It appears to be just from the scroll.
I saw one diagram looked like maybethree or four people on it.
I saw one headline that only oneof the people on that could even stretch
their legs. So I can tellyou it's a really small, small little
vessel. However many people on it. You know it's a tragedy. It
(14:11):
is. I think it's awful whenanyone unnecessarily dies. I do. On
the other hand, I looked whenI saw that just coming up repetitively.
I went to every single news agency, local and national, and you know
what I found rom On every singlenews agency was reporting on a small submarine
(14:37):
of people who chose to get onit to go look at a shipwreck that
happened, however, many years ago, and to view something up close and
personal, which their choice. Theygot the money to do that and the
time to do it. Man,that's your choice, go do it.
Every news agency covered it all dayevery day in America. How many were
(15:05):
on the boat four, four orfive whatever? It was again tragic for
their families. It's it's awful.I just I try to put myself in
the mind. I don't want tobe on a submarine period. I don't
one that small, No, thankyou. I don't think I'm claustrophobic,
but I don't want to find outthat way. Yeah, and I think
(15:26):
of the top hundred ways to goout of this world into the next.
That's not that's not it. Iwould not that would not want to be
No, but on every single oneof those news sites. I searched PTSD,
which you can pick your news site. Just go and see when was
(15:48):
the last time they did a storyon PTSD, and none of them had
one. One local station had one, um none of no the rest of
them had anything abou PTSD in themonth of June. Now again, I
understand, in the grand scheme ofthings for a lot of folks, it's
not the biggest thing in the world. But don't don't they all love to
(16:11):
say we love our veterans. Don'tthey all say we want to take care
of our veterans. Don't they allget angry and up in arms when they
hear stories about a nonprofit that theythink's not handling their money right, or
the VA's not taking a good enoughcare of our veterans, and they all
get all bent out of shape.But here we are, no one's talking
(16:37):
about it. We're all stuck ona submarine. Or what's happening in politics
that none of us can do anythingabout. And I just wonder, what
what is the message? What isthe message to our veterans who see the
(16:57):
bumper sticker we support the troops.I just wonder what the message is that's
all? And then I wondered,am I missing something? Is it?
I get it? I'm I'm atI'm involved in this all day every day,
so it's going to be a differentlevel for me. But can it
(17:18):
not even just be mentioned? Ijust can we not even whisper the words
it's p D as D awareness amonth? Is that? I don't know.
Maybe it's just a personal thing.I don't know. It's not a
personal thing. I can say asa combat vet that we the message we
get is that it's up to us. It's up to us to be there
(17:41):
for each other. It's up tous to spread the word. It's up
to us to be aware and connect. And that's what we're doing. Yes,
so we're gonna take a quick break. We got the news, and
I'm sure it'll be about PTSD awarenessa month. I'm certain that it will
be right back with more of RhodehopeRadio. Just a moment. There must
(18:18):
be like burning brighter somewhere. Gotto be birds flying higher in the sky
blue. If I can know whatI else I don't understand. Ramon,
Yes, sir, what does thesong mean? Jimmy crack Corn and I
(18:41):
don't care does anybody know, becauseI've asked and nobody nothing. Yeah,
nobody really knows. Maybe a I'llfigure it out. We all lived in
a yellow submarine. Well why whywould you? I don't I don't get
it. We used to sing thatwhen I was like in kindergarten. I
don't know why. We'd sing thatsong and Puff the Magic Dragon. Kindergarten,
(19:04):
we'd sing Puff the Magic Dragon,and then we'd sing Home on the
Range. Like it was weird?Is that Oklahoma? Like I had no
idea what any of those songs mean. We're just singing Home Home on the
Range and then Puff the Magic Dragon? Like what does what does that even
mean? So this was in Oklahoma? Sure, okay, here you go.
Yeah that kind of explains. Goahead and try and go ahead and
(19:26):
try. Yeah you're feeling it,Yes you have. It's been good annoying
you hats coats, canna Yeah later, chuck, Yeah, welcome back.
I wrote to Hope Radio um PTSDUSA dot org for information on the foundation.
(19:48):
Uh we do. We're gonna delvein a little bit too, um
to John's story in uh joking aside, We do like to joke around here.
We got to because We live ina pretty dark world sometimes of what
we deal with all day every day, so you got to have some levity
here and there. So sometimes itmay seem like it's really out of place,
but it's just for you know,our own mental health. And let's
(20:14):
get through this show and before itgets too dark. But we do have
a crisis line answered by a combatvet twenty four to seven, and I
cannot over emphasize it is answered bya combat vet eight seven seven seven one
seven seventy eight seventy three. I'llgive that to you again. I wish
every person on the planet would putthis phone number in their phone. You
(20:38):
never know when you may come acrosssomeone and you'll think, what was that?
Who? What? Would just putit in your phone? And when
it comes time you meet that betteromthat's in struggling, you can just hit
send, hand them the phone,tell him, look, a combat vet's
going to answer the phone. Eightseven seven seven won seven seventy eight seventy
(21:02):
three. Now the combat that maybefrom Pennsylvania or Georgia. I can't control
all that. There's only so muchI can do to filter stuff out.
Only the best are sir, ohokay um so Georgia. And when did
you join the army two thousand andfour oh four? Why why the Army?
Well, well, I mean honestly, it was a generational thing.
So I was born in Columbus.My family got there via my grandfather.
(21:26):
He was a retired army He losthis uh, both his legs and his
fourth toward Vietnam um. And it'sjust one of those one of those things
where almost you know, I dida was that the DNA background check in
funny or not? But I waslike that Lieutenant Dan story, you know
what I mean. I had someonethat was involved in in every military campaign
(21:52):
going back since the beginning, SoI mean it to me it was it
wasn't more like the guts and glory. It was just, you know,
I was twenty one and like mostof the stories, I need something,
something to do. You know,it sounded good, you know, like,
you know, let's see the world. That was the slogan at the
time for the army. Oh itwas an army strong, that was that
was ours. Yeah, I grewup with the ball you can be right,
(22:15):
but Army of one that was Iremember that. I really took that
to heart. I believe if Ithink about my first tour. I'm sure
you did. Yeah, I was. I was came in like a wrecking
ball, you know, like thatwas me. We don't need C four,
we got wages, you know,just let him, let him do
his thing. Yeah, and nowI feel all that all down my spine
every morning, all the good decisions. You know. How many deployments,
(22:41):
So my one, my first onewas to the Pest Valley and poor and
Golf, Afghanistan and oh six andwe got extended on that one. So
we got there in March six andwe left the Juno seven. I then
did a quick tour to the Republicof Georgia eight, where I got to
uh experience some good times with Putinand his uh his his way. So
(23:07):
it was a it was a precursorto what we saw in Ukraine. So
it was quite quite interesting. Gotyou okay, when'd you get out of
the army? So I did?Um eight years. I got out in
twenty twelve. Um, but thatwas not because of anything other than I
ended up having cancer and UM,I had a malignant tumor on my liver.
(23:29):
And that was one of the hardestthings for me because the way I
got put out was. I wassitting in a parking lot at home deep
I'd had about fifty six staples inmy stomach, and I got a phone
call and they said, uh,you know, thank you for your service,
but you're no longer needed because atthat point I was not mission capable.
So that was that was a hardthing, and I'd deal with that
now, you know. That wasthat was what I was gonna do.
(23:52):
I was gonna I had no otherno other thought in the world. And
it was just like literally having youridentity stripped from you for no other reason
than you know, you weren't abad soldier. You've just got sick and
we can't use the wages wrecking ballanymore, so to speak. So it's
a hard thing. Yeah, sure, your purpose, your identity, all
(24:15):
of it, all of it,all of it was it was gone because
prior to that, you know,I was like a lot of us that
joined the service, you know,we're just young men trying to navigate life,
you know, and and like forme, I didn't have a lot
of male influence positively, and atthat point in my life, i'd already
you know, I'd been homeless sinceI was fifteen, so I'd always been
(24:36):
on my own terms and and itjust I got tired of you know,
bouncer from couch to couch or andreally had no direction, structure or anything.
So I was like, hey,you know this, this sounds like
something something good to do. TheYeah, the funny thing is is that
when I joined, I joke aboutthis. Sometimes I joined as a sixty
three Bravo, which is a lightwheel mechanic. But the Army has a
(24:57):
funny way of letting you know youpicked wrong, you know, So I
tell you, guys, this isthat all the time I spent in the
military, I'm still waiting on mytools. You know, never never once
got my issue. My rounch isissued to me. So I'm still waiting
on those. All right, Sowe got to back up a minute.
Uh, how much can you tellus about how you ended up homeless at
(25:18):
age fifteen? Well? Um so, uh I my uh, my story
is long, but um, Ididn't have a good home life. Um
my parents separated when I was prettyyoung, and uh, I think it's
more common than not. But youknow, being the oldest child and being
(25:38):
raised by children so to speak,Um, they just used me as kind
of a Ragdall and the people aroundme weren't very good, and so it
was just, uh, it wasmy It was either my options were to
stay there and continue taking abuse ortaking my chances out out on the streets.
So I you know, I livedon people's couches or I mean,
(26:00):
this is real, Like the firsttime I had my own bedroom since I
was a child was when I gotto the barracks and the Army at twenty
one years old. And the reasonI wanted you to expound on that a
little bit, and that was plenty. I was in a no I mean,
I know it gets dark. Igot it, understand it. I
(26:21):
was in a meeting this week withsome folks and we were going through you
know, what we're doing at CampHope, and there's always kind of the
just the sort of the obvious ofyou know, combat related that's and we're
dealing with PTSD all day long.But when you have a few minutes,
she's like, hey, let's letme peel it back just a little bit,
(26:44):
not too far, but just alittle bit. Because when a VET
comes in and dealing with combat relatedtrauma, which clearly you had, I
don't know what the percentage is butit's high of the guys that land at
Camp Hope who had some sort ofchildhood trauma, abuse, sexual or otherwise
there was some sort of abuse,introduction to some pretty strong drugs before they
(27:08):
hit puberty. I mean, justsome crazy. To me at least,
it's just crazy stuff, like,how in the world does this happen?
You know, not only in athird world country. How does it happen
here? How do these things happen? But so you take someone that's had
some type of very traumatic childhood trauma, and we've seen this happen many,
(27:33):
many times, guys coming through aswe hear their stories, they joined the
military to get away from the insanitythat they were involved in, the trauma,
the abuse, the neglect sometimes ofa home or the lack of a
home. So they're leaving years perhapsof sustained, deep life altering trauma.
(28:03):
They leave that to go into themilitary. Then we're gonna send them to
Afghanistan. And war happens. Andit's not the glamorous you know what you
see on TV and the romanticized versionof war. It's war. They say
war is hell for a reason.No one wants to actually talk about what
(28:25):
that hell looks like but it is. And then we bring them home and
we wonder what in the world.And my simple question is, on what
level of logic would you expect anythingless than this? And so it involves
an awful lot more than just hey, sit on the couch and tell me
your problems. There's a lot ofpeeling back and that's what we do all
(28:52):
day, every day. We'll beback with more of Roadehope Radio after this
quick break, Chief Charga, AllLouis still you ain't nothing wrong with little
(29:27):
Louis Armstrong either? After then wrongwith that? Welcome back to Road to
Hope Radio. H Ramona's taking usdown memory lane on the on the jukebox
over there? How much? Howmuch that costs us? Jun? Just
a quarter just to you put adollar in so you get five songs?
Alright, Well, I got tostay over for the rest of them.
I guess glad to have you back. Got Anthony whose Army vet lead mentor
(29:53):
at Camp Hope, the residential programwith the PTSD Foundation of America. Got
John United States? Are me veteranfrom State of Georgia, current resident at
the program? How long have youbeen at Camp Hope? Now? Um?
Coming up on AOW ninety days willbe the fifth of July. All
(30:14):
right, so you got a littleways to go. That's that's correct,
That's correct a little bit. ButI'm looking you know, I'm not actually,
uh, I like taking it dayby day. Yeah. I find
myself every once in a while overin there and I'm like, like,
you know, it's going too fast. If I got to do, I
have to go to the next stage. If I don't want to, you
don't like you know, It's oneof the things I think that the guys
(30:36):
don't. Well, it's like mostanything in life, you don't really necessarily
appreciate things as much as we shouldwhile we're going through them. Later on
in life, we look back onit and we think, man, that
was really something special. That wasreally a gift, that was really cool.
And I see that with a lotof our guys who've come through the
program, and they look back onit and they recognize after the fact that
(31:00):
was truly a gift of time.Of Like, there are days I would
like to chunk my phone into thedeepest where's that submarine? I could put
my phone and that submarine and getit lost for eternity. Uh, there
are days like that. Uh,and guys coming into the program when they
(31:22):
have to surrender the phone, it'slike you're asking them to give their their
first child, you know. It'slike it's not that bad, It's gonna
be okay. Well I can Ican say this though. This is my
second time, UM, but myfirst time was I was I wasn't ready.
Yeah, And that's really the differenceis having a perspective change because last
time it was, um. Youcan ask some of the mentors that were
(31:45):
hearing me last time. John wasvery angry individual, and it was you
know, I was still in thatmindset of like, you know, you
can't tell me I know at all. I'm an all knowing wizard. You
just don't know yet, you know, And so you look like one I
do off they read they call meon CAMPT you know it's my thing.
No, um, but yeah,it's it's really UM. It's different being
(32:07):
back this time and knowing why I'mhere. You know, I've been in
a lot of places since getting outof the military, and it's always been
because I'm being told I have to, And so it's different being somewhere and
doing it because I want to andthat's that's that's what changes for me.
That's what changes. I mean,even um, you know, I'm in
(32:27):
the same bay in the at campthat I was last time, and it's
it brings up some old memories.But it's like, man, I laugh
at myself sometimes I'm like, Ican't believe this is what got me upset.
You know, I'm like, andnow I'm like, I'm so thankful
I have it, you know.Yeah, and Tony, you know this
what the story he just gave isa story that's been repeated a thousand times.
(32:52):
It is not at all unusual forwhen a guy first hits very brigade
bull Art on our campus, theyare angry, angry men at whatever the
issue is, the driving issue they'rejust it turns into angry at everything.
And so the response out of emotionis very vitriolic in response, and it
(33:20):
takes a little while and for many, again not an unusual story. Verbiage
we've used off and on some throughoutthe years is sometimes guys got to go
out and get a little more pain. That's correct. I love the fact
that it's a place where a combatvet can be with other combat vets.
(33:43):
It's free and when he wants toleave and come back. He can do
that. Now. We have certainthings in place to ensure the safety of
everybody, but there's no stopping anycombat vet from coming back to this program.
And to me, what would John'slife look like if he didn't have
this program to come back to.And knowing that maybe some of the guys
(34:05):
it's not just that they need pain. Maybe they just need that one time
to see what it's like, seetheir frustrations, see where that frustration leads
them, and then they realize,you know, they have the epiphany of
like, hey, you know whatI do need to listen, I do
need to process, I do needto do this. Where do I go?
And how am I going to getthere? And how much money is
it going to cost? And who'sgonna be there. Well, guy that
(34:27):
comes in and then comes back,he knows what to expect. There's gonna
be combat vets. It's free andcome on in. The doors are wide
open. And I think sometimes itcan be that just the initial anxiety,
the fear of the unknown. Whatam I stepping into? Right? I
heard one of our guys this weekverbalize it in the way of, you
(34:50):
know, an anxiety about the ideaof entering into a program. They've never
been into a program since they've beenin the military, when they were in
programs all the time, and therewas just this hesitancy, I don't want
to enter a program, which wasthe first time i'd heard it verbalized that
way, I don't want to goto a program. So there's a lot
(35:12):
of those kind of initial fears,and it's a little different for different guys,
but you got to work your waythrough it. But the cool thing
is, I mean, again,you've got a waste to go, but
you've got a completely different outlook.So and I think this is important to
what I mean. So the firsttime I came here was just I was
(35:35):
riddle with that fear of the unknown. I didn't know what to expect.
They didn't know what was going tohappen. So I came with everything but
the kitchen sea. And this time, after searching again for two years to
just for anything that elseid existed thevia, many people said, well,
what you're looking for, mister Wedgesdoesn't exist, and I said, well,
yes it does, but I gotto be ready to do it.
So this time coming here, Iliterally walked out with the clothes on my
(35:57):
back bag with my books and andI even left my wedding ring and said
that, like, I don't needanything where I'm going because I know that
there is nothing I really need thatthey're not going to be able to provide.
And so that was just again,like Tony said, it's it's sometimes
you know that perspective that seeing whatand the knowing what to expect this time
(36:17):
is totally changes changes the game completely. So I want to talk about that
word program real fast. It's inour preamble for our warrior groups that we
read and it says that this isnot a treatment program yet, it is
a peer to peer support program.And to me that's amazing because Camp Hope,
(36:37):
what it truly provides is a venue, a house, a community of
combat vets that can help each other. And that's really it in a nutshell,
and the community is involved, itwants to be. And that's the
part you're bringing up earlier, sir, about you know what they're promoting,
what they're talking about, and forus about vets looking at a bumper sticker
(37:01):
or hear in a video ad,we're actually seeing here in Houston, Texas,
the real community getting involved and beingon site and inviting us to uh,
you know, nonprofit events and tosymposiums. And that's the difference is
that we combat vets want to seeit, we want to see it in
(37:22):
action, We want to fill it. We want to be in the community.
But we need to do it together, and we need to do it
to where we're wanted, not justin words, but in action. And
Tony, we actually talked about uson way over here. One of the
things that I like about is mostinstitutions that we go to they blocked the
outside world out, and here isthe total opposite that the outside world is
(37:45):
welcomed in. And that's that's abig, big difference, because that's one
of the things that happens is weget isolated from our society and we feel
that we're not welcomed in our owncommunities and sometimes our own homes. Indeed,
and our time is done went byfast. It's always the fastest hour
of my week. But I'm sothankful for both you guys being here and
(38:07):
sharing some of your story and hopefullysomeone shares the podcast and it comes across
somebody who could really use it,and maybe they'll put the gun down the
bottle of pills down the bottle thatyou're drinking. Pick up a phone and
give us a call. And wedon't have a magic wand to make it
(38:28):
all go away, but we canwalk the path with you, and a
path that's into a much better placethan you believe right now you could ever
experience. It can happen. PTSDUSAdot org. The crisis line is eight
seven seven seven one seven seventy eightto seventy three. Ramon, thanks for
letting us slide in that side doorone more time. Hope everybody has a
great week. We look forward tobeing with you again more next week of
(38:52):
Road to Hope Radio
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