We Have Moved!

       Save A Warrior Blog

Come check out our new home.

CLICK HERE

Moving forward INTO unknown

 

As I continue down this path of healing, I am increasingly aware of the challenges that I impose on myself.  My pride seems to get in the way ALL THE TIME!  My desire to be ahead of everyone and everything, as well as my need to be in control are what seem to cause the most problems these days.  The good news is that as I begin to reach out to others, they are able to provide love and unconditional positive regard.  It is something that I very much need.  I live and function in an environment that is entirely based on judgment of performance.  I have met that challenge and exceeded their expectations, and yet I still seem to be striving for excellence.  Excellence at what?  Who gets to judge that?



I would argue that the people that helped me get here and the people that have stood beside me as I struggle with myself, get to make that judgment.   It is for them that I live now.  It is for the next warrior that I excel.  They have proven that they will not falter in their support.  I need them.

I find myself at a point in life where my ability to pay it forward is hindered by my job.  So, what now?  My healing path takes me right into the teeth of my drug.  It's a full frontal assault on my new self and my ability to ignore the old self.  So, knowing me and my arrogant prideful attitude, I say "challenge accepted".  I will succeed.  This time I have a slew of support and love in my corner.  So, if my own willpower fails, I will not!  Men surround me who will literally hold me up as I face these demons.  It is my right, it is my desire, it is my hope and it is my healing path that forces me to face this.  I will succeed because of these people who love me regardless of the outcome!  What a concept!  It's not the end state that matters!  They simply want to see me working on me!  And for them, I will face hells fire, and come out a better person.

If you know of anyone that struggles with their purpose in life, or PTSD, feel free to send them my way.  Comment below and I will get in touch with you.  I have been given a renewed sense of purpose and a new sense of belonging through Save A Warrior.  I pay it forward by facing my old self and rising to meet the challenges that brings.

Any News Is Good News

                                                 

ANY NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

I have struggled in the past to have faith in people in general. Jake taught me that I don't have to have faith in all people but in my community and the people working for me. I took a leap of faith and did as he asked. Today I received a call from my attorney about my disability claims. The news was not "good" news. But I looked at as Good News because I left the attorneys to do there thing and worried about other things that I can control or have an impact on. The news was good to me because it showed me that the process is moving and all I had to do is have faith that people are fighting for me and I don't have to do it alone.

Made by my 10y/o son after the Sandy Hook Shooting

So today I am feeling super good and have hope. I have Jake, and all the Warriors and providers to thank for that. I have recently had the privilege of helping in Cohort 006 and soon Cohort 008. These experiences have and will further my healing by helping others.

Even though I do not know for sure what the future is for me, I know it will involve SAW and helping others. I have started to think about what training and/or schooling I want to do, to refine my ability to help. I have already started the ground work for a HIGH (Horse Inspired Growth and Healing) program here in CT. (Thanks Suzi)

So I decided to write this BLOG today, as a way of me having Faith in my community and sharing the lesson of faith that I have learned. Because even if I was told the worse news possible about what could happen, I  know now that I can't control or change certain things. That allows me to take any news, process it at face value, and make a decision on my direction based upon that. Being able to have a direction forward is important because the past is the past. We can not reuse the roads from the past if we want to heal. We must make new roads that have no scarring to have a better future. The past is to be remembered not relived.



Special Thanks to Chris Eder for creating this BLOG.

                                                       http://www.saveawarrior.org/donate/

Major Thrills with Possible Horrific Side-Effects

For 23-years I proudly 'suited up' for the US Air Force.  I spent the majority of my career as a Combat Correspondent.  At one point I had three different passports.  Two civilian, and one official.  I wish I would have kept better notes and taken more pictures so I could write a book of all the 'major' thrills I've had.  Sadly, one of my 'horrific' side-effects is a serious degradation of both short and long-term memory.  The sad part is...there is no rhyme or reason to how I remember or forget things.  Sometimes it is very painful on the inside.  I feel dumb...A LOT!

I did two tours to Iraq...2003 and then again during the Surge of Operations in 2007.  Additionally, I did a deployment to the Republic of Georgia, right before Russia invaded...and dozens of trips throughout Africa.  I really wish I had Karl Marlantes' book, "What It Is Like To Go To War," 23-years ago.  I could have really benefited from Karl's "psychological and spiritual combat prophylactic!"  Looking back I must agree with Mr. Marlantes' take on war..."indeed combat is like unsafe sex in that it's a major thrill with possible horrific side effects."

"I had no framework or guidance to help me put combat's terror, exhilaration, horror, guilt and pain into some larger framework that would have helped me find some meaning in them later." - Karl Marlantes 

On Saturday, the US State Department had issued a specific warning of a plan by Islamic extremists to attack a hotel in the capital, without giving specific details. - I sadly...didn't get this information...nor did the hundreds of warriors, civilian contractors and journalists staying at the Al Rasheed Hotel October 26, 2003.  This was my first of many attacks...that I was not prepared for.  No thrills for sure...only horrific side-effects.  As I stood at the window of my 10th story room...I could see the cowards (also known as the people responsible for killing a Soldier, injuring 15, and wounding countless others...including me) running away.  I drew my weapon...a 9mm issued to me in Germany, but then I realized that although I had a gun...I was not issued any ammunition!  I stood there, partly paralyzed from the aftermath of eight rockets slamming into the hotel...and felt completely helpless...of no value.  I could do nothing.  Unlike Karl Marlantes...I didn't even have the training nor tools to be a Warrior that day.  Like Mr. Marlantes...I clearly didn't have the framework or guidance to help me put combat's terror, exhilaration, horror, guilt and pain into some larger framework that would have helped me find some meaning in them later.

This is Dep Sec Def Paul Wolfowitz wearing MY flak vest.  So at this very moment...I not only had no ammo...but not flak vest.

"War, however, blows away the illusion of safety from death.  Some random projectile can kill you no matter how good a Soldier you are." - Karl Marlantes

Esquire Magazine did a story on AFN Iraq 2007

Within two minutes of arriving to my hooch in Baghdad in 2007, I was greeted with the all too familiar sound of a mortar attack. You've gotta be kidding me!  I had just gotten into the shower after about 50-hours of travel.  My protective gear was a good 20-feet away from me.  So...I just dropped and waited for the all clear.  This was the first of MANY attacks during the Surge of Operations.  It felt at times that we spent more time under attack than not.   Like most deployed warriors, I kept myself very busy.  I orchestrated several radio-thon shows on Freedom Radio, like The Memorial Day Countdown, and The Firecracker 500!  These 'major thrills' were balanced with me starting to teach yoga for the first time. I had my Ying and Yang in check...at the time I thought that would be enough.  Later, I would find that it was not enough.

"In a combat situation you wake up from sleep instantly aware that this could be the last time you awake, simultaneously grateful you're alive and scared shitless because you're still in the same situation." -Karl Marlantes

Things changed after my second tour to Iraq.  I mean...really changed.  It was late 2007 when I noticed my memory starting to go wonky.  At first, I just laughed it off, but then my laughter turned to sadness.  I actually thought I had Alzheimer's.  I was only sleeping about 4-5 hours a night.  I was slowly running out of what I called "collateral."  I had a pretty impressive reputation and I could sense people were on to me.  When I was "on" I was on...but when I was "off," it was embarrassing.  I really had no clue what was going on.  Anxiety led to depression.  Both of which I hid deep inside.  When I stepped outside, I put a smile on and pretended nothing was wrong.  My body slowly started to breakdown.  I think I spent a year trying to figure out what was going on.  Reaching at everything that could possibly be making me feel this way inside.  Everything except for PTS.

It wasn't until I attended special yoga training that focused on helping vets with PTS that I realized...that I had PTS.  To this day, there is a stigma in the military about seeking treatment for PTS.  I can tell you this is not the reason why I didn't think of PTS as a reason.  I really thought there was no way I could have it!  I mean...I'm a wartime journalist.  I've told the stories and seen the aftermath of the warriors who "easily" could have PTS...but not me!  Right?  WRONG!  You see...just like the yogic philosophy that I share when teaching, "Everybody's body...is different...which means...everybody's yoga will be different;" so too is the way everybody reacts to traumatic events.  Just because the person next to you thinks what just happened is only a major thrill, doesn't mean the event wasn't traumatic to you.  I had the added element of being medically hyper-aware during both deployments.  I was loaded on A.D.D. meds to make sure I didn't do anything stupid or forget anything important.  What a combo...hyper-vigilant and hyper-aware.  To this day I have vivid flashbacks in stereo sound.

I eventually started to take a new cocktail of drugs.  Add 5 mg here...lower 10 mg there.  I started 'exposure therapy.'  THAT SUCKED!  It seemed the only thing that did was make my nightmares worse.  The drugs numbed me to the point I was unaware of what I was doing, saying, did, or didn't do.  I have no idea how I was able to function at work.  After about a year and a half on the drugs, I had a heart to heart with my Psychiatrist.  I told him I was no longer happy with the list of side-effects all the drugs were doing to me.  He suggested since I was already thinking about retirement that maybe I should try Lithium!  I told him I was thinking more along going a more natural approach...B-12, Magnesium, and acupuncture.   The last words Dr. N. said to me were, "Well Sgt Eder...those are not traditional protocols, so I'm afraid I can't do that."  My response, "Well...you traditional protocol have almost cost me my wife, family, and the majority of my internal functions...function a whole lot less now!  Thanks...and goodbye!"

To add injury to insult, the doctors also found a tumor on my thalamus, and a growth on my skull.  My hearing in both ears at several frequencies was also diminishing.  (I now have hearing aids.)  I reached deep into my inner-resource and made the decision to stop the meds and go natural.  I timed it with my deviated septum operation and my trip to Save A Warrior.

What an amazing experience this was.  I met men who were going through the same shit as I was.  At first, it was a little too intense for me because even while I was going through my darkest of days, I was still able to be 'care provider' for others...not paying any attention to my needs.  Classic PTS avoidance technique.  So...when SaW Cohort 005 kicked off, I wanted to help the guys...instead of get the help and healing I needed.  It wasn't really until the high ropes course that I fully opened up and accepted that I needed healing.  Ever since my PTS symptoms kicked in I began to have an irrational fear of heights...so the high ropes course was the last place I wanted to be.  Right on cue...I pretended everything was fine and set off to climb the rock wall first.  Before most of the guys even blinked...I was already on and off the wall.  DONE!  Well...not so fast!  Phillip, one of the providers instantly clued in to my ways and quickly pointed out what had just happened.  How the hell did he know?

The next thing I knew I had another one of the providers, Suzi in my ear.  She started talking in what at first sounded like something from the Da Vinci Code, but soon turned into the answers to all of the riddles in my head.  I couldn't look at her.  I tried to walk away, but surprisingly, at 5 foot nothing, Suzi is pretty strong.  I eventually attacked this rock wall again.  This time flanked by Stephen H.  Metaphorically, that day...I slayed my demons.  This was a much different thrill...with much better side-effects: Love, Happiness, Strength, and the desire to better.

http://www.saveawarrior.org/donate/

Newtown Police Officer...Saved by Save A Warrior!

My Name is Thomas Bean. I have been an EMT, Volunteer Fire Fighter, Army Reserves and a Police officer. I have seen my share of trauma over the years and somehow got by. The breaking point for me was as a Newtown CT Police Officer. I had been a Police Officer since 2000. In December of 2012, I was on vacation having breakfast with some fellow officers when the Sandy Hook School Shooting happened. We responded and what I saw that day would scared me for life. The following days, weeks and months I could not sleep, eat, or go anywhere...where there was crowd. I was going to therapy and was medicated but that was not enough. I did not want to die but the thought of dying was there and it seemed inviting and easier than dealing with the pain and sorrow. I was afraid to tell people this because I did not want to get locked in a rubber room. Then Jake came along with the gift of the Save A Warrior Project. The project was amazing. It helped me want to live and gave me hope. One thing I learned after the project had ended is that it (the project) is not over because I am now part of a community that shares my pain and that makes it easier for me to carry on. This community is now my family and I will do what I can to help them and I will continue to lean on them, to help me. Together, we all can carry on and live, love, and regain faith in a world that can be harsh.

Tom Bean Cohort #003

Save a Warrior #saved Tom...what are you doing to Save a Warrior?  Donate TODAY!

Save A Warrior uses Equine therapy as part of their multi-approach methodology to help treat Warriors with PTS.

My Story - How Save A Warrior...Saved My Life!

I have a long story with many twists and turns.  A few years ago I was a police lieutenant with years as a specialized canine handler at a large department and a Master Sergeant in the Army National Guard.  On the surface everyone thought I had it together.  I had the perfect career, was doing great in the Army, and had what appeared to be the perfect marriage.  What they didn't know, was I was living a double life.  I put on a game face at work or in the Army, but inside I was dying.  Ever since I came home from Iraq I was struggling.  I kept thinking it would get better, but I was wrong. 

In the Army National Guard and at the police department, I would hide my panic attacks, my intrusive thoughts of Iraq, and all the symptoms of PTSD.  At home, I’d deny I had problems; however my marriage was falling apart.  The more I tried to cover things up the worse things got. I gave up.  I was sitting in my patrol car one night holding a gun in my mouth pulling the trigger.  I can’t say why I stopped, but I did.  Instead, I got out of the police car, took off my gun belt and badge.  I threw them on the front seat of the car, slammed the door and literally walked away.  I was going to walk to the end of the earth and never come back. 

A couple days later I woke up in the psych ward of the Veteran’s Hospital.  They pumped me up with drugs and after a few days they let my family take me away.  For the next year or so I was in and out of the V.A. and more drugs always seemed to be the only help I would get, but it was really no help. 

Almost homeless (hanging on to marriage by a thread), barely making it at a new job, and every day regretting NOT pulling the trigger I learned about SAVE A WARRIOR.  I talked to Jake who invited me to a SAVE A WARRIOR Cohort.  He told me it was a week long and asked that I just attend with an open mind. 

I attended and I can say that was the best week of my life!  Why?  It gave me my life back.  I went from hopelessness to hope, from feeling worthless to having meaning, from isolation to having a brotherhood of friends.  Since that week at SAVE A WARRIOR, I stopped hiding my double life.  I have embraced my struggles.  I now am talking with other veterans who are thanking me for being open so they too can come forward and ask for help.   Now, I have been given an opportunity to work with service dogs again.  This time to help veteran’s with PTSD service dogs. 

Since coming home from that week, my wife and I are now talking.  I've learned to be open with her and we are learning to heal together.

SAVE A WARRIOR didn't just give me a week of how to use coping skills, SAVE A WARRIOR gave me my life back!!!!   A good life it is. Now, I clearly know why I didn't pull that trigger.  I now have a chance to PAY IT FORWARD as was all that SAVE A WARRIOR asked for. Maybe through the service dogs or through just telling veteran’s they are not alone and it is okay to ask for help….I've been blessed with the chance at a new start and a purpose. 

SAVE A WARRIOR, you saved my life! 

Richard Mosley (Cohort 005) 

What would you do to "Save" A Warrior?  For a truly remarkable overview of our work, please see the John Hill / Liam Clark / DLF-produced video 

Then Everything Changed...My Week with Warriors at Save A Warrior Cohort 005

My business partner Willis Daniels is a force of nature and one of the smartest and most enthusiastic people I have ever met, he may be wrong but he’s rarely in doubt.

When Willis came to me and said “We gotta do this Warrior Camp thingy," I was immediately on board. I thought if we could design something that actually helps that opportunity would be awesome.  The village was about camaraderie and being part of a unit.  Our designs were fleshed out and used in presentations given by Captain Jake Clark.  Following these initial efforts I would hear little snippets about how the rock ceremonies were so moving, or how the project was changing peoples’ lives.  I was never witness to the effects and power of the project.

Willis had thrown out the idea that I should go through the project.  I would understand what the needs of the warriors were and what they would be experiencing.  At first I was incredibly intimidated by this prospect.  How would I ever relate to a group of warriors?  The prospect lingered in my head as if my inner self was banging on me as if to say “this could really help more warriors and YOU!!!” My wife got involved and reminded me of how I could help and this was a chance to help others. So, I contacted Jake late one night about my attendance in the project.  He went over my reason for doing the program more explicitly than I could explain it myself.  He said

Original Rendering of Save A Warrior Camp

with a better understanding of what these guys are going through I could design something even more fantastic than the first go around and I would even learn how to meditate.

When the week approached, I found myself doing the usual self-destructive patterns I always do.   I tried to button up work (yeah right) I barely packed, and of course I left late just to make sure I missed something.  My mind was expressing itself this way because I was downright nervous.  I knew I had to open myself for the experience and there might be some emotions involved, I hate those things.

Then everything changed.

Eddie's Mandalas

The week was the most intense soul changing experience I could have ever imagined.  Everyday I faced another fear or weakness in myself and confronted it head-on.  Suzi Landolphi instantly recognized and gave me the tools to deal with my relationships.  Rosemary Alden showed me that the path to myself was right in front of me all along I just had to listen to myself and trust myself.  At the ropes course Philip and Michael got the big dig in, I finally dealt with the early passing of my father and finding the happiness of the memories of my childhood and being able to pass those happy times onto my children.  This part of the process still makes me tear up and realize how much I miss him and those happy days.  At the end of the climbing day, I was spent.  I thought I had reached my emotional fulfillment.  I had emptied that bucket of all the emotional hardship that had been clouding my soul and my judgment.  Then…I had a talk with Dusty.  We had a long talk on the way back to the camp.  I admired his enthusiasm for life and his force of joy.  There was skeptical parts of me inside still saying “No way can this guy be this excited and enthused about life its gotta be fake” but the exposed part of myself said “This guy is so awesome; I want to get what he’s got. I want to be that “AMAZING” guy.”  He told me 100 different ways about how happiness is a choice so why not chose to be happy.  I finally believed him after the first 99 times of disbelief. Really ??!!it can not be that easy NO WAY.  I made a deal with Dusty.  I would start out the next day and “Choose to be Happy.”

I started out the third day honoring my deal, (one that I have kept ever since) and headed out to Big Heart Ranch.  I took in lessons about inter-dependence and co-dependence from the animals.  I learned that you can’t bullshit horses.

I am deathly afraid of horses, but my fear did not seem to matter anymore.  I released all my trivial facades about myself and just let myself be myself.  Next thing I knew I was riding around on a giant horse.  Fellow cohorts already noticed that I had been transformed.  According to Magic Steve I was floating around with a smile plastered to my face.  That night on a rock climbing adventure on the side of the cliff Steve Howell noticed the kid in me trying to get out.  He said,  “Come on Let’s Go Find that Kid Inside.”  The climbing that night was the first time in the longest time that I just felt plain and simple joy.  The feeling was so clear and pure.

The most amazing part of my journey was connecting with the men in the cohort.  They welcomed me in from the beginning.  I was not an observer, but a participant.  They were going to share my path and I am sharing theirs.  Everything from the fabulous rat stories from John to the tender underside of men who are trying to keep their lives and marriages together made everyone in the cohort a brother.  I have never bonded with anyone this way before.  The strength of that bond will endure a long time. 

21 Days from the beginning of meditation.

I am evolving into who I am and who I want to be and the journey is “Amazing.”  I have decided to stop being a bystander in my own life.  I have taken up Taekwondo with my kids and I have been swimming with them as well.  I have reset boundaries on relationships so that I no longer get hurt. My wife and kids have embraced the new me, the one that comes from a place of understanding and strength and not fear and frustration.  I communicate with emotion in email and in person.  I am becoming a really cool guy to be around.  Everyday I wake up and I chose to be happy.  Thank you everyone for making the choice so easy to make.

- eddie

Eddie Osuch is helping design Save A Warrior Camp

Eddie Osuch is helping design Save A Warrior Camp

This week with Save A Warrior clearly had an incredible impact on Eddie...He is going to help 'Save A Warrior' by building a retreat for them.  What are you doing?  DONATE TODAY!

Friends Don't Let Friends Meditate Alone!

One of the first things I ever said to Jake Clark was I would help him anyway I can, that was August of 2002.  We bonded over our common past of being recovering pretty-boy jocks and having many of the same challenges. In our ten year friendship we had helped each other through life’s little tragedies (women, money), usually driven by our own bad decisions. I am still attempting to make progress in those areas, with limited results.

Jake was just out of a job in 2012 and was struggling, strange I thought because Jake is probably the most capable and certainly the highest trained and intense person I know.  Jake’s commitment to service throughout his life is second to none, US Army, Secret Service, LAPD, FBI, US Army National Guard (officer); these are not the commitments of a selfish person. I have faith that Jake can do anything.

The only advantage I had over Jake was that I was in recovery longer and that I meditated; I have been practicing Transcendental Meditation since 1994 and it has saved my life, without a doubt. 

I had suggested to Jake many times that he learn Transcendental Meditation, (about a year).  What I didn’t know at the time was that he was having suicidal ideations after his return to the world from active duty in Kosovo.  If I’d have known that he was seriously harboring these thoughts I would have kidnapped him (I know people) and dropped him off at the TM Center rolled in a carpet with a note to Denny Goodman (Director of the Beverly Hills TM Center) pinned to the outside. 

Jake finally acquiesced and got the TM training, it was after a couple of weeks of practicing the meditation that he admitted to his suicidal thoughts and the fact that they had lifted.  We discussed the tragedy of Veteran Suicides and how nobody really seemed to be doing anything about it.  Many organizations would be happy to give the vets an “Atta-boy”, a handshake and a pat on the back.  Worse yet was the impression from some major veterans relief organizations that war-related trauma and post-traumatic stress (PTS) could be relived with some swag and a photo-op.  The VA themselves, completely overwhelmed, could only offer some pills and some talk therapy, after you waited and waited for your case to be heard. This problem is REAL.

Jake’s admission of his own suicidal thoughts being lifted by meditation sparked the conversation which led to the formation of the Warrior Meditation Project, now Save a Warrior.  We wanted to bring this relief to other returning vets who were at risk.  My original concept was a daily routine of Meditation, Yoga and Nutrition that would help the returning veteran be in the day he is actually in, not in the regrets and sadness of the past or the fears of an unknown future. 

We knew that this might sound like some crazy hippie shit to some people, but I argued that maybe we had to look to where the hippies were RIGHT, scrape some of the patchouli off of this stuff and utilize it in a positive way to help these men who have done so much and sacrificed and damn near died for us.  For these young men with so much life ahead of them to die at their own hand after surviving combat seems unbelievably tragic.  We had to do SOMETHING.

Jake really took it upon himself to make the project a reality.  He had read thousands of books and had taken many hours of different types of training in rented hotel conference rooms that would lead to the “War Detox” part of the project. It is nothing short of miraculous what Jake has done in less than a year, (first Cohort #001, Nov. 2012) it seems that the Universe has conspired to put Jake in this unique position to help these men.

You too can Save A Warrior!

The turn-around in Jake’s life and in the 50 men through 5 cohorts is astounding, if I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it.  These are truly some of the finest people I have ever met; to think we could have lost some of these guys is unfathomable. The fellowship forming around these men and how their shared experiences, no matter how horrific, can benefit others going forward.  They have learned to rely on each other and offer support through the phones and email, this fellowship works because, like in other fellowships, they are rarely all crazy on the same day.  I will still help Captain Jake Clark anyway I can. 

- Willis Daniels

Willis Daniels -
WeDo Architecture

The Game Has Changed!

Save A Warrior is a game changer!  It was amazing to meet seven guys Sunday night who all seemed mad at the world...only to completely morph into seven new men.  Men who I now call brothers.

To the left are my Mandalas.  These were used as 'spiritual tools' by Rosemary Alden, one of the providers. I made the bottom one on the first day and the top one on my last day.  Very insightful!

I've been in therapy for years and have tried MANY different types of therapy techniques and modalities.  Full disclosure...I am a yoga instructor and fully believe my yoga practice and breath work are both life-savers...but THIS WEEK with Save A Warrior was like nothing I've ever done before.

After thinking about it for over two weeks....I think the reason this program had such a huge impact on me and the seven other guys is because....EVERYONE CARES!  It is very apparent.  All of the providers and the behind the scenes folks give it all they got.

IF YOU know someone who is suffering from PTSD, or if you think you know someone who is suffering from PTSD, send an email today:  info@saveawarrior.org

YOU can SAVE A WARRIOR TODAY!