“This trip I made to Vietnam…. IS THERE EVERYDAY, IT DOESN’T GO AWAY. To talk to a therapist in one of their PTSD counseling sessions, to most of us, is academia. In my mind, it is not effective. Our therapy, like what we are doing right now and with Tom, our reunions are very special therapy.”
“All we could see was knees walking toward our direction. We opened fire. They got into the mine fields and they paused their march. In a short while they came in behind us. Twelve out of my 18 boys were wounded. Some of them were seriously wounded and died. They captured us all. I could have ran and gotten out of there, but I had twelve wounded and the rest were just kids.”
LOYD A. TAYLOR CAPTURED AS A POW: (16th February 1944)
“Coast Guard Boat #41389 was sitting at the end of the pier after we decommissioned her,” said Jeremy as he explained how the Coast Guard Boat ended up at the Van Zandt County Veterans Memorial.”
“I was trained as a Marine to kill. I learned to do that very well. In Baker Company anti-aircraft that I was in, NOT ONE plane ever bombed the Yontan Airfield except one.” WW2 Okinawa, Japan
There were seven (7) sons of Romie and Willie Wallace of Martin’s Mills, Texas. The Wallace sons, all served in the military and came home safely.
“This 6-Part Series on Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), has been the most emotional and toughest project I have ever taken on. To interview and listen to these veterans talk about their trauma and how close they came to ending their lives has been gut wrenching to me. It has taken an emotional toll on my life. I accept that. It is part of what I do as a journalist. It still doesn’t make the job any easier.” Phil Smith, Author
“Stellate Ganglion Block or SGB has been around since 1925. An Army combat medic and former Navy Seal came across it 10 years ago.
It is a 15-minute procedure. An injection to the neck that relieves symptoms in as little as 30 minutes and last for years. Success rate of non-recurring trauma memories are in the 85-90% rates.”
“My nephew is getting married in a couple of weeks and there is going to be about 250 people at this wedding. I will go into crowds but I will stay off by myself. I will stay close to the door. You don’t know when the rage comes. You have to recognize when that rage starts and get away from everybody. I start feeling kind of light, this side of the brain is a battle going on. Get out of here. It could get ugly.”
“A lot of our PTSD veterans when they come back they’re looking for that exhilaration or looking for that adrenalin rush. Like riding a motorcycle down the highway at 110 miles an hour or bungie jumping out of an airplane. They’re hunting for that rush so it does have a physical effect. It is like a drug and they don’t know how to cope without it.”
“I was first diagnosed with PTSD in 2010. 26 years after I got out of the military in 1984. Can you imagine what I went thru during those 26 years NOT knowing I had PTSD?”