Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
My name's Bobby.
I'm retired Army mesh.
I started at 17 years.
I served in the military police corps, did
two tours in Iraq.
I was wounded on 21 August 2006.
There was a suicide truck bomber, about
200 tanks of propane.
It was drove to the front gate of our entry control point to
the location.
And there was a suicide bomber who self detonated it.
I was severely wounded.
I sustained burns to 40% of my upper body.
And that pretty much ended my army career.
I think the hardest thing was that I was
still on active duty.
It was difficult for me to grasp the fact that I was the
one wounded, and trying to figure out where my purpose
was in the army and the service.
And there was nobody really to answer those questions.
That culminated with a deal with my family.
And being able to adapt to my situation, as well as trying
to decide what I was going to do with my future.
For my recovery, I think it was probably easier than some
of the people because I had physical wounds that kind of
distracted me.
60% of my time was spent taking
care my physical wounds.
Having the physical wounds to tell me and remind me that I
was injured was helpful, but also, between that and daily
distractions of trying to get the military to help us as
wounded soldiers, to help us recover, as well as trying to
figure out what I was going to do took a lot out of me.
That was probably the hardest part of my life, at least my
entire adult life.
Trying to deal with the emotional impact of that on me
as well as how it was affecting my family, because I
had two small kids.
I think that the biggest step was knowing that
I needed the help.
There is other precursors going to it like breaking
down, being depressed, and having emotional fits that you
just can't control.
Things like that.
And then rage and things.
But the biggest thing was knowing and accepting the fact
that I needed help.
And then being able to go get the help.
If my wife hadn't drove me to the hospital, I probably
wouldn't have made it because I was at pretty much at the
lowest point that I probably could in my entire life.
And once she brought me to the hospital, I found somebody
that I could trust in the mental health field.
Biggest thing was trusting the person I was talking to.
I started with individual counseling and I had a great
therapist from the start.
When I was going through the individual therapy, my wife
was kind of getting educated on what to expect, what they
thought to expect.
So while she was getting educated, she would educate my
son, my daughter.
And they had certain things that they would expect.
OK, this is why dad is doing this or this is why dad is
doing that, even though I couldn't still get the concept
of the whole thing.
There were certain triggers.
I mean, there still is triggers now after five years
that I find myself getting caught up on sometimes.
It gets better but it never goes away.
So it's one of those things you have to work at every day.
The one first big thing is dealing and learning to be a
civilian yourself, and not a soldier anymore.
And then the second thing is trying to integrate into the
civilian workforce.
I think the biggest problem or heartache right now is that
we're not, our experience and our abilities,
don't relate to a resume.
And civilians rely on the resume.
And they rely on college degrees.
And some of them don't take the time to realize that
military personnel have more life experience and ability
and skilled then somebody maybe with a four year degree
that has no workforce experience or the worldly
experience.
So that's one of the biggest hurdles is trying to explain
that to people.
And getting the opportunity in the door.
I mean, even civilians have problems trying to get their
foot in the door for an interview.
But for a soldier, it's 10 times harder.
Because if you ask a guy who's only been in the army a couple
of years how to explain what he did in the army to a
civilian perspective, it's almost impossible.
There's a lot of guys out there who speak and advocate
on soldiers' behalfs, whether they're on active duty or
they're veterans.
I've even found talking to guys from Vietnam is helpful
for me and for them.
Regardless of how old they are or how young they are, if
they've been to combat, they can relate
to what I went through.
And they can relate to how I feel because they obviously
have the same emotions.
The most important thing, probably, is to just not be
afraid to talk about it.
You got to be willing, if you're going to go get the
help or find the help, be willing to talk about things
that make you uncomfortable.
The most important thing is going to admit that you have a
problem that you can't fix and to ask for help.
I fired five counselors before just because their style
didn't work.
But I didn't give up.
I knew there had to be somebody out there that could
relate to me as well as help me out in my recovery.
And I think the biggest thing is just, once you say you want
help, is not to give up.
Use the soldier mentality and don't quit when you're trying
to get better, make yourself better.
Because it's going to benefit you in the long run.