Multiple people in my family clean my father are veterans.
Troops that have been to war and now they're.
Back and think and be grateful for their service, sacrifice, love for their country, just unselfishness, all that they do for us.
There are some people in this country who take extraordinary steps to provide for the freedom and security.
We forget that those people exist.
We know them as the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. They call themselves soldiers, seals, rangers, airmen, sailors, devil dogs, and so much more. We call them fathers, brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters, sisters and wives. We call them friend and neighbor. These veterans answered the call. Now we answer theirs, and they are the best our country has to offer, and we love them. Today, we honor them and we serve them. David Malsby is your host,
and he welcomes you to this community of veterans. As together we are building the road to.
Hope, and indeed we are glad to have you along. On a Sunday afternoon, kPr C nine five O and the A and dial here in Houston, Texas. Thank you for joining us wherever you are grateful to have you along those of you listening through the magic of podcasts. Thank you for doing so, and we truly appreciate it when you not only hit that subscribe button, but when you share Road to Hope. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for Road to Hope Radio and there we
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the year. Very generous. These folks have been great friends to the PTSD Foundation of America and Camp Hope for a number of years through Texas Grand Ranch originally now through Republic Grand Ranch. But it's not just about that. You're going to buy that piece of Texas where you're gonna build your dream home, you want to make sure it's in the right place. That's Republic Grand Ranch, surrounded by people who share your values and support our veterans.
Speaking of veterans, we got a couple of veterans in the studio with us today. Tyrone, you want to reintroduce yourself to the world. You got to have you back, by the way, Thank you, sir.
I'm Tyrone Brown served in the US Army. I went to Somalia ninety three. I am now a mentor at the PTSD Foundation, and I just love what where I came from and where I am now and serving veterans is h I think I believe I found my purpose.
Thank you, Larry.
Yes, sir, I'm here from Alabama. Uh.
We can hear it in this, We can hear it in the voice. Yes, sir, go ahead with the cause.
And Uh, Camp Hope has really been good to me. I was looking for a place to go and seems like home now I've been here a couple of months, no complaints. Everything here is free for us to heal. And I had a what branch did you serve in? And I served in the US Army Vietnam?
What years were you there?
Nineteen sixty seven, six and eight. I fought in the offensive. A lot of lives lost in that time of frame. Yeah, and uh, a heavy ar terry. We killed a lot of probably innocent people. That's one thing that I have lived with throughout my life. As the fact of we were in a situation where that we could not win the war. So we did our very best and we came back. Some guys did not. So I think about
those that did not make it back. Sometimes they call us the heroes, but to me, the heroes are the guys didn't make it back.
Sure, we'll get into a little bit of that story. We're not the we're not the war story show, but we'll get into a little bit of that. For many who are going to listen to this, they're familiar at least to some degree of the tet offensive, but probably not much those who weren't alive during that time. And I was alive but young to know it and have
a clue what was going on. I remember, I remember the Vietnam War to me as a kid was Walter Cronkite on TV black and white and a map of Vietnam, and they'd have some star or something on some particular place of Vietnam that they were talking about that day, that it happened the day before. It's so much different than what happened in the post nine to eleven and then or we were watching it while it was happening Vietnam, we were hearing about it the next day, and you're
hearing just bits and pieces. But anyway, we'll get into a little bit of that and about what brought you camp Hope. But big thank you to those who are supporters of the PTSD Foundation of America. We just came through, of course a Memorial Day weekend. A lot of great things happening around the organization, some things happening at Camp Hope over the weekend that we're very grateful for. We
cannot do what we do without you. We certainly could not serve our veterans at zero cost with out a community that understands it takes more than a bumper sticker to support our troops. So for everyone who's a part of that, a big thank you. I'd life for you to take out your phone put in our crisis line phone number. You may not need it, you may not be a veteran, but you may run across somebody who needs it, and then you're gonna wish you had it.
Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. It's a lot of sevens eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. Please put that in your phone. You run across a veteran that's struggling, maybe you're the veteran, Maybe you're a family member of the veteran who's struggling. Here's what they need to know. When they call that number, a combat veteran is going to answer the phone. Eight
seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more of Road to Hope.
Radio, don't nails a foot.
And we're walking back roade to Hope. Are you glad to have you.
Along, Tyrone?
I think one of the cool things about our organization, which on paper began two thousand and five, on mission, it began two thousand and nine. But either way, Post nine to eleven is was our beginning. A lot of the Post nine to eleven nonprofits that stepped up to support our veterans support only the Post nine to eleven veterans, and that's fine. I get it to understand why they
do it. But I think one of the great things about what we do, and one of the powerful things effective things in what we do is we have veterans from every era of war. So you mentioned you served in Somalia, Larry's Vietnam. That war is war, trauma is trauma. We never compare. Your trauma is your trauma. So that's what it is. And you know, my trauma is worse than yours. That's a stupid argument, right, But it's so
important for people to understand. We do serve veterans of every era of war, and most folks, if you ask them to start delineating America's war as they skip over Samoia for instance, Yes, Korea is known as the forgotten War. How important is it to you to see, like when you were in the program and what year did you come in? Okay, so three years ago when you came into the program, how important was it as you went through to see guys both who served previous to you and post to you.
It was actually wonderful. The thing that I noticed was this, no matter where we had been, our trauma had so many similarities, you know, and even mister Larry, like mister the Vietnam vets that come, you know, I give them a.
Lot of.
I respect them so much because they suffered for longer. You know, I've been I got out of the military of ninety four and I came in twenty two, So that's a less amount of time than what mister Larry went to the war and then he came here. But it just let me know that it didn't matter where we came from. It didn't matter what warre we in. The symptoms were the same, no matter what state we came from or anything like that. Trauma is trauma regards nothing,
It will affect anyone. So yeah, that's what That's what was great for me.
Yeah, Larry, I'm sure for any veteran coming into camp hope. You know, especially coming from out of state, You're going to some place you've never been before, going to a place when people you've never met before, not really sure what you're in for. I mean, you can see the brochure, you can see what's online and read all that. That's and that's all fine and good, but you don't really know where you're going or who you're about to meet,
what you're about to walk into. But coming in as a Vietnam vet, someone who's time in combat was more than five decades ago, what was that like for you?
Excuse me? The combat that I was involved in was in sixty seven or sixty eight, And for a long time after I came back home, no one really respected us. We were forgotten. We were called baby killers by some of the people. And it's not that they didn't really care. They didn't really know what we were doing, you know, so no one really welcomed me back or really thanked me so for my family. And so I worked and raised a family and did pretty good. At times. I
would have some things that were haunting me. But the VA back then wasn't very much help to us, if any, at that time when I came home in sixty eight. So as time progressed, it took me. Well. I was forty three years of age when I first got help from the Vestre's administration. That was my hearing by little hearing loss and and then ten nights, so we were As time grew on, they started taking care of us more, and it took me about twenty five years to get
my one hundred percent disability because of PTSD. I had been caring with me all these years, even though I realize how bad it was getting on me. But as I retired in two thousand and eight, I have a small farm that I worked with cattle and uh family back home, and I did pretty good for a couple three years, but then time got all the work done, it started coming back. I had these nightmares, you might say, and I saw those guys a little BC as we call them coming up on the back deck one night
and went out. It wasn't real. So as time grew on, I started to get more help from the VA, and they put me on meds and really helping me today and I appreciate what to do today. They kept up for US vesters in needs. So I am so thankful and so thankful for Camp Hope what they've done for me as I came in from out of state, like Pastor Moser said, and I have really been grateful. It didn't take me too long to adjust because I have
done a lot of different things in my life. I've taught classes and I've done a lot of different things, So I have fit right in I Hope and trying to do the very best I can my stay here at Camp Hope.
When were you When were you diagnosed by the VA.
I was diagnosed with the VA in about two thousand and six. Is really having the PTSD. It took me about twenty five years by going through thus the VFW and American Legion helped me, and so it took that long for me to get what I really needed, started seeing therapist and psychiatrists and the things that I need. And now I am progressing well and trying to do those things that make me heal, you know.
Sure, well, of course I think it was nineteen eighty, I believe within a year or two of when the diagnosis of PTSD was officially a thing. And of course it's not a new thing, it's just a new name. People love to talk about the name. It should dropped the d so because it's not a disorder. There used to be thousand yards stare, all kinds of different things that names that have been given to it, but very
similar issues, all recurrences or responses to war. And yes, I think it's very obvious to everybody who's paid any kind of attention that the VA certainly dropped the ball for our veterans coming home from Vietnam. But it's not just the VA. The entire nation failed miserably because of what was going on in America at the time. And I've talked to many Vietnam vets who have when they came home, they made sure nobody knew they had ever
been there. They didn't want anybody to know that they were there because of those things that you mentioned being called baby killers.
If I might say this, when I got out of the military in sixty eight, about around April at Oakland trash Fair Base. They told us we're probably best if we put on Seville in clothes and not have her uniform. All that was really a blow to be.
No, no, no doubt. I mean, I one, I can't imagine it. I mean I can pretend to imagine, but I can't. I can't imagine what that must have been like.
Were you drafted, yes, sir?
Okay, so you know, first of all, you take some eighteen year old kid or whatever and draft them, just pluck them out of their life and train them up for war and send them over to a jungle for a year and expect them to come home and everything be okay. There's just nothing about any of that that makes sense. Which war doesn't make sense. There's no way to make sense of war. I hate all the fallout
of it. It's just there's so much tragedy, and there's so many people that just seem like they just want to go to war over everything. Like, man, somebody's making money off it. I get it, But man, you are destroying so so so many lives eight seven seven seven one, seven, seventy eight, seventy three again, that's our Combat Trauma Crisis Line. Our website's PTSD USA dot org for information both on Camp Hope and all of our support groups both for veterans and for family.
We'll be right back, Yeah.
Welcome back, Roade to Hope Radio. David Malsby along with Tyrone, United States Army veteran mentor at Camp Hope, the Interim Housing Program the PTSD Foundation of America got Larry United States Army Vietnam veteran Tyrone Somalia. I should have mentioned that Larry United States Army Vietnam VET, both with PTSD Tyrone having come through the program at Camp Hope completing it, and now I'm serving as a mentor in our program,
which is so cool. I just, I just I think all those stories are just so inspiring, Like the struggle you get through of you know, a battle itself and combat, but then the struggle of coming home and dealing with that for you know, like in Larry's instance, you're talking about five plus decades over you know, overcoming that, learning how to work along with that and cope with that and then help your fellow brother. That's just to me, that's just such an inspiring story Larry again in Vietnam.
Vet. Let's go back.
When were you drafted?
I was drafted in May of sixty six, nineteen sixty shicks.
How old were you?
Nineteen?
Nineteen years old? And then where what city in Alabama?
I was? I was actually grew up in at Tennessee, you know, Okay, a little town called Pulaska, Tennessee. Yeah, Giles County, just right on the Alabama northern border.
So you're nineteen. I'm guessing you probably had an idea it was probably coming well.
I didn't have too much of an idea, but I knew that.
What were you doing?
I was working as a sharkings over planned in Plashka, Tennessee. Just had graduated high school and was working there and got my draft notice and went to Nashville, Tennessee. There. From there, I came back home and then I ended up in Benning, Georgia for my military basic training.
Do you remember how you felt when you got that draft notice?
I remember very well this one night. We got there later in the afternoon, and we still had our civilian clothes on, and I remember uh walking around that night, had to pull a firewatch two o'clock in the morning, I looked up and I said, what if I got into You know, I was homesick, never been anywhere much in my life other than maybe one hundred miles from home. Grew up in really the countryside, farming, working to raising cattle and milk and cows, just the things that life
at that time. It was pretty tough. You know. I was born in nineteen forty seven, so if you think back on that, it was just really different, different time.
I'm a little I'm about twenty years younger than you are. And yes, even that was a different time than from day. Today is a very different world we're living in.
I know this computers stuff we have. I'm way behind on all that. So my son can do that for me when I'm home, but I ain't got him around now, so I make it pretty good.
Yeah, I always kind of laugh at people's like man, when I was in college, it was a IBM typewriter and whiteout.
I know that. I remember I went through a lot of white out. I remember the white out from high school.
Yeah, no such thing as a cell phone or backspace.
Never had a cell phone.
A very very different world.
I remember our first phone we got on our first TV in about nineteen sixty two, We've got a black white TV. So times have really changed for me. Yeah.
Okay, so you get drafted and it's like, what what's going on? What's about to happen? You end up at Fort Benning. When did you step foot into Vietnam?
Okay, took the basic train at Fort Benning that I in the In June of that same year, I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, took a T and Fort Fort Seill and we uh after Ai T we deacted. We reactivated the first Brittagion twenty seventh Field Archarry, second Field
Force in Vietnam. And there's one five or five artillery guns which some may know or not know about it, but anyway, we trained all those guns and we went over a ship in the in the spring of that year April May April to be exact, April fourteenth, and uh, we sailed over by the USS General Walker, first time
that I've been on board ship and the last. So we sailed bout eighteen days in Vietnam to get to Vietnam and a port of Von Tau, Vietnam, and we received our weapons there and carried them in the country and built a base camp at a place called Fuloi, Vietnam.
And uh, what I mean by a base camp. We had to build up barriers, sandbash protect our ammunition and powder that was involved in shooting a one five five Arteria weapon and uh from there we uh, we were over there during the time there was a lot of
stuff going on sixty seven or sixty eight. Uh, like brother Molty said, many people don't really know about the tent, but that was that was when the North invaded the South Vietnam using the viet Cong that were already there and infiltrated cities and all this, and that that's when we really we fired. I looked at some history on that.
Before the Tet Offensive, there were about nine hundred and thirty something rounds fired for this twenty seventh Artier Group, and then after during that it was like fifteen hundred rounds fired during the Tet Offensive.
Where were you What were you doing during tent? What was your job on.
The Artaria gun? Okay went over there as an assistant gunner on the arterier weapon was the one five five shellways ninety six pounds, So my job was assistant gunner. I had to figure on the scope the elevation of the bear was and I stayed that position for about six months and Vietnam then, Uh, one night we got hit by mortars and rockets that hit a fire direction center, wounded some of those guys pretty bad and hit our number six gun. Six guns in an artillery battery, and
number six gun was hit. Two of the guys were hit. The round hit the powder bunker and it burned them pretty bad on their legs. I never saw those two guys again. They never come back. But uh, the very next morning, as a as a E four in the sixth slot where on a sleeve, I was put in charge of that gun crew. I read that gun crew for about six months, and uh, I had to become
a man pretty quick. Uh. That's all it was. Running that war was young people such as me, poor boys from the country, poor guys from the inner cities, and of course you had your life first. We called them the enlisted men that had been there for several years, that were had trained. They went with us, and then as uh we progressed in our learning abilities, we were put in various positions.
You were there for a year, pretty sure year year. Okay, so when you're done, you come home, coming home to a nation that's really on fire. Uh, split in what they believe about pretty much everything. Uh you go back to Tennessee.
Yeah, I was. I was living in Tennessee. So I went back home to my mother and dad's place, and I went back to work with the chacra rover plant briefly. Uh. Then I I married this young lady that I had known before Vietnam. But the marriage failed. It didn't last less than a year. Uh. She decided she wanted to go back home to Dyersburg, Tennessee, where she was raised. Her dad was there a job, and we thought we should get married, but she just decided she wanted to
go back home. So for no reason, that marriage failed pretty quick. So I continued to work in a soccer roller plant, and I met my wife, Nancy. We've been married now for fifty five years, and so we've had a good life together. She had a daughter when we were married. I adopted Kimberdy and those kids, I say kids, I'm seventy eight, the oldest was fifty eight. My son's fifty four, and we have raised a family and done
well in life. I didn't realize until coming here how much I had it made at home, you know, not mourning for anything. We've worked by nasty. We're secure. But it had always been good ups and downs for this and that. And the really reason I ended up here, and my wife had had some disagreements, uh that day and my PTSD was working over pretty good, and uh, I grabbed her brother arms and she had had a broken help back last year, last say, last September, but
she was healed from that. But home healthcare worker or nurse was coming to see her and he was looked in the window and he exaggerated. I just was holding a rist, he exaggerated, and Uh, I went to jail for ten days. Uh. And then.
We'll we'll we'll pick up on that here in just a second. Give you a chance to catch your breath.
Okay.
Eight seven seven seven seven seventy eight seventy three is our combat Trauma Crisis line. If you know someone, if you are that's someone you've experienced something like what you're hearing about right now, it's not the first eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three will be right back. I know movies don't compare any shape war form to reality, but over the memorial. The day weekend I watched I watched a movie. It was Vietnam related.
It was based on a true story of someone they were that eventually did receive the Medal of Honor but initially was denied that, and some who had served with that veteran with that individual fought for decades to get that posthumously awarded to that individual. And they did a pretty good job. I think of kind of showing just how some of our Vietnam veterans, as you did, went
through life. Larry got a job, got married, had a life, but there was still that inner struggle of dealing with what happened to them, what they did to others.
War, and.
So many try to just pack it away and you know, kind of lock it up in a box, never to be remembered again. And it's not really how it works. We can be effective of that to some degree for some period of time, but over time just doesn't happen. So you've been telling us the last few minutes about what led you to Camp Hope, and some arguments and someone over exaggerating what happened there, which is not unusual. Unfortunately, ten days in jail, what happened after that.
Okay, excuse me. After that at a Vietnam excuse me, a VA person got me out of at jail and she was looking for a program back home, so couldn't find exactly what we needed. So she put me or we went to a facility in Hostel, Alabama, and they helped me build my meds and I stayed there for
about fourteen days. Then after that, I stayed at a motel for about fifteen days and this lady, same lady, I found out or knew someone that knew about Camp Hope, so we uh by doing that, some calls were made and uh first person I talked to here at Camp Hope was doctor George, and uh he welcomed me on the phone, and uh so I ended up coming here on March twenty six of this year, and uh, I
couldn't ask for a better place to be to provide. Uh, I mean, they provide us with anything we need, you know, clothing, food, shelter. I'm so thankful for that. The tat actually saved me from probably doing the jail stint. Who knows if they couldn't have found anything there. So here I am and I'm so thankful.
Do you remember day one.
Yeah, I remember day one. I came in an afternoon and I put all this stuff up and uh met some of the staff the next day. I didn't do much the first day, and of course here at Camp Hope they do a lot of it's structured on prayer and the Bible, so I didn't have a Bible with me. I got a Bible the next day and I've been in my Bible ever since. And that's what it's all about, to get my life back with the Lord. I was baptized age twenty three, as I told doctor excuse me,
Pastor Moltis the other day at church. That part of the story. And so I just want to do the program and to get back home to my family. That should happen hopefully by the end of September.
They're supportive of what's going on right now, sir. Your family supportive of what's going on right now.
Yeah, My family's very supportive. Before I left, I actually made my son oraternity for me. But I have no contact deal with my wife that they have put on me out there. I had been talked to my wife and over three months, and that's hurting me a lot. So my son is working on that to try to say if we can cure that up, but hopefully it can be. I don't know how long it's gonna be, but I won't know my life and I won't talk to her. So it's been a stressful.
Oh, it would have to be. Yeah, having been at camp, now let's see me a couple of months. You've seen some of those stories come to pass and go both ways, no doubt, some families where people would describe it as miracles, things that have happened that they didn't think could ever possibly happen. And there's also those that they just can't They just can't repair it, and that, you know, that's life,
that's just the way it goes. But when you see that happen, when you see some of those things happen, one of the guys getting to see his kids for the first time, and however long perhaps didn't get a chance to see that, what does that do to you when you watch that?
I understand.
So when you see, for instance, another guy in alphabet and he hadn't seen his kids in three years, doesn't think he's going to see his kids in three years, but then his kids show up on Sunday for visitation. When you see something like that, what does that do to you?
It makes me feel sad that I can't say my wife and if they're about seven hundred something miles from me and I'm not allowed to even talk to her. The system somewhere is letting me tell you and my wife even though I did act out of anger, I didn't really hurt her, and this guy blows it out of proportion, and uh, it's just a ship a shamed of what are you? Sister? Are our sister works as far as.
Right, And that's one of the reasons why we not only run warrior groups, but we also run family groups. Got to help the family understand what's going on. And just like in that situation, I've seen it a thousand times. It feels very personal, and certainly when it gets physical, it feels very very personal. But that's not what it's necessarily about. Tying you've seen it how many times? I mean, who knows?
You know?
You just at some point you can't keep track, right.
So even even when I came to Camp Open twenty two, I had no relationship with my two children. My son is a corman, he was in the Navy. My daughter he lives in Jacksonville, Florida. My daughter lives in Los Angeles, California. When I came to Camp Hope had disappointed them so bad that I did not have a relationship at all. However, God can do miracles. What I did was focus on me. I didn't focus on anyone else's problems. I didn't focus on what was what I felt was done to me.
I focused on getting myself better. And it's amazing how the one thing I did. I was telling mister mister Larry when we were coming up here, I said, I did one thing in my life. I surrendered to God, and he did everything else for me. I did one thing. I surrendered to him, and my children came back, and my family came back. And so I need mister Stovewall to know he has this in his hands. Larry, hold on,
work on you. These things will get will get everything we lost in more and it'll be such, it'll be so much more better.
Yes, I'm working on this right now, back into the studies, and it's really helped me. I study every day. I got a fashist. Every morning I read, and I'm studying Matthew right now, trying to understand a lot of things. I knew a lot of it. I've read the Bible a lot in my life, but I'm really trying to comprehend.
It now and grateful that you're here, Grateful that you're doing the work. Unfortunately, our time is up. The clock just doesn't have any kind of leeway to it. But thank you Larry for sharing some of your stories. Very very grateful, Tyrone. Always good to have you with us.
I appreciate you Cape.
Ptsdusa dot org for information not only on Camp Hope, but also our warrior groups and our family groups. PTSD USA dot org. Thank you for listening. Please share the podcast wherever you listen. Road to Hope Radio to being with you again next week for more of Road to Hope Radio. Mama tore me when I was young, super sized