It's Never Too Late To Restart

Multiple people in my family clean my father are veterans.

The 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 are the best our country has to offer, and we love them. Today,

And indeed we are glad to have you along.

On a Sunday afternoon, the k p RC the ninety five oh on the AM dial, thank you for joining us as you as you circle endlessly on Luke six ' ten or the the Beltway or the ninety nine, whichever one you care to circle on the most. Thank you for joining us. Those of you listening to us through the magic of podcasts, Thank you so very much for listening. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look for Road to Hope Radio.

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Awesome folks, the right values, the right location, the right price. Republic Grand Ranch dot Com. Couple of veterans in the studio with us today. We're glad to have you back. Andrew, want to reintroduce yourself to the world.

Yeah, So my name is Andrew. I'm a Navy veteran. I'm a graduate of the Camp Hop program and I'm currently a mentor within the Foundation, and I'd like to thank you for having me here.

We're glad to have you back.

And if I have time, I'll go back and find you were on not too long ago, a month or so ago, and shared a little bit of your story about how you got here.

And it's a really unique story.

Yes, I love it, so I won't ask you to do that again today, but I'll try to find that and post that. By the way, follow us on Facebook just Road to Hope Radio. We share some events that are coming up for the PTSD Foundation of America, and we also will share some.

Veteran related stories.

But if I can find that show, I'll put that on our Facebook page because it's a great story of how you found your way to.

Camp Hope.

It's a great, great story also with us. Todd, want to introduce yourself.

Yeah, my name is Michael Todd Elliott. I go by Todd. I'm a resident right now at Camp Hope.

And you are from the Marine Corps veteran from from Katie, so not too far away from here from justin you could almost I mean you could, but I wouldn't buyse it. So you could almost walk there in here, but I wouldn't do it.

Don't do it.

It tend gets a little crazy on a rare occasion, like every day.

Uh but yeah, okay, And you deployed where.

I went to Iraq and then was on a mew that went to several different places. When you were when in two thousand and four, it was during the second invasion of Flusia, Operation Phantom Fury.

Yeah, I have a good friend that died as a result of some wounds from Fallujah in that second attack. Anyway, glad to have you in the show. How long you've been at Camp.

By the way, about three months?

Okay, Yeah, all right, So we'll talk a little bit about that So were you born and raised in Katie.

I was born in Lansing, Michigan. Moved to Katie when I was about one years old.

Okay, well then you get grace, Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, I consider myself a Texan.

Yeah.

We can only allow a certain number of folks from the northern parts of the country at a particular time.

We have to kind of ration that.

One of the things I think one of the great things, and don't talk about this all the time, one of the great things about what we do at Camp Hope bringing in veterans from all across the country, but we bring them in from every era of war, every military branch that we don't have Space Force representative. We haven't quite got anyone from that yet.

Uh.

I'm sure it's coming. I'm sure it happens someday.

Uh.

But yeah, like there can only let a certain number of people from up north end of the time, but we're gonna let We'll count you as a Texan.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Yes, Uh so high school experience anything great, creative, just like star quarterback.

No, I mean, growing up in Katie, they have a huge well, Texas in general is huge on football and Katie, But I didn't. I didn't dabble in football. I did a lot of skating. I grew up on a little crew all right. And we traveled around in Austin, San Antonio. Here, Oh cool, shot a few videos.

We'll have to check that out. All We got to take a quick break. We'll be right back in just a moment. More of Road to Hope.

Rate you.

Andrew.

You a skater, road BMX bikes for most of my childhood.

You're a bike guy.

Bike Teddy actually convinced me to buy a road bikes so me and him go ride on the weekends.

Now I've seen a little bit of that.

He always posts awesome yeah about some of his rides.

Never thought I would do it, but it's nice getting out back in the nature, and he did. We did a twenty six mile ride last on Sunday, which was pretty fun.

Yeah.

And again, you know when we talk about Camp Hope and what goes on there a lot of times, and we will today too, talk about stories a little bit about you know what happened or you know your deployment, and we don't we're not the worst story thing, but we'll talk a little bit about that and we talk a little bit about what brought someone to Camp Hope, why they needed it, But one of the beautiful things about Camp Hope that we rarely really touch on is,

But if it made the news, you know it was rough.

So you hear some of those stories, and you meet some of those people and you realize and recognize what they did, what they had to do. But then also just the people you meet and going about the day to day work of our programs, and one of the things I love to see is you mentioned Teddy and you guys doing the bike thing like you had never met Teddy, right, I mean, there would have been no reason to meet him if it weren't for Camp Hope and just to see you know, years later Teddy came through, man,

The first time. I arrived in twenty twenty, graduated in twenty one, and then I came back through the program in twenty.

Two, twenty two, So I mean that's probably eight years after Teddy came through. I mean, it was literally that long ago and he came through and now both of you on staff. But you know, just that camaraderie, the friendship.

I just love those stories.

I just I think that's the coolest thing in the world because everybody needs that, and that's what It's one of the big things we do at Camp's peer to peer. But we always teach you can't stop doing what you've learned to do at Camp Hope when you leave Camp Hope. So maintaining some sort of friendship relationship like that's just it's cool on a thousand levels. But it's also important to maintaining the positive change in your lives. So it's cool to see. I like it when you guys post that stuff.

Look at those idiots out there right and that bike for four hundred hours.

He convinced me to buy some some like Spandex and all of that get up.

You did it right to go ally.

If you're gonna do it right, this is the way you do it is okay. So skating was your thing, all right, So you traveled, So what what what? I'm not familiar with the skating world. So is that like some sort of a team and in competition type deal.

No, I was never like sponsored or in competitions. It was just a group of us that from around the Houston area that would get together a lot and go skating in the street or at the time, they had a huge skate park, Vanced skate park here in Houston. It's not here anymore, but we would go there a lot and uh and and and skate.

Yeah.

And then eventually it got big enough to where we you know, we got old enough that we had our own cars and then we'd take weekend trips to you know, Austin, San Antonio. Got kicked out of the Capitol in Austin for skating and jumping out.

They didn't they didn't care for that.

Yeah, no, not too much.

I wonder.

How in the world, what's what's wrong with that? It is public property, right, Okay? Uh did you join the Did you join the Marine Corps right out of high school?

Or yeah? I joined right out of high school.

I was not the best student, graduated somewhere in the bottom of my class. I didn't have an idea of what I wanted to do, and I joined because the recruiter bought me Burger King. So well, your price was low, yeah, Burger King. It could have been at least been Waterberg.

I had no thoughts of joining.

No one in my family was in and uh yeah he uh picked me up one day and there's a Burger King in the same pocket parking lot.

Bought me a whopper and I said, okay, Jeff.

Forgetting Yeah, getting in a car with strangers. Let's see what happens. Burger King Marine Corps IRAQ.

Yeah, what year did you join?

Two thousand and two?

Oh too?

Yeah, okay, So it had to dawn on you. This is going to end me going someplace that really don't want to go.

Yeah, I mean it was a thought, but that's all it spoke. Yeah, I mean that was my mindset back then. I was and still now A lot is just going with the flow and I guess just really being in the day that I'm in.

Yeah, yeah, seventeen ish yep, yeah, yeah, well you know, not the first person at seventeen to not really think long term. Yeah, on some decisions life decisions like.

That turned into a twelve year career.

Yeah.

Well, you know that's something to be said for that. I mean you turn and look at like that's pretty pretty awesome.

Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it.

Burger King should probably turn that into some kind of a promo. I mean, we got to be able to make some sort of a deal with Burger King on that. Come on, guys, you got a guy off to Iraq and Flujah for that. For a Burger King, it's got to be for something, all right. So what were you doing in a right? What was your day to day?

I was in communications, Actually I was data side six fifty six. Most didn't even exist anymore and most of the time, like we went to haditha Dam. We were there for about three months, and then I was also at a little place asp Wolf with Bravo Company. I was a first Battalion, eighth Marines. Stayed there for a bit and then Flujah kicked off and they put me on ECP duty and QRF team.

Okay for someone driving around six ' ten right now that those letters mean nothing to them, help them understand what you were doing.

Well ECP, Well, my main job when I was there was wiring up a lot of the buildings. The dam in particular, it had no power, so and I was the only non NCO. I was the worker in the group. There's only four of us there, and I just wired up the whole damn with Cat five data, set up the servers, program the routers, the servers are switches, everything to get it going in there.

And then.

When Fallujah kicked off, yeah, I got put on Entry Control Point duty, which was just maintaining the INTR control points to Camp Fallujah, the main base. And then on our off time that was I think we did sixteen hours of watch and then the rest of our time was for sleeping and then stand by QRF, which you know I got called out a couple times for that.

You mentioned you were the worker. I just in my mind.

I just conjured out the image of a road work crew, one guy working in four or five guys standing around overseeing the one guy working.

It's just what pops up in my.

Brain before we run to the news break on the nine to five O. Those listening through the radio, a reminder PTSD post traumatic stress disorder PTSD USA dot org is the website you can find out all the information regarding Camp Hope, the interim housing program for our combat vets, as well as our warrior support groups, our family support groups which by the way, and our warrior groups online.

Glad to have you long.

David Malsby here, big thank you to our friends. iHeart Houston Media. Not only do they work with us to allow us this opportunity to have this show every Sunday afternoon. But they do a lot of a lot of airtime for us throughout the week on several of their stations here in the Houston area, to the tune of over I think last year was over two hundred thousand dollars of donated airtime to the foundation. We cannot think them, literally,

Was Iraq your first employment? Yes?

Okay, Then you mentioned you had several other views. Obviously because since you're at Camp Hope. There's a mental health issue, mental health diagnosis. As you look at it today and you look back on your time in the military and in combat situations, when did you begin to notice And you may not have noticed them, but as you look back, when did things begin to happen for you the mental illness side.

Looking back at it, I I mean I noticed right away when I got back from my rack, spending time on leave, you know, with my wife at the time and family, like loud noises would startle me. I remember one time walking in the mall and I don't know what caused the noise, but it almost caused me to hit the floor, you know, drop to the ground. I was always pacing at night, peeking out the blinds at night, looking out the windows, always feeling like there was impending

I have two sons, ones twenty and the others thirteen.

Okay, So as you start realizing these symptoms, and I know, I just don't know your store of it. I know, having talked to a lot of guys, when something like that happens you mentioned at the story at the mall, when there's that visible physical reaction, there's the obvious of just that, but there's also the resulting. It's embarrassing for you know, you don't want your family to see that, you don't want people to view you that way.

Were you dealing with some of that?

I don't think I was ever feeling embarrassed when that kind of thing happened. It was more of a rush of you know, anxiety over my body really just not wanting to be in that place or situation, you know, which I think self isolation is.

You know, where it.

Led to or where I thought I would be safe, you know, or wouldn't hurt anybody you know, or be hurt.

Yeah, what did you do.

To try to cope with all that or to mitigate that?

I tried, you know, group therapy with my ex wife.

Was that at the VA.

No, this is.

Actually when I when I got out, I moved to Canada. My wife was Canadian, or is Canadian. My ex wife's Canadian. We moved up to northern BC. And you know, I, I was starting to get in a place where we weren't communicating at all. I was kind of a stone, a statue, and I it was making it rough for her,

Is that how you heard about us?

I did, Yeah, through my therapist, having a one on one with her.

By the way, as we mention these stories and go through these stories, we understand these things can be triggers to you. You can see the effect on the other people as they hear these stories. We have a combat Trauma Crisis line eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. I'll give you a number. Again, I wish everybody would put this number in their phone. You never know when you might come across someone who really could use the connection. Eight seven seven seven one seven

If when you.

Tell somebody about the number and hand the phone and say just here, just call them and tell them let them know a combat that's going to answer the phone, that will completely change their willingness to uh to make that call. Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. All right, So did they when they're when you were going back to them? However often with those serious issues, those days where it got really rough, did they diagnose you at the time or.

I was eventually diagnosed by the uh.

By the therapist I was speaking to okay, or the psychiatrist I was speaking to you.

Yeah.

Did they set up any kind of regular appointments with them or just encourage you to check out camp?

Hope?

Yeah?

It turned into regular uh like uh skype or over the computer?

Uh.

Appointments.

It was.

It was once a month that I was doing that.

Okay, what I.

Mean, And everybody's different, So I'm just curious, Skype, did that work for you or no?

Not?

I mean technologically it did, but I mean did it help.

No, I'd say it's for me.

I I need the personal approach of being physically present with someone, you know, whether it be in group or one on one, you know, not not over the computer. I mean I have I haven't even own a cell phone in ten years, you know, I'm not. I I like to stay away. I like to stay away from it as much as I can.

On the way over the Yeah, all.

Right, we got to take all the sleep we got a minutes ago.

Yeah.

I can't read my clock or I can't read my clock. I just don't know how much time with it.

Okay.

Just to reminder ptsd USA dot org and the phone number eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three on Facebook Road to Hope Radio.

I'm glad that with therapists.

I guess at the VA you were talking to mentioned Camp Hope to you when they first mentioned that. What what was your thought?

I thought, I don't I don't think I will do this. You know, it's nice, nice that they gave me this information. It wasn't the only place they gave me. There was three or four different places, and honestly, Camp Hope wasn't my first choice. I can't remember the name of the first choice I had. But they never reached back out and contacted me.

And uh, okay, we're going to take the break now we'll come back. I want to hear why you ended up choosing to h to check out Camp Hope.

I'm going to take a quick break.

We ride back with more of Road to Hope Radio.

Straight down, and we welcome you back Road to Hope Radio.

Thank you again for listening.

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Road to Hope Radio.

Okay, Todd, So you mentioned the service mentioned a couple of places to you. Camp Hope wasn't the first thought on your mind, the first choice, So I guess I should say, Uh, was there a reason like.

Not there not Camp Hope?

Right?

Uh?

Yeah, I saw that it was you know, Christian based faith program, and you know I'm not Christians.

So that is what threw me off a bit.

You know, at one point I was, but now I'm seeking, I guess my own path, trying to figure things out spiritually.

So yeah, that that was.

My main deterrence was all you know, I'm going to be flooded by uh, you know, prayer circles and and and.

Preaching the whole time there.

And yeah, so that that's what made me stray away from it. But it was my second choice. It was because it was on the list, is second on the list. So I just went bout down that list, and as soon as I called Camp Hope, you know, someone was there to answer and right there willing to accept me in the program. So that's where that's where it went.

And I think it's important to share with folks. Yes, we are as an organization a couple of things unashamedly peer to peer as our DNA, the christ centered faith based aspect of our program. We believe it is very critical to what we do and what separates us and helps us be more effective at what we do.

With that said, I.

Always tell people you don't have to agree with what I think or anybody else thinks.

You don't.

That's that's not it. That's not what it's about. There's not some creed you have to agree to or sign or like.

I believe this.

I don't believe that you don't have to believe anything. I mean people who claim to be agnostic or atheist or whatever. We've had a little bit of everything comes through our doors. And so yes, while that is, you know, part of who we are, an important part of who we are, it's not an exclusionary thing, at least from our point of view.

And I've.

For me when I hear you say that, it actually it excites me in a way. There's nothing more important than in my view, than your your faith and where you place your faith, in whom you place your faith. So it should be wrestled with right. It shouldn't just be well somebody said, so, so that's it. It encourages me when I hear you guys like I'm I'm checking, I'm in endeavoring to come to some sort of a here's where i'm at, here's where I need to be, and here's where I want to go.

I love that.

That just that makes me happy, Like at least you haven't just rolled over and said I'm out. I'm glad you're doing that. That that that thrills me, That makes me happy. But so you've been at camp for three ish months. Three months, okay, So that means you came through the holidays, which is always crazy.

Very active.

There's a lot going on during the holidays.

And it's all good stuff, but it is also there's no way around it. It's also a bit distracting from what you're trying to do in the program because there's just so many things that happen. And again they're all good things, but yeah, there's a lot that goes on. Yea, now we've come through January, we're already second weekendo February.

Now, what's what's changing.

In your mind? What's the way you approach a new day, the way you feel when you wake up in the morning, What what's changing for you?

I will say that I've never noticed how much spiritual faith is is extraordinarily powerful in someone's life, and I'm I'm really leaning into figuring that out for myself. I'm you know, meditating now and ah, just waking up and and being thankful that I'm able to wake up and breathe and live.

Every day and.

And and learning how to love myself is a big one, you know, since I've been here.

And it's probably an unfair question, but I'm gonna.

Ask it anyway. As you said, you've you've you.

Came through the second time, graduated back in twenty twenty two, so it's been a few years now, so you got a little distance in between.

Yes, sir h.

When you look back on.

Camp, your time there as someone in the program, can you point to one thing? I'm sure it's a thousand and one things. Can you point to one thing, like if the only thing I got was this, This changed my life, This helped me, This turned me in a better direction.

I would say, where I'm at today, obviously I have to put my faith on the top. That is the most important thing that I've gotten out of the program. Which I didn't have in the beginning, you know, coming into the program in a very dark, dark place.

Which is typical.

I guess, yeah, you know it's I would I mean, from my point of view, it seems typical.

And immediately secondary to that would be the sense of connection and family that I've developed through this program, both with you know, the the guys that I went through with that I'm still connected to today, but also the

Like I look forward to to.

Doing things with people and and just really being connected on a level that I never thought I could have ever had.

Uh.

Andrew you mentioned or Todd you mentioned, Uh, what you're learning and what's changing for you? Decided it's a new day.

You're alive.

You know, new opportunities in front of you, and you're I don't know where you're at in the program doesn't matter but three months it's in. You've been around long enough that some things are changing, you are learning some things. I'm guessing you're not yet in the phase of the program where you're really starting to look forward. So this

What I'd like to have is.

Or to keep, is that sense of adventure and to really dive into it. You know, I don't ever want to own a home, but I would like to own a vehicle that I can turn into or I should say I don't want to own a house.

I'd like to own a vehicle and.

Turn it into my home again, try it and then you know, live like a vegabond, or you know, what I mean, like travel, go searching across the country.

You know there's a lot to see.

A sprinter van, put some solar on the top.

There you go.

Absolutely And now.

I used to drive a lot, not quite to that extent, but you just drive the country a lot.

Those are my younger days. We are out of time. I hate this.

This clock runs so fast every time. Thank you for being here man, Thank you for what you're doing. Thanks for sharing a little story and you're always great to see you. Thanks for doing you what you do, Camp Hope. Thank you for joining us. Look forward to being with you. Gain next week for more of Road to Hope Radio