Mind Over Matter

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, those of you listening on the kPr C the nine to five oh and the A and I'll thank you for joining us today as you drive endlessly around the loop, appreciate you join us those of you listening through the magic of podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts, just look.

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Yes, sir, thank you, Pastor Mo. My name is Tyrone Brown. I'm served in the US Army. I went to Somalia in nineteen ninety three. Currently am a mentor at the PTSD Foundation of America Camphip Camp Hope site.

Excuse me, and you came through Camp Hope wind, Yes, sir, I came to.

The program myself in March of nineteen of twenty twenty.

Two, twenty two. Yes, sir, so it took you a little while to find us, Yes, sir, after your last deployment, sir, has a long time in between, Yes, sir. And we also have a gentleman that's currently in our program at Camp Hope right now, Joe, you want to give the world a grand introduction.

My name is Joe Rowe and I'm currently a resident at Camp Hope and I'm eternally grateful for the program and Pastor himself and Tyrone, who's my mentor. I'm a changed man.

I don't believe in luck, but if you use the term luck, you got lucky, you got a good You got a good mentor over there, Yes, sir, all right, so you served in the Marine Corps.

I was in the Navy, but I volunteered for service with the Marine Corps. I've been involved in Desert Shield, Iraq times two other deployments that don't need to be mentioned, but eighteen and a half years of service in the Navy over thirteen with the United States Marine Corps. I am known as a devil, not a devil dog. So Hospital Corman serve along with the Marine Corps. They don't have a medical department, so they borrow them from the

And like I.

Said, I saw the worst what we have to do with the spread of democracy throughout the world, and to protect our nation and its liberties and freedoms, I had to put my life on the line and I do that for my fellow man, my fellow marine, because I took an oath as a hospital corman, not only to protect a constitution against foreign enemies foreign and domestic, but I took an oath to protect my patient. And anytime a service member is injured, there has to.

Be somebody that give aight.

So they were after me pretty hot and heavy. It just so happens I took three steps away from the humve and I found the ID that day with the giant explosion and reminder, as we go through the course of a show, we understand some of these things can be triggered.

For some who are listening. Let me ask you to get out your phone. Put this number in your phone eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three.

That is our.

Combat Trauma Crisis line. You may never need it. You may come across someone, however, that does need it. Please put the number in your phone eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. Here's the thing you.

Need to know about that phone number.

When you call it, someone will answer it, and it will be a combat that a combat that will answer the phone. Three hundred and sixty five days a year, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, eight seven seven seven one, seven seventy eight seventy three. All Right, we've got to take a quick break and we back.

With more Roadhope Radio. M hm m m.

M.

All right, welcome back Road Dope Radio. Glad to have you along.

All right, Joe, So you're one of the older guys around camp, how does that make you feel?

You got to learn how to deal with the youngins.

Okay, this should be fun.

Yeah.

Uh.

The younger generations that are behind me, they have a certain way of doing things, a certain way of talk, certain way of entitlement. Well, I was I'm very old school. I respect my elders. I've always respect my elders. I've always and raised that way by my mom and daddy and my grandparents. Filled in because my parents died and I was forced to be an orphan. But the military helped me grow up to be the man I am, and the man I am is a man of my word.

That's what a doc does.

And the younger generation, they got a certain slight on that they're they're a little different breeding. But I like to say that us gray beards got gotta stick together. I a very money, many of us. And when you're over fifty, you find those similarities in people. And Tyrone's life story when he became my mentor, we have a lot of similarities. And he's my brother from another mother. And a lot of the young ones don't understand when I give respect, I expect respect, and some people don't.

I talked yeah.

But now it's like I've been taught that the Lord has a hand over my mouth and hand on my shoulder. Speak less and lessen more. You learn a lot more what a guy is struggling with by just listening to him.

What they have to say.

You know, give the opportunity of people to be honest with you. You know, I don't give up a lot of advice.

I just got.

This is what worked for me, This is what helped me. We're reminded of the selfish program. And I was told by mister Tyrone to my left here, you got to stop trying to help everybody else until you help yourself. And I learned that the hard way, and I started listening, and I started helping myself, and I'll be daring. Joy came back into my life. I am an ambassador of Christ. My responsibility is to let Jesus Christ shine out of

So I'm gonna take a second and step or dip into our mail bag real quick. This is this is written from one of our our guys that came through. I think it was about three and a half years ago, and he wrote it this last Sunday.

So we could go today, So today's the day we look.

We took a reaffirmation of faith today at church by getting baptized as a family. Randall, reader, you inspired this. Thank you for sharing your journey. The kids took their first step toward God. Me and future Missus wanted to renew our vows to God before saying them to each other. Now we're on the way, our way to where my vision of life took shape Camp Hope. I stood at

Had a relationship with God.

Through that I gained a path to walk that hasn't been easy, but so fulfilling. Things found and lost, along with choices that always bore consequences. I've learned to surrender, accept, and forgive all things taught to me there that have continued fueling my passion for this amazing life I very nearly gave away. By the end of this day, I'll be married to the one I know God put in my life and for better or worse. We'll ride our lives out together. Couldn't be happier, albeit a bit nervous,

No, no, no, don't worry about it.

God's shoulders are big enough to handle these guys cussing him out. He's gonna be okay with it. And his mercy's never ending. Read the song, his mercy never fails. Over and over and over again, we're reading his mercy never fails.

So he's big enough. So why did you.

Join the navy?

What was what? What drove that?

Every male figure, including my father, served in some servers. I later found out that his sister, who married Bob or Robert, my uncle Bob, was a naval officer, but my father was on the US Enterprise.

He was a nuclear machinist mate he was radiated.

He was in the hospital for two months. I knew at age eight that I was going in the Navy. It was just a forbearance because of everybody in every male figure in my family has served in one way or another, So at age eight, I knew I'm going in the Navy, and I kept saying that growing up. Well, my dad died when I was eleven, he was thirty five years old because of lung cancer. I as a hospital gorman. Later on, when I joined the Navy got

He never complained about his service.

He kept his patches, you know, I used to have them. He taught me the night before he died. He's like, I need to see my kids. I want my son here, and that conversation I've never forgotten.

He told me.

He's like, boy, you're the man in the house now. And I wasn't too friendly because my mom was still young and I didn't understand it until I was more mature that she had to date, you know, she had to date these other these other gentlemen. She married one of them that that I struggled with, because any man that came into my house, in the house I was growing up in.

We'll catch up on that. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. It's a hard stop here the news on those on nine point fifty. We'll take that quick news break and we'll be back with more Road Hope Radio in just a moment, and we welcome you back.

Glad to have you along.

All right, Joey caught you up in the middle of the story, so keep going.

I wasn't very likable, no gentlemen, no, no, no, there's no.

Way that's possible.

I did not see or I wasn't mature enough to realize that my mom was lonely.

She lost the love of her life.

She had a date, and me, being the man of the house that I thought I was, I was not enjoyable to be around because I was growing up. I was a teenager and I was trying to date girls too, and I didn't want anybody interfering with my mom. And I was very adamant about that. And I wasn't very likable with the activities that I caused their vehicles. So they ultimately left at some of them because of me.

How many deployments you mentioned?

Three?

Three?

Okay, three combat tours. I've deployed to the Virgin Islands. We were doing drug ops, helping out the locals on the Virgin Islands. There's a lot of islands that are kind of are frifty for states, right, you know, But America's present there. We own the seas, we protect the seas. Now I've gone through like three different motivational you know, it's not just a job. It's an adventure, you know. Now they're saying it's America's Navy. But the Navy's one

I knew what it entailed.

I was giving up certain freedoms. But the routine, the structure, the chain of command taught me how to be a good man. I'm matured in in my service. My first four years, the USA Stark was hit by an exercise missile from an Iraqi warplane. At nineteen years old, I went. I raised my hand again. They needed volunteers, and I went over and fought fires for three and.

A half days on a ship.

I had no idea where any anything was. I just knew we were mutual aid. Like in the civilian fire fighting world, when a big fire happens, either a house fire or building fire, commercial property, you called for mutual aid, you called for extra people. So they called our ship and we got underway with just the the duty crew, which is a skeleton crew. We manned the ship, cut everything away from it, and we took off.

I was not on duty.

I said I was tired and I didn't want to go out and spend any more money. But I stayed on the ship, and thank god I did, because I knew the damage controlment. I knew the whole technicians. They were the first ones to go over to help fight fires when they asked for volunteers at like three thirty four o'clock in the morning. My hand went up, and I'm like, why am I doing that? You know what why? I didn't mean raise my hand, but I went over to a ship. I had no idea where anything was.

You know.

But I was involved in Desert Shield where we protected the tankers. We were a tanker escort servers and uh when when those tankers wouldn't listen to our commands, they'd fire an attention, get her over the boy the ship and they listened because we got a big gun on a guided missile destroyer, but on a strike team that they taught me how to shoot a forty five and

I want to kind of move the conversation along just a little bit, just because of time.

We don't have this, sir.

I'd love to sit here all afternoon and chat with you on this. But you've already alluded to a number of traumas, yes, including the childhood, lost your father at age eleven, so multiple traumas, multiple trauma. I was in service also obviously exemplary service. Eighteen and a half years you served, then you went into you said, you became a paramedics that right, Yes, sure, okay, so no doubt more trauma there.

Sure, But.

Those first lives that you just mentioned that were lost on that ship that was eighty seven, Yeah, almost forty years ago.

Correct.

There's a lot of time in between before you between those moments, correct, even from the moment you left service in the Navy. Still a lot of time between then and stepping foot on camp Hope. What brought you to the place you decided this is what you needed.

I need help.

Besides serving my country, the bravest thing that a combat veteran can do is step forward and ask for help.

It makes a big goal for your pride.

And I had to swallow that pride and I was attempting to get help and I was a simulating a toolbox bo I heard about Camp Hope from another graduates run another program that I attended. And because of this program and because of what it gave him, I needed it. I needed the extra because I've been diagnosed with complex PTSD. It's like trauma upon trauma upon trauma, and with all this, you know, trauma work that I've done, it gets to

It took me.

Twenty years to find the correct hope, the correct help that I needed the most. And when I came through those gates at Camp Hope, I had an open mind, in an open heart. I knew I believe in God. He's always had my sex. There's no there's no everybody believes in the foxhole. Everybody praise in combat. But once you're done, what do we do with this? And we will pick up there right in just a moment. But

What it is all about.

All the information about Camp Hope, as well as our outreach programs across the state of Texas, across the country online virtually so you can jump on literally anywhere and be a part of one of our warrior support groups or our family support groups. All the information is available at our website ptsd usa dot org. Also, if you'll follow us Facebook, Twitter, or x YouTube ptsd USA, ptsd USA and all three of those would love it if you'd go and follow us, subscribe to us, retweet us whatever.

Uh.

Reminder eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three is our combat Trauma Crisis line of combat veteran. We'll answer the phone. Eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three.

Joe, A little while ago you were.

I don't remember the exact wording you used, something along the light you felt like you needed to be a light for Jesus Christ at Camp Hope. Again, back to the you drew the right card with getting.

Tyrone Tyrone.

Yeah, I mean, obviously it's very important to Tyrone his faith, and that's the.

Beauty of the peer to peer.

Like you said, it's not passing out advice. It's just this is what helped me. This is my experience, and that's been true for Tyrone and it's true for you. But I'd love to hear from either or both of you really just briefly, because it is where you know, we declare to be a faith based organization. We don't

Tyrone?

You know, I was raised in the Church. I had a love hate relationship with God at first through all the things that I've been through in my life, and I just what I didn't understand was this. I used to say, why does God allow these things to happen?

Well, it's the most natural question, I asked, right.

But what I didn't realize was that the greatest thing about our God is that it gives us free choice, you know. And some people in this world have chose to choose other things, you know. Me myself has chose sometimes in my life to do other things, you know. And so I tell the guys that I talked to, is that, man, the only thing I had to do to start my journey on recovery from my mental health, from all of my trauma from my substance abuse was

Yeah, what about you, Joe?

You mentioned that cross on Camp Hope, And when I first got to the camp and talking to the tyrone and meeting him and hearing some of his stories, he always tells us that the fights up.

Here in your head.

But I made it down to the cross and I hit my knees and I just said, my way is not working. I don't know how to do this. I'm asking for help. I surrender. And when I said that, it's like slowly on God's timeline, it started happening. Blessings upon blessings upon blessings. I mean, like Tyrone said, it's so numerous. My life has been saved so many times. I've lost coun I mean when I was blown up, I don't know how I got out of the canal. I'm busted up and bruised and bleeding. I got metal

I mean, I had.

I had. A local Iraqi woman in broken English, asked me what is freedom? And I just I shook my head and I looked at her and through the interpreter, I said, that would take too long for me to explain. But you can do whatever you want now. There's no tyrant, there's no dictator.

You're free.

And they didn't understand it at first. They do now better, you know, in this day and age. But when they first voted on their first government, they had no idea what they were doing. We didn't tell them who to vote for. We didn't, you know, put R two cents in. The Only thing I did is protect the area, you know, if somebody got hurt, that was my job. But when I got hurt. I must be a good teacher because my marines passed me out. Everybody was a combat life

Yeah. Absolutely, whatever life you got in front of you, there's opportunity.

We only have a minute left. But how long you've been at camp? Now? For my what's changed for you?

Again?

I got one minute. I'm proud, I'm happy. Joy has returned to my life. Talking to my family.

I got. I got an avenue to keep helping.

Where's your family?

Uh? North Carolina where I retired from. But I'm not talking to him again. My kids still love me. My wife's talking to me. I heard three little words that I haven't heard in years, and she told me, I love you too, Joe, And that means the world of me, because I'm a changed man. Wait looking forward to after you're done here, seeing them spending some time on that beach, you know, enjoying the tide that I helped serve the ocean. You know, I helped serve the sea. But I'm a

Thank you again for being here with us. A reminder where of you listen to podcast, if you just look for Road to Hope Radio, hit that subscribe button and it'll automatically download each and every week when the new show drops. Please share that with your friends, your network. You never know who might hear what we do and need to hear what we do. And again, everything we do is absolutely at zero cost the veteran or their family, no cost whatsoever. Camp Hope is a lengthy, complex program