Never Too Late To Start Over

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 today are the best our country has to offer. And we love them. Today, we honor them, and we serve this. 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.

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Hello everybody. Linnburgh Freeman, Yellow Face Mentor PTSD Foundation of America at Camp Hope.

And where are you from?

Originally born and raised in New York, New York. We've got a couple of New York guys here with us today, Branch. And where you're deployed.

Army deployed to Iraq two thousand eleven, Operation New don okay, your turn.

Hey, my name is Mike Faglice. I'm also from New York, Buffalo, New York. Though I was in the Army. I was a combat engineer. I served in Afghanistan. Did one tour over there.

Okay, and when was that?

I believe it.

Was six to nine. I did seventeen.

Months long deployment.

It was a long deployment. Yeah, gotcha. All right, So you're from Buffalo. You a Bills fan?

Not really not, you know, I used to follow when I was a kid, when I lived there, but it's too many letdowns. So yeah, all the Buffalonians back home would probably want to wring my neck. But for saying that. But I mean, you know, I didn't follow sports too much growing up. Okay, so I didn't even into my adulthood, I didn't follow sports too much. I I focused on other things.

What were you into as a kid, getting.

In trouble, running the streets with my friends, riding bikes, doing what kids do, right, you know, just running through the neighborhood, yelling at girls, throwing rocks at cars, being boys playing baseball. Never watched it, but I played a little bit of baseball of it. Yeah, just with your friends.

Nothing crazy, okay, yeah, all right, plenburg you a baseball player.

Oh yeah, that was the typical thing in growing up in New York, you know, playing all sports, any and every sport that we can figure out, you know, getting the whole neighborhood of kids together, whether it be street basketball at the park, finding the field for football. We had a couple of baseball diamonds in our neighborhood and we'd get together and playing teams. So yeah, yeah, I grew up doing pretty much the same thing.

We're in New York. For you Long Island, ohfer County, Yeah.

All right.

We have a great fundraiser that takes place every year in New York. It wasn't purchase New York. I can't remember what town the courts the courses in now that they've played the last couple of years have moved to a different course, but absolutely stunningly beautiful, absolutely beautiful. So looking forward to getting back up there here in a couple more weeks to attend that event. It's always a lot of fun and great group of people. Why do you join the army?

You know, it's funny story. I really I wanted to join the marine Corps. As a kid, the commercials you saw on the TV where he's fighting the dragon with the sword, that was what was impressive to me, and it made me a sense of pride, and I always wanted to do that. I wanted to wear the uniform. It was about pride for me and honor and country. And I joined the army instead. I don't know how that happened, but it happened, and I'm grateful for that. But it was all about duty and country, and I

Slay any dragons, no, no, no dragons, how about you Land.

I believe it was just I joined late, so I was twenty four years old. You know, I didn't I never finished high school, so I couldn't join like right after high school.

But I was a parent early. I was a parent.

I've been to parent since I was eighteen. My daughter now was twenty two. But back at that time, I wanted to do other things and I thought that athletics were the way for me to do it, and so I grew up. I was involved in the boxing community, had a long amateur stint, won everything in the state of New York except for the Golden Gloves. It's a long tournament's four months. Yeah, so you know, and then I turned a professional that didn't work out, but I

We'll take a quick break and we'll come back to that here in a second. This is Road to Hoope, Ri, it'll be right back.

Who jes the ground and play so baby, it's their god time.

Man, and welcome back to Road to Hope. Ray, You're glad to have you.

Long gout, Lynnburgh, United States Army VET. Currently, what's your role at Camp Hope right now?

What do you do?

Well?

Right now?

I'm a Yellow phase mentor.

For those driving around sixteen right now? What does yellow phase mean?

That is the stage before graduation for our residents. It's the final two months of the program at Camp Hope and they come into my Yellow phase block. I have them for two months and I help them complete the program and you know, do my best to set them up for success or when they leave Camp Hope.

So what are the There's no such thing as a typical day. There's a Camp Hope. Every day is a new day around there. But what's what's kind of a norm for a yellow phase mentors?

What are we doing in the course of the day.

In the course of the day, I am there when their day starts. Uh, you know, do their checking in the morning.

Uh.

We will do a daily devotional after our check ins, and then uh we'll start the class day. Like I teach classes on my own, or we can have outside resources coming and provide them with classes, whether they depending on what the residents need. You know, they're trying to

Mike, you mentioned you deployed in six When did you join the army?

It was after nine to eleven.

I wanted is that kind of a prompter for you?

It was I was. I was working in a palette factory, believe it or not, making palettes. I had left school early. I had a child that.

Was just born.

I think I was eighteen years old roughly and working at this palette factory. We had no idea what was going on. The Twin Towers had gotten hit and everyone kind of like was going crazy, and I just was at work building palettes and I just felt like that that's what I needed to do. I mean, I dropped out of high school because of my child, and I was working a day job and I've always still in Buffalo, and I just was like, I have to do something different.

That's I joined.

So you were in for a little while before you actually deployed.

A little bit not It wasn't exactly at two thousand and two thousand and one when I went in.

I was.

It was a little bit after, but yeah, So I did my work up. I went to Fort leonard Wood, Missouri, and there did basic training there, did oh set. So I was back to back and then I did my combat engineer training there as well. But they kind of like teach you how to find landmines, identify stuff in the ground, and not anything close to what I did in the actual army, which is kind of funny. But I've worked with explosives but not land mines. I left

You know.

It was something I was passionate about, and I became really good at it. I found quite a number of IED's when I was over in Afghanistan. I was blown up three times in combat. Most of them are IED's, the two two of them are I d's. One of them was a rocket propel grenade RPG. The vehicle that I was driving was a mind detection vehicle. They were targeted quite a bit. We were used to find the roadside bombs, so they tried to eliminate that as much as possible to try to get to our our guys.

So that was quite an experience.

Yeah, that would get your attention a little bit. Yeah, A quick reminder as we go through these stories and share the events of I guess really the source of the PTSD that some of you guys face, but also the returning home and the integration issues. We understand that these can cause triggers for some of those who were listening. So I'm want to give you a phone number. Please everyone, get your phone out, put your put this number in

Costume nothing.

It's absolutely free and it's easy to share, retweet whatever, So thank you for doing so. All right, So how long were you When did you get out of the army? You employed through eight?

Yeah, so I got back. I think it was two thousand and nine, actually that I got back. I landed in the United States on my birthday, May twenty fourth. I think two thousand and nine is when I landed in the United States, and I was so excited. I remember that because I was like, it's my birthday, I can go out, I can have fun with my friends, and let's celebrate my birthday. US coming home. We survived the deployment. I didn't get to go out at all

Sure back, Yeah, glad you're back, absolutely all right. Just a reminder PTSDUSA dot org. The Combat Trauma Crisis Line eight seven seven seven to one, seven seventy eight seventy three. Eight seven seven seven to one to seven seventy eight seventy three answered twenty four to seven by a combat veteran and that will mean the world to anyone who needs to make that call. Eight seven seven seven one

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So I arrived at Camp Hope about thirty days ago. I think it's a little bit over like thirty five days. Maybe it is when I came here, so I don't even know what today is either. Yeah, I've been here for about thirty days.

Okay, so sixteen year span. What happened when you got home besides a long day once on the actual day.

You know, I struggled a lot. I was married at the time, and my marriage kind of like was on the fritz.

I was.

I was angry a lot. I was struggling. I wasn't sure how to cope with what was going on. I didn't actually know what was going on. That was the crazy part I was. I thought everything was normal, and I wasn't aware, if you will, of my actions and how I was behaving because I didn't know my wife at the time. She ended up leaving, went back home, we separated, divorced, you know, got into more trouble with myself, not knowing how to deal with things, getting in and

I would I built sport bikes.

I would take something somebody bring me in and I would customize it for them, and I would do all kinds of crazy fun things, from spinner wheels, nitrous tanks, drag bikes, big tire kits. I did that for probably six years, and then the economy kind of went downward for a while, and then I closed up that shop and went to work back again with my family doing masonry restoration work. Complete opposite, but it was there, it was steady, it was whatever I wanted. Did that for

So, now having been diagnosed with PTSD and you look back, what were some of the things you talked about some of the issues, But what were those issues for you? Was it high provisions of sleep.

Yeah, yeah, both or all of them all. So I was always on edge. I was always watching where I was, what was the surrounding, what was going on. Loud noises was a big trigger for me. Crowds. I couldn't do crowds very well. Anytime there was a loud sudden noise, I would have panic attacks. My heart would start racing, I would start sweating, and then I would just get overwhelmed with emotion.

It would scare me.

I mean most people get scared with you can hear a loud thud or a loud noise, but it would put me into like this extra I don't know what it was it was. I was just I had to know what was going on, and it would put me on edge and then I wouldn't be able to come out of.

It for a while.

Did that start after coming home or did you experience some of that while you were still deployed.

You know, honestly, I I experienced some of it while I was there. I didn't let it show, because you know, you got a job to do. You don't want to admit it that you're having these problems because then they people judge. And it's sad to say, but it happens. But I experienced the most significant problems were when I was home, because people don't realize that a lot of US veterans and active duty service members, we were aware

We don't.

They don't go out of their way to make sure there's no balloons that could pop at an event, So when it happens, it's overwhelming and it's crippling.

Remember what were some of the symptoms you were dealing with?

Some that more similar to him. You know, One that was very uh sudden and that I didn't understand until recently, was that, you know, no crowds was a trigger for me as well. You know, I've been in a situation where in a situation where there was no crowd and nobody on the street, there was no sound, no children laughing, no no people talking, and you know, then something would happen, and you know we have to react to whatever. You know,

You know.

It doesn't go away. My lifetime and my life experiences don't go away, but I can manage to move forward.

Sure.

And I think it was around twenty fourteen the Pentagon was trying to kind of overcome that stigma, and they were using some gunerals sharing some of their stories about PTSD symptoms and such PTSD diagnosis.

But as I.

Talked to guys coming home, always found there was just this great disconnect.

You know.

It was great that these generals are talking about it, but the guys that are actually in country and needing to fulfill missions, like they didn't want to hear it because they still had to fulfill the mission. So it almost backfired. It almost probably sent guys further into the withdrawing and trying to cover up than it was trying to get.

That absolutely absolutely, like the officer's side is not the enlisted side of the military, you know. And I started out, I deployed as a PFC, came back pretty much a sergeant. You know, my first stars and my commander were calling me sergeant at the end of that. And I had no interaction with an officer above a captain, you know, so like for generals to tell their story and what they experience was not going to happen down on my level, you know, right, Yeah.

So it's I guess someone in a you know, a dark hallway in the Pentagon. I thought it was a good idea, and you know, you know, I guess better to try than not try it all. The stigma is continues to be a major issue there. There's I think through the years, particularly maybe the last four or five years, we've had a little bit of movement toward people understanding what PTSD actually is versus what they kind of heard on the local news when someone shut up a mall

All right.

We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more of Road to Hope Radio with Lindbergh and Mike to help you guys both with us. A couple of army that's with us today.

And were welcome you back Road to Hope Radio. A few minutes left, but.

I'd like to hear from both of you guys, how whenber We'll start with you, how did you first hear about CAMPO.

What was that first connection?

Yeah, looking back out on it now, it's kind of weird to say, but I was actually homeless. I was homeless at that point in time, trying to figure things out. And uh so in Washington State there's this place called Catholic Community Center and they had a like a meeting, you know, for people to come by that were experiencing homelessness at the time, to come by and get resources.

How long were you homeless?

So from two thousand about six to eight months. You know, it wasn't like I was on the streets for years or anything. About six eight months I was.

And the only reason I mentioned I think that's it comes as a surprise to a lot of people. That's so many of our post nine to eleven veterans found themselves homeless at some point in time for some length of time. You mentioned six to eight months. Justin was homeless in Houston for six and a half years, which is absolutely I don't even know how you survived that. I just don't even know how you how do you do that? But man, that's people need to understand that's

I was at a residential program in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Are you doing in North Carolina? I ended up barbecues terrible? Why in the world in North Carolina? Felt Lake Home?

You know?

I visited some family there, gotcha?

And when what brought me originally was I was I was awarded a mortgage free home through a military nonprofit.

Because of your injuries from because of my injuries.

So I have a purple heart. And I was also given a bronze star, so they gave me a home. That's what brought me there. But I was to Camp Hope. I was at a program at the VA Hospital and one of the representatives there said that they heard of this program that they think will really much in North Carolina. They thought that this place called Camp Hope would help me tremendously because of the stuff that I struggled with.

Now.

I didn't know anything about Camp Hope. I got on the website and I looked at it and I said, this place looks amazing.

This is they hit it on all the things.

And I think it was the video of you talking about what Camp Hope was and how it can help other veterans and that this was the tough guys that struggle the most and they get the most benefit out of it. And I thought to myself, I thought it couldn't be true. I really truly did not believe it. I've been in a lot of programs that say that they're there to help veterans, and they really don't. Fortunately, they don't stand up to the bar. They they really

In.

Turns out, the gentleman and I were in the same part of Afghanistan on the same task force, and he knew exactly who I was, Like he had seen my vehicle. I had my name written on the vehicle. It's called Pug's Life. They stopped that after our deployment because we were getting targeted too much. But so the gentleman remembered who I was and he knew what my mission was.

There, so he.

Walked me through the process.

And like I think it was two weeks later, they saw the need that I had, I guess, and they flew me down within I mean within a matter of two and a half to three weeks tops, and it was fast. They got me down here to Houston, Texas, and I've I don't know, it's just an amazing opportunity to be with other veterans that are struggling with the same issues. I mean, it's every day. It's it's awakening, it's I see it. I see myself and other veterans, and it that's what helps the most. I think everyone

I was in a meeting this week, and that kept bubbling back to this top of the conversation. Through the years, we've obviously strengthened the program, added to the program, brought a lot of different things into the program, like we've had art therapy, we've had equine therapy, and you know, grateful that we're able to bring all those things in. But it always always always comes back to the peer

That was cool. Oh my gosh, it was hot when I got here.

So our eight months of summer.

Yeah yeah, so let's paint this picture for you. I got off the airport, off the airplane, and I was picked up by the PTSD USA Camp Hope van, red white and blue van. I mean, nothing more welcoming than Camp Hope. You know, it's this big red, white and blue van that's talking. It's PTSD USA, get help.

They drive me.

First of all, he gives me the biggest talk I've ever gotten in my life. I tried to shake his hand and he says, we don't do that, and he gives me a hug. And the both gentlemen that were in the van, they greeted me with smiles and hugs.

And I was like, wow, this is weird.

Okay, that's different, but okay, so I rode with it.

They drove us back to.

The camp and somebody opened the door when I got there and they said, give me a hug, and I'm like, yet now it's it's yeah. Now, if you're not hugging, something's wrong, you know. So it's there's no handshakes here most of the time. If you try to shake someone's hand, they'll slap your hand out of the way and they just bear hug you. And that's the normal now. And I told that to my daughter when I talked to her, and she said, Dad, that makes my heart so happy.

Well, unfortunately, our time is done. I hate this clock. This is the fastest hour of my entire week, every single week. But glad you're here.

I'm happy to be here.

Keep doing the work. Yes, for your family, but mainly for you.

You deserve.

You deserve the very best life you can live. The same for you, lindbergh Y, So thanks for having me. Grateful for you, Grateful for what you do every single day to serve those who come into our program at Camp Hope. We want everyone that steps foot on our campus, whenever it is they step out to go live their life. We want them to live the very best life that they possibly can, whatever that looks like. We don't get to choose that, but we want to expose to as

Have great week, everybody,