 Good afternoon everybody am I in here by myself good afternoon everybody Now each year I look forward to this meeting because each year you guys blow me away So in New Orleans, it was loud and it was impactful So I'm expecting y'all to take me higher this time. So I want to say good afternoon There we go. So today. I want to thank you for coming and attending the seminar today and as you know DAV is always ready to talk about women veterans We talk about all veterans, but we talk about women veterans as well And we will continue to talk about women veterans until the inequities are addressed. So Y'all ready to ride with me. Let's go So some of the topics that we're going to talk about if my slides cooperate We're gonna talk about I'm gonna introduce you to my Interim women veteran committee I'm also going to introduce you to some special guests that we have here today and We're gonna talk about some upcoming exciting times in DAV We're also going to talk about staying connected, which has been the theme of the legislative department Disconvention we really want you to be involved in the benefits protection team And we also want you to take advantage of the commander's action network. So we're gonna talk about those things again today We're also gonna talk about DAV voluntary services and the relationships that it has and then we're gonna talk about both the crest Retreats and they are here today to talk with you and share with you their mission So first let me introduce my interim the DAV interim women veterans committee We are missing our chairwoman. Miss Joanne Martinez I want you to give her a warm round of applause because she will be leaving as chair this year And she has done a phenomenal job. So wherever she is. I need her to hear those applause. Give it up for Joanne All right, if you hold the rest of your applause until the end It would be the next person we're gonna talk about is Rachel Fredricks. This is her second year on the committee Mr. DJ Eldra Jackson, this is his first year on the committee Also, Miss Helen Bennett. This is her first year on the committee and I am the advisor now y'all can give them applause So let me tell you about the importance of the interim women veterans committee This committee functions to be the boots on the ground Listening to you as you talk about ideas and things that are happening within your committee They funnel those ideas up to me and we funnel them together up to the The national commander in the national adjutant So that lets you know how much leadership thinks about women veterans and in our needs So please keep that in mind that DAV is always always and always Paying attention to the needs of women veterans and all veterans like a clicker. All right So let's talk about some of the upcoming events So coming out in September if you all remember the DAV women veterans report, let me see your hands in the air Okay, so in 2014 DAV released its report long journey home Which showcased 27 issues that women veterans face across the federal landscape. So in September DAV will be releasing an updated report. So I want you to stay tuned I need you to stay in tune to DAV social media Facebook Twitter Snapchat what all mediums that are out there and available Please follow us to so that you can take part in all of the events that will be going on. We'll be having press releases Your stories many of your stories may be told and just various activities surrounding it So stay tuned in September 2018 All right, let's talk about some of the resources that are available to you the DAV home landing page This is where it all starts. Hopefully you can see this This is where you'll keep in touch with us and find out what's going on So from this page, Mr. Shane Learman gave you a presentation a wonderful presentation on DAV resources Well, this is where it starts This is the landing page. So we're going to go from here to the next page This is the DAV Legislation landing page. So once you click the advocate button at the top You will come to this page and you will come up to the commander's action network So for women veterans, what does this have to do with you? Well, we're gonna jump right into that So DAV also has a women veterans landing page. How many of you knew that? Oh Shame All right, so we have a women veterans landing page and on that page you will find a lot of information DAV helping women veterans When women come home toolkit current legislation and issue briefs The issue briefs the same issue briefs that you see in midwinter. They will be available here just as they are applicable to the women veterans So let's talk a little bit about the toolkit. How many department chairwomen or men are there in here for your department? Can you raise your hand? I Need to see all of you after this presentation We're trying to make a make some contact with you so that we can disseminate information out to you so that We can keep you in the know about things that are going on that you may not otherwise know If you're a chapter coordinator if you're working in that space as a chapter, can I see your hands? Same thing. I want to see you after this presentation so we can talk with you as well The toolkit so we're gonna talk a little bit about what the toolkit is for That toolkit is not for you to just copy our toolkit or the information that's in there That toolkit is for you to personalize and make your own So what you want to do is take that toolkit and find your local resources that are available to you such as Your women veteran program manager in your local VA hospital or your women veteran coordinator In your regional office, how many of you knew that there were women veteran coordinators in each of your VA regional offices? I like that. That's better And also the same thing about your hospital. How many of you knew that there was a woman veteran program manager? Even better so I forgot to tell you when we started this this is going to be an interactive discussion Which means that I have some goodies for you if you're paying attention All right, so the next thing we're going to jump into just remember make the toolkit your own find your local resources and Populate make your a little kid and populate it with the information that that is useful to you and your surrounding area All right, so how many of you were in in the BA Bpt seminar on Friday? Well good, then this is not a repeat So we talked a lot about what DAV commander's action network is How many of you are signed up for the DAV commander's action network? So at the end of this this presentation, I want to I want a hundred percent sign up So if you cannot be signed up while I'm talking to you because you will actually know how to do that in a few minutes I will stick around my committee is here to help you and we will sign you up for the DAV commander's action network It is very important. It is your hammer in the toolkit So if you've attended any mid winters and any of the last two mid winters, I talked to you about the three E's I'm gonna get my cape and my super e-shirt for y'all next time But the three E's are engaging Educating and expecting what you're gonna do the commander's action network the hammer is what is gonna help you engage your locally elected officials and you're gonna educate them on DAV's legislative priorities and then you're gonna expect action You're gonna expect them to do something with the legislation that they have introduced Remember introduction is just 99, but we want a hundred percent. So we need to walk all the way through So you want to see it all the way through to it's in action So we need you to take action by reaching out using the commander's action network to talk to your elected officials and Ask them to support the bills that DAV is asking and advocating for So right here you see an example of an alert So what you will get once you sign up for the commander's action network You'll get something that looks like this and it will have information on the particular bill and then it will offer you an opportunity to take action When you take action, you will populate this field. You will fill in your name and your demographic information So at the very bottom of that once you've populated all of the information There are three things that need to happen that are very important One is the remember me box You want to make sure that that is checked so that you don't have to populate everything over and over again The second thing is the email opt-in box. You want to make sure that you place a check in that box as well And then the final thing at the bottom in the blue is the click here so that you've completed your submission If any of you have been signed up for the commander's action network and are no longer receiving alerts, please go back in to read Populate this information that I just gave you now because we changed over to a new system So now we would need you to go back in there and just make sure that you're signed up for the commander's action network So I want to tell you it really matters what you do What you do makes a difference So if you look at this presentation here this slide 16,137 actions were taken. I mean Total activities so we sent out some information alerts and so forth and 16,000 actions were taken but guess what it resulted in over 80,000 reactions, so if you tweeted or you Send in your alert or whatever action you took it resulted in in a higher number of Impressions so first I want to say thank you for taking action as we have sent these alerts out And I want to encourage you to continue to do so So let's talk about how to get you signed up. So always take the calls. So signing up is very easy So signing up is easy. So when you're at the Legislation landing page, you're gonna look at that commander's action network box and you're gonna click that and If you have your phones and for those of you that have not signed up you can do this with me Once you're on the commander's action network, you're gonna go all the way down to the bottom And it says sign up for action alerts. You're gonna click that bot You're gonna fill in your your information and for those of you that are taking pictures The presentation that we did on Friday is already on the web and it has all of these steps in more detail on there Make sure you fill in all the information click the blue box again and Remember that you can do so on the phone So I have a question How many ways can you sign up for the commander's action network? How can you do it? sir You don't remember nothing for you Ma'am She named several things the phone Remember the phone also your desktop or your laptop and she even said go to the library and they can help you out, too You are a winner. All right, so you can also find members here while you at the convention There are a lot of people walking around and they're asking questions like what is DAV Do you know what DAV is? So I tell them It's a funny question, but I can tell you I've been asked what DAV is in the airport and everywhere else But I'm glad that they asked because it gives us an opportunity to let them know about DAV and what we do and spread our mission So when they ask you what DAV is you tell them all about our mission and get them signed up Anyone can join they do not have to be this disabled veterans. They don't have to be veterans. They can be your neighbors They can be interested college students If they care about veterans issues then you want to sign them up So take every opportunity to sign them up because it's very important that we protect our benefits And if you don't do it then you can't expect anybody else to do it All right, so I want to re-hit on the social media aspect You see DAV at DAV HQ follow that remember what's coming up in September The release of something right it's something coming up September 2018 the release of DAV's report remember that is a very Widely used report your leaders many on the hill use this report when they're talking about Women veterans issues and it would keep you in the know, okay? And your department will be issued some books so You can get those from your department leadership. It will also be posted online so you can print it out for your own use But make sure you don't forget about it also you can tweet at me DAV as love I want to see you Remember the hashtag while you're here hashtag DAV 97 let everybody know that you're here Hashtag DAV can And for those of you that were with me on Friday, you remember I every time I say DAV can I think yes I can all right. So next we have mr. John Klein dice and he's gonna talk to you about DAV Voluntary services, but before he does that let me introduce the rest of the panel mr. John Klein dice is here Mr. Dusty Baxley is on the end from Boulder Crest and Miss Stephanie Drizzle is here and she is a army veteran and she participated in the Boulder Crest warrior path 032 class Give a warm warm round of applause for mr. Klein dice Thank You. Sharonda. Thank you everybody It's very nice to be invited to this seminar specifically, I wanted to talk about our Mentoring retreat but before I get into that I'd also like to talk about volunteer for veterans org I saw a lot of hands go up for people involved in the hospitals in here or in their communities It's a great opportunity for you to build a profile and get involved with that That was my shameless plug for volunteer for veterans org Dusty Baxley and I met about five and a half years ago Dusty and Went out to Virginia to check out this brand-new state of the art facility called Boulder Crest retreat and they were working on a product or a Program called post traumatic growth and they're taking seriously injured veterans bringing them into this retreat and Emerging them in facing the demons or the things that are inside of them and coming out better people and They're already good people but coming out better having more tools and resources and knowing that there's nothing wrong with them That's something just they just needed to face what was in front of them Or it in their mirror and their past or something along that lines and what I discovered through the I think I've been to ten of them now Dusty I've attended multiple ones and I've taken past DAV leaders like Bobby Barrera and Maricelya Jim Cersely Dave Riley and Yvonne Riley Dennis and Donna Joyner and Dick Marbs have all attended these events with me and I got with Sharanda and I said hey, let's let's do a women veterans retreat that DAV is proud to to pay for And so Sharanda and I started working this took about a year to put it all together worked with Dusty and I think to date DAV has done 12 DAV and the Gary Sinise Foundation have done 12 of these events along with Boulder Crest So we take these seriously injured veterans that are going through the the rise program through the Sinise Foundation And we partner partner them up with mentors like Jim Cersely Dennis Joyner Bobby Barrera have them come and bond Talk about how life was back when Bobby Barrera and Dennis Joyner came back from Vietnam and how life is today and We said we said hey, let's expand us. Let's get women involved women veterans. They have the same needs We need to have them come through this so this past December We did our first retreat and Stephanie was one of the participants Sharanda was a participant as well and It's a remarkable partnership It's like no type of therapy that's being done at a VA facility It is very holistic a lot of us do not realize everything that we're doing to ourselves day in and day out And how good it is not for us the from the foods you eat to the activities you do to Your Decompression or your downtime where you unplug Everybody in here has got an iPad or an iPhone or Samsung or something. You're always looking at always playing a game Right be jazz be jazz little jeweled or whatever it is. You don't ever put it down You got a unplug get your mind to reset so they they do a lot of things there You know again from what you eat in the morning. Everything is Farm to table it is the community has embraced them You do exercises in the morning and everybody has a Disability of some sort. That's why you all belong to the disabled American veterans You have an injury But there are activities that you can do day in and day out to promote a healthy lifestyle and then meditation I know the first time I heard about meditation. I laughed in Dusty's face I said, I'm not doing that crap, but it works it absolutely works And it's something that Dusty teaches at this retreat and it's not a all-inclusive paid vacation. This is a tough six days You have got to be honest with yourself and if you're not going to be honest with self you're not going to take Anything from that retreat and it doesn't just stop there You just don't do six days and boom. You're magically cured. There's a 16-month Cycle where they're following you they're tracking on what you're doing and Everybody comes out of there a changed person It's kind of like when I go to the winter sports clinic or I go to the T term and the DAV co-host with VA I see people reluctant to do something on the first day, but come day three They're ready for the following year It's the same thing at the retreat and I'll let Stephanie talk about it and how she felt about it and Sharanda If they'd like to add comments about it But it is a different you are a different person when you leave there and they give you those resources and You're there with people who have the same same issues common bonds and I think Sharanda's got great relationship with everybody that she's been through I think you've all gone stand touch and are doing your thing But those are the exciting things that DAV DAV is doing for each and every one of you and We're glad to do that We are the tip of the spear when it comes to being a better service organization and we are taking care of everyone Dusty is a great friend of mine as is Ken Falk the founder who Bought this land donated it back and help establish This retreat and they've done everything well ahead of the curve with the support of DAV as well financial support of DAV to make this thing an all-inclusive Retreat to where you can go out unplug face your inner demons if you will and come out a better person and that just Brings us full circle as an organization and that we are doing different things not traditional stuff that is It's working so John while I have you here Can you tell them a little bit about voluntary for vets while you're up here? Okay. All right, so volunteer for veterans org is a new online resource that we have established We rolled that out at the midwinter conference in Washington DC this year and we continue to develop it and Added as a resource to compliment the local veterans assistance program a program that DAV started back in 2007 and we've always get asked everywhere. We go. We got to get the younger generation involved We got to get the younger generation involved. Well, they don't want to push paper They want to do everything from their smartphone going back to us on plug-in, right? But it's something that you can use again an online resource where you can build a profile as a veteran as a volunteer As a caregiver or on behalf of somebody you can be the conduit to make a Life-changing impact on somebody who has a need so anything that is involved in your community if your neighbor is a veteran a World War two veteran and he or she cannot mow their grass I can build a profile for them act as the conduit find talk to my community find some volunteers They're willing to come out and do that put that together through that online resource. We did a seminar this morning at 8 o'clock I'll make sure that our Presentation is put on the members only portal I ask each and every one of you in here to build a profile as a veteran or volunteer However, you want to use that resource share it through your social media outlets You once you build your profile you find a need you can share that It's a great resource and it's going to help complement and take DAV well into the future and make to help us state the premier organization Thank you give John a warm round of applause Next we have mr. Dusty Baxley coming up and let me just take care of this All right, give a warm round of applause for a dusty back sleeve. Please can do a little bit better than that I'm really thank you all the female veterans in here. Please stand up Please stand up exactly. I wonder sometimes If all of you not just the ladies here, but all of you Remember how remarkable that you are Sometimes I think you forget In today's society point four five of one percent of us now put on a uniform and stand in harm's way That's ninety nine point five five percent who have not a clue. Let that sink in for a minute All of you make up around seven and a bit percent of our overall population There are 20 something million of us Stop and remember Lest we forget You're amazing you stood up for this country a lot of us don't come from very privileged childhoods a Lot of us do what's necessary to get through this life and we find a home in the military. We find a brotherhood We find who we're supposed to be and it molds us and thank all of you for not letting it fully define you to go on and do something better It'd be greater than that. I so appreciate you So I'm this guy that is the most luckiest man. I think Probably that you're ever gonna mate. I served from 1972 to 94. I had my share of deployments came back from Iraq No wife. No kids Too many times down range with the 82nd That's pretty upset. I Turned my back on this country. I went to Australia for 15 years to get as far away as I possibly could I Came home in January 2009 pretty broken. It's very successful in business And was lost couldn't sleep couldn't get out of my head Had some anger issues. I think they told me very hyper vigilant I was struggling with some symptoms that I was unaware of Gave it all away had married the second time for all the wrong reasons as we do after the first one Thank you, honey. This third one. I'm getting right. God bless you She still puts up with me every day. I'm so amazed But when I came back I checked into VA and they told me that I was suffering with this disorder I Had no idea what was going on had been gone for 15 years. I Was like there's nothing wrong with me I'm drinking a bottle of night and I'm waking up most mornings with a pistol in my hand and the roof of my mouth torn up And ashamed of myself because I couldn't let go of this life There had to be something better Definitely not medication. I'm definitely not sitting around talking about it talking about it didn't do me good So I began this journey of self-healing this lady that Such a smart lady talked me into going to a Reunion in the 82nd and I found out that we're losing 20 to 22 a day. I couldn't hardly stand up There's two or three o'clock in the morning doing what we do, right? We're all sitting around There's two or three hundred of us doing 16 ounce curls talking trash We're looking on the phone is trying to find each other And the more that we talked it was a sense of hopelessness And he looked over I mean he said Ranger you look a million bucks. What are you doing? I'm thinking oh my god I thought I was this little special snowflake that had his own little issues, right? We're all the same. We all stand shoulder to shoulder And so on this journey I Came across Boulder Crest retreat Master Chief E9 EOD bomb tech Serve 21 and a half years retires forms a company called AT solutions anti-terrorist solutions Becomes very successful because all of us know we went from mounted patrols of dismounted patrols and we started stepping on things The company taught over 55,000 men and women to engage IEDs very successful Retired went back to school there in Georgetown originally a Washington boys dad was a Washington cop and a veteran And he had learned about sitting at bed sides His mom had died when he was seven years old. She was only 29 of cancer He'd set at her bedside for two years watching her die So he was pretty good at sitting at bed sides He went through a war of a pirate of our war around 19. I guess 2010 2011 where EOD community of bomb techs over a period of 12 months 71 of them became amputees The worst first quadruple That little community now is facing they lost 134 down range are now about 135 suicides He wanted to help So he was going to bed sides there for 12 months about every four to five days There was one of his community arriving to the hospital as an amputee It's breaking his heart So he donated 37 and a half acres of his own land and Decided to set up a retreat initially bed and breakfast For all of you to come and join us. It's a nation's first privately funded rural veteran military wellness center located in the first Ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 50 miles west of DC And he was doing this for the severely wounded and he was attending a fundraising event He found this one young lady sitting in a corner crying Said what's wrong? She said I wish my husband would have lost a limb. That's the most horrible thing you could hear Said what's wrong? My husband's suffering with PTSD and he's tried to take his life twice This guy I work for said we got to do better Started traveling the country trying to find answers of all the experts for PTSD He found a resounding answer We don't know what we're doing. We don't have an answer We're doing what's mandated by Congress We're doing modalities that are unsuccessful We're looking at 700,000 post 9-11 veterans that are in need of help If you multiply that times the average size of a family we got two and a half million people in need Just in post 9-11 veterans We got a help So we started working on a program. We had Therapists and everybody with a great idea and The more the combat veterans that were there invested in this program learned It wasn't about the modalities. It wasn't about a clinical setting. It wasn't about talking about it It was about doing something about it So a little bit surely be developed a program as John said seven days We're catching release and we said got to do better. Let's make it an 18 month program. Let's track this Let's do something with it So after 18 months of study come to find out we're three times more effective than any modality in the world for PTSD Go figure a Program developed by combat veterans taught by combat veterans for us. It takes us to help us So along the way Males we said my god, we got to look after the ladies here. Let's figure this out So we're being inviting ladies to come to us and by the way, it's completely free You can come and stay with us two to seven nights anytime you want the most beautiful 37 and a half acres. You've ever seen It's beautiful. It still looks like the first day. We built it in 2013 And the more that we got into this program. We realized that we had found something that was unique We were getting these amazing results So we invited dr. Rich Tedeschi to come along with many other psychologists to evaluate the program At the end of two days of a seven-day program The guy went back and wrote a journal entry and said we accomplished more in two days than the mental health community can in 12 to 14 months Whoops, we must be getting it right military training Guys remember PT ladies We start every morning zero six thirty with PT we get on with it It finishes every night eight thirty nine o'clock around a fire good old ranger TV And we're not singing kumbaya and roasting schmores Guarantee you that The point of this is it I got this opportunity to run across Gary Sneese Foundation in DAV You people are a blessing. Oh god bless you. God bless you your support to what we do is Unbelievable it's eleven a half million dollar facility completely paid for And we're reaching out and we're raising around six million dollars a year to be able to look after our fellow combat veterans Now we have a facility on the west coast just south of Tucson. We've got a ten million dollar gift We now have two facilities to do this And it's based around post dramatic growth This is specifically a ladies forum So I want to make sure that number one I said to Shiranda last night and to Stephanie. This is gonna be hard for me And yet I know that it's not I've had an opportunity to share and walk the same sand with you and to watch you walk through what you've done And the ladies said something to me that I don't think many men here in this room or maybe some of you do You know, we like to reflect back on the brotherhood. I knew that when I was in uniform I met a lot of fantastic men, but I think at the time it really didn't register within me As years go by I reflect on the finest human beings. I ever stood shoulder to shoulder with And you know what ladies that may not have been necessary in your case Your brotherhood actually might have been an enemy Actually might have been a threat Then that when you came home Talking about a brotherhood Was a comfort zone you live in a danger zone So I've been very well educated over these years on what you struggle with And what we've learned is life is truly a struggle Like I don't see any kids out here. I'm an old 63 grizzled guy here Life as a series of ups and downs are all old enough to know that is that not true Life is a struggle You know when you achieve it really good you struggle well Life as a series of ups and downs, but what happens to us when we're suffering with these symptoms Is it's not just a series of ups and downs the ups with the adrenaline and we all know what are way too high And we hurt the ones that we love and then we judge ourselves And we isolate and we self-medicate So I'm gonna describe what we call a negative spiral that we've come across and I know that I did it myself Anybody here ever find yourself talking to someone that you love deeply And all of a sudden it went from zero to 60 an absolute millisecond And the person that you love is looking at you like you got three heads and what the hell's wrong with you And for a second you stop and realize part of my French here. I'm an asshole Hmm that actually makes me feel good because I like the adrenaline because it's how I've been trained Now I'm ashamed of myself So I go down to the man cave and I self-medicate And then I isolate and I find myself in this circle Not being able to sleep not being able to face the ones I love Because I've been trained to fight flight or freeze so I don't freeze and I don't run how damn sure fight you But I didn't realize that how I was trained sharply tuned threat perception anybody ever trained for that Does that sound right? After action reviews and tolerance of mistakes Emotional control and combat Adrenaline the ability to engage the brotherhood I can go right down and show you where all of those are our symptoms that they say we had with PTSD Can you imagine so what we share with the people that come to be with us is it's not what's wrong It's actually what's happened and for you ladies that are out here God bless your souls. I'm so glad you're with us because what you endured I could never endure You are amazing one and all from what I've learned about you So what we offer a bolder crest retreat is a different shift in the paradigm In veterans administration, we want to treat the symptoms. We want to talk about these symptoms We want to medicate you for those symptoms We want to engage you in modalities that at the end of where there's only a 2.2 percent success rate And they only measure the length of the modality not the fact that you go right back to PTSD at the end of the modality So we've said hey, you can't address the symptoms. You know why there's nothing wrong with us It's actually what happened You can't change what happened But by God we can change what happens and we can change what happens and go forward And so we truly believe is it what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and Then that what we began to teach is post traumatic growth So if around 30 to 31% or more of our post 9-11 vets are suffering with PTSD in our Vietnam vets for around 30.6 Let me share something with you very quickly Hanoi Hilton 1973 592 veterans returned They'd been incarcerated if you will held captive and he were from nine months to ten years a Lot of those guys rather Hanoi Hilton whole low of the fiery furnace Out of those 591, what do you think the PTSD rate rate would have been if we're at 30 31 percent? Would you think the men that were held in captivity? You'd think a hundred wouldn't you you think every one of them would come back their families were warned that they would come back vegetables They would come back and have to be incarcerated put away four percent Returned with PTSD and those were the newest guys in captivity not the oldest ones My god, what do you mean? Can anybody imagine anything more horrible than being tortured and being held in captivity in eight by eight seven darkness? Yet these men came home and out of 591 17 of them became general officers seven of them became admirals many of them come to lead our country What happened? leadership Standing shoulder to shoulder saying no matter what we will come home better Call the Stockdale effect the commander At the end of the day they said it will not kill us. It won't make us stronger We will come home better for this experience And I believe that each of you are stronger for what happened to you and has changed your lives And you will forever change your lives It's kind of funny that in our society now if we have discomfort We go to a doctor the doctor gives us a Percocet or a Valium or Xanax and we feel better and we go home It didn't change the problem It didn't change how we needed to address it At the end of the day we have to face our demons and we have to grow from them And what we've learned is we need each other and if we're going to struggle and struggle well We need to be together So Females ladies out here. I admire you the program the DAV has supported for us and thank you John And thank you DAV my god It's been amazing you guys put in a wheelchair lift for us You guys actually put in bed days and every single one of our rams you imagine I had no idea those things were so important The front switch you got to stay away from The things that have been done in the heart that's been given to us has been absolutely amazing and having the Mentors come in Jim Cersely to have him so powerful set there and say I remember laying on a couch And I yelled at my mom to bring me a glass of water and she said get off your ass and get it yourself And he said oh And he literally as a triple amputee had to drag himself into the kitchen pull out drawers and climb up on a shelf to get a Glass and he realized right away need to get off his butt and do something I think Jim owns 33 houses and owns a roofing contract company You imagine having a triple amputee show up to estimate your roof. I Want to see that boy get up there And he can and he did And so it's amazing to see everything that's been given to our new amputees and our new disabled because of you Because of your voice because how hard you've worked for us to be recognized And to be able to mentor these young men and women to come through this So for us we think that we're on to something that's very special I wake up every single morning and look my old self in the mirror and say another 20 are gone. I Can't I can't fathom this anymore? I've lost too many friends too many loved ones and so we want to stem the tide of this By shifting the paradigm and actually on a micro level teaching as many as we can and if there's two and a half million I'm gonna die a long time before I can reach them all But on a macro level and this is where you come in we need help legislatively To give VA the power to have a different approach and have a wellness-based approach Provide an education system so that we understand physiologically psychologically emotionally what's going on inside of us and there's nothing wrong And stop medicating us Every one of you carry a very heavy rucksack as you've gathered through your life All of you deserve time to stop take the rucksack off and figure out what you need to carry and what no longer serves you And you write a new story going forward So we've entered a different phase Post-traumatic growth and honestly believe it does the work every one of us know that when we do our work we live better How many of you hear sleep unself-medicated eight hours a night? Damn all those hands went up fast And we all know what sleep deprivation looks like It's hard to plan it's hard to have goals It's hard to have a future because you can't even hardly stay in the moment with sleep deprivation And when you're medicated, it's hard to start the next day So on average of 78 medications coming out of VA for my PTSD It's really hard to connect with the world much less have a bowel movement You guys know what I'm talking about don't don't laugh is the truth I'd much rather try to figure this out and grow from this Every time we drop a knee we step back up and we're stronger, but I'm gonna say to you now you need each other I Love the I love the passion of Charanda and John Klein these They inspire me to want to do better You should inspire each other to want to do better What I learned from being away from this country for 15 years, and I was the only American they called me the mad American It's called quite proud of that I killed their industry sports nutrition Smashed it became the number one sports nutrition in the country took me six months Something about us old NCOs. We have a PhD and GSD. We get shit done I said got an operations order card and said let's go We can do this but what I found when I was struggling and when I couldn't sleep And when I was questioning my anger issues when I was questioning my inability to connect with people What was wrong I didn't have you to call I Couldn't pick up the phone and and call a fellow combat buddy and say hey, dude I'm drinking about a half a bottle a night, and I can't sleep My wife can't stand me anymore. All I am is just this ball of anger and people leave. What do I do I? Needed you So I encourage you to need each other So as we go forward carrying this torch We have to be able to shift the paradigm Within the system that we operate in to shift from treating these symptoms based and leaving us medicated with a Diminished a version of ourselves for the rest of our lives and no longer to ever be that person So if I have a trauma and I drop below my baseline and your answer is to medicate me and leave me here I never actually reached my baseline What we say is you're stronger than that And you can actually go above that baseline and be greater than you ever were and be a person that you never ever thought you Would be because of the positivity So what I ask you is stay in shoulder to shoulder You know I would like to thank you from Boulder Crest retreat as we seek this mission to slow this suicide rate to join us This has to be done from a wellness-based approach. We will never be able to change what happened to us We can't truly change what happens as we go forward. Our life has lived a moment to moment in appreciation and gratitude So from here from this position number one God bless you and thank you for having me here and let me stand before you Thank you and number two. Let's keep this mission going Let's stay shoulder to shoulder and help one another Our country is in need of leadership at this point. I think we know that We need you in our communities leading that's what we need you've been trying to follow you've been trying to lead your heroes That's a hard word We define hero as an ordinary person who has survived an extraordinary experience and returns home to share that wisdom with their community I challenge you Lead you're the largest VCO VSO in the world Admire your power continue to flex it and thank you for your time so the next portion of This presentation is going to be some question and answer Opportunities to talk with you about our experience as we went through Boulder Crest so members of the interim women veterans committee are coming around to collect your cards if you have written questions Down, please see them in the red shirts They will be picking them up and we also have some questions here that will begin with first I'll be proposing a question to Dusty Having had both male and female Path classes is there a difference in the way that the groups respond to the training your women aren't you? Yeah, there's a definite difference The ladies seem to bond much faster and come together much quicker and recognize their own needs together And they dig in a lot better and they stay closer connected as they go through the 18 month program It's interesting that when you fill out a 45-minute application and we do several different Interviews tour you come because you need to be ready for this type of program You need to have gone through the system and found out that VA is not maybe what you need You've tried other things your tire of self medication and it's time for something different And so it's interesting when the ladies come because your battlefield is completely different from the battlefield that we actually faced And Stephanie, how did you feel before the training pretty isolated? Have had this experience, but in the moment in the time. It was about 13 years that I'd been out of the army already and I thought that I was the only one who felt this way and I think as women Veterans to a lot more of us end up being caregivers a lot more of us are married to veterans who may also have problems So I felt very alone. I didn't want to ask for help. I didn't want to accept help But Do you want me to keep going? Okay? It was actually Shironda that I reached out to through mutual acquaintance about this program because nothing else had been working Going to an hourly counseling session every couple of weeks didn't help I was and full disclosures still am on several medications for my post traumatic stress and anxiety But I was augmenting that with my own self medication with alcohol and other Substances just so that I couldn't feel the things that I was feeling And I knew that I had reached a point that I had to change I had to change because I wasn't engaging with my kids every year they get older I didn't want them to grow up with the mother who is a zombie because I was I was trying to Cage my anger because as a caregiver of two children. That's what you have to do to survive So when I reached out to Shironda, I think that she really kind of Got the sense that I needed that help and that it was really hard for me to ask and she just took it from there And there was no way that I was gonna be able to afford to fly from Texas to DC for this program I had no idea what it was. I just knew that everything else had Come up short and so she you know made the arrangements and I got to the To DC and that was how I was feeling before I started path And how about yourself Shironda? How were you feeling before the training? So prior to Boulder Crest You have a sense of existing so you get really good at What you think is living but you're really existing you're not thriving So I really had no idea My state of living Until I attended their treat the retreat You know being having been assigned I was thinking okay, you know, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna participate from a distance But John said no you're gonna go and participate So I was very thankful for that opportunity but The first day there it really began to peel back those layers and I Found out that I had just been Existing in front of many of you many of you have seen me for ten years now in this organization And I got pretty good at existing But now I'm on my way to living Thanks to the tools that Boulder Crest was able to provide me with and I'd like to ask I'm gonna go to Stephanie first actually Before you headed out to the retreat Stephanie What kind of reservations were you having about going and did you still have those same reservations once you left Boulder Crest? so initially my reservations were what is this hokey shit and Is it gonna be like is this a cult is it gonna be just more of the You know the self-help terminology that we hear And but don't absorb and am I just gonna be you know listening to the same stuff that I've been reading in the pamphlets and I Didn't obviously I didn't have those feelings when I left I've been converted. I'm in the cult now That's a joke obviously but I Really feel like all Like it sounds hyperbolic, but it changed my life it changed my ability to see that I that I have potential that I can do things instead of you know Just waking up every day after taking sleep medications the night before and and medicating every day through I I Still struggle, but I am struggling better I have tools that I got from Boulder Crest that helped me identify my coping mechanisms and why I'm doing them as opposed to trying to smother the symptoms that I'm having so Thank you And Shironda, what about yourself? I know we discussed this a little with the committee before But why don't you share with the group what kind of reservations you were having before attending and were those still with you when you returned? So prior to attending I had never been in a group setting so I was scared to death of being in a group setting and exposing myself in front of others and Because of the line of work I've done The group settings would have been with my peers with with other veterans that I may have worked on their claims in that type of setting so I had no Intention of ever being in a group setting But I can tell you Once we were there and once we were talking It became apparent that we all were Experiencing some of the same things and we all had something in common I'm not a combat veteran and that's something that I advocate for for those women that are not combat veterans Or those veterans that are not there are experiences that we all have That are based on our military service. So we must remember to not just exclude The opportunities for help to just those combat we want to we want to help everyone so so after After getting there, I now have a different perspective on group training. It was very controlled Even the guides the path guides that were with us. They were not it was not like they were not part of the They were it was not like they were standing outside They were actually part of the group. So it made it very easy for us to open up and really share moments We've all cried together during the the path training And I'm glad you mentioned the the group there Sharanda, but dusty I did have a question for you What does it look like working with these ladies and you know, how did you see them? it's interesting for all of us because As we go through this journey of life and we fill up this rucksack and have all these problems Suppose problems because at some point someone tells us there's something wrong with us and at some point we believe there's something wrong with us and We go down that road and When these ladies came to us this you got to remember guys that we're only doing this like six at a time And the number of guides are six We want this to be one-on-one. We want this to be what you deserve. I don't want it to be in Such a group of 20 25 people that you don't have your own voice that you don't get heard It's a small fire team so that you can lean into one another and go forward and what I found what the ladies was It's very interesting because I'm sure that no one here has any idea what MST is It's interesting to see the strength and these ladies and to see them lean into one another and Address that and embrace one another And then grow from it because what happens to us in life is we fill up with so much anxiety so much stress and things that happen to us That we have a tendency to react to everything in life. You ever notice that? You react if you're confronted with an action you react you ever find yourself listening to someone and you before they've even finished talking You've already formed a response And actually you're helping them finish their own sentences. We don't even we don't even listen well So being able to respond to life is so very important so much around it is definitely talk about the tools just taking a breath and Stopping and creating some space so that you can actually respond to somebody because we get trained very well to respond from here To here you are masters at solving things you react instantaneously You don't respond so well So if we can create that space where we can stop and turn this heart back on again We can actually respond to life Because so many of us is exactly like the ladies It came to us and their hearts were turned off It's interesting that they you hear it out of their mouths say I love my husband, but I don't feel anything And so I don't know why I feel this way. I don't know why I can't feel I don't know why I can't connect I don't know why I'm angry and these are things that we ask our mental health professionals and they can't give us an answer We have an answer the answer is you so with the ladies unique We get to learn every time they come through because they teach us something not only about ourselves But about our old journey that we have together So the journey to respond to life is the key Wow, thanks Dusty Actually, I'm gonna go to Stephanie next and sure on time. I'm glad you mentioned the group setting because that's a big reservation for many Regarding being in that group setting Stephanie. Did you feel like there was any one-uping? Like battle stories? Yeah, like were you feeling challenged or feeling like you know, like there was people who were speaking and trying to one-up How how were you perceiving others reactions or the way they were telling their stories? Were you feeling challenged in that way? I didn't feel that way. I was actually I shared similar reservations with Sharonda as someone who's introverted. I don't talk to people. I don't like people So I I was like kind of standoffish at first and use I use humor as a as a defense mechanism So I I actually Didn't feel that at all. I felt like the way that the program is designed It's a safe space from the moment you start everybody like they lay ground rules about how we're gonna share and how we're you know Respecting other people's space and respecting other people's stories and I didn't I didn't feel that at any time It was a competition. It actually started to feel for the first time in a long time that we were team members that we were working together and that Every time somebody shared something difficult. I heard part of my story in that and so it started to become more and more apparent every single day that that over and over again, you're not alone and one of the things that I heard during the program that really spoke to me because of my tendency to self-medicate was that the the opposite of addiction is connection and that That connection with that group and with the guides in the path program Was starting to heal me in a way that I didn't I didn't ever Even understand was possible I didn't think that it was possible to heal that or that there was even the potential or the Capacity to connect with people in the way that I did during Boulder Crescent after because we're still Communicating I have friends for life now that you know when you get out of the military or you get out of college And you think like how the hell am I gonna make friends? We'll just like go to this retreat and share all of your past traumas and then you'll have friends Thanks, Stephanie Sharanda, what about for you? Were you feeling that way? Were you feeling like you were being one-upped if you will? No, I wasn't that as Stephanie mentioned the program was very structured, so There was no time for that. We were emotionally involved from day one And something that was taught to us as well. It was say what you mean mean what you say, but don't say it mean So that helped facilitate the flow of our discussions and I mean We didn't I mean there are some of us that knew each other but we didn't know each other on the level that we got to know each other there and It was very intimate very There are things that those ladies know about me that my mother doesn't know And it's gonna stay that way But it was very the the program I can't say enough about it I've spoken to a number of people about the structure of the program Everything was well thought out from day one to the day that we departed and how we departed and how we're connected now It's not perfect. You know, we have some Cuffluffles in the groups, but we still love each other for the most part and Like Stephanie said, that's my sister for life She's not going anywhere And next actually Stephanie. I'm gonna ask you. What do you feel like was your biggest gain from being in a group setting that way? I feel like Maybe the other people don't agree with me, but personally I felt like I was kind of one of the last ones to let my guard down Like I wasn't crying I was like I'm not gonna cry But then every time Dusty talks I cry so it's I think the biggest gain was just just cracking that shell open and it was it was it was hard it was a tough it was a tough shell and You know, I miss it sometimes But I'm a better person so the group the group setting was really You know, it doesn't force you to open up But it's just kind of persistently like every single day every single minute every single exercise. We're doing we're like, all right, Stephanie open up let Let yourself feel this shit So, yeah I'm not gonna apologize for my language And I guess it sounds like you you guys both gained a sister for life from what you both said So actually what I wanted to ask you next I'll stay with you for a second Stephanie I know that we talked about a lot of different healthy habits that you are learning while you're out at the retreat and Have you been able to continue those healthy habits? So for example, some of the things that we're taught as Dusty mentioned were breathing exercises And they're very specific and the first time that I did it. I was actually I think I was in a room with John Who's another Path guide and I was doing these breathing exercises And I got so much oxygen in my system that I actually felt the same way I feel when I smoke pot like I felt high I felt like whoa like you can breathe in the airport and not get in trouble and feel this good So that's something that I do I Do it all the time now And meditation I think was actually one of the most profound gifts that I got Transcendental meditation meditation is a mouthful TM And I learned from Diana three of us learned from Diana and three of us learned from Dusty and I you know My feelings about hokey shit. I was like Okay But it's like it's I don't know if you guys have ever heard of TM if you haven't you should definitely read up on it It's one of the least hokey meditations that exists It doesn't it doesn't force you to get rid of your thoughts it you just are and so It was one of the ways that I became more in tune with myself you get to know yourself You're like constantly we have this narrative right about what we're doing how stupid it is or super critical all of this And we never actually stopped to just be and so that was another one of the The tools that I learned and I haven't been really good about it I'm wearing this today because it was a gift from Dusty as a reminder to do meditation So I have it I have it in my back pocket though and the breathing I do all the time I take it better care of my body as far as how I eat because I understand after eating homemade meals from I Forgot her name You did too Renee Blanking Renee best cook ever like made everything specific to our dairy dietary needs and I learned that when I don't eat dairy I feel really good So I was like I think I'm lactose intolerant She made everything every meal for seven days without dairy and so that was another thing I was like, oh, okay if I take care of myself in the way that I eat I can feel better and I don't have to focus as much energy on that And I think maybe you could talk about some of the other ones if I didn't cover them all So I was kind of hoping that we went to another questions And I didn't have to answer that in front of Dusty because he gave me my TM instruction so so I have I have to say life happened and I wasn't able to keep up with the routine as I'm supposed to It was really really really strong Out the gate and I was doing everything right and I got hit with a couple of things and I was like, all right I Got it Everything's good, you know for seven and eight using my breathing and and all of these things and then I got hit with another punch I was like, okay. Wait a minute. I'm dizzy. Okay. Well, I can't I got something to do I can't meditate today. So I'll do it two times when I get home and After a while, you know, you develop you slip back into your habits But something that Dusty has always said to us and he said it to me the other night You have to take care of you. You have to make time for yourself. So remember that So it's very important and that's that's something that my mother is always telling me You know, we make so much time to do all of these other things for everybody else But the things that that really will make us healthy and keep us healthy We put on the back burner when it should be the other way around So that's my goal and that's something that we were taught is to start Taking care of self and when you start slipping out to lean on each other to try to find Your ground gang your footing again Thank you. I'm gonna go back to you Dusty We have some questions coming in from the audience and the first one I have here is how can we get more information? And can women without combat PTSD go? Yes Boulder Crest retreat org We're all over YouTube. We've been in several documentaries But Boulder like a big rock crest like the toothpaste retreat. Let me say something about this It's called Boulder Crest Retreat. I want to explain something that these ladies went through It's 48 modules. It's 74 contact hours Over seven days And that's arriving in the evening of one. So five full days on the ground these ladies work It's bright and early and they are challenged every single minute. They don't have access to their phones They don't have access to a schedule. They actually come not even knowing what's going to occur So it forces you to be in the moment Anybody ever do that to you when you're forced to be in the moment the shit sucks, doesn't it? Huh, because you can't get out of your head. You actually have to be present Whoa, and it's tough to be present So it's interesting the way that this the way that this occurs. So I'm going to definitely say I have another question from the audience here too for you dusty Someone noted here that there are other issues than PTSD that are affecting some of us So what about people struggling from things like chronic pain or musculoskeletal pain or fibromyalgia? You're above my level of care. Thank you I'm not a we're not a clinical answer We don't believe that for PTSD there is a cure Okay, so let's be clear on this. Okay, so two major missions. One is rest and reconnection You deserve to have a five star retreat for free. You've earned it You should come out there and do as much as you want or as little as you want just be So that's for you. You should have that five star And we got two facilities for you that will blow you away come out and be with us Please And then the the other part of this is it just it's it's the very difficulty of the program itself So you've got to be able to stay in it to win it Okay Thank you My next question is actually going to be for you. Sharon. This is coming from the audience again They're asking for an explanation on how they can find women veterans A lot of the males in their area wear the hats and the ladies do not she's a very strong supporter and she would really like to help some other veterans But how could she help find other women veterans to help? Funny you ask so The first thing and the most probably the easiest is to ask ask the question It's one of the things that I talk about during veterans day Is to ask the question instead of assuming that she's not a veteran So that would be the first step Um When you're in the va hospital ask the question I mean you got a high percentage a high shot a good shot there So there are a lot of women veterans that are walking through just waiting to be engaged Um, so if you engage them most likely, um, they'll be welcoming and receptive and then once you get them welcome them Welcome them put them to work. We like to work, you know, um in the chapters Teach them what it's about to be a part of dav Let them feel the your passion And let them be active within the chapter. Um when they come and visit but ask the question Thanks, shironda. I'm gonna jump back to you dusty for a minute. Um, we have a question from the audience here They're wondering if there's an age limit on the sessions and they're wondering Do camps have similar aged women or is it a mixture of ages and generations? For each particular camp session It's a mix. It's everybody. So we're as you can imagine We don't advertise this program word of mouth alone is overwhelming us You know, we've got two facilities and we're now expanding this and so we've taken into a curriculum So we have a 320 page student guide that becomes a workbook for 18 months We had a course syllabus office. We have a instructor's guide. We're military. We teach to a standard. Do we not? It's how we do business Okay, so exactly. So we follow the guidelines on this So with this thing, it's it's it's it's very meticulous in how we have to be able to do this and be able to follow it up No age limit whatsoever. I've got a program coming up. It's pre 9 11 I got one guy coming through he's 82 years old And he said i'm really worried because somebody else might deserve the seat better than me And I said, I'll carry you on my back. Come on. Let's do this My next question is going to be for you. Sharanda We have folks from the audience who are wondering What would you advise or what advice would you give to another woman veteran or a fellow woman veteran regarding boulder crest retreat? Hmm, there's so much to say so Um regarding boulder crest and pretty much anything that you're going through. First, you're not alone Um, so many of us think that we're by ourselves and we think that To be strong to be silent And it's it's just not that way Um Speak up stand up Ask for help Don't try to do it by yourself and don't assume that you're the only one because I can tell you after going through that retreat I learned so much and that we just have so many things in common And I can tell you in having conversations with some of you out there No matter what age group Or gender for that matter. There are so many things that we have in common So the first my best advice for you is to Stand up ask for help And be open be receptive Don't hang on to those old habits and let them keep you bound to your old Let go And Stephanie what about you if you had a fellow woman veteran who is asking for advice Which type of advice would you give her? I mean, I would definitely recommend Reaching out to boulder crest. They don't do cold calls. So they're not going to come find you. You have to ask for help and I think That is Probably the biggest thing that I would say as well is ask for help get over your pride And ask and accept it and don't be embarrassed when when people offer help accept it and know that you're worthy Of that help and that you deserve it I'd like to add something to that When you call and ask for the help And they say they got a spot for you commit to that spot Um, I get a phone call from dusty when we're putting these things together throughout the year We're working on one for next month and people are pulling out Because they say well, I can't get out of work Or I gotta clap my new college class starts up here Most schools most employers if you're honest with them and talk about it. They'll support you through that So When you get that chance and man, I watch america's got talent man. I'm looking for that golden ticket You know what I'm saying? I got a voice like furgy, but uh Take that ticket go Don't say I'll go and then call them a week later say oops. I can't do it because Something happened make the commitment So that pretty much wraps up our q and a oh dusty hassan Please write this down ken faulk and josh goldberg our strategy director They just went through our entire program and they wrote a book Because what we understand is on a micro level. We're not going to ever be able to reach everyone On a macro level. We've got to find a way to be able to get this word out There's a book on the market right now called struggle well. It's all it's worth all about nine dollars. It's the entire Concept and work of the program put into book. We want to share this. We've actually offered this all over the country for free There's a Foundation down in jacksonville florida gratitude america that's standing up. We're training them for free We're gonna give them the curriculum for free We have to help each other and there can't be a price tag on it. It's our lives that are at stake So we've got to stand up and help each other and for me as a as a combat veteran I want to say one last thing ladies on behalf of all the men that has stood beside me. I'm sorry I'm sorry for the way that you were treated What i've learned We need you I've learned so much like the smartest person in my life as a lady. I'm married to And that's a damn fact And I have never been more amazed when she speaks. I actually stopped and listened took a long time to get that damn mature She actually tells me i'm now learning what I teach I shut my mouth and I listen So we need you we are all one. We need to stay in shoulder to shoulder to lead ourselves back home again The other um location I heard you was arizona Okay, so if you are a chapter I mean a department chair women veterans chair, please stand stand fast And um, also if you are a chapter women veterans coordinator, please stand fast because we want To make the connection there was a question came in as to how we can get more information out Part of that is trying to find out who you are in your departments So that we can reach out to you and we have some forms to take down your information Please give everyone on the panel a warm warm round of applause