Marines find the strength it takes to overcome

Interviewee1:

My friend was actually joining the Marine Corps and his car didn't start that day so I took him down there. And I went, I met the recruiter, and from there he got his hooks in me and that was pretty much it.

Being the best of the military seemed like an awesome challenge for me. So that was one of the big things that got me to go.

Interviewee2:

My dad had been a Marine, was a retired Marine. And my twin brother was a Marine, a couple of brothers-in-law were Marines. So, there was no other service I could go into.

Interviewee3:

They were great examples and great leaders and from my earliest days, I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Interviewee4:

Especially in the Marine Corps, you're taught to be have discipline. Things are rigid. Things are in order. So, you see yourself just overall changed. You're not going to be the same person you are with your fellow sergeants with your wife.

Interviewee5:

Over the years, I've probably felt guilty about surviving more than anything else as far as being there. Constantly I heard bombs going off and rifle fire, especially at night. Stood the guard duty every other night.

Interviewee6:

I was just rage. And for the first 10 years after I got out of the Marine Corps, no one would have known that I was in the service. I never talked about it. I never showed anything about it.

Interviewee7:

I always just wanted to hang out in my room by myself. When I got a roommate, it annoyed me because I couldn't just be there by myself. I still tried to be away from everyone else.

Interviewee3:

I had to work with civilians for the first time, and that was challenging. And just little things would set me off that people in my office would do. And I would get so frustrated.

Interviewee8:

Like so many others, I'm sure, because we don't like to consider ourselves alone, I sought ways to obliterate or mask this angst, the sweats, the screaming. To the point that my wife had to sleep in another room. I tried to mask it with drink. And in retrospect, I'll say that I was a functioning alcoholic.

Interviewee9:

There were a couple of real influential staff NCOs that had been through similar experiences and were able to kind of relate their own personal story of how they were able to cope to me, and give me really sound advice about things that I was having trouble with as well as just being somebody that I could relate with.

Interviewee1:

I went and talked to quite a few people from the VA. There were a couple of people from the VA that would ask me, “how do you feel about this?” “How do you feel about when one of your friends passed away?” And when you get into the therapy room, there's are other Veterans in there from various branches and they all got different injuries. And there's all such positive people.

Interviewee8:

The counseling gave me a better strength of character for myself. It made me feel better about myself. And in many respects, it engaged me to reach out to others through the resources that I have within me.

Interviewee7:

I got more joy out of going to my parents' house, hanging out with my family.

Interviewee10:

They should go into treatment, take whatever is given, work with whatever they have. It's not going to go away. It can only get better.

Interviewee2:

I'm still Semper Fi. I'm still Semper Fi, all the way.