Photo By Staff Sgt. Lucas Vega | Nearly 900 Marines from assigned to Marine Forces Reserve attended a Heroes and...... read more read more
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The Marine Corps has identified a problem within its own ranks.
Historically, Marines have brushed aside personal problems in favor of pursuing career goals and mission accomplishment. The Corps is trying to change that attitude.
Nearly 900 Marines with Marine Forces Reserve who returned from a combat deployment within the past 24 months, came together to discuss and learn about the Heroes and Healthy Families Program Feb. 8.
The program equips Marines with resources to effectively address growing concerns at the unit level, such as combat stress, hooked on adrenaline, domestic violence, substance abuse, suicide and maintaining healthy relationships.
Leading the discussion on these uneasy subjects was a host of speakers who contributed with words of wisdom.
Army Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commander of Division West, 1st Army, and wife, Carol, both spoke from a personal level about dealing with suicide and combat loss. They shared how they had lost both sons: Kevin to suicide and Jeffrey to an Improvised Explosive Device.
Kevin was a cadet at the University of Kentucky battling depression when he stopped taking his medication. When Kevin died, Mark and Carol were stationed in Korea and blamed themselves for not recognizing that Kevin’s depression was a true medical illness.
The couple also admitted ignorance in thinking all it took to fight depression was prayer, a proper diet and exercise, which in turn kept them from getting Kevin the best medical care he needed.
Mark shared another family tragedy.
Mark was shaving one morning when Carol came into the bathroom to say she had read that two soldiers had been killed in Khalidiyah, Iraq. She asked him if they would know by now if one of the victims was Jeffrey. Mark replied with a simple no, not even considering it could be his son.
“Never in a million years do you ever believe it could be your son,” he said.
That day they were informed of the loss of their second son.
After experiencing these misfortunes, the couple expresses their deepest gratitude to programs such as Heroes and Healthy Families for attempting to mainstream issues that have not always been taken seriously in the armed forces.
“This conference is about saving lives,” said Pamela L. Iles, a retired judge from Orange County, Calif., and founder of the Family Violence Project, who organized, presented and spoke at the conference.
Another speaker, retired Lt. Col. Jack “Black Jack” Matthews, spoke of his own drinking problem and how it came between himself, his family and his professional career.
He recalled his first drinking experience, when a shot of whiskey gave him the courage to ask a girl to dance. He was turned down.
He described that somehow he felt that the alcohol had eased the ache of disappointment.
Later, he talked about the first time he had been called an alcoholic. He asked his wife if he had a drinking problem.
“Yes, I think you’re an alcoholic,” she replied.
He said that day he would never have another drink and flushed every drop he had in his house. This was the first of at least a dozen times he flushed his supply.
Matthews told the crowd of how it took blackout nights in which he had completely made a fool of himself in uniform before he sought professional counseling.
He finally saw a military psychiatrist who made him report to the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., for treatment.
After completing the hospital’s rehabilitation program and nine Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every week since, Matthews is proud to say he is sober today.
Lance Cpl. Jonathan Goodman, a data network specialist assigned to the 24th Marine Regiment, knows this kind of information is essential.
“The knowledge that there is help and it can be visited without repercussion and knowing there is always someone who cares is what he will take home to his unit,” he said.
In addition to the presentations, attendees received a binder full of resources to take with them.
Several Heroes and Healthy Families conferences have been offered at Marine Corps Bases Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the past five years, but this was the first time the program was presented specifically to Reserve Marines.
Only time will tell if the information passed will have an impact on those who can benefit from it most. Of all the details, however, the single most memorable point was stated to the audience of combat vets and other attendees before the conference even began.
“We don’t leave Marines, or the soldiers, sailors and airmen we serve with, behind,” said Lt. Gen. John K. Kelly, commander, Marine Forces Reserve. “If we don’t look out for their well-being after deployment, it’s the same as leaving them on the battlefield.”
| Date Taken: | 02.17.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.17.2011 17:55 |
| Story ID: | 65620 |
| Location: | ATLANTA, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 306 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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