All across America and around the world, welcome
to America's number one veterans program, the
voice of American veterans, Veterans Radio. And
now your host for today, former chief warrant
officer, 195th assault helicopter company, Republic
of Vietnam, 1969, Dale Throneberry. Hello America
and welcome to veterans radio as Bob was saying
the number one of America's veterans program
the voice of America's veterans My name is Dale
Throneberry and 1969 holy mackerel 40 years ago.
Oh It's getting starting to feel my age a little
bit Running our board for us today is 101st Airborne's
Bob Gould Bob thanks so much for doing this for
us. You know, it's it's unusual. We do our whole
program here live So folks you got it's it's
it's it's exciting and it's our adrenaline is
always rushing and sometimes we get a little
overexcited so you'll have to Excuse our over
modulation. Sometimes my other partner is Gary
modulation like that. That's that's I've been
over modulated Yeah, that's a technical term
Today's program the theme of today's program
is invisible wounds and we're gonna be talking
about traumatic brain injury, but before we get
to that. My other partner on Veterans Radio,
Gary Lilley, is on the line and Gary is down
in Louisville, Kentucky. Good morning to you
all. I'm down here for the biannual Vietnam Veterans
of America National Convention where we go over
resolutions, see old friends, and when the work
is done we get to have a little bit of relaxation.
But this is a workaholic group and we work on
resolutions that are going to set the course
for the next two years for vietnam veterans of
america and we elect new officers and board of
directors what there gary what uh... what are
the issues that they're looking at this year
i'm uh... i was going to hit some of the high
ones because my gosh we've got uh... the abbreviated
form is about forty resolutions here and they
cover everything from agent orange and dioxin
uh... people believe that agent orange is uh...
something from the past but they don't that two
four d which was One of the parts of that soup,
and one of the most dangerous, is used in weed
control and sold over the counter. And it's the
most toxic dioxin never created. And you'll hear
Master Gardeners tell people, go after those
weeds with 2 ,4 -D. Let me jump in here for a
second, Gary. You just did a program on this
a couple of weeks ago that you can find on our
archives about Agent Orange. And there was a
new program that came out or a new report that
just came out this week that talked about Agent
Orange being a contributor to Parkinson's, heart
disease, and high blood pressure. Exactly. That's
right. And now that's the medical report. And
now our work is to get the VA to recognize it.
And I've got a friend that's coming down with
Parkinson's disease. Yeah, you're going to be
on the program, Rick. Hold on. That's Bob's mic
is open while he's talking on the phone. Also
some of the things that we're minority affairs
is a big one and that's recognizing the Pacific
Islander veterans and some of the Puerto Rican
veterans and some of the people that aren't Don't
qualify for VA healthcare, and I'm not sure that's
right Puerto Ricans are part of it But we're
you know lobbying Congress all the time to get
those people who served able to collect VA compensation
and to get VA healthcare treatment. Oh, voting,
you know, making voting more accessible to our
troops. But the main thing, what's turning on,
you know, the founding principle of Vietnam Veterans
of America is never again will one generation
of veterans abandon another. And our main thrust
right now is helping out these troops of today
and the Gulf War troops. They've got issues,
and our lobbyists Rick Weidman and Marcia Foer,
these are people that really know their issues.
They're up there, and that's talking to Congress
door -to -door, and they are sharp. Boy, do they
know the issues. Homeless, big ones. So that's
a busy agenda. And when it was all over, we got
to see the movie. We're getting into a little
bit of the reward time. We saw Taking Chance
was just nominated for 10 Emmys about the colonel
who escorted the body of Chance Felton back to
his hometown. After the movie, the real colonel,
the guy that Kevin Bacon played, talked to us
and took some questions. And today he'll be one
of the keynote speakers. And the father of Chance
Phelps will also be there. That was a powerful,
powerful movie. Powerful, powerful. The whole
room, there were about 500 Vietnam vets in there.
There must have been some sort of allergies coming
out of the air conditioning system because there
was a lot of sniffles. That's understandable
with that program and I would encourage anybody
who hasn't seen it yet to... go and find that.
And one other thing I want to go and then I got
to jump back into the convention is the keynote,
opening keynote speaker was General Honor Ray,
the guy that, the two star, three star general
that was sent into New Orleans to get things
organized and get that mess cleaned up. He's
the guy that when he, when he arrived, you know,
they had trouble with shooting and snipers and
shooting back and all that. He got out and there
were some soldiers that had their weapons up
and he started yelling at them, put those weapons
down, put those weapons down. You know, we're
here on a rescue mission. And another time he
was up there, he's the guy that said, stuck on
stupid, about the way some of these people were
running the operation. He was up on the platform
during a press conference and I don't know what
the civilian... A guy was saying, but he turned
to him and said, that's a bunch of BS. That's
a bunch of BS. And there's the two civilian guys
trying to say how it really wasn't their fault.
Sounds like he tells it like it is. Well, it
sounds like you're having a good time. And I'm
anxious for you to come back and tell us what
you learned at the Vietnam Veterans of America's
biannual convention. And one last thing. There
I was after giving a little, passing out the
flyers on veterans. radio and the guy yelled
to me afterwards, do you know T. Barry? Who?
Dale Throneberry. I flew with him. He saved my
life in country 40 years ago. Told me the whole
story and he's anxious to talk to you. You guys
got a chance to speak for about a minute. Yeah,
and I appreciate that. That was very emotional.
I was surprised how emotional it was to talk
to someone that you hadn't thought of. He told
me he thinks about you a lot because what you
taught him saved his life. And I spoke to him
afterwards, after the convention last night,
ran into him on the street and a buddy of his
and we spoke for about 40 minutes out on the
street. Well, I'm anxious to talk to Brooks and
see what's going on with his life and thanks
for making that connection, Gary. It's amazing
what we have learned. on this program and how
important it is for us to be the ones to tell
those stories. They need to get them out. We
know that. We do. And that's what we do. And
Gary, thanks so very much. And I'll be talking
to you next week. Talk to you then. See you then.
Bye, buddy. Thanks. We're just talking to Gary
Lilly, who's down at the Vietnam Veterans of
America Convention in Louisville. And he'll be
back to talk about what he learned down there
and what this... particular veterans organization
is doing to try and help out America's veterans.
But joining us on the line right now is an unusual
young man. And we're always talking about these
young people today. And I want to welcome to
our program Sam Kilburg. And Sam is doing a fundraiser
today for the Traumatic Brain Injury Association
of Michigan. And Sam, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Hey, how's it going? It's going great. Tell me
what you're doing today so we can get some people
out to your ball games. Yeah, this weekend, it's
a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm hosting the second
annual Home Runs for Heroes charity baseball
tournament. It's for Michigan military with traumatic
brain injury and the benefits go to the Brain
Injury Association of Michigan, the veterans
program. And where would people go if they want
to see some good ball games? It's in Rochester
Hills, Michigan. It would be either Rochester
High School, Rochester Adams High School, or
Stony Creek High School. Games start at 9 a .m.
I'm actually at a game right now, and the last
game's at four, and the big game is at Oakland
University. It's Sunday. It's the championship
games, and they'll start at nine, and the championship
game will be at two. I just want to point out
a few things about Sam, and this is what's so
important about the young people today that are
supporting America's military and supporting
our warriors is that Sam has been doing this
for a couple of years. He's been very involved
in raising funds for the traumatic brain injured.
And let me find out here that you not only are
doing baseball games, but you also did another
fundraiser where you raised, oh, somewhere around
$5 ,000. What was that activity that you did?
Yeah, I'm on the Government Youth Council in
my city, and we hosted a 5K run -flash -walk
at one of our local parks. We had about 130 runners,
and everyone came out. The donations went straight
to the BIAMI. And we raised around, I think it
was $4 ,000 and some change. All the money went
directly there. And it was a great time. It was
one Saturday. We got a bunch of donations. A
bunch of people came out. It was a blast. Well,
you're doing a great job. And you were named
the Brain Injury Association of Michigan Volunteer
of the Year for 2009. And you have worked a lot
with our guest that's going to be coming on in
the next segment, Major Rick Briggs, retired
Air Force. And Sam, I want to thank you so very
much for what you're doing, and I want to encourage
everybody in the southeast Michigan area, take
off up to Rochester, watch some good ball games,
and tomorrow to go to your championship game
at Oakland University. Thank you. Thank you very
much. All right, Sam, thank you so very much,
and thank you for what you do. Thank you. Have
a good day. You too. Bye -bye. Bye. What a great
kid. This is a... amazing what he's doing. And
he's only one of how many hundreds and thousands
of young people out there that are raising money
for these troops. My heart goes out to them and
our wallets too. And I want everybody to go in
and see what you can do to help these people
out. Each week on veterans radio. We always welcome
home our troops We're so happy when you men and
women can come home safely and Bob's got something
he wants to talk about Bob Thank you very much.
Welcome home each week on veterans radio We welcome
home servicemen and women who've been stationed
around the world in the service of their country
and are returning home Dateline Pontiac, Illinois.
A ceremony in Pontiac, Illinois will welcome
home National Guard troops who were deployed
to Afghanistan. The National Guard armory will
honor troops who were deployed from the armory
last August as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Soldiers, part of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat
Team, form police mentor teams to train the Afghan
National Police. The soldiers were part of the
largest overseas deployment of the Illinois National
Guard since World War II. Dateline Washington
D .C. Hundreds of U .S. servicemen and women
got a hero's welcome when they returned home
from deployment in Afghanistan. Family and friends
gathered at Thurgood Marshall Airport for the
happy homecoming. The troops spent the past nine
months in Afghanistan. They were fighting the
Taliban, but instead of fighting, Continually,
they helped to rebuild communities all across
the war -torn country. Their homecoming was emotional.
I quote, we're doing a good job, said Air Force
Major Aaron James. Further quote, I mean, we're
trying to do what we can do to help this country
out, end quote. Civilian casualties among the
Afghan population have been growing sourced,
and they have some. friction between the Afghan
government and the international forces operating
there. The unit did a great deal of positive
work in the war zone. I think it's really important
that we point that out to people that there are
so many troops over there that are not involved
directly in the fighting but they're involved
in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and in Iraq
they're doing the same thing and these are stories
that we don't normally get to see. Go ahead.
They were building schools and roads. improving
sanitation within the villages. That's great
stuff. That shows what we're all about. That's
what we're really trying to do. We're trying
to help these people so that they can help themselves.
I was talking to an Iraq veteran the other day
who... you know he still goes out on patrols
and so forth but he said during their quote their
downtime they're building schools or they're
fixing the roads or they're trying to dig wells
and all these other things to help the population
it's it's not all about blowing things up folks
and this is this is what is important and we're
back on veterans radio and there are gremlins
it sounds like in the control room no we've had
a couple of them today and i got eight hours
sleep too what can i say A lot of buttons, a
lot of buttons. All right. We're going to be
talking today about invisible wounds. By invisible
wounds, I mean traumatic brain injury, which
is said to be the signature injury of the conflicts
in Iraq and Afghanistan and account for over
90 % of our troops' casualties. And TBI can be
caused by a wide range of functional changes
that affect our thinking, sensation, movement,
language, and or our emotions. And in fact, many
TBI survivors also suffer from post -traumatic
stress disorder. Joining me on the line right
Now is the, let's see, I've got to get this correct.
Rick Briggs, United States Air Force Major, retired
and is the manager of the Veterans Program for
the Brain Injury Association of Michigan. Rick,
welcome back to Veterans Radio. It's always a
pleasure to be here. Well, let's talk about what's
going on with the traumatic brain injury. And
I know that, I don't know if you're going to
have somebody try to call in or not, but we wanted
to talk today about the symptoms, what causes
it. and possibly what some of the treatment is
for TBI. Absolutely. Well, one thing that's happened
since I was last on with you, I'm also the National
Campaign Director for Invisible Wounds for Operation
Forgotten, and people can find out, tie directly
into the BIA National, the Brain Injury Association
National website through their websites. It is
the invisible wounds are taking a significant
toll in homelessness of course you've heard about
the suicides We had more we had more suicides
in January of this year than we lost in combat
in Afghanistan and Iraq combined This population
the broken marriages all the things going on
and and the single most important trying to get
out is these are invisible wounds and These young
men and women can be suffering significantly
from from them, though you can't see them, but
they are treatable. And that's the big deal.
There's an astigma associated with any mental
health -related issue. But what people fail to
differentiate is post -traumatic stress disorder
is a psychological reaction. It's really a normal
reaction to an abnormal situation. Right, yes.
Absolutely. Are you there? Sounds like we might
have lost him. I'm not sure where he went But
let me let me just kind of go through some of
the while we try and get back in touch with with
Rick is that the traumatic brain injury, and
this is according to the Mayo Clinic, and I was
looking up to see what it was, and I think this
is important for all of us to understand. The
traumatic injury is usually a result of a sudden
violent blow to the head, which launches the
brain on a collision course with the inside of
the skull. This collision can cause the brain
nerve fibers and cause bleeding in there. The
traumatic brain injury, Traumatic brain injury
may also result from objects such as bullets
or even shattered pieces of skull that would
enter the skull, as many of these people in combat
can go there. And it looks like we've got him
back. Rick, we got you back? Yes, sir. Am I there?
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened. As we said,
everything kind of falls apart every once in
a while. But what I wanted to do is to talk about
What I've been describing while you were gone
is what causes TBI? What happens inside of the
head when these explosives go off or they get
hit in the head? Substantially what's happening
is the ballistic wave is actually traversing
right through the body. I'm not talking about
the fireball and the other type of visible impact.
I'm talking about a shockwave. right through
the brain, and it's affecting at the neuron and
sub -neuron level. And to tell you some of the
isolate, very specific things that are going
on in the brain, even though they're very, very
mild, and they're not something you can really
self -diagnose, we've had veterans that say their
food tastes different. They come home, and their
favorite meal, they don't even like the taste.
I've got guys who say their diet's changed. Vegetables
they didn't used to eat, they like now. You know,
and that shows that the receptor perception process
and strength of the brain can get altered with
these shockwaves. The emotion centers, you mentioned,
sensuality, sexuality, you know, the highs and
lows, the peaks and valleys. Some people become
more docile, some become more aggravated. We
have guys who say smells smell different. Their
wife's perfume smells perception -wise different
than it did before. So it can be something very,
very subtle, but a lot of these can really affect
job performance, relationship maintenance, and
sustaining a relationship. As you know, marriage
and families and so on are tough enough when
everything's going well, but when you have these
other things impacting your perception of what
is going on, You know, that's where the experts
need to come in. And I'm talking about certified
brain injury experts that are rehabilitation
specialists. And there's some very specific things
they do in their specialized community that you
just can't walk into the local hospital and get.
Right. We're talking with Rick Briggs, who's
with the Traumatic Brain Injury Association of
Michigan, and we're trying to go through some
of the issues that our troops go through. If
you have a question or if you've experienced
TBI, give us a call here at Veterans Radio at
877 -573 -7825. 877 -573 -7825. We know that
it doesn't obviously just affect I'm just looking
through here where they talk about mild traumatic
brain injuries and this could be, you know, you
could be playing baseball and get hit in a helmet.
But you might have a brief period of unconsciousness,
amnesia about what happened. headache, confusion,
dizziness, loss of balance, sensory problems,
as you mentioned, or bad taste in your mouth,
where food doesn't taste quite the same that
it used to, as you mentioned, mood changes, and
even memory and concentration problems. These
are issues that you don't really understand if
you have been, many of us have been, you know,
hit in the head at some point in our lives, and
we don't realize that, that it could cause these
problems to us, and that's just mild, and many
of these men and women are a little bit more
traumatic, as you were mentioning. And that presents
a great problem, and you're right about the civilian
population. Just to talk about that very briefly,
we're talking about over 2 % of the U .S. population
has been affected with a brain injury. If you
took HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord
injury, and breast cancer and combined them all,
multiply that total number by six, that's the
size of the issue you're talking about. It is
the leading cause of death in young people back
in the civilian. and that's not counting veterans
or shaken babies those numbers you can get on
the uh... cdc website but in a combat environment
with with these young men and women you know
they come back to me they seem fine you know
something's different they're affected but when
you think about your reaction time your cognitive
processing your sequencing skills to you know
strategize and so on communicative skills your
sense of balance those are critical skills in
a combat environment and unfortunately uh...
all too often are young men and women you know
they feel Friday look normal and in a short interaction
if you go up and talk to somebody who was just
hit you know they might seem a little days and
confused but then you know if you are later they
seem fine but you really don't know the impact
and and how that uh... is going to affect them
long -term and in a lot of cases the shockwaves
the brain has an amazing healing process that
immediately starts kicking in and so on but some
of these symptoms get worse with time. And that's
one of the things, and some of them take three
to five years to start really manifesting themselves
and raising their ugly head. And unfortunately,
all too often the vets have not contacted the
VA and processed because at the time they're
okay. They're not as good as, but just like the
World War II vets and Vietnam, Korea and all
them, they come home They all go through it.
They suck it up. They get back to work. That's
the negative aspect of the military culture,
is not asking for help when you should be. Right.
We're talking with Rick Briggs. Rick, you were
also involved, and Bob has a comment here he
wants to make. He was just up at Grayling last
week watching the training that the National
Guard is going through. He wants to ask you a
question about the helmets. Bob? Sure. Okay,
thank you Dale and welcome Rick Bob Gould here
I'm just up at Grayling and one of the things
that I observed Was that they wore their helmets
they wore their helmets and they had their chin
straps? Fastened I wanted to say that because
I look we didn't see any John Wayne Iwo Jima
movie with the chin straps hanging down very
uncomfortable. And these new BLUs, ballistic
liner upgrade units that they've installed, one,
and I'm glad you highlighted that, it's very
important they use them. And same thing with
sports, which you mentioned earlier, football,
helmets, baseball, biking, skateboarding, all
that. There's no cure for brain injury, but you
can prevent it. And these ballistic shockwaves
can be reduced by up to 60%. with this new high
-density, and it's not just a foam, I mean it
really is technologically advanced. I think there's
something like 27 different layers of composite
foams in there, but the helmets are so comfortable
now, as opposed to the old strap suspension systems.
Not only does it help prevent, but these guys
will be sleeping in their helmets, you know,
I'm talking about in a combat environment, and
they're so much more comfortable that you know,
they actually do leave them on even when they
don't have to. And that's a wonderful thing.
It builds up their neck muscles. They get used
to it to where, you know, it's just a part of
them, kind of like wearing a seat belt in a car.
Well, I think as Bob had mentioned, in fact,
this is really ironic. We were having our regular
breakfast production meeting. And a gentleman
at the next table was talking about a man from
Ann Arbor, and you may even know him, and I couldn't
remember his, he didn't mention his name, but
he was, he's trying to develop a new helmet for
the military. He's already developed football
helmets that the University of Michigan uses
that are safe. He's about 90 years old. And he's
working again on an upgrade on combat helmets
that he thinks will almost eliminate entirely
TBIs. as a result. And I don't know if you've
been in touch with them yet, but I know that
they were trying to figure out, because one of
the people at lunch said, oh, yeah, we know Rick.
So it's getting to be a very, very small world.
Well, three years ago, before I went into the
brain injury community, I ran the Michigan chapter
for Operation Helmet, helping to get the ballistic
liners, getting the government to procure them,
install them. And now they're standard issue.
So it took four and a half years, but we got
it. You know as part of the routine equipment
now and and I'm really glad that you commented
about the about the wear of the helmets because
I'll give you an example. We do we just had an
event here last June called heroes and helmets
It's part of the tips up for troops bass fishing
tournament We do and all that and and the focus
is really on wearing helmets and we call it heroes
and helmets because we're saluting firemen Police,
you know the Homeland Security military anybody
who wears a helmet in the line of duty, you know,
out there protecting us and so on. Because those
are the real heroes in our society, and the kids
look up to them, and we're trying to make it
cool to wear a helmet, you know, whether they're
bike riding, skateboarding, you know, anything
inline, rollerblades, any of that stuff. And
the parents need to wear them too, because it's
not much of an example. You tell them the kids,
they gotta wear their bike helmet, then mom and
dad hop on and don't, so. I can relate to that
entirely. My grandson is just learning how to
ride his bicycle and Papa went out and bought
a bike, an old used bike, and I have to get a
helmet before I can let him see me riding it.
It wouldn't be good. And I have a cousin, I guess
a second cousin, who was in a motorcycle accident
in Florida and his helmet was not one of the
better quality ones and he's still in rehab.
three years after the accident because of his
head, you know, just brain being rattled entirely.
We got about a minute till we come up to our
first break, Rick, and I wanted to talk about,
we talked about some of the symptoms that can
result from being hit with an explosive around.
What can we do as far as, what is the treatment?
I'm stuttering here. What is the treatment? Well,
what they do is, well, first of all, it's important
to get in with certified brain injury specialists,
experts in the specific arena. Because when they
go through the screening process, they'll go
through and they'll find out what happened to
your body. What area is it affected? Is it an
emotion sensor? Is it a cognitive speech and
audiology? Is it one of the pathologies that's
been impacted? And what they'll do is they'll
focus on whatever areas were affected, and then
they'll teach you ways to, one, compensate for
deficiencies and how to enhance them. They'll
give you exercises, brain teasers, all these
types of things. Hold that thought. We're going
to go into, we'll be talking more specifically
about the treatment when we come back. We're
talking about traumatic brain injury. You're
listening to Veterans Radio. The Medal of Honor
is the highest award for valor in combat given
a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.
There had been over 3 ,400 recipients of the
nation's highest award. This is one of them.
Marine Sergeant Louis Kukala received not one,
but two Medal of Honors during World War I. Details
after this. When his company, advancing through
a wood, met with strong resistance from an enemy
strong point, Kugler crawled out from the flank
and made his way toward the German lines in the
face of heavy fire, disregarding the warnings
of his comrades. He succeeded in getting behind
the enemy position and rushed a machine gun emplacement,
killing or driving off a crew with his bayonet.
With German hand grenades, he then bombed out
the remaining portion of the strong point, capturing
four men and two damaged machine guns. He was
awarded the Medal of Honor by both the Army and
the Navy for this action. The Medal of Honor
series is a production of Veterans Radio. We're
back on Veterans Radio listening to a little
bit of patriotic music from John Philip Sousa.
We're talking with Rick Briggs, who is the program
manager for the Veterans Programs for the Brain
Injury Association of Michigan. And we've been
talking about some of the symptoms that are connected
with a traumatic brain injury and some of the
things that people can do. Rick, where can people
go to get some more information on this? Well,
they usually just tie in. is right directly to
our website actually and that that can get them
into a lot of things one uh... a lot of information
about the symptoms they uh... you know they can
read about brain injury and they can tie into
a lot of national organizations uh... right through
our website and that is uh... w w w dot b i a
m i that's bravo india alpha mike india stands
for brain injury association m i s michigan uh...
dot org b i a m i dot org And they can get a
lot of information right there. Well, we certainly
encourage them to do that. You were mentioning
earlier that a lot of times it's family members
that notice that the veteran's behavior has changed,
in some cases dramatically. And so we encourage
people to watch out for their men and women that
are coming home. And I don't mean to stare at
them. But if you notice some subtle changes in
there, we know that it's a touchy subject because
many of us have been there before when we came
home from a conflict. And we're pretty defensive
about our behavior sometimes. How can they go
about getting through that barrier that we set
up on our own? Well, that's the really tough
part. What portion of their change is just because
of the deployment that everybody goes through?
That's the good question. Unfortunately, a lot
of people say, just leave me alone. I'll get
better, whatever. With 80 % of the symptoms,
Being relevant to both PTSD and TBI It's really
difficult to ascertain. Is this a psychological
thing? Is it physiological? Is it just the normal?
Hey, I'm home now. I'm back in a different environment
and You know self -diagnosis is not the the best
way to go right go in get checked in let go through
the screening if They do some very base level
screenings If there's enough flags that come
up, they'll send you to the next level of screening.
And again, every screening level is set up to
funnel it in as to what it is, all the way up
to the full six, seven hour neuropsych eval.
And again, you need to get with the experts.
Yeah, we're not saying I agree with Rick entirely
on this self -diagnosis thing because we all
think sometimes we can become experts and stuff
and we're trying to make sure that you don't
don't just sit there and suffer alone let's put
it this way and it's not just you I was thinking
of you know if you go to some veterans organizations
they have not they have group meetings where
you can sit down and talk about some of the issues
that you're going through and you'll find out
that you're not alone and that you're not you're
not the only one that can't necessarily remember
everything or that gets angry at what you think
are simple things. And I think that might give
you a little clue that, well, maybe somebody
can help me. And I think it's really important
to do that to all of the people out there. And
one of the really difficult things is if you
think about the symptoms with PTSD, and if a
guy goes through his PTSD program, but it doesn't
seem to be working, there may be a physiological
injury, which is the cause of that. You know,
I kind of liken it to pumping air in a tire that's
got a hole in it. You got all this good training
and so on going in, but if the brain can't process
the information the way it needs to and different
centers have been affected, you need to get them
rehabilitated. Let the experts get to work so
you can get your life back. And I'm talking about
a quality of life, not just going through life.
All right, I understand that. I wanted to ask
you, Rick, I want to thank you so much for coming
on and talking about traumatic brain injury,
but I also wanted you, you mentioned that your
son is coming back and is going to be starting
some new training soon. Tell me a little bit
about that. The people that we talked to on this
program, folks, all have credibility, and Rick
has got it. And so I wanted to ask you about
what's going on with your son. We're very excited
Jeremy got back actually a year and a half ago
now from Iraq they did the over He was a MP up
in Mosul and he did over 200 combat patrols He
had about 12 to 15 IED exposures and all that
so there were some early symptoms and signs and
so on that we were Monitoring he went through
all the screening of course when your dad does
is for living He's not going to let you get away
with just that finally me alone But he you know
he has his college degree he completed OCS He
became the fifth Mustang in our family to go
from enlisted to officer ranks, just pinned on
as second lieutenant. He got a Black Hawk helicopter
pilot slot, so we're... We're very happy for
him, and he'll be starting that training next
year. I think that's great. Of course, as a former
helicopter pilot, I always think it's wonderful
when those young men and women can get in there
and fly. Those things are amazing. And they call
that work. Can you believe it? That's just what
I was talking about with somebody the other day.
They paid me to fly these things. It was great.
Anyway, I want to thank you so very much for
being on Veterans Radio. Rick, and I know that
we'll be talking again in future, and I want
to get together and talk about that helmet thing
with you again. So thanks very much. much for
what you guys do getting the word out to the
vets. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll be talking
to you again soon. Well, folks, it's another
great example of what veterans are doing to help
veterans. It's what the civilians are doing to
help veterans out there. I mean, we're talking
about a 17 -year -old young boy from Rochester,
Michigan putting on a baseball tournament to
raise funds for veterans that are suffering from
traumatic brain injury. I think that's what is
so cool. I wanted to get Bob on here for just
a minute here at the end of the program because
Bob and Gary, as I mentioned last week, went
up to Grayling. for to to will observe the training
that the National Guard is going through it and
you mentioned something interesting this morning
when we were looking at a picture in the in the
local newspaper about the training that's up
there could you could you talk about that a little
bit yes I would uh... Dale when I saw that photograph
in the Detroit Free Press a couple days ago I
know folks this may sound funny but it actually
triggered something At the end of the firefight
that we watched and it was a firefight it had
explosions a lot of noise Machine guns going
off there was something that happened to my body
when it was over took about 40 45 minutes for
the entire exercise to play itself out I was
I Was energized I almost I almost felt like having
tears when it stopped and it was over just for
that moment it it My whole body was reacting
and what it was reacting to with the sounds the
explosions the sounds of rifle fire the sounds
of Of the orders being given and then all of
a sudden it stopped the bad guys went away and
everybody was now decompressing and I even commented
to Gary I turned to him immediately because we
were right in the middle of it covering it and
I said Did you see what I saw? Did you feel what
I saw? And of course, he said, yes, he did. And
we just stared at each other. Now, the other
day, when I saw that photograph, it started to
come back. And it wasn't anxiety. It was a rush.
It was the body. Well, you witnessed it. It's
just a reaction. All you're doing is it's almost
like you're reliving it. Over again, and and
and even though it was you know it wasn't real
ammunition. It was real bullets in that right,
but it's just the noise level it pumps up your
adrenaline so high because you're you've got
this fight -or -flee thing going on in your in
your mind in your and use it the noise goes away
and it's called it's like you want to touch yourself
and go oh, okay, I'm still here and You know
you try to go on and then you'll see a picture,
and it'll come right back again. I did do that
I actually during during the firefight Started
to crouch down. I mean I just I didn't know what
else was gonna happen. So I'm crouching down
Gary crouched down and there we were and I I
wanted to give that to our listeners I wanted
to give that to our listeners that that is Real
it does and this is and these are these are things
that this is what comes back to a veteran Every
time they hear a sound that sounds familiar or
they smell a smell and it's just amazing We want
to you know, we're coming up at the end of the
program folks as usual and we just wanted to
thank Rick Briggs for being on Sam Kilburg and
his baseball tournament in Rochester, Michigan
If you get the opportunity going up there to
Oakland University We're going to be doing a
live program from Eastern Michigan University
on September 5th when Eastern plays West Point.
We're going to be there in the morning for a
show. We're actually going to have a tailgate
party at the game which is going to be at 4 o
'clock at Ryan Earson Stadium in Ypsilanti, Michigan
on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
We hope that all of you will come out. We have
food and all kinds of things for you. I'm anxious
for you to listen in next week. We've got some
great programs coming up. Until then, you are
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Veterans Radio LLC are not necessarily the views
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