I have seen the people in their last fleeting moments, when the life of a man drifts out into the heaven’s above. As their eyes stare into what I hope and pray is a better place, I feel a pain that I hope no one ever has to feel. There is nothing that will make you feel more helpless and out of control. From now until I join my brothers, I will do whatever is necessary to help my community. This story isn’t about death, rather this is a story about saving lives, community, and love.
Eight years ago, I started working for an organization called “The Fallen Outdoors.” Fallen outdoors is a veteran and active duty ran non-profit organization with the goal of connecting military veterans and active duty service members through the use of the outdoors hunting and fishing. The Fallen Outdoors had humble beginnings, with no marketing strategy and only 25 members. As an 18-year-old from a small town in Wisconsin it was exactly what I need. The idea that I could connect and build relationships with other veterans through something I loved was a life saver for me. Now our organization operates in 42 states and has over 70,000 members. The members fund trips for thousands of veterans every year. As we started to grow, we realized that this was more than just group outings. These were guys who had been in and out of wars for years, fighting and grinding to keep our nation, another country, and their own families together. They had been to hell and back, and yet, here they stood looking to us for guidance. That’s when I met Matt.
Matt was a Marine Corp veteran who I took trout fishing. As we were out and about, we talked, told jokes, talked trash to each other. We reminisced about the earlier times in our lives: I thought about my first hunts with my dad, when I was barely over to see the water, while he talked about his first fishing trips. Then we talked of war, the one item only us veterans will truly understand. An item on any docket that is taboo for person who have never walked that thin red line. We told tales of our fallen brothers and where we had been their final moments. Finally, after hours of being together, Matt said something that I’ll never forget. Before he had decided to come on this trip, two of his veteran brothers had decided to end their lives. He wanted nothing more to join them, tears started crawling down his face, head drooping in shame. He had contemplated taking his own life, leaving his wife and kids behind. He broke down completely to me, letting it all go. Years of hard times and faking his smiles, now out in the open as we cut up our catch. This trip, that his wife had forced him on, had saved his life. This one moment where we talked to each other like we had known each other since birth. This connection only forged in the fires of warfighting, had been what he needed. He needed us. He needed me.
That was three years ago, and since then we have taken over 10,000 veterans on trips nationwide. We can only imagine the lives we have saved, the families we have enriched, and the meaning we have brought back to each other. Like I said, this is a story about saving lives. Saving a life does not mean you need to jump over walls, run through gunfire, and perform mouth-to-mouth. Sometimes the simple kindness from one vet to another, one sympathetic ear, and some good old fishing will remind someone that they have so much. That as a community, we need them.
VISIT: www.thefallenoutdoors.com to join OUR community and make a difference.
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