The Warrior's Fight ... Paying It Forward
by U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Bryann K. Whitley November
10, 2019
After years of hearing from his wife that he seemed different and
with his marriage in turmoil, Master Sgt. Ryan E. Evans, the
operations chief for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations
Command’s Communications Directorate, decided it was time to go
speak to a counselor. During the summer of 2018, Evans took the
first step on his self-care path by meeting with the command
psychologist, one of the many resources available to service members
within MARSOC.
“In 2016-2017, I checked back into MARSOC and
my pace of life and operational tempo completely slowed down,”
explained Evans. “When you’re always busy or always deployed or
doing back-to-back training, you stuff it in your pack and move on,
you don’t take the time to process how you’re doing or what you’re
feeling.”
Evans connected the slowdown in his operational
pace as a turning point in his life and when he realized that he
needed to do more to help himself. He couldn’t just “stuff it in his
pack and move on.” Seeing a counselor helped him identify the areas
he was struggling with, but Evans often found it hard to communicate
with the counselor because of their lack of understanding of
military trauma, as well his own fear of being perceived as broken,
or worse, a monster.
Evans soon had a friend refer him to a
program called the Mighty Oaks Foundation, explaining that the
Mighty Oaks Warrior Program helped him talk about and manage his
post-traumatic stress. He thought Evans would benefit from it as
well. Evans decided to submit an application, but kept his
expectations low before attending in the Spring of 2019.
“Before going to the [Mighty Oaks’] Legacy Program, I viewed guys
who had PTSD as weak-minded and never understood how some guys could
claim having PTSD, who had barely seen combat,” said Evans. “After
completing the program, I understood that PTS affects people in a
multitude of ways and having that understanding now helps me be more
empathetic when talking with fellow Marines.”
PTS can occur
following any life-threatening encounter, such as military combat,
natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or
violent personal assaults, like rape. Generally, post-traumatic
stress disorder is treated as a mental or emotional disorder with
medication and psychotherapy, whereas the Mighty Oaks methodology
looks at the spiritual resiliency needed to rise and meet the
challenges of post-trauma life and move forward to find hope,
purpose and a more fulfilling future.
Chad M. Robichaux and
his wife, Kathy, founded the Mighty Oaks Foundation in 2011 with the
goal to share their story through the trials of PTS and assist
others along the path to recovery and success. According the their
website, the foundation is a leading military non-profit, serving
the U.S. military active duty and veteran communities, with highly
successful peer-to-peer faith-based combat trauma programs and
combat resiliency conferences. Robichaux and his team are dedicated
to helping America’s military warriors and their families suffering
from the “unseen wounds” of combat such as PTS. Their effort is on
the front line to intercede and end the climbing 22-per-day veteran
suicide rate and the tragic divorce epidemic in military families.
 (Left to Right) Master Sgt. Scott Pettus, Chad Robichaux, Sgt. Maj. Dan Knouse, retired Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, and Master Sgt. Ryan Evans, pose for a group photo following a military resiliency training event on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC on August 12, 2019. Marine Forces Special Operations Command hosted Robichaux, founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, to provide information to Marines and Sailors about the Mighty Oaks Warrior Program. The program uses a grassroots approach, empowering veterans and active duty members to begin their healing and then be a positive impact on those in their surrounding communities. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Bryann K. Whitley)
|
“I grew up in a church family, but never really had a strong
relationship with God,” commented Evans. “Attending Chad’s Legacy
Program allowed me to develop the skills needed to manage PTS
through faith, with bible readings and having guys to rely on who
know what it’s like. It made me realize I wasn’t the only guy
dealing with this and that I wasn’t alone; it forced me to take off
the mask and be vulnerable. I wanted to share that with fellow
military members here at the command, so I organized the resiliency
event.”
Evans coordinated with Robichaux to have him conduct
one of his military resiliency events at MARSOC on Marine Corps Base
Camp Lejeune, N.C., in August. Marines and Sailors across the
command attended the event and listened to Robichaux speak on the
trials and hardships he and many like him have faced, or currently
face, when dealing with post-traumatic stress in their careers and
at home while trying to reintegrate into life after combat and other
traumatic events.
“This program is a life changing event,”
commented retired U.S. Marine Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, 16th Sergeant
Major of the Marine Corps, after Robichaux’s resiliency event at
MARSOC. “I’ve participated in the program and it truly opens up a
new way of thinking. The program assists these warriors with going
through life without needing medications or other medical forms of
help. Chad’s aim is to truly help our warriors get better and his
program hasn’t lost a warrior to date.”
Mighty Oaks Warrior
Program uses a grassroots approach, empowering veterans and active
duty members to begin their healing and then be a positive impact on
those in their surrounding communities. Through the methodologies
used and the evaluation of those who have experienced combat,
Robichaux and his team discovered that the same methods used to
“heal” PTSD are equally effective if implemented prior to traumatic
events such as those experienced in combat.
“I created this
program as my way to pay it forward,” Robichaux stated. “I wanted to
give back to others what I experienced and learned despite the many
ups and downs I faced throughout my journey to recovery.”
While Mighty Oaks is Christian faith-based in its methodology, the
mentors and advisors are all previous combat-experienced military
members. Having team mentors that have experienced similar
situations allowed the attendees to talk through things easier and
connect with each other of deeper levels.
“It was such a
moving experience because you were able to reconnect with your faith
and you were able to communicate and share your experiences with
people who have experienced the same or similar traumatic events as
you,” added Evans. “You got to hear everything that they went
through and how they managed it and realized you weren’t alone.”
According to him, reading the bible and reconnecting to his
faith helped Evans truly understand what being a man of God means
and, in turn, helped him control his anger and irritability. It also
helped him manage the guilt he would get from feeling like he wasn’t
doing enough, or for not deploying, and helped him understand that
he couldn't control some of the situations.
“I’m not saying
it’s a cure-all, but it definitely helps you manage everything,”
added Evans. “I don’t think you ever recover, I think you just learn
how to manage it better.”
Part of the road to recovery is the
Mighty Oaks Program’s after-care that includes team mentors, also
known as corner men, or groups of individuals who reach out to a
participant from the program and regularly check-in on them
regularly once they leave that environment. Evans commented he has a
corner man in the local area who’s a good friend that he talks to
all the time.
Evans wanted to pay it forward by providing the
Marines and Sailors of MARSOC an opportunity to learn about the
Mighty Oaks program and, should they need it, the knowledge on how
to utilize this resource.
“I know that there’s a lot of
people here within MARSOC that deploy all the time, that
consistently have a high operational tempo, and I think a lot of
people have PTS related symptoms that affect them greatly, but never
talk about it or share those experiences. They just keep everything
bottled up inside,” remarked Evans. “I think it’s more in the senior
and mid-level leaders who have had multiple deployments and just
never talk about it that are the ones affected most. The Mighty Oaks
Program is really about creating an environment where these people
are more likely to share those thoughts and struggles.”
Other
Marines within MARSOC have also attended the Mighty Oaks Program,
and praised the program as being “a great resource for anyone
struggling to work through any traumatic event that they experienced
in their lives.”
Spiritual Resiliency is nothing new to the
military; the ethos has always embodied such traits to build the
greatest warriors by emphasizing the three pillars of resiliency:
mind, body and spirit; however, over the years, the depletion of
spiritual resiliency, in his opinion, is partially responsible for
the increase in PTS seen in the military members, commented
Robichaux during his visit.
MARSOC's Prevention of the Force
and Families program’s mission is to provide multi-disciplinary
resources to prepare, preserve, and sustain personnel readiness by
focusing on the mind, body, spirit and family. Readiness is enhanced
by ensuring the establishment of preventative care, early
identification of personal and family challenges, and rapid
rehabilitation in the following functional areas: Human Performance;
Unit, Personal and Family Readiness; Medical; Safety; Spiritual
Performance; and Transition Management.
The U.S. Marines |
Marines - The Few, The Proud |
Our Valiant Troops |
Veterans |
Citizens Like Us
U.S. Marines Gifts |
U.S. Marine Corps |
U.S.
Department of Defense
|
|