The 11th Hour is the Last Hour Prior to the Veteran Ending their Life. I Stood in the Doorway of Desperation With Only One Choice. I Chose to Make the Call. The Veterans Crisis Line Saved My Life and Will Save Yours Too.
1-800-273-8255 Press 1
August of 2017, was my first experience surviving from the 11th hour of hopelessness and despair that opened my mind to try to live my life. Freedom and release quickly built my confidence after downloading the PTSD Coach app. I had begun my Cognitive Processing Therapy at the Madison VA and was journaling my intrusive thoughts. Thoughts manifested into moments of hopelessness that would not go away. “What will I do for work? I will I feed my kid? What will become of me five years from now?”
After receiving a referral for outpatient treatment through the Veterans Crisis Line, I was able to step on the path to seek help.
I had come to realize how quick and easy taking the time to call the Veterans Crisis Line was, but I needed something more. I needed to navigate my way out. I was in Las Vegas, NV, where I had started to develop signs of my first panic attack. After reaching into my pocket to grab my phone to call the Veterans Crisis Line, I noticed a sign in the casino that guided me to download the PTSD Coach app and did.
Survival is the Key to Ending Veteran Suicide. Download the PTSD Coach app.
“Ok, I am having a panic attack, now what?”
Take two minutes to collect yourself and practice a simple breathing technique I learned from John Tesh. Inhale and hold for fourteen seconds—exhale for fourteen seconds slowly—Take a deep breath and let it out. Do this as many times as it takes to survive being overwhelmed. Think of a happy moment. Mine is the night I won a triple-double seven-jackpot at the Monte Carlo Casino after seeing Cher. Las Vegas, NV has many magical moments. Find your Las Vegas.
You are never hopeless. Your Battle Buddy is only one app away. Download and explore.
Research Your Condition.
Do not ever hesitate to explore the internet for the means to end social and environmental panic attacks. My condition and diagnosis did not allow much information other than my situation was treatable but permanent. Navigating the maze of mental health must be fought minute by minute. Taking a break is critical before becoming too overwhelmed.
The sole mission here at Outpost 422 is to help talk you down from following through with thoughts of suicide. We are all Battle Buddies in the war at home. You are valuable. You are valor. You are worthy to hold on one more day. Reach out on Facebook at Outpost 422 and we will be there to offer blogs and tips to help you see this through. We want you to know you can make it with the help of all of us who are the survivors of the 22.
Madison, WI—Dryhootch is a facility designed to meet with the Veteran who is developing into a crisis. Sometimes Veterans fall through transition into civilian life. Dryhootch is a community outreach designed to meet the Veteran who may be uncertain what the future may hold. Dryhootch opens the portal of hope to share strategies with the Veteran that comforts the individual as a safe shelter when the 11th hour rears its ugly head.
On average, 22 Veterans Per Day Commit Suicide. Download PTSD Coach App and Talk to the Professionals who can help. 1-800-273-8255 Press 1. the Veterans Crisis Line is only one call away.
Dryhootch is a Safe Place in Crisis.
Address: 2825 University Ave #2, Madison, WI 53705
Outpost 422 Communicates with Dryhootch and Capitol Law Enforcement.
If you are a Veteran who has been recently discharged from the Madison VA and have nowhere to go or are homeless, you can meet us at Peace Park by reaching out to our Watchdog Quick Reactionary Force on our Outpost 422 Facebook page. We are UW Veterans who have survived the 11th hour by using PTSD Coach app and the Veterans Crisis Line who attend the Tuesday crisis support group at 12 p.m. in Madison, WI. Look for us under the sign at Peace Park on the 400 block of State Street.
Dryhootch has been a game-changer that offers assistance with academics as well. Our goal through our Outpost 422 outreach is to enlist as many Watchdogs as we can to support Dryhootch with their upcoming Valor building groundbreaking find a place for our Battle Buddies to call home. Dryhootch will not judge your situation. Reach out anytime.
Jessica Dean served with the United States Marine Corps who shares her compassion with woman veterans through her work as a dedicated scholar. MOS: 2846 Ground Radio Intermediate Repairer Branch; Marine Corps Current Status; Military Sexual Trauma and Military Victimization Outreach Advocate
Dean shares her scorned valor survivor diary of military sexual trauma
Whitewater, Wis.—UW Whitewater Veterans Servicemembers Organization hosted a cookout at Starin Park to kick off Fall Semester Sept. 14, 2019.
After becoming acquainted with members of the group, Jessica Dean was introduced by her husband.
Jessica’s husband Jason Dean is the Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5470 in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
The Deans met while they were in service and continue serve united as advocates against military sexual trauma.
Dean supports the idea of crisis writing mechanisms to overcome grief. Writing in college helped her unpack her grief.
As a military sexual trauma survivor, Dean recognizes her worth as an advocate who hopes her story will save others.
Q: What was your defining moment?
Jessica Dean offered tools and testimony for survival. Her defining moment happened when she met her husband who stayed with her and her kids as their grounding support.
The Dean’s shared Jessica’s story from the vantage point of many that goes unpunished, gets discarded due to weighing of merits due, which takes the weighing of evidence from eye witness accounts only into account other than the witness.
The Hardship
Dean is coming forward to share her story as an Military Sexual Trauma survivor. Dean had been sexually assaulted by an individual while she was stationed at 29 Palms Marine Corps base in California.
She hope readers will become aware of the hardship of her situation and her testimonial of triumph will inspire more women to share theirs as a result.
Q: What is MST or Military Sexual Trauma?
Currently, in the United States Military, women are being allowed to join the combat arms fields. Misogyny and brutalization have become an epidemic due to the integration of women on the frontline.
Women who serve have been fighting both the enemy and misogyny in the military.
More and more women are being victimized and are coming forward sharing how they are becoming prey to being attacked by servicemembers.
The military Courts-Martial enables the predatory behavior to continue due to the current Inspector General investigation system being backlogged. Meanwhile, predators know these odds are in their favor and the brutalizing system of accosting women grows stronger by the day.
Jessica Dean has received backlash for speaking up and continues to speak out about those who continue to receive abuse that live a life of being unrecognized and unheard.
After interviewing Dean, her story spoke of hurt and emotional pain, along with the weight of marginalization with VA claims, which sends women into appeal who apply for service-connected military sexual trauma.
“Military sexual trauma has been getting overlooked and ignored. Women must speak up,” Jessica Dean explained.
Misogyny and sexual assault result in military sexual trauma that has led to Dean dealing with untreated conditions. The Veterans Administration downplayed her condition by diagnosing her with “Extreme Anxiety Disorder.”
Military Sexual Trauma has been happening to several women in the military and has left women prey to dealing with untreated trauma as a result.
After coming forward to the VA for her claim, she noted the lack of support women face leads to marginalization and victim-blaming at the level of the Walworth County Veterans Service Office.
Dean also noted when interviewed by Compensation and Pension examiners, she felt cornered by interrogation methods.
Jessica Dean as a Marine reflects on her marginalization by the Veterans Administration whose examiners said, “you can’t prove any of this happened.” Dean has been through the hardship of trauma transition along with VA Compensation and Pension marginalization.
Upon interview with here Walworth County Service Officer, Dean recognized a gaslighting method of interrogation she was unprepared for. Gaslighting by examiners paint trauma veterans as fairytale storytellers.
“The Walworth County Service Officer gave me a blank stare of disbelief when they assisted me with filing claims where I dealt with a Veterans Administration claims decision of a severe anxiety disorder and sent me on my way,” said Dean.
Dean’s Trauma Faces her Husband Hit by a Drunk Driver On Base:
Jessica Dean got out of the military and pursued her undergraduate degree. Dean and her husband were raising three boys at the time.
Not only did Dean suffer at the hands of an attacker, she was left to discover she had to endure yet another life hardship—her husband Jason Dean was hit by a drunk driver.
Dean shared her story of determination to help her husband recover. Not only was she dealing from military backlash, but an unexpected traumatic turn in her marriage on top of her working through her own personal trauma.
Dean dedicates her advocacy to being a truthful Marine and dedicated fighter. Her determination developed her drive to succeed she noted as her strength.
Even though Jessica Dean was overwhelmed with school and her newly diagnosed condition, she was determined to stay the course.
Surviving trauma taught her how to overcome her husband suffering a near fatal incident, which left her to raise the boys for her husband to fully recover. Dean is tough.
Her dedication to the Veterinarian industry was her focus to pull her through. Not only had Dean come to endure one of the hardest moments of her life, she also had to embrace for the news her credits from another school were not transferrable.
None-the-less, Dean fought her way through four-and-a-half years of retaking several classes to eventually be awarded an opportunity to serve an internship as a Wildlife Intern for the Dane County Humane Society.
Jessica Dean’s story is one of bravery and guts over moments of defeat.
Jessica Dean’s passion is to end military sexual trauma by speaking up and being heard:
Dean’s is passionately seeking a career to be a Veterinarian who took ten credits of UW schooling while working full-time.
“I took a terrible event and made a good thing out of it—battling misogyny amongst Veterans. There are times where you are really plagued with doubt,” said Dean.
Advocates like Dean who share their grief and angst regarding first-hand experience with MST claim sexual assault is commonplace in the military and it needs to end. If you, or a loved one are harboring keeping your hardship secret, please reach out to 1-800-656-HOPE.
Jessica Dean’s advocacy information for those in crisis:
Introduction:
After spending the entire summer preparing for the Fall 2019 Semester, I have
decided to utilize Practicum writing to help my fellow Veterans of the State of
Wisconsin pursue the Journalism Certificate Program to become vloggers for a
program I am piloting called, “Outpost 422.”
Practicum 1 helped knock the advocacy writing out of me that led to
writing several opinion pieces. The one
piece that sticks out the most I am mainly looking to focus on was the APA I
wrote for my final for Intro to Mass Communications, which utilizes crowdsourcing
through WordPress to feature Veterans.
As a Veteran who has been treated for my untreated combat injuries
through the Veterans Integration Transitional Academic Leadership Program at
Truax Campus, I feel it is my duty to enlist as many Veterans as I can to pass on
the baton or Practicum writing as a means of therapy. Feature writing has improved my mental
health. Being published last semester quickly
turned my condition around and am investing in the Journalism Certificate
Program as an American Legion Service Officer who serves on the Wisconsin
American Legion Press Association and the Wisconsin Department of the American
Legion as a future member of the Suicide Awareness Committee.
I am creating an Ad Hoc Reporter, which is
a Watchdog Journalist who establishes a link of communications between Capitol
Law Enforcement and Student Senate when our school has an active shooter
situation. UW Parkside recently had a Veteran commit suicide in the parking lot
and wrote my argument for Intro to Mass Communications around a piece by the
Washington Post titled, “the Parking Lot Suicides.” My project for Practicum 2 is to develop crowdsourcing
and WordPress outreach for struggling Veterans who can connect with UW Madison
and UW Whitewater VITAL Capstone Journalism Writers at the UW when the Veteran
becomes overwhelmed, or in the event of an Active Shooter, organize a Quick
Reactionary Force to converge and guard our classrooms through Vlogging
footage.
Media organization: The
joint venture Media organization will be between the Badger Legionnaire and
the Clarion to develop Outpost 422 as a shared governance communications
fundraising Veteran Vlogging Check Point prototype to assist VITAL Veterans at
Madison College successfully develop and meet the expectations the UW has for
them as our intern writers. Our interns
will develop a sense of importance of shared governance by attending Student
Senate meetings and reporting the news through the Outpost 422 broadcast. American Legion Post 501 of Madison, WI has
graciously offered to allow us to use their hall on Dempsey Road to work with
the Veterans who take over the program after I finish the 2019-2020 program. My plan is to pilot a blog journalism program
to teach Veterans how to Vlog for the Outpost 422 broadcast and serve the
Wolfpack as a remote broadcast during Veteran events. Our goal is to raise funds through WordPress
to end Veteran suicide in support of the Department of Veterans Affairs Zero Veteran
Suicide Initiative. We are also
developing a prototype to continuously serve our recently adopted 10th
Mountain Division Platoon. The “Outpost”
is for the 10th Mountain adopt-a-platoon and the 422 is for Veterans
who enter VA VITAL from Building 22 at the Madison VA. I am one of those
Veterans and am utilizing my Practicum 2 to help distribute the weight to those
who enter the Wolfpack returning from war.
Practicum focus: Throughout
the Fall Semester of 2019, we will be linking up all aspects of the Clarion
staff into one Vlogging outlet at www.Outpost422.com. Each week on Monday from 1:30 to 2:30pm, we
will be tracking our progress through our live broadcast, which will eventually
be recorded to capture the lens of Madison College Veterans. For the entire Fall 2019 Semester, I will be
taking Social Media Writing at Madison College where the website will develop
into an outreach for the entire state of Wisconsin Moderated and Administered
by me for the remainder of the program’s existence. Outpost 422 is my own personal documentary
story that will be a survivor manual for VITAL Veterans and am asking the
American Legion to sponsor the program by linking the Badger Legionnaire
to the Clarion through the website portal. All staff members will be writing for the 10th
Mountain Division who is deployed in Afghanistan and will link up at Peace Park
in Madison, WI to meet and greet Veterans between UW Madison and Madison College.
My focus with my Practicum 2 pilot is to
incorporate all aspects of Backpack Journalism into one medium source. Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Order and the
Uniformed Code of Military Justice share a unique common bond that I discovered
once I became and American Legion official.
Piloting a UW Capstone Veteran feature writing program will increase
morale by and large between Veterans and those serving in Afghanistan. What I envision is the Madison College Truax
campus hosting silent auctions and key figure speakers at the Mitby Theater. The
focus is to pilot a Vlogger program through internship sponsorship to develop
combat Veterans with PTSD that will give their unique perspective through
interview and blogging for the UW Health graduate students to study. I have spoken with Paul Rickert at the
Madison VA who has given me his blessing in hopes we can end the 22 Veteran per
day suicide statistic by boosting morale in the combat zone. Those who graduate Outpost 422 Capstone
Writing through the UW will be offered opportunities to pursue drone journalism
upon transfer, which will be my UW Whitewater Capstone transfer program next.
Practicum goals: My number one
Practicum goal is to create an assembly of Veterans who indirectly assist other
Veterans. The American Legion will
assist with organizing fundraising and will be turning Practicum 2 portfolio
over to the Wisconsin American Legion Press Association as a prototype to
develop the Badger Legionnaire digital presence at the post level. Service Officers can submit articles, but not
many do. Developing a digital presence
will help keep the cost of print down and will be a prototype for nonprofit
organizations to follow and develop through the Social Media Writing Course at
Madison College.
Time management: The
Practicum work will be done Mondays from 1:30 to 3:30p and Thursdays from 10a
to 6p. Every Friday will be spent at
Tellurian Detox Facility between 8:00 to 10:00p assisting with crisis
intake. The requirement for the
internship is to assist with homeless Vets.
The Veteran will meet with the American Legion for their assignment.
Conclusion: The Workload Proposal Report will
be posted to the WordPress account for branding authenticity as an Academic Philanthropy
Program with the express consent of the fundraising board between the Madison
College and Wisconsin American Legion Press Association bylaws a nonprofit Vlogging
and fundraising crowdsourcing entity to assist the 10th Mountain
Division adopt-a-platoon, Madison College VA VITAL, and Department of Veterans
Affairs Zero Veteran Suicide Mission be maintained by both the intern and the
Practicum Professor as a UW Madison, UW Whitewater, and UW Extension means to
end Veteran suicide.
10th Mountain Salute to the colors for those who are still fighting in Afghanistan. Also a big huge shout out to my biggest fan who scored us these sweet tickets to see my first Badger game. Although UW Whitewater is my transfer school, I am pursuing the UW Madison Journalism Practicum Writing Certificate at Madison College. This semester is kicking off with a lot of great gifts and perks for using both schools to transition as a disabled veteran.
After coming to realize what feature journalism writing is, I am turning this project over the Wisconsin American Legion Press Association to create a blogger fundraiser coverage for veterans. Today’s game starts the pursuit to develop “Rucksack Journalism.” We are a community watchdog program to assist at-risk veterans become scholars through the VA VITAL Program at Madison College.
We are embarking on a Capstone Journalism journey to develop veterans into academic blog writers. Today’s Badger game featured a melee of epic opportunities to create and generate ideas for blogs.
35,000 Red fansraging over a football was today’s feature. I sat back and studied the well-trained Badger fans who wore red. The student body at UW Madison was the in-group, and of course, we were the out-group. But, are we really? Who funds scholarships? Who makes it possible for a decrepit old veteran like me to become a UW Royal Purple and Capitol Capstone Journalist? The out-group. Reason being? The crowd was dominated by what the student body said we ought to do when we started the wave. The out-group did not understand why the in-group needed to chant profanity back-and-forth. Studying humans through then lens of Philosophy proves one key element is most certainly true. Being a Journalist takes yourself out of the situation to study what the hip thing is to do and captures it through the painting of words, like Bob Ross, that teaches PTSD Veterans a new coping and development strategy.
Fortunately, the Practicum UW Madison Journalism Certificate Program has given me a profound respect for our Philanthropists who donate to keep the Madison College UW Transfer Programs funded at the University. We are grateful you are adopting 10th Mountain platoons deployed to Afghanistan at Madison College. I look forward to reviewing more games as the season continues in search of football players who are veterans on the team.
