Why I boycott the VFW and Rolling Thunder Inc.

OP-ED—My first trip to Vegas was in 2017. I was about to drop out of treatment for Cognitive Processing Therapy.

The Veterans Administration, through Building 22 in Madison, Wisconsin, could not honor my request with my employer for missing work.

I did not want to drop out and was left in despair knowing I had to return to work or face backlash from my employer.

On July 7, 2017, I quit my job and made the right choice. Stay in treatment and go back to college.

The program helped me work through intrusive thoughts and stay in the moment. Going to treatment was not easy and there is a price.

Sacrifice is the only solution if you are dealing with suicidal ideations.

The Reason for Boycott

The Op-ed discussion examines the poor moral code and leadership of organizations like Rolling Thunder Inc. and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Between falsely publishing my service officer documents and retaliation for standing up to a bully on campus, I strongly urge you to think twice before blindly donating or joining these groups.

Both groups believe their ideology will end veteran suicide. Yet, those advocating tolerate veteran abuse and have experienced their retaliatory ends that drive the need for publishing Op-eds.

Vegas is the answer to ending veteran suicide. We must provide vouchers instead of commercials paid for by fundraising with organizations like the VFW and Rolling Thunder Inc.

The groups condone bullying and intimidation, which include topics like campaign discrimination. The organizations are crude and use gang mentality for membership drives.

The eyewitness accounts of senior leadership could be best described as deplorable.

Post-treatment Reality

I took a trip to Las Vegas after quitting my job and draining my 401 k. My well-being from dealing with a toxic union took its final toll on me.

The members of my union harassed me for needing to use the employee assistance program that led to the commitment of ending my life in protest to the way I was being treated as an apprentice. The union I worked for acted like a cult.

For this reason, I am officially declaring Outpost 422 as a branded lobby, which will begin advocating through federal chief-of-staff status shutting down the bullying of veterans who seek mental health treatment in America.

Let’s just say I was tormented for seeking PTSD treatment and told to “grow some thick skin” by my area vice-president because I did not serve in country during Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.

The truth? I answered the call of duty twice without hesitation and ended up in a quagmire handed down by the Clinton Administration.

The reality? Not only did my union treat me this way but both the VFW and Rolling Thunder Inc. did too.

25 years of readjustment

I want to share with you my experience as a service officer hoping you reach out to any other organization other than the VFW and Rolling Thunder Inc. when needing help in the 11th hour.

If you are currently in the 11th hour, please download the PTSD Coach app and let’s get you situated.

If you are a family member reading this, please download the app and learn about post-readjustment life and stop throwing “PTSD” around with your rhetoric. You are disenfranchising your loved one.

Later on, I found out the nature of the disorder stemmed from trauma bonding. I get angry when I see officers of the VFW making money off of veteran suicide campaigns who put us on the frontlines and killed us.

Especially when I try to speak up regarding the truth about the 22 and executives of these organizations do all they can to “decrease the number.”

What they don’t realize is veteran suicide and the symbolism of “22” is a bond. Those who commit suicide in Veteran Administration hospital parking lots do so in protest there is something wrong with the hospital’s treatment of veterans.

Cognitive Processing Therapy and Readjustment

April 17, 2017, is my alive day. After moving to Madison, Wisconsin, enrolling in school through the Veterans Administration and committing to readjustment, I began volunteering for veteran organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Little did I know I would get shanghai’d by both past WDVA Woman of the Year State Commander Gundel Metz and the State of Wisconsin Liaison for Rolling Thunder Inc, who conspire against my brand at the VFW Post 1318 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Today, I am speaking up hoping the next veteran like me who decides to move to Dane County doesn’t end up getting railroaded like I did.

Veteran suicide is a scientific variable regarding three obstacles: Stigma, cultural incongruity and feeling socially isolated.

The Lion of Judah Rastafarian Church, Wisconsin Cannabis Warriors and Outpost 422 are teaming up for POW MIA inclusivity workshops hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Madison College. We help veterans readjust by discussing the last flight of 1st Lt. Jerome A. Volk. We connect all on campus through cultural incongruity awareness seeking a solution to UW Whitewater’s mistreatment of Madison College veteran transfers.

Veteran organizations like the VFW and Rolling Thunder Inc. are money hungry.

What makes matters worse is when you see an organization bully veterans in one breath and talk about ending veteran suicide with the other.

As a Veterans Crisis Line survivor, I need no organization speak for me. I speak for my own through Outpost 422.

I will say this much. Had I not gone to Vegas and came back to treatment, I would not be alive today. You want to end veteran suicide? Start sending veterans to Vegas and let them become writers in college.

Through feature writing, we are treated and the best path to ending veteran suicide starts with a commitment to ending stigma.