Help For Vets Part 1

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy.

Welcome once again to Man Talk Radio. I'm Will Hardy, the black guy. And I'm Roy Jones Jr., the white guy. And Roy, it's been a beautiful day today. I just want to say it's just been a beautiful day. You know, you're enjoying the rain this morning. I'm enjoying the rain. You know, without rain, you can't grow anything.

Well, this is true, but I'm ready for some cool fall temperatures with some changing leaves and as much body installations I've got, I need all the cool weather I can get. I hear you. Today on Man Talk Radio, we have Bob Uber with us. And Bob is a guy who we recently met. Seems like I've been knowing him a long time, though.

And he runs a really, really good place in High Point, North Carolina, called the Heroes Center. And so we want to welcome you, Bob, to Man Talk Radio. Welcome, Bob. Well, thank you for letting me break the tie between the two of you. It's now two white guys.

Yeah, maybe I'll be refereeing between you two because you all go way back and I'm the new guy in. Well, it is kind of balanced. So Keith's sitting on the other side of the wall. So it is two and two. There you go. If we put it to a vote, we all raise our hands.

We get Keith in the tech studio there to do that. Yes, greetings out to the All Truths Network. I'm Bob Uber. I'm the old combat officer from Vietnam. And after coming back from Vietnam, I thought I brought my Bronze Star and lots of saved up money and I was good to go. But later on in life, I realized that I also brought the war back home with me. And I've been diagnosed with 100% rating for PTSD. And out of that came a passion to serve veterans.

And so I've been doing that for a number of years. And now just a couple of years ago, we partnered by lease with the John Wesley campground nonprofit. And we now are the leaseholder of the John Wesley campground. We now call it as you said, well, hero center. And there we try to help veterans of all ages and all times of service, but primarily younger millennial vets, as we try to help them move from the military in a very structured environment into the civilian world, which is very chaotic and unstructured to do that. So we're somewhat of a transition center. We really try to help them with life skills as they try to assimilate into, you know, just in a domestic environment. We try to learn financial literacy, resume writing, public speaking, all of those things. Secondly, we try to help them deal with the wounds of war. We call personal well being.

And we try to around do things outdoors and all about that they enjoy doing, which is kind of the draw, build relationships. And out of that, you can develop trust. This is our faith based piece. This is where I recognize that the healing from the wounds of war come primarily through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Amen.

He's the guy that can transform. We talk about mind, body and spirit. Military only talk about mind and body, they give no quarter or no to the spirit. But we do try to recognize that the spirit of a man or woman is where faith and hope reside. And out of that personal relationship, they can have a renewed mind, a transformed mind, a mind that's in Christ.

And so that's it. And then of course, we try to help them with their employment, we try to give them some training, job skills, workforce development, and try to push them out and settle into a society like the rest of us. They're hard workers are patriotic, they take orders are really attractive to employers.

And they become part of the economic fiber of the community. And so we're excited to even though slow down, we're still ongoing with that ministry, we've got four residents out there, and we're ready to launch some job training classes as soon as we've got a handle on this COVID virus. And so we don't have just men though, although it's men's talk time, we have worked with the females, we have a W vet group. And we have a vet female resident that's living out there now who came in a homeless situation, and she's trying to transition back in and my wife Bev, who is the camp director, as well as the social worker for mental health and well being.

She's been working with her, she's now working and very vibrant and productive. So where this is a men's talk, we do minister to men and women alike. So I'm delighted to be here and shout out to all the vets are out there listening. And if you ever want to come by and see us with 1500 Bridges Drive, and we're looking for volunteers, we have coffees, if it's a vet, you want to come out, we'll find something for you to do to be blessed by to contribute to or maybe find the help that you need to deal with some of the issues you're facing.

That's great, Bob. So are you partnered with employers in the area that makes it easy for them to maybe start easing back into the workplace there in the High Point area? Yes, we're all looking for a job.

And a little bit overwhelmed with the numbers. If we go down to Fort Bragg, for example, people coming out of their first enlistment, so it's kind of one and done four years out. There's about 500 a month that that separate from the military.

So just Fort Bragg alone, not not considered countrywide. And so there definitely is a need to help them transitioning. And most of them that do prefer the trades, they do want to work with their hands, they do want to be outdoors, and they like to go out and hunt and camp and do all of those things. And quite honestly, it's a it's a hiring bonanza for a veteran to come looking, they almost can pick any trade.

They don't even have to go to school. I mean, there are employers out there, they'll do direct hire. What we offer, if you look at the big picture, there's a four year solution to employment. That's called a university.

There's a two year for associate degree at a community college. But in eight to 12 weeks, we can give them a certificate of completion in a job skill, whether it's electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or carpentry. And we can we can apprentice them almost immediately, and have them out there into the workforce. There's just a real demand. And so part of it is helping you become a better employee, because they do bring some of the issues of anxiety or flashbacks or some of those things.

That's where we really can help bridge them and handle that and be able to deal with those issues that are unique somewhat to the trauma that they faced. But otherwise, they make great employees. And so they're calling us employers are saying, you know, do you have anybody? And they're they're eager to hire, they just know vets are good employees are served well. Now, this certification that you're talking about this in eight to 12 weeks is that through like GTCC that does the ready, ready jobs.

I can't quick start. Yeah, well, that's it. That is a lot of them go to GTCC to do that.

A little bit of the community colleges are designed to hold them for two years, because they get paid to get them keep them in school. And so ours is just a shorter variation of that. And there's two, there's actually a full certified, you know, by the Department of Commerce and by VA. But if employers looking for a direct hire, he's just saying, Bob, give them the basics. And the other thing is, just check them out. So part of their stay here is just help them get into VA, help them get their benefits, help them get housing. And then for your thing, I'll do the rest.

I do that. So there's just a huge demand, solar installers. Pike Electric is looking for linemen.

Oh, yeah. Just a wide open opportunity in spite of that pandemic. Although we can't meet in classes, like we'd like to, the needs still there. Those guys are essential. They're working, they're looking for help. And we would love to have any veteran connect directly with us on a one on one.

We can't formalize the training. But we can sure do direct hires. There's just developers and people landscaping is huge. We want to start a whole landscaping company, just because the demand is so high. There's still building homes, there's still development that's going on.

And all of those need landscapes. And so it's a great time to be a vet. And we just want to help them get their benefits. We want to help them connect in community. Our three core mantras, and I'll give you all the mic back is honor, which is home benefits and connection to the community because that's what they left.

They had that bond of brotherhood. And so we kind of want to build that community. Heal is again, our faith base, spiritually, mentally, socially, physically, the heal, and then the higher that's training, education and employment. Honor, heal and higher is what we're all about at the hero center on 1500 Bridges Drive in High Point, North Carolina. Where are you located again?

So you guys are doing you're doing the whole person, it sounds like and that's I think what the what the vet who is coming out from that structured environment, as you'd indicated to an unstructured one to give them some direction and focus. How big is the campus out there, Bob? Yes, that's one of the real pluses for us. Number one, we're located right in downtown High Point. We're right next to the old abandoned mall and across from High Point University. So we're strategically located. We're sitting on eight acres.

So we have room to develop. We got big community gardens, and we have a big auditorium that will hold 500 people. So we host a lot of community events are just looking for a location.

We have a large community center that we can have a banquet for up to 80 people. Right now we are using existing cottages. So we can take about 10 residents in the cottages that have been remodeled and repurposed. There are also two very large block barracks looking structures that are on the property. And they take 20 rooms each. And so we do have a permit from the city in order to renovate those buildings.

It's just a little bit cost prohibitive. We have to meet, you know, it's an old building from 1940. And this block building, so it's not going to fall. But they're wanting, you know, sprinkler systems and fire retention in each room. And so you're talking about two or three $400,000 to renovate those buildings to code.

And so that's a, that's kind of a, you know, major campaign in order to do that. Most of them could commute to our programming, you could come to day class, but some who came from out of state, then we would hold those 10 spots. For those that came in, they come on weekends, if they came up from Camp Lejeune or down at Fort Benning or Fort Bragg, then we would provide that residency option.

But most of them come in as day students. And we try to cram it into a three day week, and then give them a day on the field, working with Habitat or some contractor, and then they're home for the weekend to be able to stay connected to their families. And the midst of all of that is when we do these life skills, you know, when you use personal well being where we again are working with them while they're there to help them.

A holistic is the whole approach that we have. We're all on that. So, that is absolutely great. And see, you don't have to be a veteran listener in order to help. So, you know, Bob is looking for volunteers. And if you, if you are out there and you know vets that might be affiliated with your church or something like that, and you want to come out and volunteer, how does a person do that, Bob?

How do they get in contact with you? Yes, so our direct phone line, if you want to jot it down out there in your listening audience, it's 336, which would be common, 884-HERO, H-E-R-O-4376. And our website, heroescenter.org. We are coming up on a break right now, but we're going to come back and continue talking with Bob Uber with Heroes Center and High Point. Dr. Jeff Fricke has been caring for patients in High Point for 34 years.

Physical therapy, such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions, such as herniation, comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out of pocket expense. Remember, affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point. Call 336-885-1987. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio. This is Roy Jones. We're just having a good time here visiting with Bob. So Bob's trying to pull some wool over our eyes, I guess, if you will. So Bob, we appreciate your intro and telling us all about your centers and how people can get engaged to be a part of that and also a way to serve the vets because we know that they're, you know, we appreciate what they do, the service they provide, but too often it's if it's out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. And it's good that you're keeping it on the forefront for the community, for us as a radio audience and and just the in your church people as well.

So that that's pretty amazing. So Bob, as you see the men and women come into the HERO Center, what are some of the specific issues that you have seen that they bring in? And we can, because I know that there are vets who might be listening to the program or spouses of vets or friends of vets and they might be experiencing some of these same issues that you you're going to talk to us about. Yeah, you've got to get by the the macho image of a of a veteran who is invincible and never says no to a mission and able to conquer all things. And so, you know, in a person's mind is where their will resides. So you talk about mind, body and spirit. The will of a man is stronger than the physical being of a man.

A man can do incredible feats and he can force his body to go up on another mission and climb another hill with no sleep. But this little mental health, this combat trauma, this PTSD is actually a wound to the mind. And so when they start hitting these attacks, and I'll give a little bit of descriptive terms in a second here, they think they can just force their will over their mind.

An example of that is the number one treatment for combat trauma is self-induced drugs and alcohol. Because what it does is it anesthetizes the mind. Because what is going on is the mind is like a computer processor and the brain is the storage or the hard drive. So when we have a vacation file, a grand kid file, a work file, we open and close it and put it all of our mind. But trauma, a crisis, just sits and spins in the mind and it can't find any place in the brain to store it. It's like a square peg into a round hole. So they have the flashbacks and they have all of this and they don't know what to do with it, okay?

And so that's why they anesthetize it with drugs and alcohol. So when you're dealing specifically then with these guys, and we try to do that in an outdoor environment, candidly, just the best place, fishing or hunting. And I'll go up to a guy and I'll say, you know, I'm a combat vet myself. I can tell you four things about you and I've only known you for an hour. Number one is you're agitated all the time. You're just, you know, in their vernacular, just all going around pissed off, just angry at everybody. And number two is you've got all these images that come flashing back.

They're just sitting up there. We know that because we've all experienced that. Flashbacks, those things that your mind just can't store until they just sit there. And number three is you're probably fighting an addiction of one form or another with drugs, whether it's alcohol, whether it's pornography or what it is, because that just takes your mind away from the crisis. And number four is that you and mama aren't getting together too much, I would suggest, because she doesn't want to bite into any of this. She doesn't want your anger.

She doesn't want. So that's kind of a four tier step. And being a veteran myself, I can say, hey, Charlie, you know, if you're not willing to unzip and look inside and say that there's a crisis going on, you're going to sit in your man cave chair with your six pack and a remote control and you're just going to sit there. But, you know, how's that worked out for the last two or three years? You know, it just isn't.

You feel inadequate, you feel stuck, you feel, you know, no way out of it because you don't, you don't know how to deal with that. And, and so part of it is just getting them to open up. Part of it is just getting them to realize that, hey, everybody in this room has the same issue you have. We're all fighting their flashbacks. We're all fighting our anger issues and detachment in relationship. We want to isolate. We hide under our helmet. It's so amazing because if you went into Walgreens, pulled a gun on a group of people there and everybody was on the floor, those eight people would bond and sing Kumbaya in a group counseling session and help each other through all of those traumas.

Oh yeah, me too. But a military will not do that. They'll isolate.

They won't, they won't talk about it. So what you create is a closet. And so look at World War II.

Grandpa never talked about World War II. He'd locked his closet would never talk about it. Other people go into the closet and lock themselves in and they end up under the bridge.

They're consumed by it. Okay. So a more direct and viable approach is go with someone or with some help.

Go into the closet. Let's begin to talk about it. Give you ways to deal with anxiety. There are ways to deal with anxiety. And so where my wife Bev is so good is her ability to give them the tools of mindfulness and breathing techniques and different ways that they can get control of this anxiety.

So it really is all about giving them tools, a tool bag, and a faith-based relationship that can help them get through those speed bumps when they come at them and they come out of nowhere. The real issue is there's this differentiation between the mind and the emotion. So I can know that I'm at home with my family and I'm in a good setting, but I can hear something outside or I can smell something and emotionally I am just thrust into a setting that's very chaotic to me and very threatening and deadly to me. And my emotion is to take over, you know.

And so if you don't have some throttles to that, you don't have some management tools to help them, you know, just step back. You can do a cleansing. Don't forget I'm still a father. I'm still a husband. You know, I'm still at home here.

And talk yourself down, then you can manage it. But even back to the employment piece, more and more employers, I know Old Dominion, to give a shout out to the trucking company, they're tending to send them out in the buddy system. Well, how nice is that?

Two by two. So that a guy hits New York City with his truck and say, whoa, I can't do the city. Then you just swap out or a guy, you know, brings them down. And so that's a very biblical principle as well, is to have a buddy system.

Yeah, very much so. Part of the issue then is buddying up these people because they had a battle buddy. You know, the guy says, I got your six. That means I've got your back. And when you walk out of the unit and give up your uniform and give up that battle buddy, then you're lost. And now you've gone from a structured environment into a very civilian chaotic environment. With nobody by your side. And nobody by your side. And you get isolated, I don't care who you are, whether you're military or not, you'll get picked off.

Yeah, you'll get picked off and say, waiting to jump on you. First thing you gotta fight is isolation. Just get in it. So that's what we try to create as a community. So the Hebrew Center is all about community.

So you come as one, but you become part of the brotherhood. It's, you know, that uniqueness of being a veteran. And so you're a veteran, you're welcome, whatever you were, whatever you did. If you're a veteran, that's your calling card. And we honor veterans and the community does too. And I have to say, unlike when I was in Vietnam, and I got ran out of an airport, when I come back from Vietnam, society is a little bit more accepting of the service of the veteran, regardless of your political persuasion. They do say, hey, we want to honor your service. And people do that. I challenge people, though, who say, Oh, thank you for your service. I'm real careful with this. So I'll do it publicly.

So I'm not talking to anybody in particular. I want to say that makes you feel good. But you need to pick up a shovel or a pen and come out and do something and help lift the load and help be that volunteer and help come alongside and, and then some resources or time or talent to help as a mentor or just, you know, serve the needs of the center and would love to have you and so you can think of that by serving event. And we invite them to do that.

Yeah, that's a good challenge. Exactly. Because it's it's not just about word. It's about deed.

Right. So carrying out that particular requirement that that vet might need. And, you know, the big the biggest thing for me that I saw being a vet myself is the element of trust. That a veteran has a tendency not to trust a lot of people.

But you have to build that trust. And of course, Bob, you talked about that, you know, you talked about building that trust factor and beginning to break down the wall of of going into that shell or into that closet and holding all these things in and not letting them be manifest so someone can openly help. So with that said, how can a individual as a veteran, veteran, how can they benefit personally from the experience that you have out there at the hero center?

A couple of ways. Well, number one is we do a number of group activities that we put them together. This is a great shout out for Mr. Epperson, because he has a what we call the warrior form up in Iraq, Virginia. And Stu Senior said to Bob, you bring your veterans out there at no cost. And so that becomes the carrot that really will draw us together. And then that's just a great time to have the activity and to build the trust.

But back to your specific question, though, the frustration that most veterans have is trying to resolve their issues alone. So we say, Well, we got to get you to VA and get you some benefits. They say, Oh, I've been there.

I'll never go back. I say, Well, yes, you are, because that's where the money is. So we can help them navigate. There's another fine organization called NC serves.

That's shepherded by USO. And it's a care providing platform of a number of nonprofits that have come together in like a 360. And so you go in and put your information in and it opens up maybe 25 different organizations. So you go in and say, Well, what do you need? We need transportation.

And you say, Okay, do the drop down menu. They have education, they have housing, they have employment. They have stuff for my spouses, they have other family. So NC serves, come let us help you coordinate your benefits, help you get medical, maybe get some kind of compensation that you're deserving, and get you going on the right track as well as a job. Wow.

Quite a bit for help for veterans. And I think that's the thing, folks, if you're listening, is that you can make a difference. You need to be a part of this.

And absolutely. If you're just listening and you're sitting on the sidelines, as we always challenge men, get off the sidelines isn't a spiritual walk. Here's an opportunity to get off the sidelines and help help those that have served us and who have kept them protected our freedoms. We thank you for joining us, Bob, it's good to have you with us. And we'll, we'll be back with you next week on part two of this conversation. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM talking and walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with a desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk. This is the truth network.