{"id":61868,"date":"2015-09-16T15:32:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T19:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=61868"},"modified":"2015-09-16T15:32:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T19:32:39","slug":"rafting-with-wounded-marines-and-corpsmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=61868","title":{"rendered":"Rafting with wounded Marines and Corpsmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As most of you know I’ve been out of comms for about two weeks going down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. 10 Days out there, 226 miles from Lee’s ferry to the debark place which was some creek that doubled as a road. <\/p>\n

Anyway, it was beyond amazing, and by far the best 10 days of my life. It was physically exhausting (hikes and paddling about killed me) and sleeping on the rocks and sand was something I had hoped to have left behind in Afghanistan. But having been home a week now, I find that more so I am struggling with some of the SUPER HEAVY SHIT we talked about. Don’t get me wrong, it was entirely cathartic, but tough.<\/p>\n

One example, and the person agreed to let me share his story. Dave was an 0311 in the Marine Corps, and he and his best friend of two years deployed together. His friend was killed, while he stood there, and there was nothing he could do. Instead of wanting out, Dave volunteered for every possible mission, every possible deployment. He wanted to kill as many of the bad guys as he could. And he did. And somehow he avoided getting himself killed, which he hadn’t really wanted to do. When he came home, he had trouble dealing with it. One night Dave hung himself. His wife came in, and cut him down, grabbed a paramedic down the street and they saved him. (Thank God.) <\/p>\n

Now Dave talks about what happened to him, as a tribute to his friend, and because no one should ever feel alone. When he talked about it, it opened up a log jam of others telling their stories as well. It was tough. Real tough.<\/p>\n

Anyway, you’ll read more about it when I write the article, but if some of you wondered if the DRC scared me off, HELLS NO. Just working my way through the trip, and leaving for Montana tomorrow. But wanted to share this video with you, thought some of you might enjoy it. And if you ever get a chance to go to Grand Canyon, GO.<\/p>\n