Ramblings of a busy mind...

WOTW Blog Post #002

I’m trying to figure out a logical frequency for blog posts but for now it’s when feel like it and have time. This morning I was chatting with an old friend via Facebook Messenger. We were talking about the stuff our troops had to endure when returning home from Vietnam. I wasn’t yet born but imagining that experience as a Marine veteran - putting myself into their combat boots so to speak - makes me physically ill. A war’s popularity is irrelevant; they all suck. Our troops should never be judged for the decisions made by politicians. With that said I see an opportunity to explain some things about why I’m finding myself running a foundation.

Mid-late 2023 I was working on putting a short film together in an effort to seek funding for a TV miniseries. In doing so I did several interviews. Some were recorded while I was riding my motorcycles. This audio will be used at some point but I’m not sure when because I have changed course with my approach to the miniseries. The interviews were with two groups of people: veteran suicide attempt survivors and Vietnam veterans. I took away a lot of things from these interviews. Trend analysis is something I’m naturally good at and I see trends very quickly that other people often don’t see. The suicide interview trends were very troubling. One in particular involved extreme negligence bordering on criminal negligence by mental health professionals. The veteran in this case attempted suicide twice. At least one of these times she told the so called professionals she was suicidal. They responded with indifference and frustration because they had to do extra paperwork to document her suicidal ideations. They then proceeded to convince her she wasn’t actually suicidal ‘right now’ because she was in an office setting and she wanted to kill herself with a vehicle. Because she wasn’t suicidal enough to hurt herself in the office setting they let her go. She walked out of the office, got into her vehicle, and had a head-on collision with a tree. This is not uncommon for veterans seeking help. Vietnam veteran interviews were humbling for me as a younger veteran. I honestly didn’t know if they would talk to me, the interviewer, at all. Most didn’t know me. But they knew I was a Marine and a combat veteran. That was enough to get me some access.

They came home from Vietnam and were usually alone in a country they protected surrounded by people that hated veterans. They isolated. They drank. They smoked reefer. Then we talked about motorcycles. Some had ridden, some hadn’t. Those that had ridden motorcycles on American soil following a combat tour had one thing to say and I heard it repeatedly: ‘That motorcycle saved my life after Vietnam.’ Mental health is an issue that has been downplayed, ignored, and even made fun of over the years. Veterans returning home from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Post-911 era all had vastly different experiences with the American public’s perception of them as veterans. Over the years the public’s perception of veterans seems to have changed, sometimes for the better. The stigmas remain.

Regardless of where and when the veterans had served and continue to serve to this day one thing continues to come to the surface: veterans need to do a better job of taking care of their own kind. Motorcycling is an excellent way for us to keep tabs on each other. This is why our foundation exists. Veterans + motorcycling = better mental health for our protectors. We are gathering empirical data to prove this with statistically significant research across the country.

SPOILER ALERT: Warriors of the Wind is a full-blown mental health study. This is why the foundation exists. Stay tuned for more surprises……