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From Pain to Purpose - Live from San Antonio! · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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This entire military is 1 cohesive dedicated force and the
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threats to our nations, they don't sleep.
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They're watching our every move. Iran, Russia, China, North
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Military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a
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voice. Find us on the web at MB Radio.
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Dot. US.
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Welcome to the Propane to Purpose radio show.
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I'm your host Viva. Fulton in this show.
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We explore the incredible journeys of resilience, healing
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and transformation. In each episode, we will sit
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down with individuals good face unimaginable struggles and turn
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their pain into power, heartbreak into hope, and their
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challenges into meaningful change and finding new purpose
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in life. Through candid conversations and
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inspiring stories, we will uncover how pain, whether
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emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual, can be the catalyst
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for profound growth and a deeper sense of purpose.
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So if you are looking for motivation, insight, and real
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stories of triumph over adversity, if you're in the
2:12
right place, let's get started on this journey from pain to
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purpose. Let's give veterans a voice
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through military broadcast talk. Welcome, everybody.
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Welcome to the From Pain to Purpose radio show.
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I am live from San Antonio at the Women Veterans VA Summit for
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the Southwest Conference. I probably didn't say that all
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in the right order, but hopefully you get what I mean.
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You know? All right, So, you know, like,
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this is what my normal thing is. Where in the world is Eva?
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You know, so I wasn't quite sure if I was going to go ahead and
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make the trip down here. I had some different wise on why
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I chose to come down and attend the summit.
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But you know, my heart gets reaffirmed with not what my own
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personal motivation is on why I came down here, but the greater
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good on on what the why, why do we even have summits like this?
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So I'm going to go ahead and go back a little bit on the history
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side of things. You know, I got out in 2000.
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So active duty, I served about 12 years from reserves a a
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transition from reserves to active duty.
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In what year was that? That was 1990 and you know,
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ended up going to Desert Shield Storm and experienced selling of
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that, but ended up getting out in 2000.
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And you know, I was one of those people that had full intentions
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that I was going to retire, but my body said, yeah, I don't
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think so. And and then I got married as
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well. So there was some personal
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motivations in getting out, but that was not something that I
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had planned on doing for quite some time because I, like I
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said, I had my head wrapped around that the Army was going
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to be my career. And you know, some of the
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transition afterwards has not been so easy even after all of
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these years. Part of my own personal story,
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not just from the physical side, but you know, career wise.
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Originally I got hired on with a couple of tech companies and got
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laid off. And so, you know, you quickly
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find out the stability, whatever you call stability, the
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stability that was happening in the in in the military was not
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quite the same on the civilian side of things.
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But then there was this whole gamut of just understanding
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anything about veteran resources and you know, the perception
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about in our experiences that have shaped us as females in the
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VA system and with veteran organizations has has been quite
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a different experience as well. So, you know, one of my first
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first encounters dealing with veteran service organizations
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was filing claims. And the veteran service
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organization that I had worked with didn't know how to help me
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as a woman. And these were musculos,
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musculoskeletal issues that I mainly was filing for, but he
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didn't know how to help a woman. And that's probably something
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that has been repeated time and time again.
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I, I'm, I'm giving this as a prelude that if we wonder why a
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specific women veterans summit happens, it's because there are
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some gender specific issues that are different for us as women,
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then there are for the males. But then sometimes some of the
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same things, you know, go hand in hand and we experienced, you
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know, very similar issues. But one of the first main
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community things that I got involved with and helped lead
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there was myself and working for a federal agency partnered with
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another federal agency representative.
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So we Co LED a very social event for women veterans in North
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Texas and I think when we were doing this, this was in the
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20/16/2017 time frame, we were kind of like the groundbreaking
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side of having social events like that.
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But we recognize the issue then that community was part of the
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solution. So I'm going to give a shout out
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to people like Draya Lewis, who now is also, she works for the
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VA, Brandy Baxter. And there were a list of other
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people. I mean, I'm sorry, I can't
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remember everybody's names, but we were this great community
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that worked with the state of Texas.
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That was Anna Baker and Pam Merricklein, who worked with TBC
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at the time and helped provide some of that funding.
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So Texas is specifically North Texas because that's the, that's
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the area of Texas that I was living in at the time.
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Most of the time since I've gotten out of the Army that, you
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know, we started this very community based organizational
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area. I started a Facebook group
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called North Texas Women Veterans in 2016 and then I
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expanded it to North Texas Veterans, a Coed group called
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North Texas Veterans. And that was because I knew that
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I recognized that if the women were having issues, the men were
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having issues and sometimes male and female needed to be in the
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same group. So, you know, if you're located
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in North Texas, feel free to join those Facebook groups.
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I say all of that to, you know, to really help set the
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foundation that the community has a lot of information that
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can solve or a be part of the solution on a lot of the issues
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that veterans face. You know, when we talk about
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military broadcast radio giving veterans a voice, a lot of that
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starts at the community level and us helping provide the
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information itself. So what is I'm going to share my
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screen? What is the purpose of the Women
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Veterans Summit? This is coming from the V As
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website. They had shared this information
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out and you know this, I don't know that I probably shared it
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enough. There are some other folks, some
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other women from North Texas down here, but this was an
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invitation to the region that they had put out.
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Let me let me had to sorry. So they called on.
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So this was put out by the Center for Women Veterans, and
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this particular event is housed at for the Southwest region and
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they sent out a letter that they're coming, but I want you
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to see that they are going out to other regions as well.
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So it's the main reason why I want to be able to put this
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information out to you guys so that as the VA puts out this
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information, you can go to your particular regions summit.
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And why should you attend? So what's the purpose?
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Well, part of it is that they are doing some registration, but
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that's not all that's happening here.
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And I, I want you to be able to understand why.
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So they have their own information that they're sharing
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and go ahead and unshare this. So the VA has a lot of
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information that they are putting out.
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Man, I took so many screenshots of of some of the information
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that they shared. Let me cover these are all on my
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phone so I'll have to put these up later that they talked about
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listening to women veterans. There are surveys that they put
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out, so you need to, if you want to have a voice, you need to
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answer the surveys. OK, the VA and sends those out.
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I, I know that I get reminder calls when they're going to have
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town halls. If you want to be part of the
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process, you need to answer the surveys.
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I encourage you to attend, get involved in some of the studies
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that they have too. They have a community veterans
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engagement board. They want your VA stories.
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They want to. Apparently they have a new
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workbook for women veterans and that's to help them set goals,
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find resources. They want your feedback to shape
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the workbook and make sure it meets the needs of the women
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veterans across the country. Mean, how cool is that?
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That they are taking an initiative to do things,
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connecting with the VA, learning to serve.
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So they have VA phone support 1800, my VA 411.
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They have a download welcome kit.
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Of course they have the veterans crisis line as you know, call
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91988 and then press 1. They have Ava Veterans Homeless
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support system for their homeless programs and that is
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you can go to va.gov/homeless or call 877-424-3838 and of course
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you can apply for VA healthcare. They've had claims people down
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there as well. You could have brought your
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stuff and be able to go ahead and start your claim.
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There's some other nonprofits here.
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I'm going to get to that in a minute.
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Lots of great folks. I was trying to slide through my
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pictures. I took a we took a ton of
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pictures to get to some of the other, other slides over here.
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Definition of self empowerment. So in a way, that's part of what
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Drea and Brandy and I and the whole group back in 2017 wanted
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to help was, you know, self empowerment.
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Because when we have information, we can start
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processing. What do I need to start doing to
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help myself, right? I don't care whether it's
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education, you know how to when you self empowerment to go and
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get your hair cut to get your nails done.
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Well, what about the rest of the holistic story for self
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empowerment to improve your situation?
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Self empowerment is the internal process.
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This is the definition that they that the VA is given.
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Self empowerment is the internal process of developing
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confidence, autonomy and resilience to take control of
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your life and achieve your personal goals goals.
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It involves self-awareness, setting healthy boundaries,
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making informed decisions and nurturing your own well-being.
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This mindset shift enables you to navigate challenges, tap into
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your NA potential, and create positive change.
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Rather than waiting for external sources, sources of power,
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permission, you have the power to navigate your own path.
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You know, I always talk about my hiking goals, my, you know, my
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participating in the VA Golden Age games.
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I didn't wait for a referral from my healthcare provider to
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get assigned to the coach. Well, I didn't do well because
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the VA didn't give me a coach to to do anything.
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Do you have to have a coach tell you go to the gym?
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Hey, go, go hit the bowl. All right, These are some things
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that you have control of to go do it.
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And I'm giving you permission if you don't have permission
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already. If you haven't given yourself
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permission already, I'm helping to encourage you get out and go
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do. This is self empowerment to get
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out there and find the information that you don't have
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right now that you need help with.
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And I don't care whether it is education, maybe it's a weight
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loss goal, maybe it is coming to an event.
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I'm happy to always share this kind of information because
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guess what? Eva doesn't collect it to keep
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it for herself. I mean, I could do that, sure,
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but that's not my messaging ever.
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I'm giving veterans a voice so that I'm helping somebody else
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so you can get the information and even if you don't use it,
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share it and help somebody else. All right, So what else have I
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learned? Let's go to the next one here.
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This was a neat little slide. Am I ready for change?
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Are you ready for change 'cause that's a mindset too.
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You have to recognize what you're receiving right now, the
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the life that you are living right now.
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How is that working for you? Because maybe you are ready for
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change. Hey there.
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I see you into the weeds. That's one of our other radio
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show host. Thank you.
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You know, we have to be ready for change because the
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definition of insanity is if what you're doing is the same
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old, same old, and that's not working for you, then what are
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you going to do? Right?
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It's time to make a change. So you have to decide, Are you
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ready for change? I can't decide that for you.
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But if you want something different then you have to be
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willing to take the next step and move towards change.
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So what does this slide say? So they actually are getting.
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I got to put the glasses on, sorry.
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This is getting into a framework, you know, kind of a
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psychological side of things. It's the trans theoretical model
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of behavior change. TTM identifies 6 stages of
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readiness experienced by an individual attempting to change
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one pre contemplation. Pre contemplation is failing to
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recognize the need for change. So you're pre contemplating
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whether you need it, but then failing to recognize that you
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need to change. That make sense?
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Contemplation. You're seriously considering the
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need for change, but that doesn't mean you're doing.
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You're just contemplating. All right, the wheels are
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spinning, the engines turned on, but you haven't engaged the
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gears and press the gas to go anywhere.
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Preparation. You're making small changes.
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You, you know, you're preparing to change the wheels.
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You are preparing. You're putting gas in the engine
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or not an engine, but you know you're putting gas in the tank.
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You're preparing you, you getting things ready.
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But that's doesn't mean you're doing action.
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You're exercising for less than six months, so you're you're
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driving down the road, but you haven't necessarily gone very
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far. Maintenance, regular exercise
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lasting longer than six months and then terminating.
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You find engines off. I'm sitting on the couch and I'm
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going nowhere fast. So Are you ready for change?
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The the little The little cartoon says since we can't eat
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out, now's the perfect time to eat better, get fit, and stay
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healthy. But the other little birdie, the
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little dragon says we're quarantined.
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Who the hell are we trying to impress?
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We have snacks. We have sweatpants.
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By God, I say we use them. So you know, that's really are
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we making good choices? We're making bad choices, bad
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choices, probably doing nothing good choices getting engaged and
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we're doing something we're we're finding information that
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is going to help us not sit at home and twiddle our thumbs and
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and become a victim and wonder why, why are things not
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improving? Well, because you have to
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actively want to engage in change and that starts with
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sometimes getting information coming to an event like this.
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Let's see, what's another slide I have.
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Poly vagal theory is a different slide.
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So this was from yesterday. Your nervous system is not
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broken. It's trying to protect you, so
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you have to understand your nervous system on your story,
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choose your path. The polyvagal theory explains
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how your autonomic nervous system A&S helps you respond to
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safety or a threat. You're not overreacting.
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Your body remembers. One is your parasympathetic,
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ventral vagal social engagement. Safety.
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I'm safe. Wherever you are, you're safe.
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You know that the people that are around you, probably your
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family, you feel healthy, you feel safe and you get
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comfortable and you stay right there.
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I feel calm, connected and present.
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I'm able to engage, empathize and think clearly.
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Body feels regulated. Heart rate is steady.
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Example, you like spending time with people who get you feeling
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supported and understood. Purpose, meaning connection,
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using tools that build resilience, breathe, work,
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movement, mindfulness, and rest. The sympathetic mobilization
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side is where you know you start getting outside of your comfort
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zone. Something inside something isn't
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safe. I need to fix or escape flight,
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fight, hyper vigilance, anxiety, worry, restlessness, muscle
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tension, headaches, racing hard. Hard to think clearly.
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Examples of those trigger mechanisms or loud noises,
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crowds, chaos, conflict or confrontation.
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Confrontation, thinking about past trauma, feeling judged or
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unsafe, Too much stress, not enough as support your dorsal
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vagal in engages in shutdown when you feel like your life is
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threatened. So that's freeze, collapse,
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numbness, disconnected, blank, exhausted, depression,
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hopelessness, chronic pain, heavy fatigue, can't get out of
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bed, no energy. Your examples are you feel
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overwhelmed for too long, isolation, withdrawal,
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flashback, shame, hopelessness, helplessness when the body gives
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up to protect you. Listen, you know I've been
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through some stuff in life, right?
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Been through some stuff after my car wreck, after my husband left
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me, you know, making some of these choices, getting out of
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the military when I didn't want to, getting laid off all of
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these, you know, my second husband left me that, you know,
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just the just the thinking about it.
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I have those, have those, I want to say flashbacks, but you have
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those memories and you, you know, you recognize that.
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Yeah, I've kind of lived all three of these things.
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One of the things that I actually did that helped me move
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and navigate out of that those levels two and three was going
24:50
and serving other people in the very times and I actually talk
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about this in my book Welcome to my People Garden in the very
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times when I thought that I was probably the victim and I
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thought somebody needed to serve me.
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God kind of put me in this situation that says no, go serve
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other people. These were homeless people over
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in Dallas was part of an assignment and they were much
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more less than situation, even though, I mean, I was housed, I
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could eat, I, you know, we were safe.
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And when your mind kind of makes these distinctions about which
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scenario I'm at 1, two or three that I just got through reading
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your, it changes your perception on things.
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So getting out and serving has been one of the very things when
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I start getting low, when I start wanting to withdraw, I get
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out and I go serve. And I know it sounds very
26:14
counterintuitive to get out, but you kind of have to get out of
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your own way because it's actually putting you in the very
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situation that's going to help you heal.
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And when you come to Oregon and, you know, you come to events
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like this, you know, you have this sense of reunion.
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I mean, that was a experience that at the VA Golden Age game
26:43
several weeks ago, saw my Sergeant major that I served
26:46
with in Germany was not expecting to see him there at
26:50
all. I had the comfort of my friend
26:54
Jose Flores, who's on the motivated mindset after the
26:58
show. My friend Ann Maker was there
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and you know, things, things were, you know, yes, there were
27:07
some challenges on how my body was feeling that week, but I had
27:12
some comfort level of things with the company that I was
27:16
keeping. Then when I, that following
27:21
week, Jose and I were teaching that Veterans Initiative class
27:25
with Common Ground and, you know, where's my mic teaching
27:31
this podcasting class, You know, so you're teaching it to new
27:35
people, but the common, you know, situation is that these
27:39
are veterans. So we have this neat, I want to
27:43
say familiarity and orientation with other veterans because we
27:49
all kind of get each other even when we're not feeling great, we
27:54
can empathize with each other and understand things.
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One of the most encouraging things.
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I say encouraging. It's sad but so true.
28:06
Downstairs in the exhibit exhibitors section, and I was
28:13
going through peddling my survey, and I'll get to that in
28:16
a minute or two, I ran across this lady who is a veteran.
28:23
She's a combat veteran, and I think she's here from the San
28:28
Antonio area. Her daughter is a veteran but
28:32
has not ever had to serve in a combat area.
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But she was needing the information as well.
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So this mother, she's probably, yeah, I had to guess she
28:44
probably is about my age. She has not come to any of these
28:51
kinds of events before. And she was like, I don't know
28:55
that I recognized ever the information that I didn't know,
29:02
the questions that I hadn't thought about asking.
29:06
And maybe it's the woulda coulda, you know, woulda,
29:08
shoulda, coulda. She goes, I didn't know what I
29:11
didn't know. Well, unless and until you come
29:15
to a summit event. I mean, the topics we've heard
29:20
on for the last two days have been everything from some
29:24
financial planning side of things.
29:27
I went to a session a while ago about, you know, preparing for
29:33
burial and stuff like that. You know, my father is 83.
29:38
He's a veteran. He qualifies as well.
29:41
What are the things that I could should do in the event it's not,
29:47
you know, come on, face it, folks, it's not a matter of if
29:51
we're ever going to die, It's just a matter of when are we
29:54
going to die. How do we prepare for those
29:57
situations? Have your DD214 available for a
30:02
family member? What are your wishes?
30:05
Do you want to be buried or do you want to be cremated?
30:10
And where are these things going to happen?
30:13
The more you can help with some of the information gathering on
30:18
that, the better off your family members are going to be.
30:24
Let's see, yesterday's, yesterday afternoon's session
30:29
that I attended was about women, veterans, whole health and
30:35
through the VA model, understanding that, you know,
30:39
not everything is about getting a prescription or a surgery.
30:43
There are other things out there, resources that we can use
30:48
that can help and part of it is also going to be dependent upon
30:52
the resources that are available in your V AS area, but
31:00
acupressure is one of them. There's a self-care flyer on
31:04
acupressure. I think there are some places
31:09
that are looking at doing acupuncture as well.
31:12
I know several years ago before I went to go work in the DC
31:19
area, I was getting the ear acupuncture right.
31:23
Those little, those little stud things that they kind of they
31:28
stay in almost a week. They're little bitty, little
31:32
bitty jewels, little metal things that they kind of punk
31:37
puncture into here and I don't know what else to call it, but
31:42
they kind of stay in the ear, but they do both ears and that's
31:48
supposed to help with headaches. It kind of hadn't helped a
31:51
little bit, but you know, there are plenty of acupressure points
31:56
that you can do. You know, there, there are a lot
32:02
of resources out there, the VA that we probably could have 15
32:07
shows on each one to help explain.
32:12
But here is some more from the whole health, whole health
32:16
resources. I'll try to share some of this
32:19
information out on my page. But they are looking at
32:23
self-care. If, you know, we can't expect
32:25
that the VA or that the federal government can provide every
32:30
part of self-care. A lot of that still is dependent
32:33
upon the the things that we do on our own, making better food
32:40
choices, making better movement choices, and, you know, really
32:45
kind of helping ourselves. And I'm going to get into kind
32:49
of the biblical side of things. Don't be gluttonous with what
32:56
you eat and think that something's going to get better.
32:59
So there's there's that. Let's see what else I have so
33:04
many Flyers here. We've had who are some of the
33:08
speakers? We've had some local speakers,
33:10
had some other speakers that came in from out of state.
33:15
Phyllis Wilson from the Women's Memorial talked with us today.
33:21
I looked up and I could have sworn I had submitted my story
33:26
on the Women's Memorial way back when.
33:29
And maybe I just can't pull it up by my phone.
33:32
So. So I need to, I need to recreate
33:36
my profile with Women's Memorial, give my oral history.
33:41
I've kind of done a thing or two.
33:42
So it's OK. Now I have more to add to it.
33:46
Let's see, one of my very favorite people is Miss Candy
33:52
Martin. She is.
33:54
She's downstairs manning the Daughters of the American
33:58
Revolution table. I was so excited to get to see
34:02
her. I met her working for HUD some
34:05
years ago. She was one of our guests, our
34:08
keynote speaker for Memorial Day ceremony.
34:12
She's also representing Gold Star Mothers, and she's promised
34:17
to come on my show. So I'm super excited.
34:20
Both both she and Phyllis have said they would come on my show.
34:25
And so I have to make sure I do better before Phyllis comes on
34:30
'cause I don't want let me chastise it.
34:33
I wasn't part of my own solution and leaving my legacy in what
34:38
I've been. Let's see, we've had there was a
34:41
chaplain, active duty chaplain that came on, spoke to us today.
34:48
Let's see. Doctor Linda Davis is the chief
34:53
officer of veterans experience. She came in and was talking
34:56
about shaping the women veterans experience.
35:01
Jacqueline Hayes Bird, of course, is the women veterans
35:06
coordinator for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
35:10
She has been hosting the entire event.
35:14
National Cemetery Administration came and talked with us as well.
35:20
Women of Valor, that was. I don't think I got to hear that
35:24
particular presentation from Captain John Herro on behalf of
35:31
his wife. She was a Lieutenant General
35:35
Patty de Jorjo. Then let's see lots of breakout
35:40
schedules today we heard about Yep.
35:46
So the fireside chat was done in service was Major General Barb
35:51
Holcomb, Army Chapdain Major Lisa Northway is Army Major
35:57
General Peggy Poor of the US Air Force and then we had suicide
36:06
prevention from Doctor Sarah Hirth homelessness and veterans
36:11
justice program with Sean Lou. He's the national homeless
36:15
program manager. By the way, I have several of
36:19
his articles referenced in my literature view on my
36:24
dissertation. So that is, it's kind of neat
36:29
meeting somebody and, and I let him, I introduced myself and
36:34
said, hey, I'm just letting you know, I've kind of been a fan of
36:36
your articles and mentioning them in my, in my dissertation,
36:42
the literature review part, then let's see.
36:45
So there's been some other, like I said, nonprofits.
36:51
Let me kind of jump into that side of things.
36:54
There is an app if y'all don't know.
36:56
There is a VA health and benefits app.
36:59
So you don't have to go just to the website versionofva.gov and
37:05
login. There's an app too.
37:08
I have not downloaded the app. I've always had that VA connect
37:11
app but I haven't downloaded the main app so I need to do that
37:15
too. Let's see, they even you know, I
37:22
love how they give you like here's the here's the link,
37:26
right, here's that. Let's say I talked with this
37:29
neat lady. So she's going to be on my show.
37:32
Forget her name. I could have her e-mail from the
37:35
veterans yoga project, mindful resilience.
37:39
So future guest here on from pain to purpose.
37:43
Then you the the ladies with the women with veterans of San
37:48
Antonio. They have really been
37:50
representing, they have shown up and showed out really well, have
37:54
a booth and everything. And that's important, right?
37:58
The local organizations really need to be here.
38:03
Oh, Melissa Washington came in from California with Women
38:08
Veterans Interactive, I think, I think I have her acronym right,
38:12
WPI. She does a lot with the veteran
38:15
businesses as well. Leah Styles, it has had a booth
38:21
and she sold out of her books, 25 books that she brought with
38:26
her, got them all autographed, sold, autographed and you know,
38:31
those are all out there. Great to see Leah.
38:36
I think 3 times I've seen her this year.
38:39
So awesome. And I, I need to order a book
38:41
from her as well. She will be coming back on my
38:44
show and talking about her book and what motivates her.
38:49
Let's see this is another VA thing Divine beauty bar.
38:54
So this was pretty cool so this lady is she does wigs, walkers,
39:00
diabetic shoes, mastectomy bras, custom breast prosthesis and so
39:09
here's some information. So she they had a booth about
39:13
some of the different, I want to say adaptive and, you know,
39:20
prosthetic type things, you know, because, you know, let's
39:25
face it, women do get breast cancer, happen to have to have
39:31
mastectomies. But they don't want to not be
39:34
able to look like they can still wear a bra, still want to have
39:37
some kind of semblance of having a female figure and not have it,
39:45
you know, be absent the press. Let's see what other information
39:52
I have. So much, so many takeaways.
39:56
So like, here's USA was here and they were talking about
40:02
financial. This was their educational
40:05
foundation about some of they offer free financial education
40:09
resources for the military community.
40:13
And just doing like a checklist, if you have, you know, can you
40:19
support each of these emergency kind of fun things?
40:24
Excuse me, let's see, this is retreats by Water and they offer
40:34
holistic health practitioner that's here locally
40:41
retreatsbywater.com. That looks very interesting to
40:47
check that out. Stone River Tactical Recovery
40:53
Veteran support Services. This is a San Antonio facility
41:01
in cooperation with the VA Community Care, Tricare, and
41:06
most insurance. They offer integrated substance
41:09
use and mental health treatment services to their to veterans
41:13
and military communities, and they have a deep commitment to
41:19
the military and and called Veteran Cultural Awareness.
41:25
They have a partnership with Psych Armor, a nationally
41:29
recognized nonprofit leader and training provider.
41:33
They are a veteran ready program proudly serving those who all
41:37
served up. And I think when I talked with
41:39
Psych Armor, you can actually be a veteran that's in a different
41:47
state and transportation is not going to be a barrier, 'cause I
41:55
asked what if somebody, let's say in New York needs to, you
42:01
know, reaches out? He said.
42:03
Actually, they completely understand that because when you
42:07
are local to local to, if you're going to a treatment facility
42:15
that is maybe in too close a proximity to the people who are
42:22
toxic in your environment, sometimes getting away in
42:27
another state is going to help you because you are getting away
42:32
from that environment and you're able to focus on you and what
42:38
you need. So they, this particular
42:42
organization, they help you, they have a, they have an app
42:47
apparently follow up app that they do from their post
42:51
treatment dealing with depression, anxiety, stress,
42:55
cravings, spirituality. You know, the neat thing, the
42:59
trend that I have heard really confirms what I even base this
43:04
show on, which is, you know, I always use like a chair and each
43:11
leg of a chair represents pain, physical, mental, emotional and
43:15
spiritual pain. The confirmation in that has
43:19
been all summer long has been I'm on the right track and when
43:26
you have one of those legs start getting wonky, then you know
43:32
that you've got to pay attention because the stability of where
43:36
you're at is missing something. Here's the business card for
43:41
Stone River. Yep.
43:43
Terry Buford is who I had spoken with.
43:46
He's in the business development side of things.
43:49
If anybody needs to reach out to me, feel free.
43:54
I will share his contact information with you.
43:58
Let's see, we've got dual veteran families of America.
44:03
So this was a group of there's a couple ladies that I just met
44:07
while ago. They actually have a whole
44:10
different mission. I didn't know really about this
44:14
problem. And that is when benefits are
44:18
getting reduced because you have dual military veterans and that
44:27
creates problems with Chapter 35 and with Hazelwood act like here
44:33
in the state of Texas because when they it it, it changes the
44:40
what do I put? I can't even don't worry, I'm
44:42
going to have them on my show too because I've already invited
44:46
them. Come on, let's talk about what
44:48
the problem is and start advocating for how do we fix the
44:54
problem. Y'all know that I'm very much
44:56
geared towards public administration and making sure
45:01
here this is what she was talking about.
45:03
Here's the situation. So future guests on the show, I
45:06
got to put on the glasses to read this.
45:09
The situation is when a child of a dual veteran couple with
45:12
eligibility from both parents elects Chapter 35 educational
45:17
benefits, the net beneficial benefit to their family is less
45:22
than the amount of one full benefit.
45:25
VA violates the Osman versus Peak U.S. court of Appeals for
45:31
Veteran claims Presidential decision of 2008 by not allowing
45:36
a child student with eligibility from 2 veteran parents to
45:41
receive chapter thought Chapter 35 educational benefits from
45:46
each as earned while taking dependent compensation on behalf
45:49
of the student away from all veterans.
45:52
Anyways, what does this get at? So there was some math.
45:57
If it's just one parent, then the net amount, because you're
46:02
losing the compensation goes from 56,000 down to 39,000.
46:08
But when there's two parents dual military and that
46:14
compensation also comes out from the second parent, the net
46:20
benefit to the family is a loss of nearly $23,000.
46:27
So man, the chunk of money is huge.
46:32
And, you know, it's, it's an, it's, it's like, man, this is
46:39
crazy. Why do we dual benefit?
46:42
You know, dual military families kind of get the shaft because
46:48
they really consider it as one benefit, not 2 benefits, even
46:53
though it's two parents. So some of the issues about how
46:58
some of these things have been designed are designed to fail,
47:03
not to provide the right benefits to the family.
47:08
All right, so why did I come here?
47:10
I I ran out of Flyers, but I came peddling my study.
47:15
Yes, I am using that word came peddling my study to find more
47:20
participants and I've got I've moved the needle from 3 to 20
47:27
participants more people member they're all busy.
47:31
I handed out all 50 Flyers. I shared it in the Hoover app.
47:36
Oh, Hoover app's another thing. HW Hoba who?
47:42
VA, if you are going to, if you're in another region and
47:46
you're going to attend a VA event, I recommend you download
47:51
the Hoova app and that will get you plugged into the agenda,
47:56
networking with other people, sharing pictures, experiences,
48:01
polls, surveys. So I've shared my QR code for
48:07
the survey, you know, for my survey there.
48:12
So I'm super excited that I have moved, moved the, the needle on
48:19
getting participants. And you know, I'm looking
48:24
forward to starting to analyze the data and, and, and having
48:33
the second phase of my qualitative study and having
48:38
discussions with these women and figuring out what their issues
48:42
and barriers have been at the federal, state, local and
48:47
nonprofit levels. Because I think now that they've
48:51
been through the summit, many of these women are really going to
48:55
understand and, and even the messaging here has confirmed
49:01
that this has been a system that is designed for men.
49:08
We women were not, you know, we were the French, but we've had,
49:13
you know, a steady increase of female veterans because we were
49:20
filling more roles within the military itself.
49:24
But now we need those resources in the veteran side of things as
49:28
well. So they are been having to
49:31
figure out how do our how does our population being affected,
49:38
you know, like even in homelessness and you know, the
49:41
trend in homelessness kind of has been had a steady increase,
49:46
a little bit of improvement last year, but you know, there's
49:50
still been some issues. Same thing for veteran suicide.
49:57
The veteran suicide population is higher than the non veteran
50:03
suicide popular non veteran population.
50:08
So, you know, we can move the needle on that.
50:13
Oh, by the way, they said that the death by suicide ranked 12th
50:23
out of the other causations of death.
50:28
Let me see if I can find that was actually an interesting, an
50:34
interesting group of statistics that they were talking about.
50:42
South heart disease was #1 cancer was #2 chronic lower
50:48
respiratory diseases #3 then it goes to stroke, unintentional
50:53
injuries, diabetes, Alzheimer's, COVID, Parkinson's, kidney flu
51:00
slash pneumonia. Then it goes into suicide.
51:04
Chronic liver disease is 13, septicemia 14, and hypertension
51:09
15. Suicide ranks #12 that is 1.5
51:15
percents of death. Heart disease is 25.3% of the
51:20
deaths, 110,000 in 2023. That's what their statistics
51:25
show. So I thought that that was
51:27
interesting to look at that information that, you know, it's
51:36
the the rest of all of those other except for the
51:41
unintentional injuries, all the rest of the causation of death
51:45
is all health related. So let's focus on what some of
51:51
these health related issues are and see if we can lower those
51:55
along with, you know, suicide. I was trying to think what other
52:04
suicide among women veterans this was this is what that
52:09
particular slide looked like. So get up, it went up and and
52:16
it's headed back down. So that's a good thing.
52:21
Just trying to see what other information I had some great,
52:27
great, Oh, here, here was part here was something.
52:34
So you know, my show is called from Pain to purpose.
52:36
I loved yesterday that the whole L the whole health breakout
52:43
session was also talking about purpose.
52:48
Is purpose an issue? That's what the title of the
52:50
slide was called. Is purpose an issue?
52:54
So there's to success, 25%. Let me turn it sideways so I can
52:59
read it. 25% of American adults say they have a clear sense of
53:04
what makes their life meaningful. 58% of young adults
53:09
ages 18 to 25 say that they do not have any or only have a
53:16
minimal sense of purpose or meaning in their life and that
53:20
consequences matter. I want you to think about that.
53:25
I'm always talking about purpose, the why do we have
53:31
military broadcast radio? Why do I have my radio show
53:35
called From Pain to Purpose? If you've seen any of my shows
53:40
before, you know that I have my documentary called From Pain to
53:44
Purpose. Her second service story.
53:46
I have my book, Welcome to My People Garden.
53:50
I'm working on my PhD because I am trying to advocate for other
53:57
veterans in some way, somehow giving veterans a voice I loved.
54:02
What Drea, I haven't seen Drea in, in several years, right.
54:08
And she goes, you know, the one thing about you, Eva, that has
54:13
not ever changed is that you have a story, but you don't tell
54:17
your story. And I'm going to use this word
54:21
from my context of I don't tell it from a narcissistic
54:25
standpoint. I tell it because I'm trying to
54:27
help advocate for other people. I'm trying to empower you.
54:31
I'm trying to help you find a purpose and what your life is
54:36
about so you can go help somebody else.
54:38
Because that's how we as a community are going to function
54:43
and work best when we share the information, when we know that
54:47
we are not alone and we're going to get through this together.
54:53
Focus on purpose and empowerment.
54:55
Polytrauma integrative medicine initiative.
54:58
They have a the acronym is PENNY.
55:02
They have a pilot study. They have 3 polytrauma sites
55:07
from fiscal years 13 and through 15 funded by the OPCC.
55:14
I don't know what OPC stand for but and rehab medicine.
55:17
They had nine health coaches certified by Duke University.
55:21
Their goal was to determine whether health coaching is a
55:24
valued intervention in the view of veterans and clinician.
55:28
This was followed by the disability and rehabilitative
55:31
research in Gainesville. You know, the interesting thing
55:35
I'm going to say about that is that I had a coach when I was
55:40
going through the VA Move program and working through what
55:44
my mental transitions were on trying to lose weight.
55:50
Where was I going? What actions was I doing or not
55:55
doing that were contributing or not contributing to the progress
55:59
that I wanted to make? And so this is a mindset change.
56:04
A lot of this is really your own personal mindset change, which
56:07
goes back to what I was talking about in the beginning about us
56:11
owning where we're at in our journey, right?
56:16
And that really, you know, is up to us.
56:20
Is what we're doing working? It's up to you.
56:25
Is it working? And if it's not working, what
56:29
are you going to do to change about it?
56:31
What are you going to do to go get the help?
56:32
Because sitting still and doing nothing isn't helping you,
56:37
right? You got it.
56:38
You got to get up and move. Motion is lotion.
56:41
I don't care whether it's mental, whether it's physical,
56:43
emotional, spiritual. Oh, and yes, they even, they
56:47
even can confirm that those people who are integrated in a
56:53
spiritual life are going to be more grounded and happier
56:59
because they have, they have some stability.
57:03
They have that, you know, emotional need that this
57:07
spiritual need. That's why I have the four legs
57:10
of the chair that I was using my example to help people be able
57:15
to be stable and things future. So I have plenty of, I'm so
57:21
excited. I have future guests that are
57:23
coming up. Got to get them scheduled and
57:27
they will be some fantastic conversations.
57:32
In the meantime, I have a really, I don't have a guest for
57:37
next Saturday. We'll figure out who I can get
57:40
scheduled for next Saturday. But coming up on August 8th is
57:43
Keani Washington and we're going to talk about her journey and
57:49
small business, what she's doing in the veteran small business
57:52
world of things. One of my former active duty Co
57:59
workers is an attorney in Texas. Rick Russo was a Jag attorney.
58:06
He has a law firm in Texas. We are going to talk about his
58:11
pain to purpose story in helping veterans and disability and all
58:17
of that. I'm super, super excited about
58:21
what these you know what the upcoming guests and the stories
58:25
they're going to share. Pretty awesome, pretty awesome.
58:28
So thank you all for joining me on this journey and I'm going to
58:33
be hitting the road here shortly heading back home and enjoying
58:39
some good times with my kids tomorrow.
58:42
So anyways, y'all have a fantastic journey.
58:46
If I didn't, if I miss getting to say goodbye to any of you, if
58:49
you were attended the conference here, reach out to me.
58:52
Love to have you on meet you again and y'all have a fantastic
58:58
day and a great week. Thank you for joining Military
59:03
broadcast radio from pain to purpose show and be safe out
59:07
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59:10
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59:28
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59:30
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59:31
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