TEAM TORRENT for OPERATION TORRENT

 TOR-RENT (n): 
a fast-moving and overwhelming stream or flood of water.
a sudden, violent, and copious outpouring of something  (typically words or emotion).

Every soldier leaves the military with the notion of continuing life with the same passion, work ethic, and values that drove them to serve this Nation to begin with.  Often, the torrent of life events that occur after separation from the military and mission can feel just like the roughest seas, harshest storms, and darkest night on the open water.  Alone.  This has been my journey to conquer that misgiving, and not that it might not be tough.  Regardless of how tough it gets, we are never really alone!  

The filming of a full length documentary, "Torrent" has begun, and this will culminate with the “Race to Alaska 2018 (R2AK), a 750 mile open water journey from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK, and some of the most treacherous waters for small craft along the Pacific Coast.  Though attempted, it has never been completed by Stand Up Paddleboard!

3 smaller “training” missions will be completed in 2017: the Everglades Challenge (300 miles), the Blackbeard Challenge/Pamlico Sound, NC (300 miler), and a 2300 mile Paddle from the head waters to New Orleans on the Mississippi!

I am requesting your support for a very arduous journey, and that will once again capture the spirit of survival and triumph found in in every military Veteran who overcomes the unforeseen flood of events during transition from military after combat to civilian life.  This endeavor is for Special Operations Veterans, and specifically those who have endured the rigors of life after combat with a Traumatic Brain Injury, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and then the subsequent addiction to prescription medication that follows as the standard method of treatment.  Too often alcohol is also used as a means of self-medication, and as was the case for me.  The result is catastrophic.  It’s catastrophic for the family and friends as survivors who spend the rest of their lives questioning everything in life, and especially the system which seemed to fail their loved one.         

SITUATION: How many more “22” movements are necessary?  The right answer is that we all won’t stop until the problem is curbed, and the broken system causing it is fixed.  But isn’t this problem important enough to bring every weapon in the arsenal to bear?  Why is this set of wars so different than from the past in terms of the suicide epidemic?  It needs some greater perspective!  

By example, Per the CDC there were more than 41,000 suicides in 2015.  Of these, 8,030 were Veterans.  If there are 22,000,000 Veterans in this Nation of 324,000,000 people, this means that 6.7% of the population accounts for almost 20% of the total number of suicide victims.  In real numbers that means that 22 of the 113 people who kill themselves daily are great Americans with a high standard of values, who volunteered to selflessly serve this nation, and then return home to dump those same values and commit suicide.  Almost 1 per hour.  I argue, that if 20% of the total number of daily suicides were school teachers, that we wouldn’t be moving towards our second decade in guessing how to fix it.  No.  We’d cancel ALL school until we got it under control.  

Recently, the VA announced that the statistic was lowered to 20 Veterans a day in a USA Today Press release, and almost as a merit badge.  Did the VA know about, or would they even count Brian M Novak who on 3 Nov 2016, at the age of 38 was found dead from a drug overdose?  Nope.  Probably won’t put the pieces together.  This is the message I received three days later 6 Nov from Brian’s family whom Id met during Operation Phoenix in New Jersey.  "Treated for depression..PTSD and sadly addiction took his life. Lost his guys in Roadside bomb Iraq. He was only survivor with head injury. Never was the same. Struggled for years. Was in rehab in PA when he OD'd.....Our family is devastated. He leaves behind 2 small children. I met you on your journey this summer when you stopped in Wildwood (NJ). Brian had a relapse the end of August that I was not aware of or I would have got him in touch with you or the TFD foundation. His story is very much like yours. He was avid outdoors man. Surf..snowboard. served 4 years Navy before he joined the Army. Served total 17 years. Did 5 tours to Iraq & Afghanistan. Unfortunately, different outcome….” (speaking of me able to get help and find a new mission).

What an enormous problem, and therefore I believe it’s one that some very different and drastic measures will need to be taken before we find a solution.  This is the number one reason I paddled for the epic distance I did for Operation Phoenix (OPPHX) in Mar-July this year, and covering 2,629 miles on a SUP along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern US Seaboard from Texas to the Statue of Liberty, NYC!  By putting myself in the same austere and precarious position as our at-risk Combat Veteran community, and especially those in the Special Operations community who have borne the greatest brunt of the GWOT mission.  The project received nationwide media attention for 12 months and raising over $220,000 for the Task Force Dagger Foundation, and was also most recently featured on the Dr Oz Veteran’s Day episode (https://www.facebook.com/sharecare/videos/1237540619620438/).  

I also speak as a member of this elite rank and file, as a US Army Ranger, Special Forces, and an Operator who was saved from taking my own life when after 20 years of active service, and another 7 years contracting within the same Special Operations community I received the critical and urgent care needed to stop in my tracks, pivot, and to make a comeback.  I believe that on 5 May 2014 there may have only been 21 Veterans to take their own lives as my wife, my adult children, and my team at work along with some great USASOC Doctors  joined forces in an intervention to have me admitted to the Polytrauma Center in Tampa Florida for treatment for my numerous TBIs, chronic pain, and PTS.  I was also taking nearly a dozen prescribed medicines for everything from pain and sleep to anxiety and seizures.  And, I was downing all those pills with copious amounts of alcohol each day.  I was a functional pill-aholic and alcoholic and a walking disaster waiting to happen.  I don’t know which was worse, the original wounds and injuries, or the pharma cocktail used to treat it.  I am blessed to be here, and have made it my mission to help those less fortunate to find the help they need, and to pull them back from the ledge also.  I have been sober since 5 May 2014, and a year later in 2015 I stopped taking almost all those prescribed meds and replacing them with natural supplements and a very healthy raw diet.  There are alternatives.  I just wish I was afforded that opportunity prior to spending almost two decades on a pharmaceutical cocktail just to “keep me in the fight.”  My mission continues. 

MISSION: Team TORRENT will attempt a first ever completion of the arduous 750 mile Race to Alaska 2018 (www.R2AK.com) by Stand Up Paddleboard on 8 June 2018. The completion goal will be a solo record of under 13 days, and with a daily moving average of over 60 miles/day. The journey will be video documented and broadcast LIVE to CONNECT hundreds of thousands of Veterans real time, capturing the hardship, struggle, and victory!  This will be another unprecedented journey, and further unprecedented in bringing the technology pieces together to Connect to the whole Veteran community in capturing the battle with the elements LIVE, and by film crew documentary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg5Uug5sbX8 

PURPOSE: The purpose of this operation is to raise awareness and resources for a proximate cause of the 22 Veteran/Day suicide statistic, TBI, PTS, and the over-prescribing of prescription drugs and their misuse, and along with the self-medicating effects of alcohol – ADDICTION. Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, and now Inherent Resolve have left hundreds of thousands of TBI and PTSD casualties in their wake, and the primary treatment method by pharma cocktail is the immediate and final cause of this epidemic suicide crisis. There are many alternative treatments, but it takes time to apply them, and effort to adhere to them. The difference is, they work! 

STORY: The idea to SUP from TX to NYC was built upon the fact that I needed to find something epic to keep people’s attention (high seas, thunder storms, floods, sharks, gators, tug boats and barges, etc…).  I wanted to SUP because though I’d only been on one for about a year at that time, it was where I found physical balance again, and ironically on the water. Due to the cervical spine compression, vestibular/inner ear damage from blast, and multiple eye nerve damage (and 3 surgeries) causing double vision, on dry land my world is always shifting and swaying, but on the water it all stands still because of the movement of the water under my feet.  Somehow it calms the storm, and I guess this is kind of like a sailor might experience with Sea legs when off the boat, but not while on the boat. It became my sanctuary. Further, there is damage to an area of my brain on the left side and that is responsible for processing organization. I often get confused, frustrated, and then overwhelmed with things that used to be normal and easy for me (like leading men in combat or starting a business). Actually, It takes a lot less than a major project now to become overwhelmed.  It can be as simple as organizing my desk, or picking up the garage. It all looks like a big disarrayed pile of confusion.  I walk in circles, and a 1 hour project might take 2 days. But not on a SUP. Living on a 2 foot x 4 foot space with everything I need within reach right in front or behind me is simply wonderful.  Key herein is in finding what I needed to cope within a different set of boundaries for my life.  Then in finding a new mission that was bigger than myself to give back to.  (www.veteranvoyage360.com) 

OPPHX touched hundreds of thousands over the course of the past 18 months.  I met many who told me just how important the mission became to them, maybe even saving their life, and even some months after I finished who were reuniting with their family or getting a service dog, etc…. The greatest epiphany of OPPHX was in the connections made, that I couldn’t do it alone as none of us can, and people began to support every day, and of their own accord.  I couldn’t even carry enough water to paddle 30-40 miles a day as it grew hotter and hotter, and not to mention the extreme physical, mental, and emotional fatigue. I began to wonder what kind of difference it would make in life if everyone, civilians, and military alike began to reach out to every Veteran once a week or once a month. The ratio is over 14 to 1 civilians to Veterans. No one kills themselves with that kind of human touch in their life. Suicide notes just don’t read, “And I’m sick of all the phone calls and well-wishers….”

We should realize that all that we are doing now both individually and collectively as a community isn’t enough.  That’s it.  We are all searching for better ways to fight this battle.  It will take a community to defeat this. Also, it may require the collaboration and centralized planning amongst key nonprofits. Then decentralized execution along their established operating lines. The key to success is in identifying and catching the problem early, and a coalition of organizations expands the net.

Then, any treatment protocol outside the pharmas, drugs, and alcohol can be a positive step. My treatment of choice has been In Light Therapy as my daily go to. This polychromatic light therapy from In Light Wellness has slowly changed my life over the past year, and I will not stop.

My goal for Operation TORRENT will be to raise awareness toward modalities that work like this light therapy, and like the IV Amino Acid treatments from Artesian Wellness and Recovery which helped to heal the broken neuro pathways in the brain. This along with a great new RAW diet, and proper sleep and exercise. Wow!  The Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) created by prolonged medium intensity exercise has also been key (ie. Paddling 2629 mile). Now why couldn’t we have started with therapies like this from the start, and instead of casually tossing me a bottle of drugs so long ago??        

We will raise $3 million as our goal toward the treatment of Veteran addiction, and to get these guys steered back in the right direction. To accomplish this mission, we will support multiple legacy Non-Profits such as the Task Force Dagger Foundation, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Mission 22, Warrior Heart Treatment Facility, the Navy SEAL Foundation, the Black Dagger Military Hunt Club, MARSOC Foundation, the Gallant Few, and the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation. This is probably the most important part of the solution, that all these organizations will join forces even just as a show of force.

The dynamic advantage of this approach is in the broader audience and participation among an established community, and thus expanding the recipient base as these groups are inherently focused toward specific units and service branches. It is important because we are casting a wider NET amongst the community directly tied to these Veterans.  I am simply the Guidon bearer for the formation.

Together we can solve these problems. Connection is the Cure!  Please contact me to discuss corporate sponsorship opportunities.  The entire project will cost us just over $52,000.  Any amount will help!  Every penny will be used for the project, and not a dime taken by the participants.  We are all volunteers!  Any amount over the designated cost of the trip will be donated to the charities mentioned for our Veterans.  This is to cover the expense of the operation only!  Another site will direct to the 9 non profit organizations we are supporting, and initiated at the first event in March - the Everglades Challenge.


Thank you so much,
 

V/r, 

Josh and Mike
TEAM TORRENT