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Friends, Family and Future Friends,
I come to you asking for your support – which is incredibly hard for me to do as a ruggedly independent Marine. My entire life I have been able to endure extremes to be able to achieve my goals – during my tours of service I trained and endured freezing cold, record heat, weeks without food or water – all to accomplish my mission objectives. I have got a new objective now – one that I am sure all of you are all too aware of – the struggles of Marines returning to civilian life. I went through this struggle myself, and thanks to the support of my family, my beautiful wife, and the help of a whole community of friends and colleagues – today, although life can still be a struggle, I am thankfully thriving. So many Marines don’t have the luck I’ve had of such a strong community – in fact I’ve seen too many members of my former unit fall to addiction, suicide and homelessness. I’ve felt powerless and as I’ve tried to reach out to individual marines and former members of my platoon – it has been overwhelming to see the challenges and struggles they are facing. It has been devastating to lose members of my platoon not to foreign adversaries but the challenges of life at home. Until recent years, I did not believe that helping Marines, thousands of whom are coming back each year, on a large scale was possible. Once I began to learn about these organizations, I came to grips with the fact that my individual efforts to help individual marines would never scale – so that brings us back to the beginning – here I am – asking for your support so that we can have a large impact by helping a lot of marines through supporting the Sempre Fi Fund and other charities. Once again I’m going to use my body to endure extremes for a mission objective. To raise support and awareness of this struggle to successfully transition from military to civilian life, I will be undertaking one of the most dangerous channel swims in the world – the Catalina Channel as a solo swimmer. I will be covering a distance of over 21 land miles. I will not be using any devices that aid in heat retention or buoyancy such as a wetsuit, meaning I will only be wearing a speedo, swim cap and goggles. Difficulties of this swim include deep ocean currents, changing tides, cold water temperatures, hypothermia, exhaustion (ultra-endurance distance), and wildlife (Great White Sharks, Mako Sharks). The challenge of this swim is a reflection of the challenge in returning from war, recovering from the experience, and starting a new life. Please consider supporting my mission to endure the channel swim as a means to help my fellow Marines as they struggle to endure their transition back to civilian life – if you are interested – read on for more information and thank you for your time and support.
Let’s show our veterans and their families that they are not alone and that there is hope for them in having a happy, successful, civilian life.
About me and my goal:
As a Marine Scout Sniper, I was given the opportunity to operate in both the Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign Theaters. The experience is one that I can only describe as surreal and life changing. There is an ever-present sense of danger. You never feel safe and learn very quickly what really matters in life as well as the ambiguity that exists in the world of friend and foe. It was an experience that forever changed my life and shaped parts of my personality. In many ways I am grateful for it. However, these experiences and being so specialized in conducting warfare do not necessarily translate directly into a profitable civilian career. The transition is challenging. Many veterans give up and relinquish their own life rather than face failure and defeat as a civilian. Likewise, having a family becomes a challenge, and relationships often do not survive the transition either.
According to data census and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, veteran suicide rates accounted for nearly 22% of all suicide deaths in the U.S. while U.S. services members represented roughly 7% of the adult population in 2018. The challenge in reducing or prevent veteran suicide is so great that the VA’s current goal is only to reduce veteran suicides by 2% by the year 2025 (Affairs, 2020). Moreover, veterans who served in Combat MOS’s (Military Occupational Specialties, “jobs”) make up a majority of those suicide numbers. Clearly there is a correlation between the stress of combat and transitioning to civilian life.
Therefore, my goal is simple. For every mile I swim I want to raise $1,000. Less the necessary logistical needs that I have for the swim (e.g., boat charter fees) which will be made publicly available in the case that they are not donated. Donations, progress, expenses and updates will all be posted to this GoFundMe page as well as to the Facebook page for the swim. On the Facebook page there will be photos, videos and updates as well as unique opportunities to participate in this challenge personally.
Want to Learn More About My Swim and my objectives:
References
Affairs, O. o. (2020, November 12). VA releases 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. Retrieved 03 22, 2021, from https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5565
Sheppard, E. (2017, 10 13). The world’s 7 most dangerous open-water swims. Retrieved 03 22, 2021, from Red Bull: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/most-dangerous-open-water-swims
Vespa, J. E. (2020, June). Those Who Served: America’s Veterans From World War II to the War on Terror. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from United States Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/acs-43.pdf
I come to you asking for your support – which is incredibly hard for me to do as a ruggedly independent Marine. My entire life I have been able to endure extremes to be able to achieve my goals – during my tours of service I trained and endured freezing cold, record heat, weeks without food or water – all to accomplish my mission objectives. I have got a new objective now – one that I am sure all of you are all too aware of – the struggles of Marines returning to civilian life. I went through this struggle myself, and thanks to the support of my family, my beautiful wife, and the help of a whole community of friends and colleagues – today, although life can still be a struggle, I am thankfully thriving. So many Marines don’t have the luck I’ve had of such a strong community – in fact I’ve seen too many members of my former unit fall to addiction, suicide and homelessness. I’ve felt powerless and as I’ve tried to reach out to individual marines and former members of my platoon – it has been overwhelming to see the challenges and struggles they are facing. It has been devastating to lose members of my platoon not to foreign adversaries but the challenges of life at home. Until recent years, I did not believe that helping Marines, thousands of whom are coming back each year, on a large scale was possible. Once I began to learn about these organizations, I came to grips with the fact that my individual efforts to help individual marines would never scale – so that brings us back to the beginning – here I am – asking for your support so that we can have a large impact by helping a lot of marines through supporting the Sempre Fi Fund and other charities. Once again I’m going to use my body to endure extremes for a mission objective. To raise support and awareness of this struggle to successfully transition from military to civilian life, I will be undertaking one of the most dangerous channel swims in the world – the Catalina Channel as a solo swimmer. I will be covering a distance of over 21 land miles. I will not be using any devices that aid in heat retention or buoyancy such as a wetsuit, meaning I will only be wearing a speedo, swim cap and goggles. Difficulties of this swim include deep ocean currents, changing tides, cold water temperatures, hypothermia, exhaustion (ultra-endurance distance), and wildlife (Great White Sharks, Mako Sharks). The challenge of this swim is a reflection of the challenge in returning from war, recovering from the experience, and starting a new life. Please consider supporting my mission to endure the channel swim as a means to help my fellow Marines as they struggle to endure their transition back to civilian life – if you are interested – read on for more information and thank you for your time and support.
Let’s show our veterans and their families that they are not alone and that there is hope for them in having a happy, successful, civilian life.
About me and my goal:
As a Marine Scout Sniper, I was given the opportunity to operate in both the Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign Theaters. The experience is one that I can only describe as surreal and life changing. There is an ever-present sense of danger. You never feel safe and learn very quickly what really matters in life as well as the ambiguity that exists in the world of friend and foe. It was an experience that forever changed my life and shaped parts of my personality. In many ways I am grateful for it. However, these experiences and being so specialized in conducting warfare do not necessarily translate directly into a profitable civilian career. The transition is challenging. Many veterans give up and relinquish their own life rather than face failure and defeat as a civilian. Likewise, having a family becomes a challenge, and relationships often do not survive the transition either.
According to data census and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, veteran suicide rates accounted for nearly 22% of all suicide deaths in the U.S. while U.S. services members represented roughly 7% of the adult population in 2018. The challenge in reducing or prevent veteran suicide is so great that the VA’s current goal is only to reduce veteran suicides by 2% by the year 2025 (Affairs, 2020). Moreover, veterans who served in Combat MOS’s (Military Occupational Specialties, “jobs”) make up a majority of those suicide numbers. Clearly there is a correlation between the stress of combat and transitioning to civilian life.
Therefore, my goal is simple. For every mile I swim I want to raise $1,000. Less the necessary logistical needs that I have for the swim (e.g., boat charter fees) which will be made publicly available in the case that they are not donated. Donations, progress, expenses and updates will all be posted to this GoFundMe page as well as to the Facebook page for the swim. On the Facebook page there will be photos, videos and updates as well as unique opportunities to participate in this challenge personally.
Want to Learn More About My Swim and my objectives:
References
Affairs, O. o. (2020, November 12). VA releases 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. Retrieved 03 22, 2021, from https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5565
Sheppard, E. (2017, 10 13). The world’s 7 most dangerous open-water swims. Retrieved 03 22, 2021, from Red Bull: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/most-dangerous-open-water-swims
Vespa, J. E. (2020, June). Those Who Served: America’s Veterans From World War II to the War on Terror. Retrieved March 22, 2021, from United States Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/acs-43.pdf