Finding Hope After Combat Trauma with Jeremy Stalnecker

A lot of people look “fine” on the outside while they are quietly falling apart on the inside. We talk with Jeremy Stalneker, a Marine Corps infantry veteran and the leader of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, about what happens after combat stress, career transition, and life trauma collide with identity loss. When someone starts thinking, “If I’m not in the military anymore, who am I?” the slide into isolation, bad decisions, and hopelessness can feel fast and final. Jeremy’s message cuts through the fog: there is always hope, and forward movement is still possible.

We get specific about what Mighty Oaks actually does for PTSD and post-traumatic stress. It is not a clinical program, but a faith-based, peer-led week where the people teaching have sat in the same chair as the people listening. That transparency matters because it breaks shame and makes recovery feel believable. We also talk about veteran suicide prevention, what “success” really looks like in this work, and why aftercare and ongoing contact can be the difference between a powerful week and lasting change.

Jeremy shares the combat story behind “March Or Die,” and we connect it to real-life resilience: you may not get to pick the fight, but you always decide how you fight. If you’re overwhelmed, the goal is not to solve everything today, but to take the next step with the right people around you. Listen, share this with someone who needs it, and if you value conversations like this, subscribe and leave a review so more veterans, first responders, and families can find the help and hope they deserve.

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SPEAKER_00 0:13

Well, hello, and welcome to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grombine, and today we've got a special guest. His name's Jerry Stallneker. And Jerry's got a huge list of accomplishments, and he seeks to help others answer one of the toughest questions we all face. How do I move forward with my when my world's falling apart? He's the co-founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation, and he's dedicated to helping America's military warriors and their families who are suffering from the unseen wounds of combat, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. In addition to his current role, Jeremy has served as a Marine Corps infantry officer and senior pastor. He's an accomplished author, inspirational speaker, and a frequent guest on some of America's most prominent news networks. I'd say that sounds like a good chunk of uh credentials there. Welcome, Jeremy. It's great to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Well, thank you. It's great to be with you. Appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

You know, it's it's wild before we get started. I I run a nonprofit called Gardens of Hope. And one of the things that we do is we offer whatever our services are free to veterans. And I'm not a I didn't serve, and I feel that, you know, I take the liberties that were provided for me by those who did. And you know, so it's kind of my way of saying, you know, thanks. But it's been really weird. I've been trying to connect with veterans organizations for years. And bit by bit, I'm starting to. I've got a another Marine who's been helping me out. And I've got a number of friends who are veterans, but these organizations specifically just don't seem to want to grab my hand and let me help them. And yeah, you know, it's a crazy world. So, you know, I don't we don't need to get too deep into that, but I just would, it's an observation I've made.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. You know, I have conversations with a lot of nonprofits, and and most of them are kind of in the same space we're in, the veteran or first responder nonprofit world. But it seems like we have these conversations a lot. Why don't we work together more? Why don't we facilitate, you know, those areas where we have shortcomings or things we don't do that you do, and why don't we work together on these things? Yeah, it seems like when someone has a vision or a passion for particularly a nonprofit, yeah, they put their head down and they just move forward and they're doing their thing. And most nonprofit leaders that I know are are happy that other people are doing other things. Sure. They just they're so time-constrained and resource constrained that the thought of trying to work together is a little overwhelming sometimes. But that's definitely the path forward for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I get it. Well, you know, maybe who knows? Maybe we could find a way to connect the two guys along the way. So tell me about yourself a little bit and love to hear about this Mighty Oaks Foundation.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, no, I uh appreciate that. I was in the United States Marine Corps. I served as an infantry officer, as you mentioned, with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, based out of Camp Pendleton, and uh did a number of things in 2003, deployed to Kuwait, and then that would become Operation Iraqi Freedom. So in January 2003, we're in Kuwait. In March, we moved into Iraq, 1st Infantry Battalion, first Marine Infantry Battalion that went into the country was 1.5, was ours. And uh we made our way into the country, did our kind of that road march for people that remember that time, did that long road march to Baghdad.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

And on uh April 10th, 2003, uh, the Battle of Baghdad was also our battalion. And that was our last major engagement. When that ended, and that was quite a fight, but when that ended, essentially for us, essentially at the time at least, the war was over. We retrograded back home and made our way back to Camp Pendleton. And for me, I got home 30 days later. I left the Marine Corps. I was off active duty and uh went to work for a local church, which you mentioned. I was in ministry for a number of years and worked at that church in Oceanside for some time and then pastored a church in the San Francisco area for about seven years. And in all of that, had my own struggles, had my own challenges, of course, and worked through a lot of things that we're talking about today, but we weren't talking about in 2003. All right. And so a lot of the things that I dealt with I thought were kind of unique to me. I thought that maybe I was broken or there was something wrong with me. And thankfully I had good people step into my life and help me. But yeah, I wasn't looking outside of my situation. I was just trying to address my situation. And part of me being able to move forward was kind of stepping away from the people that I knew that had served and just moving on. About 10 years later, so about 10 years after I was out of the Marine Corps, I reconnected with several of the guys that I served with and realized that my issues were not unique to me, that a lot of people were struggling with the very same things. But many people who were struggling didn't have the opportunity to be as connected as I was to good people, to a great community, to those that could help me. And so that was the time Mighty Oaks was getting started. I met uh the founder and he was, you know, trying to get things moving and said, Hey, would you come and help? And I did. And so that was in 2012. And uh, we've been serving veterans, service members, and first responders since then. We have locations across the country. And uh last year had just over a thousand people come through one of our week-long programs, which are held at various places across the country. And yeah, we've served nearly 8,000 people and continue to do our best to help people who are just like us and to support them in ways that help them to move forward as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So so tell me a little bit about that. You know, these are really sort of broad descriptors that you've been using and uh to know about, you know, I we have garden therapy programs. So we've got this botanical garden, and you know, the idea is you can come out here and work in the garden, be in the garden, pick food out of the garden, and all of those things are healing in their own right. Yeah. There are specific programs that we do. I'm curious, you know, what what specifically do you guys offer and how do you how does it work? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

So we are not a clinical program. And sometimes people hear program or something like that, and they think doctors and therapists and the rest of it, medication. Right. We're not any of those things. The people that we serve that come to our programs have access to all of those through either the VA or through their departments if they're in the first responder world. So we're not clinical. In fact, we would define ourselves as faith-based. And so that again, you talk about broad, right? That's a very broad category of uh that could mean just about anything. Sure. And for us, for us, what that means is we address issues like trauma and post-traumatic stress and a lot of these issues that men and women are dealing with from a faith perspective, meaning we believe there's a creator, and that if there is a creator, then there's design. And that's really important for one fundamental reason. If there's design, then there's hope. And so many people on the other side of trauma and brokenness will say, I don't know why I'm here. I don't know who I am, if I'm not in the military anymore. And if I don't know who I am, then I have no purpose. And if I have no purpose, then I have no hope. And it's this very uh dark path that many people walk. And so we start off with this premise you were created with purpose. You're here for a reason. And so we start to address trauma and post-traumatic stress and these issues by acknowledging that they are, they're real, they're real struggles and they have real implications in our lives, but quickly moving to an understanding that you don't have to be stuck there. You can move forward in spite of what's happened in your past, and you move into the life that you were created to live. And so, again, that's pretty broad. Bringing it down, how do we communicate that? Every person who is a part of our program in terms of leadership, they teach classes, they they lead breakouts, they all started as students. Okay. So we have an environment in these sessions, and they're a week long, so everyone's together for five days. There's an environment there where everyone in the room has a similar background, maybe not exactly the same, but similar. So the barriers come down quickly. That barrier that says you don't know where I am or who I who I am, what I've been through, comes down very quickly because everyone there has a similar background. And the people standing in front of the class and teaching, we require them to tell their story before they teach whatever the class is. Okay. So for the first 15 minutes of a 60-minute class, they're telling their story. And it's it's very much, I know where you are because I was sitting in that spot right there. And I was struggling in a lot of the same ways that you're struggling in. I still don't have it all figured out. But I've I'm moving forward. My marriage is better than it was. We're putting the pieces together, we've gotten counseling, whatever that is, or you know, start struggle, struggling with substance abuse, or I attempted to take my life. So they're very transparent about their story. And in doing that, they communicate to the people who are there there is hope. Others have gone down this road before you. You're not alone, you're not the only one. And on the other side of your brokenness and your trauma and your hurt, you can move forward. So let's figure out why we're here and let's figure out what you were created to accomplish. And that's really what we spend five days on. On the other side of that five days, so hopefully people make a good decision during that time they're with us to get up, to move forward, to address whatever's in their past so they can move forward. But five days isn't very long. So on the other side of that, we have a very long aftercare program, which is folks on our team staying in touch with our graduates and then connecting them to those other resources, counseling or substance abuse programs, or you know, whatever else they need. Uh, they've made a decision to go forward, but now they need help. We connect them to the resources that can help them. So it's very, very simple, but it's it's powerful. And I think for a lot of reasons, but but I think the most powerful thing about it, probably in addition to just acknowledging faith and and addressing it from a faith perspective, uh is that there's uh real transparency for those who are teaching the classes. And so it takes away every excuse and it does give hope when you know other people have also struggled and found a way forward. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

I'm sure there's ways you measure success, but just the percentage of people that move forward. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

It's hard to know exactly because over time, you know, things change, people go back. We said for years that our measure of success was that we had not had a graduate of our program take their life. The the the veteran suicide issue is huge. Um obviously, a lot of the people that attend our programs either have either attempted suicide or talked about it. You know, almost 15 years later, that's not true. We have had some of our graduates that have taken their lives. It's been, you know, a very small number. So that's one area we look at. And I won't say it's anecdotal, it's probably not you know measurable in a scientific way. But people that come to us and they say things like, if this week doesn't work, then on Saturday, I'm gonna end my life because I have nowhere else to go. That happens a lot. And 99.9% of the time, hope is found and that doesn't happen. And so that's one measure of success. We have surveys that we take after the program, and then six months after the program. And we have better than 80% of people say they're better than they were before the program. And so we try to measure that as well. But really, for us, it's it's just trying to stay in contact with as many of our graduates as possible, knowing that as long as we're in contact with them, we can steer them in the right direction and they have the support that they need. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

I I can respect that. I I work with a number of different groups and programs or have interviewed a lot of people that are, you know, trauma is a big thing in all elements of life. And I I'm understanding that more and more as I'm, you know, meeting more people, interviewing more people, and and working with more people. And to to have something that cares enough about the clients that you're working to stay with, that's that's an indication of a of a worthy program. So I give some respect for that.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well, it's it's hard to tell people that they're okay now. You know, they've spent a year, 10 years, 15 years doing everything they could to hurt themselves and their relationships and the rest of it, and in a week we're gonna fix them. It's it's not even realistic, right? And so if we're not committed to walking that out with them on the other side, then really we're wasting their time and ours, probably.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Well, and you look for some measure of success. You know, as you're going from here to there, we've somewhat accomplished everything we set out to, but at least we try to hit some kind of a milestone or some kind of a of a victory that you can say, okay, well, yeah, that's right. There's there's this place from here to there that we're going, but yeah, you know, at least if we we went forward and not backward, I guess that's a good that's a good yeah, that's right.

The March Or Die Origin Story

SPEAKER_01 14:05

That's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

So so tell me about March or Die. That that shows up here in your notes a number of times.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah, so March or Die is the name of the podcast that I have. So I have a podcast, a weekly podcast called March or Die. I wrote a book called March or Die, and that was about my time, our time in Iraq. Lessons learned. So it was specific events that took place while we were there, and then lessons that were extracted from that that I hope will help people. But that phrase and and kind of the story around that comes from a specific incident in Iraq. We were our battalion was sent to secure a bridge, and that's not unusual. But what was unusual this day is there was a large enemy force there. When we got there, they weren't supposed to be there. So we got ambushed going to do our job to secure this bridge. And man, a number of things happened, but I found myself on top of the bridge in a situation where things were going from bad to worse. And I think we can all relate to that, right? You find yourself in a situation where things go from bad to worse, and something had to be done. And and and I didn't know what to do, but in that moment, you had this. It's funny what you think about when you're stressed out as much as you could possibly be, right? I was a part of another unit in the Marine Corps that had a motto. So every every unit in the military has a motto of some kind, and the motto was march or die. And I like it because it's it's real simple, right? It's like you move forward or you stay where you are and die. That's those are the only two options. It's not complicated. Right. Well, that day on that bridge, that was it. We either were gonna stay there and die, or we were gonna get off the bridge and figure out what to do next. We didn't know where we were gonna end up or how this was all gonna resolve, but we knew we couldn't stay where we are, or we would die. And so you have to march. And that has really become kind of a I don't know, a phrase that guides a lot of how I think and how I see the world. Because so often as we go through life, we encounter obstacles and difficulties. Sometimes it's the traumas of our past that are pulling us back. We have these things in our life, we'll call them an enemy, that work to prevent forward movement. And really, if you're not moving forward, then effectively you're dead. There are a lot of people that are still alive, they're still breathing air, but they're not accomplishing anything. They're dead emotionally, relationally, spiritually dead.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

And such a truth. What you just said there is, you know, paramount in so many different avenues, so many different topics. It really is universal. And you're either moving forward or you're moving backward, and there's no sitting still anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

That's right. And that's a decision that you have to make. And in some people, they fall into this victim mentality where it's just like, well, this is where I am. And the principle of march or die that I communicate and that I talk about is you get to decide. Are you going to stay where you are and die? You can make that decision. You can give up. You can do that. But make no mistake, it's a decision. No one can force you to quit. Are you going to do that? Or are you just going to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward? You don't have to know where you're going. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to be able to see the end from here. You just need to take the next step. And so, as I, you know, my podcast and the book and other places, that's what I talked about is how do we move forward? How do we march when it'd be easier to stay where we are and die?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, that's something I I've run into a lot. I'm just recently overcame a really aggressive cancer, and it was my will to live that was pushing me through this whole thing. And I did a lot of very difficult things and made some hard choices, and you know, and and through that, I've tried to help other people with what I've learned. And I find so many people are not willing to do that work. That's right. That's exactly right. I don't know, it's too much. And I'm like, how do you think like that? How do you reckon with people that you know clearly you have a purpose and and vision and will to live, and and you've taken yourself from whatever difficulties you've spent to somebody who's helping others, but when you run into somebody who who you know is ready to just kind of let go and drift to work, how do you how do you deal with that?

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah, well, man, it depends on the person, I guess is the short answer. And it has to begin with with understanding that where you are is not where you need to be. This isn't a a predetermined course for your life or whatever. That's where we become victims. We say, I I have zero control over this. One of the statements that I make often is you may not get to pick the fight, but you always get to decide how you're going to fight.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

So you may find yourself in a situation you didn't anticipate, a health issue, you know, a financial issue, a relationship issue. I mean, go down the list. You may find yourself in a situation you didn't put yourself into, you didn't ask for, it's not your fault, but here you are. Right. So whether you decided to be there or not is not really the issue. It's a question of what do you do next? And and you know, a phrase with that that I use is how you got here is far less important than what you do next.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

And so people, they have they have regret and they have fear and they have all of these things, and you have to help them understand that out in front of you is is something great. I don't know what that is, but let's go figure it out. And then often what people need to recognize is it is, and that's why I use the word march, it's intentional. It's one one step at a time. Literally, it's take the next step and take the one after that, and take the one after that. What overwhelms people is I'm in a really bad spot and I have no idea how to get to the other side of it. You don't have to take the next step. You know, financially, I'm in a hole, and I have no idea how I'll ever be financially secure again. Look, let's just start one step at a time. Right. Let's it let's figure out what the problem is right now. Let's deal with that. And then the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing. Relationships, health issues, all of it. It is one step at a time. And so it's helping people understand you're not a victim. This may be where you are, but you have the power to take the next step. You don't have to see the end from here, but let's just start marching. And then often it's getting people together that can support one another and encourage one another because we all feel alone. We all feel like we're the only ones that have ever dealt with what we're dealing with. So yeah, it's a process.

Belief First Then Action Steps

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Through that, I I hear you know, pieces of you know, ownership and accountability, I think, are critical in everybody's problems. You know, you talk about victim mentality and all of that, and then how do you address, you know, the really we're the ones who deserve what we do, we're the ones who caused where we are in some way, shape, or form. And we're the ones who have to forgive ourselves and and pick ourselves up and and take that first step. How do you how do you deal with that when you've got people who have been through such difficult challenges? You know, I know you've been through them as well, but you know how overwhelming they are. I've been fortunate in my life. I haven't had to go through some of the things that I know you guys have been through. And I've had people tell me about some things that they've been through that I just go, wow, I don't know how I would deal with that and own.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Well, again, it depends on the person. I mean, it's everything from just trying to be super motivating, right? Like, like we need to motivate you out of this situation. Sometimes it's challenging people out of their situation. We'll say something like, if what you're doing isn't working, why not just try something different?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yeah.

Running Mighty Oaks Nationwide

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So I'm not asking you to make a lifelong commitment. I'm just Asking you to try something different, and then we'll lay out what that looks like for you. We'll lay out the steps forward. But you have to decide. Belief precedes action. Belief precedes action. And you have to believe this is what can help me get out of this mess. And then I will begin to put the action steps in place that get me there. There are people, those unique people, who can do the action without the belief, hoping that the belief will come along. But for most people, belief precedes action. And so sometimes it's challenging people. Hey, what you're doing clearly hasn't been working. You're not happy with that, or you wouldn't be here. So let's try something different. Just give me some time, try something different, and let's see if we can get somewhere else. Sometimes people just need to be encouraged and motivated. Some need to see that example. That's why we have our instructors stand up and tell their story so they can find hope in someone else. I believe the lie that I can never get out of the situation that I'm in. And then I hear someone tell me a story similar to mine that illustrates to me that I can get out of the situation because they did it. And if they can do it, then I can do it. So often it's that. There are conversations around those pressure points. Look, if you don't figure out how to move forward, then you're going to lose your family. If you don't figure out how to move forward, then you're going to lose your life. So we can talk about that. For us, foundationally, again, faith is important. And so it's it's really asking the question do you believe you were created for more than this? And if you do, then let us help you take the steps you need to take to really lean into that and to walk out that faith and walk out the life that you were created to live. So it's different for everyone. The thing, the hook that gets people is is is different. And uh we we throw all of them at them and try to try to just hope and pray that one of those things will get them. And it typically does. Being with other people is very, very helpful. You don't feel like you're sitting in a room by yourself because you're with other people that get it. And that's very empowering as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

So your role in the Mighty Oaks Foundation, what what what things do you do? Are you still an instructor? Are you just working with the leaders?

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Or how do how do you how what you Yeah, I don't, I don't uh, I mean, a couple times a year I'll instruct in the program. That's not my primary anymore. I run the organization, so it's really setting direction and making sure we're staying true to our mission across our organization. I represent Mighty Oaks to other organizations, whether it's a conference or a church that has us come, sometimes we'll speak to military units and talk about what we do. And so often I'll do that as well. So representing Mighty Oaks to other people outside of outside of the organization. Yeah, back in the early days, I taught every every session and most of the classes, but now I don't do a whole lot of that. Now I'm trying to equip other people who are better at it than I was uh to to be able to have the freedom and the liberty to do what they need to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

How how many instructors would you say, more or less, that you that you're dealing with right now?

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, we have over 100 instructors. I don't know what the exact number is, 106 or 7 across across the country. This this this last year. So what year are we in? We're in 26, 25. We had 43 weeks of sessions. So every week we basically have a different session going on. They're each five days, so that's a new session, just about every week. So yeah, a lot of a lot of things happening that requires a lot of manpower. Those are our instructors. Uh, we have pretty large staff based out of uh out of the Houston, Texas area. So a lot of things going on all the time. And what's interesting is because our instructors started as students, right? They've grown and they've experienced some healing and and good things are happening in their lives and now they're teaching. That's great, that's what we want. But then as they continue to grow, they move on and they should move on, but they do move on. And so, you know, whatever's happening is they're healing and getting better, they're moving on in their lives. So we're constantly experiencing that turnover and and uh training folks to come up, which is good. It's a good problem to have, but uh it's been pretty interesting over the years.

A Suicide Attempt Turned Mission

SPEAKER_00 27:15

So do you operate like with different chapters, or you just have one central organization and you offer your classes in different areas?

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah, that's it. We have one organization, we administrate all of it from one place, and but we have five think think ranch or conference center. I would say I always say facility, and people think like hospital. It's not, it's it's ranches, it's okay, conference centers, beautiful locations, no one's locked down or anything. They can come and go as they want to. Most of them won't because they're there for five days. But and we have partnerships with with most of those, so that we don't own those. We have relationships with the people that do. And yeah, it's been it's been pretty interesting, but it's it's great. It's great to do it that way, I think. It gets gets us. We're in California, Texas, Ohio, and Virginia. So we're all over the country, and that gives a lot of people access to what we do.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Nice. So I suspect, I mean, you've been doing this now for more than 12 years. I suspect you've got a lot of stories about people that you know you've interacted with or have participated in some of your programs. But I always like to hear at least one good anecdote about, you know, somebody that you really did.

Always Hope And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Yeah, this is uh, yeah, I'll I'll tell you a story, and it it's it's one that I share a lot, but it it's kind of representative of a lot of people that come to our program. Uh so many of the men and women that attend our programs are proven leaders, and many of them are proven combat leaders. And so they've been in very difficult situations, they've led well, and then they transition out of the military, the bottom kind of falls out. Who am I if I'm not putting on that uniform every day? And then one just one bad decision leads to another. And that represents a lot of the people that attend our programs. So we had one specific retired Marine. He was an E9, so he went as far as he could as a Marine. I think he was in for almost 30 years and had done everything. And if you looked at his resume, you're like, this is the guy, you know, and throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he had served most of his time in combat roles or combat leadership roles, and so very accomplished leader, and then left the Marine Corps. And after he retired, just like happens to a lot of people, the bottom fell out. He he just he lost his identity. Who am I if I'm not leading Marines, if I'm not doing the things, started making bad decisions. And and you know, it's important to note that a lot of people who come to us or who talk about the problems with PTSD and that the trauma is a thing, but it's the bad decisions on the other side of the thing that cause the problems, right? And so this guy that I'm talking about made a lot of bad decisions and over the course of a couple of years became very, very depressed. And he was married, had a wife that loved him, but yeah, was just further and further isolating to the point that eventually his wife lost track of him for a couple of weeks. He went away, didn't come back. She was trying to find him, and I think they were they were separated, or he was gone for about two weeks. She finally found him. He's in a hotel, and he was in a hotel room on the sixth floor of this this hotel building. She knew he was in there. He'd answer her through the door, but wouldn't open the door. She got the manager, and the manager opened the door for her. And I've heard her tell the story when she opened the door, you know, hotel room, right? So opened the door, you could see the window on the other side of the hotel room for where she was standing in the doorway, and he had the window open and he said goodbye to her and turned around and jumped out the window. So six stories. And only by, you know, the providence and grace of God, some might call it a coincidence, but the the landscaping at this, you know, next to the building, there was something wrong with the sprinkler. And so it had been running and it it created this soft spot in the grass next to the building. And he fell six stories, but he landed in that soft spot of the grass. And so he was hurt, but it didn't kill him. Broken bones and all the other things. Went to the hospital, of course, and his wife reached out to us and said, When my husband gets up, when he's able to walk, can he come to a program? We said, sure. So, long story short, he ends up coming to a program about a month later. Again, proven combat leader, had gone as far as he could go in the military, had done everything, but just completely lost to the point that he tried to kill himself, jumped out of a window. He was standing. I actually went to this program and I remember him talking about it. At the end of the week, he got up and he had one of those canes with the like four feet on the bottom of it, you know. And so he was still trying to get his the ability to walk back. And he was there, and he got up and he leaned on that cane and he started to tell his story. And he said, I thought that when I left the Marine Corps, I was no longer a leader because that's what I did. I didn't know who I was anymore. And what I've learned this week is that I'm more than the uniform, I'm more than the job, and I can continue to serve. And he did, man. He he left the program and he became kind of a guy that would go to you know bars and pull guys who are having a hard time out and would show up at people's houses and do all that, but just really started to serve and had that moment where he understood, okay, that's what I did, but that's not who I am. Right. And once he got a hold of that, he was able to move forward and has done really, really well. And I love that story because it's a great story, but man, that that pictures so many of the folks that attend our programs.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Wow. Wow, that's powerful. Well, Jeremy, this is amazing. You're doing amazing work. I'm I'm great that I'm glad that we were able to have this conversation. Yes. I thought that you would like to leave our listeners. I know we've got a lot of you know, ex-military folks that listen to this show, and I'm sure, you know, there's something that they could get powerful. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things I'd like to say. And if I was sitting across from someone, you know, I might say something different. But one of the challenges all of us have is that we lose hope somewhere along the way, and and we think that we're the only one, we're the only ones who have struggled or are struggling. And if you don't have hope, then you have no reason to go on. And that's just just the truth of it. And so the I guess the message I'd like to leave is there's always hope. There's always hope. You may not feel like there is. Don't be betrayed by your feelings. Whether you feel like it or not, there is always hope. Find someone who can help you. Find someone who will listen, find someone who's gone before you. Reach out to an organization like ours, the Mighty Oaks Foundation. But there is always hope. You just need to find the right place and the right people to help you get there.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

I couldn't agree more. That's that's a powerful message. I know you've written a number of books, you've got a podcast, you've got a lot of things to that people could find you and and hear more about or hear more of your of your messaging. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how people can get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Yeah, I think the easiest way is just to go to our organizational website, mightyoaks programs.org, mightyoaks programs.org. That's the Mighty Oaks Foundation. And there you can find all the ways to contact me. You can find our podcast there, a link to apply to the program. Our program doesn't cost anything to attend, doesn't cost anything to get there. We'll take care of all of that if you've served or are serving or you're in the first responder community. And so just apply there. Maybe there are other questions that you have. We've got great resources there. So a lot is found there. Mightyoaks programs.org.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Beautiful. Well, I appreciate you coming to join us today and conversation. And, you know, anytime if there's something that's coming up or something important that's changing or you're adding, always love to have you back. Great. Well, thank you. No, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Beautiful. Well, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbline. Want to thank all of our listeners that make the show possible, and we will see you next time.