Tag: trenches

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Interviews with Veterans From Wars

It has been a few days since I last posted. Very busy trying to finish my book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” I just need to finish three interviews, and then I will be sending it off to my publisher. I am interviewing soldiers who have been in wars from WWII through the Afghanistan wars.

I thought I would share with you a short example of what the interviews will be like. What follows are just a snippet of what some of the interviews are about. You will have to read the book to get the rest of the story.

Interview one

One interview I am just finishing up is with a sniper during his Afghanistan tour. No punches pulled here. I asked him if he had killed anyone, and he said yes. Then I asked how he felt about it, and he said he didn’t think about it because he was protecting his buddies. He goes on and talks about the PTSD he is going through. He shares how he would do things differently if he could start over.

Interview two

Another interview was by accident. I decided to stop and get a burger at a fast food restaurant. I got my food and was heading to my table when I spotted a vietnam veteran who was a Marine. I know that because he was wearing a hat that stated that. I sat down and watched him. He was in pain. You could see him shifting to try to stop the pain in his legs. He got up to leave and I could see how bad he was hurting. He walked very slowly and each step wass hard labor for him. I asked him to sit and talk with me, and he looked like that wasn’t what he wanted to do. I told him I was a veteran and that helped, he sat with me. We exchanged the normal greetings, and then I started asking him questions. I asked him what he did, and he said he was on a ship off the coast of Vietnam. Their job was to send helicopters inland to pull wounded soldiers out, and to bring food and supplies to the civilians. The I asked what his worst moment was. Can’t tell you now, but it was horrific.

I have many more interviews with soldiers who have had some very bad experiences. Some had funny things happen, and some lost some friends who right next to them. Some interviews are from WWII, The Korean war, Vietnam war, and the Iraq and Afghanistan war. It covers all the wars in our lifetime.

Keep coming back!

So stay close and learn more in the coming days and weeks. I will be sharing more excerpts from the book, and keep you posted as to when the book is coming out.

You can follow daily by subscribing. Just click on the icon at the top that says subscribe, and then every time there is a post it will be sent right to your inbox.

For my fellow veterans:

Are you battling your demons for your service time? Do you still have nightmares about your time? You certainly are not alone. I feel your pain my friend. Stay strong and never let the dark side overcome you. If you need help, here is a hotline that will help you right away. It is:
(877-247-4645)

  • Remember:
  • You are never alone.
  • You are never forsaken.
  • You are never unloved.
  • And above all…never, ever, give up!!

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New Exciting Book for Veterans Coming

I have decided to talk to you directly this evening. I have been sharing Military news for several months, and I just wanted you to get to know me a little better. 

I am a veteran who served in the Army from 1959-1962. I had my basic training at Fort Ord, California, Which is now closed, and I was deployed to South Korea. I then was stationed at Ft Bragg, North Carolina until my discharge. 

I have many stories of my time in the military, and I am announcing that I have a book about the  military coming this next summer, called, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Here is an outline of what will be in the book:

  1. I will have stories from my time in the military, with each story ending with my thoughts on how you and I can be stronger, and face the civilian world better. 
  2. I will share some times and problems I had in South Korea. One was very hard in that two of my buddies and I enlisted together, and only two came back. 
  3. Then I will share one of my most frightening days of my life while at Ft Bragg. 
  4. The next section of the book will be full of interviews with actual veterans from all over this country. They will be sad stories, happy stories, or just plain frightening stories. 
  5. There will an actual letter sent home to a mom from 1944. 
  6. The final section will be full of resources for veterans. I have done a thorough search and put them all together for your use. 

It has taken more than three years to put this book together, because I keep finding more things that I feel should be in it. I have a publisher that is interested, and I have and editor who has been editing the book. 

Reason I wrote the book:

I have spent years and years floating this book around in my head. I got started writing when my first book was published called, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World. It was actually good therapy for me because I was writing it from journals I had been writing every day for over ten years. I saw my hurts, and my joys, and put them down on paper. The book won a national award from the Readers Favorite Awards. That helped me realize that I had  writing abilities. 

As I went through the journal again, just to make sure I covered everything, and I saw that many of the hurts were from my military days. The loneliness, fears, anxiety, depression, etc.  I thought that I need to write directly to my fellow veterans and give them hope. 

I will keep you posted here on my author as to the progress. So be sure to subscribe so that you will get the post delivered to you mail box. All you need to do is click on the subscribe icon, and fill it out. 

Stay tuned for the latest

In closing, I want to reach out to each of you right now. Are you fighting with the world? Do you have bouts of depression, anxiety, PTSD, TBI, etc? I have been there with you. I suggest you fight back as hard as you can. Never give up!! There is  a toll free number you can call if you need immediate help at: 

(877-247-4645)

Remember:

You are never alone. 

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all….Never, ever, give up!!

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The Military Did What to Cause a Stir?

Thanks to all of you who have been joining me here. We help bring change to lives. The response has been wonderful.  

We Made it to 5,000! Never dreamed we would do that. Thank you so much for the support. It also excites us that you are supporting veterans. That is our theme here right now. 

Help us make it to 6,000 by subscribing today if you haven’t already. As Of today we have 5,500.  This shows you care for veterans. Just click on the icon right after the title of this post and click on FEEDBLITZ , and the posts will come straight to your inbox.                            ____________________________________________________________

Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It reaches out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.  

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This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did. 

https://www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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What follows are some strange but interesting stories from our military. 

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The Navy Wants To Do Two Carriers At The Same Time

 

What would you do if you had billions of dollars? Two carriers at the same time, man.

The Pentagon has ramped up its evaluation of a Navy proposal to purchase both the third and fourth vessels in the beleaguered Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program in one fell swoop, Bloomberg News reports, a significant step in the branch’s push for a 12-carrier fleet.

A contract with Huntington Ingalls industries for the next two of the $13 billion super carriers could potentially save the service around $2.5 billion, as Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters in August. Funds for a fourth Ford-class carrier were approved as part of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

While the Navy has been eyeing a two-carrier purchase since March as part of the service’s push for a 355-hull fleet, the single contract could prove a major boon for a program that, per The Diplomat, has failed to meet cost-cutting goals amid the prospect of future cuts to defense spending.

“We are conducting an evaluation to ensure we have the warfighting capabilities to compete and win,” Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan told Bloomberg News in an Oct. 19 statement. “Any decision will factor in strengthening the industrial base and delivering best value for taxpayers.”

Savings are great, but there’s a big problem with the contract beyond the opportunity it presents for Office Space innuendo: It’s a sweet deal for a boat that, last we checked, had a bunch of serious problems.

The DoD Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation’s intensive assessment of the Ford, published in January, detailed “poor or unknown reliability” issues across critical systems from weapons elevators to radar, deficiencies that could “affect the ability of CVN 78 to generate sorties, make the ship more vulnerable to attack, or create limitations during routine operations.”

More embarrassing issues have cropped up in the intervening months. In May, the Ford was forced to return to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia due to an alarming manufacturing defect in the propulsion train, a problem that came just as NAVSEA announced that the total cost of the carrier would balloon to around $13.03 billion — well above the $12.9 billion cap lawmakers set the previous April.

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IN Coming!!!

A military vehicle was mistakenly dropped from a plane over Harnett County on Wednesday, but no person or property was damaged, according to Fort Bragg officials.

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, better known as a Humvee, was to be dropped via parachute as part of a routine test at Fort Bragg, which is known as the Home of the Airborne.

The testing involved a pallet onto which the Humvee was loaded.

Tom McCollum, a post spokesman, said the vehicle was prematurely dropped from an Air. The plane was about a mile from Sicily Drop Zone, flying at an altitude of 1,500 feet, when the Humvee and pallet were dropped about a minute too early, McCollum said.

All three parachutes opened, he said, and the vehicle landed in a wooded area between two homes on Walter Lane, off Gilchrist Road, which is between Johnsonville and Spout Springs, a little more than seven miles north of Fort Bragg’s drop zones.

There was no damage to any of the homes or residents. The only damage was to several trees and the vehicle itself, McCollum said.

 

James Grant, 78, lives in one of the homes. He said his wife was outside, saw the parachutes opening and yelled for him. Grant heard the crash as the load, weighing a total of 3 tons, hit the ground Force C-17 about 1 p.m.

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I will sharing these kind of stories every time I post.

I also have a book called, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out  of the Trenches if Life. It is almost finished. Come back here often to find out when it will be released.

I will be sharing some of my own adventures in the book, of my time in the military. There are some funny stories, and some very sad ones. In my next post I will actually share an excerpt from the book. This is the first time I have done it, and you will be the first ones to see it.

If you are struggling with PTSD, TBI, Depression, anxiety, etc. I feel your pain. I have been through some of that myself. Keep coming back here for uplifting stories and thoughts from me.

The crisis hotline for immediate help is:

1-800-273-8255

___________________

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!