War

Tom Spooner, whom I interviewed here on my blog, also has a blog. I got this quote from his blog. Thanks, Tom.

War is always and will ever be obscene. …  While war is obscene, those who charge the machine guns, who bleed, who go down to the aid stations and who are put in body bags are not obscene, their sacrifices have no measure—theirs has a purity where mankind shines and is beyond corruption.  I am not blasphemous when I say that in the brutality and evil of war soldiers who have offered themselves up so that their buddies may life, have in them the likeness and image of God.  And damn those who debunk courage, valor, fidelity, love of country, love of home, family, hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow.  Our soldiers give up much—that others may live, not only in freedom but even luxury.  They deserve our great, great gratitude and affection because they are willing to serve.  They are some of God’s noblest people.

—General Dick Cavazos, United States Army

Level Black: PTSD and the War at Home (from All Warrior Network)

Check out AllWarriorNetwork.com.

Great videos, like this one.

Sebastian Junger speaks about soldiers missing war

Published on May 23, 2014 Civilians don't miss war. But soldiers often do. Journalist Sebastian Junger shares his experience embedded with American soldiers at Restrepo, an outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley that saw heavy combat. Giving a look at the "altered state of mind" that comes with war, he shows how combat gives soldiers an intense experience of connection. In the end, could it actually be "the opposite of war" that soldiers miss?

Lessons for Life from SEAL and DEVGRU leader, Adm. Bill McRaven

Grateful in Any Circumstances - President Deiter F. Uchtdorf

We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?

Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges.

This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind.

Finding Happiness - Richard G. Scott

Although it may not be a welcome insight, you will grow more rapidly through challenge and trial than from a life of ease and serenity with no disturbing elements. The intent of your Father in Heaven is to lift you from where you are to where he knows you will have eternal purpose and unspeakable happiness. By using the talents, abilities, and latent capacities developed in the premortal existence, he will lead you through growth experiences here on earth. When faced squarely and lived fully without complaint, they will raise you to glorious heights of accomplishment and service. To do all of that during the brief period you are on earth is a tremendous challenge. To accelerate your growth and attainment in his plan for you, sometimes he employs a pattern described on the label of some medicines: "shake well before using."

Such shaking comes through stirring challenges and stretching tests. You likely have encountered some already. You undoubtedly will encounter others. They may come in the form of an accident, the conferral of a great responsibility, or a move that dramatically changes your surroundings and circle of trusted friends. You may begin educational or professional pursuits that prove far more demanding than anticipated. Perhaps personal illness, handicaps, or the death of a loved one puts seeming barriers in your path. In truth they are more likely giant steps intended to lift you to higher levels of understanding and accomplishment. How these challenges are confronted is critically important to your happiness and personal growth now and forever. When armed with the power that an understanding and application of the teachings of the Lord provide--and with faith in him and in the capacity of the Holy Ghost to guide and fortify--you will overcome those challenges and gain the intended growth and attainment. As you remember that you are an eternal being, with latent capacities derived from divine parentage, you will not allow yourself to be limited by the confining world that Satan would have you believe is all that exists.

--Elder Richard G. Scott

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=2461

Gen Omar Bradley on morality

General Omar N. Bradley, formerly the U.S. Army's Chief of Staff, and the last five-star General said on one occasion:

"With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescence. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it.

"We have too many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death.

"The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."

OIF Veteran and Police Officer Injured

A good man lies in a hospital bed today after being shot by a man during a traffic stop. I hope to visit him today and give him a 5.11 Tactical Karambit that was designed -- and given to me -- by Steve Tarani.  Steve sent a handful of his knives to Warrior SOS over a year ago for me to give to warriors who needed a boost. This is the last one I have. This police officer certainly needs a boost.

Thanks for helping keep our streets safe, brother.  Recover quickly.

Who loves the warrior?

Who loves the warrior?
Not those he has fought for,
For those he has fought for have seen
The stains of battle on his garment.
They draw back when they learn of the deed
He has done to keep them safe.
It is better for them to keep a distance from the warrior
So the stain will not spoil the perception of their dignity.
Yet the warrior continues to give his all.
He must fight the battles to keep the souls he loves
Free from harm and free from the stain of evil,
For he is a warrior,
The only shield between good and evil.
It is only the warrior who loves the warrior.

—Sergeant Lonn Sweeney
Portland Police Bureau, Portland, Oregon

as quoted in Dr. Alexis Artwohl and Loren W. Christensen’s Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need to Know to Mentally and Physically Prepare for and Survive a Gunfight, Paladin Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1997, p. 10.

Opportunity by Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:—

There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;

And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged

A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords

Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner

Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.

A craven hung along the battle's edge,

And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel—

That blue blade that the king's son bears, — but this

Blunt thing—!” he snapped and flung it from his hand,

And lowering crept away and left the field.

Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,

And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,

Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,

And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout

Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,

And saved a great cause that heroic day.

"Opportunity" is reprinted from The Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900. Ed. Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1915.

Don't hesitate -- using deadly force

This video was taken from PoliceOne.com. This man stole a car which had a baby inside.  It turns from grand theft auto, kidnapping, to hostage taking.  The suspect was eventually was killed by police, justifiably I might add -- at least from all the footage I saw before the shooting occurred. Sadly, he could have killed the baby-hostage. It's difficult to Monday morning quarterback because I don't have all of the facts, but this video shows enough facts that it would have been totally warranted, and tactically necessary, to end the man's life far before he grabbed the baby out of the car seat. Just one move could have ended the baby's life.

Sometimes, in tactical scenarios, officers don't know how to act because they haven't trained for it tactically, or they haven't yet visited that moment in their minds. Thankfully, I've had a lot of SWAT and tactical training. I thought where I'd shoot him, and how. I carefully analyzed the background, too. A buddy and I watched this together -- he also has SWAT experience. Both of us were chomping on the bit: shoot him already!

Thankfully, the baby didn't get killed. And, thankfully, the baby won't remember this incident and suffer from PTSd for years to come.

PTS(d) and the brain

The book “Surviving Survival,” by Laurence Gonzales, was recommended to my by my good friend Colin Cameron, whom I recognized in the acknowledgements section of my last book, “Leaders Wanted.” I wish I’d had started it sooner. Here’s a few gems I gathered from the book today. I quote:

[The brain] always tells us, eventually, what it has learned [during traumatic survival situations], but it may do so when we are not looking. … [e.g. sweating, hyperventilation, inability to sleep or eat properly, for instance]…

[Injury] makes recovering the mind that much more difficult.  … injury produces stress which involves a host of changes in your muscles, your digestion, even your immune system.  Stress dumps special chemicals into your blood stream, and while those chemicals [are] necessary for the burst of energy…to survive the attack, if they continue to circulate over a long period of time, they could do real damage.  

One of the chemicals of stress is cortisol, a steroid.  A little bit of stress—a small rise in cortisol—makes you more alert and puts you in a better mode.  It improves your ability to concentrate and helps you form explicit, conscious memories.  A little bit of stress improves performance in sports and intellectual activities.  A little cortisol improves your appetite.  But that same chemical in large and prolonged doses, has the opposite effect.  It can disrupt the machinery of explicit memory. It can cause malfunctions in the frontal lobes so that you can’t think straight.  Making matters worse, too much cortisol stimulates the fight or flight reaction so it becomes a feedback loop.

Many kinds of memory are formed in the brain and body.  Explicit memory tells you such things as what you intend to buy at the grocery store.  Another kind of memory, called episodic, allows you to tell someone everything that happened at that awful party last Saturday night.  Implicit memory, includes things such as learning to tense your muscles when the dentist brings the shrieking drill before your mouth.  It’s an emotional memory, so you don’t have to think about it; it just happens. …

Automatic behaviors, such as your golf or tennis swing, are part of implicit memory.  The same cortisol that makes it difficult to create new and explicit memories makes implicit memories stronger and faster, strengthening your response, even when you can’t remember why you’re responding in the first place.  While too much cortisol interferes with the work of the hippocampus for making conscious memories, it improves the working of the amygdala for producing fear and unconscious memories.  When that steroid disrupts the formation of conscious memories while enhancing the formation of unconscious ones, you feel anxiety without ever knowing where it came from. …

When … wrote in her journal that she was miserable, never slept through the night, felt crazy and unable to get along with anyone, it was because she was experiencing the effects of those chemical changes. … What [she] needed was then, was to find someway to get at the cell assemblies in her brain that was setting off her alarms.  She needed a way to readjust the chemistry that was causing her such disruptive anxiety, and if [her] trouble was all in her mind, and her mind was a manifestation of her body, then it would be through her body that she would ultimately ease her mind. 

[She] had gone to college and earned a masters degree in psychology, so she knew the fancy name for what was troubling her: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or at least some of its symptoms.  But [her] response to trauma is not a disorder; it is, in fact, the inviolable command of memory.  Learn this to save your life: It is a perfectly reasonable response given the way our brains are organized. An injury leaves scars.  Lets call it post traumatic stress.  

from Surviving Survival, by Laurence Gonzales

quote from my latest book, Leaders Wanted

"When asked why the sabertooth tiger went extinct, we’re reminded that his mouth got him into trouble.  When tempted to say something mean, don’t.  When we’re tempted to say something untrue or unkind about someone, we should bite our tongue.  On the other hand, when the thought of saying or doing something nice enters our minds, we should go out of our way to do it."

--Jeffrey Denning, author of Leaders Wanted

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6U1YZG

Compassion, the benefit as a result of suffering

An excerpt from my new book:

"One of the most basic loving principles of humankind, one of the most beneficial elements each human being is capable of possessing, is the art of compassion.  Compassion is often developed or increased out of personal hardships.  More often than not, difficulty is the conduit for acquiring sympathy and compassion.  As we more fully understand and embrace the blessings of compassion, we gain gratitude that the suffering we experienced gave us something meaningful as a result." 

Buy Leaders Wanted: The Power of Influence, Professional Behavior and Moral Leadership today!!

It's available now on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6U1YZG

My new book is now available

    My new book, Leaders Wanted: The Power of Influence, Professional Behavior and Moral Leadership, is now available on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6U1YZG

 

"O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory?"

To read amazing interviews with warriors, check out Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration, the book on Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3WO7VK

In My Father's Eyes -- What God Sees in Me

Heavenly Father’s Eyes and Me

by Jeffrey Denning

I cannot go this life alone

I need strength beyond my own.

Troubles near and troubles far

It does not matter who you are.

Everyone in time of need

Finds themselves on bended knee,

Looking up as if to say,

“Please help me live another day.”

When life ends it's mortal journey

And our body's limp and lonely,

Buried deep within the Earth

We'll discover our real worth.

In our Heavenly Father's eyes

We will see Him when He cries

For the wickedness of men

And of war, of rage, and sin.

And so it goes when in life lows

Through dark valleys we must go

Only if my eyes could see

What Heavenly Father sees in me.

He would see an imperfect man,

But He would let me know I can

Return and live with Him someday

With my family here today.

He would help me now to see

That I like Him can someday be

By relying on His Only Son

The Infinite and Eternal One.

I can have a healthy heart;

I can make a brand new start.

He can heal and comfort me

If through His eyes I view me.

Copyright - 2013 Jeffrey Denning 

I wrote this poem after having a really tough day. I was reminded of those times of desperation and prayer that I spoke of in the poem when just the day before I heard a colleague -- a former Vietnam era Marine -- point out to a younger war veteran of Iraq that he certainly pleaded for heavenly help and cannot deny it when that first bullet whizzed past his head in battle. The younger veteran admitted, almost sheepishly, that he had prayed. In times of in desperation there can be a tendency to pray, even if we normally don’t. I’ve certainly had those prayers of panic and pleading.

Feeling that I was about to fall to my certain and painful death, I have prayed. I have begged and pleaded with the Creator of the Universe more than once. I said I would do anything for Him, but “please, please help me live.” I got into a foolish situation. I feared greatly. I've tried to keep up my side of the bargain.

The interesting thing is that there are other times -- times in our lives when there are mean people or hardships -- when we wonder if the challenges we face will ever leave. We wonder if our situation will ever change. The poem embraces those times best. 

God is our loving Heavenly Father. I believe He sees all things and knows all things. He knows what is best for us and He is anxious to bless and help us. He sees in us what we cannot see in ourselves. He recognizes our potential. He feels sorrow when we do wrong and so do we. Fortunately, we can repent when we do wrong and be better tomorrow, and today. We are all sinners to one degree or another, but we can strive to be better.  

When we feel sorrow and suffering (not necessarily because of our sins, but because of our circumstances and imperfections or the imperfections of others), I believe there is a special kind of unconditional love only a parent can give us, in this case a Heavenly Parent, One who sees in us what we cannot see in ourselves. 

Our Heavenly Father has a plan for us; He wants to see us succeed. He sees what is around the corner for us. Great things are in store for us. He will help us. He will guide us. He will comfort us, but only if we let Him. God loves us. Let us love Him. 

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

--1 Corinthians 2:9


To read amazing interviews with warriors, check out my book Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration, the book on Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3WO7VK

Buy Warrior SOS, the book on Amazon today!

Do you want to know what war is really like? 

Are you struggling with your military experiences?  Is someone you know struggling?  

Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration available on Amazon full of incredible interviews from amazing people.  Each chapter highlights the stories of those who have struggled with PTSd or other challenges of war.  From care givers to operators, each page will tug on your emotional heartstrings.  Warriors will find hope and healing when reading about the PTSD and TBI from the crème de la crème of military Special Operations.  Warrior SOS, the book, highlights some of the following profiles: 

• US Army Special Forces operators on Special Mission Units, 
• US Navy SEAL,
• A USAF triple amputee survivor,
• WWII survivor of the Battle of the Bulge, 
• Lead expedition guide for Soldiers to the Summit, 
• US Marine and survivor of the US embassy bombing in Beirut,
• Veteran SWAT operators and experienced police officers with military experience, 
• The struggles of a humble caregiver, and the faith of a widow, and many more. 

In short, Warrior SOS details the war experiences of military veterans in their own words, with a focus on faith, healing and recovery. Combat veterans of Afghanistan, Iraq and other wars courageously share their stories of tragedy, injury, and post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Veterans, as well as family members and advocates, tell how war has changed them and offer suggestions to help heal the combat wounded soul.

To read amazing interviews with warriors, check out Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration, the book on Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3WO7VK

Don't Drink and Drive

When I was a Private in the military, stationed in South Korea, I had a roommate who lost his wife to a drunk driver. They were married just two weeks. He was working for an ambulance service and responded to an overturned vehicle that was hit by a drunk driver. It was his wife and her best friend.

As the firefighters tried to extract the mangled vehicle, my friend laid on his stomach holding his wife's hand. She was conscious and alert, but fading quickly. The "jaws of life" and other extraction tools were unable to open the the vehicle enough to get her out before she died.

Years later, after a tour in Iraq, a young man I worked with on a daily basis was killed after being home in America for less than two weeks. He wasn't used to driving.  He wasn't used to being back home in the U.S. Like many veterans coming home, he was probably driving much faster than the posted speed limit. I'm not sure, but I suspect he was drinking.

Driving impaired and getting wasted has lasting consequences. Watch this video and pass it on.


To read amazing interviews with warriors, check out Warrior SOS: Interviews, Insights and Inspiration, the book on Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3WO7VK