Love your veterans: Story-telling project therapy for PTSD

Robert Lopez served in the U.S. Army for five years, one month and two days, and is quick to say he is no hero, just a patriot who loves his country.

But for the many other veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the retired Army specialist is becoming a beacon of hope through his personal stories of when he served in the Cold War and in Vietnam.

Four months ago, the Plano resident became involved in a therapeutic way to help himself and other veterans overcome the aftermath of combat through The Triumph Program, a project coordinated by Wylie author Melanie Davis.

Cirro Energy, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, helped launch the program at the Plano VFW Hall on Wednesday. The intent of the program is to guide veterans in putting their traumatic experiences on paper and working through the anger, guilt and fear that PTSD typically entails. The workshop helps them find purpose and meaning from their war experience, while using their accounts to help other veterans.

"This program is the first of its kind," said Mike Rose, managing director for Cirro Energy, in a release. "Through the workshop, veterans receive the help they need to battle PTSD. Our goal is to help create a supportive environment for the group."

Air Force veteran and Plano Councilman Pat Miner welcomed Davis and the program to Plano, and said that although much has been done to address the symptoms of PTSD, much more is needed to help these returning soldiers recover from conflict.

"As a military brat, I got to see a lot of these things first hand, [but] back then society didn't know what to call it. It used to be called battle fatigue or war stress." he said. "Many times, society didn't talk about it, it was polite not to. The truth of the matter is that it doesn't go away [and] we need to do something to help fix this."

The program is based on Davis' book titled, The Triumph Book: HEROES, a collection of veteran stories spanning World War II to recent conflicts.

"When we write our stories and we preserve them, we're passing them on to the next generation and they have tremendous value," Davis said. "It's in the cult of the military very often not to talk about what [they've] experienced and sometimes [they] don't want to because it was so difficult. But the truth is that as we share our experiences with others, as we write them, as we go through the process of really stepping outside for a moment and becoming the researcher, [we are] looking at our lives and saying, 'what are the gains that I have from this experience?'"

Davis originally wrote the book to raise awareness, but said it can also be a powerful tool for helping veterans and wounded soldiers deal with the challenges that come as a result of their service. With studies suggesting that most service members have at least one experience during deployment that could lead to PTSD, it's clear that this program is vital, Davis said.

"They are protecting us from hell here at home. They're soaking it up," she said. "And when they return, even though what they did was noble, they feel awful because they've literally soaked up hell. We need to help them recognize their heroism and they are heroes, every one of them."

The Dominion Foundation donated $1,000 grants to 26 nonprofit organizations across the country. Lopez's daughter, and Cirro Energy employee Amanda Grindel, used her $1,000 grant to help kick-start the program in Plano to support veterans like her father.

"This is very exciting to me, this is something for him to be involved in and being able to tell his story, which has been a private thing that we've kept just within our family," Grindel said. "Being able to see him cope and tell his story is very exciting to me."

While the idea of sharing his memories with others made Lopez reluctant at first, the father of two said it quickly became a labor of love and something that piqued his interest to write even more.

"It has given me a little bit of closure, and with that feeling comes the release of the anxiety," he said. "So many memories come back. The mind is an amazing thing, it's a self-protecting mechanism. I have all of these black and white images that are permanently engraved."

Lopez's story is only a mere glimpse of his military career, but one that will be forever ingrained in his memory. In his story, Lopez tells of times his unit spent guarding the Berlin Wall, specifically at Spandau Prison. In the book, Lopez describes the moment when his eyes met the prison's most notorious inmate, Albert Spear, Adolf Hitler's right hand-man and "architect of death."

"I quickly turned around, giving him my back, as we were never to make eye-contact with the prisoner," Lopez stated. "The chill I felt that morning came from more than the cold February air."

Lopez spent roughly 40 years after returning from Vietnam living with PTSD without addressing it, saying many soldiers tend to ignore they have a problem, a side effect of military training. Thanks to Davis' book and the Triumph project, which includes a series of workshops that help U.S. veterans with their recovery by reading about others' experiences and writing their own war story, Lopez wants his comrades to know that there is hope and it's okay to seek help.

"You have to make the effort, there is no closure without therapy," he said. "Don't try to be your own therapist, you can't self-medicate. If I can bring one guy out of what I feel, then I feel like I've done something."

For information on future classes or to donate, visit www.LoveYourVeterans.org.

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