We're Out of Time - The Battle After Service: David West’s Fight for Veterans

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Marine veteran David West joins Richard Taite on We’re Out of Time to share his powerful story of resilience, redemption, and service. Raised in a household where survival meant bringing money home���by any means necessary—David found discipline and direction in the Marines, rising to Sergeant in just three years. But after leaving the service just 15 days before 9/11, he faced a new kind of battle: homelessness, shame, and the struggle to find purpose in civilian life.He opens up about the stigma veterans face when re-enlisting—how society views them as unable to “hack it” outside—and the hard truth of returning home to instability. Living out of his car, keeping clothes in his trunk to hide his homelessness, and facing exploitation in construction jobs, David’s journey reveals the harsh reality many veterans endure after service.Today, David works as a Veteran Service Officer, dedicating his life to helping other veterans get the benefits, respect, and hope they deserve. His story is a testament to leadership, perseverance, and the healing power of giving back. As he shares, it’s not enough to hand the homeless money—they need connection, compassion, and guidance to rebuild their lives.This episode is a moving exploration of what it truly means to serve, struggle, and stand back up—both for oneself and for others.

When I see veterans that have gone from one or despair to now thriving, a lot of times the community is better. They want to be places where the whole family can come together, where they can energize and do great things. They really want to help. They want to show off the best of their service, and they're always thankful. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our listeners. Because of your incredible support,

where out of time has reached number one on Apple's Mental Health Podcast chart, number two on the health and fitness chart, And number 26 overall, we couldn't have done this without you. Thank you for being part of this journey with us. If someone has a problem with substance use disorder, please call one call placement. That's 8888-8-8-3-1-1581. And if we can't help you, we'll make a referral to someone who can. Please, we're out of time.

Today we're talking about something that should never be controversial. If we send Americans to war, we owe them the dignity of bringing them home. whole. If we break it, we bought it. Veterans should not be living in encampments. The truth is, too many of our heroes come home and find themselves lost in bureaucracy, cut off from benefits that they've earned, and in some cases, homeless. That's unacceptable. Our veterans aren't just survivors. They're some of the best employees, the best leaders, and the strongest contributors to society once they get the right support. The challenge is making sure that support is there when they need it.

David West has lived this story, a Marine veteran, once homeless himself, now working every day to connect veterans to the benefits and the hope they deserve. Today we're going to dive in to what works, what doesn't, and what has to change if we're serious about keeping our promise to the men and women who serve this country. Hey, David. Hello. Thank you for having me here. No, man, the pleasure's all mine.

It's an honor and a privilege for sure. Yes, sir. So we're going to get right into it, okay? Yes, sir. All right. Can you take us back to your time in the Marines? What shaped you most about your service? Well, when I go back to thinking about the Marines, it's the kids.

that they took that didn't have the best upbringing, didn't have the best outlook on opportunities for having a quality life. School wasn't really something that was preached in my house. I was really encouraged to go get money to help feed my mom, take care of the bills, and that wasn't always through legal jobs. Right. So during my senior year high school, my grandfather was encouraged me to join all the different branches, bringing me stuff. on our OTC for Army, Navy, Air Force. And after I graduated, I went in and told him I joined the Marine Corps. And I remember, he dropped the plate in the kitchen.

He said, what the hell did you go and do something stupid like that for? Why did he say that? Well, it's exact words there. I told you to join the military, not the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is going to change you. But it's just that was the ranch. Wait, wait. I don't understand that.

Yeah. Explain that to me. For lay person who... Well, for him, he had served in the air, Army Air Corps during World War II. And the Marines had gained a reputation for being the hardest branch, the meanest people, and expecting the most out of their service members. And that was something.

And when they got out there more forceful and the way they approach. And Marines kind of have this around the world for being the toughest fighting branch in the world. So he was like, oh, they're going to change you, son. And they did this thing in the world for you. Best thing in the world for me. Yeah. It was the first time I had positive male influence in my life. Right.

It was the first time where the rules were the same for everybody. Yeah. And I was in a position where I could thrive. And I got promoted fast. Picked up Sergeant in three years. That's four promotions. That's great. It was great.

I had fun. It was a blast. Is that where you ended as Sergeant? Yeah. I handed as a sergeant. That's great. It was great. I had a great time.

And it was one of those things. You work hard. Great things happen. You study. Good things happen. And it's not by who likes you more or who doesn't like you. It's can you perform and can you be a good Marine? I love that, man.

I wish I would have done that. I would have given anything. My parents didn't preach any of that to me. What was the transition like when you came back home and what challenges did you personally face? The transition for me was exceptionally difficult. I got out of the Marine Corps pretty quick. I got a job, like on paper, I did everything right. I had a job.

I enrolled in college, but I wasn't prepared. I went from being in the Marine Corps on a Friday to starting a job on a Monday. My first day of work, they had a copy machine. And in the Marine Corps, it's really simply have a red button for no and a green button for make copies. this thing looked like it was ready to send something to the moon. You know what I'm standing there? I'm like, how do I do this? And this lady came up to me and she's asked me what I was doing.

I'm trying to use the copyer. You haven't been here long enough. I was like, oh, someone sat at my desk. I was like, what? And from there it was just not having anything to identify with the planes hit 9, that the planes hit right at 9-11, 15 days after I got out. So I was feeling this like, should I go? back in. But when you're in, the guys that could get out and come back in, it's, you kind of look at

them differently. Like, you couldn't hack it on the outside, right? So, and that's my own fault. Well, that's, it's, it's, that's, that's maybe a thing. Yeah. But it was 15 days after terrorists just flew into the building. Exactly, right. And it was on my own head. And I can do this. I'm going to be great. I got a job. Everything's going to be fine. And really quickly it wasn't. Why? I just not being able to fit in at work. I got a job at a tech company and got a really far advanced for what my skills were as a Marine. What did they do?

What were you supposed to do that? I was supposed to be fixing radios and handheld equipment. Did you know how to do it? I did know how to do it. It wasn't the best at it. And I had gone from a spot. And also I had moved back close to my mom. I had joined to get away from problems.

And when I got out, I moved right back to where my problems were. Which were? Which was my mom financially taking hold of me. And dealing with that and to transition to being something important in the Marine Corps to the following Monday, not being so important, not being able to wrap my brain around the problems I was having like you're saying, not ever having anybody in my life other than. I always got a tough love from growing up. And the Marine Corps further, further did that for me. But this was a period of my life when I needed a mentor. Somebody to reach out to me and tell me, dude, this is part of life.

You're going through it. Calm down. But what I did was I was having so many problems trying to identify with who I am in the civilian world, feeling I was being taken advantage over work, not, you know, not understand the hierarchy of things that I fell back into behaviors that I was taught before I joined that just didn't start compounding all my problems again. Do you like to share what those were? Well, I went back to having fun by, you know, growing up, growing up, I was, growing up I sold, sold

pharmaceuticals, right? That was expected in my house to bring money home. And when you get out and you're having, you're living in Las Vegas. and is a way to make myself feel important again. I know. And it was be the life of a party, have fun. It's what I grew up doing is what's what made sense. Very quickly found out it wasn't making sense, and I was really hurting myself.

Right. Yeah. So is your mom alive today? She is. She is. Do you guys have a relationship? No, we don't. The last time I talked to my mom,

She's going through some problems and she's working through some problems. And she told me, she said some things that we cannot be forgiven. And my job is to protect my family. That's exactly right. Right. So my kids don't know the life that I had. Do they know their grandmother? They don't know on their mom's side.

Yes. But they never introduced her. No. Dude, I love you. Yeah. I love you. You want to know why, okay? because it's so hard.

We're so hardwired to love our parents. And it's so heartbreaking. Can I tell you something? Honestly, and it's going to probably make you emotional. But when your mother dies, you're going to go insane. You're going to, hold on,

you're going to cry and you're going to be really heartbroken. Let me tell you in advance. Okay. why you're going to be crying. Not because you lost your mother. Because you're mourning the mother that you always wanted, the mother that you never had. So I just want you to know when it happens, okay? You're not, you don't have to feel guilty about never seeing your mom or introducing her.

I don't know if you would, but. No, I've, like, honestly, it's not some guilt that I feel every day. It is? Oh, every day. I know there's a woman that loves me that doesn't know how to love and protects. Like, she never protected me as a kid. Right. Right.

So I can't trust her to protect my kids. That's right. Stuff that I don't know. That's exactly. As I role as their father. But as a dad, I always want to have contact with my kids. I always want my kids to have contact with me in their life and treat them the right way. And as a son, it feels bad knowing that there's a woman that's hurting, but she hurt me.

And I can't allow her to hurt anybody else. That's exactly right. So that's a burden I got to live with. And I do my best, right? And I, to show my kids the most love as possible. Uh-huh. So you see what I'm talking about, right? You're going to feel, you're going to, it's all going to come crashing down.

You didn't do anything wrong. You did it all right. Your responsibility is a dad to your family. Okay. That's it. If she's unsafe, she's, yeah. Then you can't bring her into the fold, right? That's your, that's, so when she dies, that's what's going to happen.

Yeah, I know that's going to be coming. It's going to be a bad day. It's going to be a bad day, but not because of her, but because your mourning, you're at a loss for what you never had. And you probably see your wife and the father that you are to your kids. Okay. And now you're like, wait a minute, I didn't get any of this. Right? I mean, do you know how much better off you would have been if you,

were your own father? Oh, I think you'd probably be the president. You know, I've, I've fought so hard just to have a seat at the table. And I can look at my own family and see. So my dad had different kids, different wives and my brothers, my sister, they all got an opportunity to go to full, you know, full colleges, real colleges. I got, I went to University of Phoenix, which is great, right? But still always wanted to go to real college.

And I will. I will one day, right? That's, that's the goal. But just seeing the different opportunities and knowing how I grew up compared to my siblings. And I made it. I'm here. Right. And sometimes you can't let the bad parts be the reasons why you don't succeed.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So you've been open about a period of homelessness yourself. What does that experience teach you about veterans we see struggling on the streets today? Well, my experience, after about a little over a year in Vegas, everything falling apart. I moved home. Nobody in my family would take me in. I was my stepmom.

I was a bad influence on my younger brother. I couldn't be there. I still don't understand that logic. So I slept in my car. Best friend's couch. His mom let me stay there. tools in my tools in my back seat, clothes in my trunk

for some reason I was more embarrassed that I had my tools my clothes in my car than my tools. So you put your clothes in the trunk and your tools in the back seat? Yeah. Because that was... You didn't want to...

You didn't care that they might get stolen just so long as you didn't look homeless. Yeah. I love it. That's the best. Eating carnage aside or one carnage a burrito a day because it was cheap but also has a lot of protein in it, you know?

enough to get through. Sitting there, knowing from my upbringing that I could take an easy way out and get out of myers, but I made the choice that this isn't why I joined the Marine Corps. It's telling me that I got to live up to that. And the path from being in that to being a laborer making $12 an hour for a construction company that didn't always pay their guys. And if they were running short, they're going to pay the top dollar guys. and usually the laborers are going to be the ones that are missing a paycheck because I'm easily replaceable.

And therefore, I'm having a hard time feeding myself. To going through that circuit of learning just how people take advantage of low-cost labor and how it messes with your brain, right? You're trying to feed, you're trying to eat, you're putting in good work, and then somebody holds your paycheck. Or you get a paycheck and everybody's got to run to the bank because if you're the last guy, it's not going to cash. And you're stuck for the weekend. Learning from that experience and while you're going through it, especially with, you know, had some problems from the Marine Corps, but the mental health part, like how do you get, how do you stay focused?

How do you stay positive? How do you pursue a girl if you can't even take her out? Right? Like how do you do these things when you're living paycheck to paycheck? It's dehumanizing. It is. It's dehumanizing. You're going out, you're doing the work, okay?

How long ago was this? 20 years. Yeah, that's about 2004, 2004, 2005 time. In 2004, I had my treatment center. I just opened it. And I paid the housekeepers, I think, $15 or $16 an hour, but they all had insurance, every single one of them. And at the beginning, you don't have to. I think if you're under 50 employees, you don't have to.

But I just, in my mind, I was like, wait a minute. These are the people that take care of me. I got to take care of them, right? Because people are all that matters. In construction, it doesn't work that way. No, no health insurance. You can't. You don't want to get sick.

If you get sick. You miss payment. You got to go to a dock in a box where they charge you outrageous fees, but then I have a new insurance. and you're behind. That's exactly. So you don't go, so you're self-medicating, doing all the things.

And understanding that my relationship now with cops is a lot different than when I was sleeping in my car. Sure. The way they show up, it's not always respectful, right? Get out of here, who are you, to a point where I didn't want to let them know I was a Marine because sometimes they say negative things about my service and all the great things.

What do you mean? You know, you're sleeping in places and they come in and be like, what are you? And you tell I'm sorry, I'm a Marine, oh, you're a Marine, look at you and all these negative things. They would say shit like that. Yeah, it was some negative stuff in that experience.

And you take that with you. You take that with. Sure, because you feel dehumanized. You feel like a failure in that moment. Yeah, so now when I'm helping veterans in that space, and they're telling me that they've not been treated right or dehumanized, I can relate. I know that because I've been there.

I know what it's like. I know what it's like the people look at you or not look at you. That's one of you're helping veterans when you're helping anybody and that's low, it's not, there's not housed. You got to make sure you treat them with respect. Always. Look them in the eye. Yeah.

You know, show them that you care. Don't pass them off. Yeah. You know, Dylan and I were in the car, right? and we're passing through the intersection. And I lock eyes with this woman holding a sign. And I pull up, I'm already through the intersection. So I pull over.

And I look in the rear view mirror. And because we locked eyes, she's walking across the street. So I hand Dillon some money. And I say, get out of the car and give this to the woman. And he goes, what woman? I said, Dillet, get out of the car, make a right, you'll see the woman. And he says, okay. And I'm watching this through the rear view mirror because I'm in a rush.

Okay? So I don't get out of the car. But she ain't leaving because she wants to say thank you. And so I know the drill, right? So I get out of the car and I open up my arms and I go, can I give you a hug? and she goes, see. And I whispered in her ear, I'm sorry, you're struggling. Okay.

And we got in the car, I started crying. And he waited. Dylan waited a couple minutes because, you know, his boss is sitting there in a car, right? It's freaking the 22-year-old kid out, you know? and he finally says to me, I bet that makes you, I bet that makes you feel good.

And I said it does not. And he said, why? And I said, because we left her there. Now, we'll get into the leaving people there part because if you break it, you bought it. That's how I feel about it. But the point of that story is, money's not enough.

These are human beings. They want to be acknowledged. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want you to slow down and say, hey, I matter, right? Or, I mean, they don't feel like they matter. So if you can stop and just give somebody a hug, it doesn't matter. Now, I did have a bad experience in New York when I was there to do some press stuff.

Okay? and I tell my guy to stop, I tell my driver to stop the car, and I've got my publicist to the left of me, and I grab a bunch of money, and I go out, and there's this woman. She's like this tall. She's like five feet tall, and she's overweight, and she's got her, her, what do you call it? Shopping cart, right, full of all her stuff,

and I approach her and I say, here's sweetheart. And she started screaming. And I go, no, no, baby, it's okay. I just want to give you the money. And she was so, I freaked her out so hard, which means she's been raped. She's been abused. She's been like, she's afraid of every man. Okay.

And I just ran and I tossed the money in her thing. And I got in the car. You know, it's so not everybody can hand. handle the love. But you're going to go through those things if you want to be a human being and make somebody feel like, you know, they're not invisible for the day. Yes. Right? No, 100%. You have to take that extra moment. And, you know, sometimes the mental illness from the trauma is you receive on the streets, right, knowing that most of our homeless women are sleeping during the day because they're scared to sleep at night for sure right and you're seeing

them like so that they're up protecting themselves or understanding it's really hard for a woman with kids to find housing in these situations right especially when they're when they're escaping domestic violence right that's like that that's that's a hard that's a hard how do you how do you how do you help you see that with the veterans yeah we we hope yes because the america veterans are a perfect slice of americana we we represent the whole u.s. population, the good, the bad, and a lot of the great. A lot of the great. Yeah.

All right. If we break it, we bought it. I've always believed you can't send people to war, break them down, and then let them live in an encampment. From your perspective, how well is our country living up to that responsibility? It's a really scary time right now. When you, when you, when you, when you, as a young 19-year-old, David West who was joining the Marine Corps, joined for two, two, two guaranteed benefits. I was going to get the GI Bill

and I was going to get the VA home loan. And the third was a promise. If they broke me, they would take care of me. The process of working with the VA and filing claims with the VA has always been difficult.

It's not adversary in the fact that the VA wants to deny claims. It's not built against the veteran. It's a claims process. It's legal work. It's codes of regulations. You have to understand. that. And as every time we've gone through wars, each war has us new problems. This one has a lot of

invisible injuries, the TBI, the PTSD. What's TBI? Tramatic brain injury. A lot of invisible injuries that they didn't have in previous wars. And our medicine's gotten a lot better. We've kept people alive that we previously weren't able to do. He said you had three promises. The GI Bill, the VA home loan, We already know that they didn't take care of you. Okay. Did you get the GI Bill? I got the GI Bill. And you get the VA loan.

I got the VA home. It wouldn't be living the house I live in right now. It wasn't for the VA home loan. I was able to use my GI Bill. My path going to college was difficult, right? But the fact when they break you, they're going to fix you. A lot of veterans right now are even our lower income veterans that need help. They don't know where to go to get.

get this help. What is your position and who do you work for for the viewers? So my my regular daytime position. I'm David West, the Nevada County, Veterans Services Officer. Nevada County is Northern California, about an hour northeast of Sacramento. covers the Truckee area for those who don't know where truckie is. Just think about the Donner Party. That's where they ended up. Jeffrey Dahmer? No, the Donner Party from coming back out west. Who's the Donner Party? They they tried to travel out west. They tried to travel out west from back east. Took a shortcut.

They ended up being a shortcut and ended up freezing to death up in Truckee and had to do some weird eating habits to stay alive during the winter. Shut up. They ate each other? Yes, they did. So, yeah, the Donner party is a great story. But whenever I, yeah, whenever I try to tell people where little Nevada County is they don't really understand it until I bring up truck. And the Donner party, they go, oh, that's what you're doing. Do you know what's funny?

I think Jeffrey Dahmer did the same thing. Yeah. Look that up right now. And Jeffrey Dahmer was- Did Jeffrey Dahmer eat people? Yes, he did. Did he really? Yes, he did. So Donner and Dommer, both of them are-

Well, Donner was a party. It was like, and the wagon trail. Yeah, but you don't see this, Dommer and Donner. I see it, yeah. And Dommer was an Army veteran. Well, he knew how to survive, clearly. Yeah. A lot of veterans don't even know what they're entitled to.

Can you walk us through the key benefits you help veterans access, disability claims, health care, housing, and how life-changing they can be? Well, compensation is, compensation is for veterans, and for veterans that are hurt during their service, injuries and diseases that can be contributed to their service, such as our burn pits, our current generation, veterans. The military burned to everything. They could, everything. What do you? Human waste, metal, the parts,

everything, everything in the camp, rubber tires. You burn it? They just burn it. They put jet fuel on it and it was about, some of the larger ones are 10 football fields wide by 10 football fields long. Just stuff and they're burning it. They got service members running around and breathing this stuff in. They're getting cancers. They're dealing with a lot of stuff. Right. So they come into our offices and a lot of... Why do they burn it?

Because it was cheaper than getting it out. It was cheaper than disposing it the proper way. Well, it ain't cheaper than eating everyone with cancer. Exactly. Short term, short term thought process on that one. Oh, okay. So they come into our office and every generation. So I got a market to five, six generations of veterans, young all the way up to World War II, even though we don't have many of those still alive, but we still have surviving spouses from that. that generation that we got to take care of. So we help them if they're a wartime veteran, they might be eligible for pension if they're low income. But we always try to focus on compensation, injuries and disease of adults of service. They come in. We help them, we help them file their claim, build a good packet, whether it be mental health, bad back, bad knees, diabetes, whatever it is. Okay, what about therapy? Therapy is the most

important thing because these people all have trauma. They're all suffering. with nightmares and everything else. So in Nevada County, I get just under $100,000 a year through California's Prop 63 funding. We get some from CalVitt and county behavior. I'm sorry. What? Yes. You have $100,000 a year to treat people psychologically in your whole county?

In my whole? Yeah. It cost me $50,000 a year for my own therapist. Yes. So what we do, every veteran we meet, we talk about mental health. We always talk about mental health. How are you? What's going on?

At our local Auburn outpatient clinic in Auburn, California, it takes the VA about three to four months to see them for mental health. Don't say Auburn. Okay. Around me. I can't take it. Roll tide. Right.

So, sorry. But it takes them about three to four months to see a veteran for mental health. Through this program, I'm able to connect them with our local therapy. therapists where they're being, they get at least 10 sessions. And they get 10 sessions of free mental health services where we take care of them. Ten sessions of free mental health services. Better than a poke in the nose. No, no, it's not.

I know. It's horseshit. But through that, the company we work with Sierra Family Therapy Center, Sierra Burton's awesome. They were able to build Medi-Cal, Tri-West, all the other insurances that we have. So the veterans family and everybody can do it. We can do all TriWest, Champs, VA, and TRICARE. TriWest, they can do all that too. So they can see the problem is right now is they are on the VA's community care network,

meaning the VA will pay for veterans to be referred to them. It's just the federal referral process needs to be taken care of a little bit better. Well, the president's doing a lot of stuff around that, right? What's he doing that's so good and beneficial? right now for the veteran community. Well, the promise is that they were going to redirect some of this money to community care. And he's only six months into the job. Not even.

Not even. Right. Okay. Yes. Seven months. Into the job. So we're waiting to see the impact and seeing that money being shifted and see these referral processes. But this is some of our work we're doing is communicating up and trying to use the right channel saying,

hey, we got a therapist here on your network. we can have the records. How can we make this referral process easier, especially considering this is what you want us to be doing? So how can we make this easier to see our veterans be seen quicker, and then they can be continued treatment past 10 on the care of the VA, as is the promise, right? Because they're making a bunch of efforts through the Compact Act,

which means if veterans in crisis, they can go to any. What's the president doing? I mean, look, I know that the president shut the ball, order. Okay? I know that the president is dealing with the whole issue. So the president went ahead and allocated $400 million to deal with the West L.A. Veterans Campus, which I'm told is the biggest one. He was the huge one. In the country, right? Do you know when I was there, there's a helicopter pad there? So when the president comes or a four star general comes, they have their own

helicopter pad at the VA? That's cool, I guess. What do you mean it's cool? I guess, yeah. What do you mean? I think, yeah, it should be, yeah. Dude, the president's got shit to do. Okay?

I mean, he ain't flying into the, I mean. He's not flying at LAX. Yeah. Yeah. And if he is, he's, and he is, okay, he's taking a helicopter from there. No. This one, yeah. I mean, it saves him an hour.

It saves, saves everybody. No, I think it's great. The guy's got things to do. do. Yes. Okay. Plus, it's better for the community, too, because when you have the motorcades and all stuff and all the things.

Yeah. Yeah. What's the moment you see most often when a veteran goes from despair to finally thriving once they get the right support? When I see some of it, when I see veterans that have gone from a moment of despair to now thriving, a lot of times the community is better. always community is better they're they're active they want they want to coach local high school they want to coach they want either be high school their kids um they get more active in your road your

rotary the elks lodge right veterans don't um especially with our younger generation of veterans they're not really flock into the vfW in the american lesion and those traditional organizations in the way that they they operate um they're looking they're looking they looking for more connection, right? It's raising kids is different than it was even 20 years ago. Right. And it takes a full family effort. So a lot of these traditional organizations, they will, they kind of separate the family.

And they want to be places where the whole family can come together, where they can, where they can energize and do great things. They really want to help. They don't, they want to show off the best of their service a lot of times. is where they come from. And they're always thankful. Always thankful. They want to, and they bring, actually,

they bring more veterans into my office for me to help to tell you the truth. So the goal is to, the goal is help every veteran the best way I can so they can bring more into me. That's magnificent. All right. You said that once veterans stabilize, they often make phenomenal employees. Why do you think veterans are such an asset in the workforce? This is the part that I want people to understand. The part that, I mean, if I can get anybody to take anything away from this podcast, it would be, these people are so talented.

They're loyal. They're hardworking. They're self-motivated. Okay. But people struggle in the transition. They struggle in the transition. And for the most part, I might be an outlier in how I say this. but we need to do a better job of showing ourselves off.

There's somewhere along the line veterans getting compensation became like a badge of honor, like it's a thing of what you need to do. And we talk about it in neighborhoods. We talk about it at work. I got PTSD. I'm getting a 70% and I'm getting money. And that doesn't help you with the workforce. Right.

We can reach out for help. can do what we want to do. We can, there's certain, like, for me, being a Marine, right? There's certain aspects that I want to live up to in my civilian life. And one of them is being able to get through. Right. So even though when I'm struggling mentally and having problems, me and my wife have a good rule, don't let the outside rules see the rule of you sometimes.

So come back into the house. Whatever is triggering me. Use my team, my resources, right? You're on my team. Somebody I'll reach out to if I'm having a hard time. Absolutely. help me get re-centered. So that way, the world's not saying the worst part of it.

This is never going to be fixed. It's never going to be fixed. It's not going to be fixed unless you have a program, mental health program with a therapist who is, who you're therapeutic aligned with, you have a therapeutic alliance with, and you dig in to the trauma. TMS works great. DBT works great. Okay.

All of it. There's so many modalities, but you have to be put in the bosom of professionals that know how to deal with this. And you guys are getting the short end of the stick on this, man. Well, I used it myself. Like, so I was in corporate industry, right? And it worked for a veteran-friendly company. They're veteran-friendly. However, I was required to work every veteran's day.

Trying to get time off to go to a VA exam. you got to go to another exam and all the questions. Okay. I guess my headaches aren't that bad. I guess I'll keep going through work. The problems that you're having. Companies need to realize you're taking people on that have been taught away life. You do your job.

You do it to the best of your capability. Great things are going to happen. They need to tap into that and give them coaching at work. That's right. A mentorship program. Somebody of success that understands how to bring this person along. And when I take you by the hand and walk you through it so that they can show you the way. We have a good internship program in Nevada County where we bring service members on and during the last six months of service.

And one of the things, two things I tell them, your emails or your job interview. Always no, no, everybody's going to see an email before they ever see your face. So make sure you're writing a good professional email that doesn't have a bunch of, there's no need for emojis. There's no things. Always just be professional. And when you're near your boss's office and they're reading a book on leadership, read that book. Your bosses want somebody that's going to think like them and do the same same things. Read the book.

Know where they're going. The books, everybody's reading the same books. Veterans, if you're not reading these books on leadership and doing these things, you're a step behind. It wasn't until Nevada County invested in me and started me teaching me different leadership traits that I had fallen away from in the Marine Corps. and getting real coaching and understanding how to be an inclusive leader and all these great things that I try to be on a daily basis. Having somebody actually teach me and show me that they care and they want to see me better and having seen one of my meltdowns at work. Right. And knowing we got to take care of this guy.

And over the last four years since they've invested in me, I've just grown exponentially. And I can just, from my experience, it's not that the therapy is important, right, having somebody. to talk to, but having a coach, somebody you can talk to. Like, how do I go into this meeting with my boss that is bothering me without it looking, you know, because there's issues you can talk to with bosses and having a format to go in there to make a look, to let them know you're in control of the situation, but you still want to talk about it with them to let them know what's going on. Just the things that have helped me grow is a lawyer.

Yeah, that's, it's, you know what, man, I got to tell you, I've treated, so many veterans over the years. And I got to tell you, they're the easiest people to treat. They are. They just are. Because if you say, soldier, it's muscle memory. And you just give him a hug and you say, we don't do that here, man. Come on.

You throw a cigar in this pie hole and you go smoke cigar and you relax for a half hour and he's a new person. I mean, really, you know how it's how. the saying goes, it takes a village. Okay, I think you use that. It does, isn't you? Okay. It takes a village to encircle a damaged human being. It doesn't matter who it is and gently move them through that process.

And what happens is I've never seen, and I know this isn't about drugs and alcohol, even though there's a ton of abuse and self-medication because they're depressed and lonely. and unseen. But I've never seen anyone get sober or get mentally right and then not be 300 to 400% better than they've ever been, right? So they're going to be the most loyal employee. They're going to be the best employee. They're going to be, you know, they're going to be the most conscientious, right?

They'll take a bullet for you essentially because I see how you talk about the people that gave you that support in Nevada County. And you're the best employee there. You don't say it because you can't say it. You never say it, okay? But I know it because of the gratitude. Yeah, they took me when I was broken. I became a veteran services officer

after being in private industry in Bakersfield, selling chemical in the oil patch, made a lot of money. Me and my wife were close to getting divorced. worse, really bad mentally coming home. I almost became a statistic. The VA over prescribing me Xanax, just turning me into a zombie. Getting, first time I ever got addicted to anything, that was the thing with the doctor's

name on the bottle. And it's hard. It's terrible. It's terrible. And I did it. Did it cold turkey. That was terrible. It was terrible.

It was terrible. One of the worst things I've ever been through. That's right. You're lucky you didn't die. I mean, I don't know how much you were using. But it was that horrible. It was bad. But moving and moving my family up to Sacramento without having a job, my wife was going to be moving back and forth while she's a nurse.

And I got offered the job on my birthday. And interviewed, I offered on my birthday. Happy birthday. Started September 10th. And I was hungry and I wanted to prove that they hired the right person. And I just started going and steamrolling. get, when you have positive people wanting you to do well and telling you you're important, it means a lot. And it goes back to the leadership traits you're taught in the Marine Corps.

The best leaders, you know, you show up on time, show up early, be present, look good, and eat last. If you're a leader, eat last. It's the simplest things. And as long as you continue to do it, you're going to connect with the veterans in your community. At the end of the day, this isn't complicated. Veterans keep their promise to us. Now it's on us to keep our promise to them. They don't need handouts. They need the benefits that they've earned,

the housing that they deserve, and the chance to thrive again. When that happens, they prove over and over again that they are among the hardest working, most loyal, and most valuable people, in any community or a company. That's a fact.

We cannot accept a country where veterans live in tents while the rest of us look away. If we break it, we bought it. And until every veteran is treated with the dignity they earned, our job is not finished. The end. All right, let's go to the game. Thank you.

See you next Tuesday. We're out of time. Please subscribe on YouTube, click the thumbs up, and leave a comment. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and leave a rating and a review. And share the We're Out of Time podcast with others you know who will get value out of it. See you next Tuesday.