I am a 22-year veteran of the United States Army. When the military concluded my body was too damaged for continued services, I was removed from service via the medical board process. This process calculated and quantified PTSD, brain injuries from blunt force trauma and an EID blast, combined with numerous spinal injuries into a quantifiable percentage of disability. The process was daunting and overwhelming. Luckily for me, I had recently been introduced to Mr. Davis and the Weekends with Warriors organization. The process of removing service members is similar to how we enlist or commission them. It is a complicated system that is designed to move personnel on or off military status. Although recent years have shown improvements to this process as well as the VA as a whole, these processes are still impossible for the service member to understand. It was the Weekends with Warriors that actual put me in contact with people that could help me and I am forever grateful. Being a veteran, I know other veterans who are living lives silent despair. The bureaucratic government systems leave massive gaps in care. Our veterans get lost in these gaps where they cant get care or refuse it. Weekends with Warriors has helped me get a number of these veterans out of their homes and act in recreation. If you have never seen it, these little acts save lives. Veterans often die a slow death or depression or a fast death at their own hand. I personally have seen this organization save many of these lives. Weekends With Warriors is saving the lives of you Veterans and they deserve to be commended.
Shaun Berry
US Army Special Forces Ret.
