You owe it to them to live well

You owe it to them to live well

Mike:

For the guys who couldn't come back, you owe it to ‘em to get your stuff fixed. You owe it to ‘em because they're not here with their families. And so you owe it to them to live well, to the best, you know... to the best that you can, because if you don't, you're dishonoring their memory, you know. They don't want you to be sittin' around having these issues and not trying to do anything about it.

Just because you leave the combat zone doesn’t mean that your war is over. It’s not. It’s an ongoing process, you know, and nobody’s going to peel those thoughts and memories out of your head, they’re not going anywhere, and you can’t drink ‘em off, you can’t smoke ‘em off, you can’t, you know, run it off, you can’t do any of that stuff.

And so, as soon as you realize that, you know, is what I would probably tell one these younger guys coming back now… is the sooner you’re going to be able to say, “Okay, now that I’m not viewing this as a sign of weakness, I’m viewing it as, you know, an issue I’ve got and I need to resolve it because I need to keep on going because people are countin on me.” That makes the transition a lot easier to go and get help.