On this week's Good Start.
Hi guys and welcome to Good Start,
I'm Sally Turner.
For many veterans, returning to
civilian life after war can be
a really difficult time.
One man from Long Island is using
his own experiences with trauma
in the Vietnam War to help
others.
Frank Romeo served
After Frank returned home,
So it's a rating of your
ability to take care of yourself.
It's a rating of your ability to do
substantial work, gainful
employment.
I have a bullet in my spine.
I have prosthetics on my left
knee and I have
numerous scars and PTSD.
And so they've determined throughout
my life, because of the things
I've been through, that I'm
rated at 100%.
And as it was explained to me,
something finally made sense.
The feelings of isolation,
loneliness, it
came to terms with it, and I began
to
talk about it.
Since his diagnosis, Frank has
the conversation
around
I believe the stigma surrounding
mental health in this country is not
helping our veterans and we need
to get that message out
there and speak about it loud
and clear.
Earlier this year,
to bring more attention to his
cause.
Frank's journey was captured in a
documentary he's working on called
'Walk with Frank.'
And I do enjoy walking.
I do. Look at what I'm walking.
Look at this beautiful scenery.
It's magnificent.
Makes me move forward.
Moving forward is like the most
important thing in my life because
there was a period in my life that
I just couldn't move forward.
I was stuck in place.
And that happens with PTSD.
It happens with veterans, you know,
taking that first step.
And
He's partnered with his alma mater,
in Long Island, to pilot a program
called
The program features
The concept is to
compare soldiers throughout history.
So students this week were reading
letters from Civil War soldiers.
Then they would read my Vietnam
letters and they would compare.
So now you have living history.
Now you have their attention.
I learned in my 30
years of traveling that not
every student is going to be a
mathematician or a scientist,
but every student will face reality.
And how they wrap their minds around
their trauma, and how they learn
from us, and how they
embrace it is how they're going to
be able to move forward when it
happens to them.
And the program is
Frank has allowed students to go beyond
textbook and Google searches
and receive a real and authentic
learning of history.
Reading these letters about
what these soldiers were going
through, and where their mindsets
where, and seeing the consistency
of the mindset throughout wars
really remind me and
hardened my thought of, wow, I really
want to do this. I wanna learn how
the mind works, and what psychology
really is, and what PTSD
really is, and what that's about.
Frank is using his
The curriculum is a win-win
situation. You're helping the
student. You're helping the veteran.
Let's put the two together and have
an education program.
The curriculum did
harness my
career and what I want to do in
college. And I cannot thank you
enough for having
the strength to
share and be so raw of us.
You know, every day America produces
more veterans with a host of issues.
So we could lessen those issues
by just having the conversation
ahead of time, perhaps.
We've tried everything else.
Why not try education?
Why not talk about it
in real terms out loud?
If you want to learn more about
Frank's story and his continuing
advocacy for veterans, we'll be
leaving a link to his website in the
comments below.
So that is for this week's show.
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your day.
Thanks for watching and we'll see
you back here next week for another
Good Start.