“I went out for beers one night with my battalion commander,...

“I went out for beers one night with my battalion commander, Colonel Willy Buhl. He really cared about us. He was one of those leaders who’d remember the name and birthday of every man in his battalion. So we’re sitting at the bar one night, and we’re talking about all the men we’d lost to suicide. A number of Marines from our battalion had killed themselves since we’d been home. And there had been an especially bad one recently. One of our guys had shot himself with his wife and kids downstairs. Colonel Buhl and I realized that there’d soon be a point in time when we’d lost more Marines to suicide than to enemy action. And I knew we had to do something. It’s an epidemic. Every veteran knows another veteran who’s taken their own life. We have to do better. So I approached a top psychiatrist and public health expert named Dr. Ann Beeder, and I asked her a question: Can we take all the friction out of the process of getting help? The Headstrong Project was our answer to that question. We wanted to create a treatment option with zero cost and zero bureaucracy, so that a veteran’s only challenge was showing up. All they have to do is overcome the stigma of PTSD.”

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Zach Iscol is the founder of Headstrong Project, which partnered with HONY to tell the stories of veterans suffering from invisible wounds. Tomorrow is the last day of the series and will focus on treatment. Headstrong has already provided treatment to hundreds of veterans, and has ambitious plans to remodel our approach to the treatment of trauma. But the organization is just a few years old and operates with very limited resources. Last year’s entire budget was around $750,000. If you’ve been moved by any of these stories, we’re holding a fundraiser to help Headstrong Project in its fight against PTSD. We could make a very significant impact if we raise $100,000. Please consider empowering Zach’s efforts with a small donation:http://bit.ly/2bQe8cR