Storm. Yes. What other conflicts . I came into the military in 1990 when i was 20 years old. Thats all i ever wanted to do was come into the military. All my heroes in my life, my grandfathers, my uncles, thats who i wanted to role myself after, and they served. And as i came in 1990, went to the gulf war as a private. So that was my first exposure to war. I spent about five years in after that, i went to 7th special forces group, i deployed to central and south america, all pre9 11. After 9 11, i went to special missions unit, within special operations, and was there from 2001 until 2011, whenever i retired. I have about 40 total months time in combat, and i did 12 rotations. What does that do to a person . It takes a toll. Im not a lot of people talk about moral discussions and moral dilemmas. I didnt have any of those. The only regrets that i have is that i didnt get to do more for my country and for my people. But it did take a toll, and it was a toll on my humanity, doing the job, being in combat for that much. It took a toll on me. You told me before the taping that it wasnt as much even having to kill the enemy, but it was all the other Collateral Damage that you witnessed that really played havoc with your mind. Yeah, the things that i struggled and i only speak for myself because some guys dont have that big of struggles and some guys do, so ill just refer to mine. The things that bothered me the most, whenever it came to combat, wasnt that was the job description, to engage the enemy. So that didnt bother me. But after a while, it took a toll on my humanity. The big things that bothered me, though, was whenever other u. S. Personnel would get killed friends would get killed. Whenever innocents would be lost and killed on the battlefield. Lisa, you were las vegas pd . Yes, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department officer. We should make this pretty clear to folks, the stuff you guys deal with on a nightly or daily basis, the same, similar attack on your psyche happens as what toms described, right . Exactly. Its day in and day out. Its call after call or dealing after dealing with horrific homicides, seeing dead children, domestic disputes, suicide. Its day in and day out. So that takes its toll as well. Now, youre married to josh. Correct. Josh was not in this line of work. You got into helping First Responders and warriors in a completely different way, i was the problem in our marriage. I was the problem by drinking. It wasnt working for our marriage. Luckily, lisa gave me the ultimatum because i had dug myself a hole, and i didnt know how to get out of it. An addiction hole . Yeah, i drank too much. We were emotionally falling apart. Spiritually. It just wasnt working. When lisa came home one night in full uniform and said, josh, im done. I was like, you know, i am too. She said, either you go to rehab tonight, or im going to divorce you. And you did. And when you cleaned up, you dedicated your life to what . This was in 2001. Dedicated our lives to the healing of others because, in order for me to stay sober, i had to help other people stay sober. Thats what started our journey down this path and the Behavioral Health field and building rehab centers. That started the Journey Healing Centers. We have how many in arizona . We have three facilities in in utah. And it was sold in 2013 to it was sold to elements Behavioral Health. Yes, elements Behavioral Health. So then you branch out and decide after selling you want to continue down this path, and that starts the Warriors Heart program. Yeah, we were in the process to build our seventh location prior to selling. So we sold. We took a little time off. And one thing about selling is that we still had the mission. So we hooked up with tom. We started talking about the problem how did you meet tom . At a military seminar, if you will, the best way to say it. And that was in north carolina, where youre from . Where you live . Yes. And so you guys, kind of Kindred Spirits in trying to help folks. Yes. Is there a difference between what the First Responders experience and what men and women in the field of battle experience . This earlier, but is it pretty much the same thing . From my own experience, it is the same thing. In combat, theres a little more gun fights, so theres a little more of the life or death battle going on. But whenever it comes to the things that matter the most or that affect people the most again, back to the innocents being killed or buddies getting killed all of that happens in Law Enforcement. The high stress theyr every day, the scrutiny theyre under every day to perform. So i believe theres some differences, but its 80 the same. Let me ask you about one difference. When you go into the field of battle, in the theater, do you come to terms with the fact that you play a mind game that i may not get out of here . This may be it . Its a total acceptance. You do get to that point . Battle. Do you get to that point wearing a badge and a uniform . Yeah, you know theres a possibility you may not come home. Not as high a probability as what tom was under . Correct. But its a possibility. Even as a spouse, i would have that level of acceptance that lisa may not come home tonight. Then when folks go through these struggles and do come home, theres addictions. This is a common theme throuough a lot of this, thats the bottom line, right . Yes, to numb the pain and to not deal with the emotions that come with the trauma of what weve seen or been involved in. When you watched what happened here at the phoenix va, let me just start with you because it probably hits closer to you than anyone. When we realize this probably came as little shock to you. Youve been hearing about this probably and maybe even lived it. Is that its theres a lot of good people trying to do a lot of good things. We have the bad parts in there too. But theyre overwhelmed. Like the population that they are trying to serve, they cant handle the numbers. And in a lot of instances, whenever it comes to the treatment of our combat veterans in the v. A. System, is a lot of times they dont have the best solution because they dont treat the whe they may go over to the psych. They may hand out the pills, all the stuff that we see that goes on, and its really hard. But the root of all of it is they are overwhelmed. They cannot handle the load that 14 years of war has given them. So that is one of the things that happened with the v. A. , in my opinion. The biggest thing is theyre just overwhelmed. So with Warriors Heart, whats different here is youre treating people of like youre not mixing warriors and First Responders with Business People and dentists and doctors. Its all of these folks. Why is that so important . The peer network. A lot of times the trauma was together on a team, so we want to heal them together on a team as well. So building that peer network where they can come in and theres a familiarity there. The environment makes sense to them. Their peers make sense to th. The counselors, all set up its all stories theyre hearing in the circle. Absolutely. They can relate on a peertopeer level whereas, when we had our former facilities, we did serve a lot of Law Enforcement officers in there, but it was hard for them to talk about the trauma they went through sitting across from a Business Owner or even maybe a possible drug dealer. The trauma is not the same. That makes perfect sense. But that is not going on in other facilities around the country. This will be the first private center dedicated to the healing of our warriors. And the first one youre opening is in san antonio. Any plans to open one here, or are you not allowed to because youve worked in this area with a different under a different banner . Well, we have it in our expansion plans. We love arizona. We live in arizona. Lisas involved in the community, with the governors office. We do have it on the radar for future expansion. Tom, before we take a break here, give me a grade on how this country is dealing with our men and women coming home from battle. For the majority, its absolute failure. An f . Yes. Because with the veteran suicide rate of 22 a day, that pretty much says how good or how bad were doing. And i know you have your own personal story. You came close to ending your own life. Absolutely. Due to these same kinds of circumstances. Well talk about that and more . Music . Thanks for joining us again on newsmaker sunday. Were talking about a very unique program to try to help warriors who come back from the battlefield as well as First Responders who go through very similar types of ptsd and Substance Abuse issues oftentimes. Its called the Warriors Heart antonio, texas, others to open soon. A little bit different than the Journey Healing Centers, which our guests started back how many years ago did you start Journey Healing Centers . 2002, well, the idea started in 2001, and we opened in 2002. And you had three here in arizona, three in utah, correct . Correct. Tom spooner was former special forces, delta force operator, mission 22 cofounder. What was mission 22 . Mission 22 came out of my own experience and the experience of one of the other cofounders, magnus johnson. That just kind of ties into my story as far as through all the combat that i experienced, it took a toll on me. I had taken a lot of concussions, a lot of explosive shocks to me. You had traumatic brain injury . Yes, i had mild traumatic brain injury. Can you see it on a brain brain scan, but it comes out in testings. At the end of the road for me, when i was getting out in 2011, about the summertime of 2010, i almost became one of those 22. I almost took my own life because i couldnt process what was going on with me. I had a huge spiritual life. I had an incredible wife and children. I had everything in my life set up for success, and i almost killed myself. What saved me was another wouldnt allow me to continue to go into the darkness. Tell me, tom, what did the warrior, your friend, see that your wife and people close to you didnt see . Was this person able to somehow spot what was going on where other people missed it . I would tell him of my struggles more so than i would my wife and my children because i wanted to shield them from the thing, not out of secrecy but just out of trying to protect them and me just trying to figure it out. I wasnt able to figure it out and that warrior buddy of mine pushed me into because i didnt want to let him down either or my family. But i wasnt thinking clearly. So i went into all these different treatment modalities at the cognitive therapy, at the tbi center, went to physical therapy, went to vestibular therapy, psychological therapy. And the thing about it was that it all worked and it all helped me. Once i got through all of that, i just couldnt imagine anyone else struggling the way that i did to try to get help. Lets roll some video in the big wall of troops. Either one or two, its fine. Just to drive home the point that, when folks are out in theater, it never you cant shut it off, can you . No. Theres no real downtime. This is just always on your mind. Its always there. You have to be trained to shut it off, just like anything in life. The thing that was missing with me was the abilities to shut it off. Home and youve been in this incredible fight or flight mode for so long, and then you come home, and now youre sitting in an alternate universe. Youre sitting in church. Youre at the grocery store. That has to be mind blowing. Very surreal at times. But it all comes back to the heart of the warrior, like were there to protect and to serve and to love our families and friends. So it forces us to engage and not be in our minds back but eventually, over time, i lost the ability to do that. Do we see the same thing with an officer when you come off a shift . Hard to shut it down . It can be. Youre always thinking of what could i do differently . Or reliving something. So we have to learn to com compartmentalize. There we go. Couldnt say the word. Or drink or use substances to numb it out. Lets talk about that. I would say a good 30 to 50 . Im surprised its not higher. It could be higher. Thats reported. In Law Enforcement, theres a big stigmatism that you suffer in silence, that youre okay because you have to go out the next day and be on the job and be productive and be in service. So those statistics are those that are reported or known. And you i think you said, josh, and you said, tom, until you deal with the Substance Abuse, any kind of therapy will not work. Correct. To get to the deep psychological stuff, we have to clear whats getting in the way, and thats the selfmedication because, otherwise, we start dealing with the psychological stuff, and the selfmedication just numbs all that out where it becomes a roller coaster. Estimated that over a million u. S. Vets take prescription opioids for pain and nearly half of them use drugs chronically. And the opioids are just that stuffs murder. Thats bad stuff. And especially over the long haul. When you get folks, First Responders, veterans in a Group Setting where theyre all getting treatment but they may be at different stages of treatment, how does that all work . It becomes a mentor kind of structure. Someones been in the program for a little bit longer, they become the mentor, and they help the newer people kind of heres the process. Its really part of that team and that tribe mentality is that, here, im here to help you. Im here to be in service again. Does insurance pay for this . Can you yes. Insurance will pay for this . Yes. Different than the v. A. , where i dont know how that all works, but at the v. A. , you try to get help there. We keep hearing these stories. You have to wait in line at the v. A. Here, if you get accepted depending on the bed availability and your assessment, if you qualify for the program. We look at your insurance and different ways to pay for treatment. But, absolutely, we want it to be easy for them to come into treatment because theyre already dealing with so much other stuff. And when youre there, you live there, you stay there . Oh, yeah. Its a round the clock deal. Six weeks. Six weeks inpatient treatment. Can you fix somebody in six weeks . We can plant a lot of seeds, and we can clear the fog in six weeks. How do you do followup after that if somebody needs it . We have a Strong Alumni program. We did at our journey centers, and were doing that again at Warriors Heart. We do alumni groups. We do alumni gettogethers. We have people that call them, how are you doing . Whats going on . To really build that peer network with them. Is the government catching on that this is a powerful way to do this and that the v. A. Needs to look at some different modalities of how to do this kind of thing . Or in your experience, is the like this . I dont know if theyre incapable of it, but theyre so far behind the power curve. Theyre still just trying to catch up. Again, it comes back to the idea of treating the whole person at one time. You treat the chemical dependency. You begin the treatment for ptsd, and then you at least test and begin to treat for mild traumatic brain injury. Whereas, if you went to the v. A. , i assume you would go in to be treated for a physical injury. Then youd come back a few weeks later, and you might get a little counseling. In the meantime, you might be drinking or taking pills. So you cant its hard to get a handle around the whole thing, right . It was very hard for me just in my experience of i had to go to all these different locations to seek help. It was all there available for me, but, again, when youre having problems thinking, its hard to do simple things. It comes back to the concept what would you guys were going to take a break here, but what would you guys, ill start with you, lisa. What would you want the public to know about what First Responders go through, folks in battle, people returning home, who have been home now, because weve tried to deescalate or wind down now some of these conflicts. What would you want the public, that has no idea about any of this. The people who go into service in the military, Law Enforcement, emt, firefighter, they go in to be in service to their country in some way, shape, or form. When they deal with the trauma day in and day out, there has to be some kind of healing avenue for them. We dont go into the job thinking were going to do a bad job today, but sometimes our emotions get in the way and we dont know how to deal with them. Thats what were going to do at Warriors Heart is get them healed, get them functioning so they can go back and be in service. Now, you do have a center thats opening. Its open now in san antonio. February. February, it opens. But theres a hot line. I want to give you that number. There are people on this hot line right now. Absolutely. If youre a first responder, a warrior, whatever it may be or even a Family Member of. We can help you. So ill give it to you. Its 8444482567. Were going to try to get this number up on the screen as we progress through the program. Were going to be back for one more segment. Talking about really a remarkable approach to try to heal veterans and First Responders who are dealing with many issues. Back in a moment on newsmaker sunday. James p. Walsh to keep our Community Safe we need a sheriff who will put fighting Violent Crime ahead of his own political agenda. Paul penzone has been a officer, undercover investigator, and dea Task Force Agent of the year. Paul penzone caught murderers, put drug kingpins behind bars, and created awardwinning programs that protect our community. Paul penzone. . Music . Back on newsmaker sunday, with the founders of Warriors Heart. Josh lannon, lisa lannon, his wife, and tom spooner. Tom, former special forces, delta force operator. I wanted to ask you about transitioning from the battlefield to coming back home. We see these homecomings, and kari and i, my coanchor and i, always look at each other when theres a celebration going on and think that theres a whole nother battle thats going to unfold after everybody gets home. 100 accurate for me. The transition is not easy. The transition is very hard. For me, the reason why it was even harder is because i wasnt trained for it. And thats not the militarys responsibility to train me for after battle, in my opinion. But i needed to be trained how to be a patient, how to engage with my family. How to compartmentalize or to process all those emotions, all those events, the life events, and the natural things that happen with the human being going to combat. You said it was harder coming home than being in theater. Absolutely. It was much easier for me to be in combat than to be back home. And with delta forces, you would go out on a moments notice and then come back. We had a very high operation tempo, much like all the special operations forces. So you could be out in some remote place and then back in your living room in 24 hours . At times. That. How do you shut that off . At the end, i couldnt. I couldnt shut it off. Thats where my struggles really began. Weve got the hotline up here. Josh, what who will be on the other end of that phone . And who is generally calling . Who generally calls is the loved ones. The ones that have identified the problem, like toms wife, like i really got to do something. I dont know if my loved ones going to make the call. So they reach out to us. We provide a support network. We end up actually, eventually, talking to the warrior themselves. So whos on the other call is a fellow warrior . Someone that has been there, done that. They understand, and we have Resources Available so we can connect with no matter what branch or wherever they come from, we have fellow warriors to do that. Even though you dont have a Warriors Heart here in arizona, you have one in san antonio that will open in february, you said. There will be help on the other end of the line that can are. Were already placing people now until our facility opens. Are we Getting Better at this, as a nation . I know that theres a big attempt at Getting Better. Theres a lot of people really trying to do the right thing, and the right thing is to take care of our protectors. Let me just say, for all of us, tom, thank you for your service. A Law Enforcement officer. And, josh, for just being here and starting this. So thank you all for being here. We appreciate it. Best of luck. We need you. Well see you next week on if this were just about one video, maybe what he is saying tonight would be understandable. Hillary clinton and donald trump squaring off again in a second president ial debate. The first time that pair has come face to face since a tape of trump making lewd comments about women surfaced. And its the first debate after wikileaks released more h thank you for joining us tonight for a special edition of fox 10 news. Ike marc martinez. And im kristy siefkin. As tonights debate came from strange twist even before the debate began. After a video with trump making lewd comments about women, he held a predebate event to even the field. And trump sat down with women who accused bill clinton of
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