I want to share with you this email I received today to my Thankasoldier.net inbox, it took me awhile to compose myself after reading this. I have removed the soldiers full name at his request. Wow is all I can say right now :Hi Dave my name is PFC **** Robinson and I wanted to write you personally and thank you for the “Operation you are not alone “ video on YouTube. I don’t know any other way to say this than what has happened in the last month has probably saved my life.
First of all let me start by telling you that I had just completed my fourth tour in IRAQ three months ago and have been having a really hard time since returning after the last one. I found myself snapping over the littlest little things and I had gone through twenty years or more of my life without a temper but the slightest thing could set me off.
My girlfriend of eight years had enough and me and her have since gone our separate ways which led me to attempting suicide via taking a full bottle of anti-depressants I was on for lack of sleep and other things and luckily a friend found me and I made it ok.
About a month ago, I was feeling so down and that no one cared about me, I was seriously thinking about trying this again. I was on Facebook and saw your video posted on a friends wall and decided to check it out. I was blown away as I hadn’t even heard of your site or the other amazing videos you have there.
I was reading through the comments and I saw one from a Canadian soldier who had returned last year and had gone through counseling and wanted to speak with other soldiers about their experiences confidentially so I sent him a message.
Four weeks have gone by and today Dave, I met him for the first time as turns out we’re only a four hour drive from each other. I have finally gotten up the nerve to start counseling professionally and hope maybe by me doing this who knows how many other soldiers it may help. I know you are planning to put together videos of people holding signs telling us it’s ok to ask for help but this first video has already made an amazing difference in my life already, honestly I can say it may have saved my life.
I also read your “My battle with PTSD” blog and when I read the news that you had been attacked and stabbed by those guys and came very close to dying that night clearly there was a reason that you were kept alive that night and it was to start your Thank A Soldier website and make a difference in the lives of our soldiers and their families.
Thank you to you and to all the members of your pages and everyone that shares the video on their page, you never know who’s life you could be changing or saving.
PFC **** Robinson
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