![]() ![]() I felt the same way when I was in their shoes. "Maybe they feel they don't want to be around the military because it's going to bring up something they don't want to deal with. "I think a lot of our wounded warrior community are isolated from the military because they've moved back home," he said. He is also interested in helping fellow wounded warriors who might experience the self-doubt he felt before he met a friend at his first Warrior Games selection camp. Other than occupational therapy, counseling for his post-traumatic stress disorder and preventative medication, he considers himself basically independent. I think he feels good about himself again."įranklin, while still quite soft-spoken, also sees improvement in himself. "You can see the physical difference in him now, compared to the first camp. When you realize what some of those demons are, you can pick and choose to tackle one or a few at a time, and some of them will take care of themselves. I told him how the Warrior Games helped me last year realize we each have our own demons. You don't really feel like you belong anywhere at the time. "I just explained to him that when I came here, I felt like I didn't belong, and I believe that's the way he was feeling at the time. "I think when a group gets together like this, you can kind of tell by a person's demeanor and how they carry themselves what they've got going on, especially if they have some of the same experiences you have," Stiltner said. Even though Franklin didn't believe he was ready to confide in anyone at that point, Stiltner reached out to him, and they talked for about an hour in their first conversation. They felt they didn't really understand what was going on with me, and I wasn't communicating with them what was going on."īut a fellow Warrior Games athlete saw almost instantly what Franklin was experiencing when he arrived at the Air Force team's selection camp to try out for swimming and wheelchair basketball. "I tried to let my family be my best medicine, but I couldn't even be around them. That was definitely my worst time period. I didn't have any crazy outbursts, but once I would leave, I'd take it home, and it really started to wear me down. "But I'd go to high schools and just shut down. ![]() "The main concept of my job was to be a people person," he said. But soon the crowds of high school students that were an important part of his job left him depressed and exhausted. So he decided to move back to Kentucky for a recruiting job and be near his family. He suffered frequent dizziness, massive headaches and coordination problems. When Franklin returned to his duty station at Joint Base Elmendorf - Richardson, Alaska, he began to realize the symptoms were worse than he thought. "It turned out not to be a good idea in the long run, but I convinced the doctors I could return to duty, and I returned to Kandahar for the remainder of my deployment," Franklin said. He was shot in the back of his head while on his third tour supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom on a quick response force mission at Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on March 21, 2007.īecause of a recent divorce, Franklin chose to return to duty in Kandahar after he recovered physically from his injury at Landstuhl Regional Medical Hospital in Germany instead of going home. Now, he recognized a fellow former Airman struggling just as he was.įor more than three years, Franklin's struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder made coping with people, even family members, difficult. Stiltner had the same demeanor during his first year training for the Games. Larry Franklin's face at the Air Force team's selection camp at the U.S. ![]() (AFNS) - Second-year Warrior Games athlete George Stiltner recognized the look on retired Staff Sgt. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |