Chef Holen has the privilege of spending the afternoon in the kitchen with three combat veterans and having a conversation about veteran suicide prevention. Watch the full episode to find out what happens.
I want to have a conversation about veteran suicide prevention. You have recently finished a documentary. Yes. Titled Battlegrounds and Back Roads. Tell me about your documentary. Oregon is always really high on all of it’s in the top five for states veteran suicide in rural areas. And so that’s what we were trying to figure out why. So we jumped in his Bronco and we drove 4,000 miles and talked to people. my mind right. [Music] The paper wrote a story about us and I went to Fred Meyers to get a couple of those papers and she was the cashier. She’s like, “Why are you buying all these papers?” Like, “Well,” and I explained that we’re doing this event to try to stop veteran suicide. And she looked at me, she’s like, “Well, my husband was one of the 22 a day.” [Music] We uh we heard a lot that veterans complaints with when they first got out of the military because they felt like they had no purpose. They no longer had an identity. These are all things that you’re almost issued at uh basic training when you get them. [Music] There’s something unique about when you talk about community. Like when you put on the uniform, we’re serving together. It’s not just community, it’s also part of our Yeah. And so when you get out and that disappears, one thing I’ve recognized through my own healing process community being close to you, Sean, a lot of our guys got back home. We’re so lucky that National that was probably the best thing. We could call each other up and instantly just hang out. [Music]
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