Orlando based Wounded Times breaks half million hits

Orlando based Wounded Times breaks half million hits!
by Chaplain Kathie

In August of 2007 I was operating another blog when I received an email from a Marine. He was a loyal reader of my other blog (now used for just archive purposes) telling me that he went into the blog to read about PTSD. His issue was that I was doing political posts with my own crap, to put it nicely. My response to him is something I will always be ashamed of. I defended my right to speak my own mind on my own blog since I worked "so hard" for them and knew a lot. The email went on and on about my feelings. He sent me back an email asking me a very simple question. "Are you doing this for yourself or us?"

I cried!

Totally ashamed of myself, finally acknowledging the simple fact the men and women serving this one country are able to set their politics aside, but I couldn't do it sitting in the comfort of my office. I had not understood the reach of the blog any more than I thought about how my words would hurt someone else on the other side of the political wall. I was only thinking of myself and what I wanted to say. I am not an expert on politics but wow, was I full myself!

I sent the Marine another email and told him that as of that day, I would create another blog that was in fact for them. I thanked him for setting me straight and opening my eyes. That is how this blog was born.

My promise to him was that if I posted anything politically it would be because a politician did something wrong toward veterans, like saying they supported them while voting against them, while not caring what political party they were a member of. I would post if they did something good with the same attitude. Everyday I try to keep that in mind whenever I put my two cents into a post though not always perfectly.

I started studying PTSD in 1982 when I met my husband. (Yes, I'm that old.) I was 23 years old, which means over half my life has been dedicated toward getting people to understand what PTSD is, especially Combat PTSD, which needs to have a whole different approach toward treating it than other causes.

In 2001, I was enough of a expert with connections to know that the attacks on this country would send PTSD through the roof in Vietnam Veterans. After a year of trying to have a book on living with PTSD published, For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle, I decided to self-publish it in 2002 knowing how bad it was about to get. I figured after living with it for all those years, making mistakes and learning from them in my own life, it could help the newer families learn faster without all the heartaches.

By 2005, I understood that no matter how much I wrote about Combat PTSD, the younger veterans didn't want to read it. They wanted to be entertained. I taught myself how to make videos. Wounded Minds was the first one and this is the third version of it.



The first one was good enough to get this email when it was up on YouTube.

Katherine ~
I saw your PTSD presentation online and want to share it with our Sailors returning from Iraq/Afghanistan.
Thanks for providing this much needed information,
Ralph
YNCS Ralph Hensley

As you know now, in 2007, this blog was born with 25 years of experience to back it up.

I still wanted to know more so I could do more. In 2008 I became a Chaplain and spent the next two years taking as much training as possible on Crisis Intervention because it worked. The Chaplain training helped me to understand the best way to approach the spiritual connection to Combat PTSD. People walk away from traumatic events either thinking God was watching over them and that's why they survived or He abandoned them and they were paying for what they did wrong in their lives.

In 2010 I was no longer satisfied with the videos I was producing. I wanted to be able to do better but I also wanted to film the veterans I spent so much of my time with. The media didn't bother to cover the events I was attending and I thought the general public needed to see what so many veterans along with ordinary citizens were doing. I did what I usually do, went to school.

At Valencia College in the Digital Media world I was able to learn how to shoot and edit to tell stories veterans wanted to hear. Hard to believe two years has already come and gone and Monday I have my final exams. I'll have five certificates in Digital Media if I pass both of them. As you can see from the sidebar under "My Video" section, you can see I've been busy filming and love every minute of it.

Last year I agreed to become an Out Post and Home Front leader of Point Man International Ministries. I was totally shocked Dana Morgan wanted me to do it since I am not a veteran but knowing how important the work they do is, I said yes. So now when I go out and film, I have on my leather vest with the big Point Man Ministries patch on the back. Many conversations have started with total strangers because of the reputation Point Man has.

In all these years there have been many heartaches, especially when a family contacts me after someone they love committed suicide . I understand how they feel because my husband's nephew committed suicide because of his service in Vietnam. There have been a lot of joys when I have saved lives and when I see a family living together again. I have met so many remarkable people I would have not met otherwise and have seen a different part of this country few are aware of.

Now, my readers have given me the best gift possible. Faith enough in what I do that this blog has passed over half a million hits. You have no idea what all of you have just done for me! From the bottom of my heart, you have blessed me more than I could have imagined. All these years people have told me to give up and cover something else so that I'd expand my reach. I never thought a blog like this would reach as far as it has. 553,921 hits for 14,762 posts.

According to the Blog figures, this is as of right now, the top countries are

United States 379,705

France 34,073

Germany 21,533

United Kingdom 15,796

Canada 8,437

Bulgaria 5,958

Russia 5,019

Romania 2,762

Australia 2,694

Netherlands 2,231

This proves the rest of the world is watching how we treat our veterans as much as it shows people like you care too. Thank you for your visits and keeping me going so I can do what I do best everyday!