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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes.
00:06Join me in the boat today in beautiful Ladysmith, Wisconsin,
00:09as we honor U.S. Marine Ken Plant.
00:14They served for us.
00:18They sacrificed for us.
00:22Their stories deserve to be told.
00:26Every military veteran has a story to tell.
00:33Join our host, Jay Garstecki,
00:35as we honor the stories of our true American heroes,
00:39one soldier at a time.
00:42The mission today is Operation Healing Heroes.
00:50Brought to you by Great Clips.
00:56On this beautiful summer day, Operation Healing Heroes
01:00travel to Ladysmith, Wisconsin,
01:02to connect with United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Ken Plant.
01:08Ken.
01:09Jay.
01:10Very nice to meet you.
01:11Real good to meet you.
01:12Ready to do some fishing today?
01:13You betcha.
01:14Okay, straight back.
01:15You got it.
01:17Ken enjoys fishing, but his other hobby is puppetry.
01:20Puppets became an integral part of his life due to a life-altering childhood injury.
01:27Now, Ken uses his love of puppets to bring healing to others.
01:32So, Ken, tell me, where did you grow up and at what age did you decide you wanted to join the military?
01:37Well, I was born in Manchester, New Hampshire.
01:40Okay.
01:41And, uh, my family moved quite a bit.
01:44If you ask me where I'm from, I have to say the United States.
01:48My dad laid out computers for Department of Defense.
01:53So, every three, four months he was finished.
01:57We would pick up and head out to the next destination, wherever that was.
02:01I have to row back to Manchester, New Hampshire, because at the age of four, I was being babysat and I saw a sore squallower on TV.
02:12So, I got a coat hanger and bent the coat hanger and I put it down my throat.
02:17And just as I put it down my throat, my mother walked through the door and she freaked out, pulled the coat hanger from my throat, my palate, and ripped my vocal cords out.
02:31So, I ended up spending 18 months at the Boston Children's Hospital having reconstruction and rebuilding my palate.
02:41And the doctors were adamant that I wasn't going to speak again.
02:45So, at six years old, I'm unable to speak and enter a speech pathologist from the school district and his name was Alan Green.
02:54And, uh, he was adamant that he would be able to help me out.
03:00So, rather than go into the first grade, I had a full year with Alan.
03:06And, um, we moved, because my dad had to work.
03:11So, we ended up moving.
03:13Well, Alan packed his bags and he moved with us.
03:16All the way through until I was in the fifth grade, Alan was there.
03:22So, really about the fifth grade, he got me to the point where I was verbalizing and that's when he had to leave.
03:29You know, and so at that point in my life, I was using puppetry to communicate.
03:35In other words, if you had to get up in front of class and talk about a subject, I had a puppet in my hand.
03:42So, it was my puppet talking.
03:44I had no idea that what the sacrifice that Alan had made in my life until I got married in 1980.
03:54Um, because I would suppose that that part of his life that he, too, was trying to build a life and have relationships, which would have made it impossible for him to do.
04:06After completing high school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Ken decided to pursue a career as an eye pathologist.
04:13I went to college there at Broward College in pre-med.
04:17I was working at the Baskin Palmer Islands to do part-time, as well as two other part-time jobs, just to keep my tuition paid.
04:24And then the lottery came.
04:26Not the Powerball, the draft.
04:29Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Northern Clearing, and by Enbridge.
04:47Operation Healing Heroes is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
04:53In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
04:59Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:07What do you got there, Ken?
05:08I don't know.
05:10She's going under the boat.
05:11Hold on.
05:12Wait for it.
05:13Oh, we're in a pickle.
05:15Oh, what a dilly.
05:18Hey, it's a muskie.
05:19We got the right thing.
05:20Oh, look at that.
05:21Ken's plan to become an eye pathologist was halted when his number was chosen for the draft.
05:27Instead of choosing a career path, Ken had to decide which branch of the armed forces to join.
05:33When I got drafted, it wasn't a matter of whether I would go or not, because I wasn't going to be one of those draft auditors and go to Canada.
05:43So I decided rather than go in the Army, I would use my education and get a great job in the Marine Corps, right?
05:51So I went to boot camp in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina during various aspects of our training.
06:00One of them is going under barbed wire and they set off live ammunition and they have live ammunition firing over you with M60 machine guns.
06:09And one of the mines went off pretty darn close to my ear and ended up going to the hospital for a plastic sympathy where they replaced the eardrum in my ear.
06:19But three days later, I was back to my unit.
06:24They didn't hold me back.
06:25And during advanced infantry training, I was in a helicopter and we were conducting air to ground operations where you would come in and they would land the helicopter and you jump off the helicopter.
06:39And I had a anxious Marine who fired off a light anti-tank weapon, which is about 12 inches from me.
06:48And the back blast went into my right ear.
06:50Oh, no.
06:51This time it took plastic surgery in three weeks.
06:54Ken's injuries caused him to miss his training.
06:57Unhappy with his reassignment to be a supply technician, Ken took matters into his own hands.
07:03I wrote the commandant of the Marine Corps.
07:06Sir, I have extensive experience in high school in journalism and photography and here you're short of correspondence and public affairs people.
07:16And my job then was to become the one of two correspondence for force troops.
07:22So your job was basically to report the news.
07:25That's correct.
07:26That's what we did.
07:27We shared with the public what their taxpayer dollars were doing.
07:31Some exercises were for internal purposes.
07:36But for the most part, the reason we were doing our job was to share with all the people in the United States what the Marine Corps was doing.
07:45I did that for two years and they offered me a re-enlistment bonus if I would extend my time for another two years.
07:55So I took the extra two years and I was then assigned as public affairs for this new job they had for recruiting.
08:04But they were short of photographers in the Far East.
08:09My commander told me I had two weeks to clean things up and I would report to headquarters in the Far East.
08:21I found myself by the year 1974 in the situation where what we call the triangle between Cambodia and what was then now Myanmar and China.
08:37We were there for humanitarian aid but actually we were there to because there was a sighting of POWs involved in the mining that was going on there across the river.
08:52We were set up with a special unit and their job was to get me in and document, get the photographs.
08:59Even with my best lens, I was unable to capture anything.
09:04So I had to get that shot.
09:06So I navigated against the water.
09:09And just as soon as I got ashore I hit a trip wire.
09:13And boom.
09:14Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, Battle Born Batteries and by SKB Cases.
09:27My passion, what I enjoy the most is puppetry and writing about PTSD.
09:46If you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
09:52If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota or beautiful sunny Florida, log on to our website.
10:01Take a VetFishing.org to find an event near you.
10:04While attempting to document the presence of POWs, Ken Plant hit an enemy trip wire.
10:15There's a loud explosion.
10:16The next thing I know I wake up and I'm surrounded by this contingency of enemy forces.
10:24Because we have training that we go through on a regular basis for such contingencies.
10:31And I pretty much kept myself, kept my mouth shut.
10:34I didn't say a word.
10:35And they started torturing me.
10:39And raping me.
10:41And the last thing I remember, that episode, I had my belt wrapped around my mouth and my hands tied behind my back.
10:50And there's a two by four coming out of my head.
10:53And I don't know, it sounded like a bat at a baseball game where you can hear the player hit a home run.
11:02That's about the best way I can describe it.
11:04And the next thing you know, I'm waking up and I find myself in this damp, dark, muddy place.
11:11And I'm not sure where I'm at.
11:13I can't even describe the smell of this thing.
11:15It's like a thick mud and I'm submerged in it.
11:18The only thing, up to my lip, if I open my mouth, you know, I'm going to get a mouthful or whatever this is.
11:24And it's right against my nose and I'm just, I'm laying there.
11:27And my legs, I can't move my legs.
11:29I thought, am I, am I buried?
11:34Am I, I wasn't sure what I was.
11:37And a few minutes later I started exploring around and it was like a, like a concrete vat.
11:44Finally, I was able to grasp my fingers into a, into a slot at the top of the, uh, of what was to be my grave.
11:55And, uh, there was no one.
11:57They were gone.
11:58Everyone was gone.
11:59There was no one.
12:00It's night now.
12:01So, I crawled.
12:04No clothes on.
12:05I'm naked.
12:06I pulled myself out and I crawled on both sides and I'm bleeding.
12:10I crawled all night that night.
12:12I came to a village.
12:14And on the ground, I was knocking on the doors.
12:19No one was answering.
12:20Finally, uh, a door opens and this lady comes out with a baby.
12:25And behind her there's an old man.
12:27And they pull me in.
12:29And the next thing I know, I have a medic leaning over me.
12:32And he patched me up, you know, the best he could.
12:35My head got enlarged to the size of an elephant.
12:39They don't know how my brain survived through infection.
12:45Shortly after his recovery, Ken's term of enlistment expired.
12:49In June of 74, I come back to the United States.
12:53I'm met by this group of, a group, I'm not going to call them hippies.
12:58I'm going to call them religious fanatics who, uh, you hear it all the time from people that it's stories.
13:05It's not true.
13:06Let me tell you, it's true.
13:08I had my dress blues ripped off of my chest, uh, coming off the airplane when I was coming into the gate.
13:14Um, I had a couple of job offers lined up in, uh, California.
13:19Working for Disney World was one.
13:21None of those panned out.
13:23So, I go back to Nashville, Tennessee, because I had a few friends there.
13:27And I said, uh, I've been, uh, having terrible nightmares.
13:33And, um, I wake up at night, uh, with no clothes on, three blocks away.
13:39So at this point, did you recognize that you might be dealing with some PTSD or some issues?
13:43PTSD in 1974?
13:46Didn't exist, right?
13:47Huh?
13:48That was the first time that, uh, I started my heavy use of alcohol and drugs.
13:56I was escaping.
13:58I was running.
14:00I find myself in, uh, 1979 working for Ola Mills as a, uh, instructor for a portrait studio.
14:10And I have a downtown studio for child photography.
14:14Using my puppets, I end up getting a due eye and, um, and getting into some other trouble.
14:21And things just got worse and worse and worse.
14:25It's a horrific life.
14:27Take a Vet Fishing was created for those who served our great nation.
14:37A simple day of giving back has been the mission for over 20 years.
14:41Visit TakeAVetFishing.org to sign up for an event near you.
14:46If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log onto our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org.
14:59Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Recon Boats, Thorn Brothers, and by Suzuki Marine.
15:15Ken's untreated PTSD led to a life of substance abuse and suffering.
15:20In 1997, I went to a veteran's house where you can talk about your experiences.
15:28So, I'm sitting there waiting to talk with someone.
15:32And this Native American comes in and sits down beside me and he says, you know, what's up?
15:39And I start talking to him and he's talking to me and we're talking about our war experiences.
15:44And then I said to him, how much longer do you think it's going to be?
15:49He said, well, come on in.
15:52So, all this time I'm talking to the therapist.
15:56He gets me into a recovery program in St. Cloud.
16:01And I spend my time at a drug recovery program.
16:09And in the process of doing that, they're talking to me about my experiences in the military and said,
16:19you're a candidate for, you're a candidate for our PTSR program at that time it was called.
16:26So, the St. Cloud VA program that lasts 12 weeks introduced me to post-traumatic stress therapy
16:36and group sessions.
16:39They wouldn't let me go after that 12 weeks.
16:41They said I wasn't ready.
16:43That I needed to go through it again, second time.
16:46Realize that you can't even begin doing that unless you're sober.
16:50There's no, you have to be sober to do that.
16:54Life starts to change finally.
16:57And I discover as I am getting sober and getting my life back together again, that there are programs out there
17:14that are available to us that all too many veterans don't take part of because they don't ask for help.
17:25I wasn't the last person to ask for help.
17:30But when I finally did, I got some help.
17:35But it takes work.
17:36It was a lot of work.
17:38So I know you mentioned years after you get out of the military doing puppetry,
17:43obviously that had to tie back into your childhood, right?
17:46When you were trying to communicate using puppets.
17:48That's what Alan Green taught you.
17:50Do you know that it wasn't until I was on the show today that I didn't realize that?
17:56Really?
17:57That I thought my reason for being an eye pathologist, for example, was my give back.
18:02But now I have to think back to Alan Green and what he gave up in his life and how the impossible became possible.
18:14What he gave.
18:15So it's my opportunity to do the same, to use puppets, to give back.
18:22I experienced this recently in doing a puppet production for a senior center where an elderly lady was sitting in the audience.
18:32And after the performance, with a couple of musical numbers and a couple of jokes, came up to me after the show and said,
18:41I had some brothers who served in World War II who were all killed.
18:47Three of them.
18:48And she started talking all about her brothers and how they worked on the farm in Minnesota.
18:54And her daughter came over to me and said, what did you say to my mother?
19:01That's the first time she has talked for eight months.
19:07I said, I think it's the puppets, not me.
19:13Today I'm just full of gratitude.
19:18And I think having seen much of the world and the conditions in which people live in,
19:29and the role of government over them, and seeing what we have here in our United States.
19:39Even though things aren't what you and I always want, they're a heck of a lot better than what they are over there.
19:46After a lot of my performances, people come up to me.
19:52After I've shared about some of my experiences, people ask me, would you do it again?
20:00And I said, even with everything that happened to me, yeah, I would.
20:04If you don't mind, I got something I'd like to give you real quick here.
20:07Something to commemorate our time together, if you don't mind.
20:10This is made by Thorne.
20:11Oh, look at that.
20:12It's got all the services on it.
20:14Made by Thorne Brothers.
20:15It's a custom rod.
20:16And you're not going to look official without your official fed plant jersey, sir.
20:20Oh, man.
20:21That's over the top.
20:22There you go.
20:23Oh, man.
20:24Thank you for your service, sir.
20:25No, really, thank you.
20:26Appreciate you.
20:28If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes, or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org, and click on the nominate button.
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