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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in the boat today as we feature Dr. David
00:08Tharp and Scott Meador from Project Healing Heroes. These are the faces of heroes. Many
00:17still bearing the invisible wounds of war, PTSD, and trauma. I left Vietnam but Vietnam never left me.
00:27Hey, that's how I'm living. Why did I come back? Why are they gone and I'm not? You know, what
00:37have I done to deserve to be here? Our mission is listening and hearing, helping and healing
00:47for those who sacrificed and those who continue to sacrifice. The mission today and every day
00:56is Operation Healing Heroes. Brought to you by Great Clips.
01:08These are warriors who help combat veterans, service members, and first responders battle
01:15their invisible wounds of trauma every day. Dr. David Tharp and Scott Meador live and breathe
01:24Project Healing Heroes. Gentlemen, welcome to fall in sunny Florida. Thank you. This isn't what the
01:31brochure said, is it? No. Not quite, but hey, it's going to be fun. Welcome. We're going to go catch
01:36some fish today, I hope. But hey, if not, we're going to have a blessed day and we're going to have a
01:40great time. Sounds great. So excited to be here, man. So excited. Get on board. Let's do this.
01:43Meeting Dr. Tharp and Scott from Project Healing Heroes has been a long time coming.
01:49I'm glad we can finally get together and make this happen. I know it's been, what, a couple,
01:52two, three years in the making, Dr. Tharp? We have tried so hard and it's finally time.
01:56It's finally here. I'm so excited to have you guys here. Thank you for opening up, sharing your
02:01story with not only myself, but the world. We know we're going to heal some more patriots and some
02:07veterans and some heroes by doing this. So all I can say is thank you. Thanks for having us. This is not
02:13a typical Monday for us. We're enjoying it. Well, that being said, we need to continue to
02:18make sure that we learn more about Project Healing Heroes and the work that you guys are
02:22doing through faith and ministry and all that stuff to make sure that we're making tomorrow
02:26better than today for our veterans and that's what's important. Man, I can't thank you enough.
02:29I'm seriously excited about this.
02:31I can't wait to hear more about Project Healing Heroes, but before that, I want to hear a little
02:51bit about your military careers. You were the officer. You go first. He knows rank.
02:56Well, that means I'm supposed to sacrifice it for your benefit. So that's a whole loaded
03:02issue. Wow. It gets summed up in one word for me, 9-11. Something stirred in me that I
03:10got furious, like livid. And I had no idea, aspirations, anything about going into the military
03:17before that. My dad was in the Navy. My other brother was in Vietnam. And so it wasn't anything
03:23that I had ever considered. Something snapped inside of me and that national pride just kicked
03:29in when I was like, you know what? I am not going to let my kids grow up in a world where
03:35we're going to let terrorism win. I am livid and I'm furious that somebody would do that.
03:41And I want to do something about it. Like I want to go take somebody out. I was 35 years
03:46old actually when 9-11 happened. And I remember going back home and thinking about what am I going
03:55to do? What can I do? You know, here I was already a psychologist and it was just like,
04:01God, do you want me to do something about this? And there are people that I've learned that run
04:07into a fire and there are people who run away from it. I'm not one who runs away. If there's a
04:13situation that happens, I want in the fight. And so part of what happened for me was I realized,
04:18I'm like, all right, we're going to do this. We're going to do it right. So I had the chance
04:23to decide between when I finally got into the Air Force, which is what the branch that I chose,
04:28was between Kabul and Kandahar. And I wanted to go to Kandahar because that's where all the fighting was.
04:35Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by
04:39Great Clips, Gauze Boats, and by Suzuki Marine.
04:51Operation Healing Heroes is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the
04:55lives of our U.S. military veterans. In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment
05:01for post-traumatic stress. Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:09After the attack on our country on 9-11, a switch had flipped inside of David.
05:28I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that our country is safe and secure,
05:32and I'm going to do it at all costs. And so for me, going to war was, I didn't feel like a sacrifice.
05:40I felt like it was an honor. That point that I just was like, you know what, I'm going to join.
05:45I'm going to do whatever I can to make a difference in this world. So that was the beginning for me of the process.
05:50Completely different story. My family, you had two options. You were a cop or you were in the military.
05:59My uncle did our family tree all the way back to the 1600s in England. I've got written proof that
06:05somebody in my family has served in every war the U.S. ever had.
06:08I've got a copy of the paperwork that shows where my great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad
06:14was paid 17 pounds to his service to Virginia during the Revolution.
06:17Wow.
06:18Went through high school, went to a really small school. Everything was easy.
06:23Straight A's without trying. Bad part of that is you don't learn how to study.
06:28So then I got a scholarship, and it was actually an Air Force ROTC scholarship.
06:35Got to college. Basically, I lost the scholarship.
06:38Really?
06:39And for the first time in my life, I'd failed at something, and I couldn't go home.
06:43I wasn't going to go home a failure.
06:45So I went to the recruiter, and I walked in.
06:49My question was, what was the hardest job you got?
06:51Because I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't a failure.
06:54And he said, well, it was probably Special Forces combat medic.
06:57And it's hilarious, considering where my life ended up and what I do now.
07:01But I was like, no, medical don't interest me at all.
07:04No, what else you got?
07:05He said, well, the next one, he says, about as hard, but you'll never get in.
07:11That's what I want.
07:12I wanted that challenge.
07:13So he told me EOD, Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
07:18They took about 30% of the people that applied at the time,
07:21but only 10% of those graduated the school.
07:23Well, at 19 years old, I decided to go into the Army and defuse bombs for a living.
07:32Being an EOD tech, there was actually a thing called adrenaline addiction.
07:37You get so hooked to the rush.
07:40And when I got out, I moved back to my hometown of 1,500 people.
07:44Yeah.
07:45There was only one way to get that rush.
07:47What's here for me, right.
07:48Volunteer Fire Department, you got the pager, it goes off at 2 o'clock in the morning, you jump up.
07:53You know, so I was leaning on that and actually making the overall situation worse by chasing that rush.
08:00Right.
08:00There was a whole lot going on, but I'm kind of old school.
08:06You're a man.
08:08Shove that stuff down and you keep driving forward.
08:11Nobody wants to hear about your problems.
08:13So I kept pushing it further and further down and stacking perfectionism with trauma, with survivor guilt,
08:25on and on until the night that I couldn't shove it down any further.
08:30Scott had made a plan to take his own life by driving into the path of an 18-wheeler.
08:36But God had his own plans for Scott and his future.
08:41And I pulled up to the stop sign right on this four-lane highway,
08:45and I had every intention of pulling out in front of the next 18-wheeler that come by doing 70 miles an hour.
08:52And God had different plans because I pulled up to that stop sign, and I've made my mind up.
08:59I know this is what I'm going to do.
09:00I've been planning this for a couple of weeks.
09:02And not only did not a single 18-wheeler come by in 45 minutes, not a single car came by.
09:15Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, Blue Water Boat Club,
09:23and by Beach Walk by Manasota Key.
09:26You're getting this on camera of me falling in?
09:40I don't fucking take it.
09:44If you'd like to see more behind-the-scenes footage,
09:47follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
09:52If you'd like to learn more and go deeper into the subject of healing,
09:55tune in to the all-new Operation Healing Heroes podcast, Feel the Heal.
10:00Hear from veterans, first responders, doctors, nonprofit leaders, and Gold Star families
10:05as they share powerful stories of hope, healing, and resiliency.
10:09Tune in and feel the heel.
10:16Now 45 years old, David arrived in Kandahar,
10:20where he was named medical advisor to General Kendall.
10:23Day one, I'm in the Trauma Level 1 Center, right?
10:27That's where they bring in all the people who get seriously injured.
10:31One of the guys was in the DFAC, one of our guys.
10:33The DFAC is a dining facility.
10:35The enemy would launch these Chinese 107 rockets at us,
10:38and it hit him right in the head.
10:41And I remember that the trauma team had already done everything they could to help him,
10:46and there was no way that he was going to survive.
10:48And they've got an American flag over him, over his body, except for his hand.
10:54It's out on top of the flag.
10:57And I can see blood dripping off the corner of the flag, just drip, drip, drip.
11:05And so I reach over, and I literally put my hand on his, and it's warm.
11:08And all I could think of is, this is the price of war that people don't see.
11:15Like, his family doesn't even know that he has died.
11:18And I'm having tears.
11:20Like, I'm being affected by this big time.
11:23And so the nurse walks over, and she's like,
11:26and she just put her hand on my shoulder, and she's like,
11:28are you going to be okay?
11:30And I'm like, I think so.
11:32So I literally put my hand on his hand, and I prayed for him and his family.
11:35And all I could think of was, wow, what it's going to be like for the rest of their lives,
11:41for this mom and dad and the rest of the family,
11:43to have sacrificed somebody for the purpose of freedom.
11:50Those are the stories.
11:52That right there is exactly why we do what we do.
11:55Because people need to understand, you know, we talk about freedom not being free,
11:59but that right there, that hits home.
12:02Go ahead.
12:02Rocket attacks on American forces happen daily,
12:06and David himself was severely injured only three weeks prior to him returning home from Afghanistan.
12:14David suffered a three-centimeter lesion inside a spinal cord from a rocket attack.
12:20Symptoms lasted for four months after he returned home,
12:24and he still has recurring symptoms to this day.
12:28My whole deployment, all I was looking forward to was being able to throw the ball to Joshua
12:33and him catching the ball and us playing football together again.
12:36Like, that was the one thing I was so excited about.
12:39Well, after I had suffered my spinal cord issue and the challenges that was,
12:43I was in no shape to be able to do that.
12:45As a matter of fact, when I finally got home, I'm standing in front of my house,
12:48and I grab the football, and I pick it up, and I literally try to throw it, and I can't.
12:53Oh, my God.
12:53And it falls out of my hand.
12:55And Joshua is about 20 yards away, and so he runs back up.
12:58He grabs the football.
13:00He picks it up, and he says,
13:02Here, Daddy, it's okay.
13:03One day we'll be able to play again.
13:05Oh, my God.
13:05And it was just, and it was tough.
13:08What that taught me was it's not that people want to die.
13:11It's that they want the pain to stop.
13:13Yes.
13:13And I experienced that at a level that I never want to go through again, but I understood it.
13:19My wife was there, right?
13:21I didn't think about my kids at all.
13:23All I knew was I just want the pain to stop.
13:27I was a mess.
13:28I was struggling.
13:29You know, here I'm supposed to be the expert.
13:31I have all of this background, all of this training, and yet I'm having a bad time.
13:36I can't sleep at night.
13:38I'm having all of these symptoms.
13:39I'm having flashbacks.
13:40I'm getting triggers.
13:41I'm angry as ever, and it's not going well.
13:45So Catherine and I decided to go take a break, go on vacation, so we did.
13:48David credits his wife, retired Air Force major and director of mental health, Dr. Catherine Tharp, with giving him a life-altering challenge.
13:58My wife is so ridiculously smart, and she graduated like in the tops of all psychiatrists in the country.
14:07We're on the beach in Hawaii taking a break, getting away from everything, and she goes,
14:10David, I think I know the answer to help you.
14:13And I said, great, because, you know, this is a psychiatrist who really, at that point in time, she had already finished her degrees and everything.
14:19And I'm like, thank God I have somebody who can help me with this.
14:22So I said, good.
14:23What's the answer?
14:24And she's like, the answer lies within you.
14:27And I was like, what?
14:29And I'm like, that's the best you have?
14:32And she's like, David, how many people have all of the degrees, all of the education, all the training, everything that you've been given?
14:41How many people are combat veterans who have doctorates and all these master's degrees?
14:45You're a two-time national award winner.
14:47All of this stuff.
14:48So the issue is, is that I think that you can help people.
14:52And she goes, so my question is, what would you do to help yourself?
14:55And I said, let me tell you what I wouldn't do.
14:57And she's like, that wasn't my question.
14:59I want to know what you would do.
15:01If you'd like to recognize a special veteran in your life and see them featured on our website,
15:27log on to OperationHealingHeroes.org and click on the Recognize button.
15:34Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries, Mustang Survival, and by St. Croix Rods.
15:48After the challenge from his wife, Catherine, Project Healing Heroes was born.
15:55And I realized that my wife actually did know what she was talking about, you know?
15:59And so in the end, we created three books.
16:02And that's when you came in to challenge me with UpArmor.
16:06When I started working with David, he had three books already.
16:09Yes.
16:09But the major one that we were doing was the PTSD workbook.
16:13And we'd intentionally left what we truly believed out of it.
16:18We had several books, like you said.
16:21Right.
16:21But on purpose, we had left the Lord out of it because we were looking for federal funding to try to get into out-processing and everything else.
16:29Well, when you're talking about working with the government, government funding, they kind of frown on getting too religious with it.
16:36Right.
16:36My wife, she had come to me and she said, you're a grown man.
16:41I'm not going to tell you what you can do and what you can't do.
16:44But if you and David keep piddling around without putting the Lord at the center of it, I can't support you doing this.
16:52I thought about it.
16:53I prayed about it for a couple of weeks.
16:55And I decided she was right.
16:58So, I called you while you were at the Air Force Academy.
17:01What it boiled down to is we either are who we say we are or we're not.
17:06We know where the real power of healing comes from.
17:10My point was very similar to what Catherine had said.
17:14Ordained minister, psychologist, all the degrees, all the experience.
17:20Not only did you know it, but you had lived it.
17:22But you were already trying to make a difference with Project Healing Heroes.
17:26My point was nobody else has all these pieces.
17:31So, let's put it all together.
17:34Put the Lord in the center of it and build something that would make a real difference.
17:40And then I got off the phone and kind of left the ball in your court.
17:45Yeah, and that's when the Holy Spirit really ripped me in half.
17:48PHH is an umbrella organization.
17:50We have several different programs under us because there's not one answer for everybody.
17:56We have About Face Fitness, which is what you run.
17:59We have PTSD University, where mental health professionals can get their continuing education credits.
18:05Love it.
18:06We have maketheconnection.org, which happens on Thursday nights.
18:10We've got Up Armor that we talked about.
18:12That's our year-long faith-based program.
18:15We have Equines for the Frontlines, where we do equestrian therapy in Weatherford, Texas.
18:19And they are killing it.
18:21And so the whole idea is to have all of those under one roof so that we give people as much of an opportunity to heal as we possibly can.
18:30God had it all planned out, orchestrated in a way that we had no idea it was going to come together the way it did.
18:36Gentlemen, a million thank yous wouldn't be enough for the service that you've done for our country, the service that you continue to do for the men and women who have struggled.
18:46But I'd like to give you guys a little something to say thank you.
18:49And this is a custom St. Croix fishing rod, all the branches of service, Operation Healing Heroes made by Thorne Brothers for you.
18:57And it says, Dr. David Tharpon, appreciation of your sacrifice and service.
19:02That's for you.
19:03Scott, I've also got one for you here.
19:05I want to say thank you so much.
19:07And then, of course, you wouldn't look official without an official Operation Healing Heroes jersey.
19:12Absolutely.
19:12So I'd love to make sure that you got that.
19:15And it does come with fish in it so that, just so you know, you instantly catch fish when you put it on.
19:20But I can't say thank you enough for the stuff that you both have done and continue to do.
19:27God bless you.
19:28Thank you so much, man.
19:29I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.
19:32Man, I just hope that I could someday follow in the footsteps of you two because you guys are amazing.
19:39Jay, what you're, I'm not kidding.
19:41Like, what you're doing is making such a difference.
19:43I hope that God just continues to help you flourish because you're making a difference in the men and women's lives
19:49and their families.
19:51And not a lot of people are able to do it to the level I think you are.
19:55And, I mean, this is just phenomenal.
19:56So what an avenue to get people to a healing place in a non-threatening way that's just very relaxed and enjoyable.
20:03What I love is there are organizations like ours out there.
20:09And lots of times veterans don't know where to go.
20:11They don't know who to talk to.
20:13They don't know what's available.
20:14And the great thing about what you're doing is bringing everybody on here and talking about it
20:18and bringing, getting that awareness out of what resources are out there for them.
20:22It's great work, man.
20:24I'm doing an awesome job.
20:25Appreciate that.
20:26Thank you both.
20:31If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes
20:35or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode,
20:38log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org,
20:41and click on the Nominate button.
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