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00:00Welcome to the beautiful Laguna Karib RV Motorcoach Resort in Fort Myers, Florida.
00:07Join us today as we learn of the sacrifices made by Justin Clem, retired U.S. Army veteran.
00:13These are the faces of heroes.
00:17Many still bearing the invisible wounds of war, PTSD, and trauma.
00:25I left Vietnam, but Vietnam never left me.
00:30That's how I'm living.
00:32Why did I come back?
00:34Why are they gone and I'm not?
00:36You know, what have I done to deserve to be here?
00:41Our mission is listening and hearing, helping and healing for those who sacrificed and those who continue to sacrifice.
00:54The mission today and every day is Operation Healing Heroes.
01:02Brought to you by Great Clips.
01:08Hi, my name is John.
01:09I'm one of the developers here at Laguna Karib, and we're happy to host Operation Healing Heroes.
01:15The resort is 137 units.
01:17As you can see, we've got a beautiful five-star resort-style pool.
01:21We've got all the amenities you can look for.
01:23We've got pickleball, bocce ball, putting green, dog park.
01:28So we try to bring the community together.
01:30We've got a full operational tiki bar and restaurant so you can sit here and party with your friends.
01:35We've got fire pits.
01:37We've got every amenity you can imagine.
01:40We try to host everyone like you're a guest at Laguna Karib in a five-star resort.
01:45Amid the tropical beauty of Laguna Karib, Jay Garstecki joins retired U.S. Army veteran Justin Clem for a game of cornhole, the sport that became his escape from addiction.
01:58What'd you do growing up?
02:00So growing up, really, I played a lot of sports.
02:05I played football, basketball, baseball.
02:07I grew up in Redding, Pennsylvania.
02:09So, yeah, that competitive spirit is in me, you know, since childhood, you know.
02:14And now I'm on the cornhole courts and, you know, I use it as, you know, motivation.
02:20My competitiveness is an asset to me, you know.
02:23So how'd you get into the military?
02:25I was going to join back when I graduated high school.
02:28However, that didn't work out.
02:30So in 2003, I'm 20.
02:33I was working at a gas station and a recruiter comes in and basically I was a gift to him.
02:41I wanted to join the military, you know, and it was just like, hey, let's get this done and let's go.
02:46You know, I was ready, you know, right after 9-11.
02:49It was about, you know, honor, you know, being proud of America, you know, and it sounds like a cliche answer.
02:56And, you know, it really was about that and doing something for the country, you know, that I wanted, you know, we're in a volunteer force.
03:03So us, you know, not everybody wants to do it, but that was a big part of it.
03:09You know, just, hey, holy crap, this is what happened and let's go get some revenge.
03:16So at the time, you know, I was with my ex-wife and she was not very supportive of what I was going to do.
03:24You know, I kind of blindsided her of how, you know, going into the military, I didn't really talk to her about it.
03:31And, you know, going away with her, you know, with a new child, me going away for, you know, six to eight months for basic training and then, you know, AIT, you know, it's going to be difficult for her.
03:43My aunt and grandmother were pretty much my support.
03:46They didn't understand that I would still get paid.
03:49I just had this newborn baby.
03:51Now, what's going on?
03:53How are you going to get paid?
03:54How are you going to support a family?
03:55How are you going to do all this?
03:56So, you know, that was in their head because they really didn't know, you know, the pay scale and me leaving now with this young child.
04:04They were concerned, very concerned.
04:06I really had to prove something to myself and, you know, to my family that I could do this and, you know, actually have a career.
04:14Working at a gas station is not it, you know, especially, you know, back then, being 20 years old, I wanted to do something bigger.
04:22Be a bigger, you know, be a better father, be a better, you know, husband at the time.
04:27And it was just the right choice.
04:30So when I joined in 2003, I joined the Pennsylvania National Guard.
04:34It's something that I felt in my heart that I wanted to do.
04:37And I joined to deploy.
04:39Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Laguna Karib RV Resort, and by Suzuki Marine.
04:52Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
05:02In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
05:08Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:17Spurred by 9-11, Justin Clem joined the Pennsylvania National Guard.
05:21He spent a short time recruiting before heading to basic training, determined to deploy.
05:26So tell me about basic training.
05:28What was that like?
05:29I fell in love with it.
05:30I started training in the unit 1st of 110th as an infantryman, and I loved it.
05:36You know, the adrenaline that you get off of kicking in doors, you know, and just training with your buddies and knowing that this is going to be life or death.
05:46So when were you first deployed?
05:47So my first deployment, funny story was, just like when I joined the military, they asked for volunteers.
05:56My hand goes up, you know, and it's just something I wanted to do.
06:01It got real when we started really hearing the reports of IEDs, snipers, and just, you know, large-scale operation because that's right after Fallujah and they pushed all that.
06:15All those insurgents came out to Ramadi.
06:18What do you remember about actually like boarding and starting to head out of here?
06:21Every step of the way was a little bit more, you know, anxiety, more real.
06:27Then we get on that plane to C-130 to go into Iraq.
06:30And now this is 2005, and I don't, no one knows.
06:36We're all, we're all in this, you know, no one deployed yet.
06:39Yeah.
06:40So, Yvette, you know, we're going to Iraq, and all of a sudden I remember we were up in the air, and then vroom, it just drops.
06:49You know, it does a combat, you know, doing a combat landing because at that time, you know, it was hot.
06:55So after that type of landing, what was your fear level at this point?
06:58I mean, I was, I was shocked.
07:01I was scared, you know, like, what's going to happen?
07:03Like, where do we go from here?
07:04Yeah.
07:05But not until my, you know, my first mission.
07:08We get on the road down Route Michigan, which was a hot road because we've been getting reports before saying,
07:13hey, IEDs here, you know, 13 IEDs, whatever, you know, they cleared.
07:18Route Michigan was the main supply route from Ramadi to Fallujah to TQ, all that.
07:25So that was a very important route just because the insurgents wanted to take us out of getting those supplies back and forth.
07:34So we would go out with EOD, Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team, which was a Marine team, and we were their security.
07:44What I remember is I'm driving, and now I have to drive with night vision goggles.
07:49Now, this is something we didn't really train up on.
07:52It's all dusty because it's, you know, it's dust, sand, whatever, you know, all that stuff we're breathing in.
07:57We were going to the 611 bridge, and I lost sight of the truck or vehicle in front of me, and everything just, like, stopped.
08:04Dust was everywhere.
08:05My MVGs were all messed up because I'm sweating, you know, all the sweat going into the MVGs.
08:11And I'm like, oh, my God, what happened? Where are we?
08:14And that's where it really was like, okay, it's just the dust, and I wasn't used to the dust.
08:19So seeing the other vehicle in front of me, you know, eventually when the dust settled, and knowing that we were in a safer, secure area, which was the bridge.
08:28So that probably made my fear factor go up probably a thousand times.
08:33That deployment was really hard.
08:36We lost, you know, between the whole brigade and everything, we lost 69 soldiers, airmen, Navy, and Marines, along with my team leader, Sergeant Therando.
08:48With IEDs, with sniper attacks, with all that kind of stuff, and it's tough.
08:55Get up!
08:57A lot of it, you know, and back then, a lot of it I just put in a bag. I just put it away.
09:02And, you know, later in life, that bag became full, and it came out in different ways.
09:10Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips.
09:17Blue Water Boat Club, and by Wiley X.
09:26If I get one before him, can I rip the belt off and go run into it towards the pond with it?
09:34Oh!
09:35Yeah!
09:41If you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
09:47If you'd like to learn more and go deeper into the subject of healing, tune in to the all-new Operation Healing Heroes podcast, Feel the Heal.
09:56Hear from veterans, first responders, doctors, nonprofit leaders, and Gold Star families as they share powerful stories of hope, healing, and resiliency.
10:05Tune in and Feel the Heal.
10:07After his second deployment, Justin Klein realized that he was dealing with the effects of PTSD, throwing him into a struggle with addiction and substance abuse.
10:22Being in the military, you know, being in an infantry company, being, you know, battle-minded, being this tough guy, if we would say PTSD, it was more like a crutch.
10:32We don't want to say we have depression, we don't want to say we have anxiety, you know, and that's the biggest thing about, you know, PTSD.
10:40PTSD.
10:41My second deployment, second tour, I actually broke part of my foot, so I come home, I get surgery on my foot, I start taking pain pills, and that's where the addictions start.
10:54You know, I was getting 90 for, you know, for two weeks or whatever it was, you know, and I was taking all of them.
11:01And what it did for me was really suppressed a lot of things until they cut me off.
11:06And then I started buying them on the streets to where, you know, I was buying, you know, 20 pills, 30 pills, and taking them all.
11:16So in the midst of this addiction, I got promoted to E6 as a training NCO for Bravo Company 111th Infantry.
11:23As a person in addiction, in the trap, we're the biggest liars, cheaters, and manipulators.
11:28Being in a leadership position, the training NCO, I was the one that did the drug test.
11:34So I always knew when things were coming, so in my eyes, I was like, okay, well, I can be busy here, or I can do, you know, do this to hide from it, to cheat the system.
11:44And it's something that still burns me, because as a soldier, you're supposed to have integrity.
11:49It's a huge regret that I have, and still weighs on me pretty hard, just because I wanted to be that upstanding soldier.
11:58But on the other side, I wanted to be, feel good, and have, you know, still have a life of addiction.
12:07So at what point did you realize that you were an addict?
12:10So at that point, I didn't believe I was in addiction. But, you know, the party always stops.
12:14What does an addict do? Let's go find something else to suppress more.
12:18And that's where I found more stimulant, I found Adderall, and then I started doing cocaine and drinking.
12:25I'm buying prescription pills, and I'm thinking, the prescription pills are not bad.
12:30You know, I'm not an addict, you know, here doing cocaine here and there, you know, whatever, you know, it's just, it's just something.
12:36But I thought, oh, it's good. I'm never become, I'm not an addict. I'm not, that's not me.
12:41Some people won't believe me, but I took 15 Adderall pills, which people were like...
12:45You should be dead.
12:46I should be dead, you know, and doing cocaine on top of it, drinking.
12:50And I went into a drug-induced psychosis.
12:54I was looking outside, and I just started seeing people running.
12:58And then I thought ISIS was going inside, you know, the Iraqis were going inside the houses.
13:03My first reaction was, oh, my God, I got to keep my kids safe. I'm going to build a sniper hide.
13:08So I had, I had my gun, um, build a sniper hide in my daughter's old bedroom, which was like a, you could see out towards the street.
13:17I put a mattress up so no one could come up the steps, because in my mind, I'm thinking, oh, I'm going to put this mattress up.
13:23I'll be fine.
13:24You know, this is three o'clock in the morning.
13:26You know, I grabbed my son out of bed.
13:28I put him in a closet.
13:29You know, kid's eight years old.
13:32I actually tried calling the cops, and I felt, I heard a busy signal.
13:36And I'm like, well, this is weird.
13:37They're jamming the phones and all that kind of stuff.
13:39So I'm thinking, okay, this is, this is real.
13:42I actually called my ex-wife.
13:44She called the cops.
13:46I saw the police coming down.
13:47I saw an ambulance.
13:48Then I see a bigger vehicle.
13:51And I'm like, holy, they have a SWAT team here?
13:54Someone knocks on the door.
13:55I have my gun in my hand.
13:57I open up the door, and I remember seeing the officer.
14:00And immediately, I start crying.
14:03I'm like, what the hell did I just do?
14:05They walked me up to my kitchen.
14:07You know, they took the gun, you know, disarmed it.
14:09I was like, listen, I'm, I don't, I don't know what happened.
14:12I didn't want to tell them I'm on drugs.
14:13The lying again, the cheating, the manipulating.
14:15So I was like, oh, I just had two, two of these, uh, these IPA beers.
14:20And I, I don't drink a lot.
14:22And I, I thought I was, you know, hallucinating.
14:24And then I had one of my E7s come.
14:26He was a little bit higher, you know, in, in the, in the, he knew a lot of police.
14:31You know, he knew a lot.
14:32He kind of like talked them out of it.
14:35Hey, don't take him.
14:36We got this.
14:37We're going to handle this as the military.
14:39You know, that was the very first drug psychosis and thinking, holy, you are an addict.
14:45Because I could, up until then, I was great.
14:48You know, I was able to take these pills and do work and still be that great soldier.
14:55You know, at that point, I was like, I need, I think, I think I need some help.
14:59Take A Vet Fishing was created for those who served our great nation.
15:09A simple day of giving back has been the mission for over 20 years.
15:14Visit TakeAVetFishing.org to sign up for an event near you.
15:20If you'd like to recognize a special veteran in your life and see them featured on our website,
15:25log on to OperationHealingHeroes.org and click on the recognize button.
15:31Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries,
15:37Laguna Karib RV Resort, and by SKB Cases.
15:47After experiencing a drug-induced psychosis, Justin Clem realized that he could no longer live a secret life as a training NCO.
15:54And a drug addict, he realized he needed to get help.
15:59I got help. However, I relapsed. I stayed clean for two weeks.
16:04Now I find out I'm having twins. How am I going to tell my family?
16:07How am I going to tell people that now you're having twins?
16:10Now you're going to have five kids with three mothers.
16:13They already know what just happened in that active addiction.
16:15So now my life isn't stable. Like, what are you going to do with five kids?
16:21And in my mind, that's where I was like, you know what? I know what to do. Let's just suppress it.
16:28Throw it, you know, use more drugs. Go hard on the Adderall. Go hard on the cocaine and just drink it away.
16:34But two months later, I received full custody of the twins.
16:372017, my kids are now a year old, and I'm still living this double life.
16:41You know, one child's enough for anybody.
16:43Now I got two children, you know, that are babies.
16:46What do I know to do is how to get energy?
16:49What can I use? What can I get to, you know, just continue down the road of addiction?
16:53And let's, you know, get the hard drug of, you know, cocaine or Adderall.
16:58I was able to live that double life because I would basically say, oh, well, the twins kept me up all night.
17:05And I remember the day where I'm going into work and I'm like, I can't do this anymore. Like, I can't.
17:12The thought of suicide was there.
17:14Again, these delusions, these hallucinations, I thought everybody was against me.
17:18I thought about, like, well, what happens if I just go down this road, you know, down this hill or I hit this tree?
17:24But, you know, the thought and the actual action was more, hey, your kids need you.
17:31I went down to Virginia Medical Center, a military rehab treatment hospital, like, for 35 days to where I got cleaned.
17:41So after I got out of that treatment, I go up to a leadership school to where I'm going to be teaching.
17:47I wanted to be a voice in recovery of, you know, being in the military as an active addict, but still keep my character of being real.
17:58I was going great till 2020, you know, 21.
18:02COVID hits.
18:03I'm working from home teaching, you know, the basic leader course online.
18:07My course load got a lot heavier.
18:09I had soldiers in Kuwait.
18:11I had soldiers in, you know, Poland.
18:13And a lot of these times, you know, I would stay up to be on their time.
18:17I have 25 soldiers.
18:18I got to grade all these essays.
18:19I got to watch, you know, them do drill and ceremony.
18:22So I started dabbling again into Adderall.
18:25That led into doing meth.
18:28So I binged meth for four days.
18:31I went downstairs into my basement and I thought there was people behind my walls.
18:35I'm just going through another psychosis of believing what I'm, you know, thinking.
18:39I start ripping off my drywall part.
18:41Going outside, being all, you know, like crazy.
18:44Eventually, my neighbor, he called the cops.
18:46Luckily, just like years past, you know, the military saved me.
18:50What I remember the most is my twins hiding behind the couch when the cops came.
18:55Being so scared.
18:56And seeing that, them scared, just destroyed me.
19:03So I've been clean since 2021 and cornhole has become my passion.
19:08Playing, you know, in these ACL, in American Cornhole League tournaments.
19:13Playing at local tournaments like the Keystone Cornhole, Sly Fox.
19:19Who would have thought throwing a bag in a hole would actually be a healing mechanism, you know?
19:26But it gave you a sense of purpose.
19:28It gave you another sense of purpose in life.
19:30Any other veterans that are out there deceiving themselves, you know, lying, cheating, manipulating,
19:34going through the mental health, the substance abuse.
19:38We all have something that we can say we're going to do tomorrow.
19:41But it's about making that first step.
19:43The biggest thing is the first step, you know, admitting, you know, you have a problem.
19:47If you don't mind, it's a small token of our appreciation.
19:49But I want to give you a couple things before I continue to beat you in bags.
19:53First of all, you're an absolute champion.
19:56Whether it's in cornhole or in life or in your addiction recovery process, this is for you.
20:02This is a cornhole belt here.
20:04It says Cornhole Hero.
20:05I hope you wear that proud.
20:07Yes.
20:08You got to look official also.
20:10So I got you your own Justin jersey with Clem on the back here.
20:14I hope you wear this proudly.
20:16I will.
20:17Absolutely.
20:18I'll put it on right now.
20:19Look at this.
20:20There you go.
20:22Look at that.
20:24Cornhole.
20:25Thank you, brother.
20:26Love you, man.
20:27If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate
20:36a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org
20:41and click on the nominate button.
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