Kruse Corner Podcast

In the Army, I struggled with establishing connections and making friendships with other service members. As a female soldier, I felt that the other women did not accept me and hanging out with the men seemed to stir rumors that could destroy your character, credibility, or career. After I left the military, people would say that, "It must have been hard to serve with so many guys," and my response was: "It wasn't easy, but serving with women was harder." While I didn't have much to do with female service members when I was a soldier, as a veteran, I made the effort to try and reconnect with many of the women I once served with and I was able to do that because of an orchard in Colorado. Check out the episode to learn about the tough connections we faced and to learn about the majestic place that is bringing veterans back together.

The Kruse Corner Blog was launched one year ago, standing as both a homage to an Army Veteran that had taken his own life and as a reminder that, if we are going to bring an end to veteran suicide, we have to learn to have some tough conversations. That is why in the year that Kruse Corner has been around, tough topics such as veteran suicide, mental illness, difficult transitions, VA health care failures, and Military Sexual Trauma (MST) have been addressed. With all that goes on in the world and how much information we scan over on our devices every minute, it is too easy to overlook our nation's heroes when they are often missing from news reports or overshadowed by politics and celebrities. Kruse Corner has worked hard to keep the spotlight on Veteran issues and in making sure we continue to fight for those that are still here. From its humble beginning as a simple blog to the podcast it is today, the Kruse Corner journey has been long, difficult, and absolutely rewarding. Thank you to all that have supported and stood by us. We truly do fight and heal better together. Check out this episode to hear our story.

Suicide. It's a tough topic for most and an unfortunate thing that so many of us encounter, especially in the military and veteran communities. The whole reason I started Kruse Corner was because of the death of a good friend and wanting to do my part in bringing awareness, and hopefully one day an end, to the "22 a day." I experienced the loss of a fellow service member to suicide when I was still in Advanced Individual Training (AIT). I had been in the Army for a few months and already understood how painful the loss of a comrade truly felt. As tough of a topic that suicide poses, it is a discussion that needs to happen. Our service and support of one another does not end when we return from war or transition out of the military. For many of us, it is during the days that follow that we find we need our buddies the most.

I left for my first deployment as a young private and newlywed. When I returned, I felt disconnected and home never felt the same.  I always heard that "home is where your heart is." It seemed true enough, until I was unsure of where my heart resided. Unable to decide if I left my heart somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the uniform I wore for 6 years, or among the people I served with, I struggled to determine where home was for me. This short episode gives a brief explanation to the disconnected and lost feeling some have when they return from deployment or leave the service. A small glimpse of how everything can feel different when, in reality, nothing has changed. You can read the original story on the Kruse Corner blog at www.krusecorner.com. 

Contributing to PTSD awareness has always been a big part of the Kruse Corner mission, however, speaking about my own struggles with PTSD was not. I kept quiet about my experience with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because I often found myself being criticized for having it by other veterans. Everyone wanted to assume that the mental disorder I struggled with was a direct result of my military service or time in a combat zone. The criticism I faced for having PTSD later became the driving force behind sharing my story regarding my experiences with domestic violence. Where people wanted to say I was too weak to serve my country, I wanted to prove just how strong I had to be to survive; not just in the military, but outside of it.  

Every service members’ experience in the military varies and the same can be said for transitioning veterans. Some veterans have very successful transitions, while some of us have a rough time figuring out what to do after we take off the uniform. This episode covers my transition and a mistake I made while trying to attempt my reintegration into a civilian life. It covers my story of chasing a past that is long gone and how I believed returning to the place I lived and served while on active duty would somehow restore some of my missing pieces.

The veteran community pushes the message that you need to reach out, speak up, and ask for help in times of need, or when you are struggling with your mental health. We speak about nobody being left behind and how we have one another's back. There are times, though, when we get in the way of the effort to spread awareness and erase stigma. We focus on telling people to take responsibility for their problems and their healing, but speak little of others taking responsibility for the dangerous messages they push or the actions they take to deliberately impede another person's attempt at opening up. To end the stigma surrounding mental illness, to ensure the conversation about struggling does not end, and to continue combating veteran suicide, we cannot just hear the people that are talking. We need to listen to what they are saying.