Every November 10, I Think About the Nine

Every November 10, I think about the same two things: what the Corps
made me into, and what the Corps left unfinished when I came home. Those
two things are not in conflict. The training works. The question nobody
answered well for a long time was what happens after the pressure stops.

Nine veterans who entered WarriorWOD with active suicidal ideation are
alive to mark the 251st birthday. That is the number I track on this date.

The Standard and the Gap

Two hundred and fifty-one years of making people into something that can
hold. The Corps built that standard deliberately, maintains it without
apology, and passes it from generation to generation with a ceremony and a
birthday message from the Commandant. I read it every year. I believe what
it describes.

The 2023 veteran suicide rate was 35.2 per 100,000. That is 93.4% higher
than the non-veteran adult rate of 18.2 per 100,000. Veterans are nearly
twice as likely as their civilian peers to die by suicide. The gap between
those numbers is not explained by demographics. It is explained by what we
ask of people in service and what we give them when they come home.

I earned a Purple Heart at Ramadi. I came home and watched other Marines
disappear into that gap. Not all at once. Slowly, the way people disappear
when nothing is asked of them and nobody has built them a way back.

What WarriorWOD Tracks

Six months of exercise, nutrition coaching, and peer mentorship from a
VA S.A.V.E.-certified Battle Buddy who completed the program. We use the
PCL-5 and C-SSRS, measured at intake and every month through all 26 weeks.
That is not a pre-and-post survey. It is a continuous clinical record. If
a Warrior deteriorates in week 14, we respond in week 14.

265 veterans have completed the full program. 90.4% show PTSD symptom
reduction. Nine who entered with active suicidal ideation remain alive. We
track that number because the alternative is guessing.

An independent evaluation by the College of Charleston found a 14.42-point
reduction in PCL-5 PTSD scores (p<.001, Cohen’s d=1.33, n=21 matched
pairs). Pre-program average: 43.37. Post-program average: 28.95. The clinical
PTSD threshold is 31 to 33. Veterans entered the study above it. They exited
below it. That study was not subject to WarriorWOD review before its findings
were released. It is pending peer review. The full outcomes data is at

warriorwod.org/veteran-ptsd-recovery-program-research/.

What the Birthday Demands

The Corps does not honor half-measures on November 10. Neither does this
program. Recovery is not a feeling. It is a measured outcome, tracked
monthly, in 38 states, across 12 Warrior Classes, with the data open to
review.

Veterans pay nothing. The full six-month program costs $1,500 per veteran,
carried entirely by Warrior Supporters and corporate sponsors. $125 a month
funds one veteran’s complete recovery. Become a Warrior Supporter at

warriorwod.org/monthly-giving-veteran-ptsd/.

Veterans ready to apply can start at

warriorwod.org/veteran-ptsd-program/.

If you are a veteran in crisis: Dial 988, press 1. The Veterans Crisis
Line is available 24 hours.

Happy 251st birthday to the Corps. The mission does not end when the
boots come off.