Jake Schick

I know first-hand. I’ve lost a lot of my guys, i’ve known more warriors to die from suicide than in combat. They die not from physical injuries but injuries you can’t see.

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If you have broken bones and severed ligaments, you can have a prosthetic leg like I’ve got. But you can’t have a prosthetic brain.

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You don’t see a lot of men wearing a black ring on their index fingers, i’ve had more people asking me about my ring than my prosthetic leg.

What we’ve been able to establish here [at] HCC and 22Kill is bringing you back in the family. [We] have a place for you, you fit, you don’t have to come here and try to be somebody you’re not, we’re going to take you just the way you are, it’s one team, one fight.

I’m not OK with it, and I won’t allow it, i’m going to be able to look at my son on my deathbed and know that I fought like hell to make it a better place. That’s why we have this nonprofit— these are the spearheads of bettering the lives of those warriors and those families.

I was leaving my family to go see my family, that was painful, much worse than the compound fractures in my left leg and arm, the broken ribs, the shrapnel and burns. The fact that I was leaving my brothers hurt more than anything … I had to leave them knowing they were in harm’s way and there was nothing I could do about it.

It’s something we’re trying to spread awareness about because we can’t do it alone.

[Veterans] are trying to redefine who they are— their new norms and their purpose now.

I was still in combat mode … I started bulldoggin’ her and the next thing I know, she’s leaving my room in tears, handing the chart to another intern.