Former U.S. Air Force Major and B-52 radar navigator during Operation Desert Storm Bob Taylor thought he was unaffected by post traumatic stress caused by his military service.
That is until the nightmares came shortly after he returned home from Iraq to the United States.
Those initial nightmares eventually ended without Taylor seeking any mental health help. As a radar navigator during Desert Storm, he did not go into combat himself and Taylor said he was embarrassed by his struggles. Then, the nightmares returned more than 15 years later.
“I didn’t want to go to sleep,” he said. “I was struggling and I got to where I just wasn’t the person I wanted to be.”
Taylor said he became sleep deprived and turned to the Department of Veterans Affairs for help.
“After three or four years of counseling, I started to get better,” he said.
As he healed, Taylor found himself on a journey he never expected to take. As he began researching PTSD and the numerous ways healing can take place by facing it head-on, he had an idea for a book that would help veterans working to overcome trauma.
In From Service to Success: New Mission, New Purpose, and a New Journey to a Great Life, Taylor tells his story while providing a lifeline for veterans who seek to move past the pain and trauma of service and adapt to a new way of living.
“I know there are technical aspects to it, but I tried to make it so it was readable,” he said.
Taylor said that many of the challenges veterans face are related to their military training.
“Our mindsets are shaped when we go through officers training, school or boot camp,” he said. “And then you go through more specialized training and um, and you start to perform at an extremely high level. And that high level of performance sets us up for challenges after we’re done.”
He said things the military teaches, such as discipline and following orders, do not really apply in the new role veterans find themselves in when transitioning out of the military.
“We need to learn completely new skill sets to prepare for that,” he said.
Among those new skill sets is practicing gratitude, Taylor said.
“The veterans I talk to, most of them just scoff at the thought of practicing gratitude,” he said. “You’re trying to reshape your mindset from what it was, and so you have to start using tools that you haven’t heard of before, that you haven’t practiced before.”
Veterans also need to practice self-forgiveness and goal setting, Taylor said.
“What I say is, your best days are not behind you because you served,” he said. “Your best days are in front of you and it’s not just going to land in your lap. You have to do the right things to make sure that that bright future comes to you.”
Taylor also founded The Patriot Promise Foundation to help veterans face mental health challenges. To learn more about both Taylor’s book and the foundation, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.