American Tactical Civil Defense Depends on Healthy Vets Core Competencies

The Veteran's First Project Enables Healthy Vets

Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.

American veterans have always been the backbone of American civil defense. During World War II, many of the civil defense wardens guarding the coasts were World War I veterans. During the Cold War, hundreds of thousands of World War II and Korean War veterans organized and ran county emergency operation centers and kept them operational.

These were the vets I met and admired when I visited American county emergency operations centers in the early 1980’s. I respected their commitment to keeping American civil defense programs, policies, and plans up-to-date and operational to fight natural and manmade disasters.

As practical American citizens, even though Congress allocated the money for nuclear war survival, they used most of it to recover from local disasters. During that phase of American civil defense, although we spent billions on the Raven Rock nuclear survival bunkers, they were only for the Congressmen, Senators, and the top military brass.

You can learn about these programs at the National Museum of Civil Defense. I am on the Board of Directors and can vouch for their good work. You can discover this long American civil defense history here. Mailing address: PO Box 784, Randolph AFB, TX 78150-0784. Unlike Switzerland, Russia, and Red China, we are still woefully unprepared for nuclear war, as the Hawaii nuclear warning demonstrated so well. We need to learn our civil defense history to ensure it is the best in the world. The National Museum of Civil Defense is a good place to start.

The Veteran First Project - A Home for Homeless Vets

The Veterans First Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting veterans in several ways: employment, counseling, community and housing, and other initiatives. It is dedicated to developing modern, safe, wholesome, spiritual, and clean communities for our nation's veterans and their families.

Chaplain Joshua Macias, CEO, along with team leaders YG Nightstorm, and Dr. Jerome Corsi are collaborating with other veteran support advocates offer veterans with modern, safe and clean communities, beginning the Modern Towers in Homestead, Florida.

They plan to expand nationwide. Here is their contact information: Excello Living at Modern Towers, 25850 SW 140th Ct, Homestead, Florida 33032, 788 755 5082. Find out more about Modern Towers websites: s://www.excelloliving.com and https://www.liveatmoderntowers.com/gallery/. And if you know a homeless vet, speak to them about living there.

Moving Vets from Dependence to Resilience to Glory

Over 150,000 American veterans are homeless. Some live in tents in major American cities. Others, like the ones I talk to and give $40 or $20 or socks to as I drive by them on the way to the gym as they beg by the railroad tracks, live under a bridge in Martinsburg, WV because the Martinsburg VA Hospital is nearby. It breaks my heart that this is a fact, but it is.

Worse, the estimate of 22 veterans a day taking their own lives is WAY under the correct number. A common place for vets to off themselves is in a VA hospital or clinic after they return to their car. Wonder why.

Multiple studies suggest this number might be underreported. For instance, a 2022 interim report from America’s Warrior Partnership, estimates up to 24 veteran suicides per day when accounting for underreported cases, such as drug overdoses misclassified as accidents.

This study, part of Operation Deep Dive, analyzed data from eight states and found discrepancies in how military status and causes of death are recorded. If extrapolated nationally, this could indicate a higher daily rate, potentially exceeding 40 when including "self-injury mortality" like overdoses.

The Veterans First project homes, counseling, companionship, athletics, and nutritional food can help break this suicidal ideation.

Veteran Recovery Success Stories Offer Hope

Shawn Ryan

Then there are so many others who are helped by their family or by getting through the black syrup on the brain of clinical depression, make it to the other side, and save hundreds of other vets. Vets helping vets has a long and storied history. Shawn Ryan of the great Shawn Ryan Podcast is an example.

Shawn, himself a former US Navy Seal and CIA Contractor with 14 years of service spanning multiple combat operations, developed the series to document the untold stories of war, loss, and redemption from the men and women who lived them.

Shawn ran around Columbia for years partying trying to suppress his spiritual and mental wounds to die a drug induced death. For years, he drank two bottles of vodka a day along with doing cocaine. Had he died, he would not have been counted as a suicide as he would have killed himself from drugs and alcohols, but it would have been a slow suicide via drugs and alcohol rather than by the gun.

Instead of dying of his addition, Shawn got healed and now hosts the Shawn Ryan Show that has over 4.2 million subscribers. He is helping form young American men to be better men. Among his many accomplishments, he helped Legend get the word out that our NGO’s were funneling millions and millions to the Taliban post withdrawal.

Having passed through his dark night, here are a few of Shawn’s post depression accomplishments.

Shawn Ryan is the founder of Vigilance Elite and the creator and host of the hit podcast The Shawn Ryan Show. Shawn expanded the mission of the series to directly assist and coach veterans on how to apply their skill-sets to the civilian sector.

His show has grown into a pipeline for veterans transitioning from service to entrepreneurship, raising over 1 million via crowdfunding to support these causes. The program is now widening scope to explore topics and guests in society, culture, and current events.

The Shawn Ryan Show is dedicated to preserving history through the unfiltered stories of heroic events and current world issues by honoring the real experiences of the men and women who lived them. The show features guests from all walks of life - known and not-so-known - giving them a platform to tell the stories that matter to them.

He is a proud member of Veteran Advocacy Services, a group that assists members of the armed forces in navigating the complexities of the VA. Due to its usefulness in helping him exercise his demons, Shawn is a strong proponent of psychedelic research for the mental health and traumatic brain injury treatment of vets.

Scott Mann

Scott Mann is a retired Lt. Col. / Green Beret with an impressive military career that spanned over two decades, including multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Renowned for his leadership and expertise in unconventional warfare, Mann has dedicated his life to serving others, both in and out of uniform, including inventing Rooftop Leadership.

After retiring, he became a prominent advocate for veterans, focusing on mental health and the challenges they face after returning home. He wrote and acted in the play Last Out that has been seen by tens of thousands of vets and has saved many American lives by enabling them to release the demons to find themselves.

Mann also co-founded Pineapple Express, an initiative that helped evacuate Afghan allies and their families during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan when the Biden Administration horrifically abandoned them.

This grassroots effort highlighted his commitment to supporting those who stood by U.S. forces during their service. Mann authored "Nobody Is Coming to Save You: A Green Beret's Guide to Getting Big Sh*t Done," a powerful book that emphasizes personal responsibility and the importance of taking action in the face of adversity. The Scott Mann Podcast - How Storytelling Saved my Life is a good resource to keep abreast of his storytelling talent.

Save a Vet and Save the Future of the American Dream

Both Scott Mann and Shawn Ryan were about to off themselves. Both almost became just one more vet suicide. Scott once had a .45 pointed at his head in a closet. Only the unexpected arrival of his teenage son and his friends laughing broke Scott’s plans.

These vet suicides hurt many areas of American life, including our civil defense efforts. As in the past, healthy, talented, accomplished, highly trained, patriotic, skilled vets are the future of American tactical civil defense. I know because I have talked to thousands of them. They were and are the foundation of a successful effort to save American lives and property from the destruction caused by natural and manmade disasters.

Both Shawn, Scott, and millions of other vets have survived and now contribute their remarkable skills to the American Republic again. The 150,000 vets on the street can also recover and contribute again as well. They CAN go from dependency, addiction, homelessness, and anguish to the glory of recovering and giving again. The Veteran’s First Project can help accomplish that mission.

Spread the word to other American vets.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. 365 days a year, natural and manmade disasters are happening at multiple locations on earth. If you want to get an education in just how many, monitor Disaster News on X. Let’s make American Tactical Civil Defense the gold standard by enabling the skill stack vets learn in service to the American Republic. To do so, we need healthy vets. The Veterans First Project and many other veterans support programs can enable a golden age of American Tactical Civil Defense.

American Civil Defense Depends on Intergenerational Military Families Service Members Core Competencies

My wife’s family has had 12 generations of American men who were farmers and soldiers. I have read her family’s history and and from the Scot’s Irish who came into North America in the late 1500’s to the ones who learned how to grow apples in New England and Michigan, then to Pennsylvania and West Virginia, each generation has contributed to the defense of the United States. Five of her uncles fought in World War II.

Her brother SSgt. Kenny Ruggles ran the Ruggles Orchard for 21 years and was Delta Force from the Cold War to the Global War on Terrorism. At 51 when he thought he was getting out after 19 years and 9 months, 911 happened and the only fully qualified A-Team was his West Virginia team. So, three weeks later he was sent to Kazakhstan to enter Afghanistan and fought from the North to Tora Bora for a year and a half. As he said, “Not sure what happened later. We had them whopped at Tora Bora.”

Like most vets, Kenny had a host of core competencies that made him invaluable to American Tactical Civil Defense, including:

• Good Son

• Loving Father

• Wise Grandfather

• Devoted Husband

• Gun Smith

• Tier 1 Sniper

• Master Carpenter

• Master Mechanic

• Master Stone Mason

• Master Electrician

• Master Plumber

• Master Roofer

• Accountant

• Rancher (Cows and Pigs)

• Farmer (vegetables, corn, etc.)

• Orchard Fruit Grower

Obviously, an American with Kenny’s high level of core competencies is who you want helping American citizens when disasters strike. And Kenny, as a member of the West Virginia National Guard, was called upon several times to aid West Virginians when floods stuck.

My own family goes back to settlers on my moms side who lived in a cave in the Wissahickon Valley in Philadelphia when they came over from England in the 1500’s to one who fought in the Irish Brigade in the Civil War to four of my dad’s brother’s who fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

This intergenerational military service experiences in a family creates Americans who deeply love and wish to protect and prosper the American Way of Life. To have an American Way of Life, it must be nurtured, protected, and grown.

The core competencies, or skill stack, that all service members learn are the same core competencies and skill stacks that save lives and property in a natural or manmade disaster.

American tactical civil defense depends on such men. There are millions of them all over the United States of America. Going into the service changed them forever and gave them skills that ensure this nation continues well into the future. They may not have Elon Musk’s IQ, but they have his spirit of self sacrifice and devotion to this nation’s children to ensure the American people survive and prosper in the future.

Screaming Like a Banshee

My wife screams like a banshee

to cover wailing with neutral sound

when my toddler Eamon fights her

and refuses to take a nap.

I hear Grandmom Curley screamed

like a banshee when the telegram arrived

from the War Department in 1945

to tell her the oldest, Frank, the one

who was supposed to be the Jesuit,

instead had been killed in action

when the Japanese ack-ack

turned his B-24 into a fireball

on his 39th mission over Haha Jima

in an ocean grave in the South Pacific.

Grandmom Curley screamed

like a banshee for weeks

until they hooked her up

and shot electricity through her brain

to cover wailing with neutral sound.

She never screamed like a banshee again.

Instead, she wailed so deep down for 20 years

because the hole in her heart was so vast,

laughter was no longer a planet in her galaxy

and the only way people would describe her was,

“She was never the same after Frank died in the Pacific.”

Bonus: If you know any American MIA families who are seeking information on their deceased loved service member, don’t waste 40 years going down dead ends like I did. As with many military families, Frank’s loss was the inspiration that led my Uncle Billy and Uncle Ray to go into the USAF to stellar careers during the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam. Here is the story of my MIA Uncle 1st Lt. Frank J. Curley. I built in many links in the blog post to make that search easier for others. Read the story here.