Scott DeLuzio 00:00:00 Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast, where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. Now let’s get on with the show. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Chris Whittemore. Chris is a Marine veteran who has written the book terror to triumph. His book is a journey through the eyes of a Marine scout sniper in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005. It continues through to Fallujah, Iraq in 2007 and finally finishes as he’s flying as a crew chief and door gunner through Helmand province, Afghanistan. Welcome to the show, Chris. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
Chris Whittemore 00:00:57 Awesome. Thanks again for having me on. It’s definitely a pleasure getting the word out in talking to other vets about all this stuff. Like you said, I started out in the military. did a bunch of deployments, is a scout sniper as a gunner. Then they gave me the nice boot, under recruiting duty in 2011. They sent me behind the desk, which was good and bad. As we all know, you beat up your body enough throughout the years. You’re going to go behind the desk, and all of a sudden your body’s going to start aching and hurting. I know we’ve all been there, waking up back, cracking.. Once I retired in 2015 after a couple of surgeries, putting myself back together a little bit, I got the opportunity to go to the initial Invictus games in London when Prince Harry first started it. Back in 2014 was the initial one.
Chris Whittemore 00:02:02 We got a fully paid trip over to London and competed against 13 other countries. I mean, it was amazing. Leaving the military with the TBI, the PTSD, the being broken. I was told by a neural psych, with your TBI, you’re not going to be able to hold down a job. You’re not going to be able to maintain a marriage and don’t worry about doing school because you’re never going to be successful. Well, being a stubborn person like I am, I was like, well, we’ll see about that. I have been married for 21 years, since last December, so prove them wrong on that. I finished my master’s degree with a 3.89 GPA and almost got a 4.0. I got a B, which isn’t horrible, but it is what it is.
Chris Whittemore 00:02:56 I never thought in a million years I would ever be published, let alone, writing a book about the past, because I thought who’s really going to be interested. There’s hundreds of books out there on Iraq, Afghanistan, deployments, etcetera. I wanted to bridge the gap where you had talked a little bit about the deployments, a little bit about the stuff we’ve all seen on deployments, the good, the bad coming back the high outrageous suicide rate that plagued the military for so long and still plagues the military. I wanted to kind of open up people’s eyes to what happens on deployment. Everyone deals with the IEDs, the casualties that, all that stuff, but no one really has written a book on what actually happens when you come back to the states, the family issues, the hypervigilance checking the locks three times a night, get up at three in the morning and, just freaking out drinking excessively.
Chris Whittemore 00:04:02 Then you rinse and repeat a lot of guys get in that deployment cycle of deploy returns, drink like fish, domestic issues, family issues, redeployment. I wanted to real...
