What do you do when the Army salutes you one day and erases you the next?
How do you fight back when the enemy is a four-month wait for a DD-214—and your own mind?
A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Bronze Star recipient and former brigade G-3, Adrian Massey spent 45 months in combat, capped his career as Arlington National Cemetery’s chief network-ops officer, and is now grinding through an MSW to keep other vets off the cliff he nearly jumped from.
The moment he woke up sobbing and didn’t know why
Four months of “you don’t exist” without paperwork or meds
Driving himself to the ER, then checking into a psych ward for 28 days
Writing a five-paragraph OPORD—about his own life—on a basement whiteboard
Learning that patience (and a congressional complaint) can beat the VA at its own game
Choosing a new mission: turn pain into social work and save somebody else
⏱ Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:05 Detroit grit & crack-era survival
05:50 Accidental ROTC and the Netherlands detour
11:15 Fort Bragg crucible and a racist firing line
18:40 Baghdad, Bronze Star, and 45 months deployed
26:30 Thyroid surgery, psychosis, suicidal spiral
33:45 DD-214 limbo: four months of nothing
40:20 The five-paragraph life OPORD
47:25 MSW studies and a new purpose
54:10 Parting shots: patience, purpose, relentless self-advocacy
Guest Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-massey-15b87820b/
linkedin.com
My name is Adam Peters, and I’m here to unf*ck the transition.
