Command Sergeant Major (ret.) Tom Satterly spent 20 years in the U.S. Army’s secretive and elite Delta Force. Tom’s first deployment with The Unit was the infamous 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book and movie Black Hawk Down. Over the next 20 years, Tom deployed all around the world and was on the mission that captured Saddam Hussein.
But all of that came at a cost. Two broken marriages, and crippling anxiety, depression and alcoholism began to follow Tom soon after Mogadishu. It would stay with him for his entire military career and nearly cost him everything.
Ashamed and embarrassed, but at the end of his rope, Tom slowly began to get help. It came in the form of his new wife, Jen Satterly. But of course, it wasn’t that simple. Because trauma loves trauma, the two nearly ended their marriage on their wedding night.
Tom’s auto-biography All Secure: A Special Operations Soldier’s Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront tells his story in raw and honest detail. Since then, Tom and his wife Jen have formed the All Secure Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting veterans with post-traumatic growth through online programs, couples retreats and counseling support.
On this episode, Tom and I talk about how he had to overcome the fear of being judged by his friends, some of the most elite warriors in the world, and how shame kept him from getting help for so long.
You can learn more at allsecurefoundation.org and on social media @allsecurefoundation and @tomsatterly
If you need immediate help, call the Veteran’s Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or for first responders, call Safe Call Now at 206-459-3020.
We also talk about the importance of building a team around you to support you during your career but also to be there for those times off-duty when you need someone to listen.
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