Speaker 1: Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
Speaker 1: and may not be suitable for all audiences. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Veterans you should Know a podcast from My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: that celebrates the men and women who have honorably answered
Speaker 1: a call to serve their country and the armed forces.
Speaker 1: I'm Rob Real, actor, comedian, and former Marine raw In
Speaker 1: this special series Honoring Veterans Day, I'll be speaking with
Speaker 1: four incredible veterans as they detail challenges they've faced and
Speaker 1: how their experiences in military service served them in their
Speaker 1: everyday civilian lives. The therapist that I talked to you
Speaker 1: at this VET center, she was very very good at
Speaker 1: explaining the science behind PTSD, and so she said, you
Speaker 1: mentioned to me that you you'd like to sing, and
Speaker 1: that you were writing songs in your car when you
Speaker 1: were homeless and doing this in that right, and she said,
Speaker 1: you know, you can use that as a form of
Speaker 1: natural therapy for your depression, in your anxiety. For this episode,
Speaker 1: I'm here with fellow Maureene Elliott Mackenzie. Elliott received highly
Speaker 1: specialized training as part of the Fleet Anti Terrorism Security
Speaker 1: Team and Presidential Support duty. His combat experience during his
Speaker 1: deployment to Iraq resulted in post traumatic stress disorder and
Speaker 1: severe depression. Music has been a new way forward for Elliott.
Speaker 1: He writes to inspire and uses his songs to communicate
Speaker 1: his personal experiences, hoping that by sharing his music he
Speaker 1: can foster understanding and help others through tough times as well.
Speaker 1: Welcome Elliott, Glad you're here. Thanks Rob. How are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great? Thank you. Um. Before we get to
Speaker 1: your music career and which is outstanding and I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of you, I would like to go back. Since
Speaker 1: we are this is a veterans you should know. We
Speaker 1: we want to talk obviously about your time in the military,
Speaker 1: time in the Marine Corps and the army. How did
Speaker 1: you find your way to the military. How did your
Speaker 1: life and the military begin. So my journey with the
Speaker 1: military began in junior high. Actually, do you remember that
Speaker 1: famous Marine Corps commercial with the marine standing on that
Speaker 1: bridge with the dragon? Yeah, exactly, So that commercial is
Speaker 1: what got me. If you the Proud the Marine, that
Speaker 1: commercial is what drew me in and what attracted me
Speaker 1: to the Marine Corps initially, and then from there it
Speaker 1: was just a good fit because I was really physically
Speaker 1: active so I was physically fit, I played football, I
Speaker 1: was in sports. I just I like to work out myself.
Speaker 1: So I felt like culturally the Marine Corps was a
Speaker 1: good fit for me. It's something that can make my
Speaker 1: family proud. And then also it would buy me some
Speaker 1: time because I didn't really know myself when I was
Speaker 1: in high school and junior high. Didn't know what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do with my life. I hadn't really figured
Speaker 1: that part out yet. I knew that college probably wasn't
Speaker 1: really an option, and so I figured, Hey, I've wanted
Speaker 1: to be a marine since I was in junior high.
Speaker 1: Let's go into the Marine Corps. And it's a good
Speaker 1: fit for me too. So that's kind of what led
Speaker 1: me to becoming a marine. That's awesome. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. I've had I've actually okay,
Speaker 1: I go back to the first thing, that commercial. I've
Speaker 1: talked to a couple of marines that have said that
Speaker 1: commercial was one of the reasons that hooked him in earlier.
Speaker 1: So that's so funny you said that too. Now you joined.
Speaker 1: Let's go back, so we get a time frame on this.
Speaker 1: You joined, We're talking around two thousand three, so pretty
Speaker 1: much right at the beginning of the major hostilities. I
Speaker 1: know we were engaged is Afghanistan two thousand two two,
Speaker 1: but two thousand three, ye is when Iraq started, and
Speaker 1: that's about the time you joined. What did your family
Speaker 1: think about you joining a Marine Corps right at the
Speaker 1: threshold of what appeared to be some major wars going forward?
Speaker 1: So my mom was not thrilled, right, but she knew
Speaker 1: that I wanted to be a marine from a young age.
Speaker 1: I had all the Marine Corps mooto stuff from the
Speaker 1: recruiter's office in my room. Even after Iraq and Leven
Speaker 1: happened and we went to war, she knew that wasn't
Speaker 1: going to prevent me from going in, so she kind
Speaker 1: of prepared for it, and she kind of told me, like,
Speaker 1: I know this is what you want to do, but
Speaker 1: I also know that we're in the middle of al
Speaker 1: war right now that just started, so I'm kind of nervous,
Speaker 1: But this is your dream. Go get your dream. My
Speaker 1: mom was very supportive. I was raised by a single
Speaker 1: mother who was an amazing parent. She adopted myself along
Speaker 1: with three other kids, and gave us lives that we
Speaker 1: would have never had without her. Oh my gosh. I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for her to this day. The support was always
Speaker 1: there from the beginning, with a little hesitation because she
Speaker 1: knew that I was gonna be possibly going to Iraq,
Speaker 1: which I ended up doing. Wow, what an amazing lady
Speaker 1: to adopt as a single mother and take on the
Speaker 1: challenge of raising truly inspirational I. But she's a very
Speaker 1: special lady. Oh yeah, absolutely, and she was probably very
Speaker 1: worried about her baby. Listen, the youngest of all. He's
Speaker 1: going off to war. That's a big deal. Elliot knew
Speaker 1: he wanted to be a Marine since the ninth grade,
Speaker 1: so he enthusiastically signed up as soon as he could,
Speaker 1: but he still had his senior year of high school
Speaker 1: to complete the Marine Corps Delayed Entry Program a k
Speaker 1: A depth allowed him to train for an entire year
Speaker 1: before heading to boot camp. During this time, Elliott learned
Speaker 1: the expectations of what it meant to be a marine,
Speaker 1: allowing him to put his feet in the yellow footprints,
Speaker 1: a term that signifies the first step of a transition
Speaker 1: into a United States Marine. All his preparation paid off,
Speaker 1: and Elliott was selected for presidential support duty, an elite
Speaker 1: team of security Forces who are charged with the protection
Speaker 1: of the president of the United States, not your everyday assignments.
Speaker 1: Before he could go on to such specialized training, he
Speaker 1: had to complete the second phase after boot Camp s
Speaker 1: o I, the School of Infantry. So this is where
Speaker 1: my story in the Marine Corp gets kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: While I was in recruit training, one of my drill
Speaker 1: instructors pulls me aside and he's like, you've been selected
Speaker 1: for this unique job. Go here at this time tomorrow
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Roger that sir. I show up and
Speaker 1: there's other recruits in the room. There's probably about fifteen
Speaker 1: of us, and they basically tell us, you guys have
Speaker 1: been selected for what's called Presidential support duty or Yankee
Speaker 1: White as submarines might know it. So the process for
Speaker 1: that is you go to recruit training, you graduate, you
Speaker 1: go to s o I. But then after s o I,
Speaker 1: I went to Security Forces training because Yankee White is
Speaker 1: part of security forces. So you have to go into
Speaker 1: Security Forces school and become a security Marine before you
Speaker 1: can go into Presidential support duty. So for people at
Speaker 1: home that might not know security forces, that includes embassy
Speaker 1: type security duties. It includes guarding nukes, with the Navy.
Speaker 1: Uh so it's really high profile, a little more advanced
Speaker 1: security training than you know, your rank and file marine
Speaker 1: would receive by far right, So I go to Security
Speaker 1: Forces training and then I got orders to the wrong
Speaker 1: place somehow. The staff at the Security Forces school got
Speaker 1: me orders to a FAST platoon. So FAST is another
Speaker 1: element of Security Forces and it an acronym and it
Speaker 1: stands for Fleet Anti Terrorism Security Team. And basically, in
Speaker 1: a nutshell, what FAST is, it's a Marine Corps squat
Speaker 1: team that's trained to go into buildings like embassies and
Speaker 1: take them back if they've been taken over, like recently
Speaker 1: there was the Iraq embassy that was taken over. They
Speaker 1: sent it, I believe it was three FAST platoons to
Speaker 1: go in there and take it back. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of specialized training it is. It was actually really fun.
Speaker 1: The training with FAST was a lot of fun. And
Speaker 1: then I got sent to my primary MS which was
Speaker 1: three eleven at Camp Pendleton's and that's when I went
Speaker 1: to Iraq. In two thousand five, Elliott was ordered to
Speaker 1: the first Battalion, fifth Marines. Up unto that point, his
Speaker 1: duties that kept in state side. His new assignment a
Speaker 1: combat deployment to Iraq. So what happens you joined one
Speaker 1: five and you go to Iraq? Holy cal Um, can
Speaker 1: you tell us about that? What was that experience? Like?
Speaker 1: Joining one five was unique because, like I said, I
Speaker 1: had been in security forces for a little bit and
Speaker 1: that was where my experience was. The fleet as we
Speaker 1: call it, which is basically all the infantry battions in
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps, is different in the fact that the
Speaker 1: I guess, the level of camaraderie is brought up because
Speaker 1: those are the battalions that are going to combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I got there and it was like an instant
Speaker 1: brotherhood and I loved that about it. I was like
Speaker 1: brought right in. So I get there in two thousand
Speaker 1: five and early, like January two five, and then we
Speaker 1: leave for Ramadi in I think it was in March
Speaker 1: two thousand five. So two months later I'm in Ramadi, Iraq,
Speaker 1: and I'm in combat. It was a very quick turnaround,
Speaker 1: a very quick turnaround. And as you transition from state
Speaker 1: side and prepping for deployment, and then within the blank
Speaker 1: of an eye, it feels like you find yourself walking
Speaker 1: the streets of Ramadi, and I'm sure that you have
Speaker 1: some harrowing experience this is over there with the insurgents,
Speaker 1: the terrorists, all kinds, all kinds of people over their
Speaker 1: cousin hate and discontent, especially during that time frame when
Speaker 1: you found yourself on the pointy end of the spear,
Speaker 1: as they say, and you're you're out on patrol. What
Speaker 1: were you thinking? I mean, did you feel like you
Speaker 1: were ready when you got there? So I have a
Speaker 1: story for you. So it's kind of funny. So the
Speaker 1: moment that that lightbulb went off, when I kind of
Speaker 1: realized that, I was like, oh crap, I'm really in combat.
Speaker 1: This isn't training anymore. So we get there and one
Speaker 1: of the first things I'm thinking is I gotta go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom. So I jumped to a porter potty
Speaker 1: and I'm in this porter potty and I'm doing a
Speaker 1: number two, and all of a sudden, I hear this
Speaker 1: weird whistling sound is feed. I'm like, what is that?
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden I hear boom and
Speaker 1: a mortar went off. I'm guessing it was probably about
Speaker 1: fifty yards maybe Les's probably like between thirty and fifty
Speaker 1: yards away. From my porter potty on the base and
Speaker 1: the door flew open. The ground started shaking a little
Speaker 1: bit during the explosion, like the rocks and the inside
Speaker 1: the porter party flew up, and I was like, oh crap, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is real, Like this isn't training anymore, Like that
Speaker 1: was a real explosion, Like okay. So that was when
Speaker 1: I kind of like flipped from like okay, I was
Speaker 1: in training mode to like, okay, this is actual combat now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a moment when either a bullet goes by or
Speaker 1: mortar hits close by, that you realize someone's trying to
Speaker 1: hurt you. And it's different. It's just different. Um. I
Speaker 1: assumed that you you finished your dump pretty quickly. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I Um, I pulled my pants up and then I
Speaker 1: ran straight over to the where my platoon was and
Speaker 1: I was like, what was that you guys? So yeah
Speaker 1: it was that was at that moment. I never wanted
Speaker 1: you never want to die on the craper. So tell
Speaker 1: us about your missions if you would real quick. Uh,
Speaker 1: you we found yourself over there on foot patrols, you said,
Speaker 1: a lot, and and where are you looking for weapons? Caches?
Speaker 1: Where you looking for bad guy? Is? Were you just
Speaker 1: doing security to make sure your perimeter was safe. Like
Speaker 1: what what did you find yourself doing most of the
Speaker 1: time when you were out there and really exposed. You know,
Speaker 1: in this type of war, as we learned with I. E. D. S,
Speaker 1: and there is no necessarily front everywhere. It's a three
Speaker 1: sixty battle space, So everywhere you look in turn, there's
Speaker 1: danger everywhere, which is causes a whole another level of
Speaker 1: anxiety exactly. So when you're over there, your radar, as
Speaker 1: I like to call it, is completely on twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day, seven days a week, your anxieties through
Speaker 1: the roof your your level of awareness is super high.
Speaker 1: So our average day would consist of three two to
Speaker 1: three foot patrols. And so the r o E or
Speaker 1: the rules of engagement over there were that we were
Speaker 1: not allowed to fire or shoot until we were shot
Speaker 1: at first. We'd go into foot patrol and just wait
Speaker 1: to get shot at. That was how we operated because
Speaker 1: we couldn't find the enemy until they found us first.
Speaker 1: If we did, then we'd engage and we get into firefights,
Speaker 1: and if we didn't, then it was just to walk
Speaker 1: around Ramadi. We came back and that was probably about
Speaker 1: ninety five of it. The other five percent we had
Speaker 1: specific missions, like specific targets that we would go look for,
Speaker 1: specific people that we would go look for, or we
Speaker 1: would also do i e. D. Sweeps with the army. Wow.
Speaker 1: So you had a full deployment, a lot of action,
Speaker 1: a lot of kinnectic environment that you had to live
Speaker 1: in every day. Uh and being outside the wire being
Speaker 1: exposed constantly. When did you decide to that you you
Speaker 1: were going to transition back to civilian life. That decision
Speaker 1: got made probably about six months before I ended up
Speaker 1: getting out. Stay tuned for more of Elliott's story after
Speaker 1: the break Welcome back to veterans you should know. So
Speaker 1: after Ramadi, we went to Okanhawa, Japan. One of my
Speaker 1: marines who knew that I liked to see, introduced me
Speaker 1: to a marine who was stationed in Okinawa who was
Speaker 1: a music producer and he had like a small recording
Speaker 1: studio set up in his barracks room, and so he
Speaker 1: was like, you guys should work together. I know you
Speaker 1: like to sing, he's a producer. Make it happen. And
Speaker 1: I ended up recording an entire album with this person,
Speaker 1: along with some other Marines who were rappers and that
Speaker 1: kind of like I guess you could say, lit a
Speaker 1: fire in me to kind of like pursue music. And
Speaker 1: that's when that really kind of like started. And there
Speaker 1: was a program at the time where if you got
Speaker 1: accepted to a college, you could actually get out of
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps up to six months earlier than your
Speaker 1: contract states. So I took advantage of that resource. So
Speaker 1: I ended up getting out of the Marine Corps because
Speaker 1: of that. So I got accepted to Musicians Institute in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and I got out three months early. When I got
Speaker 1: back from Okinawa, I kind of like really decided to
Speaker 1: pursue music, and that's when it happened. So that's awesome
Speaker 1: because I too chose a life in the Marines and
Speaker 1: the arts, and so I have a great appreciation for
Speaker 1: what you're describing because that first taste, that first taste
Speaker 1: of it, because I I was a fan of comedy
Speaker 1: my whole life, but I never did anything until I did.
Speaker 1: And then once you do it, at first now I
Speaker 1: hated it, but then I realized that it was bigger
Speaker 1: than me and it was a calling almost as you
Speaker 1: transition out. That transition is tough for a lot of veterans,
Speaker 1: for multiple reasons, whether it's post traumatic stress disorder, whether
Speaker 1: it's actual physical wounds from the battlefield, whether it's just
Speaker 1: an ability to assimilate back to a civilian world after
Speaker 1: coming out of such a high intensity military world. Also,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of veterans that I've talked to
Speaker 1: that feel a sense of isolation because there was such
Speaker 1: a brotherhood, there was such a connection with the people
Speaker 1: they served with, and then they go back to the
Speaker 1: civilian world and they can't find that deep connection and
Speaker 1: they get isolated. Tell us about your transition. So my
Speaker 1: transition out of the Marine Corps was extremely difficult. I
Speaker 1: first started noticing the anger issues immediately when I got out.
Speaker 1: I got out in two thousand seven, and I think
Speaker 1: it was a couple of months after I got out
Speaker 1: I started noticing I was constantly piste off for no
Speaker 1: reason at all. For example, I'll be walking in a
Speaker 1: grocery store or something, or somewhere where there's a crowded
Speaker 1: place and somebody would accidentally bump into me or something
Speaker 1: like that. Them bumping aem me would piss me off
Speaker 1: and make me want to fight that complete stranger for
Speaker 1: absolutely no reason. So my adrenaline was super high, my
Speaker 1: anger was super high. My hyper awareness was always on,
Speaker 1: just like I was back in Ramadi. I was always
Speaker 1: worried about somebody attacking me from behind, from the left,
Speaker 1: from the right, from anywhere. So I would always have
Speaker 1: my head on a swivel. I felt like that switch
Speaker 1: you turn on when you go to combat. I never
Speaker 1: turned it back off. It just stayed on forever. And
Speaker 1: I went to Musicians Institute for a couple of months,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't really focus and I couldn't really succeed,
Speaker 1: so I dropped out and I ended up going back
Speaker 1: home and just kind of like working random jobs here
Speaker 1: and there. So the transition was really difficult with my
Speaker 1: mental illness. And then just remembering that I was a
Speaker 1: civilian again. Wow, that that would be incredibly challenging. And
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to stay in a fight
Speaker 1: or flight mode where you're peak awareness. And if you
Speaker 1: stay at that level, when you're constantly in fight or flight,
Speaker 1: you're the physiology of your body. It's so hard on
Speaker 1: your body to be in that state. And mentally it's
Speaker 1: hard to be in that state because as you fatigue,
Speaker 1: you get angry, and then you know the slightest. You know,
Speaker 1: a cool breeze that hits you in the wrong way
Speaker 1: could piss you off. And it's inexplicable because you're aware
Speaker 1: of yourself to a certain degree. You know that that's
Speaker 1: not right, but you still can't help but want to
Speaker 1: lash out. So what happened from there is this two
Speaker 1: thousand eight? Are you still struggling with this? So this
Speaker 1: is still two thousand seven. This is probably late two
Speaker 1: thousand seven, And I guess it all came to a
Speaker 1: head when I was at home getting ready for a job.
Speaker 1: I was working as a security guard at the time,
Speaker 1: and me and my older brother got into a verbal argument.
Speaker 1: That verbal argument turned physical, and it was just me,
Speaker 1: my mom, and my older brother living at home at
Speaker 1: the time, and this physical altercation was happening in the
Speaker 1: living room. My mom comes out of her bedroom because
Speaker 1: she hears all the commotion and she sees her two
Speaker 1: big son's physically fighting, are about to physically fight in
Speaker 1: the living room. I grab a kitchen knife and I
Speaker 1: started brandishing this kitchen knife at my brother, saying I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna stab you. Leave
Speaker 1: me the hell alone. Blah. Blah blah, and my mom
Speaker 1: freaks out and she calls the police. So I end
Speaker 1: up throwing the kitchen knife across the room and just
Speaker 1: walking out and like, f this, I'm gonna go to work.
Speaker 1: I'm out of here by and I see my mom
Speaker 1: on the phone with the police, so I kind of
Speaker 1: knew they were coming. So I'm walking to work. A
Speaker 1: Sheriff's department vehicle comes up and says, are you Elliott McKenzie. Yes,
Speaker 1: put your hands behind your back, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So I get put in handcuffs. They drive me back
Speaker 1: to the house and luckily the sergeant on that call
Speaker 1: was an Army veteran, and he spoke to my mom,
Speaker 1: spoke to me, kind of got some background about what
Speaker 1: happened about my history, and he goes to me. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you two options. Your mom told me
Speaker 1: that you are a Marine Corps veteran who came back
Speaker 1: from Iraq and you've been having some angry issues and
Speaker 1: some things like that since you've been home. I think
Speaker 1: you might have pt D and you haven't figured it
Speaker 1: out yet. So you have two options. Like one, I
Speaker 1: can charge you with assault, with a deadly weapon for
Speaker 1: throwing the knife at your brother, or I think you
Speaker 1: need some help, and I can drive you to the
Speaker 1: v A myself. Because I'm an army veteran, I understand,
Speaker 1: and I want to see if the v A can
Speaker 1: get you some help. So obviously I took the second option.
Speaker 1: I said, drive me to the v A, see if
Speaker 1: they can get me some help. So he did that,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what ended up kind of like
Speaker 1: saving my life in a way, one of the one
Speaker 1: of the many things that ended up kind of helping
Speaker 1: me out. So he drove me to the v A
Speaker 1: that evaluated me, figured out that I had PTSD and
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other issues. And when I got released,
Speaker 1: I called my mom my brother. I said, Hey, I'm released.
Speaker 1: Can I come back home. They were like, we're scared
Speaker 1: of you now after what happened. We don't think we
Speaker 1: can trust that you're not going to do that again.
Speaker 1: We're kind of worried about your condition. We don't know.
Speaker 1: So I had nowhere to go, so I ended up
Speaker 1: just sleeping in my car for like, I want to say,
Speaker 1: a week and half, almost two weeks, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know about resources back then, so that's why I didn't
Speaker 1: I think I had any other options. So finally, after
Speaker 1: the two weeks in my car, I'm like, I gotta
Speaker 1: do something. I can't live in my car forever. I
Speaker 1: had the number when they released me from that hospital.
Speaker 1: They gave me phone numbers, said hey, if you need anything,
Speaker 1: call us. So they ended up connecting me to a
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization that has transitional housing for homeless veterans. And
Speaker 1: I got lucky and I got a spot at one
Speaker 1: of their transitional housing facilities in Long Beach and I
Speaker 1: ended up living in that transitional housing place for about
Speaker 1: a year and a half. What a blessing though, that
Speaker 1: that police officer and former veteran recognized and took the
Speaker 1: time to ask the right questions to get you some help.
Speaker 1: God bless you know, veterans looking out for each other. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: because that's what that sounds like to me. And it
Speaker 1: gave you it sounds like a better option obviously in jail,
Speaker 1: and gave you a chance to maybe understand more about
Speaker 1: yourself and your situation. Wow, what a journey that. That
Speaker 1: must have been a hard couple of weeks in your car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. I would have to go to a local
Speaker 1: park to take showers. There was a park that had
Speaker 1: a swimming pool that was open to the public, so
Speaker 1: I'd go there to take showers. I'd sleep in my
Speaker 1: back seat. I would write songs in my car when
Speaker 1: I was having a bad day, when I was having
Speaker 1: you know, just I just wanted to get something off
Speaker 1: my chest. And then I'd played like a beat through
Speaker 1: the speakers in the car, and I'd sing to that beat,
Speaker 1: and I'd write the lyrics on a piece of paper.
Speaker 1: That was how I spent a good amount of my
Speaker 1: time every day, was just doing that, just to kind
Speaker 1: of get things off my chest. What an amazing way
Speaker 1: for you, in your solitude and in your you know,
Speaker 1: moment of pain, but also discovery that you were able
Speaker 1: to find this creative outlet, this wonderful creative voice inside
Speaker 1: of you that needed to come out and buy a
Speaker 1: necessity almost it did come out. While living at a
Speaker 1: homeless shelter, Elliott maneuvered from job to job, but his
Speaker 1: PTSD made it challenging to hold down a steady one
Speaker 1: for any long stretch of time. He ended up leaving
Speaker 1: the shelter and moving in with an old high school friend.
Speaker 1: Who had an available couch. That couch was Elliot's bed
Speaker 1: for a year until he eventually moved back in with
Speaker 1: his family. He also discovered the post nine eleven g
Speaker 1: I Bill, a benefit to honorably discharged veterans to pursue
Speaker 1: higher education. After three years of attending junior college and
Speaker 1: trying to get his life back on track, Elliot's depression
Speaker 1: and PTSD overwhelmed his studies and he dropped out. But
Speaker 1: it was a turning point for Elliott and he realized
Speaker 1: that after five years of living with these feelings after
Speaker 1: leaving the Marine Corps, it's time to get help. So
Speaker 1: I got lucky in the fact that the therapist that
Speaker 1: I talked to at this VET center, she was a
Speaker 1: former Marine, She was a sergeant in the Wrinkle herself,
Speaker 1: and she was very very good at explaining the science
Speaker 1: behind PTSD. Basically it came down to this. She was like,
Speaker 1: give me the laundry list of symptoms that you're experiencing
Speaker 1: and tell me about what you experienced sin Ramadi, and
Speaker 1: she said, I'm gonna break down each of these symptoms
Speaker 1: for you, Explain why you're doing them, Explain the science
Speaker 1: behind how they're happening in your brain and then connect
Speaker 1: them to what you experienced cin Romati. And that's when
Speaker 1: the light bulb kind of went off for me because
Speaker 1: she explained why I was doing what I was doing.
Speaker 1: And so she said, you mentioned to me that you
Speaker 1: you like to sing and that you were writing songs
Speaker 1: in your car when you were homeless and doing this
Speaker 1: and that right, And I was like, yeah, music has
Speaker 1: been a big part of my life since I was young.
Speaker 1: And she said, you know, you can use that as
Speaker 1: a form of natural therapy for your depression, in your anxiety.
Speaker 1: She explained the science behind adrenaline and endorphins and how
Speaker 1: performing on stage you release endorphins in your brain. And
Speaker 1: she taught me about how endorphins or the natural fighter
Speaker 1: of depression specifically and anxiety. When I'm performing or when
Speaker 1: I'm writing songs and I'm singing, I'm not depressed anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm feeling good. I'm I'm getting that out of me.
Speaker 1: It's like flushing the toxic energy out of your system. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: she was like, you can use that. She's like, go songwright, sing,
Speaker 1: try to get book to perform record music. Used that
Speaker 1: as a natural way to combat what you're going through.
Speaker 1: And so I took that information and I just ran
Speaker 1: with it. I started writing my butt off, I started marketing,
Speaker 1: I started reaching out to people in the music industry
Speaker 1: telling them about myself, started performing in l A and
Speaker 1: all of Socow and it was working. That's what started
Speaker 1: my positive progress, and that's what started saving my life.
Speaker 1: Fast forward two years, two fifteen comes around and I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm better enough to go back into college.
Speaker 1: So I re enrolled in college, the same college that
Speaker 1: I had just dropped out of two years earlier. Two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen comes and I ended up graduating with my
Speaker 1: associates degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis and behavioral science.
Speaker 1: And I ended up going from failing grades to nothing
Speaker 1: but straight a's and straight bes, and I graduated on
Speaker 1: the Dean's list, And it was amazing transition. That's a
Speaker 1: total transition, right, So it was like day and night
Speaker 1: like I was super depressed, super failing, and then I
Speaker 1: ended up using the music to turn my life around.
Speaker 1: And I went from f to as and b's and
Speaker 1: I transferred to a university and same thing there, got
Speaker 1: nothing but straight ais and straight bes. And I ended
Speaker 1: up graduating with my bachelor's degree in two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: in behavioral science. That's fantastic. Wow, what a journey, thanks brother.
Speaker 1: What a journey and a triumphant one too, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to go through all of that, to hit those lows
Speaker 1: and then come back and hit those highs. I think
Speaker 1: it was Booker T. Washington who said judgment man's accomplishments
Speaker 1: by the obstacles he had to overcome to get there.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we use that as our gauge.
Speaker 1: You have overcome so much. So what you've achieved is
Speaker 1: truly truly remarkable. Thank you. What is your advice to
Speaker 1: veterans that are one young people that are thinking about
Speaker 1: joining the military and to those who are leaving the
Speaker 1: military to pursue a life, whether it's in the arts
Speaker 1: or just leaving the military to go on into civilian life.
Speaker 1: So the high school students who want to join the military,
Speaker 1: and to their parents, I would say this, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of students who are thinking about college as
Speaker 1: an option. The post nine eleven g I Bill is
Speaker 1: an amazing resource to tackle that and not be in debt.
Speaker 1: I have three degrees now, my associates degree that I got,
Speaker 1: my bachelor's and then I also went back and got
Speaker 1: a certificate in peer mentorship. I'm zero dollars in debt
Speaker 1: because of that. So you've got two paths. You can
Speaker 1: take high school straight to college. You've got to pay
Speaker 1: for it on your own. Right now, you're in debt
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars. After you've got your bachelor's degree or
Speaker 1: your master's degree or whatever degree you end up with,
Speaker 1: or join the military for four or five years, get
Speaker 1: an honorable discharge, take advantage of the resource that's there,
Speaker 1: the post loving g I Bill. Now your education is
Speaker 1: paid for and you get a paycheck on top of that.
Speaker 1: School is your job, so you can focus on the
Speaker 1: school and you can do really well. And then there's
Speaker 1: a ton of resources when you get out that you
Speaker 1: can utilize to make sure that your life is successful,
Speaker 1: including the g I Bill, amongst many others. And then
Speaker 1: the advice that I would give to veterans who want
Speaker 1: to get out and go into the arts. The way
Speaker 1: that it happened for me was completely natural and completely unexpected.
Speaker 1: After all that happened in two thousand and seventeen, I
Speaker 1: wanted to write a song telling people about the combat
Speaker 1: and the PTSD experience for US combat veterans. And so
Speaker 1: I wrote a song called Gunshots, and I did a
Speaker 1: music video for that song, which is on YouTube. And
Speaker 1: that's when it happened for me. I wasn't doing that
Speaker 1: song and music video and hopes like, oh, I want
Speaker 1: to become famous. No, I was doing it because I
Speaker 1: was like, I wanted to use it as therapy for
Speaker 1: myself and then educate the general population about what combat
Speaker 1: veterans go through. And that music video ended up exploding
Speaker 1: pretty much, and that's what put me on the map.
Speaker 1: So I would say, do it for a reason that's
Speaker 1: really close to your heart, that doesn't include fame or money.
Speaker 1: It's just something that you care about, like a cause
Speaker 1: that you care about some maybe a story that you
Speaker 1: want to tell through whatever art you do. And I'm
Speaker 1: now in a position where I'm blessed to be able
Speaker 1: to inspire people worldwide through my story and my music.
Speaker 1: My inspiration now is my fans, So I'm trying to
Speaker 1: inspire and motivate as many people as I can. Good.
Speaker 1: Keep it up because it means a lot. Not to
Speaker 1: be overly dramatic, but you're saving lives every day. Somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna hear that message right when they need to hear it.
Speaker 1: Trust me. Yeah, I actually have so these two. I
Speaker 1: have tattoos on my arms. So this is a quote
Speaker 1: from a fan who's a here in an Army veteran
Speaker 1: and it says, just her ju new album, it saved
Speaker 1: my life. This was a comment that I got on
Speaker 1: my YouTube. And then this one is actually a message
Speaker 1: that I got on Facebook from another Army veteran fan
Speaker 1: and they're basically veterans who were suicidal and they listened
Speaker 1: to my album my first one therapy session and they
Speaker 1: decided not to kill themselves. That was one of those
Speaker 1: moments when I realized, this is my purpose, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm here for. I'm meant to try to save
Speaker 1: lives through my platform. That's fantastic. We'll keep doing it
Speaker 1: because it's working clearly. Thanks brother. What's coming down the road?
Speaker 1: What can we look forward to? Because I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to hear what projects you got going. And then the
Speaker 1: last thing is you've got this audience, You've got a
Speaker 1: chance to to give them one nugget of wisdom that
Speaker 1: they can put in their pocket and say, wow, I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna carry that around for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: So my album came out earlier this year. A Therapy
Speaker 1: Session came out in March, and that's sixteen songs of
Speaker 1: beautiful music. I like to call it a mix of
Speaker 1: R and B music and inspirational songs with the purpose
Speaker 1: of inspiring people to get through those hurdles that they
Speaker 1: might be going through, whether their veterans or not. My
Speaker 1: next single is called be You, and it's releasing on
Speaker 1: October twelfth, and it's a song that's inspiring people to
Speaker 1: be themselves, to discover who they are at their core
Speaker 1: and be proud of that. So this single is going
Speaker 1: to be part of my next project I'm and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call it follow Up. And then I'm working with
Speaker 1: Veteran Television right now on a Grunts Live Season two.
Speaker 1: I was in a Grunts Live Season one, one of
Speaker 1: the principal characters, and so I'm just working my butt off,
Speaker 1: just trying to be successful. And then the advice that
Speaker 1: I would give to veterans. Honestly, the thing that's really
Speaker 1: changed my life most recently is coming to terms with
Speaker 1: who I am as an adult, as a person, as
Speaker 1: a man, as a veteran, as a recording artist. I've
Speaker 1: had a tough time over the years of accepting who
Speaker 1: I am and really just learning about me because, as
Speaker 1: you know in the in the Marine course specifically, it's
Speaker 1: all about your brother and your sister, to your left
Speaker 1: and your right, it's not about self. When you get
Speaker 1: to a point where you know yourself, you know what
Speaker 1: your purpose in the world is, and you know what
Speaker 1: truly makes you you and makes you happy, nothing can
Speaker 1: bother you and nothing will ever get to the point
Speaker 1: where you're getting like stressed out or anything like that,
Speaker 1: because you're always happy because you know your life's purpose.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. I I could not agree more.
Speaker 1: I know thyself is one of mine. I even have
Speaker 1: a necklace on that says know thyself. So I believe
Speaker 1: that wholeheartedly because I think once you do know yourself
Speaker 1: and all the ways you just described, you start going
Speaker 1: with the grain instead of against it, and life gets
Speaker 1: so much easier and it gets so much more joyful. Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you for your service, Thank you for your your
Speaker 1: journey and for sharing your journey and being so open
Speaker 1: and honest with us today and your inspiration through your music,
Speaker 1: And what a joy to meet you today. Uh whom.
Speaker 1: Everybody can google you, Elliott mackenzie. They can also uh
Speaker 1: find you on social media. I have no doubt. People,
Speaker 1: I hope you stay, Start looking for your album, start
Speaker 1: looking for follow up when that's ready. It's all very exciting.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna hear a lot more from you.
Speaker 1: We need more marines out here, uh, filling up the
Speaker 1: airwaves and the and the silver screen. So that's the plan.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Elliott, Thank you for being here and joining us.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it was an honor to meet you today. Hey,
Speaker 1: thank you brother, thank you for your service to absolutely man. Hey,
Speaker 1: a big thank you to Elliott mackenzie for sharing a
Speaker 1: story of service. Congratulations on your release of the new
Speaker 1: single b You and working on your second album. I'm
Speaker 1: very excited to see the music and content you're creating
Speaker 1: the future. I know everybody else is, and I have
Speaker 1: no doubt that you will be changing people's lives with
Speaker 1: your gift. Thanks for listening to veterans. You should know
Speaker 1: to hear more inspiring stories of perseverance and camaraderie. Check
Speaker 1: out all our episodes, including those from season one, featuring
Speaker 1: veterans who have overcome incredible obstacles and found renewed purpose
Speaker 1: in their civilian lives. If you enjoyed this episode, please
Speaker 1: rate and review the podcast. We would love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can listen to the show on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite podcast. Veterans you Should Know as a
Speaker 1: special four parts series from I Heart Radio and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Rob Wriggle. Our show is written and produced
Speaker 1: by Molly Sosia, Nikkia Swinton, and Jackie Perez, with assistance
Speaker 1: from Quincy Fuller. The show is edited, sound designed and
Speaker 1: mixed by James Foster and Matt Stillham.