Photo By Sgt. Kayla Hocker | Lacey, WASH. – SGM (Ret.) Ed Hall begins his interview at Evidence-Based-Fitness for...... read more read more
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Living to Serve
Lacey, WASH. -- A retired 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) Green Beret devotes his time through a non-profit organization combating suicidality and increasing suicide awareness.
Sgt. Maj. (Ret.) Hall served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army but his service hasn’t stopped there. His legacy as an entrusted senior non-commissioned officer and former Green Beret with 1st SFG (A) not only shed light on life after the military but also what meant the most to him during that time.
After years of mentoring and coaching young Green Berets, Hall is now a full-time student pursuing a degree in teaching as a way to continue contributing his wisdom and life experience to people around him.
Hall went through Special Forces selection to become a weapons sergeant then deployed to Southeast Asia, Iraq, and Afghanistan in support of combat operations. During his time as a Green Beret, Hall and his Soldiers underwent frequent mental and physical stress while carrying out missions in the Indo-Pacific region. While dealing with time away from home and a fast paced environment it was Hall’s responsibility to make sure he and his Soldiers stayed mentally and physically fit.
“If I was proud of anything I did in my little over 20 years of service,” said Hall, “It was taking care of Soldiers.”
In February, Hall and some close friends founded the non-profit organization Leaving the Sideline to continue caring for service members, veterans, and their families. Its mission is to provide resources to active service members, veterans and immediate family members to increase suicide awareness, and reduce the suicide rate throughout the state of Washington. The organization's values are Camaraderie, Commitment, and Compassion.
Hall serves as the director of military operations and attributes his own experiences with chronic pain and financial struggle as a testimony on why resources like behavioral health, physical therapy, and physical fitness are necessary both during and after operating in a high stress environments.
To Soldiers, the loss of a teammate and friend often times is as powerful as the loss of a blood relative. The Soldiers of 1st SFG (A) spend months if not years training and carrying out missions together.
“A couple of months ago, I found out a former member of 1st SFG (A) I served with took his own life,” said Hall. “It hit us all pretty hard.”
The loss of his close friend inspired Hall to act and develop a way to help Soldiers and veterans throughout the community. He decided to draw on his past proven coping tools to brainstorm strategies to prevent this pain and loss of life from occurring again.
The idea of the holistic approach that the non-profit plans to offer was inspired by the Preservation of Force and Family program. POTFF is a United States Special Operations Command program designed to address the pressure on the force and their families, to maintain and improve readiness, operational effectiveness, and the immediate and long-term well-being of the force. In recent months the program has been revamped under the U.S. Army Special Operations Command as the Human Performance and Wellness program.
Hall says he has witnessed stigma surrounding the idea that some people struggling with life’s challenges never want to show weakness. He mentions that for Soldiers, the persona of invincibility is built into you and when you don’t feel strong, you don’t want anyone else to know.
“In the future, my goal is that people never have to ask for help,” said Hall. “It’s hard asking for help and if these benefits are available to people, it's a lot easier to just go to the website and submit.”
Hall has plans to continue to offer services statewide in hopes that Leaving the Sideline will aid in creating a template that can be successful in creating a community of resources nationwide. The non-profit launched September 11, 2020 in Olympia, Wash. Hall encourages people to dedicate their time to charitable work because we can impact our lives and the lives of others by giving back.
“A lot of times, people don’t get involved in charity work because they think one person can’t make a difference,” said Hall. “So what I always say is ‘If you think that one person cannot make a difference, start by making a difference for one person’.”
For those who are struggling or know someone who is struggling with suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.23.2020 11:00 |
| Story ID: | 378422 |
| Location: | LACEY, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Living to Serve, by SGT Kayla Hocker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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