5 months ago
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VISALIA, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A Navy seasoned from Visalia received the Rusty Baggett Peer Leader Award from the Wounded Warrior Project for helping her chap veterans instrumentality power of their lives - conscionable arsenic she did.
Ysabel Cardon, oregon Ysa arsenic she's known to everyone astir her, served arsenic an Operations Specialist successful the United States Navy from 1999 to 2006. Ysa says she loved her clip successful the military.
"I emotion to travel, astatine the property of 18 I got to spell to Japan, Guam, Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, and Dubai," Ysa said.
"I'm precise blessed and I would bash it again. I person nary regrets."
Ysa says her modulation to civilian beingness aft getting retired of the work was not arsenic enjoyable arsenic her clip successful the military. She struggled financially and emotionally, which wounded her relationships and intelligence well-being.
"It sucked," Ysa said. "I mislaid myself - I besides got a divorce, I couldn't get a job, it was truly hard. The lone occupation that I got a callback from was Target."
Ysa said the beingness she had built for herself successful the subject and the beingness she started surviving arsenic a civilian could not beryllium much different.
"I was making much wealth successful work and I went from making a comfy surviving to not hardly anything," Ysa said. "I could person gone to our section inferior assemblage - but that wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to question the satellite and service my country."
Ysa says galore veterans stock her acquisition and conflict to set to civilian life.
"We conscionable forget. We're inactive the warrior, we're inactive who we were calved to be."
Ysa's travel to retrieve who she was saw her some stateless and struggling with terrible depression; she ne'er thought it would impact her arsenic overmuch arsenic it did.
"I had to scope retired and marque a telephone telephone to 1 of my superiors," Ysa said.
"You ne'er deliberation it's you, you ne'er deliberation you're the 1 who has the occupation and I'm ever the idiosyncratic who helps and steps up who wants to assistance others."
Despite not Ysa's content that she should not inquire for help, she says she doesn't regret it.
"It was benignant of hard but it wasn't," Ysa said. "I got bushed of surviving a mediocre life."
Ysa received assistance from the Road Home astatine Rush program - arsenic good arsenic her family. After receiving that help, she decided she wanted to bash her portion arsenic a Peer Leader with the Wounded Warrior Project.
Helping veterans modulation to civilian beingness tin beryllium incredibly difficult, Ysa says. She hopes to assistance them spot that they are not unsocial and that a amended beingness is retired there. Ysa says subject families and radical with loved ones who are veterans tin assistance by supporting programs dedicated to improving subject and seasoned lives.
"There's truthful galore really escaped programs and services provided by our section non-profits," Ysa said. "A batch of those services connection unpaid services wherever you tin spell and unpaid with them. That really opens the door."
Ysa says she is arrogant and blessed to bash her portion successful supporting veterans and their families, making them alert of resources due to the fact that the alternate is leaving the men and women who served to fend for themselves.
"That is wherefore I bash what I do. I've mislaid excessively galore friends to suicide." Ysa said. "Just trying to scope 1 idiosyncratic each time is enough."
