Brooksville veteran to ride across country for PTSD

Still gripped by memories of the Vietnam War, Marine veteran Dwayne “JoJo” Jojola never considered finding solace on a horse.

Vietnam Veteran and Brooksville Marine Corps League Detachment 466 Member Dwayne “JoJo” Jojola (Committee Chairman/Rider, This Ride’s For Them) and horse Cowboy. DOROTHY FAMIANO

Out for a horseback ride one afternoon last year, Jojola, 66, of Brooksville, said he felt alone and depressed.

“I’d had some really bad days for awhile,” he said. “Riding my neighbor’s horse ‘Cowboy’ gave me the peace that I missed.”

That ride along the Lake Townsen Preserve trail lasted 1 1/2 hours, but as he and “Cowboy” turned to head home, Jojola knew it had made a lasting impression.

“I had a vision that day that a cross-country ride might be a good thing,” Jojola said. “I could be alone to think about what the rest of my life should be — to fight these feelings of hopelessness and depression or give up on myself. And I decided to fight.”

Today he is involved in a mission called “This Ride’s For Them”— a horseback ride across America. It’s his personal challenge to raise awareness of veteran suicide due to PTSD and to raise money for the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation — a nonprofit organization based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., that helps veterans who are suffering from the invisible, psychological wounds of war.

An infantry field radio operator, Jojola served overseas in 1968 and 1969. After returning from Vietnam, Jojola ended up jobless, homeless and an alcoholic. He didn’t know it, but he has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) — sometimes called shell shock or battle fatigue — with flashbacks and feelings of anger, loneliness and depression.

“Forty years on and tired of hiding within myself, it was my brother-in-law, Ray Delgado, also a Vietnam veteran, who encouraged me to seek help with the VA,” he said.

Delgado lives in Colorado, close to Jojola’s family.

“It took a while for me to convince him to apply to the Department of Veterans Affairs for assistance but finally he did, Delgado said. “He was assigned a counselor and subsequently diagnosed 100-percent disabled with PTSD.”

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Jojola has pledged to ride from Colorado to Washington, D.C. — a distance of more than 1,600 miles — on the American Discovery Trail, which parallels Route 50. In his saddlebags he will carry the names of veterans who have committed suicide due to PTSD. Those names will be kept in strict confidence, Jojola said.

The trip is scheduled to begin in late March and end around Labor Day 2015, depending on trail conditions and weather. It will take him from Pueblo, Colo., through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland before ending in Washington, D.C., where he will carry the names to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and honor the 58,000 dead and missing soldiers.

So far, Jojola has commitments from the Marine Corps League Detachment 466 in Brooksville the Marine Corps League and the Marine Corps League Union Colony Detachment 1093 in Greeley, Colo., to support his endeavor.

Delgado is a past commandant of Union Colony Detachment 1093 and is familiar with fundraising efforts. He is on the board of directors of Honor Flights, a nonprofit organization that has raised more than $1.5 million to transport military veterans to the nation’s capital to see the memorials of their respective wars.

Also encouraging Jojola by coordinating support from the local horse community are two local riding clubs: Croom Trail Riders and Nature Coast Back Country Horsemen.

Robin Ross, of Brooksville, is a horse trainer with more than 30 years of experience. She is donating her horses for the trip, and will accompany Jojola for the first part of the journey.

For the past several weekends Ross has been preparing Jojola and two of her horses at the Lake Townsen Preserve.

She said the plan is to ride about six hours each day and camp overnight along the trail, so the training is geared to building up Jojola’s physical strength and stamina.

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Jojola will ride “Cowboy” and “Rosie,” both Tennessee Walkers known for their unique four-beat running walk. But both horses are older; Cowboy is 24 and Rosie is 20. “That’s why Jojo (Jojola) is looking for help to get another suitable mount to pace out the journey,” Ross said.

Ellen Ward, spokesperson for MCL Detachment 466, said Jojola needs as much sponsorship and logistical assistance as possible not only to help him complete the journey but to collect as much money as possible to donate to the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation.

Ward said all contributions raised by local fundraising events as well as along the journey will be donated to the Saratoga WarHorse Foundation to expand programs assisting in the prevention of veteran suicide.

“We are reaching out to the community for the use of a horse trailer for the duration of the trip, and for in-kind contributions of supplies like feed, fuel, camping gear for JoJo and hotel rooms for the support vehicle staff,” said Ward. “The more in-kind contributions we can get, the more the foundation will benefit.

The Saratoga WarHorse Foundation offers veterans a three-day experience that has proven to be effective for those struggling to adjust to life after military service. The program is provided free to the veterans. The foundation depends entirely on donations from a network of individual donations, corporations and racing industries.

Saratoga WarHorse founder Bob Nevins is a Vietnam veteran who understands the difficulties veterans face after they return home.

“For me to watch a veteran struggle year after year with PTSD, suicidal thoughts, depression and nightmares has been frustrating,” said Nevins. “I wanted to create an experience so powerful that it becomes self-healing for the individual,” he said.

Nevins says the program has proven to be beneficial in many ways and he is thrilled to be able to provide something for veterans that will help them cope. So far the program has helped 150 people and he is looking for ways to expand the operation.

“Jojola will be participating in one of those experiences when he comes to our Aiken, S.C., complex in early November,” said Nevins. “Saratoga WarHorse is bearing the entire expense of his attendance as we do for every veteran in our program,” he said.

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Jojola says he is prepared for this mammoth horseback ride.

“No matter what wars we served in, veteran suicides are rising alarmingly. Statistically it may surpass those deaths that occurred in the field,” he said.

“We have to do whatever we can to fund programs that will help veterans with chronic PTSD and are feeling suicidal,” he said.

“Veterans may not have the physical scars of war, but there are deep emotional scars that refuse to heal.”