Guam veterans group worried Trump's VA cuts will upend care
The gathering serves as their therapy for both the physical and psychological wounds sustained in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For people in Guam, military service is an economic opportunity. Of the roughly 170,000 residents who live on the island, 24,000 of them are military veterans, the group says. Guam is home to two primary U.S. military bases: Naval Base Guam and Andersen Air Force Base. Despite that, there is only one small Veterans Affairs clinic on the island, with one psychologist.
Due to the lack of services here, Roy Gamboa assembled this group. He served 10 years in the Marine Corps. He calls the group "GOT YOUR 671." 671 is the area code for Guam.
"In the first couple of years, everything was coming out of our pockets," Gamboa said. "Since then we've applied for and received a couple of grants to help keep our doors open."
But the veterans in this group are worried about the looming
budget cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs
. The agency has
terminated
585 contracts as part of an ongoing audit.
Gamboa worries his group could be next since the group is funded through a VA-issued grant.
Donovan Santos is also a combat veteran who says he has PTSD and chronic depression. He's now the person on the listening end of the group's suicide prevention hotline.
"I pretty much help those that fall through the cracks that feel like they're alone," Santos said. "I'm there with them on the ledge. I'm there with them to pull them back, to catch them."
Without the support from the group, Santos said he may not be alive. "Sometimes I wish my brothers were here and I wasn't," he said.
Gamboa says it's a fight they all hope to carry long into the future.
"I'll keep going," Gamboa said. "I mean, we were willing to die for each other in combat. I refuse to believe that it was all for nothing."
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
by calling or texting 988. You can also
chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here
.
For more information about
mental health care resources and support
, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
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"I once got this plastic container that looked like a giant Nerd, and it was filled with Nerd-flavored powder à la Fun Dip. I was about 6. I took a mouthful in and instantly began choking. They had to turn me upside down. No more Nerd powder for me." "I suffered silently with a bad stomachache. On day three, my husband took me to the ER, and I had to immediately have my appendix removed. My dumb ass would have just dealt with it and died of sepsis." —aluckyblackcat "I was in a protest against the Vietnam War at Kent State on May 4, 1970." "A friend was about to be late for class and nearly choked when he decided it was a good idea to eat a sandwich while doing 'a speedy gay-walk.' He later said he imagined his tombstone saying, 'Here lies X, killed by a homophobic sandwich.' 😂" —whale_tail "I was walking in the woods in the winter and felt something hit the back of my boot. I looked down and there was a closed bear trap that had been hidden under the snow and that I had almost stepped into. This being the '80s, my mother had no idea where I was, so if I'd gotten caught, it would have been a real race between dying from blood loss or hypothermia." "I also hit myself in the back of the head with a hatchet and fell out of the back of a moving truck. The '80s, man."—Anonymous "I was sucking on a giant jawbreaker at a scary scene in a movie, and I inhaled in shock. The jawbreaker lodged in my throat. Dark theater, no one saw me, nothing to hear from me since it was totally lodged in my throat." "Not me, but my I contributed to her near demise. When we were about 5 and 6 years old, we watched Harry Houdini on TV with our mom. Afterward, we went to our room to play." "My family was vacationing in Aspen when I was about 8. My cousin and I jumped on a chairlift (Ruthie's Run), and my brother and grandpa were behind us. Well, this chairlift was very old and did not have a bar that crosses over you, and it ran over some really beautiful cliffs." "For some reason, the chair fully stopped, and because we were between two poles, our chair bounced all the way down, like 20 feet, then threw us back up about the same amount of feet above the chair line. We held so tight to the inner pole while my family watched in horror behind us. I don't know how we never let go, but I would never again ride a lift without a protection bar. Right above a cliff…"—Anonymous, 42, Michigan "I let a toothache go on WAY too long without going to the dentist. One day, I found myself lying on my floor because the infection had gotten so bad. I had to crawl to the phone to call my fiancé to take me to the dentist. Never have I ever come so close to dying. Don't let toothaches go on!" —Anonymous "I'm a longtime pest control tech. Doing a routine service in a lady's home, I needed to check the bait card under the kitchen sink trap. I just opened the lower cabinet door, saw the card, and started to reach into the darkened space when a little voice told me to be careful." "I got my pocket flashlight on — there was a black widow spider hanging out in a web she had constructed covering the bait card. Wow. That would not have been good."—Anonymous "I was trying to get a kid's toy Jeep to charge. I had replaced the battery recently and had just replaced the charger cord for the battery. The toy Jeep was still not turning on, so to check that the new charger was working, without thinking of the consequences, I touched the metal tip to my tongue, like how you check batteries. I felt the jolt of electricity probably for less than a second before I removed it. The toy Jeep had a wiring problem; the charger worked just fine. I'm still haunted by my stupidity in that moment." —Anonymous, 31, South Carolina "I was 5 and my brother told me he was getting telepathic signals from God, and God said I could fly. So I strapped on my roller skates, dressed in my Care Bears nightgown, tied a blanket around my neck, and found the steepest hill I could find. As soon as I took off, I started flapping my arms like a bird! Needless to say, I didn't fly. I picked up a lot of speed though, and went crashing down on the pavement, almost tearing half my body off. I still have scars." —Anonymous, 48, Denver "I DID die. In a car accident in 2016. I was dead in the ER for almost 15 minutes. The staff never stopped compressions or bagging me, and I was recovered. DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE." "My wife never wanted me on a ladder unless she was there to 'spot' me. I'm 72. I needed to replace Christmas lights on a 40-foot-high spruce tree. I decided to wait until she was gone so she wouldn't worry." "Extended my ladder to its limit. I climbed to the top. Needed a bit more, so I stood on the top rung. The tree swayed, and the ladder fell. I plummeted through the tree, one foot caught on the wires, and I was suspended upside down by one foot. I had wire cutters, so I held onto the trunk and cut myself free. No real damage, but I realized I could have just as easily had it wrapped around my neck and hung myself.I hired a professional with a lift to finish the job. My wife was thrilled I listened to her. I didn't tell her what happened for three years. I still got yelled at."—Anonymous, 72, Wilson, Wyoming "My twin sister gave me a penny when we were 4 and told me it was chocolate. I ate it and began to choke. Our mom ran in and tried to give me the Heimlich maneuver, but my twin and I were laughing so hard that it was difficult for my mom to dislodge. But she did it, and I don't think pennies are chocolate anymore." —Anonymous, Old, East Coast "When I was around 3 years old, I woke up before everyone else in the house. I decided to wrap the strings of the blinds on my window around my neck. I started gasping for air, and luckily, my mom heard from her room a floor above and came to save me. I can't imagine what a horrible sight it would've been if she hadn't." —Anonymous, 40, Connecticut "In the '60s, we three teenagers were riding in a '32 Ford our friend was working on. Using cheap gas, and with no fuel filter, the fuel line would plug, stopping the car. It was getting dark, and we needed to get home or we'd be in trouble." "We needed to drain the fuel into a couple of jugs and blow it out of the line. Couldn't find a flashlight, but did find matches. So, yeah, we drained and blew out the line and poured the gas back in the tank, ALL by match light. Got home in time. Didn't think about it until our 10-year high school reunion, when telling the story to our wives, it hit us what we'd done."—Anonymous "I was gassing up my car in the winter. I noticed ice that was caked up around the fuel door. I took out my cigarette lighter and actually tapped the ice twice, before my one good brain cell kicked in." —Anonymous "Almost dying from alcohol poisoning at 15. Drinking hard alcohol right from the bottle is a terrible idea. Lucky to be alive!" —Anonymous "When I was 9, I rode my bike down the hill I had at my childhood home. The hill connected to a road. There was a car going on that road. I almost got run over. Luckily, I dodged in time. I never went down that hill again." —Anonymous And finally: "I was cleaning the wall behind the stove with a wet scouring pad and decided that the outlet needed cleaning too. I'm so glad my breaker was working; still got a good shock though." —Anonymous IDK about you, but I feel kinda dazed reading some of these! Please leave all your thoughts in the comments below. Or, better yet, share your own dumb near-death story! I love reading these. If you have a story to tell but prefer to stay anonymous, you can check out this anonymous form! Besides, who knows — your comment could be included in a future BuzzFeed article. Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
