VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Marine veteran Juan Valdez is catching waves with fellow veterans at the Virginia Beach oceanfront.
"It's a beautiful time to be out here catching some waves. I actually caught a few today, so I'm pretty stoked. Just being in the water — it's so nice, peaceful and healing," Valdez said.
While this is a fun day at the beach, the purpose goes deeper than that.
"The water is very healing, but having the group of veterans you interact with — you're struggling together on the waves and that builds camaraderie. You're lowering your defenses and opening up about things," he said.
That sense of community, Valdez says, saved his life. He did three tours in the Middle East and was shot in the chest by a sniper during his 20-year military career. Going from superhero to civilian life hit him hard.
At his lowest point, he found the Wounded Warrior Project.
"It represents hope. Wounded Warrior Project has been there for me through my most difficult times when I was transitioning out of the Marine Corps, trying to get on my feet and going through my post-traumatic stress journey," Valdez said.
Now he is a spokesperson for the nonprofit, which offers dozens of services to veterans.
"Physical health and wellness services, adaptive sports and, most important, mental health services," he said.
Many of the wounds military members face aren't visible, said fellow veteran Geoffrey Reyes.
"I had an incident involving eight of my buddies during one deployment, so I was toughing it out. I thought I could handle it, but a few months after I got out my wife noticed, 'You're so irritable, you get angry so easily; I can't focus,'" Reyes said.
The Army veteran turned to Wounded Warrior Project for help.
"I look forward to the activity but also to hanging out with fellow veterans who are as wounded as I am, whether it's physically, mentally, emotionally or psychologically. We just hang out together," Reyes said.
The folks at Wounded Warrior Project and local veterans are American heroes and they are Positively Hampton Roads.
"They just get me. I get them. For me, that's family; that's therapy," he said.
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
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