Veterans and residents at the Veterans Day ceremony in Fairfax.
Fairfax City’s Veterans Day ceremony last Monday, Nov. 11, honored those who served and those who’ve suffered because of it. American Legion Post 177 hosted the event, along with VFW Post 8469.
Besides local residents and veterans, attendees included Del. David Bulova (D-11th), Sen. Saddam Salim (D-37th), Del. Dan Helmer (D-10th), Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, Fairfax Mayor Catherine Read and City Councilmember Tom Ross.
“We have to remind our nation that Veterans Day is not just another holiday on a calendar,” said VFW Post
The presentation of the Colors at the start of the ceremony.
Toward that end, he said, he was honored to introduce keynote speaker Frank Larkin, who’s served his country in many ways and continues to do so. Larkin was a special-warfare operator in the Navy SEALs, served two decades as a special agent and was deputy assistant director in the U.S. Secret Service.
He was also a senior leader in the Defense Department, heading a unit designed to mitigate the effects of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) on American and Allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Said McCarl, “IEDs were directly responsible for over 80 percent of the total casualties we suffered in those two places.”
Larkin was also a police officer and investigator in Philadelphia and a trooper/flight paramedic with the Maryland State Police. And although partially retired, he’s still an active firefighter/paramedic for the City of Annapolis.
Yet one of his top priorities is advocating nationwide for veteran suicide prevention and traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. That’s because he’s seen these things firsthand – and they’ve both hit home.
“I’m proud to be here to honor those who’ve served in uniform and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation,” said Larkin. “We should never forget the service of those who selflessly often went into harm’s way – and that includes all local first responders. For many of us, 9/11 taught us that things can change quickly. People left the comfort of their jobs and homes to protect what we have today, and we can’t take it for granted.”
With the exception of Native Americans, he said, everyone in the U.S. came from someplace else. “They escaped from oppression and restrictions that motivated them to try something new,” said Larkin. “And we benefited from their eclectic, diverse mix of ideas. We owe a lot of gratitude to the men and women who formed what this nation became.”
Two years ago, he attended a ceremony for Medal of Honor recipients. “It’s the highest military award given to someone in uniform,” said Larkin. “Nobody competes for it; you receive it, and usually for extraordinary behavior and unbelievable acts of courage. But they all said, ‘I don’t deserve this; others do more than I.’
“They were dealing with inner demons and the complex rubric of post-traumatic stress. They see, hear and experience things [in wartime] that burden them and chew them up from the inside until they come out. And that’s where my work on suicide prevention is focused. These folks with their invisible wounds – often further complicated by substance-use disorder – are all in pain.”
Larkin said many are dealing with undiagnosed traumatic brain injury “from exposure to our weapons systems, IEDs and other forces that are ripping their brain circuitry apart. But it can’t be seen with our current imaging, and there’s a serious gap where this defaults toward the mental-health side of the ledger. But we need to recognize and understand that [it’s a medical problem].”
He then shared the story of his son Ryan, a “highly decorated, top-performing Navy SEAL. He trained for combat, deployed to Iraq twice and to Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere. After his fourth deployment, he came home and had trouble sleeping and had nightmares.
“He became hypervigilant and was dealing with issues of memory loss, balance and vision, and some of his cognitive functions started to change. Ryan had bouts of anxiety and became short-tempered. This once smiling and jovial person had changed. He went to get help – and because we lacked the diagnostic tools, his TBI wasn’t acknowledged.”
Larkin said Ryan’s story isn’t unique to him but is unique to veterans – especially those who’ve served in the last 20 years. However, he said he’s finding “more and more” that those who served in Vietnam and Korea also sustained TBIs.
“Society doesn’t listen or understand, and people are quick to judge,” said Larkin. “That’s why, when these folks come back from their experiences, they don’t feel like they’ve got an environment where they can talk about it. This is why veterans service organizations are so important, because they create that tribal dynamic that these men and women separated from. As they become more isolated, bad things happen, so these organizations are the glue holding together a lot of our veterans.
“Ryan said, ‘There’s something wrong with my head, but nobody’s listening.’ And that still happens today when dealing with Defense Health and the VA [Veterans Administration]. Like most bureaucracies – and what we’ve witnessed with Gulf War Syndrome, Agent Orange, burn pits and so forth – we have to rub their nose in it before they start taking action to attack this head on.”
“And that’s what I’m all about; but I’m there to help them because the consequence on our force is too great,” continued Larkin. “Undiagnosed TBI is a serious, national-security issue. How can we expect our force to perform in this modern-warfare environment? But now they’re starting to understand, and I thank my SEAL community and Special Operations compatriots for helping push this [issue] into the larger Department of Defense. We’ll see where it goes.”
When Ryan could no longer perform, he was honorably discharged after 10 years of service. “But you always want to be of value and be part of the team; and being ripped away from it created a whole other wound,” said Larkin. “He felt like he’d abandoned his team, and shame went with that. He was going to be a career guy – he loved being a Navy SEAL.”
Over the two years when Ryan began manifesting symptoms, he was prescribed over 40 different medications. One night, he told his father, “If anything happens to me, donate my brain for TBI research.” Said Larkin, “I told him I’d be there for him, and we’d get through this.
“On the morning of April 23, 2017, my wife and I came home from an overnight trip with family and found that Ryan had taken his life in the basement. It rips your heart in half, and it never heals. He was dressed in his Navy SEAL Team 7 T-shirt and red, white and blue board shorts and was next to his Navy medals, ribbons and other insignia. He was about solutions; and when no one listened to him, he wanted to prove that something was wrong. And that’s why he took his life – not to take the easy way out.”
Honoring his son’s wishes, Larkin had his brain examined at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda. “They told us he had a serious, undiagnosed, microscopic TBI,” said Larkin. “Plastic explosives from his own training, from training others and from being in combat affected his brain’s circuitry. If that’s damaged, it doesn’t work right. And we’re finding now that almost 100 percent of this exposure is coming from the training environment. Your body keeps score and there are consequences.
“Veterans struggling with invisible wounds aren’t crazy – they very well may be injured, and that’s how we have to treat and view them. They’re not getting any answers; they’re just getting labeled.” Larkin said veterans’ military units were their “connection, purpose and validation. But as they become separated and isolated from their tribes, they lose their identity and dignity.”
He then urged people to go to warriorcall.org to make and take phone calls from people who’ve served their country in the military or as a first responder. “Say, ‘How are you doing? Tell me about yourself,’’’ said Larkin. “Over 55 nonprofits are associated with it, including veterans service organizations, like the American Legion and VFW.
“As a firefighter/paramedic in Annapolis, I respond to calls involving veterans’ suicides on a regular basis. These folks valiantly served, and we have a responsibility to take care of those who took care of us.”