35 cents
VOL. 3/ISSUE 37
THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015
‘100 percent American’ movie aims to help warriors heal Mary Kemper FOR VETERAN VOICE
mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com
It’s an injury that leaves scars no bandage can heal. It tears veterans — and their families — apart. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, its ripples spread far, affecting everyone they come in contact with. It leaves veterans in terrible despair, and terribly lonely. It’s PTSD. And whether we like to admit it or not, it affects every single veteran who has ever fought in combat. And their families all too often pay a terrible price. To help a real healing process to begin, a new movie is now in production, called “Wounded Warriors.” Some top movie-industry figures have signed on, and it already features a popular and moving theme song, recorded by two country stars to date. But unlike other Hollywood movies, this one is going to depend on us — the American people — to fund it, and help make it the success it deserves. It’s all about a Vietnam-veteran father and his Afghanistan-veteran son. Because the father didn’t conquer his PTSD demons when his son was small, the son grew up already troubled, and his combat service aggravated his own behavior, which, like his father, included self-medicating with alcohol. The movie explores the many, many conflicts that shape the lives of so many veterans and families, from generation to generation. It will be a deep and moving tribute to those who fight a newer, and in many ways deadlier, enemy than ever met in combat. And it will help all of us understand. The way it all got started is a curious chain of events which some might attribute to divine Provi-
Staff photo by Mary Kemper Thomas Matteo, Marine Corps veteran and six-time recipient of the Purple Heart, and his wife, Angela, at their home in Port St. Lucie. dence, fate or kismet, call it what you like. It began with Marine Corps veteran Thomas “Stormy” Matteo, a six-time Purple Heart recipient, who fought, and lost buddies, in Vietnam. He serves as not only the military consultant for the movie, but the inspiration for the father character. He lives quietly in Port St. Lucie with Angela, his wife, and 5-year-old son, Thomas. True, he’s been wounded many times, as can be seen in his slow and careful gait, when he walks around.
And yes, he freely admits he’s done battle with PTSD all of his adult life. But there’s nothing frail, nor helpless, about this energetic dynamo, who admits he loves to talk. And talk he does, with passion, about the veterans with PTSD he cares so deeply about. He knows — firsthand. Without going into great detail, he told of how his behavior with loved ones (including a previous wife and family) drove
See MATTEO page 2