'Save A Warrior' program prevents suicide among veterans

MALIBU, Calif. (KABC) -- Twenty-two veterans commit suicide every day, according to the Veteran's Administration. That's about one veteran every 65 minutes.

Jason Miller was almost one of them. The Air Force veteran credits a Malibu-based program called "Save A Warrior" with saving his life.

The 5.5-day program features counseling, meditation, ropes courses, horse therapy and more for a cohort of active duty military and veterans struggling with post traumatic stress.

"Really simply, 'Save A Warrior' saved my life," Miller said.

Miller joined the Air Force in 1996 and served four combat tours, including two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. He watched many of his friends killed in combat. Afterwards, Miller said he suffered from survivor's guilt.

"The images of war, the sounds of war, the smell of war, it doesn't leave you," Miller said.

Miller added his family and friends were supportive but the post-traumatic stress was too much to take.

"I was so self-destructive. I not only scared my friends away, I started to scare my family away," he said.

Then in December 2011, Miller hit his low point.

"Trying to find an answer, trying to make some sense of everything that was going on in my world and why it was falling apart right in front of me, I attempted to take my own life," he said.

Not long after, he received a phone call from a friend named Jimmy Connor, who he'd served with in the Air Force.

Connor had also been suicidal. But, he told Miller his life was turned around by 'Save A Warrior.'

Without the program, he would have been "in a basement somewhere, just drinking, I'd be depressed. I might not be here at all," he said.

Connor said the group dynamic is key.

"We're not all having a bad day on the same day, that's what we say," Connor said.

Miller was skeptical that a five-day program could work, but towards the middle of the week on the ropes course overlooking Malibu, he was convinced.

"At that moment, on top of that pole. I stood out and I looked over at the Pacific Ocean," he said. "I decided to reclaim my life that day."

Nearly 200 men and women have gone through the program. Not one person has committed suicide afterwards.

Founder Jake Clark calls that a 100 percent success rate.

"When we hear someone is suicidal, the way it lands on us is, 'I really want to live, I just don't know how,'" Clark said.

Clark focuses on what he calls "pre-trauma."

"We go back before they ever went into the military and begin to process some of the trauma that may have led them into the military in the first place," Clark said.

Clark raises money so the program is free for all those attending. Alumni like Connor and Miller come back on their own dime.

Both men travel around once a month to Malibu from their homes on the East Coast. It is not cheap, but they said it is worth it.

"Helping the guys helps me," Connor said.

"It's my purpose in life now to continue to pay it forward," Miller said.

For more information, visit saveawarrior.org.