Dennis & Diana Nickell
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The last few years of my life, I have been sharing my story one-on-one with veterans, their families, and the public in my home state of Oregon and beyond. I share my heart and soul trying to reverse the horrific suicide rate among our nation’s veterans.
For close to 40 years, my wife and I have been carrying a burden to help those who are hurting.
Breaking Chains, my autobiography, follows my journey as a homeless combat Vietnam veteran who went from the 7th floor of a VA hospital with a diagnosis of mentally criminally insane to having the greatest treasures on earth, his family. This story deals with addictions, the frustration of trying to discover why my world was so different at a time when there was no understanding of combat stress injury, and what I learned during a separation from my wife Diana after 28 years of marriage. It is now 36 years of wedded, warring commitment!
This journey as a combat veteran led me to become involved with an event held at the world-renowned Flag is Up Farms, home of Monty Roberts “The Horse Whisperer”. Initially I was motivated to go to help others, and then found that learning to communicate with horses could be very therapeutic. After my first three-day weekend I was hooked, and started inviting every veteran I met to return with me to future weekends at the farm. I have made nine trips to the farm with other veterans and help in any way I can.
One of the most dramatic instances of helping a young veteran was as CEO of my nonprofit Happy Thoughts International. I met a young woman who was a 9-11 survivor, a military sexual trauma survivor and suffered traumatic brain injuries from IEDs during her service in Afghanistan. I watched her open up and go from a complete shell to within a short time, sharing her story of overcoming. This is one of the most satisfying feelings knowing I played a small part in bringing hope to another veteran.
At 64, I do not think I know what old is, but I have learned that, even though I am not in the formal work force, there are so many people I can bring hope to by sharing my true story. I am entering my encore years and I believe the best is yet to come.
My current focus is an event we are putting together called the Freedom Ride. It will be the first time I will visit the Vietnam Wall, and I plan on documenting this event on video to share with other veterans to inspire, encourage and share my heart with them to say, NEVER NEVER GIVE UP.
(Hear Dennis Nickell tell his story in this video.)