​When veterans return suffering from PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, or both, their transition into civilian can be especially difficult.  Co-founded by the wife of a Marine who served in Iraq, Hearts of Patriots understands the challenges faced by caregivers of veterans with invisible wounds of war.

Megan Cain's Story of Survival and Hope is Our Story

Megan knew the risks when her husband was deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines in January 2005. But Operation Iraqi Freedom was especially hard on the members of his unit. Forty-six Marines and two Navy Corpsmen were killed during their yearlong tour, including 23 over a particularly devastating three-month stretch in the summer of 2005.
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While Megan's husband was one of the lucky ones who survived, the infantryman and squad leader was not unscathed by the events of his tour. His experiences, including three IED explosions, left him with PTSD and a Traumatic Brain Injury.  When her husband returned from Iraq, Megan was ecstatic to have him home. But she was unprepared for the man who came back. Along with several minor physical injuries, he experienced severe mood swings and memory loss. "When he came home, he was a different man. So different, it feels like the man I had married died over there," says Megan. The days and weeks that followed were a struggle. Her husband seemed like a stranger.

​"He could appear calm one minute and suddenly yell out at the children in a rage," Megan recalls. "Crowds would overwhelm him and open spaces would have him scanning constantly for snipers or something would trigger a memory driving down the street and I find myself assuring him that bags of trash or dead animals on the side of the road are not roadside bombs."

​Megan didn't understand what was happening. "As time went on, I seemed to be left with just this anger and resentment," she says. "At times, the grief was so intense and the emotions so overwhelming that I doubted I could go on."

​During that time she felt completely helpless and alone. Feeling somehow responsible for the deterioration of their marriage and unwilling to discuss what was happening with anyone, she continued to feel lost and isolated. Finally, there was an incident that made Megan fear she might lose her children. She desperately continued researching everything she could find to learn and understand more about PTSD, TBI, and its effects on combat veterans. She also signed her husband up for several retreats, attended others herself, and included the whole family in others. Through these opportunities, they both began to come to terms with the situation and recognize that they would need to find a new normal. They committed to working together to forge a new future for their family.  

Things will never be the way they were and they will never be easy. Their life will always be challenging. But with education and understanding, support and counseling, they have learned how to recognize triggers. The children have come to understand that sometimes things are just more difficult for their father, while he has learned to recognize when he feels like he is losing control and removes himself from the situation until he is in a better place.

Hearts of Patriots was created in honor of the Families
and Marines of ​the 3rd Battalion 25th Marine Corps​

In January 2005, 180 members of the 3/25 Marines mobilized for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Between March 2005 and their deactivation in January 2006, the Marines of 3rd Battalion had lost 46 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen. Twenty-three of those who did not survive were killed in action during three months in the summer of 2005. In May 2005, nine Marines lost their lives, Two more Marines and one Navy Corpsman were killed in action that July. Then in August, 11 more of the Company riding in an amphibious assault vehicle were killed by a road side bomb attack. In all 46 of the "Three deuce five" were lost that summer.