MD4V.org

My name is Terry Soloman. When I got out of the Army I was diagnosed with severe PTSD. After being home a few months my friends started telling me I was becoming more reclusive and drinking too much. I already knew this, but I really wasn’t comfortable in normal social settings after coming home.

I tried getting help from the VA Hospital, but I found getting drunk preferable to the strong drugs prescribed to me by the VA doctors. A friend, another Army veteran, saw that I was struggling and invited me to go with him on a metal detecting outing. That weekend changed my life. About 15-minutes into detecting I wasn’t looking for snipers or bunkers anymore, I had no intrusive thoughts or feelings of dread. I was enjoying being outside again. After that weekend of learning about metal detecting, and finding my first gold nugget, I was hooked.

It has been 48-years since that outing, and I have been metal detecting and passing on the joys of the hobby to other veterans ever since. Last year I founded Metal Detectors 4 Veterans, Inc. (MD4V.org), with the vision of helping financially insecure veterans find some relief from their anxiety, depression, and other conditions connected to PTSD.