Vietnam Army Ranger opens free PTSD treatment facility for veterans in Odessa

ODESSA, Fla. - A 78-year-old Vietnam Army Ranger opened a free treatment facility for veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder on Wednesday in rural Odessa.

Clarke Ricke and his wife, Tricia, cut the ribbon on Windmill 12, a renovated red barn designed to help former service members recover from the invisible wounds of war.

PTSD facility opens for veterans

Big picture view:

Windmill 12 officially opened on Veterans Day to provide free treatment for veterans living with PTSD. 

Ricke, a disabled veteran who served in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, launched the center alongside his wife, Tricia, to share the recovery tools that saved his own life.

"You know the Windmill is going to open and who knows what changes are going to happen in people’s lives," Tricia Ricke said. "It’s really going to make a change in a lot of lives and I think that’s the biggest draw to this place."

Sharing stories from war

The backstory:

During the Vietnam War, Ricke operated in six-man teams conducting long-range reconnaissance missions. 

Equipped with only a topographical map, a compass and a two-way radio, his unit spent five or six days in the jungle before returning to base for two days.

"We got dumped into the jungle with 150 foot ropes. You rappel down to the canopy, sometimes you think you're a foot off the ground, and it was 10 feet off the ground, and you hit the ground, you’ve got 90-lbs of gear on your back, and it hurts, and you just can’t stay there. You've got to move. It’s the most dangerous point of extraction and insertion," Clarke Ricke explained.

Ricke graduated from what is known as the deadliest school on earth, earning a Recondo tattoo on his arm that serves as a badge of survival. His service also left him with severe physical trauma, requiring 15 surgeries directly related to his time in Vietnam.

Military transition and alcohol recovery

Timeline:

Coming home from combat at age 21 brought an abrupt, jarring shift.

Ricke left the war zone in full combat gear on a Thursday and arrived home in Pittsburgh by Saturday night, where he was simply told to stay out of trouble.

"I’m a 21-year-old kid who had combat gear, c4 blasts, explosives and every armament you can have, and they said go home and don’t get in trouble. Well, alcohol served a purpose for many years, until it didn’t serve a purpose," Clarke Ricke explained.

His silent struggle cost him a marriage and brought him to rock bottom before he entered a 12-step program. 

"I learned how to deal with the way this brain clicks and, needless to say, I haven’t had a drink in 41 years, and I’m a useful member of society," he said.

Honor Flight purpose and impact

What they're saying:

Ricke’s mission to help fellow veterans reignited when he joined 70 other veterans on West Central Florida’s Honor Flight to Washington to visit the nation's war memorials. 

Having already made peace with the names he previously found on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the trip solidified his desire to give back.

"Sad, fight back tears. Uncomfortable, but grateful. I just now I’m at that point in my life that it reemphasizes what I want to do. I have to give it back," Clarke Ricke said.

Though he once stayed quiet about his military service, Tricia Ricke noted that opening up has created a ripple effect for others. "You know, the more he’s talked about it the easier it’s gotten for him to share it with others and as he shares it with others, then they get that ease to let go of it themselves it’s going to make me cry," she said.

VeteransVeterans Issues