The War and Treaty musical duo is taking action to support America's veterans by teaming up with the Veterans Affairs and the Ad Council to promote the "Don't Wait, Reach Out" campaign, which aims to help veterans facing overwhelming life challenges.
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriters Michael and Tanya Trotter spoke out about what prompted them to get involved in helping former service members and the significance of early support for various struggles during "Fox & Friends."
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"It's very important that we don't wait," Michael, who is a veteran himself, said on Friday. "And oftentimes we wait for someone to reach out to us first, but, what I'm learning is, the quicker you reach out to someone, the quicker your situation can get resolved, and a lot of veterans suffer in silence… I did for several years."
"In fact, when I met my wife, I didn't even tell her that I had served," he continued. "I was too embarrassed because of the conditions… I served from ‘03 to ’07 and was in war from ‘04 to ’07, and when I returned home in Baltimore, in the airport, there were several protesters protesting me, protesting men and women who serve and protect our freedoms."
"So, I learned quickly, hey, it's probably not wise to just share that information, because you get discriminated upon. But, she reached out to me and saw that I was struggling, and from that moment on, the VA in our country has taken great care of me."
According to the website, the "Don't Wait, Reach Out" campaign aims to provide resources to veterans before their issues reach a crisis level. It directs to a page on the VA website that provides a series of resources for those battling health challenges, PTSD, family issues, depression, isolation and more.
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But Michael's effort to help those who have served in the military started long before teaming up with the new campaign.
While he was serving overseas, he began to dabble with music as a means of healing for himself and his fellow service members. When one of his comrades died, he wrote a song and performed it at his memorial.
The rest was history.
"What a joy it was for me to write songs about my battle buddies, about the fallen," Michael said. "It started with one... A fallen comrade. And I asked to perform the song for his memorial, and it brought so much healing and resolution to our guys."
"My colonel at the time, Peter Jones, he said, 'Michael, that's what you're going to do now. You're going to learn about as many as you can of the fallen, and you're going to go ahead and write a song and turn around that afternoon and do it for the memorials,'" he continued.
Struggling veterans are encouraged to visit https://www.va.gov/REACH/.
