Day 6 - Corporal Blake Stocker

Corporal Blake Stocker: USMC 2001-2005. Infantry – 3/3 Weapons Company. Deployed twice to the West Pacific, once to Iraq.

Hometown: Choteau, MT

Birthday: January 6^th

Interests: Sky diving, Surfing, Reading

“[In Iraq] we’d get a few hours of sleep . . . on the steering wheel.” – Blake Stocker

Blake was stationed in Fallujah, Iraq and traveled all over the country to forward operating bases (FOBs). His days were filled with constant driving. He said, “We’d get a few hours of sleep here and there, in the vehicles.” On the road, they looked for “things suspicious – that felt wrong.”

When Blake returned home he tried his best to reintegrate himself back into civilian life, but says, “Something was amiss.” He experienced anxiety and anger that he could not explain. After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the southeastern United States, Blake went to Biloxi, Mississippi to help in the rebuilding effort. While there, he sought answers to his questions at the Veteran’s Administration (VA).

Blake was diagnosed with PTSD. Searching on his own, he found Wounded Warrior Project. The TRACK program was the very thing for which he had been looking. Blake describes the TRACK program as a place that provides safety – a place to live, all expenses paid, with friends in the program for mutual support and stability. He wants to study neuroscience and become a professor. “Three years from now I want to be in a different country studying neuroscience – France, New Zealand, Ireland, Greece”, all places where his veteran’s benefits are available. When asked about his feelings regarding his service, Blake pauses while he searches for the right word and says that he’s, “Satisfied. I love my country.”

Visit the Wounded Warrior homepage.