Easy – Just Reach Out Your Hand (which isn’t so easy…)
​By Jim Kuiken

​There are a LOT of folks who need help.  In one way or another, I’d say most folks could use some help.  

So what’s the solution…everyone stand around with their hand out?  Go to the Government expecting “free” help from Big Brother?  Or just “quit yer whinin’ and suck it up”?

And besides, if everyone needs some help, how are they supposed to help others when they themselves are hurting or in need?  

• Nothing is Free from the Government…anything they give someone was first taken from someone else…with “administration” costs sucked out of the middle before they dole the leftover crumbs out…(or spend it studying shrimp running on treadmills).
  
  
• I don’t have time to help, I’m way too busy trying to make a living.
  
  
• I can’t help, I’m barely getting by myself.  I (or my family) needs every penny we can find.
  
  
• The Government is too incompetent to help anyone – look at how they mishandle the VA, letting veterans die on waiting lists while administrators go on expensive trips, etc.
  
  
• Many non-profits don’t really help those they say they support…all their money goes to trinkets and hand-outs, as well as exorbitant salaries for their top management.  Very little if any help actually gets to those in need.
  
  
• The Government already spends billions in foreign aid – they should just cut that off and spend it here at home on our own Citizens who need help, on our own starving children.
  
  
• I already give at church, and drop off my used clothes to the shelter.  
  
  
• I don’t give to beggars on the street, they just use the money for booze, or they’re scamming everyone by bringing in all that tax-free money.
  
  
• There are so many organizations out there, how do I choose which one is right for me?  How can I help when I can’t figure out who all these people are, if they’re running the organization right, or who they’re really helping?
  
  
• What has anyone ever done for me?

All that may be true, but you can still help, if you want to.  Big, horrible events happen frequently.  9/11, Katrina, Orlando, etc.  Everyone wants to help during these events…but how about during the mundane grind of daily life and small, personal events? 

It doesn’t take a lot to help.  It doesn’t have to cost money to help.  It just takes one person (you) to see a need and reach out your hand.

Here’s a quick example.  Obviously, I’m a writer…you’re reading my article right now, right?  Well, by focusing some of my writing on helping others, and on some rough spots that I’ve been through – and on those who helped me – I’ve been able to help others to recognize that they could get or give some help.  I just got this letter (below) this week.  

“Hello SgtMaj. Kuiken

I have been reading your blog for a long time and thank you for your writing and dedication to veterans.  I am a Gulf War Combat Vet with (*** unit) and was a (***) Gunner.

I followed your story about the effects of PTSD and am now coming to terms with it in my life after all these years.  Two divorces and severe chronic fatigue, IBS and Fibromyalgia I am working thorough a claim with the VA.

Your story about Freedom and what he has meant to you really hit home for me.

I am being treated by a private Dr for PTSD and am just now getting ready to submit a claim to the VA for my physical injuries I have been experiencing for 25 years, as well as finally coming to terms that I have been suffering the effects of PTSD.  I never wanted to admit it out of shame or embarrassment. We Marines are supposed to be the tough guys right?

​I tried submitting a claim in 2008 and was denied and just kind of gave up, but my physical issues continued to get worse until I just could not function much at all.  When you talk about just not being able to get out of your chair all day, "that's me".  I'm 48 now and feel like I'm 98.”  (emphasis added by me)

Here’s a veteran who served honorably, and has been suffering the effects from combat for over 25 years…and because of me admitting that I had some unresolved issues from combat, and had found help…he was able to break through his shame and embarrassment of not being “tough enough” to just suffer silently, and to ask for help before he joined the ranks of those 8,000+ veterans who commit suicide each year.

That’s my cause – exposing and eliminating suicides by the military, veterans, first responders (law enforcement, firefighters, and EMS personnel), and their families and loved ones – i.e., those who have protected and served us, and who are now suffering the effects of that service.

I know it’s hard to find the right cause that speaks to you, or the right organization to work with, or get help from.  Lots of them are word of mouth, but you still have to do your own research to see if they are legitimate, serve the cause you identify with, and are certified and/or rated to make sure the resources are getting to those in need, not in some crook’s pocket or spent irresponsibly.

I still think it’s something everyone can do, whether it’s just referring someone to someone who can help, talking to a friend or family member in need, or connecting with an organization you can identify with.

In addition, I’m hoping that in the very near future, I and some friends of mine can help make that a lot easier.  Stay tuned for our announcement of our own non-profit organization that will dramatically make all this much easier – finding organizations that you can identify with, that help your cause, or that you can get help from; and to ensure all those organizations are rated and verified – so you are sure the resources are getting to those in need!

How can you help today?

Young Pup’s New Trick
By Jim Kuiken

When I first got promoted from a Border Patrol Agent in Calexico California to a Special Agent in Los Angeles, I started from the bottom all over again – which is expected.  I did have a leg up on a lot of the new Special Agents, in that I wasn’t just fresh out of college with a degree, with no life experience and thinking that hardship was a two-man dorm room paid for by daddy.

I’d been a combat (wounded) Marine, a State Correctional Officer, a County Sheriff’s Deputy, an INS Detention Officer, and a Border Patrol Agent in some of the roughest areas on the southern border.  Plus I did have some college…paid for on my own by working two jobs while I was attending full time…

Nevertheless, I paid my dues there in LA by working ACAP (pulling criminal illegal aliens out of jails and prisons and putting them up for deportation), then working my way up to VGTF (violent gang task force, chasing down gang members in the streets of LA, Compton, Westminster, Long Beach, etc.), Fraud (counterfeiting operations, undercover buys, drugs/guns/smuggling, etc.), and even as a supervisor running the TSU (technical surveillance unit, using cameras, vehicle tracking devices, listening devices, etc., to enhance various unit’s surveillance capabilities during operations), and overseeing the District’s training program (pre and post Academy, and as an Academy instructor).

I finally got my dream job there in LA, when the District Director (Mac) asked me to help him create and run a specialty unit – Special Investigations Unit.  SIU was a composite of all the weird ducks that didn’t fit anywhere else, and were some of the most complicated and dangerous operations…and some that the regular units didn’t want to get involved in.  It was eventually comprised of several (former) units that now fell under the SIU umbrella.  

Some of these were: Fugitive Task Force (high risk fugitives and high risk warrant entries – many of these were violent multiple murderers, etc., wanted by their own countries), Organized Crime Task Force (to locate, disrupt, and arrest organized crime organizations), OCDETF – Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (drug smuggling and sales organizations and rings, etc.), JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force, assigned to and working with the FBI-led task force on international terrorism and terrorist suspects), as well as Sensitive Investigations…we’ll leave that one alone…

Mac allowed me almost total autonomy in the running of the unit, as well as being the only supervisor in all of LA District that was allowed to hand-pick my own agents for the unit.  Everyone else got whoever was assigned – and there was a lot of grumbling and ‘politics’ from the other supervisors and section chiefs about that…and the fact that I and my unit didn’t fall under one of the traditional sections, but reported (operationally) directly to Mac.

Things got really tense with all the other supervisors and chiefs when I picked some of the agents directly from a couple of Academy classes, not from the pool of more seasoned agents, who all wanted to get into this new “special” unit doing all the cool stuff…  I even had one of the other section chiefs complain that my ‘guys’ were irreverent and didn’t show him “proper respect”.  My reply was that my ‘guys’ were hand-picked, and were almost all irreverent smart-@$$es, who would give respect to those who earned it.  Don’t get me wrong, they were not blatantly disrespectful of authority, but they didn’t bow and kowtow to titles without substance.  They were smart-@$$es because they were highly intelligent, independent thinkers, the kind of person I needed to handle the unconventional investigations and operations we dealt with – not plodding ‘yes’ men.

But the poo really hit the fan when I brought a new female agent into the team.  SIU was comprised of a bunch of units traditionally ‘manned’ by big, tough macho guys working in dangerous situations, watching each other’s backs, and was no place for a girl…and I put her right into the Fugitive Task Force / High Risk Warrant squad!  Sacrilege! 

After some in-service training, she finally got to go out on one of our operations – a fugitive that was wanted in Mexico for killing multiple Federal Police Officers.  We had surveillance on his house overnight and knew that he was there, so in the morning we set up a perimeter and had the entry team ready to go.  We had to wait until 6am before we could serve the warrant.

She was on the outside perimeter team, as far away from the action as possible for her first operation, and like everyone else, as she got more experience, would work her way onto the inner perimeter team, then maybe onto the entry team.  

About 15 minutes before we were to hit the door, she came over to ask me a question.  I always believed in open questions from everyone, up to when we were scheduled to execute the operation, then all questions stopped and everyone did their job as assigned.  She had about 5 minutes before that happened.

She said “Do we know he’s in there?”  We all knew he was, because of the overnight surveillance, so I figured she was backing into her main question.  “Yes” I replied.  Then she asked “Do we have his phone number?”  Again, since we’d done full background and gathered all available intelligence on him and the house, I said “Yes.”  She then asked “and we know that his girlfriend and kids are in the house?”  I was getting irritated and said “Yes.  We don’t have much time, what’s your real question?”

“Why don’t we just call him, explain he’s surrounded, and ask him to come out so the kids and his girlfriend aren’t put in danger?”  Being a bunch of big macho guys with shields, guns, etc…, we usually just took out the door and went in…it had never occurred to us to just ask…  

I sent her back to her post, had everyone go on high alert and hold in place, and called him – telling him we’d allow him to come out, wouldn’t destroy his girlfriend’s door, put the kids in danger, etc…and he said “Ok, I’ll be right out”!

When he came out of the door, he had his hands empty and raised, we walked him to the side of the house and cuffed him out of sight of his kids, and a very dangerous man was in custody – on his way back to the authorities in Mexico…all because of a young pup with a different perspective teaching some old, salty dogs a new trick.