New organization helps disabled veterans through music

  • Published
  • By Ryan Stark
  • Nucleus writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  As veterans of Afghanistan, Iraq and other wars can attest, not all injuries from combat can be seen. That's why Robert Mitchell, a local veteran, launched Full Battle Rattle, an organization designed to help disabled veterans using music therapy.

Mitchell, a Dallas native, knows a lot about those invisible-yet-debilitating combat wounds.

His pickup truck proudly displays emblems of his time as a member of the U.S. Army: the horse-and-slash shield of the 1st Cavalry Division, and a combat infantry badge.

"I'd been trying to find ways to cope with my ongoing battle since I left the battlefield," he said. "It's been a daily fight for the last nine years trying to find the right way to help myself."

He was among the second wave of troops sent into Iraq following the U.S.'s 2003 invasion, arriving in early 2004.

During his time in Iraq, he experienced three close-proximity detonations of improvised explosive devices, as well as other rigors and terrors of combat. The death of a close friend in battle in 2004 was a traumatic experience for Mitchell.

After returning from combat, he served in the National Guard and was an Albuquerque police officer for several years. And he is being honored by the Red Cross for evacuating residents from a large apartment fire in Albuquerque last year.

Mitchell's time in the army left him with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury, he said.

Full of the struggles faced by any combat veteran returning home, Mitchell's journey from soldier to musician was marked by severe, debilitating panic attacks.

Mitchell began to find a means of helping himself after he dug out a guitar his parents bought for him in high school. Mitchell had joined the Army just out of high school and had stored that guitar without learning to play it.

"I just started teaching myself to play guitar in December," he said. "I'd always had an interest in it."

Through YouTube instructional videos, he began to learn. He also had a fortuitous meeting with a professional local musician named Chris Heart at a music store around the same time. Mitchell was able to convince Heart to trade guitar lessons for shooting lessons.

Then Mitchell took what was to be a positive and fateful step last year, after the sound of rifle reports on the base near his current job at Sandia National Laboratories triggered a panic attack.

"I was sick of feeling like that, and I didn't know what to do about it," he said. "So I said, 'I'm just going to play my guitar.'"

Later that day he picked up the guitar at home during what he called a "wig-out." After a few minutes of playing, both he and his wife realized he was no longer outwardly showing signs of the attack.

Up until he began playing guitar, he said he didn't have a clear mission.

"In the military, everything is mission-oriented," he added. "When I realized what (playing) guitar did for me, that mission became clear."

Ever the soldier, his thoughts turned from helping himself to helping his fellow veterans. He said it was with Heart's help as the first volunteer guitar teacher for the project that Full Battle Rattle was born.

The organization is serving 14 veterans with seven instructors. A number of entry-level acoustic guitars were donated by the Albuquerque location of Guitar Center, he added.

"This was basically (only) a concept in February, and it's just grown from that," he said. "Now we're fully operational."

While the veterans helped by Full Battle Rattle have emotional and psychological issues, Mitchell said his organization is also interested in working with physically disabled veterans as well.

Mitchell recently filed paperwork to make Full Battle Rattle a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization.

And he is reaching out to Kirtland and Albuquerque to find donors, sponsors, music teachers of all kinds and, of course, veterans whose situations might be improved by taking up music.

Anyone interested in donating, volunteering to teach music and/or participating in therapy sessions with Full Battle Rattle can log on to facebook.com/fullbattlerattleabq or email fullbattlerattleabq@gmail.com.