CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. - When you come home from work you usually don't expect there to be a guest in your living room, especially on a weekly basis. If you head over to the post chapel here, that's exactly what you'll find in 'The Living Room;' a ministry series on Wednesday nights involving music, movies and other entertainment designed to break up the monotony for the training Soldiers.
"The Living Room is geared to reach out to Soldiers in a casual, non-training environment and to break away from routine," said Sgt. 1st Class Norm Black, a trainer here with the 3rd Battalion, 338th Regiment, Training Support.
Black has been going to the Living Room since the series started seven weeks ago, but Wednesday night was especially moving for him.
This week the chapel hosted motivational speaker Silouan Green, a former Marine pilot who survived a jet crash in which his instructor/co-pilot died and Green came away with not only a broken back but other physical and emotional scars. Green travels from post to post sharing his survival story in the hopes of helping someone. Anyone.
Even though he lived through that accident it was other factors that made him consider taking his own life: survivors' guilt, the fall of his marriage, letting go the life-long dream of being a Marine and his dependency on painkillers.
"It all began with the decent from 'I'm Mr. Marine' to 'Mr. Nobody,' which is what I would have called myself back then," said Green.
During this time Green sought the help of a psychiatrist who helped him take the first step.
"When you're at a point when your world is dark and black, the hardest thing is to take that first step toward something better," said Green.
Green later bought a guitar and started to write songs to help him though the tough times.
Once he was discharged from the Marine Corps he bought a motorcycle and went on a two-year motorcycle ride that changed his life. It was during this ride that he found his faith and met his second wife; both changed him and gave him the foundation to rebuild his life.
"Everything that is good in my life came from that trip," he said.
Green now feels he has an obligation to give back to others what his psychiatrist helped him to see - the understanding that life is worth living.
"I felt that if I could make a difference in someone's life it was on obligation I had to fulfill," said Green.
"It's humbling. I've met the finest, bravest people that I've ever met doing this," he said. "Sometimes I think I get more out of it than I'm giving because I meet such wonderful people."
Black, the trainer here, said this is why he appreciates the Wednesday night events because it's geared toward meeting the Soldiers' needs.
"It doesn't matter what your faith is if any. Everybody can take something away from this," said Black.
Green's message was so well-received that he has been invited back so that others have the opportunity to hear what he has to say.
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