Battling Bare for veterans

Ashley Wise is married to a member of the American military who came home from combat suffering from returned from war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to The Stir:

She reached out to the Family Advocacy Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where they live, but realized that if she got her husband the help he needed, he could be dishonorably discharged.

...

Frustrated with the military’s reaction, Ashley waged a war of her own. One night, she had a friend scribble the following poem on her back with an eyeliner:

Broken by battle, wounded by war, I love you forever,
To you this I swore: I will quiet your silent screams,
Help heal your shattered soul,
Until once again, my love, you are whole.

Okay, epic poetry it is not. But when she posted the photo on her social networks, a grassroots movement was born.

Now thriving on Facebook, Blogspot and — tellingly — Pinterest (where female users far outnumber men), the movement brings together families of psychologically wounded soldiers for advocacy, community, and a whole lot of body poetry.

Even the kids get involved:

[more after the break]

The movement has also spread to Canada:

The rules for submission are spelled out in the Facebook page’s about section:

#1 No Tooshies, ta-tas, hoo-has for [“or?] face

#6 Use of ANY graphic images or photos of Battling BARE, Inc. may only be used with written permission of Battling BARE, Inc. (all pledges are trade marked and photos copy righted)

What do you think of the movement? The Stir’s Ericka Sóuter reports that Ms. Wise has “been called an ‘attention grabbing whore’ among other things”. She certainly has brought attention to the cause.

Now the question is, where will they take it from here?

UPDATE: Ashley Wise, the founder of the movement, dropped in to let us know how Battling Bare is moving forward to not only raise awareness of PTSD, but provide treatment. See comments.

There is also a Business Insider post written by Ashley here.

Comments

We have several events planned—the first step is to get our 501c3 status. :-) From there, we have plans to utilize a program similar to Operation: Restored Warrior—a program created by Paul Lavelle and run by former Special Operations soldiers. This 5 day program has 100% success rate at, as the title states, restoring warriors to a place of peace and healing. http://www.operationrestoredwarrior.org

We also have a 3 day event planned that we are calling “Soldiers In the Sand” that will spotlight children and how PTSD of the Service Member affects the children.

Everyone on the executive team believe that awareness is wonderfull but ACTION is necessary. :-)

Thanks for your support!
<3

Thank you, Ashley. I’ll update the post.