Army and Marine Veteran, Jeffrey Beasley, was born in Texarkana, Arkansas and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He joined the Marines in 1979 and served as a machine gunner. He was stationed in Alameda, California and served one deployment in Beirut. He left the Marine Corps in 1982 and joined the Army where he served in Explosives Ordinance Disposal. An accident while working on an IED in Kuwait led to three years in the hospital after which he came home to live with his grandmother and joined the Army Reserves. He left the military in 2012.
“I traveled a lot after that. I was kind of a nomad and lived in Kansas, Florida, even Canada before coming back here permanently. I knew I was running from something so I started looking into help for mental health issues.”
Mr. Beasley was diagnosed with PTST and spent seven months in the trauma-based therapy unit in Fayetteville. He came to Little Rock to enter the PTSD program at Fort Root where he spent three months before coming to St. Francis House.
“I enjoy life now. I’ve learned to love myself and I’m looking forward to getting my own place. I plan to stay in Little Rock and keep working on my mental and physical health. Getting here has been a journey and I’m better for it. When you work for something, I think you are more grateful for it. St. Francis House is a place that gives you a beginning. It’s up to you to find your ending. The case managers her a tremendous. They are giving angels that help the Veterans connect the dots and get from A to B. And also thank the church for me. That connection is important; it’s the heartbeat of St. Francis House.”