Anthony Madonia

Owner, Head Coach, Marine Corps Veteran

17 Veterans are reported to take their lives each day.

As a Marine you expect to lose friends in combat. Given the choice, I believe it’s the way we would all would prefer to go. But you never plan on them taking their own lives when they come home.

It seems so counterintuitive.

When we are safest, somehow we feel the most vulnerable.

When we have the most opportunity, we feel as if we can do nothing else but fight.

When we have the most people around us, we feel the most alone.

In 2015, I was at rock bottom. After losing my best friend to suicide, losing friends in combat, and a failed marriage to top it off. I was filled with so much pain, guilt, anger, shame, disappointment, and fear, I didn’t know what to do or where to turn for help.

Through a series of events, I was on the phone with a fellow veteran who was running and organization to help veterans heal from PTS. Nearly 5 years later I can still hear his words clear as day, “Anthony, if you come to this program and lean in, you’ll feel better than before you went into the Marines.” I told him that was impossible. That too many bad things had happened.

Two weeks later, I took him up on his promise, and he wasn’t lying. Through a 5 day process, myself and other veterans and first responders were given the space to grieve what we had lost, taught how to meditate to heal our brains, and given the tools to build a new life and find new ways of relating to others.

Upon driving off of the campus after my cohort had ended, my sister took my hand and asked how I felt, I told her, “I’ve never felt this good.” And truly, I hadn’t.

What The Battle Within gave me was the ability to not just survive, but to THRIVE.

Our Veterans and First Responders are the best of us. They willingly choose to do what most will not. To endure tragedy and violence, so that we can live safe and free.

They have done so much for us, this is my way of giving back to them.

Please join me in supporting The Battle Within, and CreatiVets, who are leading the charge to help our warriors become healed and whole, as they deserve to be.