DUPONT, Wash. — A veteran who received the military's highest honor is speaking out about mental health.
Staff Fgt. Ryan Pitts was the lone survivor of an ambush in Afghanistan more than 15 years ago. He's still struggling with physical and emotional scars.
Pitts spoke at a golf course near Joint Base Lewis McChord on Friday to inspire people to seek mental health help if needed. He also shared a few war stories.
"For myself, it wasn't until five or six years after I was out of the military that I first picked up the phone and decided to get some help for mental health," Pitts said.
That was around the time he received the Medal of Honor from then-president Barack Obama.
Pitts survived the attack while defending a remote post in Afghanistan. He fought off 200 insurgents in a battle that took the lives of nine of his fellow soldiers and friends.
He still struggles with survivor's guilt, but therapy helped him realize that meant he cherished those men. Today, he travels the country encouraging others to ask for help.
"I look at going and getting mental health treatment as going over that 10-foot wall in basic training… right, you're not going to get over it by yourself; somebody hoists you up there, but then you turn around and reach your hand down… pull someone up behind you."
Pitts is in town to mark the five-year anniversary of Lakewood's Cohen Veterans Network. That facility has helped more than 6,000 individuals in the Lakewood area during that time.