Victory Forge Saved My Son's Life

To whom it may concern, I have read about the recent trouble VictoryForge Military Academy has had regarding abuse allegations and have heard how a few of your law enforcement and family services agencies have handled it. Well, I have a few things to say to all of you. First off, I am a middle class mother of three children. I am well educated and I am a medical professional. I love my children and want what is bestfor them like any other well intended parent. My eldest son became quite the problem child when he hit the ever loved teen years. We tried therapists, psych hospitals, grounding, taking his favorite items but most of all we tried love, support and encouragement.He eventually became out of control. He beat his younger siblings, so much so that their school wanted to call social services saying I was allowing this to happen. I kept the younger children with me as much ashumanly possible, even in the bathroom! He was suspended from school four times in 8th grade and three times in 9th grade before the first semester was out. From fighting to disrespect to school staff and then finally drug possession. He punched holes in all the walls of my home, painted on the walls, swore at me and the younger kids, physically fought with his father, lied constantly and was a master at manipulation. We tried everything we could think of for 2 and a half years. I was afraid my little boy was going to end up in jail or worse yet, dead.

I found Victory Forge on the Internet. The thought of it scared me, but I flew down to check it out. Molly, who runs the office was open and honest and let me know this was not just a summer camp. It was hard and they were tuff on the boys, but they had alot of success at turning around troubled youth. I will be honest, what I saw was hard to watch. Young boys being made to exercise, being yelled at basically like something out of a military movie, but with young boys. I was uneasy after all I love my son and didn't want anyone treating him that way. Then the woman who ran the office told me to go to the police station and look at the public record and I did. I went through piles of paperwork, abuse charges and runaway files. I spoke to several officers who were involved in calls at Victory. All of the charges were found to be false.I drove around and spoke to local people in stores, I did all the research I could on the Internet and finally decided Victory was my last hope. I put my son there and he stayed for a year and a half. It was the worse time in my life. I did not agree with everything that happened there, but I thought it was much better than how he would be treated in jail. There were many times I wanted to pull him out, but the staff would talk to me and I would realize they were right, he wasn't where he needed to be to be successful. So Ikept my faith in them. Now can you tell me why the staff would try and keep him when they already had my money and they would lose nothing? They are in it to change these boys and help the families. Maybe everyone doesn't agree with the way they go about doing that, but I don't see anyone else doing much to help families with boys like I had. Maybe there wouldn't be so many school shootings and jails overflowing if their parents would have gone to the extreme. Anyway, they were hard on my son, very hard.I missed Christmas, birthdays and part of his youth. But in the end it as his decision to act the way he was. He has been home two years now, he has told me many stories of extreme exercise, cleaning things, being held down (the times he threw punches at the staff) eating some "gross food" (all of which was high protein healthy food) but he also tells stories of being proud of his accomplishments, times when the staff would take him aside and have heart to heart talks trying to build him up. But most of all he learned that life is hard work and everyone in the world will not treat him like mom and dad. He learned consequences for his actions and respect for himself,family and authority. He told me he was taken to the doctor when he was sick and allowed to stay in bed and rest when he had a headache. He said they took good care of him when he was ill. Since he has been home,he has held a job, stayed out of troubled, is a functioning part of this family and is graduating with honors next month. His principal has called me several times stating he is amazed at the difference in my son, his teachers love him and he has alot of friends now. I would challenge any of you who do not agree with the way things are done at Victory to walk a mile in the shoes of parents who are at the end of their rope. You need to remember something very important,these boys are not sent to Victory Forge because they are boy scouts, they are kids who have chosen the wrong path and I for one was willing to risk anything to put my son back on the right path, Victory did that for me. The tactics they use may be extreme, but hardly call it abuse. It is tuff love and I bet if some of the inmates in various prisons would have had that, their lives could have turned out differently. My son has thanked me several times for having enough strength to send him there, yes he thanked me! He knows he would have been in jail if I allowed him to stay on the path that he was on. So abuse? Guess that depends on how you define it. But if putting my son there is called abuse, then so be it,the end result is amazing. My son went there a troubled youth in constant trouble, and came home a respectful and centered young man. So to Victory Forge, I say THANK YOU! Respectfully yours, Jamin Ross

Some former Cadets statements about Victory Forge

Dear col. weierman, My name is Josh cardona, or as you may or may not remember me staff sergeant cardona. I recently was recently looking for victory forges website to show my girl friend what I had done when I was younger , and to show her something that was a big part of my life. While I was looking for the website I noticed you had a new case against the bootcamp and quite a few complaints about what you do there. Believe it or not I was really frustrated by all the negative comments and press you were receiving. Even though I had my own issues after the program I cant even begin to describe what positive impacts it made in my life later on, I most definetly could say it made me the man I am today. I never expected the program to have the effects on me it did, but I am definetly a 100% better person due to it. In short I just wanted to write you and let you know if there's anything I could do to help you with your problems, if you still have them that is. Feel free to email me and let me know. I think it would be a real shame for your program to get shut down, completed successfully it can be one of the most helpful things a young man could have in his life and I think it would be really sad that no one else could experience the knowledge and growth i was given just because a few people get the wrong impression and get offended when they find out your program doesn't consist of trying to give the kids motherly love of bed time story's and fairy tales until they change. sincerely, Joshua A. Cardona