Matthew Simoni has experienced both extreme highs and lows in his life.

Simoni, who served four tours in the Navy from 2006 to 2016, is now attempting to help other combat veterans like himself assimilate back into civilian life with the formation of a new not-for-profit based in Bay Shore, Bravo Foxtrot United Veterans Inc.

Simoni’s goal with Bravo Foxtrot is to “establish a residential program to provide temporary/stable housing and holistic therapy to veterans, facilitating their successful reintegration to their families and communities.”

Simoni and his partner, Jade Pinto, want Bravo Foxtrot to help veterans in a way that feels all encompassing. They hope to open their rehabilitation center in upstate New York and include holistic therapy, meditation in motion, guided meditation, planting and gardening work, working with animals, and integrated therapy as a lifestyle, as opposed to an approach where veterans get help in small doses or hourly meetings.

“I think one of the biggest things is support,” Pinto said. “A lifestyle that’s therapeutic rather than individual hours for therapy.”

Simoni said for many combat veterans, including himself, the return to civilian life is extremely jarring and veterans need a place they can go to help them reintegrate back into their lives.

“We come back to a home and country that the vast majority does not understand,” Simoni said of the return to civilian life. “They don’t get it because it’s only like 1 or 2 percent of the entire population that enlists in the military.”

“I think it’s our duty to do everything that we can do to support this relatively small population of people that a lot of help and support can be given to.”

When Simoni returned from overseas in 2016, he had served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. In 2011, he was ranked first out of 156 other highly qualified service members in his pay grade and he maintained a Top Secret/Secret Compartmented Information Level 4 Clearance for four years.

However, his introduction back into civilian life was bumpy and according to Simoni, he was fired from five construction jobs within a six-month period after returning. His wife left him and he foreclosed on his home. Eventually, Simoni became homeless for over a year, living behind a Wawa’s gas station. He attempted suicide several times.

Simoni said the help he received from veterans’ organizations and the VA just wasn’t enough. After looking down on those he saw as “taking handouts” for so long, he said he finally saw the other side.

Simoni met Pinto at the tattoo shop she was working in at the time. He said when he was in a dark place, he got tattooed frequently as a way to express his pain. Pinto and Simoni formed a friendship which has led them to their path today. Even today, Simoni said he doesn’t know how Pinto was able to befriend the “shell of a man that I was.”

Simoni said it is important for him to accept himself as someone with post-traumatic stress and he will never fully recover.

“I will never be cured of this,” Simoni said of his PTSD. “I am working continually.”

A key element in the reintegration housing Pinto and Simoni hope to create is the involvement of veterans’ families. Simoni said it is essential for veterans to have a support system when they return home. By including families in the transition and giving them the resources to help their loved one, the adjustment will be made easier for everyone.

“Without a support system, not necessarily blood, this transition is tenfold as difficult,” Simoni said.

Both Pinto and Simoni said they feel that the path they have taken on this journey to create their nonprofit is paved and that this is what they are supposed to be doing. Pinto recalled how when they finally decided to work on the project after going back and forth for a while, the first tattoo client she had had just set up her own nonprofit. When they bring up their mission to friends, people volunteer their time and skill sets to help them.

“This is also saving me. It’s giving me a reason and a purpose to live again,” Simoni said. “This is not a hobby. I don’t even like to call it a charity because it’s saving me just as much as it’s saving anyone else, potentially and god willingly.”

“I’ve never believed in someone so much,” Pinto said. “He’s going to help a lot of people. n