Welcome to The Forge Brothers and sisters, welcome home. You’ve just stepped into something different. This isn’t another veteran group where we swap war stories and call it a day. This isn’t a civilian space where people thank us for our service and move on. This is The Forge – a place where veterans and civilians come together to do the hard work of understanding each other, and more importantly, understanding ourselves. Why We’re Here If you’re a veteran, you know the struggle. That invisible weight that doesn’t show up on any medical chart. The gap between who you were in uniform and who you’re trying to become in the civilian world. The isolation that creeps in when nobody around you gets it. We’re here to name those struggles out loud. We talk about the hard issues – the ones that keep you up at night: • Why reintegration feels like learning to breathe in a different atmosphere • The identity crisis that hits when the uniform comes off • Why “normal” civilian life can feel hollow after the intensity of service • The guilt, the anger, the sense of being lost in a world that moved on without you The Truth About Transition Here’s what they don’t tell you: transition and readjustment aren’t events – they’re battles. And like any battle, you need to understand the terrain. We struggle because we’re not just changing jobs – we’re losing a tribe, a mission, a sense of purpose that civilians rarely experience. We struggle because the military gave us structure, meaning, and brotherhood, and the civilian world expects us to find all of that on our own. We struggle because no one prepared us for how loud the silence would be. That struggle isn’t weakness. It’s the cost of transformation. What Makes The Forge Different This community exists at the intersection – where veteran experience meets civilian understanding. We believe: • Veterans need to be heard, not fixed. Your struggle is valid, your perspective matters, and your voice deserves a platform. • Civilians need to truly listen. Not just thank us, but understand the weight we carry and why readjustment is a daily fight.