September 17, 2009

The Survivors Club often receives inquiries from journalists looking for help with stories about people who are surviving and thriving in the face of different kinds of adversity. 

We sometimes post these queries because members of the TSC community may want to share their stories and survival tips with other people going through similar challenges. 

The Survivors Club is neutral about your getting involved with these stories.  We don't encourage participation.  We don't discourage it.  It's entirely your choice.  We just want you to know about the opportunity.   If you have something to say - if you want your story to be told - go ahead and reach out.

What follows is a query from Nirvi Shah, a staff reporter with The Miami Herald.  You can learn more about Nirvi Shah by visiting her website and resume here.]

"Are you or someone you know a foreclosure survivor in South Florida (Miami-Dade or Broward counties)? I'd like to talk with you for a story for The Miami Herald about how you worked through the situation and what advice you might offer to others who may be going through a foreclosure now. If you are interested in speaking with me, please send me an e-mail that includes the best way to contact you. My e-mail address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ."

By Jeremiah Workman
Survivors Club Exclusive
September 16, 2009

Before December 23, 2004, I never heard of anyone surviving a point-blank grenade blast, let alone four of them in one day. But that is exactly what happened my squad of marines during a four hour firefight during the Battle of Fallujah.

The battle was all but over, and our weapon’s company had been brought into the city to help search for weapons, ammunition and booby traps. Once we cleared the city, the coalition planned to let civilians back into their homes.

We searched hundreds of buildings. We found thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of weapons and plenty of explosives—but no insurgents. That changed on December 23rd when our command sent us into the Askari District, Fallujah’s affluent northeast section where most of the city’s wealthy Sunni had built homes.

While clearing a large, well-built house, part of our platoon ran into a force of at least thirty insurgents on the dwelling’s second floor. A furious, room-to-room firefight erupted, trapping three of our men upstairs.

My squad rushed into the house to join the fight. As we entered, a lieutenant threw an M67 fragmentation grenade up the stairs toward the second floor. It bounced off the stairwell landing and came bouncing back down at us.

The M67 has a five second fuse and a lethal radius of five meters. It can inflict casualties up to fifteen meters away. I was lead man in the stack, ready to charge up the stairs when the frag exploded less than four meters away. The rest of my squad was even closer.

The blast deafened me, and I felt shrapnel scythe through the air all around me. Miraculously, I suffered no wounds. Neither did the rest of the squad.

We reassembled and raced upstairs into machine gun fire. The insurgents on the second floor threw a home-made grenade at us. It exploded a matter of feet from my head and blew me down the stairs. Several of my platoon mates suffered wounds, but we stayed in the fight and returned the favor. We began pitching grenades into the insurgent-held rooms. One after another, I side armed the M67’s, hoping to knock out an enemy belt-fed machine gun that kept us pinned down on the stairwell.

Seeing one of my frags land in the bedroom through the growing cloud of smoke, an insurgent kicked it straight back at us. The M67 skidded across the floor to explode a meter away from me. The blast catapulted me into two other marines, and we crashed down onto the stairwell landing. Once again, we had somehow managed to survive, though most of us had been hit with shrapnel.

The fight continued for hours. We paused only when we ran low on ammo, or one of our men got hit. Finally, burnt, bloody and suffering from heat exhaustion, we entered the house one final time.

As we reached the top of the stairs, machine gun fire swept over us. Several insurgents charged us through the smoke. We drove them back. They threw another home-made grenade at us. I ducked just before it. Once again, it knocked us off the top set of stairs, leaving us dazed.

I lay on the landing, feeling ethereal, drifting away. I saw my grandmother’s face, and I thought I was dying. Then, our battalion executive officer, Major (now Lt. Colonel) Todd Desgrossielles, shook me back to consciousness and dragged me out of the house. As he pulled me across the front lawn, he paused long enough to throw one more frag grenade threw the second floor balcony door.

For months after, bits of grenade shrapnel would leach out of our skins. Every morning, we’d awake to find them glittering in our cots. Nevertheless, never had I seen such courage and devotion in my men than that day. We lost three fine men, whom I will never forget. We gained an unbreakable bond, forged in a battle that by all odds, should have been my last.


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Sgt. Jeremiah Workman was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism in Fallujah.  He is the author with John R. Bruning of Shadow of the Sword: A Marine’s Journey of War, Heroism and Redemption, published this week by Presidio Press.

By The Survivors Club Staff
September 11, 2009

Our nominee for Survivor of the Week is Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO and visionary who is a survivor of a rare and deadly form of pancreatic cancer.

This week, Jobs stepped back into the spotlight for the first time in nearly a year, drawing a standing ovation before unveiling new and cheaper iPods for Apple Inc.

"I'm vertical," Jobs joked, "and I'm back at Apple." 

By The Survivors Club Staff
September 9, 2009

Here's a chance to help improve treatment for survivors and win $100 for completion of a Columbia University survey about childhood abuse.

The Survivors Club staff recently received the following request from Sarah Feldman, a graduate student at Columbia University.  After checking Sarah's references, we're posting her invitation.

By The Survivors Club Staff
September 9, 2009

The Survivors Club is always on the lookout for new books with idea and tips for surviving and thriving in the face of every kind of adversity.

It's almost Fall and a bunch of books are hitting the shelves.  We want to take a moment to highlight some that offer compelling stories and valuable insight into surviving and thriving.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 31, 2009

The Survivors Club welcomes three new members - three fisherman who survived eight harrowing days in the Gulf of Mexico unaware that the search had been called off after the Coast Guard scoured 80,000 square miles. 

Their survival diet: crackers, bubble gum, beer and three gallons of water.  And perhaps most important, according to a report on CNN, they kept going because of the power of prayer.

"They fought depression and hallucinations," Sail-World reported, "were spooked by schools of sharks and kept up their flagging strength by eating a noxious diet of gasoline-soaked crackers, hot beer and tainted

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 27, 2009

In the many remembrances of Ted Kennedy, one word resonates loudly and clearly for the many members of The Survivors Club.

Remembering his friend of 56 years in an essay in the Huffington Post, Ted Sorenson, the legendary advisor to President John Kennedy, writes: "Most people do not realize the extent to which (Ted) was, in the final analysis, a survivor. Both his oldest brother and his oldest sister were killed in plane crashes, but he survived the plane crash that broke his back and killed the pilot and co-pilot. As the younger brother of two assassinated young liberal heros, he received his own share of anonymous hate mail and death threats, but he survived to age 77. Both after his plane crash and his automobile accident, I sat at his bedside, wondering if he would have the strength to go on. But he did, and for this last year I had hoped that somehow he would come back again and go on to even greater heights as a champion of America's final effort to achieve accessible health care for all of its citizens."

Ted Kennedy was a remarkable example of resilience - the capacity to recover, reconstitute and rebuild after adversity.  Kennedy is also proof that survival isn't just about life and death.  Survival is about making the most of one's precious time on earth.  In this sense, Ted Kennedy may have lost his battle with brain cancer, but he survives in so many ways.

As Sorenson writes: "Clearly, Teddy Kennedy's own legacy will live on through his children, through the hundreds of important pieces of legislation that he authored, through the brilliant staff that he assembled and dispersed to other important roles around the country, and through the books, articles and speeches he has produced in his 46 years as a United States Senator. Above all, his legacy will live on through the millions of friends he has made and nurtured over the years, both in and out of politics, both in and out of the United States, among members of many races, religions and nationalities. Among all those friends for whom he did so much good, some will mourn and miss him more than others. I am among those who will miss him most."

The Survivors Club extends its deepest sympathies to the Kennedy family, friends, staff, the people of Massachusetts and all those who mourn his loss.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 25, 2009

Americans with the most healthful behavior live in Vermont, according to a new study from Gallup, the leading polling company.  Kentucky ranked as the worst state in practicing healthful habits that include eating right, exercising and not smoking.

The midyear results from Gallup find the nation as a whole dropping substantially on the so-called Healthy Behavior Index, from 63.7 in 2008 to 62.6 in the first half of 2009.

Gallup says that clear healthful behavior patterns emerge on a map of the US with Western, Mountain, and Northeastern states -- as well as Florida -- performing the best while states in the South and Midwest performing the worst.

How healthy is your state?

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 25, 2009

The number of Americans who are "suffering" has increased by 3 million over the past year, according to a new study from Gallup, a leading company that studies human nature and behavior.  In other words, there are three million new members of the Survivors Club -- three million men, women and children who describe themselves as suffering in their current lives with low expectations for the future.

The Gallup Poll asks at least 1,000 Americans each day to evaluate their current lives as well as their expectations of where they will be in five years.  The increase in "suffering" has been accompanied by declines in the percentage of Americans who are "thriving."

The index bottomed out in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the nation's economic woes came to the forefront. And while there was a considerable rebound in well-being as the new year and the run up to the presidential inauguration got underway, the "January-effect" seems to have been short lived as February and March of 2009 has seen the index approach previous lows.

By The Survivors Club Staff
August 20, 2009

The sole survivor of a February boating accident that killed two NFL players and a former college player says he's haunted every day by "survivor's guilt" and can't explain why he was only one who survived the ordeal.

"I still ask every day, 'Why me?'" says Nick Schuyler, the 24-year-old sole survivor of a boating accident that took the lives of two NFL players and a former college player.