Kelli Baker - Profiles of Program Completions
Kelli Baker retired from the military in November 2-14, after 19 years of service. She was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and her duties ranged from military intelligence to serving in a veterinary unit that cared for military police dogs.
She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in holistic nutrition.
“We were one of the first units sent over when the war kicked off. We were stationed in a couple places where they had kept a lot of the old tanks that had white phosphorous on them. That stuff can be airborne, and we were right there, probably within a half-mile of it. There was a lot of that, plus a lot of the sand storms and a lot of mandatory vaccinations and mandatory medications.
In Afghanistan, we lived, again, less than a mile from one of the major burn sites where they burned trash and anything that they could possibly burn. We breathed that in all day, and we were about 200 meters from a water septic cleaning system for the whole post.
When I got back from the first deployment, I was just real achy, and it took awhile for that to subside even a little bit. Then when I came back from the second one, my joints were just shot. Everything hurt. It must have been about a year before I went and did the detox. I started to get arthritis in my wrist and my hands, and after the detox, all of that has gone away and has never come back.
I thought the program was fantastic. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. It was still rough. I mean, four hours of sweating isn’t any joke, but I guess I expected it to be about 140 like it was in the desert. It wasn’t quite that hot unless you set up on the top rung. Every day I felt drained when I left, but energized by the next morning, so I knew something was happening.
Like I said, my arthritis has never returned. I feel like I got a fresh start. I feel like my vitamins were all replenished. I feel like I just pushed out some demons.
I would like to say that I thought that Joe [the program supervisor] was fantastic. There wasn’t anything I asked that he didn’t know, and he took time to answer my questions at a level that I felt so comfortable with. I never felt uncomfortable around him. I always felt very protected, very safe. Having come from a military person, that says a lot.
I’ve actually recommended other people go. I think that it is absolutely worthwhile. I think everyone that served any time in the military or been subjected a bajillion of the vaccinations that they force on you should go through it.”
