Sons Of American Legion Presents Check To Veteran's Mother

The Clearwater Sons Of The American Legion presented a check to the mother of a veteran suffering from PTSD.

Kelly Kerkman presented Shirrale Legate a check for $524 on Tuesday, which is half of the money raised on Friday during a poker tournament hosted by the organization. 

Kerkman said the tournament was held as way to assist James Duff, who according to his mother, is about to lose his house to foreclosure as a result of the effects of PTSD.

To donate to the family, visit their GoFundMe page here.  

Duff is an Army reserve veteran who served for 27 years. Legate wrote on his Go Fund me page that he joined the Reserves in 1986, the spring after his high school graduation, as an excited young man who wanted to make the world a better place. He did very well in the Reserves and quickly achieved superior ranks.  

In 2003, Legate said Duff got the call that he was going to be deployed to Iraq and he didn't hesitate one bit. He did his tour overseas and returned a completely different person. Ten years later, in 2013, he was honorably discharged from the Army Reserves.

Legate said Duff was a role model and a fun and giving person. His brother looked up to him and also joined the Army after high school.  

While in the Reserves he competed in many prestigious U.S. Army Culinary Arts competitions, because cooking is one of his greatest loves. He was always the life of family gatherings. He has done many favors for family and friends and expected nothing in return. He sent his nephew and niece to sports camps in high school that were offered by local colleges when they had no way to pay for them. He has given several relatives a place to live over the years, including his sister and a cousin both with small children. He also took care of his father, who passed away on April 4th, 2014.  He had Parkinson's disease and was unable to take care of himself.

Legate said after returning from his tour in Iraq, Duff wasn't the same person.  

"He hasn't been able to keep a job. He is quite depressed and withdrawn and has lost interest in the things he cared about most, including cooking," Legate said. "He has a hard time relating to and getting along with the closest people in his life, including me. I haven't heard him talk about a single friend in years. We used to talk on the phone for hours; now we have short and blunt conversations. He used to come to all the family gatherings and stay for hours, and now we are lucky to be blessed with his presence for 5 minutes, if at all."

Legate said he has struggled with both the mental and physical distress that comes with PTSD following his tour in Iraq.  

"He has struggled getting help with this not only due to his proud nature but also the way healthcare and the VA are set up. He was finally able to see a psychotherapist just recently who diagnosed and described him  as 'one of the worst case of PTSD he has ever seen,' " she wrote. "With the guidance of this therapist, he is now going to get the counseling that he so desperately needs. Even with this counseling, it could take months to years, if ever, to see a full return to the man he only was."

Legate is asking for help for her son "who has exhausted his savings and retirement to save everything he has dreamed of for most of his life, his home."

She wrote, "Please help this veteran who was gracious, honorable, and willing to give his all for this country and came home a broken soul. He has touched many lives throughout his lifetime and has always been willing to help those he could. With lots of love and support from his family, friends, and counseling we hope to get him back.  In the meantime, I am asking for your help to save his home, his only safe haven in his world of turmoil. We lost his brother in the service on January 1, 1990, to a friendly fire incident in Panama during Operation Just Cause, and we do not want to lose him to PTSD from his service for our beautiful country."