About
Healing hearts. Saving lives.
Richard and
David "Joe" Sanders
Richard Sanders
David “Joe” Sanders was born in 1956 in a small rural community near Lubbock, Texas, where both of his parents had been cotton pickers. They moved to Southern California in 1959 seeking a better way of life.
Joe’s PTSD began on August 18, 1968, when he was 12 and heard a gunshot in his shared bedroom with his older brother Richard. That suicide started a dark, downward spiral consisting of spiritual possession, reincarnation, PTSD and drug use.
Meet the Author
David “Joe” Sanders was born in 1956 in a small rural community near Lubbock, Texas, where both of his parents had been cotton pickers. They moved to Southern California in 1959 seeking a better way of life.
Joe’s PTSD began on August 18, 1968, when he was 12 and heard a gunshot in his shared bedroom with his older brother Richard. That suicide started a dark, downward spiral consisting of spiritual possession, reincarnation, PTSD and drug use.
Having survived his early teen years without any trauma counseling “Joe” entered the military on his 17th birthday in 1973 with a death wish as the Viet Nam war was winding down.
For a very short while Joe was the youngest paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he was in the Fire Direction Center of the artillery.
The job he was most proud of was driving for the Division Artillery Commander, Colonel Maxwell Thurman, who went onto become a Four Star General and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, a great mentor and father figure for a young, lost soldier that soaked up his guidance like a dry sponge.
Having survived his early teen years without any trauma counseling “Joe” entered the military on his 17th birthday in 1973 with a death wish as the Viet Nam war was winding down.
For a very short while Joe was the youngest paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he was in the Fire Direction Center of the artillery.
The job he was most proud of was driving for the Division Artillery Commander, Colonel Maxwell Thurman, who went onto become a Four Star General and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, a great mentor and father figure for a young, lost soldier that soaked up his guidance like a dry sponge.
Joe’s marriage to his childhood sweetheart ended in 1978, soon after the birth of their only child. His wife made the right choice in leaving instead of raising their son amidst the turmoil that sometimes comes with the PTSD that neither one of them had even recognized as existing in their life.
After the military Joe worked as a carpenter, maintenance man, and later as a Maintenance Director for a School District, along with being a project manager for his son’s luxury home building company.
Joe lives in the small Houston Suburban City of Friendswood, Texas where him and his wife of 45 years, Judy have lived since 1984. They have two very successful children, David and Amy that live nearby. “Joe” also has an older son, James that lives in Palisade, Colorado where he owns and operates 100+ acres of Colorado peaches. Together “Joe and Judy” have eight beautiful grandchildren, four boys, and four girls, one set of boy/girl twins.
Approximately 35 years after the suicide, Joe began writing this book as a form of self-help therapy. His intent was to assist others in recognizing and preventing suicide, as well as understanding the aftermath. Ten years and a million tears later, the book “A Guide to Suicide” was completed and put in a drawer where it slept for the next eight years, until being pulled out and shared with a veteran’s PTSD group that Joe had just joined.
The group members that read it were instrumental in the decision to get this book into the public, with a new name: Bonded a Brother’s Love: One Bullet, a Thousand Echoes is being introduced with the aim of saving lives, raising awareness about PTSD, and donating 25% of profits to organizations that support veterans suffering from PTSD.
