- April 3, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Del Webb resident Phil Orapallo has had countless sleepless nights dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder since serving on a nuclear submarine in the 1960s during the Cold War.
The 80-year-old has been determined to make sure fellow veterans don’t have to suffer that same fate.
Orapallo was helped through his struggles after attending a five-day retreat with Operation Warrior Resolution — a non-profit organization in Sarasota that provides free holistic healing exercises to veterans — and that spurred him to make that experience available to others.
“I came out of there very calm,” Orapallo said of his experience at OWR. “They make you bring it up, but then they pick something that was really enlightening for you to forget about that stuff.”
That led Orapallo to team up with OWR to create the Operation Warrior Resolution Golf Classic.
The event is scheduled for April 14 at The Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club in Bradenton and is priced at $250 per player, with all proceeds going to fund OWR’s services.
Orapallo served with the Navy on the USS Scorpion submarine from 1962-64, and his concerns started when a similar submarine named the USS Thresher, sank in 1963.
Though the pride of a 19-year-old Orapallo stopped him from retiring at first, he said he had a feeling that his days were numbered if he didn’t stop serving soon.
That gut instinct proved to be life-saving.
“It was just nerve-wracking,” he said. “Then in 1968, sure enough, the (USS Scorpion) sinks with 99 of my buddies on there. Ninety-nine guys gone, including a couple of guys who were like fathers to me.”
Orapallo said there was no swaying the ‘hardcore submariners’ to leave along with him, but the thought of losing so many friends has never left him.
He went on to work for the UPS, worked in the New York City Police Department and then opened up his own construction business.
When he retired from working in 2006, however, his free time proved to be his worst enemy.
“I couldn’t sleep at all,” he said. “You wake up and you start thinking about it. Thinking about those poor guys, how they died, how I should have been with them. You have survivor’s guilt. I was this close to (re-enlisting).”
Orapallo went to Veteran’s Affairs and was diagnosed with PTSD and MDD, but nothing worked for him until he found Operation Warrior Resolution.
His trick, he said, is thinking of the beach whenever his memories begin to haunt him.
“I moved to Venice,” Orapallo said, “And I was on the beach all the time with my kid and my wife, and I was thinking, ‘Why am I letting all of this bother me?’ So every time something comes up in my brain, of guys I’ve lost, I think of the beach, and it works. It calms me right down.”
Orapallo, an avid golfer, has been trying to put together a golf tournament to benefit veterans for nearly a year now.
He initially had frustrations with finding the right organization and a venue, but found that OWR Chief Executive Officer Kendra Simpkins was more than happy to work with him.
Simpkins linked up Orapallo with Phillip Mockler, director of community engagement with OWR.
Then, Joe Blewitt, a retired Air Force colonel of 29 years who now lives in Sarasota, joined the team when his wife, Racie, linked him up with OWR.
Blewitt, who had been looking for a way to volunteer with his newfound free time, was drawn to OWR because of its "grassroots" feel and the need it serves.
“It’s very clear it’s a big problem,” Blewitt said of PTSD among veterans. “It’s been a problem for many years. In this generation, 9/11 is probably when it all kind of started, so that’s a long time. It’s been about 25 years now with continuous combat operations around the world. It’s only been about the past two years where it’s not the case for us in this country.
“There’s a lot of guys out there who are suffering with things they can’t get past and have to live with.”
To sign up for the OWR Golf Classic, make a donation or become a sponsor for the event, visit OWRGolfClassic.com.
