NEWS
Turning Lives Around Mark O’Shea wants to improve the lives of veterans BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI Sound of Freedom Executive Editor
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Operation Prevent 22 founder Mark O’Shea with his wife, Tiffany, and Chris Flanders, co-founder and outreach coordinator. (Photo courtesy of Mark O’Shea)
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Sound of Freedom | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
ark O’Shea peppers his conversation with the phrase “comfort zone.” He says he does not attempt to tackle new challenges, but his words point elsewhere. Calling his teenage self shy, O’Shea joined the military to turn his life around. “I was very timid,” he says. “I was very quiet. I avoided confrontation at all costs. I wasn’t doing well with the people I surrounded myself with. I didn’t have any confidence in myself whatsoever. “I thought about joining the military when I was young, but I was always so small. I didn’t seem like it was in the cards.” Eventually, he did it — and he calls it the best thing he has done. Others might say the same. As a result of his service, he founded Operation Prevent 22, which provides resources and monthly outings to provide the companionship veterans may have lost and the safe space they need. O’Shea collaborates with other local nonprofits and organizations to accomplish this. “The statistic, which I hate to say, is that 22 veterans a day take their own lives due to PTSD, depression or anxiety,” says O’Shea of Avondale. “They can’t get a lot of help, or they don’t know where to get the help. We’re out there. It’s hard to find a lot of it. There was a year
