I was obligated to weld in all positons (flat, horizontal, vertical, and overhead) using all kinds of rods and wire (Arc and MIG) per blueprints with air-tight and water-tight welds. I was making a total of $7.50 per hour in 1977 when I got injured which included shift differential and bonuses. I owned with my then wife a two family side-by-side townhouse which had 3 bedrooms and a bath on each side. I put up a garage on each side of it and two driveways and was doing quite well for my wife worked also at Johnsons Wax (The company which makes OFF insect repellent).

I was a very quiet, shy, depressed person and there for was picked on by two "macho" guys who called me "dildo" all the time. Being depressed, I just tried to ignore them. Their names were Tom K. and Gary S. One of them, Gary S. thought that he was so much better than dildo. Anyway, on July 25, 1977, he took off the chain which I had on the weldment for safety's sake. I was inside it air-impacting it to a welding positioning table from the inside. The table stood about 5 feet off the ground and the weldment that I was working on was another 2-4 feet tall. As I was trying to get out of the weldment so that I could jump down and start welding on it, I put my butt on the edge of the weldment. As I was sitting on its edge, my head must have been about 10 feet + off the ground. Before I could swing myself around to jump down, the whole thing crashed down, throwing me backwards on my head (Gary had removed my safety chain which would have prevented this). What he didn't know and I found out later was that the only set of gears to the welding positoning table had broken apart and the safety chain was the only thing that could have kept it from flipping to the floor. I suffered multiple injuries including a skull fracture, blood clot near the brain, 2 broken elbows, loss of my taste and smell, etc. In addition, I lost my little self-esteem/confidence, my marriage, my kids, and my house and I also had a very foul taste and smell in my head for a very long time plus I got post-traumatic epelipsy from it. When they took me into surgery for my blood clot (after I came out of a month and one-half long coma), they told my wife to put everything from my room into her car because they expected me to die during surgery.

I have recovered very well thanks to God who healed my two broken elbows and most of everything else. I still have residual symptoms but am doing OK.

I have an extremely deep abiding faith in God now. I definitely would be dead now if it weren't for Him. He is my strength and my fortress. I owe everything I have and all that I am to Him. That is why, in part, I am in the process of forming God's Army called "We want God Back"----A nonprofit group whose goal is to put God back into the schools and public buildings and the government. He has saved my behind so many times from my own folly that it is too numerous to mention. Again, He has healed most of my symptoms from the industrial accident in 1977.

I have no hate for those two guys. First of all, what goes around comes around----they will get theirs in double. Secondly, it was a turning point in my life---never, never again will I allow myself to be picked on again---no matter how many there are and no matter how big they are. I would much rather be crawling on my hands and knees fighting for my last breath or laying on a hospital bed with a minister praying over my almost lifeless body than allow anyone to pick on me ever again!!! Thirdly, I have forgiven Gary S. like Jesus Christ wanted me to.

I believe strongly in positve thinking and in positive self-talk. It is your thoughts and what you say to yourself that determines your feelings and emotions. Anger and hate are choices you make and you can choose not to be angry or hateful. It is for my own good that I "give up" these self-destructing emotions and thoughts. The Bible is one source of positive thoughts (If God be for you, who can be against you?). By me putting my faith and total trust in God, absolutely nothing is impossible (including the healing of two broken elbows). Alone I am a nothing, but with Him as my silent partner, I am a deadly force to be reckoned with. In fact, with Him, I am invincible.

I have learned to hang in there and never, never quit or give up for Jesus will carry you when it gets too rough. In fact, it is precisely when things are at its roughest and worst is when you should never quit for that is just when He steps in and picks you up and carries you until you regain some strength in your "legs". When things are the darkest and the bleakest is when He shows you the way. That is what He has always done for me.

Sincerely,
Tom Schwelitz, a survivor since 1977
Statesville, North Carolina (born in Wisconsin)
A soldier in God's Army