Michele Smith
4 min readMar 8, 2022

The Real War Is Here

New Author and Retired Marine Jeff Landay Shares Inspiring Story of His Personal, Successful Battle with the D.O.D. after Returning Severely Injured from Overseas

According to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau last year only 47 percent of veterans in the United States out of 19 million are receiving benefits from the United States government and for those with disabilities the numbers are even more disturbing. Shocking in the fact that the men and women who have served in our military, which are forced to retire due to disabilities, are simply assigned a percentage and most simply do not have the drive to fight the United States government when they are additionally dealing with other physical injuries and PTSD. This is exactly why Jeff Landay, author of The Real War Is Here was inspired to write a book to share his story about his fight with the D.O.D after he had to not only learn how to speak again, but lost 1/3 of his skull due to a mission resulting in a tragic bombing while in the Middle East and not only managed to fight the D.O.D. but also managed to go back to school and even more miraculously write is very own book.

“I wrote this book to share my fight with others and truly share that the real war is here and not just on the battlefield,” said Jeff Landay, retired Marine, and author. “I was initially assigned a 30% disability rating from the D.O.D. which I felt was clearly unacceptable after being in a coma for months, having to go to speech therapy to learn how to speak again and the multiple surgeries I needed for the massive brain injuries.”

What exactly is The Real War Is Here about? After waking up from his first coma no longer able to speak English the author Jeff Landay then had the ultimate battle with the government to learn how to converse. Before this fight was won, he worked on a single word every day to make some sense in conversations and the next battle was his assessed “level of disabilities” for retirement where it was so brutally offensively low for receiving benefits (10%,10%,30%) forcing him to travel to the Pentagon to correct the large fault which was changed with 1 phone conversation with the Secretary of State upon his return. Jeff Landay was smart enough to purchase a home when the market in California was low, as well as his own vehicle, has graduated with 2 different college degrees (general education, Social Behavior), and additionally was certified as a personal trainer to mainly to help himself learn how he should lift as he did prior to his war injuries at the gym, and possibly stay healthy.

“I am very thankful to have served our country but wanted to give other disabled veterans the message that there is hope, when all seems lost,” said Jeff Landay, retired Marine, and author. “I wrote The Real War Is Here because there are so many veterans who return from service with challenges receiving much deserved benefits which is unacceptable for anyone in these extreme situations risking their very lives.”

About Jeff Landay

Author Jeff Landay was born on the cusp of California and Oregon in a small town not many have heard of unless they have lived there before. He eventually moved from Crescent city to near Sacramento California. The unfortunate events that occurred on 9/11, drilled in the idea that he was going to enlist into the U.S.M.C. after graduating from high school. After by his platoon was hit with large bomb, Jeff Landay ended up in a coma for 32 days and could no longer speak as well as lost 1/3 of his skull. Most importantly, after a long recovery author Jeff Landay personally to take on the D.O.D. who was only going to give him minimal benefits for his service, so he personally went to the Pentagon to argue his case. Weeks later Jeff Landay received a phone call from the Secretary of State graded him at an 83% to make sure he could try to work again. Jeff Landay not only regained his speech after multiple surgeries and speech therapy, but he also then went on to pursue a degree in social behavior, and become a licensed personal trainer, after multiple physical and mental limitations. Jeff Landay is a national speaker, has been featured on ABC World News as well as many California television stations. For more information, to book a speaking engagement or to purchase The Real War Is Here, please visit: https://mcompublishing.com/our-books/

No responses yet