Navy veteran turns trauma into drive to help others

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — On Nov. 22, 1975, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy collided with the USS Belknap off the coast of Sicily.

Phillip Carhart was on board the carrier.

“And we were on fire for 22 hours, and the Belknap got leveled as flat as a pancake to the main deck,” Carhart said.

It took more than a day for the fires to be brought under control.

Eight sailors died, and almost 50 crew members were injured.

“That’s what I guess caused my post-traumatic stress disorder that caused the difficulties in my life,” Carhart said.

Those difficulties include losing his home to the no-name storm, which led to his wife and children going back to New York.

It took many years, but Carhart said he’s now in a good place.

“I pulled myself back by my own doing because a couple of good-hearted veterans kicked me in the butt and pointed me in the right direction,” Carhart said.

Now, Carhart, who lives in Port Richey, wants to help other veterans.

“I’m riding this scooter around and speaking to the homeless people,” he said.

He’s founded a non-profit to get veterans off the street and even took his ideas to the Pasco County Commission.

It’s called Semper Frater Veteranorum, Latin for “Always Brother Veterans.”

“I get emotional about it because it’s important. There should be no veterans sleeping in the woods while we have the power to reach out to them and pull them up out of the gutter. Sorry, I get so emotional, but this really hits it home with me,” he told Pasco County Commissioners last week.

Carhart said he envisions a tiny home community in Pasco County where the vets can live.

He doesn’t want to give them a free ride but wants to get them with education and the tools to navigate the veteran's benefit system.

“To stand up again like the way I wear this vest with my ribbons on it and everything is my shield of honor to wear and to help my other brother veterans come up,” Carhart said.