--- title: Meet the Veterans Who Catch Pythons to Treat Their PTSD description: TIME goes on the hunt with with Swamp Apes, a group of veterans that helps remove invasive species and clear wilderness trails in the Everglades. canonical: https://time.com/collections/vets/3489901/veterans-swamp-apes/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-15T21:12:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:02:21.345Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Meet the Veterans Who Catch Pythons to Treat Their PTSD og:description: TIME goes on the hunt with with Swamp Apes, a group of veterans that helps remove invasive species and clear wilderness trails in the Everglades. og:url: https://time.com/collections/vets/3489901/veterans-swamp-apes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73ebcbd8c506617a/69875fd45f570f5dafb12a00/adg103.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Meet the Veterans Who Catch Pythons to Treat Their PTSD og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Veterans Who Catch Pythons to Treat Their PTSD twitter:description: TIME goes on the hunt with with Swamp Apes, a group of veterans that helps remove invasive species and clear wilderness trails in the Everglades. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73ebcbd8c506617a/69875fd45f570f5dafb12a00/adg103.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 15, 2014 # Yes, I Really Catch Pythons to Treat My PTSD > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Jorge Martinez](https://time.com/author/jorge-martinez/) ## Jorge Martinez  Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. In the foreground is the founder of the group, Tom Rahill. Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. In the foreground is the founder of the group, Tom Rahill.David Guttenfelder for TIME _Jorge Martinez, 31, served a tour in Iraq as a corporal in the Marines. Now he is a student at Miami-Dade College who also hunts pythons with Swamp Apes, a group that helps remove invasive species and clear wilderness trails in the Everglades._ I come from a mechanical background, maintenance. When I was in Iraq, my team had to supply power to the radars, radio systems and the control tower. That meant we were targets. The enemy knew if they knocked down the tower, they could cripple the airfield. On the ground, we got attacked with mortars and missiles—a few times a week. One night, I was working a shift in the shipping container that was our office. I heard an unbelievable loud noise, a boom. The mortars hit so close that the dirt, sand and debris splashing around sounded like handfuls of rocks being thrown at the container. We immediately went to the makeshift bomb shelter in the back of the container, located about six feet under the ground. At that moment, I felt like I was in a grave, like the mortar was going to bury us in there. I felt helpless because I couldn’t defend myself. When I got back, these experiences became nightmares. A lot of them included people shooting at me and me not being able to defend myself and running. Sometimes, I would fall off the side of a cliff into a hole. I never hit bottom. I just kept falling and falling, and I’d wake up out of breath. One time, at a friend’s Super Bowl party, one of the little kids running around slammed the door, and I jumped out of my seat and started sweating in a panic. The loud noise triggered that. Stuff like that kept happening to me for a long time. That’s the reality of getting diagnosed with PTSD. Now I dream of pythons. I’ll be walking through huge bushes or a bunch of brush, and I can literally see tons of snakes coming in and out. But then I catch them. And I’m not afraid, because I’ve done it in real life. Out in the Everglades, it’s almost impossible to hear loud noises. It’s very peaceful, almost like meditation. I have a mission to accomplish, and that mission is to catch a python. That’s the only thing on my mind. I stay alert, always vigilant, something that comes natural now after being trained in the military. In many ways, I feel like I’m doing the fighting back I didn’t get to do in Iraq. It’s a huge adrenaline rush to confront a wild snake that could potentially strangle me, and ultimately kill me. The biggest one I’ve caught was almost 13 feet long. We named it Delilah. It’s a kind of feeling I just want to keep feeling again. I feel like a warrior. I want to pound my chest and say, “Wow, I’m king of the world!” Of course, we don’t hurt the snakes. We catch ‘em live, and turn ‘em in live. It’s a thrill, but at the end of the day, we’re doing good—helping the Everglades prosper by getting these invasive species out of there. That’s the military mindset: to serve and to protect the United States. _—as told to Olivia B. Waxman_  A stop sign on a back road in the Chekika area of Florida's Everglades National Park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. In the foreground is the founder of the group, Tom Rahill. David Guttenfelder for TIME  The Mahogany Hammock area of Florida's Everglades National Park on Sunday Oct. 5, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. From left to right are veterans Jose Rodriguez, Jorge Martinez, Alex Nunez, and founder of the group Tom Rahill. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Members of the "Swamp Apes" rest and tell stories on an abandoned hot spring fountain during a patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. From left to right are founder of the "Swamp Apes" Tom Rahill, center, and veteran and volunteer with the group Jorge Martinez, left, and Jose Rodriguez, right. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Jorge Martinez, a veteran and volunteer member of the "Swamp Apes", patrols through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Shark River Slough area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Shark River Slough area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. From left to right are veterans Jorge Martinez and Alex Nunez. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Founder of the "Swamp Apes" Tom Rahill speaks to veterans and volunteer members of the group during a patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. From left to right are Jorge Martinez, Rahill, Jose Rodriguez, and Alex Nunez. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Volunteer members of the "Swamp Apes" patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. From left to right are Tom Rahill, the founder of the group, and veterans Alex Nunez and Jose Rodriguez. David Guttenfelder for TIME  The Shark River Slough area of Florida's Everglades National Park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  The skeleton of a snake lies in the road in the Chekika area of the park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Founder of the "Swamp Apes" Tom Rahill, right, walks on the Old Ingraham Highway during a patrol through Florida's Everglades National Park searching for invasive pythons on Sunday Oct. 5, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Veteran and volunteer member of the "Swamp Apes" Barry Offenburger holds a captured python as he and fellow members deliver it to a ranger station at Florida's Everglades National Park early morning Sunday Oct. 5, 2014. David Guttenfelder for TIME  Veteran and volunteer member of the "Swamp Apes", Jose Rodriguez, holds a young python in his hands after capturing it on the road during a patrol through the Chekika area of Florida's Everglades National Park on Saturday Oct. 4, 2014\. It was his first python capture since joining the group. 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