They’re the quietest warriors you’ll never hear marching — ex–Navy SEALs scarred not by bullets but by memories. In the new Netflix documentary In Waves and War, three former SEALs—Marcus Capone, D.J. Shipley, and Matty Roberts—pull back the curtain on a battlefield few people see: their own minds.
These men fought in theaters of war, but their real fight began once they came home. PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, deepening depression: they tried everything — VA programs, counseling, prescription drugs — and came up short. The system felt like a rusted anchor, keeping them chained in cycles of pain.
Then, they made a decision that felt both radical and desperate. They crossed the border to Mexico, to a clinic most Americans can’t (or won’t) legally step foot in. Why? To try something forbidden in their home country: psychedelic-assisted therapy using ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT.
Capone, a 13-year SEAL veteran, had hit rock bottom. Emotional exhaustion, concussions, relationships fraying like old rope. He says traditional medicine barely scratched the surface. But psychedelics? That’s where the real work happened. Ibogaine, derived from an African shrub, slammed into the root of his trauma — not just the war he’d seen, but childhood wounds that haunted him long before he enlisted.
The documentary doesn’t shy away from the rawness of their journeys. Through haunting animation, viewers are plunged into their internal landscapes: swirling memories, fragmented flashbacks, the weight of unspoken grief. Capone describes seeing his life like cards flipping, past and present colliding.
Roberts, a Purple Heart recipient, puts it plainly: “Mexico beat the crap out of me … but I could feel a connection to everything.” That connection, he says, brought him face-to-face with a self he’d buried under years of combat and suppression.
Far from a solo mission, this healing became a collective operation. Marcus and his wife Amber founded VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) in 2019, driven by the same fierce SEAL ethos: “No one left behind.” Through VETS, they’ve helped over 1,200 veterans access these underground therapies — but the demand is crushing them. As Capone puts it: “We’re overwhelmed with applications.”
Back on U.S. soil, change is creeping in. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced they’ll finally fund a study into psychedelic-assisted therapy — focusing on MDMA, psilocybin, PTSD, depression. It’s a small crack in the door, but for these ex-SEALs, it might be a blast through the wall.
At its core, In Waves and War isn’t just a war story. It’s a story of radical hope — about soldiers who refused to surrender to silence and found a way to heal in a place the old guard never wanted them to go. It’s a call to rethink the damage of war, and more importantly, how we treat its survivors.
Dabbin-Dad Newsroom
