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Speaker 1: Welcome to this special episode of head Game. I'm at Middleton.

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Speaker 2: Survival is our most primal instinct, but it's not always easy.

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Speaker 2: Today we look back at the incredible stories of three

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Speaker 2: people who have survived and thrived against the odds. Today

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Speaker 2: Curtis McGrath talks resilience on the battlefield and turning pain

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Speaker 2: into Paralympic gold. Take me back to the day when

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Speaker 2: you're on your clearance patrol and yeah, the big boom

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Speaker 2: happened and you woke up with no legs.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So it was twenty third of August twenty twelve, so

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Speaker 4: three months into our six months tour, we were on

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Speaker 4: a clearance operation re establishing a checkpoint. So the insurgency

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Speaker 4: had sort of had the had the area that layload

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Speaker 4: IDs that'd been Afghan Police force and there for a

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Speaker 4: while they pushed out because they kept getting hit and

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Speaker 4: we wanted to reinstall sort of abili stability and security

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Speaker 4: in the area with coalition forces. So the Green Brays

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Speaker 4: we're operating in the area. So the American Special Forces

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Speaker 4: were around and they said, oh, when you go past

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Speaker 4: this hell, you guys are going to get shot up

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Speaker 4: for sure, And we're like, oh, great, it's not very

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Speaker 4: comforting when the SF boys are like, oh yeah, by

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Speaker 4: the way, it's pretty dangerous past as hell. And we

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Speaker 4: didn't have them coming with us. You know, they've got

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Speaker 4: many guns on buggies and mope bytes and they come

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Speaker 4: and with compete everything, and we, you know, we were

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Speaker 4: pretty confident in our vehicles for sure, the bush Master

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Speaker 4: and we had the support and the big mortar teams

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Speaker 4: back on the base readed a back s up, but

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Speaker 4: you never know what's going to happen once you passed

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Speaker 4: this hell. We passed this hell when nothing really happened.

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Speaker 4: So I don't think the insurgents really wanted to mess

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Speaker 4: with us because we rolled in with like six vehicles,

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Speaker 4: which is a lot more and they look like tanks

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Speaker 4: well compared to you know, a quad bite, which the

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Speaker 4: Green brays rocking. And they didn't didn't mess with us

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Speaker 4: at all, which was nice, and they sort of bugged

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Speaker 4: out that night. We were watching them with our optics.

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Speaker 4: But as we moved into this pass this hell, we

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Speaker 4: came across you know, blast creators and all sorts of crap.

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Speaker 4: And then the next day we moved up onto the

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Speaker 4: checkpoint which we were meant to establish and then the

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Speaker 4: next day we've got approval to explosively remove this boulder

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Speaker 4: that was blocking like one of the tracks in We're

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Speaker 4: up on a hill, so obviously that the access needs

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Speaker 4: to be cleared, and there was only one or two

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Speaker 4: ways in and it was on this track. So we're

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Speaker 4: getting rid of this boulder. And I was a bit

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Speaker 4: confused and tired and hungry. And you know, it's four

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Speaker 4: days of working forteen our days at you know, thirty

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Speaker 4: thirty forty degrees, you're wearing about fifteen twenty kilos with

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Speaker 4: a cat, it's three and a half hours a meters

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Speaker 4: above sea level, your bus and your garden, and obviously

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Speaker 4: doing a job it's incredibly dangerous and intense. And I'm

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Speaker 4: sitting at this rock and thinking where the boys are,

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Speaker 4: and my mate Pitch comes over to me and goes, oh,

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Speaker 4: it's the other rock, idiot. I was like, oh, yes, true, true,

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Speaker 4: I was just you know, on a different rock that

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Speaker 4: was walking a different part of the track, and I'm

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Speaker 4: walking along part on an area where we're already searched

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Speaker 4: along and walked past probably one hundred times, and and

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Speaker 4: then next minute I'm like looking up at the sky

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Speaker 4: it's dark, it's dusty, there's rocks and ship falling from

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Speaker 4: the sky and falling hitting me in the face, and like,

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Speaker 4: what the hell is this happened to me?

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Speaker 1: Wow? So Curtis, let me.

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Speaker 2: So you you at one location where you think that

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Speaker 2: you need to clear You've you've walked multiple times, And

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Speaker 2: I suppose it was it was obviously a triggered I

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Speaker 2: d right that you trod on you stood on.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so that that idea was in my lane

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Speaker 4: as well. I missed it.

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Speaker 2: You missed it, But I suppose it's only what a

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Speaker 2: footprint away from from being missed, you know, like an inch,

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Speaker 2: a couple of inches to the left and to the right.

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Speaker 1: You're you're not touching that right, that's.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, there's like how many people were to come

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Speaker 4: that close? And in my mind it's it's probably the

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Speaker 4: best case scenario. Like if someone else got hurt of

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Speaker 4: something that I missed, how would that make me feel?

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Speaker 4: How do you be accountable for the role and job

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Speaker 4: in which I was meant to do and I missed

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Speaker 4: it and I made that mistake and ultimately it took

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Speaker 4: my legs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, in a way, psychologically, you can you can you

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Speaker 2: can process it, not so much live with it, but

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Speaker 2: you can process that. I get what you mean by that.

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Speaker 2: So you're obviously you're one route all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: I can only imagine as well. You know, these ideas

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Speaker 2: allowed the big plume of dust that just alerts everyone.

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Speaker 2: You know, they look around, they see a big plume

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Speaker 2: of dust, They see you bloody in the air or

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Speaker 2: on the ground. They know exactly what it is. What's

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Speaker 2: the next process when all thought that comes into your head,

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Speaker 2: when you're when you're obviously laid on.

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Speaker 4: Your back, I think the words are holy shit.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 4: You sort of get up on your elbows to sort

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Speaker 4: of look around, and you, you know, the you think

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Speaker 4: because I didn't, I don't remember the blast or anything

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Speaker 4: like that, the bang itself. I don't got no recollection

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Speaker 4: of that, no recollection of my rifle being snapped in half,

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Speaker 4: my metodotective being obliterated, like it was all packed up

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Speaker 4: and sort of compact carrimode blowing off to the side

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Speaker 4: and shit everywhere. And you sort of get up and

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Speaker 4: you look around and you're like whoa, Like this is

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Speaker 4: this is bad? Like I can see the blood just

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Speaker 4: gushing out of my.

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Speaker 1: Legs, so you're quite copas meant to see.

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Speaker 2: So you you're you're like, like you said, I can't

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Speaker 2: believe you said. You've got up on your elbows. You're

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Speaker 2: looking around, you look down and there's you're trying to

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Speaker 2: process everything. Right. When when is it that you realize,

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Speaker 2: holy shit, I've actually trodden an id.

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Speaker 4: It's sort of in that moment when you see it

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Speaker 4: all around it and the blood's just like flowing out

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Speaker 4: of me. I was also the combat first aid for

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Speaker 4: my team, so I was the one that was trained

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Speaker 4: in first aid. So the other boys, you know, had

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Speaker 4: had different roles. You know, when it was radio, one

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Speaker 4: was command and control, one was you know, EO R

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Speaker 4: or whatever you call it, disposable, and it's reconnaissance and

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Speaker 4: like that, all those different roles. You know, Me being

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Speaker 4: the one with first aid, had been trained in this

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Speaker 4: process and these injuries. And I'm the one that's laying

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Speaker 4: there with my legs blown off. So I was very

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Speaker 4: aware that, you know, the situation demanded some pretty immediate action,

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Speaker 4: some immediate first aid. And I tried to rip off

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Speaker 4: the tornicquet and put it on my legs, and unfortunately

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Speaker 4: I couldn't do that because every time I got with

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Speaker 4: my elbows, I didn't have any weight to do a

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Speaker 4: sit up. I kept falling backwards. The pain was extraordinary

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Speaker 4: as well. I couldn't I can't explain or it was

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Speaker 4: just so intense. It wasn't just my legs, it was

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Speaker 4: my head, my arms, my back, my barm, like everything

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Speaker 4: about my body was just the same amount of intense pain.

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Speaker 4: And I pitch my mate, the other combat engineer. He

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Speaker 4: was off to the side, probably about fifteen meters away, thankfully,

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Speaker 4: and he had some pretty perforated ear drums. They couldn't

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Speaker 4: hear too well. But I yelled at him and he

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Speaker 4: heard me, and he came running in and put on

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Speaker 4: the torner caves and I'll ultimately save my life. You know,

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Speaker 4: that was an action that I cannot tell the story

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Speaker 4: without telling that, because he's the reason why I'm able

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Speaker 4: to talk to you today.

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Speaker 2: And so you're bleeding out, basically, obviously, Thermina trees buy

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Speaker 2: your legs.

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Speaker 1: You're you're bleeding out big time.

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Speaker 2: He's obviously whacked on two torner caves because it's both

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Speaker 2: your legs, right, yeah, one on each leg and one

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Speaker 2: below the knee and one above the knee or just

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Speaker 2: just both.

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Speaker 4: Just the protocols is just high and tight. Just high

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Speaker 4: and tight, and do it tight. You know, try not

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Speaker 4: to get a test card in there if you can,

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Speaker 4: but it is. It is something we get taught about.

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Speaker 4: But just you're high and tight and do them real tight. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: and then if that one doesn't work, put on another one.

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Speaker 4: Do it high and tidy again.

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Speaker 2: And Curtis the reason why I ask you is because

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Speaker 2: did you feel the pain of the tornic cae going on?

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Speaker 1: Because I know because I've spoken to.

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Speaker 2: A triple amputy before and he remembers the tornic cae

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Speaker 2: going on. I think his arm was and he just said,

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Speaker 2: you know, and from all the pain, yeah, from all

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Speaker 2: the pain that he'd endured in that moment, and he

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Speaker 2: still remembers the pinch on his arm.

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Speaker 1: I think.

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Speaker 2: So that's the reason why I asked, because I know

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Speaker 2: the tornic ca of intense. You know, they're intense in themselves,

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Speaker 2: aren't they.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they're pretty rugged material. They're made out of like

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Speaker 4: seat belt and some pretty if you think about it,

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Speaker 4: you know, putting your belt that put around your pants

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Speaker 4: and then wrapping any your arm and catching a bit

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Speaker 4: of skin in your arm. That's kind of the feeling

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Speaker 4: you would have been talking about, but I don't remember

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Speaker 4: that that pain. It was just so excruciating anyway. But

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Speaker 4: then you know, all of a sudden that the choppers

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Speaker 4: rock up and flip me up and take me away,

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Speaker 4: and that's when I sort of went in and out

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Speaker 4: of consciousness. I sort of maybe come to the fact

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Speaker 4: that I'm okay. Now there was a proper special Forces

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Speaker 4: medic on the on the helicopter and ripped out the

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Speaker 4: IV and put it in a new one and a

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Speaker 4: bigger bore and all that sort of stuff, so much

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Speaker 4: more sort of specialized. Not not to say that Cordy

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Speaker 4: didn't do a good job, because obviously that I survived

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Speaker 4: to that point, and it was just, you know, I

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Speaker 4: was sort of relieved and maybe relinquished my first day

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Speaker 4: duties to this bloke that knew what the fuck was doing, because.

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Speaker 2: It was, yeah, you could finally hand over, yeah, that responsibility.

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Speaker 4: You were not to say that, as I said, Cordy

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Speaker 4: was doing good job. It was you know, I felt

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Speaker 4: like I was, I was okay, but then I realized

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Speaker 4: I was like, oh shit, like I feel tired, and

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Speaker 4: you know, you sort of it's when you drift off

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Speaker 4: to sleep. It's just sort of a similar feeling. And

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Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, I'm in an ambulance and

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Speaker 4: then I'm unconscious, and then all of a sudden, I'm

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Speaker 4: in a trauma bay, and then I'm unconscious, and then

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Speaker 4: I wake up like fifteen hours later, I'm like wholl shit,

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Speaker 4: Like where am I? And I'd gone through Candahar and

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Speaker 4: then back up to bag a mairbase and woke up,

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Speaker 4: you know, after having heaps of surgery.

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Speaker 2: So you wake up fifteen hours later and where are you?

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Speaker 2: And what's happened to you? And when is the realization

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Speaker 2: that you know, obviously you realize your legs have been

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Speaker 2: blown off, but when do you realize the extent of

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Speaker 2: the injuries and the life changing injuries.

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Speaker 4: One of the first things I remember noticing was like,

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Speaker 4: why is my hand all wrapped up and like it

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Speaker 4: was covered in like big bandages all the way down

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Speaker 4: to pretty much my elbow, and obviously had highlighted that

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Speaker 4: some big injuries had happened there. I had big ivs

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Speaker 4: in my arm with fluid and morphane lis.

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Speaker 2: And this is when you woke up fifteen hours later,

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Speaker 2: You're just like now you're yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, shit, my arms all busted up. Must have broke busted.

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Speaker 4: I remember, like it was very I was like, holy shit,

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Speaker 4: like that all happened. And I was waiting in this

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Speaker 4: waiting room with four other American soldiers that had been

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Speaker 4: blown up as well. There was an Air Force Australian

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Speaker 4: Air Force nurse there with me, Sally was her, and

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Speaker 4: she's like, oh, this is what's happened. This is where

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Speaker 4: we're going. We're flying out of Bagram Air Base to

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Speaker 4: Germany Lands to hospital in Ramstone Airbase near Frankfurt and

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Speaker 4: flying out on an American C seventeen getting out of

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Speaker 4: the country, and I was very down. I was, obviously,

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Speaker 4: as you can imagine, a bit sort of defeated is

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Speaker 4: probably the best word. There's nothing I could do. I

232
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Speaker 4: couldn't even get out of the bed. I was still

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Speaker 4: in a little bit of pain, but at the same

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Speaker 4: time pretty sad and felt very very sorry for myself.

235
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Speaker 4: But in given the circumstances of the people around me.

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Speaker 4: When I got loaded onto the plane, there was two

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Speaker 4: dudes up the front, and you know, on my plane

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Speaker 4: there was double stack bunks and then on the other

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Speaker 4: side was seated or walking wounded. So they walked in

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Speaker 4: with broken arms and busted up faces and stuff like that,

241
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Speaker 4: and they sat down and then up the front there

242
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Speaker 4: was two guys having surgery on the flight, so like

243
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Speaker 4: actively dying on the plane. And I was like, shit,

244
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Speaker 4: this war is big, Like this is much bigger than

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Speaker 4: I realized. And like I was there, I was a

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Speaker 4: part of this thing and I had no idea this

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Speaker 4: was going on. And it was like this realization that

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Speaker 4: the conflict has a huge cost. And it's not just money.

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Speaker 4: It's not just a tank or it's not just you know,

250
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Speaker 4: this this plane. It's it's the people that are in

251
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Speaker 4: that plane, but also the people that witness the injuries

252
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Speaker 4: that they sustained, you know, the injuries the boys coming

253
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Speaker 4: up the hell towards me patch putting on the twenty

254
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Speaker 4: that effect on them also as a cost that needs

255
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Speaker 4: to be considered. And that's why, you know, the mental

256
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Speaker 4: health problem might seem much bigger than the physical health

257
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Speaker 4: problem from our service. And that you know, those those

258
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Speaker 4: witnessing and those experiences that may be remotely affected. You know,

259
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Speaker 4: you don't even have to be there to be affected

260
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Speaker 4: by these these events. And that's you know, think about

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Speaker 4: the other guys that have to go out and do

262
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Speaker 4: the job that we couldn't do or we failed to

263
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Speaker 4: do and wouldn't say failed, but we we did our

264
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Speaker 4: job to a certain point where we became ineffective because

265
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Speaker 4: we're a team teamman down, So we have to send

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Speaker 4: another team out there. They have to go out and

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Speaker 4: then do that job. Like what sort of mental state

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Speaker 4: do they have to be and to go out and

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Speaker 4: do a job where they make just got blown up?

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Speaker 4: You know that all these elements playing to a moment

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Speaker 4: where you think, ship this war is big and it

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Speaker 4: costs a lot.

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Speaker 2: And you were part of You were part of that,

274
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Speaker 2: right you were there realizing that as that was going

275
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Speaker 2: on again, super aware you know, wow, you know, kudos

276
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Speaker 2: to you mate to be being so alert all the

277
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Speaker 2: time you land in your land in Germany.

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Speaker 1: What happens in that process?

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Speaker 2: And also I'm going to throw this that you are

280
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Speaker 2: you still thinking or that thought process of being a

281
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Speaker 2: para olympian or you know, and again I've thrown that out.

282
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Speaker 2: There was a bit of bands of because you mentioned

283
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Speaker 2: it and you happened to be an athlete in the

284
00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:07,040
Speaker 2: Paralympics a few months a few months later, right.

285
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Speaker 4: You know, kind of obviously a lot of healing and

286
00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:14,079
Speaker 4: all that sort of stuff. But you know, I remember

287
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Speaker 4: being on that jobber as I spoke about, and feeling

288
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Speaker 4: very defeated, and I think that's the feeling I felt

289
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Speaker 4: for many months, very defeated in the sense of I'm

290
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Speaker 4: no longer the person I thought I was. And I

291
00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 4: think that was the big, the big factor in my

292
00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:34,360
Speaker 4: mind during my rehabilitation. I have just got a heel

293
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Speaker 4: and get back to some sort of normalody of what

294
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:41,240
Speaker 4: I was before, and that was upstanding walking and I met.

295
00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:42,840
Speaker 4: One of the first things I did when I got

296
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,360
Speaker 4: my prosthetics was go and walk into the bathroom to

297
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:49,000
Speaker 4: a Urino and take his purt standing up like it's

298
00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:51,880
Speaker 4: a very odd thing to do, but it was, you know,

299
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,560
Speaker 4: felt like me, and that's that's felt something of normality,

300
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Speaker 4: and that was something that you know, not many people

301
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,640
Speaker 4: talk about. You what are the simple things that mean

302
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,680
Speaker 4: that you're you're healing and you're getting better, And for me,

303
00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,000
Speaker 4: that was that was one of them. But yeah, and

304
00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,400
Speaker 4: then I started to ponder about what to do and

305
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,240
Speaker 4: where to go and who I was and what sort

306
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:17,440
Speaker 4: of purpose could I find myself pursuing and I was

307
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,800
Speaker 4: I was always sporting. I always enjoyed being outdoors, enjoying sport.

308
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,800
Speaker 4: Not always outdoors, but you know, enjoyed sport full stop.

309
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:27,120
Speaker 4: And I was like, well, that's familiar to me. I

310
00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:29,360
Speaker 4: might as well get involved with that, and sort of

311
00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:34,640
Speaker 4: got taken over to the San Diego to Camp Peddleton

312
00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:37,800
Speaker 4: in the US and went and did the marine trial

313
00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:42,000
Speaker 4: games and tried sport of all different things. But what

314
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:45,360
Speaker 4: was really this is six months after the injury was yeah,

315
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Speaker 4: six seven months Yeah?

316
00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:50,200
Speaker 2: Wow, you know, considering that you you know, us six

317
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:53,120
Speaker 2: months before, seven months before you were lying on you know,

318
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Speaker 2: on on the ground, you're literally you're you're backing it,

319
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Speaker 2: aren't you, you know, as in as much as you can

320
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Speaker 2: do in a short amount of times.

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Speaker 1: Phenomenal, mate, phenomenal.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

323
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Speaker 4: It was very special and special because not just because

324
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:11,280
Speaker 4: I was, you know, experiencing new things and on a

325
00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:13,960
Speaker 4: different adventure again, but it was because I got to

326
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,120
Speaker 4: see people who had been through similar experiences doing things

327
00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:19,600
Speaker 4: that I didn't know existed or didn't know how to do,

328
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,560
Speaker 4: and I got to see it firsthand. And that's, you know,

329
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:24,720
Speaker 4: that's part of what the Paralympics is a little bit

330
00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:29,360
Speaker 4: about you know, it's showing humans what is possible despite

331
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,040
Speaker 4: the ailment, despite the challenge, and it's you know, excelling

332
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:36,200
Speaker 4: at that stuff at the Paralympic level. You know, I'm

333
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 4: not talking about the Paralympics at this this moment. This

334
00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:44,240
Speaker 4: is like literally using sport to heal and to rehabilitate

335
00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,840
Speaker 4: and connect and do all the things that sport is

336
00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,840
Speaker 4: so good at doing. And I think that's why it

337
00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,120
Speaker 4: needs to play a bigger part in our and our

338
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:56,680
Speaker 4: health system because it's got so many benefits, not just

339
00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,000
Speaker 4: you know, the healing part, the mental part. It's connecting

340
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,720
Speaker 4: people to light minded things that have been through similar experiences.

341
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:06,280
Speaker 4: And that was what I was feeling. That's what I

342
00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:08,159
Speaker 4: and I'm a strong believer. You can't be what you

343
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:08,720
Speaker 4: can't say.

344
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:18,399
Speaker 2: Former French spy and fighter pilot Jack Beaumont was doing

345
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,520
Speaker 2: dog fight training when a crash changed everything.

346
00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:28,760
Speaker 3: So I had a flying accident. I crashed with the jet.

347
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:34,760
Speaker 6: I was doing this training over France to combat training

348
00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:39,200
Speaker 6: and I pulled long story short, I pulled too many

349
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:43,320
Speaker 6: g's in a in a bad position in the plane.

350
00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,000
Speaker 6: So I was totally twisted in my seat because I

351
00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:49,480
Speaker 6: was watching looking behind on the other guy coming on me,

352
00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:52,639
Speaker 6: and when I saw him, I was totally twisted in

353
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:53,960
Speaker 6: my seat. And when I saw him, I had to

354
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,840
Speaker 6: counter and reduce his turning room so that he overshoots

355
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,560
Speaker 6: and I can reverse and kill him behind. And I

356
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,240
Speaker 6: took eleven point three g's but twisted in the seat.

357
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:08,920
Speaker 6: So my spine was compressed and twisted in the same time.

358
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,480
Speaker 6: But it's putting basically six hundred and fifty kilos on

359
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 6: the lower back but twisted. So you had the explosion

360
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:19,280
Speaker 6: of three discs on the lower back on the lombine spine.

361
00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,919
Speaker 6: So the disc popped out on the left side.

362
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,520
Speaker 2: As you're maneuvering, as you're pulling, doing that maneuver to

363
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:32,080
Speaker 2: counter back to counter get the you know the fire pilot. Yeah,

364
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,200
Speaker 2: you do that during it pops.

365
00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,760
Speaker 6: Yeah, the three disc popped out because my spine was

366
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,879
Speaker 6: compressed and twisted in the same time. Wow, so it

367
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:41,640
Speaker 6: has been pushing out the three discs on the.

368
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:47,359
Speaker 2: Lower eleven g's eleven point three nine. People talk about

369
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,919
Speaker 2: getting to ten g's is like impossible to survive.

370
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:56,359
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's pretty violent, and so all the nerves of

371
00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,400
Speaker 6: the left leg were pinched. Yeah, so I was paralyzed

372
00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:01,560
Speaker 6: of the left leg in the plane. The pain was

373
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,720
Speaker 6: very intense. So just before fainting, I had the time

374
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,679
Speaker 6: to put pure oxygen over pressure in my helm, in

375
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,000
Speaker 6: my oxygen mask not to faint. So basically the oxygen

376
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 6: is pure oxygen instead of.

377
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 1: Air protocol that you do you basically.

378
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:22,000
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, But and then it forces its

379
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,520
Speaker 6: itself to your length, you know, like, yes.

380
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:31,320
Speaker 3: Over pressure. Yeah, and that kept you awake, yeah, keep

381
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 3: me awake.

382
00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:35,400
Speaker 6: But the pain was massive. And the problem is when

383
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 6: you land, you control the front wheel of the plane

384
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:42,440
Speaker 6: with your legs and you break on the top of

385
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,439
Speaker 6: the feet. And my left leg was not working anymore.

386
00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:51,639
Speaker 6: So the flight director on the radio said, okay, you

387
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:55,080
Speaker 6: go to the ejection zone area and you bail out.

388
00:19:55,800 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 6: And I said, no, no way, because ejection seats. You

389
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:03,600
Speaker 6: don't do it for fun. It's twenty five instant gees.

390
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:05,679
Speaker 1: That compresses the spine in itself.

391
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 2: Already, you're already fucked. Yeah, you're already in a bad way.

392
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,360
Speaker 2: You know, you're paralyzed on one side of the body.

393
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:13,800
Speaker 2: That could potentially kill you.

394
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,160
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, you have two tons of pressure per square

395
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:21,760
Speaker 6: centimeter under the seat, so basically from the moment you

396
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,080
Speaker 6: pull the handle one point three seconds after you're under

397
00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:28,840
Speaker 6: the shoot. So it's it's it's really violent. And as

398
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,640
Speaker 6: I already had a problem in the spine, I would

399
00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 6: have been best dead and worse I would have been

400
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,679
Speaker 6: in a chair for the rest of my life and

401
00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,200
Speaker 6: not the other way around. Yes, And so I decided

402
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,639
Speaker 6: to try to land the plane. And I had a

403
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 6: brilliant tidy on the paper. It was just on the paper.

404
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:50,680
Speaker 6: I thought that if I leave my right leg smooth,

405
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,520
Speaker 6: then I could press with my hands on my knees

406
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,840
Speaker 6: to try to control the front wheel because the left

407
00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:00,119
Speaker 6: leg was not working. And so I thought, if I

408
00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 6: leave the right one smooth, I will manage to control

409
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:04,880
Speaker 6: the front wheel. But of course it did well.

410
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:06,639
Speaker 1: It wasn't the case.

411
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 6: Yeah, So only the right leg had been breaking, and

412
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 6: so I went out of the runway on the right side,

413
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,720
Speaker 6: hitting the grass. Landing gear went in, so I just

414
00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,760
Speaker 6: had the time to push down the crash barrets, so

415
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:21,040
Speaker 6: cutting all the irolic electric shoots down, and then I

416
00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 6: went on a fireball basically on the on the right

417
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,800
Speaker 6: side of the runway, so I broke all the left

418
00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 6: side of the body.

419
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 3: So I woke up.

420
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 6: I woke up at the hospital after the surgery with

421
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:35,480
Speaker 6: two big tubes in them.

422
00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 1: What's the last memory that you have when you hear.

423
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 6: When the plane went out out the runway on the

424
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 6: right side, so we land that in this kind of emergency,

425
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 6: we land at one hundred and eighty K notes, so

426
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:51,560
Speaker 6: it's three hundred and forty k power. But it's a good,

427
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:58,400
Speaker 6: good accident. So I very decent one. So I woke

428
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:03,159
Speaker 6: up at the hospital after the surgery. Then, so I

429
00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:05,720
Speaker 6: was trapped on the bed because everything was broken. I

430
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,120
Speaker 6: couldn't move, blah blah blah. And so the surgeon came

431
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 6: and I said when when will I be able to

432
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 6: fly again? And I said, ah, I think, my young friend,

433
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:19,720
Speaker 6: you don't well understand the situation. Your pilot carriers ends here.

434
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:23,400
Speaker 6: And I said I don't think so. And I said

435
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:24,920
Speaker 6: I don't think so. So I was back in a

436
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:25,960
Speaker 6: jet three months after.

437
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,560
Speaker 1: Oh you got back in yeah, so you just so.

438
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it is medical advice and to stand

439
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 2: your own thing.

440
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 6: Yeah, So to fly you have to have the medical course,

441
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:40,919
Speaker 6: you know, a green light. But of course it's very

442
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:44,160
Speaker 6: expensive to try and fire pilot, and I was at

443
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 6: the highest qualification as a fire pilot. So basically you

444
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,600
Speaker 6: end up with the military doctor saying, look, from our

445
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 6: point of view, if you eject, you're dead or in

446
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:58,080
Speaker 6: a chair. You can't fly. You can't hope that you

447
00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:02,359
Speaker 6: would eject with nothing. Okay, So that's your call. We

448
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 6: wouldn't recommend you to do it, but if you want

449
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:06,600
Speaker 6: to do it, you have to sign the waiver to

450
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 6: sign here. Yeah, and if something happens, it's not our fault.

451
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 2: Because they've invested millions into you, training everything that multimillions.

452
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:18,200
Speaker 2: You know you're an asset to them, and all of

453
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 2: a sudden you know you're no longer. They put all

454
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 2: this training, all this time, all this money into you.

455
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 2: They want they want them. Yeah, they won't ever turn

456
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 2: in investments. And I understand the waivers.

457
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:31,360
Speaker 1: Just sign here exactly.

458
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 6: So I signed it. Of course, was young and clever,

459
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 6: and so I signed it and went back flying on

460
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,639
Speaker 6: jets and then very very quickly after that, penk kidders

461
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,919
Speaker 6: in the morning, pan kidders before the flight, pend kitters

462
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 6: after the flight, pend killers at.

463
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:47,919
Speaker 3: Night to sleep.

464
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 6: I was becoming a zombie. I was scared to take

465
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 6: nine gs.

466
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so psychology had a psychological impact on you.

467
00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 6: Not the crush itself, just the pain all the time,

468
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 6: all the time, all the time.

469
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 1: Where you push it, push it whole.

470
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 3: I couldn't.

471
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 6: I couldn't cope with with the with the nineties anymore.

472
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 6: And then when you do dogfights, the one who can't

473
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:11,640
Speaker 6: take nineties is dead of course.

474
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 2: Yea.

475
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:15,200
Speaker 3: So so I had a chat.

476
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 6: With my my CEO and he said, look, I think

477
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 6: you have to you're going to kill yourself or worse,

478
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 6: you're going to kill someone else, so you have to

479
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 6: maybe you have to put your hand.

480
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 3: Up and stop.

481
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 6: And I said, okay, I agree, I have to stop,

482
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 6: but I will I want to be retrained as something else,

483
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 6: and I want something sexy and rock and roll.

484
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 2: So basically, what they've said to you and and with

485
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 2: your you know, with your training, knowing that you know

486
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 2: you've you've pushed it to the limits, you're going to

487
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 2: either kill yourself or kill someone. It's basically just retraining

488
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 2: yourself for staying in the military, but just branching off

489
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 2: to a to another, to another unit, to another, you know,

490
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 2: another splinter cell. Shall we say, so you have to

491
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 2: this training as a fighter pilot. That stops. What do

492
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 2: you train yourself as? What direction do you go in?

493
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,720
Speaker 6: So they came back to me a few weeks after.

494
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 6: So they got it, and they came back to me

495
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:14,639
Speaker 6: a few weeks after, saying, we need a pilot for

496
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 6: Special Forces.

497
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 3: For very specific missions. Short take off, short.

498
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 6: Landing, no flight plan, illegal landing, landing by night, night

499
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 6: vision goggles, all the lights off, flying lower than the trees.

500
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: You get me excited to take me back.

501
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:36,320
Speaker 6: So I was like, it looks fun, it's interesting, So

502
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,199
Speaker 6: I said yes. So I was retrained. As you know,

503
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 6: I mean, the strength of a chain is the strength

504
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:46,360
Speaker 6: of the weakest part of.

505
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 3: The chain, yep.

506
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,440
Speaker 6: And you mustn't be the weakest part of that chain.

507
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,399
Speaker 6: So even if you're flying for Special Forces, you have

508
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 6: to have all the training a special Forces because if

509
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 6: you crash the plane or whatever and you're on the ground,

510
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,520
Speaker 6: you mustn't that weakest part of the chain. So I

511
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 6: had all those because, I mean, my back was fine,

512
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 6: except pulling GE's back was fine. So I could see

513
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 6: it jump all this kind of stuff.

514
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 3: I thought. I thought it was fine.

515
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 6: So and so I was retrained on various kind of

516
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 6: planes short take off, short short landing. So I was

517
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 6: basically detached from the Air Force to Special Forces command, uh,

518
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 6: and I was flying for various kinds of special Forces.

519
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 1: He must have been flying intelligence.

520
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,760
Speaker 3: So it was at the beginning was special Forces.

521
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,160
Speaker 6: And then after a certain amount of time I saw

522
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 6: some guys coming in the plane in jeans, sneakers stuff,

523
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 6: and I was like, okay, maybe that.

524
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: What am I flying? Do I really know what I'm flying?

525
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,360
Speaker 2: Listen, you just did the short take off, the shortland exactly.

526
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: Get us on the target.

527
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 6: And when you take off you stay very very very low.

528
00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:01,920
Speaker 6: Why that because they have some RPGs. Yeah, okay, so

529
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 6: it's it's It was good fun. And then so I

530
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,680
Speaker 6: did a lot of the hunt of the Serbian war

531
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 6: criminals in the Balkans, so hunting Lady Milosevic and all

532
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 6: those guys.

533
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 3: I was very interesting.

534
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 6: And sometimes I was flying Special Forces and sometimes I

535
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 6: was flying intelligence.

536
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 2: UH.

537
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 6: And then I had a survival training in the Alps

538
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 6: high altitude mountain because I was meant to go and

539
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 6: do the same in Afghanistan for ben Laden. So you

540
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 6: know the game, because I'm sure you've been doing it. Basically,

541
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 6: we dropped in the middle.

542
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 3: Of nowhere terrogation phrase. And then we have the.

543
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 6: First five days, five days to survive by ourselves and

544
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 6: the rest of the team hunting us with the dogs

545
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 6: and commandos and everything.

546
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 3: So of course I was very well here. Then I

547
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 3: was in the middle of nowhere.

548
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,679
Speaker 6: I was digging my igloo and you know how snow

549
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 6: is actually very heavy on on on spade, and I

550
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,880
Speaker 6: did this stupid movement twisting like my spade.

551
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,919
Speaker 2: Stupid movements is there and You're just like, why then

552
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:19,439
Speaker 2: I do that?

553
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 4: Why?

554
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 3: Anyway, one disc popped out again. But I was in

555
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 3: the middle of nowhere.

556
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 1: Well I know it well, jack.

557
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 3: And of course nighttime, otherwise it's not funny.

558
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 6: And so I had to walk down the whole mountain

559
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 6: by myself with the massive pain because the disc was

560
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 6: out again until I could see torches and hear the sounds.

561
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 3: And then I've been you know, throwing the flare.

562
00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 6: And and so they took me hospital again, sirgun surgery

563
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 6: in the back. And then the military doctors said, look

564
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 6: to surgery. That's the law to surgery in the back.

565
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 6: You can't fly in the military anymore. You don't so

566
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,720
Speaker 6: you you still have your civilian medical libability to fly

567
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 6: commercial pilot, because I still have my professional commercial pilt license.

568
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 6: You can fly in the in the commercial but general aviation,

569
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 6: but military you can't fly anymore. And I was like,

570
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 6: you know, I've been flying fier Jets, single seaters, dog fight,

571
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 6: I've been flying Special Forces, and I don't want to

572
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 6: drive a bus. No offense to commercial pilots, but yeah,

573
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 6: I don't want to drive a bus.

574
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 3: So I was really lost at that time. And then

575
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 3: I had a lunch.

576
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 6: In Paris with a mate who was actually dgac SO

577
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 6: or French External Secret Service or French six. He was

578
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 6: one of the one I used to carry out the back.

579
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 2: I was going to say, these were probably the guys

580
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 2: that he probably cast me back to like with these guys,

581
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 2: but that's that's how I meant got different top on,

582
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,239
Speaker 2: you know, in civilians. And so that probably sparked your

583
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 2: memory from what I've been actually been flying these guys.

584
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 6: Right, that's that's where I That's where this one in particular,

585
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 6: that's where I've met him. When I was when he

586
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 6: was hitting at the back and we kept in touched

587
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 6: and so I said, why don't you try to join

588
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 6: to join us? And I said, well, yeah, that looks funny.

589
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 6: That looks six year rock and roll. So the test

590
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,239
Speaker 6: to join is one one year. Ye, so not to

591
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 6: lose this one year. Not knowing if I was going

592
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 6: to join or not, I went back to some studies

593
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 6: and did n being a business intelligence and doing my

594
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,480
Speaker 6: test in the same time. Then I was selected. And

595
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 6: when you are selected like this, you join as an officer.

596
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:52,719
Speaker 5: Uh.

597
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 6: You're going to direct write, which is called the intelligence

598
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:58,360
Speaker 6: direct right where you.

599
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 3: Start as an analyst. Uh.

600
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 6: And after a few years as an analyst on a

601
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 6: very specific topic, then you can move on to handling

602
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 6: sources human sources on the same topic, and then you

603
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 6: can move on to being sent abroad in an embassy

604
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 6: with the diplomatic passport blah blah blah blah blah for

605
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 6: a few years. That's the Intelligence Division, the Operational Division,

606
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 6: the cowboys, bad boys. It's very hard to join, and

607
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 6: you don't ask for it. They come and pick you.

608
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 6: So I succeeded. I passed the first test to join

609
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 6: the DGC. When I heard I was selected, I was

610
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 6: doing my I was with my wife in IK and

611
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 6: I haven't told her that I did those tests. So

612
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:54,920
Speaker 6: I was doing the shopping in I Care and I

613
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 6: received a phone call from my boss at that time,

614
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 6: General and it's that you're going to receive a call

615
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 6: in the next minute a known car you should you should.

616
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 3: Take, you should take it. It's related to what you

617
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 3: you know, applied for. So okay.

618
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 6: So I was still at the top of the ladder

619
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 6: trying to pull the you know, I c a bed

620
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 6: out of the and my wife.

621
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:17,960
Speaker 3: Was like, what what's happening?

622
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 6: Nothing from call, and they said, ah, yeah, you you

623
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 6: are a candidate for this and there.

624
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 2: So yeah, well you've been You've now into into that,

625
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: into that corridor, right. It's uh and what what What

626
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 2: went through your head when you got that call, because

627
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 2: that's a different ball game, Like you said, you know,

628
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 2: I think into it.

629
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 6: I didn't realize that because it's like, as you said,

630
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 6: it's a fighter pilot, you know, it's everyone's like, yeah,

631
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 6: top gun, and actually when you are fighter pilot, it's

632
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:55,080
Speaker 6: very very far from from the glitz and from doub gun.

633
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 6: It was the same for for a spy. I didn't

634
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 6: really know what it was, the meaning of it. I

635
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 6: just was attracted to it, and I knew that that's

636
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 6: something I wanted to leave and go through and I

637
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 6: wanted to have this experience.

638
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 2: Kelsey Waghorn, thank you ever so much for joining me

639
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 2: on my podcast head Game. Now. You are a survivor

640
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 2: of a volcanic eruption, and when I mean volcanic eruption,

641
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 2: you were literally on the volcano. Take me through the

642
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 2: actual day of the eruption and you know, I can

643
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 2: imagine it was just another day, another dollar, right, Yeah.

644
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 5: Up until it wasn't normal. Everything was stock standard. I

645
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 5: wasn't actually scheduled on for that day. I'd actually hurt

646
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 5: my thumb about four or five days beforehand, so I

647
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 5: was still trying to heal that up. I was living

648
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 5: on a farm then, and i'd actually posted a story

649
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 5: on Instagram moving cows somewhere, so a lot of people

650
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 5: actually later on didn't think that I was actually on

651
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 5: the island that day, so I thought I was sweet

652
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:10,920
Speaker 5: because they were like, oh, she's on the farm. She

653
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 5: posted a video, so it's all good. But yeah, got

654
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,000
Speaker 5: the call up to come in because we had a

655
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 5: cruise ship coming over from Todonga, which is about an

656
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 5: hour away from us, and so they would do in.

657
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 5: It must have been about mid dayish and so yeah,

658
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 5: I got asked to come in and so I was like, yeah,

659
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,320
Speaker 5: that's sweet. As if someone can be my left hand

660
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,319
Speaker 5: because yeah, still a bit sore. So yeah, as long

661
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 5: as someone can be my left hand do the heavy lifting,

662
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:39,359
Speaker 5: then yeah, that's sweet. Airs got into work and one

663
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,399
Speaker 5: of my coworkers, Hayden, who I worked with for five years,

664
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 5: he actually trained me. He was like, oh, how's your

665
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 5: thumb and I was like, oh, still a bit sore,

666
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 5: but it's okay. And he's like, oh, do you want

667
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 5: to wrap it? And I was just like, nah, I

668
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 5: think it'll be all right, and he's like, no, I

669
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 5: will wrap it. I'll wrap it for you. And he

670
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 5: was very particular about wrapping. I remember giving him shit

671
00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:59,279
Speaker 5: about it and he was, yeah, taking ages to like

672
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 5: wrap it, and yeah, giving him hell for it. Got

673
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 5: the boat ready for the day, loaded the passengers on

674
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,800
Speaker 5: the boat, and yeah, basically started getting out to the island.

675
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 2: So it was all normal and you've got a boat

676
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 2: full of excited tourists.

677
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 1: Again, no change in same procedure. You get out and

678
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:17,760
Speaker 1: do your thing right.

679
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 5: Yep, yep. So landed on the island. We were the

680
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 5: last boat of the day, and so yeah, we got

681
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 5: there and we were the third, second or third boat

682
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 5: at the island, and there were already two helicopters on

683
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 5: the island. Did all the usual normal level two procedure

684
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 5: additives of the higher level of activity or output of gas.

685
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 5: So it is a level two, which is higher than normal.

686
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 5: But in my five years of being there, it had

687
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 5: been level two many times and never erupted. And then

688
00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 5: it had been at level one and erupted, so, you know,

689
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 5: not overly predictable. Continued on with that day. Nothing was

690
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,680
Speaker 5: unusual went around the island. As I said, we weren't

691
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 5: the first on the island, so no one had packed

692
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 5: any up. Nothing alerted us that something was brewing, for

693
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 5: lack of a better word, So.

694
00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 2: When do you actually realize that actually something is brewing,

695
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 2: and something serious is brewing. The red flags are coming up,

696
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 2: and you know, if I don't put something into action now,

697
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 2: we're not.

698
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 1: Going to get off this island immediately. Oh immediately, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

699
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,240
Speaker 5: So there's always gas output, always steam output, there's always

700
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:30,360
Speaker 5: bubbling water and whatnot around the island, so that stock standard.

701
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,919
Speaker 5: So none of that raised the alarm bells. But yeah,

702
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 5: I was talking about one of the streams that we

703
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 5: were standing in, because it's just a little like fresh

704
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 5: water stream. I just remember people just started going, well, wow,

705
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 5: look at that. I just remember turning around and seeing

706
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 5: the island erupting, and it was already bigger than the island.

707
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,320
Speaker 5: So the island is three hundred and twenty one meters tall,

708
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:55,520
Speaker 5: and the stack or the column of material coming out

709
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,800
Speaker 5: of the island was already bigger than that and growing

710
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 5: by the second. So yeah, it was an immediate like

711
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:01,680
Speaker 5: the same, right.

712
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 1: And you knew? Did the others know?

713
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 5: Yeah? I do believe. I do think that they just

714
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 5: thought it was part of the tour because unbeknownst to me,

715
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:13,799
Speaker 5: I've only found out since that people were actually taking

716
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 5: photos of it. It wasn't until people started saying, we'll

717
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 5: look at that that I turned around because it was

718
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 5: actually erupting silently behind us, which you'd think it would

719
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 5: be like sonic boom material sort of thing, but didn't

720
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 5: shake the ground, didn't make a noise.

721
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:29,840
Speaker 1: How far away was it from you.

722
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:36,319
Speaker 5: Maybe three four hundred meters so not that far. Oh yeah, so.

723
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,760
Speaker 1: Yes, too close? Too close?

724
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 5: Yeah, turned around and it was full, full eruption, and yeah,

725
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,880
Speaker 5: I immediately just basically just yeah, I just yelled at

726
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 5: everyone to just come with me and just started running.

727
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:50,840
Speaker 5: And I think maybe that's when they realized that this

728
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 5: wasn't part of the tour. We all just took off

729
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 5: and head behind this mound. In my head it was

730
00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 5: this giant mound because I've been there so many times. Yeah,

731
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,080
Speaker 5: I was just like, yeah, we'll get behind this big mound.

732
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 5: It'll be great, Like we'll just get behind that. Once

733
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 5: it settles down, we'll just we'll just trot off back

734
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 5: to the boat and then it'll.

735
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 1: Be a great day. But it sounds of it.

736
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 2: You go down there, you're not you know, you're like

737
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 2: this mound, will we'll do this? Will this will protect us?

738
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:19,839
Speaker 2: When did you suddenly realize that no, it won't. This

739
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 2: is this is a lot more serious than than just

740
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 2: hiding behind a mound.

741
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,279
Speaker 5: I mean initially, when there was kind of a big

742
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 5: vertical column, it was like, well, that's not good, but

743
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 5: as long as it stays where it is, that's the

744
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 5: best we can hope for. Because we were three four

745
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 5: and a meters away, So it was one of those

746
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 5: things where we'll just get we'll get shelter, assess it,

747
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 5: and then make moves from there. But I guess in

748
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:44,520
Speaker 5: my mind it was like, well, this is just like

749
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,839
Speaker 5: our drills, so we'll just take shelter and then take

750
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:51,439
Speaker 5: take stock of things there got behind this mound. And

751
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 5: the worst possible case scenario in this was that we

752
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,440
Speaker 5: had a pyroclastic surge. And if you do any research

753
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 5: into those, which are done a lot bit of research

754
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 5: into these, because there wasn't much to research other than

755
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:04,799
Speaker 5: you don't survive them.

756
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 1: What is that?

757
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 2: Can you just break that down for me? What's a

758
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 2: prior classic.

759
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 5: Serch pyroclastics serves? So? And I guess Layman's terms, it's

760
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 5: so the column came up, you have the big ejection

761
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 5: of acid, gases, material, sort of ash, rock, all that

762
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 5: business go shooting up with all that force behind it.

763
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 5: Then obviously you've got always heavy material which just can't

764
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 5: keep shooting up because we have gravity, and so the

765
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:36,719
Speaker 5: column basically starts to collapse. And if you've seen a

766
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,600
Speaker 5: video of the eruption or any of these sorts of things,

767
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 5: you get that massive plume at the bottom, that big wave,

768
00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,759
Speaker 5: that big wave that comes out at the bottom. That

769
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,800
Speaker 5: is what got us, and so that was always worst

770
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,400
Speaker 5: case scenario. I think I've heard the stats of surviving

771
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,399
Speaker 5: that are basically they're less than ten percent, even less

772
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 5: than five percent. So it was always like if you

773
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 5: saw one of them, it was like a white flag moment,

774
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,880
Speaker 5: you were just like, wow, I can't do anything. I

775
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,359
Speaker 5: can't fight this, like you know what it is, took

776
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:09,200
Speaker 5: shelter turn around, groups still running in keep in mind

777
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 5: that this is less than a minute that we've done

778
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:13,960
Speaker 5: this in I remember my other guy coming up next

779
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 5: to me and I just said it'll be okay, and

780
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 5: then I looked up and I saw the surge coming

781
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 5: towards us, and it was like, this is how we go.

782
00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 2: Wow, your worst nightmare is now descending upon you, right yeah, and.

783
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 5: This is like it's not a slow moving thing, but

784
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,719
Speaker 5: in my mind, because everything was going so fast, it

785
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 5: did look slower than it actually was. So the whole

786
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 5: eruption lasted less than two minutes, and we probably lost

787
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 5: maybe twenty thirty seconds at the start before I even

788
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:51,439
Speaker 5: knew it was happening. So it was basically just yeah,

789
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 5: there was no time to explain what was happening, and

790
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 5: I don't know if that would have helped or hindered

791
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 5: the situation anywhere.

792
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: Just straight into your safety drills.

793
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it was basically just follow the drill and

794
00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 5: it was basically just get down, gas mask on, I

795
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,960
Speaker 5: feed a positioned. I was like, well, at least I'll

796
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 5: just that's all I can do. It was just like

797
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 5: I had my sunglasses on, have my gas mask on,

798
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 5: and I thought, well, there's any hope, which was very

799
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 5: very minimal. It was like, well, I need to be

800
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 5: able to see you. I a need able to breathe.

801
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 5: So I had my sunglasses on, I have my gas

802
00:41:19,640 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 5: mask on, and I just basically held it to my face.

803
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:25,040
Speaker 5: You try to breathe slow in those situations because you

804
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 5: know that, keep your heart rate down, try and stay calm.

805
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,319
Speaker 5: But it was just like my body was just like

806
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 5: you're about to die, dude. So it was full panic breathing.

807
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,759
Speaker 5: And then the paraclast that flow hit us and it

808
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 5: all went dark. And I want to say it was quiet,

809
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 5: but it wasn't. It was like being on a beach

810
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 5: on a really hot day, on a really hot, windy day,

811
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:49,080
Speaker 5: and so you could feel things or swirling around, and

812
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:51,760
Speaker 5: it basically just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

813
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 5: It got to the point where started hearing everyone else

814
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,360
Speaker 5: around me screaming, and I thought I was on fire,

815
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 5: and I basically just started vibrating because I was trying

816
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 5: so hard to keep my hands to my face. But

817
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 5: it got to the point where I just had to

818
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:08,640
Speaker 5: cut start swatting my arms because I was just like,

819
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 5: I need to put this fire out. And then basically

820
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,800
Speaker 5: the parakassic surge stopped, so we made it out the

821
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,560
Speaker 5: other side, and so it slowly just went calm, and

822
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:20,000
Speaker 5: it just went quiet. You could just hear sort of

823
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 5: some whimpering from people around us, and Yeah, just sort

824
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 5: of stayed still for a few seconds and thought is

825
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 5: there a second wave, or like just kind of waited

826
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,399
Speaker 5: it out for a second, slowly took my sunglasses off

827
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:35,399
Speaker 5: to have a look around and see what was going on.

828
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 5: And Yeah, basically decided in that second it was like,

829
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 5: we've got to move now, or we're not going anywhere.

830
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:43,839
Speaker 5: We've survived the unsurvivable, so let's go. Made it down

831
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 5: to the wharf where one of the boats, the boat

832
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 5: that had just left the island when we got there,

833
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 5: had only made it to the northern side of the island,

834
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 5: and where you into the island is the south eastern side.

835
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,759
Speaker 5: And so we were just getting to the wharf at

836
00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:58,919
Speaker 5: the south eastern side and the boat that had left

837
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 5: when we got there came roaring around the corner. Our

838
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 5: boat that we came out on had been hit by

839
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,799
Speaker 5: this paracastic flow. So our white, brand new boat was

840
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:10,399
Speaker 5: now gray and covered in ash. Thankfully, the other boat

841
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:12,839
Speaker 5: came back and they started picking us up and they

842
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,600
Speaker 5: put us on their boat. And so the poor people

843
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 5: on that boat that had evaded the eruption now had

844
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 5: I think it was about twenty five of us ended

845
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:26,240
Speaker 5: up on that boat. Not in a great state, wow,

846
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 5: And they basically became our first daid responders, some of

847
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 5: which had probably never done first aid in their lives.

848
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:34,400
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think we owe them our lives, if

849
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 5: not our limbs. And yeah, the whole hour trip home

850
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:40,320
Speaker 5: on that boat that was going as fast as it could.

851
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining me on Headgame. If you

852
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,239
Speaker 2: enjoyed this episode, make sure you're subscribed so you don't

853
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 2: miss any of our incredible stories, and leave me a

854
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 2: review wherever you're listening.

855
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,280
Speaker 1: I'm Aunt Middleton. Catch you again next time,