Speaker 1: The Armstrong and Getty Show. One year, we asked for
Speaker 1: money and we picked out really good cause like Warrior
Speaker 1: Foundation Freedom Station. They are fantastic. We're trying to raise
Speaker 1: a half a million dollars this week and we've been
Speaker 1: explaining to you over the last couple of days what
Speaker 1: Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is what they do. But what
Speaker 1: better way than to talk to somebody who has benefited.
Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to welcome Mike Spivey to the Armstrong
Speaker 1: and to Getty Show. Mike, how are you, sir? I'm good.
Speaker 1: How are you good? Good? It's great to talk to you. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna just briefly tell your story so the folks
Speaker 1: can understand how you came into contact with Warrior Foundation
Speaker 1: Freedom Station go from there. But um, it was in
Speaker 1: Afghanistan with the third Battalion, fifth Marines. Mike was leading
Speaker 1: a foot patrol using a metal detector searching for I E.
Speaker 1: D S. When Mike, you found one the hard way
Speaker 1: it exploded. Mike was seriously injured, taking large amounts of
Speaker 1: shrapnel to the legs and lower back, including several vertebrae,
Speaker 1: extensive damage to his left arm, uh and and a
Speaker 1: few weeks later, I had to make the incredibly difficult
Speaker 1: decision to amputate the arm Uh. You should know. During
Speaker 1: seven years of service before being medically retired due to
Speaker 1: his injuries, Mike received the prestigious Purple Heart to Combat
Speaker 1: Action Ribbons first time, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. So
Speaker 1: there you are, Mike, uh, seriously injured, young, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where you're going in life. And was it
Speaker 1: then that you connected with Warrior Foundation Freedom Station? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was actually while I was at the hospital. Um,
Speaker 1: there's actually like you know, and whenever the day I
Speaker 1: first got there, um, they met my family, UM, helped
Speaker 1: set them up in hotels and everything like that so
Speaker 1: that they didn't have to worry about all the bills
Speaker 1: while they were, you know, waiting for me to come
Speaker 1: out of surgery. And then a couple of years or
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later actually, um, you know, as
Speaker 1: I started to progress through my rehab, we were encouraged
Speaker 1: to get out and do different activities, um, just to
Speaker 1: get moving again and basically trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to maneuver our new lives with our disabilities. And that's
Speaker 1: whenever I met Sandy and the Lady's Freedom Station fantastic.
Speaker 1: So Joe and I have toured the Werior Foundation Freedom
Speaker 1: Station a whole bunch of times. And if you've never
Speaker 1: seen it, it's a these little cottages that are are
Speaker 1: are together and a lot of the residents UM are
Speaker 1: oftentimes from the same unit and are now wounded and
Speaker 1: they're trying to figure out how to get their lives
Speaker 1: back together and everything like that. Let me read a
Speaker 1: quote from you and then you can add to it.
Speaker 1: Whether it was having barbecues outside or getting together in
Speaker 1: someone's cottage. We had dinner together almost every night. Many
Speaker 1: of the residents were from the same unit. We fed
Speaker 1: off each other's energy and pushed each other to do more.
Speaker 1: Get in the gym, go golfing, get out of the house,
Speaker 1: enjoy nature. That's that's awesome. The idea of UM, you're
Speaker 1: injured and you're staring all this uncertainty in the face,
Speaker 1: and rather than being in a in a hospital room
Speaker 1: with nobody you know around, you're around you know guys
Speaker 1: that can understand what you've been through. UM, explain a
Speaker 1: little bit about how important this um ME it's it's
Speaker 1: it's almost undescribable how important that is because I mean
Speaker 1: whenever you're at the hospital, I mean you're literally in
Speaker 1: a you're in a room you don't have, like you
Speaker 1: have a bed and a closet and maybe a TV
Speaker 1: or whatever, but you don't have your day to day
Speaker 1: stuff that you know you're gonna need. You're gonna end
Speaker 1: up having to figure out how to like work out
Speaker 1: later on UM and so it kind of gives you
Speaker 1: that um, that advantage instead of having a waiting wait
Speaker 1: until you're you've left the hospital, left to services, and
Speaker 1: then try to figure everything out. Now you're you're still
Speaker 1: doing rehab, you can go back to the hospital, do
Speaker 1: your therapy is there and like discuss everything with different amputees,
Speaker 1: or while you're while you're at your cottage, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're having trouble, you can go next door and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, how are you doing this? Oh well,
Speaker 1: I do it like this, or I do it like that,
Speaker 1: or you know something like that. So, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's incredible. Helps Wow, that's great. And you know,
Speaker 1: one thing I think a lot of civilians don't understand
Speaker 1: is how the transition like from being active duty being
Speaker 1: militarily retired. How Rocky that can be whether it's getting
Speaker 1: the benefits going or trying to figure out what to
Speaker 1: do with your life. Plus you and and people like
Speaker 1: you're generally very young. What was that experience like that transition? Um,
Speaker 1: well it would have been it would have been a
Speaker 1: lot worse had it had I not been within at
Speaker 1: the Three Station at those times. Because whenever I got
Speaker 1: retired from the Marine Corps and they transferred me over
Speaker 1: to the v A and everything like that, it took
Speaker 1: almost five months for me to get my my check
Speaker 1: from the v A. So if if I hadn't have
Speaker 1: been living at the Freedom Station, I probably, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I probably would have ended almost because I mean here
Speaker 1: I am. I had a career. I just retired, and
Speaker 1: you know that I didn't I had these injuries. I
Speaker 1: couldn't like go straight into the workforce. Um. I had
Speaker 1: no plans really because I was planning on doing another
Speaker 1: thirteen years in the in the Marine Corps. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't set up for it. So, like I said, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for the Freedom Station, I'd probably be living
Speaker 1: in my truck. That's sorry, I I hear. It took
Speaker 1: five months for we the people to get you your benefits.
Speaker 1: It makes me crazy, but I know there are folks
Speaker 1: working on that too, But thank god, Warrior Foundation Freedom
Speaker 1: Station is there in the interim for guys and gals
Speaker 1: like you. If you're liking this story, go to Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty dot com. We've got a big banner there.
Speaker 1: It's easy to see and donate any amount of money
Speaker 1: we'll do and it adds up really fast. And we
Speaker 1: always raise a lot of money because we've been around
Speaker 1: enough of these um enough of these guys and and
Speaker 1: toured enough times and heard enough stories that man, we
Speaker 1: we couldn't be bigger believers. We appreciate you coming on
Speaker 1: with us today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks Mike.
Speaker 1: Great to talk. I've known people that left the military
Speaker 1: and we're trying to transition back into regular life without
Speaker 1: the physical injuries. Were the emotional injuries These guys that
Speaker 1: you know, you're missing a couple of legs or an
Speaker 1: arm or whatever along with the emotional stuff, and you're
Speaker 1: supposed to just okay, now, now, good luck out there
Speaker 1: in the regular world. And you're young, you're not making
Speaker 1: a bunch of money as a marine or a soldier,
Speaker 1: and and and you gotta wait months and months and
Speaker 1: months and months to get any of your benefits. You know, again,
Speaker 1: it's a shame that it takes an organization like Warrior Foundation,
Speaker 1: Freedom Station, but it's absolutely completely needed, really needed, and
Speaker 1: thank god it's there, and thank you for your contributions.