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Speaker 1: Lute. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, military news and

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Speaker 1: straight talk with the guys and the community. Hey, what's

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Speaker 1: going on? Is another episode of soft Rep Radio and

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Speaker 1: I am your humbled host today rad and I have

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Speaker 1: a very special guest with me, Jeremy Stallnecker, who is

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Speaker 1: a United States Marine Corps infantry officer, has some decorations.

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Speaker 1: Will talk about and how he got those. But first

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Speaker 1: let's welcome Jeremy to the show. Welcome Jeremy. Thanks for ed.

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Speaker 1: Awesome to be with you man, looking forward the conversation. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: you know, I get asked by guests often like what's

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Speaker 1: the acronym for SOFTWAREP And maybe my listener never knew

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Speaker 1: it's a special operation Forces report, So guys would be deployed,

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Speaker 1: they say, hey, what's a quick SOFTWAREP from their command

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Speaker 1: and those guys in like the SF Green Berets Seals

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Speaker 1: high speed teams are giving these SOFTWAREP reports like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: this is what's going on in the environment. Now, you're

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Speaker 1: a former Marine officer, correct, right, that's right. I try

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Speaker 1: to keep testing myself sometimes, but yes, yes, yes, Now

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Speaker 1: did you ever have to call in and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: what's a softwap and what's going on? And what's crazy

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Speaker 1: going on out there? Yeah? Are we So my time

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Speaker 1: in Iraq, we were part of the initial invasion into Iraq.

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Speaker 1: We were moving forward to the forward edge of battle

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Speaker 1: was where we were all of the time, and so

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Speaker 1: there were the special Operations guys who were out in

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Speaker 1: front of us, and we were constantly getting intel from them,

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Speaker 1: so reaching out saying, hey, what's going on? What are

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Speaker 1: we about to hit? Yeah, that was our life for

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Speaker 1: basically the entire time I was in Iraq. How long

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Speaker 1: you in Iraq? I was there for six months, so

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Speaker 1: we were there. We actually went into Kuwait in January

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Speaker 1: of two thousand three, and then March nineteen pushed in,

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Speaker 1: so that entire deployment was a six month deployment. My

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Speaker 1: time in Iraq really was four months. I guess we

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Speaker 1: had the quit time, sat on the border, bounced back

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Speaker 1: and forth, and then March nineteenth March twenty pushed into

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Speaker 1: the country and started making our way to bad Dad.

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Speaker 1: So you're literally the tip of the spear that we

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Speaker 1: all sat at home after nine eleven and as you

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Speaker 1: guys went into Iraq, it was you and your companies

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Speaker 1: in the Marines. We were from Kuwait as the blade

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Speaker 1: of the edge of the tip of the spear, the

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Speaker 1: blade right like coming through so phase lines right. It

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Speaker 1: was pretty crazy time, man. We were supposed to go

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Speaker 1: in the morning of March twenty, so it's all a

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Speaker 1: daytime attack. We're going to hit the burn, the burn

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Speaker 1: is gonna be breached. Everything is visual because it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be during the day. And then the night before General

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Speaker 1: Mattis Division Commander pushed down Fifth Marines is moving in tonight,

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Speaker 1: and so it was we started our movement March nineteenth

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Speaker 1: into the early morning of March and did a nighttime attack,

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Speaker 1: which was nuts, not because we hadn't trained it, but

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Speaker 1: because the two months leading up to that, every rehearsal

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Speaker 1: we had done was you'll see a marker there, you'll

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Speaker 1: see a placard there. We're going to mark lanes on

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Speaker 1: the ground because it's gonna be a daytime attack. And

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Speaker 1: now it's the middle of the night and they're smoking

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Speaker 1: the air from burning oil lines. And yeah, it was

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Speaker 1: a crazy time, but we did it, and un there's

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Speaker 1: a lot to that story, of course, But from there

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Speaker 1: then made our way to Bagdad. Yeah, did you guys

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Speaker 1: have night vision? And like you know, the PVS four teams,

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Speaker 1: like the generation three style that vision, and and if

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Speaker 1: you did, what did that cloud? What did that oil cover?

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Speaker 1: Due to you with your optics, because like here you

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Speaker 1: are probably in fred lights on home vs. Probably night

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Speaker 1: vision is supposed to be like, you know, seeing through

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Speaker 1: the dark. But tell me what are you seeing? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so it's two thousand three, right, I have to remind

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Speaker 1: people of that because I don't feel that old. But

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Speaker 1: that was twenty years ago. We're getting ready to have

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Speaker 1: our twenty anniversary next year. And so we had, yeah,

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Speaker 1: PVS four teens we had so they were you know, minoculars.

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Speaker 1: Imagine looking at a television screen or a computer screen

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Speaker 1: and everything is like broken up you can see the

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Speaker 1: pixels on it. That's what going into the smoking environment

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Speaker 1: looked like through your night vision goggles. So you know,

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Speaker 1: it requires ambient light. So the smoke was blocking out

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Speaker 1: most of the moonlight, most of the ambient light. And

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Speaker 1: then what we were picking up, we're kind of the

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Speaker 1: particles in the air. So it was kind of this

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Speaker 1: like constant back and forth between bring them down to

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Speaker 1: see if I can see something, flip them back up

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Speaker 1: and it's a night attack. So first time, the more

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Speaker 1: are the tracer rounds are coming our direction, right, So

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Speaker 1: there's so many crazy things going on you can't see

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Speaker 1: it was. It was absolute chaos. But we worked through it,

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Speaker 1: of course, but it was a crazy, crazy night trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out things. I remember walking up to so

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to link up with different vehicles at

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Speaker 1: different times and it was literally like okay, drivers stop.

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Speaker 1: Then I jump out of the vehicle, get close to something,

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Speaker 1: try to figure out if that was the guy I

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Speaker 1: was supposed to link up with. And you just couldn't

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Speaker 1: see it. So there was a lot of that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of that. I mean you can

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Speaker 1: see how it could be so that would you call

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Speaker 1: that a fog of war? That was absolute fog of war.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was insane. So and a lot of

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Speaker 1: your listeners get this and understand this. But I came

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Speaker 1: into the Marine Corps, so not a lot going on.

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Speaker 1: Trains went, tamps, dropster course, went to all the training

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Speaker 1: stuff that I was supposed to do. Trained with my unit,

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Speaker 1: my platoon for two years leading up to going into Iraq.

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Speaker 1: But all of its training, right and so it's all

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Speaker 1: simulated and your entire life you're told don't shoot at people.

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Speaker 1: You'd be be careful where you go, don't do crazy

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Speaker 1: stuff right your entire life you're told this. And so

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Speaker 1: now we're in an environment that everything is flipped upside down.

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Speaker 1: We couldn't see anything we had dropped we being the

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Speaker 1: first Marine Division d P I c M. They're they're bomblets,

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Speaker 1: they're dropped out of the back of a plane, and

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Speaker 1: so it sets a minefield over a large areas. So

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Speaker 1: we set that up. But now it's the middle of

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Speaker 1: the night, so we can't even see our lanes of

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Speaker 1: travel that we're being marked out for us. So you know,

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Speaker 1: the next morning, my my truck hit one of those

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Speaker 1: blew out, our tires, blew out our engine block. Should

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Speaker 1: have killed all of us inside. Didn't, thankfully. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: so this you've got emotions going on which is clouding

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Speaker 1: even your judgment and your ability to make decisions. You

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Speaker 1: have the actual you know, fog of war, the smoke,

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Speaker 1: the darkness, the confusion, then you have this I'm shooting

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Speaker 1: at people and they're shooting back at me. It's one

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Speaker 1: of those crazy, crazy moments that First of all, you

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Speaker 1: adjust to very quickly. It's amazing how the human mind works.

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Speaker 1: But in those first several hours, it was just absolute chaos,

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Speaker 1: and it was just keep moving forward, keep moving forward,

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Speaker 1: keep moving forward. And you feel that you were coordinating

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Speaker 1: that chaos eloquently as you were, you know, as best

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Speaker 1: you could. So you know, it's crazy. Your audience knows

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Speaker 1: this better than most. But we always talk about how

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Speaker 1: you fall back to your level of training, right, if

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Speaker 1: you train well, you fall back to that and those

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Speaker 1: moments of aos. And in that fog of war, we

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Speaker 1: had trained so much. We were actually first Battalion, fifth Marines.

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Speaker 1: My battalion was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan shortly after

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Speaker 1: nine eleven, so we spun up really quick for that deployment.

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Speaker 1: We did not end up going, but we started that

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Speaker 1: training cycle literally two years before we ended up in Iraq.

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Speaker 1: So we trained a lot. That's movement, that's immediate action drills,

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Speaker 1: that's how we communicated with one another. So across the

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Speaker 1: battalion we had trained so much that even in that

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Speaker 1: fog of war, that's exactly what we fell back to. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it was brilliance I just

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Speaker 1: think it was so many hours of rehearsal that we

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Speaker 1: we did exactly what we had trained to do. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: a lot of instinctual muscle memory just took over and

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Speaker 1: you're doing what you're supposed to. It's almost like recently

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Speaker 1: there's been some shootings here in the US and like

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Speaker 1: some uh soft targets, like uh the club in Colorado,

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Speaker 1: and there was a combat veteran who took down the assailant.

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Speaker 1: He just said, I went into a different mode. He

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Speaker 1: just said, you know, all of a sudden, I'm just like,

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Speaker 1: you know, this has to stop. The lane of fire

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Speaker 1: started happening, and he just reacted to it, went in,

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Speaker 1: took down the shooter, according to his words, with another

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Speaker 1: helpful of the civilians. But immediately he started yelling casualties

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Speaker 1: and like just like casualties. You know, I can only imagine,

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Speaker 1: you know, you being so spun and trained since ninety six, right,

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Speaker 1: because that's pre nine eleven, you're not expecting like, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to invade on behalf of the world's freedom

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Speaker 1: right now, and you're in n You're like, hey, you know,

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Speaker 1: coastabout Bosnia is kind of kicking off, and then not

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Speaker 1: late nineties, But that's really like an air power issue,

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Speaker 1: you know, not the marine per se. But when nine

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Speaker 1: eleven happened, you were full on officer, right, You're probably like,

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Speaker 1: uh so, the Marine Corps has a unique rainstructure. You

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Speaker 1: got lieutenants, right, and then captain's. But the captain's like

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Speaker 1: a major in the army. So what rank did you

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Speaker 1: nine eleven? What were you? I'm curious about that. So

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Speaker 1: nine eleven, I was a first lieutenant, so second lieutenant,

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Speaker 1: then first lieutenant, and then right as I was getting

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Speaker 1: out of the Marine Corps. So I got out of

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps as we came shortly after we came

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Speaker 1: back from Iraq within a couple of months, and I

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Speaker 1: was promoted captain. So my deployment to Iraq that training process.

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Speaker 1: I was a first lieutenant for those are familiar with

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. In the Infantry Battalion, I was in

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Speaker 1: Weapons Company. I was senior lieutenant in the battalion, which

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Speaker 1: which only means that I had had the largest platoon

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Speaker 1: in the battalion. I had eighty marines. I had all

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Speaker 1: the heavy machine guns, the toe missiles, the anti armor,

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Speaker 1: the javelin systems. All of that was within my platoon. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was well the smallest yeah, right. The javelins are

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Speaker 1: the and they're still being used, but at the time

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Speaker 1: it was like, I think three had been fired ever,

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Speaker 1: and we fired like fifteen the first night. Right, there

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Speaker 1: are a hundred and ten thousand dollars apiece. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: so they're optic guided, you can fire and forget. They're

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Speaker 1: pretty awesome. But I had all of those with it

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Speaker 1: in my platoon and trained with those guys for two years,

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Speaker 1: so I basically had a company sized element. We navigated

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Speaker 1: for the battalion. So a battalion of marines about marines

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Speaker 1: that column stretches out quite a way is as you

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Speaker 1: can imagine. But my platoon provided security both front and rear,

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Speaker 1: and I navigated for for the battalion. So yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot going on. And again as a first lieutenant,

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Speaker 1: it was only people in the infantry world understand this.

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Speaker 1: But it was like a dream come true, right, Like

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Speaker 1: it was we had trained for the big the big game,

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Speaker 1: and here we are and we're all getting to play.

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Speaker 1: So it was it was crazy, as you mentioned, but

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Speaker 1: that was exactly what we had pointed our lives toward,

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Speaker 1: and it was it was pretty pretty amazing, pretty amazing.

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Speaker 1: That's incredible to dedicate yourself. Thank you first of all,

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Speaker 1: you know to you know, fighting for our nation's flag.

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Speaker 1: I totally appreciate that. Now, when you get out of

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Speaker 1: the military, you know you're like, hey, it's time to

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Speaker 1: hang those gloves up. You put on another set of gloves.

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Speaker 1: What are you battling now? What are you trying to help?

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Speaker 1: You know? Now that you've gotten out, how did you transition,

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Speaker 1: What are you transitioning into? What have you become? What's

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Speaker 1: your new butterfly after your cocoon? So my my process

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Speaker 1: after the Marine Corps was an interesting one. I ended

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Speaker 1: up in ministry of all things. I left the infantry

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Speaker 1: community and literally signed my d D two fourteen. A

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Speaker 1: month later, I was working on a church staff, and

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Speaker 1: I always say that, particularly for church people, it's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's a great place to land. It was horrible. I

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Speaker 1: was complete disaster. I was a wreck at home. I

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Speaker 1: was like weekly would get threatened with being fired at

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Speaker 1: my job at the church. I was just so angry

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Speaker 1: and so frustrated. It was two thousand three, so no

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Speaker 1: one was talking about combat trauma or post traumatic stress

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Speaker 1: or no one was having those conversations, right. So I

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Speaker 1: was a disaster and I got to the point where

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Speaker 1: literally my wife she should have left me. She didn't, thankfully,

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Speaker 1: in fact, twenty five years married, this next year she

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Speaker 1: well and she she was amazing. And I make that

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Speaker 1: point because we had two small kids, we had been

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Speaker 1: married for a few years, and she just stuck it out.

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Speaker 1: She loved me through it, and had she not, I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have gotten through it in any meaningful way. It

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Speaker 1: took a long time. But part of that process for me,

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Speaker 1: and I tell that part of the story, part of

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Speaker 1: that process for me of healing and moving forward, was saying,

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Speaker 1: I'm thankful for what I did in the Marine Corps,

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Speaker 1: but I can't go back there anymore. I can't think

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Speaker 1: about it, I can't talk about it. That was then,

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Speaker 1: this is something brand new, and literally for ten years

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Speaker 1: that's what I did. I worked at a church, I

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Speaker 1: ended up pastoring a church. A lot of things had

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Speaker 1: to happen, and a lot of growth and a lot

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Speaker 1: of people speaking into my life. But ten years went by,

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Speaker 1: and at the end of that or ten years later,

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Speaker 1: one of the marines that I had served reached out

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Speaker 1: to me and said Hey, hey, sir, And it's like

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Speaker 1: through Facebook. Right, I didn't even know how social messages

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Speaker 1: messaging worked. I don't like I understand anything, but I

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Speaker 1: get this message from this guy I served with, Jeremy Mayhun.

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Speaker 1: He's awesome and we've become very good friends since then.

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Speaker 1: But he's like, hey, sir, um, this program is starting.

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Speaker 1: I met this guy. He's starting this organization called the

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Speaker 1: Mighty Oaks Foundation. I don't know what it's about, but

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Speaker 1: he asked me to get some guys from our tune

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Speaker 1: to come and do one of these sessions. He's trying

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Speaker 1: to get it off the ground. And veterans are like

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Speaker 1: the most cynical, like hateful people in the world. Right,

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Speaker 1: So he's like, he wants to help veterans, but no

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Speaker 1: one will come. So we're gonna get some guys together

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Speaker 1: and come, would you do that? So I hadn't talked

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Speaker 1: to these guys in ten years. I had put my

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps time behind me. I was proud that we

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Speaker 1: went to Iraq and I brought these guys home and

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Speaker 1: that was it. So now I'm sitting in a circle

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Speaker 1: in Colorado around a fire with these guys that I

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Speaker 1: had served with and so I've got this picture hanging

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Speaker 1: over my my desk. It's a picture of my platoon

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Speaker 1: and Baghdad and the rubble of a building at the

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Speaker 1: presidential palace, the al Asmaya Palace on the north side

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Speaker 1: of the river. And so I've looked at that picture

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Speaker 1: thousands of times. I've always been proud of the fact

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Speaker 1: that those guys came home. And then I'm sitting in

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Speaker 1: this circle and I start to hear stories about some

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Speaker 1: of those guys in that picture. I hear stories about

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Speaker 1: marines that I served with that came home and took

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Speaker 1: their lives and marriage is destroyed and least that aren't

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Speaker 1: functioning in any meaningful way. I had a marine that

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Speaker 1: was sitting next to me, one of the guys that

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Speaker 1: I had served with. He he had just come into

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Speaker 1: my platoon before we went to Iraq. He made a statement,

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Speaker 1: so this is ten years later, right, He said, basically,

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Speaker 1: for ten years, I've hated you. And he said, you

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Speaker 1: promised that you'd be with us, and then you left.

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Speaker 1: We went back to Fallujah, you weren't there and there

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Speaker 1: was no one to take care of us. And he

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Speaker 1: started to express this again. We we communicate. Now we're friends.

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Speaker 1: But it was this process of like unpacking this and

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Speaker 1: what I realized kind of the epiphany moment for me

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Speaker 1: in that conversation and in that week that we spent together,

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Speaker 1: was my time of serving those who I served with

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Speaker 1: didn't end when I put the uniform in the closet

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Speaker 1: for the last time. I still have an obligation to

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Speaker 1: serve these guys and to help them and to encourage

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Speaker 1: them and to give them the tools they need to

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Speaker 1: move forward. And that was a huge turning point for me.

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Speaker 1: And again, the Mighty Yokes Foundation was getting started. Add

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Speaker 1: Rob Show. He and his family, he's a special operations guy.

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Speaker 1: He and his family were getting started. We met. He's like,

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Speaker 1: hey man, I'm trying to get this thing off the ground.

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Speaker 1: Can you help me? We started moving. That was two

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Speaker 1: thousand twelve. That's very cool. And so the context there

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Speaker 1: is your guys needed you. They're like, we had to

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Speaker 1: keep going. You got out. They're like, and you lived

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Speaker 1: and you got you did your job six to two

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Speaker 1: thousand three, that you did it okay, but they're like,

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Speaker 1: you know, we had to go back and where were

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Speaker 1: you and your leadership And now you've seen him after

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Speaker 1: ten years and he's probably saying, you know, maybe you're saying,

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Speaker 1: we need you to like I need you to like

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Speaker 1: this whole click was missing. I mean, you went on

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Speaker 1: your way and did your life, and you've grown in

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Speaker 1: these ten years and I'm just you know, outside perspective here.

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Speaker 1: It just they come together because I interviewed a gentleman

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Speaker 1: that received the Medal of Honor and I'm the same

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Speaker 1: type of vibe. Right. He was like, look, it should

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Speaker 1: be all of them have got this, right, we should all,

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Speaker 1: you know, And now they're all friends together and they're

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Speaker 1: moving forward and they're gonna stand he got the award,

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Speaker 1: the you know comment, the metal but and they want

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Speaker 1: him to be that conduit for it, so they're okay

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Speaker 1: with that, right. So here you are being this conduit

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Speaker 1: of Hey, you know, I went and found some self

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Speaker 1: help for myself. Maybe it wasn't so much in the core,

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Speaker 1: but it was outside the core. And now that you're out,

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Speaker 1: I can help you with that, right because here you are.

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Speaker 1: You know, I just find you to be a very

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Speaker 1: well spoken, kind demeanor style. You know, cool microphone, you

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Speaker 1: know that particularly cool microphone part. He's got a cool

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Speaker 1: microphone on desk, like David Letterman. If you're listening and

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Speaker 1: you don't happen to see the video, he's got like

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Speaker 1: a David Letterman microphone. I'm using this. You know, the

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Speaker 1: dollar headset that's worse, But I need a David Letterman microphone. Bro. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're not that much more than dollars. They just look nice.

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Speaker 1: And then, uh so your your ministries? What state are

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Speaker 1: you based out of with your ministries? Yeah? So the

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Speaker 1: organization is called the Mighty Oaks Foundation, and we are

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Speaker 1: a what we call a faith based nonprofit. We work

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Speaker 1: with veterans, active duty service members, and now first responders

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Speaker 1: as well as families. We're based out of Texas, but

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Speaker 1: we run our programs across the country. I actually live

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Speaker 1: in southern California. Our programs take place. We have a

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Speaker 1: week long program. It takes place in California, Texas, Ohio,

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Speaker 1: and Virginia. We've got five locations that we use and

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Speaker 1: we bring men or women their separate programs and men's

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Speaker 1: program and a women's program to one of those facilities.

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Speaker 1: We cover the cost of the program and we also

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Speaker 1: cover the cost of travel to get there. So literally

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Speaker 1: all we're asking for is five days of year time

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Speaker 1: come and spend time with other men and women who

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Speaker 1: have experienced what you've experienced. But as you mentioned, discovered

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Speaker 1: some tools to move forward, and we want to just

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Speaker 1: just help do that, right Like it's it's a continuing brotherhood.

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Speaker 1: It's not teaching down. It's going hey man, I know

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Speaker 1: where you are because I've been there, and I want

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Speaker 1: to help you move forward, just like I moved forward.

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Speaker 1: And so it's been it's been great, right. And uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, in the training world, whether you're in corporate

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Speaker 1: management or you're in the Marine Corps management, you know,

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Speaker 1: having a toolbox with added tools from other leadership is

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Speaker 1: what and other people can help you out, you know.

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Speaker 1: And just because you're a private doesn't mean that you're

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Speaker 1: not a leader, okay, because you can still have of

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Speaker 1: that Addie Murphy in you. All right, I get it,

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Speaker 1: and so you know, bring it to the table, right

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Speaker 1: and then there's proper ways, there's changes the commands that

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Speaker 1: you can bring that stuff to the table. You gotta

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Speaker 1: you gotta try to get uh in somebody else's head

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Speaker 1: to see how they succeed and then maybe pull a

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Speaker 1: piece of that into your life. It doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: be the whole gamut. You don't have to do I

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Speaker 1: don't have to do every single thing Jeremy's done to

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Speaker 1: become the best me. Maybe, hey, you know, you should

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Speaker 1: take a moment have some self reflection every morning. Maybe

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Speaker 1: I should have you know, some type of you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe I should drink water at eight am every day

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Speaker 1: and just cool my insides down with water, that type

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Speaker 1: of thing. And we do have a lot of veterans

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Speaker 1: out there, Jeremy at our listeners, and even those that

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Speaker 1: haven't served in combat or in the in the world

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Speaker 1: of the military that are listening that are having trials

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Speaker 1: and tribulations in life. You know, PTSD, car accidents, you know,

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Speaker 1: a T four is going off your head, whatever the

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Speaker 1: case may be. You know, hard labor and delivery for family.

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Speaker 1: You know, somebody in a birthing situation, how do they

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Speaker 1: cope with it? And so, you know, I've heard a

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Speaker 1: lot of different like you know, opportunities through a lot

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Speaker 1: of guests, and you know, yours seems like just a

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Speaker 1: real up in here, like in your head. You know,

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Speaker 1: let's sit down and find our inner selves and try

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Speaker 1: to move forward. Right, Yeah, that's it. And you know,

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Speaker 1: we talked about resiliency, a lot. What is it to

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Speaker 1: be resilient? To be resilient means that you have predecided,

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Speaker 1: you've made a decision before the craziness of life happens.

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Speaker 1: Because we're all going to deal with traumas and trials

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Speaker 1: and obstacles. You decide before that happens, how you're going

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Speaker 1: to respond when it does. And so you're resilient because

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Speaker 1: when you get knocked down, which we all will, you

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Speaker 1: have something to bounce back to. And so for it's

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Speaker 1: it's working through that with people that have been knocked

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Speaker 1: down and don't know what they're trying to get back to.

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Speaker 1: Let's set that, Let's establish what that true north is

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Speaker 1: so that you can align your life. You can, you know,

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Speaker 1: put your life on that true north on that night,

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Speaker 1: that north that asthmuth and continue moving forward. And you know,

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Speaker 1: for us, that begins with a faith relationship and relationship

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Speaker 1: with God, understanding who you were created to be, and

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Speaker 1: then moving forward into that. And again it's very much.

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Speaker 1: People hear that and they think it's like a Sunday

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Speaker 1: school thing or a church thing. It's not. It's it's

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Speaker 1: it's guys and girls, men and women going, Look, I

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Speaker 1: was broken, I had fallen. Here are some things I've

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Speaker 1: learned and and I want to help you do the same.

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Speaker 1: It's reconnecting to the brotherhood. It's reconnecting to those relationships

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Speaker 1: and moving forward together. So yeah, it very much is.

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Speaker 1: It starts in your brain hopefully it makes its way

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Speaker 1: to your heart, and then it impacts every relationship and

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Speaker 1: every decision outside of that. Uh. You know. And I

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Speaker 1: was raised religious my whole life, you know, in the

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Speaker 1: in the LDS, the Mormon faith here, and you know, um,

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Speaker 1: I guess what I'm going with is, you know, as

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Speaker 1: I've gotten older, I've just like had questions in my

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00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: own life and just like grown, you know, kind of

426
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:14,600
Speaker 1: into my own if you will. Religion all right, where

427
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, I appreciate do good to others, I

428
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: appreciate the Golden rule. I appreciate family first, I appreciate

429
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,320
Speaker 1: help thy neighbor. I appreciate all those things. Right, so

430
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,080
Speaker 1: I can just incorporate those things in my life on

431
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:29,560
Speaker 1: the daily, like be good, open the door, He'll give

432
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:31,680
Speaker 1: a glass of water to someone needing a glass of water.

433
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,359
Speaker 1: You know. But I think what I what I found

434
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 1: is my own self, my own self faith, and you know,

435
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,000
Speaker 1: whether it's a huge denomination out there, you're in some

436
00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,479
Speaker 1: huge you know, or you're in a small little sect uh,

437
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,080
Speaker 1: you know, religion that or a faith you know based

438
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,760
Speaker 1: I think as long as you're finding it within yourself,

439
00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:53,840
Speaker 1: that's probably the best way to find it. You know.

440
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: It's like, what am I trying to say? It's just

441
00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 1: in you. It's all in us, right, It's just you know,

442
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 1: that greater God quote unquote is something that when we

443
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 1: close our eyes we can try to achieve to find.

444
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, whether that's meditation or prayer, uh,

445
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,400
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, and it's you know, A big part

446
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:16,680
Speaker 1: of that is understanding that the hope isn't found within

447
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 1: you necessarily, right, because we all get like in our brains.

448
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 1: I realized how inadequate I am, where I fall short,

449
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 1: how selfish I am, all of these things I try

450
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 1: to hide from other people. So it's understanding that the

451
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,239
Speaker 1: hope comes from outside of me. And when you know,

452
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,040
Speaker 1: from my perspective, when I say, you know, God is

453
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 1: God created. If God created, he has a purpose and

454
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,880
Speaker 1: a plan for my life. And that's less about me

455
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 1: and more about him. And I just need to move

456
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:47,439
Speaker 1: into that and so it takes the responsibility off of

457
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 1: me to be God, and it puts within me then

458
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,159
Speaker 1: the responsibility to pursue who I was created to be.

459
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:58,359
Speaker 1: And when we understand we have purpose, we have direction,

460
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 1: there are things that we alone can do and no

461
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,680
Speaker 1: one else can, and we start to move into that,

462
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,399
Speaker 1: it changes every conversation in our lives because no longer

463
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,399
Speaker 1: am I trying to like generate something that doesn't exist.

464
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm simply trying to be what I was created to be.

465
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:18,679
Speaker 1: And that again changes everything, changes everything. Right, being the

466
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: best you is the best thing to be, because I've

467
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 1: said it before. When you're on a plane and they're

468
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: constructing you before your flight, to put the oxygen mask

469
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 1: on yourself first, and then I'll sell them the next

470
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,359
Speaker 1: person next to you. It's like, fix you first, focus

471
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: on you. Breathe okay, you know if it's not flowing,

472
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 1: you're still focusing on you. Or even if you don't

473
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:44,600
Speaker 1: see a bag inflating, Right, that's that same thought processes.

474
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: You focus on yourself, be a positive, better self, and

475
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: then that'll even ooze off of you onto somebody else

476
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: without even realizing it. You're just like, hey, what's this right? Yeah? Yeah,

477
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 1: and understanding, like I'm putting the oxygen mask on myself

478
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 1: so that then I'm in a better used to help

479
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: the person next to me, right, And I think in

480
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 1: the veteran community, that's where we sometimes fall short. It's

481
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: like I'm doing this for me, stay away from me. No,

482
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 1: you're doing this for you so you can then help

483
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: the people who are coming up behind you. That's exactly right,

484
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 1: because they may not be able to do it. Right,

485
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: That's right, That's exactly right. And uh, how to percent

486
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 1: agree on that? It's it's not so much being selfish,

487
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:25,359
Speaker 1: it's just that you have to be a little to

488
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: yourself to help the others. So that I mean, if

489
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 1: you're down and out, who someone needs to help you

490
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: and that person has their option mass gone straight? Okay, right,

491
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 1: that's exactly right, that's right, exactly right. It is. It is.

492
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 1: The other night, I'm just being vulnerable. I was just

493
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: laying in bed and I was just thinking to myself

494
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: and I was just going through my head. And then

495
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 1: the next day I woke up and talk to my

496
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 1: wife and said, you know, I was going through my head.

497
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: She's like stop it. She's like stop it. She's like

498
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: stay out of there, whatever you want to put, whatever

499
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,959
Speaker 1: you're thinking, whatever your head spin in, whatever, you know,

500
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:00,360
Speaker 1: thing that was negative that you were tripped and on.

501
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 1: She's like, stop it. And I was like I needed that.

502
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:05,760
Speaker 1: That was my oxygen mask moment from her because I

503
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: was just good man, five years old, running a family,

504
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: running a business, scheduling podcasts, so much going on in

505
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:20,240
Speaker 1: my head. You know, I'm only yeah, we've gotta have

506
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:22,520
Speaker 1: people speaking in and and that's a big part of it, right.

507
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, look, man, get out of your head.

508
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 1: Like let's see things the way they actually are, not

509
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: the way they are in your brain. And you know what.

510
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: She said that to me, and she grounded me, and

511
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:37,680
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you're right. You know. I was like, hey,

512
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: thanks babe. I appreciate you saying hey, get out of

513
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: your head, you know. And and honestly, I talked to

514
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 1: you prior I was having a I had a vassectomy, okay,

515
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 1: so I went and got my nads snipped to do

516
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 1: the right thing for myself. I already got three children

517
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: and you know, uh a lineage created, so I feel confident.

518
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 1: And I was just tripping out about it, you know.

519
00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:58,600
Speaker 1: I was like boy, what am I doing? Am I

520
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 1: cutting myself down? And I, you know, are these the

521
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: right moves? And so it was a lot of this.

522
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: It just started going crazy, you know. Um and the

523
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 1: doctor didn't help when I went and investigated in the

524
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:10,719
Speaker 1: in June, I went to be at my appointment, all right,

525
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: and he's like, why are you here to break yourself?

526
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 1: And so I've just been thinking about that the whole time,

527
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:17,920
Speaker 1: like until just the other day when I got it done.

528
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 1: I was like, why would he say that, Why would

529
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: he say why are you breaking yourself? When I feel

530
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: that it's it's a choice I'm making, right, It's a

531
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 1: freedom of choice to do this. So that that going

532
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: up to the procedure, I thought he was the doctor,

533
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: and so this whole time in my head, I'm like,

534
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 1: I gotta deal with this guy. He's gonna be cutting

535
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: my nads open. I gotta deal with this guy. I

536
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 1: can't stand him. He's already like insulted in my intelligence

537
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: and demeaned me with coming into this procedure, you know.

538
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden I find out he's

539
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 1: a p A and the doctor is a lady. And

540
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: I'm in the room just like this it's been like

541
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: a day ago. And I was like, you're not the dude.

542
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: She's like, no, he's just a physician's assistant. I said,

543
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: of course he is. It's like, of course, and there's

544
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: a reason for that. And there's a reason for that. Bro,

545
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: you're on my podcast. I'm talking. I'm not naming your name,

546
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: but you know I'm telling you right now, Bro, you

547
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: should have said that. You should have. Are you here

548
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 1: for your procedure? Mr Radel? Yes, No one wants to

549
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: bed being broken. So anyways, as I sit on a

550
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 1: bag of peas right now talking to you, my friend

551
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 1: becoming friends with you on all sorts of motre and

552
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,159
Speaker 1: literally motrin, right, they don't get away from it. Oh

553
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: take some more. Yeah, just take some more. Just take

554
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 1: some moreh Yeah. They gave me. They gave me a valume,

555
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: like for the first day to come in, right, She's like,

556
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 1: did you bring your did you bring your pill with you?

557
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, it's right here, sealed. I've

558
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 1: never had one. And she's like, okay, let's watch you

559
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: take it. So I took this valume and I looked

560
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: at my wife and I tossed the pill back and

561
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: forth in the bottle like three times before I took it,

562
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: looking at this thing, like what am I about to do?

563
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: So I took it, drank the water in front of him,

564
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 1: and then she's like, do you want to take the bottle?

565
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, is there any refills on this?

566
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: She's like no, she took the bottle away from the

567
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 1: immediate I was like, I'm not sure what's gonna happen then,

568
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 1: and then she gave me a motor and instead just

569
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 1: take these bro I mean, all I felt was some

570
00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 1: tugging and pulling and some conversation in the surgery, you know,

571
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: and then it was done. It was pretty much about

572
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: an hour's process from the from the time I popped

573
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:22,360
Speaker 1: the pill to get in my my snipped situation, which

574
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 1: is what this was not the storyboard of our conversation.

575
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: I swear, I feel like we're doing some therapy right now.

576
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,239
Speaker 1: And it's okay, It's okay, man, unload whatever you gotta do. Well,

577
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 1: we'll be unloading you, I promise you that. But one

578
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 1: of these so my list, I'm not gonna help you

579
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: with that, but we'll work through the psychological part. You know,

580
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: if if you've been through it, I'm going through it

581
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: with you. If you've succeeded, I'm gonna be right there

582
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: in about three months, so we'll see what happens. And uh,

583
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: and that's just that's what's up. I was in my

584
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: head about that whole process, right, and now I've done it,

585
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: I was like, did you need to be in my head?

586
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: It was as simple as putting more into it. And

587
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: I think that's where I'm bringing that back full circle,

588
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: is you know, getting in your head and finding that

589
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 1: outside voice of reason that might be there, you know,

590
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: the lighthouse on the rocky shore. I hate to be

591
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: so those are you know, limericks or whatever, but it

592
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: is what it is. You know. I listened to this

593
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: song called Lighthouse by a band called The Used, and

594
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 1: it really just is a very good upbeat song about

595
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: lighthouses and rocky shores ahead and their songs and stuff

596
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 1: and really just pumps me up. And so, um, I

597
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: really enjoy talking to you. I just feel like you're

598
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: a bit of a lighthouse. Just to let you know that, well,

599
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: I appreciate you saying that, yeah, And really that's what

600
00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 1: it is, right. It comes down to each one of

601
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: us serving that function, to use that analogy for other

602
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: people is showing other people the way. And if we

603
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: can get that perspective where my job is to help

604
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 1: other people find their way to safety, then I'm not

605
00:29:57,880 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 1: in my head all the time. I'm not dealing with

606
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:03,480
Speaker 1: some which anxiety about me because my focus is on them.

607
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 1: And when we focus on other people again, it changes,

608
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: It changes our perspectives on the other stuff that we're doing. Man,

609
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: if we can be that lighthouse, be that guide, be

610
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: that encouragement, be the voice of reason, whatever you want

611
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: to say, if we can be that for other people,

612
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: then we're gonna be better off ourselves. It's it's crazy

613
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 1: how it works, but helping other people helps us and

614
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 1: it continues to generate that energy. It's infectious, exactly what

615
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: you're saying. You know, uh, you know you want to

616
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: do a good turn daily, right, It's kind of a

617
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: boy scout motto. And uh, you know, have you done

618
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: any good in the world today? You know, if you

619
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: think about that, like what have you done today to

620
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: help a neighbor or someone in need? Or have you

621
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,719
Speaker 1: cheered up the sad and make someone feel glad. I'm

622
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 1: gonna start singing the song, but at the end of

623
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 1: the day. It's true, right, and so I do live

624
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: by that. I do love to have a smile all

625
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: the time. And you know, it's crazy. I'm standing outside

626
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 1: of my shop here in in Lton, outside Hill Air

627
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 1: Force Base with a line. I'm like, you know, the

628
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: pizza guy, except it's for air Soft. And so I'm

629
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: out there and I always do it around to thirty

630
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: because that's when all the kids in the school busses

631
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: are getting out of school to go right by me

632
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: every one single day. And so I'm out there like, hey, yo,

633
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,840
Speaker 1: wargames air Soft. So I was like, I gotta show

634
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 1: them that we do this in the winter. So we

635
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: just had a huge storm. So here it is two o'clock.

636
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of Hill Air Force Base, late

637
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: in Utah. It's super windy, it's super snow, and I'm like,

638
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 1: I'm going out. So I take my sign out to

639
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: the blizzard and I'm on the street sign and here

640
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,719
Speaker 1: comes to school buses and every one of them are

641
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: honking and they're all like yes, and I'm just like

642
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 1: core memory coming here. We do this in the snow,

643
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: you know, snow Beard is happening, you know, to prove

644
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 1: a point like I'm gonna be out there, but I'm

645
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 1: would be marketing myself the passion I have. So if

646
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: you're out there and you're passionate and you can focus

647
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: your your your energy on these passions, and you're probably

648
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty successful at that. You know, you seem

649
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 1: to be passionate. Yeah, no, I mean what else do

650
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 1: we have? Right, If we're not passionate about helping other people,

651
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: then what else do we have? I think that that

652
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: has to be it. So, yeah, it does. And I'm

653
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 1: not really like, you know, you have to be this

654
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: faith or that faith. I think that's what I was

655
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 1: trying to get at earlier, like you know, raised one

656
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: way of a grown into a new butterfly cocoon and

657
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 1: butterfly it out. And so I think that some people

658
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: can go into the military with no religion or no

659
00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: faith and then find something there because you're just really

660
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: backing your head again, right, It's like, there's gotta be

661
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: somebody greater than you who's put you there to make

662
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: these decisions? What divine intervention got involved in my life

663
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: to put me in the military. Why did I choose

664
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: to join and get yelled at by these people? You know,

665
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: to do this job. Yeah, that whole cliche. There's no

666
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 1: atheists and foxholes, right. I Mean, I've met plenty of

667
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,240
Speaker 1: atheists in the military, but but I think principally it's

668
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: you think you've got it all under control, you've got

669
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: it all figured out, and then you're hunkered down behind

670
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,840
Speaker 1: a wall or behind some sandbags, and there's an enemy

671
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 1: out there that you've never met. You don't know why

672
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: they hate you, but they're trying to kill you, and

673
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 1: you have to go like, shoot, man, there's gotta be

674
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: something else out here, Like Okay, there's gotta be something

675
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: bigger than this, and that those moments we got a

676
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: big firefight at a at on a bridge. It's crazy story,

677
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: and we came through the other side of that, and

678
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: I remember as a year old guy going wow, like,

679
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: there's some things I can control and there's an awful

680
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 1: lot I can't control, and I just need to let

681
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,160
Speaker 1: go of the stuff I can't control focus on what

682
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: I can And yeah, I don't know how you come

683
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: out of that environment and not conclude that there has

684
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 1: to be something more to you know, to life, and

685
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 1: it sets things in order. Otherwise, Um, I can see

686
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: how you get depressed and yeah, really it's like you've

687
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: got to look outside of the exactly and and somebody,

688
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 1: you know, being at the level of an office surgergy

689
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: of have anybody like you confide it in like any

690
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: battle buddies that were like, hey, thanks for holding me

691
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: out of that that that firefight on the bridge. Thought

692
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: process that I had, I mean, like you know, was

693
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: it was there dark times for you and then you

694
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: found this uh ministry. Yeah, so I was. I was

695
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: a Christian before I went into the Marine Corps, and

696
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:17,839
Speaker 1: I was raising a Christian home and so I had,

697
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:20,800
Speaker 1: you know, an understanding of faith and of God and

698
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:22,879
Speaker 1: and that, but I don't know that I made it real.

699
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 1: And this is what I think the Marine Corps did

700
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: for me and what certainly combat did for me, was

701
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: it took it from this. You know, I believe this

702
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 1: is important. I'm going to participate in this faith thing too,

703
00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:37,879
Speaker 1: like this is this is real for me. Going back

704
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:39,399
Speaker 1: a little bit to what you said, is I think

705
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,719
Speaker 1: we have to settle on what do I believe about this,

706
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: what do I think about this? And in those environments

707
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: that are so chaotic and so out of control, and

708
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest, there are some really bad

709
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 1: people in the world, but a lot of the guys

710
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 1: on the other side that are firing back at us,

711
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: they're not bad people. There's just people who ended up

712
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,320
Speaker 1: on the other side of a conflict, I think side,

713
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 1: particularly in defending their side, and I mean particularly the

714
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 1: early days of the war in Iraq. The reason we

715
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: had thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendering is because they didn't

716
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 1: know why they were there either, right sophy, and we

717
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,399
Speaker 1: convince ourselves it's like good against evil and all of that,

718
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,399
Speaker 1: and in a large sense it is that, But when

719
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: it comes down to two people on the battlefield, so

720
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 1: often it's it's two people trying to defend their ideals

721
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: and and what they believe is right. But it's not

722
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 1: a good versus evil thing on the soldier to soldier,

723
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: a military guy, a military guy perspective on the global scale, Like,

724
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: I get all of that, but it's like we're just

725
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 1: trying to do our best right and when you go

726
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: through that, you realize, like, this is different than what

727
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,440
Speaker 1: I thought it was, And I've got to ask the question,

728
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: what's what's out there, what's bigger, what's motivating this? You know,

729
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 1: what's outside of me. And and that's what that did

730
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 1: for me for sure. Now do you find that, you know,

731
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 1: being in the ministry, you know, being being a minister,

732
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: that you just get asked to do weddings all the

733
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: time and you're like, hey, okay, I can do that,

734
00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 1: you know, but there's a little more to it, right,

735
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,760
Speaker 1: you really have any have you been doing the marriages? Yeah,

736
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of weddings and I've done a

737
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 1: lot of funerals, um. But you know, I'm not pastoring anymore.

738
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: So I am running our ministry full time and and

739
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:25,879
Speaker 1: so it's a different type of ministry now, right. And

740
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: one of the things I like about what we do

741
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: is it's very focused on real life today kind of issues,

742
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: and I feel like I can have a direct impact,

743
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 1: you know, on the phone today a conversation with someone

744
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,359
Speaker 1: that I care about or someone that reaches out to me.

745
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: And through our programs, it's bringing very hurt, very broken

746
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: people and over the course of a week, giving them

747
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 1: hope and giving them direction. And so I don't mind

748
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: doing the other things, but I love that part of

749
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 1: what we get to do. You know. A question that

750
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: just is in my head here we go again, is

751
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,280
Speaker 1: you know, if you're Christian and if I was raised Christian,

752
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 1: and then let's say the leader of the free world

753
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:10,040
Speaker 1: is Christian and the leader of like say, Russia's Christian.

754
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: Why does my Christian God allow them to go to war?

755
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: When I talked to him to tell him not to

756
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:20,840
Speaker 1: go to war, you know, when I'm telling him, hey,

757
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 1: can you please stop going to war? But like they're

758
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,000
Speaker 1: being divinely told to go to war or to do

759
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,440
Speaker 1: these you know things like truly, what do you what

760
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: do you think about that thought? Yeah, well I think

761
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,799
Speaker 1: that's a really big thought. I'll say a couple of things. Yeah,

762
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 1: I'll say a couple of things. One one person defines

763
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: as a Christian or Christianity and what another person to

764
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: find are not necessarily the same. So that's the first thing. Right,

765
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,000
Speaker 1: we start from a premise that we all believe the

766
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: same thing and believe in God the same way, And

767
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:58,560
Speaker 1: that's first of all, just not true. So what I

768
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: mean when I say I'm a Christian and what someone

769
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,000
Speaker 1: else means when they say they're a Christian, you know,

770
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 1: those may not be the same thing. So that's that's

771
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: the first thing. And then when someone says God told

772
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:11,359
Speaker 1: me or God revealed to me. I have no way

773
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 1: of knowing what that even means. I don't know if that's,

774
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 1: you know, a drug induced vision, if that's a feeling

775
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:20,759
Speaker 1: they have that they want to blame on God. I

776
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: don't know what that is. And so for me, as

777
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 1: a Christian, I do my best to go back to

778
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: what does the Bible say. And if these visions, these directions,

779
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: these word of God things don't connect to what the

780
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,240
Speaker 1: Bible says, they don't reflect who God is in the Bible,

781
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: that I have to dismiss it as that's not who

782
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: God is and that's not what God would have us

783
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 1: to do. Now, certainly, I also believe in free will,

784
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 1: so God allowing things to happen that are outside of

785
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: his perfect will. And this gets into a much deeper

786
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 1: issue right when we talk about sin and acceptance and

787
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: the love of God and our love for God. Why

788
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,200
Speaker 1: does God allow things to happen? I mean, I can't

789
00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: always answer that question, but bad things happen because bad

790
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,960
Speaker 1: people do bad things. The question is why does God

791
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,320
Speaker 1: allow it? I don't always know the answer to that question.

792
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: But just because someone says God told them, I don't

793
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 1: put much stock in that year or so, and it doesn't.

794
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 1: It does happen though, right, we do hear that? Absolutely? Yeah, yeah,

795
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,719
Speaker 1: well it's crazy. I mean, on both sides of this, right,

796
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: there's always a religious argument. There's always a religious argument.

797
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 1: So look, I don't know. I don't know what your

798
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,799
Speaker 1: God told you or what the voice in your head

799
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: told you. I don't have any idea, but I believe

800
00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: that God is and that God prefers desires for mankind

801
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: to love each other, to care for one another. I

802
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 1: believe there's a right way in a wrong way. But

803
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 1: I can't speak for what you know someone else is

804
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:49,360
Speaker 1: doing or the decisions someone else is making. I know

805
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 1: some horrible atrocities have been done over the course of

806
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,839
Speaker 1: human history and the name of God that God would

807
00:39:55,840 --> 00:40:00,719
Speaker 1: absolutely condemn, right, like exactly in That's where I'm bringing

808
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: it up, is because like the guy being killed praised

809
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 1: in the same God to the guy that's killing him, Okay,

810
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 1: And so it's like that's that's That's what I'm trying

811
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: to get to. It's like, well, you know, how do

812
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: we just I guess be ready to do that if

813
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: we have to, like the tip of the spear always

814
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 1: has to be sharp, you know, but we should just

815
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 1: know that they're in the armory ready to be used.

816
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:23,400
Speaker 1: And so there are people ready to use these spears

817
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 1: and these these things to defend their civilizations. But I

818
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 1: think that when people jump on the bandwagon that their

819
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: leader of their civilization told him X y Z, God

820
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:39,000
Speaker 1: told him to do it. Yeah, And I'm thankful to

821
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 1: live in a country like I'm thankful in the United States.

822
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: Conscription is not a normal part of our process. So

823
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 1: I'm not forced into the military. No one else is

824
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: forced into the military. I know we've had those times,

825
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 1: but but right now that's not the case. And so

826
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 1: each person has to, before God decide is this something

827
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,760
Speaker 1: that I want to be involved in? And then based

828
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: on the policies of people that are largely godless, we

829
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:06,799
Speaker 1: have to look at that and go, is that a

830
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 1: policy that I can support? And you know, even looking

831
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 1: back into what happened in Iraq, I mean so many

832
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: years ago, I have a very different view of that

833
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: now than I did in two thousand two and two

834
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,200
Speaker 1: thousand three. And we have the free will as Americans

835
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: to decide if I'm going to support that, if I'm

836
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 1: going to be a part of that or not. And

837
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: so to put stock in a leader who says God

838
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:32,839
Speaker 1: told me is man, that's a foolish pursuit. You have

839
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:34,799
Speaker 1: to you have to ask what God wants you to

840
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:38,080
Speaker 1: do and then pursue that. Right, Like, does God want

841
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:41,000
Speaker 1: me to follow the guy that is following God's decisions

842
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: on that side? Yeah, it's like you gotta because I

843
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,879
Speaker 1: can't know if he is. I can't even know who's following, right,

844
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't. I can't know that, And so

845
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 1: I need to be honest before God and myself, right.

846
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: And you know, growing up as the son of a

847
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: Green Beret in my life, my dad was that faith

848
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 1: lead or and my mother also very faithful with the

849
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,720
Speaker 1: church and just instilled that, you know, core of faith.

850
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:07,760
Speaker 1: But I also know it's a part of his job

851
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 1: as that Green Beret. It's a one of the five

852
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: requirements is a faith. Right, you have to have some

853
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: kind of a faith. And so it's kind of an

854
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: under line. I'm not saying it's a hazing ritual. It's

855
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 1: just a part of the culture is you have to

856
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 1: have and so um, you know, if you go in

857
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 1: without one, you're gonna have to find one, and somehow

858
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,480
Speaker 1: it's either you being in your most zen state or

859
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,840
Speaker 1: you're wearing a Jedi dog tag that says um the

860
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 1: third year Sith Jedi. You have to have a faith

861
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: because those are that exists. You know, there's so many

862
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: denominations now in the military. It's no longer Catholic, Protestant.

863
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 1: It's like Jedi, wicked, you know, Pagan. I don't I

864
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:54,400
Speaker 1: think there might be a star Trek. I'm just saying

865
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: the question of faith is is a is an interesting question? Right?

866
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,239
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, or who are people who are listening,

867
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 1: who are exploring I'll say this. Your faith is only

868
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:07,799
Speaker 1: as good as the object of your faith. So if

869
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:10,280
Speaker 1: your faith is in yourself, it's going to fall short.

870
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: If your faith is in the force, it's going to

871
00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:16,720
Speaker 1: fall short. If your faith is in whatever, your faith

872
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,760
Speaker 1: is only as good. Faith in itself is not helpful.

873
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 1: Your faith is only as good as the object of

874
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,880
Speaker 1: your faith. If the object of your faith is not

875
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 1: bigger than your world, and bigger than what you're going through,

876
00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 1: and bigger than what you're dealing with and outside of

877
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:38,000
Speaker 1: your space and time, then it's hope, it's it's not faith.

878
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: Faith is a confidence in the person the object of

879
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 1: my faith. And so when we talk about faith again,

880
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: we we live in a you know, a wonderful country

881
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:51,759
Speaker 1: where people can do whatever they want to do, and

882
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for that. But that comes over into faith

883
00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: where we go like, oh, you can believe in anything

884
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: you want. You can, absolutely you can have faith in

885
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 1: anything that you want too. But at the end of

886
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 1: the day, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak,

887
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,799
Speaker 1: where it really matters, your faith is only as good

888
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: as the object of that faith. And so um for

889
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 1: sincere seekers, for sincere people who really want to understand faith,

890
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,160
Speaker 1: you have to at least start there. My faith is

891
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:22,319
Speaker 1: only as good as what I'm putting it in. Otherwise,

892
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,880
Speaker 1: you know, it's hope, it's words, it's sometimes silly, and

893
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 1: I don't dismiss what people believe. It's a bumper sticker,

894
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: what's the value, and it's it's something that's a bumper star. Yeah,

895
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,880
Speaker 1: exactly right. And so you can either I agree with

896
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 1: you on that, right. And so I do have my

897
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:41,719
Speaker 1: own self, you know, circle of my own perimeter, if

898
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:43,880
Speaker 1: you will, my world that I put my faith into,

899
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,560
Speaker 1: so that I have you know, structure, and a lot

900
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 1: of that's family and the faith that they have in

901
00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: what they believe in it. And so my father in

902
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,880
Speaker 1: law and my mother in law and my all my family,

903
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:58,359
Speaker 1: they have faith in things and they're happy, good lucky individuals,

904
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 1: whatever their faith is. I like, right, it's a good

905
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 1: melting pot of people to be around. And I think

906
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 1: if you can find yourself around these people who are

907
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: trying to do good and trying to be good, you know,

908
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: movie not trying are good, okay, because trying is just

909
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 1: another hope. I'm gonna try to try. I'm gonna try

910
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:23,919
Speaker 1: to be there at five in the morning for you. Yeah,

911
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: that's not You're not even gonna try. So I think

912
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 1: the do right. And so I like surrounding myself with

913
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 1: that that positive energy and positive people, whether they're hardcore

914
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 1: into their faith or or they have just been a happy,

915
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:42,760
Speaker 1: go lucky individual walking down the street. I think everybody

916
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:46,320
Speaker 1: has love inside of them that can be shared. And uh,

917
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: I hate to sound like this is just some kind

918
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 1: of like hippie nonsense or like, you know, I'm stuck

919
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 1: in a redwood forest tree somewhere with an a K.

920
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 1: But if I could live there, I would right, right, right, yeah,

921
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,840
Speaker 1: I mean, we believe is the thing that that drives

922
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 1: us forward, you know. And that's one of the interesting

923
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 1: things about coming from a military community, right, is we

924
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 1: can find so much purpose and meaning and value in

925
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:15,439
Speaker 1: the uniform and the job, in the taskers that come up. Right,

926
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:17,920
Speaker 1: we've got the warning orders, so we're always looking towards

927
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 1: something else, and we're always focused on that. Well, you

928
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:23,239
Speaker 1: take all of that away, and this is why a

929
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:25,759
Speaker 1: lot of people struggle in the veteran community, because it's like, well,

930
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:28,320
Speaker 1: what do I believe in now? You know. I remember

931
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:31,799
Speaker 1: leaving the Marine Corps and then watching things just roll

932
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:34,799
Speaker 1: on without me, which is silly. I mean, it's like

933
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 1: really stupid, right to go. Yeah, So so I came back.

934
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,399
Speaker 1: The war is over, mission accomplished. That's what President Bush said, right,

935
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:45,360
Speaker 1: And then people started shooting again in Baghdad, and the

936
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: war was on and it went on for a long time.

937
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:51,880
Speaker 1: I remember sitting in a church staff meeting. So I

938
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:54,920
Speaker 1: was on a church staff in a meeting, and I

939
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:57,040
Speaker 1: had just heard about some of the Marines that I

940
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 1: started with being killed in Fellujah, and I was like

941
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 1: broken that I wasn't with them, and I expressed that

942
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,120
Speaker 1: to some of the other guys on the staff and

943
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, that's terrible anyhow, and then they just

944
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: moved on with whatever. The you know, the conversation of

945
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 1: the day was like the thought that that could go

946
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:14,880
Speaker 1: on and I didn't have to be a part of

947
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 1: it was so it was like soul crushing for me.

948
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:21,240
Speaker 1: It was like so dark, Like, well, then what's the point?

949
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 1: And so finding what you believe and why you believe it,

950
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:29,360
Speaker 1: and where your faith is and who you are outside

951
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 1: of the military is absolutely essential for continuing to move forward.

952
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:34,799
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people just don't ever do that,

953
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 1: and so they're constantly struggling to to get it back right,

954
00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:40,640
Speaker 1: and you don't get it back, you need to continue

955
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 1: to move forward. That's discovering who you are right now,

956
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,400
Speaker 1: that's right. And it's not in the bottle of whiskey. No, no,

957
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 1: not there, guys and gals. That's not where you find yourself.

958
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: You don't find yourself in a bottle of pills or

959
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 1: whiskey at the end of the day thinking like I

960
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 1: can't find myself. I'm trying to find myself, right, yeah, no,

961
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:58,560
Speaker 1: just reach out to me. Or reach out to Jeremy

962
00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:01,480
Speaker 1: because we'll have his information on the website if you

963
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:03,440
Speaker 1: do want to reach out to him for you know,

964
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: a nice conversation. I'm sure Jeremy's open to you know, Lennon.

965
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 1: I have I tell my wife, I said, hey, you know,

966
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: I tell people hit me up, and she's like, oh,

967
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: you mean like like they do. Like you know, I

968
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,680
Speaker 1: have talked down some people on the fence out of

969
00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:22,480
Speaker 1: the blue at two in the morning. It's real. So

970
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 1: if you're on the fence and you want to come

971
00:48:24,239 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 1: down off that fence and you need someone to on

972
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 1: ballet hit me up, I'll ballet you off that fence. Okay,

973
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,319
Speaker 1: come on down nice and say you can come down

974
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:35,439
Speaker 1: upside down. It's we'll get you. We'll get you the ground,

975
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 1: We'll get you exactly now. Jeremy, I know I've had

976
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 1: you for an hour. It doesn't even seem like that

977
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 1: so far. And you're really super cool children to talk to.

978
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:47,400
Speaker 1: And I appreciate that you have that Marine Corps attitude

979
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 1: and this lighthouse attitude, you know, and it still looks

980
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:53,319
Speaker 1: still looks like you could do some pull ups, so

981
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 1: you still look like you're doing okay, and I work

982
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 1: hard at it. People are always like, oh, you stay

983
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:00,400
Speaker 1: in good shape, Like, yeah, I work really hard at it.

984
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,240
Speaker 1: That's why. But anyhow I think props about the Marines

985
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 1: is that people don't give enough of is that the

986
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:07,560
Speaker 1: officers go through like the same kind of boot camp

987
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,040
Speaker 1: that the enlisted go through. You know, where you understand

988
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 1: the personnel that you're commanding because you've been through what

989
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:17,240
Speaker 1: that personnel has been through in a in a bootcam,

990
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,799
Speaker 1: a boot camp style, setting infantry, basic rifleman. You know,

991
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,320
Speaker 1: being able to do that task right, that's the basic

992
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 1: task of a marine. And so the fact that you,

993
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:28,239
Speaker 1: as an officer have that, I'm sure you're men loved

994
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: you and I'm sure that they hated you, and I'm

995
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 1: sure at the end of the day you know a

996
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:35,920
Speaker 1: little bit of both. I hope, I hope you know

997
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:39,360
Speaker 1: how it goes. Yeah, it's not personal, it's business, but

998
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,919
Speaker 1: then it's personal, but then it's business. So with that said,

999
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: tell me, I'll give you like a minute to say

1000
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 1: anything about your ministries. If you have a website or

1001
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:50,640
Speaker 1: any anything that a book or anything like that, go ahead.

1002
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:53,719
Speaker 1: So I'll talk about the ministry first. Mighty Oaks Foundation

1003
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 1: it's if you're not a Christian, if you're not a

1004
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:57,520
Speaker 1: person of faith, we'd still love for you to come

1005
00:49:57,560 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 1: and attend the program. And it's five days. It's free

1006
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 1: to you. We cover the cost of travel. It will

1007
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 1: get you around other people who are trying to work

1008
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:05,640
Speaker 1: through some of the things you are, So please go

1009
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:09,960
Speaker 1: Mighty Oaks Programs dot org. You can find everything about us,

1010
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:12,520
Speaker 1: as well as a place to apply, and we can

1011
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:14,319
Speaker 1: take care of all of the logistics and everything else.

1012
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:16,560
Speaker 1: I've written a couple of books, once called march Orde.

1013
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 1: I wrote a book on leadership. We have a book

1014
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:21,480
Speaker 1: on post traumatic stress which called The Truth about PTSD,

1015
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,919
Speaker 1: another book on resiliency. The best place to find all

1016
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 1: of that, honestly is on my personal websites. Just my

1017
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: name Jeremy Stallnecker dot com, Jeremy Staalnicker dot com. You

1018
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,600
Speaker 1: can find podcasts that I'm involved with, books that I've written,

1019
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 1: a blog is there, all my socials links to Mighty

1020
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:39,920
Speaker 1: Oaks Foundations. So if you go to my website Jeremy

1021
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 1: Stalacker dot com, you can find everything that I'm connected to.

1022
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:45,840
Speaker 1: It's easiest way, and that's j E. R. E. M.

1023
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:50,279
Speaker 1: Y S. T. A L N E c K E R.

1024
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 1: All right, so let's rewind this and then play it

1025
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:57,399
Speaker 1: again and go look them up. Jeremy Stalecker dot com.

1026
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:00,120
Speaker 1: That's it. Yeah, that's what's up. And Jeremy, I just

1027
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 1: want to say it's been a pleasure to have you

1028
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:03,800
Speaker 1: on here. I love the Marine Corps, the one of

1029
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,000
Speaker 1: the fifth. I went over to London with a guy

1030
00:51:06,239 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 1: and we did a boxing match for soft Rep and

1031
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:10,400
Speaker 1: we're boxing s A S guys and he's from the

1032
00:51:10,480 --> 00:51:13,759
Speaker 1: one trying to think I get ready escaping me. Yeah

1033
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:15,640
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. And then I had

1034
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,040
Speaker 1: some two four guys to four no more were I'm

1035
00:51:18,080 --> 00:51:22,720
Speaker 1: supposed to say that? No? Yeah, come at me, comment

1036
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,400
Speaker 1: down below what you want to say. So so we

1037
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:28,800
Speaker 1: get with that said on behalf of everybody a soft Rep.

1038
00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:32,520
Speaker 1: It's the holiday times. Please go out and have a nice,

1039
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:35,840
Speaker 1: beautiful time with someone and and enjoy yourselves. And I

1040
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 1: really appreciate having you on the show. Jeremy, thank you

1041
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:40,160
Speaker 1: for being a part of it. Thank you d man.

1042
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:42,760
Speaker 1: It's awesome what you're doing. And appreciate just the opportunity

1043
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 1: to talk so many important issues, so thanks for bringing

1044
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:48,400
Speaker 1: them up and broadcasting them out. Yeah, we'll probably have

1045
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:50,719
Speaker 1: you on again. You know, your your chill, it's it's

1046
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 1: a very good spoken conversation and there's other things we

1047
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:57,160
Speaker 1: can hit on. So thanks again and from me this

1048
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:06,960
Speaker 1: rats saying peace. You've been listening to self red Radia