Speaker 1: Yeah, did, and my tired at school's long line of
Speaker 1: my fool of husband down on the back crazy one evasion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're tation. My first entertainment tour in Iraq was in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, oh kidding, and that it was
Speaker 1: originally booked for April two thousand and seven, and the
Speaker 1: week before we were going to leave, they the contractor
Speaker 1: called and said they're canceling because there's too many operations
Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, just too busy surge. Yeah, exactly, that
Speaker 1: was the surge. And so they rescheduled us for August.
Speaker 1: So my first tour we went in August, and I
Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't known, nobody knew who I was, so
Speaker 1: I was We were doing like all these small fobs,
Speaker 1: and we were hitting two fobs a day for fourteen days.
Speaker 1: We would just go around and go to all these
Speaker 1: real places. But I remember very specifically in Warhorse and
Speaker 1: we had met we'd been probably going for three or
Speaker 1: four days. You just meet all these people. Everybody's real cool, upbeat.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh musicians, awesome. Yeah, you know, everyone has
Speaker 1: different jobs on the fob. There's a million jobs on
Speaker 1: the fire And I remember one day this about a
Speaker 1: five truck convoy comes in and the sergeant major that
Speaker 1: was taking us around, you know, they opened the gates.
Speaker 1: The guys come in, they park, you know, in the gravel,
Speaker 1: and the sergeant majors like, I want you to meet
Speaker 1: these guys because they're not gonna be able to make
Speaker 1: it to your concert tonight because they're going back out.
Speaker 1: Then these dudes come rolling out of the truck just
Speaker 1: covered in dirt and sweat, boys, and nobody was smiling.
Speaker 1: They're just like just stoic, and they come walking out
Speaker 1: and the sergeant majors like, I want you to you know,
Speaker 1: sergeant majors, are I want you to meet here's the
Speaker 1: band that the bands of playing tonight, you know, come
Speaker 1: meet these guys. And so it was the first time
Speaker 1: that I met guys that weren't that weren't like oh
Speaker 1: yeah they were They were like, it's been been busy day. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then then I knew right then because I was
Speaker 1: learning everything I knew then there's different kinds of deployments.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, yeah, those are your grunts right there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: different kinds you know what I mean. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean this in any disrespect to to anybody that is
Speaker 1: served or that's currently serving. This is no disrespect at all.
Speaker 1: But I learned right then that there's guys that that
Speaker 1: men and women that will go overseas and they take
Speaker 1: out the trash for a living. Yeah, nothing wrong, Like
Speaker 1: I said, no disrespect, but there are there are others.
Speaker 1: You're one of the others. Uh, you know, man, before
Speaker 1: I joined, you know, obviously in high school, I uh,
Speaker 1: I have buddies that I already gone. Right, So in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, I was a sophomore when when
Speaker 1: all that when nine to eleven went down, and I
Speaker 1: have buddies that I played football with that were seniors,
Speaker 1: and a bunch of them were like we're going and
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, cool. So they they had already
Speaker 1: done a couple of deployments when they came back, and
Speaker 1: I talked to him, was like, dude, I want to go,
Speaker 1: Like I want to join, I want to go. What
Speaker 1: do you think I should do? And without keeping a
Speaker 1: heartbeat off four of them we're like, you got to
Speaker 1: be lev and bravo, you got to be an infantry guy.
Speaker 1: And I go, okay, he goes, You'll think us later.
Speaker 1: And I was like cool because I still hell yeah, sure, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean listen man again, without no disrespect, right. I
Speaker 1: wanted to go and fight, you know. And I had
Speaker 1: an understanding that you can join the army and be
Speaker 1: in the band, now that there's something nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: being in the band. But I wasn't going to join
Speaker 1: to be the band and play music and not go fight,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Or I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: join and be a cook and feed guys like which
Speaker 1: we need those guys. I was going to say, we
Speaker 1: need to say in this conversation so that no one
Speaker 1: starts getting their feelings right. Yeah, for sure, dude, we
Speaker 1: need the cook, so we do. We need mechanics, fix
Speaker 1: them to generate all it makes the wheel go around, right,
Speaker 1: everybody does. Everybody can tribute and that's what makes the
Speaker 1: machine go and everybody's job is important. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to be in their front lines, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: look him in the eyes, and I wanted them to
Speaker 1: be me was the last thing they ever saw before
Speaker 1: it was all said and done. So like, I wanted
Speaker 1: to go fight. So that's why I chose that job. Yeah, dude, respect,
Speaker 1: I looked it up. I looked up the day of
Speaker 1: the week, and it was a Monday, May the fourteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. It was a Monday. Yeah. And anytime I
Speaker 1: hear a story like yours, I always my brain always
Speaker 1: goes to twenty twenty or two thousand and seven and
Speaker 1: one three years ago or wait two, I don't even
Speaker 1: they can't even do methad, So sure my mind always
Speaker 1: goes to you know, what was I doing? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so I know that I know that my little, my
Speaker 1: little entertainment deployment was canceled. So I was probably out
Speaker 1: playing a nobody in a bar type type of concert,
Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, and you we're having the day
Speaker 1: of your life. And I don't think I don't think.
Speaker 1: I know you've told it a thousand times. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I don't think we can go really much farther in
Speaker 1: this in this story without you telling what happened on
Speaker 1: May the fourteenth, if you don't, Yeah, no, no, not
Speaker 1: at all, not at all. Yeah. So May fourteen, two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, it was just like any other day, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, we went out, it was early in the morning,
Speaker 1: we went on our patrol, and we had three other platoons,
Speaker 1: so we all alternated times during the month, so some
Speaker 1: guys would start at night, some guys would leave those guys,
Speaker 1: and then in the morning we would go out. So
Speaker 1: that was our turn. Our turn was to go out
Speaker 1: early as possible in the morning. So, you know, I
Speaker 1: woke up, inspected my truck, and I was a fifty
Speaker 1: cow gunner, so I went out and make sure that
Speaker 1: the head space and timing was done on my fifty,
Speaker 1: make sure that we had enough water, you know, all
Speaker 1: the little things. You know, It's kind of like when
Speaker 1: you wake up, you make your coffee, you got your
Speaker 1: keys and your phone, and you're like, I'm rolling out
Speaker 1: same thing. And man, it was crazy, right because I
Speaker 1: can look back at it now, and it was one
Speaker 1: of those things where I had a routine. So I
Speaker 1: would check everything, make sure we had gas, everything guns
Speaker 1: was good to go. And then before we rolled out,
Speaker 1: I used to say a quick prayer and then you know,
Speaker 1: we go out the window and I'm like, all right
Speaker 1: about the doors, and I'm like I'm good. But for
Speaker 1: some reason that day we were running behind little there
Speaker 1: was a lot of chaos going on, and I forgot
Speaker 1: to do a couple of things and and Santa Prayer
Speaker 1: was one of them, and uh, so we rolled out.
Speaker 1: We were a five vehicle convoy and that was a
Speaker 1: third vehicle in the uh in the row and uh
Speaker 1: we start rolling out. Can you tell me what what
Speaker 1: fob were you leaving? We were in a fall call Apache,
Speaker 1: which yeah, we were in out of me Iraq, which
Speaker 1: was the last place. Yeah, I went through Apache. Did
Speaker 1: you really have another ship? Yeah, it's it's such a
Speaker 1: small little fob. I mean, there was about one hundred
Speaker 1: and night and one was to live there. That was it.
Speaker 1: But that was the last place, I said, almost sane,
Speaker 1: having seen before, he went into hiding. So we took
Speaker 1: over the whole palace and we lived the little small house,
Speaker 1: which is crazy. It was like a three story home
Speaker 1: where all of us lived in. And there was body here,
Speaker 1: body there, caught here. I mean, it was crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what we call it home. So yeah, we roll
Speaker 1: out of Fabapatche and you know, it's like seven in
Speaker 1: the morning and the last vehicle gets hit with an
Speaker 1: ID but it was a small one. It was you know,
Speaker 1: meant to catch our attention and goes off and nothing
Speaker 1: happened on the vehicle. The only thing that happened was
Speaker 1: the spare tire got blown out, so we pull over
Speaker 1: assess the situation. You know, we're already on the alert,
Speaker 1: and my TC, which is my truck commander, which is
Speaker 1: my squal eater staff starting compost, hits me on the
Speaker 1: leg because I'm the gunner, and he goes, there's your
Speaker 1: wake up call or your alarm wake up and I'm like, god,
Speaker 1: here we go. So he reached over and I used
Speaker 1: to have my cigarettes in my pocket, and he reached
Speaker 1: over and he grabs one, and he goes, you're getting
Speaker 1: text today, so he steals a cigarette. I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: what the hell, man, I'm running low. You know, we're
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. We already get any and
Speaker 1: you're taking one of mine. So he does, and you know,
Speaker 1: we wake up. I put one him them off to you,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it comes over with the radio.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go. We're gonna go. Just push is to
Speaker 1: sparaits higher. We're like, all right, cool, So we roll
Speaker 1: out and as we're driving, the first two vehicles start
Speaker 1: getting engaged from the left hand side, so they start
Speaker 1: getting shot at, and at that point the first vehicle
Speaker 1: had already gone, so he can't turn to where the
Speaker 1: fire is coming from. So the second truck follows it
Speaker 1: so that we don't have a truck by itself going
Speaker 1: so anyway. So they go to the next street they pushed,
Speaker 1: and they turn, and my vehicle turns straight to where
Speaker 1: the incoming fire is coming from. So as soon as
Speaker 1: that happens, and I can just hear things zipping through
Speaker 1: and hitting the truck. And at that point, you know,
Speaker 1: all your training kicks in and you're like, oh baby,
Speaker 1: here we go. And do you get excited? Oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: oh yeah. It's like it's an adrelline that you would
Speaker 1: never ever experience evering your life again. And I've done
Speaker 1: almost anything. I mean, I've done skydiving, I've gone and
Speaker 1: a trophy truck with BJ Baldwin and We've jumped and
Speaker 1: gone as fast as you can go. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: done all these things and I can never ever recreate
Speaker 1: that high ever again. And so we turn and you know,
Speaker 1: I start saying it. I was like, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. So I get on my fifteen. I started
Speaker 1: unloading and dropped the few and you know that adrenaline
Speaker 1: kicks in and everything, all the training is in, so
Speaker 1: you're you got the adrilline high, but you still got
Speaker 1: a perform your job. And I'm like, here we go,
Speaker 1: start going, and as we do that, everybody falls back
Speaker 1: in formation against you know, everybody scanning, and at that
Speaker 1: moment we start getting engaged from the left hand side again.
Speaker 1: So we all turn and I was the first vehicle
Speaker 1: and we go over a bump, and in the back
Speaker 1: of my head and I'm trying to process what's going on,
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy crap, this bump shouldn't be here. We've
Speaker 1: been in there about eleven months already, and I knew
Speaker 1: those streets like the back of my hands, man, like
Speaker 1: you could drop me off anywhere and I can get
Speaker 1: back to the FOP like I knew where we were at.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, wait a minute, that that shouldn't be there. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to process this ID goes off. It was
Speaker 1: a commanded and neate ID. So what they did is
Speaker 1: there was a house here left and there's a house
Speaker 1: to right. They dug a hole from the right hand
Speaker 1: side into the middle of the street and started packing
Speaker 1: it with explosives, and there was a guy inside with
Speaker 1: a commanded nation that as soon as he saw as
Speaker 1: he needed to hit it. Well, he messed up because
Speaker 1: he needed to hit it as soon as we were
Speaker 1: in the middle, and that would have probably cracked the
Speaker 1: truck in half and killed everybody in it. But he
Speaker 1: panicked and hit. Yeah, he did, and he hit it
Speaker 1: in the back. So the truck hit on the backside
Speaker 1: and we went up in the air and we came down.
Speaker 1: And when the truck hit the ground, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: still standing on the gun and it all happened so fast.
Speaker 1: It hits and I come back down. My legs collapsed
Speaker 1: and I fall to my right hand side, and in
Speaker 1: the back passenger seat was especially this Harkey and Harky
Speaker 1: was was killed on the spot with the ID just
Speaker 1: killed him. And I remember looking at him and seeing
Speaker 1: him and his eyes were just white, man like they
Speaker 1: were just foggy. Now, I was like, damn, you know,
Speaker 1: Harkey's Harky's gone. And as they did that, there's if
Speaker 1: there's a weird thing about the soul when it leaves
Speaker 1: the eyes, yeah, I mean they say the winded to
Speaker 1: the soul. That's that's a true statement. Yeah, cut it out.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain it the other way.
Speaker 1: I mean, not at all, man, Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: I looked at him and I was like, damn. And
Speaker 1: I remember looking over and I saw Catertin, which their driver,
Speaker 1: and then Fleming was on the other side, and they
Speaker 1: both jumped out of the truck and they were both
Speaker 1: on fire. And it was crazy because it was like
Speaker 1: the movies, man, like you know when things slows down
Speaker 1: and then but everything's happening so fast. It was the
Speaker 1: exact same thing. I saw Catertin on fire, and then
Speaker 1: I looked over and I see Fleming and he's on fire.
Speaker 1: And then he ran behind the truck, so I lost
Speaker 1: sight of him, so he was gone. And then I
Speaker 1: lost Catertin. And then the midst of all things, like
Speaker 1: I'm laying there and my truck commander, which is one
Speaker 1: of my best friends, compos was as the TC. He
Speaker 1: couldn't get out. His equipment was burned into the seat
Speaker 1: and he was attached to it and he grabbed me
Speaker 1: and he's like get out. And man, at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, eleven months and we've lost a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had lost a lot of guys. And
Speaker 1: my faith was very low at that point, like I
Speaker 1: had lost faith in God. I was mad. You know,
Speaker 1: we really didn't talk that well anymore. And I remember
Speaker 1: laying down there and I told the compost. I was like, nah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm good. Like this is it. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's brainwash or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: but in our profession, it's either you come home alive
Speaker 1: or you don't. There was never a moment where I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, maybe I'll get injured and come home
Speaker 1: and live somewhat normal life. You know that that wasn't
Speaker 1: in my plan. I was said, well, I was going
Speaker 1: to dine combat. It was going to be the greatest
Speaker 1: day of my life, and that was going to be
Speaker 1: like all the glory that I could have asked for
Speaker 1: us to dyne combat. So I'm laying there and you know,
Speaker 1: he's trying to make me get out, and I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, at that point, I kind of I started
Speaker 1: talking to God and I was like, hey, listen, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: You know I lost faith or questioned you just asked
Speaker 1: for a favor. Take care of my mom, take care
Speaker 1: of my dad, and take care of my siblings, like
Speaker 1: you know, look out for them, and just look out
Speaker 1: after my mom because I know she's gonna take it
Speaker 1: the heart is, and you know, she's got to bear
Speaker 1: with us for the rest of her life. I knew
Speaker 1: my dad was gonna be okay. My dad served, so
Speaker 1: him and I had had these conversations before, and he
Speaker 1: was like, I figured he was gonna be okay. So
Speaker 1: as I'm having that conversation, your compost is trying to
Speaker 1: get me to get out, and the door opens in
Speaker 1: front of him, and it was one of our other
Speaker 1: buddies that had run up to the front, Taylor, And
Speaker 1: you know, he busted out his knife and started cutting
Speaker 1: stuff off, and he pulled out Compost. And when he
Speaker 1: pulls him out, you know, I just started hearing rounds
Speaker 1: going off. We had enemies coming towards us, like about
Speaker 1: thirty to forty of them coming towards us, and it
Speaker 1: caught my attention. But at the same time, and it
Speaker 1: was one of those things where like, as I was
Speaker 1: laying there on fire, dying, I remember this little voice
Speaker 1: in my head that said, not today, get up, And
Speaker 1: then I just felt this energy inside of me. Man
Speaker 1: like till today, I still created God one hundre percent
Speaker 1: because I felt it, like and I truly, like I
Speaker 1: can honestly tell you that I heard that little voice
Speaker 1: that said get up, not today, And I got up
Speaker 1: and man my fifty cow and I started shooting. But
Speaker 1: since there was so much fire coming out of the
Speaker 1: hum vye and we had extra grenades, we had extra ammunition.
Speaker 1: I mean, we carried extra stuff for everybody else in caged.
Speaker 1: We ever got in a big firefight, we had AMMO
Speaker 1: to give out and and all that good stuff. So
Speaker 1: that started cooking off. And for those that are listening that, no, no,
Speaker 1: what cooking off is is when when the fire is
Speaker 1: so strong, you know, the actual gunpowder and then the
Speaker 1: explosives and things that are just going to go off.
Speaker 1: You know, the heat is what happens. And I remember
Speaker 1: grenade went off and it just peppered my whole right slide,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh shit, here we go. And
Speaker 1: there was enemies in the rooftops. I started shooting, and
Speaker 1: then around cooked off in the barrel of the fifty
Speaker 1: cow and exploded and just everywhere. So I just remember
Speaker 1: covering my face and at that point I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I need to get out. You're the sitting duck.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're the gunner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: just trying to give a little bit of support the fire.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and you're firing on top of it, yeah
Speaker 1: a little bit, but yeah, all right, just setting the
Speaker 1: scene here. So at that point, you know, as a gunner,
Speaker 1: you're always taught to get other gun attatched. And then
Speaker 1: you know it's about six feet high, so you jump
Speaker 1: into the front of the hood and then down, or
Speaker 1: you know, you can jump in the trunk and then down,
Speaker 1: which everyone works. Well, the fire was so heavy on
Speaker 1: both sides. If I would have jumped in the front,
Speaker 1: I would have gone straight down with the engine and
Speaker 1: that would have been it. And the same thing in
Speaker 1: the back. So I jumped to the side. And as
Speaker 1: I jumped to the side and managed to grab my
Speaker 1: ar But when I hit the ground, you know, it's
Speaker 1: so badly burned and still on fire that when it
Speaker 1: hit the brown of the ground, both of my fevers broke.
Speaker 1: So I had both em. Was just break and uh,
Speaker 1: I remember, and I looked them and it's just something
Speaker 1: hurt and I just start looking at me and I'm
Speaker 1: on fire. So I do the whole stop, drop and
Speaker 1: roll and let me just tell you it doesn't work
Speaker 1: wherever event ait that lie to us because it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: So I started doing it. It's not working. And then
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, Kushno, which is one of our other buddies,
Speaker 1: comes over and he's like close your eyes. I'm like why,
Speaker 1: and he just poppers me with the fire extinguisher and everywhere,
Speaker 1: and he turns me off and he's like, I'll be
Speaker 1: right back. I'm gonna go get the medic and I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, cool. So I started pushing myself away from
Speaker 1: the car, from the vehicle because I mean I jumped
Speaker 1: down and it was right there and I can still
Speaker 1: feel the flames with a humvey coming towards me. So
Speaker 1: I roll over and I start scanning and I look
Speaker 1: at the rooftop and I can see people and I
Speaker 1: start take a couple of shots, and I take a
Speaker 1: couple other shots and then I run out of amma.
Speaker 1: I mean, I only had thirty rounds in my mag
Speaker 1: We're actually twenty nine. I never really loaded it all
Speaker 1: the way up. And at that point, man, it was
Speaker 1: like I seen him black hawk down because I remember
Speaker 1: just looking up and I saw two helicopters and I'm like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, it's this. This is the fastest medical evacuation
Speaker 1: in the history of Iraq, Like they're coming to get
Speaker 1: us already. Well, what had happened was there was two
Speaker 1: black Hawks and the AO and in the vicinity, and
Speaker 1: and they happened to see the smoke, so they came
Speaker 1: to check it out, like you know, what's that? And
Speaker 1: then they saw and they were able to make contact
Speaker 1: with the guys on the ground, so they establish communication
Speaker 1: and they're like, yeah, we got here with an ID.
Speaker 1: This was going on, and the guy goes, oh, here
Speaker 1: they come. This was about thirty to forty of them
Speaker 1: coming down the streets. All I'll packed, man like with RPGs,
Speaker 1: everything you can think of, and these guys just came
Speaker 1: down and smoked them all. I mean just it was awesome.
Speaker 1: But that's all I saw. I didn't know what was
Speaker 1: going on at that time. It's brass falling everywhere, and
Speaker 1: I'm like what I was like, here we go, I'm
Speaker 1: getting out of here. And then I see them leave
Speaker 1: them like where you're not going? But they were running
Speaker 1: out of fuel because they they you know, they were
Speaker 1: doing those runs for us, and you know they weren't
Speaker 1: even supposed to be there. So they went back and
Speaker 1: refueled and then they were coming back. But as all
Speaker 1: that's going going on, I'm sitting there and the STAPs
Speaker 1: are in Nunness, which is one of the other guys,
Speaker 1: comes runs by me and he's running and he looks
Speaker 1: down and he's like, you know, he caught the look
Speaker 1: like oh, and I'm there, like just sitting there, and
Speaker 1: he goes, are you alive? And I was like I
Speaker 1: think so. And then he's like, oh my god. So
Speaker 1: he grabs me and I was like, dude, I think
Speaker 1: my leg's broken, and you know, he takes a quick
Speaker 1: glance and you know, all this stuff's going on, and
Speaker 1: he goes, no, no, you're fine. I'm like okay. So
Speaker 1: he picks me up and I'm putting all my weight
Speaker 1: on him. So we start walking, you know, and we
Speaker 1: get to the Humby and he's like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to let you go a little bit because
Speaker 1: I got to open the door. And you know, for
Speaker 1: those that know an up arm or Humby, the doors
Speaker 1: are by five hundred pounds. I mean they're heavy. It's
Speaker 1: they're heavy. So he lets go of me and he
Speaker 1: opens the door and when he does, my legs rebreak
Speaker 1: and all I remember is I saw him. I saw
Speaker 1: the humvey and I remember heading and I saw the sky.
Speaker 1: And then he comes over to me and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Oh my god. And all I can
Speaker 1: think is like, I told you, legs are broken. And
Speaker 1: then he's like, why why aren't you in pain? I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I credited to adrenaline. I mean, the Dala
Speaker 1: was so high that, you know, I couldn't really feel it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the extent of my injuries. And so
Speaker 1: he puts me on the humby. And the driver that
Speaker 1: we had was his first day in Iraq. What's his
Speaker 1: first day out the wire, what's his first driving in
Speaker 1: combat and seeing combat? And he was a replacement, you know,
Speaker 1: like we had lost so many guys that we were
Speaker 1: starting to get little replacements here and there. So he's
Speaker 1: screaming and he's scared, and I don't blame him, an,
Speaker 1: I mean, like probably eighteen nineteen, so yeah, I was
Speaker 1: twenty one, yeah, yeah, So like, oh, that's that's kind
Speaker 1: of old. And in the military you're twenty one, you're like,
Speaker 1: oh man, look at that dinosaur, you know, and uh
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there and he's screaming and yelling, and
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get a sense of what's going on.
Speaker 1: And I mean I did what anybody else would have done.
Speaker 1: I reached over and I slapped him and I said,
Speaker 1: shot up. It's like, shut up, give me the radio.
Speaker 1: Gives me the radio. And I started giving accountability to
Speaker 1: our company. So I'm like, hey, I got I got
Speaker 1: two wounded, or I got three wounded, I got one dead.
Speaker 1: We're getting ready to push, you know, open the gates
Speaker 1: as you see us coming in. And as I'm doing that,
Speaker 1: my medic jumps in and he starts working on me,
Speaker 1: and he's you know, patching me up or assessing the situation.
Speaker 1: I guess. And I look over and I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: doc him, thirsty, give me some water. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I can't give you any water right now. Man, let
Speaker 1: me let me look at you real quick, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, dude, I'm thirsty, bro give me some water.
Speaker 1: And we went back and forward, and I finally I
Speaker 1: was like, did I rank you? Man? Just give me
Speaker 1: some water. And he does, and I remember taking a
Speaker 1: quick sip and it was like the best thing ever.
Speaker 1: Like you know, whenever you're like either hungover or something,
Speaker 1: or you're very thirsty after a workout and you just
Speaker 1: take a cold sip of water and it's the best
Speaker 1: invention that you know we have. That's what that felt like.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my God, Like water is life
Speaker 1: like I was like, and then followed by the biggest
Speaker 1: mistake I could have done in my life. I pour
Speaker 1: some water on my face because I was, you know, hot,
Speaker 1: and all the chemical was in everything in the dirt
Speaker 1: and everything in I racked just went into my eyes
Speaker 1: and I wentn't line. I cannot see. And right then
Speaker 1: and there, I realized that there was two things that
Speaker 1: we could do. I could panic, scream, or you know,
Speaker 1: just not be effective anymore. Or I can help us
Speaker 1: get back. Because at that same time, I heard over
Speaker 1: the radio we're good to go. We're going to go.
Speaker 1: First truck, push up. And I was right in the
Speaker 1: first truck and I looked at I asked the driver
Speaker 1: what position, and we're in the in the convoy goes
Speaker 1: we're up front, and he's like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: to get back, and I was like, I'll take you back.
Speaker 1: And at that point I was like, Okay, I need
Speaker 1: to man up. I need to get this guy back,
Speaker 1: and so we we get it. We get the green
Speaker 1: to go, which is pretty much everybodys saying they're ready
Speaker 1: to go, and we started pushing and all I can
Speaker 1: remember was like, all right, we're we're at where we're at.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, right, you see that pink
Speaker 1: house up there coming up in the He goes yep.
Speaker 1: I said take that left, and he goes, got it.
Speaker 1: So he takes that left and we started going down
Speaker 1: the road. And for some reason I still remember it
Speaker 1: today vividly, these people hat a giant bail from like
Speaker 1: a church or something in front of their house. For
Speaker 1: some reason, I don't know why, but it was there,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you see the giant bill in
Speaker 1: the front of yard. He goes yep. I said, take
Speaker 1: that right. You're gonna go straight down and you should
Speaker 1: see a house or you should see the fob about
Speaker 1: three hundred yards away. He goes, I see it, I
Speaker 1: see it. I said, tell me when we're about one
Speaker 1: hundred yards away. He goes, We're one hundred yards away.
Speaker 1: So I call up the company. I was like, opening
Speaker 1: the gates, open the gates, we're coming in. We roll
Speaker 1: in on the first vehicle, everybody alway rolls in and
Speaker 1: they close them and I knew that we had three
Speaker 1: medics on our FOB and there was four of us
Speaker 1: that were wounded. So they coming open the door and
Speaker 1: I just closed the door and I'm like nope, they
Speaker 1: go get the other guys. They're worse than I am.
Speaker 1: And they're looking at me like you're burning naked and
Speaker 1: there's still fumes come out of you, like no, we
Speaker 1: got to get you out, and I was like, nope,
Speaker 1: we only got three medics. I got lucky that we
Speaker 1: were in the same fop. Next to us, there was
Speaker 1: a Special Forces group that had just moved in, so
Speaker 1: their medic came over to help and he's like, I'm here.
Speaker 1: We got you, We got you, And I was like okay.
Speaker 1: So as I opened the door, my buddy comes to
Speaker 1: grab me, and when he grabs me to pull me out,
Speaker 1: all my skin just came off into his hands and
Speaker 1: he's just like and I can remember seeing his face
Speaker 1: like he was in shock, like what the hell. So
Speaker 1: they finally get me out and they put me in
Speaker 1: a stretcher and they bring me into the eighth station,
Speaker 1: and I remember laying there and I looked over and
Speaker 1: I see Catterson coming in and I was like, we're
Speaker 1: going home, brother, and he just looked at me and
Speaker 1: he goes like yeah, man. Yeah. I was like i'll
Speaker 1: see you shortly and he's like okay. And the same
Speaker 1: thing dude, Fleming, you know, Fleming came in and I
Speaker 1: was like, love you, bro. I was like, we're going
Speaker 1: home and he's like yeah, yeah yeah. So they took
Speaker 1: him in and then compos came in and I was
Speaker 1: like trying to reach over to touch him and just
Speaker 1: tell him that it was okay. And I was like,
Speaker 1: love you do, dude, and he just he just like
Speaker 1: looked at me and he wasn't responsible, wasn't really talking,
Speaker 1: but he was just like, you know, saying yes. I
Speaker 1: was like, we're going home, and he's like okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So they get us somewhat prepped, and then at that
Speaker 1: same time, a helicopters came in to pick us up
Speaker 1: to take us to the Green Zone so we can
Speaker 1: start having surgery. So we can you know, they can
Speaker 1: get us stable and we're not, so from that point
Speaker 1: they can ship us to Germany. And man, I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, they got us back on the Humvey and
Speaker 1: they start taking us down to the Alz the landing zone,
Speaker 1: and the choppers come in and you know, and the
Speaker 1: medicals close your eyes. I'm like why, and the fan goes,
Speaker 1: I mean, the the repellors from the chopper a going,
Speaker 1: and all this dirt goes in my eyes. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah again. I was like gosh. And at this point
Speaker 1: I can kind of see already, Like it was just
Speaker 1: kind of quick. So I was like, oh shit, I'm
Speaker 1: like closing my eyes again. And they load us up
Speaker 1: in the chopper and at this point it's been almost
Speaker 1: eleven months. I had and see you another female and
Speaker 1: the flight medic it was in there was a was
Speaker 1: a female and I just I smelled her. I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I was like, how you doing?
Speaker 1: And she's like she's like, be like, I'm all jacked
Speaker 1: up and she's just like I'm good. I'm good. I
Speaker 1: was like, I was like, what are you doing after this?
Speaker 1: And she's just like what the hell them not at all? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that was kind of crazy. I ended up linking
Speaker 1: up with her down the road and like she's just like,
Speaker 1: you're crazy, and I was like, cool, whatever, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick break. All right, right back with your story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, so you already have the one of the
Speaker 1: crazy stories anybody's ever heard in her life, including you
Speaker 1: up until this point. So, uh, you're getting transported back
Speaker 1: to the US. Well yeah, so no. From there, we
Speaker 1: went to the Green Zone and you know, they they
Speaker 1: kind of prepped us to fly to Germany. And I
Speaker 1: mean again, and this is this is kind of crazy
Speaker 1: looking back now, and you can kind of see where
Speaker 1: God was with us the whole time, because May fourteenth
Speaker 1: got hurt. By the fifteenth ish at night or midday,
Speaker 1: we were in Germany getting ready to be flown to
Speaker 1: Brooke Army Medical Center, which is the best, the best
Speaker 1: hospital in the world for burns. So that's where we
Speaker 1: were coming. And San Antonio. Yeah, and uh, we get
Speaker 1: to Germany and the plane that was there that was
Speaker 1: supposed to bring us back had been waiting on us.
Speaker 1: We were we were a little late, but they had
Speaker 1: other guys on the on the on the plane and
Speaker 1: these are C one thirties, the biggest fans you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And the insight is a hospital, like it's a hospital.
Speaker 1: They got like ten beds in there, and they had
Speaker 1: like four other guys in that they needed to get out,
Speaker 1: and they were already in the air like four hours
Speaker 1: into the flight and there wasn't gonna be another flight
Speaker 1: to probably the next day or something, and you know,
Speaker 1: they called up the pilots and like, hey, guys, like
Speaker 1: these guys are pretty bad. We think two of them
Speaker 1: are not going to make it, and if you guys
Speaker 1: don't come back, the other two are still unquestionable. And
Speaker 1: he's like, but it's up to you, guys. You guys
Speaker 1: do whatever you want to do. Make the call that
Speaker 1: you need to make. And those pilots check with the
Speaker 1: doctors that were on the plane and they're like, we guy,
Speaker 1: see these guys stable. They're good to go, Like we
Speaker 1: can go back and get them. That plane turns around,
Speaker 1: comes back, they refuel, and I guess there's like a
Speaker 1: limit of hours pilot can fly and they refuel the
Speaker 1: thing and they're trying to get the pilots out out
Speaker 1: of the cockpit, and the pilots are like, get off
Speaker 1: a plane. We gotta go, like we're going to finish
Speaker 1: our mission and take these guys back. And they're like
Speaker 1: going back and forward, like you're wasting time. These guys
Speaker 1: are going to die get off. So those pilots were
Speaker 1: able to stay on. I mean, God bless them, you know.
Speaker 1: Now this is what I mean, Like we couldn't have
Speaker 1: been in life if it wasn't for those guys. That's
Speaker 1: that's their job. Like they fly right, so makes the
Speaker 1: wheel go around and they we get back up in
Speaker 1: the air man and May sixteen, I'm rolling through the
Speaker 1: doors of Brookerny Medical Center in San Antonio. That is
Speaker 1: crazy to yeah. Yeah, So as a result of it,
Speaker 1: I had uh seventy five percent burns, third and fourth
Speaker 1: degree burns to the body, and I had a metal
Speaker 1: torso amputation on my right leg, which is just the
Speaker 1: toes that were gone from the grenade that went off.
Speaker 1: And then nine years later, I'm doing this dumb twenty
Speaker 1: two mile road march with all these other guys and
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're doing it for twenty two vets
Speaker 1: a day or whatever. I'm not saying. I'm saying down
Speaker 1: but to me now, it is because my my wound
Speaker 1: opened up, and you know, I let it sit there
Speaker 1: for three to four months because burns and uh and
Speaker 1: wounds don't go together. When you're burning, you have a woe.
Speaker 1: It takes forever to heal. I mean a long time.
Speaker 1: And I gave it like six months and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this thing's not healing up. What the hell? So my
Speaker 1: fiantly now she's like, you need to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1: We'll get this checked out. I'm like, all right, I go.
Speaker 1: They ended up finding cancer on it, which is a
Speaker 1: local cancer. It wasn't spreading or anything. They came in,
Speaker 1: they took it all out, but they took so much
Speaker 1: that my leg wasn't closing anymore. And you know, at
Speaker 1: this point, I've got nine years with with it, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was limb salvage. And I remember talking
Speaker 1: to Jay with Jase here, and you know, we had
Speaker 1: conversations men prior to that, like years before, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, dide, I just want to cut it off
Speaker 1: and he's like, no, no, keep your leg, trust me
Speaker 1: and keep your leg. And I'm like, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: And then it got to that point and man, I
Speaker 1: was just like Jay, like I'm hurting, bro, Like this hurts,
Speaker 1: like I can't walk. It's just it's cameing down. And
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I think you should cut it now.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, all right. Cool, So we cut it
Speaker 1: almost four years now, four years ago, cut it in.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that that you lost your leg long
Speaker 1: after the accident. Oh yeah, it was nine years after. Yeah,
Speaker 1: one years. So then we cut it and dude, let
Speaker 1: me back up just for a minute to two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven. You were in a medically induced coma. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for about three months. You kind of just brushed through
Speaker 1: that like it. It was a lot, dude. I mean,
Speaker 1: you just lost three months of your life. Yeah, did
Speaker 1: you dream? Did you you wake up and it's it
Speaker 1: was June July August, right, yeah, August. It was crazy,
Speaker 1: you know because you know, obviously mom and dad and
Speaker 1: everybody were in the room talking to me, and my
Speaker 1: brother's uh my brother and his girlfriend at the time
Speaker 1: were pregnant with my first niece, you know, my parents'
Speaker 1: first granddaughter. Everything first, everything, And she used to come
Speaker 1: in there and she used to grab my hand and
Speaker 1: put on her stomach and was like, you need to survive,
Speaker 1: because at that point they had given my parents thirty
Speaker 1: percent chance of me living and surviving. And they told him, like,
Speaker 1: you need to start making funeral arrangements. And they did
Speaker 1: the same thing to compos compos. Uh. They amputated both
Speaker 1: on both legs because he was that's really burn and
Speaker 1: they were trying to cut the uh the limbs off
Speaker 1: that were all severely uh with infections and ultimately, you know,
Speaker 1: his intense and the insects were so badly burned that
Speaker 1: you know, he could didn't make it, so that they
Speaker 1: thought I was the same case. They're like, you're your
Speaker 1: son's not gonna make it. And my parents were like, no,
Speaker 1: we're not making arrangements like he's going to pull through.
Speaker 1: And you know, she used to come in and put
Speaker 1: her hand on my on her stomach and just like
Speaker 1: your niece Haley wants to meet you, like you need
Speaker 1: to survive. And I remember hearing things like that, and
Speaker 1: I remember my dad coming in and you know, my
Speaker 1: dad just touching me, and my dad would just like
Speaker 1: say little things like hey, you got this, I keep going,
Speaker 1: you got to push forward. And you know, I remember
Speaker 1: hearing my mom praying a lot and crying, and you know,
Speaker 1: my brother crying, my sister crying, Like I remember all
Speaker 1: these little things, and when I woke up, I was
Speaker 1: still like on like uh like fight her pilot mode
Speaker 1: because I woke up, and I looked up. My dad
Speaker 1: was there and I'm looking around. I'm looking around my
Speaker 1: dads what are you doing? I was like, where are
Speaker 1: my boots? I got to go out, like what happened?
Speaker 1: I got to go back out. And my dad's like,
Speaker 1: you're you're in You're in your home and I'm like,
Speaker 1: where's home? And he goes, You're in San Antonio and
Speaker 1: I goes what. He goes, San Antonio, Texas. And when
Speaker 1: my dad said, I was like, I'm in Texas and
Speaker 1: my dad goes yeah. I laid back down and slept
Speaker 1: for a little longer, and then finally he came to
Speaker 1: and realized that what had happened. I was like, oh damn, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got I got hurt, and so who told you?
Speaker 1: It's August? My dad? When my dad woke up, I
Speaker 1: was like, I was like, what day is it. He goes,
Speaker 1: it's August fourth or something. I can't even remember the day,
Speaker 1: and I go what. He goes, yeah. I was like,
Speaker 1: when I get hurt. He goes May and he goes
Speaker 1: and I go, what the hell? He's like, you were
Speaker 1: in an induced coma and you've had about forty surgeries.
Speaker 1: And I was like okay, Like it was kind of
Speaker 1: hard to take in because at this point, I mean,
Speaker 1: all those months were gone and there's nothing, like I
Speaker 1: don't remember, I don't know what happened. What are they
Speaker 1: doing to you? Forty times? I don't know much about
Speaker 1: So with the burns, right, skin grabs, which is what
Speaker 1: I have on here now. So they were taking good
Speaker 1: the good skin that I have, the thirty percent of
Speaker 1: the skin that I had. They pretty much you know,
Speaker 1: the little thing that they use for the block of
Speaker 1: ice when they make those snow cones that just kind
Speaker 1: of cuts like that, that's what they do. So they
Speaker 1: peel it off and a little piece of skin, they're
Speaker 1: able to stretch it pretty big, and then they put
Speaker 1: it on you and they make sure that, like you know,
Speaker 1: you grow that skin back up because you had no skin,
Speaker 1: no skin. And so they did that on my chest,
Speaker 1: on my back, on my side, some of my stomach,
Speaker 1: and then my head too, like they took skin from
Speaker 1: my head and then they started working on everything else.
Speaker 1: But one of the biggest things with that is infections.
Speaker 1: Infections are huge with burns. So some of it was
Speaker 1: skin burns or skin grabs. Some of it was to
Speaker 1: clean infections out that I was having. Some of it
Speaker 1: was to put rods in my legs because they were
Speaker 1: both broken, and I mean I had about four rods
Speaker 1: all the way down on my legs for a couple
Speaker 1: of months to make sure that everything healed properly. I
Speaker 1: had wind backs, which is you know, they put this
Speaker 1: this what is it like a phone rather the the
Speaker 1: wound backs is just like this. It's like a foam, right,
Speaker 1: and it goes over and they cover it with plastic
Speaker 1: and it seals in and then they has a vac
Speaker 1: on this side. And what that vac's doing, it's grabbing
Speaker 1: all the blood that's coming out and everything, and then
Speaker 1: it makes your stuff heal a lot faster. So all
Speaker 1: those things, and you know, then they have to take
Speaker 1: me to the shower because they have to scrub the
Speaker 1: dead skin that's on the grass. So they got to
Speaker 1: scrub that off so the other skin below it can
Speaker 1: grow better and faster. And so that was that the
Speaker 1: whole time you're asleep, Yeah, yeah, for some of it,
Speaker 1: and then kind of came back and then you know,
Speaker 1: then they're doing and then when I woke up, they
Speaker 1: were still scrubbing. And that was probably the most excruciating
Speaker 1: pain that I ever felt was when they would scrub
Speaker 1: every single part of your body with that, and like
Speaker 1: the pain was so hard, I just pass out and
Speaker 1: I wake up in my room with new vantages and stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, what happened. We're like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: we were taking care of your skin like a r cool,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that was That was that for about a
Speaker 1: whole year that I spent in the hospital. A year, Yeah,
Speaker 1: close to it, dude. Unbelievable story and so important for
Speaker 1: people to hear people that are wondering, you know, how
Speaker 1: they're going to move forward with their life setbacks that
Speaker 1: humans always end up getting. We always get setbacks some sort.
Speaker 1: But yours is big. I mean, sure, you say big,
Speaker 1: But I think you know we're all resilient, right, We're
Speaker 1: all we all have that in us. I don't think
Speaker 1: people realize it. And you don't necessarily have to gone
Speaker 1: through what I went through, right, I mean it could
Speaker 1: be something else, a car accident or something that that
Speaker 1: you got to come back from it. And everybody's struggles
Speaker 1: are so much different than mine. It just happened that
Speaker 1: that happened on my job. Things happen with people every
Speaker 1: single day at their job where I side of their
Speaker 1: jobs and they got to come back from it. So
Speaker 1: it's no different than anybody else. It's just that was
Speaker 1: the situation that I was presenting, and it's it's the
Speaker 1: cars that I was dealt and I had to play them.
Speaker 1: I've heard your story several times, you know, and the
Speaker 1: thing that comes up a lot is your parents. And
Speaker 1: I don't hear you talk a lot about the specifics
Speaker 1: of them, but it feels like from your stories that
Speaker 1: they were a big foundation on you and your mentality,
Speaker 1: because I mean, you downplay it. You're super humble, but
Speaker 1: you downplay the fact that you have overcome a mountain
Speaker 1: of adversity and you play it off like, well, you
Speaker 1: know people get in car accidents, you know people, But
Speaker 1: you spent a year in the hospital. Yeah, you lost
Speaker 1: a limb, seventy percent burns on your body. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you sit here like, yeah, you know, it's like life.
Speaker 1: You know, you just I got to give credit, you know,
Speaker 1: besides God, who you've mentioned. It sounds like your parents
Speaker 1: are pretty awesome people. Oh yeah, they are. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's my mom is just she's my rock.
Speaker 1: So it's my dad. I mean, they're amazing folks, right,
Speaker 1: they they dropped everything on a diamond like they My
Speaker 1: mom had just opened up a hair salon she saw them.
Speaker 1: Moved to San Antonio, my dad quit his job, came up,
Speaker 1: and they took care of me from day one. And
Speaker 1: there were the people that refused to let me quit.
Speaker 1: They're like, you know, there was kind of a put
Speaker 1: your head down, let's get this shit done and let's
Speaker 1: go home, like you got this, and if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for my family, you know, and not only that man.
Speaker 1: When you're around the facility that we were at, you
Speaker 1: see other guys. I mean, there was guys that were worse.
Speaker 1: The US where we have a good buddy of our
Speaker 1: name Schlitz. He's burned ninety eight percent of his body,
Speaker 1: mincing his arms. And you look at a guy like
Speaker 1: that that walks in and starts laughing at making jokes
Speaker 1: and stuff, and you're like, what am I complaining about?
Speaker 1: I'm fine, Like a look cute to than that dude.
Speaker 1: I'm good, you know what I mean, Like I got
Speaker 1: that so stuff like that man, And honestly, like it's
Speaker 1: just again, you know, I think people don't realize how
Speaker 1: resilient we are, and I don't think people really push
Speaker 1: their body to the max when you're presenting a situation, right,
Speaker 1: And yeah, my family was a big, big key for
Speaker 1: me because they were just so supportive. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people don't see. You don't
Speaker 1: see that, like people are like, oh, you're you're this,
Speaker 1: you're that. But if it wasn't for people in the background,
Speaker 1: in the vaccines, like I wouldn't be here today. From
Speaker 1: my friends to my family, everybody at some point in
Speaker 1: my life has had a big impact in me. And
Speaker 1: then that's the reason I still hang out with those people.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason, you know, I always give my
Speaker 1: parents a credit for it because it's because of them,
Speaker 1: you know, they pushed me that they did all that.
Speaker 1: And I'm lucky enough to have friends that when I'm
Speaker 1: messing up, they'll call me out like, hey, dude, you're
Speaker 1: you're not doing what you need to do, or you
Speaker 1: messed up here, or you did this wrong. And we're
Speaker 1: all humans, we all mess up, right, It's going to
Speaker 1: be one of those things. We're not perfect. And I'm
Speaker 1: blessed enough to have those people in my corner that
Speaker 1: call me out when I'm doing something wrong, or when
Speaker 1: I need to do better, or I need to push forward,
Speaker 1: or I need to do to sorry for you exactly,
Speaker 1: Y gotcha. So, I mean, it's not just me. There
Speaker 1: is a lot of people that people don't see all
Speaker 1: my social media that have a big part of my
Speaker 1: life and the reason I am who I am today.
Speaker 1: So it's not just me. You say it like it's
Speaker 1: so easy, but you have to put out into the
Speaker 1: world a everyone around me. Don't feel sorry for me.
Speaker 1: But then the bigger thing is you. And I can
Speaker 1: imagine at the at the end of your year long
Speaker 1: hospital stay, you know, in in and out surgeries, at
Speaker 1: some point you had to say, Okay, what's next in
Speaker 1: my life? What's next for omar in my life? Like
Speaker 1: what's my purpose now? Because you said God called you
Speaker 1: out in the hum vy and said not today, So
Speaker 1: then you have to ask the question why. Okay, I
Speaker 1: followed you this far, I listened to your voice, I
Speaker 1: got up. I've been through a lot of pain, So
Speaker 1: now what why do you ask yourself that I did
Speaker 1: I did a long time ago. Right, It's the questioning
Speaker 1: of why right? And you know, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: we all struggle with it, right, It's why am I here?
Speaker 1: Why did she let me through all that and still
Speaker 1: still go through what we go every day? Right? I
Speaker 1: mean I'm not done. I still have surgeries, I still
Speaker 1: have openings on my legs, and I can't do this
Speaker 1: and I can't do that, and it's frustrating at points,
Speaker 1: and you're just like why, why why? And then things happen,
Speaker 1: like I meet kids that are really burned and I
Speaker 1: get to hang out with them, and they have to
Speaker 1: show them to do things that that I'm doing that
Speaker 1: they can do and inspired me. Man, Like I met
Speaker 1: a kid and I looked at him, and I can
Speaker 1: I stepped back, and I was like, what are you
Speaker 1: complaining about? You grew up an All American, you play sports,
Speaker 1: you did all these crazy things. You dated the cheerleaders,
Speaker 1: you dated this, you did all these crazy things, you
Speaker 1: joined the military. You had an awesome life before you
Speaker 1: got hurt. This kid doesn't, and let's not let's not
Speaker 1: shuvercoded kids are mean at school and he was getting
Speaker 1: picked on by other kids because he was burned something
Speaker 1: that he had no control over. So I was like,
Speaker 1: if I can mentor that kid and tell him that
Speaker 1: I'm here and he can call me anytime he wants,
Speaker 1: because let's be honest, you're not going to tell your
Speaker 1: parents every single day that you're getting bullied you're getting this,
Speaker 1: because they're going to come to school and embarrass you.
Speaker 1: But here's a guy that's burned, here's a guy that
Speaker 1: knows what I'm going through. Here's a guy that experience
Speaker 1: is the same pain. Let me talk to him and
Speaker 1: tell him how I feel and what can I do.
Speaker 1: So that was one of the biggest things. Man. It
Speaker 1: was like huge, man, oh wow, like okay, I get it.
Speaker 1: And then after that met more burnt kids, and I
Speaker 1: got gut involved with that and started doing stuff with nonprofits,
Speaker 1: and then I started doing motivational speaking, and I started
Speaker 1: seeing everything correlating. Right. I was like, okay, cool, this
Speaker 1: is because of that, and this happened because of that,
Speaker 1: and all things kind of started coming together and then
Speaker 1: met all the right people and it's just like it
Speaker 1: all started making sense. I was like, Okay, I see
Speaker 1: what your plan is and and at that point you
Speaker 1: don't question it. You just go with it. So you
Speaker 1: could rewind back to that day when he said not today, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you go Okay, I'm starting I don't know it
Speaker 1: all yet, but I'm starting to see oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: And it took. It took a while, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it wasn't right off the bat. It was in like
Speaker 1: a year after I was like, oh, I'm doing all
Speaker 1: these crazy things now, like oh you know, no, I was.
Speaker 1: It was probably six seven years down the road after
Speaker 1: everything started revealing itself and I was like, okay, that's
Speaker 1: cool and okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. And I was
Speaker 1: able to do all those things because on social media,
Speaker 1: you know, people reached out and like you you should
Speaker 1: like me. Yeah exactly, yeah, like people are like and
Speaker 1: that's how I found a lot of these kids. Man.
Speaker 1: It was people were sending me their articles and stuff
Speaker 1: and like reach out to these people, or people were
Speaker 1: sending my stuff to their parents, and their parents were
Speaker 1: reaching out to me, and I was saying, yes, let's go.
Speaker 1: So you know, you kind of start seeing it now
Speaker 1: and it's just like, I know he's not done and
Speaker 1: O there's more. There's something bigger than I need to
Speaker 1: do that that he still has his hand on me.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what it is, but I mean,
Speaker 1: who knows, dude, And I hope that you continue to
Speaker 1: come on this podcast and update me on that mission
Speaker 1: that you're talking man. Of course, so I have I
Speaker 1: have a lot of times. I don't always have guests
Speaker 1: on here. When I do, it's somebody very special like
Speaker 1: you Banks man. But I open it up to questions
Speaker 1: from listeners. Yeah. So I have an email set up
Speaker 1: Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com, and I collect
Speaker 1: these emails from people, and I think it would be cool.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is so many ninety some of the
Speaker 1: questions aren't about music or anything I do. It's about
Speaker 1: life and struggling and moving forward and finding answers. And
Speaker 1: so I think it would be cool if you dove
Speaker 1: into one of these questions. Come on. And I decided
Speaker 1: this last night. I was like, man, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: Crispy answer one of these questions, which on a side note,
Speaker 1: this morning, I was like, all right, I'm going to
Speaker 1: I'm going to see Crispy to my wife and she's like,
Speaker 1: you can't call him that. She's like, you got to
Speaker 1: call him Normark And I was like, Babe, his Instagram
Speaker 1: that's Christy, Like that's obviously what he wants to be called. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: so here's a little side story. So Jay, myself and
Speaker 1: a bunch of other guys that got wounded from our
Speaker 1: company and our battalion, we have, you know, the welcome
Speaker 1: back ceremony for for everybody in the unit. So we
Speaker 1: all flew back to Germany, and you know, we get
Speaker 1: back there and we had a body of ours name
Speaker 1: Cashmere Waita and where I sorry? And he got injured
Speaker 1: And I say, all but he got hit with an
Speaker 1: ID and a piece of shrapnel went in from this
Speaker 1: side to the other side of his temple and he's blind.
Speaker 1: And I say, that's all that happened to him, but
Speaker 1: you know, his vision's gone. But it was a little
Speaker 1: piece of shrapnel that went in one side and the
Speaker 1: other and one completely blind. And we make our way
Speaker 1: back there, and you know, we're we're up there in
Speaker 1: our barracks. You know, I was on the third floor
Speaker 1: and they were out there. I'm in my wheelchair and
Speaker 1: I'm talking. And I've always been the loud guy. Like
Speaker 1: you can ask any of my friends. I'm like, all
Speaker 1: attention on me, like everybody else shut up. So I'm
Speaker 1: talking to you know, to all the guys and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And he's in the other corner talking to his guys,
Speaker 1: and I'll hear him go. He goes, oh mare and
Speaker 1: I look over and I was like where it And
Speaker 1: he's like, come here. So I make my way over
Speaker 1: there and he's like, man, I heard what happened to you?
Speaker 1: And I was like yeah, and he goes, so you're
Speaker 1: so you're pretty much crispy now, huh? And then I
Speaker 1: was like, dude, I like that. I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 1: So from there on, I stuck with it. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so when people were like ask me, it's kind of
Speaker 1: an icebreaker, right cause people always like, hey, how you doing?
Speaker 1: And you know, it's kind of a little awkward when
Speaker 1: you shake my hand because it's not out there, and
Speaker 1: then they're like, comes, like what's up? And I'm crispy
Speaker 1: and then they're like, oh okay, cool, So like they
Speaker 1: tend to like loosen up a little bit, and then
Speaker 1: you get into the conversation with somebody. So yeah, he's
Speaker 1: the one that gave me that name. And I mean
Speaker 1: it's stuck. Man. Like even my mom like shows, you know,
Speaker 1: she called and she's like, oh, marn I'm just like what, like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that's my name. Okay, cool. Wow, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good. That's good. All right, So I officially call
Speaker 1: you Chrispy. Yeah, if you're listening, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: we'll take a quick break and I'm gonna read this
Speaker 1: question with her, all right, all right. So last night
Speaker 1: I decided I was going to pull out these questions
Speaker 1: like I'm all always read questions and you're here, and
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't. But then I was like, man, actually
Speaker 1: this is actually my work out. Great, So I went
Speaker 1: to the the I gotta just a list here. I
Speaker 1: went to the first one on the list, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of ironic, so I think it would be perfect.
Speaker 1: Says Hey Granger. I'm having a hard time with life
Speaker 1: right now. Just a little background on what's going on.
Speaker 1: July of twenty nineteen, I injured my back at my
Speaker 1: old job. This is a re injury. I have been
Speaker 1: seen by Workers' comp doc and they were completely useless.
Speaker 1: I had to sue the company to get medical treatment
Speaker 1: to get paid for back paid for my time off
Speaker 1: at work. And I love to work, but I can't
Speaker 1: work in that field anymore. I was an auto mechanic
Speaker 1: and I love taking things apart finding out what's wrong
Speaker 1: with it. I've just been sitting around in pain and
Speaker 1: my back doctor can't do a damn thing. I've had
Speaker 1: several surgeries, so it seems like everything is going wrong
Speaker 1: in my life. When I found you, it seems like
Speaker 1: there's a light at the end of the tunnel. So
Speaker 1: my question is what keeps you going? And that is Joey.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you emailing and this is a perfect question
Speaker 1: for Crispy, So it might be a little different, right,
Speaker 1: but keeps me going are those guys that that didn't
Speaker 1: come back right, And then it's kind of selfish for
Speaker 1: me to come home and not keep pushing forward and
Speaker 1: not continue to live my life to the best that
Speaker 1: I can, because any given moment, those guys would love
Speaker 1: to trade spaces with me. They'd be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'll take your injuries. I'll take that life, but I
Speaker 1: get to hang out with my family and my kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in cool. I'll trade spots with you right now.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what keeps me going, man, And
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, I mean again, it's everybody
Speaker 1: in my corner that has inspired me to do better
Speaker 1: and has always constantly reminded me of the lives impact
Speaker 1: of what the stuff that we do and when we
Speaker 1: put out and the message that we give people. So
Speaker 1: it's hard. It's hard. I remember there was times where
Speaker 1: I just wanted to quit and just didn't want to
Speaker 1: do anything. I was in so much pain. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to deal with it anymore. And I think we
Speaker 1: all find ourselves in that place. But there is a
Speaker 1: light at the end of the time, like Joey said, man,
Speaker 1: and it was and it's worth it, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to go through those trials and tribulations before
Speaker 1: you can really wreak the benefits I guess of all
Speaker 1: the hard work that you're going to put in and
Speaker 1: all the pain and everything that you go through. So
Speaker 1: my advice to him was just be like, man, keep
Speaker 1: at it, you know, keep finding You're going to find
Speaker 1: a doctor that's gonna take care of you, that's going
Speaker 1: to carry you in it. And might not be today
Speaker 1: or tomorrow, might take a couple of months, but eventually
Speaker 1: you're gonna pull through it, and you're gonna look back
Speaker 1: at it and be like, man, that almost broke me,
Speaker 1: but I'm still here. And then you can share your
Speaker 1: story with someone else and inspire someone else and keep
Speaker 1: it going. And that's that's that's at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. That that's the goal, right, It's if I
Speaker 1: can put a seat and inspire one guy and that
Speaker 1: guy grows up to be I don't know, the next
Speaker 1: Tony Robbins or something, and he goes inspires more people,
Speaker 1: and those people in Star War. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day, when I leave this earth, I want to
Speaker 1: look back and be like, you know what I figured
Speaker 1: with what I did, and I hope this was a
Speaker 1: lot better when I leave then what it was when
Speaker 1: I was here. Dude, Joey, that's uh, that's coming straight
Speaker 1: from the man. And I don't think there could be
Speaker 1: a better person to answer that question. You say you're
Speaker 1: sitting around in your pain. That just I think he
Speaker 1: summed it up right there. There's there's a lot at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel, as you wrote, and it's
Speaker 1: not going to happen tonight. And that's the thing that's
Speaker 1: probably he's struggling with it is like, man, I want
Speaker 1: to work, I want to do my passion. It's not
Speaker 1: going to happen tonight. But that doesn't mean you quit
Speaker 1: for something that could happen in six months or a year,
Speaker 1: or hey, dude, ten years. Yeah it could be ten years.
Speaker 1: It could be, but you're sitting there with your grandkids
Speaker 1: in thirty years, and you go, sure, I'm glad. I
Speaker 1: kept going, Yeah for sure, right, I mean again that
Speaker 1: they'll be gripping the benefits down the road. Yeah, dude, man,
Speaker 1: thank you for being on this podcast, Thanks for having
Speaker 1: my on my top of my list to get in
Speaker 1: this chair. I appreciate it. And I finally got to
Speaker 1: do it with you. We finally worked out a date,
Speaker 1: and then I hope we get to do more. If
Speaker 1: you're heading back north, come on sometimes. Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: all right, dude, I appreciate you, man. Brother m h
Speaker 1: m hm