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Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? I think this is on and

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Speaker 1: you know who I am. I'm Rad and I am

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Speaker 1: the host of soft rep Radio. Enter all the cool

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Speaker 1: sound effects right now.

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Speaker 2: Lute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.

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Speaker 2: You're listening to SOFTWAB Radio Special Operations Military mails. I'm

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Speaker 2: straight talk with the guys in the community.

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Speaker 3: We'll get started in three two.

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Speaker 4: What a glove? Second time?

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Speaker 3: That's enough.

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Speaker 1: That's all right.

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Speaker 3: Well, that's it the ultimate test. You can see that

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Speaker 2: Hey, this is Mike Tyson and fight Camp as the

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Speaker 2: next level of training.

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Speaker 1: All right, Hey, what's going on? But first before I

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Speaker 1: introduce you to my guest, who you already know because

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Speaker 1: you can click the link. But for I say who

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Speaker 1: it is, I want to tell you about the merch store.

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Speaker 1: Go check it out. We really appreciate your support. It

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Speaker 1: helps to keep the fireplace going. The second thing is

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Speaker 1: we have a book club at soft rep dot com

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Speaker 1: and that soft rep dot com forward slash book hyphen Club.

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Speaker 1: Go give your mind some gym exercise and read a

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Speaker 1: cool book that has been curated by all the special

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Speaker 1: operators behind the scenes here at soft Rep. Now, Rob

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Speaker 1: Jones is who my guest is today and he is

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Speaker 1: here on the screen. And if you're watching, welcome to

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Speaker 1: the viewers, and if you're listening, welcome to my listener,

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Speaker 1: and welcome Rob Jones to the show.

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Speaker 4: Hey, Rad, good to be with you. I really appreciate

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Speaker 4: the opportunity come on the show.

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Speaker 1: We love to have you. I'm gonna give a brief

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Speaker 1: introduction about you. Let me go over to echelonfront dot

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Speaker 1: com and pull up your bio. Okay, Rob Jones instructor.

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Speaker 1: Rob Jones is a retired US Marine combat leader and

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Speaker 1: now a leadership instructor and speaker with Echelon Front. He

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Speaker 1: spent five years in the Marine Corps, with deployments to

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Speaker 1: both Iraq and Afghanistan. As a combat engineer, Rob specialized

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Speaker 1: in finding hidden improvised explosive devices IEDs, the enemy's most

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Speaker 1: deadly weapons. On a mission in July of twenty ten,

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Speaker 1: while executing an IED sweep, Rob stepped on an IED

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Speaker 1: which resulted in double above the knee amputations of his legs.

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Speaker 1: He spent the next year and a half of physical

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Speaker 1: therapy before retiring from the Marine Corps in twenty eleven.

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Speaker 1: Upon his retirement, Rob was forced to adapt to a

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Speaker 1: new way of being a leader, and to do this

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Speaker 1: he turned to the world of sports. In twenty twelve,

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Speaker 1: he completed in the twenty twelve Paralympic Games in London, London, England,

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Speaker 1: bringing home a bronze medal in rowing. In twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 1: he became the first double above the knee amputee to

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Speaker 1: ride a bicycle across the United States, riding five one

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty one miles from Bar Harbor, Maine to

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Speaker 1: Camp Pendleton, California. Rock in twenty seventeen, he ran thirty

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Speaker 1: one marathons in thirty one consecutive days in thirty one

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Speaker 1: different cities. We're going to talk to him about that.

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Speaker 1: Throughout the journey, Rob has relied upon the principles taught

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Speaker 1: at Echelon Front to turn the darkest moment of his

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Speaker 1: life into one of impact more meaningful than he could

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Speaker 1: ever have expected. Rob now brings his experience to Echelon

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Speaker 1: Front to help teams of people take extreme ownership and

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Speaker 1: overcome the challenges they face in business and in life. Again,

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Speaker 1: welcome to the show, Rob, Thanks.

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Speaker 4: A lot, Rad. The only thing I would add to

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Speaker 4: that bio is husband to Pam, and I'm a dad

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Speaker 4: to my son Harry and my daughter Pepper.

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Speaker 1: I love that. I love that on that bio, and

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Speaker 1: that's great. A father, you know, a father and a

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Speaker 1: husband are great titles. I'm looking towards the grandpa title

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Speaker 1: one day, but yeah, right now, right now, I'm happy

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Speaker 1: with being a dad and a husband. You know how

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Speaker 1: long you guys been married together.

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Speaker 4: Let's see, we got married in twenty seventeen, so that's.

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Speaker 1: Years nine years and yeah, yeah, right this July. Well,

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Speaker 1: there's something about that you must have some green flags.

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Speaker 1: That's what my wife says about me. I have green flags.

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Speaker 1: We've been together twenty six years.

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Speaker 4: I do my best after green flags.

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Speaker 1: Green flags. Bro, we's got to have the green flags. Kay, yeah, man,

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Speaker 1: So shout out to our families. I love that you

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Speaker 1: have a support system behind you. And you know, when

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Speaker 1: you were a young man and you decided to join

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Speaker 1: the Marines. You know, can you tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit about how old you were when you decided to

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Speaker 1: enlist and you know, and it was it straight out

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Speaker 1: of high school. Give me a little background.

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Speaker 4: No, I was a junior in college. I was twenty

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Speaker 4: years old, and I wasn't doing well in college. I

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Speaker 4: originally went to Virginia Tech for computer science. I wanted

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Speaker 4: to be a video game programmer, and unfortunately I did

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Speaker 4: not work hard enough to be a bit I played

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Speaker 4: too many video games, to be honest with you, and

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Speaker 4: I didn't spend enough time learning how to program them.

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Speaker 4: And so I was not doing well in college, and

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Speaker 4: I kind of realized that something needed to change in

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Speaker 4: my life. So I changed my major. Ended up joining

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Speaker 4: the Marine Corps because a buddy of mine had joined

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Speaker 4: the year before, and I think I realized that what

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Speaker 4: I was missing in my life were courage, selflessness, and

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Speaker 4: just some sort of a brotherhood that I need to

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Speaker 4: be a part of. And I figured joining the Marine

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Speaker 4: Corps would be the way to get all those things,

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Speaker 4: and so that's what I did. Joined the Marine Corps,

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Speaker 4: finished my last year in college, and then started deploying.

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Speaker 1: Did you get commissioned all in the Marine Corps or

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Speaker 1: did you just enlist?

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Speaker 4: That was my original plan was to enlist in the

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Speaker 4: reserves and then finish my last year at Virginia Tech

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Speaker 4: and then apply to OCS. But before I got around

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Speaker 4: to doing that, my reserve unit started taking volunteers to

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Speaker 4: go to Iraq in two thousand and eight. To that

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Speaker 4: deployment came back and then they were taking volunteers to

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Speaker 4: go to Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: And you just raised your hands that I'll go, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah.

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Speaker 4: I figured the best way to get those things that

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Speaker 4: I was searching, those three values that I just told

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Speaker 4: you about, would be not just be in the Marine Corps,

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Speaker 4: but go to war as a marine. And so I figured, what,

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Speaker 4: you know, here's the opportunity to do that. So I

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Speaker 4: took it both times.

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Speaker 1: So let's write down courage. Okay, courage, Okay, that was

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Speaker 1: courage to do that. It took the courageous individual to

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Speaker 1: say I'll go to the war.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It takes a courageous individual to step into the recruiter's

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Speaker 1: career counselor at your local military branch. That takes courage

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Speaker 1: to step into their office and say, do I want

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Speaker 1: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. It depends on who's

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Speaker 1: not back from lunch yet, is from what I've gathered.

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Speaker 4: I went there with the intention to join the Marine

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Speaker 4: Corps and the Marine Corps recruiter was not there. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: the Air Force recruiter tried to talk me in the

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Speaker 4: Air Force, but I said I I said, just tell

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Speaker 4: me when the Marine tell the Marine Corps recruiter I

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Speaker 4: was here, and tell him to give me a call.

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Speaker 1: Oh, he's just a lunch. It's just a that's got

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Speaker 1: to be a thing. Because I hear this all the time.

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Speaker 1: People were like, I went to join the Army, and

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Speaker 1: he would they are out to lunch. But the Navy's like,

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Speaker 1: come here, Yeah, that didn't happen.

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Speaker 4: I think that does happen somedimes. But me, I wanted

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Speaker 4: Marine Corps. That's all I wanted, and I think all

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Speaker 4: the other recruiters could tell, so they said, we'll let

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Speaker 4: them know.

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Speaker 1: I sense the spirit of chesty Pole are coming through

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Speaker 1: you bro, a.

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Speaker 4: Little bit of that spirit.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, that's great. So the Marine Corps are, you know,

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Speaker 1: hard chargers. You know, you guys are the blades sharpened

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Speaker 1: tip on the blade. You guys are like what cuts? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I completely we need you. We need the Marines. The

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Speaker 1: Marines have to do the things they do right, and yeah, we.

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Speaker 4: Need everybody that's in the military. But yeah, there's a

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Speaker 4: certain role for the Marine Corps. That's for sure.

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Speaker 1: Someone's got to break the pinata and I feel like

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Speaker 1: that's the Marine Corps. Though. Okay, it's like, could someone

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Speaker 1: please crack this thing open? And they're like, no problem.

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Speaker 1: When you went to Iraq or was it Afghanistan, which

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Speaker 1: was the first deployment that you went to.

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Speaker 4: I did Iraq first in two thousand and eight, to.

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Speaker 1: Habania Habaniah And how long was that for?

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Speaker 4: That was seven months and that was in so Iraq

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Speaker 4: was starting to the posts. Was kind of in the

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Speaker 4: middle of the at the end of the surge, so

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Speaker 4: things were settling down in Iraq a little bit and

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Speaker 4: so for us there, most of our job was finding

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Speaker 4: weapons cashes that have been left behind by al Qaeda,

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Speaker 4: And so the civilians and the town of Habania would

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Speaker 4: let us know that they were pretty sure there was

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Speaker 4: there would be an ied era cash weapons buried somewhere

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Speaker 4: in town. So we would go over there cording it off,

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Speaker 4: and then I would take my metal attactor out and

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Speaker 4: I would just search it and usually they would be right.

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Speaker 4: I would end up finding, you know, a big metal signature,

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Speaker 4: and I would dig it up and there'd be artillery shells, grenades,

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Speaker 4: machine guns, you know, things like that buried in the ground,

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Speaker 4: and we would pull it all out and an EOD

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Speaker 4: would come and grab it and they would take it

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Speaker 4: and they would slow.

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Speaker 1: It up, you know, and you're probably the person to ask.

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Speaker 1: It's not like it's like a shovel So maybe it is.

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Speaker 1: Maybe there's like a shovel hole, like you know, like

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Speaker 1: a shallow grave that's been you know, buried with the munitions.

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Speaker 1: But it was so intricate that it was even like

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Speaker 1: over the roadwork, like the road work was looking like

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Speaker 1: normal road and underneath that is where they had buried it.

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Speaker 1: They'd use like actual like paving equipment if they had

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Speaker 1: it to like red the roads, right, it was I way.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So iedes would be that way because they're trying

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Speaker 4: to hide them from us. But weapons caches essentially they

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Speaker 4: need to be found. So these are just basically all

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Speaker 4: kind of would be in Hobinia and they didn't really

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Speaker 4: have a depot like we have where they can store

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Speaker 4: their stuff, so they would just bury it and they

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Speaker 4: would usually have some sort of marking or they would

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Speaker 4: have some way of finding it, so they'd bury things

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Speaker 4: along walls, or they would bury things over here where

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Speaker 4: they could kind of remember where it was, so they

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Speaker 4: wouldn't typically you know, pave over where they had buried

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Speaker 4: their weapons because they needed to go and access them easily.

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Speaker 4: The IEDs is what you're talking about, where, Yeah, in

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Speaker 4: order to hide an ID from us, they would ye

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Speaker 4: dig through the asphalt and then pave back over it

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Speaker 4: so we wouldn't see it, right, like the cash you know,

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Speaker 4: designed to be dug back up.

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Speaker 1: Like like shallow. Yeah, like a shallow spot. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: where they're they're just hidden. Get into it, yeah, boards.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, wrap everything in burlap sacks, put it down in there,

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Speaker 4: and then we'd find it the same way with the

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Speaker 4: metal detector, and then somebody would come by with our

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Speaker 4: own shovel and etol and dig it up.

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Speaker 1: Would you ever find like US weapons mixed in with

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Speaker 1: the cash of stuff?

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Speaker 4: Most of what we found was Russian weapons, Yeah, because

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Speaker 4: that's how they got I think they were getting most

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Speaker 4: of their weapons from from Russia back and I think

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Speaker 4: I ran Iraq war or something. I don't know a

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Speaker 4: lot of the history of it. I don't think I

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Speaker 4: ever found any US stuff. It was mostly Russian and Italian.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you would have spotted that. You were like, wait

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Speaker 1: a second, one of you doesn't belong here, you know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I have to start scratching my head about why

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Speaker 4: why they were US weapons there? I mean, maybe there were,

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Speaker 4: I don't really know, but I all I can say

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Speaker 4: is I never found any US stuff.

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Speaker 1: That was collected in their caches or anything like that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: see that they picked up, looted, you know, spoils of war. Now, now,

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Speaker 1: this wars obviously impacted you one hundred percent. And we

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Speaker 1: sit back and we see it on the news, you know,

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Speaker 1: we watch NBC going in with you know, the Marines

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Speaker 1: into Fallujah and everything and all that. It was such

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Speaker 1: a very you know, media driven global war on terror.

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Speaker 1: Like everything was just like every channel on cable news

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Speaker 1: was like we're embedded, We're embedded, We're on a helicopter,

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Speaker 1: we're going in, We're doing this. I mean, did you

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Speaker 1: ever have quality? Did that ever happen? Did you have

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Speaker 1: someone following you guys around and you know, a reporter

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Speaker 1: that you know, had to We didn't have.

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Speaker 4: Any reporters from civilian media organizations, but we had what

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Speaker 4: we would call combat cameramen, which would be the you know,

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Speaker 4: the the cameraman that the Marine Corps has, so we'd

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Speaker 4: have those. And then also, I mean to your point,

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Speaker 4: a lot of people would have GoPros on their rifles.

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Speaker 4: They mounted a little camera on their rifle. They wanted

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Speaker 4: to record the war. But we we never I don't

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Speaker 4: remember there ever being somebody from the media that I

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Speaker 4: interacted with, but we did have combat camera.

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Speaker 1: People with documenting. And what unit were you a part of?

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Speaker 1: Do you mind sharing that? Right?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm my comment engineer. Battalion was Bravo Company, fourth CEB,

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Speaker 4: and then my deployment to Iraq was with two twenty

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Speaker 4: four second Battalion, twenty fourth Marines, which is a reserve unit.

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Speaker 4: And then my deployment to Afghanistan was with third Battalion,

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Speaker 4: seventh Marines, which is the unit.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so by that time with the third Battalion

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Speaker 1: of the seventh Marines, what rank had you gained by then?

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Speaker 4: Do you think I was Like when I on my

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Speaker 4: Afghanistan deployment two thousand and ten, I was a corporal,

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Speaker 4: So I was a fire team leader.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And so what was your main weaponry that

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Speaker 1: you would run? Like? What was your four?

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Speaker 4: I just had an M sixteen with a two of

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Speaker 4: three on it. But honestly, the most the most effective

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Speaker 4: tool that I had for the team for the mission

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Speaker 4: was my metal detector, because that was my job as

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Speaker 4: a common engineer in Afghanistan was trying to find ied

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Speaker 4: So anytime we came to a spot where we were

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Speaker 4: pretty sure there was going to be an ID buried

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Speaker 4: somewhere around us, I would go through the area first.

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Speaker 4: I would use my handheld metal detector to try and

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Speaker 4: plot a safe path through that area. So I'd be

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Speaker 4: using it to try and find pressure plates and batteries

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Speaker 4: and pieces of metal that are in IEDs and basically

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Speaker 4: just finding a route around the ID.

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Speaker 1: Just trying to court it off and say let's go

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Speaker 1: this way.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean sometimes I could. You know, if you

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Speaker 4: have time, you can mark it off with chem lights

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Speaker 4: or something like that and call EOD to come in

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Speaker 4: and take care of it. But if you're in a

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Speaker 4: little bit of a hurry, as long as you go

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Speaker 4: around it, you don't step on anything. If you know

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Speaker 4: where everything is, then I could plot I could plot

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Speaker 4: a route around to the side if need be, or

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Speaker 4: I can just say let's just go.

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Speaker 1: Somewhere else, and your job is to go in find

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Speaker 1: it with a metal detector and EOD. Right, you're explosives

301
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Speaker 1: as well, right, so you are.

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Speaker 4: I wasn't EOD, so I was common engineer and then

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Speaker 4: EOD is a separate they have.

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Speaker 1: They're the ones that came and dismantle it, right.

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Speaker 4: Their specialty is disposal.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and so you find it.

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Speaker 4: So engineers typically would be historically would be the guys

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Speaker 4: that would emplace and defeat minefield. So we would emplace

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Speaker 4: the minefield, and then when we came to when the

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Speaker 4: imagery would have to defeat a minefield to get through it,

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Speaker 4: an engineer would come in and defeed that minefield or

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Speaker 4: find a safe path through the minefield. So when they

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Speaker 4: started using IED's that specialty transferred over to IED detection

314
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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 1: So what is the tracked vehicle that goes and it

316
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Speaker 1: shoots out like a huge long charge of some sort

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Speaker 1: and then it drops like maybe one hundred yards out

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Speaker 1: from that vehicle and blows everything up. What is that called?

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Speaker 4: That's called an assault breacher vehicle. So what that does.

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Speaker 4: That thing that you just that that rocket is called

321
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Speaker 4: a line charge, and so what it would do would

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Speaker 4: be it would launch a rocket with this ninety long

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Speaker 4: tube sock essentially filled with C four seventeen hundred and

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Speaker 4: fifty pounds of sea four, and that ninety meter thing

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Speaker 4: would lay down on the ground and they'd explode it.

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Speaker 4: They'd blow it up. And what that's designed to do

327
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Speaker 4: is what's called sympathetically detonate everything underneath of it. So

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Speaker 4: if there's a mine underneath of it, it would blow it up,

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Speaker 4: or it would at least cut or it would basically

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Speaker 4: render inert any explosives that are underneath of it. So

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Speaker 4: if there's IED wires and it would cut through that,

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Speaker 4: and then what that assault breach vehicle would do is

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Speaker 4: then be drive along that crater, and it would have

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Speaker 4: a mine rake and it would rake up all the

335
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Speaker 4: or have a mind plow would just plow up the ground.

336
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Speaker 4: It would just throw everything. And then lastly, the last

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Speaker 4: thing it would do would be actually drive over the spot.

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Speaker 4: So if anything left is left after that, it drives

339
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Speaker 4: over it and blows it up. But it's a tank,

340
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Speaker 4: so it's pretty you know, it's pretty uh, pretty tough.

341
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Speaker 4: So now I would be doing the same thing. So

342
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Speaker 4: clearing the lane is what the essentially what the line

343
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Speaker 4: charge and the plow would do. And then when the

344
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Speaker 4: and I'm doing that with my metal detector, so clearing

345
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Speaker 4: the lane right, and then the last check is the

346
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Speaker 4: tank drives over it. That's called proofing the lane. So

347
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Speaker 4: it finally it proves it by driving over and seeing

348
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Speaker 4: if it exploded. So as I walked through, I'd be

349
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Speaker 4: doing that same thing with but I'd be doing it

350
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Speaker 4: with my feet. So proofing the lane by stepping and

351
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Speaker 4: as long as it doesn't blow up, then I was

352
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Speaker 4: right about what I thought, whether or not there be

353
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Speaker 4: a id buried in front of there.

354
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Speaker 1: So let's transition to that situation where you were probably

355
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Speaker 1: doing that exact.

356
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Speaker 4: Job exactly, yeah.

357
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Speaker 1: Exactly, thank you for explaining that. And so here you

358
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Speaker 1: are doing your gig things that you know what you're doing.

359
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Speaker 1: You're like, beep beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep beep,

360
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Speaker 1: looking for anything. Did it even did you have any

361
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Speaker 1: knowing that this was? Like, did it give you any

362
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Speaker 1: indication like you heard it and then it happened or

363
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Speaker 1: did it just happen?

364
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Speaker 4: So there, the way that the situation was was somebody

365
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:06,879
Speaker 4: else steped on an id right in front of me,

366
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 4: but it malfunctioned. So the thing, you know, what a

367
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,359
Speaker 4: blasting cap is, It's about the half of the size

368
00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,440
Speaker 4: of a pen, and this would be filled with explosives

369
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,199
Speaker 4: and that's the only thing that exploded. Usually that thing

370
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,920
Speaker 4: would be stuffed down into a big jug of ammonium nitrate,

371
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:23,400
Speaker 4: and that's what would make the imonnitrate blow. It would

372
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Speaker 4: be that blasting cap. But it malfunctions, so only the

373
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Speaker 4: blasting cap went off, So it was a little firecracker

374
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Speaker 4: that went off under his foot. But the Taliban would

375
00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:35,280
Speaker 4: like to put two three four IDs all around each

376
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Speaker 4: other whenever they put one, so essentially I kind of

377
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Speaker 4: knew that there was going to be it was very

378
00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 4: likely that there was going to be an ID buried

379
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,320
Speaker 4: in there somewhere in that area, so I had to

380
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:49,280
Speaker 4: go through first. And yeah, my metal detector was making

381
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Speaker 4: some noises, but it's it's a tricky thing because we

382
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:53,960
Speaker 4: were on a mission, and so what I had to

383
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Speaker 4: do was balance safety and expediency with that. So you know,

384
00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:00,240
Speaker 4: you have to and you have to interpret what the

385
00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,399
Speaker 4: middle of detector was telling you. So yeah, I remember

386
00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,639
Speaker 4: it was making some noises, but nothing that told me

387
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 4: that I should stop. But it turns out that, yeah,

388
00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:12,240
Speaker 4: I should have stopped because I was essentially up sweeping

389
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:16,720
Speaker 4: like this and then from my experience, immediately teleported to

390
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,480
Speaker 4: on my back and screaming and things like that, and then.

391
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:22,960
Speaker 1: The agony of it, and then yeah, you probably went

392
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,359
Speaker 1: to the bog room from there.

393
00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,119
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think my first stop was bogroom.

394
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 1: Usually that's what I.

395
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:36,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, whatever the closest hospital was, yeah, there, and then

396
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:38,719
Speaker 4: the next one, and then eventually ended up in Germany, Germany,

397
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:41,520
Speaker 4: and be the Maryland for Yeah, that's when I got

398
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,040
Speaker 4: That's where I stayed when I got home. Bethesda and Washington,

399
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:44,280
Speaker 4: d C.

400
00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 1: There's a brother and sisterhood of what you have gone

401
00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: through here. There are others who have these experiences who

402
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:52,880
Speaker 1: I have talked to, which is why I'm like, oh

403
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:54,800
Speaker 1: did you go to Bogram, Oh you wound up in Germany?

404
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,240
Speaker 1: Because there's a path from when that happens to where

405
00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,840
Speaker 1: you go. There's certain doctors that take on certain types

406
00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 1: of you know, devastating injuries to our troops and our soldiers,

407
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:07,560
Speaker 1: our marines, you know. And so I actually got to

408
00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,160
Speaker 1: meet one of those doctors one time here at my indoor.

409
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,479
Speaker 1: I have an indoor airsoft arena where we do. It's

410
00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 1: a kill house. It's like ten thousand score feet and

411
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,400
Speaker 1: he was in there plane with his fifteen year old

412
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 1: and I didn't know he was a doctor at the time.

413
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,399
Speaker 1: And one of my participants collapsed. He was nineteen. He

414
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,200
Speaker 1: had an aphib and I said, everybody go to the

415
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,959
Speaker 1: staging area except for authorized personnel because we're calling nine

416
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,199
Speaker 1: one one. He's like, I'm a doctor. I was like,

417
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:32,439
Speaker 1: you can stay. So we wound up getting this kid

418
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:34,560
Speaker 1: to breathe and taking him on a gurney and he

419
00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: went to the hospital from there and he goes rad

420
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:38,840
Speaker 1: I go, what, I didn't know, You're gonna give me

421
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: this kind of realism. Bro, He's like, what do you mean.

422
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: He's like, well, I was in bogroom as the doc

423
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:48,760
Speaker 1: that handled all the ied from your time frame, you know,

424
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 1: through the war. And he was a lieutenant colonel here

425
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:54,159
Speaker 1: up a hill Air Force Base who was with his

426
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: fifteen year old son playing wargames in my arena. And

427
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 1: here we are taking off combat year and helmets and

428
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:01,480
Speaker 1: all that stuff to fix this guy. And he's just

429
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,080
Speaker 1: it sucked him right back into that zone. And I

430
00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:06,639
Speaker 1: was thankful he was playing in the arena.

431
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:07,840
Speaker 4: He was there.

432
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:10,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the dude looked like mister Utah, six

433
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 1: foot four, blonde hair, blue eyes. Now I ask people

434
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:15,199
Speaker 1: when they come to my arena, do you have an

435
00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: aphib do you have asthma? Are you a heat casualty?

436
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: Do you have anything that we need to know about.

437
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 1: You've been sitting on mountain dew and call of duty

438
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,480
Speaker 1: too long to be up and start running and just

439
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,440
Speaker 1: collapse on me. There's these things, right, But to hear

440
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,760
Speaker 1: from him, you know how he works with marines like

441
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 1: you or anybody that comes through the compassion he had.

442
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:34,160
Speaker 1: I just know that that's what was given to you.

443
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 1: So it's hard to say I don't have a magic

444
00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:41,359
Speaker 1: wand you know, to say, here's everything back. But I

445
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:45,040
Speaker 1: think you've proven to us with your courage and your

446
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,720
Speaker 1: tenacity and you never give up to push forward, and

447
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,760
Speaker 1: you found like recreational therapy through sports, and that sports

448
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,439
Speaker 1: have led you. I'm talking to an Olympian, I'm talking

449
00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:01,239
Speaker 1: to a bronze medal USA Team USA champion. You know

450
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:03,200
Speaker 1: you don't get to do that every single day. I

451
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,359
Speaker 1: don't get it. The last person I talked to who

452
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,240
Speaker 1: ran like twenty seven marathons in a row. He was

453
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 1: an escort for the John Deere daughter and she wanted

454
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:13,600
Speaker 1: to run all these marathons back in the day, and

455
00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 1: he was a Green Beret and he could run, and

456
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: so he was attached to her detail. And so they

457
00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: ran twenty seven marathons in twenty seven days. And I

458
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,439
Speaker 1: was like, Lauren Howe. He's like, I just woke up

459
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 1: and put my shoes on, and I was like, bro,

460
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 1: I just twenty seven men. Yeah, And so here you are,

461
00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 1: you know, aside from the Olympics, which is such a

462
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 1: feat no pun intended, Yeah right, you know, you ran

463
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,679
Speaker 1: thirty one marathons in thirty one different cities in thirty

464
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,520
Speaker 1: one days. Yeah, so the logistics of it, it's not

465
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,439
Speaker 1: the fact that you ran it, and you ran it

466
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: on prosthetics. It's the fact that you guys went from

467
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,000
Speaker 1: one city to another city to another city. Did you

468
00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 1: just sleep in the van or did you even fly

469
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:01,840
Speaker 1: anywhere like to get.

470
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, the first marathon was London. So I went from

471
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,000
Speaker 4: London to Philadelphia, or I flew to New York and

472
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 4: then drove down to Philadelphia. But it was possible because

473
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 4: it's only I only lost a couple hours because it's

474
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 4: a seven hour flight in a five hour time difference.

475
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 4: So but that's the only flight that I took. And

476
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 4: then yeah, it would just be wake up in the morning,

477
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 4: put my legs on instead of put my shoes on.

478
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:26,160
Speaker 4: Sput my legs on. Yeah, run and then finish, get

479
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 4: in the RV and drive to the next city and

480
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:28,800
Speaker 4: then wake up the next morning.

481
00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 1: And plot of the whole thing. Use ploted the whole

482
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,159
Speaker 1: thing just like, Okay, here's how we go. We go

483
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 1: from London to Philly and then from Philly to New York,

484
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: New York and then just consistently just hit all the Chicago.

485
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,880
Speaker 4: And just tried to make sure that there was enough

486
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 4: time in the day for me to run the marathon

487
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 4: and then drive to the next place. The longest drive

488
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 4: was I probably should have made a stop in between,

489
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 4: but it was. The longest drive was Salt Lake to Seattle,

490
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 4: which was fourteen hours, So basically we pulled in right

491
00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:02,479
Speaker 4: as I needed to wake up and start running, and

492
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 4: so that was the closest one. But yeah, most of

493
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 4: the drives were about six to eight hours.

494
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,400
Speaker 1: What was the like, why am I doing this? What

495
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: was the There was a moment when you're like, oh, man,

496
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: I am just wasted. I have to go do this today.

497
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,640
Speaker 4: I never had a moment like that because I knew

498
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 4: pretty strongly why I was doing it. And that was

499
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 4: because I'm sure you probably noticed this from your experiences too,

500
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 4: and a lot of people that are listening to this

501
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 4: have recognized this. I started noticing in twenty sixteen that

502
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 4: it seemed to me like the perception of veterans had

503
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 4: been shifting slightly from when the War on Terror started.

504
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:38,159
Speaker 4: In the beginning of the war in two thousand and

505
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 4: one two thousand and three, all veterans were seen as strong, noble, courageous,

506
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,400
Speaker 4: and domitable, could handle anything heroes. But by the time

507
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,400
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen rolled around, it seemed like we were all

508
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 4: being seen as broken heroes. It seemed like every veteran

509
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 4: character I saw in a movie or in a TV show,

510
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 4: news stories saw puticians. Yeah, we were all being portrayed

511
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,719
Speaker 4: as haunted by what we have seen in war and

512
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 4: constantly on the cusp of implosion. There was no other

513
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 4: You weren't really being told very many stories, if any

514
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 4: at all, about a veteran that went overseas, experienced war,

515
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 4: and then came back and used it to become stronger

516
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:19,240
Speaker 4: and use it to improve their life. It was all

517
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 4: just we were all about to implode and fly off

518
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 4: the handle. And I didn't like that because, at first off,

519
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 4: it didn't represent me, it didn't represent my friends, and

520
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 4: I knew statistically it didn't represent the vast majority of veterans.

521
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 4: But yet it was the only story that we were

522
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 4: being told. So the reason I did the month of

523
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 4: marathons was to do my part to create a story

524
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 4: that people would hear about the other side of that coin,

525
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,679
Speaker 4: that hey, it's possible for a veteran to go overseas,

526
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,880
Speaker 4: in common for a veteran to go overseas, experience war

527
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 4: and then come back and adapt back to normal life.

528
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:54,639
Speaker 4: And my way of doing that was to run, was

529
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,440
Speaker 4: to do something that would just blow people's minds. Run

530
00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 4: a bunch of back to back marathons as a double

531
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 4: above the empty that news organizations couldn't help but cover

532
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 4: because it was such an incredible story, right, and just

533
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 4: do what I could to get that story out there

534
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 4: for people to hear and.

535
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,560
Speaker 1: See, way to see your situation and make it into uh,

536
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 1: you know, a spotlight and beacon of hope for everybody

537
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: out there. I mean there's, like I said, there is

538
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 1: a brother and sisterhood of folks who have lost the

539
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: limbs in battle and they've you know, they might be

540
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: sitting back going like maybe I'm gonna start running. Maybe

541
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,479
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start putting forth an effort, get a treadmill

542
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: in the house, and start getting back into the groove.

543
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,439
Speaker 1: You know, try to stop diabetes from taking hold of

544
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: your body.

545
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 4: Don't prevent let lethargy take over your life.

546
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, you know. And way, So that's leadership. So

547
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: we got courage. Leadership is I'm gonna make this happen.

548
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show that I can get this done, and

549
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,879
Speaker 1: there's a will, there's a way that's very uh pro

550
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 1: what's possible exactly, dude, you're breakthrough and conqueror.

551
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 4: Follow your example. So yeah, that's a great way to

552
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 4: lead people.

553
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: You know. I have a friend that was British. He

554
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: is British and he was a sniper on patrol in Afghanistan.

555
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 1: He had the same exact thing that happened to you,

556
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton. I'll shout shut him out. What's up, Chris?

557
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this over in England, ruts up

558
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:21,520
Speaker 1: Chris Christopher both of his knees. So we were walking

559
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:26,800
Speaker 1: all over London and his prosthetic was electric, right, But

560
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: pretty soon he started walking like a pirate and he's like,

561
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: he's like, my battery, mate, it's my battery. And I

562
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:35,719
Speaker 1: was like, ah, hurry up. He's like, is that how

563
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: it's going to be? As like it is? Let's go,

564
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: come on, man, let's go. And he had no problem

565
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: with us paling around and you know, bumping shoulders and

566
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: we went to the Citadel and watched it was during

567
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: eleven eleven eleven, and in London, that's a big deal, right,

568
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,439
Speaker 1: It's Remembrance Day, and it was the Sunday next and

569
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,640
Speaker 1: we were over there with Soft Rep doing the boxing match,

570
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: which is veterans versus veterans. So he was in a

571
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,199
Speaker 1: wheelchair and it was adapted boxing, and so he was

572
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: just they would roll and then boxing the ring and

573
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 1: then like this is really really it right here, like

574
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 1: in the chair right and they're like all just like

575
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: pop trying to pop each other in the face. It

576
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 1: was a really popular event during that time for me.

577
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 1: Then like three years in a row until COVID hit. Yeah,

578
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 1: so I mean, you know, same thing. He was just walking.

579
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:25,880
Speaker 1: He's like, I was just lucky. I guess that's all

580
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: he said. It's like, how come he's like I was

581
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: just lucky. Yeah, he lived exactly exactly. Now he's got

582
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,959
Speaker 1: a kid and you know, he's got a wife and

583
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 1: you know, all that still works for him. But it's

584
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: the prosthetic that I was always like, I wish you know,

585
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: it's like you need a battery charger charger for it

586
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: while you're walking everywhere. Do you have the same kind

587
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: of prosthetics that have the electrical charging.

588
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 4: Called bionic knees. The charge usually last about four or

589
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 4: five days but yeah, if you it happens sometimes where

590
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 4: I'll forget the charge it.

591
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 1: Or you're like, I'm good walking so much.

592
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 4: That it runs out of battery, or maybe there's some

593
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 4: sort of a software fault in it and it malfunctions

594
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 4: or something. But that Yeah, but what it does is

595
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 4: it locks out, so you gotta you got a pirate

596
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 4: limp it until you get Yeah, man, it happens sometimes

597
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 4: it does.

598
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 1: It does, right, and Uh, I'm glad we could smile

599
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,920
Speaker 1: about it. I love that your demeanor is totally awesome

600
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 1: and you know yourself, yeah, really right, we all have

601
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,600
Speaker 1: something going on. And you know something that you also

602
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: continue to do was you became an author. So you

603
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: wrote Put your Legs on One Man's Journey to Survive,

604
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: Recover and Live. Yeah, and that's a book that you

605
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: have out right now that's just hitting the rounds and

606
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it just came out.

607
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 4: Yeah. So it's my it's my memoir. So it tells

608
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 4: the story of what we've talked about. So it starts

609
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 4: right before I stepped on the id and it goes

610
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 4: through my recovery, uh, going to the Paralympics, ride my

611
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 4: bike across the country, Uh, doing the month marathons. It

612
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 4: goes through that entire journey, and then it ends with

613
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 4: the epilogue is my son being born, which is, you know,

614
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 4: I've kind of transitioned into the role of being a

615
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 4: dad and husband, which is the more important thing that

616
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 4: I'm going to be able to do. And it's interesting

617
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 4: because all the stuff that I learned how to do

618
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,000
Speaker 4: that did all these other things are you know, you

619
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 4: might think that those would be the most important things

620
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 4: I did with those skills, but really, the most important

621
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 4: things I could do with all the skills I learned

622
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 4: or want to make that stuff happen, is you know,

623
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 4: be a better dad, you know, being be healthy to

624
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 4: so I can chase my son around and run around

625
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 4: with him while he rides his bike, or be able

626
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 4: to deadlift my daughter off the ground to pick her

627
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 4: up and do all these things. And so yeah, that's

628
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 4: that's what the book is about. And it's a it's

629
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 4: been a long time and in uh in production, but

630
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 4: I'm glad that it's out now and I hope, I

631
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 4: hope people enjoy it and I hope it helps helps

632
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 4: them you'll find a pathway for themselves.

633
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: You know. I feel like there should some type of

634
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 1: a movie and the person that has to play you

635
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: is you.

636
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 4: Don't I don't think anybody would want to see me

637
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 4: in a movie.

638
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:10,680
Speaker 1: Oh I would. I like seeing you. I think that

639
00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: you're great. You have you have everything, you have all

640
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 1: of the everything I would want to see as a character. Yeah.

641
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 4: You know, if you know a director, well, I mean yeah, audition.

642
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have you, it's you done. Whoever the director

643
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: takes on your book, and whoever takes on that manuscript

644
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 1: just has to take you with it, because I mean.

645
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 4: They have to see g im for the for the

646
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:33,440
Speaker 4: parts from in Afghanistan, they have to see g I

647
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 4: my legs back on.

648
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: That's okay. They did it for Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump.

649
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: They took his legs away. Yeah, then they could easily.

650
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 4: That's true.

651
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. And if as long as you're upright

652
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: and you're in your uniform and you're walking, it's like

653
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 1: you just need you know, like just the upper torso, hey,

654
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: what's up, what's up? What's going on? What's going on?

655
00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 1: You know? Pan shots down back and forth? Hey, directors

656
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 1: out there? Hey, uh you know James Cameron, Yeah, you

657
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: know this, Oh Martin Scorsese. That's who you called out

658
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: right there, let's go, let's go right, oh Man, and

659
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: my buddy that helps direct on Avatar, Jonathan Jonathan. Yeah, dude,

660
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 1: I know that he's had a huge release, a three

661
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: hour seventeen movie just released. He's the director of all

662
00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: the CGA on Avatar. So yeah, so.

663
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 4: I'm like the whole movie. He basically directed that movie.

664
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: I mean really, yeah, it goes James Cameron then him. Yeah. Yeah,

665
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:26,920
Speaker 1: so I mean like who knows who knows who? Right,

666
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, small world here, it's soft Rep.

667
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 4: It's gonna be good at CGI too, exactly.

668
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: Now. The bike riding, Okay, I love the snowboard, but

669
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 1: that's really getting a ride on a lift up the

670
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: mountain and then I get to go down the mountain

671
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: with gravity. You're like, Bro, You're like, I'm gonna put

672
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: my body through the paces. I'm gonna make sure my

673
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: spine still works. I'm going to make sure that I can,

674
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 1: you know, grab my water bottle from U underneath and

675
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 1: drink it or from my Like a bike's not very

676
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: comfortable for me anyways, but you're sitting here going five

677
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: thousand miles on it from one side of the country

678
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: to Camp Pendleton.

679
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, Barbarbur Main to Pendleton, Yeah, And that's a double

680
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 4: above MEMBT. So one of the things I wanted to

681
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 4: be able to do by the time I left therapy

682
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 4: was ride a bicycle. And that's because right before I

683
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 4: was wounded, I was starting to get in the mountain

684
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 4: biking and it's just an activity I was starting to

685
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 4: enjoy and I wanted to be able to return to it.

686
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 4: And that's part of the purpose of physical therapy is

687
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 4: to figure out how to do the things that you

688
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 4: think you might want to do after you leave therapy.

689
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 4: So you practice it and you learn how to do

690
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 4: it in therapy, and the physical therapist and the processes

691
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 4: are all there to help you do it. Problem for

692
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 4: me was that they hadn't heard about very many double

693
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 4: above membts and had ever learned how to ride a

694
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 4: normal bicycle. There was one guy named Rudy Garcia Tulsen

695
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 4: in California that had done it, and so we were

696
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 4: kind of on our own to figure out how to

697
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 4: do it. I had videos of Rudy and my process

698
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 4: knew a friend of his, so he was able to

699
00:33:57,680 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 4: give me, you know, some tips and everything but we

700
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 4: had to figure out how to do it, and it

701
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 4: took a long time. And so when I was looking

702
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 4: for something to try and do to push myself, I figured, well,

703
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 4: why did't I ride my bike across the country as

704
00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 4: a little adventure for me to do? And so I

705
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 4: hopped on my bike in Bar Harbor, Main. My little

706
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 4: brother was driving U haul box truck behind me, eighteen

707
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 4: foot you know, U haul, and we'd sleep in the

708
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,359
Speaker 4: back for a lot of it, and we just made

709
00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 4: our way across the country.

710
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: Hardcore, bro, hardcore dude.

711
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a really fun time.

712
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:34,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, your brother's like, you know, I can go like

713
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:36,959
Speaker 1: sixty in this thing, right, I could drive us.

714
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 4: Not even eight lot, but he was going probably three

715
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 4: miles an hour. I was going up all these mountains.

716
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 1: Right and he yeah, dude, Wow, the mountain passes. And

717
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:50,240
Speaker 1: what was the most challenging aspect of that journey Donners Pass.

718
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:51,560
Speaker 1: I mean I went.

719
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:56,280
Speaker 4: Over Monarch Pass. That was definitely a that was in February,

720
00:34:56,320 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 4: So February Monarch Pass, Colorado, that was deaf definitely pretty tough. Yeah,

721
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 4: that's probably though. That was probably that this crossing the

722
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 4: Rockies was probably just because there's four big mountain passes

723
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,520
Speaker 4: I had to go over. That was probably the most

724
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 4: difficult little section of the ride. The Appalachian Mountains weren't

725
00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 4: easy either because they were really steep. But I would say, yeah,

726
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 4: probably probably crossing the column of rock Bro.

727
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 1: They should have your map, they should have you on

728
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: peloton like you choose you like your ghost, like Mario Kart. Right,

729
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 1: someone's out there like, all right, let me see what

730
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: I I peloton. Let me see what I could do

731
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,840
Speaker 1: with normal legs. Get on there and just try to

732
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:38,720
Speaker 1: climb that pass.

733
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's cool. I have video footage of it to you.

734
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:42,280
Speaker 4: I'll send it to them.

735
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, exactly. See. So I mean, if you're out

736
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,239
Speaker 1: there and you want to do crazy, I mean I

737
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 1: see people riding up Brighton's Big Cotton With Canyon here

738
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,960
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City, that's where I'm out of, and

739
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: they're always they're always like training going up that canyon,

740
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,360
Speaker 1: you know, to get that lung and that altitude of

741
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: twelve thousand feet.

742
00:35:58,680 --> 00:35:58,880
Speaker 4: You know.

743
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 1: Every time I see someone riding their bikes up there,

744
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: I'm just like, all right, go get it, get it.

745
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: I'll move up. I'll move over for you, you know, it's

746
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 1: a two later road, but I'll move over for you,

747
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,480
Speaker 1: all right, because like that's respect for those bike cyclists. Yees.

748
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,240
Speaker 4: So, like, I mean, Utah has some pretty tough mountains

749
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 4: as well. I remember riding through Utah too.

750
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: Yeah it's gnarly. And uh, did you get to use

751
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:19,800
Speaker 1: the freeway though at all? To like ride you have

752
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: permission to go like straight like freeway or anything like that,

753
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 1: or did you.

754
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 4: Do any freeway?

755
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:25,000
Speaker 1: I did?

756
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 4: I did a what do you call it? A little

757
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 4: dirt road that parallels.

758
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:32,280
Speaker 1: The freeway once frontage roads.

759
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did a frontage around what is it Cedar nuts,

760
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:39,919
Speaker 4: Cedar City in Utah, Cedar City, Yeah, yeah, so around

761
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 4: Cedar City. I remember, I did a frontage road along

762
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 4: the highway. I did some pretty I did, like Route

763
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 4: one in Maine down the but that was it was

764
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 4: partly the biggest roads I did. I tried to stay

765
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,400
Speaker 4: off the main roads just because I didn't he I

766
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 4: didn't really want to get anybody's way because it was

767
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 4: you know I did. I mean, actually the biggest road

768
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,200
Speaker 4: where I got in most people's way Pacific Coast Highway

769
00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:07,879
Speaker 4: down Route one in California. Not happy about that. There

770
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 4: was long.

771
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:10,919
Speaker 1: Road.

772
00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 4: People were mad I should have picked a different way

773
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 4: to get down down to Camp Pendleton if I could

774
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 4: do it over again. It was a nice ride for me,

775
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 4: but people were pretty pissed.

776
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, hey, and then you made it to

777
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: Camp Pendleton, right, Is that where you went to boot camp? Also?

778
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 1: Did you wind up going back to or are you

779
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 1: Paris Island?

780
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 4: I was Paris Island?

781
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so you rode from the east to the west. Yeah,

782
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 1: oh man, when you got there, did you cry?

783
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 4: No? I didn't cry, but I was definitely relieved to

784
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 4: be done to spek up in the morning and the

785
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 4: next day and go, I don't have to ride my

786
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 4: bike today, which is incredible.

787
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: That's a weird vibe, huh, from going from being so

788
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: regimented to riding every day to like, yeah.

789
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,839
Speaker 4: Just not having to anymore and I just chill and

790
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 4: be done with it.

791
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you still actively look at the.

792
00:37:58,000 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 4: Map thinking about the next mountain I was going to

793
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:01,400
Speaker 4: go up or anything like that?

794
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, getting psyched? Okay, I gotta do this and it's

795
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: snowing here we go.

796
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 4: Yeah.

797
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:09,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, you still ride your bike and like stay active

798
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: on the I.

799
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 4: Don't do tons of bike riding net right now. In fact,

800
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,640
Speaker 4: my my bike is in the Marine Corps Museum where

801
00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:17,840
Speaker 4: they gave it to him. I think they're going to

802
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 4: be coming up with little exhibit Marines and Sports or

803
00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 4: something that in the near future. So they have my bike.

804
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 4: But now that my son has a bike, I need

805
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 4: to get another one and make sure I can still

806
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 4: ride and do all that stuff.

807
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 1: And uh with your with your amputations above the knee

808
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: and you're wearing these prosthetics. I'm trying to lose my

809
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:36,880
Speaker 1: knee on a camera and you're like locking that on

810
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 1: there right. Yeah. You know, my buddy over in England

811
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: he was showing me and when we were done with

812
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 1: that day that he had kind of swollen up in

813
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: his knee in his lower extremities right there from all

814
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: of just walking right. You had to did you happen

815
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 1: to have that happen to you while you're riding? Just

816
00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 1: like super swollen and just like ah, man.

817
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 4: Well, so my my prositic goes up over my thigh.

818
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 4: Oh wow, knee, So it goes up over I don't

819
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:02,840
Speaker 4: have my knee, so it was all the way up

820
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,840
Speaker 4: over my thigh. My thigh goes down into it and

821
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 4: then the prosthetic component has a knee on it. But yeah,

822
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 4: so as as I pedal, uh, the socket would move

823
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 4: over top of my actual, my human lamb, and that

824
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 4: causes friction, and friction causes blisters and reactions in your body.

825
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 4: So yeah, for a lot of the ride, I had

826
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 4: blisters and just you know, pockets of fluid on various parts.

827
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 4: But I would lubricate as much as I could, but

828
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,440
Speaker 4: you know that just friction over time would just cause

829
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 4: pockets of fluid and blisters.

830
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 1: Yeah. I just want to say I love you, bro

831
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:44,440
Speaker 1: you okay, Yeah, I just want to put that out there. Okay,

832
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: And you know, thanks for being so open and vulnerable

833
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:48,799
Speaker 1: and let me ask some of these questions. Yeah.

834
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 4: Sure, this is all interesting stuff.

835
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 1: You know, and and I find it just so intriguing.

836
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: Like you know, your your bionic Okay, you just have

837
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: a TV show called The Bionic Man. Yeah.

838
00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 4: I kid kids come up to me and ask me

839
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 4: if I have robot legs, and I tell them I'm

840
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 4: technically a cyboard because I'm part biological organism, part cybernetic organism.

841
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,799
Speaker 1: Like if you're kicking the fire at the campfire with

842
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:14,319
Speaker 1: your foot your leg, you just forget it's in the

843
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: fire and you're not just talking to everybody.

844
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 4: To firewalking competitions all the time. Nobody, nobody's taking me

845
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:25,000
Speaker 4: off on it.

846
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:32,000
Speaker 1: Yet you win. Now, let's go back to the beginning

847
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 1: of here, because I wanted to ask something before we

848
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 1: got into this. You know this this thing about you

849
00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:38,880
Speaker 1: is video game programmer. And you said you were stuck

850
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,520
Speaker 1: playing video games. What was your games that you were

851
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 1: playing that you just wanted to become You had so

852
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:46,719
Speaker 1: much opinion because you were playing. You're like, I'm going

853
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 1: to make my own game because this is what I think.

854
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,960
Speaker 1: What game is your game? More combat? What is it?

855
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 1: Is it?

856
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 4: In college? In college, I was playing a lot of

857
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,240
Speaker 4: Half Life mod. Do you ever play that game? Half Life?

858
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:00,640
Speaker 1: Yeah?

859
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:05,360
Speaker 4: Samson Shooter. And what they did was they released the

860
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,240
Speaker 4: they released the ability for people to take the software,

861
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 4: the code from that game and make their own games

862
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 4: with them, and so it was called it be called

863
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 4: a mod. So they modify the original game. So they

864
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 4: had games like counter Strike Strike, Yeah, counter Strike Natural Selection.

865
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:23,680
Speaker 4: I would play a lot of which is a kind

866
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 4: of an Aliens versus Marines game, Day of Defeat. The

867
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,280
Speaker 4: games like that Defeat, I play a lot of unreal tournament.

868
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,640
Speaker 4: I play a lot of a lot of first person shooters,

869
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:37,959
Speaker 4: a lot of real time strategy. I play all sorts

870
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 4: of games.

871
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:41,719
Speaker 1: I played Day Defeat the other day on my Yea

872
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: son supercomputer.

873
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:46,319
Speaker 4: Oh man, so people still playing that game.

874
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it still goes. Yeah, you can go Dave Defeat.

875
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you got the church at the

876
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:52,839
Speaker 1: top and then you go down, like, you know.

877
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 4: Is it still good or is it still fun?

878
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's just more corners and angles

879
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,480
Speaker 1: then you're used to day in video ideas. Right back

880
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 1: then though, it was just like, oh, I'm in the

881
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,799
Speaker 1: church of the MG mowing everybody down that's trying to

882
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 1: rush up to the flag, you know, and I'm just

883
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: like at that point. Now I get there and I'm like, oh,

884
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 1: I look around at the screen and it's kind of

885
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: like angles and you can see how it was just

886
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 1: at its time cool, but today it's like it seems.

887
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 4: Like the graphics would are so far.

888
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,000
Speaker 1: Behind they are, but it still runs.

889
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 4: Yes, I played like Diablo too.

890
00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 1: Sure Diablo is a good game.

891
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, And unfortunately, and I spent way too

892
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 4: much time doing that instead of being working hard, and

893
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 4: you know, when that's what you do, then yeah, you're

894
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 4: not going to do very well in school.

895
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true because today it's Battlefield six. Everyone's like

896
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,240
Speaker 1: they coming to my shop and they're like looking like zombies.

897
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, why are you guys looking tired? Like that's

898
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,600
Speaker 1: up all night playing Battlefield. Yeah.

899
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd stay up till four or five o'clock in

900
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:52,839
Speaker 4: the morning, and then i'd skip class because I had,

901
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,080
Speaker 4: you know, an eight o'clock class, and I wouldn't you know,

902
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 4: It's just.

903
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: Not like I'll just make up the class I got.

904
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,719
Speaker 4: Yea, yeah, I'll just I don't know, figure it out.

905
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:05,600
Speaker 4: But then I did. I didn't because oh I worked it,

906
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 4: you know, worked okay for the first two years. But

907
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 4: then by the time classes started getting hard, you know,

908
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 4: and you know, the subjects started getting harder. It just

909
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 4: wasn't a functional way to go through college.

910
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 1: No, no. And then so so to flash forward back

911
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 1: to today, you're brought into echelon front from your own

912
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,719
Speaker 1: will and your own desire, or did somebody there like

913
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 1: David Burke or you know those guys pull you in

914
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 1: and say, hey, come work here.

915
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean knowing Dave was a large component of

916
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:45,560
Speaker 4: me being able to be an instructor. I'd say the

917
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 4: the first interaction I had was Jocko had me on

918
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 4: his podcast before the month of marathons, so that's how

919
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 4: I met Jocko. But then I think back then Echelon

920
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:56,239
Speaker 4: Front was just I think they had just brought on

921
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,680
Speaker 4: Dave and JP if I'm remembering my history right, and

922
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:01,279
Speaker 4: then I have to have me on again after the

923
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 4: month of marathons, and then I just started being a

924
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 4: motivational speaker for a while. And then it wasn't until

925
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 4: two thousand twenty two, I think, or twenty twenty one

926
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 4: that I had met Jocko, I had met Laife, I

927
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 4: had met Dave, so Dave and I were good friends.

928
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 4: I met Jason Gardner, which another instructor. I met a

929
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:24,759
Speaker 4: lot of the instructors, and Jason invited me out to

930
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:27,440
Speaker 4: do the Battlefield at Gettysburg, which is an event that

931
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 4: we do where you go to Gettysburg and you do

932
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:34,439
Speaker 4: a historical tour of the battle, but then you're also

933
00:44:34,600 --> 00:44:37,920
Speaker 4: talking about leadership lessons at various points in the battle,

934
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:40,280
Speaker 4: and then you're taking those leadership lessons at that battle

935
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 4: and you're applying it to your life. And so I

936
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 4: Jason invited me out to that, and I was just

937
00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 4: applying all the lessons to my motivational speaking career that

938
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 4: I was doing, which is kind of you know, it

939
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 4: was going okay, but it wasn't you know, I wasn't

940
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 4: making I wasn't taking off or anything. It was doing

941
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 4: all right. And then Laife came up to me at

942
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,839
Speaker 4: one point during that and he said, you know, why

943
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:03,799
Speaker 4: don't you come and check out what we're doing an

944
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 4: echelon front. And I said, well, if you're going to

945
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 4: offer me the dream job, then hell yeah, I'll do that.

946
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:11,799
Speaker 4: And so I talked to Dave and he helped me,

947
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,200
Speaker 4: and talked to Laife and talked to Jason, and I

948
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 4: started doing events with them. And that's how the process works.

949
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:19,200
Speaker 4: Coming out as an instructor, you kind of go and

950
00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 4: observe first, and then you start doing very small components

951
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 4: of the keynote that we deliver, and you have other

952
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:30,239
Speaker 4: instructors give you tips and pointers on it, and then

953
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 4: you eventually take on more and more parts of a

954
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 4: keynote or a workshop until eventually you know Dave or

955
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,520
Speaker 4: Steve or life they check you off, and they say, Okay,

956
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 4: you're authorized to start teaching these these this level of event,

957
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 4: whether it's a keynote or a workshop or a full

958
00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:47,240
Speaker 4: air workshop.

959
00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:50,279
Speaker 1: You've had the fundamentals. Now you've like honed on that.

960
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:52,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, they've trained you up to a point and so

961
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:56,279
Speaker 4: and it's a slow, deliberately slow process to make sure

962
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,319
Speaker 4: that you're able to hand your handle yourself when they

963
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:00,279
Speaker 4: go they when they send you out by your self

964
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 4: to teach leadership at various companies.

965
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: That's so cool, bro, And it's Leaf.

966
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:06,400
Speaker 4: Oh, it's amazing.

967
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 1: It's like life Babbitt, Right is that who we're talking about?

968
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, Leaf Babin, the co street Wadership with Jocko and

969
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:13,919
Speaker 4: the the co founder of vessel in Front.

970
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah right, well rock stars, Bro, you're working with.

971
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 4: Best job in the world. I get to go around

972
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:21,240
Speaker 4: the country teaching leadership. And it's the best thing about

973
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 4: it is there's two things that are the best. Not

974
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,000
Speaker 4: only do I get to help people, but a lot

975
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 4: of times I'm going out with another instructor, So I

976
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:29,840
Speaker 4: got to go out and hang out with my friends

977
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 4: and work together with my good friends and have fun.

978
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:37,799
Speaker 4: And also every time I go out and my work.

979
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 4: I come back a better person because I go and

980
00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 4: I think about these leadership principles that we teach. I

981
00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:47,120
Speaker 4: think about extreme ownership, and I naturally am going to

982
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 4: think about how that applies to my life every single

983
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:51,560
Speaker 4: time that I talk about it. So every time I

984
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:53,240
Speaker 4: go out and work, I come back a better person.

985
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 4: And most people can't say that when they go to work,

986
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:58,000
Speaker 4: that when you come home from work, you come back

987
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 4: a better person. So it's amazing and what we're doing

988
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:05,959
Speaker 4: at Eslan Front teaching leadership, we could change the world.

989
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 4: If we can get enough people to buy in to

990
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 4: extreme ownership and want to improve themselves as leaders and

991
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 4: start working together as a team and do all these

992
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 4: things that we teach, we could literally change the trajectory

993
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 4: of humanity in the same way that the Stoic philosophers

994
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 4: back in the BC's change the trajectory of humanity with

995
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 4: the Enlightenment and all these different things. I really believe

996
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 4: that I could if we could get enough people bought

997
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:31,560
Speaker 4: into what we teach, it can improve the entire world.

998
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 1: Give me those three things that you mentioned earlier, that

999
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:36,319
Speaker 1: was courage, Oh you.

1000
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 4: Want to join the Marine Corps. Courage selflessness and brotherhood. Yeah,

1001
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,400
Speaker 4: selfless and yeah leadership put that in there too.

1002
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:47,279
Speaker 1: And brotherhood. I'm just writing. I just take notes. Like

1003
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 1: you said, when you go out and do something with

1004
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:52,520
Speaker 1: your comrades and your buddies and you learn and you

1005
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:54,799
Speaker 1: feel like a better person. I'm the same way. After

1006
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:57,000
Speaker 1: these episodes, each of my people, Like when I got

1007
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 1: to interview David, and after I got there talking to him,

1008
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:03,319
Speaker 1: I felt like I had maybe evolved a little bit.

1009
00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 1: I call it a cocoon phase where you go in

1010
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: like a caterpillar, you cocoon yourself and then you come

1011
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 1: out with a butterfly, wings and all these colors. It's

1012
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: the new you, right, And each one of these episodes,

1013
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 1: when I talk to somebody, that's really enlightening on my

1014
00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:20,240
Speaker 1: own mentality. You know, I just want to say thanks

1015
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:21,960
Speaker 1: for taking the time to be on the show. And

1016
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 1: I always like to become a better person. Bro, that's true,

1017
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:26,000
Speaker 1: you're doing that.

1018
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 4: I appreciate you give me the opportunity, and I mean,

1019
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:31,279
Speaker 4: yeah to your point when you talk. Every time I

1020
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 4: talk to Dave, I come back a better person. And

1021
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 4: he's a great person to talk to if you want

1022
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:38,799
Speaker 4: to be enlightened Yeah, go talk to Dave, because he's

1023
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 4: thought about all this stuff on a levels that I

1024
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:45,279
Speaker 4: probably never will be able to. He's really a fantastic person.

1025
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:47,080
Speaker 1: He didn't have to be boots on the ground. He

1026
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 1: could have stayed a pilot in the cockpage. Yeah, he

1027
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 1: could have just stayed up in the air all the time.

1028
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:54,000
Speaker 4: But he's like, you know what, the most dangerous place

1029
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:55,879
Speaker 4: on the entire planet with one.

1030
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 1: Of the most hard hitting teams Bruiser with Jocko and

1031
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:03,360
Speaker 1: life where he attached to them. Yeah, I know. My

1032
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:06,759
Speaker 1: wife calls it invisible strings. You know, it's like, you know,

1033
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 1: how her and I met were invisible strings through parents

1034
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 1: and things like that, and you know, and yeah, I

1035
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,319
Speaker 1: think you don't plan on it, but here you all are,

1036
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:16,319
Speaker 1: you know these invisible strings. Yeah.

1037
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:18,799
Speaker 4: I think a couple of the parallels between my story

1038
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 4: and Dave's story, besides most of the both of us

1039
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:22,640
Speaker 4: being Marines, is that one of the things I noticed

1040
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:24,879
Speaker 4: when I read his book and just from knowing him,

1041
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,760
Speaker 4: is that at all these different parts of his life,

1042
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,160
Speaker 4: he just did the right He did what he thought

1043
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 4: was the right thing, He did the great thing for

1044
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 4: the right reasons, and that's why he volunteered to be

1045
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 4: a fact, and that's why he volunteered for all these

1046
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:38,480
Speaker 4: different things. He was just trying to do the right

1047
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:40,759
Speaker 4: thing from what he could figure was the right thing,

1048
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 4: and then as a result of that, opportunities came his

1049
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 4: way that that were great for him as well, but

1050
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:48,480
Speaker 4: also great for the world. And so I kind of

1051
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 4: think that I see that a little bit in my

1052
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 4: own story, where I just tried to do what I

1053
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:55,080
Speaker 4: thought was right and then now it ended up with

1054
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,400
Speaker 4: me being, you know, here at Ashelan Front, which is

1055
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:59,759
Speaker 4: exactly where I want to be in terms of my

1056
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:02,720
Speaker 4: career and being able to do something, you know, outside

1057
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 4: of my family that is going to help change the world.

1058
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 4: So just do the right things for the great reasons,

1059
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:08,839
Speaker 4: and good things will come your way.

1060
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 1: Man, one hundred percent. Yeah, you know, let's segue on

1061
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:16,920
Speaker 1: that real quick about Echelon Front. Okay, So tell my listener,

1062
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:19,920
Speaker 1: my viewer, if there's just one person watching this, tell

1063
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 1: them why Echelon Front is Echelon Front. Can you give

1064
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:25,719
Speaker 1: me just like a quick breakdown on what they can

1065
00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 1: what you guys can provide to them, or how they

1066
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 1: can incorporate Echelon Front into their daily. Yeah.

1067
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:33,440
Speaker 4: So what we have well with Jocko and Lafe and

1068
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:36,160
Speaker 4: Dave learned in the Battle of her Maani is that

1069
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:39,360
Speaker 4: leadership is the most important thing, is the most important

1070
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 4: factor in your life. They've learned that through their experiences

1071
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 4: overseas in the Battle of Vermani. When they came back,

1072
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,840
Speaker 4: they recognized that all the problems that people were facing,

1073
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 4: that that they had in their personal lives, and all

1074
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 4: the problems that they solved that people really were could

1075
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 4: be solved through leadership. And the way what I mean

1076
00:50:57,760 --> 00:50:59,560
Speaker 4: by that is the way that you interact with the

1077
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,680
Speaker 4: other people that are involved in your life, involved in

1078
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 4: all these problems in your life. The way that you

1079
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 4: interact with them is what solves the problem. Because objects

1080
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 4: and technology that's not what solved. Human beings solve problems.

1081
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:16,240
Speaker 4: Human beings accomplish things, and the way that you interact

1082
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:19,880
Speaker 4: with other human beings is either going to accomplish your

1083
00:51:19,880 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 4: mission and solve problems or it's going to make you

1084
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 4: fail and it's going to create problems. So the reason

1085
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:28,080
Speaker 4: that we say leadership is a solution to all of

1086
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,839
Speaker 4: our problems is because all of our problems involve other

1087
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:32,920
Speaker 4: people and the way that we interact with those other

1088
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:36,279
Speaker 4: people is what gets the job done. And so what

1089
00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:39,160
Speaker 4: we do is we go out and we teach people.

1090
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,600
Speaker 4: We try and teach people that all of your problems

1091
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 4: are leadership problems, and we teach you how to interact

1092
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 4: with other people in such a way that those problems

1093
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,640
Speaker 4: will get solved. So that's when we teach you the

1094
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,440
Speaker 4: skills of leadership. We teach you the skills of how

1095
00:51:55,480 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 4: to interact with other people so that you can solve

1096
00:51:57,800 --> 00:52:01,160
Speaker 4: your problems and help everybody around you accomplish their mission

1097
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 4: in life, not just you, but everybody.

1098
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,160
Speaker 1: Well, who would want to reach out to echelon front?

1099
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,239
Speaker 1: Who would you want to have you? What kind of

1100
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 1: is it organizations? Are they corporate? Is it small? Mom

1101
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 1: and pops? Like? Where do you guys? Yeah? Please?

1102
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:18,320
Speaker 4: In terms of a workshop, so workshop, you know, a

1103
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,439
Speaker 4: workshop costs money, so you've got to bring us out

1104
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:23,799
Speaker 4: and fund the workshop. But we have all sorts of

1105
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:27,520
Speaker 4: so that'd be businesses. Organizations tend to do workshops and

1106
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:29,720
Speaker 4: keynotes and that kind of thing. We have all sorts

1107
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:32,120
Speaker 4: of opportunities because you don't have to It's not just

1108
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 4: stuff that applies to work. It applies in your home life.

1109
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:37,560
Speaker 4: It applies in every aspect of your lives. So all

1110
00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:40,560
Speaker 4: everything that we teach applies to the individual as well.

1111
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 4: It applies to you. It applies to person in the military,

1112
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:46,160
Speaker 4: applies to a police officer, a person in business, applies

1113
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,759
Speaker 4: to a stay at home mom, a stay at home dad,

1114
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 4: applies to every single person. So any single person would

1115
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:55,880
Speaker 4: want to learn the skills that we teach. So but

1116
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:58,719
Speaker 4: we teach workshops. We do a muster, which is a

1117
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 4: conference that you can buy a ticket. It's a thousand people.

1118
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:03,239
Speaker 4: We teach everything that we teach over the course of

1119
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:06,759
Speaker 4: two days, so that's something that an individual could invest in.

1120
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 4: We have an online academy where people can learn the

1121
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 4: stuff that we teach in a virtual setting. We have Battlefield,

1122
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:16,719
Speaker 4: which I told you about. We have FTX, which is

1123
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:19,280
Speaker 4: kind of like what you're doing with you do war games.

1124
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, with your war game.

1125
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:22,799
Speaker 4: It's like a war game, but after you do the

1126
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:25,560
Speaker 4: laser tag mission, you come back and you debrief and

1127
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:27,480
Speaker 4: you talk about the leadership lessons that you could have learned.

1128
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:30,239
Speaker 4: So we have all sorts of opportunities where an individual

1129
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,359
Speaker 4: could invest money and learn the skills that we teach

1130
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:33,719
Speaker 4: as well.

1131
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:37,280
Speaker 1: I love that and there's many valuable things to learn

1132
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:41,680
Speaker 1: from wargames. FTX is you know, it's like, you know,

1133
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 1: where do you think you learn the word echelon front from?

1134
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:46,279
Speaker 1: You know, it's like get into an echelon column, or

1135
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:48,680
Speaker 1: like move forward. It's like, you know, all these little

1136
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:50,600
Speaker 1: things that we throw out there in these war games.

1137
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,320
Speaker 1: After we're done, we say, okay, we're gonna do a

1138
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:55,840
Speaker 1: hot wash, and everybody gives a one up and a

1139
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 1: one down. And the one up could be like, hey,

1140
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:00,719
Speaker 1: I got out here on time today. I'm late all

1141
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:02,360
Speaker 1: the time, but today I got out early and I

1142
00:54:02,400 --> 00:54:04,640
Speaker 1: made it on time. Or the one up could be, hey,

1143
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:07,880
Speaker 1: my my weapon, my airsoft gun performed flawlessly for me

1144
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 1: because I maintained it well. Or the one down could

1145
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: be I didn't bring a charged battery for my stuff,

1146
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:15,360
Speaker 1: or I shouldn't have stood up and just walked so

1147
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 1: nonchalant in the middle of the field. They got shot,

1148
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:21,120
Speaker 1: you know, So we call that a debrief.

1149
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,319
Speaker 4: So yeah, what do we do right, what do we

1150
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:24,799
Speaker 4: do wrong? What can we do better? And so that's

1151
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 4: how you learn and improved, is you debrief what just happened,

1152
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:30,320
Speaker 4: learn the lessons and apply them moving forward.

1153
00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 1: I love that, and laser tags just a little less impact.

1154
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that. Yeah, it's just that

1155
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 1: an airsoft baby can cut through a leaf. Yeah, that's

1156
00:54:41,239 --> 00:54:44,000
Speaker 1: whereas a laser can kind of get stopped by a leaf.

1157
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:49,319
Speaker 1: So if I'm yeah, yeah, that's all I'm saying. Yeah,

1158
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:50,160
Speaker 1: that's all I'm.

1159
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:53,560
Speaker 4: Saying, then we don't also don't we don't have people

1160
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 4: run either, So we just want them to walk because

1161
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 4: the main, the main thing that we're trying to do

1162
00:54:57,160 --> 00:54:59,520
Speaker 4: is not necessarily teach them tactics in the FTX, we're

1163
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:02,640
Speaker 4: trying to teach leadership. You go on the mission, and

1164
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,760
Speaker 4: they could they could just blow it on everything tactical,

1165
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:07,880
Speaker 4: that doesn't matter. What we're trying to teach them is

1166
00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:10,279
Speaker 4: the leadership principles and skills that they.

1167
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:13,600
Speaker 1: Need to learn right right see, And that's that's awesome.

1168
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:15,560
Speaker 1: And usually I just tell my guys, you're all leaders.

1169
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:19,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly what we believe as well. Everybody is

1170
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 4: a leader because every single person the interacts with other

1171
00:55:22,640 --> 00:55:26,279
Speaker 4: person has the opportunity and the ability to influence another person.

1172
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:29,959
Speaker 4: That's what leadership is all about. Other people to work

1173
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 4: together towards a common goal that we have.

1174
00:55:34,480 --> 00:55:39,080
Speaker 1: You're wonderful. You're wonderful. You're wonderful, you know, and I

1175
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:41,319
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you for again taking the

1176
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 1: time to get on the show. You know, it's the holidays.

1177
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:47,239
Speaker 1: When this airs, it'll probably be like, you know, January ish,

1178
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: and you know it'll go out for a long time.

1179
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: It's going to be out on the internet. So what

1180
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:56,319
Speaker 1: you've talked about is just timeless, classy, uh, you know,

1181
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,759
Speaker 1: leadership skills and techniques that just like you said, comes

1182
00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:03,799
Speaker 1: from the Stone Age to today. Yeah.

1183
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,440
Speaker 4: One of the first things that we teach at Echelon

1184
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:08,000
Speaker 4: Front is cover move, which is about teamwork. And to

1185
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 4: your point, you go and look at a cave drawing

1186
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:17,560
Speaker 4: back from the BC's before we were even speaking you know, English,

1187
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 4: and you go and you see it's a mammoth and

1188
00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:22,319
Speaker 4: then there's a bunch of guys around the mammoth with

1189
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:23,160
Speaker 4: the spears.

1190
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:23,680
Speaker 1: What are they doing?

1191
00:56:23,719 --> 00:56:27,040
Speaker 4: They're doing teamwork? So, yes, exactly what has gotten human

1192
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:29,440
Speaker 4: beings all the way to from there to where we

1193
00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:31,320
Speaker 4: are now. And that is the first thing that we teach,

1194
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:34,880
Speaker 4: and when we talk teach the skills of leadership is

1195
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:37,399
Speaker 4: called cover move and it's about teamwork. I love that

1196
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:38,239
Speaker 4: as a team.

1197
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:41,040
Speaker 1: I love that, and I hope to one day attend

1198
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:44,200
Speaker 1: a muster or or or learn more about echelon front

1199
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:47,440
Speaker 1: in that lifestyle. And you know, game a mustard.

1200
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:53,120
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you guys, next Weeksville with David, We'll get

1201
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 4: you out to a mustard.

1202
00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:56,600
Speaker 1: You know, that would be really just something to glean

1203
00:56:56,640 --> 00:56:58,400
Speaker 1: off of you, all right, and just to be in

1204
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:01,440
Speaker 1: that room and all the other ends there want to

1205
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:06,160
Speaker 1: have that same process, and so you have just probably

1206
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 1: a very cohesive environment where everyone's just like wanting to

1207
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:12,480
Speaker 1: show the utmost respect for the leadership and the cadre.

1208
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,799
Speaker 1: And you know, I kind of have. I have my

1209
00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:18,880
Speaker 1: own expectations of everybody and it's the highest level, and

1210
00:57:19,040 --> 00:57:22,080
Speaker 1: so I just want them to always be the highest expectations,

1211
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:25,000
Speaker 1: you know, and of what I have of them. They

1212
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 1: may not have those expectations, but I do. And so

1213
00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:30,320
Speaker 1: I just think that you guys are doing a great thing,

1214
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:36,040
Speaker 1: and you're helping the veterans out there who are listening

1215
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:39,680
Speaker 1: to this, watching this, and they're seeing you and you're persevering,

1216
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 1: and you've taken yourself to the next cocoon phase and

1217
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:45,800
Speaker 1: cocoon phase. And you're just this really great, colorful butterfly

1218
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,800
Speaker 1: bro that everyone just wants to like look at, you know, like, oh,

1219
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:51,720
Speaker 1: look at that butterfly. You know, it's so cool, Bro,

1220
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,120
Speaker 1: You're You're awesome. Rob. And and and the fact that

1221
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:59,720
Speaker 1: you put your memoirs into a book, you know, your story,

1222
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:04,480
Speaker 1: and that you always talk about it doesn't go unnoticed.

1223
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right.

1224
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 1: And I am grateful for you for talking to me

1225
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 1: about that and letting us into your life and just

1226
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:16,520
Speaker 1: being vulnerable. I find that to be something that is

1227
00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:20,280
Speaker 1: just a good quality. Is you know. I just want

1228
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,000
Speaker 1: you to know that. And I love that you're a father,

1229
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 1: your wife and kids and Penny and Pepper, and am

1230
00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:30,600
Speaker 1: I say that right? Yeah? Pepper, yeah, and your wife

1231
00:58:30,680 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 1: and and you wrote your book called Put Your Legs

1232
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:39,080
Speaker 1: On One Man's Journey to Survive, Recover Live. Rob Jones,

1233
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:41,640
Speaker 1: the United States Marine Corps thank you for being on

1234
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:42,320
Speaker 1: our show today.

1235
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:44,920
Speaker 4: Thanks lot Brat. I really appreciate you talking to me.

1236
00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:46,439
Speaker 4: It's been a great, great time.

1237
00:58:46,880 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 1: You're wonderful. And if you ever have anybody that wants

1238
00:58:48,800 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 1: to come on the show, you just send him my way, okay.

1239
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 1: And and You're always welcome back as well. So if

1240
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 1: you have anything you want to talk about, or you

1241
00:58:56,640 --> 00:59:00,240
Speaker 1: want to push more leadership conversations, or you're like Ra,

1242
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:02,400
Speaker 1: we should have talked about this for an hour, just

1243
00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:04,480
Speaker 1: reach back out. You have my email, and let's just

1244
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:06,280
Speaker 1: get you back on the show because my listener and

1245
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:08,280
Speaker 1: my viewers are going to love to have you back anytime.

1246
00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:09,560
Speaker 1: You're welcome here at SOFTWAP.

1247
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:12,520
Speaker 4: That sounds awesome, man, And we'll be in touch about

1248
00:59:12,720 --> 00:59:13,800
Speaker 4: having you out to a mustard.

1249
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:15,960
Speaker 1: Oh, that would be just I would be humbled. It

1250
00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:17,920
Speaker 1: would be you know, and that's hard for me, but

1251
00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:19,560
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I would give you my best.

1252
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:23,760
Speaker 4: I really appreciate your time today and thanks for having

1253
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:24,800
Speaker 4: me on the on the show.

1254
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:26,880
Speaker 1: Well, thank you. And I just want to say thanks

1255
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:28,560
Speaker 1: again to Dave Burke for hooking us up.

1256
00:59:28,600 --> 00:59:31,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, big shout out a lot of things.

1257
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:33,919
Speaker 1: Dave's great man. I mean again, he could have stayed

1258
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,600
Speaker 1: in the cockpit. You know. That just tells you about

1259
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:39,480
Speaker 1: the guy. And then and then you know echelon front.

1260
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,720
Speaker 1: You guys are doing great things across across all sorts

1261
00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:45,400
Speaker 1: of platforms. I'm sure that if you're a high level

1262
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:49,040
Speaker 1: NFL coach looking for some inspiration or your mama pop

1263
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,800
Speaker 1: business and you're looking for that next you know thought process.

1264
00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:56,120
Speaker 1: Look up echelonfront dot com, right straight up dot comonfront

1265
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:56,600
Speaker 1: dot com.

1266
00:59:56,720 --> 01:00:01,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've worked with football coach, NFL level Yeah, uh,

1267
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 4: you know, soccer moms, with every every single person from

1268
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:07,840
Speaker 4: all walks of life, all industries, we've worked with them.

1269
01:00:08,040 --> 01:00:11,280
Speaker 1: I love that. So I love that. Well, then I

1270
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:13,960
Speaker 1: will let you get back to your normal daily routine

1271
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:17,320
Speaker 1: and and take care of your kids and your family

1272
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 1: and you know, uh, go take care of your batteries

1273
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:25,439
Speaker 1: charged in your legs so that they work, and take

1274
01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 1: take cares, take care of yourself, enjoy the holidays. And

1275
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:32,680
Speaker 1: I hope that my listener has gleaned off something from

1276
01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:34,840
Speaker 1: this and that they can apply it to their life

1277
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 1: just being you know, just adapt and overcome to your

1278
01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:40,200
Speaker 1: circumstances and make the most out of whatever it is

1279
01:00:40,240 --> 01:00:42,080
Speaker 1: that you have going on in your life. And you're

1280
01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:44,800
Speaker 1: worth it. So that's my that's my thing to my listener,

1281
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:47,800
Speaker 1: my viewer out there that's just on the cliff's edge,

1282
01:00:47,920 --> 01:00:52,840
Speaker 1: just step back, regroup, and just attack in a different direction. Okay,

1283
01:00:52,960 --> 01:00:56,439
Speaker 1: you don't have to keep going off the cliff yep, yeah, yeah,

1284
01:00:56,760 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. And on behalf of Brandon web On,

1285
01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:02,760
Speaker 1: behalf of my callum, on, behalf of myself. I want

1286
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:04,480
Speaker 1: to say thank you and thank you for buying at

1287
01:01:04,520 --> 01:01:06,919
Speaker 1: the merch store. Let's not forget that exists. So thank

1288
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:09,600
Speaker 1: you so much for keeping us going. And uh, you know,

1289
01:01:10,680 --> 01:01:12,720
Speaker 1: I want to keep talking because that's what I do.

1290
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Speaker 1: But I'm going to say on behalf of all of

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Speaker 1: us here at soft Rep Rob Jones. His book is

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Speaker 1: Put Your Legs On One Man's Journey to Survive, Recover

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Speaker 1: and Live echelonfront dot com. I'm saying peace, Peace, Jesus.

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Speaker 2: The listening to self Rep.

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Speaker 1: Ladi