Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to episode number twenty six with the
Speaker 1: Hunting Collective. I've been O'Brien and today I'm in Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas at Archery Country, the best archery shop in all
Speaker 1: of Texas in my opinion, and I'm joined by a
Speaker 1: living legend, a man that deserves more respect than anybody
Speaker 1: I've ever met. After you hear his story, I hope
Speaker 1: that you will feel the same. His name is Omar Vila.
Speaker 1: He goes by Crispy, and he is a veteran of
Speaker 1: the Iraq War and a man who has lived in
Speaker 1: exemplary life. He was in a I don't even how
Speaker 1: you really explained, in a firefight in Iraq, and it's
Speaker 1: hard to even talk about. His makes me emotional, but
Speaker 1: he was in a firefight and he sustained serious entrance
Speaker 1: and still fights them today. But he's a bow hunter.
Speaker 1: He is a man of character, a man of conviction,
Speaker 1: and somebody that we can all look at um and
Speaker 1: thank for not only the service but the person that
Speaker 1: he is. So without further ado, on our final lap
Speaker 1: in Texas, I wanted to talk to this Texas native
Speaker 1: uh hero, a man who defines what this state is
Speaker 1: all about what this country is all about and what
Speaker 1: life is all about. So without further ado, Crispy, Crispy,
Speaker 1: what's up? Man? I don't know. Man. We're here in Texas.
Speaker 1: It's freaking August, ten degrees sweat and just drawing your
Speaker 1: bow back. You know, sweat everywhere I go, especially when
Speaker 1: I'm using my bow. So but that means hunting season
Speaker 1: is upon us. Just what a few weeks ago, a
Speaker 1: few weeks away? Are you getting dove hunt this year
Speaker 1: at all? Or yeah? Are you? Yeah? I'm gonna That's
Speaker 1: what I'm looking forward to. That was something that Todd.
Speaker 1: I want to get one of the one of the
Speaker 1: front broadheads on my bow. And if I get board,
Speaker 1: try to sling one item. You gotta let me know
Speaker 1: if you starts working out for you get better, to
Speaker 1: get better with the boat, with the shotguns. Man there,
Speaker 1: they're tough hunting, that's right. But it is Texas. That's
Speaker 1: like the religion down here. You gotta go dove hunting
Speaker 1: when it opens up. Are you born and raised in Texas? Man?
Speaker 1: I was actually born in Mexico, but I was raised
Speaker 1: in Texas and the Browns of Wich of South Texas.
Speaker 1: It's a little different than the rest of Texas. So what, um,
Speaker 1: tell me about your upbringing, man, because I know a
Speaker 1: lot about your more contemporary story. You know, start with
Speaker 1: your military service. But yeah, what was life like come up? Man?
Speaker 1: So I was nine years I was actually eight, and
Speaker 1: uh my dad from the US serving in the military
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff. But my mom in Mexico
Speaker 1: got married. Um my mom wanted to live down there
Speaker 1: for for a while and then finally, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we were eight or nine and she's like, I want
Speaker 1: to move. So we migrated from South Mexico up to
Speaker 1: Matta Morris, which is right next to Brownsville. And my
Speaker 1: dad was trying to do everything legal, I mean, to
Speaker 1: try to get us over but it was just gonna
Speaker 1: take forever. And my dad got tired of commuting from
Speaker 1: from the U. S to Mexico every single day just
Speaker 1: for work. And uh, this is awesome because I've never
Speaker 1: told this story on another podcast ever before. Um. So
Speaker 1: my dad had this old school LeBaron convertible and um,
Speaker 1: one day, man, he's just he was just fed up
Speaker 1: and he's like, I don't care, I'll paid all the fees.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know what the hell my dad was
Speaker 1: talking about. So my dad brings Brandon clue us from
Speaker 1: my brother, my sister, and I'm Mom's dressed up and
Speaker 1: we got balloons and gifts and I'm just like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're going to a party with with a friend or something.
Speaker 1: And uh, next thing, I know, we're going over this
Speaker 1: bridge and I just looked at my mom and my
Speaker 1: mom's praying, man like hard, just praying. I've never seen
Speaker 1: my mom yeah everything. I mean, you know, growing up
Speaker 1: Mexican Catholic obviously, and you know she's praying and got
Speaker 1: a rosary in her hand and whatnot. But before that,
Speaker 1: my dad looked at me and this conversation was in Spanish,
Speaker 1: but he told me, you know, if they ask you something,
Speaker 1: we're going to a party. He's like, you're the oldest,
Speaker 1: and I need you to memorize this word. So he
Speaker 1: said party. So I'm sitting in the back and they're
Speaker 1: trying to be a good time. I remember this this word,
Speaker 1: and um, we get to this booth and I had
Speaker 1: no idea who the guy was, but he's in a
Speaker 1: uniform and I'm like, what the hell is this a
Speaker 1: checkpoint or something that I don't know, And he's he
Speaker 1: starts talking English to my dad, asking him where we're going.
Speaker 1: And my dad said, oh, it's one of our one
Speaker 1: of their cousin's birthday. We're going to McDonald's right across here,
Speaker 1: and uh, we're gonna go, you know, celebrate a birthday.
Speaker 1: And um he looks over at my mom. My mom
Speaker 1: doesn't speak, and he goes, you a citizen, and my
Speaker 1: mom just laughed and she goes yes, and uh. He
Speaker 1: looks over at me and he goes where you guys headed.
Speaker 1: And I just looked at him and I was like
Speaker 1: party and had a bunch of balloons in my hand,
Speaker 1: and uh like, I said, go ahead. And that's how
Speaker 1: we crossed the border. Wow. And so the most interesting
Speaker 1: part of that is the balloons where the balloons like
Speaker 1: a stage, like if you were holding the whole thing
Speaker 1: was that was staged because he had balloons. We had
Speaker 1: gibbs that were wrapped. I mean, I was just you know,
Speaker 1: there was nothing in them, but they were wrapped. Oh man,
Speaker 1: you got us across. That was here in the summer
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, uh, summer ended. And then I
Speaker 1: started the third grade that that same year and Brownsville. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I ever since you know, I grew up there,
Speaker 1: played football, basketball, the whole nine. Man, So you had
Speaker 1: immediate place to live like he had. He already had
Speaker 1: a house, everything he had planned. So it was it
Speaker 1: was all all of his eggs in that basket and
Speaker 1: said this is how we're gonna do it. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate his Yeah, man, yeah, so it was you know,
Speaker 1: I was. It was crazy when you know when that happens.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like, when did you figure out that's
Speaker 1: what had happened when you started living there and never
Speaker 1: went back to Mexico. Yeah. Actually, when I went to
Speaker 1: school that first year, because everybody there spoken English and
Speaker 1: I had no clue what was going on. It was
Speaker 1: catch up or or get left behind. So I made
Speaker 1: it one of my my missions early in life was
Speaker 1: when I got home, I would pick up a dictionary
Speaker 1: and try to learn an English word and and implemented
Speaker 1: in a sentence when I went back to school, and
Speaker 1: watching TV played a big role. Watching all the uh
Speaker 1: you know, the stupid shows like Power Rangers and Ninja
Speaker 1: Turtles and all that. Yeah, so picked up a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of words from it, and uh, you
Speaker 1: know what they say, man, I I've heard it in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different podcasts. When a child can develop
Speaker 1: the brain and learned a new language, opposed to an adult,
Speaker 1: it's a lot harder and it was easy man. E
Speaker 1: picked it up pretty quick. And uh, that was one
Speaker 1: of the things my mom always said, learn as much
Speaker 1: English as you can at school, but when you come
Speaker 1: home Spanish. So she wanted us to be by lingual
Speaker 1: and have that for the rest of our lives so
Speaker 1: we can use it anywhere we go. Well, and and
Speaker 1: most countries around the world there you know, children are
Speaker 1: biling you go to candidate and most children by ling
Speaker 1: will go to anywhere in Europe, most children are you know,
Speaker 1: tri lingual if that's a word. Um, yeah, we just
Speaker 1: did America. We yeah. Well, I mean if you think
Speaker 1: about it, everywhere you go, everybody speaks English. No, no
Speaker 1: matter where you're at that everybody knows language or or
Speaker 1: somewhat knows the language. So that's what we get lazy.
Speaker 1: And then you know it was your childhood normal yel
Speaker 1: like after that you just felt like a normal American kid.
Speaker 1: It was all American man, and just uh, you know,
Speaker 1: mom and dad had two jobs trying to support us
Speaker 1: racist Righte. I take care of my brother and my
Speaker 1: sister being the oldest, grew up playing football, basketball. I
Speaker 1: was like all American in high school, had had opportunities
Speaker 1: to go play football at different universities here in Texas.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just all American upg upbringing. It
Speaker 1: was just you know, South Texas and hunting and you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of it was a whole three sixty man.
Speaker 1: I never would have thought, you know, that I was
Speaker 1: born in Mexico or anything. It was just you know,
Speaker 1: it was uh kind of a you know, all the
Speaker 1: things that you experienced growing up here. You know, I
Speaker 1: got my first pair of boots, I got the first
Speaker 1: one to ride a bike or a horse, and the
Speaker 1: first time I went dub hunting. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: just the upbringing of being an American. It was just
Speaker 1: there the whole time. Happy childhood. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: had a blast. Man. My parents were amazing. They they
Speaker 1: always busted their asked to provide for us, and not
Speaker 1: one once that I ever hear them complain or or
Speaker 1: a bitch about anything. They never asked for government assistance.
Speaker 1: They knew that, you know, that they needed to do
Speaker 1: it the right way, man, And you know that that
Speaker 1: kind of rubbed off on myself and my siblings. It
Speaker 1: was just, you know, always do the right thing, and
Speaker 1: you're close to your siblings now even Yeah, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: we're We're always been closed. I speak to my siblings
Speaker 1: at least four times a week as it was her
Speaker 1: text or phone call or FaceTime or whatever where we
Speaker 1: all staying touch. Same thing with my parents, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked on a daily. So it's just, man, I've
Speaker 1: always teld people it's kind of it's kind of a
Speaker 1: blessing man, how Hispanic people are brought up. You know,
Speaker 1: we're very family orient it, and it's it's a big
Speaker 1: part of who we are and and I've always been
Speaker 1: blessed with that. Man. Even when I got injured, my
Speaker 1: parents dropped everything. My dad was the executive chef at
Speaker 1: a restaurant in South Padre Island and he dropped everything.
Speaker 1: My mom, I just opened up a salon and uh
Speaker 1: she she's a cosptology major and had her own salon
Speaker 1: and stuff and sold it and moved brother and sister,
Speaker 1: dropped school and kivin straight to San Antonio to be
Speaker 1: with me. So it's that support system. It was always
Speaker 1: been there. So we were super tight. Well it makes
Speaker 1: I think it makes for stronger people, stronger souls, you know,
Speaker 1: more resilient souls after what you're going through. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know, as a kid, you you probably don't realize
Speaker 1: what crossing the border meant and what not at all.
Speaker 1: Not at all, man, not at all. And I never did,
Speaker 1: not not until like, you know, when I was young
Speaker 1: and dumb in high school and we go to Matam
Speaker 1: Morris he going party and onenot and I come over
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, they asked you in the board
Speaker 1: like hey, U s citizens? Like yeah, then what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? Let's go. And when I come back home,
Speaker 1: I told my mom we went to Mexico and she's like, whoa,
Speaker 1: you can't get in trouble where you're gonna get deported,
Speaker 1: And I what are you talking about? So I never
Speaker 1: really realized till I was probably a sophomore in high school.
Speaker 1: So when my dad got done paying all the fines,
Speaker 1: Mom and dad paid all the fines and we got
Speaker 1: an attorney and all that, and it was a a
Speaker 1: week and a half before night and eleven happened, which
Speaker 1: is my software is when I became a citizen. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the week and a half before night before night
Speaker 1: eleven happened. Um So when nine eleven happens, um, I
Speaker 1: think probably something changed in you a little bit. You
Speaker 1: start feeling, um a need to serve or or a
Speaker 1: call to duty as it were, without saying being too hyperbolic, Yeah, no, man,
Speaker 1: And it's it's the same thing that I have. Millions
Speaker 1: of other guys, you know, they heard the calling, and
Speaker 1: it was the same thing for me. I knew I
Speaker 1: was the oldest, and um, I knew I needed to go,
Speaker 1: and I was just you know, when it happened. Man,
Speaker 1: I had always felt American, but until I got my citizenship,
Speaker 1: that was a validation of of me being a real
Speaker 1: American and and being proud and and what not. So
Speaker 1: sitting there and watching those hours get hit, man, I
Speaker 1: think I was one of maybe fight kids that were
Speaker 1: crying because it had that much of a significant impact
Speaker 1: in my life. And right then and there, I made
Speaker 1: up my mind. I said, I'm gonna go and and
Speaker 1: go fight these cowards so that my brother and my
Speaker 1: sister can grow up free in our country and and
Speaker 1: accomplish anything they want to be, you know, if they
Speaker 1: want to be a doctor or a surgeon, whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: the case was. I wanted to go over there and
Speaker 1: fight for them, um, so that they can live free.
Speaker 1: And I feel like it was my duty. Man. I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, the US give me an opportunity
Speaker 1: to be an American and give me the chance to
Speaker 1: accomplish and be anybody that I wanted to be, and
Speaker 1: I feel like I needed to fight for that so
Speaker 1: that my siblings can can keep living it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, how old are you? The sophomore high school
Speaker 1: is fifteen sixteen, about the same age, so I think
Speaker 1: I was about sixteen. I didn't feel anything like that. Um.
Speaker 1: I just think, like what it strikes me about how
Speaker 1: you grew up and how I grew up in the
Speaker 1: suburbs and comfortable life. My parents will work their ass
Speaker 1: off on their own business and worked hard a lot.
Speaker 1: But I think there was a there's just a different mentality,
Speaker 1: like the the immigrant mentality mentality coming over here, and
Speaker 1: they appreciates you that you had. I feel like ship
Speaker 1: for not having. It's not that I feel like shit.
Speaker 1: I just I understand how you got to where you
Speaker 1: got to and why you got there, and I also
Speaker 1: understand like why my path took a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: Took me, you know, six eight, ten years to realize,
Speaker 1: holy crap, what do I have here? Um? Because there's
Speaker 1: nothing else to compare it to. It's just like it's
Speaker 1: just life. Yeah, that's what it was. Um. So how
Speaker 1: long you went through high school? When you got out
Speaker 1: of high school, did you immediately joined the army or
Speaker 1: I did? Man, So when I was a senior, I
Speaker 1: was kind of on the fence because I had a
Speaker 1: couple of universities asking, you know, if I wanted to
Speaker 1: complay football there, and it's just that was another thing. Man.
Speaker 1: Football became alive for me, you know, as as any Texan.
Speaker 1: Then It's just it took over it and I happened
Speaker 1: to be a great athlete. I was six two eighty
Speaker 1: five pounds and I was running the forty like a
Speaker 1: I can't remember, like four six four I have something
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah. So, you know, a couple of different
Speaker 1: schools wanted to turn me from defensive end into a linebacker,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I mean I remember there was
Speaker 1: nights that I couldn't sleep just trying to make up
Speaker 1: my mind and what I wanted to do. But I
Speaker 1: remember I said I had made that that promise that
Speaker 1: I was gonna go, and uh, I just kind of
Speaker 1: pushed all the schools away and signed up, man, And
Speaker 1: everybody was kind of shocked of what I had chosen
Speaker 1: to do. But you know, signed up on the left
Speaker 1: right away. Man. I think I went into the recruiting office.
Speaker 1: It was June sixteenth, June. I was on an airplane
Speaker 1: to four Bedding, Georgia. The first time I've ever been
Speaker 1: on a plane holy ship headed a four Banning Georgia
Speaker 1: because I signed up as I was eighteen year Yeah,
Speaker 1: eighteen years old, brand human. I've never been been gone
Speaker 1: from home more than like a week or something. So
Speaker 1: what's that moment like when you're on the plane going
Speaker 1: to Georgia and you realize I'm flying away to a
Speaker 1: strange place to join this thing. Man, A lot of
Speaker 1: mixed emotions, just wondering what the hell I'm doing or
Speaker 1: is this gonna take me? Just a lot of mixed emotions.
Speaker 1: Are happy, excited, just thrilled? And uh men is just
Speaker 1: just a lot of mixed emotions, man, But it was
Speaker 1: it was all good at that point. Is it all
Speaker 1: opportunity for you? Remember him back then? Like it's all
Speaker 1: about the opportunity. It's not like I'm sacrificed and get
Speaker 1: on this plane. No, not at all. It was just
Speaker 1: kind of want to Like, you know, I started thinking
Speaker 1: about it. I was like, I'm gonna go do this,
Speaker 1: and then when I get done, I want to be
Speaker 1: uh you know my I did a lot of research
Speaker 1: in the military. I wanted to come in as an infantryman,
Speaker 1: and then I wanted to move over a range of battalion,
Speaker 1: and then from there I wanted to be in the
Speaker 1: special operations community because you know, I started looking at
Speaker 1: all those things that had friends that were already in
Speaker 1: that were seniors when I was a sophomore that had
Speaker 1: gotten injury, I mean that had joined the military and
Speaker 1: had gone down that path, so that that path was
Speaker 1: already there for me, and that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: So it was all opportunity. I just wanted to keep
Speaker 1: growing and I have made up my mind I wanted
Speaker 1: to make the military career. It was like it was
Speaker 1: all in for me with the military. Yeah. So then
Speaker 1: when you get there and you get to to Georgia
Speaker 1: and you start to experience what this is like this
Speaker 1: is basic training. Yeah, it was man, it it took
Speaker 1: me for a spin. I was not expecting it. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of the guys kind of preparing
Speaker 1: me that, like listen, they're gonna yell at you either
Speaker 1: they are gonna get in your face. And I was
Speaker 1: like I can take that. Yeah the gunny. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I was like, OK, I'm ready for this. And then, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, accidentally bumped into one. And and this is
Speaker 1: you're talking about two thousand and four, when they can
Speaker 1: still put their hands on you. Now I hated, but
Speaker 1: the military has got in super soft and everybody cares
Speaker 1: about everybody emotions and feelings now and back then they
Speaker 1: didn't care. Man. They were like, we're shipping you up
Speaker 1: to go to war. We don't care about your feelings.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I bumped into one of them
Speaker 1: and next thing I know, I'm on the ground. I'm
Speaker 1: getting kicked by all six of them. And so it
Speaker 1: was there was that kind of military And now that
Speaker 1: I look back at it, I was like, man, that
Speaker 1: shipped me up two I am today, But it was
Speaker 1: there was definitely some lonely nights man, when you start
Speaker 1: thinking of all your buddies back at home, and you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I went here in the summer, so
Speaker 1: I didn't graduate to like around December. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and I'm like, man, I wish I
Speaker 1: was in a blind right now hunting, or I wish
Speaker 1: I was dub hunting, or you know, just a thought
Speaker 1: of having a dip in your mouth and walking some fields.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of where I used to bring me
Speaker 1: back at night and miss home. And you were living
Speaker 1: that like idyllic Texas Friday night lights life. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, for lack of a better term, like start
Speaker 1: of the football team, jock. You had a lot in
Speaker 1: front of you. Yeah, man, went from being in the
Speaker 1: front of the newspaper to being in a room where
Speaker 1: nobody gave a ship who I was. So it was
Speaker 1: it was a culture shock for sure. They kicked you,
Speaker 1: maneah man, they did. They kicked people today. They'd be
Speaker 1: like sensitivity training the next week. Man, the army be
Speaker 1: done and they found it down and shut the whole
Speaker 1: thing down no more. Basically kick the guy. They kicked
Speaker 1: the guy. It's funny you say that that that that
Speaker 1: that shapes you later on, or that even today you
Speaker 1: that you're appreciative of that. It's not like some bad experience,
Speaker 1: not at all. I mean, you know, it's just, man,
Speaker 1: it's lessons in everything. I don't think that it was
Speaker 1: meant to necessarily break me or change me in a
Speaker 1: bad way. It's just, hey, man, these are the rules
Speaker 1: and and this is the way that everything is set up.
Speaker 1: And you put your hands on a superior and we're
Speaker 1: not going to tolerate it. You know. It's the same
Speaker 1: thing if I would have had one of my privates
Speaker 1: put their hands on me. Oh you damn sure, Me
Speaker 1: and my other n c o s are gonna beat
Speaker 1: the crap out of you. And it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: teaches you to establish um, you know, the channels that
Speaker 1: that's in the military, you know, from a private all
Speaker 1: the way up up to the higher command. And it's
Speaker 1: just it's a military, man, it's not it's not a
Speaker 1: nine five working at and mcdonnos or at a car
Speaker 1: wash or something where it's a lot different that this
Speaker 1: is at the end of the day, that this is
Speaker 1: this job. Your life is on the line, and I
Speaker 1: don't have room to baby anybody or be soft like
Speaker 1: you expect something from everybody. And and that's that's just
Speaker 1: what it is. From that's there's no you didn't get
Speaker 1: like a participation show. You participated in the beating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank Yeah. I mean I can tell you I never
Speaker 1: did it again. I make sure all my surroundings at
Speaker 1: all times. So that's it. That's severe punishment teaches you immediately.
Speaker 1: I realized right now that my wife is doing that
Speaker 1: to me with things like hand towns like that. I'll like,
Speaker 1: pick up the wrong hand town, put it on the dishes.
Speaker 1: You like, I kill you. I'm like, I give what
Speaker 1: you're doing. That's like kicking me. I get it. Um. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I think your story as it builds,
Speaker 1: because I've read read it a couple of times and
Speaker 1: I was interested to go through it with you. But
Speaker 1: I didn't know a lot of this, these little points,
Speaker 1: but it builds into this this. You know, people love
Speaker 1: to talk about Pat Tilman leaving the NFL. They like,
Speaker 1: you know, these sacrifices are the type of people that
Speaker 1: are molded in shaped in their young lives to be
Speaker 1: mature enough to make that type of sacrifice. Um, and
Speaker 1: then being put room with you know a lot of
Speaker 1: people that have that same idea. I mean, that's gotta
Speaker 1: that's gotta. Oh, it's changing. Everybody feeds off for everybody,
Speaker 1: and it's it's just one of those It's one of
Speaker 1: those things where a lot of people always talk is
Speaker 1: like what happens when you put all this alpha guys together?
Speaker 1: You know it's gonna be a competition and whatnot. And
Speaker 1: that's the complete opposite there. Everybody understands that it's a
Speaker 1: team and everybody's got to work together. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've always I've always heard everybody kinda talk about like, oh,
Speaker 1: all these betas and blah blah blah blah. Is just
Speaker 1: like you don't understand you gotta have all these betas
Speaker 1: and then one alpha because if that offa goes down,
Speaker 1: you know this fate is gonna step up. So it's
Speaker 1: just it's just a team environment, man, And you're gonna
Speaker 1: understand when you put all those type of personalities in
Speaker 1: the same room, it's bigger than all of us. It's
Speaker 1: bigger than that, than your ego and what you think
Speaker 1: you are. It's it's a whole group. So it definitely was.
Speaker 1: It's life changing, and I loved it because, like you
Speaker 1: can know, I can work with people like that and
Speaker 1: not take it to offense and be like, well he's
Speaker 1: trying to do I'm gonna do him. It's just like
Speaker 1: I'm at that level that I completely understand respect. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you're in, You're in basic training, and then what's
Speaker 1: the next step for basic training got done? You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: you go through infantry school. You get your blue cord,
Speaker 1: which is an infantry blue cord, and then I went
Speaker 1: through a school called the JABL and it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: one of the most expensive missiles that the army has.
Speaker 1: They're like five thousand apiece. And I went through that
Speaker 1: school because I was waiting for Airborne school to open up.
Speaker 1: And at this time there was a lot of people
Speaker 1: that were coming in because they wanted to go fight,
Speaker 1: so the schools were kind of backed up. So I
Speaker 1: went to that school for a for about a week?
Speaker 1: Was it a weekend? Was a week? Graduated, went through
Speaker 1: everyone school and I got shipped to my unit, got
Speaker 1: to come home for two weeks and um, luckily it
Speaker 1: was during Christmas time, so I got to spend Christmas
Speaker 1: a New Years in my family. And then I got
Speaker 1: shipped to Germany. My order said of Europe, and I
Speaker 1: was excited because the only UM airborne unit in Europe
Speaker 1: was the hundred twenty third where it was out of Italy.
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, man, that's awesome. Come to
Speaker 1: find out, the Army had different plants for me. They're like,
Speaker 1: you're not going to airborning unit. You're gonna make a
Speaker 1: nice unit, which is to make a nice infantry. You know.
Speaker 1: We wrote onund Bradley's which is kind of smaller tanks,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I see my orders and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh ship Germany. And I was like, well whatever when
Speaker 1: units in Germany and everybody's like none and I was like,
Speaker 1: damn it, I'm wanted that training for nothing. And it
Speaker 1: happens a lot. And I got to my unit. Um,
Speaker 1: the guys were just getting back from the deployment and
Speaker 1: uh you know, and then we started a regular rotation
Speaker 1: and started going to the field, started getting ready for
Speaker 1: uh for our deployment, and UH deployed and uh man.
Speaker 1: We we got into a zone called Automia, which it
Speaker 1: was the last place that Sad al Mussein had been
Speaker 1: seen before he went into hiding. And the guys before
Speaker 1: was actually UM had a battle between his two sons
Speaker 1: and that that that castle that we took over or
Speaker 1: the palace that we took over, and you can home
Speaker 1: and there was just that every building was all jacked
Speaker 1: that with bullet hose here and there, and um that
Speaker 1: place had hadn't been patrolled in two years. So we
Speaker 1: kind of showed up and then took over. So how
Speaker 1: many people in your unit? And then what was your
Speaker 1: kind of role? So we're about three hundred and ninety guys.
Speaker 1: That's a company element and uh I was a gunner. Um.
Speaker 1: So when you come in as a company, you gotta
Speaker 1: break it down. You got first platoon, second platoon, third platoon,
Speaker 1: your headquarters. So there there's about four six different groups
Speaker 1: and uh we all kind of take terms and patrols
Speaker 1: kind of established that we're in the area. So kind
Speaker 1: of the biggest thing that was going on there, man
Speaker 1: is you had the sunning uh and the s I
Speaker 1: And as soon as we used to come over to
Speaker 1: the SI, I kidnap them and UH do execution style. Man,
Speaker 1: set him up, just shoot him in the head and
Speaker 1: they go back to their side. And then these guys
Speaker 1: that go back and retaliates. It was a constant battle
Speaker 1: going back and forward. So we need to show presence
Speaker 1: and and stop them because a lot of I D
Speaker 1: materials were coming out of that area, so we kind
Speaker 1: of need you to come in. And we did a
Speaker 1: lot of night rates and we went out the hpt S,
Speaker 1: which is Hvalley Targets. There was a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that had bet at themselves in that
Speaker 1: area that were supplying millions of millions of dollars two
Speaker 1: people all over Iraq to buy products to make more
Speaker 1: io D s and ammunition and guns and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So that was our Our main goal was to come
Speaker 1: in and capture these guys where they be dead or alive,
Speaker 1: and bring them into justice. So it was it was
Speaker 1: a constant day. There was in a day man that
Speaker 1: nothing didn't go on what we were there. And so
Speaker 1: how prepared were you Looking back at it now, you
Speaker 1: feel like getting in there, it was just I'm doing
Speaker 1: a job, I'm performing a function. Or was there some
Speaker 1: just sticker shock of I'm in war now? No, um man, dude,
Speaker 1: it's just at an infantryman. I think we're wired a
Speaker 1: little different than everybody else in the military or any
Speaker 1: operations guys or just frontline jobs. We're wired a little different.
Speaker 1: We're in a sense, I guess brainwashed. He was like,
Speaker 1: you're your sole purpose is to kill the enemy and
Speaker 1: that's it, you know, And so training for so long,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just kind of like a hunter, you
Speaker 1: shoot your brow. What does John do like a hundred
Speaker 1: arrows a day or something? Um, So that that was
Speaker 1: our job. We practiced every single day, and then you
Speaker 1: get dropped in the area and you want to put
Speaker 1: your skills to the test, you know, And that's kind
Speaker 1: of what it was. We were ready to go and
Speaker 1: we're really gonna have been a firefight and implement everything
Speaker 1: that we learned on how to overrun and win. So
Speaker 1: it was yeah, I mean I was ready. All of
Speaker 1: us were ready to be honest, and it was there
Speaker 1: was never a sense of like, ship, what am I
Speaker 1: doing here? It was just like, come on, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah pretty much. But um but yeah, like the first
Speaker 1: time that we gotta fire right and I actually saw, uh,
Speaker 1: the guy that I had killed in the firefight, it
Speaker 1: was probably a split second where it was like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: I'm eight nineteen years old and I just took a life.
Speaker 1: And but it it was as soon as you know,
Speaker 1: you process that and you let it go because it's
Speaker 1: part of your job. Then then it's it's behind you.
Speaker 1: And honestly, man, it was. It was one of those
Speaker 1: things where it was like he was trying to do
Speaker 1: me in and I beat him to the punch. So
Speaker 1: next one that deal thing. And you can't let that
Speaker 1: consume you because the minute that it does, you can't
Speaker 1: perform your job at and that's when you start getting
Speaker 1: complacent or you start making mistakes that could cost somebody
Speaker 1: else's life. Yeah, it's kind of being an efficient machine.
Speaker 1: You don't have time to let your own personal feelings
Speaker 1: get in pretty much. You're a machine when you're there.
Speaker 1: And so what year is this? Two thousand seven? Yeah? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to as your talk. I think where I
Speaker 1: was like some dumb calm, so it was it was
Speaker 1: all six So sorry we got there no six. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're there for how long? Are there for a
Speaker 1: year or so? So we were supposed to be there
Speaker 1: for a year, and um, this is a time where
Speaker 1: the surge had happened, so there was a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of fighters coming in from Syria and a bunch
Speaker 1: of different places, so the fighting was really good. And uh,
Speaker 1: that's when President Bush decided to extend us from twelve
Speaker 1: months to fifteen months, and uh, you know, none of
Speaker 1: us caredmen, We're like, come on, let's do this, because
Speaker 1: you know, we were all looking at it like we're
Speaker 1: getting paid a lot more because it's extended pay and
Speaker 1: then you get extra pay for this and that. So
Speaker 1: instead of making like I don't know, I think we won.
Speaker 1: If we were making like three grand a month or
Speaker 1: something like that, you're gonna make like five. So we
Speaker 1: were all like, hell, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna buy a
Speaker 1: brand new crow when I get home. So like you know,
Speaker 1: we were looking at at a pay and then spending
Speaker 1: a little more time at home. Um, so I would
Speaker 1: jump into an atlytic today that I got hurt. So
Speaker 1: we were already there eleven months and uh man, it
Speaker 1: just started off like any other day. That It was
Speaker 1: November four and I'm sorry May fourteenth or two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: and um we rolled out, man, and we were a
Speaker 1: five vehicle convoy. There was I was in the third
Speaker 1: vehicle in the middle and uh, as we're rolling now
Speaker 1: was like six of the morning and I A d
Speaker 1: goes off and it hit the last vehicle. Well thankfully
Speaker 1: it was a small one. I think they were trying
Speaker 1: to line us up for the much bigger one, and
Speaker 1: the small one goes off. So an ideas, uh explosive
Speaker 1: device that they kinda either shape it or hide it
Speaker 1: in in in the road, or they can dig a
Speaker 1: hole and planet. So it's an improvised explosive device, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. And so small little bomb goes off.
Speaker 1: It just blew the spirits higher, and so we were like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're ready to go with as a situation. We get
Speaker 1: back and we start patrolling and then around I don't know,
Speaker 1: like eight thirty in the morning, I just had like
Speaker 1: this eerie feeling. I was like, man, there's something going on.
Speaker 1: Is too quiet, there's nobody in the street, Like what
Speaker 1: is going on. There's just something fishy about this. And
Speaker 1: as we were doing that, we were to say, we're
Speaker 1: traveling north, we start getting engaged from our left hand side.
Speaker 1: And on that road that we were on, the only
Speaker 1: road the only way you can turn was to the left.
Speaker 1: So we're rolling in the first two vehicles just started
Speaker 1: getting pounded by an a K. They couldn't turn, so
Speaker 1: they pushed forward and we turned from the income and
Speaker 1: fire and I just opened up on my fifth account
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing about five of them and I
Speaker 1: dropped about three or four of them. One of them
Speaker 1: got away, and as soon as we do that, we
Speaker 1: all came back into formation. But this point, this time,
Speaker 1: I was leading to the lead vehicle and as we
Speaker 1: do that, I'm gonna turret. I was a gunner, so
Speaker 1: I'm in the gunner behind a fifth a cow. And
Speaker 1: as this happens, you know, we come back into formation
Speaker 1: and I see enemy in front of us again and
Speaker 1: I I'm telling my driver, we got it. I mean
Speaker 1: in front of skill, let's go. So we started going
Speaker 1: to start opening up fire and I remember going over
Speaker 1: a bump. And we've been there eleven months. I knew
Speaker 1: the real like the back of my hands. Man, I
Speaker 1: knew we were at I knew everything. And I remember
Speaker 1: going on that bump and I just took a second
Speaker 1: and I closed my eyes and I was trying to
Speaker 1: process everything. I was like, wait, that shouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: Where there's Nope, that should not be there. And then
Speaker 1: as I was doing that, the loudest idea that I've
Speaker 1: ever heard went off. And and at this point I've
Speaker 1: been blown up about eleven times, so it was I
Speaker 1: I knew an I D in the vehicle had been
Speaker 1: hit by I D s or Yeah, every other vehicle
Speaker 1: that I was on had been hit up by by
Speaker 1: an I D. But eleven times before I really got injured,
Speaker 1: were very uninjured by those are just just concussions and
Speaker 1: scrapes here and there. Um. So I remember this one
Speaker 1: and this one was just loud, and the guys behind
Speaker 1: us set the vehicle went up about three or four
Speaker 1: feet in the air, and we were lucky because it
Speaker 1: was a commanded nation I D. So what they did
Speaker 1: is they there was a house on the right hind
Speaker 1: side and they had dug a hole a way to
Speaker 1: the street, impacked it with explosives and commanding nation. The
Speaker 1: guy that was inside panicked because he was supposed to
Speaker 1: hit it in the middle of the of the humby
Speaker 1: so split the humpy and kill everybody. So he timed
Speaker 1: it wrong and he hit the backside of it, hit
Speaker 1: the fuel tank. Um vickle goes up, it comes down.
Speaker 1: Now in that vehicle, there was five of us. It was.
Speaker 1: The driver was Cataton, that was a gunner. We had
Speaker 1: TC compos Uh Fleming was in the back and we
Speaker 1: had um Harky behind the the TC, which just a
Speaker 1: trickle bander and uh Vickle goes up. Man, I come
Speaker 1: down and when I hit the platform of the gunner's hatch,
Speaker 1: I my legs kind of gave out a little bit
Speaker 1: and I fell down to the right on Harkey's lap.
Speaker 1: And I remember looking at Harky and and his eyes
Speaker 1: were just white. He was he was dead. He was
Speaker 1: killing the impact. And I remember looking at him, Man,
Speaker 1: he's he was just his body was so it felt weird. Man,
Speaker 1: he was just so loose and limb, like you can
Speaker 1: feel like every bone and his body had broken or something.
Speaker 1: And you know, I looked at his eyes and they
Speaker 1: were just white, and I was like, man, he's dead.
Speaker 1: And in my in our world, man either come home
Speaker 1: alive or you don't. You know, I never knew there
Speaker 1: was such thing as being injured and coming home and
Speaker 1: living somewhat of a normal life. That was not in
Speaker 1: my job description. So I'm laying there, there's fire around me,
Speaker 1: you know. I looked at my left. Uh Fleming jumped
Speaker 1: out and I see him running on fire. It was
Speaker 1: so slow but so fast. And then our driver got out,
Speaker 1: and I remember Compost couldn't get out because the fire
Speaker 1: had burned his equipment into the seat, and he's grabbing
Speaker 1: me and telling me to get out. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm good, like this is it for me? And he's
Speaker 1: like get out, get out, and uh. I remember I
Speaker 1: was making peace with God um because at that point
Speaker 1: we had lost about eighteen guys that I saw on
Speaker 1: a regular day, like on on a regular basis. I
Speaker 1: saw these guys and we had meals and stuff, and
Speaker 1: we lost that many guys knew the reality, yeah seen it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like people, yeah, I know, you know, seeing
Speaker 1: the bodies and stuff over your fellow soldiers. It was
Speaker 1: just kind of you know. It angered me and I
Speaker 1: blame God. I was like, why can you allow this
Speaker 1: to happen? You know, we're here to do something good
Speaker 1: and you're letting my brothers get killed. So I was
Speaker 1: mad at the woman for a while. I didn't believe
Speaker 1: in them, But as I was laying there, I was
Speaker 1: making peace with him, and I was asking him to
Speaker 1: take care of my brother and my sister, and mostly
Speaker 1: importantly to take care of my mom because then of
Speaker 1: my mom was gonna be I wasn't gonna take it
Speaker 1: very well, and I need my Dad's to be okay.
Speaker 1: I being a military guy, he knew the risks that
Speaker 1: I was taking and what what comes with that job?
Speaker 1: And um, so I'm laying there and making peace with God, dude,
Speaker 1: and I just remember feeling like this inner light in
Speaker 1: me and until today, man, I created God. But something
Speaker 1: inside kind of reached over and said, not today, this
Speaker 1: is not where your die. Get up. And I got
Speaker 1: up and I'm in that fifth account. I started shooting
Speaker 1: back to make time so the guys can come on
Speaker 1: and get composed out and they did. And as that happened, Um,
Speaker 1: that vehicle, we had extra grenades, extra ammunition, so things
Speaker 1: started cooking off, you know, with all that heat, things
Speaker 1: started exploding. And a grenade went off and peppered me
Speaker 1: all on my right side. And at that point, I said,
Speaker 1: all right, now I need to get out. So I
Speaker 1: climb up the gunner's hatch and as a gunner, you're
Speaker 1: taught to jump from the top down to the engine
Speaker 1: and then down because it's about six ft high. And
Speaker 1: I looked at the engine. The engine was on fired
Speaker 1: and I was like, there, there's no way that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be able to do this without going down with
Speaker 1: the engine and dying there. So I looked at the back.
Speaker 1: Couldn't do that, so I jumped to the side, and
Speaker 1: when I jumped down, I was still on fire. My
Speaker 1: body was still burning. Both of my famers broke. So
Speaker 1: I remember being there and I was like, ship, I'm
Speaker 1: still on fire, stop dropping row when I already dropped.
Speaker 1: So I rolled and man, until today, dude, I I
Speaker 1: want to find the guy that invented it and beat
Speaker 1: the ship out of him because it doesn't work. I
Speaker 1: rolled and rolled in the fire was not going off. Jesus.
Speaker 1: Then finally one of the guys kind of rolled up
Speaker 1: on me and put me out with a fire extate
Speaker 1: with shore and he said, hold on, I'll be right back.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go get help. Well, as he said that, insurgeons,
Speaker 1: about thirty to four of them were coming towards our
Speaker 1: way shooting already. They were trying to finish the whole
Speaker 1: platoon off, and uh, you know, I can't blame him.
Speaker 1: He got busy shooting back and whatnot and kind of
Speaker 1: slipped his mind. So I'm there and I managed to
Speaker 1: grab my INN four as I jumped out, and there
Speaker 1: was a door behind me, so I saw it, I
Speaker 1: started pushing myself towards so I turned around three took
Speaker 1: about three shots to the door, just to make sure
Speaker 1: nobody was coming out of it, and I started scanning
Speaker 1: the rooftops where there was guys in the rooftoupse. So
Speaker 1: I started shooting, trying to divert them from shooting the
Speaker 1: other way. And as I did that, man, it was
Speaker 1: kind of like the sen No black Hawk. You remember
Speaker 1: when the shoppers come in and all that brass comes down. Well,
Speaker 1: two black Hawks were in our in our aoh, which
Speaker 1: is our operations, and they had seen the smoke come up,
Speaker 1: so they came to check it out and they noticed
Speaker 1: that it was us, and so they established communications with
Speaker 1: the guys in the ground and told them we were
Speaker 1: at So these guys came in and just started smoking
Speaker 1: all these dudes from the top. We got very lucky.
Speaker 1: So they took all these guys out and just brast
Speaker 1: falling everywhere, and I was just like, oh ship. And
Speaker 1: I remember laying there and I ran out of AMMO.
Speaker 1: So I'm just sitting there waiting for somebody to see me,
Speaker 1: and one of my guys was running by me and
Speaker 1: he looked at me and he's like due a year
Speaker 1: alive and I'm sitting in the look up on him
Speaker 1: and I was like, I think. So He's like, all right,
Speaker 1: we gotta get you up, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: think my legs are broken. And he takes a quick
Speaker 1: glance and me. He goes, no, no no, no, you're fine,
Speaker 1: and I was like okay. So he picks me up,
Speaker 1: and um, I mean I put a lot of my
Speaker 1: weight on him so I was able to walk. So
Speaker 1: we walked to the next humpy and as we get
Speaker 1: to the next humpy, he goes, right, dude, I gotta
Speaker 1: let you go. I gotta open the door because these
Speaker 1: doors are up armor. They're about five hundred pounds. And
Speaker 1: I said, cool, don't worry about it. So he lets
Speaker 1: me going. As he opens the door all that way,
Speaker 1: he goes back on my femers and they rebreak and
Speaker 1: I just fall back and I remember watching him the
Speaker 1: humby and then the sky and he just comes over
Speaker 1: me and he goes, oh, Shi, are you okay? Are
Speaker 1: you okay? And I was like, dude, I'm fine, I'm fine.
Speaker 1: I was like, but I told you my legs were broken.
Speaker 1: And he's just looking at me and shocked. Well, men,
Speaker 1: my adrenaline was so high that I couldn't feel it
Speaker 1: at all. And he grabs me and throws me inside
Speaker 1: the the humby and he's like, I'll be right back.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go get the medic and said, okay, go, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting on that humby. The driver was a replacement,
Speaker 1: brand new guy, first day in theater, first day out
Speaker 1: the wire, and uh so he's he's he's freaking out
Speaker 1: a little bit. I can't blame the guys this first day.
Speaker 1: And he's kind of screaming pretty loud, and um, I
Speaker 1: just reached over and I slapped the ship out of
Speaker 1: him and I said, shut up, you're okay, We're gonna
Speaker 1: be fine, and he's like, okay, okay, son. So I said,
Speaker 1: give me the headset, and he gives me the headset
Speaker 1: and I call up the company and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I got I got four wounded, I got one dead.
Speaker 1: I need a medical evacuation as soon as possible. We're
Speaker 1: gonna push out of out of out of the kill
Speaker 1: zone here soon. And nobody knew that I was wounded,
Speaker 1: because you know, I just got on the mic and
Speaker 1: I started giving directions and in commands and and then
Speaker 1: it's just it's part of the job, Like at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, it's just it's part of the job.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was thought to do. So it
Speaker 1: all kicked in. And as all that kicks in, the
Speaker 1: medic jumps in and he grabs my arm, starts giving
Speaker 1: me an ivy and starts assessing this my um uh,
Speaker 1: my injuries. And I looked at him and I was like, Doc,
Speaker 1: I need some water. Man, I'm I'm thirsty, I'm dying.
Speaker 1: And he goes, man, I can't give any water. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you're extremely dehydrated and burned. He's like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to give you any right now, it may
Speaker 1: be and me I kind of looked over him and
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I rank you give some fucking
Speaker 1: water right now. So he's like fine. He gives me
Speaker 1: a water bottle. I take a sip, and uh, I
Speaker 1: made the biggest mistake in my life. Man. I poured
Speaker 1: it over my head and all the chemicals and everything
Speaker 1: just kind of rolling in my eyes and I wentn't
Speaker 1: blind for a little bit. I couldn't see the top
Speaker 1: it off. I asked the driver what position we were
Speaker 1: in the convoy, and he said we were the first vehicle.
Speaker 1: So I knew it was my job to get everybody
Speaker 1: back because he had no clue where we were going.
Speaker 1: So right then and there, I made up my mind.
Speaker 1: I was like, do I panic or do I keep
Speaker 1: my composure and get this guy back? And I knew
Speaker 1: I needed to keep my composure because it wasn't just me.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of guys depending on me to
Speaker 1: make the right call. And as we do that, you
Speaker 1: know you can hear with the radio we're loaded up,
Speaker 1: a loaded up. We gotta go. Let's go, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's go. So we started pushing and like I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: we're beIN eleven months, so I knew this place like
Speaker 1: the back of my hand. So I was like, I
Speaker 1: knew exactly what we were at, and I knew how
Speaker 1: to get back. So I started giving in commands on
Speaker 1: how to get back, and he's following them. And I
Speaker 1: asked him, was that can you see the gate? And
Speaker 1: he's like, I see the gates, so to give me
Speaker 1: the hatset. So it gives me the hatset, I call
Speaker 1: it up. I was like, open the gates were coming in,
Speaker 1: We're coming in. We rolled in and as soon as
Speaker 1: you roll in, there was already the medics winning on us.
Speaker 1: And like I said, that was four of us wounded,
Speaker 1: one dad and we only have three medics. So when
Speaker 1: they opened the door to my hom VIA closed it
Speaker 1: and they were like what the hell, So they opened
Speaker 1: it again. I closed it and they opened it. Was like, dude,
Speaker 1: we need to get you out. I said, there's three
Speaker 1: other guys behind me that are worse than I am,
Speaker 1: and get them and they're looking at me like you're
Speaker 1: pretty jacked up. Your naked here burned. I'm still they're
Speaker 1: still smoke coming out of my body, and uh well.
Speaker 1: What was awesome was that we were attached the Special
Speaker 1: Forces group that was right next to us. So their
Speaker 1: medic came over and he's like, hey man, I'm here,
Speaker 1: I got you. And I was like, okay, cool, let's
Speaker 1: do it. So he grabs me and as soon as
Speaker 1: he grabs me, he um. They take me inside. And
Speaker 1: as I'm laying there, I see the guys coming in
Speaker 1: and I looked at Accomplish and I was like you good, bro,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't speak and he was like. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, man, we're going home and he's like all right. Um.
Speaker 1: Shortly after that, the choppers came in. They picked us up.
Speaker 1: They took us to what's called the Green Zone, which
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest UM fob before we're operating
Speaker 1: base in Iraq. I mean it's it's a small city
Speaker 1: and they had a full um hospital there. So we
Speaker 1: fly into there and I remember getting there and I
Speaker 1: remember watching the guys come in and that's all I remember.
Speaker 1: Then after that, man, I don't remember everything for about
Speaker 1: three months. I wasn't induced come on for about three
Speaker 1: and a half months. But I woke up and and
Speaker 1: broke Army Medical Center which is in San Antonio, Texas,
Speaker 1: and my whole family was there when all that happened.
Speaker 1: And I just remember waking up and kind of dissori
Speaker 1: and and I didn't know what was going on, but
Speaker 1: it was you know, I was looking at myself like
Speaker 1: what the hell, Like what happened? And it took me
Speaker 1: a little bit to grasp what had happened. And then
Speaker 1: from there, man, and everything else began like surgeries and
Speaker 1: and um, did they think you were gonna die at
Speaker 1: any point? They did, so they actually gave my mom
Speaker 1: and dad a thirty percent chance of me of surviving.
Speaker 1: So they told him to get ready to start making
Speaker 1: funeral arrangements. So but my mom refused, you know, her
Speaker 1: being religious and all of us being she was like, no,
Speaker 1: God's gonna spare his life and he's gonna save him.
Speaker 1: And you know, eleven years and here I am. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it was as a result of it, it was burns
Speaker 1: to the body thirty and fourth degree burns, lost the
Speaker 1: right leg below the knee on the right side, and
Speaker 1: I think I out a hundred and two surgeries since then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but hey, I'm here. Yeah, your face right now. The man,
Speaker 1: It's just it's part of life, man, It's just you know,
Speaker 1: whether it's that or you know, I think we as
Speaker 1: people accomplished a lot of things in our lives. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of obstacles, and we don't give ourselves enough credit.
Speaker 1: We sell ourselves short, and you know, we get wrapped
Speaker 1: up about stuff that doesn't matter and supposed to being
Speaker 1: happy and and just celebrating life every single day. Man,
Speaker 1: we're here for a short short time, and I think
Speaker 1: people waste a lot of time and being negative or
Speaker 1: fighting with other people and just taking things away out
Speaker 1: of hand. So man, I try to live as happy
Speaker 1: as possible and try to give as much as I
Speaker 1: can and try to share my story with as many
Speaker 1: people as I can, because if it makes it an
Speaker 1: impact on theirs, man, that's all that matters. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: what strikes me about the way you tell the story
Speaker 1: is just the nature of which as you tell the
Speaker 1: details of your experience, you know, because you're only living
Speaker 1: through your experience, you can't you know. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: talked to your other teammates and folks you serve with
Speaker 1: um and that's important. But what's more important is that
Speaker 1: you never addressed during telling all that story the pain
Speaker 1: or having looked down and seeing your body during that time,
Speaker 1: or you know, any any point of realizing what was
Speaker 1: actually happened. You were dealing with what was right in
Speaker 1: front of you and dealing with the safety of others
Speaker 1: and dealing with your duties rather than dealing with, ah,
Speaker 1: what was happening to you. Man. It's just part of
Speaker 1: the job, man, That's that's I can't stress that enough. Man,
Speaker 1: It's just everything kicks in because it's just you know,
Speaker 1: it's second nature. You know, you practice to do that
Speaker 1: so many times and when that situation presents itself, you
Speaker 1: know exactly what to do. And you know, it's just
Speaker 1: I think I keep uh saying, it's like kind of
Speaker 1: like honeyman, you practice so much and you make different
Speaker 1: things and different adjustments to your scope or your bow
Speaker 1: or whatever it is that you're hunting with. You know
Speaker 1: where you've got to place a shot or what you
Speaker 1: gotta do if you don't. It's the same thing, man,
Speaker 1: the same thing in the military train for every single
Speaker 1: scenario you can think of, and we trained for that.
Speaker 1: So it's just it all just kicked in. I wasn't
Speaker 1: doing something extraordinary or being a hero on anything. It
Speaker 1: was just what I was taught to do. It just
Speaker 1: kicked in. Yeah, so you get back, You remember waking
Speaker 1: up in the hospital, and then many many surgeries, many many,
Speaker 1: many many surgeries, um, and then you get some awards
Speaker 1: at some point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got a couple
Speaker 1: of words here and there with valor and whatnot. But yeah, man,
Speaker 1: there they call the awards that yeah, right, terminology. I
Speaker 1: don't know what. Yeah, it's the words, man. You know,
Speaker 1: you get you get different things. You get a purple heart,
Speaker 1: purple hearts, silver Star, broun Star. Um Ah, well that's
Speaker 1: and I think it was like an arm accommodation matter
Speaker 1: with valor just a bunch of different what's that? What's
Speaker 1: that mean to you? Now? Nothing? Nothing? Not man, they
Speaker 1: just they just man, I don't know what I explained,
Speaker 1: Just stuff that you get for for doing your job,
Speaker 1: and not that it's supposed to validate anything, but they're
Speaker 1: they're more for for putting them on your uniform and
Speaker 1: looking good when you go out and whatnot, or talking
Speaker 1: smack to your buddies and be like you've got one
Speaker 1: of these that. But at the end of the day, man,
Speaker 1: I don't think any metal uh represents with that person
Speaker 1: is or shapes some up or does anything different. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just the piece of freaking metal that costs
Speaker 1: maybe two daughters, Like, well it signifies something. But the
Speaker 1: other thing I was thinking a while we were talking
Speaker 1: about this is like what was the real award because
Speaker 1: the word wasn't the purple heart, Like that's not what
Speaker 1: you what you got from this, but there was you
Speaker 1: were awarded something for going through the experience, whether it
Speaker 1: was a very personal thing that you you feel you've
Speaker 1: achieved as a better self or you know, just a
Speaker 1: better perspective. Like what at the end, what was the
Speaker 1: real award from this? I mean, it's harrowing, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's everything you can describe. I mean from from the
Speaker 1: whole thing you're talking about, Like what what I got
Speaker 1: it out of it? Man? I think the biggest A
Speaker 1: word that I've gotten it it's when I get messages
Speaker 1: from people from all over the world on how I've
Speaker 1: made an impact in their lives and how they switched
Speaker 1: their lives and um, just how I motivate them and
Speaker 1: and they've made changes because of something that I wrote
Speaker 1: or something that I shared with them. That that, to
Speaker 1: me is the award. When I can see something like that,
Speaker 1: knowing that I'm making a positive and impact in different
Speaker 1: places in the world, that that, to me is it's
Speaker 1: the most amazing thing because I've been giving this this
Speaker 1: this story and this laugh experience and able to share
Speaker 1: with other people to give them a different perspective in
Speaker 1: life or inspire them in any way and they take
Speaker 1: something from it. Dude. That that's that's that's the biggest
Speaker 1: a word for me because I get to keep the
Speaker 1: memory of my buddies alife and people are gonna remember them,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's giving back, man, it's doing something positive,
Speaker 1: like we turned that whole negative situation into something positive.
Speaker 1: That that to me is the biggest a word. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's what strikes me about you personally, is that
Speaker 1: it's it's always about the what you're giving, never about
Speaker 1: what you're getting. And to the point where you got
Speaker 1: something but it didn't matter, but it's about the real
Speaker 1: war is what you gave um. And that strikes me.
Speaker 1: The other thing I would say, you know, he you
Speaker 1: got all these injuries and you have to fight through
Speaker 1: all those. They don't need to go through the details
Speaker 1: and those, But then you get back to what is
Speaker 1: relatively normal life. I mean, I don't think you've ever
Speaker 1: had a normal life, not really, but you get back
Speaker 1: to living a life, right, You get back to making
Speaker 1: relationships and being able to yeah, making the best out
Speaker 1: of out of the situation you're in many you know,
Speaker 1: disabilities is the only way to put it. And then
Speaker 1: you get back into the world and at some point
Speaker 1: you know, the guys that owned were sitting in archery Country,
Speaker 1: the guys tyler Um and Brendan that you guys aren't
Speaker 1: we're talking about the time you came in here in
Speaker 1: the first time you drew a bow and when that
Speaker 1: was pretty emotional for you, like that that was something
Speaker 1: that it was, man, because like, growing up, I was
Speaker 1: always a rifle hunter and um, you know if but
Speaker 1: I had always had it in the back of mind.
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to shoot a bow. I
Speaker 1: want to shoot a bow. And you know, I came
Speaker 1: here after hours with with Tyler and Brennan, and I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there. I was like, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: how strong I am to pull a bow back. I
Speaker 1: was like, and they're kind of laughing at me because
Speaker 1: they know I got world record titles in the Paralympics
Speaker 1: and yeah, yeah per lift there. So they're like, shut up.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, these are different muscles that this is
Speaker 1: something different that I've never kind of picked up on
Speaker 1: sober to describe for people. Just for this was probably
Speaker 1: how many working fingers do you have them? Probably one
Speaker 1: one that triggered for the one that counts. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: the injuries are a part of it too. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not you just don't have the same dexterity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was the biggest thing, man, I told Brendan,
Speaker 1: and Tyler was like, the thing that I'm scared of
Speaker 1: is that I'm going to hurt someone else around me
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna hurt myself. And I was like, and
Speaker 1: I can't afford to jack up my hands more than
Speaker 1: I already are. So they brought out a beginner's but
Speaker 1: it was like a kid's bow, and uh, I was
Speaker 1: pulling twenty pounds on the man, and you know, I
Speaker 1: let that first ever fly and dude, it was done.
Speaker 1: After that, I was in here five times another week,
Speaker 1: like just shooting and went from from twenty five pounds
Speaker 1: to fifty five pounds. And uh, I had my first
Speaker 1: kill at fifty five pounds on a bison. Remember you
Speaker 1: telling me that story said I killed a bison? What
Speaker 1: my first book? It was? They presented itself when I
Speaker 1: was like, I gotta take this, so anytime I bison
Speaker 1: presented itself. Yeah, man. So it took the shot, hard shot.
Speaker 1: It was a perfect, just perfect shot. And I came
Speaker 1: back in and and uh, Tyler and Brendan were like, dude,
Speaker 1: we need to upgrade you. He's like, you're done with
Speaker 1: that kids bow. So I still have it. That's one
Speaker 1: of the things that I'll never give up because every
Speaker 1: time I look at it in the garage just reminds me.
Speaker 1: But you know, I moved up and you know I'm
Speaker 1: pulling soe many pounds now, and I mean I probably
Speaker 1: put more over I don't think I need to. I
Speaker 1: don't think you need more than the seventy pounds to hunt.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, man, now you know I'm in here
Speaker 1: quite a bit and I'll shoot at home. I feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: and you know, I try to, uh try to practice
Speaker 1: as much as possible because it's just man, I love.
Speaker 1: I fell in love with archery. I mean I still rifle,
Speaker 1: hunt and whatnot. But anytime but I get a chance
Speaker 1: to to go honey with with that my bow, I'm
Speaker 1: all about it. Yeah, it's archery discipline for you now
Speaker 1: that you've you've gone through so many of these, it
Speaker 1: is it is. You know, for the longest time, rifle
Speaker 1: was was was it for me? Because it took a
Speaker 1: lot of discipline and it's time and whatnot. And I
Speaker 1: was making pretty far shots and uh then I transitioned
Speaker 1: in the bowing and I realized, you know, you've gotta
Speaker 1: be a lot quieter, a lot smoother. You you gotta
Speaker 1: kind of sneak up on things, so it makes a
Speaker 1: little it makes it a little more challenging for me
Speaker 1: because of my leg and trying to make sure that
Speaker 1: I don't overstep or understand or make a sound and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So it's become very challenging. There's been times where I
Speaker 1: scared deer and I'm just I beat myself over it.
Speaker 1: But I come back and I know what I gotta do.
Speaker 1: And then when you know the six times that I
Speaker 1: go out and get it done, it's just such a
Speaker 1: rewarding feeling. And I know that I put all that
Speaker 1: time and effort and work into it and now I
Speaker 1: accomplished it. So yeah, in a sense, it does, man,
Speaker 1: And I honestly, it was just for the longest time,
Speaker 1: I used to watch your stuff and everybody else you
Speaker 1: hang out with and and everybody go bull hunting, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what are these nerds doing? Like, come on,
Speaker 1: why are you hunting for you? Like ten days? Get
Speaker 1: out of here. I got I got stuff to do.
Speaker 1: And you know, now, I'm like, and we're going on
Speaker 1: this hunt. We're gonna be gone for three weeks, and
Speaker 1: we were like, why has it come bull hunting and
Speaker 1: like why And you know, now I kinda I kind
Speaker 1: of get it and understand why. So I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't think you need to be changed anyway, But do
Speaker 1: you credit hunting? You know, and you had honey throughout
Speaker 1: I mean obviously, but you cred this new um discovery
Speaker 1: of archery, hunting or like just just connection to to
Speaker 1: to post injury, post war healing, new life. Well, that
Speaker 1: was always there. That was one of the biggest things
Speaker 1: that helped me get out of of going the route,
Speaker 1: which is that that dark side that a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys tend to get into the outdoors did that
Speaker 1: for me, you know. And it was getting out of
Speaker 1: the house, sitting in a blind or spotting stock, whatever
Speaker 1: the case was. But as long as I got out
Speaker 1: of the house and I was out in nature, even
Speaker 1: if I didn't get a kill, it just did something
Speaker 1: to me. It was able to help me reset from
Speaker 1: whatever was going on back at home and the appointments
Speaker 1: and the doctor's appointments and the surgeries and the infections,
Speaker 1: all that all that didn't matter when I got to
Speaker 1: that camp, and it still doesn't matter, and it's what
Speaker 1: helps me reset. Man. I think there's just something about
Speaker 1: hunting and the people that are involved in it, that
Speaker 1: that are like minded people. And it doesn't it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what color, what race, where are you from. When
Speaker 1: you step into that ranch or out of the open country,
Speaker 1: wherever you add and whoever you're with, that animal doesn't
Speaker 1: care what color you are, or who you are, or
Speaker 1: how much do you make and whatnot. And you're able
Speaker 1: to connect with all those individuals because you have the
Speaker 1: same purpose and it's to get that elk or that
Speaker 1: white tail or whatever it is. So that's always helped me.
Speaker 1: And just meeting people alike, man, it's just it's an amazing,
Speaker 1: it is riching thing. Man. I always tell people I
Speaker 1: don't have and I always bemoan the fact I don't
Speaker 1: have the experience of brotherhood like you did and do
Speaker 1: and in the situations that you you had them. But
Speaker 1: at the same level, if I've hunted with somebody on
Speaker 1: a weeklong backpack trip, when I see them, the hug
Speaker 1: is not like just seeing a dude you have lunch
Speaker 1: with once a week. It's just not the same and
Speaker 1: it will never and you can't really articulate that to people. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no, And in the sense that thing it is
Speaker 1: kind of the same brotherhood. I mean different, different workplaces,
Speaker 1: different things, but the bonds there, you know, and and
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing. Man, Like I got mud to everybody's
Speaker 1: and I got hunting buddies, and they're the same to me,
Speaker 1: They're the same thing here. Because I always, I always
Speaker 1: always it's jealous, is not the right world, but always
Speaker 1: acknowledging what going through something like, I feel like it's
Speaker 1: the same. It's about the same. And because I, like
Speaker 1: I said, I have the same feeling that I do
Speaker 1: for both of them. You know, even though I experienced
Speaker 1: a hardship with with a group, but I've I've experienced
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not killing something or bonding with that
Speaker 1: person or where something else, whether it be growing up
Speaker 1: around the same neighborhood or the same town, or it's
Speaker 1: just it's it's hunting, man, and you guys are going
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. So I think they go
Speaker 1: hand in hand. Yeah, I'm to see if you if
Speaker 1: this is something that you would agree with. Like hunting,
Speaker 1: there's things in life that are flat experiences, like a
Speaker 1: roller coaster, for example, or any fun ride at the
Speaker 1: car nival. You do it, you get too high from it,
Speaker 1: you get your fun and then you come down and
Speaker 1: it has no effect on your life afterwards, and that
Speaker 1: at all has no residual effect. There's a two dimensional experience.
Speaker 1: You go up, you go hunting, and you get the
Speaker 1: same kind of joy and high that you might get
Speaker 1: from a roller coaster. But at the end of it,
Speaker 1: there's all these other benefits in your life. So it
Speaker 1: makes it just like three dimensional structure in your life,
Speaker 1: and it has the same type of benefits. Is that
Speaker 1: what you've experienced? It does, man, because like I get
Speaker 1: the same feeling when I go hunting that I used
Speaker 1: to get when I was in a firefight, the same
Speaker 1: adrenal and this everything's there and it's it's very relatable
Speaker 1: and it doesn't end that day. You know you used
Speaker 1: to carry it on the next day you're still excited
Speaker 1: because you accomplished it, or you hold on too it
Speaker 1: because you know you didn't get that kill that day,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna come back in a few weeks and
Speaker 1: try it again. And it's it is. It holds it
Speaker 1: holds hand in hand, man. Yeah. A lot of people
Speaker 1: getting upset or get weirded out about what the description
Speaker 1: or the comparison just made like firefight hunting. You're not
Speaker 1: talking about the killing part of it. No, I don't know,
Speaker 1: And I've always been a little irk by that. It's like,
Speaker 1: that's not what you're talking about. You're just talking about
Speaker 1: the experiential height and sensibilities, all the things that you're experiencing.
Speaker 1: Everything is activated, you're you're super aware, you know, you're
Speaker 1: hypersensitive to the noise. It's just your where of your surroundings.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that are implemented in a firefight.
Speaker 1: And and then I'm glad you brought that up because
Speaker 1: I never mentioned the word killing. But it's just the
Speaker 1: same feeling. It's just everything. It's just there's a lot
Speaker 1: of similarities between the both without even having to kill anything.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it goes and I feel the same same
Speaker 1: rush that I did that I did on a firefight
Speaker 1: when I get in a blind or when I'm walking
Speaker 1: and I come up on something. Do you ever think
Speaker 1: about you're guys you serve with or guys you you know,
Speaker 1: you really serve with everybody in the military, but guys
Speaker 1: you directly serve with or indirector is there any time
Speaker 1: that you've told somebody, Hey, man, you need go hunting
Speaker 1: like you're hurting right now in the woods. Yeah. My
Speaker 1: my buddy, that was the driver that got hit the
Speaker 1: day that I got hit. He uh got married, everything
Speaker 1: was doing good and all of a sudden got divorced
Speaker 1: and he was in a row spot and I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not the richest person in the world, but I
Speaker 1: was like, I got a little bit of money. I
Speaker 1: want to buy your plane ticket and we're gonna go
Speaker 1: hunt in Santangelo. Had a buddy of mine who's got
Speaker 1: a ranch out there and allow me to come and
Speaker 1: bring a couple of other guys out. So I brought
Speaker 1: about two or three window guys and my buddy and
Speaker 1: we went hunting for axes, and man, he just had
Speaker 1: a blast and got home to South Carolina and he
Speaker 1: was like, men, thank you so much. That kind of
Speaker 1: reset me and and helped me a little bit just
Speaker 1: to get away and not think about it. And he's like,
Speaker 1: and I'm in a much better place. And I was
Speaker 1: like good. So, man, every every time I get a chance, Man,
Speaker 1: when I get people that call me up and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got I got two spots, and I got this
Speaker 1: white tail that, Uh, I want somebody to take. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I just start kind of looking through my
Speaker 1: list and I start looking at people that I know
Speaker 1: that needed, and I take those guys hunting. And now,
Speaker 1: I mean I get a kick of watching someone else
Speaker 1: get to kill. Then if I were to get it,
Speaker 1: like I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still I
Speaker 1: still want to get that as you like, I really
Speaker 1: like you kill it. But if it happens to walk
Speaker 1: by here, yeah, man, I'm not gonna. Yeah man, So
Speaker 1: it's just kind of it's a scrunt into that man.
Speaker 1: And I'm just I love hunting. I love everything about it.
Speaker 1: I love what we do, the preservation, everything everything behind hunting. Man.
Speaker 1: It's just I've never met a hunter that is just
Speaker 1: a bad person. Yeah. So, I mean I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: out there. I just haven't met plenty. Yeah. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: champing is fun, but there's people that litter like hunting
Speaker 1: is fun. There's people that like there. It's just that's
Speaker 1: part of life. Military is great. People are bad there,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, of course. Um and so yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's not worth focusing on. But so life for you today,
Speaker 1: I mean, how many years since you woke up from that.
Speaker 1: So you're eleven years eleven years in and life for
Speaker 1: you today is is what I mean. It seems happy,
Speaker 1: You seems man, it's awesome. It seems an admirable life
Speaker 1: that you live it, you know what I mean. I'm
Speaker 1: very blessed to have the friends that I have and
Speaker 1: and the things that I'm able to do. And I
Speaker 1: got a great woman at home that allows me to
Speaker 1: allows me but I guess we can say that, but
Speaker 1: mind to mind allows me to be here tonight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that kidding. That allows me to do the things that
Speaker 1: I do, the things that matter, the things about giving
Speaker 1: back and being involved in my community, and then you know,
Speaker 1: all my buddies over a black rifle coffee, all the
Speaker 1: stuff that we get to do and how we give
Speaker 1: back and how we make people laugh and all the
Speaker 1: skits that we make, and you know, and then being
Speaker 1: here and doing events like these and shooting arrows and
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out with you and Dudley and everybody
Speaker 1: else is just kinda I mean, I couldn't ask for
Speaker 1: a better life. Like you know, I was dealt a
Speaker 1: shitty hand, but you know the next one that came
Speaker 1: around was a lot better. And you know, here I
Speaker 1: am today, and I'm gonna make the best of it, man,
Speaker 1: because I'm not throwing I'm not throwing my second chance
Speaker 1: that life away. I'm not gonna be locked up in
Speaker 1: a room feeling sorry for myself because no one's gonna
Speaker 1: give a ship but me. No one's gonna carry like
Speaker 1: you know what, at a point, people are gonna get
Speaker 1: bored of it and then I'll be like, well, you
Speaker 1: know what he gave up. I'm done. So I refused
Speaker 1: to do that because it's it would it would be
Speaker 1: an interestice to my friends that die that day for
Speaker 1: me to throw my life away feeling sorry for myself,
Speaker 1: and that just it's never been me like, Man, I'm
Speaker 1: here for a reason. I'm happy. I love life like
Speaker 1: there's just so many great things to focus on and
Speaker 1: and things to do man, Like you know, we all
Speaker 1: have goals. I want to do a bunch of different
Speaker 1: things before I'm done. Like I just it's just life
Speaker 1: such a beautiful gift, man, I'm not going to throw
Speaker 1: it away. Yeah. Well, I mean, like I said, through
Speaker 1: your life, even when you're sitting in a burning humby,
Speaker 1: you're given man, like you're given to people, and your
Speaker 1: story is a gift like you are a gift in
Speaker 1: my in my opinion. And one of the things that
Speaker 1: struck me during um, the hurricane in Houston, how long
Speaker 1: ago was that Now we're going up in a year now.
Speaker 1: I was just a year, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: be wrong. Yeah, thinks that's coming up in the one year.
Speaker 1: And what struck me about that is that during that
Speaker 1: you were from here at Archery Country organizing trail to
Speaker 1: loads of goods, sacrifice in your time and all your
Speaker 1: energy and bringing people together. John Dudley came down to
Speaker 1: help some of that, and then and pulling together as
Speaker 1: much energy of positive energy during that time a crisis
Speaker 1: as you possibly could and continuing not to just talk
Speaker 1: about giving or or exemplify, but but put that ship
Speaker 1: into real action. And um, we got to go to
Speaker 1: an event and see the people. But I want to
Speaker 1: end on like tell people you know you went through
Speaker 1: the worst thing imagine and you said you got a
Speaker 1: second chance of life. What would you say to somebody that, like,
Speaker 1: my life's not working out for me life for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: life is ship right now and I can't get up
Speaker 1: off mat. I keep trying to get up and I
Speaker 1: keep getting knocked back down. I keep trying to get up,
Speaker 1: I keep getting knocked back down. What would you say
Speaker 1: to that person who just is is is at the end? Man?
Speaker 1: If I can give an advice, is if you could
Speaker 1: keep getting knocked down, make sure you lie on your back,
Speaker 1: and once you get up, look at look at life
Speaker 1: right in the eyes, and say what else you got, bitch,
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, man, it's part
Speaker 1: of life. Man, We're gonna get knocked down so many times,
Speaker 1: but that one time you get up and do something,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be magical. It's gonna be epic, Like it's
Speaker 1: just you're You're one shot away from doing something that's
Speaker 1: going to change the rest of your life. And the
Speaker 1: minute that you give up, you're done. So just keep
Speaker 1: keep at it, man. Live. Life's gonna test you, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna test you very hard, and it's up to
Speaker 1: you how much you want to keep giving back and
Speaker 1: how much you really want it. Yeah, and if you
Speaker 1: ever feel like giving up, just listen to this podcast
Speaker 1: over again or Christy on on Instagram and wherever you
Speaker 1: can find him, and then shut the funk up and
Speaker 1: get wrong. Don't be a bit about Man. Hey, I
Speaker 1: complain sometimes too, man, but you know it's we're humans.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do it. Well, of course we are, of
Speaker 1: course we are. But yeah, I mean I could say
Speaker 1: so much about your story about it as far as
Speaker 1: came to this country. You you sacrifice to be here
Speaker 1: and then we're accepted it and then and then sacrifice
Speaker 1: for this thing and then and now here you sit. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's a special thing to sit down and talk
Speaker 1: to you, and I really appreciate it. Thanks, man, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, let's go,
Speaker 1: uh have a drink and enjoy we're at. I didn't.
Speaker 1: We never really talked about we're at. We're in Tyler
Speaker 1: Tyler Banderkook owns as an owner arch country, his offices
Speaker 1: and tatters like I think this, maybe use this, use
Speaker 1: this um moment to call him out a little bit.
Speaker 1: It was like, it looks like you might have a
Speaker 1: problem because there's a tooth words drank bottle of Tito's,
Speaker 1: like a handle of vodka, and there's like guess some
Speaker 1: some scribbled on posted notes. It's not looking good and
Speaker 1: not at all. There's some questionable drinks around here. You
Speaker 1: got we looked at he's got a right in his desk.
Speaker 1: He's got a bang. He's got a bang Georgia peach,
Speaker 1: sweet tea, protein, brain and body fuel. I've never even
Speaker 1: heard of that, but everybody's ever heard of that. It's
Speaker 1: a super creative BC double aminos. Anyway, Tyler of Archery Country,
Speaker 1: we got we have to have an intervention. Yeah, clean
Speaker 1: your ship up. But we're here. We're here for b
Speaker 1: h A. We're here for a cool full draw the
Speaker 1: film night. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that, watching films
Speaker 1: and celebrating public plans. And I'm glad to be here
Speaker 1: with you. Man. Yeah. Likewise, brother, thanks for having me
Speaker 1: on man, it's it's it's an honor. I hope. I
Speaker 1: hope people enjoy this podcast. I hope they do. I
Speaker 1: know they will, And hopefully next time we can go hunt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in Thanks sir, Thanks man. That's it. That is all.
Speaker 1: Episode number twenty six is in the books. I don't
Speaker 1: want to thank Omar Crispy sitting down with me here
Speaker 1: at Archery Country and allstin Texas, talking about his life
Speaker 1: and times, his story, what the military means to him,
Speaker 1: what sacrifice means to him and all those types of things. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what to say about that story
Speaker 1: other than I'm I'm floored by it, I am inspired
Speaker 1: by it, and I am forever changed by sitting acrossing
Speaker 1: this man and listening to what he went through. I
Speaker 1: think hopefully as you all listen to his story, if not,
Speaker 1: go back and listen to it again, think about where
Speaker 1: you were in your life, what you were doing, um,
Speaker 1: when he was in a burning humby, and when he
Speaker 1: was going through a hundred surgeries, and when you and
Speaker 1: he was rehabbing he was fitting his prosthetic leg. Think
Speaker 1: about where you were and what you had that he
Speaker 1: didn't have. Mhm um. And hopefully we can all learn
Speaker 1: from it and we all get better. So I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening. Appreciate Omar for being a part of this.
Speaker 1: I don't really have much more to say. I think
Speaker 1: I just want to end this by saying thank you, Omar.
Speaker 1: Thank you,