Speaker 1: Please be advised the following episode contains references to violence
Speaker 1: and may not be suitable for all audiences. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Veterans you Should Know a podcast from My Heart Radio
Speaker 1: that celebrates the men and women who have honorably answered
Speaker 1: a call to serve their country in the armed forces.
Speaker 1: I'm Rob Real, actor, comedian, and former Marine raw In
Speaker 1: this special series Honoring Veterans Day, I'll be speaking with
Speaker 1: four incredible veterans as they detail challenges they've faced and
Speaker 1: how their experiences in military service served them in their
Speaker 1: everyday civilian lives. In this episode, I'm speaking with Brad Snyder.
Speaker 1: Brad served as an explosive ordinance disposal officer in the
Speaker 1: United States Navy. That means disarming bombs people. The way
Speaker 1: that most people have seen our community is like through
Speaker 1: the movie The hurt Locker, where you've got someone with
Speaker 1: either a robot or a bomb suit and they have
Speaker 1: the ability to get down on top of that device
Speaker 1: and then do something to it to put it in
Speaker 1: a safer spot. And that was largely my deployment to Iraq.
Speaker 1: On his second deployment in Afghanistan, Brad stepped on an
Speaker 1: improvised explosive device, which detonated and left him permanently blinded.
Speaker 1: In the process of his rehabilitation and recovery, he was
Speaker 1: encouraged to try out for the Paralympics due to his
Speaker 1: background and competitive swimming. Today, Brad is a five time
Speaker 1: gold medalist competing in swimming and para triathlon for Team USA.
Speaker 1: Through his experiences, he strives to inspire future generations to
Speaker 1: embrace a life of leadership and civic duty. Brad, Welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. Thank you for being here, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. And before we get going,
Speaker 1: I think we'd be remiss if I didn't thank you
Speaker 1: for your service as well. Well you're very kind to
Speaker 1: say that. But today is about you, Brad, and we
Speaker 1: want to hear a story because I think it's one
Speaker 1: of the most fascinating stories, truly, one of overcoming so
Speaker 1: much and there's so many great lessons and takeaways to
Speaker 1: your story that I want people to hear. I want
Speaker 1: them to truly understand it, and I want them to
Speaker 1: feel what it takes and what the mindset is to
Speaker 1: do what you've done. So well, let's just dive in.
Speaker 1: If you don't mind, I want to pick your brain
Speaker 1: on so many things. Let's start with how did you
Speaker 1: come to the military. It's a great question and something
Speaker 1: I thought a lot about because I never made a
Speaker 1: decision to join the Navy. I think I just grew
Speaker 1: up always knowing that I would. Three out of four
Speaker 1: of my grandparents we're all in the Navy in various capacities,
Speaker 1: all in and around World War Two. My mom's dad,
Speaker 1: my grandfather served in the Battle of Midway. He dropped
Speaker 1: torpedoes out at Japanese subs and ships. So I just
Speaker 1: sort of always knew from an age of like three
Speaker 1: onward that I wanted to be like my grandfather and
Speaker 1: following his footsteps and join the Navy. Brad had a
Speaker 1: choice to make. He had made up his mind to
Speaker 1: join the military. But there are three paths one can
Speaker 1: take to receive a commission as a naval officer, an
Speaker 1: r OTC scholarship at a civilian university, a degree, and
Speaker 1: then officer candidate school, or the Naval Academy. I got
Speaker 1: to visit the Naval Academy my sophomore year high school.
Speaker 1: My uncle was also in the Navy. He was an
Speaker 1: O six jag at the time working at the Pentagon
Speaker 1: and we went and visited them in Virginia, and kind
Speaker 1: of on a whim, he said, you want to go
Speaker 1: visit the Naval Academy, And I thought, you know, why not,
Speaker 1: and just instantly fell in love with the place. I've
Speaker 1: shared this story a handful of times. What I thought
Speaker 1: was so cool. Do you watched this brigade of midshipman
Speaker 1: they go out for new information. It's just this big
Speaker 1: mob of black and white and they all start yelling
Speaker 1: stuff that you don't understand at the time. They're doing
Speaker 1: accountability or whatever, and they're yelling, and I remember watching
Speaker 1: walked by and each of them had their names stitched
Speaker 1: on their shirt. And I remember being in high school thinking, man,
Speaker 1: how cool is it that they're so important that they
Speaker 1: have their name stitched in their shirt? Like nobody knows
Speaker 1: my name, my name is meaningless, but here like your
Speaker 1: name is really important. And that was really cool to me.
Speaker 1: So I first and foremost wanted to go to the
Speaker 1: Naval Academy, and I pursued that with quite a lot
Speaker 1: of vigor. But my backup plans were go to our
Speaker 1: OTC somewhere. Anyway, That's how I kind of dialed in
Speaker 1: on the Naval Academy. Brand had just begun his senior
Speaker 1: year in high school when the attacks of September eleven occurred,
Speaker 1: but that didn't deter him from his call to service.
Speaker 1: On September eleven, two and one, I remember I was
Speaker 1: in English class and someone ran into the room to say,
Speaker 1: turn on the TV. And it was just in time
Speaker 1: to see the towers still there but smoking. And then
Speaker 1: while we were all watching, the towers came down. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I had already wanted to join the Navy.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was fulfilling sort of like a
Speaker 1: familial duty or a legacy kind of thing. But then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, with the towers coming down, you know,
Speaker 1: it's our generation's fight, you know, that's what we were
Speaker 1: all signing up to do. It gave my service such
Speaker 1: a galvanized purpose, I suppose was the right way of
Speaker 1: saying it. Yes, it did crystallize things. Crystallize, that's a
Speaker 1: better word. People saw a need and they were ready
Speaker 1: to jump in, And I think that's really outstanding. I
Speaker 1: think there weren't a whole lot of people who straight
Speaker 1: away from you know, stepping up and joining when there
Speaker 1: was a time and a need. I think you're right too.
Speaker 1: I remember I was in New York on n eleven
Speaker 1: and my reserve, you and it. I just left active
Speaker 1: duty and my reserving it was activated. I was a
Speaker 1: captain at the time, but I remember that the vibe,
Speaker 1: if you will, of everybody around, everybody in the city
Speaker 1: and the country for that matter. Everybody wanted to do something, anything,
Speaker 1: And I remember people were bringing down boxes of clothes
Speaker 1: and you know, they just didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: They're bringing blankets, they were bringing things that didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: need we needed, nobody needed down there, but they were
Speaker 1: compelled to do something. They were compelled to take part
Speaker 1: or feel like they could help in some way. And
Speaker 1: I felt actually blessed that I was in the service.
Speaker 1: So I volunteered to go back on an active duty
Speaker 1: and I was able to scratch that itch, so to speak.
Speaker 1: I was able to serve because I was in a
Speaker 1: position to. But I do remember that feeling across the
Speaker 1: country and especially in New York, there was a desire
Speaker 1: to serve, to get involved. So I was, I guess happy,
Speaker 1: and it felt good from patriotic sense to know that
Speaker 1: when the country was in crisis, you know, it was
Speaker 1: nice to see people respond for sure, and and you
Speaker 1: were obviously one of those people, So thank you for
Speaker 1: staying the course. According to the US, over two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people swore an oath to serve in
Speaker 1: the active duty and reserve military forces following the attacks
Speaker 1: of not eleven, many of them vowing to make sure
Speaker 1: something so horrible never was repeated. Brad continued to follow
Speaker 1: his dream and entered the Naval Academy the year following
Speaker 1: nine eleven. From day one, life at the Naval Academy
Speaker 1: was full speed ahead. Brad had a stacked course load
Speaker 1: of engineering classes at seven indoctrination to military culture and knowledge,
Speaker 1: and on top of that, he was part of the
Speaker 1: academy's competitive swim team. It was an exhaustive schedule, but
Speaker 1: Brad balanced at all and never lost sight of the
Speaker 1: lessons he learned. It was tough, but it really did
Speaker 1: force me to grow up quickly. I learned how to
Speaker 1: manage time. I learned how to organize myself. I learned
Speaker 1: how to learn quickly. I think that's a real important skill,
Speaker 1: especially in the military. And I learned, you know, with
Speaker 1: the right amount of those sub skills, you can survive
Speaker 1: and you can thrive in an environment like that, and
Speaker 1: I think the Navy was definitely a lot like that.
Speaker 1: I was always keeping a lot of balls in the air,
Speaker 1: and honestly that hasn't stopped. Even transitioning out of the military.
Speaker 1: I'm still in exactly that same boat, just trying to
Speaker 1: keep everything up in the air. They push you beyond
Speaker 1: your perceived limits. We all have limits, we think. We
Speaker 1: all think, oh, man, I couldn't do this, or you know,
Speaker 1: I could never run a marathon, or I could never
Speaker 1: do X, Y or Z. But then when you get
Speaker 1: in the military and you start doing things and they
Speaker 1: hold you to a very high standard, you realize that
Speaker 1: what you thought were your limits are not okay. So
Speaker 1: you are working your way through the academy and you
Speaker 1: decide to choose an MS. And for those who don't know,
Speaker 1: MS means Military occupational specialty. Your job, your j ob
Speaker 1: is basically what an m OS is. So why don't
Speaker 1: we just say that just just our job. I know,
Speaker 1: because the military we make it. We make it so hard,
Speaker 1: we have to make everything so unique. You decide to
Speaker 1: become an explosive ordinance disposal officer, probably the most dangerous
Speaker 1: job in the world. How does that come about? Not linearly,
Speaker 1: I'll say that when I got to the Naval Academy,
Speaker 1: they started barking in my face and said, what do
Speaker 1: you want to do after you go to the navalcadey,
Speaker 1: what kind of service do you want to do? What's
Speaker 1: your job? And I kind of just looked at him,
Speaker 1: like my jobs to be in the Navy, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, what do you want me to say? You
Speaker 1: want me to pick? I don't know. You tell me.
Speaker 1: I thought the military would order you around. They call
Speaker 1: it orders, right, so what are my orders? Just give
Speaker 1: me orders? They said, no, you have to pick. So
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time soul searching going around,
Speaker 1: and the Naval Academy and the summer programs do a
Speaker 1: good job of socializing you across the different arenas of
Speaker 1: both the Navy and the Marine Corps. And what I
Speaker 1: loved most was actually scuba diving. I got to go
Speaker 1: to Navy scuba school and I went back to the
Speaker 1: Naval Academy. I said, I found it. I want to
Speaker 1: be a scuba diver and they were like, that's not
Speaker 1: a thing. Now there is a Navy Diving Corps, but
Speaker 1: that's only enlisted, and no Naval Academy officers go into
Speaker 1: the Navy diving community specifically or at least directly, but
Speaker 1: it is a prerequisite skill for Navy seals and e
Speaker 1: O D officers. And then around the my junior year,
Speaker 1: I went out on e O D summer camp out
Speaker 1: to San Diego, and on day one of e O
Speaker 1: D Summer Camp, I went out with our Dolphinsay, so
Speaker 1: not a lot of people know this, but we have
Speaker 1: a marine mammal program where the Navy utilizes dolphins and
Speaker 1: sea lions to do certain things for us. Yeah, it's real,
Speaker 1: and it's really cool. As far as I'm concerned. It
Speaker 1: feels so double O seven, it feels so James Bond.
Speaker 1: Having dolphins work with us to take on the bad guys.
Speaker 1: It really is amazing. It's just really tough giving them
Speaker 1: a high five because they only have fins, you know.
Speaker 1: But to belabor the story, I go out to Point Loman,
Speaker 1: San Diego, and the day one of this camp, I
Speaker 1: go out onto this twenty one ft Boston whaler and
Speaker 1: this dolphin trainer like blows a whistle and the dolphins
Speaker 1: jumps out to the water into the boat and then
Speaker 1: we drive out, you know, a couple of miles from
Speaker 1: shore where we have a training area which is basically
Speaker 1: three feet of sea water above a couple of mine shapes,
Speaker 1: like their fake minds, and we trained the dolphins on
Speaker 1: how to find mine shapes at three feet. Now, we
Speaker 1: can't really dive sustainably at that depth, not looking for
Speaker 1: stuff anyway, so we can use these dolphins to help
Speaker 1: us find potential minds that have been buried or who
Speaker 1: have lost their way or found at three feet below
Speaker 1: the surface of the ocean. That was day one of
Speaker 1: e O D summer camp. The summer camp sold me
Speaker 1: and I went back to the Naval Academy and said,
Speaker 1: I'm I want to be an EYO D officer. And
Speaker 1: I was really worried I wouldn't have the grades to
Speaker 1: do it, but I got in by the hair on
Speaker 1: my chinny chinchin, and I'm just really grateful. Wow, they
Speaker 1: did quite a job on selling e O D, because, um,
Speaker 1: you know, explosive Ordinance Disposal. It's just the sound of it.
Speaker 1: It's terrifying. I got to see the e O D
Speaker 1: you guys work, and I actually saw him work in
Speaker 1: real life scenarios and I was always impressed and they
Speaker 1: had confidence. Oh my gosh. You know, everybody gets a
Speaker 1: little skittish around the things that go boom, and these guys, well,
Speaker 1: they instilled confidence and everybody around him. I always felt
Speaker 1: like when they showed up, everybody could relax. Truly amazing.
Speaker 1: Now you get the job of explosive ordinance disposal and
Speaker 1: you deploy, and now you find yourself in tricky situations
Speaker 1: because you're actually having to deal with unexploded ordinance or
Speaker 1: roadside bombs improvised explosive devices i e D S. So
Speaker 1: did you feel like the training you received prepared you
Speaker 1: for being in a combat zone? I mean, did you
Speaker 1: feel like you were ready when you got there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, but not always directly. What I think is
Speaker 1: great about the e D community and the way that
Speaker 1: we approached training. We were given frameworks, We were taught
Speaker 1: how to think more or less, not necessarily like when
Speaker 1: you see this, this is what you do. That kind
Speaker 1: of procedural mindset doesn't really work in our community because
Speaker 1: you're never going to really they see exactly the same
Speaker 1: scenario twice. So what the e D community teaches you
Speaker 1: is all the sort of background knowledge you might need
Speaker 1: on all kinds of explosives, fusings, different ways of deploying weapons,
Speaker 1: but then also how to manage the scenario on the ground.
Speaker 1: And again I felt very prepared in how to think
Speaker 1: through those scenarios. What became challenging is bringing to bear
Speaker 1: the tools that you might want to mitigate those hazards.
Speaker 1: And the way that most people have seen our community
Speaker 1: is like through the movie The hurt Locker, where you've
Speaker 1: got someone with either a robot or a bomb suit
Speaker 1: and they have the ability to get down on top
Speaker 1: of that device and then do something to it to
Speaker 1: put it in a safer spot. And that was largely
Speaker 1: my deployment to Iraq. We had a big, giant em
Speaker 1: RAB truck with all kinds of gear, a bomb suit,
Speaker 1: two robots, all sorts of stuff, water bottle charges, you
Speaker 1: name it. I've got all these tools to bring to bear,
Speaker 1: but our mission set doesn't always allow for a giant
Speaker 1: vehicle in a bomb suit and two robots and water
Speaker 1: bottle charges. And that was my deployment to Afghanistan, where
Speaker 1: everything that I'm going to bring to my job as
Speaker 1: an UNI officer I have to carry with me, so
Speaker 1: I really only have a pocket knife and some five
Speaker 1: or in Afghanistan. I think you just described what every
Speaker 1: military person who has ever served has experienced. You get
Speaker 1: wonderful training, we have wonderful equipment, You have all these
Speaker 1: wonderful things, but when you're deployed, when you're out on
Speaker 1: the street, that stuff just isn't always there. And then
Speaker 1: you have to improvise, adapt and overcome, as they say,
Speaker 1: and you have to be able to make judgment calls,
Speaker 1: and you have to be able to decide what the
Speaker 1: best course of action is. And it's not always at
Speaker 1: your leisure. You know, you're moving in a very dynamic environment,
Speaker 1: very hostile environment. Potentially maybe you only have the information
Speaker 1: you need, but you still got to act. So there's
Speaker 1: so many X factors that are brought to bear against
Speaker 1: what you're doing. Veterans you should know will return after
Speaker 1: the break. On Brad's second tour overseas, he was on
Speaker 1: a morning patrol, just like the many mornings before, but
Speaker 1: this day was different. This day Brad's life changed in
Speaker 1: an instant. We were on what I would categorize as
Speaker 1: a routine foot patrol from one place to another in
Speaker 1: a area of Afghanistan called the Panjwai Valley in two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, and at this particular time, we were not
Speaker 1: routinely engaging the Taliban in typical firefights. They were in
Speaker 1: very small numbers. They were hiding a lot, and we
Speaker 1: were very actively trying to find them. But what they
Speaker 1: were doing a lot was the i e ED and
Speaker 1: improvised explosive device. They were burying tens of them everywhere.
Speaker 1: Every square mile probably had a hand full or so
Speaker 1: of these i e d S. It made our job
Speaker 1: very difficult. There weren't a lot of places where you
Speaker 1: could get to with a vehicle and where we were working,
Speaker 1: and the tactical decision we made was for our foot
Speaker 1: patrols to always walk like ducks in a row, like
Speaker 1: you're always just following the footsteps of the guy in
Speaker 1: or gall in front of you, and out in front
Speaker 1: of our patrol would always be an EOD tech like
Speaker 1: myself or my partner atom clearing with a metal detector.
Speaker 1: And at about seven thirty in the morning, I was
Speaker 1: halfway back in our patrol, just following along like everybody else,
Speaker 1: and up at the front of our patrol there was
Speaker 1: a big blast plume that shot up into the air
Speaker 1: and we train everybody. When a blast like that goes off,
Speaker 1: don't move because where there's one bomb, there's likely many.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a very common tactic for there to
Speaker 1: be multiple I e d S around each other. We
Speaker 1: call them secondaries. When one blast goes off, don't move.
Speaker 1: Let the EOD tech myself use my metal detector to
Speaker 1: clear some space for a medic to get down to
Speaker 1: the casualty. So I pulled out my metal detector, ran
Speaker 1: up to the run and Uh. I was really gratified though,
Speaker 1: because I looked over and saw my buddy Adam was
Speaker 1: just fine. He looked at me about as confused as
Speaker 1: I was. But what we learned was two Afghan commandos
Speaker 1: had stepped off of the cleared path and landed on
Speaker 1: a forty pound I E D, effectively mortally wounding the
Speaker 1: two of them. But we didn't know that at the time.
Speaker 1: So Adam and I job at that point, it's too
Speaker 1: clear space, get the medics down to the casualties, and
Speaker 1: then clear a spot for a helicopter to come in
Speaker 1: and take those casualties to the hospital. It was really
Speaker 1: difficult in doing that, and it was pretty chaotic. We
Speaker 1: also knew that there were insurgents in the area who
Speaker 1: may now know where we are, so we felt like
Speaker 1: the sense of urgency to get off the X. As
Speaker 1: we say, we were able to move the first casualty
Speaker 1: back about a hundred feet where we were intending to
Speaker 1: bring in a helicopter, and then on my way back
Speaker 1: to Adam in the second casualty, I made a judgment
Speaker 1: call in that moment where to get to Adam. I
Speaker 1: was running across grass and I remember thinking, what are
Speaker 1: the chances? And I e d spend here so long
Speaker 1: that grass is grown on top of it, And that's
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. There was a pressure plate buried underneath
Speaker 1: where grass had grown over, and that's the one I
Speaker 1: stepped on. I was really lucky in a number of ways.
Speaker 1: The pressure plate was separated from the actual blast itself,
Speaker 1: and that's what saved my life. It blew up in
Speaker 1: front of me, not underneath me, and because of that,
Speaker 1: it came out of the ground and really just smacked
Speaker 1: me in the face, as opposed to blowing up underneath me,
Speaker 1: which surely would have taken off my legs, if not
Speaker 1: my arms as well. The important part of this story
Speaker 1: is immediately following the blast. I knew that I had
Speaker 1: been blown up. I knew that it was likely a
Speaker 1: forty pound charge, which is a pretty big explosion, and
Speaker 1: I had known of other victims of similar sized explosions
Speaker 1: who were really in not good shape afterward. And the
Speaker 1: fact that I actually could still see I think a
Speaker 1: little bit. I looked down and I saw my hand
Speaker 1: ends in my feet. There was no obvious damage. I
Speaker 1: could still see that I had my feet, I still
Speaker 1: had my arms, and that, in my mind, meant that
Speaker 1: surely I had died. There was no way that I
Speaker 1: was intact. After that, for me, I felt like time
Speaker 1: stopped and I remember thinking, for sure, I'm dead, and uh,
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's sad. But I I thought about
Speaker 1: my whole life, and I thought, I'm proud of the
Speaker 1: life that I've lived. I died, you know, serving my country,
Speaker 1: and I think that's honorable. And I'm sad that I
Speaker 1: won't be able to see my family, but I think
Speaker 1: that they'll understand, you know, they'll appreciate what I did.
Speaker 1: And then I actually felt like, for sure, my grandfather's
Speaker 1: coming to grab me. Like my grandfather who died when
Speaker 1: I was eleven, my hero, he's gonna come take me
Speaker 1: whatever happens after you die. But then I didn't die.
Speaker 1: I came back. That's just amazing. It's amazing to me
Speaker 1: that those thoughts were in your mind, that you are
Speaker 1: actually walking through those thoughts, that whole process after just
Speaker 1: being blown up, in that slowed down, in that shock
Speaker 1: state probably you were in, you still had the ability
Speaker 1: to process, and these were the things that occurred to
Speaker 1: you in that moment. It's unbelievable. Please continue. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: to your point, what's wild about it. It's been a
Speaker 1: decade now, it's been a long time, and I've been
Speaker 1: able to piece little things together, and I've talked to Adam,
Speaker 1: who wasn't far away. All of that occurred in a
Speaker 1: matter of seconds. So Adam starts yelling at me. He
Speaker 1: knew that I had been in the blast. He yells,
Speaker 1: his voice starts coming through the fog to me. I
Speaker 1: remember yelling back at him. And what's crazy about it is,
Speaker 1: you know, a moment ago, I was okay with dying
Speaker 1: and now I'll come back to life. But now I'm
Speaker 1: really afraid because I knew I had taken the blast,
Speaker 1: I had taken it to my face and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I was aware that my face isn't right,
Speaker 1: something's wrong with it. I'm bleeding, it doesn't feel right,
Speaker 1: and I remember kind of starting to panic, like I
Speaker 1: don't want to be here. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: in this moment. I'm afraid of what is happening. And
Speaker 1: Adam got to me, and I remember grabbing him by
Speaker 1: his kit and I said, how bad is it? And
Speaker 1: he said, I'm not gonna lie to you. Your face
Speaker 1: is pretty left up, but the rest of you looks fine.
Speaker 1: Do you think you can stand up? And at that moment,
Speaker 1: I felt this really strong urge like disappointment, frustration, anger,
Speaker 1: all at once, where I committed like the ultimate sin
Speaker 1: as far as a team member, I made our life
Speaker 1: worse out there by stepping on that, I e d.
Speaker 1: I was kind of letting my team down to some extent.
Speaker 1: I'm in the way now, like we're already in a
Speaker 1: bad situation. Everybody's life is on the line, and now
Speaker 1: I'm holding us up. As soon as his partner could
Speaker 1: clear landing zone from MEDEVAC helicopter, Brad was airlifted from
Speaker 1: the blast zone. He went to sleep in Afghanistan and
Speaker 1: woke up and Walter Read National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland,
Speaker 1: one of the premier military hospitals in the country. With
Speaker 1: the extent of his injuries, Brad was on heavy pain killers, which,
Speaker 1: on top of the trauma he endured, made for a
Speaker 1: foggy first few months back state side. It's really hard
Speaker 1: to make sense of it all, and it takes a
Speaker 1: little while. Like when I first was hurt, I'm like
Speaker 1: super confused, but I'm picking up little details. I'm obviously
Speaker 1: back from the battle space. I'm alive. Something's wrong, though,
Speaker 1: so I have to keep going into surgery. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's wrong, but the surgery is making me better,
Speaker 1: so that sounds fine. And really you're just so tired.
Speaker 1: I just want to go to sleep, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: sleep because of all the drugs, and so I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like in this constant state of almost like Fight Club,
Speaker 1: I guess, like the movie, like you're kind of constantly
Speaker 1: confused and maybe living this multiple life thing. But through
Speaker 1: those three weeks I was able to sort of gather
Speaker 1: I'm blind, but it didn't make sense because I could
Speaker 1: see everything in my head. But then finally the surgeons
Speaker 1: were able to make clear they were saying, basically, there's
Speaker 1: one last surgery you're going to have to do, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna hopefully save your vision. Remember asking the surgeon
Speaker 1: what are the chances, and he said, you have less
Speaker 1: than one percent chance of being able to perceive light
Speaker 1: and dark with your right eye. We have to remove
Speaker 1: your lefts you'll see nothing on the left side. And
Speaker 1: I was, like, less than one percent to perceive light
Speaker 1: and dark like man, that is not an encouraging prognosis.
Speaker 1: So I knew that. To me, and I'm blind and
Speaker 1: a spoiler alert, that surgery was not a success. I
Speaker 1: have no light perception whatsoever. But I want to blow
Speaker 1: past that because for me, the acceptance of the blind
Speaker 1: thing was certainly not welcome news. But in comparison to
Speaker 1: the I thought I died a week ago thing, I
Speaker 1: was just really happy to be alive, and I was
Speaker 1: sort of relieved to not be on the battlefield anymore,
Speaker 1: to know that I wasn't going to have to go
Speaker 1: back out on emissions. I wasn't taking my life into
Speaker 1: my own hands. I'm essentially safe. Now I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to figure out this blindness thing. But to the point
Speaker 1: you made earlier about the military forcing you outside of
Speaker 1: your comfort zone nearly constantly. I felt very confident, like
Speaker 1: I've figured out a lot of stuff. I figured out
Speaker 1: how to jump out of aircraft. I've figured out how
Speaker 1: to scuba dive. I figured out how to make things
Speaker 1: blow up. I figured out how to not make things
Speaker 1: blow up. I'm gonna be able to figure out this
Speaker 1: blindness thing. I wanted to get out of the hospital
Speaker 1: as quickly as possible and start crushing something so that
Speaker 1: my family and my friends could understand I'm gonna be fine. Now. Well,
Speaker 1: this is a powerful mindset you're describing. I mean, it
Speaker 1: really is, and you shouldn't be taken for granted. I
Speaker 1: mean to be in your situation and to have that
Speaker 1: mindset of Okay, I've overcome so many things. I know
Speaker 1: I'm behapable of overcoming things. Now it's my new reality,
Speaker 1: so that mindset of okay, well, let's figure it out.
Speaker 1: Let's get to work. I love that. I absolutely love that,
Speaker 1: because I don't want anybody to take that for granted.
Speaker 1: I mean, you just lost your sight in a violent fashion,
Speaker 1: and now you are out there saying, okay, this is
Speaker 1: my new reality. I accepted. I'm going to push forward,
Speaker 1: and by the way, you found some amazing ways to
Speaker 1: do that, to transition and find purpose. Can you describe
Speaker 1: to me some of those things as you move forward
Speaker 1: in your journey, as you leave the hospital and leave
Speaker 1: the military. I got really lucky. Two thousand eleven was
Speaker 1: a while ago, but sadly we had still been at
Speaker 1: war for some time, and we had a lot of
Speaker 1: injured folks going through. Walter Read and somebody a while
Speaker 1: ago had the great idea that sports is an awesome
Speaker 1: way for vets to help figure stuff out again after
Speaker 1: an injury like this and get those competitive juices going
Speaker 1: and find purpose and go through that adaption loop you
Speaker 1: just described, Like, let's start figuring it out. Let's start
Speaker 1: at the basics again. I kind of gravitated towards anybody
Speaker 1: was like, let's get going. So I was doing some
Speaker 1: of my rehab in Florida, where I'm from. I was
Speaker 1: actually at the v A in Tampa, Florida, and on
Speaker 1: my first trip out of the hospital, a bunch of
Speaker 1: my old friends were getting together. We had this thing
Speaker 1: called like First Friday. We're downtown, they like lock off
Speaker 1: a block and everybody drinks and it's a fun time,
Speaker 1: and my swim coach was there, and he's this gruff,
Speaker 1: older fella, and he just kind of in his own
Speaker 1: way of not wanting to dwell on the negative part
Speaker 1: of this instance, he was like, so, well, I see
Speaker 1: you at practice tomorrow. And I thought, yeah, it captures
Speaker 1: what I want to do exactly. I want to just
Speaker 1: go back to normal as quickly as possible. I'll go
Speaker 1: to practice. So I showed up literally that next morning,
Speaker 1: and he just blew past anything that had already happened.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to talk about Aghanistan, I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about bombs or anything. I've got it
Speaker 1: all hooked up for you. I've got this scuba mask
Speaker 1: that will go over your eyes because my eyes were
Speaker 1: still tender and kind of messed up at the time.
Speaker 1: I got these pool noodles that I can attach to
Speaker 1: the sides of the pool, so you don't bang your
Speaker 1: head now, just hop in this lane and go ahead
Speaker 1: and get going. It was exactly what I wanted. It
Speaker 1: was a sense of freedom for me. I think my
Speaker 1: family was able to see, like, yeah, he looks like
Speaker 1: a dufus in that scuba mask, but everything's fine. This
Speaker 1: is Brad it's the Brad we know, and I can
Speaker 1: see that nothing's going to hold him back sort of thing.
Speaker 1: I can imagine. The sense of independence is back, the
Speaker 1: sense of individualism is back, and striving and working and exerting,
Speaker 1: it all comes back. I bet when you're in that lane. Yep, exactly.
Speaker 1: So now you're you find the water, you find your
Speaker 1: way back to swimming, which you were obviously a competitive swimmer,
Speaker 1: and you keep going. Like Forrest Gump, you just kept running,
Speaker 1: you know, you just kept going and you kept climbing.
Speaker 1: Tell us about that, because you made it to the
Speaker 1: Paralympics and you did quite well. I'm talking to a
Speaker 1: multi time gold medalist. I'm fascinated about this part of
Speaker 1: your journey, and and also not just the physical accomplishments
Speaker 1: in the water, but the psychological journey as well that
Speaker 1: goes along with that. If you don't mind sharing, no,
Speaker 1: I don't mind it all. And it's a crazy story,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to show folks that I'd be
Speaker 1: all right, and that was kind of where it started.
Speaker 1: Someone along the way, though, it was pretty quick to say,
Speaker 1: you know, have you thought about going to the Paralympics,
Speaker 1: And something to the effect of do you realize how
Speaker 1: lucky you are to be injured in a Paralympic year,
Speaker 1: And I thought, well, that's a crazy way of looking
Speaker 1: at this whole thing. Yeah, that's okay, sure, okay. And
Speaker 1: that actually kind of baked in this idea that there
Speaker 1: was a sense of urgency to get into the Paralympics,
Speaker 1: because you know, I was injured in September. You sort
Speaker 1: of needed to have certain things done by that February.
Speaker 1: And I actually hadn't left the hospital yet. I was
Speaker 1: still in what they called blind rehab. I was in
Speaker 1: a v A in Augusta, Georgia, and they were teaching
Speaker 1: me the various skills of how to be blind, and uh,
Speaker 1: they were allowing me to leave the hospital again every
Speaker 1: so often to go swim. I actually went to a
Speaker 1: swim meet and I got in the Paralympics. We call
Speaker 1: it get classified. It's not the way we think of
Speaker 1: it in the military. Classified in the Paralympic sense means
Speaker 1: a doctor looks at you and assesses what disability category
Speaker 1: you are by virtue of the fact that I'm completely
Speaker 1: blind on what's called an S E leven in swimming,
Speaker 1: That means I compete against other people who are completely blind.
Speaker 1: Once I was classified, I went to a meet. I
Speaker 1: swim what I assessed to be a really crappy race.
Speaker 1: I got out and everyone was super excited because they're like,
Speaker 1: that was the fifth fastest blind swim of the world
Speaker 1: this year. Dang right out of the gate. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I could do better than that.
Speaker 1: I know I can do better than that. That kind
Speaker 1: of got me hooked, and I thought, well, let me
Speaker 1: get back into my old thing and let me start
Speaker 1: training at this and one thing led to another, and
Speaker 1: before I really realized what was going on, I was
Speaker 1: in London. The craziness of this whole thing is that
Speaker 1: on September seven, two thousand eleven, is the day I
Speaker 1: lost my vision in Afghanistan. Going into the Paralympics in
Speaker 1: London on September seven, two and twelve, I was going
Speaker 1: to be swimming for Team USA in the four freestyle,
Speaker 1: and uh, I want a gold medal for Team USA.
Speaker 1: And it was just a really crazy way to bring
Speaker 1: everything full circle and really in the best most extreme
Speaker 1: way possible, I was able to prove what I wanted
Speaker 1: to show folks is that this blindness thing is not
Speaker 1: going to be something that confines me or keeps me
Speaker 1: from being who I want to be, from being successful,
Speaker 1: or from being a valuable part of society, or something
Speaker 1: along those lines. And that's what I've come to love
Speaker 1: about the Paralympic movement just in general, is that it
Speaker 1: really gives athletes of all kinds the ability to inspire
Speaker 1: that in our society. And it's been so cool. It's
Speaker 1: been such a cool journey to be on since two
Speaker 1: and twelve. Since in the leap and the months following
Speaker 1: his injury, Brad has continued to push towards excellence, training
Speaker 1: for the Paralympics, competing in multiple games and bringing home
Speaker 1: multiple gold medals to show the world there's nothing he
Speaker 1: can't do. From London to Rio, I felt like if
Speaker 1: I were a sports fan, of which I am, and
Speaker 1: I looked at that narrative, that story I read the
Speaker 1: Brad Snyder story and on ESPN dot com or whatever,
Speaker 1: I'd look at that and be like, well, it's clearly
Speaker 1: a fluke, Like it was an accident. Maybe the competition
Speaker 1: wasn't that good that year, or maybe you know, by
Speaker 1: virtue of the fact that it was only one year
Speaker 1: of being blind, maybe he had an advantage. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to go back to Rio and prove and like
Speaker 1: earn it, you know, dedicate myself to the craft of
Speaker 1: swimming blind for four years and go back to the
Speaker 1: Paralympics and crush it. And I was able to do that.
Speaker 1: I won three golds in Rio and broke a world
Speaker 1: record that had been there for a long time. But
Speaker 1: to your point about like if you're not growing, you're
Speaker 1: dying kind of thing, I finished that experience and thought,
Speaker 1: I want to keep going, but I need to redefine
Speaker 1: the challenge. For me. It's not about winning. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing this to win. I'm doing this to you know,
Speaker 1: make myself better and hopefully inspire other people to be
Speaker 1: better and all of those things. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: redefine the challenge. I got into triathlon to start back
Speaker 1: at the bottom and work my way up, just like
Speaker 1: I had learned to do in the military. Day one
Speaker 1: of triathlon, I know nothing about triathlon. By year five
Speaker 1: of triathlon, I want a master triathlon, and I certainly
Speaker 1: don't claim to be a master. But we were able
Speaker 1: to win a race in Tokyo under high stakes, and
Speaker 1: that was an incredibly cool experience. Brad is currently pursuing
Speaker 1: a PhD in public policy at Princeton University with the
Speaker 1: goal of returning to the Naval Academy as a professor
Speaker 1: and coach, eager to share his story and lessons learned
Speaker 1: with the next generation of America's leaders. Throughout this whole
Speaker 1: conversation that we've just been having, I think you've been
Speaker 1: really good at pulling out these little moments from my
Speaker 1: background where I have learned really important lessons on how
Speaker 1: to not only push myself, but navigate challenges, navigate adversity.
Speaker 1: And I happen to think that, you know, our future
Speaker 1: generations of military officers and military personnel really need that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff to navigate the challenges of tomorrow. And
Speaker 1: that's my new goal as I want to go back
Speaker 1: to the Academy and coach and teach midshipman so that
Speaker 1: when they face those challenges, when they face the same
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that I faced in Afghanistan, they have
Speaker 1: the ability the nuts and bolts of what they need
Speaker 1: to navigate that and thrive despite it. Brad, your your
Speaker 1: journey is inspiring you. You've put a lump in my
Speaker 1: throat many times during this conversation because I'm just so
Speaker 1: in awe of you and your ability to be so positive,
Speaker 1: your mindset, to have this wonderful growth mindset. I just
Speaker 1: wish there were more people like you out there. One question,
Speaker 1: I guess a final question, is there or any other
Speaker 1: lesson that has struck you something that is critically important.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a two part thought, but they revolve
Speaker 1: around each other. The thing that I think is the
Speaker 1: most important that I do remind myself from time to
Speaker 1: time is I want to start everything from a sense
Speaker 1: of gratitude. Having a near death experience, I recognize how
Speaker 1: precious every day is. Every day I wake up is
Speaker 1: a day I might not have woken up, And I
Speaker 1: owe it's all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice
Speaker 1: and everybody who's served, and clearly my grandparents and all
Speaker 1: that I owe it to them to make the most
Speaker 1: of this moment, because the moment that I have to
Speaker 1: live in this country and be free is because of
Speaker 1: all those sacrifices, and I'm grateful. So that's like my
Speaker 1: point of orientation. And then in sharing that, I know
Speaker 1: that it's tough. Sometimes you're going to encounter some barriers,
Speaker 1: some obstacles, and you really need to have something that
Speaker 1: helps you reignite that passion. And over the years, I've
Speaker 1: had a lot of different things that have helped me
Speaker 1: kind of keep going and keep moving forward. And something
Speaker 1: that I was me thinking about while I was raising
Speaker 1: in Tokyo for me as my baby daughter who's not
Speaker 1: born yet, I want to be the best dad I can.
Speaker 1: I want to be the best human possible to be
Speaker 1: a role model for my daughter, but also like show
Speaker 1: her the way on you know, how to take charge
Speaker 1: and how to navigate adversity and how to own your
Speaker 1: life in a way that's positive for you. And I
Speaker 1: call that an anchor thought. You know, everyone's got to
Speaker 1: have an anchor thought. You said it exactly, used the
Speaker 1: right words. We all need something that's gonna light that
Speaker 1: fire in our heart and keep us going because let's
Speaker 1: face it, like we're all gonna face challenges. We're all
Speaker 1: going to run up against these barriers, and none of
Speaker 1: us want to let that defeat us. So we've got
Speaker 1: to find a way to break through those things. And
Speaker 1: all of us need a reason to kind of reorient
Speaker 1: ourselves towards gratitude and making the most of every moment
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited that I get to share that
Speaker 1: with my daughter in March. That's fantastic. Gratitude is a
Speaker 1: cornerstone to any happy life. It's absolutely mandatory. It's the foundation,
Speaker 1: and it's a good reminder for everyone to have that gratitude.
Speaker 1: There's always something, no matter how bad it is for you,
Speaker 1: there's something to be grateful for. Wow, brat I have
Speaker 1: enjoyed talking to you today. You have enlightened me on
Speaker 1: so many things. Your journey is so powerful, such a
Speaker 1: great story of triumph, of overcoming in such a major way.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to a gold medalist right now. I respect
Speaker 1: that so much. I'm so proud of you. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy for you and your family. Thank you for spending
Speaker 1: time with me today and our listeners and being very
Speaker 1: open and very honest about your journey, the pain and
Speaker 1: the triumph. So thank you, God bless you, and keep going.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear what the next chapter is
Speaker 1: going to be. Thank you so much, Rob, It's been
Speaker 1: my pleasure, and you two as well. Keep charging. Thanks
Speaker 1: again to Brad Snyder for his service and for joining
Speaker 1: us on this podcast. And congratulations to you and your
Speaker 1: wife on expecting your first child. I have no doubt
Speaker 1: you will make your daughter in predibly proud. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Veterans you Should Know. To hear more inspiring
Speaker 1: stories of perseverance and camaraderie. Check out all our episodes,
Speaker 1: including those from season one, featuring veterans who have overcome
Speaker 1: incredible obstacles and found renewed purpose in their civilian lives.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast.
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. You can listen
Speaker 1: to the show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Veterans you
Speaker 1: Should Know as a special four parts series from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and hosted by me Rob Wriggle. Our show
Speaker 1: is written and produced by Molly Soccho, Nikia Swinton, and
Speaker 1: Jackie Perez, with assistance from Quincy Fuller. The show is edited,
Speaker 1: sound designed, and mixed by James Foster and Matt Stillo.
Speaker 1: Tw