Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Shick and I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2: Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
Speaker 2: gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,
Speaker 2: first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
Speaker 2: and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
Speaker 2: One Tribe Foundation, we believe everyone has.
Speaker 1: A story to tell, not only about the peaks, but
Speaker 1: also the valleys they've been through to get them to
Speaker 1: where they are today.
Speaker 2: Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
Speaker 2: to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
Speaker 2: who they are and what they're doing to pay it
Speaker 2: forward and give back.
Speaker 1: Our mission with this show is to dig deep in
Speaker 1: our guest journey so that we can celebrate the hope
Speaker 1: and inspiration their story has to offer.
Speaker 2: We are thrilled you're joining us again.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2: Welcome to our season one finale. Thank you so much
Speaker 2: for listening over the last thirty episodes. We are truly
Speaker 2: grateful for your support and hope. This podcast has provided
Speaker 2: inspiration and hope for each of you, like it has
Speaker 2: for us, thanks for making this show what it is
Speaker 2: and what it's growing into, and for those of you
Speaker 2: that have been listening all along and learning about the
Speaker 2: two of us over the course of season one. We
Speaker 2: wanted to bring the podcast full circle an end where
Speaker 2: we started with our own story.
Speaker 1: I strongly second everything Ash said, because without you, guys,
Speaker 1: there is no show. And really we're coming full circle
Speaker 1: because today our guest is me telling my version of
Speaker 1: the story of when I was severely injured while serving
Speaker 1: this country. I do a lot of public speaking, and
Speaker 1: this is a story I've told many many times, but
Speaker 1: this recording is different because it's intimate. It's to my wife,
Speaker 1: just two of us in a room, and I am
Speaker 1: going to dig deep to go back to that day
Speaker 1: in that place and remember it just the way I
Speaker 1: remember it every single day, but on a much deeper level,
Speaker 1: because I think that that's only fair because of what
Speaker 1: our guest has given us, I think I owe it
Speaker 1: to all of you to do the same.
Speaker 2: With that said, Jacob Schick, welcome to the season one
Speaker 2: finale of The Good Stuff. Today we're going to hear
Speaker 2: about the day you were injured while serving our country
Speaker 2: in Iraq. Nearly twenty years ago. At the time, you
Speaker 2: were twenty two years old on your first deployment in
Speaker 2: the Sunni Triangle of Iraq.
Speaker 1: It was September twentieth, two thousand and four, about five am,
Speaker 1: and I'm the leader of the reacting Reacting is very
Speaker 1: similar to the QRF, which means quick Reaction Force. And
Speaker 1: what happens is we get called when there's a threat
Speaker 1: in IRIB operation that needs to be neutralized. And I
Speaker 1: was sitting in the hum V next to Doc because
Speaker 1: it was his turn to be on watch, and I
Speaker 1: was debriefing with Doc about this high stress situation that
Speaker 1: we just had with the Iraqi National Guard, and I
Speaker 1: was still very much coming off my adrenaline high and
Speaker 1: the guys had already betted down inside the tent. Once
Speaker 1: that adrenaline dump wears off, Like you just knows dive,
Speaker 1: there's always just super high highs and super low low
Speaker 1: so there's very little in between. And so I remember
Speaker 1: when I walked into the tent, you know, that's where
Speaker 1: I find my moment of solace and sit down on
Speaker 1: my cot trying to be quiet because I know the
Speaker 1: guys need sleep. I kick the boots off, which is
Speaker 1: like taking a deep breath, laying in your bed at
Speaker 1: the end of a long day, knowing, Okay, whatever my
Speaker 1: abnormal baseline is, I can get to it right now,
Speaker 1: even for a minute. And I laid down on my
Speaker 1: cot and within fifteen minutes a react got called, and
Speaker 1: I remember just feeling bad for the guys because I
Speaker 1: knew that everybody was tired and hungry, getting thirsty and miserable.
Speaker 1: I just remember smiling because I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: Murphy's law, it's just never ending. So I get up
Speaker 1: and I put my boots on. I wake all the
Speaker 1: guys up. And the way we do it is not
Speaker 1: by rubbing their backs and whispering sweet nothing's in their ear.
Speaker 1: You know, It's just not the way we do it
Speaker 1: in the Marine Corps. And I got everybody up and
Speaker 1: told them we got to react and get moving.
Speaker 2: And I know you've told me before. A react is
Speaker 2: basically a response by your unit to a threat in
Speaker 2: your area of operation.
Speaker 1: All the guys are rustling and growing and mumbling, and
Speaker 1: as they should. We were exhausted. Everybody was exhausted. We
Speaker 1: were tired. We weren't physically beaten up, but we were
Speaker 1: pretty emotionally exhausted. The moment I breached the outside of
Speaker 1: the tent, I felt it, and I knew we were
Speaker 1: going to get hit.
Speaker 2: Where did that feeling come from?
Speaker 1: I believe that that was a combination of God and
Speaker 1: my grandfather talking to me from beyond the grave. And
Speaker 1: I felt that it was so real and so convicting
Speaker 1: that I knew whatever I feel from this point forward,
Speaker 1: no matter what happens, I have to listen to it,
Speaker 1: which is my gut. I remember stopping for a moment
Speaker 1: and having a lot of nervousness come over me, and
Speaker 1: I looked to my right and all nine of the
Speaker 1: other Marines and the REACT team were walking to the
Speaker 1: two humbies to get ready to go on this react.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing a couple of them dragging their flack
Speaker 1: jackets and having their boots unlaced, and because it was
Speaker 1: just it's so the antithesis of what people think of,
Speaker 1: most likely when they think of them.
Speaker 2: Corps, right, because Marines are always so buttoned up and
Speaker 2: squared away.
Speaker 1: I remember looking at him and I felt this overwhelming
Speaker 1: sense of love and respect for him, and I just
Speaker 1: remember thinking to myself, like I am so freaking it
Speaker 1: honored that those are my brothers. Right after that, I
Speaker 1: look to my left and I see my commanding officers
Speaker 1: HUMBE and I knew he had a bomb blanket and
Speaker 1: somebody somewhere God my grandfather told me to go get
Speaker 1: that bomb blanket.
Speaker 2: And a bomb blanket is that one more layer of
Speaker 2: protection that you need in your vehicle should you get hit.
Speaker 1: So I went and opened the passenger door of his
Speaker 1: HUMV and I take the bomb blanket out, and I
Speaker 1: start walking to the two vehicles and I go to
Speaker 1: the lead vehicle. The driver was in the driver's seat
Speaker 1: and I told him scoot over. I got it. And
Speaker 1: he looked at me. He's like, no, bro, I got it.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm not asking you, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of irritated him because we were very close and I'd
Speaker 1: never really given a direct order. And I remember he's
Speaker 1: scooted over the passer seat known as the ay driver.
Speaker 1: And I go to the reach back to the back
Speaker 1: and grab the radio from radio man. It's between five
Speaker 1: and six in the morning, it's like right before sun up.
Speaker 1: And I remember telling the guys button up your shatter
Speaker 1: proof goggles, your keV lar, your helmet and at this point.
Speaker 1: I knew that the guys knew that something wasn't right.
Speaker 1: I mean, when it's one hundred and thirty degrees and
Speaker 1: you're wearing a ninety pound combat load, you don't need
Speaker 1: help being uncomfortable. And they knew that I had a
Speaker 1: feeling about something. And I remember getting in the driver's
Speaker 1: seat after I put the bomb blanket down, and I
Speaker 1: have the radio in my right hand because something told
Speaker 1: me drive with your left, talk with your right, and
Speaker 1: I punched it. And by the time we go around
Speaker 1: this turn and I'm talking with the watchtower, we called
Speaker 1: the react. It was trying to get us on target.
Speaker 1: We're trying to walk us on target. And I knew
Speaker 1: that I had to take this road because there was
Speaker 1: one way in and one way out of this area
Speaker 1: in do Live, Iraq. I just have to sail on
Speaker 1: this road until I can make a turn to get
Speaker 1: off the road and off the tracks to make a
Speaker 1: beeline to wherever the thread is. And I came over
Speaker 1: this hill. There was at least a twenty or thirty
Speaker 1: meter area that was soft sand on this one road.
Speaker 1: The rest of it was like compact, so compact it
Speaker 1: was as hard as cement, but this one area that
Speaker 1: was part of a dried up waddy or a dried
Speaker 1: up riverbed had soft sand.
Speaker 2: Why is soft sand dangerous?
Speaker 1: The thing is when you see the soft sand off
Speaker 1: of a hard compact surface, you know that if there
Speaker 1: is an a media threat in the form of a
Speaker 1: bomb or an ied and provides a supposed device, it's
Speaker 1: going to be there. Within hitting that soft sand, it
Speaker 1: was maybe maybe two seconds and the front left tire
Speaker 1: may contact the pressure plate. The way this works is
Speaker 1: it was a triple stacked anti tank mine. The pressure
Speaker 1: plate goes down and the lights of fuse and the
Speaker 1: bombs go off, and that made the front left tire.
Speaker 1: Once it made contact, it blew directly beneath me. So
Speaker 1: many things happen before I'm ejected out of the hum V.
Speaker 1: The firewall on the humbe folded so that broke my
Speaker 1: right foot. A piece of shrapnel or a piece of
Speaker 1: the hum vy went through the bottom of my left
Speaker 1: arm that I was driving with and came out the top.
Speaker 1: Then the steering wheel and the dashboard disengaged and hit
Speaker 1: me in my chest, which is on the front of
Speaker 1: our flat jackets is where we wear all of our magazines,
Speaker 1: where we keep all of our AMMO for quick and
Speaker 1: easy access, which made all my magazines explode, and it
Speaker 1: also broke every one of my rips. In this process,
Speaker 1: I had a piece of shrapnel go through the right
Speaker 1: lens of my goggles. Then I was ejected. I was
Speaker 1: blown thirty feet to the top of the humbe because
Speaker 1: we operated in two door, soft top humb's, And I
Speaker 1: remember being in the air knowing this is very, very bad.
Speaker 2: Leave you remember all of these details on something that
Speaker 2: happened in the blink of an eye, as if it
Speaker 2: was in slow motion. We left you off, with you
Speaker 2: literally mid air. After the explosion, I.
Speaker 1: Ended up landing ways away from the reacting and I
Speaker 1: stuck the landing with my head because I'm a marine
Speaker 1: and we believe in good form. My ears were just
Speaker 1: ringing and ringing, and it was just so loud, and
Speaker 1: I smelt smoke fire. All the sand was still this
Speaker 1: huge cloud. Because the sand is so fine, it's like
Speaker 1: baby powder fine that it takes forever when there's an
Speaker 1: explosion or even when you're driving for it to settle,
Speaker 1: And it's not like dust on a dirt road, which
Speaker 1: settles fairly quickly. I mean this stuff just it's like
Speaker 1: it floats in the air. And so I still couldn't
Speaker 1: see where the vehicles were, and I couldn't figure out
Speaker 1: where I was. But then my age driver started yelling
Speaker 1: check Chick, and I remember trying to immediately make my
Speaker 1: way back to the lead vehicle, and I was going
Speaker 1: towards the sound of his voice. And so I started
Speaker 1: pulling myself with my right arm, and I was trying
Speaker 1: to move my whole body and the only thing that
Speaker 1: would function or even move was my right arm. So
Speaker 1: as I'm pulling, I realized I don't have a weapon,
Speaker 1: and so I start to move my left arm, which
Speaker 1: was just flopping around, and I knew it was broken.
Speaker 1: I didn't even have to look, but I was waiting
Speaker 1: for my arm to hit metal at the rail system
Speaker 1: of my sixteen, and I couldn't find it. And then
Speaker 1: I looked down and I could see with my left
Speaker 1: eye of it, I wasn't going anywhere. I was just
Speaker 1: scooping sand. The whole time I'm hearing shack Hick. This
Speaker 1: crush my soul is when he broke military protocol and
Speaker 1: he just yelled my first name, and he just yelled Jacob,
Speaker 1: and it was this blood curdling scream of desperosity just
Speaker 1: to have any sign of me, because I'm sure when
Speaker 1: he looks in the passenger seat and all these seas
Speaker 1: or my rounds from my magazines and my blood, but
Speaker 1: no me. I remember when he did that, and it
Speaker 1: broke my heart. I couldn't get to him, and I
Speaker 1: was trying hard, and it just crushed me because I
Speaker 1: loved him so much and I wanted him to know, like,
Speaker 1: hey man, I'm okay, and too, like stop yelling, because
Speaker 1: you're making us a target. Stop yelling.
Speaker 2: Why what were you afraid of?
Speaker 1: I didn't know if we were going to take on
Speaker 1: small arms fire. I didn't know if there was going
Speaker 1: to be a second attack. I didn't know. So at
Speaker 1: that point, I realized, I'm not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: get to where he is, and I need to do
Speaker 1: a self assessment. And I remember looking down at my
Speaker 1: left leg and starting my self assessment to see what
Speaker 1: kind of aid I can render myself if I'm even
Speaker 1: able to do that, and I saw my phibia, my tibia,
Speaker 1: sticking out of my left leg, and my left leg
Speaker 1: was wrapped around itself and my foot was inverted and
Speaker 1: turned upside down. My boot was blown off, my combat boot,
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking when I saw that two things.
Speaker 1: One that's not supposed to be like that, and two
Speaker 1: this was a significant amount of force to be able
Speaker 1: to blow my combat boot off of my foot and
Speaker 1: not take my foot with it. And I remember looking
Speaker 1: at my right leg, which looked normal, and it hurt
Speaker 1: like hell, and I knew it was broken, but it
Speaker 1: looked normal. I worked my way up and got to
Speaker 1: my left arm and saw daylight through my left arm.
Speaker 1: It blew out five inches on out of my left arm,
Speaker 1: my own the bone, and then part of my left hand,
Speaker 1: probably gonna lose the left leg, lose the left arm.
Speaker 1: And then I look at my right arm and I
Speaker 1: just see s trapping, the wounds, a couple of minor burns.
Speaker 1: I couldn't see my own face, but I felt trapping
Speaker 1: alver my face and my chin and my neck, so
Speaker 1: I knew I was really wounded. At this point, I
Speaker 1: still hadn't taken a breath when I got hit by
Speaker 1: the steering wheel and just collapsed my lungs. I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to breathe laying there after my self assessment, and
Speaker 1: I just remember telling God, all I ask is that
Speaker 1: you don't take me in front of my brothers. Because
Speaker 1: I knew I was dying. This was most likely going
Speaker 1: to be my last day on the planet, and so
Speaker 1: my hyper focus became not dying in front of my brothers.
Speaker 1: And the deal I made with God was, as soon
Speaker 1: as the bird gets here and those kids leave the deck,
Speaker 1: I'm all yours. All I ask of you is to
Speaker 1: not allow my family to watch me die. And I
Speaker 1: became hyper focused on staying alive for as long as
Speaker 1: that took. Little did I know it was going to
Speaker 1: take as long as it did. But I was able
Speaker 1: to really focus on that and dig into something that
Speaker 1: I knew I had but I rarely had to tap into.
Speaker 1: At which point I could hear a couple of the
Speaker 1: guys coming up, and the majority of them are standing
Speaker 1: around me, and you know, we got you, Shike, we
Speaker 1: got you, brother, and I looked up and the first
Speaker 1: thing I said, up, grace of God, I was able
Speaker 1: to take a breath, and the first thing I said
Speaker 1: was developed through sixty, which means set up a security perimeter.
Speaker 1: And I remember the look on their faces like oh,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I was like, yeah, we're at war,
Speaker 1: and I don't feel like all of us getting shot.
Speaker 1: Was you looking at me? Set up the three sixty,
Speaker 1: several of them went up, set up the security perimmer.
Speaker 1: A few of them picked me up and took me
Speaker 1: to the second Humby that was not didn't take any
Speaker 1: damage because at this point the pain didn't necessarily set
Speaker 1: in yet. But I knew it was coming. And by
Speaker 1: the time they got me in the vehicle in the
Speaker 1: back of the second Humbye to take me to the
Speaker 1: command post, and it started setting in. The more painful
Speaker 1: it it became, the angrier I got. And I remember,
Speaker 1: they get me to the command post and Doc straight
Speaker 1: they're ready to go, ready to work on me. And
Speaker 1: it was one of those moments that were surreal because
Speaker 1: I was I felt like just minutes ago, I was
Speaker 1: sitting with them and we were just talking and I
Speaker 1: was trying to come down off this adrill on high
Speaker 1: and yet here he is just straight up in work
Speaker 1: mode and he's talking to me and I'm just yelling
Speaker 1: at him. You hit me, Doc, hit me with the morphine,
Speaker 1: and he did, and he hit me twice and that's
Speaker 1: the only time he would hit me. And it was
Speaker 1: putting a needle in your thigh and releasing some morphine
Speaker 1: into you. And I was pissed because he had only
Speaker 1: hit me twice and I knew he had more. And
Speaker 1: I'm yelling at this guy who I love and I
Speaker 1: respect and calling him a stingy bastard. At this point,
Speaker 1: I'm in fight mode, fighting for my own life. You
Speaker 1: had this other marine that was with Doc, that did
Speaker 1: this additional training to help Doc with these situations where
Speaker 1: he had a little more know how when it came
Speaker 1: to providing medical care to the Marines and to the enemy,
Speaker 1: which we did. This particular marine he stepped on my
Speaker 1: left leg and obviously was an accident. He didn't mean
Speaker 1: to do. It really pissed me off. The complete antithesis
Speaker 1: of politely asking him to go away is what I
Speaker 1: told him, And I remember him getting emotional, and I
Speaker 1: remember that pissing me off more. And so if you
Speaker 1: haven't picked up on it yet, anger is a very
Speaker 1: high octane fuel for me that I've learned to utilize
Speaker 1: over the years to help get me through the valleys
Speaker 1: to the peak. And I've used it as a motivator
Speaker 1: and a lot of bad but also in a lot
Speaker 1: more good and I remember hearing my tuning commander given
Speaker 1: talking over the net or the radio to our battalion
Speaker 1: back at the base and alasade I distinctly remember him saying,
Speaker 1: We've got to get the spreen out of here. He's
Speaker 1: category four and he's rapidly approaching category five. Category four
Speaker 1: means urg a surgery, Category five meaning expectant not going
Speaker 1: to make it. And I knew he was right because
Speaker 1: every minute that passed I felt life leaving my body,
Speaker 1: and I knew I've just got to keep fighting, got
Speaker 1: to keep fighting. And I was very, very very grateful
Speaker 1: to be in the back of that hume Bee in
Speaker 1: my right arm. It is just another reason I know
Speaker 1: God's real because it wouldn't have worked if it was
Speaker 1: my left. It had to be my right, my right arm.
Speaker 1: Other than burns and shouting, the wounds to work fine,
Speaker 1: I was able to hold my right hand up in
Speaker 1: the back of this humb Every marine that I needed
Speaker 1: to talk to, I got to talk to him and
Speaker 1: hold their right hand and tell them how much I
Speaker 1: love them and I respected them, and that they had
Speaker 1: so much to do with me being the marine that
Speaker 1: I am. And I remember telling the guys even the
Speaker 1: guys that didn't want to look at me, and I
Speaker 1: remember yelling at him to look at me and to
Speaker 1: take a good look at me, because this is what
Speaker 1: they want to do, and you have to fight forward,
Speaker 1: you have to fight for me. I'm out of the fight.
Speaker 1: And I remember when the guys were telling me, this
Speaker 1: is your bird home, brother, it's your bird home, Jake.
Speaker 1: Every time they said her to piss me off, because
Speaker 1: I was home. Wherever they were was my home. That's
Speaker 1: my family, and I to this day feel that way
Speaker 1: strongly that they're my family.
Speaker 2: In that moment, what was it like to spend that
Speaker 2: final bit of time with your family in your home.
Speaker 1: I remember, after talking to the guys and the marine
Speaker 1: Bravado going out the door and just being completely vulnerable
Speaker 1: and leading with love in this moment, because it was
Speaker 1: I had already made peace with the fact that as
Speaker 1: soon as I get on that bird, you know I'm done,
Speaker 1: as that was a deal I may with God, and
Speaker 1: I'm a manimal word. And I remember I'd had enough
Speaker 1: of havingough being poked and prodded and bandaged up and
Speaker 1: unbandaged and bandaged up, and yelling why don't I hear
Speaker 1: rhotors again. Every second the past, I got a little
Speaker 1: weaker and a little weaker and a little weaker, and
Speaker 1: I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be able to make it to the bird. I was
Speaker 1: so hyper focused and convicted and not dying in front
Speaker 1: of them because I didn't want them the last thing
Speaker 1: to see if me was my dead body, because I
Speaker 1: love them and respect them too much for that, and
Speaker 1: that's not how I want them to remember me. I
Speaker 1: wanted them to remember me fighting and going out like
Speaker 1: a gladiator like I am, and that's why I was
Speaker 1: so convicted in it, and I didn't want to do
Speaker 1: that to him. The last thing you ever want to
Speaker 1: do is let one of them down. And I finally
Speaker 1: remember hearing the roads of the helicopter and landing, and
Speaker 1: they're carrying me to the bird. Right before the guys
Speaker 1: loaded me, you know, Doc was having to put bandages
Speaker 1: on me and then take them off and put them
Speaker 1: on me because I was bleeding through these bandages. When
Speaker 1: they were loading me on the bird, the rotor wash
Speaker 1: from the black Hawk blew up the bandages, and the
Speaker 1: sand being so fine, blewe into all my wounds. Like
Speaker 1: I can't believe it just got worse, which is why
Speaker 1: one of the sayings that I love to say is
Speaker 1: that physical pain reminds you you're a live but mental
Speaker 1: pain will test your will to stay that way. And
Speaker 1: I'll never forget when Michael Toon Sargeant, I respected the
Speaker 1: shit out of He called me Jack London because my
Speaker 1: grandfather is Jack London chick, and uncle is Jacq London
Speaker 1: shit jinner, and I guess Jake's is not that cool
Speaker 1: of a name, so he called me Jack London all
Speaker 1: the time. Got on the bird, he was the last
Speaker 1: one on, and he kissed me on my forehead and
Speaker 1: he was trying not to cry, and he said, we'll
Speaker 1: see you's soon, Jack London, and I knew he was lying.
Speaker 1: Remember when he got off the bird, look out to
Speaker 1: my left and I see the guys looking up. And
Speaker 1: that was the hardest part of all of it. I
Speaker 1: was leaving then, what's clear I still struggle with So.
Speaker 1: I mean, I felt this abundance of guilt about that.
Speaker 1: That didn't leave me for a very long time. At
Speaker 1: that point, I started to feel like I was hanging
Speaker 1: on him by a thread and got the attention on
Speaker 1: one of the litter crew. Here's this young kid. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget how young he looked, which is not saying
Speaker 1: a lot, because of jeurias of us over there were kids,
Speaker 1: but I mean this kid, it was like he had
Speaker 1: never even taken a razor to his face, and he
Speaker 1: looked that young. And I remember him avoiding me like
Speaker 1: the flag, almost like my near death was gonna rub
Speaker 1: off on him. And I don't blame him at all
Speaker 1: for that. I mean, until you've been in that situation,
Speaker 1: you can't possibly understand it. But I got his attention
Speaker 1: on my right hand. To his credit, he did not
Speaker 1: hesitate coming over to me, and he leaned over me
Speaker 1: and he pulled his left headset over his left ear,
Speaker 1: pulled it off back behind his left ear, and put
Speaker 1: his left ear right over my mouth. And he got
Speaker 1: right up next to me, and I yelled, how long,
Speaker 1: put it back over his ear, and he read it
Speaker 1: up front of the captain, and he came back and
Speaker 1: he yelled in my right ear, and he yelled twelve mics,
Speaker 1: which means twelve minutes. And I remember thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: you can do twelve more minutes. And I immediately talked
Speaker 1: to guy again and I said, hey, big man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to renig on that original verbal agreement because
Speaker 1: I think I got twelve more minutes in me as
Speaker 1: if I had a choice. You know, it's not. I
Speaker 1: don't think for the most part, it's up to us
Speaker 1: when we get to make the call. But I remember
Speaker 1: leaving the guys and looking down and seeing them, and
Speaker 1: my will to fight to stay alive was all but
Speaker 1: gone because I had already accepted this is it and
Speaker 1: I was going out exactly the way I wanted to
Speaker 1: go out as a warrior. But then here in twelve minutes,
Speaker 1: I was like, how far can I push this thing?
Speaker 2: You talk about the hardest part of that day was
Speaker 2: saying goodbye to your brothers. That's a bond that so
Speaker 2: many people don't experience. What is that bond to you? Then?
Speaker 2: And still eighteen years later.
Speaker 1: Where I learned that there was nothing special about my
Speaker 1: pain and suffering was a Marine Corps because regardless of
Speaker 1: what I was going through, all I had to do
Speaker 1: was look to my left and my right is they
Speaker 1: were going through the same thing. There's not many people
Speaker 1: you get to meet in life that would take a
Speaker 1: bullet for you without hesitation. And the fact that I
Speaker 1: know dozens and dozens and dozens at eighteen years later,
Speaker 1: zero hesitation would die so I could live. You can't
Speaker 1: put that into words.
Speaker 2: People just assume you tell your story and it's easy,
Speaker 2: but it's never easy. I can see you go back
Speaker 2: to that day you relive it. Why did you start
Speaker 2: telling the story in the.
Speaker 1: First place, great question, And it was because my grandmother
Speaker 1: told me to to a rotary club. It was the
Speaker 1: first time I had to tell it, and because no
Speaker 1: one tells their grandparents, no, And I remember I told
Speaker 1: this story to a room full of people that were
Speaker 1: forty or fifty years my senior. And it was horrible.
Speaker 1: And I was still on drugs and it was all
Speaker 1: I could do was think, think about getting high, and
Speaker 1: I knew it was horrible, and I was sweating grenades
Speaker 1: and I was so nervous. And I remember walking out
Speaker 1: of the side door of this clubhouse area where her
Speaker 1: rotary club was, and I remember walking out and I
Speaker 1: went to go light a cigarette, and she walked out
Speaker 1: and she put her hand on me and she said,
Speaker 1: how do you feel. I looked at her and I
Speaker 1: said lighter, and she said good. That was the point
Speaker 1: and walked away, and I was like.
Speaker 2: Okay, MEMI knows best.
Speaker 1: She's smarter than I am or ever will be.
Speaker 2: Meme, he knows best. Married to a World War two warrior,
Speaker 2: Talk to me about scars.
Speaker 1: The ones that are the most important to who you
Speaker 1: are aren't visible, and you know to me, I've had
Speaker 1: guys tell me like, I'm envious of your prosthetic and
Speaker 1: your left leg and left arm because it's obvious, it's
Speaker 1: obvious you were hurt. You can't see my scars, and
Speaker 1: years and years and years ago, I used to take
Speaker 1: offense because it's like, how dare you have no idea
Speaker 1: what I've been through physically? But obviously, with time and
Speaker 1: maturity and wisdom, I totally understand where they're coming from.
Speaker 1: And I agree, I completely agree. It's the scars you
Speaker 1: can't see that are the most debilitating your well being
Speaker 1: if you let them be. People need to understand that
Speaker 1: seeing is not always believing, and that's why you can't
Speaker 1: judge a book by its cover, because none of us
Speaker 1: know what we don't know. And it's like I tell
Speaker 1: the tribe all the time, and treat everybody you meet
Speaker 1: as if they have a broken heart, because you never
Speaker 1: know love and be loved. That's it.
Speaker 2: You're one of the strongest people I know physically, and
Speaker 2: there's so many words that are warrior esque that can
Speaker 2: describe you and who you are. Talk to me about
Speaker 2: mental strength.
Speaker 1: It's your beginning, your middle, and your end. You know,
Speaker 1: the physicality is not always going to be there. If
Speaker 1: people get hurt or injured, accidents happen, and those can
Speaker 1: be repaired. It's like I had to have my right
Speaker 1: foot cut off and now, you know, to be amputated
Speaker 1: two or three more times, and now I have a prosthetic,
Speaker 1: but it's a tool. There is no prosthetic for the brain.
Speaker 1: You have the one you have. That's it. That happens
Speaker 1: to be connected to your heart, which is connected to
Speaker 1: your soul. And the brain is the most powerful weapon
Speaker 1: any of us will ever possess. And I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of work to make sure that mine can function
Speaker 1: and operate at the highest ability that's even possible, especially
Speaker 1: for someone who's diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and push
Speaker 1: my e stress and for me, mental strength will carry
Speaker 1: someone so much further than physical strength. And it's something
Speaker 1: that I started working on as a little kid because
Speaker 1: I had to. The only downfall to it is that
Speaker 1: it can also be your worst asset, because stubbornness and
Speaker 1: pride can take control of you and do a lot
Speaker 1: of damage. And I've got a track record of that too.
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer in truly believing in who you
Speaker 1: are and being comfortable inside your skin, regardless of what
Speaker 1: it looks like or doesn't look like, because every breath
Speaker 1: is a gift. That mental strength is going to carry
Speaker 1: you through a lot of times that you wouldn't fathom
Speaker 1: you would go through. But that's why you need to
Speaker 1: be so convicted in who you are and why I've
Speaker 1: done so much work to be convicted and who I
Speaker 1: am and understand that I'm a moratal human being, just
Speaker 1: like everybody else that was given a second shot. I'm
Speaker 1: by no means perfect, but I'm going to fight like
Speaker 1: hell until i can't fight like hell?
Speaker 2: What do you do to relax? Recharge?
Speaker 1: Not enough?
Speaker 2: That's true for all of us.
Speaker 1: Though, right, Yeah, A lot of times I hear I'm
Speaker 1: doing my best, and I'm like, are you explain that
Speaker 1: to me?
Speaker 2: I've heard you say that to me about.
Speaker 1: I know, but it's like you when I hear that, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not meant to be one hundred miles an hour
Speaker 1: all the time, and we're not meant we need to
Speaker 1: slow down and be present and just listen. Listen to
Speaker 1: the wind, be out in nature, watch a sunset, be
Speaker 1: grateful for that because it is It is the small
Speaker 1: things that we take for granted that ultimately, when you
Speaker 1: do not have them, you realize how much you've missed
Speaker 1: out on. And I learned that. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: in the hospital for a long time and I didn't
Speaker 1: see sunsets, and I didn't get to talk to people
Speaker 1: I love all the time, and I didn't get to
Speaker 1: know if my guys were okay, and I didn't get
Speaker 1: to know if I was going to make it through
Speaker 1: this twenty hour operation or this surgery or that surgery.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, attitude of gratitude is easy to say,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's catchy and it rhymes, but unless
Speaker 1: it's something you put into practice every day, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to grasp out of thin air. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I find a relaxation and recharging is being with my family.
Speaker 1: I mean being with you and the boys, my brothers,
Speaker 1: and my nephew, my niece and yours and your family,
Speaker 1: driving around a ranch and being out in nature, or
Speaker 1: it's being present at a ballgame or just watching sports,
Speaker 1: not allowing the societal noise to pierce that moment. Is
Speaker 1: I find that to be very therapeutic to me. It's
Speaker 1: I got a marine buddy that you know tells me
Speaker 1: is like, I've Jacob, never met a human being like
Speaker 1: you that you find therapy in every single thing you do.
Speaker 1: I was forced to. I mean, I was so angry
Speaker 1: for so long and so bitter for so long that
Speaker 1: it was like, I need to stop wasting time. And
Speaker 1: it's it's still a struggle.
Speaker 2: We all have, you know, our good days and our
Speaker 2: bad days, and some days it's easier than others. But yeah,
Speaker 2: time is our most precious commodity. We have to do
Speaker 2: the best with what we've got and what we've got left.
Speaker 2: Thinking back, is there one individual or organization that's made
Speaker 2: a big impact on your life? I mean, I'm laughing
Speaker 2: even asking you the question, because I know there's so many.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's an ongoing list. It's longer than probably
Speaker 1: everybody else's list. I mean, yeah, just thinking back to
Speaker 1: my childhood, even it's my grandmother played such a pivotal
Speaker 1: role and me understanding what it means to be an American,
Speaker 1: instilling that in me at such a young age and
Speaker 1: teaching me and showing me things that most four and
Speaker 1: five year olds don't get to see because it's too much.
Speaker 1: And I'm so grateful for that because she explained to
Speaker 1: me the real world. She didn't put me in a
Speaker 1: protective bubble and take the notion of what you know,
Speaker 1: he'll figure it out when he figures it out. No,
Speaker 1: she's the one that taught me to be the father
Speaker 1: that I and you know, my father was didn't really
Speaker 1: ride us growing up, and he would give his sound
Speaker 1: advice and you listener, you don't. Then a lot of
Speaker 1: the time we didn't. Then the world patched us in
Speaker 1: the mouth, and then we learned. I mean so many
Speaker 1: teachers that put up with my shit for so long,
Speaker 1: and just so many coaches and even athletic trainers and
Speaker 1: even friends' parents. And there's just such a long list
Speaker 1: that if I named one, it would do so many
Speaker 1: an injustice. I am where I am because of a
Speaker 1: countless number of people and organizations, to include the Marine Corps,
Speaker 1: because the hospital and VAMPSI or Samsea and San Antonio
Speaker 1: and even March Air Force Base. My commanding officer that
Speaker 1: medically retired me, such an inspirational human being, and he's
Speaker 1: just a Marine's my first order, I mean, my gun.
Speaker 1: I could just go on and on and on and on,
Speaker 1: and just so many people that just their presence by
Speaker 1: default makes you want to be a better human. And
Speaker 1: I'm just fortunate in that fact that I know a
Speaker 1: lot of those people, and I mean some that are
Speaker 1: well known and some that aren't that are all equally
Speaker 1: important to me.
Speaker 2: Yes, So my last question that you know, we agreed
Speaker 2: we wanted to ask everyone we interviewed on the good stuff,
Speaker 2: what feeds your soul?
Speaker 1: You the boys, the fact that I know I'm fundamentally flawed,
Speaker 1: and then not only do I want to be better,
Speaker 1: I need to be better for y'all and fighting like
Speaker 1: hell to get to whatever that end goal is because
Speaker 1: I know that I need to be at my best
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna truly affect We help people, help people
Speaker 1: who help people, and so on and so forth. I
Speaker 1: mean that that's what feeds my soul and gives me
Speaker 1: conviction to be better tomorrow than I was today, because
Speaker 1: it's there's no subtle point, there's no point of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm good ever till I die, you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna I have an innate ability to push
Speaker 1: people to the n degree because just like I tell you,
Speaker 1: even when I feel like I can't give any more,
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot more to give.
Speaker 2: And I think that's so important that we continue to
Speaker 2: tap into it. Right, It's an everyday thing. It's not
Speaker 2: a one time thing like you always teach me. This
Speaker 2: is an ongoing evolution.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of growing will die, eternal students.
Speaker 2: Of life exactly. I love you, I appreciate you. I'm
Speaker 2: so grateful for you having the courage to tell this story,
Speaker 2: to dig so deep and of this day, but also
Speaker 2: for all of the work that you've done since.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 2: Clearly your story didn't end that day on the battlefield,
Speaker 2: because you're here still fighting like hell to make this world,
Speaker 2: make this country, make your family, make yourself better. And
Speaker 2: I think it's such a beautiful thing. I'm so honored
Speaker 2: and grateful to be your life partner.
Speaker 1: You're worth it, bid then you know we're worth it,
Speaker 1: and everybody's worth it. It's an honor to do this
Speaker 1: crazy thing called life with you, you know, because it's God.
Speaker 1: It's just such a it's such a rarity to be
Speaker 1: able to live with conviction and pure openness and to
Speaker 1: be able to find victory and your vulnerability while refusing
Speaker 1: to be oscious to your pride. I mean, it is
Speaker 1: is demanding because you have to have you have to
Speaker 1: let go of the fear of ridicule and judgment placed
Speaker 1: in those categorical boxes so you can be defined. You know,
Speaker 1: iron sharpens iron. So thank you.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, all boats rise right. Thank you for being a
Speaker 2: guest on your own podcast. I know you didn't want to,
Speaker 2: but I mean, I think it's important for people to
Speaker 2: know our why, and our why is because of what
Speaker 2: we've been through, what we've lived through, and how we
Speaker 2: lean in every day and try to focus on gratitude
Speaker 2: because it doesn't matter the person standing in front of you.
Speaker 2: They've got a story. Everyone has a story.
Speaker 1: I think it's important for people to know two that
Speaker 1: it's not that I didn't want to, because clearly I
Speaker 1: do this all over the world. It's like I told
Speaker 1: you this, it's not about me, you know, but I
Speaker 1: do want people to understand this isn't for attention or
Speaker 1: for people to know our name, or this is for
Speaker 1: people to get a perspective to help them make it
Speaker 1: through that valley in order to get to that peak
Speaker 1: and understand that they're a myriad of modalities that you
Speaker 1: can utilize on a daily basis to help you. If
Speaker 1: you just wake up and just survive, that's okay. You're
Speaker 1: not going to thrive every day that's your goal. But
Speaker 1: if sometimes you just survive, that's okay. And that's the
Speaker 1: point is that sometimes you just need a fresh perspective
Speaker 1: to take the next.
Speaker 2: Step exactly, get busy getting better or just get busy.
Speaker 2: Jacob Shick, thank you so much for being on the
Speaker 2: Good Stuff.
Speaker 1: Ashley Shick, thank you for being on the Good Stuff.
Speaker 1: As we wrapped this thirtieth episode of The Good Stuff,
Speaker 1: we want to say a heartfelt thank you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening, thank you for all the emails and reviews,
Speaker 1: and for sharing with us how much this show has touched.
Speaker 2: Thank you to each of our guests who dug so
Speaker 2: deep and shared with us their scars and let us
Speaker 2: celebrate their victories. From our incredible producer, Nick Cassolini, From
Speaker 2: Jacob and myself, thank you so much for listening. If
Speaker 2: this episode touched you, please share it and be part
Speaker 2: of making someone else's day better.
Speaker 1: Put on your bad ass capes and go be great today,
Speaker 1: and remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Season one of the Good Stuff.
Speaker 1: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick,
Speaker 1: Leah Pictures, and q Code Media, Hosted by Ashley Shick
Speaker 1: and Jacob Shick, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Countshouse.
Speaker 1: Post production Supervisor Will Tindy. Music by Will Tindy, sound
Speaker 1: effects by Eric Aaron