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Speaker 1: Lute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails and

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Speaker 1: straight talk with the guys in the community.

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Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on.

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Speaker 3: This is rad with another awesome episode of soft Reap

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Speaker 3: Radio and I want to welcome you, my listener, to

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Speaker 3: the show. But first I have to let you know

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Speaker 3: that in order for us to keep the fireplace on,

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Speaker 3: the lights on me on this podcast, I have a

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Speaker 3: merch store and it's at softwap dot com. Just go

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Speaker 3: software dot com, check out the merch store, download the app.

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Speaker 3: And then also we have a book club which is

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Speaker 3: soft dot com Forward Slash Book hyphen Club. Go check

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Speaker 3: that out and roll in the book club. Get something

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Speaker 3: awesome sent to you, and just start reading something you

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Speaker 3: know it'll be great, especially when you start collecting all

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Speaker 3: your books put them behind your podcast. Now we have

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Speaker 3: a background. Now today I have a special guest to

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Speaker 3: talk with you about. We're gonna talk about explosives, we're

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Speaker 3: gonna talk about real estate investment, and we're going to

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Speaker 3: talk about running a podcast and dealing with tragedy.

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Speaker 2: And my guest today is.

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Speaker 3: Aaron Hale of the Aaron Hale Podcast, former Explosive Ordnance

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Speaker 3: disposal technician.

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Speaker 2: You know Erin real quick? Was that Army Navy.

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Speaker 4: I started in the Navy, switched over to the Army.

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Speaker 4: I jumped ship, so to speak.

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Speaker 3: And with that, I would like to welcome my awesome guest,

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Speaker 3: Aaron Hale to the show. Welcome Erin.

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Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's a pleasure. Okay.

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Speaker 3: For those that don't know, Erin has a hard time

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Speaker 3: visually seeing, so he hears me, he hears us. But

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Speaker 3: what I see is I see his jackalope above his

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Speaker 3: door or his window. What is that animal with those

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Speaker 3: horns up there? Can you explain that to me real quick?

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Speaker 4: That is a black buck antelope. I actually went hunting

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Speaker 4: after losing my eyes sight. I don't know if you're

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Speaker 4: familiar with the boot campaign, but uh, Johnny, Joey Jones

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Speaker 4: and I and a few other wounded veterans went out

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Speaker 4: to an exotic range and in south of Texas, south

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Speaker 4: of San Antonio, and it was pretty cool. It was

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Speaker 4: a former Army sniper, former EOD tech and one of

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Speaker 4: the you know, the the guys on the range and

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Speaker 4: we all three went out and it was a it

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Speaker 4: was a team effort to get the redical on that

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Speaker 4: that animal. But I actually shot the smallest animal that

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Speaker 4: week of all the other uh you know, you know,

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Speaker 4: wounded and from the longest distance, so.

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Speaker 2: You had to aim small miss small.

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Speaker 3: Like Bill Gibson talks about patriot and your vision is

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Speaker 3: really gone, right, you're not able to see you're being

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Speaker 3: team effort to put the radical on the target.

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Speaker 4: Right, that's right. These aren't prosthetic eyes. I no longer

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Speaker 4: have my originals. These there are supposed to be exact duplicates.

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Speaker 4: The prostitutes that painted them apparently did a pretty good

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Speaker 4: job because people common and how good look in my

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Speaker 4: eyes are?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I know you are you know I'm looking

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Speaker 2: right at you. I got obef It's all good.

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Speaker 3: And I would say that, you know, how old were

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Speaker 3: you when you decided to join the military. What was

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Speaker 3: it that like just said, hey, this is for me.

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Speaker 4: And not as patriotic a story as most or some.

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Speaker 4: It was more of a active necessity, a pivot point

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Speaker 4: and transition point in my life. I wasn't very ambitious.

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Speaker 4: I grew up in kind of a you know, cushy, happy, pleasant,

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Speaker 4: you know, childhood, and I didn't have a whole lot

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Speaker 4: of work, ethic and ambition. And when I got to college,

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Speaker 4: everybody who knew how to work hard quickly passed me by,

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Speaker 4: and I pretty much found myself out of my butt

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Speaker 4: really quickly, and it was a very embarrassing time. I

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Speaker 4: gained a lot of weight from too many liquid calories,

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Speaker 4: and I needed to find a path. I needed to

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Speaker 4: grow as a person, mature, and the military offered that

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Speaker 4: growth opportunity to become a better man and to get

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Speaker 4: that tuition back I just wasted. So I joined the Navy.

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Speaker 4: I wanted to see the world. I love to travel.

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Speaker 4: I decided then that I would be I would go

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Speaker 4: to culinary school because I'd love to cook. My whole

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Speaker 4: family is a very creative, artistic family. My creative spark

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Speaker 4: was in the kitchen. So I decided I wanted to

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Speaker 4: join the Navy as a cook, knowing full well that

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Speaker 4: was not a glamorous job, but at least I had

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Speaker 4: to get some OJT while I was doing my four

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Speaker 4: and then getting out and going to going to school.

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Speaker 4: Of course, eight years later, I'm still in the Navy,

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Speaker 4: and you know, of course, plans change.

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Speaker 3: Cooking in the Navy, for like was there specific like,

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Speaker 3: you know, the captain has to have a specific meal,

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Speaker 3: and you got that for him specifically? Is it like

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Speaker 3: is he eat just what's in the galley?

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Speaker 2: Tell me?

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Speaker 4: You know, I do make decisions based I like Colin

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Speaker 4: Powell's forty seventy rule. You get it about you know,

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Speaker 4: you need about forty to seventy percent of the information

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Speaker 4: to make a decision. Me I was just barely on

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Speaker 4: that forty percent line and just said I just waited

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Speaker 4: all the different options, and I said, navies for me,

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Speaker 4: I would be a Navy cook. That's good enough, let's go.

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Speaker 4: Little did I know that at the time, cooks were

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Speaker 4: considered in the Navy much like hotel restaurant management on

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Speaker 4: the civilian side. So I got sure duty in Naples,

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Speaker 4: Italy on my first duty station, and the first thing

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Speaker 4: I asked was where am I going to be cooking?

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Speaker 4: And I said, oh, no, no, no, you're working the barracks.

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Speaker 4: In fact, because you're the new guy, you're gonna be

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Speaker 4: working the night clerk job at the front desk. Literally,

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Speaker 4: So you know, it was definitely not what I was expecting.

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Speaker 4: But you know, I worked my way up to the

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Speaker 4: maintenance manager for the b e q so I was.

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Speaker 4: I was. I was escorting the Italian local National public

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Speaker 4: Works guys. So all day long I was going in

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Speaker 4: there and helping them change light bulbs and stuff, and

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Speaker 4: I'm just pointing around going come to cityha, coming city.

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Speaker 4: How do you say that? How do you say that?

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Speaker 4: I was learning Italian from is roughnecks. It was pretty

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Speaker 4: pretty funny when you travel around to you on your

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Speaker 4: leave time to Florence or Sicily and trying to speak

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Speaker 4: a Napolitan from you know, construction worker.

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Speaker 2: Right who's teaching you slaying and You're just like They're

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Speaker 2: like Belice.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no, it's definitely not book Italian, and it

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Speaker 4: definitely definitely learned the stuff that doesn't come in the books.

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Speaker 3: First, now, how did you go from visiting Florence and

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Speaker 3: putting in light bulbs to you know, now I have

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Speaker 3: transition from the cook that I thought I was going

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Speaker 3: to be, you know, and then now I'm an eod.

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Speaker 3: You know what was this transition that happened to you?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 4: It was just first I'm joined in a time of

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Speaker 4: Peace nineteen ninety nine and I spent the four years

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Speaker 4: in Italy two at the Bachelor Quarters and then actually

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Speaker 4: a PCs only forty five minutes away to guy to Italy,

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Speaker 4: where I then got flag duty. I was cooked for

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Speaker 4: the three star, the commander of the sixth Fleet, so

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Speaker 4: it was actually doing that. He's cooking. Yeah, it was

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Speaker 4: definitely not a hardship dirty, but it was actually cooking.

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Speaker 4: And when that ship was import was pretty cool because

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Speaker 4: they only wanted to eat breakfast and lunch and then

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Speaker 4: it's important. They didn't want to stay any later. Now

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Speaker 4: that did, I and the Admiral went and had dinner

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Speaker 4: around the economy. So by two in the afternoon, I

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Speaker 4: had already hung on my uniform after cleaning up lunch,

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Speaker 4: and I became an Italian. I went out there and

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Speaker 4: experienced in Italy and Europe and it was fantastic. But

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Speaker 4: like I said, hardship duty was not. And I just

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Speaker 4: then then all of a sudden, we found ourselves in

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Speaker 4: two wars.

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Speaker 2: That's right now eleven Iraq Afghanistan starting to kick off. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So by three h four we were doing our

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Speaker 4: figure rates in our box imaginary box out in the

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Speaker 4: Mediterranean as the flagship. But in everybody's everybody has a

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Speaker 4: job to do in the military and everybody's job is important.

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Speaker 4: I was still you know, my my job is important.

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Speaker 4: But I was watching I was watching this these operations

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Speaker 4: on television, and I was hearing about it, you know

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Speaker 4: in the you know, the mess halls and the galleries

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Speaker 4: and that kind of stuff. So I knew that in

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Speaker 4: the previous four years that I gained those internal values,

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Speaker 4: the hard work, ethic, the pride and a job well done.

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Speaker 4: And I'd also gained that love for service to you know,

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Speaker 4: the external values, you know, be a great teammate. And

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Speaker 4: so I was came to that point where I was like, my, my,

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Speaker 4: my talents, my abilities were being put to their their

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Speaker 4: best use here in you know, cooking for the Navy.

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Speaker 4: So I volunteered to deployed Afghanistan and I was of

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Speaker 4: course running an ARMYTL hall this time for the hundreds

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Speaker 4: of NATO troops IA troops out in Farah, Afghanistan. But

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Speaker 4: that that's when I met some EOD techs. This is

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Speaker 4: O six O seven and it was just EO D

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Speaker 4: everything about it, the tight knit brotherhood, you know, technical

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Speaker 4: aspect of it, blowing stuff up, but the fact that

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Speaker 4: there were first responders on the battlefield, saving lives and

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Speaker 4: I tell people that, you know, when I get my

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Speaker 4: first confirmed kill with an egg roll, I started, I

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Speaker 4: decided want to start saving wise instead. But but that's so,

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Speaker 4: that's how it went. I was I was a cooking Afghanistan.

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Speaker 4: I wanted to go and I work west through and

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Speaker 4: through the Navy to go from culinary specialists to eot etech,

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Speaker 4: and the quickly denied me. They just said that we

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Speaker 4: don't take cooks into the EU program.

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Speaker 3: Also, they've not seen under Siege, the movie with Steven

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Speaker 3: Seagal where he is the cook. I mean, do they

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Speaker 3: not know that he's in the galley just like throwing

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Speaker 3: knives at the dartboard really good with a knife. You say, no, cook, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: this is not a cook, Tommy Lee Jones, this is

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Speaker 3: not a cook.

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Speaker 2: Who is this guy? Bro? That's amazing.

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Speaker 3: So you're so you go from cooking for three stars

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Speaker 3: and admirals, and then you go to Afghanistan and now

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Speaker 3: you're cooking for the army and other ISAF forces who

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Speaker 3: are coming through your you know, your chow haul, and

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Speaker 3: I'm sure they're grateful for every every warm, yummy morsel

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Speaker 3: that they could shove in their mouth and the extra

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Speaker 3: little scoopy put on. I'm sure they're grateful our listener,

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Speaker 3: probably eight in your chow hall.

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Speaker 2: Yo.

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Speaker 4: That was That was pretty interesting too because when I

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Speaker 4: got out to Farrah and I was cooking out there,

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Speaker 4: there was actually a couple platoons of Italian special forces,

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Speaker 4: so I got to practice the lingo I've learned in

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Speaker 4: Italy out in Afghanistah.

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Speaker 2: That's awesome. They probably loved.

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Speaker 4: It, you know, I wasn't the problem we had. I was.

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Speaker 4: It was me and another navy cook and about nine

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Speaker 4: local national Afghans helping me in the kitchen. And there's

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Speaker 4: an old old timer named Aga and he'd been you know,

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Speaker 4: working for foreign national you know, like four and he'd

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Speaker 4: actually been a nurse at one time in an Italian

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Speaker 4: hospital in Harat, so he knew a little bit of Italian,

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Speaker 4: but he only knew the curse words, because of course

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Speaker 4: that's all anybody ever learns, right, So this old Afghan

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Speaker 4: dude is like cursing in Italian as the Italian's come

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Speaker 4: through and they're coming to me going can you tell

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Speaker 4: him to shut up?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So yeah, that was very funny.

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Speaker 5: No no, no, no, no, not those Italian words, man, No,

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Speaker 5: don't say that right now, Cheech and Chong, No, not

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Speaker 5: right now, you don't say that word right now.

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Speaker 4: No.

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Speaker 3: He's like, hey, no, no, no, no, bro. So you're

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Speaker 3: in Afghanistan cooking. The EOD still gets denied. How did

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Speaker 3: you finally get EOD to pull you in? How'd you

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Speaker 3: finally get with those that crew?

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Speaker 4: Well, that was it was after the deployment. I came

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Speaker 4: back and I was on the station in Newport, Rhode Island,

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Speaker 4: and my contract was coming up, so it was either

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Speaker 4: realistic it out and the Navy. Navy already told me

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Speaker 4: they were going to let me in the EOD program.

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Speaker 4: Everything can be waivered what he wants to tell you,

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Speaker 4: but they really didn't want me to go anywhere. My

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Speaker 4: rank and rates were undermanned. I wasn't even going to

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Speaker 4: get promoted. So I walked. I went over to the

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Speaker 4: Armored recruiter, just handed in my my service records. I'm

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Speaker 4: gonna go with YODI. They said welcome, and soon it

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Speaker 4: was changing uniforms and changing jobs.

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Speaker 3: So you didn't have to go through a boot camp again.

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Speaker 3: When you crossed from the Navy to the Army.

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Speaker 4: They had this pilot program they were doing UH for

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Speaker 4: sil called the warrior transition courses like a for prior

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Speaker 4: service boot camp, all of the knowledge based stuff, none

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Speaker 4: of the you know dogma, you know, none of the

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Speaker 4: indoctrination type thing. So what's the the digital sergeant's going

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Speaker 4: to do is say drop you drop I I'll rank

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Speaker 4: you but.

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Speaker 2: Respectfully.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's that's sort of you know, like you know,

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Speaker 4: basic rifle and stuff to have a thrown grenade, orienteering,

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Speaker 4: you know, len lavigation, that kind of stuff. And then

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Speaker 4: straight from there it was to EOD training. So it's

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Speaker 4: kind of funny. Even though I didn't get that boot

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Speaker 4: camp break you down and turn you into a soldier thing,

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Speaker 4: it was almost like I was infiltrating as a sailor

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Speaker 4: in a Navy uniformed but I got the school and

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Speaker 4: I was doing Navy cadence at the Army detachment, and

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Speaker 4: the first sergeant was so bad, so pissed.

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Speaker 2: That's funny.

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Speaker 4: The school. The school was tough. It was a high

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Speaker 4: attrition rate at a lot of knowledge based stuff. There's

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Speaker 4: a test every two to three days and you got

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Speaker 4: to get a minimum minimum of eighty five on every

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Speaker 4: single test or it's a failure. And some of the

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Speaker 4: the hits some of the questions, the practicals and the

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Speaker 4: rent and test their sixty point heads.

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Speaker 2: Like what's a question?

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Speaker 3: Can you give me like one random question that you

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Speaker 3: can think of that you remember it all that it

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Speaker 3: asked you.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's everything is you imagine what eod's responsibility. I

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Speaker 4: know there's bullets to nuclear weapons. So there are all

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Speaker 4: sorts of different divisions. You start from the basics like

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Speaker 4: basic circuitry and physics. What goes into the physics of

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Speaker 4: fuse activation?

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Speaker 3: You know, setback like why does it combust and like

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Speaker 3: why does the combustion combust and what makes the combustion's

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Speaker 3: combustion combustion? And like the whole thing all the way

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Speaker 3: down to the basic strike the match of like the

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Speaker 3: fuse right, Like you're learning it all the way.

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Speaker 4: Imagine like your basic forty mike mic round right, what

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Speaker 4: does yeah, what does it take to actually activate that?

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Speaker 4: How many times does it have to spits? How many rotations?

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Speaker 4: That's right? So it starts with physics, right, there's questions

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Speaker 4: like Newton's first law and all sorts of stuff, and

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Speaker 4: then it graduates up to nomenclature and or identification. Order's

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Speaker 4: identification all the way up to biochemical you know, counter terrorism,

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Speaker 4: weapons of mass destruction, detecting radiation, you know, getting in

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Speaker 4: hasmat suits and doing decontamination setups. So it's there's.

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Speaker 3: So many tests, so many questions. You're totally just such

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Speaker 3: a it's constantly just keeping your mind the gym for

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Speaker 3: the job.

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Speaker 2: That's what they're doing. They're just like, hey, here another test.

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Speaker 4: It's just so much, it's so high paced. It's so

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Speaker 4: high paced that you kind of you know, you memorize

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Speaker 4: what you need to memorize, you understand it well enough,

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Speaker 4: and then you take the test, kind of dump the

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Speaker 4: major and you get rid of for the next.

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Speaker 3: One, right, and I hope to retain the red or

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Speaker 3: blue wire Along the way, you're like, okay, was that

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Speaker 3: the red or blue? Did you ever stare at that

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Speaker 3: situation and just be like what am I going to

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Speaker 3: snip here? Or is that just is that too mcguy

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Speaker 3: or mcgrub for me?

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Speaker 4: When would I sleep? Well, everything almost everything there is sensitive,

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Speaker 4: so you can't take anything home and study so close

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Speaker 4: to business then we'd actually have study hall, So go

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Speaker 4: to go to school, then at the end of the

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Speaker 4: day study hall and then yes, yeah, you know, did

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Speaker 4: leave all the materials there and eat relaxed, work out whatever,

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Speaker 4: and then you're so exhausted you just kind of pass out.

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Speaker 4: And then next day start all over again.

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Speaker 2: And just repeat.

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Speaker 3: What was one of the hardest aspects that you didn't

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Speaker 3: expect and what was one of the easier aspects that

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Speaker 3: you thought would be harder when you went into EOD.

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Speaker 3: For our listener, that might be thinking, well.

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Speaker 4: The school specifically, I thought it was going to be

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Speaker 4: a lot more physical, and I was surprised. Just to

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Speaker 4: get into the school, you have to take a bomb suit,

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Speaker 4: and a chem suit has a certain test and you

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Speaker 4: have to be physically fit for it, and you have

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Speaker 4: to stay physically fit to be in the field. However,

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Speaker 4: the bomb suit test is less about the physical fitness

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Speaker 4: as it is about how you can keep your head

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Speaker 4: while under physical exertion. So you get in the bomb

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Speaker 4: sert and you do, they smoke you, and you just

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Speaker 4: they just get spent over the next forty five minutes.

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Speaker 4: But during that time they're all also asking you memory questions,

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Speaker 4: they are observation questions, the critical thinking skills, and that's

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Speaker 4: the test. And also it's about not quitting. So the

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Speaker 4: first thing they did was have me pick up it's

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Speaker 4: like a one five five round and just follow them

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Speaker 4: around as we went up and downstairs around the parking lot.

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Speaker 4: And I couldn't put it over my shoulder. I had

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Speaker 4: to carry it like this, and it would I would

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Speaker 4: just start burning, my arms start burning, and then it

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Speaker 4: was my arms just start melting until it's on my

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Speaker 4: wrists and then I'm just holding it against my thighs

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Speaker 4: and then it's just sliding and sliding down my leg

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Speaker 4: until he said, do not let that hit the you know,

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Speaker 4: hit the ground. And finally we get to the point

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Speaker 4: where it's resting on my toes and I can't get

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Speaker 4: it back up, and he says, all right, you're done.

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Speaker 4: I said, no, no, I can get this thing back up. No,

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Speaker 4: you're done. I can get it back up, he said,

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Speaker 4: Sergeant Hail. The test was to see if you didn't quit.

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Speaker 4: And you didn't, so you're fine, let's move on.

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Speaker 2: In that this is a trick. You're like, this is good.

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Speaker 4: But then it was then it was, you know, like

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Speaker 4: I said, the real surprise was just how much information

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Speaker 4: you had to learn and how quickly you had to learn.

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Speaker 4: It's a very difficult school to go through. But I

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Speaker 4: was surprised about the level of knowledge based versus the

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Speaker 4: physical fitness stuff and.

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Speaker 2: Good insight, you know.

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Speaker 3: And I'm sure that it just gets it gets more

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Speaker 3: and more, you know, in depth, as you fall more

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Speaker 3: and more down the rabbit hole of the EOD program.

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Speaker 3: You know, is it really called the demon suit, the

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Speaker 3: apparatus that you put on that whole bomb suit?

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Speaker 2: Do you guys? Is it called the demon suit? Or

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Speaker 2: is am I just hearing that on the internet?

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Speaker 4: The Demon suit?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard it called the Demon suit in a

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Speaker 3: Robot Chicken Car tune about EOD and he's he's like, no,

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Speaker 3: we wear the Demon suit.

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Speaker 2: And then the guy wants to drive the robot.

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Speaker 3: He's like, I did not just spend my entire career

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Speaker 3: to drive this robot just to let some random guy

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Speaker 3: drive my robot.

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Speaker 4: I missed that episode.

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Speaker 2: You're gonna have to check it out. It's like, can

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Speaker 2: I drive the robot? No, you cannot drive the robot.

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Speaker 3: I spent all this years at training and skill set

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Speaker 3: to drive the robot. You cannot just drive the robot.

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Speaker 4: That's hilarious. Oh, I've.

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Speaker 2: Okay, okay.

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Speaker 4: I never really liked getting into it. I mean you

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Speaker 4: got a Yeah, we would have contestancy how fast my

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Speaker 4: team could get me suited up. And we you know,

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Speaker 4: that's one of the competitions against Team first team because

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Speaker 4: it's it's definitely not a single person suit up thing.

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Speaker 4: You need your team to get you in there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you're getting zipped up and like strapped up and

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Speaker 3: like you're getting yoke put around your neck and you're

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Speaker 3: getting the helmet slapped.

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Speaker 2: Down on your head and.

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Speaker 3: Right you're climbing into it. Lifted it up for you.

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00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:10,880
Speaker 3: You've had Kevlard Deiper Juggernaut exactly.

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Speaker 4: After months of MRI. Is you need that thing?

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Speaker 2: Oh bro?

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Speaker 3: Especially coming from a chef who's now got to eat

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Speaker 3: mrs and live in the quote unquote demon bomb suit.

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Speaker 4: That's new to me, but it's a good name.

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Speaker 2: Now, let's just get to what happened.

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Speaker 3: You know, how come you know you've lost your site

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Speaker 3: and you know a lot of the injuries that you sustained.

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Speaker 3: You know we've talked about. You have such a good

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Speaker 3: smile on your face and such a great positive attitude

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00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 3: and you decided to serve the country and even go

402
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,160
Speaker 3: further once you know, it really spun off at nine

403
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Speaker 3: to eleven and you just felt the call to serve.

404
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 2: More join the army.

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Speaker 3: I know you talk a lot on your podcast, and

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Speaker 3: it's the Aaron Hale Podcast and you can find it

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00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,800
Speaker 3: on Spotify, Apple and everywhere, and we'll have it typed

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00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 3: out in the dissertation on the website at SOFTWAREP for

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00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 3: my listeners. So you should go check out Aaron's you

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00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,000
Speaker 3: know podcast, read about how he's you know, trying to

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00:24:10,160 --> 00:24:13,919
Speaker 3: always just be in a positive light. That's what I

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Speaker 3: was getting from just some of the you know things

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00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 3: that I've caught off your webs since I've met you

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Speaker 3: now or last week or so, just looking you up.

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Speaker 2: Bro.

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Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you what I do attribute the unitier

417
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,600
Speaker 4: to credit for your different things, one being the military

418
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:31,679
Speaker 4: training all sorts of different reasons, military experience. It helps

419
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,399
Speaker 4: me get through post military everything from just the saying,

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Speaker 4: you know, embrace the suck, to things my experiences with

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Speaker 4: EUD for example, you know, each of our three man

422
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Speaker 4: team would have this quad con or tricon full of

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Speaker 4: tools for all of those scenarios I just talked about.

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Speaker 4: We'd have asthmat decontamination sent you know sets power tools

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Speaker 4: and robots and bombs.

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Speaker 2: Finger counters probably, And then.

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Speaker 4: We get on deployment and we have that gerve, the

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Speaker 4: armored truck, and you can only fit so many tools,

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00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 4: so you have to do a bit of a trayage,

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Speaker 4: and you got to leave some behind. So you just

431
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Speaker 4: figure on you just bring what you'd most likely use

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Speaker 4: when you got to leave some tools behind. And then Afghanistan,

433
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 4: most of our missions were dismounted. Yeah, there's goat trails.

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Speaker 4: You can't bring a vehicle of any size on there.

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Speaker 4: So it was what tools can I and should I

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Speaker 4: pack on my back? And when you consider you know,

437
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 4: standard battle rattle, water, food and all the other necessities

438
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 4: then EU and eat tools, it gets pretty heavy. We're

439
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,680
Speaker 4: doing the same job that we were required to do,

440
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 4: whether we have our quod con, our truck, our rucksack,

441
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 4: and whatever we encounter. Who's the general Mattis said in

442
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 4: his book called Sign Chaos. Things being hard, we're never

443
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:06,640
Speaker 4: a good excuse for mission failure. So we can't use

444
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 4: the excuse that I didn't have the right tool. I

445
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,719
Speaker 4: still got to do the job. So I'm doing the

446
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 4: same mission with a block ACA for a spool of rope.

447
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 4: Maybe you know, a grappline hook or something, and we'll

448
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 4: have like a man portable robot. But just now I

449
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 4: just looked at it. I left a couple of tools behind.

450
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 4: I still have a mission I had, I still have jobs.

451
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 4: I'm I'm a soldier, sergeant, father, son, I have all

452
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 4: these roles and responsibilities. So now that's part of the

453
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 4: reason I started the Point of Impact podcast. And you know,

454
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 4: I was the incident in particular. It was eight months

455
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 4: into a twelve month deployment. This was for what year

456
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 4: was this? This was two eleven, my second as an

457
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 4: EOD tech, my third deployment in total, and first time

458
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 4: as a team leader, so the one that actually gets

459
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 4: in the bomb suit and the highest ranking guy on

460
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 4: the team. So I'm the one that makes that that

461
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 4: long walk. And I'd just gotten back from my two

462
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 4: weeks of UR and R backstate side, and still had

463
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 4: the luggage in the back of the truck, and my

464
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,439
Speaker 4: team had just picked me up from the airfield and

465
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 4: we were heading back to our command out post and

466
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,160
Speaker 4: see a CHOI in the array district of the Kinderheart

467
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 4: Prophet Province, And I asked one of the turps, We'll

468
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 4: just see a Choy meeting. He says, I think it

469
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 4: means cemetery. We're in the we're in the tombstone and yeah,

470
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 4: and it kind of felt like that Afghanistan jumped into

471
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 4: a convoy. It's a just a supply supply convoy. We

472
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 4: weren't on mission or anything, just heading back to Rio,

473
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 4: and they called back to us from you know, the

474
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,959
Speaker 4: the vehicle and said we had to have something inside

475
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 4: of the road and wanted us to get to work

476
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 4: on it. So I told us they know, the fluggage

477
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 4: off the robot, and the robot out of the truck

478
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,120
Speaker 4: and it got the work. We found the same thing

479
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 4: we've been finding the entire deployment. There was pressure plate,

480
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 4: oil jug h and me and nine bold battery. So

481
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,199
Speaker 4: the robot took care of the pressure plate, but it

482
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,679
Speaker 4: couldn't get the jug out of the hard pack. I

483
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 4: wanted to get some evidence so we could set it

484
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 4: up and try to get left of the bang on

485
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 4: the timeline, you know, try to get some of these

486
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,520
Speaker 4: people before they could put more of them down right

487
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 4: trails hot and so you're on it. I jumped out

488
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 4: and it was cared. It was a standard battle routtle

489
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 4: because we'd already had the thing just dismantled. We didn't

490
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 4: I didn't need to get into the bomb soup, and

491
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 4: I started making my approach about twenty meters or so

492
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 4: from it is when my foot found the secondary device. Oh,

493
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 4: I'm not sure how the blast I don't know how

494
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,719
Speaker 4: it happened, but it almost completely missed my entire body

495
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,320
Speaker 4: except for my head, A little peppering on my leg,

496
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 4: a piece of a splinter from the pressure plate in

497
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 4: my hand. But the blast like punted me in the

498
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 4: air by hitting me in the head, and I took

499
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 4: both my eyes and cracked my skull. I was leaking

500
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 4: spinal fluid right out my nose. A piece of the

501
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 4: metal detector actually hit my jawlline and ran along it

502
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 4: and stopped just a few millimeters from my carotid dottery

503
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 4: and about enough plastic. The doctor said to make a

504
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 4: gatorade bottle cap or you know that that was just

505
00:29:55,960 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 4: in my neck and the lights had done out. All

506
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 4: had been really wrong. I'd landed on my knees and elbows,

507
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 4: but I was still awake. I don't know if I'm lucid,

508
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 4: but I was awake, and the first and I thought

509
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 4: that my helmet had been pushed over my face.

510
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 2: Your face.

511
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:16,920
Speaker 4: So the first thing I was thinking was maybe a

512
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 4: complex ambush, and that everybody in that convoy was probably

513
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 4: looking right at me instead of anywhere else. And my

514
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 4: team were doing what they were supposed to be doing,

515
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 4: is clearing a safer out to me so the medics

516
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,479
Speaker 4: could get me out. I'm thinking, what's happening all around

517
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 4: me and I need it either there might be other

518
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 4: devices out here. So I did what I thought was

519
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 4: the smartest thing at the time. Of course, what all

520
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 4: had been wrong. I got up and I started. I

521
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 4: first did the functions, check were the fingers and toes

522
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 4: and knees and elbows. Everything seemed to be intact. So

523
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 4: I just went to fix my helmet. Fund that it

524
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 4: was gone. My ipro was gone, my helmet was gone,

525
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 4: and I thought, oh man, this is really about my

526
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 4: first Artisant's.

527
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 2: Kind of killed me for losing that, Yeah, I really.

528
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 4: But I got up and I started walking back towards

529
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 4: my truck so my team wouldn't have to come out

530
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,160
Speaker 4: to me. Of Course, I had no idea where the

531
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 4: truck was, and I don't know where I was going.

532
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 4: They grabbed me and dragged me the rest of the way.

533
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 4: Medics got me met evac. Top was in there with

534
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 4: like fourteen minutes, and I was back on my way

535
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 4: to the airfield. And I just came from and within

536
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 4: forty eight hours I was in Bethesda.

537
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 3: Immediately getting taken care of, entriaged, and the whole nine

538
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 3: yards of like what are you're probably talking? Okay, you

539
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 3: were just assessing your situation. You know, you knew what

540
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 3: was happening, because man, I can only imagine your brain.

541
00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 3: Everything was still just going on. You were still thinking,

542
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 3: like you said, was I lucid or was what? But

543
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 3: when you went to touch a helmet and you just

544
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,360
Speaker 3: realize it's your face, and your guys probably saw that.

545
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 2: I just first of all, war as hell, Okay, so

546
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 2: damn just damn.

547
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 3: So then what so then you get to Bethesdave Matyland

548
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 3: and you're at Walter Reed and they've got to multiple

549
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 3: surgeries on you. So you go through that rigamarou for

550
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,959
Speaker 3: are you still dealing with surgeries today?

551
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 2: Are you pretty pretty much good?

552
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 4: It took a few, but today I'm really gone through

553
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 4: any surgeries in a while, the last ones being the

554
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 4: cochlear implants. Maybe in the fusion a little more reconstructive stuff.

555
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 4: But I had the blast and it really burnt my

556
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 4: face and torn it up in a couple of places,

557
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 4: and it actually fused my right eye because the glast

558
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 4: came from my right to left and it completely took

559
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 4: my right eye and actually fused the eyelids together. So

560
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 4: it was doing this permanent like wink kind. And then

561
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 4: a piece of frag had run across the bridge my

562
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 4: nose and gashed the other eye, but they couldn't fix

563
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 4: that anyways.

564
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 3: So nothing, You don't even have any any light or

565
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 3: anything out of that other eye.

566
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 2: Nothing.

567
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 4: They again, they tried to repair it, but they just

568
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 4: it wouldn't work. So both it actually deflated like a

569
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 4: great yeah, And so both these now prosthetics. It took

570
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 4: a few surgeries and grass skin grafts to actually rebuild

571
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 4: the eyelid enough to hold a prosthetic. But the real

572
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 4: trouble spot that's just really cosmetic. The real problem was

573
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 4: the cracks in my skull. And then they had to

574
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,240
Speaker 4: take parts of my septum and patch it up, and

575
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 4: you know, they did so, and I got out. I

576
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 4: was actually out of want to read pretty quickly, and

577
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:15,399
Speaker 4: it was it was a rough time. But after they'd

578
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:17,399
Speaker 4: patched up my face, there was really nothing for them

579
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 4: to do. It was a tough time for me.

580
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of soldiers and sailors come home

581
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:31,279
Speaker 3: and don't put on such a recovery from things like this,

582
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 3: you know, And so I just wonder, you know, how

583
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 3: many folks can just you know, smile. I'm sure that

584
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 3: you get this all the time, that you're inspiring, and

585
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:42,919
Speaker 3: I'm sure you hear it three times a day when

586
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 3: you're out and about and anybody gets the wind of

587
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 3: anything that you had to do, it's like you're inspiring. Okay,

588
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 3: So we know that you know that this is your

589
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 3: platform too. Now use that light, okay, and tell these

590
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 3: others out there that you know it's okay, like you're

591
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 3: I think circumstances happened. I'm so sorry that that happened.

592
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 3: You know, you you've probably chewed on it a hundred

593
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 3: different ways. You know, Well, if it wasn't me, it

594
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 3: would be Bill. If it wasn't Bill, it would have

595
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 3: been me. Or however it happened, it's happened.

596
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 2: Okay.

597
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 3: You got over the yms, I'm sure, and you've moved

598
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,440
Speaker 3: on and We just have a huge, you know, veteran

599
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 3: community that listens, and you know, outside of the veterans,

600
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 3: civilian community, and a lot of people deal with post

601
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 3: traumatic stress, and like, you know, they think life is hard,

602
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 3: you know, Aaron.

603
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 4: You know that one thing. It was the brotherhood, you know,

604
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 4: it was all of those other warriors up and down

605
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 4: the halls. I was sitting there in my bed, just

606
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:45,600
Speaker 4: like you said, doing the whole wyms what if right,

607
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 4: and being pissed off these cave men with their you know,

608
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:55,799
Speaker 4: low tech garbage, you know, stiff they pulled out of

609
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 4: the trash. You know, that got one up on me,

610
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 4: and I was pissed. But there were all these other

611
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 4: warriors and they were fighting their own battles. And they're

612
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,759
Speaker 4: still fighting their own battles, Walter Reid across the country.

613
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 4: I don't have a monopoly on pain. I don't have

614
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 4: a monopoly on pissed off. Who am I to say

615
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 4: that mine is the worst?

616
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:22,600
Speaker 2: Right?

617
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 4: Like, you don't understand what I'm going through because you

618
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 4: know you haven't gone through what I'm going through. And

619
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 4: that's in a sense true, but it's it's a cop

620
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:40,960
Speaker 4: out excuse for just wallowing. And I realized that everybody

621
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 4: is still in the fight and I needed to get

622
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:45,839
Speaker 4: in the fight too. And like I said, I have

623
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 4: all these responsibilities. This has to wear it. I just

624
00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,800
Speaker 4: I just can't sit there and say I quit. My family,

625
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 4: my team members, brothers and sisters and arms. They I

626
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,439
Speaker 4: am responsible to them and for them, and they have

627
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 4: co ownership in my life. So if I ever decided,

628
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 4: if I ever decided to quit, I'd have to do it.

629
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:12,400
Speaker 4: I never get a little the majority of vote by committee,

630
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,520
Speaker 4: you know, no, and I don't think I have the votes.

631
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 4: So you're not allowed to quit. See that's the thing.

632
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:19,359
Speaker 4: There's just no quit.

633
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 2: You can't to get going. You got to keep going.

634
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 3: You got to get going, you know, because there are

635
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 3: so many hats to wear, you know, whether it's the

636
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 3: father hat, the neighbor hat. You know, your own self hat.

637
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 3: You know, for your own self. You know, you may

638
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 3: have just enough for yourself out there, you know, and

639
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,279
Speaker 3: wear that hat well, you know, and just make the

640
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 3: best you can with yourself now, you know, like you said,

641
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 3: like Aaron said, everybody has their own struggles. Everybody gets

642
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 3: in and gets out of the military. They I've noticed

643
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 3: that everybody donates themselves one hundred percent able body and

644
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,240
Speaker 3: healthiest as possibly can be from like sports and athletic

645
00:37:58,320 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 3: departments and high schools.

646
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:04,359
Speaker 2: To come home to not being that, you know, and

647
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 2: so you know.

648
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 4: I also needed them, not just to get me out

649
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 4: of my funk, but I need to lean on them,

650
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 4: you know. For the example, I needed to find you,

651
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 4: find out how they were doing this about if I

652
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,359
Speaker 4: was going to be blind for the rest of my life.

653
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 4: I decided then there, I was going to be the

654
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 4: best damn blind me I could be. But how do that?

655
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,120
Speaker 4: And first was what kind of attitude are these you know,

656
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 4: these warriors displaying. But it was after Walter read I

657
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 4: went to the blind Rehabilitation Center at the VA and Augusta, Georgia,

658
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 4: and I started learning how to do the cane and

659
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:47,320
Speaker 4: the accessible tech and all that. But I was also

660
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 4: as soon as I learned how to use the screen

661
00:38:50,480 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 4: rader on the computer, I was. I was on, you know,

662
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:59,399
Speaker 4: on the Internet, searching for blind plus whatever anything ran

663
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,879
Speaker 4: I found a couple of names kept A few names

664
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 4: kept popping out, like Eric weind Mare his first blind

665
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:13,400
Speaker 4: person to climb Mount Everest, and Lonnie Bedwell is actually

666
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,400
Speaker 4: a fellow Navy veteran. But he's the first blind person

667
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,839
Speaker 4: to kayak the entire Grand Canyon, and I just talked

668
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 4: to him this week.

669
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 2: He legit, that's legit.

670
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 4: He's also the only first blind person to kayak the

671
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 4: Grand Canyon and he just came down from climbing Mount Everest.

672
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 4: So if these people can do that, I can get

673
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 4: off my butt you I can do something. In fact,

674
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 4: I saught these guys out. I went climbing with Eric,

675
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 4: I went kayaking with Lonnie. I talked to this active

676
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:53,280
Speaker 4: duty blind ranger, Ivan Castro, who was working at Special

677
00:39:53,280 --> 00:40:01,480
Speaker 4: Operations recruiting brands at Bragg. And this guy I get

678
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 4: out of call with him and he talks about how

679
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 4: he always makes it a point every every year to

680
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 4: run the Air Force Marathon, the Army ten miler, and

681
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,240
Speaker 4: the Marine Corps Marathon. And I thought, oh, that sounds

682
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 4: really patriotic and kind of cool. So I did the same.

683
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 4: I registered for all three of those. Somehow I got

684
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 4: talked into a couple other marathons, and within I was

685
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 4: I was registered for four marathons, a ten miler. All

686
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,680
Speaker 4: was in the span of four months, and I never

687
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:34,719
Speaker 4: run anything longer than a ten k in my life.

688
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 4: So that's kind of how I started my blind guide career.

689
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:45,320
Speaker 4: And you know, I was getting ready for the mountains

690
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 4: and I was doing kayaking, I was going hunting, and

691
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 4: I started speaking. They actually sent me to the eot

692
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 4: E school I started, I was, I was instructing for

693
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,879
Speaker 4: a while, and I was I was making the best

694
00:40:57,920 --> 00:40:58,360
Speaker 4: of it.

695
00:40:58,719 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 2: So they could still use you.

696
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 3: Right, Like you said, there was an active duty blind

697
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 3: ranger who was at like probably like a process of

698
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 3: still active duty. Right, they were still using him. They're

699
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,720
Speaker 3: still using your mindset to come in and teach EOD courses,

700
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:12,360
Speaker 3: right exactly.

701
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,919
Speaker 4: They still I couldn't do the job anymore. They don't

702
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,160
Speaker 4: even like, uh, you know, a color blind in EO D.

703
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 2: Red wire, green wire, green wire, blue wire.

704
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 4: So I could go to the schoolhouse and I could

705
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 4: teach IDs, I could teach best practices, lessons learned on

706
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 4: the battlefield and that kind of thing. So I did

707
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,160
Speaker 4: that for about a year and a half. And you know,

708
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 4: the medboard process is a long long time. But when

709
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 4: it came time to actually make a decision, I could

710
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 4: have requested to do a cod or continuation of active

711
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 4: duty service, but I didn't have anything more to prove

712
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,760
Speaker 4: in uniform, and I was. I actually I found found

713
00:41:56,960 --> 00:42:00,800
Speaker 4: something I could I could live for out side of service.

714
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 4: And also it was that that that pain of nostalgia

715
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 4: being so close to the job that I could no

716
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,839
Speaker 4: longer do. I still love being in the community. I'm

717
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:13,839
Speaker 4: still still I lived just down the road from the schoolhouse,

718
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 4: and I'm still active in the community. But I didn't

719
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,760
Speaker 4: have anything left to prove to anybody else, and especially

720
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 4: not to myself. So I retired. I took the medical retirement.

721
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 4: But these all these things were going on. It was

722
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 4: about four years after the blast, and that's when a

723
00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 4: complication occurred. That crack in my skull. It apparently hadn't.

724
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 2: Across the bridge at your nose right there.

725
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, that it had been patched, but apparently not well enough,

726
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 4: because it was still a small leak of that spinal

727
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:53,879
Speaker 4: fluid and and leak you know, a path out as

728
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:59,080
Speaker 4: path in. And I contracted back to amaningitis, and I was,

729
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 4: I was put me right back in the hospital. It

730
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:05,879
Speaker 4: nearly killed me, but in the process the bacteria had

731
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:09,799
Speaker 4: still one what was left in my hearing that the

732
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 4: blast hadn't taken. So I was I was going deaf

733
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 4: in days, And when the doctor was breaking the news

734
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 4: to me, I said, Doc, you're telling me I'm gonna

735
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 4: be totally blind and totally deaf. Are you telling me

736
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 4: I'm never gonna have to pretend to pay attention ever again?

737
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 4: Silver line and everything because my mom was girlfriend at

738
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 4: the time in the room. And I don't know, it's

739
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 4: probably the hearing, but I didn't hear them laugh.

740
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 3: No, they just h yeah, they're you know, at caregivers. Okay, girlfriend,

741
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 3: mom loving you, you know, being there for you.

742
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 4: You know?

743
00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 3: Is that how it was when you got home you

744
00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 3: had Was it mom home who helped you kind of

745
00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 3: like get back to yourself?

746
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:03,719
Speaker 2: Was it your mom?

747
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 4: No? What was wrong?

748
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:07,719
Speaker 2: Like? Did you have someone home waiting for you? Was

749
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,840
Speaker 2: your girlfriend the same girlfriend from when you got injured

750
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 2: or did you meet her after the injury.

751
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 4: I was married before the injury and divorced. Divorced between

752
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:22,440
Speaker 4: the injury and the illness. The girlfriend I had known

753
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:24,919
Speaker 4: for a long time. In fact, we'd known each other

754
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:30,920
Speaker 4: since childhood. Our mothers were both childhood and friends. So

755
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 4: we kind of struck up a conversation and we'd had

756
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:42,719
Speaker 4: just a fantastic h first, Yeah, she didn't know what

757
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 4: she was getting empty.

758
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 2: No, that's what I was wondering, you know.

759
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 3: That's why I'm saying a caregiver, you know, or someone

760
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:54,359
Speaker 3: who has you know, just some sweet empathy, that's all.

761
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:54,879
Speaker 2: That's all.

762
00:44:55,160 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 4: But she was an absolute godsend during this illness because

763
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:05,400
Speaker 4: now not only had I lost my hearing, but it

764
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 4: also took that inner ear sense of balance, the internal gyro,

765
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 4: my vestibular balance, so I couldn't get much treadmill. I

766
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,399
Speaker 4: couldn't even walk and came home in a wheelchair. I'm

767
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,600
Speaker 4: sitting there at my breakfast bar on the counter in

768
00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 4: my kitchen, feeling sorry for myself again. You know, It's

769
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 4: like it was like for four years I was telling

770
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:34,960
Speaker 4: people about this strength to struggle, you know, triumph over tragedy,

771
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 4: and it was like God had just said, well, prove it, no,

772
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,239
Speaker 4: put put your money where you're about this, Let's do

773
00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:47,720
Speaker 4: it again. When when has this guy paid his dues?

774
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 4: When is one enough enough for one guy?

775
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 2: You know? Right?

776
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,879
Speaker 4: But you know I had my little penny party, six

777
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:59,319
Speaker 4: month pity party. But no, the truth was that after

778
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 4: a while, just you can't Maybe it's just me, but

779
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,840
Speaker 4: I couldn't just hit still, and I couldn't just wallow.

780
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:11,839
Speaker 4: It's yeah, it gets boring, frankly, so I needed to

781
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 4: get busy doing something. I did get back in my

782
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 4: treadmill when I held on with an iron grip and

783
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 4: I just hit the quick start button. Half a mile

784
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,719
Speaker 4: an hour, I was just walking, and then I would

785
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 4: grab the trekking poles that I used to go into

786
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:29,000
Speaker 4: the mountains with just to go to the mailbox and bag.

787
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:31,759
Speaker 4: And that's how it got started. And eventually I was

788
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:37,200
Speaker 4: running a gun and now I'm training for bad Water

789
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:40,040
Speaker 4: and I'm going to run one hundred and thirty five

790
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 4: miles across Dad Valley in about three weeks.

791
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,400
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, you did mention in an email that you

792
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:49,759
Speaker 3: have been training for bad Water and you know, like, hey,

793
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 3: what's going on? I was like, that's awesome. So you're

794
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:55,839
Speaker 3: gonna just keep going, man, I don't see you stopping right.

795
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 3: And how's your real estate going? I understand that you

796
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,279
Speaker 3: love real estate and that you dabble with, like, you know,

797
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:02,600
Speaker 3: a little wealth management.

798
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 4: Well, you know what I do here is and this

799
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,719
Speaker 4: was one of the things I also got busy with

800
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:11,320
Speaker 4: this twenty fifteen, when the meningia said, And I was

801
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 4: waiting for the cochlear implant. It took forever, forever. I

802
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 4: had to wait for the infection to clear up and

803
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 4: had to wait for this. And my right ear was

804
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 4: the first implant. It didn't work because there was more

805
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 4: damage on that side, and then the left ear. It

806
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:30,040
Speaker 4: was over six months before I could hear another human voice.

807
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:34,840
Speaker 4: So part of the thing was I started cooking, and

808
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 4: that was my kitchen therapy. I was just started cooking

809
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 4: for Thanksgiving, and we invited all sorts of people. We

810
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 4: even invited some of the students from the schoolhouse and

811
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 4: were stranded. And I just threw all of you know

812
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:54,240
Speaker 4: that into the cooking and stopped thinking about myself. And

813
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 4: of course I started making desserts weeks in advance, and fudge,

814
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:05,120
Speaker 4: and I want some. Michaela, my girlfriend at the time,

815
00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 4: my wife. Now, she saw two things on my face.

816
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,920
Speaker 4: One no, two things. One was a smile on my

817
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 4: face she hadn't seen six months. And two the fudge

818
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 4: was piling up. She uh started sneaking it out, like

819
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 4: I got to be a real stealthy round of blind

820
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 4: deaf guy. But she was giving it out, just giving

821
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 4: it away. And people start coming back and saying, can

822
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:28,279
Speaker 4: we buy some of that from you? It's capitalist, and

823
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:31,440
Speaker 4: me said, well, of course you may, of course, And

824
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 4: all of a sudden we had a business eodfudge dot com.

825
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:38,919
Speaker 4: So we had this funge company which actually took off.

826
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 4: I've been on the Rachel ratio. We started TikTok, grew

827
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 4: it to like one hundred and fifty thousand followers, as

828
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 4: I did for a time, I was doing Aaron Hale's

829
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 4: Coco without looking on TikTok.

830
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,320
Speaker 2: And cooking without looking.

831
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 4: I don't have you to see the background, my apron,

832
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 4: my tactical, I do see ago apron. And so I was.

833
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 4: We were. We were confectioners, chocolateers, and then we started earning,

834
00:49:07,719 --> 00:49:10,280
Speaker 4: you know, we started making money out of it, and

835
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,680
Speaker 4: we wanted to put this money into something, an asset

836
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:15,520
Speaker 4: that would you know, so we didn't have to work

837
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 4: cook fudge all day long. And we started buying real estate.

838
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 4: And what we did was we'd find some some busted homes,

839
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:26,799
Speaker 4: so we need some TLC. We'd fix them up. We'd

840
00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 4: do short term rentals, and we'd refinance out of borrowed

841
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 4: money from private passive investors. So people wanted to invest

842
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 4: in real estate but didn't want to lift a hammer

843
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 4: or deal with tenants. Our guests. We did, we'd do

844
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 4: all the work. And a lot of these investors are

845
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 4: fellow military members. And what we do is we, you know,

846
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 4: we give them a good return, double digit returns to

847
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 4: let us use their money to fix up these homes.

848
00:49:56,719 --> 00:50:00,719
Speaker 4: We refinanced into a more conventional loan, pay them back

849
00:50:00,760 --> 00:50:03,720
Speaker 4: with their interest, and then we have a cash flowing

850
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 4: asset that we manage. It's fantastic and the great thing

851
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 4: about it is that we we turn you know, I saw,

852
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:16,239
Speaker 4: you know, these homes that would otherwise in the neighborhood.

853
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:19,800
Speaker 4: We fixed up the neighborhood. We increase, increase property values,

854
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 4: wet we grow our investors and bank accounts as as

855
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 4: well as ours, right, and that's a lot of the

856
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,359
Speaker 4: It was one of the big reasons I started the

857
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:36,839
Speaker 4: podcast Point of Impact with Aaron Hill is because this

858
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:40,520
Speaker 4: is something. It's also something this real estate model is

859
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 4: something everybody, anybody can do and you can be as

860
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 4: as active or passive as you want to. Whenever anybody says,

861
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 4: you know, investing in real estate, I know what a

862
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 4: lot of people think of is I don't want to

863
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 4: be a landlord.

864
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:54,160
Speaker 2: You don't.

865
00:50:54,239 --> 00:50:56,640
Speaker 4: You don't have to. I'm not a landlord. I own

866
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:59,720
Speaker 4: long term and short term rentals. But I'm not a landlord.

867
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:04,239
Speaker 4: I'm an owner. I'm an investor. I don't Almost all

868
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 4: of my involvement is right here at my desk and

869
00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 4: on my computer and on the phone. So I love it.

870
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:13,320
Speaker 4: I want to share it. I also want to share

871
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:17,640
Speaker 4: other things, my mindset, how I get through these difficult parts,

872
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,839
Speaker 4: how I find answers, and you know, how I say

873
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,759
Speaker 4: and try to stay fit and all sorts of things.

874
00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 4: How if I can live my best life so I

875
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:29,799
Speaker 4: can make the greatest impact in my world.

876
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:32,960
Speaker 3: That sounds like a good legacy that you would like to,

877
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:34,960
Speaker 3: you know, leave with the world.

878
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 2: Okay, let's just put it that way. I let say

879
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 2: your community, but your.

880
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:42,440
Speaker 3: Community is now worldwide because you know, it's point of

881
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 3: impact with Aaron Hale, it's it's a rated podcast. You're

882
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 3: out there, put it out there, so you know, first

883
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 3: of all, congratulations on moralizing yourself that way. Long when

884
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:57,719
Speaker 3: we're gone, this conversation will be replayed. I just tell

885
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:00,600
Speaker 3: my kids play a Facebook at my funeral and you'll

886
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:04,800
Speaker 3: see all the pictures there you go, just hit play

887
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:07,839
Speaker 3: on all the social media's probably won't even run over

888
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 3: the same image twice. So I mean, you know, you know,

889
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:14,160
Speaker 3: with that said, putting yourself out there, you know, trying

890
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,839
Speaker 3: to make a good wake with your boat for others

891
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 3: to like, you know, surf on or wakeboard on. And

892
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:23,640
Speaker 3: and you're the big ship making that wake. That's what

893
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 3: it is, right, And you're the commander of your entire organization.

894
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 3: It's you, It's Commander Aaron Hale, you know.

895
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 4: And it's like invictus. I love that. I want to

896
00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:41,200
Speaker 4: get that tattooed on my chest backwards so I can

897
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:45,600
Speaker 4: raid it. If I had eyes in the back of

898
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:47,560
Speaker 4: your head, you could have them account in my face.

899
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:50,680
Speaker 2: You can put wherever you want. It's right, it is.

900
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:53,759
Speaker 4: It's true. You know, when we feel as though we're

901
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:58,400
Speaker 4: being controlled by outside external forces. Now, there are a

902
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,919
Speaker 4: lot of things we can't control, but when we give

903
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:06,239
Speaker 4: up the ability to control our emotions, emotions are decisions,

904
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:11,600
Speaker 4: then we are victims and there's there's no recovery until

905
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:15,160
Speaker 4: you can take your ownership of your own emotions and

906
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 4: your own decisions. And from there, you know, external forces.

907
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:24,360
Speaker 4: You can influence them, but you can't control that. But

908
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:28,439
Speaker 4: you can control the direction of your life. You can

909
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:32,720
Speaker 4: control how your day goes and the kind of life

910
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 4: you want to live, no matter what happens ahead. And

911
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:39,080
Speaker 4: that's what the most important thing is.

912
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:42,120
Speaker 2: I love that, No, I do. I love it. I

913
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:42,759
Speaker 2: love you too.

914
00:53:42,840 --> 00:53:45,560
Speaker 3: I think you're great, and I think that I think

915
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 3: it's cool that technology allows you to have a conversation

916
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:50,759
Speaker 3: with us due to what you've dealt with with the

917
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:54,200
Speaker 3: Cockler impact plant on your skull. Do you mind just

918
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,160
Speaker 3: turning your head to the side and like pointing to

919
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 3: it so if anybody's watching this on the YouTube, they

920
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:00,120
Speaker 3: can see the whole system.

921
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:00,600
Speaker 2: It's right there.

922
00:54:00,640 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 3: It goes into his ear like that, and then it's

923
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:05,440
Speaker 3: attached to his skull, so it's conducting right through your skull.

924
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:08,680
Speaker 3: It conducts through the skull, right sure.

925
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,959
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a literally those I don't I don't

926
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:16,280
Speaker 4: know what it looks like underneath, but it's under the skin,

927
00:54:16,560 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 4: touched to the skull. It goes into there's a there's

928
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:24,279
Speaker 4: an implant. Of course. The external part is the processor

929
00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 4: which actually collects the audio like a hearing aid, but

930
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:32,680
Speaker 4: it doesn't amplify sound. There's nothing going into the ear

931
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:36,920
Speaker 4: canal because there's nothing, no one's listening. But it takes

932
00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 4: that digital signal and sends it to this tether this

933
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:44,960
Speaker 4: coil here, which is magnetized, and that goes right to

934
00:54:45,239 --> 00:54:49,720
Speaker 4: my auditory nerve in the cochlear bone, and it sends

935
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:53,319
Speaker 4: that digital signal to my brain. And it's a lot

936
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:56,239
Speaker 4: like if it sounds a lot if you called your

937
00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:59,759
Speaker 4: friend on and the friend is at at like a

938
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:03,799
Speaker 4: restaurant and they put their phone on speaker and put

939
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:06,000
Speaker 4: in the middle of the table. You pick up everything

940
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 4: kind of a wall of sound. Everything kind of mixes together.

941
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,400
Speaker 4: It's always it's differently, nothing like the real thing, but

942
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:14,799
Speaker 4: it's way better than the alternative.

943
00:55:14,800 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. One hundred percent.

944
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:19,920
Speaker 3: And I'm grateful to have you on the show today,

945
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 3: and I know I've had your time for over an

946
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:24,120
Speaker 3: hour and we got to talking a little bit before

947
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:26,080
Speaker 3: the show, and I just think that you're great, and

948
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:27,800
Speaker 3: I'd love to have you back on the show and

949
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:31,719
Speaker 3: back and forth. And you know, in my rolodex, if

950
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:32,759
Speaker 3: you knew what I don't know, if you know what

951
00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 3: a rolodex was from back in the day I keep

952
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 3: using that.

953
00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'd love to have you back on. We

954
00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:41,239
Speaker 2: could talk about.

955
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 3: More, you know, real estate things along that line, how

956
00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:48,040
Speaker 3: to how to drive more wealth into somebody's pocket. You know,

957
00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:49,879
Speaker 3: I think a lot of us would like to hear

958
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 3: more about that. And I know that you're like rad

959
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:55,839
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes into the podcast and only ten minutes left,

960
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:57,839
Speaker 3: and you get into the wealth management aspect of making

961
00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:05,040
Speaker 3: us rich, make the lad too, okay, perfect, So it's

962
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 3: point of impact with Aaron Hale who we're talking to.

963
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:11,600
Speaker 3: He is the podcast. And then do you have anything

964
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:13,600
Speaker 3: else you want to put out there, Aaron that you

965
00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:15,880
Speaker 3: would like my listeners and we'll write it out in

966
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 3: the comments down below as well so they can click

967
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 3: on something if you have anything going on.

968
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:23,840
Speaker 4: I'll be raising money for a very special organization building

969
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 4: homes for heroes. And when I'm running this bad water

970
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:31,720
Speaker 4: one one hundred and thirty five miles across Death Valley

971
00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:36,359
Speaker 4: to the Mount Whitney Portal, and I'll be doing it

972
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:42,240
Speaker 4: for an organization that builds especially adapted homes for civili

973
00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 4: severely wounded lawyers and they give them to them mortgage free.

974
00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:51,920
Speaker 4: This house man, right, now is a Building Homes for

975
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:56,279
Speaker 4: Heroes home and I want to help pay it forward

976
00:56:56,480 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 4: as well, So building Homes for Heroes dot org. And

977
00:57:00,880 --> 00:57:04,399
Speaker 4: if you follow my podcast Point of Impact and I'll

978
00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:07,279
Speaker 4: be sharing more about that process and you know my

979
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:12,240
Speaker 4: training and you know the fundraiser to come perfect.

980
00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:14,400
Speaker 3: And I just want to say, go check out Aaron

981
00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:19,760
Speaker 3: Hale's podcast, Go subscribe. That helps us as hosts and interviewers.

982
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 3: It really does. And if you go and just hit

983
00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:25,560
Speaker 3: the notifications, don't forget to comment down below, don't forget

984
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 3: to If it wasn't.

985
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:28,520
Speaker 2: For you, there'd be no us all of those things.

986
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 2: You know. Whatever mister Beast.

987
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:34,120
Speaker 3: Says help us do that, we also and I'm gonna

988
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,000
Speaker 3: shout out mister Beast just in case he hears it,

989
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,200
Speaker 3: because if anybody can fund you, it would be mister Beast.

990
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 2: Mister Beast, are you listening.

991
00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:46,040
Speaker 3: But nonetheless, I want to say on behalf of Soft

992
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 3: Rep Radio, my co host here on the screen, Aaron Hale,

993
00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 3: the guy that puts me behind the microphone, Brandon Webb,

994
00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:55,400
Speaker 3: who thank you so much. Go check out his books

995
00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:58,800
Speaker 3: Brandon Webb, and again check out the merch store and

996
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:02,640
Speaker 3: the book club for soft reap dot com and again,

997
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:04,680
Speaker 3: thank you so much for being here Erin.

998
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:08,400
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me on this question wonderful.

999
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 2: And with that I say peace.

1000
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Self Rep Radio