Nov 11th-Veterans Day, Randy Nantz, George Patton, Marshall Crenshaw, Demi Moore, Leonardo Di Caprio

0:00 I will always do my duty, no matter what the price. I've counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice. Oh, and I don't want to die for you, but if dying's asking me, I'll bear that. Cross with honor. Hello everybody. I am Jeff and welcome to history and factoids about today. Today is November 11th. It's Veterans Day. Today we honor all the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Veterans Day is today because that's when World War I ended. So you'll hear some people talk about Armistice Day. They still celebrate that over in Europe, but no, here it's Veterans Day. But so to thank all our veterans for their service, they get some free food today. That's right. It might seem a little cheap, but hey, they're trying to help them out.

0:57 A lot of local restaurants are having them. Some of your national brands that are giving veterans free food are Applebee's, Bonefish Grill, Chili's, Denny's, Freddy's, Golden Corral, In-N-Out Burger, Red Robin, Ruby Tuesday, Shake Shack, Smash Burger, Texas Roadhouse. Even Circle K and Starbucks are going to give free cups of coffee to our veterans out there. So that's pretty cool. Now, of course, all our veterans are cool. But hey, my co-host today, he's one of the coolest. He's a retired Green Beret. Randy, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody? Hey, everybody. This is Randy Nance, and I'm on the show here on Veterans Day. Couldn't be a better day to do it, you know, and I like that they turned, in this country, we turned Armistice Day into Veterans Day to celebrate all veterans.

1:43 I think that's appropriate. You had the great song, Toby Keith. You couldn't pick a better artist or a person, actually, famous person, uh celebrity to uh honor veterans because he was one of the best i still can't believe that you know the guy isn't here anymore uh but he was always great to veterans and he seemed to get it and it was a perfect. Song welcome glad you like it let's talk a little bit about randy he went into the service a little differently than most he didn't come in right out of high school or right out of college he was married and had a couple kids and then 9-11 happened right. Yeah, you know, I wish I had, you know, I probably should have because once I got in the military, I took to it like a fish in water. You know, it was a calling, you know, that came for me.

2:32 And so, yes, I had, you know, I was 33 and I had a one-year-old and a five or six-year-old when September 11th happened. And, you know, that was the day that called me And I played Army till I was about 15 years old, always loved the military. But there was nothing really going on in the late 80s when I got or mid 80s when I got out of high school. And then even when Desert Storm happened, we all knew it wasn't, you know, was it going to be that big of a deal? But certainly September 11th was a different day and a different event. And I was just as pissed off as everybody else, you know, and it hit me at a kind of a crossing roads in my life. You know, uh, for one personally, I still wasn't doing some of the best things, uh, personally, you know, I had kids, um, and I was transitioning in jobs and, uh, I had a sales job that wasn't going well that I was either going to get fired or quit soon. And, you know, uh, Uh, when we woke up in Dallas, you know, we were like everybody else. We, my daughter was in kindergarten and my son was, uh, probably in, uh, a, I'm not sure he was that day, but he was in daycare. But anyway, we, uh, we picked up my daughter and then later that day or the next day we headed, uh, to, hang on, sorry.

4:01 We ended up leaving and going out east for a few hours out to my now ex-wife's, but we were married at the time, her sisters and then my parents. We were gone about a week and we stayed a couple of days at both places. So I talked certainly to family and friends that whole week. And when we got back to town, I was like, you know what? I think, you know, this was my calling. It's certainly something I felt deep inside, right? I'd worked on an ambulance my first seven years out of high school.

4:41 So I think I always had a service heart, even when I didn't realize it. And so going into the military, it just seemed that was the moment for me to stand up and do something for my country and my community where I hadn't previously been. So I saw that as my chance and, you know, one to help gain back some of the respect for my family and friends that I'd lost from some, uh, personal decisions that I didn't make that didn't do very well. And so, uh, that's kind of how it happened. And I came back and I. Believe it was actually September 27th was the day that I went down from, you know, I had to go see the recruiter first. And then we, uh, they took me down to the Dallas maps on September 27th of 2001. And, uh, went through that whole thing and got the paperwork signed.

5:27 And that was history, as they say now. When you joined, did you just go in to serve or did you know you wanted to be a Green Beret? Well, so, you know, at the time you couldn't just sign up now and it wasn't, but a couple of years later, you could go in and sign up for the recruiter as a Green Beret. You know, you would go to a basic as an infantry position, Then you would go to Airborne. Then you would start the pipeline, a two-year journey in what's called the Special Forces Qualification Course to become a Green Beret. You got to pass through all that first. And so, you know, right now you could sign up in three years later if everything went right and you passed the first time to being on the street, to having a Green Beret and going to group. But I, mind you, that wasn't available. Now, I did want a Ranger contract, but, you know, the guy... uh, told me, and I know this is just what they do. Uh, I didn't at the time. He says, there's no airborne slots left. So, but you know, uh, I've got a deal for you, man. You can sign on a regular infantry guy and it comes with an $ 18, 000 sign on bonus.

6:37 And I was like, well, I like that. So I ended up in the infantry first. Uh, and not in Ranger battalion, which, you know, fortunately never evolved for me. I never even got to go to Ranger school, but, uh, I did have a hard slot. So had I not got injured on the rotation I did when we got back from this trip, I would have been going to Ranger school within a couple of months, but it is what it is. Was it because you said you were 33 when you signed up? Was it kind of weird? Yeah. Cause I mean, you'd be like the old man there, weren't you going through basic? Well, so the funny thing at basic training, yes, but, and there was still some older guys because of September 11th.

7:20 Sure. Right. Because when I went to September 27th, when I went down to maps and the downtown Dallas, it's a four story building that kind of looks like the book depository building. You know what I mean? It's a, it's about the same age, roughly the same size building. Uh, and, It was packed. I mean, it was standing room only. They were kicking 40- and 50-year-old prior service dudes like I am right now, trying to come back in out the door. They wouldn't let them in. But it was astronomical, the amount of people that signed up after September 11th. I wasn't the only one. So... There were, but still predominantly it was younger people. And yes, I was still on the upper echelon in basic training. And certainly I already had a little balding going on, you know. And, you know, even the drill sergeants, I was their age or older than the drill sergeants I had in basic training, you know.

8:18 And they're like, proud. man, are you planning on making a career out of this? I'm like, yes, I am. Yes, sir. They're like, man, you know, because. They know how hard it is to do 20 years, certainly in the infantry and starting at 33, you probably would want to start a little earlier than that. And the last point on that. So even when I got all the way to my first unit, And when I went and signed in, you know, you have to go. And now I'm in a company. I had to go do an interview with the first sergeant. Right. And when I get into his office, this guy's like probably my age or a couple of years younger. And he's like, all right, private man, you know, he says, all right, private Nance, tell me what's the deal, man.

8:59 Are you a drug addict? You're an alcoholic. You can't keep a job. What's your story? Why are you here at 33 years old? And I was like, well, no. I mean, I signed up after September 11th for a start. That's what. So that kind of changed the dynamics right there. But it just goes to show you, if you were previous to that, if you signed up in the military at my age, they just automatically assumed there was something wrong with you, that you would do that. And it really, looking back, it probably was kind of crazy, you know, at 33. But like I said, that was a little bit of a crossroads in my life. And honestly, it turned my entire life around. And for me, my family, my kids, everything. You know, it was a much better decision and it paid off greatly for making that one decision.

9:50 Okay, we're going to get back to your first deployment here in a second. Let's see what happened to entertainment on November 11th. Let's back to 1976. The number one outlier. was Songs of the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder. Steve Miller Band had the number one song with Rockin' Me. Loretta Lynn had the number one country. Song with Somebody Somewhere.

10:44 Lord, here sits a woman just lonesome enough to be right. The number one selling book was Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie. The top movie was Two Minute Warning. A crazy sniper, he plans to kill fans in an NFL game in the stadium. Police, they have to try and stop him. That's Charlton Heston's job. Also has John Cassavetes and Martin Balsam and Bo Bridges in it. So you said earlier that you'd worked in an ambulance for seven years. Did the military, did they use that for your, once you got in? Well, so, you know, I didn't tell, I didn't tell too many people that, but yeah, so some new and in the infantry, then they made sure I went, even though I wasn't a medic, they will send several of the infantry guys to go through what's basic life support.

11:38 So it just basically for stopping bleeding, right. And bandaging and splinting. that kind of stuff. And so I was always on that little thing. But even when I went through later and signed up to go through the Q course, you don't get to pick which job you get But I did pick the Echo, which is the communications guy, which also has to be a smart guy, because I knew if they didn't give me that, they were going to make me a medic, and I wouldn't have a choice. And not that I'd mind being a medic, but at this point, I thought, if I'm going to be in combat with a rifle, you know what I mean? I want that to be my main job and not, unfortunately, being the medic out there in the middle of helping people while they're getting shot at. Yeah.

12:22 You know? Okay. So then you progressed up and became a, they, they moved you into the green berets then? Well, so you have to, so I went to deployment first. I went to the initial invasion of Iraq and when we came back, you know, at that point I knew, uh, that, you know, for one, my way out of just the red, I always knew that I wanted to do more. Right. And I came into contact with some green berets, some ODAs that led us into some areas. where they had channeled all the bad guys in and we just cleaned up. And I saw what they look like opposed to me and the other privates like me look like. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at that guy and go, that's the kind of job I want. And so I knew that I wanted more. It's why I wanted to go to Ranger Battalion. And I wish that I really had I known better, I would have just stuck to my guns with the guy at the map station and I would have gotten it.

13:18 But I didn't know it at the time. And so I bought into that $ 18, 000 sign on bonus and went on to the regular infantry, which, you know, I mean, it's fate. I can't take it back. I probably was with 3rd ID and its best part of life as a unit since World War II. Right. Because they haven't done anything literally since then. And so and the infantry unit I was in was two seven infantry. Right. And each unit has little battle streamers on its guide on where its battalion and company flags are on. Right. And our battalion two seven was called the Cotton Bailers.

14:00 Because we had streamers going all the way back to the War of 1812, where we hid behind the cotton bales and ambushed the British to finish them off for the last time when they thought they were going to come back and take us back over. So that's where we got the name of the Cotton Bailers. Damn fine soldiers by God. And so once I came back from that deployment, I knew that I wanted to do more. I knew I wasn't going to Ranger Battalion. And that was all, it would have been an impossibility. So I went and went up to the recruiter station on most of your installations, certainly army ones, right? Where there's an infantry unit for sure. They have a recruiter station for special forces right there on the post. And so I walked into that office and I signed up and then I went to selection.

14:49 And once I got selected, Then I entered the Q course, as I was talking about earlier. And for me, that was another two years of schools, sometimes training in school like a student, other times out in the field. And it went back and forth and plenty of suck and then plenty of learning. And it's all very fast. If you can't pick up on things quickly, you're probably not going to make it through. Okay, so then let's go to your next deployment then. So then after I went to the Q course, I graduated, got my green beret, got my special forces tab on my uniform. And I reported to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, uh, to fifth special forces group. And, uh, I report, I reported in March of 2006. And in August of 2006, August 19th, I got on a plane, a bird, a plane that flew us, uh, Well, it took us eight days.

15:47 We first landed in Spain, then Germany, then into Baghdad. And that was the second deployment. That was, like I said, August of 2006. We were going in support of OIF-4, Operation Iraqi Freedom 4 at this point. And man, I tell you, the scene in Iraq was a different scene. When I left in 03 after we just kicked all their butt, you know what I mean? Once, most of the people were still pretty happy, the regular people there, the citizens. And, you know, things were still on a high, basically.

16:28 When I came back three years later in late 06, man, the smell of defeat was in the air. The insurgency had flourished. And. nobody was out at night except us and the bad guys. When I say us, I mean special operations guys and the bad guys. And that's it. And it was, man, to tell you the difference of when I went and came back, it's night and day difference. However, it was a fast-paced one because we were a very busy team. We have a lot of good intelligence and we had a great Fox, which is the intelligence guy on the team. And I wish I could show you the matrix. This guy built up of all the bad guys and their entire sales, all the people, different people, both family and friends that were a part of their organizations and what they were doing. And it could tell you the kind of people we were tracking. You know who El Baghdadi was, right?

17:30 Right. He was the guy at one point that was leading ISIS. Now, we've killed him a few years back. But me and my team were already tracking him in 2006 with the cell he was operating, I think for JAM, if I remember right. But don't quote me on that. But he was one of the terrorist cells. Now, ISIS hadn't been developed yet. But he was already in business. And, you know, the people we were going after were big time terrorists. big leaders up high in the organizations, you know. And I think we pulled off over 19 different hits. And one of. Those was when one of the guys that was an Iraqi that we sent back to go through National Guard basic training and then be trained as an interpreter. And they sent him back to Iraq. So now he was in the United States Army as an interpreter. You know, they found that he was an Iraqi that we sent back.

18:26 He got captured. And me and my team blew 17 doors on something called Carada Peninsula on that one hit alone, trying to find him and gather intelligence about what happened to him. And so, unfortunately for me, I didn't even make it through the entire rotation. I think it was day 119. And there are 240 days, so 120 is the actual halfway mark. And on day 119, we were going out on a recon mission. Because we had a tip. The tip is the plan that we put together and it's huge. And that's when we're going to go after some bad guys. We turn in that whole packet to the command and then it goes up the chain and they either approve it, disapprove it, or sometimes it'll get cherry picked from your tier one elements like Delta Force or still Team Six, depending on who is in the area at the time. And we turned in a tip that had 23 bad guys on it. And that's a huge, even when we have six or seven, that's a pretty big package, right? 23, because it was such a bad sell.

19:38 In the area. And it was not too far off route senators in Baghdad. The conventional forces had fenced their entire neighborhood in, fenced it in, because that's how bad these guys were. They were putting out IEDs, EFPs, both the roadside bombs, but the EFP as the shape charge was much more devastating. And they weren't just killing Americans. They were killing a bunch of Iraqis too. These were very, very bad individuals. And, you know, we pulled into the neighborhood and my vehicle got struck by an EFP. And that's the shape charge. So a round went through my vehicle. I didn't even know that something went through, even though it took off half of my butt as it went by. You know, I didn't realize that I'd gotten hit.

20:27 I knew the Humvee rocked. but I wasn't sure what happened. But I had seen a roadblock to my left that I knew wasn't ours, right? We didn't make this. It was garbage. It was a burnt, blown up vehicle. It was a cement block. There was, you know, and so I knew that it was one that the Iraqis had made themselves. And it could have been to keep us out. It could have been between Shia and Sunni neighborhoods. I don't know why it was there, but I'm marking on my paper map because I'm, you know, I'm keeping up with where we are through the drive also. And I see this roadblock. So I'm marking where it is on which road it is. And the next thing I know, the map's gone, the pen's gone. I had some clear lenses on because it was 9.30 or 10 o'clock at night.

21:15 They were gone. And I was sitting there thinking to myself, what just happened? But over the I had some liberators on, much like what you have on now, but for hearing protection, but also plugged into the radios. So I heard my whole team calling off the IED. Drill, which we had rehearsed and refined our SOPs before we ever deployed about this. So when I heard that, I thought to myself, is that us? But then I knew it was. And then the next thing I know, man, boom. My legs went up like a matchstick. One second, I'm sitting here like me and you are right now. Everything's kosher, except I'm trying to figure out what just happened. And then the next thing I know, I've got flames all the way up in my face and it's my legs are both on fire. And so I now have a below the knee amputation on the left side, but I was burned from the knees to the ankles, completely all the way up. There were no first or second degrees.

22:12 They're all third and a little bit of fourth. But, you know, that's when I knew, Houston, we have a problem. The funny thing is, I know from my ambulance time, and I picked up whole families, unfortunately, that didn't make it out of fires, but I've been to plenty of fires. I know you cannot put yourself out. Period. That's why we came up with stop, drop, and roll that every kid learns in kindergarten. And thank God we do. Because when the medic opened the door and was getting me out, as I pour out and land on the ground, he's saying it to me at the same exact time.

22:53 I'm thinking, as I'm going to the ground, I'm automatically thinking stop, drop, and roll. Because I am on fire. Not a little bit. I'm on fire. And, you know. Uh, but the funny thing was instantly when that happened, the first thing I, because of the adrenaline kick and we learned this in training, that's why we train going through a house in particular way or rooms or anything else a thousand times. Because when that adrenaline kick comes in and certainly when you go through doorways where bullets are going past you and you're shooting, the adrenaline goes through the roof. You lose the fine motor skills to your hands. That's why in your movies, you see they can't put something in.

23:37 That's why. It's not funny. It's true life. That's what really happens. But, you know, so you just do what you know to do next. And so even though I know You can't put yourself out. I was trying. And I still remember to this day thinking to myself, why are you doing this? But I couldn't help it. It was my brain. So for three or four seconds, you have no control over what you do when you get one of those real adrenaline shots. That's the true fight or flight. Right. The big one that goes, boom. You might as well have done some drugs. No joke. That's how strong it is. And so, you know, I tried to put myself out. All I did was set my hands on fire, my gloves. And to this day, I don't have fingerprints on the tips of my fingers from those burns. But, you know, that's so, you know, Unfortunately, I didn't realize it at the time. Now, I knew I wasn't going to get to do the hit now, right?

24:36 I knew I wasn't going back to the team house with my buddies, my team members, my brothers. I hadn't thought it all the way through that this was going to end my military career at some point. I don't even know that I realized once they put me under the cache that that I was going to wake up in San Antonio, Texas in the burn ICU at Burke Army Medical Center. You know what I mean? I hadn't thought it all the way through then, but I was mad. I felt no pain when it happened. None. Now I'm sure my body was in shock too. There's no doubt about that from the blood loss, from the plasma that I lost. I was in, but I was also, I mean, I was really pissed off. I wasn't just a little mad. As you can see, I'm a talker, you know, on the way in, my medic starts doing small talk with me and I worked on an ambulance.

25:28 I know exactly why he's doing it because he doesn't know if I have a head injury or not, which I did because I, my vision was so blurry. I couldn't see. And, uh, Um, I, I tell him at some point, right. And, uh, well, let me go through the book. So at first we're, we're, we've now packaged ourselves up and it took us five or six minutes. What seemed like an hour to raise the B team back up, to let them know where the vehicle was and that we were leaving right. And headed to the cash, which luckily for me was only 15 minutes away. and we got there fast. So I got there probably within 45 minutes of getting blown up, which probably helped save my life. They did tell me in the hospital, had it been back in the Vietnam days even, I wouldn't have survived my injuries for infection and a bunch of other reasons. But as we're riding back now, the medic says to me, he's right next to me and we're all piled in because we had to.

26:28 Leave a Humvee behind and we only had three. So now the five people that were in the Humvee that got blown up, including myself, we're all piled in the other two Humvees and he's next to me and he says, hey man, I know you're burned, but I didn't really get to check you good. Do you think you have any broken bones? Is there any pain anywhere else? And the ironic thing is a couple of minutes before that, a voice came in my head and said, you should check your butt. I kid you not. I heard this in my head. It said, you should check your butt. And I reach back and it's all slick and my butt's gone. And when I pull my hand up my glove, not only is it black from the burns, but there's plasma and blood and Some other stuff stuck to it.

27:10 And I was like, oh man. And so he said, when he says that, I say, hey, I said, yeah, I think my ass is gone. And he gets mad. And I won't repeat exactly what he said because it had some choice words in there. But basically he said, I'm serious, man. And I said, no, man, I'm serious. I just reached back. And I'm pretty sure my ass is gone. See, I think he thought when I told him that, that maybe I thought I was dying. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So he gets mad. No, I'm serious. Or that I was joking. It was either he thought I thought I was going to die or I was joking or something. But he's like, no, man, I'm serious. And I said, no, man, I'm serious. I just reached back and I'm pretty sure my ass is gone.

27:56 He's like, oh. Well, let me look. And we're piled in. So he's going, I'm going to pull your pants this way. You shift as much as you can. And so I do. And I feel my butt come off there where he can see. And he just goes, oh. And then he places me back. He's like, man, you went through some shit back there, didn't you? I'm like, yeah. And this is where he starts all that little small talk. Then he started asking me little questions. And I said, hey, Matt, that's his name. Matt, listen, I know what you're doing and why you're doing it. He said, I said, so, you know, if anything changes, if I feel funny, if I don't feel anything at all, if anything changes.

28:37 I will let you know. But right now, I'm really pissed off and I don't feel like talking. And to this day, I can see because it's dark and he's in front of me so I can see the windshield past his head. So I could see the silhouette of his helmet, you know, and I see it starting to go like this. And he goes, you know what? I'm going to take that from you right now. And so he didn't ask me any more questions. Now, again, it was only five or 10 more minutes and we were actually in the cache. So at some point he did give me a hit of morphine. And he said, I said, I didn't feel a thing. He goes, well, let me give you a note. I said, no, don't bother.

29:21 We're almost to the hospital. Say that y'all might need it down the road somewhere. And so, but yeah, that was, you know, it effectively, it was a few years later, but it effectively, that was the end of my military career right there. So they do like in the movies and put the M on your head or anything with your blood? Well, if you're going to put a place, a tourniquet on someone, it doesn't matter if you're a civilian medic in the civilian world or you're in the military. If somebody is bleeding and you have to put a tourniquet on them, you definitely have to put a T on their forehead and you want to notate the time and date that you put it on. Now you might do that somewhere around the tourniquet. You're not going to write on the face, but you do want to make sure you put a T on their forehead. So anybody, any medical professional that sees them at any level after that, they see that T they know right away, there's a tourniquet that they need to check.

30:14 Okay. So before we get to now, now you're getting ready to head to San Antonio, you know, after you get, okay. So we pretty much out of it the whole way there. Well, so once I got to the cache, I was conscious through the entire way. And like I said, it was only maybe a 10 or 12 minute ride, unfortunately for me. But it was bumpy because you have to go over some. But anyway, I get in there and I do remember the company commander, which in SF, it's a major and not a captain. And then instead of a first sergeant, you have a company sergeant major. Both of those individuals met me at the hospital and were at my bedside before they put me under to go to surgery. Once they put me under to go to surgery, I did not wake up. It was five days later. So this happened on December 22nd of 06th.

31:08 I miss Christmas. My kids did too, unfortunately. But I don't remember anything of those five days at all. I remember, you know, the next thing I remember once they came to me and said, hey, we need to get you to surgery. We're putting something in there right now. Count to 10, basically, like they always do. You get about three or four, you're gone. It was literally like the 27th before I woke back up to where I remember. And, you know, at that. Time, I remember waking up and now I was in such excruciating pain. I didn't have to ask if I was still, I didn't have to wonder if I was still alive or not.

31:50 I knew I was. For a amount of pain I was in. And then again, my ex-wife is there. We're still married. She wasn't my ex then. But I remember waking up and I opened my eyes and she's looking at me and she says, I love you. She says, do you know where you are? And I'm thinking to myself, I'm looking at her face to face. I'm thinking, man, I was just in Baghdad, but I know she's not in Baghdad. So if I'm looking at her face to face, I have no. Idea where I'm at. I just, you know, and I had inhalation wounds. So my voice was, it sounded terrible for over two months. I had big red bleeds in both eyes from the blast.

32:33 for a couple of months too. You know, when your eyes get the big red bleeds on them, everybody's seen them. Both eyes had them. And I just remember her telling me that and I'm thinking to myself, and all I can say was, no. And she says, you're in San Antonio. And I'm like, Texas? Which I'm glad because I'm born and raised in Texas. So it was, you know, as it turned out, it was a whole lot easier for my family to come to San Antonio, Texas. And the whole family came through. My parents, both parents, even though they were divorced, my dad and stepmom and my real mom, they were there. My mom was there the entire two months we were there. My dad and stepmom were there for a month. So everybody came through. And it was so much easier than had I been at Walter Reed. But if you're burned, you go to Brooke Army Medical Center. It doesn't matter what service you are or where you were burned. If you're burned, the burn center is in San Antonio, Texas.

33:27 Okay, so now you're in San Antonio. Let's see what happened in history over November the 11th, and we're going to come back and see where you go from there, okay? Yep. All right, so what happened in November the 11th? In 1750, the first college secret society was formed, the FHC, or Flat Hat Club. It was a William and Mary. It's out in Virginia. Now, it's not considered the first fraternity because they actually used Latin and not Greek. FHC stood for Fraternias Cognis and Humanitarias, Brotherhood, Knowledge, and Humanity. Most famous member, Thomas Jefferson. Yeah, he was FHC back in the early 1760s. Now, the first fraternity, if you want to, that was Phi Beta Kappa in 1776, but it was also William and Mary. Do you like chrysanthemums?

34:14 What's that? Do you like chrysanthemums, the flower? I think I do. If I saw one, I'm sure I would. I think I know what you're talking about. Anyway, they're native to China. They came to England in 1790, and they came to the United States in 1998. Huh. 1998? 1798. Okay, 1798. Okay. Mary Walker. She graduated from Syracuse University Medical School. She was one of the first women to get a medical degree. She married a guy that she went to school with, and they started up a medical practice in Rome, New York. When the Civil War broke out, Mary, she volunteered to be a surgeon in a union hospital in Washington, D.C., While she was there, she decided to cross lines to go treat some civilians who needed her help. The Confederates, they captured her. They arrested her. They said that she was a spy. See, the Rebs didn't believe the Yanks had no women doctors. She eventually was released in a prisoner exchange. Today, in 1865, Dr. Mary Walker, she was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroics for treating soldiers during the war. Mary's the only woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor. You ever spend any time in Washington State?

35:24 No, well, very little. But, you know, I've gone up there a few times to go to Fort Lewis. Okay. Joint base Lewis-McChord now. Yeah. Well, today is happy birthday, Washington. Today, in 1889, Washington became the 42nd state. They started out calling it Columbia, but Congress didn't like that, so they changed the name to Washington after George Washington. It is the 18th biggest state by area, 13th biggest by population. Capital is Olympia.

36:14 Highest point is Mount Rainier, 14,409 feet. Washington State Bird is the American goldfinch. Fish is the steelhead trout. Flower is a rhododendron. Mammal is the marnet and the orca. Tree is a western hemlock. Vegetable, sweet onion. Food, of course, is the apple. Washington, their state sport is pickleball. See, actually, that's where pickleball was invented in 1965. Some people born in Washington. Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Bill Gates, Bob Barker, John Elway, Jim Caviezel, Sam Kinison. Kenny G and all the rest of those grunge metal guys of the 1990s. Yeah, pretty much all of them were born there in the evergreen state. As I said earlier, World War I ended today in 1918. It was the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Over 16 and a half million people were killed in that war.

37:03 Now the United States did not sign the peace treaty back then. You know, when the whole world signed it. Now the U.S. Senate would not ratify that treaty. So the United States and Germany had to do their own treaty about three years later. Well, 1921, President, have you ever gone to Arlington National Cemetery? Yes. Well, it's today in 1921, President Warren G. Harding, he dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And it's in Arlington National Cemetery, but it was just the one soldier. Now there are three. There's one from World War I, one from World War II, and one from Korea. Now there was a tomb for Vietnam, but with modern DNA, they were actually to figure out who that guy was, so his family took his remains back home. But there's still a tomb there, but it's kept empty to honor all the MIAs from the Vietnam War. 1926, Route 66 opened up. It ran from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. 2,488 miles. Wow, that's really meandered. That's why it was replaced by the interstate system. You can still drive some of it. It'll still have old paintings of Route 66. Most of it's just turned into other highways. Now, you're probably wondering, why is he talking about this? 1961, Strapping Horse, Netherlands. A couple, they were caught committing adultery. See, the village, they decided they needed to be punished. Well, there's no law against committing adultery. So the villagers, they drove the two adulterers around town in a wagon filled with manure to humiliate them. Nowadays, they'd probably get their own reality TV show.

38:35 Right, which smells just as bad, right? Exactly. Okay, so now you're in San Antonio, and now the pain hit. Man, yeah. So when I woke up, man, it was, there was a significant amount of pain, obviously. And, you know, I had a lot of nerve damage, had severe muscle tissue loss, which was both. So I lost half of both cheeks, basically. You know, which I tell veterans, you know, when I speak at veteran events, when I tell them that, you know, I lead into it, but can you believe that the VA gave me 50% for each cheek on the ratings, you know, everybody knows about the VA's ratings, 50%.

39:16 For each cheek. And it always gets a good laugh out of veterans. So, and then I, that's when I lead it. That's when I follow up with, you know, so now I'm a legitimate half-ass and no one can ever take that from me. I can't get it back either. Unfortunately. That is literally true. Yes, it is. My boss, the. Guy I worked for in SOCOM, he, he was a Colonel in the air force as a nurse when he retired from and became the first director there of the SOCOM Care Coalition, which is what I worked at when I was at SOCOM for five and a half years. After my injury, that's where they sent me. But he gave me some toilet paper that actually literally says half-ass on it. And, you know, the ironic thing is the first time I ever met the guy, I still don't remember. He came to my room because they had just stood this thing up to go take care of people that ended up like myself in the military medical system, which is a nightmare for families and for injured.

40:18 Guys and gals, right? So the general of SOCOM then, General Doug Brown, built this program called the CARE Coalition. And Jim Lorraine was the first director of it. He came to my room when I was still in ICU. The only thing I really remember was a short guy, short guy in a blue, a Navy sport coat. I think gray slacks came into my room and spoke with my then wife, you know, and I, as I mentioned, I don't remember much of it. I don't even know what he said, but it made a big difference for my wife because basically this guy came in and said, Hey, I'm from SOCOM. We know you guys are here. We're tracking your husband. And we're going to follow you guys from life from here on out.

41:04 So if you need anything, then give us a call. And that provided a lot of comfort for her. You know what I mean? Because your unit isn't there. Like my command wasn't there. They're still doing command stuff and probably, well, they. Were still deployed. So, so it was very good for my wife, but that's the interesting thing about it. While I was in San Antonio, who I ended up working for later and came by and early in the days when I was in ICU. So, Yeah. Okay. So how, I know they kept you in the military for a while, about what, five years after that? Yeah. So let me think about that for you. Yep. In 2006, December 22nd of 06 is when it happened.

41:47 And then I actually finally medically retired November. 4th of 2012. Now I had surgeries and I'd had two amputations, an amputation. And a revision. through all that. And there was a lot of, and the reason they helped, not only did I have a job that I was doing for other wounded folks, and that was all branches that fall under SOCOM, but they kept me on until they thought, you know, till effectively I'd hit medical maximum, maximum medical benefit. We had done everything we could do to try to save me, to be able to stay on active duty and to continue on. And when that, played itself all the way out. That was November of 2012.

42:35 So that fight or recovery, are they hand in hand or is the mental or physical? Does one of them kind of outweigh the other one? Oh man. So I tell people, if you, for, for, if you, if you, if you go through this yourself or you're in the middle of it now, or you have a family member that is, or is fairly new, you should read this, the book, the five stages of grief, right? Because although that book is written for when we have loss, when a family member or a loved one, a friend dies, that's what the book was intended for. But when you end up like this, and things like this, life-changing events like what I went in, certainly negative life changes, happen in fractions of a second. Right. And in that fraction of a second, it took everything that I had that had gotten me to the point where I was on that team in that moment. And so, uh, you know, I kind of forgot where I was headed with that, but our point is, you know, uh, What did you ask me again?

43:42 The mental. Mental. That's right. So the five stages of grief are, you know, because in the beginning, most of us are in denial. The first thing I said besides, no, you know, after I talked to my wife and the first thing I said when people started talking to me is I'm going back. I'm going to get over this. I'm going to get past it. I'm going to get through. I'm going back to the team and I'm going back to Iraq or Afghanistan. I'm going back. That was a little bit of denial, you know, is what that is, what it turned out to be because it never came to fruition, but you go through initial stages or denial, but at some point it doesn't, everybody's different.

44:23 There's no real rhyme or reason to the order. Everybody goes through different parts, but you're going to go through denial. At some point, you're going to be very mad about it, right? You're going to be pissed off. At some point, you're going to be at a low spot. You're going to be depressed about it, right? And, All that I went through, you know, within about a two year period, I went through all those stages because the. First I was in denial, I'm going to go back. And then even though I progressed quite a bit more than they expected me to in the beginning, When you're injured to this degree, we're talking two or three years of recovery, right? To even get back to anything that resembles normal again, two or three years. So there's a lot of time in there where it seems like you're not getting anywhere. But you have to look back and see how far you've come so that you keep going because it's very monotonous and it takes a long time.

45:18 So you go through all those. The mental part is just as important as the physical, if not more. Because every single thing we do, from the time we learn to pick up a fork to feed ourselves, it's 70% mental. It took 70% mental practice. Capacity to learn how to grab your fork the appropriate way, scoop some food and put it in your mouth and. Pull it away. Regardless of how physical we think that is, that's 70% mental. So everything we do is 70% mental. And when it comes to recovery, Man, it is hard to stay in a good mental space for the reasons I said, because no matter when you find your gains, there's plenty of plateaus, but you have to keep going every day so that you can get past that next plateau. And one of the things I told people at the Adaptive Training Foundation when I was training other disabled folks there is, you know, if you're not willing to fight through to get to the other side, you're never going to make it. You'll give up somewhere in the middle of it. And a lot of that's mental. Some of it is physical. And certainly I had to learn how to walk again. You know, as much as we think walking is physical, think about how we, you know, anybody that gets a brain injury, why do they have to learn how to walk again?

46:39 Because that's how much mental capacity that we're using just to walk. And learn how to walk. And your brain gets used to it. So of course, it's like breathing. We don't have to think about it when I get up and walk. I don't have to think about every step. But if you ever had to learn how to walk again, you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. And you absolutely do. I still remember how scared I was when I had realized in the beginning I was going to have to use both my hands in bed to move my legs where I wanted them to be. And I still remember how scary that thought was. And they did initially tell me I may never walk again.

47:20 Fortunately, that did not happen or come to fruition, but it's a scary thought. Was it the burns that caused you to have to have your leg amputated? It was the nerve damage, yes. And nobody knows exactly if it was the nerve damage up in my rear end or if it burned deeper down here because my left leg was next to where the fuel tank was under the floor. Maybe it got more fuel. No one, we asked that specific and the doctors just didn't have a, okay, this led to this led to that answer. It was, you have nerve damage, whether it was all from the fire or, from the rear end injury or.

48:00 Both, nobody really knows. But I do know that this leg, my left leg was way more painful. When I woke up in San Antonio, when I talked about when I woke up, I was in ICU for a month and a half. And the whole time, at least the first four or five weeks, I couldn't even put a sheet over my left leg. That's how painful it was, not even a sheet. And it was swollen. Like the ankle in my right leg was 15 inches and the ankle in my left was 19 inches. So nobody really knows what the disparity or why that happened. It's just one of those things that the body does that we don't know. And all I know is that I was dragging it.

48:45 Around, right? I couldn't move my foot at all. My right foot was always, always good, but my left foot, I was unable to articulate like that. You know what I mean? Right. For whatever reason, the nerve in my calf must've been dead. So then after two years of working on it, they just said, we're sorry, we're just going to have to take it off. Well, no, that was an elective amputation, you know? So, uh, I still had intentions of going back and actually I even had the opportunity to move up, so to speak to a tier 1 element. And all I had to do was come back to active duty, and I would have got to go do that. You know, being at SOCOM, we'd already greased the skids. We'd already made the right connections. I'd already filled out the packet, went through the whole thing. So if I would have made it back from the amputation, I wouldn't have just went back to group.

49:37 I would have went back to a Tier 1 element. And continued on with my career because I intended on finishing out the entire 20 years, even though I'd have been 53 at that point. I was going to do that. And, you know, everybody thought doctors, orthopedics, prosthetists, everybody. And I interviewed all kinds of folks before I had that initial amputation. Three orthopedics, three prosthetists, and including one prosthetist that was for a tier one element now. And he was in that tier one element when he got injured in Black Hawk Down. The movie Black Hawk Down during the Mogadishu thing, he lost his leg in one of those birds that got shot down. And then he continued on that unit for nine more years. And when I spoke to him, he was the prosthetist for that unit.

50:27 He was the last guy I spoke to. And everybody thought I'd have a good outcome because of how well my grafts took the first time, how good they looked and everything else. But it hadn't been done before putting a, like my residual limb is all graft skin, which is only 22 one hundreds of an inch thick between tissue and air or bone and air. It's very, very thin stuff. And it was very difficult once I got into a prosthetic, which led to three revisions. So four amputations in all. And, you know, after the last one, that's when we pretty much decided Randy wasn't going anywhere. No tier one element, no going back to group. Randy was going to medically retire.

51:14 While you were going through all that though, your job, you were actually helping other service people, right? Yep. So once, so I was at Brook Army Medical Center until August of 2007. To August 2007, I got to come home and we drove back to, well, we flew into Atlanta and then we drove from there the rest of the way to Fort Campbell. And we finally came back home as a family when they left on December 23rd. And so, you know, but I was still bandaged from head to toe. I was an absolute monster beast when it happened. I was 239 pounds. I worked out three to four hours every single day and ran on some days because I had to keep up with the running. And so, but when I left the hospital a little over a month and a half later, I weighed 185 pounds.

52:07 I'd lost 60 pounds. from this event. So when I showed back up to group, everybody took one look at me. They didn't even recognize me. I was this beanpole. I was still bandaged from head to toe. I was still all jacked up. And I'm going to tell you, Jeff, this is the first time that I knew I was in real, real trouble. You know what I mean? I was still in the back of my mind thinking we're going to skate through this somehow. I'm going to do this somehow. But when I showed back up to group in August, you know, they took one look at me and they were like, hey, man, You don't got to come to work every day. And right there, that one statement, you don't even have to be in special operations. You just be in the military period. They tell you, you don't got to come to work every day. You got a problem.

52:57 You know, I understand why they did it now because it's a fast moving train, man. And they were fixing to deploy again. They don't need some guy bandaged from head to toe that just lost 60 pounds that no one can even recognize walking around anymore. Because it's not the kind of thing you want. Plus they, you know, now there's an actual program there to help wounded guys get back up to the level they need to be. And it's called Thor three. It did not exist when I was there. So they didn't know what to do with me except sending me to all my medical appointments because I was still a patient in fact. And so, you know, that's, yeah, it was a rough time. It was a real rough time. You know, and then I also now, you know, uh, In my youth, one of those bad things I did was I had a serious cocaine addiction in my early to mid-20s. And I had to go to a halfway house. It was one of the hardest things I ever did to get over, right?

53:53 And I learned, you know, one of those things, I had to look myself in the mirror and say, you know what? This isn't who you were supposed to be. This isn't how you were supposed to turn out. And furthermore, I'm not going to go out like this. And for me, that was the bottom. And it's what I tell people because now that people know, during my military. Career, I never uttered a word of it. Nobody in the military ever knew that about me until after I got out. But people come to me, family members certainly all the time. Well, how did you, what is the, is there, you know, everybody wants the magic pill, right? Right. It does not exist. And that's exactly what I tell them. The only reason I got over it is because I looked myself in the mirror and I decided I was tired of living that life and I didn't want to do that anymore. And I wanted to be the person I'm supposed to be. I said, until every one of us gets to that moment, there's nothing you can do for that person.

54:45 You can't force them to do it. You can't talk them into it. But I found myself in the same situation because now, you know, they had me. When I left the hospital, I was on 13 different medications three times a day. I was on methadone, 60 milligrams of methadone a day. I should have been drooling on myself, you know, because I still remember when I found out I was on methadone. I was on an ambulance. I know what the methadone clinic is. A lot of people didn't. I did because I worked with heroin addicts. And I know when we pick up a heroin addict, my job was to strap this guy in where he can't move. Because when the medic gives him the Narcan, this person's going to come out, man or woman, is going to come out fighting mad because you just run their eye. And they will fight, bite, spit, do whatever. You have to strap those people in. So when the nurse came in when I was in ICU, probably three weeks into it, when I'm finally coming out of it a little bit, you know what I mean?

55:43 And she says, well, Sergeant Nance, it's time for your methadone. And I freak out. I'm like, you know, I'm cussing. What the hell are you people doing? That's what they give heroin addicts. Why are y'all giving me methadone? And she's like, she leaves the room. And about 10 minutes later, the doctor comes in. Sartinans, Sartinans, settle down, settle down. Yes, you're on methadone. But here's the truth. So all these other pain relievers were giving you, I was on Dilaudid. I was on Fentanyl. I was on Lyrica. And I was on Percocet. And all of those or strong pain relievers.

56:29 But he said, but the problem is they're all fast acting and they're also short-lived. So methadone is your all-day pain reliever and it streamlines all the rest so they work better. I'm like, okay. But I will tell you, that and the fentanyl was so hard to come off of The only thing I had to draw on was the experience of my first addiction with cocaine. And it probably saved my life again because many of the guys I was with never came off the pain meds. They're probably still taking them to this day. And many have committed suicide and other things. So, you know, but I knew that I had to come off of them. You know, I never went and I was on, I had a bad cocaine addiction.

57:17 I mean, a real bad one. But I never went through withdrawals like what I went through with fentanyl and methadone, man. I, you know, because at some point the pain management guy wouldn't take me off of it. And I said, you know, so I said, you know, I told my, okay, I know, I know how to do this. And I just quit cold turkey one day. And this was probably somewhere in November, December 2007. And within a day, man, I'm like in a fetal position, you know, and I'm in a bad way. I'm sick. I never felt nothing like this before. And my ex-wife comes in and she's all mad at me. She thought I OD'd. She's like, I told you that was going to happen. I'm like, no, I haven't had anything. She calls the doctor. He says, no, he can't do that.

58:01 He will die if he does. You're going to have to step, wean yourself off. You can't just quit cold turkey. But I had to do that myself. And so I came off all that pain medication by Christmas Day of 2007 was the last time, with the exception of my amputations that happened afterwards. And then I took a medication when I was in the hospital. But once they released me three or four days, five days later, I never had to take the medication again. And I still haven't to this day. But I credit that to knowing, you know, There's no easy way to get rid of a drug addiction. There's no easy way. Alcoholism is the same way. The only way is the hard way. And you have to decide.

58:44 So that's where that led me because the amount of burns, you know, missing half a butt, which is a big deal, you know, then the surgery for them to pull that all back together and stitch it up. I was in a lot of pain. There was nothing they could do but give me more. And, you know, unfortunately, at some point, you know, you have to come off of it. And that's not an easy thing to do. And in fact, I'll tell you, it took six months for my head to clear out. And I know this because I was still going to physical therapy. I'm at SOCOM now, right? And I'm going to medical appointments and probably hyperbarics at this time. I was in a hyperbaric chamber also. And I'm coming back on the installation and I'm driving to the back gate of SOCOM so I.

59:27 Can go to work. And the memorials back there, they have a nice memorial for all the special operations guys that have died from Vietnam on, including current times. And it's an absolutely very nice memorial and monument. And so they're going to have a ceremony there later that day or the next day coming up. And they're running through the rehearsals and they're playing that Tim McGraw song about the soldier that doesn't come back. I can't remember the name of it. But I had my windows rolled down because it's Florida and I'm cruising into work and I hear this. And when I hear this song, all of a sudden I start crying. And when I, Jeff, when I say crying, I'm talking about crying and babbling like a little baby. I mean, I'm blubbering, I'm crying uncontrollably. And I have no idea why.

1:00:18 And now I find myself, it doesn't stop. So I go, I park in my parking spot and I hang out in the truck for a little bit. Because at SOCOM, you don't just get to go walk in the door. You have to badge in. And there's a turnstile and all this stuff. And I'm crying like a sniveling baby. So I'm looking. I'm making sure the path is clear. There's no one that can see me. I've got my sunglasses on. And I leave. I run all the way inside. And fortunately at this time, my supervisor was a female. And she was a major. And I go into her office. And I'm just crying like a baby. She goes, what is wrong? I said, I have no idea, but I can't stop crying. She sent me home. I cried the entire rest of the day and there was nothing I could do about it.

1:01:04 Nothing. And I'm a tough guy. I mean, I fought when I was in, I was the fist fighter when I was a kid. You know, I joined the army late and fought through all that. I'm a fighter. But here I am crying like a little baby and I don't want nobody to see me. It lasted the entire day. And within a few days, I think it finally kind of settled. And then I realized, you know, that was from everything that happened. So that whole year I was on pain medication, although I thought I had feelings, although I thought I had resolved issues mentally, you know, the reality was I was so snowed under, I hadn't felt a thing.

1:01:46 Not one thing that entire time. And in that one moment that day, every bit of it came crashing down on my shoulders all at once from the injury to the recovery, the pain, all of it came, including the stress that put on my family, you know, Because as a soldier and certainly as a Green Beret, I thought there was no in-between. I'd either be outright killed or I'd come home unscathed physically anyway, like the rest of the times. I never, ever considered there was an in-between. Like, what if you got severely wounded and now you're all jacked up and crippled? What would happen? I just never thought about that.

1:02:28 So, you know, that all came down in one moment and I cried like a baby. And that was probably because it took that six months for my head to clear out from all the pain and the narcotics. We'll see what's born on November the 11th. Let's just start with old blood and guts. Four-star general George Patton, born in San Gabriel, California in 1885. Now, although he's considered a really brilliant tactician and strategist, actually they credit modern tank warfare over him, he wasn't very good book smart. No, he had a little trouble reading and writing, especially math. Yeah, he actually had to repeat his first year at West Point. Yeah, it took him five years to graduate. They held him back after his freshman year. But in 1912, Patton, he was in the Olympics in Stockholm. He got fifth place in the pentathlon. Now, I think we all know pretty much, if you want to know about Patton, there's a pretty good movie about him. I mean, I don't know if you've seen it or not.

1:03:21 Yeah. There's a lot of information out there about him. Yeah. He married in 1910. He had two daughters and one son. 1945, after Germany surrendered, Patton, he went out pheasant hunting there on the German countryside. He was hit by an army truck. His little car got smashed. Ended up dying 12 days later. He was 60 years old. I can't stand to see you sad. I can't bear to hear you cry. You can't tell me what you need. All I can do is wonder why. That was Marshall Crenshaw.

1:04:08 He's 73, born in Detroit. Now, he started out in the musical Beatlemania. He played John Lennon. He released his first album in 1982. Someday, someway, that's his biggest hit. He did play Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba. He's been married since 1978. Get this, he went to high school with Curtis Armstrong, the actor. You know who he is? He played Booger in Revenge of the Nerds. Actress Demi Moore. She's born in Roswell, New Mexico. She's 64 today. Started off in the Soap Opera General Hospital. Then she did the movie St. Elmo's Fire, About Last Night, Ghost, A Few Good Men. She was nominated for an Oscar a couple years ago for The Substance. Everybody was kind of surprised she didn't win that. They thought she was going to get it. Now, when she was 18, she married a guy named Freddie Moore. They divorced after three years, but she kept his name. She liked being called Demi Moore better than Red Demi Guyans. Then she married Bruce Willis for 13 years, and they had three daughters. Then she married actor Ashton Kutcher for eight years. Bruce Willis, he actually went to their wedding. Actress Calista Flockhart, 62.

1:05:06 She was born in Freeport, Illinois. Hit big on the TV show Ally McBeal. Later on Brothers and Sisters. 2001, she adopted a little baby boy. Then she married Harrison Ford in 2010. Actress Alison Doody. She's 60. She was born in Dublin, Ireland. She made her movie debut playing Jenny Flex, a Bond girl in View to Gil. She was 18 years old. She's still the youngest Bond girl. She was Elsa in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That's the one with Sean Connery. That's his dad. She's in Major League Two, King Solomon's Mine. She married once for 12 years and has two daughters from it. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio. He's 52. Born in Los Angeles. As a kid, he was on the TV show Growing Pains. Been nominated for Oscars for What's Eating Gilbert Great, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Willful Ostrich, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I think that was his best acting job, but now he won his Oscar for The Revenant. Now, according to the Leonardo DiCaprio creed, he will not start dating a woman who's over 25 years old.

1:06:06 That's what I. Love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age. But get this, Leonardo, his girlfriend, she's past that. She's probably 25 when they started. But anyway, he's dating his oldest girlfriend ever. She's 28 years old. All right, Randy. So filling everybody in. So we know about your struggle and all that kind of, what are you doing now? Well, I, you know, uh, recently, uh, one of the main things I do is, uh, when I've been training, uh, other adaptive athletes, what we call them, right. Instead of disabled folks, because the reality is all of us are athletes. Now, some of us are gifted more in that area than others, but the reality is if you're a human being, you are an athlete. And so we try to revive that back out of them, but, uh, You know, as I mentioned earlier, for me, it was one of those things that I, you know, once I showed up at the Adaptive Training Foundation, although I'd been through lots of different kinds of training, it came along at the.

1:07:04 Right time in my life. And it helped me take my life back, right, after being disabled through injury. And so I saw the value of that, of how important that is to be able to give somebody's life back to them after something like this happens, or maybe they were even born with it. Because once somebody is injured enough, they get permanently disabled for the rest of their life. They generally have a long list of things they can't do anymore from the doctor, from themselves, their family. But we would help them erase that list because the truth is, for the most part, you can do anything you still want to do. There might be some extra steps you have to take or do now.

1:07:46 But the reality is, and then, you know, again, to see people's faces and then to see the energy that comes out of them after you show them how to hand them back their life after disability is a big deal. You know, and it doesn't matter if you're a veteran or civilian. Disability is disability and you're all in the same boat. And so that's, that's one of the things. And then I'm on a, I'm on a, another. Podcast that I do, uh, three times a week where I'm a panelist and I render my opinion. So, so you already talked about how you had lift weights all the time and run and everything like that. How long, I don't know if you had a pity party or you just were driven. How long did it take you for you started to actually start working out again?

1:08:29 Well, so there was. So when I went to the Adaptive Training Foundation, it was another one of those things. It wasn't just, I mean, I described earlier, but I turned 50 and the job that I had with another, with the foundation was, The mission was very dear to my heart. We separated after four and a half years and now I was unemployed. You know, I thought the best years of my life were behind me. And not to mention, I've been working in a foundation. So, you know, when you work for a nonprofit, you're basically an indentured slave. Yes, they're paying you a salary, but is it going to cover the actual scope of the work you do and the amount of hours you're going to have to put in?

1:09:11 Absolutely not. And so I had let myself go for those four and a half years after coming off active duty. And, you know, I'd gotten a little plump and, you know, things had shifted and changed, which normally happens and certainly at that age. So, you know, that was probably because after my injuries, right, I was driven to come back. So that I didn't really hit that spot. Now, I was in denial at times, like I mentioned, and there were times I was mad and I even went through some depression, but I never really stopped. Until I had a full-time gig where I was traveling all the time and just didn't have the time and didn't make the time.

1:09:52 You know, that's one of those things you've got to do for yourself or you won't. And so I think about four years had gone by. So that was probably the longest, right? And I hadn't trained. So when I went back into the Adaptive Training Foundation, what it is, it's a nine-week program where three days a week for an hour and a half, you go in there and get your you-know-what smoked. No joke. We train you like you're a professional athlete. You have a head trainer and you have one, two, three or four support trainers with them. And all of them are training that individual based on their what their goals are and what their disability is. And since we're all disabled, too, we don't feel sorry for you. And we're not going to do it for you. We're going to make you do it yourself. Now, we will do it next to them and do it with them. But we're not going to do it for them. And we're not going to feel sorry for them. Because the worst thing you can do, and family and friends do it all the time because they feel terrible for you. They start doing everything for you.

1:10:50 The next thing you know, this disabled person can't do anything. And that's bad. You know, they didn't do it on purpose and intentionally, but the reality is you can't feel sorry for them. You have to make them do it themselves. And, you know, that is the part I'm talking about. If you're not willing to fight through to get to the other side, you will never make it. So do people come to you with goals? Like, I don't know, like running a 5k or something like that. Yeah, absolutely. Or longer. Some are a marathon. Now that you have Spartan and Tough Mudder, you have all these obstacle course races out there, or it could be on a bike. You know, now sit down, bike, skiing, you name it, all the above. We've had every type of goal. But that's one of the good things about the Adaptive Training Foundation. When you go through that nine-week program, each week builds on the next, right? And it gets harder all nine weeks because you've only got them for nine weeks. You transform those people. This is not a joke.

1:11:48 I'm not kidding either. The nine weeks of training is like a professional athlete. You are going to, each week, you feel tired until the very end, and you finally start pulling out of that. But literally, we could take our athletes and take a picture in the beginning of And take a picture of the end and sell those pictures to any supplement on the market. And they would be happily use those pictures saying they used their product. You know what I mean? Right. That's how big the difference is. It is profound. Do you have a favorite what you like to do? You know, I used. To be a gym rat, you know, but that's what we grew up with and have. Now I'm more into the strength and conditioning, right, which is movement-based and more endurance.

1:12:34 I guess the older I've got, the more, you know, I don't want to be this big muscle-bound guy anymore. It's too much weight. But I like doing strength and conditioning movements and agility more. Those are what I find the most because I like to play golf. You know what I mean? I like to hunt. I like to be outdoors. I like to do stuff outdoors. I would do a whole lot more hiking. But like right now, I've been on crutches going on nine months this year because I'm having issues with my residual limb. Serious or just have to work through it? Well, it's a hole. So it's kind of working through it. I'm getting a new leg built right now. But I've been out of it so long and I've been in a wound clinic The wound clinic has great products, but what, you know, it grows that skin back, but it's real soft.

1:13:21 So it has to get used to being inside a prosthetic. So, you know, it's serious in the fact that now there are more people, I guess they're trying to push me towards an above the knee amputation. Where I would have regular skin. But as I told them, listen, I understand what I'm dealing with and it hasn't been fun for me, but I'm not cutting off my knee unless it's going to kill me. If I had an infection in my knee and it was going to kill me if I didn't, I'm going to cut it off. But they're not going to get me to cut my leg off just because it's hard and I don't have the proper skin. It's a big difference between a below-the-knee amputee and an above-the-knee amputee. It's night and day difference. Really? I don't think a lot of us knew that. Oh, yeah.

1:14:01 And way more expensive too. Like the leg, the most expensive leg I've gotten was probably 25 grand, right? That's what the new foot and the prosthetic and everything in between the fittings and all that. And then the supplies that go with. It, where when you go to above the knee, you know, as we all have those power knees, right? We have much better prosthetics, but those things are 80 and a hundred grand just to get one with a power knee because it's a computer power knee. And, you know, it's, they're 80 and a hundred thousand dollars just for one leg. Does the army or VA pay for that? Yeah. The VA pays for my now. Initially I was on active duty. So I don't, you know, uh, I guess it went through TRICARE, but, but a lot of times, like I was at Brook Army Medical Center, right. And then I went through the CFI for two years and they built my prosthetics.

1:14:52 So that, comes through their funding and i don't know how that all works out right. Now today i see an outside company a private company but the va has to approve and then pay for it and they do. So have you ever done the blade like so i. Haven't gotten the traditional blade as in what you're talking about the big one that's specifically for sprinting and running No, I haven't quite gotten them. I've gotten the smaller versions, and now they have little ones, right, that are very dynamic. They can do agility. They can run, and they can sprint. They can jog. They can walk. They do everything, and it's a miniature blade, really.

1:15:35 But they're the most dynamic foots if you want to do a lot of things because there are certain foots that do better at other things than others, and some aren't very– User-friendly, we'll say. So once your wound heals, then you'll be able to get back out hiking and hunting. Yep, yep. Then I could put my leg back on and get off these crutches, which would be nice. That is true. The funny thing. Is, once playing golf, I was at the TPC Sawgrass, which is a famous golf course near Jacksonville, Florida. The PGA Tour goes through there. It's a big deal. I was once in a tournament there for two days playing golf, and I had a specific leg for golf at that time.

1:16:21 And after the second day, man, my leg, now the thing was beautiful. It had a lot of rotation. You could swing like nobody's business. I have this thing swing out of your shoes, turn your hips, everything like you're supposed to. But it was like walking on a peg leg from a pirate. You know what I mean? So after the end of that second day, this thing was hurting so bad. When I finished that 18th hole, all I could think of was going to the bathroom and taking it off so I could put the other leg on. And I left it in the bathroom. So I leave. I'm driving back to Tampa about an hour into it. I realize I've left my leg, and I call the pro shop, and they are just laughing. They probably still remember this joke to this day there. They're like, you know, this is the first time anybody ever came to us and said someone left their.

1:17:09 Leg in the bathroom. We've had them leave all kinds of things, but never a leg before. So congratulations. Did they have it? No, not a leg specifically. People have left clubs, shoes, and all kinds of things in there, but not a leg. So that was kind of a running joke. The good thing was I just had somebody else that was going to be driving back to Tampa after me grab it, and they brought it back for me. That is pretty funny. You can't laugh at it. What the hell, right? That's right. You know, that's one of the things, man, I've learned throughout this process, too, is sometimes you just have to laugh. Even if it's to keep from crying, you have to laugh.

1:17:51 So do you have anything you want to say to your fellow veterans out there on Veterans Day? Well, man, you know, I'd like to thank everybody for their service, obviously. You know, first and foremost, thank you for your service. Thank you for, you know, standing up for this great country and believing in it and our system enough. To put your life on the line for it. And, you know, other than that, man, all I can say is, you know, we got to stick together. Uh, you know, life isn't fair. Veterans need to stick together and, uh, and, you know, and then go out and positively affect your, uh, community, be a positive role model. Well, that is really cool. And normally we end with a quote of the day from somebody who died on that day, but The person who died on Veterans Day is Gallagher. Do you remember him, the comedian that smashed the.

1:18:37 Oh, no way. Yes, I do. The smash, man. He was cool. Yeah, he was cool. But see, he died today in 2022 at 76 years old. Now, Gallagher's quote, it's funny, but it's not really a Veterans Day quote. He said... women wear a pair of panties, but only one bra. Why? So I'm going to end with a quote from you. It says, from Randy Nance, selfless leadership means serving others even when it hurts because true strength is found in sacrifice. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I love it, you know, because and I'll quote my favorite. It's at the end of my emails and I've had it for years now, you know, and it's how can I serve others? Albert Schweitzer said it well, I don't know what your destiny will be. But one thing I do know, the only ones among you who will really be be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

1:19:35 And I have found that. Is true because believe me, as I've already spoke a little bit about my youth, I was convinced I could make myself happy. But nothing I did, nothing I accumulated, nothing I even did ever brought true happiness that's a fulfillment that lasts. I've only ever found that in service of others. Well, that is awesome, man. I'm glad you came to that realization. And thank you for being here today. You're an awesome man. Hey, man, thank you. Thank you for having me, Jeff. I really appreciate it. I loved all the quotes. And you think about it, when you played the ones from 1976, guaranteed all the youngsters that end up watching this won't recognize rock music or country music, either one, back from 1976.

1:20:22 But we still remember it. Yeah, we do. Well, that was Bicentennial year, right? That's when the Bicentennial quarters came out too. I remember, I forget that was the, it was also the year it snowed. I was living in Beaumont, Texas. It actually snowed even in Beaumont, Texas in 1976. Now it was gone by two o'clock in the afternoon and our little snowman didn't, he looked like a dirt snowman, but we had one. So that was 1976. Okay. To close out every show we play, I have a internet radio station called country underground radio. And people call and make a request for some song they want to end the show with. This one comes from Matt in Orlando. I have a feeling Matt must be in love.

1:21:02 He wants to hear a Jonathan Lynn song, Woman Like That. You guys have an awesome day, and we'll talk tomorrow. Sexy little thing with a bet you can't catch me look on her face. Sundress floating in the warm wind, long hair blowing in the breeze. I wonder if. That lucky man knows he's chasing the girl of my dreams. Must be love, I just heard her holler, get you some of this. They're running in and out of the water, stopping for another kiss. Anybody can see she's got him right where I wanna be. I don't know if he knows what he's got, but he sure.

1:21:55 Looks good to me. Oh, I wanna. Body, soul, and mind. Oh yes, I know and I believe there's a right someone for me. And I want, yes I want me a woman like that.