Special Forces Doctor Tells The Craziest Combat Medical Stories | Unsubscribe Podcast 263

Olen Shannon Maldonado, käsintehtyjä artesaanitua teitä myyvän jauji-lahiakaupan perustaja. Valitsin Shopify, koska alustoja testatessani totesin sen ehdottomasti yhdeksi helpokäyttöisimmistä alustoista. Minulla oli tärkeää pohtia kehittymistämme tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittavat työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu ovat kätevästi dashboardissa. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste komsi vustolla. Käsintehtyjä arvittavat kokeilu. Käsintehtyjä on käsintehtyä. ♪ Eli, his racially ambikku, his branding, his hair is fuckin' fabulous ♪ ♪ Don't know, a dark joke disposition, and there's a battle-ekt trussion ♪ ♪ Look on the unsubscribed ♪ - Soldier on the go! (laughs) - Brandon hates veterans. (laughs) - Or back to the game. - Or back to the game. - Yeah, all army guys are gay. - I started a uniform outfrennist. - It's pretty dope, right? - Yeah. - Yeah, that was given to us on the live tour was absurd. I still get, like, people just walk up and give me, like, their family medals. And I have to tell them, like, no, please, for the love of God, that's an heirloom, hold on tight. - Wow. - He's more decker. - Like John Kerry? Like, he just walked up and gave you medals? - I don't know the story. - John Kerry. - Oh, he kicked us off. - Oh, well, hi everyone. Welcome to the unsubscribed podcast. I'm joined a day by Eli DoubleTap, tier Simack. - Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here. - What's up, bitches? We're going in hot. - Tears supposed to have been on many times. - And then the scheduling never worked. - Many times. We're both very busy, busy individuals. - I've known tier for eight years. - It's been longer than that, man. We had a real go wild on my channel. - Oh, yeah. - It's back to, like, 1.2 mils. - How long was that? - Views. That was back in Unicorn Ranch Salt Lake City days. - Okay. - Like, 2014, '15. - 'Cause, I mean, we've known him for, like, five years. The adaptive archery. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I'm glad your limbs grew back. - That's good. - That's super neat. - Those guys can, it's not even close. Those guys can shoot better than me. And I've got, bro. - Everything. - And there's no excuse. - We're teaching Brandon. - My buddy Kayla about Arizona has no legs and can do, like, 10 times as many box jumps as I can. I don't know how that works. - How does that work? - I don't know. - Lighter, no arms. - Pure will, apparently. - Yeah, product placement own stick sniper archery shop out in Arizona. If you're interested in archery, go out there. Support a veteran with no legs. Who does box jumps? - Do it. He's a green beret. - Do it, just do it. - Something, do it. - That's what I'm saying. How does that-- - I think it's his car. - Now I'm like-- - That's called a pull-up. - The torso jump. - Bro, I don't know. - Define gravity is what it is. That's what he's doing. Define gravity for reps. - That's a jump in bean. - I don't know. - Oh geez. - And there's another guy. - What's this guy's name? - Kayla. - Killer Brewer. - No shit. - Yeah. - Great. - Tier, where? - Now you have a colorful military background. - You did a cool guy stuff. - Did some cool guy stuff? - Yep. - Yep. - I know a little bit about your background, which I want you to tell, like, "Hey, explain what you did." - I told all the cool stories at lunch, so, this is just gonna be us just chatting. - Should have been there. - Yeah, where were you, like? - I had a meeting. - For four hours? - Mm-hmm. - Two hours. - Two hour meeting. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, right. - Okay, fine. - You want to go in my phone? - It's my back story, and I'll tell you these guys. - Hypnosis run. - There's a lot of things I don't want to go through, and your phone is wonderful. I'm good, brother. - It's probably something docile now. - I'll give you some wave tops, and then if you want to dive deep into those waves, we can do it, because there's a lot, man. 31 years of service in the Army. - Thanks. - I hosted in 1995, which is, before some of the people in this room were born, and I was nice. - That was nice. - The year I was born. - It is, yeah. - Yeah. - Wait a minute. - 1995. - 1995. - 1995. - May 4th. - May 4th be with you. - You've been in the Army longer than I've been alive. - Yeah. - And to my. - Be sure why. - Yeah. - Yeah, so that is my back hurts. Like right now, my back hurts. 25 of that was in special operations. And previous to that, I was in the first cab, on paper, I had Abrams Driver's Licenses in 19 Kilo, but I actually rode horses for the Army. - No shit. - In Fort Hood, Texas, yeah. - So that's what I didn't know, or wasn't sure, is what made you. - How long did it take for you to go, "Oh, I want to do the special forces route." - Well, see, what had happened was, I re-enlisted to go to Oklahoma Ferry College. Ferry year is. Ferry year, it's multiple syllables, not two. That's the people that put the horseshoes on, shape the shoes, do all that stuff. They're foot doctors for horses. - That's what that. - Okay. - I thought it was sparkling water. - Sparkling. That's sparkling, pony. - Ah. - Yeah. - So. - Eli got it. - I was going to go to Oklahoma Ferry College. That didn't happen. And so I got upset, and I threw tantrum, and I went back to an armor unit. - You have to go to college to put off horses? - You need. It's a good idea to get certified to do that. You gotta dig the abscesses and shit out of their feet too, and learn how to bandage them. - So I think that's a whole lot to it. - Isn't like Oumpaville? Like Caleb's Dad's a Ferryer, I believe. - Really? - Yeah. - I mean, that makes sense. - It's a. It's a very difficult job. - I. - It's one of those. - I'm going Facebook. - And it's actually going to pull up, because it hits my cycles now. The algorithm's like, "Oh, Eli stopped some watches." - Just make sure he's tired, right? - 'Cause Ferryer, it's with an A. - A-F-A-R-R. - What the fuck? - Yeah, I was going to go to that and didn't happen, so I went back to 28kav, and I realized that the regular army was not quite like what I'd been doing from E1 to E5 on horseback. 'Cause everybody there was volunteer. And if you didn't want to be there, if you didn't want the hard work. - Dude, that's. - It's in your back. - Honestly, man, that's kind of my guilty pleasure is to watch the Ferryer's scrapped the rules. - Oh, yeah, dude. - And then get the abscesses of them. - So are you a pimple, pimple popper watcher? - Yeah, dude. - It's always one more. - Dude, have you checked out the hoof GP? It just popped up on my Facebook algorithm, but yeah. - It's just satisfying watching them with that razor just scrape the layers of the hoof off. - I'm weird. - That does nothing for me. - Dude, it's. - Yeah, I don't know. - I don't think that's weird. I think it scratches an inch somewhere in my brain. - Apparently, it smells like shit. - It does. - Yeah, and you get done with some thrush. If they've been standing in like, like, just shitty mud for a few thrush. - It's called thrush. - Yeah, it's basically athletes for horses. But it's gotta be cut out. Literally cut out with a, with a paring knife. Sometimes burned. That doesn't smell good either, by the way. So that's. - I didn't even know about that. Well, and now that makes more sense of your journey into special forces because you chose the. - Not an easy route. - Well, nothing about special forces is all that easy. But I was playing rugby for the Fort Hood rugby team. My teammate was going to SF Selection and said, "Hey, you should come along too." And so I did. But I chose a different route in that way. My entire military career has been kind of, like, choose your own adventure type deal. It has been unconventional the whole way. - I would like to thank you just stayed as a failure. And they just need like special forces, like, needed to drop you in. Fucking hell divers drop pod style. Like, we need a failure now. - So, as a footnote there, or whatever it's called in the book, - A footnote is that a pun. - Ooh, that is good. That is a stinky footnote. There you go. - I'm Donna Promise. I remember my quota for shitty tunes already. - One of my teammates actually was a licensed failure between his time in Ranger Battalion and special forces. He went to failure college and was chewing horses, like before he went to the cue course. When he deployed to Afghanistan, they found about that. He was actually taking care of a small herd of horses at a side of bad that the team for using to go out and patrol with. So it is a thing. He was an air drop there, but, yeah, it was a thing. It was definitely a military duty. - Also crazy you guys used to actually do, like, there's groups that went out on horseback. It was that story, it's like the famous story. - Yeah, the horse was 13 strong. - Was it 12 strong? - 12 strong, sorry. - Yeah. - So that movie's not real? - But Chris Hemsworth told me so. - Yeah, so the thing is, which camera we need is this. - This is important kids. A special forces team does not revolve around the officer. It's the team sergeant who is notably absent from that movie plotline. And it doesn't matter if he looks like Thor or not. It's the team sergeant that keeps that team running. That's my PSA without special forces. It's very important. It's very important. - That, you got pissed. - Yeah, it's good whiskey. The dudes on that team. The thing with that movie is Hollywood said, "Hey guys, we're gonna make this movie with or without you. Do you wanna be part of it?" And that's kind of what happened with that. - I have one of those. If you're watching this, I'm sorry. I had one of those bottles that was signed by all the guys. It was just really cool. To me, that's really special. It's kind of neat. - You even know about that. - Yeah, the horse soldier, soldier bourbon. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's SF-Ont. - Oh shit. - Yeah, it's like a bunch of the dudes that were there in that operation whatnot, but I had the bottle that was signed by a bunch of the dudes that was on the team. And I let somebody house sit for me while I was away. - Oh no. - Connor. - And the person that-- (laughing) - Well, it's a fuck truck. (laughing) - I didn't do it. - Can Connor? - No, it was like the girl I was seeing at the time was like one of her friends or whatever, house sit for me. And basically they're like, oh yeah, no, anything. Like, because Sukasa take anything you want, like shit off the bar, I don't care. And I didn't think that that would extend to an unopened, signed bottle of horse soldier, but they drank most of it. - That's wild to open so low he did say. - I did. - I did not clarify, but that I was-- - Why is there a marker on this? (laughing) - Unopened. - Well, clearly this is the tainted one. - It's got scribbles all over it, yeah, blind. He doesn't want this. - Made a bunch of notes. So, to this day, on my bar there's a quarter full bottle of horse soldier that's signed by the guys. - Horse soldiers, if you could get a bottle out from Tampa to the house in San Antonio, that'd be great. Thank you. - Sign it. - Sign it, yeah, yeah. - Throw that up with the background. - Yeah. - And then get one for Brandon. - Yeah. - Two to five bottles, maybe a case. - No, no. - Why stop there? - Yeah. - You owe us money now, we'll invoice you for this ad. - So I did ride horses in Afghanistan though. - This shit. - Metal Gear Solid 5. - Yeah, but it was not tactical. - Yes, Eli, it's just like Metal Gear Solid 5. - I get it. - You have the box and everything. - Yes, Jimmy, just like your Game of Thrones. - Just like it. (laughing) - I was up in, my team was up in Mazar Sharif and we were doing split team ops. So half team was on one side of the city that was on the other. I mean, we're out in the country, but we're on either sides of the city. And this is in '03, so still pretty early. - Yes, we're early. - And still before some of you were born. So, you know, whatever. But the guys on the east side had made friends with this local warlord named Comgar. And I'm really shitty with names, but his is easier to remember because it's also one of the two airlines in Afghanistan. So he was a local warlord and he loved one of the airlines. So Comair is named after Comgar. - Oh, he's a warlord and he owned the airline? - Yeah. - Oh, well, he's doing good. - Yeah, I mean, it's Afghanistan. It's kind of-- - John C. American Airlines. (laughing) - Yeah, my favorite. - John C. Delta? - Yeah, those are only stealth planes though. - Oh, well. - So they make friends with this warlord and every Friday, Juma, the only day off in the Islamic world. They were playing this game called Bhuskashi, which literally translates to goat dragging in Farsi. - And so it's this ancient game that goes back to like the 1200s. It's super barbaric. It's full contact. It's like playing rugby and polo at the same time. - It's the second worst thing that could happen to a goat. And Afghanistan. (laughing) - Yeah? (laughing) - I got nothing for that. - Yeah. I've seen some thermals. - Yeah. (laughing) - So everybody's got a f***ing story. - Everybody. It is a f***ing story, that's for sure. So we come out there and we show up and, you know, we grip and grin with our teammates that we haven't seen in a week and a couple of our dudes are on horseback and they're like, well, what are they doing? I'm like, oh, they're just hanging out. I used to ride horses for there. I mean, so obviously I have to be on a horse. So they get me a horse. It's all settled up, I get on there. I'm wearing, I'm wearing like zip-off fishing pants and some hiking boots and the black fleece that you guys used to get yelled at for wearing, 'cause for some reason it's underwear. Yeah. So, and a U of O ball cap that's all torn up, 'cause that's a school I dropped out of to join the army. And I'm just sitting there and I don't know how, exactly, I got wrapped up into the game, 'cause there's not a farm outer border to this thing. But I ended up being a player in the game. And how this game works is there's a headless goat. And it's got the feet cut off, it's got the head cut off. And that's the ball. That is the ball. So it is sitting in a circle. Yeah, it's a torso. It's sitting in a circle in the middle of the pitch. And the rugby part of this is like there's a scrum, everybody's fighting to get to the center and pick this thing up. Ball your mounted. So you gotta hook your boot over the candle, the saddle, and lean over and grab this thing. Meanwhile, people are kicking, punching, pulling, bobbet, twisted, pull it, all this stuff. And you're trying to pick this thing up. It's funny, I just recently learned there's actually teams. How do you know? It's like a one for all. I don't know. Come up with a game where it's like, okay, and we grab something. What do we have anything? To be fair, a decapitated goat is easier to come across in Afghanistan than a soccer ball. So there are a lot of soccer balls too. There's a lot of soccer balls. Yeah, we did that. Yeah, you saw what happened to the goat. That was with the soccer ball diplomacy. Yeah, it's like, oh, you don't drinking water or security. How about a soccer ball? All right. I hate it. See you in the studio. But it was shared with you wearing. Well, I'm glad you asked you lie. I'm wearing my poncho shirt. That's not what a poncho looks like. It looks lightweight and breathable. It is lightweight and breathable. It's also fantastic for summer because, like said, it does breathe. It's very lightweight. And it also offers SPF protection. You mean UPF. That's what I said. Oh, okay. Bad hearing. Legitimately, on the campaign trail, these ponchos were basically my everyday attire. It's just the perfect mix between looking professional, feeling good and just being fairly casual. Is that the western style? I'm just guessing because of the pearls. It is. Once you go Pearl Snap, you never go back. The best promo for this, they weren't our sponsor. The guys and all of us wore them before. Oh, we sought them out as a sponsor. We were already in love with the shirts and we were asking them, "Money, please." That's the best sell pitch. It's the best endorsement I can give. So if you're looking for a lightweight, comfortable shirt for the spring or summer, look no further than poncho. Go to ponchooutdoors.com/unsub or $10 off your first order. ponchooutdoors.com/unsub. Go check it out. So I get in there and like the horses are rearing up, like Hayo is silver style and they're trained to do that. Like they're part of the contact of this game. I fought my way in there, on horseback, I leaned over, I get this thing and I've grabbed it from. So I grabbed one of the legs and I hopped, I just muscled it up like. I thought there were no legs, right? So the feet, oh the feet. Oh, okay, got it. Yeah, it's got legs, no feet. So I hauled it up. Exactly, say an interesting distinction in the head. I don't know why the feeder cut off. Honestly, I really don't. Maybe it's my runaway. Yeah, you're all in there. Does that hurt your chicken? Yeah. How does the go feel about this? Did he die? So I wrapped my leg around this thing. So it's nice, it's a cure-ish. And I've got like one leg across the saddle horn. And the next step is you've got to ride around a certain point. In this case, you had to do basically a lap around the pitch. So I'm riding this loop around the pitch and people are pulling on my horse and whipping it on the ass with the crops. Pulling on the reins. And then, but there's also a couple dudes, like an old Russian tanker helmets that are wearing like, cars eye jackets that are blocking for me. So you got like, golly suit on a horse head? I didn't know that. I thought it was like, everybody gets to everybody when I got in there, but it turns out it's like teams. So the old Russian tanker helmets and shit, that that sounds like old Native American warriors wearing like, conquistador armor. Yeah, it's exactly like, it's kind of cool. Exactly like that, and dude, I was just, I'm writing an article about this right now for National Cutting Horse Association Magazine. So I had to go back and do a bunch of resource. Re-subscribe to that, actually, huh? Oh, David? Yeah. I'm looking forward to reading the article. Yeah, same. Next one, right? You know, I'm not sure I'm cutting. Completely bullshitting you, but. Well, I'll send you, I'm never at that. I would read it. Yeah. You throw it away, it's dumb. (laughing) So you're good. (laughing) So where was I? Writing, I'm doing a loop. I'm writing the loop. Russian tanker helmets, cars I jacked, it's a real block and for me. And then you've got to drop it back in the circle. So I managed to do that entire, that lap. And I get it in the circle. And this is where the awkward moment came up because I didn't know they were playing for cash. And at the time, '03, like, Three bucks a day was the average Afghan daily wage. So there's like the world-lars representative in a megaphone, and he's just walking around and he's like, "Brah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah-lah." I'm like, "He puts up a. " And then he hands me this wad of cash and I'm like, "Oh." Well, that's awkward. So, special forces schools, the culminating exercises, Robin Sage, and it's all about linking up with your gorilla force, building rapport, maintaining rapport, getting the trust of the local government and everything else, and there's moments exactly like this built into the scenarios. Mine, I had to marry a local gorilla medic, that's an entirely different story we can get into. But so for five, five, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, sorry, Rebecca, I forgot to tell you about the one in training. I'm sure she'll love finding it out here. So, I got this back. Mine wanted to jump ahead of that one test. We got it, we just cut that one out. So, I just looked at the. I just found the nearest dude in the car's hijacker with a tanker helmet that I knew blocked for me, and was very obviously a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. Like, he had those features in. I was like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, wicked Asian." And I just like. And, you know, I kind of expected some back and forth, like, "No, no, please." Oh, no, please. Oh, I know. He was just like. He just grabbed me like. He detected this car's hijacker helmet. But I'm mad. He's gonna love it, so I'm gonna get a giant thank you. Peace out. Yeah. That's a weird fucking sport. Yeah, yeah. It was outlawed by the Taliban. I'm not progressive. Right. Well, they're literally the fun police, right? So, they're like, what is this? Fun? No. Ban it, everything. Kites? No. Ban it. What? Kites. Oh, okay. Kites. Yeah. Okay. Also, yes. Yes. Also, they answered too. (laughter) Funny story. (laughter) Not super popular. (laughter) Not sure if you know anything about the history of the Middle East. Um. Wait, no. (laughter) Look at it. What do you mean they're not friends? (laughter) Jesus Christ. Is it awesome? Is it awesome? Is it awesome? Is it awesome? How's that campaign going? Awesome. Great. That's a fucking hour ago. Well, I'll see you in the headline. Yeah. Holy shit. I like to see this is unsub-tuity, it is. So why'd you go to the Metacraft? Yeah, I did know what I was getting myself into when I went to selection. I just knew that my buddy was going and I kind of had this feeling that if I didn't go, I'd always wonder if I could have made it and my whole family was in construction. So I just kind of, like, fast-forwarded this vision of ten years in construction. Yeah. Yeah. Mud people. Mm. Do you drywallers? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. That's what I was talking about. I grew up on job sites. I get it. Yeah. So I just pictured myself being, you know, on a job site, like a decade later, talking about what could have been, you know, if I thought about going to special forces, but, you know, whatever. And keep in mind, nothing's really going on at this time. This is pre-9/11. I went to selection in '99. So I didn't think about that. Yeah. It's different. The only thing that was really going on that anybody knew about was Bosnia. Mm-hmm. So you're probably more picky during that time, too, than since it was, like, no war. Yeah. So I didn't join for Patriotic Reasons, either. I joined for college money and tri-care, and I just kept re-enlisting. So I thought I was going to be out in two years, and then, you know, every, your re-enlistment window opens really fast if you only have a two-year contract. And that just kept happening. What was your vibe, kind of, after 9/11? Like, I'm sure that was a radical shift for the entire military at the time. It definitely was. So. You have a whole story for that. I do. And so we'll go really quick, just what route did you go in the 18s here? Because that's. So when I finished selection, it was the hardest thing I'd ever done up to that point. And I'm riding this, like, who's post-runner at high with endorphins. I'm like, oh, that was hard. So let's pick the hardest M.O.S., 18 Delta, special forces medic. Why not? It wasn't really an interesting medicine. I just knew it was the hardest one from talking to dudes there. So that's what I chose. This adds an extra year, essentially, right? At least. That's if you pass the first time, and most people don't. Yeah. Like, oh, this is going to take a. It's two years. It's like. Two years is. Yeah, basically the. The school. The last route. Yeah. So. Wait, do we have to do basically a residency in a hospital and all sorts of. So you do. You do two road, two civilian residences. You do one for your paramedic, or. I don't know what it's like right now, to be honest, but when I went through, it was a month for month-long residency to get your national registry paramedic, which is normally two year program. We're six months into a medic course. Like, six months ago, we were nothing. Within a week, we were EMTBs. So were you here at, like, Sam Houston, like, a BAMSEE or.? No. They stopped doing that because we kept ruining all the medic students here. All right. Explain. Well, if you've got no special operations at a training base, and all of a sudden you insert a bunch of meat-eating special operations, dudes, and a training base, you kind of think. It's kind of the same reason we don't go to DLI and Monterey. It's hard. It's hard. Yeah. I heard about your story. Yeah. Me horny. Yeah. Yeah. It's introducing too many alphas into their. So. Yeah. Yeah. So I chose medic. And then. So August, September of 2001, I'm doing my paramedic internship with FDNY. And then this weird thing happened, like, a few days after we came back to Fort Bragg, where some dudes got on a couple of planes and threw them into buildings, and they had to change everything. Well, I don't know. It might have been remote control. Who knows? We're specifically told not to forget it. Yeah. I can't remember. I don't know. I will tell you that you said FDNY is in, like. Yeah. No shit. Fire department in New York. No shit. So, like, that was. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't even click that tell. You just said it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used to say "Fidney" all the time, but I was on this other job with a guy that used to be NYPD. And he's like, "Fidney. What's that?" I'm like. Aren't you? FDNY? The fire department? The guys you guys. That guy with a douchebag. Doesn't matter. So just like, ships passing in the night, you barely. Yeah. We'd been back for a few days. And we had this section called MillMed, Military Medicine. Basically, it was just throwing us into a three-day field problem to remind us that we were not street paramedics. We were. We were armumetics. And it was just a beat down where I got this full thickness, third degree burn. So. We'll put a pin in that one. That's funny. And we came out of the field. We went into PT and that first plane hit, while we were in PT, showered, came into the classroom and they had. They had a live feed going up on the big screen and you can see the first tower smoking and nobody really knew it was going off that point. But we were in our seats when. And watching live when the second plane hit. And we sat alphabetically and I remember turning my left. The guy next to me was Cain Smith and I remember turning to Cain and going, "We're going to war." And yeah, everything was different from that day on. Because prior to that, I'd gone to selection, basically just to see if I could. And then I went to the Q-course to see if I could. And my plan after that was to just go do missions, you know, training missions in Southeast Asia, maybe do some remains recovery, because that's a cool job. There's still people missing from World War II, Korean Vietnam, they always have an SF medic attached to them. They didn't know that. Yeah. I knew they were probably missing, but I didn't know that we were still actively sending dudes out. Yeah, there's an office out of Hawaii that specializes in remains recovery. It's not all military. They've got anthropologists and archaeologists with them and whatnot. That's still really cool to go above and beyond just to do that. It's like, "Hey, even if they died in World War II, we want to bring them home." Yeah, that's fucking dope. But I didn't know about that. Not to bring it to like, you know, modern day geopolitics, but that was like a lot of the shit that, like when we did that rescue operation for that pilot in Iran, where you had all these Europeans like, "This is such a waste of resources. Why go after one guy?" It's like, "Dude, I don't know what to tell you, Americans are fucking different." That's what we do, man. That's a big thing that sets, I've worked with a lot of militaries, a lot of militaries. And that's one thing that sets us apart from, not all of them, but many of them is that we know when we leave the wire, hell or high water, we'll be returned to our families. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible, all-day-gum V-Grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump. The hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. New York, maybe it's Maybelline, there we don't leave anybody behind at all. That's the the tweet that I saw in that regard was just retweeting like all the Europeans that were just saying like oh I can't believe they do this, you know it's a terrible idea. The amount of equipment lost and this, this, whatever it just said yeah this is why you can't become an American from just a piece of paper like we're just we're different. Yeah I will say this about immigrants so there's some of the best Americans I've ever met. Especially like a lot of times the first gen with the people that are escaping somewhere where they know how bad it was, like they have a they have a regard for it this big fan of I mean it's not that I don't, we won the lottery, I don't, were you won here? Were you won here? You get questionable last names. I was on the record I was, see, see, see and what is it in question? Cody though. Yeah, Garrett. Where's Gary? Where could me? My first name's Nordic and my last name's Czech German. He's like a Russian sleeper agent. I was in an Uber in Nashville a couple years back. When I booked the Uber, it said, "Driver is hard of hearing." I was like, "Okay, cool." Well, my stepdad was a pastor at a deaf church, so I kind of grew up around that community. So I'm like, "Oh, this is so interesting." I mean, I don't speak sign language, other than, you know, baseline. Yeah, and bullshit. This is bullshit. That's my favorite one. Yeah, but I was like, "Oh, this is interesting." But we get in, and he's obviously in my experience, a fighting age male of Middle Eastern descent. But he's as radio on. So it's on the report. That's what most three reports say, fighting age male of Middle Eastern descent. We're the last name. So he's got his radio on. I'm like, "Why would he have his radio on if he couldn't hear?" So I'd start making conversation with him and like, "Where are you from?" He's like, "Oh, you know, and he's been real cagey about it," which kind of peeked my intel background, especially with the fighting age male of Middle Eastern descent. Turns out, the dude was a, he was a naturalized citizen born in Afghanistan, had been an interpreter for the Marines, and we, we brought out, completely brought out by then to that, that 15 minute Uber ride. He was a good dude, fine American. But he didn't like to say where he was from or anything like that, because he'd had some, he'd had some good old boys, given the good news a couple of times. Yeah, was unfortunate. You see, it was in Nashville. I found that there's a huge Burmese population in Nashville. Burmese? Yeah. Yeah. It's massive. Like, there was the one time, I think it was for my fight. Me and Eli were Ubering around all over that city. We had like, I don't know, I have for eight different Uber's, and like seven of eight were all Burmese. And I do not know why. But I think it's like, a lot of it I imagine is like church groups and things like that. They were bringing in refugees. That's how my family got to Texas. No shit. Yeah. What's the background there? Late 1800s, there was a huge German immigration to Texas. All immigrated. They came in through Port of Galveston. I watched it. There you go. 1883. Come with it. I remember which one. It's called. It's here's audio fun. Yeah. All right. I mean, there's a lot of German towns like Fredericksburg, Bernie, there's a lot of German influence here. Yeah. So my family is from from from Coriel County and Bell County. So when I rode horses for the army at Fort Hood, we did we did demonstrations and parades and rodeos and whatnot in every little town in like a hundred mile radius of a Fort Hood. And there would always be another sign that coming up. Are you Robert Lewis's boy? I said, I'm on the grandson. Oh, that's so good to meet you. We're your cousins of blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So there was a there was a big old immigration. It's in the late 1800s. I think through all of our years in business on the internet, we've all used Shopify. I've used it for merch and my skate shop and a couple other businesses. I will actually agree 100% on that. Everything we do is run through Shopify. Even bunkers run through Shopify. Our shoes, which is a separate company, is run through Shopify and they talk together because of Shopify. Shopify runs the world. Did you know Shopify will actually help you design a website also, Cody? I know I had no **** about starting an online store when I started my career online and Shopify just made it super, super easy for my dumbass. Bring it up as if people haven't heard about my brand, no. That's actually easy, Eli. Shopify helps you find your customers with easy to use email and social media campaigns. Step Cody, what happens if I get stuck? Shopify is always around the share advice with their award-winning 24/7 customer service. Step support, you got my back. And your front. Shopify helps millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e-commerce in the US. From household names like Mattel or Jim Shark to new brands just getting started. On some shoes, on some merch, bunker. No **** we've all been doing this for over a decade and Shopify is the easiest e-commerce platform we've ever used. I think every single one of us has used Shopify at one point. I think all our businesses right now are using Shopify. Don't accept mine, but that's because it's guns. Can't do that. Just one of them can't turn those dreams into SFX cha-ching Shopify new sell sound and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. I know for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com/unsubpod. Shopify.com/unsubod. It's wild to see all those different jobs like writing horses for the army is something. I mean, I thought being a boxer for the army, I was like, cool, you just box all the time. You box for the army? No, I didn't know. I wish. Those weird jobs, right? Yeah, like horse writing. I'd never in a million years of like, oh, you can get that as a job. Because I know we've got that still at Sam Houston. We've got, but it's mostly like for ceremonial shit, right? We've got like an actual like, I don't know what you call it, like a horse core essentially. The color guard probably. I think that is what it is, but they have like horse stables and everything on base like specifically for that. And there's just a bunch of little odd jobs that you wouldn't think of, but you're like, oh, yeah, well, I guess the army does need that. Some of the oldest stables in the army are at Fort St. Houston. We'd come down to Fort Sam for Fiesta every year. That was the trip to get on. That's how you fought to get on the road crew and the horse attached. So you could get to Fiesta for two weeks, TDI every year. Yeah, that was a good time. Cody, what's the weirdest job you think you know of in the in the Navy? Um, no, weird, but I know the band was a very unique one. We did have Navy boxers also. I don't know. I think it's about the weirdest thing I could think of. I feel like it's time we bring back not just the football game, but let's do. I don't know. This might be a thing. Army versus Navy. Disgusting. Well, boxing would be good too. Go Army beat the shit out of Navy like that. Come on, don't be cool. They have to still. I don't even know who the army box is. Like, is it? Who boxes? I dated a Marine Corps boxer. What was his name? He got the, I just, I just set it right there. There's a ball right there. Oh, they still do that. Like 2022. Army versus Navy boxing. So they still beat the shit out of each other. Don't we know about that? That's the stuff. I just don't think they understand like that I would watch the shit out of that. Yeah, I would too. Like, did you have to do the goat? Take care. Keep your goat alive. Can we talk about that? I'm retired. Sure. What are they going to do? Fire you hard cut next week. He's a job. Oh, that's really depends on when this air is because I'm retiring in like the next few days. Who got black bagged? Do you guys know taking care of the goat? Yeah. Yeah. We probably shouldn't talk about that for Peter reasons, but oh, really see I always wonder what Jurassic Park? What's going to happen to the goat? Like, well, it's a very contentious issue and it always has been, but mostly through Congress. Don't look at me. I'm not there. I'm just like, yeah. Because to my understanding, that was something that from stories that I've heard from people. That's something that we said that we stopped doing officially. I can honestly tell you that has been so long since I've recertified as an 18 delta that I really don't know. I do know that there are companies out there with these like robotic patient models that are supposed to, you know, it would make a Japanese dude jealous. Have life like these things are. I know that. So you read into that how you will. Honestly, it's probably the other way around. We probably learned from their technology. There's a book out there called Book Bombs Burgers and it's all about technological advances that came from essentially devices. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's true. Like, I mean, the industry was really the leader behind what was it? I think it was VHS. I have a literally internet, VHS, DVR, all those that robotics now, surprisingly enough is like, okay, we got money to make. What's fucking speed on this? And then - It's like fall out, (beep) - (beep) never changes. (laughs) - Yeah, the metal gear. (laughs) - That's the ghost stuff always made sense to me. I understand it's like, well, it's bad, but it's also, that's how you're dealing with humans during war and especially bad bodies. That makes sense. It's like, hey, keep said, go to a life. - I am, I definitely used it. - So, 18 deltas are trained in basic radiology, dentistry, veterinary medicine, family medicine, tropical medicine, combat trauma, surgery, anesthesia. - You do anesthesia too? - Yeah. - So, it was pretty much anything on the battlefield other than open, like, what was the one thing you couldn't do essentially? 'Cause this is what's crazy too. I don't think there was something I couldn't do. I mean, there's doing it and doing it well to put the song, but I was the best doctor within a four hour donkey ride around me in the rate of getting a stand. So, I didn't have a full operating room suite, I didn't have a clinic or anything else. So, Fabb Bostic, which is famous for being the space where Clint Ramoshe and his crew was Evac too. My team opened up that base. - No, sure. - Yeah, and at that time it was just a collot in a poppy field. Like, it was so new that when Chanooks would come in, it would blow over our hiscos 'cause they weren't filled up yet. We were out there flapping. So, my clinic was just, it was just like our patio. Like, I gave our weapons guy PTSD. 'Cause, like, I know I gave it to him. Sorry, sorry Barry. I know I gave it to him because I'd be doing some Medevac or Casavac and he'd be over there. We live in off the local economy. And I would see him over there just with his like, thousand yard stare eating dinner. Like, I was just like, eyes ahead, trying not to pay attention to whatever it was I was doing. I was so busy out there with emergency medicine that other medics were asking for permission to come in, like, fly in and help me out from other fobs and bases and whatnot. - No, shit. So, it was because, did you tell them that cutting a leg off story? - I did not, that's what this was leading into. - Oh, okay. Like, this is the stuff where I didn't realize people would fly out to train with you. Which makes sense when you hear these stories or like, home you're saving lives out there, he's doing it like this. - So, it was my team, eight SF dudes, one platoon of Marines from two eight and then one platoon of our Afghan security forces. So, if you go to the special operations museum at Fort Bragg, back in the corner, there's like a statue of one of these Afghan dudes in a weird helmet, which they never wore. I told the curator about that. But in the background, you'll see a picture of me with them. - No shit. - Yeah. - It's the famous. - You see 'em many times. - Circulates around every once in a while. There's like four dudes on a ridge line wearing UDTs and one's carrying an M24, another's got an M21, one's good. I'm the guy with the M24 in that photo. - No shit. - Yeah. - Actually, they don't wear those helmets. - We probably pulled that picture of it, it's out there. - Yeah, yeah. About once a year, I have to go into comment sections. Like, no, that wasn't built to force. No, that wasn't the agency. It was actually 19 Special Forces group from the Washington National Guard. - I was just gonna ask who you were attached to. - ODA 931, it was a composite team that fell into the Utah National Guard, but it was all made up of Washington dudes. - Interesting. - Yeah, some of them were fresh out of the Iraq invasion, and then a couple of us were in language school during the invasion and missed it, so we jumped on the first thing we could. - Which is, even that, it's language well learning to be a doctor at the same time, and then it's all condensed into a year and a half. - I was there like two and a half, but I also-- - Still. - I need to look at your training on Lennav and I broke my leg plane rugby. So I added about six months to my tenure, but they ate and dealt the course. There's very few people that go all the way through without recycling. So I didn't have any academic recycles in the medic course. So that was cool. - No academic recycles. - I broke my leg. - Well, that'll do it, yeah. - Yeah, we were in a pretty academic heavy portion when I broke my leg, I actually broke my leg at the Citadel in a rugby tournament down there. - But shit, yeah. - We were just there. - Walked around on it for like six hours. Did the bar crawl, went back to Bragg and my girlfriend. Like, you should go get it, makes sure, right? Yeah, then I was in a boot, actually I was in a cast. Some cool pictures of that surgery. Every surgery I've had done on me, I have scrubbed in and performed that surgery on someone else, and I'm glad I did that after the fact because, man, especially like the deviated septum, that is a brutal surgery. - Really? - Oh, bro. You do even like that level of surgery with an ENT surgery. - Okay, yeah, I didn't do that myself. - He did it on a body, on a body, drunk one of ladies. He's like, hey, I could fix that for you. - The Marine PL that was at an array with us offered me, I forget what he offered me, but he was trying to get me to do a vasectomy on him while we were out there. - No, that's a super simple procedure. - I'm sure, you know what we do right here. It's been about 20 years since I've done one, but I know. - I'm good, personally. (laughing) - Volunteers? - Weird. - The girls are raising my hands. - You might have the sex to me. (laughing) - Scalpel. - It is super simple. - Yeah, I'm pretty sure I could do it, but it seems like I could walk you through it. - Yeah, yeah. - Holy, it's what's at stake there, I think, is the beanie babies, dude. - Toss them balls up on the table. (laughing) Brandon's up in there. - Yeah, do you have an ice pack and a couple of motor, we can make it happen? Why not? It's a duct tape, I mean. (laughing) - The old rubber band and twist method, it's, you know? - That's for just taking your nuts off. That's a whole different procedure. That's, yeah, they were some, they were some calves. - It's still wild to be able to do that level of, - Jesus fucking. - That's crazy to me. Like, going in the military, doing that, I learn how to put an IV in an applied tourniquet, that's about it. - Yeah, it's about it. - It's honestly, we don't even do that much, that IV's not much anymore. - Really? - Yeah. - Well, so it used to be, you'll appreciate this. I mean, in every armed conflict, there is a rapid advancement in trauma medicine, everyone throughout history. And tourniquets actually go back to like, Roman days, you know, like mechanical tourniquets. So it's weird that we had to be in the G-Wat for civilian medicine to actually start accepting that again. But the, what was the question? Forgot. - Oh, it was TBA. - No worries. - IVs. - Yeah, yeah. - So I fucking lost it too. - Yeah, so hyper-volumic shock, meaning you got low volume, so we need to increase the volume. It was believed, and it was protocol when I first started the medic course, that every trauma patient got to large bore IVs as soon as you could get them on, so you could increase their blood pressure. What we learned through war is that those fluids, they don't carry oxygen, so it doesn't really matter. So unless you're getting something that carries oxygen, like whole blood, then you're not doing that much for them. - So basically you just need more blood. - You need more blood. You need the ability to, everything we do in emergency medicine is trying to preserve oxygen circulation throughout the body. After that, it's all mechanics and how you do it. And if you can remember that, honestly, pre-autical medicine is not that hard, it's only if you don't throw up. (laughing) - It's helpful, I'm sure. - Yeah, super easy stuff. So you went through all this, and then, I still want to hear the legs. - Oh, that's right, it's going back. It's tying in the legs out of. - So, Jerry, Afghanistan, my team, this is like our third location on this deployment. So when I say we opened up this base, I mean, like we signed the lease agreement. Like we had a civilian government contractor with us when we initially signed this agreement. And when I was, we were red and back to the side about it with this, too. I was like, so, what do you, what do you normally do? Is like, this is the first time I've ever been in anything like this. Like, what do you mean? It's like, I signed lease agreements in strip malls for recruiting stations. I'm like, oh, this is different. (laughing) So this was brand new to, like, there was one US outpost that the, that another government agency had had, prior to us, about 13 clicks north of us. And they had a ban on it for whatever reason. We tried to get that same spot. The landowners were like, no, blah, blah, blah. And there was also this weird geopolitical thing where unless we were actively chasing a bad dude, we could not be within five kilometers of Pakistan. But you've got these mountains and this giant river that kind of limit what you can do there. So we found this one geographical anomaly, like Deppardew. G-RF is nicer. - And geographic a lot of people. (laughing) - Where it was like this triangle of land across the river that jutted in in this valley between these peaks of these mountains. And that was exactly the space we needed. 'Cause otherwise, we were gonna have to radio back to Bogram just to step outside our own parameter. Which was ridiculous. The whole language was ridiculous. - Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even theirs. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. - Maybe it's Mabelie. - So at least this land. So now we're the northern most outpost on the eastern front. And this is very early '04. 'Cause we had left Mez and our Buskashi game just after Christmas. So we get up there. We open up this base. We've got empty escows. Everything is, we're doing like three day foot patrols and doing base construction. We were really busy up there. The good thing is we are so busy that between hiring every military age male and handling them a shovel to fill our escows. And being out on three day patrols constantly, the bad dudes never really had a chance to put their, pop their head up. You did three day patrols? - No, yeah, three day patrols, yeah. - That's crazy, we were modeling it. So our Afghan security force model was modeled after like the mountain yards and the CIDG program and Vietnam. - No, sure. - So we just took the small unit tactics that they were doing. And we're like, let's apply it to this. - See? How big of a back pass like walking out on a three day mission? - Full rock, dude. - Jesus. - Full rock. Especially if you're carrying medical gear or combo gear. - I think about, like, so you're walking out at minimum 40 pounds. - Right. - Oh yeah. - At minimum. - And then you're going out for three days. - So you have to have bring food, water, everything for those three days and you're sleeping wherever the fuck. - Yeah, sleep at beautiful stars. No light pollution out there. - That's the silver linings. - Yeah. - Yeah. That's my favorite thing about nauseous staring up at this guy. - Oh, seriously, it's beautiful. - Yeah. So yeah, so we're out there flapping, man. And sometimes ring flights would come in. Sometimes I wouldn't. So the ring flight being like the resupply bird. And you'd know if it was coming. It was supposed to come every Saturday beat. They didn't know what's happened. If they got shot at on the way up the valley, they usually turn around and go back. - Now that it's finally spring, I've been outside so much more than you have. Walking around, going for hikes, getting my exercise in. - He does it for smoke breaks. What were you wearing? - Funny you should ask, Nick. I was wearing fanbletics. - Does it smell like smoke? - It smells like something you take a with. - Smells fabulous. - Thank you. Turns out he loves the smell of my (beep) They're soft, breathable and built to last. - I think I did actually use fanbletics shorts during my boxing match. - Did you win? - Yes. - Good, that's all that matters. It's because of fanbletics. - I want clothes that actually keep up with my heavily active lifestyle on my smoke breaks. And that's why I signed up as a fanbletics VIP. - What the (beep) does that do? Funny you should ask, Nick. It means you actually can get 80% off everything. - Doctor gave me that when I was born. It may not be long, but at least it's thin. - New VIPs unlock major savings on their first purchase. So trying new pieces feels even more doable. Which you can do right now if you go to fabletics.com, use the code unsub and sign up as a VIP. They're gonna do a quick quiz for you and try to figure out your sense of style. If you're one of our audience members, you're gonna need help with that. But be sure to select unsub as the option when you're signing up for your VIP. - It's gonna get you 80% off. - And it's a limited time offer, so don't wait. Go to fabletics.com/unsub for 80% off. - Again, that's fabletics.com/unsub to get 80% off as a new VIP member. - I think my balls would feel nice in these. - I just, I love the idea you're talking about. There's this like civilian side, I guess real estate specialist that you'll sign the lease. I'm, I know I made the joke earlier about like the hell-diver-style deployment of a fairier, but it's like, it's literally just, it's Peter from Deadpool 2. Use the normal, dude, in the suit. It's like, we need a real estate agent. If you put big swear glasses on that guy, it would have been the spitting image of Peter on Deadpool. - No shit. - Yeah. - Oh, God. - That's just a very nice triangle U.S. that U.S. rank on his DCU's. - Air drop, that of a C-130. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's just a piece. - Chris now. (laughing) - Yeah, this is fucking cool. So, when I got up there and, you know, obviously all the locals know that we're there, even the ones on the other side of the mountain who were nice enough to bring us a puppy and ask us to stop putting mortars into their village. We were just trying to cite in. One went a little too long. Like they brought us a puppy, please stop bombing us. - Like, oh, acceptance. - Sorry. - The fuck's his dog for? - Sorry. - Can you stop there? The boomers. - Did you guys keep the puppy? - Oh, yeah. Yeah, he didn't come back to the States with this. We named him Buckley after the town that our company was in. A-119-SF is in Buckley, Washington at the base of Mount Rainier, which it's only other claim to fame is Black sheep. I don't know how you do things up in Buckley town, but here we go with the speed limit. It's like Buckley, PD. - He can-- - Who was that from? - Black sheep, Chris Farley. - Oh, man. It has been a long time. - Way back in the day. - Holy shit. - Brand is probably-- - Never mind. - Remember I enlisted in '95. - Yes. - But Chris Farley, that is definitely in Cody's washed it. - No, yeah. - And Buckley, Tommy Boyth, that old period. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, so we cut that in. So. (laughing) We're like, I don't know anyone else. There's lots to it. (laughing) - Yeah, the gray birds in the room. (laughing) Yeah, so this guy, he comes up, he's a, Afghans don't know their birthdays, traditionally. They just don't keep track of it. So, like-- - Yeah, it's a weird holiday if you think about it. - It kind of is. - Just very foreign. It's like, today you're born. - Yeah, then. - And then you've got to create a new thing. - Like, is your birthday the day you were born or is it the first year? Oh yeah, they do that. I forgot about that. - Yeah, yes, you're people, right? Yes, your people do. - Like, they know their age, though. - Favorite opinion. - No. No, no, no, they don't know their age. Like, I had some dude that was clearly in his 50s plus. He qualified for an AARP card, which is Afghan associated retired people. So, I guess, I don't know, AARP is. But he was clearly elderly, and he told me he was 16. I was like, I said, leap years, and then my interpreter looked at me like-- - Chris Hansen, let's take a seat. (laughing) - I was just trying to get him back on line. - So you were 16 years old. - Yeah. - Well, you know. - He's trying to pick up other 16-year-olds. (laughing) - It's that one. - They actually like a little of my younger than that there. - Unfortunately. - How do you do fellow kids? (laughing) - Steve Buschimi. - Yeah. - So this dude comes in, he's on his nephew's back, and he is old, like he's an old man. And his foot, one foot was pointed, a hundred and eight degrees the wrong direction. Just kind of hanging there. And I didn't really need to ask what the problem was there 'cause it was pretty evident that he had foot in the wrong direction, Idis. (laughing) So I brought him in, and I'm talking to an interpreter, and it turns out, so sometimes you get family members, and it's always like an uncle that's bringing them to the worst dad. Like-- - Imagine being a cop and tracking him through the snow. (laughing) (laughing) - I'm imagining, it's the spot on the ground where it looks like somebody rolled around a punch. (laughing) - Yeah, and for some reason it goes in a circle. (laughing) - Who's tracking you? (laughing) (laughing) - Okay, good. - So this dude, imagine it's where the screaming guy is laying on the ground. (laughing) - He had been in a car accident on the one road that's there, he'd been in a car accident. Like six months earlier, broken his leg in this car accident, and the thing was just hanging. And I told the dude, through an interpreter, I was like, I can't help you here. I don't have my radiology equipment. I'd have any of my ortho tools, 'cause we trained to do x-fixes, external fixation, like drill screws into bones, and basically doing like an erector set to splint. I didn't have any of that, like you do. So, I was like, you gotta go to Pakistan, man. I can't help you. And he had the patient, the old man, actually hadn't sent anything up to this point. It had just been all his nephew. And he speaks up and he's talking to this real horse, raspy voice, and I was like, what do you say? He's like, an interpreter goes, he says, can't you just cut it off? I was like, yeah, I can do that, come back next Saturday. So I set it up, you know, my medical hire, there was an MD that was sf-qualified, in the sod of bad, like three hours south of us. And so I sent him up the case, and he fires back. He's like, I grew with your prognosis, and your care plan docked. No pressure, but the record for a bullet in the amputation of the Civil War is three minutes. But again, no pressure, I was like, got it. (laughing) So, dude comes back next Saturday, again, piggyback. [BLANK_AUDIO] requested the medical supplies to do this. You know, extra antibiotics, extra ketamine, extra versed, 'cause when I do that, a seizure on this guy, I'm gonna pump it all through intravenous. Yeah, no pass over, no gas, nothing like that. I'm also the only special forces medic at this camp. So I had three Navy Cormin that were with 2/8 of varying degrees of capability. You were a Navy, you get that. So, and then I had my 18 Charlie, who was another guy in that famous photo, his name's Meg. He was a Cormin for force before he went SF. And he was, man, he was great to have in the camp with these med of acts and everything medical I was doing. And man, he could stitch the dude could do sutures. It was beautiful. So what's going through your head, like, at this point in your career, in the days leading up to a leg amputation, you're already scheduled for Saturday. Is that my calendar had to cancel golf, yeah? Are you just like, well, this is another fucking day or are you just like, oh shit, I gotta amputate somebody's fucking life? I will tell you in hindsight that I had a massive amount of confidence in myself that I probably shouldn't have had. And that applies to a lot of situations and a lot of things I did, especially in that first trip of Afghanistan, and in the subsequent years in Iraq, just, you gotta fake it till you make it, I guess. But I truly believed I could do a lot of these things. And I did. And I did, Brandon. Well, I mean, it was the least you did. So it's like Christmas day, you're just counting down to cut this dude's leg off. So yeah, I think you're breaking off the little paper, daisy chants. You're like, oh, it's an amputee, an advent calendar, like, what is it like? So the guy comes back on Saturday and the ring flight hadn't come in. And I wasn't sure if it was going to, 'cause it was already late. So I pointed to these two conventional medics that had come out to get their hands bloody. What did they call them back there? It was 63 whiskey or 91 whiskey. This is, we need, we need the electrician here for this. It was sold in West. Whatever the conventional medic was. So Nick was born before, Nick's younger than you. He's slightly older. Oh, okay. I was like, yeah, but he was a medic in the army, right? Yes, yeah. He was a commoner, yeah. 63 whiskey. It changed. 63 sounds right. I think that's it. It started off as 91, yeah, 'cause it was 91, 68 whiskey. Thank you. Thank you, Troy. And for you. If it's not 18, I don't know it. So that's which is designated for special forces. So I pointed these two regular medics and I said, go get the saws all kit from Meg's 18 Charlie kit, 18 Charles of engineer. And we had these DeWalt all in one, like five in one tool kits. So go get the saws all and get the blades and put them in my autoclave. My autoclave, which is a thing to sterilize tools, was a plastic potato chipkin filled with beta dye. So, you know, with nothing but high tech out here. And they looked at me like, you're gonna cut his leg off with the saws all, I'm like, yeah. So why wouldn't I? God, that's a good question. So, no, I just brought it in here for no reason. So while they're going to do it, it's gonna love this commercial. Yes, it's not a problem, I'm cheap, I don't want to. I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to. So while they went to do that, I heard the bird come in and it landed and it brought like six months of mail that it caught up to me. And a big ol' box medical supplies that I'd ordered. One of the things I ordered was, I ordered this bone saw, this specifically, I mean, it looked like a survival saw. It's like a wire saw, but it's made for bone. I learned something about medical logistics that day. You can't just order the saw, you have to order the handles with it. You think that'd be an implied thing, but it's not. Nothing is implied in the military or the government. You got how much do they want specific about that? So I had the saw that it was. (laughing) I had the saw that I had no handles. But what I did have was like these thermobaric grenades that had big rings on them. So I grabbed the Marine PL and I told all I was scared and like, hey, there's gonna be a couple big booms. Don't go shooting off into the sky about this, like we'll radio. So I grabbed this Marine PL and we went to the edge of the Hesco. And I said, all right, listen. We're gonna throw these over the wall on three. But we were keeping the rings. He's like, got it. I was like, sir, what are we keeping? He's the rings. He's like, show me. (laughing) - Sorry. - I'm like, okay, good. Three, two, and then, you know, I was like, wait, wait, wait. I'm three or after now. So we tossed him over, boom, boom. And our guard force did not go wild and shooting into the mountains of the air. So I called that success. I said, show me the ring. And he's like, he's like, okay, good. So he gets us back. And I'm trying to, my team of medics are like doing patient prep at this point. Well, I'm doing this. And I'm busing the sod. I'm like, I'm trying to get it on there. Like a key ring did not work. Okay, fuck it. - You like setting off thermobaric grenades to keep the ring. I just think of like a kid. Like he gets an expensive Christmas present and just plays with the box. - Yes. - It's the same shit. - It's exactly like that. Yeah. Like that's what you went to that first though. - I mean, it's like he not, does anybody have a key chain? - Literally anything else. - As soon as you said that like it didn't have the handles, the little like jingle from home depot started playing in my head. I'm like, we're back to the saw's all. - Dude, it was a lot of me guyvering. So we've got this guy on the table. And at this point, I had done so many medics that I was just kind of like pointing to people. Like, okay, like an attending dog. Like you do the IV, you do that bandage. You start the nine line. And I'm saying at the head of this patient and everybody has tried to get an IV on this guy. Keep in mind, this is how I'm going to not only replace his fluids, it's how I'm gonna keep him in a surgical plane of anesthesia. And nobody can get an IV on this dude 'cause he's old, he's dehydrated, his veins are collapsed. - Was the goal to keep him unconscious the entire time? - Yes. Like, well, I figured like they were pumping out. - They were pumping him full of drugs. I just didn't know if they were going to knock him out. - I was taking his, my leather belt off and my hair blighted on this. - I mean, you would have done it. - At that point, maybe, I don't know. I mean, he wouldn't have known, he doesn't have an IV. - So it's not like I was like, we're going to cut your leg off. He's like, please cut my leg off. So maybe you're on her. - Yeah, he probably was surprised. There was an anesthesia or anything. - Maybe. I mean, think about it. They're not going to know about that. Living out in the boondocks. - There was this guy. - This dude's pain threshold had to be through the roof at this point anyway. Just walk around like six months with that bone grinding on just. Did he ever say how his fucking leg got put backwards? - Well, I was a car accident. - Oh, and it just, it was complete. So we call it a non-union, right? So the bone, it's not like the, it was partially fractured. It was completely fractured. So it was hanging. And then I think from the hanging, just the way feet are weighted, it just started turning backwards. But it'd been that way so long that he had like a crease in his skin from being turned the wrong direction in first six months. So, I don't know. - I didn't even like that. - But the doctor. - Yeah. So this guy's on the table and everybody's trying to get an IV. We can't get an IV. So, I decided we're gonna do I/O intra-osius, which we just got, this was new tech. I just got an issue with these two things called fast ones. - Oh, is it them? - Oh yeah, the thing in the sternum. And yeah, there's plenty of video of this out there. You can cut this in. So it's this big red handle. And when you take the cap off, it's got just a series of pressure sensitive needles. - Yes, it looks like the ball from phantasm. Like, yeah, yeah. And one spring loaded in the middle. And so I've got this Navy Corman reading the instructions over my shoulder while I'm like, okay, line it up at the sternum notch. Yep, we're like. - Oh, this is your first time using it, too. - Yeah. - It had just been issued to me. Yeah. So, yeah. - This is my decision development. - Wow, that looks angry. - Some of this was like rules of the range. Like, don't put your finger on the trigger till you're ready to shoot. You know, that kind of thing. Then you're backstaffing beyond. So he's like, apply firm even pressure until you hear an audible thunk. I'm like, boom, boom. I'm like, ooh, that was audible. How many needles is this? Because I don't like, isn't it like nine? - I don't know how many. It's a lot. - And they're not, these aren't like huge caves. - Yeah, it's one needle that actually goes into the bone. I don't know how many of the pressure needles there are. - And the reason it goes into the bone is because, because that's where you're going to deliver whatever it is, your fluids, your medication, whatever. Have you ever woken up and felt the immediate need for a nicotine pouch slash and slash or a cup of coffee? - I can't talk, it says no neck on the can. - Yeah, no nickel out. - Big on. How many pouches, cups of coffee or energy drinks do you need throughout the day to stop from crashing? Too many. Did those things cause anxiety or make you feel on edge? I love edging. - Well, that's why using ultra pouches can be a game changer for your energy levels. [BLANK_AUDIO] is the ultimate guilt-free pouch. They deliver ultimate focus and energy that lasts one to two hours. Oh, without nicotine or caffeine. Well, if they don't have nicotine, what's in them? Great question! Ultra partnered with leading neurosciences to develop these pouches, Cody. You mean they have new tropics and adaptogens in them? I know you mispronounce new tropics, but yeah, they got those. New tropics! And adaptogens! They use infinity, all rights reserved, PX. Alva, GPC. Healthianin. A totally naturally occurring amino acid. And vitamin B6 and B12. New customers can use the code unsub to get 15% off TakeUltra.com. That's TakeUltra.com and use code unsub. UNS, UB. I can't spell. I hope you can. After you're purchased, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Tell them unsub sends their regards. Please, for the love of God, show your support. So, that is the one line we had going on for this patient. So, and at this point, I'd already juiced him up with some ketamine. Okay, good. I am. Because he was a pincush at this point. So, he's down for the count already. When I did this, we moved them into the Marine Peel's room. I'd kicked the Marine Peel out of his room in the collat. You've got to have the most interesting way to play those stupid party games, like the two truths in a lie. Yeah, one time, I threw a crippled Afghani elder into a K-hole. Bro, yeah, we got to line drinks up if we're doing never have I ever. I'm like, yeah, it's kind of like, like, come on. Does that count? Yeah, I've got, yeah, we could do 10 of these podcasts. So, that dude is, he's on the title of this episode. Such a good title. Dude, he was gorked out. So, he's gorked out. He's the rainbow road. Like, dilated pupils. Dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, there's just mechs around with chem lights. You're holding the leg. That actually did happen. So, I know exactly what video you're talking about, too. Yep. So, we get in there. He's on a litter. I've got my surgical team with me. There's pictures of this on my Instagram, by the way. There's like dudes wearing rain ponchos and plastic trash bags instead of scraps. I'm wearing mechanic cover rolls and a bandana over my beard and a headlamp. And we go to, he's down, right? So, I go to, I'd taken a surgical marker like a sharpie and traced where my cut line was. I handed it to my assistant surgeon and he traced his and then I cut first and I cut in and he immediately screams out. Whoa! I'm like, that's, that's not good. Like, he shouldn't be feeling any pain. So, you cut it and he screamed? Yeah. So, but he wasn't like jumping off the table or anything. So, ketamine is a disassociative. It's not necessarily a pain killer. It's a disassociative in music. So, worse. So, his body, his body is not registered. Like, his mind isn't registering pain, but there's still some pain there. So, I had my worn officer who was running my anesthesia, he had me a bloody syringe full of lidocaine. I juiced him up and that made things better. I had been told and I've never actually gone and followed up on this, but I have been told that one of the side effects of ketamine in the elderly is sex nightmares. So, so I've got this kind of wondering like, what's going through his mind? I cast sexual trauma. Caholes and sex nightmares. The tears story. I have the tears story. That can't be Cahole. It's not too far from the title and I know more actually. So, what the fuck? How did they find that out? I don't know. How did they do any medical research? I don't know. Maybe through. They just went through a nursing home with ketamine like, well, I mean, somebody had to do science. We're about to do science. Surprise. We're going to do science. And it's Ben Stiller. So, I hand the scalpel to my A-serge, my assistant surgeon, and I cut like this. It's called a Shark-Bite Technique. The reason we cut like that is so you have something to close the wound with. It wraps around. The bones here. Muscle skin here. He cut straight down and I went, "No!" He couldn't see that though. I'm wearing a crevada over my face and it's slow motion. Anyway, so I was like, "No!" So, we just got a roll with it. So, we get back. We get through all the tissue where we're cauterizing things. It's another thing. New thing we had was an electric disposable caudery tool. Some frying vessels and it smells exactly barbecue chicken, which is really disturbing. It smells super good and it's really fucked up. It's ID, dude. Like, when a ass fest gets off, you just get hungry. Yeah. It's eaten in a while. You're like, "Yeah." It's disturbing. So, you're just like anything that looks bleeding. Yeah, arteries, veins, all that. We tried tying it off at first, but we hadn't done this previously together. So, the ligature kept slipping off. So, fortunately, I had these electric caudery tools that we'd never used before. There's probably like 200 people watching this episode that are very sensitive, this sort of shit that are like trying not to puke in their fucking car. Yeah, go to my Instagram and go on the way back feed. You can see video for when I release it. ID has not taken this down. It's been up there for like four or five years, yeah. Wild. Yeah. And this whole thing was used in the schoolhouse later. Partially as, "Hey, this happened." And partially as, "Hey, don't do it like this." But it's up there. So, we get through all the vessels and we get to the bone and I've got that wire saw. I'm just like. And on the video, I had a surgery mix from the schoolhouse. Like a surgery mix tape. Did you cut below the knee? Above the knee. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We did a lot easier if it didn't A.K.A. Dibbs on the indie band named Surgery Mixed Tape. Surgery Mixed Tape. Pretty dope. It was a good man. It was a good mix tape. But the social distortion is playing in the background while I'm going. On the video, I'm going through this guy's bone. It's like, "It's like children about to age." Going through the bone. You see smoke coming up. You call him for water. When the corpsman just squirted with ID fluid, trench, cool things down. I'm lucky I didn't break the saw. I know that now from a little more advanced training. But I did not break the saw. We get through the leg. Now I've got leg here. Dude's stump here and a new set of problems. Like, what am I going to do with this? Because I don't have enough tissue to cover up the stump. So, well, I'm sitting there trying to. The problem's like it's my head and not stress the fuck out because it's nothing. I'm the. Again, I'm the closest thing to any kind of doctor for a four-hour donkey ride. And everybody in this camp trusts me and my abilities to save their lives. Like, this is a morale issue as well. It's very important. I keep their confidence. So, I'm looking at this stump wondering what the fuck I'm going to do now. And marrying my Acerge goes, "What about that?" And I said, "What?" And he points at the end of the litter. And there's that leg laying there. And I'm like, "Hmm. Let's try it out." So, surgical sharpie, drew out a cut line, took that scalpel, cut around it, and now I've got this flap of skin from the dude's amputated limb. So, we're just going to tack that on there. You know, the big deal. Like you do. I'm bringing it over and I'm like, "Don't fucking drop this. Do not drop this skin." And I'm holding it super tight. Well, the thing about skin is it's got a fatty layer on the bottom. And if you hold it too tight, you get what happened to me. I'm bringing it over to size it up, and I'm pulling it too tight, and that fat on the underside was slipping in my surgical gloves. Anyway, oh. Boom. On the ground. And everybody's just like, "Oh." Pete's a toss in the skin flap. Five-second rule. It's exactly what happened. Oh, man. And I said it. I just blow it off. I said that. You're starting to get on it. So there was an SMU medic a couple, you're like two years later. I saw him in clothing and sales. We knew each other from school. He just looked at me and he goes, "Hey, three-second rule." I said it was five. Olen Schennen-Maldonado, the founder of the Artesan Institute of Technology, is the founder of the Lajja Kaupan. He was a shopkeeper because he was a professor at the Institute of Technology in the first year of the University of Technology. He was the first to be a professor at the Institute of Technology, which was the first to be a professor at the Institute of Technology. The story had circulated, so I said, "Audible. It's everybody in the room." Five-second rule, and I picked it up, and we washed it off. -Oh, come. -It was an IV solution, and then some beta-dine, and I announced, because I was already hungry. I was like, "Hey, this looks like teriyaki chicken." -It wouldn't have been so bad. -It wouldn't have been so bad. -I just watched this episode. -Put that up on the stump, and tacked a corner. I threw a pen rose drain in there, and I let everybody, if it was in there, throw a signature, two or three signatures or stitches in there. -Everyone just come up and just do us a stitch. -It's like signing their name on something. -Here's the rule question. What was your time? It wasn't three minutes. Yeah. I don't know. So here's the other thing about this fast one, kids, is there was a lot of them, especially in the early days, that the removal tool was stripped. So it comes with this threaded removal tool, you just screw it in, and then you pull it out of the sternum. Again, I wasn't school trained on this thing, so I've only have two of them. And so I'm trying to remove this needle from the dude's chest, and I keep giving them little ketamine bumps. This is after everybody else is out and slapping hands and eating barbecue, cooked on Hesco wire for some reason, it's probably not good for you. So I'm up there, and I'm trying to remove this and Paul, my team leader, who is now a general, he goes, "Tier, you have to get him out of here." It is dark as approaching, because we were out in Indian country, we were not allowed to have. It's just like, "If they're not our indage, they are not in the camp after dark." You said you keep giving them ketamine hats? So you just like, "Sex nightmare, sex nightmare." I said, "I'm going to the lab." "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, I'm going to brick, no!" Whoa! Like in the ancient times? Like, no, probably worse, frankly. Send them to the ****** dimension. There it is, that's me. So send me to the ****** dimension. I finally opened up the second pack, and there's another removal tool in there, and it popped in. Popped it right out, sent on his way. Oh yeah. There you go. Yeah, there's my surgical team. Rain ponchos. Oh yeah, his foot is totally the wrong one. Oh yeah. That is gnarly. That looks like a **** potato. Chase the friend, put this up, and then blur everything. So you can't see any of what we're showing you. Yeah. Burst sausage. Yeah. That's pretty close. It's that, that's that coddery tool. Cool. Nice shit. I've seen my glint tape on the top of my hat there. It's real common in surgical suites. That's gnarly. They look super sanitary. Just exposed to you by 4 in the background. Literally. Okay, so what's he going to do, leave a negative yelp review? He could. Yeah, the form of an IED from his nephew, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, that's all ****. I can't hold me to go to a get a petty. Okay, so where are you sitting right there in that litter? That's our front porch. That's where I would lie. I'm out of that. So his, his, his fucked up foot looks like a potato. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just love the yelp review things. Like three of, three of 10. Didn't even leave a chocolate on the pillow. And that's the **** dimension. No, he's still. That's that's Afghan dimension. He wasn't down yet then. That's, that's afghan. That's how it came in. He's just that's all natural standard pain right there. Okay, so those, the windows you saw in the background. So the, where the pictures where he's laid out right there, that was like pre-surgery. That's, that's where I did all my medivacs. That wasn't in the room. All the Marines from 28 were crowding around the windows right there and like move the litter stands out of the way and they're just staring in and, and the reason there's photos is because now general sellers had a presence of mine to take some photo and video of this whole thing happening, which thank you, Paul. So, but those Marines, they're all in the tree. They're, they're crowding around and they're, they're just watching and I can't see them because they're behind me and been the window. But I heard one of them say, this is after I cut the dude's leg off. I heard one of them say, dude, we should take that leg and feed it to the dog. Remember, keep a little buckly. Oh no. He grew into a monster. So, here's a taste for flesh. And so I didn't acknowledge that, but I, I grabbed one of, one of the starting team after this is over. I said, Hey, grab that leg, go out under the cover of darkness into the LZ, take a hole that is, I buy regulation cat hole at least three feet deep and bury it. I do not want to see our dog walking around camp with a human leg and it's mouth just non-away. That'll make it to New York Times. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure he didn't give it back, bro. So he came back like, he came back the next day after, well, how do you, so you finally got the needle out? Yeah, yeah. Yep. And then once that was out, you know, and he was also loaded up with enough antibiotics to kill anything. They're anything. Yeah, yeah, it was probably antibiotics that had never even been introduced to that country. So he could have been like, he crossed dresses now, though, that's a, that's a, that's a development. He doesn't, he was sitting more, he's at, he's Afghanistan's number one advocate for autism, you know. Oh, God is disgusting now. So he came back the next day and I could, took his drain out and came back every day. Every few days, I could check on it and then two weeks, nothing. But the last time I'd seen him, there's pictures of this too, that flap that I'd thrown on there had turned completely black. It wasn't stinky. It was not stinky meat. There's nothing rotting, but the, the, that flap that I'd sewn on there with that baseball stitch was completely black. And then I never saw him again. So fast forward several months, we ripped out with a team from third group. I go back to Bagram, CJSOT, and I'm talking to the CJSOT of surgeon. And I, I'm, I give him the whole case study and I'm worried about this and I tell him I'm concerned about this. And he goes, who's the alive when you left, when you last saw him? I said, well, yeah. He goes, good job, doc. And I was in it. That was, that was the whole thing. No idea what happened to him. Oh, well. Yeah. He's, now he's probably 17 years old and just doing the thing in Afghanistan. I'm flying lipstick in the mirror. Listen, it's a goodbye horses, meat flap. I, oh, my, yeah, on one foot though. Nick, tell us about your cash app experiences, but keep it clean. I use it to sell my sister money sometimes. That's pretty clean, yeah. Kind of helping you to have a more interesting story, but no, that's cool, that's fine. I use cash app all the time, you know, genuinely, whether it's sometimes me and Brandon go out for dinner and drinks to have a great time. He doesn't consider it a date. He calls it friends hanging out. I consider it a date and I take that a little bit personally. So when we leave, I bill him on cash app, which is weird because I pay for the bill anyway. Think of it like a fishing license. What? King Trout. Boy, am I the catch. Anyway, all of this is possible through cash app. How interesting you bring up cash app, Brandon. I have so many things to say about it. I've just released a new status program to follow the way people spend money called cash app green. And it locks new ways for you to pay, get rewarded and easily grow or manage your money on your terms. Now when you spend at least $500 a month on cash app pay or the cash app card, you unlock cash app green. That unlocks benefits, including up to $200 in free overdraft coverage. Higher borrow limits and custom personalized cash back offers every Friday at places you love to shop. Turn everyday shopping into status with cash app green. Download cash app today or visit cash.app/new. There you'll learn more about this and other great features which are launching now. For limited time, new cash app customers can unlock $10 by using the discount code cash app 10 and their profile at sign up and send $5 to a friend with them 14 days. Just put that in your profile at sign up and send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Turns apply. Cash app is a financial service platform, not a bank banking service provided by cash bank partners, prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton bank member FDIC, cash app green overdraft coverage, borrow cash back, offers and promotions provided by cash app. A block ink brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. How did it get down to get drained and shit? Just like that. Take it back. No, okay. Yeah, some nephew brought him back. Take it back. Gangster. The walk home was way easier. So that guys last words to me were when do I get my wooden leg and that's how I knew I was successful because he was asking for things again. I said, I started the same way, I started that case like you got to go to Pakistan, buddy. We don't deal with wooden legs here. Yeah. He was probably super disappointed, so they'll definitely give me a prosthetic when I leave here. He was pain free. I mean, that thing wasn't turned the wrong way anymore. We stuck it doing that for our own guys. Fuck you. We should ask Clint Romache if there was ever a ghost of a single leg just drifting by the LZ when he was in a phabastic plant. Are you gonna text him? Just imagine there's a rolling around in the middle of the night. What the fuck? No. It's just, it's just those fucked up toes like tickling his ears. Usually. So, and you. I've just hit it from the ******* dimension. This is, I am sex nightmare. I am sex nightmare is the new shirt. I'm for a visit from Uncle Touchy. Uncle Touchy. If it just like came up and like just like grab you your toes with its toes, just like, oh, I don't like that. I just love like a pocket full of a fucking ketamine. Pocket trauma. (laughing) Whoa. (laughing) Whoa. (laughing) Kim Lites and Sex Nightmares. - Oh, he's such a good title. - The tear story. - It's a tear story. So I'm writing a memoir right now. I've been writing memoir, but I figured it'd be easier to publish once I was out out instead of, like, gradually, you know, the whole SF Sergeant Major thing versus author, plus I'm not a seal. So, you know, kind of breaking new ground here. - Oh, yeah, you made it. - Even that is a crazy story. I remember when we did, like, drunk and debrief in the whole case. - Okay, Sergeant Major of Special Forces wants to be on. I was like, eh? I just started that shit. - That's right. - And then why the fuck does a green beret special, Sergeant Major want to be on this shit? - I remember some of that. - Yeah. - I still probably have food. - What I really remember was, because it was Utah, we had to, it was a, there was a time crunch to get to, like, the state-run liquor store so that we could load up on booze. - You know, the 2% alcohol beers? - 'Cause I think we were gonna film on a Sunday. - Yes. - Yeah. - I forget, man, all those stupid rules. - Yeah. - Dude, the assault lake is wild with that. - Yeah. - One beer. - No shot. - You have to do, like, one or the other, right? - Yeah. - That's not, but they've got, they legitimately water down their booze. Like, their beer, I think, is like, isn't that especially made for, like, Utah? - It's like a 2.5. - So that, that's a good question. I didn't drink a lot of beer in Utah. - The one night, we sat around, my first time up there, we were sitting around with best. I think we each drank like 20 beers and then we're still sitting there, like, you guys. - Yeah. - Do you like anything? - Yeah, like, like, everyone's good, right? - There's one more man that walks by, I was like, bro, I'm so buzzed. Like, I feel hydrated. Like, what are we doing here? - Even the shop machines are measured. - Yeah. - They've got the little, uh, devices on. - It used to be, you probably remember this, it used to be, they, in the bars and restaurants, they had to have, like, a cabinet or a curtain that went over, that hid the booze in case any children could see it, 'cause it would ruin them. - I am. - The vision of alcohol bottles. That's gone now. That was a weird thing. I just remember being, like, down there, like, on state street, a closing time in the bartender's, like, putting up cabinets over the booze, I'm like, are you trying to tell us something? Like, no, no, you've still got some time. I'm just getting at it. - Yeah, apparently anything over a 5% ABV or 4% alcohol by weight can only be sold in state controlled liquor stores. - Oh, yeah, that's it. You can't have beer anyway. So you can't buy beer at gas stations, so that's, like, the 2.5, cool, right? - It has to be under 4% alcohol by weight. So you can buy shitty beer at gas stations, everything else has to be bought at. - Well, Utah beer is a maximum of 3.2 by weight. Excuse me. - Oh, wow. - Yeah. - There it is, that's what I was talking about. - Just carbs. - Yeah. - Are there rules that I wonder if there's ways around that, 'cause I thought polygamy powder was more than that. - Like, a core is light is too much. That's, like, a core is ultra light. The can just floats by. - I forgot, like, with the ghost of a foot behind it. - No caffeine, there's a whole bunch of rules there. - But also, you like still, like, going back to you, you paid Sartmator, which is wild to me. - That is wild. That's wild to a lot of people. - Oh, like, what the fuck, why would you want? - You stayed in that long? - Yeah, I made it fast, too. Yeah, I put nine in 2014. And, yeah. - You get under 20? - Yeah. Way under 20. So, I think I did, seven took me a minute. I think I made seven and nine years, and then eight. I was only an E8 for, I think, two years. And then I pinned nine. But I was an E7 team sergeant, so I was already, you know, kind of running things above my pay grade. Doing all that, fuck off. - Oh, thank you. - Bro, looking in hindsight, I probably got promoted too fast, but it's also a lot of attrition. Like, if there's nobody else, you're going to get promoted. And guys were, you know, side of the G-Wat guys are getting out. - So you sabotaged your superiors? - My team, dude, my team was full of rock stars. Half of them either went to SMUs or the (beep) - Just community. - Yeah. (laughing) - You're so (beep) (laughing) - All right, sorry. - I sprayed the level with ketamine. (laughing) - And I left. - No, I just made like a good boy. (laughing) - We had a rock solid team there. We really did. I would have stacked them up against any team in the regiment. And because, and a lot of that was because, even though it was the guard, like half my dudes, over half my dudes were doing special operations in the civilian world and just coming back. I guess how Evan and I know each other was because we were in the same guard SF unit. And Evan did a lot of shit before he started the company. And it was some pretty cool shit. And yeah, so we were just, we were, we'd come back from Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever it was we were to meet up, have a couple beers, do some training together. - Yeah, top of any government's lately. - Exactly, right? - Yeah, it was a 19th and 20th, are probably the best kept secrets in the Army's arsenal. They really are, I mean, just chock full of talent. It starts getting a little weird, easy. It starts getting a little weird when you get like the time level higher because then it's just admin stuff. But at the company level lower, dude, there's, there's a lot of talent on those teams. A lot of talent. Yeah. - That's, yeah. At that level, it's always wild, 'cause we were just in DC. And, I mean, how many generals did you interact with and even at your level, 'cause you're still, commands aren't major, but you probably didn't interact with generals on the daily. - So, truth by, not a mission. I never pinned CSM, I turned it down a couple of times, but I never pinned CSM. - Yeah, shit, yeah, just, just keeping that out there. I'm just a regular old special forces sergeant major. - Commands aren't major, says a little forces on you, which is screwed. - I wasn't a command position because in a company. - So you're not a command sergeant major, you were a commanding sergeant major. - Actually, that's a great way to put that. Yeah. So, in special forces, the company, the senior and listed leader in the company is in E9, but it's not a CSM position. It's a, it's a non CSM position. It's an operations position, even though it's a command bill. So, I had that position for five years, and I was really, really fucking busy as a company sergeant major. So I had a task force deployment in that time. We had teams in UCOM, doing the UCOM thing. We had teams in Southeast Asia. I took the company in the middle of a tie-line mission with tie special forces, so I was concurrently, a direct-rate sergeant major, - Sorry, sir. Reppe, it's a lunch. - The, yeah. - Well, yeah. - Oh, yeah. - I just heard tie-line and I was left with that, yeah. - I can guess where that goes. - You don't have to get very inventive. - Tie was my first trained language. I only speak it, if I'm drunk, and in Thailand. It's a, it's a difficult language to speak sober. For me. - Ooh. - All the time, you need to know. So, I'll put this out there. This is important for anybody working in the Pacific theater. They're very, very good at gender reassignment and plastic surgery in Southeast Asia. Thailand, specifically. They're very good at that. That is not something I was trying to do as an 18-dolta, but I was impressed with their skill. And one thing I would tell new guys that came over to Southeast Asia, especially if they came from sent-com originally. - That's why you know how to do vasectomy. - Yeah, it was. - It's just the vasectomy plus. There's a, there's a, there's a thing called JMPI, primary jump master inspection. So, part of the JMPI is checking, you know, you check buckles, you check the pack strap, pack tray, all that stuff. But one of the important things you wanna check is make sure that they're not gonna fall out of the parachute harness. And you do that by checking these two buckles, these two buckles, and the leg straps. And that is an important part of the safety brief for anybody going to Southeast Asia for a sound is check those leg straps before you take anybody anywhere. Just make sure there's no hanging Chad. No, nothing else. - The Hanging Chad? - Yes, never that one before. - That's a, that's an old election. - That's a little political joke. - They're a little political joke. - Yeah. - Make sure there's nothing. - No dick. - No bulge. - Yeah. - Look out for a dick. - Oh. - Yeah, the other thing I would tell people is if it looks too good to be true. What do you say? If she looks too good to be true. - He is. - He is. - Oh, that's actually real. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - There's some really attractive dudes over there. They will bamboozled, hoodwinked. - That's the thing with Silicon Valley. It's like if you're a four in season eight, come on. - Ooh, I ran into that to buy. We were. - I'm talking a little bit about Dubai earlier. It's one of the areas that Allah cannot see. - Can I see you in Dubai? - And they act accordingly, apparently. - Yeah, it's like the Vegas of the Arab world. - I did not know this. - Oh, that's, I mean, you know. - Poo girls? - Yeah. - Poo girls. - Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. - Those stories. - Yeah, Dubai. - I think that needs a little bit of explanation. - Yeah, I know from Cody Lair. - Poo girls. - Yeah, me and Brandon, we went with Heather one time down to Florida. - Did she best stories to do? - To do a-- - Me and Brandon one time one bit. - That sounds bad. - We went to-- - He was for flag rifle. - We had for black rifle. - She was doing a Mother's Day skit with, what was it, Corey Chase? - Yeah, I think so. - Yeah, you know, I'm stuck in the dryer step, bro. Come, me out or whatever they do. So we got to talk into her husband. (laughing) We got to talk-- (laughing) We got to talk to her husband who's been making adult films with her for 20 something years since they met in the Air Force. And he was telling them-- - How long, Jesus. - Yeah, he said it was like 20 years. - He was shit. - And he was telling us about how a bunch of the girls in that industry, his horse, they would go to Dubai. And he was like, yeah, well, they-- - Sorry. - They would pay them to sh*t on them and we're like, what do you mean by that? The girls would poop on these princes, these Saudi princes, and they're like, no, no, no, no. They, the Saudi dudes, the oil barons, and all those dudes loved to put on the pretty little white girls. And so they'd throw them like 20, 30, 40 grand, and they would fly to Dubai, get done, and then come back and they called them the poo girls. - I'm just, as soon as you said that, I was picturing military age males of Middle Eastern descent, again, just in that squatting position, because they don't use toilets, they stand. They do that-- - You got money, you use something else. - Yeah. - They don't use toilets, or they use Russian girls, apparently, but just like the rooster tails, I remember from being in Afghanistan, we burned down the trains, instead of cleaning them, a couple times, just like scorched dirt, start over, put padlocks on 'em, 'cause this is a US-only toilet. - They don't use that, just like squatting over, just bleep, just bleep. - Also shout out to Cutty, just. When was it? - Last month, two months ago on Twitter, I see a girl commented something, and you reply, "Shut up, or--" - Oh, she's-- - The opinions of prostitutes don't matter, that is more fun than you put it that way. - And I just see like a million likes on that, and everyone should make a fun of said whore. - That's a dear guy, could-- - A man of few words. - And then I threw a ketamine at her. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Six nightmare. - And now, so now you're doing a VA stuff, you're trying to help veterans? - Correct, yeah, that's a great segue. - This is a great segue way. - Yeah, a great segue into my new corporate job. (laughing) - So there I was thinking I was just gonna be retired. I just got my 100% P&T. My retirements approved, and I'm looking for new property based on 100% what? - Permanent total. So your VA claim, so P&T means you're not being re-evaluated. Unless you choose to reopen your claim for something, you're not gonna be re-evaluated. - Which had 100% P&T, you would never do that. - No, that'd be dumb. - Yeah. - Be real dumb. - So he's off the hook forever. - Yeah, gotcha, that'd never hurt. - Yeah, there's a lot of scrutiny with it. I mean, I've got a lot of time down range, and the VA will actually match up like your claims to your service records, and it's not just your military medical records. They're matching it's like, "Oh, you got a bronze star for service "of canistering here, and your claim in that right here." Yeah, that makes sense. Oh, you've got a combat medic badge. Oh, and you say you've got PTSD because you've seen a bunch of dead kids. We brought it, yeah, that makes sense. You know, there's that nexus, right? There's that service connection. So the VA does a very diligent, multi-level, multi-eyeball's job of looking at each claim that comes in. So when I'm watching all these things come through, I'm like, "Oh, there's so much fraud in the system." And then I see other vets comment. I'm like, when, and it's always the same comment. It's like, guys, we all know somebody that has 100% that shouldn't have 100% and that shouldn't happen. And then I kind of come back and I'm like, what's your percentage? And I'm like, "Oh, well, I actually have a couple of years left." Like, that's what I thought. - Well, I have to say, it's like I am that guy that does say that. So I can't be, 'cause I've watched myself like, I'm on the side, I've seen that happen. In fact, many times when I'm like, "Man, I have struggled to get to." - Yeah. - Which is, like, whatever will delete the percentage by struggle to get there, like, and mine is document, document, like, A, per bar, blah, blah, blah, blah. - You got shot. - Yeah, but even then I got blown up three times. I got to fight against that, like that. And then-- - That's what I mean. 'Cause like, you have you have a very clear, like, yes, I was blown up, shot, whatever. I did combat deployments. And then I hear, it's like, "Oh, I'm at 100." I'm like, "How, what the fuck?" 'Cause I've went through three times. And that's nuts, man. Honestly, for the fact that you've got a purple heart, I mean, that's, that elevates things right there. Zach and I, Zach Bell and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. And he said, he goes, he said, "Your special forces privilege is showing." And I was like, "What do you do?" And I thought about it and like, "Okay, that kind of makes sense." Because I did, like, when I went into these CMP exams, that the exams that the VA orders for you. So you put in, you file your claim and you list everything that you say is wrong with you. And then they order exams to decide whether it actually is through a medical opinion. And those are called CMP exams. I can't remember what CMP stands for. So when I'm going through these exams, when I, and it's all contracted doctors. So I'd go in and I would see, as soon as they, like I'd sit down and we'd talk for half a second. But as soon as they realized or read that I was a green VA, it was like the demeanor completely changed. Because they, at that point, assumed that I was not faking whatever it is that it was claiming. That I actually had been to combat. And I actually did see all the bad shit that I saw. And which is great for me, but I feel bad for guys like you who are just little ol' infantry dudes. You know, just got blown up and you got a purple heart and you got shot. - I think, dude, George, when we went out dinner with General George, he knew he's like, "Oh, you were with the strikers. You guys got fucked up, like, immediately at dinner." - Oh, yeah, you okay, you remember? - Yeah, a lot of my career passed, you know, like the blood and guts of the medic stuff. A lot of my career was avoiding conflict. Not like, oh, that's dangerous. I'm not going there, but like I was more on the intel side of things. So if I was actively engaging the enemy, something had gone terribly wrong. - So I do think one thing that did switch was, I did this in 2008, 2009, 10-ish area. And even when we were getting out, it was, hey, make sure you've gained the system. When you go talk to your doctor, they're going to try to pull it and hide it. They're going to drop a pin and they'll ask you to bend down and pick it up, don't pick it up. Because that's them looking for ways to get out of paying you. That's what we were told getting out in like 2008. So they're okay. - That's why it was that early. It's, that's still a thing, it's not entirely in country. So nobody tried to trick me anything, but I was told beforehand that, so range of motion is how they estimate how fucked up you are in terms of ortho injuries or musculoskeletal. - I got hurt on my right shoulder. They didn't write what shoulder got hurt over in Iraq. - Guess what? - They didn't document that. They said, well, it says a shoulder got injured. - Right. So part of the problem is what you just did right there, it's not my shoulder, I have a way too much movement. Obviously you can use it, there's no problem. - Yeah, yeah. - But I'm sure your shoulder hurts. You have shot a pain. So the coaching piece of this, which some people call fraud, absolutely is not fraud. It's just the way the VA system works. What I had to be told was, you've been pushing through pain for years, which is true, over a decade. What they're looking for in that range of motion is not how far you can bend. It's how far you can bend before you meet any kind of resistance, whether that's from the way your body moves or whether it's from pain. And you have to swallow your pride and not push through that. Or you and not only you, but your family is going to be penalized for it. - Which is hard because what is the one thing they teach you in push through? - Don't go to the aid station, don't do any of this. That's the one thing I've said. Hey. we need to switch that. - Who says that? - Art, dude. - If you go to the A station. - All from that (beep) - You go to the A station. - Yeah. - Is that like institutional or is that just like peers? - It's cultural. - Okay. - Yeah, it's cultural. I had fucking tonsilite decided to go to the A station because I'm getting drunk. - When I became a company sergeant major and we were getting ready to have the door. One thing I told everyone in the room and I did it with their families in the room. So their wives would know. As well as like, if you stub your toe, you make sure your medic writes that up because if it's not on paper, it did not happen. And I promise you that none of what you're gonna do on this trip is going to disqualify you from further service or keep you from going to an SMU or anything else. You need to get that documented. And even if you just have a paper copy of it and it never gets put it in, put digitally, have that paper copy. You gotta have that record because it's gotta be connected. And especially in the garden reserves, those claims are nightmare because what the VA does is when you get your list of contensions, when you fire a claim, they look at everything you claimed. And then they have to, a VSR has a veteran service representative or service rep, whatever it's called. I don't know, VSR, that's what it's called. They have to go in and they have to look at everything you claimed and try to match it up to when you were on orders. So if they, if you can't prove that it happened while you were on orders, it's not service connected unless it's a presumptive. So my initial sleep apnea claim, anybody that's been in the woods with me knows that there's either a bear attack or I'm sleeping in a tent next to me, right? I've got a sleep apnea, like a motherfucker. It is service connected, but when I had a diagnosed, it was on the back end of a jump injury. So it was actually a civilian doctor that looked and she just looked at me and said, how long have you got sleep apnea? I said, according to my three X girlfriends a while. So, but because it was, it was done by a civilian doctor and it wasn't on orders when I was diagnosed, the VA medical opinion was not service connected. You don't just go to drill and get sleep apnea all of a sudden, right, it's connected now. It doesn't matter 'cause I've got like 400% disability, but I will be the other guy on the side because I stand on that side where I see your side also, that's where I'm like, yeah, I get-- - What I feel like we don't wanna do is allow this room for negative press to impact the people that really need it, like for combat veterans who have issues, who have been injured, who have debilitating conditions, them getting their percentages cut, them getting their benefits cut, that's absolutely not what we want. And so I don't know, I'm working on some stuff with Zach is one of the people I'm working with. I'm working with a lot of the veterans group to work on legislation to prevent that. And I think the only way to do it is to do it where it's non-retroactive. Like everybody who's got a rating right now was perfectly safe, but like moving forward in the future, like how do we make sure we prioritize people who have actually like, for example, either had combat deployments, like our actual combat veterans who have been wounded in the line of duty, or people who are subject to like gross negligence on behalf of the military. Like people who, you know, you don't necessarily need to have been in combat to have something that the military should compensate. - That's very important because there's a lot of injuries in training. - Right, exactly. - Like my team sergeant that went to Delta at the time was passing, he was the most decorated operator in the unit, buddy burned in on a free fall accident, and you know, that's obviously service connected. - Right, right. - So if you want the opinion of a 31-year soft sergeant major, I think it actually goes back before it gets to the VA. The problem is really at the DOD level, or DOW or whatever you want to call it, because I think the claims that come to the most scrutiny under public eye with our community and with guys like Caleb Hammer and everything else, is when you've got somebody that washed out of basic, or something like that, and now they've got a VA rating. Now if they blew out a knee, I had a kid in college when I taught ROTC, he's got 60%, but he blew out a knee, and he was a semi-pro football player before he joined the guard. That makes sense, right? But if you got people that were just failure to adapt, it'd be fun to have Rich on for this. - Oh, dude, he would be like, he'd be like. - He'd be like, the easy button for the services is to kick them out early. But because they've got a DD-14, they're now eligible for veteran benefits, and that comes with VA disability. And if they couldn't find an administrative reason to get a room, they're gonna find a medical reason to get rid of them. And that pushes the problem down the road to the VA. And whoever that commander is, or that doctor is, or whoever it is, that's a sign off on that, doesn't have to deal with that outside of, you know, the financial burden of being a taxpayer. So that's really where a lot of that starts. - Off camera, I've got some ideas. I like to pitch you, just to figure out your take on it. 'Cause I think it is something that definitely needs some movement, some ocean, some would say, but, 'cause I mean it, we talked about this at the gym, and it is the one thing. 'Cause it is that, it's a difficult situation. You have me where I'm like, okay, I've went through all this and I'm still struggling. And then it's like, well, it makes it easier, as you're saying, well, people that have been to combat, why are they struggling? Well, others, you do see some of the people on Kale Pamela showing, you're like, how the fuck the heck I get 100%? - And one of the vice versa, you get it. So it's like, if they ease it up, okay, then those guys get through. And then I'm still like, because I went through at a harder time, well, you didn't get past, you have to do it again. So it is a hard situation. There is no easy way to solve it. - I mean, there's that initial entry part and that the problem child part, there's also the way that ratings are done. Like, I'm medically retired from the military. - Thank you for your service. You're welcome. - Even with everything I've done, it wasn't open and shut. Dude, I can't run anymore. I've got joints in my feet that don't work. I've got my back, my lumbar, looks like a spider web under an MRI, right? But claiming those things, army doctors looked at them, like, nah, you can still serve. But I was hospitalized for PTSD. And that's what was actually approved. - No shit. - Yeah, so the army gave me 70% for PTSD. You need a minimum of 30, it's medically retired. - What blows my mind, like the thing that, and this is like where I very first started to conceptualize, like some of the issues with the VA disability rating system. I think it was 17, 'cause I can, in North Carolina, I was living in Fort Bragg at the time. So yeah, sorry, I spent some time there too. But it's a shit whole shit hole. - Thank you. - I know you're sure, but I did 25-year tour in Fayette-Nam. - Oh, man. - Don't do that. - Oh, they don't do that. - I like Brick. - They don't do that. - But when I, so in that state, in North Carolina, fuck you, dude. (laughing) - In North Carolina, I think in order to get a motorcycle endorsement before you turn 18, you need to take the DMV motorcycle safety course or whatever the, and the dude I became friends with, at that course, I just didn't know the young guy that was there, I was a army guy. We would just like, fucking around, like I'm 17, he's like 21, whatever, like we would race to where we would do like the actual parking lot, you know motorcycle horse part of it. And you know, we started like bullshit in a couple of days later and they got, so what do you do? He's like, oh, I'm like medically retired from the army. Yeah, I got like a, I rolled an ankle on a combat jump. And now I've got like 90% disability or whatever the fuck it was. - Yeah. - And like this is a guy that we're literally like, still winded from having sprinted 700 yards to, I'm like, in my head at the time, like that doesn't make sense. - Right. - Like I feel like there's something wrong with that system a little bit. And it sucks 'cause like there's a lot of people that do deserve it. And like I would say more often than those cases where people get something they're not owed, there's people that are owed a lot that aren't getting it. - And there are, in fact there are a lot of, there are combat vets out there that have never filed. - Yeah, there's so a dude so many. I was just on, I was teaching the Air Force Academy last week. There's like 84 mostly green brave vets and this one Ranger. Bro, he's been all over the world. He was in Panama and he hadn't filed a claim. It was crazy, he was here working with him now. So. - Most people, and they do not set you up on how to do it. - No. - That's the hardest, that's why I went with, hey the paid route like. - Yeah, because they were going to take it out of my hands and figure that shit out and I am 100% fine with it. - I was very fortunate in the medical retirement process. I was assigned a VA case officer. So I actually had two claims. The Greenbury Foundation initiated my claim. And then there was actually a VA case worker that looked at that and said, why didn't you claim your left hip? Because my right hip is the one that hurts. And she said, Sergeant Major, are you telling me that your left hip never gets worn out after compensating? for your right hip. I'm like, well, sometimes she goes, sometimes it's not an answer. It's a yes or a no. I said, well, it kind of, she's like, yes or no. I said, yes. She's like, good answer, Sergeant Major. Well, she goes, you guys are worst. She was helping me, but that's how the claim system works. And you're also doing what you were trained the entire time, which is do not be a bitch. Yeah. Entire time is, I'm going to get in trouble if I go to the age. So that's kind of a zacks talk. And I'm like, hey, your special forces privilege is showing, but with the guys that have never filed a claim that just got out or didn't know, like, I've got a buddy. He was, he was in Afghanistan in 2002 with special forces. One of my favorite photos of the entire G watt is this guy. I won't say his name because of a hippo and whatnot, but is this guy standing on the roof of a mud hut in, in Nongahar somewhere and he's whacking a golf ball off into the distance off this rooftop in the, in the mountains, such a great shot. He needs to be a poster. Anyway, he never filed. And I said, why? And he said, I just don't have the money to hire a lawyer right now. I'm like, you don't need a lawyer, bro. You don't need a lawyer. No, it's better than that. Okay. That was crazy. The funny thing is, he's also involved like everywhere and he hasn't had a haircut or a shave. It also, he's got like this wild like the Jack Mandeville cut. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Except he's like a triathlete. So imagine Jack is a jack. So what I tell everybody when I find out they haven't filed a claim at all is go on VA.gov that day. You don't need a via. So you don't need anybody. You need to create an ID, me account, if you don't have a catcard anymore. So you can ask the camera websites. And then you hit intent to file because once you do intent to file, when you eventually get your claim in, everything you've claimed backstate, back dates to that you file, which for me ended up being like two years of back pay. Congratulations. It was a good balance. That was nice. And it's tax free. Yeah. But I already met shit. It's tax free. But you put end to that. I did. Yeah. I sure did. I paid. I get multiple. They didn't pay it into that. A flashback to throwing an Afghani elder into a K hole. It's like six things. There was, there was some background here. After that, once you do your intent to file, that's when you go hunting for the, the help. And there's, there's tax free options like I had lunch with a dude out in Banderra, who is the, is it Banderra County out there? What county is that? I don't know. Wherever Banderra is. Like the town of Banderra. Yeah. Yeah. He was wearing a wear his heart shirt. So I just went up and started talking. It's a nice little town. It's like a fun little cowboy town. Yeah. I might, I might end up living there. Who knows? You know, I'm wearing my Banderra shirt. So he is the county of Israel. I just realized it's a wrap up. It's the same thing for Raptor Houston. It's funny video. So yeah. Different counties, but in Texas, definitely, there are, there are publicly funded veteran service reps that will help you with all of your, your VA stuff. You don't have to hire a claim shark. You don't have to hire a lawyer. And there is big business and claims. And that's, that's what I get paid to do now on the director of strategic partnerships for a company called Exterra Health. That's X T E R R A Health. What I like about this company, if it cuts that. Let's cut down. What's the check clear? So this company, we just do, we do Nexus letters and DBQ letters. DBQ is disability qualifying letter. So it's a, it's a, remember I was talking about the C and P exams. You go in, this is your, what you say is wrong with you. The VA says, well, let's, let's see. And they order an exam for you. So a DBQ is a letter from a medical professional that says, yes, I've done an exam. And this is fucked up. There is still some fraud involved in that piece. Well, why? So Rebecca was a V S R at the VA. And she would get claims and she would see at the VA, she would see like, okay, this vet is filing his claim. He lives in Illinois. The doctor, he saw is in Arizona. She would flag that and they would go for further review. Right. So there's still some of that going on. That doesn't happen here. There's, there is telehealth and it can be explained, you know, but what this company does is they've got a network of providers. The doctor that's in charge of it was Marty Scoval and Junior's medic in Ranger Battalion. He became an MD and he, he's, he called me up and brought me into this. That's how we ended up here. But the first and foremost, they're veteran centric. If a vet can't pay, they will still take the case. Like they are so anti claim shark. That's a, I will say the claim shark thing. I hate if it's like pay out a pocket right up front. It's like how the ones I've seen or talked to is, hey, if we get the claim, we'll just take this right out the gate. It's a grand two grand. I'm like, I don't care. You did all the work, but that's me personally. But if I see them, they did the work, they got me set up. I'm like, and it's two grand. Cool. I understand. Good order, military order, the purple hearts who got me the original. Yeah. And then I went with another one, two other ones to get to where I am now, but it's still not 100. I'm like, there's some weird pricing models out there. And some of them are like, they look on the up and up and then you look further. Like if you actually know some about claims, you're like, ah, maybe not. You think it's because the field is so new. No, because claims have been around forever. I just, well, I feel like, and maybe this is just a blind spot for me, but I feel like the, the industry of claims is like the last, I don't know, maybe five years. Some of it's blown up because, um, internet, because internet and because of AI has reduced the barrier to legal language. I mean, that's a lot of it. Oh, shit, you are, I never thought about that. You could do everything just with Cheshire TV here, mostly. But again, like AI, it hallucinates, like the VA's own AI right now that they're replacing VSRs with. That's a bad idea. It is terrible idea, because it hallucinates a lot. Like it is connect, it is making up conditions for veterans that they didn't claim. And, and humans are having to come back and scrub all this. It's actually making more work on the VSRs. And you could, I do actually think about it. It would actually, I guarantee you could get, like a pass. I'm not gonna. No, no. I know, but like, jokingly, it's still how, look how for a year. Yeah. Well, that's actually, I didn't even think about that. If that you were in two branches and you had multiple, like, this is the, you don't know anything about there. Apparently, yeah. No, this. Not damn it. But you think of it like that, it would be like brands that a hundred percent, but it's like, I didn't even serve. What the fuck? And that's, that's where again, like, lack of oversight lends itself to fraud, because I, well, the, I, not to, I know that it's kind of become a little spicy lately because of a couple of other things in military industrial complex, but like, the volunteer. Right. One of the things that I think they did exceptionally well in the beginning was integrating like, AI and algorithms and things like that with human oversight. That's exact. That's the key words. It has to have human oversight. Yeah. Yeah. We're not there yet. No, we're not. We're not. Yeah. So on that, the claim shark pricing model, like the, the most overt one is a company that takes a percentage of your claim every month. That seems on the up and up. If it's like, and I've had friends that have had great results with this, the problem with that is the incentives. So you think about this. Remember, I said, you're intent to file your payment is backdated to your tent to file. So if you hire a company that is doing your claim and they take what should have been a three month process and it turned it to a six month process, they're now getting a percentage of six months of back pay versus three months of back pay. I think about that. Yeah. I didn't either. Somebody pointed that to me. I was like, Oh, that makes a lot of sense. There's all the also companies that if your claim is elevated, like if it's rejected initially, maybe you paid a flat fee up front, but you, your claims rejected and it gets escalated. Now you're paying again for an appeal process. So if you want to submit your intent to file a claim, where would they do that again? VA.gov. You don't need anybody to do that. How many services are out there to do it for free, by the way? How many counties are there? It is not like you have so many free ways to do this. I just didn't have the best of luck with it. The VFW does it. The American Legion does it. DAV does it. So there are, there's an accreditation process and I don't know what goes into that. But there's, it's very specific on who the VA will give accreditation to. And if it's an accredited VSO, that means they can file the claim on your behalf. Like you can give them power of attorney and they you can fall on your behalf and that's what the greeting is. Ray Foundation did for me. They're the only accredited special forces nonprofit. But it's great. Still not perfect. So the company that I'm working for doing the Nexus Letters which means they're connecting the service to the injury with the DBQ. They're charging 500 bucks a pop for a medical letter. You're getting a medical exam. The doctor gets a cut of that, the business gets a cut of that and it goes forward. And that's that's per letter. So they're not getting a percentage of a claim. They're not getting any future revenue off of it or anything else like that. And again, today they to date they haven't turned to anybody down even if they needed if they did it rough times and they couldn't they couldn't do it. They then they'll take it if it goes through or is just a the $500. So it's like it's it's such a nominal fee. Well, for some people, I will say like we get a seat. That's the one thing I'm big on is $500. Depending on who you are, it can be a fucking yes hurdle. That's why I always $20 can be a hurdle. That's why it's always like, hey, be as respectful on where they're coming from because $500. It's true. You're like, hey, no, that's true. I mean, like a couple years ago, that would have been a tough thing for me. So yeah, I get it. But now they'll work with people. It's a small company and it's soft owned and it's it's veteran first. He had to be grim-graded to go through that. Absolutely not. Anybody with the DD214 seat that's okay. And then where is what's that one called again? Xterra Health. EX-T-E-R-R-A like the SUV that predated the Tacoma that everybody drove around for a while. Xterra. Like said, Chase, wait till the check clears. We'll see if we can. Yeah. It's funny that I'm throwing this out there because I haven't officially started there yet. Well, then tell you just clear for you either. Yeah. Blur it out and tell you the job. I mean, again, you know, I wasn't looking for a job and they called me and hearing about the company. I was excited about it because I work I work a lot in the veteran space. I help out nonprofits when I can with the marketing and branding piece and I'm always throwing shit up on my IG and knowing that this was a soft owned company. And I have enough experience in the health care industry to know that $500 is not how a doctor is making his bank. So I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So what I'm hoping is I can through my position there. I can connect them with other VSOs and whatnot because there's a lot of companies out there that don't do the DBQ service. Like if my claim through the Greenbury Foundation, it had that DBQ service, it would have avoided a lot of C&P exams and shorten the time frame of my claim, my VA claim, which ended up being like 18 months. I mean, good check though. It was a good check. Yeah. Thank God, nobody got a percentage of that one. That's how I'm like, it was still so long as time. 18 months up back pay. Yeah. Whatever your month. Yeah, they have to pay every month, Tuesday. What colors your Camaro? That's echelon. That's an amazing truck. I think it's amazing people on the internet find you. I am most active on Instagram at Red Leader underscore standing by. Make sure that it's the guy with my face and the blue checkmark because man, I am really, really popular in Nigeria. I think I saw a profile this fat little black kid. The same name as you. That's not tear. Yeah, if there's only like five or six photos up and it says to your side, I love America and the army. It's that's not me. He's going to go there to Nigeria and fucking give him the Sex Nightmare Dust. Yeah. How many legs do you need to do this? Same with the dating services. I'm not on any dating platforms. I've actually had people hit me up on my dot mill email. Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but can you please confirm that you're not dating my stepmom or my mother-in-law? Wouldn't you like to know if we've discouraged or encouraged people to do catamena this morning? Great in therapy. Great in therapy. Great in surgery. Bad for the elderly, allegedly. We'll see. What was the noise again? Thank you guys for joining the Unscribed Podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap. Tears I'm Brandon Herrera, my self-donut operator. Sex Dust. Sex, (upbeat music) - Olen Shannon Maldonado, - Käsintehtija Artesaanituotteita myüven jauhii lahjakaupan perustaja. Valitzin Shopify'n koska alustoja testa testa ni totesin sen ehdottomasti yhdeksi helpokäyttöisimmistä alustoista. Minulo oli tärkeä pohtia kehittymistämme tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittava työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu, ovat kätevästi dashboardissa. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste komsi vustolla.