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We have hundreds of exclusives and we are doing a giant giveaway once we hit a hundred thousand which is going to be in July. So head over to pepperbox.tv. Go get your 14 day free membership and come join the party. Thank you all for being amazing humans. Enjoy the episode. I just want to say thank you. Like from bottom of my heart. Thank you for everything. Three, two, one, excellent, excellent working. Sounded just like a can. I'm on foot for a side job with, you know, making an animatronic slagers. The battery. You can't make it here. You can't make this thing inside home too. Kelly, how do you ready to start this podcast? Yes, sir. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the unscribed podcast. I'm joined today by Eli double tap, Fat Electrician, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Brenner here and myself. Don't operate or thank you so much for being here. What is up, everyone? Look who we got finally. We got you on. You have been requested multiple many, many times. So it is an honor to have you on. Do you have any idea how hard it is to kidnap a cabinet member? Yeah. I don't think we'll use those terms. There might be some people coming here in a minute. There's not security guards looking at me. They just moved a little closer. They were being really nice to me. No, it's good. It's good to be here. I'm glad to be here. Enjoy getting the message out talking about stuff. Again, just like hell, average person who just happens to have a big job and background comes in. I just retired about a month ago from the Air Force, was in Navy for a while before. I'm glad to be here just to shoot a crap with you guys. I didn't realize you did that from Navy to Air Force. I had a blue coloring issue. This is going to be fun. So I actually spent more time with the Marines actually when I was in the Navy side of my initial training. I spent more time with the Marines. No, Chaplin. Oh, that's awesome. Oh, dear. I just did video on Chaplin. Have you watched any of his stuff if you're a big history buff? A little bit. Yeah, I have. Good stuff. Chaplin stuff. Chaplin's are interesting. If you really wanted to dig into something, it's really interesting. I know Pete right now is sort of going through a lot with the Chaplin Corps and getting back in. I think it's just a matter of letting Chaplin's be Chaplin's who they are. I think that's it. They are in the military. We have every role and responsibilities of being in military. We have a little different calling as well. We have the endorsement side and then we have the call and then we have the military side. A lot of great stories that come out of that. Yeah, I mean, reading about this guy. His nickname was the fighting Chaplin sign. He was in all kinds of combat and crazy stuff going on. But even then, in like his memoirs, he talks about how important his role was as a Chaplin just because he had even people that weren't religious coming to talk to him. Coming to talk to him about personal issues back home. A couple of examples he gives was like he had guys. This was World War Two. He had guys where one of his soldiers' houses had burnt down and the insurance needed his signature and his wife's signature on their documentation. He was instrumental in helping the soldier get the paperwork done so his wife could have a house while he was getting ready to go into combat and World War Two. Yeah, it's amazing what Chaplin's been up to. Again, you can come to us and especially like from an Air Force person, we have 100% confidentiality. You can tell us anything and we're bound. You own the conversation and that's different actually than some of the other branches they have. That confidentiality is a little bit different. It's still there but it's a little different and ours is 100%. Why is that? I think it's just over time how they described it and how the army and Navy both devolved. Evol probably is a better way to put it and not devolved. So I think they can come to us and say and again, think about this. All your war moves, everything else, I mean from Patton to Mashed, your God, you know, Chaplin. The interesting thing is you talk about fighting Chaplin kind of stuff is I mean I'm a Southern Baptist. That's my denominational background. I mean SBC in R.A. I mean shoot off shotgun since I was a tiny kid. But when I'm in that role, I'm a non-combatist. Now that doesn't mean that when I was there that I was going to take things lying down, but at the same point in time I had my assistant and I had to process. But I think what you have to understand is not my role there. My role is different and what you talked about having people come in. And people again, just like us all to do some of the craziest things and I can remember the stories that I've had over the years of just moments of Christ. I used to tell the guys when I come in and see them. Especially like I used to, I was reserved for most pretty much all my career. I was only active when I was deployed. But you know I would tell them I said look if you're a reserve officer and guard or anybody else or even in back to you. You know the day you have to walk out for TDY is the day the dollar is going to run off. The baby is going to get you know a fever. And your wife is going to have a problem with the credit card. Some is going to happen. But then you have also the real issues of just struggling with life. And you don't come back on how that. So it's just a challenge to me is great because I could go anywhere I could talk to anybody and they would come to me. And I think that's the, I think it's sort of the role is I think it's preparing for what I do now. What made you decide to go into that line of work with the military like a lot of young guys that's like infantry or want to shoot guns. Which is it's just awesome to see that because I've never heard that side. I don't have any friends that are like I want to go chaplain out the gate. Yeah, no, for me it was just coming off a calling in life. It's something I wanted to you know to be a part of the military. My father liked 60s in the National Guard before he got out and was with the Georgia State Patrol for almost 31 years almost. But there's something I always wanted to do is I thought it was an advanced part of a ministry if you would as a calling. So really the calling to ministry came before the calling to you know to really say I could use this into the military setting. And so, you know, I had looked at earlier times.
of going in you know in you know just regular flight or or others you know and just it wasn't the right fit I believe in truly that God has a calling for your life unless you see it. And so for me going into it it just opened a ministry opportunity to say this is something needs to be filled and so you know again remembering a chaplain is direct pointed there with direct commission so it you can be a prior service but you have to still get out you have to have to be a chaplain you have to have a master's of divinity or equivalency and you have to have outside endorser so a different like for me as a suburb of this convention it could be a fiscal Lutheran Catholic whatever you have to then be endorsed by that denomination to now both interesting enough both the military and the endorser can stop your career if the endorser pulls your out pulls your endorsement because you don't follow through when you're commitment to your faith you know under that guideline then you're and if you don't get another endorser you're effectively out they can actually pull you out what would like what would that circumstance look like it doesn't happen a great deal but let's just say that you just you have a difference of opinion of theological belief I mean you're getting into again Southern Baptist believe and have a doctrinal kind of belief of foundational belief baddest faith in message it says okay these are things we believe you know I'm just gonna think of a maybe example that's probably the people look at if a Southern Baptist minister did a same-sex wedding that would get your endorsement pulled because that's just not something that you know other denominations can do it that's the reason in the military that others can do it but under our endorsement we can't do it just in that side so that's an example of what it could be but it could be other things as well well it's like superheroes and because I know it as you're saying I'm Southern Baptist that's what you that's my that's my that's my tribe that's my show I'm a I'm a look I am from perspective across that I'm saved by faith through Jesus Christ that's it I'm a Christian I choose theologically to align with Southern Baptist and I and that's that's where I fit the most at home and with chaplain on your side did you have because it's military is all different religions do you have to speak or how does that work if like another religion's seat Muslim come to you to ask for or we're there to facilitate that's a good chaplain is a chaplain who can help anybody on base whether they have faith or no faith now I can't do their services I'm not gonna in fact there's been times when I had to provide my one of my job was as I had a wicked group on our base it wanted a room to be I that's not something that personally I believe in but I went out I found the room gave him the room said here go do it um you know if they have if she's with food they have issues with dietary restrictions stuff they're having trouble with shouldn't be a troll they come and I can I can interject a chaplain can interject with a chain of command and say oh no you this this is something you got to do and so um you know I don't have to agree with everybody it's just like politics life and marriage I don't have to agree with everything but I am there to facilitate and and this is where we get in trouble sometimes is if there's a lot of times there's this idea outside the military but even in the chaplain ranks is I'm there to convert or I'm there to do well that's part of who I am if you ask me I'm gonna tell you but my big my main job is is to you make sure that you know bottom line for a chaplain is to make sure that the troops are ready for the for what they're supposed to be and that's to fight in winter nations wars bottom line and so you know if they have other issues they have issues that we deal with deal with those in counseling um but also I have the right as a chaplain to be true to my faith believe that I don't have to put myself into positions and I when I was in Congress I used to I had this a good deal where it's very you know the law is very clear you don't have to do this and so like if I if there was a counseling situation in which or a situation when I was asked to again be in something that is not compatible with my faith I can say no now what we've had as many times we've had some commanding officers and others say well I'll discipline you well that's that's a no-no you can't touch that so I say anyways like it's it's it's a lot of different things out there that that knows but a good chaplain is somebody who I say this and some people get my head and look just read my comments on my social media yeah welcome to life I don't care you know it's the college go see it young get your lucky board where you're going um and you challenge you all do a fight that's fine yeah frankly don't you know I look we we I'll get to that hopefully get to a light we'll talk about how we're using social media for good but it's a um but you know the issue is is you're to be there if I'm doing a service it's going to be bad to service if you come to me and you ask me you know what is my belief in the afterlife I won't tell you what my belief in the afterlife I won't tell you how I believe you need to get there now um if you believe it great you walk away great I mean that I'll pray for you I'll struggle with you but that those are kind of things so I think in in the bigger picture um we're so I'm out now so uh we're so worried about offending people in in our faiths and especially and what we saw it was in many times and is the middle grade officer what I'll say is the you know from cat late captain major lieutenant colonel there's that I don't want to do anything to mess my career up and so they just stay away anything religion who we just stay away from somebody says you know have a great god bless you have a great day whoo that you can't do that yeah you can but again we we get all wrapped around the accident I feel like that's a problem in government in general where there's no incentive to overperform but there's a lot of potential downside if you do the wrong things everybody's just scared of their own shadow they don't get anything done because if they they go above and beyond and they're an excellent employee you don't get any special treatment you know there's there's no there's no reason to excel I'll say that a little bit how we got to see it with the two fifth I mean we experienced it in the past working with the military or the army specifically it is that fear to do something or to be out they just want to do the bare minimum or just not rock the boat so anything scary like I'm not gonna do that well number one you know and I'll just say that I know you have something one of the things is I want to say this for all my chaplains up there I have um you know I think the best chaplains are the ones that have the strongest belief system hey try out which organ do you think our group uses the most our **** stop a second probably our livers why would you say that I love you Dows what does the liver do should I think energy production digestion fat metabolism and vitamin storage Eli I don't know I'm not a doctor but one thing I do know trout is this makes my liver happy I am happy they're one of our sponsors because I've been using this stuff for six months uh the cholesterol which they they didn't sponsor this one but dose you getting a free one and uh for liver it well you get to see an actual genuine reaction genuine reaction cam first time trying this let's see what it looks like that tastes good that tastes like genuinely very good and it's once a day that's it yeah because you're only supposed to take it in a two-ounce shot once a day but I I want to drink the entire bottle now which you should not do because that's not the dosage that's that's probably a good ad right there just with that because again and I can't stress this enough people it's good and it works dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement this isn't just another capsule or powder dose is a liquid supplement that you take once a day in a two-ounce shot and it tastes just like fresh squeezed orange juice arguably better in my opinion and healthier turmeric head to dose daily dot co-slash unsub or enter unsub you and scb to get 35% off your first subscription the worst it would be to have a I think everybody's fine I think everything's okay I mean that's great in some sense but again when you come to a chaplain I've had so many that come to and they have in life experiences they want to know what can I look to what what is a belief that you believe if I'm just saying hey that's not what they want you know they may disagree the animal with me you know I don't disagree I think there's many ways to say okay I'm just telling you what I believe and um so I think that's the one thing that I try to encourage uh you know chaplains in their role and again it's very clear it's when in counseling situations and uh the situations of uh doing a performing a service those kind of I have to stay within the bounds of who I am in my and a lazy askler endorsement but I am a military officer I still have to do PT test I still had to do you know all the regular you know see you know military education PME's um now that's a real waste of time but that's a little issue um like I said I'm out I retired thank you um but uh you know I think those are the kind of things I think we look at and we move forward it's to say you know you've got to be who you are and chaplains uh the ones that are they're really good the ones that you remember or the ones that get out there with you they get out of the office they go out there I remember my time in Iraq uh I used to I was the nighttime flatline chaplain so I just went everywhere that a little shrug buddy I just went anywhere and I go into the guard I go out well I go out side place I wasn't supposed to go um and uh because of my transfer there uh and but I'll go out there and um you know I'd say I mean I'd go into the talks I'd go into the places and and they were glad to see chaplains coming in they were guys somebody somebody just talked to I'm telling you when going anywhere those are the best jump scares ever when you're in the military
I know you've had it we're like you're like goofing off late at night Doing something you're probably not supposed to be doing and then hey, what's up guys are you turning just see off so wrinkly? Oh god, I'm in trouble. Oh, it's the chaplain. Okay. Hey, what's up? How's it going? You're like I'm not in trouble. It's fine Yeah, one of the funniest stories I ever had I was out one night and you get to know the I mean the same groups I mean I think with the same you know orphans that were just left out nobody wanted us in the day lot So me and this whole group was out there. I'm a lot is where I was station. Beautiful. I was very nice when they rang down stuff on you every day After the first week you just quit worrying about it, you know, they hit me they hit me You know and but I was out there one night on one of the backside gates, and you just had no you're It's a really cool story. I mean here's a you know about a 19 year old kid He's out on the gate by himself, and I'm I pull up it like a 1 a.m. 2 a.m. Kind of thing I'm just and I I'm in the back the great thing about chaplains that we had rippets in the back We had to put on that so keep you going Um, and so I just pulled up and I I waited I'm okay Nobody came out nobody came soon Waited for long. We're long. I mean this is again be like three or four or five minutes. I'm sitting here. I'm like Okay, did everybody go home and they forget me. I mean, what's happening here? And about this time I hear him stumbling out of the guard shack it was a little thing and he was like, oh, sir. I'm sorry. I didn't see that. I'm those and so I said I said hang on. I said you're fine. I said, but just let me ask you. What were you doing? I said because if your commander hit came by I'm I'm Doug. I'm I'm helping you here, but if you're see okay, are you first shirt or somebody came by? What were you doing? And this is where you know, you always have that turn is like, oh, I just got sleeping or whatever He said well, and this is this is what this is why believe the mill are our fighting men and women are the best in the world He came out and he said well, he said sir and this was in await when I was there. Oh, no He said last year before I joined he said it was during the if you remember the the great recession and everything about six or seven He said He's from New England. He said my dad was a contractor. He said to a bilber and we didn't have any money man. He said And when I joined he said last Christmas, we didn't have anything He said my sisters and we just we just didn't have any money and he said I joined in and I'll never forget the next words out of his mouth He said and this is an A1C He said I'm making big money now. I Get choked up a little bit about it just thinking about this and he said I was back there and I was taking out How much I was bitten my pay and he said I was doing my my hazardous duty pay and he said I was writing it all down He said how much did I he said I put a little aside for myself as if he was apologizing for it And he said this is how much I'm gonna send home to mom and this is my man dad and he said and but I had to make sure that I had enough to get my sister a computer I sat there in the middle of the night and I said if half our country Just half put that much time into thinking about where they were and what they're not in the middle of a desert in the middle of a war You know, we'd be a lot better off and I said well, but you know, I was I tried to play a Good chaplain said no good jogger and I said hey, but you I'll see you again tomorrow You'll be good just get out just make sure you watch it out next time. I drove off in tears I mean it was just you know and I've shared that story when I was running for Congress I shared it all along, you know, and he goes to me if a kid and I just say this out loud if a kid in the desert can take a piece of paper in his own Check and make a budget by God the government can't do and You know, we got to get we got to get better at that. So anyway, that was that is just one of the few the chaplain stories It sort of relates on how how we related to people and how we wouldn't get them in trouble But I don't know, but I do have one for the marines out on a point all this I don't want to know where this is going. Yeah, that's going good. I'm at Pendleton and we're going around and The chaplain I was with this has been when I was still a chaplain can't I was still getting settled in and we went Backside of Pendleton. I don't know where it was and he was going to show me one of the units Well, we opened there was a basically like a trailer back. It was the where they had the okay and it was where One gun he was and some others we opened the door the other chaplain opened the door and in the middle of here Was this guy this young private was on the floor Do more butter. I mean, he's going out. He is getting reamed. I mean Just I mean, I don't know what the kid did, but he undoubtedly deserved it. So And he had three of them just yelling you know, you know, you know, and they looked up and they saw me and they saw the other chaplain The I think it was gunny came in and he said sir. Let's go outside and talk for just a minute He said sorry. You had to see that, but the young marine just was Needs some encouragement in his life and but if you want to talk about later, we'll be happy to talk create Correct 30 years later. I hope this guy I hope this young probably grew up to be Sergeant Major of the Marine Squad, I don't know But I know for that day he was learning a lesson. Let's put it that way You were talking about getting shelled and like Balod and it's like that me and Eli were having a conversation just yesterday And he told me in a very interesting life hack for being deployed in a combat zone So if you're deployed and you're only allowed to rotate on to actual bases like once every 20 to 25 days and you live out in Sector during that time you have like one day to check internet So we get on base so we would be waiting in line to get on the computer Mortars were becoming and so we'd be like boo boo boo everyone starts running We just go and sit down We had this sign in mind so it's like oh, thank God. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, I know anyways I took a picture of the land, you know, so yeah, and I have it somewhere, you know, they put all the pinpoints where it hits every day We'd average I mean someday we might get one of those we get six, you know They just hit it and they just randomly throw them up her. I remember the last night I was in country and The finally guy he'd been a week. They've been delaying my flight delay my flight after I'm ready to go home and so that night I'll go back to finish packing. I was on the flight the next morning. Of course the storm you know alarm goes off and one hits and it hit About a hundred yards toward the flight line of where we were at and it was pretty good, so I needed to just shoot You know where all that and I said keep packing Next thing and about the next thing about the minute to later boom shook it again And we were behind those concrete, you know 13 foot concrete barriers, and it was still shaking it and it was on the other side I said keep packing so I just kept packing I said if they give me now they give me now, but you learned to live with it a little bit You're just picturing young Eli, you know mortars are coming down. He's just on the computer like What happened with Janet Jackson to the Super Bowl? Like my space music. Okay, that one's working up new camera specs for what's coming out in the next six months Well, my God Jump scare I had as you were saying you turn you like oh officer. Oh, it's a chap. Thank God ours is hate You guys are moving to a new a. Oh rules and game rules of engagement is changing slightly pretty bad area Okay, everyone are like who uh who let's let's do this thing. Huh? Well, how bad is this area now? Why is he here? It says what's the dump? See I'm saying like yeah What are you getting blessed? Oh? No, when I was in garden because I was in that I was in the headquarters Yeah, place where we drilled. So it was like the medics the scout sniper platoon who I was attached to and then like the radio guys and the Chaplain also drilled there. So I saw the chaplain all the time and our chaplain was 64 Probably 325 350, but he would like Conactively competed in strong man Yeah, and I think he used to do like not WWE, but that style of wrestling all sell. Yeah, dude was hilarious He would be walking up and just like pick up the mortar base plate in front of private's just showing off He's my own son and just grab it and just like one hand it and walk off like he was so cool when your chaplain's the fucking mountain Legitimately he was huge. He was so cool. Tell what supplements are you taking Jesus Christ? Yeah, you get those stories and I think that's the you know the the interesting thing that it makes you know life in the military is what you know Veterans is what everything. It's just things you remember and it's the good and bad I mean you know like I can sit here and go through stories of you know I've never understood and from my perspective you know I've never understood why people wait to their loved one is in the war zone to tell them that they don't love them They're divorcing them or something's wrong at the house or decide to write them a whole letter about how well they found a friend last night Who became better than a friend and they write them a whole letter about that and then that person ends up I remember one very distinctly had I'm just trying to get off at seven in the morning and I'm trying to go to a hooch I'm just go to sleep and I get this frantic call from one of the units and say hey chap you gotta get over here I got one is just bad off. I said okay, what's the problem? I said y'all just got here. What's wrong? And I went over and this guy had made that one phone call home So to speak or a phone call back home and found out his Why if at the time said I don't love you anymore? I couldn't tell you before you left. I don't love you anymore I'm getting divorced and won't be here when you get back This kid's I mean this kid's devastated. Yeah, I mean I Worked with him for a while. We ended on honestly. I had to send him back Because you just they don't understand what they they do that But I have a question. So you you brought it up the you know the hack my question is I'm not sure we're better off now with the electronic
communications that we have in war zones is a good thing. It's an offset nightmare. Definitely Pandora's box. It got open. You're never going to put it back in. But I think there was definitely an advantage to like World War Two era of like, I'm going to fight the war. I'll be back when I get back. Keep it under control. Like you know. What is it? I'm going to come home. I'm going to come home or I'm going to come on a box. And that's basically it. But how many things, I mean, even in my life, I mean, I remember toward the end of my deployment or the deployment I had, we had a route, we had a leak from a refrigerator ice machine. It got under. They've been there. And it just basically taken out, you know, half of our house and my wife is at home and I'm trying to, you know, I see this and I can't do anything about it. And it's like, okay, is that a good thing for me to know or would have been better for me to get two weeks later in a letter? Definitely better without. Yeah, but it's a struggle. But then there's the other side of it where you, and we saw it a lot, especially in the early days when, like, because this is all brand new, like, there's never been a major conflict really fought where people had cell phones and starlink. And then so we saw in the beginning of the Ukraine war, where you'd have a soldier or like soldiers that they, you know, were cat fishing on Tinder to try to figure out their location. You had guys that were taking selfies, like, oh, yeah, we're all huddled up in this high school gym. Like, this is where we're staying for the night. And then in three hours, that gym didn't exist because it got intercepted like those sort of leaks. That's not a thing you had to worry about 20 years ago. So people don't understand, like, how dangerous it can be to just have, like, there's a, I follow a bunch of, like, watch pages and stuff on Instagram. And one of these watch pages, I think it's watches of espionage. Yeah. They do cool history videos about them and stuff. But I think they're the ones that actually, like, on their Instagram and social media, call out big politicians and military leaders that are wearing, um, Apple watches and stuff like that. Like, you need to wear a real watch. Like, you can get tracked by that. That's admitting electronic signals, like, there's all kinds of horrible things that can happen by you wearing what amounts to a tracking device on you 24/7 with your biometric data. And it's like, there was that one guy recently, he was on an aircraft carrier and he had his running app on his watch and all you see is circles being ran in the middle of the ocean like this because he was just doing sprints around the aircraft carrier. They were able to figure out where this certain carrier was. Oh, yes. Well, we don't think about it. I mean, it's, and here's the thing that I always like to help people, you know, being in government and military as well. If you see it on TV, there's far better out there. And I think everybody forgets that. I mean, just, just think about it. It's not, I'm not giving away world secrets here. I'm just reading Tom Fancy, okay, you know, the old books, it's just, you know, what we think it, we don't think we can be tried. We don't, we, we still have this idea that, you know, oh, it's okay. And we get, we've gotten so used to technology that we're, we're almost too comfortable with it. In the sense of, especially when it comes to upset, when it comes to, you know, the things that we're doing with folks, and you see it all the time. When you have like a group of 12 or a platoon, like the bigger it's, yeah, one person, you might know how to, like, hydrametodata or VPN, any of that stuff, but now does each individual soldier know that I can show you that is not the case a lot of the times they're going to mess up. No, they are. I agree. Although it can be used against our enemies, we found that out, talking to a, a, a, a, the North Koreans that got sent into Ukraine that discovered for the first time in their lives, there were illicit pictures on the internet and that wound up occupying all of their time. They take the phones away. They had to take their phones away. Can you describe these illicit, well, I know they also ran out of Kleenex. We'll put that way. I know. That's a problem. Houston, we have a problem. Yeah. I can say that Pion Yang, we have a problem, someone had a problem. And I think, you know, again, you get, you get into stuff that you don't realize. I mean, what was it? The, was it a year or so ago, the, the, the, the, the, the Israel phone. Oh, the pages, the pages, yeah, the pages, they're like, godly, that was multi-year process. Yes. Get that to happen and just insanity watching that unfold and then security footage. Yeah. Unrelated, they just sent me a pager. I knew I'd get him to break. 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That is literally how I always dictate if a company cares about you or not. Lifetime warranties. Awesome. Hexclad's 12-piece set is the ultimate all-in-one cookware upgrade. And they have their pantonet hexagonal laser-etched steel-rich boost for stealing. For a very limited time only, shop the Hexclad's Mother Day Cell for up to 49% off site-wide and score big savings with their best-selling sets at Hexclad.com/unsub. Support a show and check them out, Hexclad-H-E-X-C-L-A-D dot com forward slash unsub, U-N-S-U-B, just in case. The first thing I said when they walked in because obviously there's a decent security detail for, you know, you're somewhat important man. My dog buttons, like so. First thing I said was, "Oh, you're the guys that are here to shoot me if I get too twitchy." Well, it's a sad state of life that you have, the cabinet sectors are only either party, only anybody. Right now, if you go into public life, the anonymity and sometimes non-animity of social media and the issues that are surrounding it, I mean, when you get, you know, when just in general out, 'cause I'm not going to be specific about anything, but you just see in general the threats to public figures, you see the threats to everything. It's just ridiculous. I mean, were you there at the 250 for the UFC? Yes. Yeah, so that was the one thing that just came out like a couple days ago about the terror threat there, the bombing threat, and everything like that, like, it's just scary times. It is. And, you know, sometimes you get it where you see, you hear so much about it, you sort of dismiss it, but it's regular. I mean, there are threats against, you know, politician, cabinet members, others, just I'm just saying in general, it's a real thing. And, you know, so it's not the, you know, I think it's just coming to a society where we've got to get back to a world in which we can agree to disagree or, you know, or agree and then say, okay, maybe there's a better way. And I think that's the part, and that's, you know, the issue for Congress and this issue for others, as we were talking a little bit before we got on, I mean, I think that's the problem we've developed now, and it's really, it's frustrating because most Americans don't get it. Most Americans just want to get up in the morning, go to work, feed the kids, do what they want to, go do with their, you know, hobbies, whatever, you know, and go back home at night and nobody mess with me. And that's what most people care about. And then the rest of the world, you know, tries to influence on what else they care about. Interesting. What, what was the choice for you to go into the VA after the military? You're like, okay, this is what I want to do, this is how I want to help the veterans. That's good. Well, I was out for a few years. I, of, of, you know, elected life and I had been in, and so I'd kept up with President. The President, I had gotten to know each other pretty well during his first term because I was the, I was in Congress right years, but I had rose pretty quick and I was writing, ended up being ranking member of the judiciary committee. So I had to do that put me at the spotlight of all the first impeachments and, and all that stuff was Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and all that, you know, bull crap that we had to deal with. And for those who don't know the judiciary committee, like that's, that's where all the dogfights happen. Oh, yeah. That's, that's a fun one. That's the one you see on, on the news a lot. Oh, yeah. That, that one in an oversight. And I started my career on both oversight, judiciary and, and foreign affairs. So I, I had lived through Benghazi. I lived through all these, you know, with Clinton and everything else. So about you two chose specifically to throw elbows for a living with those committee picks. Oh, yeah. I, I, I, I come in to say, we're going to, we're going to discuss things. Yeah. So from my background, I'm going to turn it as well. So, okay. I didn't know that. Yeah. I'm, I'm one of those, you know, chaplains that have a lot of degree in chaplain and doing that makes it so much fun here. Yeah. Yeah. I have to, I have Grayson all. Yeah. It is on the day. I throw Grayson all. But it was, you know, so again, you know, working the, the, the committees and, and knowing that. So we knew each other. We had to go through, you know, different issues. And, and if anybody ever meets, if you ever get to a chance to meet the president, you know, even in a public setting, but if you ever got to meet him behind, without, you know, in his office, in the over or anywhere, he is one of the most down-to-three people you ever want to meet. But he's also smart of the whip. I'm sure he had what the press want to make out of him. Um, he knows.
He is very well versed, he talks about a lot of issues, he'll bring up stuff, anything. So anyway, we got to know each other, we kept up, and when he was out, I was out, I kept in touch with him when he ran again, of course I helped. And it was one of the things where about, you know, a little bit before, he said, look, he said, we win this, he said, I just, because there's a lot of discussion about me going back into politics in Georgia, and he said, look, we go on this, I need you, and I'm bringing you with me DC. I said, Mr. President, let's get you elected, we'll talk about it then. And even like two days before the election, he said, how, you know, because he's man and making, Doug got it. And I said, Mr. President, we'll get this done, talk. And then after that, a week later, you know, we got, he was elected, we're down in a week and a half later, we're down in Marlowe, I was actually down for another event with another group, and we've been talking, he called me over, and said, you know, hey, this would be a good fit. I think it'd be a good fit, there was some other ideas, but he said to the VA, and he made it real simple. When I asked, you know, went to him, and I said, I said, what do you want me to do? I said, how do you want to see this? He said, just take care of veterans. And that's really all he's ever told me is just take care of veterans. And so he follows, he knows what's going on, he know, he watches, you know, approvals, he watches what we're doing. And you know, when I see him, he'll talk about things and ask me about stuff. But I think the big thing for him was to just make sure that we did what we're supposed to do. And so that's sort of how I got back into it. But you know, and at first, you know, I thought about it, I said, well, this is the fit, but then I got to think about it, life experience, I'm a member, I'm the first member of Congress since the, it became a cabinet position to actually be the secretary, which I think is a big advantage for me. I understand the heel, whether they understand me or not, different story, but, but I understand them and, and I understand, and I understand they have to be Congress people, okay, you'll get that. Okay, you got to be who you are. And I tell our staff all the time, I'll let them be who they are, whether I agree with them or disagree with them, you know, they've got stuff that they have to do to win elections to do that kind of thing. I've been there. So I think that gives me an advantage there. Number two, I've been a military, I was, in fact, up until May, I was in the reserve. So I've served, I've been overseas, I know the problems, I was a burn, I live right by the burn pit and blog, you know, I get all of those kind of things out there. We don't cheer for burn pits, you know, we suck that area and, but I thought I was back in North Georgia where we used to burn trash, and that's what we did. That's gross. Real quick. What part of Georgia? North Georgia. Like linear. Oh, okay. I grew up in Rome. I was born in Rome. Yeah, there's no good way to get to Rome from Gainesville or anywhere else. All roads, all roads. You don't lead there as it turns. Not in this terminology, but you did have Barry in shorter and some, Barry, it's very pretty over in Rome. You know, but yeah, I live on that like linear. I grew up and my dad was a, say, patrol officer. Oh, awesome. So yeah, so I still live in Gainesville, so that's, that's home for me. So I, you know, had that and, you know, been in and then also, you know, with the experience of being a lawyer, you know, is taken care of and so it is, so I just think it came together in a good, a good fit and my bride who graciously moved to DC to be with me, if she hadn't, if we probably wouldn't have done that because I'd spent a lot, I've spent a lot of life traveling. She travels most time with me, but, you know, we decided this is, this is our next phase of life. And I go into it, you know, nothing really, you know, from my perspective, you know, I would say, I'm going to do what's right for veterans, and I'm going to tell the truth, I'm going to honestly tell the truth, and if that puts you at odds for the press or Congress or anybody else, I'm going to say, no, what you're saying is wrong, and I'll fight back. And I'll come to it with a little bit different perspective. I had a very large social media media presence before I came back into this job. I was on TV most every week, several didn't, doing a lot of stuff and social media. And so we have the ability to fight back for our veterans. And so when members say something is not true, I call them out. And I also tell them that when we're wrong, we're going to fix it. And so I think that's the, that's what made me say, this is a good fit for this time of my life. Because I mean, I'm not looking for the next step. I'm not looking for anything. I just got, you know, this time to say, hey, what can we do to fix an agency that is actually a very good agency, has very good intention, a very good hustle, large agency. But over the years has been allowed to be beat down and told that they were bad for so long that they just, they don't, they, they just like, you know, I'm not going to reach my hand out because it's going to be a slap. You know, it's like working for a commander who, you know, doesn't want anybody else to get credit. And if you try to do something, it's, you know, you get popped by down, this is very similar. Even if they're wrong, I mean, there's just, there's the way it's handled. So for sure, one of the issues that's come up, I think, you know, during this administration under the VA that I think was, it was miscommunicated or at least the media, you know, something can be communicated however you want, but the media can twist it however they want. I think you've had a front row seat to that as have I, but one of the things that happened early on was a lot of the firings at the VA in the very beginning. And I think a lot of people were concerned out the gate that that was going to negatively impact veterans health care and veterans getting the care that they need. What would, what would your response be to that? You know, the great part about it is we fired nobody. That showed you how bad the media twisted. We ended up, we didn't fire anybody. We had no risks. We had no, we had an issue of probation area that, you know, we still thought was probably the probation areas were brought back home, but we didn't end up firing anybody. Now last year we had 30,000 of our employees, now sounds like a lot, but remember, I have 460,000 employees. We had 30,000 take early retirement. And, and again, in most cabinet agencies don't have that many people, I mean, we're, just very large. It didn't affect anything. In fact, I'm going to, I'm going to absolutely say this. I said, several things that most people don't realize. When I got there, I had no idea how many people was in the department. I asked my HR and a guy who actually started the day, the same day I did after I got sworn in. He, I said, how many employees do we have? It came out of conversation. It took him a week and a half later to get back, because we didn't know. I wish I was making this up. I'm not. They didn't know. They didn't know. I mean, we could guess tonight, but we didn't have, I was going to say, they couldn't even like ballpark yet. I mean, we could ballpark it within, you know, 20, 30,000, but I didn't. Okay. Yeah, we put it like that. So, you know, that was, you know, I was like, hey, can I find you please? You're not here, raise your hand. I believe for a response by mail, exclusively. We're still together. Yeah. The minute mail wrote it, we're going in. So, so that was part of our problem. And then for ages, we, the other thing is for all the military, you know, listening and sitting here at the table, I had no money document. So I could tell you how many people I had, but I had no money document. So I couldn't tell you where they were. I could tell you I had these many people, I could guesstimate that I have like, you know, this being in a hospital, but I didn't have them actually assigned to say, how many do we need? You know, how many do we need in this farm, how many do we need in that department? We didn't have that. We didn't have that till December. Well, talk about another issue than the one of the, the New York Times, Washington Post, they all just line up to rest, you know, hit pieces on it, said, because what we did is we cleaned up our manning document. We had unfilled positions. So we went to all of our people and said, okay, how many of these do you need? How many of you do not need? And we ended up with about 26,000 that we're just at this point we didn't need. So we just took them off the manning document, which is what you do in any organization, any business. Well, of course the headline was VA slashes 26,000 positions. No, we took them off the manning document and we still, and I had to explain this to Congress and I, and some of the report, I said, look, it's just say there was a doctor that retired in December. We determined that we had four podiatrists, we didn't need five, you know, he was the fifth. Well, you don't hire another one, okay, but if we all of a sudden had a, you know, influx of bad feet, we'd go hire another podiatrists, one that you couldn't hire, I mean, it was just that we didn't need them on the books at this point. We could move those, move those FTEs somewhere else. Almost like different wars have different chronic injuries that require different treatments from different medical people. Definitely. And as time goes on, the needs change. Yep. Wild concept. I know. It is, it is disturbing to figure that out. Um, I got everyone. Why? Why do you hate veterans? I, I guess. I don't. Terrible. Sorry. I just, just blamed you for everything. I can fight for everything else, so I'm a little ashamed. Right here with you, man. We're in the same frame. I'm a little ashamed of you. I'll do it with you. It's fine. I'll bring my lows and fish. From the shop. I'm just back here. No. But I mean, and again, I'm not, everybody, you know, for the most part, everybody wants, you know, to take care of veterans. Okay. And I say that with honesty, I just think some don't know how. They think that, and this is the whole situation with employees and everything else is they think that more money, more people equal better, you know, everything. Well, it's just not, it's just what's true. It's here. I'll show you a quick, run through, a couple of quick things. Everything that I've just talked about, 30,000 went through early retirement. We've got a manning document now where we could actually get, you know, people in the right places. Instead of all hiring quarterbacks, we actually finally found a center. You know, hey, we might actually need one. You know, again, shocking concept. But the thing that we had to get to grips on is finding the best ways for us to do that. So it made sense in how we took care of veterans. And so the, I did all of that changing. So everybody was throwing up their hands, panicking and saying, Oh my God, we're killing the VA, Doug Collins is a slasher, Doug's doing this, you know, whatever. We had 260,000 backlog, over 260,000 backloged disability claims when I first stepped in in February last year. That meant that they were over 125 days to get processed. The actual date of completion at that point was 137 days. So we were well over the backlog number. And we had over a million claims in general, just pending claims.
As I'm sitting here today, roughly a year and three or four months later, we're at 70, a little over 70,000 backlog claims, we're at 77 days to complete and over a million has dropped down to 500,000. Now we did that all of what I've just told you, our health, our wait times in our hospitals have gone down, but let me save before anything else, we're the only hospital system in the world that measures wait times. So you hear veterans out there saying it took me 15 days to get into an appointment. Yes, it may have. I'm going to challenge you, go to university or go to the hospital or go to any public and private, they don't measure it. I still don't have private insurance. So I mean, if I had to get my wife had to get an appointment, it took her three months to get a physical, they don't measure it. But we do because Congress a few years ago when we had the scandal, people not getting colonoscals, we had to figure out a solution, well, Congress uses, you know, big blank sheets of paper and large color crayons to figure it out. Because that's the only way we can understand it. And we said, well, if they don't get in within 20 something days, they have to drive this, then we can get them into community care. And then that'll solve the problem. So our wait times have come down, we haven't, you know, gotten better in those areas. I mean, we're opening over 35 hospital, 35 VA facilities, clinics, hospitals over the past year. We've opened up to me and plus hours probably coming up on two and a half million now new hours for veterans to come to clinics into hospitals on later in the evenings or on Saturdays so that we can take care of younger veterans. You know, we opened up community care, community care and in this area where you're at is very important because you have a very high growth area of veterans. So community care is something that we use a great deal and it's VA care is VA care, no matter if it's a private doctor or a VA doctor. So we've made it easier to get into community care and we didn't do it on our own. The doc said that we could use best medical inches, we used best medical inches, we took away the second doctor. So if you had a pack doctor, they had to go before they sent you somewhere, they would have to go say, well, doc, do you agree with my assessment? And it takes another two weeks and had to get it scheduled. Well, now the doctor can just send you to the orthopedic in town and we take into caregivers interest as well. So it's not just the veteran in the caregiver, so we've done all of these things in the midst of all this supposed disaster. 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If they use code cashapp10, it's sign up in their profile. I thought you said you didn't have money. And also send $5 to your friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Cash app is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash app's bank partners pre-paid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC. Cash app visa debit flex cards issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC and the bank court bank NA, pursuant to a license form from VSA USA Incorporated. Many terms and conditions for the Sutton pre-paid bank card, Sutton debit flex card and bank court debit flex card. Cash app green features savings direct deposits, roundups, overdraft coverages and discounts provided by Cash app, a blocking brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures of an agency that was just right sizing itself. And so that's what I have. And that's what you nailed it earlier when you said that people have this idea that more employees and more money means better care, better service. That is one of my biggest gripes with, I mean politics in general, just the way the government's run with Congress and tell me if I'm off base on this but I feel like I got my finger on the pulse on it decently that they, instead of solving real problems or finding out practical solutions, all they want is a win on a mailer, which means that they can say, oh, I passed a new law, didn't matter if there's already a law in place, didn't matter if, you know, that law actually fixed anything. Or I, I allocated more money and a lot of people and, you know, I think my former opponent was one of them where he just was touting the amount of money that, well, I allocated $18 million to this project, it's like, okay, well, half of them never got built. And if they did, like, it, you know, it didn't solve the problem that you were trying to go for, but they can claim it as a win because, well, I spent more of your money, like, that's not how we're going to solve problems. If we want to buy a Pokemon card, does it matter if it's a $16 million collectible Pokemon card or a five cent Pokemon card, if it's just a Pokemon card? You know what I mean? Like, you're just wasting more money for the sake of wasting money to say it's, oh, this one's shinier. And I think the results are no different. We saw that a little bit. That I ever got a Pokemon card. Do you want one we can give you? Someone get this one. Jenny, what? Don't let me have a Pokemon card. Get the dismount of Pokemon card. Is that one of those things where you say, I don't even know what they're doing. Oh, come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now you know that I'm the ancient one in the room. No, no, it just mean like, I don't know, like the throwing more money at the problem is administrative bloat. You can look at it in even colleges like the amount of college administrators has gone up 1200 percent since 1970 as a quality of college graduates graduating from college right now. 1200 percent smarter. And they were in 1970. I would argue it's going the other direction. Yep. And that's the Department of Education period. Right. I mean, since we had the Department of Education, quality of education has gone down and cost of education has gone up. So real bang up job there, Jimmy Carter. Well, Elon caught 80 percent of Twitter and then three years had it turned back around where it's like, oh, look, we didn't need all that. It was all bloat. And now we are back to the exact time work. Yeah. Yeah. And look, there's some areas it need. And one thing I want to very clear, because I mean, there's people who like to, you know, get on social media and yell on the phone and tell me how bad I am. And I just want to tell them, you know, number one, this is, you know, whether you like it, not like it or anything else, I just need you to know that the quality care, there's somebody who's going to have a bad day at the VA. It's going to happen. We're going to try and fix it. We're going to try and make it better. You know, you didn't get what you needed or something. But again, put us in the same sphere as the integrated health care system that we are with every other integrated health care system. You know, they talk, I get hammered all the time, well, you're not hiring enough doctors. Well, neither is your local hospital because we can't find them. And by the way, they can pay far more than I can pay. Literally, I haveologist problem, I call it. Myologist problem is I'm capped at the president's salary, well, an anithesologist or a cardiac oncology or anybody like that. I'm paying it 400 something thousand. They could easily walk down the street and get one for 800,000 to a million. Okay. I'm dealing with what I'm dealing with. And so that's a problem that I brought up a lot too is because it's just, we have certain budgets, right? And like you don't necessarily have to advocate for a bigger budget, but some better allocation of the money that you have, not you, but like, really, it's a congress thing. But we're like, I just get pissed off when we have these big projects where it's like, okay, we need to help veterans and things like that. Okay, let's allocate 50 million dollars to building this new park with a fountain in front of the VA. It's like, well, or hear me out. You could have spent that money to actually hire like good quality oligists, you know, psychologists, healthcare, you know, that sort of thing. It's like, we're spending our money in really weird ways. It's a very nice fountain. It's really cool. But I don't think it's, I think if you'd asked any veteran on the street, whether they would like to have a fountain, or whether they'd like to have been seen by a psychologist that, or they're same psychologists without having to change doctors once they have a trusted one. The priorities are just entirely out of whack. Well, I think that we've actually looked at that. We're spending more of our construction money, non-reoccurring maintenance funds. I mean, we had elevators not working. We spent millions of dollars last year on just getting elevators back working, like they should in our hospitals. We have our average age of our facilities are 70 years old, 60 to 70 years old. There's not another hospital in Texas system that is public or private that has that old of facilities. They remodel them about every 20, 25 years at worst. So I'm having to deal with, you know, pipes that have been in for 50 years. I'm having to do a sewer. I mean, I've got several hospitals I've actually been to where they're doing construction. They're dealing in the old cast iron pipes that you don't use anywhere anymore. And they're most of them, you know, they're either clogged or I can't go through a week at all without a pipe busting in one of my hospitals or one of my clinics, shutting it down for a while. So we've just happened here in San Antonio at all. I did. I'm sure I did. I just had one in another state as well. And again, it goes back to the, that we did all the stuff and didn't focus on preventive maintenance. It's just like, you know, you're gone. If you don't keep your gun up, it's not going to, it's not going to shoot when you want it to. It's not going to shoot how you want it to. So, I think this is the kind of things we're trying to work on as just to be common sense. It's just sort of changed the common sense mindset. If it helps a veteran, we're going to do it. If it doesn't help a veteran, we're not going to do it. And that takes it away from the mentality of that the VA earned and I'm going to say earned that we were more concerned about our bureaucracy and ourself than we were about the veteran in care. And that came naturally. I do not, I do not blame our employees. I think we have the best in the world, but they were trained sort of to say, do what you can do. Congress is going to say this or press is going to say this, just keep your head down.
So that meant moving the system along without changing it. I sort of reversed that model and said, no, we're not going to do things like that. You're going to get people in, we hire, we still, you know, everybody says we're not hiring it to be a, we hire over a thousand, roughly a thousand people a week. I mean, we have, we have, we have, we have more people than, than any agency. We're the, if Pete couldn't combine the service branches, I'm the largest in the cabinet. We're bigger than active duty army. People don't realize the scale of the VA. And so, and that's why we did this reorganization. We're doing called rise. It was taking the upper, the middle and upper managements and just recreating it, because we looked nothing like what we should look like. And so now we're going to actually be able to do policy, business line, and our hospital operations in three separate areas that line with policy. So that, frankly, you know, you always heard that saying, if you've been to one VA, you've been to one, you've been to all of them. Well, no, if you've been to one VA, you've been to one VA. Because we were not, we thought we were all startups, 100% hospitals just thought they could do whatever they wanted to do. I said, no, if you got VA on the side of the building, you're getting publicly funded. And we're going to be the same. So I had a veteran one day who was the, had lost a leg, also, some other, and he came up to him. And he said, I need to know something. He said, I was just in Salt Lake and I got a treatment out there for part of what I was dealing with. And he said, then I had to move to, uh, Virginia, Hampton Rose. And he said, the doctor in Hampton Rose said the VA doesn't do that treatment. And I said, excuse me. He said, no, he said, they said the VA don't do that. I said, you know, again, that's the kind of stuff you're facing. But it's, it was allowed to fester like this for years because, um, either oversight, underside, however you want to call it, was we were more concerned about the individual problem instead of the, how does it fit into bigger mold? And I, and look, I fully admit, I was guilty of that in Congress because you only see it from your perspective. And so, but we're back to the part now where mission act is being actually implemented. That's the community care aspect. That's a direct care aspect is putting our, our veterans getting where they need the help. We're, we fully implement the previous administration has shut that down. And now the funny part about this is, is community care is working like it should. Um, most of my, it's sort of how I had a member of Congress. The other day said, oh, all my veteran is a statistic show that all of my veterans want to go to the VA. No, it really don't, but, you know, I mean, if you measured your staff, that might have been true. Um, but most of them at least want a choice in, in what they have. And every time I go to speak at a VFW, I speak at a, everybody I said, I had to get no questions on for the most direct care except they, you know, won't better parking other ones on the side, I said, I am having trouble getting into the community care. Um, we, we now have separated the budgets and, and I want everybody to know this. We separated the budget so we can actually look at how much direct care is costing us, how much community care is actually costing us. We still spend double in direct care, our hospital is 100 over 100, uh, vegan, which is about 50 billion in community care. And my last hearings and you need to go back and watch this, if anybody's really concerned about this, go back and look at the, at the last hearings. I had several questions from, uh, members mainly, and pretty much mainly democratic members who said this was their quote. We're concerned about the growth of community care. And saying direct care is not growing like community cares, we're almost a part of, we separated out direct care was the funding part of it. So it's not, it's just, it's a funding, they said we're concerned about that. Now we'll translate that for you. What they're actually saying is we prefer government, we prefer the VA to handle all the daughters, all the people and everybody in. We don't want to go out into community. So in essence, what they're really saying is when they tell you you hear this out there, we're concerned about the growth of community care. What they're saying is we would like to cut your benefits. Let's just be rarer blunt about that, because if they cut my community care budget back, then you're going to go back to the system and they say, we'll just hire all the doctors and nurses, okay, member of Congress, I'll let you come down for a week and you solve this problem. It ain't going to happen with, so there was something that you'd said earlier where he said it was, it was partially, you're like partially my responsibility as a member of Congress before that you didn't catch it. That sort of thing, but I also noticed, well, because you weren't on the committee for veterans affairs. And now that kind of pivoting to my next thing is, now that you have to work directly, I imagine quite a lot with the committee on veterans affairs. What kind of oversight do they have and how do you guys work together on that? They're there for a purpose and oversight. I think the committee's, I would love to say that we could look at long term pictures together, like the stuff that we've implemented, there's some great things that they could put into law that would supplement what we've done just confirmed. So it wouldn't get changed at the next administration kind of thing. I think the biggest get-in, it's just not the VA committee, because Chairman Boss is a dear friend of mine and Jerry Moran is a good guy over the other side, and I get along, I know most of the members. I think the big thing that we need to come on is focusing on our bigger issues of how we focus on veteran care long term, and a lot of times, unfortunately, we get, and I say this from our perspective, I'm not trying to throw off on Congress anything because I think they're trying to work as best they can, too. But it goes back to something you said a little bit ago was, is what is, how can we message something? Well, from my law school days, you're taught that bad facts make bad law, okay? Well, singular facts or bad facts make bad legislation. So if you're trying to legislate a problem, if it's not a complete problem, all the things, then you may be messing things up for other things. And I learned this in Congress, and everybody has to, so we try to work very closely with them as best we can, I'm always honest with them about issues, and if they ask us, we'll tell them going forward, but I think those are the key things. And remember, we're the only retail branch of government for the most part, think about it. I'm the only one that depends on the customer coming in. Please, Ellen, don't have to have a customer broke over the egg, don't have to have a customer. If a veteran doesn't show up to the VA, I don't have a job. Can I go back to what you said about the hospital's not being all the same, like that's just, that's crazy. They would be, from what I got from what you said, incorrect me if I'm wrong, but you're basically saying like VA hospitals were just operating 100% independently with like no standard operating procedures of like, this is what a VA hospital does. Yeah, no, not 100% autonomous, but they would, they would adapt or they would do what again, everybody wanted to be sort of individualized, I'll go about, I'll give you a great example of it. Okay, the, our health records management system is, I mean, we have the equivalency of Morse code. Okay, and if you want to just put it from technological standpoint, our systems that we have in the vast majority of our hospitals right now have been around for 30 plus years, it calls me $700 million just to keep them alive, not improve them, but just keep it alive. Okay, so we, about 10 years ago, Congress said, let's put a billion dollars, and you know, billions dollars, and this was fixed. Well, they didn't go off well, DHA was the same way, the front defense health said the same thing, they put it on policy for a year, they basically said, they kicked everybody in a hurry and they said, oh, we're going to standardize, get this done, they got it done. VA took a year off and then this came back in my previous, the previous secretary in the previous administration just said, we can't do anything in and late in the game, he said, oh, we're going to do forward next year, maybe. Well, they just quit. We're about 15 billion dollars into this, and we just quit. We put six sites in Washington state. That's how much it calls us for six sites, but here was our problem. I can use the example of your cans here. Most of these cans are not alike. This one like red, this one like yellow, this one like black, this one likes white. This is what we did. We allowed the hospitals to say, and the doctors to say, I like it to do this, and can you make mine drop down to the left hand corner instead of the right hand corner? So we had six hospitals that basically had customized, you know, pentos that said, I like my radio, this or I like this. Some people like bigger cans, some people like smaller cans. Exactly. So, you know, we let them do it. So they developed six that didn't work. And the seller at the time, the company that we used didn't have, they hadn't cooked the bugs out. So there was some problems. So when we came back in last year, this is another issue I had. I had my confirmation here is one of the biggest discussions. I said, look, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to figure out what the problem is here because we spent billions of dollars. We got nothing to throw for it. And our hospitals, it affects community care, affects our direct care. We can't share with doctors. It's just terrible. My second week on the job, I pulled our people in who do our electronic health records, and I said, okay, tell me what the problems are. And I said, how do we make it better? Oh, it's terrible. Surners are Oracle. It's Oracle now has Oracle. They don't listen. And we can't do this. And this is terrible. And so I listened it for about 30 minutes. And I said, okay, well, that's encouraging. So the next week, I brought an Oracle. And Oracle came, we can fix it and we can do it. And we'll do this. But the VA has got to do that. So it's just back to work. I said, okay, thanks. Tell me the next week. This is no joke. Next week I call them all into my big conference room. I had our folks on one side of Oracle on the other side. And it started off with this meeting that went something like this. Oh, it's so good to see you again. Yeah, we, you know, the partnership. Oh, thank you so much. What a, I said, this is cool crap. Today's video is in the partnership with Manscape, the men's grooming brand, who is trusted by 13 million men worldwide. Father's Day is around the corner. And you know what that means. The same problem we all run into. Which razor will my dad use to shave his balls best? Okay, you've been imagining telling my 70 year old dad. So hey, dad, to make shaving your nuts way easier, Bob's. But my dad does have a beard. Here. And he needs to keep a trim. 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So I said, well, I said I got another thing. Here's my deal. VA, Oracle said this about you, just the other day in my office. And VA, by the way, Oracle, VA said this about you within five minutes they were yelling at each other. I said, thank God I got it something going. Because for the first point, they finally broke through the bureaucratic nicety bull crap. - The fighting chapline. - And it started, yeah. - And yeah. - Watch out for hanging around each one of them. Go at it. So then I said, okay, now that we've got this out of the way, y'all go lock yourself in a room for several days and come back with an answer. So they went a lot of the cells in a room. We standardized on 90% of what their system is. We took 10% because we have special needs that others don't have. And I said, we'll do 10%. We took that. I put Dr. Lawrence, who's my deputy secretary. He's in charge of it. So shortly, he's been on it in March, I think in March or April this year, we open forward new sites in Michigan. We just opened sites in Ohio getting ready for Indiana Alaska. We will open more this year than was opened in the last eight to 10 years under the previous administration. And by the way, it's working flawlessly. It just took getting together, putting people's heads together and telling from our side, we're not going to be special anymore. We're going to get stuff done. And great part story about this, Ann Arbor, Michigan was one of the ones that did. Ann Arbor was a classic research hospital. It's got a lot of complexity. And again, you just know it. And Monday was great. Tuesday's great. Wednesday night, a dead gum tornado hit Ann Arbor, Michigan, cut out power, cut out everything. System came right back up. Two days later, they did open heart surgery. No dice. Hey, I give all credit to Dr. Lawrence, all of our teams, but it took that kind of, I thought normal. I mean, that's the way normal people get stuff done. You bring the people to the table, get it done, hash it out, you know, and kiss and make up and go on. But we never done that. The VA just decided, well, this is terrible. I'm not going to do this. And I'm going to do that. Get over yourself. I mean, that seems to be the problem because I mean, so many of these issues, like real practical problems, there's, there's so bipartisan. I can think of it, you know, half dozen of my district. But I did hear at least, and you would be the guy to ask about this. I did hear that the committee for veterans affairs is probably one of the most bipartisan committees. Like people actually work together. Yes, I know. I was going to say you laughed at it. So I'm sure you feel like that's not the case. Well, it's what we say, but it's not actually what happens. And I don't mean that badly. Sure. Look, I expect, look, you're going to get unfiltered from me. I don't care. We prefer it. Democrats are going to be Democrats. Republicans are going to be Republicans. We've got different ideas about how to solve things. Democrats believe that the VA should be a basically government health care. And I look, I disagree with that. I respect it, but I disagree with it. I don't respect it. But Republicans, you know, have a different view on it. And I say that just in honestly, because I'm, you know, look, I can be as politically as you want. You only to fire a crowd. I can do that. But I mean, I get that they were elected by people who undoubtedly put a cast their votes for them. And that's what they're doing. So yes, there is some bipartisanship in to say we want to help veterans. How you help veterans, right, is the bigger problem. And so sometimes when they do come together, it does make it a little bit harder, you know, to find a viable solution. So that's why you see a lot of times bigger bills that have a lot of different parts to them. It's like, look, I think it's a great committee. It's also a tight turnover committee as well. A lot of members go through that committee visits. It's, it's sea level, right? So it's like kind of starting. Well, it should, but it's a very important committee, but it's much more granular than some of the other committees. I'll just say it that way. So I respect our committee members on VA, both the House and the Senate. There's some great members. I know most of them, you know, beforehand on both sides. They, they really try. It's just, you know, again, sometimes it's just hard. We're in a very difficult part in our country right now, legislating anything period. I mean, you couldn't legislate pure water. I mean, it's, it's, this is that part. So I think, you know, yes, it's bipartisan to an extent, but it's just not that everybody comes to the same table. And if you don't believe me, just watch the hearings and, and you'll see it. So there's different opinions that doesn't mean they're wrong. It just means they're different opinions. I'm more amazed that how was your reaction coming from the military of not seeing a standard SOP veteran. That is wild. That's what I was bringing up like what I was kind of getting at. Because like, even when I was a medic in the army, we had standard bias stuff down to like our aid bags. Every medic in my battalion had more or less the same aid bag. And we had a diagram of like in this part of the aid bag and this pouch, there's these medical supplies, these anyway, they have circulation. So anybody can pick up anybody's aid bag and functionally use it. Now we have basic, you know, SOP, we have basic stuff that you see in any hospital. The problem was coming into it that we would, you know, there'd be some treatment that was, you know, done here that wasn't done in some other places. We maybe had a vendor or something. One of the things that is amazing to me were 170 plus hospitals and we don't standardize equipment. So we have different dialysis scene. We have different IV infusors, which is going to be, in which way we're changing, because the new health record stuff, it just cost us too much to add on a part to it. So these are the kind of things that just takes time. And, you know, again, in dealing with it, there's a lot of, here's where the lot of the problem came in. We would have, and this is one of the reasons for the rise that we had is that we're putting policy now under one shot. Before it would go up and let's just say we had an idea of, I'm just make up something funny, you know, where I read you on right foot and left, green you on left foot. And we send it up to committee. Well, it will send up to say, is this okay? Well, they went to like six different committees of which nobody talked to each other. If they did talk to each other, they'd only shared bits and pieces of information. And then one committee says, you know, that's a great idea. Then another committee over here met two months later and said, you know, I think they just switched it. Green should be on right and right should be on great, you know, and then they never communicated. Then they had a three other committees that were never even operational. Nobody even cared. And the poor executive director at the hospital was sitting there saying, we sent this up a year ago and nobody's answered our question. That's how it happened. Or here's what would happen is they sent something up and it said for this hospital needed to be able to, you know, do surgeries earlier. I'm not saying it on. They said, okay, we did do this, but it wasn't, if it was a good idea for that hospital, was it good for the entire system? I mean, we've got hospitals that have charts that a veteran can look into the family members to say, okay, they're in pre-op, they're in operation. Now they're in recovery, which you see in almost every major hospital in the country. We've got a lot of our hospitals. Don't have that. See, that's what I'm saying is it's sort of the fringe stuff that we were just not putting our effort, I think, into the consolidation that give us the most buying power, but also the most realistic, high expectation for veterans. It wasn't that our employees were bad people. They were given a system that inherently was broken at a score. And that's why we've changed it and why we're working toward it. And right now, the executive directors of hospitals are really happy about what they're in. They're still adjusting to the new sets. And we're put back in that they just can't go at how are willing, Ely, that they have to hire to an FDE account. They have to hire to, you know, I think, but if they need a doctor, they can go hire. I hadn't even thought about the cost of not having everything not stay. I was just thinking about like having staff switch to a different hospital and not knowing how to work that dialysis machine or whatever. I hadn't even considered the negotiating power of coming to the table to buy new dialysis machines and being like, look, I'm buying for the biggest hospital network in the, or yeah, whatever, like I need parts for your buying way more of the same part from the same company, you obviously get a discount on everything that way too. I didn't think of that. Well, you also don't want to get me started and I'm just too complicated into the purchasing and contracting in federal government is is a real issue. That's going back to you talked about the private sector. And you're competing with them with doctors and nurses pay. So what is now the incentive to work for the VA versus? I think one I think is one you get a, there's a great incentive. One is this is a great, most other facilities have, you know, top notch facilities where our facilities are good in that regard. But it also gives us stability of patient. You begin to, you know, there's a commonality among a lot of veteran needs, veteran issues. So if you're there, if you're really wanting to do research, we're one of the premier research groups in the country. We have more trials, more research going on than anything, than any of the other hospital systems that are out there. We're excellent at things that other hospitals are. And if it's just what you're into, polytrauma. We do polytrauma better than anybody. We do prosthetics, frankly, better than anyone. We
just and we just implemented a new program to get prosthetics faster out to the people. We do prostate, we do urology better than anybody in the world because we basically get. I mean, we do it. San Antonio does a great deal here and they say, "So there's things that we do very well. There's a stability to the work, there's a stability to having a base that you can really treat and see them as they grow, and also seeing them from a different perspective. You're all here. You know, imagine going and I say this because I still do it and I'm having to, you know, explain it to my civilian doctor about a burn pit or toxic exposure. They don't ask those questions. That's not part of who they are. And so I think those are the kind of things that we have to, you know, that we get on and go back. So there's a reason to work into the VA. You're saying a lot of things that surprised me during this. So one thing I was not shocked at, Uncle San Antonio. Not even a little bit. Well, it started in May, I'm saying you know, okay, I'm saying good at that. I got a job at 14, they've been up my ass ever since. Yeah, there's something in life you just don't remember, so, you know, hey, it was a blessing. And blessing in a curse, it goes wrong, but you know, like overall, I think, you know, that's the big thing is, and also there's another thing out there that I only hit on a little bit. And you need to hear about, I hear this a lot sometimes in the social media around here and some other, you know, discussion about veterans getting, you know, a veteran served X amount of years and now all of a sudden they're, you know, they didn't go off a ship or they didn't do this. And they say, well, now they're, you know, 80% or they're 100% they didn't do anything. I went to war four times before 62 times here. And then this word is used that that person is a frog. That's wrong. Okay. And let me tell you why. Now, if they intentionally had doctor records or anything else, then it is. But what we do in disability is a lot of statutory. Here's our got boundaries. Here's our guidelines. Here are the regulations set forth, you know, through Congress and through the process we have. If you served, you meet the issues that happen, that is not fraud. Now you may not like it that somebody gets this or not, but that's not an issue. And I say this to say this a lot of it, I get a lot of veterans now who, because of this environment, he's sort of talked about that it's easy sort of to give veterans. It's easy to throw money in and it is that there's some veterans out there that are good friends of mine and others that they bluntly told me offline. They said they're tired of veterans being seen as victims. And then we're not victims. You know, we're there. We want to be treated with respect and dignity as somebody who raised their right hand and went and did something and nobody else wanted to do. But at the other time, don't, don't give me this or we're just giving the poor little veteran something. You ain't giving anything. We've earned it. So I think this is something I want everybody out there know. I'm fighting for veterans first period. The veteran's got to be the center of what we do. But it's not always as simple as sitting out there and saying, well, I've done it this way. Well, no crafts. Probably done something different. If I didn't have the information with that, because this is like a big talking point online with some other influencers that have brought this up. I think there's a big misunderstanding with VA disability ratings. And I think the word disability confuses a lot of people because in VA disability is not disability in the civilian sector. And the way that I try to explain it to people and you can correct me if I'm wrong or if this is a bad example. But the way I try to explain it is like a veteran that gets a VA disability rating, it's not saying that that person is literally 80% disabled and can't work or have a job ever again. Because that's a big criticism of something. This guy's collecting it. Somehow, and there's some issues. Right. Yeah. But they're saying like, oh, this person has a disability rating, but they're still working a construction job, clearly they're being fraudulent or whatever. But it's not disability, I think, is a bad word to apply to it. It is. In the sense of how you do it. Yeah. Well, from my understanding, it's basically like the VA disability rating system is primarily there because you get hurt in service. You come in as an intact person. You get injured in some capacity. You now have a lower standard of life for the rest of your life, whether that's messed up knees, bad hearing, bad eyesight, whatever it is. DTSD, like you have a lower standard of living. And as a service member, you have no recourse to sue the federal government who was your employer, like you would in any civilian job ever. If I was at work at a civilian job and they required me to work out every morning at six o'clock in the morning and doing those workouts, I fell and broke my ankle. I could sue that employer and get a ton of money. That's not an option for a service member. And the stopgap or the mediation that happened was the VA disability system of, okay, well, you can't sue us. We understand that we did injure you and you're going to get this pay for the rest of your life in exchange. It's kind of my understanding. Well, to make it a little more simple, basically what it says is that we're going to do the best we can with the resource we have, which is money, to make you whole from where you were before you came in as best we can. And nobody can do that completely. You can't make your upper, but the disability ratings and the compensation is attached to that and the benefits that occur from that are to get you back to where you were before you started. And that's sort of the whole issue that gets around. And look, I did not immune to the discussions and everything about disabilities and, you know, walking, we get our forms done and why did I get turned down and, you know, if I say this right word, I'll get this much more and everything else. It is a system in which, you know, there is a lot of, you know, frankly, subjectivity to it. There's a lot of stuff that you make it, you know, difficult, I guess, to explain to people, but you're exactly right. A hundred percent disabled doesn't mean you can't get off a bed. Okay, a lot of people say, well, if you're a hundred percent disabled, you should be, you know, in bed and not going where it's not what this is for. Terrible for you if you did that. Yeah. And the doctor is going to be like, that's what should happen. Yeah, exactly. I think there are, there are some cases where it seems a little bit more egregious, but I think that that's a very small chunk that people are using to say, see, this is all fraudulent. It's like, well, and I'm not saying they're doing it disingenuously because I think a lot of them genuinely don't know how the system works. Well, you have a lot of people out there wanting to help you now too. Well, what is it? Yeah. What is it? I'll get yelled out for that one from the government and I'm here to help. That's where today's sponsor comes in. The fine people at fabulettics treat me like a VIP. What does that mean? Well, if you train like me in a Mexican boxing gym, there is no air conditioning in 120 degrees in the summer. You want comfortable clothes? Why don't we have an air conditioner, Tony? Seriously, fabulettics based off of the field, the design of the comfortability. I put it up there with the high end brands. Minus, you don't have to worry about the high end price. And on top of that, in the summer, look at these, in the middle, shorts. Not only do they have athletic wear, they have just nice clothes to wear in general. So you can go on your walk, go hang out with the lady, or dude, they make just good everyday clothes. Like the shorts I'm wearing, fabulettics asks, what piece of clothes do you wear the most? I can tell you, fabulettics, it's the fricking take tops because again, Tony doesn't have air conditioning in the boxing gym. Fabulettics.com/unsov to say 7280% off everything as a VIP. Make a quick style quiz and be sure to select unsub, a win prompted to unlock this offer. Again, that's fabulettic.com/unsov to say 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. Yeah, and unfortunately on this point, it ain't the government who's yelling it. Again, you can go, that's one of the reasons why I've taken the 18 page disability form and we're hopefully going to get it down to four pages. We're trying to make as simple as possible. It's sort of if you meet the criteria, if you meet this, you're not, we're trying to take some of the subjectivity out of it as well and make it more objective, but I mean, there's always going to be subjectivity in a rating. There's always going to be subjectivity in, you know, what does doctor say and what does the not doctor not say. So again, I just want it, you know, again though, when you're constantly being told, you're not getting what you've earned, you're not getting what you deserve, then it presents this back of the, you know, again, if something happened not because they didn't know how to fill out forms, they didn't get it, there may be eligible for stuff. That's fine. I got no problem. I got enough money for them to come, but it puts the doubt in the people, even for other veterans and especially the outside that this is something that is not uniform, that we're, there's ways around it, there's stuff that you got to deal with. So I look, I just want to be a straight shooter about it and we're doing everything and we can to make it easier. We're showing you. Here's the guidelines. Here's what you have to meet. Here's the medical records. We have. It's why we're working very hard with DOW to get the records quicker so we can make these decisions quicker, but at a certain point in time, I just, you know, again, and I'm bringing up a touchy subject, but there's a lot of, you know, encouragement both sides of this And I just want to say at the end of the day, VA 1.
to give the veteran everything that they've earned legally under the law and that's what we're going to do and we're going to make it as simple as we possibly can. I take one of the big concerns I've had recently and I've shared this with a lot of folks and I mean it with love this is you know this is Chaplain Doug speaking this is this is me I get that there are issues I make no bones about that the VA is not perfect no we're not even close neither is any other hospital in this country we're going to make mistakes they're people not going to get in to get their appointment there's going to be people that get denied a benefit they're going to be you know we're going to be there but if that's all the veteran out there hears then they're going to be turned away from the very place that can help them and 60% I'm going to get real serious here for a minute 60% of death by veterans in this country have not been touched with the VA they've had no contact with the VA 60% of veterans who take their own life had no contact with the VA what do you think that is because I think some of them don't either they didn't want to go they were scared to go or they had heard how bad the VA was I'll say I'd never I never had any interaction with the VA until me and Zach became good friends because he's a huge VA advocate and he's like no you need to just go like get do the meeting just do your physical do the physical get the VA rating he's like even if you get 0% whatever just be in contact with them so they know who you are and if you do need something in the future like they have something on you you're not starting the process for nothing so I did it and it was actually shockingly easy like way easier than I thought and they gave me an appointment that was a couple weeks out but they got a hold of me they text me and called me with reminders they asked me if I needed help getting there or I had any like if I needed wheelchair access or anything and specifically like they were I was impressed with how easy and it was to actually do just to ask a clarifying question when you say 60% of those who took their own life had no contact with the VA is that on the issue of depression or just in general they have never had a conversation so you know you hear this number and and again I'm criticized and I say and so hear me clearly I'll speak slowly for the audience some people use 17 some people use 22 some people use 30 or 40 I do think is higher I think is in the 30s or 40 right now I've been accused before they're underestimating how many people are not you know veterans are dying no I'm not okay let's just get this over with one is too many for me I mean this is my heart I see it every day in reports that I get so no matter what number you use is too many but also there's a lot out there that are under reported because in certain rural areas and other places we know that they're not reported right that's why 17 to 40 is a range our problem is this though is and I've heard this from folks I hear it from veterans I've heard from younger veterans you know who are in that need that I ain't going to the VA it's awful okay then where are you going well I don't have health insurance so where are you going or I'm okay and I'll just handle it on my own guys you can't there's some things in life can't handle on you know you're in the military you can't go out there and fight the battle by yourself that's why you got battle buddies that's why you got platoon leaders that's why you got everybody else what makes you think you can handle health and life and things like that alone we weren't made to be alone gang we're made to be the same other and the VA gives you an opportunity to do that you know go get your physical go get whatever you know you don't have to go back when I don't force you this isn't a you know going singing every Tuesday at the front desk you know just but just get it there because if you need help if one day you wake up and you're not feeling good and you don't think life is worth it anymore and you call 988 and you talk to somebody or you go to the you go to the one of our clinics or one of our hospitals and somebody will talk to you believe me there are more people want you alive than you think don't want you alive VA does a really good job about reaching out for anything suicide related that is one man this is back in the like 2009 2010 when I was doing my initial I guess case file but it was that same thing of hey one of the questions is just like life how you feel and I just was like yeah yeah but they we started responding because I think that was that 2010 was that uptick yeah we started seeing so it's like hey we got to we got to reach out to these guys and make sure but that 60% makes sense because at majority don't say a thing like yeah I've never I've not out of like the 29 I like my battalion not a single one reached out to any of us so we have no idea yeah that's a lot of y'all have you know a lot of things I say here we all have them we have those little groups that we have in in a good friend of mine who's a metal honor recipient has a group and and and I'll leave it probably okay we can cut it yeah but now anyway they just have a group they they text is all the the gang he was with and one of they say yeah but clan and I don't think they'll mind me sharing this in a sense of that saying but one of the things he actually said was is it one if one of them doesn't respond that within a couple you know just in a little bit two or three people are gonna get with them and I think that that's so important so like I said I don't mind you criticize the VA it's a hobby for some I get it but don't think that everything that comes out of your mouth is helpful point out the problems I'll change I'll fix what we can fix I'll do what we can do to get assistant but remember somebody may listen to you they may look up to you they may actually watch your instagram videos they may actually watch your stuff or they may hear you dropping down at the at the convenience store but what about you may not need that help but what about them you know don't sign and but but please don't ever say the VA's perfect don't ever say it's gonna be great say you know hey it's a struggle but wait they they cared about me because that's all I care about guys I don't care how we get there I want to do it as economic as we can or do it as it's officially as we can and I want to stay within the law and I think that's the best thing that I can say is that we're gonna go forward and do that and that's why one we were our prevention was always we were sort of hitting the choir you know Baptist preacher and we said we're just preaching to the choir and so that's why we changed that's why I go in these podcasts all the time it's why I go out and we're now actually putting our vet center buses at different places we're going to you know USC fights we're going to rodeos we're going to concert anywhere that's where the veterans are why would I be putting a billboard outside of a vampsy who gives a crap I mean they they're just coming out of the hospital wow really I can get help with the VA I just walked out of there you know who came up with that marketing strategy I have no clue on but I'm sure they like their 10% cut they got you know so you know I did actually have a question while we were on the topic though of veterans but I think recently we've seen a pretty sharp uptick in veterans taking their own lives on the campuses of the VA themselves and we just had two in the last I think two years what at at Audemurphy here and you know I've spoken to the fathers of one of the one of the guys and you know it's just it's a heartbreaking situation but I've been told so it's two part one why do you think that is and the second part of it I was told I was told that the VA had stopped reporting or I'm not sure if they ever made a report or they stopped reporting the amount of times that that happens per year do you know if there's any validity to that you know we and they stopped reporting and I get the report every day okay if I say it happens I mean we I even get reports off campus as well also because I haven't seen them but that's just what what I'm hearing from yeah no it happens more than should it's it's still the vast minority of of cases I think 25 to 30 35 a year in that range it happened on property there I wouldn't say there's a single reason some I've heard you know different reasons and you know some you know that they didn't want to bother their family they knew that they would be taken care of they you know they were upset or whatever it may be let me do again I can't go emphasize any more though if you if you if you drive back on our campus walk through the front doors people will love you you don't have to do that life is not that that light that you think is going out is not a light that's going out that's a light that is still there if you're still standing you're still able go through the front door yell to the top of your lungs do whatever you want to do but somebody will be there to help you don't go to the parking lot don't go there and and and something there are people who love you and take care of you whether you know it or not and you know so there's that reasons that it happened I think one of the things that we're working on in some of the areas different areas and I'll take as an expand out on it a little bit is we're working right now and dealing with informed consent we're dealing with a lot of things that are going to help you know try to get you know more word out you know about how you know what medicine you're taking what you're not taking how you don't just stop medicines you know things like that there's a lot out there that we need to deal with so you know for me it's it's a problem it's something that I live with every homelessness is another issue that we have to deal with but we're mean it's still making good progress well but the the one that this one again is it's it's a disturbing trend and there's a when you dig into this a lot and this maybe help some of you out there that we have found statistics and statistics and sort of show you everything the shorter the time of service the greater the risk for death by interesting the shorter so the three the two to six year and the here's you an interesting statistic it could have been two to six years in the seventies and if you're taking your
life when you're 70 is still applicable. It's not just the short term. So I have my own thoughts about that. I think it is going from civilian, transformed into military, and then out before you have a chance to figure out how to do it. That's why we still have 25 year folks and 30 year folks, we still do. But think about it. If you made it, I made it 25 years, I learned to get around the system. I would find something that would keep me going. You know, and some of them may lose that and that calls it, but yeah, we're still seeing a lot of that younger part. So for me, it's a priority. We've changed up our entire suicide prevention program. The people who are most of the lead. I know the leadership of those areas not there anymore. Our ad programs, our buys or focus more on, you know, the fact that there is help, those kind of things. So look, I just, I want to sort of end this sort of kind of conversation in this and look, I don't care if you disagree with everything I do. If you don't like my hair, you don't like aimed decisions I make, you think everything in the VA is terrible. Just realize that there should be outlets for that, but also realize that when people hear that, there's some people who actually need help. And if they hear what you're doing, or they hear that it's all bad, then they truly shrink their field of vision to where they don't think they can get help. And the VA is an actual, you know, very viable help for veterans. I don't eat up on that more. I just like it just in general us as with the audience you speaking here, like, what would you say we could do to help? I think just continue to say, look, you know, it's not like, yeah, how many of us is anybody at this table said the military is perfect? All the time, I love it. Yeah. So I got out after three years. I love it so much. Here is there. The wonderful smell of getting up in the morning. You know, I mean, there's all this kind of stuff is, but I think that here's the thing though, you know, the bad and the good come together. The nation has decided years ago that if you served, we're going to give you something for that. Not because you are giving it, because you earned it. We're saying you earn this and we're going to do it. So look, I don't expect cheerleaders. I don't expect people to say, oh, dogs, the greatest thing in the world or I have to say, but just say honestly, the VA is there. It's not going to, for some, it's going to be the greatest experience you ever had. For some, you're going to have some issues just like you would in the real world. The VA is only veterans. So I think the biggest thing is just talk about, you know, look, take your time, you know, get to know what your benefits are, even if you're not like shit early. If you don't get a rating, just go get it there. And I think that encourages the policy side that you're wondering into the war that congressional legislative side, that kind of stuff. That's for a, that's a different conversation. We can fight about this, but we can't ever fight about the commitment of our system to actually help those. And in some ways, if we, if we heard ourselves in that over the years, yeah, we have the Vietnam veteran changed the VA completely because they came back and we didn't get the treatment they need. I believe the GWAT veteran is changing it again. And I'm one of those. So I think we're changing it because now we are not joiners. We don't join the, the VSOs as much. I mean, younger, but you got any, you know, Legion, VFW, you know, great folks. I'm a member, but you go there. I mean, the age is a lot different. And so if something we got it, we're doing the same thing. That's why community care is so important. That's why direct care is so important. That's why we have to, you know, blend the two to make sure we're taking care of our veterans anyway we can. And something you brought up earlier, I'm really glad you brought it up was the the medication side of it and saying, you know, people stopping medications because there's been a direct correlation to people, you know, the, well, direct correlation with people getting off of like, Secretary or I'm sorry, or or or or depranded. Getting off of those, those medications or having like acute withdrawals from it and then taking their own life. And that's something that I've heard again and again from a lot of people in these groups is they're worried about the haphazard medication of veterans, but also the over medication. And we're and we're addressing that. The polypharmus to issue. I mean, like I said, just I just sort of say teen, we're working this way. We've we've got a policy that's going to come out pretty soon. We're we've already sent it out with some of our VSO colleagues. We're just saying, hey, give us input. Make sure we're on the right track here. Tim she, he actually had a bill about this and you know, it's sort of split on the podcast. Yeah, Tim's good. And but he sort of gets this in. But again, the big thing is and I'm going to just tell you out there, if your medicine makes you feel like go back to your doctor, don't quit taking it. And then we get you on something else or take you off altogether and try another treatment. This non-medic and non-pharmaceutical. Okay. So I think those are the kind of things that we're working on right now. And I think you're really going to be pleased to see that when it hopefully here in just in the next literally a few weeks, we're going to be able to start that process. This is going to give more informed consent about what's going on, but also emphasize the back end of it as well as as a look, if you start this, you know, just don't stop it. And so we're looking at that. And it was my concern is how we actually do it and how we go forward with it is making sure that we're not, you know, doing harm. I tell you, I had some, I had some, when we first started this, we had some pushback from the hill. We had some pushback from staff on the hill. We had some pushback from some of the doctors and stuff. Well, if you do this, then they may not take the medication. I said, okay, well, that's fine argument except for the fact that we have to do informed consent of opioids. I don't see them turning down opioids for pain. Some did, some don't, but you I'm saying, but they didn't cause a grand decrease in that now. So, but also there's other ways to actually do it. So I think that's the one, you know, if for somebody do, if they legitimately say, I don't want to be on Medicaid, okay, then what can we do to help you? You know, what treatments out there are to help you as we go. It's like a preemptive. It is figuring out how to address that before they get out because that's a problem too. Everything that mindset be manly, don't do anything, don't go to the A's station, but that carries over when you get out. So going to see help is a problem. And I think that's where it's a, you have to start shifting that mindset when they're in basic training. Yeah, you know, you have to admit it's okay. You know, it's okay to not be okay. You know, that is a great day, one jelly roll. So I said, it's okay to not be okay. I wish I was okay every day. I'm not. I've carried all of us at this table. I carry baggage. I just carry it differently than others, but you don't know what it's like when I'm by myself. This is a good way to rest. You know, he's half of jelly roll. Yeah. He's down the game now. He lost half of it. It's okay. Said the week lost joke. It was joke. Well, well, it was pretty timely now that I think about it. Well, Brandon, let's just go right into the people magazines. I was going here. I mean, you know, we like the tagging jelly roll. No, not the love jelly roll. He's a good guy. Well, if I can get it, you know, I can't if I can get into the phone of friend segment. We're lucky here to have, I think one of, in my opinion, one of the best veteran advocates in the entire country, we've got veteran with a sign here. I love that. That's great. I believe that you've met him before. I have actually held a sign with him. Oh, did you? Oh, actually, you know, I forgot about that. Yeah. I held a sign. Well, I actually had a sign. I'm sorry. Yeah. One thing I wanted to ask was with you being the spotlight on you and it's everything's like, hey, what is a opinion? You're like, are an action you took? I was like, this is going to really go well or it's gonna be a popular thing and then immediately. You've seen a level of pushback. You're like, "Whoa, what the heck?" Just come out and say it. Do you think pineapple belongs on pizza or not? - Oh hell, I don't know. - On the record. - No, I don't know. - No, I don't know. - Oh, man, it's a real good one along so well. - It's a real good one. - I think what Eli was asking, if you ever caught shit for something you knew was a good idea? - No, never. - Really? No. - It's been for the last two hours saying you want to apply common sense to the government. What kind of questions? - There's a lot of publicity earlier this year. There was an IFR. It was called an IFR because it was a rule. And it was dealing with a court case that came out, which we were following by the way, that dealt with how do you deal with medication or deal with it. No sinister behind-the-scenes motives was saying, how can we do this because they're part of the ruling actually said that they are disability folks. So like four, the four of you were all disability. That you had to basically assume what might be if X wasn't happening. So it was all of a sudden. So that would say one thing, you say one thing, you say one thing. So I would have veterans who went to each of you who would get different completely. And it was trying to fix that. The court said, and it was, I mean, we were working through it. It was difficult. And we said, this is what we, you know, look at. This is why there's a new VA. That's why there's a new VA secretary here. That's why I'm sitting here. Within 24 hours, it went badly. Okay, the perception was just all but I'm not saying it was good or bad. I'm just saying, this is what we were trying. - That's a nightmare. - It was. - My DMs were on fire. They're like, "Dogs, Doug's taking stuff from veterans." It was like, whoa. - No, no, no, we're not. - Even I don't call him Doug like that easy. - Yeah, so it was. So look, I noticed it's 24 hours. So less than really about a little over 24 hours, I said, no, I said, we're stopping this. Because right now, it failed the first test of what I say. This is a helping veteran. Misinformation does not help veterans. Everybody out there, misinformation does not help anybody. Okay, and if you don't know, shut up. I just have to be honest here. If you don't know something, shut up. - Yeah. - Yeah. And so we figured out, we said, no, we stopped it. Within 72 hours by the day, by the day, we just drew the whole reg all together. - Okay. - And we're not bringing it back. We're not doing anything else. So I used that as an example of saying, hey, this was something was legitimate.
looked at it doesn't good under the OVA they may have just still went on and just said I said no because we're not we're not able to tell what was it you know with the people what convinced of what it was it wasn't gonna make that big of this because really we didn't feel like the change was was gonna you know affect anybody anyway we're already doing it the way that the veteran wanted it but this was just gonna try and help some so you know get some objectivity to it but it did work so we just didn't stop so that's that's your answer yes I stop it all the time I I have to applaud two things one that was the immediate response of like what we're changing it yeah because it that I don't think that's ever happened in the VA where they've like listen to veterans and be like okay you're right we're gonna do something else the other thing which gives me a ton of hope is the administration's stance on psychedelics yes and the changes that are coming from out out of that I mean I it's well documented you know I went to Mexico through the Vets program I did I have a gain in DMT and it's without question the single greatest thing that's ever happened so you do like the grateful dead now though yeah I mean there are some downsides that's why it's here actually he did DMT and the elves told him that he should grab a piece of cardboard and write a message on it now he's here like everyone does something legitimately it's nice to see kind of that stigma going away about treatment that way it is okay we you know we started this whole thing a while back about me being a chaplain okay this is the funniest I still think this will go down in my Wikipedia bio at some point when I kicked the bucket and it said first Southern Baptist sitting in the cabinet office in ton of the president psychedelics or possibility you know I'll say I mean this is coming from a Southern Baptist who you know hey we get high on Sweet T we're really good here we don't dance but we got sweet tea we're good you know water you can still have a Wikipedia page and still be alive yeah we don't want a little added they'll add it and believe me I got something won't it but but I think going in that the president truth that and the one thing that I the only thing I'll say that I'm we're wanting to is I'll always make it measure I mean we've we've we've increased our MDMA we're actually doing our veteran only MDMA treatment right now which has been very good we've had others as well we already do catamine we already do psilocybin we're and we're but we're preparing some part of this yeah it is yeah we got a lot of things going on and it's helping and I think that's the big thing for me is helping and some it doesn't and we just had to admit that it's not a hundred percent effective by any means but there is it's very effective for most people is what we're seeing so we just got to get more insight so we're we're setting ourselves up Bobby Kennedy and our Bobby Narcon sign of the Memorandum understanding which was required by the EO early next month so that's you know saying we're already you know trading dot you know getting our data together and we're preparing for MDMA and psilocybin to possibly be more widely available even outside the VA which which we remember FEA doesn't just do us they do they do everybody so if it does go that way we're going to be in a position to actually increase our load at the VA now one of the things I will say is MDMA in particular is 120 clinical hours per veteran that's a lot yeah this is not walk up to the door get some you know get some medicine get high and go home yes not the way this is in 2011 yeah no this is yeah well I got I can the treatment that I saw up in Bronx you have a person they there's you know hours before then there's the treatment itself the day of eight to ten hours in a room with two psychiatrists and then you have the follow-up treatments as well and then if you have to have another one which most people do then there's that added also anyway that's a lot of man hours for doctors in this possibility to get so I think the most important part about it is that you do have that sort of doctor oversight you know it's taken very seriously it's not because this is something that veterans are already doing where the only difference is now they're having they're being seen by a professional they're actually getting real medical care while they're doing it and they're not just going to fucking burning man yeah well but and I will hit last thing because and I told this to the to the administration I told him it's we were dealing with toe to eyes and told everybody I said look I said you're going to put this out you're going to mention one thing and this is all going to be about one thing that's going to be out again you said it's the only thing people are going to talk about yeah and I said and and I was right shockingly um but you know they listen so um here's where we're at I've again is still not legal insights it's still not can be used until we get through the FDA which is looking to put it on an accelerated trial okay okay hopefully that look like accelerated by the end of the year we're hoping to see this out it's where we're looking at that they that's the hope you know that because but the FDA has to put in the parameters for how we use it yeah that it's not us the age not deciding this they will decide how we do this CMS of course have a part of this as well but they're deciding how we can use it we're inputting I have a gentleman in my office right now that is the directly A's on to them we deal with this if I pick the phone up right now he knows exactly what I'm calling about he comes to it to keep me updated to make sure we're doing everything we can to be ready um we're also now actually looking at hopefully being able to connect with some of those overseas clinics to get better data so that we can help because we don't have the data that's the one thing we don't have and any trials you got to have data to know what your decision makings are we know that I began treatments have changed we know that they've added some things like magnesium some other things like that we know that there's been some that have had issues on other side that we're knowing but we just need the data that's all it is we're not saying good batter and different we just need the data so as soon as we get that happen it'll put us in a position you know to to move forward and I fully intend on having it move forward and I've already instructed our research and development folks our research group to say you know whatever we're spending in this area we have the money to do it I said let's change some of our research topics to make sure that we have the money available for this you know some of the things you have to understand is we don't have like for mdma some others we got sources that are basically paid for because most of it is still you know you can't decision regularly we don't have a a costing of this yeah and this is another issue so you know you have to have a federally approved source for this yeah I think about that so that's this is some of the things that have to be done so I began the same way mdma is the same way you know it's not like I can pick up and call one of the distributors and say hey send me you know 10 doses of mdma I said we'll go down you know you don't have you don't have a blog yeah I mean I can't do it yeah or the he's a copy finds it all the time yeah they send me up the case street it's right there right on camera yeah let me go get out of the day I go on case street yeah it's for veterans yeah my baby my baby rolin yeah come on let me have the boys now go yeah my detail would happily take me home so that's my idea as they go but you know I think you know so again a lot of this has come out I just say you know be patient yeah and also and I will just say this with and and that your prime example is I've got plenty of friends that I know that it's it's worked greatly and that's why we're promoting it that's what we're saying but but also I just ask you about be patient yeah and I think that and I know that that's hard you know but again until it would be mild practice for anybody over here to start something that we don't have the data that's why FDA is going through this right now and they are pushed in Bobby is a the proponent just like me Bobby and I talk about it he sees me all the time boy you got it I said Bobby's in your court right now not mine and but he's with it we get it done and we will become a lot I don't just be honest there's all will come a lot of folks who don't want to go down this path yeah the medical community is one there's a lot of others so we're you know we're we want to take it slow because the worst thing we could do the absolute worst thing you can do is roll something out there's not ready yeah and so that's that's what I hope at this point is to get at that point Bobby's one of my favorite members of the cabinet and I get a lot of shit for that because they're like oh you know he's he said anti gun things in the past and like cool he's in charge of health care he's not he's not in charge of the gun stuff so like I really don't give a shit what his opinion on that is hey he's cool as hell and be you know I think he's doing really really good stuff with with what he's doing like just as far as the make America healthy again was just like that that has been an awesome movement to see just to recap that part the big takeaway is please be patient because pastor dogs trying to get you the good stuff is that what I'm yeah what I'm trying to get you the good stuff I'm trying to get you the quality ethically sourced yeah we're gonna get organic DMT can you do billboard with me DMT with people's are different side I'll do it with the other way with the me there rolling with the I'll assure you that whatever comes out that we follow will be safe for our veterans is going to help the veterans and we don't do it right so I mean you've got a ton of time you've got a ton of good advocates you've got the former governor from Texas you've got the Latreau brothers Morgan's actual brain scientists and neuroscientists so like it was it was crazy because like for me it's been a thing that was like very it was very hidden like I couldn't I couldn't actually like tell people I was going to Mexico at the time like it was very like non-mainstream because it sounds crazy but to now see it just a few years later it's it's giving me hope and can you talk about your experience there for a lot of people that don't follow the stuff that aren't cool how like you're the cool what did I what did it do for you I guess in your experience so from my understatement pause yeah slide your share this way okay slide here for a little more I can tell you like rotate like this rotating this rotate share otherwise and then kick that right you're out of frame I can always tell without looking at these marina's yeah I know the frame is kick more you're you're out of that camera for more no you need to go this way your whole body needs to go
Sorry. Sorry. I'm good. Quarter face. There's no more. I got you. Well, got it. I didn't know. That's a pretty policy against that. I have to look at that camera. I was like, he is completely out of frame. He's about to talk. Oh, no. Sorry. No. So the way it works is, it was done with like medical providers. I went through the organization called Vets. Jared Taylor actually helps set that up. Me and a bunch of other veterans and they had like a 30 day protocol where we get our diet good and then we couldn't meet and everything. And then we couldn't meet. That's pretty neat. Well, week out. It's supposed to help with like the effectiveness of the medicine. And so we had a doctor. We had nurses. We had EKGs. Everything. And they even did a whole bunch of medical tests before. But we would do eye regain, which is supposed to be like a detox medicine. It's to help you basically work through all the stuff. And it's been shown to be almost 100% successful in opioid cessation because it attacks the addiction center parts of your brain and just cleans it out. And so you would do that. They go in. They weigh you and then they give you the medicine. It's encapsulated. And then the next 24 hours are pretty normally. I'm not going to lie to you. I mean, you go swimming in the deep end of the pool. Can I stop you? Because this is something that I've heard from others. Yeah. They don't take that into account. They've not heard that part. Yeah. And because they think it's. Oh, no. Yeah. They think it's, I mean, I've had, I want to say I've had veterans come. Well, it's just, it's just you get high. You need to talk to somebody. It's a very pain. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's normally probably a good word. Well, I just can't imagine going on that rollercoaster without having a warning. I'll put it this way. My friend Derek, who is a single leg amputee, looked at me and we took the medicine and then took his leg off. And he goes, we're not going to need this anymore. So like, it was, it was gnarly because you're supposed to like work through your trauma. There's a documentary on Netflix called In Waves and War. Each guy outlines it. It's a pretty hacker description of what happens. And so you do that. And then the next day, you do DMT, which is described as the God molecule, which then kind of helps to put things back into place into your life and everything else. But then I've heard other people follow it up with what, a five MEO. Yeah, five MEO DMTs. Oh, oh, I didn't show you how much I know. I'm not a cool guy, I guess. You're fine. You're trying to save our country. No, but so for like what it did for me, is it helped us sever like all the memories of the things that I had not processed or worked through and then actually to kind of show me a path forward. It makes it very simple. Yeah, it makes you, like it straps you in to like, you can't get away from it. Like for me, I kept seeing a photo of my family and it was like fuzzy and unclear. But as it got closer to me, I would then go through different moments in my life that were good, bad, and indifferent. And then when I came out the other side, I then had something completely different about me. What he just described was the way one of my psychiatrists in the VA actually described in the MDMA treatment. And it was interesting in the way, and it was interesting in the way that this doctor described this as a doctor, not Doug. This is a doctor who said this that it was like opening a page in their person's mind or in their psychic, that it turned to the page that they needed to deal with. And what was interesting was is there was a discussion that they'd had in a clinical setting that this person had an issue that, and they wasn't sure it was going to work. So the first one turned to a page, they sort of wasn't expecting in how they did it. And the treatment went well, they came back for the second one and got to the actual underlying issue, but they couldn't get to that underlying issue unless they had dealt with that first page. And this is, I mean, this is the doctor describing this, not me. They were saying it was like that the medicine, the drug actually helped turn the page of this person to deal with something. And now that was pretty powerful. I mean, it goes also before when I first saw me, she said, I thought this was a load of crap. And then I mean, she started testing it. And she said, now I see that this was actually something that was exactly confirmed. It's like it's amazing watching our friends, even with addiction problems. And then they do this one time. And then they are, nope, we don't do that anymore. I'm like, that's fucking wild. Well, the other thing too is we have to be, you know, as we talk about this, there's another thing too, some work better for different things. Okay, some are better for addiction, some are better for traumatic situations, some are better for, you know, different things. So it's not like that, you know, I began is the cure for every one of these. It's not like the MDMA cures for every one of these. And then the other thing is, and this is something that an all fairness that I've been studying and wanting and looking at because I think the perspective has to be there. And I've asked this a lot of, and I keep getting different answers. So I'm supposed to be, you know, I'm sort of gotten onto this bone sort of in and out on it is a lot of the testing for like psilocybin MDMA in particular, they're going into this and they're still on their antidepressant. They're still on their anxiety matter. And I'm saying, okay, did you not take them off? And then they say, well, no, because we were scared. I said, well, then are they still on it after they left? And most of them said, well, yeah, I said, okay, then help me understand what the treatment purpose was. You know, was the treatment purpose to get them whole healthy without medication? Or was this just to get them to a better place and still have the medication? And so I'm looking at it. And I've asked this question of FDA and I've asked it others. I said, is there ways that we can test like, and I'm not saying it out again. This is because of the different issues that we're not done here. MDMA and psilocybin in particular, I said, can we actually do this without them being on the antidepressant and see how it works? Or is it the antidepressant plus this that keeps them going? It'd be great. I mean, that's a great question. And it's sort of funny because like I said, most of them just come in and the doctors and stuff look at me like, well, you're just a sector. You don't know crap. And I said, well, no, I don't. I'm pretty ignorant. But I can ask pretty good questions. And that's my question. And I've not got a great answer on that. And so it's going to be something that this is why again, that what was it? Who is the kind of stifles or who had had the easy button stifles? Everybody wants to have a freaking easy button. There is no freaking easy button. No, for nothing. And anyone I has, I run to so many people whether it be in politics or in the agency, you know, the agency running on right now, they won't, they think life is a bumper sticker. Bumper stickers get you, they only do one thing. They get you sticky and they're perfectly wrong. Quit it. Life is not supposed to be quit doing surface answers in this lie. Ask questions. Use the brain God gave you. Don't just don't accept what everybody says. If I did, he was like, my kids were doing a ice cream and cookies, you know, it's like, really? Nick, you have something. Nothing. No jokes. I'm not going to make nothing. I don't know. I think you should let fly. He's trying to, he's holding my good. Nick broke himself. Anything I did help brother. At least text it to the class. That's awesome. But no, that's that's just my thing. It's really exciting to see that. And I've been genuinely impressed by like the feedback loop, I would say of like, if he does something, they hear the feedback and they're like, okay, like, I don't expect everyone to listen to every veteran. But I do like, they're like, we're going to try something different. And, you know, the administration is doing those things as well. I've determined that in this, you know, since I had such a broad statement from the president on what to do, take care of veterans. Doug, take care of veterans. Okay, I'll take your veterans. I've been to give me a wide playing field to do. And so there's not a program at the VA that I will not question. There's not a item that we do that I will not question. I have run a great deal of stuff through the our hiring processes. I mean, I have zero tolerance for, we've always done it that way before. What I call this, you know, this, I don't. I walk into hospitals and my first question is, is what are we doing that stupid? And we typically fix those. And because, well, they'll tell you, you know, it's just honestly, you walk into a unit, you walk into a company, you like, what do you want to say? What's the problem this unit? What are you all doing that stupid? Well, we got a first artist in the idiot. Well, okay, then there's your problem. But what are they doing? But would you ask questions? I don't just assume that, okay, that's the problem. I'll find out, okay, if this is a problem, what do we do to fix it? You know, don't come to me with problems, come to me with, okay, how do I fix it? And so for me, it's been one of those processes that we go through, whether it be new treatments, whether it be, you know, how we do it. I'm not taking anything at face value. And I'm changing things that I can change without, you know, having to go through a voting Congress. I'm changing things or policy, changing things or regulation and make sure that we can do that. That's making a lot of people uncomfortable because here's the unspoken, dirty little truth. There's a lot of people in this world that are very happy with a broken VA. They're very happy with a broken VA because they can one bitch and moan about how bad the VA is and how I can fix it. And instead of actually fixing it, I just take a different opinion. I say if there's a problem, fix it. If there's not a problem, I'll tell you there's not a problem. And here's why. And here's how we can do better. But customer service, whatever it is, there's a culture that is developed around the VA in Congress, and in the press, and in the veteran community, that the VA is broken and they like it that way. Because if they didn't have anything to grope about, what would they do? How about actually going out and taking care of veterans? Okay. So I don't mind stepping on toes because I just want to get, I have only one desire and has to help with veteran. I gain nothing from this. I'm not
getting rich by being the VA Secretary. I'm getting rich in the fact that I thank God to call me to this place to do this time at this point in my life and from, you know, the perspective for such a time is this. This is the time. I have a president who will bite me up. I have an organization that we put people in to ask the right question. I've got good friends on the outside saying, hey, yeah, let's see what we can do. And I'm not gonna accept the status quo. The status quo is not acceptable with the VA. We're gonna make sure we're gonna be the best, largest integrated healthcare system in the country. We're gonna do our disability claims the best we can. We're gonna bury people with dignity. We're gonna do what we have. And that's the only standard I have is as a veteran getting help. And so for me, this makes it pretty easy. So, and some people don't like that. And if you don't believe me, just read the comments. But all I'm telling you to do is when somebody complains about it, are they fixing it? Are they just clumbling about it? - Beautifully said. - I don't even know what that means. - Breach Reverend. - Yeah. - Amen. - Exactly. - You gotta wave to the camera, Zach. Wave to the camera. - Bye. (laughing) - Do with going to the comments. Ed, so one of the last questions is, what is one of your favorite experiences on social media followed by your least favorite experience on social media to this date? - My favorite experience is, it will get, it's one that if it happened. When we came into the VA, there was a lot of things that did change because of just the profile we had and the social media presence we had, I could tweet something out or put it on Instagram and literally thousands of people would see it. 'Cause I had a following to start with. But what was really interesting was, so we began happening and there's a culture out there that believes that they're actually talking to you. So one of you tweet, they're actually talking to you. It's just that thought. I was in my staff meeting one morning and we had started a program 'cause we kept getting this and I talked to our staff and I said, we need to answer these questions. I said, I'm getting these. So occasionally I'll look at the comments and if I see something on there and Morgan and several others, they're used to it, I'll hit the forward button and I'll send it to 'em. I say, hey, get this person somehow. Why are they asking about this? And so we just started this group. So now I have a full group in the VA in our VA that actually go through all the comments on my social media accounts. So they go through 'em and they look for people who look for stuff that they could do with. And this was now, it's going well, and we refer about 30, 40 cases of actual help every week just through my social media. We're doing more consistent with services and sometimes some of the congressmen are. So what we did was, is one morning I'm sitting there in the meeting, I have my back turned to the group. It's a long table and I'm watching the slides and I just pop through 'em. You know, it's like an old military briefing. I just pop through. And Linda Davis who does our VEO, our veteran experience, she gave her report and I said, Linda, thank you. She does all the surveys and all this kind of stuff. And I said, thanks, Linda. She said, Ms. Secretary, serve before I stop. I said, I gotta tell you something. And I said, okay. And she said, last night, someone sent you a good pilot. And I turned around and she said, but before you say anything, they're okay. And they said, we saw it, we talked to 'em, we got 'em help. I don't care about social media too hoots, but if it helps save one person, it's worth every bit of it. And the, so for me, that's my best experience. You know, that's so far. - He had that one moment, so he reached out. - They reached out. He reached out and he just sent me his goodbye letter and he was gonna be out. And then we reached out and-- - Thank you. - He saved. - So you built that team? She just did that and he saved one person. - It was exciting. - And team saved one person. - If I'm only at the VA for one reason, it was that at I'm done. - I'm good. - And so the worst, I'll be honest, and I'm gonna encourage this 'cause I'm gonna tell you what the worst is and all of the little keyboard warriors are gonna get at it. It's when they question my commitment to veterans. It's when they say that Doug doesn't care about a veteran, that Doug doesn't, that Doug is just in it for himself or Doug's getting rid of your Doug's doing this. One, you don't know me, you don't know my heart. Hey, I got a tough ski and I'll fight you any day of the week. But I have a heart as well. And these veterans that I see every day, when I walk up to them and I touch them, I see them, I talk to them, I see our employees, say what you want to about me. If that's what gets you off, that's your jolly's in life, go at it. But you know, that's the part that bothers me. I don't care if you have honest disagreement with me. Say, you know, I've got something out there that they say, "Well, I think we ought to spend more money." Okay, that's a valid argument. Okay, I just don't think so or are you cut to me? But don't go at it in a perspective of saying that there's an animus in my heart toward the job that I do. It never has been, never will be. And you know, all I want to do is, I told somebody this is a crazy question. I love reporter's questions. I've been in an office about a month and a half, two months, and his reporter sat down. And they asked the question. They said, "When you leave the VA, "what do you want to be remembered for?" And I thought to myself, I said, "I barely know where the bathroom is." You know, at this point. But I said, "I thought about it for a second." And I said, "I'll say it all I want to say is that he made a difference." It's all I care about. It's my good difference. - It's awesome to hear, brother. - Yeah, it shows that you actually truly care about veterans, each story, positive and negative, but you want to make change. And you're making change, I think, in the right direction. And it's hard because you are like, the spotlight is on you, and people are gonna look at it. Messages will get twisted, but at the end of the day, you, from this table, the guys can probably agree, you truly do care about the veteran, I think. - No, I'm not convinced. We need more tears, don't you? - Oh, what a good, man. - No, we genuinely appreciate you, man. Like, thank you, thank you for everything. I appreciate it. Dude, anything you want to say to the veteran community, to either help them, or do you want to yell at them? - No, I'm not, I love them. I mean, use what you got, use what you earned. Because remember, whatever you say affects, it ripples through eternity. And when we're not doing our job, we're not all togetherness, and it affects the ones that are coming behind us. And I think that's the generation we need to remember is it's got to be another generation comes on that raises their right hand and is willing to go into the battle. And we got to be that not only to them, but also to do the best we can. And also just take advantage of what you have. But then the last thing I'll say, and I try to end a lot of my conversations with this, is sort of what we hit on earlier. You've all got battle buddies. You've all got people out there. You raised your hand one time, and you said, if you're really listed, you got there, you said it many times, but you said that you sworn oath to an all the country, but you also said you'd leave nobody behind. That did not stop the day you got an 82-14. In fact, if anything, it encourages it. So I would just say all the veterans out there. If you want to help each other, remember, nobody gets left behind in service or out of service. And so go out there and help find some veterans, help the world understand what we went through, less than 2% of this country know exactly what that means. So we're the only ones that can carry that. And by the way, Congress is gotten a little bit better recently, but compared to where it was 60 years ago to where it is now, we basically have no veterans in Congress. And it's just really, the numbers are really, really low compared to where they used to be. So all I'll just say is, go out there. Don't forget your battle buddies. Don't forget your folks around you. We made it through one time. We can make it through again. It didn't stop when you got your 82-14. You got to have anything else. Do you want to ask Mr. Doug? Oh, no, I think you did a really good job of clearing up a lot of stuff, and I just appreciate your time, brother. You didn't have to be here, so it means a lot. Don't worry about it. Where do the people find you at, Mr. Doug? Oh, typically on the road. No, I got all my-- y'all hope y'all put it up. They can go to our social media accounts. I try to be honest with what we're doing, how we're doing it, and so they go to our social media accounts. So if they see me out, come see me. I mean, like that, I travel the country a good bit, but just follow us up that way and be good to go. Yeah, well, Doug, truly, thank you for your time. Thank you for your team's time. Awesome to sit down and talk to somebody that is trying to make a change in in a position you are. So thank you, brother, truly, truly, thank you for-- Also, thanks to security for not jumping in at any point, though, so-- That ball, you dog. [LAUGHTER] To be honest, wait for Greenwood. I kind of deserved it this time, so that's fine. All good. OK. You want to close us down, Mr. Cody? Absolutely. Thank you guys for joining the unscribed podcasts of the day I was joined by Eli DoubleTap, the Fatalic Trishon, Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins, Brandner, and myself, Donut Operator. Thank you so much for being here. We love you. OK, bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] She's got a break away. She's all alone. She's going. She's going. Oh no, wrong goal, kiddo. It's chaos.
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