Latest / INSPIRE STORY / #0234_ STORY INSPIRE Sean Parnell — Surviving 485 Days of Brutal Combat in Afghanistan: War, Courage & Brotherhood

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#0234_ STORY INSPIRE Sean Parnell — Surviving 485 Days of Brutal Combat in Afghanistan: War, Courage & Brotherhood · INSPIRE STORY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And so I'm so honored to be here to welcome
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: one of the leading voices in our veteran community, somebody
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: who I know cares deeply about the health, physical and mental,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of this community. And so I want to welcome Sean
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Ryan to the stage to talk a little bit more
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: with Sean Parnell.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: About these issues.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: How's everybody doing tonight? I'm Sean Ryan, former Navy SEAL,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: CIA contractor. We have a very special guest here tonight
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: for me to interview.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: His name's Sean Parnell.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: You can't see him right now, but he's right behind
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the curtain over there, so I'm going to give him
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: an introduction. Sean Parnell, a Pennsylvania native who joined the
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Army after 9-11, a Ranger qualified lieutenant. You led the
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Outlaws platoon of the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan's brutal
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Paktika province. In 2006-2007, you and your men fought for
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: 485 days of intense combat, taking out over 350 enemy
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: fighters near the Pakistan border. You were wounded three times
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: in the massive battle. You've earned two Bronze Stars and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: a Purple Heart. Medically retired as a captain, your story
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: lives on in your book, Outlaw Platoon. You're a fierce
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: advocate for veterans today, and you're currently serving as assistant
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and a
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: senior advisor. Please welcome Sean Parnell.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: Almost tripped on the way, 485 days of combat in Afghanistan.
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: I almost killed myself stepping up on the stage.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So it'll do that to you. But, you know, Sean,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I've been really looking forward to meeting you, by the way. And,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: but we're here for Veterans Day 2025 here at YouTube
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and in Washington, D.C. And, you know, I think for
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of veterans, Veterans Day is the most important holiday.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And so to start this off, I know we have
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of veterans here in the room today. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: if you're a veteran, please stand up.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys for your service. And I mean that.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And for everybody that's watching that's a veteran as well,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: thank you for your service. That's not said enough. And
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it is important, and it does mean something. So, you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: pretty good crowd here tonight.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: Pretty amazing.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: A lot of people who care about veterans' issues, I think.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I guess nobody has anything better to do with the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: government shutdown.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: I'm just kidding.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, you know, I wanted to– this isn't a–
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: this is not a political event. This is just to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: celebrate Veterans Day and to honor our veterans and– And
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that's what we're here to do today. And I want
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about your story. And so,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: you know, 485 days of combat, killing over 350 enemy
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: fighters on the Pakistan border, wounded three times, two Bronze Stars,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Purple Heart. Tell us a little bit about that. 485 days.
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: Well, I'll tell you, we didn't really know what we
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: were getting into when we were tasked to go to
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: Paktika province, which is situated right on the Afghan Pakistan border,
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: about five kilometers from Pakistan, the Durand line. And I
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: think I look back on that period of my life,
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: someone who lived this, and it was surreal to me
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: in so many ways because my path started, I was
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: just a city kid. You know, I don't come from
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: a long line of generals or non-commissioned officers in my family.
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: I remember being a sophomore at college. I was an
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: elementary education major at a small university in Clarion in
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: western Pennsylvania.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: It was so crazy, Sean. I remember we had this
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: big party.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: And the night before this party, we had this big
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: conversation with my friends, my roommates at the time. And
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: we talked about how our generation didn't really have a moment.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: We didn't really have a challenging moment where the rubber
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: met the road, something that was existential for us to
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: get involved, galvanize, and fight behind a common mission.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Then we had.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: This big party, and I remember waking up the next
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: morning laying flat on my back in this rundown college
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: apartment on this rundown college couch surrounded by crushed Iron
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: City beer cans and cigarette butts.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: We had this big party. And I remember.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Kind of sounds like Afghanistan.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Kind of sounds like.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: I remember sitting up. The world was spinning, had the
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: hangover of a lifetime. And I remember staggering over to
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: the television set, turning it on and watching it flicker
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: to life just in time to see an airplane crash
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: into the World Trade Center. And in that moment, I
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: experienced a range of different emotions, somewhere between anger and fear.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: And I remember staggering back from that television set and
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: sat back down on that rundown couch, just transfixed to
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: images of just raw horror as they engulfed our fellow Americans.
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: I remember a lot of things from that day, but
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: I remember people falling from those towers, those flaming towers,
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: and dying on live television. I remember people who were
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: lucky enough to survive that fateful day, stagger out of
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: that wreckage covered from head to toe in that thick
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: gray suit. The only thing you could see were bloodshot
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: eyes and a thousand yard stare. I'm sure everybody that
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: lived through that, I'm sure remembers those moments. It's as
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: if those moments are seared into our very consciousness, I
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: think as Americans. But what affected me the most and
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: what I think was the catalyst for me to join
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: and serve and the reason why I found myself in
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: Afghanistan We're the first responders. You know, police officers, firefighters,
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: or just ordinary American citizens who, instead of running away
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: from the flames, I watched one American after the next
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: run headlong into them. And as anybody who lived through
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: 9-11 and watched it play out on your television sets,
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: you know, people that ran into the towers that day
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: to try to save people that they didn't even know,
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: many of those folks never came out again with their lives.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: And I just remember thinking, I think.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Life is filled with crossroads, like very critical crossroads. And
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: I think some of them are more prominent than others,
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: but for me, this was a prominent one. And I
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: remember thinking to myself, how can I sit here and
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: do nothing? I'm an elementary education major, but I'm not
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: sure that's what I'm supposed to do. I think as
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: many college kids are just trying to figure out what
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: your life's path is. And I just remember thinking to myself,
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: how can I sit here and do nothing? when ordinary
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: Americans are sacrificing everything for people that they don't even know.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: And all the while, this phrase, like my mom used
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: to say, because that's kind of the black sheep of
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: my family, never really knew what I wanted to do,
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: different from my brothers and my sister.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: She just said, you know, the two.
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: Most important days of your life, Sean, are the day
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: that you're born and the day that you figure out why.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: And in the.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: Wake of the most horrific terrorist attack in this nation's history,
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: I just believed In my heart of hearts, I knew
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: exactly why God had put me on this earth. And
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: that was to serve something greater than myself. And I
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: just believed, you know, with that American flag firmly planted
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: on your shoulder and the might and.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Power of the U.S.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: Military at your back, you could accomplish any mission set
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: before you.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: And then I got my chance to do it, Sean.
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: I mean, I was halfway through college, so I went
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: to this little ROTC basic camp where a bunch of
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: drill sergeants, I brought a blow dryer and hair gel there.
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: I really didn't know what the hell I was getting
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: myself into. It was really not a positive experience for me,
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: but I made it through. And I ended up graduating college,
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: a young second lieutenant, didn't know anything, no military experience.
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: Went to airborne school, went to ranger school, and showed
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: up at the 10th Mountain Division as a brand new lieutenant.
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: eight months out from 485 days of combat in Afghanistan.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: You know, Sean, the reason I want to bring up
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the 485 days of combat is, you know, everybody hears,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you know, Veterans Day. You know, thank you for your service.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: But a lot of people, especially if they don't watch
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: my show, they don't understand the magnitude of what that
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: service can entail in the in the. the lifelong scars
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: that you can acquire, especially invisible scars. And so I
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: would like you to, you don't have to go through
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: every one of the 485 days, but I think it's
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: important for American citizens to hear in detail what those
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: experiences can be like. how traumatic they can be, how
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: real they are, how vivid they are for the rest
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: of your life, not just vivid for while you're in
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: it and bullets are going over your head and you're
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: returning fire, you're killing, your friends are being killed. The
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: magnitude of the entire experience. That's what people need to understand,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: that the sacrifices that are made, not just the ones
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: that didn't return home, but the guys that did return
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: home and the women.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: Everyone has an idea of what service will be like
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: or what combat will be like. And I remember after 9-11,
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: I just, I mean, call it, I was naive.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: I was a kid.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: I was 22.
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  Speaker 5: You know, I wanted to prove myself in combat. I
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: was angry at the people who attacked us. I wanted
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: to go and serve on the front lines and be
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: in the infantry and go to airborne school where the
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: Army teaches you how to jump out of perfectly good
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: airplanes and then go to ranger school. I wanted to
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: do all that stuff. And then I got to combat.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: and realized what it was like. And I'll just tell
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: you a story on my first day there. Very first
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: day at a place called Fort Operating Base Burmel, which
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: became Fort Operating Base Boris, again, like five kilometers from Pakistan.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: We flew out there in two CH-47s with my platoon
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: and the helicopter landed on the HLZ. And as the
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: helicopter was descending, you know, kicks up this brownout cloud
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: of dust and the ramp falls down and everyone storms
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: off the bird. And You know, everyone's carrying like 300
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: pounds of equipment, their rucksack, but green Army A-bags, like
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: foot lockers, throwing things off the bird. And this bird
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: is like the CH-47. I don't know if you all
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: know what that looks like. It's like a metropolitan transit
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: bus with two rotors, you know. Kicks up a lot
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: of dust, but out there like mountains five kilometers from us,
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: it represents a pretty great target for the enemy. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: as we were unloading all of these bags, we just
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: hear this dull thud over the churn of the rotor blades.
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: And we hear that thud grow in intensity and just
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: shriek over the top of our position and just boom,
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: like landed with a dull thud just west of our base.
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: And like everybody on the HLZ froze, the helicopter landing
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: zone froze, turned and fixated our gaze on the horizon
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: where just one pall of smoke rose there. I'd never
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: been shot at before, but I had non-commissioned officers in
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: my platoon who had been to war before. And by
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: the way, I just have to say, if it wasn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: for my soldiers or my non-commissioned officers who taught, coached,
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: and mentored me every step of the way, had every
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: incentive in the world just to stick me in a
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: corner and say, shut up, sir, just don't get anybody killed.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: They didn't do that. I wouldn't be here with you today.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't be alive for them.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: So lots of guys in that moment who knew exactly
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: what to do and five or six more rockets exploded
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: and tore over our position and then all hell break
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: loose and we ran for the safe confines of our
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: base as fast as possible.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: And as I mentioned, some people knew exactly what to do.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: We had non-commissioned officers run into the tactical operations center
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: to call higher because we were under attack. We had
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: other non-commissioned officers run into the aid station because we
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: were under attack. And when you're under attack, you could
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: take casualties. And for me, brand new second lieutenant, just
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: standing there, didn't really know what to do. until this
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: young first lieutenant of the 173rd Airborne Brigade came up
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: to me, grabbed me and said, Sean, we need you
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: at the front gate and we need you right away.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: And I said, well, just tell me what to do.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: I'll do whatever I have to. And he said, so
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: what's going on? Started running after him. He said, well,
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: those rockets, they just missed us, but they landed at
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: a playground with a bunch of kids playing for school.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: And there are.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: A bunch of wounded Afghan kids at the gate with
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: their families begging us for help. begging us to let
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: him in, begging us to give him medical attention. And
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: so I picked up the pace and very quickly I
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: realized that, you know, we're at 14,000 feet even in
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: the valley. So I could feel Afghanistan in my lungs,
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: like my muscles were like lead. And I got to
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: the front gate and before me, this just situation, like
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: that's just the most chaotic, horrific situation that you've ever seen.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: It looked like you have this like wrought.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Iron gate that would, it's not uncommon of what you'd
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: see here in America, separate us for like gated communities.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: On one side, you had soldiers who were chomping at
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: the bit to try to help these Afghan families. On
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: the other side, just 20 Afghan families carrying the broken
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: and bloodied bodies of their little kids that were hit
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: because of this rocket.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: I don't know, American soldiers see moments like that and
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: they just want to help. So I remember throwing the
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: gate open, privates throwing the gate open, and each of
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: us scooped up a kid. And I grabbed this little
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: girl who is, I mean, she was probably five or
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: six years old. She had bright green eyes and dark
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: auburn hair. And I looked down and she's like crying hysterically.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: And I'm trying, she's like, I'm trying to comfort her
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: in English. And she's talking to me in Waziri, words that,
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: like there's a language barrier. And I'm like panicked, right?
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: Because the whole, like when you're in moments, like this
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: is the first, this was my first day. my first
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: moment in combat. When you're in a moment like that,
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: it's like you don't really experience it. The moment almost
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: kaleidoscopes around you and you look back and it kind
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: of feels like that and you spend your whole life
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: trying to go back and understand what happened. I remember
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: turning around and just following this long line of American
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: soldiers going all the way back to the aid station,
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: which was right in the middle of our base. And
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: all the while, the enemy just kept shooting at us,
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: except for now the 107 millimeter rockets were like landing.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: In our base. They were walking them into our base.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: And about halfway to the aid station, this 107 millimeter
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: rocket lands probably 30 meters from where I was standing,
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: almost knocks me off my feet, sucks the air right
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: out of my lungs.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Like, I got tears.
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: Coming down my face because this black, acrid smoke just
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: felt like it was in every pore on my body.
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: So I kept running as fast as I could to
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: get to the aid station. Then I just started feeling
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: this warmth spread out on my right hip. I'm holding
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: a little girl like this and her legs are just
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: right there. And I'm like, oh my God, like I've
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: been hit. I've strapped a wound on my first day
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: in combat. And I just start panicking, start furiously patting
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: down to find the source of this injury. And I
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: put my hand down right on the bone of where
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: this little girl's leg should have been. And in the
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: chaos of the moment of scooping up little kids at
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: the front gate, And the panic of that moment, I
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: just didn't even notice. And so I see this. And
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: it's just my whole right pant leg is just covered
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: in blood.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: And I see this. And I just like, I didn't panic.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: I didn't stop.
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: But my body just went on. It was like autopilot
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: at that point. We ran this little girl into the
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: aid station. And the aid station had these bright red lights.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: And you got medics everywhere. And we had one doctor
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: on our base who was running from these flat aluminum tables, right?
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: It's funny the things that you remember in those moments,
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: but the way that the light reflected off those aluminum tables,
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: it's just, I guess, think about that every day. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: I remember putting the little girl down on the table
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: and taking a few steps back and like trying to
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: collect myself. And when I opened my eyes, like everyone
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: in the room is standing around and they're looking at
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: me like I'm crazy. And it's because the little girl
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: had died before I could even get her there. And
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: I didn't even realize it at the time.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, man.
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: Oh, it's, you know, it's, In combat, there aren't rules,
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: you know? It's like first day. So I remember scooping
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: her little body up, walking her back to her father,
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: and giving her body to her dad. And her dad
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: just looking at me and going like this, like, thank you.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: And he took her little body and walked off. And
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: it was over just as.
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: Fast as it started. And I remember that night, I
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: was so horrified by the blood.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: On my uniform.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: I remember changing into my PT uniform, my physical training uniform.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: brought that old uniform out to this, the burn pit
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: that we had outside our base. And I threw it
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: in there on my first night in Afghanistan. I just
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: watched that uniform burn. And I look back at that time,
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: that day, and I looking back, you know, with the
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: benefit of hindsight, it was like that moment was the
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: beginning of a big change in me. Like almost like
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: I'm shedding my civilian skin, you know, a metamorphosis almost
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: of like moving from insulated American citizen who had enjoyed
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: the trappings of freedom your whole life to somebody who's
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: making the transition to warrior. Somebody that had to be
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: able to experience those types of moments and endure.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't have the answers of how I would do it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: I just knew I freaking had to because I had
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: 40 soldiers that relied on me to do it.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Sean, I think that's a perfect depiction of what it
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: looks like. And that's day one.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Day one.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: You have 484 more days of that.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: Correct.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: We thought it was a year, but after a year
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: of combat, and like 485 days, like if you try
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: to put that into perspective, Easy Company, the 101st Airborne,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: jumped into Normandy and fought to Hitler's eagle's nest in
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: less time than 485 days.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: And those guys were freaking heroes. I'm not comparing the units.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: I'm just saying it's a long freaking time, 16 months.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And And it was a moment just like that.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: And again, I.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: Just want to be clear. I volunteered to serve. It
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: was the greatest damn experience of my life. I would
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: do it again in a heartbeat if this country were threatened.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: And the military is amazing. The Army is amazing. It's
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: some of the best training in the world. But nothing
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: prepares you for a moment like that on the first day.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: And it just changes you. And I think that's just
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: part of the part of the experience of combat.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: You know, you'd said something just a minute ago about
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: you know, how nothing makes sense. And I think that,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of things that happen in combat
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: and in war, they don't make sense. And I think
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: that's why a lot of veterans are struggling today with
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: suicidal thoughts, suicide epidemic, addiction. All these things, depression, anxiety, PTSD,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: traumatic brain injury, all of those things. But you know,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: what I'm getting at is in war, things don't make sense.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: They never make sense. You're not going to make sense
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: out of why that little girl was killed, why innocent
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: lives are destroyed, why good people who are with you
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: that seem to do life right, treat people right, treat
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: their families right, they don't cheat.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: They die.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: And then you're left trying to make sense of all
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: of it, or you at fault. And I guess where
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going with this is you're never gonna make sense
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: out of it. Because really, it didn't make sense to
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: begin with.
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: And I think going to war and experiencing combat I mean, obviously,
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: it changes you. And we all go through, I mean,
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: think about yourself as, I mean, some of the changes
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: that you go through.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: In life are bad, some are good.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: I mean, you go through high school, think about yourself
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: as a freshman in high school, and then graduating as
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: a senior, looking back at pictures as a freshman in
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: high school, you're like, what the hell was I thinking
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: with that haircut? What the hell was I thinking with
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: that outfit? Like, experiences change us, and I think that
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: that's okay.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: You're absolutely right.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: It's impossible to make sense of the chaos of war,
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: especially when you're in the moment. But some of those horrifying,
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: and we've experienced a lot of terrible stuff over there.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: The way I think about it in my mind is that,
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: you know, that's what separates me from everybody else.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: You know, and you think about this.
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: During over 20 years of war, Only 0.4% of America
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: served during that time in an all-volunteer force, only 0.4%.
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: And many of those men and women deployed, redeployed one, two, three,
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: four times, five times. And so a very, very heavy
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: burden was carried by a very small percentage of Americans.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: So it almost makes sense when veterans come home and
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: you experience moments like my first day, and every veteran
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: has an experience like that When you come home, there's
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: a very significant and real, tangible, existential gap between those
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: who enjoy freedom on a day-to-day basis and those who
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: have protected it. And I think part of our job
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: and part of the reason why veteran storytelling is so
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: important and part of the reason why doing things like
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: this are so important is that we get together with
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: folks in the community, no political agenda, and we just
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: try to bridge that gap a little bit. And when
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: people who enjoy freedom on a day-to-day basis understand more
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: about what it takes to defend and fight for freedom,
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: I think we have a better country. And it's also
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: healthier for our veterans because as we tell these stories,
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: the community helps us carry the burden. They understand a
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: little bit more about what it's like to raise your
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: right hand, volunteer to serve, and go to war for
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: your country.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: You know, my favorite saying of all time, and I
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: don't even know who wrote it, but It is, for
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: that protected will never know. And, you know, I think
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: that is something that every veteran can wear as a
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: badge of honor and be proud of their service. And,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: you know, I want to move to the next question, Sean,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: and that is, you know, you fought in Afghanistan for
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: at least 485 days. I don't know how many times
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: you deployed. I spent the majority of my adult life there.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: the Afghan withdrawal. You know, a lot of G-WOD veterans
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: were disgusted with how that withdrawal happened. And they are
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: left thinking that their service amounted to nothing. And we'd
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: already mentioned, you know, the veteran suicide epidemic that's going
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: on and all the problems with addiction and depression and
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: anxiety and PTSD and all of that shit.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Did the Afghan service for you mean to you personally?
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: I want to try to turn this into a positive.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Well, I'll tell you, I was, I mean, my soldiers
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: taught me things every day. I mean, they taught me
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: what it meant to be a servant leader. The idea
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: that I work for my people, not the other way around, period,
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: end of story. And I feel like I was so
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: blessed to lead one of the most diverse platoons that
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: you could possibly imagine, like black next to white, Christians
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: next to atheists, next to Jews, next to Muslims, like
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: Democrats next to Republicans, Northerners next to Southerners.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: It was crazy.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: But we all figured out a way to take those
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: many differences and set them aside and unite as Americans
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: on the battlefield fighting for a common mission.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: What I realized is that.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: When you focus on who we are as Americans, everything
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: else kind of falls by the wayside. And it was
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: the love and brotherhood allowed us to build this unbelievable
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: bond with one another. I'm telling you, what I mean
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: by that is I knew my men in my platoon.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: Better than I knew my own siblings.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: I mean, I could watch them 50 meters away from
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: me in the dark walking away and tell you by
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: the way someone.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: Walks who it was.
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: You build a very intimate bond with these people that
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: you serve with.
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: When all else boils away and we're able to put
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: our many differences aside, You're able to build this bond
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: that is just unbelievable. And I learned just surrounded by
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: death and destruction every single day that our secret weapon
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: was not the technology that we had, was not the
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: weapons that we had. It wasn't even really our training,
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: but it was the love and brotherhood that we shared
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: for each other and that we didn't want to let
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: each other down. 485 days of combat, my platoon took
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: an 85% casualty rate. Some of my men were wounded twice.
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: One of my guys was wounded three times. I had Six,
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: every single person in my platoon that manned a machine
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: gun was shot in the head.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: Every single one. They all survived by the grace of God.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: But not one of those people that was shot in
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: the head was evac'd off the battlefield and left.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Wow. They would wrap their head up.
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, this was back in 2006 before traumatic brain injury,
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: TBI was even an acronym. We were so afraid of
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: letting each other down. We were so afraid of not
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: being there to back... each other up, that that drove
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: us to do extraordinary things in the battlefield. I think
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: ultimately it's a lot of the reason why my platoon
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: made it home. So you talk about the Afghan withdrawal
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: and you talk about the deployment to Afghanistan. That's why
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: I say I would do it again in a second.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: Because being in those moments really sounds maybe a little crazy,
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: but it really teaches you a lot about what love
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: really is and how it can propel you to do
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: extraordinary things in the face of really grave danger.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I'd like to chime in on that, and that would
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: also be my number one thing. But, you know, I'd
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: like to bring up the fact that, yeah, that war
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: did not end, I don't think, the way anybody wanted
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: that war to end, maybe the Taliban. But, you know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: what I want to say is we went into a
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: very oppressed country, and we are the only beacon of
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: freedom in this world.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: The only beacon of freedom.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: And for us being there for 20 years, I mean,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: when we went there, you couldn't even play a game
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: of pool in the street without being killed.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Correct.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Women couldn't go to school, you know, all these things.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: And then we got there and they got a glimpse,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: a very small glimpse of what we have here in
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: this country and what we're able to enjoy. And our
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: women can go to school. and they can become educated
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: and we can play pool wherever we want to.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: And they got a glimpse of that.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And they never would have gotten a glimpse of that
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: had we not been there and fought for them and
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: fought to defend our country. And so we planted a seed.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: We showed them what it could be like.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: We cared about the people there. I mean.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: And that's something that our men and women can be
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: proud of.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Nobody can fucking take that away from them.
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: For sure. For sure.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: And and that's that's that's something that I think all
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: veterans need to keep in mind because that was us.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: We did that. We planted that seed. We showed them
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: what they could be.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: You know, it's another reason why things like this are
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: so important and that you're lending your platform to things
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: like this. And YouTube is supporting it. As you look
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: at what happened in the wake of the Vietnam War.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: and how we left that country, it was not dissimilar
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: to how we left Afghanistan. You hear people say, if
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: you don't study your history, you're doomed to repeat it.
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: What happened in Afghanistan was remarkably similar to what happened
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: in Vietnam. I mean, obviously it's very different in certain
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: ways too, but Helicopters on buildings taking our people out
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: of there. I remember watching that. I felt it at
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: the core of who I was, at my soul, watching
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: Afghanistan collapse. I lost 30 friends in that country. And
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: the way that we left there, you can't help but think,
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: what the hell was it all for? Well, you outlined
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: some very profound reasons why we did good things in
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: that country. But that's why I think when you gather
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: and you talk about moments like that in Afghanistan, it's
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: like you you almost prevent it from happening again in
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: the future.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: I think we should, you know, I think.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: If you, if we commit America's sons and daughters to
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: the fight, it should always be the last thing that
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: we do. You know, we should always seek peace, always
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: push for diplomacy, but be prepared to fight if need
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: be to defend what we have here. But if you
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: make that decision to send America's sons and daughters into
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: the fight, by God, I don't care, Democrat or Republican,
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: I don't care about politics at all on this, We
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: send our sons and daughters into the fight.
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: By God, we send them to win. And we come.
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: Back clear-cut mission, clear-cut end state, and we come back victorious.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: Because otherwise, Sean, the situation we have in Afghanistan, where
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: you have 20 years of fighting in Afghanistan, and you
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: have an entire generation of Americans who fought, bled, some
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: of whom died and never came home, asked what the
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: hell was it all for? And so events like this
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: help bridge that gap of understanding and help get us
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: to a place where maybe that never happens again.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Sean, we're in Washington, D.C., our nation's capital. And so
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you, what is one policy or
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: cultural change, because this is where it all stems from,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: that would benefit veterans?
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: Boy, there's a lot.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: We could probably spend a whole show talking just about this,
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: but when you join the military, it doesn't matter what
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: the branch is, but the military does a great job
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: at teaching you to shoot, move, communicate together as a team.
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: When you go to basic training, they whittle your individual
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: identity away and you become part of something bigger than yourself.
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: You become part of a collective.
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, even so much so when you're jogging in
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: formation and you're singing cadence and somebody falls out, the
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: whole formation stops, turns around, picks up the person who
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: fell out, put them at the front.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: You don't leave our people behind. You're a part of
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: a unit. You're a part of a team. The team
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: is all that matters. Team, team, team.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: And then you go to war, and then you fight,
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: you bleed, and you die together as a team. So
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: everything that we do is team, collective, unit. You're not
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: an individual anymore, and that never changes. When you get out,
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: you know what the military does? You got two weeks, hey,
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: thanks for your service, see you later, and all of
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: a sudden you're an individual getting down on part of
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: a team. So when you talk about veterans who are
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: really struggling, whether it's with, I mean, there's veterans struggling
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: in a litany of different ways. There's suicide epidemic is
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: out of control, it's inexcusable, it should never happen. Drugs, alcoholism, isolation, depression,
• 33:13
  Speaker 5: mental health problems. The veterans who I think do the
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: best have leaders in those units that work their asses
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: off at keeping that sense of collective identity intact. And
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: that means having, to the extent that people can, having
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: regular reunions at the platoon, company, maybe even battalion level,
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: like regular contact with the men and women in your
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: unit to make sure you keep that unit integrity intact,
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: you keep that collective identity alive.
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: It's extreme.
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: You don't feel like you're alone. You still feel like
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: your battle buddy has your back. And so, you know,
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: whether it's at the Department of War or whether it's
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: as a VA program, some sort of program. This year,
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: I think we were in the middle of a government shutdown.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: But if we get the budget that we that we
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: want at the Department of War, it could be about
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: a trillion dollars. Well, I think that you could invest
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: in a program, a government program. that has a database
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: that keeps these units together, you know? That part of
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: your training when you leave is, you know, you get
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: great transition training, two weeks of transition training.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: But part of that training is like, here's what you.
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: Can do to keep this, the platoon that you deployed with,
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: here's what you can do to all stay together. Maybe
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: even fund reunions somewhere so that you guys can get
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: together and talk about what it was like to deploy
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: together and defend freedom.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I love that idea. I've got a couple ideas.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I'd love to hear them.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: One, I think it'd be great if we quit funding
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: the Taliban.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: We fund the Taliban $ 40 to $ 87 million a week
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: in cash every week. And I think that is a
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: slap in the face to every single American who stepped
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: foot on Afghanistan soil and was shot at or killed
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: or had friends that were killed or fought against them.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Let's defund the Taliban.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: I can't believe you have to even say it.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: And number two, I think a push towards research of
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: psychedelic therapy. I did psychedelic therapy. I've been off booze, benzos, opiates,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: sleeping pills, just about every drug you can think of.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: I'm almost four years clean. I'm in the moment with
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: my family.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: It's amazing.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: It's healing TBIs. It's lighting the brain up. All the
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: dark spots are going away. This stuff is very promising.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Let's research it. Let's get the vets the help that
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: they need. The shit works.
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: You know, it's funny that you say that because, first
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: of all, I do think there has to be an
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: all of the above approach when it comes to taking
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: care of our veterans when they come back from war.
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: We're talking 20 years of war. Some of the things
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: that you go through over there are very deep, profound
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: moral injuries that.
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: It's hard.
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: Some of these things don't have clinical applications. You come
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: out of the Army, and I remember there were times
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: where I'd When I first came out, I'd have a
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: paper bag filled of meds. I think our inclination in
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: this country is just to give you a pill and
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: hope that it makes things better. But when we talk
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: about that 0.4% and that gap between people who enjoy
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: freedom and people who protect it, I think there is
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: also a cultural component to this that America also has
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: a mission. Again, hearkening back to doing events like this
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: where You're giving veterans a platform to tell their story,
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: to give their community the opportunity to learn about what
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: it was like to deploy. And so that that community
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: helps those veterans care.
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, if.
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: You walked into a neighborhood at the height of World
• 36:56
  Speaker 5: War II, you'd be hard pressed to find an American
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: family that was not deeply affected by that war, either
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: a son who was son or daughter who was serving
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: or somebody doing the Rosie the Riveter stuff back home,
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: everybody in America was galvanized behind that fight. Everyone had
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: skin in the game. It wasn't so for the global
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: war on terror. So the answer is yes, like all
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: the above approach with regards to researching medications that could help,
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: looking into psychedelics, energizing or manifesting, engaging with this country
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: to help them invest more in veterans' issues culturally as
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: part of it as well, you know, keeping collective identity intact.
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: There's lots of things that we can do, but I
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: feel like it's of paramount importance to start now because
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: I think we're already behind the curve.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Sean, you know, we're running a little short on time here,
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: so I got about two more questions for you, but,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: you know, one of them is I want to ask
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: you what can the civilian population take away from the
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: veteran community? I mean, we always talk about, you know, the,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: me and you were just talking about it backstage, the
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: victimization of the veteran community. We talk about the suicide epidemic.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: We talk about the addiction. And we talk about the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: depression and the PTSD and the traumatic brain injury and
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: all the, you know, the broken homes, the broken families
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and all this stuff that, And I think veterans can
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: fall into this, you know, to victimizing themselves.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: It's easy to do nowadays.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: But, you know, if you look at it from another angle,
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, the veteran community to me is, after service,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: is a untapped resource. And so I want to get
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: away from all the victimization and all that, even though
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: it's very real. You know, what can the civilian population
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: take from the veteran community? What could they learn?
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: I totally agree, too. I mean, you know, we're talking about,
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: I mean, combat's heavy. I mean, there's a lot of
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: heavy moments. But, you know, veterans are one of the
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: largest untapped blocks in this country. Something like, when you
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: talk about veterans and their families, something like 80-plus million people.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: You know, and these... Men and women who fight our
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: wars are smart. They're driven.
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: They're passionate they are selfless they are driven by service
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: first last and always and you know i always tell
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: my kids i've got five kids that the pathway to
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: a meaningful life is through acts of service helping your
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: fellow man and your fellow citizens Veterans have that quality
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: in throws. And so, you know, it's important. You asked
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: what Americans can take from it, right? I mean, I
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: think you can, we can all learn from those core
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: principles and life principles that veterans live and abide by
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: every single day. And many of whom have experienced really
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: tough things, you know, in combat that, you know, I
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: remember thinking that this young private that I had in
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: my platoon, I'll never forget it, like a year into
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: my deployment, he's looking down and talking to me and
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: I'm looking at him. It's like, he's 18 years old,
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: but he had the eyes of like a 90 year old.
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: You have kids with a lifetime of experience who've lost
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: people that they love and they care about, have all
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: of this wisdom. I'd say like, we should try to
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: tap some of that wisdom and learn from it. And
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: you know, Take every opportunity available.
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: We're in Washington, D.C.
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: Have members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have senior veteran advisors.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: Talk about war. Teach them about the cost. Maybe that
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: keeps us out of some, right?
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: We should be engaging with our veterans in every single
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: way because they've lived and learned in ways that many
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: of us can't possibly imagine, living in the amazing country.
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: That we do.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: I love that. I have one, too. I'll give it
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: to you. One simple word.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: Unity.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Because veterans, they have to learn how to work together.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: There's no other option. Because if you don't, you're dead.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: And I think that that is, in the military.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: In war, in combat, Everybody's an American, and that's all
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: you are. You're an American. It's not left, right, black, white, gay, straight,
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: any of that. It is, that's an American.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: That's my fucking teammate. And we have a job to do,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: and we're going to get it done. And all of
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: our differences, we can sort that shit out later, but
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: we have to get the job done.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: And that takes unity, and that's something that this country's losing.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: And that's something that they could take from the veteran population.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: I totally agree.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Unity.
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: I totally agree.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: All right, Sean, last question.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: Wrapping it up here.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: What advice do you have for active duty members who
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: are getting ready to get out?
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: Your identity as a warrior will be something that, is
• 42:49
  Speaker 5: with you forever. But don't be afraid when you transition
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: to move on.
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think about my time in Afghanistan. It's
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: the first thing I think about when I wake up
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: and the last thing I think about when I go
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: to bed. And it's been that way for 20 freaking years.
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: Can you believe it's been 20 years since I've been
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: in that country? So your experiences will always be a
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: part of you. But I feel like sometimes vets get
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: stuck in that rut of just their singular identity of
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: who they were when they were in. Don't be afraid
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: to grow and move beyond it. To take the good
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: and the bad to help inform who you become after.
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: And what's.
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: So critically important is to never lose that sense of mission.
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: When you get out, that's the thing. When you're in,
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: you always have a mission. You always know what you're doing.
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: You know, when you get out, sometimes you feel lost.
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: You don't have a mission anymore. But so if you're
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: thinking of transition, always make sure that you have somewhere
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: on the horizon that you're looking and you're watching and
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: you're marching to. You have a mission. You know, find
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: ways to serve your community. Find things that you're passionate
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: about and get involved.
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: Get involved.
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: Like run for office. State, local, federal level, run for office.
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: This country would be better if we had more veterans
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: serving on the Hill. Stay involved in the direction of
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: your country, but have a mission.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: You know, that's the other thing.
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: MacArthur gave that speech, you know, old soldiers never die,
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: they just fade away.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: Don't fade away.
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: Do not put your boots and your uniform in the
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: closet and just fade away. Stay involved in the direction
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: of your country. Your country needs you. America is the
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: brightest beacon of freedom the world has ever known. And
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: the people who truly understand what freedom is are those
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: who've had to fight for it. And this country desperately
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: needs you. So stay involved.
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: Have a mission. America needs you.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: Thank you. So new seasons of life.
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: New seasons of life.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: You know, I would, you're taking all my answers. I am?
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: You've thrown some good ones back.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I got a contingency plan. But it's something that the
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: civilian population could take.
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: But, you know, I would say, and we were talking
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: about this backstage too, you know, and I'm guilty of this.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: A lot of veterans carry around a lot of resentment.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: about their service. They get pissed.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: They see furniture sales. They see free dinners at Applebee's.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: They see all that shit. They don't think thank you
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: for your service means anything. They don't think it comes
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: from the heart. You have to drop that resentment. And
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: you have to remember why you signed up. And you
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: signed up to defend the country. You signed up so
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: that everybody didn't have to do that. Because if we
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: were all walking around with these invisible scars, This place
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: would be probably the most miserable place in the world.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: But you have to remember, you know, you picked up
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: that sword so somebody else didn't have to. Maybe that
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: somebody else was your wife or your mom or your
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: dad or your kids. But it was so that not
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: everybody had to do that. And you have to keep
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: that in mind because resentment will kill you.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: It will kill you. And so.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: You know, and you also have to think about civilians.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: You know, the thank you for your service thing. I mean,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: I get it. You know, it can feel out of touch.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: But you have to put yourself in their shoes.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: How do you thank somebody for fighting for 485 days straight,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: losing 30 friends, being wounded three times?
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: You can't. You can't do that. That's the hardest thing
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: to do.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: So just realize, you know, that when somebody does say
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: thank you for your service, they don't know how to
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: thank you for what you've done. There's nothing they could
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: do that equals what you've done. But at least they're trying,
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's all that matters. And be proud
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: of your service. Be proud of it.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: So, but Sean, that was a great discussion, man.
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: Thanks. Thank you, brother, for having me.
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: Happy Veterans Day.
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: Seriously, thank you. Thank you. Happy Veterans Day. Yes. Thanks, man.
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: Appreciate it.