Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Tracer Rounds Welcomes Dr Chrisanne Gordon

Transcript

Tracer Rounds Welcomes Dr Chrisanne Gordon · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:02
The station where our veterans voices are heard.
0:06
MBR talk. Hey folks, thanks for tuning in.
0:09
You're giving veterans a voice today.
0:11
Powered by Work Simple, where we simplify your mission.
0:15
Find us on the web at MB Radio dot.
0:19
Lock in every Tuesday 8:00 PM Eastern for Tracer rounds
0:23
targeting veteran resources. So I wonder why I like the like
0:26
chaos, like tracer rounds flying all around you.
0:29
That's why I've created the Tracer Rounds Podcast every
0:31
Tuesday at 8:00 PM Eastern. I help cut through the noise and
0:34
point veterans. Since. 2023.
0:37
To hear interviews with veteran artists, veteran business
0:40
owners, and businesses that support veterans, catch us on
0:45
Roku, Amazon Fire TV and MB Radio.
0:49
If you miss a show, you can listen again on Wreaths Across
0:53
America Radio every Wednesday at 3:00 PM Eastern TuneIn to see if
0:59
you are on target. MBR giving veterans a voice.
1:14
And welcome back to the Teresa Rounds podcast.
1:16
And I'm Terry, your host. And tonight's voice is to Doctor
1:20
Chris Ann Gordon. Welcome.
1:22
Hey thank you so much, it's so good to see you.
1:25
I love that intro too. Great intro.
1:28
Thank you, ma'am. It's great to have you on the
1:30
platform tonight. I know we've been working on
1:32
this interview for a little while, so can you tell us?
1:36
I obviously we know you're an MD, you're a doctor, you're a
1:39
medical doctor and you specialize.
1:42
Well, actually you are a medical director at a hospital, a local
1:46
hospital in your area, correct? Well, I was prior to that.
1:49
I now do the foundation full time.
1:52
It's a full time mission now, so that's what I'm doing.
1:56
And so tell us about your foundation and tell us about
1:59
what you're doing and why you started that.
2:01
I guess that's three questions all in one, and I apologize.
2:03
That's OK, I can take it from there.
2:05
It's not really a problem. The interesting thing is, you
2:09
know, I was had a special interest in traumatic brain
2:12
injury because nothing really takes you out of life like that.
2:17
I mean, if you can't think, you can't speak.
2:20
If your brain isn't working, there's not much you can do.
2:23
You are definitely helpless. So, you know, I was on that kind
2:27
of service for off and on for several years.
2:30
And then I was a major klutz putting up Christmas decorations
2:35
and and I had my own traumatic brain injury, which is not at
2:39
all due to courage like our our veterans, our guardians, not at
2:42
all due to that, but just due to being very clumsy.
2:45
But I was, you know, loss of consciousness for maybe 20
2:49
minutes, thirty minutes and two years getting back.
2:53
I mean, I'm not kidding. It was basically my head hit the
2:56
brick wall when I was pushing stuff in was just that
2:59
interesting. But in retrospect, Terry, I've
3:03
got to tell you that was a very life altering moment and and LED
3:09
me on this journey because what I found trying to come out of my
3:13
own traumatic brain injury is that everything that we were
3:16
doing for younger people with brain injuries was wrong because
3:21
what we were primarily doing was treating them as if they had a
3:24
stroke and it was an older brain.
3:26
OK. So the techniques that you used
3:29
to get it back were very different, as I found out
3:31
myself, because I basically used my little Apple team Apple
3:37
computer at the time to get my voice back to kind of hear
3:40
things and then try to mimic it. So when you talk about being a
3:44
voice for veterans, I've got to tell you I've done it from day
3:48
one when I got when I voiced back.
3:51
It was a very interesting moment and one of those epiphanies that
3:57
I'm going to need to use this going forward for more than I'm
4:00
using it up till now. You know what I mean?
4:03
And it was about four or five months later that a friend of
4:07
mine lost their son in in Iraq. And that then became my voice.
4:11
But it was just when I talked to our veterans, when I see them,
4:17
you know, if you've had a brain injury, you recognize that far
4:21
away look, you know that look that's just not quite grasping
4:24
it but trying to fake it because that's what I saw in the mirror
4:27
for about 6 months. Do you know what I mean?
4:29
So I'm blessed to have had that and blessed to have found
4:34
something to do with it. When I, when I talked to, to our
4:38
veterans and I say, well, I, I, I don't have any of the
4:41
mechanisms you do. I was not at war.
4:43
I was not being brave. I wasn't doing something
4:45
courageous. But I do know what it's like to
4:48
be in that fog. So it it gives us at least a
4:51
talking point. Very good.
4:53
So you did some studies on TBIS on the Afghanistan veterans at
5:00
the VA, right? Well, we did.
5:03
We weren't able to do it at the VA, so, but I understand what
5:08
you talk about. So my tour of duty at the VA,
5:10
let's talk about that first and then we'll talk about the
5:13
studies, 'cause that's kind of the chronological order.
5:15
OK. So, you know, I said a friend of
5:18
mine lost her son in in Iraq and I didn't know what to do.
5:23
But the grief like that was the first time that I first hand
5:27
witnessed, you know, the loss. I mean, the loss of a young
5:34
person who had just turned 20 years old, you know, it, it's
5:37
not the loss of a life that and I'm every life is worth it.
5:41
Don't give me, but it's a loss of an entire future, you know,
5:44
of what could have been, you know, and when I noticed that
5:48
and I said, well, I've got to do something to ease their
5:51
suffering or, or to make something out of this.
5:55
So I called up the nearest VA. Now, here's the thing.
5:59
I don't know if you've tried calling VAS before the past, but
6:02
this is the only time that somebody picked it up.
6:05
Yeah, that's amazing. This was back in 2000 and, and
6:10
eight OK and somebody picked it up on the third ring and I told
6:13
them, you know how to say I'm a physician.
6:15
I want to do something in Zachary's honor.
6:18
His name, Zachary McBride was his name Sergeant in the US Army
6:23
went into a booby troop booby trap house and all of the troops
6:26
around him. There were actually 7 casualties
6:29
that day from that. So it was kind of to honor all
6:33
of them and all of their families.
6:34
And right away, why that Lady says, oh, let me put you in line
6:38
with our director. I think, oh, my golly.
6:41
So this is exactly how it happened.
6:43
The director gets on the phone. He goes, Doctor Gordon, a great,
6:47
you know, very spiritual Filipino physician who was
6:50
there, thought a lot of veterans.
6:51
He goes, you are the answer to my prayers.
6:54
I just finished a Naveena this morning.
6:56
And they're like, I don't know what's coming, but I know it's
7:00
not what I was expecting and what he was saying.
7:04
So Terry, that was back in 2008 when they were just starting the
7:09
second level traumatic brain injury screening.
7:12
And would I, you know, come to the VA and do those.
7:15
I go, well, I do know something of your screening and I do know
7:18
something of traumatic brain injury, but I, I can't come work
7:22
for you because I have a practice and you know, I, I work
7:26
a lot at that practice, but I can volunteer for you if you'll
7:30
take me as a volunteer for a, a couple times a month.
7:32
And somehow we worked that out and, and, and that's what I did.
7:36
So for a year, a few times a month, I would go in from 7:00
7:40
in the morning till 4:00 in the afternoon, do the second level
7:43
traumatic brain injury screenings.
7:45
And I really want to give a shout out to every single young
7:50
hero I call them. I know they hate being called
7:52
heroes. A veteran who came into my
7:54
office because I learned something with every single one
7:58
of them. You know, something different.
8:00
Something different that happened.
8:02
So at the end of a year, the VA decided I was diagnosing too
8:08
many with traumatic brain injury and called me up to my director
8:12
who had kind of brought me in, was no longer there, you know,
8:16
and they brought me in. And I remember this day so well
8:18
because there's like 8 Vietnam vets behind me said, oh, doc,
8:21
you're in trouble now. We'll be right outside the door.
8:24
If you need us, just call, you know, it's something.
8:26
And they, they went by my statistics, 85% of the people
8:31
I've seen had, I mean, bone. I mean, the average number,
8:36
Terry was 8. I went up as high as one young
8:40
boy had 32. He was 22 years old with 32
8:45
different either blast, RPG, rocket, propelled grenade or, or
8:49
heavy, you know, artillery. I mean, it was really something.
8:53
So I said I'm just diagnosing the ones that have it.
8:55
And my results are 85%, which are the same that the, the
9:00
Cleveland VA was getting, you know, the the Stokes VA, which
9:03
is really a good VA. Well, no, they were going to
9:06
have to, you know, get rid of me.
9:07
And I used a line from Seinfeld, but I just, but I don't really
9:11
work here. And that's what they got.
9:13
We don't know how to get rid of you.
9:15
We thought you would just leave. And I said, well, is there
9:18
anybody on my schedule? Cause usually they schedule
9:21
three months ahead. And they said, well, yeah, we
9:23
have, you know, three months. I said, well, I'm sticking.
9:26
I'm sticking till the last person you have scheduled is
9:30
here because that's on my list now.
9:32
You know, we have to do that. And I said, and by the way, this
9:35
is not going to play well for us down the road because you know,
9:39
everybody there do that. I, I was an Irish Catholic and
9:43
they fired me on Saint Patrick's Day.
9:45
I mean, that's. My business.
9:46
And I sat there and I go, the irony of this, I can't ignore.
9:50
Do you know what I mean? I can't ignore.
9:52
So I took really good notes during those last three months
9:56
and finished up with all of the people I was supposed to see.
9:59
And then they gave me a little commendation letter and sent me
10:03
on my way. But what I was able to do,
10:06
again, I thank them for that opportunity because first of
10:10
all, I found so many different things in Ava hospital system
10:16
and in our civilian systems. And I've been in rural civilian
10:20
system and in the heartland and in the teaching hospital.
10:23
I've been to all those different venues.
10:25
But this was so different to me because I'm not used to calling
10:30
somebody by the last four digits of their Social Security number.
10:34
Right, it's a different world, isn't it?
10:36
I know it was very, very different.
10:38
I wasn't used to the kind of, what should I say, military
10:44
closure. I'm going to top this up.
10:47
I don't want to tell you because this may hurt you, you know, if
10:51
I tell you what really happened to me, this may bother you.
10:54
And, and it took me a while to get their confidence and say you
10:57
can hit me with anything. You know, I worked in an inner
11:00
City Hospital. I was on the trauma unit you and
11:03
I wasn't prepared for all of it. Trust me, I, I really wasn't
11:07
because the difference in inner city combat in the 20th and 21st
11:12
century is different than, you know, combat in Iraq and
11:17
Afghanistan, which you're like 3-4 centuries.
11:19
And some of those like places in Afghanistan where our guys are
11:23
talking about you're, you're back at a little village
11:26
culture, you know, and kind of the isolation of all that
11:32
realizing that, you know, here's where you were blown up in the
11:36
middle of nowhere. I, I, I have to give a shout out
11:39
to, you know, all of the medics, all of the corpsmen.
11:42
I mean, the things that people can do under pressure,
11:45
particularly young brains, you know, with, with a lot of
11:48
adrenaline can do are definitely life saving.
11:52
So that was kind of my pathway. And I will say the biggest thing
11:56
that I learned, Terry, at the VA was this.
12:00
When I had my traumatic brain injury, I couldn't speak.
12:04
I really couldn't see very well. It was kind of like seeing
12:07
underneath water, you know, kind of that boring, no focus, no
12:12
ability to focus. And I didn't have like any
12:15
feeling on the right side of my body.
12:16
So all this was going on and I had a normal MRI.
12:20
So get that? Wow, how does that happen?
12:24
I know that's what I thought too, even though I wasn't
12:27
thinking. Well, I kept thinking how did
12:28
that happen? But not, not one of my
12:31
colleagues, not one of the people in the ER questioned that
12:35
I was faking. So my call to action, my
12:39
personal call to action was when a patient of mine left their
12:43
Wall Street Journal in my office 1 morning and the headline, and
12:48
I believe this was like in 2007 said, you know, veterans coming
12:52
back from Iraq and Afghanistan, malingering, litigious, lot of
12:59
symptoms, normal Mris. And that that was my recruit.
13:03
That was my call to action. OK, I looked at that article.
13:07
I go, I don't know what's going to happen, but this means
13:11
something to me and I'm going to have to do something about it
13:13
when the time comes. So that's kind of what got me
13:16
started believing that the VA is the only system I know of where
13:20
patients have to prove that they've got an issue.
13:24
Now they've got a history that's horrific.
13:27
You know, I mean, I took histories in, like I said, in an
13:30
inner city and they were tough. But I never heard one like this
13:35
young boy said, well, you know, all I did was drown in the
13:39
Tigris River and I stopped. I go.
13:44
I never in my lifetime thought I would hear that as an opening,
13:48
you know, And he was one of the, the young veterans that I saw
13:54
that really pushed me down this pathway because he had drowned.
13:58
He wasn't eligible for services because he wasn't in combat and
14:03
he had had an anoxic brain injury, which is the worst when
14:06
the whole brain is devoid of oxygen for gosh knows how long.
14:09
I mean, he the story goes that Iraqi farmers got him out of the
14:13
water and then somebody else ran and got the troops who didn't
14:17
even know that he had been left behind.
14:19
So I was able, that's when I found out that our senators, our
14:24
US senators can really make a lot of difference when they put
14:27
their mind to it. You know, they're blessed in
14:30
Ohio. Senator Sherrod Brown and
14:32
Senator Rob Portman both took this on and and we were able to
14:35
make changes. So we're going to be making some
14:37
changes next year, too. We just have to see who gets in
14:41
this election. And it's going to stay put for
14:44
at least a few months, you know? Wow I'm curious you mentioned 1
14:52
soldier that had 32 traumatic brain experiences.
14:56
How in how in the world like and and was this over a very short
15:00
period of time? Or was this a length?
15:02
This was over 4 years, you know, but it was still, you know,
15:06
like, and, and I mean, you know, part of the thing was to name
15:10
them on you guys and some of them, you know, again, that I
15:15
had issue with the military and I think it were important were,
15:19
you know, rollovers of Jeeps or, you know, motor vehicle
15:22
accidents. I go, that's a motor vehicle
15:24
accident. You know, that's something that
15:28
you don't, you don't just brush off.
15:30
So he'd had three of those in the early part of the fighting.
15:34
I think the, the Hummers weren't, you know, like an IED
15:38
or little blacks would really overturn those vehicles after I
15:42
think it was four or five years after the wars were gone.
15:45
They, they redesigned the vehicles so they'd be, but there
15:48
were a lot of turnovers and, you know, just going down the
15:50
street, not even with an IED, you know, you hit a bad bump or
15:54
something and there goes the vehicle.
15:55
So three of his injuries were those.
15:58
So it, it was, it was pretty horrific to me to, to listen to
16:02
it. I couldn't believe he was
16:03
actually speaking and talking thing.
16:05
But he couldn't find his way around his small town in Ohio.
16:09
He didn't, There were no driving skills, mapping skills.
16:14
Those were all gone. You know, his ability to
16:17
remember things like you know, when you give them a few phrases
16:20
to remember that had gone by the wayside.
16:24
There were just a lot of, there were a lot of networks in his
16:28
brain that had been broken, had been shed, that needed to be
16:31
laid down and reconnected and that just hadn't been going on.
16:36
So. Is there a path to reconnecting
16:39
some of those? You know, the pathway that I
16:42
found for myself and now a lot of different places are doing,
16:46
you know, this kind of thing, not enough, but was, you know,
16:49
practice, practice, practice. OK, I know that sounds really
16:52
strange, but the difference between a traumatic brain injury
16:56
and like a fracture, because we, we hear those compared all the
16:59
time, is when you have a neuromuscular kind of thing,
17:03
primarily A musculoskeletal, I should say.
17:06
If your muscles or your your, your skeleton is affect, you get
17:10
a certain sense that this week you're better than last week and
17:14
the week after you're going to be better, particularly when
17:17
you're young and you're healthy and you're fit to begin with.
17:19
So there is that progression. What I found with my brain
17:23
injury is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing for
17:25
weeks, for weeks. And I tell my veteran sis that I
17:29
couldn't utter a sound, not a syllable for almost, I think 3
17:36
months until the day I could say a sentence.
17:41
It wasn't like it came back gradually.
17:43
It's like the entire pathway had to be connected, you know, So
17:47
the, the the nurse were growing out, growing out, growing out
17:50
until they connect to the end organ there.
17:53
My speech center. I couldn't say a thing.
17:56
Now, my speech was horrible for about another six months.
18:01
And I noticed it in a lot of our veterans, that stuttering.
18:04
You're you're trying to get out and and you just can't.
18:07
Or what was even worse for me, I'd be in the middle of a
18:10
sentence like this with you. And then just like, where was I?
18:14
What did I say? Yeah.
18:16
Could you help me? What was I thinking?
18:19
So I can think of how I finished that sentence, you know, and
18:22
that was much more common for me, and it was common for them,
18:25
too. So that particular speech
18:27
pattern I was able to tell, but I kept telling me you're not
18:31
going to get better until it all connects and then you will.
18:35
And something that I just did, and I've learned since then from
18:40
Doctor Lipton, I'll tell you about the study that he did for
18:43
us, Doctor Michael Lipton, who at that point in time was at
18:46
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.
18:48
Now he's in New York City proper.
18:51
So, and by proper, I mean, I'm trying to remember.
18:54
I believe he's at NYU, but he could be at Columbia.
18:57
And I'm afraid to say the wrong 1.
18:58
So I'll look it up next time. You know, I'll have that down
19:01
pat. I should remember, but I don't.
19:03
Anyhow, that being said, on that computer, I went over and over
19:09
the Gettysburg Address because we all learn it, you know, we
19:13
all have to memorize it. And it was far enough back that,
19:18
you know, you get your far away memory before your more recent
19:21
memory in a, in a brain injury that I thought that I may be
19:25
able to get some parts of it, you know, and and yet when I,
19:29
when I said my first sentence, I was reading a sentence that I
19:33
was so happy and literally it was C spot run.
19:38
And then I just burst into tears because I'm thinking, I can't
19:41
believe I'm so happy at such a low level milestone.
19:45
Do you know what? I mean, yeah, but I mean, but
19:48
it's, it's leaps and bounds from where you were, so.
19:50
Exactly. It is exactly.
19:52
And from that time forward, so that's what I keep telling them,
19:55
you know, wait till the time. So like this young boy that
19:58
could have find his way around and I should say young man,
20:01
because you know, after after you sign up on day one, you're
20:05
no longer a girl or a boy. You have graduated within 24
20:11
hours for sure. Probably on the bus ride in is
20:13
what I hear. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a truth
20:17
telling when you get on the ground at wherever basic
20:21
training site you're at because you realize you are not at home
20:24
anymore and you are in a whole different environment and you
20:27
better get used to it real quick or there's going to be a lot of
20:31
heartache for you coming up. Isn't that the truth?
20:34
It's just, it's just such a a hard thing to do that
20:40
particularly, and I say this a lot, particularly in these
20:44
times. And what I mean by that is, you
20:46
know, my father was in World War 2 and the difference between
20:51
some people in the cities and some people in the rural areas,
20:54
the biggest difference was the people in the rural areas knew
20:56
how to shoot and the people in the cities maybe did not.
21:00
OK, so there was that, but there was a much more level playing
21:06
field and everybody went to war. If you didn't go to war over
21:10
there, you were at war. Here you were making things.
21:13
It was an entire world. Now you have, you know, less
21:17
than 1% of our population goes into voluntary service and
21:23
you're really out there. And then you go to a war zone
21:27
that's not Europe. It's not the land of your
21:30
ancestors, it's not who founded our country.
21:33
It's an entirely different with an entirely different
21:36
topography. You know, I've seen some of the
21:42
footage from actual Afghanistan and you know, you look at those
21:46
mountains and they all look alike to me.
21:48
But if you grew up there and your livelihood was knowing what
21:52
rock was where so that you knew where you were placed, I mean,
21:56
that's advantage. You know, somebody out there
21:59
looking at you rather than you trying to find that it it it's a
22:03
very different thing. And I don't think that we the
22:06
civilians that 99% of us here. That's one of the reasons I want
22:11
to get the civilian world aware of these things and and help so
22:15
when somebody comes back, they don't just have to jump back
22:18
into the 21st century with the nobody giving them a pass for
22:24
like maybe not knowing on the college campus the first day
22:28
where the union is, you know what I mean?
22:31
Give them a pass, you know. Yeah, well, I mean, it is a
22:34
whole different. It's culture shock coming back,
22:37
it's culture shock going over there.
22:38
And then when you come back, it's the same because it's you
22:41
expect you're used to things the way they were over there.
22:44
You finally kind of got into the rhythm and understanding which
22:48
my life is. And then you get back over here
22:50
to the States and you're like, now I'm lost because I knew what
22:54
was expected of me and I and my buddy had my back.
22:57
And now my buddy don't have my back anymore.
22:59
I'm out of uniform. And now I'm trying to navigate
23:01
the civilian world and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing.
23:05
And, and the civilian world is so different now because I, I
23:11
remember, I, I worked in Marysville, OH, OK, that's the
23:15
hospital that I was at. And we had a lot of individuals
23:18
from Honda of America that was located there.
23:21
So a lot of workers, you know, and so our guys would come back
23:24
from the military. And I'll never forget the day
23:26
that there was just about 10 people on the line who decided
23:32
they would just leave. OK?
23:35
And it was a particular line, but they kept the line going by
23:37
the five veterans that were there because they weren't
23:41
leaving. You know, this was not something
23:43
they were going to. And it horrified them.
23:45
I mean, how could somebody leave their post?
23:49
You know what I mean? Like at least you you wait till
23:52
the end. And it was some fun thing that
23:54
was going on on a Friday afternoon.
23:56
They left at lunchtime so they 3 hours of their shifts.
24:00
But, you know, those are not things that settle well when
24:04
life and death depends on for a year or longer for you to be on
24:09
schedule, you know, everybody to be working on what they're
24:13
working on. And I mean that to me.
24:15
I, I said my, my best training was that I went to Catholic
24:18
school. You know, I mean, I was used to
24:20
a uniform. I was used to people in charge.
24:23
I was used to doing everything the same way.
24:25
Yeah. That was that was an easy,
24:28
easier thing for me than when I got into the world myself.
24:32
But you also are here in, what, a few days?
24:35
I mean, it's not like 3 months going over to Europe in World
24:40
War Two and three months coming back.
24:43
It's much more, you know, it it, it's so quick and and you're
24:49
supposed to adjust that quickly. And I think the first time we
24:51
saw that was with Vietnam and those four guys who couldn't
24:56
even say that they served in the military because there was so
24:59
much anti war, you know, protesting and, and feelings
25:05
that it was really very difficult.
25:06
So I say that my whole education has with dealing with our
25:12
veterans, our guardians that we'll talk about has come from
25:15
the, the Vietnam era and from this young group of the global
25:19
war terror, Iraq and Afghanistan.
25:22
And I take, I actually take some offense to the greatest
25:28
generation being World War 2. I said they had everybody in the
25:32
world behind them, let's not say who served better than anybody
25:36
else. I mean, I think that each of
25:39
these conflicts have had their own set of major difficulties to
25:43
overcome, both going there and coming back.
25:46
And everybody needs to be honored as, you know, the
25:49
saviors, the guardians of our way of life.
25:54
You know, I appreciate that you said that because, you know, I
25:56
feel the same way too. I mean, I think the World War 2
25:59
veterans and, and prior, you know, they, they had a very hard
26:02
war to fight because the tools they had to do their job were
26:06
not as advanced as what we have. And so, you know, they were very
26:10
brave to do what they did and to have succeeded in what they what
26:15
they did on the battlefield. But you know, the other wars
26:19
too, we've succeeded and we've done things.
26:21
And, you know, the way we fight is a little bit different.
26:24
I mean, it's the same but different.
26:25
We've got different tools and different things in our hip
26:28
pockets now to make a difference in the war.
26:31
So, I mean, we may have had a little easier in our generation
26:35
as far as the things we had at our disposal to use the
26:38
helicopters and the drones and, you know, all the Rockets and
26:43
missiles and things that weren't something that World War Two
26:46
would have or even Vietnam would have for that matter.
26:49
So I really appreciate that you said that because there are some
26:53
heroes that have gone over and done some amazing things and
26:57
brought back people back to the States that otherwise if they
27:01
hadn't been there and. And.
27:04
Absolutely that they wouldn't have come home.
27:06
The, the heroism that they just brush off, you know, that
27:11
everybody just, you know, brush off.
27:13
I, I, I could not believe I was, I'm in awe of them and I, I will
27:18
tell you that every person that I talked to, including yourself.
27:21
So I am in awe of your patriotism, which goes beyond
27:27
it. It is, you know, I will not just
27:30
clap at a, you know, at, at a 4th of July parade for the 250th
27:36
birthday. I won't just do that.
27:38
I'm going to volunteer my life for this nation.
27:40
And that is not happening now. You know, you're, you are the 1%
27:45
of the country that's doing that.
27:46
And I applaud you for that. We wouldn't be able to make it
27:49
without you. And actually, I've learned from
27:52
dealing with you all that we are like the people who go in
27:57
everywhere in the world. I mean, there's so many parts of
28:00
the world where our military is right now that we don't even
28:03
know about where it's keeping peace and keeping things under
28:07
wraps for, for totally different, you know, folks than
28:11
than us. And and I appreciate that about
28:13
you all. You know, my head's off to
28:16
everyone that's gone overseas and done the things they've done
28:19
and, and, and people who serve in general.
28:21
You know, I, I consider myself walking among heroes myself.
28:25
So. Oh wow, I understand what you're
28:27
saying. Oh I I consider myself just
28:29
learning and being in awe of them.
28:31
That that is for sure. Absolutely.
28:34
So were you a doctor when this happened?
28:37
Oh, yeah, I was. I mean, I've been out of medical
28:40
school for about 20 years. And like I said, I was just so
28:44
shocked. I actually kept the journal,
28:46
Terry. And I'm so mad at myself for
28:48
throwing it away, you know, because I couldn't really think.
28:52
And I sat there and I go, man, I better, you know, write.
28:56
But I could have, I could write a few little words and stuff.
28:59
But it looked like what when I finally came back about, it was
29:03
a year later. And I looked at this journal.
29:06
It looked like something that a preschooler may have tried, you
29:10
know, And it's bothered me look at.
29:12
But I should have just, you know, put it away somewhere and
29:14
come back to it because I think it could have helped in, you
29:17
know, kind of the progression as I was.
29:20
So yeah, I was. And I was stunned by how much I
29:25
lost on my hard drive. You know, I, I, I, the, the
29:29
brain, I, I tell my guys, I go, OK, it isn't an organ.
29:33
It's a computer. Consider it your computer and a
29:36
bunch of your hard drive has gone down and we're not getting
29:39
that back. OK, we can try to rebuild some
29:42
of it. But what Doctor Lipton had
29:44
taught us is you take the part of your brain that's working and
29:48
you work that and work that and work that.
29:50
And that's what I did unknowingly because I, my left
29:54
brain wasn't working. I couldn't speak where the, you
29:57
know, speech center is, but also I couldn't do like the science
30:00
and math that I love, I couldn't do.
30:03
But I started maybe 3 months into it, just dabbling with my
30:08
pen and writing poetry and shocked the daylight out of me.
30:12
Where did that come from? Oh my gosh, you know, I, I, I
30:16
was not the arts and scientists, I was only the sciences, you
30:19
know, like what, where did that come from?
30:21
But in doing that, it actually helped bring my speech back,
30:25
which is in the left side of the brain, which actually helped
30:28
bring back a little bit of my math.
30:29
I, my, my great math brain. And I hate to say great, but it
30:33
was, I loved math. I would do you know, why would
30:36
do complex math just to calm down because I it was so pure
30:40
Terry. You know, there's a right and
30:42
there's a wrong. There's no Gray zone, right.
30:46
So yeah, that was that was my my journey back.
30:49
So I should get around to the doctor Lipton study.
30:53
So here we are. You know, I'm at the VAI, see
30:56
85% of these things, but nobody was talking about it.
31:00
You know, the Rand Corporation, by that time, Terry Tenilion,
31:03
who I just adore, you know, had done some major studies and came
31:07
out, yes, this is the signature wound of these wars at 20 to
31:11
25%, which is now up to nearly 1 million, up to nearly 1,000,000
31:18
men and women who served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan
31:22
are struggling every day with something going on with their
31:25
brain that wasn't before. And that's what we need to take
31:27
pay attention to. But Doctor Lipton agreed to do a
31:32
study with the diffusion tensor imaging, the new MRI, the MRI
31:37
that didn't show just gross abnormalities, but those
31:41
pathways we were talked about could actually show the ribs in
31:43
the pathways could actually show what part of the brand.
31:47
And I really had to look for somebody because this is kind of
31:50
controversial. This is gutsy.
31:52
I'm saying I'm going to get you. You know, we we could only
31:55
afford 22 veterans. And by the time all of our
31:58
fundraising. And thank you shout out to Anne
32:00
Betts post 26 in Mansfield, OH, that did much of the heavy
32:03
lifting here. We got 22 veterans and their age
32:07
match sibling as close as we could, male sibling.
32:09
These are all males because the female brain is different and
32:12
reacts different for sure. So and got them to Albert
32:16
Einstein for a battery of studies including that.
32:20
And at the end of that study, what Doctor Lipton had proven is
32:25
that 80% of the brains not only had damage from an IED blast,
32:32
but in the same three areas now. So that study was kind of, you
32:38
know, nobody really wanted to talk about that study, you know,
32:41
that that's only 22 I go, but it's 80% and same three years.
32:46
To me, that's no coincidence. That's definitely not.
32:50
Yeah. So it wasn't for several more
32:53
years that because we did our study in 2014, it was like 4
32:57
years later when they, the government actually kind of, I
33:01
think did these studies, you know, because they had to,
33:04
because there had been a couple, you know, we were the first and
33:07
then there was a couple that came after that and they were
33:10
all small and, and then it proved that yes, it is
33:14
something. And once they made that
33:18
statement that this was a signature wound of the war, I
33:21
thought everything would be fine.
33:23
But it was not. That did not lead to a massive
33:28
call backs for, you know, the first, the first ten, you know,
33:32
10 years of being a God. That wasn't, Yeah, no, but it
33:36
was, it was eye opening to me how slow government processes
33:42
are because in the civilian world, particularly in
33:44
healthcare, you know, you got to be fast at changing or you lose
33:48
your patients, you lose your clients, they go elsewhere.
33:51
They go to the the hospital down the street with the the next
33:54
best thing. Right, the new technology.
33:57
The newest treatment? Methods and yes, absolutely.
34:01
So that was another, you know, eye opener there.
34:04
But that's how we got that that started.
34:07
Yeah, well, for veterans, if if they're only Healthcare is the
34:10
VA, you know, they're kind of subject to whatever the VA
34:13
decides. If they decide they'll treat
34:15
this thing, then they'll get treatment.
34:16
If they won't, they won't or they will have to find it
34:19
elsewhere. And some will go get it and some
34:21
will not because some of them don't have the resources to go
34:24
get it, their own insurance because they're not unemployable
34:28
or whatever the case may be. You know they're.
34:31
They're depending on the VA to be responsible for war wounds
34:36
and for, you know, things that have happened in service and,
34:39
and, and to admit these things happen in service because for
34:43
the longest time they, they wouldn't admit to PTSD as a
34:46
diagnosis, any of this stuff. And then they said that there's
34:50
a lot of connection between a traumatic brain injury and maybe
34:54
tinnitus or sleep apnea or some of these other things.
34:57
That. Kind of connected and their
34:59
comorbidities, if you want to call them that, to this injury
35:03
because it's relatable, because the traumatic brain injury is
35:08
the Nexus. That's what happened.
35:10
Correct. Causing all these other
35:13
symptoms. I guess that's what the better
35:15
word is, symptoms that people are.
35:16
Experiencing, well, they're, they're actually not even
35:18
symptoms, they're actually pathology.
35:20
So I mean that and, and some things like sleep apnea, sleep
35:23
apnea can lead to cardiac arrhythmias to, you know, just
35:29
died in your sleep kind of stuff.
35:31
I mean, it's a serious issue. So this is a good segue into why
35:35
now that we've done all of that back, back story, now we're
35:41
talking about what going on right now.
35:42
And So what we said is we kind of, I had to get in there and
35:46
see the problem, Then we had to prove the problem.
35:49
Now we're going to change the way that things are done.
35:52
So I do have a copy of the book. Can I just hold it up?
35:56
Yes. Please, I brought So this is the
35:59
book that we just released, guarding our guardians,
36:01
guaranteeing America's veterans a future from deployment to
36:05
employment. Because here's what we're
36:07
stopping. I don't know how any citizen of
36:13
our nation can live with the fact that we've had 7071 hundred
36:18
deaths in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're coming up
36:23
on 35,000 deaths by suicide in our veterans after they return
36:29
home. Let's think about that.
36:32
I mean, you're talking a 5 to 1 ratio, a death by suicide, death
36:39
in combat, and that's on us. I say that is absolutely on the
36:44
civilian world. We are 99% of the resources.
36:48
We are 99% of the population. We can't expect this 1% to be
36:54
even. Many leave, you know, in high
36:56
school or at the end of their college, whatever.
36:59
Even if they go to West Point, they end at the end of that.
37:02
They're they're out there. You know, it's not like they've
37:04
been at home for a while. They know how to balance a
37:08
budget at home. They know how to write checks.
37:10
You know, all of these things in like, they put their lives on
37:13
hold. But when they come back, I've
37:18
sat there and listened to that transition program, your TAP
37:21
program. I've seen the angst in people's
37:25
face with the PowerPoint after PowerPoint after PowerPoint, I
37:28
said. Death by PowerPoint is what we
37:30
say. What do you say?
37:31
We say death by PowerPoint. I mean, seriously, I mean,
37:34
that's so crazy. So I said, I, I've seen that
37:36
what we need to do is to allow some kind of AD boot camp, some
37:43
kind of a, a downtime where you're still paid under the
37:47
military to figure out what your next step is.
37:52
Are you going to go to school? Do you want to go to a trade
37:55
school? Where are you going to land?
37:57
What is your healthcare right now?
37:59
What will you need? None of those problems are
38:01
figured out. I, I found out and this is
38:04
really true and it, and it bothered me that so many of the
38:08
young men and women I talked to in Ohio and elsewhere were
38:11
discharged with a handful of cash and a handful of Oxycontin.
38:15
And that was their plan. And I go, this cannot be.
38:20
Yeah. That's not particularly if
38:21
somebody's had 32 or 8 or 17 blast injuries to go, OK, now
38:27
just work your way back home. I got news for you.
38:29
They've never been home. They went from high school or
38:32
college there, most of them. I mean, that's not that's not
38:36
ever being here. So the what we're talking about
38:39
in guarding our guardians is first of all, change the
38:41
narrative. I am so tired, Terry, of people
38:44
saying to me, oh, you work with veterans.
38:45
Well, I support veterans. And I said, well, what is it
38:47
exactly you do? And there's this you.
38:51
Made me do something. I said I like them.
38:54
Isn't that enough? Well.
38:55
I support that exactly might be written to your congressman.
38:59
Are you reading what's going on with them?
39:01
Did you hire, you know, a guardian for your job?
39:04
What what sort of thing are you doing besides going to a parade
39:07
and cheering beside, you know, clapping when they were coming
39:10
home? That's not I mean, that's better
39:13
than spitting like in the Vietnam War, I'll give you that.
39:16
But that's not enough. And I think that the problem is
39:19
not with the the civilian world, it's with the civilian world not
39:22
knowing. And I will tell you so much of
39:25
this. I didn't know either.
39:27
And what I'm asking for is the three pathways, healthcare,
39:31
education, employment. This is a call to action for our
39:35
United States of America to reunite everybody.
39:39
And let's work on this issue because these are the leaders
39:42
who volunteered their lives, our freedom.
39:44
They are the ones who are going to make our communities, our
39:47
states, our nation stronger. We can't allow that brainpower,
39:51
that courage, that experience to die by their own hands when they
39:57
return home. That is totally on us.
40:00
So that's what this this book is all about.
40:03
And we have experts from throughout the nation, many
40:07
military, you know, the the education piece we we talk
40:11
about, you know, schools like the Ohio State University, where
40:16
a Colonel, retired Colonel of the US Air Force, Mike Carroll,
40:19
put together a military and veterans.
40:23
It's it's own services and everybody in campus had to know
40:26
where it was, who it was, and when they needed to contact
40:29
them. And he got that done.
40:31
And my alma mater, Duquesne University, which is so Ohio
40:36
State, the Ohio State is enormous.
40:38
Duquesne is a, a a lot smaller than that mid size.
40:43
And we had a, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force who
40:46
put it together for my alma mater, the same thing.
40:48
Get veterans first of all, together in their own space.
40:52
You know, don't have somebody arrive on campus with no space
40:56
to go. You know, and and I mean, people
41:01
don't mean this to be as cruel as it is, but if you start
41:04
asking what was the worst thing you did over there?
41:06
What did you see? No, you don't say that.
41:09
You little, you know, teeny bopper who hasn't lived through
41:13
life and death for a year. You know, you don't get to make
41:16
that conversation. I'm sorry.
41:18
You need to know more first. So I think that that's been very
41:22
helpful. I think that's great that, you
41:26
know, that they're trying to build a community for veterans
41:29
because that is the problem. When people return from service,
41:33
they lose that connectivity to the people that supported them
41:36
and had their back. And so when they're out there on
41:39
their own, they're like, now what?
41:41
But all the you know, the the structure they had is right.
41:46
I'm structured now. And so you kind of and
41:49
especially if you have a traumatic brain injury too and.
41:51
You. Lost and, you know, in the the
41:55
realm of what's real and what's not and how my brain is
41:58
functioning and what I'm able to do and not do.
42:00
I mean, it's really is a loss of a lot of things and it's you
42:05
flounder and then that's at what point that they're like, well,
42:08
why am I here? Exactly.
42:09
Or worse, Why am I here? What's going on?
42:12
Yes. You know, in the book I give
42:14
examples of veterans who contacted me and, you know, some
42:20
of the veterans who were struggling in a school because
42:22
they didn't have any direction and were probably put in a
42:26
program that they shouldn't have been.
42:28
I mean, I don't know. I don't know why a medic and a
42:33
Navy corpsman on the Marine side who had two tours of duty would
42:38
not have been encouraged to go into sciences that he loved.
42:42
You know, why the history degree, Where did that come
42:45
from? You know, this is what I'm
42:46
saying. We need a plan here, people.
42:48
You know, when, when a secretary Robert Dole was at the 8th
42:52
secretary of the VA. And by the way, he did, you
42:55
know, give us a little blurb in here as well.
42:57
He now, he now is CEO of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation for
43:01
Caregivers. But you know, when he was at
43:03
that, we, our, our foundation had a letter from him that said
43:07
that any veteran who called me and was struggling, and I've had
43:11
calls now from vets from 29 states.
43:13
It's, you know, it's not just Ohio from 29, but they get a
43:17
copy of this letter and they get their VA appointment within two
43:19
weeks. That made all the difference in
43:22
the world. You're not calling me.
43:24
Hang up, call and hang up call. No, you get that appointment and
43:27
somebody cares and somebody talks to you.
43:30
So the healthcare there has to be a plan for healthcare.
43:34
We've got 44% of our vets are now in rural areas.
43:37
There may be a VA, there may not be a VA, there may be nobody
43:41
there who's ever looked at a traumatic brain injury in their
43:44
whole career. You know, we need to make those
43:47
connections before they leave. And lastly, if people are going
43:52
into employment, you know, we talk about the different
43:55
employment initiatives. For instance, one in Marysville,
43:58
IN kind of in unison with the Honda dealership there, a
44:03
gentleman by the name of Bruce Daniels developed a training
44:07
program, put a veteran from Iraq in charge, OK, he was a tanker,
44:12
put him in charge of this training program and it's to
44:15
train them to work on Honda vehicles with all of the
44:18
computer notion of that. Now, what he does is they don't
44:21
just come and have to work someplace else and learn here.
44:27
He pays them fifty $60,000 to learn through this 2 three-year
44:33
program and then if they join on with him and outservices think
44:39
they are guaranteed an $80,000 a year job.
44:42
Now come on, that's the kind of future that somebody who offered
44:45
their lives for you deserves. Every single one of them should
44:48
have some pathway when they leave and we, the civilian
44:52
world, need to make sure they stay on it.
44:55
Wow, that's amazing. I mean, I, I applaud anybody
44:59
who's putting together those types of programs and and you're
45:02
putting together this type of program through your resources.
45:05
So so the mission of resurrecting Lies Foundation is.
45:11
You know what? What?
45:12
We are here to serve the veterans of the Global War on
45:15
Terror who struggle with traumatic brain injury.
45:17
So our first part was awareness. Our second part was trying to
45:22
get some political clout to get a few basic laws written.
45:28
You know, particularly when it dealt with suicide prevention,
45:31
mention traumatic brain injury. It is a risk factor, you know, a
45:35
huge risk factor. So we were able to get that
45:38
first. So Jacob Sexton Suicide
45:39
Prevention Act by Senator Joseph Donnelly included TBI for the
45:43
first time. So we were able to do that.
45:45
Now we're going to do this. And I want to mention because
45:48
you said you are based in Texas, Texas is already leading the
45:52
back. I just got back from Austin, TX
45:54
a couple weeks ago where we had a guarding our Guardians day at
45:58
the Statehouse lawn and a Senator Juan Hinojosa who was a
46:03
distinguished Marine, 2 tours of duty in Vietnam, you know, at
46:08
the Vietnam monument on the statehouse grounds.
46:11
You know, we had our guarding our Guardians moment and they
46:15
already have two different pilot programs that they're working on
46:18
to get bills paid for the smooth transition.
46:21
The all important thing right now is we the civilian world
46:26
call to action, get a smooth transition from military over
46:30
here to civilian here because it it's going to it's going to take
46:33
all of us and let these people who are used to leading lead,
46:37
you know. Right.
46:39
Give us a job and we'll do it. Yes, it's true.
46:42
It's true. So why did you call the boat
46:45
guarding our guardians? Oh, OK, so this is it.
46:48
I got so tired. Like I said, there is a Colonel
46:52
I met at Fort Bragg. Colonel risted.
46:55
And Colonel risted. Every time I would say
46:57
something, he goes. Words matter.
46:59
Words matter, Chrisanne, you you choose your words wisely.
47:03
I got Okie dokie. You know, I've learned that from
47:06
him. And then I started thinking how
47:08
easily people let veterans just lie off their tongue.
47:11
Oh, I support veterans. Oh, I love veterans.
47:13
Oh veteran, what are they really?
47:16
I wanted to come up with what do they stand for?
47:20
So I'm here in Ohio. I am a Cleveland Guardians fan
47:25
for sure. My Cleveland Guardians wear red,
47:29
white and blue on their uniforms every single day.
47:31
And they were renamed from the Indians to the Guardians based
47:35
on a bridge, OK Bridge in in Cleveland, where there is a
47:39
Native American sculptor on one side and a Native American.
47:42
So from the time you get on the bridge to the time you're
47:45
guarded, these are Guardians. And I thought that's what we're
47:49
trying to do. We're trying to bridge the
47:51
civilian world to the military world and vice versa.
47:55
So there's a scene. There's something to question.
47:57
You don't have to go through a minefield.
47:59
You can actually cross a bridge. And we need to have the American
48:03
people, myself included, I didn't know that.
48:06
They have to know that without our military, without them
48:13
coming back as our guardians, we don't have rights.
48:17
We don't have the the freedoms that we all enjoy.
48:21
And I'm thinking if we can get more people saying that, maybe
48:25
they'll really realize, OK, these are guardians, so we will
48:27
guard them. That's what our charge is
48:29
guarding our guardians. That's our charge.
48:32
We're there to guard them. But that was my Cleveland
48:34
guardians. A little shout out there.
48:36
Oh, I've got to tell you this, Terry, this is so funny.
48:39
I just love, I just love the veterans that everyone of them
48:42
and each one has a different voice, that's for sure.
48:45
But the one young man who was very deflated when I first and
48:49
gratefully so traumatic brain injury has to prove it himself,
48:52
You know, come on, come on. You know we're going to end that
48:55
too. You, you shouldn't have to prove
48:56
it. And every person who leaves
48:59
their military should get a jump drive of their entire medical
49:02
record to take to wherever they want to take it.
49:04
That's one of the tenants that we have in here.
49:06
We've got to do this. But this I cannot go.
49:09
Listen, I said, I said you don't know me that well, but I won't
49:12
give up on you. I trust me.
49:14
I know this is a good thing. But you know, we're in this
49:16
together now. I will not get off you.
49:18
We will get this traumatic brain injury both diagnosed correctly
49:22
and treated. And he looked at me and goes,
49:24
you know, I'm beginning to believe that he goes, why?
49:26
He goes, well, you know, you're from Ohio and you still cheer
49:29
for the Guardians and the Browns, so you don't give up
49:31
easily. You got a point.
49:38
You got a point. You know, Although I will tell
49:40
you, I did come to both Super Bowl parades in Dallas for sure.
49:45
I really loved, I loved Dallas. I came down there first to stuff
49:48
envelopes for Ross Perot. You're really busy doing, doing
49:56
all kinds of work, and I don't think anyone could ever say that
49:58
you aren't involved or engaged if you put your money where your
50:01
mouth is. I mean well.
50:02
I try. As a.
50:03
Saying goes, you know, if we could all do that, we wouldn't
50:07
have problems to solve. You know, I mean this.
50:10
These are really easy steps. Get a plan.
50:14
That's an easy step everybody should have.
50:16
You get a plan when you go from kindergarten to 1st grade, for
50:19
heaven's sakes. You know, educational plan,
50:22
there's something in place. Exactly.
50:24
Exactly. And then you get this, and then
50:26
this and this. Right, It's not rocket science,
50:29
it's not expensive, it's just common sense and and caring,
50:33
compassion and placing healing and honor together.
50:38
You know, we want to give you this chance to succeed because
50:43
you've helped us, you know, avoid the fray for so long.
50:47
And all of my success, like I said, everything that I owe on
50:51
on the backs of all of the the military members who came
50:54
before, for sure. Wow.
50:58
So if someone wants to order the book, it would be at the
51:03
resurrecting lives.org/books is the way.
51:06
They can just order it there, but the best place is probably
51:09
Amazon. Although I will say that
51:12
sometimes they redirect you to another author whose name is
51:16
Chris Ann, who does sci-fi fiction.
51:21
One more Look, I've got the wrong book.
51:23
Yes, Doctor, is this really what you meant to write?
51:27
And I'm thinking he's talking about, look, I go, yes, he goes,
51:30
did you really mean to write it that way?
51:32
I go, yeah, he goes, well, I just didn't get any starts
51:35
talking something about this sci-fi.
51:36
I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out.
51:38
Wait a minute. That's right.
51:39
Let me show this again. You can find out how to order it
51:42
too on our website resurrectinglies.org at the
51:45
books. And we also, like I said on
51:47
Amazon is another place and we are going to be having various
51:51
events around the nation like we had San Diego for California,
51:55
Austin, TX for Texas, the Texas being the number one veterans
51:59
population, California #2 we're going to be having them in Ohio
52:02
and Pennsylvania, kind of the top 10 within the first few
52:06
months of releasing this. And then our March to DC in
52:10
March, National Traumatic Brain Injury Month next year in 2027.
52:14
Oh, nice, yes, we, we all need to get engaged with that.
52:17
Like you said, you got to, you know, you actually got to put
52:20
your foot forward and do something, you know, saying you
52:24
support and, and actually supporting our two different
52:28
actions, One's one's, one's something is something you say
52:31
to be nice. I, I support that.
52:33
And then the other one is I'm actually supporting that.
52:36
Right, exactly. And like I said, I was just
52:37
thrilled with Texas. I was thrilled at San Diego, 100
52:42
year old captain, you know, Royce Williams of the USAV
52:48
finally got his mission over Korea declassified and had just
52:53
received the Medal of Honor when when we came for our book
52:58
launch. And he came and he said to
53:01
everybody, I read this in three days.
53:04
You all need to read it and we all need to do it.
53:06
And I thought at 100 years old, this man is there, you know, say
53:12
this makes sense, let's do this. So I, I told him, I said the
53:15
book reviews mean nothing after that.
53:17
You know, that's the best book review I can have.
53:20
You know, as you're saying for sure, yes.
53:23
And it's on our website, you know, past events, you know,
53:27
events coming up. And if you have something that
53:29
you want to plan, we can help you plan it in your own
53:32
community. Anybody who's listening, we can
53:34
help you plan it. We've got the little run of show
53:36
here. I've got this great
53:37
communications Jennifer Bond, U.S.
53:40
Navy veteran and my right hand assistant Marine wife, Jessica
53:44
Eubanks. They keep me, they keep me going
53:46
because I they keep me on the straight there.
53:49
So I really do appreciate them. I appreciate their dedication
53:54
and I appreciate everybody in your listening audience who's
53:56
going to take this and and do something in your take somebody
54:00
in for their medical appointment.
54:02
You know, don't ask a veteran. Do you need anything?
54:05
You say I'm coming over tomorrow and I'm taking you to your, your
54:08
appointment. OK, You don't say do you need
54:11
anything? You say, OK, here's a casserole.
54:13
You know, you're just getting back.
54:15
And we we know that it could be do it, just do it.
54:19
I mean, I, I know that that's the famous Nike thing, so I
54:22
can't adopt it. But if you're thinking Nike
54:24
thing, just do it and just do it.
54:27
Well, I mean, you're so right though.
54:28
It's a lot of people, if you ask them, do you need help?
54:31
Oh, no, I'm good, right? But when you say I'm going to do
54:34
this for you and you don't really give them a choice
54:37
necessarily, you say I'm I'm picking you up or I'm bringing
54:40
you this or I'm doing that for you.
54:43
I mean, that shows that you really do want to do something.
54:46
And it's not really a lip service that oh, what do you
54:49
need? Just tell us if you need
54:50
something, just let us know, right?
54:52
We're here. Just let us know.
54:53
Right, but, but. But as a veteran and, and other
54:56
people too, it's not just veterans, but but veterans are
54:59
typically the ones that say no, I got this.
55:01
I don't need help. I'm.
55:02
Good exactly, Don't know exactly.
55:06
So that's what, that's what you're going to get.
55:07
For the most part. There's not very many that will
55:09
say, yeah, come over and mow my lawn or come over and do my
55:13
window, my laundry or whatever the case may be.
55:16
They won't do it. If you say, hey, I'm coming
55:19
over, I'm going to help you with this thing or I'm going to do
55:21
this for you because I want to, you know?
55:24
Do action if everybody could do just one thing a month.
55:27
Think of that, if you could do just one thing a month, how
55:32
great a community you would be, you know, serving.
55:34
I mean, it would just be amazing, particularly
55:37
employment, You know, what about they're, they're bringing in new
55:42
recruits at my company. How about if they come to work
55:45
with me tomorrow, I'll introduce you to a couple people.
55:47
So, I mean, an employer is lucky to have a, a veteran who is used
55:55
to a schedule, who has such training.
55:58
Just ask them, what did you do in the military?
56:01
You know, because some of these logistics and the corpsman and I
56:06
mean, these things are feats of feats of the gods.
56:10
I call it feats of the Titans. You know, the Zeus is here and
56:14
Apollo's over there. You know, I mean, it's just
56:17
pretty crazy, pretty crazy. I, I, I am so blessed.
56:20
I'm blessed by you to have been able to have this opportunity to
56:24
be a voice. And I'm blessed by every single
56:28
one of you and your families who have shared their stories with
56:31
me since 2008 because it's meant everything.
56:36
And, and that's what this book is based on.
56:38
It's your story, your stories and what we need to do.
56:42
So I appreciate this opportunity.
56:44
Absolutely. So how can somebody get engaged
56:47
with your foundation and help support you?
56:49
What is? What do you need or?
56:51
You know what, what What we would really love seriously is
56:54
to begin having communities take on this particular call to
57:00
action. OK, so if they we've got our
57:03
website up there, there's place where you can leave us a
57:06
message. You can see what events are
57:08
there. We have podcasts, brainstorms
57:10
podcast because of those storms in your brain.
57:12
If you want to be on one of those podcasts, you've got a
57:15
story to tell. Let us know.
57:17
Get engaged with us and we will get you things to be engaged
57:20
with. So, you know, particularly,
57:22
again, if we go California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
57:27
York, Florida, you get those states, you've got, you know,
57:31
over a third of the veterans in the nation.
57:33
Let's get it in those days and get your legislations working.
57:37
Texas, like I said, is already doing it.
57:39
And let's get this movement started.
57:41
You know, we've got plenty of ways.
57:42
We've got places. And if you're done with the
57:44
book, take it to your library, tell the library and you're at
57:48
what this is like or your school or your university, you know,
57:52
let's get that word out there. I, I'm, you know, when I first
57:55
started work on this, I, I had a documentary that I filmed and
57:59
the 1st first thing that I saw was a quote by Margaret Mead.
58:03
And it was at Santa Monica Beach where they put a reenactment of
58:08
Arlington Cemetery and beginning work.
58:10
And it's a never doubt that a small group of committed
58:13
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing
58:18
that ever has. Let's change it. 250 years of
58:22
not taking care of those who who guard us properly.
58:26
Next 250 is going to be a different story for sure.
58:30
That's a good note to end the show.
58:31
And I really do appreciate you being on.
58:33
And I've really learned a whole lot and I think others have too.
58:37
And I will definitely be ordering the book and I'll see
58:39
what we can do about getting something started and, you know,
58:43
in whatever areas that we're in. But I really do appreciate all
58:47
you do for veterans and all you've done for veterans and
58:50
really educating the public because it comes down to really
58:54
education. And.
58:55
Really doing that and really appreciate it and I really also
58:59
appreciate that you you acknowledge people's injury and
59:04
that not you don't they're not having to prove it to you.
59:07
No, you're you're seeing that's. Why I went to school?
59:10
Yeah, So I mean, I appreciate that people aren't having to
59:13
work for that acknowledgement. Yes, I was injured, Yes, I was
59:15
hurt. Yes, I have these things going
59:17
on and yes, I do need help. So I appreciate that you're
59:20
doing that because it's a it's a weight off your back knowing
59:24
that someone believes you. It's.
59:26
True. Isn't that true?
59:27
For sure, for sure. So Tim Hendricks is saying hi,
59:32
Terry. Hi, Chris Ann.
59:34
Great show. Yeah, he's happy.
59:36
To meet you from. Florida.
59:38
Oh, see the number 3 state veterans get an event in your
59:42
area. We'll help you with that.
59:44
Sounds good. All right.
59:45
Well, I appreciate the time you spent with us tonight for the
59:49
audience, and I appreciate the time you gave me tonight, Doctor
59:51
Gordon, and all you've given us as far as information on how we
59:55
can get involved and engaged. And we will definitely be
59:57
looking at that book. Thank you so much.
1:00:00
You take Care now. Thank you what you've done.
1:00:02
Oh thank you ma'am. This is tracer round signing
1:00:04
off. Hi, I'm Beaker with Military
1:00:08
Broadcast Radio TV. We're your virtual MWR bringing
1:00:13
veterans radio, podcasts, gaming, animation, 3D printing
1:00:18
and a community that never leaves you behind.
1:00:21
Download our Roku or mobile app today.
1:00:25
Share if you listen this week. So pull up a chair and stay for
1:00:28
a spell. We're heading down a trail.
1:00:29
We're good. Stories dwell.
1:00:30
It's done.