Latest / Aired Out / Cody Copeland VETERANS DAY

Transcript

Cody Copeland VETERANS DAY · Aired Out

• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The day.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So Happy Veterans Day to all of you who have
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: made that choice to serve.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Our great Huntry.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Thank you all. And now, as I said before, this.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Is bigger even thank you for your whatever you're doing
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: the service.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Our service should never end.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Even though we served before in a military, our service
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: should never end.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: So what are you doing today to serve the people
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: around you?
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I thank you for that as well.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So being Veterans Day, that also means it's been one
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: year since we released the book on Bridge named Damis.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: It was really awesome being able to write this book
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: and it's been a great year of it being released.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: I've read this book probably about a hundred times in
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: different classrooms in different auditoriums across the country, mostly the Northeast,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: but I've read it about one hundred times to students
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: in schools.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So today I'd love for you to read the book.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I'd love for you to.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Record your kids reading their favorite page in the book.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: And when you record their favorite page, then post it
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to our social media tag us as Sweethearts and Heroes
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: or even at rick Yarish. I'd love to watch your
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: kids reading the book. And also when you do, we
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: will actually send you a digital version of me reading
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the book. It's a really cool thing that we worked
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: with the artists.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: We worked with some really cool technology, and we also
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: worked with Binghamton.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: University to record my voice reading the book.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So please check it out. We will do just that.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: That's rick Yarish this morning, who sent me that, And
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping that at some point he may be able
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to hop on the air with us this morning. But
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it is Veteran's Day. And if you know Ricky, if
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you've seen rick in the past, if you've heard him
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: in the past and taken in his message of hope
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and resiliency in the wake of massive, massive despair, you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: know that he has quite the impact. Of course, rick
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yarish one of the founders along with Tom Murphy of
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Sweethearts and Heroes. Who's going to be with me in
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the studio, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Wednesday, tomorrow, tomorrow.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It is Tuesday the eleventh. Yes, it is Veterans Day.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I've been on the phone this morning with Ron Tollman
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and he actually was on the phone with him yesterday too,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and he was telling me that the parade will not
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: be happening on North Main Street in Barry this morning.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It has been so many years in the past because
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of the weather and they have decided to keep things
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: warm and dry. And we'll be up at the Barry
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Auditorium this morning for the ceremony at around eleven o'clock,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So if you can be there, please please do. I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: have with me this morning in this Veterans Day a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: guy that I just met and it is such a
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: pleasure to have him in here. Cody Copeland, who was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't know about Cody until Rex Thompson mentioned him. Man,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you and I brother are neighbors. I'm so happy to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: meet you. Dude, you too, And I gotta say, man,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: thanks thanks to Rex for for telling me about you.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: He was. He was with me on the air last
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Friday and was like, you know Cody Copeland, right, And
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I'm like no, and He's like, dude, he is a
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: bad ass. You need to have him on.
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm I'm humbled and I'm I'm just uh, I'm
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: taken by the fact that you've you've never done anything
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: like this before. This is all news. But you know what,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: here's the thing, man, you ain't afraid. You can't You
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: can't be afraid of a couple of little microphones after
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: what you've been through. Holy shit, dude, tell me a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: little bit about you. You you're thirty five, you got
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a little bull my deal. How many kids do you have?
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I got one boy. His name's Dale. He's seven years old.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Holy crap. And let's before we go one inch further.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Congratulations to Dale forgetting himself a deer.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Now his first his first Yeah.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Dude, that is so incredible.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: It was. It was something I'll never forget.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: When did this happen?
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: It was youth Day, so two weekends ago.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: He must be on top of the world. He is
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: seven years old, he still is. Yeah. Wow. How many pounds?
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Uh what it was? One hundred and thirteen pounds?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Like damn yeh, let's be thrilled. He was, you know,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And I just said to you off the air, I'm like, man,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: there ain't nothing that matters more than stuff like that,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: right there.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it's definitely something you know, I'll never forget.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: How blessed are you to not only be alive, to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: have survived what you've been through, which we'll talk about
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit of that, but to be able to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: be alive in this world and live life. To have
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that experience with your kid, that's amazing.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Dude, it really is. I don't think you know, there's
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: anything else that can.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Be to what a gift? What a gift? Time is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the single greatest gift that any of us are given
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: rewarded with. I think in this world you're a single
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: dad man. How are you? How are you doing? How
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: are you doing that?
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Well? I do have I've got a great girlfriend that
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: you know, she supports me and stuff, Danny, But yeah,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: it's it's sad, its challenges.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Sure, I'm not sure if if Ron is gonna call
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in this morning or or what, but he spoke very
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: highly of you yesterday on the phone. You're out my way,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: You're you're in Corinth Corinth? Yeah, okay, Active Army.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I was in the Active Army YEP, and after that
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: I did some time with the National Garden.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, are you working?
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: I am. I actually work out a granted shed I've
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: been in the industry for about twelve years, but now
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I'm with a Bataran Girardi.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: How's that called.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: It's going good. It's pretty busy.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm just getting a text from Rick who's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: tuned in this morning.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Rick Yarsh, How you doing, Rick?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean, this guy was blown off of his
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Bradley by a rootes side palm covered in diesel, burning alive,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: flew off the bradley compound fractures and rolled into a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: water trough down on the sides of the roads there.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Apparently they're
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: disgusting the water that's in there, and the water put
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: out the fire, but of course just all of the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: infection from the from the water went into his body
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and just made things that much worse. Somehow, he survived
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: even though his entire body has been burned and did
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: not really didn't didn't really want to live for a
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: good a good amount of time, and lost some of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: his best friends during his time. I'm pretty sure it
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: was Afghanistan right around same time that you were there.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: But this guy has reawakened into a whole different person,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: even though he has one leg and an entire body
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: that's that's been burned, yuh, and has been at the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the of the barrel with regard
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to hope and desire to to push on. And now
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: he's he's written he's written a book, and he goes
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: around to schools all over the country and pushes the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: message of be the best person you can, have hope,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: have resiliency, be strong, and just be a good person.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And there's a whole message about bullying and so on
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and so forth that goes with us. But Rick is
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: and has been and will always be a the spokesperson
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: for this message to go out to our youth today,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: which is really amazing.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: It really is a He's a hero.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And so were you, my brother two thousand and nine
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to two thousand and fourteen. You were active army that's correct,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and went to Afghanistan about thirteen or fourteen years ago.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, right, twenty ten, all.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Right, one hundred and seventy third Airborne Infantry, that's correct.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: What made you say this is what I want to do?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: You went? You went to Spalding High School?
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I did. Yep. After that, I did construction for about
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: a year or so.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: And after high school.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: After high school, yeah, it really wasn't working out. So
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: my father, he was in the National Guard, and so
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I wasn't. My uncle, my grandfather was in Korea, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: as I just went down and talked to one of
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: the recruiters and I signed the papers. In April twenty second,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: two thousand and nine, I was on my way to
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: basic training.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Wow, where was that? Where was basic training?
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: That was in Fort Benning, Georgia? And that was It
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: was thirteen or fourteen weeks. I could always, I could
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: run really well. I think my fastest two mile was
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: just over eleven minutes. And at the end of that,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: they asked if A like to go to the airborne
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: school down there. So I stayed for a nextra a
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: month or so and completed the airborne course.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: What's there a point? And I'm always kind of curious
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: about this when when the beginning of this where you
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: may have said, what have I gotten myself into? I'm
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: not sure. Maybe I made a mistake.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I could say that happened within probably the first
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: three days of being in Fort Benning.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Which might be kind of common.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Right now. I think, I think that's what they you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: they're trained to do. They break you down and build
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: you back up to be a soldier.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Holy crap. So so that what happened after that? Did
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: you go to airborne school?
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I did. I completed the airborne school that was right
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: there at Fort Benning a different part of the base,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: and at first my original orders, I was supposed to
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and somehow after airborne school,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: they got mixed up, and that's when I got the
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: orders to go to Vincenza, Italy with the one seventy third.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So you went there?
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I went there?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what'd you do there?
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: We had one quick training rotation and I was only
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: there for about a month or so, and then we
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: went straight into Afghanistan. I think I was twenty years old.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Ron Tollman, our good friend seventeen in Vietnam.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, ron Is, I'd like to throw that out there.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Ron really is a great guy. He's done a lot
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: What's he done for you?
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Well, he could tell that I was a struggling you
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: know what parts and this was he didn't really know
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: who I was, but with alcohol, and he grabbed me
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: right by the arm and said you're coming with me,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: and took me down in the VA and got the
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: whole process ruling for me.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't take no for an answer.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: No, No, he's really like an angel.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And I was just telling you off the air what
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: he did for my dad.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: That's wrong, that's wrong. Yep.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Relatability is so huge amongst all veterans. It is, quite honestly,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: whether they've been active duty or not, they've all gone
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: through basic training and they all have one thing in common.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: They're willing and ready to give their lives for their country. Yep.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: So you sign up to do, it's what you sign
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: up to do, and the respect is so high, no
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: matter what you've got on your lapel, no matter what
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: kind of uniform you're wearing. I think that's or at
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: least what should be what Veterans Day should be about.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: What did you What what happened when you When you
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: left Vincenza, you were loaded up on a chinnok.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well we took a commercial flight to uh I
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: think the country was Kirkyzstan or somewhere over there. And
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: after that, yeah, we were taking chinooks. We went to
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Boggram Air Force Base, which is the you know, it
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: was a huge base in Afghanistan and we were there
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: for a couple of days and one night we had
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: two chinooks come and load us our platoon up and
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: brought us up to the mountains.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Were you scared?
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Yes? Absolutely. The first night, you know, when we were
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: in the chinooks. It was already dark. You couldn't really
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: see anything. We're going over the mountains and that was
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: the first time we received fire. They were firing at
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: the chinooks. The fifty cow gunner on the back opened up,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: and that was another point, you know, wondering what the
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: hell you got yourself into.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, rick Yarish, we have a great soldier with us
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: this morning on the air, and you're another one, my.
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: Friend, JD.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: How are you good, buddy? Have a I have a
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: hero who's sitting right across from me here on the couch. Man.
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: I just heard.
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: I heard, I heard chinook, I heard fifty cow. I
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: like both those words.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Well, he was in Afghanistan in two thousand and ten.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: This is Cody Copeland. Cody, meet rick Yarish.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: How you doing, sir?
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: I'm good, Cody.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: How are you doing doing good?
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: I should call you brother?
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Yes, brother.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: One hundred and seventy third Airborne went to Vincenza, Italy
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: for a short time and then straight to Afghanistan for
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: a year and saw some some horrible action there. My friend,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: as I know that you can certainly relate to.
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: Sure I can.
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: I can, and probably not in the same capacities. You know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: most of the stuff that we dealt with were I EDS.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: We very very rarely had actual gunfights, but yeah, mostly
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: I EDS.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: Where I was.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: When were you in was in Afghanistan, Rick.
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: I was in Iraq and it was I got there
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: at the very end of two thousand and five and
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: then was injured in September sixth Okay.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Rick Cody, he's a he's a neighbor of mine, lives
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: lives down the road. He he has been dealing with
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: with all of it since the ps PTSD, the the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: depression and and all that stuff. Alcohol. You can you
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: can certainly relate to a good amount of this.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I can.
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: I can relate to the fact that this stuff is
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: extremely difficult.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: That I can relate to.
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: But the part that I have that I can't relate
• 19:16
  Speaker 6: to is I've never had post traumatic stress. Early early,
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: early on, I struggled with things, and I think maybe
• 19:23
  Speaker 6: I questioned if I had it or not, But you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: I never I didn't have the nightmares, I didn't have
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: the the the flashbacks too bad, you know.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: So it's different for me.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: And I say that I wouldn't trade it for I
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: wouldn't trade what I look like you.
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: Know, I don't have my ears, I don't have my nose,
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: my hands are all messed up, my leg is gone.
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: But I wouldn't trade any of that for post traumatic stress,
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: because I know the struggle can come from that that
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: you question who you are. And I've never had the
• 19:57
  Speaker 6: question that with myself, and I'm so so lucky for that.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: You've had a good a good number of brothers, sisters
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: part of your your platoon. Maybe that that have Oh
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I sure have, Oh I sure have. And have you
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: have you had to have you lost? Have you lost
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: friends to suicide?
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: I have none in my platoon, thankfully, But after my injury,
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: I just, you know, I dove into a new world
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: of veterans, you know, these guys who were injured and
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: very badly injured, and I've had I've lost a lot
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: of those buddies, unfortunately to suicide. And you know back
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: home as well, not just you know, military buddies, but
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: buddies from back home.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Cody has lost six. Wow, and this is something that
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: you have have talked about an awful lot.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: It is.
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: Yeah, six is too many. One is too many. Six
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: is insanely too many. And what are we what are
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: we doing about it? Like, what are we doing?
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah, way to a day. I don't know if that
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: numbers change. That's the number that was always stuck in
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: my head, twenty two a day. And it's time to
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: fix that. I mean, it's time to do something about that.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: What do we what do we do you know for
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: for for for some of us, there's really no quick
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: fix to to this, to restoring you know, uh, mental
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: health as as a whole. But I mean, it's not
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like you can just go join the vf W and
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: or the or the or or you know, going down
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to the v A or or join the the American
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Legion and and just being around other brothers and sisters
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: is going to take care of it.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think those things help.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: But I also think, you know, unfortunately today that the
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: and listen, I don't know if it's any fault of
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: the VFW and the American Legion, but the VFW in
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: the American Legion is not.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: What it was, you know, fifty years ago, sixty years ago.
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: The younger veteran that gets out of service, I don't know,
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: they're not looking to become a part of the American
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: Legion or the VFW unfortunately, So I don't know. We
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: do need something new to bring veterans together where I
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: live in New York. I mean, and I'm sure this
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: is my fault, but I don't know hardly any veterans
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: at all where I live.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I just don't. We don't connect, and we should
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: be connecting more.
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: We should be sharing stories with each other and talking
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: about things.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: The message of hope is something that you talked about
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: quite a bit, Rick, and something that you didn't really
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: have a whole hell of a lot of that for
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: for quite a while, and now you you push that
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: message more profoundly than ever.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, there were there were many, many moments,
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: you know, because I think hopelessness comes in waves and pieces,
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: and I had many moments of hopelessness early on. But
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: you know, I'm not saying I will never feel hopelessness again.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: But I haven't felt hopelessness in a really long time now,
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: because I know when I deal with something difficult that
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: I don't want to deal with, it's going to lead
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: to something good in the end when I get through it,
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: when I push through it, that it's going to be okay.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: And I've really been living by this thing lately that
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: you know, life is hard, but it's good. It's even
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: when it's really difficult, life is still good. And if
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: I can look at it that way, and if I
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: can see the good, which it's there all the time.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: It's there all the time. You just have to clear
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: that smoke.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: Clear that smoke gets it look at the other side,
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: and there's so much good on the other side of
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: that negative or difficult thing that we're dealing with. So yeah,
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: hope holds On understands for hold On. Possibilities exists, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: the possibilities that exist are.
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: Awesome if you choose to.
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: Look at it that way, and if you choose to
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: see it that way, because they are there, the possibilities
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: are awesome.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What are you doing with your book that you've written?
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Rick called a bridge named Amos.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Yes, Yeah, it's about my service dog.
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: He passed away a little over a year ago October twelfth,
• 24:38
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty four, and I wrote about what he did
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: for me, you know, like I talk about hopelessness and
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: I talk about all those things. But in the book,
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: he was my bridge to connections with really one time
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: in my life, early on in my injury. I had
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: a very difficult time going out in public and you know,
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: just being the spectacle. I was the spectacle. If I
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: went into a mall, every single person in that mall
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: saw me. There was no avoiding that, and it was
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: just hard for me, especially with little kids who were afraid.
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: So Amos was my bridge to overcoming that because, you know,
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: especially with the kids.
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: Everybody, but especially kids, they love dogs.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: And they'd approach Amos and they would pet Amos and
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: they wouldn't even notice me until they did, and then
• 25:22
  Speaker 6: they were fine with it because the dog was there.
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: So the book is called The Bridge named Amos. He
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: was my bridge to being comfortable out in public early
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: out of my recovery. And yeah, we released it a
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: year ago on Veterans Day, and so it's been a
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: year now and we're doing a thing on the Sweets
• 25:40
  Speaker 6: and Heroes of Facebook and Instagram where if you check
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: us out, you can get a free digital book and
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: it's me reading the book and it's this cool technology that.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: Scrolls it out.
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: It's just really really cool and it's free. So if
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: anyone wants to check it out, please check it out.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're coming in here. On when Wednesday,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: which is tomorrow tomorrow.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, my week has been all messed up.
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: I've been like thinking that Veterans Day is Wednesday, because
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: I'm going to be with you right all right.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: No, you're in here tomorrow, You're coming in from New York.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: You're coming here tomorrow morning.
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna be sitting right where Cody's sitting right now.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: All right? Would you bring one of your copy of
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: your book for Cody's seven year old little boy?
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely bring that out.
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: I'll sign it and put Amos's footprint in there.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: And that's awesome.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: That's what we want. Brother. Listen, and if Cody is
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: anywhere close by, he's going to come in here and
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: pop in and see you.
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: Man, Yes, please do. I'd love to share that couch
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: with you, Cody.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I will, dude. I love you to pieces, Rick. I
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: can't wait to see you, buddy. Yeah.
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: I love you, man, Hey, love you Cody. I never
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: met you, but I absolutely love you, brother.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: All right, you gentlemen, have a great day.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Thanks, buddy. That's rick yarsh right there. Man. That's that's
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: what he's all about. Freaking awesome. And I hope you
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I hope you're going to be close by. I hope you'll.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I hope he'll get a chance to meet him tomorrow.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I would I would love to.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what what what do you what? Are your buddies
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: who was part of your platoon is having a particularly
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: difficult time, which, of course you can relate to. Are
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you connected with him?
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: I am. You know, most of the guys we still
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: if anything's bothering them, you know, you'll get a random
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: text or a phone call, and no matter what time
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: of the day or night it is, you'll always hear
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: a response back. It's a real brotherhood, it really is.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: He he knows he can count on you absolutely to
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: a level that might be even different than his girlfriend,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: his wife.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Yep, that's fair.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: It' isn't that amazing?
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Our World War two veterans. Have you had a chance
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: to meet any.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: A couple of them?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It's amazing, isn't it?
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: It really is. I mean, you know, those guys didn't
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: have the resources that we do, the same with the
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Vietnam Thatt's. You know they get they got treated like
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: shit when they came back.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. I'm hoping that. And I know mister compos
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Has has had rather a difficult last couple of months.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I think he's one hundred years old, and I don't
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: know that he'll be up at the ceremony today at
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the Bury Auditorium at eleven o'clock, but if you had
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: a chance to meet him. I have these guys, all
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of you are such bad asses through the bone, what
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you've been through, what you've endured, and then you have
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to come home and live live your life. But the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: last seven years of having a little your own little
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: boy in your life, that's probably and will always be
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: possibly the greatest thing that's that will has ever happened
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: to you and will be ever happening to you.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Like I said, you know, we were talking a
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: little off there. I've struggled a lot over the years,
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: and he's he's really helped me, you know, start to
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: get my shit together. Not one hundred percent there, but
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: I'm getting better.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: And and I don't know that anyone really has to
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: be one hundred percent, but just general forward progress.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Right, And and that's the thing with the PTSD I've
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: struggled with. You know, after a traumatic event, you seem
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: it seems like things would get better over time. But
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: with me and I can't speak for all veterans, but
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: I think that's same with some of the other veterans,
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: as it actually gets worse.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Over time, you know, except that is the case for.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: You, that is the case for me. Yeah, you know,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: I used to be able to go to Gusto's or
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: you know, hang out with groups of people. And sure, now,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: like we're talking again, talking off air, I'm more keep
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: to myself, you know, Like I got a real small
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: group of friends. And yeah, I did some racing down
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: at Bear Speedway. I was doing that for a couple
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: of years, and really yep, and that was another thing,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: the anxiety and the stress that just got to a
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: certain point where it wasn't fun for me anymore. And
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: that's that's with like a lot of things, you know.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I have a friend who's a veteran who
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: did a tour in Afghanisty and he's in Michigan, and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: you know, what we both say to each other and
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and he's very similar to what you were just describing.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: Is.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: It's okay. It's it's okay to say, hey, I did
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that for a little while. It's not working out for me.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: It's not not bringing me as much joy as it did,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: or that I thought it would. So I'm gonna change
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: it up. I'm gonna try something different, and I'm probably
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: gonna either stop doing that cold turkey or I'm just
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: gonna kind of transition slowly away from it. Nothing wrong
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: with that. You got to do what's best for you, whatever,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: whatever that looks like, whether it's diving in headfirst into
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: work or or other things, hunting, whatever it may be,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: find what brings you joy and do those things. How
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: how rough was and and I'll go down any road
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: you want to go down, and I won't on any
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: road you don't want to go down. But can you
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: how rough were things in Afghanistan? You said you immediately
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: you guys were taking fire. Can you do you have? Is?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Are there any stories or anything that you're able to share?
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: And I know I'm putting you on the spot here,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and you can tell me to go pound sand and
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I will.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: No, it's all right. Well, when we first got there,
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: we were in Kunar Province, which the movie the documentary
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: on Netflix. I was telling you about that versus Treppo
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: that was the same platoon and company the prior deployment.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: So I had some some real strong leaders started at
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: first class. Phillips was my platoon leader. But yeah, it
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: was we were transitioning with the other unit and the
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: firefighting wasn't very much then, but as soon as they
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: were gone, and you know, we finally took it over,
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: we were getting shot at multiple times a week, you know,
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: and sometimes they just wouldn't stop. It'd go like that forever.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: One instance, everybody on the we were on a like
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: a thirty five man out post and we almost totally
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: ran out of ammo. We had to have a helicopter
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: come and sling load a crate of ammo, you know,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: crates of ammo right in the middle of the fob,
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: and we all took turns going and getting the ammo.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah while you're taking fire, while we're taking fire.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Yep. And it was like that the summer months where
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: it was it was like that, like I said, almost constant.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: The winter time it slowed down a little bit, but
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: we were still getting you know, we would go on
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: foot patrols working with the A and A, which they
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: ended up a lot of them were corrupt. We we'd
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: plan the missions with them and stuff, and next thing
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: you know, we were getting ambushed because they knew exactly
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: what we were doing, so we got ended up getting
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: rid of the ANA. So it was just it was
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: just us and it wasn't it wasn't working out working
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: with the Afghan Army itself. How So, like I said,
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: there's just some the planning of the missions and stuff
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: like that. We were trying to involve them in the planning,
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: and they would go and tell their little hodgy brother
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: down the road, you know, this is what they're gonna do,
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: this is what time they'll be there. It was a
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: big problem.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: What else did you lose? Did you lose a friend?
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I did? Yep.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Sergeant beach Nott was shot on a foot patrol one day.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: He was in the Scouts and sniper unit. One thing
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: that really broke my heart was we had two dogs that,
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: you know, they had gone missions with us. I got
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: pictures on my Facebook. They ended up having puppies, cute
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: little puppies, you know, and we all loved them. Was
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: it finally brought us a little bit of joy? Well,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Command Sergeant Major showed up one day and said, do
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: you guys need to get rid of these dogs. I'm
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: going to come back, and you know a couple of
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: weeks and they better be gone. Well he came back
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: a few weeks later and they weren't gone. The first
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: thing he did was shot one of the puppies with
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: his nine millimeter. Of course, they all scattered, they couldn't
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: really run far because the heske walls are all around,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: and he chased every single one around and shot every
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: single one, cornered the mother and shot her, and then
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: threw them all and the burn pit you know, where
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: all our shit went, and all their trash through them all.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: It broke my heart, it really it broke my heart.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Uh didn't see that coming. His his reasoning was was
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: was what.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: It was just he didn't want us, I don't.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Know, being connected or distracted.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: I think that's exactly it. And I mean these dogs,
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: the mother and the father, they they'd go on missions
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: with us, would stay overnight, and like I said, I
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: got pictures of the dogs up on the mountain with us.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: They didn't bother anything, And it was just that one
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: little piece you know, we all had, it was taken away.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: You still in touch with this guy?
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: No, i'd hate.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, no, wow. How how how'd your other
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: soldiers take that?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: We all took it pretty rough. I'm there's people, you know,
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: trying to connect, make connections back home, possibly adopt the
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: dogs or just do something with them, but not the
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: way it ended up.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Do you have a dog now?
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: I do actually got a dog. He's probably six months old.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: His name is Boston.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: What kind of doc black lad? Good dog.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: He's a real good dog.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, six months old. He's probably taken out a few shoes.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: He does about everything he can. He really likes the stuff,
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: the animals.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: What you're describing to me, running to taking turns to
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: run and get ammo back to your platoon. There is
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: a there's just a real like high level of just
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: pure luck. If you're gonna be able to survive and
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: dodge a bullet, yeah, just pure luck. I mean, And
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you know it's like, man, you can you can pray
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: all you want to pray, but in the end, you're
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: either going to get hit or you're not going to
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: get hit.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Right yep. And I mean there was people that, you know,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: we had a handful of guys that got purple hearts
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: that day.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: What other rough days memories do you have that you're
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: willing to share.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Well, we were getting mortar fired and direct fire and
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: we could see where they're shooting at us up on
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: top of the mountain, you know, a couple of click away.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: So you know, we went up there because we were
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: trying to make sure it was all shut down and everything.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: And when we get up to the top of the
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: mountain where they're shooting us, there on the other side
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: waiting and ambushed us from where they were up there.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: So we all went running down the mountain and there
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: was this giant river and it turned into like big
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: apple orchards at the bottom, and what do you know,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: there was another round of people sitting there to ambush us.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: So we were stuck in between getting shot at from
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: the top getting shot at from the bottom. We had
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: one guy that actually got swept away in the river
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: and another platoon was getting called up and ended up
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: getting them out of the river. Was he hit He
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: wasn't hit. No, we just got swept away in the water.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Did you lose anybody that day?
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: Not that day?
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: No?
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Wow?
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: And this was at night, this was no, this was
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: during the day.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: That's crazy stuff, man, it really was. You know. Uh,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what you're able to watch what's being
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: put out from from Hollywood, but it. It's it's really
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: remarkable to hear real stories like this and to imagine
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: what it would what it was that you were feeling
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and beyond fear, beyond adrenaline, to to see what what
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: you saw and to experience that is is unfathomable for me.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I just and and so many others that are that
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: are watching you. You you got through this man, and
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: you came home. Any injuries physical injuries.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: No, I mean I got the old man sore back
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: and stuff like that now, But now I was flying
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: back then. Uh.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, must have been in great shape.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: I was back. Yeah.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: What do you say to other veterans who are struggling
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: with PTSD depression? I mean, I you know, I said
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: to you before before we went live this morning, I'm like,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: you know, seven or seven or eight months of cloud
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and cold and snow and shit up here in the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: North Country certainly can't lend a helping hand to stuff
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: like this, right.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: It definitely takes a toll on you. Like I said,
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: I I'm still struggling to this day. But what I
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: could say to anyone is you need to reach out
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: and talk to your buddies, no matter who it is,
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: your family, just don't give up. I mean, you matter,
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: you really do, and no matter what you feel like
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: you're going through, you can you can do it. You
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: have to reach out and get the help though. I
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: mean people, I got lucky with my mother and my
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: father and you know my family. They have come to
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: me and dragged my ass, you know, around and saying no,
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: you're you're gonna get help. And Ron and Ron Tollman,
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: I understand that not everyone has that, but if you
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: don't have that, you really need to you need to
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: look for it.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: The easiest way to do that would be to do
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: what literally get in the car and drive to the
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: VA down the White River. Yeah.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: I know they have a lot of crisis numbers that
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: you can call. I've never personally called one, but I
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: mean there's a lot of people that care out there.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: They're they're they're you know. And I remember Ron saying
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: this to me a long time ago. They're used to
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: this at the VA. They're used to having people walk
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: through the doors and just sit down and say I
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: need some help.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Could be physical, could be mental, could be both. I
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: need some help. Yeah.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: And I know, Pep, you probably heard rumors, oh the
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: V a slow and blah blah blah. They have been
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: totally great with me with my mental health. I wrote
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: my leg a couple of years ago. You know, they
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: take care of everything. They're still to this day there
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: they just they care about the veterans.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Do you do you do you do you still? Are
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: you a regular visitor to.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: The v A I am yep. I got a great
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: doctor down there named Kate van Arman. Yeah, she's she's awesome.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Wow. How often do you do you go down there?
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: Uh?
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: I go down What is it like a six month
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: check up? I've been on different medications less recently, so
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: it's been a little more.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's for for me. What's what's what's really
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: uh A blessing for me and an honor for me,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: not just on Veterans Day, but anytime, is to speak
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: with any veteran who served active duty or not. My
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: dad was a Korean veteran, and it's I'm always so humbled.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: And there's part of me that when I see a
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: veteran with a hat on, I mean, my little girl
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: will will always say thank you for your service. But
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: there's part of me that wonders how that's received when
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: you say to a veteran, thank you for your service?
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: What's what's what's in their mind of when they hear that?
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: What what do they say? Do they do they say
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: in their mind, h you're welcome? Or do they say
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: you have no idea? Or is that the least that
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: you can say? I just always want I always wonder
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: if if it's just not enough and maybe even borderline,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, insulting, to just simply
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: say thank you. Is it just doesn't seem like it's enough?
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: I do me and myself. I'm personally not like that
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: at all. Anyone that says thank you to me, it
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: really doesn't mean a lot. And it's because of people
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: like that are thanking me that that's why I went
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: and did everything I did.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Your little boy, what's he say about all of this?
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: What does he think about all of this?
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: Oh? He relates to Oh my dad can do that
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: because he was in the army. He says stuff like
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: that all the time. No, he loves it. I mean
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: I think he looks up to me because of it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: And you know, there will be a time where we
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: can sit down and have a couple of beers when
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: he's older and I can tell him some.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Stories, that'll be that'll be a great day. My little
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: girl has asked me in the past what is war? Why?
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Why do people fight? And I have struggled finding the
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: words that I think she can understand to to explain that.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Has your little boy asked you the same question?
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: He hasn't really gotten there yet. Yeah, that'll be a
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: hard conversation.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are you prepared for that? Because that's it was
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: right around seven eight when when Lily asked me, what Dad?
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: What is what is war? What is that? Why are
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: people shooting guns at each other? Are you prepared for
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: to answer that?
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: I'd probably have to put some thought into it first. Yeah,
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: but yeah, I mean, I you know, roll with the punches.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: I cannot thank you enough. You are This is not
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: your comfort zme. You've you've never done this before, You've
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: never was wrecked. I actually I can't because you're amazing.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Was it Did Rex put any heat on you to
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: come in here?
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: No? I actually uh. I messaged him that night and
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: I I told him, you know, I was honored that
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: he mentioned my name.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's listening right now. How do you. How'd
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: you meet Rex?
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: I don't really know, just kind of.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Have you been up to one of the battles in Bury.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: I have not. He's actually he's been trying to get
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: me to get in the gym. He's offered me to
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: go in there.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Have you seen the gym?
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: If you walk through the doors, I haven't.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Should happen, dude, it should happen.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: Should happen.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: You got it? Just trust me. You got to see that.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Go do that. Yeah, go over there, check it out.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. And January sixth, hopefully you got some time,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: you'll come on up to the Barry Auditorium, Okay for
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the for the next battle and Barry, it really is
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: something else.
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, before we do go, I wanted to give you
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: this as a appreciation. You get that after combat and
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: some hereborn wings, after a lucky tell.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: My story, and just.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: For acknowledging veterans in general.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, dude, I don't know what to I
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: don't know what to say.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, I appreciate everything that you're doing.
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: This.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do something with this. I'm not sure exactly what,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: but it will be right here. You just you just
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: struck me hardcore man. Thank you, Cody, You're welcome.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: You deserve it.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: Jeez. Man. The fact that that you're coming in here
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: getting on a microphone. I want, I want to show
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: this too, but you you just gave me so everybody
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: can see. Sorry, I'm shaken here. Ah, I'll get a
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: nice photo of this and put it on boy. Yeah.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: The fact that that you're willing to come in here
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: and share your story so transparently like this and so
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: open is really is something that I will never forget.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: And You're always welcome to come in here any time
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: for any reason. And and I've always said that to veterans,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: no matter who you are, no matter what you do,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: first and foremost, it's veterans. It's what it should be.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Rex is saying that's a CIB that has earned only
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: under fire. Please explain that is Yep, that's correct? What
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: is that? What does that mean?
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: That's the rifle there? That means you have to be
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: in a firefight where you are engaging and being engaged
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: at in close combat.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: You and I are going to have a long talk
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: off the air about this. Okay, thank you ever so much.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not really sure how to respond
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: to that. But I can't thank you enough for coming
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: in here, and my listeners feel the same exact way
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: that I do. Thank you. That's all we can say.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: That's all we can say, and so many of us
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: feel like that's just nowhere near enough, just those two
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: simple words. But that's It's what only so many of
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: us can offer, is just thank you and you're welcome.
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: Like I said, that's that's what we sign up to deal.
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: It's for you guys out there.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Incredible. Cody Copeland, our guest this morning, graduate from Spaulding
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: High School in what year?
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: Two thousand and eight?
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Local guy, What an honor it is and has been
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: to meet you today. You're a neighbor of mine, you
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: live right down the road, and I don't want to
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: thank Rex because without Rex telling me about you, I
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: may not have known about you. And I look forward
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: to getting to know you better and maybe doing some
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: more stuff on the microphone with you.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: All right, you have been amazing. Will you be up
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: at the auditorium today?
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: I got to get back to work. I don't think
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: I'll make it up there, but I would like to
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: try to make it in tomorrow at least just to
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: get a handshake.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, please anytime? Oh my god, that would I would
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: love that so much. If you could be here to
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: meet Rick tomorrow, it would be incredible. Cody Copeland our guest,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Drop a comment, give a like, and share this one
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: on Veterans Day and anytime. Our guest this morning here
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: on the aired Out podcast, And please thank a veteran today.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: If you see those colors pass in front of you,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: remove your cap. Beautiful flag flying high above North Main
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Street in Bury, Vermont this morning to honor our veterans,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: our men and women who have sacrificed and offered their
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: lives to defend our country. Thank you, Cody. So much.
• 56:00
  Speaker 5: To do, to do, to do,