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8-7-26 The Craig Collins Show · KSEV Mornings with Craig and Wayne

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Speaker 1: Where should I begin?
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Speaker 2: Can we talk about this?
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Speaker 1: Say?
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Speaker 3: What are you trying to do beyond the usual controversial talking.
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Speaker 4: Welcome to prepare yourself.
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Speaker 3: Okay for Craig.
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Speaker 5: Preparing my net.
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Speaker 3: You expect to go.
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Speaker 5: Here particulate, stimulated you right in there?
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Speaker 3: There you go back, you start becoming a gam is
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Speaker 3: the Craigcullin Show, Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Dot Talk Talk heat this station as well, the ultimate
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Speaker 2: power in the universe, your host.
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Speaker 6: That's right, it is the Craig Collins Show, k s
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Speaker 6: c V seven hundred am, the Voice of Texas. I
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Speaker 6: am working on a video thing and I will have
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Speaker 6: my veteran voice. I have my veteran voice on in
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Speaker 6: half an hour and you will see video. But for
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Speaker 6: now you just see my logo kind of all fancy.
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Speaker 6: And the Senator has stayed. Senator Betton Court is here.
1:00
Speaker 6: We also have a phone guest, right we do?
1:02
Speaker 4: All right? Gary pollingd is here.
1:04
Speaker 2: Yeah. Gary, this is like overtime on what's your point
1:07
Speaker 2: Sunday morning?
1:09
Speaker 7: Okay, Well, yes, I'm sure, I'm sure it'll be could
1:13
Speaker 7: be very interesting.
1:15
Speaker 2: Well anyway, because Gary called in so late, we brarely
1:18
Speaker 2: had a time to get you know, across the fact
1:20
Speaker 2: that the guy from Michigan, you know, is obviously, you know,
1:25
Speaker 2: a big in favor of everything that is not in
1:29
Speaker 2: the Republican bar He's insane.
1:30
Speaker 4: And I'll just do this real quick. It's really convenient.
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Speaker 6: You could talk to Gary and I'll keep setting up
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Speaker 6: my camera in studio so Senator Pattancourt can fill.
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Speaker 4: In for me for a couple of minutes.
1:39
Speaker 2: All right, well, I guess Gary, this you and me
1:41
Speaker 2: at Gary what we We started our show with the
1:44
Speaker 2: fact that the polling numbers have really tanked for Trump.
1:48
Speaker 2: The real clear averages are below forty h and and
1:53
Speaker 2: near on approval and nearly sixty percent disapproval. It's like
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Speaker 2: a minus nineteen highest number ever. Uh the look. Rasmussen,
2:04
Speaker 2: who is a national polster, said that for every you know,
2:08
Speaker 2: every increase in gas prices, Republicans lose votes at the polls.
2:14
Speaker 2: So we know the economic driver that everybody watches this
2:18
Speaker 2: gas But it's clearly affordability. Affordability, affordability, and and our
2:23
Speaker 2: candidates have to get better answers than just you know,
2:27
Speaker 2: platitudes about spending, et cetera. Don't you agree?
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Speaker 3: Oh?
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Speaker 7: I absolutely agree. And we need to have a. We
2:35
Speaker 7: need to have a cart edge messaging about what you know,
2:39
Speaker 7: what's behind door number two and what the Democrats are
2:42
Speaker 7: offering to the American people. I mean, anyone out there
2:45
Speaker 7: who believes that turning the keys to the car over
2:49
Speaker 7: to the Democratic Socialists it's going to improve everyone's a
2:52
Speaker 7: lot in America is whistling past the graveyard. It's gonna
2:57
Speaker 7: it's going to destroy destroy America. Look, we got issues.
3:01
Speaker 7: Trump's got issues. I mean, I was the supporter of
3:04
Speaker 7: the war against Iran. I'm a supporter, and I was
3:07
Speaker 7: the supporter a finish you instead of screwing around. But
3:11
Speaker 7: it sure looks like Trump is getting pulled in every
3:13
Speaker 7: which direction by pressure coming from supposed allies, or by
3:18
Speaker 7: the Congress, or by worrying about the election. You know,
3:21
Speaker 7: the thing I like about how you've always operated, Paul,
3:24
Speaker 7: and in your political career, you have generally not worried
3:27
Speaker 7: about the next election. You try to do what's right,
3:30
Speaker 7: and you know, if it turns out that the people
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Speaker 7: don't like what you did, and Nytasha, you'll have more
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Speaker 7: time to spend with your lovely wife.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and that looks better every day actually, because it's
3:40
Speaker 2: like by the way. It is very frothy. Eric and
3:44
Speaker 2: I we agree that this is frothier than nineteen ninety four.
3:48
Speaker 2: See what people don't know about you and I is
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Speaker 2: that we were literally you had a point of me treasurer.
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Speaker 2: You were the big reform County Republican Party chair and
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Speaker 2: we wept that night. Bill Archer is literally crying at
4:04
Speaker 2: our He was because he never thought he's going to
4:07
Speaker 2: be ever Craig in the majority in his life. And
4:11
Speaker 2: so we've seen this pendulum swing. Okay, and Eric has
4:15
Speaker 2: said it's never been though this frothy, This mean this.
4:19
Speaker 2: It's really agitated out there and folks have got you
4:23
Speaker 2: know that are running and have to realize that people
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Speaker 2: don't want any platitudes. They want to hear what's really
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Speaker 2: going to be the solution? Am I missing some gear
4:30
Speaker 2: or Craig?
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Speaker 4: No, no, no, I don't care. This is great.
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Speaker 2: Go Gary.
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Speaker 7: I think it's that all You're absolutely correct. And the
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Speaker 7: other thing I think people are looking for is what
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Speaker 7: is the candidate's vision. What are they going to do?
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Speaker 7: Because you take a look at Congress, and this has
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Speaker 7: been true for quite a while, don't get much done. No,
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Speaker 7: they do a lot of and shake of theiring fingers
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Speaker 7: each other, but not much gets done. And I think
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Speaker 7: Trump tried to help fill the vacuum. But Trump, you know,
5:01
Speaker 7: dealing with on did we did we have We don't
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Speaker 7: learned lessons about them. Maybe these people are the eighth negotiators.
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Speaker 7: They will negotiate if only she'll negotiate with them. And
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Speaker 7: then they share around and.
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Speaker 2: It's like peeling an onion. You'll never get to the bottom.
5:15
Speaker 2: And they're very duplicitous. But but they're you know, and
5:18
Speaker 2: they've lived in that environment for you know, for effectively
5:22
Speaker 2: as a culture. You know, really since when I guess
5:26
Speaker 2: when was the big schism over there between the she
5:28
Speaker 2: and the she ees seven hundred AD. I mean, you know,
5:32
Speaker 2: so it's a you underestimate what it takes to beat them,
5:37
Speaker 2: and if you didn't get a surrender. The problem with
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Speaker 2: the way that Nett and Hi Hugh and Lindsey Graham
5:44
Speaker 2: pitched it to Trump was that if you go in
5:46
Speaker 2: and Hamram, the public will rise up over there. But
5:50
Speaker 2: what people didn't realize the shell shock of those murderers.
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Speaker 2: I mean, they killed seven divisions, forty two thousand people
6:00
Speaker 2: of their own people. They killed them, so everybody that
6:04
Speaker 2: was out on point against the regime died. I mean,
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Speaker 2: it's a and that's going to make people go to
6:10
Speaker 2: ground for an awfully long time.
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Speaker 7: Well, but here's the other thing you need to remember.
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Speaker 7: And I'm not convinced the Graham and then convinced Trump
6:18
Speaker 7: of anything, because Trump does what he wants to do.
6:20
Speaker 7: But besides that, remember they were gonna they were gonna
6:24
Speaker 7: harm the curds, the cards were going to come in.
6:26
Speaker 7: Turkey objected and Trump folded, Well what happened?
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Speaker 2: And I yeh, look, I mean they they clearly pitched
6:33
Speaker 2: it to Trump in February. Okay. Now, the problem with
6:37
Speaker 2: all of this is that yes, a nuclear armed around,
6:40
Speaker 2: it's over for Israel. They put one dirty bomb or
6:44
Speaker 2: one bomb over Tel Aviv and boom. The entire northern
6:47
Speaker 2: part of Israel is uninhabitable. Okay, right, you know? And
6:52
Speaker 2: and yes, if the Islamic Republican Guard had a bomb
6:55
Speaker 2: and a briefcase, they would have blown up a football
6:57
Speaker 2: stadium in the US because the had been chanting death
7:02
Speaker 2: to Israel and death to America Gary for since since
7:06
Speaker 2: before we knew each other. They've been chanting it.
7:10
Speaker 7: And when people think they're hoping for your death. He
7:13
Speaker 7: kind of got to listen to them. So here's the mistake.
7:15
Speaker 7: The Trump's mistake was we didn't he talked a good
7:19
Speaker 7: game of helping the people. I mean think my biggest
7:21
Speaker 7: gract is there wasn't enough talk explained to the American
7:25
Speaker 7: people why we're going to do this number one. But
7:28
Speaker 7: then there was too much talk about threats to Iran.
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Speaker 7: We're gonna obliterate you, We're gonna do this, We're gonna
7:33
Speaker 7: do that. Just shut up to just do what you're
7:36
Speaker 7: gonna do.
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Speaker 6: Now, this brings me to wait, wait, actually I have
7:39
Speaker 6: a question about that, Kary, because I liked the threats
7:43
Speaker 6: in one aspect, and this is the aspect I liked
7:46
Speaker 6: them in hoping that they were enough to and I
7:49
Speaker 6: know that this is naive and it didn't work, but
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Speaker 6: hoping they were enough to subdue Iran a little bit
7:53
Speaker 6: so that you didn't actually have to blow the crap
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Speaker 6: out of them. I think that was the intention of it.
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Speaker 6: I like that attempt, even if it's in vain. So
8:00
Speaker 6: I I do think that you should say it first and.
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Speaker 4: Then do it.
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Speaker 7: I hear what you're saying, and I don't have a
8:06
Speaker 7: problem with trying that. How many times are we going
8:09
Speaker 7: to try seventeen times?
8:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, well it's it's President Trump, so yeah seven yeah,
8:14
Speaker 6: right about right?
8:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, well no, because I mean and and the Trumpster
8:18
Speaker 2: did he literally said, you know, it was a mistake
8:21
Speaker 2: three times on I mean on Abbot's you know moratorium,
8:26
Speaker 2: my dataset or so. But when but here's a point.
8:29
Speaker 2: If Ben was here, he would say the blockade was
8:32
Speaker 2: really hurting him, was hurting Iron, It was really hurting us.
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Speaker 7: It does now we're doing it. And then we're we're
8:42
Speaker 7: going to the peace table. And then that and and
8:45
Speaker 7: I don't know what happened with my president Vance, who
8:48
Speaker 7: I thought was a really smart guy who goes up
8:51
Speaker 7: there and gets taken to the cleaner.
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Speaker 2: They got out maneuvered on that, and and then and
8:55
Speaker 2: Eric would pop in and say there's no way out
8:58
Speaker 2: because there's just no end to this. That's the problem.
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Speaker 6: Can I real quick say that it's impressive that after
9:02
Speaker 6: twenty something years you can fill in both of their voices.
9:05
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, you can do it, throw by myself and
9:09
Speaker 2: just have it. You know, it's incredible, especially if Gary
9:12
Speaker 2: calls in. I have a caller, and I can do
9:14
Speaker 2: all three of them.
9:15
Speaker 1: Right.
9:15
Speaker 2: Now, Here's here's the other problem. It's gas prices. Look,
9:19
Speaker 2: they've been up thirty six percent since for six months now,
9:24
Speaker 2: I guess we have the right date, yes, And and
9:26
Speaker 2: people have had their count strength. The working class, the
9:31
Speaker 2: lower upper I mean lower middle class, you know, all
9:34
Speaker 2: the way up to upper you know, has a problem.
9:36
Speaker 2: And it's now baked in because they've lost the money.
9:39
Speaker 2: The money is gone, Okay. And and so that's why
9:43
Speaker 2: seventy six percent of the public in the United States
9:46
Speaker 2: fields they haven't kept up with inflation. Only twenty six
9:50
Speaker 2: percent Field they're doing. Okay. Now, when you get a
9:53
Speaker 2: number like that, you get a right track, rang track
9:56
Speaker 2: black you know, election that's a butt buster because they're
10:00
Speaker 2: going to vote against the party and power. And last
10:02
Speaker 2: time I checked, we've got the presidency, the Senate, and
10:05
Speaker 2: the and the Congress, even though the control is tenuous
10:10
Speaker 2: at best. Okay, in the Congress, Gary.
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Speaker 7: You agree, yeah, No, I think, well, they make a
10:17
Speaker 7: big deal about that. We barely control the House and
10:19
Speaker 7: we barely control the Senate, primarily because of the uh
10:25
Speaker 7: filibuster role, which I actually think is a good thing.
10:28
Speaker 7: So I you know, I'm very frustrated. I think that
10:33
Speaker 7: Iran is that we do these proposals to let them
10:37
Speaker 7: have money, proposals to let them charge fees to go
10:40
Speaker 7: through the traits of format.
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Speaker 2: That can't happen. Gary, That is that you cannot let
10:46
Speaker 2: international waterways be told there's no end to it. You'd
10:51
Speaker 2: have the Gibraltar situation. Then you've got you know, I
10:54
Speaker 2: mean you you pay fees and canals, but not in
10:58
Speaker 2: international waters. Then you got the locking straight she got,
11:01
Speaker 2: I mean it would never end. I mean the cost
11:04
Speaker 2: of a goods transiting with skyrocket at that point. And
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Speaker 2: it's and the problem is it's all it's an inflationary cycle.
11:12
Speaker 2: And and our candidates have got to say here's my
11:15
Speaker 2: I'm going to help you on affordability and why and
11:18
Speaker 2: by the way, and what, Craig, why is Tallarico talking
11:20
Speaker 2: about property taxes? Well, because he voted for him, okay,
11:26
Speaker 2: and the way he says it, you know, I haven't
11:28
Speaker 2: been able to have a clean shot to come and
11:30
Speaker 2: to take him out on it. Sure, But because he
11:33
Speaker 2: did vote for raising home set exemption, which is lowered
11:37
Speaker 2: people's taxes. And so you've got to look for those
11:41
Speaker 2: practical things. We got to be talking about real things,
11:43
Speaker 2: real people. That's what everybody needs to convert to. And
11:47
Speaker 2: and Gary, by the way, he use this on what's
11:50
Speaker 2: your point? Tall Rico's starting his campaign is off again Pasadena,
11:55
Speaker 2: August ninth, on Tuesday, And just about.
12:00
Speaker 7: Taller Rico, I think is his pup politics are probably
12:04
Speaker 7: not much the difference than the other socialists who have
12:07
Speaker 7: been elected in the country.
12:09
Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 7: But Ken Paxton, who by the way, had a good
12:12
Speaker 7: day yesterday with the settlements with Texas children. For I
12:17
Speaker 7: agree that was a good day children. That was a
12:20
Speaker 7: good day. But he's got to start working harder. I
12:22
Speaker 7: mean July fourth in London, Come on, I do I understand.
12:26
Speaker 7: I want to travel. If travel, don't run to the
12:29
Speaker 7: US Senate, well get it.
12:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. And when you're when you're talking, you're fighting twenty
12:33
Speaker 2: four to seven, don't get don't subtract time, you know,
12:37
Speaker 2: to hey, I've got to eat lunch and all this
12:40
Speaker 2: type of stuff, you know, because people want to see
12:43
Speaker 2: you fighting all the time.
12:45
Speaker 1: I do.
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Speaker 6: I do want to ask because I because you were there.
12:47
Speaker 6: I went to Passons event, right, and so I didn't
12:48
Speaker 6: want to ask about that because I had a couple
12:50
Speaker 6: of callers call in and tell me that it was
12:52
Speaker 6: just a location. But turnout was not good. It wasn't horrific.
12:56
Speaker 6: It was like two hundred or something people. Most of
12:58
Speaker 6: the bottom floor was full, the top or not at all.
13:01
Speaker 6: What does that say is that.
13:02
Speaker 2: It's not good news. Okay, Now, look because look where
13:05
Speaker 2: tall Rico was. He had thirteen hundred that where this
13:08
Speaker 2: play it was less than three hundred. Maybe it was
13:11
Speaker 2: three hundred and the chronicle said three hundred. You know,
13:14
Speaker 2: I think on the floor it was less than two hundred. Sure,
13:16
Speaker 2: Now you have to be careful about where you pick
13:19
Speaker 2: because how much did you pay for parking?
13:21
Speaker 4: Twenty bucks?
13:22
Speaker 2: See, I mean you know some people paid thirty five?
13:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
13:26
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, if you're going to have a grassroots event,
13:30
Speaker 2: you can't go to a place that has twenty to
13:32
Speaker 2: thirty five bucks, Okay. And you know, and that's just
13:37
Speaker 2: a that's a rookie staff mistake because they didn't know
13:40
Speaker 2: where what they were booking.
13:42
Speaker 4: Gotcha.
13:42
Speaker 2: But but look, there is an intensity gap. Gary knows this, Okay,
13:47
Speaker 2: the right now, I think people probably know about tall Ico.
13:55
Speaker 2: They maybe have heard about Gensos just a little bit
13:58
Speaker 2: arle anybody can even tell who Dan Patrick's running against. Okay,
14:03
Speaker 2: and on the Republican side, they know they've got Taller Rico.
14:08
Speaker 2: I mean, they've got Paston, they've got Abbott, theyve got
14:10
Speaker 2: Patrick and maybe some of the other folks. But there's
14:13
Speaker 2: an invisible layer here these congressional races, and those are
14:19
Speaker 2: at risk because no one knows who they are. I mean,
14:23
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, we haven't had John bonk on
14:26
Speaker 2: while we need to, because no one knows who he is. Uh,
14:30
Speaker 2: you know, Alexander Mieler in a new district. Nobody knows
14:33
Speaker 2: who she is. In fact, Gary, everybody except our coastal reps,
14:39
Speaker 2: which are let's see, oh Cloud, Randy Web and Babin.
14:44
Speaker 2: Everybody else is new. All the everybody else is gone
14:47
Speaker 2: because the last person McCall quit and then of course,
14:52
Speaker 2: oh gosh, Crenshall lost. So well, some people know Steve's
14:58
Speaker 2: toad is, but does the average voter.
15:00
Speaker 7: No, no, yeah, I don't see you. I don't know
15:04
Speaker 7: whether if the campaign or what. Let me tell you,
15:07
Speaker 7: we we could if we don't put out have an
15:10
Speaker 7: effective campaign, and like we do have operatives who know
15:13
Speaker 7: how to campaign and run campaigns. Ball, Yes, we don't
15:16
Speaker 7: have an effective campaign. This is going to be the
15:18
Speaker 7: reverse of what we accomplished. Yeah, sure, ye like for
15:23
Speaker 7: the Democrats. And we're going to knock out all our
15:25
Speaker 7: new judges. And by the way, I know, I know
15:28
Speaker 7: you have had issues from time to time, but he
15:31
Speaker 7: has done a terrific job of appointing well qualified lawyers
15:35
Speaker 7: to be judges. He has no give no I do.
15:38
Speaker 2: I mean it's but people, yes, because the same thing
15:41
Speaker 2: would happen in Fort ben County, The same thing would
15:43
Speaker 2: happen in you know, Uh, I mean every county but
15:46
Speaker 2: Montgomery effectively, because they're the reddest of the crew. And
15:50
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, and the fact of the matter
15:53
Speaker 2: is that, uh, I mean this this announcement that Trump calls,
15:58
Speaker 2: you know, Abbott's opposition to day data center a mistake. Yeah,
16:01
Speaker 2: because he's not. Look, I saw Texas the other day.
16:05
Speaker 2: I think that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake.
16:07
Speaker 2: You know. Then, I mean I'm quoting this. Data centers
16:12
Speaker 2: are tremendously important for the economics. For Texas to say
16:16
Speaker 2: no to data centers is a mistake in the sense
16:20
Speaker 2: that it could be bigger than oil, liquid gold, Texas, tea.
16:27
Speaker 3: You know.
16:27
Speaker 2: So part of the problem, Gary is that when we're
16:30
Speaker 2: four things, it's hard for us to outdo the Democrats.
16:34
Speaker 2: When Eric's party, the Democrats switch over and go hostile
16:38
Speaker 2: against new development or growth because it's not green and
16:42
Speaker 2: it's and it's you know, and it's a bunch of
16:44
Speaker 2: rich people making money. It's it's we can't get to
16:48
Speaker 2: their left.
16:50
Speaker 3: So you know.
16:51
Speaker 2: So so I mean, so this is going to be
16:53
Speaker 2: an issue all the way to game time.
16:55
Speaker 7: Yeah, have it. I mean, on that issue, I think
16:59
Speaker 7: I have an autumn is to tell uh to look
17:03
Speaker 7: at what's happening, get rid of the tax subsidies, that's
17:06
Speaker 7: for sure, and make sure that the the the data
17:09
Speaker 7: centers pay for their own increase and when it costs
17:12
Speaker 7: for electricity and water so it doesn't adversity effects citizens.
17:16
Speaker 7: To be on that, I think we welcome them. Sure.
17:18
Speaker 7: My position, no, because at that.
17:19
Speaker 2: Point, what's there not to welcome money, jobs, you know,
17:24
Speaker 2: and uh but uh but you know, it's it's this
17:28
Speaker 2: goes back to this point. Craig. You are in the
17:31
Speaker 2: middle of what I think maybe the singular most frothy
17:36
Speaker 2: election in Gary and Ie lifetime, and you're younger than
17:39
Speaker 2: we are I okay, just a bit, yes, and I
17:42
Speaker 2: thought it was oh the first Trump election, now okay,
17:46
Speaker 2: maybe the second Trump election. No way, the third Trump election.
17:51
Speaker 2: Maybe we're close, But that froth has been exceeded. I mean, Gary,
17:56
Speaker 2: people are as mad as I've ever seen them about everything.
17:59
Speaker 4: I mean, communism actually is a shot at winning in places.
18:02
Speaker 4: It's crazy. Well, I mean, Madamie, already you know, he
18:05
Speaker 4: already won. Yeah, he already won.
18:07
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean he's yeah. And so Gary, what's you know, uh,
18:13
Speaker 2: you know, what's the advice here for you know, uh,
18:17
Speaker 2: for people that are running what's the advice for Craig
18:20
Speaker 2: running the show?
18:21
Speaker 6: And we do have to take a break after that
18:22
Speaker 6: answer because I got to get my veteran on.
18:24
Speaker 4: But this is the last word.
18:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, go.
18:26
Speaker 7: Back to our good friend Carl rode chat All, who
18:31
Speaker 7: is We didn't always agree with him, but you have
18:34
Speaker 7: to give the guy credit. He is brilliant. I have
18:37
Speaker 7: our canids run on five issues. You picked your five issues,
18:40
Speaker 7: that's all you talk about. One of the five issues
18:43
Speaker 7: is why why why the communists and running for the
18:47
Speaker 7: Democratic Party are dangerous to our way of life?
18:50
Speaker 2: Okay? And I and I would say this, have a
18:53
Speaker 2: good time on what's your point in the morning, because
18:56
Speaker 2: all DVR are you and I would cut into four
18:58
Speaker 2: issues and you could have one issue about the DSA
19:03
Speaker 2: or the DCA or whatever we're going to call them,
19:05
Speaker 2: and then the other three issues affordability, affordability affordability, what
19:10
Speaker 2: do you do in the lower cost what do you
19:11
Speaker 2: think lower taxes? How much money are you going to
19:14
Speaker 2: put in the back pocket? Because when when we talk
19:16
Speaker 2: about Lean o'dago's tax increase, when when Tom Ramsey gets
19:21
Speaker 2: on and says it's tenpennies, I can immediately calculate my
19:24
Speaker 2: head that's two hundred and fifty bucks for the average home.
19:27
Speaker 2: And that's why they there'd be nuts to vote for it.
19:30
Speaker 2: But if they do, that's a way to get after
19:33
Speaker 2: those Democrats did the Socialist America.
19:36
Speaker 7: You know, frastinially also voted again keeping our tax cuts.
19:42
Speaker 7: They wanted to raise that. Sure, but that's what you
19:46
Speaker 7: have to do, you know, and that's portability.
19:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, Democrats are super crazy here this for this, but
19:52
Speaker 2: here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going
19:54
Speaker 2: to do real things for you, for real people.
19:57
Speaker 6: Hey man, all right, we got to go thank you,
19:58
Speaker 6: very haut. I gotta take a break. I got a
20:00
Speaker 6: veteran coming up on the Craig College Show.
20:03
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Gary, thanks sure, thanks so much.
20:05
Speaker 6: On the Craig College Joe KSV seven hundred, The Voice
20:08
Speaker 6: of Texas. This is the Craig Collins Show KSV The
20:11
Speaker 6: Voice of Texas. I'm going to bring my guest on
20:13
Speaker 6: and see if he pops up okay on the camera.
20:16
Speaker 6: I think I see, at least the audio version of it.
20:19
Speaker 6: I don't know if I see him, but our veteran
20:21
Speaker 6: guest is here with us. Are you there, sir?
20:23
Speaker 4: Can you hear me?
20:25
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm here?
20:25
Speaker 4: Okay, cool? Do you want to do camera or no?
20:27
Speaker 4: No camera?
20:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out how to do that.
20:30
Speaker 4: It's okay, all right for now.
20:31
Speaker 6: Then we'll move your camera off of this scene and
20:34
Speaker 6: we'll keep you just on audio.
20:36
Speaker 4: But tell us who you are if you don't mind.
20:39
Speaker 1: Well, my name is Dustin Wilson from NYE, Okay, graduated
20:44
Speaker 1: from there in two thousand and six.
20:46
Speaker 6: And you are our veteran voice of the day. I
20:48
Speaker 6: want to keep explaining to people how this is a thing,
20:52
Speaker 6: what I'm doing with this, I am reaching out to
20:54
Speaker 6: different veterans, mostly through a Facebook post that wound up
20:58
Speaker 6: being wildly successful, way more successful than I thought it
21:01
Speaker 6: was going to be, where.
21:03
Speaker 4: A lot of people said, Hey, I'd love to talk
21:04
Speaker 4: to you, I'd.
21:05
Speaker 6: Love to be on I'd love to just discuss veteran issues,
21:08
Speaker 6: and that's how we connected. So Dustin, first tell me,
21:11
Speaker 6: if you don't mind, what branch of the military and
21:13
Speaker 6: how long did you serve.
21:16
Speaker 1: I was in the United States Army for nine years.
21:18
Speaker 3: The first two was reserves, the next five was active duty,
21:21
Speaker 3: and the last two was National Guard Texas National.
21:23
Speaker 4: Guard Active duty, where.
21:26
Speaker 3: I was stationed at Fort Bragg for a couple of years,
21:29
Speaker 3: and one of my deployments was with the eighty second
21:31
Speaker 3: Airborn Division and from there I went to Fort Hood
21:33
Speaker 3: Active duty and deployed with first Cavalry Division.
21:37
Speaker 4: Wow, that's that's pretty cool.
21:38
Speaker 6: So all right, let's let's talk about a couple of
21:40
Speaker 6: different things within that experience that you had. What made
21:43
Speaker 6: you want to join the military? To begin with, Oh,
21:47
Speaker 6: I know that's a top one for a lot of people.
21:50
Speaker 1: Nothing in particular, really.
21:52
Speaker 3: It all started when I was eleven years old, and
21:54
Speaker 3: that's how young it was, and I realized I want
21:57
Speaker 3: to join the.
21:57
Speaker 1: Army, and as soon as I turned and day team.
22:00
Speaker 3: Within a month month and a half after that, I
22:02
Speaker 3: was already in process going through the Military Entrance Processing
22:07
Speaker 3: station in Houston.
22:08
Speaker 4: Wow.
22:09
Speaker 6: And so you just wanted to be There was nothing
22:12
Speaker 6: like that had occurred that made you want to serve.
22:14
Speaker 6: No family connection to military life or military service.
22:18
Speaker 2: Well, neither my.
22:19
Speaker 3: Mom or dad was in the military. My dad's parents,
22:24
Speaker 3: neither of them were. But my mom's parents, her dad
22:27
Speaker 3: was in the US Air Force back in the mid
22:30
Speaker 3: late fifties and he only started about five or six years.
22:36
Speaker 3: He wasn't really an influence. But when I was twelve,
22:39
Speaker 3: I was in boy Scouts and we.
22:41
Speaker 1: Had a scout master that was in the Army. So
22:43
Speaker 1: that was my first.
22:46
Speaker 3: I went to person I looked up to, and from
22:49
Speaker 3: there I went to high school and did four years
22:51
Speaker 3: of Army ROTC there and my instructor there was another mentor,
22:54
Speaker 3: so that solidified my decision.
22:57
Speaker 4: That's amazing.
22:57
Speaker 6: So tell me about the experience of actually being in
23:00
Speaker 6: the military for you, and I'm going to preface the
23:02
Speaker 6: question a little bit so that you know kind of
23:03
Speaker 6: where I'm going with it. I've heard a lot of
23:06
Speaker 6: different answers to questions like this. I've heard people say
23:09
Speaker 6: that every moment they cherish and they wouldn't, you know,
23:13
Speaker 6: change anything. And I've had people tell me that there
23:15
Speaker 6: were a lot of negatives with their own unique experience.
23:18
Speaker 6: And I've had a lot of veterans point this out too.
23:21
Speaker 6: That doesn't mean that other people shouldn't shouldn't do this.
23:24
Speaker 6: They're not trying to discourage anyone that feels the calling
23:27
Speaker 6: to serve our country. But there is sometimes a reality
23:30
Speaker 6: to a discussion about the pros and cons of not
23:34
Speaker 6: just the service itself, but the impact in your life
23:36
Speaker 6: for the rest of your life after. So for you,
23:39
Speaker 6: what was the experience like?
23:42
Speaker 1: It wasn't bad. There's a lot of dog at pony shows,
23:46
Speaker 1: if you will, sure, a bunch of.
23:49
Speaker 3: Stupid stuff that you know your higher up superiors want
23:53
Speaker 3: it done. And you're like, why do we have to
23:54
Speaker 3: do this? Why do I have to mock the sidewalk
23:57
Speaker 3: outside when it's ring. Yeah, But aside from the details
24:02
Speaker 3: that they have us do like that, everything else is great.
24:05
Speaker 3: It's all in the experience you have with your friends
24:08
Speaker 3: you deployed with telling me to build camaraderie and each
24:10
Speaker 3: other is all you have out there in the battlefield,
24:13
Speaker 3: and that's what makes the bond even stronger because you
24:16
Speaker 3: do everything together.
24:18
Speaker 1: That's where that was saying comes where I missed the
24:21
Speaker 1: clowns but not the circus.
24:24
Speaker 4: Well, tell me, do you still get to talk to
24:25
Speaker 4: a lot of people that you serve with.
24:28
Speaker 3: I do.
24:28
Speaker 1: I talk to them whenever I get the chance.
24:31
Speaker 3: It's not like every day, But I think everyone that's
24:34
Speaker 3: in the military community, a veteran community can relate to this.
24:37
Speaker 3: That you can literally not talk to one of your
24:40
Speaker 3: fellow veterans for you know, months or years, and then
24:43
Speaker 3: one day you decide to pick up and talk to
24:46
Speaker 3: them and it's like it was yesterday that you talked
24:49
Speaker 3: to them.
24:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, No.
24:51
Speaker 6: I think that is true for a lot of people
24:52
Speaker 6: that they say that, and I've actually seen it. So
24:54
Speaker 6: I went to a reunion for a ship for the
24:58
Speaker 6: Navy that I think decommissioned, and the people there hadn't
25:02
Speaker 6: seen each other for fifteen twenty years, and it was
25:04
Speaker 6: amazing to watch the way they connected and how quickly
25:07
Speaker 6: all of that kind of just came.
25:08
Speaker 4: Back for everyone.
25:10
Speaker 6: So in that same vein, I guess I would ask
25:13
Speaker 6: you if you think that, looking back on serving in
25:17
Speaker 6: the military, the real true benefit was those connections in
25:22
Speaker 6: the way that you better understand something that so few
25:25
Speaker 6: people civilians definitely don't understand. Because I heard in your
25:29
Speaker 6: answer previously that there were negatives that you had, you know,
25:33
Speaker 6: experiences where you didn't understand why you were asked to
25:36
Speaker 6: do something, and looking back in those moments, it doesn't
25:39
Speaker 6: make it quite as rosy of a discussion.
25:42
Speaker 1: Not exactly.
25:42
Speaker 4: No, yeah, yeah, So.
25:44
Speaker 6: I'm wondering, then, do you think that, like if you
25:46
Speaker 6: were telling a young person today contemplating joining the military,
25:50
Speaker 6: lifelong friendship is the big takeaway.
25:53
Speaker 1: That is one of the big takeaways.
25:55
Speaker 3: But I do believe that someone fresh out of high
25:58
Speaker 3: school going into the military, it is a very good
26:01
Speaker 3: stepping stone, a very good foundation to starting your life. Sure,
26:06
Speaker 3: you know, you can do three years minimum ACTI duty
26:08
Speaker 3: time and that will qualify you one hundred percent for
26:11
Speaker 3: the GI bill, And if you join in Texas, you
26:13
Speaker 3: get the Hazelwood Act, which is one hundred and fifty
26:15
Speaker 3: hours of college at community college. But while you're in
26:19
Speaker 3: you can use tuition assistance and mind you the GI
26:23
Speaker 3: bill does not expire.
26:24
Speaker 1: It is forever.
26:24
Speaker 3: If you're discharged January twenty thirteen year later, then you
26:28
Speaker 3: can use it anytime you feel like it. So there's
26:30
Speaker 3: plenty of college benefit there, not to minute, not to
26:34
Speaker 3: mention en listening bonuses if you get a mos A
26:38
Speaker 3: job that they're needed badly. Sure, But the takeaway from
26:43
Speaker 3: that is when you get out of the military, you
26:46
Speaker 3: can go to college and you're not going to be
26:49
Speaker 3: in any debt or wrack up any debt from you know,
26:51
Speaker 3: the federal programs.
26:52
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So let me ask you this, do you
26:54
Speaker 4: have any disability?
26:56
Speaker 5: I do.
26:57
Speaker 1: I am eighty percent rated with the VA.
27:00
Speaker 6: And if you don't mind, because I know there's a
27:03
Speaker 6: lot of people that don't understand this, the way that
27:05
Speaker 6: that process works, and I know that a lot of
27:07
Speaker 6: veterans do understand it. You actually have to demonstrate to
27:11
Speaker 6: our government how serving the country impacted you and how
27:15
Speaker 6: on a scale of zero to one hundred disabled you are,
27:18
Speaker 6: and that then causes a certain amount of money to
27:20
Speaker 6: be sent to you as compensation for the harm done
27:23
Speaker 6: by service. I've heard that that's a grueling process to
27:26
Speaker 6: even demonstrate certain things and to have to like reapply,
27:30
Speaker 6: if you get rejected, or if disability isn't the level
27:33
Speaker 6: you want it to be. That there's a tremendous challenge
27:36
Speaker 6: in that process.
27:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very arduous process, and a lot of
27:39
Speaker 3: veterans that are fresh out of the military trying to
27:41
Speaker 3: navigate that. It's very difficult for them because they've never
27:44
Speaker 3: done it before. They're trying to do it. You know.
27:47
Speaker 3: I wish that they would make other government programs as
27:50
Speaker 3: hard as the VA benefits.
27:56
Speaker 1: But it is an arduous process.
27:57
Speaker 3: They have this thing what they call the calusive triangle,
28:00
Speaker 3: and it's like a three point triangle where you had
28:02
Speaker 3: to prove service connection that you actually.
28:05
Speaker 1: Have the disability and how it affects you every.
28:07
Speaker 5: Day and everything that I've got, I've been able to
28:11
Speaker 5: connect it with my service, with medical records from my
28:15
Speaker 5: time and service, or with the nexus letter that's been
28:17
Speaker 5: written by a doctor that said this is at least
28:20
Speaker 5: as likely as not, which is the key statement that
28:22
Speaker 5: you want in a nexus that will connect you to
28:28
Speaker 5: that disability.
28:29
Speaker 1: To your service.
28:30
Speaker 6: Sure, Dustin's let me let me ask you a different question.
28:33
Speaker 6: What made you want to jump on and be on
28:35
Speaker 6: the radio Because I put out a thing. And I
28:38
Speaker 6: said to any veteran that wants to be a part
28:40
Speaker 6: of this show that they can jump on and actually
28:42
Speaker 6: talk about anything. There is a moment and an opportunity
28:45
Speaker 6: within the next twenty minutes of our Honor discussion where
28:48
Speaker 6: even if it's not your military experience, if you want
28:50
Speaker 6: to promote something or talk about anything like a business,
28:53
Speaker 6: I'm fine with that.
28:54
Speaker 4: That is that's the intention of the segment.
28:56
Speaker 6: But I'm curious, because I got such a great response
28:58
Speaker 6: from so many vets, what is it that motivates you
29:01
Speaker 6: to want to discuss, you know, serving the military in general?
29:07
Speaker 1: He said that last part one more time.
29:09
Speaker 4: What what is it that makes you want to talk
29:10
Speaker 4: about a topic like this?
29:11
Speaker 2: Why?
29:12
Speaker 6: Why is there a drive for you to want to
29:14
Speaker 6: say yes to a radio guy who's looking for veterans
29:16
Speaker 6: to talk to.
29:18
Speaker 3: I think it's important for each veteran to be able
29:20
Speaker 3: to get their story out there, so that you know,
29:23
Speaker 3: everyone knows exactly what the veterans go through while they're
29:27
Speaker 3: in and what they go through post military service.
29:30
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's it's not always roses.
29:32
Speaker 3: Whenever you get out of the military, you kind of
29:35
Speaker 3: feel like you lose a sense of purpose. You have
29:38
Speaker 3: to find your purpose again in a different field, a
29:40
Speaker 3: different working environment than what you did in the military.
29:46
Speaker 4: No, I appreciate that.
29:48
Speaker 6: I don't mean to jump in, but I've heard that
29:50
Speaker 6: a lot that readjusting to civilian life there is like
29:54
Speaker 6: a sort of I don't I don't know, just an
29:57
Speaker 6: empty feeling of what am I supposed to do? And
29:59
Speaker 6: I found that a lot of veterans who involve themselves
30:02
Speaker 6: in the veteran community and do things like help create
30:06
Speaker 6: VFW events or something, they get some semblance of that,
30:09
Speaker 6: but it's not the same thing.
30:11
Speaker 4: But please talk about that a little bit more. The
30:14
Speaker 4: transition process.
30:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, the transition that can be kind of rough because
30:19
Speaker 3: you know, like whenever I went in, I stayed in
30:21
Speaker 3: the sand.
30:21
Speaker 1: Job for nine years.
30:22
Speaker 3: I used to work on army helicopters, four different types,
30:24
Speaker 3: and that's all I did. Wow, And when I left,
30:27
Speaker 3: it was like, what am I going to do on
30:29
Speaker 3: the civilian side, because if I want to go into
30:32
Speaker 3: aviation out here, I had to have a license, which
30:34
Speaker 3: I'm going to school currently right now to get.
30:37
Speaker 1: Otherwise I'm limited.
30:38
Speaker 3: To those particular aircraft because of the Army training I
30:41
Speaker 3: received I can do that as a contractor, which I
30:43
Speaker 3: did for ten years, and so I still kind of
30:46
Speaker 3: had my same job just as a civilian, you know,
30:48
Speaker 3: as ahead in the army.
30:50
Speaker 1: But after that, it's like, okay, where I go from here? Yeah,
30:56
Speaker 1: but I'm.
30:56
Speaker 3: Still working in like an aerospace environment. I'm working on
31:01
Speaker 3: on many different parts of different platforms, like the F
31:03
Speaker 3: twenty two, the F thirty five, Artemist you know, projects.
31:08
Speaker 1: Rockets as well.
31:09
Speaker 3: So we're going to have a lot of work coming
31:10
Speaker 3: up in the next three years between now and twenty
31:12
Speaker 3: thirty for Artemists three, four and five.
31:15
Speaker 6: Okay, you're just you're just rifling some stuff off that
31:17
Speaker 6: I barely understand.
31:18
Speaker 4: But that's pretty cool.
31:19
Speaker 6: So how wait, so how long do you project for
31:22
Speaker 6: some of these things that you're working on to actually
31:25
Speaker 6: be things that we see in the world, Like when
31:27
Speaker 6: did one of these next Artemis missions fire off?
31:31
Speaker 4: I guess is the question.
31:33
Speaker 1: Those next three rockets are going to be in the
31:35
Speaker 1: next three to five years.
31:36
Speaker 4: How does that feel to be someone that works on
31:38
Speaker 4: that To watch that happen?
31:40
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool.
31:41
Speaker 3: I mean, like to be able to see something in
31:44
Speaker 3: person or on TV and then look at it and
31:48
Speaker 3: say I worked on parts for that aircraft, you know,
31:50
Speaker 3: and to see that fly like I'm part of the
31:52
Speaker 3: reason why it's flying.
31:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, people does that mimic the military service?
31:58
Speaker 6: Like do you feel a similary of value that you're
32:02
Speaker 6: providing to the country into society when you see that happen?
32:05
Speaker 3: Yeah? Actually I do. You know, I got some purpose again,
32:09
Speaker 3: and to see something like that take off and go
32:12
Speaker 3: into space this purpose, there's reason behind people going into space.
32:15
Speaker 4: Yeah.
32:17
Speaker 6: Well, let me ask you this because I've heard this
32:19
Speaker 6: a lot too from just the discussion, and I apologize,
32:22
Speaker 6: but it's going to be a little bit heavier of
32:24
Speaker 6: a topic because I often talk about veterans suicide in
32:27
Speaker 6: the show. In this segment, twenty two veterans a day
32:29
Speaker 6: commit suicide. It's horrible. We need to do more to
32:33
Speaker 6: fix it. And I don't know how the community, how
32:36
Speaker 6: civilians become a part of that answer, because I do
32:40
Speaker 6: think a lot of veterans would probably feel more comfortable
32:43
Speaker 6: talking to other events vets than talking to civilians, if
32:46
Speaker 6: they talk to anyone at all. But I get this
32:49
Speaker 6: sense from you and from anyone that I've talked to,
32:51
Speaker 6: that chasing that sense of purpose. Is one of the
32:54
Speaker 6: biggest struggles of the rest of your life is finding
32:57
Speaker 6: something that at all mimics being you know, willing to
33:01
Speaker 6: be called upon to potentially die for the country. How
33:05
Speaker 6: does one go about handling that, handling the emotions of
33:08
Speaker 6: the day to day of not being in that role
33:12
Speaker 6: any longer.
33:14
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I myself, I deal with PTSD. I
33:18
Speaker 1: was just recently awarded that with the VA, and I
33:22
Speaker 1: didn't I.
33:24
Speaker 3: Knew something was a miss, but it was just a
33:26
Speaker 3: slow process over the course of like ten years to
33:31
Speaker 3: really realize that I've got something going on here.
33:33
Speaker 1: It ain't it ain't right.
33:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
33:37
Speaker 3: And just the army or any military branch they trained, train,
33:41
Speaker 3: train you for war, but when you come back, they
33:43
Speaker 3: don't train you for the war that you face when
33:45
Speaker 3: you get home, when you get out of the military.
33:47
Speaker 3: When it comes to dealing with mental illnesses like PTSD.
33:53
Speaker 6: I can ask you this way then too, because I've
33:54
Speaker 6: had a veteran tell me this. Do you think you're
33:56
Speaker 6: trained to be alone? Because one of the biggest struggles
33:59
Speaker 6: is mental health health, and yet a lot of veterans
34:01
Speaker 6: wind up on their own or even if like there's
34:05
Speaker 6: a family relationships that deteriorate because of the time and service.
34:09
Speaker 4: Which is a horrible.
34:11
Speaker 6: Reality too, that that one of the biggest things to
34:14
Speaker 6: break is that idea that you've been so conditioned to
34:17
Speaker 6: be so self sufficient that it's one of the biggest
34:19
Speaker 6: reasons you don't look for help, not from the community,
34:21
Speaker 6: not from other individuals you might know, you really just
34:24
Speaker 6: are trained to here's my problem, I'm going to fix it.
34:27
Speaker 4: It's just me.
34:28
Speaker 6: And in the world of mental health, that's almost impossible
34:31
Speaker 6: to achieve, but so many veterans seem to go that road.
34:34
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of veterans, including myself, have been used
34:37
Speaker 3: to adapt and overcome. You know, we'll find a way
34:40
Speaker 3: to make it work. Yeah, without with or without the
34:43
Speaker 3: help of somebody else. We're going to make you know,
34:45
Speaker 3: make sure the mission is accomplished. Yeah, and yeah, we
34:50
Speaker 3: can be the kind that is, you know, self sustaining.
34:53
Speaker 3: We don't need the help. And like, I just realized
34:56
Speaker 3: that the relationship I had with my family wife and
35:01
Speaker 3: it was lacking. I was feeling kind of inadequate, emotionally
35:04
Speaker 3: numb is Like I knew they were home physically, but
35:07
Speaker 3: I had my own tunnel vision. So again, it was
35:10
Speaker 3: like they weren't there, but I knew they were there physically.
35:13
Speaker 1: Wow, you know, kind of like a detached feeling. Yeah,
35:16
Speaker 1: that's when I'm okay, this is I need to go
35:20
Speaker 1: and get checked with the VA and what have you.
35:23
Speaker 6: Is that something that you feel like you've broken I
35:25
Speaker 6: thank you for talking about something like that publicly on
35:28
Speaker 6: a radio show, But is that something you feel like
35:30
Speaker 6: you've broken through on you found some sort of help
35:33
Speaker 6: with that.
35:35
Speaker 1: It's something that's going to take some time to try
35:38
Speaker 1: to correct. It's not an easy thing to correct.
35:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, I have talked to I'm going to tell you
35:46
Speaker 6: this story, and I just want your reaction to it.
35:48
Speaker 6: There was a captain on a ship who any time
35:51
Speaker 6: that they would come home for leave, and especially if
35:53
Speaker 6: family members didn't exactly expect them on a certain day,
35:57
Speaker 6: the captain would rent like five hotel rooms and they
36:00
Speaker 6: weren't for him, they were just for any of his
36:03
Speaker 6: his you know, military men and women that might wind
36:08
Speaker 6: up needing one because they might go home and they
36:10
Speaker 6: might not be in a situation that they're gonna wind
36:12
Speaker 6: up staying in. And I guess the plain way to
36:14
Speaker 6: say it, the less whatever way to say it is
36:18
Speaker 6: that some of these guys would return to situations where
36:21
Speaker 6: women were like actively cheating on them or something which
36:24
Speaker 6: was horrible. And I just wonder, and I've talked about
36:27
Speaker 6: this before, the toll of military service is so poorly
36:32
Speaker 6: understood by by civilians, by people who you know, thank
36:36
Speaker 6: you for your service is what we say, but we
36:37
Speaker 6: don't really think about what it truly means. And so,
36:40
Speaker 6: in that same vein and with what you're talking about here,
36:43
Speaker 6: finding that path to to fixing those problems or finding
36:47
Speaker 6: that path to handling some of the challenges that come
36:50
Speaker 6: with it, that must be one of the most daunting
36:52
Speaker 6: things you go through.
36:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, it's it is very much.
36:59
Speaker 4: So does it help to talk about it?
37:01
Speaker 6: Does this maybe not on this radio show here, but
37:05
Speaker 6: in general, like, do you do you find paths outside
37:08
Speaker 6: of maybe some sort of therapy where you're having conversations
37:11
Speaker 6: like this that that also help.
37:13
Speaker 3: Well, I'll kind of give you a rundown house gone
37:16
Speaker 3: for me, you know, since my first deployment, and I
37:18
Speaker 3: want to be completely open and transparent so that if
37:22
Speaker 3: other veterans that are listening to this might find some.
37:27
Speaker 1: Way of coping with theirs as well.
37:30
Speaker 3: My first apployment was in Kandahart, Afghanistan nine to ten
37:34
Speaker 3: with a second Airborn division, and we were getting hit.
37:37
Speaker 3: I was there for a year. We were getting hit
37:40
Speaker 3: three to five times a day, three to three to
37:42
Speaker 3: five days a week.
37:43
Speaker 7: Wow.
37:45
Speaker 3: And I had a couple of rounds that went off
37:49
Speaker 3: close to my tent in the first month and a
37:50
Speaker 3: half there. One came ripping through the tent roof one
37:54
Speaker 3: or two tenths over.
37:55
Speaker 1: It was a dud on. The second one was in
37:58
Speaker 1: the same general area that actually went off.
38:05
Speaker 3: We had another one that came landed halfway between me
38:09
Speaker 3: and a ten thousand gallon field ladder, and the halfway
38:11
Speaker 3: point was probably about one hundred and fifty feet from me.
38:16
Speaker 2: Wow.
38:16
Speaker 4: Man, Wow.
38:17
Speaker 1: We went through a lot.
38:19
Speaker 3: On that deployment, and its slowed down a little bit
38:22
Speaker 3: during the wintertime. But you know, I'll be talking to
38:25
Speaker 3: my mom on the phone and these incoming alarms will
38:28
Speaker 3: come over the PA system and then you know I had
38:31
Speaker 3: told my mom said, hey, gotta go love you click by.
38:34
Speaker 1: I never would tell her anything.
38:36
Speaker 2: Wow.
38:38
Speaker 3: So mother, you know, they they give birth to you,
38:41
Speaker 3: they raised you for eighteen years, and they're worried when
38:44
Speaker 3: you go into the military. They're even more worried when
38:46
Speaker 3: you joined during the time of war, and they're even
38:48
Speaker 3: more so worried when you actually do go down range
38:51
Speaker 3: to Afghanistan.
38:52
Speaker 1: Or wherever you're going sure combat.
38:54
Speaker 3: So I didn't want to tell her while I was
38:56
Speaker 3: here in Afghanistan any other stuff that I was up against,
39:00
Speaker 3: because I didn't want her to have to worry anymore
39:01
Speaker 3: than she had to. I didn't want her to carry
39:03
Speaker 3: that weight. I felt that I had to carry that weight.
39:06
Speaker 1: Sure, And that's what a lot of veterans do.
39:08
Speaker 3: They don't talk about what they went through and they
39:11
Speaker 3: want to carry the way, so they don't they don't
39:13
Speaker 3: burden other.
39:13
Speaker 6: People, and that behavior sticks after you get back. You
39:18
Speaker 6: kind of continue that same behavior exactly.
39:22
Speaker 3: And you know, it took me about two and a
39:24
Speaker 3: half years after March twenty ten when I came back
39:27
Speaker 3: to my first appointment, two and a half years to
39:29
Speaker 3: even tell half of the story of what happened. And
39:32
Speaker 3: then it took another two and a half years from
39:34
Speaker 3: that point to tell the other half of the story
39:37
Speaker 3: of that first deployment. And by that point I've already
39:40
Speaker 3: been deployed another year to Afghanistan and then nine months
39:43
Speaker 3: to Kuwait, and I was back to back oh nine, ten, eleven,
39:46
Speaker 3: twelve thirteen, and I started talking to just military veterans
39:52
Speaker 3: or active duty members who have deployed went to combat
39:56
Speaker 3: because I felt that they would be able to relate. Yeah,
39:59
Speaker 3: and then and I will start talking to veterans and
40:03
Speaker 3: ACTI duty members who had never deployed, and then eventually
40:05
Speaker 3: my family and then friends and now just talk about
40:09
Speaker 3: the experiences I went through because I.
40:11
Speaker 1: Feel that it helps me cope with what I went through.
40:14
Speaker 1: But I still have my moments to this day.
40:17
Speaker 6: Sure well, I will say again thank you for the transparency.
40:20
Speaker 6: And I have been amazed on this segment that I
40:24
Speaker 6: do the amount of veterans like yourself who are willing
40:27
Speaker 6: to have these discussions, and I profoundly believe that it
40:30
Speaker 6: helps all the people out there, all the veterans who
40:33
Speaker 6: just listen and don't want to jump on and use
40:35
Speaker 6: their voice to have a conversation like this. My wife
40:38
Speaker 6: is texting me during the show asking me to ask
40:41
Speaker 6: you how old you are, and then also saying to
40:43
Speaker 6: thank you for all of your service. I don't know
40:45
Speaker 6: if you want to tell us how old you are,
40:46
Speaker 6: but she's curious for whatever.
40:48
Speaker 1: Actually, I'm actually going on thirty none this snogum thirty nine.
40:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm forty years old man, so we're about the
40:52
Speaker 6: same age. And what's crazy about listening to you and
40:56
Speaker 6: anybody that fought in Afghanistan specifically because I have this,
41:00
Speaker 6: every generation says the generation before us, they really, you know,
41:04
Speaker 6: paved the way for what we wound up going through.
41:06
Speaker 6: But I do know warfare was different in Afghanistan. They
41:10
Speaker 6: say that, well maybe in Vietnam too, that the way
41:12
Speaker 6: that the combat was done was was so constant, and
41:15
Speaker 6: you referenced it a bit ago in your own experience
41:18
Speaker 6: that you were getting quote hit all the time. I
41:21
Speaker 6: imagine just the ability to ever feel calm again is
41:26
Speaker 6: even itself a challenged. Do you have any PTSD like
41:29
Speaker 6: if a car backfires or something, do you have any
41:32
Speaker 6: struggle with that?
41:33
Speaker 1: That's funny you mentioned that I got a couple of
41:35
Speaker 1: short stories I could bring up care So it was
41:39
Speaker 1: back in about twenty fifteen.
41:40
Speaker 3: I lost track that it was, you know, summertime with July,
41:45
Speaker 3: and it was daytime and I was sitting in a
41:47
Speaker 3: chair on the edge of the porch and all of
41:49
Speaker 3: a sudden, I hear something go off what was like
41:51
Speaker 3: an artillery shell, and I fell off the porch in
41:55
Speaker 3: my seat, taking the cover like not knowing what was
41:58
Speaker 3: going on. Then on me.
42:00
Speaker 1: I was like, damn four.
42:03
Speaker 4: All right, yeah it was given me fireworks that.
42:05
Speaker 6: Yeah, they say that about veterans On the fourth of July.
42:07
Speaker 6: You said there were two stories. What's the other one?
42:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the other one was probably, uh, sometime in
42:14
Speaker 3: mid twenty fourteen, I guess, uh, summertime again.
42:18
Speaker 1: I think I can't catch your break now. I was.
42:22
Speaker 3: I had an old twenty thirteen Ford Fiesta four door car,
42:26
Speaker 3: and I was working at Halliburton while I was finishing
42:29
Speaker 3: up my National Guard.
42:30
Speaker 1: Time over in Conroe. And uh, I'm leaving Halliburton and.
42:35
Speaker 3: I come under the bridge making you turn to go
42:37
Speaker 3: towards for Fortunen eighty five and a lot of da
42:40
Speaker 3: da da, and all of a sudden, and.
42:43
Speaker 1: I swear I pulled over a gas station Like what that.
42:47
Speaker 3: I went back and I seen that a soda can
42:50
Speaker 3: had exploded in the back.
42:52
Speaker 6: Oh man, dude, No, you cannot catch a break. That's crazy.
42:56
Speaker 1: Oh man.
42:57
Speaker 6: Well, and actually, you know what's interesting about that too,
42:59
Speaker 6: because you laughing as you tell these stories. I've noticed
43:02
Speaker 6: that one of the most powerful things that veterans possess
43:06
Speaker 6: that everyday people don't, that we need so much more
43:10
Speaker 6: in this society of crazy young people who think they're
43:13
Speaker 6: always the victim of everything. And I'm not trying to
43:15
Speaker 6: turn this to political on you, but there's a lot
43:17
Speaker 6: of people who feel that way. Is your ability to
43:20
Speaker 6: laugh off stuff that the rest of us can't even fathom,
43:23
Speaker 6: like your ability to find the silver lining, the ability
43:26
Speaker 6: of so many veterans to make fun of each other
43:28
Speaker 6: for literally any reason and then still be friends as
43:32
Speaker 6: they go through it. There's so much less sensitivity in
43:35
Speaker 6: the world of people who serve than anyone else.
43:37
Speaker 4: I wonder if you could talk about that.
43:38
Speaker 1: For a bit.
43:40
Speaker 4: What in particular, sorry, the lack of sensitivity.
43:43
Speaker 6: Veterans to me seem like people who are much more
43:46
Speaker 6: capable of, say, dealing with workplace drama than other young
43:50
Speaker 6: people are. Because you've been in way harder situations that
43:53
Speaker 6: the day to day, you know, dealing with the regular
43:56
Speaker 6: crap of life. It just seems that you're better suited
43:59
Speaker 6: to do it.
44:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I don't know how clean you want to
44:03
Speaker 3: keep your show as far as like first words or anything.
44:05
Speaker 4: I gotta keep it. You can't because I'll get fined
44:07
Speaker 4: by the FCC. So go ahead. It's a live radio show.
44:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll keep it. We'll keep it clean.
44:13
Speaker 3: I do believe that the military has a uh possesses
44:18
Speaker 3: a trait like you're talking about. We just shrug off,
44:21
Speaker 3: you know, things like water on a dust back. Yes,
44:24
Speaker 3: we don't take it personal. And in fact, we actually
44:28
Speaker 3: trade jabs with each other quite hard.
44:31
Speaker 1: That if we did that with the civilian we would
44:35
Speaker 1: probably be in HR.
44:37
Speaker 2: Dude.
44:37
Speaker 6: I love that you said it that way because I
44:39
Speaker 6: remember I was at a different thing. I think it
44:41
Speaker 6: was at a VFW and this guy comes in as
44:43
Speaker 6: black guy, and there's two white guys and they all
44:45
Speaker 6: serve together, and they're saying the most racist stuff back
44:49
Speaker 6: and forth to each other. And I'm sitting there thinking
44:51
Speaker 6: like this has gotta be bad. This is somebody's can
44:54
Speaker 6: get in trouble. And they're all just like laughing and
44:56
Speaker 6: hugging and hitting each other, and they just kept going.
44:58
Speaker 6: And then one of the guys was so they kept
45:00
Speaker 6: making fun of him like it was incredible. A twenty
45:03
Speaker 6: five minute tearing each other apart, and all of them
45:06
Speaker 6: like we're drinking and having fun the entire time. That
45:09
Speaker 6: would devastate a bunch of like young people who couldn't
45:11
Speaker 6: handle it. But I think there's something really valuable about
45:14
Speaker 6: that ability to behave in a way where a lot
45:18
Speaker 6: of stuff in life is not as important as people
45:20
Speaker 6: treat it.
45:22
Speaker 3: See, with veterans, we have a sense of humor that
45:25
Speaker 3: civilian civilians will not get.
45:27
Speaker 1: We have a dark twitter sense of humor, and we
45:31
Speaker 1: find the humor in it. Civilians won't.
45:34
Speaker 3: And it could be some of the most off the
45:36
Speaker 3: wall politically incorrect, racially motivated whatever stuff. Yeah, it could
45:41
Speaker 3: be anything, but between us veterans, we know there's no
45:44
Speaker 3: hard feelings. We're just you know, giving each other jobs
45:48
Speaker 3: like nobody's business.
45:50
Speaker 6: Well and honestly, honestly, like that is so refreshing, Like
45:54
Speaker 6: our society needs so much more of that than we
45:57
Speaker 6: currently have, And I think a lot of people would
45:59
Speaker 6: do so much much better if they could find a
46:02
Speaker 6: way to see all of that with humor instead of
46:05
Speaker 6: with something else. We only have about four minutes left,
46:07
Speaker 6: and I do want to give you the ability to
46:08
Speaker 6: talk about anything you want.
46:09
Speaker 4: If there's something.
46:10
Speaker 6: It doesn't have to be specific to your military experience,
46:13
Speaker 6: anything else that you want to discuss.
46:14
Speaker 4: You got a few minutes to do it.
46:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do have. I'll share a little bit.
46:19
Speaker 3: So there was something that was posted on Facebook, right,
46:23
Speaker 3: I think it was ABC thirteen News.
46:26
Speaker 1: They were talking about the LGBTQ community.
46:30
Speaker 3: Sure, and talking about the parade that was going to
46:33
Speaker 3: be postponed until August and everything. While me being a veteran,
46:37
Speaker 3: I went and commented something that was very politically incorrect. Okay, now,
46:43
Speaker 3: mind you. My first and last name is on my
46:45
Speaker 3: Facebook profile, but it's been changed to Longfellow Deeds.
46:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
46:49
Speaker 1: I thought that this is the reason why I did it.
46:51
Speaker 1: I love my Facebook, and I changed my name.
46:54
Speaker 3: I took the company I worked for off of there,
46:56
Speaker 3: because wow, somebody decided to take snapshots in my man
47:00
Speaker 3: take snapshots of my Facebook profile and they sent it
47:04
Speaker 3: because they see my company that I worked for on there.
47:06
Speaker 1: They sent it to my company's HR. Why. I thought
47:09
Speaker 1: I was getting called into the senior.
47:11
Speaker 3: Vice president, which is just under the CEO related to
47:14
Speaker 3: the injury I have from nitrogen liquid nitrogen burn. And
47:18
Speaker 3: but I go in there and she sends me down.
47:21
Speaker 3: She swings the computer around. It shows me the snapshots,
47:24
Speaker 3: and I'm like, what.
47:25
Speaker 4: In the world, what the hell is that?
47:28
Speaker 3: I mean, what if I have like a daughter, or
47:31
Speaker 3: you know, my wife is going through like chemotherapy and
47:34
Speaker 3: that's my way of being able to take care of them.
47:36
Speaker 3: But then somebody wants to take snapshots to try to
47:38
Speaker 3: ruin my livelihood because they couldn't take her full words.
47:42
Speaker 6: Well, you know, you know what, I don't even really
47:44
Speaker 6: care what you said, to be honest, because part of
47:46
Speaker 6: me was thinking like maybe I should ask, but I
47:47
Speaker 6: don't actually care because it's also it's all, well, now
47:49
Speaker 6: it doesn't matter. It's also a foundational aspect of our
47:52
Speaker 6: society that you have the freedom of speech, being able
47:54
Speaker 6: to go out and say something.
47:56
Speaker 4: Shouldn't cost you your job. That's not in the United
47:59
Speaker 4: States America. Go ahead and.
48:00
Speaker 3: See that's one of the things that they my company
48:03
Speaker 3: got me on this said did you or did you
48:04
Speaker 3: not sign the social media use policy? And I was like,
48:08
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I thought that was governing the
48:10
Speaker 3: computers here at work.
48:11
Speaker 1: I do aut side of work.
48:13
Speaker 3: But I can't understand where you're coming from with the
48:15
Speaker 3: company name being on my profile and how it looks
48:17
Speaker 3: bad on the company, myself and the customers and all that.
48:19
Speaker 3: I disagree.
48:21
Speaker 6: You're being very politically nice man, and that's fine, and
48:23
Speaker 6: you probably should.
48:25
Speaker 3: I think they could have fired me, honestly, but she
48:28
Speaker 3: gave me a second chance, and I'm glad you did.
48:32
Speaker 1: But I was kind of thinking in the sense like,
48:33
Speaker 1: wait a minute.
48:34
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a disabled combat veteran, and I'm not
48:38
Speaker 3: trying to, you know, be egotistical or anything like that,
48:42
Speaker 3: be facetious, but you know, I'm one of the many people,
48:45
Speaker 3: many veterans that have helped preserve their freedom of speech.
48:48
Speaker 3: And if anyone truly really deserves their freedom of speech.
48:50
Speaker 4: Is me right? No, I amen to that wholeheartedly.
48:53
Speaker 6: And I'll even say one other thing that you're kind
48:56
Speaker 6: of talking about here, and we only have a minute,
48:58
Speaker 6: so we're gonna have to get that out of here
49:00
Speaker 6: pretty quickly. But I think that if you had been
49:02
Speaker 6: approached by whoever this crazy person was to try to
49:05
Speaker 6: get you fired from a job, and they wanted to
49:07
Speaker 6: have an honest conversation with you, you seem like the
49:09
Speaker 6: kind of guy that would have one with them on
49:11
Speaker 6: any topic. Be like, all right, well, this is what
49:12
Speaker 6: I think and that's what you think. And at the
49:14
Speaker 6: end of the day, we don't have to agree. Society
49:16
Speaker 6: allows us to have different thoughts. But the fact that
49:19
Speaker 6: people don't do that, they don't choose a direct path
49:22
Speaker 6: to a conversation with someone they think they disagree with.
49:25
Speaker 6: It's one of the other huge problems we have in
49:27
Speaker 6: society right now is that you don't even want to
49:29
Speaker 6: try to address an issue, address a comment, maybe it's
49:32
Speaker 6: just a joke, whatever it might be. You want to
49:34
Speaker 6: go around and try to get people in as much
49:38
Speaker 6: trouble as possible because people are too weak to have
49:41
Speaker 6: direct conversation.
49:42
Speaker 1: I honestly think that that person should have fought fire
49:44
Speaker 1: with fire.
49:45
Speaker 3: If I'm saying, sure, hateful angry words that you can
49:48
Speaker 3: give me hateful angry words back to me, but no
49:50
Speaker 3: needs to escalate to try.
49:51
Speaker 1: To get me fired. Yeah, now, no, it's not my fault.
49:55
Speaker 1: You're not used to hearing. You're used to hearing what
49:58
Speaker 1: you want to hear, but you're not used to hearing what.
50:00
Speaker 7: You need to hear.
50:00
Speaker 4: Amen. Yeah, all right, we got to go.
50:02
Speaker 6: Man, Thank you so much for everything that you did
50:05
Speaker 6: in serving this country and also in having this conversation
50:08
Speaker 6: with me today, Dustin, it was really truly a pressure
50:11
Speaker 6: pleasure and I hope to talk to again soon.
50:14
Speaker 1: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on.
50:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, no problem.
50:17
Speaker 6: All right, we got to get out of here. This
50:18
Speaker 6: is the Craig Collins Show, KSCV, The Voice of Texas.
50:22
Speaker 6: More coming up the rest of the night. You got PAGs,
50:24
Speaker 6: get everything else. We'll see you later on. Today, I
50:27
Speaker 6: think I'm going to have to play some music in
50:29
Speaker 6: order to get out of here because I got to
50:30
Speaker 6: hit a thing over there.
50:32
Speaker 4: So all right, talk to you next time.
50:33
Speaker 5: Guys,