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Dog Tag Diva- Mike Evans · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:06
Hi, I'm Mike Richmond of the US Department of Veterans Affairs
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with information on an important free resource for veterans, the
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VA Health and Benefits App. The tool is like a one stop shop
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Veterans can also manage existing VA claims, find the
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If you already use this app, please share your feedback on
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your phone's App Store. That's the VA Health and
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Benefits mobile app. I'm Mike Richman.
1:14
It was a little. It was a little, little Little
1:17
Rock and roll. Just a little woo.
1:19
Little hey, Little Rock and roll.
1:23
And it's a kind of woo get out of my way.
1:27
I roll all over you. Good evening everyone and happy
1:54
Tuesday. Welcome to the Dog Tag Diva
1:56
Podcast. I am excited to have a very
1:59
special guest on and an old friend from way back Yonder in
2:03
the high school days. I'd like to welcome my friend
2:07
Mike Evanson show. Welcome, Mike.
2:09
Thanks for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me.
2:13
I'm happy to have you on. Please tell everyone a little
2:16
bit about yourself so we know each other from way back.
2:23
Graduated high school, joined the military right out of the
2:25
gate. Kind of was a a goal that I was
2:29
going to do ever since I was young.
2:32
Served as the Navy. Had multiple roles came in.
2:35
Originally came in the Navy as a rescue swimmer for aircrew.
2:39
Transitioned into damage to patrolmen, so a firefighter and
2:44
then after 911 transferred into security forces where I kind of
2:47
stayed the rest of my career. Did 27 and change.
2:52
Had two higher ten year waivers where I tried to retire twice
2:55
twice and the Navy told me no. Don't really know what that was
2:59
all about, but hey, it's a thing.
3:00
And they're retired. And now I I work for Department
3:05
of Navy as a civilian and actually really like retirement.
3:10
Well, that's good because a lot of people I know that left the
3:15
military tend to struggle when they get out.
3:18
And one of the things that I have noticed is that it tends
3:23
to, it depends on what your career was in the service and
3:25
how long you were in the service.
3:28
And some people have a harder time because your career or job,
3:32
so to speak, in the Navy doesn't always transition to something
3:36
outside of. Outside of military life and 27
3:40
years is a long time and I've got 12 1/2 like hang on just
3:45
hang on for the last 7 1/2. I mean it.
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It's a it's a transition. I mean, the longer you've been
3:52
in, like you said, it's it's what, you know, it's your
3:54
lifestyle, it's a lot of sacrifice in what you do and
3:59
what you have to give up in order to do your job.
4:03
And I think finding your finding your purpose afterwards is
4:07
really hard the longer you stay because, I mean you always have
4:12
the sailors. So I always go on soldiers,
4:13
sailors, airmen, Marines, right. So you always got those people
4:16
that you're always taken care of, like you always call them
4:19
ironically, always call them your kids because they all have
4:23
the same relativity as like you're you're trying to solve
4:26
their problems for them. And I think it's it's a big
4:29
thing when you retire. What?
4:33
So let's go back to the beginning for a little bit.
4:36
So you had always had this vision of joining the service
4:39
right out of high school. So ironic.
4:43
I was talking to my mother about this today, right.
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So I can remember back when I was about five years old, my my
4:50
uncle retired from the Army at Fort Bragg, you Special Forces,
4:54
Ranger, etcetera and pomp circumstance of the Army.
4:58
If you ever been around the army, they are very big on a
5:00
pomp and circumstance. Everything.
5:03
Just. I loved Fort Bragg at the time.
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I was five years old. I remember at the end of the
5:08
service, my mother will tell you all day long I disappeared and I
5:12
went to the commanding general, 'cause I didn't understand the
5:14
chain of command. And I said, how do I enlist at
5:18
five years old? He's like, son, Son, you're not
5:19
old enough. You can't do this right now.
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I was like, OK, well, I get it. And of course, he wouldn't tell
5:25
my mother. Hey, your son's trying to list
5:26
at five years old, but then all through high school, I I really
5:31
didn't know what I wanted to do. I played sports and everything
5:33
else and turned 18, walked into the recruiter's office.
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Ironically, I went to the Marines first.
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The Marines. I said, hey, sign me up.
5:44
I was AI was a recruiter's dream and Marines were like, well,
5:47
what do you want to do? I said I don't know yet.
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I said here's what I want to do. They said they can't.
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We can't really promise you your job, but we're going to make you
5:54
infantry first and we'll figure out later.
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And he was a submariner Navy guy who walked around the corner,
6:00
said, hey, we'll promise you a job and we'll give you a signing
6:04
bonus on top of it. And I was like, oh, money and a
6:07
job. OK, cool.
6:08
Yay, sounds good. And I signed contract as A at
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the time I was right after about a week after my birthday in
6:15
December, signed a contract, came home and told my mother,
6:18
hey, I just joined the military. She.
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Said what my mother's like. What did you just do?
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I said, well, I signed everything because I'm 18, so
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it's it's legal, right? I'd already she's like courses
6:33
trying to talk me out of it. I was like, well, I already
6:35
signed the papers. I think it's legally at this
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point. So finished high school.
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I mean knock on wood, I I graduated.
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I think like .3 credits to spare.
6:47
So there's really not a lot of college hope in my opinion at
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that point. But joined left for boot camp.
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I had never left, you know, New Jersey at that point and they
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flew me to San Diego. Wow.
7:00
So did you always want to join the Navy, or had you just kind
7:04
of figured this is the closest recruiting office?
7:06
Let me go here and things just kind of found the place.
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Well so different members of my family have always served so
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uncles were army, my father's Marines at the time.
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I want to join Marines cause Marines were infantry.
7:18
It was a strong branch. It was the a more aggressive
7:21
branch, just the generation we grew up in.
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I think I I served as a paramedic and a firefighter
7:27
through high school and I was like, OK, well, I want to do
7:31
something fun and aggressive and more was the security with the
7:36
Navy, like, OK, the Navy's going to guarantee me a school and a
7:38
job, whereas Marines at the time were like, we're just going to
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make you infantry. We just can't promise you
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anything. Right.
7:46
I'm just laughing at your story about when you came home and
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told your mom what you did, 'cause I had a very similar with
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with my mother. I'm like, hey, I joined the
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Navy. She's like, what the fuck did
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you just do? And I was 35 at the time, so I,
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you know, a little later I decided to join, but had a lot
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of uncles and a grandfather that served during World War 2 and
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just kind of felt this need to serve my country and.
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The idea of being the first woman in my family to serve
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really kind of appealed to me and carry on the family
8:22
tradition. And that was my mother's
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response. And I think my father was like,
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well, it's not the stupidest decision you've ever made, like,
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well, that's good. OK well, I remember, I remember
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distinctly after I, I enlisted. My grandfather was a Navy
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chaplain and we're at a vacation house and he said he he was one
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of those. I mean, our generation, the, the
8:43
grandparents were always quiet, I think, and he never really
8:46
talked that much. And then he, he pulled me aside,
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sat me down on a on a bench and he's like, why do you want to do
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this? I said, well, I want to go do
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something, something that matters.
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You know, I got again our generation.
8:59
We didn't have all the stuff the generation now has for
9:01
motivation. And I said, well, this is what I
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want to do. And he's like, well, I prefer
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you don't. I already signed the grant.
9:08
I already signed the papers. We don't really have a
9:09
discussion. I said, but this is my choice,
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and I remember distinctly when I was in boot camp, he had sent me
9:18
a letter and it was, it was, it was typed, if you remember the
9:22
old typewriters, which most generations don't typed all
9:25
throughout. But it was all about, it was all
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about how proud he was, the decision I made.
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So I was. I always kept that letter for a
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long time. That's really awesome.
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What does that letter mean to you now looking back on this?
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Incredible 27 year career that you had.
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He had a lot of fears you know he he was you know I probably
9:51
want to say Vietnam era kind of chaplain.
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He he always talked about the memorial services he had to
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chair. It means a lot.
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I mean, because he knew what I was walking into.
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And then after 27 years, I did a lot of tours in Iraq and
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Afghanistan. I didn't realize what I was
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walking into. I knew what again, young
10:10
military. You don't really realize what
10:13
you're going to endure throughout your tour.
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I mean, I I know you've deployed.
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I mean things you've had to see and do, which I'm sure we'll
10:20
talk about. But it's just it's a challenge.
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And I mean just I think at the time he didn't want me to have
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to deal with what I would have to do or see.
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And later I would realize that in my career.
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But at the time, it was like most young military.
10:35
It's all glory. Yeah, I think it's I think you
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know especially for our generation we didn't have all
10:44
the technology and things that they do now.
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So I think we were out and about more and we were running around
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the neighborhood and we were you know just outlet amongst people
10:54
more and we wanted to do and be productive and we were motivated
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and I think. So that kind of shaped a lot of
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what, you know, kind of how we've, you know, evolved into,
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you know, this the current, you know, kind of generation that we
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have and how we get motivated and stay motivated.
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And you know, they talk about World War 2 being the Greatest
11:15
Generation. And we're, you know, we're
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losing a lot of our World War 2 veterans now because they're,
11:19
you know, they're aging, they're.
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And those I, I, I volunteer for Honor Flight.
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And those are the guys that are just they're just the coolest.
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Guys like, they're still like one of the gentlemen was, he was
11:34
like 104 and he just came like strolling off the plane like it
11:38
was nobody's business. And I'm like, he's moving better
11:40
than I am. Like, what is going on here?
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But it's just kind of incredible to see them, to talk to them,
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hear their stories and, you know, you know, preserving a lot
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of that history and tradition that.
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You know, we really, you know, we need to get it sooner rather
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than later because we're losing them at a rapid pace.
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God bless them because they're, you know, in their mid to late
12:04
90s and some of them are over 100.
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And I walk out of the room and I forget what the hell I was going
12:10
in there for and these guys are, you know, recalling stuff from,
12:13
you know, way back when. It's just crazy to think about,
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you know, that's what we like. That's not what we have to live
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up to. That's the reputation.
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That's the standard. We stand on like the shoulders
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of giants. And you know, I think I've, I've
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got 7 1/2 years left. And that's kind of what keeps
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fueling me to keep going and stay motivated to lead the
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generation that's, you know, coming up behind me where like
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where where are you at now that you've been?
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How long have you been out and moved back on your career?
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What is it? What are your thoughts on like
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where we were and where we're headed?
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Well, so I mean, I retired in 2020.
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I had a rough outgoing. We'll call it that and we'll,
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I'm sure we'll talk about that. But I think one of the big
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things for me is I have a friend that her son is in the Marines,
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just recently graduated boot camp.
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He's in the military, He's doing, was it armed, heavy arms
13:13
and everything else. And I said, you know, the hard
13:15
thing for him because he wants to make it a career.
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I said the one of the big things I think for him is the
13:21
generations up until the fall of Afghanistan we had, we had a
13:24
purpose, we had a why. And I said I feel like a lot of
13:29
the troops nowadays, the military, whether it's Army,
13:32
Navy, Marine Corps, whatever it is, the why is the hard part.
13:36
Are you doing it for college, which was a was a brief thing.
13:39
You know, Marines, Army, it's a different breed.
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But what's your why, why, Why are you choosing to go to
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battle? Because you don't have that
13:46
experience. You don't have the fight for
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Afghanistan, the fight for 911, the fight for the coal.
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You don't have that history yet. So finding your why, if if
13:57
conflict comes it you have to define why you're in that fight.
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So what was it like for you? So you were in the service
14:06
before 911, So what was it like for you joining?
14:09
And then 911 happens and then afterwards.
14:15
So 911 was a huge transition. I'm sure like everybody else,
14:18
everybody will always remember where they were.
14:21
I was set to get out of the military.
14:23
I was all I had signed promissory paperwork for a job.
14:27
I was gonna go build race car motors at the time, ironically.
14:33
And then 911 happened and I remember getting called into my
14:38
C OS office and he's like, hey, you're stop lost.
14:42
I I sat in there and I'm like, I don't, I don't know what that
14:44
means. I was in E5 at the time and he's
14:47
like, well, your your papers to get out are stopped.
14:50
You're stopped indefinitely. And I just sat there and said,
14:54
well, you know, young E5, I'm like, I, I I don't understand
14:59
how this legality works. But they explained to me and I
15:03
was like, like, I'm sure like any junior sailor, you're a
15:06
little disgruntled, but you're like, OK, well, realizing what
15:09
just happened, you're angry and you want to get into the fight.
15:13
And so that that was a big thing I was trying to tag into,
15:17
however I could deploy at the time.
15:20
And then ironically, my ex-wife at the time, we had a child and
15:26
said, well, I guess I'm good, I'm still in the military
15:28
because I got to pay for a kid. But it was, it was a huge
15:32
transition. It was the anger, I think for
15:34
everybody. The anger, the the emotion,
15:38
everything that came along with 911 just fed your desire to
15:42
serve. And then so that's when you
15:47
transition from one job to the next.
15:49
At that point, yes, I transitioned from being a
15:52
firefighter to being law enforcement because the DMA rate
15:56
at the time was simply around 2000 and their goal was to go to
15:59
like 35,000 to increase the forces and just huge numbers
16:05
because they realized that the that's back when installations
16:08
had no gates you could pull up right to the headquarters
16:11
building. There's it was a totally
16:12
different world at that point from what we see now and at the
16:18
time the just the opportunities and everything else were a lot
16:21
more vast and gave a lot more capability to where it was more
16:26
appealing at that point. And what was the training like
16:30
that you had to go through to become part of like of security?
16:34
So you had to go to like a modified a school at the time
16:36
'cause they had modified their schools to incorporate the
16:39
numbers. Ironically the old for I hate to
16:44
keep referring to us as the old heads.
16:46
Blackwater was still a thing. We went spent six months of
16:51
Blackwater do nothing but learn how to shoot, how to do
16:54
different random things and train down there at for advanced
16:57
training based on what was going on in the world.
17:04
And where was that? And how long was that for?
17:06
Blackwater was in North Carolina Moyock, NC, now known as
17:11
Academy. But it was You had three to four
17:15
different courses you would attend.
17:16
That lasted about a month and a half.
17:18
Two months total. Wow.
17:22
Yeah, I'm just thinking about my, you know, my deployment to
17:25
to Afghanistan and, you know, we had, you know, several weeks of
17:29
training before. We went over and I actually kind
17:32
of enjoyed the combat train, if I'm being kind of honest, you
17:36
know, I like the opportunity to run around in the field with
17:39
guns and train on the convoy. And I mean, it's it's scary,
17:44
don't get me wrong, because you're, you know, they they want
17:47
to put you in roles that you're not used to.
17:49
So particularly for somebody like myself who's a nurse and
17:51
they're like, oh, you're going to be on security forces, I'm
17:54
like, OK, cool. But then you realize.
17:57
Like how real that shit is. And you're in America training
18:00
in every piece of paper. You're like, is that a bomb or
18:03
not? So it's I, You know, I have such
18:06
respect for those of you guys who were boots on ground and on
18:09
the convoys and things, 'cause that was really, I mean, quite
18:13
treacherous. And I had a friend of mine that
18:15
was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, dismounted for patrol,
18:20
stepped on an IED, and realized that he had tripped it, but had
18:24
had enough time to help everyone to get back.
18:28
And wound up saving a lot of people, but unfortunately it was
18:31
too late for him. But yeah, it's just, you know,
18:35
kicking in doors is kind of fun unless you're the first guy in
18:38
the first person in and you, you know, because you never know
18:42
what you're going to get when you, like, kick in that door and
18:45
what's going to be behind it. And so a lot of interesting
18:50
training that I valued. Like you said, shooting guns.
18:54
I didn't have any problem with that, minus the you know, you
18:57
learn how to go to the bathroom and the port, a potty and 100°
19:01
heat with all the shit on. Yeah, People will never realize
19:07
just how like entertaining your life is when you're downrange,
19:09
and how much you start to really love creature comforts.
19:14
Yeah, yes, exactly. You know, out running water was
19:18
like, Oh my God. My God, do I have to have this
19:24
MRE again with fucking Skittles? You can't have Skittles or Jinx.
19:31
Oh, I can't stand this. I give mine away.
19:33
I was like, who wants these nasty things?
19:35
Because I can't stand these. We got a couple of new ones out
19:38
that are actually pretty good. They've got like, tuna in them.
19:41
And there's a couple other ones that are like, oh, these aren't
19:44
actually aren't bad at all. And it's like, but that's like
19:48
that's our life right in the NOLA Tower.
19:49
It's like, oh, these are good. We'll oh apple, thank God, fresh
19:52
fruit. We don't.
19:53
We're not like, you know, pouring the water in and waiting
19:56
for it to heat up and then the shit is only half heated and.
20:01
Yes, I was watching a show the other day and I was talking
20:03
about those specifically and it's like, why are these so good
20:05
downrange? But then you come home and
20:08
they're the worst thing ever. It's.
20:10
Like oh. Yeah, you you learn to pack the
20:15
collase so that you don't get too bound up.
20:18
And that gum is like, oh, the gum helps you?
20:20
No, the gum was good for shit. Like does not help anything.
20:23
I don't know who told you that, but it doesn't work.
20:29
So how? What was your experience?
20:32
So how much training did you have to go through, like once
20:35
you finished your initial security training?
20:38
Was there more training before you deployed?
20:40
Or like you finish your train and they're like, OK, we're
20:43
sending you over. So most of my deployments, Iraq
20:47
and Afghanistan, so I did Iraq with, let's see how do we
20:52
explain riverine squadrons, which was a different breed.
20:56
It was a new thing. There was foot patrols and it
20:59
was modified because they were, at the time post coal.
21:02
There was a Mobile Security Attachment or Maritime Security
21:06
Attachment which required boats and patrols.
21:08
Then they came. Eventually came out of the
21:09
Riverine Squadron which required a different type of combat
21:13
organization. It had river.
21:17
Due to the Euphrates you do rivers up and down as well as
21:21
you would alternate foot patrols.
21:22
And then my Afghanistan deployments were more with Naval
21:25
Special Warfare and it's in a tech role.
21:31
Riverines, you go to a NECC training, you learn modified
21:34
weapons, you learn convoys, just a little more advanced stuff.
21:38
And then NSW, you learn a lot of stuff that's more cons related,
21:43
everything else and weapons related.
21:51
It's a lot. It's a lot to learn.
21:53
I'll be honest with you having to panic because we were
21:57
learning the radio, which was stressful in and of itself, and
22:00
then. Then they whipped out the mop
22:02
gear and you're like, Oh my God, you know?
22:06
And then you got to get in the gas chamber.
22:08
And I swear the Navy's going to eventually cure my
22:11
claustrophobia because they keep putting me in, like tight spaces
22:15
or putting me in the end raps and flipping them over.
22:18
And it's just I think, you know, people don't realize all the
22:23
stuff that we go through to actually get over to where we
22:26
have to get to. I mean, they see us.
22:29
With all our gear and bags loaded onto a bus and then you
22:32
know off we go and then they see us come back at the airport.
22:36
Hopefully we come back and you know the welcome home and but
22:40
there's there's so much stuff in between that you know he
22:45
realizes and you know you mentioned that you had a child
22:48
prior deployment. Well, you know, people don't
22:50
realize you have to make arrangements for before you
22:54
deploy. Like you have to have a will
22:56
and. You know, pop attorney and all
22:58
those things. And it's a it's a little freaky.
23:00
I mean to be, you know, honestly, I mean, you know, like
23:05
where do I want to be buried and you know, making arrangements
23:08
for, you know, your kid. I guess it's a lot to mentally
23:12
unpack and then have to physically pack and go over and
23:16
do what you have to do. I'll for the one thing I will
23:20
say the one biggest training I remember was my medical training
23:24
was the the live tissue lab if you've ever done it.
23:31
So doing live tissue lab that you know the consequences of not
23:34
understanding to me, I I don't like not understanding.
23:38
So obviously the impact of not understanding that that lab
23:42
which for anybody's watching it's a it's AI don't know how
23:46
would you explain it. You're the medical.
23:48
It's basically it's people who have donated their bodies to
23:51
medical science and we practice all sorts of procedures on them.
23:55
Intubations. Cricothyrotomy chest tubes.
23:59
Suturing any medical procedure that we may have to do in
24:03
combat, We practice on a dead body first before we go over.
24:10
You know, I always recommend bringing like essential oils to
24:13
drip onto your mask if you're going to be doing cadaver lab,
24:17
because there's a lot of odors that are floating just because
24:20
dead bodies don't. You know, they're preserved,
24:23
Sort of, but not really. And you know, whatever is, if
24:27
they had any kind of infection inside and then it comes out.
24:31
So yes, no to anyone who's ever going to do a cadaver lab, bring
24:34
essential oils with you because it'll you know it'll save the
24:37
day. Well, and I I remember we were
24:41
doing the pig lab, right. And you know we're going to the
24:46
the the final evaluation. Brilliant me says let's pair
24:50
with a medical professional. I had a doc in my class and I'm
24:54
like, OK well I can't go wrong if I have the doctor in my head
24:58
that that makes complete sense, right?
25:00
So when you go to the pig lab, if you're in pig lab, it's just
25:04
the worst can absolutely happen and you just have to save the
25:06
pig and hopefully Pete is not listening.
25:10
But but it because I about 5 minutes in I realized because I
25:16
have paired with the doctor it has now become a challenge for
25:19
the staff. So I mean I did I get good
25:22
training? Yes.
25:22
But I realized it was like they were they were doing everything
25:25
they could to challenge the Doctor at the same point.
25:27
So. Yeah, so learning how to be able
25:33
to sustain and do like immediate, you know, life
25:36
sustaining first aid on yourself and your buddies before you know
25:41
you can get them to be, you know, solid structures or bobs
25:46
we call them. To get them to the medical
25:50
personnel. I think people don't realize
25:52
that, you know, a lot of the personnel that are boots on
25:55
ground in combat, they're not medical.
25:58
You may have like a corpsman with you, like a Navy corpsman
26:01
who's kind of, you know, has some skills, but they're not
26:03
nurses or doctors per SE. We just like doc is just kind of
26:06
a term you guys need to know how to do, you know, intraosseous
26:12
lines, Start some fluids, give some meds maybe.
26:15
Do you know needle decompression?
26:18
Do some. Life saving quick things so you
26:20
can package them up and get them off and self tourniquet.
26:27
I'm laughing because you've probably done the same, you
26:29
know, skills lab that I have where you're just kind of
26:31
sitting in class and all of a sudden the whistle blows and
26:33
it's like self right arm buddy, left leg and you've got 30
26:36
seconds to keep done like and then ask what time do we put
26:42
that on? Put your marker out, put it on
26:46
there, mark the time. I did T Triple C back in
26:53
February and they gave us all IFAC kits and I got an extra 1.
26:57
So I gave one to Cliff and I have one myself and I keep it in
27:00
my car because you just never know when you're going to need
27:04
an IFAC kit. Well, it's ironic, I said.
27:07
Because I carry a Med kit in my in my truck or in my car, and
27:10
then I actually have IV kits in my fridge, so.
27:13
You just never know when there's going to be an accident or you
27:17
have a hangover. It comes with skills to come in
27:22
handy. So you had all this training.
27:26
How many deployments in total did you do 7?
27:31
Seven. That's a lot.
27:32
That's a lot of deployments and what time span about nine years?
27:40
Three to Iraq, 4 to Afghanistan. And how were were you always
27:46
gone the same amount of time or were they varied?
27:48
Each time I varied, I think I did one deployment where I as
27:53
much as I always joke on the Army, I love the Army, but they
27:58
didn't the commanding general at the time, Afghanistan, didn't
28:00
like the different forces were rotating at different times.
28:04
So everybody got operationally held in Afghanistan.
28:06
So we'd all rotate at the same time.
28:08
So I think that was a 10 month deployment in Afghanistan.
28:14
And what time of year were you there, the wonderful season?
28:20
But it's a dry heat, Mike. Come on, what's it that bad?
28:24
There's the, I always call it the fighting season and the and
28:26
the and the warm season. So like they they always like to
28:29
fight when it's warm and they hide when it's cold, so.
28:35
Oh, I remember those days of like it being 120° outside and
28:40
it's just even in the middle of the night.
28:41
It was just always just hot and everyone was like, is it really
28:45
that? Like yes, it does not matter
28:46
it's if it's a dry heat or not 120, it's still 120 and it
28:51
doesn't matter. And the friggin camel spiders I
28:57
will never forget sitting in a brief during a winter month and
29:03
the AG at the time, the area, the weather guy, they have to
29:06
give up and give their brief at the morning meetings and he's
29:09
like, well, there's a there's a 70% chance of snow.
29:12
And I remember the CEO at the time and I can remember his
29:15
name, but I won't say it he's just he stopped in the middle of
29:17
the brief. He's like, what do you mean 70%
29:19
chance. He's like, Sir, there's 70%
29:20
chance. So he's like, I walked to the
29:22
bathroom and there's snow on the ground and he's like, you could
29:26
just shut up for the rest of the day.
29:33
Oh gosh, the memories. So we're sitting here and we're
29:38
we're, we have to laugh about it because otherwise we'll lose our
29:41
minds. So what?
29:45
So was 10 months the longest that you were ever there?
29:48
Yep. Multiple times Iraq and
29:54
Afghanistan. Which one would you say?
29:59
Would you prefer one over the other if you had to go back?
30:03
Is that, like, a weird question was did you have better or worse
30:07
experiences in one than the other, or were they all equally
30:09
crappy? I mean, Iraq sucked because it
30:13
was urban warfare and there's just too many places you're
30:15
playing whack. Most people tell you it's whack
30:17
A mole. Afghanistan, it's the mountains.
30:20
It's it is what it is. I mean, I like to believe and
30:26
despite what everybody thinks, we were making a difference with
30:31
what we were doing. I know when I was there with
30:34
NSW, I feel like we're making a difference.
30:36
We met with certain governors, certain people, plans and
30:40
policies. Not my lane, but I feel like it
30:45
was a little more open, open for what was going on Iraq.
30:49
It was just it was too close to compact.
30:52
There was just too many complications and policy.
30:56
Interesting. So what were some of the things
31:01
that kind of impacted you with all these deployments and all
31:06
everything that you've kind of been through?
31:08
Like talk about some of the things that were just kind of
31:10
really difficult for you and we'll move into how you kind of
31:14
got to the other side of that well.
31:17
So it's kind of, I want to say it's a tough emotional question,
31:22
but it's I think in order to really be successful, it's hard.
31:29
I think it's hard to find balance sometimes grand families
31:33
are families. But I mean, I honestly think
31:35
when you're down range, you're committed.
31:39
So you kind of for the 6-7, whatever duration you're down
31:42
range in the dirt, you kind of have to be dedicated to the
31:45
people that are there. Not going to lie.
31:49
I've been in therapy for two years dealing with everything
31:53
that I've dealt with in my life. But it's it's hard when you
31:58
think about it because if you've been there, you've probably seen
32:02
the worst in mankind. I mean, being medical.
32:05
I mean, you're sure, I'm sure you've seen some things you wish
32:07
you could unseen or Unsee. It's it's it's fighting a lot of
32:12
demons. The things you see, the things
32:13
you don't see, the things you're not there for, whether it's
32:16
family, whether it's a graduation or something like
32:20
that. We all, we all give a lot of
32:22
sacrifice. And I think that takes a really
32:25
heavy toll. And as leaders, the more senior
32:29
you get, you kind of absorb the damage of your juniors, 'cause
32:34
you want. That's why I call them your
32:36
kids, 'cause you ultimately are trying to take care of them,
32:38
their life problems, manage their life problems.
32:40
And you're trying to absorb all that for as best you can.
32:45
I know I say I'm a lot sorry. That's.
32:47
OK, you're fine. And it's just it, it's hard.
32:52
Afghanistan, if you were mixed up in a lot of this stuff, you
32:56
saw the worst of the worst. You saw a friend's fall.
33:00
You saw evil come to come to light.
33:03
I'll never forget one scene in particular, role 2, the
33:08
different roles or different capabilities in Afghanistan.
33:11
Right. And we were doing a call out,
33:15
which is when you come to a house and you're trying to get
33:17
everybody to come out and everybody comes out and we say,
33:21
OK, send in the dog and we send the dog and clear the house and
33:24
oh, here's the dog go nuts. And it was a dog that decided to
33:29
tear up a 7 month old kid because they forgot to bring the
33:32
kid out, you know, Now we're trying to one get the dog to
33:37
calm down because it's the dog's mission.
33:39
But then we're trying to call in a helicopter, but you're trying
33:41
to get people vetted so they could be on the helicopter, so
33:45
they could be with the kid. And it's just, you know, there's
33:47
there's just a lot of travesty in some of the things a lot of
33:50
us have seen. And that's why I say for the
33:52
why, for the new generation, there's you're never going to
33:55
understand a lot of what we've seen already.
33:59
And then kind of what I'm writing too is it's not it's my
34:06
story, but it's you know, I had a lot of childhood issues.
34:09
I had a lot of stuff that fed into the military.
34:10
I've after 27 plus years, I've seen a lot of things and done a
34:14
lot of things. And you know, we in the military
34:17
have a really dark sense of humor.
34:19
Yes, we do agree. But you know, just working
34:25
through it for the past two years, it's kind of been a big
34:27
thing. But I was like, you know, I
34:29
just, I decided I wanted to write something that, you know,
34:33
tells a story and if it really helps that somebody can relate,
34:37
can't relate it it. It's not up to me, but it's it's
34:40
something that hopefully if somebody reads it goes, you
34:42
know, I just I dealt with that one issue kind of thing.
34:47
And I think that's really important.
34:49
One of the things that I try to do with this podcast is give
34:52
people a platform to tell their story.
34:56
A couple of years ago, probably more than that, I went.
35:00
I won a scholarship through the Navy Nurse Corps Association.
35:04
Down in Silver Spring, MD, And they invited me to come to their
35:09
annual luncheon to receive my scholarship.
35:12
If I couldn't make it, they were going to mail me the check.
35:13
But I felt that they're giving me money, I should go and meet
35:18
them and thank them in person. And I went and I met a lot of
35:23
retired Navy nurses, some of whom had served in Vietnam, and
35:27
I was trying to talk to a couple of them about what their
35:30
experience was like. Because we don't hear about it.
35:34
And they said, well, we, we really don't talk about it.
35:38
And I said, well, why? And she said, well, we were
35:41
treated poorly, just like the men were, and we were told to
35:44
shut up and not talk. And so nobody knows our real
35:49
story. And I was kind of appalled.
35:52
I'm going to be honest, I did not know that the women were
35:56
treated just as poorly as the men.
35:58
Like we knew the men were treated like crap from history.
36:01
I have family who talked about how horrible it was for the men
36:04
who came home from Vietnam and they were treated terribly.
36:06
I don't, I did not know that the women were treated just as bad
36:11
and it kind of really opened my eyes to pieces of history that
36:16
were missing. And you know we need to these
36:20
are the stories that we need to be telling because you know like
36:22
I said earlier these are the shoulders of the people that we
36:25
stand on and you know leading the generations to come and like
36:28
you said finding your why and. You're right, being a leader.
36:32
The older, I shouldn't say the older, the higher in rank you go
36:36
because it's more experience that you get.
36:38
You do absorb a lot of what's gone with your junior sailors
36:43
and if you are a good leader and doing it correctly, you are
36:47
leading them and guiding them by example because you are
36:50
listening to them and you're talking to them and with them
36:53
and you are available. To them.
36:55
So it's a double edged sword. You want to be a good leader
36:58
because that's how you lead from the front, right, as you model
37:01
the behavior. But at the same time you absorb
37:05
all of that too because you need to give them that space.
37:08
Because at the end of the day, you all have a mission to
37:11
accomplish and you have to be a team and be strong together in
37:16
order to move the fight and the mission forward.
37:20
It's such a struggle like you want to be a a leader, but it's.
37:25
It's hard. It's it's it's a challenge and
37:27
it does take its emotional toll on you as an individual and it
37:31
takes a toll on your family. What was it like for you being
37:35
separated from? You said you have a daughter.
37:38
Yeah. How did you stay connected with
37:41
her while you were deployed? And I'm sure as each deployment
37:45
it got different because technology changed with each
37:47
deployment. Well that's a very complicated
37:51
question as as time progressed my my ex-wife at the time and
37:58
I'm, you know, we kind of grew apart because my mission became
38:03
the big thing. Eventually I lost touch with my
38:05
daughter, unfortunately, and it became I'm.
38:13
I'm rarely in touch with my with her at this point, just because
38:17
there have been some issues with me and with her mother, and I
38:21
think a lot of that is just there's a large
38:23
misunderstanding. And honestly, I think part of
38:25
that was my mental state back then, so I don't know if I'm
38:31
really answering the question correctly, but.
38:33
No, I think you're answering it perfectly.
38:35
I think that, you know, one of the things that I find is that
38:41
especially the nurse and somebody who worked during the
38:43
pandemic and has been a nurse for a long time, mental health
38:47
is really not well understood. By civilians and the struggle of
38:53
veterans is very particular and I think that for people to tell
38:58
their be open and vulnerable to tell their story, I think it's
39:02
really important because I people need to understand the
39:06
struggle of a veteran and the shit that we go through have
39:09
been through potentially could go through.
39:13
I think that's an important message to put out there that.
39:17
We need mental health care. At the end of the day, it's a
39:21
problem in this country. Do you think that I'm trying to
39:27
think how to find the verbiage for this?
39:29
So in terms of mental health care, do you think we are better
39:35
now in terms of the care that we provide versus 10 years ago?
39:41
Do you think we're moving in the right direction?
39:44
I definitely think we're moving the right direction.
39:45
I mean, I remember my last tour in Afghanistan.
39:49
We came home and looking back, it was disastrous.
39:55
But it was, what they called it, a period of darkness.
39:58
So you came back from Afghanistan, you got off your
40:00
C130 or C141 and they bussed you to a hotel and locked you on one
40:05
floor. And they had guards at the gate.
40:06
They had guards at each stairwell.
40:10
And I mean, after being there for so long, you know, you're in
40:13
a hotel room, you're not allowed to use the phone, you're allowed
40:16
to watch TV. And it was very structured,
40:19
which I I guess was good. But day one was letting you
40:22
touchdown. You get your hotel room, you go
40:24
to sleep, but you're trying to adjust to you don't have your
40:27
weapon, you don't have your uniform, you don't have all
40:29
these things going on that you have in country.
40:34
Day two is kind of you're allowed to do a little bit more,
40:37
but you're still restricted. You start doing the
40:40
reintegration classes, which were people never done them.
40:43
It's the classes that tell you, you know, you've been absent
40:45
from your partner's life for X amount of time.
40:48
You've been in an environment that's different.
40:50
So expect changes. Day three, you're kind of like
40:55
trying to socialize. You're allowed off the floor but
40:58
restricted to the hotel. Then day four you're allowed out
41:01
in town. And then day five, you're
41:03
trucked back to your family and you're expected to be normal.
41:06
And I mean it was just you're you're allowed to tell them on
41:08
Monday you were back, but you weren't allowed anything other
41:10
than that really. So it it was really rough.
41:13
I think mental health nowadays has progressed because we've
41:16
been, we finally acknowledge it's a problem.
41:22
We finally said, you know sailors, everybody has issues
41:25
going on, especially with the global war.
41:28
You know, even with the fall of, I mean, for a lot of people that
41:31
fought it, the fall of Afghanistan was horrific
41:34
mentally. People that fought it for 20
41:37
years are now seeing it closed like nothing happened.
41:40
I had many friends who reached out that said, you know, what
41:43
was it all for? Go ahead.
41:47
I was going to. Ask you what?
41:50
Like how you felt. Because, you know, I was there
41:52
in 2015 and you know, I, my battle buddy lives, you know, 40
41:58
minutes north of me here and. I just remember getting a text
42:03
message from my mom saying that you hear about the fall of
42:05
Afghanistan. And I was like, Yep.
42:08
And like that was the only conversation that I felt.
42:11
Like, I I don't. I just remember being really
42:15
kind of. I didn't first I didn't know
42:17
what to feel or think. And then, like the days and
42:19
weeks and months following were just kind of, I don't know, like
42:24
a struggle. It was more like, like it wasn't
42:28
just anxiety. It was just real.
42:31
Fear of Oh my God, what is coming next?
42:34
What just happened? I had a hard time even
42:38
verbalizing and but, you know, all of us that were deployed
42:41
together, same thing. Are you OK just checking in?
42:44
Hey, buddy, check. You OK?
42:45
Hey, we were all kind of, you know, just checking on each
42:49
other because I don't think anyone who wasn't there really
42:55
understood kind of the emotional investment and kind of what.
43:01
What this what that incident was really kind of bringing up.
43:04
I mean, no other people that I work with, civilians, were like,
43:07
hey, are you OK? And I would say I'm OK, but I
43:14
didn't really even know what the hell to even say how I was
43:18
feeling for a long time. Yeah, it was.
43:21
It was hard to absorb. I mean all my friends, I mean
43:24
multiple deployments were, you know, were were experiencing the
43:28
worst of the worst. But it's like, OK, So what were
43:30
we fighting for at the time? And I'm sure there's a lot of
43:34
people. I mean the wounded, the fallen,
43:37
just the gear and things left behind, you know, You felt like
43:40
there was a sense of, he'd say, a sense of surrender, which is
43:43
something we're all taught. We never do.
43:46
Right, right. And then just the the
43:49
evacuation. Just, you know, not to judge,
43:53
but it it shouldn't. It was a mess.
43:55
It was, it was a mess. Let's just, let's just say it
43:58
was a lot. We'll just say that it was just,
44:02
it was a lot. It was a lot of a mess.
44:06
But, yeah, And then for myself and a couple of us who deployed
44:10
together and then, you know, went back to Fort Dix, went back
44:13
to drilling at our, you know, our old unit.
44:16
They, you know, brought some of the refugees to Fort Dix and we
44:21
were drilling and they're all like running around us and we're
44:24
like. And we're sitting in a meeting,
44:26
and the call to prayer is going off, and we're like, what the
44:29
fuck is going on? Like, this is not OK, This is
44:32
not OK. None of this is OK.
44:34
And we were just kind of like, you're not OK.
44:37
I'm not OK, OK, But so we're not OK together.
44:40
All right, good. Because we didn't know what the
44:43
hell to even think or do. And I'm like, I haven't even
44:45
processed the pandemic, and Afghanistan fell, and now I have
44:50
Afghanis running all around me. I'm so confused right now.
44:54
I think in my tours, all my tours, I think the hardest
44:57
transition was I'd done Iraq, and in the middle of Iraq and
45:00
Afghanistan I did Gitmo. Oh God.
45:06
So I went from chasing and we'll say chasing, hunting to.
45:12
Right babysitting. Yes, we'll, we'll call it that
45:18
to where one of the guys that we actually captured remembered me.
45:22
Oh God then. Backed by Well, I wasn't around.
45:26
Once they realized that that was a thing, I wasn't allowed around
45:29
him. But then it was.
45:31
Probably a good move back into Afghanistan again.
45:34
It's just like, well, this is awkward, but I mean it's just
45:39
again, it's, I think mental health nowadays.
45:41
I think the military is finally acknowledging it.
45:44
The command I retired out of was Mesran again, and we had an
45:51
embarked mental psych person that was there for all of us if
45:55
we needed it and things along those lines.
45:57
So I think people are starting to become more of aware of it.
46:01
I just hope that it's not with not a lot of combat operations
46:06
going on that doesn't fall to the wayside.
46:10
Yeah, I think one of the things that they've said to us as
46:14
medical personnel that, you know, it's looking like we're
46:17
going to move in, you know, a maritime situation.
46:21
That we should expect World War 2 level casualties because
46:26
logistically, there's Iraq and Afghanistan.
46:30
We weren't really triaging. We were sorting because we had
46:34
definitive care and we knew where we could get people to in
46:37
a short amount of time. And that's not going to be the
46:40
case if we wind up, you know, back in the maritime situation
46:44
and we're not going to be able to evacuate people to definitive
46:47
health care and there's going to be a significant.
46:50
Number of casualties and I think you know #1 self-care is going
46:53
to be really important before we even get into that situation.
46:57
And #2 is they're going to have to prepare for, you know, during
47:00
and after what's to come because it's, you know, it's a it's a
47:05
new it's a new generation of of war fighting and it's it's new
47:10
because we have more technology. But it's kind of, you know what
47:15
we you know we were maritime in World War One and two and.
47:18
We were in the desert for a number of years.
47:20
I got the big, the big plaque in the the other bedroom, Fan
47:23
sailor on it. And yeah, I just hope technology
47:27
isn't our hindrance. I I have to agree with you on
47:31
that as well. So we have some pictures that I
47:36
want to I want to show. I love this patch.
47:39
This is so cool. So this patch was probably my
47:43
one of my most challenging tours.
47:45
I was the first ever enlisted CEO in Fifth Fleet.
47:51
I was in Kuwait, so I actually just presented my therapist with
47:55
one of these because I have a couple left.
47:59
We ran maritime patrols ironically given the
48:01
conversation throughout and the call sign of the boats would
48:07
they were called wolves. So in in NSW Special Forces
48:14
software, everyone call them. A lot of the call signs are
48:16
Norse gods. So and at the time I was in
48:20
Kuwait and if you're an E8 or above or ACO, you're not allowed
48:24
to move without a call sign so they can monitor where you come
48:27
and go at any time. So at the time I came up with
48:30
Fenrir, which is the north of the the Wolf from Thor and
48:35
everything else. This was the patch one of the
48:37
guys. They were designed for us.
48:40
That's very cool. And who is this handsome young
48:45
man? So this was my uncle who
48:47
inspired me to join when he was younger.
48:50
So Army Ranger Special Forces 101st out of Bragg.
48:55
Just a picture I have of him from way back when.
48:59
I love these. I love these classic pictures.
49:01
But where we came from and you know, that's what we're, you
49:05
know, moving. That's what drives us for Oh my
49:07
God, these M rats. So I love these.
49:11
Things being flipped over, so I love these things.
49:14
These were when I was my last tour in Afghanistan.
49:17
We transitioned to these from, I don't know if you remember, the
49:21
old R GS, the old M wraps. These are called MATVS.
49:26
They're ultra light turbocharged.
49:28
The cabins are the only, the cab are minor resistant.
49:33
The bed and the cab bed in the front are actually fiberglass to
49:37
allow you to be able to move faster.
49:40
So I I love this picture just because I I love these trucks.
49:43
They're the most fun thing to drive in the world and for
49:45
somehow the government got sport seats put in them.
49:51
Well, I so I'm looking at these in labs.
49:53
I love these things too. They're super cool.
49:55
But the Romanians have a similar version of that and we ran a
49:59
drill one night where the medical staff had to get to the
50:03
hospital for a mass casualty situation, but it was unsafe for
50:07
us to walk or bike. So the Romanians were going to
50:10
pick us up, and they're up armored vehicles and give us a
50:12
ride to the hospital. I swear, Mike, they pulled up
50:16
and the back of this thing opens and it was like, poof, like,
50:19
they smoke like, it's nobody's business.
50:22
And I'm like, Oh my God, what is is it George Clinton, Parliament
50:25
Funkadelic over here? What's going on over here?
50:30
Like, OK, it was a super fun drill, I have to say.
50:33
But man, those Romanians smoke. And is this you over there?
50:41
This was me on a key leader engagement.
50:43
That's an up armored Toyota that you're seeing behind me.
50:48
Literally there there's no threat which is why I really
50:50
don't have a lot on at the time. Let's.
50:52
Go say you look a little light. Yeah, I mean it was.
50:56
We were there, YRCO and everybody.
50:58
Whenever my last tour in Afghanistan, wherever the Co
51:01
went, I had to go. So I took security teams with
51:04
them and I was. I sat next to them most of the
51:06
time. So I love this picture because
51:14
this is my dumbest career move ever.
51:19
This is a a FOB in Afghanistan that is known for getting
51:22
attacked and at the time I was a first class and I said let me go
51:25
up and take a picture with the mountain in the background.
51:29
Next to me is an arming point where they stash M fours and
51:33
ammo and grenades because while I'm taking this picture we would
51:36
actually come under attack and I have no body armor on.
51:44
Now was this, was this in Bagram or down in Kandahar or somewhere
51:47
else? This is southeast Afghanistan.
51:49
So when I was, most of my tours in Afghanistan were via Terran
51:52
Cal, which is southeast. TK yeah, One of the guys in my
51:57
unit was in Kandahar and he went up to TKA couple times.
52:01
Well, he was there. All right, one last one.
52:06
I had to give you the Infinite Fallen.
52:08
I know, I know, I love this picture, but it's like, it's a
52:12
beautiful picture, but it's a sad picture because a lot of us
52:14
know what this means and it's we lost a lot of, you know,
52:18
brothers and sisters over there and we have to carry on the
52:21
mission for them. Yeah, I mean I unfortunately I
52:26
think most of us have have seen or experienced this this at some
52:30
point in our careers. I think one of the extortion 17,
52:37
if you're not familiar, I mean I was at the service for them when
52:41
that happened, which was you know one of the greatest falls
52:44
in special warfare. It was held over new Beach
52:47
Convention Center, which is creepy because it's the amount
52:49
of people and the amount of security that were were there.
52:54
But I mean it tells the tale, right?
52:56
I mean, it's to me it when you look at it, it's your boots,
52:58
what you it's all your key elements, your tags, your rifle
53:01
and your helmet. They represent what you were
53:04
standing and doing when you fell.
53:09
And what rank did you retire at Mike Senior Chief E8?
53:14
Dang, congratulations. That is a hard feat to achieve
53:19
for sure. 27 years of faithful service to this country.
53:25
Thank you for your service. Just feel the need to tell you
53:29
then. So you mentioned writing.
53:31
So you're working on a book of all your unpacking, all your
53:35
shit. I mean, like I said, that's my
53:38
thing. I'm going to call it a walk
53:39
through the darkness. Reason being is when I started
53:44
therapy, I had to. I kind of my therapist, I I love
53:47
her. Apparently she's tuning in, so
53:48
hopefully she's listening. But I had to explain the
53:52
darkness. I think for military and 1st
53:56
responders it's it's a different thing.
53:59
There's depression, there's sadness and there's the
54:01
darkness. And the darkness is I think for
54:03
us is the hardest thing to get out of you know, sadness and
54:07
depression. We understand what it is.
54:09
But I mean think for the darkness, it's just
54:13
unfortunately I've seen too many friends take their own lives and
54:16
and I mean they were caught in the darkness.
54:17
And I honestly when I started therapy I I was on the verge.
54:20
I'm not going to lie, but it's just the the darkness is just
54:25
you're there. It's there's no light, there's
54:28
no, there's no which way to turn.
54:29
It's just pitch black in my opinion, and I think a lot of us
54:32
all have our version of that. And what got you what?
54:38
At what point in this darkness that you were struggling with
54:41
did you say I need help? Did somebody get you to help?
54:44
Or you said I need help and you thought it out on your own, so
54:48
we're going to be 100% honest, right?
54:51
So I always hated anybody that would take their own life.
54:58
I always thought it was the most selfish thing ever, right?
55:01
I have a, a friend who has, she's done four books and she's
55:04
the one I lean on right now for doing what I want to write.
55:07
And we sat down once talking about, I said, you know, I would
55:09
never do it, but if I do it, we're going to go out and bang a
55:11
style. I'm going to blow up the entire
55:13
block. Please, If anybody's listening,
55:15
I'm not being serious, OK. But I said, you know, but, you
55:18
know, I realized at a, at a very dark point, I was going through
55:24
an investigation for my, at the end of my career, potentially
55:27
facing a court martial. And I was just, I was really
55:31
stuck in a spot where I didn't know which way I was going to
55:34
go. And that's kind of what made me
55:36
really start thinking. And once I started crossing my
55:38
mind, I was like, OK, this is not OK for me.
55:42
And I reached out to a veterans network and I was like, hey, I I
55:45
need to talk to somebody. On the group I talked to.
55:48
I think it was like a six month wait, but they called me every
55:51
week and said, are you OK? Are you all right?
55:52
Do you need anything? And I ended up connecting with a
55:56
therapist I've had for the past two years and she's amazing.
55:59
We just, we are able to discuss things open, honestly.
56:03
And I think when I started therapy, it was a lot of
56:06
skepticism for our generation. We're always taught just deal
56:10
with it. Swag it up, walk it up.
56:13
Yep, take some Motrin. Change your socks.
56:16
Call it a day, but you know, I sat and I, she's like, OK, so
56:21
how's this going to go? Because I've been through two
56:23
therapists already. One kind of turned their back on
56:26
me and said you're really not having a problem.
56:28
Another one was just kind of she got busy with something else.
56:31
And then I was like, OK, this is where we're at.
56:34
And I said, you know, she's like, well started asking
56:37
questions and the responses were a little awkward.
56:41
And I said look if I really want to do this, I have to be honest
56:46
whether I like it or not, I have to be honest.
56:49
I said if if it's you don't like my response or I don't like my
56:52
response, but it's not we're not going to solve the problem if
56:55
we're not putting it out there. But like I said, I've been with
56:58
her for two years. I've been doing really well,
57:01
we've done EMDR with her. And honestly, I tell everybody
57:06
it's the biggest step in the right direction that I, that I
57:09
think was the biggest challenging hurdle in the first
57:12
two weeks was she said you got to find a positive And I'm, she
57:19
gave me homework and I'm like, how do you find positives?
57:23
Right. So what does a positive look
57:25
like? And I said she's like, well, OK,
57:28
so let's, let's typical medical speak, let's unpack this.
57:32
I love when now I hear that all the time and it's like, well,
57:36
she goes, do you drive anywhere? I said, well, I have my dog.
57:39
I take my dog to daycare because my dog's my fur child.
57:42
And I said, but she's like, did you hit a green light so well,
57:46
yeah. Did you hit two green lights?
57:49
Well, yeah. Did you hit three?
57:52
I'm like, well, no, she's like, but if you hit three, would you
57:55
not be happy? And it was a simplicity in just
57:59
realizing, hey, you went from point A to point B and you
58:02
didn't have to stop at a red light and sit there and wait for
58:04
it, but you got all green lights.
58:06
And I was like, oh, something as simple as that, as you're
58:09
allowed to be happy for. And as from that it just started
58:13
expanding and realizing like there's just simplicities in
58:16
life that we're allowed to be happy about and understand we're
58:19
allowed to be happy about. Or I think we take it for
58:22
granted. In the military, it's, you know,
58:25
it's a briefing after a briefing or it's a meeting or the meeting
58:28
before the meeting or it's just the daily, you know what I'm
58:32
talking. About just going on, but on your
58:35
day to days there's you're allowed to be find these
58:37
simplicities that just change the point of view of what you're
58:41
doing. Exactly.
58:46
Well, I am. Thank you for coming on tonight
58:49
and sharing your story and sharing these, your experiences
58:53
and the pictures and your willingness to be open and
58:57
vulnerable and sharing. You know your journey and I wish
59:02
you luck in writing. Eventually, when I have not so
59:05
many things going on, I want to write as well.
59:08
My story, I also want to write a children's book about a young
59:13
girl whose mom is in the military because I feel like
59:15
that's kind of an untapped market, is the kids of military
59:19
parents. And you know, I I said to my son
59:23
a couple months ago because April is the month of the
59:25
military child. And I said, kiddo, I just want
59:27
to say thank you because he's never once complained about me
59:30
going to drill or going away to do my two weeks or when I was
59:33
deployed. He mentioned about other things.
59:37
He's never complained about my time and service.
59:39
And I think, you know, I realized when I deployed, he
59:43
didn't have any other friends whose parents had deployed or
59:46
were deployed and, you know, keeping these kids connected
59:50
because just like you and I only understand certain things,
59:53
there's going to be things that military kids are only going to
59:55
understand and that other kids are not.
59:58
So I'm very thankful for you coming on the show tonight,
1:00:02
Mike, and sharing. Sharing your story, retired
1:00:05
Senior Chief Mike Evans, thank you so much.
1:00:07
Come back anytime and we'll talk all kinds of things.
1:00:11
All right. Thank you.
1:00:13
You are very welcome. That's the show for today
1:00:24
everyone. Thanks for listening.
1:00:25
We'll be back next week with an all new show.
1:00:28
And remember, you can listen to us again and again.
1:00:31
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1:00:42
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1:00:45
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