Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Oscar Mike Radio - 448 – Mark Omrod – Royal Marine

Transcript

Oscar Mike Radio - 448 – Mark Omrod – Royal Marine · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:53
Come here and we're going to conquer and we're going to take
0:56
some. Is that understood, Sir?
0:58
That's what we're going to do, sweetheart.
0:59
We are going to go and. Get some all.
1:02
Right people on the ready line. Autism Acceptance Month is a
1:13
good time to recognize the talents, contributions, and
1:15
diversity within the autism community.
1:18
Sign up and read informative articles for free about autism
1:21
and other disabilities at www.epmagazine.com.
1:29
Monotony. It comes in all shapes and
1:31
sizes. Dull, tedious, just plain
1:36
boring. But what is this?
1:39
A contender, perhaps Something unboring by the looks of it.
1:44
Jabs right at dull and uppercut the tedium.
1:47
Something that keeps you on your toes, keeps your head on a
1:49
swivel. A knockout punch to your old
1:53
boring workouts. Welcome to fight Camp.
2:07
OM Radio is a proud podcast partner of Reitz Across America
2:11
Radio, heard every Thursday at 11 AM and Sunday at 8:00 AM
2:16
Eastern. There are also big supporters of
2:18
the nonprofit I Got Your 62 Lives at Once.
2:22
And with every wreath you sponsor through OM Radio, $5
2:27
goes back to this great organization dedicated to making
2:31
a difference in the lives of veterans, law enforcement,
2:34
firefighters, and 1st responders battling PTSD. 2 Lives at Once
2:39
pairs these brave men and women together with dogs rescued from
2:43
kill shelters. In this way, 2 lives are saved
2:46
at the same time by saving each other.
2:49
Donate now. Go to wreathsacrossamerica.org
2:54
slash OM radio to help. That's wreathsacrossamerica.org
3:00
slash OM radio. None.
3:56
I remember a time when I was in A and, you know, a not so good
3:59
place and these games and these activities and being able to to
4:03
come and, and have the camaraderie that we have here.
4:06
It, it, it makes me feel like, you know, I'm not, I'm not
4:10
alone. There are people here that have
4:12
been through what I, I've been through.
4:14
It makes me feel like, I don't know, like, like I'm, I'm part
4:18
of something great. How's it going going?
5:11
Well, it's that new guy Energy. Oh, he's back.
5:25
That's the fourth time he's done that.
5:28
It's a peaking of probing, peaking with serious intent to
5:30
probe. A2.
5:32
You might have guys starting to move in our position.
5:35
Yeah, P we're getting a build up of activity here too.
5:37
Yeah, I definitely see weapons at this point.
5:38
Yeah, we have definite matching. Redman's Hero Eights is profane.
6:00
We're seeing activity converging up here, North and South.
6:04
This is Frogman 6R. We need a deep pack.
6:06
At our last known position. We have severely wounded.
6:10
Who's the severely wounded? Bite?
6:11
Who's me? Who is that?
6:12
Who's not? Who is it?
6:15
Stop you one, we're in contact two you coming to you or you
6:17
coming to us? Damn bud.
6:22
We'll let you know when we're inbound.
6:24
Let's move. Here's the plan EA 5 minutes
6:29
over. Scouts are going to lead us out
6:31
and I'm bringing up the rear. Pop smoke, smoke out.
6:34
We are all coming back OP One, they are in route to you. 3
6:41
minutes out Three minutes. I saw me and only meets and only
6:44
look to you play more Rock me dude 2 minutes out two minutes.
6:48
Where are you guys look for the blood in the smoke Buffalo bad
6:51
guys trying to get to opposition inbound inbound.
6:57
One minute out. We have enemy on our building
7:00
and all surrounding buildings. Roger that.
7:02
Standby going hot. Gotta get ready man, it's going
7:06
to hurt. Oh my God, 123.
7:23
Hello and welcome again to Oscar Mic Radio.
7:25
My name is Travis, Marine Corps veteran and your host Oscar Mic
7:29
Radio is Co produced with Sensitive One Productions.
7:32
What's your podcast doing? I want to thank my sponsor Joyce
7:35
Asac of ASAC Real Estate and my supporters Case on Shaving
7:38
Company, Exceptional Parent Magazine and Fight Camp.
7:42
Be your strongest combination. Hey, this year is going fast.
7:47
It's going furious. I, I love it.
7:49
I love it. And I I'm always excited to talk
7:53
to veterans and service members from other countries.
7:58
And my next guest will be my third veteran from the UK
8:02
military. God save the King.
8:05
I want to welcome just a genuine, I must say this badass
8:10
Mark Amrod. Welcome to OM Radio.
8:13
Thank you for having me. Who were the other two guys?
8:16
So one of them, it works for Immersive Labs, he helped start
8:19
Immersive Labs, he's in cybersecurity.
8:22
And the other one is Philippa Bagley, who does like NLP and
8:28
some, and she's just a really cool individual.
8:30
And we got to talking because I, I'm not really a soccer fan, but
8:34
I watched the Sunderland documentary, you know,
8:37
Sunderland Until We Die, about the soccer team.
8:40
And we bonded over that. So you're #3 it's very, very
8:44
cool. And you're a Royal Marine.
8:47
And we always think that, you know, we kind of have a little
8:50
bit of your DNA and us, as much as we're low to admit that, but
8:53
that's the truth. Yeah, we are two sides of the
8:59
same coin. Absolutely, absolutely.
9:02
So talk about that you're, you're growing up in the UK, you
9:06
have your, your life in front of you.
9:09
What made you say, you know what?
9:10
I'm, I'm going to, I want to join the military, but not just
9:13
join, you know, the, the regular British Army, no disrespect or
9:17
anything, but I want to go to the Royal Marines because you
9:21
know, there's a lot of respect there that it's, it's not easy.
9:23
I've watched in the documentaries, I've read a lot
9:25
of books like the selection and you know, just the marching
9:30
process and the legacy you all have back to the Falklands and
9:33
other things. It's a it's a big title to
9:36
carry. Right.
9:39
So I grew up and still live in a small little city called
9:43
Plymouth in the southwest of England.
9:46
It is a military heavy city. We have Royal Marines, Army,
9:53
huge naval base. And when I was growing up, all
9:57
of my friends that I grew up with were older than I was.
10:02
So as I was coming to the end of my compulsory education, they
10:07
had already left and gone on to university or started their
10:11
careers. Now I grew up in the 80s.
10:13
I was born in 1983, so hopefully you'll remember what AVHS
10:19
cassettes. I do.
10:21
OK, It doesn't make me feel too old then.
10:24
And I was very much into movies, action movies, Arnie Stallone,
10:30
Jean Claude or these guys. And I think it was really a
10:36
combination of a few things. So I was bullied at school for
10:41
being overweight. This is the mid to late 90s.
10:46
So before the Internet came around, I had to teach myself
10:51
fitness. I used to save up my my money
10:53
for my lunch and the end of the month going by a bodybuilder
10:56
magazine and trying to decipher all the big words and learn what
11:00
the muscle groups were and what cardio was and strengthening all
11:03
that stuff. Watch these movies into those
11:06
VHS cassettes snapped. And then watch my friends who
11:11
were older than me leave school and go off into their careers.
11:14
And I had a friend that joined the Army, a friend that joined
11:19
the Navy. I'm ashamed to admit I had a
11:22
friend that joined the Air Force.
11:23
I'm joking, no disrespect, but I didn't even know who the Royal
11:29
Marines were. Which is bizarre because the
11:32
Royal Marines headquarters are here in Plymouth and they're
11:35
less than a mile away from where I grew up.
11:37
But I think because I watched those movies growing up, I just
11:41
thought that if you wanted to be a soldier, you joined the Army,
11:44
right? And, and I had friends in the
11:46
Army and they used to come home as I was getting towards the end
11:49
of school and they would tell me all their cool stories about
11:53
the, you know, the stuff that they had done.
11:55
Some of them were based overseas, some of them within
11:56
UK. They told me about all these,
12:00
you know, cool fitness tests. They do 8-9 mile runs and load
12:03
carries. They got to fire guns and play
12:05
with tanks. They always seem to have money
12:08
for some reason. They all had new cars and they
12:10
all went out partying all the time.
12:12
And so I was kind of like looking at where my life was.
12:15
I had about six months before I was due to finish my compulsory
12:18
education. I looked at them.
12:20
I looked at what interested me and what I felt like I was good
12:23
at. And so I decided that a career
12:26
in the military was what I wanted.
12:29
No, because I didn't know who the Royal Marines were.
12:32
My friend in the Army, he was based in Germany, in the tank
12:35
regiment. When he was on leave, he took me
12:37
to the Armed Forces Careers Office.
12:39
I spoke to the army recruiter. I was 15 1/2.
12:42
I got the paperwork, which my parents had to sign because of
12:45
my age. And when I took it home to get
12:48
it signed, my dad said I had an uncle who was a retired Royal
12:53
Marine. It wasn't my uncle, Uncle, I
12:55
think, forget this, right? He was my nan's sister's
12:59
husband, but we just grew up calling him uncle.
13:03
And he didn't live that far from me, like 25 minutes away.
13:06
So we jumped in the car on a Saturday morning, drove up to
13:08
his house, and I went and spoke to him.
13:12
And he had joined the Royal Marines as a Marine.
13:16
He had gone up through the ranks and left as a captain.
13:20
And he sat me down and he talked to me.
13:23
He did. He did a full career, which for
13:25
us is 22 years, and he told me everything you've done,
13:28
everything you've experienced, the kind of things that I could
13:32
expect to experience if I chose that path.
13:36
And I was successful at walking it and sent me on my way.
13:41
So I went, I went back to that same career centre the Monday
13:44
morning, spoke to the Royal Marine recruiter and instantly
13:50
it was different. You know, I remember he took out
13:53
the the VHS cassette, the recruiting video, he put it in
13:56
the TV video. Kombi and I watched this video
13:59
of these men that I didn't even know existed.
14:02
And they looked so much like the men in the movies that I'd
14:06
watched the Rambos and the Commandos and all these guys.
14:10
And they were jumping out of planes.
14:11
They were attacking beaches in raiding craft.
14:14
They were jumping up mountains with huge packs on there in the
14:17
jungle up to their chest in water.
14:19
They're skiing in the snow. And I'm like, who the hell are
14:22
these? Anyway?
14:25
From the minute I saw that video, it was like I had
14:30
blinkers on and nothing else mattered.
14:33
You know, I had a couple weeks left of school.
14:36
I, from that moment had sort of cemented in my mind what it was
14:40
I wanted to do and there was no left and there was no right.
14:44
It was just straight down the middle.
14:46
So I filled out the paperwork, took it back to the career
14:48
centre, finished school. I did OK with my exams.
14:53
We, so over here, we had back then 10, what we call GCS, ES.
14:59
So when you get to like 16, take these exams.
15:01
I got all 10. Nine of them were A to CS.
15:04
I got AD in geography. So I could have went to college,
15:06
to university, but like I said, I was locked in on this career
15:12
as if I would it took to be a Royal Marine.
15:15
And shortly after I finished school, they invited me on what
15:22
was back then called the potential Royal Marines course,
15:25
which is three days of just getting trashed.
15:30
The the stuff you expect right up at 5:00 AM.
15:33
Push ups, sit ups, running everywhere, rope climbs, mud
15:37
dart, people being sick on themselves.
15:40
And it was it was their way of weeding out those men who
15:48
perhaps weren't ready, but it was also a way for those men to
15:52
look at that very small taste of of three days and and decide, is
15:57
this the career for me? Fortunately, I didn't get
16:01
injured. I passed all the criteria tests.
16:03
So they sent me home. And then they said, just wait,
16:07
We will send you a letter. We will tell you when you're
16:11
starting recruit training. Until then, follow this training
16:15
program, buy this kitten equipment and just don't get in
16:19
any trouble. And so that's what I did.
16:22
I came home 16 years old, trained to the letter,
16:27
everything that letter, that piece of paper told me I did,
16:30
started accumulating all the the kitten equipment that I needed
16:35
and then buy. Your own like stuff for recruit
16:38
training? Not not boots or uniforms, but
16:41
like sewing kits, washing toothpaste, razors, that kind of
16:45
stuff. And then the letter came and it
16:50
said February 2001, we invite you to start recruit training as
16:55
a member of eight or four troop Royal Marines.
16:59
And back then the training was 30 weeks long.
17:04
It's now I believe 36. And I can talk about that later,
17:08
if you like, about why that is. But I also believe recently they
17:12
announced it's going to go back down to 30 weeks.
17:16
So yeah, young 17 year old start date right in front of me, did
17:22
everything I could to prepare. I I'd learnt a little bit more
17:25
about the roaming at this point because the Internet was a thing
17:27
now in 2001. So I could do my research on
17:30
their history, current affairs, that kind of thing.
17:34
Nothing else mattered to me at that point.
17:36
And, and I kind of think that's the mindset you need when you're
17:39
embarking on this kind of journey.
17:40
You can't be distracted by nonsense parties and and
17:45
rubbish, which I imagine is very hard nowadays.
17:47
There's a lot more distractions now than there were and back in
17:50
the early 2000, for sure. Yeah, embarked on that training,
17:55
and it is arguably the longest and hardest regular forces
18:03
training in the world. Like I said, back then it was 30
18:06
weeks long. If you made it the first time
18:09
through, if you didn't get injured, if you factor in
18:12
Christmas leave, Easter leave, summer leave, things like that.
18:15
Even if you do it in one hit, it's still the best part of a
18:18
year. And that's for enlisted
18:22
officers. Their basic training is 18
18:25
months. This is it's insane.
18:28
That's without leave periods. So yeah, that was that was me,
18:31
17 years old, setting out on this journey February 2001 to
18:35
see if I have what it took. And I've watched the videos, We
18:41
we all hump, you know, the Marines hump, the Royal Marines
18:44
hump. But tell me about that, because
18:48
one of the things that a couple that I've met when I was in the
18:51
Marine Corps and outside, they really hang their hat on the,
18:55
the train that allowed them to go to the Falklands and, and do
18:59
what they did in the Falklands. The, the, the conditioning is
19:02
like, like we're, we're looking at this like what we thought
19:05
ours were tough. And it's really like something
19:09
mental you all develop. Why is that?
19:13
You mean the ability just to push on through everything?
19:16
Exactly. Exactly.
19:18
Because you don't have a choice. Yeah.
19:20
And you're going through that training.
19:21
This is. So I have a lot of young men
19:23
contact me who want to join the military.
19:27
And they asked me and, and I, I understand why they asked me
19:31
for, for fitness advice, which I'm not qualified to give them.
19:34
I wasn't a physical training instructor or any of that kind
19:36
of stuff. But what I always tell them is
19:39
being physically fit is important, right.
19:42
But in recruit training it's very progressive, so when you
19:45
get to the end of it where it's the hard part, you know, you've
19:48
got to do the 30 mile run and all this stuff you've built up
19:50
to that. I was never the fittest, the
19:53
fastest or the strongest, but I was just the dummy that could
19:56
keep going. And I didn't mind being wet, I
19:59
didn't mind being cold, I didn't mind being messed around.
20:02
I knew it was all a game, you know, and I could find humour in
20:05
that. And you know, one of our, what
20:09
we call core values is, is cheerfulness in the face of
20:12
adversity. And I was just naturally and,
20:15
and luckily able to apply that to most situations.
20:18
So when they stick this huge pack on your back, and I really
20:22
should research how much it weighs because I I still don't
20:25
know, but it's, it is unreal. Like the weight that they meet
20:29
you carry and you, you hump it for hours and hours and hours
20:34
and days and days and days over undulating terrain up mountains.
20:40
And it's crazy, but you just, for me, I can't speak for
20:44
everybody, but for me, I was just so locked in on achieving a
20:49
Green Beret. I had no Plan B or every time I
20:54
thought about being a civilian, I just felt flat.
20:58
And I'm like, there's no excitement in that for me.
21:00
And so it didn't matter really how much weight you put on my
21:03
back, how far you told me to go, unless I medically just like
21:09
collapsed or died, then I was just going to do it maybe in the
21:13
in the back start of the troop. But I'll do it, and I'll do it
21:17
on time, and I'll do what they need me to do.
21:20
What? Take me through that time when
21:23
you actually became a Royal Marine and and it was your train
21:27
was done, the ceremony happened and you realized you you had
21:32
accomplished that goal. So it was really, I was going to
21:40
say complex. It's really difficult to explain
21:45
it because as you can imagine, having gone through all that
21:49
training and, and I was lucky I didn't get injured.
21:51
So I made it through in one hit, 64 of us started, 16 of us
21:54
finished. So you imagine you're going to
21:58
be elated and you've achieved this thing that thousands of
22:01
people failed to achieve. But I actually finished my
22:04
training in October 2001, right after 911 and I was 18 years
22:10
old. And the mix of emotions was
22:13
insane because as part of me that the stupid part, that's a
22:17
young man that thought I was excited because I was just going
22:21
to go straight out to war. And then there's the little boy
22:25
in me, which I didn't show anybody that was terrified
22:28
because I had no clue what that meant or what to expect.
22:32
And then I'm trying to balance that with the emotions of having
22:34
gone through this arduous journey and, and achieved this
22:37
goal and all at the age of 18. So it was just this massive mix
22:42
of emotions. You know, one minute I'm up, one
22:44
minute I'm down, you know, one minute I'm focused on being a
22:47
Marine, next minute I'm thinking about going to war.
22:50
So it was crazy. And I think I hid it quite well.
22:54
You know, some of the fears, I think a lot of guys did, but we
22:58
didn't, we didn't really know what we didn't know because none
23:00
of us had ever been before. So it was a crazy time.
23:04
It was, I guess you could call it bittersweet.
23:09
And then I was trained very early on January 2002 to go out
23:15
to Afghanistan on what was called Operation Gikana.
23:19
And then for some reason at the last minute they, they scaled it
23:23
down massively and hundreds of us just got held back in the Uki
23:27
think it became more of a, a special forces reconnaissance
23:32
kind of trip, you know, and more of the the specialised troops,
23:37
mountain leaders and those kind of people.
23:39
So I remember feeling a little bit deflated after that because
23:44
you're riding all these emotions and you're mentally preparing
23:46
yourself. And then they go, no, it's off.
23:48
And then you're like, you know, you feel a bit flat.
23:53
But about a year later or less than a year later, early 2003, I
23:59
deployed. I turned 19 at this point.
24:01
I deployed to Iraq on Operation Telec 1.
24:04
So I sat off in, in Kuwait for about a month and then was part
24:08
of that initial wave that went over the UAE Iraqi border.
24:13
And I spent 3 1/2 months there and I didn't fire a single
24:18
round, which I, I thought was bizarre, you know, because in my
24:23
mind, you know what it's like when you go through training,
24:26
the, the instructors tell you, you know, you're the best,
24:29
you're the most elite. No one can touch you.
24:31
You do the, the things that other people don't want to do.
24:33
And then you go to a war zone to, to do those things and you
24:36
don't do them. Well, I didn't anyway.
24:38
So I came back home after 3 1/2 months, a little bit like, you
24:44
know what? Now I'm, I'm 19, I've got a
24:48
green Beret. I've been to war.
24:49
It wasn't what I expected. I've kind of ticked these boxes.
24:53
And so I decided to leave my, my eldest daughter, who's just
24:57
turned 20, was due to be born. I, I done a bunch of other
25:02
stuff. I'd been out and trained in the
25:03
Arctic. I'd sailed down to Virginia and
25:06
been on exercise with you guys, been as a heavyweight boxer.
25:10
Then all these other thing. I squeezed a lot into five years
25:14
and then decided to leave to start a new career.
25:16
I was looking at going into either the fire brigade or the
25:19
police, had a relationship breakdown with my, my daughter's
25:25
mother. So you know, failed miserably as
25:29
a civilian. I did retrain as a bodyguard.
25:31
I went to South Africa for six weeks, undertook an intense
25:35
bodyguard course, but just failed to get work in that
25:39
industry. Not, not through lack of work, I
25:43
think through lack of connections.
25:46
I just know anybody to get me that first through the work.
25:50
So after a terrible 12 month period as a civilian, I ended up
25:57
rejoining the, the Romans. And because I'd only been a
26:00
civilian for I think it was 11 1/2 months, I didn't have to go
26:05
through all that training again. I just had to do the, the annual
26:08
tests that we do. So the shooting, the fitness and
26:10
that kind of stuff. And four weeks after that I was
26:15
back in uniform. I don't know why it took four
26:17
weeks. I could have done it all in the
26:18
day, but they spaced it out over the course of four weeks for
26:22
some reason. But they were paying me so I
26:23
wasn't complaining and when I rejoined I went to I left
26:28
Plymouth. I went about an hour and a half
26:30
N to a place called Somerset Taunton in Somerset.
26:36
Joined 40 commando who's one of our fighting units and went
26:40
straight into pre deployment training for a tour of
26:43
Afghanistan again. But this time it wasn't optic
26:45
cannon now it was Op Herrick. Operation Herrick 7 was what I
26:49
was due to deploy on, which was going to be 6 months from the
26:53
6th of the sorry the 6th of September 2007 until early 2008,
27:01
but it didn't pan out that way. We had we had a few issues
27:06
halfway through the tour which got me home earlier than
27:10
expected and we've worked through those issues now.
27:15
Well, I mean, issues were the the and that's typical British
27:21
understatement. I work with some of you in my,
27:24
in my full time job and you are masters of understatement when
27:28
you want to be. And so the understatement is
27:32
you, you got hit by an IED and lost you what 3 year limbs and
27:38
had to rebuild after that. And I, and I don't, I respect, I
27:42
don't want to have to make you go through all that.
27:45
So not out of disrespect. I want to Fast forward through a
27:48
little bit of that and go to you're trying to convalesce and
27:52
heal. How much did your Royal Marine
27:56
experience figure into your mindset to heal?
27:58
And the reason I I asked that is I didn't have the severity of
28:03
injury you had, but I had a pretty severe injury three years
28:06
ago. And I leaned on a lot of my
28:08
Marine Corps training to get through some of the more
28:10
difficult aspects of it. And I'm just curious if you were
28:13
the same Mark? I was not initially, though
28:20
those first three weeks in hospital after I was injured
28:24
back in the UK were pretty brutal.
28:26
I had the talk from the Doctor Who explained to me that I had
28:33
no chance of a walking again, because if you're missing a limb
28:37
above a major joint, it's a lot more challenging than if you're
28:41
missing it below it. And I'd lost both my legs above
28:44
both my knees and my right arm above my elbow.
28:48
So that kind of hit me quite hard.
28:53
And I'll tell you what, what kind of flicked the switch for
28:55
me. So back in 2002, I think it was
29:02
after that initial Afghanistan deployment got pulled, I did
29:07
what a lot of young military men do and went out drinking and
29:11
partying and getting in a little bit of trouble.
29:15
And I was called in front of the regimental Sergeant major of my
29:19
unit for being drunk and fighting the previous weekend.
29:25
And he had a pet peeve that if you had cut the lining out of
29:29
the inside of your Barry to make it shape better, he he would
29:33
steal them off you. He didn't like that.
29:35
So I was stood in front of him getting what we call charged, so
29:38
disciplined for for the fighting.
29:40
And he could see the way my barrier was on my head that
29:43
there was no lining in it. So he made me take it off, he
29:45
pinned it on his notice board and he made me run into the town
29:48
centre to get a new one and then come back.
29:51
And I never saw him again after that.
29:54
Now when I was in hospital, he had been promoted to what we
29:57
call the core RSM. So every unit, I don't know if
30:01
it's the same for you guys. We have a regimental Sergeant
30:03
major and then you have a regimental Sergeant major that's
30:06
senior to all the other. We have a we have a Sergeant
30:09
major, then a command Sergeant major.
30:11
OK, perfect. And he came to visit me with the
30:15
commandant general of the Royal Marine.
30:17
So the highest ranking officer in the Marine.
30:19
So the highest ranking enlisted guy, highest ranking officer.
30:22
I was learning in a hospital bed when he came in, he bought me a
30:26
beret and he said, I remember taking this off you back in
30:30
2002. So I, I sat there and thought,
30:33
how does this guy right this, this really established guy
30:38
highest, you know, rank that you can get.
30:40
How does he remember a knob head like me?
30:43
Like all the way back from 2002 when I was a young Marine, He
30:45
probably had hundreds of young Marines like getting charged and
30:48
walking through his office. But he remembered and that
30:50
flicked the switching me because it reminded me what the
30:54
brotherhood was about. And in that situation, it, it
30:59
transcended ranks. You know, he, he had come down
31:03
to my level. If you like to be on equal
31:06
footing and gave me that beret that he had took off me all
31:09
those years before. And so I started thinking about
31:12
when I said the Internet came in just before I had enlisted.
31:16
I remember when I was looking at all the history of the Royal
31:19
Marines and, and the battle honours and all these things.
31:21
And back when I went through training, the recruiting slogan
31:24
was Royal Marines Commando. It's a mindset.
31:28
And so I kind of put all these things together and I remember
31:31
laying in hospital and I only did six weeks in hospital before
31:35
I went to rehab. And I remember laying in there.
31:38
It was probably about four weeks into my recovery now and
31:41
thinking, although I'm not a Royal Marine physically anymore
31:46
and I and I can't be, I can be mentally and you know, I mean,
31:50
and I'd never worked in a Tri service environment before
31:53
because the Royal Marines are 100% male and occasionally you'd
31:58
work the Army in the Navy perhaps.
32:01
But all I personally had never really been in that environment.
32:03
But when I went to rehabilitation, I was in a Tri
32:06
service environment. So I remember thinking right
32:08
when I get there, I'm going to show the rest of these guys and
32:12
girls what that means, what that mindset is, you know, and, and I
32:16
was also the first triple amputee in the UK.
32:19
So no one know what to do with me.
32:21
You know, everyone thought I was just going to spiraling and go
32:25
off the the deep end because there was no plan and there was
32:28
no trodden path. They didn't know what to do.
32:31
But in my mind, after those experiences, I thought, OK,
32:33
cool, let's let's show everyone what this mindset is about.
32:35
So like you, I, I leaned into that and it was the, the key, if
32:42
you like to overcoming all these difficulties and all these
32:45
challenges and, you know, just taking back control of my life.
32:49
And we could talk about, you know, I, I saw that you wear
32:52
prosthetics and, you know, I've talked to other, you know,
32:55
source members US who have talked about how they started
33:00
off with prosthetics back in the early 2000s.
33:02
And now they've all changed. But that's not really the, the
33:05
meat here. The meat here is what was it
33:09
like watching your fellow service members see the Royal
33:13
Marine mindset right there in front of them?
33:15
Like this guy lost 3 limbs. This guy is, is a young man.
33:20
But you know what? There's no quit.
33:21
There's all fight, you know, I'm having a bad day, but look at
33:25
him go through that. What would that do to them and
33:27
what do to you, Mark? You know, I, I felt like I kind
33:32
of thrived in that area. I was never, I never felt like I
33:39
had anything to prove like from my place of anger, but I felt
33:42
like I wanted to, like I said, I wanted to show everybody that
33:46
this mindset could be applied to military training, to
33:50
rehabilitation, to business, to parenthood, whatever it was.
33:55
And it's quite funny. I don't know what it's like for
33:58
you guys over there, but people in other branches of the
34:03
military will make fun of of Royal Marines.
34:05
And they say, you know, they eat crayons.
34:08
And. Marines stands for muscles are
34:10
required, intelligence not essential.
34:13
But the ironic thing is that we're, we're the complete
34:15
opposite because you have to have a certain level of
34:17
education. We are constantly told we're the
34:20
thinking man soldier and we have to improvise, adapt and overcome
34:23
and lead the way and be the first to adapt, the first to
34:26
overcome. So when I was in rehab, because
34:30
I was the first triple amputee, I knew from other experiences in
34:34
life that the quickest way to get to where I wanted to be was
34:38
to find somebody who had trodden the path before me.
34:42
So I actually found a guy you know, in, well, he's from
34:45
California, but the we were going to meet in Oklahoma and
34:50
his name was Cameron Clap. And Cameron had been hit by a
34:53
train in 2002 while coming back from a 9/11 memorial garden.
34:58
He was a civilian and he was doing, from the videos I saw
35:04
online, some phenomenal things with injuries very similar to
35:08
mine. And everyone was telling me that
35:10
the things that he was doing were impossible because he's
35:14
above the knee, he's above the R.
35:16
And, and I'm showing him these videos.
35:17
I'm like, listen, I'm showing you the videos here.
35:19
They are like, look. And they were like, no, no,
35:22
they're not real. They're marketing videos.
35:24
It's all fake. Anyway, I reached out to
35:27
Cameron. I reached out to the team in
35:28
Oklahoma. We went back and forth for a
35:30
while sending emails and they invited me out and they said,
35:33
look, come meet this guy. Come train with this guy.
35:36
And we'll, we'll see if we can overcome these issues that
35:38
you're having because, respectfully, your team in the
35:41
UK have no experience, but we do.
35:44
So I asked permission of the chain of command, can I go out
35:47
and meet this guy? You know, told him all about it,
35:50
said how great it would be, not just for me, but there were
35:53
probably 10 triple amputees at this point now.
35:56
So the numbers were increasing. They could all have been helped.
35:58
And they said no. So I, yeah, I went a war and I
36:05
went anyway. And I was like, listen, I had a
36:09
lot of conversations with my wife actually at like 2-3 in the
36:12
morning when I was like stressed and couldn't sleep.
36:15
And she said in 10 years time, these people won't be in your
36:19
life. And although you want to play
36:22
the game and listen to the chain of command and do what you're
36:25
supposed to do, no one will be around in 10 years.
36:28
So if you don't do it now, you're probably going to miss
36:31
out and regret it. So on the 9th of June 2009, I
36:35
just got in my car. I drove to London, hopped on a
36:38
plane, flew to Oklahoma, met Cameron, met his team, spent
36:43
three weeks with them and it it was a brutal 3 weeks.
36:49
Like the pain, physical pain in my legs, my arm, my back.
36:58
I was quite overweight as well. I didn't quite figure my
37:01
nutrition out at this point and was still at the same level that
37:04
I was eating at before, but in a wheelchair.
37:08
So it wasn't, it wasn't great. They wouldn't let me take a
37:11
wheelchair out and they wouldn't let me take a care with me.
37:13
So I had to fly on my own with no wheelchair.
37:16
No. And just even getting from the
37:18
UK to America was was brutal. And it was terrifying trying to
37:22
navigate airports on my own on prosthetic legs that I couldn't
37:24
even walk on, falling down escalators and all sorts of
37:28
gnarly stuff. But I went out there and got my
37:34
ass whipped for three weeks and that was the last time I used
37:37
the wheelchair. 9th of June 2009.
37:39
They, they trained me and mentored me and coached me to
37:44
the the point where I didn't need it.
37:47
And then all of a sudden six months go by, a year goes by.
37:51
What is it now? 17 years I think maybe since I
37:54
last used one. But I got told in hospital that
37:58
I'd never be without one and now I'd never needed one because of
38:02
the help and support they gave me.
38:03
So, you know, being, being that thinking man soldier that we're
38:07
told we are, I took that risk if you like, went out and did it,
38:11
came back and lots of people benefited from that.
38:14
Lots of people. Because actually a couple months
38:18
later they came to the UK, to the rehabilitation centre,
38:22
talked to some of the prosthetists, the doctors, the
38:24
nurses, the physiotherapist and the patients and spent a couple
38:27
of days training them. And then everyone just improved.
38:30
They learnt new things, tried new things.
38:34
We were very much despite being ruffty, tuffty soldiers.
38:39
We were very much wrapped in Cotton Wall in rehab and you
38:42
couldn't even go outside in case the wind blew over.
38:45
Whereas in America they had me within 15 minutes to land and I
38:48
was driving a car on the wrong side of the road at night with
38:51
prosthetics. I was shopping in the mall,
38:54
falling down the escalators. It was just insane.
38:58
But it was what I call short term pain for long term gain.
39:02
Yes, Yep. I said 17 plus years later I
39:05
don't use a wheelchair, don't own one, got rid of them in 2009
39:10
because of the help of support they gave me.
39:13
So let's we can't compact 17 years in like 20 minutes, but
39:16
let's talk about that. You start getting better, you
39:19
start moving, start being able to be yourself as much as you
39:24
can. And then it seems like you, you,
39:27
you write a book, you do mentorship, you have a, a
39:30
nonprofit, you're involved in jujitsu.
39:34
How did all these things come about?
39:36
Were they, was it like, you know, you thought to yourself,
39:39
Mark, I want to do these things? Or do people start seeing your
39:43
story and saying, you know what, there's something in that guy
39:47
that I want to bond with, resonate with, and see how it
39:51
can improve my life. Yeah, it's, it's a little bit
39:54
above. OK, you know, this bizarrely
40:00
opened a lot of doors for me and presented a lot of opportunity,
40:02
especially because I was the first triple amputee.
40:05
So the media were all over it in the beginning.
40:07
And the book came about the first one as a result of a a
40:13
flippant comment I made to a reporter that I work with who
40:15
ended up ghost writing it for me just off with an off the cuff
40:18
comment. And and that happened.
40:21
And then I got to a point after I came back from America and I
40:24
knew. What was possible with the right
40:27
prosthetics, the right support and the, and the right kind of
40:30
approach. I wanted that physicality back
40:34
in my life of being a Royal Marine.
40:36
So I started running, swimming, trying to see what I could do.
40:40
And I'd also been supported heavily, as had my family, by
40:44
the military charities. So I started combining physical
40:47
endurance events with fundraising.
40:49
And that was like a, I mean, I, I still do it now.
40:54
I just pulled a two ton truck on Saturday and broke a world
40:57
record. But I, I still do it now.
41:01
And it, all of this stuff just opened up doors and presented
41:04
opportunities and I just took them all because I didn't know,
41:08
I didn't want to sit at home on, on a disability check.
41:12
You know, I was 24 years old when I got injured.
41:13
I'm 41 now. I wanted to live and, and I had
41:17
more children and I had multiple careers.
41:21
The whole mentorship thing, it's all been completely unofficial
41:25
until about 3 weeks ago, you know, just helping and
41:27
supporting people whenever I had the time.
41:30
And then on the 6th of January, myself, some more Royal Marine
41:35
commandos and some army commandos formed a, a mentorship
41:39
company in collaboration with, I don't know if you've heard of
41:43
Echelon Front with Jocko Welling.
41:46
Yeah, yeah. Before I came on here, I was
41:47
actually going through some of my training.
41:49
So we're partnered with Jocko and, and Echelon Front and we
41:53
teach their principles, their combat principles, but in, in
41:56
our good old British way, in the way that we do it And, and it,
42:01
yeah, it just opened up doors, you know, and, and you have to
42:04
be willing to walk through those doors and then just see what you
42:08
like and, and what you don't. Carry on what you do and get rid
42:11
of what you don't. And you can help a lot of people
42:13
along the way in many ways by raising money by them seeing
42:18
what you're doing, by you mentoring them one-on-one or in
42:21
Group situations. So it's just phenomenally
42:25
fulfilling. You know, something that I
42:26
thought back in the day when I was in the hospital bed at 24
42:30
was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, probably
42:33
ended up being one of the best. And I put that down to
42:38
incredible people that were willing to to reach out and
42:41
support me even though they didn't have to.
42:43
You had to believe in yourself first.
42:46
And I think that's just something that a lot of people
42:48
miss. And, and I think you're right.
42:50
It's easy to sit in your wheelchair for me to sit there
42:53
and say, well, I can't do this anymore.
42:55
And it's hard. And, and I know this because
42:57
I've, I've done this myself, Mark I to push through and, and
43:01
I really believe I told somebody, look, I had a choice.
43:04
I could either pay now and take the pain now or pay later and
43:10
actually have it be worse because it's just going to get
43:12
worse and worse the longer I'm just not doing anything.
43:17
And and it's really is something where you can take a castropic
43:21
event, you know, your own trials and tribulations and use them
43:26
for something positive. And I think that, you know, has
43:29
to be, of course, the Marines that kind of show the way for
43:34
that. I'm just saying, I'm just saying
43:38
you, you've done all this stuff. What's next for you?
43:41
I mean, I mean, first of all, you don't look like you're 41.
43:44
By the way, I. Mean.
43:46
No, you look great, but what's next for Mark?
43:52
That's very easy life so far. Well, I I.
43:57
I don't know if we should recommend it to everybody, but
43:59
OK, what's next for you? So actually when I turned 40, so
44:06
my my life kind of works in like 10 year chunks.
44:09
So I joined the military. 10 years later, I'm discharged.
44:12
The next 10 years were all to do with excuse me, fundraising,
44:18
endurance events. And when I turned 40 last year,
44:22
I decided that the next decade of my life was going to be
44:26
dedicated to business. Because it's not something I
44:31
have any knowledge in really. It's not something I have any
44:34
experience in it and it's a challenge and this, it's very
44:40
different over here. I think we don't, we don't
44:42
really talk about money in the UK.
44:43
It's like a taboo thing and it's taken me a long time to get here
44:47
to be able to say this, but excuse my language.
44:51
My aim is to make a shit ton of money and I mean a shit ton.
44:56
And I don't, not for the reasons that you would think though.
44:59
It's not to be fancy. And you know, like my outfit
45:03
now, the whole outfit cost about three, £3.50.
45:07
You know, I don't wear fancy clothes or anything.
45:09
It's the challenge because what I want to do is come on a
45:11
podcast, you know, at some point in the future and say I've got 4
45:15
fingers, one thumb and a smartphone and I managed to
45:17
figure this out so anyone can and now.
45:21
You like a challenge? You like a challenge.
45:23
I know. I know This is why I got
45:25
involved in the mentoring company.
45:26
I did a speaking. I'm I'm big, I've got a
45:28
merchandise company, I've monetised my social media.
45:31
I've got like 7 businesses right now and it's hard for me not to
45:36
open new ones because I had the opportunity last week to start a
45:39
social media management company, but I had no, I can't do that.
45:42
I've got to focus on what I'm doing.
45:45
And the really exciting thing for me is I want to bring a load
45:50
of people along with me. And I'll be quite honest about
45:56
this in the past, even in my situation, when you wouldn't
46:00
think it, I've had people RIP me off, steal money from me.
46:05
And these are military people as well.
46:07
And that's not, that's not my mindset.
46:10
It never has been. You know, I, everything I've
46:13
done since I was a kid, I've wanted to do as a team with
46:16
other people and, and enjoy their success and celebrate
46:19
together and spread that to our families, you know, and all
46:22
these things. And those people that have bound
46:25
me have kind of lit that fire to, you know, go on that
46:31
mission. And you know, even more now
46:33
because I know this is The funny thing.
46:35
The day we live in, you know, the day and age we live in,
46:37
people are always watching like on.
46:39
Social. Stuff.
46:41
And. I've never really like talked
46:45
about I'm, I'm maybe I will in the future.
46:47
You know, I've got my own podcast too.
46:49
And maybe without mentioning names, I'll use those situations
46:52
I've talked about as lessons, but I've always just kind of
46:56
took it and then moved on, even though I know they're watching
46:58
and carried on building and building and building and
47:00
building. And I just have a vision of of
47:03
me. It's almost like, you know, in
47:05
the Fast and Furious movies where they sit in the back
47:08
having a BBQ. It's going to be like that.
47:10
And we're going to be like family and we're going to win
47:13
together and all be celebrating and kids running around all
47:16
excited and, you know, just as a as a unit.
47:20
Man, that's hard. I mean, Mark, one of the things
47:22
I've learned doing this and doing other things is you got to
47:26
have a good tight crew. And sometimes it's a small, a
47:31
small group of people, men and women who like, you know, they,
47:34
they believe in you and they're your ride and die.
47:38
And it's hard because you get burned a couple times.
47:40
It's like, I don't want to work with anybody.
47:42
But the, the truth is you go further together, you go further
47:46
with the crew. Well, I mean, it's 2025 right
47:52
now, so hopefully it won't be 10 years before we talk again, but
47:55
I'm definitely interested in, in watching your journey.
47:58
You like to chase, don't you? It, it's chasing that is chasing
48:01
the goal is chasing the target. I get it, I get it.
48:06
And it's, it's, it's a high. It's like, you know, let's do
48:09
this and, and you, you, you complete the mission and it's
48:14
like, well, what's next? And that, that and that is it.
48:18
And sometimes in the past, that's not always been a great
48:23
thing because I'll just finish one thing, go what's next, and
48:26
not enjoy the thing that I've just done.
48:29
So as I've got older, I've kind of learned to every, every once
48:33
in a while, take my foot off the gas, enjoy the moment, and then
48:36
press on. It's hard though.
48:38
I and I get, I get it. I really enjoy getting to talk
48:41
with you. I appreciate your candor and I
48:43
appreciate your, you know, you, you remind me some of my British
48:47
colleagues who are very like, you know, even killed all.
48:51
I just ran 20 miles a day. It's no big deal, mate.
48:55
OK, all right. But, you know, I love it.
48:59
I love it. And, you know, as a my last name
49:01
is Partington. So I've learned about my British
49:04
roots from the Manchester area and and then the fact that, you
49:09
know, believe it or not, a lot of us, you know, U.S.
49:12
Marines still think of you all as our older brother slash
49:16
cousins. You know, you were the first
49:18
Marines. A lot of our traditions come
49:20
from the Royal Marines. So, you know, I, I, I mean this
49:24
with, with every bit of respect when I say Super Fidelis
49:26
brother. Thank you, man.
49:28
Thank you. So last thing before I get all
49:33
mushy mushy here, how do people get in contact or see what Mark
49:39
is up to what you're doing and how to get a hold of your books?
49:42
I'll have the links to your books and OM radio show post,
49:45
but how do people contact Mark? So I'm on social media every
49:50
day. Everywhere, everywhere, every
49:51
day, OK. Pretty much every platform and
49:54
and my handle is just at Mark Home Rod and I was lucky because
49:59
I've managed to get that on every platform the same pan.
50:02
What? Yeah, I know.
50:03
No underscores, no stashes, nothing.
50:05
Just at Mark Warm Rod on every platform and you can find me on
50:09
there every day. All right.
50:11
Cool. Well.
50:12
Folks, this has been very very cool.
50:14
Let's see if the next 10 years holds remark.
50:16
Let's learn from this lesson of resilience and you know that
50:20
that you know stiff British upper lip that I I was learned
50:24
about growing up. Mark, thank you very much.
50:26
As he's saying, OM radio remission flight, the biggest
50:33
fear Goldstar families have that their child will be forgotten.
50:36
We need to never forget freedom wasn't free.
50:40
The fact that they give us the life we have now, we should
50:43
remember them and like give thanks to them.
50:45
If I can be a part of something today that's going to make the
50:48
surviving family of any of these veterans, these heroes, feel
50:51
better tomorrow, then it's worth it.
50:53
That one wreath symbolizes one family, one family that was able
50:56
to smile because of DeGeneres donations.
50:58
To. Sponsor A wreath and honor a
51:00
veteran? Visit wreathsacrossamerica.org.
51:05
Thank you for listening and watching OM Radio where our
51:09
active duty service members and veterans are in action and the
51:13
mission is in flight. OM Radio is an oversized load
51:20
coasts to one production. If you are a veteran or you're a
51:26
veteran who needs help, please dial 918 and press 1 to the
51:32
Veterans Prices line.