Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Conversations with a Vet -Malachias Gaskin - Musician - Army Veteran
Transcript
- 1:07Good evening everybody. Welcome to Conversations With a
- 1:10Vet. My name is Kira Lee.
- 1:12I have a great guest waiting out in the wings.
- 1:15And before we get to him, just a couple of things I wanted to
- 1:18touch base on. For those of you who've been
- 1:21with me from the start, you know that when we hit our milestones,
- 1:24we have several giveaways that I do.
- 1:26So a couple of them are some books.
- 1:29First one is Quiet Heroes, stories from the front lines of
- 1:32the Vietnam War. That is from a previous guest,
- 1:36Larry Burke. So thank you and a shout out to
- 1:38him. And we also have another one, a
- 1:42favorite of mine and that is the second book in his series by
- 1:47Frank Demith called Defending the Eagle.
- 1:49And both of these books you can go in out and locate at your
- 1:53favorite store it be it Amazon, etcetera.
- 1:57So be sure to check it out and help support a veteran that you
- 2:03will really enjoy getting to know.
- 2:05So without further ado, please help me.
- 2:07Welcome Malachius. Hello, how are you?
- 2:13Wonderful. How are you doing?
- 2:15I'm doing great. Thank you so very much for
- 2:18joining today and do me a favor if you would pronounce your
- 2:23first name. Malachius.
- 2:26Malachias, thank you. Yes, ma'am.
- 2:28I've heard it several different ways.
- 2:31Yeah, and so have I. I've no doubt you have, so I
- 2:39like to start by asking my guests to tell me a little bit
- 2:42about who you were as a child. Oh, as a child.
- 2:47So as a child, I was very rambunctious, non-stop on the go
- 2:51all the time. I was at 10 years old, my father
- 2:56started a family landscaping company, and from 10 years old
- 2:59on, I was an employee. So I had a full time job at 10
- 3:02years old. By the time I was a junior in
- 3:05high school, I was already making more than my teachers.
- 3:08And so I ended up dropping out and getting a GEDI knew.
- 3:12I kind of knew like in kindergarten that someday I was
- 3:16going to be a soldier, I was going to be in the Army, kind of
- 3:19always knew it. And then when I dropped out, I
- 3:21got my GED and then I joined kind of just.
- 3:26Yeah, it was, it was kind of nice.
- 3:27I I and, you know, when I was 13, I told my dad I wanted to
- 3:30be, I wanted to learn to play guitar.
- 3:31And he told me, no, of course it wasn't as nice as that.
- 3:36It was no son of mine's going to be.
- 3:39Yeah. So I I waited until I got out of
- 3:43school to go get with a buddy of mine and start a band and kind
- 3:45of just off and on from there. Wow, did you play any sports or?
- 3:50Was music everything? No, I played everything.
- 3:53I played football, basketball, soccer, track, golf.
- 3:56I was in martial arts. I competed.
- 3:57I competed internationally in martial arts up until I was 16.
- 4:02I played sports all the way through high school, got out of
- 4:05high school and I continued to play.
- 4:06I played. I played one game or 1/2 a
- 4:09season, I think it was a half a season for the Louisville
- 4:11Knights which was a global basketball team and I played one
- 4:17game and I semi Pro Football team.
- 4:19Goodness gracious. Yeah.
- 4:21So you were prepared then, pretty much when it came to your
- 4:25athleticism. Yeah.
- 4:27To to join the military. And what?
- 4:32And then my dad was like, my dad was a soldier, my grandpa was a
- 4:34soldier. They, they all served in the
- 4:36Army. And I kind of, I was, you know,
- 4:38by the end of basic training, my girl sergeants were like, you
- 4:40know, like this being like, it wasn't a lot for you.
- 4:42And I was like, you know, I was like growing up with my dad.
- 4:44This was a vacation. Yeah.
- 4:47Yeah. I want to say, you know, it's
- 4:51amazing for people that who want to volunteer and you know, it's
- 4:56different right in the generations and those who will
- 5:01sacrifice it by volunteering and sacrifice family and and all of
- 5:06that. And so thank you for that.
- 5:09Thank you. When you make the decision, you
- 5:15decide Army was what you wanted from the get go you say.
- 5:18Is that right? Well, so I knew when I was a
- 5:21kid, I was going to be in the military, right?
- 5:24So when I went to join, the first thing that I, I went to a
- 5:27Marine Corps recruiter and because I, I didn't have my GED
- 5:30right away, he was like, you know, he's like, hey, we can't
- 5:33do anything for you, man. My uncle was in the Marine
- 5:34Corps. My cousin was in the Marine
- 5:35Corps and I was just kind of like, you know, that's what I
- 5:39wanted to do. And I couldn't join 'cause I
- 5:40didn't have a GED. And so he was like, you know, go
- 5:42down, you know, he's there's nothing we can do, man, I'm
- 5:44sorry. So I walked in it and then all
- 5:46of the branches were in one building.
- 5:48So I went to the Navy. They couldn't do anything 'cause
- 5:50I didn't have a GED. Went to the Air Force and got
- 5:52laughed at. And then I went to the Navy or
- 5:55the airfare and then I went to the Army recruiter.
- 5:58Army recruiter told me there was nothing he could do without a
- 6:00GED. And then I started to walk out
- 6:02and then Marine Corps recruiter ran through the parking lot to
- 6:04come find me. And he when he came and found
- 6:08me, he was just kind of like, he's like, hey, man, did you
- 6:09just hit every single office? I was like, I did.
- 6:12And he was like, well, he's look, if you're that serious,
- 6:13man, because I'm gonna tell you what to do.
- 6:14He said go, go to the National Guard.
- 6:16And I was like, what? He said, go to the National
- 6:18Guard. They will pay for your GED.
- 6:19They'll get you in. They'll get you in without it.
- 6:22And they'll get you to get the GED.
- 6:23He goes. And then after you're in the
- 6:24Guard, then you can go active duty because you'll be
- 6:27considered prior service. And I was like, oh, OK.
- 6:30And so I did. I went to the National Guard.
- 6:31National Guard recruiter said, if I pay for your GED, will you
- 6:33enlist? And I did.
- 6:35So I joined the National Guard. I served nine years in the
- 6:38National Guard. I was promoted all the way up to
- 6:41starting first class. And I only held it officially
- 6:44for a couple months. So that when I ETS from the
- 6:46Guard after nine years, I went immediately from starting first
- 6:49class to staff Sergeant in my retirement and my well in my, in
- 6:51my ETS. And then what was it three years
- 6:56later? I went active duty with my wife
- 6:58and I were homeless with three kids.
- 6:59And at that point I was like, I don't know what else to do.
- 7:02So I went active duty. Wow.
- 7:05So let's go back a little bit. As far as your basic training
- 7:11for the guard, was it what you were anticipating it was going
- 7:16to be? Did you have any inclination as
- 7:18to how difficult it might be? Yeah, yes, I, I had friends that
- 7:22were already in one of my, one of my buddies that I was hanging
- 7:25out with on a regular basis was already in the National Guard.
- 7:28And then I had, like I said, most of my family was on Marine
- 7:30Corps and current currently serving at that point.
- 7:33And, and so they were kind of just like, you know, this is
- 7:34what's going to be like, this is what's going to happen.
- 7:36My recruiter, the recruiter I had in the guard was very, very
- 7:39honest and open about everything.
- 7:41You know, he told me he's like, it's going to suck.
- 7:42This is what's going to happen. They're going to do day one's
- 7:44going to be like this. Day 2 will be like this.
- 7:46He goes and it's going to get up to a peak and then they'll start
- 7:48to level down. And I was like, OK, all right,
- 7:50so he's like, he's going to suck for the first, you know, 4 weeks
- 7:53and then they'll start getting better.
- 7:54I'm like, all right, no problem. And, and so I was aware, you
- 7:57know what I mean? At that point, I knew what I was
- 7:58getting into. Was there a favorite training
- 8:03that you had? Anytime we had a some type of
- 8:06obstacle course or something where it was team events, I was
- 8:10a big team guy. So it's like every time we had
- 8:12an opportunity to do stuff like that, that's really where I kind
- 8:14of shined. And I love to, I love to
- 8:16participate in those things. Excellent.
- 8:19And you said what was your MOS so.
- 8:22My first, when I first signed up, I was a 91B which back then
- 8:26was a was a combat medic and then there was 2 medics.
- 8:30At the point that point there was 91 Alpha, which is a
- 8:32hospital medic in 91B which was a line medic.
- 8:36And so I was in 91B and then two years later I reclassified to
- 8:4111B infantry. And then when I went active
- 8:44duty, 91B had converted to 68W. Oh.
- 8:50OK, so I went active duty as a medic and because I was I was
- 8:52medic, infantry and then medic again.
- 8:55And your time with the infantry that was, was that specific with
- 9:00just the Guard or was? That kind of kind of, I spent
- 9:07what was it, 7, six years in the infantry.
- 9:13Well, technically it was 8 years.
- 9:14So I was 2 years as a combat medic on the line with the
- 9:17infantry and then I reclassed infantry and stayed there for
- 9:20six years and then went back one year as a medical platoon
- 9:22Sergeant. And then I, when I got out on
- 9:27active duty, I went active duty as a medic.
- 9:29But when I got to Iraq, when I got to Iraq the first time, my
- 9:32chain of command found out that I had both MO s s and they
- 9:35utilized, they made, they made it very clear they were going to
- 9:38utilize me in both jobs. Oh, wow, Yeah, OK, well, I guess
- 9:43it keeps everything, you know, fresh and yeah, not boring.
- 9:49Right. And when you decide you want to
- 9:53go active duty, what was the process like?
- 9:59So I, you know, being prior service in the Guard, right?
- 10:02And having been, I had, you know, and for the, for the Army
- 10:05guys, they'll know this like I had PODCB knock and a knock,
- 10:07which was like my leadership schools to make E5E6 and E7.
- 10:11So when I went to go active duty, I almost didn't go, but my
- 10:15recruiter was like, Hey, they're going to offer you E4 and you're
- 10:21going to go to, I think it was Fort Carson.
- 10:22And I was like, I'm not going in as a before.
- 10:25So I was a platoon star. I was a start in first class,
- 10:27you know what I mean? I said, but I'm not, there's
- 10:29absolutely no way I won't go in as a, that I will not go active
- 10:32duty as a not, not at least as a non commissioned officer.
- 10:35And so I left and I wasn't going to enlist.
- 10:38And we were like I said, we were at that point, we were living in
- 10:40my mom's single wide trailer. Like my wife and I were sleeping
- 10:43on the couch. Our kids were sleeping in, in a
- 10:46bedroom. One kid was sleeping in a
- 10:47bedroom with my mom on a cot and it was so cold in the winter.
- 10:51And this trailer was so old that we were using the thermostat and
- 10:53the, and the stove to heat the house.
- 10:57So a couple and I was working at, I went from, you know, I
- 11:00went from making like 20 bucks an hour working for a family
- 11:02company that my dad owned to my dad passing away us losing
- 11:07everything. And then I went to work at a gas
- 11:11station making 675 an hour minimum wage.
- 11:13And then minimum wage went up to seven and 1/4.
- 11:16But so I'm working at this gas station and my wife comes up
- 11:19like 2 weeks after the, I told the recruiter no and says, hey,
- 11:22we need to go see your recruiter.
- 11:23And I was like, I, I'm not doing it.
- 11:24She's like, no, no, no. He called me, we talked, you
- 11:26need to go talk to him. And so we got there and he sat
- 11:29down and he had two pieces of paper and he, he slid them both
- 11:32across the table with his hands on him.
- 11:34He was like medic on the right side, infantry on the left.
- 11:36Which one do you want? And I said, well, I promised my
- 11:38wife I wouldn't be infantry again.
- 11:40So he's like, all right, Sergeant E5 Fort Stewart, I
- 11:44signed it. There you go.
- 11:46I'm leaving. And he was like, OK, I said,
- 11:48what was the other one? He's like, it doesn't matter.
- 11:49I'm like, I already signed the paperwork.
- 11:51And he flipped it over. It was staff Sergeant for
- 11:53Stewart Infantry. And I was like, well, OK.
- 11:56And so, you know, three years of no PT going active duty from
- 12:01nothing to active duty. And I did my first PT session
- 12:05with my unit and I was like, I'm glad I chose medic E5 'cause and
- 12:11as a staff started in the infantry, they would have, they
- 12:12would have lost their brains on me.
- 12:14So. Yeah, life has a way of leading
- 12:17us in the direction we need to go.
- 12:19Right. So you start back in PT, ING,
- 12:25etcetera, going through the process, how different was it
- 12:30active duty versus the National Guard for you?
- 12:35For me, it wasn't that big of a. The biggest difference was the
- 12:38fact that it was, it was every day rather than the weekend and
- 12:41two week training periods, right?
- 12:43I had a National Guard unit that was very active, that was very
- 12:45ingrained in training. Myself and my fellow squad
- 12:49leaders in the infantry. We would get together twice a
- 12:51week on our own and just discuss tactics and discuss things.
- 12:54Like we would do it over dinner and a beer and just discuss all
- 12:57these things. And then the Wednesday before
- 12:59every drill weekend, we would all come, all the leaders, E5
- 13:02and up would get together for the entire company and we would
- 13:05sit down, we would sit down together at in a leadership
- 13:09meeting and discuss what we were doing that drill weekend or we
- 13:12would do it the week before for a, what do you call it?
- 13:15A our two hour annual training periods.
- 13:17So for me, active duty wasn't the only difference was the
- 13:20amount of time involved because the, the discipline in my unit
- 13:23that I had a very squared away guard unit and it's rare to
- 13:26happen, right? But I had a very squared away
- 13:28unit where they were very, very up.
- 13:30We all worked together, we all talked together, we all hung out
- 13:32together, we all trained together.
- 13:35And we, you know, the when I became a squad leader, my fellow
- 13:38squad leaders and I would get together and we would just train
- 13:40and train and train, even on our own time.
- 13:42Wow, that's very rare nowadays. It is.
- 13:45It is. As far as being a combat medic,
- 13:52how I've heard from others that they say it's completely
- 13:56different than a paramedic. Yes.
- 14:01In in what way do you? See so on active duty as a medic
- 14:04right on the line, I can do innovations.
- 14:07I can do chest tubes. I can do minor I I've trained to
- 14:11do minor surgeries. I can do venous cut downs.
- 14:13I can do cricoidotomies where you're cutting through the
- 14:16cricoid and putting a tube down so they can breathe.
- 14:19I can do a chest tube in the side.
- 14:21I'm a lot of times if I'm trained on it, I was trained on
- 14:24it. So I'm like I'm, I was released
- 14:26to myself to work on my own with my, with my, my guys.
- 14:30I had my own medications, I had my own morphine, I had my own
- 14:33Narcan. I had my own antibiotics, I had
- 14:36my own painkillers. I had my own muscle relaxers
- 14:38that I was allowed to dispense because my officers and my
- 14:41doctors above me trained me on them.
- 14:42And they felt that I was competent enough that I could do
- 14:44that right outside of the Army with the level of certification
- 14:48that we were given because we were only given, we were
- 14:51mandatory to have basic EMT so I could provide oxygen and
- 14:55transport. But I was on the line.
- 14:59I'm putting on tourniquets. I'm, I'm giving morphine.
- 15:03I'm, you know what I mean? Like I'm doing, like I'm doing
- 15:04cracodotomies, I'm doing chest needle decompressions, I'm doing
- 15:07inclusive dressings. I'm doing all kinds of stuff
- 15:09that has a basic EMT I can't even touch.
- 15:11I would go to jail for it. Interesting that you talk about
- 15:15tourniquets that you're able to do that on the line, but as a
- 15:18paramedic you can't do that. As a paramedic, yes.
- 15:20As an EMT basic. OK.
- 15:24Yeah, so and we were only certified as EMT base and then
- 15:26the majority of us were EMT basics.
- 15:29You made staff start, start in first class, you'd go through
- 15:31BLS, so you'd have some advanced training.
- 15:33BLS is basic life saving. But like with the EMTB, again,
- 15:38it's packaged for transport. Stop the bleeding.
- 15:42You might, I mean you might do a tourniquet, but it's very rare
- 15:45on the civilian side. But in like in the military, we
- 15:48were getting a lot more leeway because again, it's lives are
- 15:50required, you know what I mean? Like people are, there's a
- 15:53severity of people are going to possibly die right there on the
- 15:57spot, so. And where did you do your combat
- 16:00medic training, did you say? I was an Alpha Company 232 at
- 16:03Fort Sam Houston. OK, All right.
- 16:06San Antonio, TX. From there, when you complete
- 16:10your training there, where do you go?
- 16:13I went directly to my National Guard unit and when I got there
- 16:16I was assigned to Charlie Company 1st, the 293rd Infantry
- 16:19as a because of line medic, right?
- 16:21Like I said, I did 2 years as a line medic and then I reclassed
- 16:23infantry. And when I reclassed to the
- 16:25infantry, I stayed in the same unit in Charlie Company and was
- 16:28promoted to corporal as a team leader.
- 16:30And then a few months later I was promoted to squad leader and
- 16:34then I went to PLDC, was promoted to Sergeant.
- 16:36And then just, I just kept advancing fairly quickly in the
- 16:40infantry and. Then when you when you go active
- 16:44duty, you're now assigned to what?
- 16:48I was in Charlie Company 26. I was in 22626 BSB Brigade
- 16:55Support Battalion, Charlie Company, 2nd Brigade, Third
- 16:59Infantry Division. Wow.
- 17:01At Fort at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
- 17:03OK. Now had you prior to you joining
- 17:06the military and you said your family had been current military
- 17:10at that as you were growing up, So did you have to go and do you
- 17:17have new duty stations like your family, did they travel?
- 17:21Differently, my uncle did my my uncle and my cousin.
- 17:24So my uncle was career Marine Corps.
- 17:26He was in Vietnam. He was an infantryman in
- 17:28Vietnam, in the Marine Corps. And then when he came back, he
- 17:30became he was in the infantry and then he became a recruiter
- 17:33and he kind of bounced several places throughout the country.
- 17:37My my cousin was in. I think he had one duty station.
- 17:41He only did one term and then he got out.
- 17:44And then I, you know, I was in the National Guard for nine
- 17:47years, got out for three years. And when I went active duty, we,
- 17:50I went active duty during the peak of the war.
- 17:52And so when I in 2006, and so when I got to Fort Stewart, it
- 17:56was, I got there in May of O6IN May of O7I deployed to Iraq in
- 18:05July of O8. We came home, we were there for
- 18:0715 months. I went from the arm from the
- 18:12Charlie Company 26BSVI transitioned over to the Third
- 18:15Infantry Division band and I was a medic, but I was there to be a
- 18:19rock singer, rock vocalist and and country vocalist for the
- 18:22Army, Army rock band at Fort Stewart.
- 18:25And then I so I was in until I was at that point.
- 18:29And then when I got to the band, I came down on orders.
- 18:31I was supposed to go to Fort Riley and I told my first
- 18:34Sergeant and he was like, don't worry about it.
- 18:35We're going to be fenced in in the next 30 days because we're
- 18:37going back to Iraq. I was like, OK, and so we ended
- 18:41up, I fenced in. So my orders were deleted and I
- 18:43stayed at Fort Stewart and I went back to Iraq for 13 months
- 18:46with the Army band and then came home.
- 18:50And then I was scheduled to go to Afghanistan for another
- 18:53deployment and then ended up, but ended up in a medical
- 18:56retirement board. OK.
- 18:58Well, let's go back a little bit and talk about when you headed
- 19:02your first deployment to Iraq. So again, you said with that one
- 19:08you were combat medic at that point?
- 19:11I was a combat medic and yeah, which now I think it's called a
- 19:16medical health specialist. And I, yeah, but I came in when
- 19:22it was called a combat medic and now it's a, it's a medical
- 19:24health specialist or something like that now.
- 19:27But I deployed with two six BSB with their security platoon
- 19:32called top Flight. And then we got to Iraq and my
- 19:36squad was picked to go do EOD escort, which is explosive
- 19:39ordinance disposal or explosive ordinance disposal.
- 19:44So we were a security team for an EOD mission.
- 19:47And so we spent four or five months doing EOD disposal.
- 19:50So we were security for a Navy EOD team.
- 19:54And then when that mission ended, they put us on a patrol
- 19:58base where we worked with an artillery unit doing.
- 20:01Infantry operations, cataloguing villages and kicking indoors and
- 20:04doing all that kind of stuff. And that's when they found my,
- 20:07my chain of command were like, hey, you used to be 11B.
- 20:09And I was like, yes. And they're like, we're going to
- 20:10use you in both jobs. Got it.
- 20:12So your your initial reaction when you get to Iraq, was it
- 20:18what you had envisioned? Had you heard stories of what to
- 20:22expect? My probably 85% of the unit that
- 20:26I went with had already deployed before.
- 20:29I was one of the few that hadn't.
- 20:31So they did a really good job and my unit, my guys that I
- 20:33were, I was with in my security platoon and top flight were very
- 20:36good. They prepared me for all they
- 20:38prepared me the best they could for all of it.
- 20:40Discussing what the previous deployment was like and the
- 20:42areas a couple of guys had been to the areas where we were
- 20:45heading. So they knew what that was going
- 20:46to look like. So I didn't go through a lot of
- 20:49culture shock. It was more of like the first
- 20:51time we got shot at. Like I was like, holy crap, what
- 20:53happened? You know what I mean?
- 20:55Like my, because it was in the backseat of a Humvee and my, it
- 20:57started sparking on my window and I was like, did they just
- 21:00shoot at us? And then, you know, the first
- 21:04time I had an actual casualty like that was that was probably
- 21:07the one moment where it was just kind of like I because I don't
- 21:10remember. I remember thinking back the day
- 21:14after not realizing what happened.
- 21:17And I remember a couple days later, like remembering things,
- 21:20like I remember the memories flooding in because I don't
- 21:22remember. I don't remember doing it when
- 21:24it happened. I remember thinking about it
- 21:25afterwards. Right, which makes sense.
- 21:27The adrenaline is go in and you're focused on what you need
- 21:31to do in order to save that person.
- 21:34And, and yeah, I understand that completely.
- 21:37When you are there, did you have an opportunity then to mingle
- 21:46with the locals or were you strictly on base?
- 21:50How did that except for when you were doing your your runs?
- 21:54How did that work? So we, my, my EOD mission, we
- 21:58stayed on, on the, on the FOB. We're, we're at FOB Falcon and
- 22:02we would go out to our battle space and do the, do you know
- 22:05the EOD operations. And then we would come back when
- 22:07that mission ended and they put us in a patrol base.
- 22:09Then we were working in the villages, but we were, we were
- 22:12partnered with an Iraqi army element and we were a mid team.
- 22:17So we were, our job was to kind of train the Iraqi army on how
- 22:19to do what we were doing. So I had, we lived with them, we
- 22:22were embedded with them. So we, we lived in a patrol base
- 22:24with an entire Iraqi company and we're going through village by
- 22:30village like interacting with the locals on the, you know, on
- 22:33in real time. And then by by towards the the
- 22:40last four months of that deployment, I got pulled from
- 22:42the line and put in the working in the hospital out at Fob Delta
- 22:46at Alcott near the Iranian border.
- 22:48And that's when like I had less, it was more of just working in
- 22:51the in the hospital. But during the whole time I was
- 22:55on the line with the at the patrol base, that was daily
- 23:00working with and living with and dealing with the local nationals
- 23:04and local army and things like that.
- 23:06Did you get to eat the with eat with the cuisine?
- 23:10Was there anything in particular that you enjoyed over some, over
- 23:14others? So when, when actually when I
- 23:17was in the hospital, we had a little girl that we took care
- 23:20of. Her parents were so grateful
- 23:21that they, for the, what we did for our, what our surgical team
- 23:24did for her, that they brought us in a full catered, like it
- 23:27was a goat on a plate. And it had like, it was
- 23:30completely filled with like rice and, and dates and just all
- 23:33kinds of stuff. And we had like this group meal
- 23:36and you just kind of walked up with like your plate and with
- 23:38like a piece of bread and you scooped up what you wanted with
- 23:40the bread, but that was, and then you just kind of pulled the
- 23:43meat off the goat. Like it was, it was, it was
- 23:45different. Like it was one of the, it's the
- 23:46first time I'd ever had goat. And it was like the first time
- 23:49I'd ever been in that kind of a cultural situation.
- 23:51But I was it was really, really awesome.
- 23:53Nice, now I have a question and this might be a silly question,
- 23:57so no, go ahead. The difference between EOD and
- 24:01route clearance. Small SO route clearance's job
- 24:07is to go out and intentionally detonate whatever they can find
- 24:11with specified machines and vehicles, right?
- 24:14Like they have vehicles they're they're, they have rollers, like
- 24:16mine rollers and things like that, that their job is to their
- 24:19job is to go out in front of elements and set those things
- 24:21off right And clear the route EOD, if you have it, you have an
- 24:26infantry unit on the ground or an artillery unit on the ground
- 24:29or people that are out there conducting missions and they see
- 24:32something, they go you know what?
- 24:33That might be an IED or that might be an explosive thing or a
- 24:36mine or whatever they would call us to come in and intentionally
- 24:40detonate that specific thing, but Route Clearance's job was to
- 24:43clear entire roads in one swoop. OK.
- 24:46All right. So same same job, one's on a
- 24:49broader subject, 1's on a smaller one's, one's more macro,
- 24:52one's more micro. So.
- 24:53OK. And that makes perfect sense.
- 24:55Thank you. Now, how long were you in
- 24:59country for that first deployment?
- 25:0315 months. 15 months and. Yeah, that was during the surge.
- 25:08So when Bush was sending over more and more and more troops at
- 25:10once, and then he extended the length, that was like when the
- 25:13first units were coming back for like that was the first time
- 25:16where a unit came back to the United States, touched the
- 25:18ground. They wouldn't let him off the
- 25:19plane. They sent him back for three
- 25:20more months. Like we were the we were the
- 25:23first unit to go in and do it. Like we knew we were doing 15
- 25:25months. Right.
- 25:27Yeah. Upfront, yeah.
- 25:31So you're, you're there 15 months.
- 25:35What was the communication like for you with home?
- 25:38Was there communication? It was very, very small and
- 25:41very, very spotty. With us living in the patrol
- 25:42base. There's like there's, there's
- 25:45basically 3 platoons, which is a company basically.
- 25:48And then you had a company of Iraqis and we were all out
- 25:50there. The Internet was satellite
- 25:53Internet was very spotty, very bad when I was on the when I was
- 25:57on the FA Hold on. I'm gonna start my truck here
- 25:59real quick so I can some light. Sure.
- 26:03And so we were, I had to just yeah, it was just really bad.
- 26:08I did not have good communication home.
- 26:11I did, I maybe talked to my wife the entire 15 months.
- 26:14I might have talked to her maybe 8 times.
- 26:17Oh wow, yeah, that had to be difficult.
- 26:20It was, it was very difficult. And how was it that you dealt
- 26:25with that? I buried myself in my job.
- 26:29I really did. I just, I, I literally I
- 26:33shoulder deep just doing what I needed to do to get done and get
- 26:35home. I really didn't want to.
- 26:37I didn't want to to just go to the house, Shin, come back, go
- 26:45to bed. Give me a second here.
- 26:56Yeah, I think I kind of the sound kind of.
- 27:00Get home as quick as easy as possible is the better can.
- 27:05You hear me? OK.
- 27:06Yes, yeah. You're synced up now.
- 27:08Yeah, I really just, yeah, I really just focused on the
- 27:11mission and just did it whatever I could to get finished, to get
- 27:13home. What was it like?
- 27:20And I get this, I I get this from people questioning, you
- 27:24know, what is it like for the difference in the bugs from oh,
- 27:29we lost him. Hello, everybody.
- 27:32So give me a minute. I'm sure Malachias will be back
- 27:36here shortly. So again, thank you everybody
- 27:39for being here tonight. Oh, he's popping back on.
- 27:42There he is. Sorry about that.
- 27:44Sorry about that. That's quite all right.
- 27:47OK, call me the question. The difference in in the bugs
- 27:51from here in the US versus Iraq and Afghanistan.
- 27:57Difference in the what? The bugs Spiders.
- 28:00Oh, yeah, So the funny story, like so when I was working, you
- 28:04know, we had camel spiders on the line and we had, you know,
- 28:07just random dogs and chickens and stuff everywhere.
- 28:09When I got to the hospital, there was they had Iraq is
- 28:12famous for what they called these yellow sax spiders.
- 28:14You can Google it. They're, it's a body that's
- 28:16about as big as 1/4 and then the legs are like a daddy long legs,
- 28:19but they're even longer. But they have a very venomous
- 28:22bite, right? And we were in the hospital and
- 28:25I had, you know, I was in the hospital, we had a mixed company
- 28:27with males and females and everything.
- 28:28And my, I was in the hospital just finished working on a
- 28:31casualty and I'm eating my lunch and I had a female soldier
- 28:33screaming. I run down the hallway and she's
- 28:35like, it's a spider. It's massive.
- 28:36And it was a pretty good sized spider.
- 28:38So I stomp on it and I come back and it's laid flat, right.
- 28:42And I, I go to take a step forward.
- 28:43After I stepped on it, I go to take a step forward and it jumps
- 28:45back up. I'm like, oh, snap.
- 28:47So I stepped on it again and it flattened out and I went to go
- 28:50step away and it jumped back up and it like it just three or
- 28:53four times this happened. So finally I stomped on it and
- 28:55then slid my boot and, and finally smeared it.
- 28:58But Oh my gosh, they were, it was aggressive.
- 29:00Like it was hilarious. And then like the pigeons, like
- 29:04Iraqis would catch pigeons and put them in a cage and then they
- 29:06would eat them like they would catch them.
- 29:08They would catch pigeons by bare hand like they would just.
- 29:10It was crazy, the craziest thing to watch.
- 29:13I can't imagine just catching a pigeon.
- 29:17I mean, unless it's walking on the ground, but yeah.
- 29:20Is that basically what I'm supposed to?
- 29:23Yeah, they're, they'll, they'll snatch them off a fence post or
- 29:25whatever. Like it was crazy.
- 29:27That's interesting. Yeah.
- 29:30So after 15 months you come back stateside and how long are you
- 29:35here? Nine months.
- 29:37Nine months. And then went back to Iraq.
- 29:40Did you have that want and desire to go back or were you?
- 29:45No, you were content. To be helped, I, I figured that
- 29:49with because you're supposed to be you're at the time you're
- 29:52supposed to be guaranteed 12 months of stabilization time
- 29:54where you would be home for 12 months guaranteed.
- 29:56Because I switched units and because I was what's considered,
- 29:59I was considered mission critical because I was the
- 30:01vocalist for the man. They're like, no, you have to go
- 30:03the the general can waive your time and which he did.
- 30:06And then I ended up back in Iraq nine months after being home.
- 30:10Now my I went back over with the band, right.
- 30:12So it's not, it's not combat focus.
- 30:14It's not, you know, I'm, I'm literally just going over there
- 30:17to make music as a soldier, but I'm going over to make music.
- 30:20So I knew it was going to be easier.
- 30:23I knew it was going to be better.
- 30:25I got over there and the communication home was the same.
- 30:27Our Internet sucked. I I was paying for my own
- 30:31Internet and it would go in and out, in and out all the time.
- 30:34And then I was on the road because we would go.
- 30:36We would, we were a Cobb Spiker, which was northern Iraq.
- 30:39We'd go to Mosul, we'd go to Diamondback, we'd go to
- 30:42Warhorse, we'd go to, I can't remember QW.
- 30:47There was like there was about Bernstein.
- 30:48There was about 15 fives on the North End of Iraq that we would
- 30:50go to and play on a regular basis.
- 30:53OK, so tell me about how it is now.
- 30:56You'd said that your your dad didn't want you learning how to
- 31:01play the guitar, so how was it that you ended up learning to
- 31:06play the guitar to? Start funny story.
- 31:09So I'm gonna I'm gonna start with I'm 52 years old.
- 31:13I joined the active duty in 2006.
- 31:17I ended up with the Army band in 2008, ended up in Iraq with them
- 31:212009 as a vocalist. Came home in 2010, medically
- 31:26retired in 2014, moved to Tennessee.
- 31:30When I retired, I was in Nashville for 12 years.
- 31:34Three years ago today or this December, 3 years ago this
- 31:37December, I picked up a guitar and I started taking lessons and
- 31:41I started using YouTube videos. I went through the Guitars for
- 31:44Vets program Nashville and I am now three years.
- 31:49This December I will have been playing guitar, and within four
- 31:54months of of picking up the guitar three years ago, I'm
- 31:59playing open mic nights. I'm writing music.
- 32:01I'm doing my own thing. Which is incredible.
- 32:05But now I have some more questions here.
- 32:08So when you were playing with the band in Iraq, what were you
- 32:13playing? I was a vocalist, I just sang.
- 32:15Just saying, OK, And what kind of songs would you sing?
- 32:21Were they covers? Were they?
- 32:22Yeah, it's all covers. I did like Rebel Yell by Billy
- 32:25Idol, Kryptonite by Kryptonite by Three Doors Down, Shimmer by
- 32:31Fuel Fight for Your Right to Party by the Beastie Boys.
- 32:35These are just some of the ones we did and then I did by the
- 32:42buddy of mine. We both sang.
- 32:43We did a duet which was Save a horse riding cowboy Bon Jovi.
- 32:49This is My Life, 500 Miles by the Pretenders.
- 32:56I don't remember the I used to have it written down.
- 32:58I had the whole setlist. I can't remember all of them
- 32:59now, but I had about 45 songs that I did on a regular basis in
- 33:04IRAP. Wow.
- 33:05And those are all great songs that you were.
- 33:07Yeah, every one of them was great.
- 33:09Yeah, I love them. Great time to be alive.
- 33:13And so your second time there in back in Iraq, again, that is
- 33:19with the band. Was there any time where you had
- 33:22to do something there outside of the band where you were a
- 33:27soldier? So there was AI want to say 5
- 33:32months, four or five months in, we had artillery strike that hit
- 33:36the female latrine about 400 meters from our living area, No2
- 33:43about 200 meters, 200 meters from our living area.
- 33:45And I mean, it was, it was close enough that when it hit, it
- 33:47shook my, it might shook the building I was sleeping in.
- 33:50So I, I grabbed my medic bag. I still carried A medic bag and
- 33:54I took off and went and helped provide aid for the medics, for
- 33:56the people that were there. OK.
- 33:58All right. Yeah.
- 33:59And that's an interesting place, but I guess it's a structure and
- 34:04they don't necessarily know what's there.
- 34:07Yeah, they just hit a building. That's all they knew.
- 34:08Yeah, yeah. How was it?
- 34:13So you said that you were medically retired?
- 34:16I was medically retired for post traumatic stress disorder,
- 34:19traumatic brain injury, arthritis in my neck, shoulders,
- 34:23back, knees, hearing loss, tinnitus, ringing in the ears,
- 34:29insomnia, GERD and I want to I think that's oh right shoulder.
- 34:38I had right shoulder reconstruction done when I came
- 34:40home from my first appointment so I had like all the residuals
- 34:43off of that surgery as well. Wow, that's a lot.
- 34:47And I'm very sorry that that happened to you and you had to
- 34:50go through that. Thank you.
- 34:51When you were getting your papers to retire out, did they
- 34:58provide you resources outside of, say the VA for transitioning
- 35:03back? Absolutely not.
- 35:05When I when I transitioned, we were still using the.
- 35:08What was that program called? Is it taps?
- 35:12No, it would be 4 taps ASAP. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- 35:16All right, that's Army substance abuse.
- 35:18I don't remember what it was called, but it was like I went
- 35:21through. It was literally I had three
- 35:22days of how to dress for an interview, how to there was a
- 35:26three day class on how to dress for interviews, how to write a
- 35:28resume and how to budget a checkbook.
- 35:30And then I had to clear all the different stations on posts.
- 35:32I had to go through medical again, even though I'd just done
- 35:35a, you know, 2 year Med board. And then I, during that process,
- 35:40I actually, I wrote a book called A Warrior's Garden, which
- 35:45was me finding a holistic way to deal with my trauma.
- 35:51And then when I retired, I added a chapter and we republished and
- 35:57that chapter was on how to successfully transition.
- 36:01Nice. And so, and again, that's
- 36:05Warriors Garden is that? Correct.
- 36:07Yeah, a Warriors. A Warriors Garden.
- 36:08A warriors garden. I'm going to search that so I
- 36:11can pull it up. So 1 moment.
- 36:14The cover of it should show you a a soldier in the middle of the
- 36:18desert. It should be a silhouette
- 36:21soldiers. Got it.
- 36:23All right. Let me make sure I bring that up
- 36:26here. And it's that book's available
- 36:30on Amazon and you know, books-a-million, it's on all the
- 36:33book websites, you can purchase it online.
- 36:34And it's literally just a. It's a document of what I did
- 36:38for myself and the different things that I tried.
- 36:42OK, I got it here. Let's see.
- 36:51There we go. So let's get that shared so
- 36:53everybody can see it. So.
- 36:55OK. Warrior's Garden and all that
- 36:59information is there. This is World of Books, but as
- 37:03you said, you can get it on Amazon as well.
- 37:05Is that? Yeah, it's on.
- 37:06It's on amazonwalmart.com. It's on books-a-million.
- 37:09It's on Barnes and Noble. It's on Target.
- 37:12It's on All Anywhere you can buy books on a regular basis.
- 37:14It's on their websites. Wonderful.
- 37:17Yeah. So y'all go out and and support
- 37:21Malachias on this? And thank you.
- 37:24Help him out. So then tell me about how long
- 37:30did it take you to get to a place that you are mentally
- 37:38comfortable? I would say I retired in 2014.
- 37:45In 2020, I took a job. So I went through college, got
- 37:49my degree in psychology and then I was working on a master's in
- 37:51counseling. And then my mom, my mom got
- 37:54ended up with cancer. And so I stopped college to take
- 37:56care of her because she lived with us.
- 37:58And so I took a job and then I did a job at working for the
- 38:03Williamson County Court System doing their drug testing and
- 38:06alcohol monitoring for people in the DUI programs and the drug
- 38:09programs. And then that job transition to
- 38:12I went to work directly for the DUI court at Williamson County
- 38:14working for Judge Andre. She's amazing woman.
- 38:17And then from that, I took a job as a veteran service officer in
- 38:21Murray County, Tennessee, where I lived, which is about an hour
- 38:24South of Nashville, 50 minutes South of Nashville.
- 38:27And then when I became a veteran service officer and I started
- 38:29helping other veterans, it's kind of like I stopped focusing
- 38:33on my stuff and I started helping them with theirs.
- 38:35And that benefited me emotionally and mentally.
- 38:38So it's about 2020-2021, things started getting really much, a
- 38:42lot better for me. And how was it that your family
- 38:46was dealing with everything that you were going through?
- 38:50My kids, so my oldest son was, you know, he was raised
- 38:52basically by his mom. I didn't get a lot of time with
- 38:54him, which is a whole other story, but he was kind of raised
- 38:57by his mom. My middle child, who was my
- 39:00stepson, I raised like he, he's kind of oblivious to a lot of
- 39:05it. My daughter was really young
- 39:07when it was all happening. So she was from 3:00 to 8:00 or
- 39:123:00 to 12:00 when we went through all this.
- 39:14So it wasn't a big deal for her either.
- 39:16Like she didn't notice a lot of it.
- 39:18She just knows that she knew later on that dad yelled a lot
- 39:21more. You know what I mean?
- 39:22That dad had a, you know, whatever.
- 39:23But they, they did well with, I mean, I, I would say that they
- 39:27did a lot better with it than probably a lot of other kids
- 39:29did. I tried to shield them from it
- 39:33as much as possible. My wife and I did.
- 39:36And when you are going through all of this, music is still very
- 39:44prevalent. Is that true?
- 39:47OK. And were there bands then that
- 39:51you got involved with once you were here?
- 39:56Oh, so I I got really like I listened to.
- 40:00So when I came home from my first appointment, I got really
- 40:02deep into Christian music. But I it wasn't like, you know,
- 40:05the worship be crazy music. It was just like Christian bands
- 40:08like skillet and red and disciple and decipher down and,
- 40:11and just a ton of these bands and they, you would, they
- 40:15sounded like the regular radio bands, right?
- 40:18You wouldn't be able to really distinguish the difference
- 40:21unless you were micro scoping and trying to find out the
- 40:24difference, right. And so I got into that and then
- 40:26I tried a couple of times to write an album and, and put some
- 40:29music together and I just couldn't get it to happen.
- 40:32And then I don't, I don't know why, but just for some reason, I
- 40:34just, I, I tried one last time and when I did, I did a GoFundMe
- 40:40twice before and never raised a dime.
- 40:43Did a third one and it raised like 20 some dollars, which I
- 40:46refunded. And then the last one raised
- 40:49every dime within the 1st 30 days of the GoFundMe.
- 40:52And so at that point I hired A producer and a writer because at
- 40:56that point I couldn't play an instrument yet.
- 40:58And I wrote a Warriors, the album for Those that remain,
- 41:03which I had a couple songs already finished.
- 41:04One was A Warriors Garden, the song that I wrote with JT
- 41:08Cooper. And then there was Falling Down,
- 41:13which I wrote with my band in the early 2000s back in Indiana.
- 41:17But their messages fit the album because it was a concept album,
- 41:21which was every song in order tells a story.
- 41:24So every song tells an individual story, but when you
- 41:26put them all together, it's a lifespan.
- 41:27So it tells a whole life story. So I finished that album and
- 41:32then afterwards that album was finished, I released No Doubt of
- 41:38Mine, Not My Father's Son, Grind and Freedom.
- 41:42And then I'm in the process right now of slowly releasing
- 41:45another album called Fire on the Inside, which I've already
- 41:48released 5 songs from. I think 4, four, yeah, 5 songs
- 41:50from. I have two more to write and
- 41:53finish. And then I have with my producer
- 41:55Josh Hudson, who's currently active duty stations in Okinawa,
- 41:59Japan. I think we have five more songs
- 42:02that we're working on together right now.
- 42:03They're all singles. Wow.
- 42:05And we've released 5 or 6. I, I can't, I think there's 28
- 42:09songs that have already been released total between the two
- 42:13of us. And then I've got, you know,
- 42:14we've got four or five more that we're working on right now.
- 42:17That is great. I've heard and listened to
- 42:21several of your songs over the course of of, well couple of
- 42:25years anyway and really enjoyed them.
- 42:29I've listened on there's several streaming.
- 42:34Yeah, they're everywhere. And so really impressed.
- 42:37So for the for those of you interested, you can search
- 42:42Malachias and you'd be able to find his music.
- 42:46And you're back. You have written a book?
- 42:53Yep. You have now written and
- 42:56produced songs. What are you doing today?
- 43:00So now I live in South Florida, down in, I live down in Coral
- 43:08Springs, just just like 20 minutes, thirty minutes north of
- 43:10Fort Lauderdale. And I am a professional voice
- 43:14coach. So I'm teaching people how to
- 43:16sing and I am my wife's phone just connected to the car.
- 43:28And so I I teach voice. I'm working on getting trained
- 43:35to teach beginner guitar and beginner piano.
- 43:40Wow, that's really impressive. So you play piano as well now?
- 43:45I can play some scales. I can't really play piano so.
- 43:47OK. OK.
- 43:48Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I can play chords.
- 43:51I can play some chords and then I can play some.
- 43:53I guess I can play some. What do you call it?
- 43:56I can play some scales and that's about it.
- 43:58So. OK, I tried to teach myself how
- 44:01to play the violin as well as the piano and it I think I had
- 44:08better luck with the violin than I did with the piano, but vocals
- 44:12were always my thing, so. Right, I understand that.
- 44:16So tell me about if you have a child, or anyone for that
- 44:23matter, who comes to you and is interested in joining the
- 44:27military, words of wisdom that you would have for them.
- 44:31Don't, don't, don't. Yeah.
- 44:38No, I, I, I'm a big first thing I do is ask him why.
- 44:43You know what I mean? Because like, so the first time
- 44:45I joined, I joined because I, I want, I didn't want to break the
- 44:49family line, the tradition, right?
- 44:51So I wanted, my dad started, my grandpa served, his dad served
- 44:53like everybody back at my uncles, my cousins, they all
- 44:55served. So I wanted to be a part of it.
- 44:57So I, I joined because of family tradition.
- 44:59The second time I joined was a little more selfish because it
- 45:02was like I was homeless with a wife and kids and I needed, I
- 45:05needed something to provide for them.
- 45:08And so I did. And then after that, I, I asked,
- 45:15you know, I asked them, why are you joining if they're married?
- 45:19I, I, you know, I'd like, like, if you, if you want to do it,
- 45:21I'm going to talk to you, but I need to have a, a conversation
- 45:23with you and your spouse because your spouse can make or break
- 45:27your career. So I, I do, I have that
- 45:30discussion with them, but it's really about motive, Like what
- 45:34is your motive to doing it? What do you expect from it?
- 45:37And then making sure that they understand that the military,
- 45:40you get what you get. So the more effort you put in,
- 45:42the more effort you'll get. So right.
- 45:46Right. And if for anybody in the chats,
- 45:49if you have any questions for Malachias, go ahead and put
- 45:52those out there. Now I do have a couple of let's
- 45:59see Jason says. Malachias.
- 46:02Thank you for your time and service.
- 46:04Thank you. And let's see, what else do we
- 46:07have? What is the 1st place that you
- 46:15visited or was stationed that you would like to go back with
- 46:18friends or family to show them? Great.
- 46:20So actually there's one coming up.
- 46:22I have the opportunity. So I went to AI.
- 46:24So I went to basic training at Fort Knox, KY.
- 46:27I went to AIT at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio.
- 46:30I have been asked to come out to San Antonio this veteran's day
- 46:33to play a veteran's day show. But it's a show where they can't
- 46:39afford to pay me, but they really love my music and said
- 46:43that they would love they would have me.
- 46:44And they've actually made space for me if I can make it.
- 46:46So I've got a fundraiser on my website where we're trying to
- 46:49raise the money to get me to San Antonio.
- 46:51But I want to take my wife because she's never been to
- 46:53Texas. And I want to show her because
- 46:55at that point, we would go to Fort Sam Houston.
- 46:57We would go to the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and I would show her
- 46:59all those areas that I where I was at when I was in Texas.
- 47:04So, yeah. So it's on my music site, which
- 47:06is Malachius music.com. We have a tab called The Road to
- 47:10San Antonio, but San Antonio is a place I would want to take her
- 47:14to show her where my my career started.
- 47:17Malachiasmusic.com. Yep.
- 47:21I'm going to put that out there in the chats for anybody HTTPS.
- 47:26Yep. And then the donation sites that
- 47:29we have on there, which is through our Cash app and through
- 47:30our PayPal, they are linked through our nonprofit.
- 47:34So if you make a donation, anything we raise over the trip
- 47:37is going to get donated to other veteran nonprofits.
- 47:39Like we're not keeping any of the leftover.
- 47:41Oh, that's amazing, angry Sarge says.
- 47:44Lots to see there for sure. Also Army veteran and OK, so
- 47:53I've got that put out there for you and any words, final words,
- 47:59final thoughts that you have for anybody as far as what they need
- 48:06to know about military individuals.
- 48:11Not necessarily about the military.
- 48:12I will say that after military race, I'm a, I'm a spokesman for
- 48:16the Spartan Pledge, which is a suicide prevention promise that
- 48:20veterans take because we all know that, you know, the magic
- 48:23#22 a day, 22 veterans a day take their own life out of their
- 48:26own hand. I am a big believer that numbers
- 48:28more like 40 to 45 because of the way that the numbers were
- 48:32pulled. And I saw the inside studies
- 48:35when I worked at the VA, so I know when I worked as a VSO, so
- 48:38I know where they pulled these numbers from.
- 48:40I don't think they pulled enough.
- 48:42And so because of that, the the Spartan pledge is a, like I
- 48:47said, it's a 2, it's a 2 sentence promise that veterans
- 48:49take with each other. And it starts with, I will not
- 48:51take my own life by my own hand until I talk to my battle buddy
- 48:54first. My mission is to find a mission
- 48:56and help my war fighter family. Every time I play a concert,
- 49:00every show that I play. I just did one in Orlando where
- 49:02I opened for Bo by Sean Holcomb and Ryan Weaver.
- 49:06Bo Bice was on American Idol season 4.
- 49:09He was the runner up to Carrie Underwood.
- 49:12And I, I opened for them. But I, I did a Spartan pledge
- 49:16there with, with some individuals that came up.
- 49:19I've probably over the last eight years, I've given the
- 49:21Spartan pledge with over 2 to 3000 people.
- 49:26And, but it's a very serious, you know, moment.
- 49:28I'm not. I would say that if you're a
- 49:31soldier, if you're a Marine, if you're an active duty member, if
- 49:33you're a National Guardsman, if you're a reservist, when your
- 49:36time in the military comes to an end, don't leave your mentality
- 49:43in the military mentality. Find a transition mentality,
- 49:46right? You're no longer a civilian.
- 49:48You'll never be a civilian again just by the simple fact that you
- 49:50served in the military. But that's not a bad thing.
- 49:54That's just what it is, right? So at that point, at that point,
- 49:58find something to do, find a mission.
- 50:01Because like Boone Cutler used to say, a war fighter with the
- 50:05mission is a deadly war fighter. A war fighter without a mission
- 50:08is a dead war fighter, right? So find a mission, find
- 50:11something to do to bless and help other people, and it will
- 50:13bless and enrich you. So would you recommend Even so
- 50:18most know before they are EAS or retired out that that's going to
- 50:26happen, right. And so would you recommend for
- 50:29those who are still in, who are looking to separate soon that
- 50:35they start looking for something, be it employment, be
- 50:39it. Two things, yeah, you need to
- 50:42look for two things. You need to look for a veteran
- 50:44who has successfully transitioned, who is tied in to
- 50:48the local area where you're going to go live, if that's
- 50:51staying where your base is, cause some people stay where
- 50:53their last studio station is. A lot of people go home, a lot
- 50:55of people find somewhere else, right?
- 50:58So find a local veteran in the area where you want to live that
- 51:01has successfully transitioned and is doing well, right?
- 51:04And then find a civilian mentor who is tied in, in the local
- 51:09area where you want to go so that you can have those two
- 51:12different people. Because I, the biggest thing
- 51:14that that benefited me was I had Boone Cutler who had
- 51:16successfully transitioned, who was, who helped me as a veteran
- 51:19transition into the civilian market as a veteran.
- 51:21And then I had a gentleman named Bryan Ansley, who actually I
- 51:25too, I had Bryan Ansley and Robbie Grayson.
- 51:26Robbie Grayson was my publisher and, and one of my best friends.
- 51:30But those two guys helped me learn how to talk to civilians
- 51:35because we talked to each other differently than we talked to,
- 51:39to civilians. You know what I mean?
- 51:40Like I can say things to, to one of my veteran brothers and
- 51:42sisters that I, if I said it to a civilian, they would look at
- 51:44me like I'm nuts. So they helped me learn the
- 51:49difference in that. So like, find, find a veteran
- 51:51mentor who's successful in the area where you want to go and
- 51:54then find a civilian mentor that you trust, that you can trust
- 51:57that is successful in the area where you want to go.
- 51:59So both of them need to be in the same area.
- 52:02That makes perfect sense. I'm not seeing any additional
- 52:06questions, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap up.
- 52:09But Malachias, if you'd like to stay put for me for just a
- 52:13couple more minutes. So for the rest of you, thank
- 52:15you all very, very much for coming on.
- 52:18And with any luck, we will have a show for, oh, wait, I do have
- 52:24a show scheduled for next Sunday, 6:00 PM Central, 7:00 PM
- 52:29Eastern Time. Everybody have a wonderful,
- 52:31wonderful week and stay safe. Hi, I'm Beaker with Military
- 52:37Broadcast Radio TV. We're your virtual MWR bringing
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- 52:46and a community that never leaves you behind.
- 52:49Download our Roku or mobile app today.