Speaker 1: M beaute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special operations, military
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys in the community. Hello,
Speaker 1: we got everyone. Welcome back to soft Rep Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: your host this afternoon, Steve Balistrari joining us right now.
Speaker 1: We have a very special guest with us. Tom Spooner,
Speaker 1: uh former Delta Force, seventh Special Forces Group, which is
Speaker 1: uh always partial to my heart there um uh he
Speaker 1: it's uh twenty one years in the military. Um. And
Speaker 1: then after he was out, Yeah, he had problems with
Speaker 1: like with a lot of veterans do with the PTS
Speaker 1: uh t b I and he started a well, he
Speaker 1: was co founder, I should say, uh, Warrior's Heart, and
Speaker 1: it's called Warrior's Heart dot Com. It's a ranch located
Speaker 1: in Bandera, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to him all about all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: But before we're going further, let's bring him onto the podcast. Tom,
Speaker 1: thanks for taking the time with us this afternoon. Steve,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. You know,
Speaker 1: we're a military podcast, so everyone loves hearing everyone's bio
Speaker 1: can you tell us a little bit about yourself and
Speaker 1: your military career. Yes, I'll try to do a shorter
Speaker 1: version that's possible, and then we can dive into whatever
Speaker 1: parts you'd like you. Um. But so I came in
Speaker 1: the military in nineteen I was at basic training, you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: right when I was at basic training, the Gulf War
Speaker 1: kicked off, and Uh the funny story was, you know,
Speaker 1: I told my would be wife at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: uh that oh, there's nothing going on in the military.
Speaker 1: She was all worried about going or and never happened.
Speaker 1: It hadn't happened in years. And then when I was
Speaker 1: at basically kicked off. So, um, I went to Basic A,
Speaker 1: I t jump school and uh straight to the eighty
Speaker 1: second and then was there a couple of months and
Speaker 1: then over to the Gulf. So from ninety to ninety
Speaker 1: five I was in the eighty second and first to
Speaker 1: five fourth UM. Then ninety six to two thousand one
Speaker 1: I was in seven Special Force Group as a team Charlie.
Speaker 1: And then from two thousand one, in two thousand until
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven when I retired, I was out
Speaker 1: at the unit. So I ended up doing twelve deployments
Speaker 1: forty total months time in combat and uh, and then
Speaker 1: I retired. One of our writers here a saw from
Speaker 1: George Handon was over in the unit. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know George. I know who he is. We
Speaker 1: didn't work together, but I definitely know who he is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: George is quite popular. He writes some great stories and uh,
Speaker 1: he just published a book, so I look forward to
Speaker 1: reading that one soon. But let's talk about you. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, after all this time in the military. Uh,
Speaker 1: obviously you had some problems of your own. Can you
Speaker 1: get into that a little bit? Absolutely whenever, So for me,
Speaker 1: fortunate or unfortunate, I consider it fortunate. I I struggled
Speaker 1: with with alcohol and alcoholism at a young age and uh,
Speaker 1: and I ended up getting sober whenever I was twenty
Speaker 1: two years old, when I was in the eighty second.
Speaker 1: So the majority of my military career. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I didn't I didn't drink and I
Speaker 1: am not the alcohol police. I have not you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Like, alcohol is a huge part of
Speaker 1: our community. It's huge part of our culture and what
Speaker 1: we do. Uh. And don't have any problem with it.
Speaker 1: But if it's if alcohol is destroying your marriage or
Speaker 1: destroying your family, or destroying your career, you know, as
Speaker 1: being a soldier. Uh, then I got a problem with that,
Speaker 1: and you should too, you know. So I just want
Speaker 1: to be very clear that I'm not a teetotal or
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I couldn't spend eighteen years and
Speaker 1: spec offos and with that kind of attitude, you know.
Speaker 1: So No, it's tough. I mean alcohol is a big
Speaker 1: part of um winding down. I guess this is the
Speaker 1: way of putting it. Yeah, me, I just you know,
Speaker 1: I was one of those guys you know that you would,
Speaker 1: you know, get all lit up one night and do
Speaker 1: like insane things and you'd say, yeah, man, hey, bro,
Speaker 1: you you probably shouldn't drink, you know. And because I
Speaker 1: got that's what I always say as uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm allergic to alcohol. I break out in handcuffs, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's uh So anyway, alcohol did not agree with me.
Speaker 1: Uh and so I ended, I got sober, you know,
Speaker 1: I had to get some help and got sober. But
Speaker 1: the thing was, you know, I mean it just made
Speaker 1: me a more incredible soldier, you know it uh for me? Anyway, again,
Speaker 1: not pushing it on anyone. It was what I needed
Speaker 1: to do. And then, um, so that was a big
Speaker 1: part of the story, especially when it comes uh, you
Speaker 1: know to whenever I got out, but also whenever I
Speaker 1: was in, especially you know, from two thousand one to
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, when I was still deploying. Uh
Speaker 1: in two thousand six, I got an undiagnosed t B.
Speaker 1: I you know, during those time frames, I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: was getting blown up. You know. It wasn't uh you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't like, oh my god, I got
Speaker 1: blown up, Maybe I should get checked out. It was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm finally in the club now, I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, but it was it was significant and I
Speaker 1: didn't know it at the time. I ate eight two
Speaker 1: millimeter more a round probably about one away. It was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's where I got. That was two thousand six.
Speaker 1: So I kept you know, deploying, you know, and working
Speaker 1: around a lot of explosives, a lot more concussions and everything.
Speaker 1: And now we know that that stuff is non linear,
Speaker 1: you know, it's uh, it's not incremental. So I had
Speaker 1: some pretty significant uh tv I going on, and and
Speaker 1: I had a fair share of post traumatic stress or
Speaker 1: what I just like call an unprocessed trauma, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, and so that got me into a really
Speaker 1: bad way to come two thousand and ten. And um
Speaker 1: so I had never I had never planned on getting
Speaker 1: out of the military. Man. I was a freaking super lifer,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I got I mean from
Speaker 1: the time I was old enough to remember, you know,
Speaker 1: I was that ten year old kid running around my
Speaker 1: Vietnam VETT uncle's uh you know us paratrooper death from
Speaker 1: Above t shirt on. You know. I mean it was
Speaker 1: just so I never you know, thirty years you know,
Speaker 1: wherever they're going to have to kick me out. But
Speaker 1: between the PTS and mainly the t V I aspect
Speaker 1: of it at that time, I ended up getting med
Speaker 1: boarded out because multiple reasons, the normal broken part, you know,
Speaker 1: back surgery, broken back, you know. I mean we all
Speaker 1: got out of the same happened to me. I got
Speaker 1: I med a med board out nineties eight. So yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was so, you know, it was it was
Speaker 1: really rough. Everybody like you know, talks about the transition
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, a transition out of any profession,
Speaker 1: for when that's what you spent your whole adult life doing.
Speaker 1: You know, it was a big deal, especially the one
Speaker 1: we were involved in. And um, you know, but I
Speaker 1: mean I was, I was, I was in a bad way.
Speaker 1: I ended up going to the tp I clinic here
Speaker 1: on Fort Bragg and got tested and uh, and so
Speaker 1: the kind of a cool thing, I guess you can
Speaker 1: can't say it cool with brain trauma. But you know
Speaker 1: when the dog I took all the tests, you know,
Speaker 1: that six hours worth of testing with puzzles and you know,
Speaker 1: with a person, and and it's so definitive. It's not
Speaker 1: subjective to who's reading it. You know, it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's definitive. And when the doc who was reading it
Speaker 1: to me, you know, he said, hey, you're operating at
Speaker 1: fift process and speed. You're operating verbal memory. So my
Speaker 1: symptoms at that time was like at times I wouldn't
Speaker 1: even know where I was. Uh, Like, I mean, hell,
Speaker 1: I used to drive, you know for ten years straight.
Speaker 1: You know, from the back gate to my house is
Speaker 1: about three different turns. And you know I did it,
Speaker 1: you know, twice a day for ten years. But at
Speaker 1: that time two thousan ten, you know, no iPhone yet,
Speaker 1: but I would have to plug in my GPS, uh
Speaker 1: my address to get home, because that would just yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean I was cognizant, and you really wouldn't know
Speaker 1: what was going on in the old squirrel cage, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I present it as if like, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe a little angry, you know, a little mean, but
Speaker 1: you know normal dude. Um, I had huge mood swings
Speaker 1: going on and uh, just a lot of the typical
Speaker 1: symptoms that were t v I, but I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: So when the doc read me those results, uh, he
Speaker 1: kind of thought I was having a little bit of
Speaker 1: a moment, you know, because he stopped a second and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, I just want to make sure you
Speaker 1: understood what I what I just said to you, you know.
Speaker 1: And I was like, hey, Doc, no, uh, I hear you.
Speaker 1: You know, I understand, uh you know, brain indrews bad
Speaker 1: and processing verbal memory. I was like that you just
Speaker 1: told me I wasn't crazy, and uh and that was
Speaker 1: a huge thing to me because I thought I was
Speaker 1: just losing my my losing it, you know. And so
Speaker 1: I understand injury, and you can recover from injury, but
Speaker 1: you can't recover from crazy. I mean, we don't, you know.
Speaker 1: So and so when he told me I had an injury, sucked.
Speaker 1: It was my brain. But man it it you know,
Speaker 1: man it it gave me a lot of hope, you know.
Speaker 1: So I ended up doing man like the full gamut, uh,
Speaker 1: three months, three or three and a half months of
Speaker 1: intensive cognitive therapy, vestibular therapy, psychological therapy. Even had to
Speaker 1: get a little bit of it on meds for a
Speaker 1: little bit. And uh, the crazy thing about all that
Speaker 1: is that it works, uh, you know, man and that.
Speaker 1: But one of the key things for me were a
Speaker 1: few key things. It was, Man, I just started getting
Speaker 1: after it like I would in the military. You know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't happy about getting out, but it was really
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, hey, it was realistic. I couldn't
Speaker 1: wear a kit without taking narcotics and that wasn't gonna happen,
Speaker 1: you know. So so it was like, hey, I just
Speaker 1: had to deal with with what I had, you know.
Speaker 1: So I attacked this whole healing kind of aspect of
Speaker 1: things the same way I did sniper school or ranger
Speaker 1: school or the que course or selection, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It was just like, hey, what's next? What
Speaker 1: can I go through next? You know? So, so I
Speaker 1: just adopted that same mindset because it was like any
Speaker 1: other those tough military schools. Man, it's sucked, you know.
Speaker 1: It was. There was a bunch of guys from group.
Speaker 1: We were in there in vestibular treatment. That's where you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, look at stuff and shake your head, and
Speaker 1: they just have puke buckets, you know, next to you,
Speaker 1: and we'd all just it was like on a you know,
Speaker 1: a screwed up team party or something where you know
Speaker 1: what I mean to say, you do all these crazy
Speaker 1: tricks until you puke and then you could do it more,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, but anyway, I got through all that.
Speaker 1: But man, I'm here to tell you. For me, the
Speaker 1: the only thing that really stopped me from being, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the twenty two suicides was as I didn't
Speaker 1: have that trifecta. I didn't have the chemical dependency or
Speaker 1: self medication thing going on. And I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: because of woe yea me. I'm just saying it that
Speaker 1: I really made it through without that. So I can
Speaker 1: only imagine, you know, I mean folks that are self medicated,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean you throw a bunch of pills
Speaker 1: on top of some TV I on top of a
Speaker 1: bunch of unprocessed trauma and then just add booze. You know, well,
Speaker 1: that's how it happens. I mean, we all know guys
Speaker 1: and you know, yeah, and some of them was were
Speaker 1: people we would consider the strongest guys that we were around. Absolutely, man.
Speaker 1: But you know that the thing that I learned, obviously,
Speaker 1: I learned a ton through that whole process. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I have to mention too, that the
Speaker 1: the hugest part about me, and it's always been my
Speaker 1: motivation was my family. You know what I mean. I've
Speaker 1: got this spartan queen of a freaking wife who's way
Speaker 1: more badass than I am. I got two boys you
Speaker 1: know that are young men now, but you know, I
Speaker 1: mean that's what that's what kept my fire going, you know, was, Hey,
Speaker 1: I gotta Now my team wasn't you know, O d A,
Speaker 1: you know, or or wherever it was. It was my family.
Speaker 1: You know, that was my team. So hey, I don't
Speaker 1: want to let my team down, So hey, I gotta
Speaker 1: freaking perform. Yeah, you know. So it was different categories
Speaker 1: but same things, and uh, man, I just I learned
Speaker 1: so much through that whole process of Hey, number one,
Speaker 1: how hard it is to do it. But then um,
Speaker 1: that is totally doable. But I gotta have mission and
Speaker 1: I have to have purpose, you know, all the all
Speaker 1: the stuff we grew up with, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: which which just made us be able to accomplish. But
Speaker 1: it was you know, man, it's freaking tough, you know.
Speaker 1: But the other thing that got me through that that
Speaker 1: I want to mention was the Care Coalition, so calm
Speaker 1: Care coalition, because man, i'd those guys had to like
Speaker 1: at times they had to sign someone to me where
Speaker 1: where I mean, I'm not kidding, Hay, and carrying me
Speaker 1: through my appointments and the medboard process because I had
Speaker 1: all these cognitive of you know, executive functioning things going on,
Speaker 1: you know, so and it was very uh piste me off,
Speaker 1: you know, because I would know that you know, I
Speaker 1: knew I knew how to do something very simple like
Speaker 1: find room one oh seven, you know what I mean
Speaker 1: at Walmac the man that spent two hours running around
Speaker 1: the hospital, you know, and just not so. I mean
Speaker 1: I literally they hand carried me through a huge part
Speaker 1: of the process, uh you know, and uh, anyway, I'd
Speaker 1: go on and on about that man but it was
Speaker 1: just it's the biggest thing I'm trying to say that
Speaker 1: that is, yes, I had the willingness, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, to walk through the doors and sign up
Speaker 1: and volunteer to do all this ship. I mean, I'd
Speaker 1: rather you getting a fucking gunfight, man, then talk to
Speaker 1: a psych or you know, do all that other crap.
Speaker 1: You know. I mean that's but volunteered, you know, and
Speaker 1: uh and and just got to continue on with it,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, you know. It's funny you mentioned that
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of the guys that I've
Speaker 1: talked to with this, they've said the same thing. I'd
Speaker 1: rather get in a gunfight being out number ten to
Speaker 1: one than to talk to a doctor. I'm I'm the
Speaker 1: exact same way I was. I was actually at the
Speaker 1: v A this morning, so um, I'd rather get a
Speaker 1: root canal than go there. But you know we have
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, And that the thing is, man it
Speaker 1: And it's a cool thing that I learned, is that.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about rule, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: There are complex psychological issues schizophrenia, bipolar, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, multiple personality like, but the of the folks
Speaker 1: that are you know, pretty dang functionally just having a
Speaker 1: hard time. Manag is trained or untrained, Like I had
Speaker 1: not received any training, uh in how to process trauma
Speaker 1: and handle my emotions that didn't include violence, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, I had the you know that piece down,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that's why we we were
Speaker 1: good at it, you know. And but I just I
Speaker 1: just I just make it make sense to what I understand.
Speaker 1: It's just like when I showed up to the twenty
Speaker 1: five line with my pistol for the first time, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to shoot bulls, you know, I'm not even
Speaker 1: hitting the target, you know, and then someone instructor walked up, Hey,
Speaker 1: when's that? You know? When's I'm like, man, I can't
Speaker 1: even hardly hit the target. It's like, well, when's the
Speaker 1: last time you received training on shooting twenty you know,
Speaker 1: bulls at the pistol. I was like, well, I never have.
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, then doesn't it make sense that
Speaker 1: you suck? You know? I'm like well yeah, And it's
Speaker 1: like so then we received training, and then we put
Speaker 1: it into practical application and we get better. And what
Speaker 1: I've found, man, is that same thing that we've lived
Speaker 1: our whole military careers with holds true in mental, emotional,
Speaker 1: and spiritual well being. Like, dude, it's just like the gym.
Speaker 1: I can watch videos about going to the gym. We
Speaker 1: could talk about going to the gym. I can make
Speaker 1: plans about going to the gym until last start lifting
Speaker 1: those heavy things up a bunch of times, like any
Speaker 1: ship happening. Man, that's it. So it's funny you mentioned
Speaker 1: going to the range because I you know, brought back
Speaker 1: a memory. Yeah, in the old days at Montlake, they
Speaker 1: bring you out you shoot a target the first day
Speaker 1: and they had you put your name on and take
Speaker 1: it down. And then at the end of training, did
Speaker 1: you get you out there one more time and you
Speaker 1: shoot it and then they bring out the first one
Speaker 1: and they would compare notes and say, did you learn anything? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It appears so yeah, man. And that's how you know.
Speaker 1: There's there's all these stigmas and all this stuff on.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about being week and all that.
Speaker 1: Like people are going to think what they think, and
Speaker 1: that's okay, you know what I mean. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: it's not all this voodoo like WHOA or some kind
Speaker 1: of hippie crap, you know what I mean, it's like, no, man,
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, I mean if I had you mean,
Speaker 1: we we do it all the time and whatever the category. Man,
Speaker 1: if we needed radio training, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and there was an outside source, we would do it.
Speaker 1: If we needed driver training, if we needed advanced marksmanship,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, we would. We always saw
Speaker 1: it to identify our I mean n c O stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, identify my strengths and weaknesses, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and then okay, how am I working on
Speaker 1: that stuff? You know, it didn't make me weak to
Speaker 1: know that I sucked a shooting a rifle, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It just meant I needed some training.
Speaker 1: Now if after the training, I still sucked within a
Speaker 1: within I I just sucked, you know. But they just
Speaker 1: throw all that voodoo on, you know whenever, whether it's
Speaker 1: emotional health or mental health or even spiritual you know,
Speaker 1: it's all these different things. It's like no, man, Like
Speaker 1: just like again, I always go back to what most
Speaker 1: people can understand in our community, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: physical fitness. Hey, some guys geek out on cross fit,
Speaker 1: you know, I means some guys were all Olympic lifters.
Speaker 1: Some guys are doing curls for girls. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, who cares? At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you can move your body with all your gear
Speaker 1: the way it needs to move, no one really cares,
Speaker 1: you know, So who cares? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: If I see a psych or I do some twelve
Speaker 1: step program or I don't know, singing bowls and all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff whatever, I mean, who cares? Man? Look
Speaker 1: at all the weird ship we did with uh, with
Speaker 1: shooting and stuff, all the little idio secrecies and stuff,
Speaker 1: and everyone had their own system. I touched my helmet
Speaker 1: two times before I draw, you know, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: And I remember as a kid we all watched Gary
Speaker 1: Cooper and Sergeant York and have to look that front
Speaker 1: the psyche posts. So oh yeah, do the turkey callity?
Speaker 1: So um, how did you come about creating with the
Speaker 1: you know, with the other founders Warriors, Heart and definitely
Speaker 1: man And it goes back to a critical thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: It sounds like no you understand it, but it's a
Speaker 1: When I was in the eighty second, UH, after I
Speaker 1: was two years in UH, I had my platoon starting,
Speaker 1: you know, and back in early nineties there was a
Speaker 1: lot of Vietnam vets still in you know. My platoon
Speaker 1: sergeant was I mean, I mean the whole battalion was
Speaker 1: stacked with these guys that were in books, you know.
Speaker 1: And um, but my platoon sergeant, uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: I had gone like to ranger school. I had gone
Speaker 1: to p O d C. You know, and so all
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just this rock star, right and
Speaker 1: uh in my own mind. And uh and I come
Speaker 1: back from p O d C, you know, and uh
Speaker 1: and my platoon sergeant says to me, he said, uh,
Speaker 1: he said, okay, so what what what what's the job
Speaker 1: of an n C O. Like, what's that all about?
Speaker 1: Of course, man, I just got out of PODC. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm like mission and health and welfare the troops. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? It's like, well, mission self, explain
Speaker 1: a story, who, what, where and why. He's like, what
Speaker 1: what does health and wearfare of the troops mean? And
Speaker 1: I started talking about, well, I got to know if
Speaker 1: they're married. I got up beans and bullets and uh
Speaker 1: He's like, no, jackass, that's not what it means at all.
Speaker 1: And I was like I gave him all the book
Speaker 1: answers you know what I mean. I just didn't, uh,
Speaker 1: And he said, what health and welfare of the troops
Speaker 1: means is that you give them the ability to survive
Speaker 1: and thrive in combat. That's what that means. And I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, Uh, that ain't nothing that I've been
Speaker 1: hearing about, you know, and uh man, and it changed
Speaker 1: my whole life as a leader from that moment on,
Speaker 1: you know, in the inventory on O. D A at
Speaker 1: the unit, is that my job, you know me was
Speaker 1: ensure them to be able to survive and throw in combat,
Speaker 1: which is just all about training and experience, as we know.
Speaker 1: So back to your question. So that was how I
Speaker 1: spent my whole military career. And then whenever I got out, uh,
Speaker 1: because of my own uh personal experiences and some friends
Speaker 1: and that I had, and I got really involved in
Speaker 1: veteran suicide and uh, you know, we started, me and
Speaker 1: a buddy, my magnus started uh Elder Heart, which became
Speaker 1: Mission twenty two. And but my sweet spot was always
Speaker 1: the chemical dependency route, you know, because that's something that
Speaker 1: I've just been hugely passionate about from the moment I
Speaker 1: got involved with it. Even my whole time in the
Speaker 1: military was super active with it, and uh so then
Speaker 1: whenever I got out, I needed a new mission, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: So my mission was my family and then my job,
Speaker 1: and then there was health and welfare the troops. You know.
Speaker 1: So it's like, okay, I did the war overseas. You know,
Speaker 1: now there's the war at home, which claims way more
Speaker 1: than the war over seas dead and so it's real,
Speaker 1: not pretty, you know, not fancy talk. And so my
Speaker 1: job same as before, health and welfare the troops, you know.
Speaker 1: So I was really involved in doing that. Uh In
Speaker 1: speaking about my own experiences, uh not given them many opinions,
Speaker 1: because what I found is is you can and we
Speaker 1: all know it's like, hey, you can argue with my opinion,
Speaker 1: but you can't argue with my experience because it's what happened,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh so I got really involved in that.
Speaker 1: And then whenever I met my partners Josh and Lisa
Speaker 1: Landing with Warrior's Heart back in two thousand thirteen, uh
Speaker 1: I met him at doing a little fun and gun
Speaker 1: just right down in Hoffman, uh doing I was just
Speaker 1: doing gigs, trying to make money. He was a dude
Speaker 1: that you know, wanted military type training and came there
Speaker 1: and we met in the woods and off right out,
Speaker 1: sorry he doesn't have a military background. How you guys
Speaker 1: you met, that's how we've met and so h so
Speaker 1: that's how josh uh and his wife Lisa there combo
Speaker 1: and obviously in life but also in business, and so
Speaker 1: we that's how we met. And uh he was him
Speaker 1: and his wife Lisa. They had run a private drug
Speaker 1: and alcohol rehabilitation centers from fifteen years. High quality, high
Speaker 1: level of care, but all too civilian population, you know.
Speaker 1: And um, and when I met up with him that
Speaker 1: their next one that they were going to build, which
Speaker 1: was going to be their seventh one, was just going
Speaker 1: to be for veterans because they had a counselor of
Speaker 1: theirs whose son that was a two tour Iraq that
Speaker 1: who ended up you know, taking his own life. So
Speaker 1: it brought it to their awareness like hey, we have
Speaker 1: to do something. So we met in the woods. It
Speaker 1: was kind of like the old thing. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to go do karate in the garage? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know. So so two thousand, third team we met. Uh,
Speaker 1: we have had time finding the property, working all this
Speaker 1: stuff out. We got the ranch in two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: acquired it and then on two thousand and sixteen, we
Speaker 1: opened up Warrior's Heart in April of sixteen and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and since then we've treated almost two thousand
Speaker 1: warriors have come through there. Wow, that's amazing. And what
Speaker 1: made you pick, uh, you know, this area outside San Antonio?
Speaker 1: So a few reasons. Number one was geo location, you know,
Speaker 1: the center of the US, because we knew we'd have
Speaker 1: folks coming from all over. Uh. And then in Texas
Speaker 1: of course just because it's very pro military, pro law enforcement, firefighter,
Speaker 1: you know, there's just a lot of support there. So
Speaker 1: those were the two main reasons that initially got us
Speaker 1: into that ao to look in. And then uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and then we found the ran there at the time,
Speaker 1: it's called Purple Stage Ranch in Bandara, Texas. So that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of what got us there for those different reasons.
Speaker 1: Good and um, what's the program like there? I know
Speaker 1: I've watched a couple of videos. You guys call it
Speaker 1: like basic training. Yes, so it's the thing is is
Speaker 1: though I got to clarify that though, because nobody wants
Speaker 1: to go back to basic training, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So the the overall of the program is it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's a forty two day minimum forty two day and
Speaker 1: patient healing slash training facility. Uh. Primary diagnosis is chemical
Speaker 1: dependencies with secondary is co occurring pts, mile, traumatic brain injury,
Speaker 1: moral grief and injury, and the rest of the alphabet
Speaker 1: suit that comes you know, with our professions. So so
Speaker 1: that's that's what it is there. And uh, a couple
Speaker 1: of main it's like, okay, why is it different in
Speaker 1: any other place, you know, as Uh, there's a few
Speaker 1: different reasons. One of the reasons is is that it
Speaker 1: is the opposite of a hospital setting because folks like
Speaker 1: us and that come from our professions, you know, they
Speaker 1: we don't get well in hospitals, you know, unless we're
Speaker 1: getting surgery, you know, or something. But it's just not
Speaker 1: an environment that that we do well then, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's it's the opposite of that setting. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's more of a resort type setting, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: fivety three acre ranch. It was an old conical oil
Speaker 1: executive retreat at one time. And then um, the other
Speaker 1: thing is is the population which creates the peer network immediately.
Speaker 1: So the population at Warrior's Heart is active duty military veterans,
Speaker 1: law enforcement firefighters e m T s basically those who
Speaker 1: face life and death on a daily basis as a profession,
Speaker 1: you know, as who was qualified to come to warriors.
Speaker 1: So that immediately gives us that that peer network that
Speaker 1: everybody talks about, right, how we we know how important
Speaker 1: a peer network is. And although state side e m
Speaker 1: T and a combat veterans physical experiences may have been
Speaker 1: very different, the things that are eating us up inside
Speaker 1: are exactly the same, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: the ship people that we lost, the stuff that happens,
Speaker 1: the stuff that goes wrong, you know, So whether that
Speaker 1: was in Baghdad or Detroit, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: those are the same kind of things that are that
Speaker 1: are going on inside, And so that the peer network
Speaker 1: is a huge thing. And then another main thing is
Speaker 1: is that you know a lot of these healing centers
Speaker 1: or treatment centers, with our training centers, whatever you wanna
Speaker 1: call them, they they're very siloed off. You know, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: here's your you've got chemical dependencies issues. You go here,
Speaker 1: but when you're here, don't talk about that war stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean that trauma and stuff like hey,
Speaker 1: we're talking about this, and then if you go to
Speaker 1: someplace for PTS, they're like, hey, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: messing with the you know, medication issues you have going on. So,
Speaker 1: because it always comes up, is like, is it the
Speaker 1: trauma that drives the drinking and drugging or is it
Speaker 1: the drinking and drugging that brings up the unprocessed trauma?
Speaker 1: Who gives a ship like, treat both of them and
Speaker 1: then it it doesn't matter. It mitigates the risk of
Speaker 1: of misdiagnosed of one or the other. So that's what
Speaker 1: we do out there. We treat the chemical dependency side
Speaker 1: and we also treat the unprocessed trauma with licensed professionals. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to jump backwards for a second. I've watched
Speaker 1: the film and you know, it talks about nine eleven
Speaker 1: and first responders, and you know it's not just uh,
Speaker 1: the kind of guys we you know, we grew up
Speaker 1: around you know, warriors and that this sense. But do
Speaker 1: you get a lot of first responder and police involved
Speaker 1: in the program we do? We do were we fluctuate
Speaker 1: between Uh, it's usually heavier on the military, whether it's
Speaker 1: active duty or a veteran side, probably about a sixty
Speaker 1: forty split. Uh, you know it obviously it fluctuates throughout
Speaker 1: the times um and it's probably and the numbers are
Speaker 1: getting bigger, whether our law enforcement is which is great,
Speaker 1: but it's about that sixty forty split between military background.
Speaker 1: But you know a lot of our firefighters and our
Speaker 1: law enforcement are also veterans, you know, because that's a
Speaker 1: general pout, a general route that you know, especially young
Speaker 1: veterans take, you know, is that so they're kind of
Speaker 1: both of them. But yeah, we've had a lot of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, back to the nine eleven piece, you know,
Speaker 1: we've had several several guys even from that area that
Speaker 1: worked what they called the pile you know back then.
Speaker 1: You know, that have come out because you know, like
Speaker 1: like I said, we that those professions you know, create
Speaker 1: certain circumstances, you know, and uh, you know, when it
Speaker 1: comes to post traumatic at stress, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of guys are uh you know, embarrassed about that, especially
Speaker 1: if they're struggling or they don't want to admit it's like,
Speaker 1: hey man, we we should have a medal for that,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, because that means that you've
Speaker 1: voluntarily chosen a profession that puts you in a situation,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. We're like, hey, some crazy
Speaker 1: stuff was going on, some horrible stuff was going on,
Speaker 1: whether it was a burning building, a burning car, whether
Speaker 1: it was a gunfight, you know, whatever that was. It's
Speaker 1: like it's like, whoa, It's like you got PTS, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to the club. Now you've finally done something, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's like, so it's just I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not about especially all of us at Warrior Shark.
Speaker 1: We're not about fighting stigmas and all this stuff, but
Speaker 1: we are about changing the narrative. You know. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of the wrong narrative, you know, where
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, it's it's not a negative thing, like
Speaker 1: it's not something you'd volunteer for. Like, man, I can't
Speaker 1: wait for the day that I you know, need PTS therapy,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But it's going to happen
Speaker 1: to them, no, man. But we know if you're in
Speaker 1: the profession long enough, like it's guaranteed to you know,
Speaker 1: because I mean those are rough jobs, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know, and that's another thing. That makes a very
Speaker 1: significant difference when you're talking about They label it PTS,
Speaker 1: but let's just call it unprocessed trauma. You know, stuff
Speaker 1: that has gone on in our lives that you know, hey,
Speaker 1: it's just stuck, you know, and we just go on
Speaker 1: through it. You know, there's uh, there's two ways of
Speaker 1: two categories of that, you know, victims and volunteers. Uh
Speaker 1: So victim is just what it means, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Hey, someone receives something. They they got abused,
Speaker 1: they got attacked, you know, something happened they unexpected. You know,
Speaker 1: they're a victim. But then you got volunteers like us, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we've volunteered to put ourselves in a position where trauma occurs.
Speaker 1: You know. So the end results is the trend is
Speaker 1: the same. We've got unprocessed trauma, but the approach to
Speaker 1: healing is much different. If you try to treat me
Speaker 1: like a victim, like that's that's not gonna work. But
Speaker 1: if you try to treat me as someone that volunteered
Speaker 1: to put myself in here. But we still need to
Speaker 1: do all this talking to the dock and writing and
Speaker 1: process and stuff. You know, I mean, I can you know,
Speaker 1: I can I can and training like I can. I
Speaker 1: can grab onto that kind of that message, you know,
Speaker 1: I can grab onto that. But you start talking about that,
Speaker 1: hey I'm a victim and it wasn't my fault and
Speaker 1: those kind of things, you know what I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like it's not gonna it's just not true, you know.
Speaker 1: So so that's another thing. Uh, And you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to stop me along the way because I just get
Speaker 1: excited about it and I'll just keep run in my mouth. Man.
Speaker 1: So that's why we have you. Yeah, but it's um
Speaker 1: you know. And and with all the different things that
Speaker 1: we do out at Warrior's Heart, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: because we have we're state licensed, right so you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we have our alcohol and drug we have
Speaker 1: one oh one things that we have to do, right.
Speaker 1: But but but then we got a lot of leeway
Speaker 1: as far as what to do. And another thing that
Speaker 1: makes Warrior's Heart uh different than any other one is
Speaker 1: is that that's my job out there is to provide
Speaker 1: warrior oversight. So my job description out there is is
Speaker 1: like I am the population, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I understand the chemical dependency aspect, I understand the PTS,
Speaker 1: I understand the t B I piece of it, so
Speaker 1: I I know, you know how much they can handle
Speaker 1: because you know, the psychologists want more psychology, as they
Speaker 1: should write because they're passionate and rock stars in their profession.
Speaker 1: The doc you know, they want more, more, more medical, right,
Speaker 1: and they should. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I always go back to, like what we used to
Speaker 1: do when a talk, you know, I mean, hey, you
Speaker 1: have your intel guy, you have your ops guy, you
Speaker 1: have your s for you have all these different subject
Speaker 1: matter experts. But at the end of the day, there's
Speaker 1: a warrior there that's saying, Okay, I need your information
Speaker 1: and I need what you have the ability to do.
Speaker 1: But this is how we're going to do it, right
Speaker 1: and so and that's what we do out there because
Speaker 1: what I've seen in the you know, in the you know,
Speaker 1: in the warrior class of folks, the problem the problem solvers, right,
Speaker 1: houses on fire, police come help me. They figure out
Speaker 1: how to put your freaking house out of here. You know, Hey,
Speaker 1: our country gets attacked, we go and get you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, problem solving, problem solving, And that's that's
Speaker 1: how we're wired. That's what we do. But yet when
Speaker 1: it came to our own problems like combat PTS, tv A,
Speaker 1: what did we do We've said psychs excess, uh chaplain
Speaker 1: fix us. It doesn't even follow a warrior train of logic.
Speaker 1: It would be like going to the intel guy and
Speaker 1: asking him what he thought about an operational decision. I mean,
Speaker 1: now he's going to do the best that he can,
Speaker 1: but he's an Intel guy. Same thing if I went
Speaker 1: to my obs guy and said, hey, man, I want
Speaker 1: you to run this intel report and he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean he's gonna he's gonna rock it
Speaker 1: out and it's gonna suck, you know, compared to the
Speaker 1: Intel guy. So that's where, you know, that's all that
Speaker 1: we're doing is we're just getting back to the way
Speaker 1: the things. I mean, we need our psychs, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, We need our docs, we need our
Speaker 1: chaplains and everything. But at the same time, these are
Speaker 1: our problems, like we have to we have to own
Speaker 1: what's going on in our own population and then seek
Speaker 1: subject matter experts, you know, just like we did in
Speaker 1: every single talk there ever was or MSS or you know.
Speaker 1: So that's one of my jobs out there are is
Speaker 1: to provide that warrior oversight, you know, and I'll pause
Speaker 1: there for a minute, I'll keep talking. It's okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny because you know, we're not gonnat taking care
Speaker 1: of ourselves and our own problems. We're just so focused
Speaker 1: on taking care of everyone else's. And you know, the
Speaker 1: therapist treated she was very very you know, in tune
Speaker 1: with our environment, and she goes without, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to put everyone in the same box. She said, a
Speaker 1: lot of you guys would just take what happened to
Speaker 1: you and you put it in a box and put
Speaker 1: it behind you, because I'll fix that later. Right now,
Speaker 1: I need to fix this. And she said, and then
Speaker 1: you keep getting more boxes, putting in front of that
Speaker 1: little box, and then it times out. You know, at
Speaker 1: the very end, you need to get back to that
Speaker 1: first box and empty it out. Yeah, man, because when
Speaker 1: that warehouse or those boxes, when that place gets forward,
Speaker 1: it comes spilling out. Oh that's ugly and that's been there,
Speaker 1: oh absolutely, man. Yeah. And it's but that's to me
Speaker 1: where because how I try to teach guys, because it's
Speaker 1: how I was taught about this kind of training, you know,
Speaker 1: is is that it goes back to what I understand.
Speaker 1: What I understand is is I don't give a shit
Speaker 1: about letting me down, but I'm not going to let
Speaker 1: you down, right, team gun mentality, Like I will sacrifice
Speaker 1: myself for the team. But at the same time, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I'm not going to be the
Speaker 1: weak link on the team. Like I'm going to be
Speaker 1: hitting the range. I'm going to be hitting the PT
Speaker 1: I'm going to be taking care even though we didn't.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a big trick, is What I know
Speaker 1: about me is is because you hear him talk about
Speaker 1: this concept of self care, right, and I intellectually I
Speaker 1: get that. In my heart, I don't because I'm a
Speaker 1: team guy like i'd I'm more focused on on others.
Speaker 1: But what I learned even on the d A you
Speaker 1: know as is that, man, I have to keep myself
Speaker 1: strong in order to be there when the team needs me.
Speaker 1: I have to stay proficient in my language. I have
Speaker 1: to stay you know, in all these different metal tasks
Speaker 1: that I've got to be able to do, Like hey, man,
Speaker 1: i have to know how to do those things you
Speaker 1: know and um and stay proficient on them. So if
Speaker 1: I look at it the same way, you know, my
Speaker 1: life now outside of the military. You know, as a civilian,
Speaker 1: I can't be any different. Uh. I've tried to be
Speaker 1: different before, you know what I mean, it ends horribly.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm wired, you know what I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: wired how I'm wired. And uh, but I was taught
Speaker 1: how to live the way that I am in this environment,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh, and that is is that the
Speaker 1: way that I learned that off care piece is by
Speaker 1: knowing and accepting that, man, if I don't do what
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be doing for me when the team
Speaker 1: needs me, I'm not going to be there for him,
Speaker 1: Like I understand that, you know. And um, but now
Speaker 1: my team is my family, my extended family, you know,
Speaker 1: other warriors. It goes back to that help them wearfare
Speaker 1: of the troops for me, like that's, hey, why do
Speaker 1: I get up in the morning. Why do I still
Speaker 1: go to therapy? Why do I still get tv I treatment?
Speaker 1: Why do I still go to physical therapy? You know
Speaker 1: what I mean? It's because because people need me to
Speaker 1: do it, man, Like uh, you know, I mean like
Speaker 1: people people need me to be around. Like not that
Speaker 1: I'm something great by no means, but you know, there's
Speaker 1: a handful of at minimum a handful of folks that
Speaker 1: kind of depend on me. Yeah. Yeah, So so that's
Speaker 1: where again, man, it was, And that's why I really understand.
Speaker 1: You know, guys, you know a lot of guys have
Speaker 1: a lot of struggles, you know of you know, putting
Speaker 1: down the military and and the one piece this is
Speaker 1: just for me, how well, it's for more, but I'll
Speaker 1: say it's for me. It's like I had to accept
Speaker 1: the fact man, that that that was over. I was
Speaker 1: no longer in the military, like for real, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I mean, not in my mind. I
Speaker 1: still think militarily, you know what I mean. I still
Speaker 1: believe what I believe, But like that door is shut. Man.
Speaker 1: It's like talking about whenever, like high school football or
Speaker 1: something all the time, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: like it's a it's a rude shock that first morning
Speaker 1: when you wake up and it's not there anymore. And
Speaker 1: you know, especially guys like us who get medically chaptered out,
Speaker 1: it happens like that. And when you're sitting there, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you know you're gonna retire on a certain day,
Speaker 1: you kind of get it in your mind when you
Speaker 1: get chapped it out you're in the middle terry one day,
Speaker 1: you're out the next, and that's it. And it's a
Speaker 1: rude awakening that first morning you wake up and you're like,
Speaker 1: what the hell am I gonna do with the rest
Speaker 1: of my life? Now? No? Man, well I've been out
Speaker 1: with ten years now and those days still roll around.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like, I mean, way not as bad as
Speaker 1: early on, you know, but it's but but then again,
Speaker 1: you know, it makes a lot of sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't be in my mind anyway, you can't be
Speaker 1: that passionate and that all in on something for decades,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and then unwind that, you know,
Speaker 1: a year or two or ten even you know, outside
Speaker 1: of it, you know, it's like, hey, it's gonna it's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna take a little bit of time, like
Speaker 1: that'd be normal, you know what I mean. It's especially
Speaker 1: when you talk about all the crazy stuff that we did.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not like a normal job or something.
Speaker 1: You know, we weren't normal people now and we still aren't.
Speaker 1: It's not that has not changed. We just again I
Speaker 1: go back to I am well trained because uh, because man,
Speaker 1: I'll always I'll always want to blow crap up man
Speaker 1: and get bad guys. You know what I'm saying. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's just that's America, you know what I mean, That's
Speaker 1: just I'll always want to do. We were running a
Speaker 1: training program once and uh, General Downing came out with us.
Speaker 1: We were teaching him how to blow m railroad ties
Speaker 1: and and the you know, the rails, and so the
Speaker 1: guys were, you know, putting there the little charges on
Speaker 1: these sections of rail and General Downings like, hey, chief,
Speaker 1: give me some of this, he goes. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't care how old you get, you mix explosives with
Speaker 1: a bunch of young guys. Guys, you just want to
Speaker 1: blow ship up? Oh yeah, man, because it's great. Wait
Speaker 1: and why wouldn't you? Yeah, exactly. So what's next now
Speaker 1: for Warrior's Heart? Yeah, so so we're in it. We're
Speaker 1: going along strong. Know we've had COVID, right, everybody talks
Speaker 1: about COVID, right, so you know last year, you know
Speaker 1: that's something that's going to be part of our lives. Uh.
Speaker 1: But again back to health and welfare of the troops
Speaker 1: as uh. You know, what we know for sure is
Speaker 1: alcohol and drugs will kill our folks way quicker than
Speaker 1: COVID will not minimizing what COVID is and the effects
Speaker 1: of it, but just triage in it. What's going to
Speaker 1: kill you first, Uh, it will be alcohol and drugs.
Speaker 1: So throughout the whole pandemic, we've we've stayed open, uh,
Speaker 1: which is a huge, super proud of that. You know,
Speaker 1: there was times when we've had to when we've had
Speaker 1: to cut our numbers back to create space for isolation feed,
Speaker 1: but we we continue treatment. We shifted to tell the health,
Speaker 1: We've shifted to do all these different things again back
Speaker 1: to the lay of the land, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: until we get it all cleared out and then we'd
Speaker 1: come back and but it's part of our lives. So
Speaker 1: we just got a we to deal with it, and
Speaker 1: we have. So what's next for us? Number one is
Speaker 1: that we won't stop doing what we're doing, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, we're going to continue the mission, uh, no
Speaker 1: matter what is going on. So that's the number one thing.
Speaker 1: Number two is is you know, we're we're always in
Speaker 1: the process of of growing. Uh So even even on
Speaker 1: the ranch, you know, we we've got a lot of
Speaker 1: space out there, you know, and uh, and we're and
Speaker 1: we're building like, if what we have now is the
Speaker 1: level one, you know, it will end up having a
Speaker 1: level two because some guys need some more training in
Speaker 1: a little extra training. It's just like any hard military school.
Speaker 1: You've got folks that come there that are ready and
Speaker 1: they make it straight through and they just go on
Speaker 1: and do wonderful things. Right, You've got some folks that
Speaker 1: come out, maybe they retest, you know, a thing or two,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you've got some folks, well maybe
Speaker 1: they need to recycle, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: then you got some folks that, hey, they just didn't
Speaker 1: know what they were getting into yet and don't come
Speaker 1: back at a later date. So that's the same against
Speaker 1: same trying to mindset that happens out there, you know,
Speaker 1: and eventually, you know, the goal would be, you know,
Speaker 1: is to have multiple sites. You know, that's part of
Speaker 1: our big vision and goal because just because the population
Speaker 1: is so I mean, we're talking about at minimum hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of guys and gals you know, that are
Speaker 1: that are suffering from this, and um, you know, so
Speaker 1: unfortunately the demand is uh you know, I mean it
Speaker 1: is super high. Uh, but you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: We're just gonna We're just gonna keep doing what we've
Speaker 1: always done. So, um, how can people get involved with
Speaker 1: what you're doing? And if they are interested in a
Speaker 1: program there, how can they go about that? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the best way to go to see all that stuff
Speaker 1: is warriors Heart dot com. If so, I just chunk
Speaker 1: it out in the categories like for people, if people
Speaker 1: want to be involved. The greatest thing most of our
Speaker 1: guys and gowns that show up as clients at Warrior's Heart,
Speaker 1: they come up through the training program. They they had
Speaker 1: never heard about us before. You know that that's almost
Speaker 1: I means like until that moment they were looking, they
Speaker 1: had never heard. So if there's one thing that anyone
Speaker 1: can do for us is just help promote uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean to help promote warriors or you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's in whatever capacity that is, whether it's in a
Speaker 1: conversation or social media or whatever it is that they
Speaker 1: want to that they feel comfortable with doing, and you
Speaker 1: know that that that's always the number one thing. Another
Speaker 1: good way of doing it is we just had that
Speaker 1: documentary out, you know, uh, Warrior's Heart Warriors Healing Warriors.
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon. We had to put a price on it,
Speaker 1: so it's ninety nine cents. They were streaming it on
Speaker 1: Prime but they I don't know, you know, they do
Speaker 1: different things. But that's another good way. And then whenever
Speaker 1: it comes to folks, loved ones or friends or folks
Speaker 1: that do need to reach out, you know, I mean, like, hey,
Speaker 1: they need some more training, you know, I mean they're
Speaker 1: in a tough spot. Uh. On that Warriors Heart dot Com,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a phone number on there and uh.
Speaker 1: And on that phone number, you can call that and
Speaker 1: you're going to talk to an admissions advocate and we
Speaker 1: we don't use pretty words for that, but immediately that
Speaker 1: person is going to start advocating for the individual or
Speaker 1: for the loved one or for your buddy, you know.
Speaker 1: And even if it's just questions, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Even if even if you just like those folks that
Speaker 1: we have on the team there, uh, they are subject
Speaker 1: maatic experts in their field. So even if it's in
Speaker 1: how do I approach my loved one? And even talking
Speaker 1: about this, uh, or hey how do I get in?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, that is trying to get
Speaker 1: back to your question of like that's that's the greatest thing, folks,
Speaker 1: can do with us, is is promote and uh you know,
Speaker 1: I mean there's any questions just to call and talk
Speaker 1: with us. There's also we have the Warrior's Heart Foundation
Speaker 1: where if some folks if so inclined to donate, that
Speaker 1: helped provide scholarships. Are hardships for our veterans, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean that aren't getting any benefits that are
Speaker 1: on the streets that you know, aren't retirees or stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Uh. The one thing that I can say
Speaker 1: about Warrior's Heart is there's not ever been anyone to
Speaker 1: not receive treatment because of money. Uh. It may have
Speaker 1: taken a little bit of a time, but everyone who
Speaker 1: has sought treatment, uh that they've they've always got. That's great.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that because I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think we do enough for our veterans. And I know
Speaker 1: we're kind of biased on that aspect because you know,
Speaker 1: we come from that we come from, but I don't
Speaker 1: think we do enough. I mean, I go back to
Speaker 1: my own father who fought in World War Two. I
Speaker 1: think all of those guys, all of those guys, I
Speaker 1: think all of them did I think all of them?
Speaker 1: And yeah, how he in Europe, and you know, he
Speaker 1: liberated a concentration. Whenever something like that would come on
Speaker 1: like that, he'd walk out of the road, he'd walk
Speaker 1: out of the room. Yeah, you know, And and that
Speaker 1: was something that stuck with me. My whole military career was,
Speaker 1: like you said, seeing all of our heroes, you know,
Speaker 1: the World War Two guys, the career guys of Vietnam bets.
Speaker 1: It was I had these little windows of of seeing
Speaker 1: into their world, like uh, I think it was in
Speaker 1: ninety four and I jumped into St. Mary Guise, France,
Speaker 1: you know, for the fiftieth anniversary, I think it was,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know back then a lot of those
Speaker 1: old timers were still jumping and stuff, you know, their
Speaker 1: square shoots, and you know we were there in St.
Speaker 1: Mary Guie, you know, and of course it was during
Speaker 1: the parades. It was all you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: that generation, especially just how badass they all were. But
Speaker 1: then what would happen, Man, as the night went on,
Speaker 1: I would see him, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 1: they would be coming apart. And that's not a hit
Speaker 1: on them, but to your point of like, you know,
Speaker 1: a human being, unless you're a sociopath or a psychopath,
Speaker 1: like you're going to have some struggles with with what
Speaker 1: happens in combat, you know, just as a as a human.
Speaker 1: And I watched those guys fucking come apart sometimes and
Speaker 1: and I thought zero negativity obviously about that it would.
Speaker 1: But where it stuck with me it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is not going away, like like this whole kind
Speaker 1: of trauma, this, this, these things that kind of well
Speaker 1: up like here, these guys are there in their sixties
Speaker 1: or their eighties and and it's still popping up with them,
Speaker 1: you know. So what that told me is how important
Speaker 1: it was for me to start dealing with it, you know,
Speaker 1: for me to get some help if I needed it.
Speaker 1: And then I saw it with the Vietnam guys. I mean,
Speaker 1: I saw it in all these different places where it
Speaker 1: was the underlying thing that I had in my mind
Speaker 1: was is that, hey, this stuff doesn't go away. Like
Speaker 1: you said, we put it in a box and we
Speaker 1: categorize it, we compartmentalize it, and we have to. That's
Speaker 1: why we were really good at our jobs, right, That's
Speaker 1: why we can deal with those kind of traumatic situations.
Speaker 1: It is because we can compartmentalize, you mean, But then
Speaker 1: there comes a time in life where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's start. Let's start kind of doing as much
Speaker 1: as we don't want to. Let's start unpacking those boxes.
Speaker 1: Because I'm here to tell you, man I I would
Speaker 1: like to collie to you and tell you that, Uh man,
Speaker 1: I just enjoy going to therapy and man, I just
Speaker 1: but I don't and I don't know. If it was
Speaker 1: up to me, like I, I would just keep continuing
Speaker 1: the march, you know. What I mean is like that
Speaker 1: was in the past. But again I have all these
Speaker 1: I know it's not true, you know, if I want
Speaker 1: to be there for my team and for my family,
Speaker 1: uh hey, I've got some work to do. But that's
Speaker 1: exactly how it was in the military though, too, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean I didn't get on those teams that I
Speaker 1: was on because hung out and war cool sunglasses, you know,
Speaker 1: and had big muscles or something. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: because now I worked my ass off, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I earned my spot. You know every day,
Speaker 1: like they always say selections, ongoing process. Guess what it
Speaker 1: still is. It only gets harder as it goes along.
Speaker 1: I know, I thought it would get easier, but it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Know the kids turn into men and then the mean
Speaker 1: the men require me to be a man and can
Speaker 1: answer appropriately, like I gotta be on my A game
Speaker 1: all the time. Now, it's it's horrible. Well, Tom, thank
Speaker 1: you for taking the time with us this afternoon. We
Speaker 1: really appreciate it, folks. Tom Spooner from Warriors Hard check
Speaker 1: out you know warriors heart dot com. We we thank
Speaker 1: you for all that you do for our veterans and uh,
Speaker 1: if there's anything we can ever do for you on
Speaker 1: r M, please let us know. I sure will, Steve,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for having me. Thanks again, folks,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening and watching Today Software Radio on Time
Speaker 1: on Target. We'll be back with another podcast real soon.
Speaker 1: You've them listening to self red Lydia