Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - The Future of the U.S. Military Is at Stake [Featuring Chad Robichaux]

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

A cultural and spiritual shift has taken place within the U.S. military over the last two decades. From the removal of faith-based resiliency programs to rising struggles with mental health, recruitment, and retention, former Force Recon Marine and a Department of Defense Contractor, Chad Robichaux, shares firsthand insight from inside the military community. Pastor Allen and Robichaux discuss a growing awareness within the armed forces that something essential has been missing—and a renewed pursuit of resilience that goes deeper than physical training and strength alone. What is taking place will directly impact the readiness, health, and stability of our soldiers, as well as the future of our nation.

Well, welcome to culture and Christianity. I'm excited to introduce our guest tonight. Chad Robesho, if you're a friend of the church or the ministry, I'm sure you've seen him before. We've done a lot of different things together. Chad's a force recon marine, multiple tours. Some of you know this story after we made our shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan. Chad's translator, interpreter was left behind, and he got some buddies and went back in. And they helped get thousands of people out that had been out. advocates for America and helped our military. Just a remarkable man, a remarkable military history, UFC champion, but a man of God. And so I had the opportunity to sit down and do an interview with

Chad as a part of a worship service, but I wanted you to get to know him a little bit because he's a significant voice in what God is doing in the earth today. A unique combination of courage and determination and faith and been very honest about the brokenness of his own life and how God has brought healing and wholeness and continues to do that. Folks, we're all works in progress. And I'm grateful for Chad Robesho and his voice in our nation and glad that I can introduce him to you if it's your first introduction. Saving Aziz is the book about how he went in and got his friend out.

It'll be a blessing to you. But I think you'll enjoy the conversation. Welcome home. Thank you. It does feel like home. It is. It should. I even have a house here in your graveyard.

You do. I'm standing the same. You have more energy and are into more things. So just, what are you been doing? I know you've been traveling and speaking and talking to men's groups especially. Yeah, my heart's really, I mean, I'm always speaking in churches, but I just really have a heart for men's events. And I've been doing a number of men's events.

And while I love speaking at men's events, God just is really equipping me and positioned me and open the doors from you to continue to speak to the military. So I think this year at Mighty Oaks, we've broken the number of, we estimated we reached over 600,000 troops where I've got to go speak on bases to troops. And the most recent one was a real testament to things you and I talked about here is the opening of faith in the military communities, especially with Secretary Hex, in the position he's in. But I was invited two weeks ago to speak at what's called Softly.

So Special Operations Forces have what's called Soft Week. It's like a trade show with all the companies and industry that works with Special Operations, you know, the beans and bullets and cool weapons and technology. There's this giant trade show that happens every year in the Special Operations Command, host it, and there's about 30,000 people in attendance, and they had yet to have a prayer breakfast. And this year, they decided that their first annual prayer breakfast is I was honored to speak at it. I'm in the habit of saying God's moving in the earth,

because you and I talk from time to time. I know about, you have spoken, as you said, to tens of thousands of military folks. Tell us a little bit more about it. that. Some of those circus, some of them have been really unique. You called one time. There was something in California. It was a graduate, and I couldn't go. I had a kind of church service. I stayed home for church. I hope you do that sometimes. But tell us a little bit about those groups, because it's truly remarkable how the militaries opened their doors to the gospel. Well, it has, you know, throughout the military, it's my, you know, I've been in and around the

military for over 30 years now, whether it be, you know, active duty, a contractor, or or working as a surrogate to the military and operations, humanitarian operations, or through ministry to the military. So one of the things the military has always talked about is resiliency, readiness. The military has always believed that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. So if we can be ready on the front end, it's a lot easier than healing things in the back end, which we see the VA dealing with PTSD and anxiety, depression, and a veteran suicide epidemic. And so for me, like doing the work of Mighty Oaks, I realize that, man, if we could help these guys before they get out, or right when they get out.

And then it was like, let's not only help them before they get out, let's help them before even go. And so I continued to push left all the beginning. And Mighty Oaks has had just tremendous blessings to have those doors opened. And like I said, we just broke over 600,000 active duty troops we've spoken to. But one of the places that I think you're talking about that I've been most blessed to go is Marine Corps boot camp. As a Marine, my father's a Marine, both my sons are Marines. Going the Marine Corps boot camp is really hallow ground.

They've only allowed a handful, like two or three speakers now since Vietnam to speak to those recruits because it's so close. And so we get to go speak there and talk to these guys about resiliency. I say, guys, you young men and women now about resiliency, and I've been doing that for about 10 years now. And when we talk about resiliency, the military breaks down a mind, body, social, and spirit. So being mentally tough, having a strong perspective, a right attitude, a healthy body. You have to have a healthy body, by the way, to be a U.S. service member. anybody's strong. And then you have to be surrounded by the right people. Even the Marines? Especially in Marines. Oh, okay. And then you have to, you have to have a strong spiritual

foundation. And the military talks about that, but the chaplaincy has long been hamstrung how to define that. And so we've got an opportunity to do that. And I've got an opportunity to go, even in secular mandatory events and talk about my faith as a Christian. So I could, you know, even though it's not, it's mandatory, I can't go there and evangelize it. or profess the gospel to them, but I can talk about the spiritual resiliency I have through my relationship with Jesus. And that testimony, I let God do the work from there. And it's been profound. You know, from the outside, it seems like there's been a tremendous change with the change of administrations. The previous administration, it felt like the military had become a grand

social experiment. It did. With trans issues and DEI issues. And with the change of administrations and Secretary Hegsteth coming in, it seems like there's been a really significant change. Is that accurate? That's accurate. Pastor Allen, you and I sat right here, just like we are now. I think we're maybe opposite seats, and we had the same conversation when Secretary of Hex-F was going in for this. It'd be nominated. And I stood for Secretary of Hexeth when a lot of people were saying he wasn't a flag officer, right? He wasn't a general or an admiral. He's not qualified. And I went on Fox News and I said it here. I said it many of the places.

Pied Hexeth was qualified because he's seen one of the most crucial flaws in our national security. And that is the morale recruitment retention of our service members. You could have the best equipment. You could have the biggest Navy, the biggest Air Force. But if you don't have the hearts and minds of the best of our nation, our young men and women, it doesn't matter. Because they have to buy in from our troops and their parents. And it's an important thing.

We had the lowest, at the end of President Biden's administration, we had the lowest recruitment since Vietnam. We had the lowest retention. All of our G-Yat war fighters were getting out because it wasn't the military that they signed up to be in. It wasn't focused on war. It was focused, it wasn't focused on readiness. It was focused on DEI and making sure everybody was on par with the COVID restrictions and all this stuff that they didn't sign up for. And so they were not motivated. So they weren't, they weren't re-listing. So we were losing all of our experience. And then the motivation was the lowest that I seen personally from my, and I'm very engaged in trenches in the military, lowest I've seen in 30 years. And we're what, two years in now?

We're coming up 18 months in. We had the highest recruitment rate in 15 years. We had the highest retention rate in 20 years and it had the most motivated military that I've seen in my 30 years in around the military in 18 months. and so we were right. And I know that faith is welcome in the Pentagon and faith has been welcomed back into the military in ways that it hasn't been in a long season. So I'm sure that's a contributing factor to all of this.

It's huge. You have the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the War, P. DeGseth, bowing his head in the name of Jesus in that cabinet position and not ashamed to do it. And, uh, And that's a long way.

I won't take political shots here, but I'll say this is a long way from the double mask and triple-vaxed and absent on duty, Secretary Austin that was before him. That's what we had before. We had, you know, it was all DEI, woke agendas. It was, I mean, it was, I'm proud of our military, but it was bad.

And it affected our national security. Well, I met an officer that had been given the task of reaching out to those that had been forced out of the military because of the vaccine. And they were being welcomed back and reinstated and pretty remarkable. My son, so we have, I would estimate about 90 years of service of my family. From World War I, War II, Korea, Vietnam, my father's first Marine, our family of Vietnam. I served as a Marine, both my sons served as Marines.

That all left honorably from the military until my youngest son was forced out to break that service of 90 years in our family because he refused the COVID vaccine under religious exemption. Lawfully did the legal exemption process was denied. Him and over 10,000 others were wrongfully put out, and now his package is going back in. And I've been texting, you know, Secretary Hex-F directly as packages going back in to go back in because he's being able to reinstate. Not only reinstate, but they're going to give them back pay, a promotion. and a choice of duty station. You know, this podcast is made possible because of sponsors.

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This is a group of people who pray, and I know there's a lot of people listening who are people who pray. Help us know how to pray more effectively for the military, for our men and women who serve, and the people who have leadership. How do you pray for them, and how can we pray? Well, you know, it's one thing to pray for them. We need to be praying for the leaders as well. I think we know where most people in here would sit as far as, you know, conservative values.

But we need to be praying for our leaders because when we send our young, our sons and daughters, I'm of age now, you are two, our sons and daughters off to serve in the military, we're entrusting them with our nation's leaders to make decisions that may not make sense in the beginning. You look at something like Iran. Like, I mean, even in this room right now, probably 50% people would have been in support what we're doing in Iran. The other 50% would have not because it was very confusing.

unless you're in their trenches and understand how it works. But nonetheless, we're, as Americans, we trust our sons and daughters with our commander-in-chief and our secretary. And so we need to be praying. They're making the right decisions that are seeking God, and we need to be praying for those troops,

for their safety, for their mental focus. And for them to have, regardless of where they came from, they came into a conservative homes, like many of the homes in his churches, they need to have a political mindset when they're there. They need to not be focused on the politics and CNN and Fox News there. So they get worried.

way too, the young men and women in our military have way too much access to that influence of this, to where it really clouds their judgment and their job. And so they need to be apolitical, just focused on doing their job and doing it well, and they're able to trust that because we have a good commander-in-chief. But I'll say this with the commander-in-chief, who's the president of the United States, in the entire existence of the White House. If you go in the White House, I've been privileged to go to White House quite a bit, and then you have the West Wing, which is where the Situation Room is, is where the President's the House. would have these meetings. There's 17 offices in there. Now there's in our government there's

several hundred offices, but there's 17 offices in the White House. Then you have the Eisenhower building where you have a couple hundred offices and offices that are not as important. They make their way off the White House lawn down the street, Pennsylvania Avenue in different places. The Office of Faith has always been not even in the Eisenhower building. It's been off of the premises of the White House. Those 17 offices that sit in the West Wing, it's up to the president. And the president decides, which of these hundreds of officers are most important to me that I'm going to put them as one in 17. So I have immediate access to them and they have immediate access to me. For the first time in history, and this is not well really known,

so I'm excited to share it. First time in history, the Office of Faith is one of those 17 officers right next to the President of the United States. And so when they go into the situation realm, which is in the West Wing, that office of faith is right there praying over the decisions in person praying over those decisions. And that is, to me, that is significant, just as a citizen, that's significant to know that decisions are being made, but as a father of sons who served as Marines and one of them that's going to serve again,

and someone that cares about all our troops and know that decisions being made in the faith room and the situation room has people of faith in there physically praying over those decisions with their commander chief. It gives me a tremendous amount of peace. And so we should be praying, Thanks for that, and that continues. That's a permanent thing.

That continues forever. Amen. And our assignment to pray for them isn't based on whether we approve of the administration or not. No. You know, we don't pray for those with authority over us because we voted for them. We pray for them because they have authority over us, that they will make godly decisions. Sometimes I think we as Christians retreat too much based on whether our preferences are in the places we want them to be. And we have an assignment to hold a spiritual place, irrespective of parties and personalities.

And I think if we've got to build that diligence more carefully, because I think political outcomes reflect spiritual realities. And so I'm grateful for the momentum, but I don't want to imagine that's, I don't want us to imagine that's about red or blue or don't thinkies or elephants. That's about the kingdom of God and our assignment to be salt and light. All right, you're a You stay in touch with what's happening around the world better than I do. I'm a local pastor in a local church. So let's do a little tour of the globe.

I mean, you spent a great deal of time in Afghanistan and we shamefully, it seemed to me, handed that back to the Taliban. Can you give us an update? What's happening there? I doubt it's a great report. It's really not. No.

I'll share some things. This would be very discharges. I mean, one, first of all, there's 40 million Afghan citizens and 20 million, you know, half, half of women and little girls. And I say that specifically point that out. I mean, we know that there's 50% of population's men and women, but it's very important to point it out there because overnight when we left, we abandoned 20 million women and little girls to be immediately stripped of their human rights. Women are not allowed to have any human rights at all. They're not allowed to be a doctor. and because they're a female, they're not allowed to see a male doctor,

so they're allowed to have any medical care. Little girls as young as 9 years old, or immediately after we left, we're being sold into essentially sex slavery. You can call it a marriage if you want, but sex slavery would be sexually enslaved the rest of their life to some 60-year-old monsters going to literally rape them every day of the rest of their life.

Women that are affiliated with those who served alongside of us our wartime allies are still being hunted down, and raped and killed. So that's going on. But one of the things that should disturb us as taxpayers and as citizens of this country is we're still sending $80 million a week to the Taliban of our taxpayer money.

And, you know, $40 million goes in the form of humanitarian aid, which is being used like any other thug because that's who the Taliban is. They're not a government. I don't care what they're classified as. They're a bunch of evil thugs. And they don't, and they're, so they get this $40 million a week from us that they used to have power over the people. And they get another $40 million in cash for counterterrorism, which is really ironic since they are terrorists.

And if I would, doing humanitarian work, if I would pay the Taliban, even $100 to get past a checkpoint, to move someone to safety, the DOJ would prosecute me for giving them that $100 of cash. But we're able to give them $40 million a week in counterterrorism. And we're given that money, by the way, it goes to, in cash, of the 10 people it goes to, they're all on the FBI's most wanted list. They're all designated as terrorists on the FBI's most wanted list. I think six of them on the FBI's most wanted list. That's what the cash is going. And when we left Afghanistan, we had, I believe it was four Al-Qaeda training camps.

Now I'm told there's over 70 Al-Qaeda training camps, so they're not doing a very good job with that money. And so we have a fight in Senate right now. We've been pushing this to get that money taken away from them. But it's still, as we sit here right now, over $80 million a week of your taxpayer money is going Taliban. One of the most disturbing things in this money that they're doing with it is there's a Taliban mortar fund. And so for those of us who are in Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban, any U.S. service member that killed a Taliban fighter, they were mortared. and so now their family gets a house and $1,000 a month out of our taxpayer money. By the way, I'll gold star families sitting on this side of Memorial Day where we're right now.

I'll go to our families don't get a house and $1,000 a month for our service members that were killed. But the Taliban fighters, families do. And so obviously it's very upsetting to me. It's upsetting that most Americans will never know that. And that's why I think it's important to talk about it because, which you have a great senator here. but our senator doesn't need to be fighting for that. That's where it's at right now, sitting at Senate. All right.

Is that upsetting? Yes. Don't get him too upset. Yeah, I'll give me. Well, let's shift to Iran for a minute. For almost 50 years, the global sponsor of terror. And in about an 18-month window, at least their terror proxies have been to a significant extent neutralized, Hezbollah and Hamas. and now the Iranian regime is under significant threat.

Help us unpack that a little bit because the media is not a reliable resource for information. Help us understand what's happening and what an outcome looks like. Well, I mean, what the outcome looks like really is depending on the people of Iran. I pray, and I have been praying for this. I just spoke at CPAC. I was on a panel with Eric Prance and Jason Redman and Gordon-Chang monitored. We had to ask the same question. I pray that this administration

in Secretary Higtseth and he knows where I stand on at do not do boots on the ground in Iran. I do not want to see that. I do not think that ends well for our country and it's not in our best interest to do that. I think what we did so far has been just and righteous

to this point. So I pray that we don't move forward in that. And I don't think we will at this point. just so you know our standard. I don't think we will. But I do think for it to end up where you and I want it, where they'd be the people of Iran would actually experience freedom, it's going to require the people of Iran to step up. And there's no better time for them to do it than right now. They have been positioned.

It's going to be, you know, there needs to be a revolution in Iran. And Ayatollahs need to, you know, they're not going to move. They're not going to, they're not going to step down, no matter how many bombs you drop unless the people of Iran do it. Well, for 50 years, they've been under that authoritarian regime. They don't have weapons. No. We've given some, I think, to the Kurds.

You know, what's it look like for them to, if we can imagine it, we can pray more effectively. So are they going to go stand in the streets in front of the tanks? What's it look like for the people to truly lead that? Well, I mean, even the Iranian and, like, Republican Guard, they don't, they, when I say the people of Iran need to stand up, those people within the, within the military. You mean like the Republican Guard have a change of heart? They need a change of heart. And that's what they want.

I mean, ultimately the everyday person, the everyday soldier that's serving, they don't want to live under the Itola rule. It's a majority of the country is they're ready to move on. They're ready to be free. And so I think it's time for them to do it. But you're right. As a citizen nation, right, which is why we have our Second Amendment, love our Second Amendment so much.

and because we never want to be in a position they're in. They're in a position they would have to rely on help. And that help would have to come from within, I think, their own Republican Guard. Well, I've interviewed a hand. There's a number of Iranian groups in America that are lobbying for just exactly what you're talking about. And I talked to them before the conflict began,

and I've talked to them multiple times since then. And they are beyond anxiously awaiting that kind of a response. Yeah. So we really are. talking about a regime change, but it's one driven by the people of Iran, not by the U.S. intervention completely. Right. Now, you know, other countries, including our own intelligence agency, how we get, how we

get implicated involved in that behind the scenes, that happens every day. I don't know. I'm not involved in that anymore in that side of the world, in that particular area of the world. But, you know, there's always help out there in other countries. Obviously, there's lots of countries that are interested, neighboring countries that are interested in helping so I'm sure they could get they'll get some support there if they really want to do it look I mean it happened here 1775 it was it was I'm sure it's very scary for for you know for the

patriots who stood up and fought for our freedom and independence in this country and they didn't have much to work with but they had got on their side and a in a strong will and resolve and they were willing to pay the price to do it and we're benefiting from that today every generation has to make a decision yes sir you know the freedom is not free. And we have been cashing checks that were written by previous generations for a long time. And we've been afraid to speak the truth that we believe in in the public square. We've just quietly and demurely withdrawn. And if we do that, we're forfeiting the future for our kids and our grandkids.

So again, we don't have to be violent, but we've got to take the truth that we believe in and step back into academia and to the marketplace in the corporate boardroom. And in our neighborhood gatherings at the bleachers and the ball fields, all those places where we've been silent for too long. And we're watching that be played out on a much more pointed way in Iran. When you think about our Declaration of Independence, and we look at that as like a, you know, the signatures on there as like a kind of wall art now. When those men put their name on that Declaration of Independence,

each one of them probably believed that they were going to die for doing that. Like that was a death sentence to sign their name on that. And they did so woefully. And you know that that had to be a struggle. Like that had to be like an anxious, terrifying moment to sign that document, but they did it. And we were here today because of it. They made their families vulnerable. It wasn't just them.

It was their entire family system and everybody that was trying. I mean, it was a commitment. Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier. And I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident. But that hasn't been my experience. So what do we do in a world where there's so many options and diets seem. to be like fashion trends they change with every season. How do we respond? Well, I want to tell you about something that I trust, something that has worked in my life. Ancient nutrition gives you a

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Tell us about what else is happening that we need to know and pray about. Well, I mean, I'd still be praying for Ukraine. You know, I'm very invested in Ukraine. We are not currently in Ukraine. These humanitarian efforts make shifts to where our government and other governments are involved now, which is why we went. The reason we go do these things in the first place is in a void. So, like, I won't go into a country and get in a way of, we try to deconflict.

We'll even contact like J-Sock or we work through Special Operations, liaison officer, central intelligence aid, to make sure that we're not going in the front door to rescue an American left behind while Suez Team 6 is coming in the back door. Like we don't just randomly go out there and do this. So as soon as people step in and feel that void, then we move out. And so with Ukraine, we move now. But what you have to know about Ukraine is it's lost as heat in the new cycle.

You know, you see Zewinsky and Putin's little back and forth ceasefire agreement. that's what you see in the news cycle. What you don't see in the news cycle is there's still 20,000 casualties every month. The death toll is since 2022 is already up to estimate it 2 million. That's the highest since World War II numbers. And it's the highest, you know, since World War II for Europe. And this is not being talked about. So these people, recall, let's say you feel about Zewinsky or Putin or anything like that, these people in Ukraine are they're just like us like when you go in Ukraine when you're in Kiev or Kharkiv which I've been in Kharkiv which is when it was being bombed 14 times a day

and and everything's just rubble in that rubble is pizza shops ice cream parlors daycare schools it's residential neighborhoods like we have that's that's Ukraine and and they're they've been living in that since February of 22 when uh when you know 100,000 Russian troops crossed that border. And it hasn't stopped since. And I don't see any end in sight. And I'll tell you, you know, President Trump and the vice president has done a tremendous effort to bring those two countries to the peace deal. But the European nations have not done their part. And, you know, President Trump, just because you're sitting in the White House, doesn't mean you have all the He didn't have all the influence.

The European countries have failed their neighbor in Ukraine. And Zewinsky's not innocent in it, by the way. I'm not a fan, so just to make that clear. But you went in early when that conflict first started to help put together some communication systems for them. We did. We first, we were there, my buddy's sea spray. We had him there like a week before because we knew Russia was coming across.

And then I was there like a week after the Russians came across. and we started evacuating people right away. And then we moved from evacuations to recognizing that there was communication need. And we built communication systems. We even, not just for our own evacuations, we even helped, like, we built the communication packages for Samaritan's purse and help getting logistics and supplies. And then getting their front lines and helping equip some of the troops on the front lines

with just basic medical aid and equipment and teaching them. They didn't even have tourniquets. like these are front-line troops fighting trench warfare with no turnicates, much less know how to use them. So we were doing that, and we're using that operation to minister to them on the front line. So I bring in our Mighty Oaks, alumni in the front line and ministering to them. It was pretty incredible to watch take place.

You know, one of the most incredible stories I may have shared here before was Reed Hasty, who I know Larry here at the church shows Reed Hasty, and he runs a similar outpost in Oklahoma. This guy, Reed Hasty, came to Mighty Oaks completely. like debilitating panic attacks. We couldn't even get him to fly to California to Mighty Oaks. We had to drug him to fly him. I mean, he would be, every week he would be in the VA, VA psych ward for panic attacks. And he was saying how it just, you know, he was like, he was like, man, I was a sergeant army. I was responsible of millions of dollars in equipment and, and, uh, and all these troops.

And now I'll go to, I can't even be trusted my shoelaces. That's how humility was, taking shoelaces away from him. Flies to Mighty Oaks, gives his life to Jesus. Life's radically transform, becomes our team leader. A team leader becomes our team leader trainer did over, I think, 75 programs now at Mighty Oaks, led 75 programs. And then he wanted to come to Ukraine. And I was thinking, like, man, like, this guy wants to go to Ukraine after all that. So I let him come on a team, and you think about this guy that couldn't fly to California,

flies from Oklahoma, Texas to meet me. We fly across the world to go to pole. We fly to go to Crow polling, get in a car, and get in a car. drive across the Ukrainian border. Everyone else is coming this way, by the way. You drive the other way, right? You go across the border, 18 hours to Kyiv, and then we go to Karkev, which at that time being bombed 14 times a day.

We stay in a safe house that night, get rocketed. And the next morning we drive to the front line in the trenches, and I watched this guy read, pull a chair up in the middle of a muddy field with a couple of hundred Ukrainian soldiers whose buddies are dying every day. and share his story about what Jesus did in his life and what he could do for them. It's amazing. Everybody here won't know what Mighty Oaks is. You founded that, but tell us a little bit about what it is and what its initiative is. Yeah, Mighty Oaks is the ministry I found it in 2011. I'd say I founded it, but I was really the first person to go through the process. Beneficiary. Beneficiary, yeah.

I mean, Mighty Oaks is, it's a ministry for veterans, military, and, first responder communities and their families. So we take veterans, active duty service members, first responders, their families, and we either do resiliency training or go to bases and speak to your troops or recovery from all the things that these communities are afflicted with from anxiety, depression, PTSD, alcoholism, you name it, the plethora of things they're dealing with, including the epidemic of suicide. And by the way, I don't know what the number is. Everyone is it 22. The current VA reports says 17, but they don't, count jumps and overdoses and car crashes, which is a big, big factor. Another independent report

says 70, because I don't know if it's 17, 22, or 7. One is too many, right? So one is too many. Suicides a day. What's that? The number is suicides per day? Per day. Suicides per day, yeah. So we deal with those things at our recovery camps. And we'll do about 1,000 per year. We've done 7,000 resident students come through that. We pay for everything, including their flights. We do about $8 million a year in programming. And then we take those statistics and successes and go to the Capitol. And I'll testify before Congress to push and advocate for faith-based solutions. Because as good as our VA is, we're dealing with physical injuries and mental health stuff. Like, you can heal someone's body and you can heal someone's mind. But until you heal someone's

soul, they're never truly going to be well. And the VA is just never going to do that, right? And so that's what we bring the table on Capitol Hill. And this administration has been great with it. And President Trump in 2018 had let me chair a faith-based Veterans Coalition. And then the last thing we do is we take the guys who come through his program, like Reed, who fell in their face and felt like there's no purpose again. We give them a new sense of purpose and let them participate in that be part of that solution. But the ones that really excel in do well, then we let them be part of this international effort

and go train other nations how to do what we're doing here. And so we have guys all over the world and train people how to do replicate Mighty Oaks in their parts of the world. And oftentimes that works over to some of our partner efforts with my son Hunter just started this Pathfinder's Alliance, which is a foreign ministry that goes around the world and does stuff, heroes for humanity. And another one I won't mention the name of, because we don't really talk about the name of it, but where we go out and actually rescue Americans that are left in wars of

zones in dangerous places that our government either can't or won't get out. And so we step in as a surrogate and do. So when we say God's moving in the earth and people go, well, I don't know what you're talking about. I hope you're taking some things off the shelf. There's remarkable things happening. So what do you wish we knew are the people that are listening beyond the room, knew about what's happening with our military or the world or our veterans?

Because they'll pray and stand with you. Pull the curtain back a little bit. What do you want them to know? Yeah, I mean, look, our military is, it's been a long time coming to where we are right now. This isn't, this wasn't the last four, the last four years that our military is in this position. In 2008, you know, we had a tremendous shift in our military. Every warrior in our military had received the Bible since 1775 until 2009. And so faith has been.

Say that again, from 1775 until 2009. Every person that's put on a uniform has received the Bible as they entered military training. And that got stopped. In 2009. The faith, the element of faith in spiritual resiliency wasn't a slow drift or progressive culture that removed it from a military. It was a deliberate attempt by people that we've put in office and they made decisions to remove faith in the military. and it's come at a tremendous cost. In 2008, there was about 16 suicides a day.

And in a short period of time, after that faith was removed from military, when the faith program in the VA, the community of faith program that started in 2001 was removed from the VA. In a period of two years, they had spent billions of dollars and had 1,500 new clinical programs, The suicide rate went from 16 a day at 22 a day a day. There was a direct correlation between faith and the mental readiness and wellness and recovery of our service members. And look, you could, I mean, we're in a room full of, I'm sure mostly Christians here. But I'd say the same thing. If we were to, if we were to run up for atheists, it doesn't matter what you believe.

if anybody deserves a choice in their care to say, I want mental health care through clinical or faith or both, that's not that you either are, then if anyone deserves that choice, it should be our warriors. And they deserve that. That option has been restored. The faith has been brought back into the military. And so, yeah, so all the way through 2016, President Trump gets in office.

the President Trump went against, he was in complete opposition for four years. And so nothing really changed in four years. There was so many people dug in. President Trump did not put the right people around him. And he did not have allies in the White House or in Congress, even his first two years. And so he couldn't get anything done. And so the military didn't change. And so it wasn't like we had a good four years and then lost it again for four years.

It had never changed. So it's not until this last 18 months that we've seen. seen and we've seen but for me the encouragement that I want to give you is in only 18 months we see there's tremendous shifts and it's not my opinion it's what I said earlier in the recruiting numbers this is it this is stats highest recruiting in 15 years highest retention in 15 years the highest morale that I've witnessed and this is from commanders that they've seen in a military and and me being around 30 years that's the evidence but bringing these you know the morale and retention and recruiting backup on par. And so we're in a good spot. So the prayer is that we'll maintain

it. We'll keep it. That this is just the beginning. I mean, imagine if we could do this in 18 months, imagine what we could do, you know, if we could keep this going for years. And all these issues, by the way, are so important for our culture as a faith community. But they're also important outside of the faith community, which is all ties together for me. But for our national security, that's where I started with. Our national security depends on a, on a motivated, ready, and willing force. If you have to, if you have low recruiting members, then what the recruiters have to do is they have to lower those standards. And so now we're not getting our best and brightest. We're not getting our most willing. We're having to bribe people that don't even qualify

to be in in the military. Only one, less than one percent of our nation serves in the military. They should be our very best and brightest. And so when you get those recruiting numbers, you're able to raise the bar and you get the highest standards. And that's a national security issue. And so I am, when it comes to prayer, like I'm thanking God for that, because this is something previous this 18 months I was fervently praying for. And the whole body of Oaks team was praying for. And it is answer to prayer. And my prayer is that it continues and grows from here. Lessons from Paul is a 90-day devotional. Some of my favorite verses that Paul wrote, a bit of devotional time and then some place to journal. The goal is to be changed. We want to be transformed

by the Word of God and not just informed by it. Saul of Tarsus, a hero of mine. I got to know him as the Apostle Paul, an unrelenting advocate for Jesus in the face of unyielding persecution. Folks, that sounds like the world we live in. Lessons from Paul, it'll help you and I be overcomers, triumphant in this season in the earth. You'll enjoy the book. Following Jesus isn't always easy, but you don't have to walk through it alone. the same power that transformed Paul is available to you today. Lessons from Paul by Pastor Allen is a 90-day devotional filled with scripture, encouragement, and journaling prompts, and space to write,

helping you apply each day's reading to your actual life. Request your copy with your gift of $25 or more at Alanjaxon.com or call 800-8805102. Well, I think we can explain the way Chad can describe our faith being welcome back into our military, I believe we should begin to imagine that that will be welcome back onto our college campuses and to our corporate boardrooms in the halls of our hospitals and our courtroom. So it's a bit of a wake-up call. It's a, that's done through the courage.

And, you know, Billy Graham said that the spines of others will be stiffened by, you know the quote? Nope. I don't either, okay. Apparently I don't either. Billy who? Yeah, Billy someone. Something about his courage,

stiffening the minds of other men. And so I say that because your pastor, if you guys don't know this, I'll let you in on it. He's an incredible pastor, but he's an incredible leader that has demonstrated that courage from this pulpit that has inspired other people to do the same. So just like with Pete and our military,

and you have. And I say this everywhere I go. Yeah, you deserve it. In the last years, guys, our faith community has been, has had pastors, and I love any man that's going to stand up on this pulpit and lead their community, but hadn't had the moral courage stand on this pulpit

and talk about what's going on in our communities. And they hid behind the things that we don't want to get political. And these aren't political issues. This is a moral, biblical issues that have to be talked about. If they can't be answered here, and if people in this community can't come to the church to find out the answers on these issues, where are they going to go to? Right? And they should be able to come here. And pastors wouldn't do that. And he's one of the few that did. And now, because he's one of the few that did, we're seeing other pastors doing it. And so what you talked about in the boardrooms and in a college campuses, it requires someone to go first. And you've went first. And you deserve to be recognized for that. You've written another book. I did. Dude.

then this is fiction. It's in a series. It's called Riptide. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Well, I wrote my book Saving Aziz about the Afghan evacuation, and I included some of the stuff about me and Aziz during my time as a DOD contractor on that J-Soft task force. And when you write something like that, it has to go to Pentagon for a review.

And they came back with a lot of, if anybody's read it, there's a lot of big black lines through it. And if you hold that, I always joke, if you hold that up on their candle, you can see other secrets, but that's not true. Because you printed it with all the things they black line. Yeah, exactly. So I printed it. I kept all the black lines in it because I thought it was important for you guys to know that, you know, it was being written by somebody that had access to that type of information. And there are secrets in these things and there's secret stuff that our government doesn't want us to know.

But I knew that was by as far as I could go and writing nonfiction. And so I really wanted to tell us some more of those types of stories. So I think one of the reasons a lot of people in the special operations community, we're horrible to each other. attack each other all the time. And one of the things we attack each other about is like, why are you saying that weird, them from this secret like thing, we shouldn't be writing books and stuff? Well, I joined the military because I read books of the generations before me, and I was inspired by those. And so I want to be part of inspiring the next generation. And I love these stories. And America needs to hear stories about many women are courage

and sacrifice and what they go through it. Or else we won't know. Because like I said, only a half a percent serves. So the other 99.5 percent don't serve and don't know. So we need to tell these stories. So I felt compelled to tell these stories. Tendale is a Christian publisher. I know they're a partner in a bookstore here. Tendale's just so great. And so they wanted to do it too. And so it's a three book fiction series. So the book one was Silent Horizons. It came out last year. Rip Tide is the continuation book two of the three book series. And it's about a guy named Foster Quinn, a name. Foster Quinn is after my buddy Foster, who was a served in a wedding. He served together for 10 years. He was there when my kids were born and he died in Atlanta, Longwater Province, in 2004. So it's a tribute to

him and his cover name, his last name's Cato, which is another friend of mine, Robert Cotto, who was killed. And so there's a lot of the names in the book are honoring those who, on Memorial Day, those who paid that ultimate price for our freedoms and just paying how much to them. But the book's about his journey, and Foster Quinn is the character, and his journey is much like many of our guys in a special operations community. The book's a lot different. If you're looking for, it is a Christian book, but if you're looking for an evangelical book, Foster Quinn's not saved at the end of the book one. It's a long journey of the three books,

and that's how Tindale wanted to reach a broad secular audience. But it is, I would say it is PG. There's some depth in it for sure. But there's not cursing and stuff in it. So it's, it's a, I've really enjoyed it. It's been a lot of fun. Jack Stewart is my co-writer, co-author with it. He is a naval Navy top gun fighter pilot.

Was a top gun instructor, brilliant guy. And, and it is in the Navy and he can write? You get right. He's a fireman. He's got to be smart. Chad, thank you for your service to our country, but most importantly for your service to our king. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I bless you. Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministry's YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast.

You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast. wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.