Duck Call Room - Uncle Si Learns What It Takes to Walk Away From an IED

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Uncle Si welcomes Army veteran Blake Cook, a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper whose story takes him from a would-be Call of Duty gamer to a real-life combat soldier surviving an IED blast and a brutal parachute jump. Jay Stone reveals both what he was paid to narrate Si’s autobiography and the personal price he paid for the experience. John-David lights up at finally having another gamer in the room, and Martin’s mood rides the rollercoaster of Louisiana heat. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Duck Call Room, ladies and gentlemen. We are back in here on this fine Thursday afternoon recording. Is it Thursday? What is it? Is it? Yeah, it's Thursday. It's a weird week. Yeah, it's been a weird week.

No, man. And it's hot as Haiti's outside. So glad. It's not that bad. It's hot. Yeah, but what are you talking about it? At 8 o'clock this morning, it was 100 degrees. Uh-huh.

What were you doing up at 8 o'clock? No, I wasn't out. My wife come in and said, You know, she said, this is stupid. And I said, what? She said, it's 100 degrees outside. It was 85 at 6 o'clock this morning. Good grease.

Yeah, this is that kind of heat you walk outside and you just instantly get pissed off in. You know what? I walk out. I don't, I ain't go walk outside. I love it. Hey, I'm going to stay indoors with the air on. You love it? I'm in the, every time, every winter, people are like, oh, I'd rather this and that

100 degrees. And I'm over there complaining about how cold it is. So I'm right now, I will sweat if I go sit outside for more than three seconds and just I love it compared to being cold. Really? I do not like being cold. That's interesting. What do the fishermen say about? Are people still fishing?

Oh, yeah. Gobbin called me yesterday. Gobind's gotten right now, actually. Oh. Two people from Oregon. But, Cy, you were telling us before we got rolling. You found a, you've got a new TV station. It is a Western channel.

Uh-oh. If you say, great. And it's spaghetti westerns. Okay, so, hey, there is a lot of killing. I didn't, you know, I mean, it's, and the acting is so bad. What's the spaghetti Western? I don't know. The ones with the music.

Yeah. Well, these, the directors were a tag. Yeah. And they're, they call them. What's going to make a chance? Right, but they do have, they do have, they do have like three good time. They got, the music is good. Yeah, okay.

Okay. Okay. And then they've got beautiful horses. Mm-hmm. Okay, well, I'm talking about all of them, the gray steel, Palominoes, all, all different ones. And then the country that they're feminine is also just dropped in gorgeous. Have you seen Trinity? Huh?

Yeah. Yeah, now the blind guy. Yeah. Oh, no, he's in some of them. I mean, watch. Oh, yeah, he's good. I know. Look how happy he is.

Well, it's funny you say that, spaghetti western. When old Kade started working in the call shot with me, he wanted to watch spaghetti western. And I thought for a 19-year-old kid to want to watch spaghetti Western, that boy's got some good qualities. Well, I was six like to tell him to go and I'm on dish. Okay, so it's a 091-1-6. We don't have dish.

Dash 6. You're one of the seven people left in this country that, hold on. 0-9-1-6. Yeah. What is that? That's a channel? Hey.

What are having to like channel 200? Well, no, no, I used to have all that. Okay. And my wife went on a TV slicing because we was paying too much. Well, we were, sigh. Do you need some money? Now I only got a few shells. And I told Michael and said, don't hire anybody unless say like Star Wars or Star Trek.

Because they're the best workers. Wait. You know, the nerdy types. Hey, so that. Honor, you feel sane over? Yeah. Are you saying I'd be really good at building duck calls? You can be proud.

Yeah. Your type is a good worker. Yeah. Star Trek's weird though. Well, hey, you know, Star Wars is awesome. But it was one of those new hands was watching the YouTube on how to cast wizard spells. Hmm. I found that very.

I've never been happier to not be in that. Interesting. This stupid thing. What if it works? They don't break it. And that stupid thing. It's my computer. You can get into anything you want to get into.

A black box. Okay. That thing, hey, and hey, here's the thing. I know it was meant when it, whoever made it or come up with it, meant it to be used for good. You did see, the other day we ordered a pizza.

But just like everything in the humans gets involved in, somebody is going to go the opposite way and treat it and use it for evil. And that's just life. Wise words from seven down on side. Okay. That's just life, those things are dangerous.

Oh, yeah. If I had kids, if I had kids now, they would not get a phone. Until what age? What age is it okay? When they start driving? After they get out of college.

After they get out of college. Hey, I'm serious. That thing is evil. How are you supposed to... You can get into human trafficking. I mean, there's nothing. Oh, we go down the road here.

Hey, you give a nine-year-old child this. Oh, I'm aware. He can get into anything instantly with his finger. That's it? No, I wouldn't give him one. Oh, I wouldn't say it nine. Mine is more so, like, I got one... There's somewhere between nine and 22 that works...

Well, it would be, no, it would be, okay. I got one when I started driving. The judge, you know, how mature. Yeah, I didn't get one until I started driving around this town because then they wanted me to be able to call in case anything happened. Well, no, no. I got to find that's what it was meant for. That's what it was meant for.

Yeah. Okay, like mom broke down on the highway having a flat tire. Yeah. You call somebody gets a bill. Go fix it and fix it for it. I'm just saying, my wife said it, she said the same thing that people, when I was in the Army, when the computer would go insane on me. They said, what did you do, Robertson?

I look at him and I said, hey, look, I'm not smart enough to do anything but follow directions. I said, this thing has run amok. When God gets sick of this human race that he created, the computer's going to kill everybody. Boy, they should make a movie about that. Well, I'm serious. Because look, hey.

How many of them are there? Donald Trump has got a red button sitting on. his death if he pushes it, nukes start flying. I think it's a different. Oh, hey, one of these days, that's going to happen. Because this thing, the Bible says it, this thing is going to melt down. It's going to burn down. Well, guess what better way to melt down than fire about 3,000 nuclear weapons?

Okay, prognostications from Si. I like that. You heard it here for. We hope you enjoy your day. Hey, have what's left in your life. The joy of the Lord will be your strength. You better find Jesus and find him quick. Because Donald Trump's about to press a butt and incinerate it.

I don't even know. I was trying to look up that Will Smith movie where he was fighting the robots. I robot. Right there is. Right there on the tip of my tongue. Hold it. You hadn't seen the one that they filmed in Japan going berserk? Was it a spaghetti western?

No, this was a AI computer. computer that started to beat the people up that was working in there. How's a computer beat up somebody? Hey, he went crazy and just with whatever he had that they put on him arms. No. Hey, hey. There's a lot of things that can beat me up, but a computer ain't one of them. Hey, one of them, hey, one of them went berserk in Japan and started beating everybody up.

A robot did? A robot. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It was on the news on TV. I watched it. Well, who was controlling the road by. I just say, we got to get to our Facebook.

Nobody was controlling it. It went berserk. Nobody was controlling it. No, it became self-aware. That's what everybody's afraid of. No, no, because they... The computers are going to realize they're smarter than us, and then they're going to kill us.

They just was talking about this last night on Fox News. If a computer sneaks up on me, I deserve to die. Have you seen... But they're starting to make computers to like walk around. That's fine. I like my chances. I can't remember what you name is now. Where's a big, Justin?

Who? Jimmy and Randy. No, no, they named it because he said, my name is so-and-so and he's walking down the streets of New York. A computer? A computer? Yeah. Y'all need to watch more TV in the news, boys.

You need to. You need to watch less news and more spaghetti westerns. Well, no, hey, it's half and a half right now. It feels like it's leaning more like a 75-20- I got to keep over what Trump's doing. That's just... Because at any moment, he can push that button.

You never know. Hey, look, you ain't promised tomorrow. Matter of fact, you ain't promised to the next minute. That's right. And I'm not promised another minute in here today. We have a special guest coming in. Blake Cook.

It's here. Hallelujah. And I'm leaving. Are you tired of looking at me? Huh? You tired of looking at me? I'll leave. This won't make any difference to me.

No, you ain't leaving. We get paid less if you leave. Yeah. Hey, get him in there. I heard he was a veteran, too. Yeah, you put rear ends in the seat. Hey, look. I heard that he won a medal.

Yeah, we're going to have three veterans and me. Okay. Yeah, y'all got a lot in common. So good luck. That's right. Go Army, beat Navy, and I don't even know where I'm going, but I'm out of here. We'll see y'all. Wait a minute.

Leave Navy alone. They're good guys. All right, look, springtime is here. It's warming up. You know what that means. That means more outside cooking. And y'all know. We love to eat beef around here.

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The tenderness and the flavor are fantastic. So if you're stocking the freezer for grilling season, go check out Triedails beef. I know in size case Christine loves it, which is just a, she doesn't eat meat. She isn't a big meat eater, folks. Yeah. Just go to trybeef.com slash. That's trybeef.com slash support ranch families and eat some dang good steak. Well, hey, first thing I'll serve, sir, welcome you here.

Okay. It's an honor for you to be here. You know, thank you for serving our nation. Oh, thank you. you get that it's an honor for you to be here no no that's a real that's how robert's not an honor for j too well no no no i've had i've had the honor of actually being with uh veterans okay i've served 24 and a half years and yeah but i actually have been with the seals uh black ops all

all of my heroes okay these are people that have been uh baptized in war okay and they treated me like I was an equal which I am not okay I served but I didn't never get any into the any bad stuff

and I thank the Almighty for that yeah so the guy that actually were in combat they are truly my heroes I think anybody that signs the dotted line you know takes that risk you know it's

you know you can be front lines or you could just be on a fob somewhere helping, you know, there's still the chance of you getting hurt or your life ending. No, no, because you said the same thing that I can't remember his name,

but he was a Medal of Honor one in Vietnam. He was on, he come, and I met him, okay, and he actually gave, he said,

here, some of this belongs to you. Yeah. And I went, whoa, whoa, no. And he said,

yeah, he said, you served, right? And I said, well, yeah, I served,

but, hey, You did this on your own, son. So now, he said, hey, look, if you was in the war zone and you served in wore our nation's uniform, this is partly yours. I agree with that. And you said the same thing he did. Well, I look at it a different way. I know I served and I know I was at risk when I was there.

But the guys that actually went through it and seen buddies get shot up, get wounded, die, all this stuff. Well, I didn't have to go through that. Okay, so my heart and my mind, okay, you truly are a hero. I appreciate that. For going to war for our nation. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know.

You know, so I really appreciate what you do for the veteran community and how, like, vocal you are. Like, that was some of my favorite episodes with Duck Dynasty was anytime he was, anytime you mentioned like the veteran community it was a man it was so cool to hear that and to see somebody you know honoring or service and your service it was awesome they they actually done that right here in monroe to me okay because if you go to the airport okay they honor me with serving and they've got my uniform you know on a mannequin yeah we're gonna uh that's one of the things that you know came here to see look my take on that

and I actually said it on Duck 90, is that everybody, does ever wore a uniform, men or women, deserve their own museum? Yeah. Because, hey, and especially those that gave their life,

or limbs, or body parts, you know, because every time I see a vet that gave, you know, man, what a price to pay.

I think what people felt to understand, is a lot of veterans, they might not have the physical wounds. But man, like, you start messing with the ones that have that, like, emotional. Well, no, no, because, hey, even I had, I had not the emotional screw up and up here. That's dangerous. People don't realize what a veteran grows through. It's bad enough to go to a friendly foreign country and served. Well, Blake, what was your M-O-S in the military?

I was 11 Bravo. Okay. Yeah. So, no, see, he's a ground pounder. Oh, yeah. So quick, for, for, you know, those of us that don't speak that language, what, what, we're, give us a little backstory on you, Blake, because we went straight into that. Yeah.

Our listeners might not know, like, what all you've done. I pulled up your bio. There's a list of about, uh, 400 awards here or something like that. That's not true. That's not true. There's a lot of awards. You look like somebody from call of duty. So you apparently have a story to tell.

So I'd like to just hear a little bit of that. Yeah. Yeah, so I grew up in southern West Virginia, real small coal mine town. You know, it was either playing sports and then hunting after practice or you're hunting before school and then playing sports. So just a real big hunting town, coal mine, everybody's family was in the mines. And, you know, so there wasn't really a lot of opportunity. It was either go to the mines or you were smart in school or your family had money

you could go to college or you got a scholarship somewhere. And I got a, I had a football scholarship and didn't work out. You know, I went there and had no responsibilities, partying my way right out, right? You know what I did. Oh, man,

they gave me this cool little, you know, they were nice enough to put this little letter on my dorm door. It was like, hey, man, pretty much, like, you suck. If you don't take this serious, like, you're going to get kicked out. And I was like, well, I'm already far behind, so I'm just going to continue this train. And they're not going to kick me out.

Like, that's not going to happen. Three months later, it was like, hey, man, you're done. You got to be out in a month. So, like, I just bawled that thing up, threw it away. And, yeah, and they came knocking on my door and was like, hey, it's time to go on. Party's over. And, I mean, I was partying, but really why I didn't go to class was, man, that was back when And college duty had Nazi zombies.

Bro. Now we're speaking my language. All right. There we go. Black ops two days. I miss, hey, I miss my first day of class because we were playing online.

And we ended up playing with a dude from Microsoft. We played for five and a half hours because when you died, he would type of code in to revive you. It was like, my mom's like, hey, she's calling me. I'm not answering. I'm like, dude, I'm playing college. do you right now. She's like, oh, how's class? I'm like, oh, it's great. Love my professors. They're so cool.

I was like, this campus is great. I'm over here eating like ramen noodles just five hours in, Call of Duty, drinking green, monster energy drinks. But, you know, that didn't work out. So I moved back home. And my mom's like, she's like, it's okay, baby. Like, we'll get you in community college. Maybe that just wasn't good for you. And I was like, yeah, I was like, that's awesome. Let's do that. You know, I won't, I won't party as much. We're in a small town. man, I went to first day of school, sit down. Ladies like telling me all this, what we're going to be doing. I was like, book on the table and all.

I was like, can I go to the bathroom? And she's like, yeah, so I get up, go to the bathroom, never came back. What my mom didn't know was, you know, Tuesday and Thursday nights, and every day, Applebee's had happy hour. And you could party in my small town if you wanted to. Now there was like pregnant women drinking and all the rednecks like, you know, it was a... At the Applebee's? Oh, yeah, dude.

You see people in there drinking margaritas with their kid in the little... Did Ricky Bobby and his dad ever show up? Hey, it's two for 20 too. Like, it was great. So ultimately got kicked out of that, right? So I was like, you know what? I suck at school. I'm going to be a professional gamer.

I'm going to get really good at Call of Duty. So I started playing Call of Duty, right? know this part i like yeah i'm like i'm bawling out i'm playing with like the top i'm on like this team that was like top 1,000 in the nation so my mom calls me up one day i would stay i'd go to i'd go to bed like five in the morning sleep ball during the day get up play call of duty go to the gym and uh my mom was a hey man you got to get a job like this is this is pathetic you're a loser i was like all right i was like i'll go get a job she's like no if you don't have a job by the end of the day you're getting kicked out of the house like you're going to have to learn

I was like, all right, mom, whatever. You're not going to kick me out of the house. I'm the baby. No way. So, like, she calls me up. I like 12 o'clock, and she's like, hey, man, you got a job? I'm like, Nottie, I'm going up to Hibit Sports. I'm going to see if they give me a job there.

She's like, okay. So, like, I'm like, hey, guys, I'll be right back. You know, I got to apply for a job. I have a cutoff t-shirt on. It's dirty. It's got Dorito stains on it. Like some cutoff sweatpants shorts and some sandals. I walk in Hibbitt Sports.

I'm 20 years old. And I'm a, hey, y'all. The guy's like, yeah, we are, not you. I was like, I can't even get an applicant. He's like, no, man, look at you. I was like, oh, man, I was like, okay, all right, I get it. So I go outside. Let's speak the truth in Westridge.

Yeah, they don't play. So I'll go outside the store and I'm like, I'm sitting there on the curb. And I'm like, man, I'm defeated. I'm like, oh, man, I'm about to be homeless. I'm like, I got to figure out my friends who have Wi-Fi. so I could continue this gaming thing. I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm like, I got my subscription out for a year.

I'm good on my Xbox Live. I was like, but I got to find somebody with Internet. And, dude, I look up and this guy asked me, he goes, hey, man, are you okay? I look up, and it's this dude in ACUs and the Army recruiter. Man, the next words out of my mouth changed, my life. I said, yeah, man, my mom's about to kick me out in the house. I need a job. And man, his eyes lit up, just so bright. He goes, you need a job? I said, yeah. He goes,

he says, have I got a deal for you? He said, son, come in my office. I got a job for you. You can start right away. Play Call the Duty for real. Oh, no, no. Hey, so I get in there and I sit down at his desk and I'm like looking around. I'm like, I'm like, all right, maybe they're going to offer me. Like, I could be a janitor here at the recruiting. I got, cool, like, I can do this. This is nice. He sits down in front of me and his aims.

He's like, why should kicking you out the house? I'm like, well, because, you know, I like playing Call of Duty. He was like, you like playing Call of Duty? I was like, yeah. He goes, you want to do it in real life? Yeah. Do you want to do it for you? That is a true statement?

Yeah. I said, I can do that in real life. He goes, son. He goes, let me talk to you about something. He's got me all hyped up, right? He's like, man, you do this and this and that. I was like, oh, give it all to me, right? And, you know, I sign all my paperwork.

I take my pre-abs vab test, and he signs it up, right? And I'm like, oh, man, I got it. I was in there for an hour. Got me a job, right? Didn't know what the infantry was. I had no idea. He handed me a paper, and it said 11X. I didn't get 11 Bravo until I got,

to basic. It's either 11 Bravo is front lines, guys with guns, 11 Charlie's or mortarmen. So I didn't know at the time. I was like, yeah, man, let's do that. That's great. I guess I was like so stupid.

I got like a super low ad-vab score and I couldn't do anything else. So like he got lucky and just gave me that because at the time they were having a hard time getting anybody to do infantry because... What year is this? 2012. Okay.

And actually 20, excuse me. at the end of December of 2010. Okay. And I deployed in 2012. And so this dude signs me up, man. I'm all happy. I'm on like cloud nine. I go home.

I'm like, I can get right back on, you know, throw some pizza rolls in the oven. You get right back on college duty. Got my mountain dew. I'm like, this is,

this is, I'm in it, baby. And my mom comes home and she's like, hey, honey, she's like, you're still here. She's like, how the interview with Hibit Sports Go.

I was like, it went terrible. She was all right. She's, he got a job. I was like, I got a job. She's like, well, what did you do? I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. I talked to a recruiter.

I leave for basic training in four months. She loses it. She's like, oh, my God. I killed my baby. You don't have to go. Please don't go. I'm like, I call my recruiter up. I'm like, hey, man.

I said, my mom is really mad at me right now. I was like, can we like cancel? Is it like a cancel thing? He goes, no, man, you got a report to MEPs. morning, 8 o'clock. I was like, oh, man, I screwed up. I was like, there ain't no getting out of this. It got real, real fast.

I'm like, this isn't no job application I ever had. He's like, now, man, if you don't show up, like, you're going to be in trouble. I was like, all right, mom, I'm just going to do it, right? And my uncle, well, I called him an uncle. He was just, he was a friend of my stepfather. He was in the unit, the Delta, Delta Force, and he had called me up. And, you know, he was like, man, this might be good for you. Like, you kind of suck right now.

I'm like, no, dude, you don't understand. I'm so close to being a professional gamer. He's like, you know what, man? He goes, you sound silly. He goes, I'll see it. I'll see it your MEP's appointment tomorrow. So he came all the way down, went to the appointment with me. And yeah, man, I saw I got in the Army.

And then went to Basic. Uh, I had no idea. I got to Basic. And all these people were like, oh, man, I got airborne contracts. I got, I got special forces contracts. I got all these Rangers. Yeah, because they got all these shortages. Yeah.

And I'm like, they're like, oh, man, I got a $50,000 bonus. I'm like, I didn't get any of that. I'm like, this, my recruiter sucked. I'm like, that dude, that dude sucked me in. Yeah, he didn't tell you at all those vital bills. So everybody in my, in my little platoon has all these awesome contracts. So it's like about two months in, they start giving you like where you're going to get stationed. They're like, cook, Korea.

I'm like, I'm like, Korea. I'm like, hey man, I'm from the country. I eat meat and potatoes. Like, I don't eat no Korean food. Like, I'm not going to survive over there. Those Korean ribs are pretty good. Oh, no, man. I'm strictly meat and potatoes.

American meat and potatoes. Steaking potatoes. That's it. Well, you know, Uncle I went to sniper school. Do you know that? No, I didn't know that. Yeah, for about two weeks. And then we wasn't shooting.

And I said, hey, I thought we were going to shooting a gun here. They said, oh, that's like a month and a half away out today. Just on y'all, go ahead. Hey, I'm out. Send me to a unit. I thought he was going to shoot guns. Hey, send me to a unit. You out there crawling through grass and antilles.

Yeah, so we're doing all the stupid stuff, y'all. They done me a favor. Yeah, but, you know, that's, you know, I got a five-hour energy shop for $100. So my drill instructor was like, hey, you get a 300 on your next PT test. I'll give you an airborne contract. And I just had the flu. So my bunkmate was like, hey, man, I know you got to get a 300 on your PT test. That means you maxed out your push-ups and your run.

So he's like, I got a five-hour energy shot. I got from the PX. He was our platoon leader. So he had authorization every Sunday to get orders. And somehow some guy at the PX sold him one for $100. and he sold me one for $100. I got a 300 on my PT test, got an airborne contract, and that was it. You know, I ended up deploying like seven months later.

And, you know, I should have just stuck with being a professional gamer. It was like, well, not really because you did it real, for real. I did. It sucked. It sucked. But it molded you into what you are today. No, yeah, but, you know, I'm a big believer there. Your start and with college was just about like mine.

Yeah, I mean, you know, at some point I had to grow up. Well, no, no, that's why I finally realized, okay, when my mother told me, you know, you're going to college, and I argued with her. And then I said, well, hey, look, bottom line, why am I going to college? He said, because when you're 45 in digging ditches, you can't blame mom and dad.

Have you heard my college experience? have I ever told you about my college experience? No. I got to hear this. I did pretty good in high school. You know, pretty good grades, you know. Pretty decent. Pretty good pitcher too.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I played baseball, which was a big waste of time. But didn't you go to college for baseball? I did. Okay. You got a scholarship. But I blew that, I didn't do nothing for those two years.

Okay. I did a lot of what Blake was talking about. Yeah. But, well, see, that's all I did was party. So I get to. I get to Louisiana Tech sign. I said, okay, I'm going to be an engineer. You know, I was pretty good in school.

So I started those engineering classes, and after about one semester, I'm like, nope, not smart enough for this. I said, let me try accounting. After a semester, not smart enough for this. Nope, not for that. I settled on health and PE. There it is. I was smart enough for that.

Bingo. I got that seven years. Yeah, that was like Phil. Same thing. Yeah, I was like Phil. same thing. Yeah. You'll be a coach, you know.

I might have been smart enough, but I was not putting in the effort, effort, what needed. So I was not disciplined. Well, no, I wasn't mature enough.

No, you have to be somewhat mature. Like that, like that, you got to be mature enough and discipline, you know, that's why I told Bella,

he does, she does all her college online. I couldn't do that. The computer. Yeah. Oh, my God. I said, Hey,

what if. You need to get a Ph.D. I said, because you're smart enough. Oh, yeah. You're smart enough. Go for it. Yeah. Back to you and your military career.

Was you in black ops or anything of that? No, no, no, no. So I was, uh, so I got stationed at Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne. And, uh, I loved them. I was, I was at Fort Bragg for five years. Really? Yeah, it was 82nd. Loved them.

Now, you're talking about going to crazy dudes. Yeah. But, hey, when you go to war, that's, That's who you want to go with. You know, when you got somebody that jumps out of a, what the hell they're doing. You know, somebody that jumps out of a perfectly good aircraft. I quit with all your army talk over there. Well, no, no.

I've got a foul mouth to me. Well, I know. I apologize for that. Well, when he gets around veterans, that's, it happens. Well, no, no, because the thing is, okay. Like I tell you, I love these guys. Okay, and I really do. And they are my heroes.

100%. Well, you know, you talk about when you meet another veteran, and you can just, you feel like you've known them for a long time. Yeah. And we have a mutual friend, Chad Robes Show. Yeah, Chad's awesome. And I tell people all the time, you know, I've met a lot of cool people, you know, having the contacts that we have. 50 years on planet Earth.

Chad Robeshow is probably the most impressive human being. Young man. I've ever been around in my life. This man, and look, there's a lot of guys out there like him. But he lives his life. serve other people. His sole purpose is to serve. Yeah.

And to do what's right. Well, that's what he's all about. Hey, look, love that dude today. He's solid. Incredible. We met him a couple months ago,

and again, it's just that veteran connection. It was just, it's like we know each other forever. He's just a solid guy. He found out that I was coming on, coming to here, and I'm unashamed.

And, you know, he just was so excited for me because we had a conversation just about how much, you know, Duck Dynasty, just that whole show kept me grounded with Jesus. And it's a, you know, it was super cool. And, you know, I told the story yesterday on Unashamed and all those dudes were crying. Just kidding.

I was the only one that was crying. They were all looking to me. We'd cry with you there. That's like Jayce was crying. No, no, no, no, no, no. It was good to know. A rare sight there. Yeah, those boys are good.

But, yeah, it's just like, you know, you just have that bond in the veteran community and you just click. I mean, whether you didn't do this or you didn't do that, you did this,

you didn't do that, you still went through the suck. Oh, yeah. Like, regardless, like it's, you know, you still had to hurry up and wait. And anybody that can connect on that is,

that's a true brotherhood right there for sure. But no, I wasn't in like special operations. I had the goals to do that. But I got blown up on my deployment and, you know, that changed the past for me, changed my life. And by blown up, you mean literally. Yeah, yeah.

So one of the Special Forces group had an outposts and they were shooting guns or something outside of their outposts and ended up getting ambushed and we were QRF, the Quick Reaction Force. And we got spun up and we were on our way and the closest or the fastest route to them, was what they called a black road, which means it wasn't cleared of IEDs for like two weeks. So they put one of those little, one of the, I forgot the name of the truck, but it's a truck that can detect mines and all that. And I don't know what happened, but, you know, the truck in front of me, the IED went off

in between both of our trucks. And it was so, it was kind of crazy because, like, I was the gunner. I saw this, like, super bright flash. and you know we were all joking i had a headset on like this we were playing um some stupid music i think it was like party in the USA or something and we were having a good old time right you know i took my headset off to say something to the guys below

and it went off and i remember like super slow motion like you could see the chunks of dirt come up and it's like whoa what is this and then i felt the pressure the pressure pushed me back it broke my back plate in half, my armor plate. Then I came forward like this on the machine gun and broke all of this on the side of my face, which is why my nose is all jacked up. I woke up like five, two minutes later on a stretcher, complete chaos, Apache's flying over me.

And I was like, man, this sucks. Like, this sucks. I'm in a crap sandwich right now. And, you know, it finally got a black hawk to come and land down after. the Apaches cleared the area out, and got us back on the fob. And, you know, I had to stay on the fob for a whole day because they couldn't fly because of the sandstorm.

So then the following day, it was just, our fob was getting mortared. I'm just laying there because I can't really, like, do much. And these people are just putting, like, armor on top on me. And I'm like, oh, like, get me out of here. This sucks. I'm laying here with armor on. y'all are running around panicking. I'm like, you know, at one point I was there for like two hours by myself.

I had no idea where anybody was at. I'm laying on this table. And like, they're like, oh, you know, they got me all doped up and everything. And I'm like, this is wild. Like, this is, this is gnarly. But I tell you what was even crazy is like that following day, the family readiness group, I actually called my wife that was with my mom and was like, hey, there was a terrible accident. And we believe that your husband was killed.

and so like it for like a whole hour my my wife and my mom thought that I was probably deceased until I was somebody was able to give me a phone and say hey I know you're doped up right now but like you need to make a phone call because somebody messed up and uh yeah I called them and you know squared that away but then you know I ended up spending a month in a hospital in Boggham Air Force Base they're trying to figure out they want to see me to do. Germany or not. And, you know, my body didn't feel right. My head didn't feel right, but I didn't want to leave. So I started telling people that I was okay. Like, I'm okay. I feel great. You know, everything's good. I feel fine. And I went back and finished the last two months. And when I got home, I started seeing failure in my body. Like, we did a whole run one time. We just got back. And it was like a two-hour run or something. It was like 15 miles. And I didn't, I didn't remember. memory any of it. Then I started having nosebleeds and then like I started like just blacking out and then my legs started getting like a really like numb tingling feeling in my legs and

that's when we realized something was wrong and I went to the warrior transition battalion we got to help and I did um my speech was really bad so something with my brain and nerve nerve damages and swelling they ended up doing speech memory and physical therapy for almost 24 months and that's, you know, that set the tone that, hey, you're not to get healthy, you can get out. But I did that for 24 months, right. And they're like, all right, man, cool, you're healed up. You're great. I have like six months left.

I get back to my company. They're like, hey, cook, you're on a manifest. I'm like, manifest for a lot. They're like, oh, you got to jump. I'm like, dude, I'm not jumping. I just did therapy for two years. I'm not jumping out of an airplane. we got to get your current.

I don't care about $100 a month. Like, take that away from me. I'm leaving. I'm not coming back. Like, I'm done. They're like, oh, no, no, you're doing it. So I was like, all right, whatever, do. It's a combat jump, full load, night time.

I jump. Here I am. I'm like, okay, cool, parachute's open. I'm not dying. This is great. Can't see anything. Bam. Smack the side of a Humvee.

It's like, I'm laying, I wake up. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. This has happened again. I'm like, I got a real bad headache. So, like, I gather up my parachute, get all my stuff. I go over to where the guys are laying in the prone, pulling security. And I start throwing up. My platoon leader was like, hey, like, you got to.

My squad leader was like, hey, man, you got to go to the medical tent. And then, bam, right back into the warrior transition battalion, right back into the TBI. I had to extend my contract a little bit. They're like, why did you jump? I'm like, why are you yelling to me? I was told to do this because I'm my choice. I'm terrified of heights.

Like my first jump ever out of an airplane in airborne school, I'm terrified of heights. In my first jump, I was like, all right, let me time this out correctly. I'm the last one on the plane. All I do is just run out after, behind somebody. I can do that. I can chase and just send it. What I didn't know and nobody told me was the last one

that loaded up on the plane was the first one out of the plane. So I'm like, I sat down and I see the door and I'm like, I'm pretty close to this thing, man. Like, we're going to cycle around. Like, if we're going to, we're going to loop this around because I can't be the first one out of the door. There's no way. They're like, hook up, so we hook up. And that door comes open.

Man, tears start coming down my eyes. I'm like, I'm sitting there at the door like this and I see it. everything. I'm like, I'm about to jump out of an airplane. Like, this is so stupid. Like, why did I buy a five-hour energy shop for $100? Why did I listen to the recruiter? Do all this. I'm like, all I wanted to do was freaking play professional call of duty. That's all I wanted to do. And, uh, man, I remember seeing a green light and I look back. And I went to ask him, like, is this going to open? And dude, that dude kicked me so hard in the back and I went right out the airplane.

And I was like, man, I landed. I was crying. I was kissing dirt, thanking God. I was like, man, thank you so much. I was like, all right, we got that over with. We're like, all right, cool. You got to load back up because you got like five more you got to do today. I spent my time in the trenches of the grocery store whenever y'all were doing all this.

Hey, that's important. That is important work. The produce section must be stopped. Don't you dare downgrade what you did? Man's got to eat Man's got to eat Hey, I appreciate your service to this country

Hey Why is Hunter laughing so loud Hunter? You're not even any good at Call of Duty At least I'm good at it He knows it's true I used to be Yeah, no you're not No, hey, I try to hook this thing back up

A couple months ago Nah, you ain't And you're too old now Let me tell you something Man, these kids were jumping over top of me Like, I mean They were just, they would kill me and then like, I was like, this is, this is changed.

Well, they didn't want you to go to Jesus to get resurrected. That's like, kill him. Hey, this eight-year-old kid is cussing me out, talking to me about my mom. I'm like, Call of Duty is a weird place now. I'm like, dude. So I played once. They didn't. No, no, I used to play, being my son, okay, when he was teenager, we played Tiger Woods.

Taga, Tiger Woods. Oh, that was so good. Hey, we got where we could get it over the trees and on the trees and on me. the green and then make a birdie. So you tried it. You did it on the game. Yeah. Did it on the game.

He did the opposite of you. He started with real life and went to video games. You started with video games that ended up on the front line. You know what you've just witnessed? The essence of our podcast. This is the essence of our podcast. We go from hitting IEDs to Tiger Woods Golf. Hey, but I love it.

But hey, here's the deal. I don't know. I come up with a lot of stuff. I come up with a lot of stuff. I don't play video games. Or you'll get kicked out of a plane. This man, hey, has got a computer. Oh, boy.

And he Googles what I've said. I cannot find the Greg Norman story. And a lot of times, he comes back and said, he was right. Oftentimes, he knows crazy things that no one else knows, but him and you. No, no, because here's one that I watched. Oh, boy. Okay.

I'm so excited right now. This is in the desert. Okay. Oh, boy. PBS. In the desert in India. Fish on the ground, baby. No.

There's a long range camera that is on something, and it looks like oil is oozing through the sand towards you. Well, it finally gets up about where it's 100 yards. It ain't oil. It's fish on top of sand in the desert, just flipping over each other, thousands of them. About that long. They had come from an underground river, come up on top of the sand,

and they're looking for a waterhole somewhere. Do you believe that? I do. You should because we asked it. It took me a while to find it. He found it. I did find it, and it is true. He said, no, he speaks with such confidence with these stories that, like,

he could tell me right now that the sky is purple. Well, look, I'm going to believe it. I wrote two books and then the books. Okay. got a bunch of stories that I grew up. I'm actually telling the book is telling my life. I got to read that book. Look, I did the audio for Sy's first.

And he ain't got over it yet. I had to go to therapy for six months. I don't know how you did. You could tell when, if you look at size, have you noticed his eyes? No, no. When he's telling the truth, his eyes are like this. When he's making something up there like this.

Oh. It's 100% true. No one I'm having trouble with poker. I got to read, boys. Oh, you got to read. Well, you got to wear some sunglasses. He dialed that in perfect. Oh, no, but hey, he did a fabulous job on the audio.

Oh, my God. On my book. He really did. That was the most difficult thing. I was reading that book. Did you do the audio for the book? Yeah. Yeah.

They said, somebody called me and said, look, we need you to do size audio because he can't pronounce these words right. And we want you to try to sound like Uncle Sy. They stop him every time and said, don't you got to say it like Uncle Sy was saying.

They put me in a glass box. And I get to reading this crap. He said this crap. And it would, no, look, it was funny. I don't know how you did it.

I was laughing out loud multiple occasions because there were stories that I've never heard him tell. And I've heard every one of his stories. It was... Five-pound squirrel. Oh, man. Did you find my audio? Redneck pets.

When we lived in the log cabin there, Vivian, Louisiana, there were two big hickory trees in the front yard. If you've cracked open a hickory nut before, you know there's a green nut inside. There's you a little taste of Chapter 3. Oh, no, no. It's on Spotify. You can go listen to the whole thing.

If you're included in, it's included in premium. Our fireplace, okay, had a, a hole. A hole. Now,

this is concrete, the fireplace. Where we had took a hammer and put a hickland up there and busted. And then he ate the nut off of it. And then, I mean,

it was, you could just set a hickternut down in it. We had done it so much that it was a complete hole for a set of hick or not and then just crack it with a hammer and then eat it. All I know is my drive home tonight is going to be Jay Stone narrating the story of Eagle the Pigeon.

I'm going to be very happy. Oh no, hey. He's done a fantastic job. He really did. I don't know what they paid me, but it wasn't enough. Oh, hey, wait a minute and how old, I paid you good big bunnies. I believe you actually. Hold on, I'm going to tell them what I got to pay.

I remember. I remember. I paid $5,000 to do that. Yeah, but the problem with it was, what he got paid by the hour because having to read your stuff was about you know $2 an hour how long he told me after he got paid

he said it wasn't near enough Jay Jay is your therapist $5,000? Oh way more than that he was in the hall he was in the hole I was so mentally exhausted and delusional

after I read that book I was just zoned out it is a great book though very funny you read that book and was smelling colors it's four hours and 41 minutes oh yeah oh my goodness you only got paid five thousand dollars and if i mispronounced a word i had to start over i had to start over you should have told him that's how i would have done it yeah that is magical oh it was it was torture magical torture well blake that is basically how we do this thing here we just ramble on until we look up and we've been doing it for an hour.

I love it. If you want to check out Blake, he's Blake Cook Actual. You spell all those three words exactly how you think you would on Instagram. So go check him out. Blake, we always end every episode, whatever this is, with Bible verse. Do you have a favorite one that you carry with you? I do, actually. Hit us with it.

And while you're looking that up, I'm going to say his wife is here. And we always try and make sure everybody knows. And he told a story of her finding out he might have died. which is crazy, but she also served our country at the same time while he was over there just being the woman behind him. So thank you for that. And also thank you for his phone so he can get to this part. It's when Jesus spoke in the parable when he left the 99 for the one. Yeah. So I actually have that on the back of my watch as like a just a good, good reminder. So Luke 15, 4, 3, 7. What man of you having 100?

sheep. If he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that has lost until he finds it. And when he is found, he lays it on its shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me. For I have found my sheep that was lost, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous person who needs no repentance. Amen on that one. That's my favorite one because I'm the one that he left in 99 for. And there's nothing more beautiful than the love that leaves the 99.

Everybody ought to look at it that way. Yeah. Well, we've all been in our, we're the one moment instead of the 99. We've been at our lowest. Some of our lows are lower than others. But Blake, it was awesome having you, man. Thank you for your service to this country, as always. Thank you.

And thank you. Thanks, Stone. Thanks, Cy, and, you know, people like me didn't have to do that because you three chose to do that. So I think I speak for all the people who are out there in grocery stores or wherever you may be in tackle shops and the outdoors, driving a truck somewhere. We all get to do that in the great country that is America because the guys like you three who served this country fought for our freedom. So thank you for that. And we'll catch y'all next time right here in the duck call room. And with that, thank all those that serve. okay the ones in the warehouses

truck drivers the ones that and you know brings up the cash when you're buying something in a grocery store yeah that's what makes America great

if you sign the dollar line that serve the nation your service matters yeah sure but yeah guys thanks for having me this was probably the highlight of my life so this has been a lot of

I appreciate you guys It had to be more fun than getting kicked out of a plane. Was this better than the Unashamed podcast? Don't ask you. No, that's a little more serious.