Green Light with Chris Long - Florent Groberg on Heroic Military Career & Receiving Medal of Honor | Life After with Flo Groberg

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Flo Groberg joins David to talk about his remarkable life. From immigrating from France to America, his family’s devastation at the hands of extremists, training as a competitive runner, to protecting the most valuable American assets in Afghanistan, Flo Groberg is an American hero with an unforgettable story. Hear Flo describe the pressure packed moments where his quick actions saved countless lives from a suicide bomber, and the pain that came with terrible injuries. (00:00) - Intro (1:40) - Growing Up In France (10:00) - Moving To America (16:55) - Running Career (24:45) - 9/11 (29:40) - Leadership Training (39:30) - Deploying In Afghanistan (50:25) - August 8th, 2012 (1:22:25) - Find A Positive In Every Negative Situation (1:31:10) - The Medal Of Honor (1:54:50) - Life After Make sure to check out the full episode on the Life After YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaFfMRZJRbo2_57YUmjqylA Life After with David Vobora is an inspirational and motivational podcast that dives deep into guest's personal stories of hardship, perseverance and personal realization. After playing professional football, overcoming addiction, working with Wounded Warriors, and creating the Adaptive Training Foundation, David knows that life-altering events come in many ways, but they always come. On the new series, former “Mr. Irrelevant” in the NFL Draft, Vobora, talks with incredible guests about overcoming adversity in the face of unimaginable circumstances. David identifies crucial—and sometimes tragic—moments in their lives' that helped shape both their success and who they are today. Motivational Podcast | Inspirational Podcast | Perseverance Make sure to like, follow and subscribe on Life After's YouTube, social and audio pages, linked below: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaFfMRZJRbo2_57YUmjqylA Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-after-with-david-vobora/id1797989547 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2FEdwHNUOappPocc8oLKwU?si=7fd872c330ca4e88 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterwithdavidvobora/?hl=en Twitter: https://x.com/LifeAfterWithDV Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifeafterwithdavidvobora https://youtube.com/@lifeafterwithdavidvobora?si=IdpcHfEtN5V_UQJn And check out the Green Light Podcast here: https://greenlightpodcast.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our next guest tackled a suicide bomber to save countless lives. Medal of Honor recipient Flo Groberg joins the pod to unpack how he was a French immigrant coming to America, how his family had issues with extremists that actually took his uncle's life, that he had to fight to just be a part of something greater than himself, and ultimately was led to the opportunity to act with courage and bravery in a split second. Flo is the epitome of somebody that has gained the opportunity to be a patriot. Flo is one that's always there to empower others, not just service members, but others living in this country to be patriots too. Y'all join me in this conversation. You're going to find some real awe-inspiring moments.

You too, man. Thank you for doing this. Flo Groberg, welcome to Life After Podcasts. Fired up. So, listen, man, this for us is laid back as anything. Just us hanging out. It's perfect. So we got the gloves off. But I do want to start, I want to start back in the beginning, man. Yeah. You weren't born in this country. That's a fact. Yeah.

So tell us, man. Tell us what it was to be an American immigrant, but tell us about being born in France and your young life and family. I was born in just outside of Paris. And interestingly enough, I was born in an area that the French, when I got the medal, actually I'm skipping many years now later on. They called it the ghetto of Paris, right? But when you grow up in that type of environment, that's the only environment

that you know, it was home and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. My mom, that is my actual aunt biologically. So her sister had me and then she adopted me. And so it was really just her and I for the first couple years of my life. And she went through hell and back to make sure that she provided enough for us. She chose me. She took me into her home. And so that's something that I did not know until was about six years old. So I knew that she had met this guy named Larry who was on a business trip and he, you know, he was American and he barely spoke, you know, he spoke French, but it was ugly. But so I knew he wasn't my father, right? And I never really truly asked questions about like, who's my dad, but I knew, I thought she was my mom, mom. So when I was six years old,

her other sister, she's got 11 brothers and sisters. Yeah. Over, like right before Christmas comes up to me and she says, hey, what do you want for Christmas? And I said, well, I asked Santa to get me this, this and this. She's like, Santa. Santa, Santa doesn't exist. So she broke that to me. She's a real out of the gate. And then I said, well, my mom is always like, you know, she's like, which mom?

I said, what if you're which mom? Like my mom? And she's like, well, your mom is your aunt because Kea is your actual mother. And so I was like, it blew my mind. It blew my world. It actually wasn't a good time in my life. as a kid, I was really confused. But I tell you this, because it's fascinating the stages you go through in life, right,

and those very pivotal moments that really changed who you are. And I remember that conversation like it was yesterday, and I was six years old. And I remember how I felt. And so my life changed at that point in France. Can I interrupt and ask how you felt? I felt betrayed. Like, I felt betrayed. I felt for a moment, like my mom wasn't my mom.

And it was absolutely fascinating. And I felt betrayed by my aunt, who I was really close with, right? And I was confused, right? And it didn't make sense. And then the hole on top of that, Santa wasn't real. Let me just drop a little more. Yeah, what is going on here? So your mom, really your aunt, but your mom, she, was she pissed at her sister for dropping all this on you?

Like, without her being able to. Absolutely. I mean, it was one of those moments where, like, there's a time in place in the process to, you know, have those conversations with your kid, with your kid. And it's, she, like, robbed her of that responsibility of both my mom, my biological mother and my, you know, adopted mother. And, but I was really short-lived. Because in the end, what my mom said to me that I still remember to this day is we're the same blood. right? So it doesn't really matter. And she's like, I love you. She loves you, but I love you. You're my son. And that kind of reassured me. You know, you're right. Took a little bit of time. And to this day, that's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. You know, between her and Larry adopting me, there's no better feeling than to feel like, oh, wow, they chose me. You belong. Right? You belong. And so to them. And the amount of time, you know, tears, financials, investments in me, and the opportunities that provided me were

unbelievable. So, but grew up in France was awesome. I mean, you didn't know it was get a, no. And by the, I spent 90% of my time outside, you know, one year not in a classroom or having dinner at home outside. You know, it was, it was judo, it was soccer. It was just, just being hooligans out in the neighborhood. It was, sports were big. Sports is huge. And soccer is the mecca of, like, you know, France, right? It is the sport. And so every day, you're outside. And that's where I spend the majority of my time.

My mom worked from, you know, she'd leave at 7 a.m. And she'd come back at like 6, 7 p.m., which in France is normal because you eat dinner late. But I was on my own. I'm talking about like five years old. So the streets were safe. I mean. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Yeah. It's like the streets took care of their own. Got it. Right? There were the issues and stuff. And I was usually gang related. and it was literally town gangs versus town gangs, but it never impacted me.

Like it's almost, I don't know, it's a weird thing where it's an enclosure, right? We didn't have drive-bys, okay? That's just it wasn't a thing over there. Weapons are not the same as it here. We had a lot of like Greece, I think, is a movie where literally like gangs with meet gangs in a park and fight each other. And so the whole point of like you grew up in this environment

and then you join a gang. Probably around like nine, 10 years. years old. And that's like your neighborhood area. You're part of it. It's your squad, right? It's a squad. And then you just go fight and it gets pretty ridiculous. But I was on that trajectory. You were. 100%. I mean, it's almost like you can't avoid it. And with my personality, I was just like, you know, wanted to be part of the cool kids. And I was a fighter because I got fought into Judo. I personally feel like I understand to an extent the how kids get recruited into gangs and different. in areas and areas. You don't even know what's happening. It feels like it's natural. Yeah, it's not like they said, today's your initiation, right? But like at some point, like all young, you know, young men, probably, especially young men, need validation. They need that place to belong. And if your parents aren't around and or not having oversight on you, it's probably easy to fall into that. Yeah, this is what you see in front of you. And

this is, you know, what's cool. This is, you know, and what earns respect. How did Larry impact, like, that dynamic, the path that you were on? And ultimately, like, talk a little bit about his presence and, I guess, the impact that, yeah, that he had. He was different, man. He's just met a few words. Men a few words. And, you know, he was a big imposing sort of figure. In his heydays, he was 6-1, 295, 200 pounds.

He's a, you know, strong guy, businessman, never yelled ever, right? Never, like, he never raised his hand. Nothing against me or nothing. What kind of business was he in? He was in, he was working for Motorola. That's a great question. What kind of business was he in, right? He was selling, at the time, he was in a salesman, engineer salesman, selling these type of

radios and solar panels and stuff for Motorola across governments in Middle East, South America. He's got stories, man. That dude is. Was it really Motorola? I mean, he had to work for Motorola for sure, but I think he had a side gig. That might have been a cover. Yeah, maybe a little cover. I think back in the day that was more prevalent where you lived a double life.

But no one, his stories are being arrested in Zambia, you know, being shot at in Cameroon or wherever he was. Hunting, you know, deer hunting in the Philippines or Panama where it was with Anaconda. It's like, dude, what are you talking about? talking to the Russians through a third party in France, right? And when you're in the middle of the Cold War so they could do different deals. Like, what? Did he, so did you ever question, like, or maybe, he better said, did that show you that there's a big world out there?

And, like, did that give you some confidence to want to go out and explore? No. So, like, when we were in France, so the background with Larry is the fact that he's still living in the U.S. So he was dating my mom for almost eight years. Long distance. And he would do a couple weeks here. I wouldn't see him for a month, right?

Because he was always traveling for business. Like, he was gone for months out of time for business. And so when I was about 10 years old, just about 11 years old, actually, I think him and my mom had a conversation. Like, where are we taking this relationship? And also, like, this kid is going to go on a wrong path. And he's got way too much. much potential, but I think the environment is going to swallow him eventually.

And so my dad came into my room and asked me literally two questions, do you like McDonald's? I'll never forget this. I was 11 years old, and I was playing Mike Tyson Punchout. He said, do you like McDonald's? I said, yeah, we're going to make it easy. Like, let's go. He's like, do you want to meet Michael Jordan? I said, what? Yeah. I'm not even a basketball guy, but Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan. He's like, well, if we move to the United States, this is the headquarters McDonald's is over there, and Michael Jordan is in Chicago, where we'd move. I said, let's go.

And just like that. It's done. Just like that, my allegiance to my country, my family, my friends, my sports, everything I've known was sold on McDonald's and Michael Jordan. And he ran with it. So we moved literally a month later. Like, we were gone. They sold that apartment in France, and we moved, and we went to Palantan, Illinois. And that's probably the biggest, one of the biggest moments of my life because it was a force change.

I was so excited. Right. I was so excited. United States. The land of big yellow buses, right? Literally. Everything's bigger. Everything's bigger.

And sports and things like that, right? The Michael Jordan, the jerseys and things that you really, in France, you utilize. You don't even know why, but you just do. It's the United States. all the movies and TV shows, right? And so I got to move there. He took me there. And that's when I knew, well, hold on.

Like, I'm going to live with this guy every day. And I was so excited because I absolutely just adored him, right? What do you remember most? You land, right? Your wheels down, America. Shit, man. I think probably how spaced out everything was. Lack of people.

big car, cars are huge. Like, I mean, we got little compact cars. When we say compact in Europe, it's compact. Yeah, right, literally. Yeah, sardine can size. And when I moved to Palantine, just outside, you know, I'll get to Chicago. And here, I knew no one, didn't speak the language, and it was just a confusing environment. But it was exciting.

Do you remember sort of, well, let me just say this way. You, to me, discovered at some point that, like, that you were going to push back. against bad people or against evil or kind of stand for something bigger than yourself. Where do you think that came from? Oh, no, exactly when I came from. I was 12 years old, February 6, 1996, when my uncle was killed by a terrorist organization called a GIA, predecessor to al-Qaeda in North Africa in Algeria. My mom's side is Algerian, French Algerian.

And so he was living in Algeria. He was actually a preacher in a Muslim faith. He was an imam at the age of 22. too, pretty young for that. This kid grew up with the Quran in his hands and just a real believer and he was one of my favorite people in the world. I mean literally my mom, dad and him and maybe he might have been competing at the top spot, the nicest person.

Since I was born, you just embraced me and I was sort of attracted to him in a sense I always wanted to be around him, right? That was my guy, very annoying little kid, like everywhere I do went, I want to be next to him. So when the GIA came in the late 1980s, early 1990s, really late 1980s to Algeria, which was a westernized North African Muslim country, meaning that if people wanted to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, they could smoke cigarettes, no one judged them. Women went to wear miniskirts and go clubbing, no one judged them. And they came in, wanted to bring Sharia law, took over the government. They said they went into the election and created a, you know,

It made it to a sham and said they won. So eventually the military said no, and they created this war in the country. And so my uncle decided to join the army and special operations specifically and actually got to go to Fort Bragg and did a training stint with some of our special operators and fought them for six years, six, seven years. And then on February 6, 1996, in a moment when you... but they had to observe, they were, I think, observe at Ramadan. It was a ceasefire anyway.

For that period of time, I think almost 24, 48 hours, during that ceasefire, as they were maneuvering from one base to the next to go pray, they were ambushed by the enemy. And they killed my uncle, they shot him. He was, luckily for us, the story that they told us anyway, that he was shot through the heart. So he died right away. But they took his body and they beheaded him and they dismembered him.

They put him in a box and they sent him to my grandfather. And the reason why I sent him to my grandfather is because my grandfather is a war hero in Algeria. He was a prisoner of war in a French And Doshin for three years. So the French Vietnam. And then when he came back to Algeria, he was one of the catalysts to the Algerian independence against the French. So he fought against the French for a while. And so he was very well known, very well respected. So when these terrorists killed his son, they thought that by sending his body to him, that it would terrorize us.

Instead, it made more of his sons go into the army. Calvinized. One of them's 16 years old. I wanted to just avenge his brother and Sofian. And so he ficked his age and all that stuff and joined. But, you know, maybe I knew he was. So that day changed my life. Remember I tell you, it's very specific moments.

When you're six years old, you find out like, oh, your mom's your aunt, right, right, and percent of those things is this. And then you're 12 years old. It's actually now what I thought is the first time I've thought about it. It's every six years. Wow, I never thought about it. Yeah, because I was 12 years old and then my uncle gets killed. My dad tells me, this is our love of my dad. He doesn't, he just, he's a very direct man.

He's like, yeah, they killed your uncle. Like, what happened? They told me what happened. I'm like, wow, you could have just skipped that freaking part. Well, it's the same guy that sent you to the pool wouldn't walk you there. Yeah, well, you know, it's just like, old school. I mean, he's, you know. I appreciate that.

Well, Larry's old, man. He's 85 years old. You know, he grew up in Gary, Indiana. Like, he's old school mentality. But so when he told me that, at that point, I just knew that I just knew that I was going to do something about it. I just didn't know. You're too young. You're just angry.

you have all this anger inside of you. But it played such a massive role in my foundation of who I was going to become. Did you like being the underdog and then going out and showing up and being like, yeah, throwing down surprising people? I think, yeah, probably. Well, in track, it was only my really sophomore year when no one knew. And I didn't know anything about me in terms of running. And but I never looked at it that way, to be honest with you.

I always looked at it. Was it a chip on the shoulder thing, really? No, actually track was like really interesting because I became cocky in track. And there's a huge lesson from Coach Martin and Coach Dunstan that changed sort of the course of my athletic career. They coach you in high school? No, no. What was the lesson? I wasn't fast.

But Walter Johnson High School in Bethlehem, Maryland, I was part of the track team. I just started running track. and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. My mom forced me to run track. It was after soccer season, she's like, go do something, run track. And I couldn't play, I got cut from a basketball team because I was afraid to shoot. Wasn't a ball sport guy?

No, I love, dude, I play basketball every day, you know, with my friends. But then when I got to try out for JV of all things, I wanted to just play defense and basketball, but I could not shoot. I was so small. I was 5-1, man, 95 pounds. It was like, it was anyway. So they told me. that was fast and I should run track.

And so I went and joined track and I hated it. I thought it was the dumbest sport in the world. Like running around on this oval track, like it's just in being in pain. It's cold outside. It's raining. Like, what, what do you? Like, what, what hell is this? Yeah.

So one of the things that I would do is I would, I would just barely practice. So one of the stories that changed my life in essence in sports was I would run these workouts and they said we do eight eight intervals and I would run the first one and then walk all the way back to school for for a cup of water right and then walk all the way back my time I came back I skipped like 80% of workout and my coaches were these type of dudes where if you want to be here we don't care like you know you can still practice like but you know we just won't take your track means but I I was pretty good at it And I ran an indoor track season, and I was like a 515 mile or whatever. An outdoor track, I think I ran like a 512. And it does this meet called Sherwood Invitational. Never forget this. The coach says, all right, we can only take three individuals in each event.

So the top three times. And then we have one alternate. And so they called out the mile. And I was the number two, right? And they said, they called out, I think, Varney. and then they said Sean Greys and someone else, and it didn't say my name. So at that point, I'm like, whoa, holy horses, folks.

Like, are you serious? So I figured out, I made a mistake. So I went to the coach. I said, hey, I'm fascinated in Sean. Like, straight up, he's my next to him. Like, I'm fascinated in him. So I should be going at him. And he looks at me.

He said, no, you're not. I said, yeah, I ran 512. He's run 513. He's like, oh, Flo, I didn't know you were tracking that. And I said, yeah, well, that's the principle of thing. So I think you need to change. you order, I need to run. He said, no, we're not going to do that.

So why? He said, for why do you want to go to that meet? I was like, it's a principle. I've ran faster. And you said top three times. He's like, yeah, that's true. I did say that. But you skip all the workouts.

You don't want to be here. You definitely don't like this sport. And Sean's here every day, working really hard on this team. And so, yeah, I'm not going to change it. Yeah, we made a mistake, but I'm not going to change it. He's like, but we'll put you on the alternate list. and something happens during the meet and there's an extra spot

we'll put you in there. Oh, it was livid. Couldn't believe it. So we get to the meet. And of course, there's an open spot. This was all planned. And so at that point, I'm not talking to anyone. I'm not talking to Sean.

That was one of my best friends, by the way, too. It's a horrible. Worst friend ever. I'm like, split you, dude, it's my time. And we get there, and I'm like, I'm not talking to anyone. I'm so angry. I said, I'm going to show them.

I'm going to show them all. And I lined up. And I asked, Sean, I said, who's the fastest guy here? And he's like, Robbie Shrester from Pampereensk High School, six to Native American guy with the amazing necklace of he had. And he freaked me out because right before the race, he does like war cry. Yes.

I was like, what the, you know? And like the gun goes, I'm like, right behind everybody. But I figured in my head, I was like, I'm just going to stick behind this guy. Because, and then we'll go. So ran that race and end up second behind Robbie. he beat me at the line and I ran a 4.31. I went from 512 to 4.31. I went from no one knows who I am running JV to like,

who is this kid out of nowhere, right? Like everyone. And then I like walked off the track as if I'd accomplish, you know, the greatest thing ever and my coach walked by me. Didn't say congratulations, didn't say anything. And I remember you being like, I'm chasing him down. I said, hey, hey, I told you.

And he's like, oh, what did you do? I was like, I ran 431. I'm not, I'm by far the fastest guy on the team. And he said, oh, congratulations. But I don't care. And I remember thinking, he's like, Flo, you could be an Olympian. And I still wouldn't have you on my team. He's like, I don't need that.

He's like, your attitude, you're not a good teammate, which doesn't make you a really good person on this team. And I'd rather have the slowest person in the world that shows up every day, gives it 110% is committed to the team, dedicated to his teammates, doesn't throw them under the bus, and I will put them in that race 10 times out of 10 over you. And he broke me. Because at that point, I was just like, I was 15 years old. I was like, I was a cocky kid.

And I remember thinking, like, I felt so ashamed to myself. All my anger and cockiness was just destroyed because he said in such a gentle way. That was Coach Martin, yeah. He stayed such a gentle way. And I just felt like, wow, I disappointed him. And I was really kind of an asshole on my teammate. And this whole achievement that I had, massive achievement that put my name out there, was for nothing. And so it changed me.

And I showed up every day I practiced now. I ran every single interval. I just kept my mouth shut. I was a better teammate. And I did, you know, I went over 110%. And it took like six, six. seven months before the coach really looked at me and said, you know, it kind of took me in and he said, hey, at the end of the season, I'm giving you a sportsmanship award.

Now MVP, that's a sportsmanship award. I thought that was the greatest achievement that I ever won in my life because at that point, I felt like, wow, I'm like, I'm a good teammate. And I won the MVP the next two years on the team. That should have been MVP that year, but it was like, you didn't earn it, MVP. You definitely weren't out of the most valuable guy. But that lesson about doing the right thing when no one's watching, about never skipping, never taking, you know, cutting corners, skipping things, having the integrity, but also the mindset

of being a teammate and the importance of being a teammate and how you're viewed, but really how you earned that view, changed my life. There are very, very specific pivotal moments. So we would talk about this now, six years. So here I am 18 years old. I'd just been naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2001, February 2001. So here I am now an American, and I'm super proud of that, right? And I am a freshman in college just got there in 9-11 habits.

Wow. And the same type of people that killed my uncle and theorized my family, attacked my newly adopted country, killed just under 3,000 people. and I felt so disgusted by that type of evil that I knew at that point based upon what they've done to my family and now being a new citizen and what they've done to my adopted country, my new country. I was like I knew exactly what I was going to do.

It's like a almost a weird sense of, of, it's not patriotism at that time, more of, I know exactly where I'm, like, it didn't matter what I was studying at the time. I was like, I'm going in the military. I almost try to drop out at rest as soon as I was in school, but my father said something that I'll never forget, which he challenged me in a sense. He's like, what did I ask of you when I gave you my name? And I couldn't, I had no idea what you're talking about.

And he said, when I gave you the name Grover, I told you that when you start something, you finish it. because the day that you find a reason to quit is the day that you find a reason to quit everything else that is hard in your life. Amen, brother. Whether it's a family, sports, a job. And so it was another hard pill to swallow, right?

He's a man of very few words and some really defining lessons in my life. And I remember thinking, like, man, I hate you for that, for that. Because I thought you'd be the most supportive guy. You'd be like, let's go together. Yeah, you're like, I had this duty, and yet he's saying, hold on. Your duty is first to finish.

You know, it's just so patriotic, obviously, military background too. And I didn't know at the time, like, probably more than likely some, you know, secret squirrel stuff he was doing. And so, like, but I knew when I woke up that next day, after 9-11, I knew what I was going to go do in my life. Wow. And so. And you were 18? I was a freshman in college. Yeah.

And that was when it all went down. Yeah, I was literally coming back from my morning run. And when everybody was watching this in a little corridor, and we just don't understand it. It was crazy. Do you think running, going back to track at Maryland, do you think running helped you to deal with it, intentionally go into a state of suffering?

Look, the mile's not an easy race, especially when you're running four-minute miles. I mean, that's crazy. So for you, do you think that benefited you well to get you capable of enduring and the level of endurance, not just in sport, but where the military, once you got it, like, ultimately you go into basic and all that. Like, I got an assumption that what you achieved in college running actually prepared you to be like, this ain't that hard. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it was, you know, I thought basic training was a joke, you know, in terms of like the physical piece of it. Going back, though...

running, and now you are. Like, you understand this because you train, right? Running, it was hard, it was painful. The intervals that we did were absolutely, like, just destroyed you at times. But you didn't, I didn't feel that way, right? I felt like every day I had a new mission to go, whatever the workout was, but the runs were easy.

I was running about just under 100 miles a week at the time, and I was a middle distance runner. Right. And I was probably running, you know, every morning get up, run three or four, maybe to five. And we'd run six, six 30 pace. And then whenever we did our long runs, you know, we'd probably run 55 to six minute pace for like 20 miles, right? You're kind of, you're clocking it. And it was easy. It was easy. It was comfortable. You're so used to it, right? The hard stuff where like Fartleks, tempo runs where you're running 505. you're switching a pace and you go uphill running and all that stuff, these would kill you, and then you get on the track, you do these different interval mile repeats and stuff. But I never felt like, man, this was painful. What was hard was getting up on Sunday morning when, in doing a run on your own. After like, you're in college.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're partying and stuff, and you just had that discipline to get to do it. And the reason why we did it, the reason why I did it is, because I could not live with myself to miss a day, because I felt that if I missed a day, I let the team down. I missed an opportunity to get better. What was the leadership training, and how realistic was it or applicable was it,

when you eventually got into country? So let's take it back one step, though. Something that's super important for me. And I love what you said about the whole, you know, the stages in life and the same. decisions. And I always talk about when you, I look back in my life so far, how moments, you know those key moments, you're talking about like six years old, you find out like who your parents, you know, who your biological mom is and sort of the mental game

it plays on you to my uncle, to, you know, 9-11, going back to track. And so what I find super interesting, specifically not being a new dad, is that I'm never going to take for granted the experiences my son has at a very young age because I know for a fact that will impact the way he makes decisions in ways he doesn't understand, 10, 20 years later. Because as we got into my military career, a lot of the reason that I was able to be successful was because of those trials and tribulations that I went through my life earlier on, those positions where you have to be uncomfortable and find a way through the thinking process behind those, the applications of getting through those moments,

right, sort of gave me that foundation to be successful in the military. And these were things that I would think about going through those times. So one thing that at basic training that really set the stage for my military career is, yeah, I was a good athlete

and my platoon was rewarded for that. We won every physical competition, we won all of them, right? And that's just because of flow because we had others in there. And I motivated them, they motivated me. But we got more phone calls, more PX runs than anybody else by far,

specifically because we just kicked ass. But we worked hard for it. But also I was the assistant PG, so like leader of my platoon. And there's just say I wasn't really liked at all. Every morning I was fired up when I woke up. Whatever time it was, I think it was 400. I woke up and I was just like, I never slept in my sheets right. My bed was always made.

And I get up and I would. go, you know, get my stuff ready and tell people, let's go move faster and stuff like that. I annoyed them. I was, every day, I was excited about the next day. You know, I was excited, whatever it was. It was real. It wasn't excited. Like, let's go.

I was just got, this is important. I didn't get mail. I didn't tell people when the only, the only people that knew when I was going to basic trainer was one of my best friend, Matt Sanders, who dropped me off at MEPs. And, you know, so right before, you know, medical, military medical facility where you do your test and then you leave and my parents. No one else knew. I just, I didn't want mail. I wanted to be there for nine, ten weeks and be committed to that space because I knew

I was going to go to war. So I was doing a life change at that moment. I was a rookie. I knew nothing about it. And so here I was in basic training where they tell you, they rewire you, they break you and then reshape you and in what they need. So for me to be 100% committed to that shaping, I needed to play the game. And part of that is forget the outside world.

Two and a half months. Who gives a crap? So I live with that mindset. Let's just say not everybody live with that mindset. So every day was a day closer to becoming a soldier. And I mean, every day was the most important day of my life because I needed to go, you know, and earn it. Dude, the Olympics happened that year.

Like, I'm an athlete. Like, this is like, and I was a track athlete. I die for the Olympics. I love the Olympics. World Cup and the Olympics are my two favorite events. But I was like, I don't mind. mind. Out of mind, out of sight. I don't want to know anything about it. No mail. So people thought was weird, of course. Yeah, you made them uncomfortable. 100%. And they had to look at themselves

and question themselves as a result of the effort and the focus and the clarity that you had. But I wanted to be the best. Yeah. It was just so there was some ego involved. No, no, no, no, no ego. I wanted to be the best, not because I wanted to beat other people. I wanted to be the best because I wanted to be best prepared because I knew that I was going to be an officer and I knew that one day I would have to make decisions that would impact whether or not people came home. So the only way for me to be the right type of individual and leader and officer to make those decisions, I need to be the best. I can't be number two. Even if I'm number two, it doesn't matter, right? Or number 12, it really doesn't matter. It's the mindset of I need to be the best, which means that I need to practice

the way and train and practice the way I need to operate. And so for me, I took that seriously. And I think it made others uncomfortable, it made other envious, it made others annoyed, probably more annoyed. But where I failed, in hindsight, was that I expected everyone to operate the way I operate. And so that's when I was a dick, man. And week seven, they're about to vote for Soldier to Cycle. And so each platoon, I had to have one representative for Soldier of the Cycle. So we're doing mail call. Of course, I don't get any mail.

And it's Staff Sergeant Garcia. And he's like, all right, everybody, here's a piece of paper. You have a pen. I need you. You put a name in there for Soldier of Cycle. And so he, you know, everyone, right, puts in a little bucket, and then he reads him. And he goes, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, somebody else Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover, Grover.

And he's like, stop. He stops. And Grobe, get the hell out of here. He said, so I left the room. And then he asked them, I could hear everything. It's like, you know, it's like, I'm right outside. He's like, did Grover put you off up to this? Did he threaten you guys?

Because he was confused because he knew how, like, I was mean, dude. And it was like, were people scared? Like, and like, and I'm not the most imposing physical person out there by any means. But he picked up on this. And then he picked up. Everyone was like voting for. for me for soldier of cycle. And so that to me was like, all right, in my head, I said, oh, well, people respect me because

even though I'm a dick to them, I work hard. And so it was a false representation of what leadership should look like at the time. And unfortunately, it made me, as we were talking outside, a very different leader that I wish I would have been in the military. Because that point in my head, I was like, I'm going to do the hardest worker, and I'm going to expect the best that I have everyone else, and I'll call you out on it. I'll be a day. I don't care how you feel about me.

Yeah, because the standard is the standard. And it worked in the infantry. It worked in the infantry to a certain point. So I went to OCS, same thing, right? No, from Syracian school. I'm competing now with 160 other individuals for my job. Sure. There are X amount of jobs.

So in the infantry, right, there's only 10 slots. So there's an order and merit list. And after six weeks of the 13 weeks, your PT scores, your physical scores, your academic scores, and your leadership scores all aggregated together. And then to get my points. And then you are now placed on the order of merit list. At 160 plus, I was number two. And I got to pick infantry. But again, people liked me more there because it was just a little bit so different.

It's a little bit more. I wouldn't say mature, but it was just, it's become an officer versus like going in. They were cuffing different cloth, right? Right. And then you had prior enlisted folks in there who've done it, who've deployed, who call you out. So like, Flo wasn't the guy that woke up every day, motivated and then expect anybody. Like, literally, I would sit there and listen to stories of like guys that just kept deployed and came back from Iraq. And I'm like, whoa.

Like, I have so much to learn from you. But I was the best athlete there still. Right. And I was hungry and stuff. So when I got to pick infantry, I called my dad, and I said, Dad, I got it, man. I got infantry. He said, oh, you got a range of school.

I said, no, no, you're talking about I got infantry. He's like, no, no, you got a range of school. I didn't understand that point. I was like, sure, whatever, dude. And so I went through the rest of my training in terms of how realistic it was. None of my training that I've done, even Ranger School, replicated Afghanistan. The whole point, though, in leadership training is to give you the baselines, the foundation, the basis. and really the applications on how to make effective decisions with speed and scale,

but with the best and data points you have, that makes sense for those groups, right? And then how to really lead by example. What I wish the military taught in terms of leadership is how to be a leader. How do I look into his or her eyes and make them believe in what I'm about to say so that they follow me without any doubts, right? They teach you how to read a map,

they try to brief an op order, operations order, they teach you all the basics of how to be a good officer. But they call it the basic officer leadership school. And they look at leadership as in you're good at your job.

Tactical, technical. That's it. Literally it. They don't teach you how to actually lead individuals because they expect the military to do by itself. So I went to these schools, wanted to be the best, and learn the best that I could.

As you then went on, right, Ranger School, ultimately going to being deployed. Yeah. Like, you being very green, as you said, I saw it as I was research, and it was like, you know, I had just finished six months later, I'm deployed to Afghanistan. No, not even six months. No, no, I was six weeks later. Okay.

So, I mean, you started basic in 08, Ranger School. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So 2008 was when you started everything. Yeah. But by 2009, early 2009, you're in Afghanistan. Yeah, so I started in July of 2008 and in November of 2009 in Afghanistan. Yeah. So you then are, you're dropped into this and you got to lead men now, right now.

Yeah. What did you say? Like, what was the dynamic there as somebody that hadn't been, had any combat experience, but you're supposed to lead? You're supposed to be the one directing right and left. How did you approach that responsibility and back to the leadership lessons that you've already told us, right? Both from sport and track and high school ultimately then now, like even just, even with the, you know, the ND, like, what was that? What was that for you to come into a country and be like, all right, I really, I'm supposed to be the guy, but I don't know shit.

Man, it's the hardest thing I've ever done my life. I don't think I'll ever do anything hard in my life. So, you know, we talk about like you always have things to do and like you close the chapter. I know for a fact that there's nothing in my path going forward, or I believe, maybe I'm wrong, that's going to be harder than that specific moment in my life when I arrive in Afghanistan and I'm told by my boss that I'm taking over Dagger 4th platoon at a combat alpals, Honnaker Miracle, and I'll be leading 24 individuals in that their lives. and were in my hands and now I had the responsibility

to make the right decision as an officer. Like you said, I has green. Green means I had no experience. I never been shot at, right? I've never been on patrol in combat, in real life setting. I've just been trained. And I remember thinking,

after I had that conversation with the boss, like I walked out a room for the first time in my life, I was completely petrified. And I imposter syndrome was like at, you know, stuff called them to a while, right? I was thinking I was so ready for this training and all that stuff and I worked my butt off, but I never took the time to truly appreciate what I was learning. So I felt like I was almost cramming for a test just to take the test and then you forget everything after that. That's how I felt in that moment. So I felt unprepared. Totally lost,

confidence gone because now I had a real. This was real. Like, this was real. This is no longer an idea, a game of practice, you know, a training scenario. This is life's for a mistake, and I need to be at it. And so... What did you do? Oh, I called my dad, because I knew. What would leave you have for you? Told me to shut up and never call him that bullshit again.

He said, go find the most senior experience guy on your platoon, ask him, tell me you're green and tell him that you need help and guidance and then never, and to go do my job. Like, shut up and go do your job. He hung up on me. And it's like, wow, that's not what I'd expect that of that conversation. Thanks for making me feel even better. But he's right. I remember thinking like that night, it's like, okay, I do, like, luckily for me,

I have an entire platoon of individuals who have been there over three months, right? So I got there in the middle of the appointment and who have a ton of experience. So the question was, how do I actually lead individuals with no background? on, well, how are they going to take me seriously? How are they going to trust me? How am I going to trust myself? And how are they going to believe in me? And I remember thinking, I'm just going to be honest.

That's it. I'll be transparent and honest. Is there fear of that vulnerability being seen? Oh, yeah. But like, 100%. I didn't know what it was. I mean, I was hoping. in this case, right?

I didn't know what to do except being honest and transparent and being vulnerable. And so when I got to my platoon the next day, you know, and this is when like reality sets in. Like it's a remote combat outposts, right? You're in middle of Afghanistan and you're, you know, it's like a,

you got barbed wire and barricades and there you are, 90 soldiers and a bunch of Afghans and this is it. And I had that conversation when my platoon is on, my number two, so on our first class, Corey Staley. The first thing I said to him when I introduced myself, hi, my name was Lieutenant Grober.

And his first response, this is the first counselor I've had with this guy. He goes, I can read you a name tag. I was like, awesome. First impression is great. He's, at this point, had been in country, had experienced for how long?

Oh, he was probably 13 years in the Army. This was his fourth tour, third tour, two in Iraq, the first one I've been in Afghanistan. He'd been in country three plus months. He can sell the green on you. Oh, he's been, he's had this conversation multiple times. He's just like, I'm just another one of those lieutenant shows.

I said, well, I can read your name tag. I say, yeah, Roger that, got you. I said, listen, here's situation. Obviously, I'm taking over this platoon, but I'm green as it gets. So I'm coming here, men and man, and I'm taking my pride, my ego, and my rank, and I'm putting him to the side. And I'm literally asking you for help, guidance and mentorship. I'm going to lead this platoon.

I will put those plans together. I will make decisions. But I can't do them alone. And I can't do it without your help. You have way more experience. I'll probably have my entire career. And for my understanding, the guys trust you. And so for me, this is an ability, an opportunity for me to learn just as much as I'll ever possibly, you know, teach anyone from you.

And he'd help. And he looked at me. He was really confused. And he said, all right, well, for the next seven days, he's like, sir, for the next seven days, just shut up. Don't talk. Watch and listen. We're going to go out and patrol. watch the way we react to contact, we're going to get hit.

Listen to the way we communicate internally when we get hit and the way we communicate back the base. Then I recommend that you go read all the historical battles we've had here from the previous lieutenant because after every firefight he writes a after action report. And then we're going to go to these different villages. We'll introduce you to leadership. Your job is to build relationships with these folks, right? He's like, you give me seven days, sir, I'll give you

a platoon ready for your leadership. And you started walking away, and I said, well, one more thing. First of all, I can't not talk for seven days, right? I hear you. I won't make any plans on all stuff and I don't listen to this thing. But if I don't talk for seven days, the boys are just going to look at me as weak anyway. So we're going to tell them this plan. He's like, what?

I was like, yeah, I'd rather, everything we just discussed and we agreed upon, we're going to brief it tonight. And he said, and that was like my first leadership moment with him. I'm like, this is my... And he said, okay. He said, okay, you're making your own bed. And I knew like this was a risk. And so that night, I told all the soldiers that said, you know, introduce myself and

gave my background. And I told him, I was like, who's, who's the private here? Raise your hand. Who's 18 years old? None. One was 19. You're 19 years old. I said, yeah, a hell lot more experience than I do.

I said, I have so much more to learn from you than you do for me to But my job is to be the platoon leader is team. And so for me to be the most effective platoon leader is I need to figure out how you operate. I am not here to come in and bring my own methodology on how we should be operating here. I'm here to make sure that the train stays on the tracks. And if things are operating the right way, I'm going to be out there. I'm along for the right. My job is to do X, Y, and Z.

but I will make sure to learn us just as much as I can from each and every one of you because we all have the same responsibility which is serve our country and serve each other and not a single one of us has a more important job we're all pieces of a puzzle so for me to be the right piece of that puzzle I need to learn from you so over the course the next seven days

this is what we're going to do and I think Staley was like shocked by that he's like oh okay the way you present to him was like how are you going to present this? And I think those guys, right, yeah, did they fuck with me for the first couple of weeks? Absolutely. But I think for them, it was like, whoa, I never, like, I've never heard this from a young lieutenant. And to me, that was the only way to operate. Like, I really don't know anything.

Well, that's just fascinating because just a little bit ago you said, like, hey, they give you all the technical and tactical training, but they don't really equip you for this part of the conversation. And it's cool that you call Larry. Larry at some level goes, kind of tells you like. They told me what to do. Well, you gave me the answer to the test, but not how to do it. Right. That's what I mean.

But yet, then you just come and you're just honest, earnest. And with great, I think, again, like, to follow a great leader, you have to believe that that person is there leading with, like, from the front. And that's what you were saying. Like, hey, I'm not even ready to be up front right now because I need to learn from you guys. Experience. There's humility in that, right? And then there is an ego.

You know, like the fact that, like, no one person is greater than the other, you know, that, that to me is a mentality that is great leadership. That's a piece of people want to show up for their own why, inside of the larger Y of the unit. So perhaps, right, all of the things going back to high school and track and all those, the amalgamation allowed you to make that decision in that moment, even though to you seem like a huge role of the dice. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it was absolutely. It goes back to what we were talking about. Those moments that you have, maybe, you know, six years old, 12 years old, 18 years old, they play a very specific role, right, in how you process things and make sense of it, right? And so to me, honesty, transverse. transparency was super important in this case because that's all I can bring to the table. Let's jump into the intuition. So August 8, 2012, was anything different?

Was there spidey senses? Yeah. So that year I was running, my second tour was running a special security detail for at the time, Colonel Miggis, who is now going to be the vice chief of the staff of the army. It's your guy. My guy. Like, he's like a father figure, brother, you know, he's kind of a mix, right? Sometimes I'm like, dad, homie, no homie, sir. Right?

But it was cool because all we did that tour is I ran, I plan all his routes and all his movements and all his helicopters, you know, movements. And then I read any security on the ground. It was like a secret service type of thing. And I had six other awesome guys that I got a handpick out of 3,000 and 4,000 in brigade. And we just did this for the tour. And I got to see Afghanistan. Like I flew in helicopters every day. true cool um and then i got to see afghanistan from very different perspective so on august 8 2012

six months into our tour uh we weren't weren't you supposed to be promoted did i read that oh yeah yeah yeah i'll tell you about this yeah so that so how we'd yeah august eight 2012 forget it august seven 2012 there's a really key key key key decision here on august seven in 2012, I woke up, you know, I was tired. And I said, I'm not going to go for a run that day. Every morning, I usually would go for a run. And it's hot over there, so you get up early and you go for a run. And I said, I took the day. I went, I was brushing my teeth. I was never getting us. I was brushing my teeth. I was like, I'm not running tomorrow because we're going to get up early. I was like, I don't want to run today. Like, whatever. I'll run on, I'll run. I think it was Wednesday we get. I was like, I'll run on Thursday.

And it's really significant because that would have been the last time I was capable of running with my leg, the way, you know, my normal leg. And I skipped that day. And as a runner, as part of my identity, that laziness that I had that morning, there was zero reason for me not to run, by the way. Not a single reason. Just tired. Just didn't want to. And said, you know, skip it. I drink some of coffee.

That was one of the first thought I had in the hospital later on. It's like, couldn't have told me I'll never be able to run again. I remember thinking like I skipped that. And that was my, it's my, it's my meditation therapy. It's my everything. You know this now. Like you're in this, my old world, except a little bit more extreme. You're crazy.

But here we are August 8. And I wake up that morning. I go do my standard process, which is, you know, go to the talk, tactical operation center, get any enemy intel, I get weather, all that stuff. make sure everything's squared away, make sure that aircrafts are good to go, no changes. Then I check my list of the people I'm bringing in. Go to my radios, make sure all the freaks are good to go, right? We've changed them if we need to change.

I'll talk with my common guy. And then I go get a breakfast real quick. And I come back and put my gear on and walk to the aircraft. The night before, the boss had all his leaders in for a big meeting, right, leadership meeting. A lot of brass. A lot of brass. And so he said to me, he changed my list of, of people, and he said,

we're going to bring in these extra colonels, and we're going to bring in an Afghan general tomorrow. We're going to give him a ride. And we're going to go to the Kunar Provincial Security meeting, like we're always playing, but they're all coming. They want to listen in. I said, okay, Roger that. So I called the base that we're landing our aircrafts

on. What that base was supposed to do is as soon as we land, they were supposed to give me 15 U.S. soldiers to accompany us to the meeting. So every time you left the wire, the base of any military base in your, and now in Afghan land, you need an escort, right?

I had my six security for the boss and the commissomar major, and then I needed 15 to 20 other soldiers for our accord-on to protect us. The game was, we get hit, I collapsed on the principles, literally like we would put them on the ground, you'd cover them with your body,

they fight the threat, and then we exfiel away from the threat. We're not designed to be an actual, attack element. We're a protected element. So I called the base and it was this major and he was one of those support dudes that showed up from 101st to train Afghan's National Army on how to operate. So I'm, I called this guy and I'm telling him who I'm bringing, what time I'm leaving and we're going to go to his combat outpost or Fafias for an operating base. And I said, all right, well, I'm going to need 15 New Year's soldiers to escort us. And he says to me, yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to

I'm going to walk the route 15 minutes prior. I'll clear it with those soldiers. I can't give you anybody. I'm thinking like, is what? So I put him on mute. I have the boss's adjutant next to me, Lieutenant Casting, I'm like, look, I'm going to repeat my request. You're my witness.

You know, he's going to tell me to screw off. But like, you're my witness. No matter what happens, you're my witness. So I on mute this guy and I put him on speaker. I say, hey, sir, I'm going to repeat my request. And just to let you know, your boss's boss's boss. is coming. Like, you might want to be there. And he tells me, don't you fucking take your lieutenant rank and keep it to yourself. Don't take your boss's rank. I'm fucking walking

around. He's like cursing at me and stuff. And he hung up on me. I was like, all right, well, this guy's probably having a bad day. He's probably going to go to sleep tonight and realize my boss and my boss's boss is coming. I might want to be there and I might want to have a nice uniform and then I might want to walk them and then have a conversation about like status of the area, you know, before we go to the security meeting. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, there's no more no-brainer. Right. Yeah.

And so when we landed, he was gone. He took all the soldiers with him. Oh, shit. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I mean, six months doing this every day. I had never seen that. I mean, he walked the area. He, oh, he walked it. He did. 100%.

But he broke the rule number one. The only rule that you have, I mean, the number one rule. When you clear her out, and you leave the route, it is no longer clear. So if he would have actually cleared it and then secured it by putting soldiers there, that still would have been the wrong decision, but that probably would have been better than better. So when we landed, I never forget this.

Talk about spidey senses and I saw no one receiving us. And I was like, oh, this guy did not do that. So immediately I just jump out of the aircraft. Like, it's still like five feet. And I'm just like, I'm out. And I'm running. And I see no one. And my platoon star, uh, brain, you know, follows me in.

And he's like, what the fuck, sir? And I look at him like, dude, I think this asshole literally like took off with the soldiers. And he's like, what? He's like, what do you want to do? So this is where the military comes in, right? And this happens all the time. Why I think the military is the most. amazing organization in the world is because it forces you to make incredible

difficult decision on the spot with confidence and complete guess sometimes but you need to have confidence you need to make decisions it really there's no other organization that forces you to make decisions and the impact of decisions and more unlikely means people go home alone and so that moment he's looking at me and and the idea is you're the boss you're the officer and you need to make a decision on like what do we do do. He and I also knew that as soon as those bosses got off the air crash, which was at that moment, exact moment, they expect you to have everything set up. So they started walking towards

the gate because they're going to their meeting. And now I have two brigade commanders, two battalion commanders, an Afghan general, two GS-15 state department guys, a pretty high up folks, USAID guy, commands armate. I have an incredibly, you know, impressive group of leaders and I don't have any security other than my six my five other guys in me so I told him I he's asked me this question and I'm scanning I'm trying to figure out like what is the answer right and immediately I see all these Afghan National Army soldiers smoking cigarettes by the gate so I was like go get the translator tell tell him that all these assholes are coming with us and I want you to and I was like I want you to organize them and put him up front you need bodies I need bodies I need body And he's like in the meantime, I'm going to sprint and we're going to go through three different places where I'm going to try to find soldiers. So I went to the hooch with her sleep. And I found one. I started O'Brien.

He used to work for me. I woke him up. And I was like, get your gear on. You have three minutes. Get your shit on. You're coming with me. I went to the chow hall. I found no one.

And I went to the gym. Right? The other place, I guess I didn't think I was a shit or shit. Right? But, you know. And I went to the gym and I found this contractor. I was like, you're American. He's like, yeah.

He's like, you have a weapon? He's like, yeah. This day, I already know what this guy is. Definitely not a soldier, but whatever. You came with us. And then I put O'Brien to the right, and I put this guy to the rear. And then I put the Afghan National Army guys up front, and I put him in a position to appear bigger. My whole thinking process of that moment is I don't have soldiers, I need bodies, and I need to appear bigger.

There is a threat out there. If they see a lot of people, they're more than likely not going to want to engage. And then after that, I told the boss, I was like, sir, we have a situation where our escort's not here. Here's a game plan. I need to change who gets put in diamond. So the way we operated was I would always put the boss, the colonel, and the criminal insomeration in diamond. And I would have a person at the spear, right?

And that was usually an E3. And I would have my radio guy on the left. I would have my medic on the right, and I would have me in the back. And the reason I was in the back is, in case something happened, I wanted to be the first one to grab the boss and put him to the ground. In this case, I wanted to have better eyes on the situation. All my spidey senses kicked up.

I was like something bad was going to happen. So it was probably a little bit of awareness from training, but also just like sensory. A combat experience. Was it sight? Was it sound? Was it smell? Was there?

I had that sense. It was probably fear of not having what you're supposed to have and understanding that there's always a threat out there. Right. But there's just something in the air sometimes. I mean, because you briefed on suicide bombers and on IDs and on things. Like that's a normal common.

Yeah, but I've never seen it. bomb in my life before. Okay. Right. So even it's talked about. They're very few and rare, I felt, you know what I mean? it had happened, but, you know, it's IEDs all the time, all stuff. But suicide bombers, I really wasn't worried about suicide bomb for some reason.

I was more worried about like an ambush, a V-Bid. I guess that's a bomber, a suicide bomber, a V-Bid. But at that point, my senses are kicking in, it's just like, it's just telling me something's wrong. Like, I just, I don't know what it is, but I don't like it. So I said to, I took PFCO chart. one of my privates who was always I put him in the front I put him in my position in the rear

and I told him anything happens whatever direction I go I need you to grab the boss and go the opposite direction Roger that? Say you're out of that okay cool and I wanted to put myself at the front

now because I wanted better eyes on now I had too many officers and important people to put in diamond. Like, there's four of us. Like, literally, like, at that summer point, it doesn't matter. So I said, okay, Colonel Mingus, Colonel Walraf, I need you put you in here, Command Sergeant Griffin.

He looked at me, he's like, fuck, no, Groberg. I'm not going in there. He's like, put all the officers in there. Like, I'm in a back. He's like, I have moral combat experience than anyone here. He's like, I'm a rifleman. I'm going to be in a back. I got rear security.

He's like, we don't have enough fucking security for this. I was like, yeah, no, thank you, Sondager. I appreciate you, dude. Don't say that too loud, right? And so he's like, I got the rear. And at that point, at that point, I felt, oh, I was like, I have a warfighter that's got my covers my rear. I feel really good about that.

I put my platoon serge and the Sarat major's main security guy up front in front of us to control our pace in between the Afghan National Army. And I told them, if any one of these assholes turns around and points his weapon out, that's pop them. Because we have too many green on blues where those guys who were supposed to be friendly, these shoot us. And we went. And atmospherics were quite, you know,

a little bit normal. Then it got really quiet. Like, I was like, huh, no kids, no one walking around. It's non-characteristics. So, you know, my spidey senses are not like, whew, whew. And 700 meters into our movement is when we saw this,

out of nowhere, there was a road. We're on a road. We're about to cross a bridge. It's usually across this bridge. It's a set of stairs that we're going to take that takes us up to this, you know, towards the governor's compound. But the road continues and curves, right? And it goes uphill so you can't really see it, so it cuts off at a certain point,

a certain angle. And then we hear, like, motorcycles coming and then, like, fast, right? Going down that, around that curve towards us. And everyone's, like, focused on motorcycles. Luckily, the Afghan National Army Point guy did a hell of a good job. Okay. He immediately saw this as a threat and just got stopped. So we forced us all stop.

And then raise his rifle and started screaming and dart, which, like, forced, like, the bike to fall. Like, literally they fell. Those two motorcycle was, like, tumbled. And then those guys get up and start sprinting. So, like, we're looking, like, what in the hell was going on? So did you think that those, the guys on the bikes were the ambush? Yeah.

Oh, at that point, I knew we're in trouble. Okay. I guys just, it just, man, I've been around too long. I was like, this is not good. I just didn't know where the trouble was coming from. Okay, got. Because we were like, is that the trouble? And, like, we got lucky.

It was distraction. So, yeah, it was a distraction. And it worked perfectly for them. What saved probably my life and a lot of people's life is Brink, my number two. And I put up front, he turned around, right, to look at me, to be like, are you tracking what's going on? And as he turned around, he stopped. And then made I kind of made me to stare to my left. And I was looking at his eyes.

right thank god that dude had clear eye pro you know like so you know I could see his eyes because I have dark ones right and you know and and and he's

it forced me to look to my left and that's when I saw this guy like it must have come out of a structure like a little hut building thing and he's walking backwards parallel to us and I was like I don't I didn't just you were not there

like 10 seconds ago 15 seconds ago who are you and he's about 30 feet from us, maybe 40 feet. He's close. And at that point, I switched my body stance to look at directly at him. My radio guy, Mahoney, right, who's on my left, does the same thing. And then this guy does a 90, you know, 180-degree turn and 90-degree turn,

and then boom started walking towards us. So immediately I went towards him. And I'm screaming at this guy. So in this moment right then, what are you thinking? Thinking like, what the fuck is he doing? Yeah. I was like, that's a threat. I can't see.

I'm scanning for weapons. Why didn't you pop him? Get no weapons. What if he was mentally challenged and, and, you know, he didn't know what the hell he was doing? And I killed a civilian in front of all these leaders, I'm done. I'm going to fucking Lemonworth, right? I can't see a weapon. So I can't, you know, there's not a positive identification that this is an actual real threat.

So at that point, one thing in my head is like, I need to do my own escrow. So I need to close my threat and assess it. So I'm running towards him. And I'm screaming out. I'm saying, you motherfucker are you fucking doing? And he's walking. And I saw his eyes. And that's what I knew.

This is not good. And it made me go faster towards him because his eyes, man, it was like he was definitely drugged up. Had to be. No reaction. Didn't care of anything I was saying. Never looked at me. Always looking past me towards the boss.

And you could see the fear and the dedication. like fear and dedication, I don't know, in there. And so I ran towards them, and as soon as they got to him, I just hit him, my rifle. When I hit him with my rifle, he still didn't look at me because I'm staring at him. Like, I'm like, and so I let go with my rifle, and I grabbed them. And that's when I grabbed them, I was like, fuck. And I said, I knew it was a suicide vest. And I was like, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb.

And at that point, all I could think about was like, I got to get him away from these guys as quickly as possible as far as far as possible. now. So I wasn't the thing about dying and stuff. I was thinking like he's going to kill my friends. And so like, I'm taking him with me and I took him and I threw him to the ground. And Mahoney followed me, my RTO guy. And he's, you know, he's tried to, you know, finish him down on the ground. And he landed chest first. And as Susie landed, I saw something come out of his hand and then we're doing black. And that's when he detonated. So the trigger was in his hand. You get a demonstration the whole time. Couldn't see it because you had his men. men jams like his, you know, outfit, and it was kind of like, they're kind of over.

So kind of find out my number two, the reason why he was staring at him, he had a better angle. He said he saw a fake hand. So the reason I couldn't see, like, you know, it's like, apparently it was a fake hand with a dead man. I don't, I don't, and he's, he was about to shoot him. He's like, I was about to shoot him. But you walked in front of my line of sight so fast because you're on in, like, so quick.

So when I threw him, he detonated, he threw me 30 feet. Like, I mean, I flew. And, you know, I woke up a couple of minutes later. You know, I'll never forget it. Like, well, I forgot for a while, but it comes back to you a little bit. When I woke up, I remember being propped up. Like, I was laying down as propped up. And I saw this foot facing me, and I saw my fibula out, right?

You know, sticking out. Fully exposed. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was just like. And I remember looking at it. And I took my helmet off because my head was spinning. And I was in, and I had a loose helmet. So I just took the strap off and I threw my helmet.

And I took me a couple seconds to like come back to it. And I was trying to figure out, whoa, like, what? What? Like is this real world? Am I dreaming? Like, I mean, this is. And I looked at my leg and dude, I'm, I complain about a paper cut. So when I see my foot facing me, you know, I see this.

I look like, this is not good. Pain? No pain. Absolutely complete shock. No pain at all. Ears ringing? Oh, absolutely. Like, I mean, my head just...

Just like a movie. It's like a movie, right? It's just like slow and fast. It's just like you're like, you know, in a daze and but you can, you're there. So at that point, the first thing I came to my head was like, I must have stepped in an ID. I can't remember exactly what happened. I must have an ID assess myself real quick, but I'm probably going to be ambushed, right? Right.

probably an ambush. So immediately I assessed myself for other, you know, wounds. So I looked at my hands. I was like, okay, lovely like fine. I had blood all over me. I was like, oh, my God. So I checked myself like, and it's not my, I was like, okay, it's not my blood. And I had pieces of human beings, whatever, like, you know, bones and stuff. I was like, all right, whatever happened happened. Then next, I was like, I needed to find, where's my weapon? Couldn't find my weapon. So I took my pistol, make sure I around in chamber, I started dragging myself out. And that's when the number two showed up, brink. grab me by the handle of my plate carrier and dragged me into a ditch put me in a ditch and then my medic

saved my life he put a applied a tourniquet on my leg kept me awake my with the help of my translator yeah your turp was a big deal to you right oh yeah man dude dude you know he had a severe concussion and some injuries and you know he was over here like you know terrified and traumatized but he's, you know, working on with a medic to help me and getting yelled at, of course, you know, because the medic's like, oh, man, pastor, fair, open up this thing. And this guy's like, ah, no, I'm normal now at that point. And so I'm asking for water and my medic's like, no water. And I was like, no, fuck, you know, give me some water.

He's like, no water. You're going to go in surgery, no water. So then I was like, what's the status? What's the status of Mar-Wor 6? What's the status of the colonel? What status is my word? What's the status to commit something? You say, among war six is fine.

you know why he's fine? Because that kid that I told you about as soon as he saw me move towards that bomber, he grabbed the boss and went the opposite way. Thank God. Talking about 22-year-old executing.

Executing, right? Doing his job in a moment, a decisive moment. They said, my 16 is fine. They said my word seven's dead. K-A. So I told him, get me out of that ditch. And I, they started, they wanted to, like,

like, you know, drag me. I was like, just pop me. I have one good leg. I can hop. And I'm hopping. I saw some crazy stuff. I saw the suicide bomber's leg. You know, just a piece of his leg was right there.

And then I got to, to, Saw a Major. And that's when I saw Command Sergeant Griffin, Major Gray, Major Kennedy, and Reggie Abdelf thought that were all killed. What's crazy about what happened is the fact that I lived when the guy detonated at my feet. but these guys were 40 feet away and died.

And that is because the ground, the impact threw me, the concussion threw me. But the impact of the bomb, because the chest was connected to the floor or the ground, dirt ground. The ball bearings went that way instead of going in a big circle. They went one direction towards those four guys and they killed those four. And I'll never get that. Usually I don't talk about that piece because people are like, don't get it. But as I was looking at these guys and my friends, you know, dead, local Afghans started to congregate towards the site. And I had this, I still had my pistol on my hand this whole time.

And I saw this kid, maybe 18 years old, 20 years old, smiling. Looking at the dead bodies, smiling. And I almost shot him. I mean, I was going to shoot him, by the way. I was like, I just, but then that kid P.A. O'Chart, grabbed my hands. hand and was just like, any worth this, sir, we'll get them eventually. And then they put me in a truck, and that's when my war was over, but that's when also the pain showed up. So at that point, all this whole time in shock, when they closed the door, they put me in an MATV, which is not a,

it is not a vehicle to Kazavak anyone out. It is 100%, it's like a Jeep, right, on steroids. So my, well, my, they put me in there and there's a seat and then there's a, you know, the gunner's hatch and the weapon ammo cans and all that stuff. And then there's another seat. So they put me in there and like my back, lower back is on the ammo cans. My leg is on one seat. My head's on there. I'm like holding on.

And at that point, my leg is on fire. Like, I mean, I feel like it's on fire. There's, it's, it's massive open wound with, and I am, I've never felt this type of pain. And so the guys that come in to drive me to the local, luckily it was in a Sadabas So the local hospital is eight minutes away, right? The first place I'm going to give you surgery, so lucky for that. And the reason why I was in so much pain is we had so many injuries.

We had over 20 plus injuries and some severe ones, right? Like Mahoney lost a piece of his arm and O'Brien that I woke up, lost a piece of his butt cheek. You know what pissed he was at me? He was sleeping. Nothing to do with this. And I don't come, I'm forcing to come with me and then I get blown up. Is he so mad at you?

I don't think so. I haven't talked to him of years. You probably don't want to talk to me. But, yeah, so you took... So did they give you anything? No, no, all the morphine and all that stuff was gone for the other inches because that was the last one they found. So you went stone cold sober with your tibia and your foot backwards,

and you med backed out. Yeah, so it took about 40 minutes to get there. So 40 minutes, I was like, this is agonizing pain. So it's funny because I'm telling you the story, because the guy, Sarma, Kane, who was what we call the truck commander, so in the right seat of the vehicle in the front of that's taking me to the hospital. He knows I'm in pain. And I'm like, piss.

Every curse word in the history of curse word was said at every single Afghan that was in front of us, jingle trucks that was taken forever. And I was, you know, forcing us to go really slow. And then. And every bump feels like, oh, my God. It was just like, it was horrible. But he figured, I got to get this kid, this kid's. mind off the pain. So brilliant, brilliant NCO, non-commissioned officer, figures like, I was going to get him really mad at me because he's already mad at the world. He's playing

giant tricks. So he turns around and he goes, sir, can you fucking stop bleeding on my seats? And I was like, as he tells the story, he's like, I kind of stopped. I was shocked by that comment. And I was like, I don't even want to respond. He's like, no, seriously, sir, like, You're going to go home. You're going to be a nice bed, hanging out, spending time with your, with your girlfriends, whatever it is. And I'm going to be here for the next three months scrubbing this seat of your blood. And I'm like, I do fucking.

And so the next 10 minutes, I'm screaming at this guy. Yeah. And finally, we arrived. And I'll never forget. We have a quick release and I play Cures, right? And they're literally, I need morphine so bad that I'm willing. going to hop on my good leg. So I, like, literally, like, they opened the door and I slide down.

And they're, like, my foot's disgusting. And I, and I, I led on my right foot. And I'm like, and I just immediately release my plate carrier. So just all that's off. To help me up. And then I start hopping. And they're like, no, they grabbed me. And the doctors and nurses like, sit, shut, you're idiot.

Stop, you're an idiot. And then they put me in this, like, wheelchair, whatever. I don't even the hell that put me in. And they got me in there. and then they just stuck me. Going to sleep. I started going to sleep. So aside from the sort of the blast blackout few minutes, right?

Like you, everything else you were conscious for. Yeah, yeah. And so dreams, nightmares, like relive? How has, I mean. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I spent after that surgery in a sotabod and, you know, I flew back from that hospital to gelatobat with the body. bodies next to me. And that's something that, you know, I had dreams about a lot. It really was, it was, it was tough. And then I spent the next five months as an inpatient at Walter Reed

Hospital, you know, along the journey, I went to Germany in different places, but, and, yeah, I think for the first three, it was the hardest moments of my life because you're in this environment that you're, you're in a hospital bed for, you know, I was there for four straight months. Didn't move. That's why. Why me? Survivors' guilt?

So I didn't have, yes. Why me? Yes, yes, yes, yes. 100%. Like, What could I have done? Why did I live and why did these guys die?

And what could I have done to change the outcome? Could I save them? Could I replace them? Right. And then you start going through like, what do I bring to the table versus these guys? You know, Griffin at two kids. One of them was in the Army.

Kennedy had twins that were a year old. Gray had three beautiful kids. Reggae had two kids, 14 and 16 year old boys. I was single at the time, broke up with the girlfriend, you know, in their middle deployment.

Like I was looking to go to Paris and party. I mean, you know, my life was Army, bars, friends. I didn't bring anything to the table other than service. And these were like amazing people. And I lived and they didn't.

And he detonated at my feet. And it was my patrol. I was in charge of security. And so I had a lot of anger. A lot of anger. A lot of survival's guilt. A lot of sadness. And then the whole, I can't run.

Yeah, you're physically. And so then I started really like thinking about August 7th. Not running. And then the other piece was I needed to get promoted. So going back to your question, yes. On July 26th, the list came out that I was promoted to captain. So it was officially a captain. August 8th was going to be the date that I when we came back from our patrol, I was being promoted to the captain and everything set up.

So now I was promoted in the hospital. And all I could think about was like, I don't deserve this. I hated myself. Then you add the medication. Oxies, morphine, the lotted, you know, Ivy Bendro to go to sleep at night. And then you're no longer in control of your own brain. and emotions. So all your demons started kick in.

And so they tell you that you're a piece of shit. You know, there'll be here. You should be dead. You should take your place. Did you wish you were? Oh, yeah. I mean, you became suicidal, the point where you're trying to figure out to kill yourself. It's actually really hard to kill yourself in the hospital.

I didn't realize that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I was like, you're trying to figure it out, but it's such a contained environment. There's always somebody around. But so, and I was in a really dark place. And I think people started to notice because I was just angry. and I didn't want to talk to anyone. And then this guy walked into my room on November 12, 2012,

and he walked in with no limbs. I think you know him. No limbs, just four prosthetics. So the smile on his face, a stupid Detroit Lions hat. And he said, wow, what a great day to be alive. What a great day to be an American. It was Travis Mills. The one and only, man.

The one and only. And in 15 minutes, this dude kind of like rewired me in a way of saying, hey man like you're alive like we're alive i got blown up by a bomb i have no more live but i'm we're blessed we're here we have stories we have opportunities to like to serve in ways they never thought we could to impact other people like and he's like dude you have four lives four families now that you get to live for and like represent and honor you get to tell their stories you get to tell and he just in a weird in a Travis mill's way of like so motivating and And like impactful, right?

Yeah. He gave me a purpose. Yep. And I found a little glimpse of light in a really, really dark place. It's a big bit, man. Yeah, because of that, I remember going to sleep that night saying, I'm going to stop complaining about my injuries and my situation. And I'm going to stop, like, being angry at the world and trying to blame everything

and myself to include. Yeah. And then I'm going to, I'm going to find a positive in this whole thing. And I'm going to go change. I'm going to go tell their stories. What a gift. because I think he gave you the permission slip. Because I think you would have came to that at some point.

Or maybe not. Maybe it would have been a statistic. But I think he was, he reminded you that the fight isn't over even if the fighting field looks different. Right. And I think that's what you've done. I mean, that's what, the cool part between us is, you know, I meet Staff Sergeant Travis Mills. When I retire from, you know, the football and I have an identity crisis, I'm numb of myself with pain, goes, I'm depressed, I'm suicidal. I don't know who David, why does David matter unless I'm

playing football? Because I was great at that. Yeah. And then I meet this guy that, again, same thing. No arms, no legs. I challenge him to work out. Pretty soon it's like, that makes the game of football look silly, right? And the violence that we went through. And it, and it became this thing where I realized, man, like, Travis did the same thing that he did for you, but for me and set a path for me to find a new discovery that was really my purpose for my life, which is to help people discover the parts of themselves when they think that they were broken and in fact is the parts of their scars

that qualify them to be greater. When you left the hospital in Walter Reed, did you have a clear vision for yourself? Or was it sort of just, I need to put the next foot in front? So it took a long time for me to, you know, that was the first step of a long process. Then you've got to figure out how to heal

and move on. What do you do with the anger? I mean, I know Travis gave you a little bit of a shift, but like that's, every time your foot hurts, I'm pretty sure you got a little angry. No, I got motivated. I didn't get angry anymore about my injuries.

One, I got motivated in a sense, like, the anger and the frustrations and all the demons, he sort of, he became those were, he became their worst enemy because what he brought was light and hope. When you have a light and hope, and then everything they were telling me

just goes away. It's like, yeah. And really, what I got at that conversation is a model that I live by now, which is find a positive in every negative situation.

When you're going through something really bad, identify a positive in there and then make that your prime focus. I'm not saying ignore the bad. I'm just saying don't make that the focal point. And so for me, he told me, hey,

to highlight and tell the stories of those who didn't come home. Like, you're their voice. Every time you do anything going forward, you can tell their story. How amazing is that? And I was like, wow, that's incredible. So then you started going to a process. And I knew that if I was going to do that, I need to work on myself. So one, they were telling me, like, I'll never be able to run again.

Blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I don't believe in that. You know, that's why I'm so attracted to, you know, I was attracted to what you're doing with ATF. Right? Because I had doctors that told me that just really diagnosed me and told me my future. I didn't believe in that future, right? Yeah, maybe I'll need an ideal brace, maybe so hard, but I'm going to run again. So then I became a mission. And I worked hard, man, in PT and O.T and O.T. and all that stuff. So that was, I became my focal point, my focus for the next year and almost year and a half, was to learn how to walk again and then beat the odds.

And it was hard because there was a lot of ups and downs. How many surgeries? I'm at 34, which is nothing compared to others. But still, it's a significant amount of, but nothing compared to guys who have an A.E. That's my problem. I was limb-solved me. So they had a lot of infections. So when you think you made it through this pivotal moment, you'd kick back out.

And that was really frustrating. And I always said to myself, I'm not going to allow that to dictate me. So, for example, the last infection I had was pretty significant before the last one. So the one in the Walter Reed. But in my foot, the top of my foot, on this left foot started to, I saw a blister, tiny little blister. And when you see blisters on, you know, where they close off your open hood? And I was like, I don't like it. So I was like, I'll give it a day.

And the next morning, that blister was three times of size and had a bubble. So immediately, thank God I lived in the hospital. I went to the emergency room and I said, I think I have an. infection. So they took me to wound care, and car couch was my wound care special, which is amazing. She took a, a cutip, and I have a picture of this. She took a cue tip and popped up that bubble, and then it opened up. And you could see the bone and all of stuff, and I was just like, and I'm numb. Thank the Lord. Like, I can't feel any from me to life. And I was like, ugh. Looking at this, I'm like, this is ugly. And she said, oh, yeah, you

a severe infection. We need to, she called a surgeon and I needed to operate that night because that would have been, that probably would have led to amputation rather quickly if it spreads. Do you think, I mean, is amputation something that long term may have to? Maybe. I mean, you know, I still have like so many issues. Like right now, I'm at right knee and things like that. I probably need to talk to Luke. But, um. Hey, they cut off your leg. I'm your trainer, bro. Yeah, well, you know, it caught my leg, I'm probably going to be good spot. But I'm waiting for like the I robot legs. Yeah. I'm just kind of wait for the technology. You know, At that point, they made people to regrow legs.

Well, I mean, the way they're doing it, right? No kidding. But so, so we went to surgery, and then after that, the sucky part about that was the surgery is rather quick. You know, you're in there, I do one more night over there. And then I'm back in my room and, you know, I have a boot. Whatever. What I had, though, was a pick line. Yeah. And a pick line.

So for those who don't know pick lines, it's a line that went from, you know, here. And it goes all the way up to your heart. and that's where I would put the antibiotics every eight hours in the next six weeks. And so it was really annoying. And it really impacted my quality of life to an extent. And I remember I feel annoyed with that. And Amelia stopped myself.

I was like, no, who cares? That is what I need to do now, right? This is how I beat this infection, and this is what I do. So I'm not going to allow that to dictate how I live my day, my day-to-day. So if I want to go watch football, I'm going to go to the bar.

pick line. I took that a little extreme. A little extreme. So we would go to the bars and my boys would always call me now every Friday and Saturday, maybe Thursdays and be like, we're going to bar in D.C. Or in Bethes of Maryland. And then I'll be at the bar and at some point be like, oh, my washwood ring. Cool. So I would just like have my little bag, my little bag with penny pack. And I'd take my ball of like, you know, of antibiotics, my wipes and all stuff. And I would just, you know, take that one ball out. and then just, you know, no, actually I would put it, to plug it in, cleaning it up in the middle of a bar, and like, and people were like watching it.

What? What's going on with this dude? Savage. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to live my life. I don't care. I'm not going to let it dictate who I am, and I'm not going to let any negative. It's mindset, man. It's so cool to me to have the perspective that we do.

The impact Travis Mills had in your room and the trajectory, how that changed the course. And the same thing, right, where the adaptive training Foundation, the gym, the work that we've done today I've there for the last 10 years through the gym and the nonprofit, it doesn't happen without. But it's also super cool. I go back to fate. We met at a pretty unique place.

Yeah. In time. White House, yeah. Yeah, the South Lawn of the White House. Yeah, that's pretty fun. Obama threw the South by South Lawn. Because he went to South by Southwest in Austin, loved it. And was like, I'm going to do this one, which was sick. He had like, Common.

Leonardo DiCaprio was somewhere. That was crazy. Yeah, it was an amazing day. but I so distinctly remember talking with you and Carson. And I don't know, I don't remember a ton of the conversation, but I do remember. I think I felt like I came off like way too much. I remember thinking, I was so excited and found out about your story

and what the Starbucks people had told me about you, that I was just, I felt like I was almost manic. Like I was just, I was fired up and connected with you. But you were so real and so sincere, genuine. We took a picture together. We talked. And I loved Carson. I thank God you married her.

It took you too long. But at that time you guys were dating. Well, I, I, look, we needed to make sure she wanted to be doing it. We put a long run. So we took, we took the time, make sure you sure you want to do this? Yeah. Next year, you sure you want to do this? I think you had committed problems.

No, I tell you what, I remember that day very specifically, and I was remember being incredibly impressed by just the, the passion that you demonstrated that day. And so. You took it that way. No, yeah. I mean, I thought, like, I was like, dude, this guy, like, who are you? And, like, you just, you light up. the room and it was outdoors. And so, and the Starbucks people were, we're raving about you and the

work. And, and I, and the work that I was doing at the time, it made, it attracted me as like, okay, I want to know more. I want to know more about it, because I think that we can potentially help. And that's how we connected. You're working at Boeing. I was working at Boeing. I was running their military affairs, philanthropic side of the house. And we had our Texas, you know, a group, and I thought, what a great way to really highlight some of our commitments in the community than through a partnership with you. And that was like early on, like I think when in Boeing's relationship with ATF, and now it's grown and grown and grown.

We're about to go over a million dollars in funding with them this year. It's unbelievable. That to me, but you know what that, you know why I love that company? It's because they truly walk the walk and when they find something. They don't just do it for a year or two. They want to continue. They really are committed to the long run and long path. The cool part about them, too, wasn't just, hey, man, we need you to have 10,000 people you serve.

They were about the depth when we'd done it. You know, I remember the first time you came to Texas and you were speaking in a country club. He did an amazing keynote. It was the first time I sort of got to hear your story. And obviously, we're going to get. Dude, I suck, man. No, no, no. I was a really bad part we speak.

Ask Carson. We're going to jump into this because the Medal of Honor. the Congressional Medal of Honor, right, which you were awarded. Yeah. I want to get to kind of, again, this all happened on August 8, 2012, and it's not like the next week, they give you the freaking Medal of Honor, right? No. It's years later.

But when I got to hear you speak and afterwards, we go out, this is back when we used to drink a little bit more. When I lost the metal, yeah. So we go out and we're banged up. I mean, we're banged up. I think I helped carry you into the Uber. Yeah, thanks. And we get Carson Flo on the Uber.

and I'll never forget my phone ringing early the next morning because you had to fly out. No, yeah, I had to fly out because I was missing the tournament, yeah. And I hear, bro, I can't find the medal. Can you go to the bar? And it's like 8, 7 a.m. or something. Much less I'm hungover as hell because of how hard we went. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to try to get to Berners

and did you check with the Uber? And you're like, oh, hang on. And do you want to tell it? Yeah. So first of all, you go to the bar or you call. the bar and we wake somebody up to go check and they like we found it. We're like, oh, that's awesome. Like, it was, they found a coin. They found a military challenge. One of my military charters coin, which is not a metal of honor. No. But it has a metal of honor emblem on there. I was like,

I was like, duh. So like, I'm like, duh. So like, I'm trying to figure out. I never lost anything on Uber. So I was like, okay, you're very good, lost and found. And, um, you have a really cool system where like you could actually dick connect with the driver from that right. And, and, and, What if they told you previously, like the government, like the FBI about your medal and or if something happens, if you get held at gunpoint, somebody steals it? Like, do you brief you on all that? No, not really. We had no briefings at all.

It's like, you get the medal of honor and there's nothing. We're actually creating a course. Not a course. We're creating a document right now. Britt Slabinsky is taking lead on that. He's written an entire, like, you know, from A to Z, what this means to be a male of honor. So P's, how you dress, and things like that. So like we never had that.

It's just guessing game. And you hopefully, another recipient like South Junta gives you, you know, sort of the way forward. So you called the Uber. So I called the Uber and Uber connects me with the driver. And I said,

hey, did you happen to find a necklace? So I called it. You're trying to be discreet. And he's like, yes. It found a blue necklace. And I was like,

where is it? He's like, in my car. I said, where are you? And he goes, I'm going to work. Quiznos, of all places. And I said, where are you?

Where is this Quiznos? Because we're coming. And I was like, I'd like to come get it. And I'll give you some money. So we went to ATM. I got like, I wasn't making it. I was like, yeah, it was like $150. Whatever I got, 100 bucks. And I went and I, you know, I went inside of Quiznos.

And the guys like comes out, goes to his car and gives us. He's like, that is a nice necklace. I was like, yes it is. You know what this is? He's like, no, I was like, okay. And I get money. I was like, thank you, my friend. And I remember thinking, like, wow, I just got the Medal of Honor and this dumbass is going to lose it in an Uber.

And what happened was, I guess I headed on, I took it off, and I thought I put it in my pocket. I was drunk, and I just completely missed it, and it was there. But this guy, I had no idea what it was. Oh, bro. I have your blue necklace? Yeah, I have your blue necklace. So let's talk about time. And again, you know, you knew you were up for some, some, some potential awards or medals.

Distinguished service cross. And, you know, time passes. It can be years. And you're working on an agency side. We don't have to go too deep in and all that. But you realize after you were discharged, right? Like, probably if they amputate, you may have stayed back in. You end up limb salvage.

You end up being medically discharged. You get in on an agency side where you're doing field work and there's, it's a balance. You're liking it. You get a call one day at the job. What does that call tell you? Not only do I get a call one day at the job. I get a call. I'm in Drive-by area of 51 in a place called Nevada.

And we're doing Hilo inserts with some special operations and case officers. And I'm in a support role because I'm new to this position and I'm training and I'm watching and supporting. But I had no cell phone service the entire time. It was awesome, man. It's like off the reservation. You're the cool guys. No, I did not see any aliens. I was looking for aliens every day. And so I'm in a child hall and I walk out and I had my phone on me just for like time purposes. And boom, it rings. It's like, what? I had no service the entire time I was there for about a week.

And I pick it up and like, hello? It's like, is this Captain Groberg? Yeah, I retired because I'm no longer. I'm no longer. I'm a civilian. I work for the government. They say, hey, this is Colonel Slaney from the Pentagon. Just want a call you letting you know that on Monday, September 21st, you'll be receiving a phone call from a senior high-ranking official at the Pentagon between the hours of 1,400 and 1430. Is this a good number for you to receive that call? Yes, sir.

All right, don't miss that call. Roger at, who is it? Creeck. All right. What? Look at my phone. It's no service. I was like, there's no way.

I work for these people. We don't, they just turn on. Satellite tower. Yeah. Talk about faith. Right? You know what I'm saying? Like it was just,

somehow it worked. Crazy. And then I told my boss at the time, we were aware, and he said, what the hell did you do that again? I said, well, and not in a good way.

He's just like, what is, like, and I said, well, I don't know, man, a lot of things. Yeah. He's like,

well, you should have a lawyer ready. and if it's good news, you know, we'll give you a half day. So I went to work that morning on September 24th. So we flew back in that weekend, that weekend from Nevada. And then on Monday, I went to work and I was in a cover for status type of office. So, you know, no one knows what you do there. Went to work that morning.

And that afternoon, and we were chatting, he said, look, it's probably, he said, what do you think it is? And I said, obviously, I don't think it's me doing anything wrong. That's not how they call you, right? They don't call you and say it. No. But I do believe it's a distinguished service cross because that's what they put me in years ago. And I thought they forgot about it. And one of the guys had just received the medal of Cal Carpenter, Marine, when he tells his story,

and I was just on the phone with him the other day, he said that he got a call, said, the White House were going to call. Right? So it's like, okay. Because that's been, the medal of all the moment. I thought came probably nine months prior when someone that was working at the HRC in the Army called and said, hey, I think they're looking at you from Medal of Honor. Because there was a big investigation over everything. Well, there was an investigation about like who the hell to blame for this shit.

Yeah. I mean, I thought I was going to be in trouble. Yeah. When they came in and investigated me in the hospital, tell what I mean, like, all the senior leaders. Why did you take all the seniors? Why did you not have all your security? Why did you make that decision? Blah, blah, blah.

And I was, you know, we didn't talk about this, but I had a brain injury also. Right. I didn't remember anything for six to eight weeks. That's a scary position to be in. Unbelievable. Like, I mean, they show you pictures of a giraffe and you know what it is, but you just cannot. You know, and I have those issues still to this day. Sometimes I'm trying to remember like names or, you know, things like that.

And you can't do simple math. Like how many quarters in a dollar, right? You know the answer. You just can't figure it out. So when they were asking me all these questions, and I couldn't give them the answer, it was really frustrating them. And I thought I was hiding something. I was like, I'd hide anything. I just can't remember.

I got it blown up, dude. We're trying to figure out, you know, my boss is like, probably the Stinger Service Cross. We come back and I tell Carson, I think it might be the Stinger Service Cross. So we just waited and we were watching Ellen and it was kind of funny, like, you know, I was just sitting there watching Ellen, the phone rang. I pick it up, my cell phone, pick it up, and I like, hello? Like, is this Captain retired Flo Grover, Flore Grover? Yeah, Roger, that. When you mind, this is so and stuff in the White House.

You might hold him for her president? Said, nope, good. Okay? What? Didn't I expect that? Your stomach? Yeah. I mean, I just didn't expect that.

And then next thing you know, hey, Flo, it's Obama. I'm like, hi, Mr. President. He's like, man, long time. He's like, we know each other. We're friends. Shy town boys. And I'm like, yes, Mr. President. He said, oh, you don't have to call me, Ms. President?

I said, no, Mr. President. Rajadam, Ms. President. And he's like, well, I'm calling you to let you know that I'm going to be presenting you with a Medal of Honor. I'm super proud and honored that, you know, I get to present you a Medal of Honor. And hear what it means and hear the responsibilities behind that. And then he closed out with, I have one specific order. You can't talk to anyone about this until we make an announcement. Then Rajatim, Mr. President, and he said, looking forward to seeing you and hanging out.

I said, okay. And he hung up. And then we went back to watching Ellen for like five minutes. You know, he was on speakerphone. And Carson goes, what just happened? And I said, I think our lives just changed. I just don't know how. Wow.

And I never thought I'd ever be associated with that world or the society. I didn't understand what I did. I just knew it was massive. I just didn't know what it was, and then my life would really change. So immediately I called my mom. I broke a direct order from the President of the United States five minutes later because I knew if I didn't tell her, she was going to lose her shit.

So I told her, and I lied to her too. I said, the president specifically mentioned your name and said, you tell Clara that if she says anything to anyone or puts her on social media, and she was banned from coming to the White House. She's like, he's talking, he said it by me. I was like, yes, you, mom, not dad, you. She's like, okay, I won't tell anyone. And she didn't.

Respect, mama. The only time I have ever in my life seen my mom speechless. I mean, she is, if I take I talk, she talks. Only time is when she met President Obama in my hospital room in 2012 and then when she was at the White House. She just couldn't talk. She just loves him so much, I guess, or something. She's just like, and my dad's like.

And my dad's like, we need to have him around more often. That's the ultimate silence. He's just telling me that. And then after that, I called my boss and I said, hey, you know, I've received a mail of honor. He said, okay, you can't come back to work. Yeah. Now you're a target. Yeah, 100%.

And we'll figure it out. So then they gave me a cover. So then they put me at the Pentagon, of all places. Oudy and I. And they gave me a cover. And because I had to go through all these media interviews. So I had media training and media interviews. And I couldn't tell them that I worked for an agency.

I couldn't tell them what I did. A lot of people, even an agency, knew me from a different name, right? And so it was kind of like nuts. And they said my cover was that I was a wounded warrior that was transitioning out of the army and that I was doing an internship with DNI. I said, okay.

So people at OD and I thought I was a Wounded Warrior transitioning, you know, and then no one knew. And so I told now if you go back and there's a bunch of interviews about me and what do you do now and I was like, I tell them, I'm like, oh, I'm transitioning out and stuff. So I lied to so many people about who I was and what I was doing. And then they put me in an office job for about six months before they told me that it's probably not the right career path at this point because of the exposure. Yeah.

And then tell me like ceremony, man, how crazy, how cool. I'd tell you one thing about the Mel of Honor was because you're the first immigrant since Vietnam, yeah, to get it. But you're going to appreciate this. It's a crazy situation where you, it's, think about a wedding on steroids, right? Because they give you X amount, they announce it, and they give you literally like two weeks to invite X amount of people. So you have to put a list of who you want to invite. So the priority and the people that I called first, and I told them, I will not accept this medal unless you're there

are the Gold Star families. The only one that I didn't show up is reggae because his wife, they were Egyptian of descent, right? And so he was an immigrant as well. And when he died, his wife who barely spoke English, was like, went back to Egypt and brought the kids. So they couldn't come. But I called, I told Pam, right?

I called Tammy, I called Heather and I told them, like, this is about your husbands. And this represents your husbands. Like, I know they're honoring me, but like, I cannot accept this without your blessing and without you being there. So they came. And then after that, my family, then a couple of my close friends from high school and college and then my teammates, of course. And so you have to go through this list and you have to, like, choose people that you really

like. You don't have room. And then you have to go through this. It was almost five weeks of media training at the Pentagon. Thank God I was stationed at the Pentagon. It had to be there often. And it gets really frustrating because every topic you can think of, you need to be prepped for.

And at the time, it was about the sexual harassment cases in the Army that were really prevalent. And so, like, I had to learn how to block and bridge, right, where they ask you a question and you're like, oh, I hear you, you know, but I'm here to talk about the metal and what it represents to me. You're ready for politics now. And so, yeah. And so, you know, kidding. No, in politics, I just make shit up.

But anyway. So we did that and I was interesting. And then my work trying to figure out like what to do. So my work was great because they were like the first six weeks that said, just deal with this. It's your job. And that's the beauty of work for the government because you, you know, you work for them anyway. And then then you go through the week of the ceremony. And a week of ceremony is nuts because all your guests show up on that Monday, Monday Tuesday.

Cool. And for, well, specific guests. It was the first time we were all reunited. That's what I love about the medal was that first time my entire team from August 8 was reunited. And we got to go through interviews together. And I had interviews from all the TV channels. the U.S., but also in France. Because the French really loved that one.

Like, you know, hey, that's us. Boy, baby. It's the boy. So all the French ghettos. And so I had to like brush up with my French and all that stuff. And I watched those interviews today and I'm like, my God, I was horrible. You know what I mean? I didn't do this.

I didn't speak about, first of all, I did not talk about August 8, 2012 for years. I literally was tried to do everything that I could to move on from it. Right? And now, in the course of the last six weeks, I'm talking about it every day. And now it's the week of the medal, and it's live, and we did about 60 interviews. And I'm talking about the same thing over and over again. It was just really weird. How do you feel?

I don't know how to feel. What does it mean to be similar to? I don't know. I haven't received it yet, right? Things like that. And I'm really, and then I had my topics where I'm really honored, the fact that I get to represent my nation, things like that. And like today, if you ask me what it was said, I would have been like, I really don't know what to expect.

The one thing that I'm happy about is I get to spend time with my friends who I served with. That's what I would have just said. Because that's really what it meant. And it was emotional. We drank a lot. We shared a lot. It was great. Now, the day before the Medal of Honor, I received the Medal of Honor, it was painting Carson's apartment.

Love that. And Obama thought it was so funny. President Obama thought it was so funny. He called it the honey-dew list. In his speech, he's like, you know, you still got the honey-do list. Doesn't matter if you're coming to the White House, you're getting metal of honor. So I got to go, yeah, I promised Carson I would paint her apartment before she moved into my apartment. And here I am.

I forgot to do it. And she goes, you're going to paint my apartment. So I showed up that morning I'm painting. Your life's the best. What is this thing? Right, keep me real. And then I got the metal. And you just.

You just don't know what to expect until you get there. And the first piece is you arrived in my family and Carson, we went to the Oval Office and got to spend time with President Obama. He signed a certificate. He made some jokes. And what was so impressive about him, I don't care if you respect him or not for his politics, right? I don't think anyone can have said a negative thing about that man as a person. But what was the most impressive thing about President Obama is the fact that on September 11th,

in 2012 he came to visit a bunch of us at Walter Reed Hospital he spent 15 minutes in my room he wanted no cameras the only we took a couple pictures that was it at the start but then no cameras nothing he had one individual in there for security it was just him and one security person and we talked for 15 minutes and when my mom was speechless is because when we We went into the Oval Office. He remembered specific parts of the conversation he had with my mom. No one's taking notes, no one's reminding him, and a completely insignificant part of the conversation with my mom, and he brought it up to her.

And I'm thinking, this happened over three years ago, and you're the President of the United States. Every day, you're fed a million pieces of information in the course of our nation. Yeah, world order. War order. And you remember this? Like, yeah, I'll never be president. You know what I mean?

Like, you're unbelievable. And so I was super impressed. But when we walked, him and I, we chatted, and we made it to the room, and he did the presentation. I remember standing there and just scanning the room. And every leader from our government is there, you know, from the Pentagon. We have some senators, congressman, congresswoman. My team's there, my family's there. The Gold Star families are there.

So many reporters from around the world there. It's fascinating. And so about you. And you're standing on this stage and all I could think is like, I felt like a fraud. Because you never join the military to be singled out. You know, you always do it as a team. Remember how my favorite part of track and feel was a relay? Well, my favorite part about serving was the people.

and that we did it together. And so the fact that I was singled out and recognized which just felt so uncomfortable and you felt like a fraud. And this entire time, like, people can notice I have like emotional and I'm like, this face. I'm thinking like, this is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

And you listen to the citation. And then after that, in the middle of it, my leg starts to like, starts to shake because I haven't been standing for a long time. And I'm thinking, Mr. President, you better start talking faster, man. Let's get this show on the road, because I'm about to fall out. And literally, as I was about to fall out, I was deciding to fall forward.

The president got behind me. And at that point, they're reading the citation. And he's standing behind me. And I'm like, I'm going to fall out. And I'm trying to decide if I fall forward in front of those people who are staring at me that I've never met, like, right there. Or do I fall backwards on our president? And in the thinking of process is, will he like catch me?

Right? And by the time I made the decision to go backwards, you just put the metal around me. Wow. And then he has this power. So obviously you can tell I have a tremendous amount of respect for President Obama. He has this power of making you feel not like, not only like you belong, but like that you're in the right place.

And the thing that he did to make me feel that way is that he knew I felt. Well, one, he brought the family, he made sure the family to recognize, he told them, asked them to stand up and then everyone to clap for them because they were the true heroes of this whole day. And then, two, the amount of the time he spent with them. We played rock paper scissors with Grace kids, you know, the pictures, the time he gave them, you know, and he was genuine about it. That was an amazing moment.

And then it's done and you're part of that society. Yeah. What for you, I mean, I understand standing up there for what you just described, but what was the most difficult part as more recognitions came and more opportunities to not just have to retell this story, but to tell what you were going to do with this opportunity in this platform now? To make sure I'd never lose myself and that I never buy into the whole mindset that you're a D minus celebrity, right?

You know what I mean? whatever, F plus celebrity. You have a Wikipedia page, congratulations. Wow. That I never lose who I am and that I remember forever what it represents, and it's not mine. That medal is not mine.

It is the United States of America. It's every one of us. It belongs, represents us, but it's more specifically, Griffin, Gray, Kennedy, and Regis. And so, you know, never, I should never feel like I'm owed anything. I don't deserve, that is, instead I should feel like I owe this medal and my friends didn't come home a lot.

And so I need to represent it. And that's how I felt. And so the decision that I made that day is that I'm not going to live off this metal. I'm going to work even harder than I ever thought I've ever worked. I'm going to put myself in positions that are incredibly difficult. I never thought I would be in and put myself in, and then I'm going to go earn that. And the last thing I'd ever want to be remembered, which is obviously not going to happen, but is that I am a Medal of Honor.

recipient. I want to be remembered as a great husband and father, a businessman that gave back a ton in his community, and a service member that's serving a time of war, and then maybe finally also earned a middle of honor. So that was been, I made that decision really early on. Well, as your friend and someone who's known to you since 2016, I think that you've lived that and continue to live that. I mean, what you've accomplished personally, corporately, privately, I mean, the work, we decided the Boeing work, you know, now with Microsoft, you're on Adaptive Training Foundation's board, you're on with others, that you are always, I mean, when we pulled out of Afghanistan, you are critical in so many of those interpreters and so. So many of those Afghans are like getting them to safety, getting them and their families out. And that's something that, you know, few people know unless they know you deeply.

And that's to me, I mean, I admire the hell out of you, man, and respect you even more because I know what motivates you and it's not, you know, you're leading in the way that it's necessary and none of the credit matters to you, bro. Well, I appreciate that. And, you know, there was so many different groups of individuals who are part of those efforts to get our translators and allies out of Afghanistan. then, Heather Gray, who was one of the widows, Major Gray's wife, was such an unbelievable leader in helping getting Reggie out of Afghanistan, one of those interpreters. I got two of them out specifically, and I helped others through different programs. But those two individuals are the ones I focused on, and Reggie, she's just adopted him the moment you got on the States and made, she's such an unbelievable woman.

And, but yeah, it was fascinating to see how many of us bend it together to get those folks out. Like it was unbelievable, actually. You know, utilizing signal and working with MaxR to get aerial views and communicating back with people underground in Afghanistan. Who's an operative, man? It was like we put some operations. I mean, to be very, to be very. very like I won't give details but I was working with Delta directly communicating with Delta operators to get Reggie out and I mean you could literally make a movie about this like I'm on the

phone with Reggie and telling him you need to go now like you need to go now and he's saying no they've got it they've got the roadblocks I'm like okay this is what you tell them this is when they stop you this is your storyline you need to go now you need to take this street go to this street me with this person is going to look like this going to pick you in you need to good now, Reggie. If you don't go now, I can't get you out. And he was just like, he went. You know, he was trying to go home. And I was like, he's like, my kids, I've had eaten and drank water in two days. And I was like, I don't care, Reggie. Go now. This is that moment. Like, suck it up. And then we're going to get you out. And next to you know, I get a call from, I get a picture,

a picture from those Delta operators with Reggie and his entire family. And you're just hard, just like, two weeks of just, you know, operating. as a private citizen. I hope we see that movie. I mean, and go away, and there's better ones. As you look at what drives you today, you know, I noticed the first thing out of your mouth

was great husband, great father. It's pretty cool. You got a little man now. Yeah. Talk about sort of what's the next ridgeline, man. I mean, you've made tremendous impact and continue to and continue to use relationships and resources to help better what you believe in.

And so what drives you? What's next? You know, what's next is continuing to pap I'm on and just with more, more opportunities for one, personal growth, obviously, in professional development, but more opportunities for impact. In essence, I've been working with Microsoft for the last three and a half years on national security side of the house. And I was just in Seattle this week to go talk to some of our top customers, the Lockheed,

Boeing, Raytheons, and many others. and I was at this breakfast event with some of their senior leaders and they asked me to go and make a speech about the work that we're doing. And I started that speech by just telling them, I'm here to let you know, forget Microsoft and what we're doing and our partners and stuff. I'm here to say thank you.

That's what I say. I'm here to say thank you. And I hope that if you take anything out of any words that I'm going to be speaking today, that you go back to your team. teams, you say thank you as well. Because every single one of you, every single of your companies is actively impacting national security every single day.

And so for me, it's the ability to continue serving in a different fashion in two different facets. One is in the commercial corporate government side of the house, providing our warfighter and decision makers and intelligence community leaders with the right tools and technologies to make more decisive, speedy decisions that protect our nation and our lives. We have amazing threats out there, and we need technology and government to be hand-in-hand working together to make sure that we always remain the strongest, best country in the world, and that we provide our allies with the same type of securities. And so this is where I'm at on a professional side of the house. I've been doing this with Boeing and not Microsoft.

And then on the community side, working with you, working with other groups, right, to make sure that we never forget where we come from. that we never forget that we have a family that is there to help us, whether it's on the emotional or physical side of the house, recovery side of the house, or the transitional aspect, you know, from to corporate, educational, entrepreneurship, whatever it is, that we have, you know, the right groups working together, bending together, supporting each other.

And you play such a massive role as a nun vet in our veteran community, and our law enforcement, you know, first responder community, but also obviously in our athletic community that's unbelievable. So to me, having the opportunity to support organizations such as, you know, that the fraternity foundation that you started based upon that one random encounter with Travis and gives you this whole mission and to supporting Warriors Ethos, right, who helped me in my early stages of my transition to identify in where I could potentially make a transition into in terms of corporate, where I could find a new passion and mission to organizations such as

Wonder Warrior Project that I'm officially joining today as a board member, a group that has done so much and lost its identity for a little while and was honest enough to bring in a great leader like General Lenington to get them back on the path where now I feel like I can get back in with an amazing group of individuals and continue the original mission and pushing and supporting our community. So these are really important missions. And the last piece is things like, you know, American Battle Monument Commission being presidentially appointed as a commissioner to look at our cemeteries and monuments around the world where, you know, our men and women put their lives on the line and, you know, then come home making sure that we recognize those sacrifices.

You know, I'll be honest with you, I would have done, I probably could have been, could have done a few of those things in my life, but the metal providing me, a platform and a voice to be impactful. And so if you ask me what my voice is, what my moments are, my dedication is, the medal gave me, opened up a door, and I'm walking through that door with a whole mindset of doing more. And then I'll close out with my meeting Carson was probably the greatest and most impactful moment of my life.

Because she found me in a really difficult time when I was in that mix of recovery. And I didn't sleep for two years. Really, didn't sleep for two years. From August 2012 to October of 2014, I had to take Ambien to go to sleep. And I would only sleep a couple hours. It was miserable because of the thoughts, the memories, the anger, and the recovery later on and just couldn't sleep. the first night that I got to sleep next to her, I'm not going to tell you exactly what happened in a relationship, but it's the first night in two years I slept like six, seven hours

in a row without any medicate. I forgot my medication. It was unplanned. And I slept. And then I stayed with her for the next five nights and I slept every night. And so it reminded me of the most powerful. lesson that I learned in life, which is that love can overcome anything. And when I went to war, I went to war with a lot of hatred.

And I left war with a piece of my body missing and a lot of pain, a lot of anger, but a clear understanding what true love is, true love of brotherhood and sisterhood, and the fact that I was able to put my life on the line day in, day out, night in, night out for complete strangers. For individuals who didn't have the same background as me that potentially I wouldn't even associate with outside in the military. For individuals with different educational background, some of them grew up in different countries like I did.

When I talk about true love, though, it's the fact that one of the most beautiful things about the military is the fact that you can be white, black, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, Democrat, Republican, libertarian, you'd be a Christian and Muslim, atheist. You can be from Compton, California, or Belfast, Maine. You could be born in France or Zimbabwe. None of that matters. All those differences are put aside somehow in this environment where you have to learn how to work as a unit. You have to learn how to trust each other. And what is the The most fascinating thing about that is that not only do you learn how to work and trust each other, but you come to love each other, love each other so much that you're willing to die for each other.

And when I talk about the fact that I went in with a lot of hatred and anger, and I left with a clear understanding of true love, I mean that. I mean that true love for brotherhood and sisterhood. And then when Carson shows up in my life and she's able to heal me without any type of magic or science or medication just by being herself, it gives you a whole new perspective on life and faith. And so now with Little O, Orden, in our world, and I get to look at him and just, you know, his smile or his cries, right?

And I'm just just so blessed and excited. All I can think about is, boy, I can't wait to share those experiences. and to see him go through these very pivotal moments in his life and to see the man that he becomes. And I'm sure as how I'm going to work my ass off and my professional career to make sure he lives in a safer world than it is today. If there's one thing that you hope he knows most about you

and the way you've lived your life, what is it? I never did anything just for me. And I learned that lesson in early on. in my life and interact but I really am you know I'm a team guy and that I'm willing willing to sacrifice at all for others mean that matters to me and that means that I'll be willing to sacrifice it all for him and whatever then you know that he needs in that requirement or Carson and I just hope that he gets to live I want him to be his own man I don't want him to to to you know I don't want him to to

I don't hope for him to be like me or at all. I hope he identifies and finds a way to be the person that he wants to be. But I really hope he is one of those individuals that looks at others, or looks at his situation, and he wants to be a part of the solution because it matters for the people around him. And he does more for others than he ever does for himself. If he can do that, then maybe that's a lesson that would have thought him.

But I'm not really worried about it. Yeah. I think he's going to get a good example, man. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for this flow, truly, man. You're a gift, bro. And as a friend and as a brother, as somebody that you say go, I'm all that.

Same here, that's why. You say go, I follow you. You do, man. Appreciate you. Yeah, man.