Revisionist History - From Medal of Honor: Showing Up On Veterans Day

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

To mark Veterans Day, host J.R. Martinez sits down with producer Ryan Sweikert to talk about what he’s learned from the stories of veterans who have received the Medal of Honor, how to talk to veterans about their service, and the moments that shaped his life, both in the service and afterward. Medal of Honor Season 3 is coming on May 27th, 2026. In the meantime, we want to hear from you. We’ve put together a listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show. What we can improve on. Stories you think we've missed. To take the survey, follow this link: bit.ly/mohsurveySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Do you ever wish your office felt better? BuzzySpace designs furniture and acoustic solutions that make work spaces more comfortable, more creative, and more fun. If you need a quiet corner to focus or a collaborative space to brainstorm, BuzzySpace has you covered. Head to buzzy.space to check out their innovative solutions and make your office a place people actually love coming to.

That's B-U-Z-Z-I-Space. Pushkin Today we celebrate Veterans Day. It's a time for us to reflect on the sacrifices made by the men and women who have served and protected this country across generations. I'm J.R. Martinez. In the last season of Medal of Honor, stories of courage, I had the privilege of telling the heroic stories of some of the bravest veterans to ever put on the uniform. Like Sal Junta, who ran through a hell of bullets to save his best friend from capture.

Or Carl Sitter, the wounded Marine captain who refused to be evacuated until the job was done. Ordinary men who were thrust into impossible situations, who didn't just meet the challenge of the day, but plowed through it. If you've been listening to our show, you know the value of that kind of courage. But I'm here to tell you that everyone who has ever put on the uniform has a story. So today, I'd like to encourage you to talk to the veterans in your life. And don't just thank them for their service. Ask them about it. It shouldn't end with just a thank you.

We're hard at work on the next season of Medal of Honor, and it's coming in May of next year. But in the meantime, I want to hear from you about what you'd like to hear from us. We put together a listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show, what we can improve on, stories you think we've missed. As we observe this Veterans Day, we're recommitting ourselves to not just making the show, but making it better. And you can help us. To take the survey, head to bit.com slash moh-h survey. That's b-it.ly-slash-M-O-H survey.

That link is also in our show notes. For this episode, I sat down with my producer, Ryan Swaker, to talk about what we owe our veterans today and what we can expect in the upcoming season of Medal of Honor. Well, J.R., I am so happy to be sitting with you here in Pushkin Industries in beautiful New York City. Yes, sir. It's nice, beautiful, cool outside. Here I am walking in New York, and I'm like, in a lady sneeze. I was like, bless you. And she just kind of looked at. at me, you know, and just kept it moving, and I was like, oh, I love New York, right? Like, and it's... I'm really excited to be talking to you about, you know, the things that you learned

making this show and what the listeners can expect this upcoming season, and today's Veterans Day. It's interesting. Like, I have veterans in my life, and, you know, as a civilian, sometimes it feels like maybe you don't want to broach the subject with somebody to get them to talk about bad things that happened to them. What would you say to that? let them tell you let them dictate you'll know immediately if this individual wants to talk

and if they do how much they want to share why are we underestimating that they're capable of telling us a lot of us don't want to infringe because they don't want to pry because they're afraid you know but i think a lot of people don't want to infringe because they're they don't want that vet to be like it's none of your business i don't want to talk about it because how it's going to make us feel. Exactly. You know, you do these little events and, you know, you get around kids and kids are like, kids have no filter, man. I mean, as brutally as, as raw as it may be at times when a kid would come up to me and like, what happened to your face? I mean, straight up, man, these kids are brutal. But at the end of the day, I mean, it's inspiring to see these kids that

are doing that. And I think as adults, to some degree, like, we need to kind of like still carry a little bit of that inner child in us because they're, you know, curious, fearless. Just ask the question. Just go. Shoot from the hip, man. And Veterans Day, you know, again, we're so used to going up to a vet, you know, and say, thank you for your service. And what do they say?

Thank you. And they're like, all right, have a good day. Walk away, right? What happened there? Yes, you allowed someone to feel appreciated and that is equally important. However, you just walked away not knowing what? that person did, not knowing what you really think them for, that person now doesn't really know you, versus if you approached them and said, you know, yes, if you want to lead with the,

hey, I just want to say thank you for your service, really appreciate it. And they're like, thank you. And I'm like, would you mind telling me? Like, what did you do in the military? You know, where'd you serve? Just starting a conversation with the veterans in your life, right? That's it. Yeah. That's it, man. I just tell people, like, don't make the decision for that individual. Let that individual tell you if they're ready to talk. I want to back up just a little bit. Of course. So a lot of listeners are familiar with your story, but I think a lot of new listeners might not be. And being that it's Veterans Day Today, I was wondering if you could just tell me the story of when you became a veteran. Absolutely not. All right. That's okay. I just wanted to ask.

There we go. There it is. Put it in practice already. I love it, man. I completely understand. Yeah. I was. You wouldn't want to talk about it either. Exactly. There you go. See, and that's, but that's, that's the way to do it. So essentially, I was a senior in high school when 9-11 took place. And like everybody, of course, confused, afraid, but also I think just felt this deep patriotism

of what can I do? I want to do something. And so the military now became that opportunity for me. It was an opportunity for me to go serve. It was an opportunity for me to get more discipline. It was an opportunity for me to travel, get money for college, all the things. It was a one-stop shop. And so off I go to the Army as an infantryman.

And six months after I enlisted, I found myself in combat in Iraq. At first, I didn't really feel like I played a role. I was like, I mean, I'm not really doing anything here. Like, I mean, not helpful to anybody. I don't know any of this stuff. and it took one of my leaders to give a briefing to our unit and in that briefing he talked about the importance of service

he talked about the importance of every single person and the role that they played and accomplished our mission and he was giving this whole speech man and I literally was like oh my God all right I get it now I do play a role I do matter I am part of this team and you know I was only in country man

for three to half weeks that's it and then on the 5th of April 2003, I'm driving a Humvee through a city called Carbola when the front left tire runs over a roadside bomb. There were three other guys in the Humvee. They were all thrown out, but I was

trapped inside. And within a matter of seconds, this Humvee was now engulfed in flames and, you know, I can't get out. For five minutes that I was trapped inside of this burning Humvee, I was in and out of consciousness. Because I had 30 degree burns, but the biggest thing that was threatening whether I was going to

survive or not was the fact that I had inhalation damage. So I was in helling all the smoke from the fire. I had broken ribs. It was hard for me to breathe. So this is what it sounded like. It was like, help. Help!

Like that. And then there would be these moments where my body would get really heavy, like my eyes would get heavy, my body would start to kind of get weak, and my eyes would be on the verge of closing, and they would close. But when my eyes closed, there's two things that I vividly remember.

One is feeling my breath. I could feel myself breathing or trying to. And the second thing is my thoughts. And then I would tell myself, don't keep your eyes closed. Because if you do, that's it. You're giving up. Someone's going to pull you out, open your eyes. And I would open my eyes and I would continue to scream and yell.

But what I learned from the 5th of April of 2003 is that hopefully I and the listener, we won't find ourselves in a burning situation, right, where we're trapped. Hopefully, that's not the case. However, life in itself, because it could be overwhelming and a lot of pressures, can feel like we're in a burning situation. And so what I've learned from that five minutes that I was trapped inside of that Humvee is that when things start to feel a little overwhelming, when things start to feel a little out of control, I just like to close my eyes. I like to connect with my breath, and I like to connect with my thoughts. Well, and ask for help, right?

And ask for help. And trust that people will show up for you. I had to trust in those five minutes that somebody was going to show up. I had this false sense of hope that someone was going to come pull me out. And they did. And I was pulled out of the Humvee, started the medevac process, put into a medical-induced coma, ended up in San Antonio, Texas, and then three weeks later came out of. of my medical-induced coma to my new reality.

You know, after my injury, I was in a medical-induced coma for three weeks. And when I came out of my medical-induced coma, the first question, no different than any other service member, that I asked the medical team was, when can I get out and when can I get back? with my unit and finish my tour. And the first bombshell, if you will, that they dropped on me was they told me that I wasn't

going to be allowed to stay in the Army. I was going to be medically discharged. That was really hard for me because I started to create this identity of, okay, I love this military thing. I love this uniform. I love this concept of service. Like, I love being a part of this. And now you're taking that away from me.

also within the same like week and a half i saw my face and my body for the first time understood the severity of my injury and so i always say to people you know two weeks after i came out of my coma i lost both of my identities like i didn't know who i was and i mean at that point i was just kind of going through the motions just kind of surviving the day i had to really let go of the pressure of what long term was going to look like and i started to really focus on just the short term, the now, the today. And six months later, I'm asked to visit a patient who was in the hospital, essentially navigating the same thing I was navigating six months prior.

And I was encouraged to go in and talk to him and, you know, like a typical 20 year old, I was like, now, now, now. And, you know, the staff who at that point became more like my friends and family. And this nurse, Ms. Walker, she was like, no, go in there. And I was like, fine, I'll do it. Gosh, I mean, literally like a mother's son dynamic. Do you know why you were so reluctant to go? Because I was like, I'm 20.

What am I going to say? I don't know what I'm going to say to this individual. Like, nothing to offer. And that was my first mistake. Because what I realized when I walked into that room, and he was definitely in the bad place, I realized all I needed to do is just show up. And I remember having a 45-minute conversation with this patient.

And when I left, I was like, hey, man, I'll come back to me. he's like yeah man I'd appreciate that like it was a completely different vibe in his room and I started visiting patients every day and what they did is that gave me what part of my identity back the ability to serve I realize I can serve again in a different way in a different capacity but I can serve I learned that I needed to be vulnerable the more that I've done that I have found some really incredible people that I call my family now I have created deeper connections with with people that I probably never would have had I continue to keep this sort of shield in front of me.

Just trusting that, you know, not everybody, but there are a hell of a lot of people out there that are equipped to show up for you, but you also have to equally let them know that you need that. That sounds like a Veterans Day message. That's it, man. You know, as much as I'm putting, you know, we're talking to the listener that's potentially civilian,

I'm also talking to that vet. It's hard walking the streets of the world, even if there's only 500 people that live in your town or there's 5 million people in New York City, you know, in the same borough as you right now. It's hard and it's easy to feel isolated and it's probably feels in the short term better to isolate yourself. But the long term, in order for you to be

what you are destined to be, we have to be willing to, like, just keep showing up. And the military, they taught us that. And just because we're not in it anymore, it doesn't mean that that goes away. Show up for others. And through that, you start to kind of discover more about yourself. And that was true for me as I started to discover so much more about myself

by just showing up for others. You talk about showing up and, you know, working on this podcast, you've seen that, like, yes, a lot of these guys are very heroic. and a lot of the things they did were amazing. But they got in those positions in the first place by just showing up. Yeah. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, man.

I mean, working on season two of Medal of Honor and listening to season one with Malcolm, it just reminded me of how important it is to simply just show up, to just be there. Like, you don't have to have all the answers. I mean, you listen to some of these individuals in season two. and they didn't have extensive training. They didn't have combat training. They didn't get the luxury to go to this school and that school. I didn't, right?

Like, that's a common theme in some of these stories. Yet, when a moment asked somebody to show up, they just showed up and they figured it out. Like, guys were able to just navigate it and do some incredible things that I think they surprise themselves, which is why I think many of them are like, why am I? my being awarded this incredible honor. Like, why do I deserve this, right? I think anybody would have done that. I think we all would have tried to, you know, navigate it the same way.

And if there's anything you take away from this podcast, it's simply being inspired by these stories that for some of us, including myself, they feel like, no, these are fictional stories. There's, I can't, no, that's not real. That happened. I mean, it's easy to look at the things. that these guys do is just sort of like

these amazing heroics but really it's just the confluence of like this training this ability and the right moment yeah you're I mean and a lot of them

it's just like like what would I have done what would I have done if there was someone with a machine like in a position like what I have charged in what would I have done

and so you easily start to kind of think these are like just superheroes and they're not they're human beings beings. We all have this.

We really do. And I just love that I get to be part of the team to help keep these legacies alive and then help people that are listening realize that they too can be like Carl Sitter. They can be like Jefferson de Blanc. They can be like all these individuals that we've covered in the first two seasons of Medal of Honor. It's a reminder for all of us as human beings, as Americans, as listeners, of this podcast where we're listening to these stories to just keep showing up.

We want to run away, but showing up might actually allow you to realize the true hero that is in you, that is just waiting for that moment to come out. Do you ever wish your office felt better? Buzzy Space designs furniture and acoustic solar. that make workspaces more comfortable, more creative, and more fun. If you need a quiet corner to focus or a collaborative space to brainstorm, BuzzySpace has you covered. Head to buzzy.space to check out their innovative solutions

and make your office a place people actually love coming to. That's BUZZZI.Space. J.R, I actually recently learned that you were on Dancing with the Stars. I did not know this about you. You're a man of many talents. man, sometimes I forget that I was on Dancing with the Stars. Not only were you on Dancing with the Stars, my friend, but you won. The winners and new champions of Dancing with the Stars, J.R. and Karina.

Which makes you infinitely a better dancer than I could ever be. But how did this come about and, like, I'm just curious about how and if you talked about being a veteran on the show. Yeah. I was on that show, and it was veteran first. really was promoted like we have this veteran on the show and what was cool about it is yes i went on to show the world that i have a personality obviously i could dance but i was just like this character like i'm silly i'm goofy and but people were like oh that's cool here's a guy that you know some people will look at me like scared to see you know like the scars and whatever but look at him he's actually like clowning laughing silly like he's just a goofball and so it was it was it was awesome and i

remember week three i did a rumba we danced to the song tim mcgraw song if you're reading this you did a rumba to a tim mcgraw song yeah okay i got a look at that the lyrics are he's telling a story of a service member so he writes a letter to his wife Essentially, he's saying, if you're reading this, I passed away while in the military. I remember sitting in the rehearsal room with Karina, spurn off my partner, and I was like, yeah, this is an important story to tell. Before we danced, they showed the package again, and it was about my recovery. And, oh, man, just thinking about it, like, they showed all these people. They interviewed them.

Behind my back, I had no clue. They put this package together, which is the worst thing to do to somebody that's about to dance in front of millions of people. You had to watch this before you. I had to watch it. And so I'm standing there watching it,

waiting for this package to end, the announcer to introduce us, and then the music starts playing, and we go. And I tell you to, by the time we started, I had tears in my eyes. Like, and it wasn't just about me. It was like, I'm telling the story of so many men and women.

I finished the routine, man, and I'm crying. I only, like, 90 seconds, that's how long we dance on the show, and probably the last 45 seconds of that routine, I'm crying. In the ballroom, where they filmed Dancing with the Stars, every single person was standing up.

The response that we got from that, what people told us, thank you. Thank you for telling that story. I think that's interesting because that's pretty much what you're doing on this show, too. You know, you are in conversation with these interviews with these veterans who have done these amazing things and you're telling their stories. Yeah. I think one theme we're circling here in this conversation is storytelling and how important that is to the veteran experience, right?

100%. And we need more vets to be willing to share and to talk as much as they feel comfortable with. Why is that important? Because it is important for people to learn about who we are. One, so again, we can have a connection. But, you know, we like to say in the military, we fought for your freedom, we fought for your right. And I think some of us, we lose sight of that when we come home and we're struggling. And what I like to remind them is like, okay, it's easy to say you fought for everyone else's right, but you also fought for your own.

You deserve to live. you deserve to heal you deserve to go through your process to get the out you deserve that you fought for yourself man like not just everybody else but for you too i tell my story and i'm hoping that there's a vet that's listening right now or a loved one of a vet and they're like you know what all right maybe what i'm struggling with it's okay but i i should reach out maybe it encourages the listener right now to say you know what oh man i need to have a little bit more compassion and not just just look at them as like trained robots that just, no, they're human beings that have lives, they have emotions, that have feelings, they have the same desires that we do.

They have aspirations, right? Like, they have those same things. But they also still have those complications, like we all do. One of the things I noticed you said earlier was that you would develop this identity as a soldier, right? And that was something that didn't come easy to you at first. You weren't really sure what you were doing there, and then you had leadership that helped you find that identity, right?

but then you get injured and you have a new identity right and for the past 20 years you've been a veteran and I just wonder you know what you've learned in those 20 years with this identity of being a veteran I'm proud I'm proud of the initial decision to join the military not really understanding this fraternity that I was just joining. I'm grateful because it gave me the opportunity to discover myself. It gave me a space, a platform to identify the greatness that lied in me. It gave me the avenue to discover that. And the military helped me find this concept of service, helped me find this importance of teamwork and how to show up and how to be a leader and how to get people to buy in.

I'm grateful. I have no regrets, man. Absolutely none. I mean, it's kind of hard to really encapsulate like what my life has been over the last, you know, two decades. I mean, it's kind of wild, to be honest. I've kind of like the forest gump in a sense of just kind of like just, yeah, sure, I'll try that.

Sure, I mean, I never hosted a podcast like this, you know, and here I am doing that, this working with this incredible team and telling these incredible stories. and I feel the passion and love to tell these stories in such a careful way that we do them justice. And it makes me feel like I'm kind of back in the military in a sense, like I'm part of this team. What are you looking forward to in this upcoming season of Medal of Honor? Oh, man, what you guys have up your sleeve,

what you guys do and how you do all this research and put all these stories together. and, you know, I'm the final piece that comes in and helps, you know, try to tell them. It's unfortunate that it's May of next year when episode one's going to be released, you know, because I feel like I'm like, I want this now. Well, the good thing is you can go listen to season one and season two, right? But I'm just, I'm excited to just learn and to just be inspired because I know there's a lot of stories in there that are just going to be incredibly motivating and inspiring.

and a reminder of what humans are capable of doing. And I can tell you just from having worked on some of the stories coming up, that they're capable of a lot. Yeah. I can't wait, man. There's an incredible thing's coming up. I can't wait. So I hope everyone that's listening now,

I hope that you put some sort of alert reminder, May 2026, Medal of Honor, season three. I hope you tune in as well, and we can go on this journey together. But before that, as I said in the open, Click on that link in the show notes. I mean, truly, when we say this, we mean that we want to hear from you. We want to understand what are some things that you want to know,

what are maybe some subjects, maybe some individuals, whatever it is. Like, just this is a community. And we want our listeners to feel like they're part of our community because they are. They matter. We want these stories to continue to live. So reach out to us, communicate with us, but set that alert, that reminder for May 2026, Season 3, Episode 1. All right, JR, thank you so much for doing this.

It was a pleasure, my man. Thank you so much. Yeah, same here, brother. We want to thank you again for listening to this special episode of Medal of Honor. Once again, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a couple of minutes, please take our listener survey. Head to bit.com. slash M-O-H survey.

That's B-I-T-L-Y-S-M-O-H survey. That link is also in our show notes. This episode of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, was produced by Ryan Swiker. Our editor is Lydia Jean Cott. Sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski. Our executive producer is Constanza Gallardo,

original music by Eric Phillips, and I'm your host, J.R. Martinez. Do you ever wish your office felt better? Buzzy Space designs furniture and acoustic solutions that make work spaces more comfortable, more creative, and more fun. If you need a quiet corner to focus or a collaborative space to brainstorm, Buzzy Space has you covered.

Head to buzzy.space to check out their innovative solutions and make your office a place people actually love coming to. That's B-U-Z-Z-I dot space. This is an I-Heart podcast.