The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – A Patriot’s Promise: Protecting My Brothers, Fighting for My Life, and Keeping My Word by Senior Master Sergeant (Ret.) Israel “DT” Del Toro Jr., T. L. Heyer

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

A Patriot's Promise: Protecting My Brothers, Fighting for My Life, and Keeping My Word by Senior Master Sergeant (Ret.) Israel "DT" Del Toro Jr., T. L. Heyer https://amzn.to/3JgYeXW An inspiring memoir of promises kept, overcoming obstacles, and what it means to sacrifice for others, written by a Special Warfare Operator with the US Air Force. When Israel “DT” Del Toro, Jr.'s Humvee rolled over a roadside improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, he had one thought as he lost consciousness: I have to keep the promise I made to my dad. DT was orphaned at the age of fourteen, and on the night before his father died, he repeated the promise his dad had required of him: “Take care of your brothers and sisters.” Throughout his childhood and into adulthood, DT indeed looked after his younger brother and sisters, even to his own detriment and sacrifice. When he enlisted in the Air Force, progressing in ranks as a skilled marksman calling airstrikes, his promise extended to his brothers and sisters in the Air Force―his fellow soldiers and brothers-in-arms. When DT was injured in action, he lay in a coma for three months with third-degree burns on 80 percent of his body. He nearly died three times, and doctors predicted―if he survived―he would forever breathe with a respirator and never walk again. DT pushed through every limit to his full recovery, and he became the first 100 percent disabled veteran to reenlist in the Air Force. DT's promise to his dad extends now to his fellow wounded warriors throughout the world as he advocates for awareness and affecting change in public policy for wounded, injured, and ill soldiers. He is a patriot who has kept his promise and changed the world with the spirit of his heart, soul, body, and mind.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, The Chris Voss Show. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate you guys being here. 14 years and 1,400

episodes of the Chris Voss Show. We're putting up two to three a day. Make sure you're checking out everything we're doing. We've got a great American hero who's going to be on the show today talking about his life and what he experienced in life and endurance and perseverance. But in the meantime, as always, refer to the show to your family, friends, and relatives. Spread the word. Spread the love. Spread the intelligence, make the world smarter and better. Tell people to go to youtube.com, fortress, Chris Foss, goodreads.com, fortress, Chris Foss, linkedin.com, fortress, Chris Foss. And for the love of God, Foss and support us on Twitter. We're trying to be cool, but we're old and fat and ugly, and they just don't like us over there yet, but we're working on it.

We're trying to do it. So support us over there yet, but we're working on it. We're trying to do it. So support us over there as well. We have an amazing gentleman on the show with us today, and I think it would be inspired, motivated. And you're going to just go totally next level at just appreciating life and getting inspiration from others. He is the author of the latest book that comes out July 4th, 2023, which I believe is an American holiday, if I recall rightly. The title of the book is called A Patriot's Promise, Protecting My Brothers, Fighting for My Life, and Keeping My Word. Senior Master Sergeant, retired now, Israel D.T.

Del Toro Jr. joins us on the show today. We'll be talking about his amazing book. He was a senior master sergeant of the Air Force. He served in Afghanistan as a special ops paratrooper. He was injured in action in 2005, and his long recovery included adaptive sports as well as advocacy for his fellow wounded warriors. He was instrumental in the creation of the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. And in 2010, he was the first completely disabled airman at 100% to re-enlist. I think you have to be allowed to re-enlist in the Air Force. He's a recipient of the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Pat Tillman Award for

Courage at the ESPYs. Welcome to the show, Israel. How are you? Doing good, Chris. Thank you for having me on here. And thank you for coming. It's an honor to have you, sir. And I think you wanted me to refer you as DT through the show, correct?

Yeah, DT's fine. There you go. Oh, we're going to get all nice and friendly here. So give us a.com or wherever you want people to find you on the interwebs to get to know more about you? Well, I have my website, which is deltorastrong.com, and then I obviously have my Instagram, which is IDT21, and then my Facebook page, which is Israel Del Toro Jr. And I think that's about it.

You know, I'm still learning to be the whole social media guy. Yeah. I was like, I'm just not one that like, here's my breakfast. I ate this morning photo. Yeah. Well,

you know, it's, it's, you know, it's kind of interesting. People are like, Hey, here's my scrambled eggs.

You're like, we're all having scrambled eggs. Like, Oh, you got two extra bacon there. I see that. Yeah. There you go. Well, that's definitely, I I see that. Yeah, there you go.

Well, that's definitely, I'm liking that. So what motivated you, sir, to want to write this book? Well, honestly, Chris, for years, people have asked me to do this. Like when I got injured and then when I started my recovery, when I started to kind of speak, tell my story, what happened, I want to say around 2009 is 2008 to 2009. Everyone started starting to tour. You need a, you need to write a book.

And I was like, why would I want to write a book? It's like, I don't even like reading. I was like, you want me to write one? And then, you know, at the time I was just like, you know, 30 something. And I was like, I got so many adventures to do. Let me live a little bit before I wrote a book. For some reason, I just thought anyone who wrote a book was like anciently old. Wow.

No one young man wrote a book. But then I retired in 2019, and I was still speaking, but then COVID hit and all my speeches were canceled. And I was like, well, I don't got nothing to do now. I was like, I guess let me try this book thing. Everyone keeps telling me that I should be doing it. There you go. And is that a Husky or a Shibu that I see in your background there? An Akita.

An Akita. An Akita. There you go. I have two Huskies. And so I'm used, I saw the curly tail in the back. I'm like, that's in the family somewhere. So, you know, if that was a Husky, you'd be hearing howling right now. That's probably true. That's probably true.

Mine are just, I don't know, they're asleep right now. But yeah, in the morning, I get a lot of that. So, uh, give us a 30,000 overview of the book, uh, Patriots promise. So the Patriots promise, what's it really based on is a promise I made to my dad, uh, the night before he passed. And that was when I was 12 years old. And this is like the last thing my dad told me was promise to you, always take care of your family.

Wow. And, you know, for a 12-year-old kid, it's like, okay, yeah, right, dad, whatever. Not expecting that the next day you're coming home from school and you have two of your older cousins there waiting for you and telling your mom that your dad had passed. So, you know, obviously that promise first included my mom and brothers and sisters. But then after my mom, when my mom passed a year and a half later, my brothers and sisters, and then it started evolving to my teammates being in the military.

And then when I got wounded, you know, being an advocate for all the wounded guys out there. And then to anyone that really had a bad day or needed, you know, someone to have a voice for them. I just kept honoring that promise. That promise really pretty much shaped who I am. You know, that advice my dad gave me back when I was 12 years old. And it helped me through a couple of my struggles because, you know, in the book you read about how I went through some of these struggles,

these obstacles, and thinking why is this happening to me and always going back to remember that promise that you made to your dad. Because, honestly, my dad was my hero. And it's ironic, you know, yesterday was Father's Day. Yeah, just yesterday. And being able to keep that and, you know, yesterday was Father's Day and being able to keep that. And, you know, more, if anything, this book is more like a, kind of like an homage to my dad, to people know who he was

and how those simple words to a 12-year-old kid shaped them and kept them going through those dark times. But it also talks about, you know about me not doing it on my own and me all throughout my journey having people there by my side because I always think you can't do it on your own. And that's what I did from my darkest hour, obviously

when you read, having it there and when I got hurt, the medic helping me stay awake to having a bad time in the hospital and hating the night and having the nurses being there for me. There you go. You know, there's an old axiom, a man's word is his bond. Or a man is only as good as the word that's his bond or something to that effect.

And we used to kind of live in that society where everyone did things on handshake and people's word actually meant something. So it's interesting to me, you know, I know that in the military is the band of brothers sort of concept. You know, I've had friends in the military and, you know, they love being in it because they always know someone's got their back and they can rely on people. There's loyalty and brotherhood and stuff. And it's hard to find in public life out here. Yeah, it is. You know, the thing that we miss the most, like especially once we retire or separate,

isn't all the BS sometimes we go through, you know, the red tape, you know, but it's that brotherhood, that camaraderie where you just don't find it anywhere. And, you know, the closest I came to it was being on a sports team, you know. But, you know, that bond, knowing that we don't care where you came from, who you are, what you did. We know that you're going to be the best of that mission and you're going to have my back.

That's all that mattered to us. And that's what we miss a lot, you know. I know I still do, you know. You know, like luckily being out here in Colorado Springs, there's still a couple of my military friends that will travel through here and won't meet up. And, of course, my wife tells me, please don't get drunk and get thrown into jail.

That's her biggest fear. I was like, why don't you say that when I hang out with my regular friends that aren't military or aren't my techie brothers? Because I know you guys when we get together. There you go. Well, you know, that's what guys do. Plus, you said you're in Denver? Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs.

That's where the great academy is for the airport, isn't it? Yeah, the Air Force. Air Force. Yeah. Beautiful facility out there. I remember going through there and like, wow, that's amazing there. So give us a little bit of your origin story. What shaped you growing up?

What made you want to get in the Air Force and the military and all that stuff? Well, it's funny. You know, me growing up, you know know south side of chicago one of the suburbs out there uh on the bad side of town you know i never thought i would be in the military you know all i i thought was you know go to school you know get a good job you know and you know kind of grew up like a normal kid and but no one expected, you know, in a year and a half, you know, you're going to end up losing both your parents. So I was, you know, I honored that promise and helped raise my brothers and sisters.

Because people ask me, DT, why'd you join? You know, did you come from, like you said, did you come from a long lineage of military or duty to serve? And I'm like, that was the last person you would think that wanted to join the military. You know, I remember teasing my friends. I was like, why'd you join the devil?

You know, a freaking 18, 19-year-old. I was like, no one's saying join the military, at least in my area. And then, like I said, I was, I want to say about 22 years old and I saw a commercial and I had a real good job making good money, but I just felt like I wasn't being challenged. Something was missing. I saw a commercial.

I was like, huh, why not? There you go. Wasn't those famous old military commercials? I think we both probably grew up on it. Yeah. And I obviously asked, I had friends that had joined and I asked them, hey, what branch should I go to? I had Army, Navy, Marines friends. They didn't have any Space Force friends because that was still in a galaxy far, far away. But they all said, Air Force, man. Go Air Force.

I'm like, why? They're like, dude, they're the best at taking care of the people. They have the best facilities. But the most important thing, dude, they have the hottest chicks. So I'm like, all right. I was like, you convinced

me. You know, 30 years old. I'm still single, man. I was like, you convinced me. You know, 30 years old. Chris will be enlisted. I'm still single, man. I'll get a phone call from Chief of Staff like, Sergeant O'Toro, because of your podcast, we've got an increase of recruits all of a sudden. Hopefully you get an affiliate fee for that referral.

So you joined the Air Force. Were you interested in flying planes or just anything in the air force no you know i i grew up in the era of ramble you know who didn't want to be that long-haired chiseled body guy you know obviously i don't have the the long hair anymore or the the chiseled bod because my son says I have a dad bod, but it's all right. But at the time- Put him up for adoption.

I wanted to do that. I wanted to be that guy. Yeah. That's what I grew up on. And so when I enlisted and the tech P recruiter came by and told me what my job would do about calling an airstrike, jump out of planes. You know, you will be the man on the ground. You know, I was like, that's the job I want.

With the hottest chicks too. Right. Because I remember him, you know, I swear when he walked in, he had a stogie, you know, he had his bray on, you know, his boots all shiny. And I was like, this guy is Rambo. And he gives, like I said, gives the whole spiel. And then he ends it with, but gentlemen, you know what's the best thing about being a tacky? You know, it's like, what, Sergeant?

See this black bray I have on? Yes, it helps me pick up girls. It was like a sign. I was like, it was like a sign. I was like, this is the career. But again, you know, not taking away from any careers out there. They're all important, you know. Yeah. But I wanted to be that guy when I'm a crusty old grandpa and my grandchildren ask me, grandpa, what you do in the military?

You know, I want to have that. Well, I already kind of have that raspy voice now. I was like, I killed a lot of mofos when I was in the military. Yeah. I wanted to,

I wanted to be that guy. You know, there you go. And we had captain Crozier, uh, on earlier, uh, for his book surf a way you can.

And, last week I think. And, uh, he said that top Gun was the thing that got him into the Air Force. Kind of funny. We don't realize how little things like that,

you know, because again, and I remember me telling the story about getting in because, you know, watching Rambo and it was like two middle schoolers. And I stopped myself. I was like, hold on. How many of you kids know who Rambo is? And like four of them raised their hand. And I'm like, your parents have robbed you from a great childhood.

I remember the first, what was it? The first, the first movie wasn't called Rambo, right? It was called First Blood. First Blood. What a movie. Holy crap. And then the Rambos thereafter. So there you go. So you end up going on a call up for duty. And where do you go? And how do you end up getting injured? So I had just finished touring Korea. And then I headed off to Italy for my duty station.

And I had already been told before I got there that, hey, in August, we're heading down range for another and we're going to be gone for about six, seven months. And I was like, all right, cool. But in my head, I'm thinking, how the hell am I going to tell my wife? I was like, because before Korea, I just got back from Iraq. And it's like and i was gone for i think i want to say five six months and then i you know i leave for korea a few months after getting back and now i'm headed to afghanistan so i'm like how am i gonna tell her this uh so you know i had to figure out how to do it. And I probably didn't do it the right way because I waited till June to tell her and I was leaving in August. But that situation, I tell that story because I want to help people. It's like, don't do the same thing I did.

Because you think that our plans will always work. And they kind of do, but they kind of don't and mine luckily I have a great wife and understanding because she was I got why she was pissed you know I knew since like December and I told Wow and I was using the Pope kind of to you know ease the tension because tension because I was like, well, I'm telling her in front of the Pope she can't yell at me, you know. But again, anyone that is Catholic knows that April of 2005, Pope John Paul II passed. So that kind of ruined my plans. But I remember, you know, we got into it because I tell her finally like we're at the at the ruins by the Coliseum

and and I had my son with me in my arms like a shield just in case she attacked me I was like sorry buddy you're gonna be here to take the plunge of this wow and I tell her and she doesn't yell at me and I'm like

holy crap. In our heads, like most guys, we're like, yes, we're geniuses. We did it. And we get back to the room. Man, I'd say I saw a devil face. Oh. Anyone that has a loved one knows that. You see that face like, man, you're in trouble.

And we got into it. Like I said, we got into it. And she actually gave me an ultimatum she says you need to get out or we're done wow and it wasn't that she was being vindictive it was because i always said i'll never let my son grow up without his dad but yet my son was going to be turning three in august and he probably knew me a total of maybe six months out of his life. So he was growing up well as dad.

But luckily, this is how great she is. She kind of put everything aside and said, you know what? We'll talk about this later. Concentrate on being downrange. Hi, Voxers. Voss here with a little station break. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. We'll resume here in a second. I'd like to invite you to come to my coaching,

speaking, and training courses website. You can also see our new podcast over there at chrisvossleadershipinstitute.com. Over there, you can find all the different stuff that we do for speaking engagements if you'd like to hire me, training courses that we offer, and coaching for leadership, management, entrepreneurism, podcasting, corporate stuff. With over 35 years of experience in business and running companies as a CEO. And be sure to check out chrisfossleadershipinstitute.com. Now back to the show.

And so, you know, I headed out downrange in August, and we're out there a couple months. And when I get there at 5, I'm the only JTEC, Joint Terminal Attack Controller, to cover two Army companies, an SF team, and a scout team. And how it works, they'll send us to wherever they think is going to be the most dangerous, where they're going to get troops in contact.

Because we're the ones calling in the airstrikes. So I was out constantly. And it was right after Thanksgiving, we got orders. And I was told, hey, going out with the scouts because there's a high-value target you guys got to capture, kill. And a supply route the Taliban was using, and we had to destroy it.

So we head out, like, I want to say December 1st. We air-salted into this bowl. I mean, we have mountains all around us, and we air-salted. They air-saulted some vehicles on our dirt bikes, and we go into it, and we take over kind of this little compound, and we do operations out of there. And we kept, we were out there. Nothing happened.

And our interpreter all of a sudden, our interpreter keeps telling us, hey, these guys see us because he's getting ICOM chatter. It's like they see us when we leave on foot. They see us when we leave on our bikes. They see us when we leave in the trucks. Because, again, we're in a boat. They're standing up on the mountains watching us. So our lieutenant, who was

young, fresh out of West Point, I mean, this is how green he was. He took a selfie or took a picture with him. Well, because I don't think we had selfies yet. But he had someone with a camera take a picture of him next to an IED. But we're like, what are you doing, dude?

Holy shit. You know, but that's the job of us as NCOs to kind of shape that young lieutenant to eventually be a great leader. So, you know, like I said, they were seeing us. So he makes up plans like, all right, guys, we're going to take half the scout team, which will be about 10 of us, and we're going to go out in two vehicles late afternoon. And half of that, so five guys, are going to go up on the mountain, stay overnight, try and capture the Taliban guys as they come up

and watch us. And my team was going to be Overwatch. And we had been out there a couple days and nothing. And the night prior, which was you know, it's crazy because it was almost like a call before the storm.

I remember it was my turn to do my watch. So it was like two hours sleep, one hour watch. And it was the clearest, clearest night, man. I saw, you could see every star out. You know, it's still, you know, I almost compare it to like what Forrest Gump talks about when in Vietnam, when it stopped raining, he could,

all the clouds were opened up and you'll see every star. You know, that's how I felt. And the next morning, you know, we go out. We get some A&A, some Afghani National Army. We go to hit this town. Nothing really. Then our teammates are saying, hey, we need to get resupplied because we've already been out there, I want to say, three days. We're driving back. We're in the lead vehicle. I remember crossing this creek.

And no more than 200 meters after we crossed this creek do I feel an intense heat blast. Wow. On the left side. And I was like, holy shit, I just got hit. Was it an IED? It was an IED. Wow. And people talk, you know, about how your life flashesed in front of you and i never really believed that but man it went when i got hit it almost seemed like a movie reel where you see clips

moments uh but for me it was like the most distinct ones were three things that hadn't happened yet that were supposed to happen like one was me and my wife finally getting married by the church you know after our third attempt because every time i retired we tried i was deployed uh us honeymooning in greece because i was hurt that's where she always wanted to go but the last one was me teaching my boy how to play ball because I'm a big ball player. And then something in my head clicks and says, you got to get out of this truck. And I popped the door. I come out.

When I came out, man, I was on fire from head to toe. Jesus. But I knew there was that creek behind me. So I turn, run to it. But the flames overtook me and and I collapsed, and I'm laying there, and I'm thinking that I'm going to die here. I broke my promise to my family that I'll always come back. I broke my promise to my son that I'll never let him grow up without his dad like I did.

But most importantly, I'm breaking my promise I made to my dad when I was 12 years old that I always will take care of my family that's interesting that in that moment you're still very selfless you know most people would be focused on themselves yeah I just that's all that was running through my mind was my family

that promise you know I just wanted to be back for them. I just wanted to, you know, raise my boy. And then, you know, earlier I might have, you know, busted out on the LT, but I must have yelled out that I'm going to die here.

And he said, DT, you're not going to die here. And he throws some dirt on me, helps me up and we both jump into the creek and the sound that I heard was the same sound as when you put a hot pan in cold water. Jesus. That's the sound. And the LT jumped in, too, because when he helped me, I lit him on fire.

And I was like, sorry, dude, can't really control flames, you know. And I look at him, and I'm like, dude, this sucks. And he's like, are you trying to be funny? He's like, no, sir, I just got blown up. I was on fire, had to jump on a freezing cold creek in December in Afghanistan. This sucks. And for me, I don't know if it was me subconsciously just calming the situation down because as soon as I got hit, my guys on Mountain, they're getting hit with a crossfire.

Now they're calling back for gunslinger, which is my call sign. Because it's like we need CAS, we need close air support. So I had to figure out what to do. You know, yes, I'm Air Force, but, you know, they're my Army brothers. They're my family. I have to honor, again, that promise to my army brothers. They're my family. I have to honor again that promise to my dad, take care of your family. I had to figure out what to do.

My radios that I had were destroyed. My backup radios were in the truck that got destroyed. I remember the medic trying to take care of me. He's like, dude, I'm okay. He's like, just cut off my we call them ranger panties. The little running starts. I had

them on the knees because the elastic was burning me. I was like, take care of Bailey. He was our gunner. He got blown out and the truck had ran over his legs. It's like, so I had to figure out what to do.

Luckily, one of the other scout guys had a radar commemorator. I tell him, hey man, get on this frequency. Repeat everything I say so we get some help here to our guys. By the last

transmit, I went out after he was repeating everything I said. I guess that's when the adrenaline started going down. I started having a hard time breathing, and I started to get scared. I tell people as much as I want to tell people I was like Rambo, that I had no fear. I was like, I got scared. And your body's probably starting to go into shock at that point, right?

Going into shock. I'm tired. I was like, I want to sleep. And I remember telling our manager, hey, man, I'm just going to lay down. Let me close my eyes for a second. Wow. But he knew if he let me fall asleep, I would

never wake up again. How bad were the burns across your body? Well, for me, I looked at myself as like, my legs hurt, but I really didn't feel anything. You know, I looked at myself like, okay, I looked at myself as like my legs hurt, but I really didn't feel anything. You know, I looked at myself like, okay, I got a little blood, like I said, from my leg, my left leg, but I had all my body parts. So I'm like, okay, I'm good.

I was like, okay, I probably got my eyebrows and hair singed, but that's the worst of it. But, you know, he knew I was a lot worse than i thought the medic did and he just tried to keep me up trying to find things to you know fight for trying to find my spark and you know he was you know he was using everything he could he was thinking come on man fight for your wife fight for your wife and you know, he was using everything he could. He was thinking, come on, man, fight for your wife. Fight for your wife. And, you know, I tell him, I was like, man, try something else. That ain't going to happen. That ain't going to work.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He didn't say that. I was like, throw some jazz. You were getting a little too serious. I was, yeah. You're getting too serious. You got me on that one. You got me on that one.

But he knew that I had lost my dad when I was young. And I said, I will never let that happen to my son. So he used that. He's like, come on, dude. Fight for your son. You said you'll never let him grow because I was like, you fight for your son. Because I tell

people, we all have a spark that drives us, that keeps us going. And sometimes you can find out you don't want it. Sometimes you need help. And the medic knew my son was my spark. And so he's making me yell it, you know, top of my lungs. You know, they're starting to talk, you know, butt naked, yelling that I got to fight for my son.

And then he says the weirdest thing. He's like, DT, fight for your son so you can teach him to be a pimp. And I'm like, did he really just say that? And he repeats it again. So, again, there I am, yelling at the top of my lungs, you know, naked in Afghanistan saying I got to fight for my son to teach him to be a pimp. It sounds like Saturdays are on my place.

But you know, it worked. You use whatever you can to keep your teammate motivated, keep them alive. And cause it kept me up. It kept me going until that, the helicopter medevac arrived. And I remember they wanted to carry me to the helicopter. And I was like, oh, hell no. I was like, I walked into this fight.

I'm going to walk out. And I held my naked butt to the helicopter. And I'm laying there thinking, oh, my God, I can finally relax and get some good drugs in me. And I remember the flight in and out. I remember landing at our FOB, them taking me into our little field hospital and seeing the rest of my Air Force teammates and Army teammates and the duck cutting off my watch, the doctor,

and then telling me, you're going to be okay. And that was December 4th, 2005. I woke up March of 2006. Wow. So did you go into a coma? Did they put you in a coma? Yeah, they put me in a coma. And it's crazy being in a coma because it doesn't really hit you until a year after.

Oh, really? Yeah, because, like I said, I'm a big baseball guy. I'm a big ball player. You know, I remember watching, you know, it was like January of 2007. And I'm watching ESPN, and

I hear it's the one-year anniversary of Kirby Puckett's death. And I'm like, when did Kirby Puckett die? I was like, oh, it was when I was in a coma. But that's when it really hits you. It's like, oh, my God, anything that happened within those four months when I was in a coma, I have no memory of. Wow.

So anything that happened. You just need to go back and watch CNN for four months. Put you in a coma? Something, yeah. Something. catch up on like here here's what happened in your life so you you have to go through a lot of rehab right and what's that journey like coming back is is your just keeping your word and your promise be the thing that helps you fight and be the spark to to to make you carry on? What helped me a lot, yes, that promise was a big

part. But having my family and my friends there when I wake up and then me wanting to be with my son. Because when I woke up, you know, obviously they ask you the normal

questions. Do you know where you're at? I was like, I don't know, Germany. He's like, no, you're in San Antonio. You know the date, December something, 2005. He's like, no, it's March of 06. And then, you know, after that, they start telling you what had happened to you. You know how you almost died three times. You know, we gave you a 15% chance to survive. You almost died three times. We gave you a 15%

chance to survive. 15%? 80% of your body has third-degree burns. Yeah, you're awake now, but you still got a long recovery. Jesus. You're going to be here for another year and a half. You'll be on a rust radar for the rest of your life.

You may not walk again, and your military career is pretty much over jesus yeah and i remember them kind of waiting for my response because i i couldn't move because all my my muscles atropined i was all bandaged up and i started seeing that okay i'm missing digits now on my fingers. Not my hands, I mean. And I couldn't talk because I had a trach. And they're waiting, so they're just reading my lips. And I pretty much told them, you can kiss my ass.

I'm not going to accept that. You know, I never accepted anyone telling me what my life was going to be You know A kid growing up on the bad side of town With no parents Statistically I should have been a gang bear drug dealer I was neither When I was graduating high school

I remember my counselor saying You should go to a community college Which nothing wrong with a community college But I wanted to go to the University of Illinois. And then getting a full academic scholarship and slamming it on my counselor's desk and telling them to F off,

I probably should have thought that through because my counselor was a Catholic high school, so my counselor was a priest. You're going to hell now. That month of detention was worth it though. Oh, your attitude. So why would I accept now what these doctors say my life is going to be? I was like, I'm not going to let this define me.

I'm going to define who I am. And I also want to show my son that dad's going to beat this. Yeah, plus you need to make him a pimp. Has that turned out yet? Are you still working on that? I'm still working on it. Is the wife going along with that? My wife's not very along with that. She's like, our son will not be a pimp.

But most of all, man, I really wanted to show those SOBs that left that bomb there. That thing is going to ruin my life, man. I'm still going to continue. Don't get. Wow. I'm still going to continue. Don't get me wrong. It was hard.

Learning to walk again is hard, but the worst of it, most people don't understand when you wear severely burn your, your skin becomes hypersensitive. So, so like this, my hand right here, you could have rub a feather across it. And it felt like you were cutting me with

razor blades. You have desensitized or you can't touch anything and then get stretched so you don't get that of your joints. It was some of the worst pain but I knew I had

to go through it. If I wanted to get better, if I wanted to be independent, I had to go through it. So every day, going to therapy, I remember it would change. Stick your hands in like pebbles. Rub it against the carpet and sand. Some of the most intense pain a human can go through. But, again, I had to do it. I wanted to see my boy.

And, yeah, I had bad days. Who's not going to have a bad day? I went from a 200-pound muscle head to 115 pounds. I was frail, scared, tiny. I looked like a podcast host. Not me because I'm a big heavy podcast host. But you know, who's not going to have a bad day? But I

had friends there by my side to help me get over those bad days so I wouldn't just dwell in that darkness. So once I started getting better, two months after they gave me that diagnosis, I left that darkness. So once I started getting better, you know, two months after they gave me that diagnosis, I left that hospital.

Wow. Two months. Two months. Wow. And but when I got out, man, you know, I still had a long journey to go. You know, most people think this face is what I looked like when I came out. I was like, no, this is hundreds of procedures done on me.

Wow. But I, but what I saw while I was in the hospital, yeah, like I said, I miss being with my teammates. I miss being downrange with them. But I saw all these wounded guys as my brothers now. Because yeah, I was wounded, but I was still an NCO in the Air Force. And the duty of an NCO is to take care of his troops and make things better for them, even though they may never see the benefits of it.

Wow. And became a big advocate for them and spoke for them. And there was a time maybe I should have used a little bit more tack, but sometimes I was like, fuck it. I was like, I had to do what I had to do to take care of my guys. There you go. And you become an inspiration for a lot of people. President Biden is one of the endorsers on your book.

President George W. Bush, George Stewart, I think, if I recall rightly. You start speaking and inspiring people and using your hero's journey to inspire others. And at some point, you decide you want to re-enlist. And I guess that's not a very big thing with the military. Yeah. You know, for me, people kept asking me, what do you want to do? I was like, I want to continue serving.

And they were like, why, DT? You're starting to get very good at public speaking. And they pay well. I guess they do. Some people for 45 minutes can make 50 grand, like nothing. And some of the higher ends can make a hundred grand. Yeah. But I used to tell them, there's thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people out there that make amazing money and hate their job. That's true. So why am I going to give up my job for some money when I love doing what I love being a techie?

I love being in the Air Force. I love serving my country. So why amie. I love being the Air Force. I love serving my country. So why am I going to give that up for a couple bucks? And so I fought. It took five years to show that I still had value. Yes. Could I be an operator, be downrange? No.

Unless we become like Star Wars and I get a cool Luke Skywalker hand and use the Jedi mind trick on people. But we're not there. But I knew I could teach because my mind was there. I could get the next generation of operators going. And but, you know, the biggest thing that was holding me back was lawyers, lawyers for the military. Really? Wow. But again, luckily I had people in my corner.

I talk about Mr. Beckett and Mr. Myers, who helped me a lot. You know, the lawyers had said that, you know, well, okay, yeah, Sergeant DeToro's getting stronger. He's able to do a lot of things, but he can never deploy again. So Mr. Myers researched. He's like, okay, you're saying this guy who has deployed multiple times can't stay in because he can't deploy anymore. But yet, at the time, I would say it was like 68% of the Air Force never deploys. And you're saying he can't stay in. And that was it.

The lawyer's like, okay, got it. And I remember going to my med board and them telling me, okay, Sergeant del Toro, here are your options. You're 100% disabled, full medical retirement, out of the military. I was like, okay, yeah, I'm expecting that. Here's option two.

100% disabled, able to reenlist in the Air Force and become an instructor. I was like, yes, I'll take it. They're like, hold on, wait, wait. I was like, option three. I'm like, what, I'll take it. And they're like, hold on. Wait, wait. I was like, option three. I'm like, what the hell? What other options are there?

He's like, 100% disabled, medically retired, come back as a GS-11 civilian instructor. Oh, civilian. Civilian. Maybe GS-11, you know, you're making like, I don't know, like $80,000 or above plus. And I was like, well, I was not expecting that. And this was like right before Christmas, like a week before Christmas. And I asked them, how long do I have to decide? Because I wasn't expecting that.

And they're like, you got after the Christmas break to let us know. So I went home, talked to a couple of mentors, and they all said the same things. Like, DT, you know what you're going to do. I was like, why are you wasting our time calling us? And they, yeah, they were right. I knew. The next day, I was like, I'm staying in. I was like, I'm reenlisting.

And on February 2010, that's when I became the first 100% disabled airman to reenlist in the Air Force. The first airman with a 100% disability rating to be allowed to reenlist. That is powerful, man. And to want to go back and help people and serve your country and serve others and, as you say, keep your promise, keep your word, that just is a masterful standing of character in my mind. I appreciate that, Chris.

I love my job, man. I didn't want to give it up. Why am I going to want to give it up? That's true. Plus, like you mentioned earlier, those guys in Iraq or Afghanistan, they don't get to win. You win in the end. Right.

That is very true. I did. I showed them that my my disability my injury was not going to define me i was going to define who i am and that's what i've been doing since then and you know that inspiration speaks to what a lot of people uh need in life you know we all go through trauma we all go through disappointments things don't work out failures uh lots of things can come at us at life. But taking that attitude of this isn't going to define who I am

and I'm going to control who I am is very powerful and empowering, giving you a reason to keep going. It does. You know, for me, it's still, even when, you know, earlier when you introduced me and said we're going to speak to a hero, I don't see myself like that. You know, it still feels weird. It's like I'm just a regular DT who likes to hang out with his friends, you know, drink some, you know, whiskey, you know, play some Call of Duty. You know, yeah, it takes me a little longer to put my pants on, but, you know, I'm still the same guy. You know, I don't see myself in that light.

For me, it didn't really hit me that how my words, my story impact people until this one event was I was speaking to the whole base on McGuire, which is in New Jersey, an Air Force base there. And I tell my speech, and I usually open it for question and answer. And some people will ask me things. Some people will wait till where they're shaking my hand, ask me a question, or even they'll way and message me on social media or, you know, direct message me and ask me. But this time there's this young, young lady.

She was an A1C, meaning she was probably in two years. Stands up and says, San Arturo, I've tried to kill myself many times. But I hear how you never gave up, how you kept going, you know, to be there for your family, to honor your dad's promise. You have helped me find my spark. You have helped me find value and continue fighting. And I just want to thank you for that. And for me, it just hit me.

I was like, for this young lady to stand up in front of her leadership and say that is when it hit me. It's like, my God, my story do impact people. Yeah. You know? And again, I'm a realist, man. I know I'm not going to affect, touch everybody out there. But those one or two that really need to hear, like that young lady that I just said, all that pain, all that suffering I went through in my life was worth it because she found her spark and she still found the will to live and fight.

There you go. And that's where you're going to make the biggest difference. And I'm sure you inspire a lot of people. I remember we had somebody on the show, an author a couple years ago, and I was in the midst of my book and the editing part. You know how fun that part is, right? And I was complaining after the show to her and she was a multi-book author. And she says, I'm going to tell you something. There's somebody out there that needs your book. There's somebody out there that needs your story that you're going to tell that's going to change their life and inspire them. You may never meet them.

You may never know them, but they need you to finish that book. And so if you can't finish it for yourself, you do it for them. And so I'm sure a lot of people are going to read your book. Your story is going to be amplified even more to more people. And you're going to help a lot more people be inspired and, and find their spark in life. Oh, I appreciate that,

Chris. And you know, you're, you're helping me do that. You know, me being allowed to be on your podcast and talk about this and my journey, you know, hopefully it does.

Cause at the end, you know, I just want to be able to not only honor my dad but to be out there and to help people on their darkest times and help them find their spark because i never i did i had to have people help me during my dark times and let me do that for them and my story does that then then i'm i'm honoring my dad as the best as i can there you go keeping um excuse me and keeping your word you know finding for your life i mean people this is i'm sure that maybe that young lady you know she needed to find uh you know keeping a word to yourself keeping your

word to others and uh making having that empowerment if you. So anything more you want to tease out on the book before we go? Well, I know now from, I guess I will say those who have heard me speak, I will say, you know, you can only go into detail in an hour or so. You really can't hit. But I wanted in my book to be more in detail, kind of know more of the little journeys that I went through and how I felt. And a journey like my wife, because I wanted to include her journey when I got hurt and what she had to go through. Because we like to think that, you know, when we're in a situation like that, the family is together. But a lot of times it's not. There's bickering, there's fighting.

And I wanted to show that, that even myself, you know, even though when I thought it didn't happen, it did happen. And my wife just didn't want to tell me. So, you know, this book goes into a lot more detail. And hopefully it helps, you know, seeing all those little details where, you know, I do have those bad days, how me waking up every morning, I may not show it, hurts. Yeah. I still keep getting up and going, you know. Yeah. So, you know, I just hope people really enjoy it.

Someone did ask me last time, like one of my friends, it's like, how's it going? How do you feel about this whole book thing? And I said, it's like, you know, honestly, right now it's more of a pain in the ass. And, you know, she's like, well, DT, think of it like a pregnancy. I'm like, huh? Well, you know, you're in this labor.

And then once that book's out, like a baby's out, all that joy is. And I was like, you know what? Brandy, I'll let you use that analogy because if I try and say that, not only are my friends going to bust my chops, but all my female friends are going to be like, are you really comparing your girlies to a pregnancy?

It might be your best. Which I understand. I get it. I get how she's trying to go, but I'll let you say that to other people. I'll just tell the story how you wanted me to use it. There you go. Well, July 4th, your book will be out, and I guarantee you, being an author is pretty damn cool. People look at you differently. Most people would never talk to me or have anything to do with me,

and now at least one person will talk to me. It's kind of cool. Well, Chris, people look differently at me all the time. It's like an added baggage of honor. I think the challenge is it's so hard to write a book and get it published and go through the editing process it's so hard that when you finally do it people just go you know you get an extra medal of regalia where you know people are like well this guy must be smart he wrote a

book you know i always like we're like so what did what it take three, four months to do a book? I'm like, yeah, I wish, dude. I wish. I was like, I turned in the script like a year ago. Yeah, I think you did it with Harper and Harper Collins, our friends over there. I mean, they take like a long year between just from the time you write it to publish it, but they do a great job. So it's been an honor to have you on.

I called you here earlier and in my book, and I hope a lot of people's books, any American who defends their country and enlists and puts their, I mean, they're putting their life on the line when they enlist. They don't know what's going to happen. You don't know when they're going to go to war. I was just reading Mattis' book. I think it was Callsign Chaos was the name of it.

And, um, and, uh, you know, when people enlist, they, they don't know whether they're going to go to war and it's, it's come what may. And they're, they're putting their lives on the line for freedom, our country, and this 200, almost 50 year old experiment that we're kind of still mucking through and trying to form a perfect union and probably always will be trying to form it.

But thank you very much for your service, sir. No, thank you, Chris. And thank you for having me on here. And I really do hope you enjoyed the book. We will. And I hope people pick it up and read it, share it, and learn some things about keeping their word, keeping their promise. We need more of that in this world

that these things matter and that there's a higher calling or higher purpose wherever you want to whatever you want to call that, but a higher purpose to ourselves and everything else. Thank you very much for coming on the show. I certainly appreciate DT. Thanks, Chris. There you go. Thanks, Maddox, for tuning

in. Order up the book wherever fine books are sold. Stay away from alleyway bookstores. You might run into DT's Pimson. No, I'm just kidding. Don't do that. I'm sure your wife loves that story. my life and keeping my word i highly recommend you pick it up at the via bell july 4th 2023 which i think is the birthday of these uh these things we call america america there you go you gotta love it thanks for tuning in to mine it's good goodreads.com for just christmas youtube.com for just christmas linkedin.com for just christmas and false on tiktok we started putting brett captain brett crozier uh, stories up there. Uh, what an amazing journey he went on. He was the gentleman who ran the, he's the captain of the theater Roosevelt.

And, uh, when, um, he had, uh, uh, resigned from his, uh, duty, there was relieved of his thing over the COVID thing, his shipmates or his shipmates, his ship men, uh, and women underneath him, they chanted his name and gave him a standing ovation as he walked up the ship is quite the inspiring story. If you remember it, uh, just a wonderful story.

Thanks for tuning into my audience. Be good to each other. Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time.