The Team House - One of the UK's Deadliest Snipers | Ted Shirley | Ep. 386

Episode Date: December 14, 2025

Ted Shirley is a former British Army sniper who served multiple deployments in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, and the author of Afghanistan Sniper. He now speaks publicly about combat, moral injury, PTSD, and recovery, using his experience to challenge stigma around mental health in the military and veteran community.Grab Ted's book "Afghanistan Sniper" here: https://a.co/d/bpjg5zkFollow Ted on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/tedshirleyauthor/?hl=enToday's Sponsors:TrueWerk ⬇️https://truewerk.com/houseuse code "HOUSE" for 15% off!GhostBed⬇️https://www.ghostbed.com/houseFOR 25% off! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For ad free video and audio and access to live streams and Eyes On Geopolitics...JOIN OUR PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTeamHouseTo help support the show and for all bonus content including:-live shows and asking guest questions -ad free audio and video-early access to shows-Access to ALL bonus segments with our guestsSubscribe to our Patreon! ⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseSupport the show here:⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse___________________________________________________Subscribe to the new EYES ON podcast here:⬇️https://www.youtube.com/@EyesOnGeopoliticsPod/featured__________________________________Jack Murphy's new book "We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History" ⬇️https://www.amazon.com/We-Defy-Chapters-Special-History-ebook/dp/B0DCGC1N1N/——————————————————————Or make a one time donation at: ⬇️https://ko-fi.com/theteamhouseSocial Media: ⬇️The Team House Instagram:https://instagram.com/the.team.house?utm_medium=copy_linkThe Team House Twitter:https://twitter.com/TheTeamHousePodJack’s Instagram:https://instagram.com/jackmcmurph?utm_medium=copy_linkJack’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackmurphyrgr?s=21Dave’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/dave_parke?s=21Team House Discord: ⬇️https://discord.gg/wHFHYM6SubReddit: ⬇️https://www.reddit.com/r/TheTeamHouse/Jack Murphy's memoir "Murphy's Law" can be found here:⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/Murphys-Law-Journey-Investigative-Journalist/dp/1501191241The Team Room Reading Room (Amazon Affiliate links):⬇️ https://jackmurphywrites.com/the-team-room-reading-room/Intro music by https://www.youtube.com/user/RemixSample"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"00:02 — START01:02 — Growing Up Military | Why He Joined the Army02:26 — First Afghanistan Deployment | British Infantry07:06 — How Sniper Selection Works | British Army14:33 — Pre-Deployment Training & First Combat Loss20:52 — Counter-Sniper Fight | Enemy Sniper Encounter26:15 — Helmand Firefight | “The Longest Day”38:10 — 1-Mile Sniper Kill | Combat Turning Point49:59 — PTSD & Moral Injury | Suicide Attempt59:03 — Sniper Recovery | Therapy, EMDR & Writing the BookBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Special Operations, Covert Ops, espionage, the Team House, with your host, Jack Murphy, and David Park. Hey, folks, this is episode 386 of The Team House. I'm Jack Murphy with our guest today, the author of Afghanistan sniper Ted Shirley. He served in the British military from 2007 to 2013 in the Royal. Welsh Fusiliers giving them sniper support and deployed to Afghanistan and then wrote this book and now does some public speaking about his struggles and recovery from post-traumatic stress. Ted, thank you very much for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, May.

Yeah, absolutely. So, Ted, the first question I always ask our guests, tell us a little bit about your upbringing and how that took you towards military service. yeah absolutely so uh my dad was in the navy uh he was in the falklands war so always i've had all these stories growing up as a kid uh you know more but this life of adventure so i very much wanted a bit of that for myself um so then various family members and stuff that had been in and uh yeah it just sort of led straight away really from school um i knew i knew I was always going to go in the forces.

Okay, so it really was, you know, like a family tradition for you. Yeah, yeah, very much so, yeah, yeah. I had this sense of pride about me that I wanted to do something in my country at that age. And so what part of the UK did you grow up in as a kid? So I'm in North Wales. So we're just a tiny little bit on the left. where the best people come from though good weather i take it

say again sorry good weather oh yeah it's uh it's currently raining sideways okay so 2007 presumably after high school you go into the army um tell us about kind of that process did you enlist as an infantryman yeah so i started off in the infantry yeah and a very

quickly. I found myself after training and getting to my unit. I was deployed to Afghanistan straight away on my first tour. Our unit was based out in Cyprus at the time. So it was quite a cool introduction to Army life for me. And then once we came back, that's when I then got selected to go on the sniper course. And that's where my journey really began, to be honest. Was your unit in Cyprus as part of like the UN peacekeeping sort of construct that exists there? Partly, yeah. We were mainly there as a quick reaction force to the Middle East. So there was obviously a big RAF base there, Akateri.

So that's what we would do. It would be a last minute call and then off we'd go. Gotcha, gotcha. And what was that first tour to Afghanistan like for you as a young infantryman? Yeah, for my first tour, it was okay. It was enough. I saw and did enough to get by and say that, yeah, that gave me the full experience. We were in a town called Musa-Karla.

So it was quite, you know, it was quite a hot town. But yeah, it was a good introduction. The first time I got shot at was, I thought it's hilarious, to be honest. I couldn't stop laughing. It was quite a surreal experience. but one I will not forget. I was talking, funny enough, to another guy that I know who was a sniper. And he was there on that day.

It was both our first tour. And we were just howling about how funny this was. You know, it was the dirt kicking up around you. You sort of burst into this uncontrollable fit of laughter. It wasn't nerves. It was just more happiness. Like, yes, we're actually doing it. And how did that day pan out for you guys?

as you know you're taking effective fire oh yeah it was actually a cheeky day um it ended in a a 30 kilometer tab across his plateau back with uh with no rations no supplies no nothing it was it was a good one it was uh yeah like said the full experience mm-hmm and what what was sort of like the unit's mission that took you guys out there so we were we were looking after a place called Roshan Tower, which was, you know, a big mobile phone unit on the top of it. It was quite a hot spot for the Taliban activity. So we were looking after that initially. And then we were to head towards this place called Mount Doom, which I just thought

was the coolest name ever. That sounds awesome. There's going to be some super bad guy in Mount Doom. So we headed down the wadi towards that. And it got a bit more kinetic than I think any of us realized it was going. into we end up getting a little bit cut off for a couple of days and then there was a special forces unit the other side of the waddy as well and they they had the exact same thing one they one of their guys got took out um so yeah it was a bit of a bit of a cheeky couple of days

and it was boiling hot as well oh my god was this uh helmand province yeah yeah yeah i mean i know the brits were there quite a bit and and helmand always also one of the most dangerous, you know, hottest parts of the country. Yeah. Yeah, it was, well, it's where I spent all my time and everyone that I was with. We were always in Helmand. And how long were you deployed there that first time? That first time was four months, being obviously part of this quick reaction force. The time that length would vary for everybody.

yeah so after we'd after we'd done that we were only in cyprus for another couple of months and we got returned then back to the UK back to the rainy weather and that's where we stayed that that was like kind of a normal rotation of units that go in and out of cyprus yeah it goes every sort of two years or so everyone moves about yeah and then you find everyone trying to go oh i need to actually stay here because yeah once you get settled in and everything yeah you're reluctant to

get a little bit used to the weather for sure yeah so when you come back from your first deployment what was sort of your interest in becoming a sniper did someone recommend that you go that route

or was it something you pursued to be honest it happened by pure chance it was something that I really wanted to do we always had, wanted to be a sniper, you know, obviously seeing all the films that we all sort of grew up watching and stuff. It was just my absolute thing. And then one day I was on guard juby.

I got talking to somebody and they said, oh, there's actually a space that needs filling on the pre-selection course. So I was like, whoa, put my name down. Well, you know, I really want to be a sniper. I'll go for this. This is my dream. Let's do it. So that was it.

That's how it started. and then you sort of do a pre-selection phase in the British Army, and then those that rise to the top of that are then sent away then to attend the course, which is six months long. Holy shit. I didn't realize that was such an extensive course they sent you guys to. Yeah. Oh, there's a reason we're good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no kidding. So tell us about this course. I mean, they must have, I mean, within six months, they can teach you really a lot. Hey guys, I want to tell you about the sponsor for tonight's show, which is True Work. They make Performance Workwear that's built like it matters because it does. In the fall, the weather changes real fast. It can be hot, cold, wet, windy, sometimes all during one shift. So you want performance workwear that will carry you through the entire day, like these pants that I'm wearing here today.

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Get 15% off your first order at TrueWork.com with the code house. That's T-R-U-E-W-R-K dot com and the promotion code to get 15% off is house, H-O-U-S-E. Thanks, guys. Yeah, okay, so it starts off. The first three months are very much the classroom phase, the learning theoretical side of shooting, ballistics, how around flies through the air, and what affects it. And then correlating with that is the range days where you're constantly all day, every day hitting targets at, you know, starting at 600 metres and then moving backwards. So from the offset, the learning curve is very steep.

If you fall behind that learning curve, then you've got no chance to catch up and you sort of off you go, you fall to the wayside. So the numbers reduce really, really quickly. Once that three-month phase is over, you then move to the Breck and Beacons of South Wales, which is obviously where the SAS do their selection phase. So it's a nasty area with some horror.

horrendous, horrendous weather. So you go there and this is where the tactical phase starts then. So this is where we would learn about the observation techniques, camouflage and concealment, into all these different things, how we'd actually physically go about being snipers and moving ourselves, being invisible, getting into all these fire positions and whatnot. And then, which these all culminate then in a test week at the end of that six-month course. which involves things like solo navigations and solo night navigations, sniper history tests,

which was actually quite a big part of it that I didn't realise was going to be a part of it. It felt a little bit like high school again, but we really enjoyed it. It was good, and it taught us how sort of creative the job role of being a sniper was going to be, you know, coming up with all these different funny fire positions and just excited. exciting ways of becoming invisible. It just really resonated. The Gillies were like Scottish hunters, right? Where the Gillies suit comes from?

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, so the gilly suits, yeah, they used to be the shroud that they'd wear as they'd go off hunting. Yeah, which is, it was a different story, but me and one of the lads ended up winning a sniper's competition. And the prize was to go off and go hunting a stag in the Scottish Highlands, but we got too drunk and we missed the bus

typical British squadby fashion and when you were in sniper school what is the platform that they teach students on? How do you mean? Which weapon system? Oh the weapon system so you start off with the L96

which was for us at the time just about transitioning out that was the old sniper rifle so it was a bit of a case of, you know, if you can do it with these, you'll be able to do it with the better ones. And then once we got into phase two, then we had the 3-3-8s, which was one hell of a weapon system. My God, it was heavy, but you could place around wherever you wanted it. Right.

It was incredible. Yeah, I can't say if I've ever fired a 338, but I know the Canadians used them for many years. You guys, and I think very slowly, the immediate. American military has gotten on board with the program. Yeah, it was just a sort of happy medium, I think, for the Brits between the sort of the 50 Cal, you know, and the 338, the L96, sorry, was just 7.62. So obviously, you know, having that heavier round

to be able to get those distances, where they were initially for helicopters for shooting, engine blocks out for stopping cars. And they went, all the lad to be able to carry them, do I? Yeah. Yeah, it's the infantry. You can carry heavy stuff. I mean, yeah, I've been told the round fire is very flat,

which I guess is what you were saying, that you can put rounds on target at, you know, at range. Yeah, big time, yeah. To the point where once we finished the six-month course and we sort of went away as snipers in our unit and did our own sort of pre-deployment training, at a thousand meters, we were hitting 10 pence pieces, which is, you know, you sort of like about a quarter, that sort of size. coin and we'd hit them every single time. Favorite and least favorite part of sniper's school? Or favorite part was the stalks.

I loved doing the storks. Worst part was weathering the gilly suit. That was a tradition. I'm glad you only go through once. Just crawling through. Oh, the gilly wash. Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah that was that was not fun

the instructor's got a little bit too much enjoyment now yeah yeah it's like they're there are a little assessment and selection program that they run out there yeah um and so you get you finished the six months graduate uh and then uh you mentioned you go into uh pre-deployment training yes yeah so this

what happened at this point so there was about eight of us left from the course now at this point which started off I don't know over 100 so we've then broken down

into five of us from my battalion which was the first battalion and then three of the lads were from the second battalion of the Royal Welsh they deployed those three deployed pretty much straight away to Afghanistan on separate operations to what we were going to be doing.

We then deployed to Kenya. We went to Kenya for two months pre-deployment training, which was absolutely incredible. It was something I'm never going to forget in my life. But while the other three were over there, and these were the closest of brothers that you can sort of get. One of them was killed by an IED, and it started this process for me especially,

but for all of us, I know it hit us hard. So we then, our life of pre-deployment had a bit of a different tinge to it. It became no longer this great, fun, enjoyment of thing, it switched to, yeah, we're going to war now. This is going to happen. Our reality tilted a little bit. So, yeah, everything sort of got very serious from that point after Kenya. And what sort of training did you do to prepare for this deployment?

And also, why don't you explain to us a little bit about how a sniper and the British infantry supports the ground troops and how they conduct operations? Yeah, absolutely, yes. So the idea with going to Kenya was the altitude and obviously the weather being so warm as being in soggy Britain, we don't get too much heat to training. So getting over there and getting to do that was incredible And the scale of these exercises There were live firing exercises

Where we'd have real artillery firing in And Lynx helicopters coming in And these mock villages built up And it was it was as cool as it was ever going to get You know, it was it was real real close to the real deal So our job as snipers Because there was only like so many Well, how many was there?

There was five. Five of us split between a battalion of about 800 men. So we were split thin between everybody. So our job roles were quite filled with pressure. Most of the time we'd initially go out on patrols with the guys on the ground and we would sort of be acting like ground troops. And when things kicked off, would climb up to a rooftop up and get into a position or something. And then it gradually changed to a point where we would then overwatch patrols as they were

going out. And that became much more efficient for us. But we were working alone. We didn't have anyone being spotters for us. So it was quite a high pressure job. Yeah. It's an interesting, like change and role, like at least the vision a lot of Americans have, I find, is from stuff about the Vietnam War.

that snipers operate independently by themselves in a sniper spotter role, you know, crawling around a gilly suit. But throughout the war, the war on terror, it was more like we were direct action snipers where you're actually supporting infantry on the ground. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, exactly. You know, you know yourself. It was sort of almost a safety blanket, I think, in a way.

Right. I know it brought a lot of confidence to the lads that I was overwatching. that I was over watching and it did quite a few of the times between as snipers it panned out quite well that we'd be able to spot things that were happening in the distance for instance one of the

lads spotted someone bashing through a wall making a murder hole with a Dushka anti-aircraft gun on the other side of it and the lads were patrolling down this road and they were about to get the good news and he managed to call it in and it got dealt with luckily but yeah it became

we very much we proved we were worth the trading that's put it out of sure and we were absolutely an asset yeah i mean this was uh an operation i was on in iraq where um one of our snipers and i won't say his name here but he's he's a great guy he was doing our overwatch for the assault teams that were coming into the structure and two guys got up on the rooftop this is in the middle of the night and they were about to maneuver and start shooting down on the assault team and he whacked both of those guys right off and when the assaulters got up there and search these dudes had like fighting positions with like RPKs and magazines frag grenades like they were they're ready to roll man

so the snipers saved all that yeah exactly like your story about them spotting the dishka um that stuff matters yeah it does yeah it because i don't think to be honest, any of us really realized how important we would be out there. We wanted to be snipers and we wanted to be doing that job, but I don't think we actually realized, whoa, we're changing battles here. Right, you know, we're doing things that are actually changing the way the course of this thing is moving. To the point where from hearing what our interpreters would listen to on how, Malaband radio frequencies and things like that, we knew that they were scared of us.

They wouldn't move if one of us was in the area, which was a great feeling to have, to be honest. Yeah, absolutely. Force multiplier. That's it. Yeah, we had these T-shirts made with Force Multiifier on the back. We loved them. So you get, you're over in Afghanistan now as a sniper. Back to Helmand Province? Yeah, back to Helmand Province. Yeah, we were rotating around a place called Navi Alley, another one called Babaji.

These were these were old. These were the numbers were in the hundreds. Numbers of enemy that you were encountering? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a big that they were training in the area. They were doing all sorts. This was very much where they were comfortable. So our tour.

became kinetic very early on and everyone out of all of the entire battalion everyone was fighting hard and so there's a couple stories that you relate in your book that i'd love to ask you about one of them being when you faced off against an enemy sniper yes tell us how that came about yeah yeah this is this is a day that my therapist got sick of hearing about this was honestly this was terrifying this experience and every single one of us

that were there would change from this from this experience we so what happened in the past few weeks we're about quarter of the way through the tour at this point

which was a six-month tour enemy snipers had been running wild in the area and they'd been strategically taking out British troops and they've been doing a good job of it. So task forces, sorry, were formed and a sort of counter-sniper operation began, which meant that all of those snipers were brought back together

for the first time. We were all kind of, what's going on here. And there's definitely something up where we're going to be doing something good. So we were staying in this little hangar on the outskirts of pretty much a ghost town at this point. But what had happened was a platoon of British troops had been stranded and pinned down by an enemy sniper. He was a foreign hired gun. It turned out potentially Chatsnian, but we weren't 100% or not. And our job was basically to go and collect these troops who'd lost quite a few of their own

and hopefully take out this sniper that had them pinned down. So we moved in. It was about probably a 10 kilometre patrol in. And when we got there, we come through the compound gates, and I can remember just seeing their faces. The troops that had been there for however long, they looked broken and exhausted. They looked like they had been fighting for their lives. And there was two tower positions.

So those snipers took ourselves to one side. Our commanders went and spoke with their commanders. and we came up with this plan that myself, one of the lads of the lads grey, we're going to climb up this tower, and then one of the other lads, Benny and Adi, we're going to climb up another one. So we did, and as we got to the top, we haven't even settled in or anything,

and this shot rang out, and it was like nothing we'd ever heard before. We didn't know what the hell this thing was. It was powerful. So we've all sort of gone down, shit, what the fuck was that? So I poked my head up to try and see if I could see what it was, and it bang straight away

and it was, you know when it's inches away and you get that little, the whistle sound, oh, fuck. And I was like, oh, this is real closest. So I've looked across to the other tower.

Benny, one of the other boys, just popped his head up and instantly again, bang! This round, so it's gone through a two metre HESCO cage of gravel, through a full T-7-662 ambition, and through a railway sleeper,

and then off into the far distance. it was some sort of incredible mega weapon. We don't know what it was, but he wasn't messing and he wasn't going to miss again. So 100 metres to the north of our position now, there was another compound. So it was decided, obviously, we can't poke our heads up anymore because someone's going to lose ahead.

Get down and we'll come up with a different plan. So the plan was that individually would run this 100 metre sprint across to the next compound, and then hopefully one of us would be able to get a different angle and we'll be able to take this guy out. So we've all sort of stood against the wall and cigarettes are getting passed down the line and the lads that don't even smoke or have,

and there's overgo and then eventually it's my turn. I'm sort of almost hyperventilating in the doorway going, fuck, he's going to go for me, he's going to see the sniper rifle, he's going to fucking shoot me, here we go. And that's all that was going from my head. And then I sort of had this moment where, right, fuck, I need to calm down. It's actually my turn.

and braced in the doorway and just ran, zigzagging like a madman, cavi, in about seventh stone of kit. But eventually it burst through this compound door. We've all made it through safe. And there was nothing to worry about because a couple of minutes later, an Apache was in the air, and it just evaporated the place. Everything was gone.

There was no more bad guy. And we could all go home and try and shake it off. But it took me a long time to shake that one off. that fear was real. Did you ever figure out what he was shooting at you? We didn't. No, I never heard. There was rumors, but I don't know anyone that went anywhere near it to be able to find out

what it was. Right, right. Someone was saying it was an old Lee Enfield rifle. 303. Yeah. So it could well have been. It sounded like something that had had the exhaust cut off it or something. It was a beast.

Right, right. Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds like it wasn't a SVD or something. It had to be more than that. Yeah, no, it wasn't anything like that, no. This time of year, the pace doesn't slow down, but you still need to. The calendar's packed, the weather's changing, and your body's reminding you that it's time to rest and reset. That's where ghost bed can help. It's a family-run company founded by a team with over 20 years of mattress-making expertise.

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the makers of the coolest beds in the world. Some exclusions apply, see site for details. And thank you, Ghostbed for sponsoring the show. Please check out the link down in the description and support our sponsor. And then there is another chapter of your book called It Was the Longest Day.

Yeah, the longest day. Yeah, so this all sort of starts this chapter. A Delta Force team had actually been in the area and they'd come into a bit of trouble. One of many injuries that the team had sustained was the chopper pilot. A few days later, we were told that there was more enemy in the area than

than what had been expected and that our orders were to go and kick this hornets nest and see how many Taliban they're actually where in this town. We found out. We definitely found out. So this job started about, it was about 4 o'clock in the morning, we all got on to Chinooks. And we've flown through the night sky,

and just as we've arrived on the target area, they were waiting for us. The Taliban, they must have known that we were coming because these Dushka aircraft weapons started going off as RPGs flying at us, rounds of pinging off the side of the Chinooks. And we're just sat there, I'm sat there holding this useless sniper rifle thinking, fucking I don't like this.

It was so uncomfortable, just having to rely on someone else to keep us safe. It just felt so foreign. So, you know, the tail guns and the sideguns on the Chinook We're going like, fuck, and they're sending thousands of rounds down. And they managed everything quieted down a little bit, and they managed to drop us in the middle of this mud, freshly plowed, wet field that was like mud up to your knees, every step's heavy.

You know, you know the fields, you know, those ones that you get stuck in. Eventually, it all calmed down, and we managed to get ourselves out of this field. And then we had three pre-designated compounds. We were going to go in a triangular formation, take up these compounds, and see what happened. So the sun had just started to come up at this point. And we vented our compound that made it safe, and I've climbed onto the rooftop. As I've done this, everyone around me is filling sandbags and bashing holes through walls and making firing points and all this sort of stuff.

We know it's going to be a bit of a tasty day. So everyone's sort of getting prepared for that and getting ammunition out and ready and whatnot. I've then noticed in the far distance of motorbike going from left to right and it's got one guy on it and then it's got two guys on it and then it's got one guy in it. Yeah, yeah, okay. And then I saw a mini bus. It had just the driver and then it was full of fighting age males. Comes back, just the driver.

And obviously the Taliban were being dropped in fire positions and this was happening everywhere around us. We didn't know this, but a couple of hundred Taliban were actually moving into positions. to start this day. So I've called down to the boss on the ground, who's on the radio below me, and said, I'm going to let loose a warning shot and let this guy know that I've seen them, because I don't want them getting up around,

letting their plan be, you know, as good as it can possibly be, I want to disrupt this early. So I've let loose around, and as I've done that, this crescendo of noise just erupted. It was like, You know, sort of like 5pm in a jungle when everything just goes

and comes to life. It was like that. It was intense. RPGs and machine gun fire and AK-47 fire just came from everywhere. The rounds were smashing into the walls and chipped walls, this compound everywhere. And below me were fighting like lions. They were sort of managing to keep the Taliban back from these walls

because there was all these rat runs and little tiny alleyways that it was a maze basically up to the back of our compounds so they're keeping them back and then I've noticed these rounds are getting really,

really close to my head and so someone's clearly aiming for me here so I've had a look around and I've spotted this guy and at this point I'm 21 years old I've looked and this guy was probably same age as me

maybe a couple of years younger and he's gone AK-47 and he's firing him bursts around at my head. And this became the turning point for me. This is where I was so angry. I've never

been so angry at my life. And a switch flipped in my head where I started to then blame this guy and the guys that were firing from around the corner. I started to blame them for the death of my friend from the sniper course. And his face just kept coming into my head. And I'm

I made it really, really personal. And it got to this point where I wanted this guy to suffer. And I sort of cast my mind back to, now this is 750 metres away, so not, you know, nothing out of the ordinary for a sniper. Cast my mind back to the 10-pence pieces on the targets and just thought, yeah, I'm going to shoot him in the throat. Because I didn't want it to be instant.

I didn't want a headshot. I wanted revenge. So I'll let loose this round. He's hit him in the throat. He's then dropped his weapon, and he's kind of holding himself together a little bit and starts calling out to behind these two buildings over to his left. And as he's done that, another one has come out,

fired a burst of rounds at me. And I've then fired and took him out. And then another one came. I've done the same again, same again. And another one, finally, a fifth one came, fired a bunch of rounds, and I've took him out as well. And then, so this went on for like 13 hours this day. How long do you think, you know, when you shot those five guys, how long a time period do you think that is?

Because it sounds like you were racking the bolt just going to town. Yeah, that's how it was, yeah. It was probably the space of a couple of minutes. Yeah. Yeah, they were sort of, yeah, it was, it felt, oh, it felt like forever. it felt like everything had slowed down into this moment that just kept me in this little vortex to be honest it was such a surreal moment and then after that happened after this sort of whole day had calmed down the chinooks came back picked us up and we went back to bastion then um where we had a couple of days

there get our kit ready and then it was time for the next job which was Operation Moshtarack which went along with Marger, wasn't it? Marjor Marines, as that, it was all part of the same operation. So at this point, I've started to notice I'm having nightmares and my thoughts aren't the same as they used to be. My temperament is different and I'm getting extremely irritable and angry. But I've kept my mouth shut because, you know, I'm not going to leave these guys.

At this point, one of our snipers, he's been medically evacuated back to the UK after an incident with a helicopter injured in him. He ended up falling out of the back of a Chinook from about 20-foot high onto a pile of rocks. Yeah, nasty. He's fine now, there's nothing wrong with now. So that was him home.

So we were spread out even thinner across the grounds. And then off we went. So my start to Operation Marsdrak was jumping onto a Black Hawk. We were the lead aircraft going in. And as we did, an RPG has been fired up at us. And the aircrafts banged. And the slide doors had been open. And I was sat on the edge and there wasn't enough seats.

And as it's gone, I fell out the bloody door. I fell out of one of the guys who managed to lean over and quickly grab my kit and yank. me back in. So I've had a heart attack on the way in there. And it's not even daytime yet. It's still dark. So I've got in there. I've got a bit of a sweat on. And then we've landed in this misty field next to this canal. This sleepy town, what we thought we were landing into, turned out it wasn't at all. It was a mega stronghold. And very quickly after Russ, the aircraft all left. And this day, by the way, was.

was something like 82 helicopters doing wave after wave of dropping troops into the area. So thousands of troops were being moved constantly that morning. And all of a sudden a Tanoi speaker turned on. And someone started speaking in Pashto. And obviously we couldn't understand what they were saying. So I interpreted at Mike, he started translating what they were saying. And they were saying that anyone that lives in this town needs to leave or join them in the fight, there's going to be the biggest of holy battles, all this sort of stuff.

And it was a daunting message to hear, but one that a quick cigarette and a laughing joke would shook it off. So the operation had begun and the locals had moved out of this town. They would jump it on anything that moved and off they went. So we'd taken over a compound at this point. And just as the other operation, everyone's feeling. sandbags and creating defensive positions and stuff because we were going to be operating here now for the next few months. I've been on the rooftop and all of a sudden, it's like, crack, crack, AK-47 burst straight over our heads and I thought, oh, here we go. And then an RPG has come

straight after it set to airburst and it's just popped straight above our fob. So this has obviously got everyone running around on the ground kind of what the fuck's going on. So I'm correlating down to the ground to the bosses, what's going on there, relaying it over the radios. And I'm talking and saying, I'm going to lose this guy in a minute. Anyway, it started. We've been there for a few hours. I ended up taking this guy out. And then everything went quiet for days.

It was almost like it was a bit of a test, you know, see what they could get away with. And the answer was nothing. On the other flip side of this behind us, sharing our compound with the French Foreign Legion, and they were working to the south. So we're very quickly established that we weren't messing around. We weren't playing games. So the tour progressed. And as it's done that, my mental health has started to decline.

But again, quietly, I've not said anything. People have started making comments that I was in the middle of the night. I'd be screaming in my sleep or fighting in my sleep and things. and I'd started to write these poems. I didn't really understand what it was at the time, but it was my subconscious, I think, just trying to alleviate some of this weight that I was feeling and express some things I couldn't,

or I felt I couldn't say to other people. I was too scared of the stigma and the repercussions of what happens if I do say something. So I continued on, which then brings us, to another story in the book. This was, the chap was called the One Mile Shots,

which was probably my most snipery moment. Okay. Of the hobby tour, this was the moment that, yeah, there was very much on my highlight reel of things that I'd achieved as a sniper. We had taken over a compound

and we'd been there for a few months at this point. And it was all right. You know, we were getting into firefights and the usual sort of stuff. But it wasn't anything too heavy in our compound where we particularly were. And then a couple of clicks away, one of our units had come under quite heavy fire. And I'm just sat there playing cards with the guys at this point. Nothing makes exciting is going on. A few people reading magazines and the message came through to the radio.

That they might be heading in this direction. They're not showing me how many Taliban they were. but they might be retreating towards us. So could I jump on the roof and have a little look in the distance? So where our compound was, you've got us and then this next town or this next group of buildings there, and then nothing but open property field all the way for a mile. So it was perfect, really.

There was not really that many opportunities for a shot to be made like that. So I've jumped on the roof. A couple of guys have gone up there with me to sort of look for real. and things like that. As I'm looking, I wasn't really expecting to see anything. And then I saw some movement between two of the buildings. And there I saw I'm playing as day, three Taliban, AK-47s by the sides, and the walk-in-in-single file.

And I thought this was probably due to the IED threat in the area, which was massive. There was so many IEDs. It was ridiculous. What I did notice as well, though, as I was observing them. was the guy in the centre seemed to be commanding the one to the front and the rear. They looked like they were his protection, almost his protection order. So devised a plan.

Now, my mind at this point was different to anything it had ever been before. It was callous and it was quite dark. At this point, what would later be described as, an addiction to squeezing that trigger had sort of took a hold of me. And this campaign of revenge, I suppose, that I'd created in my mind. So I decided that what I was going to do was I was going to take out the insurgent at the rear, and then I was going to take out the one in the front, and then I'd take out the command at last, and the idea was to create chaos and fear.

it was the one mega tool that we had as snipers was the fear that we could cast into the enemy so I very much wanted to do that so between me and my potential targets were three separate directions of wind it was it was a nightmare so I had one coming in from the left one coming from the right and another one coming in from the left down towards them. So it's taken 11 calculations in the end for me to do this and I am no good at maths, no good. So I did it on a calculator. That's what I'm this little calculator.

I go, did the dip, right, here we go. So I've put all my clicks in and at a mile away, the Schmidt and Bender scope that we had, it wasn't made to go that far. So I was actually having to aim off the target.

it to land the rooms on, which was the first time I'd ever attempted anything like this. You know, I'd only read about it and read the theory side of it, you know. So it was quite a big moment. So I'd taken my house, my body armour off, and I've got my cap on, my shooting cap, and I've got my force multiplier T-shirt on, and I've got comfortable. Oh, right, okay, here we go. I'm going to do this. It's got to be now because the sun was dipping, and it was very much last line.

There was a few minutes to go. and I've lay there and I've got into my bubble so I talk a lot in the book about the in depth about what it was like squeezing that trigger the thoughts at the time, the thoughts before or how it felt physically and I've got into this calm meditative state of what it's like obviously pulling the trigger for those door distances and I missed I couldn't believe it I could not believe I missed I've done all these calculations right So very quickly then, it's been a kind of off-the-cuff job where I've chambered the next round and sent it straight away.

Same guy, same target at the rear. And this time it's hit him, it's hit him in the stomach and it's folded him and off and he's gone down. So with this, the front insurgent and the commander have then turned round. And as the realisation of that is set in, I've sent the next round for the front insurgent. He's gone down. And then it turns out the guy in the centre of the centre of, was a Taliban commander.

He's then run, and as he's run, I've sent my next round, and that's gone through his torso. All of a sudden, the radio litter, and an American Apache pilot had been in the air and witnessed the whole thing, and he caught down saying, tell that sniper, that was some good shooting. So I was like, oh, thank you very much, cheers.

But then after that, I climbed down off the roof, and all the guys on the ground around me was sort of like, oh, my God, well done, you know, I was a mile away. I can't believe I'm fucking far away. I just made these shots. I had the interpreter telling me, oh my God, that's a teleban commander.

The net was going absolutely insane. And my world just closed in. Like I had tunnel vision and everything became really muffled. I could hardly understand what people were saying. And I couldn't talk. I just didn't speak. It was like my whole existence.

I was closing down. I walked down the corner and just started to smoke. smoking one after the other and just replaying these events but I wasn't in control of it. It just out of nowhere happened. I have no idea what the fuck was going on. No idea. And then the following day, another contact happened.

And that was, that was it. The, I had nothing left. I'd broken. I've reached breaking point and gone past it. And then people around me. Gotcha. Okay. Something's not right here.

Something needs to. be done and then it was. You know, something I'd like to kind of make clear to people and, and I'd like to hear your view also, is there's this, there's a difference between being a sniper and being an infantry men that in the sense, when you're in an infantry platoon and you get into a firefight, it's very chaotic. It's not totally clear who shot who, you know, it can be very difficult to pin that down. And so after a mission, like guys can kind of like,

brag like, oh yeah, I killed that guy. But deep down, everyone knows, maybe they did, maybe they didn't. We don't really know, you know. So it becomes this more like shared experience of like the platoon killed those guys. Whereas as a sniper, it's like, you know damn well, you fired on that guy and you killed that guy and you know you did that. And, you know, the combat you're describing to me sounds completely reasonable and you were fighting enemy combatants who were armed, you know, There's nothing to be ashamed about. But nonetheless, you as an individual have to find a way to live with that, right? Yeah, very much so.

It was a heavy burden to bear, to be honest. It wasn't really something that I thought too much about, I never thought I thought about, I've thought about doing it. I thought about what it's going to be like. I never thought about the aftermath of what that would be like. And it was very personal. You know, I've described in the past and I've done in the book where I see the face of the person. You know, like you're talking about their normal infanteer might see a movement or a shadow or a general direction,

splash of where everyone else is around going, whereas I would be able to look and see these people in the face and be able to tell whether they were trained. Is this a trained individual or is this someone that's had 50 bucks and given a weapon and said to go and shoot in that direction? you know and there was some of them some of them where those type of people others were trained and they were moving like you know you can tell can tell if someone's had training the way they're moving the way they're holding the weapon

so I never I never have the the worry of saying oh you know maybe it was me maybe it was you know it was them or me that I couldn't

I could never really settle with because I never saw it as them or me it was always it was never going to be me it was always going to be them so it that's that's doing your job by the way i should point out like it's supposed to be them yeah yeah that's the aim of the game yeah so it was something that i couldn't in the end it was almost like i lowered this wall of emotion before going i couldn't enough i didn't want to miss people at home. I didn't want any distractions. I didn't want this distraction of thinking that way before having to pull that trigger. I was very close down, very much in a sniper's mindset,

and an angry sniper at that. So when I let this wall down of feeling the type of way and thinking that these people are responsible for the death of my friend, I believe that is the moment where I let empathy in. And then from that point, it was like a drip that just kept going and going and getting bigger and bigger until I was feeling into their pain. I was feeling into the look of horror or the look of absolute fear that I saw on their faces. I started to imagine, oh my fucking God, how terrifying must that have been? You know, watching that every time one of your friends comes out, he gets killed and then you're the only one left.

How frightening would that have been? It must have been a very horrendous experience. and having then on the flip side of that being shot at by a sniper where we never spotted this guy, we had no idea where it was and how terrifying that was, I started to put all these things together and then thinking, okay, they are the enemy, but they're also a human being and this is where my PTSD became complex and it wasn't until probably 10 years later that I actually managed to figure out what was going on. Well, I didn't, my therapist did. I'm much sure if heard of a moral injury.

Right, yeah. That was something, it was like a light bulb moment for me, which, you know, our core values are created as children. And as much as I wanted to be doing this job, my core values of taking a life and it being that personal, it just didn't correlate. It didn't go well together. And that, I believe, was where it all started to unravel.

That the tail end of that deployment, you said that this PTSD issue really came to a head. Was there something, a final sort of catalyzing moment that led your chain of command to realize, like, hey, we need to get Ted some help? Yeah. So people have noticed that I was doing these poems. I'd also been drawing my nightmares, which were happening at this point. there were no longer dreams, they were nightmares. So I had to get them out with me. I'm this creative person.

I've always sort of drawn or written music and done all sorts of stuff. But it was just coming out of me. I had to let it out somehow, but silently. And everyone had noticed. And then we have this thing here called trauma risk management where you sit down as a questionnaire, which is sort of numbers one to ten. So this guy has sat me down and given him.

me these tests and asked me these questions and he turned around and said he'd never seen scores this high. So he was like, fuck, so it needs to be done like today, like now, right now. So I'm still on the front line at this point. So a mastiff vehicle has been sent to collect me, which meant a patrol of blocs had to come out, get me, put me in this vehicle, take me back to a different forward operating base, and then a Chinook has come in and took me back to Bastion. So it was a big deal.

but I'm so glad that they did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very glad. Once that had happened, it was almost like this weight kind of fell off me a little bit. I was instantly in front of a psychiatric nurse, but I was let down, to be honest. They told me I was tired

and suffering with a bit of an addiction to squeezing the trigger. I should just go and work in the stores, have a couple of weeks there, try and get some sleep, and I'll be okay so okay

smashing off I go that's what I'd do so I went to work in the stores it was humiliating you mean like logistics like handing out boots and uniforms to soldiers yeah that shit

oh man it was can you imagine can you imagine so as I'm doing this dog shit job one of our blokes got killed several got

injured and one of my very, very close mates, he was catastrophically injured, losing eyesight and limbs, multiple limbs. I've then received the bag of his kit working in the stores. I've received this plastic bag and I'm like, what the fuck seen his name on it? Fuck. Oh man. It was a shit moment. So then we had about 10 days or so left on the tour at this point, so it was right at the end. fucking shit. But then one of the bosses, well, he was a platoon sergeant, he said, look, this is shit,

we've got 10 days to go, but I need a group of guys for a volunteer operation in a bit of a shit area. So straight away, me. Get me out there. And I managed to just fucking lie my way

through doctors, appointments, nurses and all sorts of stuff. That was absolutely fine. You're right. Oh, my God. You were so right. I was just tired. I needed to work in the stores, fixed, get me back out there.

So I was allowed out, back on the front line on, with the condition that I didn't take my sniper rifle, which annoyed me. But it is what it is. I don't know the reason for it, the speculation, but I don't know. Yeah, they were afraid you were going to be the sniper in saving Private Ryan, like reciting verses from the Bible up in the bell tower. exactly that that's pretty much what I've heard

to get that dangerous man at home so yeah that happened that 10 day off ended in a couple of Taliban digging in an IED for us on our main supply route

they got vaporised by a predator missile and then two days later I'm back in a pub in my hometown completely naked stood on the table with my parents and all my family around me, just drinking pints of vodka and trying to pretend that I'm

normal. I don't know. Yeah. So Ted Shirley knows how to party. Yeah. Yeah. But I had a bank full of money and just a desire for drink. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. To a point that it gets unhealthy. I get it. So tell us kind of about like you said there's, it sounds like it was, you know, maybe a. decade-long process of kind of processing these experiences. What was that like from, you know, being drunk in the pub two days back home to, you know, getting and recovering, I guess?

It was, yeah, it was a very long, like long, drawn-out process. I was drinking then heavily, relying on it as a crutch. I wasn't dependent on it, but I used it to make excuses for my behaviour. I'd go out and get into fights a lot, sometimes to win, sometimes more often than not, to lose, just to sort of feel this, feel this pain that I felt I deserved. I felt a lot of guilt and shame for what I'd done. And I was really uncomfortable on what we call Civy Street. I couldn't, I just couldn't deal with it.

All I wanted to do was get back to Afghanistan, which was. we were going to be doing the following year. And then one day, everything came to a head. I'd been having panic attacks and flashbacks and things, but I didn't know what these things were. I had no idea, and I just played them off, and still managed to keep her quiet, until one day I was living with my parents and my sister at this point.

I, in a blackout rage, ended up flying across the table and attacking my dad, and we've got a fantastic relationship. I don't remember doing it. I didn't know I was doing it at the time, and that scared the life out of me until I came around and we're on the floor and I've kind of let go,

and what the fuck, grab a kit bag, jumped in the car, drove back to camp, and then the following morning, I've gone to my platoon sergeant and said, look, this is what's been happening, it's been under the radar, but it's gone a bit too far now.

didn't mind fighting strangers and, you know, things like that. But this is where I draw the line. Very luckily, there was a psychiatric nurse in camp at the time. My first thought was, why? Who's lost the marbles in camp? I'd never heard of it before. I'd never heard of PTSD before. I'd not heard to mental health before in my fucking life.

I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was happening in my brain. I just knew that I was really angry, and then if I got in trouble, it felt better for a little bit. Then got in trouble with the law. And things were rapidly going downhill. This then ended with me starting to see psychiatrists once a week, getting given ridiculous amounts of medication, still in the army at this point. and then on a cold, rainy day in November 2012 I decided that I was going to kill myself.

I couldn't say this anymore. So I've driven off in my car that parked up next to a river and slipper wrists immediately realized I don't want to fucking die. I want to get better. I just don't want this. I don't want to die. You don't want to feel like that every day.

Yeah. Yeah. It was like this moment. where I just woke up for a second. And I was back to this depressed state, but just for a second, I felt alive. That then very quickly ended up with me spending three months in a psychiatric ward,

locked up on the other side of the country. No contact from anybody. It was a very tough time. I then managed to get out of the hospital after three months and was a few months later, medically discharged from service. So that's when I sort of found myself

flailing in the wind a little bit. I had no identity and no job. My closest friends and the people closest to me in my life would not have gone. And I was lost, very lost. Luckily, I received a letter and the Army had arranged a therapist appointment with the NHS, so, you know,

the National Health Service over here. I went for a few months and started to get better, but then this niggily voice in my head started to tell me that I wasn't worth this guy's time and somebody else is in a worse thing than me. Someone else should be having this appointment, not me. And I imagine he saw it a lot, and I now know that a lot of people do do it.

So I withdrew from therapy, but I'm glad that I did. It didn't feel right, but it didn't feel wrong either at the time. It allowed me the time to go and travel the world, which is then what I did for the next few years, starting in Asia and then Australia and then Canada, America and Mexico. It was a great few years. I found myself. Just backpacking around?

Yeah, yeah. It was amazing. There was six of us that bought. We went to Caldalen. and bought a motorhome. We called them Marge. And it got driven all the way down to Nicaragua through California.

It was an epic trip. It was good. So you can read all about that in the book. Marge. She was a beauty. So while I was doing all this, I was still struggling, but I was doing all these amazing things.

I was getting up to as much stuff as I could. But I felt, better, but I was just distracted from it all, to be honest, with drinking, partying and all sorts of adventures. I then returned to the UK, and my PTSD came back 10th old. It kicked my ass. So that's when I then managed to get back in touch with my old therapist, but there was a 12-month waiting list. Oh, shit. So this... Yeah. So I was quite lost at this point. I thought, what the fuck?

I'm going to do? How am I going to get through this next 12 months? So for a few years prior to this, I'd already started to meditate and sort of look into the spiritual side of life. Nothing religious, just the idea of meditation and wellness and mindfulness. So I lent into that. And obviously, while backpacking, I was introduced to, as we put it, let's put it, plant medicines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So cannabis being one, magic mushrooms or psilocybin being the other one, and then DMT would be in the third one.

And they were, they didn't cure me by any means. I have to sort of be careful when I say this. But I really do believe that they have got a strong place in giving people the ability to recover from these things. They allowed me to do work internally that I wouldn't have normally been able to do. They allowed me to face things. There were horrendous memories in incredible detail without becoming overwhelmed, as well as the idea that my mood was lifted from cannabis.

I was able to sleep better. My mood was stabilised rather than having these huge dips and props. My life was starting to feel manageable. Then at therapy. So this was then two years of weekly therapy sessions. Combined that with the plant medicines and it was a very interesting journey to say the least, let's say that. The idea of going to therapy terrified me at first. I thought that people would think I was weak or, you know, that I wasn't meant for the job that I was doing and all these sort of stigma things.

that's just nonsense. Just absolute nonsense. That's why I've written this book is to try and blow all this stigma stuff out of the water because people can read about a sniper doing all that sort of stuff. And then in the same book they can repeat. You can read about all this depression and sadness

that I felt. Then, you know, hopefully it'll show the full spectrum of a human experience. Yeah, yeah. I know this is like a, a long process, there wasn't like one moment that like, oh, I'm recovered now. But sort of like, what was that sort of path to recovery? I mean, was it going back into therapy and having a consistent sort of traction there? Yeah, very much. So, yeah. It was having these weekly

therapy sessions. And then firstly, being taught techniques that would enable me to ground myself and cope after panic attacks or sometimes even prevent having a panic attack, breathing exercises and these sorts of things and grounding techniques, that was a big part of it at first. I needed something that would enable me to calm down. So once that was addressed, it was then CBT, so cognitive behavioral therapy. This addresses our behaviors, really.

So that simplified version would be something happens. Our brains think a certain way. We then act in a certain action. So for me, things like road rage, for instance, someone cuts you up on a road, you start screaming and shouting, next minute I'm out of the car chasing this car down the road, which happened multiple times. It was ridiculous. I was this unhinged madman that was just a little ball of anger. Horrendous.

Irrendous, completely different to who I am. It completely changed me as a person. So this CBT therapy enabled me to address that, address how I dealt with anger. about how I dealt with variability and things like that. So that was the next phase. And then we moved on to something called EMDR. I'm sure if you've heard of this, eye movement, desensitization and reprogramming. So this is where for me, there's various ways you can do it,

but I had a light bar in front of me, and there's light with go from left to right, right to left, almost like sort of hypnotism kind of thing. And what that does, again, is a very simple version. When we sleep at night and we go into REM sleep, deep sleep, on memories and thoughts are processed from left to right, left to right, and they go back, left to right, left to right, and then they're stored away in a long term memory.

Traumatic memories, imagine there's a clerk in your brain that puts all these files away in the correct places. These thoughts or experiences are too traumatic for them to be able to deal with. So these pieces of paper are just left to fly around willy-nilly. So what EMBR does with the left-to-right eye movement, it imitates that practice. this. So while being awake, you can move your eyes from left to right, left to right, think about these things. And what would happen, it wouldn't be so much a guided thing.

The therapist would very much, most of the time, be quiet and just listen to where my mind would go. And it would go from things that happened in Afghan to a childhood memory, sometimes good ones, sometimes bad ones, nothing ever really bad as a child ever happened to me. But it was strange, it was almost like a map of where my mind was working. and then it would go for on 60 seconds I'd say what report what I'd seen in my mind and then I'd go back into it, ease back into it. That correlated a lot for me.

It freed me of the shackles. The emotions that were attached to these memories were no longer there, so it enabled me now. Like for instance, there's never, in a million years that I'd have been able to sit here and talk to you in detail about these things that had happened that happened in the book. I'd never have been able to write the book.

But now I can think back at these events in the detail that's required. And it doesn't affect me. It doesn't mean I don't feel any type of way or I have no remorse for the loss of a life or anything like that. But I have no overwhelming emotions or nothing like that. I'm not going to go away and have nightmares tonight or be thinking about it all day and night. Right. It's not out of control anymore. No, I own those memories now. They very much do not own any space in my mind if they belong to me.

So it was learning that at this point now in the therapy, I began to learn that this could actually go away. This could actually really disappear. Now, I'd always been told for the past 10 or 12 years that I could only learn to live with my symptoms and that I thought people would just be able, people just went about their lives with PTSD, just having PTSD and shaking babies to death and things. And you know what I mean? I just thought it was this thing that, oh,

oh, you're a veteran with PTSD? Unlucky, mate. Like it was this light sentence. Right, yeah, yeah. Sorry, bro. My wife was not going to stand for that. No way. So, yeah, so I've refused.

to give up. And my therapist was very sort of encouraged by this and we worked really, really hard. And in the end, I was able to get rid of PTSD. I don't have PTSD anymore. I don't have any issues whatsoever. And back when I was at my worst point, I would have loved to hear someone say that. There was no one I'd ever heard of say that. There was no hope.

Now, I am quite literally here, and I've written this book. I've done this whole thing for hope, for people to be able to just hear the message that you can dedicate your life to change and you can change your life. I'm not here to be some sort of like salesman, cheesy person, but it's a message that I'm just so, oh, people need to hear it. I've lost too many people to suicide and everyone has. And it can all be fixed for talking. I didn't do anything magical. I talked. That was it.

Talked to someone that'd listen once a week. How did the idea for the book come about? When did that start to percolate in the back of your mind? Oh. There was little diaries and journals that I'd started writing while in Afghan. Again, a way of letting these bits and pieces out. So I had bits of paper floating around from that. And then with all the therapy, came a lot of homework.

So a lot of paperwork. So I've got a couple of folders over there that are just filled with notes. So a lot of it comes from that. A lot of it is almost like a fly on the wall, watch this happy young man go to ball, get a fact up by it, and then go therapy and see what happens in therapy. You know, it's, it's, I don't know, it was a nerve in it first, having this book come out. because I felt quite vulnerable

and open to the world, but that is the whole point is to show that that's all right. What has been the response to the book since it's been out? Amazing. The messages of support that I've had have been incredible

and more importantly to me, the messages and comments of how it's helped other people, people have been able to see someone that's in their shoe you know, I've had a message from somebody that's currently in hospital, suffering exactly what I was going through. And I was able to just spend two minutes talking to them,

give them a little bit of advice and it's helped. So that's what it's all about now for me. Obviously, I'd like to make a living out of it as well, so everyone go buy the book. And it's available now. People can find it on Amazon or in the bookshop. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think Barnes & Noble is it the big one?

Yep, that's another one. Yeah, they've got it, yeah. But Amazon's the main one, yeah. Let's get it up those ranks. Yeah, we'll have links down the description for people who want to go and check it out. And you've also gotten into doing some public speaking? Yeah, so this is something that I've just the past few weeks started to do now. It was never anything I intended on doing, but it's kind of gone hand in hand with writing the book.

And I'm loving it. I am really enjoying it. It's very much based around the book, but a little bit more of an in-depth look of how PTSD happens and how people can, in a way, protect themselves from it, expect what it can bring, but in the end, how you can get rid of it. Anything else that you're working on today that you'd like to talk about or anything I haven't asked that you'd really like to get into?

nothing in particular. No, I have started writing another book. I was in the very early stages. Just because I miss the writing process. I really enjoyed it. So yeah, I'm starting at a fiction version, a fiction sniper story next. Cool. That's awesome. Yeah, I love it. And I'll read it when it comes out. I'll share you in about 10 years. Yeah, I get it. anywhere else we can direct people. Do you have it? Are you on social media at all? Anything you want to tell people?

Instagram. You can find me at Ted Shirley, author. And TikTok, as well, I'm on TikTok. I do little bits of what I like to call Ted's tips, which are mental health tips on there, which is Ted. Shirley. Awesome. I mean, it sounds great.

And I really hope that between your speaking and your book that this gets into the hands, into the minds of veterans out there. It is an important message. Absolutely. Thank you so much as well for helping me with your platform. Anytime. The audience. So thank you, Ted. Appreciate it. Again, the book is Afghanistan Sniper by Ted Shirley. We'll have links down the description for you to go and check out the book.

And thank you for joining us. I hope everyone has a great holiday season. And we will see you next time. Hey, guys, I want to tell all of you today about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both the Team House podcast, the Aiz On podcast, and the Highside News Outlet, which I run with Sean Naylor. The newsletter is going to be once a week. It's going to come into your inbox, and you're going to get the most current podcasts on Aizon and the Team House and whatever's topical or current on the high side. So it's another way for us to get the information out to you as social media algorithms are pretty iffy and you never really know what you're going to get. So this is a once a week email. It'll slide into your inbox and it will have,

you know, the greatest hits of that week. It's really good, man. Checking it out. The website for it is teamhousepodcast.com.com slash join. Teamhousepodcast.com dot com slash join uh you go there and you enter into your email list or you enter your email into uh the little thing on the website and you're good to go and that'll be it um so we really appreciate your support and hope you'll consider signing up where's the link the link will also be down in the description if you're looking for it there and that's team house podcast dot kit kit kilo india tango.com backslash join Thank you.