Unsubscribe Podcast - 187 - How The VA Failed This Disabled Military Veteran ft. Tejano Space Cowboy | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 187

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

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I began to put my own tourniquet on. Dude, it was terrible. It's that training. America should have the best prosthetics. I did all this myself. Antonio Stark over here. Dude, how many arms do you have? One. They're thinking I'm going to die. And I'm like yelling at them. You're like getting out of consciousness?

You're still a dickhead, dude. Yeah, pop it. Pop it. Are you a big drinker? I do drink. You got to wait. I do. Oh, I'm so sorry.

Wait till we calm down. I'm so sorry. Damn it, military guys. Come on. You lose one arm, you think you're special. God damn it. He told me to... Oh, God.

All right. We ready to pop this off? Yeah. Three, two, one. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe Podcast. I'm joined today by Eli DoubleTap, Space Tiano. Right? Is that what you wanted me to introduce you as? Yeah, Tihano space cowboy sorry i got that i messed it up again brandon herrera myself donald operator thank you for

joining in hey it's so good to see you dude okay i we met in the past and i completely we uh sent i think show sent is hey, we should have Sebastian on. I was like, yeah. I was like looking. I was like, fuck, I swear I've met this dude before. And I think the first time we met, I made a joke or something. And then you're like, hey, you didn't know me at that point. So you're like, oh, he's just an asshole.

We're just an asshole. That was at the old, the ranch. The cooking show. We were at the cooking show. I want have no shit okay the cooking show um i just i was with logan and uh because logan was in three five and i just remember uh it was it was like y'all's content content house and i had a blue arm at that i had a different arm at that time it was a really ghetto it was a gigantic arm so it was like really was a really ghetto. It was a gigantic arm. So it was like really hard to like be low key in that arm. It was like fucking the size of a leg.

Dude, how many arms do you have? I have one. Yeah. I have one. Technically, you know what? Jesus. It does get confusing when people, because you're like, how many arms do you have? Do you have real arms?

I was like, to me, I was like, this is a real arm to me. But I have two prosthetics, three prosthetics, just based on like which ones actually work right now. But that one, I have it. It was like decommissioned. But I don't consider it like in use because it was so huge. It's really hard for me to move around with and stuff like that because if you remember it was just it was gigantic it looked like something from a fucking anime because it was so big it was the mark one version of like iron man yeah it was a gigantic arm and it was like um the first time that the va in san antonio had ever built a

prosthetic a network somebody prosthetic so they were terrible at it and that's that kind of began my journey on like getting into prosthetics myself uh because i didn't know that not everybody could build prosthetics upper extremity prosthetics uh at the level of like um the best people it's crazy so the va is definitely yeah terrible we have the money we just don't want to spend that much of it yeah it's go on i was just gonna say it's like oh hey yo you you saw the joke face it's not as much of a joke as it's just sad it's like oh we'd rather spend it on administrative staff bulletins and talk about how to use pronouns on the high level in the va yeah your arm you don't really need that but we really need these

bulletins you know yeah um like i i fucking um i would i would really love to talk about the va at some point but um yeah i'm sure we'll get there brother i feel bad i feel bad talking about my situation but this arm would not have come if the va wasn't doing such a bad job because this guy made this guy who built this arm heard about my story and heard about my difficulty getting prosthetics from the va. No background in prosthetics, and he built this for me from scratch. His background was aerospace. And so, yeah, the VA, like I always tell people like, oh, the VA got, because I get a lot of that, like the VA made it.

I was like, this has nothing to do with the VA. The VA did not do this. This is not a, it's a different level of prosthetic. I'm just noticing things like the picatinny on the thumb. Yeah, I put that on there. level of prosthetic but um i'm just noticing things like the picatinny on the thumb yeah i put that on there i got that from uh fucking um people commented on tiktok for me to put a rail on there and i was like um for a flashlight and i had done that before lower but i didn't do this i never want to insult the guy who made this work i mean i did this he did all this other stuff i

did this because i i wanted to take a bite out of this notch right here because I'm a dad, and whenever I carry my son, this notch would dig into his back. So I just wanted to soften up that notch, and you can see I tried to build up. You put a little pec unit on it, so if anybody pisses you off, you just blind them with IR. I do put it on there.

Let's rewind. so tell your story i know probably a bunch of people have heard it through your social media um but what what year did you enlist um i i joined the marine corps in 2007 damn you were you're an og you did surge time then um no no no you're afghan afghanistan yeah okay so yeah surge yeah um i i think i i always say iraq was a little bit before my time um i joined the marine corps to to go to afghanistan um and specifically the taliban i still tell people you know i still think they're terrible people and you kind of have to like educate people about why they're terrible people to like explain you know like what they're doing to women but yeah i joined um in 27 and 2007 specifically for for the taliban and um i was wounded in the surge in 2010 um and saying in helmand province afghanistan it was the id blast yeah yeah stepping into a canal

and i actually don't talk about it that much on my social media just because it's something that you don't talk about it. For me, it just recently passed. Whenever I talk about it, I lost my squad leader. As it gets further away,

it gets easier to talk about. Whenever you have that kind of thing, it's not something that I talk about just because we lost so many people there. Dark Horse. We lost so many Marines that I feel like I don't like talking about it just because it's kind of like – to people because you don't want to take them to a dark place. Civilians. Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

A lot of my stuff is like kids are asking questions and stuff like that and so like i'll explain to them like you know avengers and stuff like you don't take them to like i don't know they don't want to know you know all the darkness but specifically like to me you know whenever i was wounded i was a rifle team leader and stepping into a canal my squad leader took the brunt of the blast. It was a submerged IED and all of the shit tied to that. Whenever I think about when I was wounded, I don't think about me. I think about a little girl who doesn't have a dad. So that's something that I think later on got easier for me to talk about. But people were like, why I didn't always talk about it was because I I'm so close to with all my gold star families that it's not something

that I was like you know like you know didn't feel appropriate yeah because they're because to them they're like you know you're whenever your first year in inundated with family members asking you questions about like their son's last moments and stuff like that so you kind of feel like it's not just my story it's that hard one because it's going through those experiencing yourself and then how do you handle that is it you ask yourself the questions how do i honor them and then it is that older man it's like the world war ii vets you always hear it's like oh grandpa wouldn't talk about his war stories you have some that talk about it with uh more ease and then some people like yourself where

you're like ah it's not my story to tell but as time goes on you're healing through it you're coming to terms with it and now you're like okay i can i can start talking about this or explaining it was a different generation too like my grandfather would just uh drink and beat my grandma so spending spending time with vietnam veterans really made me feel like oh i'm doing okay um you know because like i'm like they're like they're like you know i got no pows who were like you know they went to fucking prison my dad was a vietnam veteran and uh he was drafted into vietnam and like i didn't know anything about his military service and uh and and and i got one of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps was I resented how quiet he was. He didn't speak at all.

And then now, as an adult later on in life, I understood, like, oh, they were spit on. And so they had this shame and stuff like that. But talking to Vietnam veterans, so many of them, especially the combat veterans, they spent time in prison, bars, fights, and stuff like that. And I know that from my own people. We have some of those people too. But, yeah, it definitely is a different generation. What was – when coming to terms with that, now that you're saying, hey, later in life it is becoming easier to talk about, what was one of those turning points for you to make that possible uh for me becoming a dad becoming a dad really really changed like because i think before i was so prideful um i was so i i especially talking to my gold star families like i i didn't tell them everything

that happened until my son was born my son was born then i was like oh you should really know every detail about your son what was the uh what was the time gap there um my son's two two years old so about like eight uh like i mean like eight ten years uh because even in college uh went to uiw and i remember like taking pride in um my professors not knowing that i was military because that arm was so it was like it's got a Katrina Calavera on it. It's like a Mexican sugar school. And I just remember one time her telling my professor that I had to like miss something for a VA appointment. And she was like, what's that? And I was like, oh, it's like the like you can't get out of those.

And she was like, what's the VA? And I was like, it's the Veterans Whatever Hospital. And she was like, I didn't even know you were a veteran. You had a college professor ask you what the VA is? Yeah. I mean, she's a fucking badass. It's a private school. You know, nothing.

UIW is a very rich, rich, rich, rich, good, great education. But I think that, like, you know, she wasn't originally from America, too. So, you know, i guess i'm always surprised by um like people who don't have exposure to academics yeah academia academia is something you know that's um people who lived a very insulated life yeah their own their own very it's it is a private school so it is um this poor hispanic just born with only one arm. Yeah, that's what she thought. And I was like... What? The fun white lady.

Let me guess, a lawnmower accident? Yeah. Wow. That weed eater just popped back up, man. She brings it back. I got you this. By the way, I'm free on thursdays what's your schedule yeah ironic i did break my my other arm mowing the lawn and that was something that was funny

like everybody's like why are you mowing your own lawn and i'm like i'm fucking mexican like i don't know it's not like i can't wait to pay somebody to mow my lawn this is the first time i'm a minority three browns and white so you got you were like okay we going through that started opening up to your kiddos. Did you open up? When did you start talking about it? I'm assuming just with your friends, if you did speak about the incident. And then around the new friends, was it ever talked about? Yeah. So new friends is something that's like, you know, it's, it's really,

it's, it's a weird space because like, uh, uh, I, I mean, like a lot of my friends weren't veterans and stuff like that so i just didn't feel like um inclined to you know like a lot of my life i would just lie i just like there's people in this world who believe like i was i was a shark attack victim motorcycle i would just lie just to like avoid the um conversations for a long time hilarious yeah's also hilarious. Yeah, because it just makes it easier for not having to negotiate all those emotions. It's just easier to lie. I swear to God, I've told people that

for the longest time, I always say, whenever I was in the hospital, I used to have an arm that had a shark on it, and it put sharkattackvictims.org on it. For real. Until I... And that one that

one um famous surfer came by the therapy center and all of the occupational therapists and physical therapists were like is it trying to soul surfer yeah they try to push her my way it's like you need to talk to this one guy you see his arm and i was like i was so scared so after that i was like no they're a real shark attack victim so you can't, and I think one of them like hit me up on Instagram. Like there's an Australian shark attack victim. But so I stopped using that specific skill issue. Uh, shark born ID. Yeah.

Yeah. Cause I used to tell people that it was just the funniest thing. And she just, she just comes up. It's like her, like the make a wish kind of thing. She's like, Oh, well, what kind of shark were yours? Taliban. Middle Eastern sharks. she just comes up it's like her like the make a wish kind of thing she's like oh well what kind of shark were yours taliban um middle eastern sharks i don't know middle eastern sand shark i think there's sharks in the red sea somewhere something like that did you just discover a new slur sand shark well i was i was i was wounded in the water so it it was like – Well, actually, all right. That's very funny.

Yeah. It was like – it was just something that was a natural – because I did have a fear of the water when I first got injured because I was drowning. Yeah, I was drowning for like what was like five minutes because they didn't know I was injured because I was a team leader. And so everybody was like confused. And my squad leader obviously got injured too. So everybody was confused. So that Mexican arm, I call that – it was an ode to Huitzupotle. was like confused and my squad leader obviously got injured too so everybody's confused so um that mexican arm i i call that it's a it was an ode to huitsapotle and huitsapotle is the aztec god of

war and the sun and so it's blue and um so whenever i was wounded uh i was drowning and um all i could see was the sun and it was so beautiful you know know, in Afghanistan, like, where it's, you're, like, some parts of the middle of the desert. For me, it was all green. And so I would open my eyes, and it was, like, super beautiful water, and the sun kept poking in my eyes. And so I thought I was dreaming because it was so beautiful. And, like, I think about that still to this day, think about the beauty of it and um that the sun kept flickering in my eyes and it wouldn't let me go to sleep and then i realized that i was drowning because i like i saw blood flow and um you know i couldn't move my i didn't know i was missing my arm so i was like

trying to grab to try to you know stop drowning but i was drowning for so long that i'm like even after i got you know out of the surgeries and stuff like that i was in the hospital for like three years um after everything uh my therapist told me at the time that um the things that i was scared of i was scared of the water but i couldn't even close my eyes in the shower because i was so scared of drowning i had no idea that was a drowning thing until a therapist explained to me i would get bloodshot eyes from not being able to close them in the shower because i was so scared of closing my eyes in the water just entirely subconscious or like yeah i had no idea it was a thing until he brought it up and i was like yeah i do i do get blood my eyes will go

bloodshot just from refusing to close them just even in the shower but um i was born in san antonio so like i couldn't get close to the river walk and uh water was a real big issue for me and then like i conquered it later i did triathlons and stuff like that i mean very specifically i mean the it was the id was a canal right yeah it was i mean it was just wild by itself yeah like these mother truckers i've never even heard of that yeah they're so tricky because you know you know like because you were in afghanistan right iraq iraq okay well because but you're like i think that a lot of people i'll take i'll take it as an insult when people i've had people um i i think sometimes trying to pay a compliment to americans they'll insult the taliban's fighting capacity and i was like no

like don't do that you take away from him how hard it was to fight them when you do that because they were so intelligent and um like complex ambushes but like so they would put it in in the water because like they'll be like you know we were we were dismounted everywhere and singing and so they would put them in the water because like they're like the marines are not like these other guys they will cross the worst possible terrain possible to to to avoid i, like, we would never take roads, never take open spaces. In theory, that's what you're trained to do. And so they would submerge the IEDs in the water because they're like, these guys are going to cross and go in the worst possible terrain possible.

So towards the end of the war, it was like the opposite. Go on roads because they learned from your little tricks of like you know just cutting through these cornfields and like going in and out of the canal in the worst possible area and that's where they started to put the ieds because you know like you wouldn't think that when i tell people that i was fully submerged in water when i got hit they're like you know how and i'm like oh yeah they're they're they're really really tricky not just with their ieds but also like their tactics. Yeah, they're super.

Yeah. I just get a little bit insulted when people are like, they're stupid, they're cowards. I was like, no, no, no. They defeated, you know, I don't think they beat up, you know, we killed 600 Taliban and they killed 30 of us. When you put the number, you just quantify it like that. It's amazing what happens when you have no rules to fight with. Yeah, there's no, that's what people don't understand. We could have just destroyed, leveled that place.

And I think that sometimes whenever I talk to people, especially internationally, they don't realize that the infantry exists because America is putting a human toll on the war. And it's like we could just level these cities, but we didn't do that. We put men with kids and women with on on the lines so we could mitigate casualties instead of just dropping 500 pound bombs on there look at look at the difference between uh america going into afghanistan versus when russia went into afghanistan yeah there's got a massive massive gap there yeah we just don't do that anymore and as you're saying it is like to pay testament to that fighting force iraq afghanistan

it's always that it's like what would you guys like the u.s what would you do if you you had to fight the u.s uh military there's nothing you can do it's like i assure you they did quite fine with ak's and ieds they they created what 12 12 trillion dollar war yeah nine yeah yeah just because they had a case and that they didn't need air support they didn't need any of that stuff it's like okay we just use guerrilla tactics and yeah their willingness like because like i mean my biggest thing is like dealing with the the injured civilians their willingness to put civilians like a um in danger is something that it's like um talking to some veterans from that area still to this day like because we lost 111 there was 111 royal marines killed in sangin before we got there and replaced them and it

was just like um you know you're operating under you know we have geneva nato has their own rules or whatever okay and so people people like don't realize like that's why we took so many casualties if we were just willing to do the things they were willing to do it would be it would it would be you know way less casualties and i think that um like whenever i talk about like if there's good guys and bad guys it's like i'll obviously have everybody's bad in war but there is levels to you know like what they're willing to do versus what we're willing to do versus what we're willing to do it's not like we didn't have the capability yeah we did we had we had what they

didn't have which is restraint yeah yeah i think that that's something that i like especially now that the taliban has taken over i think about that like i think because uh you know malala he that's he's experienced that with that his business business was based out. He was helping putting kids through females through college, little girls through schooling and all in Afghanistan with the combat flip flops and then just shut down instantly. Yeah, it's so sad. The Harris County DA, a DA for Houston, and she was – she ran a foundation where she took female legal experts and trained them as an American prosecutor about the law systems. So training them to be prosecutors in Afghanistan, women specifically. She's a female DA, and she was so sad because when the Taliban took over, like she was able to get one person out, one of her female prosecutors that she trained up. But it's like people have no idea. They ripped them out of Congress.

They were elected congressional members, ripped them out. And then much less – like two months ago, they ripped them out of being able to leave home without a man. And so just an idea. It made me so sad. That's why I still talk positively about like, you know, putting as much hurt on them as possible because people don't know what rights they took away from women and specifically like that DA hearing her talk about it and getting female academics out because, you know, they before they said they weren't going to take them out of Congress or whatever. But then they did. Then they took them out of being able to leave their houses without a male escort so the the West has this natural inclination to assume that every culture across the planet is just like us they're just like us but slightly different and and they just they really don't have any idea just how wide that gap can be. Ooh.

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It's that idea of not understanding what evil is. You have, like, someone, like, cut in line. To them, that's not even evil, though. It's normal. Like, they don't have any other concept yeah they're like oh well this but they can't conceptualize the idea of just like people over there will just kill you to kill you and then it's just part of everyday life like the idea of human life having value we understand that there are places that is not that is not a thing they don't carry it it's like you have brazil or

some south american countries where it's like kill you just to steal an iphone it's like a less educated gta server yes yeah yeah it is it is a little bit like that it's i mean it sucks but like i feel like um i like i'll tell people like that america's got a lot of issues but one of the biggest things we have is like um i in theory the rule of law um and and that those laws tend to be way more liberal than other places i think i love it here i i ain't switching this is my so you got blown up you had a how high was i'm a trans amputee, so I'm above the elbow. I have a really – A trans – what was that?

Transhumeral, so like right at the delt. So one of the reasons that I think that I was so – I became such a big prosthetic advocate is because there's only – there's less than 400 combat-wounded upper extremity amputations from Iraq and Afghanistan total. So people don't realize – because it's just too high of an injury yeah yeah so people don't typically survive higher height because anytime you get closer to the upper body you get closer to the heart arteries in the neck that's harder shit to survive yeah yeah so anytime you get closer to the neck and heart it's a lower survival rate and then even in even modern wars and and in like the ukraine they have a lot more amputees because that you know they're at war

in their country they have hospitals and ambulances that can drive to and from there they still have an issue with surviving um high blasts and um gunshots and stuff like that but um yeah so i was above the elbow and i think that's why I became such a big prosthetic advocate because a lot of people are below the elbow. There's hundreds below the elbow, and a lot of them will use their elbow to do things. So you'll see them, like a lot of people bring up Leroy Petrie. He's missing his arm.

He's missing his hand, and so they won't rely on their prosthetics so much because they'll use their elbow to do things. And so because I have such a high amputation, I have a useless limb because it's so short and it's so painful to do things with. So without a prosthetic, I'm kind of like um very disabled do you still find yourself like your natural inclination being to try to use the limb like forever how i uh phantom limb yeah the phantom limb or for however high it is like to try like you you naturally want to do that or is it just not a non-starter um i do i i i don't it's hard to tell if i've trained or not because since I was born with two arms, I do think about – this arm has so many injuries. I have a nerve injury on this side and I broke my wrist and I'm missing the outside two ligaments.

So I do force myself to – because a lot of people – specific questions that I'll get is like why I do things a certain way with weightlifting and shooting. It's because I was like – they think I'm like uh why don't I just overuse this arm more but I have to explain like you feel bad like explain all your injuries and I'm like actually I'm missing out these two outside ligaments so stabilizing things like shooting uh is it's not something that I can do it's not I can't out train that I'm just missing the ligaments. And so this I forced myself to use in part because the Marine Corps spent a lot of money on my recovery. So the other arm that I brought has this thing called targeted muscle reinnervation. And so they grafted my ulnar and medial nerves, which are the nerves that control your hand open and close, to my bicep and tricep heads. So with that hand, I think hand open and close to my bicep and tricep heads. So with that hand, I think hand open and close to open and close it. Yeah.

So that made it so – Fucking wild to me. I thought it was more widely – I thought that surgery was more widely done until I got more into the prosthetic field and traveling. And I was like, oh, okay. So that's still a very rare surgery. At the time, it was experimental. But so I think hand open and close and it open and closes the hand so it does make it so i i um it it it does feel like um prosthetics aren't caught up to the level of um of the level of um advancedness of that surgery it's kind of like uh in their reasoning was to future proof me

uh for prosthetics and so why do you think that is what do you think that hasn't caught up yet that surgery was kind of like, uh, in their reasoning was to future-proof me, uh, for prosthetics. And so why do you think that is, why do you think that hasn't caught up yet? Um, well, it's, it's an expensive surgery. It's an expensive surgery. Um, I remember whenever I got it, all of these surgeons asked to be able to watch that surgery specifically so they could teach it. And, um, I think that one thing is survival and then um hospitals uh so less than so less than seven percent of amputees are upper extremity and so that's that would be specific to the trauma of losing an arm so most amputees are are leg amputees so that's like one of the reasons why people are like why is his arm looks so different there's just so many more leg amputees. So that's like one of the reasons why people are like, why does his arm look so different?

There's just so many more leg amputees that you're like, you know so many guys that are missing their legs. A lot of people. And it's like, I get this a lot. It's like, why is your arm metal?

And I was like, well, you don't ask that to leg people because all legs are metal. Discover the magic of BetMGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game

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remember talking about it in ukraine and they have you know 10 times more amputees than we have from iraq and afghanistan and that's just because they have higher survival survivability because they learned from us the tourniquet thing that happened halfway through the war that and they're more on like level pure warfare yeah they have you know quick access to hospitals they're literally you know ambulatory as in driving them to the you know i was like um just the casualty of the casualty count though per day is wild for that war like i don't think people realize like just how big of a deal that was like people kind of knew in the beginning but then they forgot but like the amount of casualties in the the ukraine russian wars is i mean it's it's crazy high compared to

even the g watt yeah that's what i would say a lot of people don't know that and i didn't know that until i i didn't know that so i didn't know that until i got there um i went there specifically with the protest foundation uh to to talk about this arm because they wanted to be able to use it to fucking fight the russians and i thought it was like i kind of like a sitting joke was like because everybody calls me the winter soldier and i was like uh the mexican winter soldier and i was like let me go to the ukraine just to fucking rub it in um beaches yeah and i and i but i i talking about that yeah i was like they they have um thousands of army apts which is why that's cool went there and I'm like, there's so much technology that's going to come out of that war. I mean, there already is, but the companies that are

coming out of there, there's a couple of advanced prosthetic companies that I got to visit there. One of them is Esper. I'll always talk about them because they make a metal hand and they're barely getting available in the US. But yeah, they have so many more amputees that I think that a lot of the prosthetic technology advancements will come out of there, unfortunately, if Americans don't do it. Just because, you know, it's a lot of necessity. Yeah, just necessity. It's just necessity. Yeah. That's wild.

Getting that. Oh, Cody, you have a question? No. Oh, okay. No, I'm just enthralled by all of this. I'm just listening'm just i'm enthralled by it dude that's why i'm just listening it's it's wild so with yours um you as you're saying upper limbs are a lot rarer to survive or during the g y and you got i assume super lucky for the blast to close the wound and then they tourniqueted it right after well no i put my i began to put my own tourniquet on dude it was terrible you know it's so funny it's that training you're like oh oh that's my fucking my boys my boys later on were

like my boy my saw gunner was like he was like is insane because like you crawled up this canal and you're just bleeding out and he started yelling at us to get on the line and you know lay down cover fire and i was like thinking to myself like you know that's stuff that i don't remember i was that's a memory dude i weigh i weigh like 200 pounds now i think i weighed like 189 at the time and when they measured me i weighed 165 i lost so much blood and i was thinking to myself i was like i must like i felt so weak and so cold that i was like i you know you don't remember till years later like things and i you know you piece together what happened from different people and he was like yeah man you were yelling at us they're like like you're missing your arm you think you're still going to be in charge of us and i remember like an award coming

up later in the marine corps about that and i was like i was like that's so badass i don't even remember that but i do think i would be yelling at you guys like get on the line you do push-ups because you still like you're like you're like out of consciousness you're still a dickhead dude yeah i was like i can't believe you were yelling at us like and i was like we thought you were gonna they're like emotional crying and i like you know thinking they're thinking i'm gonna die and i'm like yelling at them so it's like an emotional that's wild yeah an emotional thing that i it's funny like thinking about that dude who's i was with the guy the other day and who was a singing veteran who's um who's a marine who's like in hall trying to get into hollywood he's in film school right now but he does like cinematography

and stuff like that out in california and we were talking about like all these crazy little things um little moments like that but um but i was thinking about him because like um now i was like okay they thought i was gonna die that's why they were treating me that way they they were like what are you doing giving us orders still and but i remember like i was like i don't know if i'm ever gonna tell this story but um i had i was since i was a team leader i had two or threes on my leg and i'm lucky that they didn't get they didn't blow up because people say that they need like 12.7 whatever rotations not to blow up but we that's only

so that's only to arm yeah to arm there's still a motherfucking explosive you're you're like more knowledgeable in that kind of stuff so uh because i've heard that but we did lose marines to team leaders to them blowing up because you just need an explosive that is is violent enough to set off the explosive that's inside it. Because that really – it can daisy chain. Yeah. So we did lose people from that. Yeah.

And because people said at first, like, that wasn't a risk. But then we lost people from them getting hit, unfortunately, and them going off because the IED was big enough for that. But on all my two or three rounds, I had a different Ninja Turtle on every one of them. And whenever I got injured, I had Leo in the chamber. And it's my son like i was like i remember like um another team leader came up uh baxter he came up to me and i was bleeding out and i was like you're trying to treat for shock so i was like thinking like how can i calm him down like you know because he's thinking i'm gonna die if i'm gonna die i don't want him oh you're actually calming him down yeah yeah yeah everybody think you know when you're a team leader everybody thinks you're

invincible and um so i remember telling him like hey man like you just got to kill somebody with leo because i got leo in the chamber and he's like okay okay i was like i love you and he was like i'll kill somebody with leo and i just remember like later on asking him about that and he was like mentally disturbed by that question. Cause it was a very rough, it was like, yeah, I did. It's the darkest day of his life.

He's like, what did I do? And you're like, kill somebody with Leo. He's like, I think he has lost his mind now. That guy has never watched teenage youth Ninja Turtles to this day. Yeah.

He's like, no, I remember thinking about that. Like whenever they got back, you know, and he was like bringing that up and he was like, so it was such a horrible deployment for them that i was just thinking like just to you know try to take them out of the fucking darkness but um i love that's how we survive a lot of the times i mean depending on your job your occupation but we always talk

about gallows humor and that's even in the midst of it it happens. You're in full combat. Your arm's blown off, and you're still yelling at your dudes. You're telling them to use Leonardo to kill somebody. It's just the perfect example of how we combat. Bro, don't put the tourniquet on my neck. Dude, I've had that happen. Are you fucking serious? So it's our Jordan. You got shot so high up

with an ak and you know they roll after a certain amount so eventually he had to lose his leg from the round but because he was like well you're an idea he's like no you got shot in the leg and but i remember um his um that he got one of his balls in the tourniquet got shot yeah so high up and it just and it's just like you have to go as high as possible yeah when it's when it's above the thigh when it's above the knee and it's really because it's like you're they're gonna bleed out yeah and so i mean that's what you're told to do yeah you have to do it and it's something that it's just like oh fuck it's it sucks to be in that situation but like now now it's a joke at the time it wasn't a joke that was nuts just like i would that's like

you're rushing him and you're trying to protect your body you're like sorry yeah yeah you're like you'll thank me later dude yeah it's so there's some dark i every time i hear like a different story about that i'm like oh man like that's good because like there's there is there is good versions of that and there's bad versions of that where like people are able to still use humor. And then there's like the opposite where people like panicked and people died and like – because people will die from the shock. So it is – that humor does save lives because like I've run into guys where like they're screaming when somebody gets hit. And then like somebody is missing their legs and then they're – you're going to literally put them into shock. You know what I mean? Because you're supposed to be calm and like we's missing their legs. And then they're, you know, you're going to literally, you know, put them into shock. I mean, because you're supposed to be calm and like we've had people scream.

But yeah, I remember the other day, like I was doing this thing in Maine. When you guys hit me up, I was like at some cabin writing a country song. And this guy was telling me about one of his guys had that situation happen and he lost one ball. And one of the guys ran up and was like talking about like oh he lost the ball and you're like dude like and this guy is a nurse now he's a and um i was just like man what a piece of shit that he would like tell him that while he's still getting cas back that like because that's the first thing guys still look for is like yeah it's my dick there yeah and then so that you know he did have that injury and the guy was like and so the other guy you know eventually became a nurse he's he was the 101st okay and

and he he was in the clearing iraq and um talking about how like this guy came up and was like screaming and panicking like oh man your balls and it's like and so uh the guy lied was like no you're good you're gonna be good bro like you're you're all intact and stuff like that you have to lie you literally you're like man all right it's you look great you're doing great hey just stay with me hey let's keep you awake you're doing good you're fine you're fine dude you cannot show any emotion in that situation because you want to keep them as calm as possible to keep blood flow down which is which is kind of funny because i like anytime when you have uh like if i was to get fucked up tomorrow on range day let's just say um i've heard people say this before

we're like this has happened to them we're like if if cody's around me or eli's around me they're like you're good bro you're good like everything's gonna be fine you're good just like let's get the fucking truck here now like you're fine man you're fine if you guys started telling me i'm fine i'm i'm terrified like brandon you done god you're so stupid you're just hold on cody he is fuck yeah if you guys started telling me how good i was doing i'm losing it dude i just i love you oh Oh, no. Oh, no. He starts freaking out. Gentle forehead kiss. I love you, buddy.

Cody brings out a cross. Where did that come from? Oh, no, no, no, no. It's funny with the dark humor element of that, too, because I've had people that will be irritated with the jokes that we make on the podcast. It's like, you've never met a veteran, have yeah you don't people have dark like yeah i think that the darkness like because um yeah that changed so much obviously because the military and now like i feel like i relate more

to people who are like in the anime and stuff like that because um you you don't have that light because you like i think about like all my idols it's very hard to like relate to people because you're like man like if i would have been in that place i would have died you know i mean like we're talking about um marcus aurelius and like some of his quotes and i changed some of his quotes thinking about it i was like because you know even in vietnam i would have been i would have died and so like you look at anime characters and you're like oh man like these are these people that maybe they weren't real, but they created this violent story that's easier to relate to. Oh, you're good.

And sometimes it's easier to communicate in those kind of terms because it's like – and if I was a Spartan, I would have fucking died. So I'm lucky to be alive in 2024 because you know the advancements of of medical technology and stuff like that because um those chances of your i mean dna literally making up to that moment they've got all your family members up to that probably did more or something and then you're the one that survives yes you get blown up but you're like okay at that moment with technology yeah your dna has made it millions of years to be able to get to the point where you could survive yeah yeah yeah do you did not and like now like as a dad I think about it like holistically like that where I'm like

our macro out because my dad was Army Special Forces and he was a he was in Panama Vietnam Desert Storm yeah And yeah, yeah. So he served with first, seventh, and third group. And he actually served with Mastro and Benavidez. And it's fucking just the Hano warrior. But I was like, he was more beast. He was way more decorated than me. And I think about how tough I was that I'm like,

a little bit religiously, I think about it like, God took care of me and that i was able to survive that because um me and my boys have even talked about it like i don't know if anybody else would have been able to survive that because i saved myself everybody was like um you know who saved you or whatever i crawled out of the canal myself i lost so much blood they didn't know i was wounded because i was in the front and um so yeah unfortunately the person my squad leader passed away because uh you know they didn't know i was wounded because i was in the front and um so yeah unfortunately the person my squad leader passed away because uh you know they didn't recognize that he was hurt uh we were both in the front and so i think about how tough my dad was getting all

through all these fucking wars unscathed and um you know all the training that he spent you know years he spent 20 years in the army and uh for me to be able to get to where I am, okay, so some of that is just grit from, you know, my fucking family having hard lives for years. When Cody started his crazy business of podcasting, you know what he didn't think about? Merchandise. But now he's selling what? Merch. And it couldn't be easier. All because of Shopify. if you've shopped

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leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort thanks to shopify magic your ai powered all-star shopify powers 10 of all e-commerce in the united states and shopify is the global force behind all birds rothies and brooklinen my favorite companies what is that no clue but they also power millions of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries because businesses that grow grow the shopify sign up for a one dollar per month trial period at shopify.com slash unsub pod all lowercase go to shopify.com slash unsub pod now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in go to shopify.com slash unsub pod paid off and now you're now you're adjusting to it probably took years to get to that

adjustment period because depending uh everyone handles trauma differently i know all of us have our own demons and how we handle that and it's pdsd either from military from policing like it just how you learn to cope with stuff i i got lucky uh how i cope with it is i don't have as much emotional response to things but then i watch my buddies that did the exact same deployment i see how that affected i'm like holy shit but you you've like and cody even cody like yeah stuff you've done. No, like I talk about like now after you're like, man, there's so many more combat veterans from being cops than there is from combat. And so like I didn't know that until, you know, like working with some organizations and then family, like, you know, one of my cousins, one of my primos in Houston, you know, he's a SWAT. Now he's not SWAT. Yeah. And now he's not SWAT. Thank, thank God he got out of it, but he was SWAT. And his first, his first call

was, um, he was a sniper. Uh, his first call was, um, responding to, um, to, uh, Santa Fe. Um, and my little sister was, uh, was, uh, was at that school too. And his very first call was, um, my sister was like a sister to him because they lived together because we were really poor. And so he's my cousin, and his first call was responding to her mass shooting. And it was just like – I don't know if you remember Santa Fe, but it was like 10 shooters, and that was his very first call as a SWAT officer. And that's an insane amount of trauma to be able to deal with that um as your first call your sister's school is you know um did he stick with it after that yeah he stuck with it for like you know i think like seven more years eventually he got out he just had a daughter and he's like

unfortunately i think that it's like most of you guys like swat tends to be too too same thing with the military there's just um it's too hard physically. It's just too hard physically, I think, and the smartest people don't want to stay in. They want to get out and be successful on the civilian side. So it's just like he stayed with it after that, but there was a – yeah, I think that we're lucky because a lot of those people don't want to stay in because physically if you take it seriously it's very hard it's harder than the majority military because the training uh physical physically side is is is like being in the infantry and and mentally this is not the thing that like we we talk about like or we've when we get together the last thing we talk about is you know fucking drama or anything

like that but something i've always heard is uh when you're talking about policing or swat or whatnot the thing that fucks you up the most is that you're thrown into high adrenaline situations high stress environments that are highly traumatic to most people but it's not in the context of you are 5 000 miles from home you are in your county you live in so you don't you lose that safety net. Cody can probably talk more on that. I know that is – it's that unknown, the hypervigilance, and then walking up to each car and you don't – it's the unknown versus like when we were there, it's bad guys. We're like – It's easy because it's like a vacation.

It's like a vacation. You're like, I'm going to go fight the bad guys versus like, and yeah, like, cause, uh, dealing with people on my family in Texas, that another one's, um, police officer in Houston talking about it where it's like, that's your neighborhood. It's like, yeah. So you get home from a deployment and you're three blocks away from where the thing happened. That was your biggest thing with it? Like policing? What was like that? What was the most, what was the hardest part about that transition going from like, Hey,

this is like the bad shit to right back home with your kiddo? Well, I mean, you would go out and you would catch some fucking child or someone who committed a murder. And then I'd go downtown with John to a restaurant and I'd see that same motherfucker in the restaurant. After Bell, yeah. I'm with my kids and my girlfriend like oh that dude's just sitting over there that guy that i arrested for last week or that guy that i arrested for attempted murder some da let him out on the streets and they're standing there looking at me and i'm looking at them and i have john beside me it's like yeah it's it's home yeah that's the

craziest part about it too is just thinking that like oh this is not just like thinking how many people haven't been caught for this how many people have been caught and just made bail and are just out walking amongst you yep yeah i think that's why the attrition is so high for for for for cops and especially swat is really physical so it's like you see it when they want to get out of it because it's like you're just getting the worst calls and it's just it's just fucking terrible what was uh like i don't go down the line actually it's like what was your biggest thing where you that helped you the most and breaking that this is by the way this is we're going to talk about this before this is like an entire month of veteran we wanted to make november big on veteran month just like hey we're going to do

good we're raising money for non-profits like kicking ass and giving back to the communities that give us so much and all you all thankfully have done so much for it so we're just that's that's part of this month it's hearing these amazing stories and then also hopefully helping others it's like man i didn't have a way to cope but hearing from cody on how he coped or hearing from sebastian on how he go that helped me push through because at the end of the day we do we care about all y'all more than you will ever fucking know like we are blessed to have to be in the positions we are and to be put on that level which we're terrified from because we don't want to fail y'all but uh we try our hardest to give back especially during like

months like this it's like hey fucking we thank you and then you get to hear our stories and hopefully we can help some of you it's one of the things that i hear most about unsub which i think is awesome because there's a lot of people that like you know they they come home and then they they feel they try to re then they, they feel, they try to reintegrate back in society and nobody understands their sense of humor. Nobody understands what they've been through. Nobody even attempts to get where they're coming from.

And then they just feel isolated, which like, I think that that's rad that unsubscribe has kind of filled a hole in that world where it's like, Hey, this is like hanging out with the boys again. We're good at filling holes. I'd say we're okay at filling again. We're good at filling holes. I'd say we're okay at filling holes.

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Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit PCFinancial.ca for details. Damn Skippy. What was some of your, like, hey, what was that big thing that helped you the most during, like, when you were transitioning out of being a police officer? You're like, okay, this is too much. You still have your PTSD, but what was that shift for you that was like, okay, this is too much. You still have your PTSD, but what does that shift for you? That's like,

Oh, this helps me at least call my nerves or anything. Bro. Video games. Come on. Oh yeah. Nevermind. Yeah.

You're like, that's your decompression, which is, it's all, it's, I think it's like most of our decompression. Is that, that like gallows humor is the start to that and then finding video games that

have gallows humor in them which you know hollywood making video games these days gay as shit but like you know video games always is like such a great transition like i don't know to find your just find a good headspace and get away from the world for a moment. Come home after seeing a baby on the highway catapulted out the window and spaghettied all over the road. Come home. Displace the Minecraft. I just see you coming home from a very traumatic

day. A fucking Spartanburg PD. You're just like, huh, if I kill the hooker in GTA afterward, I get my money back. Just going home or walking up to a scene, you have Minecraft music playing in your head. I'll make the best of this. John's like, Dad, what happened to nothing?

Do you want to play Minecraft? Dude, that's a rough one. What about? dude that's rough what about um no you you made me like a uh specifically um wanted to mention uh an organization creative vets i just the people i wrote that we wrote a song dedicated to my unit dark horse it was from creative vets yeah creative vets they they actually um they're they're they're huge fans of you i remember when i told them that i was going on this podcast they were so excited because they uh excited because they wrote in a lot of famous country music songs. My people, John and Heidi, like for Lee Bryce, Craig Wood.

Lonely Eyes is one of the songs they wrote. But they help. And it was funny because like you'll get this. I remember I got hit up by them through a Wounded Warrior project. Hit me up on DMs. And I remember just seeing the thing. And I'm having so many issues getting prosthetics from the VA that I just told them to fuck off. They were like, for me to help, you want to come write a country music song with somebody?

And I was like, I just think this is a billion-dollar organization. I should probably be helping people get prosthetics and stuff like that. Because that's what people think they do. And I remember I was like, nah, fuck you guys. Like, I don't, I don't like, I don't want to give y'all any credence to what you do or whatever. And then this guy comes up to me in Nashville and he's a Marine veteran, purple heart recipient in Nashville and, um, asks me about, uh, you know, helping write a song, um, to um to uh to just like to tell my story and my song

was dark horse but it was about my unit um just named it my unit but it was about you know my son my dad my dad's journey because like i think my dad had demons from i mean he had way more combat than me and um and uh like that i really love the idea of like creative it. So they take veterans, Vietnam veterans and, you know, and parts first responders and they get them with people to tell their stories. And I thought that was so cool because like typically, you know, in that space, it's like if somebody is asking to do something with special with veterans or first first responders it's like a fucking ruck or uh like a spartan or something like that and that's good physically to an extent but like a lot of those people are getting out of the military or whatever you know because they so much wear and tear on their body so it's like they're not you know they're not thrilled welcome okay we're gonna pop fireworks next to your head for 20 hours. It's like, ah!

I've heard some of those complaints where it's like, it's from friends of mine and things like that, where they're like, oh, yeah, whoever's in charge of me has decided to do a veteran's awareness run where we're now forced to go run three miles in the morning to prevent veterans it's like i'd you could have just let me sleep in do and that's what i mean like it's for real because you can say because it's like i don't want it it's like you don't like what how does that and i like to me that was really cool i did like they did have an arts program where they they teach people art and they and they teach them how to write songs and in theater, like screenplays and stuff like that.

I was like that's so unique versus – it takes you to a mental space. I think that like getting into the mental space is so much different than – I think a lot of people do respond to like the physical stuff. Like my cousin that was SWAT, he still does – he's big into CrossFit and stuff like that. But I think that that's just because he's so young and he's still in the mentality of the fear of having to protect his family. And I have that too. You know what I mean? I do train a lot, mostly probably because I'm disabled. But I think that – I thought it was really cool, creative.

It's founded by a Marine Purple Heart recipient, Fallujah veteran. And I was like – and he looked like you just a really good looking guy you know big strong and i was like i was like oh man like go on because unsuspecting you wouldn't know this guy's you know you wouldn't he's not to me i have the benefit of having a fucking metal arm i said that in a speech to somebody and somebody responded to that where i was like there's a lot of veterans that don't have a metal arm. You don't look like the Winter Soldier. So people see my trauma and that works against me a lot.

Like, because that means that people are weirdos with me and they always try to take me to like the worst day of my life. But like, you know, guys like that, that are just going through the struggles and not having that, that thing that, you know, tells people, you know, what they went through or whatever. So I thought it was really cool that he created that space where, you know, partners, people with country music, especially from, I'm from Texas, you know, I was born in San Antonio and I thought it was so cool that I was like, man, I danced to these songs so many fucking times. And for these people to come out and it was in Maine. And that's why I was like, whenever y'all hit me up, I was there.

And, you know, in the middle of nowhere writing a song and um and I thought it was so cool a unique take on um getting veteran stories and they're big into Vietnam veterans which is so cool to me because my dad you know didn't get to tell a story because he was like he's super quiet didn't even I wouldn't know until I till I was in the Marine Corps I didn't know how decorated he was until i was like oh shit you did all that and i'm like i'm like oh man i feel like such an idiot now you're like yeah i'm like i had no idea you completed the tutorial yeah yeah so you're like i think that's really cool out there like because a lot of a lot of civilians forget about that war. And he was drafted. And so I thought it was cool that one of their focus was that. That's what's crazy.

That idea of getting drafted. That's voluntold. You're in the military. And then going special forces. Afterwards, a lot of the guys, I mean, you were probably like, I was like a Marine. I want to shoot shit. All of us had that image of what we want to do in war

that is a time when it was like hey bud you're doing this like you have no ifs ands or buts about it and then to be like I'm going to join the Green Berets I'm going to make team wild yeah it's talking to some of the guys that served with them later

on I was like oh like a lot of the guys that served with them later on i was like i was like oh like a lot of it had to do with panama and um the groups wanting to recruit people who spoke spanish because he's i'm from the valley i'm from like five minutes from the border and um he's from the valley so he spoke spanish and he looked like he was from the fucking jungle and um so i just learning from that i was like oh like seventh group had a had a big mexican influence just because of the wars in Latin America. And I didn't know that until later on people teaching me that, you know, cause he was, he was an instructor at the JFK, uh, JFK special warfare school for a little bit.

And like a lot of those people don't know that that history is not taught like you it's, it's, it's only taught in that school specifically. And so if you don't have access to that, you don't get any really, it it's not taught in american history which sucks because even if it's a little bit dark i do think that it would be cool for people to learn about all those kind of like jungle wars and that kind of shit but um yeah so it's like when i tell people that like i was like yeah man it's crazy how much more obviously like trained he was in me and stuff like that but um so many of those guys got pulled there you know what i mean and uh in the army because uh because the marine corps wasn't really drafting people the same way that the army was and then a lot of them stayed in and they're just like oh

fuck i love to fight you know what i mean they're like i have jungle like this is like where i grew up you know so it's um i i love hearing those cool stories of like um where people came from specifically for those latin american wars because it was like something that was like uh i like thinking about it now uh having traveled abroad where i'm like oh america's got this like really cool diverse military where you go somewhere other places and it's like they all look like one thing and i'm like this is why we're so much better than everybody else because we have people that can do well i fucking did well in the desert i'm from the valley it's nowhere there's nowhere hotter in the world than there is in south texas like everywhere like how do you do so well and fucking afghan the jungle and i'm

like man where i'm from it's like way hotter than this meanwhile you got a guy from arizona florida alaska maine nevada like everybody in one group's like all right you got these mountain men you didn't get these vikings and you got these mountain men. You got these Vikings. And you got these people that, you know, like, it's crazy thinking about it now. One or two Florida guys, you know. Yeah, some swamp motherfuckers. And it's forced together and to work together, which is wild, too. You don't have much options on your teammates.

They're your teammates, for better or worse. And they're going to be deploying with you. God. Hey. Yeah. That's crazy. Did you notice he's wearing a Berserk shirt? Oh dude, I wrote this for him because last time I met him

You know what? The time that Eli didn't remember, go on. Well, I had a blue arm. I had a blue arm. That's right. I don't see skin color. I see arm color. That's not better, Eli. You mentioned that you're such a huge fan and i was like

all of the now i know like because of because of uh because of like tiktok and youtube like all i know all the animes that people have robotic arms on and for a long time i didn't like berserk because it was too dark but then like going through shit worse and worse and i was like man like it's hard for me to relate to like happier unfortunately happier animes and you're like man like because you know like my situation would have like fighting the VA has been such a big part of my life and then getting prosthetics and like this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't Doing like crazy shit breaking all these prosthetics and then like, you know Just getting to a situation and now i feel like i

relate even more to like the darker animes did you just say that fighting the va made berserk tolerable by comparison like because they're the apostles that's right the va is the apostles they fucking suck they're evil and our boy guts you're like wow i thought that this was super dark and then i started dealing with the va and realized this is really not so bad. No, man. I feel bad because I feel bad telling my story sometimes as an American. Don't. I've told it so many times abroad.

Because I'm working for prosthetic companies in Germany and working with all of these Brits and Spaniards and Ukrainians and Germans and you're like you talk about how hard it is to get prosthetics from the VA system and they're like that's crazy we have this conception of how people are treated and I'm like yeah sometimes I feel embarrassed to talk about it but then you know if I didn't talk about it

China big spotlight on that shit we all like everyone Brandon one of the biggest things he was, when he was having his Congress run, was about the VA. Like, you were like, dude, why the fuck is this so jacked up? All alone now. Time to trim the old pubes. Hey there, beach babe.

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So get 20% off plus free shipping using code on some at manscaped.com. The summer sun is here to stay, so trust Manscaped to keep those pubes at bay. I didn't know, especially having a veteran congressman in this district, I didn't realize how neglected veterans were in in you know west texas it's it's embarrassing it makes me it's embarrassing and then it's in the texas because you're as a texan you know it's really weird because you're like i have so much support in texas just not from the people that are paid to do it yeah and like um when i told people like i spent years in between like that that i have a leather harness that i made and i spent years in between getting appointments for the prosthetics and i never felt so scared until i became a dad that i was like i really need prosthetics because like

being able to change diapers bathe my son i never had that fear of being disabled until i became a dad where i was like man like i really have to figure this out because, um, you know, my son doesn't really care if I'm, he doesn't know I'm disabled. He doesn't know that I can't do certain things. He's two and he can already do things better than me, especially when I don't wear my prosthetic. And so it comes from like a, being a Texan, it's weird. Cause like this arm was made because one Texan who's like, I call him Tony Stark. Cause he's a fucking millionaire, George Schroeder.

He's famous in San Antonio. If you've been outside to like Randolph and and lachlan or downtown san antonio he made all of the metal structures or houston he made metal structures that sent for synergy um obviously he's done work for spacex um but um wild but yeah he wants to ever be on yeah dude i like he's uh he's not even in texas right now like i he just dude this guy i'll tell the story um right before i went to the ukraine um i broke this arm boxing and um yeah to lay into the veteran thing i had a wait hold the fuck on just don't grease over a boxing who you mean you both looked up like hold on what guys a car don't worry it's a 10 ounce glove it's still metal

behind it it's a it's a guy i think people like why i trained so much i was like where i grew up like i got you know and this is something that i like i take with me now that i'm like oh it's kind of a weird thing i grew up in a in a in the valley which and so to non-texans it's like five minutes from the border and like i got jumped so many times that like people think i have ptsd Corps. And I was like, no, no, no. That comes from growing up in the Valley where I have this thing where I can't let people behind me and just always have an awareness, a situation of awareness is because I got jumped so many times. And so that played really well into the Marine Corps. And people didn't know that about me in the Marine Corps, but I was just like where I got that from.

And so I was having that mentality to train especially being disabled I never felt so disabled until I got into a couple situations where I was like man like people could like if they wanted to especially without a prosthetic really hurt me like just holding my arm and so after getting injured I like I always wanted to train with whatever prosthetics I had and so but I do box with this arm. And that's why one of the reasons it's so popular is because nobody has prosthetics that you can fucking box with, shoot with or whatever. Arms. Because they're so fragile typically. But I did break this one part that he didn't make.

So it was a sense of pride of him that I broke it three days before I went to the Ukraine because he made this part. He came in, and I love telling this story. I told him last week because he made this other part right here right before he left to fucking, I think, Minnesota or Michigan or something. What's that part do? There's a steel roller right here, and it's where the cable rolls. But he hand-lathedhe that i remember one of his workers was like um it was like did you just cnc that my shit and he's like no i actually just hand lathe that and i was like i was like that's his dedication where i was like because he has

all these people that work for him now and um a lot of building it for you yeah that he that that's i would love to talk to this guy yeah george sch Schroeder. He's like, I'm so, because you're from Texas. Like, I got to talk about it at the Grand Ole Opry. You know what the Grand Ole Opry is? It's like a country music place in Nashville. Yeah, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Yeah. Next year, we're playing.

We're doing that. Dude, that would be, I got to talk about this on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. And I was like, talking about how bad it was, you know, getting, unfortunately, the VA issues are why I got this. Because I had trouble getting prosthetics. You heard my story and was like, I bet you I can build you something better than you've ever had before. And I did get to talk about it. So now, you know, having traveled to talk about it, you know, I climbed Kilimanjaro with this. And ironically, yeah, dude. You can't just drop shit like that.

I feel like a lazy piece of shit. This is why I love individuals like you. If you make an excuse, it's like, well, I'm just tired. I get winded easy. Homeboys just dropped the bomb of I climbed Kilimanjaro. So this part specifically, what these things were for this this was put on there for ropes because i was like um like you like you uh brandon was asking about like um how much i use this um this arm is so injured that i get scared to overuse it because

it'll wear out if i use it too much so here's where i put the ropes um and i told him like um before i went to kill majara i told him like if you build me this like i'm gonna let you know right now i'm gonna i'm gonna um put my life on the line no i told him i was like i'm gonna rely on it so like whatever you do like just no pressure but i will rely on it to the point where i'll put ropes around it and trust my life with it so i put the ropes here around here and this is steel and so people are like why because uh there's like fallout and people have said that it looks like the armor From fallout. Oh, it looks like a the what's the suits the

Yeah, and I was like that was specifically for Kilimanjaro and But it's so funny cuz like some of the scratches I have from here are from the obsidian on on Kill Majara and that shit cut right through. Oh through. Oh yeah, it cuts right through that. But this part was specifically for mountain climbing so I could put the ropes here so I could pull because I'm so strong in this side

that that's where I would put the ropes. But that was like one of the first things that I did. I brought multiple prosthetics and I broke my bionic prosthetic like the first day because it was raining and I didn't even think

about the fact that i i tried to make it modify it to be rainproof but the bionics they're not remotely waterproof now and so i broke it i had it on my pack and i fucking um and i left it there uh at the base camp because i broke it and i was like oh man i can't believe i broke it the first day and um so but i had this arm and I didn't know it was going to be so tough. And I finished the Kilimanjaro with it. And I feel bad sometimes talking about Kilimanjaro because we did lose half of our team. Like half the team didn't make it. Like didn't make it to the top or died?

Yeah, no, no. Okay. Jesus Christ. I was like, this is a completely different story. Dude, who the fuck are you climbing with? No, we had a couple APTs there. We is a completely different story. Who the fuck are you climbing with? No, we had a couple of APTs there. We had a couple of APTs. This was with the organization that they helped first responders,

specifically like law enforcement and firefighters and military, and they'll take them on trips like that. But, you know, like whenever you do things like that, it is to each their own, like how much training you do. And, and obviously it wouldn't be a challenge if people weren't able to, you know, if it wasn't difficult, people would, you know, do it. So we had a double amputee that he didn't finish.

And then we had Noah Galloway. He's a, he's a famous, he was on Dance With The Stars. He didn't make it. And it sucks because it was just the prosthetic limitations and um that's what's crazy he had an experimental knee he had an experimental knee that auto box sent him oh he was above above the knee yeah which is crazy and they're just now refining that shit like yeah dude it's crazy like the how recent he bone into the uh like the titanium yeah also integration derrick yeah dude those are some

of the derrick's one of the first ones i think crispy i don't know if chris no crispy doesn't have it but i remember talking to these guys and this is as of the last five years they're the first ones having this integrated into their bone like derrick's show was super experimental that was terrible yeah people ask me about that all the time and and I'm like, no, I'm too young and too active because I know so many – it's such a small niche community that I was like it wasn't worth the risk because I already had so many experimental surgeries that I was like I do have a really short amputation. So that's why they asked me because they're like I know you can barely use prosthetics because your amputation is so high. But I was like I spent such a long time in the hospital that i was like i just want to move on with my life um and i know he's had a lot of issues with it too and it sucks but that's the people making progress they're trying because yeah it's like there's nowhere else to test it

dude like here in texas like that's i'm so proud of this and some of the stuff that i've been able to do with it um like i went to the the Ukraine to talk about it because all their soldiers were hitting me up on YouTube and TikTok about it. I remember Logan brought up to me Neuralink. And I was like, nah. Because Tesla started getting into the prosthetic space like two months ago. So before they just jumped into it,

I actually moved to austin specifically for prosthetics um i was like i was like man because it sucked i didn't know such i if i would have realized earlier such a part of my life was going to be about prosthetics i would have um done things differently uh because i at first i was like if i get into prosthetics because people wanted me to get in prosthetics i was like, I won't really have recovered because then so much of my life will be dedicated to the injury. And then because of where legs were, I really thought that arms would be that same thing, you know, like plug and play. A lot of legs are so tough that people are not – special forces were the first people to get the best legs. Autobach made them and that

was i was telling brandon before we started about um the best leg was actually from a company that i worked with before i still have i still you know have really really they hired me and i worked for them in berlin for a proximity campaign and uh for for just um consultation and the best knee in the world is metal and it's made by them but it was made through darpa um as a program with darpa and so people are like where'd this super advanced knee come from and it's referenced a lot because we compare this to that well the crazy part is what you told me uh before that or while we're talking about it was why they developed it yeah so there's like there was like three guys. You probably know them.

I think one of them was Nick. He messaged me on Instagram. It was specifically for Special Forces to return to duty. Not surprised at all. That's like you got your leg blown off. They're like, oh, how do we get you back in? I mean, there's such an investment, especially in the sports. Yeah, millions.

I think it's like 1.2. How much was spent on you, Griff? On me? especially in the sports. Yeah. Millions. I mean, I think it's like 1.2. How much was spent on you, Griff? A million? Yeah. Like for your military worth, for all your training you've done.

Millions? Yeah. Two to three million? Yeah. There's such a huge investment that it's like, that would be, cause now the bottlenecks and $80,000 leg. All right.

Yeah, exactly. That sort of thing. Yeah. Cause that, that like the arm that I have that it's like, it's funny. The arm that I have that it's like, it's funny. The arm that I have is like two, two,

two to two 70th, a hundred thousand. And, um, there's so much more expensive than knees. Um, but the best knee came from, from DARPA, um,

working. Cause that's what blew my mind. And that's why, like, I'm sorry. Like, I'm just like staring at this the entire time. No,

I'm so stoked that y'all asked me about it. Cause like, I'm so proud of it. And we're like still grinding to get it more for more people because like i feel like that's the accessibility of that feels so superficially or or just it limited for no reason because that there's no reason in my mind that this arm should cost a lamborghini huracan it's insane especially when you uh like where's the cost coming from yeah like yours with i'm sure your friend did a great job like it's just i'm

i'm it's it's blowing my mind like why this would cost so much i'm guessing the because you we will it's hard to figure out what order to talk about because i'm like dude even the idea if you think open the hand it opens so so i I actually brought – because a hand – Not a hand. Yeah. This is – I like to educate now. Just because I wish I would have known earlier that I was going to have to play such a big role in educating people. Because since I was injured such a long time ago,

I would have been able to influence people to get into that field, you know? Earlier. Yeah, see? But, like he was saying, I think that the cost comes from actuators and computers that are within the process. Because that has, I think, four individual actuators. And it's just that a lot of that you're paying for R&D.

So you're paying for the R&D. And so I think that the knees, they're able to bring down that cost because there's so many more knee people. And just on the civilian side too, because a lot of leg injuries are still the survivor's stateside for traumatic amputations. knee people um and just on the civilian side too because like um a lot of uh a lot of um leg injuries are still the survivor stateside for traumatic amputations motorcycle accidents

car accidents um i was just with the at the i was at this like celebrity um softball thing in dallas with the with the above the knee amputee who just climbed a mountain in peru and she had a knee that wasn't waterproof and we were talking about that uh because she can't get the x3 because it's too expensive that knee that um it's it's still expensive for most ampts um um even military have a have a hard time getting it because it was originally just created for people that were um um for for special forces guys yeah and now they consider it it's so it it so tough that they consider it a specialty knee. It's an insurance thing that

even veterans have trouble getting it because since it's so tough, they consider it a water knee. So like this, for example, I just got in a fight with the VA about this, about getting a new prosthetic because they didn't make this. That's what you're trying to do.'s gonna break the fucking thing also the knuckles like the the paint job on the knuckles if you could face that to camera it looks like the uh the hot bitch from

atlantis the lost empire but um hold on do you do you get the space cowboy thing from jet dude yeah no it's so funny because people call me that. People call me that. Not even on my – people – Because Jet, his right arm isn't real. He lost it in a policing accident. Yeah, I got that from TikTok and YouTube. People – before I even got on social media, people were making videos about my arms. And I switched that because I used to – yeah, Tejano Space Cowboy. Tejano is just

mexicans from texas um like my family is from texas before texas was america and um in mexico and um and that came from people calling me that and i thought that was funny because um because like uh just because i would wear a cowboy i wore a cowboy hat with it and people were like oh like a space cowboy and i was like oh i love that shit it's rad and um and uh but just to get to the the that is just like it's it's a fucking medicare thing like the insurance i think that um uh it's insurances and getting that cost down is like um part of it's they're not made in america and i think that um there's a bunch of young companies that there's like one I made it in America. Yeah, that was my big point

We're so proud of that because um, and this is not to rub anything in their face. I've worked for them before There are four billion dollar company. They are the best prosthetic manufacturers in the world still but Having worked for them overseas. I was like a man if you guys made things in America Not only would uh, like this is broken. I don't have any working hands right now. So I'm waiting on that to get a new one from overseas because they're made in Austria. So the turnover in getting them repaired is really high. But there's a couple of young companies in America that are making prosthetics to that level that are not plastic.

And I think that... Before I handle this too closely, have you jerked it with this? No. Dude, everybody asks about the stranger. Okay. I feel really weird putting my fingers all over this. Tony just took out a relief.

He's like, I was wanting to ask that. I've been holding back this entire time. So people that are below the elbow have rubber covers, and I hear that they do try shit like that. But since I'm above the elbow, I don't have that level of control. So I feel like I would just rip it off.

Just guy to guy, I figure I had to ask. Dude, I fixed this myself with just some steel cable. Oh, yeah, shit. And so I was like, it's so jagged. Can you just imagine? Oh, yeah. No, that's a new, what is that? They call that a saint uh saint

the piercing on your fucking prince albert there you go a lot of you look to me for confirmation yeah i was like the answer to the why are you looking at child well here's the thing you did you knew the answer which saint was it that jerked his dick we always look to prince salmon for dude that's like the number one question on on fucking saint masturbate about that like the stranger or whatever and i was like i know that there's amputees that have rubber covers uh this hand it's open and that makes it easier for me to repair so that's why i i liked it but they're closed ones that are all rubber and um that like i know there's some dark fucking amputees out there that have tried that because they've told me about it and they talk about it and i was like no like not me my injury level is too high and like um

dude what's crazy is the like to give you props for the art direction though like it dude an ak with this wrap this paint and the and the blues. Like, bro. Yeah, people. I would put this up. If you ever get rid of one of these, we'll buy it from you. Just the hands so we can put it in the background. I don't think we can afford them. You know what? So that's another issue.

It's funny that you say that. Dude, I have a bunch of these. Because the company does make them obsolete. So planned obsolescence. Yeah. So it's a software. Planned obsolescence yeah uh so like the pro it's a software planned obsolescence uh obsolescence is wild it's a good rock yeah for amputees it sucks man it sucks because like having got into the space a little bit traveling to like uh like i

talked to some guys in egypt and and i want to go to mexico to talk about this arm i'm in the ukraine uh some of the places that they're making tougher ones they're making them tougher because um amputees can't really afford them you know like in america for instance you get them like once every five years um and so uh yeah so i have i have some of these um i i did the art just i call it mexican camouflage because um it's just uh i just i just uh like on this one literally just camo because my other ones are kind of colorful. And I was like I want an arm that I can hunt with and I want to – whenever I was in Africa, I felt really bad in Tanzania. We got like chased out of this village, and I felt really bad because the arm was all shiny and metal. And I felt so bad for the group I was with because literally our security was running ahead of us.

And I was like, damn. I spotlighted us because my arm was so shiny. Is it like a cloak or something? Well, I was like – I had painted a little bit of camo on it. And then after that, I was like – I was in the jungle and I was thinking to myself. I saw pictures and I was like, oh, I could disappear. I could make it camo to make it it like not because like having a super shiny arm is like cool i mean like i use it so much but i was like i do have that mentality of like um

of i don't know if it's ghetto mentality of like i don't like people being able to see me before i see them you know what i mean and um so like childhood trauma yeah yeah it's a getting jumped especially thing like because the the training the boxing and stuff like that the part that i broke before i went to the ukraine um like i've always trained because like um especially whenever you're traveling um overseas i see you adjusting that every now and again what what are you uh what are you locking that in and out of and why? Yeah, so this is... Da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da. This is a... It's Italian.

Brandon. God damn it. Brandon, you can do the Trump thing. The best prosthetics ever. Da-da-da-da-da. The best prosthetics. Yeah, I think we should have the best prosthetics made in America. I think we do.

That is a goal of mine, for them to be made in America. It would be really, really cool america should have the best prosthetics but uh the uh maybe ever tiny ones of it that specifically for a long time we were like scared to talk about the the inner mechanics of the elbow because we're like worried about um trade secrets and stuff like that but after talking to george the guy is like this is so hard to build that um he wanted me to the ukraine is like give it away like show it to people um like his goal is to is to build it better so people are not dealing with broken prosthetics that they're like relying on to like feed their families and so like um open sourcing talking about it is um this is how the

elbow moves up and down so it's a pylon and so typically that would be all inner that would be located in the elbow so all my other elbows it's it's inner um it's it's it's it's not accessible to to somebody to work on but the typically plastic is typically a plastic gear and so that limits it. And even sometimes the steel ones, a lot of prosthetics upper extremity are limited by the fact that they, they try to make them look like arms to contain all of that movement right there.

But the materials are not tough enough to do something like that. So like there's a metal elbow that whenever you try to make it steel is nowhere near as strong as muscle fibers are. So we don't realize that. But like if you get a metal pylon like rebar and you and you and you you like tensile strength is one thing, but bending it, there's nothing like an elbow. Yeah, it's like aluminum. That's one of the arguments like aluminum over polymers or polymer over aluminum rather

like polymer isn't quite as strong dude as aluminum so glad you brought that up okay yeah because it's it's one of those things like polymers even though that they're not as strong as aluminum they will bend they will misshape themselves to be able to fit whatever they need to in the moment and then they'll go back to their normal shape whereas aluminum will just fucking bend it will break it will like being stronger on those lines bingo being stronger is not necessarily better yeah so once you break or fray carbon fiber um that's why people ask about why metal and i was like well there's a reason all knees are metal um so that's like that gets into a really niche thing but um this was made specifically to protect the the carbon fiber

socket because i've broken carbon fiber sockets and um carbon fiber is so uniquely fragile when it comes to um like so when i was like kilimanjaro you could see the digs of the obsidian into the aluminum oh yeah and it dug right into it and it was funny because this was originally carbon fiber but we converted it to metal and cut this part out because we were like, only metal where it needs to be metal. But I broke carbon fiber wings because it's so fragile that once you drill into it, you actually – yeah, you shouldn't be drilling. Like the guy who made this arm was like, man, I can't believe the VA drilled into this. Just splintering into your shit. Yeah, you're split.

And it's poisonous. Yeah. just splintering into your yeah you're split and it's and it's it's poisonous yeah people have no idea that like as a material it's really weird that um prosthetics are still carbon fiber because it's dangerous and fragile especially if you're somebody's using it for more than a few years you ever seen those pictures of the guys who like accidentally put the carbon fiber arrow through their forearm or their hand and the carbon fiber just splinters out in like 80 different directions it's awful because as soon as you split have you not seen that yeah no i've seen that before yeah just archers doing that shit that's why like if you have a if you have an arrow eli knows now too you just got an archery if you have an arrow you always like roll it a little bit to make sure it's not splintered because if you let it go it'll just it'll fucking destroy your inner open

everything dude arrow like it is so much fun but also you see those little things like that well that's why you the only time i won't cheap out like ammo you'll buy cheap ammo sometimes arrows are the one thing i was like you know what i'm just spending i'm gonna spend a little extra money so just in case it's not opening up and destroying any archery event I've ever been to, they're like, Hey, take your O's.

Just like roll them down your leg real quick. If it's splinters, throw that arrow away. Cause it'll, it'll just fucking explode your arm wild. All I can think about is like, uh, how easy it would be to put a gun in that and sneak on an airplane.

Dude, somebody hit me up from... Oh, no, no, no. Cody, why does your brain go to sneak onto an airplane? That's okay. That's okay that you brought that up because I get violated so much for the TSA that I'm like, I'm so used to it.

Really? It's because you're brown. Getting through the airport. Dude, I know. I'm like, it's the beard, too. The beard and the Lebanese nose for me. Dude, whenever I'm overseas, especially with the other arms, they're like, this motherfucker. I've literally gone through, especially in Germany, this is why you guys have a reputation.

But they'll send me through the airport security twice and go to the back room twice. And I'm like, listen, man. There's a couple of guys, German Special Forces, know served with us in nato they're like cooler but like the security is like you get the terrorist treatment and it's like but um this arm specifically is actually easier to get through the airport because there's no batteries so lithium lithium is a real issue man i had a arm the blue arm that i met you with yep i got stuck in germany for like six months because um i i checked it in i didn't know you couldn't check it in because it's got lithium batteries even though they're completely encased within carbon fiber layers of carbon fiber um it got

it got stuck but this one since it's hollow actually it doesn't go off whenever i go on the scans because um they can see everything through it yeah so um there's a setup that i have that's shooting for shooting specifically that i stopped wearing through the airports because it was so hard to get through but um yeah it depends on what country i am in america is like the worst really um but not not texas texas is like people usually know who i am they're like the guy with the metal arm like he's you know what i mean like like your home airports or whatever yeah but then like because like uh like getting getting airports in the u.s like where if they're like bumfuck nowhere that that's the worst because they're like they're like i've never seen this before

like although one me spread my legs and for a long time i hate holding people up too so i feel bad so it's like almost better when they're like take me to the pirate room i'm like just ready for it because meanwhile they're thinking in their head they're like brown guy beard you were the bad ied maker yeah i sort of got it so it's it's it was it's useful you know i mean it's like it's useful like i i like being able to like even with a metal arm disappear a little bit because i can fit in anywhere i go um and i speak posh to a little bit still too um i'm sure tsa loves that yeah no it's not funny yeah it's um yeah you there's no joke i like no joke in front of tsa anymore because it's just like yeah they have too much power but yeah it's just really weird when you get stopped in america

you're like this is of all the countries that i get stopped in you're like man this is like one country they'd be like you would think that would be easier to get through but um yeah because in africa like they don't give a fuck like in africa they're like they're like oh yeah man like you're you know you're disabled whatever like they're they're almost nicer to you because you're disabled i mean try go on brandon finish it fine try playing soccer in most of east africa without hitting a landmine they understand prosthesis no it's true it's really that's why i was there you know i mean like to talk about the amputees there you know thanks for pushing me into that eli appreciate it

um you're one of us um yeah ironically the tsa yeah you're like i don't know what the goal the gift the goals it is a little bit like you know um obviously the marine corps sent me to fucking language school because i looked you know when i was in afghanistan they told me to tell people i was persian iranian yeah yeah they make up a story tell them yeah like i had to make up a story yeah like I had to make up a story about being my dad was from Iran and you know I had three kids you know just like yeah they just go into that

culture where it's like dude it's funny yeah I didn't know that that was like a that's a thing that they have people do I thought it was just me but no everybody who goes to language school in the Marine Corps and then special forces like that's all they do right they're like yeah be shady as fuck lie about everything like and but uh but it is funny because like that is why they sent me to language school because I spoke

my first language Spanish and I look Mexican so uh you know over there you look a little bit before I was wounded I looked Middle Eastern so you you don't look mexican you are yeah it's just as you know it's a fucking ironically that's that's some that's some uses of the diversity of the military super useful for that kind of thing and there's history to that too because like um it's there's history to that because arabs invaded spain and so like we have some language structure that's the same but also looks so like the nose you know it could come from that because arabs invaded spain and they left like you know cognates like um mayas is is um is table in posh too like camisa shirt they left language structure uh for arabic and then also like some of the words are the same too so people are like why do so many people um in the middle east look you know mexican and it's like oh it's

like that's because of spaniards and you know colonialism and stuff they are yeah it really same same genetically we are kind of the same that's uh you know it's easy to think that everybody's the same until you realize like history it's like oh no all these places like there was a, you know, the invasion of the Moors into Sicily. For example, if you've seen true romance history,

I read a lot. No, no, it's useful. It's useful. Cause like it is, it's, you get to see like how human humanity did spread and conquer.

It's like funnels that point to a place and then that builds into a funnel and then it goes to another spot. That's always why I've kind of had an issue with like the 23 and me, like the DNA tests. So it's like funnels that point to a place and then that builds into a funnel and then it goes to another spot that's always why i've kind of had an issue with like the 23andme like the dna tests because it's like okay well you're mexican cool are you 2024 mexican or are you 1800 mexican or are you pre-spanish mexican it's like the all of human history is just a history of conquest and different countries and civilizations melding into each other it's like genetically speaking which version of that country are you because if you go on 500 year increments that is radically different yeah that's i love educating because i educated myself on it like i remember i the one of the only times i've ever talked about my story on social media was like on years ago on tiktok and i um uh today yeah well the the god the aztec god arm

like i remember telling people that i said that um i put that uh the arm was this is from it that's why it's blue um his color is blue he's a potluck and he's the aztec god of the sun and um and his color is blue and the aztec god of the sun and war which is a very violent god and um i remember people um a lot of christians getting super mad at me for saying that um i thought my ancestors woke me up because nobody saved me and just this light wouldn't wouldn't um wouldn't stop flickering in my eyes and um you know my family's from novavo León, and they're, like, indigenous to Mexico on one side and then indigenous to Texas on the other side. And I thought it was a cool history because I was able to – I don't think, like, a lot of people know that, like, why. And this is me.

I would consider myself Christian, raised Catholic. You know, my middle name is Guadalupe because, you know, we didn't know Guadalupe in Mexico. But I was like, people don't know. A Mexican Catholic? No. Yeah, dude.

And it's like, people don't know, you know, like you have to educate yourself on how that history was spread. You know what I mean? That religion was spread by the sword. And so people were like,

I remember all this hate that I got from Christians. I was like, well, I can't neglect one side of my history and not like know, you know, how Catholicism got to Mexico specifically and all the gods. You know what I mean?

But all that goes back to some sort of history because Christmas, you know what I mean? That was a pagan holiday. Christmas, Easter, pretty much everything we see in a modern sense is. Yeah. It's derived from something that was hundreds of years before us yeah you get in trouble whenever you don't like because you almost always have to like educate yourself on those kind of things uh whenever you're talking to people about that and then you have to like go from you know how much do they know about it you know enough to be offended

would you two quit holding hands hey i'm so glad like i'm trying to find dude there's these awesome windows so it's anime versions of aztec warriors and goss quads to call it all and like all of them but um this is one but dude anime they did really cool drawings of aztec gods they look vicious yeah like this is art is a super big yeah because even on my arm the spear um i have 26 dots there the spear is supposed to be um we lost uh 25 marines without attachments um on that deployment and this is an aztec spear and that's why i call it just mexican camouflage because i just did designs and camo for him and this is supposed to be an obsidian uh tipped lanza spear and uh but just i did like a camo uh rendering of that and um but it's cool like art the art the art in mexico is like super super um unique and i love

watching the like anime watching it blend with like the japanese style artwork and then the mexican style yeah man dude you're just like this. Mexico gets so loved. I remember when I was talking – I had that arm. I had the leather arm in the Ukraine. And I remember this Ukrainian soldier, WPT, asking me about this guy on my arm, and it's Emiliano Zapata, and he was an indigenous freedom fighter from Mexico. And he's famous. He's a real famous Mexican warrior, and he has a he's real he's real famous uh mexican warrior and he's like a famous quote of

his like i'd rather um you know uh die on i'd rather you know die on my knees than than you know uh live live on my feet live on my feet um uh fighting for a mexican free he was eventually killed and he's got a famous bandolier and i thought my sorry i it was backwards it was i'd rather live on my feet or die on my feet than live on my knees yeah i was like that doesn't sound right yeah i was like playing in my head i was like maybe it's a weird mexican dude he's super famous all over all you fucking mexicans over here yeah i'm learning a lot today no it's it's i think it's a cody goes by as a weed history. I want to be like you. I wanted to learn about your culture, so I went to Home Depot.

I mean, you can't be ashamed because that's the hardest fucking workers in the world. Now, going to other places, like I travel where I'm like, oh, man, where people talk about me positively. I'm like, oh,, like where I'm from, like the fucking hardest workers in the world. That's why SpaceX is in the valley, man. Cause it's just the hardest, the reputation. Mexican specifically, the work ethic is legendary all over the world now. And even like, cause you talk about-

And the grass is immaculate. Yeah, I mean, that's why I broke my, I broke this hand mowing my lawn. And I was like, it was just something that's like a i mean that's why i broke my i broke this hand mowing my lawn and i was like uh it was just something that's like a work ethic that's unique that i think that uh like people in texas really appreciate because they're like are like oh those motherfuckers are just that's a cool stereotype to have where you're like the hardest yeah i mean i built that harness like people are like why i got into prosthetics i was like because you know um you can't really let

people feel sorry for you so long. Are you, even if you have valid reasons to like be depressed or whatever, like, uh, you know, that mentality of being like, well,

fucking nobody else is going to do it. I'll do it myself. That is something that I, that I, I do take a pride in that, that cultural aspect where you're just like, nah, I'll work other than myself.

Don't be a victim. Yeah. Okay. I can, I can, oh, you, you have,

you can make the excuses and you know people would validate your excuses instead you're like no fuck that i still want to work hard i want to better myself i want to better even what i have right now to my day-to-day life i'm going to make that as best as possible i'm not gonna quit which it was actually one of the first times you ever came across my feed naturally was a video of you basically explaining. You're like, yeah, people call me the Tejano winter soldier and everything. Like, this is so cool. But you're just like, hey, just a quick reminder to everybody.

This is actually a disability. Like, there's shit I can't do. And that's kind of up. But the ability to go from something that obviously was a very traumatic experience to having something like just taking on a life of its own and making it so cool and making the best of it that you have to remind people like, hey, by the way, this is not great. This was not my ideal situation. But just the idea of making the best of it to the point that people forget how bad it actually is is fucking rad yeah like the that came that came as far as like learning how to talk uh negatively but positively because i felt like i never realized i was gonna have to educate people on the va side of things where i was like yeah i was like i don't want people to know i don't want i never want somebody to go through what i went through with the va fighting

for prosthetics i never thought i was gonna have to like beg for because people are like like you know you're wounded in combat you get everything i was like no it's not that easy it's not it's been so difficult and talking to other mpt veterans where i like now i know how hard it is fighting the va for prosthetics and it's been become such an issue that i was like um i i only start to tell people that i'm like disabled because like becoming a dad that changed my view of things where i'm like man like all of like the quiet struggles at home. Especially as a guy, and you're Mexican, like a machista mentality. You have that thing of my dad, super silent.

You never heard him talk. Would never complain, never talked. Mexican is our toxic trait, too. It is a toxic trait, man. I just stay home. Great for a while. Don't worry. Give me the Vicks.

I'll put it on my chest. I'll just breathe. It's a breeze. You're having a heart attack, dad. No, I for war. Don't worry. Give me the Vicks. I'll put it on my chest. I'll just breathe. It's. I'll breathe. You're having a heart attack, Dad. No, I'm fine. It's good. That way don't pass. We know you're having a heart attack.

Dude, imagine. It's great for war, man. We make great warriors. And then as far as advancing and things and not passing on generational trauma and stuff like that. That's. I was like. One of my things. After my dad passed away and my son was born i was like i want to make sure that i like uh my i think it's maya angela that has a quote like if you if you if you don't tell people about your suffering they'll say that you were happy you know i think there's a quote about her she she uses a quote like that and i was like so i wanted people to

know that i'm like talking about this easy. They'll think you had it easy or something like that. I can't remember what it was. I feel bad talking about like – I'm like, hey, man, this guy privately funded this arm, built this arm because of my struggles getting prosthetics from the VA. Let's not talk about the fact that I've had so – I built my own harness. I went years without appointment i went years without prosthetics um it's hard to it is that it's extremely difficult to talk about your try i know uh probably a lot of guys at this table and guys out there gals out there it is you don't want to have the victim you don't want to play victim you know and the second you

bring up somebody like no like you feel bad about it for whatever reason. Complaining. Yeah, you feel like you're complaining. And the military, I mean, you know, even the Mexican growing up, you're not fucking allowed to complain about stuff. You're just like, nope, I'm going to shut the fuck up. I'm going to just push through it. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life. But you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning.

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But it is awesome for the next generation, like your kiddo. And you're like, okay, I need to do this to bring light to it. Because one of the biggest things, how long did it take for the VA to even start working on a prosthetic for you? How many years? So I would say two and a half years

uh so this is like that reaction this is a real issue because wild uh other amputees whenever i tell them this they're like it's insane i've actually i retired in 2015 i i've only had two prosthetics built from the va since i retired And whenever you tell that to people who know anything about, who know amputees, they're like, that's insane. And I was like, yeah, I didn't know that. That's why this guy made this arm for me. Like, I feel bad because I feel like a sense of responsibility talking about it because I owe him and just for other amputees now.

And then never wanting other combat women amputees to deal with that. I like, it's been such an issue like for me in san antonio like my my congressman got involved twice uh and it was like such an issue where they're like i i had to break that mentality of being like because if you don't complain about it that's fine but then like you know complain about it so hard to make things happen and it wasn't until my son was born that i was like um i i can't be disabled because my son you know like whenever he needs me um you know and i'm taking care of him alone um i'm like it just really really sucks i always tell a story about like changing diapers

with one arm is so hard i always whatever my son's mom's not there i um i always wear my prosthetic because i need it to be able to carry him and to move him and like you know toddlers it's so scary oh god like they're they're they have no idea how many times they put their lives in jeopardy so you have to be able they're just constantly trying to dude it's terrifying and like um two-year-old veterans yeah it's scary you're like how did i make it this far and doing that with one arm it's like like i i never felt the need to be undisabled not to mitigate my disability as much as possible until i became a dad where i was like this is not just about me like i have to be able

to get prosthetics uh so i can be able to take care of my son and be a dad and it was just something that i was like uh never i would have really continued to try to do it alone myself. And, um, actually one of the guys that found me to make this arm was a, was a special forces veteran who heard my story and, um, heard my dad's story. So he was like, so, so upset by the fact that my dad served so many wars. Um, and, and the guy was from seventh group and um and then lieutenant colonel for seventh group they're like your dad fought so hard in panama and for you to still be going through this um i couldn't get okay so one thing was i couldn't get prosthetics made at the center for the intrepid in san antonio which was built for veterans and so there was a

big thing there that i was, because people were like, people had no, I'm definitely down to build bigger buildings. They really love that. Cause I didn't, I didn't know to educate myself on that where I was like, people are like, why talk about the VA negatively?

Or I'm like, well, because these are taxpayer fund. Like people have no idea that these are million dollar facilities employing whole teams. And I was like, there's not that many amputees for them to be saying that they don't have the capacity to build prosthetics where i'm like they love spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a bigger building to tell you no inside look at this giant prosthetic we build dude to represent prosthetics like can i just get

a prosthetic it's like how can you dedicate because i feel like i have a sense of responsibility to talk about it because I'm like, hey, man. The civilian side, they're not as funded well as the VA. So I'm like waiting for weeks in between appointments to get it on the civilian side. This guy has nothing to do with prosthetics. He's doing it specifically to advance them, heard my story, get into it, get into the weeds with me specifically just to to better to make it arms or whatever for the future but like it's so sad when you're like i tell people like why am i pushing the v8 to amateurs because they have million dollar facility they have fabrication capacity that small civilian side don't have and if they're not going to use that people need to understand that then

we shouldn't be spending millions of dollars on those facilities because there's not that many combat wounded APTs for them to be like – because I got turned down. Justify spending – and then you're the one. So why do you have the facilities that are just million dollars? Like Audie Murphy, the VA is huge. And people – when I tell them, like, I have the biggest – what's the biggest VA, which has been such an issue for combat wounded APTs, to have such an issue getting prosthetics from what is supposed to be the biggest va and i'm like you have all of this staff that don't do anything and if they don't want to work um i remember taking part in a study this year with the va tech with the army nurse who retired and here heard her telling uh i got like a part of the study to improve the va and she was telling me about um how she was an officer in

the army a nurse in the army and she just VA. And she was telling me about how she was an officer in the army, a nurse in the army. And she just got out and she had appointments canceled. And I had mentioned about my getting me getting my appointments canceled for, for like group meetings, like a worker meetings multiple times. And she was like, that's so weird. Like I've had my appointments canceled for the same reason.

Like just nonchalantly, like two weeks for an appointment that you've been waiting six months for. They're like, actually, we don't have spots. We're working. The doctor's not going to be in the office that day. Can we schedule you for this many months out? And I told her that story, and she thought it was so weird because she just got out of the Iowa Army, and she's now dealing with the VA side of things. And now helping on the admin side to improve the VA.

She's like, I'm literally an officer admin side to improve the v.a she's like i'm literally an officer i work for the v.a i get out and to help you know improve the v.a and i keep hearing the story about veterans getting their appointments canceled that they had to wait months for because the doctor doesn't come in and i'm like and when i tell people it's just a work ethic thing because this guy's a millionaire this guy's a millionaire spacex private company flying all over the world to do all these different things for metal technology shorter metal technologies um is this company specifically for that and i'm like how does this guy and then have make time for me to make an arm and then uh when i worked for autobock they're a four billion dollar company i've flied to i would work for them in berlin

i would fly to germany and back before i could get an appointment for the va and i was like it's so embarrassing to tell that to a tech company where you're like, I can't get an appointment at the VA in time to get my arm working on. My arm worked on. And they're doing this $10 million campaign based around me and my art on my arms. Jesus. And I'm like, it's so embarrassing. $10 million campaign.

And they're like, look. The opportunity. They just want the photo op. Literally, it's just a photo op. So like that, that's the shit that smile, smile. No,

I just said big government. Spending your money wisely. no, like I couldn't get an appointment for the VA and the auto box worked on my arm. The company who built the arms. Cause they're like, listen, we need you.

We need your, we need your, we need your face. We need this to work. Private funding. Yeah. And it's like, it's like on the private side of things it's like because if you don't want to work

they'll fire you and that's a different thing I think structurally with the VA is that people when they don't want to work they want to make excuses or they don't want to come to work whatever it's so hard to fire them because I've had I've had so many better even my congressman Castro

I don't want to talk negatively about him because well i will he's probably going to go to jail he's like i will take that i'll do that but like i don't think and i hope it happens i really do i don't think he had i don't think he he didn't uh he didn't believe my story until i was like deal with the va talk to them yourself like if i'm having these issues, if I'm lying and dealing with the VA is like, yeah, it's insane that it's taking so long. And like, uh, it was, I was like, I was like, yeah, I don't know why, why that problem is. And I was like, this is the best VA. This is Texas.

Like I have so much support here. I've especially this motherfucker built me an arm, uh, you know, um, down the road and he has time to make me appointments. A billion dollar company has time to work on my arm overseas. And don't i can't get an appointment at the va in that time like i remember i waited a year for an appointment to va and i was like listen there's less than 400 combat wounded amputees arm amputees and there's 10 000 leg amputees like you guys have the most money out of all the vas like why do you guys have such a hard time getting people appointments and I was like it's just that I think it's just a cultural work ethic thing because like people who don't want to do their

job get hired at the VA so if you don't like because on the civilian side of things if you don't want to do that work it's contractor stuff so it's like they get work they get paid per prosthetic so they're like as much work as i do i'll get i'll get that money right on the va like if they want to take their time they don't want to do things and it's hard for them they're like okay well like makes my i still get my paycheck yeah i still get paid every week i said that like um whenever um whenever my son's mom was pregnant i was like taking care i was was going to the grocery store, working multiple jobs. And I was like, I had this arm.

Thank God I had this arm. Everybody's like, why don't you do more crazy shit with this arm? Like, you know, YouTube stuff. And I'm like, because I use it to work. Like I, you know, I don't have other prosthetics. And, but I just remember talking about like, they don't care because they still have their two arms while they're not giving me appointments and working on my prosthetic they're not disabled so they they have they

don't rely on the VA and it like makes me sad they don't care that like my you know that my girl's pregnant or that my my son has a disabled dad they they get to go home every day and they get a like cook and shower and bathe themselves with two arms so they're not thinking about that sense of responsibility that like the guy who made this arm is like like oh man you're using the carrier son like i'm gonna make it the best i'm not gonna break it i'm not gonna let it break well that's the thing you're like it is that human connection that and that plays it's no different than policing at your level versus the randoms it's no different than like if brandon you were taking on like you're already fascinated with that thing and the above and beyond you would go to to help you're like cool i can do you put a gun on it but

whatever you'd want to do with it but it's still your engineering so that wouldn't be my that wouldn't be my second thought but it is that like actual having a connection i think a lot of entrepreneurs when you have a billionaire like that he's like fuck this dude has his struggles i'm gonna allocate my time to bettering this because yes it benefits you but it's also something you can roll out yeah it's a sense of pride pride in engineering the thing that's just agreed just to me still is thinking about why a singular arm like that costs several hundred thousand dollars that blows my mind because i'm just looking at this and like i'm still awestruck because i'm like this if this was any other widget that we you know outsourced

to amazon man it's like i look at textiles in the production and i'm like i i think a lot of it is the fact that it's not made in America because you're right. When I look at things, because before I had this arm and that harness, I would buy tactical things and modify them to be able to use them in a prosthetic sense. And I was like, man, if I could get fucking Nike, the shells that I had, their ability to make shells and stuff like that. And just to produce high quality products like y'all's metal, you know, all of y'all's equipment, you know, your mic stands, all this kind of stuff. It's just a lot of that it's manufactured in such quantity. And so that competition obviously makes things better. But yeah, it's just that there's not, that's why our selling point on this arm is that it's made in America and bringing that price down. This is actually cheaper than the other arms because –

Are there any electronics in it at all? No, this is all hydraulic. This is all mechanically operated. And I get confused. I'm looking like most of that's like 550. You probably can't see it on camera. That's like 550 cord and – Yeah, it's so funny.

May I pick that one up? Yeah, yeah. This is the – that's the one that has all the computers in it um that one has all the computers in it what's the cost on this uh so this would be right i've just i mean 40 000 yeah this is 40 000 is way more reasonable that one you were saying a quarter of a million dollars yeah yeah so that one this is this is the issue with this i think is um you know i don't really well i guess i can i can be honest is that you'll be honest there's there's there's patents

so well it's because i've worked for this company before and they are the best but so to give you an idea they bought this company they bought the company that made this hand and um so one of the reasons that we've been careful about because we have been approached about making about somebody buying this arm um and and bringing it to to manufacturing capacity um in america and we've said no one time and it's just because experiences in the prosthetic industry made me understand that uh people will sometimes buy patents just to take it off the market yeah and so they decide competing with their product so if that's the most that's actually the most we have no experience with that so yeah yeah can't say anything about that yeah we will own that space yeah so like so this this is the most popular arm on the market right now right so uh they

they own um 60 of the market share and um so in order for them to it's the overhead is so expensive to be able to just change like little colors on that thing and so um for them uh all of that r and d that that gets done that like people are like why is it still plastic and i was like i can be critical of them because their knees are not plastic their knees they do have a knee that's waterproof water resistant this has an open circuit so this right here is an open circuit so people are like i i remember one time i was embarrassed at school uh because a veteran asked me um why i was carrying an umbrella uh with that arm at the time and i was like i got pissed because i was like man this motherfucker doesn't know he put me on the spot all these kids are like surrounding me like i like i'm a freak because

he asked like why i had an umbrella and um it was a it was a navy kid and um i was like well it's because like i didn't explain to him the arm i was like i was like uh just it's because in case it rains i just said in case it rains you know what i mean instead of being like fuck off uh i was like all right in case it rains but i've actually ruined 110 000 elbow getting caught in the rain because they're an open circuit so this is an open circuit so there's no battery in this right the battery is in the arm and so this is exposed in order to get the battery from uh to to move the actuators within the fingers um it's actually in the socket covered by carbon fiber and um i actually covered it myself this arm i made it tougher uh that's that's another open circuit right there and that covers the charge port and that's where um i turned it on no and i did all this myself before i found

this guy i was like i'm gonna i've been built all that myself yeah because it was like um i wanted so mexican yeah people you're like you're really like an Stark over here. I call this motherfucker because people are like, why? I am worth hundreds of dollars. Dude, I know. Antonio Spark built that in a cage. You built this in a one-bidroom apartment with a box of scraps. I know. It's fun because you do it yourself in a fucking Mexican mentality.

I remember i'm in austin now this guy came up to me to uh like a bug control guy and he was mexican and i was wearing that arm and he was like asking about all of it and i was like i made it i made it specifically i worked on it and i was like if i did leather work beforehand and i was like no like i just wanted to be able to work i needed it and i had this opportunity of a lifetime to work for this company so let me uh build it myself because i wasn't gonna wait on the va because at that time i waited a year for the appointment and um he's mexican and he was like oh you're mexican huh and i was like i was like what do you mean like it's like because you just

you just built it yourself and i was like i was like yeah man like that's i guess like my dad was the same way like like uh you know what i mean like i have so many friends that are like they have like whole houses in their backyard that they built just because they're old school. They're like, I'll do it myself. I appreciate the inner workings of that. Especially, dude, again, you're a king cosplayer over here. You're like, I've watched a few animes.

I'm going to put some leather and make this dope-ass fuck. Dude, some of the straps that for specifically I got inspiration for how to put it on from animes because I was like an animes You're like, how do you hold it on because it's hard man the half of good. Oh, yeah Accidentally punch this country singer the other day. What how do you accidentally put your country accidentally? You forget because I'm so used to fist bumping on this side because it's weird being I'm missing my right arm and people ask that because sometimes the videos are like left or right I switch them because of like

and that hitting but he was like go and give me a fist bump and like I was second nature because like everybody shakes hands at the right side and so I took a swing at him because he was giving me a fist bump and I was so excited I was at this fucking this softball classic.

And you don't think about it because you're like, you know, I did this to him. And I punched his hand. And he was like, oh, my God. And I was like, I actually never punch with this side. I get so scared of hurting somebody. Got some weight behind. But for him, yeah. But it's just like because people –

Yeah, you're like, fuck yeah. I do fist pump people with my right side just because it's like – it's just everybody reaches for the right side. So it's awkward if you don't. You know what I mean? Like they get that, you know, you get that weird. The turkey. That's what I always say.

It's the turkey. Bro, I hate. Thumb, hand. But what, missing my right arm, it's so weird because you're like, I get so many awkward interactions. You're like, what do I do? And I'm like, I'm confused too. Like, I don't know what the fuck to do.

But yeah, like I. Just kiss them. Yeah. You just like, you go in for a kiss but yeah like i just kiss them yeah you just like you're going for a kiss yeah you just kiss their hand they'll never do that well like sometimes because like i'll get people like it weirded out they're like oh i shake the claw and that's why i just bump it and it's like um yeah but sometimes like you know you get carried away that you're like because like uh you know my best friend you know he's a he's a big old guy he's mma fighter uh he was with the 82nd and like i'll always fist bump him because i know i'm not gonna

hurt him because he's like you know he'll he knows he's a big boy yeah but somebody you don't know you're just like you know it's a weird thing right you just brace yourself or whatever i remember i hit this you also know the speed to go at a metal object with yeah yeah because i do i do do a little bit of mma training and i i can only train with people this arm bar is not working yeah how does that work like mma wise only good people only good people yeah only good people because like i remember i got asked to do this boxing thing and they wouldn't let me use my arm which i thought was bullshit which is why i was like there's so many different things that are are obstacles for amputees but i remember thinking like they want me to box with one arm literally

with no like cool i can't protect my entire right side versus a guy who had it who was missing his arm below the elbow and i was like well he's gonna be able to beat the out of me like what do you mean like because he's gonna be able to put up a glove on that and just hit me and i'm like here like this the whole time and i was like i thought you guys asked me to do this because you saw me training with my prosthetic. Because I was like, just for an exhibition, I'm not going to hurt anybody. Like I'm just going to, you know, just like point shit. But my saw gunner was somebody who I have trained with besides my best friend.

Because he's a really high level MMA guy. And so I told him, like, he let me. He's so good. He's so much better than me that, like, I could throw full swings at him and not worry about hurting him. You know what I mean? Like he was just so good at like dodging and showing me technique and stuff like that, punching pads. It's just like unfortunately I felt better in the MMA space because they're so good with their bodies that they're good with avoiding things because boxing, it's like

there is a lot of worry about me hitting somebody's head. But I do have an MMA hand that I train with specifically that I would... It's rubber. It would be soft that I do train with to not hurt somebody.

Does it bend? Does it? It's just like a... They call it a dragon TD. It was made specifically for martial arts. It's got spikes on it. I put it in glass. I still put it in a glove.

I still put it in a glove because this right here, this is like one solid piece of aluminum. So if you miss somebody, you know what I mean? If you miss, you still hurt them I mean? Like if you miss. Oh, yeah. Gotcha. You still hurt them. Six hypodermic needles covered in ketamine. I win.

Oh, good. For utility. So I'll use, you know, big gloves, big boxing gloves to wrap it so I don't hurt anybody. Right. But it does. That is the one I train with. And I broke that's i broke that hitting a tree right before i i went to um the ukraine hidden trees for dude i'm just i was just

poor man i don't have a gym on the south side like i was just all that so you were punching the tree yeah i was punching the tree oh i didn't know if you're on a four-wheeler or something like that drinking your coconut water you do uh line work like you you do line work where you're just like you know you're moving and ducking and yeah like that under a line and um and so and i would i padded the tree because everybody's like why don't i use a glove with the tree and i was like because this is this is still my arm i don't want to break it so i padded the tree wore gloves and i would just hit the tree and um not like really really hard but i broke it it was it was apart from a bicycle and so like i remember like three days before i went to the ukraine i always tell this

story about george because um he's he's got this huge facility um in san anton And I went there, and his secretary was like, George is not here. And I was like, I thought it was funny, because I was like, well, he's texting me on the phone, right? And he told me to come here. I'm going to the Ukraine to fix this arm. I'm going specifically to talk about this arm, because these guys want to be able to use it to fight these Russians.

So I'm like, of course I'm going to take that opportunity, because one of the only benefits of being me and our background is that I have that I'll fucking go to a combat zone just to sell an arm you know what i mean yeah because these guys want to use it to you you know fight russians and um so his secretary's there and she's like well he's not here and i was like well i'm texting him right now and then george comes about comes out of of um the back of his facility. He's like, I'm sorry. My secretary, she's like, she was told not to tell anybody

or not to disturb me because I was in a meeting with SpaceX. And I just thought that was so funny because this motherfucker is in a meeting with SpaceX and he's coming here to make this part in three days, specifically for me to go to the Ukraine and talk to their soldiers about it. And he was so insulted by the fact that it broke.

Even though he didn't make that part, we used a bike part. And he was like, man, like, I can't believe how you broke it. Because that's his level of engineering. Yeah. Where he's like, that sense of pride. How was that able to break? Yeah. He was, like, so mad about it.

Yep. And he, like, fucking told me, like, he's like, man, now this this part won't wouldn't break for you know to take like 10 000 pounds and i was like george i'm not gonna break i'm i don't know what you think i'm doing but you know like if you're shadow boxing an oak tree yeah jesus 10 000 pounds that's impact yeah because i was like because people asked the limits of the strength and i was like it's limited by my strength because i've deadlifted 400 pounds with it, and that's limited by – that's me. In the weightlifting world, that's like – Yeah, so that's the most I've ever put on it before.

But after that, I felt way safer shooting guns with it and stuff like that because a crack had developed in it right so um you know shooting guns you know it does take a lot of torque um you know just the recoil it's like quick that like because it's sharp yeah yeah it is you know shoot it's people ask about it and that's why the ukrainians were so interested in it because they kept breaking theirs um this is the the vulnerable part in the arm right here because there's like a little bit of a spring in there. I don't know if you can tell that absorbs something. This is plastic. So this is a $40,000 hand.

This is plastic. So this is super vulnerable to breaking right here. Anytime you break it, those ball bearings fall out. It's completely useless. And it's like a huge repair. So it's super fragile right there. And the Ukrainians, for their part, they have an arm that they're making that's mostly metal. It's all metal right here on the wrist.

So it doesn't break. But they built it specifically for shooting. And it's a lot tougher than what this is because these are made for people to be able to do desk jobs and stuff like that. The Ukrainians, I think that a lot of tech is going to come out of there because to prosthetic companies, I'm like an outlier. Somebody who wants to lift weights, shoot guns, swim, do fucking triathlon, stuff like that, that's an outlier for them. So they're not making upper extremity prosthetics for people like that.

Ukrainians, I think they're going to have a lot of tech come out of there because they are building them to fight wars. Go back out into the field. So it's a lot like the best knees. The best knees were made from DARPA being like we want our boys to be able to get back in combat. And so I think that me and them got along because we were like shared that sense of engineering integrity. We were like, hey, how did you break this? Well, the only time I broke it was boxing and shooting guns. I never risked shooting guns, breaking it because it was so tough.

Boxing specifically was something. I remember I met an MMA fighter there visiting the hospitals, and I gave him my cowboy hat because he was so stoked about meeting me. Because he saw my videos online and i was like i was like doing training and he was like before he was wounded before russia invaded he was you know mma fighter and then you know uh you get invaded then you you become a fucking soldier and he was missing his arm above the elbow and so they they made me visit him so because it was like that relation where he was like he was like oh i'm not gonna be able to do these things uh again then i was like well i i had that same thing in me where i was like that relation where he was like he was like oh i'm not gonna be able to do these things uh again and i was like well i i had that same thing in me where i was like

just mexican growing up in the valley where i was like you tell people were like why do you train so much i was like because i have that thing as a man where like you want to be able to take care of yourself with or without a gun because there's places where you can't take a gun bars and like i'll get tried all the time because like mother fucker will be like oh like a guy with a metal arm did like you know alcohol people people will try me and so i do train i do train so i've never seen a guy with an amputee and be like crispy i want to fight you fuck you for your burns with this guy i think like i don fuck? I think, like, I don't know. I think that it's. You need to move. People.

Bro, it's next. Be my own people. Be my own people. I know. Be my own people, man. Like, yeah, like, I always tell a story in San Antonio. And this is a, we're friends now, so I always talk about it. But, like, this guy was a Marine.

This guy was a Marine. You know how fucking Marines are. So this guy was at a bar. And he was actually a, he was not a detective at the time. He was SAPD. He was a San Antonio police officer. This was years ago. But I remember I was like – I was all like beinado.

I was all like dressed – I was, you know, real dressed nice. And at the time, I had an arm so good that I could fit under clothes. And somebody told him I was a Marine or whatever but you couldn't really tell because i only had my hand so whenever my shirts tuck long sleeves all you see is my hand yeah like like you so sticking out like this yeah i could be low-key and and uh this guy came up to me and yeah like it's i could be more discreet dude and again if you're buzzed or you're like afar i'm not gonna i'm gonna i might glance and not recognize yeah that one is brown for a reason so like it's

more it's it's easier to um i i my my reasoning for that was breaking up the shape of the patterns the colors on it specifically are for me to be able to um whenever it's dark uh to be able to look what the fingers are because i'm tracking that with my eyes i can't feel it that makes sense so i look look when it's down here i want to be able to see what the fingers are because I'm tracking that with my eyes because I can't feel it. That makes sense. So when it's down here, I want to be able to see what directions the fingers are pointing. So that was a thing. But this dude got really mad at me because he was like, I heard you were a Marine. At the time, my hair was all spiked. And I was in a dress shirt.

And I was like, yeah, I was. And he was like, well, you don't look like a Marine. And I was like, was like yeah, I was and hum and he was like well, you look like I was like I was like I was like Dude, I was like I was like, you know, first of all, this is language I don't even like using it anymore But I was like this little poke motherfucker is like you like that I wasn't a marine and he but he was like him ticket Yeah, but that's how Marines are Bro, I love that marine culture culture like i love that that violence to

protect the culture where they're like you don't look like you're a marine i was like i was like well i guess i wasn't like i if you know if you say i wasn't i wasn't i don't give a i started laughing and walking away and this guy got so mad he was like you stole him out of motherfucker you weren't a marine and at the time like grabbed your dude all yeah he tried to he tried to grab me right he grabbed me and he started swinging on me bro he tried to he tried to grab me right he grabbed me and he started swinging on me bro he tried to hit me like three times and he didn't hit me every time i was laughing he got so mad at me because he was swinging on me but he couldn't hit me i trained so much i was like all i do is train and i was like i just kept laughing and all his friends

tackled him they're like what the fuck are you doing this dude's a cop and um he's still a cop and he's the detective now but we talked about him the other day because i guess he's he's a hot-headed motherfucker but he's a marine combat veteran like you understand like i just thought it was so funny that it'd be your own people mexican marine like drunk belligerent trying to fucking start a fight with you because you're not a marine oh mexicans yeah i was like dude i was like he understands now you said brown. Minorities, yes. Go on. That's right. Be your own people. I was like, this drunk ass motherfucker. But that's who it is, man. It'll be motherfuckers like that world.

I've had people literally stop me walking out of a bar. It's the valley. It's growing up where I grew up where I have that mentality of I'm going to have to fucking kill this guy. I've had a couple things that are memorable or a guy's like um bro can i fucking punch you and i'm like i'm like i'm outside of the bar polite enough to ask i guess you know what i mean like multiple guys like where i grew up i've been jumped before so i'm like you know

people say they're gonna do something you have to like take their word for it yeah just just worse and i'm like i'd have bro can i punch you dude it's a weird man it's a weird like i remember this guy's face he was a big old no no no no no punch yeah dude i was like i know it was like i just i think about that and i was like i was like oh man like like usually i'll carry like fucking brass knuckles on me or something like that but i was just thinking like people are the op, like people see it. I think it's an arm thing. They see a metal fist,

a metal arm. They're like, they want, they, they, they want you. I never wanted to fight somebody when they say I'm like, ha ha. Yeah.

But you obviously, you train the people who train the most are the least violent. I think that people that are like my, you know, I don't even think you need to train. You just look like, wow, a disabled man.

I'm like, do the fuck. Am I here? I don't even think you need to train. You just look like, wow, a disabled man. I'm like, dude, that's what he said. Autism, I hear. Especially with my other arms. That's wild to me. My other arms, I'm way more vulnerable because they were made by the VA, so they're terrible, so I can't move as fluidly. You're like, I love, I am glad you're on this soapbox.

It's just how bad the VA sucks. Because you'll get zero. No, no. Don't defend it. Because you see my other arm. It's so big and so gigantic. I could barely move it. So I'm like moving so disabled.

Like I could barely lift it. You know what I mean? So like I was super scared, paranoid of getting in a fight with that arm. Because it was very hard for me to block on my right side. And that's something that I know. It's because I've been in a few scuffles since I got wounded. I know that the first thing people do whenever I get in a fight is grab my arm, which is fine. Now it's fine because I've trained around it.

I'm like, okay, the first thing people do whenever they're going to, you know, drunk and they grab me is they grab my arm. Especially now that you use the taser function you built. That is crazy. Flamethrower. Taser. Okay. me is they grab my arm especially now that you use the taser function you built yeah that's crazy okay okay speaking on real quick it looks like the gun that gary oldman used in the fifth element gave the goblin people does anyone else see that yeah this is just me just like the top the top part right there oh yeah, yeah. The forearm. Yeah. Yeah, this forearm is like, I just made this forearm to be able to carry things.

And it's actually leather under here. There's an actual, there's a Mexican Aztec warrior. There's an Eagle warrior and Jaguar warrior under here. But it's all leather. And I made this. And then there's metal under here. But that design, like, that's just for me to be able to... Is there a red button you shouldn't push on that?

No, nothing like that. You need to start adding. You hang out with us some more. Yeah. Brandon will get you situated. I'm already sitting here just like, hmm. Now it just blows up. I'll say that.

I'll get hit up by random producers and stuff like that. The Discovery Channel people hit me up about making a gun arm. And I was like – We got a TV show idea. We've seen an injured Mexican. Yeah. And we just – oh, you're a veteran? That's crazy.

I don't even care about that. Yeah. That's why people are like, why haven't done more with that? And I was like, this is my arm. But now, having gotten to the space where I'm like, fuck, man, the things that you have to do to be able to make – sadly, I'm like, now I'll be like – I wish I would have – I said no to so many things before that I wish I would have said yes to if I would have known it would help me get prosthetics from the VA. Because I remember I did the Warrior Games thinking that doing that with a DOD would help me get a better uh situation with the va and they were like that didn't help at all and i was like fuck you don't even care about like espn i was on espn because i was doing like you're sitting in the resume and they're like cool like yeah like they don't i mean there's just no

the dod wild the dod is much better at making prosthetics than the va because they care because they're like worried about getting their people back in combat. And I've had some DOD people reach out to me to be able to fly to DC to be able to – because they're like, hey, we hear the VA is terrible. We'll do this shit. They have black budgets where they're like, we'll do it out of pocket, whatever. We're not worried about dealing with the VA bullshit. Yeah, man. One of the guys that came down down i'm honored that he came

down uh i mean i don't know if i could talk about it too much but there was a guy here what we can do actually on the know is hey if you want to hear this story go over to patreon but before oh hey cody you're gonna close out with that where where fucking sebastian i'm so happy you're here thank you for hanging out we're gonna have the after show if you're down where do people find you um i just mostly tiktok um tahano space cowboy t-e-j-a-n-o tejano space cowboy tejano it's just mexicans from texas that that's what the hano is ariva derchi yeah ariva derchi um but um yeah god damn it Eli using your Italian hand god

using your Italian hand speak the second best Italian I left it in that fucking position too Cody closes out oh wait we go on you guys

no no it's just on TikTok. And I started YouTube because people on YouTube kept asking me to make a YouTube. And I was like, I'll do YouTube. The Hanoi Space Cowboy. Yeah. Go check it out.

We have the links below. Cody, do the honors. Oh, yeah. Guys, thanks for joining the unsubscribe podcast. We're going to be over on Patreon now for the after show. You are more than welcome to join us. I'm joined today by Eli DoubleTap, Tejano Space Cowboy, space cowboy brandon hurray myself donald operator the only white guy in the audience i'm really happy to see you guys patreon thank you white man bye This is the You won't know me From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino.

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