Dan Majors is a Medically retired Green Beret with one heck of a story. Navigating the transition from military to civilian life is a voyage with its own set of challenges and it can be specially difficult when you’re transitioning from SOF. On this episode, Dan breaks down his life journey from his early days in the GWOT to his time as a Green Beret K9 Handler.
As our dialogue shifts from the scars of war to the healing embrace of homesteading and family life, we uncover the richness that awaits beyond service. The episode encapsulates the therapeutic essence of connecting with the land, the joy of raising a family grounded in classical education, and the tranquility found in a simpler, more purposeful existence. We're reminded of the importance of community, the pursuit of passions, and the unwavering resilience that defines not just a soldier, but also the individual who persists in finding their peace in the aftermath of duty.
If you enjoy our content, sign up for our Patreon and get access to additional content, bonus episodes, and access each episode before they drop on Spotify or iTunes.
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We greatly appreciate you and your support, so please remember to LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE!
Make sure that you follow Dan on Instagram!
Instagram: directiondad_pnw
Produced by Security Halt Media
Dan Majors is a Medically retired Green Beret with one heck of a story. Navigating the transition from military to civilian life is a voyage with its own set of challenges and it can be specially difficult when you’re transitioning from SOF. On this episode, Dan breaks down his life journey from his early days in the GWOT to his time as a Green Beret K9 Handler.
As our dialogue shifts from the scars of war to the healing embrace of homesteading and family life, we uncover the richness that awaits beyond service. The episode encapsulates the therapeutic essence of connecting with the land, the joy of raising a family grounded in classical education, and the tranquility found in a simpler, more purposeful existence. We're reminded of the importance of community, the pursuit of passions, and the unwavering resilience that defines not just a soldier, but also the individual who persists in finding their peace in the aftermath of duty.
If you enjoy our content, sign up for our Patreon and get access to additional content, bonus episodes, and access each episode before they drop on Spotify or iTunes.
Patreon: securityhaltpodcast
Instagram: @securityhalt
X : @SecurityHalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
We greatly appreciate you and your support, so please remember to LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE!
Make sure that you follow Dan on Instagram!
Instagram: directiondad_pnw
Produced by Security Halt Media
Dude, so you're coming out of first group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice, just finalized retirement last March, so coming up on it one year out.
Speaker 1:Oh, hell yeah, man, april for me, so yeah, oh, nice, so same time frame. Yeah, man, it dude, it was a beast. Medical retirement is not easy.
Speaker 2:No, it took about almost two years from start to finish. Actually, I guess some of that time frame counted as, like, the injury time frame for myself, and some of it was recovery time while they were trying to figure out whether or not to retire me or keep me in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's always the hard part, the ambivalence of it, not knowing. It's like been kicking the dick for a lot of guys and for us here in seventh group, like there's nothing, there's like no mechanism to keep you plugged in within a community, because once you, once you started the process, it's like cool, we need you out of the way. It's like you know they started seeing so many guys that you know they're not on the team anymore. I was lucky, you know, being a warrant officer, I had a job to friggin do. While I was doing it, going through all the process, there's a lot of guys that get left behind, kind of fall off the wayside, and it's just kind of like, yeah, don't kill anybody and don't get arrested and we'll be fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for myself I was kind of lucky as well. At the time of my injury I was working in the kennel basically waiting out until I could move back to a team. But because of the injury they pulled me out of the kennel and I went over to basically be the ops sergeant for TISC. I don't know if you guys have a TISC in the seventh group. Yeah, so for some weird strange reasons at the time the kennel fell under TISC and it used to be under Cephasic, but because Cephasic was a training company, not a deployment company, they moved the kennel over to TISC.
Speaker 1:Dude it's crazy how we organize things. How did you like being in the kennel?
Speaker 2:So I actually liked it a lot because for myself, I came out of Bico third battalion and basically went right back to Bico, so I was still able to work with the same ODAs from my company, even the same ODA that I came from, 1323. And every single training event that the teams had I was there for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I easily just go right back into being on a team. Yeah, it's just now. You have a hairy furball that can do some extra damage.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So a lot of guys see the kennel as like kind of a dark hole, but for me it was actually pretty good, because I spent most of my time not actually at the kennel but either with the teams or doing solo trips over to Asia.
Speaker 1:And I think everybody has that misconception until they get to the kennels because I know I almost went that route and it was kind of like oh no, no, no, no, don't do that. And then all my friends that went there were like I fucking love it. Like this is. You know, you're fucking busy.
Speaker 1:Guys, if you're listening to this and you've ever had a desire to work with a military working dog and you happen to be a green beret, don't discount it. It's all about what you want to do in your career, which I find is so shitty when you're getting guidance from like a senior and they don't even want to give you like the objective truth. They want to just go off of rumor mills or what they experienced. It's like, dude, be able to empower your guys and give them like truth. That's just your opinion, because every guy that I talked to after that like dude, I absolutely loved it. I got tons of reps down south, I love the job and you're on a team all the freaking time. It's like it's not a down shift per se, because a lot of guys try to like give that negative connotations, like yeah, well, you're not really going to be on a team and then come to find out.
Speaker 2:It's like you're deploying all the freaking time All the time and you actually get to see even more than if you're just on one ODA. You get to see all the dynamics and the way the different teams operate, like, ooh, I don't like that, yeah. Or you see you pick up on some things where it's like, okay, this team is solid squared away. These are the guys I want to work with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely man. And then, when you're ready to go back to a line, you have so much more experience. Yeah, you really, truly.
Speaker 2:And the benefit of it is you kind of get out of all the dumb shit, because when you do deploy with a dog, like you're responsible for yourself and your dog and then whatever else you volunteer for it to make yourself busy or useful, but you don't have all the nuances that go with being the Charlie on the team, the Bravo on the team, the Echo and everything else that is involved.
Speaker 2:And for myself, I actually had a kind of a soft introduction to the Kennels, so it was something I already knew I wanted to go into after my team time was over, because, going into the 2018 deployment in Afghanistan, the Kennel had no available handlers or K9 teams to support our company. Really, yeah, our company Sergeant Major worked a deal with the Kennel and three of us from the company went to the handler course and then went back to our teams with the dog. So we were still on the team. I was still the team's senior engineer with the dog, so I deployed with my K9, with my team, and then after that deployment, my team time was over and I volunteered pretty much at the end of deployment to go over to the Kennel. Yeah, I didn't want to move back to Fayetteville.
Speaker 1:Nobody does, and if they do their line. I was going to ask you about that because on my 2019, 2020 trip we had a lot of first group guys that came in, so I was going to see if you were a part of that crew. But, man, that is a lot of work. You're still a Charlie on the team. Now you have a dog to take care of.
Speaker 2:It was a busy trip. Yeah, especially it made things interesting and sometimes not necessarily ideal if you're the one who's say breaching into a compound, but you have a dog on your hip that you have to deal with and not try to freak out the dog with all that over pressure from blowing up a wall or something Dude.
Speaker 1:That's something that nobody thinks about Truly on scientific level, really thinks about the effects of over pressure on all of us. Just training alone. That's where a majority of the issues comes from, and then I'll have to worry about that for a dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know a lot of guys who didn't deal with it for themselves. So they're still dealing with the residual effects of that to this day. And even my dog I actually still have her. She retired after that trip.
Speaker 2:And so I adopted her and now she lives with me and my family here on the homestead. And the reason that she retired? She did two trips to Afghanistan and on the first trip she got rhodo wash inside of her ears and so the vet he was basically, I think, a National Guard or Reservice I wasn't on this trip with her but when he was removing the debris he basically punctured both ear drums and she healed up from it. But even now, to this day, she has sensitivity in both ears. So being around gunfire, loud explosions, it caused pain and discomfort for her and so we ended up retiring her as a result of that after that second trip.
Speaker 1:Nice, and that's going to be a great feeling to have your companion from combat at home with you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:She's enjoying it. Now she's a full-time couch dog and we have three dogs, but of the three she's the only one that is actually allowed full-time in the house. Nice, Well earned.
Speaker 1:Well, dan Major, aka Direct Action. Dad, welcome to your episode. I'm Dan Major of SecureDog Podcasts. Always, I'm your host, dan Cabrero. Today we're going to break it down, man, your story, from start to finish.
Speaker 1:I always love having green berets on the show. Obviously, the Brotherhood, the regiment we serve, we still are a part of that. We still give back, and we give back by our shared experience. As we were talking a little bit earlier ago, the medical retirement process is not easy. It's not for the faint of heart. It's very frustrating, it is painful and on so many levels, like we can dig into this on so many levels. But one of the things I want to ask you and dive deep into is finding your purpose, reinventing yourself. We all have to. But when we are faced with the reality that, okay, I can no longer be the green beret, I can no longer be the person that I thought I was meant to be for the rest of my life, how do we put that body back together, how do we put that mind back together and how do we find a new course of action to dedicate ourselves to? So, dan, please take it away All right.
Speaker 2:Well, to go back to the beginning, I wasn't always a green beret Initially. I joined the army as a field artillery 13 Bravo gun bunny, and part of the reason for that was coming into the army. I was already married, already had one kid, a newborn, and basically my wife was concerned about me being on the front lines in, say, like Ranger Regiment or even infantry. So in my mind I was like well, artillery is still combat arms, I'll get to shoot a big gun, but I'll be back on a fob, save away from the danger relatively, so that she won't have to worry as much. And then I go to a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division, deploy immediately, within the first two or three months of getting there, to one of the top four most dangerous places in Afghanistan at the time for an infantry mission. So I ended up on the front lines with a unit that wasn't trained to be on the front lines and that was a long 12 months in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:So after so that was 2010 through 11.
Speaker 1:Oh shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was the time when pretty much the entire division for the 101st deployed to Afghanistan. So all four brigades combat brigades and all four of the artillery battalions from the 101st were deployed of the four artillery battalions and was the only one that got the infantry mission, which I don't regret that. There was a lot of interesting things that happened on that trip and it kind of opened up my eyes to things that maybe I wanted to pursue, but not necessarily doing it with people that were trained to do it or sometimes the best decision makers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bingo. And I think that era of young soldiers had a lot of the same experiences, because I found myself having the same come to Jesus, situations that were like, hey, these individuals don't really know what they're doing. Ultimately, like I see green berets and the way they're training and the way they're led, and there's a lot different than this. Like, yeah, and when you have a catastrophic loss of confidence and faith and trust in your senior officials, your immediate leadership, you're like, okay, the veil comes off and you realize that first sergeant doesn't know what he's doing, that PL doesn't know what he's doing, holy shit, like only, I can only count and rely on the, the platoon sergeant, the squad leader, and it's like, okay, there's got to be a better way of doing this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were fortunate that our first line leaders were solid. Yeah, we had really good NCOs. It's once you went above the NCOs that we ran into issues. Yeah, and even even our first sergeants generally were solid, like our battalion sergeant major basically fired one of the first sergeants because this first sergeant, his cop, came under attack. He was working out at the time and instead of taking 15 minutes to get into proper attire for the army, he throws on his kit, gets up on the wall and he returns fire with his guys. There was a reporter there at the time who took a picture of him and ended up on the front page of the army times. Army times basically was putting it out there as like promoting the troops and they thought it was an awesome action shot. But then it filtered back down through command and he ended up getting fired because he was in PT shorts and a T-shirt with his kit on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a real soldier would do Like any one of us, like someone who's taking care of business.
Speaker 1:Hang on, guys.
Speaker 2:This is the same CSM. The same CSM who, like no one, respected this guy. Yeah, he ended up getting put out of the army as a private, but because he was not court martial, he retained his highest level of rank earned for his retirement. But at one point he pulled two guys down off of a wall during a firefight at a different cop and told him to go do a police call because he saw trash on the ground. So experiences like that.
Speaker 1:Again, it was like that was the moment, Like right and this is it, and because of this, I am out, yeah, no, I experienced some of the same issues, not my first deployment.
Speaker 1:First deployment was great leadership, platoon leader, platoon sergeant, amazing individuals. To this day Still think the world of those individuals, that next deployments, when you experience how fast the military moves, rather than keep a functioning and well oiled platoon together, because those were, you know, I would say 2003 to like 2011. You had those like really heavy year long deployments, yeah, and rather than keep something that was functioning, it's like, well, you've already had your platoon time, but let's hand this over to a guy that's not proven, hasn't been in the line platoon for you know, over a decade. And it's like, oh, this is bad, this is a bad idea. And it was one of those continuous situations where it's a bad leader gets fired, replace it with another bad person.
Speaker 1:It's just like, eventually, you're like when are we going to run out of bad leaders? And then you just rely on E7s and E6s that are solid individuals. It's like, fuck, okay, we can rely on the NCOs, we can rely on these guys. Really, luckily, you do get another officer that is, you know, understanding, is smart, is a critical thinker, but still, by that point, it's like the veil has been lifted as a young kid in the military. You go in thinking, oh, these guys are solid, they all know what they're doing. Then you realize, oh, we're all just human beings and we're all trying to figure this out as best as we can, and some of us aren't equipped to do that, and it's just crazy, unfortunately, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we did have some officers that were pretty solid or at least made attempts to like work, you know, and make the best of it, make the best decisions that they could at the time, given what was being put on them by higher command. They tended to be at the platoon level, and once you go above the platoon level, then it was 50-50. And once you went above, say, the company level, then it was out the window completely. It was a crap shoot man. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude. So you find yourself in that situation. You make it through Afghanistan, which I have to imagine that was probably a super kinetic deployment, it was.
Speaker 2:So that deployment, our battalion, the footprint that we had, it was the Argendab River Valley, north of Kandahar, and everything that we did had to be on foot. It was flat terrain but because we had to go out and patrol into what we call the green zone cop was out in the desert facing the green zone and we had to go out and patrol in it. When everything was on foot, we averaged one IED found for every 40 meters that we walked throughout the deployment. So it was an interesting deployment for sure.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's not fun.
Speaker 2:There's nothing about that? Oh yeah, and they would put the IEDs. We found typically where they knew that we would take cover and then, as soon as we got close open up and basically create an ambush, one runs to cover, boom, they set off an IED. So we got to the point where we would just return fire from position Like start, return fire while standing pretty much where you're at, drop to a knee, get on the ground if you had to, and then start collecting yourself and pulling back to the positions behind you that were already cleared and safe.
Speaker 1:It's crazy that TTP you're talking about. There's documentaries, there's footage, there's even TCCC medical videos that show that exact TTP Guys get in contact, they move and that's where they hit an IED and it's just like you can prepare for so much. But even situations like that, our guys had so much going against them and constantly answered the call, and for individuals such as yourself that lived through that and say you know what, fuck it, I'm going to become a gray.
Speaker 2:My own squad lost two guys to that same tactic that they used and it was so common throughout the whole area.
Speaker 2:And yet, seeing the decision making process that came out of that on our side, and then the limited experience that I had with Green Berets while I was down range, that kind of opened me up to basically seeing how people could actually make the smart decision. And even then it still took a while for me to come around to promoting that idea to my wife, because even then I was trying to look out for her and our son. And then, immediately after that deployment, we ended up with another son, which is also common. But towards the end of that deployment I actually put together the paperwork and almost had it submitted for Green to Gold. I even had my chain of commands, you know, signature, sign off, approval, everything for it. And the more I looked into it, the more I realized that warrant officers that I spoke with love their job. Every officer that I spoke with hated their job and I did not want to end up in a position where, yeah, I was able to be the one making decisions, but, man, this sucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, it's. People don't understand when. Sf is by far the best place for officers, and I've met some amazing, amazing officers in SF.
Speaker 1:But they only get they have such a short time to do the job that they actually wanna do and it is such a short window it is. And even then, like, as they move forward, they understand the good ones understand, like, hey, I'm a great leader, I'm a great officer and I can still make a great impact. But every last one of them, if you talk to them and ask them like, hey, if you could take a pay cut and get another 10 years on the detachment, would you do it? Every last one of them would say, yes, apps are fucking lootily. Sign me up for that.
Speaker 1:They should have some sort of fucking pipeline where, like, the very best can have the ability to say, hey, you know what, let me stay for an additional two years. Like, I will fall back. But because it's all about promotions, it's all worrying about watching out for their careers, guys get just a little bit of taste and we have great officers that if they could just stay for a couple extra years, could make a huge impact on the teams, the individuals in those teams, those organizations. But that's also why a handful of them say, hey, guess what, I'm gonna become a warrant officer. And they just and that's the ultimate chico for an officer.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and even a lot of the teams themselves. If they find that good officer, they would sign whatever it needed to be signed to keep them around if they could, rather than take a chance on someone new coming in who won't actually fit the bill.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it is a great place and I think we, for officers especially like we have a great system in place but then not always there are for every MOS and every individual on a team like you can have bad Apple, but I think we do a great job of finding the right guys and selecting the right officers to be in those positions Because, man, like it sucks all of us get extra time. We can friggin' grow into our position. I've had teammates that you know their first couple of years are rough. They're learning how to do this impossible job before you know it and they still have time to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yes and a captain can't?
Speaker 1:He's gonna kick in that door and be fucking great from day one.
Speaker 2:Close to great, yeah, and even young guys who are like looking at college or going the officer route. I'll ask them what their goal is for, what they want to get out of the military. If they wanna be you know more of the I guess the civilian equivalent would be corporate white color versus blue color. If you wanna be the guy who's like kicking in the door getting the work done, staying on the team for extended periods of time enlisted is the way to go. If you want that experience of being on the team but then you're ready to move on to newer, bigger things after your team time's over officer might be a route for you. I still think that they're going to end up missing that team time once their two years is up. Yep, by the time you hit two years for a captain like they have just figured out how to actually be an ODA leader.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dead on, absolutely. And then it's very bittersweet when you have a really good one, it's just like fuck, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've seen some really good ones that I was sorry that it was time for them to leave the company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's why it's very crucial to like remember when you have a good one, don't just bash their balls all the time. Appreciate them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and look out for them and take care of them if you have a good one.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Same with team sergeants. Man, yeah, man, there's a lot to be said about the team sergeant. That's the guy that ultimately is in charge, and we're very lucky in SF where the teams are led and the success of that team is on that NCO, the team daddy a lot of responsibility. So if you're out there listening, take care of your old busted E8. He has a lot of stress on the shoulders.
Speaker 2:That's what a lot of people outside of the organization don't quite understand, yeah, and anyone else who's in a different military setting doesn't understand it either, cause, yeah, you do have your team captain, but the team sergeant is the team daddy and it's his team. Yeah, anything that happens with that team is because he said it's okay, absolutely Ultimately.
Speaker 1:The captain and the warrant officer. We're there, it's a triad, it's three people with that team sergeant runs it, man Like he has the captain, sells, warrant officer strategizes and ensures the budgeting is good and has the resources For the detachment. The team sergeant has to fly that ship and get to sell it and that's why he has to be that rock star. Unsung heroes, in my opinion. Like it takes a lot like to put a guy to that career to go through and everybody's broken, everybody's hurt, everybody's in pain, everybody's taking multiple shots at Tordall and holding shit together.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. I know so many guys who would take a shot at Tordall before going out on mission that was me and then after they get back from mission yeah it was.
Speaker 1:oh my God, six months of that will destroy your fucking body yeah.
Speaker 2:For me, my back is not as broken as some guys. I have the typical aches and pains in the back, but downrange I took a shot in the shoulder. I don't remember what the stuff is that they put into my shoulder, but it basically lubed it up so that the pain went away and I was able to function and operate for about six months. And then, after the six months was over, it started really kicking in and that's when I found out that I had actually torn my labrum Dude.
Speaker 1:it's one of the most common injuries in our demographic, our group of dudes. I the same. It's forgetting the name of the fluid, but it's artificial lubricant Used to get it in my knees. But thank you, va, the moment you retire it gets a lot harder to get on that weight list. To get back in there, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's like really just how much it lubricated up my shoulder to make it function until it stopped working.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did. Have you gotten the surgeries yet?
Speaker 2:No, they gave me the option, but my labrum was a 50% tear. I also have a 50% rotator cuff tear in the same shoulder but because both were 50%, they gave me the option to do physical therapy instead of surgery. And one of the guys I was working with at the time he had torn both labrums and did surgery on both of his shoulders and he told me that his shoulders are worse after the surgeries than they were before. So that didn't really sell the surgery option to me. So I was like, well, I'll do physical therapy instead.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And for the most part yeah, For the most part it's worked out better. My shoulder is an 100%, but I would say it's pretty close to 90%. Nice.
Speaker 1:Dude, yeah, great, call on that. I was a dumbass. I heard the. I went ahead with both my surgeries on my feet after even hearing the failures and the very low expectation for success. I was like modern science I'll roll it, let's do it now. So well, good job man.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there's so many guys who opt for the quick surgery as opposed to a lengthy physical therapy, but then they still have to do physical therapy for the surgery. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's that mindset. I'm guilty of it. I didn't want to sit with the discomfort of pain and I viewed surgery as the end-all be-all. It would do it Like modern medicine, western medicine, it's the only way. Of course, cutting me open means success and it's looking back. It was just, I was ignorant, I was angry, I was frustrated and I was willing to roll the dice. It's just. But you know what? Hey, that's life. I'm not bitter anymore about it. I made a bad call and I'm living with it. And yeah, you know what? Like pain's pain man. Like I live with it and that's not going to be the end of my life. Like, hey, I was young and made a really rash decision, so I definitely now value any other alternative to surgery. First, do everything you can. Yeah, not enough people are willing to talk about that. Like, that's a smart call on your behalf to be willing to say, hey, you know, let's maybe not work out with 300 pound weights and maybe do some like some real rehabilitation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even doing workouts like, say, overhead press, um, I can notice the difference. Even though I'm right handed, I do everything with my right hand. My left hand is basically useless, um, but I can notice the difference in strength between my right side and my left side, with my left side now being the stronger side, even though it's less coordinated than my right side. But I still always recommend to guys look into alternative means to like recover and get back to as close as you can to 100% without doing the surgery route.
Speaker 2:Surgery, I think, has its use in its place. Um, like one guy um from the kennel, he basically fully separated his upper leg from his lower leg while everything's still being attached but like all the everything that connects in between the knee, between the lower and upper, kind of just separated on him. So something like that, yeah, I think surgery might be warranty, but if there is any option to do therapy, um, you know exercises in various um ways can promote a lot of help in like healing, like for my shoulder, working all the accessory muscles, all the supporting muscles, as opposed to the big one that was torn going across the shoulder. Now my shoulder relies on all those smaller accessory muscles instead and working those as opposed to surgery, I think is a better option.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and we're learning more about that now. I think Thor three and the docs and physical therapists in there are a lot better about talking about that stuff, I think. And guys are smarter now. Guys are willing to do a little more research. Uh, because it's directly in line with their job. That's the only time when we're like willing to look into anything. It's like well, what can keep me in the team for longer? Maybe I'll do some research on that? But they're smart and they're seeing the benefit of doing things that you know are not traditional Western medicine. Like I finally found myself doing things like mindfulness and meditation for pain management, because you know I and I want to get into this. Like, because I know you've experienced it too the pain pill that is the VA like man. Like if you're doing a chronic pain, it's like dude, they're the greatest drug dealers and nobody talks about it they are.
Speaker 2:Ironically, while I was going through um, the surgeries I had for my leg and being in the hospital, was the one time when nobody would give me anything for pain, even though, like my leg was open, I could reach in and touch my calf muscle if I wanted to. Oh shit, and they would give me nothing for the pain.
Speaker 1:Dude, let's backtrack what happened. What happened to your leg?
Speaker 2:So, um 2020,. Um, we were gearing up for the next upcoming rotation to Afghanistan, which, uh, would have been 2021. Some of the past three years is kind of blending together now, but that last deployment ended up getting shut down and canceled because that's right when the pullout from Afghanistan happened, but leading up to that, we were still prepping for that deployment. So I was going through certification with the teams and with my dog again, and basically while doing a vehicle search with the dog just something super routine walking sideways, I tripped, bashed my shin, didn't think anything of it, got up and continued working. Finished certification, um. Later that night I went to shower and I noticed a tiny little scrape on my shin First time. I even noticed that it had opened up the skin. Still didn't think anything of it. Like, how many times in your career have you gotten cuts, scrapes, bruises, burns, whatever? All the time? The next day I woke up and there was a bruise spot on the um where the scrape was and an egg an egg about this big, which made it painful to walk on and it was starting to redden around it. I still had one more day of certification, though, so I didn't want to like, shut everything down to go get it checked out. Um, I basically put antibiotic ointment on it and then I went about training.
Speaker 2:By day two I woke up and I could not walk on my leg. Um, my whole leg had swollen up and basically looked like I was getting elephantitis. So my wife um basically took me to the emergency room and I thought they would take a look at it, tell me you have an infected leg and they would give me antibiotics and send me home. The doctor that was in the emergency room on call um probably say not just my leg but potentially my life. He said that, nope, we're taking you back immediately and prepping you for surgery. So once we went back there, they didn't know how bad the infection was. They were afraid that the tissue, uh, the muscle and everything inside the leg had started to? Um, basically die off and develop. Um, I'm not a Delta, so I forget all the terminology, but necrotitis or something where everything starts dying, yeah, Necrotizing necrotizing fasciitis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So they were afraid that if they had gotten into the muscle or anything else, it was basically dead inside my leg already, um which, at that point, the doctor told me I could potentially wake up with my leg being just gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And at that point I was in so much pain Um, one of the most painful experiences of my life up to that point and so I was just like, okay, let's go do the surgery. I like I didn't care if I woke up without my foot, Um, I just wanted to have it dealt with because it was so painful.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I can't even just imagine that laying down with my leg horizontal and then dropping it down to the ground to get up and go to the bathroom or something, uh, having just the blood flow go downward like that, would create intense pain and I would basically just stand there on my good leg for like five minutes before the pain would go away to where I could hobble to the bathroom. So they went in, opened it up. Um, I woke up, leg was still there, but um, so was the uh, the leg itself was opened up. They left it open because, one, it was too swollen to close up, yeah, and two, they didn't know if they would have to go back in and explore and find more um infection. They did end up, end up doing a second surgery.
Speaker 2:So I had two surgeries on my leg to remove the infected tissue and, um, they didn't have to remove any muscle, so all the muscle was still there. They basically had to carve out the inside of my leg, um, for everything above the muscle, and remove all the infected tissue. And then they, they basically kept lifting up the skin from underneath the skin and Tunneled down into my ankle from where they had made the incision in my leg so that they could remove all the Infection from the cavity all the way down into my ankle. So, and then I had a drain hole in the ankle, another drain hole on the side of my leg and, yeah, at one point I had a team of Orthopedis I think that's what you call the, the foot doctors yeah and then a team of surgeons who kept coming in around the clock to check on my leg. The orthopedis would Basically check the ankle to see if the infection was spreading into the ankle joint itself.
Speaker 2:At one point, again, no pain meds stuck a needle down into the ankle joint to draw fluid out and Check it for infection to see if it had spread. So the entire time I was in the hospital I kept telling them like, look, I'm not a drug addict, I've never used drugs in my life. I prefer not to use it if I don't have to. But I'm in a lot of pain. I could really use something for it. And the only thing that they would give me is the typical Army answer Motrin.
Speaker 1:Motrin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm laying in the hospital in Madigan and my leg is open up to where I can touch the calf muscle and they keep coming in and prodding it Like at one point the doctor came in with a group of medical students because they have all the medical AIT students here at JBLM so he brought them in to see it because my leg was a case study for the hospital because of how fast the infection Set in and spread. Yeah, and he uses a scalpel the handle and not the blade in to lift up the flap of my leg and Then start poking around underneath the skin flap looking for any signs of infection and no pain meds at all. Motrin doesn't do anything for it, so like I could feel everything, dude.
Speaker 1:Hey, that is an early. I had the same I had the the same situation pop up on, like Take some always fucking fascinated pops up on a YouTube like next like those infections like get insanely horrifically bad in like yeah hours, like Insane.
Speaker 2:Like you could have literally like lost all of your fucking leg If you yeah, if it goes in the product, that's when you start to develop sepsis and, yeah, they at that point just start cutting it off and hoping they catch it before it gets too far up the chain. Yeah, I spent a week in the hospital, hooked up to half a dozen IVs at a time. They wouldn't give me any actual liquids. Everything I got for hydration for that whole week was through an IV, which was horrible.
Speaker 2:Usually, like guys will take an IV Because you know they're feeling dehydrated and it's a basically just a quick shot to feel good again a whole week of it I would wake up at night in a cold sweat, but the sweat was not sweat, it was like slimy, like the IV fluid, and whatever they were pumping through was coming out through my pores and they Because of how many times they kept jabbing my arms, my hands and everything for needles and whatever they were pumping into me, the veins themselves like hardened, like calcified, and it was them. Trying to poke a needle through my vein was Very similar to trying to get a needle through a goat's vein during training. Every time, every time they hit the vein, the vein would just roll over and these doctors and nurses were not prepared for that. A Delta probably would have done a better job on it.
Speaker 1:I was just about to ask did any of your Delta show up to kind of like just be there to like do some of their like their own study?
Speaker 2:No, at this time I was. I was already in the kennel at this point, so I didn't have a team Delta to come check on me, unfortunately. I would have preferred that though. Yeah, they actually. They brought in a lady with a sonogram to basically scan my arm For a deeper vein inside of the muscle, so that she could then go through the muscle into the vein that was deeper in the muscle and get the IV in. Yeah, it was a fun experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can imagine your wife was just absolutely A-okay.
Speaker 2:That was the worst part, especially for her cuz. Yeah, this happened right at the onset of COVID, when everyone was freaking out about, you know, people being infected with COVID. So the whole hospital was quarantined and nobody was allowed to actually come in and visit me, including my own wife. So my wife was getting all of her information secondhand and Basically just sitting at home while I'm in the hospital dealing with all of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, not fun, not fun at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so spent a week in the hospital and then got sent home with a wound back on my leg Because they they still couldn't close it up because it was too swollen. But they were Fairly confident that the infection itself was gone. So they sent me home with more antibiotics and Medicine for the infection in case it came back. Still nothing for the pain, and I basically spent the next like six months on my couch with my leg elevated and they were not able to close it up or begin closing my leg for at least like four months, I think it was. And then basically the incision was like a long, narrow slit but it was open about this wide at the widest point and and they started to pinch the ends after about four months. And every time I went in twice a week, they would remove the sutures and then suture again slightly closer to the center. So over a period of about a month or so they worked it towards the middle to bring it and draw it closer yeah and then what ended up finally sealing.
Speaker 2:It was a silver after it was called some kind of silver medicine that they put ointment, that they put over it, and the last doctor that came in like was really responsible for actually Having my leg close up at the time that it did and making sure that everything was sealed, and he did an awesome job compared to some of the others. And even getting the sutures they would give me Is it a Lido not? Yeah, I like a. Yeah, lido, lido King. Yes, they would give me a shot of Lido King, but there was at least one of the times that they were giving me the suture and the Lido King took on one side of my leg but not on the other side, and so when they were running the needle through and drawing it close for the suture, I could feel all of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not a fun feeling.
Speaker 2:Not enough. Yeah, I still have the video from that and some of the other times that they sutured, because I knew my wife and sons have a fascination with medical stuff, so I knew they would want to see it.
Speaker 1:Do that? Yeah, that's, boys are fascinated by that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but, um, after my leg was finally closed it was. It took about a year Before I could like start to walk on it again because every time that I would take my foot from elevated to normal, basically in a down position, all of the I Guess blood vessels that my leg normally used for transferring blood to and from my foot were gone. They were severed because of the surgery. Yeah, so anytime I put my foot down, blood would pool into my foot Instantly and basically my foot would look like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka.
Speaker 2:Willy Wonka yeah like it would turn a dark, dark, purple after just a few seconds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how does he? How do you fix that?
Speaker 2:They basically did. They adopted a wait and see protocol just to See if it would heal itself on itself. We did. Fortunately it did no time. Yeah, so now, like, as far as blood flow, my foot is normal, but yeah, it took months for that to work itself out.
Speaker 1:Did human bodies insane like I pictured it?
Speaker 2:as another.
Speaker 1:Surgery.
Speaker 2:That's what I thought was gonna have to happen and the doctors said that if it didn't heal itself then they would have to Figure something out as a surgical option. But I'm kind of glad that they adopted the wait and see protocol, although even now it's still kind of funny that that was the plan, to just see if it would heal itself. Yeah, dude, how did?
Speaker 1:the recovery go from my foot Dude. How did the recovery go from that Like? How are you today dealing with that?
Speaker 2:so I Basically spent the next year in physical therapy After that. It took about, like I said, 12 months from the time of injury until I was like on my feet and even then was hobbling around, because initially, when I first stood up, I couldn't even put my heel to the ground because I had developed dropped foot yeah, I'm just from not using my leg, not using my foot and I couldn't actually stretch my ankle enough to put my heel to the ground. So that was the first step trying to get that stretched out, and then working through the recovery process, mostly with Thor 3 at the gym, and it basically got to the point where, because the nerve endings from like right below my knee to my foot, they're severed, so there's no connectivity as far as I'm touching sensation. So that's what led to them saying alright, we'll start the medical retirement process for you. And Up to this point now I'm almost a year out from that retirement and my leg has improved even more since then. It continues to get a little bit better each day, or not each day, but you know, yeah, as we go along.
Speaker 2:So Right now below my left knee I have almost no feeling sensation. It's like walking on your foot when it falls asleep, but without the pins and needles, just the numbness. And then, as far as being able to walk and use the muscles, I guess there's enough nerve connectivity for the muscles that I can actually still activate them and use my leg muscles. I just can't feel what is happening around my foot or my leg. But at the same time it's amazing how much feeling sensation you develop through your bones, the bone structure, for something as simple as walking, so like I can feel the impact on my foot, on my leg, through the bones but not through the skin itself, and so that has actually helped me to develop walking again and being able to feel like when my foot hits the ground I can't feel it through the skin, but I can feel the impact on the bone because it's more sensitive. Now, yeah, dude, that's insane.
Speaker 1:Your body figured out how to do it. The human body can develop workarounds. Yeah, dude, so that's like all of our issues, whether it's TBI well, to an extent there's like there's a lot of shit that just doesn't work after so many years of doing this job.
Speaker 2:But just like we're the professionals to figure it out and our bodies do the same thing, yeah all that nerve damage is still there, but the fact that the body can make the workarounds has allowed my leg to develop basically more of a normal function, not quite the same as it was before but for the most part like I can get around fairly easy, even starting to begin to try and work on running a bit. But that's a that's still. It's an awkward gait.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of those things that we we get told that we're never going to do certain things or we can't do certain things. But man, well, there's a will, there's a way like just talking to and just starting this. You know this project reaching out, communicating, engaging individuals just like you, just like me, that I've gone through some pretty hectic shit and professionals will say, hey, you can't do this, you won't be able to do that. It's like, dude, you, you thought I wasn't going to be able to walk. Now I'm walking. Now, what can I do? Maybe I can push the envelope, maybe I can run, and being able to have the understanding that like, hey, yes, I'm limited, yes, there's been some real significant changes in my life, but I can still succeed, I can still achieve great fucking things. What are some things that you're doing today to kind of push that envelope a little bit more?
Speaker 2:So one thing that we have going is I mentioned the homestead earlier so my wife and our sons, we still live here in Washington and basically we've we're developing our property into a homestead, and for me, that is kind of getting back to the roots and just focusing more on being outdoors in nature with my family and basically catching up on a lot of the time that we miss while we are being operational and overseas. So every pretty much every day, every week, we have a new project, something that we're working on together as a family and basically growing things out here, and I think that is something that helps a lot with mental stability, mental growth and also challenging yourself with you know new things. A lot of this is things that I was never taught growing up as far as, like, being able to homestead or to raise chickens or something like that. It's a lot of. It is things that we're learning through YouTube as we go along.
Speaker 2:Like, right now we're building a cabin. I'll be doing installation on it later today, something like that. I have experience on being an 18. Charlie and I've built things in the past, but my kids haven't, so it's something that I can pass on to them and teach them how to put together a structure and how to build something. So, on the home front, that's something that we're working on and currently we have one rabbit, three dogs, six sheep and 35 chickens.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, dude, I think I'm looking at some cows. Yeah, dude, that you're tapping to something that I think is not only extremely popular for a lot of people in general, but the military veterans that are getting out. Homesteading is something that is really becoming very appealing being connected to nature, being connected to your environment in a whole different way. Dude. We've been doing it since the very beginning aspect of the Q course and we continue to do it.
Speaker 1:When we are deployed in our AOR, we don't live like we live in the United States when we go to our AOR, a lot of times we're out, we're in remote areas and we get in sort of this understanding of like wow, this is kind of like a better way to live, a better way to be connected, like if we can start promoting that within our veteran community and showing it what it's like. I think that's a great thing about your channel and what you're trying to do. It's like putting it out there. And I have to ask was it was your wife the main catalyst? Does she have an experience or background with homesteading?
Speaker 2:No, so my wife is actually from the Fiji Islands. She grew up in Fiji and New Zealand Nice Two countries together. We went back and forth with her family. She came here to the States when she was 17, after she finished high school, so she grew up in an environment where people do depend on the land. Yeah, but more or so along the lines of I'm hungry, I'm going to go pick fruit off of that tree right there or I'm going to go fishing in the ocean. Excuse me, not necessarily homesteading, yeah, although she did. When she lived in New Zealand she did live on a sheep farm, so she's familiar with that aspect of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's something that we kind of went into together, partially out of a desire to be more self-reliant and self-sufficient and basically have something that's sustainable. Like we get all of our eggs from our chickens. We're not up to the scale of meat production yet, but even our meat we get from a farmer that's 10 minutes down the road from us. We don't get any meat from the store, so we're getting everything we can local and there's some things that we haven't figured out how to get local yet through networking. But even just this month my wife for the first time developed a sourdough starter and is now baking her own bread. So everything we're doing is working towards being able to take care of ourselves and then teach our kids how to do that.
Speaker 2:And then with the direct action dad thing that's not actually my initiative I linked up with Carl out of 10th group I don't know if you have met him yet so he has the actual direct action dad page and then mine is direct action dad, underscore PNW, pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2:So I got linked up with him and basically just started this page over here for the Pacific Northwest. But Carl was the one who started the actual direct action dad like protocol to kind of help guys who are getting out basically reconnect with their kids, with their families. Yes, guys spend so much time focusing on operations how to be a green beret a lot of guys and I'm guilty of it myself will neglect putting that much effort into the home front as well. So the direct action dad thing that Carl is working on and then I'm kind of helping with my page as well is basically trying to help guys see that and basically realize that you can get fulfillment and purpose right at home by taking care of your kids, taking care of the family, teaching the kids all your skills that you have developed over the years and basically passing it on to the next generation. Bring them up to be better than you are currently.
Speaker 1:Dude, absolutely that's. That's the one thing that we all neglect our families, whether you're just married. I mean it used to be a common joke like you're not a real green beret until you have, you know, two divorces a Harley and a DUI and you know like I fell victim to that. I bought that whole thing. I'm, you know, I've had a divorce, I have neglected the idea of the importance of starting a family and a lot of people fall victim to that mentality of having kids is not important.
Speaker 1:Being of actual husband isn't important, but in reality, as men, those are the two most important things we can do Be a loving, productive, providing husband and bring healthy, well adjusted, intelligent, critical thinking kids into this world. And that should be like the actual thing that we're striving for having that family, and when we have green berets are willing to champion that. That sends a huge message to the rest of the culture, the rest of our American people. Because you think of the most unpopular idea right now is to be a father figure, to have kids, and that's that's fucking crazy. We promote everything else but we don't talk about, like what it means and and when we do see a father figure in a, in a setting in a TV show, always make the father figure an idiot.
Speaker 2:Right, there was make that's going back decades, like I don't know how much old TV watch. But even going back to the honeymooners in black and white days, the honeymooners might have been one of the original to show the dynamic between the husband and wife and the husband was basically a buffoon, yeah. And then, yeah, like, use this big, sloppy, fat guy. The wife was younger, thinner, prettier and yeah, even going back then, they made the husband and the father look like an idiot on TV.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and people never question it. And now, like we see that this, when we've been seeing this shift forever, you know saying that parents and dad, or specifically dads, aren't important in a household. Well, now we know the dad is out there, that if you have a healthy mom and dad, it's really important. But the dad also shows that if you don't have a father figure, if you don't have somebody in the home to be that positive male role model, your chances of being, you know, an individual that falls victim to violence and drugs and addiction are through the roof. And we need to promote that and see that and put it out there in social media.
Speaker 1:Now is it is a horrible thing, but it can also be used for good when you put that strong, positive male role model out there with his kids, with his wives, and say like, hey, this is the priority, this is what we should be championing. Like we survived that the GWAT, now we get to pour into our kids and our wives. Man, so like I have to commend you and everybody that's doing that, because we need to see that and guys need to know that they can do that while they're strolling too. That's a crazy part. We tend to think that like oh, it has to be a reckoning that occurs after the fact. Oh, no, no, no, no, there's. There are green braised ranger seals that are out there doing it right now. We just need to champion that. But it doesn't look as cool as going out to the bars and acting a fool, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even if, say, green Bray or someone in soft is a good dad, there's still the times that you're away from home and you don't have. Guys have a hard time, I think, reconnecting to make up for that time when they're, when they are away, where they feel guilty because they were gone for six months and now they're back and having that uncertain uncertainty of how to like integrate with their own family and find their role as far as being, you know, father, husband, the, the leader in the household itself. And my own history, like I don't have, fortunately I don't have the multiple divorces and marriages that most guys end up finding themselves in.
Speaker 2:That's good, I'm actually next week, well, actually this month. I had my 19th anniversary on the 14th.
Speaker 1:No way, dude, yeah, dude, congrats.
Speaker 2:I've been married now for 19 years and my oldest oldest son is 15 now. So my wife throughout all of our career has been amazing. Like my wife has been there since day one in the army and she's been through everything with me, every step along the way, and all of it's been possible because of her. It doesn't mean it's always been easy, but it's something that we've always worked on together.
Speaker 1:Did. How have you changed? As a father now and going through the retirement process, having to go through your your own grieving and letting go of that identity, how did you find yourself focusing on your boys?
Speaker 2:So I guess I've tried to work on being more mindful, more present. We do miss so much of our kids, younger years as they're growing up, especially like my kid. I already had one son when I joined the army and then by the time I left for basic he was a year old, finished basic AIT, that first deployment. By the time I got back from all that he was three, and so I missed like a whole chunk of his early developing years. And then the same thing always gone, always deploying, always gone to another school. So now basically trying to make up for some of that time away by focusing on them and their development, teaching them things that I'm learning through mindfulness myself. I like a lot of the stoic philosophy, so I'm kind of trying to teach them that as well. And we actually took our kids out of school and we're homeschooling them, so developing their education through what's called classical education at home as opposed to the more regimented way that it was developed in the industrial age.
Speaker 1:So focusing on that. Thank you for pointing that out, dude. Thank you for saying that. You're one of the few people that have called that out. Like we've been put through a system that was developed to benefit industries, not the individual. Dude.
Speaker 2:Everything about it like sit here, face that direction. No windows in the classrooms, even having the bells that sound in between the classrooms. It's like factory settings the factory workers. Back in the day they have the bell that would sound. Oh, it's break time, it's lunchtime time to go home. Everything was developed to basically develop factory workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there was even school tracks. Kids that showed aptitude for certain things were pushed this way Like I never took chemistry, I never had higher end level classes, but damn sure it was funneled towards shop, advanced woodworking, advanced metals, like. And then I'm looking at the rest of the kids that I grew up with and seeing where they're at in life and it's like, oh shit, like. And then you read and understand that like, yeah, this is a real thing, like they had. If you were one of those kids were like hey, you're gonna be a factory worker, let's get you a woodworking. It's like, jesus, fucking Christ, I never had a shot.
Speaker 1:I never had a shot in life when I took this opportunity to go in the military.
Speaker 2:Right, and a lot of times the way education works it's without factoring in aptitude, or even it's not necessarily always about interest, but it does play a factor. I think that education should be individualized rather than in a group setting where it's just like mass production, yeah, yeah, and so working on that with my kids and even now I don't know if my kids will actually go to college. It's not something that I'm gonna push them towards. I actually see them more developing a trade or my younger son being an entrepreneur. He likes business. He's only 11, but he will involve himself as much as possible in business stuff that my wife and I have going on. My wife is a realtor, so he'll even go to her office and basically be her assistant at the office Did.
Speaker 2:So we try to develop the things that the areas that our kids excel in, and try to push them towards what they're already good at and help them develop it to be even better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it blows me away. I think more people need to hear your story and understand that there's no fear that we can't overcome if we just go into something that we're truly passionate about. And that's the truth. Like, if you find yourself going into something that you're not a hundred percent passionate or in love with, don't do it, don't fucking do it.
Speaker 1:Life is very short. Time is the most precious resource and just hearing and just engaging with you right now there is no and of course we're separated by time and space for doing this remotely through Riverside FM, shout out to them. But it's having these authentic conversations where you know the other person's completely engaged in something they're passionate about creating a life that's meaningful, that's of purpose and of service to their family, not to a government entity anymore, not to another corporation, but to yourself, to your family. That's beautiful, man, like I gotta say. We need to be able to promote that, because I feel too many green berets, too many soft professionals get out and they go to serve another entity and they realize that there's no bond here. This isn't. I don't know. There's fireworks shooting in the background. No idea what the hell that was about Sony webcam. We gotta figure that out. But there's no, there's nothing there. It is a cold entity that will not value you, like the military didn't value you.
Speaker 2:It's the big green machine. It's gonna keep trucking along, whether you are there or not.
Speaker 1:Exactly, that's exactly true. Before I let you off, I know I've had you for over an hour now and I'm absolutely grateful for it, but, thinking back to your transition, what are some key things that you would recommend or tips for the guys that are finding themselves at the end of their career? What advice would you give them to be a little more successful as they navigate their next chapter?
Speaker 2:Well, one thing I would recommend as far as the transition process itself get linked up with the care coalition. The care coalition at least for me here at JBLM was phenomenal. Pat, my advocate with the care coalition, basically helped me set straight and put in every bit of paperwork that went through the VA, so a lot of the normal headaches that everyone has to deal with just for that transition. Basically, Pat was there to guide me through it and it took away a lot of the uncertainty and doubt and frustration with the VA having to deal with them as part of that retirement process and still had to go through it all, had to do all the paperwork. But Pat was there to basically make sure it was all correct and to the best benefit outcome for myself and for my family. So I definitely recommend get linked in with the care coalition and also the Green Beret Foundation for anyone who's getting out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, Dan. Thank you so much for spending time with us today. Is there anything you're working on that you want to plug, or any shout out that you want to get out there? Any websites that you want us to check in on or your social media handles?
Speaker 2:Well, the social media handle is directactiondadcom PNW for Pacific Northwest. I would also recommend checking out Just Direction Action Dad. That's Carl from 10th Group and Carl, if you haven't met him, I think would actually be a really good guest for your podcast as well and he's working on the same type of mindfulness and trying to help other guys who are transitioning. He's also currently in the transition process himself for retirement, so he's still in and working his way towards the outside.
Speaker 1:Hey, yeah, about to be free of the machine as well. Yeah, he's almost there. Dad, thank you so much for joining us today. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time and we'll see everybody next time. Take care, If you like what we're doing and you enjoying the show, don't forget to share us. Like us, subscribe and head on over to our Patreon, where you can be part of our community and get access to all of our episodes as soon as they drop. And remember we get through this together, Take care.