Security Halt!
The only Mental Health podcast that shares honest and authentic accounts of living with mental health issues, that's also hosted by individuals fighting the same fight you are!Providing information and resources for help with a heavy dose of humor and entertainment. Helping you find hope and the strength to fight on.
Security Halt!
#230 Resilience and Transition: Dan Bradley's Journey from Air Force to Civilian Life
Join Dan Bradley and Deny Caballero as they pull back the curtain on the hidden struggles of military life and the tough transition to civilian reality. This powerful conversation dives deep into the worlds of Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) and Combat Controller (CCT) operators, exploring the unique mental health challenges that veterans and first responders face post-service. Dan shares his raw, personal story of leaving the Air Force, facing identity struggles, and the power of vulnerability in his healing journey.
With deep insights on "Operator Syndrome," testosterone, and the critical role of community and support, this episode uncovers the pathways to resilience and empowerment for our military heroes. Hear how veterans can find strength in community, accountability, and shared experiences to navigate the toughest battles of mental health. Whether you're a veteran, first responder, or mental health advocate, this conversation is packed with wisdom and real-life takeaways.
Listen now, and don't forget to follow, share, like, and subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. Join us as we create a supportive space for veterans and amplify voices that need to be heard. Together, let's build awareness, spread support, and spark change.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Technical Challenges
02:53 The Importance of Sharing Military Stories
06:13 Dan's Journey into the Military
09:05 Understanding TACPs and CCTs
11:52 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
15:01 Navigating Post-Military Identity and Mental Health
17:55 Finding New Purpose in Civilian Life
24:56 Reconnecting with the Past
27:29 Navigating Mental Health Challenges
30:16 Understanding Operator Syndrome
32:35 The Importance of Community Support
34:14 Empowering Veterans and First Responders
39:25 The Journey of Healing
45:10 Choosing the Hard Path
52:20 The Power of Vulnerability
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbradley15/
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Produced by Security Halt Media
security hot podcast. Let's go. You're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best with guns, with knives, with his bare hands, a man who's been trained to ignore, ignore weather to live off. The land job was disposed of enemy personnel to kill period this is.
Speaker 2:This is why I absolutely I I love like the dudes from this background, because things always go wrong. Everyone's like, yeah, that well, that was the one thing we knew was gonna happen was something wasn't gonna go right. So now that happened, we're good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're gold yeah, yeah, it's uh a since, since we call it a cincinnati, hurry up, it's off of the. Uh the bangles, uh playbook. Welcome to your podcast. I am your host, denny cabrera. With me today is dan bradley from hold fast, hq, we are in it. Oh man, thank you for being here today, man, and uh for bearing with me as we uh rebooted and reset all our stuff. Uh, uh, it's um, I need to hire an 18 echo.
Speaker 2:Just just need to have an 18 echo on standby man, thanks, thanks for the opportunity and uh, yeah, you don't need me for that.
Speaker 1:My, my fix is always unplug it, plug it back in if that doesn't work, in a different rating yeah, dude, that was always our go-to man and I I have to give it up to our our tack ps or ccts, uh, you guys are phenomenal combo wizards. Together with the 18 echoes, you guys make, like you know, a beautiful relationship of just communication nerds that can fix any electronic, and it's always us, right, the other guys on the team, they're always like just bringing our radios to you. Could you, could you, uh, figure this out and like you're supposed to know how to do this shit?
Speaker 2:yeah, I know, but you know you guys are good at it I mean it's funny that you say that, because we've got an exposure here, uh, you're doing the exact same thing with uh, with anyone that'll help. Like man, I'm not gonna live my own crypto because I'm gonna break something. So I'm gonna give this to a grown-up and I'm gonna let them handle this for me. You guys, let me know when you're done and I'll start talking on it.
Speaker 1:Unless you had the Kik 13, that combo device, and oh God.
Speaker 2:See man, we were just at a piece. We didn't get the pretty stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh no, this is like an old, but that's the beauty of it. It was like an old piece of tech. It's like you just, can you connect the tips? Just connect the tips, turn a switch, just fills the easiest way to fill a radio, uh, this just became a podcast to the intel guy give it to the intel guy, give it to the radio guy, let them handle it.
Speaker 2:You go get a coffee and when they're done, man start start talking, start walking. That's there's. There's a zero percent chance that you want me filling your radio or fixing it for you. I'm good at the talking piece. I'm not good at the rest.
Speaker 1:It's like you need a squire in combat Got to Got to.
Speaker 2:That's why it's a party man. You can't just do it by yourself.
Speaker 1:Hey, woo, it's a very niche niche humor right there. Dan, dude, I love what you guys are doing with Hold Fast HQ. I always tell people, if you don't share your story, it dies with you. And after 20 years of combat and being in some of the most complex situations, a lot of our service members have vital knowledge that could be utilized by everybody. Vital knowledge that could be utilized by everybody, whether it's going and talking to you know, business individuals or business leaders, or just sharing it within your community. You have vital information and vital experience that's needed out there in today's world and finding out. You guys, seeing what you're doing with other notable service members, I'm like, dude, it makes sense. This is a no-brainer From, just like I said, helping build resilience and grit within the wider community to just sharing some of that hard earned knowledge that we've all learned through deployment. So it's awesome to have you here to talk about that. But before we get into that, dude, tell us about your life. How did Dan get in the military?
Speaker 2:I took scenic route. Yeah, I don't mind sharing my story because it's such an average, typical story. You ever seen this movie, idiocracy? Yes, where the guy's chosen because he's at the top of the bell curve. I'm that guy. I'm perfectly average, and that kind of makes the story relatable in a lot of ways. So I grew up in Colorado Springs and saw the Air Force Academy up on the hill all the time. Um knew a lot of the cadets growing up went to football games, stuff like that and as a result definitely didn't want to go there at all. That seemed really hard.
Speaker 1:With the complete different way that I was thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Um so um. I actually applied for uh for the Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy. Both of them said thanks for the effort. I ended up going to the New Mexico Military Institute for a year in Roswell, new Mexico. If you haven't been to Roswell, don't. But it was a great experience, man, like I said, seeing the crowd. But it helped me get physically and and mentally ready for for doing. Uh, doing okay at the academy yeah.
Speaker 2:So my time at the academy uh wanted to go and be to become a pilot, got an opportunity to fly solo just in a glider and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. Uh so landed white, knuckling the stick. I'm like you know what? I think? I'm gonna go get shot at, because that sounds a lot less terrifying than what just happened. So I ended up going into the TACP career field, which is now part of Special Warfare. There was a rebrand a couple of years ago but at the time I was in it was part of what's called Battlefield Air, so six in one hand, half dozen in the other. But man really enjoyed my time as a TACP, had the opportunity to earn a JTAC qualification and deployed with an awesome team to Iraq in 2018.
Speaker 1:Did a lot of good work over there with a lot of misconception even as an SF guy, I had a lot of you know myths and misconceptions about TACPs and CCTs. So for our audience out there, like break it down, let us know. Like TACPs aren't just fucking nerds. Like shout out to Ryan, my man, our TACP on the team, fucking like one of the greatest teammates I could have ever had and and the air force is amazing for this. Like they don't do a great job selling tack peas everybody thinks that it's all. Oh, ccts are the coolest. Like actually no, come to find out. Tack peas are some murdering motherfuckers listen, man.
Speaker 2:No matter what I say right now, I'm gonna catch heat from both sides, so so thanks for that. This has been great. That's the podcast.
Speaker 1:We're going to send this to Jared Taylor, the official ambassador of all TACPs and CCTs.
Speaker 2:So my roommate at the Academy, the guy who was the best man at my wedding he ended up going into Special Tactics and so I'm going to watch it here. I've got all the love in the world for the Special Tactics community. They're awesome. The best way that I can describe a TACP is you're not like a jack-of-all-trades in the sense that you're setting up airfields or doing personal recovery Zero JTAC, that's what you do. You eat, sleep and breathe it. That you're setting up airfields or doing personal recovery or any of those things, you're a JTAB. That's what you do. You eat, sleep and breathe it. That's really your only responsibility. Also, we can't swim. We are not capable of doing well in the water, so that's a major differentiator. So it's changed so much in the past shoot how long five, six years since I got out that the selection processes are different. The training processes are all co-located again, which wasn't the case when I went through. There's been a lot of changes.
Speaker 2:I can't really speak intelligently to it anymore. It's been a minute. Intelligently to it anymore I've been. It's been a minute. But um, yeah, the, the whole special warfare rebrand seems to have done a lot just in terms of getting the right people, the right money, the rights, uh, the right assets in the right places to let all these, all these career fields grow the way they should. I mean, the nature of warfare has changed a lot too. You know it always does. But, um, yeah, man, it's a great community. Um, I, I definitely miss being a part of it. I love, like I'm grateful for the opportunity to have met the guys I did and worked with them. They've all gone off and done awesome, awesome things. So, yeah, it's, it was definitely a right call for me because I hate pools.
Speaker 1:Fine with rocking man, not fine with pools, dude, I I feel you on that. I am not a water guy. I had the, the pleasure, I don't know how it worked out and it's, you know, on on s in the sf side, we have, you know, specialty teams. Everybody wants to go to a dive team or a free fall team and I have the privilege of having been on both. Uh, but I am not dive qualified. I am the opposite of a water person, the absolute and and it's dude, it's. It's a very different frigging world, man, I'm a free fall guy to my core. That was the greatest. There's nothing better than having no to diving out of a frig, freaking back of a plane and being a fucking meat missile, just going in a high lift track and just flying through the sky just knowing like this is fucking amazing. Now, the opposite of that is strapping bottles of oxygen, which it's limited. You're not there for hours, but they want you to dive down under where there's fucking megalodons and fucking other sea creatures that could kill you. Fuck that.
Speaker 2:So, my wife, funny story here um, wanted me to get a dive certified, not not, not like scuba bubble, just like go to a scuba diving class so that when we go on our honeymoon to australia we can go scuba diving. She likes that. I said I didn't want to do that, so I did it. But when we get to Australia, we get to this, this like island that we're diving around man, it was beautiful and it was. It was stunning. Until you get underwater and you're like I don't know what's down here, but I know I'm the slowest and least capable thing.
Speaker 2:So, dude, it could be a grouper. A grouper came up behind us and wanted to like, wanted us to catch something for it. Like it was just tailing us biggest fish I've ever seen. I didn't know what a grouper was until that day. I'll never forget I thought it was a damn shark. So, no, uh, what happens down there is supposed to stay down there. It's like las vegas and um, no, I'm perfectly comfortable, uh, keeping my feet on the sand like the dirt's fine, absolutely like yeah, yeah, fuck that we're meant to breathe oxygen zero.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. If I need to go somewhere where I need help staying alive like I'm not, no, we'll leave that where it is. To all my my stonest CCP friends, you're welcome for that. But I will say, by virtue of that, being the only like master of one trade, yeah, man, I think. I think the tech community creates some of the most capable and competent JTACs in the world.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man and dude. You guys are are great at what you do. Man Like time and time again, especially throughout the GWAT era, right Like it never before. I mean, Vietnam had a lot of it, but you had all every element went out with some sort of JTAC and then, when it's in a soft world, like to go out without an enabler and we had our own, we had our own. You know jtac guys, which is a lot of fucking work. It is not an easy job. It is not to keep your qualifications and maintain your certifications.
Speaker 2:Like dude, you're never home yeah, I remember one year I was, I think I spent 230 days on the road when I when I counted all up which, when you're a single dude, that's great like no. Someone can tell you on thursday that you're getting on a flight on friday and you go pack a bag and lock your door sick, let's go have fun. Um, but when we have a family and, uh, you've got other people to consider, things change. That was actually one of the driving forces behind behind the decision to leave the air force back in late 2019 or 2020 was my wife and I were both active duty and I was like man, I'm not I'm not sure that, missy's ultra sustainable. So there are people who can do that for man 20 plus years and do it really, really well. Hats off to them. Uh, I, I just don't. I'm not that guy dude.
Speaker 1:take us to that process, man, because that's something that I I always get a lot of feedback from um. The audience is like when do you guys know that it's time to go? Like, if you know in in my case it was when everything fell the fuck apart, but for a lot of guys they have a little bit. You know, in my case it was when everything fell the fuck apart, but for a lot of guys they have a little bit. You know, the physical side isn't as bad, the mental health side is pretty stable, they're doing well, and then it's just a lot of reflection. So, like, what was your process like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so came off of that deployment in 2018. I actually changed stations right after my wife and I got married, just prior to it, to make sure that we could at least contend for joint status after that. So I went from Fort Drum with 10th Mountain Division to Fort Carson with 4ID, and my wife was stationed at Peterson at the time. Prior to that, I was in New York, she was out in California, so it got a little bit tough spending time together, right? So I get to my new assignment and before I even have a spot, before I even have access to email, the squadron exec comes up and he's like hey, you pulled some strings to get here, didn't you? I'm like, yeah, I pulled every string I had. He goes right. So, just so you know, your next assignment, the closest that we're probably going to be able to get you to is like Korea and Hawaii. And I'm like, no, okay. So went home to my brand new house, where I didn't know where anything was. To my brand new wife, who I didn't know how to be a lesbian, to Still learning on that. That's a constant learning curve, but I think that this is pretty much it for us in terms of the air force.
Speaker 2:So going through the next few years um, you know, let's see, this would have been late 2019, where we actually made the decision that we were going to leave the military and go off on our own into the big brave world, and obviously the process takes time, right? So you decide you're going to drop your paperwork. Then, nine months later, you're out. Well, in those nine months 2020 happened when the nine months, 2020 happened. So we're going through the process of figuring out how to write a resume, interviewing for jobs, figuring out where we want to live, which we didn't do a really good job of, like we kind of said wherever the job is, we'll go, because we don't know any better. Right, you've never had the option before.
Speaker 1:You just get told where you're going and you pack and go. Now did you both? Did both of you guys decide to pull the ejection handle at the same time?
Speaker 2:Same time. I think our separation dates were within like eight days of each other.
Speaker 1:Dude, that takes a considerable amount of guts. Did you have little ones at that point?
Speaker 2:Not at that point, and I think that is probably, yeah, that's a major consideration too, right, because you're not just. I know that the two of us can battle through and we can put food on our table, but we were just doing what was best for us at that point. So you had the opportunity to be a little selfish. Well, she had gotten a job offer up in Minneapolis and we said, okay, well, that's the deal, we're going to Minneapolis. So we were so far down that process and we were getting ready to house hunt. Okay, well, that's the deal, we're going to Minneapolis. So we were so far down that process and we were getting ready to house hunt and then COVID happens. That company calls up and basically says, hey, we're going to have to restructure, so don't call us, we'll call you. And they didn't. I was really, really blessed by having a tie in with with a guy named Mike.
Speaker 2:Sorelli and the talent group and they they kind of coached me through the process, helped me land a job in Dallas in the construction industry. So we went to Dallas Construction industry knew nothing about it, sales director that was. The world knew nothing about it, but, just as with anything, you're confident in your capacity to figure it out. Yeah, so that was kind of all right. Let's bring the boats, let's. Let's go to North Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's something that a lot of guys and gals in the military need to understand. We have this huge fear that we, like I don't have any skillsets, I don't have anything. A lot of times that first job like you get, if you get assistance, you help, you get help from a network, you can get options, you're going to get jobs. They're not going to look like what you're doing in the military. There isn't an equivalent to attack P out in the civilian world. Thank goodness, thank God. But, no, that's exactly it.
Speaker 2:It's like you don't know what you're doing, and that's okay. I didn't feel that way at the time. This is all reflection. I was absolutely out of my element and doing my best to hide that from everyone. Yeah, um, now, at the same time, you know, relatively fresh off of deployment, um, feeling well I think anybody who's served in like a combat capacity can can identify with this is you're proud of what you did, you're proud of what your team did, you're proud of what you stood for. But you also took part in things that you kind of wish you didn't have to and saw things that you kind of wish you didn't have to see. For me personally, I walked away from that deployment which was my only deployment feeling Almost like we had maybe done more harm than good, like the ball hadn't been moved forward. So it was this real sense of like I'm proud, but I'm battling with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so on top of that had some, um, some moderate, uh, mental health issues just in terms of like one self-identity, because for years, when someone asks you what you are, it's like, yeah, I'm tacky and I'm really damn proud of this because it's cool, and you think it's cool and I think it's cool. So let's talk about it. And then all of a sudden, uh, someone asks what you do and you're like I sell, uh, air filters for a living. Yeah, and it doesn't matter that I doubled my income from what I was making as as a captain it's. It's like I, I don, like I don't see the end game with that. So it's self-identity issues. It's dealing with anger, anxiety, depression that you don't know how to get help for or you don't know how to talk about at all, because we can talk about this all day. Man, there's still a stigma. There is absolutely the last person that I wanted to know that I was absolutely insecure with myself and the world around me was my wife. Unfortunately, I'm really bad at hiding things, so she knew, isn't?
Speaker 1:that crazy though, like that's. That's our cornerstone and it has to be. They have to be the person that we go to, but so many of us fear being vulnerable with our spouse and bringing bringing that that you know rucksack of insecurities, anxiety and depression. Sitting on the table saying, hey, I know you think I'm this fucking awesome guy, but here's the truth. I hate myself. I'm freaking paranoid. I'm I'm going through anxiety attacks and yeah, I'm freaking paranoid, I'm going through anxiety attacks. And yeah, every day is like a waking nightmare.
Speaker 2:Well, and to cap all that off, it's like, man, when you're going through the military, you interact with people who have got a dozen or more deployments under their belt and they're able to put their shoes on in the morning. So, like for me, like I said, perfectly average top of milk. One deployment got a couple drops in, got to go, like, put boots on the ground outside the wire for a little bit. Nothing, nothing crazy. Um. So it's like, okay, well, if this guy over here has been in the fight since, uh, since he rolled into iraq on day one and he's just he's crushing it and taking good care of himself, well, maybe I'm beyond the brokenness because of that. Like, maybe I'm just actually a weak person. Yeah, and you don't want that, I mean, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was one of those things where I had gotten a little bit of help in the Air Force. It didn't go well. I remember I walked into my first mental health appointment and it was one of those doctor types he's like well, how does that make you feel? What do you think about that? Yeah, and after it was quick, quick fuse. On that one I was pretty sure you're supposed to tell me Dr Chode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not the one getting paid, I'm sharing how I feel. You tell me what's wrong, I'm not going to self-diagnose you. So he reassigned me. Well, that didn't last. It didn't last and you know, even if it had if it had, that was in my last six months in the Air Force. So, whatever processes you're going through, the day that you hand in your ID card and you which is some I don't want to get too too negative about, like military healthcare and the VA, because I I'm certain that they're good people doing the best they can with what they have and they just don't have enough and the problem's too big, yeah, but um it it. It put me in place where I was like okay, so there's no valuable help, I'm the problem. So I'll admit that internally, but I'm not going to admit that to anyone else and let's just see how this goes. Let's just keep your head down and keep pushing.
Speaker 2:Well, it turned out that that job that I had wanted I really was not good at and, frankly, didn't enjoy had an opportunity to go off with three other guys and start our own company in the construction industry which, just like the first job, started really well, started really promising and didn't have legs in the long run. It was more of a sprint than a marathon run. It was more of a sprint than a marathon. But through that process, especially as I was new to North Texas, I was lucky to meet a guy named Dave Cochran. Dave at the time, I want to say, was like an executive VP for a commercial real estate company a big one. And Dave, he has a superpower One. He loves the military, loves veterans, true patriot to his core. But he has a superpower, which is he knows everybody. I don't know how he does it, but he knows them. He's got a Rolodex in his head, so he's not like having to scan your face and figure out who you are. He'll call you out from across the room. If he's met you one time, no shit, that's a good dude. Uh, he's also, he's the uh, the treasurer of the high ground ASQ foundation. So getting to work with him now for the first time is just that's awesome. Um, but he says you gotta know this guy named Clippers. I'm like man, whatever you say, right? So, um, he told me Clinton Naval Academy grad. We don't hold. I really can't talk too much because we're a week removed from the Navy Air Force game. That wasn't a game. It was a tough watch. It's been a long season, but played a little bit of football in the NFL, played with the Ravens and the Saints, and then went off and did time with the Seals. I'm like, okay, well, it sounds like he's done a little bit of everything. Can't wait to meet him.
Speaker 2:So walk into his office for the first time and I'll never forget this, walking into what's called the high ground where all of these companies kind of congregate. I pull in and there's bars on the door and it's in the not super great part of Dallas. And I just check the address and I check my phone and I reprogram it in like three times. I guess this is it. So, um, walking in, half expecting to accidentally walk in on like a drug deal and half expecting that this is going to be the greatest thing ever. So, uh, it was. Uh, it was the last, it was the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 2:Walk in and that place is just set up like like you're walking back into the team room nice, um, it's, it's incredible. It's got office space upstairs, it's got a recording studio downstairs, it's got um, like physical recovery area downstairs where they do laser therapy. And then you walk into, like the main part, the warehouse area, and it's got an event space and on one side of the event space is a weight room, lockers, showers, and on the other side of the event space is a shoot house, a genuine up-to-spec shoot house. I'm taking it all in turn around and this behemoth of a guy is standing behind me. He goes just be, I'm put and I was like came out, came out. I know he's sneaky, uh, he's big, but he, he split, put it um, and just had an opportunity to meet him.
Speaker 2:Honestly, being there was the first time since not since leaving the military, but since deciding that I was going to leave the military that I felt, felt I was back in my infancy, right.
Speaker 2:So once a month for four years I would go to a networking event over there, meet great people, either people coming from similar backgrounds who are going through similar processes whether it's a transition process, whether it's mental health, physical health, whatever it may be or people who come from a great business background and just want to support. They want to learn. They want to support, they want to learn, they want to know about you. They're not to shake your hand and thank you for your service site, which I think it does as much harm as good. They're the kind of people who want to know who you are, what your story is, where you're trying to go. So, for four years, going to this thing once a month, meeting great people, and, uh, one of them is, uh it well, I'll leave the name out, but um, kind of reconnects me to a former connection, uh, named dr chris freud or free free, chris free.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm sorry, I'll never get the name right. Like you can bring it up in two more minutes, I'll get the name wrong, no worries.
Speaker 1:We'll do a quick plug for Dr Chris Free and his work with Operator Syndrome A huge supporter of the show. I mean, when we first started this, we were just a bunch of frigging boners trying to put good stuff out there, and that man's kind and gracious enough to not only jump on the show when we were first getting started but then to come back and continue to, you know, to spread the good word of the show. So, Dr Chris, thank you for being awesome brother and I can't wait to reconnect with you. He just got, he just got done doing an event in Canada. Man, the dude is out there. He's freaking awesome.
Speaker 2:He's. He'll be in Vegas next week at an event called MCON Let me touch on that when we get to that. But man, he's just an incredible guy. So reach back out to him and reconnect with him. He's just the guy. He remembers who you are. I don't know if he's got notes or what, but he remembers who you are. So that was nice to be able to reconnect with him on already having some level of relationship. But he genuinely wants to know how you're doing.
Speaker 2:So I tell him some of the things I'm still working through at that stage and he basically makes three guesses as to things that could help. He says one, you need to get a sleep study done because you probably have a sleep disorder. Two, you need to get a testosterone study done because you probably have low t. And you need to reach out to this place called the Stella Center in Chicago and look at their academy treatment stuff like that that they do. And internally I battled against all three of those. I say one my brain's fine, chris, I don't say that to him. I got too much respect for him to say this. I say my brain's fine, I sleep great and I don't need help Because, again, that's the mindset that you're in. I'll be damned if he wasn't right on all three of those. Go get a sleep study and they tell me that I need some serious change in sleep habits and I need help with that. Go get the testosterone.
Speaker 2:Piece of this it's the funniest, because I remember going to my doctor and saying hey, I think I need to get a test done to check these levels. And he goes you're 31. Like, no, no, you're good. Uh, you're outwardly healthy. Um, if you're having trouble sleeping, we can get your pills for that. If you're having trouble with energy, we can get your pills for that. But, um, no, you're good. I said, listen man, listen man, I'm gonna get this test done one way or another. Just write it, yeah, um.
Speaker 2:And as the whole process goes out, the test comes back and I don't. I don't know what the levels or units are, because I'm I'm not great with, uh, with smart people, stuff. But uh, the way the doctor explained it to me is like you have the testosterone of someone at least twice your age. Like if a 65 year old had these levels, we would try to get him on TRT. I said, great, let's go ahead and fix that. And he says I'm not sure we can Like, I'm not sure that this is the right time because we start now. You can never stop. Do you really want to be on something like this for the next 60 years of your life? So not only is it a misunderstanding of the problem, no-transcript. So in the medical community at large and this is why Operator Syndrome is such an important paper and now an important book is it talks about these things. It talks about allostatic load. It talks about how it, the way your body is designed to work. You got to go get help, but the medical community doesn't understand it.
Speaker 1:They just don't.
Speaker 1:And the other thing that they're not talking about, that everybody needs to understand is your life didn't start when you joined the military. You have to take into account everything you went through, from the moment you were brought into this world and your entire military career. We are not saints and we don't come from white picket fences the majority of us don't. So if you have, if you're listening and you're starting to think that, okay, maybe a lot of these things are starting to hit close to home. Pause, pause, reflect on your life, realize where you're at.
Speaker 1:If you're in your mid thirties and you're sluggish and you're not getting good sleep and you're dealing with depression, anxiety and all the things we just talked about, chances are a lot of that can be fixed by addressing your hormones, and at the end of this episode I have some links to some other doctors and individuals and papers that can be extremely beneficial. Shout out to Dr Mark Gordon. He helped me with my hormone issues and he can probably do the same for you. So, pause, go to the episode description. It'll be there. And so please yeah, listen to the stuff that we're putting out, because it probably pertains to a lot of you and it can cross boundaries. It's not just military. A lot of individuals in our first responder tribe are also dealing with the same things, and maybe you're a construction professional, maybe you're somebody that has worked in in in fire uh, in us as a firefighter. All these things can affect you as well.
Speaker 2:Dude, what that's. I couldn't have asked for a better transition into what we're doing with the foundation man Um, because it it's not just military and it do first responders pass off to them. That's. That's a job I could never do, Um could never do. I didn't have a lot of military in my family. I have a lot of first responders, law enforcement agency side types, in my family. That job is just a beating we have the luxury of when we're going into a combat situation, you know months ahead that you're about to deploy. You get the opportunity to get in that mindset and then, when you're done, yeah, you might be home in like 24, 48 hours, separated from the desert, but you do have a time to actually unwind and you have geographic separation from the problem set. It's not great, but it's a whole lot better than responding to a shooting three miles away from your house and then going home for dinner.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Those guys and they don't. You know, we can talk until we're blue in the face about how veterans aren't getting the type of help that they need. First responders don't have a VA.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like those things don't exist and oftentimes when they ask for help, they become a liability. They become a liability for their department and they can't. They can't continue the job, they're getting let go, they get cut. I unfortunately have a few good friends that have gone through that Sheriff's officers that raise their hands or or they have an incident that makes their seniors question like, okay, maybe he has some issues, can't help him, can't take the liability. Sorry, dude, you got to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Heartbreaking. What do you think? The Air Force had this initiative with all of their special warfare units, that they were going to start putting mental health professionals in the squadron. And let me tell you, man, the one that was assigned to us, she was a nice lady, she and let me tell you, man, the one that was assigned to us, she was a nice lady. She had her door open all the time. You couldn't have held a gun to my head and got me in that room, because I don't want to lose my controller status. I don't even want to have it called into question. So there's not a dang thing you could do to get me to go do that. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. So now, just by virtue of the set of conditions that exist, you've got guys having to build, essentially, an underground network to go get help, and that's wrong. That's absolutely wrong. But it's also true no one's coming for us, so we've got to be here for each other.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And when we talk about the High Ground HQ Foundation, man, it's just been so much fun. We're in our infancy stages right now, but we're a small organization. We intend to stay small because our intent is not to be this massive money pot that generates dependency. Our intent is not to go off and hold land and horses and create escapes for veterans, because there's other organizations that are crushing that. It's not to directly fund mental health help, because there are other organizations that are already doing that.
Speaker 2:Our intent is to align with those bigger and more powerful and more funded organizations to make sure that the word about them gets to the places that need to hear it. That's the entire intent. I mean our mission is straightforward. Our mission is to empower veterans, first responders, public servants of any nature and their families, because the families are an aspect of this too. Like they have to sit there and watch us go through a whole bunch of confusion and struggle and pain and anguish. It rubs off. That stuff's contagious man. But we're doing that through support, advocacy and community. All that really means is we're bringing in people who need help, not people who say they need help. People who do need help, because the people who say they need help, people who do need help, because the people who say they don't are the ones who need it and deserve it the most.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad you said that, man, and I don't want to go on a rant, but I have to call this out Go. There is this thing as being a vampire resources and not wanting to get better. Wanting to get better, you just want to go to a place or suck down resources and I, unfortunately, I've had an individual that has not only been a part of our peer support through Security Hall, but has gone to so many different things and has you know you're not. You don't. You never want to meet somebody and say you're a resource vampire. You always want to be like, hey, I'm willing to help somebody out, but then you refer them somewhere and you see them go.
Speaker 1:You see them collect all these different resources and continue going through the same thing for over two, three years, not wanting to give up alcohol, not wanting to get the actual help. They always come back and they say something was wrong, it was bullshit, it doesn't work, and now it's like dude, you were incredibly lucky to have these opportunities to go to these places and now you bad mouth it and now you complain about it, but you're still drinking. You're still doing the same behavior that everybody's telling you and everybody's pouring their heart and giving willingly of their time to coach you, to help you, to mentor you, and you're just shitting on everybody.
Speaker 2:Accountability sucks, but that's why it matters. Yeah, but no, I mean. The unfortunate thing about this is one there are people like that, there are people who will continue to suck up resources for their own benefit. But even on the opposite side of the people who say they don't need help, the ones needing it most and the ones who deserve it the most they don't know how to get it. And it's not for lack of noise, I think it's because of too much noise. There are tens of thousands of foundations out there that are doing awesome work. Yeah, but when, when? So for me it was.
Speaker 2:I consider myself relatively well connected in in this space, like network wise, relatively in the know for what's available, not not subject matter expert by any means means, but also not like completely lost and, um, you'll never be completely lost, uh. But it was news to me that there's not just not, not just like let's use stella as an example. Yeah, not just is ketamine treatment and sgb therapy available, not just as a thing, that's an option, but there's foundations that exist purely for the purpose of making sure I don't have to pay to get it. That was fascinating news to me. Like I, I flew out, got a hotel room uber to and from not just me flying out, but someone who was taking care of me, because it's kind of weird Got Ubers to and from the medical treatment, got the medical treatment entirely covered and flew home. They covered everything but my meals and literally all I had to do was sit there for five days. There's foundations that exist to do that, and that thing changed my life.
Speaker 2:But these things aren't quick fixes. I think this is the separation between the people who deserve the help the most and the people who are the resource vampires. Yeah Right, is you expect something like that to be a magic wand? Yeah, there's no magic wand, not for anything in life, least of all for this. So these things aren't like yeah, going to this is going to save my marriage. Going to this is going to make me not want to drink anymore. Going to this, I'm never going to be angry again. I'm going to be happy, go lucky for the rest of my life. I can't wait.
Speaker 2:It's, it's just something that keeps you in the fight. Yeah, and that's all this is about. It's it's find a way. We hear this all the time, whether it's in training or in the real world. Find a way to contribute, find a way to stay in the fight, find a way to stay on your feet. That's the best you can do. The situation is always going to change. There's always going to be new challenges that you face. I mean shoot. Each one of these different therapies or different resources I've gone to has helped to heal a problem and revealed a new one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the difference between a resource vampire and people that want to get better. A resource vampire will never do the work to get better. They just want the t-shirt, they want the experience, they want you to feel pity for them and they won't give up the drugs, they won't give up the alcohol, they won't give away the maladaptive behavior. You, the listener at home, the person listening to this, you want to get better. You want to do the work. You do the Stella Kanglian box. You go to the programs where they can offer you resources from various different vendors and program providers and you get a little bit better. You identify a new thing. Hey, my anger is better. I'm doing better with this, but I'm still having problems sleeping. You continue the fight. You, I'm doing better with this, but I'm still having problems sleeping. You continue the fight. You stay engaged in trying to get the best, because it's a journey. It's an, it's absolutely a journey.
Speaker 2:And on any journey, you just figure out what the next best thing is and you do. You do the best you can with what you have. But, man, that's, that's kind of what. What, what makes me so excited and passionate about, about what we're doing with this foundation. We've got an incredible team. I mean, everyone on our board is either a veteran, a veteran spouse. Our secretary on the board, joanne, she's a senior SEAL spouse, senior Naval Special Warfare spouse. So when you talk about the experience of going through the military and going through these challenges with someone who's on the home front of that, there's an entirely different perspective there and it adds so much value and it adds so much depth of understanding to the problem sets that people actually face. That's why we say it's not just about the veterans, it's not just about the first responder, it's not just about the public servant, it's about the family man. It is just such an incredible opportunity. But, like I said, one thing to stay small. And that's not because we don't want to do great things, it's because we want to stay nimble, we want to retain the capacity for violence, of action, and that's how you do it. So, man, we have some really exciting initiatives going on right now. Man, we have some really exciting initiatives going on right now. We do our own internal initiatives in addition to supporting some of these great foundations that we're aligned with.
Speaker 2:We touched on M-Com and touched on Chris, the founder of M-Com. Waco Hoover, incredible guy, got the same exact passion for, uh, for stopping the suicide problem, making sure good things happen for good people. Um, he's agreed to let our team come up to MCON this year. Uh, so that'll be a week from today. And um, create a documentary that's based, kind of, on this conversation. It's, it's, you know, one revealing the different kinds of mental and whole health therapies that are out there that people don't talk about, yeah, um. Two, sharing stories of guys and girls who have been through this and come out better for it on the other side. And three, community man like you, you and I both know exactly how isolating it can be when you lose that identity and you don't know who you are anymore Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's what we're. We're aimed at for that. You know? Another piece of this we we have the high ground HQ in Dallas and, like I've said, it's just a place where anyone from a veteran or first responder community can walk in and I can't explain it to you enough. You have to stand in it. You feel like you're home, you feel like you're back in your own skin. It's incredible and our intent is to make sure that we can put those throughout the country, because it's too damn good to keep. So, man, it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's such a powerful initiative because it it's not just for the sake of feeling like you're at home, it's for the sake of bringing your family into a place where you feel like you're at home, so that they can see you and your elements again. It's giving people opportunities to go back to where they come from, where there might not be economic opportunity. It's economic counterinsurgency by creating a place that's financially viable, where these veterans versus responders can go work, where they have their families. I'm going to pull this directly from Clint Bruce, because he is an incredible, incredible way with words. Date night saves marriages.
Speaker 2:So if you put a high ground in your community and you're able to turn them into something that's economically viable. Well, all of a sudden, you're in your community, you have friends, you don't have to find a new babysitter, you don't have to find a daycare, you can leave your kids with your parents and all of a sudden, you're going out to a movie, having a great time. That's how you save a marriage. So it's not just about economic opportunity. It's about the opportunity to rebuild around the breakfast table. It's a lot of exciting initiatives and, frankly, it's a lot of work. It's not gonna matter, um, because there is a lot of white noise and there are a lot of, and that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing that there are thousands of non-profits that are out there doing great things, um, but trying to set yourself apart and align with them at the same time is it's it's a delicate dance dude, and you just said something that's that's really powerful and I I think a lot of veterans and first responders need to understand.
Speaker 1:you're not suited and you're not built for the easy road. Arguably, you chose this path, or the military way or the first responder way, because you like the challenge, you like the hard work. We've been sold on this idea that after we transition out of the military, we should look for the easiest thing, the most viable thing. Just look for the most money and the cushy job where you're in an office and that'll be perfect for you. But I'm telling you right now, more often than not, it's the absolute opposite. Within six months, you're tired, you're burnt out and it's not what you needed.
Speaker 1:And I met so many individuals that went that route and then they found themselves back at the fire academy or the police academy or working on the ground on a nonprofit. Choose the hard, uncomfortable and discomfort. Be willing to look at who you are as a person and understand that, dude, when you take away the uniform, you take away the badges, you take away the tan, green beret, whatever it was, you're still a person of service, whether it's going into the nonprofit space and figuring it out or starting your own thing. Look for the hard thing. Look for the entrepreneur route. You may not be looking at it right now, but take a moment, take a step back and look at life and think about the things that are going to make you happy. More often than not, it's when you're working really fucking hard to help somebody else.
Speaker 2:Dude, let me tag on to that, if you're good with it, yeah absolutely dude it's taking the hard route and the entrepreneurial route that matters to you.
Speaker 2:I've done the entrepreneurial route and I did an entrepreneurial route that made good money and grew a business and had the title that everybody always looks for man. I was a CEO. I hated it For the first six months running that company. It was exciting because it was a sprint. Then it ultimately dawned on me it's like okay, so I'm at work before the sun's up, I'm home from work after the sun's down, I'm not seeing my baby, I'm not spending time with my wife. So I'm failing on the husband and dad front, Not just by failure by omission, failure by when I am there, my mind's still at work and I'm pissed off about something else to happen. So it was because I was aligned with a business and a model and an industry that I didn't give a damn about. And when I left that company, the company that I started, I pissed a lot of people off.
Speaker 2:I burned a lot of bridges, but it's okay because I'm willing to eat that man. I'm not saying that maybe it should have been done in a different manner or through different mechanism, or maybe I should have thought about it before I even started the process of building a company, like, do I really want to do this? Um, but yeah, do the hard thing, as long as it's the hard thing that you're aligned with um, because once you're down that road, things get a little bit sticky and entrepreneurial stuff. Man, you can see that this sucks. Yeah, it's like we were talking. I'm not sure if this made the recording or not, but we were talking about everybody wants to be a leader, everybody wants to be in charge. Like no, you might think that until you see the reality of it, yeah, it's a tough, tough gig.
Speaker 1:It's not man, I'm telling you. It's one of the hardest but most rewarding things when you create something from scratch and you get a little momentum and then a little more, and then you have some successes. But it's still a fucking grind. It's still an everyday thing. Look, I'm completely transparent with you.
Speaker 1:None of this has been easy. None of it has been easy. Easy. It's not fun. Creating something and wanting to have this thing. That's multi, a threat, and then people saying, hey, it's not for me, I don't want to invest in the time and I'd rather go make money doing this. Like it's difficult, but at the end of the day, where's your heart, where's your passion? Like, because I'll tell you one thing like it's in this that this is what I love to do. If it's not audio production, it's working and helping promote resources for the guy and gal that's still in uniform. Why? Because I was there. I was having that fucking moment of breaking down, looking into an entire battalion of other green berets and thinking to myself I am the weakest piece of shit. Nobody else is dealing with these issues. I might not make it through the day and in reality it was everybody.
Speaker 2:It's just you break when you break, our egos are in the way too much. It's'll use marriage as an example. I had this conversation once the other day. Okay, so the statistic is 50% of all marriages fail. I think the real statistic is 40% of first marriages fail, 60% of second marriages fail, so it falls in the middle. So out of 100% of marriages, 50% of them are bad enough that they don't exist. Out of the remaining 50%, you've got a bell curve, just just like idiocracy. So half of those remaining marriages are below average. So 75 of marriages are either below average or so bad that they're destined to fail. The vast majority of 75 of anything is overwhelming. You'll never get 75 approval for anything in this world, but 75 of us walking around every single day are struggling, yeah, but we all act like we're not. Why it's embarrassing? No, it there's. There's shame associated. We have egos that we want to protect. You be like I do come from a white-picked sense and man my life is awesome.
Speaker 2:I've got land. I saw a deer. This morning I had a great coffee with my wife. No, dude, it's tough. So why don't we talk about it? Because we got egips shelve that ego. Figure out how you're going to establish yourself, uh, in a way that you're comfortable enough to talk about your vulnerabilities, and then just do it. Yeah, first time you do it, it sucks. Second time you do, it sucks a little bit less, and eventually it doesn't suck. And then you end up on a podcast talking about how much you struggle.
Speaker 1:Absolutely dude, vulnerability and the vulnerability is one of the greatest strengths that we have after the military. We tend to think that our life in the military once we got that coveted Green Beret, once we got that coveted Tambourine, seal, trident, whatever it was we tend to think that's the greatest strength that we have to offer the world, the protector. That's the greatest strength that we have to offer the world, the protector. That's not true. Your vulnerability, your ability to sit down in front of somebody else that looks at you as a giant, somebody that could never break and fall apart, and realize that when you share your story, your struggles, the way you overcame them, you give other people hope, you give other people resilience and grit and realize that, holy shit, he's just a human being. And if another human being can, can do this, if they can overcome this, then I can. I can do this.
Speaker 1:Kill the myth every single fucking day. Be willing to kill the myth, walk out of that ego and be willing to kill the myth to help somebody else out, because they look at us, every last one of us, whether you're you're an 88 Mike and you think that you haven't accomplished anything in the army. People look at us, every last one of us. Whether you're an 88, mike, and you think that you haven't accomplished anything in the army, people look at you and they say, holy shit, that's a soldier, that's a warrior, and they put you on a pedestal. Be willing to kill the ego and say you know what? I struggle too, but these are the things that I do to get better. I work out, I do cold water exposure, I journal, I leave everything at work and I come home and I don't bring any of that shit to the front door. All those little lessons learned can be a benefit to everybody else, man. We just got to be willing to be vulnerable and share it.
Speaker 2:You know, if you go online and talking about leaving that ego at the door, you go online and you read, quote Bruce's biography. You go online and you read Clint Bruce's biography. He had to write it himself because it ends with Clint has a beautiful bride and three beautiful daughters, who do not care at all that he was a sealer player in the.
Speaker 1:NFL.
Speaker 2:It's like no, you're absolutely right. It's about who you are as a person, not where you were, what you did, what you wore on your shoulder or what color your beret was. It's about what that means about you. It's about that being a representation of what you have inside of you, and that's the value that you bring.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, dan. This whole episode has been packed with freaking, awesome, great, just little gems that the audience can take away. But before I let you go, please tell us some more about your organizations and how we can tap into them, support them and learn more about them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like I said, inner infancy stages, right, this is not for most people on this board. This is not the first delve into nonprofits, but it is a pretty, pretty, pretty new foundation that is trying to go far fast. And we're trying to do that because we know the time is a factor, especially when it comes to mental health and taking care of families and keeping them together and just advertising the resources that are available. So one specific to that documentary project stand by for more on that. We're going to be pushing out updates on all social media. That'll be early next year, ideally, that that releases. I cannot wait to see what that final product looks like.
Speaker 2:Two, if you have connections and you feel called to make introductions, whether it's to myself, any member of our board, clint Bruce himself, man, all we're ever looking to do is align with good people and good teams that either want to hop on our wagon or let us hop on theirs, because, again, this is not about competition. This is about all of us moving in the same direction and step. So and that's one of my favorite things about this industry as a whole, man, there's no competition. We're all just trying to get the resources to the right place. So that's that's our ideal intent to help get the resources to the right place. Reach out to us. You can reach me at dmv that's delta, mike, bravo. At get-highgroundcom. You can find out more about us at the high ground, hq, foundationorg and uh, our social medias.
Speaker 1:I can give you some links to any if you want to push them out absolutely, they're all newish links, yeah and like I always say, if you pause the episode right now or just look at your screen, it'll pop up right there. Look at that. My editor's gonna hate me because all those links go ahead and click on them, peruse them if you will, as they say.
Speaker 1:And, uh, if you're feeling froggy, leap and get into, uh, my man's dms, because they're open right now for any sort of collaboration and support. Get after it. Send him some spicy feet pics, please. Oh god, I'm gonna have to change it, dan bradley. Thank you so much for being here today, brother. I greatly appreciate it To all. You all tuning in and subscribing, downloading, continue to share the show and continue to enjoy. I'm going to continue making it, whether you like it or not, so until then, take care, we'll see you all next time. If you like what we're doing and you enjoying the show, don't forget to share us, like us, subscribe.
