Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
From Soldier to CEO: Michael R. Rodríguez on Legacy, Leadership & the GWOT Memorial
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In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, we sit down with Michael R. Rodríguez, President and CEO of the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. Michael shares his inspiring journey from military service and recovery to leading the effort to build a memorial that honors every service member who fought in the Global War on Terrorism.
This conversation goes beyond the battlefield—exploring the challenges veterans face in transition, the role of leadership and community support, and how resilience and purpose fuel personal growth after service. Michael’s story highlights why remembering, honoring, and supporting our military community is essential for healing and moving forward.
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head over to the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today. Michael Rodriguez, how's it going, brother?
Speaker 2:Good, romano, great to have the opportunity to chat with you today, bro.
Speaker 1:Dude, it's an absolute pleasure and honor to have you here. I always like to say that we don't progress in our journey after service unless we sit down and talk with guys and get that good like pre-deployment site survey on how to attack the next objective and seeing where our guys are at. Seeing individuals such as yourself. You know we've got our veteran community is rich with people that are out there doing amazing things, whether it's writing a book, starting a podcast, doing a movie and being part of you know great organizations like the Museum of Global War and Terrorism. It's inspiring. So we got to collect these stories and figure out, like, what's the best approach to having that purposeful, impactful life after service. So today, my man, we're going to dive into your service. Then we're going to also dive into what you did after, because I think that's the part that's going to help the most of us.
Speaker 2:So today, man, please let us know how you began this journey in the military. Yeah, absolutely Well, before we begin, I want to thank you for your continued leadership, which you just referenced, right there is. You know the Army defines leadership as purpose, direction and motivation. Right, and you know you talking about what veterans are doing and highlighting their stories. You know and you're continuing to do that. So I want to thank you for for over the number of years you've been doing this to provide that opportunity, that platform, that love to give them the voice. Uh, because more often than not, you know we're such a small community that you know sometimes some we need, we need that. You know those to our left and right that we fought for Um it, um, it's, it's, it's important, man. So I want to thank you for what it is that you do, you know during this conversation.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be throwing some of the questions back at you, my friend, so think about it, man, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Right. So what? What inspired me to serve was I'm from southern New Mexico. I grew up right there, on the border with New Mexico and Mexico, so my family's from for generations. You know we lived in a part of our nation that was once New Mexico or Mexico's territory. But when you know, when it was annexed, thankfully my family was on this side of the border.
Speaker 2:Down there is Palomas, mexico, and then Columbus, new Mexico, somewhat synonymous. When Pancho Villa would launch his raiding parties into the United States through New Mexico, that was the port of entry. So you know we used to have a family home until, you know, the people coming across the border pretty much set on fire and destroyed it, but it was a family. The family home in Columbus was a historic site because it had bullet fragments from when Pancho Villa's raiding parties. You know he never ventured in, but his raiding parties did and attacked the people like my familia, so all the men in my family I have to enunciate this and people like oh, why would you? You know, people don't know their history. Well, I said so. My great grandfather was, like all men in that town, deputized and fought against Pancho Villa, because when someone comes into your town and shooting up and stealing and robbing and doing whatever it is that they did. You know you got to protect your own. So that's where I'm from, a little bit of history of me.
Speaker 2:So, growing up there, my first heroes were, you know, I didn't really have comic books, not a whole lot of. You know we're. I'm glad I grew up the way I did, with wealthy, in love, I'll say it that way, right, yeah, wealthy with familia, a large one. So my father served in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. Both my grandfathers served during World War II. My great uncles, my grandmother's brothers, all were involved in the D-Day invasion. Believe it or not, I mean, it's pretty storied service. So those are my heroes, right? And my abuelitas had pictures of them when they were kids, when they joined, those typical pictures of someone in basic training, and I would always ask questions like what was it like? And you know this, right, I'm preaching to the choir here. You know those of us that step into that ring and that arena and experience the things we experience or do the things we do. I'm not glamorizing nothing, I don't. That's not it, right. War is war and we'll leave it there. So I'm not dude, that's none of your business, man.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about something else. So I'm so glad you said that man, and I have to pause and reaffirm. I was just on a podcast and the gentleman a shout out to you, benny, right off the start. You know, like it's not for glamorization. Like the greatest heroes that I served with, the greatest men that I learned from and I looked up to, like some of them aren't here anymore and that's the reality. Like that's like you want to talk about valor and honor and greatness and courage and all that that's great. Some of the greatest people on earth aren't here and they took it to the, they took it all the way to the very end. Like that, yeah, that's a reality of it, and to glamorize it and to constantly talk about it doesn't do anything, doesn't serve. Like you, the civilian at home that support the veteran community, that love consuming, that just understand that it's not a movie, it's not hollywood.
Speaker 2:You'll never understand it yeah, and it diminishes the realities of those of us that have done that right, right, and you get I'm rising. It. Then it's spun, then it's painted in a rosy light and it's like wait a minute, wait a minute, let's pause for a minute. So as a young little travel, right, I didn't know that I was like you know, I had like my, my little green army men. I play with my thing. I always love, you know that, so I would ask questions. They never talked about it. You know those are the, my father and all the men, um, my male role models in my life. But was, as I got older, what they ended up finally talking about was, you know, because I was pestering a, I'm the oldest grandchild on my father's side, so, uh, what they started telling me was they never talked about the war or events. What they started telling me and sharing with me are those that they served with. You know, the men in my family are incredibly stoic, like just traditional, very quiet, very family oriented. You know, we're just stoic. But when they started talking about those they served with, they spoke differently, with reverence. I could hear the love in their voice and very solemn, very purposeful speech that they would talk about, talk to me, spoke about them with love, and then it touched me deeply. I was like, wow, who are these deals that I've never met? You know, I remember their names, but they spoke and that right there, kind of like, okay, that's, I mean you know, wow, who are these deals that I've never met? You know, I remember their names, but they spoke in that that right there, kind of like, okay, that's, I mean, you know this, the greatest thing you can do is grow and support your familia. Right, that was what I was instilled with as a child, like support your familia, take care of them, do whatever it is, grow the familia and then contribute, contribute right To society and as a whole. So all the men in my family served. So then that's when I inspired me to join a little bit.
Speaker 2:My upbringing and such. So you know, I joined it at 17 years old and I had to get my parents to sign and my father was not really supportive of it. You know, my father's experience of Vietnam wasn't the best. He lost his best friend over there, which was his cousin that he grew up with. It's Andres, actually. This is him right here.
Speaker 2:So behind me is my ofrenda that stays up year round, nice. But you know he just that. You know he didn't. He didn't want that for his son and I told my dad, I this is something I want to do. Then my you know my father always support me. He guided me.
Speaker 2:So then he imparted a piece of wisdom onto me that I just recently started telling people about. I mean, my sons have heard it, but, um, that I didn't know what the hell it meant when I was 17 years old. But he told me this. He said, miko, look, people are going to ask you to do things they don't think you can do, things that you may not be able to do. You're going to see things, do things, experience things that you just can't imagine right now. Whatever's asked of you, just do more, miko, just do more and do more. And I was like, okay, dad, I didn't know what that meant, right, so then, fast forward.
Speaker 2:You know I joined the army at 17 night, by blessings of, of my career path. You know I deployed to somalia in 93 with the 10th mountain division and experienced what you know, the, the, that, the, that that side of the, you know uh, of things are on the world. You know people start shooting and it's a little bit different. So, that being said, you know I got to do that. And then I had another deployment, to Haiti. For those that remember, there was a military coup that occurred in 94. I was part of the response force for that to have found a vision and I'd always seen like SF guys at both of those, both of those deployments, you know, and this was inspired me to go into SF later on.
Speaker 2:And you know I remember Somalia. There was a SF team that we would in Somalia, we would pick up the food convoys and Mogadishu and then take them to the food distribution sites. That was our job. They get shot out, running out, getting out, yeah, bogadishu kismayu, all the dog all the way into my door. Anyway, I would see him. And I remember an sf team there. They had a pet monkey and I was like dang, as a young 18 year old kid, I'm like dude, I would love to have a pet monkey right and they didn't wear all the crap that we were wearing, sweating like pendejos out there. So anyway, I saw them during the first two deployments and I was like I want to try. So then, then I figured out, then I put myself in a position where I understood what my dad meant by do more. I was in selection and you remember selections like I'm sure it was.
Speaker 2:It was a, it was during a individual is individual time, before team week, right before team week. You know there's, you know, kicking your teeth in at that point and it was one of those. All right, be at this time with this uniform, this amount of weight, all this other. Okay, follow the cones. You don't know how far you're going. Is it a six-mile ruck? Is it a 12-mile? Is this, what are we doing?
Speaker 2:So I was giving it my all and there was a point where I was like, oh my gosh, you get those moments and anyone who's ever been to Selection Day, you have those moments, I'll be honest about it. Like, dude, am I doing them? Those moments of clarity where you're like what the heck this is? I chose to be here, so I was having one of those and I was like God, man, maybe I need to slow down, Maybe I, maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2:I started doing that self-doubt because I'm constantly evaluating myself Constantly. That was just. I'm always doing that and maybe this isn't you know that negative, negative. You know thoughts going in there. But then I heard my dad just do more, take one more step, do more, Just do more.
Speaker 2:And it was in that moment I started reflecting on my childhood and I started doing more on the rock. Then I remembered my father growing up never you know in sports, and everything he never said do your best. He always said hey, mijo, do more, do more next time, por si me hace algo. You know, just do more, do more, do more. And then I realized, like, when you just do more and you know this, you put yourself to this position you don't know your limitations. None of us ever do you just do more. But it was very simple, very, very humble Just do more. And that's what I saw. That, because when we say, do your best, that's just who knows your best? Well, do I know my best? Well, when you tell someone, do your best, you're giving them the opportunity to punch out. Right, don't say that, so I don't do it either. We just do more.
Speaker 2:So that's when things changed and I understood what my father meant and that that really kind of I mean that was my upbringing, growing up really strong, work ethic, just keep going. Like you know, we didn't no breaks, just work, get the work done and then you'll figure out what's next. And that right there kind of set the tone for pretty much the rest of my career. You know I ended up in seventh group and, you know, started deploying, like all of us did. You know, until until you know all my bumps, bruises, cuts, explosions, all the exposures that got me to where they are ended up, any my career. So I was able to squeeze out 21 years before I was medically retired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is a lifetime, man, that is a lifetime, but it goes by so fast, man. Man, that's the thing that nobody realizes, and I'm sure that, long before you reached those 21 years, there are probably some telltale signs of like oh shit, I am, I am going through some shit. Did you ever find yourself going through that point of like all right, I just gotta keep it together just a little little bit longer? And like what were you? What did you rely on? Was it just sure? Just pure grit and determination?
Speaker 2:to get you through it, I'll tell you. I'll tell you a point, and this is a is, is, is, uh. So it was my. It was deployment, one of my deployments, my last deployment. I've got a son.
Speaker 2:I was with the oda. I was one of the senior guys on the team. Um, you know me and and paul shu, while I were, they had been on that team for seven years at that point, right, uh, and third battalion. You know guys had come and gone, but we've been there forever. You know there's team sergeants and and team leaders are coming, but then you have those guys that have been on that team forever. That that's that kind of drive that keep that culture alive. And it was all. And then we were. We were mean like to each other, to everybody, but in a tough love way. But people didn't like walking past our team room door because some of the guys on the team were so good with just attacking people and making fun of them and blasting them like they didn't like walking past our door flashbacks right now like where'd you get them shoes?
Speaker 2:whatever I mean, bro, it was. I was at points. I was like man, I'm glad I'm on this team, they're so anyway. That being said that, just to try to I say that you know to relate you, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But I'm also to tell you like the responsibility I felt I owe to that team and I did, we all do so during that appointment it was. I had some pretty significant injuries, one of which was exposure to I. I was a senior Delta on the team at that point.
Speaker 2:I don't remember a lot of the events. Some of the events were recounted to me. An IED went lower to debt. I was on an ATV. I was the one that caught the most of it. The blast wave threw me. Not a lot of people saw this, but I pushed the ATV back over. The Afghans saw it it and they came over and then the team started dead and hey, you all good and I just, and they're like, and I just tell them I'm F and five. I don't remember any of this.
Speaker 2:By the way, I lost, I had lost vision in my left eye. My eye wasn't like ripped open or anything, it was just the brain, just like I don't know what happened. I just could not see and I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, we continue the mission. Somehow I just kept going and then I got back and just kind of tried to cover it up and hide it. But you know, I'll be honest. I said this on a recent podcast. You know I made the wrong decision because if anyone else would have come to me as a senior Delta hey, what's going on? I'd have got them out so they could get help. But in my arrogant view, that team needed me. I wasn't at a hundred percent but they assumed I was a hundred percent. Spence I turned into a liability. They had no idea. I would not have wanted someone like me on my team going on combat ops like we would continue to do in the state that I was in. But in my mind that was the right thing to do. And it was not the right thing to do. It was not good. So that was a moment where I just need to get through this deployment and that was a bad decision. That was a very bad decision. So after that deployment I knew I was going to SWCC. I was going to go work out at Range 37 and at the sniper committee. And I just got to get through this. I got to get through this and I get to the committee.
Speaker 2:And for those that ever, for the community, have been through you know any of the courses Svartic or SOTIC and then SFSC, man, it's like a deployment, like it is, it is, it is nonstop. And for the cadre, we're there, it's like the never ending J set that is, you know, pedal to the metal, right Like everything, every. It's just. You know everything from you're still doing explosive breaching, you're still under so it. From you're still doing explosive breaching, you're still under. So it wasn't an environment that was good for someone trying to get better from tbi to be in. No, you're still going down to the dojo on the range and beat the hell out of each other in the mornings. I mean, it's just, but it's immediate. I loved it. I loved it. That's where I thrived. So I stayed there and I kept thinking I'm gonna get better and get better.
Speaker 2:And then you know the long story short, that's when, um, some of this stuff that I was dealing with, some of the, I was having a deterioration of some of my capabilities vision, balance, you know cognitive stuff and then you know that come to the Lord moment where I needed to get help, and that's when you know I got sent to the National Trepidation of Excellence and they were like, yeah, man, you're done. Son, like this is you, you have so much that had to tow thing. But that was the moment in my life or military career where I thought I lost who I was Right, my identity was, I thought, was stripped of me. When they said you can no longer perform your duties as a special forces operator, we are initiating medical retirement proceedings. And I was just like, like they just cut my head off, not happy, wasn't wasn't expecting that. I thought they were going to tell me hey, this is how you get better, so you get back in the fight. That's not what occurred and that pretty much ended my career. So that that's what took me to the, where I got that and I realized that I was holding out and it was not, it was not the best thing to do.
Speaker 2:I, I, you know I think back to the failures that, um, you know I, I could have been a better, uh, teammate when I, when I got wounded, and been honest with myself and honest with the team. I could have been, even when I was at a uh, an instructor range 37, 37. My pass rate was great but I think it could have been better if I was better. So I failed. I admit it. I failed the community in trying to cover things up and not being honest with myself and with everybody else, and that's a very arrogant and self-centered way to approach things and I learned a lot from that. I swear I will never do that again. A learned a lot from that. I swore I would never do that again.
Speaker 1:A lot of us do that. I, I, I did it. And the reality is people listening and guys are still in that don't believe operation. That don't believe because the exposure right, it's not about it's not always the same, it's not you don't have to get blown up. It's not about it's not always the same, it's not, you don't have to get blown up. It's all the reps and training, all the reps.
Speaker 1:Throughout your entire military career you started out in, you know, airborne. If you started out as an 11 Charlie, we started out as a field artilleryman. That's when you're, that's when your exposure to blast and that's when you have to understand. Like, if you don't stop to understand what you're going through and really just take a knee, we call things like a migraine a headache, a simple headache, the symptomology. We just eat pain all throughout our career. So we're not really present. We're not cognitively there, prepared to understand the things that we're going through. You've had a concussion on a jump and ache and you're not cognitively there, prepared to understand the things that we're going through. You've had a concussion on a jump and you're like, oh, it's fine, I just got dazed for a little bit, but then you have light sensitivity for three, four days. You can't remember what happened during that J-Fix because you were out of it and it's all of us, all of us. I did it as a warrant officer. I fucking tanked an entire prep for a J-set and I thought I was doing my job. I thought I was doing great, and the reality is we were built to take this pain, to take this and eat it and continue pushing forward.
Speaker 1:But now, on the backside, we can advocate for our guys. And the thing that's really important is we're looking at our GWAT veterans, the older guys on the team, and the reality is, the older you get, the more stubborn you are. So it's no longer the new, younger guys, it's the SAR major, it's that team sergeant on the team who's been dealing with these symptoms. It's that CW3, cw4 that's been dealing with this since 2015, 2014, and has been saying nothing. So being able to have these discussions, being able to talk about it, not only helps our soft brothers, but our conventional military guys, because now in this fight, now that I'm educated and I'm understanding of the symptomology, I understand the problem set, a lot of guys don't speak up because they say to themselves oh well, I'm just a mortar man, I'm just an artillery man. I haven't been blown up. It's like, yeah, but you've been on the gun line for five, six, seven years and he rounds down range.
Speaker 1:It's important to be able to share these stories and be able to share the impact. And you're right to share these stories and be able to share, like the impact. And you're right. Going to range 37, those instructors mean like when I went through sniper school, I was blown away by how much information, how the professionalism, the dedication they're there, ready to go all day, every day, and if you're having trouble these guys will stay there. And then on the Sephardic side, you just hear these guys like having friends have been there eating those charges, like it takes a lot, it takes a lot out of you and you pour into the community, pour into these students. And when you were going through your recovery, like even though, like there was a lot of heartache and a lot of bitterness, did you find yourself seeing some positivity and it seemed like, okay, I need to get better, like I need to be able to have some sort of life after this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm going to touch back on like what you were just talking there and then it'll answer what you just asked me. So I, when we have these conversations about like hey, being honest, but I can't do that, I'm hurt, whatever. That that's not a weakness. Yes, that drive, that that that those of us that choose these types of professions do, I want to be sure that when we do talk about these things is we're not, you know, with that's that is, I don't want to diminish that. That is special. That ability to put yourself aside, what you're dealing with, everything for the mission, for those who are left and right, is incredibly special. You know, those are very, very, very special people that will choose to do that. But it takes that same amount of courage that will run to the sound of gunfire or fight to be number one man.
Speaker 1:You know that we all like ah, let me go.
Speaker 2:I know I want to be on my turn, you know, running for that open door, looking for work in the house, right, yeah, yeah, we will the, the, uh. The way we need, I think, community is support that, yes, that's awesome. Let's continue to build that mindset. But then realize and educate them like you can stay doing that as long as you are honest and upfront with what is going on with you, right, so I could have stayed in a lot longer, like I wanted to. Um, you know if, if I had been honest. So there's, there's that I think we need to like talk about those, cause sometimes I will talk about this and they're like well, so you don't think your drive was beneficial? I'm like, no, no, it was. So I think that that right there. So now I'm going to answer what you asked me in that question with. That was with setting this up.
Speaker 2:So when, after I got Ny nico there, I got sent to you know it was it was you know I left there with uh 17 different diagnoses, seven of which on their own were duty limiting. There's a whole I won't go into it is a lot of things that what they think is is uh, what I have is we can't diagnose yet is something called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, because growing up I used to, uh, growing up, sports, yeah, I was a boxer, but then, even as a, as a child, I suffered a subarachnoid bleed, meaning I had fell and shit. I have I still. I mean, if you do look at my, my brain, you can see the blood scar tissue and all that other stuff. In addition to that I have like a, a very large mass in my brain.
Speaker 2:So all of that said like I'm the, I'm the, I'm the guy that should never have done what I did, so don't do what I do. So you know, I left, you know, with all this. So then they sent me to before I could address any of that they're like look, they sent me to a dual diagnosis program for post-traumatic stress and chemical dependency. I was, I was drinking every day, right to do what I could.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna ask about that. I was like I'm honest I not embarrassed about it.
Speaker 2:That's what I did. I mean, it's just very, very common, right? The beer light's on. Okay, cool, I can start drinking. Right, it's the culture.
Speaker 1:It's the culture, it's what we, and it's not just specific to the special forces, no, no, it's an old American cultural thing. Men get together and we drink and we have beers and Jack Daniels come out, and it's a form of brotherhood, it's a form of camaraderie, it's the beer lights that we got.
Speaker 2:It's, it's I think it's even greater it's. It's. It's a warrior culture practice after things are done, what. What did they do? After they came together on the campfire, whatever it was they were partaking of, that's what they did. I don't want people to say, oh, we, whatever it was they were partaking of, that's what they did. I don't want people to say, oh, we're just no, look, that's, that's part of the warrior culture that's in this, into the genetics and innate abilities and desires of some of us. Right, it's primal. So I was.
Speaker 2:So I got sent to the. I took it to the extreme, like I always do with everything. So I was drinking a lot. So I went to this four week inpatient treatment facility. Um, I stayed for eight weeks. So I needed the extra training. They kept me longer, but it was there that I was reminded of pretty much everything that got me to that point, not what occurred to me, but what allowed me to have a successful career in the military and special forces, and everything that I did, even at Range 37. You can ask anybody that I served with. I think I was pretty decent to work with. I'm not going to say I was the best, no, but I was able to at least work alongside the best, and that to me means the world. I just wanted to be able to contribute, so it was. While I was in there, I was reminded that, hey look, this is who you are, remember that, and it was my doctor.
Speaker 1:I was having a session that day, and when I say impatient, I mean, it was, you know, pajamas, slippers, no, no, shoe strings, none of that stuff.
Speaker 2:And I'm not embarrassed of that. I'm not embarrassed of that. I was on a lot of medications. You know what? I needed them. I'm not embarrassed of that. I successfully don't need them anymore, but I needed it. At that time my doctor asked me he goes, rod, are you suffering? And this was the first time in my life I had missed Thanksgiving and Christmas with my familia because I was in a hospital. It was in Texas, right, and this is before-, no, no, no, this is before then, man, this is before any of that stuff opened up. This was a psychiatric facility, which is a great place. I don't want to throw shade at them. It was University of Behavioral Health in Denton, texas.
Speaker 1:And they were awesome.
Speaker 2:So it was all military in that wing. And then the wing that we shared was all the. Those were there for criminal reasons. He asked me that question are you suffering? And I was like, like I said, you know, I was missing Christmas and New Year's and Thanksgiving with my sons. And I looked at him I go, dr Lateef, his name's Umar Lateef, a very close personal friend of mine. Now I said, dr Lateef, yeah, yeah, I'm suffering. He goes. You're choosing to suffer. I was like what he goes? Look, rod, my life's challenging Life is hard. Everybody's facing pain, everybody's dealing with something.
Speaker 2:If you're suffering, that means whatever it is you're facing has taken control. You know, suffering is a choice. You choose to not realize how strong you really are. He says just fight it, take ownership of it. I can't. And he told me he was, he was amazing guy man. He was like look, I would love to fight this for you, but I can't. I'm here to help you fight this. I'm here to give you the tools. I'm here to give you what it is.
Speaker 2:But if you're suffering, it's because you're not taking what's presented in front of you and realize that nothing can stop you. And it's a reframe to everything. And again it reminded me that, like, look, if I I never stepped into the cage or a ring with a blindfold on you and I never went outside the wire with zero G2 or Intel or some type of plan, even if it's a quick two minute brief, why do we choose to do that? When it comes to our emotional health, our mental health or even physical health? Why do we do that? We're like oh no, I just don't see it. Nope, I'm good, but we do that. And then we don't really face what it is, we don't take ownership of it. And that's when I was like you know what, I'm not going to suffer anymore. And I don't suffer. I'm not saying I don't face obstacles or have different things and challenges throughout life Everybody does but I'm not special. I have the things that I have to fight, that only I can fight, so I don't suffer.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely, it's important. I want to pause and reflect on what your doctor told you. That's something that I was given, as well as understanding a common humanity and I talk about it a lot If you get stuck in your own suffering and you don't open up that aperture, you don't come up off glass and look at the entire range and see that around you other people are suffering too. You're not alone in this experience. This is not unique to you. So what the fuck are you going to do? Get over it. Move forward and do something of purpose with that suffering. Do something for somebody else. Don't just get stuck and feeling like, oh, it's all hopeless. No, get up. Move forward. One small step forward. Day by day, it gets better. We have more autonomy of our suffering than we truly realize that.
Speaker 1:And once I understood that fucking game changing Okay, so shit's not right in my head, all right, I'm in a treatment center to get help for that Slow, I'll get better. But sitting here being sad and being dismissive of the rest of my life just because I can't wear this green beret forever? Hey guy, at some point it ends for everybody, it just it's ending for you right now. Move forward. That's something that nobody else can tell you except you, and you have to embrace it. You have to be willing to say, hey, all right, I got to do something that very few individuals get to do Wasn't forever, it wasn't for as long as I wanted to do it, but hey, I got to fucking do it. What's going to be my next chapter?
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Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a matter of learning from circumstances, and go say, like what my dad had told me, like, just do more. These things are going to happen. I can't change anything in the past. I can look at it, I can reflect on it and learn from it, and I don't ruminate if you ruminate on it. So so you can make a choice I can reflect or I can ruminate, I'll reflect on it. I'm not that Um, whatever it is, but I'm not going to ruminate on it. I'm not going to jump in that pool again, cause I can't change that.
Speaker 2:I have right now, I have today, by the good, good, shared blessings of the Lord, maybe I have tomorrow. You know this, like when we face our mortalities, like when I got blown up one of the times, I'm like, oh, this is it. Of times I'm like, oh, this is it. And then I'm like, oh well, I guess not right. I mean, there's so many times. And you're like you face the the how fragile, uh, you know, life really is your mortality. You're like, okay, it's a blessing, I need to live with a little bit more grace, seize this moment. Okay, this is what I have right now.
Speaker 2:I'm going to reflect on what I've learned I'm going to reflect on events beyond my control, events I can't change. Events that created whatever it is I'm carrying, or physical, emotional, whatever it is. I'm going to learn from it and I'm going to try and be better. And that's every next day. You know, it's like I'll try to be better tomorrow, I'll do more tomorrow, and that's how I wake up every day.
Speaker 2:It's like all right, what can I do today? How can I be better from yesterday? And you know, like I mentioned earlier, I'm almost doing like, okay, the self-evaluation, right, because selection is never ending, right? Like wait, what can I do? What am I bringing to the table today? How am I going to do it? And some days I'll be better than others, and admitting that. But if you continue on that as myth, it's just like I'm just keep trying more, I'm just keep trying's in our that's, you'll be better, you'll be happier, you'll, you'll thrive, whether you've got a lot of stuff or not, and you will thrive as long as you're, you know, endeavoring to do more. I think.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Fucking Lutely, brother, like it's it's. It's so motivating to see guys when they get on that side of their journey, when they they heal up and they're doing better and they start crushing life and they start. You know, first all it takes is being able to get, start crawling, and then you're walking and then you're frigging running, being able to see, like my buddy, marty Acosta, like a phenomenal Green Beret who went through hell and back and watching him where he's at now speaking events motivating others, bringing other brothers to their healing journey. It is inspiring to see somebody find their purpose and their passion on the backside of their journey. You already accomplished so much to green beret, but then to be of service again for your community, for the greater veteran community, that's empowering and I want to dive into that part of your journey. You go through, you recover. What was your next mission and how did you find it?
Speaker 2:So what got me through it, you know, providing me that purpose, direction, motivation, right was my sons, because sometimes, you know, for those that are struggling, sometimes they can't do something for themselves. You don't, very rarely will you find someone that's doing something for themselves. I'm not saying they're not there. You know people. There's people that do, they're into their self-organizement and self-advancement and all that, but most of us aren't so. But you need something. You need that North Star, that guiding light that, like the Southern Cross, however you want to look at it, and it was my sons.
Speaker 2:My sons needed me because I reflected on the impact that my father and my grandfathers and theos had on me. So I was like. You know, my sons need me to show strength, to be honest, to be vulnerable and be forthcoming with the stuff and share that journey with them and continue that pursuit of excellence that I tried to do my entire military career. So, you know, to college, I never had any, never went to college or did anything until then. So, you know, I I did a master's or a best, I did a bachelor's and master's and then I started trying to, uh, give back to the community, volunteering various veteran service organizations and then, um, in 2016, I joined the, the foundation. Um, you know that I'm I'm leading today, um, and just been really focusing on that for uh, a little bit, a little over nine years at this point, um, and that's just what, what I've been doing.
Speaker 1:Oh, tell us, give us a little bit about what you're doing now.
Speaker 2:Sure. So, uh, I am the president and CEO of the global war on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. What is that? It's a big mouthful, right, it's a 501c3. I lead the congressionally designated 501c3 tasked with building a national GWAT memorial in Washington DC. So everyone that's been to DC is familiar with the Vietnam War, world War II Memorial, world War I Memorial. So in 2015, the foundation was created by veterans and family members. I'm not one of the founders.
Speaker 2:They realize like there, well, there's nowhere. There's like, where do we go? We don't have the space in our nation's capital, because the reality is, I didn't write the policy that sent me to war, the mother of my children to war sent my son to war, sent you to war. I wasn't, wasn't the one that none of us were making those those strategic decisions in that city to send us. So it's like there's, there has to be that reminder, right? So they recognize that we needed a place to gather. You know, you just see what our future, or our previous veterans, how much healing and and they get right my father's Vietnam veteran. Look at the Vietnam veterans, look at the world war ii. People love to talk about the veteran, uh, or the honor flights that occur. You know last year's 80th anniversary, d-day. Look at all that. That's amazing. We don't have anything in this incredibly complex, difficult to define, multi-generational war.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to pause there for a minute and talk about the g1. It wasn't two wars people like which war are you talking about, afghanistan or Iraq? And then I'm like well, let me ask you this question Do you consider Operation Overlord, which is the named operation of the D-Day invasion, its own separate war? They're like no, that's ridiculous. Why would you do that? I go, yeah, well then, why are you considering Operation Enduring Freedom, iraqi Freedom, new Dawn and Haram Resolve, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera named operations that have been fought under the auspices of the GWAT by under the AUMF right Signed in 2001,. That has allowed our nation to fight terrorism globally.
Speaker 2:And here's something else people don't realize the GWAT Service Medal and Expeditionary Medal, right, that kind of defines this war. If you served in this war, you get one of those. The standards have changed over the years, but that's fine, that's normal. But the GWAT has been awarded in the Caribbean, south America, pacific Africa and, of course, where people would think about it. So when I say that to our community, they're like I go look, this is it. This is what it is. That's the global war on terrorism, yeah, and there's a tremendous amount of ignorance surrounding that in our community and those that didn't serve. So because of all of that. And then you throw in the fact that very few have actually stepped into that, right, so it's this very small percent of our population that people talk about sometimes, but in the city of DC, there's not really that big of a voice, and you know I think everyone who's listening and you understand this too you know what it's like to not have a voice. So I was like well, okay, I'm going to, I want to be involved in this. So they I was speaking at an event in 2016. They were there, the board members, and they're like Rod, can you help us? And they explained it to me and I was like absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I joined the board in in 2017, we introduced our first piece of the legislation to get in. Uh, they had to go through the house and senate pass a bill to get an exemption from a war, a law that says a war has to be over a period of 10 years before a national war memorial can be built. They wrote that law in 86. There's no way they forecast it would be where we are today. We introduced that um in early part of 2017. It swept through the house and senate and in august of 2017. It swept through the House and Senate and in August of 2017, president Trump signed that bill into law. That's when the small fledgling 501c3, with no money, they handed us the staff. They're like all right, figure it out. How do you build a national war memorial? How much do you know about the Commandments of Works Act of 86? How much does anyone know about the memorials and museums? Unless you do that, unless you built one or you're involved in that space, you don't know how to do it. After that happened, the board turned to me. They're like Rod, can you do it? And by sheer dumb force, gumping my way through life, I had met some pretty incredible people and I was like um, I'll try. I stepped in a leadership position shortly after that and built the foundation of what it is today. But then I'll add to that the, the, the.
Speaker 2:All memorials have been built outside of the national mall in 2003. They closed the mall. They said no mass right. There's been some stuff that were grandfathered in only because they had their site given prior to 2003. They were going to push this memorial in the fabric of the city, like the Eisenhower Memorial behind the Aerospace Museum, perhaps one of the greatest military mines our nation has ever created. His memorial is kind of off the beaten path and very little traffic.
Speaker 2:World War I Memorial amazing, I said God. It's such an amazing memorial in DC. It's in Pershing Park perhaps appropriately, but it's off by the White House and people just walk by it. I don't think people really understand what that is. The mall is where people go on, that space by the Lincoln, that thematic nexus, that area is what it is. So I was like well, I think it belongs there. They're like Rod, you can't build it there.
Speaker 2:I said, well, I passed another bill. If I go back to the House and Senate, we can do it. And they're like, rod, you can't. No one's been able to do it. It's not going to happen. People with a lot more money and a lot more influence have failed. You're not going to be successful.
Speaker 2:And then these are the people that control the space and it's not Capitol Hill, let me make that clear Various bureaucratic agencies. And I'm like but I can try, and if you want to get me to do something, tell me I can't do it. So we just 2019. And you know, a few years after that, president Biden signed my bill into law granting exemption to build a memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC the only time it's happened since 2003. So we're adjacent to the Lincoln, like right next to the Vietnam Memorial across that street, and so that's where the location is going to be built. So that's that's kind of what I do on a day-to-day basis. If you can imagine trying to build a giant war memorial to an incredibly complex, difficult to find, multi-generational war that very few people talk about or know about, on land you can't buy, with 20 layers of bureaucracy and politics, that's what I do.
Speaker 1:But, Rod, I mean it had to be you. And I want to go back to the very beginning as to why it had to be you and why it was you that was able to make it happen. Because all those years ago, that young boy that heard from his father do more, do more, it was always going to be you. Because for anybody else, all those reasons, any other person that wasn't a green braid, it didn't have the experience, that didn't grow up hearing that message of do more, they would have quit. They would have quit. It was always meant to be you, brother.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I do appreciate that. But I think my career as a special forces guy, whether I was speaking Spanish or butchering Portuguese or trying to communicate to Pashto and Dari, you know, and completely embarrassing myself, in Arabic, but I say that like we were trained to, you know, buy through with understand the local environment, understand the operational environment, right, you remember that. Try and go in there with okay, this is the mission. They think completely different from me. They grew up on another side of the, the world, completely different set of values, maybe somewhat similar, but still different. How do we come together to accomplish this mission together? Right, and you know, um, I think that doing that, as long as I did do it, prepared me for to do that, because when you go and speak to these people, um, in dc that control the space, you know it, you just communicate to them. I don't sell snake oil, I just present information and provide opportunities. And being able to do that and aligning everyone on a on a mission, even people that do not like each other do that. Sf guys do that all the time.
Speaker 2:I remember a mission in Bolivia. We were doing a J set. This was shortly after there was a military coup, but then it got squashed by the police. So then, right after that, we're there, half our class of military guys, half our class of police guys that were trying to kill each other Not that long ago and we're trying to get them together to understand how to do. You know, operations going after the cocos out there, right, yeah, just trying to do more planning. It was the craziest thing, but that happens quite often.
Speaker 2:Experiences like that as an SF guy doing my best along the way, not being perfect, just doing more, I think helped set me up for that, because I didn't take any emotions. People get pissed off at me or whatever. I'm like, okay, they have that right. I didn't get like, oh, you want to fight, okay, let's get into it. No, I didn't do that. I approached it, you know, just providing opportunities for them to do that, and it's I never engage One thing that I've done.
Speaker 2:So right after I stepped into the leadership position, I wrote the four tenets that guide the foundation Honor, honor all those that serve, heal the foundation. Honor, honor all those that serve, heal, whether that's provided people to heal individually, relationships as a nation, as a community. Honor, heal, empower, tell the stories. And the fourth one unite, remind everybody that we're still one nation. And I don't care where you grow up, you still think like an American we all take the same similarity. So, understanding that and going there and just bringing people together I talk about people.
Speaker 2:I don't engage in policy and politics. I get pulled in that direction all the time. Man, hey, what do you think Like? Look, man, I didn't write the policy. I'm not an elected official. I'm not the government, that's for sure. People think I am. We're not. This is all privately funded. We're not receiving any taxpayer dollars. So I'm not taking money from helping the VA. I'm not taking money that in programs that should help veterans, suicide or employment or any of that. No, this is what we do.
Speaker 2:And when I started working on this project, something that hit me square in the face was the fact when I would talk about it with the community, they're like Rod, we don't need that. Why are you doing that? That's silly. It was our own community, right, it was veterans and their families. And then I realized I'm like wait a minute. Okay, I think I know why they think this way. So I would ask them the question. I said look, why don't you think?
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this question Is there someone you know that didn't come home? Does their family deserve it? Is there someone you know that came home and is struggling and is because of what occurred or what they're facing or what they're dealing with? Do they deserve it? Is there someone that came home that lost the war at home, either at their own hands or some strange, mysterious illness they should never have received or got? Do they deserve it? Every single one of them are like hell, yeah, shit, yeah. They deserve it.
Speaker 2:I say, good, stop there.
Speaker 2:If you think about them, I'll think about you, because now I want to talk about the veterans and their families and those that choose to serve. That speaks to the nature of those amazing people who raise the right hand we all say the same words and serve a nation that will never know their name, following policies they never wrote, placing their lives on the line and running to the sound of that gunfire. People like that don't ever think that what they do is really worth a shit, like, well, I'm just an opportunity, I'm giving back, I'm doing, I'm doing my part, but they're not doing it for money. You know that. No suffering.
Speaker 2:Like I said, no one knows who the hell they are. So they diminish their service constantly. It's a shame you you referenced it a second ago. You'll talk to people oh, it was just this, I was just an artillery man, I was just no. Stop diminishing your service. Recognize howize, how special, how much this nation needs you. Make them realize that you know this is our nation's greatest asset are those that step forward to serve, fight and some of them die for us and their families that are supporting them.
Speaker 1:That's our greatest asset.
Speaker 2:So the mission, my goal for this is to make this nation take a knee in reverence and sanctity, to honor that, to share that with them, because I really do believe, and I feel very, very strongly about this that once our community, all those that have served in this incredibly complex, these two generations of warfighters right now, and their families, see that our nation is doing this, we will impart value onto them. And you know what someone with value won't do Is they won't kill themselves, they won't engage in destructive behaviors. You know I have value, I have something to give, I'm still worth it. That's been, you know, kind of the driving force behind this. You know I'm fortunate over the past couple of years with some significant donors that I now I have people, I have a staff. Now I have people.
Speaker 1:That it's not just me.
Speaker 2:It's not me juggling cats and chainsaws anymore.
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Speaker 2:But it's, it's, that's, that's what we do. You know, I'm really excited to share that. We're going to show what the design is going to look like here pretty soon Nice, yeah, here towards over by the end of this year. And it's one thing I failed to say is when I honor it, when I say honor all those that serve, I mean our sacred stakeholders are those in every came home, but it's not just the uniformed service members. The very first KIA was Johnny Michael Spann. Mike was working for the CIA Special Activity Division, part of Team Alpha. You know, I'm sure, like with you, I'd run on target with guys dressed like me, looking like me, carrying the same crap. I mean, we're in the military whether one of the agencies, three letters or some of the other supporting elements. Why don't we talk about them?
Speaker 2:It wasn't until 2019, department of Labor, because if you lose your life working for American company or supporting American initiatives, that data and that tracking of that falls under the Department of Labor. It wasn't until 2019. Department of Labor said hey look, we need to figure out how many people have been lost serving theater operations or in theater. Let's figure that out. Right, they didn't do this till 2019, as a matter of fact, no one even started tracking the data on a ratio of uniformed service members to non-uniformed service members, whether they work for the federal government or a government or a business or an agency. Well, they started early. Second final was was desert storm and that time, that point, it was like a 50 or 100 uniform to one non-uniform. Today that's one to one, one to two. It has been for the past 10 to 12 years. So that report, that Department of Labor, to the best of their knowledge. You know some stuff is still secret. They don't know. Not everybody reports everything right. Everybody knows we're over 7,000 uniformed service members. We've lost our lives. I guarantee I would be shocked if anybody that's watching this or knows that there are over 3,400 non-uniformed service members. Think about those families. Think about them for a second. No one even acknowledges that. There's a reason only 1% of our nation can defend the 99, because we have men and women who are not in uniform performing a wartime mission that was once performed by one of us. So we streamlined and adapted and become far more effective and lethal by how we engage in this war Again.
Speaker 2:I'm not here to speak about the policy behind it or why we did it. I'm talking about those that did it as a matter of fact. So, when it comes to design, which I referenced earlier, I created a design advisory council and we have Goldar family members. We have a chaplain, because spirituality is still part of this. We have an army chaplain. We have Golsar mothers, fathers, daughters, sons. We have active duty service members. We also have non-uniform veterans One of the FBI guys that was attached to my ODA. He's part of this design advisory council, as is Shannon Spann, the very first family to lose a loved one at the hands of the enemy. Shannon, she's on my design advisory council, as is Alex Hernandez that was team Alpha's team leader, and that's a guy like us at one point that went over to do all the cool stuff that he did Working through our design team are the ones that have been engaging and working on the design that we'll be sharing later, because I always wondered how many Vietnam veterans did Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam War, how many Vietnam veterans did she talk to Every other memorial, every other effort, every other museum? How those are designed is. They'll do a design competition and then a board will make a decision based off an individual or design team's interpretation of what this memorial museum should look like.
Speaker 2:As an artist myself, if I couldn't do it, people say you should have been a veteran. I said, no, I'm an expert in my family service. I know what it's like for me. I don't know what it's like for anybody else. If I was approached by a group of mothers and they said, rod, could you forge us something in steel on what it's like to give birth, I'd have a lot of questions. I've developed. I've delivered 20 babies right In third world countries and rotations here in the United States. I love to say that, but I still have a lot of questions that vessel their voice. So that's what we've been working on for the past year and a half, almost two years to ensure that the voice remember I said this earlier bringing the voice to this nation. That's what we've been working on and that's what we've been working on, and we'll be showing that again by the end of this year, being able to show what you have. But in addition to that, I'll add one more thing.
Speaker 2:As far as the voice, I started collecting data qualitative, quantitative data on what this memorial should look like, what people should feel in 2018. With limited resources, it was you know me, like a pendejo, running around the clipboard talking with veterans and family members and gold stars. A couple of years ago, when we finally started having some funding, I was like, hey, let's take this digital. It was a five to seven minute survey. We just took that data, put it digitally and let's push it out, let's see if we can get.
Speaker 2:My goal was to get all 50 states, every demographic of warfighters from World War II to today and every service. That was the goal. And five to seven minutes attention from anyone digitally is asking a lot right. It's usually 30 to 60 seconds is the average person's attention span. I am incredibly proud to say that we did succeed in getting all 50 states, people, respondents from all 50 states. We had every warfighter generation from World War II to today participate in that survey. Every service participated in that survey and we had 20,000 people fill that out. So I added that to the aggregate data I have and that was given to the design team so that voice is taken forward as well. So this is truly the America's Memorial, the strength of America's Memorial, and how we truly do respect and honor and love those, our greatest asset that we talked about a second ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're crushing it, brother. I can't thank you enough for what you guys are doing and I know this is going to be an attraction that so many of us are going to be proud to take our families to go there to remember our brothers or sisters and every service member that has, you know, given their life for our nation in a war that has taken a lot more from us and sadly continues to take some of the lives with suicide. But having that representation at our nation's capital, at one of the greatest sites, that's a lot of work and I cannot wait to see that in person. Man, if people want to connect and hear more about what's going on and stay up to date, where can they go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they can go to our website GWOTMF, global Warranty of the Memorial Foundationorg and then they can also find us on social medias Instagram, facebook and LinkedIn. We're pretty easy to find and X, of course. So just go in there. Ask people when they go to the website to sign up for our newsletter. I promise I'm not going to send you an email every week regurgitating the same information. I promise I won't do that. But we will keep you updated on the progress and give you a peek behind the curtain of like what's going on and how things are and how things are progressing, cause you know we're not keeping anything secret.
Speaker 2:It's just a matter of like trying to get, and a lot of people are like right, how come I haven't heard about it? I said, well, let me ask you this Like, with limited resources, I could do one of two things. I could have spent money on telling everybody hey, look what I'm doing, look what I'm doing or on the mission, and that's all I've been doing is focusing on the mission. The awareness piece will happen organically. It's already starting to occur. A lot more people are finding out about it, but I'm further down the road because I want to start saving these lives sooner than later.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. If you guys listening right now or watching on YouTube, do me a favor, go ahead and pause the episode. Go to the episode description, click on those links, sign up for the newsletter and do me a favor. Head on over to social media, subscribe and follow this amazing organization, and Michael as well, on LinkedIn. I'm telling you he will reply back as soon as possible. That man connected like that for me.
Speaker 1:Again, brother, I can't thank you enough for being here, for being on the mission you are and for being vulnerable enough to share your journey so that our brothers and sisters can benefit from it, because our suffering isn't unique and if we can, just for a brief moment, connect to that common humanity and let other people know that we're out there and you can recover and survive and thrive, we can inspire others to do the same. To all y'all listening, thank you so much for being here and for helping us get to where we're at right now. We are fucking growing a humble and just a moment of gratitude to everybody who's downloading, coming out and checking out the podcast. I didn't think that I would get to the point where I'm at right now, but, holy shit, you guys rallied around this show and it's continuing to grow. That's huge for me and I again thank you all there listening.
Speaker 1:Michael, thank you for being here, and to everybody else, please like, share, subscribe and we'll see you all next time. Till then, take care. Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head to the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today.
