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Jacek Waliszewski: From Afghanistan to Innovation – Healing the Veteran Brain

• Deny Caballero • Season 7 • Episode 370

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In this powerful episode, Deny Caballero sits down with Jacek Waliszewski—a former Green Beret, Oxford graduate, and founder of the Hero Protocol—to explore his transformation from bartender to elite soldier. Jacek shares what it was like to help close out U.S. operations in Afghanistan, the mental toll of combat, and the silent epidemic of traumatic brain injury (TBI). He opens up about his personal health battles, the development of cutting-edge brain health protocols, and his mission to support veteran mental health through innovation and education.

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SPEAKER_01:

Today, our podcast is proudly sponsored by ISTAR. Petition Moments group at your Liberty Lab. All right. Got to Volchevsky. How are you, brother? Wonderful. Thanks for having me on the show, Denny. Absolutely. It's great to have another warrant officer from the regiment that's doing big things on here. So today, man, we're going to dive into your story because you've got a lot of yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, no, it's it's been an amazing year. I'm actually, you know, on the tail end of my career, and to be able to turn around and transition uh in a really meaningful way is exciting. So happy beer.

SPEAKER_01:

Dude, 20 years. That is that is not easy. Not an easy task. Where did it all begin for you?

SPEAKER_00:

Um so I was a bartender in DC and meet a lot of really interesting people coming in and out, especially you know, right there by uh Reagan and and the Pentagon. And one day this guy comes in, he's clean shaven. I've already closed up the bar. Um comes in, he sits down, he's like, I want a steak and uh a bottle of wine. And I'm like, well, this kitchen's been closed for two hours, but this guy does he doesn't look like a guy that you mess with. And uh I gave him you know the best bottle of wine that I liked, and then I called uh the the uh steakhouse around the corner. I was friends with the manager. It's like, hey, can I get like a T-bone? Like this just she's like, Well, we kind of close our kitchen down. I was like, it's a personal favor, right? And so about 20 minutes later, the server comes over, drops off like silver platter, everything else. I give it to him. Uh he eats it, you know, we we fist bump, and then he just disappears. And about six months later, this guy shows up and he's pissed off. He's like dark as leather, he's got a big beard, and he's like, I'm like, oh shit, like this guy's gonna screw my bar up. I was like, Hey, okay, get you. Sorry, it's like the same damn steak and the same damn wine I got six months ago. I was like, Oh, you're the guy. And uh turns out he was a green beret, and we started talking. I was looking for a career change, and he was like, Hey, you know, go do the 18x-ray program, figure that out. And so 2006, I get in, and uh I mean uh blink, and it's 20 years already, man. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

It goes by that fast, man. It goes by that fast. But I think the most remarkable thing is very few of us have gotten an inside in-depth look at the G WAP from start to finish. And even though you weren't there at the very beginning, you were definitely there at the very end. Yeah, what was it like closing the doors on Afghanistan? Right?

SPEAKER_00:

I have the unique pleasure-honor responsibility. I just you gotta find the word there, of being on one of the last special forces teams out of Afghanistan. We closed out Helmand. We were the last Special Forces team out of Helmand, and one of the last special forces teams out of Afghanistan writ large. But if that wasn't enough, National Geographic was following us for a year. So they started filming us six months before the deployment and our uh pre-mission trainings, and then six months into and during the deployment, and so everything we did, everything we thought, everything we felt was absolutely caught on camera and interviewed. I think they had like 10,000 hours of film. And when we were there and Biden announced the withdrawal, uh, they're like, oh my god, like shit's about to get real. And so you get to see in the movie, it's called Retrograde, it got pulled because of a bit of controversy with the Taliban. They were actually using the film um to you know try to find some of the archives. Yeah, and so um the frustration with that is it's such a great film because it's true and it captures like the minute the country starts collapsing. It won three Emmys, so it's it's phenomenal. And having been there to witness it all, it's sort of like if you've ever been on a roller coaster, but on the very front, you know, you're you're going up and down, you're like, woo! But then Afghanistan kind of felt like you look back and you realize the entire roller coaster, to include all the cabins behind you, are on fire, and you're like, oh my god! And so you're looking around for cups of water and you're just throwing them back there, packing up stuff, blowing up stuff, getting in the plane. And then you're like, get out, this place is collapsing, and we don't want to be in it. But then the roller coaster keeps going and you're you're in it. Like, I mean, it's uh it took me months to get off that adrenaline eye and like really try to like stabilize afterwards. Because my phone was still blowing up day after day, thousand messages from guys we knew. And then it's surreal, you're going into Starbucks. I tell this story. I went into Starbucks, ordered a double shot espresso, and the guy's like, you know, Burst was like, Oh, yeah, how's your day going? I was like, Well, you know, I got back a week ago, Afghanistan's collapsing, and you know, I've kind of screwed up over it a little bit. And he's like, Oh, we're still in Afghanistan. I was like, you motherfucker. I was like, technically, we're not in Afghanistan anymore, but I'm glad it has no effect on your day. And then I looked at my phone, there's another thousand messages of guys being like, hey, you know, can you help us get this out? Abbey Gate, all these other coordinations. And uh I did have the unique pleasure, uh responsibility, not pleasure, um, of helping with a lot of other people that were helping to get some of the last guys through Abbey Gate right before they welded it shut. Like they were actually in the process of welding it when one of our guys came up, an operator got the text, stopped the guys from welding it, opened it, pulled the guys through and his family, closed it and rewelded it. Like that, I mean, to the minute, right? So I mean, there's there's and there's so many micro stories of that. And it wasn't just mine. There were thousands of people on text messages trying to help, reaching out, seeing if they could commandeer aircraft to fly him in whatever the options were. So yeah, all that in that movie, and then being there, you know, on the roller coasters, you're throwing water back, trying not to catch fire yourself. Uh, it's intense.

SPEAKER_01:

So you know, I I want to reflect on that for a little bit, man. Um, because a lot of our guys are are are living that they're they're juggling that. I remember intimately in the moment still being in and and seeing it fall apart, and that's a betrayal that a lot of us carry. But for you, you have you the unique experience of that moment and that time period being captured on camera. Yeah. Being filmed. Yeah. And you you can process something, you can go through it, and there's something to be said about exposure therapy. Having to re-watch that, or having family members, close friends that don't serve and they're watching it, reach back out and say, Whoa, bro, what was it like? And it's like, even right now, even this in this moment, yeah. Has it finally coalesced and come, you know, become a memory rather than a painful touch point?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, that's a beautiful question. Um, yes. So when I finally saw it, I was watching it, and it took me a minute to realize because I'm one of the primary guys, I'm known as Chief Jack in it, and got this big beard. And I'm watching it, and I'm like, oh wait, not only do I know that guy, that guy's me. And so the the the the separation started about a year or two into it. Um, because I was talking about this with my friends, like it's not normal to be filmed every day of your life for a year. And I was getting four hours of sleep, working, you know, crazy juggling acts. I remember those days. Right. And you don't remember everything, right? Like if you remember it, you remember highlights, but like, you know, Nat Geo's in there. They're they're filming the crap out of you. They're like, I mean, I was taking a shower once, and all of a sudden the shower curtain starts moving. I was like, no, you don't get to film this. I'm sure, I'm sure some of the ladies would have liked it, right? But like This is not only fans, Nat Geo. I'm kidding, Tade. So, you know, it's uh yeah, maybe that's uh the next career move. I don't know. But yeah, and sort of to rewatch it and see myself, because it is me, but to see myself in a different way. I'm a different human. And the term that I coined was called the metronome effect. You know, a metronome, when you play the piano, there's a little ticking box, and it picks up the the uh the speed of the sound or the rhythm. And for guys like me, I mean, I've been deployed 20 plus times in 18 operational years, excluding the cucks. And the speed at which you come back from you know war, combat, JSAT, JPAT, uh, advisory singletons, and then you're back in civilian world with you know your kids and going to the grocery store, and then back, and then forth, back and forth. And when that click time is less than 24, 48 hours, you take that shadow with you into civilian world, or you take that civilian world into the shadow world, that'll run numbers on you. I mean, I'm sure you know, you've been deployed too, and uh it takes a while to transition between the metronome effect, uh, but if it clicks too fast, it just becomes a blur, right? And so being able to sit back and watch the last six months of Afghanistan to fall apart, you know, on TV or at the movie theater was really interesting because I'm no longer there, but the experiences are still real, right? And so it's it'll probably always forever be a mind-roller coaster, but in in a really, really interesting way. Ask me in ask me again in 10 years and uh deal.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure I'll end up the spectrum. But you know, the the other thing too that we don't talk about either is um how can you love something so much but hate it at the same time? And and that's that's a reality for a lot of us. Like when we're home, it's practice. We want to be under Friday night lights, we want to be in the game. And I don't think people really understand it. Like, how can it, you know, you lose friends, you individuals are a family, you lose family. Yeah, but how can you love something so much and have so many fond memories of it and and and and still have to go get help for and still have to seek treatment for it? That's what and a lot of people don't understand the complexities of war. This episode is brought to you by Titan SARMS. Head on over to Titansarms.com and buy a stack today. Use my code CDny10 to get your first stack. I recommend the Lean Stack 2. Start living your best life. Titan SARMs. No junk, no bullshit, just results. It's it's we did romanticize it, but we also found the best version of ourselves. Like the absolute best. The analytical thinker, the guy that you could count on, the chief, the that moniker that means something. That means something. Team sergeant, captain. Like you take that, it becomes so near and dear to you. How do you move forward into the next chapter, into the next phase of your life, without having to wrestle with the ideas of like, no, no, no, that wasn't the best version. Or maybe those are just great qualities are still with me. I need to remember that as I move forward. How have you been able to tackle your transition?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh man. So this is a funny story. I was actually supposed to be retired a year ago. Yeah, no, no, I guess better, right? I'm not leaving. No, I I had my retirement packet in uh and it was going up the the chute. Retirement packet went in uh April 2024. December 2024, I get an email saying, Congratulations, you've been promoted. What are you doing to me? And uh so I pick up the phone. I'm not even happy at this point. I pick up the phone, I call my boss, and I'm like, hey, I just got a promotion email. Is this a joke? Like, what do you guys do? And they're like, oh shh, you know, like they they track it down. Apparently, my packet disappeared in HRC land. And so I was like, okay, like I'll take the promotion. It's a one-year ad so right to what I still had. I was like, I'll take the promotion. You know, I'll still figure things out. I'll still try, I'll give back to the army, but like I'm gonna re-retire and resubmit my retirement packet. Uh and so yeah, I did. But so it was a really interesting stop start, right? Because that already put me in the mindset to get out, right? I was already transitioning. I was on, I was on one last deployment. Uh you know, and when I got that email, that was my it was gonna be my final rodeo. And um, but yeah, so transitioning for me has been a really interesting stop start. Um, I went to Oxford uh last year, graduated from Oxford. Yeah, yeah. So you know, I've been in the transition mode for a couple years now, so now I'm re-re-in transition mode. And I'm getting to a point now where uh I'm I'm the the the adrenaline rush has finally subsided, and so I can reflect on the stories that I've had and the adventures that I've had, and I'll share it with friends and family. They look at me with this face, their mouth is usually open, and I'm like, is this a bad story? They're like, no, that's this is a fucking incredible story. I was like, oh, well, that was just another Tuesday, you know? And so letting that permeate out is is really healthy, right? Knowing that, yeah, to your earlier point, that's you you are versions of everything, right? And I think too many people get stuck on it's unhealthy to get stuck on, like, well, this one time when I made this bad joke or I made this bad tactical decision or you know, I did the wrong thing, that's who I am forever. It's like, no, that's just that's a that's a 0.001% of an example of your the rest of your life, right? You are this compilation of experiences to whatever age you are, and to make a judgment and a character assessment on something that was a one-minute or ten-minute or one hour kind of decision, like that's unfair to the person, but yeah, I've reflected on that too. It's like, no, I've made phenomenally amazing decisions, I've made phenomenally lucky decisions, and I've made very few, you know, tactical or or you know questionable situations that my intentions were accurate. Like I wanted to do the right thing, but circumstance, you know, wasn't negated. But that doesn't mean that I am that result, right? And so really taking the time to pause, take it, you know, to take a knee, right? And uh say, okay, who am I, where am I, what am I? Okay, yeah, things are fine. I'm gonna get through this. And really allowing yourself the grace to feel that that's key, and that has been key to my experience with moving through the past 20 years and into the exit. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Dude, uh you brought something up that I gotta dive into, man. Like, how did you get the opportunity to study at Oxford? That sounds insane.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, so literally um get back from Afghanistan in 21. Uh, the Eastern European Ukraine war kicks off in 22. I'm Polish. I speak Polish, Ukrainian, Russian. I got really busy all of a sudden. They're like, say, hey, we know we know that you just came out of uh uh Afghanistan. We know that the army literally puts you on a rodeo tour to like, I mean, I was at the uh the uh Zurich Film Festival to release this film, right? They or I mean let me pause there. They deployed me to Eastern Europe to deal with the Eastern Europe problem in 22, and then they're like, hey, by the way, the Zurich Film Festival's coming up. National Geographic wants you to be there tomorrow to Geneva, buy a suit, get on a plane, get going. I'm like, what the hell is going on? Like, what's going on here? So, like, you know, metronome, right? The metronome's kicking in. I buy a suit, I go to Geneva, I'm there for two days for the red carpet event, and then I fly right back to the problem. Well, in that window, like tucked into everything else that's going on, um, I was like, hey, you know, I'm gonna be retiring soon because I can't keep doing this um at this pace. And so I need to go to school. And so applied to Oxford because it's it's the top university in the world. Total crapshoot, but using the exact same mentality of uh uh why it became a Green Beret. I literally went to the recruiter and I was like, hey, uh I want an ATX-ray program. Oh and he's like, he's like, he shakes his head. I'm like, what? And he's like, I've sent seven. I was like, how many have made it? He's like, none. I was like, well, send me, I'll be your eighth. You know, I'll make it. I mean, he's the exact same logic for Oxford. And I was like, I'll start at the top and work my way down, right? Exactly. And I got and I got in. Uh and so I was like, I have to go to my commander. I was like, hey, I've got a problem. I accidentally got into Oxford for a graduate diploma in strategy and information. I don't know what to do. And yeah, I I love the commander at this. Yeah, he looks at me, he's like, you know, these are one of those opportunities that rarely ever happen. So congratulations, you're going. And I'm like, okay, so every quarter of the next year I flew to Oxford. They had a hybrid program. You know, you get all your classes up front, and then you do all your papers when you get back. And in between work and in between deployments, I was going getting my graduate diploma at Oxford of all places. And so, you know, if you don't take no as an answer, and you just say, I'm just gonna figure this out and apply the same special operations mentality to finding solutions of like, I don't have an answer, but I'll get one. And, you know, 99 times out of a hundred, it'll be the right answer. Um, yeah, graduated last summer, and it's been an amazing ride since. Wow. And what'd you study? Uh strategy and innovation. So which was yeah, really applicable to yeah, special operations because key some key core tenets are that an invention is just something new, but an innovation is an invention that's useful and executable. Because if it's not, if it's not executable, you've just created something, you've put energy into nothing, right? And so using that theory in special operations was amazing. Because you're like, oh, like why are we doing this if we can't execute it and if it's not new and if it's going to yield the same results? And so getting that one foot, you know, the civilian education, it's a business school too, uh at the Said Business School, but getting that and applying it to special operations techniques and problems and and and you know, moral ethical things and a behavioral organization. Like, oh my god, this is pain, this is amazing. Like, this is great. So I I loved it. Uh, brain was right riding at 180%, but uh it was it was the distraction I needed in that transition window.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh key word right there. We I just talked about it with um uh Alan Mack, uh great, you know, one ticketheist uh aviator, the distraction. It had a purpose, something to keep you focused, and often enough that can help us keep the wheels on and keep the keep the car on the road uh when it comes to mental health and and issues. Um we we need to remember that for some for a lot of people within our our community, just taking a knee at S3 probably isn't the best situation, especially if they're not plugged in, don't have the resources, or aren't willing. Sometimes we need to figure out an alternate way to get them plugged in, to get their mind right, to bring down the stress level, but uh keep a little bit of that stress. That is stress is a normal part of life. It's a great thing to understand that sometimes we need to give our guys a different challenge, give them the opportunity to flex a different muscle. And often enough that can help them de-escalate, kind of bring the throttle down and give them time to think and reflect. And that's something that the most success I've seen with our guys after deployments, after chaos, is not throwing them into a uh a closet and saying, hey, don't kill yourself. Yeah. Just saying, hey, we got a different opportunity. We have a different purpose, a different mission for you. This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task. And Dr. Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to Precision Wellness Group.com, enroll, and become a patient today. It'll give you time to go seek all these other appointments and see all these different providers, but you still got something to do. Right. I think that's a better approach.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, yeah. I mean, he's touched on something great, like uh, you know, if a guy gets injured, as using my you know, the 18 Delta first 10 years of my career uh advice, that's if a guy gets injured, you can take his M4 away, but give him his pistol so he still feels like he's in security, right? Yes, give him a purpose, other than just to sit there and like evaluate his injury and like because it is chaos, the chaos going around him. Like, like, you know, put a guy on the B team, right? Put him put him put him put him in another shop. Uh but yeah, no, you touched on give him purpose, even though he's you know, acknowledge that he's injured or or you know got a broken foot, right? Like, don't lie to him. Everybody we're we're smart enough to know. But you know, give him the ability to still be useful. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, absolutely. And I want to dive into this hero protocol. Oh, you're the this is the first time I'm announcing talking about this. So perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

Hell yeah. Like you, anybody that meets you instantly knows Chief is a fucking thinker. This man's smart. This man went to Oxford. This man is a brain. Like, I I would love to sit down with your first attachment commander. It's like, oh fuck, come on, this guy's my war. Yeah, so that's a fair. How do I stand out? You don't sit there and color.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh how do you dive into this world and take take on this challenge, man?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so I mean the Hero Protocol, which just came out this year in 25. So this isn't covered in the movie. This isn't covered, I don't talk about this like openly. 21, we're leaving, we're blowing things up left and right. Everything's on fire analogy. And there's so the EOD guys, and this is this is frustrating to talk about, but the EOD guys were you know blowing everything up because they were they're excited to do so. You gotta remember, these entire bases that were like 10,000 people huge are now down to an SF team and a couple enablers. So these EOD guys just got tasked with blow up anything everything sensitive, put it in a pile and go. And they were nice enough to put up in the big field. We limited them to about a 200-300-pound explosion because you have shockwave on that is legitimate. But they were in a rush and they started doing six uh thousand pounders, right? On top of the things that they were exploding. Damn. And I was like, okay, it's gonna be efficient. Uh but after the sixth one, I wake up in the front of the Mat V and the Hiroshima cloud is clearing. And I'm like, oh shit, I've just been knocked out for at least five, ten seconds. Easy. Right? And so I'm like, okay, that's fine. We got mission, we gotta drive on. Country's on fire, we're leaving. The next day I'm eating oatmeal. I'm eating it. I look down and it's like all on the table. I'm like, stupid oatmeal, what's wrong with who got this oatmeal? And I'm sitting there, I'm like, uh, dumb oatmeal. And then I'm like, wait a second. Wait, I'm smart, but I'm not that smart. Hold on. So I take another scoop and I put it in my mouth and I watch it just fall out of my mouth. And I'm like, and as an 18 Delta former, I was just like, oh, this isn't good. And so I was like like trying to cognitively make myself eat. And I realized my tongue wasn't working. So whatever that explosion was knocked out my tongue nerve. And I was like, you know what? I've had TBIs before, I've had concussions. This is a go away in two, three days. No big deal. Got mission to go, we gotta get out of here in two days, we're done. No problem. Didn't get better, didn't get better, didn't get better. And uh after we're evacuating, I actually am not in the movie anymore because my stutter. I had to stutter like like like you know, any Disney cartoon character could. I had headaches, I couldn't think clearly, my word salad was was on a slippery slope, traded, couldn't process information. And so I fade out into the movie, right, after we evacuate, and there's no after after interviews or after shows. So that was end of 21 and early 22, the army sits me down and says, Hey, like uh you haven't been coming to work. I was like, No, I was at work last week. They're like, no, that was three months ago. I was like, oh shit. I was like, time dilation, that's a real thing. But to me, a day was literally a week, could have been a month, could have been an hour. I couldn't tell time anymore. Like, whatever that internal clock you have, it's gone. Then I'm like, okay. And then I'm looking around, I'm like, well, I can't go to work because I don't have any gas in my car. Oh, because I forgot to fill it up. And I don't have anything to wear because I haven't done laundry, because it's been sitting in the laundry machine for or the washing machine for a month, and everything's molded. And I don't know where my socks are. I don't even know where my car keys are. And I realized at that point in a very self-reflective way that something was going wrong, really bad. And so I've self-volunteered to uh, I was like, hey, I have something going on. I don't know what it is. And they're like, good, go to the TBI clinic, get it figured out. So I get it figured out. Um, and then yeah, I'm talking to them, and they're doing all the vestibular things where they shake your head to try to get you to see the thing. I throw the nurse off me. I'm like, don't ever touch me again. Because it felt as if she'd put an axe in my head and was just doing this. Um, and she was like, Well, you know, I can't disvaluate your vestibular issue if you don't let me shake your head. I was like, No, no, I have a micray now. I'm gonna go throw up on the parking lot. And as I'm going, I bump into a door, and a couple days later I start falling downstairs because I couldn't proprioce stairs. And so yeah, I'm I'm holding a pl is plate plate of spaghetti. I'm halfway in the air, spaghetti's doing a crazy arc splattering, and I'm like, oh shit, this is gonna suck. Spaghetti on the face. And I'm just like, yeah, I like I I'm here I am with a really great career, great kids. Yeah, I was riding high, I was doing great, but now I'm laying on the bottom stair covered in spaghetti, back's all busted, and I'm just like, yeah, nothing's getting better. And so the neuroscientists there, they evaluated, they're like, oh yeah, like we found it. Like your processing speed on in your brain is minus 15 IQ points functional. So you're running Windows 95 at best, maybe DOS. And I was like, okay, why do I fall down the stairs? And they're like, oh, your vestibular nerve is shot. The thing that balances like when you spin on a on a swing, it's shot. I'm like, okay. And my my stutter, and they're like, shot. Like, okay, why can't I sleep at midnight? Why am I patrolling the house until three in the morning? They're like PTSD. I'm like, oh crap. And so these things keep stacking up, and I'm just like, why can't I go to work? They're like, well, high stress. I was like, okay. Anxiety, okay. I was like, all that, how do I fix it? And they look at me like, you don't. I'm like, what do you mean you don't? So they're like, well, you can't do vestibular therapy because you have migraine you throw up, so that's 100% uncurable. So they go through the whole list, and I'm like, and they're like, we sh because I can't shoot anymore. Yeah. Would get headaches. I can't jump because I can't risk another TBI. I can't remember anything at meetings, so I'm functionally useless. And word salad, which makes me stupid every time I talk. And I'm just like, mother effer. Like, what am I? What is what's going on? Finally, they were like, well, how about a medical discharge? Retirement, you're at like 17, 18 years. You know, you'll get something. I'm like, okay, let's consider that. But if I do get out, how do I get my brain back? Because right now I'm pretty sure I can't even work the floor at Home Depot. Yeah. Because I can't inventory. If I can't do my laundry, how am I going to inventory anything? And they're just like, Yeah, carry a notebook and hold the handrail when you go downstairs. And I'm just like, All right. So I negate that, I go home, pull out a big whiteboard, and I just start drawing all my symptoms. And I got like word sutter, word salad, this, I got that, I got shakes, I got, you know, I'm falling down, something's wrong with my nerves, adrenal issues. I mean, my whiteboard is covered. And I go to my 18 Delta roots, special forces medic roots, which, you know, they train you in synergistic medicine because you don't know what you're not going to have. Synergism means one plus one equals a bigger number than two. Uh because I'm not going to be able to, if I'm behind enemy lines, I'm not going to be able to call Walgreens and ask for a prescription, right? Helicopter's not going to give me anything. So I have to work with local meds, holistic meds. Um I mean, they I know how to wound pack with sugar, right, to prevent infections and to use maggots and everything else. I also know how to use Western medicine, but I also know how to use jungle medicine because I went to the jungle medical course, right? And so I'm like, okay, let's start at the basics, right? And this was probably the one of the most insulting things is when I went to the therapist, I was talk therapy, and I was pissed off. And she's like, Oh, you seem really pissed off. I was like, Yeah, I have every right to be pissed off. I'm running Windows 95, I can't walk, I can't turn left. I'm like Zoolander. I like can't turn left because my head will spit. Um, I'm like, I have every right to be pissed off. And she's like, Well, how about some antidepression medicine? So I was like, so that I'm not aware of the fact that I'm not supposed to be pissed off at being injured? And she's like, she's like, that's the best we can do. I was like, that's not gonna work for her. And so this whole theory goes through and finally we'll whiteboard it. And I remember something really interesting that happened during my clinical rotations in Tampa General. Back in uh We're working the coma ward, uh, innovating patients back in the day. And I was talking to the doc, and I was like, hey, what what do you do for these people, for the brains? Because basically getting concussed, getting knocked out, and being in a coma, they're just a scale of the same kind of injury, right? And doc's like, well, it's not official because there's no FDA studies on it, so I can't prescribe it. But I encourage um the families to recommend 10 grams of omega-3s a day.

SPEAKER_01:

This episode is brought to you by Pure Liberty Labs. Quality supplements designed to elevate your health and performance. Check out their full line of quality supplements, whether you're looking for whey protein, pre-workout, creatine, or super greens drink. Pure Liberty Labs has you covered. Use my code security hall10 at checkout today.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm just like, okay, why? He's like, well, I don't he's like, I don't know. It's got like an neuroinflammatory property, probably. But at seven to ten days, they pop out of their comas, the ones that can. But like, that math isn't accidental, right? Mind you, I'm like sitting on a whiteboard. And so I did the math and I tried to track down the etiology. Your brain, your brain, my brain, is comprised of about 60 to 70 grams of phospholipids, omega-3s. And so I'm like, hold on. So I start just pounding omega-3s, right? And after I've been told that I'm getting medically uh uh kicked out of the army. And um I'm average, don't do 10 grams of omega-3s a day, it'll give you the shits. But yeah, it will. It will. But so I yeah, I found that I like two two grams, two grams is enough, and my brain started feeling a little better, right? Two grams a day. Because after 30 days, you hit basically 60 to 70 grams, which is the amount of phospholipids in your brain. So you're almost my theory was not practical, right? I'm not a doctor, trained uh a little bit, is if I could do an oil change for my brain every month, maybe my damaged brain could like, you know, slough off some of the things, right? And so, you know, then uh buddy, uh my cousin's wife is a CEO for a mushroom pharmaceutical company. And I'm like, hey, like, how would you holistically handle this issue? She's like, Well, yeah, we just start talking, and she points out the fact that I've spent an entire career waking up getting ready to go at nine at night, you know, having an adrenal event at midnight, and then staying up till six in the morning, right? Like a career's worth. That doesn't just go away. And I'm like, okay, how would I holistically capture or interrupt the adrenaline cycle and the cortisol cycle? So she gave me a mushroom uh blend idea, and so I just started experimenting with it, right? And I was like, okay, so now I got my omegas going, now I got my mushrooms trying to interrupt my adrenal kind of kind of uh issues, so I can actually get sleep. Um and then the more I started researching uh NMN, NR, NAD, which are mitochondrial uh building blocks, and if you think about it, it's like 93 gasoline, 99 gasoline for your car, right? But if you get injured, your spark plug start get starts firing poorly, and so it can't burn cleanly. And your mitochondria start their powerhouse of the cell, but if they're not working cleanly, then their output is garbage, and then the cell is suffering from a garbage overload. So I was like, okay, so I need to start experimenting with NAD and NMN and all these others, trying to find the perfect ratio, multivitables, etc. And I started taking these things that day. It's like a six-pill cocktail. And they're all, you know, uh supplements. I I boiled them down to the purest form, or not literally boiled, I I narrowed them down to the purest form. I'm making them in my bathtub.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00:

None of that. Uh clean clean distribution shells. I started taking them in the morning and I'd feel better for about an hour, but like the rest of the week was garbage. And I was like, and so the multivitamin I was taking would upset my stomach, right? And I was like, I don't like that like upset stomach feeling. I'm just gonna take them at night so that if I get an upset stomach, I'll be asleep. So I started taking them about an hour before I went to bed. I woke up the next day. And have you ever seen that Bradley Cooper movie uh where you Limitless? Yeah, and like the the camera literally gets clearer and he's like smarter and everything else. I got that for five minutes. And I was like, oh shit, something happened. I don't know what happened, but something happened. The next day, 10 minutes, the next day, an hour, the next day, a couple hours. I wake up on the seventh day, I was like, holy shit, I just had a dream. And it was amazing. And I haven't had a dream in five years. And I was like, Oh shit, what's happening? And then so I started talking to my sister, who's doing her PhD. Like, hey, this weird thing happened on my formula. Like, I'm just experimenting, I'm making sure I'm checking in with you, making sure I'm not like having a seizure here in like 30 minutes. But like, why would this happen if I started taking everything at night? And she's super smart, she's been effing genius. She scored a perfect 1600 on her SATs, she's got a uh PhD. And she's like, you know, and she goes back into her like Rolodex of brain files, and she's like, I bet you activated your glimphatic system. I was like, what the f is in glimphatic system? She's like, they just discovered it in 2012. It's little tubes that are in your brain, and they only activate at night and they pull out all the waste from the deck. The waste, yeah. But they need REM cycle to kick in. So if you don't go to sleep, your little garbage men and garbage trucks don't actually clean out the waste.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, right? Dude, we were just talking about this. I had a sleep expert. Uh shout out to you, Dr. Le Kayla. The only time our brain has a chance to remove its waste is when we sleep.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. And so, in a traumatized brain that I had full of scar tissue damage, uh oxidants, I'm like, oh my god, this totally makes sense. And so I started taking it day after day, or night after night, uh, narrowed it down to about an hour before bed. And three months later, I stop at work, and I'm like, I look behind me, I was like, that was a set of stairs. And I didn't fall down them. I was like, what the hell just happened? That's the first set of stairs I haven't fallen down in months.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

Or like hold the rail like an old lady. Like it's it's it's humble, humbly terrifying, right? And so I go back and in uh April of 23, I get all my labs redone, I get all my balance tests redone, I get my IQ score retested. My IQ processing speed, Windows 95 DOS, is now 15 points higher, right? So like when we think about this, I had a 15-point IQ speed increase in six bucks. My vestibular nerve regrew uh to 70% above function, right? So not only was I my baseline was like in the 30s, 40s, I shot up into the 70s, where the normal average is like 55. So I was above the normal human baseline, but almost 70% higher than my original uh injury uh score. Uh stutter was gone. That was amazing. They pointed that out. Headaches, spy grains, none. And I was like, oh my god, like I think I cracked some code. I don't know what I cracked, but I cracked something. And so uh I reached out, you know, I I basically I patented it. I was like, I got nothing else to do. I'm patent the shit out of this. And then I reached out to some friends who 18 Charlie's guys who have been around a bunch of explosions, two-star general that I know, who's had migraines for his whole life. I was like, hey, like, I need you to trust me on something. I'm gonna send you protocol, try it for a month. Tell me what you think, right? I'm not gonna tell you my results, I just want your results. And because I have such good relations with these guys, they were like, okay, we'll try it only for you, though. We're not gonna try like your experiment, any experimental anything else from anybody else. And a month later, the two-star general calls back and he's like, you know? He's like, I don't believe it, but all my migraines are gone. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, he's like, he was on the protocol for two weeks, couldn't believe it because his migraines disappeared. So he went off of it for a week, his migraines came back. He went back on it, his migraines have gone. He's been on it for 10 months. He's had four migraines when before he was in 10 months, mild, when before he was getting two, three uh like career stopping migraines a week. Um, he's getting the best sleep of his life, uh, his words. And so I'm like, this is amazing. So then I call my my 18 Charlie buddy. I'm like, hey, how are things going for you? He's like, my stress levels are gone. I'm sleeping, I'm not ailing at my kids. Um, I'm like, oh shit, I'm this is working for other people than just me. Yeah. Right? Um, so I just ran a market survey with uh 10 guys. I'm waiting on one of them to respond. And they're doing the NSI value, uh, the neurological symptomatic inventory. It's like a chart of like 22 options, zero to four, and you label it. Um everybody had, I'll have to reference the numbers again. Uh I'm I'm compiling them up right now. Everybody had within 30 days like a 20-point drop, which is insane because normally to be considered successful treatment, it's an eight-point drop in a year. They were getting 20-point average drops in their symptoms in less than 30 days. And one master sergeant who I know well, uh, he's done all the therapies, he's done all the you know outside clinics, he's done all the uh everything else, and he writes me back and he's like, Hey, in the past three weeks have been the best three weeks of my life compared to the past. He got medically discharged because he couldn't manage it. Yeah, and he's like, the past five years have been garbage and terrible for me, but the past he's like, I'm sleeping, I'm dreaming, and I'm feeling better. He's like, those alone are amazing. So, yeah, yeah. So it's surreal to me. It's like I don't believe it, but it's happening, and other people are telling me that's happening, and it's it's an insane opportunity right now.

SPEAKER_01:

This is remarkable. Like I said earlier, this is a signature injury of our G Watt era. And every and and I I blog about this, I write about this, I produce another podcast just about this, which I gotta get you on there. Uh Broken Brain. Shout out the broken brains of Bruce Parkman. Gotta get you on there so we can talk in in just ad nauseum about the subject. But the thing that people aren't aren't talking about is that this expands out, yes, our community, and this is why we need to study our community because it's small, it's a very small community. If you just focus on the 18 Charlies alone, you can see how bad the exposure is. Yeah. No shit. I I I know 18 Charlie's out there with tremors. I know 18 Charlie's out there that are suffering because of blast impact and blast exposure, repeated head impacts. It's a real issue within our community. It's and it's a silent issue because only they and their families suffer. No one else suffers. And when we go through it, when we experience it, I didn't get shot. I'm not missing a limb. Yeah. Yet everything that you're talking about is what led to me leaving the military. Everything. Absolutely everything. I went to, I had to go to two treatment centers. And while Laurel Ridge did save my life because I was suicidal, it didn't help me with anything except for taking down the stress level. I had to go to the STAR program. It's a shame that individuals are going through this and they're not given the opportunity to go to PrEP in Tampa or the STAR program in Richmond, Virginia, where all of this can be diagnosed and treated. On the back end, too, what's absolutely, absolutely betrayal to our community and every other combat MOS is experiencing the same issues, our mortarmen, our artillerymen, our combat engineers, the absolute betrayal. When you go through the VA pipeline, for a vast majority of us, about 90%, you're going to get given a rating of PTSD, a high rating of PTSD. And then if you get medically retired, they're going to reevaluate you. And the here's the here's the kicker. Here's the absolute kicker. They will find ways to pivot and shift to not tie it to traumatic brain injury. Why? Because PTSD can stabilize. You can overcome it. You can fight back today and get a hold of it. You can deal with anxiety. You can learn to understand stress and you can beat depression. Traumatic brain injury, you have to be lucky and fortunate enough to have individuals like Mark Gordon in your fucking background to come in and help you with this. You have to be really lucky and fortunate to have, you know, individuals such as yourself that are creating these awesome new supplements, our nutritional, uh uh, not pharmaceutical uh solutions. And you have to put in a little bit of work and you can overcome this. But it's just such a strong betrayal to our community when our own VA system doesn't acknowledge it for our guys and says that's just PTSD because the core, and I'll put the Venn diagram up. It's about occurring issues.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I can they admit it, right? It would bankrupt the system if they admitted it. Exactly. There's an engineer in Bangladesh that created an AI program for his company. It worked so well, the very next Monday, the CEO fired everybody to include the engineer, right? Like that's exactly what would happen to the VA if I said, Oh, yeah, we should start treating it for TBS. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's one of those things where if you're if we're good enough to create a pipeline to get us through and 100% assure that we are the absolute best individuals to be in the job, you should include a pipeline on the way out that honestly treats us and gives us the right ratings. It breaks my heart every time I talk to a brother that's dealing with this and has been undiagnosed and just thinks that it's PTSD.

SPEAKER_00:

That's not. I've worked with um Dr. Freeb with the operator syndrome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Chris, amazing individual. Yeah. There's two doctors I want to highlight before we wrap this up. Yeah Dr. Chris Free, Operator Syndrome. That man, I mean, I was a dog shit hobby podcast, and he he came on the show and helped break it down. Um, what, when I first started in 2020, 2021, and then came back on to talk about it some more. And Dr. Mark Gordon, uh, he's been on Joe Rogan. Again, has no business reaching through the through and being on here, but uh uh it I am fortunate and blessed to have these individuals that are willing to come on this show and willing to go on uh every other podcast to advocate for you, not just a soft community. Yeah, I get we get a lot of resources, and I I don't want you to be turned off by that, but this is for you, mortarmen, artillerymen, fucking combat engineer, infantryman, paratrooper. This product is for you too. Because jumping out of a plane and knocking yourself out over and over away. It's a real experience. It's a real thing. Manning that 60 or 80 millimeter over and over and over again, this is for you. Um and and is it out in the market yet or is it soon to be out in the market?

SPEAKER_00:

So it's out on the market, it's theheroprotocol.com. But um, yeah, I have a moral ethical frustration because I'm still still trained as an 18 Delta special forces medic, right? I will put my life in front of bullets uh to save somebody else's life, right? And right now, like you said, we have a population that's completely injured, silently injured. It's them and their family that are suffering. So I'm willing to do an ex you know, an exchange really. Uh if anybody reaches out to me on at info at theheroprotopol.com, um, give me your address, I'll send you a free one-month sample. And you know, all I ask for in return is you take an uh a day zero survey and a day thirty survey, right? On the NSI scale, two surveys, so that I can track their symptoms. But yeah, I will give them uh I'll mail it out. I have about 200, 300 protocols left. And so the first two, 300 people that reach out, I'll gladly send it out to for free. I'll pay for shipping. Um, but uh yeah, I want to give back to the community in this way too.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Well, good thing for you that I'm plugged in with the Special Forces Foundation. If you enjoy their memes and their quality social media presence, it's me. I'm the guy. You're the guy? I'll be the guy. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. Um I love my community. I love this regiment, but I love my paratroopers, my artillerymen. I love all of you, every last one of you. And this country is not going to get better without you in it. Um more often than not, the things are leaning us towards the idea of suicide and the ideation is neural inflammation, or issues that can be solved by nutritional supplementation, by great products. So if we have 200 to 300, let's max this the fuck out. If you uh uh once this airs, right here, here it is, right here, contact me, I'll put you in contact, or just email right here. Send an email, make it happen. Let's do this. 200 to 300 of you. How many of you can we get in there? I'm gonna DM you personally. Uh uh, if I know you, uh all my meme homies, you're everybody in the meme space with me deserves this because at the end of the day, they're there's still active duty. A lot of the guys are running these meme pages that I love and support. You know who you are, minimum safe distance, beautiful bastard. You guys are suffering. You deserve to have this in your fucking toolkit. Be willing to just reach out on an email and get this product and do the simple survey from day one to 30. Uh, give this information back because it'll help our guy put together a better product and put the research out there. Are you trying to run any uh are you uh what what's next? What's on the docket for the hero protocol?

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So I I have 10 guys on it now. Results are through the roof. Uh for it to be statistically relevant. I need 100. Right? That's when the medical community is like, hey, this is this is something new. Because you got to think about this. Pencil and the eraser existed side by side for 300 years before somebody put the eraser on the pencil. And everybody's like, why would you not have the eraser on the pencil? So for this to work and to work within 30 days, 60 days, um, the general who's been on there for on it for 10 months, he went from a score of high 30s to for the past six months, he's been in the low teens on the NSI scale. Um, so it's a quick 30 uh day survey, but the results are fast. So I want to, you know, literally start healing brains, uh encompassing the 18 delta ethos. And then I can't say healing brains, sorry, that's an FTC violation. Uh helping people help return to what feels normal to them, right, based off nutritional supplementation. Um, don't get me in trouble. Uh we'll edit that out. Yeah, yeah, thanks. Um but you know, if it turns heads, if it starts actually solving people's problems, I would love for somebody bigger to come in and grant money, do the research on it. Uh you know, ask Dr. Free or any of your homies to say, hey, what can you do with this? Does the World Wounded Warrior Foundation or SFA want to buy, you know, sell them a discount, a hundred of them, give them to guys who do need it, right? That's a that's an early Christmas gift. As long as the end result is that people are getting better, I'm happy to do every line of effort to get there.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, brother, let's make it happen. Uh I'm excited. Yeah. I I I once this airs, I want all you guys to go hit them up, get it, try it, uh, be part of this. You deserve it. And uh, our brothers and sisters deserve more innovation. It I can't thank you enough for being here today, brother, and for sharing your journey. And like I said, I'm bringing you on broken brains because this message, this innovation has to get out there. To all y'all listening and out there, you're not alone. Reach out. If you need support, if you need information, hit us up, psychopodcast gmail.com or one more time. Don't send me any more fucking nudes. 850-376-8101. I will answer. If you send me something fucking ludicrous, I will put you on blast. I'll put it out there. But stop suffering in silence today. Reach out. Get help. You deserve it. If you're a Green Beret, if you need assistance, hit up the Special Forces Foundation. We're more than just memes. We're real help, real people. Cody Half Pop will be there for you. I'll be there for you. Or anybody else from the organization, but reach out today. You're not alone. Again, thank you, brother, for being here. Thank you guys for tuning in, and we'll see you all next time. Till then, take care.

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Deny Caballero

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