Jocko Podcast 171 w/ Matthew Bradford: No Legs, No Vision, No Problem.

2019-04-04T04:04:44Z

Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @bionikmatt5 @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:03:23 - Matthew Bradford. Life, service, and Inspiration. 1:26:19 - Final thoughts and take-aways. 1:31:14 - Support: How to Stay on THE PATH. JOCKO STORE Apparel: https://www.jockostore.com/collection... All Supplements: https://originmaine.com/origin-usa/nu... Origin Gis: https://originmaine.com/origin-usa/bj... Onnit Stuff: http://www.onnit.com/jocko Jocko White Tea: http://www.jockotea.com 2:01:35 - Closing Gratitude.

AI summary of episode

and I always always told him like when he told me that I was like I felt like my legs were like a lizard's tail you know it's like they're grow back like you see it on the news all the time what you've never expected to happen to yourself and here I am I didn't care nothing about the vision I just wanted my legs back because it was it was tough those first two or three weeks after I get out of ICU like I wouldn't eat nothing I was so skinny I could barely lift my head up off the bed and the hospital banned that they gave me would go all the way up to my my bicep pretty much because I just wouldn't want to eat I wanted to die like the nurses hated me like one of the nurses coming like two in the morning I finally got some sleep and she kept poking me around with the needle you blew your ACL that was like since I really did blow my ACL 10 to 12 to land like 15 years earlier my other site I knew that my knees were loose because the gut the doctor at that time was like hey you have really like I don't know long legaments I don't know I know that sounds funny like long legaments I know and we would I mean we would literally patrol them down the streets at K-bay Kanye O'Bay Hawaii and they had a couple old barracks that we'd work mounts you know we do mount training with and with simmerounds and you know we do we do what it bellows which was like a little air force base that they were starting to create like a mount town and that's when we did a lot of our training and kind of our field work and now at this point are you starting to think and you got guys that are just coming back from Afghanistan are you starting to think like okay now I really need to start paying attention the reason I'm asking you these questions is because I'm trying to relate you know when I joined the navy it was 1990 there was like I guess the Gulf War was kind of on the horizon and it's uh so it's like I work out as much as I possibly came because it's like I never know what you know this organization I do a lot of events with like sometimes I'll just call me up like hey you want to do a Spartan race in two weeks it's like oh sure you know I didn't want my life to you know revert back to pain pills and just you know I feel a little bit of pain then then I'm going to go like go take a pill and you know I replace that with Stan Busy staying active going to the gym working out and and it really helped out a lot I didn't just you know if I felt like I got pain then I'm gonna go give it some pain you know but you know like last year I climbed out right here or half a half a mountain here and this year I'm going to go out and sum it up hopefully in July so I just uh anything I can do to really like challenge myself and always I always tell my prosthesis and like any like I got the X3 on my left leg which is like the best of the best and I'm like my goal in life is to break this leg and you know the Marine Corps you know it's the joining the Marine Corps in 2004 was the greatest decision in my life for the reasons like this right now because it was the Marine Corps that was there each and every day in my hospital room talking to me and helping me understand that this road that I'm getting ready to go down you know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and not only talking about my deployment or talking about the Marine Corps but just talking about life and coming in there joking around with me and because you know looking back on it now like I'm truly fortunate and blessed to be here today because the amount of blood I lost was a body's worth of blood my left leg was taken from me I have a piece of my small intestines taken out you know shred no winter both my eyes but he doesn't look the way he sounds Matt's like oh good cool thanks because otherwise he you know he might have said something like you know maybe if you're trying to put on weight like maybe echo needs to all right just by sound like you maybe need to do some squats when I was in the hospital I had like a color every time I would make fun of somebody then they would be in the room and I love it you know it's just this is what I've been given and I might as well accept it and move on you know improvise something that we're always learning the Marine Corps and you know when I when I do speak in engagements I focus on a lot of things in the Marine Corps that I learned like a depth and overcome and you know the next one is lead by example which you know a lot about I'm sure and then the next one's never quit and through it all through those three attitude is everything if you walk into any situation with the positive attitude that's the first step to success if you think about something negatively then you're never going to accomplish anything so when I was laying in that hospital bed there was no negative thoughts you know oh you're gonna get your big goal you know you got your big goal in the future but what you have to do is you have to set up these little goals along the way to get you there at that point in the right direction so your big goal is you wanted to stay in the Marine Corps be able to read less than order to be able to do that you had to be able to walk you had to be able to function and so you just had to fight through these little things every single day to make progress and it's funny because you know the way I've honestly described this before is like it's like shooting when you're looking you know you got your target that's far off in the distance 400 meters away if you stare at that thing your vision's gonna get blurry and and I think and it really um it made the trip as we were flying back home we were going over Iceland and the pilot brought back this little letter and he gave me to my buddy and my buddy right at two minutes said US forces have killed us on bin Laden and I was like you know what that's the perfect closure to a closure trip because like we all joined the military after 2001 to go after him you know to kill him and and knowing that this happened on my closure trip it's like it honestly like gave me it got me emotional they just get down in the dumps and they give up and really it's like you got to learn to battle through those adversities and you know at the end of the day when you put your head down the pillow and close your eyes you wake up to a new day you know and a new day with new challenges but you got to learn to overcome those challenges because in life it's a mountain you're going to continue to climb up a mountain and it's never going to flatten out you're constantly going to go over any you know obstacles, boulders, whatever's in your way and the only way to go over is to climb it it's not to find an easy way around or turn around and quit you know and you know once we left Alessad we took we flew up to the hath ditha dam and mill the night say they're overnight we started loading our mags and we got in a big convoy and we drove into a hath ditha and it was I mean you just like you hear the stories of hath ditha from three three and then when three one went through there stint before and and it's just while while west and again you only see it on TV you never expect to be walking the same streets and you know this stuff going on but you know the first time we went out on patrol it was it was nerve wracking it was like it's like you do this in training so much you know we do some case work with veterans but truly it's just getting out of the district and being around veterans and kind of letting them know what kind of legislative bills are out there that could affect them both positive and negatively I mean there's so much out there that they need to know about and it's been truly a joy you know getting it will work with a lot of Vietnam veterans and you know these are some of the happiest guys that I've ever met my life for what they had to go through you know and you know through it's like you know through it's like each year I try to find something new to do and for some weird reason this year I was like I've got on the stationary bike because my goal is to in July I'm going to bike from Seattle to Portland it's like a 203 mile two day event and it this picture starts to get uh kind of painted in my head when I hear like these cool stories so like I don't know you know like if you're uh it's gonna be a bad analogy but bear with we all know you're good but he went up to her and gave her a birthday he invited her to his birthday and it like he come home and told me in a man to that and that truly brought tears to our eyes because it's like they get it you know when I was their age if I saw a kid that was in you know a special wedge class I didn't walk up and try to talk to him you know I felt like they were different than me and I say to away from that

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jocopontcast number 171.
[00:00:04] With echo Charles and me, Jocco Willink.
[00:00:07] Good evening, echo.
[00:00:08] Good evening.
[00:00:11] I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States
[00:00:19] against all enemies foreign and domestic.
[00:00:23] That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will obey the orders
[00:00:28] of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,
[00:00:34] according to the regulations and the uniform code of military justice.
[00:00:39] So help me, God.
[00:00:44] And that is the oath of enlistment that is made by every US military member.
[00:00:55] In the other day, I was at a charity event for America's mighty warriors, which is an organization
[00:01:02] that was created by Mrs. Debbie Mamale, the mother of Mark Lee, from Task Unit
[00:01:12] Bruser, who was the first seal killed in action in Iraq, and it was a great event.
[00:01:19] It was an honor to be there, and I spent some time answering questions from some of the people
[00:01:26] that had come out to the event.
[00:01:27] And one of the individuals asked a question about the fact that he had served in the Marines
[00:01:35] during the 90s, during a time of peace.
[00:01:41] And he didn't go into combat and he didn't go to war.
[00:01:44] And he actually felt guilty about that.
[00:01:47] He felt that he hadn't done enough.
[00:01:49] And I told him the truth and the truth is that he had done what his country had asked him to do.
[00:01:57] That's what he had done.
[00:01:58] And if the country had needed him to give more, then he would have given more.
[00:02:04] That is what the oath of enlistment is.
[00:02:07] And it's one of if not the most powerful oath that a person can give,
[00:02:15] because when you take that oath, if you take that oath, you are putting your country above all else.
[00:02:25] Above your family, above your future, above your life, above yourself.
[00:02:32] And with that oath, when you take that oath, if your country needs you to sacrifice, you will sacrifice.
[00:02:40] And if the country needs your time, you will give it your time.
[00:02:44] And if it needs even more than that, then you will give it even more.
[00:02:48] And the good soldier, sailor, airman, or marine, the service men and women who defend this nation.
[00:03:00] They will sacrifice, and they will give until they have nothing left.
[00:03:08] And it is my honor tonight to have someone on the podcast that has sacrificed incredibly for our great nation.
[00:03:17] And yet his attitude remains completely unwavering.
[00:03:23] He drives on and sets an example for everyone.
[00:03:30] An example of pure fortitude and tenacity, and one that fully represents the motto of the hollowed brotherhood.
[00:03:41] He will always be a part of.
[00:03:44] And that's the United States Marine Corps and their proud Maxim Semperfidelis always faithful.
[00:03:52] I've been working to make this podcast happen for a long time and tonight I am grateful to have this hero with us.
[00:04:01] A man by the name of Matthew Bradford.
[00:04:05] Matt, welcome to the show.
[00:04:08] Thanks for having me on, Jocco.
[00:04:10] This is something else to be sitting in front of you right now because it's been a lot of remarkable people that's been on this podcast.
[00:04:16] And it's a true honor to be here in front of you and echo and get the chance to meet you all.
[00:04:20] Yeah, and I know we've been working on making this happen for a while.
[00:04:24] So I'm glad we finally were able to get you and your family on a plane flown out here where we can, when we can sit down and talk for a little bit.
[00:04:32] And then you can get back with your family and go have some good dimes.
[00:04:35] Go swim in the pool and spend the week at the happiest place on our.
[00:04:40] Yes indeed.
[00:04:41] And it sounds like you're going to have good temperatures are giving you a little heads up.
[00:04:44] It can be a little warm here in Anheim.
[00:04:46] If you're not careful, come out here in the summertime.
[00:04:50] You, uh, you'll you'll get baked out there in the in the in the in the Disney land.
[00:04:56] My, my pacey white skin and I'm hard head.
[00:05:00] So I don't like putting sunscreen on.
[00:05:02] So I learned the hard way.
[00:05:04] Yeah, well, if we guys be all right.
[00:05:06] Um, all right.
[00:05:07] So let's just go.
[00:05:08] Let's go to the beginning growing up.
[00:05:10] What that was like growing up in in Kentucky, in Virginia.
[00:05:14] What was that all about?
[00:05:16] Yes, I was born in Petersburg, Virginia.
[00:05:18] My dad, he worked at Fort Lee at the defense commissary agency.
[00:05:22] And, you know, in early age, my parents got divorced.
[00:05:25] So I moved to live with my mom in Kentucky, where all of my family's from.
[00:05:28] And even today when people ask me where I'm from, Kentucky is just easiest answer.
[00:05:33] And, you know, throughout my childhood, like we moved so much.
[00:05:37] I learned a lot because my mom, she worked paycheck to paycheck.
[00:05:41] So I learned a lot about, you know, how to appreciate things and to be thankful for things
[00:05:46] and not expect the bigger things.
[00:05:49] And, you know, through this, I learned to just go outside and view it with my friends
[00:05:54] and never expect, you know, a big Christmas or, but I knew one thing from my mom and from my set dad
[00:06:00] and even my family around me, the one thing they showed me in the rest of our, was love.
[00:06:06] And it taught me a lot about life at an early age.
[00:06:10] And, you know, it's through all the moving around, but, you know, in Kentucky, the one thing with Kentucky is they have a lot of, they're drug problems.
[00:06:19] So it's getting out and playing sports and getting away from that helped out a lot.
[00:06:24] And, you know, all of this happened in 2001.
[00:06:27] And, that's when I realized it was a ninth grade in, as a freshman in high school, as when I felt like it was my purpose to serve this country in the military,
[00:06:35] even though I was a freshman in high school.
[00:06:37] So, in their watching, you know, the terrorist attacks go on in New York City and the Pentagon.
[00:06:43] And, I felt like it was my time.
[00:06:45] Go home and nobody was on the streets, nobody was playing basketball or football or whatever the sport of the time was.
[00:06:51] Everybody was inside watching the news.
[00:06:54] And, also through that, you know, my mom and my set dad was going through some things as their own.
[00:07:00] And, and, that's when thankfully my dad stepped in.
[00:07:04] And, my dad said, you're coming to live with me now.
[00:07:07] And, that was the greatest decision ever because although I love Kentucky, I don't know where I would be at the day if my dad didn't step in and, you know, pull me towards him and Virginia.
[00:07:16] And, moving to Virginia after my freshman year in high school and staying there for three years, you know, living right next to a army base and visiting the army base daily.
[00:07:25] I got to change to see what, what, what the willingness to serve, you know, the patriotism and all this stuff.
[00:07:33] And, it really kind of boosts it my, my motive to serve more and more.
[00:07:39] So, when you were, when you were in Kentucky and you were a freshman,
[00:07:43] had you thought about the military prior to September 11th?
[00:07:47] Grow up at Kentucky, the only thing that I wanted to do was play basketball for the university of Kentucky.
[00:07:52] That was, I mean, that's the one thing.
[00:07:54] You know, you'd go out on the street or you'd play video games, which then was the old school play session.
[00:08:00] You just wanted to play basketball for Kentucky. There was nothing else and 2001 happened.
[00:08:06] And that's when kind of like it got in my mind, that's why I wanted to do.
[00:08:09] And then during that time, blackhawk down come out as the movie and I just watched that over and over again.
[00:08:14] And I was like, I want to be a ranger. I want to serve, you know, and then it went from the army to I looked into the air force special forces and there.
[00:08:22] Their special forces is way too long because I wanted to deploy and I actually ran into the Marine Corps recruiter at Fort Lee, playing basketball.
[00:08:29] And he took us to Hooters. And that's very sold me. Was it Hooters?
[00:08:34] That's good, I guess. It doesn't take, you know, for me when the Marine Corps recruiting is awesome.
[00:08:44] And I heard this fact a long time ago that the Marine Corps spends the least amount of money on recruiting, but has the best results.
[00:08:51] Because they just have their, well, they have the Marine Corps. They have the Marine Corps persona behind them, the legend of the Marine Corps.
[00:09:00] And that, I remember, you know, when I was a kid, there was a guy that I knew that was a drill instructor and he was older than me, but, you know, occasionally he'd come home.
[00:09:08] And I would just think, well, obviously, that's what I'm going to do.
[00:09:11] There's no doubt in your mind, you know, you just see these human beings that are above and beyond anything you've ever really seen before.
[00:09:19] And you go, that's, you know, when you're 10 years old and you see a Marine Corps drone instructor, that's it. That's a damn impressive sight.
[00:09:27] That is an impressive sight.
[00:09:29] Especially when you see the dress blue is walking to the cafeteria at school and with all the medals and the ribbons and it's like, this is what I want to be.
[00:09:36] And, and because growing up, like, on my mom's side, my grandpa served and, and on my dad's side, a lot of his family served in the military and I never realized the military was
[00:09:48] you know, in my future, but looking back on it now because I've been asked this question if you've ever, if you just think it's, you know, was set up for you to join the military and as many people in my family that served, I kind of, you know, to answer the question now.
[00:10:02] I thought it was my time to serve and, but I mean, just the Marine Corps alone, it's, you know, it wasn't my first choice because I just wanted to serve, but I tell you what, it's, it was the greatest decision ever made my life as a 18 year old.
[00:10:15] You know, the December of my senior year in high school, go into the Mepsation and, you know, taking that, that oath and getting the date to go to boot camp to recruit training and all I had to do was just give my recruiter my diploma and then, you know, the bus and there I go and, it's surprisingly the first day of school, the next year is when I was on a bus stepping on those yellow footprints and getting screamed at.
[00:10:38] So you decided you were going to join after September 11th and that was your freshman year, then you go from Kentucky to Virginia and, but you're, are you focused all the time now you're just ending up I'm going in the military as soon as I get done with high school.
[00:10:53] That's where your mindset was.
[00:10:55] That was, I was at, at my grades were bare minimum to average just to stay on a sports team and because all I knew was to my recruiter needed my diploma that was it.
[00:11:05] And believe me, there was some classes that I struggled with and I didn't know if I was going to give him that diploma or not, but mainly English seconds semester my senior year that was, but it was, it was my mindset.
[00:11:17] That's what I wanted to do. I didn't think he'd think about going to college. I just wanted to serve in the military.
[00:11:22] Yeah, that's, there's something.
[00:11:26] I don't know, you know, I got, I got a bunch of teenage kids. I got two daughters and one son that our teenagers all right now and then I got a little girl, but.
[00:11:36] For kids these days, a lot of them are programmed that what you do when you get done with high school is you go to college and this and that's not for everybody.
[00:11:45] It really is and for me it certainly wasn't it's something I wanted to be. I was like, oh, I, I wish I could have joined the military when I was like 13.
[00:11:54] Because because I would have just been such a much better person. You know, so all right, you, you struggle a little bit in school in English apparently.
[00:12:08] Definitely.
[00:12:09] What sports did you play?
[00:12:10] I play football. I played basketball a little bit and pretty much played all sports.
[00:12:15] I'm not for school related, but little league baseball. And then my wife likes to make fun of me by a play basketball tennis from sophomore to senior year and I went out there.
[00:12:25] The first practice, my body that kind of like recruited me to come play and the coach was like, hey, how about you two just go down there and play a bunch of sophomores kind of get it all our way.
[00:12:34] And I beat him eight nothing. He got so mad. It was so funny and like walking or down. Walkin back to the other side of the courts and hearing the other players like, oh my gosh, he just beat him eight nothing and the guy had read here in his face was just as red as his hair.
[00:12:50] And you know, like, I was junior year, I was the one seed on both singles and doubles and went pretty far in the district and you know, senior year was the same and it was just something that enjoyed to do in the spring time and it was and honestly it's very did it get you run so much that you got to be athletic and you got to be in shape and that helped out a lot to you know football on the fall and then tennis and the spring.
[00:13:16] And then and so what year did you graduate? 2005. And then you left in September of 2005 you leave for boot camp.
[00:13:24] I did. Yeah, graduated in June and left in September. So a couple months in between and that's the one thing like in high school.
[00:13:32] There was a couple of Marines or a couple of guys that I graduated with. We graduated on Friday and they went to boot camp on Monday and they're the ones that kind of kind of kind of helped me kind of really.
[00:13:44] Realize that the Marine Corps is what I wanted to do even though it's kind of what I was focused on.
[00:13:49] When did you when did you sign a contract at maps December of 2004?
[00:13:54] Okay, so you had a little delayed entry delayed entry program. And it's just worried about what they're going to do after high school and you're like I'm going to party all summer long.
[00:14:03] And then I'm going to Marine Corps boot camp. How much of a shock to your system was it when you got some Marine Corps boot camp?
[00:14:10] The first three days was I mean it's it was just so much like you know, of course, you don't sleep at all and it's just as constant yelling and you're realizing like what in the world did I do.
[00:14:20] Did you can only watch it on videos and understand it's like okay, that's on a TV screen and that's not real life, but it was something else getting you know, I guess a range it up every every time the bus goes through parasol and they're going to stand on the yellow foot prints and mill the night and
[00:14:36] Of course, that's when we got off and I was is a 12 passenger van and I was kind of in the middle seat and I had to go through the seat belt to get out. I'm getting yelled at so I'm like choking myself with the seat belt and you know we get to the yellow foot prints and it's like you're standing there and position of attention and it's like your calf started tightening up and you started just like oh my gosh, what did I do? Why did I sign this paper work again?
[00:15:01] I think the funniest thing was when we actually went on to parasol and how this this van from Virginia down to parasol and eight hours just joking talking the minute we pass the gate it just got silent.
[00:15:14] And they were you know and then you're going back like when I because I turned 18 my senior year in August and I did a late in true program or I you know what the maps December and when I would come home in December and my dad was like so what'd you do?
[00:15:29] And I was like I signed up for infantry in the Marine Corps and he was like you know what infantry does right and it's like I do and this is the time like in my room I had the big Marine Corps poster with the three Marines and their dress blues I think it was the guy and the female and it was like it took up the whole wall and I was I was dedicated to the core then and I was so excited to
[00:15:50] raise my hand and then go to school the next day wearing my Meps Marine Corps t-shirt. I was like this is it I'm perfect. Yeah, you know, I'm talking around all the Marine Corps shirts I'd go to the mall and I'm walking around my shoulders all cocked back and like this is it.
[00:16:07] And that's awesome. I was trying to because there's been quite a few people have joined the military from listening to the podcast and now whenever I talk about this I was trying to tell them that for at least the first two weeks they're going to hate me they're going to hate the military they're going to a bouquet but it's going to seem like the worst decision they ever made.
[00:16:26] I actually was speaking on the USS George Washington in Japan in 2009 and this sailor walked up to me and he's like, I just got the phone with my dad and tell him I'm reading listen up there and you speak and I'm like, oh gosh you didn't give me my name did you?
[00:16:40] But yeah check so you go through boot camp and you get done and you knew you were going infantry the whole time right I did I knew I was infantry and you know in 2005 I feel like we had about 70 75 recruits in our platoon and majority of them were going infantry and the funny thing is that in our squad bay and our senior drill instructor he was he was setting front of us talking to us up on the quarter deck and he's like I got
[00:17:09] one more class after you all and then once I'm done I'm going Hawaii and I'll never see you little you little puke again and you kind of just like blow that off it's like okay he's going Hawaii I'm more than likely at East Coast Marines so I'm going to say a camp was noon and do my time there and hopefully never run into him but then you experience the small Marine Corps gets a lot smaller and you know once we got the SOI graduated from there and
[00:17:37] they told us that a select few of us from Alpha Company School of Infantry would be going to Hawaii be stationed with second time third Marines and the select few of us was our whole company in the company that next the Bravo company so they dropped us off in Hawaii and you go through there and
[00:17:54] is that normal for like a whole company from SOI to go together to a battalion somewhere? I did think so I thought you know you know in the Marine Corps it's like east of the Mississippi you're pretty much going to stay all together
[00:18:07] but I thought they would kind of disperse you out through different battalions and thankfully they've everybody like a lot of the guys that I want the boot camp with was in the same battalion as me and Hawaii so like I
[00:18:18] created that friendship and that brotherhood from the start of the Marine Corps and carried it with me along the way and I was glad because you know it's
[00:18:25] growing up in Kentucky in Virginia I didn't want to be stationed in Luzoon or the East Coast and you know they gave me this little wishlist which I don't think they even look at
[00:18:33] I think they was given to you because it's checking the box but yeah I picked I picked Okinawa in Camp Pendleton as my first two choices and they pretty much put me right in the middle
[00:18:41] Hawaii and the difference I always felt people a free government trip to Hawaii I mean I can't complain about that at all so
[00:18:48] how was the school of infantry it was cold in North Carolina we were during that time there were so many guys going through the through
[00:18:56] infantry school and a lot of guys were just like there for a couple months three months and you know like you go to the
[00:19:04] childhood and you got a like a 10 to 20 like a snake line of rose and rose of Marines going to try to eat
[00:19:11] child and I was so close to actually call my recruiter to go and recruit assistance because I didn't know
[00:19:16] how much longer I'd be here and thankfully my last name starts with the bee and so so January I got
[00:19:23] selected and put an alpha company and the first three weeks is just kind of learning the whole weapon systems and working on you know
[00:19:29] going on humps and stuff and and then the next three weeks was basically out in the field the whole time doing infantry work and
[00:19:36] clearing you know learn how to clear rooms and do a lot of Mount training and at this point you're
[00:19:42] did you guys all pretty much assume you're going to Iraq or Afghanistan 100% I mean being an infantryman in the Marine Corps
[00:19:48] there's a war in two countries you must have all just realized you're 100% going pretty much and
[00:19:55] that's the reason why I wanted to choose infantry because I wanted to blow it as quickly as I possibly could and
[00:20:00] you know two of my drill instructors were purple heart recipients from the battle falucia and so it's like you
[00:20:06] kind of you kind of hear it from all the drill instructors when you're going through recruit training that you know
[00:20:10] this is where you're going to end up you know you go through your school and you go through your training but
[00:20:14] more than likely 99% of you are going to Iraq or Afghanistan. Were you thinking about that like you're on the
[00:20:20] range you're dialing in your weapon are you thinking yourself I better pay attention right now because
[00:20:27] I might be needing this skill in a couple months when I'm overseas. I don't think it ever like
[00:20:33] cross my mind because I just did what I was told to do you know and you know when it was on the
[00:20:38] rifle range or if it was like patrolling you know I tried to take in as much as I possibly could and
[00:20:42] learn as I went and you know the the more I learned I just you know I learned to not only teach
[00:20:49] myself but also teach those around me and stuff because I didn't you know you you only see it on the
[00:20:55] news you don't really know what to experience and it's funny because I tried to read the book
[00:20:59] no true glory and I couldn't really understand what Iraq was like you know from clearing rooms
[00:21:06] or trolling down the streets urban terrain I couldn't understand that because I wasn't there and you
[00:21:11] know of course now when I read these books I understand because I can visualize it in my head
[00:21:15] but you know then I was just doing what I was told and I was learning as I went along and
[00:21:22] you know I learned what I could through school of infantry and then once I got to the fleet it kind
[00:21:26] of changed a lot because we had to learn what the with our battalion and our squad and platoon was
[00:21:32] doing there. At the school of infantry did you do company sized operations of bit like
[00:21:38] clearances of villages and stuff like that? We we did towards the end of school of infantry we
[00:21:45] had we had all the elevenths out there and then we had the machine gunners and the mortarman
[00:21:49] would set up and we kind of we would we would home be in and you know we'd go in and clear a
[00:21:56] couple of homes and stuff like that and but it was more of a company level it's hard to remember
[00:22:04] back then but it was because it was the one thing in like North Carolina like where we were at
[00:22:08] trying it for a school of infantry which is a lot of like machine gun fields and a lot of like
[00:22:12] pop up targets and those kind of ranges and then the mount town wasn't as extensive as it was
[00:22:18] once we got to the fleet went to cax and California. So they so you would say at school of infantry
[00:22:23] you are more working on your individual's infantry skills more than like working together with the
[00:22:29] platoon or a company sized elements. I think so because a lot of times at school of infantry we did a
[00:22:34] lot of fire team stuff and you know we did a lot of hikes every Thursday once we got back
[00:22:38] from the field but a lot of it was like this learned weapons learning how to shoot a pop-up targets
[00:22:43] and like move in targets and just kind of like learn just kind of learn the whole weapons and
[00:22:49] systems and stuff. Every Marine is first and foremost a rifleman and that's where you become a rifleman.
[00:22:56] Okay so now you get assigned to two three Marines and you're you're head and off to Hawaii which is
[00:23:04] we're just coming from coming from Kentucky and in Virginia and the North Carolina and now
[00:23:11] I'll send you wake up near Hawaii. We were actually in the squad bay me a guy from Georgia and
[00:23:17] the other guy from Tennessee and we were listening to Craig Morgan's Redneck Yacht Club. I think
[00:23:21] and this is what we're gonna do when we get to Hawaii and of course I think all three of us
[00:23:25] were in different companies so we never saw each other once we got to Hawaii but you like you fly in
[00:23:32] and you get there and it's like oh my gosh we're in Hawaii and we get on the bus we get all
[00:23:37] our gear and we get dropped off at the battalion office and we got you know two of my seniors waiting
[00:23:43] on me and he's like they're basically like pull me to the bear it's just so it's like you're all
[00:23:48] ours now it's like oh gosh and then you know you start hearing stories from like other the the other
[00:23:54] guys that you know got there with me and how they're their seniors are you know welcoming them into
[00:24:00] the the platoon what month did you get there March March of 2006 okay and so it seems you get there
[00:24:11] so and those guys were just coming back from Afghanistan right they were they they were actually
[00:24:15] over there they're in Operation Red Wing and yeah they were I think they got back February of 2006
[00:24:21] so they were just getting back from there post deployment leave and you know once once we got there
[00:24:29] it was pretty much you got to get right into another workup and and then that workup is where you
[00:24:35] really start integrating everyone together or working in platoon size elements working in company
[00:24:41] size elements it was and then that's when we kind of they told us when we first got there everything
[00:24:45] you learned in school of infantry just like lose it because now you're gonna learn what we teach you
[00:24:50] and you know from everything from just like clearing conference rooms and barracks rooms to
[00:24:55] you know working on patrolling up the streets in Hawaii and that was the one bad thing about
[00:25:00] being stationed in Hawaii that's it's a great place to be stationed but there wasn't much to do
[00:25:04] any training and we would I mean we would literally patrol them down the streets at K-bay
[00:25:09] Kanye O'Bay Hawaii and they had a couple old barracks that we'd work mounts you know we do
[00:25:14] mount training with and with simmerounds and you know we do we do what it bellows which was like
[00:25:19] a little air force base that they were starting to create like a mount town and that's when we
[00:25:24] did a lot of our training and kind of our field work and now at this point are you starting to think
[00:25:29] and you got guys that are just coming back from Afghanistan are you starting to think like okay
[00:25:34] now I really need to start paying attention the reason I'm asking you these questions is because
[00:25:37] I'm trying to relate you know when I joined the navy it was 1990 there was like I guess the
[00:25:44] Gulf War was kind of on the horizon but and it was gone so quick that by the time I was in
[00:25:48] Buds it was over and so even when I was doing workups and stuff like I would always be thinking
[00:25:55] like okay I need to be good at this because someday I might need this skill but that's a big
[00:26:03] stretch you know what I mean whereas once September 11th happened every one of these young guys
[00:26:08] it was coming in it was like oh I'm probably it wasn't like someday I might need this skill
[00:26:13] was like I'm probably gonna need this skill in the next couple months to save my life or my friends
[00:26:18] lives did you feel like that kind of intensity from yourself and from the other guys that were
[00:26:23] just coming back from overseas? I think so because I feel like the way they were kind of instructing
[00:26:28] us and teaching us this stuff and they kept relaying that any minute now that we could be called
[00:26:34] up and deploy and you start getting more serious about it and I think my attitude changed and it
[00:26:39] wasn't more of like joking around even though I liked to joke a lot but it was when it's time to
[00:26:45] be serious it's time to be serious and it's time to learn you know and you know whatever weapons
[00:26:50] I was carrying around if it's a saw or the the the the rifle the M16 you need to learn everything
[00:26:56] about that and you need to learn it to its tea and I think that's the one thing that I really
[00:27:00] made more attention about and and it's but it was just like you could fill it from your seniors
[00:27:06] because they they experienced like casually they experienced death over in Afghanistan they knew
[00:27:11] what combat was like and you started understanding that this is serious now this thing you know
[00:27:16] the same video game or a joke you're getting ready to go to war and you know five six seven
[00:27:20] months or even tomorrow you never know and so everything that you need to learn here is something
[00:27:25] that you need to take serious because this is you could be had yourself in this situation when
[00:27:29] you're in combat and what point did you know where you would deploy to that you would deploy to
[00:27:34] Iraq I feel like it was aftercax and July we were in we were in cax from June to July of 2006
[00:27:42] which is great months to be in the deserts in California but I feel like once we got back there
[00:27:47] it was pretty much like we're going to Iraq and and that was so we're still in is this is
[00:27:51] oh five or six oh six okay got it yeah join join September 2005 and on on it was on a plane
[00:27:58] in September 2006 had a tour of Iraq so that's one of the things I want to do in the Marine Corps as
[00:28:03] mentioned it was just I wanted to deploy and I was literally in the Marine Corps a year and I was
[00:28:07] already on a plane headed overseas and then did what point did you know where where and Iraq you
[00:28:12] were going that you were heading up to a ditha I think we we knew we were going to the Alambar
[00:28:17] and north of western part of Iraq but we were never told what city I think once we got to Alessad
[00:28:22] and we were starting to relieve three three and hear about like what they went through and where they
[00:28:26] were at is when we started really realising okay this is where we're going so was when you actually
[00:28:31] got to you got in countries when you realised okay we're going to hath ditha you knew that you were
[00:28:37] going to relieve three three you probably heard a bunch of the stories and I mean so this is so I was
[00:28:43] in I was in Ramadi at this time you know from the spring of oh six until the fall of oh six
[00:28:50] so we overlapped probably by about a month maybe a little bit more of when you arrived in Iraq
[00:28:57] and you flew down Alessad you said flew down Alessad and we were there basically a day and then
[00:29:02] while we were in Alessad three three was starting to pull some of their marines out and that's when
[00:29:07] we started interacting with them and they told us that they felt bad from what we were getting
[00:29:12] ready to get involved they lost so many marines while they were over there and and then it's just kind
[00:29:17] of like you hear stories of other guys in our company like basically in a firefight just to get on
[00:29:23] their fob and you know once we left Alessad we took we flew up to the hath ditha dam and mill the night
[00:29:31] say they're overnight we started loading our mags and we got in a big convoy and we drove into a
[00:29:36] hath ditha and it was I mean you just like you hear the stories of hath ditha from three three and then
[00:29:43] when three one went through there stint before and and it's just while while west and again you
[00:29:51] only see it on TV you never expect to be walking the same streets and you know this stuff going on
[00:29:56] but you know the first time we went out on patrol it was it was nerve wracking it was like it's
[00:30:02] like you do this in training so much and you feel like you do it so well but now that you're in
[00:30:06] a situation where it's like oh gosh you know I got to look here I got to look here I got to look
[00:30:10] up I got to look down and what was your position in the platoon that was a point man oh get some
[00:30:14] so it has a it was fun you know as I think after the first firefight is when like you kind of like
[00:30:23] okay I could do this this is good I'm motivated now you know and and I was that guy remember one
[00:30:27] one time we got a firefight and before we went on patrol I was like gosh I'm ready to get some
[00:30:33] I'm ready to get a firefight you know and and I didn't know my squally to heard this but after we
[00:30:37] got in like a two or three hour long firefight we're walking back on to the fob and he yells at me
[00:30:42] Bradford I'm like what he's like I want to kill you like what did I do now you know that's like
[00:30:46] like we all come back alive you know like that was a good thing but it was you know it's it's
[00:30:51] funny the first firefight we got into we were in the palm grows and we were walking along this
[00:30:55] compound wall and these these you know little trees they're they're no bigger than there are
[00:31:01] no water than a salt ball and then there was one no water than a baseball and they opened up
[00:31:06] from our left and so me and my team leader jep behind the one that's the size of a salt ball
[00:31:12] and he's like hey Bradford get over there but I'm actually not like bull crap that one's smaller
[00:31:17] than this one you know and and then our corpsman who was a he was a is a junior corpsman
[00:31:22] he had the shotgun for breaching and he laid off around and I don't I'm pretty sure he didn't hit
[00:31:28] the guy but the boom scared him and he took off and but it was just an of course the same day
[00:31:33] in the Marine Corps it's just our comms went out and so the stuff that we got was kind of crap
[00:31:40] so it's like here we are in the middle of the palm grows that they're a firefight and we don't
[00:31:44] have no comms were shooting up smoke and trying to get somebody to come down there and help us you know
[00:31:49] and so what was where were you guys living in Heditha there was a fob in the middle of town that
[00:31:55] we were that we stayed at that was our home that was right in the wrecky's houses and
[00:32:00] was it a was it a platoon size element in there a company size element in there it was a company
[00:32:04] the way that our battalion was split up the battalion commander and the headquarters was more in the
[00:32:09] dam Heditha dam and then Heditha was the the main AO because there's a larger city and that's where
[00:32:15] our company was echo company and we had we had golf company to the south of us in Hachlene and then
[00:32:21] across the river in barwana was fox company and and weapons company would basically go from from from
[00:32:28] AO to AO and about three months into the deployment our battalion commander and the headquarters
[00:32:34] detachment would come and they actually set up shop in Heditha with us once they were a raki
[00:32:39] police or raki army left our fob and you know we had we yeah there was it was a company element
[00:32:48] and we pretty much ran you know with a fourth platoon would work more with the raki police
[00:32:53] raki army and then the one platoon was basically set up for mobile and the other platoons would
[00:32:58] rotate back and forth between posts and patrol so it was I forgot how many days on we would be off
[00:33:03] on post duty and then you just kind of rotate back and forth and when we were in Heditha our mobile
[00:33:08] unit got hit so hard that they had to change out and another platoon had to take over just because of the
[00:33:15] snipers the indirects IDs just we lost so many guys and throughout that whole deployment the whole
[00:33:22] battalion lost 23 Marines and I think echo company lost nine Marines and um a majority I think
[00:33:30] I think of all of them were within the first two or three months not to mention the purple heart
[00:33:35] recipients that we got from that deployment and when you were were you guys doing most of you guys
[00:33:40] were doing almost all foot patrol out of the fob I was we were foot patrol every patrol and I actually
[00:33:45] felt safer walk in the streets and I did in the vehicle and I mean we'd get in the back of a
[00:33:50] seven ton and they're launching grenades for the seven ton trying to blow us up and you know the
[00:33:55] one ton that we were in a patrol with the Iraqi army we were in the old old green homies with a no up
[00:34:01] armor and me and my friend was setting the back seat was like good luck I love you brother because
[00:34:06] because if this something happens right now then we're screwed yeah the old homies aren't going to
[00:34:12] take up idea hit very well no not at all and it was like I I loved being over there you know we
[00:34:21] talking about serving this country and you know the one time that we're in our rack it's like
[00:34:26] we had one big screen TV in our childhood we were never in a childhood we lived in an Iraqi house and
[00:34:30] it was just our platoon and you you're away from the news you're away from society everything going
[00:34:36] on it was just you and your brothers and that's one thing like today I miss more than anything
[00:34:41] it's just being around those guys and you you see them open up and you know when you're when
[00:34:47] you're marine brother you know gets killed or wounded like you see the motion that it's like you're
[00:34:53] there for him you know and he comes to you and those are the things that I miss more about the
[00:34:58] Marine Corps and unfortunately living in Kentucky today it's like you're not around the Marine Corps
[00:35:03] base and you're you know I get to see my friends I don't know once a year it seems like and a lot
[00:35:09] of the guys in my platoon I haven't even seen since my injury the what how long would you guys
[00:35:16] go out patrol for like what would you guys patrol for a couple hours would you guys find an
[00:35:20] objective and then head that way and then check it out and then come back did you have an objective
[00:35:25] we just do in presence patrols what was that all about we were doing a lot of meet and greets present
[00:35:30] patrols ID patrols we'd go out for two or three hours sometimes we'd actually go out and set up
[00:35:36] patrol base in the middle town and just stay there for a couple nights and run patrols out of the
[00:35:40] patrol base later on an appointment our our comedy commander kind of made it an objective to set up
[00:35:48] patrol bases throughout the town we had one in north of the ditha one in south and then one out and kind
[00:35:52] of the I guess I'd be the the western part of the ditha and which we'd basically we'd have engineers
[00:35:59] come in and they'd build like little little fobs of these houses and actually spent Christmas of
[00:36:05] 2006 on that patrol base up in north of ditha and it was sitting there on the roof in the middle
[00:36:10] of the night in cold turkey and haem you know and very Christmas bro yeah and it's so fun
[00:36:16] because it's like they told us it's like oh you're going to have Christmas off yeah that didn't last
[00:36:21] very long because here we are on patrol going up to north of ditha but it was it was fun I enjoyed it
[00:36:27] you know one of the some of the cool things that we did there we were we had a they believe there
[00:36:32] was a cache and one of the islands and there was no bridge nothing to get to the island and the
[00:36:37] only way to get there was to take river rafts and I'm not gonna lie that was the one time I
[00:36:42] felt like I was a navy seal going down to your fridge river on a river raft then but it was in the
[00:36:47] middle of the night and they had a two-fourty on the front of it and they would you know pick us up
[00:36:51] from the bridge and we would ride up right to the the the island and we actually dug in
[00:36:58] and stayed there overnight and and I believe that was Thanksgiving 2006 so I was happy holiday
[00:37:07] you know so like looking back now on the holidays on Thanksgiving and Christmas it's like I just
[00:37:10] look back on those two moments of my life it's like sleeping on a cold island because people
[00:37:15] look at our rack and think it's warm all the time but it's pretty cold over there in the winter
[00:37:19] months and and then of course Christmas times it on a roof and how often were you guys getting
[00:37:25] in direct fire into your into your fob with any you guys with mortars all out we got mortar
[00:37:30] at about every every day about five o'clock you know chal time and one of the times like we had a
[00:37:36] I don't know it was like a hill there's like a big sand hill in the middle of our fob we had a couple
[00:37:40] post up on top of it and I was actually we were on post duty and there was like Bradford
[00:37:45] once you bring these batteries up to post five which is at the end of it and so I take a battery
[00:37:49] to and I'm walking down and like going down this is very steep and while I'm halfway down they start
[00:37:55] dropping orders on us and it's like I'm thinking to myself it's like should I go back to the post or
[00:37:59] should I ruin and like I take all sprinting down the hill thankfully I didn't like roll all
[00:38:03] way down and my team leader like when I run in there there's like where's Bradford and I'm like
[00:38:07] sitting there like gasping for air if I just like sprinted across the you know down as big hill
[00:38:13] but you know we got we got mortar about every afternoon and and thankfully they
[00:38:18] they're more sought because they missed and one of the times we were actually very lucky we were
[00:38:26] in our fob we were in our house and we were all kicked back on our bunk beds and my my really
[00:38:32] good friend my best friend actually was working on the hot air tank or whatever it was outside
[00:38:37] and they dropped the mortar like 30 feet behind our house and when that thing hit we just
[00:38:43] automatically went to our gear because it sounded like it went right through the middle of our house
[00:38:47] and he'd up taking trap no one to lick and thankfully that was it and that's when I realized that
[00:38:53] you know I had to have many friends got killed when I was over there but I wasn't you know right there
[00:38:57] listening to him scream as they put a turnic at on and that's when I realized that this is real you know
[00:39:03] and not only it's like this guy is like fighting to put a turnic at on and and he's my best
[00:39:09] friend he was my roommate when I was in in our Hawaii and it really killed me thankfully that
[00:39:15] he didn't lose a leg he'd come back in a couple weeks and he was sitting there showing us pieces
[00:39:19] of the shrapnel until I said he went down to Alisson has some ice cream and it's like
[00:39:24] yeah you know forget the way I felt about it you know but but it's you know a lot of
[00:39:29] scary moments bring together the the true brothers you know and the fellowship and then how long
[00:39:36] it was it was a January is when you got injured. January 18th 2007 and then we were you know
[00:39:46] four months into a deployment we started kind of you know you could start here in a little
[00:39:51] scottle butt about the ad von coming in you know we're getting ready to start heading out you know
[00:39:56] that the other units coming in and I actually was speaking to my uncle on the phone that day you know
[00:40:01] we rarely got to call home and I was selling I was like you know the deployment's going well
[00:40:05] you know they're starting to talk about the other guys coming in you know and and hung up the
[00:40:11] phone because we had to go to a brief and the brief was the patrol and you know unfortunately I
[00:40:17] don't remember yet this part right here I remember all the way up to like the last minute walking
[00:40:21] down the street and as I was walking point I look out in front of me you know we're walking along
[00:40:26] a road alongside the parallel or you Freddie's River is called part place and we were coming
[00:40:31] up past his compound wall into this opening with a bunch of palm trees and I see a white bag
[00:40:36] leaned up against the palm tree about 30 yards off to my right and as I you know like look like
[00:40:41] that's a suspicious item and I turn around till my team leader to my left he was on the other
[00:40:46] side of the road and I turn around till everybody behind me and the minute I turned back around
[00:40:50] and I looked down and there was a stitched at random perpendicular to the road and I see the
[00:40:54] wires going inside the pipe underneath the road and I was standing right on top of the pipe and
[00:40:59] I mean in a matter of seconds it exploded and sent a shirt and all both moths and that was the last
[00:41:04] thing I ever saw was that white bag and those wires and you know is this is laying there conscious
[00:41:11] like hearing everything going on around me I squall leader calling and QRF and you know just
[00:41:17] and I actually had the the litter kit in my pack so it's like they had to figure that out and then
[00:41:22] the whole time I was trying to stand up you know I had my left leg was it was blown off
[00:41:27] like I didn't have a left leg my right leg was severely damaged and um but it just felt like
[00:41:33] people always asked me like what were you feeling when this was all going on and it went so quick
[00:41:38] that I don't even think I had a chance to feel anything like I literally went from like walking
[00:41:43] down the patrol seeing something suspicious to laying on the ground looking in darkness and I didn't
[00:41:49] know if that was it if I didn't know if I was dead and you know it's just hearing voices around me
[00:41:54] they put me in the kit and they take me into a compound and you know as we're waiting on QRF to get
[00:42:00] there you know my buddies look there's something they're holding my hand talking to me because
[00:42:05] you know out of our squad we probably got into the most far right set of our whole company
[00:42:11] but as we left the fog with full marines we'd always come back with full marines we let the
[00:42:16] enemy know that if you're going to mess with us we're going to give you everything we got more
[00:42:19] and this is the first time that we suffered any kind of casualty and laying there basically fighting
[00:42:27] for my life and they're holding my hands talking to me if they didn't think I would make it out of there
[00:42:33] and as QRF shows up they put me in the back of a home v and the last voice I heard was
[00:42:39] as I mentioned earlier the small marine corps was from my senior drill instructor
[00:42:43] who was a ptoon sergeant in the same company said brafford you'll be fine and then I passed out
[00:42:49] I didn't know if that was it I didn't know if I was truly dead now and I was the end I felt like
[00:42:55] I was only 20 years old in I felt like that was the end of my life and those are the last words I heard
[00:43:00] and you know I woke up three weeks later from a coma you know and this is when I realized that
[00:43:07] what I truly love to do that my true purpose in life was to serve this country wearing the uniform
[00:43:16] and it was taken from me like here I am in the United States while my brothers are wearing
[00:43:20] Iraq fighting right now I felt like a coward like they would try to they would call me when they
[00:43:26] could and I wouldn't want to talk to him on the phone like I would always tell him with some kind of
[00:43:30] excuse that I'm sleeping or I'm doing something just so I didn't have to talk to him because I
[00:43:33] felt like I let him down and that it killed me and then once once my dad told me that I lost my legs
[00:43:42] that was the worst thing in the world then I just wanted to die I like the guilt the depression
[00:43:49] I didn't want to live a life anymore and I always always told him like when he told me that I was
[00:43:56] like I felt like my legs were like a lizard's tail you know it's like they're grow back like you
[00:44:01] see it on the news all the time what you've never expected to happen to yourself and here I am I didn't
[00:44:06] care nothing about the vision I just wanted my legs back because it was it was tough those first two or
[00:44:12] three weeks after I get out of ICU like I wouldn't eat nothing I was so skinny I could barely
[00:44:17] lift my head up off the bed and the hospital banned that they gave me would go all the way up to my
[00:44:22] my bicep pretty much because I just wouldn't want to eat I wanted to die like the nurses hated
[00:44:28] me like one of the nurses coming like two in the morning I finally got some sleep and she kept
[00:44:33] poking me around with the needle and I literally called her a stupid idiot and like and she wasn't
[00:44:41] my nurse no more in and I felt so bad but you know it just I felt like my whole life was taken
[00:44:50] from me just from stepping in that bomb you know I knew what could happen to me and my whole
[00:44:55] point of being deployed of us I'm either going to come home my brothers I'm coming home in the body back
[00:45:00] there's no in the middle and and here I am now down this whole dark path this new road you know
[00:45:09] as a 20 year old how in the world am I going to live my life now like I got I don't even know
[00:45:14] what a blind guy no legs can do I what point did you realize that you weren't going to be able to see
[00:45:20] anymore it was pretty much more sick and I believe was my last surgery that they tried to kind of like
[00:45:27] give me some vision back and nothing come back from that and you know about time more
[00:45:32] sick and got there I was still positive not beating I was moving around a lot more starting to gain weight
[00:45:38] and but you know it's they they told me that they can do the surgery but then they also told
[00:45:44] me that it's it's not a you know a half percentage that you're going to get vision back at all you know
[00:45:50] and they started kind of like talking about you know it's live in life visually impaired and
[00:45:58] but it was it was tough it was it wasn't you know and to me the the vision didn't bother me much
[00:46:05] at all it was losing my legs and you know the Marine Corps you know it's the joining the Marine
[00:46:11] Corps in 2004 was the greatest decision in my life for the reasons like this right now because it was
[00:46:17] the Marine Corps that was there each and every day in my hospital room talking to me and helping
[00:46:23] me understand that this road that I'm getting ready to go down you know that there is a light at the
[00:46:28] end of the tunnel and not only talking about my deployment or talking about the Marine Corps but just
[00:46:34] talking about life and coming in there joking around with me and because you know looking back on
[00:46:40] it now like I'm truly fortunate and blessed to be here today because the amount of blood I lost was
[00:46:48] a body's worth of blood my left leg was taken from me I have a piece of my small intestines taken out
[00:46:54] you know shred no winter both my eyes and and you know it's just it's truly a blessing
[00:47:02] now that's obviously a big transition of calling it a blessing and calling you're where you're
[00:47:09] right right now a blessing from when you first you know realize your situation and you're saying hey
[00:47:16] you wanted to die I mean that's I mean that's as bad as it gets what do you think it was
[00:47:24] that made you start to realize you know what all right here's my new situation and I'm gonna
[00:47:30] I'm gonna get after it the Marines that would come in a visit me they kept reenouriting that
[00:47:36] I was a Marine the nurses the corpsmen even though I would fight it they never gave up on me and they
[00:47:41] still pushed and challenged me and I think that was the one thing that made me realize that
[00:47:48] this is just a new challenge for me you know the one thing in the Marine Corps is to adapt
[00:47:53] to no overcome I'm gonna have to learn to adapt to these injuries and overcome it and um that's
[00:47:58] one thing that helped me realize that there's life outside of the hospital doors because at that time
[00:48:01] when I was going through the pressure and guilt there was two roads I could have went down you know
[00:48:05] the self-pity the drugs alcoholism suicide but I don't want to go down that road I didn't want
[00:48:11] to be another statistic I want to go down the road of happiness and living my life to the fullest
[00:48:15] and proving people wrong people tell me I can't do something that I'm gonna go out and do it
[00:48:20] I want to be that blind guy with no no legs proving people wrong you know and and that's why
[00:48:25] I always told people when I first got hurt I was like anything you can do I can do I might do it
[00:48:30] differently but it's gonna get done and during that time with that Marine coming in that hospital
[00:48:35] room this is when I realized in my mind that this is what I want to do I want to put myself in
[00:48:41] his position I want to help out others fairly wounded warriors Marines soldiers sailors airman
[00:48:47] and I began creating these goals and these you know a lot of them brought the one
[00:48:52] broad one was staying in the Marine Corps and you know but I realized that I needed these little
[00:48:57] goals first I need to learn to get out of my hospital bed I need to go from hospital bed to my
[00:49:01] wheelchair and I need to learn to eat and the once I started realizing this and I started
[00:49:07] putting my mind in the right direction then I started getting off medications I started getting off
[00:49:11] pain pills and I started getting more weight on my body and I was injured on January 18th I was
[00:49:20] in but that's on January 21st and by March 21st I was headed to my the polychromus in enrichment
[00:49:25] Virginia where I would focus more on physical therapy and occupational therapy so it's like you know
[00:49:31] I was young and I healed quicker but once I got into my mind that I could do this then I didn't
[00:49:38] need I didn't want anybody to slow me down and and you know I went through the polychromus center
[00:49:43] and I was there for two months and by June 29th 2007 I was sent up on my prostate legs for the first time
[00:49:50] and you know one of the things that I talk about what I talk to Vets is I always tell them you know
[00:49:59] people say well how do we get through this and I always say you got to find a new mission
[00:50:05] and because you know you've had this mission whatever that mission was whether whatever service
[00:50:09] branch you were in wherever you were fighting you had a mission and it makes your life very clear
[00:50:14] and simple because what you do every day is you try and accomplish the mission and when I hear
[00:50:21] you talking about that it's like it's exactly that you are in a situation you had a mission boom
[00:50:28] you get blown up now you don't have a mission anymore and now when you get you wake up in Bethesda
[00:50:33] you're you're in this situation you go I don't I don't I'm depressed I don't want to live anymore
[00:50:39] and then someone comes in and says hey you could help and then all of a sudden boom you have a
[00:50:48] new mission and as soon as you get that new mission you go yes I can oh and by the way you you don't
[00:50:53] think I'm going to be able to walk you don't think I'm going to be able to defend for myself watch this
[00:50:58] that's it and you know like looking back and out January 18th 2007 I felt like that was the day that
[00:51:04] the Lord above looked down on me he didn't want me to he didn't want me to go to heaven yet
[00:51:09] and he gave me he put me on a new patrol in life as you mentioned mission and that was to share my
[00:51:15] story and inspire it others by living my life to the fullest and beyond my own bare minimal and I
[00:51:22] feel like that I feel like that was my new mission in life that you know we're all brought on this
[00:51:29] earth to serve in some kind of purpose serve some mission and you know sharing my story and going
[00:51:35] out doing things that I'm doing today is inspiring and motivating others not those who were injured
[00:51:40] in combat but people who are living you know a civilian life today and it truly inspires and motivates
[00:51:50] me to continue doing what I'm doing because I know that I'm inspiring somebody along the way and always
[00:51:54] tell people if I could do inspire and motivate one person a day then that's a job I'll done for me
[00:51:59] and that's what I'm left on this earth to do and I love it you know it's just this is what I've been
[00:52:07] given and I might as well accept it and move on you know improvise something that we're always
[00:52:13] learning the Marine Corps and you know when I when I do speak in engagements I focus on a lot of
[00:52:18] things in the Marine Corps that I learned like a depth and overcome and you know the next one is
[00:52:23] lead by example which you know a lot about I'm sure and then the next one's never quit and
[00:52:29] through it all through those three attitude is everything if you walk into any situation with
[00:52:34] the positive attitude that's the first step to success if you think about something negatively
[00:52:39] then you're never going to accomplish anything so when I was laying in that hospital bed there
[00:52:45] was no negative thoughts you know and I had guys one of the Marines who were actually it was wounded
[00:52:50] two months before me lost the leg in Haditha would come in day and night and he would also kind
[00:52:57] of tell me it's like all right this is what's going to go on you know you're going to get a prosthetic
[00:53:00] it's going to be alone you know it's the rehabs and tents but this is it you know but put one foot
[00:53:06] in front of the next and that's what I kept living life with and when I was trying to learn how to walk
[00:53:10] in 2007 I was as a double on PT tend to scissor walk one foot in front of the next and you're
[00:53:17] pretty much trip over yourself and you look like an idiot but with vision I was going from the right
[00:53:22] wall to the left wall and my physical therapist stop means like Matt just stopped just just walk
[00:53:28] put one foot in front of the next and I look back on that now and that's how we live each and
[00:53:33] every day it's like we never know what tomorrow is going to hold or next week we just got to worry
[00:53:38] about right now on the present and that's how I live my life right now and I never know what that
[00:53:43] next step is going to be but I'm going to take that step forward you know and you know I might walk
[00:53:48] around with two prosthetic legs and look darkness in the you know the face every day but
[00:53:53] tell you one thing my my toes are pointed forward and my vision on life is 2020 and that's what
[00:54:00] I tell people today and it's I love it I love it and it's you know it's the adrenaline the motivation
[00:54:06] to do things when you can't see and it hurts when you run into things too so
[00:54:11] so the attitude of just walk that's that's a that's a beautiful attitude to have just walk
[00:54:19] quit quit all this other stuff just get up walk how hard was the transition from the bed to the
[00:54:27] wheelchair to the to the prosthetics to walk and to move on the prosthetics it really I think
[00:54:35] getting used to the prosthetics was you know basically getting my legs used to wear and prosthetics
[00:54:41] and that that was the hardest thing because like I would go to therapy every day and I would put
[00:54:47] a mind and I'd walk around and therapy but they not go right back to the wheelchair and I'm
[00:54:51] really never never wore them more than you know a couple hours a day just because I had this woman
[00:54:56] therapy until I went to the the blind school in Chicago and this gave me the opportunity where I had
[00:55:02] no chance to go back to my room and take them off so I had to wear them from seven in the morning to
[00:55:07] five at night and that's helped me strengthen up my legs and the cows is on my legs get used to
[00:55:12] wearing prosthetics and once I got back from the the blind school six months of the air I was
[00:55:18] pretty much on my legs from son or stasson said and and that was but you know through you know
[00:55:26] setting these goals early on in my rehab like you know reenless in the Marine Corps was the one
[00:55:31] thing that I wanted to do and so learning how to walk I focused on that more than my
[00:55:36] my blindness because I knew learning learning life you know in the dark would be a lot easier
[00:55:44] with legs and that helped out so much because I tried to maneuver around in a wheelchair being
[00:55:49] blind and a long cane and all this stuff and I just kept running more things but once I got
[00:55:54] on my legs and I started using a long cane and started walking around and you know it really helped
[00:56:00] that a lot so like that's like the ultimate form of prioritizing execute like yeah you know what okay
[00:56:06] I can't see but I can't walk the number one thing I'm gonna do so I'm exactly and that's what you did
[00:56:11] and that's what they like you know it's you said get from the hospital bed of the wheelchair to the
[00:56:15] prosthetics and then go to the blind school knock that out and once I'm at the blind school I'm
[00:56:20] learning everything from computer to independent living and that's a six-month school go to the blind
[00:56:25] school the the first program is six months and that's basically learning to live being visually impaired
[00:56:31] and you go back for computers and they got so many different programs now but I went there for
[00:56:39] basically from July to December just because I incorporated computers in with my program as well
[00:56:46] and a suspen from July to December and in Chicago so I experienced the cold weather there but
[00:56:52] you know it learned everything from you know checking emails to Braille to taking taking a subway
[00:57:01] and train all the way downtown Chicago and circling a block and even built a birdhouse when I was in
[00:57:06] Chicago and I don't know about you but a table saw scare me when I had visions trying to cut a piece of
[00:57:14] board with no vision that that's a little intimidating there but I didn't lose a finger thankfully
[00:57:20] so yeah you know that that's another thing that I'm here and about what you're saying it's like
[00:57:27] the way and this is something to hear all the time but the way that you're describing it is people
[00:57:34] say oh you're gonna get your big goal you know you got your big goal in the future but what you
[00:57:39] have to do is you have to set up these little goals along the way to get you there at that
[00:57:43] point in the right direction so your big goal is you wanted to stay in the Marine Corps be able to
[00:57:47] read less than order to be able to do that you had to be able to walk you had to be able to function
[00:57:52] and so you just had to fight through these little things every single day to make progress
[00:57:57] and it's funny because you know the way I've honestly described this before is like it's like shooting
[00:58:03] when you're looking you know you got your target that's far off in the distance 400 meters away
[00:58:08] if you stare at that thing your vision's gonna get blurry and you'll lose track of it so you have to
[00:58:12] focus on the front side you just front side focus that's what you do and that the
[00:58:17] thing in the background you know it kind of fades a little bit but you know it's there and then
[00:58:21] what happens is occasionally and so it's the same thing with your goal so you have your long-term goal
[00:58:25] but I think so far away sometimes it gets blurry and if you and so what you do is you focus on
[00:58:30] some little thing that's right in front of you that you can do and then that brings you a little
[00:58:35] bit closer to the goal but occasionally those little things that are short term you're doing them
[00:58:40] day after day after day they start to grind on you and you say you know what forget it I don't even
[00:58:45] want to do this today and that's when you have to look up once again at your long-term goal to
[00:58:49] say wait a second I'm moving in that direction I'm trying to get there but to hear you describe
[00:58:54] these little things and by the way you're throwing them out they're like it's no big deal like
[00:58:57] oh I just was I went from the bed to the wheelchair to the to the to the prosthetics then
[00:59:02] went to the blind school and the next thing you know I'm making bird cages and bird feeders
[00:59:07] and like I'm the the small effort or the small tasks that took a meant effort along the way
[00:59:14] but you know from my perspective what I see is you made each and every one of those things
[00:59:19] a mission I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do that okay I can do that now cool I'm gonna do this and these are
[00:59:24] small little progressive steps but you're making them and you're making them every day every day
[00:59:29] you get up and you just walk walk forward and that's the one thing with being in the Marine Corps
[00:59:34] and that's really helped me out along this way is you know being organized and getting in that routine
[00:59:40] where you wake up each and every day it's like okay I'm gonna knock this out this is my goal for the day
[00:59:46] and you know better in myself was one of the goals because I knew that if I couldn't get nothing
[00:59:53] done in this life if I didn't better myself first and you know through the early days of my recovery
[00:59:58] getting all pain pills was one of the first things that I wanted to do as well and it's been 12
[01:00:04] years since I last take a pain pill and that's you know and so I didn't I didn't want my life to you know
[01:00:10] revert back to pain pills and just you know I feel a little bit of pain then then I'm going to
[01:00:14] go like go take a pill and you know I replace that with Stan Busy staying active going to the gym working
[01:00:22] out and and it really helped out a lot I didn't just you know if I felt like I got pain then I'm
[01:00:30] gonna go give it some pain you know and that's and it's the one thing and it's just you know
[01:00:37] through it through it all I've learned along the way is like people told me I couldn't do something
[01:00:42] or I can't do it why do you want to say in the Marine Corps you make so much more money
[01:00:46] outside the Marine Corps I'm like why didn't you want the Marine Corps from money you know and that's
[01:00:50] that I use that as motivation and it got me along this way and and you know I just I pretty much
[01:00:56] just like whatever you know you think that for yourself but I know what my mission in life is
[01:01:02] and I kept the positive attitude and people saw that and you know and once I got back from the
[01:01:07] blind school in 2009 I started getting out doing these events and the first event I actually did
[01:01:12] was something I opened my mouth up to my physical therapist and forgot all about until like
[01:01:16] two months before was the baton death march in 2009 and he walked up to me and he was like oh Matt
[01:01:22] you're gonna do the baton death march this year right you said last year I'm like oh crap and
[01:01:26] you know walked out and I did 10 miles and eight hours and that was the first like I was proud
[01:01:32] of doing 10 miles and eight hours but that was the first event first hike that I ever fell out of that
[01:01:37] I quit on so for people that don't know the baton death march is an event that they do out here
[01:01:42] and it's it's 26 miles right it is and you got to bring up you got to wear a rock
[01:01:49] some people yeah I just work him a buck but they do it well explain explain what
[01:01:56] what the baton death march is obviously it's to commemorate or to to remember the the folks that
[01:02:02] were actually on the real baton death march but what is one that they do here this year actually was
[01:02:08] their 30th annual baton memorial death march in white sands do Mexico when I did in 2009
[01:02:16] they it's a 26.2 long or mile long marathon and then they also have a 14 mile honorary
[01:02:21] and the the 26.2 miles actually up a mountain and down a mountain and it's it's intense because
[01:02:28] you're walking through the sands and a part of it is this loose sand pit and it's you know it's
[01:02:35] it's a good test especially for people with prosthetics and you know and you're kind of endurance
[01:02:39] and see how far you can go and when I signed up in 2009 I walked 10 miles out of in eight hours and I was like
[01:02:47] all right that's pretty proud you know I've got hurt two years ago but then again like I quit
[01:02:53] and then that really bugged me and I use that as motivation and it humbled me knowing that
[01:02:58] all right you know I was a good runner before I never quit on any hikes like I would always finish
[01:03:04] and then I it realized that okay I'm not who I am before so I got to learn this way now you know
[01:03:13] and not everything's as easy as it used to be but once once I finished like I told the lady I told
[01:03:19] my therapist and I was like once I'm done I'm putting my medical board and I'm going for my
[01:03:24] reinlismant package and and I was like all right 10 miles in and and that was in March of 2009
[01:03:30] and basically all gets a 2009 I got my you know my ratings back of course 100% and I chose to
[01:03:36] go through the EPLD program extended permanent limited duty and that took all the way to April
[01:03:43] 2000 what the end of March of 2010 and actually today April 1st would been was the day that
[01:03:50] I was promoted to Corporal and with a battalion commander that called me when I was in San Antonio was like
[01:03:56] hey congratulations you're getting promoted corporal and I was like sorry is this April Fool's Jo
[01:04:00] you know it's like and it's and but but on April 7 2010 I re-enlisted that raised my right hand
[01:04:07] and got chance to stay in the Marine Corps for a few more years and that was the greatest thing ever
[01:04:13] right there yeah I know that's that's the reason why I started off today reading that off because
[01:04:18] for you to be doing that in the condition you were in having already sacrificed and saying you know
[01:04:22] what I got more to give than I'm going to give it and that's the one thing like when I was
[01:04:27] mentioned lead by example one of my therapist told me you know as I go to therapy every day
[01:04:31] and I put my legs on I stand up I walk out you know just I do my own thing and he's like Matt you
[01:04:36] don't ever you won't see this of course and you will never realize this but every day when you
[01:04:41] walk in here you sit down and you put your prosthetics on and get them walk out people stare at you
[01:04:45] and people look at you and and that's the right thing to lead by example you know it's like if you
[01:04:50] wake up each and every day and you do it the right way then people will follow you know and
[01:04:55] and I've learned now it's like from living my life it's just to wake up and continue doing the right
[01:05:01] thing then people will follow and you know it's it's it's something that I've focused a lot on it's
[01:05:07] not being an intense yelling leader but it's just doing the the right way and that's something
[01:05:13] that I've done along the way and of course in therapy if you're in the Marine in your army gal on
[01:05:17] the ground and you know what that Marine up there walk in is like I need to beat this guy and
[01:05:21] and then you also ended up going to college right I did I did and what year did you start college
[01:05:29] I started in 2011 at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville North Carolina
[01:05:35] once I re-enlisted they asked me where I wanted to go on and go to the Wounded Warrior
[01:05:39] Battalion East Camp Liging because I realized my I could help out more there and I got there and
[01:05:45] in 2011 I went on a closure trip back to Iraq and that's when I realized that I joined the Marine
[01:05:50] Corps to deploy and I can't deploy now but I could still share my story and I don't have to share
[01:05:55] my story where I need to uniform. Is it the Marine Corps that takes you on the closure trip?
[01:05:59] It was a non-profit first foundation and it's and actually the the episode that I went on
[01:06:07] 60 minutes air it in 2011 so it's on YouTube but uh that's a nice plug. Well watch it then.
[01:06:13] But it's but I learned a lot about my time in the Marine Corps and the one thing with the
[01:06:18] being a Marine is you're always a Marine and that's a title I get to take to my grave and
[01:06:22] when I'm 85 years old I could look at my great grandkids and be like I served in the United States
[01:06:27] Marine Corps and so it's and during that time we were starting a family and I was getting ready to take
[01:06:33] college classes so the one thing that I'm very fortunate about is everything through life like
[01:06:40] each step each chapter it comes right after the next one like I never have a time to sit down and
[01:06:45] think about what's next and you know I got out in 2012 and we moved right back to Kentucky and
[01:06:52] I started taking college classes and you know my my brilliant an amazing wife you know while we're
[01:06:58] trying to figure out where we're going to live she's like your dream school is university
[01:07:01] Kentucky so let's move back to there and you can go to school there and graduate there and
[01:07:06] I started taking classes there in 2014 and May of 2017 I walked across the stage at Reparina
[01:07:12] and got my diploma in media arts and history and and it's you know not only a Marine for life
[01:07:18] but a wildcat for life I felt I felt I feel a little strange being that you know the 30 year old
[01:07:25] like kid you know party and like a 10 year old there and when the basketball team won or something like that
[01:07:30] you know I'm just that old creepy dude over there and not the youngster anymore but
[01:07:36] but it was it was fun to go back and take college classes and everything that I learned
[01:07:41] that I should have learned in high school like I'm like loving college now and I spoke at a
[01:07:48] child development center a couple months ago and the kids asking is like what do you think
[01:07:53] of school I'm like you know it's I wasn't the greatest students in high school but I
[01:07:58] I'd tell you what I loved college I love going back in reading books I love to read now and
[01:08:03] and it just expands by mind in my knowledge on things and it's you know it's good going down
[01:08:10] setting down with people and and you could share stories on different things and not just something
[01:08:16] about the military but you could talk about this and this and you know it's it was fun
[01:08:23] it's you you're I want to just kind of jump back to your workouts a little bit and I know you post
[01:08:28] some of your workouts and on on Twitter and stuff some little shots sometimes I know you post one
[01:08:33] the other day if you put pushing the sled you're pushing the push and sled all the way out the
[01:08:37] California legit do you wake up every day is that the first thing you do is is trying to get your
[01:08:44] workout in? I tried to I prefer working out of the morning but now with traveling and you know
[01:08:50] making catching up hours at work I had to do evening workouts which I hate doing evening work
[01:08:55] so I'm ready to get home take my legs off but those are the those are the workout in the evening
[01:09:00] I tried to get them in as much as I possibly can I love to workout and if not then I'll
[01:09:05] do it home I got some dumbbells and curls I'll be curls there and but you know throughout throughout
[01:09:11] the day I'm like constantly on my legs walking around you know doing some cardio but you know
[01:09:16] I love taking shots at you there Jocco on Twitter you know and that's uh I think one of the
[01:09:22] tweets I actually mentioned to you I was like you do this squat and I'll do the push in the sled
[01:09:27] but you know it's like even through even through training my trainer it's funny because I
[01:09:32] joked with him all the time I'm like his name's Josh and I'm like like you're just here to
[01:09:37] walk me from a machine I'm shane all right I'll tell you what I want to work out the day and
[01:09:42] and like if it gets to the point where I'm I'm getting bored doing pull ups put some chains on me
[01:09:47] now do some pull ups with some chains on me and something like that I'll do some pushups or I'll
[01:09:50] get to the bench press and do some chains on the bench press and it's like just something else
[01:09:55] that challenge it and set a stick into the same old thing you know every day thing and it's uh
[01:10:00] and you know a personal best on the bench press couple weeks go at 260 I'm proud of that and then
[01:10:07] course push in the sled and um but now it's like you know I've learned doing the I do Spartan
[01:10:15] races and marathons and I've done a marathon and I did a marathon and I forgot what year was but
[01:10:20] I didn't work out or get back on the bike for a whole year and after doing the next marathon I was
[01:10:25] so sore for like a week and I realized like if I say active in the gym and work out
[01:10:30] and I'm not a sore and um so like I knew flash yeah stay in the gym and it's uh so it's like
[01:10:38] I work out as much as I possibly came because it's like I never know what you know this
[01:10:42] organization I do a lot of events with like sometimes I'll just call me up like hey you
[01:10:46] want to do a Spartan race in two weeks it's like oh sure you know and you know through
[01:10:51] it's like you know through it's like each year I try to find something new to do and for
[01:11:03] some weird reason this year I was like I've got on the stationary bike because my goal is to
[01:11:10] in July I'm going to bike from Seattle to Portland it's like a 203 mile two day event
[01:11:15] and then my ultimate goal and August is the bike across Kentucky on a tandem bike and um so
[01:11:23] I got on the stationary bike in January for the first time I got on any kind of bike in 20 years
[01:11:28] and I'm like holy smokes this is weird and it's like my left leg like the above the knee
[01:11:34] side like it didn't work so well in pedaling so I just took it off and started pedaling on my right
[01:11:38] leg and the most of them was 7.5 miles and 26 minutes and I went to my trainer and I looked at my
[01:11:44] wife and I'm like this is the one thing that I feel like I'm doing normal you know I feel like I
[01:11:49] keep up with somebody with legs and so I really enjoyed that and I'm looking forward to it but
[01:11:54] you know like last year I climbed out right here or half a half a mountain here and this year I'm
[01:12:00] going to go out and sum it up hopefully in July so I just uh anything I can do to really like challenge
[01:12:06] myself and always I always tell my prosthesis and like any like I got the X3 on my left leg which is
[01:12:12] like the best of the best and I'm like my goal in life is to break this leg it's like if I could break it
[01:12:19] then that's that's a check in the box and you know and uh the uh baton death march you were back
[01:12:28] at that thing right I tacked that two weeks ago and I don't know if you know what it feels like
[01:12:33] to run into a train but that's what I felt like Monday afternoon but it was uh the 2009 really
[01:12:40] like I mentioned it humbled me and it motivated me you know for the next 10 years it's like everything
[01:12:45] I'm going to do I'm going to focus on this right here like I went into the baton in 2009 and then my
[01:12:50] prosthetics wasn't as good or advanced as they are now so when I went out there two weeks ago
[01:12:57] I knocked it out 14 miles I knocked out eight miles and we stepped off at 6506 and by 1120 I hit
[01:13:05] eight mile marker they gave me a 45 minute mile pace and I was knocked out of mile and 25 minutes and
[01:13:12] it was I don't know if it was uh my knee was hurting or just the whole fact that I'm getting
[01:13:18] right across the finish line but it was like I get a little emotional I'm like and this is really
[01:13:22] happening you know and to go out and walk this far on two prosthetics and I tell you one thing
[01:13:28] the miles are a lot longer when you can't see that's for sure and but um it was it was fun you
[01:13:34] know and I was I was I was I had my legs for about a week actually this last two days the first
[01:13:41] time I put my legs on for the first time so it's a but you know and that cause you just trashed the skin
[01:13:47] my left leg had a couple of little ropes pots on it and so my wife she took a picture and
[01:13:52] sent my prosthesis and then she become my nurse and but not to mention the satisfactory and it's
[01:13:57] walked 3.6 five miles in a like a they called it's around the bluegrass and Lexington and my wife
[01:14:03] she sent me a text and she's like I think about walking this that you can get your wheelchair and
[01:14:08] I'll push you like I'm not gonna get a medal set in a wheelchair right I'm gonna go to walk it
[01:14:13] or I'm not gonna do it okay and so we signed up for the 3.65 miles and we will finish that
[01:14:19] and an hour and 23 minutes and for some weird reason I think walking might be my thing this year too
[01:14:25] but that's to get you out and do a race with us coming get it okay I've been I've been looking into
[01:14:31] the what's the navy still obstacle course oh the uh look you mean the one that's in Coronado
[01:14:38] the actual obstacle course oh no no not that one I'm not that fancy I'm a married is it is it the
[01:14:44] bonafrog or bonafrog or bonafrog yeah yeah so I've been looking into that so right on well I'm sure
[01:14:50] those guys will hook you up if you want to go get after it yeah I don't know big on the water
[01:14:54] except I have like you know what do you have everything else that might not be a great combination
[01:14:58] if you don't like the water too much because I'm sure they put some water to that there that's uh yeah that's
[01:15:02] no hey what was that what was that closure trip you know speaking about emotional about how to be
[01:15:08] emotional going going to Iraq again it was the whole um when it was mentioned to me in 2011
[01:15:16] the only image in my mind that kept popping up is like either a black hot going down or see one
[01:15:21] 30 or something happening because it's like I walked away actually I was medivact out of that
[01:15:26] country you know from from my injuries so it's like I had no good image of that country at all and
[01:15:35] it was nerve-racking it was even more nerve-racking being around like the Iraqi security forces
[01:15:40] you know their clear in rooms and doing Mount Traini and here we stand with no weapons or
[01:15:46] anything like when I was in Iraq nor he said rifles or AKs and so that that really kind of um
[01:15:52] it it made me worried a lot but I think one of the coolest moments that that really helped me
[01:15:59] understand it was we were meeting the Iraqi security forces and they were all walking up shaking our hands and
[01:16:05] you know good uniforms and um they had a patch and one of the guys took his patch off and put it on my
[01:16:12] flag jacket and gave me a big hug and I'm like you know what this is this is it one team one fight here you know and
[01:16:17] there's there's bad people all over this world but there's a lot more good people in this world too and
[01:16:23] and I think and it really um it made the trip as we were flying back home we were going over Iceland
[01:16:32] and the pilot brought back this little letter and he gave me to my buddy and my buddy right
[01:16:36] at two minutes said US forces have killed us on bin Laden and I was like you know what that's the
[01:16:41] perfect closure to a closure trip because like we all joined the military after 2001 to go after him you know
[01:16:49] to kill him and and knowing that this happened on my closure trip it's like it honestly like gave me
[01:16:58] it got me emotional I was just ready to go home with my family and that that kept it off pretty well
[01:17:04] and I will say when I was in Iraq in 2006 so Dom who sang was killed and so so Dom who sang
[01:17:11] the song been a lot and you know so it's like why not but you know like I got so much other
[01:17:16] that closure trip I learned a lot about my life and like what the next step in my life is and
[01:17:22] like I mentioned earlier like when I went back to Afghanistan in 2017
[01:17:26] never been Afghanistan before my life but I felt like I got more of that closure trip because
[01:17:31] going to Iraq in 2011 I was still in the Marine Corps where in the uniform every day
[01:17:35] and I've been staying out of the uniform on in five years and to put the uniform back on and
[01:17:41] go around and speak to soldiers about my Marine Corps career and be around the military again
[01:17:48] truly made me miss it more than anything in the world and you know the brothers that I met in the
[01:17:53] Marine Corps and in the military alone like they're forever going to be there you know no matter
[01:17:59] where you live out in this country they're always going to be there for you and knowing that the
[01:18:05] you know the the name tag across your chest you know the states of America that that means more
[01:18:11] to me than anything in this world and if if I was called back to serve this country again and again
[01:18:17] no one the risk and what could happen to me then I'd go back and do it all over again because
[01:18:22] these last 12 years have been truly amazing and I've done things that I would never thought I could
[01:18:27] do and I've done it differently and like through the adrenaline through the adversity and it's just
[01:18:35] it's inspired and motivated me to come along the way and you know and it's it's it's a life I love
[01:18:42] the live and even in the dark but I know one day will come and there will be light in my eyes you know
[01:18:48] and I'll be able to open my eyes and see every day but for right now I'm going to live my life
[01:18:53] to the fullest that that's incredible do you do you ever you know I I'll hear from people all the time
[01:19:02] oh I don't feel like doing this today I don't feel like doing I don't want to work out today I don't
[01:19:07] want to I don't want to get up and do my job today you know does that wait when you hear that
[01:19:12] kind of thing what are your thoughts on that I know for me personally when I wake up and I don't
[01:19:19] feel like doing something then I try to or if I feel like I'm in a down mood then I try to keep that
[01:19:24] in in the house like I don't want to go out into public because I don't want people to see that
[01:19:28] like when I go out in public I want them to see happy mat you know positive but here in people
[01:19:34] like just it's it's hard to hear people complain about things these days you know and
[01:19:40] because you know I know what Iraq looked like and you know I was in Afghanistan and you know
[01:19:45] I know what happened to me and I know where I was 12 years ago and what I had to do to overcome that
[01:19:50] you know and it's just some people just when they feel like they can't do it they just get down in the
[01:19:55] dumps and they give up and really it's like you got to learn to battle through those adversities
[01:20:02] and you know at the end of the day when you put your head down the pillow and close your eyes you wake
[01:20:06] up to a new day you know and a new day with new challenges but you got to learn to overcome those
[01:20:11] challenges because in life it's a mountain you're going to continue to climb up a mountain and it's
[01:20:16] never going to flatten out you're constantly going to go over any you know obstacles,
[01:20:20] boulders, whatever's in your way and the only way to go over is to climb it it's not to find
[01:20:25] an easy way around or turn around and quit you know and you got to learn to just overcome things
[01:20:29] and and honestly never give up never quit okay you know I clearly you represent that to the fullest
[01:20:40] so what are you doing right now in terms I know you got a job what's that what's that all about
[01:20:45] so it's funny how I got this job because my last year at UK I was I had to go for an internship
[01:20:53] and the internship internship that I was going for was at the where I go hunting at
[01:20:59] and I was like okay well do that but then like people kept tagging me on Facebook about this
[01:21:03] moon warrior fellowship position that was opening up and it's like Matt you should try this out
[01:21:06] and I contacted one of my friends and and he was like hey I just showed up at our office on this
[01:21:11] date and you could intern with us and then we'll talk about the position and I showed up on the
[01:21:16] first date at our office and everybody's like who are you like and then he ended up getting kind
[01:21:21] of in trouble for this but but it was a you know intern there and then went through the interview
[01:21:27] and June and basically was hired on the spot and I've been working with the congressional office
[01:21:33] for two years doing veterans outreach you know we do some case work with veterans but
[01:21:38] truly it's just getting out of the district and being around veterans and kind of letting them
[01:21:42] know what kind of legislative bills are out there that could affect them both positive and negatively
[01:21:47] I mean there's so much out there that they need to know about and it's been truly a joy you know
[01:21:53] getting it will work with a lot of Vietnam veterans and you know these are some of the happiest
[01:21:57] guys that I've ever met my life for what they had to go through you know and and just hearing them
[01:22:03] walk up to me and be like because I've had them come just to our office and tears just to like
[01:22:09] to shake my hand or get a hug from me and stuff like that going through you know heart problems
[01:22:14] or whatever and they're like you know what just being here and seeing you and what you've gone through
[01:22:20] that motivates me to continue doing what I'm doing because you're inspiring me and it brings tears
[01:22:25] to my eyes because it's like you know it's as a veteran you know veteran serving veterans we need
[01:22:30] to look out for our own it doesn't matter if it's a job or not but you know the suicide right
[01:22:35] right now is sad and you know we got to learn to reach out and be with each other because we're the
[01:22:40] only ones that trust and the only ones that have opened up to each other and that's the one thing
[01:22:45] that I've really you know I've tried at first which is very hard to keep my personal life from
[01:22:51] my work side but you know these it's when you sit down you talk to a veteran and you share what you
[01:22:58] went through and and they share what they went through and you kind of come together and you talk
[01:23:03] about things and you know at the end of the day that you're helping them out just as much as
[01:23:08] they're helping you out it truly means the world and it's it knows that you know veteran
[01:23:13] serving veterans we need to stick to the other yeah there's no doubt and you're doing all that and you're
[01:23:21] also raising three kids three kids three amazing kids actually and you know my wife and I
[01:23:27] wear a April 7th to be our seventh wedding anniversary so we're you know it's through it all the
[01:23:34] one thing that if I could teach anybody in life it's teaching those kids that you know challenges
[01:23:39] are going to come but you've got to find a way life isn't easy life's hard and and if they could
[01:23:45] look at me and look at what I've gone through and what I continue to do today and use that as motivation
[01:23:51] to you know better themselves and better their lives and understand that yes I might have failed
[01:23:57] this test but you know what I'm going to go home and I'm going to get in the book and I want to
[01:24:00] I'm going to get an A on this next one and that's all the matters and you know talk about
[01:24:04] them a little bit it's Nolan who's 15 he'll turn 16 and a couple weeks a couple years ago we had
[01:24:10] a birthday party and there is this girl in his class or in his school that had no arms and no
[01:24:18] legs and he didn't know her but he went up to her and gave her a birthday he invited her to his birthday
[01:24:27] and it like he come home and told me in a man to that and that truly brought tears to our eyes
[01:24:33] because it's like they get it you know when I was their age if I saw a kid that was in you know a
[01:24:40] special wedge class I didn't walk up and try to talk to him you know I felt like they were different
[01:24:45] than me and I say to away from that but you know Nolan that he walked up to a grill with no
[01:24:50] arms and no legs and was you know and Vited heard to his birthday party truly brought tears to our eyes
[01:24:55] because it's like again he gets it he's growing up he's a man right now you know and Emma she is just
[01:25:02] as mature as she is so helpful and caring and compassionate and Leyla is the same thing you know she's
[01:25:08] seven years old right now but it's the cutest thing in the world is that you hear her get around
[01:25:13] her friends and tell her stories about how I got hurt you know somehow the bad guys blew my legs
[01:25:20] off and killed me and she told her teacher that and I can only imagine where teacher thought when
[01:25:25] I walked into class room you know but what it's just you know they're always there if I need them
[01:25:30] they're there to help out and you know to to my wife I mean she's truly amazing she has a job
[01:25:36] herself but she stops everything she can to get me to work me to an event me to a speaking
[01:25:42] engagement to wherever to get the three kids to wherever they need to go our two girls are in horse
[01:25:47] back riding lessons right now and still she finds time to work out twice a day actually
[01:25:53] she you know not to not to too job and and it's you know she's does dinner laundry everything
[01:26:02] and then she still crawls in bed by eight o'clock at night I mean you know if there's a motivation
[01:26:06] in my life and there's a true hero for me to look up to it's her because she's truly amazing
[01:26:12] and I couldn't ask for a better wife and a better you know friend best friend role model mentor
[01:26:18] and you know if there's any award out there to give to her then I mean I would I would be up for
[01:26:24] not be the first one to sign onto it that's that awesome it sounds like you uh sounds like you
[01:26:31] found the perfect perfect perfect girl for you she is and you know throughout all this it's you know
[01:26:37] the the hardest thing is to to set back and like appreciate it and the one thing that I truly
[01:26:42] don't like I always cross if I cross a finish line I always look to see what's next I don't
[01:26:47] set back and enjoy it and she's there to kind of like to honestly humble me a little bit and
[01:26:54] to set back and like let me remember what I went through to get to where I am today and without her
[01:27:01] I don't know if I could live this life right now you know it's always talk about it it's um
[01:27:08] you know it's a tough road you know I'm I am blind I have bad days and some days I don't want to
[01:27:14] wake up and go on but I tell you every day you know every night I pray that maybe one day I'll
[01:27:22] wake up and I'll be able to see my wife and my kids and when I wake up I still look at darkness
[01:27:27] and then I go through my morning routine and I still grab my prosthetic legs and I put them on
[01:27:32] so I'm constantly reminded of January 18th 2007 and I use that motivation to go on and love my family
[01:27:38] and love my kids and go out and do these extraordinary things because I'm never going to let
[01:27:42] that guy who pushed that button and blew me up to feet me even though I don't know where he's at right
[01:27:47] now he's never going to get the sense of comfort relief that he defeated me that day and you know
[01:27:52] while I'm going through these bad moments I mean nothing suits the soul and makes the heart
[01:27:57] feel so much better than here and you're seven year old daughter walk into and say hey daddy I love you
[01:28:03] all right man I don't even know if I have anything I'd say after that man that's just uh
[01:28:16] that's awesome um I
[01:28:19] yeah man I think we're good I think we're good I think I think that's a good place to stop
[01:28:25] uh man it's just awesome to sit here and talk to you and you know hear your story um I know
[01:28:37] Echo's got a couple things to cover what do you got Echo? Sure, she's yeah
[01:28:43] it I always think about this too like you know how um Matt you're saying like you can choose to
[01:28:50] kind of go down to past right so and it this picture starts to get uh kind of painted in my head
[01:28:56] when I hear like these cool stories so like I don't know you know like if you're uh it's gonna be
[01:29:02] a bad analogy but bear with we all know you're good yeah we all know you're good if
[01:29:06] Matt and Alex are in here so let's say you're trying to I don't know like let's say you have
[01:29:12] an ant problem right you mean like little bugs ants okay not like you're not like my ant
[01:29:20] one oh no no nothing okay so let's say I'm an ant problem right so it's it's it's it's you
[01:29:26] against the ant right so let's say you say okay I'm gonna set out these traps for the
[01:29:30] it's not ants let's say mice let's say you got ant traps you know so let's say you put a mouse trap
[01:29:37] out for your uh mouse problem okay and then uh you know someone uh or a mouse comes and gets caught
[01:29:44] in the trap yeah you don't kill it though you're trying to kill all the mice right okay
[01:29:50] you don't kill the mouse the mouse like somehow you mess it up though but the mouse gets away
[01:29:55] so not only did you not kill the and then the mouse now goes recovers and now teaches all other mice
[01:30:01] how to get past mouse traps okay your mouse trap kind of worked against you so like just like
[01:30:08] when Matt said oh yeah they guy who pressed the button to you know to blow up the bomb yeah
[01:30:14] me he did the opposite of what he was trying to do see I'm saying oh I see what you're saying
[01:30:18] he's actually a good analogy okay great it for that one not saying that Matt is a mouse I'm not saying
[01:30:23] that but I'm just saying you know concept but he has the the wheel and fortitude and the lessons
[01:30:29] yeah most important so the guy who made the bomb kind of screwed himself yeah you know I mean in this big
[01:30:35] way and it's you know kind of it's hard to say that he's just called me a mouse but
[01:30:42] you know it's like at the end of the day it's like you know I look back at you all together just
[01:30:47] being a marine you know never quit never quit on my brothers and never quitting on the situation
[01:30:53] it's given to me and I'll use you know the amputations and the blindness and all this stuff
[01:30:58] stacked against me as motivation you know and every now and then it like steers it's ugly head
[01:31:04] but you know thankfully for my wife my family and you know the mindset and mentality that I have
[01:31:09] right now and the friends that I've surrounded myself with that you know I kind of push it back and
[01:31:15] kick it's butt yeah sure indeed speak to kick and butt yes what do you got for us
[01:31:21] our path Matt's on the path he's been on the path Matt he's trying to do you have your
[01:31:26] try to get to yet if you could teach a blind guy on the legs you did so then I'm all for
[01:31:30] yes well I've definitely taught blind guys do you and I've definitely taught guys with no legs do you
[01:31:35] do you do well let's put them together I think you might find it easier than the beton death march
[01:31:41] yes yeah now man you can definitely you can train uh do you do all day long
[01:31:46] Ryan Job you know one of my guys who who was blinded in uh I trained with him and he he wrestled
[01:31:51] to in high school so he had some background but yeah you can there's people that competitively
[01:31:59] yeah that compete with with no vision and the no legs thing well that you just learned
[01:32:04] Jiu Jitsu's adaptable yeah so you can you can adapt it as you as you are quite good at
[01:32:11] well you know my hashtag no legs no vision no problem so uh there you go anything like anything out there
[01:32:15] actually some Jiu Jitsu training we used to do they you know they say close your eyes yeah you
[01:32:21] train you can start back to back yeah yeah and as the thing is once you have have contact with
[01:32:26] the guy yep like being able to see him isn't that much of an advantage I sometimes close my eyes
[01:32:32] just so yeah the thing with grappling is you learn well you learn to know what the other
[01:32:39] person's doing by feel and you don't really because you can't see what are you gonna see
[01:32:43] anyways you see like their arm pit yeah whatever you see there yeah so you don't get to see
[01:32:49] much anyways yeah the friend I was talking about that that truck known as leg in our rack I
[01:32:53] we got a video of him and I grapple and it's harder because like I could put him in a headlock
[01:32:58] but you know my legs I can't do much with that but they have a video of me like taping him out
[01:33:03] because he's like right he bright red it's like well now a million people are gonna want to see
[01:33:10] that video yeah it's a funny video you know I mean that's the part you kind of miss it's like the
[01:33:16] look of defeat you know on the face or whatever but you have to imagine that part oh I'm letting
[01:33:21] know the rest of the day and then also sent a picture to everybody that we started with so
[01:33:27] it's out there so you're alright into that you're good athlete you've got them tennis skills
[01:33:33] well I always got the years oh I was gonna love you said that yes on the path very good
[01:33:41] you do so when you do you do you do you too on this path that we're all on by the way
[01:33:45] you're gonna need a key you don't want a key if you do key which I recommend but
[01:33:50] or jingy is where you get your keys at or jing main dot com key rash guard there's other stuff on there
[01:33:58] but as far as keys go that's where you get them all made in America by the way joko yeah yeah that's
[01:34:02] the big thing so little town up in Maine and all the industry was taken away from this town
[01:34:11] and we're bringing it back we got a factory up there we got I think we got well we got a bunch
[01:34:18] of people working in the factory and they're all craftsmen craftsmen and craftsmen women
[01:34:23] oh that craftman people there was a lot of them are female and you know they're they're
[01:34:29] making all this stuff so it's great to see that we're trying to make America make again
[01:34:36] did you just is that you just now I I shot that to pee my brother peep I was like hey we're
[01:34:43] gonna make America make again because I'm trying to do yeah we're trying to make America make
[01:34:47] well it's totally happening I mean we got what denim American denim beaming yeah yeah not the kind
[01:34:53] that's the plight and just for the future and which is good but the way plans for the future
[01:34:57] plans but that's not a future plan that's we like future plans but we really like
[01:35:02] actually this is happening yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah think about America
[01:35:08] jeans were made or created in America created here invented here and all of a sudden
[01:35:15] they're getting made overseas and these and there's no Americans that are making
[01:35:19] them well there are now yeah there are now in a factory informing to Maine oh yeah
[01:35:25] that's what we're doing yes origin main dot com go there geek rash guards denim joggers
[01:35:33] dog or something yeah yeah oh yeah so I'm bad man I twisted my knee out doing
[01:35:41] you yeah like the kind of popped up pop back in yeah they do that they're skinny yes but they're
[01:35:46] loose too strangely strangely actually my knees are so loose I can't with the knees I know
[01:35:52] but my knees are so loose that I like sprained it one time so I went to the orthopedic
[01:35:57] surgeon you know check it out he was like oh yeah you blew your ACL that was like
[01:36:01] since I really did blow my ACL 10 to 12 to land like 15 years earlier my other site
[01:36:08] I knew that my knees were loose because the gut the doctor at that time was like hey you have
[01:36:12] really like I don't know long legaments I don't know I know that sounds funny like long legaments
[01:36:17] I know but that's what he said yeah anyway so I was like hey are you sure you just didn't say
[01:36:22] you had to do anything anyway he says yeah you have loose like ligaments or whatever
[01:36:31] but this is how you know this one is blown out and this one is not because when you pull it the
[01:36:35] one that's not blown out boom it has a tight like cord at the end of it where it just stops
[01:36:40] anyway so my current orthopedic surgeon I told him that he was like okay that's good that
[01:36:44] you told me that so he tries the other one and like he's like oh yeah they're the same like
[01:36:47] they're so it's probably not blown out but hey am I right anyway am I wrong anyway
[01:36:54] back to my story so they pop out right that's their thing when I twist them along they'll pop out
[01:36:58] so I'm not gonna pop out so much that it'll like kind of make the cartilage swell on the outside
[01:37:03] so it takes a few days so I didn't until I can bend them all away and I'm pretty slow
[01:37:08] by the way from the last once I did that double dose joint warfare and cruel oil
[01:37:16] for a day it's back in the game that's that's quick yes that's quick first we got them
[01:37:21] uh mulk yes additional protein yep additional protein we got the discipline go
[01:37:27] and the discipline and we got the warrior kid mulk I got to get you some warrior kid mulk for
[01:37:32] your kid's mat so what it is is like do you kid's like chocolate milk they do
[01:37:38] do they like do you have her strawberry chocolate well was that strawberry milk yeah
[01:37:42] do you have that one my my leila seven year old she lost strawberry milk okay yeah so unfortunately
[01:37:48] the milk the strawberry milk that you have to give your kids is horrible form even though it tastes
[01:37:52] delicious I guess well there's like some protein in it right there's some nutritional value
[01:37:57] because it does have some protein because there's milk in it but you're also ladening them
[01:38:01] with sugar which is not good for them so yeah it is addictive so we solved this problem
[01:38:09] and we made warrior kid mulk it tastes delicious I'm telling you it tastes like I don't know
[01:38:15] from the supposed to say this but it tastes like the Nestle's quick strawberry milk you know what I'm
[01:38:19] talking about yeah it tastes like it's that good I'm not kidding leila will be all over this stuff
[01:38:26] she will be stoked if they like strawberry that's the right yeah so we'll get to some of that
[01:38:31] and anyone else out there that wants to raise it warrior kids that doesn't want to give
[01:38:36] you kid a bunch of actual poison sugar actual poison oh yeah and here's the thing about sugar
[01:38:43] too and try to read a little thing about this but I've noticed this so you know how like
[01:38:49] when you they're like little babies or whatever you'll give them like I don't know all kinds of
[01:38:53] stuff and let's say you give them formula but the formula is kind of sweet and right so it's like
[01:38:59] it's sweet and so they'll like it so they'll eat it but if you don't give them any sweet stuff even
[01:39:04] when they grow up they'll like they'll only eat normal stuff like unsweetened stuff you know so I'll
[01:39:11] use myself as a small example oh no it's you know you know like the fruit nut fruit punch but like
[01:39:16] orange juice concentrate when you make orange juice you put orange juice concentrate and then you get uh water yes
[01:39:23] yes water it all is but how you do it is you go um it's like a 12 ounce concentrate yeah we'll say
[01:39:32] we'll say I think it's 12 ounces put the concentrate in and then you fill that same 12 ounce container
[01:39:37] that the concentrate was in with water four times okay right little did I know it was really three times
[01:39:43] that's how much you're supposed that's the recommended but my mom always did the four times
[01:39:47] she was trying to save money too oh yeah yeah yeah that's what it would have been my family
[01:39:52] well she was like okay we throw it six of that
[01:39:56] nonetheless I was used to it I was totally used to it so then later on when I found out in high school
[01:40:01] by the way that it was really uh three yeah I was like I can't do the three it's way too sweet
[01:40:05] yeah your mom soon saying saved money and made you more healthy there ready to go mama
[01:40:11] there you go ready go the right path yes yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
[01:40:15] yeah so think about that and when you think about that think about this jocco has a store it's called
[01:40:20] jocco store so when you're on the path you want to represent while being on the path that's where
[01:40:25] you go you can get your t-shirt it's this split equals freedom good good shirt
[01:40:31] oh the new one on the new the new good shirt yeah yeah with less of my head all the way yeah
[01:40:36] yeah it is weird especially after a while when like you know you look in the mirror and it's like
[01:40:41] good yeah I get the message but you got to see jocco's face or whatever and you know sometimes
[01:40:45] you're not in the mood for that you just get the other one do you sell your t-shirts any
[01:40:49] more math there I'm a website okay and we're in the process of getting right now he's got the
[01:40:54] cotton shirts but we're working on you know workout shirts as well okay and um but yeah and that's
[01:40:59] Matthew Bradford dot com Matthew Dash Bradford dot com yeah there's they're on there as well
[01:41:10] and you can also go on there and request speaking engagements as well and book me but yeah
[01:41:16] the shirts are there and hashtag on the front of them and the hashtag on the front is no vision no
[01:41:23] legs no problem no legs no vision no problem oh it's right now it's a different
[01:41:28] it's it's hilarious here and people just go after the hashtag it's like no site no legs no vision
[01:41:36] it's like no eyes it's like first of all I got one eye at least no with the prosthetic but
[01:41:42] but yeah it's you know that's something I come up with like a couple years ago like doing an event
[01:41:47] and it's like you know what it just kind of stuck and next thing you know here we go like no
[01:41:51] vision no problem and those uh the workouts shirts you're talking about what do you what like a
[01:41:56] dry fit kind of situation and what kind of like a draft it but then also the discipline equals
[01:42:01] freedom t-shirt the what the material you all use yeah that's like that material because yeah
[01:42:07] feel like when I work out get good numbers and I got the discipline equals freedom t-shirt on so
[01:42:12] oh yeah like I just like I'm gonna act you more on the way on a placebo yeah well you know
[01:42:18] it's one of those things right it's like what do you call it murmuring up wait let me ask you this
[01:42:22] if the placebo is works is it really a placebo because that's you know we could debate that later
[01:42:28] you don't know about it but you gotta be careful if you have Matt's all vacation so you're not
[01:42:32] talking about we want to get somebody else in here for that one yeah that goes gonna start telling
[01:42:37] the story about like coolators something mixin it up how much water goes in there maybe
[01:42:43] maybe anyway you want to represent on the path jockelstore dot com if you see something you like
[01:42:51] get something how's this how's this yes lightweight hoodies oh they're in oh I know they're in
[01:42:56] they're up they're representative of quality little dash of fashion I'm gonna say it's
[01:43:05] see Matt you're probably down so he's wearing a lightweight from yeah if you're just
[01:43:09] right now he's living in Kentucky oh yeah exactly there's a more often you're gonna need that
[01:43:13] Kentucky but if I'm a main you're not gonna need that lightweight holdy what all right well I'm
[01:43:18] gonna be emerging camp I'm bring one I'm gonna wear one how about that emerging camp emerging
[01:43:22] emerging camp the origin emerging camp we haven't talked about that because it's almost sold
[01:43:26] about go to what I know where the more you may talk about if you want to go to that
[01:43:31] jit to camp if you want to come to that Matt let me know all right what is it again it's an
[01:43:35] August it's it's fun we do jit to 24 hours a day yeah yeah yeah we did it we rocked it it's
[01:43:46] good time jocowite you can get that as well if you can't deadlift 8000 pounds you might
[01:43:51] want to order it quickly because if you drink jocowite there's a 100% scientific guarantee
[01:43:57] that you'll be able to deadlift a minimum of 8000 pounds some people are coming in higher than
[01:44:01] that which is fine not a placebo no no no it's 100% uh you can subscribe to this podcast
[01:44:10] because echo thinks that you've listened to a hundred and seventy one podcast and maybe you
[01:44:15] haven't hit subscribe yet well I'm fortunate for me actually it's a pleasure to do it
[01:44:20] then that no echo is proven right because then a bunch of people when I made fun of you for that
[01:44:23] a bunch of people rally to your defense yeah man because it's a whole little group that
[01:44:28] will rally to your defense because I have a good point sometimes not all the time
[01:44:32] now that it's just come on uh subscribe oh we also don't forget about the warrior kid podcast
[01:44:39] we just released a couple more episodes stories from Uncle Jake yeah those stories are good
[01:44:44] I love those stories I'm gonna publish a book with those stories by the way good idea yeah I
[01:44:48] know it's a big shocker don't forget to warrior kid so from Irish oats oats ranch actually it's
[01:44:54] not for kids it's so made by a kid but it's not for kids right it's for humans in general
[01:45:00] that need to stay clean yes also youtube if you are interested in the video version of this podcast
[01:45:11] you want to see what Matt looks like yeah see what jocca looks like if you're a
[01:45:15] non-in and uh yeah I was explaining to Matt I'll explain to everyone as everyone knows
[01:45:22] echo does not sound like he looks like you know we all know that echo sounds just I'm just gonna say
[01:45:30] echo sound skinny and weak thank you bad way no offense but echo sounds my kids always make
[01:45:41] fun of that this the hey no offense but I'm gonna say something to you offensive so I was
[01:45:48] explaining to Matt like listen bro most people when they see echo and they meet him they go oh
[01:45:53] okay cool he's not really they think to themselves he's not he's not he's not looked like the way he
[01:45:57] sounds you so I just say Matt I know you can't see echo but he doesn't look the way he sounds
[01:46:04] Matt's like oh good cool thanks because otherwise he you know he might have said something like
[01:46:10] you know maybe if you're trying to put on weight like maybe echo needs to all right just by
[01:46:14] sound like you maybe need to do some squats when I was in the hospital I had like a color
[01:46:22] every time I would make fun of somebody then they would be in the room and I didn't know that
[01:46:25] then they'd like blue blue blue it's like you'd like get my mind off of like what I was
[01:46:30] gonna say and like oh okay why are you saying the color right now oh that's good yeah that
[01:46:37] is good actually so yeah YouTube videos there's also echoes enhanced YouTube videos I just
[01:46:42] went up today yep what up actually technically you'd be what yesterday Monday Monday those are
[01:46:47] good check out flipsidecanvis.com that's a little company by my brother Dakota Meyer
[01:46:54] he's making cool things to hang on your wall yeah of highest quality made in America
[01:47:05] he made one that says good if that's a message that you that resonates with you can do that
[01:47:12] you see I want that says discipline equals freedom and by the way I didn't really know this until
[01:47:16] the other day and I hate to even do this because uh Dakota Meyer get mad at me but he kind of takes
[01:47:22] requests so if you heard something on this podcast and you said to yourself dang when when
[01:47:28] Matt Bradford said this when Matt Bradford said just walk I mean can that not become that can be
[01:47:36] that's like something you kind of want to put on your wall right just walk yeah so if there's
[01:47:43] something like that hit up Dakota on Twitter and say hey Dakota wouldn't it be cool if there was a
[01:47:48] kind of a canvas that said just walk he might have to put like a request like a section right on his
[01:47:57] website yeah to filter that one out yeah it's true yeah there's some good stuff on there I
[01:48:03] went through it and was like looking at oh this is good man and I'm not really an art see guys
[01:48:08] far as hanging art in the wall you've been in a hotel yeah it's like a picture of like a cabin you
[01:48:14] know and I see what they're doing you're trying to make you feel cozy but it's like this is a
[01:48:17] random picture of it yeah I understand you know but yeah you get that that good one that that we have
[01:48:23] that he has I was like okay I can kind of get down with this even just the looks a lot for sure and
[01:48:27] then you got another layer the good things aesthetically pleasing yeah it was good and there's layers
[01:48:32] and layers exactly right we haven't talked about layers in quite some time you used the layer
[01:48:36] top you did but you know hey Matt probably my fault also psychological warfare if you know what that
[01:48:44] is it's an album with tracks of jockel getting you getting us getting all of us through our moments
[01:48:50] of weakness whatever they may be so check out that one that's unlike Amazon MP3 spot where you get
[01:48:57] MP3 you understand I do and so that's that's where you get it's really good also on it so if you're
[01:49:05] expanding your home gym still which we all are that's an ongoing thing I understand get your
[01:49:09] kettlebells rings what else these maces and clubs really good for your creative type workouts unless
[01:49:19] you unless you want to keep a boring work I like jocca I mean that's it's up to you I'm creating
[01:49:23] over your workouts about you like to do the same thing you varied up all the time I got things
[01:49:28] that like going back to like I love doing bench press and pull ups and dips but I do like
[01:49:34] changing up every now and then but you were talking big time about the chains I love chains that
[01:49:39] look at them it's kind of like legit isn't it yeah yeah yeah it's kind of dope like looking to
[01:49:44] when one like while you're working out with them but what that does it offers this kind of off
[01:49:48] setting like weight to you and to what you're doing and it's yeah it's good especially when
[01:49:53] you change with your my pull ups to change their hard yeah love making my workouts even harder than
[01:50:00] it really is yeah yeah that's how right you go wait use the way like around the eruptions
[01:50:04] boom but yeah that's where you go on it dot com actually you know what here how's this the
[01:50:09] perfect mix morning mix or pre workout mix like before jiu-jitsu-bu so on it has these uh it's
[01:50:15] their minerals or electro like minerals mix that two scoops of discipline water and if you know
[01:50:24] I put a five hour energy everyone's in a while I want to like a boost to whatever but all you need
[01:50:29] those minerals the discipline water and oh that's when you take like your acrylic oil and all that stuff
[01:50:35] boom perfect mix interesting yeah try that one hey I got a bunch of books too
[01:50:41] Mikey in the dragons I got these books for I brought these up for your kids to
[01:50:45] map so Mikey in the dragons little kids book lessons for everyone way the warrior kid and
[01:50:52] marks mission those are for light kids that want to be on the path and there's a new one coming
[01:51:00] out it's called aware there's a will dot dot dot that's what it's called just one equals freedom
[01:51:07] field manual if you want the audio of that it's also on Amazon Google Play iTunes MP3 platforms
[01:51:13] extreme ownership first book I wrote with my brother life babbin follow up to that is the dichotomy
[01:51:18] leadership we got echelon front which is leadership consultancy and what we do is work with
[01:51:22] businesses to solve problems through leadership go to echelon front dot com for details we got the
[01:51:29] master coming up May 23rd in 24th in Chicago September 19th in 20th in Denver and December
[01:51:36] 4th in 5th in Sydney you came to the master map I did last year and I'm Washington DC I
[01:51:42] really like it I loved it I love going there and thank you and life for inviting me to join you all
[01:51:48] it was awesome to have you there did you relate or did you recognize the leadership lessons
[01:51:55] it's amazing like because you don't think about it too much but you know it's it's different
[01:52:00] terminology but it all means the same and I love how like prioritize an execute and all this stuff
[01:52:06] you know going back to the military side of it and it kind of keeps you back in the fight a little bit
[01:52:12] and so I do go back to work and like this is how you should lead you know you know it's weird too
[01:52:18] I was I always think about leadership it's always in my head and I always think about military stuff
[01:52:24] and actually I was listening to you talk about getting blown up and you were talking about how you
[01:52:31] guys had good dispersion and what that means is your separate from each other that way if something
[01:52:36] blows up or you get hit with a mortar machine gun fire if everyone's too close together then you
[01:52:42] get multiple wounded so you have to you have to have spacing now obviously there's a dichotomy
[01:52:47] because if you have too much spacing then you can't see each other you can't help each other and you
[01:52:51] can't communicate with each other so there's a dichotomy but we used to use this real simple
[01:52:55] corrective statement and it's real simple don't bunch up don't bunch up don't bunch up like
[01:53:02] if you see guys patrolling and they like one guy hits a little bit of an obstacle and so it takes
[01:53:09] a couple extra seconds get over you fast forward that times eight guys and all of a sudden there's
[01:53:13] five guys sitting on the obstacle they're trying to get through it and they guess where the enemy
[01:53:17] puts a landmine they put it by that obstacle because they know you're gonna get blown up
[01:53:21] you're in a gunfight and you see got there's a little piece of cover or sometimes there's not
[01:53:25] even cover but everyone just you get the instincts that if we're closer we're safe you
[01:53:32] yeah and so I would when I was running training I was be saying don't bunch up don't bunch up
[01:53:36] now how does that apply the leadership I can hit me the other day as I was working out as a matter
[01:53:42] fact don't bunch up on leadership what does that mean that means if you're leading echo
[01:53:49] I need to let you lead I don't need to come in there and lead too I don't need to get right up and
[01:53:53] bunch up on you yeah so when someone steps up and takes leadership don't bunch up make
[01:53:58] let him get him some space let him move and follow him and there's nothing wrong with that so
[01:54:03] these things that I learned in the military that Matt learned in the military when you when you look
[01:54:07] at him from a leadership perspective outside the military they still apply so if you want to learn
[01:54:12] about some of that stuff come to the master um extreme ownership dot com for details EF online it
[01:54:18] maybe you can't come to the master maybe you're too busy maybe you don't have that much money right
[01:54:23] maybe you can't get the time off maybe you can't travel that far there's a bunch of reasons and we know that
[01:54:30] and we don't like that we don't so what what we did is we made EF online it is online interactive
[01:54:37] leadership training it's it's me and the rest of the echelon front team showing you teaching you
[01:54:44] about the principles of leadership that we learned in combat and it's available right now if you want
[01:54:50] to go check it out EF online dot com and finally we've got EF Overwatch which is us connecting
[01:54:59] leaders from the military from special operations from combat aviation and we're connecting them
[01:55:06] with companies in the civilian sector that need leaders and this is one thing I've started to say
[01:55:14] is when people people always ask oh I want to hire the right person how do I do it higher
[01:55:19] the leader you want to hire somebody that has experience as a leader you know just because someone is
[01:55:27] good at some technical thing doesn't mean that they're going to be good at leadership it doesn't
[01:55:31] work that way yeah so you it's better to hire somebody that has leadership capability rather than
[01:55:37] and then you take that person that has leadership capability and you teach them what they need to
[01:55:41] know about the industry that you're in so you could have somebody that was in the the special forces
[01:55:47] and you say oh I'm going to hire them to run this communications sales group you just know anything
[01:55:53] about communication sales group I'll tell you what though you give them like a month and a half
[01:55:57] digging in deep you'll learn everything's got to know anything to apply the leadership things that
[01:56:02] he knows from his military service into that position and he's going to win he's going to make it happen
[01:56:09] yeah and what I realize that it's not to be confused with boss like Leah when you say
[01:56:15] people the leadership experience not boss not they won't roll in and be like I'm the boss now since
[01:56:20] I was special forces you know it's not that it's a humble because we're only bringing people in
[01:56:26] through EF through EF over watch we're only bringing people in that understand the principles
[01:56:33] that we talk about next-ream ownership which none of that has to do with being a boss yeah
[01:56:37] I have a thing where I had no in my wife I can understand yes I just want to most of
[01:56:42] knowing things that I can do to her is I'll act like I'm not listening to anyone no one can
[01:56:47] have any influence on me whatsoever and so she had some conference thing that I was supposed to go to
[01:56:55] and she sent me these you know she sent me like hey we're supposed to be there at six o'clock I'm like
[01:57:00] I'll show up when I want to and then my little daughter she always takes my wife side because she has
[01:57:07] a quite figured out my sense of humor yet and so my daughter was like dad you need to do what
[01:57:13] mom says you need to go when you know she said six o'clock and I was like they're not the boss
[01:57:20] so my little daughter was all mad at me for a little while then she realized that was joking now she
[01:57:24] goes dad's not serious yeah dad's not serious he's kidding and now now I've gone too far where you know
[01:57:32] my clean your room she's like I you're just kidding so hey if you want to hang around with us a
[01:57:40] little bit more you can find all of us virtually on the inner webs so Matt is you already here
[01:57:48] is website Matthew dash or Matthew hyphen Bradford I think that's right Matthew oh and there's also
[01:57:57] two teas is that a thing is there two ways to spell Matthew or am I just done is it always have two
[01:58:04] teas that's the common way you know I won't emphasize it I thought I had to emphasize that there was
[01:58:10] two teas in there so Matthew hyphen Bradford dot com is where you can check out Matt for
[01:58:19] t-shirts for booking him as a speaker for seeing what he's up to he's also bionic Matt
[01:58:26] five number five bionic spelled wrong with the king with a k I wanted to be young and hip when I
[01:58:33] created that screams young and hip yeah for sure I'm getting up there hey I gotta keep yon you know
[01:58:41] yeah so and Matt's posting all if you if you want to if you're feeling sorry for yourself
[01:58:46] add all check out and follow bionic spelled with a k Matt number five was the number five for
[01:58:54] that was my football number and if you want to talk about a graduate has going on five so
[01:58:58] yeah I'm just a liar yeah there's also I'm a wife just created a here recently two new Facebook
[01:59:05] public page no legs no vision no problem too okay we've been kind of post and stuff on
[01:59:11] what we're doing and also kind of other you know amp t's and stuff like that and also since you're
[01:59:17] young and hip you also have your gram your answer yeah don't forget about your Instagram what the
[01:59:23] the funny thing with that is people upman it was like a few weeks you're knowing about their
[01:59:27] new Instagram come like I'm blind I don't need to look at pictures she's like she's like okay
[01:59:32] well I'll run your Instagram account so when people yell at me and it's like how come you don't
[01:59:35] follow your own Instagram's like we need to go talk about what you need to do the next 10 post you put
[01:59:40] on Instagram all black just all black can be like hey what up Matt Bradford here you can you see what I'm
[01:59:48] talking about that's what I thought look at this beautiful view of the ocean right here I'm in California
[01:59:53] doesn't look nice hey get off your ass and go do some oh I'm back in Kentucky look it's
[01:59:59] it's the fall that's the spring time here comes the green grass this is what it looks like to me
[02:00:03] okay get a grip on reality get out there and live your lives so you gotta do that I'll talk to Amanda
[02:00:09] let's actually get her on board with the program should be all for that no that would be awesome
[02:00:13] we'll make it go viral just learn that expression which part the viral like make it go viral okay and
[02:00:23] then that for your for your for your Instagram page is m underscore Bradford underscore
[02:00:34] USMC you got that down yeah oh I wrote it down because when I found it I was like cool I'm gonna
[02:00:39] print out the word and then I'm gonna tell you to post a bunch of black pictures and then on that
[02:00:47] so the public what was the public Facebook again it's just no legs no vision no problem awesome and
[02:00:54] of course on all those platforms echo is at echo Charles and I am at jocca will like echo you got
[02:01:02] anything else no sir thank you Matt great to meet you thank you so much echo nice waiting you too
[02:01:07] any any closing thoughts Matt I just really appreciate jocco you all have on your podcast and
[02:01:14] you know the the friendship that we started last May you know I look forward to it continuing
[02:01:18] in the future and stuff and you know for everybody out there listening you know when when life gets
[02:01:23] tough just remember that one day at a time and you put your head down and close your eyes and the next
[02:01:28] day will will be over or the the old day will be over and the new day will be there so just push on
[02:01:34] better yourself go to the gym work out love life and enjoy everything that we have to offer here in
[02:01:39] the out states awesome and thanks to everyone that has served and is serving in our military and
[02:01:47] I started off this podcast by reading the oath that you all swore to defend us so thank you all
[02:01:55] out there in our military for taking and keeping that oath and obviously Matt thank you so much for
[02:02:05] taking that oath for taking that oath twice for keeping that oath despite everything that it
[02:02:13] been put in front of you thank you for your service and your sacrifice and thanks for coming to talk to us
[02:02:20] also policing law enforcement firefighters paramedics EMTs correctional officers border patrol first
[02:02:27] responders and that includes dispatchers that are staying calm on the phone on the radio to get
[02:02:35] people to help that they need when they needed thanks to all of you for protecting us as well
[02:02:40] we owe you all a debt of gratitude and to everyone else that's listening I'm going to take a quote
[02:02:48] from Matt Bradford's Twitter and it says this to walk this earth blind is not the same as having
[02:02:57] no vision to walk by faith unchanged by the hand delton is to live life as a visionary and to love
[02:03:08] life as humans were meant seek never settle inspire never complain rise never stay down
[02:03:22] no legs no vision no problem and let's face it if Matt Bradford can do what he does
[02:03:31] if he can keep pushing and keep driving and keep finding new missions and successfully executing
[02:03:39] those missions if he can wake up every day and say no legs no vision no problem if he can have
[02:03:47] the vision he has and the heart that he has then all of us can stop complaining and we can go
[02:03:59] get after it and until next time this is Matt and echo and jockel out