Firebrand - Matt Gaetz - February 07, 2023


Episode 89 LIVE: America's Bravest (feat. Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta) – Firebrand with Ma…

Topics
recruiting in the military mental health in military readiness
Hosted by
Matt Gaetz
Guests
Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta
Mentioned
Martin Acosta Biden Javier Jaguar Gutierrez Sergeant Pat Frost Walter Reed Antonio Katie Trump
Episode 88 LIVE: Balloon Mania – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz Episode 90 LIVE: Lab Leak – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz

Episode Stats


Length

29 minutes

Words per minute

135.23

Word count

4,005

Sentence count

291

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta served as a Green Beret in the 7th Special Forces Group and is now transitioning to civilian life. He talks about his time in the military, the unique brotherhood that is found in the ranks of the elite forces, and the importance of mental health challenges that we have so many of our veterans wanting to address. He also shares his thoughts on the State of the Union Day ceremony, which is a moment for our country to hear from the President of the United States about vision and goals. Martin also discusses his path to the U.S. Army and how he became a member of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), the elite unit tasked with destroying enemy enemy targets in Afghanistan. He also talks about how he got into the military and why he decided to stay in the service, and what it takes to be a hero in the eyes of the public, even when you don t have the physical training to be one. Firebrand is a production of the Firebrand Podcast, produced and produced by Firebrand Media and Firebrand Productions. Thank you for listening and supporting our mission to make a difference in the lives of men, women, and families everywhere. We can't wait to do it again! Thank you, Firebrand! -Jon Sorrentino Jon Rocha John McCain Matt LaFleur Rep. Matt Gaetz Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ronna McDaniel Joe Crowley Sen. Ted Poe, D-Massachusetts Steve Scalise and Rep. John Flemingert Pizzi & Rep. Rick Soto Adam Schiff . And so much more! -Jon Ocasio-Roman - Jon Taffer Dan Quinto Mike McLendon Ben Wisnowski Daniel Pascual Michael Ocio Tom Long Jake Wisniewski Brian Wisnaw David Perla Tim Longoria Julian Castro Brad Bradshaw Paul Kasinski Rick Sinek Carl Gooding , Gorms Kevin McCarthy Gary Vellian Martin A. Chacosta Carlos Vazquez Chris Clark Stephen Kortorf Alex Castellanos Jordan

Transcript

Transcripts from "Firebrand - Matt Gaetz" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:04:52.000 Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:04:59.000 Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem in the Democratic Party.
00:05:02.000 He could cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:05:05.000 So we're going to keep running those stories to keep hurting him.
00:05:09.000 If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:18.000 You are in the right place!
00:05:19.000 This is the movement for you!
00:05:22.000 You ever watch this guy on television?
00:05:24.000 It's like a machine.
00:05:25.000 Matt Gaetz.
00:05:26.000 I'm a cancelled man in some corners of the internet.
00:05:30.000 Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
00:05:34.000 They aren't really coming for me.
00:05:36.000 They're coming for you.
00:05:38.000 I'm just in the way.
00:05:44.000 Good morning.
00:05:45.000 Welcome back to Firebrand.
00:05:46.000 We're broadcasting live out of room 2021 of the Rayburn Office Building here at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. And there is always a great deal of energy on Capitol Hill when it is State of the Union Day.
00:05:59.000 Extra security, extra focus, a lot of folks trying to cast a vision.
00:06:03.000 And President Biden will be...
00:06:05.000 Here in the halls of the House of Representatives this evening to deliver the State of the Union and there's always a great deal of interest in who members of Congress select to be their guest for the State of the Union and I invited Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta Someone who served as a Green Beret in our district and is now transitioning to civilian life.
00:06:26.000 He's got a lot to share about his time in Afghanistan, about the unique brotherhood that appends to service in our military, about the path to special forces, and about mental health challenges that we have so many of our veterans wanting to address and they want to advocate for those who are still in uniform, their family members.
00:06:47.000 It's a terrific interview.
00:06:49.000 Take a listen to Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta.
00:06:54.000 We're joined now by Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta, served our great country as a Green Beret, was working right there with the 7th Special Forces Group and a member of that elite organization.
00:07:07.000 And my good friend, we actually met for the first time at Walter Reed and have stayed in contact ever since.
00:07:13.000 Martin, thanks so much for joining me here in the office.
00:07:16.000 Thank you for having me, sir.
00:07:17.000 Thank you.
00:07:17.000 And I am very excited because I'm going to get to invite you to join me during President Biden's State of the Union.
00:07:24.000 It is an august ceremony.
00:07:27.000 It is a moment for our country to hear from the President of the United States about vision and goals.
00:07:32.000 And I just wanted to thank you with our whole audience for giving us the great honor of having you here and having you join me.
00:07:39.000 Thank you, sir.
00:07:40.000 I am very grateful for the opportunity of being able to attend with you and see this side of the government that not a lot of people get to see.
00:07:48.000 So I'm very excited.
00:07:49.000 Thank you.
00:07:49.000 You will definitely get the behind-the-scenes views and now see everybody likes that they can have the cameras to see who's talking and who and chit-chatting with you, and you'll have the whole perspective.
00:07:59.000 You're a big dude, so I only feel bad about whoever has to sit behind you because they might not have as good a view.
00:08:03.000 But I wanted to talk to you about Your path to the United States Army, because right now in the Armed Services Committee, we're very concerned that recruiting has become harder, that the people who are even physically eligible to serve in the Army is less and less over time.
00:08:20.000 And so you're one of our great celebrated heroes.
00:08:23.000 Tell us about what brought you to the United States Army.
00:08:28.000 Well, let me just start out, sir, by saying, you know, I was born in Texas, but I pretty much grew up in the south side of Chicago.
00:08:36.000 So, you know, I tell people nowadays, you know, I kind of got to see combat before I actually joined the military.
00:08:44.000 So, one of the big major reasons why I joined, why I enlisted in the Army back in 2009 was to kind of get away from the gang violence in Chicago.
00:08:56.000 And as you've told it to me before, it was not the best news your mother wanted to hear.
00:09:01.000 How did you convince your mother?
00:09:04.000 Actually, I still don't think she's convinced.
00:09:07.000 It was just something I really wanted to do.
00:09:10.000 I grew up watching Rambo, all those movies, and it's just something that I felt I had a passion for.
00:09:21.000 Coming from a household, being a single, you know, Hispanic woman with three boys and a young girl, you know, she was in her 20s.
00:09:30.000 She's worked all her life to raise us. 0.99
00:09:32.000 So, you know, as an older guy, I was the oldest out of the four.
00:09:37.000 I kind of just took on the role to try to set an example.
00:09:40.000 You know, my job is like, hey, we don't really have a father figure at this time, so what do I need to do to get these guys to follow me later on?
00:09:48.000 So my mom was pushing college a lot, mainly to kind of set the example for the others to follow.
00:09:56.000 It didn't work out that way.
00:09:58.000 I tried college for a year.
00:10:00.000 It wasn't for me.
00:10:01.000 I told her of my mom.
00:10:02.000 I tried.
00:10:03.000 It wasn't for me.
00:10:04.000 I enlisted in the Army in 2009. I originally enlisted as just a normal 11 Bravo infantry guy.
00:10:13.000 My dream was to go to Ranger Battalion.
00:10:17.000 Didn't work out that good.
00:10:18.000 At that time, 2009, Ranger Battalion was overstrength.
00:10:23.000 But that door wasn't open, but a new door opened, which was the Special Forces recruiter approached me.
00:10:29.000 We had a good conversation.
00:10:31.000 Asked me if I was interested.
00:10:33.000 And just with the sign of a paper, he canceled my orders to my unit and said, hey, you're going to Special Forces Assessment and Selection.
00:10:41.000 And from this point on, it's up to you if you make it or not.
00:10:44.000 And that's kind of how I got my start in the United States Army back in 2009. What was the hardest part of that Special Forces transition for you?
00:10:55.000 Everything.
00:10:56.000 I was a city boy.
00:10:58.000 I don't even think I spent a night in the woods until I joined the Army.
00:11:02.000 It was a completely new environment for me.
00:11:06.000 I think that's one of the reasons that attracted me to this profession.
00:11:10.000 I played sports.
00:11:11.000 It was good.
00:11:12.000 I just needed something, a new challenge.
00:11:14.000 I think around that time is when the Call of Duty games were big.
00:11:18.000 And just one day, I just had enough, and I said, I want to do this for real.
00:11:23.000 And, you know, everybody thought I was joking for a while.
00:11:27.000 They thought maybe I just went away for a few years and was living with family in California.
00:11:32.000 But when I came back after graduating, the first time, you know, when I was officially a Green Beret and I came back to Chicago, Just to see the smile in my mom's face, I felt like it was all worth it.
00:11:47.000 She knew the sacrifice that went into that.
00:11:49.000 It was essentially me having a college diploma.
00:11:51.000 Even though I'm going to college now to get my diploma, it was like having a college diploma.
00:11:56.000 It was a great day.
00:11:58.000 It was a great time.
00:12:00.000 We're joined by Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta.
00:12:03.000 He's my guest to the State of the Union and one of Northwest Florida's finest and bravest and represents the Seven Special Forces community so well.
00:12:11.000 And it's a community that certainly has gone deep into the fight.
00:12:15.000 If we were Talking to somebody who was making that decision about the United States Army that was a young person trying to find themselves, wondering if the Army was the right option for them.
00:12:27.000 What advice would you give about the traits that people need to have to be successful like you are?
00:12:34.000 Nowadays, two simple traits.
00:12:37.000 Empathy and just be a go-getter.
00:12:41.000 That's all you need to be successful nowadays.
00:12:43.000 In that order.
00:12:43.000 Empathy and then kind of the go-getter drive.
00:12:47.000 Because I feel like we're at a point in our lives and in our nation where I feel like nobody tries to find common ground.
00:12:55.000 It's just automatically like, I don't think I agree with you, so I'm just going to find things that we disagree even more.
00:13:03.000 So I think, you know, trying to actually think of solutions to the problems we currently have, it's a big...
00:13:14.000 Not everybody has it.
00:13:16.000 Do you think that recruiting in the military...
00:13:18.000 Scoot a little closer to the mic so they can pick you up.
00:13:21.000 Do you think recruiting in the military is a downstream effect of division in the country?
00:13:28.000 Or do you think that recruiting in the military...
00:13:30.000 I mean, it's gotten harder, right?
00:13:31.000 I mean, it's gotten harder for us to get the people that we need to protect the country.
00:13:35.000 Why do you think that is?
00:13:38.000 Partially...
00:13:41.000 I think because we're giving away too much free stuff.
00:13:45.000 Essentially, why would somebody want to work for something when they could get it for free?
00:13:50.000 So you think that if people got less free stuff in this country, the military would be viewed as more of a ladder up in life?
00:14:01.000 That's kind of how it was when I joined.
00:14:03.000 It's either...
00:14:06.000 Crime, school, or the military.
00:14:09.000 And, you know, those were my three options.
00:14:11.000 And if I was going to try to stay home and I wasn't going to go to school, I wasn't going to have any money unless I worked for it.
00:14:17.000 I went to school and had a good profession.
00:14:20.000 And I understand, you know, to a certain point, you know, you need to, maybe it's a starter.
00:14:26.000 You need like a starter package, you know.
00:14:28.000 Something to get started, but we can't carry somebody the entire time.
00:14:33.000 You know, we can only help you.
00:14:35.000 Stand up, and then the rest is on your own.
00:14:38.000 So I think we definitely, I wouldn't say necessarily stop a lot of stuff, just maybe restructure it.
00:14:46.000 You know, have a better understanding of why people are doing the things that they're doing.
00:14:51.000 Well, you made this choice to go into the Army, you then get tapped for Special Forces, you go excel there, and you find yourself in Afghanistan.
00:15:02.000 I know the story, but for those who don't, share your experience in Afghanistan, the mission you were working on, the work you were doing, and then how we ultimately came to meet up at Walter Reed.
00:15:13.000 Yes, absolutely.
00:15:14.000 So it was back in 2020. We deployed January 2020, a week after the new year.
00:15:22.000 And our mission, we were going to be there seven months.
00:15:25.000 And essentially, at that time, The peace talks with the Taliban was the thing that was going on.
00:15:36.000 Unfortunately for us, it was about...
00:15:39.000 People say usually the first 30 days, last 30 days are the most dangerous days in deployment.
00:15:45.000 It was week four.
00:15:49.000 We were doing...
00:15:52.000 A KLE, Key Leader Engagement.
00:15:54.000 There was this area in Afghanistan that just kept getting hammered. 0.99
00:15:58.000 They kept getting hammered by Taliban.
00:16:01.000 And we wanted to go provide aid.
00:16:04.000 So we went to do an engagement with the district governor.
00:16:11.000 And...
00:16:13.000 What we thought it was going to be...
00:16:15.000 I don't want to say thought.
00:16:18.000 What was supposed to be one of the least dangerous missions ended up being the worst day of my life.
00:16:26.000 Before we deploy, we do permission training.
00:16:29.000 And every permission training, we have what's called Mascow.
00:16:32.000 It's like the worst of the worst.
00:16:35.000 And that day, we actually lived it...
00:16:41.000 It was the ANA police that decided to pick up an automatic weapon and fire at us.
00:16:50.000 So one of the people you were there to engage?
00:16:53.000 One of the people that were there to help.
00:16:56.000 One of the persons that were there to help took it upon himself to pick up a weapon and fire on us.
00:17:05.000 He wounded six of us.
00:17:08.000 We lost two brothers.
00:17:10.000 Our anniversary is actually coming up.
00:17:12.000 It's February 8th.
00:17:14.000 And what I remember from that day, as soon as the first burst happened, you kind of put it together.
00:17:26.000 It kind of clicks.
00:17:28.000 And I just felt the rounds impact my body.
00:17:34.000 And I dropped.
00:17:36.000 The body armor covered all the good spots, but from the body armor below, both legs were done.
00:17:44.000 The individual dropped me.
00:17:50.000 And I'm not sure what his intentions were, if he saw me crawling next to my buddy.
00:17:57.000 So when I fell for the first time, you know, the pain had a kink thin yet. 0.92
00:18:02.000 It was the drilling that was still going on.
00:18:05.000 His name is Javier Jaguar Gutierrez.
00:18:13.000 He goes by Jag, for short.
00:18:16.000 He was my communication sergeant at the time.
00:18:22.000 We were right next to each other.
00:18:23.000 You know, I kind of fell forward on my stomach.
00:18:26.000 He was on his back.
00:18:28.000 And right behind him, there was like a little ditch.
00:18:31.000 It wasn't much, but it was something.
00:18:34.000 So we were trying to crawl to it.
00:18:36.000 He was pulling me, trying to get me to him.
00:18:40.000 And within seconds, we heard another burst of fire.
00:18:46.000 And I got impacted a couple more times, and I saw my buddy took a fatal shot.
00:18:54.000 And I think at that point is when everything went quiet.
00:19:00.000 I just, like...
00:19:02.000 I couldn't hear anything anymore.
00:19:04.000 I saw the chaos.
00:19:05.000 I saw the dust.
00:19:06.000 I saw muscle blasts.
00:19:11.000 I just couldn't hear anything.
00:19:16.000 I'm a religious guy. 0.98
00:19:19.000 I pray every now and then because I didn't want the old crap moment to come. 0.98
00:19:26.000 That would be the day I pray. 0.94
00:19:31.000 You know, while I was on the ground looking at my buddy and seeing the chaos around us, the only thing I could think of was my wife and kids.
00:19:44.000 But my first time was...
00:19:49.000 Katie's my wife saying she's going to be pissed. 1.00
00:19:51.000 She told me not to deploy and I said one more and this happens.
00:19:55.000 And with 7th Group, there's intense competition to get on deployments.
00:20:00.000 It is.
00:20:02.000 A lot of competition.
00:20:03.000 Some of your commanders have told me sometimes it can come to blows with Green Berets not wanting to be home but being so willing to be in the fight to have those moments.
00:20:13.000 And it's just, you know, and it's that go-getter mentality, you know.
00:20:16.000 We don't like to settle for being second.
00:20:19.000 We don't like that, you know.
00:20:20.000 If we're not first, we're last.
00:20:22.000 So it's just the mentality that...
00:20:24.000 But there's a full understanding of the sacrifice because I remember when I was there with President Trump when Jaguar...
00:20:30.000 I came home on dignified transfer with Antonio, and the members of the 7th Special Forces Group were standing right there in the rain in observance of that moment.
00:20:42.000 And so it is not a decision that seems entered in too lightly.
00:20:46.000 But now, well, you came back.
00:20:50.000 You were at Walter Reed.
00:20:52.000 You continued your service in the military and now you're out in civilian life, working in the private sector.
00:21:00.000 Tell us a little bit about your family, your wife, your kids and sort of what life's like now beyond service.
00:21:10.000 I'm still trying to figure that out, sir.
00:21:12.000 I just retired in September of last year.
00:21:18.000 I just started working for a company, doing cybersecurity, trying to figure that out.
00:21:24.000 I figured I was a communications guy, switched over to intelligence.
00:21:31.000 But transitioning to the civilian side, in general, I feel like I'm starting over again.
00:21:41.000 I give a big shout out to my wife. 1.00
00:21:43.000 She's the one that keeps it together.
00:21:44.000 Everybody thinks we're tough, but that's because they haven't met our wives.
00:21:49.000 That's true.
00:21:53.000 Maybe I could answer that question in six months because right now I'm still trying to figure it out.
00:22:00.000 And this is something that we see kind of across the economy.
00:22:04.000 So many businesses wanting to hire veterans because of the skill set, because of the discipline, because of the sense of purpose and mission, and so many veterans transitioning to corporate and civilian life.
00:22:18.000 Having to feel like it's so different and the energy and the tempo sometimes doesn't really compare from what I've heard from a lot of folks.
00:22:28.000 What advice would you give people that have just, you know, made that initial step like you have to just where you are saying, look, I'm going to take these skills that the United States Army taught me.
00:22:39.000 I'm going to put them to work for my career progression, for my family.
00:22:43.000 How would you advise people that are kind of on that initial step of the path?
00:22:48.000 I would say they need to ask themselves two questions.
00:22:54.000 What do they think their purpose is and what do they want to do?
00:22:58.000 If they could answer those two questions and find something that they have in common, that's a good place to start.
00:23:06.000 We could do that with a lot of the folks in Congress and probably improve the place a good bit.
00:23:10.000 Joined by Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta, my guest to the State of the Union, served in Afghanistan, was injured there, came back and is living a great life in Northwest Florida and we couldn't be prouder of him.
00:23:22.000 When we were at your retirement ceremony, you really reflected on the need for people to focus on mental health for a lot of the folks who are still in active duty and just getting out of active duty.
00:23:34.000 Why is that important to you?
00:23:36.000 Why was that something you really wanted to draw focus on?
00:23:42.000 At first, just like everybody, I thought it was a myth.
00:23:47.000 I thought it was just another excuse for people to not do what they needed to do.
00:23:53.000 Once I started seeing not how it just affected me, how it affects my family, that's when it clicked.
00:24:00.000 You know, that's when it clicked that this is real and we need to do something about it.
00:24:06.000 And when I saw how hard it was for me to get help while being active duty, I started paying attention to my surroundings and started realizing that I wasn't the only one.
00:24:22.000 Maybe it's the background that I have.
00:24:24.000 Maybe it's, you know, the training that I had.
00:24:26.000 I just didn't take no for an answer.
00:24:28.000 So, you know, I'm at the point that I'm still working with my issues, but, you know, I feel like part of my calling is to help others.
00:24:36.000 And I think that...
00:24:39.000 Maybe some people are afraid to speak up.
00:24:42.000 I'll be that voice for them.
00:24:43.000 I'll speak up for them.
00:24:44.000 I'll say what I need to say in order to get them to talk to somebody.
00:24:48.000 Is that the biggest problem?
00:24:50.000 Just to get people to...
00:24:51.000 To open up.
00:24:52.000 I think so.
00:24:53.000 From what I've talked to people, it's...
00:24:55.000 I don't know why.
00:24:59.000 It's two emotions come, two feelings.
00:25:04.000 Shame and regret.
00:25:07.000 Those are two things that not a lot of people like to feel.
00:25:10.000 We don't want to feel like that.
00:25:12.000 But mental health is not something that you should regret, that you should be shameful.
00:25:19.000 Because it's not permanent.
00:25:21.000 We can fix it.
00:25:22.000 There's ways that we can fix it.
00:25:26.000 And mainly, if we can get people to open up about it and say, hey, this is a problem, I think that's a very good start.
00:25:34.000 We need more people to be open about it.
00:25:36.000 You know, it's interesting in a lot of our military policy, we have historically always assessed how physically able is this particular group of people for a deployment, for a particular mission, and now we're starting to do those types of assessment for people's mental health based on rapid deployment schedule,
00:25:57.000 based on the intensity and acuity of the conflict, Distance, duration, all those types of things can inform on readiness, really, in a lot of ways for active duty.
00:26:08.000 And that's a key word, sir.
00:26:09.000 I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but readiness.
00:26:11.000 We do readiness before every deployment.
00:26:14.000 We get somewhat of a physical before deployments to make sure we're physically capable of doing what we need to do.
00:26:22.000 How bad is it to add an extra day just to check our heads, make sure we're right?
00:26:26.000 We don't really do that in the military.
00:26:29.000 I think that's very important.
00:26:31.000 And now that I'm a little more open about it and people are listening, that's the good thing.
00:26:38.000 People are actually listening now.
00:26:40.000 And I will say that back in 7th Group, The doors are opening.
00:26:47.000 I see more and more people reaching out every week.
00:26:50.000 It brings joy to my heart.
00:26:53.000 Because I love my military brothers.
00:26:55.000 I love them, especially my Green Berets.
00:26:58.000 Well, it is such a special mission and a special group of people.
00:27:02.000 And the way you talk about the tight-knit family networks is on display whenever we get a chance to go to any events with Seventh Group.
00:27:10.000 It is like a big family reunion every time we all get the chance to get together.
00:27:15.000 And I know how proud they are of you and that you continue to be a voice for people who are wearing the uniform still.
00:27:23.000 It's an inspirational thing.
00:27:25.000 I couldn't have had a better guest for the State of the Union and excited you're here with me and glad you joined me on Firebrand.
00:27:31.000 Sir, it's a pleasure.
00:27:32.000 Thank you.
00:27:37.000 Before we go, an apology from me.
00:27:41.000 Last week my office extended an invitation to a veteran to lead the House Judiciary Committee in the Pledge of Allegiance.
00:27:47.000 It was a unifying moment for Republicans and Democrats in the committee to open the business of the committee with a reminder of why we serve the American people, led by someone who once fought for our country.
00:28:01.000 Unfortunately, my decision caused some unintended consequences.
00:28:05.000 The veteran I invited had prior involvement with law enforcement Which I was unaware of until after the ceremony in the Judiciary Committee.
00:28:13.000 The family affected by this activity brought the situation to my attention.
00:28:18.000 And I'm glad they did.
00:28:20.000 When our office encounters a veteran in need of assistance, our first thoughts aren't, let's run a background check, or I wonder if this person had any run-ins with the law that might make someone look bad.
00:28:32.000 Our first thought when we see a veteran is to thank them for their service and to think about how we can be helpful and productive.
00:28:41.000 Congressional offices don't look like the inside of any sort of law enforcement headquarters.
00:28:47.000 We don't have access to any type of surveillance technology or databases that would rise to the level of even some of the folks you'd see in your local police department.
00:28:58.000 We do have a team of dedicated young professionals who don't look for and assume the worst in our constituents and especially our veterans.
00:29:07.000 They maximize their capabilities by using them with good intentions and sometimes even with the best of intentions we fall short.
00:29:15.000 I apologize to the family For the unintended pain that our invitation caused to them.
00:29:22.000 Going forward we will use this experience to better inform on our standard operating procedure for inviting guests to ceremonies and official events.
00:29:32.000 Thank you so much for joining us today on Firebrand.
00:29:35.000 We'll be back soon.
00:29:37.000 Roll the credits.