Courage Under Fire ｜ OMAR "CRISPY" AVILA
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 6 minutes
Words per Minute
201.04117
Summary
Omar Crispy Avila is a retired Army veteran who served with the United States Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served with distinction in the elite elite SEAL Team Six and served as a member of the elite United States Air Force elite commando team known as the Green Berets. He is a man of action, who lived life to the fullest, and used his experiences in combat to help others learn how to be a better man. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to exhibit extreme courage under fire, and how to overcome survivor's guilt.
Transcript
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What does it take to exhibit extreme courage under fire? Now, I wish I could tell you there
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was an exact formula for performing well under life and death pressure, but there just isn't.
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But what I can tell you is that my guest today, Omar Crispy Avila, is a man who has done just
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that. When in Iraq, his vehicle was hit by an IED, sending it six feet in the air. I don't
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want to ruin the story by telling you about the resulting fallout and how Crispy conducted
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himself. But I will say that you're not going to want to miss this one. We also talk about
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using humor as a way to calm down a situation, overcoming survivor's guilt, how to train properly
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for unknown events, and how every man can learn to develop courage under fire.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time you
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are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This
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is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said
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and done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name
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is Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement.
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Thank you for being on this path with me, the path to reclaiming and restoring masculinity
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and stepping up fully as good and capable men. If you're new to this podcast, we've got some
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great interviews with some phenomenal, phenomenal men. These are guys like Crispy, who's on the
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podcast today, but also Jocko Willink, David Goggins, Grant Cardone, Brian Rose, Andy Frisilla.
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Oh man, I hate to even mention any names because the men that we've had on have been absolutely
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incredible, which is a testament to the message that we're sharing of reclaiming and restoring
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masculinity, but it's also a testament to you and the power of the order, which is you
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guys sharing and promoting and being on this path. It's the reason why we have so many powerful
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men who want to join us in these conversations on the podcast. This is a very, very powerful
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conversation. I'm so honored to be able to have it with somebody I have admired and respected
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for a very long time. We're going to get to the introduction and the conversation in just
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a quick minute. I do want to make a mention of my friends over at origin. I know I talk
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about them a lot. That's because I wholeheartedly believe in what they're doing and they've made
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some big shifts and pivots over the past several months. As a result of coronavirus and the fallout
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from that, they shut down production on their denim and their boots temporarily, and then moved
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over to masks. I think the last number that I saw, they had made over 40,000 masks.
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Which is an absolutely incredible feat, which they're doing over there. Now they're starting
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to pivot into some equipment for your physical health. They've got some plyo boxes. They've
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got a new tool called the burden bag, which is a leather bag that's shaped like a kettlebell.
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I have one. I love it. I use it. It's very versatile and it's a cool piece of equipment. So you
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can check that. I think they're on pre-order right now, but then they've got their nutritional
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supplemental lineup partnered up with Jocko Willink and they've got a lot going on. So
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you're definitely going to check it out. You can head to order of not order of man. That's
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my website. You can go to their website, origin, main origin, main.com and use the code order
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O R D E R at checkout. So it's origin, main. Don't go to my website. It's origin, main.com
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and use the code order at checkout. All right, guys, let me introduce you to my guest. His name
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is Omar Crispy. He goes by Crispy Avila, and he is a retired army combat veteran. But more than
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that, he's somebody who is extremely, extremely influential in the veteran community and has used
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his very unfortunate circumstances in the past to lift and inspire millions of people across the
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planet. He sustained catastrophic damage to his body when his vehicle was hit with an IED and he
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survived having over 75% of his body burned. And at the time he was rendered nearly blind. You're
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going to hear more about that in the conversation. I was walking around at SHOT Show in Las Vegas
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several months ago with, with my two oldest boys. And I saw him walk by and I stopped him and introduced
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myself. And he was very gracious to be able to take some time with me and, and talked with my boys as
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well. What an incredible person. I invited him to join us on the podcast because I've always been
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inspired by how he lives his life. He uses humor with the Black Rifle Coffee Company guys. I'm sure
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you've seen, you've seen some of his stuff. And frankly, I'm just, again, inspired by the kind of
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man he is. Crispy. What's up, brother? Thanks for joining me on the call today. Oh man. Thanks for
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having me. Yeah. I was glad we met. We met at Western Expo. I think I bumped into you and I was
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glad to be able to connect over there. Yeah. Before all this madness where you couldn't be
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close to people. Yeah, I know. It's weird. I, you know, it's funny is I, uh, I, I went to Western
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Expo. Um, then I went to SHOT Show. Were you at SHOT as well? Yeah, I was. Yeah. And I came
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back, I swear I had coronavirus from SHOT Show. Forget about two months later. Cause it was rough
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when I got back. Man. So we did, um, we did Disney, uh, Disney world, uh, with, uh, my fiance
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and my niece and nephew. We came home. That was like between like the, was it December 30th
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through like no, the January the 4th or something like that. And then we got home and then I went
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to ATA, uh, came home. Then I went to SHOT Show, came home. And then I went to Western Hunter Expo,
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came home and I was supposed to do another trade show. And man, I was done. I said, I'm not doing
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anything else. I feel horrible. I had a, uh, Z-Pak and some other vitamins. And then after that I was
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golden, but I was like, I'm staying home for a bit. Oh man, I don't blame you. I think either
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between, you know, if you weren't immune to everything through the military already, uh,
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getting through the, uh, the, uh, show season will definitely build up your immunities cause
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you're around thousands and thousands of people. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Definitely. Um, I've, I've heard,
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um, I've heard there's been a few cases to come out of, uh, SHOT Show cause you know, a lot of,
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uh, a lot of, yeah, a lot of Chinese people come over for that. I mean, that's, you know,
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it's one of the biggest trade shows in the gun world and you have manufacturers from all over
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the world. Apparently, um, someone that I know, um, got the coronavirus because they were interacting
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with a lot of people from Asia, um, at their booth. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. Neither
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did I. It took me by surprise. Yeah. I mean, who knows? Like we have no idea how long this thing's
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been going around for. We have no idea, you know, who's been exposed and how many people are actually
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exposed in the U S we just have no idea right now. It's, it's pretty wild. It is. It really is.
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Are you, uh, are you in Texas? Where are you located? I am. I'm in Texas. I'm in the Hill
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country. I'm about, um, and now we're South of Austin and then now we're, uh, North of, uh, San
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Antonio. Okay. Right on. Cool. Yeah. Good place to be during times like these. Oh man. We, uh,
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we're in a small town. Um, just love it out here. It's quiet. You know, I mean, dude,
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I'm looking at deer across my yard right now. And, uh, um, it's just, nobody here is panicking.
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Everybody's super, um, polite and respectful. And, you know, you go to the stores and then
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you, the elderly are going first and, um, there's a line, you know, they're letting certain
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amount of people go in at a time. No one's screaming, no one's complaining about it. We
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all understand, uh, just taking, you know, the measures that need to be taking. And, you
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know, I go out and check my mailbox and then it's quiet, man. There's a lot of people around
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and I think people are getting the picture here is like, just stay home. I know it's hard
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and it's, dude, it's super hard for me because everything that I do is traveling. You know, I
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got to go to places and get everything done. But I think it comes to a point where even
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even if you think it's not that serious, just stay at home for a little while and wait it
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out and then go about your day. Like it's not that hard. I think we're making it harder
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than what it is. And everybody out there is just like, it's a hoax. It's not that bad.
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It's not as bad as the flu. I mean, it's not as bad as the flu now because we don't have
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any data on it. We don't know what it does. We don't know anything about it.
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So you can't compare to anything else. I think that's where everybody's getting caught
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up and, you know, we're making things up in our mind that it's not that bad. It's not
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that bad. But in reality, I mean, dude, look at New York. They have the highest people get
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infected right now because they live so close to one another. You know, I mean, they're
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nearly on top of each other and it's going crazy there. There's more cases there than
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anywhere else in the US. So I don't know, man. It's just, I love where I'm at. It's
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beautiful, man. I just, I've always been born and raised here in Texas and I just, I wouldn't
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Yeah, man. I mean, we're in a similar boat up here in Maine is, you know, we live in a
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real rural area. Everybody's kind. Everybody's friendly. I actually imagine for the most part,
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that's most of the people's situations where, where people are being respectful of each other.
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People are trying to help each other out, but you know, you gotta, you gotta spin it. You gotta
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make it more sensationalized than it really is when it comes to the media. Otherwise people
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won't pay attention. So I think there's a threat there that we ought to be aware of and we ought
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to take it with some level of seriousness, but we've got to be careful of taking what the
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media spins to heart and then assuming that that's just the way it is because they portray
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Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I've heard a million different things. Um, and I just, I just can't
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stop laughing at them. Like I've seen people like, Oh, hold your breath for 30 seconds.
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If nothing hurts and if you don't cough, you're good. I'm like, dude, that's not scientific
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improvement. Like, what are you guys doing? Um, I don't know, man, I'm in the same boat.
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Like I think the media is blowing it way out of proportion as well. Um, because it's now,
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I think it came at a time where nobody was looking at the news. Nobody was watching the
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news and their numbers were dropping. And all of a sudden this comes out and now people
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are glued to the TV and every 30 seconds, it's like, Oh, we got new information on this.
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And then, you know, you got people out there that legit think that the media puts out what's
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in our best interest or where, what we're looking for when the reality is like, no, they're looking
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to put something out to create a little bit of chaos to keep you glued and to get their numbers
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up because now you're watching the TV and now you're watching the commercials and everything
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that spikes up and now they're able to sell more and stay alive. Yep. Yep. That's exactly
00:11:11.940
right. Well, I mean, I look at someone like you and I know, I know how, how, uh, plugged
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in you are to the community. I know your, your desire to always serve and lead. I mean,
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that's something you've been doing for, I mean, your, your life. Is that something that
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you feel like you're able to do to the level that you want to now? Like, how are you serving
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in your community? Uh, with, with, with, with your neighbors? Like, what is it that you're
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doing to, to be that type of man? I mean, you know, man, it's just like, I've always
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told people that it's like my, my time and service is done to this country, but not to
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my community and anywhere that I can, any, any, any way that I can help out here in the
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community, I am going to do it. So, um, you know, we're trying to help out and giving out
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coffee to the first responders around here. I mean, I actually have a box that I'm going
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to take to them here, uh, after we're done with the podcast, um, taking them coffee to
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make sure they're awake or they're, they're visually doing their job. Um, and, and anyway,
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man, uh, I'm, uh, involved here with VFW in our hometown and, um, they, they have things
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they're coming up with. And once they, they establish what they're going to want to do
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and how we can help, then we'll go on. But I know we're talking about helping out the
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elderly that live here that can't get out to the stores where we'll go buy their groceries
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and leave it at their door without having interaction or anything just, just to be safe
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for them. Um, so, you know, it is, and it's just not only that, I think serving, um, your
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community is just being there listening and, you know, leading when you need to lead and
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following when you need to follow. Um, so there's a bunch of different ways that you can continue
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to serve and not just by acting and doing stuff out there, but, you know, staying vigilant and
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helping others when, when someone needs help. Yeah. Yeah. I've noticed is just, just exercise
00:13:00.000
a little creativity, a little, uh, a little initiative, a little assertiveness and the
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opportunities are there. You know, if you're, if you're scratching your head, wondering how
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you can serve and how you can help, I almost think that you're not real interested in doing
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it. You're interested in appearing like you're doing it because there's so many opportunities.
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If you just open your eyes for a second and look, even if it's just, man, just calling
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a friend up, right. Or, or, or sending a message and telling somebody you appreciate them or
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you're thinking about them just for sure like that. You know, I love like making people laugh
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on my Instagram. I think, uh, you know, when I put out funny videos or stuff like that, I
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think maybe that's a little bit of like giving back to the community where it'll brighten someone's
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day up and they're not like, maybe it'll take them 30 seconds away from, you know, this
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epidemic that's going on. And then they're not thinking about it. And if they were able
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to laugh at something that put out, like to me, I'm like, yes, that's, that's kind
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of serving in a way because I took that focus and that panic out of you for about 30 seconds
00:14:00.660
Right. Yeah. That's one of the things I appreciate a lot about what you're doing. And, and even,
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you know, the entire crew with black rifle coffee is man, you guys are just funny. You're
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putting out great information. You're serving people, you're helping people, you're employing
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veterans. And then you're just having a good time, you know? And like so many of us, and
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I fall into this camp as well, are so uptight and, and like a stick up our ass about everything.
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And to be able to just let the guard down just for a second and laugh and appreciate something
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that's funny and not be offended by it, which I'm sure is something you deal with all the
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time. Uh, but just using that humor is, is really powerful.
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And it's, it's a, it's a great therapy, man. I'll be honest with you. Like, um, when I was
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in the hospital, you know, there was guys that were worse than me and others that weren't
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as bad as me. And we started joking with one another. And I remember one of our buddies
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came in and he was a good friend of mine now. Um, and I met him, we were talking and, you
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know, I was like, Hey, I'm Omar Vila. And he's like, Oh, you're, you're Mexican. I was
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like, yeah. He goes, Oh, the refried beer. And I was like, Oh dude, that's a good one.
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And I just started laughing. I was like, man, I like this guy. Like that's, that's
00:15:12.260
awesome. So we started making fun of our injuries. You know, we made light of the
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situation and I feel like that was one of the most therapeutical things that I could
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have had ever done because it made me take charge of my injuries. You know, I don't
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let my injuries consume me. And I think that's the problem nowadays when you let
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something consume you that, that is meant to harm you, it's, what's going to break
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you. But if you're able to own it and wear it with pride and just, you know, just
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buckle down and say, here we go. I think that's the, um, that's the best therapy you
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can do. And that's what humor did to me. Um, you know, that's kind of why, you know,
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like all the guys from Matt, from Evan, JT, Logan, all of us, uh, like Rafa, we try to
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make light of the situation or things that are going on and we all find each
00:16:06.760
other in the same space that we can take it to that dark humor that everybody
00:16:11.840
else is accustomed to with not really caring if you offend somebody or not,
00:16:17.260
because it's something that shouldn't take, shouldn't be taken so seriously.
00:16:22.360
And, you know, you see it now, like comedians, man, are having such a hard time
00:16:26.600
because they go up there, they tell a joke, something that's clearly a joke that
00:16:30.520
they don't mean. And it gets twisted up and now they catch themselves apologizing
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for a joke. Um, so that's kind of what we fall into. Like, even if you, you know, I
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get it a lot and then, uh, I just really don't care. Um, I just, I care of those
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that laugh and enjoy it and really don't care about those that don't.
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I kind of believe that even humor is supposed to be offensive in a way because it gets
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you talking about the conversations that everybody's thinking, but nobody's willing
00:17:03.080
to discuss and talk about. And so it is most, it seems to me, the humor that's funny
00:17:08.000
is taboo, right? Like it's, it's kind of off limits, but we give that permission to
00:17:12.500
those who are funny to talk about it as, as like a release valve, because if nobody's
00:17:17.000
saying the funny stuff, everybody's just walking around and they're all on eggshells
00:17:20.800
and they're all offended about everything. And it just becomes a big issue. So it seems to
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me like we have to give permission to people to be able to laugh and mock and ridicule and
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joke about things without getting so uptight and offended about everything. It's craziness.
00:17:34.460
It is. It is. I don't understand it. Um, but Hey, it's the, it's the new world we live
00:17:40.860
Yeah. Well, and that's, I guess that's good too, because then it gives you a place and
00:17:44.740
an opportunity to step into it and people can really appreciate it because it's not as
00:17:48.020
prevalent. Right. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Uh, 100%. So, so talk to me about your, your
00:17:54.760
military experience. Did you join after nine 11? I think I understood that correctly.
00:17:59.620
I did. So I was a sophomore when I live and happened. Um, and then kind of, that's kind
00:18:05.620
of what, what started it off for me. Um, I remember being in the classroom and saw everything
00:18:11.260
go down and, um, I don't know if you know this, but I wasn't born in the U S I was actually
00:18:18.920
I did know that. Yeah. Your, your dad was, uh, served in the military before he was even
00:18:25.540
Yep. Yep. He was a resident, um, before, uh, he was a resident and then became a citizen.
00:18:30.380
Right. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah. So we, um, you know, we came to this country when I was nine
00:18:36.940
years old and my sophomore year is when I became a citizen and I was actually two weeks
00:18:41.100
before nine 11 happened. Um, so at that point, you know, I, I, I, I was very thankful that
00:18:47.980
I had given the opportunity that I was given the opportunity to be any, to be anything that
00:18:52.100
I wanted to be in this country. Not only me, but my mom, uh, my brother and my sister, you
00:18:57.980
know, they were U S citizens and they could become anything that they wanted to become.
00:19:02.740
So when nine 11 happened, I felt very true. Like I was born and raised here in the U S like
00:19:11.080
I knew I was an American citizen to the core and I was an American and I just felt like
00:19:16.720
that's what I needed to do. I needed to go fight and take it to them because they had
00:19:21.560
punched us, uh, at a time where we, we didn't expect it. And I just wanted to go over there
00:19:27.500
and fight those bastards. I didn't want them to come here and having, you know, my, my brother
00:19:33.840
and sister and mom and dad have to worry about those guys being in our country doing, you
00:19:39.280
know, harmful things or, or, or who knows, man, you know, just bad things to a lot of
00:19:43.760
people. So that's ultimately what made me joined. Um, and then went in as an infantryman. Um,
00:19:50.180
I did a lot of research and, um, you know, I wanted to do the whole, um, special forces
00:19:56.040
thing and whatnot, but I looked at it and it was going to be 18 months of training before
00:20:01.540
I could even deploy. So I said, all right, I'm going to go, I'm going to go infantry first,
00:20:05.900
you know, get a couple of deployments under my belt, get some, get some knowledge behind
00:20:10.560
me and then go that route. Um, and that's, that's kind of what I did. So I ended up going
00:20:15.440
infantry and, and went in and then went on a deployment and, you know, May 14th, uh, of
00:20:22.820
2007 was when my vehicle got hit with a, with an IED. And ultimately we saw that it to 75% burns
00:20:30.300
to the body, 34th degree burns and, uh, had a, uh, metal torso amputation, which is just
00:20:37.320
half the foot that they took. Um, and then nine years later and they're resulting to an
00:20:45.860
Was it, uh, was it due to infection or just complications that continue to come up or what,
00:20:51.800
Yeah. So I, I blame Donnie O'Malley from Vet TV 100% for this because at the time he was
00:20:58.900
the one that started the, uh, the hiking situation for the 22 veterans a day. And he hosted one
00:21:05.540
in Austin and I was living in Austin at the time. And he's like, dude, let's do it. Come
00:21:10.680
on, bring it. I was like, let's do it, bro. Put on my, uh, my rucksack. And I overdid a
00:21:16.780
little bit. I, I, you know, we were supposed to do 22 pounds. I ended up doing like 50 or
00:21:21.000
something in my head and my thing. And, uh, you know, we go on this road march. It was
00:21:26.360
22 miles and, uh, finished the whole thing. And, um, the bottom of my foot, uh, I had a
00:21:35.540
big old scar or the other half a foot and it ended up opening up. And with burns, you
00:21:43.180
kind of get used to injuries, not healing up so fast because it just takes a little
00:21:48.580
longer. And, um, I came home and opened up and I was like, dang it. All right. So I had
00:21:55.260
all the medical equipment you can think of in my house, being a burn patient and having
00:21:58.800
over a hundred surgeries. I have every, I can perform a small surgery right now if I wanted
00:22:03.780
to. So I was like, I can take care of this. So I started packing it. I started doing all
00:22:08.300
these things and, um, it wasn't working. It wasn't working. I go to the VA and, you
00:22:14.360
know, I sit down with my, uh, doctor and I was like, Hey dog, like this is not healing
00:22:20.080
up. What do you think it is? And she looked at it and she was like, Oh, just put this
00:22:24.860
in there. You'll be fine. Don't worry about it. You know, you're good to go. And I said,
00:22:28.920
okay, come home. And, you know, five months later, it's not healing. It's not healing.
00:22:34.160
And then finally, um, Kristen, my fiance now, she's like, you need to go get that looked
00:22:39.500
at and you need to go to BAMC and BAMC is a, uh, it's called Brooke army medical center
00:22:44.560
in San Antonio, which is the best burn unit in the world and happens to be a military,
00:22:50.400
uh, medical installation. That's where all the burn guys go to. Um, so all the doctors
00:22:56.680
that know me, man, I mean, like I said, a hundred and some surgeries and all done there.
00:23:00.340
Um, they, they know you very well. I spent three years in the hospital, so they, they
00:23:05.220
know me. Um, so I walked in and I say, Hey doc, like, this is, this, this hurts, man.
00:23:11.040
Like, I don't know what to do. And so they're like, all right, let me look at it.
00:23:15.860
They look at it. Like, we're going to schedule surgery. Let's go in there and see what's
00:23:18.740
going on, clean it up and close it. And I was like, all right, let's do that. So they
00:23:23.040
go in and they actually ended up finding a local cancer. Um, it wasn't spreading.
00:23:30.100
Yeah. It wasn't spreading. It wasn't doing anything. And it was from what the
00:23:32.780
chemicals and the ID from Iraq. Um, so they came back, they, they brought me back
00:23:39.440
out and said, Hey, there's, there's more in there. We just didn't want to keep you
00:23:43.300
under for so long, but we're going to have to do another surgery. And I said, fine,
00:23:47.680
I get it. We scheduled surgery like a week later, we go back in, they take
00:23:52.300
everything out. Well, they took so much skin and meat and stuff from, from the, from
00:23:58.420
the place from the bottom of the foot that they closed me up. And after a
00:24:04.020
couple of weeks or like, you can walk on it now. Um, I went to go take a step
00:24:07.920
and I just, all the stitches broke and it just hurt a lot worse. Yeah. Um, so it
00:24:12.780
wasn't healing because I had like no meat or anything in there for it to actually
00:24:16.360
heal. It was just a big old circle in there. Like they scooped up ice cream or
00:24:21.720
something. And, um, I, I, I sat down, I talked to Kristen and, you know, I told her, I was
00:24:29.200
like, Hey, look, I'm in a lot of pain. I just don't think this is going to heal. Like
00:24:33.440
I want to amputate, you know, this thing and get in a prosthetic and get going. And, you
00:24:39.880
know, we had a conversation and I talked to my parents as well. Cause I wanted to have
00:24:43.920
this amputation done like nine years ago, but you know, my mom, you know, she was
00:24:50.640
always crying and she was like, if you have it, just keep it. And my sister as
00:24:54.700
well. So, you know, I kept it for a long time. And then I finally just told him,
00:24:58.120
I was like, look, I'm in pain. I just, I just want to be done with this and move
00:25:02.880
forward in my life. And yeah, I understood. So, uh, we went in on a Friday and the
00:25:08.720
doc walked in and he walked in with an ortho, uh, surgeon and I,
00:25:13.920
I was like, I already knew what they're going to say, but in my mind, I already
00:25:17.060
made it. So I bit him to the punch and they're like, Hey, it's not healing.
00:25:19.640
And I said, doc, cut the damn thing off already. And then the other dog next to him
00:25:24.260
was like, well, that's kind of why I'm here. And I said, well, let's go. Can we do
00:25:27.920
it today? And they're like, ah, how about you go home for the weekend? Come back on
00:25:31.980
Monday. We'll do the surgery Monday. And then, uh, and then, you know, we go from
00:25:36.380
there and I was like, cool. So that's what ended up happening. Uh, went home, spend the
00:25:41.560
weekend, uh, at home and then came in on Monday, had the surgery, um, spent five
00:25:47.460
days in the hospital. They released me on Friday and this was like late August. I
00:25:52.340
think August 30th is when I had the surgery. Um, and then after that, they, uh, they
00:25:57.500
told me that by the third week of December, I was going to be in a prosthetic
00:26:01.760
walking. Um, I actually got in a prosthetic the second week of November. I was
00:26:06.760
walking. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah. So it's pretty quick. And you got back on top of it
00:26:11.440
fairly quick. I mean, night and day, man, it was night and day. Um, Kristen did
00:26:15.740
such a good job of changing my diet up, started eating very clean. Um, I think
00:26:20.240
we were doing paleo at the time and, you know, just eating clean and staying
00:26:24.540
healthy helped my, um, my injury just healed a lot faster or the, or the
00:26:30.540
amputation healed super fast. I mean, we were fast track and even the doctors
00:26:34.080
were like, man, this looks really good. I was like, cool. Um, so he'll up pretty
00:26:39.000
fast and was able to get in a prosthetic that quick. And, you know, I haven't
00:26:41.900
been, I haven't looked back there ever since. Um, we've had some bumps along the
00:26:46.200
road, which are minor fixes, you know, but it was worth it. I should have done that
00:26:53.560
a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like it. No, that's good. You know, I was
00:26:57.240
really interested cause I was looking at some of your story, uh, from, from that
00:27:01.840
encounter with the IED. It seems like even though you had 70% burns, like were those,
00:27:07.260
were those heat burns or was it chemical burns? Was it a combination of both? Like
00:27:11.280
what, what, what happened in that scenario? So we, we ran over an IED and so what
00:27:17.180
ended up happening is it was a command detonation, meaning there was a guy
00:27:20.940
watching us, you know, pushing the button. Right. And I think he was too close and
00:27:29.360
panicked a little cause he was supposed to hit it in the middle. Oh, okay. If we
00:27:33.540
would've got on the Humvee right in the middle, we all would have been dead. I mean,
00:27:37.000
without a doubt, but we think he panicked a little and pressed it a little too
00:27:41.280
late. So what ended up doing is it hit the back of the Humvee, pushing it up in
00:27:46.280
the air and all that diesel just went everywhere and it started burning inside
00:27:50.760
the Humvee. So it's a combination of the IED, the diesel, um, the extra rounds that
00:27:59.700
we had in the vehicle, the extra grenades. I mean, it was just a combination of a
00:28:03.480
bunch of different things, uh, that, that ended up causing the burns.
00:28:07.760
Yes. And then were you, were you in the front and then there was guys in the back
00:28:11.980
or what was, what was the seating situation? So I was a gunner, um, on that, on that
00:28:17.740
vehicle. Okay. Yeah. So you were up top, you were outside of the turret there. Okay,
00:28:21.600
man. I was that 50 Cal is that what it is up there? Yep. 50 Cal. Yeah. And then, um, I was
00:28:28.500
just impressed with your ability to assess the situation, even despite your injuries
00:28:34.820
and what you were dealing with and then actually lead yourself. And if I understand
00:28:39.320
correctly, somebody else out of that, out of harm's way into a more secure, either the
00:28:45.680
Yeah. So what ended up happening was when we started the, I mean, I'll give you the
00:28:51.480
quick rundown. So when we started the patrol, we went out on a five vehicle convoy. I was
00:28:55.520
the third vehicle. Um, so when that ended up happening is we're traveling at 12 o'clock
00:28:59.980
and we started getting, getting engaged at a nine o'clock where the first two vehicles
00:29:04.460
couldn't turn where the enemy, um, the enemy fire was coming from because they had already
00:29:09.800
passed the street. So we ended up turning. So we turn and I'm looking down,
00:29:15.680
the street and I see all these Iraqis there with RPKs and AKs just shooting at us. And
00:29:20.880
you know, at that moment I was like, adrenaline kicks in and you know, everything that you've
00:29:26.660
trained for just kind of all comes in and you get that tunnel vision. So all I could
00:29:31.200
see was them and I just get behind my 50 and I started laying that fire. Oh yeah, man,
00:29:36.020
lit a couple of them up. Um, and as we're doing that, everybody else falls into formation.
00:29:40.740
So now being the third vehicle, I became the first, um, leading the whole convoy. And as
00:29:48.420
we're doing that, we all fall back into place and then we all trend again because we started
00:29:52.000
getting engaged from a different road. Well, we started going that way and I see them and
00:29:58.900
I just start lining them up. And at that moment we went over a hump and I'm trying to process what
00:30:06.460
this hump was because we've been there about 11 months. And at this point we knew every single
00:30:11.620
street, like the back of our hands, man, we, we definitely knew these streets and, you know,
00:30:17.800
we learned them in a quick time because we were supposed to be out of there by 12 months. So
00:30:21.720
we were supposed to stop at 10 months patrolling and then we moved back to the big base, get all
00:30:26.900
our stuff together and head home. But at that moment, it's when we got extended to 15 month
00:30:30.940
deployments. Um, you know, I, and it was a good call on president Bush because we weren't getting
00:30:38.520
a lot accomplished at 10 months. So we would have left at 15, you stay there at 13 months and then
00:30:44.360
you push out the last two and then you get more accomplished. So that's kind of what had happened.
00:30:48.960
We should have been home and, um, we ran over this bump and I'm, like I said, I'm processing
00:30:54.560
everything. Like, wait a minute, that wasn't there. That wasn't supposed to be there. Wait,
00:30:58.400
what was that? And then the loudest idea that I've ever heard in my life was off and it pushed
00:31:05.420
the vehicle up in the air. Um, you're talking about a one ton vehicle, uh, about five or six
00:31:10.260
feet in the air. And then when we come down, me being on the gun, my legs gave out when we hit
00:31:16.280
the ground and I fell to the back right-hand side where, uh, specialist Harky was. And I remember
00:31:23.380
falling and just laying on his lap and I looked into his eyes and his eyes were just white, man.
00:31:29.900
Like he was, he, he died on impact. And, uh, I just remember looking at his eyes and then I rolled
00:31:36.820
over and I looked to the left and I saw Fleming, uh, Sergeant Fleming opened the door and he jumped
00:31:43.660
out and I saw him running on fire and it was super slow, but fast, man. Like everything slowed
00:31:49.800
down, but it was quick. And then I saw the driver to, uh, Catterton jump out on flames and then they
00:31:55.700
went out on my side and I couldn't see. And, uh, one of my best friends was the, uh, the truck commander,
00:32:01.760
the TC in the front, and he couldn't get out because his equipment had burned into the seat of
00:32:08.740
the Humvee and he, he was very weak, was very, very injured. Couldn't get out used to the seat
00:32:13.700
or something. Yeah. All his equipment. And, um, he, uh, he reached over to me and grabbed me on the
00:32:19.840
leg and he was like, get out, get out, get out of the Humvee. And, you know, I was like, dude,
00:32:25.000
I'm good. Like, you know, in our world, it's either you come home alive or you don't, I had no,
00:32:30.940
I had no idea that you can come home wounded and live somewhat of a normal life. Like that was not
00:32:38.500
in my job description. It's, you know, for us dying in combat, it's, it's the highest honor that,
00:32:44.960
that you can get, you know, and that's kind of where, where I was at. I said, you know,
00:32:48.720
it's been a good run. And up to that point, I had lost, uh, faith in God. Um, I had lost about 15
00:32:55.500
buddies in a row and, you know, I just couldn't process why God was allowing that to happen.
00:33:02.240
So I had lost a little bit of faith and in the midst of the fire and everything that was going on,
00:33:07.780
I just remember making peace with him. And as I was laying there, I asked him for forgiveness.
00:33:13.280
I asked him to look after my brother because he was going to be the oldest now. And I told him to
00:33:19.180
look after my sister. And the one that I was worried about the most was my mom. You know,
00:33:24.160
I told her to, you know, give her patience and virtue and let her heal, um, with me being gone
00:33:31.080
because I knew she was going to take it very hard. And I knew my dad was going to be okay being
00:33:35.060
prior enlisted. He knew what I was getting into. I'm not saying that it wasn't going to be hard for
00:33:39.880
me, for me being gone, but I understood that he was going to be okay. And, um, as I was doing all
00:33:46.300
that, man, I just felt this light come over my body. And like, I just, even to today, I credit God 100%
00:33:53.000
because it was something that just came over my body and said, not today. This is not where you
00:33:56.660
die. Get up and get up. And I got up on the gun and the guys behind us were trying to get to us,
00:34:03.600
but we were pinned down because there was a guy on the, on a rooftop shooting down.
00:34:07.960
And I was able to grab my 50 count, take a couple of rounds. And as I shot a couple of rounds and one
00:34:15.000
of them, one of the rounds cooked off in the barrel because of the fire. Um, and so exploded.
00:34:21.960
And at that moment I was like, Oh shit, I need to get out. I need to get out. So I started climbing.
00:34:26.860
And as I was climbing out, a grenade went off. So, you know, we had extra ammunition in that vehicle.
00:34:32.600
And at this point they had already pulled out compost compost was able to, you know, once those,
00:34:37.140
once that guy was pushed off, they were able to come in. And one of the guys that was actually
00:34:42.320
running towards the Humvee to get him caught around in his sight on the side plate. And it
00:34:47.660
just ended up hitting the side plate where he wasn't severely wounded. Um, but he was able to
00:34:52.800
get him out. And at that point, you know, I'm getting out of the Humvee and as a gunner, your
00:34:58.520
job, you're always taught to either jump in the front hood to get down. Cause you know, the Humvee's
00:35:03.700
about six feet high. Right. And so I was going to do that, but that was all on fire. So if I would
00:35:08.820
have jumped there, I would have gone down with the engine and that pretty much would have been
00:35:12.540
there. So your second option at that point, it's the trunk. So you get on the trunk and
00:35:17.160
then you jump down same situation. Well, that's where most of the fuel was burning off. So I
00:35:22.340
said, all right, I need to jump to the side. So I jumped to the side of the Humvee. And when
00:35:26.400
I landed, you know, it was so severely burned at that moment that when I hit the ground, both
00:35:31.580
of my legs broke and I had both compound fractures, uh, I mean, sorry, my femurs, um,
00:35:37.440
both of my femurs broke and I was still on fire. Um, so when I jumped in, it managed to
00:35:43.780
grab my M4, I was still on fire and I did the whole stop, drop and roll, man. Like
00:35:47.960
got on the ground, started rolling. And let me just tell you that shit doesn't work.
00:35:57.680
Gentlemen, I got to hit the pause button very, very quickly.
00:35:59.860
Uh, I want to talk about prioritizing and executing because if you're anything like
00:36:03.680
me, it's really easy for you to fall into the trap of consumption. I mean, you're, you're
00:36:08.040
listening to this podcast right now, uh, which can definitely be very beneficial, but if you
00:36:12.520
never apply any of what you learn here is, is it even useful? Uh, this is the trap of the
00:36:18.420
self-development space. It's consumption without production, but in the iron council, uh, for
00:36:24.640
the month of May, we're going to be talking about prioritizing the information that you
00:36:28.540
have and the objectives that you've identified for yourself. And then most importantly, putting
00:36:33.340
them into action. It's about unpacking what you want to accomplish in your health, your
00:36:38.660
relationships, your business life in general, and then identifying the order of operations
00:36:43.480
and then putting in the work required to make that happen. Uh, so if you fall into the paralysis
00:36:50.200
by analysis trap, um, if you consume more than you produce, this is the month for you
00:36:56.080
to band with 530 plus like-minded men who are going to help you accomplish more in the
00:37:01.920
next 90 days than potentially you have, uh, in, in a year or even in your entire life.
00:37:07.200
That's how powerful this can be when you band with us. So if you're interested, check it
00:37:11.400
out, head to order of man.com slash iron council. Again, order of man.com slash iron council
00:37:16.780
to learn more and to lock in your spot. You can do that after the podcast for now, we'll
00:37:22.140
get back to it with crispy. So finally one of the guys, yeah, one of the guys from the
00:37:27.140
last vehicle was able to run up to me and he's like, close your eyes, close your eyes. I
00:37:31.460
go, why? And he finally puts me out with a fire extinguisher. And you know, I had all that
00:37:36.120
stuff on me and he's like, I'm going to go get a medic. I'm going to go get a medic.
00:37:40.460
I said, go, go. And he goes, and I started pushing myself away from the Humvee because
00:37:45.480
I can still feel the heat of the Humvee. So I pushed myself to a door, um, across the
00:37:51.320
street from a house that was there. And I remember I grabbed my M4 and I saw movement
00:37:56.000
on the, on the rooftop. So I just started unloading my M4, ran out of ammo, only had 30
00:38:01.460
rounds in it. So ran out of ammo. And at that point, you know, that, that, that weapon's
00:38:05.820
useless. So, um, I just laid there and then one of, uh, one of my buddies ran right
00:38:12.400
by me and he looks down and he's like, are you alive? And I looked up and I was
00:38:17.080
like, I think so. And he's like, Oh shit, we got to get you out of here. And I said,
00:38:21.420
okay. Um, and at that point when he was doing that, um, man, it was kind of a scene
00:38:27.220
out of Black Hawk Down. You remember when the helicopters were above them shooting?
00:38:31.140
Yeah. It's kind of the same thing that happened. There was two Black Hawks in our, uh, in our
00:38:35.860
area operations that were flying by and saw the smoke of the IED and decided to go check
00:38:40.920
it out and see what it was as they were flying home because they were running low on fuel
00:38:44.820
and they actually saw us being engaged. So they were able to establish communications
00:38:49.660
with the guys on the ground. And at that point, there was about 30 to 40 insurgents coming
00:38:55.700
in our way to just kind of, you know, do work. And we were so lucky that these guys
00:39:00.500
came down and smoked them all. So all these brasses falling on us and, um, we ended up
00:39:06.120
killing all the guys. And, uh, my buddy goes, all right, we got to get you out of here.
00:39:11.080
And I said, okay. And I was like, I think my legs are broken. And he took a quick glass
00:39:15.100
at me and, you know, the midst of all the chaos that's going on, he really didn't assess
00:39:19.560
me that well. And he's like, no, no, no, your legs look good. Let's get up. And I said,
00:39:22.440
okay. Picks me up. We start walking to the, uh, to the next Humvee that actually put a
00:39:29.140
run, uh, pull around in front of us to secure, uh, the front, just to make sure no one was
00:39:33.880
coming from that side. And he puts me in the Humvee and, um, as he's going to open the
00:39:39.400
door to put me in there, he's like, all right, man, I got to let you go. Cause anybody that's
00:39:44.160
ever served, you know, those, those doors are about 500 pounds, man. They are heavy.
00:39:48.900
Yeah. So he let me go to open the door. And as he did that, my, my femur is rebroke. And
00:39:55.860
I remember just falling back and I saw him, saw the Humvee. And then I was looking at the
00:40:01.280
sky and I couldn't feel anything. Cause I think the adrenaline was so high that I had no regulation
00:40:09.660
that pain at the time. And he comes over to me and he's like, you okay? Are you okay?
00:40:14.340
And I was like, I pulled you. My legs were broken. And, uh, he's just, he was in kind
00:40:20.340
of like, yeah, now it's confirmed. So he, you know, he was trying to, I mean, he had
00:40:25.260
this blank look like I was crazy, but again, it was the adrenaline. So he finally, he picks
00:40:31.460
me up, he puts me inside the Humvee and, um, medic jumps in and the medic starts like
00:40:37.020
working on me. And we had a brand new driver. The driver that was driving that Humvee was,
00:40:44.340
his first mission going out the wire. We were getting, we were getting, we were getting
00:40:49.520
replacements because of all the guys that we were losing. So he was one of those replacements
00:40:54.460
and it was his first time out the wire. Um, can't blame the guy. All this stuff is going
00:41:00.700
on. It's his first day out. You know, I mean, my first day, I wasn't like that. It was just
00:41:05.560
a small firefight. And so, you know, I look back at it now and can't blame the guy. He's
00:41:11.560
screaming. He's scared. He doesn't know what's going on. So I reached over and I slapped
00:41:16.080
him and I said, shut up and give me the headset. So he gets me the headset and I started calling
00:41:21.680
up to the company. You know, I was like, Hey, I got, you know, I got one, one KIA, one
00:41:26.140
killed in action and I got four WIAs, four wounded. Uh, we need a medevac, you know, as
00:41:31.380
soon as possible. We're about to push as soon as I get a green to go from everybody, we'll
00:41:36.440
push forward and you know, medics working on me and they're like, all right, all right.
00:41:40.960
They didn't know that I was one of the guys that was wounded when I was talking to them
00:41:43.800
on, on the, um, on the radio. And man, I remember out of nowhere, dude, I just got super thirsty.
00:41:51.400
Like I was, I needed some water. And I looked over at the medic and I said, doc, hook me up
00:41:57.460
with some water, dude. I need some water. And he's like, no man, I can't give you any water
00:42:01.800
right now. Your toots are really burned. And I looked at him and I was like, dude, I
00:42:05.720
outrank you. Give me some fucking water. And he did. And I took a quick sip and I made the
00:42:13.660
biggest mistake of my life. I poured it on my face. I put water on my face. All the chemicals
00:42:19.440
and everything fell into my eyes. And, um, I couldn't see, um, I went, everything went black,
00:42:26.080
man. Like I could not see. And I finally hear over the radio, like, let's go, let's go.
00:42:31.560
Push, push, push, push. We got to get out of here. We got to get out of here. And at
00:42:35.540
that moment, right then and there, I said to myself, there's two things I can do. I'm
00:42:41.180
going to panic and it's going to make this driver panic. And I'm going to cost more lives
00:42:45.780
behind me, or I can keep my composure and help and guide this new private get back to
00:42:52.240
the fob so that we can get medical attention and go. And like I stated earlier, we've been
00:42:59.120
there quite a bit of time. So I knew the streets like the back of my hands. I knew exactly
00:43:02.300
where we were at. Um, so I tapped him. I said, go, go, go, go. And he's like, where
00:43:07.820
are we going? I was like, just go. Um, so I started giving directions. I said, you're
00:43:11.740
going to see, um, like this orange house in the corner. Um, you should, you see an end
00:43:16.900
about 300 yards. And he's like, I see it. I see it. I said, take that left. And he took
00:43:20.780
that left. And I remember always taking notes on landmarks around there. And there
00:43:27.600
was this house on the corner that had this humongous bell. For some reason, they had
00:43:32.900
it in their front yard. I mean, it was there. Um, so we see this, that's like, you're going
00:43:38.540
to see this bell in front of this house. When you see that bell, you take a right. And he's
00:43:42.200
like, I see it. I see it. I said, take the right. And I was like, tell me when you see
00:43:46.000
the fob. So our fob was in the middle of Atomia, the town that we lived in. I mean,
00:43:51.660
we, we were surrounded by the city. I mean, it was, there was no denying that we were there.
00:43:59.440
You knew all your movements and everything else.
00:44:02.140
Yeah. 100%. And, um, so we, you know, I was like, let me know when you see the gate
00:44:06.360
and when it's a hundred yards away. And I was like, I see the gate, I see the gate, 300,
00:44:10.380
200. And then finally it goes a hundred yards. So I call up radio. I said, open the gates,
00:44:14.840
open the gates, rolling in. So they opened the gates, we roll in and, you know, we get
00:44:20.240
in front of the aid station. At this point, I knew that there was only, there was only
00:44:25.780
three medics in our fob and there was four of us. So they opened the door and I closed
00:44:32.280
it and they opened the door again and they're like, get out. We need to get you out. I was
00:44:37.240
like, go get the other guys. They're worse than I am. And, you know, they're looking at
00:44:40.800
me. I'm burned naked in the, in the Humvee. And they're like, no, no, no, we need to get
00:44:45.940
you out. I was like, dude, there's only three medics. Get the other guys. And we were lucky
00:44:50.340
enough that we had a SF group right next door to us. Um, that was kind of, we were kind
00:44:55.360
of attached to them or whatever you want to call it. Um, and I had been talking to one
00:44:59.640
of them for a while. He was a medic and I was like, Hey man, I'm interested. You know,
00:45:02.960
can I get your input on them, uh, on what I need to do when I'm done with this
00:45:07.920
deployment? So him and I had, you know, gone back and forward talking for quite a
00:45:11.280
bit. And, uh, he finally comes running, he opens the door. He's like, I'm here,
00:45:15.340
I'm here, I'm here. There's four now. We need to get you out. And I'm like,
00:45:18.560
all right, all right. So they pulled me out. They put me in a stretcher to take me
00:45:21.700
inside the aid station. And I remember looking, man, and I saw the guys come in.
00:45:28.880
And once I saw the other guys come in, I, I, I was like, all right, we're here.
00:45:35.620
And I calmed down. The adrenaline went away. And the, the, the most excruciating pain I
00:45:43.780
had ever felt in my life just kicked in like that. I mean, all that once, all that once.
00:45:49.940
And I just started shaking really bad. And I, I grabbed the medic and I was like,
00:45:54.040
dad, give me some morphine. Give me something. I, you know, I'm hurting really bad. And he's
00:45:58.400
like, I can't, we got to get you stable first. And, and then I'll give it to you
00:46:02.260
because it's going to slow your heart rate down so much. So we got to assess you really
00:46:06.060
quick. And then he finally, after they did it, you know, I'm just kind of going out at
00:46:10.960
this point, he hits me with it in the chest and I, I calmed down and I mean, anybody that's
00:46:16.440
ever had morphine just kicked into them. Know that it's crazy. It's just, you start saying
00:46:23.480
shit that you don't even remember. And, uh, I apparently grabbed the medic and I said,
00:46:30.240
if I die, it's on you. Um, which I don't think it was the right thing to say.
00:46:36.300
Yeah. But, uh, yeah. Given the, given the circumstances, there's, yeah, that's, it's,
00:46:44.420
Yeah. So he told me that I told him that a few years after, uh, I was out of the woods
00:46:49.520
and then in the clear and, uh, he told me, I said that I was like, oh man, I got to buy
00:46:53.720
you like a case of beer or something. And, uh, he's like, nah, you're good, man. He's
00:46:59.140
like, I'm just glad you're alive. And I was like, yeah, me too. Um, so from there they,
00:47:03.740
they, they, they got us stable. They took us to the ALZ, the, um, the landing zone and
00:47:08.620
a couple of birds came down, picked us up and took us to the green zone in Iraq, which
00:47:12.960
is, uh, people don't know what the green zone is. It is the biggest, um, well, one of the
00:47:18.240
biggest, uh, fobs in Iraq, but they had a full-on hospital set up there. Um, so we
00:47:24.280
got there, landed and, um, they took us into the surgery room and I just remember
00:47:30.300
looking at the guys and I was like, boys, we're going home. And, um, Catterton just
00:47:35.020
knobbed and then Fleming was like, yeah. And then Campos, I couldn't get a response
00:47:40.100
from him, but I just saw his eyes. Like, you know, he was like, yeah. And, um, you know,
00:47:44.760
we go, we all went into surgery and that was the, uh, that was the last thing I
00:47:48.660
remember, um, in Iraq. Next thing I know is we were, they flew us to, uh, launch
00:47:54.620
to Germany and we got there a little bit late. Um, they, there was a bird waiting.
00:48:01.400
I think they, they sent a huge, you know, those big birds inside. They, uh, like a
00:48:05.660
C-130 and it's a whole hospital inside. Okay. Right. Yeah. So they had two guys that
00:48:11.200
had, um, had lost their limbs on that flight and they needed to get them to the U S. Um,
00:48:16.580
and they, they waited on us for quite a bit. We got, I guess we got pushed back through
00:48:21.380
the weather or something had happened and we missed that window. Um, so these, uh, they
00:48:26.740
decided to take off and they were about three, four hours into their flight when we landed
00:48:30.900
in Germany and the doctors assesses really quick. And we're like, man, these guys aren't
00:48:36.060
going to make it, you know, more than two days if they don't get to San Antonio and get
00:48:40.980
the treatment that they need. Cause we don't have it here. So those guys decided
00:48:46.160
to call the guys on the bird in the air and said, Hey, listen, let's test the
00:48:50.340
situation and let us know what's going on. If you guys need to take these guys there
00:48:54.420
without turning around, cause you think they're critical, keep going. But if you
00:48:59.960
can turn around and come get these guys that need to go do so. And, um, they made a
00:49:05.540
comment and they returned, they came back and got down, they filled up, they loaded us
00:49:10.660
all up and the pilots refused to get out of the cockpit because they're only allowed
00:49:15.840
to fly, I guess, X amount of hours. Okay. And that was going to push them like an
00:49:20.100
hour or two. Um, so, but if they were to push those guys out, they would have to go
00:49:24.660
woken up to other guys to fly. And it was going to be chaos. So they, they locked
00:49:31.340
themselves in the cockpit. They refused to come out and they went, yeah, this is a story
00:49:36.020
that I was told by, by one of the guys on that, on a bike that they were fighting, trying
00:49:41.920
to get these guys out. And they finally said, get away from us. Let us fly because if we
00:49:46.440
don't go, these guys are going to die. So go. And, um, I guess they broke protocol. They
00:49:51.560
got back up in the air and, uh, May 14th was when I got hurt and May 16th, I was in San
00:49:56.760
Antonio at Brooke, Brooke medical, uh, Brooke army medical center walking through the doors
00:50:02.460
to get on, on my second surgery. It's a wild story, man. That's unreal. I'm amazed
00:50:12.440
at, uh, your, your level of, uh, calm and clarity and focus under all that chaos and
00:50:19.000
that madness. Um, man, it's just, uh, it's second nature, you know, um, this is stuff
00:50:26.980
that we trained for. Um, and it's, you know, every time that I, that I get to go
00:50:31.540
speak, um, in front of soldiers, Marine airmen and, and, and, and maybe people
00:50:37.460
like, it's just something that I always, always try to grind into their heads is
00:50:41.280
like, I know right now this training may seem stupid and you may think it's not
00:50:46.780
something to take, um, serious, but I was like, I was in the same boat you did, but I,
00:50:52.580
I was lucky enough that I paid attention sometimes and it all helped me at the end.
00:50:57.500
It, it, it played a key role, um, in that day because one, I was able to stay calm
00:51:05.020
to, I applied everything that I learned. Um, when, you know, we were going to the field
00:51:10.200
when we were training, um, and it all played a big role in keeping us all alive. So it was,
00:51:17.040
it's just second nature, man. It was just one of those things where that, that's what my
00:51:21.000
job required of me to do at the moment. And that's what we did.
00:51:25.200
Do you fit, you talked about God and faith. Do you feel like you were, and I don't want
00:51:31.080
to lead, but do you feel like you were given a second chance? Like what, what's your thought
00:51:35.660
process? Cause it sounds to me like you had at one point you had resigned that this is
00:51:41.540
Yeah, most definitely. I think, um, you know, he just kind of, I don't think, I don't think
00:51:47.200
God was done with me. Just, just right then and there. I think he had bigger things for
00:51:51.280
me that I didn't realize at the beginning. I don't know. I didn't know why I had survivor's
00:51:57.080
guilt for quite a bit. Um, after we got back, compost ended up dying, um, in the hospital
00:52:02.100
that they, they, they tried everything, amputated both legs, both arms due to infections. Um,
00:52:08.660
but ultimately all his intestines and everything inside of his stomach were, were too badly burned
00:52:13.260
that he just, he didn't make it. And that was one of my best friends. Um, I was a private
00:52:19.680
when I got to the unit and I ended up becoming an NCO because of him. And I always looked up
00:52:25.060
to him. He was the epitome of what an NCO should be in the, in the service. And that's what I
00:52:30.400
was striving to be like. And he was just, he was my mentor, man. He was that dude, that
00:52:36.020
older brother I never had. Um, cause I'm the oldest of three. And when he died, it was,
00:52:42.040
it was life changing for me because I thought he was going to make it cause he was the strongest
00:52:46.600
person that I knew. And I was like, Oh, he's going to beat this. And we're going to be laughing
00:52:50.700
about this, you know, down the road. And, uh, when I found out that he died, it just broke
00:52:55.280
me. And it honestly, it broke me really bad because he was married, had a son and I was
00:53:03.800
single, didn't have a family, nothing. You know, I was like, why couldn't we at trade places
00:53:08.140
so he could be here with his family. Um, and I didn't really, I didn't really understand
00:53:13.920
why God had spared my life at the moment. But, um, you know, just like anything, man,
00:53:19.140
it took a long time for things to play out and, and for me to actually see why he did
00:53:29.180
Um, you know, just like this podcast, man, I've gone on a bunch of different ones and I've
00:53:33.520
done a lot of stuff, um, and, and, and my short time of living and I do motivational
00:53:38.280
speaking. Um, I took a break from it and slowly coming back. Um, but just the testimonials
00:53:44.740
that I've gotten, um, online and from people that I, where I've gone and spoke at, um, man,
00:53:53.160
one place out of my head a lot, dude, that this one made a huge impact on me was this, this
00:53:57.540
gentleman who was a teacher or a pastor. I can't remember what it was. Um, but him and
00:54:03.400
his wife went on their honeymoon. Finally, after being married for like 30 years or something,
00:54:07.640
they were able to like take a break and they were in the Philippines or somewhere out there
00:54:11.400
and, um, they were by the water and this wave came in and swept him and his wife into the
00:54:17.040
water. And, um, his water, his wife ended up drowning, um, because of that. And he was
00:54:23.840
pushed out into the sea and he was trying to swim back. And he, you know, he just told me
00:54:29.360
and as what he was writing to me, he said the whole time that I was swimming back, all
00:54:34.160
I could say was crispy, the F on. And he's like, I couldn't bring myself to say in the
00:54:39.220
backward cause I'm a pastor, but he's like, your motto kept playing in my head. And he's
00:54:44.400
like, and I don't understand why, but I kept telling myself crispy on crispy on. And I was
00:54:49.840
able to swim. I was sure. And then later on that ended up finding my wife's body. And
00:54:55.220
he's like, I'm not giving you a hundred percent of the credit because God played a big role
00:54:59.740
in that day, but he helped save my life that day. And, um, then I've gotten a lot of messages
00:55:07.760
like that. And the other day I got a, yesterday I got one from a guy who said he was going to
00:55:13.800
offer himself after his girlfriend went to work, but decided to open up social media. I saw something
00:55:20.880
on my page, um, where I wrote something. If you're having a hard time, reach out to somebody
00:55:24.620
final battle buddy, you know, a permanent solution is not the answer for a temporary problem.
00:55:32.380
And so he read that and reached out to somebody and, you know, he wrote to me saying, because
00:55:37.980
he saw something on my page that he was, you know, he understood and he, he lived another
00:55:43.460
day. Um, and they decided not to pull the trigger. So things like that and messages like
00:55:48.460
that, man, um, that I've gotten, I think those are, uh, just, I don't want to say a validation,
00:55:55.280
but those are the things that I look at now that I'm like, man, that's why he kept me here.
00:55:59.360
And, you know, along the way, um, I've been able to, to do stuff with burn kits all over
00:56:06.020
the country. Um, you know, because of amazing people that, that are behind the scenes, you
00:56:11.500
know, a lot of people think that it's just me and it's just me, but man, dude, if you could
00:56:16.440
see like the amount of people that are behind me, um, from my family to my fiance and
00:56:22.300
everybody, like it takes a village to make things happen. And I think everybody knows
00:56:26.820
that. And, um, you know, I can't take all the credit, man. I think it's everybody behind
00:56:31.580
me that supports and pushes me to do what I do every single day that should get the
00:56:36.180
credit. So, um, that's kind of when I realized what God's plan was, it was to just have all
00:56:42.980
these people come together to do something greater. Uh, and, and, and it's just a bigger
00:56:47.580
purpose than, than I could have ever figured, man. It was just, it's just crazy. Like, you
00:56:53.780
know, you wake up every single day and when I read messages like that, it's just, man,
00:56:58.180
it's, it feels good to know that the, the, some of the dumb stuff and some of the serious
00:57:05.120
stuff that I put out there is being seen by a lot of people and it's making a difference.
00:57:08.720
Yeah, no doubt. I know you're helping hundreds of thousands of people. I mean, that, that,
00:57:13.200
that's evident. And I really admire and respect you for that. Did, um, did archery help with
00:57:18.640
your recovery process or had you always been a hunter or is that something that came after
00:57:27.240
Yeah. So, I mean, hunting kind of came into play. Uh, you know, I grew up in Brownsville,
00:57:32.180
Texas, which is a small town, uh, and the border, uh, I mean, we're a border town and,
00:57:37.680
you know, we grew up very poor. So hunting wasn't a priority in our family just because
00:57:43.320
we didn't have the means to go out and hunt. And we're a little different because 98% of
00:57:49.200
Texas is privately owned. So if you don't know somebody with a ranch that'll let you come
00:57:53.120
and shoot their cold bucks or anything, there's really not a lot of hunting going on, um, for
00:57:57.980
people that don't have the means to do it. Um, there was always dove hunting. So we, we did
00:58:02.940
dove hunt from time to time because you know, anybody lets you sit on their property and
00:58:07.620
shoot doves. It's not an expensive sport. Um, but it all, it all came into play after
00:58:13.300
I was wounded. Um, I was invited to go hunt, uh, with some other wounded guys and some other
00:58:20.000
guys that I just left back to duty. And, um, I said, man, that'd be awesome. Let me go
00:58:25.140
on a hunt. So I got my rifle ready and, and, and all my, my camo and everything. And, and
00:58:30.620
I loaded it all up in my truck the night before. And then when I was, I woke up the
00:58:36.100
next morning and I was like, man, I don't want to go. What am I going to go do out
00:58:40.800
there with these guys? Like I was hesitant. And again, man, it was one of those things
00:58:45.680
where you're like, I felt God, like a dude go, like get up and go. And it was one of
00:58:50.760
the best decisions I've made in my life. Cause, um, sitting in a blind with a weapon in
00:58:56.420
my hand out, out in the wild, um, was very therapeutical for me. I was able to gather
00:59:04.860
my thoughts. Uh, I was able to kind of find that inner peace and just, it was very soothing
00:59:12.340
to me. And after that, it was something that I craved a lot and to be able to put meat in
00:59:19.900
the, in the refrigerator for, for months to come without having to go shopping at the
00:59:25.320
stores where it was, was just, it was gratifying, man. You know, and knowing that I took that
00:59:33.440
animal, I cleaned it, I quartered it and I brought it home. And then now I'm cooking it
00:59:38.000
was the perfect circle, um, for me. And, and it just, it helped me a lot. And I was doing
00:59:46.420
a lot of rifle hunting. I never really ventured into bow hunting because, you know, if you
00:59:52.480
can go on my page, you can see how jacked up my hands are. And I said, okay. So they
00:59:56.960
convinced me, I went out there and, um, they gave me a, a missions Matthew bow, which is
01:00:03.140
a kid's bow. Anybody knows. And they started off, they started off at 20 pounds. So I drew
01:00:08.420
back at 20 and I was, you know, able to set and pull it. I was like, oh, this is awesome.
01:00:13.060
So after that, I maxed that bow out to 55 pounds. Wow. Yeah. And, uh, I took a bison
01:00:20.100
with that bow. Is that right? Yeah. That was my first 55 pounds. That's crazy. And I
01:00:25.840
had a clean pass through. Really? Yeah. Yep. That's impressive. And it was awesome. We
01:00:31.560
stuck this Buffalo for hours. Um, and, uh, you know, I, we got it done. And after that,
01:00:38.440
it was just, man, I got hooked and you know, now, I mean, I pull 75 now and I catch myself
01:00:45.920
bringing it back down to 70 because I mean, you don't need more than 55 pounds. No, you
01:00:51.500
don't. Um, it's just this whole hype of people acting like you need to pull 80, 80, 75 pounds
01:00:58.200
to be a great hunter. And, and he don't, but man, after that, it was, it was awesome, dude.
01:01:03.680
It, it, it, what I loved about it was that I had guys like John Dudley reach out and
01:01:10.200
were like, Hey, Omar, change this, make this adjustment. Um, and then we finally met in
01:01:15.940
person and he's like, okay, this looks great, but move your elbow and do this or that. So
01:01:20.620
he was, you know, gave me classes, man. And it was like, I was, I didn't know who John
01:01:25.360
Dudley was at the time. And then everybody's like, dude, you just got lessons from the guru.
01:01:29.060
And I'm like, Dudley is, he's an amazing coach. Yeah. And they're like, John Dudley. I was
01:01:34.140
like, people pay a lot of money to get classes where you just got. And I said, I do really
01:01:38.860
and, uh, by the end of the thing, you know, we exchanged numbers or whatever. Now he's just
01:01:43.120
an amazing friend. Um, he moved over to PSC and brought me over. So I'm, I ship for PSC
01:01:49.800
now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, yeah. So I'm over at PSC now doing stuff with him and
01:01:55.440
everybody else. And, um, what is it? Evo nation or what, what's the bow? What's the
01:02:00.300
new bow? Yeah. Yeah. It's the Evo nation one. Yeah, I do. So, um, and it was pretty
01:02:04.940
awesome, man, because he, so he sent it to us before, you know, everything went on
01:02:09.580
online and, uh, it was pretty cool. He, he custom made one to me. Um, and up until then
01:02:17.180
I had only seen Joe Rogan cause he made Rogan zero zero one and I, yeah. And I was
01:02:22.580
like, well, that's cool. And then when they sent mine, my mine says CTFO zero zero one
01:02:28.340
on it. And I was like, Oh shit, this is awesome. Like cool, man. Yeah. So it was
01:02:33.760
pretty cool. What do you call your bow? He's always got good names. He's making, uh, he's
01:02:38.240
so this one was just so we can start hunting and using it with it now, but he is, he's in
01:02:43.200
the works of making mine. Um, and I don't know what he's going to call it cause he keeps
01:02:48.460
you in the dark. So he actually like puts it out. So I don't know what he's going to
01:02:52.140
name it. I'll be excited to see that. Yeah. So we'll see. Um, but I mean, there's a lot
01:02:57.820
of different names out there he can use, but we'll see. Yeah. Awesome, man. Well, Hey,
01:03:03.860
I want to ask you a couple of questions as, as we wind down. The first one is what does it
01:03:07.460
mean to be a man? Oh man. Um, I think as a bunch of different meanings, it means being
01:03:15.320
kind, strong, uh, be able to follow and be able to lead when you need to. Um, um, I think
01:03:24.860
it is just compassion, love, um, but man, it's just, it's, it's everything that we are, uh,
01:03:33.900
everything good that we are. I think it's what represents being a man. Um, man, it's just,
01:03:41.320
that's a hard question. It is. It's, it's, it's for a simple question. It's really deep
01:03:46.200
to think about and something a lot of people don't, don't usually consider. I hadn't for
01:03:49.580
a long time. Yeah, no, no, definitely. Um, but yeah, I think it's all those things. I think
01:03:54.300
it's being able to be a compassion, loving person and loving every single person out there
01:04:00.520
and then, and just being kind to all. Right on, man. Appreciate that. Well, how do we
01:04:05.860
connect with you? Learn more about what you're up to follow along on the hunting journeys and
01:04:09.180
everything else you're doing? Yes. And man, I recently started doing a lot more YouTube
01:04:14.080
videos and whatnot. So, um, Chris B 11 B on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook,
01:04:19.980
everything else, everything is Chris B 11 B. Um, and those are all the platforms.
01:04:26.140
Right on, man. We'll get, we'll get it all synced up for you. I just want to let you know
01:04:30.000
again, I've said this a couple of times, but I really appreciate you. Um, obviously
01:04:33.980
your sacrifice and your service, but I, I appreciate your humility and your ability to
01:04:39.680
take a very difficult situation and, and take it in stride and roll with it and have fun
01:04:45.080
with it and play with it and then be inspirational to other people. That's a, that's pretty powerful,
01:04:49.600
man. And I, and I really respect you for that. So thanks for joining us. Yeah. Thank you
01:04:53.680
for taking some time. I know the guys are going to get a lot of value from what you shared
01:04:57.340
today for sure. I appreciate it. Thanks brother. Yes, sir.
01:05:02.920
Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with the one and only crispy. I hope you enjoyed
01:05:07.040
it. Uh, man, his story is absolutely phenomenal. Uh, I cannot imagine or fathom, uh, being in
01:05:14.560
that situation and those circumstances, but you can see why I titled this courage under fire
01:05:20.280
and the way that he showed up and the way he performed under extreme pressure is something
01:05:25.360
to be inspired by and motivated by. And hopefully you can take some of that and apply it to your
01:05:30.320
own life. Uh, make sure you connect with crispy on the socials, very, very active over on Instagram.
01:05:35.340
That's where I connect with him mostly. So check it out over there, connect with me, uh, let
01:05:39.660
him know what you thought about the conversation. Tell him that you, you heard him on the order
01:05:43.320
of man podcast and let him know that, uh, you're inspired by him, that you're motivated
01:05:47.240
by him, what you're going to be doing to improve your life because of the conversations
01:05:50.720
that we had. Um, he's going to want to hear that feedback. And so am I. So let me know
01:05:54.300
as well. Uh, you can connect with me also on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or YouTube
01:05:59.360
or wherever, wherever you are, you can find us at order of man or at Ryan Mickler. All right,
01:06:08.640
guys, I've got some very, very powerful, uh, conversations lined up for you for the next
01:06:13.360
three weeks. I've got Mark Manson, Sean Whalen and Robin Dreek. You probably don't know
01:06:18.880
Robin Dreek right out of hand. He is a former FBI, uh, uh, behavioral psychologist. So it's
01:06:27.240
very, we've got some very interesting stuff. So make sure you subscribe, leave us a rating
01:06:31.040
and review, uh, keep engaged, join us in the Facebook group, join us on the iron council
01:06:35.580
and, uh, let's stay banded and connected outside of the, uh, the podcast. We need more
01:06:39.820
men in this fight. Honored to be standing with you. And I will be back tomorrow for ask me
01:06:43.660
anything until then guys go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
01:06:48.280
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your
01:06:52.720
life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.