REPLAY： Can a 9⧸11 Survivor Forgive Al Qaeda？ ｜ Guest： Sen. Brian Birdwell
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
160.54123
Summary
Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell was in the Pentagon on 9/11 and suffered severe injuries. He tells us in detail the experience that he had that day, how his faith in God carried him through that day and the years to come, and the perspective that it has given him about this country and the things that have gone on in and with Afghanistan.
Transcript
00:00:12.920
We are talking to Texas State Senator Brian Birdwell, who was in the Pentagon on 9-11,
00:00:22.380
He is going to tell us in detail the experience that he had that day, how his faith in Christ
00:00:29.660
carried him through that day and the years to come.
00:00:33.900
He's also going to tell us what kind of perspective that has given him about this country and in
00:00:40.880
particular, the things that have gone on in and with Afghanistan over the past few weeks.
00:00:47.740
And so he has a very gripping story for us to hear.
00:00:58.860
But he also has some encouragement for us to cling to.
00:01:03.400
You will hear him give hope for America and the belief that America is still an exceptional
00:01:14.420
So I'm very excited for you to listen to this conversation.
00:01:23.900
This is an emotional subject and an emotional day for sure.
00:01:27.760
So I'm so looking forward to hearing what you guys think about this interview.
00:01:35.980
Without further ado, here is Senator Brian Birdwell.
00:01:43.880
Senator Birdwell, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:01:48.020
Can you tell everyone who may not know who you are and what you do?
00:01:51.340
Well, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Retired, United States Army, Brian Birdwell, but also now serving
00:01:57.280
as State Senator Brian Birdwell, serving the people of Senate District 22 in the State
00:02:01.580
Senate, anchored primarily in Waco and McLennan County, but ranging all the way from Tarrant
00:02:08.640
So I've got what we call the heart of Texas district in the State Senate.
00:02:12.640
And the reason why we are having you here for this particular episode is because I want
00:02:18.020
you to relay the story of you being in the Pentagon on 9-11.
00:02:23.900
I know you've told this story many times, but as we were talking about before we turned
00:02:28.760
on the cameras, not only are there people out there who have never heard your story, there
00:02:32.800
are many people listening to this podcast, watching this podcast who are not alive on 9-11.
00:02:38.560
So I would love for you to just take us back to that day.
00:02:43.520
I was serving as an aide to a flag officer in my staff directorate on the Army staff.
00:02:51.120
The E-ring is the outermost ring of the Pentagon.
00:02:59.040
My partner as an aide, Colonel Williams, was our aide to our flag officer, our senior flag
00:03:07.600
I was the aide to the deputy, an SES-5, Jan Minnig.
00:03:12.320
SES is the senior executive service, but two-star equivalent, but a civilian flag officer as
00:03:21.240
Colonel Williams got General Van Antwerp, Ms. Minnig, out of the building over to the
00:03:24.640
Doubletree Hotel for a conference that our staff director was hosting.
00:03:28.620
And Sandy, Cheryl, and I settled in for what we thought would be a slow day with both the
00:03:34.220
We'll get some of those things done that we needed to get done.
00:03:36.780
And Sandy's daughter, Sam, worked up in New York and at about nine o'clock called Sandy
00:03:44.760
And we did what you and every other American was doing that day, whether it was, you know,
00:03:50.080
the radio on the drive into work, already at work on TV or TV at home, whatever it was.
00:03:55.100
Went into Ms. Minnig's office, turned the TV on and see the North Tower, first tower hit with that huge
00:04:01.160
gaping hole, the black smoke pouring out of the tower and hearing the newscasters, you know,
00:04:10.420
And shortly thereafter on live TV, we'd watch Flight 175 crash into the South Tower,
00:04:15.500
and that would confirm that neither were accidents.
00:04:17.940
This was not a normal day in our nation's life.
00:04:20.200
And actually, Sandy and Cheryl and I, we knelt down and just led a quick prayer that,
00:04:25.780
you know, we love our first responders, but Lord, you're the one that's going to be doing
00:04:31.020
When the prayer was over with, we continued to watch events unfold.
00:04:35.960
I'd had my morning caffeine jolt at seven o'clock that morning, and so I needed to step out,
00:04:43.400
I told Sandy and Cheryl I'd be back momentarily.
00:04:45.860
Those were the last words that I would speak to my two co-workers.
00:04:49.300
When I stepped out into the E-ring hallway to go to the men's restroom, I actually walked
00:04:54.100
through that part of the building that is impacted and crumbles 27 minutes after impact.
00:05:00.620
So I walked through what would be the impact point.
00:05:03.460
The men's restroom's at the intersection of the fourth corridor and the E-ring.
00:05:06.420
The corridors are the spokes that connect the rings.
00:05:09.880
So I take a quick left turn, pass the elevator, hit the men's restroom, come out.
00:05:14.200
I'm now in front of the elevator, about to turn right to go back through what will be the
00:05:19.180
impact point when Flight 77 is delivered or crashed into the building.
00:05:22.800
So I'm 15 to 20 yards, just straight line distance from where the nose of the aircraft
00:05:27.540
to the nose of the fuselage makes impact with the building.
00:05:30.720
And so bites the Lord's grace that I'm the only survivor in the E-ring at the crash site
00:05:35.460
from an 80-ton jet coming through the building and hitting the building at 530 miles an hour
00:05:41.500
and still has about 3,000 gallons of fuel of its 5,000-pound load.
00:05:47.260
And I mean, I spent 20 years in the military, and most of my career has been as a heavy forces
00:05:57.080
I've been around a lot of loud things in my life, but nothing as loud as that plane-making
00:06:03.180
And hearing the sound, there's that nanosecond where I think bomb.
00:06:08.060
And I go from a well-lit hallway in charge of my faculties to an earthly hell of the fire,
00:06:22.400
I am set ablaze, and there is a yellow-orangish arch in front of me, and in the periphery
00:06:30.660
is just blackness, the only lights, the ambient glow of the flame.
00:06:34.640
I'll experience three pains and emotions in those seconds, minute or two that seem to
00:06:50.660
Third-degree means you've lost the entirety of all three layers of skin.
00:06:54.820
My arms from fingertip to armpit on both arms are completely circumferentially grafted, back
00:07:01.540
legs, my eye sockets had to be rebuilt, my ears are artificial cartilage with my own
00:07:11.260
My most immediate life-threatening injury is the inhalation injury of what I'm breathing
00:07:16.160
The aerosolized jet fuel, the slick, oily smoke from an inefficiently burning petroleum
00:07:24.800
fire, and as I'm struggling to survive, trying to get to my feet, the impact and the concussion
00:07:33.560
of an 80-town bomb has destroyed my sense of balance in my inner ear.
00:07:40.260
I can get to all fours, but I come to that realization.
00:07:44.440
I mean, we're all created with that zest for living, that desire for life, but there came
00:07:53.520
that moment that, in that struggle to survive, that I came to the reconciliation of accepting
00:08:02.520
However horrible and ghastly it is, this is how the Lord's calling me into eternity.
00:08:08.100
And so I did what we in the military are never trained to do.
00:08:13.880
And in that moment before surrender, it really is the definition of terrorism that that sense
00:08:23.820
of panic that grabs your heart when you realize that you are facing a life-threatening injury
00:08:29.620
and you cannot escape the source and the results of that injury.
00:08:38.160
There's that darkness, the blackness, the inability to, which way is the safety, which way is danger,
00:08:46.120
which all those things culminate in that feeling of the hopelessness of your situation.
00:08:54.340
So as I collapsed to the floor, waited to die, there was the third element of this death,
00:09:02.480
and that's the permanency and the finality of death, that that morning when I said goodbye
00:09:08.540
to Mel and Matt, you know, I'd have to leave the house at about to catch the bus, 5, 20, 5, 30,
00:09:22.180
And so I just looked at Matt, went out the door.
00:09:24.660
And if I'd have known that morning I was going out to what was surely my death,
00:09:30.840
I would have said goodbye with a greater rigor than I did that morning.
00:09:37.800
As I lay there waiting for that feeling of the soul departing the body, it never came.
00:09:43.080
And even in my, you know, our sinful nature as humans created by the Lord,
00:09:49.460
that my sense of patience is like, okay, Lord, you know, let's get on with this thing.
00:09:56.220
As I opened my eyes with that feeling not coming, I could see down at the distance toward the A-ring.
00:10:04.340
And if you're like a ship at sea, you can't see the light bulb of the lighthouse,
00:10:09.000
but you can see the reflection off the surface of the ocean.
00:10:14.820
Now, way down, they're still intact and operating,
00:10:17.540
but I don't see the light because the smoke is filling up the ceiling of the corridor.
00:10:22.460
But I can see the reflection off the tile floor.
00:10:25.460
So I use the wall that I've been blown up against.
00:10:29.120
And as a third and fourth point of contact to stagger my way down the hallway.
00:10:35.360
Allie, I don't want to be gratuitously graphic.
00:10:40.280
But it's just, it's best to say that I am terribly indisposed.
00:10:46.520
I've only got portions of my clothing still intact, my leather belt, my shoes.
00:10:53.160
The front of my shirt is still there, but covered in my own blood.
00:11:01.140
I can feel my eyes already swelling because of the burn as that part of the body begins to swell.
00:11:09.660
The blinking is thick, for lack of a, when I'm blinking my eyes, I can feel how swollen they are.
00:11:17.140
I stagger down the hallway 25, 30 yards in this condition,
00:11:21.920
and four men, Bill McKinnon, Roy Wallace, John Davies, and Chuck Knobloch,
00:11:25.680
come out of the B-ring doors into the fourth quarter.
00:11:30.020
They were looking to get to some of their co-workers.
00:11:33.420
The plane had actually cut their, as it passes through the D and the C ring,
00:11:46.620
They come out into that B-ring hallway to try to get down there.
00:11:51.640
And when I saw Roy back in 2017 at one of the Pentagon Memorial ceremonies,
00:11:59.600
this is the most gruesome thing he's ever seen of watching a burned-alive human being
00:12:06.200
And my exhaustion of having covered 25 to 30 yards in that condition,
00:12:10.360
and then the relief of knowing that I'm about to subordinate myself
00:12:15.880
to whatever my comrades-in-arms are going to do for me.
00:12:22.400
And, again, I don't want to be gratuitous here.
00:12:28.060
This is not a place to tarry and wait for medical care to get to me.
00:12:37.400
The facilities managers of the building have closed the fire door between the A and the B ring.
00:12:42.860
Had Bill, Roy, Chuck, and John not come out of the B ring doors into the corridor,
00:12:48.480
I assumed that I would have gotten down to the fire door and then sat down there
00:12:53.180
and either died of my injuries or died of smoke inhalation
00:12:58.120
Only a fireman on the other side can open that door.
00:13:03.200
Bill, Roy, Chuck, and John, in their haste to move me,
00:13:07.040
and a haste not in the sense of urgency may be the better word,
00:13:13.640
Each grab a limb and give that first exertion to pick me up,
00:13:17.760
They pull chunks off of me, and I begin screaming at them to leave me alone
00:13:22.140
because that's my first insight into what's ahead of me as a,
00:13:29.900
what's ahead of me in the medical care being a burn survivor.
00:13:43.560
Chuck rolls me over on the left, touching, like I said, touching me is agonizing.
00:13:49.480
and then forcibly puts his arms, the wrist and the forearm,
00:13:57.580
Again, chunks that, but essentially Bill, Roy, Chuck, and John,
00:14:03.300
instead of grasping me or gripping each other's arms like they're shaking hands
00:14:07.380
with my body weight resting on their connected arms.
00:14:11.040
They will carry me through, back through that B-ring door
00:14:16.060
They'll take me down to where the intersection of the fifth and sixth quarters meet the A-ring,
00:14:20.400
and that's where I'll receive my first medical care from a great Air Force doctor named John Baxter.
00:14:26.580
And thanks to all those Air Force folks out there,
00:14:29.240
because usually saying great and Air Force in the same sentence is really difficult for me,
00:14:40.380
He's trying to get, he's got his go bag with him.
00:14:42.640
He's coming down the stairs with all the other folks that are coming down,
00:14:46.080
where Bill, Roy, Chuck, and John set me has essentially become a hasty triage site.
00:14:50.780
There's four or five other people that have been put there.
00:14:53.960
When Dr. Baxter comes down the stairs, he sees some of us that are there.
00:14:59.500
He immediately comes to me to begin to treat me.
00:15:12.820
we had been classmates at Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.
00:15:17.540
But of course, certainly I recognize Bill, but Bill doesn't recognize me.
00:15:21.780
I mean, that's, again, I'm not trying to be gratuitous.
00:15:31.520
if there's any injuries that I have that he cannot see.
00:15:58.620
The only place he can do that is he takes my leather shoes off
00:16:04.640
because the rest of my clothes provided no protection.
00:16:07.520
So the sock above the trim of the leather shoe is gone,
00:16:12.900
but the sock below the shoe, he takes the shoe off,
00:16:15.440
what's left of the sock underneath the leather,
00:16:17.980
and then puts the morphine shot into the top of the right foot,
00:16:29.000
under the duress of the fire alarm is going off.
00:16:36.600
I mean, this is a 30,000, 32,000 people in the building,
00:16:40.960
and it seems like most of them are coming out, you know,
00:16:55.680
I mean, it's already hard enough to do an IV in a foot,
00:17:01.560
While I'm in the hallway at the initial impact,
00:17:05.740
those seconds and moments seem to last an eternity.
00:17:14.620
and the wonderful lady from the Navy, Natalie Ogletree,
00:17:16.880
had grabbed her Bible when it was time to evacuate,
00:17:26.360
Speaking is very difficult because of the inhalation injury.
00:17:56.200
I'm eventually loaded on a bodyboard in the Pentagon.
00:18:47.300
there's a young captain named Captain Wineland.
00:18:58.200
They empty out the back of his Ford Expedition,
00:19:06.720
She's there doing her two weeks of annual training
00:19:34.920
The drive to Georgetown is what nearly killed me.
00:19:48.800
there are so many miracles I'm passing over, Allie,
00:19:51.940
but the Lord's putting the right people at the right time
00:19:55.520
with the right training and circumstances for my survival,
00:19:58.660
and the most seminal one is the one I'm about to describe,
00:20:02.360
and that's, I'm the only casually taken to Georgetown.
00:20:09.180
the news radio broadcasts are listing the casualty numbers
00:20:24.760
So I've got the entire hospital's undivided attention,
00:20:30.180
Dr. Williams, Georgetown is a teaching hospital
00:20:37.480
and the director of medical trauma training at Georgetown.
00:20:48.980
under the direction of Marion Jordan and James Jang.
00:20:55.240
and the director of the Washington Hospital Center's burn unit.
00:20:59.240
Dr. Jang was his deputy director, chief of research.
00:21:03.220
So from the perspective of emergency room care,
00:21:08.980
I've got the third best doctor in the D.C. region
00:21:19.060
shortly thereafter, inside the White House situation room,
00:21:22.320
Vice President Cheney will turn to Secretary of Transportation Mineta
00:21:25.360
and tell him to shut down all airspace in the United States.
00:21:31.900
Nothing's flying in D.C. except military aircraft.
00:21:35.060
And so Dr. Williams comes to the left-hand side
00:21:39.900
and my eyes are nearly swollen shut by this point.
00:21:45.200
I mean, I'm just looking through little slits in my eyes
00:21:48.500
and I can see in Dr. Williams' eyes the gravity of what's going on.
00:21:53.840
And as they were wheeling me in, it's like a battle drill.
00:21:56.960
There's a lot of intensity, gravity, voice commands, but no chaos.
00:22:03.060
Brian, we're going to do the best that we possibly can for you.
00:22:08.000
because I'd been thinking about this on the drive over with John.
00:22:13.780
John, the Lord may have answered the question of life or death in the building,
00:22:18.980
but the question of life or death this day is not yet answered.
00:22:27.940
some of the voice commands that were being said is,
00:22:32.780
if the part of the body that's burned has jewelry,
00:23:18.020
one of the OBGYN nurses that had answered the all hands on deck call
00:23:33.340
I so vividly remember she reaches with her ring or her gloved hand for the
00:23:38.260
My fingers look like blackened hot dogs extending from an overly well done
00:23:54.900
Blood begins streaming out of the base of the hand.
00:24:03.360
but because I'm concentrating on the dignity and the finality of the death.
00:24:10.960
goodbye to my wife and my son to the symbolism of that wedding ring.
00:24:17.760
give that to Mel and tell her that I loved her.
00:24:23.140
Williams for the hospital chaplain and chaplain Cirillo had already arrived to
00:24:39.020
if you've brought Brian here so that under your direction is the great
00:24:43.300
Williams and the team here tend to Brian and Brian survives,
00:24:47.140
we'll salute that flag and move out with that mission.
00:24:49.600
But if you've brought Brian here so that under the care and compassion of his
00:25:07.280
but as a believer in Christ that I could look at Dr.
00:25:13.880
Resting in the comfort of who was in charge of my eternity and who was in
00:25:24.400
the feeling of my head being tilted back because they're going to intubate
00:25:28.100
And the thing that I will most vividly remember is that mask going over my
00:25:34.180
Cause it's the last thing I'm going to see tilting my head back.
00:25:43.420
the volume of anesthesia they're having to give me.
00:25:47.900
Williams will do the very brutal things that have to be done to the burn
00:25:52.420
normally it's airway breathing circulation and then evacuation to specialized
00:25:56.360
But the Lord put him there so that not just stabilizing airway breathing and
00:26:07.460
very difficult things that you're glad you're unconscious through it,
00:26:13.820
but because it's the things that have to be done for me to be able to survive this.
00:26:21.880
Mel's got a great story in her own accord of how she got there.
00:26:28.420
the Lord put in the right people at the right time,
00:26:32.380
Mel will get there just before about four o'clock,
00:26:35.580
I'm evacuated to the Washington hospital center burn unit.
00:26:38.700
The hospital had been asking the FAA for clearance to,
00:26:53.600
They do all the bypasses and things of that nature.
00:26:57.940
But one of the former burn nurse burn unit nurses,
00:27:07.880
It was had transferred from the burn unit at Georgetown because she wanted to
00:27:18.820
And an IC unit that's primarily designed for cardiac.
00:27:38.540
and then they'll take me to the helipad helicopter will fly me.
00:27:44.560
A Georgetown university police officer will drive her to George,
00:27:49.040
And the streets of Washington DC have never been that clear since Abraham Lincoln
00:27:56.200
was the president of the United States when the Confederacy was threatening a
00:28:04.300
to see that we'll get to George to the Washington hospital center and,
00:28:14.680
There are a lot of hard things that I knew I'd ask questions about,
00:28:17.700
but I've just described what was the very beginning of a,
00:28:34.800
that's what helps relay the story and puts people in,
00:28:38.840
So no matter how many times I've told the story,
00:29:23.500
the surgeon general of the army and the attacks over,
00:29:42.340
And Mel would be very perceptive as you would expect.
00:30:05.680
You need to get Matthew up here to see his father as quickly as you can.
00:30:33.760
And my sense of time and order in ICU was pretty distorted,
00:31:09.600
when she was born and the things that we've had,
00:31:14.780
Mel and I have had the opportunity to encourage both the spouse and the
00:31:28.700
so I said what I did about every scar is worth our freedom,
00:31:39.540
we'll see the price of our eternal freedom when we're with him in eternity.
00:31:47.940
the scars we see of all the headstones in cemeteries across the country,
00:32:10.320
Watching people kneel during the national anthem and,
00:32:27.000
I got my purple heart for coming out of the men's restroom.
00:32:34.480
it's a feeling of inadequacy on my part when I had a veterans group.
00:32:40.460
I got my purple heart for coming out of the can.
00:32:59.820
most difficult thoughts that you could have had.
00:33:02.620
And all of that was the possibility of not seeing your son grow up as a mom.
00:33:07.900
That's something that I would be thinking about and possibly not only not seeing them,
00:33:12.320
grow up and accomplish all the things that you knew that he would,
00:33:26.580
the blessing of the last 20 years that even with the scars or my range of motion limitations or what,
00:33:34.960
the last 20 years have been a blessing to see the things in life that in those moments on that day,
00:33:44.940
where I pleaded for the Lord to finish what the terrorists had started after I got to see Matthew.
00:33:53.040
That's the hardest thing my country's ever asked me to do was say goodbye to my son under such,
00:34:19.680
I'm in agony and I'm watching my family in agony.
00:34:41.120
And so now Mel and I have had the opportunity instead of her seeing things as a widow over the last 20 years,
00:34:59.420
We had a fabulous daughter-in-law in Ann Marie,
00:35:36.100
but a little bit more private part of the hospital and just had a good cry together and a cry of joy that,
00:35:53.020
I would want your viewers and listeners to see this and,
00:36:00.160
but also that every scar that I physically wear or emotionally wear and every other veteran that wears a physical or emotional scar,
00:36:11.900
every one of those scars is worth the freedoms that this country offers because no matter our maladies,
00:36:19.500
this is still the greatest place on God's green earth.
00:36:24.820
the Lord saw fit to wear some scars for our eternal freedom.
00:36:32.380
that's why these things are so important because it's,
00:36:36.640
it's an opportunity to remember what the Lord did in our lives personally,
00:36:41.380
helped form this nation and how precious freedom is.
00:36:47.620
go look at that plane taken off out of Kabul with people hanging onto it because they wanted to come here.
00:36:54.280
I'd love to hear you talk a little bit more about that because there is some cynicism,
00:36:59.600
especially among the generation who wasn't alive for nine 11,
00:37:06.320
sense of privilege and entitlement that also comes with just kind of a disregard for liberty or,
00:37:16.980
about how rare it is to be able to enjoy the freedom that we have,
00:37:26.400
do you still believe that there is hope for this Republic that we live in over the past year and a half?
00:37:33.940
A lot of people have started to have their doubts.
00:37:54.480
and what they're doing with training up a new generation,
00:37:59.560
And I do think there's still plenty of hope because one,
00:38:04.680
but two people are opening their eyes to the challenges that are before us.
00:38:10.440
some staffers that are a great indication that future generations get it.
00:38:15.560
And so while news media tend to always report the abnormal,
00:38:28.300
The ones that aren't kneeling during the national anthem,
00:38:36.700
They just get the majority of the attention as opposed to the people that are
00:38:43.300
doing the best that they possibly can being the best at their chosen
00:38:46.700
professions and making this country work that opportunity to go be the best
00:38:51.160
that you can be at whatever your chosen profession is.
00:38:56.380
seeing the desperation of people trying to flee Afghanistan,
00:39:04.460
trying to escape and trying to get to the greatest country in the world.
00:39:08.540
There's a reason why more immigrants flee to America every year than to any
00:39:15.420
seeing the images and the videos coming after or out of Afghanistan rather,
00:39:24.020
the fumbling of this administration when it comes to evacuating Afghanistan.
00:39:36.940
does it make your whole experience sting a little bit more or is it just kind of,
00:39:48.800
I'm like that guy at Pearl Harbor that I'm knocked out of the war on the first day.
00:40:04.820
watching what's occurred over the last three weeks has been hard to watch.
00:40:13.400
I got to visit with a group of about 20 and encourage them,
00:40:19.140
Cause a guy like me that that's injured on that day,
00:40:22.760
that when we commemorate the Memorial of September 11th,
00:40:29.480
that were injured that day that responded like first responders,
00:40:35.640
just the average greatness of the American citizen.
00:40:38.740
That's just doing his part to help where he can to relieve suffering,
00:40:45.260
But it's also every young man or woman that a day later,
00:40:53.920
defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies,
00:41:01.840
and the others that were wounded that were killed two weeks ago,
00:41:04.300
many of them were like what weren't alive yet or had just been born months
00:41:09.760
before we champion them because they were where they were out of a sense of
00:41:17.020
duty and responsibility to their country and what happened on the morning of
00:41:24.640
And I think I still have great hope for this country,
00:41:30.160
in the fixed bayonet's perspective of looking at,
00:41:42.380
And folks like you that are using this platform,
00:41:46.280
particularly to reach a younger generation that I,
00:41:48.420
as a 59 year old about to turn 60 wouldn't reach,
00:41:52.740
there's still a lot of hope because this is still the greatest place on earth.
00:42:01.280
maybe there's some hope for folks that think this place was really terrible.
00:42:05.240
Go visit some of those places I've been to and then come back and complain to me.
00:42:11.760
my parents taught me from a very young age to love this country and be grateful.
00:42:16.900
there's never been a day in my life where I haven't realized that I am exceptionally blessed to live in the United States.
00:42:24.120
That doesn't mean that we don't have our problems.
00:42:31.560
I'm not so insulated to think that to think that the struggles that I may suffer here in America are even comparable to the struggles that people who have never been able to taste freedom one day in their lives.
00:42:49.240
you said that with time you'd be able to forgive.
00:42:57.440
I don't know that I'll ever be able to say Allie,
00:43:08.460
and I use the term loosely men that crashed seven,
00:43:33.440
So I don't know that I'll ever know the answer because that forgiveness can't culminate in that way.
00:43:43.320
Part of what hurts about what's going on in Afghanistan or what,
00:43:47.540
what has happened to the last three weeks is that while we may say that the war on terror is over with,
00:43:57.480
I am not prepared to forgive the culture that trained,
00:44:24.980
So it's not just proper role and function of government between federal government,
00:44:36.420
It does not belong to the church and it doesn't belong to me as an individual.
00:44:43.260
I try to respond to it wearing a few different hats,
00:44:47.660
wearing the hat of a soldier and wearing the hat of a believer.
00:44:57.360
And had I not been injured that day and had been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else that my country may have sent me,
00:45:08.140
It is to bear the sword against those who would do evil,
00:45:15.440
and the pursuit of all who threaten it kind of thing.
00:45:19.300
And so that's where people need to understand the difference between the functions,
00:45:29.540
Christ tells us that all things were created through him and all things he created.
00:45:34.240
That isn't just the things that are made up of the periodic table of the elements.
00:45:38.560
It's the institutions of marriage and Genesis came first.
00:45:44.360
And each of those institutions have their own unique functions.
00:45:51.140
I cannot tell you I have forgiven at this moment.
00:46:10.100
I don't know that I can forgive what they did to the country.
00:46:23.260
I'm being very brutally honest with a brutally honest question.
00:46:35.860
it looks like what's happening in Afghanistan right now.
00:46:43.080
there'll be consequences if you're not out by August 31st,
00:46:48.920
there's going to be a lot of relish on your hot dog.
00:47:04.740
we normal average citizens who have not served.
00:47:15.680
And that's what a lot of people I think are embarrassed about right now when it
00:47:21.240
you don't like to feel like even I didn't vote for Joe Biden,
00:47:30.300
Maybe he will be the commander in chief that we want or that we need.
00:47:35.620
And it just kind of seems like this whole America last approach is really bent on
00:47:45.900
it doesn't mean that you can't have a conversation with whether it's trade or,
00:47:55.560
But I did an interview on Fox two years ago at the anniversary is not the right
00:48:06.560
And it was right at the time that Trump was starting to talk,
00:48:24.540
I said what I most appreciate because they just killed,
00:48:40.620
And I'm prepared to trust him because it's finally great to have a president that cares
00:48:46.680
more about the lives of Americans than he does about the lives of our enemies.
00:48:51.000
And we're back to where we were people that care more about not offending somebody.
00:49:05.600
there were so many people after September 11th,
00:49:10.720
why are they mad as I am not interested in learning why you're mad.
00:49:15.300
I'm interested in you learning never to make us mad.
00:49:23.920
And what people don't understand is that American strength is good for the world.
00:49:27.280
American weakness is not just bad for Americans.
00:49:32.200
You look at what's happening right now in the geopolitical structure and circumstances.
00:49:42.800
the Chinese have an incredible amount of economic leverage.
00:50:04.380
China and Russia are about to recognize because the Taliban wants recognition in the international community.
00:50:26.320
it certainly wasn't Western Republican government,
00:50:40.240
that's already had some clashes on its border with China,
00:50:55.720
The Chinese have an incredible amount of leverage.
00:51:13.020
when Vietnam wants a better relationship with the United States is because they see the,
00:51:31.040
We don't walk around willy nilly looking for a fight.
00:51:40.320
because we had been treating terrorism as a criminal act for so many years up to,
00:51:50.200
we can go down the list all the way back to 73.
00:52:08.120
but we've left a critical part of the world with flashpoints in a much more dangerous position.
00:52:17.220
gratitude is one way that we can honor those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom,
00:52:27.700
that people can express their gratitude and can honor what happened 20 years ago this Saturday,
00:52:42.240
or servicemen and women in airports and buying a meal,
00:53:09.300
the three things that the fire police and military as professions share that no other profession share is the tug of death because of your sense of duty and the nature of your duties.
00:53:29.500
whether it's something as simple as a meal in a restaurant when the police officer comes in,
00:53:41.820
is one of the best virtues that we can have either individually or as a nation.
00:53:48.500
And how you choose to demonstrate that gratitude is up to you,
00:53:55.140
There's a lot of young moms who listen to this podcast.
00:53:58.880
And I think one thing that we can do is that we can set an example for our kids.
00:54:08.300
how unique and wonderful it is to live in this country.
00:54:14.620
And we have such a wonderful opportunity to be able to do that and to be free to do that.
00:54:19.220
Thank you so much for taking the time to tell your story.
00:54:23.140
I am especially keen for all of the youngins who don't remember 9-11.
00:54:44.560
it's funny because I actually remember exactly what my teacher was wearing,
00:54:51.300
I remember she was up at the front of the classroom trying to continue the lesson.
00:54:57.760
when you're a kid and you see an adult start crying,
00:55:00.020
it's very off putting because you don't like to see your parents or adults upset.
00:55:05.360
our parents were told to pick us up early from school.
00:55:09.320
And I remember my mom sitting in our kitchen or standing in our kitchen,
00:55:16.660
we might have to leave Dallas because we didn't know.
00:55:20.840
And I don't even know where we would have gone.
00:55:29.380
even though you don't have the maturity to realize,
00:55:33.640
something catches in your brain that tells you remember this.
00:55:38.000
And I think there are a lot of people listening who are a little older,
00:55:40.560
a little younger who remember exactly where they were.
00:55:46.320
you've got a bunch of little kids running around,
00:55:47.840
maybe you don't have time to go out and actually do something formally.
00:56:02.380
be grateful to the Lord first and foremost for his provision,
00:56:04.940
but also to everyone who has given their lives.
00:56:07.940
And I'm thankful to you for the service that you've done for this country.
00:56:12.520
And thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing your faith as well.
00:56:36.820
just maybe a quick sentence or two about why you love Relatable.
00:56:43.720
we've got our 500th episode of Relatable coming up.
00:56:46.540
I can't believe that it's been that many episodes.
00:56:48.340
Thank you guys so much for listening and for watching as long as you have.
00:56:52.360
If you have any ideas for something special that I could do for y'all for the 500th episode
00:56:57.600
or just any fun ideas for what we could do to make that episode special,