Episode 89 LIVE： America's Bravest (feat. Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
Summary
Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta served as a Green Beret in the 7th Special Forces Group and is now transitioning to civilian life. He talks about his time in Afghanistan, the unique brotherhood that appends to service in our military, and the path to special forces and about mental health challenges that we have so many of our veterans wanting to address.
Transcript
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You ever watch this guy on television? It's like a machine. Matt Gaetz.
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I'm a canceled man in some corners of the internet. Many days I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
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They aren't really coming for me. They're coming for you. I'm just in the way.
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We're broadcasting live out of room 2021 of the Rayburn Office Building here at the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C.
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And there is always a great deal of energy on Capitol Hill when it is State of the Union Day.
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Extra security, extra focus, a lot of folks trying to cast a vision.
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And President Biden will be here in the halls of the House of Representatives this evening to deliver the State of the Union.
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And there's always a great deal of interest in who members of Congress select to be their guest for the State of the Union.
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And I invited Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta, someone who served as a Green Beret in our district and is now transitioning to civilian life.
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He's got a lot to share about his time in Afghanistan, about the unique brotherhood that appends to service in our military,
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about the path to special forces, and about mental health challenges that we have so many of our veterans wanting to address.
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And they want to advocate for those who are still in uniform, their family members.
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It's a terrific interview. Take a listen to Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta.
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We're joined now by Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta, served our great country as a Green Beret,
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was working right there with the 7th Special Forces Group and a member of that elite organization.
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And my good friend, we actually met for the first time at Walter Reed and have stayed in contact ever since.
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Martin, thanks so much for joining me here in the office.
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And I am very excited because I'm going to get to invite you to join me during President Biden's State of the Union.
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It is a moment for our country to hear from the President of the United States about vision and goals.
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And I just wanted to thank you with our whole audience for giving us the great honor of having you here and having you join me.
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Thank you, sir. I am very grateful for the opportunity of being able to attend with you and see this side of the government that, you know,
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not a lot of people get to see. So I'm very excited. Thank you.
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You will definitely get the behind-the-scenes views and now see everybody likes that they can have the cameras to see who's talking and who
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and chit-chatting with you, and you'll have the whole perspective.
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You're a big dude, so I only feel bad about whoever has to sit behind you because they might not have as good a view.
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But I wanted to talk to you about your path to the United States Army because right now in the Armed Services Committee,
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we're very concerned that recruiting has become harder, that the people who are even physically eligible to serve in the Army is less and less over time.
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And so you're one of our great celebrated heroes. Tell us about what brought you to the United States Army.
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Well, let me just start out, sir, by saying, you know, I was born in Texas, but I pretty much grew up in the south side of Chicago.
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So, you know, I tell people nowadays, you know, I kind of got to see combat before I actually joined the military.
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So one of the big major reasons why I joined, why I enlisted in the Army back in 2009,
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was to kind of get away from the gang violence in Chicago.
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And as you've told it to me before, it was not the best news your mother wanted to hear.
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You know, I grew up watching, you know, Rambo, all those movies.
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And it's just something that, you know, I felt I had a passion for.
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But coming from a household, being a single, you know, Hispanic woman with three boys and a young girl, you know, she was in her 20s.
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So, you know, as an older guy, I was the oldest out of the four.
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I kind of just took on the role to try to set an example.
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You know, my job was like, hey, we don't really have a father figure at this time.
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So what do I need to do to get these guys to follow me later on?
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So my mom was pushing college a lot, mainly to kind of set the example for the others to follow.
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I originally enlisted as just a normal 11 Bravo infantry guy.
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At that time, 2009, Ranger Battalion was over strength.
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But that door wasn't open, but a new door opened,
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which was the Special Forces recruiter, approached me.
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And just with the sign of a paper, he canceled my orders to my unit and said,
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hey, you're going to Special Forces assessment and selection.
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And from this point on, it's up to you if you make it or not.
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And that's kind of how I got my start in the United States Army back in 2009, sir.
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What was the hardest part of that Special Forces transition for you?
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You know, I don't even think I spent a night in the woods until I joined the Army.
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And I think that's one of the reasons that attracted me to this profession.
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I just needed something, you know, a new challenge.
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And I think around that time is when, like, the Call of Duty games were big.
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And, you know, everybody thought I was joking for a while.
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They thought maybe I just went away for a few years and was living with family in California.
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But when I came back after graduating, the first time, you know,
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when I was officially a Green Beret and I came back to Chicago,
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just to see the smile in my mom's face, I felt like it was all worth it.
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It was essentially, like, me having a college diploma.
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Even though I'm going to college now to get my diploma,
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We're joined by Sergeant First Class Martin Acosta.
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and one of Northwest Florida's finest and bravest
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and represents the Seven Special Forces community so well.
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And it's a community that certainly has gone deep into the fight.
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If we were talking to somebody who was making that decision
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about the United States Army that was, you know,
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wondering if the Army was the right option for them,
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that people need to have to be successful like you are?
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In that order, empathy and then kind of the go-getter drive.
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Because I feel like we're at a point in our lives and in our nation
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where I feel like nobody tries to find common ground.
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It's just automatically, like, I don't think I agree with you,
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so I'm just going to find things that we disagree even more.
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So I think, you know, trying to actually think of solutions
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to the problems we currently have, it's a big – not everybody has it.
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Do you think that recruiting in the military –
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scoot a little closer to the mic so they can pick you up.
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is a downstream effect of, like, division in the country?
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Or do you think that recruiting in the military – I mean, it's gotten harder, right?
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I mean, it's gotten harder for us to get the people that we need to protect the country.
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Partially, I think, because we just – we're giving away too much free stuff.
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Like, essentially, like, you know, why would somebody want to work for something
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So you think that if people got less free stuff in this country,
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the military would be viewed as more of a ladder up in life?
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You know, it was either crime, school, or the military.
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And if I was going to try to stay home and I wasn't going to go to school,
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I wasn't going to have any money unless I worked for it.
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And I understand, you know, to a certain point, you know, you need to –
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maybe it's a starter, like a starter package, you know, something to get started.
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You know, we can only help you stand up, and then the rest is on your own.
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So I think we definitely – I wouldn't say necessarily stop a lot of stuff,
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just maybe restructure it, you know, have a better understanding
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of why people are doing the things that they're doing.
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Well, you made this choice to go into the Army.
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You go excel there, and you find yourself in Afghanistan.
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I know the story, but for those who don't, share your experience in Afghanistan,
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the mission you were working on, the work you were doing,
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and then how we ultimately came to meet up at Walter Reed.
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We deployed January 2020, a week after the new year.
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And our mission, we were going to be there seven months.
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And essentially, at that time, the peace talks with the Taliban was kind of –
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Unfortunately for us, you know, it was about – you know, people say usually the first 30 days,
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last 30 days are the most dangerous days in deployment.
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You know, we – there was this area in Afghanistan that just kept getting hammered.
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You know, they kept getting hammered by Taliban.
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So we went to do an engagement with the district governor.
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And what we thought it was going to be – I don't want to say thought.
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What was supposed to be one of the least dangerous missions ended up being the worst day of my life.
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And every permission training, we have what's called Mascow.
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It was the A&A police that decided to pick up an automatic weapon and fire at us.
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One of the people that we were there to help, one of the people – one of the persons that we were there to help,
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took it upon himself to pick up a weapon and fire on us.
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And what I remember from that day, as soon as the first burst happened, you kind of put it together.
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Like, it was just, like, the body armor covered all the good spots.
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But from the body armor below, just both legs were done.
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And I'm not sure what his intentions were, if he saw me crawling next to my buddy.
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So when I fell for the first time, you know, the pain had a kinked in, yet the adrenaline was still going on.
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You know, I kind of fell forward on my stomach.
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And right behind him, there was, like, a little ditch.
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And within seconds, we heard another burst of fire.
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And I think at that point is when everything went quiet.
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I just, like, I couldn't hear anything anymore.
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because I didn't want the old crap moment to come.
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You know, while I was on the ground looking at my buddy
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the only thing I could think of was my wife and kids.
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Katie's my wife saying she's going to be pissed.
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there's intense competition to get on deployments.
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it can come to blows with Green Berets not wanting to be home
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but being so willing to be in the fight to have those moments.
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And it's just, you know, and it's that go-getter mentality, you know.
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So it's just the mentality that we want to do after.
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But there's a full understanding of the sacrifice
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because I remember when I was there with President Trump
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when Jaguar came home on dignified transfer with Antonio.
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And the members of the seven special forces group
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were standing right there in the rain in observance of that moment.
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And so it is not a decision that seems entered in too lightly.
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And now you're out in civilian life, working in the private sector.
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Tell us a little bit about your family, your wife, your kids,
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and sort of what life's like now beyond service.
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You know, I did start working for a company, doing cybersecurity,
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I figured I was a communications guy, switched over to intelligence.
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You know, it's, but transitioning to the civilian side,
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in general, it's, I feel like I'm starting over again.
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And, you know, I give a big shout-out to my wife.
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Everybody thinks we're tough, but that's because they haven't met our wives.
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So it's, you know, maybe I could answer that question in six months
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because right now I'm still trying to figure it out.
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And this is something that we see kind of across the economy,
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so many businesses wanting to hire veterans because of the skill set,
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because of the discipline, because of the sense of purpose and mission,
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and so many veterans transitioning to corporate and civilian life,
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And the energy and the tempo sometimes doesn't really compare
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What advice would you give people that have just, you know,
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made that initial step like you have to just where you are,
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saying, look, I'm going to take these skills that the United States Army taught me.
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I'm going to put them to work for my career progression, for my family.
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How would you advise people that are kind of on that initial step of the path?
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I would say they need to ask themselves what, two questions,
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what do they think their purpose is, and what do they want to do?
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If they could answer those two questions and find something that they have in common,
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We could do that with a lot of the folks in Congress
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my guest in the State of the Union, served in Afghanistan, was injured there,
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came back and is living a great life in Northwest Florida,
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you really reflected on the need for people to focus on mental health
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for a lot of the folks who were still in active duty
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Why was that something you really wanted to draw focus on?
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At first, just like everybody, I thought it was a myth.
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I thought it was just another excuse for people to not do what they needed to do.
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Once I started seeing not how it just affected me, how it affects my family,
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You know, that's when it clicked that this is real
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And when I saw how hard it was for me to get help while being in active duty,
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and started realizing that I wasn't the only one.
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So, you know, I'm at the point that I'm still working with my issues,
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but, you know, I feel like part of my calling is to help others.
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And I think that maybe some people are afraid to speak up.
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I'll say what I need to say in order to get them to talk to somebody.
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Is that the biggest problem, just to get people to...
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I don't know why it's two emotions come, two feelings.
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Those are two things that not a lot of people like to feel.
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But mental health is not something that you should regret,
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If we can get people to open up about it and say,
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how physically able is this particular group of people
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And now, we're starting to do those types of assessment
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based on the intensity and acuity of the conflict,
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all those types of things can inform on readiness,
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We get somewhat of a physical before deployments
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You know, we don't really do that in the military.
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I see more and more people reaching out every week.
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And the way you talk about the tight-knit family networks
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every time we all get the chance to get together.
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Last week, my office extended an invitation to a veteran
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with a reminder of why we serve the American people,
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led by someone who once fought for our country.
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Unfortunately, my decision caused some unintended consequences.
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until after the ceremony in the Judiciary Committee.
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When our office encounters a veteran in need of assistance,
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or I wonder if this person had any run-ins with the law
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and to think about how we can be helpful and productive.
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Congressional offices don't look like the inside
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We don't have access to any type of surveillance technology
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We do have a team of dedicated young professionals
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in our constituents and especially our veterans.
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And sometimes even with the best of intentions,
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to better inform on our standard operating procedure
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for inviting guests to ceremonies and official events.
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Thank you so much for joining us today on Firebrand.