November 11, 2025 • 26 mins
To mark Veterans Day, host J.R. Martinez sits down with producer Ryan Sweikert to talk about what he’s learned from the stories of veterans who have received the Medal of Honor, how to talk to veterans about their service, and the moments that shaped his life, both in the service and afterward.
Medal of Honor Season 3 is coming on May 27th, 2026. In the meantime, we want to hear from you. We’ve put together a listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show. What we can improve on. Stories you think we've missed. To take the survey, follow this link: bit.ly/mohsurvey
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Today we celebrate Veterans Day. It's a time for
us to reflect on the sacrifices made by the men
and women who have served and protected this country across generations.
I'm j R. Martinez. In the last season of Medal
(00:36):
of Honor Stories of Courage, I had the privilege of
telling the heroic stories of some of the bravest veterans
to ever put on the uniform, like sal Junta, who
ran through a hell of bullets to save his best
friend from capture, or Carl Sitter, the wounded Marine captain
who refused to be evacuated until the job was done.
(00:59):
Ordinary men who were thrust into impossible situations, who didn't
just meet the challenge of the day, but plowed through it.
You've been listening to our show, you know the value
of that kind of courage. But I'm here to tell
you that everyone who has ever put on the uniform
has a story. So today I'd like to encourage you
(01:20):
to talk to the veterans in your life and don't
just thank them for their service. Ask them about it.
It shouldn't end with just the thank you. We're hard
at work on the next season, the Medal of Honor
and it's coming in May of next year. But in
the meantime, I want to hear from you about what
you'd like to hear from us. We've put together a
listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show,
(01:42):
what we can improve on, stories you think we've missed
as we observe this Veterans Day, we're recommitting ourselves to
not just making the show, but making it better. And
you can help us to take the survey. Head to
bit dot lee slash mohsurvey. That's bit dot ly slash
(02:03):
moh survey. That link is also in our show notes.
For this episode, I sat down with my producer Ryan
Swikert to talk about what we owe our veterans today
and what we can expect in the upcoming season of
Medal of Honor.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, Jr. I am so happy to be sitting with
you here in Pushkin Industries in beautiful New York City.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yes, sir, it's nice, beautiful cool outside here. I am walking,
you know, in New York, and I'm like and a
lady sneeze. I was like, bless you, and she just
kind of looked at.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Me, you know, and just kept it moving, and I
was like Oh, I love New York right like, and.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's I'm really excited to be talking to you about,
you know, the things that you learned making this show
and what the listeners can expect this upcoming season and
today's Veterans Day. It's interesting, Like I have veterans in
my life, and you know, as a civilian, sometimes it
feels like maybe you don't want to broach the subject
with somebody to get them to talk about bad things
(03:05):
that happened to them. Yeah, what would you say to that?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Let them tell you, let them dictate. You'll know immediately
if this individual wants to talk, and if they do,
how much they want to share? Why are we underestimating
that they're capable of telling us? A lot of us
don't want to infringe because they don't want to pry
because they're afraid, you know, but I think a lot
(03:29):
of people don't want to infringe because they're they don't
want that vet to be like, it's none of your business.
I don't want to talk about it because how it's
going to make us feel exactly? You know, you do
these little events and you know, you get get around
kids and kids are like kids have no filter. Man,
I mean as brutally as raw as it may be
(03:49):
at times when a kid would come up to me
and like what happened to your face? I mean, straight up, man,
these kids are brutal. But at the end of the day,
I mean it's inspiring to see these kids that are
doing that, And that's I think as adults to some degree,
like we need to kind of like still carry a
little bit of that inner child in us because they're
you know, Currie fearless. Just ask the question, just go
(04:12):
shoot from the hip man and veterans day. You know again,
we're so used to going up to a vat you know,
and say thank you for your service, and what do
they say? Thank you? And they're like, all right, have
a good day, walk away, right what happened there? Yes,
you allowed someone to feel appreciated, and then that is
equally important. However, you just walked away not knowing what
(04:36):
that person did, not knowing what you really thank them for.
That person now doesn't really know you, versus if you
approached them and said, you know, yes, if you want
to lead with the hey, I just want to say
thank you for your service, really appreciated, and they're like
thank you, and like what do you mind telling me, Like,
what'd you do in the military, you know, where'd you serve?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Just starting a conversation with the veterans in your life, right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's it. Yeah, that's it, man. I just tell people like,
don't make the decision for that individual. Let that individual
tell you if they're ready to talk.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I want to back up just a little bit. Of course,
so a lot of listeners are familiar with your story,
but I think a lot of new listeners might not be.
And being that it's Veterans Day today, I was wondering
if you could just tell me the story of when
you became a veteran? Absolutely not all right, that's okay.
I just wanted to ask.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
There we go. There it is. Put it in practice already.
I love it, man, understand that. Yeah, I wouldn't want
to talk about it either. Yeah, exactly. There you go. See,
and that's but that's that's the way to do it.
So essentially, I was a senior in high school in
nine to eleven, took place, and like everybody, of course, confused, afraid,
(05:50):
but also I think just felt this deep patriotism of
what can I do? I want to do something, and
so the military now became that opportunity for me. It
was an opportunity for me to go serve. It was
an opportunity for me to get more disciplined, as opportunity
for me to travel, get money for college, all the things.
It was a one stop up and so off I
(06:10):
go to the army as an infantruyman. And six months
after I enlisted, I found myself in combat in Iraq.
At first, I didn't really feel like I played a role.
I was like, what I mean, I'm not really doing
anything here, Like I mean, not helpful to anybody. I
don't know any of this stuff. And it took one
(06:32):
of my leaders to give a briefing to our unit,
and in that briefing, he talked about the importance of service.
He talked about the importance of every single person in
the role that they played and accomplishing our mission. And
he was giving this whole speech man, and I literally
was like, oh my god, all right, I get it. Now,
I do play a role, I do matter. I am
part of this team. And you know, I was only
(06:54):
in country man for three and a half weeks. That's it.
And then on the fifth of April of two thousand
and three, I'm driving a humvey through a city called
Carbala when the front left tire runs over a roadside bomb.
There were three other guys in the humvy. They were
all out, but I was trapped aside, and within a
matter of seconds, this ve was now engulfed in flames.
And you know, I can't get out. For five minutes
(07:18):
that I was trapped inside of this burning humvey, I
was in and out of consciousness because I had thirty
degree burns. But the biggest thing that was threatening whether
I was going to survive or not, was the fact
that I had inhalation damage. So I was inhaling all
the smoke from the fire. I had broken ribs. It
was hard for me to breathe. So this is what
it sounded like. It was like help, help, like that.
(07:43):
And then there would be these moments where my body
would get really heavy, like my eyes would get heavy.
My body would start to kind of get weak, and
my eyes would be on the verge of closing and
they would close. But when my eyes closed, there's two
things that I vividly remember. One is feeling my breath.
I could feel myself breathing or trying to. And the
(08:06):
second thing is my thoughts. And then I would tell myself,
don't keep your eyes closed, because if you do, that's it.
You're giving up. Someone's going to pull you out. Open
your eyes, and I would open my eyes and I
would continue to screaming. Yet, but what I learned from
the fifth of Able of two thousand and three is
that hopefully I and the listener we won't find ourselves
(08:28):
in a burning situation right where we're trapped. Hopefully that's
not the case. However, life in itself, because it could
be overwhelming and a lot of pressures, can feel like
we're in a burning situation. And so what I've learned
from that five minutes that I was trapped inside of
(08:48):
that hum vy is that when things start to feel
a little overwhelming, when things start to feel a little
out of control, I just like to close my eyes.
I like to connect with my breath, and I like
to connect with my thoughts well and ask for help
right and ask for other things and trust that people
will show up for you. I had to trust in
(09:11):
those five minutes that somebody was going to show up.
I had this false sense of hope that someone was
going to come pull me out, and they did. And
I was pulled out of the humbee, started the metavac process,
put into a medical induce coma, ended up in San Antonio, Texas,
and then three weeks later, came out of my medical
induce coma to my new reality. You know, after my injury,
(09:46):
I was in a medical induce coma for three weeks.
And when I came out of my medical induce coma,
the first question, no different than any other service member
that I asked the medical team, was when can I
get out? And when can I get back with my
unit and finish my tour. And the first bombshell, if
you will, that they dropped on me was they told
me that I wasn't going to be allowed to stay
(10:07):
in the Army. I was going to be medically dished charged.
That was really hard for me because I started to
create this identity of Okay, I love this this military thing,
I love this uniform, I love this concept of service
like I love being a part of this, and now
you're taking that away from me. Also, within the same
(10:30):
like week and a half, I saw my face and
my body for the first time understood the severity of
my injury. And so I always say to people, you know,
two weeks after I came out of my coma, I
lost both of my identities, Like I didn't know who
I was. And I mean at that point, I was
just kind of going through the motions, just kind of
surviving the day. I had to really like go of
(10:52):
the pressure of what long term was going to look like,
and I started to really focus on just the short term,
the now, the today. And six months later, I'm asked
to visit a patient who was in a hospital essentially
navigating the same thing I was navigating six months prior,
and I was encouraged to go in and talk to him,
and you know, like a typical twenty year old, I
(11:13):
was like now, now, now, and you know, the staff
who had at that point became more like my friends
and family, and this nurse, miss Walker, she was like, no,
go in there, and I was like, fine, I'll do it. Gosh,
I mean literally like a mother's son dynamic. And do
you know why you were so reluctant to go because
I was like, I'm twenty What am I going to say?
(11:35):
I don't know what I'm going to say to this individual,
like nothing to offer. And that was my first mistake
because what I realized when I walked into that room
and he was definitely in a bad place. I realized
all I needed to do is just show up. And
I remember having a forty five minute conversation with this
patient and when I left, I was like.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Hey, man, I'll come back tomorrow. He's like, yeah, man,
I'd appreciate that. Like it was a completely different vibe
in his room. And I started visiting patients every day.
And what that did is that gave me what part
of my identity back, the ability to serve. I realize
I can serve again in a different way, in a
different capacity, but I can serve.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I learned that I needed to be vulnerable. The more
that I've done that, I have found some really incredible
people that I call my family now. I have created
deeper connections with people that I probably never would have had.
I continue to keep this sort of shield in front
of me, just trusting that you know not everybody, but
(12:38):
there are a hell of a lot of people out
there that are equipped to show up for you, but
you also have to equally let them know that you
need that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It sounds like a veteran's day message. That's it, man.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know as much as I'm putting, you know, we're
talking to the listener that's potentially a civilian. I'm also
talking to that vet. It's hard walking the streets of
the world, even if there's only five hundred people that
live in your town, or there's five million people in
New York City, you know, and the same burrow as
you right now. It's hard, and it's easy to feel isolated,
(13:15):
and it's probably feels and the short term better to
isolate yourself. But the long term, in order for you
to be what you are destined to be, we have
to be willing to just keep showing up. And the
military they taught us that, and just because we're not
in it anymore doesn't mean that that goes away. Show
(13:37):
up for others and through that you start to kind
of discover more about yourself. And that was true for
me as I started to discover so much more about
myself by just showing up for others.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You talk about showing up, and you know, working on
this podcast, you've seen that, Like, yes, a lot of
these guys are very heroic and a lot of the
things they did were amazing, but they got in those
positions in the first place by just showing up. Yeah,
do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah? Man, I mean working on season two of Medal
of Honor and listening to season one with Malcolm, it
just reminded me of how important it is to simply
just show up, to just be there, Like you don't
have to have all the answers. I mean, you listen
to some of these individuals in season two and they
(14:26):
didn't have extensive training, they didn't have combat training, they
didn't get the luxury to go to this school and
that school. I didn't, right, Like, that's a common theme
in some of these stories. Yet when a moment asked
somebody to show up, they just showed up and they
figured it out. Like guys were able to just navigate
(14:48):
it and do some incredible things that I think they
surprised themselves, which is why I think many of them
are like why am I being awarded this incredible honor? Like?
Why do I deserve this? Right? I think anybody would
have done that. I think we all would have tried to,
you know, navigate it the same way. And if there's
anything you take away from this podcast, it's simply being
(15:12):
inspired by these stories that for some of us including myself.
They feel like, no, these are fictional stories. There's I
can't no, that's not real, that happened.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean, it's easy to look at the things that
these guys do. It's just sort of like these amazing heroics. Yeah,
but really it's just the confluence of like this training,
this ability, and the right moment.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, you're I mean, and a lot of them it's
just like like what would I have done? What would
I have done if there was someone with a machine gun?
Like in a position, like what I have charged in?
What would I have done? And so you easily start
to kind of think these are like just superheroes, and
they're not. They're human beings. We all have this, we
(16:01):
really do. And I just love that I get to
be part of the team to help keep these legacies
alive and then help people that are listening realize that
they too can be like Carl Sitter, they can be
like Jefferson de Blanc, they can be like all these
individuals that we've covered in the first two seasons of
Medal of Honor. It's a reminder for all of us
(16:22):
as human beings, as Americans, as listeners of this podcast,
where we're listening to these stories to just keep showing up.
We want to run away, but showing up might actually
allow you to realize the true hero that is in you,
that is just waiting for that moment to come out.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Dare I actually recently learned that you were on Dancing
with the Stars. I did not know this about you.
You're a man of many talents, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Man, sometimes I forget that I was on Dancing with
the Stars.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Not only were you on Dancing with the Stars, my friend,
but you want the winners and new champions Answering with
the Stars shout a cry of which makes you infinitely
a better dancer than I could ever be. How did
this come about? And like, I'm just curious about how
and if you talked about being a veteran on the show.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, I was on that show and it was veteran first.
It really was promoted like we have this veteran on
the show. And what was cool about it is, yes,
I went on to show the world that I have
a personality. Obviously I could dance, but it was just
like this character like I just I'm silly of goofy,
(17:48):
and but people were like, oh that's cool, here's a
guy that you know, some people will look at me
like scared to see, you know, like the scars and whatever,
But look at him, he's actually like clowning, laughing silly,
like he's just a goofball. And so it was, it was,
it was awesome. And I remember week three, I did
(18:10):
a rumba. We danced to the song Tim McGraths song.
If you're reading this.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You did to a Tim McGraw song, Yeah, okay, I
gotta look at that.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The lyrics are he's telling the story of a service member.
So he writes a letter to his wife. Essentially he's saying,
if you're reading this, I passed away while in the military.
I remember sitting in the rehearsal room with Karina spurnt Off,
my partner, and I was like, yeah, this is an
(18:42):
important story to tell. Before we danced, they showed up
the package again and it was about my recovery and
uh ah, man, just thinking about it, like they showed
all these people, they interviewed them behind my back. I
had no clue they put this package together, which is
the worst thing to do to somebody that's about the
(19:03):
dance in front of millions of people.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You read to watch this before you.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I had to watch it, and so I'm standing and
they're watching it, waiting for this package to end, the
announcer to introduce us, and then the music starts playing.
We go, and I tell you, by the time we started,
I had tears in my eyes, like and it wasn't
just about me. It was like, I'm telling the story
of so many men and women. I finished the routine, man,
(19:27):
and I'm crying. I only like ninety seconds, that's how
long we dance on the show, and probably the last
forty five seconds of that routine, I'm crying. In the
ballroom where they filmed Dance with the Stars, every single
person was standing out. The response that we got from that,
(19:50):
what people told us, what thank you, thank you for
telling that story.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I think that's interesting because that's pretty much what you're
doing on this show too. You know, you are in
conversation with these interviews with these veterans who have done
these amazing things, and you're telling their stories.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I think one theme we're circling here in this conversation
is storytelling. How important that is to the veteran experience right.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
One hundred percent, And we need more vets to be
willing to share and to talk as much as they
feel comfortable with.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Why is that important?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Because it is important for people to learn about who
we are one, so again we can have a connection.
But you know, we'd like to say in the military,
we fought for your freedom, we fought for your right.
And I think some of us we lose sight of
that when we come home and we're struggling. And what
I like to remind them is like, Okay, it's easy
(20:50):
to say you fought for everyone else's right, but you
also fought for your own. You deserve to live, you
deserve to heal, you deserve to go through your process
to get the out. You deserve that you fought for yourself. Man, Like,
not just everybody else, but for you too. I tell
my and I'm hoping that there's a vet that's listening
(21:11):
right now, or a loved one of a vet and
they're like, you know what, all right, maybe what I'm
struggling with it's okay, but I should reach out. Maybe
it encourages the listener right now to say, you know what,
oh man, I need to have a little bit more
compassion and not just look at them as like trained
robots that just know, they're human beings that have lives,
(21:31):
that have emotions, that have feelings, that have the same
desires that we do. They have aspirations right like they
have those same things, but they also still have those
complications like we all do.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
One of the things I noticed you said earlier was
that you would develop this identity as a soldier, right,
And that was something that didn't come easy to you.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
At first.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
You weren't really sure what you were doing there, and
then you got leadership. It helps you find that identity, right,
But then you get injured and you have a new identity. Right.
And for the past twenty years, you've been a veteran,
and I just wonder, you know what you've learned in
those twenty years with this identity of being a veteran.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I'm proud. I'm proud of the initial decision to join
the military, not really understanding this fraternity that I was joining.
I'm grateful because it gave me the opportunity to discover myself.
(22:36):
It gave me a space, a platform to identify the
greatness that lied in me. It gave me the avenue
to discover that. And the military helped me find this
concept of service, help me find this importance of teamwork
and how to show up and how to be a
leader and how to get people, you know, to buy in.
And I'm grateful. I have no regrets, man, absolutely none.
(23:03):
I mean it's kind of hard to really encapsulate like
what my life has been over the last two decades.
I mean, it's it's kind of wild, to be honest.
I've kind of like the Forest Gump in a sense
of just kind of like just yeah, sure, I'll try that.
Sure here right. I mean I never hosted a podcast
like this, you know, And here I am doing that
this working with this incredible team and telling these incredible stories.
(23:25):
And I feel the passion and love to tell these
stories in such a careful way that we do them justice.
And it makes me feel like I'm kind of back
into military in a sense, like I'm part of this team.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
What are you looking forward to in this upcoming season?
The medal of honor?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh man, what you guys have up your sleeve, what
you guys do, and how you do all this research
and put all these stories together. And you know, I'm
the final piece that comes in and helps, you know,
try to tell them. It's unfortunate that it's May of
next year when episode one is going to be released,
you know, because I feel like I'm like, I want
(24:05):
this now. Well, the good thing is you can go
listen to season one. It's easy two, right. But I'm
just I'm excited to just learn and to just be
inspired because I know there's a lot of stories in
there that are just going to be incredibly motivating and
inspiring and a reminder of what humans are capable of doing.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And I can tell you just from having worked on
some of the stories coming up, that they're capable of
a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah. I can't wait, man, I can't I can't wait.
So I hope everyone that's listening now, I hope that
you put some sort of alert reminder May twenty twenty six,
Medal of Honor, season three. I hope you tune in
as well and we can go on this journey together.
But before that, as I said in the opening, click
(24:52):
on that link in the show notes, I mean truly
when we say this, we mean that we want to
hear from you. We want to understand what are some
things that you want to know, What are maybe some subjects,
maybe some individuals, whatever it is, like, just this is
a community, and we want our listeners to feel like
they're part of our community. Because they are. They matter.
(25:12):
We want these stories to continue to live, so reach
out to us, communicate with us. But set that alert
that reminder for May twenty twenty six, Season three, Episode one.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
All right, Jr. Thank you so much for doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It was a pleasure, my man, Thank you so much. Yeah,
same here, brother. We want to thank you again for
listening to this special episode of Metal of Honor. Once again,
we'd love to hear from you. If you have a
couple of minutes, please take our listener survey. Head to
(25:46):
bid dot lee slash mohsurvey. That's bit dot l y
slash moh survey. That link is also in our show notes.
This episode of Metal of Honor Stories of Courage was
produced by Ryan Swiker. Our editor is Lydia Jeancott. Sound
design and additional music by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer
(26:10):
is Constanza Gallardo. Original music by Eric Phillips and I'm
your host j R. Martinez
Pushkin. Today we celebrate Veterans Day. It's a time for
us to reflect on the sacrifices made by the men
and women who have served and protected this country across generations.
I'm j R. Martinez. In the last season of Medal
(00:36):
of Honor Stories of Courage, I had the privilege of
telling the heroic stories of some of the bravest veterans
to ever put on the uniform, like sal Junta, who
ran through a hell of bullets to save his best
friend from capture, or Carl Sitter, the wounded Marine captain
who refused to be evacuated until the job was done.
(00:59):
Ordinary men who were thrust into impossible situations, who didn't
just meet the challenge of the day, but plowed through it.
You've been listening to our show, you know the value
of that kind of courage. But I'm here to tell
you that everyone who has ever put on the uniform
has a story. So today I'd like to encourage you
(01:20):
to talk to the veterans in your life and don't
just thank them for their service. Ask them about it.
It shouldn't end with just the thank you. We're hard
at work on the next season, the Medal of Honor
and it's coming in May of next year. But in
the meantime, I want to hear from you about what
you'd like to hear from us. We've put together a
listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show,
(01:42):
what we can improve on, stories you think we've missed
as we observe this Veterans Day, we're recommitting ourselves to
not just making the show, but making it better. And
you can help us to take the survey. Head to
bit dot lee slash mohsurvey. That's bit dot ly slash
(02:03):
moh survey. That link is also in our show notes.
For this episode, I sat down with my producer Ryan
Swikert to talk about what we owe our veterans today
and what we can expect in the upcoming season of
Medal of Honor.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, Jr. I am so happy to be sitting with
you here in Pushkin Industries in beautiful New York City.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yes, sir, it's nice, beautiful cool outside here. I am walking,
you know, in New York, and I'm like and a
lady sneeze. I was like, bless you, and she just
kind of looked at.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Me, you know, and just kept it moving, and I
was like Oh, I love New York right like, and.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's I'm really excited to be talking to you about,
you know, the things that you learned making this show
and what the listeners can expect this upcoming season and
today's Veterans Day. It's interesting, Like I have veterans in
my life, and you know, as a civilian, sometimes it
feels like maybe you don't want to broach the subject
with somebody to get them to talk about bad things
(03:05):
that happened to them. Yeah, what would you say to that?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Let them tell you, let them dictate. You'll know immediately
if this individual wants to talk, and if they do,
how much they want to share? Why are we underestimating
that they're capable of telling us? A lot of us
don't want to infringe because they don't want to pry
because they're afraid, you know, but I think a lot
(03:29):
of people don't want to infringe because they're they don't
want that vet to be like, it's none of your business.
I don't want to talk about it because how it's
going to make us feel exactly? You know, you do
these little events and you know, you get get around
kids and kids are like kids have no filter. Man,
I mean as brutally as raw as it may be
(03:49):
at times when a kid would come up to me
and like what happened to your face? I mean, straight up, man,
these kids are brutal. But at the end of the day,
I mean it's inspiring to see these kids that are
doing that, And that's I think as adults to some degree,
like we need to kind of like still carry a
little bit of that inner child in us because they're
you know, Currie fearless. Just ask the question, just go
(04:12):
shoot from the hip man and veterans day. You know again,
we're so used to going up to a vat you know,
and say thank you for your service, and what do
they say? Thank you? And they're like, all right, have
a good day, walk away, right what happened there? Yes,
you allowed someone to feel appreciated, and then that is
equally important. However, you just walked away not knowing what
(04:36):
that person did, not knowing what you really thank them for.
That person now doesn't really know you, versus if you
approached them and said, you know, yes, if you want
to lead with the hey, I just want to say
thank you for your service, really appreciated, and they're like
thank you, and like what do you mind telling me, Like,
what'd you do in the military, you know, where'd you serve?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Just starting a conversation with the veterans in your life, right.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's it. Yeah, that's it, man. I just tell people like,
don't make the decision for that individual. Let that individual
tell you if they're ready to talk.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I want to back up just a little bit. Of course,
so a lot of listeners are familiar with your story,
but I think a lot of new listeners might not be.
And being that it's Veterans Day today, I was wondering
if you could just tell me the story of when
you became a veteran? Absolutely not all right, that's okay.
I just wanted to ask.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
There we go. There it is. Put it in practice already.
I love it, man, understand that. Yeah, I wouldn't want
to talk about it either. Yeah, exactly. There you go. See,
and that's but that's that's the way to do it.
So essentially, I was a senior in high school in
nine to eleven, took place, and like everybody, of course, confused, afraid,
(05:50):
but also I think just felt this deep patriotism of
what can I do? I want to do something, and
so the military now became that opportunity for me. It
was an opportunity for me to go serve. It was
an opportunity for me to get more disciplined, as opportunity
for me to travel, get money for college, all the things.
It was a one stop up and so off I
(06:10):
go to the army as an infantruyman. And six months
after I enlisted, I found myself in combat in Iraq.
At first, I didn't really feel like I played a role.
I was like, what I mean, I'm not really doing
anything here, Like I mean, not helpful to anybody. I
don't know any of this stuff. And it took one
(06:32):
of my leaders to give a briefing to our unit,
and in that briefing, he talked about the importance of service.
He talked about the importance of every single person in
the role that they played and accomplishing our mission. And
he was giving this whole speech man, and I literally
was like, oh my god, all right, I get it. Now,
I do play a role, I do matter. I am
part of this team. And you know, I was only
(06:54):
in country man for three and a half weeks. That's it.
And then on the fifth of April of two thousand
and three, I'm driving a humvey through a city called
Carbala when the front left tire runs over a roadside bomb.
There were three other guys in the humvy. They were
all out, but I was trapped aside, and within a
matter of seconds, this ve was now engulfed in flames.
And you know, I can't get out. For five minutes
(07:18):
that I was trapped inside of this burning humvey, I
was in and out of consciousness because I had thirty
degree burns. But the biggest thing that was threatening whether
I was going to survive or not, was the fact
that I had inhalation damage. So I was inhaling all
the smoke from the fire. I had broken ribs. It
was hard for me to breathe. So this is what
it sounded like. It was like help, help, like that.
(07:43):
And then there would be these moments where my body
would get really heavy, like my eyes would get heavy.
My body would start to kind of get weak, and
my eyes would be on the verge of closing and
they would close. But when my eyes closed, there's two
things that I vividly remember. One is feeling my breath.
I could feel myself breathing or trying to. And the
(08:06):
second thing is my thoughts. And then I would tell myself,
don't keep your eyes closed, because if you do, that's it.
You're giving up. Someone's going to pull you out. Open
your eyes, and I would open my eyes and I
would continue to screaming. Yet, but what I learned from
the fifth of Able of two thousand and three is
that hopefully I and the listener we won't find ourselves
(08:28):
in a burning situation right where we're trapped. Hopefully that's
not the case. However, life in itself, because it could
be overwhelming and a lot of pressures, can feel like
we're in a burning situation. And so what I've learned
from that five minutes that I was trapped inside of
(08:48):
that hum vy is that when things start to feel
a little overwhelming, when things start to feel a little
out of control, I just like to close my eyes.
I like to connect with my breath, and I like
to connect with my thoughts well and ask for help
right and ask for other things and trust that people
will show up for you. I had to trust in
(09:11):
those five minutes that somebody was going to show up.
I had this false sense of hope that someone was
going to come pull me out, and they did. And
I was pulled out of the humbee, started the metavac process,
put into a medical induce coma, ended up in San Antonio, Texas,
and then three weeks later, came out of my medical
induce coma to my new reality. You know, after my injury,
(09:46):
I was in a medical induce coma for three weeks.
And when I came out of my medical induce coma,
the first question, no different than any other service member
that I asked the medical team, was when can I
get out? And when can I get back with my
unit and finish my tour. And the first bombshell, if
you will, that they dropped on me was they told
me that I wasn't going to be allowed to stay
(10:07):
in the Army. I was going to be medically dished charged.
That was really hard for me because I started to
create this identity of Okay, I love this this military thing,
I love this uniform, I love this concept of service
like I love being a part of this, and now
you're taking that away from me. Also, within the same
(10:30):
like week and a half, I saw my face and
my body for the first time understood the severity of
my injury. And so I always say to people, you know,
two weeks after I came out of my coma, I
lost both of my identities, Like I didn't know who
I was. And I mean at that point, I was
just kind of going through the motions, just kind of
surviving the day. I had to really like go of
(10:52):
the pressure of what long term was going to look like,
and I started to really focus on just the short term,
the now, the today. And six months later, I'm asked
to visit a patient who was in a hospital essentially
navigating the same thing I was navigating six months prior,
and I was encouraged to go in and talk to him,
and you know, like a typical twenty year old, I
(11:13):
was like now, now, now, and you know, the staff
who had at that point became more like my friends
and family, and this nurse, miss Walker, she was like, no,
go in there, and I was like, fine, I'll do it. Gosh,
I mean literally like a mother's son dynamic. And do
you know why you were so reluctant to go because
I was like, I'm twenty What am I going to say?
(11:35):
I don't know what I'm going to say to this individual,
like nothing to offer. And that was my first mistake
because what I realized when I walked into that room
and he was definitely in a bad place. I realized
all I needed to do is just show up. And
I remember having a forty five minute conversation with this
patient and when I left, I was like.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Hey, man, I'll come back tomorrow. He's like, yeah, man,
I'd appreciate that. Like it was a completely different vibe
in his room. And I started visiting patients every day.
And what that did is that gave me what part
of my identity back, the ability to serve. I realize
I can serve again in a different way, in a
different capacity, but I can serve.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I learned that I needed to be vulnerable. The more
that I've done that, I have found some really incredible
people that I call my family now. I have created
deeper connections with people that I probably never would have had.
I continue to keep this sort of shield in front
of me, just trusting that you know not everybody, but
(12:38):
there are a hell of a lot of people out
there that are equipped to show up for you, but
you also have to equally let them know that you
need that.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It sounds like a veteran's day message. That's it, man.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know as much as I'm putting, you know, we're
talking to the listener that's potentially a civilian. I'm also
talking to that vet. It's hard walking the streets of
the world, even if there's only five hundred people that
live in your town, or there's five million people in
New York City, you know, and the same burrow as
you right now. It's hard, and it's easy to feel isolated,
(13:15):
and it's probably feels and the short term better to
isolate yourself. But the long term, in order for you
to be what you are destined to be, we have
to be willing to just keep showing up. And the
military they taught us that, and just because we're not
in it anymore doesn't mean that that goes away. Show
(13:37):
up for others and through that you start to kind
of discover more about yourself. And that was true for
me as I started to discover so much more about
myself by just showing up for others.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You talk about showing up, and you know, working on
this podcast, you've seen that, Like, yes, a lot of
these guys are very heroic and a lot of the
things they did were amazing, but they got in those
positions in the first place by just showing up. Yeah,
do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah? Man, I mean working on season two of Medal
of Honor and listening to season one with Malcolm, it
just reminded me of how important it is to simply
just show up, to just be there, Like you don't
have to have all the answers. I mean, you listen
to some of these individuals in season two and they
(14:26):
didn't have extensive training, they didn't have combat training, they
didn't get the luxury to go to this school and
that school. I didn't, right, Like, that's a common theme
in some of these stories. Yet when a moment asked
somebody to show up, they just showed up and they
figured it out. Like guys were able to just navigate
(14:48):
it and do some incredible things that I think they
surprised themselves, which is why I think many of them
are like why am I being awarded this incredible honor? Like?
Why do I deserve this? Right? I think anybody would
have done that. I think we all would have tried to,
you know, navigate it the same way. And if there's
anything you take away from this podcast, it's simply being
(15:12):
inspired by these stories that for some of us including myself.
They feel like, no, these are fictional stories. There's I
can't no, that's not real, that happened.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I mean, it's easy to look at the things that
these guys do. It's just sort of like these amazing heroics. Yeah,
but really it's just the confluence of like this training,
this ability, and the right moment.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, you're I mean, and a lot of them it's
just like like what would I have done? What would
I have done if there was someone with a machine gun?
Like in a position, like what I have charged in?
What would I have done? And so you easily start
to kind of think these are like just superheroes, and
they're not. They're human beings. We all have this, we
(16:01):
really do. And I just love that I get to
be part of the team to help keep these legacies
alive and then help people that are listening realize that
they too can be like Carl Sitter, they can be
like Jefferson de Blanc, they can be like all these
individuals that we've covered in the first two seasons of
Medal of Honor. It's a reminder for all of us
(16:22):
as human beings, as Americans, as listeners of this podcast,
where we're listening to these stories to just keep showing up.
We want to run away, but showing up might actually
allow you to realize the true hero that is in you,
that is just waiting for that moment to come out.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Dare I actually recently learned that you were on Dancing
with the Stars. I did not know this about you.
You're a man of many talents, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Man, sometimes I forget that I was on Dancing with
the Stars.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Not only were you on Dancing with the Stars, my friend,
but you want the winners and new champions Answering with
the Stars shout a cry of which makes you infinitely
a better dancer than I could ever be. How did
this come about? And like, I'm just curious about how
and if you talked about being a veteran on the show.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, I was on that show and it was veteran first.
It really was promoted like we have this veteran on
the show. And what was cool about it is, yes,
I went on to show the world that I have
a personality. Obviously I could dance, but it was just
like this character like I just I'm silly of goofy,
(17:48):
and but people were like, oh that's cool, here's a
guy that you know, some people will look at me
like scared to see, you know, like the scars and whatever,
But look at him, he's actually like clowning, laughing silly,
like he's just a goofball. And so it was, it was,
it was awesome. And I remember week three, I did
(18:10):
a rumba. We danced to the song Tim McGraths song.
If you're reading this.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
You did to a Tim McGraw song, Yeah, okay, I
gotta look at that.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
The lyrics are he's telling the story of a service member.
So he writes a letter to his wife. Essentially he's saying,
if you're reading this, I passed away while in the military.
I remember sitting in the rehearsal room with Karina spurnt Off,
my partner, and I was like, yeah, this is an
(18:42):
important story to tell. Before we danced, they showed up
the package again and it was about my recovery and
uh ah, man, just thinking about it, like they showed
all these people, they interviewed them behind my back. I
had no clue they put this package together, which is
the worst thing to do to somebody that's about the
(19:03):
dance in front of millions of people.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You read to watch this before you.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I had to watch it, and so I'm standing and
they're watching it, waiting for this package to end, the
announcer to introduce us, and then the music starts playing.
We go, and I tell you, by the time we started,
I had tears in my eyes, like and it wasn't
just about me. It was like, I'm telling the story
of so many men and women. I finished the routine, man,
(19:27):
and I'm crying. I only like ninety seconds, that's how
long we dance on the show, and probably the last
forty five seconds of that routine, I'm crying. In the
ballroom where they filmed Dance with the Stars, every single
person was standing out. The response that we got from that,
(19:50):
what people told us, what thank you, thank you for
telling that story.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I think that's interesting because that's pretty much what you're
doing on this show too. You know, you are in
conversation with these interviews with these veterans who have done
these amazing things, and you're telling their stories.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I think one theme we're circling here in this conversation
is storytelling. How important that is to the veteran experience right.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
One hundred percent, And we need more vets to be
willing to share and to talk as much as they
feel comfortable with.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Why is that important?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Because it is important for people to learn about who
we are one, so again we can have a connection.
But you know, we'd like to say in the military,
we fought for your freedom, we fought for your right.
And I think some of us we lose sight of
that when we come home and we're struggling. And what
I like to remind them is like, Okay, it's easy
(20:50):
to say you fought for everyone else's right, but you
also fought for your own. You deserve to live, you
deserve to heal, you deserve to go through your process
to get the out. You deserve that you fought for yourself. Man, Like,
not just everybody else, but for you too. I tell
my and I'm hoping that there's a vet that's listening
(21:11):
right now, or a loved one of a vet and
they're like, you know what, all right, maybe what I'm
struggling with it's okay, but I should reach out. Maybe
it encourages the listener right now to say, you know what,
oh man, I need to have a little bit more
compassion and not just look at them as like trained
robots that just know, they're human beings that have lives,
(21:31):
that have emotions, that have feelings, that have the same
desires that we do. They have aspirations right like they
have those same things, but they also still have those
complications like we all do.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
One of the things I noticed you said earlier was
that you would develop this identity as a soldier, right,
And that was something that didn't come easy to you.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
At first.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
You weren't really sure what you were doing there, and
then you got leadership. It helps you find that identity, right,
But then you get injured and you have a new identity. Right.
And for the past twenty years, you've been a veteran,
and I just wonder, you know what you've learned in
those twenty years with this identity of being a veteran.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I'm proud. I'm proud of the initial decision to join
the military, not really understanding this fraternity that I was joining.
I'm grateful because it gave me the opportunity to discover myself.
(22:36):
It gave me a space, a platform to identify the
greatness that lied in me. It gave me the avenue
to discover that. And the military helped me find this
concept of service, help me find this importance of teamwork
and how to show up and how to be a
leader and how to get people, you know, to buy in.
And I'm grateful. I have no regrets, man, absolutely none.
(23:03):
I mean it's kind of hard to really encapsulate like
what my life has been over the last two decades.
I mean, it's it's kind of wild, to be honest.
I've kind of like the Forest Gump in a sense
of just kind of like just yeah, sure, I'll try that.
Sure here right. I mean I never hosted a podcast
like this, you know, And here I am doing that
this working with this incredible team and telling these incredible stories.
(23:25):
And I feel the passion and love to tell these
stories in such a careful way that we do them justice.
And it makes me feel like I'm kind of back
into military in a sense, like I'm part of this team.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
What are you looking forward to in this upcoming season?
The medal of honor?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh man, what you guys have up your sleeve, what
you guys do, and how you do all this research
and put all these stories together. And you know, I'm
the final piece that comes in and helps, you know,
try to tell them. It's unfortunate that it's May of
next year when episode one is going to be released,
you know, because I feel like I'm like, I want
(24:05):
this now. Well, the good thing is you can go
listen to season one. It's easy two, right. But I'm
just I'm excited to just learn and to just be
inspired because I know there's a lot of stories in
there that are just going to be incredibly motivating and
inspiring and a reminder of what humans are capable of doing.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And I can tell you just from having worked on
some of the stories coming up, that they're capable of
a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah. I can't wait, man, I can't I can't wait.
So I hope everyone that's listening now, I hope that
you put some sort of alert reminder May twenty twenty six,
Medal of Honor, season three. I hope you tune in
as well and we can go on this journey together.
But before that, as I said in the opening, click
(24:52):
on that link in the show notes, I mean truly
when we say this, we mean that we want to
hear from you. We want to understand what are some
things that you want to know, What are maybe some subjects,
maybe some individuals, whatever it is, like, just this is
a community, and we want our listeners to feel like
they're part of our community. Because they are. They matter.
(25:12):
We want these stories to continue to live, so reach
out to us, communicate with us. But set that alert
that reminder for May twenty twenty six, Season three, Episode one.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
All right, Jr. Thank you so much for doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
It was a pleasure, my man, Thank you so much. Yeah,
same here, brother. We want to thank you again for
listening to this special episode of Metal of Honor. Once again,
we'd love to hear from you. If you have a
couple of minutes, please take our listener survey. Head to
(25:46):
bid dot lee slash mohsurvey. That's bit dot l y
slash moh survey. That link is also in our show notes.
This episode of Metal of Honor Stories of Courage was
produced by Ryan Swiker. Our editor is Lydia Jeancott. Sound
design and additional music by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer
(26:10):
is Constanza Gallardo. Original music by Eric Phillips and I'm
your host j R. Martinez
Host
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