Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Brian Mud Show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's the info you need to start your day in
the Bomb Beaches and the Treasure Coast. It was fifteen
years ago today Kendahar, Afghanistan.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Staff Sergeant bomb technician Brian Mast was on a mission
to clear a path for US Army rangers. What happened
next changed his life forever, left him coming back to
the States having sacrificed as much as anybody who's ever
left a battlefield alive. And on that note, we welcome
(00:45):
Congressman Brian Mass Happy and live day.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Brian.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Hey, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I appreciate you thinking about it fifteen years. What does
it feel like?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Tell me about it. I mean, the reality is the
years go by, and you know, everything that about injury
just becomes the new normal to life. You know, hopefully
anybody any of us, right, I'm forty five years old,
somebody's fifty, somebody's thirty five, whatever. It's rare that any
of us go through life and we're one hundred percent
(01:18):
every single day. But we're Americans, and so whether we're
fifty percent or one hundred percent, we just plow forward
and we go ahead and we exhaust ourselves fully in
the purposeful things that we do. It's one of the
great things about us to what makes us better than
everybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know, Rian, we talked about it at times over
the years. I don't know if I've ever asked you,
what was your first recollection?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
How long did it take? Did you know right away
what happened?
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And no. So when I was injured. We only work
under the cover of darkness, and everything we do piction
at night vision optics. We don't turn flashlights on for anything.
We're going out into the dark to either kill or
capture an individual that's a high value target. Whoever the
highest value target is we can find that night. And
(02:07):
as we're moving across the ground, we came to a
place that I knew there had to be a bomb
buried in the ground, a trip wire, a pressure plate,
and ambush something like that. I was working with a
couple of sniper friends, and a canine handler, a couple
of medics, you know, some other people, interrogators. Everybody had
a real specific job to do. I was the bomb
tech and I'm down on this river bank where I
(02:29):
think there's probably something that's that's blocking our way, and
I'm looking for and I don't find or see anything.
And so I go to the other side of this river,
and I do all the things that I do to
look for devices in a place that I know there
might be one. You know, look for again, dug up
Earth's trip wires, pressure plates, just anything to me that
seems out of place. And I still didn't find or
(02:50):
see anything. But I knew there had to be something there.
But the mission has to go on, so you got
to keep fortune ahead. And so I moved on past
this area that I had searched. One two maybe three steps,
and I'm on the steep embankment of a of a river,
and the rivers, the waterways over there, they're disgusting. They're
filled with poop and everything else. If you get in
the water, you're gonna come out with an infection or
(03:11):
something worse. And so I start moving up this river
bank and I took one or two maybe three steps
in bow right. Device went off underneath my feet. It
was probably a pressure plate buried in the ground somewhere
you know. Nobody will ever know, but probably you know
something that I stepped on, and I remember vividly. It
didn't knock me out. I remember vividly throwing me through
(03:33):
the air, probably some ten fifteen feet. I landed, you know,
down the river bank, and I land on my back,
and I'm laying there on my back, and I'm gasping
for air, you know, because the wind was knocked out
of me from the concussion the blast of this explosion.
And as I'm laying there, I know there's a good
reason that I can't stand up, but maybe it's just
(03:53):
because I just got knocked down in a real hard way.
You know. I've been blown up before, but never blown
up like that. And so I'm laying there and I'm
gasping for air, and I'm trying to wipe all of
this dirt out of my eyes because that explosion had
blown all the dirt in the ground. You know. It's
like somebody, you know, somebody with a hand the size
of God through dirt in my eyes. I'm trying to
(04:14):
wipe all that out of my eyes. And I noticed
on my left hand all of the fingers on my
left hand were broken. One of them was barely hanging out,
two of them were barely hanging on. Substantial damage to
my form, and We're like, okay, this got me pretty good.
And I still had my radio device in my ear,
and right about that I could hear my men. They're
talking about me. EOD has hit. EOD is down, you know,
(04:37):
that was me. They're radoing it up to all the
eyes in the sky, the AC one thirty gunships and
the attack helicopters that are watching our mission. So I'm
hearing this play out as I'm laying there, you know,
out of it of sorts. And you know, a few
minutes later, my men risking their lives because bombs on
the battlefield they don't just come and you know, like
problems in life, they don't just come in ones and twos.
(04:58):
It could be you know, half a dozen or or
however many bombs, and so you know, they're risking their
life to come in and save me. And they had
to put me through the most painful thing. And this
is what really woke me up. Most painful thing that
I can remember, is them putting tourniquits on me, you know,
so like a picture like a belt that they had
to put on what was left of each of my legs.
(05:19):
I left in my right leg, which was very little,
and they had to wrench those down as tight as
they could to keep me from bleeding out on the battlefield,
and they had to do the same thing to my
left arm again to keep me from bleeding out on
the battlefield. And so I'm aware of all of this,
you know, and I'm aware that I got substantially into
but I didn't fully know the extent of it. And
(05:39):
eventually they put me on a metavac helicopter. Last thing
I remember is them telling me that I'm going to
be okay, you know, as we're trained to do. All right,
You're gonna be okay. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm sure the guys looking at you weren't thinking that.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Well, we believe I think we believe it. You know,
you got to believe that you're saving somebody's life. Yeah,
it's part of what we're trained to do. And they
get me on that bird, and at some point on
that bird became incapacitated. I've about no memories for let's say,
a week, week and a half, two weeks. I woke
up in Washington, d C. Walter reed.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It's incredible. It is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
God bless you, my friend, and you know, Brian in
the Service, Bronze Star Recipient, Purple Heart, Defense Meridith Service Medal,
Army Commendation Medal with valor and true true American hero.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So zero regrets, my friends, zero regrets. Tell people all
the time this country has given me far more than
it has ever taken.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You're a good man, no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
While we have you, obviously a lot going on your thoughts, Charlie.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Kirk oh Man heavy, I knew Charlie.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
H speaking with Brian mast Congressman.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Point out that he was just telling us about what
he sacrificed in the battlefield and that experience and uh,
this this about about Charlie.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Yeah, I don't think I'll get it to Charlie.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Today, understood, all right, And Sunday is going to be
that much of an emotional day for many yet again
the memorial in Arizona Cardinals Stadium. Brian you you're a
good man and we are are glad to have you.
You represent your community, your constituents well and look forward
(07:54):
to talking to you again soon.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Always going to be with my friend, all right, Congressman
Brian Mass
Welcome to the Brian Mud Show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's the info you need to start your day in
the Bomb Beaches and the Treasure Coast. It was fifteen
years ago today Kendahar, Afghanistan.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Staff Sergeant bomb technician Brian Mast was on a mission
to clear a path for US Army rangers. What happened
next changed his life forever, left him coming back to
the States having sacrificed as much as anybody who's ever
left a battlefield alive. And on that note, we welcome
(00:45):
Congressman Brian Mass Happy and live day.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Brian.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Hey, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I appreciate you thinking about it fifteen years. What does
it feel like?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Tell me about it. I mean, the reality is the
years go by, and you know, everything that about injury
just becomes the new normal to life. You know, hopefully
anybody any of us, right, I'm forty five years old,
somebody's fifty, somebody's thirty five, whatever. It's rare that any
of us go through life and we're one hundred percent
(01:18):
every single day. But we're Americans, and so whether we're
fifty percent or one hundred percent, we just plow forward
and we go ahead and we exhaust ourselves fully in
the purposeful things that we do. It's one of the
great things about us to what makes us better than
everybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know, Rian, we talked about it at times over
the years. I don't know if I've ever asked you,
what was your first recollection?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
How long did it take? Did you know right away
what happened?
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And no. So when I was injured. We only work
under the cover of darkness, and everything we do piction
at night vision optics. We don't turn flashlights on for anything.
We're going out into the dark to either kill or
capture an individual that's a high value target. Whoever the
highest value target is we can find that night. And
(02:07):
as we're moving across the ground, we came to a
place that I knew there had to be a bomb
buried in the ground, a trip wire, a pressure plate,
and ambush something like that. I was working with a
couple of sniper friends, and a canine handler, a couple
of medics, you know, some other people, interrogators. Everybody had
a real specific job to do. I was the bomb
tech and I'm down on this river bank where I
(02:29):
think there's probably something that's that's blocking our way, and
I'm looking for and I don't find or see anything.
And so I go to the other side of this river,
and I do all the things that I do to
look for devices in a place that I know there
might be one. You know, look for again, dug up
Earth's trip wires, pressure plates, just anything to me that
seems out of place. And I still didn't find or
(02:50):
see anything. But I knew there had to be something there.
But the mission has to go on, so you got
to keep fortune ahead. And so I moved on past
this area that I had searched. One two maybe three steps,
and I'm on the steep embankment of a of a river,
and the rivers, the waterways over there, they're disgusting. They're
filled with poop and everything else. If you get in
the water, you're gonna come out with an infection or
(03:11):
something worse. And so I start moving up this river
bank and I took one or two maybe three steps
in bow right. Device went off underneath my feet. It
was probably a pressure plate buried in the ground somewhere
you know. Nobody will ever know, but probably you know
something that I stepped on, and I remember vividly. It
didn't knock me out. I remember vividly throwing me through
(03:33):
the air, probably some ten fifteen feet. I landed, you know,
down the river bank, and I land on my back,
and I'm laying there on my back, and I'm gasping
for air, you know, because the wind was knocked out
of me from the concussion the blast of this explosion.
And as I'm laying there, I know there's a good
reason that I can't stand up, but maybe it's just
(03:53):
because I just got knocked down in a real hard way.
You know. I've been blown up before, but never blown
up like that. And so I'm laying there and I'm
gasping for air, and I'm trying to wipe all of
this dirt out of my eyes because that explosion had
blown all the dirt in the ground. You know. It's
like somebody, you know, somebody with a hand the size
of God through dirt in my eyes. I'm trying to
(04:14):
wipe all that out of my eyes. And I noticed
on my left hand all of the fingers on my
left hand were broken. One of them was barely hanging out,
two of them were barely hanging on. Substantial damage to
my form, and We're like, okay, this got me pretty good.
And I still had my radio device in my ear,
and right about that I could hear my men. They're
talking about me. EOD has hit. EOD is down, you know,
(04:37):
that was me. They're radoing it up to all the
eyes in the sky, the AC one thirty gunships and
the attack helicopters that are watching our mission. So I'm
hearing this play out as I'm laying there, you know,
out of it of sorts. And you know, a few
minutes later, my men risking their lives because bombs on
the battlefield they don't just come and you know, like
problems in life, they don't just come in ones and twos.
(04:58):
It could be you know, half a dozen or or
however many bombs, and so you know, they're risking their
life to come in and save me. And they had
to put me through the most painful thing. And this
is what really woke me up. Most painful thing that
I can remember, is them putting tourniquits on me, you know,
so like a picture like a belt that they had
to put on what was left of each of my legs.
(05:19):
I left in my right leg, which was very little,
and they had to wrench those down as tight as
they could to keep me from bleeding out on the battlefield,
and they had to do the same thing to my
left arm again to keep me from bleeding out on
the battlefield. And so I'm aware of all of this,
you know, and I'm aware that I got substantially into
but I didn't fully know the extent of it. And
(05:39):
eventually they put me on a metavac helicopter. Last thing
I remember is them telling me that I'm going to
be okay, you know, as we're trained to do. All right,
You're gonna be okay. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm sure the guys looking at you weren't thinking that.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Well, we believe I think we believe it. You know,
you got to believe that you're saving somebody's life. Yeah,
it's part of what we're trained to do. And they
get me on that bird, and at some point on
that bird became incapacitated. I've about no memories for let's say,
a week, week and a half, two weeks. I woke
up in Washington, d C. Walter reed.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
It's incredible. It is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
God bless you, my friend, and you know, Brian in
the Service, Bronze Star Recipient, Purple Heart, Defense Meridith Service Medal,
Army Commendation Medal with valor and true true American hero.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So zero regrets, my friends, zero regrets. Tell people all
the time this country has given me far more than
it has ever taken.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You're a good man, no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
While we have you, obviously a lot going on your thoughts, Charlie.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Kirk oh Man heavy, I knew Charlie.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
H speaking with Brian mast Congressman.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Point out that he was just telling us about what
he sacrificed in the battlefield and that experience and uh,
this this about about Charlie.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Yeah, I don't think I'll get it to Charlie.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Today, understood, all right, And Sunday is going to be
that much of an emotional day for many yet again
the memorial in Arizona Cardinals Stadium. Brian you you're a
good man and we are are glad to have you.
You represent your community, your constituents well and look forward
(07:54):
to talking to you again soon.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Always going to be with my friend, all right, Congressman
Brian Mass
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