June 25, 2025 • 47 mins
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In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with veteran Alex Briggs to explore the life-altering impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and blast exposure on today’s warfighters. Alex shares raw, first-hand accounts from his deployments, his battles with invisible wounds, and his mission to change how the system supports veterans post-service.
From navigating the VA to finding hope through alternative treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy, this episode unpacks the critical gaps in veteran care—and the urgent need for advocacy, education, and action.
Whether you're a veteran, family member, healthcare provider, or supporter of those who serve, Alex's story offers valuable insight into recovery, resilience, and what it means to fight for those who’ve already fought for us.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Advocacy and Personal Stories
01:46 Military Background and Deployment Experience
03:49 The Impact of Blast Exposure
06:37 The Aftermath of the Blast
10:56 Navigating Recovery and Symptoms
13:34 Returning to Duty and Mental Health Challenges
19:37 Facing Vulnerability and Mental Health Challenges
21:25 The Journey to Diagnosis and Treatment
24:39 Struggles with Medical Professionals
28:31 Finding Hope and Alternative Treatments
31:54 The Impact of Hyperbaric Treatment
35:41 Advocating for Veterans' Health
40:28 Breaking the Stigma of Asking for Help
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
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LinkedIn: Alex Briggs
Instagram: silentwoundsandwarriors
Website: https://silentwoundsandwarriors.com/
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Produced by Security Halt Media
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Security Out Podcast.
Let's go the only podcastthat's purpose-built from the
ground up to support you Notjust you, but the wider audience
, everybody.
Authentic, impactful andinsightful conversations that
serve a purpose to help you.
And the quality has gone up.
It's decent.
(00:21):
It's hosted by me, dannyCaballero.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Alex Briggs.
Welcome to Security Out Podcast.
How's it going, man?
Good, how are you doing?
Thanks for having me,Absolutely, man.
I love running into otherindividuals that are passionate
for a cause and have a uniqueand amazing story to share about
why and how they got involvedin this advocacy space.
And, uh, I saw a clip for aviewer show talking about
(00:51):
something that I'm verypassionate about, which is blast
exposure, TBI treatment and, uh, you know, helping our brothers
and sisters realize that it'snot always just an explosion or
IED or a big major situation.
These exposures come fromeveryday training scenarios that
a lot of soldiers areconstantly involved in.
So today, my man, it's yourstory, your show.
(01:13):
How'd you get involved in thisspace?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, that's a great question and 100% appreciate you
having me on here because Ifeel like these stories need to
be told and I feel like there'sveterans out there that are
facing these symptoms of TBIsand blast exposures and they
don't even realize that theseare symptoms from their time in
service.
But, kind of, my story starts along time ago, like my whole
(01:40):
military career.
I actually started out workingas a civilian for the Air Force
and I was a software engineer,so I got to work on some really
cool products, Like I didsoftware for the B-1 bombers,
F-16s.
A lot of my friends worked onthe technology systems behind
allowing A-10s to drop 500 poundbombs, and so I was doing that.
(02:03):
My brother he, he joined themilitary and the national guard
and I wanted to do the same.
It took some convincing to allowmy my wife to to let me join,
but he had a good experience.
He went to ranger school, camea ranger and, uh, I wanted to
follow in his footsteps.
So, uh, I joined as a zero nineSierra officer.
(02:25):
I know, I know, but wentthrough officer candidate school
and branched field artillery.
So I spent some time behind agun line and as a fire direction
officer.
So we work on processing allthe fire missions.
Uh, when they come from theforward observers, they go to us
(02:48):
, we process it, do all the math, send it to the gun line and
the gun line shoots it.
Um, so fantastic experience.
Got to spend about a year and ahalf on the gun line and then,
uh, when my brother wascompeting at best Ranger
competition, um, got to meet theSergeant major that was going
to be over the battalion thatwas deploying and, you know,
competing at Best Rangercompetition.
Got to meet the Sergeant Majorthat was going to be over the
battalion that was deploying and, you know, got to get in his
(03:10):
ear and say, hey, like I'd loveto deploy with my brother and
get that experience.
Like, if you have any leeway ingetting me on the deployment,
I'd love to.
And then deployed with a groupof fisters and got to have that
awesome experience of, you know,deploying and and living the
good life.
What year was this?
(03:32):
Yeah, this was actually recent.
So, um, we deployed in 2022 toSyria.
Yeah, yeah, that's how recent.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, holy shit, yeah , good on you.
How was it going it going, uh,going down range of your brother
man that was.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It was really cool.
So, uh, he stayed in kuwait forfor a little bit.
Um, I went to syria.
I was in syria for about sixmonths and then, uh, he was
ripping into the same place thatwe were, our mission support
site, and we overlapped forabout two weeks, um, so got to
do one mission with him before Iwas out of Syria.
But still a really coolexperience deploying with you
(04:09):
know someone you care so muchabout.
There's a lot of you knowthings with that.
Like, we had a soldierunfortunately pass away on that
deployment and I was helping outon the staff at the time and no
one would talk to me and I knewsomeone had passed away and
(04:29):
wasn't around anymore and I wasworried that it was my brother
and going through that guiltfeeling of just hoping it was
anyone else that passed awayother than my brother.
So there's some really goodthings but also some really
tough things when you get tohear the news that's going on
and and, uh, you worry for him,you know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, that's.
That's incredibly hard, um,even with close friends, man,
that you almost have a littlebit of guilt when you're like
fuck anybody else but this guyanybody else would mind.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, so how did the rest of the career go?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, so a lot of our mission set as FISTERS is we're
supporting an infantry company,so our our main thing that we
were doing is we werecontrolling aircraft.
When we would go out at ourmission support site.
We had roughly about two JTACsMe and my guys we're JFOs, joint
Fire Observers so definitelynot as cool as JTACs, but we got
(05:32):
to talk to the MQ-9s a lot andthen Apaches.
I do a lot of air weapons teamrequests and then we'd go out
outside the wire and controlApaches and a lot of recon
assets to help keep us safe.
When we would go outside thewire, mostly looking for like
people smuggling weapons,because we're getting rocketed
(05:53):
quite a bit.
So we were looking for likethese barrel systems that they
would use to launch the rocketsat us on the on a timer system,
or we would just go out and useour optics to look for activity
out there presence patrols, andso my, my story is is you know
we didn't.
We didn't do anything crazyLike I don't.
I don't like to think that I'manyone special or anything, but
(06:15):
on one particular mission we'reoutside the wire, we're doing
some recon and there was what Icalled like the deconfliction
line of like Assad pro regimeforces on one side and our, our
side Um, and we weren't reallysupposed to go past this like
deconfliction line Uh, aircraftwouldn't go past that line
either, and uh, we're kind ofkicking parallel to this, this
(06:41):
deconfliction line, and, um, Iwas in a Bradley and then an
explosion went off and the lastthing that I remember is kind of
flying through the air and thenjust everything went dark, um,
and it was only a few seconds,but I remember I was, I was
waking up on top of my buddythat was to my left and just I
couldn't breathe.
Like it felt like all the airwas out of my body and there's
(07:03):
so much smoke and dust that Ijust couldn't breathe.
And I don't know if you've everbeen in a Bradley, but there's
this true patch on the top, youknow for emergencies or and so
my adrenaline kicked in, jumpedup, popped open that true patch
and, like this, just flood ofair came in.
I could finally feel like I wasbreathing and the effects of
(07:27):
the blast didn't really kick inright away, it was just more
adrenaline.
And we got really lucky becauseI had submitted an air weapons
team request for what I thoughtwas the most vulnerable point of
our convoy and it happened tobe 15 minutes that they they
were going to check in onstation um from when we got
blown up.
(07:47):
So my first thought was like,hey, we need aircraft here right
away.
So, um, we got on whateversystem we had to to request
those assets and I was like, hey, you guys need to get here, I
guess, as fast as possible,cause we didn't know what was
going on and, honestly, like inin that environment, we
(08:08):
everything that was happeningwas like pop shots here and
there and then rockets thatwould hit us at night, like.
So we weren't like reallygetting into gunfights or
anything, there's just littlethings like that.
And um, so, uh, luckily, likethe Apaches were checking in on
my net like 10 minutes later anduh, so I remember that my first
(08:34):
, my first thought was like, hey, like we're going to get a huge
stack here coming in.
Uh, so I was trying to get themto to hear me out of like, hey,
we need to stay below you knowcoordination level, stay below
2,500 feet and get here asquickly as possible.
But then the net was breakingup and couldn't really hear each
(08:55):
other that well, and then,probably like three minutes
later they're back on the netand they're like hey, we heard
you guys hit an IED, like, isthat true?
And I was like, hey, stay whenready for friendly grid, get
here as quickly as you can.
And so Apaches got there withinlike 10 minutes and kept us
(09:15):
safe.
A lot of the other Bradleysdidn't want to come in to where
we were because we were worriedabout more explosives and we
were, honestly, safe for themost part.
But our whole front of ourBradley was blown up and so all
of the rotor wheels on the sidewere gone.
(09:36):
It blew a hole into the hull ofthe Bradley, like in the bottom
of it, and the whole engineblock was gone.
And that overpressure cameinside the Bradley, like in the
in the bottom of it, and thewhole engine block was gone.
And, uh, that overpressure cameinside the Bradley and I was
sitting in the back left cornerand almost like the farthest
person away from the blast.
But you know I'm not an expertin blast waves, but it almost
(10:00):
like everything came to the backright where I was sitting and
took about an hour and a half toget Kazevac out of there back
to our mission support site andthen we got checked in by some
emergency doctors there man.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
That's a very lucky individual to be here yeah,
because we got super lucky,depending on the, if it would
have been a different munition,if it would have been a bigger
charge, this whole story, youknow, probably ended a whole
different.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That is yeah.
Everybody in the Bradley madeit out.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, luckily, um, a lot, of a lot of us just had,
you know, brain TBIs after thatconcussions.
The EOD guy that was at ourmission support site that I was
friends with, he said that if itwould have hit a foot or two
behind where it did that we allwould have died.
And it just happened to hit inthe front right where the engine
(11:01):
block absorbed most of it.
Like there's a you know one ortwo inch thick I-beam that holds
the engine and this I don'tknow if you've ever seen in the
engine of a Bradley, but it'shuge, and that whole I-beam was
bent all the way up Like andit's a you know multiple inch
I-beam that's supporting thatengine block and that whole
thing was was destroyed.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, and then comes the aftermath of going through
the the post blast, uh,headaches, light sensitivity
yeah, of course.
Like well, just stay in a darkroom for a little bit, yep.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
That's what it was.
Yeah, the the doctor, thedoctor that was at our mission
support site.
He goes hey, like any treatmentyou get outside of our mission
support site, it's going to bethe same thing.
They're going to tell you tolay down, turn off all the
lights, don't look at your phone.
Um, he's like we can't give youany medicine because we're
worried about brain bleeds, likeyou're you get.
All of you are just going tostay here, which, honestly, I
(12:02):
was okay with.
We were dealing with somedifficult personalities on the,
the unit that we were supporting, so I didn't want to leave my
guys.
I felt like I was kind of aline of defense for them to like
keep them from the bullshit, tobe honest with you.
And so the yeah, the firstmultiple days was just hey,
laying this cot and get somesleep.
(12:24):
But that doesn't work out likewe want it to right.
Yeah, so on top of that, likewe're still in a combat zone.
Yeah, so on top of that, likewe're still in a combat zone.
So you know, we would get intoEpicon, delta or something would
happen Like the radars wouldkick off because some rockets
are coming.
So even in that we'd have tojump in, get in our Briley, go
(12:45):
to you know where we're supposedto to make sure our mission
support site is safe and we'renot getting hit by rockets.
So it probably wasn't the bestenvironment to stay in.
Yeah, but you know, I, I like Idon't blame anyone, right, like
that's just how the cards cardsare played but at the end of
the day, you're a warrior.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
At the end of the day , you're, you're at war and if
you've, you got to do what yougot to do, yeah, you, you can't,
um, you can't quarterback itafter the, the fact and the, the
medical staff are only, theyonly know what they know, and
they're.
Now there's so much literature,there's so many new things, like
(13:25):
they don't recommend going inall quiet, blacked out room,
like that's all been thrown outto the wayside.
There's so many things thathave have advanced, but in the
moment you're still at war, like, yeah, you're alive, so let's,
let's be focused on that, andtomorrow we're gonna need you to
go out and carry out.
But when you're, when youreturn, it's what a lot of
(13:48):
people don't realize is it'sit's something that compounds,
and you don't always have, likethis myriad of symptoms right
off the bat to turn your lifeupside down, like, no, it's,
you're still going to go back onthe gun line, you're still
going to shoot, you're stillgoing to be exposed to blast
exposure and then going to goback and you're going to go
(14:09):
train.
So what was it like coming outof that deployment and where
were?
When did you finally noticelike hey, like I'm still dealing
with some issues.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, man, there's so many emotions with it too, when
, when you, when you talk aboutit and bring it up and you look
back on it and you, you don'treally regret how things happen,
but you kind of wish that youhad the knowledge you had now.
But so, like the first dayafter the blast, I honestly just
felt like I was floating, likeI always say I don't know how to
(14:39):
describe it other than thatLike you, just you're, you're
not there, right, you don'trealize what's going on.
And so then the second day, um,I'm just laying in my cot in in
this tent in the middle ofnowhere and I literally felt
like someone was grabbing myhead and squeezing it.
(15:00):
I felt like my head was aboutto explode and I wasn't on any
pain meds because they wereworried about brain bleeds.
And they kept a line medic nearme just to make sure I was okay
and I asked him to come over.
They kept a line medic near mejust to make sure I was okay and
I asked him to come over.
I was like I'm not doing okayright now.
Like can you take me back toroll one?
Like I'm dry heaving.
I literally feel like I'm aboutto pass out, I can't like my
(15:24):
head's spinning.
So he took me back to roll oneand they're checking on me and
they're like you got some bloodin your ears.
Have you been scratching atyour ears?
It's like no, no, I haven'ttouched my ears.
They're like yeah, you musthave been scratching at your
ears because you got blood inyour ears.
It's like I promise I haven'tscratched at them.
And they're like all right,well, I think you're past the 24
hours.
Let's give you some pain med.
(15:45):
But I was in so much pain that Icouldn't sleep, like I didn't
sleep what it felt like three orfour days, and this was a
pretty big incident in the area.
And so they sent somepsychologists and like trauma
specialists from behavioralhealth over to our mission
(16:08):
support site to check on us.
And I remember I sat down withthem and he's like all right,
how are you doing?
I was like honestly, I, my headhurts all the time and I'm just
not sleeping.
And he's like okay.
And then like that's all.
The conversation was Well, ifyou need anything, let me know.
(16:30):
And I'm like all right, I'm notsleeping.
And he's like okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
His notes just scribbles of.
Things like this weren't reallyhappening at the time.
So I think a lot of thesepeople hadn't seen any injuries
recently.
And you know, post whathappened to us, I actually had a
lot of friends in Iraq thatwere getting hit by those
suicide drones, all that kind ofstuff, and so I think it
happened a little bit more in2023.
But I just think people didn'tknow how to react, to be honest
(17:09):
with you.
So I was on concussion protocol,um, and it was two weeks after
the blast that my brother wasripping into where we were in
Syria, and so I was like hypermotivated to get off concussion
protocol and to try to get outof outside the wire with him.
And so he gets in.
(17:29):
I was still on concussionprotocol.
Like he's like at this point,the doctor's like hey, you need
to try to work out, move around,see how your body reacts.
But everything I did, I feltdizzy.
I just felt like I was going topass out.
And so I, uh, I'm working outwith my brother and I like
literally felt like I was goingto fall over the whole time.
And he's like you, are you allright?
(17:51):
I'm like yeah, I'm doing okay,like I'll be all right, like I
need to get better so we can goout and do some fun stuff
together, and uh, so I probablyshouldn't have done it.
But I went to the doctors and Iwas like I'm good to go, like
get me off, get me offconcussion protocol, Let me go
outside the water.
And they're like, okay, andthey were getting phone calls
from like the Pentagon,four-star generals checking in
(18:13):
on us all the time because, youknow, an incident like this
hadn't happened in a while.
And so I think the, I think thedoctors were like, yeah, let's
get you off concussion protocoland it would alleviate some of
the pressure on their end, sowhere they're not getting called
all the time to check on us.
And so I got to go on onemission with my brother and do
(18:35):
some recon in the middle of thenight and had a wonderful
experience.
That was one of our moreinteresting last missions.
And the next day I was actuallyflying to Iraq.
I spent a week in Iraq while wewaited for some flights back to
Kuwait.
I spent a week in Iraq while wewaited for some flights back to
Kuwait and then in Kuwait, justkept seeing doctors there.
(18:57):
And you know, a few weeks intothat.
I just keep telling them.
I'm like, hey, my head hurtsall the time, and they're like,
all right, we'll just take someibuprofen, take some Tylenol.
It's going to take a few monthsfor that to go away.
Take some ibuprofen, take someTylenol.
It's going to take a few monthsfor that to go away.
(19:21):
And as being a soldier, it'shard to admit it, but I started
having PTSD symptoms.
I'd lay down in my bed and Icouldn't breathe.
It seriously felt like anelephant was sitting on my chest
and I had had some dreams ofthat blast wave hitting me, and
I think I had associated beingin my bed to pain just from that
time after the blast.
And so anytime I got in bed I'dhave this panic attack.
(19:41):
I couldn't breathe and everyonethat was around me could like
see that my eyes were sunken inand I was just not doing well
and I was so desperate for sleep.
I went to the doctor and I waslike, please give me sleeping
pills, like I'm not doing okay.
And they're like you need to gosee behavioral health because
we can't give you sleeping pills.
They're the only ones that can.
(20:02):
So went to behavioral health.
They still didn't give mesleeping pills but then made me
talk about my panic attacks andall that kind of stuff.
And you know, another couple ofweeks went on and, uh, I
finally went to go see one ofthe PAs that was from our state
and I was like, hey sir, like Iam not doing good, he's like I
(20:23):
can see it, he's like you, youlook terrible, to be honest with
you.
And I had this whole time likeI was trying to have a good face
for my soldiers, have a goodface for everyone, right, like I
honestly was hiding my symptomsand I didn't want people to
really know, cause I don't knowwhy.
Like we get embarrassed aboutour injuries I don't know if you
(20:47):
ever experienced that, but youdon't want to look like you have
any vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Oh yeah, vulnerability on the backside of
all this.
We learn, or we can learn.
That is a strength, but whenyou're living it, when you're
not able to perform and do thejob of an officer and and really
live up to your duties andresponsibilities, it fucking
(21:12):
weighs on you.
It weighs on you when you can'tbe that stud in the team or in
the platoon or that fuckingby-the-book Green Beret that can
run and do all the thingsyou're supposed to do.
That'll weigh on you and thatpressure, that self-imposed,
(21:33):
will fucking kill you.
It literally has led guys to dothat one thing that we all are
trying to fight commit suicideBecause you are not willing to
talk about, or be vulnerableenough to talk about, the things
that you're suffering through.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, yeah.
So he had me go see a differentdoctor.
I went and saw that doctor andtold him what was going on, what
my symptoms were, and he's likewhy did we never send you to
Germany right away?
He's like it doesn't make senseto me.
And and he's like we need, weneed to get you out of here.
(22:12):
Like there's there's really notmuch we can do for you at this
point.
Like it's been multiple months.
And so the next day I was on aflight a medevac flight to
Germany and got to theconcussion clinic there, saw the
doctors and I had failed everysingle balance test.
Like I met with a neurooptometrist and they do these.
(22:34):
You know, these have thesecords where you have to look at
it and focus your eyes.
Yeah, and I failed all of that.
Like my vision wouldn't focus.
Like I remember I did that.
I don't know what's going on.
My body, my left eye, would notfocus like what?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
and I'm just trying to hide it and I'm trying to
move forward and everybody seesyou like fuck, why aren't you
performing the way you used toyou?
Because you have both your arms, you have both your legs,
you're talking, you're fine onthe back side.
There's vindication when you goto a TBI clinic and you're like
I lost balance, stepping downfrom the transition steps from
(23:30):
my kitchen.
It's one step, one step losebalance and fall down.
I couldn't go up my steps to mybedroom, to the second floor of
my house without falling down.
The only vindication you havethat there's something
cognitively wrong is at thesetreatment centers.
And to think that if youwouldn't have talked to that guy
(23:51):
, you wouldn't have been able togo there.
You would have missed out onthat.
And the reality is how many ofour veterans, how many of our
brothers and sisters justcontinue to live life never
understanding that there'ssomething wrong with you and
somebody can diagnose it?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, it's, I'm, I'm very grateful Like that.
If I wouldn't have had thatconversation, to be honest, I
don't know if I'd be here today.
Like that was a point where Iwas like, okay, I'm, I'm going
to go get help Cause I didn'twant to leave my soldiers.
I didn't want to and you knowwe're dealing with difficult
personalities on a deploymentand I just felt guilty about
(24:28):
leaving.
To be honest with you, I didn'twant to, but I knew our
deployment was coming to an endand I needed to go, was in
Germany for a few days.
They flew me to Joint BaseLewis-McChord and I got to the
concussion clinic there and Ihate to talk ill of the location
, but it was terrible there.
(24:49):
It was terrible and I think thetime that we were in they were
seeing less injuries from combatand so the doctors take a
mentality of people are fakingit and trying to take advantage
of the retirement system, and myjob is to find those
(25:09):
individuals that are trying tofake it, grilling me about every
symptom.
I was having everything thathappened to me, and it wasn't
one of those conversations whereyou can feel like the intent is
to help you.
It was.
(25:35):
Let me document this or try tocatch you on your words so that
I can write things down in yourmedical profile to prove that
you're doing okay or this andthat doing okay or this and that
.
And so I kept meeting withdoctors and I got I was on nine
prescriptions for migraines,mental health.
I had tremors, my hands wouldshake all the time, the left
side of my face would go numband then all my limbs would go
(25:56):
numb and the neurologist said itwas a symptom of complex
migraines.
The neurologist said it was asymptom of complex migraines.
And then they made me meet witha neuropsychologist Because,
honestly, I think when I startedtaking all those medications, I
got worse.
Like mental health, wise, yep,way worse.
And then, on top of that, I wasdealing with doctors that
(26:17):
didn't believe my symptoms 100%.
And so I sat down with thisneuropsychologist and he goes
all right, tell me everythingthat's happened, your symptoms,
and I started explaining.
Like first day I honestly feltlike just I was on clouds.
And day two and three and fourI literally felt like I was
dying.
And he pulled out this piece ofpaper that had this chart that
(26:39):
showed concussions and how thefirst day is supposed to be the
worst day and day two and daythree you're supposed to be
getting better.
And he goes.
What you're describing to medoesn't match this chart.
So I feel like you're lying tome and I go, excuse me.
He goes.
I feel like you are trying totake advantage of the situation.
He's like you didn't come herefor like three months post blast
(27:03):
, and now you're here all of asudden, trying to take advantage
of the government and hopingyou can retire and get all these
benefits.
He's like what you're sayingdoesn't match this chart and I
feel like it's my job to findthose individuals that are lying
and catch them on the lie.
And I was like no, your job isto help veterans, your job is to
(27:25):
help people.
Nowhere in your job descriptiondoes it say catch people that
are lying about their symptoms.
And so I start bawling in thismeeting because I was feeling
guilty about leaving my soldiers.
I was feeling guilty about notbeing in the fight with them,
and this a-hole guy is just yeah, you're faking it.
(27:46):
And so I called my wife and Iwas like I can't do this anymore
.
I'm not doing okay and I'mdealing with people that don't
believe me.
And the thing that doesn't makesense to me is I had gotten,
you know, a purple heart fromfrom what had happened.
I have all these medicalrecords from the blast and they
still didn't believe me.
(28:09):
And, and at this point, one ofmy soldiers, um, from when I was
on the line battery withPaladins, texted me and he's
like hey, man, I heard you gotblown up.
Like I just want to let youknow I'm thinking of you, which
meant a lot to me.
And then I got another textfrom another soldier I served
with and he's like hey, I have afriend, his name is Wren Murray
and he's opening up this placecalled Revival Hyperbarics.
(28:32):
You need to talk to him.
And I was like, okay, let's doit.
And this was right at the timewhere that doctor told me I was
faking it and I I had knownRen's 18 Alpha.
He was going to be ourgraduation speaker at Officer
Kennett School and in 2017, whenthey lost their teammate, aaron
Butler, like I had been doing,the Aaron Butler runs every year
(28:55):
growing up in Idaho.
And so I was like I know of Ren, but I don't know him.
And Ren called me and he's likeyou're experiencing this symptom
, this symptom, this symptom,this symptom and this symptom.
And he described me perfectlyLike you have no emotions, your
head hurts all the time, youcan't sleep, you have memory fog
(29:18):
, you can't remember things.
And I told him I was like, hey,man, like I'm just this
conventional guy, like you'rethis bad-ass green beret that's
been through a lot, like,honestly, like I didn't do
anything cool on my deployment,like I appreciate you, like
reaching out and telling me thatyou can help, but like I'm no
one special.
And I remember he told me he'slike stop, like stop, like quit
(29:43):
thinking that just becauseyou're a conventional guy, like
you don't deserve help.
He's like you got blown up man.
Like accept, accept help whenit's here for you.
Like we can help you.
He's like I've been in yourshoes, I've been completely numb
, with no emotions, like justaccept it.
Like we will treat anyone thatis out there that needs help,
(30:05):
but don't think that becauseyou're not getting treatment,
someone else is going to get it.
Like we will treat everyone.
And you know that week, like Ihad some really dark moments.
Like I never made a plan tolike take my own life or
anything, but I wanted to, 100%wanted to, and I've got three
kids, I've got a wife, and Ikept telling myself don't do
(30:28):
anything stupid, don't eventhink about it, because you
don't want to traumatize yourkids or your wife.
And so at that moment I waslike I'm done, I'm leaving Joint
Base Lewis-McChord, I'm goinghome, I'm getting my own
treatment.
And then that came with otherproblems, because now Joint Base
Lewis-McChord knew I was goingback to my home unit.
They call my home unit and tellthem that they thought I was
(30:49):
faking it.
So then all the leadership inmy battalion thought I was
faking it.
They straight up told me that,oh yeah, joint Base
Lewis-McChord called us and toldus that we thought you were
faking it and the timelinesdon't match up.
Like, why didn't you get helpfor the three months after the
blast?
Like, why did you deny care?
If you're really wanting to getbetter, why are you denying
care?
And that was just sending medown a like a more dark spiral
(31:14):
of not being okay.
And it took a few more monthsfor Ren to open up Revival
Hyperbarics.
But I finally got in and wastreated by America's Mightiest
Warriors, an amazing nonprofit.
I know Ren, when he was on yourpodcast, mentioned them.
I owe them my life and I oweRen at Revival Hyperbarics my
(31:35):
life.
And the first day after I did myfirst dive I quit all my
prescriptions all nine of themand I had these withdrawal
symptoms the first couple daysof doing the dives.
And around dive 10, my tremorstopped, my hands stopped
shaking.
(31:55):
And then around dive 20 or dive25, I got in my car and I was
leaving and I just start bawlingand I know Ren had a similar
experience.
But when you finally get thoseemotions back and you're not a
completely numb person, you feellike you can experience joy and
(32:16):
you feel like you canexperience sadness.
And that was probably one ofthe most life-changing moments
in my recovery is having thatfeeling.
And then I ended up doing 50dives and I just felt like a new
person and, not to toot my ownhorn, but I had three degrees
two degrees in engineering andMBA.
(32:37):
I was doing some really coolstuff and I felt like,
cognitively, I was there.
And then when you go from noteven being able to remember that
you left your car on when youwent inside and find out later
that your car has been runningfor an hour, it just it sucks
Like yeah.
And so I finally felt like Iwas starting to get back to the
(32:59):
person I was before and I sitdown with Ren and Patrick that
run Revital Hyperbarics and Iwas like how is it that more
veterans don't know about this?
Like it doesn't make sense tome.
Everyone is just prescribedmedication and told to suck it
up.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, alex, I share the same sentiment.
Um, but you and I and and avast majority of of our veterans
not all of us and I don't wantto paint with a broad brush, but
for me it was being met withthat like definitive, definitive
(33:39):
proof, after neurological,psychologist battery of tests,
and they say like hey, here's,here's proof of your cognitive
decline.
Here's print out shows whereyou are within.
Having like, met with that likesheer like understanding of,
like, oh fuck, now I knowthere's something really fucking
(34:00):
wrong.
There's something reallyfucking wrong.
There's something reallyfucking wrong.
There's a test that shows andit proves it.
I'm not crazy.
You have that period of griefbecause like, fuck, okay, now am
I going to be fucking mashedpotato brains for the rest of my
fucking life?
Is this it Like?
No, we're unique and we'redifferent and you will adapt.
You're still going to have shitmemory.
(34:21):
I'm just didn't realize it.
But you give yourself grace,you understand.
Like, I still can't find mywallet.
I had a whole fucking morningtrying to find my wallet today,
but you know, you get Apple airtags.
What I'm trying to say is youfigure out how to adapt and
build new frameworks for thedeficits you have.
But I got reading back.
I couldn't read to the pointwhere I was just highlighting
(34:44):
everything, trying to like writeeverything out.
I just had a gentleman on ToddStraper and I was talking about
like finally giving, being givenlike the operator syndrome,
white paper study and thenprinting it out and having to
highlight every section.
That applied to me, not becauseI was like, oh, I'm going to be
prepared, but because I had tofocus that much to read it and
(35:07):
retain it, highlight these areasso I could advocate for myself.
Finally, because, just likethose people at Lewis were so
ready to throw you under the busand say you're a fucking liar,
it happens to almost everyveteran I was talking to.
And then you have to turn toother alternative modalities to
(35:28):
find true healing and some sortof peace.
And when you dig intohyperbarics you find two camps,
two very definitive camps theveterans that are feeling and
have like real world peace andtreatment and recovery from it
and academia that are sayingthat there's not enough, there's
(35:51):
not enough proof, not enoughstudies.
Why is it that you're nottaking into account these people
whose lives are being changedto have their, been given their
lives back, like you're going tosit here and study and say
there's no proof, there's noproof.
Go study the fucking veteranswhose lives are being changed.
Go study those.
(36:12):
Sit down in that space.
Why does it feel like it'sbeing manipulated?
It's a money thing.
I used to think peer-to-peer orpeer-reviewed journals in
scientific research was thestandard.
That's what I used to think.
Peer-to-peer or peer-reviewedjournals in scientific research
was the standard.
That's what I used to think.
Now I realize, being back inschool, being back in college,
(36:33):
understanding that somebody paysfor these studies yeah, and for
a lot of them.
And you can go find this outyourself right now.
Go to Google Scholar and lookup these studies and then do the
work to find out who's fundingthe research.
The same people who are alsobenefiting from their
(36:54):
pharmaceuticals being prescribedto you at the VA, being given
to you for free in those giantbrown boxes and paper bags you
get on a monthly basis.
So is it really advantageousfor them to come out and say
that this non-pharmaceuticaltreatment model is something
that we should be putting inevery VA hospital for our
veterans, or is it moreadvantageous for them to say
(37:17):
that no, it's not helpful andit's anecdotal at best?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That's the fucked up part.
It's so tough because there'sso much money behind it.
I don't think this system willchange.
Like I know I'm beingpessimistic, but I literally had
multiple gallon size Ziplocbags full of medications and
strong medications, like Iremember.
One of the doctors I saw waslike you are taking, there's a
(37:42):
ton of chemicals in your bodyright now and that's not good
for you.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, and they counter, and some of the things
that they don't tell you aboutis that medicine A is going to
interact with medicine B and itmight give some of the side
effects.
Are you're going to demonstratebehavior that's commonly viewed
as schizophrenic, Like what thefuck?
Saw that with some of myveteran friends, Like, oh, now
(38:08):
he has to get treated forschizophrenia?
One doctor out of seven waswilling to go by line all the
medications and say like no,this is not schizophrenia.
This is a reaction that'shappening because these
medications are interacting withthese medications and they
should.
He shouldn't be taking them incombination.
What the fuck?
(38:29):
What the fuck?
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
What the?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
fuck what the fuck.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Yeah, it's terrible, it's tough because you know,
here's people like us that wantto bring this to light.
Right, like I have zerofinancial motivation in anything
that I do, but my hope is thatif we can reach one veteran, one
(38:56):
first responder that hears thisand he says to himself that
sounds a lot like me and decidesto go and reach out to someone
in the hyperbaric space, reachout to our nonprofit and get
help to me, that is what I want.
I want that one person that wehelp, that was in the same shoes
as me, that doesn't want tolive anymore, that goes and gets
treatment and has their eyesopen to that, that life can be
(39:17):
like what it was before, beforethe.
You know the microblasts thatthey face before any head injury
or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, it's the single greatest injury.
It's a signature injury of ourG watt era traumatic brain
injury.
And it doesn't have to be an IDstrike, it can be from training
, it can be a.
It's not one exposure, it's allof the exposures and my story
is a testament of it.
How do I explain to somebodywhat's going on where I didn't,
(39:50):
I wasn't blown up by a fuckingID yet this is my story too, and
for countless of my brothers insoft world, it's their story as
well.
And for the 11, charlie theartilleryman, this is your story
as well.
Like it's the repeated exposureto these blasts.
And you have to get smart.
Nobody else is willing andnobody else is going to come in
(40:11):
and advocate for you.
So you have to be willing toask yourself hey, am I really
dealing with just a headache, orare these fucking migraines
Like?
Am I just a klutzy, clumsyperson?
Or am I just dealing withvestibular issues?
And if your eyes aren'tfocusing, like they should stop
(40:33):
being prideful and ask forfucking help.
It'll only get better when youstart asking for help.
Please, if you haven't takenanything from this episode, take
this.
The time of swallowing yourpride and just moving forward
has to end.
Ask for help, man.
There's a better life out therefor you.
There's better days out there.
(40:53):
All you got to do is find thatvulnerability within you and say
you know what?
I'm not going to deal with thisanymore.
I'm going to get help.
People are more spun up.
Now more than ever.
We have resources and if youdon't know where to go, hit up
Alex or hit me up.
Alex where can we go to find outmore about what you're doing?
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, so we try to be a little bit more unique
compared to some of thenonprofits that I've worked with
.
Just like you mentioned,there's so many first responders
and veterans that are injuredthrough training exercises,
right, like even microblastexplosions from mortar men.
Right, you got those 11 chucksthat are humping around, all of
(41:36):
these combat MOSs that are nearthese microblasts all the time,
and a lot of nonprofits onlytreat combat wounds.
You have to show some type ofcombat wound.
When I sat down with Ren andPatrick at Revival Hyperbaric
and kind of had this coming toJesus moment of other people
(41:57):
need this, that's when I decidedto start Silent Wounds and
Warriors Foundation and our goalis to help people that don't
meet that combat criteria.
Of course, we'll treat anyonethat's a combat veteran and was
hurt in combat, but there's alot of nonprofits out there that
we can push you to.
But our goal is to treat anyveteran or first responder that
(42:18):
has had a TBI could be like evenjust someone that's airborne,
qualified, that jumps and hitstheir head right.
Or like, let's say, wherethere's a firefighter that goes
into a house and somethinghappens and he has a brain
injury, right.
There's a huge gap there thatwe from a nonprofit want to help
those people that don't meetthose unique criteria.
(42:40):
So we have kind of a more broadacceptance of who we help.
If you're a first responder, ifyou're a veteran, if you've had
a traumatic brain injury and youhave PTSD, we will treat you,
we will pay for your hyperbarictreatment, and there's such a
gap in that sphere.
Right Like we're helping thisguy that's on a SWAT team.
(43:00):
He's a breacher right now he'sdoing dives as we speak this
week and I got on the phone withhim and he described the same
symptoms that I was facing.
He's like man, I'm just numb.
Like I feel like I can't go andtalk to my boss about this
because then they're going totake me off and I won't have
that money coming in for my job.
Like there's also anotheraspect to this of the culture of
(43:24):
like people not wanting tospeak up because they're worried
about how their leadership willtake it.
They're worried about lookinglike that crazy guy that goes
and talks to someone frombehavioral health or they're
worried about losing theirlivelihood.
So we want to get you back towhere you were before, to where
you're good to go and you cankeep providing for your family
(43:45):
and keep chugging along.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, absolutely, man .
Well, alex, I can't thank youenough for being here today, man
.
What's the name of your show,by the way?
How can people?
Speaker 3 (43:55):
yeah, it's silent wounds and warriors podcasts,
and then also you can find us onsilent wounds and warriorscom
or look us up on instagramsilent wounds and warriors.
Um, reach out to me.
If you ever are just down andwant to talk to someone, please
shoot me a message.
I'd love to chat there.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You go well you heard it here first, folks.
Uh, go ahead and do me amessage.
I'd love to chat there you go.
Well, you heard it here first.
Folks, go ahead and do me afavor.
Pause the episode.
Go to episode description.
Click on all those links rightthere.
Send a friend request to Alexand tune into the show.
Learn something about blastexposure and hyperbaric
treatment, because I have afeeling that it can help you.
It's not just.
You know, my main thing isgetting you the help you deserve
(44:32):
for blast exposure TBIs, butyou can get it right now for
just anything.
Honestly, if you reach out,talk to Alex or go straight to
Revival Hyperbarics and checkthem out, that link will also be
there.
Uh, thank you all for tuning in.
Alex, again, thank you forbeing here and we'll see you all
next time.
Until then, take care.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Questions about today's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhallcom for exclusive
content, resources and updates.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
And remember we get through this together.
If you're still listening, theepisode's over.
Yeah, there's no more Tune intomorrow or next week.
(46:29):
Thank you.
Security Out Podcast.
Let's go the only podcastthat's purpose-built from the
ground up to support you Notjust you, but the wider audience
, everybody.
Authentic, impactful andinsightful conversations that
serve a purpose to help you.
And the quality has gone up.
It's decent.
(00:21):
It's hosted by me, dannyCaballero.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Alex Briggs.
Welcome to Security Out Podcast.
How's it going, man?
Good, how are you doing?
Thanks for having me,Absolutely, man.
I love running into otherindividuals that are passionate
for a cause and have a uniqueand amazing story to share about
why and how they got involvedin this advocacy space.
And, uh, I saw a clip for aviewer show talking about
(00:51):
something that I'm verypassionate about, which is blast
exposure, TBI treatment and, uh, you know, helping our brothers
and sisters realize that it'snot always just an explosion or
IED or a big major situation.
These exposures come fromeveryday training scenarios that
a lot of soldiers areconstantly involved in.
So today, my man, it's yourstory, your show.
(01:13):
How'd you get involved in thisspace?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, that's a great question and 100% appreciate you
having me on here because Ifeel like these stories need to
be told and I feel like there'sveterans out there that are
facing these symptoms of TBIsand blast exposures and they
don't even realize that theseare symptoms from their time in
service.
But, kind of, my story starts along time ago, like my whole
(01:40):
military career.
I actually started out workingas a civilian for the Air Force
and I was a software engineer,so I got to work on some really
cool products, Like I didsoftware for the B-1 bombers,
F-16s.
A lot of my friends worked onthe technology systems behind
allowing A-10s to drop 500 poundbombs, and so I was doing that.
(02:03):
My brother he, he joined themilitary and the national guard
and I wanted to do the same.
It took some convincing to allowmy my wife to to let me join,
but he had a good experience.
He went to ranger school, camea ranger and, uh, I wanted to
follow in his footsteps.
So, uh, I joined as a zero nineSierra officer.
(02:25):
I know, I know, but wentthrough officer candidate school
and branched field artillery.
So I spent some time behind agun line and as a fire direction
officer.
So we work on processing allthe fire missions.
Uh, when they come from theforward observers, they go to us
(02:48):
, we process it, do all the math, send it to the gun line and
the gun line shoots it.
Um, so fantastic experience.
Got to spend about a year and ahalf on the gun line and then,
uh, when my brother wascompeting at best Ranger
competition, um, got to meet theSergeant major that was going
to be over the battalion thatwas deploying and, you know,
competing at Best Rangercompetition.
Got to meet the Sergeant Majorthat was going to be over the
battalion that was deploying and, you know, got to get in his
(03:10):
ear and say, hey, like I'd loveto deploy with my brother and
get that experience.
Like, if you have any leeway ingetting me on the deployment,
I'd love to.
And then deployed with a groupof fisters and got to have that
awesome experience of, you know,deploying and and living the
good life.
What year was this?
(03:32):
Yeah, this was actually recent.
So, um, we deployed in 2022 toSyria.
Yeah, yeah, that's how recent.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, holy shit, yeah , good on you.
How was it going it going, uh,going down range of your brother
man that was.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It was really cool.
So, uh, he stayed in kuwait forfor a little bit.
Um, I went to syria.
I was in syria for about sixmonths and then, uh, he was
ripping into the same place thatwe were, our mission support
site, and we overlapped forabout two weeks, um, so got to
do one mission with him before Iwas out of Syria.
But still a really coolexperience deploying with you
(04:09):
know someone you care so muchabout.
There's a lot of you knowthings with that.
Like, we had a soldierunfortunately pass away on that
deployment and I was helping outon the staff at the time and no
one would talk to me and I knewsomeone had passed away and
(04:29):
wasn't around anymore and I wasworried that it was my brother
and going through that guiltfeeling of just hoping it was
anyone else that passed awayother than my brother.
So there's some really goodthings but also some really
tough things when you get tohear the news that's going on
and and, uh, you worry for him,you know.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, that's.
That's incredibly hard, um,even with close friends, man,
that you almost have a littlebit of guilt when you're like
fuck anybody else but this guyanybody else would mind.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, so how did the rest of the career go?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, so a lot of our mission set as FISTERS is we're
supporting an infantry company,so our our main thing that we
were doing is we werecontrolling aircraft.
When we would go out at ourmission support site.
We had roughly about two JTACsMe and my guys we're JFOs, joint
Fire Observers so definitelynot as cool as JTACs, but we got
(05:32):
to talk to the MQ-9s a lot andthen Apaches.
I do a lot of air weapons teamrequests and then we'd go out
outside the wire and controlApaches and a lot of recon
assets to help keep us safe.
When we would go outside thewire, mostly looking for like
people smuggling weapons,because we're getting rocketed
(05:53):
quite a bit.
So we were looking for likethese barrel systems that they
would use to launch the rocketsat us on the on a timer system,
or we would just go out and useour optics to look for activity
out there presence patrols, andso my, my story is is you know
we didn't.
We didn't do anything crazyLike I don't.
I don't like to think that I'manyone special or anything, but
(06:15):
on one particular mission we'reoutside the wire, we're doing
some recon and there was what Icalled like the deconfliction
line of like Assad pro regimeforces on one side and our, our
side Um, and we weren't reallysupposed to go past this like
deconfliction line Uh, aircraftwouldn't go past that line
either, and uh, we're kind ofkicking parallel to this, this
(06:41):
deconfliction line, and, um, Iwas in a Bradley and then an
explosion went off and the lastthing that I remember is kind of
flying through the air and thenjust everything went dark, um,
and it was only a few seconds,but I remember I was, I was
waking up on top of my buddythat was to my left and just I
couldn't breathe.
Like it felt like all the airwas out of my body and there's
(07:03):
so much smoke and dust that Ijust couldn't breathe.
And I don't know if you've everbeen in a Bradley, but there's
this true patch on the top, youknow for emergencies or and so
my adrenaline kicked in, jumpedup, popped open that true patch
and, like this, just flood ofair came in.
I could finally feel like I wasbreathing and the effects of
(07:27):
the blast didn't really kick inright away, it was just more
adrenaline.
And we got really lucky becauseI had submitted an air weapons
team request for what I thoughtwas the most vulnerable point of
our convoy and it happened tobe 15 minutes that they they
were going to check in onstation um from when we got
blown up.
(07:47):
So my first thought was like,hey, we need aircraft here right
away.
So, um, we got on whateversystem we had to to request
those assets and I was like, hey, you guys need to get here, I
guess, as fast as possible,cause we didn't know what was
going on and, honestly, like inin that environment, we
(08:08):
everything that was happeningwas like pop shots here and
there and then rockets thatwould hit us at night, like.
So we weren't like reallygetting into gunfights or
anything, there's just littlethings like that.
And um, so, uh, luckily, likethe Apaches were checking in on
my net like 10 minutes later anduh, so I remember that my first
(08:34):
, my first thought was like, hey, like we're going to get a huge
stack here coming in.
Uh, so I was trying to get themto to hear me out of like, hey,
we need to stay below you knowcoordination level, stay below
2,500 feet and get here asquickly as possible.
But then the net was breakingup and couldn't really hear each
(08:55):
other that well, and then,probably like three minutes
later they're back on the netand they're like hey, we heard
you guys hit an IED, like, isthat true?
And I was like, hey, stay whenready for friendly grid, get
here as quickly as you can.
And so Apaches got there withinlike 10 minutes and kept us
(09:15):
safe.
A lot of the other Bradleysdidn't want to come in to where
we were because we were worriedabout more explosives and we
were, honestly, safe for themost part.
But our whole front of ourBradley was blown up and so all
of the rotor wheels on the sidewere gone.
(09:36):
It blew a hole into the hull ofthe Bradley, like in the bottom
of it, and the whole engineblock was gone.
And that overpressure cameinside the Bradley, like in the
in the bottom of it, and thewhole engine block was gone.
And, uh, that overpressure cameinside the Bradley and I was
sitting in the back left cornerand almost like the farthest
person away from the blast.
But you know I'm not an expertin blast waves, but it almost
(10:00):
like everything came to the backright where I was sitting and
took about an hour and a half toget Kazevac out of there back
to our mission support site andthen we got checked in by some
emergency doctors there man.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
That's a very lucky individual to be here yeah,
because we got super lucky,depending on the, if it would
have been a different munition,if it would have been a bigger
charge, this whole story, youknow, probably ended a whole
different.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That is yeah.
Everybody in the Bradley madeit out.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, luckily, um, a lot, of a lot of us just had,
you know, brain TBIs after thatconcussions.
The EOD guy that was at ourmission support site that I was
friends with, he said that if itwould have hit a foot or two
behind where it did that we allwould have died.
And it just happened to hit inthe front right where the engine
(11:01):
block absorbed most of it.
Like there's a you know one ortwo inch thick I-beam that holds
the engine and this I don'tknow if you've ever seen in the
engine of a Bradley, but it'shuge, and that whole I-beam was
bent all the way up Like andit's a you know multiple inch
I-beam that's supporting thatengine block and that whole
thing was was destroyed.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, and then comes the aftermath of going through
the the post blast, uh,headaches, light sensitivity
yeah, of course.
Like well, just stay in a darkroom for a little bit, yep.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
That's what it was.
Yeah, the the doctor, thedoctor that was at our mission
support site.
He goes hey, like any treatmentyou get outside of our mission
support site, it's going to bethe same thing.
They're going to tell you tolay down, turn off all the
lights, don't look at your phone.
Um, he's like we can't give youany medicine because we're
worried about brain bleeds, likeyou're you get.
All of you are just going tostay here, which, honestly, I
(12:02):
was okay with.
We were dealing with somedifficult personalities on the,
the unit that we were supporting, so I didn't want to leave my
guys.
I felt like I was kind of aline of defense for them to like
keep them from the bullshit, tobe honest with you.
And so the yeah, the firstmultiple days was just hey,
laying this cot and get somesleep.
(12:24):
But that doesn't work out likewe want it to right.
Yeah, so on top of that, likewe're still in a combat zone.
Yeah, so on top of that, likewe're still in a combat zone.
So you know, we would get intoEpicon, delta or something would
happen Like the radars wouldkick off because some rockets
are coming.
So even in that we'd have tojump in, get in our Briley, go
(12:45):
to you know where we're supposedto to make sure our mission
support site is safe and we'renot getting hit by rockets.
So it probably wasn't the bestenvironment to stay in.
Yeah, but you know, I, I like Idon't blame anyone, right, like
that's just how the cards cardsare played but at the end of
the day, you're a warrior.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
At the end of the day , you're, you're at war and if
you've, you got to do what yougot to do, yeah, you, you can't,
um, you can't quarterback itafter the, the fact and the, the
medical staff are only, theyonly know what they know, and
they're.
Now there's so much literature,there's so many new things, like
(13:25):
they don't recommend going inall quiet, blacked out room,
like that's all been thrown outto the wayside.
There's so many things thathave have advanced, but in the
moment you're still at war, like, yeah, you're alive, so let's,
let's be focused on that, andtomorrow we're gonna need you to
go out and carry out.
But when you're, when youreturn, it's what a lot of
(13:48):
people don't realize is it'sit's something that compounds,
and you don't always have, likethis myriad of symptoms right
off the bat to turn your lifeupside down, like, no, it's,
you're still going to go back onthe gun line, you're still
going to shoot, you're stillgoing to be exposed to blast
exposure and then going to goback and you're going to go
(14:09):
train.
So what was it like coming outof that deployment and where
were?
When did you finally noticelike hey, like I'm still dealing
with some issues.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, man, there's so many emotions with it too, when
, when you, when you talk aboutit and bring it up and you look
back on it and you, you don'treally regret how things happen,
but you kind of wish that youhad the knowledge you had now.
But so, like the first dayafter the blast, I honestly just
felt like I was floating, likeI always say I don't know how to
(14:39):
describe it other than thatLike you, just you're, you're
not there, right, you don'trealize what's going on.
And so then the second day, um,I'm just laying in my cot in in
this tent in the middle ofnowhere and I literally felt
like someone was grabbing myhead and squeezing it.
(15:00):
I felt like my head was aboutto explode and I wasn't on any
pain meds because they wereworried about brain bleeds.
And they kept a line medic nearme just to make sure I was okay
and I asked him to come over.
They kept a line medic near mejust to make sure I was okay and
I asked him to come over.
I was like I'm not doing okayright now.
Like can you take me back toroll one?
Like I'm dry heaving.
I literally feel like I'm aboutto pass out, I can't like my
(15:24):
head's spinning.
So he took me back to roll oneand they're checking on me and
they're like you got some bloodin your ears.
Have you been scratching atyour ears?
It's like no, no, I haven'ttouched my ears.
They're like yeah, you musthave been scratching at your
ears because you got blood inyour ears.
It's like I promise I haven'tscratched at them.
And they're like all right,well, I think you're past the 24
hours.
Let's give you some pain med.
(15:45):
But I was in so much pain that Icouldn't sleep, like I didn't
sleep what it felt like three orfour days, and this was a
pretty big incident in the area.
And so they sent somepsychologists and like trauma
specialists from behavioralhealth over to our mission
(16:08):
support site to check on us.
And I remember I sat down withthem and he's like all right,
how are you doing?
I was like honestly, I, my headhurts all the time and I'm just
not sleeping.
And he's like okay.
And then like that's all.
The conversation was Well, ifyou need anything, let me know.
(16:30):
And I'm like all right, I'm notsleeping.
And he's like okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
All right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
His notes just scribbles of.
Things like this weren't reallyhappening at the time.
So I think a lot of thesepeople hadn't seen any injuries
recently.
And you know, post whathappened to us, I actually had a
lot of friends in Iraq thatwere getting hit by those
suicide drones, all that kind ofstuff, and so I think it
happened a little bit more in2023.
But I just think people didn'tknow how to react, to be honest
(17:09):
with you.
So I was on concussion protocol,um, and it was two weeks after
the blast that my brother wasripping into where we were in
Syria, and so I was like hypermotivated to get off concussion
protocol and to try to get outof outside the wire with him.
And so he gets in.
(17:29):
I was still on concussionprotocol.
Like he's like at this point,the doctor's like hey, you need
to try to work out, move around,see how your body reacts.
But everything I did, I feltdizzy.
I just felt like I was going topass out.
And so I, uh, I'm working outwith my brother and I like
literally felt like I was goingto fall over the whole time.
And he's like you, are you allright?
(17:51):
I'm like yeah, I'm doing okay,like I'll be all right, like I
need to get better so we can goout and do some fun stuff
together, and uh, so I probablyshouldn't have done it.
But I went to the doctors and Iwas like I'm good to go, like
get me off, get me offconcussion protocol, Let me go
outside the water.
And they're like, okay, andthey were getting phone calls
from like the Pentagon,four-star generals checking in
(18:13):
on us all the time because, youknow, an incident like this
hadn't happened in a while.
And so I think the, I think thedoctors were like, yeah, let's
get you off concussion protocoland it would alleviate some of
the pressure on their end, sowhere they're not getting called
all the time to check on us.
And so I got to go on onemission with my brother and do
(18:35):
some recon in the middle of thenight and had a wonderful
experience.
That was one of our moreinteresting last missions.
And the next day I was actuallyflying to Iraq.
I spent a week in Iraq while wewaited for some flights back to
Kuwait.
I spent a week in Iraq while wewaited for some flights back to
Kuwait and then in Kuwait, justkept seeing doctors there.
(18:57):
And you know, a few weeks intothat.
I just keep telling them.
I'm like, hey, my head hurtsall the time, and they're like,
all right, we'll just take someibuprofen, take some Tylenol.
It's going to take a few monthsfor that to go away.
Take some ibuprofen, take someTylenol.
It's going to take a few monthsfor that to go away.
(19:21):
And as being a soldier, it'shard to admit it, but I started
having PTSD symptoms.
I'd lay down in my bed and Icouldn't breathe.
It seriously felt like anelephant was sitting on my chest
and I had had some dreams ofthat blast wave hitting me, and
I think I had associated beingin my bed to pain just from that
time after the blast.
And so anytime I got in bed I'dhave this panic attack.
(19:41):
I couldn't breathe and everyonethat was around me could like
see that my eyes were sunken inand I was just not doing well
and I was so desperate for sleep.
I went to the doctor and I waslike, please give me sleeping
pills, like I'm not doing okay.
And they're like you need to gosee behavioral health because
we can't give you sleeping pills.
They're the only ones that can.
(20:02):
So went to behavioral health.
They still didn't give mesleeping pills but then made me
talk about my panic attacks andall that kind of stuff.
And you know, another couple ofweeks went on and, uh, I
finally went to go see one ofthe PAs that was from our state
and I was like, hey sir, like Iam not doing good, he's like I
(20:23):
can see it, he's like you, youlook terrible, to be honest with
you.
And I had this whole time likeI was trying to have a good face
for my soldiers, have a goodface for everyone, right, like I
honestly was hiding my symptomsand I didn't want people to
really know, cause I don't knowwhy.
Like we get embarrassed aboutour injuries I don't know if you
(20:47):
ever experienced that, but youdon't want to look like you have
any vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Oh yeah, vulnerability on the backside of
all this.
We learn, or we can learn.
That is a strength, but whenyou're living it, when you're
not able to perform and do thejob of an officer and and really
live up to your duties andresponsibilities, it fucking
(21:12):
weighs on you.
It weighs on you when you can'tbe that stud in the team or in
the platoon or that fuckingby-the-book Green Beret that can
run and do all the thingsyou're supposed to do.
That'll weigh on you and thatpressure, that self-imposed,
(21:33):
will fucking kill you.
It literally has led guys to dothat one thing that we all are
trying to fight commit suicideBecause you are not willing to
talk about, or be vulnerableenough to talk about, the things
that you're suffering through.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, yeah.
So he had me go see a differentdoctor.
I went and saw that doctor andtold him what was going on, what
my symptoms were, and he's likewhy did we never send you to
Germany right away?
He's like it doesn't make senseto me.
And and he's like we need, weneed to get you out of here.
(22:12):
Like there's there's really notmuch we can do for you at this
point.
Like it's been multiple months.
And so the next day I was on aflight a medevac flight to
Germany and got to theconcussion clinic there, saw the
doctors and I had failed everysingle balance test.
Like I met with a neurooptometrist and they do these.
(22:34):
You know, these have thesecords where you have to look at
it and focus your eyes.
Yeah, and I failed all of that.
Like my vision wouldn't focus.
Like I remember I did that.
I don't know what's going on.
My body, my left eye, would notfocus like what?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
and I'm just trying to hide it and I'm trying to
move forward and everybody seesyou like fuck, why aren't you
performing the way you used toyou?
Because you have both your arms, you have both your legs,
you're talking, you're fine onthe back side.
There's vindication when you goto a TBI clinic and you're like
I lost balance, stepping downfrom the transition steps from
(23:30):
my kitchen.
It's one step, one step losebalance and fall down.
I couldn't go up my steps to mybedroom, to the second floor of
my house without falling down.
The only vindication you havethat there's something
cognitively wrong is at thesetreatment centers.
And to think that if youwouldn't have talked to that guy
(23:51):
, you wouldn't have been able togo there.
You would have missed out onthat.
And the reality is how many ofour veterans, how many of our
brothers and sisters justcontinue to live life never
understanding that there'ssomething wrong with you and
somebody can diagnose it?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, it's, I'm, I'm very grateful Like that.
If I wouldn't have had thatconversation, to be honest, I
don't know if I'd be here today.
Like that was a point where Iwas like, okay, I'm, I'm going
to go get help Cause I didn'twant to leave my soldiers.
I didn't want to and you knowwe're dealing with difficult
personalities on a deploymentand I just felt guilty about
(24:28):
leaving.
To be honest with you, I didn'twant to, but I knew our
deployment was coming to an endand I needed to go, was in
Germany for a few days.
They flew me to Joint BaseLewis-McChord and I got to the
concussion clinic there and Ihate to talk ill of the location
, but it was terrible there.
(24:49):
It was terrible and I think thetime that we were in they were
seeing less injuries from combatand so the doctors take a
mentality of people are fakingit and trying to take advantage
of the retirement system, and myjob is to find those
(25:09):
individuals that are trying tofake it, grilling me about every
symptom.
I was having everything thathappened to me, and it wasn't
one of those conversations whereyou can feel like the intent is
to help you.
It was.
(25:35):
Let me document this or try tocatch you on your words so that
I can write things down in yourmedical profile to prove that
you're doing okay or this andthat doing okay or this and that
.
And so I kept meeting withdoctors and I got I was on nine
prescriptions for migraines,mental health.
I had tremors, my hands wouldshake all the time, the left
side of my face would go numband then all my limbs would go
(25:56):
numb and the neurologist said itwas a symptom of complex
migraines.
The neurologist said it was asymptom of complex migraines.
And then they made me meet witha neuropsychologist Because,
honestly, I think when I startedtaking all those medications, I
got worse.
Like mental health, wise, yep,way worse.
And then, on top of that, I wasdealing with doctors that
(26:17):
didn't believe my symptoms 100%.
And so I sat down with thisneuropsychologist and he goes
all right, tell me everythingthat's happened, your symptoms,
and I started explaining.
Like first day I honestly feltlike just I was on clouds.
And day two and three and fourI literally felt like I was
dying.
And he pulled out this piece ofpaper that had this chart that
(26:39):
showed concussions and how thefirst day is supposed to be the
worst day and day two and daythree you're supposed to be
getting better.
And he goes.
What you're describing to medoesn't match this chart.
So I feel like you're lying tome and I go, excuse me.
He goes.
I feel like you are trying totake advantage of the situation.
He's like you didn't come herefor like three months post blast
(27:03):
, and now you're here all of asudden, trying to take advantage
of the government and hopingyou can retire and get all these
benefits.
He's like what you're sayingdoesn't match this chart and I
feel like it's my job to findthose individuals that are lying
and catch them on the lie.
And I was like no, your job isto help veterans, your job is to
(27:25):
help people.
Nowhere in your job descriptiondoes it say catch people that
are lying about their symptoms.
And so I start bawling in thismeeting because I was feeling
guilty about leaving my soldiers.
I was feeling guilty about notbeing in the fight with them,
and this a-hole guy is just yeah, you're faking it.
(27:46):
And so I called my wife and Iwas like I can't do this anymore
.
I'm not doing okay and I'mdealing with people that don't
believe me.
And the thing that doesn't makesense to me is I had gotten,
you know, a purple heart fromfrom what had happened.
I have all these medicalrecords from the blast and they
still didn't believe me.
(28:09):
And, and at this point, one ofmy soldiers, um, from when I was
on the line battery withPaladins, texted me and he's
like hey, man, I heard you gotblown up.
Like I just want to let youknow I'm thinking of you, which
meant a lot to me.
And then I got another textfrom another soldier I served
with and he's like hey, I have afriend, his name is Wren Murray
and he's opening up this placecalled Revival Hyperbarics.
(28:32):
You need to talk to him.
And I was like, okay, let's doit.
And this was right at the timewhere that doctor told me I was
faking it and I I had knownRen's 18 Alpha.
He was going to be ourgraduation speaker at Officer
Kennett School and in 2017, whenthey lost their teammate, aaron
Butler, like I had been doing,the Aaron Butler runs every year
(28:55):
growing up in Idaho.
And so I was like I know of Ren, but I don't know him.
And Ren called me and he's likeyou're experiencing this symptom
, this symptom, this symptom,this symptom and this symptom.
And he described me perfectlyLike you have no emotions, your
head hurts all the time, youcan't sleep, you have memory fog
(29:18):
, you can't remember things.
And I told him I was like, hey,man, like I'm just this
conventional guy, like you'rethis bad-ass green beret that's
been through a lot, like,honestly, like I didn't do
anything cool on my deployment,like I appreciate you, like
reaching out and telling me thatyou can help, but like I'm no
one special.
And I remember he told me he'slike stop, like stop, like quit
(29:43):
thinking that just becauseyou're a conventional guy, like
you don't deserve help.
He's like you got blown up man.
Like accept, accept help whenit's here for you.
Like we can help you.
He's like I've been in yourshoes, I've been completely numb
, with no emotions, like justaccept it.
Like we will treat anyone thatis out there that needs help,
(30:05):
but don't think that becauseyou're not getting treatment,
someone else is going to get it.
Like we will treat everyone.
And you know that week, like Ihad some really dark moments.
Like I never made a plan tolike take my own life or
anything, but I wanted to, 100%wanted to, and I've got three
kids, I've got a wife, and Ikept telling myself don't do
(30:28):
anything stupid, don't eventhink about it, because you
don't want to traumatize yourkids or your wife.
And so at that moment I waslike I'm done, I'm leaving Joint
Base Lewis-McChord, I'm goinghome, I'm getting my own
treatment.
And then that came with otherproblems, because now Joint Base
Lewis-McChord knew I was goingback to my home unit.
They call my home unit and tellthem that they thought I was
(30:49):
faking it.
So then all the leadership inmy battalion thought I was
faking it.
They straight up told me that,oh yeah, joint Base
Lewis-McChord called us and toldus that we thought you were
faking it and the timelinesdon't match up.
Like, why didn't you get helpfor the three months after the
blast?
Like, why did you deny care?
If you're really wanting to getbetter, why are you denying
care?
And that was just sending medown a like a more dark spiral
(31:14):
of not being okay.
And it took a few more monthsfor Ren to open up Revival
Hyperbarics.
But I finally got in and wastreated by America's Mightiest
Warriors, an amazing nonprofit.
I know Ren, when he was on yourpodcast, mentioned them.
I owe them my life and I oweRen at Revival Hyperbarics my
(31:35):
life.
And the first day after I did myfirst dive I quit all my
prescriptions all nine of themand I had these withdrawal
symptoms the first couple daysof doing the dives.
And around dive 10, my tremorstopped, my hands stopped
shaking.
(31:55):
And then around dive 20 or dive25, I got in my car and I was
leaving and I just start bawlingand I know Ren had a similar
experience.
But when you finally get thoseemotions back and you're not a
completely numb person, you feellike you can experience joy and
(32:16):
you feel like you canexperience sadness.
And that was probably one ofthe most life-changing moments
in my recovery is having thatfeeling.
And then I ended up doing 50dives and I just felt like a new
person and, not to toot my ownhorn, but I had three degrees
two degrees in engineering andMBA.
(32:37):
I was doing some really coolstuff and I felt like,
cognitively, I was there.
And then when you go from noteven being able to remember that
you left your car on when youwent inside and find out later
that your car has been runningfor an hour, it just it sucks
Like yeah.
And so I finally felt like Iwas starting to get back to the
(32:59):
person I was before and I sitdown with Ren and Patrick that
run Revital Hyperbarics and Iwas like how is it that more
veterans don't know about this?
Like it doesn't make sense tome.
Everyone is just prescribedmedication and told to suck it
up.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, alex, I share the same sentiment.
Um, but you and I and and avast majority of of our veterans
not all of us and I don't wantto paint with a broad brush, but
for me it was being met withthat like definitive, definitive
(33:39):
proof, after neurological,psychologist battery of tests,
and they say like hey, here's,here's proof of your cognitive
decline.
Here's print out shows whereyou are within.
Having like, met with that likesheer like understanding of,
like, oh fuck, now I knowthere's something really fucking
(34:00):
wrong.
There's something reallyfucking wrong.
There's something reallyfucking wrong.
There's a test that shows andit proves it.
I'm not crazy.
You have that period of griefbecause like, fuck, okay, now am
I going to be fucking mashedpotato brains for the rest of my
fucking life?
Is this it Like?
No, we're unique and we'redifferent and you will adapt.
You're still going to have shitmemory.
(34:21):
I'm just didn't realize it.
But you give yourself grace,you understand.
Like, I still can't find mywallet.
I had a whole fucking morningtrying to find my wallet today,
but you know, you get Apple airtags.
What I'm trying to say is youfigure out how to adapt and
build new frameworks for thedeficits you have.
But I got reading back.
I couldn't read to the pointwhere I was just highlighting
(34:44):
everything, trying to like writeeverything out.
I just had a gentleman on ToddStraper and I was talking about
like finally giving, being givenlike the operator syndrome,
white paper study and thenprinting it out and having to
highlight every section.
That applied to me, not becauseI was like, oh, I'm going to be
prepared, but because I had tofocus that much to read it and
(35:07):
retain it, highlight these areasso I could advocate for myself.
Finally, because, just likethose people at Lewis were so
ready to throw you under the busand say you're a fucking liar,
it happens to almost everyveteran I was talking to.
And then you have to turn toother alternative modalities to
(35:28):
find true healing and some sortof peace.
And when you dig intohyperbarics you find two camps,
two very definitive camps theveterans that are feeling and
have like real world peace andtreatment and recovery from it
and academia that are sayingthat there's not enough, there's
(35:51):
not enough proof, not enoughstudies.
Why is it that you're nottaking into account these people
whose lives are being changedto have their, been given their
lives back, like you're going tosit here and study and say
there's no proof, there's noproof.
Go study the fucking veteranswhose lives are being changed.
Go study those.
(36:12):
Sit down in that space.
Why does it feel like it'sbeing manipulated?
It's a money thing.
I used to think peer-to-peer orpeer-reviewed journals in
scientific research was thestandard.
That's what I used to think.
Peer-to-peer or peer-reviewedjournals in scientific research
was the standard.
That's what I used to think.
Now I realize, being back inschool, being back in college,
(36:33):
understanding that somebody paysfor these studies yeah, and for
a lot of them.
And you can go find this outyourself right now.
Go to Google Scholar and lookup these studies and then do the
work to find out who's fundingthe research.
The same people who are alsobenefiting from their
(36:54):
pharmaceuticals being prescribedto you at the VA, being given
to you for free in those giantbrown boxes and paper bags you
get on a monthly basis.
So is it really advantageousfor them to come out and say
that this non-pharmaceuticaltreatment model is something
that we should be putting inevery VA hospital for our
veterans, or is it moreadvantageous for them to say
(37:17):
that no, it's not helpful andit's anecdotal at best?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That's the fucked up part.
It's so tough because there'sso much money behind it.
I don't think this system willchange.
Like I know I'm beingpessimistic, but I literally had
multiple gallon size Ziplocbags full of medications and
strong medications, like Iremember.
One of the doctors I saw waslike you are taking, there's a
(37:42):
ton of chemicals in your bodyright now and that's not good
for you.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, and they counter, and some of the things
that they don't tell you aboutis that medicine A is going to
interact with medicine B and itmight give some of the side
effects.
Are you're going to demonstratebehavior that's commonly viewed
as schizophrenic, Like what thefuck?
Saw that with some of myveteran friends, Like, oh, now
(38:08):
he has to get treated forschizophrenia?
One doctor out of seven waswilling to go by line all the
medications and say like no,this is not schizophrenia.
This is a reaction that'shappening because these
medications are interacting withthese medications and they
should.
He shouldn't be taking them incombination.
What the fuck?
(38:29):
What the fuck?
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
What the?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
fuck what the fuck.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Yeah, it's terrible, it's tough because you know,
here's people like us that wantto bring this to light.
Right, like I have zerofinancial motivation in anything
that I do, but my hope is thatif we can reach one veteran, one
(38:56):
first responder that hears thisand he says to himself that
sounds a lot like me and decidesto go and reach out to someone
in the hyperbaric space, reachout to our nonprofit and get
help to me, that is what I want.
I want that one person that wehelp, that was in the same shoes
as me, that doesn't want tolive anymore, that goes and gets
treatment and has their eyesopen to that, that life can be
(39:17):
like what it was before, beforethe.
You know the microblasts thatthey face before any head injury
or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, it's the single greatest injury.
It's a signature injury of ourG watt era traumatic brain
injury.
And it doesn't have to be an IDstrike, it can be from training
, it can be a.
It's not one exposure, it's allof the exposures and my story
is a testament of it.
How do I explain to somebodywhat's going on where I didn't,
(39:50):
I wasn't blown up by a fuckingID yet this is my story too, and
for countless of my brothers insoft world, it's their story as
well.
And for the 11, charlie theartilleryman, this is your story
as well.
Like it's the repeated exposureto these blasts.
And you have to get smart.
Nobody else is willing andnobody else is going to come in
(40:11):
and advocate for you.
So you have to be willing toask yourself hey, am I really
dealing with just a headache, orare these fucking migraines
Like?
Am I just a klutzy, clumsyperson?
Or am I just dealing withvestibular issues?
And if your eyes aren'tfocusing, like they should stop
(40:33):
being prideful and ask forfucking help.
It'll only get better when youstart asking for help.
Please, if you haven't takenanything from this episode, take
this.
The time of swallowing yourpride and just moving forward
has to end.
Ask for help, man.
There's a better life out therefor you.
There's better days out there.
(40:53):
All you got to do is find thatvulnerability within you and say
you know what?
I'm not going to deal with thisanymore.
I'm going to get help.
People are more spun up.
Now more than ever.
We have resources and if youdon't know where to go, hit up
Alex or hit me up.
Alex where can we go to find outmore about what you're doing?
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Yeah, so we try to be a little bit more unique
compared to some of thenonprofits that I've worked with
.
Just like you mentioned,there's so many first responders
and veterans that are injuredthrough training exercises,
right, like even microblastexplosions from mortar men.
Right, you got those 11 chucksthat are humping around, all of
(41:36):
these combat MOSs that are nearthese microblasts all the time,
and a lot of nonprofits onlytreat combat wounds.
You have to show some type ofcombat wound.
When I sat down with Ren andPatrick at Revival Hyperbaric
and kind of had this coming toJesus moment of other people
(41:57):
need this, that's when I decidedto start Silent Wounds and
Warriors Foundation and our goalis to help people that don't
meet that combat criteria.
Of course, we'll treat anyonethat's a combat veteran and was
hurt in combat, but there's alot of nonprofits out there that
we can push you to.
But our goal is to treat anyveteran or first responder that
(42:18):
has had a TBI could be like evenjust someone that's airborne,
qualified, that jumps and hitstheir head right.
Or like, let's say, wherethere's a firefighter that goes
into a house and somethinghappens and he has a brain
injury, right.
There's a huge gap there thatwe from a nonprofit want to help
those people that don't meetthose unique criteria.
(42:40):
So we have kind of a more broadacceptance of who we help.
If you're a first responder, ifyou're a veteran, if you've had
a traumatic brain injury and youhave PTSD, we will treat you,
we will pay for your hyperbarictreatment, and there's such a
gap in that sphere.
Right Like we're helping thisguy that's on a SWAT team.
(43:00):
He's a breacher right now he'sdoing dives as we speak this
week and I got on the phone withhim and he described the same
symptoms that I was facing.
He's like man, I'm just numb.
Like I feel like I can't go andtalk to my boss about this
because then they're going totake me off and I won't have
that money coming in for my job.
Like there's also anotheraspect to this of the culture of
(43:24):
like people not wanting tospeak up because they're worried
about how their leadership willtake it.
They're worried about lookinglike that crazy guy that goes
and talks to someone frombehavioral health or they're
worried about losing theirlivelihood.
So we want to get you back towhere you were before, to where
you're good to go and you cankeep providing for your family
(43:45):
and keep chugging along.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, absolutely, man .
Well, alex, I can't thank youenough for being here today, man
.
What's the name of your show,by the way?
How can people?
Speaker 3 (43:55):
yeah, it's silent wounds and warriors podcasts,
and then also you can find us onsilent wounds and warriorscom
or look us up on instagramsilent wounds and warriors.
Um, reach out to me.
If you ever are just down andwant to talk to someone, please
shoot me a message.
I'd love to chat there.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You go well you heard it here first, folks.
Uh, go ahead and do me amessage.
I'd love to chat there you go.
Well, you heard it here first.
Folks, go ahead and do me afavor.
Pause the episode.
Go to episode description.
Click on all those links rightthere.
Send a friend request to Alexand tune into the show.
Learn something about blastexposure and hyperbaric
treatment, because I have afeeling that it can help you.
It's not just.
You know, my main thing isgetting you the help you deserve
(44:32):
for blast exposure TBIs, butyou can get it right now for
just anything.
Honestly, if you reach out,talk to Alex or go straight to
Revival Hyperbarics and checkthem out, that link will also be
there.
Uh, thank you all for tuning in.
Alex, again, thank you forbeing here and we'll see you all
next time.
Until then, take care.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Questions about today's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhallcom for exclusive
content, resources and updates.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
And remember we get through this together.
If you're still listening, theepisode's over.
Yeah, there's no more Tune intomorrow or next week.
(46:29):
Thank you.
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