Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to
some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet
share their stories. Sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back everyone. Today we got a great guest by
the name of John Henry Martin, Doc Martin. He's also
known in Special Forces. He's a former retired Green Beret
medic and we're going to learn a lot more about
that role in Special Forces before we get started. Make
sure to share, subscribe, and hit that like button. You know,
we like it, so let's not waste any more time,
(00:45):
and welcome to the show, mister Martin.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome sir, Thank you for having me. Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So much, Thank you so much for doing this. And
by the way, I don't think I mentioned before the show,
actually thank you for your service too.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So you know, I always like to start off John
with the first question is what got you motivated to
become a Green Beret.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, I mean there was just the the aura, I
guess you would say.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
But my first exposure was John Wayne and the Green Berets,
and then obviously Rambow came out and I was like, yeah,
that guy sounds like a badass, Like I.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Want to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But also too, is that when I joined the Midletown
and things like that, was that I didn't want it.
What if my life did death And I was, you
know that being a special force in a Green Beret
was kind of a enigma to me, and I was like,
what's that all about?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You know, I was kind of curious. So I was like,
you know, my only way to find I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Be that person lying on my deathbed and saying, what
if I tried out what I've.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Done it, what I have been successful?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So that's what kind of was a tipping point, you know,
besides as being hey, the Green Berets look pretty cool, but.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Uh we you know, uh let me try it out.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Am I Am I worthy enough to be amongst the
best that are out there and even being selected and
going being on a team.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Man, I'm I was still humbled. I still am humble
to this.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Day the in the community that I'm involved with, because
there's some really great heroes and men and women that
are in the are involved with this, and I'm just
I'm just honored to be with those guys.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It is and that's what it kind of inspired me,
just and what ifing just kind of pushed me over
the edges trying it out.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
How about your parents? What did they say say? Your
nuts are? They say? This is great?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
They are my my stepfather was uh Air Force.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Uh, he was in Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
My mom was She's Filipino. They met in the Philippines.
Both of them passed away cancer.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh sorry to hear that, but.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I think my my mother passed away before I was,
before I got selected in a special Force. But I
was in the Army. I was with the eighty second
Airborn for five years. So while she was alive, that's
what she knew me as when I was in the
eighty second. So I was able to come home take
(03:25):
some pictures where her went in the uniform to hang
out with her.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So it was actually pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Oh that's cool. Then your dad he was able to
see you graduate from the Green Berets.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, he was an angel to see me. My brother
and sister came down for my graduation. But he knew
who I was, what.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
My new job was, and what I did, and yeah,
and very cool.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I always asked this because I'm always curious and versus
see your training. People always wonder I know you can't
share a whole lot. But was there anything in there
that stood out for you or did you ever have
a moment where you said, man, did I make the
right choice on this?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah? In training or that would just be deployed training training.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Was a great school.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Every Like when we actually got into the.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The training lab, that's probably a thought process.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I went through my minds like I don't know if
I'm able to even make it through this thing. But
the only thing that kind of kept me going was
that I was with my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Oh actually there's only all men in there, but I
was with my brothers in there.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
And and what drove me even more was the fact
that there were other po ws that came that that
were able to contribute to my training that I had
to that I went through to get through this where Yeah,
so everything that I that was in the training lab,
you know, we were hot in the previous weeks to
(05:03):
you know, the techniques, the different things to try and
you know, and to corporate that.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
But when you're hungry, cold and tired, what uh.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
The only thing you're trying to figure out is like
we're gonna get We're gonna get better. Am I gonna?
Am I gonna survive this? You know into a certain extent?
How can how long can I hang before I before
I break? But at the end of it, you know,
I don't know if anybody else, but I tell everybody
that that was probably the best school that I've ever
been to ever, and that I came out of there
(05:38):
knowing what kind of person I was, and that person
I was not happy with when I came out, and
it just I know, I will be better prepared if
I ever came across that situation, if I.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Was involved in that situation at all.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
But that school kind of opened my eyes to to
what kind of person i'm what I would be.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That's fascinating every time when I have talked to individuals
who have gone through Seer Training or or buzz training, Actually,
what I keep hearing over and over again is it
made me a much better person. It made me a
much better person. And for sear training. It's interesting because
a lot of them liked the academic part of it. Yeah, yeah,
you liked it too.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, what it was what separated I mean, the instructors
were awesome, man, the instructors were awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
They know what kinds of situation you're in.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They put you in the mindset of hey, you know,
each one had their own individual blocks, and each one
had their own.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Way of contributing to their their.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Particular block of instructions, and they put you in that mindset.
And as you went down further further into the course
and into that accumulation exercise, at the end you were
you were pretty much prepared as much as you could
be to that point, and the instruction was spot on,
(07:03):
spot on awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I know there's a philosophy, there's a concept of the
hero's journey and you're called to take a mission, and
whoever you were in the beginning of that journey is
not the same person you were at the end. And
do you feel like that happened to you two? Yeah,
I was. I was.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Just even the journey of entering the military. But you know,
the same thing happens. I mean towards the end, I am.
I am not the same person that I was when
I first came in. I was not the same person
when I when I joined Special Forces that I came out.
You know, it definitely opened your eyes. And then when
seriar school, I was very if I had a choice. Man,
(07:44):
I really wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Have gone because I us hear his stories and it's
the unknown.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
But again, what kind of motivated me a little bit
more was that what if ideal. I guess I don't
want to end my life on what if in my
life to death, So that was the big thing. And again,
it does change you.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
It it forces you to accommodate what you're uncomfortable with,
and in that in what you're uncomfortable with, this is
an area that you need to grow.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And that's what your body is trying to tell you
in your mind trying to tell you as well, you're
immature in this area. You need immature and I'm gonna
make you uncomfortable to reinforce that point. And every reinforcement
point that I came along the way as definitely allowed
(08:36):
me to grow to uh, to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's almost like a drive through for maturity. It was
fast and hard.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It's almost to write a passage when you come.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
When you think about it is the training and going
through the different stages of training and seeing people. And
I hate to say this, you know, because I had
some there's some really great people that fell along the way,
but the people that don't make it, and you look
left and right of you during the start of the
course of any course, and you're like, hey, you know,
(09:07):
am I good enough to be with these people? And
I just want to hang and I want to you know,
do my best. And you see along the way these
people fall by the wayside. It's like, dude, that guy
was was spought on, but whatever is motive, their motivation was,
didn't get them through to where it was now.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So what is your why? Going through? Was the biggest
thing for me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
That's a great point a lot of people. Sometimes people
look like they have it together and they have it
all there, and they just don't.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
You know, I don't blame I don't blame any of
those Some of those guys that fell out were you know,
it couldn't be separate.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
From their family. It was tough.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Being isolated is tough. Being on your own is tough.
You know, people need a support channel. Some of us
don't need it to a certain extent. Some of us
are needed altogether.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
How you guys tend to have, you guys being the
Green Berets, you guys have a strong bond that obviously
when you come out, as you mentioned, does that bond
stay after. I know that.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
I still have friends with a lot of the guys
I'm on the team. Was even some of the guys
that went to course with, I talked with them a
lot more, you know, being out, you know some of
them are stolen, some of them out. But yeah, that
bond is kind of it's you know, they talk about
this brotherhood that happens.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
When you when you go through this.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Uh, this this training that you you know that everybody
goes through, but you come to the finish line per
se of that training and you go into a team.
Now you're entering a whole new realm of things, and
it's those bonds that when you know that you made
the minimum to get to that team. Now you're actually
establishing stronger bonds because the fact that now I'm going
(10:51):
through training with these other eleven, ten or nine, whenever
it's on your team, we're going through a day and
day out. We're suffering on the same level. Now we're
deploying also on the same level, we're encountering the same
the dangers that happened. You know, those stressful moments tend
to pull people together, and there was a common bond
(11:14):
and during those stressful situations that pulled people together. Yeah,
I find that the people that I've had the hardest
time with, I guess you could say in my training
or deployments, I've had the strongest bondwidth.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I guess you could say that's that's a cool, good thing.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
At least you have that connection on social network, which
is really important to have, especially with everything you guys
went through. And I guess I'm going to head into
that direction now. And by the way, folks, you want
to learn more about SF Doc Martin, you can look
up s F Underscore Doc Martin, d OC M A
R T I N. He's on Instagram. Give them a follow.
(11:55):
So let me ask you this. Do you remember the
first time you were deployed and where you went? I'm
sure you do.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
So well.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
There was, you know, during our we had some different
deployments going on, but going my first deployment to combat
was to Iraq. It was during the invasion time, so
it was devoted with the team we were able to
get in and we were in. It was with Sports Group,
(12:25):
uh and that was a slice. Also a slight element
from third Special Forces Group that was attached to us,
actually attached to UH third Battie in ten Special Group
during that time frame. So our job was to maintain
a line in northern Iraq to prevent the reinforcement of UH.
The guys that have the main invasion forts that were
(12:47):
in the south. So our point was to occupy them
make sure that they didn't go go down south. So yeah,
so that was that was that first deployment. I remember
in filling at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Uh, they just do this.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
This the first couple of insertions they had. They had
issues and I think people can it's a well known
fact that people can look this up.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It's called the Ugly Baby. It was Operation Ugly Baby.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It was guys in filling in from going into Iraq
the first time to northern Iraq.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
They got shot up pretty good, oh man.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And Iraq is a very complicated place.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
The whole Middle East is you know, just if it's
if it's different from our culture, it's it's it's hard
to understand unless you're in it or are educated properly
through it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Had you been, would you also go to Afghanistan?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That was just like just I rack now you were
a medeg So what's your role here? I mean, do
you not get a gun. You just get the little
Red crossbag. But what's going on here? I think of
mash now.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
So in the special Forces community, everybody is a Special
Forces operator. That's the eighteen series. Everybody is that, and
that's what you train at in the beginning. And then
once you pass that initial training of being an operator. Uh,
then they break you down in your specific job. Feels
like uh, like I was broken down as a medic.
(14:14):
I was selected as a medic.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
There are other people that are selected for other jobs
like the communication communication guys, uh, the engineer, demolition guys,
the the weapons guys, and then you have the officers
who are taught team leader positions up there.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
But I'm on the listed everybody's taught on the same level.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Hey, we're you're an operator, and then you can do
operator things. But what brings you what you the skills
that you were going to teach you is going to
help you to be the forced multiplier on that team.
And my specific job was the medic So I am
not a medical personnel per se. According to the genie
of the convention, I'm actually a combat a combatant, so
(15:00):
I won't be treated as a medical personnel.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So did you get additional training? It sounds like that.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
So, you know, outside of the regular train that we
get through the medical course, you know that there was
a couple of medical courses that we you know that
we can we have the ability to go through.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But also to.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
The cool thing about Special Forces is that in those
earlier stages and I think they're still doing it now.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's like if there is a company out.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
There that are doing unique things that may cater to
the mission that we're doing or may have may may
do in the future. Uh, the ability to go hire
those guys and ask them, Hey, teach me how to
do this, or for example, teach me how to drive
this hum v better, you know, especially with mobility operations,
(15:48):
or teach me how to ride a motorcycle better, teach
me how to drive how to ride a a snowmobile.
You know, things like that, the mobility stuff, you know,
or uh, the opportunity to different schools for shooting.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Hey, teach me the technique for this.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
You know, all those things at different schools, you know,
within the military and outside of the military contribute to
the little tool bag that we all carry in our head.
What works for me and what doesn't work for me excellent.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And so you were classified, as we talked about before
the show, in eighteen delta zulu. Yeah, tell us a
little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So you know, eighteen delta is you know the different
mrs is.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
You know, I put that on my I G page
only because the fact that you're living in so many characters.
But so the eighteen delta is the the job, the
actual medic on the team is the identifier mos. I
guess you could say mission mission occupations especially, I think
that's what it's called.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
And that is specific for that. Now for the eighteen zulu.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Which is the Z portion of it, is the special
Forces operations sergeant, the actual senior guy on the team
or wherever we're in that position. Now with that be
identified as uh promotion and rank going from an east
starting first class which is an E seven to a
(17:10):
Master sergeant E eight. And at my position, when I
got promoted to Master sergeant E eight, my emost changed
to as an eighteen zulu and took me out of
that medical uh slot as you can say, and put
me in more of an overall supervisor reposition in different
areas that I worked at.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Cool, very cool. Now, did you ever get into any
We always try to ask this question, I guess, did
you ever get into any harrowing moments in your career?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
You know what, you know, one person's hair in the
moment might be someone's luxury in another.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's true too, Any stories that come to mind, Well,
I was saying too much.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
It was, you know, the first time I got shot out,
You're like, oh, this is happening. You know, it doesn't
it doesn't seed into you very you know, until afterwards
you're like, because you know this sounds cliche, man, but
you're training kind of takes over when you're getting shot at,
and you're really not worried about yourself. You're just concerned
about everybody else is and where everybody else is at.
(18:18):
How are we gonna who's shooting at me, how are
we gonna take them down?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
What's going what's gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And you know, you know, trying to identify the target first,
you know, but you know, the first time I got
shot at, the first couple of times, I was like, oh,
this is interesting, this is and then you look back
at you look at you know you you just kind
of question your your your mortality. I guess you could
say at the end of it all, it's like, and
(18:43):
you have that self reflection, like we said, when you
go down to that after serious school, you definitely have
that that self reflection and the opportunity to self reflect
and you're like, Hey, that really happened. I can't believe
that happened. I'm still alive, I still have I fellow
my required holes. I don't have any extra holes in
my which is good.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And none of my guys got hurt on it in
that situation.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So does it Does it hit you a little bit?
I don't know how much downtime you get, but you'll say,
you're in the middle of the gunfight. That's over with now,
there's gotta be some little bit of downtime from one
extreme to another. Is that when you start contemplating, gosh,
I just got into a gunfight. What the hell? Man?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Well, you know what?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Or you don't even think about that during that time.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah, I really at the moment, you know, looking back
at I never thought about it. It's like, hey, even
sometimes some of those moments were kind of laughable or
like you believe that just just just happened, just happened,
But uh, I think the It's just it's different from
for everybody. The tough reflection happens at the end or
during or in the moment. It can happen years later
(19:48):
and you're like, I can't believe that happened or how
I made it through.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We you know, I know that for.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Me when it came across those different situations, I was
I never really thought about it, even when I guess
I was just locked into the mode of things.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
When I was deployed, I was like, Hey, this.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Is my job, this is what I got due, this
is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And I think that if you're prepared.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
For a situation that come out, to be ready to
go into a into an arena of combat, you pull
in all your resources that you have, and I guess,
you know, it's hard to explain. Listen, you know, you
don't really reflect on until Like with me, it was
just it was kind of years.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Later I reflected on.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was like, man, you know, I was just so
you just for me, it's just so busy going from
one thing to another.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Sure, yeah, there's a lot going on. Any moments that
are really close that you wondered might getting out of
this mess or there are a lot of those two.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Well, there was a couple of few men. I can't
think of anything on the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Again, I just a lot of the guys that I
that I was with, like, Hey, these guys are gonna
are gonna make it through, man, But.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
How about your medic skills. Did you ever have to
employ them?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yeah, there was a couple of times where I had
to employ them. You know, I had to throw a
couple of bandages on a couple of people.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
You know, the first time I worked on somebody, it
was it was really weird. I think this guy worked
on he got his arms shot up pretty good, and
that's really kind of That's what I was like, kind
of when I was working on him. It was kind
of surreal for me because of the fact that as
I as I'm working on it was almost to the
(21:43):
point where my body kind I kind of stepped out
of my own body and it just kind of watched
my hands just kind of just coming do their own thing,
and I'm just communicating with them as stuff going on,
and what kind of you know, I was maintaining through
this thing.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Was how relatively calm I was in that in that situation.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Training kicked in again.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It was weird because of the fact that in the
traumat and the trauma situation, while you're going through the school,
you're just inundated with blood over and over again. Uh,
and you're forced on you know, you're doing these different
types of assessment, and then when it came down to
actually doing a real you know, an actual assessment on
a on a patient, on a person, you're actually, you know,
(22:28):
this is just it's almost like sucking nature. Bam bam, bam,
this is happening. I gotta do this, I gotta do this.
And I was reaching in, just grabbing things and just
it was just automatic. It was on automatic mode. I
guess you can say when things like that was happening,
and I'm thinking, like other guys in their job field,
it happens in this in the same way as well.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Absolutely, yea. I can imagine when it comes to paramedics
or emergency doctors too.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Uh, that you just just kind of automatically, I gotta
you know, you go through the whole mindset. Hey, propasite picture,
Am I doing the right thing? I got, you know,
pulling the trigger things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, absolutely tough stuff, man, tough stuff. You know, a
lot going on out there. And that's the interesting thing
is you had, you know, you had to be an
operator as well as that metic. So that makes it
a little bit more complicated.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, it's just to even be an operator period with
a lot of stuff, or even just for a lot
of people to handle. But then when you throw an
additional skill on top of that, it can be overwhelming
up for some people.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You know. And then when you actually get on a team.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You know, one thing that I that was emphasized for
me when I got a team. You're not just a
medic man. You're an operator on a team. You know
everybody else's job as well. So you just don't get
locked in onto being the medic just you know, in
the schoolhouse you have this great grandiose idea that hey,
I'm going to be on the medic I've been in
this course for a long.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Period of time. I have a lot to contribute to
the team. You know, you do have a lot contribute
to the team. But what you can contribute to the
team is learning everybody.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Else's job and learning your supervisor's job above him and
his supervisor supervisor's job. What is the overall mission and
what is the intent of that mission, you know, to
clarify what's going on with what your missions, you know,
what's happening with you and your team, you know, to
help you focus, to help bridge the gap on what's
(24:18):
the unknown with the known, So you know, just don't
go through to the mindset of being on a team
and you're just like, Hey, I'm a medical, I'm a
medica medic, I'm an engineer.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I'm an engineer. I'm an engineer. Hey man, I'm an operator.
What don't I need to do?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And that's what I loved about being on a team
is the fact that you're on a team of guys
that are forward thinking that they didn't have to be told.
They were told minimum instructions. Hey, this is our mission,
this is what's going to happen. We need to make
this happen or we are going to be deployed. This
is with the area that we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
We don't need to, you know, be told, hey, I
need to do an area survey of where I'm going. Like,
for instance, as a medic, I don't need to be
told by my leader, hey do an area survey of
the hospitals in that area.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
What is the.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Logistics of capabilities of that area, What is the medical
logistics of that area? What is the evac capabilities of
that area? If this evact, what is the problem? You know,
when we plan, and you probably heard this a lot,
was we go through this thing a pace plan, you know, primary, alternate, contingency,
(25:28):
and emergency, and we incorporate that, and everything that we
do is say, hey, you know, especially when it comes
to the evac plan.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Hey, what is my primary? What are my alternates? Say?
If this went down? What do I do?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
And I'm going to hook it out of here? And
that's the same thing when we do our mission plants
say hey, you know, everybody has a common goal. Hey,
we've got to prepare all of us to get this,
to get this job done and to do it correctly
and to bring everybody home. What will it take to
do that. I don't have to sit on my butt
(25:58):
to actually say, hey, you know what, John, can you
go and make sure this is happening?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
No, I already know that this happening.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And that's where I love being on the team, and
a lot of times I miss having a team is
the fact that like minded individuals are focused on one
thing or one mission or different types of missions, and
they're going about their business and and everybody's thinking on
the same on the frame getting stuff done, and then
we're able to if some person falters, if some person
(26:27):
needs help, we rotate over and say, hey, what do
you what kind of help do you need. It's not
an attitude of I got my job done, screw you guys,
I'm out of here. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
It's like, hey, you know what, if I'm done, someone
else is not done, I'm gonna help those guys out.
You know, see what he or she needs to make
this happen, because if they faltered, the whole mission faulters.
You know, we are our own planning cell. We are
our own logistics acquiring cell. You know, we are our
own training cell. How are we gonna make all that
(27:00):
stuff happen. We don't have the ability like Big Army
had where you just go to one person, Hey, to
the supply guy, Hey get this stuff for me.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
You know, we have to picture that on our own.
You know, we don't have to do on certain people
to make our plans for us. And that's.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Well, that kind of attitude is extremely helpful just in
life in general, to have that attitude, because sometimes people
do that, Right, we finished something and somebody else is
doing it, we'll hurry up, and they just don't help
them with the mentality you guys had was incredible.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
It's it's hard for me, especially when I got out
work with certain people. Hey, you know what, you know,
doing the job, whatever your job was, He's like, I'm
doing the best that I can with this.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I did it. I went above and beyond.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And then if those you know, helping other people, you know,
it's kind of where some people didn't were kind of
taking off guard when you asked them, hey, what kind
of helped you needs Like I don't need to help,
or things are not used to that, or you know,
you're continuing working with your stuff and people are at
work at leaving and you know, man, it would have
been nice to have I would have been done two
(28:09):
or three hours sooner if you were able to come
over here and help me out instead of just kind
of jaw jacking and doing your own little thing and
talking on playing on your cell phone, you could have
helped me out accomplish what I had to do.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Because we work in the same place, so it's just
a little bit different environment.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Unless I work with other soft guys or even sometimes
with other military guys, they sometimes get they get that
the overall mission, not just being selfish about that.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's interesting and I've talked to a couple of soft
guys in the past and one of the comments they
made was, I think this environment for this community referring
to soft community and military community is the best because
people do look out for each other much more. They
do cover their backs. They're just not all about themselves,
and it's harder when you go into the civilian world,
(28:58):
especially today's work is it's even more different than what
it was. And then you were talking a little bit
about that before the show, that the transition is different.
I remember to Lamb you've heard of too, Lamb, I
think Green Beret as well. Folks, you can catch that
interview too. He said, it was really going one hundred
and fifty miles an hour, and then all of a sudden,
you slammed the slammed the brakes and you're going about
(29:19):
ten miles an hour. There's nothing happening. What did you
feel like when you transitioned? It was the I.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Guess the camaraderie that I missed.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I guess that was huge for me trying to get
used to it and I get, hey, you know, I'm
going solo right now, Let's see how this works out
for me to go solo. And then when I got
into an environment, it's just the politics of a lot
of things. The influence of those politics was a lot.
It was it was money driven.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
If it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
If it wasn't if the motivation wasn't money, then they
it was not something that they wanted to pursue.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
If it was, you know, that's it turned into be hey,
what is the Yeah, the hard right or you know,
would make me money, you know, and money always kind
of wins out in a lot of situations. You know,
in the military, I got spoiled in this, you know,
maybe institutionalized the fact that this we're we got to
we got to sweep this. For instance, we got to
(30:21):
sweep the floor. Everybody, grab a broom, is what we're
going to do, and everybody work together. As soon as
everybody got done, you know, every little bits of pieces,
we clean it up, and then we moved to get
stuff done and work it out, and we got a
great product. Everybody took pride in that, some more than others,
but comparably to in the military. In the civilian where
(30:44):
I'm quickly learning is the fact that we don't have that.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
It's like, hey, if it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Part of my job, if I'm not getting paid for that,
I'm not going to do it. And that really irks me.
And you know, I've seen that in the big army.
If if I'm not if that's not my job, I'm
not going to do it. And that doesn't fly on
the on the teams. Man, I'm the Medican. Yeah I'm
not on the medic That's not gonna fly. And the
thing is, you know, the the cool thing about it
is that being there, I have the camaraderie on the team,
(31:12):
the brotherhood on the team. You know, everybody works together.
But there's also a downside of it. You're not pulling
your weight. You'll be called out on the content on
that one. It's like, hey, John, you're fucking fucking up man,
slacking off. You didn't even help Joe over there or
Larry over here. You didn't do your follow up on this,
you didn't follow up on that. So there's a lot
of accountability on the teams. It's just not raw, raw
(31:33):
ross situation. Everybody's accountability, accountable to each other in doing
their job.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
How do they take that accountability? If somebody does for
whatever reason, maybe they've got something going through their minds
for that moment and they slough off to do most
of them usually take it well, like or don't take
it well, but process it and say, I gotta get
my act together.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
It's ah, I mean, it's just imagine the type of personality.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I mean, you got to You've got twelve alpha personalities
sitting in a saying, uh.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
That nobody likes to be humbled.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Humility is a is a motherfucker, I guess you know
hate you know, pardon the French, what it is is
a motherfucker. Because the fact that if no, it's your
ego that gets you in your way, if you could
put that ego off to the side, that you know.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
What, you're right, I was fucking up. I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But you know what, if you're called on the carpet,
you know you're called on the carpet, you know everybody
understands like you're fucking up. And if it's if you're
two or three of your brothers tell you that you're
fucking up pretty good. Maybe if you just tell them
once you know the accountabilities, like I know what you're
talking about, maybe two or three guys come up to you.
All right, I got you, I got It's not gonna
(32:38):
happen again. Your damn right's not gonna happen again, you know,
or you're off the team. You know, we don't have
the time for a bunch of guys. You were selected,
you were trained to be in to operate at a
certain level, and if you can't operate at that certain level,
we'll have to find someone else that can do that.
They're not afraid to put your I guess a lot
of team guys will well understand in this is like
(33:00):
they're not afraid to put your duffel bags in the hallway.
And you know, you know, you find your bag in
the hallway, and then you've got fired. Now I got
to go up and find another team that wants to
take a guy.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Now.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Now I have a shitty reputation of being fired because
of this, that and everything else interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
No, reputation is a big thing in the soft community.
You know, your name is poo, poo poo.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
It's interesting we went from motherfucker to poop poo. So
it threw me off for a second. But people off.
I went from French to English. It's interesting to remind
me a lot of the sales positions right in certain companies.
It's a hardcore sales company. If you don't do it,
we'll find somebody else is gonna do it. If you
don't hit the quote, whatever it may be. Yeah, I mean,
(33:50):
obviously you have totally different responsibilities, but it's got that
kind of flavor to it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Lives are, lives are involved on this. You know you
messed up.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Man, I gotta take care of you, you know, can
I The thing is, can I go back to your
family after deployment saying I did I You know, I
didn't do my best to help you, help help help
your husband out or your wife out.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
You know what?
Speaker 4 (34:12):
All I know is that I would hate to be
that person said, you know what, the reason why your
husband or wife got shot was because I was sleeping
on guard duty or I was slacking on this job.
I could have ran that extra hundred meters to get
to him, but I didn't do that. You know, nobody
wants to do that. But and the same thing with
the team. It's like, you know, lives are involved, lives matter.
You know absolutely, that'd be tough. It's tough, and that's
(34:37):
one thing. It was another. That's that's another reason. You
know you're why, you know, come back to friends and family.
I'm not gonna I don't have the balls to go
up to your to your family tell you I didn't
do my fucking best, because you know that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
That would be tough. I know, we only got a
few minutes to go. Unfortunately, I could keep you here
all day. Doctor. I know we talked a little bit
about Brett brocker Meyer before Brent brocker Meyer before he
has another show, But you were saying he helped connect
to you and a lot of individuals. So I'm sure
there's other guys in the military listening to this, other
(35:13):
special forces guys, somebody making they can benefit. That's the
whole purpose of the show is too enlighten people about
so o f the great heroes that you are, and
so people get to hear the stories. But as well
as help those individuals who've been part of it. We'll
tell us little bit about that wohild How did he
help you?
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, there's there's some great organizations out there, and
what we're lacking is this is this one go to
one spot I guess you can say where all the
soft guys they asked off guys can say and be
exposed to.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Hey, you know what, there's this I know what you're
going through.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
There's this one charity out there, this one group of
guys that can help you out. And sometimes the way
we find out about this, go about this, or find
out if we stumble upon it, or one of our
brothers tell you about it. You know, there's this great
you know for you know, hyperbark treatment for people who
have tv I. You know, there's places in Florida that
helped you out. You know, I didn't know things like
(36:07):
these that that exist that are able to take you know.
The hyperbaric treatment is expensive, you know, and out there
and help you fund that to get you the treatment
that you need. And the issue that I have is
the fact that there's a ton of us, that ton
of charities out there and there's not a place or
(36:28):
one uh place where I guess you could say where
all of us veterans can go to and say hey,
this is what I'm looking for. This is the flavor
that I need. Uh, this is a charity X y
Z was isn't going to help you out? And most
times and not it's usually our brothers that that that
know that.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That need your that you need help, they will redirect
you to where you need to be.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
And what was the charity that he runs? Uh?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
So he I forget what the David but if Brent
Brockenmeyer he helps out with the Navy Seals and in
southern California.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
His podcast is Bravo sixteen.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yeah, and if you go out to his page, I
guess and it will connect.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
You to where he's at, to the characters. He just
focuses on nap sues.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
But he's such a great, great guy that he just
you know, being an army guy, he was able to say, hey,
you know what, I got this one person. He's one
of those guys I said, you know, I know this
guy from here, and I know.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
This guy from here.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
You guys need to talk and sometimes it just it
takes that connection to go above yourself to say you
know what I can help. I can hook these two
people up. Want you guys if something happens. Something happens.
If it doesn't, it doesn't. But I know that you
know at least that if it didn't work out for you,
it might work out for another person that you may know.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
That is good. That is good because I'm sure you're
not the only one there.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
There's plenty of us out there.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, and again, folks, you can actually find him on Twitter.
It's Brent Brocker Myer. It's b R b R O
c K E R M E y e R. You
can also find him on Instagram. Is b brocker Meyer
on there too. He's got his podcast as brought was sixteen.
So if you enjoy these type of podcasts, hey, look,
it's not a competition, so you're more than welcome to
(38:21):
check his out as well and let us know and
maybe you like it something about his podcast you want
us to do too so we can improve our Yeah. Yeah,
and we'll get him over here too and talk about
his program perfect you love it. Yeah, that'd be great.
I guess my last few minutes this is gonna be
a new one is actually the first one I'm gonna
(38:41):
ask this question, and the reason being is because I
interviewed a guy I hate to say, I forgot if
he was a sealer of Beret. I think he was
a Beret. Dan Shilling, he was in black Hawk down anyway.
He has a great book on situational awareness folks, if
(39:03):
you want it. It's called The Power of Awareness. And
I guess that's my question to you. Do you have
an E d C everyday? Carry stuff that you do?
Is there any tips that you provided for you and
people that are close to you that you say, you
know what, you should be careful when you go down here.
You should have this to be ready, anything like that
that you took with you.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah, right here.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Because I've been California right now, It's very limited of
what I can do as an EC, you know, but
you know I do have what I the necessary tools.
If I got stuck somewhere, I can. I can California
can carry a marshmallow. I think it has to be
California compliant marshmallows on the marshmallow. But the with the
(39:47):
e DC stuff, there's a plenty of guys out there
that that promote that stuff and and and do a
great uh deal with that. I know what works for me.
I've been through a couple of courses. You know, and
worked even just talking with other people.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know. Again, it goes back to building that toolbox.
Go talk and the more courses that you take, the
bigger toolbox that you have, and you can actually adjust
it to who you are man. Yeah, so it's a
good point.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, as the training helped you at all outside, I mean,
I don't know if you ever encountered anything at all,
or did you see something and your training kicked in
for a second. He thought, you know, that's good. It
caught me. I caught that guy looking the wrong way
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
I know.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
That was a situation where I know, I think I
was still in the military. I was coming off with
one of my deployments and I had to go. It
was in Colorado Springs. There was a guy that actually
got shot in Walmart. You know, for some reason, Walmart
tracks all the all the shooters for some reason, this
guy got shot in there, and I end up, you know,
it was it was late at night, and I just
(40:50):
happened to, you know, there was another guy in there,
and and happened to work this, uh, this patient over
until you know, with the help of all this, with
the help of the.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Crowd, that happened to be there.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
I was able to stay like the patient until in
ems show and we were able to turf it off.
And because of that situation, I was able.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
To come back and they use me as one of
the witnesses to help put the guy away.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Oh fantastic.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Yeah, the guy ended up dying anyways, but I think
that the actions that we were able to do in
Walmart helped prolong his life until he was able to
go out and to do that. And the thing about
is if if in that situation I was able to
tell these guys, I want someone over there talking to
the guy while I'm working on the body, well, working
(41:38):
on the patients side. But it's important to get out
of two things. If he's talking to you, he's his airways.
He has a paytent airway. And two, if he's answering questions,
he's coherent up here.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
And three is the fact that focus those questions on
who shot you and why did they shoot you?
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Because later on that actually came into effect later on
on the trial because I was able to tell whoever
got that airways, like get his name, who did this,
and any type of information, who's nextecute?
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Is there anybody who we could call things like that as.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
You're going through the h as you're going through the assessment,
because when you're in a crowd outside of the people
that are videotape, which pisses me off, but this incorporate
if you were running, if you're in that situation, get
that crowd involved.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
It's like, hey, you over there, go grab me this,
you grab me this.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
People in Italy want to help out, and I was
able to probably have three or four people helped me out, like, hey,
I didn't have any I didn't have any medical equipment
on me, you know, you know, having these different people
run to different parts of the store to grab a
piece of plastic or another person who grabbed some tape.
Because the guy got shot in the in the zyphored
area in the in the nam Yeah, yeah, he went
(42:48):
right through his went through his front and came on
his back.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Man, small homes. I think it missed lucky.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Yeah, he got lucky, but well he did eventually he
got lucky enough to make to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Yeah. Yeah, the passing away.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
But I think our actions on the objective in Walmart
helped them stay alive and identify his shooter. But they
didn't help out that he that his shooter walked in
with him and you had that camera right there, and
he shoot the guy right there in front.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Of the camera and leaves not the smartest people up.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, Doc, like I said before, I could have you
here on all day. It's been so much fun and
learning about you and then your experiences. And again, I'm
really honored that you took the time to speak with us.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
On his own mind because the crowd that you had.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Thank you, Thank you very much. Folks, check out that
crowd as he talks about it. S f underscore Doc
Martin d O C M A R T I N.
He's on Instagram. Definitely want to catch it. Follow him.
You already went up. Three followers were not even look
at you even alive osmosis. So definitely follow s f
(43:59):
unders score Doc Martin and give him a follow. Thanks again, Doc,
we truly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Thank you everyone. Make sure to share a subscribe hit
that I like button. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to
some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet
share their stories. Sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome back everyone. Today we got a great guest by
the name of John Henry Martin, Doc Martin. He's also
known in Special Forces. He's a former retired Green Beret
medic and we're going to learn a lot more about
that role in Special Forces before we get started. Make
sure to share, subscribe, and hit that like button. You know,
we like it, so let's not waste any more time,
(00:45):
and welcome to the show, mister Martin.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome sir, Thank you for having me. Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So much, Thank you so much for doing this. And
by the way, I don't think I mentioned before the show,
actually thank you for your service too.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So you know, I always like to start off John
with the first question is what got you motivated to
become a Green Beret.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, I mean there was just the the aura, I
guess you would say.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
But my first exposure was John Wayne and the Green Berets,
and then obviously Rambow came out and I was like, yeah,
that guy sounds like a badass, Like I.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Want to do that.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But also too, is that when I joined the Midletown
and things like that, was that I didn't want it.
What if my life did death And I was, you
know that being a special force in a Green Beret
was kind of a enigma to me, and I was like,
what's that all about?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You know, I was kind of curious. So I was like,
you know, my only way to find I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Be that person lying on my deathbed and saying, what
if I tried out what I've.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Done it, what I have been successful?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So that's what kind of was a tipping point, you know,
besides as being hey, the Green Berets look pretty cool, but.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Uh we you know, uh let me try it out.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Am I Am I worthy enough to be amongst the
best that are out there and even being selected and
going being on a team.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Man, I'm I was still humbled. I still am humble
to this.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Day the in the community that I'm involved with, because
there's some really great heroes and men and women that
are in the are involved with this, and I'm just
I'm just honored to be with those guys.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It is and that's what it kind of inspired me,
just and what ifing just kind of pushed me over
the edges trying it out.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
How about your parents? What did they say say? Your
nuts are? They say? This is great?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
They are my my stepfather was uh Air Force.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Uh, he was in Vietnam.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
My mom was She's Filipino. They met in the Philippines.
Both of them passed away cancer.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Oh sorry to hear that, but.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I think my my mother passed away before I was,
before I got selected in a special Force. But I
was in the Army. I was with the eighty second
Airborn for five years. So while she was alive, that's
what she knew me as when I was in the
eighty second. So I was able to come home take
(03:25):
some pictures where her went in the uniform to hang
out with her.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
So it was actually pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Oh that's cool. Then your dad he was able to
see you graduate from the Green Berets.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Yeah, he was an angel to see me. My brother
and sister came down for my graduation. But he knew
who I was, what.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
My new job was, and what I did, and yeah,
and very cool.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I always asked this because I'm always curious and versus
see your training. People always wonder I know you can't
share a whole lot. But was there anything in there
that stood out for you or did you ever have
a moment where you said, man, did I make the
right choice on this?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah? In training or that would just be deployed training training.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Was a great school.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Every Like when we actually got into the.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
The training lab, that's probably a thought process.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I went through my minds like I don't know if
I'm able to even make it through this thing. But
the only thing that kind of kept me going was
that I was with my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Oh actually there's only all men in there, but I
was with my brothers in there.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
And and what drove me even more was the fact
that there were other po ws that came that that
were able to contribute to my training that I had
to that I went through to get through this where Yeah,
so everything that I that was in the training lab,
you know, we were hot in the previous weeks to
(05:03):
you know, the techniques, the different things to try and
you know, and to corporate that.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
But when you're hungry, cold and tired, what uh.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
The only thing you're trying to figure out is like
we're gonna get We're gonna get better. Am I gonna?
Am I gonna survive this? You know into a certain extent?
How can how long can I hang before I before
I break? But at the end of it, you know,
I don't know if anybody else, but I tell everybody
that that was probably the best school that I've ever
been to ever, and that I came out of there
(05:38):
knowing what kind of person I was, and that person
I was not happy with when I came out, and
it just I know, I will be better prepared if
I ever came across that situation, if I.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Was involved in that situation at all.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
But that school kind of opened my eyes to to
what kind of person i'm what I would be.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That's fascinating every time when I have talked to individuals
who have gone through Seer Training or or buzz training, Actually,
what I keep hearing over and over again is it
made me a much better person. It made me a
much better person. And for sear training. It's interesting because
a lot of them liked the academic part of it. Yeah, yeah,
you liked it too.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, what it was what separated I mean, the instructors
were awesome, man, the instructors were awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
They know what kinds of situation you're in.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
They put you in the mindset of hey, you know,
each one had their own individual blocks, and each one
had their own.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Way of contributing to their their.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Particular block of instructions, and they put you in that mindset.
And as you went down further further into the course
and into that accumulation exercise, at the end you were
you were pretty much prepared as much as you could
be to that point, and the instruction was spot on,
(07:03):
spot on awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I know there's a philosophy, there's a concept of the
hero's journey and you're called to take a mission, and
whoever you were in the beginning of that journey is
not the same person you were at the end. And
do you feel like that happened to you two? Yeah,
I was. I was.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Just even the journey of entering the military. But you know,
the same thing happens. I mean towards the end, I am.
I am not the same person that I was when
I first came in. I was not the same person
when I when I joined Special Forces that I came out.
You know, it definitely opened your eyes. And then when
seriar school, I was very if I had a choice. Man,
(07:44):
I really wouldn't.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Have gone because I us hear his stories and it's
the unknown.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
But again, what kind of motivated me a little bit
more was that what if ideal. I guess I don't
want to end my life on what if in my
life to death, So that was the big thing. And again,
it does change you.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
It it forces you to accommodate what you're uncomfortable with,
and in that in what you're uncomfortable with, this is
an area that you need to grow.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
And that's what your body is trying to tell you
in your mind trying to tell you as well, you're
immature in this area. You need immature and I'm gonna
make you uncomfortable to reinforce that point. And every reinforcement
point that I came along the way as definitely allowed
(08:36):
me to grow to uh, to where I am now.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's almost like a drive through for maturity. It was
fast and hard.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It's almost to write a passage when you come.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
When you think about it is the training and going
through the different stages of training and seeing people. And
I hate to say this, you know, because I had
some there's some really great people that fell along the way,
but the people that don't make it, and you look
left and right of you during the start of the
course of any course, and you're like, hey, you know,
(09:07):
am I good enough to be with these people? And
I just want to hang and I want to you know,
do my best. And you see along the way these
people fall by the wayside. It's like, dude, that guy
was was spought on, but whatever is motive, their motivation was,
didn't get them through to where it was now.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So what is your why? Going through? Was the biggest
thing for me.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
That's a great point a lot of people. Sometimes people
look like they have it together and they have it
all there, and they just don't.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
You know, I don't blame I don't blame any of
those Some of those guys that fell out were you know,
it couldn't be separate.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
From their family. It was tough.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Being isolated is tough. Being on your own is tough.
You know, people need a support channel. Some of us
don't need it to a certain extent. Some of us
are needed altogether.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
How you guys tend to have, you guys being the
Green Berets, you guys have a strong bond that obviously
when you come out, as you mentioned, does that bond
stay after. I know that.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
I still have friends with a lot of the guys
I'm on the team. Was even some of the guys
that went to course with, I talked with them a
lot more, you know, being out, you know some of
them are stolen, some of them out. But yeah, that
bond is kind of it's you know, they talk about
this brotherhood that happens.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
When you when you go through this.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Uh, this this training that you you know that everybody
goes through, but you come to the finish line per
se of that training and you go into a team.
Now you're entering a whole new realm of things, and
it's those bonds that when you know that you made
the minimum to get to that team. Now you're actually
establishing stronger bonds because the fact that now I'm going
(10:51):
through training with these other eleven, ten or nine, whenever
it's on your team, we're going through a day and
day out. We're suffering on the same level. Now we're
deploying also on the same level, we're encountering the same
the dangers that happened. You know, those stressful moments tend
to pull people together, and there was a common bond
(11:14):
and during those stressful situations that pulled people together. Yeah,
I find that the people that I've had the hardest
time with, I guess you could say in my training
or deployments, I've had the strongest bondwidth.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I guess you could say that's that's a cool, good thing.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
At least you have that connection on social network, which
is really important to have, especially with everything you guys
went through. And I guess I'm going to head into
that direction now. And by the way, folks, you want
to learn more about SF Doc Martin, you can look
up s F Underscore Doc Martin, d OC M A
R T I N. He's on Instagram. Give them a follow.
(11:55):
So let me ask you this. Do you remember the
first time you were deployed and where you went? I'm
sure you do.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
So well.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
There was, you know, during our we had some different
deployments going on, but going my first deployment to combat
was to Iraq. It was during the invasion time, so
it was devoted with the team we were able to
get in and we were in. It was with Sports Group,
(12:25):
uh and that was a slice. Also a slight element
from third Special Forces Group that was attached to us,
actually attached to UH third Battie in ten Special Group
during that time frame. So our job was to maintain
a line in northern Iraq to prevent the reinforcement of UH.
The guys that have the main invasion forts that were
(12:47):
in the south. So our point was to occupy them
make sure that they didn't go go down south. So yeah,
so that was that was that first deployment. I remember
in filling at nighttime.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Uh, they just do this.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
This the first couple of insertions they had. They had
issues and I think people can it's a well known
fact that people can look this up.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
It's called the Ugly Baby. It was Operation Ugly Baby.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It was guys in filling in from going into Iraq
the first time to northern Iraq.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
They got shot up pretty good, oh man.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
And Iraq is a very complicated place.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
The whole Middle East is you know, just if it's
if it's different from our culture, it's it's it's hard
to understand unless you're in it or are educated properly
through it.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Had you been, would you also go to Afghanistan?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That was just like just I rack now you were
a medeg So what's your role here? I mean, do
you not get a gun. You just get the little
Red crossbag. But what's going on here? I think of
mash now.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
So in the special Forces community, everybody is a Special
Forces operator. That's the eighteen series. Everybody is that, and
that's what you train at in the beginning. And then
once you pass that initial training of being an operator. Uh,
then they break you down in your specific job. Feels
like uh, like I was broken down as a medic.
(14:14):
I was selected as a medic.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
There are other people that are selected for other jobs
like the communication communication guys, uh, the engineer, demolition guys,
the the weapons guys, and then you have the officers
who are taught team leader positions up there.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
But I'm on the listed everybody's taught on the same level.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Hey, we're you're an operator, and then you can do
operator things. But what brings you what you the skills
that you were going to teach you is going to
help you to be the forced multiplier on that team.
And my specific job was the medic So I am
not a medical personnel per se. According to the genie
of the convention, I'm actually a combat a combatant, so
(15:00):
I won't be treated as a medical personnel.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So did you get additional training? It sounds like that.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
So, you know, outside of the regular train that we
get through the medical course, you know that there was
a couple of medical courses that we you know that
we can we have the ability to go through.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But also to.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
The cool thing about Special Forces is that in those
earlier stages and I think they're still doing it now.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
It's like if there is a company out.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
There that are doing unique things that may cater to
the mission that we're doing or may have may may
do in the future. Uh, the ability to go hire
those guys and ask them, Hey, teach me how to
do this, or for example, teach me how to drive
this hum v better, you know, especially with mobility operations,
(15:48):
or teach me how to ride a motorcycle better, teach
me how to drive how to ride a a snowmobile.
You know, things like that, the mobility stuff, you know,
or uh, the opportunity to different schools for shooting.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Hey, teach me the technique for this.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
You know, all those things at different schools, you know,
within the military and outside of the military contribute to
the little tool bag that we all carry in our head.
What works for me and what doesn't work for me excellent.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And so you were classified, as we talked about before
the show, in eighteen delta zulu. Yeah, tell us a
little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
So you know, eighteen delta is you know the different
mrs is.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
You know, I put that on my I G page
only because the fact that you're living in so many characters.
But so the eighteen delta is the the job, the
actual medic on the team is the identifier mos. I
guess you could say mission mission occupations especially, I think
that's what it's called.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
And that is specific for that. Now for the eighteen zulu.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Which is the Z portion of it, is the special
Forces operations sergeant, the actual senior guy on the team
or wherever we're in that position. Now with that be
identified as uh promotion and rank going from an east
starting first class which is an E seven to a
(17:10):
Master sergeant E eight. And at my position, when I
got promoted to Master sergeant E eight, my emost changed
to as an eighteen zulu and took me out of
that medical uh slot as you can say, and put
me in more of an overall supervisor reposition in different
areas that I worked at.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Cool, very cool. Now, did you ever get into any
We always try to ask this question, I guess, did
you ever get into any harrowing moments in your career?
Speaker 4 (17:43):
You know what, you know, one person's hair in the
moment might be someone's luxury in another.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's true too, Any stories that come to mind, Well,
I was saying too much.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
It was, you know, the first time I got shot out,
You're like, oh, this is happening. You know, it doesn't
it doesn't seed into you very you know, until afterwards
you're like, because you know this sounds cliche, man, but
you're training kind of takes over when you're getting shot at,
and you're really not worried about yourself. You're just concerned
about everybody else is and where everybody else is at.
(18:18):
How are we gonna who's shooting at me, how are
we gonna take them down?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
What's going what's gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And you know, you know, trying to identify the target first,
you know, but you know, the first time I got
shot at, the first couple of times, I was like, oh,
this is interesting, this is and then you look back
at you look at you know you you just kind
of question your your your mortality. I guess you could
say at the end of it all, it's like, and
(18:43):
you have that self reflection, like we said, when you
go down to that after serious school, you definitely have
that that self reflection and the opportunity to self reflect
and you're like, Hey, that really happened. I can't believe
that happened. I'm still alive, I still have I fellow
my required holes. I don't have any extra holes in
my which is good.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And none of my guys got hurt on it in
that situation.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So does it Does it hit you a little bit?
I don't know how much downtime you get, but you'll say,
you're in the middle of the gunfight. That's over with now,
there's gotta be some little bit of downtime from one
extreme to another. Is that when you start contemplating, gosh,
I just got into a gunfight. What the hell? Man?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Well, you know what?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Or you don't even think about that during that time.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Yeah, I really at the moment, you know, looking back
at I never thought about it. It's like, hey, even
sometimes some of those moments were kind of laughable or
like you believe that just just just happened, just happened,
But uh, I think the It's just it's different from
for everybody. The tough reflection happens at the end or
during or in the moment. It can happen years later
(19:48):
and you're like, I can't believe that happened or how
I made it through.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We you know, I know that for.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Me when it came across those different situations, I was
I never really thought about it, even when I guess
I was just locked into the mode of things.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
When I was deployed, I was like, Hey, this.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Is my job, this is what I got due, this
is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And I think that if you're prepared.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
For a situation that come out, to be ready to
go into a into an arena of combat, you pull
in all your resources that you have, and I guess,
you know, it's hard to explain. Listen, you know, you
don't really reflect on until Like with me, it was
just it was kind of years.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Later I reflected on.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was like, man, you know, I was just so
you just for me, it's just so busy going from
one thing to another.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Sure, yeah, there's a lot going on. Any moments that
are really close that you wondered might getting out of
this mess or there are a lot of those two.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Well, there was a couple of few men. I can't
think of anything on the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Again, I just a lot of the guys that I
that I was with, like, Hey, these guys are gonna
are gonna make it through, man, But.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
How about your medic skills. Did you ever have to
employ them?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yeah, there was a couple of times where I had
to employ them. You know, I had to throw a
couple of bandages on a couple of people.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
You know, the first time I worked on somebody, it
was it was really weird. I think this guy worked
on he got his arms shot up pretty good, and
that's really kind of That's what I was like, kind
of when I was working on him. It was kind
of surreal for me because of the fact that as
I as I'm working on it was almost to the
(21:43):
point where my body kind I kind of stepped out
of my own body and it just kind of watched
my hands just kind of just coming do their own thing,
and I'm just communicating with them as stuff going on,
and what kind of you know, I was maintaining through
this thing.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Was how relatively calm I was in that in that situation.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Training kicked in again.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It was weird because of the fact that in the
traumat and the trauma situation, while you're going through the school,
you're just inundated with blood over and over again. Uh,
and you're forced on you know, you're doing these different
types of assessment, and then when it came down to
actually doing a real you know, an actual assessment on
a on a patient, on a person, you're actually, you know,
(22:28):
this is just it's almost like sucking nature. Bam bam, bam,
this is happening. I gotta do this, I gotta do this.
And I was reaching in, just grabbing things and just
it was just automatic. It was on automatic mode. I
guess you can say when things like that was happening,
and I'm thinking, like other guys in their job field,
it happens in this in the same way as well.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Absolutely, yea. I can imagine when it comes to paramedics
or emergency doctors too.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Uh, that you just just kind of automatically, I gotta
you know, you go through the whole mindset. Hey, propasite picture,
Am I doing the right thing? I got, you know,
pulling the trigger things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, absolutely tough stuff, man, tough stuff. You know, a
lot going on out there. And that's the interesting thing
is you had, you know, you had to be an
operator as well as that metic. So that makes it
a little bit more complicated.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Yeah, it's just to even be an operator period with
a lot of stuff, or even just for a lot
of people to handle. But then when you throw an
additional skill on top of that, it can be overwhelming
up for some people.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You know. And then when you actually get on a team.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You know, one thing that I that was emphasized for
me when I got a team. You're not just a
medic man. You're an operator on a team. You know
everybody else's job as well. So you just don't get
locked in onto being the medic just you know, in
the schoolhouse you have this great grandiose idea that hey,
I'm going to be on the medic I've been in
this course for a long.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Period of time. I have a lot to contribute to
the team. You know, you do have a lot contribute
to the team. But what you can contribute to the
team is learning everybody.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Else's job and learning your supervisor's job above him and
his supervisor supervisor's job. What is the overall mission and
what is the intent of that mission, you know, to
clarify what's going on with what your missions, you know,
what's happening with you and your team, you know, to
help you focus, to help bridge the gap on what's
(24:18):
the unknown with the known, So you know, just don't
go through to the mindset of being on a team
and you're just like, Hey, I'm a medical, I'm a
medica medic, I'm an engineer.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I'm an engineer. I'm an engineer. Hey man, I'm an operator.
What don't I need to do?
Speaker 4 (24:30):
And that's what I loved about being on a team
is the fact that you're on a team of guys
that are forward thinking that they didn't have to be told.
They were told minimum instructions. Hey, this is our mission,
this is what's going to happen. We need to make
this happen or we are going to be deployed. This
is with the area that we're going.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To do it.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
We don't need to, you know, be told, hey, I
need to do an area survey of where I'm going. Like,
for instance, as a medic, I don't need to be
told by my leader, hey do an area survey of
the hospitals in that area.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
What is the.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Logistics of capabilities of that area, What is the medical
logistics of that area? What is the evac capabilities of
that area? If this evact, what is the problem? You know,
when we plan, and you probably heard this a lot,
was we go through this thing a pace plan, you know, primary, alternate, contingency,
(25:28):
and emergency, and we incorporate that, and everything that we
do is say, hey, you know, especially when it comes
to the evac plan.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Hey, what is my primary? What are my alternates? Say?
If this went down? What do I do?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
And I'm going to hook it out of here? And
that's the same thing when we do our mission plants
say hey, you know, everybody has a common goal. Hey,
we've got to prepare all of us to get this,
to get this job done and to do it correctly
and to bring everybody home. What will it take to
do that. I don't have to sit on my butt
(25:58):
to actually say, hey, you know what, John, can you
go and make sure this is happening?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
No, I already know that this happening.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And that's where I love being on the team, and
a lot of times I miss having a team is
the fact that like minded individuals are focused on one
thing or one mission or different types of missions, and
they're going about their business and and everybody's thinking on
the same on the frame getting stuff done, and then
we're able to if some person falters, if some person
(26:27):
needs help, we rotate over and say, hey, what do
you what kind of help do you need. It's not
an attitude of I got my job done, screw you guys,
I'm out of here. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Now.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
It's like, hey, you know what, if I'm done, someone
else is not done, I'm gonna help those guys out.
You know, see what he or she needs to make
this happen, because if they faltered, the whole mission faulters.
You know, we are our own planning cell. We are
our own logistics acquiring cell. You know, we are our
own training cell. How are we gonna make all that
(27:00):
stuff happen. We don't have the ability like Big Army
had where you just go to one person, Hey, to
the supply guy, Hey get this stuff for me.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
You know, we have to picture that on our own.
You know, we don't have to do on certain people
to make our plans for us. And that's.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Well, that kind of attitude is extremely helpful just in
life in general, to have that attitude, because sometimes people
do that, Right, we finished something and somebody else is
doing it, we'll hurry up, and they just don't help
them with the mentality you guys had was incredible.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
It's it's hard for me, especially when I got out
work with certain people. Hey, you know what, you know,
doing the job, whatever your job was, He's like, I'm
doing the best that I can with this.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I did it. I went above and beyond.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And then if those you know, helping other people, you know,
it's kind of where some people didn't were kind of
taking off guard when you asked them, hey, what kind
of helped you needs Like I don't need to help,
or things are not used to that, or you know,
you're continuing working with your stuff and people are at
work at leaving and you know, man, it would have
been nice to have I would have been done two
(28:09):
or three hours sooner if you were able to come
over here and help me out instead of just kind
of jaw jacking and doing your own little thing and
talking on playing on your cell phone, you could have
helped me out accomplish what I had to do.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Because we work in the same place, so it's just
a little bit different environment.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Unless I work with other soft guys or even sometimes
with other military guys, they sometimes get they get that
the overall mission, not just being selfish about that.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's interesting and I've talked to a couple of soft
guys in the past and one of the comments they
made was, I think this environment for this community referring
to soft community and military community is the best because
people do look out for each other much more. They
do cover their backs. They're just not all about themselves,
and it's harder when you go into the civilian world,
(28:58):
especially today's work is it's even more different than what
it was. And then you were talking a little bit
about that before the show, that the transition is different.
I remember to Lamb you've heard of too, Lamb, I
think Green Beret as well. Folks, you can catch that
interview too. He said, it was really going one hundred
and fifty miles an hour, and then all of a sudden,
you slammed the slammed the brakes and you're going about
(29:19):
ten miles an hour. There's nothing happening. What did you
feel like when you transitioned? It was the I.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Guess the camaraderie that I missed.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I guess that was huge for me trying to get
used to it and I get, hey, you know, I'm
going solo right now, Let's see how this works out
for me to go solo. And then when I got
into an environment, it's just the politics of a lot
of things. The influence of those politics was a lot.
It was it was money driven.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
If it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
If it wasn't if the motivation wasn't money, then they
it was not something that they wanted to pursue.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
If it was, you know, that's it turned into be hey,
what is the Yeah, the hard right or you know,
would make me money, you know, and money always kind
of wins out in a lot of situations. You know,
in the military, I got spoiled in this, you know,
maybe institutionalized the fact that this we're we got to
we got to sweep this. For instance, we got to
(30:21):
sweep the floor. Everybody, grab a broom, is what we're
going to do, and everybody work together. As soon as
everybody got done, you know, every little bits of pieces,
we clean it up, and then we moved to get
stuff done and work it out, and we got a
great product. Everybody took pride in that, some more than others,
but comparably to in the military. In the civilian where
(30:44):
I'm quickly learning is the fact that we don't have that.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
It's like, hey, if it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Part of my job, if I'm not getting paid for that,
I'm not going to do it. And that really irks me.
And you know, I've seen that in the big army.
If if I'm not if that's not my job, I'm
not going to do it. And that doesn't fly on
the on the teams. Man, I'm the Medican. Yeah I'm
not on the medic That's not gonna fly. And the
thing is, you know, the the cool thing about it
is that being there, I have the camaraderie on the team,
(31:12):
the brotherhood on the team. You know, everybody works together.
But there's also a downside of it. You're not pulling
your weight. You'll be called out on the content on
that one. It's like, hey, John, you're fucking fucking up man,
slacking off. You didn't even help Joe over there or
Larry over here. You didn't do your follow up on this,
you didn't follow up on that. So there's a lot
of accountability on the teams. It's just not raw, raw
(31:33):
ross situation. Everybody's accountability, accountable to each other in doing
their job.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
How do they take that accountability? If somebody does for
whatever reason, maybe they've got something going through their minds
for that moment and they slough off to do most
of them usually take it well, like or don't take
it well, but process it and say, I gotta get
my act together.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
It's ah, I mean, it's just imagine the type of personality.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
I mean, you got to You've got twelve alpha personalities
sitting in a saying, uh.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
That nobody likes to be humbled.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Humility is a is a motherfucker, I guess you know
hate you know, pardon the French, what it is is
a motherfucker. Because the fact that if no, it's your
ego that gets you in your way, if you could
put that ego off to the side, that you know.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
What, you're right, I was fucking up. I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But you know what, if you're called on the carpet,
you know you're called on the carpet, you know everybody
understands like you're fucking up. And if it's if you're
two or three of your brothers tell you that you're
fucking up pretty good. Maybe if you just tell them
once you know the accountabilities, like I know what you're
talking about, maybe two or three guys come up to you.
All right, I got you, I got It's not gonna
(32:38):
happen again. Your damn right's not gonna happen again, you know,
or you're off the team. You know, we don't have
the time for a bunch of guys. You were selected,
you were trained to be in to operate at a
certain level, and if you can't operate at that certain level,
we'll have to find someone else that can do that.
They're not afraid to put your I guess a lot
of team guys will well understand in this is like
(33:00):
they're not afraid to put your duffel bags in the hallway.
And you know, you know, you find your bag in
the hallway, and then you've got fired. Now I got
to go up and find another team that wants to
take a guy.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Now.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Now I have a shitty reputation of being fired because
of this, that and everything else interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
No, reputation is a big thing in the soft community.
You know, your name is poo, poo poo.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
It's interesting we went from motherfucker to poop poo. So
it threw me off for a second. But people off.
I went from French to English. It's interesting to remind
me a lot of the sales positions right in certain companies.
It's a hardcore sales company. If you don't do it,
we'll find somebody else is gonna do it. If you
don't hit the quote, whatever it may be. Yeah, I mean,
(33:50):
obviously you have totally different responsibilities, but it's got that
kind of flavor to it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Lives are, lives are involved on this. You know you
messed up.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Man, I gotta take care of you, you know, can
I The thing is, can I go back to your
family after deployment saying I did I You know, I
didn't do my best to help you, help help help
your husband out or your wife out.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
You know what?
Speaker 4 (34:12):
All I know is that I would hate to be
that person said, you know what, the reason why your
husband or wife got shot was because I was sleeping
on guard duty or I was slacking on this job.
I could have ran that extra hundred meters to get
to him, but I didn't do that. You know, nobody
wants to do that. But and the same thing with
the team. It's like, you know, lives are involved, lives matter.
You know absolutely, that'd be tough. It's tough, and that's
(34:37):
one thing. It was another. That's that's another reason. You
know you're why, you know, come back to friends and family.
I'm not gonna I don't have the balls to go
up to your to your family tell you I didn't
do my fucking best, because you know that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
That would be tough. I know, we only got a
few minutes to go. Unfortunately, I could keep you here
all day. Doctor. I know we talked a little bit
about Brett brocker Meyer before Brent brocker Meyer before he
has another show, But you were saying he helped connect
to you and a lot of individuals. So I'm sure
there's other guys in the military listening to this, other
(35:13):
special forces guys, somebody making they can benefit. That's the
whole purpose of the show is too enlighten people about
so o f the great heroes that you are, and
so people get to hear the stories. But as well
as help those individuals who've been part of it. We'll
tell us little bit about that wohild How did he
help you?
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, there's there's some great organizations out there, and
what we're lacking is this is this one go to
one spot I guess you can say where all the
soft guys they asked off guys can say and be
exposed to.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Hey, you know what, there's this I know what you're
going through.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
There's this one charity out there, this one group of
guys that can help you out. And sometimes the way
we find out about this, go about this, or find
out if we stumble upon it, or one of our
brothers tell you about it. You know, there's this great
you know for you know, hyperbark treatment for people who
have tv I. You know, there's places in Florida that
helped you out. You know, I didn't know things like
(36:07):
these that that exist that are able to take you know.
The hyperbaric treatment is expensive, you know, and out there
and help you fund that to get you the treatment
that you need. And the issue that I have is
the fact that there's a ton of us, that ton
of charities out there and there's not a place or
(36:28):
one uh place where I guess you could say where
all of us veterans can go to and say hey,
this is what I'm looking for. This is the flavor
that I need. Uh, this is a charity X y
Z was isn't going to help you out? And most
times and not it's usually our brothers that that that
know that.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That need your that you need help, they will redirect
you to where you need to be.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
And what was the charity that he runs? Uh?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
So he I forget what the David but if Brent
Brockenmeyer he helps out with the Navy Seals and in
southern California.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
His podcast is Bravo sixteen.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yeah, and if you go out to his page, I
guess and it will connect.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
You to where he's at, to the characters. He just
focuses on nap sues.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
But he's such a great, great guy that he just
you know, being an army guy, he was able to say, hey,
you know what, I got this one person. He's one
of those guys I said, you know, I know this
guy from here, and I know.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
This guy from here.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
You guys need to talk and sometimes it just it
takes that connection to go above yourself to say you
know what I can help. I can hook these two
people up. Want you guys if something happens. Something happens.
If it doesn't, it doesn't. But I know that you
know at least that if it didn't work out for you,
it might work out for another person that you may know.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
That is good. That is good because I'm sure you're
not the only one there.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
There's plenty of us out there.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, and again, folks, you can actually find him on Twitter.
It's Brent Brocker Myer. It's b R b R O
c K E R M E y e R. You
can also find him on Instagram. Is b brocker Meyer
on there too. He's got his podcast as brought was sixteen.
So if you enjoy these type of podcasts, hey, look,
it's not a competition, so you're more than welcome to
(38:21):
check his out as well and let us know and
maybe you like it something about his podcast you want
us to do too so we can improve our Yeah. Yeah,
and we'll get him over here too and talk about
his program perfect you love it. Yeah, that'd be great.
I guess my last few minutes this is gonna be
a new one is actually the first one I'm gonna
(38:41):
ask this question, and the reason being is because I
interviewed a guy I hate to say, I forgot if
he was a sealer of Beret. I think he was
a Beret. Dan Shilling, he was in black Hawk down anyway.
He has a great book on situational awareness folks, if
(39:03):
you want it. It's called The Power of Awareness. And
I guess that's my question to you. Do you have
an E d C everyday? Carry stuff that you do?
Is there any tips that you provided for you and
people that are close to you that you say, you
know what, you should be careful when you go down here.
You should have this to be ready, anything like that
that you took with you.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah, right here.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Because I've been California right now, It's very limited of
what I can do as an EC, you know, but
you know I do have what I the necessary tools.
If I got stuck somewhere, I can. I can California
can carry a marshmallow. I think it has to be
California compliant marshmallows on the marshmallow. But the with the
(39:47):
e DC stuff, there's a plenty of guys out there
that that promote that stuff and and and do a
great uh deal with that. I know what works for me.
I've been through a couple of courses. You know, and
worked even just talking with other people.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know. Again, it goes back to building that toolbox.
Go talk and the more courses that you take, the
bigger toolbox that you have, and you can actually adjust
it to who you are man. Yeah, so it's a
good point.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, as the training helped you at all outside, I mean,
I don't know if you ever encountered anything at all,
or did you see something and your training kicked in
for a second. He thought, you know, that's good. It
caught me. I caught that guy looking the wrong way
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
I know.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
That was a situation where I know, I think I
was still in the military. I was coming off with
one of my deployments and I had to go. It
was in Colorado Springs. There was a guy that actually
got shot in Walmart. You know, for some reason, Walmart
tracks all the all the shooters for some reason, this
guy got shot in there, and I end up, you know,
it was it was late at night, and I just
(40:50):
happened to, you know, there was another guy in there,
and and happened to work this, uh, this patient over
until you know, with the help of all this, with
the help of the.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Crowd, that happened to be there.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
I was able to stay like the patient until in
ems show and we were able to turf it off.
And because of that situation, I was able.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
To come back and they use me as one of
the witnesses to help put the guy away.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Oh fantastic.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Yeah, the guy ended up dying anyways, but I think
that the actions that we were able to do in
Walmart helped prolong his life until he was able to
go out and to do that. And the thing about
is if if in that situation I was able to
tell these guys, I want someone over there talking to
the guy while I'm working on the body, well, working
(41:38):
on the patients side. But it's important to get out
of two things. If he's talking to you, he's his airways.
He has a paytent airway. And two, if he's answering questions,
he's coherent up here.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
And three is the fact that focus those questions on
who shot you and why did they shoot you?
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Because later on that actually came into effect later on
on the trial because I was able to tell whoever
got that airways, like get his name, who did this,
and any type of information, who's nextecute?
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Is there anybody who we could call things like that as.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
You're going through the h as you're going through the assessment,
because when you're in a crowd outside of the people
that are videotape, which pisses me off, but this incorporate
if you were running, if you're in that situation, get
that crowd involved.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
It's like, hey, you over there, go grab me this,
you grab me this.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
People in Italy want to help out, and I was
able to probably have three or four people helped me out, like, hey,
I didn't have any I didn't have any medical equipment
on me, you know, you know, having these different people
run to different parts of the store to grab a
piece of plastic or another person who grabbed some tape.
Because the guy got shot in the in the zyphored
area in the in the nam Yeah, yeah, he went
(42:48):
right through his went through his front and came on
his back.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Man, small homes. I think it missed lucky.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Yeah, he got lucky, but well he did eventually he
got lucky enough to make to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Yeah. Yeah, the passing away.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
But I think our actions on the objective in Walmart
helped them stay alive and identify his shooter. But they
didn't help out that he that his shooter walked in
with him and you had that camera right there, and
he shoot the guy right there in front.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Of the camera and leaves not the smartest people up.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Well, Doc, like I said before, I could have you
here on all day. It's been so much fun and
learning about you and then your experiences. And again, I'm
really honored that you took the time to speak with us.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
On his own mind because the crowd that you had.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Thank you, Thank you very much. Folks, check out that
crowd as he talks about it. S f underscore Doc
Martin d O C M A R T I N.
He's on Instagram. Definitely want to catch it. Follow him.
You already went up. Three followers were not even look
at you even alive osmosis. So definitely follow s f
(43:59):
unders score Doc Martin and give him a follow. Thanks again, Doc,
we truly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Thank you everyone. Make sure to share a subscribe hit
that I like button. Thanks for listening.
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