January 22, 2025 • 54 mins
Wednesday the 22nd of January, it's TripWire Time!!!
Today's episode is part 1 of 2. Staci and I interview Daniel Fornicola, US Army Veteran from a US Navy home. Listen in as we talk about his journey into the US Army and his time as a Paratrooper.
Get Your TripWire On!!!!
Today's episode is part 1 of 2. Staci and I interview Daniel Fornicola, US Army Veteran from a US Navy home. Listen in as we talk about his journey into the US Army and his time as a Paratrooper.
Get Your TripWire On!!!!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Welcome everybody. It's Wednesday, January twenty second. It is time
for Tripwire. We have a fantastic fricking guests on for
our show tonight. Stacy and I both know him, Daniel Fornacola.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He's uh, this is gonna be a freaking fantastic freaking yep.
I got right, this will be fantastic podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, such such an amazing story, looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Stacey, my dear, how are you good? To see you cold?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm cold, but.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It happens. It happens during winter. It happens during the winter.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So uh, just messing around because I love the cold
and I know you don't, so.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Do Uh well, let me let me do a check in.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
How have you been since last week when we had
our last podcast?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
How are we doing? Good?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Been busy?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I went to the Moose Lodge in Batavia with some
of my friends.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
One of my one of my good friends, husband likes
to sing Judas Priest and he is his His song
choices are quite the crowd pleaser at the Moose Lodge
in Batavia.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
My friend Michelle.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Sounds, she sings amazing and she's really really good and I,
I mean, I can do A mean, I love rock
and roll, but that's pretty much where I that's pretty
much where I stop these days.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But we had a super good time at the Moose Lodge.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Oh yeah, it was actually so good. I gave him
my card. I told him I'd like to.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Hire him to do some gigs with us at the VFW.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Is awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, yeah, he had an amazing setup, legit.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's great, great, very great to see you. Let's, without
further Ado, how about we bring Daniel in? Because Daniel's
got an amazing story and I want to let our
listen know, our audience know today that this is one
of two because Daniel's story is God, there's just so
(02:58):
much gravity and so much way to it, and I
think it's extremely important that we get this story across.
And I don't want to I don't want to cut
him down to just fifty four minutes, like we know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean this, gosh, this could be a part
two and three. He's got powerful things, powerful things to
say that I feel like we'll resonate with you know,
our viewers and listeners agreed.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, out further Ado, Let's bring Daniel in. Hey, Dan,
how are you.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
I'm actually doing great, Steve. Thank you Stacy for having
me on. I really do appreciate being here on Tripwire, right.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We're we're honored to have you on here with us. Brother,
we really are. So now that I now that we
have built us up, I'm just going to let you
go with it and just say, okay, so where did
your Where did your journey start?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With the United States Military? And we'll go from there.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Well, not to be in della, but I started with
the glimmer in my dad's eye. He was already in
the Navy, So uh, that's where I started with the yeah, yeah,
we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
But the points with my co hosts, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 6 (04:17):
Well, so my father was a machinist made on submarines,
so he he did a tough job, being locked in
a tube for months on end. That's something I really,
really really did not want to do.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But I didn't. But I did know that jordin the
military was part of my future. Uh.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
In addition to him serving twenty three years, he retired
blue card holder.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
The whole thing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
My mother also was a bosn's mate, went back when
and some of these listeners will definitely remember this back
when Bosn's mates on tugboats were part of the Navy.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Yeah, so that's a little while ago.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
So they met in Yeah, they met in Grotten blah
blah blah blah blah. They had my brother, then me,
and then we moved to outside Norfolk Naval Base in
Virginia Beach and I was there for seventeen years, you know,
when he was doing his thing.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
After.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We're siblings.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
No, I only have the one.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
He actually went Army two, so I had two Navy parents,
have two Army children. So that was the biggest slap
in the face that I could muster as a seven
year old.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I can't imagine what Thanksgiving was like when that happened
with the two of you.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
That's amazing.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Was that it actually gets to be pretty fun. Around
early December with the Army Navy game. My mom she
kind of dropped. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
She never really cared about football much, you know.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
But she she does care enough to say go Navy
beat Army only when talking to her sons.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So it's YE got you, I got you.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well, I I was a department of the Navy and
then I went Army. So but that's for an other podcasts.
So let's let's talk about your you win the active duty.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I just talked about your.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Let's talk about your journey getting into active duty.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
Well, it also starts with my mother telling me to
go to college because if it wasn't for her, then
I would have enlisted. And she wanted me to have
more options. So that was the first thing. So she
wasn't discouraging military service. She was just wanting me to
really take a look at it and see what was
out there for me. You know, she always wants me
to you know, be out of harm's way. But she
(06:31):
was also very much for my military service. So I
did community college for two years.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I went to a four.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Year school and I actually went to ROTC at Virginia
Commonwealth University and they were a satellite school.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Of the University of Richmond.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
So the University of Richmond holds the overall commissioning program,
but then they had satellite schools and that was.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
One of them. Yeah, so earlier.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Yeah, Army ROTC was how I did it through the
University of Richmond.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
H My first commander was Lieutenant Colonel Richard D. Gillham.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
That man was carved out of stone, and he was
unyielding in his standards, and I actually hated.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
It to start to be honest, because I was like,
there is no way any any person is just so.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Willing and able to drill into details that I just
it was amazing. And then after yeah, after I got commissioned,
I went down to Oklahoma for six months, and then
I went to Airborne school. Then I went to what
is now called Fort Liberty, but as I will always
call it Fort Bragg.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Okay, so let's talk real quick about going to Oklahoma.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
What did what did you do?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What did you go to Oklahoma for?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So that was for artillery school.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
It wasn't knife and fork school like the OCS guys,
because they draw that out over two years. But when
I went there, it was a really intensive hydrant. It
was ballistics, it was the weapons platforms, it was every
manner of indirect.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Fire and planning it that you can think of.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
And after yeah, after six months and uh, you know,
slowly blowing Oklahoma away.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Uh, I.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Mean, well, actually one of the coolest parts was we
actually had j TAX the Joint Terminal Air Controllers from
who they are, Yeah, yeah, so from your Marines. They
came by and they were dropping jadeams from a tens
and our firing range, and that was one of the
coolest things I ever saw from the Marines. Also the
only cool thing I ever saw from the Marines that day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, okay, we'll expand upon that, uh as we as
we dive into this, but you know, not not to
stop your not to stop your story with with the audience.
But I appreciate you know, the the acknowledgment there, the
short one.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, so you went to Oklahoma and then you went to.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
That was your first school as a as an officer, yep,
it was.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And then where did you go after that?
Speaker 6 (09:09):
I went to Fort Benning what was previously known as Benning.
I went there for jump school. I actually broke my
foot in the second week, so Tower week.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
It was a stress fracture. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Yeah, So the stress fracture on my foot pushed me
back two weeks. So I got recycled to a different company.
But I finished and I got to Fort Bragg, I
mean pretty much right as they were assuming GRF. No sorry,
they had come back from GRF. They were they were
in Haiti for a few months, and then when they
came back.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Yeah, I joined us with them.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
Ben Oh, that was step the last week of August
and all of September, so five weeks instead of the
three of one thousand and ten.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Okay, all right, I was already.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Because that was actually I was actually the eu I
was part of the EUD team on Fort Benning, uh,
and we handled all the ranger ranges and.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was there as the eu D.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I was part of the eu D team that was
attached to Fort Benning or part of Fort Benning.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
But I left in two thousand and six. So I'm
still older than you, so we'll just we'll restore that.
So all right, So old are you?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
How old are you? Daniel? Sorry I had to interrupt
for a second. How old are you?
Speaker 5 (10:35):
I turned thirty seven last year?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, I think I thought you were in your thirties.
How long were you in the army?
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
I was only able to do four years eight months
due to my injuries.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
So yeah, that's you did a lot of stuff in
four years.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, keep going, thank you.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
So So in October of twenty ten, I get to
my unit, and that unit is actually the second Brigade,
the second Light Brigade of the eighty second, so artillery
can go multiple places. But long story short, they had
me go be a fire supporter with one three two five,
so first Battalion three twenty fifth Airborne Infantry Regiment the
(11:23):
Red Falcons because it's the Falcon Brigade, and they told
me I was going to go be a.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Fire supporter there.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
So I'm with all the infantry captains and all these
rangers that are just so high speed. And then they're like, hell,
we already got the guy. You need to go back
to where you came from. And it was like, oh
so I go back. So yeah, so they're like, okay,
don't worry about it, just go back to Black Falcons,
which is second Battalion.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Never get crossed when you know when their orders are
coming down, you.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Know, thankfully it's a very efficient, non mistake making system.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Sure sure, sure, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Totally enjoying all of your sarcasm with all that comment.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Yeah, for as much as I have sarcasm, I would
not trade anything that happened on that post for anything.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
I would not I get it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, continue on my apologies.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
No, it's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
So I get back to Black Falcons, which is second Battalion,
three hundred and nineteenth Airborne FA Regiments. You know artillery,
red legs, you know, fire guys. So they send me
down to Bravo Battery and we have one hundred and
five millimeter howitzers, so the M one one nine Alpha two.
This is before they went to the three variant and
(12:47):
that was whatever that was after my time. But I
get there and I'm actually a fire direction officer, and
any of the other fires guys will know that this
is a highly specialized job that no one likes unless
you're kind of a nerd, because it's a ton ton
of information processing and just no vers out the wazoo.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
So I actually fell in love. I actually fell in
love with that.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I had a small team of six guys and my
chief and just real quick. So I don't know their
ranks now because we did kind of lost loose touch,
but I do know at the time it was Steph
Sartin Rosa, Luis Rosa. He was like one of my
first chiefs, so knowledgeable. He whipped my ass into shape.
So thank you very much. That Tim Zelensky, he was
(13:34):
a sergeant when he first took my FDC.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Then he got promoted while he was with me.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
That guy was He was the realist, most most on
mission guy. He could joke with the best of him,
but he had a switch and I loved flipping that
switch because go time with him was the funnest thing
I have ever done.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Crunching numbers. Oh my goodness, that's wow.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So he was there for the time, I do believe
when it was two am in the middle of December
and we were firing into Coleman drop zone and I
ran out.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Of safety tease.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
So I had about I don't know sixty people waiting
on me to rip pieces of paper and then drawboxes
and put numbers in them.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
And it took about half an hour.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
And that was the last time I ever made a
mistake because I was qualified the very next day qualified.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
That's awesome. Yeah, that was that was That was a
real fun time.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
So I don't know if I'm you know this is
it doesn't matter, so qualifying as as a as a
penance for my mistakes. They said you're going to be
qualified tomorrow. I was like, what does that mean? They said,
don't worry about it. So immediately I was scared. Immediately,
just whatever e sixes and a niece even tell you
(15:00):
don't worry about it, you should immediately have your RADARVP.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Immediately worry about it.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah about it, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
The only thing that is more scary than that is
when a warrant says, hold my beer.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
At I you know what, I'm just gonna throw everything
up in the air and walk away, when a warren
says hold my beer, pretty.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Absolutely yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
So what they did was theyd may hang upside down
on a tree for six minutes and forty seconds, and
which is the which is actually the FM six forty,
which is the gunnery Manual. So that's where all the
information came from. So about minute two, I started sliding down.
Minute four, I'm about like a foot from the ground,
(15:47):
and then you know, minute five, my head is in
the grass and it's wet.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
So what do you think they were doing to this
tree all day?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Being on it?
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, so fun the best. But
I would not trade Stephzart and Andersen was it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Musq Whiz was in a different platoon.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
But you had mine heart, you had oh man, I
know you had smoked carthon and I'm so sorry I'm
forgetting my gunny. But they man, that was the funniest
thing that that I had ever been through. But it
also taught me the value of teamwork and to lean
on your people and to trust those that you know
(16:35):
are with you in these units, because I mean I
had been military, you know, my whole life in a
way with my father, you know, treating me, you know,
like I was on a ship. But uh, that right
there was the first like real introduction to the military.
So that was my first introduction to brotherhood. The difficulties
(16:57):
being on your shit, you know, doing it for the
guys around you.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
That's that was the moment. As funny as it was,
it was the moment.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So Daniel, we don't hear on trip wire.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We don't turn away from what what could be considered
hazing at some point in time.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Uh, And I'll kill that out there because everybody has
a lesson to learn.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And Stacey and I have been I mean, you know
we went in, we went in in the in the
early nineties.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, anything goes back then.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, And Uh, in order to freaking cut the mustard
and be a part of the freaking team and to
be to be the best that you could be, you
had to you had to freaking get to the point where, uh,
life just taught you a lesson and your your fellow
constituents helped you build yourself and strengthen yourself.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Which is what we call hazing. It's not what everybody
else calls hazing, but that's what we call hazing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Uh to freaking to drive on and freaking be a
part of the team. And you know, for you to
get your legs that way, that's that's awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm glad that you're so uh, you're so.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Feel good about it, you know, just like this is
this is the best moment of my of my learning
curve moving forward. I mean because we all we all
went through education, we all went through some military school.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
That doesn't mean we learned everything that is on the
job training.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Well one and and you know, with this whole being
broken down, when you get broken down to that low
point and you're with your brothers and sisters, you know,
you're with your people, your your comrades, you are all
broken down together, and then you rise back up together
and help each other.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I mean, that is the epitome of teamwork.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I mean, this is why so many corporate programs they
want that military. Hey, let's play military, you know, and
let's use their principles and their concepts for team building,
you know. And a lot of times they've got a
veteran that's there and then they bring them in or
there's companies that you can hire because these companies benefit
(19:27):
when they're all broken down, you know, when they're dressed down,
and then they have to help each other succeed again.
And that's yeah, I mean, those are some of my
more memorable moments my twelve years. Like I totally can
pick those out just like you do. Where most people
are like those my bad memories, but those are what
created who I am.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Absolutely espe Actually.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
She actually nailed it when she said dressed down, because
that's more that's a term that's more acceptable to today's
society than and what we call hazing when we were
when we were you know what I'm saying. So let's
move away from the hazing comment and we'll go back
to the dressing down of things so that you know,
(20:14):
I don't get a call later on after this podcast
about well you had hazing on your podcast and.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So uh, regardless of who you know brought into office
two days ago.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Point being is is that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I'm glad that you had that moment with your with your.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
People, because.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Because even even leaders need the rug pulled out from
underneath them every once in a while, just so that
they understand the capabilities of the of the of the
young'ins or the others that are that are their supportinates
that can help them be better leaders.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
If that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Oh. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (20:58):
One thing I went in to the military, uh knowing,
and this was one of the things my dad, you know,
uh imparted on.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Me was that and the funny way of saying it.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
You ain't been trained until you've been trained by a
chief is the Navy way of saying it, uh. And
for me it was just go in, open mind, go in,
not go in saying to yourself, I don't know shit,
but maybe in a nicer way, you know, depending on
who you are. And you just have to realize that
you're not here to be a shining star. You're there
(21:32):
to serve a purpose, and as an officer, your purpose
is a little bit different, but it is at its
core the same. You have to do what you have
to know your job so the people to the left
and right of you survive you know, total victory. You know,
that's what we are, you know, trained to do in
(21:54):
the military. It's like you get the job done, you
next man up, you know mentality, and then you go
and do it and you.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Can't be effective.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
You can't learn to progress into that role that will
mentor the next fresh wave of people that come in
unless you have some space left open to learn. Because
if you like, I was told this by my I
think it was my grandmother or my mother, but she said,
it is very hard to fill a cup that is
(22:26):
already full.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
And I think I just remember where I heard that.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
It was from Avatar, so not my parents, but they
did say it, but I heard it from Avatar as well.
But yeah, they say that you can't fill a cup
that's already full. So if you go into the military
thinking that you know everything, then you're just gonna fail.
So after I had that ualification, you know, my team
(22:51):
picked me back up.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
They said, hey, sir, you good.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I said, I don't know, and they were like, well,
so they said, you know, don't They said, don't sweat it.
We actually said we actually set up your sleeping bag
in the back of the ap truck.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And I was like, what do you mean.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
He's like, no, we fished out your like your gear
and like you're ready to go down, we'll take the guard.
I said, why. They said, because you got studying to do. Okay,
all right, So yeah, it was it was good.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It was good.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
And then I actually had it wasn't Fergie, it wasn't Hamilton.
I think it was Mercado. He was my chart operator.
He actually was like, I'll go through it with you,
and this is an O one learning from an E three.
And if that doesn't exemplify what you should be doing
as a leader, learning from everyone, then I don't know
(23:45):
why you're in the military.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Agreed, Yeah, I love it. That's a great A great
quote right there, bro great quote.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We learned from each other.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
Absolutely, and then I did learn a lot more from
the other officers as well.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
After that.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
They gave me more, you know, things to look out for,
like left door parachutes, right door parachutes, more things about
chem light batteries, exhaust samples, you know all those things.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I understand it.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I didn't mean to with with this commentary.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I didn't mean to derail you because you have an
amazing story. To share and I want you to continue
with it please because as I mentioned once before, this
is one of two episodes with you, Sir and Stacey,
and I are very very happy that you're here with.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Us today, Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
So after that, you know, I did my I did
my fire direction time and then we got deployed to
the Ambar Province for Operation New Dawn, and I think
it was the end of May and of twenty eleven,
so we did our work up before.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That, and the the audience that's the Mdar province is in.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The western it's it is the westernmost province of Iraq.
So from there, so Ambar actually borders central Iraq like
by it contains Fallujah as well. So the Mbar Province
has Alisade in the northwest, and you keep on following
the road down you actually end up going through Falluja
(25:25):
in Baghdad and then you enter a different province and
go down to Kuwait. So that's what I did. I
went over there. I didn't have yeah, I didn't have
a combat mission. I just had a platoon doing convoy operations,
security operations, advice and assist and then we got a
mission change as soon as we got there. They said,
I hope you brought your gunnery books. You're going to
(25:46):
Alisade to set up a firebase. So I did that
and then I actually got relieved of that about two
months in because we had a new guy come in.
That was Lieutenant Caesar, and then it was Lieutenant Richie.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
He replaced him.
Speaker 6 (26:03):
But when Caesar came in, they said I had to
go be the executive officer of the Headquarters Battery.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
So I was in Bravo. I was a Bull.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
I was Bull one zero, and then I was Bull
one six, and then I became Havoc five, so HHB
Headquarters Battery, second three nineteenth I was Havoc five under
Captain Graw. Captain Daniel Graw. I'm pretty sure he's lieutenant colonel.
Now I think he's in line for battalion command. I'm
not sure, but if not, he should be. That was
the best leader I had followed up until then. And
(26:36):
actually I would say since he was one of the
best people to learn from, because.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Yeah, I mean, I remember Colonel.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I can remember Colonel Stammer from my time in five
in Afghanistan supporting his battalion. Colonel Stammer, who I believe
retired as General Stammer. But you always remember those those officers,
those leaders that always uh, they just they left their
mark and you'd follow them till the end of your days.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Absolutely, Yeah, Captain Daniel h he he told me to.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I mean, it was full sent. It was full send
or nothing.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
And the most stocking part about that is that he
was relentless. He was like, You're like, we get things done,
but we care about the people as we do it,
which was which was alien to me because in OBC,
you know, whatever you want to call it now, bullock,
(27:48):
I don't know what to call it now, but you're
taught just know your job, get the job done the
best you.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Can, and then and then lead.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
But it was leading first, and that will facilitate all
of your you know, mission completions. So that was one
of the best things I ever learned from that man.
Was also, don't let a single sensitive item go.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
That was it.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
That's where I learned from that guy was don't let
don't anyone think the nods or a weapon, and then
just make sure that you take care of the people
so that way you get your job done. And he
took that to a next level and he actually gave
me the chance to prove it. He actually went stateside
for about a month, so I was actually the acting
commander for about a month in theater as a first lieutenant.
(28:35):
So that was one of the most challenging things and
scariest things I've ever done. I mean, when you go
into the military, you think, oh, you know, I'll get
deployed and it's going to be this, it's going to
be that. But once you get there and you actually
get your orders, you get your unit, you get your taskings,
it is a whole different feel that I just had
(28:56):
to embrace and he allowed me to embrace.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
It was it was actually pretty one. Yeah. And after that, yeah, after.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
That when when we sorry.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Now, I was just saying, please continue, gotcha?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
So it's okay.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
So one of the things that that that they tried
to haze me with in theater, because you know, the
hazing never stops. I'm a kidding, the hazing does stop.
But but no, they wanted to play a joke on
me because we had a fire base up on a
cliff and they decided to try and take me to
the barrel, but the metal was too hot, so.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
They didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
But that was Ali Sad was a really cool time.
And then we convoyed out. It took three days we
convoyed out. And then when we redeployed, that was part
of my job too. So when I was there, I
you know, I turned in and redeployed over thirty million
dollars of equipment, one hundred and twenty five people.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
No one got injured, no one lost in life. Everyone
came back home. So good John, yep, yeah, that's amazing,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
It was what's next after that?
Speaker 6 (30:11):
So when so when we came back, I was actually
switched to a different job. I went back to go
being a fire supporter, but I got sent over to
a second battalion, three twenty fifth, so that's the White Falcons.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
And I went over to Charlie Company. I was Charlie.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I was Charlie four zero, So I was the fire
support officer for Charlie Company. And that was and that
was one of the and that was also a really
cool thing that I got to do. I got to
control mortars and talk to helicopters and all kinds of stuff. Right, yeah, good,
still in Iraq? No, no, sorry, sorry. We had redeployed
(30:48):
from Kuwait, so to finish out the previous story with
Black Falcons.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
So Black Falcons.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
When I became the executive officer, I then saw that
through up until redeployment in November, and then when we
came back at the end of November, I was switched
to fire support with White Falcons, I do believe in
January or February, so this is twelve and so then
(31:17):
I start my career as a fire supporter with Charlie
Company at that time. So that's that's still in Fort Brack.
That's Charlie two three two five.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, I'm just just audience falling where you're at it?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Can I can I ask? Can I ask a quick question?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
So with me being with me being Navy, right, so
there's a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
What is fire support?
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Okay, so tell me what that job? A little bit
about what that job is.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
So fire support is a division of artillery.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
It's where you make the indirect fire plans, so anything
involving mortars, howitzer's, you know, talking to helicopters or planes
for a close combat attack or close air support if
it's required. Usually we would have for fixed wing, which
(32:17):
is the close which is a close air support. I
do believe those guys had a special job. But that's
what I did. I planned with a captain, an infantry captain.
I planned all the things that would do for him.
So if he wanted me to fire on a objective
before he got there, that's what I would do.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
If he wanted to have.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
A smoke screen in front of him, you know, and
then have it, you know, turned off as he arrived
to the objective, that way the enemy couldn't see him
before he got there, that's what I would do. All
the calculations for how long he needs the smoke, how
long the screen is for, how long it needs to go.
For all of those things, I would figure out and
(33:01):
put into the maneuver plan. So the infantry command captain
makes his plan and then he's like, hey, Lieutenant, I
need all these things. So then I make a plan
outlighting as many things as I can, and then I
get and then I say, all right, here's.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
What's available to you.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
You wanted ten things, I can get you three, and
here's how they're going to work. Does that work for you?
And then he'll tell me yes or no. And if
he says yes, then I'm done. If he tells me no,
I go back to work. It's essentially what that one is.
It's just a lot of go betweens and making battle
plans force multiplied without with outside tools.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Essentially, that's awesome. Okay, thank you. And then okay, so
what is the White Falcons?
Speaker 6 (33:46):
So the White Falcons is the mascot of the second Battalion,
three hundred and twenty fifth Airborne Infantry Regiment. So second Brigade,
eighty second Airborne is one level above that, so that
brigade is called the Fountain.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Uh it's falcons, is there? Kind of?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
It's a yeah, okay, yeah, so that's how the Navy
looks at it.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
Brother, ah, gotcha, gotcha. So the insignia that you would
see as a falcon.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Okay, got it, got it? All right, continue, team mascot,
content continue please.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Team mascot. All right, okay, all.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Right, okay, it's true true, but continue everyone was a.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
Color and a falcon except for the support Battalion. Uh
that that they were gold Griffins. So when you bounce
around like like a big think of a brigade like
a ship. You know, you've got different departments, and if
you gave each department a little like mascot. That's what
it is. Essentially, got it to equate it that that way.
(35:00):
Now for the Air Force, I don't know how to
equate it.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
I just know.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That we're not going to go into that. We're not
going to go into that right now.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
They're they're too corporate. We're not going to do that
right now.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
We'd have to we'd have to stop cussing.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Exactly, and we'd have to put on suits, and we're
not wearing those right now.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So this is not a board meeting. This is a
this is a podcast, is a trick wire, and uh.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We don't we don't do Air Force board meetings here,
so please continue, gotcha?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
So so I'm with I'm with Charlie Company, the White Falcons.
You know, I'm doing my job there, and it's pretty
much I would say, you know, uh, same same same
ice cream, different flavor. You know, it's just a small team.
It's small team ops, and you know, you just go
(35:56):
into your thing. And a about nine months into this,
I actually had a bad jump. So, for all of
the non airborne people out there, a bad jump means
you got hurt when you exited an airplane and on
and on. Re entry if you want to call it that. Yeah,
(36:17):
like you just get hurt, you know, landing on the
drop zone, and and anybody else that's been to Fort
Braggs slash Liberty, whatever you want to call it, you
know that any field landing strip on a drop zone
is very hard because planes land on it.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Yeah, so I had.
Speaker 6 (36:38):
Oh I jumped from eight hundred to one thousand.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
It depended on the parachute.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So one that's the bad jump. That's the bad jump.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Yeah, the bad jump. So that one, I do believe
was November of twelve. Yeah, I hit so hard, I
knocked myself out. So at that point, you know, my
body composition was like two forty. I was just all
legs and shoulders from all the rock marches.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
And the PTU we were doing.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
So I was actually, I do believe I was overweight
under canopy. So there's a weight limit, and if you
are over then you all faster than you're supposed to
do safely. So that's what ended up happened to me, right,
Some of us affectionately call that lawn darting.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well, so okay, but so just for the audience's understanding,
there's a difference between lawn darting and cigaring in.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
That is correct.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Yeah, So this was not one of those things where
I had a huge malfunction.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I did not everything opened cigar in.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
You lawn darted in, which means you're just too heavy
for the canopy.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
Correct, Yes, So instead of falling at the usual rate
of speed, it was faster, so you know, obviously more force.
And I was probably about three seventy five or four
hundred pounds under canopy with all of my gear, me
and the shoot and the weapon.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Damn.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yeah, it was. It was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
So this is actually where it starts to get kind
of rough for my career. So the first bad jumper
that I had, yeah, oh absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
Uh So November of that year, I you know, had
the bad jump. I went to the emergency room. They
checked me out for a concussion. I had a concussion.
I went, they went through concussion protocol and they released me,
and then I was sent back to my unit and
(38:40):
they wrote me a profile or a chit, whatever you
guys call it. In the Navy, I think it's a chit,
but for the yeah, for the army, yeah, a profile
for limited duty.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
So with the head injury.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
I had real bad headaches, and I had trouble focusing,
like literally my eyes had trouble focusing near too far,
and after.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Yeah forgetting knocked out, so yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
To backtrack to the actual moment that it happened, and
when I hit everything went black for about what felt
like a couple seconds, and then I woke up staring
at blue and then I, you know, unhooked my parachute
and just training took over.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
And then how long? Huh?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
How long were you? How long were you unconscious?
Speaker 5 (39:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (39:33):
It probably was no more than a couple of seconds,
I would think, because it wasn't like I had moved
from my parachute catching wind or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
I was just on the ground and my.
Speaker 6 (39:45):
Parachute was still actually deflated, So it couldn't have been
that long.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
It couldn't have been that long.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
But nobody was able to run up to you at
that time.
Speaker 6 (39:56):
No, No, I mean we had that one was a
that one was a mass tactical jump, so you got
people going out really quick from both sides, so you
get kind of scattered.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, yeah, I interested.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Yeah, So I don't know how long I was out
I think it was for only for a couple of seconds.
Speaker 5 (40:14):
But when I came to I just kind of took
a second.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
I was like, I just breathe. I was like, oh,
what the hell happened? And I was like, all right,
I'm going to just start doing my thing. So yeah,
So when when I got to the when I got
to the like the collection point, I went and saw
the doc and they were like, what happened.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
I told them what happened. I lost consciousness, and they said,
all right, you're going to the hospital. So I did. Yeah.
I wasn't there for that long.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
Actually, I was only there for probably like four or
five hours for observation to make sure I was all right,
you know, doing balanced tests and neurological tests, and I passed.
But they more or less after about a two week
profile of hey, take it easy. It was is like
do limited duty as far as like don't do I
(41:04):
think it was like don't run for like two weeks
because like my blood pressure, like don't like overly exert myself,
like go for walks in the morning or something like that,
which made me feel really helpless.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
And I hated it.
Speaker 6 (41:18):
Because you know, no one wants to be you know,
told that they can't do their job that they love,
you know, and you know you're not doing it with
your guys. You're not doing all the hard stuff with them,
so you're losing out.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
You know. I felt like I was losing out.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, like I'm weaker than my my constituents.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Yeah, you know, it just it is.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
It just didn't feel right that when they would go
on the long runs on Mondays and Fridays.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
I wasn't going with them because yeah, you.
Speaker 6 (41:44):
Know, like I was a runner. I mean I did
my best two mile in ten forty. So all my
guys hated the fact that I would run like a
two minute mile pace for like three and a half
four miles. Like it was like, but you know, that's
one of the things, like you got to take care
of yourself so you can come back and lead your troops,
you know, like you can't lead broken it's you're just
(42:08):
not as effective.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
So the how did that work itself out?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Let up from the audience, know how that worked itself out?
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Because it did not work itself out. Well, it did
not work out at all.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
Uh So after about two months, I do believe they said,
well you're your your your your currency for your jumps
is you know you're approaching the time where you have
to jump again to keep on getting your jump pay.
So I said, okay, I mean, are you serious? I
just mean I had a concussion two months ago, and
(42:47):
the there's a traumatic brain injury program at Willmack Medical
Center at Fort Bragg slash Liberty, and I went through
that whole pipeline for the next three additional brain injuries
that I sustained in a nine month period. So yeah,
(43:10):
November of twelve, I do believe that was the first one.
And then it was about two and a half three
months later, I had another jump. I had a bad
jump then too. I hit had a concussion in the
same exact way.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Because I hit, I went.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Backwards and I was coming so fast, coming down so
fast that they tell you to tuck your chin, but
I was going so fast it just whipped backwards. So
it was a concussion in that manner. Four times over.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I couldn't keep the the the signature PLF that they
tell you to keep.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
No, no, no, It definitely did not work that time. Unfortunately, brother,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
I'm trying to share this information with our audience that
way they understand exactly. Yeah, you've been because this is
this is massively traumatic right here.
Speaker 6 (44:04):
Yeah, so this is actually where it starts to pick
up speed. And we're probably gonna have to get to
this the next time in the next part.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Because we'll get to that, but go ahead.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
Yeah, at this point, after four brain injuries, I am
on five different medications.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
I'm on two different sleep.
Speaker 6 (44:26):
Medications because I just could not go to sleep, and
then when I did, I slept too much. I slept
about twelve to fifteen hours, you know, if I was
left to sleep. So I was on two different sleep meds.
I was on a muscle relaxer. I was on anti
depression meds well, bututrin to you know, kind of get
me up in the morning to go because that was
(44:47):
so sluggish. You know, after these brain injuries, you don't
you don't really realize how many things go through the
front of your brain like this. This lobe is everything
for your personal making decisions, not going all in when
you shouldn't, I mean, your personality, your decisions. Yeah, it's
(45:08):
all there. So that's what was actually injured. I had
two hemorrhages from the from the four bad jumps. I
had two hemorrhages in my prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
Oh my god. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
If you wake up and you can't if you wake
up and you can't smell the coffee, popcor on your name,
there's a.
Speaker 5 (45:26):
Problem there, you go. I mean that was mean, that
was it.
Speaker 6 (45:32):
The woman that I was with at the time, she
actually did a little bit of staying up at night
for I'm not even sure how long, but apparently I
was told that I was sleepwalking.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I was sleepwalking and trying to drive.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
I was actually stopped at the front door one night,
and then another couple of times, I was pulling knives
out of the kitchen block because apparently I was going
to cook, but I was totally asleep. So fuck yeah,
that was Yeah, those were those were some of the
some of the things that I had to contend with
when it came to you know, all of these you know,
(46:12):
collateral effects, you know, head injuries. Okay, you get a headache,
you kind of ring your bell a little bit, no,
and yeah, when it's.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Crownding on top of itself because.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Eighty seconds eighty second, and you know, you can't get
your jumpey unless you freaking jump. But you weren't first
and foremost, you weren't properly diagnosed the first time. You
weren't properly freaking taken care of medically the first time. Therefore,
you had multiple freaking read continuances of abrasions to the
(46:52):
same freaking injury.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 6 (46:55):
And the thing was is like every every head injury
was the mechanism was the same every time. It was
always hitting and going backwards every single time, so it
just kept hitting it. There is there's actually a gentleman
that I would sincerely like to think.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
His name is Patrick McNamara.
Speaker 6 (47:18):
That man was my occupation, No, he was my vestibular therapist.
That that man had me stand on one foot and
balance like a gymnast more times than I really am
okay with.
Speaker 5 (47:33):
But he pushed me to get better.
Speaker 6 (47:35):
He pushed me to get through all the frustration, to
get back, to try and get away back because ultimately
I didn't. I didn't get back. That's that's that's the
most I think I would probably say the hardest part
about that is that.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
I didn't come back from it.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Well, I'd really like you to.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
And I realized we're going to have to break this
up for our next our next session, but.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Please dive into the struggles and.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Moving forward with with what you everything you dealt with it,
because this is exactly what we want to share with
the audience. So that way they know what I mean.
It's not it's not.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
All freaking peaches and cream when we're in the military.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
No, please continue and dive more into this, all right.
Speaker 6 (48:34):
So with those four brain injuries, I had a nurse practitioner,
I had a team of therapists, and I also had.
Speaker 5 (48:47):
The profiles that I was telling you about. They told
me not to read.
Speaker 6 (48:50):
They told me not to read, They told me not
to look at a screen for more than fifteen minutes.
They told me not to come in to work until
nine am. I was forbidden from doing PT. I mean,
everything was on a severely limited schedule.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
And so you had a you had a team of practitioners.
But what what was that team encompassed with because it's
not just they're not just all nurses or general partictional
practitioner nurses.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
What what was the team?
Speaker 5 (49:21):
So the nurse practitioner was kind of like a case manager. Uh.
Speaker 6 (49:25):
And then so that was like the overall health and
then there was vestibular therapist. So that was a that
was either a PhD candidate or like a master's degree holder.
I don't really remember, but they were definitely medical, but
they weren't a doctor.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Or a doctor.
Speaker 6 (49:41):
Yeah, they were definitely a physical therapist and what what capacity.
So vestibular was just for my balance, like my inner
ear stuff.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
So yeah, and then so.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
That you can share with the audience brothers.
Speaker 6 (49:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So the vestibular therapy was also was
all about like hand eye coordination, balance, movement in space,
finding your body in space, like you know, how you
close your eyes you can stand straight up.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
I would fall over.
Speaker 6 (50:13):
I would legitimately fall over because my inner like my
inner ear was messed up from the head injuries.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
So yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I did. I had a talk therapist because I was depressed.
I was severely Your speech was.
Speaker 6 (50:32):
Yeah, my speech was also compaired to I actually had
they're not allocution lessons, but definitely speech therapy as well
because I had a severe stutter. I couldn't get words out,
so yeah, you couldn't like you can't write this stuff.
I had to learn how to walk appropriately again, and
(50:53):
I leaned how to I had to learn.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
How to talk appropriately again.
Speaker 6 (50:56):
So I had four and four four head injuries that
caused me to lose my capability to speak like an
adult and walk like an adult.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
And you were in pain in addition, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Yeah, yeah, I had I had back pain and uh,
knee pain, neck pain. I mean, all the all the
normal stuff that everybody goes through, you know, we uh
you know, it's just.
Speaker 5 (51:24):
What it was.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
I mean, not only do you have to deal with
like the PTS, like the hurt and like the field
hurt that you get that you just you know, power through.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
This was stuff that was way harder.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
And and you're still you're you're still active duty right
during this period of time.
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Yes, yes, I'm still active duty. I'm still active do
you during this time. I'm still in North Carolina. I'm
still with my brigade, and I'm still doing my job.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
You're dealing with, uh, you're dealing with one freaking light
duty chit after another, and and degradation of job performance
because you can't freaking do it.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And I mean, holy shit, then.
Speaker 4 (52:06):
So, Daniel, so you know we are going to we
are we are going to we are going to be
running out of time and what I really want our
viewers to tune in next week because your story is very,
very powerful, And this is what Steven is trying to
get to at this moment.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
And I just interrupted him, but can you leave.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
In your own words a little bit about what it
is that you're going to talk about with our next
time together That is just powerful? Could you please in
your own words?
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Well, I was fighting for my life.
Speaker 6 (52:43):
I ended up as a results of these head injuries.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
I ended up being, like I said.
Speaker 6 (52:49):
Severely depressed and out of all that, I am a
four time suicide survivor.
Speaker 5 (52:56):
And this was all outside of the military too.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
Yeah, So we're gonna we're gonna talk next week. We're
gonna talk more about the end of your service, the
rest of the stuff that you dealt with medically. Four
time suicide survivor. You know, brother, I don't need to
say this. My audience knows us, both Stacy and I
(53:23):
we are here for you no matter what happens.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
You're never alone. You're never alone. Uh.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
And we're gonna pick this up the next time uh
next week. God willing you have time to spare with
us so that we can hear this more more about
this because.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
This is We're not done on unveiling this for the audience.
Speaker 4 (53:48):
This is now they have they have the lead up
and then and then next week it's gonna get.
Speaker 6 (53:53):
Yeah, I'll tell you what like next week is going
to be. I mean, like I said, fighting for my life,
finding the inspiration wherever I could to keep going.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
And it's not so easy.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm going to be hard, no, and I get that.
So but what I am going to say is this.
I say one of two, we may be one of four.
I don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
We'll get there, but I am going to say that.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Daniel, thank you very much for joining us tonight. All
of our audience, we love you. We're going to get
out of here. And remember the path for freedom is
paved with courage.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
And why I never check Chrick.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
That's right, love you guys. Check it next week. God
bless
Welcome everybody. It's Wednesday, January twenty second. It is time
for Tripwire. We have a fantastic fricking guests on for
our show tonight. Stacy and I both know him, Daniel Fornacola.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He's uh, this is gonna be a freaking fantastic freaking yep.
I got right, this will be fantastic podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Well, such such an amazing story, looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Stacey, my dear, how are you good? To see you cold?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I'm cold, but.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It happens. It happens during winter. It happens during the winter.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So uh, just messing around because I love the cold
and I know you don't, so.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Do Uh well, let me let me do a check in.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
How have you been since last week when we had
our last podcast?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
How are we doing? Good?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Been busy?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I went to the Moose Lodge in Batavia with some
of my friends.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
One of my one of my good friends, husband likes
to sing Judas Priest and he is his His song
choices are quite the crowd pleaser at the Moose Lodge
in Batavia.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
My friend Michelle.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Sounds, she sings amazing and she's really really good and I,
I mean, I can do A mean, I love rock
and roll, but that's pretty much where I that's pretty
much where I stop these days.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But we had a super good time at the Moose Lodge.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Oh yeah, it was actually so good. I gave him
my card. I told him I'd like to.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Hire him to do some gigs with us at the VFW.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Is awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, yeah, he had an amazing setup, legit.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
That's great, great, very great to see you. Let's, without
further Ado, how about we bring Daniel in? Because Daniel's
got an amazing story and I want to let our
listen know, our audience know today that this is one
of two because Daniel's story is God, there's just so
(02:58):
much gravity and so much way to it, and I
think it's extremely important that we get this story across.
And I don't want to I don't want to cut
him down to just fifty four minutes, like we know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean this, gosh, this could be a part
two and three. He's got powerful things, powerful things to
say that I feel like we'll resonate with you know,
our viewers and listeners agreed.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, out further Ado, Let's bring Daniel in. Hey, Dan,
how are you.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
I'm actually doing great, Steve. Thank you Stacy for having
me on. I really do appreciate being here on Tripwire, right.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We're we're honored to have you on here with us. Brother,
we really are. So now that I now that we
have built us up, I'm just going to let you
go with it and just say, okay, so where did
your Where did your journey start?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With the United States Military? And we'll go from there.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Well, not to be in della, but I started with
the glimmer in my dad's eye. He was already in
the Navy, So uh, that's where I started with the yeah, yeah,
we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
But the points with my co hosts, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 6 (04:17):
Well, so my father was a machinist made on submarines,
so he he did a tough job, being locked in
a tube for months on end. That's something I really,
really really did not want to do.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
But I didn't. But I did know that jordin the
military was part of my future. Uh.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
In addition to him serving twenty three years, he retired
blue card holder.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
The whole thing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
My mother also was a bosn's mate, went back when
and some of these listeners will definitely remember this back
when Bosn's mates on tugboats were part of the Navy.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Yeah, so that's a little while ago.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
So they met in Yeah, they met in Grotten blah
blah blah blah blah. They had my brother, then me,
and then we moved to outside Norfolk Naval Base in
Virginia Beach and I was there for seventeen years, you know,
when he was doing his thing.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
After.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
We're siblings.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
No, I only have the one.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
He actually went Army two, so I had two Navy parents,
have two Army children. So that was the biggest slap
in the face that I could muster as a seven
year old.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I can't imagine what Thanksgiving was like when that happened
with the two of you.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
That's amazing.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Was that it actually gets to be pretty fun. Around
early December with the Army Navy game. My mom she
kind of dropped. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
She never really cared about football much, you know.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
But she she does care enough to say go Navy
beat Army only when talking to her sons.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So it's YE got you, I got you.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Well, I I was a department of the Navy and
then I went Army. So but that's for an other podcasts.
So let's let's talk about your you win the active duty.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I just talked about your.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Let's talk about your journey getting into active duty.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
Well, it also starts with my mother telling me to
go to college because if it wasn't for her, then
I would have enlisted. And she wanted me to have
more options. So that was the first thing. So she
wasn't discouraging military service. She was just wanting me to
really take a look at it and see what was
out there for me. You know, she always wants me
to you know, be out of harm's way. But she
(06:31):
was also very much for my military service. So I
did community college for two years.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I went to a four.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Year school and I actually went to ROTC at Virginia
Commonwealth University and they were a satellite school.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Of the University of Richmond.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
So the University of Richmond holds the overall commissioning program,
but then they had satellite schools and that was.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
One of them. Yeah, so earlier.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Yeah, Army ROTC was how I did it through the
University of Richmond.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
H My first commander was Lieutenant Colonel Richard D. Gillham.
Speaker 6 (07:03):
That man was carved out of stone, and he was
unyielding in his standards, and I actually hated.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
It to start to be honest, because I was like,
there is no way any any person is just so.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Willing and able to drill into details that I just
it was amazing. And then after yeah, after I got commissioned,
I went down to Oklahoma for six months, and then
I went to Airborne school. Then I went to what
is now called Fort Liberty, but as I will always
call it Fort Bragg.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Okay, so let's talk real quick about going to Oklahoma.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
What did what did you do?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What did you go to Oklahoma for?
Speaker 5 (07:48):
So that was for artillery school.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
It wasn't knife and fork school like the OCS guys,
because they draw that out over two years. But when
I went there, it was a really intensive hydrant. It
was ballistics, it was the weapons platforms, it was every
manner of indirect.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Fire and planning it that you can think of.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
And after yeah, after six months and uh, you know,
slowly blowing Oklahoma away.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
Uh, I.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Mean, well, actually one of the coolest parts was we
actually had j TAX the Joint Terminal Air Controllers from
who they are, Yeah, yeah, so from your Marines. They
came by and they were dropping jadeams from a tens
and our firing range, and that was one of the
coolest things I ever saw from the Marines. Also the
only cool thing I ever saw from the Marines that day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well, okay, we'll expand upon that, uh as we as
we dive into this, but you know, not not to
stop your not to stop your story with with the audience.
But I appreciate you know, the the acknowledgment there, the
short one.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Okay, so you went to Oklahoma and then you went to.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
That was your first school as a as an officer, yep,
it was.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And then where did you go after that?
Speaker 6 (09:09):
I went to Fort Benning what was previously known as Benning.
I went there for jump school. I actually broke my
foot in the second week, so Tower week.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
It was a stress fracture. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
Yeah, So the stress fracture on my foot pushed me
back two weeks. So I got recycled to a different company.
But I finished and I got to Fort Bragg, I
mean pretty much right as they were assuming GRF. No sorry,
they had come back from GRF. They were they were
in Haiti for a few months, and then when they
came back.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Yeah, I joined us with them.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
Ben Oh, that was step the last week of August
and all of September, so five weeks instead of the
three of one thousand and ten.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Okay, all right, I was already.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Because that was actually I was actually the eu I
was part of the EUD team on Fort Benning, uh,
and we handled all the ranger ranges and.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was there as the eu D.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I was part of the eu D team that was
attached to Fort Benning or part of Fort Benning.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
But I left in two thousand and six. So I'm
still older than you, so we'll just we'll restore that.
So all right, So old are you?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
How old are you? Daniel? Sorry I had to interrupt
for a second. How old are you?
Speaker 5 (10:35):
I turned thirty seven last year?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Yeah, I think I thought you were in your thirties.
How long were you in the army?
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
I was only able to do four years eight months
due to my injuries.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
So yeah, that's you did a lot of stuff in
four years.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
Yeah, yeah, keep going, thank you.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
So So in October of twenty ten, I get to
my unit, and that unit is actually the second Brigade,
the second Light Brigade of the eighty second, so artillery
can go multiple places. But long story short, they had
me go be a fire supporter with one three two five,
so first Battalion three twenty fifth Airborne Infantry Regiment the
(11:23):
Red Falcons because it's the Falcon Brigade, and they told
me I was going to go be a.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Fire supporter there.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
So I'm with all the infantry captains and all these
rangers that are just so high speed. And then they're like, hell,
we already got the guy. You need to go back
to where you came from. And it was like, oh
so I go back. So yeah, so they're like, okay,
don't worry about it, just go back to Black Falcons,
which is second Battalion.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Never get crossed when you know when their orders are
coming down, you.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Know, thankfully it's a very efficient, non mistake making system.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Sure sure, sure, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Totally enjoying all of your sarcasm with all that comment.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Yeah, for as much as I have sarcasm, I would
not trade anything that happened on that post for anything.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
I would not I get it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, continue on my apologies.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
No, it's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 6 (12:27):
So I get back to Black Falcons, which is second Battalion,
three hundred and nineteenth Airborne FA Regiments. You know artillery,
red legs, you know, fire guys. So they send me
down to Bravo Battery and we have one hundred and
five millimeter howitzers, so the M one one nine Alpha two.
This is before they went to the three variant and
(12:47):
that was whatever that was after my time. But I
get there and I'm actually a fire direction officer, and
any of the other fires guys will know that this
is a highly specialized job that no one likes unless
you're kind of a nerd, because it's a ton ton
of information processing and just no vers out the wazoo.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
So I actually fell in love. I actually fell in
love with that.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I had a small team of six guys and my
chief and just real quick. So I don't know their
ranks now because we did kind of lost loose touch,
but I do know at the time it was Steph
Sartin Rosa, Luis Rosa. He was like one of my
first chiefs, so knowledgeable. He whipped my ass into shape.
So thank you very much. That Tim Zelensky, he was
(13:34):
a sergeant when he first took my FDC.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Then he got promoted while he was with me.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
That guy was He was the realist, most most on
mission guy. He could joke with the best of him,
but he had a switch and I loved flipping that
switch because go time with him was the funnest thing
I have ever done.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Crunching numbers. Oh my goodness, that's wow.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
So he was there for the time, I do believe
when it was two am in the middle of December
and we were firing into Coleman drop zone and I
ran out.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
Of safety tease.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
So I had about I don't know sixty people waiting
on me to rip pieces of paper and then drawboxes
and put numbers in them.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
And it took about half an hour.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
And that was the last time I ever made a
mistake because I was qualified the very next day qualified.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
That's awesome. Yeah, that was that was That was a
real fun time.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
So I don't know if I'm you know this is
it doesn't matter, so qualifying as as a as a
penance for my mistakes. They said you're going to be
qualified tomorrow. I was like, what does that mean? They said,
don't worry about it. So immediately I was scared. Immediately,
just whatever e sixes and a niece even tell you
(15:00):
don't worry about it, you should immediately have your RADARVP.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Immediately worry about it.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah about it, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
The only thing that is more scary than that is
when a warrant says, hold my beer.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
At I you know what, I'm just gonna throw everything
up in the air and walk away, when a warren
says hold my beer, pretty.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Absolutely yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
So what they did was theyd may hang upside down
on a tree for six minutes and forty seconds, and
which is the which is actually the FM six forty,
which is the gunnery Manual. So that's where all the
information came from. So about minute two, I started sliding down.
Minute four, I'm about like a foot from the ground,
(15:47):
and then you know, minute five, my head is in
the grass and it's wet.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
So what do you think they were doing to this
tree all day?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Being on it?
Speaker 6 (16:02):
Yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, so fun the best. But
I would not trade Stephzart and Andersen was it.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Musq Whiz was in a different platoon.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
But you had mine heart, you had oh man, I
know you had smoked carthon and I'm so sorry I'm
forgetting my gunny. But they man, that was the funniest
thing that that I had ever been through. But it
also taught me the value of teamwork and to lean
on your people and to trust those that you know
(16:35):
are with you in these units, because I mean I
had been military, you know, my whole life in a
way with my father, you know, treating me, you know,
like I was on a ship. But uh, that right
there was the first like real introduction to the military.
So that was my first introduction to brotherhood. The difficulties
(16:57):
being on your shit, you know, doing it for the
guys around you.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
That's that was the moment. As funny as it was,
it was the moment.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
So Daniel, we don't hear on trip wire.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We don't turn away from what what could be considered
hazing at some point in time.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Uh, And I'll kill that out there because everybody has
a lesson to learn.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And Stacey and I have been I mean, you know
we went in, we went in in the in the
early nineties.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, anything goes back then.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, And Uh, in order to freaking cut the mustard
and be a part of the freaking team and to
be to be the best that you could be, you
had to you had to freaking get to the point where, uh,
life just taught you a lesson and your your fellow
constituents helped you build yourself and strengthen yourself.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Which is what we call hazing. It's not what everybody
else calls hazing, but that's what we call hazing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Uh to freaking to drive on and freaking be a
part of the team. And you know, for you to
get your legs that way, that's that's awesome, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I'm glad that you're so uh, you're so.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Feel good about it, you know, just like this is
this is the best moment of my of my learning
curve moving forward. I mean because we all we all
went through education, we all went through some military school.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
That doesn't mean we learned everything that is on the
job training.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Well one and and you know, with this whole being
broken down, when you get broken down to that low
point and you're with your brothers and sisters, you know,
you're with your people, your your comrades, you are all
broken down together, and then you rise back up together
and help each other.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I mean, that is the epitome of teamwork.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I mean, this is why so many corporate programs they
want that military. Hey, let's play military, you know, and
let's use their principles and their concepts for team building,
you know. And a lot of times they've got a
veteran that's there and then they bring them in or
there's companies that you can hire because these companies benefit
(19:27):
when they're all broken down, you know, when they're dressed down,
and then they have to help each other succeed again.
And that's yeah, I mean, those are some of my
more memorable moments my twelve years. Like I totally can
pick those out just like you do. Where most people
are like those my bad memories, but those are what
created who I am.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
Absolutely espe Actually.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
She actually nailed it when she said dressed down, because
that's more that's a term that's more acceptable to today's
society than and what we call hazing when we were
when we were you know what I'm saying. So let's
move away from the hazing comment and we'll go back
to the dressing down of things so that you know,
(20:14):
I don't get a call later on after this podcast
about well you had hazing on your podcast and.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
So uh, regardless of who you know brought into office
two days ago.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Point being is is that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I'm glad that you had that moment with your with your.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
People, because.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Because even even leaders need the rug pulled out from
underneath them every once in a while, just so that
they understand the capabilities of the of the of the
young'ins or the others that are that are their supportinates
that can help them be better leaders.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
If that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Oh. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (20:58):
One thing I went in to the military, uh knowing,
and this was one of the things my dad, you know,
uh imparted on.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Me was that and the funny way of saying it.
Speaker 6 (21:08):
You ain't been trained until you've been trained by a
chief is the Navy way of saying it, uh. And
for me it was just go in, open mind, go in,
not go in saying to yourself, I don't know shit,
but maybe in a nicer way, you know, depending on
who you are. And you just have to realize that
you're not here to be a shining star. You're there
(21:32):
to serve a purpose, and as an officer, your purpose
is a little bit different, but it is at its
core the same. You have to do what you have
to know your job so the people to the left
and right of you survive you know, total victory. You know,
that's what we are, you know, trained to do in
(21:54):
the military. It's like you get the job done, you
next man up, you know mentality, and then you go
and do it and you.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Can't be effective.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
You can't learn to progress into that role that will
mentor the next fresh wave of people that come in
unless you have some space left open to learn. Because
if you like, I was told this by my I
think it was my grandmother or my mother, but she said,
it is very hard to fill a cup that is
(22:26):
already full.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
And I think I just remember where I heard that.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
It was from Avatar, so not my parents, but they
did say it, but I heard it from Avatar as well.
But yeah, they say that you can't fill a cup
that's already full. So if you go into the military
thinking that you know everything, then you're just gonna fail.
So after I had that ualification, you know, my team
(22:51):
picked me back up.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
They said, hey, sir, you good.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I said, I don't know, and they were like, well,
so they said, you know, don't They said, don't sweat it.
We actually said we actually set up your sleeping bag
in the back of the ap truck.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
And I was like, what do you mean.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
He's like, no, we fished out your like your gear
and like you're ready to go down, we'll take the guard.
I said, why. They said, because you got studying to do. Okay,
all right, So yeah, it was it was good.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It was good.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
And then I actually had it wasn't Fergie, it wasn't Hamilton.
I think it was Mercado. He was my chart operator.
He actually was like, I'll go through it with you,
and this is an O one learning from an E three.
And if that doesn't exemplify what you should be doing
as a leader, learning from everyone, then I don't know
(23:45):
why you're in the military.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Agreed.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Agreed, Yeah, I love it. That's a great A great
quote right there, bro great quote.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We learned from each other.
Speaker 6 (23:59):
Absolutely, and then I did learn a lot more from
the other officers as well.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
After that.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
They gave me more, you know, things to look out for,
like left door parachutes, right door parachutes, more things about
chem light batteries, exhaust samples, you know all those things.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I understand it.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Well.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I didn't mean to with with this commentary.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I didn't mean to derail you because you have an
amazing story. To share and I want you to continue
with it please because as I mentioned once before, this
is one of two episodes with you, Sir and Stacey,
and I are very very happy that you're here with.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Us today, Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
So after that, you know, I did my I did
my fire direction time and then we got deployed to
the Ambar Province for Operation New Dawn, and I think
it was the end of May and of twenty eleven,
so we did our work up before.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
That, and the the audience that's the Mdar province is in.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The western it's it is the westernmost province of Iraq.
So from there, so Ambar actually borders central Iraq like
by it contains Fallujah as well. So the Mbar Province
has Alisade in the northwest, and you keep on following
the road down you actually end up going through Falluja
(25:25):
in Baghdad and then you enter a different province and
go down to Kuwait. So that's what I did. I
went over there. I didn't have yeah, I didn't have
a combat mission. I just had a platoon doing convoy operations,
security operations, advice and assist and then we got a
mission change as soon as we got there. They said,
I hope you brought your gunnery books. You're going to
(25:46):
Alisade to set up a firebase. So I did that
and then I actually got relieved of that about two
months in because we had a new guy come in.
That was Lieutenant Caesar, and then it was Lieutenant Richie.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
He replaced him.
Speaker 6 (26:03):
But when Caesar came in, they said I had to
go be the executive officer of the Headquarters Battery.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
So I was in Bravo. I was a Bull.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
I was Bull one zero, and then I was Bull
one six, and then I became Havoc five, so HHB
Headquarters Battery, second three nineteenth I was Havoc five under
Captain Graw. Captain Daniel Graw. I'm pretty sure he's lieutenant colonel.
Now I think he's in line for battalion command. I'm
not sure, but if not, he should be. That was
the best leader I had followed up until then. And
(26:36):
actually I would say since he was one of the
best people to learn from, because.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Yeah, I mean, I remember Colonel.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I can remember Colonel Stammer from my time in five
in Afghanistan supporting his battalion. Colonel Stammer, who I believe
retired as General Stammer. But you always remember those those officers,
those leaders that always uh, they just they left their
mark and you'd follow them till the end of your days.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
Absolutely, Yeah, Captain Daniel h he he told me to.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
I mean, it was full sent. It was full send
or nothing.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
And the most stocking part about that is that he
was relentless. He was like, You're like, we get things done,
but we care about the people as we do it,
which was which was alien to me because in OBC,
you know, whatever you want to call it now, bullock,
(27:48):
I don't know what to call it now, but you're
taught just know your job, get the job done the
best you.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Can, and then and then lead.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
But it was leading first, and that will facilitate all
of your you know, mission completions. So that was one
of the best things I ever learned from that man.
Was also, don't let a single sensitive item go.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
That was it.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
That's where I learned from that guy was don't let
don't anyone think the nods or a weapon, and then
just make sure that you take care of the people
so that way you get your job done. And he
took that to a next level and he actually gave
me the chance to prove it. He actually went stateside
for about a month, so I was actually the acting
commander for about a month in theater as a first lieutenant.
(28:35):
So that was one of the most challenging things and
scariest things I've ever done. I mean, when you go
into the military, you think, oh, you know, I'll get
deployed and it's going to be this, it's going to
be that. But once you get there and you actually
get your orders, you get your unit, you get your taskings,
it is a whole different feel that I just had
(28:56):
to embrace and he allowed me to embrace.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
It was it was actually pretty one. Yeah. And after that, yeah, after.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
That when when we sorry.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Now, I was just saying, please continue, gotcha?
Speaker 5 (29:15):
So it's okay.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
So one of the things that that that they tried
to haze me with in theater, because you know, the
hazing never stops. I'm a kidding, the hazing does stop.
But but no, they wanted to play a joke on
me because we had a fire base up on a
cliff and they decided to try and take me to
the barrel, but the metal was too hot, so.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
They didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
But that was Ali Sad was a really cool time.
And then we convoyed out. It took three days we
convoyed out. And then when we redeployed, that was part
of my job too. So when I was there, I
you know, I turned in and redeployed over thirty million
dollars of equipment, one hundred and twenty five people.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
No one got injured, no one lost in life. Everyone
came back home. So good John, yep, yeah, that's amazing,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
It was what's next after that?
Speaker 6 (30:11):
So when so when we came back, I was actually
switched to a different job. I went back to go
being a fire supporter, but I got sent over to
a second battalion, three twenty fifth, so that's the White Falcons.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
And I went over to Charlie Company. I was Charlie.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
I was Charlie four zero, So I was the fire
support officer for Charlie Company. And that was and that
was one of the and that was also a really
cool thing that I got to do. I got to
control mortars and talk to helicopters and all kinds of stuff. Right, yeah, good,
still in Iraq? No, no, sorry, sorry. We had redeployed
(30:48):
from Kuwait, so to finish out the previous story with
Black Falcons.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
So Black Falcons.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
When I became the executive officer, I then saw that
through up until redeployment in November, and then when we
came back at the end of November, I was switched
to fire support with White Falcons, I do believe in
January or February, so this is twelve and so then
(31:17):
I start my career as a fire supporter with Charlie
Company at that time. So that's that's still in Fort Brack.
That's Charlie two three two five.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, I'm just just audience falling where you're at it?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Can I can I ask? Can I ask a quick question?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
So with me being with me being Navy, right, so
there's a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
What is fire support?
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Okay, so tell me what that job? A little bit
about what that job is.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
So fire support is a division of artillery.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
It's where you make the indirect fire plans, so anything
involving mortars, howitzer's, you know, talking to helicopters or planes
for a close combat attack or close air support if
it's required. Usually we would have for fixed wing, which
(32:17):
is the close which is a close air support. I
do believe those guys had a special job. But that's
what I did. I planned with a captain, an infantry captain.
I planned all the things that would do for him.
So if he wanted me to fire on a objective
before he got there, that's what I would do.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
If he wanted to have.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
A smoke screen in front of him, you know, and
then have it, you know, turned off as he arrived
to the objective, that way the enemy couldn't see him
before he got there, that's what I would do. All
the calculations for how long he needs the smoke, how
long the screen is for, how long it needs to go.
For all of those things, I would figure out and
(33:01):
put into the maneuver plan. So the infantry command captain
makes his plan and then he's like, hey, Lieutenant, I
need all these things. So then I make a plan
outlighting as many things as I can, and then I
get and then I say, all right, here's.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
What's available to you.
Speaker 6 (33:19):
You wanted ten things, I can get you three, and
here's how they're going to work. Does that work for you?
And then he'll tell me yes or no. And if
he says yes, then I'm done. If he tells me no,
I go back to work. It's essentially what that one is.
It's just a lot of go betweens and making battle
plans force multiplied without with outside tools.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Essentially, that's awesome. Okay, thank you. And then okay, so
what is the White Falcons?
Speaker 6 (33:46):
So the White Falcons is the mascot of the second Battalion,
three hundred and twenty fifth Airborne Infantry Regiment. So second Brigade,
eighty second Airborne is one level above that, so that
brigade is called the Fountain.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Uh it's falcons, is there? Kind of?
Speaker 1 (34:05):
It's a yeah, okay, yeah, so that's how the Navy
looks at it.
Speaker 5 (34:12):
Brother, ah, gotcha, gotcha. So the insignia that you would
see as a falcon.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Okay, got it, got it? All right, continue, team mascot,
content continue please.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Team mascot. All right, okay, all.
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Right, okay, it's true true, but continue everyone was a.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
Color and a falcon except for the support Battalion. Uh
that that they were gold Griffins. So when you bounce
around like like a big think of a brigade like
a ship. You know, you've got different departments, and if
you gave each department a little like mascot. That's what
it is. Essentially, got it to equate it that that way.
(35:00):
Now for the Air Force, I don't know how to
equate it.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
I just know.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That we're not going to go into that. We're not
going to go into that right now.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
They're they're too corporate. We're not going to do that
right now.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
We'd have to we'd have to stop cussing.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Exactly, and we'd have to put on suits, and we're
not wearing those right now.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So this is not a board meeting. This is a
this is a podcast, is a trick wire, and uh.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We don't we don't do Air Force board meetings here,
so please continue, gotcha?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (35:36):
So so I'm with I'm with Charlie Company, the White Falcons.
You know, I'm doing my job there, and it's pretty
much I would say, you know, uh, same same same
ice cream, different flavor. You know, it's just a small team.
It's small team ops, and you know, you just go
(35:56):
into your thing. And a about nine months into this,
I actually had a bad jump. So, for all of
the non airborne people out there, a bad jump means
you got hurt when you exited an airplane and on
and on. Re entry if you want to call it that. Yeah,
(36:17):
like you just get hurt, you know, landing on the
drop zone, and and anybody else that's been to Fort
Braggs slash Liberty, whatever you want to call it, you
know that any field landing strip on a drop zone
is very hard because planes land on it.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Yeah, so I had.
Speaker 6 (36:38):
Oh I jumped from eight hundred to one thousand.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
It depended on the parachute.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So one that's the bad jump. That's the bad jump.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Yeah, the bad jump. So that one, I do believe
was November of twelve. Yeah, I hit so hard, I
knocked myself out. So at that point, you know, my
body composition was like two forty. I was just all
legs and shoulders from all the rock marches.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
And the PTU we were doing.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
So I was actually, I do believe I was overweight
under canopy. So there's a weight limit, and if you
are over then you all faster than you're supposed to
do safely. So that's what ended up happened to me, right,
Some of us affectionately call that lawn darting.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well, so okay, but so just for the audience's understanding,
there's a difference between lawn darting and cigaring in.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
That is correct.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
Yeah, So this was not one of those things where
I had a huge malfunction.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I did not everything opened cigar in.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
You lawn darted in, which means you're just too heavy
for the canopy.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
Correct, Yes, So instead of falling at the usual rate
of speed, it was faster, so you know, obviously more force.
And I was probably about three seventy five or four
hundred pounds under canopy with all of my gear, me
and the shoot and the weapon.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Damn.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
Yeah, it was. It was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
So this is actually where it starts to get kind
of rough for my career. So the first bad jumper
that I had, yeah, oh absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:20):
Uh So November of that year, I you know, had
the bad jump. I went to the emergency room. They
checked me out for a concussion. I had a concussion.
I went, they went through concussion protocol and they released me,
and then I was sent back to my unit and
(38:40):
they wrote me a profile or a chit, whatever you
guys call it. In the Navy, I think it's a chit,
but for the yeah, for the army, yeah, a profile
for limited duty.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
So with the head injury.
Speaker 6 (38:54):
I had real bad headaches, and I had trouble focusing,
like literally my eyes had trouble focusing near too far,
and after.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Yeah forgetting knocked out, so yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 6 (39:09):
To backtrack to the actual moment that it happened, and
when I hit everything went black for about what felt
like a couple seconds, and then I woke up staring
at blue and then I, you know, unhooked my parachute
and just training took over.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
And then how long? Huh?
Speaker 2 (39:28):
How long were you? How long were you unconscious?
Speaker 5 (39:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (39:33):
It probably was no more than a couple of seconds,
I would think, because it wasn't like I had moved
from my parachute catching wind or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
I was just on the ground and my.
Speaker 6 (39:45):
Parachute was still actually deflated, So it couldn't have been
that long.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
It couldn't have been that long.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
But nobody was able to run up to you at
that time.
Speaker 6 (39:56):
No, No, I mean we had that one was a
that one was a mass tactical jump, so you got
people going out really quick from both sides, so you
get kind of scattered.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, yeah, I interested.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Yeah, So I don't know how long I was out
I think it was for only for a couple of seconds.
Speaker 5 (40:14):
But when I came to I just kind of took
a second.
Speaker 6 (40:17):
I was like, I just breathe. I was like, oh,
what the hell happened? And I was like, all right,
I'm going to just start doing my thing. So yeah,
So when when I got to the when I got
to the like the collection point, I went and saw
the doc and they were like, what happened.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
I told them what happened. I lost consciousness, and they said,
all right, you're going to the hospital. So I did. Yeah.
I wasn't there for that long.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
Actually, I was only there for probably like four or
five hours for observation to make sure I was all right,
you know, doing balanced tests and neurological tests, and I passed.
But they more or less after about a two week
profile of hey, take it easy. It was is like
do limited duty as far as like don't do I
(41:04):
think it was like don't run for like two weeks
because like my blood pressure, like don't like overly exert myself,
like go for walks in the morning or something like that,
which made me feel really helpless.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
And I hated it.
Speaker 6 (41:18):
Because you know, no one wants to be you know,
told that they can't do their job that they love,
you know, and you know you're not doing it with
your guys. You're not doing all the hard stuff with them,
so you're losing out.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
You know. I felt like I was losing out.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, like I'm weaker than my my constituents.
Speaker 5 (41:36):
Yeah, you know, it just it is.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
It just didn't feel right that when they would go
on the long runs on Mondays and Fridays.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
I wasn't going with them because yeah, you.
Speaker 6 (41:44):
Know, like I was a runner. I mean I did
my best two mile in ten forty. So all my
guys hated the fact that I would run like a
two minute mile pace for like three and a half
four miles. Like it was like, but you know, that's
one of the things, like you got to take care
of yourself so you can come back and lead your troops,
you know, like you can't lead broken it's you're just
(42:08):
not as effective.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
So the how did that work itself out?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Let up from the audience, know how that worked itself out?
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Because it did not work itself out. Well, it did
not work out at all.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
Uh So after about two months, I do believe they said,
well you're your your your your currency for your jumps
is you know you're approaching the time where you have
to jump again to keep on getting your jump pay.
So I said, okay, I mean, are you serious? I
just mean I had a concussion two months ago, and
(42:47):
the there's a traumatic brain injury program at Willmack Medical
Center at Fort Bragg slash Liberty, and I went through
that whole pipeline for the next three additional brain injuries
that I sustained in a nine month period. So yeah,
(43:10):
November of twelve, I do believe that was the first one.
And then it was about two and a half three
months later, I had another jump. I had a bad
jump then too. I hit had a concussion in the
same exact way.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Because I hit, I went.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Backwards and I was coming so fast, coming down so
fast that they tell you to tuck your chin, but
I was going so fast it just whipped backwards. So
it was a concussion in that manner. Four times over.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I couldn't keep the the the signature PLF that they
tell you to keep.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
No, no, no, It definitely did not work that time. Unfortunately, brother,
I get it.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
I'm trying to share this information with our audience that
way they understand exactly. Yeah, you've been because this is
this is massively traumatic right here.
Speaker 6 (44:04):
Yeah, so this is actually where it starts to pick
up speed. And we're probably gonna have to get to
this the next time in the next part.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Because we'll get to that, but go ahead.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
Yeah, at this point, after four brain injuries, I am
on five different medications.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
I'm on two different sleep.
Speaker 6 (44:26):
Medications because I just could not go to sleep, and
then when I did, I slept too much. I slept
about twelve to fifteen hours, you know, if I was
left to sleep. So I was on two different sleep meds.
I was on a muscle relaxer. I was on anti
depression meds well, bututrin to you know, kind of get
me up in the morning to go because that was
(44:47):
so sluggish. You know, after these brain injuries, you don't
you don't really realize how many things go through the
front of your brain like this. This lobe is everything
for your personal making decisions, not going all in when
you shouldn't, I mean, your personality, your decisions. Yeah, it's
(45:08):
all there. So that's what was actually injured. I had
two hemorrhages from the from the four bad jumps. I
had two hemorrhages in my prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
Oh my god. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
If you wake up and you can't if you wake
up and you can't smell the coffee, popcor on your name,
there's a.
Speaker 5 (45:26):
Problem there, you go. I mean that was mean, that
was it.
Speaker 6 (45:32):
The woman that I was with at the time, she
actually did a little bit of staying up at night
for I'm not even sure how long, but apparently I
was told that I was sleepwalking.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
I was sleepwalking and trying to drive.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
I was actually stopped at the front door one night,
and then another couple of times, I was pulling knives
out of the kitchen block because apparently I was going
to cook, but I was totally asleep. So fuck yeah,
that was Yeah, those were those were some of the
some of the things that I had to contend with
when it came to you know, all of these you know,
(46:12):
collateral effects, you know, head injuries. Okay, you get a headache,
you kind of ring your bell a little bit, no,
and yeah, when it's.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Crownding on top of itself because.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Eighty seconds eighty second, and you know, you can't get
your jumpey unless you freaking jump. But you weren't first
and foremost, you weren't properly diagnosed the first time. You
weren't properly freaking taken care of medically the first time. Therefore,
you had multiple freaking read continuances of abrasions to the
(46:52):
same freaking injury.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 6 (46:55):
And the thing was is like every every head injury
was the mechanism was the same every time. It was
always hitting and going backwards every single time, so it
just kept hitting it. There is there's actually a gentleman
that I would sincerely like to think.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
His name is Patrick McNamara.
Speaker 6 (47:18):
That man was my occupation, No, he was my vestibular therapist.
That that man had me stand on one foot and
balance like a gymnast more times than I really am
okay with.
Speaker 5 (47:33):
But he pushed me to get better.
Speaker 6 (47:35):
He pushed me to get through all the frustration, to
get back, to try and get away back because ultimately
I didn't. I didn't get back. That's that's that's the
most I think I would probably say the hardest part
about that is that.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
I didn't come back from it.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Well, I'd really like you to.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
And I realized we're going to have to break this
up for our next our next session, but.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Please dive into the struggles and.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Moving forward with with what you everything you dealt with it,
because this is exactly what we want to share with
the audience. So that way they know what I mean.
It's not it's not.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
All freaking peaches and cream when we're in the military.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
No, please continue and dive more into this, all right.
Speaker 6 (48:34):
So with those four brain injuries, I had a nurse practitioner,
I had a team of therapists, and I also had.
Speaker 5 (48:47):
The profiles that I was telling you about. They told
me not to read.
Speaker 6 (48:50):
They told me not to read, They told me not
to look at a screen for more than fifteen minutes.
They told me not to come in to work until
nine am. I was forbidden from doing PT. I mean,
everything was on a severely limited schedule.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
And so you had a you had a team of practitioners.
But what what was that team encompassed with because it's
not just they're not just all nurses or general partictional
practitioner nurses.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
What what was the team?
Speaker 5 (49:21):
So the nurse practitioner was kind of like a case manager. Uh.
Speaker 6 (49:25):
And then so that was like the overall health and
then there was vestibular therapist. So that was a that
was either a PhD candidate or like a master's degree holder.
I don't really remember, but they were definitely medical, but
they weren't a doctor.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Or a doctor.
Speaker 6 (49:41):
Yeah, they were definitely a physical therapist and what what capacity.
So vestibular was just for my balance, like my inner
ear stuff.
Speaker 5 (49:51):
So yeah, and then so.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
That you can share with the audience brothers.
Speaker 6 (49:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So the vestibular therapy was also was
all about like hand eye coordination, balance, movement in space,
finding your body in space, like you know, how you
close your eyes you can stand straight up.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (50:10):
I would fall over.
Speaker 6 (50:13):
I would legitimately fall over because my inner like my
inner ear was messed up from the head injuries.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
So yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker 5 (50:23):
I did. I had a talk therapist because I was depressed.
I was severely Your speech was.
Speaker 6 (50:32):
Yeah, my speech was also compaired to I actually had
they're not allocution lessons, but definitely speech therapy as well
because I had a severe stutter. I couldn't get words out,
so yeah, you couldn't like you can't write this stuff.
I had to learn how to walk appropriately again, and
(50:53):
I leaned how to I had to learn.
Speaker 5 (50:54):
How to talk appropriately again.
Speaker 6 (50:56):
So I had four and four four head injuries that
caused me to lose my capability to speak like an
adult and walk like an adult.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
And you were in pain in addition, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (51:09):
Yeah, yeah, I had I had back pain and uh,
knee pain, neck pain. I mean, all the all the
normal stuff that everybody goes through, you know, we uh
you know, it's just.
Speaker 5 (51:24):
What it was.
Speaker 6 (51:24):
I mean, not only do you have to deal with
like the PTS, like the hurt and like the field
hurt that you get that you just you know, power through.
Speaker 5 (51:31):
This was stuff that was way harder.
Speaker 4 (51:33):
And and you're still you're you're still active duty right
during this period of time.
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Yes, yes, I'm still active duty. I'm still active do
you during this time. I'm still in North Carolina. I'm
still with my brigade, and I'm still doing my job.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
You're dealing with, uh, you're dealing with one freaking light
duty chit after another, and and degradation of job performance
because you can't freaking do it.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
And I mean, holy shit, then.
Speaker 4 (52:06):
So, Daniel, so you know we are going to we
are we are going to we are going to be
running out of time and what I really want our
viewers to tune in next week because your story is very,
very powerful, And this is what Steven is trying to
get to at this moment.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
And I just interrupted him, but can you leave.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
In your own words a little bit about what it
is that you're going to talk about with our next
time together That is just powerful? Could you please in
your own words?
Speaker 5 (52:40):
Well, I was fighting for my life.
Speaker 6 (52:43):
I ended up as a results of these head injuries.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
I ended up being, like I said.
Speaker 6 (52:49):
Severely depressed and out of all that, I am a
four time suicide survivor.
Speaker 5 (52:56):
And this was all outside of the military too.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
Yeah, So we're gonna we're gonna talk next week. We're
gonna talk more about the end of your service, the
rest of the stuff that you dealt with medically. Four
time suicide survivor. You know, brother, I don't need to
say this. My audience knows us, both Stacy and I
(53:23):
we are here for you no matter what happens.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
You're never alone. You're never alone. Uh.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
And we're gonna pick this up the next time uh
next week. God willing you have time to spare with
us so that we can hear this more more about
this because.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
This is We're not done on unveiling this for the audience.
Speaker 4 (53:48):
This is now they have they have the lead up
and then and then next week it's gonna get.
Speaker 6 (53:53):
Yeah, I'll tell you what like next week is going
to be. I mean, like I said, fighting for my life,
finding the inspiration wherever I could to keep going.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
And it's not so easy.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm going to be hard, no, and I get that.
So but what I am going to say is this.
I say one of two, we may be one of four.
I don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
We'll get there, but I am going to say that.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Daniel, thank you very much for joining us tonight. All
of our audience, we love you. We're going to get
out of here. And remember the path for freedom is
paved with courage.
Speaker 3 (54:32):
And why I never check Chrick.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
That's right, love you guys. Check it next week. God
bless
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