Cody Copeland VETERANS DAY

Cody Copeland VETERANS DAY

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (01:32):
The day.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
So Happy Veterans Day to all of you who have
made that choice to serve.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Our great Huntry.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Thank you all. And now, as I said before, this.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Is bigger even thank you for your whatever you're doing
the service.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Our service should never end.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Even though we served before in a military, our service
should never end.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So what are you doing today to serve the people
around you?

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I thank you for that as well.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
So being Veterans Day, that also means it's been one
year since we released the book on Bridge named Damis.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
It was really awesome being able to write this book
and it's been a great year of it being released.
I've read this book probably about a hundred times in
different classrooms in different auditoriums across the country, mostly the Northeast,
but I've read it about one hundred times to students
in schools.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So today I'd love for you to read the book.
I'd love for you to.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Record your kids reading their favorite page in the book.
And when you record their favorite page, then post it
to our social media tag us as Sweethearts and Heroes
or even at rick Yarish. I'd love to watch your
kids reading the book. And also when you do, we
will actually send you a digital version of me reading
the book. It's a really cool thing that we worked

(03:00):
with the artists.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
We worked with some really cool technology, and we also
worked with Binghamton.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
University to record my voice reading the book.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So please check it out. We will do just that.
That's rick Yarish this morning, who sent me that, And
I'm hoping that at some point he may be able
to hop on the air with us this morning. But
it is Veteran's Day. And if you know Ricky, if
you've seen rick in the past, if you've heard him

(03:30):
in the past and taken in his message of hope
and resiliency in the wake of massive, massive despair, you
know that he has quite the impact. Of course, rick
Yarish one of the founders along with Tom Murphy of

(03:54):
Sweethearts and Heroes. Who's going to be with me in
the studio, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Wednesday, tomorrow, tomorrow.
It is Tuesday the eleventh. Yes, it is Veterans Day.
I've been on the phone this morning with Ron Tollman
and he actually was on the phone with him yesterday too,

(04:15):
and he was telling me that the parade will not
be happening on North Main Street in Barry this morning.
It has been so many years in the past because
of the weather and they have decided to keep things
warm and dry. And we'll be up at the Barry
Auditorium this morning for the ceremony at around eleven o'clock,

(04:40):
So if you can be there, please please do. I
have with me this morning in this Veterans Day a
guy that I just met and it is such a
pleasure to have him in here. Cody Copeland, who was
I didn't know about Cody until Rex Thompson mentioned him. Man,

(05:02):
you and I brother are neighbors. I'm so happy to
meet you. Dude, you too, And I gotta say, man,
thanks thanks to Rex for for telling me about you.
He was. He was with me on the air last
Friday and was like, you know Cody Copeland, right, And
I'm like no, and He's like, dude, he is a
bad ass. You need to have him on.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I'm I'm humbled and I'm I'm just uh, I'm
taken by the fact that you've you've never done anything
like this before. This is all news. But you know what,
here's the thing, man, you ain't afraid. You can't You
can't be afraid of a couple of little microphones after

(05:45):
what you've been through. Holy shit, dude, tell me a
little bit about you. You you're thirty five, you got
a little bull my deal. How many kids do you have?

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I got one boy. His name's Dale. He's seven years old.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Holy crap. And let's before we go one inch further.
Congratulations to Dale forgetting himself a deer.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Now his first his first Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Dude, that is so incredible.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
It was. It was something I'll never forget.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
When did this happen?

Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was youth Day, so two weekends ago.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
He must be on top of the world. He is
seven years old, he still is. Yeah. Wow. How many pounds?

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Uh what it was? One hundred and thirteen pounds?

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Like damn yeh, let's be thrilled. He was, you know,
And I just said to you off the air, I'm like, man,
there ain't nothing that matters more than stuff like that,
right there.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, No, it's definitely something you know, I'll never forget.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
How blessed are you to not only be alive, to
have survived what you've been through, which we'll talk about
a little bit of that, but to be able to
be alive in this world and live life. To have
that experience with your kid, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Dude, it really is. I don't think you know, there's
anything else that can.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Be to what a gift? What a gift? Time is
the single greatest gift that any of us are given
rewarded with. I think in this world you're a single
dad man. How are you? How are you doing? How
are you doing that?

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well? I do have I've got a great girlfriend that
you know, she supports me and stuff, Danny, But yeah,
it's it's sad, its challenges.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Sure, I'm not sure if if Ron is gonna call
in this morning or or what, but he spoke very
highly of you yesterday on the phone. You're out my way,

(08:11):
You're you're in Corinth Corinth? Yeah, okay, Active Army.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
I was in the Active Army YEP, and after that
I did some time with the National Garden.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Okay, are you working?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
I am. I actually work out a granted shed I've
been in the industry for about twelve years, but now
I'm with a Bataran Girardi.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
How's that called.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
It's going good. It's pretty busy.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, yeah, I'm just getting a text from Rick who's
tuned in this morning.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Rick Yarsh, How you doing, Rick?

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah? I mean, this guy was blown off of his
Bradley by a rootes side palm covered in diesel, burning alive,
flew off the bradley compound fractures and rolled into a

(09:17):
water trough down on the sides of the roads there.
I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Apparently they're
disgusting the water that's in there, and the water put
out the fire, but of course just all of the
infection from the from the water went into his body

(09:38):
and just made things that much worse. Somehow, he survived
even though his entire body has been burned and did
not really didn't didn't really want to live for a

(10:00):
good a good amount of time, and lost some of
his best friends during his time. I'm pretty sure it
was Afghanistan right around same time that you were there.
But this guy has reawakened into a whole different person,

(10:26):
even though he has one leg and an entire body
that's that's been burned, yuh, and has been at the
at the bottom of the of the barrel with regard
to hope and desire to to push on. And now

(10:49):
he's he's written he's written a book, and he goes
around to schools all over the country and pushes the
message of be the best person you can, have hope,
have resiliency, be strong, and just be a good person.

(11:12):
And there's a whole message about bullying and so on
and so forth that goes with us. But Rick is
and has been and will always be a the spokesperson
for this message to go out to our youth today,
which is really amazing.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
It really is a He's a hero.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
And so were you, my brother two thousand and nine
to two thousand and fourteen. You were active army that's correct,
and went to Afghanistan about thirteen or fourteen years ago.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yep, yeah, right, twenty ten, all.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Right, one hundred and seventy third Airborne Infantry, that's correct.
What made you say this is what I want to do?
You went? You went to Spalding High School?

Speaker 3 (12:09):
I did. Yep. After that, I did construction for about
a year or so.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
And after high school.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
After high school, yeah, it really wasn't working out. So
my father, he was in the National Guard, and so
I wasn't. My uncle, my grandfather was in Korea, and
as I just went down and talked to one of
the recruiters and I signed the papers. In April twenty second,
two thousand and nine, I was on my way to

(12:40):
basic training.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Wow, where was that? Where was basic training?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
That was in Fort Benning, Georgia? And that was It
was thirteen or fourteen weeks. I could always, I could
run really well. I think my fastest two mile was
just over eleven minutes. And at the end of that,
they asked if A like to go to the airborne
school down there. So I stayed for a nextra a
month or so and completed the airborne course.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
What's there a point? And I'm always kind of curious
about this when when the beginning of this where you
may have said, what have I gotten myself into? I'm
not sure. Maybe I made a mistake.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, I could say that happened within probably the first
three days of being in Fort Benning.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Which might be kind of common.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Right now. I think, I think that's what they you know,
they're trained to do. They break you down and build
you back up to be a soldier.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Holy crap. So so that what happened after that? Did
you go to airborne school?

Speaker 3 (13:53):
I did. I completed the airborne school that was right
there at Fort Benning a different part of the base,
and at first my original orders, I was supposed to
go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and somehow after airborne school,
they got mixed up, and that's when I got the
orders to go to Vincenza, Italy with the one seventy third.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
So you went there?

Speaker 3 (14:15):
I went there?

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, what'd you do there?

Speaker 3 (14:19):
We had one quick training rotation and I was only
there for about a month or so, and then we
went straight into Afghanistan. I think I was twenty years old.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Ron Tollman, our good friend seventeen in Vietnam.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, yeah, ron Is, I'd like to throw that out there.
Ron really is a great guy. He's done a lot
for me.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
What's he done for you?

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, he could tell that I was a struggling you
know what parts and this was he didn't really know
who I was, but with alcohol, and he grabbed me
right by the arm and said you're coming with me,
and took me down in the VA and got the
whole process ruling for me.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Wouldn't take no for an answer.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
No, No, he's really like an angel.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
And I was just telling you off the air what
he did for my dad.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
That's wrong, that's wrong. Yep.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Relatability is so huge amongst all veterans. It is, quite honestly,
whether they've been active duty or not, they've all gone
through basic training and they all have one thing in common.
They're willing and ready to give their lives for their country. Yep.

(15:44):
So you sign up to do, it's what you sign
up to do, and the respect is so high, no
matter what you've got on your lapel, no matter what
kind of uniform you're wearing. I think that's or at
least what should be what Veterans Day should be about.

(16:11):
What did you What what happened when you When you
left Vincenza, you were loaded up on a chinnok.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, well we took a commercial flight to uh I
think the country was Kirkyzstan or somewhere over there. And
after that, yeah, we were taking chinooks. We went to
Boggram Air Force Base, which is the you know, it
was a huge base in Afghanistan and we were there
for a couple of days and one night we had
two chinooks come and load us our platoon up and

(16:44):
brought us up to the mountains.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Were you scared?

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yes? Absolutely. The first night, you know, when we were
in the chinooks. It was already dark. You couldn't really
see anything. We're going over the mountains and that was
the first time we received fire. They were firing at
the chinooks. The fifty cow gunner on the back opened up,
and that was another point, you know, wondering what the
hell you got yourself into.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, rick Yarish, we have a great soldier with us
this morning on the air, and you're another one, my.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
Friend, JD.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
How are you good, buddy? Have a I have a
hero who's sitting right across from me here on the couch. Man.

Speaker 5 (17:30):
I just heard.

Speaker 6 (17:31):
I heard, I heard chinook, I heard fifty cow. I
like both those words.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Well, he was in Afghanistan in two thousand and ten.
This is Cody Copeland. Cody, meet rick Yarish.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
How you doing, sir?

Speaker 5 (17:46):
I'm good, Cody.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
How are you doing doing good?

Speaker 5 (17:48):
I should call you brother?

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yes, brother.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
One hundred and seventy third Airborne went to Vincenza, Italy
for a short time and then straight to Afghanistan for
a year and saw some some horrible action there. My friend,
as I know that you can certainly relate to.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Sure I can.

Speaker 6 (18:09):
I can, and probably not in the same capacities. You know,
most of the stuff that we dealt with were I EDS.
We very very rarely had actual gunfights, but yeah, mostly
I EDS.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
Where I was.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
When were you in was in Afghanistan, Rick.

Speaker 6 (18:27):
I was in Iraq and it was I got there
at the very end of two thousand and five and
then was injured in September sixth Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Rick Cody, he's a he's a neighbor of mine, lives
lives down the road. He he has been dealing with
with all of it since the ps PTSD, the the
depression and and all that stuff. Alcohol. You can you
can certainly relate to a good amount of this.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
Yeah, I can.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
I can relate to the fact that this stuff is
extremely difficult.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
That I can relate to.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
But the part that I have that I can't relate
to is I've never had post traumatic stress. Early early,
early on, I struggled with things, and I think maybe
I questioned if I had it or not, But you know,
I never I didn't have the nightmares, I didn't have
the the the flashbacks too bad, you know.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
So it's different for me.

Speaker 6 (19:38):
And I say that I wouldn't trade it for I
wouldn't trade what I look like you.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
Know, I don't have my ears, I don't have my nose,
my hands are all messed up, my leg is gone.

Speaker 6 (19:47):
But I wouldn't trade any of that for post traumatic stress,
because I know the struggle can come from that that
you question who you are. And I've never had the
question that with myself, and I'm so so lucky for that.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
You've had a good a good number of brothers, sisters
part of your your platoon. Maybe that that have Oh
I sure have, Oh I sure have. And have you
have you had to have you lost? Have you lost
friends to suicide?

Speaker 6 (20:22):
I have none in my platoon, thankfully, But after my injury,
I just, you know, I dove into a new world
of veterans, you know, these guys who were injured and
very badly injured, and I've had I've lost a lot
of those buddies, unfortunately to suicide. And you know back

(20:42):
home as well, not just you know, military buddies, but
buddies from back home.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Cody has lost six. Wow, and this is something that
you have have talked about an awful lot.

Speaker 5 (21:01):
It is.

Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, six is too many. One is too many. Six
is insanely too many. And what are we what are
we doing about it? Like, what are we doing?

Speaker 5 (21:11):
You know?

Speaker 6 (21:12):
Yeah, way to a day. I don't know if that
numbers change. That's the number that was always stuck in
my head, twenty two a day. And it's time to
fix that. I mean, it's time to do something about that.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
What do we what do we do you know for
for for for some of us, there's really no quick
fix to to this, to restoring you know, uh, mental
health as as a whole. But I mean, it's not
like you can just go join the vf W and

(21:45):
or the or the or or you know, going down
to the v A or or join the the American
Legion and and just being around other brothers and sisters
is going to take care of it.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think those things help.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
But I also think, you know, unfortunately today that the
and listen, I don't know if it's any fault of
the VFW and the American Legion, but the VFW in
the American Legion is not.

Speaker 5 (22:12):
What it was, you know, fifty years ago, sixty years ago.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
The younger veteran that gets out of service, I don't know,
they're not looking to become a part of the American
Legion or the VFW unfortunately, So I don't know. We
do need something new to bring veterans together where I
live in New York. I mean, and I'm sure this
is my fault, but I don't know hardly any veterans

(22:40):
at all where I live.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
Yeah, I just don't. We don't connect, and we should
be connecting more.

Speaker 6 (22:46):
We should be sharing stories with each other and talking
about things.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
The message of hope is something that you talked about
quite a bit, Rick, and something that you didn't really
have a whole hell of a lot of that for
for quite a while, and now you you push that
message more profoundly than ever.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean, there were there were many, many moments,
you know, because I think hopelessness comes in waves and pieces,
and I had many moments of hopelessness early on. But
you know, I'm not saying I will never feel hopelessness again.
But I haven't felt hopelessness in a really long time now,
because I know when I deal with something difficult that

(23:31):
I don't want to deal with, it's going to lead
to something good in the end when I get through it,
when I push through it, that it's going to be okay.
And I've really been living by this thing lately that
you know, life is hard, but it's good. It's even
when it's really difficult, life is still good. And if
I can look at it that way, and if I
can see the good, which it's there all the time.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
It's there all the time. You just have to clear
that smoke.

Speaker 6 (23:58):
Clear that smoke gets it look at the other side,
and there's so much good on the other side of
that negative or difficult thing that we're dealing with. So yeah,
hope holds On understands for hold On. Possibilities exists, and
the possibilities that exist are.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
Awesome if you choose to.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Look at it that way, and if you choose to
see it that way, because they are there, the possibilities
are awesome.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah. What are you doing with your book that you've written?
Rick called a bridge named Amos.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
Yes, Yeah, it's about my service dog.

Speaker 6 (24:35):
He passed away a little over a year ago October twelfth,
twenty twenty four, and I wrote about what he did
for me, you know, like I talk about hopelessness and
I talk about all those things. But in the book,
he was my bridge to connections with really one time
in my life, early on in my injury. I had
a very difficult time going out in public and you know,

(24:57):
just being the spectacle. I was the spectacle. If I
went into a mall, every single person in that mall
saw me. There was no avoiding that, and it was
just hard for me, especially with little kids who were afraid.
So Amos was my bridge to overcoming that because, you know,
especially with the kids.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
Everybody, but especially kids, they love dogs.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
And they'd approach Amos and they would pet Amos and
they wouldn't even notice me until they did, and then
they were fine with it because the dog was there.
So the book is called The Bridge named Amos. He
was my bridge to being comfortable out in public early
out of my recovery. And yeah, we released it a
year ago on Veterans Day, and so it's been a
year now and we're doing a thing on the Sweets

(25:40):
and Heroes of Facebook and Instagram where if you check
us out, you can get a free digital book and
it's me reading the book and it's this cool technology that.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Scrolls it out.

Speaker 6 (25:51):
It's just really really cool and it's free. So if
anyone wants to check it out, please check it out.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I think you're coming in here. On when Wednesday,
which is tomorrow tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
Yeah, my week has been all messed up.

Speaker 6 (26:06):
I've been like thinking that Veterans Day is Wednesday, because
I'm going to be with you right all right.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
No, you're in here tomorrow, You're coming in from New York.
You're coming here tomorrow morning.

Speaker 5 (26:18):
I'm gonna be sitting right where Cody's sitting right now.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
All right? Would you bring one of your copy of
your book for Cody's seven year old little boy?

Speaker 5 (26:27):
Absolutely absolutely bring that out.

Speaker 6 (26:30):
I'll sign it and put Amos's footprint in there.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
And that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
That's what we want. Brother. Listen, and if Cody is
anywhere close by, he's going to come in here and
pop in and see you.

Speaker 6 (26:42):
Man, Yes, please do. I'd love to share that couch
with you, Cody.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
I will, dude. I love you to pieces, Rick. I
can't wait to see you, buddy. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
I love you, man, Hey, love you Cody. I never
met you, but I absolutely love you, brother.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Man.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
All right, you gentlemen, have a great day.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Thanks, buddy. That's rick yarsh right there. Man. That's that's
what he's all about. Freaking awesome. And I hope you
I hope you're going to be close by. I hope you'll.
I hope he'll get a chance to meet him tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
I would I would love to.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah, what what what do you what? Are your buddies
who was part of your platoon is having a particularly
difficult time, which, of course you can relate to. Are
you connected with him?

Speaker 3 (27:31):
I am. You know, most of the guys we still
if anything's bothering them, you know, you'll get a random
text or a phone call, and no matter what time
of the day or night it is, you'll always hear
a response back. It's a real brotherhood, it really is.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
He he knows he can count on you absolutely to
a level that might be even different than his girlfriend,
his wife.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yep, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
It' isn't that amazing?

Speaker 3 (28:00):
It is.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Our World War two veterans. Have you had a chance
to meet any.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
A couple of them?

Speaker 1 (28:14):
It's amazing, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (28:15):
It really is. I mean, you know, those guys didn't
have the resources that we do, the same with the
Vietnam Thatt's. You know they get they got treated like
shit when they came back.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, amazing. I'm hoping that. And I know mister compos
Has has had rather a difficult last couple of months.
I think he's one hundred years old, and I don't

(28:47):
know that he'll be up at the ceremony today at
the Bury Auditorium at eleven o'clock, but if you had
a chance to meet him. I have these guys, all
of you are such bad asses through the bone, what
you've been through, what you've endured, and then you have

(29:08):
to come home and live live your life. But the
last seven years of having a little your own little
boy in your life, that's probably and will always be
possibly the greatest thing that's that will has ever happened
to you and will be ever happening to you.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Absolutely, Like I said, you know, we were talking a
little off there. I've struggled a lot over the years,
and he's he's really helped me, you know, start to
get my shit together. Not one hundred percent there, but
I'm getting better.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
And and I don't know that anyone really has to
be one hundred percent, but just general forward progress.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Right, And and that's the thing with the PTSD I've
struggled with. You know, after a traumatic event, you seem
it seems like things would get better over time. But
with me and I can't speak for all veterans, but
I think that's same with some of the other veterans,
as it actually gets worse.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Over time, you know, except that is the case for.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
You, that is the case for me. Yeah, you know,
I used to be able to go to Gusto's or
you know, hang out with groups of people. And sure, now,
like we're talking again, talking off air, I'm more keep
to myself, you know, Like I got a real small
group of friends. And yeah, I did some racing down
at Bear Speedway. I was doing that for a couple

(30:35):
of years, and really yep, and that was another thing,
the anxiety and the stress that just got to a
certain point where it wasn't fun for me anymore. And
that's that's with like a lot of things, you know.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
You know, I have a friend who's a veteran who
did a tour in Afghanisty and he's in Michigan, and
you know, what we both say to each other and
and he's very similar to what you were just describing.

Speaker 5 (31:09):
Is.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
It's okay. It's it's okay to say, hey, I did
that for a little while. It's not working out for me.
It's not not bringing me as much joy as it did,
or that I thought it would. So I'm gonna change
it up. I'm gonna try something different, and I'm probably
gonna either stop doing that cold turkey or I'm just
gonna kind of transition slowly away from it. Nothing wrong

(31:34):
with that. You got to do what's best for you, whatever,
whatever that looks like, whether it's diving in headfirst into
work or or other things, hunting, whatever it may be,
find what brings you joy and do those things. How

(31:56):
how rough was and and I'll go down any road
you want to go down, and I won't on any
road you don't want to go down. But can you
how rough were things in Afghanistan? You said you immediately
you guys were taking fire. Can you do you have? Is?
Are there any stories or anything that you're able to share?

(32:20):
And I know I'm putting you on the spot here,
and you can tell me to go pound sand and
I will.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
No, it's all right. Well, when we first got there,
we were in Kunar Province, which the movie the documentary
on Netflix. I was telling you about that versus Treppo
that was the same platoon and company the prior deployment.
So I had some some real strong leaders started at

(32:46):
first class. Phillips was my platoon leader. But yeah, it
was we were transitioning with the other unit and the
firefighting wasn't very much then, but as soon as they
were gone, and you know, we finally took it over,
we were getting shot at multiple times a week, you know,

(33:08):
and sometimes they just wouldn't stop. It'd go like that forever.
One instance, everybody on the we were on a like
a thirty five man out post and we almost totally
ran out of ammo. We had to have a helicopter
come and sling load a crate of ammo, you know,
crates of ammo right in the middle of the fob,

(33:29):
and we all took turns going and getting the ammo.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah while you're taking fire, while we're taking fire.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yep. And it was like that the summer months where
it was it was like that, like I said, almost constant.
The winter time it slowed down a little bit, but
we were still getting you know, we would go on
foot patrols working with the A and A, which they
ended up a lot of them were corrupt. We we'd
plan the missions with them and stuff, and next thing

(34:02):
you know, we were getting ambushed because they knew exactly
what we were doing, so we got ended up getting
rid of the ANA. So it was just it was
just us and it wasn't it wasn't working out working
with the Afghan Army itself. How So, like I said,
there's just some the planning of the missions and stuff

(34:23):
like that. We were trying to involve them in the planning,
and they would go and tell their little hodgy brother
down the road, you know, this is what they're gonna do,
this is what time they'll be there. It was a
big problem.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
What else did you lose? Did you lose a friend?
I did? Yep.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Sergeant beach Nott was shot on a foot patrol one day.
He was in the Scouts and sniper unit. One thing
that really broke my heart was we had two dogs that,
you know, they had gone missions with us. I got
pictures on my Facebook. They ended up having puppies, cute
little puppies, you know, and we all loved them. Was

(35:11):
it finally brought us a little bit of joy? Well,
Command Sergeant Major showed up one day and said, do
you guys need to get rid of these dogs. I'm
going to come back, and you know a couple of
weeks and they better be gone. Well he came back
a few weeks later and they weren't gone. The first
thing he did was shot one of the puppies with

(35:32):
his nine millimeter. Of course, they all scattered, they couldn't
really run far because the heske walls are all around,
and he chased every single one around and shot every
single one, cornered the mother and shot her, and then
threw them all and the burn pit you know, where
all our shit went, and all their trash through them all.
It broke my heart, it really it broke my heart.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Uh didn't see that coming. His his reasoning was was
was what.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
It was just he didn't want us, I don't.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Know, being connected or distracted.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
I think that's exactly it. And I mean these dogs,
the mother and the father, they they'd go on missions
with us, would stay overnight, and like I said, I
got pictures of the dogs up on the mountain with us.
They didn't bother anything, And it was just that one
little piece you know, we all had, it was taken away.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
You still in touch with this guy?

Speaker 3 (36:43):
No, i'd hate.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, yeah, no, no, wow. How how how'd your other
soldiers take that?

Speaker 3 (36:54):
We all took it pretty rough. I'm there's people, you know,
trying to connect, make connections back home, possibly adopt the
dogs or just do something with them, but not the
way it ended up.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Do you have a dog now?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
I do actually got a dog. He's probably six months old.
His name is Boston.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
What kind of doc black lad? Good dog.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
He's a real good dog.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, six months old. He's probably taken out a few shoes.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
He does about everything he can. He really likes the stuff,
the animals.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
What you're describing to me, running to taking turns to
run and get ammo back to your platoon. There is
a there's just a real like high level of just
pure luck. If you're gonna be able to survive and

(38:01):
dodge a bullet, yeah, just pure luck. I mean, And
you know it's like, man, you can you can pray
all you want to pray, but in the end, you're

(38:24):
either going to get hit or you're not going to
get hit.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Right yep. And I mean there was people that, you know,
we had a handful of guys that got purple hearts
that day.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
What other rough days memories do you have that you're
willing to share.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Well, we were getting mortar fired and direct fire and
we could see where they're shooting at us up on
top of the mountain, you know, a couple of click away.
So you know, we went up there because we were
trying to make sure it was all shut down and everything.
And when we get up to the top of the
mountain where they're shooting us, there on the other side

(39:13):
waiting and ambushed us from where they were up there.
So we all went running down the mountain and there
was this giant river and it turned into like big
apple orchards at the bottom, and what do you know,
there was another round of people sitting there to ambush us.

(39:35):
So we were stuck in between getting shot at from
the top getting shot at from the bottom. We had
one guy that actually got swept away in the river
and another platoon was getting called up and ended up
getting them out of the river. Was he hit He
wasn't hit. No, we just got swept away in the water.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Did you lose anybody that day?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Not that day?

Speaker 5 (40:01):
No?

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (40:07):
And this was at night, this was no, this was
during the day.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
That's crazy stuff, man, it really was. You know. Uh,
I'm not sure what you're able to watch what's being
put out from from Hollywood, but it. It's it's really

(40:35):
remarkable to hear real stories like this and to imagine
what it would what it was that you were feeling
and beyond fear, beyond adrenaline, to to see what what

(40:57):
you saw and to experience that is is unfathomable for me.
I just and and so many others that are that
are watching you. You you got through this man, and
you came home. Any injuries physical injuries.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
No, I mean I got the old man sore back
and stuff like that now, But now I was flying
back then. Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, must have been in great shape.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
I was back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
What do you say to other veterans who are struggling
with PTSD depression? I mean, I you know, I said
to you before before we went live this morning, I'm like,

(42:04):
you know, seven or seven or eight months of cloud
and cold and snow and shit up here in the
North Country certainly can't lend a helping hand to stuff
like this, right.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
It definitely takes a toll on you. Like I said,
I I'm still struggling to this day. But what I
could say to anyone is you need to reach out
and talk to your buddies, no matter who it is,
your family, just don't give up. I mean, you matter,
you really do, and no matter what you feel like

(42:41):
you're going through, you can you can do it. You
have to reach out and get the help though. I
mean people, I got lucky with my mother and my
father and you know my family. They have come to
me and dragged my ass, you know, around and saying no,
you're you're gonna get help. And Ron and Ron Tollman,

(43:02):
I understand that not everyone has that, but if you
don't have that, you really need to you need to
look for it.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
The easiest way to do that would be to do
what literally get in the car and drive to the
VA down the White River. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
I know they have a lot of crisis numbers that
you can call. I've never personally called one, but I
mean there's a lot of people that care out there.
You know.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
They're they're they're you know. And I remember Ron saying
this to me a long time ago. They're used to
this at the VA. They're used to having people walk
through the doors and just sit down and say I
need some help.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Could be physical, could be mental, could be both. I
need some help. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
And I know, Pep, you probably heard rumors, oh the
V a slow and blah blah blah. They have been
totally great with me with my mental health. I wrote
my leg a couple of years ago. You know, they
take care of everything. They're still to this day there
they just they care about the veterans.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Do you do you do you do you still? Are
you a regular visitor to.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
The v A I am yep. I got a great
doctor down there named Kate van Arman. Yeah, she's she's awesome.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Wow. How often do you do you go down there?

Speaker 5 (44:34):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (44:35):
I go down What is it like a six month
check up? I've been on different medications less recently, so
it's been a little more.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yeah, but it's for for me. What's what's what's really
uh A blessing for me and an honor for me,

(45:04):
not just on Veterans Day, but anytime, is to speak
with any veteran who served active duty or not. My
dad was a Korean veteran, and it's I'm always so humbled.

(45:31):
And there's part of me that when I see a
veteran with a hat on, I mean, my little girl
will will always say thank you for your service. But
there's part of me that wonders how that's received when

(45:56):
you say to a veteran, thank you for your service?
What's what's what's in their mind of when they hear that?
What what do they say? Do they do they say
in their mind, h you're welcome? Or do they say

(46:20):
you have no idea? Or is that the least that
you can say? I just always want I always wonder
if if it's just not enough and maybe even borderline,
for lack of a better word, insulting, to just simply

(46:41):
say thank you. Is it just doesn't seem like it's enough?
Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (46:51):
I do me and myself. I'm personally not like that
at all. Anyone that says thank you to me, it
really doesn't mean a lot. And it's because of people
like that are thanking me that that's why I went
and did everything I did.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Your little boy, what's he say about all of this?
What does he think about all of this?

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Oh? He relates to Oh my dad can do that
because he was in the army. He says stuff like
that all the time. No, he loves it. I mean
I think he looks up to me because of it.
And you know, there will be a time where we
can sit down and have a couple of beers when
he's older and I can tell him some.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Stories, that'll be that'll be a great day. My little
girl has asked me in the past what is war? Why?
Why do people fight? And I have struggled finding the

(47:58):
words that I think she can understand to to explain that.
Has your little boy asked you the same question?

Speaker 3 (48:09):
He hasn't really gotten there yet. Yeah, that'll be a
hard conversation.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah, are you prepared for that? Because that's it was
right around seven eight when when Lily asked me, what Dad?
What is what is war? What is that? Why are
people shooting guns at each other? Are you prepared for
to answer that?

Speaker 3 (48:35):
I'd probably have to put some thought into it first. Yeah,
but yeah, I mean, I you know, roll with the punches.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
I cannot thank you enough. You are This is not
your comfort zme. You've you've never done this before, You've
never was wrecked. I actually I can't because you're amazing.
Was it Did Rex put any heat on you to

(49:07):
come in here?

Speaker 3 (49:08):
No? I actually uh. I messaged him that night and
I I told him, you know, I was honored that
he mentioned my name.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, he's he's listening right now. How do you. How'd
you meet Rex?

Speaker 3 (49:21):
I don't really know, just kind of.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Have you been up to one of the battles in Bury.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
I have not. He's actually he's been trying to get
me to get in the gym. He's offered me to
go in there.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Have you seen the gym?

Speaker 3 (49:34):
If you walk through the doors, I haven't.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Should happen, dude, it should happen.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Should happen.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
You got it? Just trust me. You got to see that.
Go do that. Yeah, go over there, check it out.
It's unbelievable. And January sixth, hopefully you got some time,
you'll come on up to the Barry Auditorium, Okay for
the for the next battle and Barry, it really is

(50:02):
something else.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Oh, before we do go, I wanted to give you
this as a appreciation. You get that after combat and
some hereborn wings, after a lucky tell.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
My story, and just.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
For acknowledging veterans in general.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Oh my god, dude, I don't know what to I
don't know what to say.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Oh, I appreciate everything that you're doing.

Speaker 6 (50:42):
This.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
I'm gonna do something with this. I'm not sure exactly what,
but it will be right here. You just you just
struck me hardcore man. Thank you, Cody, You're welcome.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
You deserve it.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Jeez. Man. The fact that that you're coming in here
getting on a microphone. I want, I want to show
this too, but you you just gave me so everybody
can see. Sorry, I'm shaken here. Ah, I'll get a

(51:23):
nice photo of this and put it on boy. Yeah.
The fact that that you're willing to come in here
and share your story so transparently like this and so
open is really is something that I will never forget.

(51:48):
And You're always welcome to come in here any time
for any reason. And and I've always said that to veterans,
no matter who you are, no matter what you do,
first and foremost, it's veterans. It's what it should be.

(52:14):
Rex is saying that's a CIB that has earned only
under fire. Please explain that is Yep, that's correct? What
is that? What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (52:22):
That's the rifle there? That means you have to be
in a firefight where you are engaging and being engaged
at in close combat.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
You and I are going to have a long talk
off the air about this. Okay, thank you ever so much.
I don't know, I'm not really sure how to respond
to that. But I can't thank you enough for coming
in here, and my listeners feel the same exact way

(53:02):
that I do. Thank you. That's all we can say.
That's all we can say, and so many of us
feel like that's just nowhere near enough, just those two
simple words. But that's It's what only so many of
us can offer, is just thank you and you're welcome.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
Like I said, that's that's what we sign up to deal.
It's for you guys out there.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Incredible. Cody Copeland, our guest this morning, graduate from Spaulding
High School in what year?

Speaker 3 (53:41):
Two thousand and eight?

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Local guy, What an honor it is and has been
to meet you today. You're a neighbor of mine, you
live right down the road, and I don't want to
thank Rex because without Rex telling me about you, I
may not have known about you. And I look forward

(54:04):
to getting to know you better and maybe doing some
more stuff on the microphone with you.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Man.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
All right, you have been amazing. Will you be up
at the auditorium today?

Speaker 3 (54:15):
I got to get back to work. I don't think
I'll make it up there, but I would like to
try to make it in tomorrow at least just to
get a handshake.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Okay, please anytime? Oh my god, that would I would
love that so much. If you could be here to
meet Rick tomorrow, it would be incredible. Cody Copeland our guest,
Drop a comment, give a like, and share this one
on Veterans Day and anytime. Our guest this morning here
on the aired Out podcast, And please thank a veteran today.

(54:45):
If you see those colors pass in front of you,
remove your cap. Beautiful flag flying high above North Main
Street in Bury, Vermont this morning to honor our veterans,
our men and women who have sacrificed and offered their
lives to defend our country. Thank you, Cody. So much.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
To do, to do, to do,