Shawn Ryan Show - #68 Tyler Vargas-Andrews - Marine's Horrific Account of the Disastrous Afghanistan EVAC

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

The United States withdrew the last of its troops from Afghanistan in August of 2021, signaling the end of a nearly 20 year conflict that cost 8 Trillion dollars and the lives of 900,000 people, including over 7,000 U.S. Service Members. The U.S. exit from Afghanistan resulted in the Taliban reestablishing armed control of the country and created a refugee crisis as over 1.5 Million Afghans fled. The withdrawal has been widely considered a disaster and a gross display of incompetent leadership from the President down, echoing similar failures seen at Saigon nearly half a century earlier. SRS is honored to present the story and view point from one of the Marines on the ground in Kabul, just days before the last U.S. Embassy fell–Tyler Vargas-Andrews. On August 26th, Vargas-Andrews was gravely wounded by a suicide bombing at the gates of Kabul's Airport, ultimately losing two limbs as a result of his injuries. This premeditated attack killed 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. Service Members. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://babbel.com/srs https://shopify.com/shawn https://drinkAG1.com/srs https://bubsnaturals.com - USE CODE "SHAWN" Tyler Vargas-Andrews Links: Instagram - https://instagram.com/whistlingdeath Linktree - www.linktr.ee/whistlingdeath Business - Flatline Hardgoods Instagram - https://instagram.com/flatlinehardgoods Web - www.flatlinehardgoods.com Download Tyler's Testimony to Congress - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lF-8_5jwRc5eAhzDkqqCOp-6yvd05vAw Please leave us a review on Apple & Spotify Podcasts. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website | Patreon | TikTok | Instagram | Download Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen here at Sean Ryan Show, we are rapidly becoming known as the outlet that brings truth that nobody else will talk about. In this episode is no different. Today, I have a 24 year old Marine who's had his arm blown off, his leg blown off, more surgeries than any of us can even count, all do to incompetent leadership all the way up to the president of the United States. It's one of the toughest interviews, probably the toughest interview I've ever sat through. It's enraging that the president of the United States is this incompetent. We're talking about the withdrawal in Afghanistan. And I'm gonna tell you another thing.

This story has been suppressed. The media won't cover it. They tried to suppress this congressional hearing. And the list goes on, we are one of the only outlets that will actually cover this topic. And on top of that, two of our previews have been slapped with demonetization in 18 plus,

which means they're not gonna get any views. Because you know why? They don't want how incompetent this administration is to get out. We had to edit this video, this entire episode, we pulled all the real footage. Tyler gave us more real footage that happened that day than anybody has ever seen. So what we did, once again,

there's a link below. You can go to Sean Ryan Show.com and see the uncensored version there with all the footage you can handle. This is some of the most disgusting stuff I've ever had to cover, all because of the incompetence of our president, in leadership, in the military. It's been a downward spiral for a long time, ladies and gents. We're not gonna uncover it right now. I took this interview for two reasons.

One, somebody has got to get the truth out on what happened that day. Two, this man needs to build a new life. 24 years old, one arm, one leg. He's got a knife company started. These are his knives. I got some of the first ones that he's ever made. That links also on the website. Go buy yourself a fixed blade knife from this guy. They're amazing knives. He's trying to make a new living. Let's help this guy build a new career.

Because nobody else is going to help them do it. Ladies and gents, I've seen a lot of you out there making content off of our episodes and I really appreciated this one is more important than just about any of them. So below, there's another link that has hundreds of raw reels for you to take, build what you want, be creative, get them out on every social media outlet you can, make money, monetize it, do whatever you can. All we ask is just tag the Sean Ryan show

or link the show so that other people can watch the full episode. Please go to Apple and Spotify, leave us a review on our audio platforms, like, comment, subscribe to the Sean Ryan Show channel below. I love you all. Thank you. This is going to be a hard one to stomach. It enrages me just filming the centroid. But ladies and gentlemen, But ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, please welcome this hero, Tyler Vargas Andrews to the Sean Ryan Show. Tyler Vargas Andrews.

Welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me, Sean. Very, very happy to be here. I can't even believe you're sitting across from me right now It's amazing. I can say the same. We had we had a little conversation at breakfast But I got to give credit my buddy Carter Gattis Was we saw your testimony on the news is like Sean you've got to fucking get this guy on the show And I was like look man, I'll try,

but I know this guy's getting blown up by about 50 news agencies and every podcast on the planet right now. And I was like, but whatever, we'll give it a whirl. And we message it. I got a message right back. I got shit. My pants, I was like, holy shit.

He's got a message back. So, seriously, man, I want to, it's a real honor to be sitting here with you and You know, I've I've said it on the show many times before Marines are just on another level, man especially infantry Marines like you some of the most horrific stuff I've ever heard of my life come from Marines and even the guys that were Marsock that have been on the show. Man, all the, all the, the worst trauma happened before they got to

Marsock when they were when they were in the infantry and they just seriously, it's an honor and to all the Marines out there, I don't think you guys get near the credit you deserve and I wanna give it to you. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you for being here. It's seriously, it's a real honor. It's an honor for me as well.

If I had a lot of great men in this chair before me, so very happy to be here. With your wonderful men. So, I appreciate it. But if you don't mind, I'd like to kick it off with a little introduction about you. So Tyler Vargas Andrews, you joined the Marines at age 19. You were a pig radio operator, first Marines camp Pendleton, California crisis response team in Saudi Arabia, prior to Afghanistan, you had aspirations to become

a Marsok operator. You deferred sniper school two times to make that happen. You were blown up by a suicide bomber during the Afghan withdrawal. He lost your right arm and your left leg. 13 service members were killed. 11 Marines, one sailor, one Army soldier, 170 Afghans were killed. And 45 US military personnel were wounded. Like I said, he lost your right arm, your left leg, missing parts of your organs. 43 surgeries. You're given 54 units of blood, and you still have 13 ball bearings

and two pieces of shrapnel stuck in your body. Testified in front of Congress, we'll get to all that, but wow, short, but incredible career, man. I appreciate it, thank you. So we have a lot to talk about. Yeah. Stuyvin. All right.

Well, before we dive in, as you know, everybody gets. Thank you very much. It's a little something. It's awesome. I, uh, I will have to tell you that I had a friend of mine from back home sent me some of your gummy bears when I was in the hospital. No way. Yeah. And, uh, I your gummy bears when I was in the hospital. No way.

Yeah, and I couldn't figure out who it was for the longest time. I just found out a couple weeks ago who it was, but yeah, she sent me some gummy bears. And I have to tell you, these are the best gummy bears I've ever had. Oh man. To be honest, that's not me blowing smoke up your ass. These are the best gummy bears.

Thank you very much. That's awesome. I appreciate that. I look forward to sharing those. I have a gift for you as well. Oh, yeah They want to come in empty handed my Kind of briefly talked to you about my two buddies who wanted warriors. We started a knife business We each wanted to their big fans of the show as well wanted to give you something from us to you If the notch were tied poorly it wasn't me. I'll tell you what man

is damn Marines and 550 cord you guys just it's incredible. Yeah my buddy that the National Guardsman I was telling you about he made that knife roll too use some pressure rigging in Cordura. Oh, damn, yeah, this just started that. That's the first one. Nice. How many of you got, what's the name of the company? Flatline hard goods. Flatline hard goods. We'll link that in the description. Thank you very much.

Oh yeah, that's got an edge to it. Beautiful work. How long have you guys been doing this? Man, since August of last year, and it's been very, very spotty, so kind of all working through getting out of the military and, or not all of us, but myself getting out of the military and other jobs and stuff. So it'll be a lot more time dedicated here soon. Yeah, yeah.

Well, there's no doubt you're gonna do very well. I'm not gonna use these. I'm gonna frame these and they're gonna go right on this wall. Thank you very much. So for everybody that comes in to see, thank you. I really appreciate that. Of course, we'll link this into the description and appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Hopefully that'll get you guys started in business. Thank you. But, well, Tyler, the way I want to do this interview is, at first, I just wanted to make it about the Afghan with Drom, what you experienced there. Then we kind of dove in a little bit deeper into your background and, you know, I want to start with your childhood.

Yeah. So I knew you're raised in Folsom, California, near Sacramento, raised by single mother. Mother, your mom is the top family law attorney in California. Your biological father, is it okay if I go here? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, is a child molester. You had a very traumatic event at age 12 that changed your life and gave you a new purpose to protect innocent. And you consider yourself a very spiritual person. So we bring a lot of hope to the hopeless in this podcast, whether that's military veterans, children, now we're starting to dive into sex exploitation and sex trafficking. And in all of these realms, people that experience this amount of trauma of this, they feel hopeless.

And so, let's start with your childhood, with your dad, or, and I'm unfamiliar with the event. So, yeah, in the words. So my mom got pregnant with me from my dad at 19, had me at 20, and to start kind of giving some background on him, he tried to force her having abortion, really tried to get her to get rid of me and treat her horribly and left the picture. My mom was like, I'm gonna fucking raise this kid and she did and had me. He came back around when I was about six or seven, I think seven.

Kind of trying to get to know me and be involved. And I might have been five, excuse me. They got married, I think, when I was seven. Got back together and stuff. He was around for about four or five years. And I mean, he was now today knowing what it is. You know, domestic violence and domestic abuse. I mean, screaming, throwing Christmas trees across the room, breaking all the ornaments, putting holes and dances. You remember all those? Yeah, I mean, I will worry when you started.

When I started recognizing it, I mean, I was probably maybe nine or so, eight or nine. Never saw him put hands on my mom. She never talked about that or anything. And, but I mean, he would fucking scream, and scream, scream. Do it to me, and just, I mean, uncontrollable temper, and just, I mean, uncontrollable temper and kind of just progressed from there.

You know, I was, I wanna say, my older brother was born in 2010. My older sister would have been born in 2008, I think. Something like that. 2009, 2007, 2008 or 2007, I think. And so she was born first. And about, she was about two or three. My little brother had just been born. He was a baby, a newborn.

And, you know, I'm sitting, he had come to find now. You know, I've got like seven, or seven, like half siblings out there from him. Really? Found out he's kind of, one of the things he gets off on is like impregnating women and things like that. And he's got kids all over the place. And so I knew about a half brother at the time.

And so he would bring him around here and there into the family. When we were little, we were connected. I don't know if closest or I word, but we were siblings. And he would get him on weekends or for a week or two at a time. We were sitting in my room in our house in Vackable, California.

And I was like playing on a, like a PlayStation 2 or a PlayStation 1 or something. And that day, you know, kind of, I don't want to share too much of other people's stories, but you know, some things were said by one of my family members that day that he was touching them, sticking things up them. You know, anything you can imagine it was from, it was from the mouth of a very young individual and things that a child would have no idea of unless these things happened and he comes in and my mom confronts him and he's just like stark white just like stark white, just like looks like a ghost. And she was like, this is what they just said, what the fuck?

And along those lines, I can't remember the exact conversation, but I'll never forget to look on his face. It was just like a fuck they caught me, look. And he was like holy shit, like it just rolled him crashing down and called the police. On top of that, he worked for CPS for child protective services. He worked for child protective services.

Worked for child protective services. Friends with all, worked at the police station, friends with all the local police and stuff. Obviously my mom called the police and there were his buddies coming to the door pretty much and separated him from the house. I think she went down the police station that day. If I remember right, I hung out at the house with a family member. And then from there, just kind of kept spiraling. You know, I went, what was questioned, you know, if he'd done anything to me, which he hadn't, but then, you know,

the stuff started coming up about me witnessing the domestic abuse and domestic violence and stuff. And I was like 12 or 13 at the time when that happened. And from there it was like, they kept them separated for quite a few months, trying to figure this out. My mom trying to protect us. And she struggled financially. I mean, just suddenly being a single mom, taking care of three kids in a mortgage.

And she made it work. I mean, I don't know how honestly. I mean, I remember those times, she just struggling hard, but she made it work. She followed bankruptcy at one point. And I mean, today she has her own business. She's fucking kick and ass, run drone law firm, multiple offices and different locations, things like that. But going into this more, you know, they started, I was conflicted obviously because I was,

old enough to be consciously aware of what was going on, but in the situation that was happening with going to court and things like that and things started happening. He tried coming to the house one time when we had the metal kind of graded door closed like the screen door, but it was metal. Had it closed and locked and the main door was open. And my oldest sister's in the living room, a mom and I are in the kitchen,

when I was doing homework or something. And he came to the house after there was like a no contact order or restraining order at the time, trying to like coerced my oldest sister into opening the door and stuff to get into the house. And she called the police again, pulled them away, and just little things like that. So he started doing, we started really seeing who he was then even more so.

Started doing things like driving around, following, following us around. I caught him like following me around a few times because he, where he moved to, I mean, he was still in the area, but following me around, I'd like to go to the park with friends or whatever. And they started forcing us because some of these, you know, him molesting raping, it was so far away that when they started taking physical evidence and going to court about it, there wasn't enough physical evidence to convict them and put them in jail, but there was enough evidence and like damning evidence

psychologically and through the domestic abuse and domestic violence that the judge was able to, you know, give full custody to my mom, but forced us to go to supervised visits for a while. Are you serious? Yeah, forced us to go to supervised visits. My sister included, my little brother included myself, all the kids included. And I mean, I'm like, here I

am, you know, 13 years old, whatever. Just like, oh, I love my dad, but he's this horrible person. What the fuck's going on? I'm being forced to go to these visits and then I started, you know, as I was getting older and understanding like what he did was really understanding like what he did was fucking wrong and horrible. My mom is trying to do her best to protect us and I mean, my mom is a hell of a woman. She, you know, was like, I'm trying to protect the kids,

but if you want a relationship with your dad, I'm not going to stop you. He's your dad. And like I love you, I want you to do what you want to do pretty much. And she's always been like that to this day for all of my siblings and I. And but trying to protect us at the same time.

And so she's having to pay for these supervised visits, having to go through this while paying for an attorney to protect us from him at the same time. And they're, she's fighting, you know, custody battle and, you know, child molestation case. And here they are making, making us go to visits with him. And I got to the point where I was just like, he started, I started catching him in lies over and over. And I was, you know, 13.

I was intentionally asking him questions that I knew the answer to. I knew he had other half siblings and stuff, started reaching out when this was going on. And so I knew about these things, my mom knew about these things. And I was a nosy kid looking through my mom's stuff because it was a strange time in my life,

going through that traumatic event and trying to make sense of everything that was happening. And so started finding out about these other kids. And so I would start confronting them at the visits and stuff. And I was like, you know, is there, do I have any other siblings, any other half siblings or anything? And he was like, no, just like to my face. And I was like, okay, so you're lying to me because I know I do and then came back and then started trying to say, oh, well

yeah, you do whatever and Just over a couple weeks or months, you know, I was catching the lies over and over and over and over and that finally maybe realized what a monster he was and everything kind of solidified in my own mind of what kind of person he was, the lack of humanity that he had. And I told him, I was like,

I'm not gonna go to these visits anymore. Like I will not go. And like you I'm not gonna go to these visits anymore. Like, I will not go. And like, you have to. It's court ordered visits. And I'm pleading to my mom. And she's trying to do everything she can to take care of us. And she said, I can't, they won't let me not let you go pretty much. And they're forcing us to go.

And I remember one night, it just like broke down in tears in our house. And I was like, what would happen if I just fucking hit him in the visit or if I like, you know, tried to kill him or something? Cause it was at that point where I was like, I wanna fucking kill him for peace done. And I mean, he deserves worse than that. And my mom's like, you don't know what he's gonna do. Like he might hurt you, don't do this.

Like just trying to take care of me being a mom. And I was like, if they send me in there, like I'm gonna fucking kill him. And like I scheme to do that. I was like, if they're making me go in there one more time with him, like I'm gonna fucking kill him. How old are you at this time? 14, maybe 13.

Yeah, 13 or 14. And just got to that point where I was I was set. I was like I'm I'm gonna kill them if they put me in there and so then they're forced me into the visit and I like getting to the building and they have like back rooms inside the building that where they have the visitation at and I told the like for the visit, he was like, you make me go back there, I'm gonna fucking kill him. And she just laughed it off thinking, I'm just a little obnoxious kid.

And I said, I hope you put me back there with him because I'm going to kill him. I'm going to try and kill him if you put me back there and I want you to. And then I really was like, go ahead, please, please put me back there and I'll kill him. And she finally took me serious and she's like, well, nope, go back out. And like, I remember I sat in the waiting room out there. They brought me mom back, came back. And then from that point on, fucking the course listened and cut visitation for

me. Didn't have to go anymore. And they still made my siblings go. They were, I mean, they were really, really little and continued like that for many years. Just recently, maybe, maybe like two to three years ago or something like that, maybe about three years ago, I think they stopped visitation finally. My mom is, my siblings are old enough now that they were like, I don't want to fucking go. This guy's a monster. And my little brother, he's 12, about to be 13 now. He's a little asshole, but he's super intelligent

for his age and all of the sisters the same way. She's 15, about to be 16. And I mean, they can think for themselves well enough to understand and recognize what a horrible human being he is. And woman beater. I don't think so. Not to my mom maybe. She never said anything about that.

But he's done a lot of things. I mean, he wrote anonymous letters. Things that my mom tried to keep for me. He's done a lot of things. I mean, he wrote anonymous letters, things that my mom tried to keep for me. I'd be in the kid that I was, started looking through things in the house and whatnot. Wrote anonymous letters when the court like trials were going on, trying to frame her for what he had done and wrote in all these different, pretty much she got these letters, these anonymous letters, and took them to the court, or took them to a forensic analyst or something.

And it showed that he had written in multiple different personalities. But it was enough to show that it was from him, but that he had different versions of himself, split personality disorder, things like that, came out in that letter trying to frame her for it. And those of this absurd anonymous letter, you know, trying to frame her for the things that he had done and started kind of showing that he was like a real psychopath.

And just kind of from there things went on. They, you know, my mom had her lawyer and then she also hired a lawyer for my siblings and myself and they were awesome. And they asked me, do you want to testify in front of him and in the court? And I said yes, and I testified at 13 years old in front of him. With his piece of shit attorney, fucking harassing a 13 or 14 year old on the stand.

Like things like, oh, did your mom yell at you? Or did she recommend you? And like, oh, well, was it too many times to count as that, how bad it was? And just stupid shit, how lawyers are. And I went out there and I testified and laid out. I mean, I did it through, you know, tear-street face and cracked voice, but sat there and testified in front of him and told the courts what he did and what I had seen and witnessed

as a kid. And I mean, he's still, my mom told me stories of, you know, when he's tried to come back in her life at like very pivotal moments, like when she graduated from law school. And then when I came home for the first time in July, he knows. I mean, he knows like, from other times when I was young, not to come around me. And he chose when I came back home, it's California for the first time last July.

He chose to show up with the airport. I had a really big welcome home with a police motorcade. And my city, I mean my hometown showed out for me. They did a lot for myself and my family and a couple hundred people or thousands at the airport and like welcome me home and stuff really awesome. And I'm sitting there and undated with news and stuff

coming up to me and he chose that moment to show up and come and pat me on the shoulder. And my buddies, I mean, my friends know what happened and my buddies chased him down and he ran away. And just things like that, little things like that to like show he's crazy enough. Like, hey, I'm still here just so you know, but yeah, that's kind of, it's kind of the story. One tell you a little bit about my morning routine. So it used to be I'd wake up and it was Pills galore.

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wherever you listen. Did you any of your half siblings, did they go through the same stuff? I've stayed apart from them. I personally haven't had any interest to build relationships with them, especially as I grew up, many of them reached out. I think maybe one or two of them had, I know the parents of my half siblings like came forward and testified about the things that he's done in the way, like the horrible ways

that he's treated them and their family. I don't know specifics other than just, I don't wanna say just, but other than like domestic violence, domestic abuse, screaming yelling, harassment and things like that, I don't know much more past that because I've stayed apart from them. Why do you stay apart from them if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, no. Honestly, I just wanted that part of my life to, I wanted to move on with my life. And I told my mom, she was worried for a long time because I kept a lot of hate in my heart for him. And I told her, I remember one time I was like, Mom, I have enough room to hate him in my heart. But I don't let the things that he's done and how he's treated my family. And what he's done, negatively impact my life. I don't let it weigh on me.

I don't let him have any control over me and what I do. me, I don't let him have any control over me and what I do. I wouldn't hesitate to put him down in some pretty horrible ways, but yeah, I don't let him take any space up in my brain. So this guy's still running around out there. Yeah. How? I mean, the court system is, I mean, we have supposedly, you know, the best, the best justice system in the world right now, but it still has its flaws. And some good things that have come of that situation. And what he's done is my mom, his work, she's gotten legislation passed to protect kids to do better background checks on on CPS and their social workers and things like that and used the worst moments of her life to to help pass better laws in the US and it won California specifically.

And she does a lot of work for for child abuse and domestic violence and things like that. Is this what drove her to become the top of family attorney in California? I would say so. I, you know, she's talked about and shared, you know. What we went through has definitely pushed her to help others and to be damn good at what she does. I mean, like I said, she filed bankruptcy

during paying for all of the attorney's fees and going through what we did. And I mean, now she's a successful business woman, more than successful. Yeah. What's your mom's name? Tiffany Andrews. Tiffany Andrews. Yeah. What's your mom's name? Tiffany Andrews. Tiffany Andrews. Yeah. So you've experienced a lot as a kid. A lot of kids, unfortunately, experience very similar

situations as you did. What kind of advice do you have for somebody that's in that situation, whether it's apparent being abused by their spouse or kids? I'd, first thing I would say is that it's okay to talk about it. A lot of people are scared. I think when they experience those traumatic events to scare the backlash from the abuser,

scared of all of the what-ifs that come afterwards. And I think people need to understand that it's okay to talk about the, just as we talk about everyday things, the good, it's okay to talk about the bad. And people need to be aware of this because they're not, they're not ways to help individuals going through those those things if they don't speak up about them and I mean, coming personally speaking, it's a hard thing to fucking talk about but

the hard things need to be talked about. Who would you recommend they talk to? I think, I think maybe some of them will be well into talk, but maybe they're scared and they don't know who exactly to talk to, who can they safely talk to, who would you recommend they talk to? I would say if they feel they can't trust their local police, they don't want to listen to them.

I would start there, I would start with, I would start with going to the police, going to the hospital because I think, I think if I'm correct, you know, doctors and providers are mandatory reporters as well. I might be mispeaking, but actually that makes perfect sense. Yeah, I think all 911 report an injury, get to the hospital, tell them what happened. They take care of the rest. They should take care of the rest.

They're not, I know hospitals aren't gonna release individuals going through that back to the person unless there's police involved post that. So I would start with, I would start with the police and the hospitals honestly. That's a damn good piece of advice. Marine Corps. What led you into the Marine Corps? Yeah, so funny enough, I had actually growing up, started with aspirations to be an astronaut.

I think there's a lot of young kids do, but I really wanted to be an astronaut. And then it went into one of the of my country and being a fighter pilot. And I was, for a while, I was dead set on joining the Air Force and becoming a fighter pilot. And before I moved to Folsom, California, I was down in Vackville, Fairfield, going to middle school and high school and the first half of high school.

All my friends, we were down there around Travis Air Force Base and so many of my friends came from military families, had family and the Air Force. And so from an early age, the only person in my family who was in the military is my great uncle. He was in the Air Force, but it wasn't something that we talked about really. I knew it and he mentioned it before, but the military was never in my face through my family or anything like that.

It was a friend to the school and I would have friends come and leave all the time and make new friends all the time because they'd come for a year or two or whatever and then change duty stations and whatnot. And my high school, literally went high school, the street next to high school, Air Force Base. And so we had Air Force GRRTC in high school. And my freshman and into half of my sophomore year, I did Air Force GRRTC kind of set on, still becoming a fighter pilot.

Prior to that, when I was in eighth grade, I did civil air patrol, which is pretty similar to similar to like GRTC but they do it on Travis Air Force Base and kind of trying to find my way through that while still navigating you know what my family was going through and really just you know the traumatic events that I experienced made me want to help people and help the innocent and help those who couldn't help themselves and that was very important to me. And I knew that I could do that through the military and just seeing my friends and their

parents serve and interacting with their parents and stuff. Seeing the kind of people that they were, the men and women that they were, people to look up to, kind of set my sights on that. And when I was five, I was in kindergarten. I found out I was color deficient. And so I'm not color blind,

but my reds and greens are pretty the same. And quite a few other colors, blues and blacks and things. And I went to talk to recruiters about going to be a fighter pilot and found out cannot be a fighter pilot with being color deficient as I how bad I was. And so I was like, well, that's that. And then moved up to halfway through my sophomore year,

my mom took us and moved us up the Fulsome, get away from my biological father and put my kids into better schools, or I mean, her kids in the better schools myself and moved to new high school. And I mean, that was kind of the start for me of a lot of, what I guess now would be depression and just anger. I was like, why did you take me away from my friends?

Like hated, hated the move. It was horrible like in my mind. So worse than that could have happen to a 15 and a half year old kid, a 15 year old kid. And I was just hated school. They don't want to make new friends. I was playing soccer in baseball at the time. My club soccer coach actually

from my first hometown, he reached out to some club coaches up there and got me some tryouts. He was like, if you want to stay on the team, you can. He's like, I know it's going to be hard for you to make practices, but if you want to keep playing and you should, you know, make, you know, work to be at practices and be at all the games, he was like, I'll reach out to some club coaches up there and get you some tryouts, which he did and tried out for a soccer club

up there. They wanted me and that was like one of my first weeks up there and started making friends that way and still really wanted to join the military and I mean, I'm sure you know, I mean the Marines are in your face all the time with advertisements and all the crisp dress blues, the old, the old ads of them, fighting the dragon and turning around wearing dress blues on the spot.

But, you know, I mean, it, modern day, war fighting, showing on TV and I'm like, man, that's fucking badass. And, you know, I'm 15 at time, and the more I left into it, I was just like, all the range on the front line, the Marines are first to the fight. That's what I want to be, that's who I am. And it just, it grabbed at me in a way that being an Air Force fighter pilot and doing

JRTC never did. And I just knew I was like, I'm going to enlist in the Marine Corps. And I think I was like 16 when I told my mom that. And at this point, now I, um, I got to the point probably within a year of, of the move, um, where I told my mom, I like you know I'm sorry for the way I acted moving here and I mean I I was just like that shitty depressed kid just didn't want to be there and I was like I'm glad we moved I was like I think this is the best thing that's happened to me and made a lot of great friends, met a lot of people. It took some time. It took some time, but I mean, the saying, you know, if it was easy,

everyone would have it and started really understanding and becoming who I was more into my later teen years up there inoulson and just making great relationships between awesome people. And I told her I was like, you know, I'm sorry for the way I acted, but this is, I think, the best thing that's happened to me and I'm glad we moved. And I know that for her probably was just the best thing that she could have heard because she knew how much I did not want to be there. that she could have heard because she knew how much I did not want to be there. And then I told her not too long after that, we moved, we were in an apartment, we moved up there, moved into a rental house, then moved into our house now. Where did my family still live? And we were walking upstairs, my mom's room.

And I was like, all right, today's the day I tell her I'm going to listen to the Marine Corps. And they all had briefly, like, joked about it just to kind of see her reaction before that. And you know, I went up to her room and I was like, all right, Mom, I was like, I'm going to listen to the Marine Corps when I'm out of high school. And she was like, what? And I was like, I was like, I'm going to listen to the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps infantry. And I mean, she just balled her eyes out. She just, I she knew and she just balled her eyes out

and she was never like, no, you're not. She was supportive, but I think that was my, and maybe junior year that I told her, my junior year high school that I told her that and I was like, hey, this is where I'm going. And yeah, she took it pretty hard. And, but she was supportive, and then she was like, my mom is very academia oriented.

And not so much now, but she was, and she was like, listen, just like, go to tri-college for a year. You can still play soccer for college. I know her at the time trying to get me to go college, go to college. And I was like, well, I don't want to go to college. Just give it a try. She was like, I'm not going to force you to do anything.

Because I can't force you to do anything. She was like, but go give college a try. You can still play soccer. You love soccer. It's your passion. And give it a try. You can still play soccer. You love soccer, it's your passion. And give it a try. And I was like, all right, you raised me. Been through a lot of love.

You all, it's like, I'll go give call to try. And I was like, but I was like, as soon as I'm done, I'm still going to the Marine Corps. And whether that's a year or that's four or more, I was like, I'm still going to the Marine Corps. It's like, all right, it's like, and the back of her mind, she's hoping that I'm just gonna latch onto college

and not go to the military. But it's like, all right, I'll go play for the local junior college and start majoring in kinesiology and kinesiology. Yeah, kinesiology. What is kinesiology? Sports medicine. Okay. Yeah, so I mean, I had always, through the late years of high school, I was very interested

and, you know, kind of that young time frame where I feel like young men start getting into the gym and working out and stuff. And I had a buddy, Ryan Chaffey, one of my best friends growing up. He, I'll never forget, I think it was my junior high school. He was like, come to the gym with me, man. I went to one high school in our hometown, he went to the other one, but we played on the same soccer team.

And he's like, he's like, he's like, just come work out with me after school. And I'm like, dude, I do not want to go work out with you. Why would I go to the gym? I don't want to go to the fucking gym. And he's like, like, could be a bitch pretty much. And finally, he suckered me into going into the gym with him. And then I just spiraled and I was like,

all about going to the gym all the time, getting on a routine, being healthy, and just being young and dumb and mixed and die coke and coffee like old YouTube, fricking bodybuilders and stuff doing that kind of high-fee mud pre-workout stuff and horrible from a heart, but yeah, things like that. And he is the one who really kind of started

my fitness journey at that age. And then I was just, it just took off. I mean, I was about, I was like, all right, I'm going to the military. I need to be as fit as I can be. And it helped with soccer as well. And Simon called now. And first semester's going by and I'm like,

this fucking sucks. And I did not, I just was not, school was not for me school. I never, like, I could always take tests really well, but I'd never had the diligence to just like sit down and do my homework or do anything like that. I did not, just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to be in school. I wanted to be out. I mean I remember I would, I was 18 for a quiet a majority of my senior year of high school and I would just like, I was old enough to call myself out of school and like go and do whatever. And there would be days I skipped periods just to go play soccer at the park or like go work out and stuff. I hated going to school.

And I'll never forget I got a, you know, I got a true and seal letter in the mail. My mom was like, get your ass home right now. And I'm like, oh, fuck. And I mean, my mom was strict enough growing up, you know what I mean, right? And she was hard on me, but in a good way. And she was like, you got, you know, bad grades like soccer is gone. Like you're not playing. She came out onto my soccer field one time, and the middle of practice, because I had poor

grades, and I'm like, mom mom what the fuck are you doing here? Because he told me she's like if you if you go to practice I'm gonna walk I'm gonna walk out onto the field and pull your ass out in front of all your friends in the middle of practice I'm a senior in high school and I was like I called her bluff. I was like no the fuck you're not no you're not mom Go to practice, go here. Tyler Andrews. I'm like, oh, no way.

And I turn around, I'm in goal at the time. I was a goalkeeper, I turn around, and she was like, get your ass over here right now. And like, we're in the middle of like a scrimmage. And I'm like, oh, I'm like, mom. And I'm like, I'm like, coach, I gotta go. I'm so sorry. And he like stops and he comes over. And I'm like, mom, like, I'm sorry. And she's like, I told and I'm like, my coach, I gotta go, I'm so sorry. And he stops and he comes over.

And I'm like, mom, I'm sorry. And she's like, I told you I was gonna fucking take my ass out here if you came to practice. She said, get your ass home right now. And my coach came over and he was, he's like, what's going on? He's like, he's got really bad grades. He's not doing his homework and stuff.

And my coach was cool. He was like, he's like, all right, well, we'll figure it out. We'll get him on track. And so he worked with me and my mom to get me to practice, but also make sure I was doing my homework and stuff. So good on them, but I was just, I hated school. And kind of another thing for the military and high school. My, the first half of my senior year at high school,

my government teacher. He, I can't remember if he was a vet, but he was the old JV soccer coach, if I remember correctly. And he was always all about, he's very patriotic and bringing it, letting the recruiters when they'd come to the school, like come talk to us during government class. And it was always really cool.

And I mean, I would pay the most attention to the Marines. They'd come in and listen to them. And he gave every government class the opportunity to like they would come and test, like take the ASBAP at the school. And so like he was like, all right, you guys are all gonna go take the ASBAP. He's like, you don't gotta do anything with it,

but just so you have that in your back pocket, just another, you know't got to do anything with it, but just so you have that in your back pocket, just another tool for the toolbox. And so, senior year I had taken the As of Ab, I think the beginning of my senior year and I got like a 91 on it. And I was like, all right, well, this is cool. I don't got to take it when I go to the recruiter. And, you know, I go to college and I was like,

all right, mom, the semester's gonna be over. I'm going to the Marine Corps. And she's just kind of same thing, sad, but all right. All right, we'll get you on the right track, but your grade uncle's coming out here, your uncle Kami's coming out here, and he's the only one who is in the military. And he's gonna take you to every single recruiting station

and you're gonna talk to every branch's recruiting station. I was like, all right, I was like, we can do this, but I'm still gonna go and list in the Marine Corps. And it's like, well, we'll see about that, but he's gonna take you to every branch's recruiting station first. So we started, now I'm 19 or end of of 18 going into 19 years old and he flies out

from Long Beach, California and we're going around the local Fulselmer Cruting Stations and the Air Force and the Navy's one right next door to each other. And so we go in the Air Force one and they're like, so what do you want to do? And I was like, I want to be a marine raider. And I was like, oh, well, you can come, you know, you can come be a PJ or you can, you know, you can look into being a seer specialist and stuff. And the seer stuff was pretty, pretty like cool. Um, look when I was looking at it. I was like, oh wow, this is like, I love,

I mean, my whole childhood was spent. As soon as I got a license and I wasn't working or like working out or doing soccer, I was in the mountains in the Sierra Nevada. I was hiking and taking my friends camping and hiking and backpacking and stuff. And I loved it. That was like my go-to was doing that

and doing all the survival stuff, making bug out bags, teaching myself how to start fires. Any way I could think of just teaching myself how to survive. It was kind of my thing as a young kid. And I remember like any time I would do chores and I was younger I would go go and, uh, or like, trying, like, work for people around the neighborhood and make some change.

I'd go, I wouldn't be old enough to, like, buy a knife for an axe or something, so I'd go and scrounge it. Any change I could get, go to, like, Walmart or, like, the Ralph's down the street and, uh, buy, like, a Visa gift card and then go my mom's ancient laptop and Order knives and like access With with a Visa debit card because I wasn't old enough like I'd had like ID proof or whatever and Or if I went into stores

I had to like show them that I was 18 and so I'd buy like knives and axes that way and My mom would be like what the fuck is this? Like where did you get this from? Like an axe or something would show up on doorstep like it's whatever. And I'd be out throwing them at trees, throwing knives at trees and just doing all that stuff. And then I remember taking our old cabinet boards

and like breaking down an old desk and using them to throw at in the backyard and stuff. And so the sear stuff really, I was like, oh wow, this is pretty cool. I was like, but you're not getting me it. And it's like, all right, let's go to the Navy. And my mom was like, all right, well, go to the Navy. He's like, maybe you like that and you think about it.

And they're like, all right, we'll come back. And they really liked that my ass up score was as high as it was. And like, why are you gonna go for me? I wanted to, I knew I wanted to go into the infantry and then be a raider. And that was very important to me to kind of start where I knew Marines would be in the shit, at least in my mind.

And so I went to the Navy and they were creating office and like, again, what do you want to do? I was like, I want to be a marine raider. I want to be in the infantry and like, no, no, no, no, I don't worry about that. You can come be a seal. And they, I never, I never, being a seal, like I had always seen it. I'd always seen it kind of like how the marine junior face like we know like, oh, maybe seals like, like they're hard. And, but I still, I just, I was like, I don't want to be in the Navy.

I really, I just, I don't want to be a seaman. And I don't blame you. Yeah. And, yeah, I was like, no, I was like, it's pretty cool. And like, listen, you can come and we, we swim more than they do. And, yeah, we're, like, we're amphibious too and all that stuff. And it's like, now I was like, it's all right. Like, I want to be a Marine.

And then now we go to the Army's office. We go to the Army and the Army and the Marine Corps next to each other, their offices. And going there, first thing I see when I walk in is bunch of out of shape on fit dudes. And I was like, wow. And on top of that, I had been in a marine recruiting office once before gone by it. That one that was there and like saw how they had all the all the motivational stuff in there and had the pull of bars out front and and outside and out back and I go to that army office and see a bunch of them out of shape

bunch these recruiters and they have a pull-up bar in there and Like yeah, we got I was like why do you have a pull-up bar in here and they don't do pull-ups and They're like well, you know the Marines do pull-ups, but we can we can do pull-ups and I was like Okay, I was it was like you think you can do pull-ups is that why you want to be a Marine? I was like yes, I can do pull ups. And I was like, okay, I was, it was like, you think you can do pull ups? Is that why you wanna be a Marine? I was like, yes, I can do pull ups. And like, why don't you hop up there

and do some pull ups? And I was like, why don't you hop up there and do some pull ups? And they like, no, like, we don't need to do that. You hop up there and show us how many pull ups you can do. I was like, no, I was like, I'll save that for the Marines. I was like, if you hop up there and do pull ups, I'll do pull ups.

Didn't wanna hop up there and do pull ups. And I was like, all right, well, that's it. I was like, I'm walking out in the army. It was the fastest one. I was in the door and out and went to the Marine Corps. Let my mom know, hey, I'm going to the Marines office right now. And I'm going to talk to them about listening. Sat down with my recruiter, actually.

He was the one who recruited me, but sat down with him at the time, Sergeant Wallace sat down with him. And he's like, all right, he's like, he's like, so are you here. And, you know, some of the long lines of that. And I was like, well, I was like, I wanna be an infantryman and I wanna be a marine raider. It's okay.

He's like, well, have you thought about recon at all? And, it's like, I didn't even have a heart of recon at that point. You have never heard of recon? No. And I just only heard of Raiders. And surprisingly now, I mean, the reconnaissance communities way more on your face than the Raiders are.

And I don't even know how I first heard about Raiders. I think I just, being a Marine was, it just seemed special to me. And I was like, well, does the Marine have special operations? And I looked that up online and they're like, yep, Marsock Marine Special Operations Command. And I was like, look at what they did. And it really appealed to me that they did a mix of kind of everything, you know, fit counterinsurgency, like just a little bit of every, every branches stuff. And I was like, well, that's, I feel like that's who I am. I'm trying to be as versatile as I can be.

And that, that seems really appealing. And that's where I want to go. And so I told him that he's, all right. And he's like, well, we can get you schedules for an AsVab. If you really want to move forward with this, and I was like, I do, this is what I want to do. So he pulled out these cards, he's like plastic cards, and they all have different things on them.

And it's like the whole like honor, courage, commitment, but it's also like physical fitness, and like heroism, bravery, courage, like intellectual stuff, all these different adjectives of like, what makes a person a person, what appeals to them, and they're like, what are the most, what are the, like, he firstly asked me,

like what are the 10 most important to you, like, he first he asked me, like, what are the 10 most important to you? And some picking them out. And I don't even remember all of them was so long ago, but picking them out. And they said, all right, he's like now pick three. And strength was one of those, or strength and mental fortitude was one of them. I can't remember how it was worded, but one of those and picked out the three. I don't remember the other two, but that one stuck out to me and he's like, all right, and like, you know, what does that mean to you? And obviously, at that point,

my background had been going through the traumatic experience I did when I was a kid. I mean, I was still a kid, but going through that with my dad's stuff and what he had done. And he was like, you know, this is the right place to be prodding my Asvap scores or he pulled lumber or something. And the day that he did, it was a week or two later, he was like, you're not going to be a grunt.

What do you mean? I was waiting for this. Yeah, he's like, you're not going to be a grunt. Now I was like, what do you mean? I was waiting for this. Yeah, he's like, you're not going to be a grunt. And I was like, yes, I am. What do you mean? He's like, he's like, you got a 90 or 91 on your ass rap. He's like, you can do anything else. You could do literally anything else.

He's like, let's look at some other options. And I was like, no, I was like, this is what I want to do. And he's like, dude, he's like, he's like, you could do anything else in the Marine Corps, like anything at all. And I was like, this is the only thing I want to do. And he's like, dude, he's like, he's like, you could do anything else in the Marine Corps, like anything at all. And I was like, this is the only thing I want to do. I want to be an infantryman and I want to be a raider. Those are the only things that I want to do. And that's where I'm going to go. And he was like, you serious? He's like, he like pulled up the list of everything. He's like, explain stuff. And he's like, you could do literally anything, any one of these jobs. I was like, I don't wanna do anything else.

And he was like, all right, he was like, I'll leave it alone. He was like, this is what you wanna do. He's like, well, let's get you on a good path. And he briefly brought up again, like the how you can kind of do. I think at that time, there was still, there's always like weird contracts, in Marine Corps where you can like bullshit contracts to kind of, and any branch to suck dudes into something, but there was like, oh, you can be a team leader, like a team leader contract or something like that. And I was

like, all right, well, I'll do that. And it was just like a basic, it was like a bullshit name just for the same exact thing of like 03 xx, so I'm an 03 11, 03 11 rifleman. And it was just like 03 xx, like team leader. And that's not how the fucking inventory works. Like you started this shit and you pushed through the shit to get, you know, to get to be a team leader and things like that, that never. Nothing else ever came of that, doing that contract.

But I, so I kind of got on a path where I became a poolie with them and then started working out all the time with them. I was still going to work, I was working at a target actually and working at target and working out and just preparing to leave. Real quick, I want a backtrack. Yeah, and this out and just preparing to leave. Real quick, I want a backtrack. Yeah. And this doesn't have anything to do with your story. What I'd like to do is call out,

look, back to the recruiting stuff, especially the army. Mm-hmm. You know, just think about how many people went in there and were unimpressed with that first impression of these guys who can't lead from the front. You know what I mean? And think of how many people that thought about joining the US Army that walked into that office and saw those slabs representing the United States Army there and walked right the fuck back out.

Yeah. the United States Army there and walked right the fuck back out. Yeah. And we have a major problem with military recruiting right now. And if they don't unfuck that, they're never going to get anybody in there. Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, that's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

To put some shit like that to represent the United States Army to these kids that want to serve the fucking country. And that's what, that's their first impression they have to look up to. Whoever fucking made that decision. Good job. Good fucking job. No, I agree. And it's definitely, I mean, I've got, I've got buddies here,

marine recruiters, and I mean, fit strong leaders of men. And that's good. That's who they were in the infantry and that's who they were as recruiters and the recruiting life. Any branch, I'm sure it's not easy, but I know Marine Corps recruiting specifically because I know Marine recruiters and it's tough.

It's tough life. And I've never seen any of my buddies from Marine recruiters or the Marine recruiters that I worked under as a poolie going into the Marine Corps. I've never seen one that I was just like, you're discussing. You know, it's like, man, I want to be like you. And it's always been that way. It's for the Marine Corps.

Good. Yeah. Continuing on. Yeah. Continuing on. Yeah, so I started going to the pool events and stuff. I had my senior high school, junior year. I had taken, so I was a goalkeeper and I had taken a block off my wrist, weirdly, my right arm. And it had sprained my wrist pretty badly.

And I was just like, well, wrap it up, keep playing. And just did that for years. Every game I would wrap my wrist and just play and just keep beating on it, being on it. And finally got to the point where I could barely move my wrist. And I was like, man, this is bad. And it hurts a lot. And I could feel like it was always swollen. It was like permanently man, this is bad and it hurts a lot.

I could feel like it was always swollen. It was like permanently swollen on my wrist. And so, like, all right, mom, I need to go to the doctor. I'm about to leave for the Marine Corps. I need to get, see if I need surgery or something before I go. I go to get an MRI and they're like, well, you've torn some tendons in your wrist and you have a gangly on cyst. And so I had a cyst in my wrist,

and I remember how big it was, but it was like pushing all my joints apart and it was fluid filled up all inside my wrist. And they're like, yeah, this is really bad. You know, how long has it been this way? And I was like, oh, like two years or something like that. And like, why don't you come in sooner? And I was like, oh, I mean, just the young kid playing sports. And went and got surgery on that while I was already in

the like the delayed enlistment program. So I was a pooley already. And I told my recruit was like, hey, I got to go get surgery. And he's like, what the fuck? Like that is the last thing that one recruiter wants to hear. I'm hey, I gotta go get surgery. He's like, what the fuck? Like, that is the last thing that recruiter wants to hear. I'm like, I gotta go get surgery, my wrist. Like, it'll be all right. They've assured me it's gonna be okay. And, sure enough, they went in. So, short procedure, they went in, repaired some

of the soft tissue and tendon damage, and removed the ganglion cyst. They like, because the options were, tissue and tendon damage and remove the ganglion cysts. They like, because the options were as they could leave it and put me in a brace and stick a needle straight through my wrist into the cyst and drain it. But if you drain it, there's about a 90% chance that it's just going to come back. Or I could get it cut open and it would be a longer recovery process, but it would be like a 99% success rate.

He's like, well, I was like, I mean, I know if you guys drain it, I knew my mind. I was like, if I just let them drain the the cyst in my wrist that I'm not going to take the recovery seriously, because I never had with any other injuries, like I'm just going to go back to injuring it again, probably pretty soon after. And if I get the surgery, I've got a higher chance of being successful and I'm gonna be forced to not move it and in a cast. And so I chose to go that route. And went in, cut it out, did the repairs,

and had me in a cast for like two weeks, and it wasn't that long, but had me in a cast for like two weeks, and it wasn't that long, but had me in a cast for like two weeks and then put me in like a hard brace. I could like take it off, but they put me in a brace and had stitches in for another like three weeks. And I couldn't push, I couldn't like really twist my hand much, but pushing was just painful.

And I still wanted to be around the pulleys and go to PT and stuff. And the one thing I could do is I could pull. And so I could just crank out pull ups. And that's the only exercise I could really do with my wrist. And fortunately for me, that's what we need to do for PT. So for the physical fitness test.

And so I was just cranking out pull-ups with my brace on and Didn't didn't damage it anymore fortunately, but cranking out pull-ups and then Did a few events and my now best friend on the goddaughter to our godfather to both of his daughters Christian Ritter we are both we're both in in the pool together or the depth and his recruiter, my recruiter, brought us in, they're like, we might have the same recruiter, but they brought us in and they're like, hey, you guys are leaving on the same day to bootcamp in a couple of months. Do you want to do the buddy program? And we had just kind of said what's up and passing,

didn't know anything about each other. And I looked to him and I was like, sure, and he's like, sure. And so the buddy program kind of sets you on the track where we had the same O3XX contract. So we'd go to boot camp together, go to infantry school together, and then hopefully have a pretty good chance to go into the same unit.

And we both wanted to be riflemen, so that was a plus, too. And so, from that point on, we just got to know each other. Dude, we came my best friend through boot camp. Went to boot camp on. Hold on, let's backtrack. Before you go to boot camp. Extremely traumatic childhood. How old are your brother and sister when you left?

17. My whole sister would have been 10, I think my little brother would have been six. Six? Yeah. Was that was that hard was that a hard decision for you to make to leave your mom and your siblings? No, and everything they'd been through, what they could possibly go through again to go serve your country. It, it definitely was. And I, for me, I had, I had this conversation with my mom a few times. I was worried about me not being there in case my dad showed up or something and not being able to be there to protect them. And as I grew up and got older from that and no way

from the traumatic events in my life, I took like being the man of the house very seriously. I could have mad. More so just like protecting my family, that was all that mattered to me. And I made sure my mom knew, like, my the firearms that we had in the house, like that she knew how to use them properly and stuff. And you know, my the firearms that we had in the house, that she knew how to use them properly and stuff.

And my siblings, I remember my older brother was like cried a little bit. And I definitely worried, but I was very excited about going. And I was like, well, I was like, if I go be a marine and I get all this training and stuff, I'll be able to protect my family even more. And that's how I viewed it.

And yeah, I think definitely nervous about leaving for them, but I knew it was the right decision. Were there nervous about you leaving? My mom definitely was. I don't know if my siblings fully understood what was going on. They knew I was leaving for a few months, but actually I'd take that back. My little brother, I remember talking to him about leaving, you know, his six or whatever. And he was like, well, Ty, he's like, you want to go to the military, but what if you die? And I was like, I'm not going to die.

I was like, I'm not going to die, buddy. Like, I'm going to be okay. I'll be all right. He was like, yeah, but what if you die? And I didn't really know what else to say other than like, I'm going to be all right. And obviously, I know that today I'm here now, but yeah, that kind of, that hit me pretty hard. I was like, damn, I, uh, this definitely is is way and heavy on them. And, uh, yeah, I mean, I have a, I have a close relationship with my siblings and I for them today if I had to.

Yeah. Did you have a plan on how you would protect them? I definitely did. So when we moved into our house, I mean, I'm never even talking to my buddies about leaving, you know, just kind of look after my family and stuff. And all my friends were close with my mom and my siblings. Our house is like the house all my buddies and I would go to hang out. My mom was very much about like, oh, if you want to hang out and stuff, like, I don't want you being idiots elsewhere. So all the boys can come over and be idiots here. But so that was definitely the place. And I know for me, I was the only bedroom downstairs in our house, and I begged my mom for that room.

And she was like, yep, she's like, I mean, I wouldn't want anyone else downstairs. Like, I trust you to protect the family. And that meant a lot to me. And I would have done it if I had to but yeah. Yeah. That's awesome man. That's grown up fast and you handled it perfectly from what I could tell.

But on that note, let's take a quick break before we get into your Marine Corps career. Alright, Tyler, we're back from the break, picking right up at the very beginning of your Marine Corps career. So I left August 27th, I believe it was, of 2017 for bootcamp. And the whole, went to maps, doing the naked crab walk and stuff. Things went well. They took my paperwork for my surgery and went smoothly, surprisingly, and leave for boot camp with Ritter, my buddy, and I think it was just it was just the two of us leaving together from our recruiting station that day. I got put up in like a double tree in Sacramento. The night prior, do like one last final check in at Maps and do pull-ups, crunches,

just to make sure that the guys were about to leave or fit enough to go leading up to that. I mean, while you're in the pool, you do ISTs, it's like individual strength test or something like that, just like a kind of slimmed down version of the physical fitness test that you do for the Marine Corps to prepare you. And do that last test before you leave. They put us on a plane flight to,

I know my mom was funny. She was like, oh, we'll get you much of all these extra things to take with you to bootcamp. And I was like, I'm just gonna have to fucking throw it away. Like, I don't wanna get in trouble. Or like more attention brought on me than necessary. So I was like, we'll get you all these like, like toothbrushes and basic bullshit.

And you get to, you get a small, I don't even think there's really a, a list, a big list of stuff you take to boot camp for the Marine Corps. It's like your ID, like your shoes, like the clothes you're wearing and almost nothing. Like stuff you carry in your pockets if I remember correctly. And you get to boot camp.

And we flew, so we flew into San Diego, and then we got bust to, I think we flew in, drove from the US, so we waited at the USO for a couple hours in San Diego, and MCRD, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego is like, here's the airport, here's Recruit Depot. And so the whole time you're a boot camp, you're just whatever you're doing,

no matter if you're having a bad day, just watching those planes take people wherever they're going, all day long and definitely a tease. But yeah, we, Ritter and I we actually had another buddy actually Kevin Kago I think was his name who went with us that day but get shipped to and or driven to MCRD and do the whole drone structures run on the bus and start fucking screaming at you to get off the bus and grab your stuff I mean I know for me even the plane flight there I was just like Man what the fuck is this like what am I doing?

And I didn't I wasn't like regretting anything. I was like Man, I'm really fucking doing this Yeah, I mean when you're at the When you're at the recruiting station prior to that, I mean, they show you all the motivational videos, and you see Marines and 29 palms blowing stuff up and shooting and running and gunning on ranges. And so I'm just like, all right,

that's just where I gotta get it. I just gotta get to that. And at this point in time, there's been 17 years of two different wars. You guys took Fallujah, you guys took Helm and Provence. I mean, the infantry Marines did a lot of shit, took a lot of casualties. I've heard a lot about it on this show. I've seen a lot of it. What is it like, you know, what are you at 20,

at this time frame? What's it like being a 20-year-old drink it from the fire hose from somebody with that much experience? I mean, I'm, I would hope that they're utilizing that experience. Yeah, no, they definitely are. Our combat instructors who had been overseas and been in hostile environments would share things with us. And they'd get on guys,

not the way that drone instructors do, but like, you're fucking dead. Your body's fucking dead because of what you just did. Like they definitely am still from the get go, the day you step foot in that's a while, like, and pick up with with and if you're school like these are lessons that have been learned and paid in blood and don't waste that you know I mean we had to kind of figure out a lot of shit to get to where we are but it's like

why do we clear rooms the way we do? Why do we throw grenades the way we do? Why do we say the things that we say, you know, on ranges, preparing for combat the way we do because these things have been learned and earned in blood and definitely some big shoes to fill and for me, I know I just, I mean, I couldn't wait to get to it. I took everything I could as seriously as I could. And, you know, the first four weeks are teaching you how to be a basic rifleman,

and, you know, doing basic room clearing, working together as a fire team, and as a squad, just very basic stuff, fire maneuver, and then learning the, you know, I mean, you already in boot camp, like you learn how to take a part in M16 and you lay it on a little map that has like a piece in a name where everything goes and stuff. And you do that and you do like weapons classes and stuff.

So you get all, you get taught. So if you're not in the field, you're do weapons classes and stuff. So if you're not in the field, you're not doing ranges and stuff. They're in classes and they're teaching you stuff and they're teaching you, like max effective ranges and how a weapon system works, why infantry is the way it is today. They're showing you videos of combat and stuff.

And here and there you'll get a speaker too that comes in. And you know they'll talk to you about their time in. And their time in combat. And so it's I think the school of infantry does it well. You know breeding young war fighters. They definitely, they definitely get the point across that you do have big shoes to fill, but you can have the feet to fill those shoes.

And you know, that they're giving us the tools to be successful and get prepared for the fleet. I mean, you definitely learn the most like coming out of infantry school. In infantry school gives you a good foundation of being a grunt. The first four weeks are, are everyone learning the same thing

being a basic O3, XX, like O311, and then it's the split. And so the, if you want to go be a mortar man, they basically ask you one day, like, hey, you know, this is a split, you're done at this phase of infantry school. Now we're going to ask who wants to be a mortar man, who wants to be a machine gunner, who wants to go to recon, because at that point at the four weeks, you can go to, like, go to reconnaissance pipeline, you can try at least, and, or you can stay grunt,

and, or be an assaultman, or an anti-tank gunner. And so, at this point now, I was just like, I wanna be a fucking door kicker. Like, Ritter and I are both on the same page, like we wanna be in the shit, and try and get there as fast as we can. And obviously, we know, like, at this point now,

you know, the war has died down a lot. It's not what it was in the early 2010s and before that. And we're just, but we're not really thinking like, oh, we're not going to deploy to a combat zone. We're kind of thinking that's how it's going to be the whole way through. And so to be, they needed like one, one more machine gunner. So we stayed like they ask her once to go where and they have you out in front of the big,

you know, in the building, it's called the H, like just on the concrete slab. And the like mourners over here, anti-tank gunners, like come upstairs, assaultmen over here. Or actually, assaultmen wasn't a thing. I thought about wanting to be an assaultman as well because you'd still be like a rifleman, but you'd be using like a smaws and stuff

and doing demolitions and like as your job, but they start, they were starting to phase them out so they didn't have that available our cycle. So all right, well, like we still wanna be, be arrived from them so I'm staying here. And then they go, all right, we need, we need one more anti-tank gunner and like one more cat guy and one more machine gunner.

And to be either of those things, you had to have passed all the tests and have like, have like really high scores or whatever it was. And myself and like two other guys were the only three out of like 100 people left that had passed all of the tests and but none of us wanted to be a machine gunner or an anti-tank gunner, and they called the three of us out to the middle

in front of everyone, and so we've got like multiple platoons, like a couple hundred people, just like we're in the middle of them, and they're like, all right, well, what are you, is gonna be a machine gunner you machine gunner and when you use gonna be an anti tank gunner and One of the guys like caved and went I think there was yeah, there was four actually one of the guys cave

And he went to go be an anti tank gunner. There's three of us now and They're like all right. Well when you when you use gonna be machine gunner and us now. And they're like, all right, well, when are you, when are you going to be a machine gunner? And I was like, I told them, I told my comment, I started, I was like, I'm not going to be a machine gunner. Like, I want to be a grunt. And so they sat there, they made a sit there and come up with a speech on why we wanted to be an O3 11 rifleman. Why we wanted to be a door kicker. And I don't remember everything that I

said, but it was convincing enough that they're like, all right, go back. You're going to be a rifleman and they took the other guy and he wanted to go be a machine gunner. It was funny because I was like, oh fuck, I really have to do this in front of everyone right now. We had to say our piece in front of everyone and convinced him. So here I am today, but being a young, young junior marine, I had been out in town with like a bunch of guys intoxicated and one of my buddies let him kind of scratch off part of my One of my buddies let him

kind of scratch off part of my D and to like to get in to like like the club and stuff and not really like thinking appropriately. Marines trying to drink to sneak into the club to get drunk. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, and I don't know what to put that together. But so that so that happened and and I never even used that idea to do anything with it, but about nine or 10 other guys did it too.

And one dude wrote with like Sharpie on the back of his cat card and went in. This is like month one that were with the unit maybe. And went in to IPAC to get a new ID. And they're like, you fucking altered your ID and wrote on it with Sharpie like, nope, you're not getting your ID back or a new one. We're calling your unit and you're paying it, paying for it.

And so then they call the unit, let them know what happened. And it's like a Sunday. And my, at the time, like my first team leader, they hit us up and they're like, hey, like this just happened. The whole whole platoon was like, does anyone else have alter IDs or anything like that? And I was like, well fuck, I was like,

it's a little bit, like it's almost not even noticeable, but I'm gonna be honest about it. I told him I was like, hey, I do, this is what happened. I told him, the truth told him what happened. He's like, all right, it doesn't look that bad. Like just tell him you had your keys in your pocket or something. And I was like, you had your ID in your pocket

and it got scraped up and I was like, you sure? And not really known any better. And he's like, yeah, he's like, you're fine. He's like, I'm not gonna take your ID. He's like, I wouldn't even have noticed it if you hadn't said anything. And so the next day, it's like a Monday, they bring us all in into formation.

And they told us what was going on that they had you know someone had an ultra ID and they're like all right all the fucking new joins all the boots get the fuck over here and they're like all right you're gonna hand over all of your IDs and there was I don't know like 30 of us or something and everyone handed over their IDs. This, the staff sergeant at the time, staff sergeant Cypher. He was definitely, definitely looking out for the boys. He looked through all the IDs

and he didn't, they had already pulled out that gunny at the time, who also was kind of on a power trip. He had already had the IDs that were sharpied and really bad and he just hated everyone anyway before that. And just because we're new and that's just how it goes. It's how the Marine Corps is.

And so, I didn't see him pull out any more IDs and so I'm like, oh thank God, I'm okay. Like I'm good, thank God. And that gunning comes up, he's like, let me see the IDs and that staffs aren'm like, oh thank God, like I'm okay. Like I'm good, thank God. And that gunny comes up, he's like, let me see the IDs. And that staff's aren't like, I already checked them. Like trying not just like, be a good dude. He's like, I already checked them, they're good.

And he's like, no, he's like, let me check them. And he's like, I already checked them, gunny, like they're good. And he's like, no, he's like, let me check them. And so he handed over the stack of IDs, pulled out like three more, and then they start calling names, handing IDs back. And I'm standing there with like two other guys and RIDs have not been handed back. And I'm like, oh, fuck.

I was like, my career is over. Like my career is over. And call us into the company office. And I mean, just start laying in dust. I think I had every first sergeant and the sergeant major, every single senior enlisted and they're yelling at me at one point, just I was going from room to room getting screamed at, just upstairs, downstairs, down the hall.

I was just like, oh man. And I didn't know any but I was like, oh, I was like, oh, my fucking career's over. But I always remember my mom telling me, if you ever get in legal trouble, request a lawyer. Don't say anything, don't do anything. No matter what happens, whether you're in the military, you're a civilian, request a lawyer and talk to a lawyer.

And so I'm there and they're like, you're gonna get fucking court martial, you're gonna get blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, all right, you're gonna get NJP. And you have to come in and accept, you can accept or deny the NJ go, all right, you're gonna get NJP, and you have to come in and accept, you can accept or deny the NJP, like they read you to rights or whatnot, you can come and accept or deny the NJP

and everyone accepted it, like on the spot accepted it. And I'm like, Jesus, here's this big old, like all these papers with all this legal stuff. And I was like, all right, well, I was like, they told us, yeah, you can also request a lawyer, but no one did that. And none of the other guys.

And so now there's eight Marines who are accepted NJP and in trouble on the spot. And I was like, I want to request a lawyer. I want to go speak to a Jag. And they were like, what? And I was like, I want to request a lawyer. And I want to speak to a Jag. Are you sure you want to do that?

If you do that, you're going to get more trouble pretty much. And I was like, yes, I was like, I want to make sure I make a good choice, a good decision here. This is like, you know, legal punishment. I want to make sure I know what's going on fully. And so I get taken over to the 51 it's like the 51 area on Camp Pendleton where all the Jags are. And I've got this like fresh, fresh lieutenant

as a Jag. And I told him the whole story. Told him exactly what happened. Told him the truth, word for word. And he's like, well, look at this. He's like, right here on the NJP, it says you altered your ID. He's like, you didn't alter your ID. He was like, your buddy did deny the NJP.

And you won't get in trouble. He's like, you can't get in trouble. Like they can't JP you for this because the NJP says you altered it and you did not. And I'm like, are you sure about that? And he's like, yeah, he's like, at legal terms, he's like, this is why he come to talk to us. Like it says you altered the ID, but you didn't, and you know, deny the NJP. He's like, fuck, I was like, okay, I was like, are you sure? He's like, yeah, and I just texted my mom,

I was like, hey, as well as you know, like I'm getting in some trouble for some things. And she's like, oh my gosh, just like, of course. And you know, same thing. She's like, go talk to a lawyer and I'm like, already my gosh, just like, of course. And, you know, same thing. She's like, go talk to a lawyer and I'm like, already talking to a Jag. And so I go back to the unit and I go and I deny the NJP.

And I told her, yeah, if you deny NJP, it could like come back on you harder. But I'm like, all right, here I am, trusting this Jag, who's been afforded to me. I go back and deny the NJP and then they ask me and they're like, like, no, you're not getting out of this. Like, why are you denying NJP?

And, uh, and like, my Jack, I think my Jag was there or he like, just like, he had like, caught, talked them and I was like, well, I was like, you're trying to NJP me pretty much. Like, I had to explain like why I denied NJJP, like that it wasn't me that altered it. And they just like tore up the NJP, typed up a new one, this marine altered his idea. Or this marine led another individual,

like knowingly alter his idea. And it's like tore up the first NJP and it's like, fuck, I was like, all right, well, it's like so much for that. And now these dudes who are already like, this happened over like a week or two. And so these dudes had already been NJP'd, and they're on like two weeks restriction or something, and just like stuck to the base, cleaning the command post,

and I go upstairs and, like the Sergeant Major's talking to me. And this is right before they tore up the NJP and He just like calls me in his office. I'm like fuck. I was like I'm going to the sergeant major's office like oh man Like what is what is this I go in there and he close like close the fucking door and I close the door and There's like another Marine in there and he just like pulls out my ID and he slams it on the table and He like pulls out a razor blade out of his desk and he's just like running it over the one little like scratch in the ID.

And he had like a super heavy accident. He's like, he's like, you're gonna think me, a stupid fucking sergeant major. If I can figure this out, he's like, you think NCI's gonna fucking figure this out? He's like, what the fuck? And he's like, tell me what happened. And I'm just like, sitting there, I'm like, I'm done.

I was like, I'm getting kicked out of the military. Like not knowing that, you know, I can receive punishment, but not, not gonna kick that out. And I told him, I told him what happened. He's like, all right, he's like, I appreciate your integrity, Marine. I'm gonna push for this NJP to, he's like, I'm gonna push for it to be like a 6105,

you know, not, not a, not an NJP. And so I go down there and that company, GUNNION was like dead set on NJPing me. He was like, nope, all these other guys get NJPed. He's like, no, he's like, it's not up to the Sarge Mater. It's up to the company commander and he's their whisperer in the company commander's ear. Like, nope, NJP this dude.

And so I had to get a bunch of character witnesses from these guys who barely know me. Yeah. Yeah. And get a bunch of character witnesses from these guys who barely know me. Yeah. You know, yeah. And get a much character witness from these guys who barely know me who now think I'm like these do think I'm like the biggest scumbag in the world. Yeah. And I remember going to my...

Just a young Marine trying to get a beer. Yeah. What the hell happened? And I'm trying to. Yeah. I remember going to my... I hate you. You want to drink a beer under to. Yeah. I remember going to my, I hate you.

You want to drink a beer under 21? Yeah. I'm gonna fuck you up. Geez, man. Yeah. And I go to my, he was my squalty to the time, later platoon sergeant. Staffs are not a mob at mob list,

hope he watches this. He, I'm telling him, just like, I'm fucked, like I'm screwed. And he was like, he's this. He, uh, I'm telling him, just like, I'm fucked. Like I'm screwed and he was like, he's like, yeah, he's, then I'm, I'm sitting there. I remember like tears in my eyes, like my career's over. Like I just got here and I'm, I'm fucking done. Like, and he's like, he remember telling me he's like, listen, he's like, it's like, you can only do good from here.

You know, he's like, just don't fuck up anymore. Pretty much so long those lines and he's like, you just have to eat it, you just have to take this punishment. So then they gave me like a month of restriction and like, I think like restricted, like a little bit of restricted pay for a couple of weeks. And, but I didn't, it was just a company in GP, it wasn't a battalion, so I didn't lose rank fortunately,

but I was on promotion restriction. So I'm a PFC at this time and it was like six months promotion restriction or like a year or something I can't remember to where I couldn't get promoted to E3 and from that day like I took that NGP and I just it was probably like the best thing that happened to me in my Marine Corps career because I Like sat that night and I was just like, man like this really happened. I can't change it. It's like But I have to be like and it's what I plan to do But I really just like hammered down on myself. I was like I can't fuck up from here like I've

I had this stupid page live and they don't really care about, but in the Marine Corps's eyes, above you, it's like paperwork's paperwork, and I've got this page 11, I've got this NJP, but that's not who I am. I have to be on my p's and q's, I need to dot them eyes and cross on my t's from here on out and be the best version of myself that I can be. I was like that's who I am and I have to show them that that's who I am that I care and I'm here to do work. And I did that. I took every training every bit of knowledge that gave me a seriously as I could. I tried to be as physically fit as I could. I remember that was like a big thing

as you get to a new unit and like, you're senior Marines, senior Lance Corbals and stuff. You know, they're training you hard, training you very hard and the majority of it's because you're not as fit, you know what I mean? They've been doing this for a few years and know how to run around with weight and had some experience.

But I was already a fit dude and going to the gym all the time, working on myself. And I was like, well, I can start with, I can control a couple things. I can control how strong and how fast I am. And I can control how I think I can control my attitude. And the whole positive mental attitude crap, I took it seriously. I was like, well, I'm gonna, I am gonna be, you know, be the best grunt that I can be.

And, you know, I had some really good leaders see that, you know, my, one of my best friends, Dalton Hanigan, who he was my squad leader after that, they kind of moved around squads and like finally solidified them for training and through the deployment and stuff. And throughout training, he really, him and my team leaders really saw like how much I was trying to, how much good I was trying to do and how hard I was working to be like a stellar marine, a stellar infantryman specifically. And it really, I had them in the back of my mind every day.

I was like, already on trouble. I can't fuck up, I can't fuck up. And every bit of knowledge I got, I mean, I would sit at night and just read it over and over and really try and understand it and look things up in my own, know all my max effective ranges, know all these different tactics and strategies and read and I love to read, which was great

because all of these older guys who are getting out were like, here's this MCDP one on like war fighting and like all these Marine Corps doctrines like that they, you know that they have and all these guys who are getting out in Arpa Tune like just handing out books, nothing right and I'd be like, please, like, I'll take them, you know, I want to, I want to be, you know,

be the best. And I definitely, definitely shine in my platoon, I think, and my guy saw that. And I, fortunately, my promotion restriction, it lined up to the day almost, it was like the same exact month that I was supposed to get promoted to E3, was the day, or was like the month or day that my promotion restriction ended, so it didn't set me back really.

I got promoted to E3 on time. I was like one of the first like junior marine, like boot squad or boot team leaders and then And that was pretty awesome. That was like a all right like They see that I care and they see that I know what I'm doing and I'm taking Everything that they gave me if I didn't know something it was because I wasn't taught it You know, and that's something that I learned early on you know You can't especially being a being a young leader after that know, I can't, I can't get mad at dudes

if they don't know something. If they don't know something, there's one of two reasons. It's because they don't care to keep working on it on their own or I haven't taught it to them. And I noticed that early on and so every time, like, like, all in, he would see like, all right, this guy can handle this. And so he'd go to like advanced schools

or my team would go to an advanced school and they'd like feed me a little more like, he would see like, all right, this guy can handle this. And so he'd go to like, advanced schools, or my team would go to an advanced school, and they'd like, feed me a little more like, hey, we'll just prepare you for advanced school and stuff. So like, teaching me call for fire and stuff like that as it really junior marine, like, picked it up like that. And they're like, okay, now we'll teach you like, close air support and like, picked it up like that. And just work that, everything that I could

is as hard as I could. They really took it under the line. Yeah, very much so. And you know, a lot of guys don't have phenomenal leaders in their careers, I think, but I definitely had some solid leadership and guys that I'm thankful for today, for molding me into more of the man that I am now, and the Marine that I am today, and saw some good leadership at a young age, a young time in my career. That's good. I got to see the good and the bad.

I got to see the kind of leader that I wanted to be and the kind of leader I did not want to be. So good for you. Well, Tyler, let's take a break. And when we come back, I want to push towards August 26th. Yeah, let's take a break and when we come back I want to push towards August 26th. Yeah, let's do it All right, Tyler. We're back from the break You just finished infantry school. You're getting ready to go on your first deployment. Yeah, so

So my my squad leader at the time, you know, I was a team leader with, made a junior Marine with a couple with majority. I had maybe one or two other guys who were my peers in the platoon and different squads who were junior Marine team leaders as well. The rest of them were senior guys per se. And so my squad leader actually went to Isle Infantry Small Unit Leaders course. And that was like a couple of weeks or

a couple of months before deployment, like right before deployment, just enough time to get back into play with us. And so I was his assistant squad leader over my seniors. He pointed me and over your senior. Yeah, over my seniors and right when he was leaving, you know, like the day before he was leaving for that course, he said, listen, he's like no more, no more answering to your seniors, like you're below them, not that I was ever that way, but you know, you're the same rank as them. You're holding billets over them,

he's like take this shit and run with it. He's like you're gonna be acting squad leader until I get back. And I was like take this shit and run with it, got it. So I got it. So I did what probably take a shin and I'm gonna think got it. But I got it. So I did what probably any Lance Corporal would do in that position. I grew out a nice big old mustache. None of my peers have mustache. Just grew out a nice big mustache and just did my best to run the show from that point on. And we did our McCree, so Marine Corps combat readiness evaluation.

It's what each unit goes through right before the, I don't actually, they might not do it anymore, but up until that point, they did them for deployment to pretty much see if the entire battalion was ready if they could use air and sea assets, if they could maneuver troops appropriately and all the way down to the team level, if they could maneuver troops appropriately and all the way down to the team level, operate in a hostile environment.

So you go all over Pendleton and we got hellow inserted and in different places in Pendleton, you hike, go on a mission, it's like four or five days long. Much more difficult than the crucible. But they, I mean, hiking up the fire breaks on mountains and stuff, breaking brush that you need to be able to break it, like, really testing, testing the abilities of marine infantry battalion. And so I was like, this is fucking awesome.

This, I can show, you can show what I'm capable of and what my squats capable of. And I just took it in round with it. Even all the way down to making a fire sketch pretty much of the area. I mean, I put as much detail as you could in it. And I, now I got acknowledged for the way I performed during that McCree.

I was just gonna ask, how do you think your peers received you as a leader? Definitely, definitely challenging. But they knew that I was about my shit and my guys and my team who were all my peers, I mean, I was leading all of my peers when I was a team leader and I'd get into that with them,

but at the end of the day, they knew like they had to respect what I needed to say and needed them to do and they did. And I mean, it's a two-way street for that relationship, but it was good. And I was generally it goes like this. Yeah. I tell you do something to prove yourself. Did you do something to prove yourself? I think just being thrown those tasks, being thrown the McCree really, really kind of helped me shine and show that I knew what I was doing and that I was just capable as due to deploy one, two, or three times before me. The challenge was definitely

like my seniors, the you know the Lance Corporal who had been Lance Corporal's had been in my shoes but now I'm in their shoes and I'm a lot farther behind them as far as military careers go in the infantry. And they were probably the challenge over that first deployment. Definitely grew closer with them. Just being kind of that guy I was always in on the meetings, I was always in on the briefs and stuff

because that's what my role was as a leader of a fire team. And it's just as you fall over them. Were you over them? Yes. Okay. Yeah, so I was over them. So we went on that first appointment. A 31st Mu, it was two,

we went to Okinawa first, a camp Hanson and then got on ship for a couple of months, went to South Korea, spent some time near the DMZ. What were you guys, was it a primary? It was a presence in South Korea. Big show for us, because at that time, right when we got there, they started launching the ICBMs into the ocean. And so then board hogs and started doing gun runs on the DMZ, like mock gun runs and all the tanks there started doing life fire ranges. So we, I mean, we went to, it was,

it's a, I think Camp Rodriguez was called. And it's like specifically a live fire, like training facility and it's up in the mountains and in South Korea. And so you go there and it's up in the mountains and in South Korea and so you go there and It's all live fire stuff Shoot houses things like that. So we did a lot of that out there I had been told

earlier in that deployment that I was getting put up for Mercatories Corporal Board and so took like a picture on ship in my chucks, my Charli's, and didn't really think much of it. And then, I was just kind of like a paper board. So, other than like speaking to my direct leadership, I didn't have to go in front of anyone. So, I didn't really think much of it, because I'm like, well, I've got this page 11,

I've got this NJP in my past on the board. I mean, my physical fitness scores are phenomenal. I've done a lot. And so they did like character statements from leadership and stuff. And there's one thing in the Marine Corps, there's always people watching. No matter what you're doing, the good and the bad,

there's always people watching. And come to have learned that after this. But we're in a life-fire range, just finished running it. Dalton, he let me take the squad on a run for the range. And did that life-fire run? And they call us in, they call an Arplatoon to formation. And here's stories of guys who get like NJP in front

of like the company and stuff, who like they'll bring them in and NJP them in front of everyone and whatnot. And they act, they're acting really serious, like really, really serious. Our platoon sergeant was and so they're like, all right, I'm gonna get the fuck over here again, formation. And I was like, oh, shit. And then they said my name and I'm saying information and I'm like, my heart's just racing. Like, oh fuck, like, what did I do? Just thinking I'm like, all right, I didn't do anything stupid or drunk in Okinawa. I didn't do anything like this. I've been good, like, what the fuck's going on?

Come out of formation, go to the front and read off my maritalia's corporal promotion in front of all my buddies and our Arplatoon. I think the entire company might have been there, but read it off in front of everyone promoted me and I was just like star struck, just like stunned at what happened. And it didn't really process my brain. I was like, oh my God, I thought I was getting in trouble again.

And everyone came in, gave me a hug. And that was a cool moment, because I was the first person out of my entire peer group to get promoted to corporal in our battalion, in our entire unit. And I got promoted to corporal above before and above a lot of my senior leadership. And that's a lot of redemption.

Yeah, it was an awesome moment. I mean, there was definitely the majority who were like one year above me pretty much, like one cycle above me in the Marine Corps that I had surpassed. And it was like a moment I was like, man, this is what I've earned from what I've put in. I was still hungry.

I didn't satisfy me, but in a positive way, I was extremely thankful. And still, I mean, I couldn't believe it. It probably took like a year to settle. And so we went on at the deployment, came back. And then I went to Advanced Infantry Course. Just another follow-on school that typically sent like squad leaders too. So I took over Dalton, went to Tune Sergeant. I took over as a squad leader.

They sent me to the Advanced Infantry Course. It's pretty much like the squad leaders course. And fortunately him and my other team leaders when I was younger had kind of pinned me out with their knowledge and stuff. So everything at Advanced Infantry School was stuff I already knew. And it was stuff that I was very good at.

So that was a lot of, a lot of just kind of going through the suck, you know, carrying heavy packs, carrying a lot of weapons, a lot of ammo, and still learning a lot, but kind of getting to see, you know, some older, some older combat instructors, some older combat vets really share their stories

with us from Ramadi and Helm and Province and stuff and really talk to us about the reality of the Marine Corps. Because a lot of our direct leadership wasn't, there was only so many combat vets at that time. You know, and it was very, very much the minority of them in the unit. Really? Yeah.

And like not surprising. My, in my platoon of like 35, 40 people coming back from that deployment, not a single person that had been to combat. Are you serious? Yeah. Not a single person that had been to combat. Are you serious? Yeah. How's a single person? Um, it was typically there was like one decent Tuesdays here and there like in the mortar section. I

think and then like more senior like staff and CEOs who had been like a couple of the platoon sergeants, um, our platoon sergeant at the time, um, Adam Opolis, he was he was a younger guy too and had to fill some big shoes. But like the two, the Twin Charging before him or two, like he was a combat vet, but yeah, there was not many. I don't know if few and far between is the right phrase, but yeah, it was a small amount and it's obviously we're doing our own thing, training how we know how to train and what we're taught and fortunately those like, where did they go?

Did they advanced up into the higher ranks or they separated? Yeah, so some of them had advanced into the higher ranks or you know, been cut orders, got sent to the advanced infantry training battalion, or to be combat instructors and stuff. A lot of them we've gotten out. But most of the more of the combat vets were like at advanced infantry training battalion, which is where I went to advanced infantry course that, and there's all the follow-on advanced, more advanced infantry courses, like all those guys are seasoned veterans. That's interesting.

I would have thought that some of that knowledge would be in the, in the potions. It was more in, definitely in the staff and CEOs. I think there's, yeah, like that for the majority of the platoons. Like maybe the platoons sergeant had been to combat, but everyone else pretty much now. And so then I got my first wave of fresh Marines. I mean, I'll straight out of infantry school.

And I was like, all right, well, now it's my turn to really step up and be a leader because I've been, I mean, I've been leading my peers, but really my turn to see if I know what I'm doing and mold some great men, some great young men. And they are, those guys are all squad leaders now on another deployment, which is cool. And I was still at this time at that deployment, I was preparing for assessment selection from Marsoc. I was, I was set at this time at that deployment. I was preparing for assessment selection for Marsok.

I was set on going very excited and well prepared physically and mentally I felt like speaking of Marsok at what point at what point in your career did you turn you turn sniple school down? Yeah, two different times. Why did you turn that down? Because so there's a big, so I was a rifle squad leader for about a little under a year

and then Dolan said, hey, I'm going to the sniper platoon, they were running an in-dock and I'm like, well, fuck, I'm up. They're about to make me try and reenlist because I want to go to A&S but I need to have like a backup for them. Like they wanted something just like another contract ready in case that fell through.

What's the ANS? Assessment selection. Okay. Um, uh, from Marsock. And so I was like, damn dude, he told me he, we were just on a filled up and he told me, uh, on a Thursday's like, hey, you're the only other person that knows this besides our LT. Like I'm going to, I'm going to sniper in doc on Monday like the screener and I was like fuck it's like damn dude I was like I should I should have

fucking done it I was like it's too late and this whole that because one of the the backup to my my plan that they that I was gonna do would be the squalier development program need to spend another at least two years in an infantry battalion and then I would go if if I didn't go to Marsack, I would go on to like another unit or to be a combat instructor or something and get a pretty good bonus. But they kanked them, like they only grandfathered

in people who had already had them signed and they didn't do them anymore. And I was like, okay, that's fine. Like I'm gonna get selected. That just solidifies it even more for me. I cannot get selected. And I was cool with that and then he told me that. And I was like, damn dude, I was like,

I would really like to go with you, but it's too late. There's deadlines and stuff. We're filling out packages for snipers. And he's like, well, Chaz is the chief scout sniper, my former team leader, he's the Chief Scouts sniper of the Platoon. I'm buddies with him. Like, let me hit him up and see if, you know, you know, if he can like squeeze you in,

because I had a bunch of buddies in the Platoon and they had wanted me to come for a while. Guys that have been the advanced infantry course with and guys in the Platoon are like, you need to fucking get a while. Guys, I've been to Advanced Infantry Course with and guys and both of them are like, you need to fucking get over here. And when I was a fresh Marine, got NJP, I had tried to go actually run a sniper in Doc and they're like, nope, you just got NJP the after way to year. And so I never got to do it.

And so he hit up Chaz, Friday came around, and he's like, all right, you can, if you can fill out a packet and the entirety of Friday, which is normally takes like a week to get done and like get all the signatures and stuff for you. He's like, and you can get him this packet by the end of like close business today. Like you can like show up Sunday or Monday,

morning, whatever it was for the screener. It's like fuck, I was like, great, I need new boots too. And so got the packet filled out, turned it in. They're like, all right, show up Monday at like zero two or whatever it was. And it's kind of how I fast-tracked into that. Showed up, you know, 2 a.m. with the packing list. Started doing the, all the physical,

I mean, it's all physical and mental stuff, but it's, they definitely tried to break you off with the physical stuff. And so, let me ask you, what was the question you asked me? I was trying to lead up to it with that. I asked you why you turned down sniper school to different times. Okay, so Marsock. I, uh, so pass the screener, uh, we started with, I think like mid to late 30s of guys or something like that on day one and then

By the end of it there was like maybe eight of us of that week and There's eight like eight of us or seven of us and then like four or five of us got selected Adult and then myself being one of them or two of them and so I Told them we had to go where our charlis going in front of them and they interviewed us, right? Like to figure out if they want to select us for the platoon. And, you know, they're like, you're coming from a position

of being a squad leader, you know, kind of being at, you know, one of the top spots in your platoon. Do you think you could handle having someone above you and, you know, not being necessarily the leader of the team again or the leader of the squad, having a team leader above you? I was like, yeah, I'm here to work. I wanna be with more proficient individuals

and guys who really do give a fuck. Cause you get those guys in the infantry, it's like 70% of them, 65% of them like really care, but there's a good chunk who are just kinda getting by. And you're not gonna go put yourself through the suck if you don't wanna be there, you know what I mean? And so I told them that and I was like, and then they told me they wanted,

after that they came back and told me that they wanted me. And I told them I was like, listen, my intent is to go to assessment selection from Marsoc. I want you to know if I come to the platoon, I'm going to go there. It doesn't mean I'm gonna work any less in any capacity being here because I'm going to go there.

It's like, honestly, I'm probably going to work harder because that's where I want to go. I want to go to a better place. And being around better individuals is going to help push me to be a better version of myself. And so they're like, all right, understand. Like you can come to the platoon and we'll let you go. That's not going to be a problem.

We want guys like you and I was like, awesome, cool. And then right away away they offered Dalton my spots to sniper school and I had orders already like in hand to go and like two months to go to assessment selection. And there are maybe like one-and-a-half. And so they're like, hey, sniper schools, like during selection, and we want you to go.

Do you want to like asking me if I want to go pretty much? And I was like, no, I want to go to assessment selection. I want to be a raider. And it was more important to me. I mean, you see it, and I've even saw it even more as my time went on in the sniperable tune, but respect to all my hogs out there, Hunter of Gunman,

Scout snipers, but it's definitely more of a pride thing. Wearing that hog stew, that 7, 6, 2 bullet around your neck, a necklace and a title for me is not going to make me a better man. My actions and how I choose to, how the marine I choose to be is what matters. And so that title was an important, was important to me as becoming a rater. So I turned it down. And then I had around the fourth of July,

selection was the month after I gave my, I just was a way overtraining. Like I was running really hard, rucking really hard and still lifting weights. And I gave myself a hemorrhoid like the size of a quarter, almost right on my asshole. And I could barely walk. I was waddling around.

I couldn't sit down. I always had to lay down and I remember going so our platoon corpsman at that time, our head platoon corpsman, he was a sark. So he had gone through like the basic reconnaissance course pipeline. And I'm like, Hey, like, I might not be able to go to selection, like something's wrong. I've got like something wrong with my ass. He's like, what the fuck did you just say to me? And I was like, I need got something wrong with my ass. He's like, what the fuck does he just say to me?

And I was like, I need you to look at my asshole. And he was like, I'm only knowing. He was just like, what the fuck? And so he's like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah, and he's like, all right, drop your pants and spread your cheeks. And I did that, and I'm bent over, cheek spread, and he's staring at me.

And all that comes out of his mouth, oh my fucking god And I stand up and I can't stop. I was like are you serious dude? That's your response. I was like you're my doc Taking volunteers Tyler oh Man, and so that that was his response was like that's your response is oh my fucking god I was like yeah, that's bad man and

He's like all right. You need to go to medical right now. And then got sent to the actual hospital because it was a pretty bad one. And got some antibiotics and some medicine and stuff. And it was like, for to even go away to the point where I could like, I wasn't allowed to work out. Like it hurt really bad,

but even if I wanted to push through the pain, I could have burst it or made it worse, give myself a hernia and stuff. And so, you can't do anything for five weeks. And that was a week into selection. And so I could have pushed it, talked with my Marsalker creator about it. And he was like, you could do it, but it might just fuck your chances up of everything. And I was like, fuck man.

And at that point, I mean, I had, I was a capable infantryman and being in a cyber platoon. I mean, I was, I was fit and capable to go. I was ready for selection, but it was just like, I, you know, I don't want this to be my one shot and then not happen because I'm hurt. And so I had to get my orders, drop my orders, and then we're in the middle of doing our pre-sciper course too. And so I would go and do like stock lanes with them as I was still filling up,

and I would like start halfway and like set up like FFP's like final firing positions, because I couldn't actually like crawl around. So I would like start halfway and set up my positions and's, like final firing positions because I couldn't actually crawl around. So I would like start halfway and set up my positions and stuff and still do training and stuff because I still wanna be involved. And fortunately, I can still go and shoot.

I just could only stand kneel or like prone. I couldn't sit. So I was still able to participate in training and stuff and I wanted to. And then I went to 29 palms for training leading up to that deployment. And they're like, hey, you guys are, you guys are going on the SP Magtaff,

sent calm like you're going to the Middle East. And this is end of 2020, like October, November of 2020. And like excited as shit, we're like, wow, we're actually, like they started, so they solely kept the Middle East rotations to seventh Marines for a while and then I think fifth Marines as well maybe for a little bit but they moved them back to the rest of the Marine Corps so that everyone would get a chance to like go to the Middle East, go to Okinawa and go to everywhere we deploy. So they told us that,

and then at the end of that training cycle in 29 palms, I had another date to go to selection again, and also to go to sniper school. And they're like, all right, you like, do you wanna go to selection, and you wanna go to sniper school? Like we want you to go to sniper school still. And it's like, I wanna go to selection, like I'm good.

Like I can perform, I'll perform a lot of scout snipers in this platoon. Like I'm good, I'm good when I'm at and this is what I wanna do. So I turned down sniper school again and we had a training event to come up. And I was like, hey, I need to go to this. I appointment for some death perception issues. If I don't go, you know, kind of tell my command, if you guys don't let me go and miss this

like one day of training, you know, I'm going to miss my opportunity to go to selection again. And they're like, no, you'll be fine. You'll have time to get it when you get back. Naturally, I didn't have time to go get this appointment done and get these like death perception glasses when we got back my timeline overlapped by like two weeks so I missed that selection date again because it didn't let me go get that appointment that I needed while we were in training and then I'm I miss school as well because I turn that down too so then we deployed and then I was like all right

well there's another fucking there's another course that's after deployment and I'll go to sniper school this time and then I'll go to selection. Yeah, that was kind of the plan after that and so Jumping into this deployment You know, we were told we were going to Kuwait. So the special, we were the SPMACTAF, is Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force, and we were the CR, so crisis response sent us to Kuwait, and Al Javric Kuwait originally, I guess I should jump back real quick.

So that February, we deployed in April 1, I think, of that year. And February, I was at a non-lethal weapons instructor course. And we were, we were, the guys in my platoon were telling me, we had already been told we were awaiting a brief on Syria, going there and kind of pulling out of Syria, which obviously didn't happen. I'm going there and kind of pulling out of Syria, which obviously didn't happen. And they're like, hey, the baton commander and the Sergeant Major are gonna come talk to us about it and like one of the kernels or something.

And so I'm like, okay, and I'm at this course and I'm like, hey, you need to show up to like the range. Our guys are on a range and I was at this course and I'm like, hey, show up at this course this afternoon. So I had them contact my instructors at this course and they're like, told them something. They kind of like made a weird face looking at me and they're like, all right, yeah, we up at this course this afternoon. So I had them contact my instructors at this course and they're like, told them something, it kind of like made a weird face looking at me and they're like, all right, yeah,

we'll send them over there this afternoon and go to the range. And I pull up to the table, like the range table when my buddies are sitting at and everyone's on the firing line behind the long guns and my buddy Adam, he comes up to me and he's like, hey brother, congratulations on the promotion.

It's like what? And I just see a rock come flying out of nowhere and like, Adam, you stupid bitch. Like he doesn't fucking know that he's getting promoted. And then I was like, oh shit, like what the fuck? And so I had actually, when we were in were in, in Toyon Poms, that prior year I had been put up for a Maritory of Sergeant Board. And, uh, I won. And like I remember my, my platoon sergeant, I mean, my platoon commander asking me like, I want to put you up for,

you know, I, and everyone else wants to put you up for a, uh, Maritory of Sergeant Board. Um, you know, do you think you deserve that? And I was like, I think I can handle it. And so he's like, all right, Roger that. And so they put me up for that. Not much more came of it. And then, yeah, they come over to me like, all right, well, when the BC and Sergeant Major get here,

like you got to act surprise, because it's supposed to be a surprise. And so, got Maritory of Supermoted to Sergeant. get here like you got to ask a prize because like you're supposed to be a surprise and so got merit or see promoted to sergeant and that was pretty cool those with all my boys again at this point I had this funny because I told Dalton when I was a young young guy like a PFC or a Lance Corporal I was like like giving him shit as much as I could him being above me out. I go he was pinning me to to Lance Corporal I think and it's like you're gonna be pinning me to Sergeant one day when you're Sergeant still I promise and then it came and he's like

you motherfucker but yeah that was that was a cool moment so he he promoted me to Sergeant as well and then we deployed shortly thereafter, went to Kuwait and obviously now this is the, you know, almost it's like the end of the first quarter of 2021 and we see things in Afghanistan wrap it up and with the Taliban and, you know, everyone, the entire world, if you got two eyes and you're not blind you can see what's going on in Afghanistan at that time.

And we push out to Kuwait, we're getting all these briefs on Syrian stuff and we end up prepped to go to Syria and then like, all right, nope, you guys are going to Saudi Arabia now. We're in Kuwait for like a month or so. Get sent to Saudi Arabia as a show of force for our brand and start again, told about like briefs on Afghanistan. And this is now March, like May and June. It was like two months before we ever left to Taftgan.

Maybe like three, two or three months before we ever left that we were like really getting briefs like, hey, like the government's collapsing and they're an arch-curnal of the SP Magtaf. We had a good working relationship with him, us being, like sniper, sniper, puttune, sniper teams, they're batallion level assets, so they're not controlled by the companies, the infantry companies, we answered directly to like the batallion commander.

And at that time where we were in a Saudi Arabia was with the flagpole, so the colonel and everyone was there of the espmag tough. And so he was always, let us know what was going on. We were getting briefs on Afghanistan. And they were pushing for us to go like the Marine Corps was pushing for us to go So you guys you guys went to withdrawal Syria Then you go that doesn't happen then you go to show force to Iran Yeah, and then you get pulled from that to go to Afghanistan. Yeah So this leads us into go to Afghanistan. So this leads us into you guys going to Afghanistan for the withdrawal and the incident on the 26th.

Yeah. About two to three months prior to us going, you know, they are, our colonel told us he's like, I'm pushing for us to get over there. We were told the Marine Corps was pushing for us to get over to Afghanistan as well. And they instead, us being the closest to Afghanistan, that was one of the reasons too for us, you know, being and not just being a show force for Iran, but we're the closest to that action and closest to Afghanistan. And then we started getting told,

hey, you guys aren't going right now. They're spinning guys up in the States who have no preparation or anything going on right now. They're spinning guys up in the states who have no preparation or anything going on right now to go to Afghanistan. Like why the fuck are you not sending us? Like this is what we so what we're here for. Did you guys know you're going to Afghanistan to do the withdrawal at this point? No, we knew that our kernel and the the Marine Corps was trying to get us to go, but we didn't have any dates said, didn't have like, okay, you guys are going. What I mean was, did you know

the administration was gonna withdraw all forces? Or was it just because of the civil unrest? So the civil unrest, and then we were getting briefed on how the president, you know, and the administration talked about on how the president, you know, and the administration talked about pulling out by, like September 11th pretty much. And so we were told about that. And so we knew that that was like, Hey, that's when he wants to withdraw. Why are we going now? Why are we not going now when we can prepare before everything collapses even further than it already is.

And so, got other units, other troops are getting spun up in the states, we're waiting to go. And we start, you know, getting told, hey, this is gonna be like a non-convatin evacuation operation, which is essentially pulling refugees out, you know, clearing them, vetting them, looking at special immigrant visas, passport, citizenship, and no one really knew what that was

other than a passport. Now in combat and pull out. Huh? Yeah. What was going, what were you guys sent out briefs that were being reported? Collapse the government, Taliban fighting, heavy fighting with the national resistance front

So how would this have been a non-combatant withdrawal? I think we all wonder that to this day. Oh, okay. Yeah Yeah, doing what the Taliban does best raping and murdering Yeah, doing what the Taliban does best, raping and murdering, um, tyranny. And that's what it was. But we did small scale on the little LSA air base that we were at in Saudi Arabia with like the soldiers and airmen that were at that base. Um, they would come through our lanes pretty much that they'd set up like very nice, neat organized lanes and Marines would have to search them for it.

Potential threats, search for citizenship and stuff, passports primarily. None of us knew what a special immigrant visa was even until we got to Afghanistan. And even then, it was three days before the ball went off, before the suicide, ball were detonated that I even knew what a special immigrant visa looked like for the suicide bomber detonated that we, that I even knew what it was, like special immigration immigrant visa looked like for the first time.

I knew what passports looked like, we all did, but that was about it, not anything else. And so, those months passed, Afghanistan further collapses and on itself with the Taliban closing in on Kabul. And we're still waiting. We're still just sitting around waiting and just trying to get the president to let us go pretty much.

And finally, when it's at the point where the Taliban are surrounding the entirety of Hamid, Karzai International Airport, they're already, they've taken the rest of Afghanistan and they're, you know, in the capital. We've, you know, the decision to close Bogram Air Force Base was made. Not sure why, because that's where we should have pulled out from. What we were told, we were gonna pull out from.

And we, I mean, we got sent in. You were told you were gonna to withdraw from Bobram? Yeah, that that was a better place to withdraw from. That was a week's leading up to it. And then a couple weeks prior, said that we're going to, Kabul to pull out from there. What do you think that decision got changed?

Poor planning. Honestly, I think just, just a lack of preparation, a lack of planning. Honestly, I think just just a lack of preparation, a lack of planning. The State Department weigh in over their heads. I mean, I'll dive into that when it gets to it, but yeah, just everyone in way over their heads with that. We, so we start prepping, getting combat loadouts ready, and this is now, we're in Kuwait, and we're in Kuwait for training, using some of the army sniper ranges there, and they tell us, you know, we're going,

we're going to, like, hey, you're going to Afghanistan in two weeks, and they only told our team, and I'm like, you guys are fucking crazy if I'm not gonna talk to my buddies. So the unit that we got a, or the company that we got attached back to, our team was the company that I came from to go to snipers. So it was all my buddies who were platoon sergeants

and squad leaders and I was like, you guys are fucking crazy. If you think I'm not gonna help these guys prepare to go in two weeks because they were gonna wait another week to tell them. And so we started letting the guys know what was up. And so obviously we're, I mean, my team, we were stoked. We were fucking stoked.

We were like, all right, finally, like we get to do our jobs, hopefully. And they really hit us when maybe a couple of days prior to us, like our date set to leave that our team Corman Jorge Mayo, he came in and he was like, our guys, it's real. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, got my med pack. And you know, he's got everything in it. He's got all of his drugs, all ketamine, everything. I'm like, oh, shit, like it is real. Like you're not, they haven't let you touch that shit unless you're in a hospital. Um, like we're going. And so, uh, they made us send a rep from our team, uh, with one of the platoons to Afghanistan. Um, so Dalton went a day before the rest of our team.

Um, and Chaz and I went into the, the command center command center to watch the drone feeds of them getting then safely and flying in. And I mean, Chaz and I spent hours and hours and hours watching those drone feeds and in the days leading up to it as well. And I mean, all you saw was a Taliban outside the gates just, bam, bam, bam, just civilian after civilian after civilian. How many civilians do you think you saw executed by Taliban from drone feed? From the drone feed, probably, probably like 20 or 30 at least. And that was just in the short moments that I was in there, saw a lot more in person.

And I would have that feel like saying that on drone. What's the right word? I would say those are our allies. Yeah. I mean, I was, it was saddening to watch. It was horrible to watch. What is the leadership saying? Were they disgusted? They wanted us to get the fuck over there to do something about it. I mean, everyone in our unit and our kind of echelon of command and that SP Magtap and that side of it, like, we were ready to go. Like, what we thought would be ready anyway,

like, ready to go help is what I mean. I mean, we were all disgusted by what we saw. And then that day, them coming in, so they flew in on that plane, and that's the day that, I mean, we were watching the feed, and there's just tens of hundreds of thousands of people just collapsing in on the airport.

And you can see it from every angle, there's just crowds as far as the eye can see, and just go into the airport, because they know that that's the only way out. And, don't get set Sarah with Apple Tune, I think it was a force but tune. And they start, they get there. We watch them get in safely. I think they might have taken some, a couple of the birds were taking rocket fire and machine gun fire. And as they were coming and they got, they touched down.

We made sure they did and we were supposed to leave the next night and so that day was when you see all those videos of the guys holding on to the landing gear and the wheels and them falling out of the sky and crushing. I mean my guys were on the ground there watching those people firsthand drop out of the planes. I mean I know Dalton and my you know my, my buddy Jake, like they they watch, they watch those bodies hit the pavement, they watch them hit the runway. They, they were there and had to control that crowd of thousands of people that broke into the gates and just all these unknown individuals rushed them. They were, they spent, I think like 30 something hours, like clearing the airfield of all those people.

And we have no idea who they are. Some are allies, some are not, you know. And so they got that under wraps, right? When we went to touchdown. And so we loaded up at the runway. What day did you get in? We got in August 15th, I think. I think we flew out the 14th, the guy didn't know the 15th.

So August 15th, 2021 is when we got, we touchdown, give or take 12 hours, but touchdown. And they're like, hey, it's gonna be the fucking Alamo, you guys are going off the bird, the last bird of you guys that got here. I mean, they were fighting the crowds coming out of the plane throwing tear gas and which they were.

And you guys are gonna fight them coming out of the plane and stuff. And a funny moment was we come off the bird and it's the middle of the night and everyone's running middle of the night and Everyone's running out immediately setting up at 360 and I'm just looking around and there's like just commas can be like right there on the airfield and Just in that immediate area where we landed and this like army soldier or this airman walks up with her Kevlar like strapped to her Her pack or her plate carrier walking up to us with a clipboard. Hi guys, welcome to Afghanistan.

What the fuck? And remember Cooper, one of the guys in our team, at the time, one of our only junior marine in the team, he's post up on security, and my Cooper get the fuck up. Like, I don't know what the fuck this is, but it's not what we thought it was gonna be when we landed.

So they come to find out now our guys had already secured the airfield, and we just had them in past that until. And so we get up, we immediately push with that platoon to this abandoned gym in H. Kaya, and we're just anxious to get to work. We go back, grab our rucks, because a few of our rucks were politicized and our main rucks were politicized. And I mean, I came in and I was carrying, like Chaz carried in, I think like a Mark 13,

it's like Daring and Win Mag, and then I carried, like I was primarying a SaaS and then had my M4A1 as well. So we took a couple of long runs with us on the bird and politicized a couple other ones and had a can or two of ammo as well. But got there, got off the bird, grabbed our stuff, went to the gym, ran into another sniper team from one eight and they were trying to talk to us,

but the other guys were trying to usher us into our little area in the gym. And so we get there and we're like, all right, well, let's get to work. Let's find a job is what we do best. So are another sniper team of ours from Arplatoon just gotten there like that morning or something? So they were there with Arplatoon commander.

And so like, all right, let's go find LT and We got there We go over to where they're staged by like the the joint operations command and the rest of our weapons company So like snipers are organic to like the weapons company pretty much. And then we got, it's like, eco company, Fox company, golf company. And then like weapons company. And so weapons is like heavy machine guns,

cat snipers, like heavy mortars, for medium mortars. And then so we got met up with the rest of our guys, said, what's up, I'm like, hey, like we want it, let's get to work. And everyone's still kind of trying to figure out what was going on on the ground.

And they're like, all right, well, we're gonna send you out in the morning, early morning for a tub reserve, the Taliban, on the civilian side of the terminals on the airfield. And so we go out there that next morning, uh, didn't have any rides or anything. So we're trying to just, guys are stealing cars and stealing, literally, guys are driving around with like the luggage vehicles that like put the belts onto the plane because they needed rides around the the airport and stuff. We didn't have any UTVs to rely on or anything like that. And it was quite a ways away, so we were like,

fuck, we got a shit. Well, hump it if we have to, but let's try and source and vehicle. So we had someone with a gator pick us up, got taken out there to this radarsight with a satellite. And 1-8 had a sniper team up there already and like a small hide and so we went up there, swapped out with them and they were kind of updating us just saying they're seeing people firing off rounds like Taliban firing off rounds and the terminal and talking on phones and stuff, but I mean, everyone out there now has phones.

So, you know, it is what it is. But we got up there, so I ripped that with them, and then guys started setting up more of a perimeter around the airport, literally just like, almost entrenching along the airfield. And we observed the Taliban for that whole day, maybe a little bit into the next day. And what were they doing?

Some of them were executing people in the civilian terminals on the far side. A couple of our guys had got, not our team, but a couple of the guys from Echo Company had gotten shot at. And at the time, it was like, if you get shot at, shoot back. Like that's what the ROE is what we were told.

And then those ROE's just started just dropping, and going to the way side, they were like, all right, don't do anything. Don't do anything. Unless, yeah, unless you're like getting shot at or you see someone's life threatened, like don't shoot, and like specifically for us, because we're like, so hold on.

R.O.E.'s are, don't shoot unless you get shot at. Yeah. You're literally, you showed me videos of this. Yeah. You're literally witnessing people get executed from all angles. Yeah. And then they make the R.O.E.''s even more strict on you.

Yeah, they go. Who's telling you this? Where's the shit coming from? It was a mix. What does the leadership saying? But as they tell you this. So it's like battalion and hire. And for us, we were like, okay,

so obviously we're in a more unique situation being in a cyber team. What are we doing if we perceive a threat? And so now we have to request permission to engage. If we see someone getting shot or executed, we have to make sure that they're like they are like an American citizen or an ally and like how the fuck are we supposed to know that when they've got someone on their knees with a gun to their head? And so we're there. And I'll jump more into the R.O.E.s. when I get to the Abbey gate. But we, uh, how many people do you think you saw executed in person?

Myself, uh, probably at least 50, 50 people. Yeah. Yeah. And it was all primarily like that Abbey gate gate about 98% of it. Um, we, so I myself and Jorge went to women. Yeah. Children. I didn't see any children. Um, but I did see dead children because of the Taliban forcing these civilians to be so scared that they'd throw their babies over the wall or they would get trampled to death. Yeah. You have a lot of video,

that's I'm gonna put the video in the episode. Definitely. So myself and Jorge at this satellite tower, we go to find a place to use the bathroom and we do that. We find this ship, there's a bunch of shipping containers next to this where we're at, where our hides at. And so we start breaking them open. And he's like, hey, there's one over here with like a bunch of tools and like like power

tools or what? And he's like, everything. And so we go in there. And he's like, oh, he pulls out this like three and a half, four foot tall, pair of boat cutters out and he's like, oh, we need these. He's like, oh, we can toss him this bobcat.

We had just found a bobcat with like a fork lift and a bed on the back that we hot wired. And like maybe an hour or two prior, I was like, we'll toss him in the back of the Vic and then he's like, oh, here's just like two foot like tall pair of boat cutters. Like, what about this? I was like, oh'll toss him in the back of the Vic and then you're like, oh, here's just like two foot tall pair of boat cutters. Like, what about this? I was like, oh, hell yeah, like I'll keep those on me.

It's like, I put them on my kit. We pull off at that position that day and they're like, hey, you guys are going to Abbie Gate. Abbie Gate forward. And they're gonna open the gate and start like letting people through. This is the 26th. This is now like the 18th, I think, August.

Because we were maybe the 17th. We were there at Abbey for like almost 10 days leading up to the suicide bomber. And we get there. And you know, pretty much Dolan and Chaz went up in the tower, like our sniper tower that was there, and there were some brits up there. The gate was still closed, and there was a company of a golf company, I think, of their Marines

that were there at the gate, because they were gonna be the ones with us to like push the gate open and start working on the crowd. And Dalton and Chaz go up in the tower to scope it out. I'm waiting down on the ground with the rest of the team. And like, hey, come up, we'll set up a position here. This is a good spot. We can see the entire neighborhood to our left.

We can, there's windows on all sides and they're bulletproof windows. At least rated for 7.62, because when we got shot at it, it didn't break, just cracked. And so we have windows on all four sides and the middle of them, like, slides open. And so we go up there and this may be,

the bottom of the tower is like 12 by 12 feet, maybe, or so, and then same with the second story, is like 12 by 12 feet maybe, or so. And then same with the second story, it's 12 by 12 feet and just the ladder well on the right side. And so we can see the neighborhood, the canal is next to us this way. And then in front of us is like the big part of the, that's of like Kabul city right there.

And the right side is like the gate entrance and then like the airfield and like the wall to the airport. And we go, we set up the position. They're like, okay, we're going to open up the gate here in a minute and at this point, I mean, there's a couple thousand people outside the gate and more still coming. Why are you, hold on, let's backtrack just a second. So your belt ready to open this gate. Are people being executed right outside of the gate? So the Taliban had a checkpoint,

so from our gate, the Taliban had a checkpoint right past the Baron Hotel where the British were at, and they had gotten blocked by the crowds. They couldn't get through the crowds from the Baron Hotel. The Taliban were about 155, 165 yards in front of us. So that's where they were killing people and doing stuff. And those killings and beatings were happening more before we got there and then died down a little bit

because we could see them. And then shipping containers were moved out to set up like a blocking position for V-bits to not be able to come through. Once those shipping containers were moved out to set up like a blocking position for V-bits to not be able to come through. Once those shipping containers were set up, it put a great, great wall in front of the Taliban that they couldn't be seen. At least by the guys in the ground, we were in an elevated position so we could see everything that they were doing. And it was probably about three days or two or three days into that,

being at the gate that they put those shipping containers out there So we're getting ready to open up this gate and I'm I told chas don't like hey, I'm gonna go down on the ground because They pushed out up a tune in right gear out through the crowd just like sent out a platoon just through this crowd of hundreds of people I mean any one of them could have fucking detonated a bomb. And I mean, I've got video of this too. And so they pushed the platoon out to cordon off like a couple hundred of the people in the crowd.

And we started opening the gate a little bit and they just collapsed. And I mean, dudes were coming out. The funny thing is, is it's like, it sucks about the allies that we left behind, but what sucked even more in seeing the women and children suffer through that is seeing the military age males just running, not trying to stand up and fight

for their country. And that was a big majority of who was coming through the gate. Yeah. And 90% of them,'t have the opportunities to get passports or citizenship, or visas, and stuff. And so, those people were coming through. And I mean, pretty much the military age males, those ones would come through and they would just be throwing haymakers and fighting us. I mean, physically fighting us all day,

trying to like get past us into the airport. And so finally, Cooper and Adam are like down at the entrance of the gate and they get sucked into the crowd. And they're like pulling them into, like all this crowd is pulling them into them and they're like holding on onto the gate. And so I go down there because we were looking for them and I help pull Cooper out, find Adam, and then they kind of close up the gate a little bit and then bring up two SUVs and like an outward V

to funnel people through those SUVs. So they can't just start at mullinous pretty much or trample us and So when that gate was first open. I mean there was I pulled out one lady who like they they the crowd just broke over the top of her And just trampled her to death and like we tried pulling her out and I was there and pulled this lady out and she was she was gone She got trampled to death and that happened a lot I wouldn't say probably four or five five times as I was myself at that gate. You know, quite a lot with babies too because they'd get suffocated in the crowd. Damn. What were you guys doing with the people when they go to them. Start searching them. We didn't have a safe way to search yet.

I mean, a safest can be in that situation, but they come through in one season, two season, we'd search them and then try and link them up with the State Department and get them processed. And a lot of the time, it would just be the State Department saying, nope, they can't come through, get them processed. And a lot of the time it would just be the state department saying, nope, they can't come through, send them back. And we send them back straight out to the Taliban. And a lot of them who get sent back, I mean, on the spot,

I remember we watch a lady who walked around the ship, one of the shipping containers, metal pipe just comes and just straight into the forehead and just out gone, just like that. And I mean, they'd like at night, it was the worst. They'd, you know, they knew there weren't as many eyes on them at night. And they'd line people up along the wall and just fucking execute them. I, you know, there was like flash bangs that had to be used to try and crawl control. We got the first couple of hundred people

and then we're slowly pushing into the main part of the canal. Off of the left edge of our tower, there was a chain link fence that ran out about 100 yards. Then the canal was on the left side of that and You know, I don't remember what day it was but they brought the shipping containers out and then They brought the ground force commander out To speak with a Taliban I don't remember who specifically did it, but we were told that they paid the Taliban off to stop fighting us pretty much, to stop like getting in our way. And what we were told is the rules in place where, leave us alone, we'll leave you alone

if you let us take these people out, but there was nothing like, hey, to the Taliban that, hey, stop, like, if you fucking kill these people, or execute them, we're gonna do the same to you. And there was none of that in these agreements. So they had free will to do whatever they wanted out there. Yeah.

A fucking speech was right now. It was, it was a lot was heavy. I mean, people spend a lot of time over there. And a lot of those Afghans had our fucking back. Yeah. And for the president of the United States, to allow this shit to happen is fucking absurd. And it gets worse. Yeah, it does.

And it fucking gets worse. Yeah. We, you know, I'm going to try to never mind. So this is what happens when you fucking vote for somebody that cannot put a sentence together. So what fucking happens? Yeah, we, I mean, you know it, like, and it was right in front of everybody's fucking face

on that first debate. It was right there front of everybody's fucking face on that first debate. It was right there in the open. You voted in an incompetent fucking moron to run this country, and this is the shit that happens. I think you should be fucking ashamed of yourself. And I think you know firsthand too, like a lot of us have bled for a lot of those allies over there, but it's the same on there and a lot of them have bled for us too.

And I mean, we, yeah, those shipping containers were put up. We, yeah, those shipping containers were put up. I typically would stay up on nights because, you know, I thought, all right, if they're gonna do something, they're gonna try something in the night. So they're gonna try and shoot us, attack us, blow us up, like they're gonna do it at night. That's when I would do it.

And so I stayed up almost every night from sundown to almost sun up. And at one point, I got, I mean, I got so fed up. I was counting bodies over the net like the Taliban have killed two people, the Taliban have murdered three people. They've executed four or five, six. Like I got fed up and kept requesting engagement authority, letting them know like what are we doing about this and just like you know go about your job that was what was passed down from the battalion or above the battalion and I took I took four of our guys up to the barren hotel like right next to the

Taliban checkpoint to get some footage of like up close of like the bodies and what they were doing over there. And so we walked up to the barren hotel and there's just like this British version of a PFC or a private and he's just like standing guard out front and he's like, what's your business here? And I was just like, maybe we got like a bunch of cameras and shit in our bags and I was like, it's classified.

He's like, okay, it just opens the door and So all right, well that worked and so we go in there and it's like all of the British command and I'm like fuck All right, it's got to look like I know what I'm doing. It's like turned right walked up on top of their con X boxes there and Set up the guys on security and started taking pictures from this tower. Now I have pictures of this too. I mean doing this and started taking pictures from this tower. I have pictures of this too, I mean doing this. And started taking pictures of the piles of bodies that are on the ground. The guys lined up on their knees against the wall. The women lined up against their knees against the wall

and stuff with guns pointed at their head. And then... And still, the Biden administration will not allow you to save these fucking people. They're literally on their knees, facing the wall, getting shot in the back of the fucking head. One after another, and our president is not gonna allow you to fucking engage.

And we turned that footage over to the joint operations command and to our intel assets that night and got given a new SD card and we're like, all right, go back out to the gate. That was that. So, one back out, nothing came of it. No one made any decisions on dealing with the Taliban executing people. And I mean, that was just finally the pinnacle of it.

I mean, it had been going on for days prior, many, many days prior. And, you know, I, I mean, one memory of these, how desperate these people were to escape the Taliban is this lady. We had to send her back out out of the gate and I don't remember who did it, but some individuals were taking her back out of the gate and go back into the crowd and she jumps, like, leaps out the razor wire and starts trying to cut her throat with the razor wire. She was like, if you send me back, they're going to rape me, they're going to fucking torture

me, like kill me, kill me and like a couple of Marines grabbed her and prevented her from killing herself. But I mean, that's how fucking bad it is there. Like, she was willing to just slit her fucking throat on razor wire. You imagine that? That's... It's not, should I ever could have made up, you know, I couldn't have dreamed about this shit.

And I mean, it was unreal. Like I said, those crowds, the crowds just continued to build up next to our tower. Finally, I want to say two days before the suicide bomber and the gunfight. And the morning of, we took two impacts from the neighborhood on our window, like got shot at, like impact impact and then crack, crack. And shut the door. I climbed up the tower, Cooper was up there and like right where his head was,

there was two, seven, six, two bullets had impacted right next to him. Fortunately the glass was bulletproof. I have pictures of that as well. of the glass was bulletproof. I have pictures of that as well. And, you know, we told Command what was going on. Nothing came of it. You know, guys can keep operating,

keep pulling people out, keep doing what we're doing. So we continue to search for a shooter. Couldn't find one. I mean, that neighborhood was two and three started buildings, just able to see everything that we were doing. And I mean, you could have hidden in 100 different rooms. The morning of the 26th.

What are the discussions between you and your team? Were you guys wondering why you're not engaging? I mean, how much chatter? I mean, it's a lot. I mean, we're just like, honestly, disbelief of what the situation is. And disbelief at the lack of leadership, the lack of decision making on what was going on.

I mean, this is shit. We're gonna have to live with the rest of our lives. Every single person out there saw the things that we did. That's shit. We're gonna have to live with for the rest of our lives. And there's in combat anywhere, there's hard decisions to be made and outside of combat.

But it's the lack of decisions that caused these things to happen. It was a complete, it was an absent leadership. Nobody's there. Not one fucking person is stepped up to the plate. All the way from the president of the United States down, not one fucking decision was made. Yeah, it's, so we get close to, that's the 26 now.

And at this point, we had, we'd had a few ID probes. So guys had come into the crowd with the same kind of making model backpack and drop them in the crowd, and we called it up to EOD, called it operations and stuff, and we're witnessing this firsthand, I mean, we're letting them know like, hey, there's guys in the crowd, and they would, there's so many people that they'd come in, drop a backpack and just duck into the crowd because there's thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And they'd go out and they'd pull out the same backpack and all right, well, there's nothing that I just clear. And then we'd be like, all right, well, go back to operating.

And so that we had gotten, we had gone confirmation on a couple of eBids, like a gold corolla or like two or three different vehicles and like a green Mazda. And fortunately we had those shipping containers set in front of us. So we were good on that end. They couldn't car can drive through the fucking crowd on the canal.

And so waiting for that. And as the days are going on, the Taliban's building up more and more in front of us at that position. First, it was like a couple vehicles and guys with guns and their own kit, excuse me, their kit and our guns. The guns that we love. Yeah, I27s. We abandoned. Yeah, like HKF four 16s and M4s, M16s, PMAGs. I mean, I saw a lot of guys out there with the same fucking gear that I was using,

other than my play carrier. I mean, they had play carriers too, but same RCO and helmets. Vehicles, yep, a former DLCs. Yep, bringing over, they drove over fucking M-rap at one point, like a Mavie or whatever it was. And they were slowly just building up

with gun trucks in front of us as well, with P-Gams and dish cuss on the back and stuff. And the, I think it was the 25th or the morning of the 26th, I can give you the dates after or the morning of the 26th. I can give you the dates after this because I have the time stamp on my phone. They brought the Taliban up to our gate and they brought a few of them up to our gate to crowd control.

They, the ground force commander out there, the leadership out there allowed them. Sorry, what? They allowed the Taliban to come up to our gate. US leadership invited Taliban to come to the fucking gate to do crowd control. Yeah. Who is this? Do you have names?

The only the only commander that I know about there was General Sullivan at the time. General Sullivan? Yeah. I don't know. He sounds like a fucking genius. I don't know who gave that okay, but he was the ground force commander out there. Well, then he gave the okay. Well, uh, and we got, um, I mean, I've got that was the plan. I've got footage video and, uh, I've spread it around to ensure that it,

something doesn't happen to it. Um, of Taliban, I mean, from me to my leg, that close to Marines, pit and civilians with sticks next to them, just beating civilians right next to them. We were told not to do anything, right outside our tower. And that for some of the senior guys

who had been to combat, not even just the senior guys, but the senior guys who had been there and done that who had watched their brothers get killed by the fucking Taliban and then brutalized and terrorized these people for the entirety of this war and since their inception. I mean, I saw grown men break down because of, it's like, what the fuck are we doing? Literally grown men, staff sergeants, youngies, breaking the tears, and in a private space, the bottom of our tower became like the go-to spot to fucking let your fucking tears out.

I mean, I saw countless Marines come to the bottom of our tower and just fucking ball their eyes out because of what they were seeing, because of the dead fucking children, because of the dead women, the dead men, because of the Taliban coming up, the guy who just killed this fucking, this senior NCO's buddy back in the day now allowed to be working next to working and beating civilians next to Maria. So now we're allies with the Taliban who are killing our previous allies for 20 years. Yep. And this is America.

This is the fucking United States of America now. Yeah. And like I said, Sean, it's a... It should I... Should I couldn't have even fucking have ever made up other than having experienced it. And I mean, yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot to unpack there. And I mean, everyone, everyone who is out there has stories like that, like similar to mine, in regards to the terror, like the terror and the brutalization of the populace out there and the Taliban's actions. A big thing is the State Department. So we would process civilians

throughout the whole day. We'd be stuck all night. So for us, our team slept in our tower. We slept there and we operated for us. Obviously sniper like operations are 24-7. They're continuous operations. So we were always up then non-stop. And obviously cycling guys out through the team. There was seven of us there. And cycling guys out. And guys, like the grounds on the ground. So for us, if we the guys like the, the grounds on the ground.

So for us, if we weren't, if we weren't like observing or weren't reporting, we'd go down and we ourselves, like my team, the guys not doing anything, we'd be pulling out civilians, we'd be helping everyone on the ground, we'd be day in and day out, doing down there in the shit with the guys cause we wanted to help. And our corpsman, I mean, I don't even think he,

Jorge, I don't think he fucking slept. He was just rendering aid all day and all night long to civilians who were dying from heat stroke, suffocation, malnourishment, stomped to death. I mean, beaten and bloody to bruised. The people who come to the Taliban checkpoint, the ones that they led through, they'd be fucking bloody and have cuts and bruises all over them from the Taliban, haven't beat them 20 minutes prior. I mean, and so he was he was down there, doing that the whole time. Dude, he would come up and conduct observation to take a break from from fucking seeing all of that shit.

to take a break from from fucking seeing all of that shit and then go right back to it. And I mean, there was countless orphaned children out there getting ripped away from their families or their families would get fucking killed. Yeah, that uh, so we, what do you think happened to those goods? Some of them, I know, I know a lot of the State Department would tell us, like, send them back out. And finally, like, I don't remember which commander at the company level did it, but it might have been the Echo Company commander, but someone did at the lower level of leadership above me, but was like put their foot down and fucking like, like, we're not saying

these fucking children out. Like, we're gonna create a spot for them and a lot of them were the orphan children. There was finally like something set up for them to where like even the ones I've pulled out, orphan children, like, they would wait by the bottom of our tower and like the extra vehicles that we had there and they'd sleep until we could process them in

and then they'd get, they got sent out to other allied countries and processed, but it wasn't all of them. You wanna know what happened to the kids? They got sent back out there. You know what happened. Yeah. They got raped. Yep.

And that guy killed. Yeah. It's know what happened. Yeah. They got raped. Yep. And then they got killed. Yeah. It's exactly what happened. Yeah. The uh, or they got um, taken under the wing of an extremist and we're looking to kill Americans. Um, till 26 rolls around. Let me, uh, yeah, refresh the audience with some facts on the 26. So suicide bomber detonates near Abigate. 13 service members killed. 11 Marines. One sailor. one Army soldier, 170 Afghans killed, just

in the blast. 45 U.S. military personnel wounded. You lost your right arm, your left leg, missing parts of multiple organs, 43 surgeries, 54 units of blood, and you still have 13 ball bearings and two pieces of shrapnel stuck in your body. Oh, that is correct. So let's roll under the 26th. Yeah. So the night, like early morning, excuse me, yeah early morning of the 26, about 130, we had gotten intel from the joint operations command and our assets coming from the JSAG assets that were out there that there was a confirmed suicide bomber in the

area, traveling with another individual. And they had given us the exact, that they had, they told us that they had the exact description of it. And so I'm getting this word from our intel assets. For me and a couple of guys on the team, Chas being one of them. And it might have been our whole team actually. At one point, we didn't want to leave the tower because we were just trying to help as much as we could. Our leadership was like, hey, come off the tower for an hour or two. Go back to the packs,

fucking chill out for a second, and then go back. We'll send the head extra guys in the team. They had over T-O team, eight guys or something, just like nine guys. So some extra dudes to go up to the tower and like hold hold our position for an hour. We're like, no, we're good, but they're like, just fucking go back for an hour and like decompress. And all right. So we did that went and really just fucking got some grab some more MREs and Intel, and so they're like, he's a younger individual, probably clean-shaven, wearing Brown Mandress with some like black outer garb of some sort in a black bag, and traveling with an older individual who is probably the guy kind of guiding him to do this. And my first reaction, I was like, how the fuck do we have an exact description of this guy?

I was like, who, if we have an exact description of this guy and we know that he's coming to Abbeygate, that means you have a motherfucker watching him. You have someone watching him, someone operating in the AO, or who knows where he's going to be. Why are we not stopping him before he gets to us? And we were just told the intel asset couldn't be compromised. And unfortunately, that's the only fucking thing I agree with so far.

Yeah. That's the only decision I agree with because you know why because he the Intel never stops. He's an insider. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why. Yeah. It's our job to eliminate the heart. Yeah. Heart. Heart. Those are decisions have to be made. But like, that's a great way to put it is, we're told these things so we can stop these, stop what's happening. But our leadership, denied it. Yeah.

And so, we go back out to the gate, and obviously at the time, we're all kind of thinking like, for us, it's like, why the fuck wouldn't we do something? When they do something earlier, but that's a great way to explain it. And so we go back out to the gate, and I mean, we're not that we weren't hyper vigilant before, but I mean, even more so now, and as much as we could be looking for looking for this dude and we let everyone all the ground forces know like hey this guy is out here this is what he looks like this is who he's probably gonna be with you know keep an eye out and obviously we're up in

an elevated position. Scan in this crowd of thousands and thousands of people. And the morning of the 26th, they sent back, what was it? Yeah, they sent like some of us back to prep our packs to bounce out of Afghanistan. They're like, hey, you guys are probably going to, like, you need to either prep to, like, throw out your packs and stuff. If things like get really bad and it's a hot ex-fill, or just make sure everything's tight, all the extra weapons and ammo and whatnot

are in a good spot, so someone can throw it on a bird for you. If we got a fucking get out of here quickly. So myself and Warner two of the guys went back and then early that morning and then around, man, like 12 and the afternoon, around there, 12 to one, like 12 and the afternoon Around there 12 to one we see this guy who fits the exact description

probably about about three hundred yards back in the crowd and He's traveling with an older gentleman this guy is only guy that's clean, and is not that dirty. He's sweating a lot, but he's definitely the anomaly in the baseline. And he's wearing a brown mandra, black outer garb, like a vest or something in a backpack or backpack or a double bag. I'm like, man, this looks like this guy. And he was quite a ways back. And I mean, to get through that crowd, it would take, it takes all day, unless I'm in near pretty fucking,

unless you start really pushing people out of the way and fucking hurting people and stuff, takes a few hours to get from where he was at to the base of our tower. And, well, okay, fuck, let me get one of the, some of the psychological operations guys, individuals, the army guys, they come up to our tower. And, we show them the pictures that we have,

who he is, and I mean, the whole time he's working closer towards us. And we pass over the net like, that we've got this, you know, this possible threat. And that we're linking up with the siops guys to get, you know, another set of eyes on him. And for us, we're like, this is the fuck guy. The siops guys are like, yeah, that's him. That's the exact fucking description that we

have. Like that's that's who we think it is too. And we're like, okay, cool. And so we pass over the net. That's who we're, you know, requesting engagement authority. I mean, me, I was, I was spotting. Chas was on the gun. And then someone else took over for spotting. And I was on the net. I was just on the radio, you know, requesting engagement authority for this individual, given them the description, getting denied, and then the counter-enthal guys, some counter-enthal individuals, they came up to our tower and we showed them the photos as well. So now this is a third group of individuals.

This is like 12 sets of eyes now on these pictures. 12 BIDs. Yeah. And they're like, yep, that he fucking fits the description. And so does the older guys traveling with, like that's who we think he is too. We're like, all right, well, that's fucking three separate fucking entities that think the same exact thing. Fucking don't, he's always got a saying like,

if it walks like a duck, it acts like a duck, it's probably a fucking duck. And I pass it over the net again. Okay, we have confirmation for three separate entities. We need to, I'm requesting engagement authority on this individual. American lives are gonna be at stake if he continues to fucking come up here.

And we had watched him. I didn't get to portray it fully in front of Congress, but we were watching him for a couple hours, like quite a few hours, still continuously requesting engagement authority. And finally, it's like, no, like engagement authority is not, and I was like, who the, like, who has the, or we don't have the, they're like, we don't have the engagement authority to give you. And I was like, well, send the battalion commander up here, because we're going to shoot this guy if you don't.

And obviously in our eyes, right? And I said, I said this to Congress too. I said, even if this was a potential, if this was possible, if it wasn't the guy, the fucking bomber and the crowd is gonna think twice about fucking doing what he's about to do because he watched some dudes fucking chest get caved in because he watches the dudes just get taken out. He's gonna know that we're watching.

He's gonna know that when he does come into view, we're going to fucking deal with him. We're going to put him down because bad people need to be put down. That's what our job is. And not what our job is, but that's what we're supposed to do in that situation with those individuals. And 300 yard shot is an easy shot to take from a stable platform with high-powered optics

and fucking long ends. Not to mention with everything else that's going on around it, all the executions, dead babies, women trying to cut their own throats on razor-roier. That's how bad it is. And they're denying you permission to take this guy out. On top of allowing the Taliban to come up and work next to Marines.

Yeah. And so they say, all right, the baton commanders on his way, at this point, I mean, this dude's closer. He's within like 200 yards, 150 yards now, or maybe even closer than that. And the baton commander comes up, Lieutenant Colonel Bradwited, and he comes up to the tower, we show him the photos, and he's just kind of sitting on the heels of his feet like, well, and we're like, well, sir, do we have your permission to engage? Like we've had counter-entail psychological operations and on ourselves, positive

idea on the sky. This is a description. And he was like, well, yeah, it does look like it, but I don't have that. I don't have that authority. What's this guy's name? Lieutenant Colonel Bradwited. It's like, I don't have that authority to give. Like, what the fuck?

What the fuck is he doing there then? Yeah, we're like, what the fuck? Then who? What rank is this guy? At the time he's a Lieutenant Colonel. And I say, myself and Chaz are both have a intense conversation like who the fuck does have the authority, sir?

And he goes, oh, I don't know. Like what the fuck do you mean? He doesn't know his chain of command. No. And this guy has to live with us for the rest of his life. And I'm fucking glad you do, Lieutenant Colonel. You fucking piece of shit. And the thing is too is we got, so he said, I don't know.

And we chastled about three, it rate. Well, you need to find out because American lives are at stake. And if this is the bomber, a lot of people are going to die. And he leaves the tower leaving us with the sense that he's gonna go get us an answer. And now at this point, just later in the afternoon, it's like two, three PM,

and this guy disappears into the fucking crowd. We don't get an answer back. It's like I said, the, like I said in front of Congress, I'm not, I didn't just throw his rank and name out there to destroy this guy's career, but he's who it started with and it ended with General Sullivan. And we were told, General Sol,

and this is me quoting him, he said, that request never got to me. So somewhere between here and here, someone didn't give a fuck. You know what you're doing, Tyler, is you are exposing how weak United States leadership is in the US military. It's that fucking week now. And you know when it got that week, right after this last election, everybody that was worth a shit,

either got fired or pulled out or fucking left, because I knew this shit was gonna happen. That's what you're doing. You're exposing how weak military leadership is now, because of who's in office. And it's good you're doing that. I appreciate that, Sean. It's definitely, like I said,

in between the battalion commander and the General Solven, it someone didn't give a fuck enough. It's, we get taught, it's our job to push down as leaders, as marine leaders, as leaders in any sense of the word. It's our job to push down as leaders, as marine leaders, as leaders in any sense of the word. It's our job to push down on our subordinates, but it's also our job to push up.

You mind if we take a break for a second? Let's take a break. All right. the subscription service that I've been working real hard on called vigilance elite Patreon. Basically on Patreon we haven't broken up into three different tiers. We've got tier one, tier two, and tier three. Let's dive in. Our tier one patrons get all the behind the scenes footage of the Sean Ryan show. That could include behind the scenes photos, that could be side conversations that we have in between breaks, that could be specific questions that our patrons give us for the guests on the Sean Ryan show, and a ton of bonus content that doesn't really fit into any specific category. For our Tier 2 patrons, they get access to our tactical training library, which consists of

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tiers plus they get full access to me where we do video teleconferencing VTC. Once a month we discuss anything from tactics to current events to who's coming on the show I take suggestions and it's very interactive. No matter what tear you choose, the support is greatly appreciated and it is the only thing that makes this show drive on. So thank you for all the support. See you on Patreon. Alright Tyler, we're back from the break. I'm sorry. It's getting, it's getting pretty heavy and I am, I'm having trouble controlling my thoughts, my words and my feelings and, um, and, I'm sorry. No, no, you got a lot more self-control than I did. No need to apologize. I've had a few opportunities to talk about it.

So it's, yeah, it's, we talked a little bit earlier, but I think I have to be myself, but portray things appropriately, so people listen. So. You're a wise man. I appreciate that.

So we left off off Sullivan was promoted for the superb job that he did being the what was he the ground force commander over there or something, whatever, whatever. He was in charge. And he got a promotion. So let's continue. Yeah. So Let's continue. Yeah. So, uh, so Arbotton commander left us with that, uh, without an answer, um, as to shooting this PID. And uh, about 30 minutes after that, um, after him leaving this individual and, you know, for a little bit, they were you know they at one point they

I mean they were doing everything differently than everyone else in the crowd they were handing out small white cards to everyone throughout the crowd the older gentleman who was seemingly coaching the bomber trying to keep him calm and they remember at one point they sat on the edge of the canal for a little bit and then continued moving around and after our battalion commander left I want to say within 30 minutes of that they disappeared like just completely disappeared into the crowd and We were like well fuck and we again we were updating everyone on the ground, right at our tower, like, hey, the individuals disappeared. And when we initially called in, you know, these individuals, like we halted operations for a little bit, like they halted operations on the ground,

they, the guys on the ground, fucking took us seriously. And then they were told the fucking continue. And after we told them that these individuals had disappeared into the crowd, they were told to continue pulling people out, putting themselves in harm's way. And now half of our team, the other half of our team went back to our packs, again,

how it's talking about making sure they're making sure the gear was tight and ready to punch out if we needed to. And so myself and Andrew Valencia, our joint fires observer, we stayed back. We were the two senior pigs in the platoon. Guides a little bit of experience and very competent individuals.

So they trusted us to stay at the tower by ourselves. And he and I continued conducting observation. And the other guys went back, taking two vehicles and half of our team came back, Jorge and Adam. They came back first from the packs. And Adam came up with the tower. Jorge went down and continued helping people and triage and people. Chaz, Dalton and Cooper were still at the packs and getting ready to punch back. And so they were creating a plan to demo everything

if that became necessary, because it's gonna be the fucking alamo getting out of here. Like we're gonna be taking rocker fire and fucking machine gun fire and the Taliban's gonna try and fucking blow us up alamo getting out of here. Like we're gonna be taking rocker fire and fucking machine on fire and like the Taliban is gonna try and fucking blow us up as we come out of here and shit. And so we were prepping for that. I'm at the, I'm at the tower and

Adam's up there, Andrew's up there. And at this point, we had been waiting for, we had been waiting for an interpreter from, it was one of the, one of the group guy, I don't remember what group, but they reached out to us about pulling out an interpreter for them that they had worked with and were like, and that's what a lot of it had been. It was like, hey, um, you know, these guys helped us back in the day, like,

Raiders, old fucking SF got like buddies of ours. Other people just reaching out through Instagram because I knew we were out there. Um, and other social media platforms and, you know, texting and stuff. They're like, hey, the like, can you pull this dude out in his family? Like, he's got documentation. He was and that, you know, they've fucking blood for us and, you know, sweat, tears, blood for us, and just like, likewise for them. And they're gonna be here on this day, and we're like, yeah.

And so a lot of that, what we were doing is processing those guys who would reach out to us, we would pull out their interpreters and allies of ours who helped us in the past 20 years. And Dalton had specifically had contact with those individuals and said that he asked one of us, he said, hey, I'm going to go back to the packs and make sure it's good. If we got a demo, it'll just stage it. Come on to you guys, go down and get this interpreter when he comes out

because he might be here when I'm gone. And I was like, yeah, dude, I got you, don't worry. I'll go down. And so we had told him to hold up a sign that said Dalton 2-slash-1,-STA on it like surveillance and target acquisition fortunes. That's what our sniper fortunes are. And so, you know, about 5 p.m. 5-20 p.m. or so. Staff Sergeant Darren Hoover, a friend and mentor of mine, a guy looked up to for sure. And one of the few guys and the battalion and then the company who had been to Afghanistan

before and who had combat experience. So definitely someone a lot of people loved and looked up to because of that and passing on his knowledge to everyone. He came up to the base of the tower and I'm on the gun at the time. And he goes, hey, snipes and he's like yelling up from the bottom. And I'm like, yeah, what's up, man? And he's like, hey, there's a guy down here. I think he's an interpreter.

He's got a sign that says Dalton two slash one, STA on it. He's like, oh, yeah, that's exactly who we're looking for. And I was like, give me a sec. I'll come down with you. He's like, all right, Roger that. So I pull Adam, he gets on the gun or Andrew gets on the gun and Adam's on observation behind the spotting scope. And same thing, we're still just fucking scanning the crowd for these dudes. And so throwing my Kevlar and grab my rifle and go down.

And so we walk out and Hoover and I are just kind of talking, like, you know, these, like, what the fuck is going on here? Like, what is this? And Hoover's like, man, this is not like anything I've ever experienced before overseas. And he said, I can't fucking believe this shit. And now obviously, I started talking about how they brought the fucking Taliban up to our gate, before overseas and I can't fucking believe this shit. And obviously I started talking about how they brought the fucking Taliban up to our gate,

next to the Marines and stuff and how that was affecting the guys. So we're walking out and that 100 yard chainling fence that I was talking about, they cut a hole in it about 70 yards down and there's like a Jersey barrier there. And so we walked through the hole again to the canal faster. And at this point, so at one point, there was dispersion in the crowd for about 300 meters all the way down the crowd. There was a marine for dispersion on this side of the canal. And it was like that due to our recommendation of, hey, if there's a bomber in the crowd, and this was four or five days prior to the 26, you know, we need to,

the only thing that's gonna fucking protect us is dispersion. I mean, that's one of the first things you're fucking taught is standoff distance from IDs. And so they had that dispersion for about 300 meters. And someone that morning, someone on the ground, I don't know what leader, but someone on the ground decided to okay the collapse of all of that dispersion. And so now that 300 meters of dispersion collapse down to the base of our tower

right underneath our tower. Are you? Yeah. So there's a suicide bomber threat. You guys, PID, the suicide bomber, he gets lost in the crowd and they collapse the standoff from the ID. Yeah. Yeah, so they collapse the standoff. Like I said, they're at the base of our tower. If you looked out the left window across from the neighborhood, there's like another two Jersey barriers, and then this now bunched up group of a ton of Marines almost.

Like, you know, I'll share the pictures in the videos, but I mean, fucking 20, 30 Marines in one fucking spot. And it sucks. There's a lot of bad that comes, 20, 30 Marines and one fucking spot and uh... It sucks, there's a lot of bad that comes, comes a lot of bad that has occurred in this, but It's shit like that, it's just like that fucking eats at you, it's like Why? Why? And uh... we brought it up multiple times like hey Who fucking okay this, like why is there not

Dispersion it's down here still why did you guys fucking collapse your dispersion that we had the guys Like echo company guys had worked for fucking days to get hours fighting this crowd back just to get this fucking dispersion They just like no fuck it on the morning of the bomb and So it was majority golf company down there. It was that morning. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a immediate feedback. Yeah, because I want you to do not do that.

I woke up that happened. Yeah, I went to sleep at like 6 a.m. maybe that morning and I woke up at like fucking eight. And because it was the first time and we it was like seven days of just constant like right from the crowd just really fucking loud just non-stop screaming people crying babies fucking sobbing and there was like a couple days or it wasn't as loud at the base of our tower and then a woke up because it was fucking loud again like really fucking

loud right next to our tower. And I'm like, what the fuck? And I'm like, look down and the whole fucking crowd was collapsed. And just hundreds, thousands of people in this small fucking area. And so I'm walking out there with Hoover. I walked through the hole in the fence.

At this point, I'm kind of like coming back. I'm coming back we're coming back down this way in the canal. So it's like chain link fence, about a 12 foot 15 foot gap, little two foot high canal wall, like maybe knee high canal wall, and then like the actual canal drop off like seven feet in the shit water and sewage water. And then the wall two feet high, dirt 12, 15 feet, and then like chain link fence and neighborhood. And the chain link fence ran all the way across neighborhood

and there was holes all over it. And you could see there were buildings above it looking through the top of it. And another way to show how desperate these people were to escape the fucking tyranny of the Taliban is, a first people weren't, there was like one, one Zs and two Zs coming through this shit water because that's what it was. It was a sewage canal.

And there was like one or two people coming through. And then by the 26th, I mean, there was fucking thousands of people in the sewage water, like coming across to escape and try and get processed through. And I mean, literally just waiting through shit and blood and piss and like fucking families, everything. And I went down there and I look across the canal and I see this dude hold on the sign and I like point to get in the canal and like come across because at this point it's the only way they can get across us through the water. So for us it was a good thing because it was like okay they have to cross this canal now to get to us as long as we keep

as long like that crowd that's on the left side is kept at bay and he came through I or he like came beneath me and checked he had American passport and he had his brother with him and had American passport and I guess they had he had been an interpreter with with group or something for for quite a while and so he was legit bulled him out just he just on him, searched on his brother. I'm like, all right, hey, I'm gonna take you guys over to the main search area, which is right at the base of the tower almost. We can get you guys processed through to the State Department.

And, you know, this dude, he spoke pretty decent English and he was like, wait, wait, he spoke pretty decent English and he was like, wait, wait, he's like my family, my family. And I was like, yeah, like, what's up, man? Your brother right here, you got your family and he's like, no, no, no, my wife and four kids, he's like, they're seven of us. And I was like, what?

And Hoover's standing next to me, he's like, what the fuck? He's like, now there's two of you. He's like, no, my wife and four kids, they're still back in the canal. They're still back in the crowd. I was like, dude, I was like, no, there's two of you. You're like, no, my wife and four kids, they're still back in the canal. They're still back in the crowd. I was like, dude, I was like, you were given very specific instructions, like come with your whole family at one time, because in our eyes, like we know, the gates are already supposed to be shut at this point.

I was supposed to be shut that morning or something, and it's still open. We're still processing people that we were told that it was gonna be shut by the 26 or like the morning of the 26 and it still hadn't been. And now it's almost, it's like 5.30 p.m. or almost 5.30 p.m. and I pull, you know, I'm like, all right, well, do you have fucking paperwork for them and he fucking has paperwork for all of them.

They're good. And I'm like, fuck, I'm like, okay, how's it like to listen man? You know, do you have a phone? Like, can you call your wife to she have a phone? He's like, yes, yes, like I'm gonna hold her. And okay, like call her and see where she's at. And so he calls her and he's like saying she's at

like the bend in the canal or the corner, which is like where he was describing her at was like 6,000 people away, like so far away. And I'm like, fuck, so all right dude,000 people away, like so far away and I'm like fuck. So alright dude, tell her she needs to get her and the kids and get into the sewage water and start working their way up because if not, there's not a great chance of you guys fucking getting through together.

So he relays out to her and he's just like thank you, thank you and I sit them down on the Chandling fence and like listen, I'll stay down here for like 20 or 30 minutes and help you guys out and wait to see if your family can make it up here. If not, I'll make sure another marine helps you guys out and knows your situation. And he's just like, thank you, thank you so much. And so I'm like waiting on the side of the canal, wall, like standing against it facing across the canal. And like, fuck, I don't know what these people look like.

Like they look to me, they look like everyone else out there. And so I'm like, hey man, like come here. And I don't remember if it was him or his brother and like, hey, come here and help me spot them. If you see them, like we can pick them, you can help me pick them out easier. And he's like, yeah, of course. And I like, stand him up on the canal wall.

And like 10 minutes goes by and just flash and just get hit with a massive wave of pressure just like straight on. And then I'm like my eyes are closed, my vision's black and I'm like slowly coming to my right ear is just like super high pitched ringing. My left ear is muffled and I can just hear people screaming in the distance. And I just, I knew right away. As soon as I was coming to, I was like holy fuck. Like I just got fucking blown up.

And I just, my brain knew instantly. And my immediate thought was just like disbelief. I was like, there's no fucking way this just happened. And I can't see it. And I'm just like strugglingief. I was like, there's no fucking way this just happened. And I can't see it. And I'm just like struggling to open my eyes and later to come to find out, I mean, on top of fucking, you know, 20, 30 pound bomb detonating, like five meters away

from me, someone's CS gas canisters that exploded on all of us. And so on top of the bomb, there's all the CS gas cloud that we're engulfed in. And so none of us can fucking see and are struggling to see. And so I was just like, holy fuck, like I actually just got blown up. And I can't finally can open my eyes. And I'm just like laying on the ground and the dirt looking to my left.

And like really close to the fence, like I almost got thrown to the fence. And I'm like looking to my left and I mean there's just where this crowd of hundreds of people was is just flattened like nothing at all and I can still people just fucking screaming in the distance and yelling and I looked to my left and I mean well first things I see is just fucking Marines laid out fucking desert Marpat fucking next to me and I was just like, oh fuck, like this really just fucking happened. And before I fully, like, my brain fully registered everything

when I woke up in the hospital, like my mom said, I talked for like nine hours straight, but I thought, I was crawling away from my leg, and it was someone else's fucking body part just like laying in front of me. I mean, there was fucking body parts and dead bodies everywhere. And the people on the other side of the canal,

just immediately in front of me, just got fucking evaporated, just are viscerated, just gone, just an instant gone, and then outside of that just bodies, body parts, fucking guts and pieces of people and human beings. And I was laying on the ground, and I mean I felt like I was on the ground for like a fucking hour, I felt like forever. And almost immediately after the bomb, I was trying to stand up and I couldn't stand up.

I could like move my head forward and like move my arm a little bit and I kept trying to stand up and like, fuck, like why can't I stand up? And I was like, I'm fucking hurt. And then it's just like crack, crack, crack, crack, fucking right across from us. So I'm now facing like kind of like the tower, like our first, with the way I'm looking,

like my tower, the tower's kind of to the left. The canal's like right here and then the neighborhoods right here and we start taking fucking shots from the neighborhood and like almost immediately after the blast. And my first thought, I mean, I always say like, we all want to be the hero in our own story, but my first time our band was like, fuck, I'm hurt.

And I look down and I'm here, hearing us getting shot at and hearing fucking cracks and impacts behind us and over us. And I'm like, fuck, I can't farm a weapon. I'm fucked up. Like, I mean, I had come to find out I had gotten hit with 100 to 150 ball bearings. And 150 ball bearings. And 150 ball bearings. And I mean, I took them everywhere, but my neck and my head and my knees down because of that wall.

And so I was like, well, fuck, I don't want to get shot. I can't fire back. And I just knew the hole in the fence was behind me. And I tried. I tried my fucking hardest to crawl backwards towards that hole in the fence. And I kept trying to get up, couldn't get up. I don't know how fucking far I got.

Maybe a couple feet. I was moving backwards and all I could do was like put my left arm on the ground and I kept trying to lean over onto my right and I'm just like fuck like why is my right arm not working and I remember lifting it up I just seen it it's there but it's just like fucking shredded up at the elbow and bloody and I'm I'm just fucking red everywhere and I was just all that my thought my brain was like my arms fucked up I was like okay that, my thought in my brain was like my arms fucked up. I was like, okay, that's why it doesn't work. And like just kept fucking going.

I wasn't fully processing like, pay only fucking put a turn and kid on my arm. I was just like fuck, I'm fucked up. And I need to get to the whole defense because that's where my friends are. And finally, I just, I couldn't move anymore. And all I could do is kind of lift my head up. And I mean, I took, I couldn't move anymore. And all I could do is kind of lift my head up. And I mean, I took, I took ball bearings

into my fucking chest and right around the cut of my plate carrier into my shoulder, all over my fucking arm, obviously a ton into my abdomen, all over my stomach. I mean, I had, I mean, they were practically from what I've been told, just fucking dumping ball bearings out of my stomach. I mean, I had, I mean, they were practically from what I've been told, just fucking dumping ball bearings out of my intestines. And all down through, shut out throughout my leg, caught, shrapneled into my hand, ball bearings. I mean, they were burning

so fast that ball bearings just like burned through my radius, like perfect hole through my radius, didn't even break it. That's how fast they were going. And from the force of the blast, burned through my radius, all into my arm and shoulder. And unfortunately, the army fucking burned my kit. I didn't get to keep my kit, but I took three ball bearings in the lip of my Kevlar, like right above the lip of my Kevlar, right into my forehead. And that's not a fucking reason to wear your fucking gear, then I don't know what is.

I mean, now it'll fucking kill me, like, for sure, what it fucking killed me. I had to be honest, man. I can't believe we're sitting here right now. I can't believe it, either, honestly. we're sitting here right now. I can't believe it either, honestly. Some incredible individuals in my line of care. And it's been a fucking journey,

but thankful to be here. And I'm on the ground and I can't move. And I mean, all of this is happening. It's like three minutes, but to me, it feels like fucking forever. And I'm on the ground. And I'm just like, wow, I can't move. I can't even really yell.

I'm like, man, I'm dead. I was like, that's it. I could feel myself starting to fade, starting to pass out. And I was just like, I knew I was fucking bad. I could see myself covered in blood. And the pain hit me, probably like a minute or two afterwards. And I was just like, when it finally hit me, because for I couldn't feel it for a while, and I finally hit me, I was like, I wasn't so much pain, I just wanted to fucking die. Like, I remember laying there on the ground, and I was in so much pain that I just wanted to fucking die. I remember laying there on the ground

and I was just like, please fucking kill me. I'm in so much pain, just please fucking put me out of my misery. That's all I was thinking about. And then I just kept trying to move and I couldn't and as I'm fading, I'm like, man, that was like, well, it's how it goes. And that's like all I really thought, I was just like, well, I'm fucking, I was like, well, it's how it goes. And that's like all I really thought.

I was just like, well, I'm fucking, I'm dead, but I'm proud of what I've done and who I am. And I remember thinking that on the ground and was like, this is how it is. And I was, I was in disbelief, but I wasn't scared. I was just like, wow, I was like, well, this is how fucking it is. Like, I'm gonna die here on the dirt in Afghanistan and

I just hear chat or here Tyler Tyler Come and buddy and I like like come to again, and I'm like oh Fuck it's chas like he's gonna fucking get to me. I'm not gonna die and he's gonna fucking get to me. I'm not gonna die. And they were coming back from the packs. Dalton was driving. He just pulled up the gate

and one of the combat engineers were like, hey, like move away from the tower a little bit, turn the vehicle around. So he turns and like puts it in park. Fucking blast goes off. And the him and Chaz look at each other and like, that was like Chaz, that was fucking ID. He was like like, Chaz was like, that was a fucking ID. He was like, what?

He was like, that was a fucking ID. And they just hop out of the car. And we had this SUV that we had fucking ripped the seats out of and tore the license plate off of because there was the command that was just sitting back at, like near the fucking army command, had all these vehicles. And none of us at the fucking gates

actually operating had fucking any vehicles. And so I was asking everyone around, I'm like, oh, you guys got any extra vehicles? I'm like, oh, no, I remember asking. I'm like, oh, no, we only have one. And so me and my buddy just went and fucking acquired a vehicle from them and ripped the license plates off, spray painted the fuck out of it.

And like put pig pride, Reaper 2, like STA on it. And we're like, all right, this is ours now. Fucking thank God we did. Cause we ripped the seats out of the back of that to fit our gear and our guns and shit. And but the back doors were fucking broken. And so Cooper's in the back seat, fucking trying to kick the doors out,

trying to get out of this fucking SUV. He gets out, Dalton's the assistant team leader. So he runs to the tower to get accountability of people in gear and They go up there he gets up there and There are chases up there Dalton gets up there and fucking Erich has is like I see Tyler and Because like I think Adam Adam saw me like when I was still trying to stand up like reaching my hand up And I remember I remember seeing someone in the tower like one of my guys in the tower

And like that's why I was trying to get up and I could just see him But I didn't know who it was I couldn't make out who it was and turns out it was Adam and There was so many fucking people killed that Andrew was on the gun and Like on the sass one the blast went off and he got they got fucking rocked I mean that whole blast way was right next to the tower and it and they am did at us and the tower and that's what happened so all that over pressure from the blast ran through the fucking tower we had two windows open it was like boom fucking instantly just fucking I don't know shook their brains up instant how could instant concussion. And they were rattled, Andrew like barely held on

to the sass hanging out the window and they thought that their fucking faces were bleeding and it was just so much blood and guts from the people that had gotten blown up because they were fucking like at the window that it was just covering their fucking face. And I mean the sass was fucking caked in blood. They had to clean the fucking brains off our SAS

after that because of how many fucking people were killed. That's it coated our fucking rifle. One of our rifles. And I mean, that I'm sure that fucking haunts him, you know? I mean, that's some heavy fucking shit. And so, Chaz and Dalton, like, had the briefest engagement of like, Chaz is going out there to get me

because he's the most fucking proficient medically. And like, as he saw me, he's like, hey, I'm going out there or whatever. And fucking, that's when he was yelling for me. And I was like, wow, I'm not gonna to fucking die, Chaz is going to get to me. And I remember hearing him run behind me along the chain link fence and hearing him yell my name. And then I remember seeing him stand over me.

He told me like he thought I was dead because I was just like looking at him and I said something along the lines of like, take off my fucking belt, take off my fucking kevlar, for a little bit, I thought like I had moved really fucking far. Like I thought I had crawled really far and I was just like kind of confused in my brain. I was like, man, how did I move so far?

But I know at one point I couldn't move anymore, but I also remember moving really fast. He's like, no, motherfucker, like I dragged you like 30 fucking feet. Like I grabbed you moving really fast. He's like, no, motherfucker. Like, I dragged you like 30 fucking feet. Like, I grabbed you and dragged you. I was like, that makes a lot more sense. And then, I mean, started throwing fucking turniqits on me right away. He, I mean, he, he fucking just disregarded like,

we had guys shooting back and he just fucking sprinted for me. I mean, he, like, I brought him up in front of Congress because he had never been acknowledged for saving my life that day. And there was other individuals involved. Now, now he is, I got, my girlfriend actually, she, when she was doing a shoot for the Secret Service, met the assistant commentant and his assistant and was like, hey, this is my fucking boyfriend. Like, this is who he is. You guys need to reach out to him. And he did. He called me, the general called me, General Smith. And since then, has has brought up certain things about acknowledging him,

but I acknowledged him in front of Congress and no one, nothing came of that. And he's a humble guy, he's not gonna be like, hey, I saved Tyler's life. Any one of us would have been like, yeah, I was doing my job, like he's my buddy, I saved Tyler's life. Like he, any one of us would have been like, yeah, I was doing my job. Like he's my buddy. I was doing my fucking job, but a year and a half later

and this man who fucking helps save my life is not acknowledged for doing so. Yeah, it was pretty shitty, but he start throwing turnip hits on me and trying to fucking plug holes, but I mean, I had so many fucking holes in my body that a lot of them, those BBs from the ball bearings were so small that my skin was just like closing right of them. And another individual Eric Emmett, one of the platoon sergeants, got another man I looked up to, he came over, started taking control of everything at the gate, taking control of the situation. I'm sure he's not been awarded for those,

his actions that day either, because most people weren't. Do you guys are gonna be rewarded? Yeah. They will be. Yeah, they will. Somebody's gonna get in there and see what they did, see what all you guys did did and you're gonna be rewarded

Yeah, I doubt my mind. It's just not gonna come from these fucking assholes. Yeah, I've been I've been working on some things and pushing on some people So It was kind of cool. You know my team leader Emmett Mentor and friend that I looked up to and a couple of their individuals who really good buddies of mine. Mitchell, Celis and Sage and Smith, they all fucking got to me and were working on me, it was all my buddies fucking stop the bleeding. I'm fucking riding around screaming, moaning, trying to talk, can't fucking talk because I'm in so much pain,

just like mumbling and moaning. And they're trying to keep me from going into shock. And I just remember the whole time, just like, I just want to fucking die. I'm in so much pain. And Chaz, right before he ran out there, he's like in the tower and he's like, give me Tyler's bolt cutters and fucking

through my bolt cutters to him. He ran out there, got to me when they were trying to move me. They realized it couldn't fucking carry me, how he was gonna carry me because my fucking whole stomach's ripped open and how bad my injuries were. They're like, all right, I can't fucking just like, again, just pick him up normally. So he cuts open a hole in the fence, close to the tower

and cuts down the casualty carrying distance by like 200 fucking yards. And Mitchell's sealus, good buddy of mine. They're looking for something to fucking carry me on and he runs over and kind of how I was talking about your patch, you know, with your shield or on it. They fucking threw me on a right shield and carried me out to the CCP.

And just so happened that fucking one right shield was lying around and they fucking dragged me out there on it and ramming back to the back behind our tower to cover. And I don't remember being carried there. I've been told that I was just cussing and fucking screaming sounds about right But I remember being on the ground and I'm going in and out of fucking consciousness and I remember them like cutting off my pants and then I remember hearing chas say it and I didn't think he I thought I had made it up my brain

But then he told me he did say it and he was like he was like wow, it's like nice dick Tyler like cutting off my pants and Humbly in there and I can see our tower like up up in my vision and I'm just screaming for fucking drugs like fucking just like someone fucking put me down or give me some fucking drugs. And I see Jorge, our team corpsman, he runs over and he's like flipping me over, looking for exit wounds and stuff. And cause he had, so what's crazy is he had walked out there.

So I was on this side of the fence. Jorge walked out and right in the fucking codifier of the blast zone in the ball bearings. He had just walked past it when the blast went off. He was walking out there to meet me and he got fucking knocked out on his feet. All the pressure hit him. Fortunately, he didn't get hit with ball bearings or shrapnel, but he got fucking thrown on his ass, got up and forgot that he was going out there to meet me. And because he went to the tires, like, where's Tyler at and like, oh, he's down there. And so Jorge was fucking, got thrown off his feet.

And first thing he gets up, it's just fucking doing what he does best. And that's fucking helping people and starts triage and Marines, left and right, immediately gets up. People are fucking, he like, I think I threw a turn of kid on someone's arm who was like, arm is fucking just losing a lot of blood blood and then I mean, like, see someone else on fire from

the fucking blast. And I mean, he just goes, he just goes into fucking work mode. And then after like five or six patients, he's like, and I mean, he ended up, he ended up, you know, working on, um, uh, Max and so the act and, uh, I think I think Deegan Page as well who were both killed in action and died out there. But he called their fucking times the death on them and then he was like, oh fuck, I was going out there for Tyler, where the fuck's Tyler and he's yelling for Chaz and Dalton's yelling for him trying to get accountability to the team still. And so he runs back to the base of the tower

and he's flipping me over. And I'm like coming to and I remember seeing him. He's like Tyler, Ty, and he was like slap me in the face. Like try to wake me up and I see him. And I'm like, Jorge, Jorge, I was like, fucking Jorge is a doc. Jorge has drugs. Like, and I remember, like I was trying to reach for him.

I don't know if I grabbed him but I was trying to. And I'm like, Jorge, a doc, Jorge has drugs. Like, and I remember, like, I was trying to reach for him. I don't know if I grabbed him, but I was trying to. And I'm like, Jorge, give me fucking drugs. I'm like, give me fucking drugs, Jorge. And he was like, I got a fucking finished triage in Utah and I'm just like, fuck you Jorge. God, fuck him. He gave me some fucking drugs. And he's, I mean, he was doing what you're supposed

to, he's fucking going through, just trying to, you know, put chestels on and make sure everything's plugged up. And they put chest tubes in me right there, and I was like barely fucking conscious for it. I mean, I was fucking bleeding out and almost completely blood out at that point. And so he was drawing out ketamine to administer to me

and the medical officer that was there is like nope Like we got a fucking send him like if we don't get him to the hospital like he's dead like we got to go now And so never got my fucking drugs They threw me into the back of our SUV our pig pride SUV and Blood out all over the fucking back of it and one of my buddies. I don't know who drove But a buddy of mine, Castillo, was back there holding me down, trying to prevent me from swinging my arm,

my fucked up arm around and hurt myself more. And the majority of that ride, I don't remember like being put into it. And I don't remember, I remember seeing like the ceiling, but I don't remember like being held onto and held down. I just remember like being held onto and held down. I just remember like fucking moving around and just like I need fucking drugs like are we there? Or like I need fucking drugs like please like give me fucking drugs are we there yet?

And he was just trying to comfort me and You know, it's like a four or five mile drive around back to the hospital. I get there. You know, my surgeon, he's checking on Deegan Page at the rule two. He passed already. He was just going from patient to patient to patient trying to do what he could to keep that, you know, people live and do his job and after he, you know, made sure page, you know, he confirmed the page had passed. My, like, right foot was on top of his left shoulder and or vice

versa. And he was like, well, he's like, I'm going to him next because he's right here. And so just because of that, he happened to happen to work on me next. And you know, just disbelief, but how I, how I was still alive. And how I was still breathing on my own, and my heart was still beating. Went into surgery for like 10 to 14 hours. Him and other nurses working on me and another little girl. And so, I know they couldn't stabilize me forever for hours.

And they're, you know, give me blood and more warming it up, obviously, and putting it in me. I remember, they were like, I can't figure out why he's not stabilizing. Why he's not taking this blood pretty much. And so he was the one who was like, let's get him fresh whole blood. And as soon as they did that, it was like I just fucking took a fucking jump and started climbing again and I was doing a lot better. You know cleaning up my intestines, you cross clamped my aorta to stop myself from bleeding out into the rest of my body and I know I had an artery stint put in in my femoral artery.

My leg was just so shredded and there was so much to work on here that, you know, was told that they had to make the decision to let my leg go to save my life. And something that I said to them is that that was the right decision to make. You know, I wouldn't be here today if he hadn't made that decision. So I'm thankful to him for that. Yeah, I got flown on like the night of on August 28th, the guys pulled the casualties in from the gate, the rest, like made sure all the casualties were in and closed up the gate and, you know,

Dalton talks about them, just the sea of bodies that was there. I mean, I've seen photos and videos post-blast post-moving the casualties and just fucking hundreds of people just taking their last breaths on the ground. And he talks about it, you know, sitting up in the tower and after, you know, after the North one, I got hit and they're searching for the shooters still. You know, one of one of the Marines, Kristen Sanchez, he got shot through the shoulder after the blast went off and he fucking picked up his rifle and put him put that fucking ISIS fuck down.

He put him down and, you know, a lot. There's a lot of people. And then the Army investigation, it was said that we didn't get shot at, that no one got shot. Chris and Sanchez got fucking shot through the shoulder. He fucking put one of those ISIS, ISIS fucking gunmen down my buddy, David trailer. He got shot through his fucking thigh. And I mean, it literally went through, I got hit with 100 to 150 ball bearings.

And they just, you know, bore little tunnels in me. He got shot through his thigh and the whole backside is fucking blown out. I mean, it's pretty fucking obvious what happened. He's got a, he's got a cone shape indent in his leg from getting shot. And from getting shot and you know and that Army investigation it was said you know they were can cost an unreliable because of what happened that the somehow 40 50 60 witnesses Marines sailors soldiers what what they witnessed didn't happen because of the blast. Yeah, that's Army Brigadier General Lance Curtis backed all decisions made by commanders at Abbey Gate on that day In quotes based on our investigation at the tactical level

This was not preventable And uh This was not preventable. And certain individuals recently testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee saying that they were asked by a congressman if they regret what happened and how the evacuation was handled. And they said, I don they regret what happened and how the evacuation was handled and they said, I don't regret what happened or and I don't regret the way the evacuation was handled. That's pretty, you imagine being the family or the friend of one of those 13 service members

killed in action hearing that, I couldn't fucking imagine imagine I know how much it pisses me off hearing that shit Yeah, yeah going back to the to the gate don't talked about Watching this dude in the canal Choke on his own blood. He was sucking for air. Just choking on his own blood and his throat because he was continuously just bleeding into his throat from the blast. And he had to fucking sit there and watch, watch us do just fucking take his last gas, gas, so they're blood into his lungs and suffocate to death. At that point, we closed up the gate and obviously trying to deal with casualties and prevent a second ID blast. So they pulled out two days later after that or right before that,

they started going around destroying all of the equipment and all of everything they could think that would be useful, destroying, spray painting everything across H. Kaya and came back from from the ground force commander that the vehicles that had been flipped over and the spray paint that said fuck you Taliban, fuck ISIS needed to be covered up. The vehicles needed to be flipped back over. They needed to fix the damage like to those vehicles and things that they had done. So after after these 13 service members are killed, after they're tasked with destroying everything. So the Taliban and ISIS don't have access to it. They're then told by ground force commander to fix that damage.

Are you serious? Yeah, I wish I wasn't. I wish I wasn't. So they went back, told the fucking covered up with spray paint, told the fucking flip those vehicles back over. fucking covered up with spray paint, told the fucking flip. Those vehicles back over. And I mean, man, it's just like, it's one fucking thing after another post that and it just, I can't fathom why,

we can't change the fact that these 13 service members were killed. So why the fuck do you have to lie about what happened? Why do you have to lie about what happened? Why do you have to lie about what happened? What what we experienced? What everyone out there went through what we saw? How? How can how can John Kirby stand and say as the as the press representative from the White House? How can he stand there and being a former admiral in the Navy? How can he stand there and say that he did see any fucking chaos from his perch? And that's quote, I didn't see any chaos from my perch. Who the fuck talks like that from your perch?

Who talks like that? Who fucking says that? 13 Americans were killed. And you're gonna speak like that and say that everything was done right that you couldn't see any fucking chaos from your perch. It's fucking disgusting. I'm sorry, man.

It's not your fault. I'm sorry, but it's someone's. Let's take a break. BANG! Thank you for listening to the Sean Ryan Show. If you haven't already, please take a minute, head over to iTunes, and leave the Sean Ryan Show review. We read every review that comes through, and we really appreciate the support. Thank you.

Let's get back to the show. All right, Tyler. I think we loved off you're in Germany. Yes. So I'm in Germany now from from from afghan getting to that roll two. They they sedated me and I actually I forgot to say this, but I got to the role too and I was asked, what I remembered about getting to the role too facility in Afghan. And I was like, I remember getting there and like being on operating table and then the individual was working on me

or saying like, we need to intubate him right now, we need to state him, we need to do this, this, and that, and this whole conversation. And I remember, I told him I was, I remember being intubated and all of this and you know, I was kind of responding to it with wow. Like you, what's crazy is that happened, but you were not awake for that. Like you were barely alive, you heard all of that. You heard the whole conversation in your brain. Remember that? You weren't actually awake. And so it's just pretty, pretty, pretty strange thing to fucking here and remember being unconscious.

But I'm in Germany. And right now, you know, they're telling my mom, like, hey, he's been hurt, he's been hit. And it was actually my little brother who was like, mom, a bomb, an explosion just went off and Afghanistan and my mom was like, what? And they had the TV on and pointed it out. And she got a call on the 27th and the States, I think. And he was hit, he's going to Germany, don't fly here. Like the mill and they military, they called my mom and said,

there's been an explosion at Abbey Gate. There was gunfight. There was gunfire. People were shot. They said this on the like that phone call recording that you get like like your family gets home from a service member wounded. Like they told my mom, like there was gunfight, there was gunfire, they were shot at, there was an explosion, and your son is very critically injured. They told her that I was very ill, very critically ill, and not to go to Germany because she'd probably be passing my dead body in the air coming

back to the States. And while Alma's like, fuck that, like I'm going to be there. I don't give a fuck. And they're like, well, if you fly here, like we can't, they told her this too. They're like, we can't, we can't promise it. We're going to, you know, we can reimburse your flights or pay for your flights. So this is my fucking son. Do you think I care about that?

She fucking bought her flights and one on her way to Germany and She met me in Germany at launch school and So I'm there now they still had me sedated just operating on me and they took my leg there they took my arm there and My mom she was like in the operating room the whole, like, in the, they would let her stand there as they were operating on me. Um, and, you know, they're working on me. And, um, they told, like, the doctor came out and told my mom actually that they're

like, yeah, the nurse almost fell over when they, we handed your son's leg to her. That's how heavy it was. They were telling her how funny things, trying to cheer her up a little bit. They were telling her how, at the time, my neck was so thick that they were struggling to get the fucking IV, the drains into my neck. They couldn't get through the drains into my neck, like they couldn't get through like the muscle in my neck and just like random things like that, which is pretty funny, but they, like they told her there in Germany for the first time,

like he's not supposed to be alive. Like we have no fucking idea how he's alive and the only reason that he's alive that can be because he's alive is because of how healthy he was, how physically fit he was is what saved his life. I just fucking happen to be able to take the entire impact of that

and all of these injuries. I mean, I showed you the pictures that had breakfast of how much weight I lost, but I was 208 pounds, 210 pounds, and I got blown up and pretty lean. Not a huge dude, but I was definitely a muscular dude. And for me, I had, I've always, for as many years, as I can remember in the Marine Corps,

I've lived with the mantra of like, you know, you can never train too hard for a job that can kill you. And I took that fucking seriously. I really did. And I always tried them still at my marines and that was one thing is like a young squad leader I never had to, I never had to really fucking haze anyone. I could just run them into the ground and be like listen, just be fucking fit and

that was something that I live by and it fucking saved my life. And that's, you know, that's why when I speak now and I talk to people and I, you know, look into, open my gym and get certified right now with CPT and stuff. It's important to me and it's, it always will be physical fitness because it's what saved my life. And I mean, a lot of modern day issues, like physical problems and diseases can be solved with having good physical health. And, you know, to hear that, it was like, I was training hard because it was important for me to be fit one.

I wanted to be able to be the one to fucking, if I need to fucking run with some of my back for a mile, I'll fucking do it. If I need to carry the heavy rock, I'll do it. And I also had aspirations to go be a rater. And so, I mean, it was quite a number of things that led me to that. But um, um, knowing that, Knowing that there's that saying of like everything in your life leads up to one moment. And for me, everything I had done up until getting blown up was right because I'm here today. And not perfect by any means, I've made my mistakes in life, but I can say that I was prepared

for the worst moment in my life, and that's something that I try to pass along to others is be fit, be mentally and physically fit. Doesn't matter if you're in the military or you're civilian, you could get hit by a car tomorrow. I mean, being prepared is important. You know, you don't know when your bell is gonna be wrong. Being prepared is important. You know, you don't know when your bell is going to be wrong.

And fortunately for me, I was able to withstand that. And you know, I'm in Germany. And at one point, I flatlined and I did a few times, but they brought my mom in and had her say goodbye to me because we're like he's not gonna make it. He's probably not gonna make it. And I mean, I couldn't imagine being my mom shoes. My mom, you know, she was like, I'm so sorry this happened to you.

And my buddies also have said that to me too. And they don't feel sorry for me. I told them, you feel sorry for me when I kick your fucking ass. they don't feel sorry for me. I told them, you feel sorry for me when I kick your fucking ass. I don't feel sorry for myself. And... Your mom sounds like a very special woman. Yeah, she is a fierce woman and I,

from childhood to now. Yeah, I've always said, my mom is my hero and it's fucking true. I wouldn't be the man I am today without her and the way that she raised me. And I mean, seeing her go through the struggles that, you know, we did as a family and how she lost everything and built it back up even better. It always proved to me I was like, well, I'm fucking got through it. It's so can I.

And every time I had a hard moment in my life, I'm like, my mom went through all this shit to give me a good life. Like, I'm gonna be successful. I will be successful. And I'm very thankful to her for that. Yeah, she came in and said goodbye. And then the regimental commander, he was great.

My mom was there, Colonel Graham. And they were like, what do you need? Like to my mom. And she's like, you get his best friend here right now. If you want him to live, get his fucking best friend out here. And so they fucking cut ridder orders. I got flown to Andrews Air Force Base and he was flying, they flew him out to Walter Reed to DC.

And so he met us at Walter Reed. But some, I don't remember this, but another Marine was saying, and then we'd worry about Ty and like the liaison who was there for my mom was saying that, they were trying to lifelike me to Walter Reed. And I like woke up, and I don't know if this is true or not,

but this is what he said. That they were trying to lifelike me to Walter Reed and I woke up and they were talking to me, or they were talking over me about flying me and talking about putting other Marines on the bus and he said that I was like, I wanna ride on the bus with these guys and turn down the fucking flight. I was like, no, I wanna fucking Marines on the bus and he said that I was like, I want to ride on the bus with these guys and like turn,

turn down the fucking flight. I was like, no, I want to fucking ride on the bus with the Marines going to Walter Reed. And so they put us on the fucking bus with them and and drove us to Walter Reed. And then which I feel like would only make sense because I don't know why else. I would not be lifelighted over with how critical I was. So now I'm a Walter Reed. It's like four or five days post-post-blast. And it's like August 31st or something like that or yeah. And they like wake me up. They pull me off of out of intubation, pull the sedation off me. And I woke up and my mom's there, my buddy, Ritter, he's there.

And my mom's like, hey sweetheart, how you doing? My mom, she knows me really well. Like she took photos and videos the whole time from the time she got to Germany to me. She took photos and videos of all of this shit and threw fucking tears. And one of the first things I said when I woke up was like, did you fucking take pictures of this or what?

And she was like, yeah, I took fucking pictures motherfucker. Like she knew I would want pictures and videos of like my surgeries and stuff. And I mean, that's a testament to her fucking strength as well. But before I jump into this, she, on the way back to, to Andrew's Air Force Base from Germany, they actually had put her on a plane with all of the refugees. So a few of us who were injured and like a hundred and something refugees were on this plane.

My mom was saying, obviously she grew up, you know, 20s in her 20s, when 9-11 happened, and I was like three or four years old. And I remember singing on TV, but she talked about, you know, having a lot of biases, a lot of Americans did after that for Middle East nurse. And her first thought when she realized that all these refugees are on the plane, she thought, oh, fuck, is this plane gonna blow up? Like this just happened, like, is this plane gonna fucking blow up? And then she looked over at some point during the flight

and saw this Afghan woman standing and holding like these three, onto these three medical beds and it was three of her kids and who had been, one of them had been like in the operating room with me and she like went over to her and and tried to converse with her. And she pointed, are these your kids pretty much and the lady nodded and then my mom pointed over to me

and was like, this is my son. And they just held hands and cried. And she just let her know that she was there for her and not alone. So I was pretty cool to hear. And she told me she was like, you know, being on that plane and seeing what happened and seeing all those refugees,

she was like, people don't get to see this shit. That was the first time that I realized, this is why this happened. This is what my son and all these men and women serving were out there doing, where they were rescuing all of these families, all these thousands and thousands of families. This is why this happened. Like, this is what they were out there doing. This is what they were there for. And it's pretty cool to hear her talk about that. Yeah, so I'm going Walter Reed and first things I say when I wake up, like,

first words out of a mouth, I was like, coming to and just really fucking high. Obviously, I'm like, fuck me. She's like, what? I'm like, fuck me. She was like, what's wrong, sweetheart? Like, other than obvious. And I was like, right away, I was like,

those motherfuckers blew off my fucking leg. Like, said that right away. And she's like well No, they didn't blow up her legs. I just knew like I remembered like almost immediately when I woke up like I had remembered most of what happened And she said I talked for nine hours straight just like about everything that happened like the fucking the gunfight the fucking bombing the fucking interpreter Going down to the gate everything leading up to it. And, you know, that, I was awake for like two days. And, all I'm like, oh, yeah.

They started bringing in general's and like all these fucking people to do fucking photo ops and shit and You know like come meet me and stuff and I'm I Don't know any better. I'm really fucked up and really high and a few people came in few generals I don't even remember who honestly um and then they're like You know, do you?

Do you want to see the president of the United they do you want to see the president of the United States? They do want to see the president. It's like, what? It's like the president. It's like, yeah, the president. I was like, the president of the United States. Yeah, the president of the United States. The president wants to see me.

Yeah, he wants to come see you and thank you and meet you. I was just like, what the fuck? My buddy, my buddy, Ritter, he's a black Republican. And I'm like, yeah, I want to fuck him, meet the president, he was gonna meet the fucking president. And he's like, looking at me like, what the fuck? And I kind of make sense a little later.

But I was like, okay. And so I told him, I was like, hold all of my, hold all of my opioids, like, hold all of my narcotics and stuff Like I want to be coherent when I when I meet him and they're like, no, we can't do that I'm like, you're gonna hold all of my fucking drugs other than my antibiotics like I want to be coherent when I meet him So like, okay, and mom's like fucking listen to him and they held all my my pain meds They're like, you know, when, when is he going to be here? And like, he's going to be here in about an hour.

Well, one hour goes by, nothing. Two hours goes by. Nothing. I'm still keep coming in like, you know, it's time for your meds. You watch your meds. I'm like, no, hold them, hold them, hold them. And like three hours goes by. It's like four hours at this point.

And my mom's furious. Like she's like, what the fuck, like where is this guy? And you know, I'm, she finally, she like kind of sits up when I see her get a little anxious. And she's like, okay, like the cigarette servers are coming into the floor. He's probably gonna be here in a few minutes.

And then this average can wipe dude with brown hair comes in the room like presidential seal in a shirt and a black mask on with a presidential seal. And I'm just like looking at this dude and he like passed down my mom, passed down my buddy. I'm like looking to this guy and I'm like looking at my mom, my buddy. And this dude's just like standing in the corner of the room.

I'm like what the fuck's going on? And he's like over there. And I'm like, mom. And she's like sitting to my right. Like, mom, mom. She's like, what, what, she's nervous, you know? And I'm like, is that the president? And like, everyone in the room starts laughing.

And the cigarette service agent starts laughing. And he like pulled on his mask. And he's like, no, he's like, but I work for him. And I was just like, what the fuck? What? I was like, sitting in the president, I was like,

you mean you work for him? And I was like, oh my God, who's the fucking president? And just so much had happened, just had so much trauma on me. I had no idea who the president was. I didn't think it was Trump. I didn't think he was Biden. I just, my brain couldn't make the connection. I couldn't, I had no idea who the president was. I didn't think it was Trump. I didn't think it was Biden.

I just, my brain couldn't make the connection. I couldn't, I had no idea who the president was. And I'm like, holy fuck, like this dude's gonna be here and in here any minute, I have no idea who the president is. And I look over at my mom, like mom, mom's like, what? Like what, what's up sweetheart? And I'm like, who's the fucking president? And she's like laughing and she's like, what's up sweetheart? And I'm like, who's the fucking president? And she's like laughing and she's like, what? I'm like, who is the fucking president?

And she's serious. I'm like, I have no idea what the president is. And she's like, it's like sweetheart. It's like, it's Joe Biden. And this is just me talking about what happened, but I just leaned back and I was like, oh my, oh my god. And this was like, oh my fucking god.

That's what I said. And the cigarette, the cigarette service dude just like beat red and like trying not to laugh. And it was like fuck. And this dude like two minutes later he walks in with him and Jill Biden and their little entourage of people and like photographer. And right away, like remember him coming up to me, trying to shake my hand, like, might try to shake my right hand.

And I look at him, I'm like I don't have an arm And my left arm is in this big ass cast with this giant orange fucking phone block around it I completely am mobile. All I can do is move my head my arms gone Like I don't have an arm and he says oh and like kind of stands up and then like goes over to reach for my fingers because about an inch of my fingers are showing and just like grab my fingers. It doesn't say doesn't greet me or anything just that's what happened just grab my fingers and I was like okay, that's weird. And, you know, almost immediately starts talking like about how their son served in the military. Doesn't say anything about what happened. Starts talking about how their son served in the military.

And my mom is just like, she's furious at this point. And they're like taking pictures and stuff. And she goes, she was like, my mom said that she was like, I don't give a fuck, say I don't care what you guys fucking do. She's like, you better take care of him for the rest of his fucking life. And like she said that.

And I'm sitting there and he comes over to me and he leans over me. And I have a picture of this, the proof that I'll show you this picture that I have. It's a pretty funny picture. He leans over me and he's like, this close to my face and he's like, what do you want? What do you want? Yeah, he said, what do you want?

I said, what? He said, what do you want? I said, what? He said, what, what do you want? And so I confused him. I just got blown up. I'm just fucking saw my friends dying next to me. I'm like, I just want to be myself. And he's like, huh? And my mom's furious. She's like, he said he just wants to be himself.

He just wants to be him. He said he just wants to be me. And he goes, oh, okay. And they just continue to talk about everything but what just happened. And then they just pushered him out of the room. He didn't know what to say. They ushered him out of the room. And that was that. And my mom tried multiple times to get help from them. Reach out to the first lady and try to get some legislation passed for caretakers, like herself, who own businesses, who don't get any financial support for helping their fucking service. Remember they just got his whole life to one apart. And she wanted to help other caretakers in the future have, you know, because they didn't,

there's caretaker, there's certain amount of money that you can get as a caretaker depending on what you do. And, or help, but it's a process. And so she was working through that, but she wanted to pass legislation for future caretakers to help get, you know, like, hey, if you run a business and you need to come take care of your son who fucking, you know, serve their fucking country and just got blown up, like you can do that and not have to worry about financials shit for a little bit, you know what I mean? And so she was trying to get help with that and they just

pretended to help. They kind of just fucking brushed her off and pretended like they were connecting her with the right individuals and did it fucking help her at all. And so obviously because of the congress stuff now, my mom is since, you know, going to be moving forward with some, with some stuff with some individuals were actually going to help, but nothing came up with that. And yeah, that was two days after that. I'm in the, I'm just in bed and I'm telling the doctors and nurses for a couple days. Like two days, I'm like, I can't breathe, like I can't fucking breathe. And my buddy of mine, a doctor works at the hospital.

He, he's a resident right now. He was a reserve, he was in a reserve sniper platoon and now he's in the army as an officer, being a trauma surgeon to be a trauma surgeon. And as soon as it happened, he fucking came in and he connected the Recon and Cyber Foundation guys, like got them to send out of flag and like decorate my room really nice and shit

and be there for my mom and family. So he was there as a friend, also like working on me and stuff too, but are like helping with that. And also put a Marine Corps flag right on the ceiling. And so- That's the Marine Recon Sniper Foundation. Yeah, the Recon and Sniper Foundation. So it's a marine recon sniper foundation? Yeah, the recon sniper foundation.

So it's a nonprofit doing good things. Yep, yeah, very much so. And so they sent out a flag just to cheer me up and, you know, fucking give me something to smile about. And so I'm like, hey, I can't breathe. Like I'm struggling to breathe. And they're like, oh, you're fine. Like you're good, you're good.

You're pulse ox, like is 98%. Like you got like, oh, you're fine. Like you're good, you're good. You're pulse ox, like is 98%. Like you got like 98% oxygen in your blood. Like you're good. I'm like, oh, I can't fucking breathe. Like I can't breathe. And they're just brush it off. And they're like, you're fine. You're good.

Next thing I know, two days later, and I'm fucking tunnel vision, staring up with this American, or this Marine Corps flag on the ceiling, and then just black out. And I wake up and I'm in I Nova, Virginia now. And I had double pulmonary embolisms. One of each along couldn't, sure shit couldn't fucking breathe.

They were racing back to my heart and didn't fucking listen to me. And passed out flatline between there and getting to I Nova. I flatline like three or four times. They came in. One of the Marine Coral Liaisons came in when there was a doctor literally straddling my fucking chest and the room just fucking doing chest compressions on me,

trying to fucking resuscitate me. And brought me back, started moving me out to the helicopter to life light me there because I needed ECMO to like clean out my blood. And the only place I had ECMO is it was over there in Virginia for some reason. Walter he doesn't fucking have it. Stay at the art facility. It's great place, great people, but there's some things that are perfect. And so of course the one thing I needed they didn't have and they moved me out to the bird and then I fucking crash again and I flatline again and bring it back in there, so I say me and now they're

looking for a machine to fucking connect to me and I fucking they take me back out to the bird and then fucking crash again and then finally they get me stable, get me on the bird, fly me over to I know, get me on ECMO and I'm good I'm good they clean out the fucking get the blood clots out clean up my blood and I'm awake in Virginia and it was it was I had to put in like tubes to my groin and my leg and stuff and like straight into my heart and whatnot. So I like wake up and on top of the 52s I've already gotten me. I've got these massive tubes going through my growing stuff. And, you know, my, I lost, obviously, I lost my, my right arm, a couple inches above the elbow.

I'm a hip dysartic, or dysartic circulation. So I don't have any of my leg. I sit and I walk on my pelvis. And, you know, a couple of inches above the elbow. Yeah, so can you show me? Yeah, so I'm like right here. So it's kind of the height of my arm. So enough to be able to allow me to wear this socket

and move around and use it and open it and stuff. And I mean, I fucking, I work out, I fucking shoot rifles. I can still fucking see clamp a rifle with this. Like I worked to, like I told you, you're at breakfast to be as proficient as I can and do the things that I love doing now or that I did before today. But yeah, the prosthesis at Walter Reed fucking crush it.

They fucking kick ass and. I wanna ask you a question. Yeah. they fucking kick ass and I want to ask you a question. Yeah. It's tough question to ask but I'm gonna ask it. People get very uncomfortable being around amputees. They don't know how to act around you. They don't know whether to feel sorry for you. They don't know what the fuck to do, man. Yeah.

How do you like to be treated? Like a regular fucking person. I think it, uh... it definitely benefits me. Um... people underestimating me, because I can do my thing, you know? But I like to be true to like a regular fucking person

because I am one, you know, I've been through a lot, but just people have been through worse. And I mean, it's definitely the kids I love, the kids are honest, kids, you know, they'll be like, Dad, where's his leg? Like, I mean, I've gotten that so many times, I've been in the bathroom and there'll be a little kid who's like, jaw drop, just taking a back.

Like, I've had a little kid come up to me and they'll literally just walk in front of me and like check me out from every angle. I'm like, what's happening? Like, where is your arm? And especially like if I'm in a wheelchair, I'm not wearing my leg or something like where like this one little girl, I was fishing and fishing with my former team leader. And I'm passing her and she's fishing with her dad. And she was like, where's your leg? And the dad's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. And I'm like, dude, it's, it's good. Like,

it's, it's okay. It really is. And I thought I was hilarious. And I was like, dude, it's good. Like, it's okay, it really is. And I thought I was hilarious. And I was like, well, I was like, it's gone. And she's like, she was probably like six or seven. That's what she said. Yeah, oh yeah, it's gone. It's gone. She was like six or seven and she goes, yeah, I know. She's like, where is it?

And I was like, damn, I wasn't prepared for that one. I was like, well, I was like, I got hurt. You know, I got hurt and they cut it off of me and threw it away. And she was like, yeah, but where do they do with it? Where do they throw it away at? And I was like, oh my gosh, I was like, it's in Germany. And she was like, what do they do with it in Germany?

And I was like, they burned it. I was like, they burned my leg. And she's like, oh, and she's like, she's like, oh, and she's like, it's like kind of nod her head and then turn around and went back to fishing. And I was like, okay. But yeah, I mean, I'm a normal fucking dude. You know, this is just how my life is.

There's no way around it. I mean, there's no way but through. And I can't feel fucking sorry for myself. There's a. Would it be appropriate for somebody to joke around with you? Oh, yeah. Like Tyler, hurry up and get up those fucking stairs. You're taking too long.

Oh, most definitely. My, my buddies, my buddies, you know, make it very clear to me. And they know, like I, I tell my friends and they, they know me anyway, but I'm like, you know, make it very clear to me. And they know, like, I tell my friends, and they know me anyway, but I'm like, I'm still me, I'm still Tyler, you know. You know, don't feel bad for me. I was like, if you don't fucking treat me like, I'm a piece of shit that I am,

then like you always have, then I'm upset. So yeah, they definitely joke with me or they'll The whole the whole only fans thing, you know, they tell me I need to need to create one and make it only hands Only hands. Yeah, but funny funny jokes my bodies have come up with some pretty funny jokes And I love it. It's I'll be doing the same shit if it was if it happened to them. Yeah Yeah, it's yeah, I mean it's it's I'd be doing the same shit if it happened to them. Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I'm a normal person. I mean, maybe there's some people who would be disrespected by it, but I, I think, coming

from a service member, most service members who were wounded in action, like this, and, you know, they, they just want to be, even other amputees in the military who, you know, they just want to be even other amputees in the military who, you know, wounded in other ways, but are injured in other ways. You know, they just want to be treated like regular fucking people because that's what they are. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad we have that discussion.

Yeah, definitely. Tyler, let's take a quick break. Yeah. When we come back, let's, uh, what's, what happened to Congress? I wanna give a big thank you out right now to all the vigilance elite patrons out there that are watching the show right now. Just wanna say thank you guys.

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Love you all. Let's get back to the show. Thank you. All right, Tyler. We're back from the break. What is that like six breaks? Yeah, I think so something like that, but All right, so Let's get into Congress. How did you? How did this all come about you testifying or given your testimony in front of Congress? So We're giving your testimony in front of Congress. So Had an individual at the

Good friend and someone who's helped me along through my recovery journey at Walter Reed connected me with a former patient of theirs who's Congressman Congressman Brian Mast double amputee. He's Florida, right? Yeah, he's a EOD and a really great guy from what I've got to know of him, genuine. And he, I've heard great things about him. Yeah, he's a phenomenal individual. And it got the awesome opportunity to meet him in person as well. But probably about three or four weeks

before the the these first hearings in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the evacuation. You know he reached out to people at Walter Reed like, hey is there anyone from you know the evacuation there who's wounded, you know I want to present them with you know kind of what's going on these hearings and stuff and just give them a heads up so they know. And obviously, I was the only one there and connected with me, gave me a call same day, gave me a heads up that they were doing these hearings because not a single hearing had been held

on the evacuation of Afghanistan and how we pulled out. But as soon as it was a Republican majority, as soon as Chairman McCall became a chairman, Congressman McCall became a chairman, he called for these hearings, he called for some answers and started getting the ball rolling. And so Congressman Masast, you know, kind of, you hold on, you had to nobody gave a shit until the Republicans took control of the house. Democrats didn't give two shits about what happened. There weren't any hearing seldom nothing. No answers asked for or searched for when it was a democratic majority. So I fucking hate here in that, I

really hate here in that, but I know that's par for the course. Yeah. So those, he kind of shared his story with me. Tell me about a little who he was. Obviously, I shared my story with him. A little bit about who I was and just gave me kind of a heads up. Like, hey, you know, these hearings are happening. I wanted to make you aware because no one's probably going to tell you which is, which is pretty cool. And he's like, you know, you can testify if you

want, but I want to, you know, recommend that at least, you know, coming from, coming from a former service member, I want to recommend that you wait. He's like, not coming from a politician. I want you to think about maybe waiting on doing that just so you don't get any backlash for it. But he's like, you know, if you want to do anything, let me know. And, you know, we'll help you out. And so, nothing really came of it.

I just kind of kept down the back of my mind. Let's rewind a minute. Did he talk about what implications might happen if you testify? He didn't. Or why would you? More so, implying that the government, the military, might not like me speaking out against the way we pulled out. He definitely alluded to that, you know,

not no specifics, but alluded to, you know, trying to protect myself and, you know, by, you know, what I'm processing out of the military so that they don't try and screw me over. Fortunately, come to find out that there are whistleblower protections in Congress that I never fucking knew about. None of my buddies ever knew about, but there's protections against testifying in front of Congress and telling your truth, telling your story, you can't get in trouble for it as a service member.

If you come on the record, you tell what happened. Obviously, I can't say, you know, can't go on and say all these negative things about the administration and the government, but coming on and telling your story and about what happened to you, you can't get in trouble for testifying in front of Congress like that. And that was news to me. But I a couple

days before, maybe the week before that hearing, I had an individual reach out from the House Foreign Affairs Committee to me directly saying, hey, these hearings are going on. We'd really love to hear from you if you have some time. You know, you have, you know, you can maybe have a phone call with us or an interview or something, and I had it, I had a really busy schedule at that time, so I got on a phone call on the Saturday. So Wednesday, March 8, was when that hearing was, got on a phone call that Saturday and shared my story with them with a few individuals from the House for Nefarious Committee and let them know, you know, my story and what happened, you know, what actually happened out there and how things were handled. And I mean, they were

they were odd, they were blown away and it's just another testament to how much the truth has been kept from all of America and the world, the truth of what happened out there. And to hear these people who are working in Congress not have any idea, to be told, shake my hand by a congressman and congresswoman and them to tell me the people who are in charge of the State Department and tell me I had no fucking idea any of this happened. That's pretty fucking telling.

They shared my story and they again, they said, we'd really love to have you testify if you want, you know, no one wants to push and do anything, but you know, you probably have the most unique and I know this just because of what happened, you know, you have, they're like, you have probably the most powerful story that's been said in front of Congress for this, that's going to be told in front of Congress for this. And you know, if you want to testify, let us know we'd love to have you. You can do you can come and testify orally or you can just do a written testimony or you can do both.

Well, you have to you have to do a written if you do an oral in front of them. And the written can be as long as you want. So I wrote like nine or 10 pages for that. But yeah, they pages for that. But yeah, they that Sunday night, I really sat down and thought about it. And I was like, well, this is, this is Wednesday morning. Not a single fucking person has come forward about what's happened. And the four individuals that are testifying, you know, they were not at Abbey Gate. Like I was, you know, three of them were individuals who went out of their own way and used their own money

and funding to think you had a Lieutenant Colonel Scott man on here. I did. Yeah, he was one of those individuals who testified. Did you meet Scott? I did. Yeah. Yeah.

And the other individuals, they all, you know, worked through Operation operation pineapple express and went out of their way to pull these afghans out and help our allies like we should have they shouldn't have had to do it the way that they did and You know continuing to help and helping the national resistance front, but I and helping the national resistance front, but I, uh, Sunday night, I was like, well, if I don't fucking do this, no one else will. And I owe it to my, you know, my buddy of mine, Hoover, he, you know, died in arms, fucking reach away from me. And, you know, had another buddy, Hunter Lopez, who was also killed in action out of the 13 and fucking out to them. I, everything that I do today,

everything that I've done up till today, I do for fucking them. And, you know, it's a cheesy mantra of, you know, the whole, if not me, then who? But I really took that the heart And I was like if I don't if I don't do this no one will and I was at the point where I Don't care about getting I didn't care about the the reapercussions of that it it was something that needed to be done and needed to be said fortunately

had to vet it through the Marine Corps all of Monday and Tuesday and Working on what I wanted to say Wednesday and so you had to vet it through the Marine Corps all of Monday and Tuesday and Working on what I wanted to say Wednesday and so you had to vet it through the Marine Corps. Yeah, like going in front of them There's a proper way to like did you have to Confident to them about what you were gonna say? Oh, no, so I I did give them my first like brief summary of my oral statement. Is there any pushback? No. They were supportive. They were supportive.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. All the way up to the common dot in himself, they were supportive. Wow. Yeah. And obviously I was like, well, we'll see what happens. But they sent out reps from the Pentagon.

They sent out a mass chardonn gun, need to come help me out. And the, you know, those two individuals who kind of bridged the gap between Congress and the Pentagon and work with some congressmen. And so they were, they were really looking out for me. But yeah, they ran it up through there. They were, they were good with obviously stressing out about it. I know the Marines, the win of worry battalion, the staff was getting calls from the Pentagon on stop. Like what the fuck's going on? But they never once said, no, you know, they didn't say you can't talk about this. You can't do this. You can't do that.

They just offered for me to protect myself and really just really wanted to make sure that I had help. It's definitely something that I'm thankful for because I've been very, very wary of, you know, obviously what might happen through the military, but regardless of the politics and any branch, the marine leadership at the top has helped me.

And I'm thankful for that. It's good to know that there's fucking good leaders at the top. Regardless of everything else with the one fucking thing that mattered, they helped with. So obviously, you know, testified and kind of told, you know, there's a point where the House Foreign Affairs Committee said, all right, your testimonies is too long.

And, you know, my legal aid kind of came back and like my oral testimony was too long. And I told her I was like, listen, I was like, I've known what I needed to say since the day I fucking woke up at Walter Reed I was like you tell them if they want me to testify then they're gonna have to Let me say what I need to say and I can do my best to get through it quicker So rather that and so Didn't hear anything after that and like all right. You're good to go for Wednesday and come to find out

here I am with for Wednesday and come to find out. Here I am with a two day prep of this and meeting and influx of people and they're like, yeah, typically the Marines that I had helped me out there were like, yeah, typically you have quite a few weeks or a month or so to prepare for these things So this is the fastest turnaround that we've ever seen and obviously that's why the Marine Corps was stressing about everything going on but I Just like I'm you know, I'm listed to serve my my country and my brothers and sisters and arms Those congressmen are there to fucking serve us and serve the American people. And I was gonna make sure they heard what I had to say

and they did. Good for you. Yeah. Let's, so have your entire testimony right here on this folder and I'm gonna put this in a downloadable file in the description next to all the links your knife company and everything that's going on, everything that you're doing. Also, let's just go ahead and roll the entire testimony.

Good morning, Chairman. Ranking member, me, some members of Congress. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you all about my Marine Corps Scout sniper teams experienced during the evacuation in Kabul, Afghanistan. This is my perspective. This is my accountant, not the DODs. I'm Sergeant Tyler Justin Vargas Andrews. I'm 25 years old and from Northern California, a professionally instructed gunman and radio

operator for my team. My sniper team was Reaper 2, part of Victor 2-1, weapons company, attached to echo company, second-metallion, first Marines from Camp Pendleton, California. In June of 2021, after having just left Kuwait, we were deployed to Saudi Arabia as a show of force. We practiced a few small-scale non-combatant evacuation operations in the event we were needed in Afghanistan.

August came and two weeks later, we left for Kabul. Reaper II and Echo Company had a close relationship with the Colonel of the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force. He kept us informed of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, and we were ready to go, so we thought. An infantry platoon of roughly 40 Marines in my assistant team leader,

left for Kabul on August 15th. They eventually faced Afghanistan, civilian crowd that overran the Hamid, Karzai International Airport. The rest of us arrived on August 16th. All the Marines linked up in stage inside a gym and each Kaya not far from the airfield. We connected with our command and received our first mission

layer that night. From August 17 to the 18th, we surveilled and reported on Taliban activity from the top platform of satellite tower near the civilian airport terminals in H. Caya. We reconnected with another sniper team and moved back towards our staging area that night. Our team traveled to Abigate forward in the afternoon

of the 19th and set up a position in the tower as Marines in right gear were sent through the crowd to cordon off a couple hundred people as we tried to begin some form of processing hundreds of people came and waved surging through the gate multiple times physically fighting us living out of our tower we conducted 24-7 operations at the gate the next seven days were surreal nothing prepared us for the ground experience we were about to encounter it chaos, but we worked together to figure out the next best steps. Tens of thousands of people descended upon Abigate.

We were looking for anyone with a blue passport, first and foremost, people were suffering from extreme malnutrition, dehydration, heat casualties, and infants were dying. Afghans were brutalized and tortured by the Taliban, flocked to us pleading for help. Some Afghans turned away from H. Kaya, tried to kill themselves on the razor wire in front of us

that we used as a deterrent. They thought this was merciful compared to the Taliban torture that they faced. With only shipping, they thought, countless Afghans were murdered by the Taliban 155 yards in front of our position day and night. With only shipping containers between us, the Taliban would routinely murder people and our observation at their checkpoint. We communicated the atrocities to our chain of command and intel assets, but nothing came of it.

The troops on the ground had to tirelessly work to control the crowds day and night. Department of State staff and H.Kai would completely shut down processing Afghans every evening and into the morning, leaving ground forces with a nightmare. They did not work in reasonable rotations and very much presented an unwillingness to work in other situations as well. No matter our health or condition, the Marines stood watch and engaged in disorderly and dangerous crowds. State was not prepared to be in H. Kyle. In fact, state would not want to deal with the Afghans unable to be processed. Weakening the security of the perimeter, state would take us away from our mission to walk Afghans out to meet the fate of the Taliban condemning them to death.

The Taliban grew in numbers and strengthened their position around H. Kaya with gun trucks while having occasional visits by Taliban leadership. On August 22nd, an improvised explosive device, IED, probe took place down in the canal running along the perimeter of H. Kaya. This was ISIS or the Taliban performing an IED test run. We reported this to our chain of command. Days later, we received word to be on the look out

for two vehicle-borne IEDs described as a gold or white corolla and a green Mazda convertible. Around 2am on August 26th, Intel guys confirmed the suicide bomber in the vicinity of and nearing Abbey Gate described as clean sha shaving, brown dressed, black vest, and traveling with an older companion. I asked Intel guys why he wasn't apprehended sooner since we had a full description. I was told the asset cannot be compromised. Throughout the entirety of the day on August 26, 2021, we disseminated the suicide bomber information to ground forces of Abbey Gate. He was spotted somewhere from noon to 1 p.m. by myself, then Sergeant Charles Schilling and another, the anomaly in the crowd, who was clean shaven

and fit the description exactly, traveling with an older gentleman. The individual is consistently and nervously looking up at our position through the crowd. The older of the two were a black silky hijab that was covering his face most of the time. They both had obvious mannerisms that go along with who we believed him to be. They handed out small cards to the crowd periodically and the older man sat calmly and seemingly coached the bomber. Over the communication network, we passed that there was a

potential threat and an ID attack imminent. This was as serious as it could get. A request of engagement authority while my team leader was ready on the M110 sem automatic sniper system. The response leadership did not have the engagement authority for us do not engage. I requested for the battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Brad Whited to come to the tower to see what we did. While we waited for him psychological operations individuals came to our tower immediately and confirmed the suspect met the suicide bomber description. He eventually arrived and we showed him our evidence. The photos we had of the two men, we reassured him of the ease of fire on the suicide bomber. Point of the Lee, we asked him for engagement, authority and permission. We asked him if

we could shoot. Arbitite commander said, and I quote, I don't know and quote, myself and my team leader asked very harshly, well, who does? Because this is your responsibility, sir. He again replied, I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it.

I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded, no one was held accountable for our safety. About 1730 staff sergeant Darren Hoover, friend and mentor. Came to get me from the tower to go help find an African interpreter in the crowd. We found the interpreter and his brother born with American pass boards. They told us five family members still in the canal.

I stayed there waiting for the family members standing against a two foot canal wall. Ten minutes passed. Then a flash and a massive wave of pressure, I'm throwing 12 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what had happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious, lying around me. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide.

I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide.

I'm going to go to the next slide. I crawled backwards, 7 feet, roughly 7 feet, because I thought I was still in harm. I saw my lower abdomen soaked in blood. I saw my lower abdomen soaked in blood. I crawled backwards, 7 feet, roughly 7 feet, because I thought I was still in harm. I saw my lower abdomen soaked in blood. I saw my lower abdomen soaked in blood.

I crawled backwards, 7 feet, roughly 7 feet, because I thought I was still in harm. I crawled backwards, 7 feet, roughly 7 feet, because I thought I was still in harm's way. My body was overwhelmed from the trauma of the blast. My abdomen had been ripped open. Every inch of my exposed body, except for my face, took ball bearings and strappin' all. I tried to get up but could not. Lying there for a few minutes, I started to lose consciousness. When I heard Chaz, my team leader, screaming my name,

and he ran to me. His voice, his voice calling to me to the next floor. When he got to me, he dragged me to safety and immediately started triaging me. Tying, turning kids on my limbs and doing anything he could to stop the bleeding and start plucking wounds with the help of the other Marines. I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go to the next floor. When he got to me, he dragged me to safety and immediately started triaging me, tying turn-to-kits on my limbs and doing anything he could to stop the bleeding and start plugging wounds with the help of the other Marines.

I was awake through most of it, screaming, moaning, and cursing. Please ask, I ask you to please ask me about getting shot at the tower in Abbie Gate and how no one wanted my report post blast. Even NCIS and the FBI fell to interview me. Ask me to elaborate on my ordeal post blast and ask me about this one little girl and her family that I reunited. Our military members and veterans deserve our best because that is what we give to America. The withdrawal, the withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion and there was an

inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence. The 11 Marines, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Thank you, Sergeant, for the very powerful and courageous testimony. I want to turn to you, Mr. Sergeant Vargas Andrews. You described the scene as chaotic, that the State Department was not prepared, that they would completely shut down, processing every evening, and into the morning, leaving you and your colleagues with a nightmare you called it. Could you describe that? Yes I can, Chairman.

So for us obviously, ground forces at Abbey Gate were routine. It was like this at other gates as well, but it you know helping process between you know seven of us in our sniper team we would go down and if we weren't on the gun we weren't catching a few wings we would be down processing nationals and civilians and you know talking with everyone down there and from us we were passed from our chain of command you know throughout the evening to halt processing Afghans to stop searching them. They, you know, we kind of had to keep control of the crowd

that was left over in the evening. Throughout, I would say, sun down to sun up. There was no, there was no plan in place throughout the evening and the State Department would not take Afghans that we processed or searched. So eventually we just place throughout the evening and the State Department would not take Afghans that we process or search so eventually we just stopped throughout the evening. The um I'll go back to you. Yeah and um I think because you're correct there was no plan. There was no plan and the plan was to leave the Taliban in charge

of this evacuation which led to the chaos and the bloodshed that ensued after that. I wanna focus specifically on what you saw on August 26. I know, beyond the lookout and intelligence bulletin went out identifying two individuals as a potential IED threat. That is correct. Yes, we routinely would send two or three guys back

to collect intel from our intel assets over in the joint operations command. And that morning around 2 a.m. from our intel assets over in the joint operations command. And that morning around 2 AM, we were passed that a suicide bomber was in the vicinity and in the surrounding neighborhoods, potentially, moving towards the gate. We were told that he was wearing a brown man dress, a black vest.

He would look clean, shaven, and be younger with an older man traveling as his companion. And we saw just that on the 26th, you know, around 1230 in the afternoon. And in fact, you said you passed along the communications network that there was a potential threat in IED attack eminent. And in your words, this was as serious as it gets.

That is correct. We had eyes on these two individuals that fit the exact description that we were given from our intel assets. And we had pictures, we had them, a clear day to be able to see through our scope, with ease of fire on both individuals, as well as through our spotting scope.

We have high-powered optics with quality lenses on our cameras to take clear cut pictures of everything that we see. That's our, that is an enormous part of our job. You still have those photos? They were taken on an SD card when we turn them over to intelligence. Then you said you requested from your commander,

Lieutenant Colonel Brad Witte, to come to the tower to see what you saw. And the psychological operations came to the tower and confirmed that the suspect met the suicide bomber description. Is that correct? That is correct, yes. So you had them.

We did. And then you showed this evidence, and you asked your commander if you could shoot. We did, Chairman. Both myself and my team leader asked, asked for engagement authority, and he responded with, he did not have that authority. So we asked who did, he told us he did not know

and would go find out in that time, in the time of talking with him and keeping eyes on this individual over the course of 30 minutes, the two individuals both disappeared into the crowd of thousands as shown on the slides as I was talking. I mean, I think everyone can understand by looking at some of those pictures

that I had up there, how enormous the crowd was. I mean, it was unfathomable, very easy to move through and conceal yourself, and that's what happened. So you asked for engagement permission, and your commanding officer says, I don't know. That is correct. He doesn't know if you have permission to take out the threat.

Yes. There are no rules of engagement on the ground. We were told the past arc command, if we saw any suspicious activity or hostile intent, and that's exactly what we did. We were not returned with an answer. And then you ask, well, who does? Who does know? And he says he doesn't know, but would find out,

and he never got an answer to you. He never did. And the individual disappeared. That he did. And you believe that that was a suicide bomber? We do. And then he said, we made everyone on the ground aware. Operations had halted.

Start again, plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded, and then lastly, no one was accountable for our safety that day. That is correct, Chairman. No one was accountable. No one was held accountable. No one was, and no one is to this day. Did your battalion commander run that request

up the chain of command? He should have. That was his responsibility, too. I don't know if he did. When that be the normal protocol? That would be the normal protocol, Chairman. But we don't know. And as a result, we have 13 dead servicemen, women.

We have 170 Afghans killed. And 45, including yourself, sir, women. We have 170 Afghans killed and 45 including yourself sir injured. That is correct. Because that threat could not be taken out because you're commanding officer couldn't give you the order. That is correct. Amazing. So that testimony was about 10 minutes long. How did you fit? We just talked about the incident that took about two hours, I believe. How did you fit that into 10 minutes? It was hard. It was really hard. Because I didn't want to take away from what I had to say. I don't want to take away from the important details about what I um you know what I did say and uh I you know I had some some congressmen kind of let me know that I

kid one I could word I could word things towards the end of my testimony you know asking asking the the committee to ask me questions so So that helped a little bit. I think I put in like three things for the congressman and women to ask me about and fortunately they did. I just, I picked out the most important things. Us RP ID on the suicide bomber. Us being told no by our baton,

or us not being given an answer from our baton commander or anyone above him. And, you know, the absolute fucking chaos that was the Afghanistan evacuation. How do you think it was received by Congress? I mean, there was quite a few congressmen and women and tears. I think there's some of them who probably just are there to be a fucking puppet, like a lot of politicians are. But you can kind of see who they were by the way they spoke about. By the way, they spoke when they had the opportunity to speak. But... Is there any specific congressman in particular that stands out to you?

Um, good or bad. I'd have to go. Good would definitely be a congressman masked and congressman Mills. Where is Mills from? Oh man. Tennessee, maybe it might be wrong. It might be from Tennessee. I thought I could be wrong, but I'm not too sure.

Um, and then, you know, the, the last Congresswoman, uh, in the last out of any of the of the congress members there to ask me a question, to ask me anything. She came on, she came, you know, she's the last one in there and came on her like time slot, her five minutes to speak and spoke directly to me. I can't remember her name, but she wears a starfish like lapel pin almost pretty big. And she's on the Democratic side and she gave me her time to speak about, you know, a little girl that I reunited with her family and on the first chaotic day at Abigail and helping her to just take a little baby. So she gave me her entire time to speak about that day and that was pretty fucking cool.

This is painful, powerful testimony that is important for us to hear. So I'm glad you're here. I thank you for being willing to go through this repeated pain. We owe a tremendous debt to all of you. We owe a tremendous debt to the more than 800,000 servicemen and women who served our country over the course of 20 years. More than 2,400 lost their lives.

More than 20,000 wounded. And I'm not even beginning to touch those who will never be the same in spirit and following post-traumatic stress. We've lost so many as you've cited to death by suicide. I come to this hearing, I wash with all in all of you. Satinus with the reality of this war and other wars, of course. But I also come to it with great humility, knowing that I can't get near what you do,

what you've done, what you've sacrificed. I can't get near it. But I do think this is important to bring out the facts, the truth of the end of this war, as some have cited, and it is not over. So I'll start with Sergeant Vargas Andrews. Thank you for your service, your sacrifice. It's inadequate to say I'm sorry. But man, oh, man, we are proud of you. I wanted to follow up on two of the questions you wrote in your testimony that I had read and then you also mentioned

it again. You said ask me about one little girl that I reunited with her family. Would you tell us that story? I would thank you ma'am. You know I think I think what I can say is for a lot of a lot of people out there the actions that they had specifically at Abbie Gate and around the airport There were a lot of moments to them that were worth the mental strain To those to the service members for myself that first day at Abbie Gate after we were working to push back the crowds. I was in the ground and A little girl had squeezed her way

through the crowd of about seven or eight years old, holding a four-month-old, I would have estimated a four or five-month-old baby in her arms, and holding the hand of who I seem to be her little brother, who was about four or five years old. And they were all dirty and bruised. I mean, tear-strict faces. And kind of in this chaos, it was just like,

I had tunnel vision and saw her, and I was like, I need to help them. It was just very odd sight to see. And I picked up the baby and the little boy and she followed me, like motion for her to follow me. And to get to a safe area away from the crowd, I noticed the baby's face was blue and purple. And so I went to the nearest person that resembled a medic

and I started asking if they had a small breathing bag, a BVM to conduct CPR because I didn't know if the baby had already passed, but assumed it wasn't breathing and didn't want to injure the baby by trying to perform CPR on it myself. And the individual, I don't know who was, you know, sat there and watched them help her susitate this baby and face flushed pink, started crying and then a little girl started asking

for her dad just crying and talking on my uniform. I took her back to the gate and could tell that she was asking for her father and climbed up on the SUVs over looking the razor wire and held her up. And I was just trying to ask her, you know, do you see your dad like, Abba, like trying to, you know, make her understand what I was saying. And she understood and we sat up there for a minute or two. And in this crowd of hundreds of people below us, she just pointed in the direction, maybe 30, 40 people back.

And there's all these hundreds of people holding a paper's documents, what not. And there's this one individual just holding a bunch of families, luggage with his hands on his head, just crying and looking at her. And I was like that, that is her dad. And I let the troops down right there at the opening of the gate know to help get this guy through, pulled him through.

And the little girl hopped off the SUV and ran to him and hugged him and he hugged her, both cried, took them over, took and reunited them with the other two children, and he had paperwork for all those families showing their pictures and whatnot. And so for me, that was a moment that my personal injury was worth it. And I know those three little kids will have a life, a freedom and opportunity, you know, because of that. Thank you.

You know, there's been expression in, because of that. Thank you. You know, there's been expression in the Jewish tradition that I always lean on, even though I'm a person of Catholic faith. And it is to have saved a single life, is to have saved the whole universe. So many of you have done that. You're in the process of it. Help us make sure we live up to our obligation

to the remaining people whom we must save, rescue, get on with their lives. A lot of, I mean, a majority, a majority of the Democrats, you know, they came on and were like, well, we don't want to make this about the Trump administration, but let me make it about the Trump administration and But let me make it about the Trump administration and what proceed to talk about that. And like I said, you know, earlier breakfast, I don't give a fuck who's in office,

but whoever is in office, it's their responsibility to make those sound and write decisions. It's their responsibility to take action and be a good and strong leader. That's what matters. It doesn't matter what your party is, it matters that you take care of the American people.

Politicians are getting real good at passing the blame. The... Yeah. blame. The most important thing besides Congress and the nation hearing what happened out there and making them aware of what happened for me coming out of that was asking for accountability and you know, Congressman Mills, that accountability for the lack of decision-making in Afghanistan, the lack of the lack of leadership out there. And you know, I know the chairman, you know, he said he's gonna subpoena, you know, spend some time with him afterwards, said he's gonna subpoena. you know, he said he's gonna subpoena, you know, I'm spending time with him afterwards, said he's gonna subpoena, Arbitin commander to get some answers

on who he passed that intel and that PID to after him. So I'm gonna keep riding, riding these congressmen about these answers, congressmen mills just drafted recently, articles of impeachment for the Secretary of Defense. I won't say too much more than that, but yeah, he did that. And quite a few congressmen came up to me and said

that I don't care about getting reelected. They looked me in the eye and said, I don't care about getting reelected. I care about getting you some fucking answers and holding people accountable. And I'm gonna do everything in my power to ensure that they hold true to that because it's easy to fucking, it's easy to say bullshit but it's the actions that matter.

Do you think anybody's gonna be held accountable? I don't know. I would like to say yes. Are these guys keeping in contact with you? Yeah. I will say that the few of the congressmen that have made some promises have left me with some genuine hope. Good. And there I say trustworthy politicians, but have, you know, quite a few of them are veterans as well, and are trying to make a change. And I mean, that's what I'm trying to do too.

That's what we're trying to do. Yeah, and you do that with every episode. You definitely do. That gives me hope. I think that's gonna give everybody that's watching some hope. Let's hope that these mother fuckers are held accountable for what they did.

It's a, it was an opportunity I was very grateful for. I mean, I never, you know, when I woke up and I was in the hospital, I told myself I was like, everything I do from here on out is gonna be before those killed in action to advocate for what happened. And man, I never thought I would be in front happened and man I never thought I would

never thought I would be in front of Congress I never thought I'd be sitting in front of you here today and so I want to say thank you for giving me that opportunity to do so it's an important important message and what happened out there is important and thank you for the platform. You're welcome. It's Tyler. It's a real honor, man. Really. It is a real honor to have you here. I appreciate that.

I mean that. Thank you. Let's talk about what happened after your testimony of Congress. How many media outlets picked this up? A lot. I mean, we went on our first break in Congress after like four or five hours, and I had already had like 12 media requests to do things.

I've since been on CNN with Jake Tapper, and I was kind of skeptical about going on CNN for obvious reasons, but the chairman, chairman McCall, he's the one who reached out to me about doing so and kind of let me know that Jake Tapper, you know, cares about veterans and the service members. And it was actually very, he even told me himself, he's like, yeah, you know, some of our viewers have some issues with us covering the Afghanistan hearings, but it's what needs to be done.

And when they covered the Afghanistan evacuation itself, he's like, but it's what needs to be done. So I was very thankful for that. I think all, at some point in the future, I'll be going on with Chairman McCall to talk about on Fox and Friends as well. But it's working through right now with my team on keeping this message relevant and finding, you know, continuing to work on ways to actually have action taken, not just repeat the same stuff over and over and keeping close, close eyes on and in close contact with some of these congressmen and women is the first step in that and ensuring that what they promised me on record in front of Congress and

front of the nation that that is what they will do. So the there was another congressman a couple seats to the left of chairman McCall in the committee that put in for an official an official inquiry on why a request was not dealt with. So he put that on record. So I'll be following up about that as well. It breakfast we had talked about. Good morning, America, I believe. How did that go?

So ABC News good morning America Obviously they reached out and that was sometime in in 2022 I don't remember exactly one. I think I think I think it was like right around the year mark. Who is the interviewer? It was it was it was a lady. I don't remember her name. It kind of goes to show how important it turned out to be. But they sent me there for like seven hours and my mom included and spoke with us. And I think five seconds to ten seconds of what I had to say was broadcasted. So they interviewed you for seven hours and they rolled five seconds, five to ten seconds, of what you had to say, and that's seven hours.

It just goes to show you, it just goes to show everybody how censored and controlled the news is. And I'm not talking about right and left. I'm talking about all of it. Oh, yeah. All of it. I was looking at a diagram, like a Venn diagram of how every news, no matter if it's left to right, how every news, the majority of every news outlet or news media is like leads back to like two or three like organizations that control them all.

It's all bullshit. Yeah, it is all of it. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you've seen it, the videos of them linking like a hundred new stations together, saying the same exact thing. Yeah. And shit, most Americans don't realize, I don't even watch the fucking news. I don't either. It's, It's completely irrelevant at this point.

It is. It's just inviting yourself to be brainwashed. Yep. That it is. I will say I did the Washington post the next day with Dan Lamoth and another lady on his team. And they kind of did a podcast slash, production of it. And that was good. Dan really, it was heartfelt. I mean, they had tears in their eyes listening to my story.

You could tell that they really cared and were serious about it. I'm actually gonna be going to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation Gala with them. He digs for the truth and he put it front page, Washington Post, and then recently, after this Congress hearing, same thing, front page, he's getting a word for front page like news on his reporting and stuff. And he's a genuine, genuine guy who just wants the fucking truth to be heard. And he's been covering the Warren Afghanistan since like 2003, something like that, 2003,

2004. It's a long time and he fucking cares about the service members and about America. So that was cool to see that he took everything, I had to say down and listened. Good, yeah. That's good to hear. Do you have anything else you wanna say about your experience with Congress, the press?

On his 26th? I don't think so. I think just that I'm thankful for the team of individuals that have helped me, you know, through this and the individuals I've met through Congress, my legal aid, I'll leave unnamed, but They thank you to them for for the help that they've given me up to this point and Same goes for my mom uncle and my entertainment lawyer. They've they've really done Guided me were you know, I've just lacked some knowledge and some areas. So it's been nice How are you doing? How are you doing getting through all this? Dealing with the trauma? I think I'm doing pretty well. You know, I've said it before and it's... I have my hard days, you know, there's...

I mean, what's happened? It's happened and I think... What does a hard day look like? Man, I... I have an ostomy, so I had my testons rerouted through my stomach. So I have like a bag that I shit into and there's days where I'll get out of the shower or whatever and go to fucking change my medical supplies and I just fucking poop all over myself and show like that. And that will definitely do it in for me. But I'd say a hard day would be,

or hard part moments would be, sometimes just struggling, do certain tasks because I'm missing a leg in an arm. And even with prosthetics, some things are hard, some things are hard. And it's definitely just like, God, god fucking damn it like why did it like not why did this happen, but it's just like Like fucking it just sucks honestly, I guess you know So it it there's some days it just sucks, but every every single time I have a moment or a time I want to cry or I want to

just where I almost feel sorry for myself, I remind myself that there's 13 service members killed in action. And I should have been number 14. And I'm here today and they're not and their families and their loved ones have to live without them. And you know, I've said it before, but I get to struggle through the things that I do, and I'm thankful for that. What are you doing to get better?

Finally getting back to my roots, I would say. Getting back to fishing, getting back to hunting, getting into the outdoors. Again, spending time with family and friends. Working on knives has been great. Being with my two buddies and working on that small business. It'll be nice to dedicate a lot more time, but I mean, we each have our own design. And for me, it's nice. I, it's nice to be able to make something with my own hand again and make something of value

and worth. I don't know, it's kind of like cleaning your weapon. It just kind of brings me a little bit of peace being able to do that and just know I'm putting my sweat into something again and it's not perfect because I'm making it with one hand but it's it works and it's it's a really it's a really therapeutic thing honestly that and that and the gym getting back into trying to be physically fit. I mean my body wears down a lot quicker now just because of my injuries. Obviously, I mean, people really only see the leg and the arm, but I've, you know, I've got countless injuries. My, you know, my, my rotator cuffs are fucking fried and just damaged

everything. It definitely takes a toll. But, um, yeah, doing those things. Are you doing any therapy? No, I had the behavioral health individuals bugged me a lot in the hospital, the mental health team. And finally I got to the point, I was like, please just leave me the fuck alone. I was like, I told him this, I was like, told the therapist, I'm not gonna fucking kill myself, like just leave me alone. I'm all right.

I, for me, that's not to knock on physical therapy, or I mean, mental health therapist and whatnot, but for me, my occupational therapist, she's been with me since I got to inpatient in the hospital and she would come and literally just bend my fingers and move them herself, because I couldn't, and just excruciating pain like bend my fingers and move them herself because I couldn't and just like excruciating pain like bend my hand backwards and stuff to get my tendons to stretch out again and

She'd be in there for an hour or two and I would just sit and talk just sit and talk with her and One of my physical therapists. I'm there. You know doing physical therapy. I'd sit and talk with her and my prosthesis I sit and talk with them and my TBI therapist sit and talk with her and talking with, for me, talking with people, you know, like my friends, that's a big one, talking with people that are close to me and people that really genuinely care. Not that therapists don't, but like the people who are in my direct, you know, line of care, like PT's and OT's and whatnot, my prosthetic and my buddies, that there are people I know that care and people's opinions and people's opinions that I value and they see me for who I really am, I think. And that's been really helpful to talk with them

because it's my physical therapist. I mean, she's been at Walter Reed, I think, for like 13 years or something. And so she's seen the war, you know? She's seen the guys, the men and women come through there. Some worse off than me. And it's definitely, that's definitely how I go about, you know, talking about things is, is talking with, with those closest to me. So that's kind of my therapy.

Have you ever thought about psychic Alex? I have. I have definitely, I would love to hear some about, you know, about your, your personal journey. Um, something I would love to hear some about your personal journey, something I would love to look into post-military. Well, I'll tell you this much. We can talk offline about it, but, in Tyler, I'm reluctant to talk about it because I've not experienced what you've experienced,

but I will tell you that post-psychedelics, it changed my life in a lot of ways and they were all very profound and all good. And I came to peace with a lot of things, and maybe you will too. And if you want, I'd love to connect you. We'll see people that can help. That'd be awesome. I really appreciate that. Trevor Miller runs Ambea Life, and that guy's changing lives every single day.

That's who I want to. And I'd love to connect you. I'd also love to connect you with Dina Houdnick-Laverie is. Yes, actually, it's kind of funny. I had not ever heard of him until, maybe like six months ago. And I'm glad I did hear about him, but yeah, it was probably about six months ago. And I'm glad I did hear about him, but yeah, it was probably about six months ago

is the first time that I had heard of him and you know his story, which is an incredible one. I'd love to connect you with him. The guy's really, he's done extremely well for himself post-military career fellow amputee. And I just, I think, I just thank you guys need to connect. Yeah, I would very much appreciate that. Yeah, it would be my honor to do that.

Thank you very much. You know, there's another thing I want to talk about, and there's a reason I want to talk to you about it. Let's talk about the movie deal. All right. So I got the offer to do to be a part of a documentary on the war in Afghanistan and through, you know, through Steven Spielberg's production team, and Paramount Pictures. And I kind of talked about it

on my entertainment lawyer a little bit in my family and those closest to me and I was like, yeah, I think I'm gonna do this, this would be cool. And I wasn't, I'm not naive to the fact that the more I share my story, potentially puts it out there to putting it out there, you know, can devalue it. And, but also good things can come of it. And that's why I chose to sit here in front of you today when you asked me to be on the

show. And I think you have a phenomenal platform. And thank you. You always put out a great message. Thank you. Of course. And so I think positive, a lot of positive things will come of this, but when I said yes to doing it, and we even got up to scheduling a date and really close to that date. And I sat on it more and more and more. And they weren't, it's just like, I heard about pictures and all these people. It's millions and billions of dollar industry.

And I asked about were they giving, were they paying these veterans? Because they had a lot of veterans coming on to be a part of this documentary. I was like, were they paying these veterans? Because they had a lot of veterans coming on to be a part of this documentary. I was like, we're are you paying these veterans to, you know, talk and share their story? Because you're making way more money off of this and they are going to ever make. The answer was no. You know, are you giving back to any foundations or anything like that? The answer

was no. And I mean, like nonprofits that are doing good work for, you know, for veterans and the actual duties, you know, service numbers, wounded warriors. And not that I'm someone out for money, but if I'm gonna, you're gonna come to me the way that they did and saying, we've got all these, you know, Steven Spielberg's production team

and Paramount Pictures, well, why would you not pay these individuals to do that, you know, that they're sharing their trauma and their story and everything that they've been through? And that's all that's probably going to get done out of it because the only other thing that's going to come out of this is the money that you're going to gain. And I'm all for speaking about my things. I look forward to continue my speaking platform, whether it's motivational speaking or sharing my story in positive ways to better people's lives. I don't need money for that. That's not what I'm here to do. But when you're throwing out all these big names

and you're kind of showing your ass saying, hey, we've got a lot of money, we've got a lot of big people behind this, but you're not doing anything to give back. It was probably, and they probably think I'm an asshole for it, but it was like the day before I was like, sorry, I'm not doing this. Like sorry, not sorry, but I can't get behind that. And like I said, the more I share it with them, it's the more I share my story and in proper ways, and my message and in proper ways, the more it will devalue that. And I want people to listen to what I have to say.

And for right now, people care about the things that I've experienced and the men and women that I've served with and what happened in Afghanistan and the evacuation and I hope it continues that way until I get some answers until we all get some answers until those 13 service members are accounted for until someone's held accountable for the 13 Americans that were murdered that day for the 13 Americans that were murdered that day for the 13 families that have to live without their sons and daughters. I want to talk to you about something and this is veteran to veteran. And it's my opinion. Can I share it with you?

Of course. I think you made an awesome judgment call with that movie deal because those pieces of shit, that's why that movie should have been fucking made. None of those people probably served. They're only there to make money. Yeah. Their selfish fucking pieces of shit. That's Hollywood. None of those people probably served. They're only there to make money. They're selfish fucking pieces of shit.

That's Hollywood. That it is. It breakfast. We were talking about all the things you wanted to get into with the speaking, maybe doing a documentary, all these things. And it sounded like you wanted to donate all of that to these foundations and the families. And I want to tell you something. You fucking give him a lot.

You've given your leg. You've given him your fucking arm. You've given your time. All the mental trauma. All your other injuries. It's somebody else's turned a fucking donate. And it took me a long time to figure that out because here's what's going to happen. This is how it works.

If you don't fucking take care of yourself, nobody's going to take care of you. And it's good to give back. And I spent probably the first five years of my business. And I've only been in business for eight years. I spent the first five years giving every fucking thing I made away. To nonprofits, to families, a lot of it is to people that don't even give a fuck about it, because it wasn't maybe as significant as a big donation. Take care of you.

Always give back, always give to the little guy, always fucking give to the guys that are coming out. I mean, that's why that's why I started this show was to give people that don't have a fucking voice that should have a voice like you, a voice. That's what I do here. You know, I do consulting, but at the beginning, it was donating all the money I made off of a peril to some organization that doesn't even give a shit. Or it was,

waste of my fucking time, donate and tactics courses and all these things and nonprofits that didn't give a fuck, you know, all they care about is the money. And I'm not saying all of them are like that and I'm not saying everybody doesn't appreciate it. But what I am saying Tyler is make sure you fucking take care of you because nobody else is going to do that

and look at everything you've given. Look at everything you've given this country. I really appreciate that. I'm not dead. Take care of you, man. You have, you've given enough. It's somebody else's fucking turn to pick up the ball. Set your rock down and set your life up, man,

because nobody's gonna fucking do it for you. And if you give everything away, there's not gonna be anything left for you. Yeah. I'll definitely heed those words. Please do, because that shit can build a lot of resentment and take you into an extremely fucking toxic place, man. And you're probably scurrying that line right now, you know.

So, take care of yourself, please. I will. I think my mom would agree with you. Good. It's okay to be a little selfish, especially after everything. She said that as well. Good. I really appreciate that.

Good. So what are you getting into? We got the knife business. Yeah. You're trying to get into public speaking. Who do you want to speak to? And I, I think the younger generation honestly, they need it. There's a lot of bad in society today, a lot.

And you know, I'm very much the way I grew up looking at my mom and psych. Well, if she can do it, so can I. And not to be Mr. Hy in my ID on my horse, but showing some of these people what you go through, it's not that bad. And I look at my situation, I'm like, this fucking sucks. My buddies are dead.

It's not that bad. Sucks, but I'll get the fuck over it. And helping people who feel fucking sorry for themselves. It's, you know, I've maintained the mantra since I think I got to inpatient in the hospital out of the ICU and I really kind of got a clear head off of the drugs and stuff. I told them to take me off of my opioids and narcotics.

I told myself that I would never be a victim. I'll never be a victim of what happened to me. And I try to show others that. I, it's a choice. I think weakness is a choice and You have to go through the heart. You have to go through hard things to become strong You you know you have to you have to struggle and you have to deal with pain and go through the pain and struggle and strive in life to become strong and No matter what happens in your life It's your choice no matter how fucking hard it life, it's your choice.

No matter how fucking hard it is, it's your choice. If you want to be a victim or not. And for me, my shoes will never be a victim. And that's that's the message I want to put out to people. It's your choice to as bad as bad as things can get. Someone has it worse and it's not that to finish anyone's pain or what they go through because everyone's own pain and experience is relevant to themselves and that that should not be overlooked.

But it does come to a point where feeling sorry for yourself is not going to get you anywhere in life. You're not going to be successful if you feel sorry for yourself. I know that. I'm missing two of my limbs. I'm not going to get anywhere in life if I feel bad for what's happened to me, and I don't choose to be strong. Good for you, man. Thank you.

You know, you are never gonna understand how many people you've impacted, how many lives you've saved, how many people you've walked off the edge, how many lives you've saved, how many people you've walked off the edge, how many lives you've turned around, you're never gonna feel it, you're never gonna understand it,

you're never gonna comprehend it, and it gets frustrating. But, you're gonna help hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, and I'm fucking proud to know you, man. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate that.

Likewise. Keep after it. I will. And take care of yourself. Thank you. You do the same. Don't forget that. I appreciate that.

Keep putting out a great message. I will. Yeah. I hope that you don't get censored by anyone. I saw the episode with Dallas Alexander. So good for you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. It'll happen. Yeah. We'll keep going. So I can do. It's an honor, man. Thank you very much. He's a lot.

He's a lot to a lot of people that I've showed you. He's a lot to a lot of people that I've showed you. He's a lot to a lot of people that I've showed you. Makes a little sports analysis, pop culture, and great interviews, and you've got the Rich Eyes and Show Podcasts. The jets are bracing themselves into doing hard knocks this year. Impraising themselves. Look, a coach is want to control the controllables.

They don't want to have a camera crew in the building. You know, I know that they want to lie low. This is what happens when you go and swing for the fences and get out of Rogers. Are you kidding me? The Rich Eyes and Show Podcast. Wherever you listen.