Shawn Ryan Show - SRS Special Edition with Katie Jean | Andrea Gallagher Wife of accused Navy SEAL War Criminal

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

Shawn Ryan's wife, Katie Jean sits down with Eddie Gallagher's wife Andrea, to discuss what life was like for Andrea and her family while her husband was behind bars. Andrea opens up about the NCIS raid that took place at her home on her children, and how she took her husband's freedom into her own hands by creating the #FREEEDDIE campaign which got the attention of President Donald Trump, and the national news. This interview goes in depth with Andrea like no one has ever done before. Follow and Support Eddie and Andrea by clicking the links below. https://theeddiegallagher.com​ https://pipehitterfoundation.org Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website - https://www.shawnryanshow.com Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/VigilanceElite TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnryanshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shawnryan762 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This 20-year generation of the 9-11 generation is going to be so unique because they deployed for Eddie Firk's example, he deployed back to back, nonstop. I don't think people have a clear grasp and I'm understanding of the sacrifice that these families and these men have made the last 20 years. I know for me being with Sean really opened my eyes to what actually goes on over there. They're so quick to just place judgment and think that they know, but they have no idea.

These men have so much to give. We have to do more, we have to be standing up for them. I was made for this, for him, for this purpose. for him, for this purpose. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background of you and just learning more and more about you guys and seeing you together and not just on television. So thank you for being here. Yeah, we've loved hanging out with you guys. We appreciate you having us. Thanks.

I really want to start by diving into when and where the Andrea and Eddie story begins. Where did it all start? What's your love story? Yeah, so it's it's pretty incredible. We have a really powerful story. So we had met. We were 16, 17 years old. I was born and raised in Indiana. And then Eddie was kind of a transplant. He was a military kid. His dad was in the armyby, so they would move every two years. But after his dad exited the military, they actually ended up in Indiana.

And so Eddie and I met for the first time. I had snuck out of the house to hang out with my friends and be wild and crazy and ornery. I was very rebellious as was Eddie. And so snuckout and Met Up and it was at the time was a little abandoned road called Till Road. And there was a little abandoned house there and you'd like, go and hang out. And like, we happened to be that night smoking weed.

So I came in a big hooded sweatshirt and was just, you know, being me. And he was like, who is this? So yeah, he said he fell in love with me like that night and was just like, you know, oh my gosh. But we actually became best friends. So he was just like so familial to me. It was like I grew up with a lot of boy cousins and that's what it felt like.

Like a person that's just like, this is my person, this is mine. You know, and that's how he always was. To me, he felt like my person. And so we joke all the time about how to page him and be like, if it wasn't two minutes, I'd get a call back. And this is when you had to call from payphones.

And I'd be like, nine, one month, nine, one month, ho, ho, ho. You know how to do that? If you 304 and then you turn it over on a page or it's ho. Oh, I do remember that. Yeah, it's one of the costumes. That's like, hey, and I'm like, I'm not, we're not dating, we're just best friends.

But it was, we were just so close. And we would always hang out and we have the funniest, you know, crazy stories together. And, but he was always just such a sweet guy, so, so kind and genuine and very different than, you know, a lot of other guys who are super respectful and kind and just really kind of put me on a pedestal even back in the day even though we were just best friends. So you know, we parted ways. I think we both were kind of striving to get out of our little town and do life differently. So I can remember there was a time where we were both out of high school and then we would go into a community college together.

And I just felt like there was a day that he was going to tell me, you know, we like met. And just the way he was acting was a little different or weird. And I felt like he was going to tell me like, I love you and like do something more. But he didn't. And I ended up going to Florida. I met, I went with a girlfriend. I met a guy there. I was like, I'm going, I'm moving. I'm going to fashion design school. So I went my way.

He went his way, which was ended up being enlisted in the military shortly thereafter. So our life just totally took a big turn. I ended up being a mom, and I got married, and I really just went on this totally different trajectory while he was in the military, and that was like, obviously, at the height of the war, getting into it, because he would have been listed in 99, and then, you know, shortly thereafter, he did a couple of platoons with the Marines because he is a Navy corpsman, so the Navy outsources all of their medics to the Marines.

So he was actually with, you know, he did do some ship tours, but then was on, you know, mostly on target with Marine Infantry Troops as a corpsman. So yeah, he had a whole life experience, I had a whole life experience, and that separation was about 10 years. So then we reconnected just totally random.

He was coming back through our little town. He had just graduated. Well, he just had gone through buds and then SQT and then he had gone to do like the Sockham program where it's for the medics. And he was just coming back through maybe one last time because his parents were putting their house on the market and just on a whim, he called my parents and asked, you know, how I was or how I was doing

and they figured out my number. And I'm like, oh, hey, by the way, I'm a single mom to kids. Like, you know, and it was like right where we laughed off. And just friends and just awesome. So so close and so fun. Like we just have the most fun, just authentic, sweet relationship. And we weren't necessarily like seeking to like evolve it,

but we were just spending that time together. So he canceled all of his plans. He was supposed to go like swim with great whites and go visit all these people across the country before he joined up with Seal Team One and none of that happened. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. Almost serendipitous that it just all came together. It's just that right time. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, we spent those couple weeks together, and I didn't let them meet my kids because my ex had left and had an affair and was doing all types of crazy stuff. And so I was like, I, I have got to have very strict ground rules. I have two

kids. I'm a mom. I'm not wild and crazy anymore. Like, I love Jesus. Like, I have to be with someone that has faith. And we have to be on the same path. And I give them a laundry list of stuff that I won't do this, I won't do that. We will not be together before marriage. That's how I ended up pregnant out of wedlock and married to this total loser for six years. Which I got my two beautiful children,

but I really was, he was taken on a lot. A single mom, two kids, and I gave him every rule in the book that, you know, we're going to do this the right way or it's the highway type of thing. And he was just like, okay, sounds good. And by the way, I'm going to go join the SEAL teams now after I've put all this work and effort. And like, I don't even know what an ABC is. You had no clue.

I had no clue. I don't have family that's in the military like a lot. You know, like maybe like super old uncles that have like a military tattoo. Like I was in the military, but I'm like, no. Like my family, my dad and mom, like they're a pacifist. And so of course, like I'm a Navy sales sniper.

So, you know, my parents are awesome though. They, they're very amazing people, but it was a total no idea what I was getting into, which was probably better. Right, but for me not to know. Wow, that's a lot though. That's a lot for him to take on. But, and then also you're not knowing, I didn't know either with Sean, no idea. I mean, nobody in my close knit of family is in the military, so you just don't know. Yeah, and military is one thing, but like special operations too.

It's like, I don't think anyone can't even explain it to you until you're in it and they're like, oh, this is what it is, okay. It seems that way, yeah. It is, yeah. That's what I'm kind of figuring out. But now moving forward to here we are today, but I remember seeing you first when Eddie's case was in the news, you know, it was all over everywhere.

I just remember seeing you stand out the most. The hashtag free Eddie shirt, all of that. And that's what made me be like, who is this chick and like, what's going on? And like, what happened to her husband? But that really made me dive into seeing what you guys were going through. And then, you know, obviously, Sean and I were talking about it and all of that. And I just can't imagine what you have been through. Obviously, I can't imagine what Eddie's been through either, but you being the wife, the mother, dealing with all this, having Eddie locked up.

Where do you start? Like how can you even let me in and explain what that was like? Yeah. Well, the best way that I can describe it is I feel like I was made for this, for him, for this purpose. It's like a little emotional to think like I knew, I knew him is, you know, we were 16 and 17 and to get back together and to truly feel like God connected us for this purpose because I was thinking about that the other day. I'm like, I don't know who could have done this besides me. I feel like I was, who I am, my personality, my drive,

everything about what I had done leading up to this was all really a part of how I was able to do what I was able to do and to help him. And just, you know, I did imagery, I do branding and things like that, that I, my strength is like in my heart and my love. Like, I love super deep. There's no I'm a tween. I either, you know, I love you hard or that's it. Like I don't have like this way to just not be fully invested in the people that I, that I love and then I care about. So I feel like all of my skill sets that I have been

culminating through my small business that I was running and all the things that I was doing to help people and support people and coach people and consult and imagery and how to relate that into translating a message. Like it was all strategically designed for me to be able to help him through this completely unforeseen event that occurred and the navigating it was just like every waking hour I would devote to figuring how to help him to be free from this, like oppressive just whirlwind that we had been entrapped in. So yeah, I mean, it's hard to put it

into like all of the things that I did on a daily basis or how it happened, but I do feel like because of my relationship with God and because I am so faith-based, I really truly from the gecko, I would feel very strongly and that we were supposed to go through this. I didn't feel like, oh God, why are you doing this to us? I felt like God was allowing us to go through it and that I would feel him telling me, like, this is bigger than you like this is bigger than you. This is bigger than you. And it is. And on the day that Eddie got locked up and he got taken from the TBI clinic, it was on 9-11 that they took him nonetheless from the TBI clinic. They locked him away and pre-talk and find it with, at the time we had no idea what that

met, but it would end up being a seven and a half, almost nine months stent in some type of confinement, even before the day of his trial. And that was super eye-opening for me. I mean, I really had held out so much like faith and hope that like the command was going to come to our aid, the investigation would be done properly and we wouldn't have to go into what we went into, but we did. And so by the time that he got arrested, they didn't even have charges against him. And I was just like, how in the world is this happening? And then I just devoted all of my energy to really exposing what was going on to us.

And we had not shared it at all with anybody too much other than very close friends because we trusted the system. We had faith that things would be worked out or people would do the right thing, but it never happened. So then we had to stand up and that's why you saw me first was because they locked Eddie away in a jail and confined him so that he couldn't have access to his own defense or his own legal team. Was that September 11th? Yeah. That started on September 11th, 2018.

And then he remained in pre-tall confinement all the way up until our trial, which wasn't until June of the next year. Oh my gosh. So how exactly does that happen? Like, cops come to your door, or is he taken in for questioning and then just, he stays there? Like, what exactly happened?

So the situation that we had, I mean, I guess I should start with initially, this is from a deployment that took place in 2017. So he was with the platoon that was formerly the worst performing platoon and he evolved that into the number one platoon at Syltem 7. They got the billet to go to Mosul, Iraq. And they were there.

They cleared Mosul on half the time. Eddie was awarded the number one chief. They got number one platoon. They cleared Mosul and it really was just really a paramount moment in his career. He had really wanted to evolve slowly. He did not want to pick up chief. He wanted to stay operational as long as he could. So he's probably, you know, as far as like

the scope of how our friends evolved. He kept hanging back because he wanted to be operational. So this was a very big moment for him to be a chief as an E6, E7, go over there, perform so well, come back. And at the end of the deployment, it was just standard stuff. It was just like the petty stuff that they do that they used to like just punch each other in the face if they had disagreements. That would have been the 10-year siltime prior, but this group, it was very passive-aggressive and they were apparently having a lot of issues that which Eddie did not know or didn't recognize that these guys who had been a part of many platoons together had kind of united and staged a bit of

a mutiny. And what is like an ongoing thing, but again, Eddie wasn't aware of it because Eddie was the only one staying on target the full time. I think Eddie and his OIC Jake were the only two. And then everyone would go back every two weeks and do a week-long rest and refit, and they'd cycle out the other half of the platoon. So this embryonic mutant, he was actually starting back at the other base that was like the safehouse. And so they'd go back there and they'd drink. And they would, you know, basically, were developing this kind of like a cancer in the platoon.

And that kind of evolved to, there was a couple big moments, I think that Eddie was telling me, like, it became clear to him because it was all going on very behind the scenes, but he saw, he asked, I think, it was one of the guys for their phone to text someone back at the safe house. And as he's pulling it up, there's a thread coming through from one of those individuals to the guy saying, Eddie is going to get us killed, da da da da da da, and he's like, what the heck is this?

And so then it kind of started on Ravel near the end of deployment. But again, it's so typical at the end of deployments for these guys to get, you know, crazy. And there are sometimes they're the best of friends and they even have that. So I knew like with this and Eddie's authority figure, these guys are very young, they're not combat trained, other than this is their first real combat platoon. I kind of was like this is bound to happen, you know, in this type of a scenario. So Eddie came back and we had an amazing reintegration, which is not typical.

A lot of times when you reintegrate, there's a lot of drama and it's just really hard, on the family and the guys. So usually if they're gone six to seven months, I like allow six to seven months to get our footing. But he came back and it was just like, I feel like he was so relieved to be back with us. And it just was seamless reintegration. We had an amazing time reconnecting as a family

and we always just put our family first. But it was really towards when the other guys started to come back, we started here whispers that like these guys were in the bars in Germany, like shit talking you nonstop as their leader and Eddie's like, dude, what the heck is up with these dudes? So it ended up, I think it was towards the end of 2017, because they would have come back from that deployment

in like August and September, where flights back. It went through all of the end of the year, through the holidays, people are kind of, you know, supposed to be decompressing, really, which is what we did, reconnected. And I think it was towards the beginning of 2018, these rumblings and these little rumors and little escalations were just, they weren't going away. And we were just like, what is this? Because we had never experienced anything like that in the community. Because the community, what we knew of it, it was a very tight-knit community and we didn't really

know why it was happening. But all this to say, 2018, it really started to ramp up in the command even because this small group of guys from the platoon three to four of them were basically they selected a guy to kind of be the ringleader of like go and take these accusations to the command. And so they would go and they'd be like, oh, you know, he was eating too many protein bars and he was stealing stuff from care packages. He was putting us in danger or just petty, petty stuff. And the command several times was like, okay, tell us what he did. And they would recount different things or try to make more extreme allegations. Well, he did this or that.

And they're like, is there any legitimate low-ach violations, which is the law of our and conflict violation? And every time they said no, three different times. But again, the rumors just continued escalating. It was getting crazier. Like the stories that you'd hear recounted back were just more extreme and more crazy. Like, you know, just something totally made up

about one of the guys that had gotten shot. They're like, oh, we heard you didn't call for the nine line. You held it off and Eddie's like, dude, I literally carried him on my back to the nine line. What are you talking? So it was almost like anything that was real was flipped and lied about. So we had been experiencing that for the better part of six months before Eddie finally went to the command and he said, listen, whatever this is, I need to address it.

I mean, as a leader, he really felt that he needed to address it. So he had an all call with everyone that was a part of the deployment, whether you were a tech or anyone and he said, listen, you don't have to like me. I don't have to like you, but we need to get this out on the table because really what it's happening is all of this gossip and stuff that you guys are doing behind the scenes is ruining what we did on deployment. And what we did on deployment was we had an excellent deployment.

No one died. We all came back. So just tell me the grievances. And that turned into like a three to four hour just like they try. Supposedly, we're going to get everything out on the table. Eddie confronted everything asked about where these rumors were coming from. Whoever started with say your grievance, let me know. There was stuff as juvenile as this one time we went on on town and you didn't pay me

back for a haircut. And Eddie's just like, what? Oh my gosh. And back in the day in the SEAL teams, if you were a new guy, you're playing credit card roulette. Yeah. And you'd get stuck with a thousand, a couple thousand dollar bill,

from all the dinner and drinks of the whole platoon. And so that was where we were from. So to hear this type of stuff, we were like, this is crazy. And so absurd. And like, oh, you stole someone's red ball. Okay, who's was it? Well, it was the one guy that wasn't there, which Eddie knew. And he was a good dude and there were friends. And he's like, if that's

really true, I will confront him about it. But like, you guys are so worried about like a red ball. And oh, I mistakenly borrowed and I broke your magazine, like a gun magazine. And he's like, did you ever tell me I broke it? and he's like, well, no. So it was just like so petty. And so that's kind of was really the combination of we thought that was going to be squashed by the beginning of 2018 and it didn't work. And you were living on base at that time when you were hearing all these things too? Yeah, so the situation isn't necessarily like a base situation. It was a military housing. Oh, good. It's very much like open. So we lived at the village at NTC. It's right in the heart of Point Loma

right by downtown San Diego. And yeah, we had resided there 11 years. That's kind of where we spend the majority of our marriage and raising our kids. So yeah, we were there in a military housing. You're mixed in with every type of military branch. It was not like you're with a bunch of team guys. Necessarily, there was sporadic team guys.

But did you feel like you were hearing things like throughout the community in such a way that you felt maybe people were looking at you guys differently now or after hearing things like starting to rumble because there is a lot of drama and all of that. So, were you feeling any of that? Or was it just really stuck to the seal teams? Well, so I feel like Eddie would be the one that would come home and tell me difference. Okay. Because I don't really keep company like that that would sit there and perpetuate that type of stuff. So, all of my friends and all of my close acquaintances

remained the same and it wasn't, it was just a very under the radar thing that was going on that was directed to us. But I have to say in the sale community, it's very common to be like, the guys have this phrase like a hate train. So they'll start to fixate on someone or something and it turns into this just escalated hate train. So like they'll start to fixate on someone or something and it turns into this just escalated hate train. And we're like, dude, we have never been like, we've

never been one to try to participate in that stuff. And we've never been the catalyst of it. So to have that was very eye opening. It was like, dude, this is crazy. And then the rumors and just escalation of rumors. And I mean, yeah, it's hard to describe that the guys in the community, they really have a lot of this type of stuff. Like the rumor mill is a real thing. Yeah. So yeah, that was eye-opening for me.

But I'm like, okay, these stories are being exchanged by people over like their 20th beer at Danies. Of course, it's escalating from you were putting people in danger to, you know, you smashed a toaster over someone's head and killed them. And we're like, how does that even get made up? But it was, it was so outlandish that we didn't put in credence in it, which looking back was maybe a little bit of a mistake.

But at the same time, it's like, I don't have that part of me that I am not insecure. I don't buy into that stuff. So to me, I was just like, we're living our lives as a family. We're good. The things that were happening to him at work were definitely affecting him. But I just believe like it would work itself out, ultimately. But he was bearing a big brunt of it because it was just this continual like, almost like shunning him, closing him out more and more and more because it wasn't going away. So then it was turning into a bigger problem.

And then every time they tried to address it, like it wouldn't go down, it would kind of escalate. And then it finally escalated to the point where I think one of the last times that went to the head of SEAL Team 7, he had asked, actually let me back up. So one of the last times before, you know, went when he continued to escalate and try to see if there was anything. And the command just kept on telling him, you need to go decompress. They're not gonna take him because their goal was to not start a war crimes case.

Their goal was to ruin his reputation. And they had three main goals, which were they did not want him to pick up senior chief. They did not want him to be awarded a silver star because he was getting nominated for a silver star for that deployment. And because he had done so well and he was number one chief in number two and his performance in Mosul, he had been selected for a very coveted spot at Trade-Out Assaults.

So Trade-Out Assaults is the training command that basically trains every single Navy Seal on the West Coast to go out into theater. So these guys knew that he had been awarded that spot and that they would in essence be going back under him for the remainder of as long as his bill at last. So for the next foreseeable two to three years, this guy would be, my husband, Eddie would be the top guy there.

And so I think at one of the last interchanges, the command was just like, you guys need to go home and decompress and just let it go. Like he's not losing the, that spot. He will pick up senior chief because he's got everything going in the right direction. And he's gonna get nominated for that silver star.

And it was kind of a weird way, but I would, I say this because I think the command unwittingly coach them. And I don't think that they did it on purpose, but they said unless you have a legitimate low-ac violation, you've got to let it go. Oh, I see. And that's when this turned from cookie butter and haircuts and red bulls to we have tax threads of these guys on a tax thread that they themselves called the sewing circle. And it was dedicated on how to take

Eddie Gallagher down. And it was this embryonic group of guys that were all roommates and they were all together on multiple platoons. It was, it was these guys that were the two roommates and then the, the third. So it was, and then we unbeknownst to us had a crazy ass neighbor that was a part of this, that he had nothing to do with anything. Yet he was so wanting to be a part of something, I guess, like he's such a spaz, and he had lost his marbles over the course of the platoon because of some things that he did on deployment. And he is the only one

that actually killed civilians on that deployment, and I think it affected him in a way that it made him a easy target to get involved in this. you can see on the text threads when he gets in and he's like, they almost like invite him in like welcome and he's like happy to be a part of it like can't wait so they're talking about taking any down no mention of war crimes on the whole thread. It's but it's all about what do we have to do. We gotta get our story straight. We gotta meet. We gotta have an airtight thing. And so that we have all of this. So in the background, we know all of this is made up.

We know all of this is based on rumors, lies, and accusations. So we just keep on thinking it's gonna work itself out. And then it really never does. Yeah. And I feel like those are two drastic things because of war crime. There's an ending point. But if somebody wants to take down and ruin your reputation, I feel like those are two drastic things because of war crime. There's an ending point, but if somebody wants to take down and ruin your reputation,

I feel like that's something that doesn't have an end date. Mm-hmm. So that's gotta be extremely hard. Yeah. And to move forward and to think that it's going to work itself out and yet it doesn't. Right. And it just escalates from there.

Yeah. So by March, that one of the very last times that had gone back after kind of being somewhat coached, that they needed a legitimate low-ac violation. It was the only way they were going to be able to take him out. They came back with the story of he stabbed a ISIS with a knife. And that's where it began. And so they're like, okay, there it is. If you are legitimately going to report this and put your name to it, well, they didn't want to put their name to it. They didn't want their names involved. And so they're like, here's an CIS's number. If this happened, you have a responsibility to report it.

Well, then they sat on it and they didn't, you know, they didn't want to come out and be accountable for what they were saying. So then they circumvented that part of the command at some point, that individual, which is, he's a really good guy. He actually testified on Eddie's behalf about all of this at trial and what really happened. These guys decided they were going to circumvent the entire chain of command and then they said we have a video tape of him doing this and we're going to turn it over to CNN if you guys don't take them off a trade-up, pull the silver star and basically ruin them.

Unreal. Yeah, And they did it. And the command was like, put them on time out. They pulled them off a trade-at. They stopped his silver star. They stopped his, so he had already picked up E.A. So he had already picked up senior chief, which is another misconception. People think that he was just a chief. He was awarded senior chief and he got selected for it. They held off pinning him for it. They said, listen, if this goes to NCIS, after everything's cleared up, we'll give you everything back. Well, of course, that number happened. So, yeah, he was actually supposed to be retiring as a senior chief. But, yeah, that was the beginning of the end. And then NCIS got involved.

And then that's when we were like, we've got to figure out what does this look like? Because we've never been a part of anything like this before. And what do we do? We just sit here and wait. Like we're sitting ducks and like no one's helping us. No one's advising us. They're shutting him, you know, at this point.

It wasn't going away. He had done everything in his power to address it. So yeah, we pretty much just sat there like sitting ducks for another few months. We knew that NCAS had picked it up as a case. And so only doing no now in hindsight that as of April, these guys started being called in for NCAS interviews. So we have their first interviews and we have the second interviews and just the escalation. And we have on the footage, there's another really big moment that happened.

So, you know, a catalyst is like a unique thing that it's the thing that it takes to trigger something, you know, exponential. So we got that in the lead NCS agent. He was just such a amateur kind of knitwear, but he was very, very driven and driven by a level of incompetence that basically his drive overrode anything to look at this in a case as far as an investigatory body would, And he did everything against the book that you would do. So he started developing in a relationship with these guys.

He started to get on text threads with them. He started to send them articles, like negative articles about like, oh, it's working. And so these guys were being coached by the NCIS agent. And then we have video footage of their initial interviews where he has them off camera coaching them and telling them. He's like, don't worry about anything. Your name won't go on any of this. So he's telling them everything they want to hear because these guys are kind of knitwits

too. And they didn't want to be known. So he's like, this is going into a source file. Your name will never come out. Anything that you did, we're not worried about that. We're after Eddie Gallagher. So this was like April, they started this investigation within the first couple interviews you hear him say to these guys.

This is an open and shut case. All we care about is Eddie Gallagher. We know. And so he was leading them through the whole thing, which then they compiled enough information that then by June, they were staging a raid on our home, and they raided our home thereafter in June 2018. So you guys knowing that NCIS, this was in, you know, their hands. Were you just uneasy? Were you thinking like was this gonna work itself out with NCIS or were you thinking like any day they might show up at our door?

Like how are you feeling at that moment? Like, yeah. The raid was something we did not know as possible. Okay. We did not know. We had no clue that the raid was even on the table. We had really assumed again, almost naively, saying that now, according to, you know, hindsight, I'm like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe that we had so much

trust in the system that we were like, okay, if you have this escalation of allegations and everything is built on rumors lies in hearsay, you're thinking in a judicial sense or an investigatory sense, like, you cannot possibly make a case out of this. So we naively just did not, you know, we, it was frustrating and it was annoying, but we were like, it'll work itself out. I mean, I'm perpetually positive. I think Eddie might have been a little bit more like, this is crazy, like this is not going away.

And obviously it's specifically targeted at him. It's going after his reputation, it's going after his career. I mean, so I think he had a lot more anxiety about it. I ultimately felt like it would work itself out and that we would be vindicated and whatever you wanna call it through the investigation. But that's definitely not what happened.

Yeah, and they ended up rating our home June 20th of 2018. You home at that time? No, I was not home. They had been casing our home for a couple weeks. And so they'd been watching our movements. And we didn't know it at the time, but they were working in tandem with our crazy neighbors who was invited to be a part of this little sewing circle to take down Eddie. So just by far the craziest out of all of them. And he wasn't even a part of anything that they were necessarily looking to make up, but he just wanted to be a part of anything involved in taking Eddie down that he was willing to, any set, I'm willing to do or say anything. I'll say whatever I need to say to the command. Beyond that chain. And so basically started working directly when found out that he lived down the street from us.

So he had moved his wife. He didn't live near us at the beginning of the deployment. So this is also the other irony of him is that he literally moved his wife and kid right next to us. So according to him, like my husband's crazy and all this. But yeah, my daughter's baby sitting for them. I know this girl casually, they're living right next to us. And so after he got back from this deployment and they're just continuing an aspire role behind the scenes to like evolve this plot against my husband,

you know, we're out in the neighborhood, like we're walking the dogs, we're on eddies hardly, just like waving and we're like, dude, they're so weird anymore. Like they're just such weird people. Like we can't even like wave to them without them being bizarre because we had no idea

that was basically like the Matt Damon movie, the informant. Like that's, if you've never seen that movie, go watch it. He is the informant. So he's exposing all of this stuff that's not true, but like he's the real bad guy, but he's so crazy, he doesn't even know. So my gosh. He starts to tell them like all this stuff,

like oh, they're getting ready to move, like my wife saw them turning in paperwork to move, so you guys got to move quick, you got to raid their home, and telling them like where we're going, and what we're doing, and like oh yeah, Eddie's working out, like he always works out in the evening, and then like they go to hot yoga together, they walk to church together on Sundays, like the guy is a full on informant. Oh my goodness.

And this is a member of the sale community. This is a guy that's a Navy seal. And so it ended up that unbeknownst to us the two weeks of casing our house. They started to watch our movements through NCIS. We had family in town prior. We had my parents. We had my husbands. Parents, our son was graduating high school. He had just turned 18, like a week or two prior. So on June 18th, they set up a siege on our house that they sent like seven armored, seven to eight armored vehicles with 25 plus agents and formalish a riot gear, M4s. I mean, they look like they're kidded up to go to war. And they had already had Eddie in custody because they took him from work that morning and

they threw him in a room. They didn't read him his rights. They didn't offer him a call to his lawyer. They locked him in a room and they didn't tell them what they were doing, but they were raiding our home. And they had seen me leave that morning. So they knew that their access point was the newly minted 18 year old that was in the house with another eight year old to children and they did this.

Oh my God. Yeah, and I left for a meeting that day. I was meeting up with a girlfriend and then I had a meeting. And yeah, I was at, I was at that initial first meeting with my girlfriend when I got the call from Ava. And Ava at that time was in Ohio for the summer. And she just told me, she's like, mom, she's like the neighbor girl just called me.

She's like, Trevor and Ryan are outside in their underwear and there's police everywhere. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So I'm like, my friend sees the terror on my face and she's a team wife. And so she's like, just go. And so I just took off, I ran out, got in my car, I tried to call my neighbor, called multiple times, it just went straight to voicemail.

And then when I finally got her, she's on the phone screaming, saying like, they're everywhere. They have your dogs, they have your kids. I'm like, who has my dogs? Who is doing this? Oh my God. And then they're yelling at her to hang up the phone. They're telling her, you know,

hang it up, hang it up, go back inside. And she's like, this is their mom, this is their mom on the phone. And then at that point, a female agent gets on the phone and identifies herself and's like, within CIS, I'm gonna call you back on a secure line. And then so she calls me from a block number. I pick up, I'm like, what is going on?

And yeah, they were like, we are at your home. We have your children, we have your animals. They're fine. And when you come through, we have the streets barricaded. Tell us what type of car you're driving. And I'm like, barricaded. Yeah. Yeah.

Knowing Eddie wasn't there, knowing you're not there. I look like we're members of the cartel. It was the most bizarre scene. I mean, why do you need 25 people in Malisha riot gear? Why do you need seven black vehicles? It was all for show, it was all to terrorize us. And that's what we found out. This whole thing was a very much like homegrown terror that these agencies are in essence allowed to inflict on military

service members because there's no oversight of every investigatory body of the government in CIS is the worst. And these are people that like they couldn't make it to the FBI. They couldn't make it to the CIA. They were the worst of the worst of the worst, that then they're going in with less training than probably basic beat cops. And they are doing a total overtake of a home. And they're going in there with loaded rifles, machine guns, on kids. And so what we put together after the fact, like it was very, we were all in parallel universes,

like going through our own experience. So Eddie was there going through what he was going through, not knowing anything was going on. I, that was my experience, but when I got back to the home and was let through, they immediately pulled me into the van and started interrogating me, which is also illegal. And the boys had at that point gotten closed on and I had them go walk the dogs and I'm like, what is going on and why are you guys here

and why are you all in my house? Like what is the point of all of this? What are you even looking for? And so they kind of asked me if I knew any rumors or I knew anything that had hearsay, anything that had happened. And I'm like, I know rumors and I know hearsay and I know gossip, but I'm not going to sit here and recount that because it's not enough for you to be in my home. So why are you here? And then they kind of like said, well, if we tell you too much, like we, you know, we could incriminate you. And I'm like, okay, well, then what are we doing? What are we doing here?

Really? And then the lady mentioned something about a knife. And I see a warrant that has our friends knife company on it. And I'm like, why is our friends name on this? And then it just like started kind of unravel. She's like, have you heard anything about like your husband killing ISIS? I'm like, my husband's a Navy SEAL. Like he went over there to kill ISIS. I don't know what you're talking about. And it was just very cloak and dagger. And then one of the guys came out, they asked me for my phone.

I was like, here you go. There's nothing on it. Nothing incriminating on it. And you know, other than we knew that there was mounting whisper campaign that was going on, but we had no clue the level that had now gotten to since these guys had gone and did their NCAS interviews. So yeah, it was pretty surreal.

And then my kids, their experience, my daughter experienced it through the neighbor girl that told her, so that was terrifying for her to know that the boys were home alone and this was going on. And then she was in the dark. And she's young at the time. She's like 11 or 12. And then the way that it happened for the boys

was like Ryan was kind of inside watching the television. My older son was 18 upstairs asleep in his bed. And so Ryan's sitting there watching television. We have a porch landing window right here. And he can see through the curtains that there's people with guns coming on to his porch. Which you think an eight year old knowing that these, like almost like that's what he thinks his dad does

is like he goes to fight people or he goes to get the bad guys. And then Ryan's seeing these people stream on his porch, which look like some type of military riot gear and guns. So he runs upstairs, and he's just in his little jammy underwear stuff and same as my son, and he starts to tell my son, like there's people with guns on her door, and my son's barely awake, and he's like, dude,

if this is like your friends outside with Nerf guns, like, I'm going to hurt you. And then Ryan just starts crying. And so Trevin obviously gets up, walks down the stairs, and then Trevin can also see the people out front. And so he goes and he opens up the door. And so the first door that opens is like the actual door, but then there's a screen door. And so they all start screaming at both of the boys to put their hands up. They're holding the rifles at them. They're saying, put your hands up, put your hands up.

And they're simultaneously screaming for them to open the door. He's like, do you want me to put my hands up or do you want me to open the door? And so this is how these people are the, these people are the like most unqualified bush league people to go in and be doing a house clearance with loaded weapons on children. And so that basically was the start of the seven hour raid. They dragged both of our kids out into the street into their their underwear, and our animals.

And then they gained access that way, through my son who had just turned 18. Unreal. That is just like the worst nightmare ever. I just can't imagine. Yeah, it's crazy. Oh my God. And then when Eddie, when did Eddie find out about this?

Because he was being held, right? Yeah. So I think that's when we really first started to realize that we were systematically being terrorized by the community in NCIS and was soon to be the prosecution was basically at the very end of the seven hours, one of the agents who had been at the home, had walked in and was like, okay, you're free to go. And Eddie's like, okay, like what, what was this all about?

And he's like, oh, I saw your wife and kids today. And Eddie's like, what? And the guy just snidely is like, yeah, I was at your house with your wife. Oh my God. We were in basically, that's how he found out they were raiding our home. So like, if you can even grasp someone that they have trained for the last two decades to go and fight the worst of the worst evils overseas to prevent things from happening to me

and my children on American soil, they then lock him away on his own soil. Do this just completely almost like a terror raid on our home where he's helpless to defend us and protect us. I don't know how you guys have gone through all of this and plus some. I mean, that one, I know it was just the beginning of it. That was only the beginning. Yeah.

That was only the beginning. And that pales almost in comparison to everything else that we went through. It was just an escalation of like, yeah, when I talk about it, I call it homegrown terror. Yeah. It's very frightening. And I think that's like when Bush was like, you know, we're fighting from 9-11 on, enemies foreign and domestic. And we have been exposed to both, but I can say it's more terrifying to know that like your own government can target you and go

after you if they want. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. God, I'm so sorry that that's all happened to you. Yeah, it's awful. At that point, who do you, first of all, what do you say to your kids? I mean, because now you know like, shit's gotten real. Like it's something's happening here that it's no longer just whispers or rumors

or what if scenarios are owed. They're gonna take care of it it'll work itself out now shit just got real so what do you explain like what is that family meeting look like wow well I don't protect your kids too at that point I know they're gonna hear things at school and I just yeah I mean. They're going to hear things at school. And I just, yeah. I mean, I'm sure media is getting involved at this point or no. No, I don't think the media had gotten involved at that point. So, so by June of 2018, you know, we were prepping to leave San Diego. We were prepping to retire. We had bought our retirement home. We were getting ready to relocate.

So they actually rated our home the week prior. So we went directly from a home rate to packing up all of our belongings that we had, you know, had the last 11 years and his service in San Diego. And we were going to move to our retirement home. Our oldest son was prepping to leave for college. We were moving our two youngest there in order to start my daughter's freshman year of high school. So Eddie was kind of gonna geobatch it

and just live in San Diego for the last remaining year. You know, go back and forth. He was also screening. He was screening for ground branch and doing a lot of things to prepare to get out of the military basically. Because at that point, it was, it wasn't point of no return. I was like, I am not doing this anymore with these people. If this is the quality of people that are involved in this community at this point, like we're, you know, we're relics at that point, like we're nearly 40. And we're dealing with these mid 20 year olds,

and I'm like, this is not the community that we came from. Like, they've either pushed out this warrior class of people that was fighting all the war since 9-11, they've got this whole new mindset of people that are involved, or most of our friends didn't make it. They passed away. So it's like, you know, you kind of go through all of that. So leading up to the home raid, we had made the conscious decision that we were on our way

out. That he was going to do his 20 and we were calling it. And I never told him that he couldn't do, you know, anything or I wanted him to be happy. I wanted him to be fulfilled. And so that meant, you know, letting him continue to deploy and letting him continually go back. And he loved it. He loved every part of his job. But I remember specifically, I just had this moment. We had actually been in Coronado. We had met up with the parents of our friend, Brad, Kavanaugh, who passed away in a training accident. So we call them Mama, Kavanaugh and Steve,

and then also our other friend who had passed away in Extortion 17, his parents. And we were all at Danny's and Danny really has, Danny's has a lot of memorialized members of the community that have lost their lives.

And I think, you know, it was the first time they'd ever gone to see Aaron's picture and Brad. We took this whole, we call them our family. There are friends that have become family. We took this family picture and I remember leaving. It was just such a surreal moment because I remember when I first met Eddie, I was in

Danny's and I sat down and Brad Kavanaugh is like sitting there. Eddie had gone to the bathroom and he's like, I think he knew like I didn't know enough about what I was getting into and he's like, Hey, like don't worry. If something happens, he's like, I'll give my life. Like he's going to come back to you. Oh, God. And that was the community that we came from. And now, a decade later, I'm sitting there knowing that like my husband is being targeted by these people, no character, no morals, like there's just all bent on somehow, you know, a vendetta against him. And after we left that bar that night,

we went and had one more drink at McPease. And I just remember like, I couldn't control it. Like, and I'm super like, and like, spiritual, I feel like I see things sometimes. And I just remember having this like internal panic, which I'm not a panicky person. I don't even have really anxiety like that. But I was just like, I was in full on tears. I'm like, they've either killed off our friends or they're pushing guys like you out. Like, they don't want you anymore.

They don't want these people that have been fighting these wars. They want this new kind of evolved in the feels guys. Like, they want Boy Scouts. And I'm like, I'm done. Like I cannot send you over there again knowing. I'm like, I feel like these guys would push you in front of a grenade to write a book about it, to have a stepping stone.

Cause a lot of these guys are stepping stone steel seals. They're not the new. They use it as a resume pad to go on to bigger and better things. And like the guys that Eddie knew, like they were lifers, Eddie would have stayed in for 30 years when this not have happened. So yeah, it was a really interesting moment, the evolution from my entry into the community and the level and the caliber of guys that he was blessed to serve with.

And like we call those guys our brothers. Their wives are my sisters to this day. A lot of us had kids at the same time. So like, you know, Aaron Hell is baby girl once. Oh God. I mean, Kimberly's oldest son is like the same age as Ryan because we were all in Bible study together and we all got pregnant. So it's like you know we have a very sweet amazing friend group but we've we've lost quite a few in the midst of everything. So Eddie was roommates with Brad and Aaron so there's the picture that he still has as his profile picture. It's Brad and Aaron are gone and Eddie got sent to jail. And it was just so surreal.

We're like, what is happening to this country? Not even 20 years after 9-11, you know? And they just wanted to throw them away. God, I'm so sorry. I'm really tearing up. It's so funny. It'm crazy. Yeah, I probably need it to choose. Crazy one. She start talking about it because it gets. I know. Yeah, I love that verse. Romans 8, 28. For God works for the good of all those who are called according

to his purpose. Yeah, I had a pastor that used to say, all means all, you know, it's everything. He can work everything for good. And that's definitely what he's done, for sure. Am I like totally all over the place with my makeup now? No, from here you look good. Good? Okay. God, Andrea, I'm so sorry.

It's crazy. That's actually out of everything that gets me the most like the, the, that's why I get so emotional. Yeah. Cause like the brotherhood thing, it's like, you know,

these guys fun died and then these guys are setting him up. They couldn't be more a thousand miles apart on what brotherhood means and looks like. And I mean, it's just, it's just such a degradation to the community. And we still love the community. We still have family, you know, our Eddie's brothers and the community. And we're just, we're worried, you know, about that. Like we want to see, you know, and there's so many good people still in the community, but you worry about, you know, the degradation of that. And that's why when we created And that's why when we created the T-shirts with our friends, Indian Kelsey, Half-Aids played,

produced that first free Eddie shirt with Eddie, the picture of him. That's an awesome picture. It's a whole story behind that, but he had fallen in a well on a deployment. And that was after he got out of the well, and after he went back in a second time for his rifle that he dropped And so that's the picture after he had done all of that. I mean like he's he's just such an amazing human being

So like I wanted that picture to be like the symbol of everything that he'd done and like the hashtag free Eddie We came up with but On the back of the shirts. It says long live the real brotherhood. Yes. And that's how I signed my first like coming out email to all of our friends in the community saying what the command was doing to us, saying what NCIS had done to us, saying that Eddie had been taken from the TVI clinic and I signed it long live the real brotherhood. And I firmly believe that. And that's why I get so emotional about it. I'm like, there is a chasm in our nation,

I think of the quality of individuals that there's these people. It's like the 80-20 rule, like, that don't do anything. And then you've got this very core upper echelon group of people that are giving everything and their families are giving everything. And the pressure that they put on the seal

community during everything after 9-11. I mean, I think we'll write books and do movies about this generation of a 20-year war. And what does that do? You know, when you're taking the brunt of it, and I think it's all kind of like entrenched in our story somewhere, like maybe down the line, we'll get into it, but we do feel very passionate about supporting the community. This is not what the community is about. Our story is not emblematic of the sale community. It's actually a very big black eye on them.

And I mean, the men that we knew in the community and the women that are a part of it, I mean, they're the most amazing individuals on the planet. So it's just it's so much. Your story has so much. Like so yeah, so many layers to it. Yeah, there is a lot of layers. Yeah. Our story like Eddie and I story and we go into it like in the book. Like it's just such like it's a it's a love story, even even what we went through with the trial and with we call it, I call it more persecution, verse prosecution.

It's like it truly is like a story of love and devotion. And like you know, I really did learn that from the sale community. Like in the sale community, like their brothers, they have swim buddies. You know, they support each other for life. And I feel like, you know, I tell, I jokingly tell Eddie sometimes like, I was the last man standing for you because everybody either took a seat on the sidelines because they kind of had to because the command was really putting a lot of pressure on people not to support or get involved, which we understood. And then just a lot of people that developed snap judgments and thought, well, you guys had to do something wrong

because I think that's more comfortable for people to assume the worst because if you really think of it from the from the perspective that what we were saying from the beginning was that if this can happen to us, it can happen to you. And that's a scary thing. And so people, I think as a self-protective nature, just have this way of being like, blocking it off. Yeah, I'm not going to. And I think that's why a lot of people, they didn't want to know the truth of how bad

it was or how deep it got or how corrupt it was and all the things that happened because it's kind of scary to think it's possible. It is. Yeah. Everyone is safer to think it's not in my backyard. Yeah. Yeah. How did you know who to trust at that point

when you're saying like people are turning or you know they're kind of just sitting there not doing anything, not speaking up? How did you, for you, like how did you, because you started this free Eddie campaign and you have your husband's back obviously and it's just like how do you, for you, like how did you, because you started this free Eddie campaign and you have your husband's back obviously. And it's just like, how do you, who do you turn to? How do you, how do you know, like, who to call?

What do you mean at that point? Because you did such an incredible job at getting it out and really being like the face for it and being there for your husband. getting it out and really being like the face for it and being there for your husband. And, you know, I know you had told me here like yesterday that he wasn't so much seeing all of this. You had to relay the messages to him and say,

you know, we're getting it out there. Like the word is spreading and how did you know who to call, who to trust? and how did you know who to call, who to trust? Well, again, I really relied on my faith to just guide me and support me and get me through everything. I mean, I have such a close relationship with God. And so I'm like, I very much feel like that was my guiding light through everything.

In the end, there's honestly not much people even that did wanna help, could do. You're just so in the weeds with something like this that you, even if you had someone that was like, oh, I wanna do something to help, it was like, I didn't even have the bandwidth to, I couldn't even think of anything, because I'm like, what can

you do? This is unknown territory. Like, we're being targeted by, you know, the command and these people and the government and we are, you know, we're in it. And so after he was taken on 9-11, again, it was just navigating day to day today because we did not know, we did not know that was possible. We didn't know the homeride was possible. We didn't know pretrial confinement was a thing. I mean, there's third world countries that you can't do that in. But in

the military, the UCMJ, you can lock someone up before their trial, and you can incarcerate them. And the irony of that was, I mean, there's so many ironies really, but it was just really we had to every day wake up and navigate an unknown territory with no road map. And so he went to the break, we totally thought he was going to get out. He was supposed to have a hearing basically about the validity of why would he have to be locked up? Because you have to have some level of validity of like why is this guy being locked up? And especially on this level, it was like the highest level pre-talk confinement. And so that was supposed to be within about 72 hours that we, he was going to go to this hearing and I didn't even fly out for it. So I was supposed to be within about 72 hours that he was gonna go to this hearing

and I didn't even fly out for it. So I was like, this is just like preliminary mumbo jumbo. Like I think they're just scare tactics. I was like, I don't think anything's gonna happen. Like, kill it out. And I can remember getting a call from someone after the hearing and they're like, yeah, no, he's not getting out.

And I was like, well, what do you mean? Right. What do you mean he's not getting out? Like, what grounds do they have to hold him in the brig? And so if you look into like, IRO hearings, like what they're trying to prove is like, are you a flight risk or are you a risk to yourself or to someone else?

And they clearly knew he wasn't a flight risk because we had relocated, he was going back and forth, he was screening for ground branch, he was doing interviews in DC, he'd even done lie detector tests, like he was that far through the process. So it was like, okay, that's not a valid thing. And yes, San Diego's right by Mexico,

but he has a family. You think he's going to go turn into some renegade in Mexico? So that didn't make sense, but they really used his training all against him. So they said, oh, well, you know how to do stuff because you're a Navy SEAL. So you could go to Mexico and evade us, And even though there's no legitimacy to that, but this is how crazy it got. And it gets crazier. So it's like every level, it's the new level of crazy.

So at the IRO, Eddie calls me back later that night. He's like, babe, they said the most horrendous stuff about me during this hearing. He's like, they have said things from I abused drugs. We were drug muleing in Mexico. All this stuff. So we went to our friends wedding in Mexico and they're like, we're drug muleing.

They said that. Oh my God. So we are getting together pictures of us like him in a wedding of his friend, like one of his best friends weddings in Mexico, like we weren't going across, like this is how crazy it got. Unbelievable. So he was like realizing he's like they can say anything they want. Right.

They can say whatever. Doesn't have to be true. Doesn't have to have any validity. So he sat there for like four or five hours during this hearing and they said all the stuff about him. He's a monster, he abuses drugs, you know, he's a drug mule. He's horrible, he's abusive. He, like everything you could think of and the charges they were bringing against him were like, And the charges they were bringing against him were like, we have information on charges that like he's shooting civilians over there. He was doing this and this is all made up and we're like,

how can this happen? So then he doesn't end up getting out of the IRO. That was when it got real. Like I was like, this is a concentrated coordinated effort to get him on something. It doesn't matter if it's real anymore. I've let reality go out the window. Any common sense, throw it out the window when dealing with the military. Any level of like, oh, well, this is how it should go.

It didn't matter. It was only rumors eyes in hearsay. It was like, it was forward and like full steam ahead. And so yeah, they locked him away. They pretty much appointed him a jag that was located in Le Mans, like three, four hours away from San Diego. They had to go on TAD to come and consult with him, his client. So he didn't see him for weeks when he was in jail. And so we had hired an outside, outside lawyers and gotten involved with a nonprofit at that time

which come to find out that's a whole nother layer of corruption. Oh god. This was a corrupt set of lawyers, corrupt nonprofit. That was just, yeah. So we fought on every single front you could think about behind the scenes and then got involved with this corruption on profit that would have made more money off of him going to jail because they have these cash cows where they get behind cases where it's guys in jail and they just like a steady stream of promotion. We're going to loss it with them right now. Were you able to see Eddie? Barely.

So I was relocated in Florida. So if I would go, I'd have to get care for the children, care for the dogs, go fly in, stay for a limited amount of time, go see him in the break, go behind closed doors during visiting hours, couldn't touch him, couldn't hug him, couldn't do anything, Because he's in jail. He's a prisoner. But in the military terms, when you're in pre-shock and finite, you're not a prisoner.

Well, you're sleeping in a jail with rapists and pedophiles and sex offenders. You sure seem like a prisoner, even though he hasn't even gone to trial yet. So, not to mention all of the good that he's done, everything he's been awarded for as an American fighter. None of that is brought to light at this point. It was all used against us, actually. And then really what they got him on, the reasoning behind holding him in pretrial confinement was they were, so they couldn't prove he was a risk to himself. So what they did was, they worked in tandem with our neighbor

and they knew that they had to have something to basically warrant holding him in jail. So they had right a note saying that he was afraid for his life because my husband walked our French bulldogs by his house and that was Eddie's way of intimidating him. Oh my God. He wrote all of this. They gave that over and that was Eddie's way of intimidating him. Oh my God. So he wrote all of this. They gave that over and this was like, yeah, he is not only a flight risk to go to Mexico

because, you know, he's a drug mom, you know, Mexico. But he also is intimidating these guys. He's intimidating by walking our friend, she's by his house. So yeah. And that gave him the right to hold that. Yeah, because he's a risk to others. So that was also part of a diabolical plan. The only on the standard we get them to admit

that they had already had Eddie locked up when they had to do that note. So it was just totally incahutes with this completely unstable individual that they used as an informant and turned him to then work the system to get Eddie locked away, appoint him a lawyer four hours away, so he doesn't have the ability to defend himself.

And then we had filed congressional inquiries on the Brigette Miramar, we filed human rights violations. There was an individual at that Brig that they basically ended up releasing because I would not stop fighting against what she was doing to him. Her name was in She would throw away his lawyer chits and wouldn't let him call. And I mean, he was basically wasting away in there.

I mean, he turned into a skeleton in that brig. And it was just unbelievable. And you don't think it's possible. And you don't want to think it's possible. But they used those brigs in tandem because they're under the UCMJ. So it's affiliated with like, you know, the commands and the prosecution and the brig and they use a misplie factories. So it's just like you see on a few good men, Tom Cruise, like he doesn't even go to trial. They get these guys to break and plead on stuff they didn't do. And there are of course

guilty people. But then there is people that just they don't have the wherewithal. They can't fight. They don't have the money. They're appointed some, you know, rag tag jag lawyer that's not going to fight for them. Their goal is just to get them to plead. And they do. They plead to the craziest stuff. And then if you look at the rates of conviction, there's not that many guilty people in the world. The conviction rates are based off of the corruption that's involved in the UCMJ. So everyone basically pleads guilty because they crush you.

They crush you, they crush your family, they crush your children. And you lose everything. Your livelihood, your money. If you do try to fight, you can't fight the government. You lose faith. Yeah. And if you don't have someone on the outside, like if Eddie would not have had me,

and if I wouldn't have had Sean, his brother, who Sean was the one that helped with moving the ball on all of the political, he worked on Capitol Hill, he had inroads to help and really expedite the process of activating our congressional and constitutional rights. I mean, people don't even know their rights. I mean, we see it right now in 2020. Like, people are just turning over their rights

on a daily basis, and I'll tell you what, we have to stop because if what can happen to us comes to you, you will pray to God that you are able to afford to exercise the constitutional rights that were afforded by God in this country, but if you don't have the money to fight, and so we had to go, we fully raised funds to defend Eddie. And when we dropped that nonprofit and those corrupt lawyers, when we did that, we had to start over. And so with a whole new team.

With a whole new team. And we knew they weren't even trying to win this case. They weren't even trying to look into the case. They were a part of a corrupt system. These are two lawyers that were former trained jags that got out of the military and then set up their own independent law firms as like ambulance chasers outside a military basis. So they just prey on military people. So we're in a lawsuit with them because they came after us after Eddie was found innocent and tried to sue us for a million dollars.

So are they still functioning right now? Are they still? I have no idea if they are. We've tried to expose them, we've tried to let people know. And there's stuff out there. People can look it up. We've been very open even before the lawsuit about how corrupt and it's just a big Ponzi scheme

that they're running on these people that we got out of because we were identifying like they're not working on the case. They're asking the same questions since, you know, like months and months ago. And so when we, by the grace of God leading into the trial, so he would have been locked up September 11, 2018. He stayed through all the way up basically. He was incarcerated in some shape reform leading into March of 2019. And at that time, our trial was scheduled for April. And so by the grace of God, we got connected with, which is another six degrees of separation, was the police commissioner on 9-11 in New York City. And I mean, I remember seeing pictures of him and he had like this huge

mustache and he works side by side with Rudy Giuliani during that whole crisis and President Bush. And someone was like, I really think that you should connect with this guy, like he's just so good and he's had different trouble that has come upon him. And so he was locked up and incarcerated for a period of time. And so he's kind of made it his life mission to help and support people. So he's got, like, got a book like from jailer because he was like the head of, like, the jail system. And then he got the police commissioner job.

And it's like, then he ended up going to jail for something innocuous because he was supposed to be a part of, I think, the presidential cabinet. And when he got nominated for that, they went on him full till and they locked him away for, like, I think, something totally innocuous. But he went to jail and so he had this really strategic mindset. And so he started calling, I got in touch with them, I talked to him. He would go back and forth, he talked to me, he talked to Sean, Eddie's brother. And he just kind of became this like honorary Godfather figure who was guiding us through this process and helping and supporting.

And he asked me to talk to his lawyer at the time. And I was just uncovering kind of like some of the more seedy stuff about that nonprofit and the lawyers at the time. And they had started to try to basically extort us. They had tried to extort our family, get us to turn over the money that we had generated on his campaign. Because we were also worked with Navy sales fund,

which was amazing nonprofit. And they set up this portal so that we had generated on his campaign, because we were also worked with Navy Sales Fund, which was amazing nonprofit. And they set up this portal so that we could raise money, and so that we could fight the full power of the United States government. And then at that time, the media, the media was getting involved in terrorizing us. So we were fighting everybody. So Navy Sales Fund had started this portal,

which was the Justice for Eddie Page, which we would direct people to to donate and to help and support our case. And that was just being held by Navy Sales Fund. We never got that money, but that was to help and defend Eddie and God forbid is something happened to help the kids and I. And I don't think that the other nonprofit at first, they knew that they

were setting it up and they were well aware of it. They helped us with the verbiage and with the language. But then when they saw the money being raised and this nonprofit is not really that together, they started to come after us saying, you know, someone could say like, you're raising that money and like, you're doing wrong thing. And I'm like, what? So they started to try to like systematically like extort us as a family. And they targeted my brother and law shan. And then they, and then when I found that out, I went after them and basically called them out onto the carpet. And I had a call with, and I was like, are you doing what I think you're doing?

Like you're trying to intimidate us. You're trying to like get us. Yeah. And I basically called him out. And at the time, Guy, which is the lawyer who's supposed to be helping to defend my husband, is actively sitting on the board of directors and leading this nonprofit.

And so I'm uncovering all of this. And I'm like, you are so compromised in so many ways. Like what you're doing is not right. You're sitting on the board of a nonprofit that's basically making money off of people going to jail and you're the one that's breaking them in and I'm going after him hard. And then finally, I think he realized he couldn't intimidate me. So then he started there after to try to like, Hey, just checking in and I'm like, you creep. Total creep.

And so we just created this like, we got rid of the bad news bears and created the A team and like by the grace of God, the trial got pushed after that because they did the spy gate thing. So NCIS and the lead prosecutor ended up spying on our team. Yeah, that's a whole nother. Oh my goodness. Yeah, everything has been thrown at you guys.

Yeah. Everything. Yeah. And I admire you so much because you've kept your cool. You've, I mean, keeping your family together, keeping Eddie to get everything, you know, you've really done it all and gracefully. And really by like creating the whole campaign that you did and getting this dream team together. Yeah. And getting them home.

I mean, that's incredible. Yeah, mission accomplished. Yeah. I sleep safely that's incredible. Yeah, mission accomplished. Yeah. I sleep safely at night next to him. So, the picture, I think on your Instagram, when I was on Instagram, I remember stalking your Instagram. And one of the things you said, it was the picture that's on the cover of your book. And I think you said that that was your favorite picture.

What makes that picture so significant? And like, what are you thinking in that photo? Because we'll link the photo here in the podcast. But well, it's so funny. Like it's hilarious as many podcasts and stuff that we do. People always ask me about like my dresses and my stuff and like the fashion. And they're like, did you have like specific stuff?

And I was like, I just, I like wake up like this. Like if I'm in the mood, like, you know, we went out the other day, it was like a little like emo, like I had a tiger shirt on. Like it's just like I it's a vibe that I get and I love and so I had things picked out and specific things that I brought to trial. But you know, some of it I wouldn't know

when I would wear and I ended up wearing a lot of like beautiful, like muted florals or just like crisp white or things like that. And I love white. I just, it's just purity because they're purity. And I felt like we were, we were on such a like battleground, but I was like, again, I like, I fight everything straight from the heart. And I'm like, we will be vindicated. I'm like, when this goes to trial, we will expose all of this is BS. And like, we were the only ones that knew because everyone else had all of this. You'd either watch Fox and get one thing

or you'd watch this and get another or you'd read an article like The New York Times and you would get the most skewed, you know, clickbait. And so I feel like, you know, waking up that day, I'd be like, you know, clickbait. And so I feel like, you know, waking up that day, I'd pretty much run through everything because it was like the day of the final day.

So I was left with this beautiful black like silk blazer and like a white jumpsuit. And I don't know, it just felt strong. It felt strong, but it also had this mix of like, I'm a badass, but there's like the purity component. And like, this is one of my favorite necklaces. I think I wore this with it. But that picture is so funny because all through the trial,

I was just watching all of it just unravel. I'm like, this is a mix between a few good men and my cousin Vinnie. Like, you cannot make this stuff up. I'm like, I mean, everyone, they fell apart on the stands, they couldn't keep up with their lies. And I knew that was going to happen. And I just felt so vindicated, like progressively vindicated. I was like, I knew this was going to happen. I knew we would expose this. And our team was amazing. So just such huge credit to them. And everything that we faced, even with the spygate

and the trial getting pushed and everything and Eddie being incarcerated, it just felt like such a culmination. It was so surreal. And like, we rented a house, like at the end of Point Loma, like right down the street from where our military housing was rated. And we just woke up every day, like right down the street from where our military housing was rated. And we just woke up every day, like our whole family stayed together.

So we had like all of the kids with us. We had Sean and my mother and father in law with us. And we wake up and we'd overlook Point Loma. And it was just so symbolic of like how far we'd come and how much they tried to squash us and kill us and keep us silent and they didn't and it didn't work. And so I think like leaving that day we would always get ready, get ready with the boys,

my boys, my Sean and then Eddie. And so there are four years apart, Sean's a baby brother and then Eddie's the oldest and then like we just have such a strong, we obviously got severely bonded together during that experience too. I'm so glad. So like a lot of the media would be staged before we'd go in and they'd snap pictures of We obviously got severely bonded together during that experience too. So a lot of the media would be staged before we'd go in and they'd snap pictures of us. And so we'd all go, we'd get our coffees

from better buzz in the morning. And then we'd go into the court and we'd drive in, like, okay, here we go, run the gauntlet of all the media and all the cameras and they try to get us to say something or whatever. And so usually you see pictures that's either me and Eddie or me and Eddie, or me and Eddie and Sean, which looks like almost like a CIA agent

behind us. That's Sean. That's my brother, and mom, who was also, Sean was the key component of Eddie being free. If Eddie had Sean and not me, or me and not Sean, I don't, I firmly believe it wouldn't have worked. So it was just such a beautiful moment and support of his brother and myself. And, you know, same as always, like walking in, you do the gauntlet, we had the day in court.

It was probably the most nerve-wracking day, for sure, because it was the day of the, they were announcing the verdict. And we would have had, you know, the final statements from our team. And so, you know, I remember being called back in, Eddie and I and Sean, like during the day, just because it was such a long day, we had left, we went to the, you know, PX or whatever it is over there and like, we're shopping a little bit

just to like distract us and get out. And like, people were stopping Eddie and like taking pictures. But like it's, it was surreal. And then we ended up going back. We go into the court, they bring all the jury in and just like as they're going through all of the charges and reading them, they're not reading them as the charge.

They're reading them as a number prefix. And we were like, okay, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. Guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. And I'm like, what, we didn't know what the guilty is. So like, I'm looking at our team and I'm sitting like right behind Eddie. And I'm looking at Catherine and I see Catherine just like start crying. I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm, what I'm crying about. But I'm like, waited and waited.

And then Tim just looks at Eddie and he's like, it's the picture. It's the pictures, the only thing you're guilty. Which we had never said that he wasn't guilty of that. We told the military, like he will plead guilty to taking a picture just like everyone else in the platoon did. But if you want him to die on this cross, like, yes, we never denied, he took a picture with ISIS terrorists. And so it was just crazy. I think I just burst out

in tears. Everyone in the courtroom in the audience who'd been there are friends and, you know, Brad's parents just tears tears from people in the media and then you know the jury walked out and then the next day was the sentencing. So we had this like reprieve where we knew that we had you know basically everything was found not guilty except for the photo charge. So it was a huge win. And we knew based on how they had leverage and just they did this whole list of charges against him. So the charge sheet was a mile long. So out of everything, that was the only thing that we knew that they could get him on. So it was kind of best case scenario considering because we knew that they were not going to just relent. And you know, so I just remember walking out of the court

room area, walking into like where everyone was in the overflow and all of our friends that were watching the overflow and just, we just all just cried and cried and cried and tears and relief and just like overwhelmed. Oh wow, yeah. And so the picture that you see is after all that day and it's like, okay, we have a brief reprieve where it's done.

Yeah. The trial is done. The trial is over. We have one more day. We have sentencing tomorrow, which we didn't know what was going to happen with the sentencing. But we're like, we did it. We did it. And the team was thrilled. We were all going to go meet up at one of our favorite little spots. It right there in Point Loma that night. So walking out of that, my face looks like a smirky, I told you so. Yeah. And I was right all along. And now you all know. And then Eddie's just looks like straight like, I don't know. Relief mixed with like, fuck this. Just pushing the door open. But he looks amazing. And I'm just right there next to him, hand in hand. We told you so. And now you all know that we overcame this and you can't hold it on us anymore.

God, what a feeling. Yeah, what a feeling it was. I feel like it captured that. Yeah. Yeah, when you know the context, you're like, oh yeah, that does look like what they're saying facially. Yeah. And now knowing your style a little bit,

it's perfect. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I went out to the media thereafter and we would sometimes after the days, the long days or big days, we would do a debrief with the media. So there is some footage after where I basically go after everybody and I'm like, this is why we as a nation uphold innocence until proven guilty. And what we've created out of this system, you know, is we're doing it all wrong. And we should not be doing this to people and like the whole trial by media thing. I mean, it's a real thing. For sure. And it's amazing to hear that the team

that you put together all has some backstory with personally dealing with this themselves. Yeah, which is not crazy. It is crazy. It's a total God thing. It was totally orchestrated and ordained appointed. Anything that you can say to be like, it does not make sense. That I would have been on 9-11. I would have been 21 years old. Treven would have been just under a year old.

And I can remember holding my baby the night of 9-11 and thinking, what in the world did I do? How did I bring this child into this world? The twin towers had glapped that day. And in a way, we are also amashed through everyone that went through 9-11 because you know where you were, you know what you were doing and you know what you're feeling and I remember feeling that feeling of hopelessness and especially for my child and just like holding my child and rocking my child and I remember having God like kind of tell me like

This is how I care for you like I hold you when it seems out of control like he didn't know He was great. He was sleeping soundly and snuggled up and I'm like bawling, thinking, how am I going to protect this kid in this world that we're living in, which was only progressively, you know, getting worse. And then I can distinctly remember moments when Eddie and I got back together and we had that moment like where he was getting ready to leave for the SEAL teams in San Diego. And I was a single mom in Indiana and I was like, I don't know how we're gonna make this work.

And it was almost like, okay, well, is this the end of the story? And then there was a moment where he was holding me, rocking me in the kitchen. And I'm not kidding you, we had a bolt of lightning that went through us. And I stepped back kidding you. We like had a bolt of lightning that went through us. And I stepped back and I remember that feeling of rocking Trevin and God telling me it was gonna be okay

after 9-11 and then this man that's been brought back into my life that's like this warrior that's now gonna go fight for everything our country stands for since 9-11. I mean, it's just there's so many points where I feel like God orchestrated so much. And our whole team is just badass. It's like we must be honorary New Yorkers by now

because everyone on our team is like a New Yorker. And we have that. I think that level of fight in us, that they embodied during all of that struggle to rebuild. And like, I don't know, I think it is pretty beautiful now. Just the storyline of like, we knew each other and then we got back together and then now it's been a three decades journey for us. So yeah, the vindication in 2018 would have been about at the other 10-year mark. So, meeting at 16, reconnecting 26 and 27, and then now that was, yeah, 2018, I would have

been just 28. But we started to go through it during the like 20, 26, 27 years mark. So our story is very interesting and very, a lot of connecting points that make it pretty fascinating. Yeah. And one of your interviews that you did. It was after he got released and you said, let me see if I could find it. Oh, what everyone meant for evil God used for good. Do you still feel that today? Yes. Like 100%. Oh 100%. So that's actually crazy too. We put this in the book. So Eddie was at NICO and he was going through, um, because at NICO with the kind of like, when you get out of the SEAL teams, a lot of people, if you've done that media deployments, like it's just part of getting out. Like you go to NICO, you get all of the testing done, you get everything documented,

all the things that you've suffered or gone through, you know, you test for TBI and PTSD and everything. So it's just part of a precursor of him getting out and making sure we're doing due diligence before he leaves the military so that he also gets all of his VA benefits. So he had actually, so the timeline is this.

Like so we, we had the home rate in June 20, 2018. We relocated by the 4th of July. We were at our new home. He was then taken on 9 11. So that year and September, I would have been in Florida with the kids. My son would have already been at call, we're leaving for college almost. And then Eddie was back at NICO. So he was doing kind of the geo batch. And then Eddie was back at NICO. So he was doing kind

of the geo-batching thing and he was there at the program and he was going through it and he was really taking everything in. So he'd do anything from, you know, an art class to music therapy, to acupuncture and, you know, everything in between. And so he'd call me that morning on 9-11. And it's always a somber day, obviously, for everybody. And I remember the first time he called, I was like, so invigorated because I had been listening to a podcast. I've listened to Joyce Meyer for decades. And her podcast was all about Joseph. And so the story of Joseph, he's a youngest of 12 brothers. So he's in a community of brothers. And he's the youngest. And he's in a community of brothers and he's the youngest and he's kind of called by

God and he has these dreams and these visions of things and his brothers ultimately get jealous and they plot against him and they decide that they are going to kill him. And one of the brothers intersays and like don't kill him, let's just throw him away, let's throw him in a pit. So they like take his coat, they cover away. Let's throw him in a pit. So they take his coat, they cover it in blood, they throw him in a pit, and eventually slave traders come, and he gets sold into slavery. And then the story continues that Joseph is basically thrown in all of these horrific nightmare situations,

but then he somehow gets elevated. So when he's in jail, then he gets elevated to the head of the household of Potifur, and then Potifur's wife has the hots for him. So then the wife goes after him and tries Potifer's wife has the hot form. So then the wife goes after him and tries to throw herself on him after multiple attempts. He runs out of the house and then she's like, he raped me. So then this guy goes on basically trial for rape.

And the kid is like doing the right thing. He's a righteous individual, but he keeps on finding himself in these situations. So then he gets thrown back in jail. And so then he's like, in jail again, for something he didn't do. And then while he's in jail, he has this interaction with two individuals. And so this is all in the Bible.

And so I'm like telling Eddie the story. I was like, I feel like this is so symbolic. Like this is like you, like you're a Joseph. Like you've been betrayed. You've been betrayed by your brothers, but it's happening for a purpose. And this is happening in that verse, what it symbolizes is,

were it not for the negative things that happened to Joseph, he would have never been elevated to the place that ultimately he was given? And so the story goes that, as Joseph is in there with the King's Cup Bear and with the King's like cook, he's like tell the King, you know, I can interpret dreams and remember me when you go before the King. And so one day the King starts having these crazy bizarre dreams. And then at a certain point way later Joseph is called before the King, he then ultimately ends up being the second command. He's given a ring on his finger,

he's in charge of the entire, basically the saving of the people of Egypt, but also subsequently the Hebrew people. So Joseph gets put a second in command, he ultimately ends up saving all of his brothers and his father, and they come before him and they don't know who he is is because it's so long and he's so different. And they're in the midst of this famine and drought and they go before him and he

basically encounters his brother and he says that verse to all of them to his, you know, the 12 brothers. And he's like, what you met for evil, God met for good in the saving of many lives, what is now happening. So he was ultimately their salvation at the end of the day. Oh my goodness. And that's, I've said that. I've quoted that. But that morning, Eddie heard me out on that podcast and like how much I was getting from it. And the story of Joseph became an anchor for me. And that scripture became an anchor for me about full circle. Why God was doing what He was doing. And I told him, I had told you or Sean,

I said, God audibly told me this is bigger than us. This is bigger than us. Because when I would just fall in a heap and cry and I had to hold on to what I believed and what I believed was that God was allowing us to go through this for a purpose. That was bigger than us and I do see that now more than ever. Yeah, that's so powerful. It's a powerful story, a very symbolic. Yeah, but it's powerful that that kept you going.

Yeah. And kept that in turn kept any going and your family and all of it's just it's it's it's remarkable. It truly is. It is. Which leads to where you guys are today and the Pike Pitter Foundation and now helping others. Yep. And do you want to talk about that? It kind of explain a little bit more about that. Yeah. So yeah, that that was really birthed out of the overall struggle of dealing with an amazing nonprofit that had our best interest. They had our back. They supported us.

And that was the Navy SEALs Fund. And then we had this other nonprofit that targeted us and was corrupt. And I thought of all the things of all the evil that we're experiencing, and then trying to additionally capitalize off of our misfortune and extort us and all of these things, I was like, it doesn't get much worse. And I'm like for military families especially, that don't have the wherewithal. They don't know how to even circumvent the level of pressure

that this system is able. I mean, and they put their thumb on the scale. I mean, they had their thumb on the scale of our trial the whole time. And it was from every angle. And so we would always say like, we saw behind a curtain that we never knew existed. And most people don't want to know it existed,

but now that we do, we cannot unsee what we saw. And knowing that if we, let's say we just go into the night and we, oh gosh, thank God we got out of that, I, I could not, in good conscience, live my life knowing that it's possible for these types of things to happen to people and not do something about it. So even before Eddie got out of the military and they continued to terrorize him even after his trial. So he got vindicated almost near the 4th of July, 2019. That was the day of our sentencing.

And then the 3rd of July I think was the day. And then from that point through, I think November, he retired late November 2019, so just last year, I started the process of looking into, how do we create a nonprofit? How do we do something to stop this from happening? How do we put another good and righteous nonprofit on the map and potentially take this other nonprofit out that's like using these people. So it took a very long time.

I never intended to start a nonprofit, but the Pi Petter Foundation was just born out of our struggle. And between Sean and I, the map that we carved was one that was totally unique. So me utilizing my background in like imagery and branding and messaging and just like fighting basically for what's right and fighting to get our message out there and then Sean fighting through the channels of, you know, utilizing the Congress and the members of Congress,

we had them sign on to a piece of paper that actually basically in essence, it was the reason that President Trump got involved. So we had over 50 members of Congress sign on to basically saying that Eddie needed to have the right to defend himself, that he should have the right to do that. And so when we crafted this path, we felt like we had a purpose in sharing how to help people through trials and struggles, because what we had a purpose in sharing how to help people

through trials and struggles, because what we had done was pretty unprecedented. So that's what our foundation does. We helped to guide people through crises, through advocacy, PR, legal defense funds, and then emergency relief grants. So what we knew was they went after our whole family. They just didn't go after Eddie.

They went after his children. They went after me. They tried to break us apart. They tried to crush us. They tried to find nanchally overwhelming us. So we tried to empower and equip people and walk alongside of them in a way that will enable them to hopefully get through

and come out on the other side of being wrongly targeted or caught in the midst of a crossfire of whatever it is. So that's kind of the vision behind it. And so we basically got our IRS approval during the middle of 2020 COVID. But we immediately started to set out to help people. So we've been raising money online. We obviously haven't been able to do events, but we've partnered with amazing foundations like Charlie Daniels, the Journey Home Project. They've helped us to get off the ground and done special donations. And like we're just really trying to help as many people as possible, but it's not just

service members. It's police, first responders, service members, and their family. Oh, okay, I didn't know that. Yeah, that's great. So yeah, we have an amazing board of directors. Mark McKasey sits on our board of directors. Okay. Actually, a lot of people that were involved

in the fight to free Eddie are involved. I was gonna ask. Okay. Yeah, we have an amazing board of director. And then so those individuals, a lot of them were critical and helping us to tip the scales to free Eddie. And then our executive director is incredible. So yeah, definitely did not set out to start a nonprofit,

but here we are and I feel like it's a total calling for us and we just, we have to do it. There's no other option because people need help and now sadly our police are getting targeted just as bad as our military. It's just sad and we wouldn't have been able to foresee that. So, yeah, by the grace of God, we're now able to help and support

these people through these types of struggles or if their families are targeted. Wow. And it's currently undergoing. Like you guys are working with people. Oh, yeah. We got IRS approval in April. And then we immediately started to go through the applications. We had gotten

an influx of once we kind of did a soft launch and launched the website. We also launched the application portal. And we got a backlog of over 40 applications of people that are sadly in, you know, some level of hardship situation that we're specifically looking to help them with. So we have, you know, we have a pretty tight wheelhouse of what we will take and what we will onboard. So our board of directors votes on the people that we wanna approve, but we offer the help and guidance and then emergency relief grants.

So yeah, we've already been able to help people and their families and give emergency relief grants to people that are struggling and going through similar legal hardships or maybe even a hardship related to some type of illness or hardship about them getting pushed out of the military. Because that's the common thread to even after Eddie's trial, he was consistently targeted and pushed out. And they wanted to take everything from them. They wanted to take his retirement. they wanted to take his military benefits, they wanted to take his trident. It was just injury to insult to insult. And it was all just sour grapes, because we have exposed so much about how badly they handled this case. So we see that a lot sadly with our nonprofit. It's a consistent problem that these commands are weaponizing the UCMJ and they're basically

that these commands are weaponizing the UCMJ, and they're basically targeting service members and stripping them at like 18, 19 years of everything. For stuff that they've, some of them for stuff they've been found not guilty of. And it's like, what's the point of the process if you're going to just then in essence, leave them alone in destitute? Cause their wives leave them.

Their kids are taken. They have no income. They can't go get a job. They're, you know, if they're tritons taken at such an identity for them. And then you're basically putting these people at risk for veteran suicide. Yeah. That's another thing. I was just briefly talking to Eddie downstairs between Sean and Eddie's break, but

they're targeting an already like fragile group of guys that are coming back, you know what I mean? Although there are our war heroes, but you know like 22 a day and it's just like what are they getting out of that and it I don't know It's awful because we're coming up to 20 years of these guys. And I just feel like there needs to be more awareness, more talk about all of that and the transition. And to then hear that these guys are getting targeted and losing that purpose that they fought for, it's, it's awful.

It's really awful. So I think you guys are doing God's work. You really are. Yeah. I believe so. I feel like there is just such a bigger underlying reason why we got into this. And now what we're discovering is through the level of of hardship that these people are experiencing, one of our main goals that we're

evolving for 2021 is doing more about the veteran suicide. But when you think about all of the pressure that is put on these guys from the beginning and the onset of their career. And a lot of research has been done, now that we've been navigating transition for the better part of 2020, it's just so eye-opening. A lot of the injuries to their brains and the TBI's are even obtained during training before they even go to combat. Really? So you think about these guys with, you know, huge tears in their brain

through even the developmental process to become a seal and to be able to be trained enough to go over into theater. And these guys, this 20-year generation of the 9-11 generation is going to be so unique because they deployed, for Eddie Firk's example, he deployed back to back non-stop. He was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, on and on and on and on. I mean, eight combat deployments. And then the level of services, okay, so everyone's like, well, why are they so messed up when they get out? I'm like, when do you think, when they're working up for a year and a half

deploying non-stop and then coming back and doing another workup? And that's the other thing. The cycles of the soft community are you're at workup doing your special pro-dev and your training preparedness. Well, longer than you are, usually deployment. So your family is just on hold, on hold, on hold. And, hold. And I don't think people have a clear grasp and I'm understanding of the sacrifice that these families and these men have made the last 20 years. And the weight of the burden of 9.11, it did fall on to the soft community.

That's just common knowledge. So the idea that someone that served for 18, you know, 20 years has maybe done anywhere from two to 10 to 20 combat deployments. And then, yeah, you messed up. Like, there's people that we help and support. Yes, they messed up. They did something wrong. But the punishment does not fit the crime. Like, if you think of these guys and they've been used and abused and they have, you know, mental and emotional, and that's what they signed up for. And Eddie is very open about, like, listen, I knew I was disposable in a way. I was disposable to the military. Yes, they invested a lot into me, but, you know, ultimately at the end of the day, he would have given his life

for this job. But I think there's a very big fine line where at the end of their careers, I think there's this, I guess the word is they're expendable. They're expendable, but they're not disposable. These guys have fought and given so much. And then they do one thing, or they get caught up in something, and then they're discarded by their commands and the community and everything stripped.

It's like, there is something bigger that's going on that I think that we need to address by like, how do you just discard someone that clearly is suffering? That because you put them through years of sustained combat and you really didn't have a proper break in there, that, yeah, they probably do have issues they've never addressed. So therefore, that's why you're seeing the veterans that are trying to navigate transition.

These are people that have been operating and going nonstop for sometimes two decades straight. And it's been happening. And so therefore, they have a backlog of trauma that they've never dealt with. And in transition is where they have the time to sit and to think and to be like, I really am screwed up. It comes to light. It comes to light. And they don't have the wear with all.

A lot of times so many of them have broken marriages because they gave everything to the community that they served. I mean, the divorce right now in the sale community is over 120 percent because they're calculating second marriages. I mean, it's a trickle down effect. These guys get affected. The battle rhythm that they were called to serve is obviously it's going down operationally now. We're not at the height of a war, but these

guys were. And so it's just all part of a bigger problem that I think we're only going to start seeing the real consequences of a 20 year war on our service members, their families. And so that's why we just want to be prepared in ahead of the game. And that's why the Piperter Foundation, we will take that on more as a pillar of our service to the veteran community and even to the police community with everything they're suffering. I know their suicide rates are skyrocketing.

I mean, there's no appreciation there either. Right. So it's like these guys that are the heroes and the best among us, they've been everything for us, have now turned just having targets on their backs. And then we wonder, why is the rate going up? And I mean, the suicide rate, it isn't even 20 to a day anymore, it's higher. And in the VA, I don't think they'll put a new number to it, because it would probably just be too overwhelming. Right. But I've heard it's closer to 30, which that's probably not even accurate. It's probably double that, but they're not calculating.

And I've talked to people that have lost, you know, children to the war of suicide that served. And there's just not enough being done. So we're just, we're looking to partner more in 2021 to do more, but we do feel like it's uniquely entrenched into how these commands are just discarding these people. And you can't strip military benefits away from someone that's just getting to the point where they have to figure out how to do a new way of life after serving for 20 years. And they've sustained horrific injuries internally or externally in combat. It's unfathomable. It's actually

a horrible thing that should not be allowed. I don't care if someone did do something horrible. If these people have internal wounds that they suffered in combat, there should be more to offer that because otherwise, they don't have any other choice. They're a destitute. I agree. And they're forgetting that they're human. You know, I mean, and humans make mistakes. and that's just what humans do. So to discard them, almost like machines where it's like your program to do a job, if you mess up, they can just discard you. You know what I mean?

And I just think that it's awful that they're doing that and they're getting away with it and they're forgetting that they're human. So again, I just think it's amazing what you guys are doing. And bringing all of that to light, and it's incredible. The fight continues. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like, how do you then prepare neck for this next chapter

for, no pun intended, but for the book to be released. And there's got to be a wall that you're starting to maybe put up for like this next wave, possibly of more press. And all of that, do you think that that would would come? And obviously you guys are ready to handle it, but are you though, you know what I mean? Like, I don't think that you get into a situation like this. Like we would have never been able to predict like what would have happened to how popularized like his case and the trial. And then when, when President Trump got involved

and rightly so, in my opinion, like when we put that before Congress and the people were like, he deserves a right to a fair trial, he deserves a right to innocence until proven guilty. When that happened and then Trump ended up tweeting to get Eddie out of pre-trial confinement, I mean, so much has been so eye-opening,

but we did turn into a bit of a political football because of the, you know, just the contentious nature between the media and President Trump. It actually, we got spiraled into a very weird environment where it wasn't about the case, it wasn't about what was true, it was about what was the best clickbait. And so if it was some egregious charge

they threw on there that was completely fabricated and made up, like, oh, so first things first, no one, the prosecution knew this. No one really cared too much about a dead ISIS fighter. So strategically, they fabric got people to fabricate and make up insinuations that there was people that they saw killed on deployment, which were formerly on deployment reported as ISIS killing them that then they turned into, oh, Eddie Gallagher was killing them. Now none of this was founded or real and it never happened, but it got to the point where

this became such a fabrication and story that the prosecution and then the media also furthered this narrative. So actually what you can see that people are most upset about or what's most egregious to everybody is that one of the charges was that Eddie killed a little girl and a father on Father's Day, an old man that was probably a father on Father's Day. I'm like, you can't make this up. Like it was completely false. It's fictitious. It didn't happen. But in the media, it is the most prevalent and widely known, a gree just war criminal story about Eddie Gallagher.

And you're just sitting watching. And it's so eye opening. So to answer your question, the fake news media is real. Suppression of conservative values, beliefs, anything opposing is real. Suppression of conservative values, beliefs, anything opposing is real because it happened to us the entire time through social media and anything that had to do with if we spoke out against whatever or if we said the truth about this, it was like you thrown an Instagram jail or whatever. And it's like, okay, this is only really going one way. And then you've seen it just escalate and escalate and escalate.

And you talk about this stuff and you're like, you sound like a crazy person because no one really wants to think that it's possible that we're under this much control and that the media and that everything is just so convoluted. And the narratives are just made to get eyeballs. So if you look at any article, nine times out of 10, it's Eddie and dress whites and sunglasses and you know, because it's like someone's bound to click on that. Yeah. And even articles that are not even about us, they'll find a way to put Eddie Gallagher's name in, and the headline picture is Eddie and Dress White. And it's like, it's not even an article about us.

It's about, and then remember this happened in Eddie Gallagher, and it's like, it's just clickbait. And so the media is the media. I do feel like it was trial by fire for us. I don't have whatever chip it is that makes me care about other people's opinions or whatever. Like, I know what the truth is. I'm a child of God.

I'm an amazing human being. I do my best to be kind and I can bust some balls. But as long as you're on my good side, I'm a nice human being. I love my friends. I love my family. I'm fiercely devoted. I'm loyal. I don't buy into any of it.

And I didn't care. But I do have people that are very close to me that it affected them greatly. It hurt them. It hurt them to hear stories of eddy. And it hurt them to hear the media saying these things about eddy. And it would put them into a tailspin. And it's hard. It's hard to watch people be terrorized like this. So for me, it's not as much concern for me. It's concern of protecting my children, protecting my husband,

because he is a little bit more sensitive when things get said. And it's just such a sad reality that like you could have an elite career and you could have nothing bad about you, your reputation is spotless and then you just have this huge thing that's just all false and made up and you're, you know, it's who you are now. Right.

And now you're labeled as a war criminal. By the way, everybody, taking a photo is not a war crime. It's just not, I'm sorry. Everyone does it in the military. I know people don't want to, aren't we better than that? No, people in the military are exposed to horrific violence and they are desensitized

and that's how they have to be. They're members of the military. That's why only 1% of 1% signs up for the military and special ops. So it's like, I think, you know, people need to stop being so naive and they also need to stop looking at clickbait, look into it. Taking a photo is not a work crime. By the way, everyone else in the platoon took a photo with that guy, individually, cumulatively, collectively, why did they only go after Eddie Gallagher? It's because Eddie Gallagher was a target.

And it's just, it's hard to see how little bandwidth people have for the truth, but how much they will spin out on lies, false information, and people still think Eddie was pardoned. They still think Trump pardon Eddie. After all. And they just wanna believe the negative negative it it just that's there Yeah, more comfortable in stewing in that you know and not looking into it and yeah, you know coming up with their own

conclusions on things but I mean, I know we both said that we both don't come from military backgrounds and I know for me being with Sean really opened my eyes to what actually goes on over there. And I don't just mean that with our guys, our military guys, I mean the culture over there. And I thought before Sean, I was pretty up to date with my news. And I could pretty much tell you what was going on and I was much more news savvy than I am now by far. Because now I just don't trust any of the news but. I remember just being like, what? Like there's no way. And to then jump on something like Eddie's case where you don't know.

And when they see guys take pictures with ISIS and it's like, oh my God, but they don't know. And the media doesn't tell people that. And it's completely shielded. So then once something like this, your case is thrown into them, into their living room to see this, they're so quick to just place judgment and think that they know, but they have no idea. And it's just amazing. It is absolutely amazing because

you can't, there's no way in knowing. I wish so many times that some of the people closest to me could really hear Sean and other guys' experiences and inform them on what that culture is like, what the world is like over there, what our guys go through. And it's just so mind blowing. It's pure evil and no one known over here really wants to know because they don't know do at night. No, if you knew on a given day what these guys encounter Yeah, I mean, I can remember Eddie telling me stories about this last deployment and Mosul and that like they would try to draw Them out by just sending little kids at them to draw them out and then they would just spray these little kids and kill Women and children all the time to draw the guys out then they would just spray these little kids and kill women and children all the time to draw the guys out.

And Eddie would just be like, there is dead bodies everywhere, there is stuff all over the place. Like, ISIS is just brutal, brutal with the women and children over there. So, they cut off little kids' heads and they put them on spikes outside the school yard. And this is the things that our country, they wouldn't want you to know that because then you wouldn't be so superficial to just all you're worried about is keeping up with Kardashians or scrolling through social media or laughing at cat videos. It's like people need to wake up.

In this world, there is evil. In this country, there is evil. In this country, there is evil. Pure evil, the purest form that they would murder you, your children in a second. And that's what they're over there fighting. And then we want to armchair quarterback and act like we know better, or we would be above it. And I'm like, if you've never had a bullet whiz by your head or someone die beside you or seen a woman in children, just brutally murdered in the streets, don't give me your mental platitudes or your opinions,

keep your mouth shut. And that's what I think military spouses need to start speaking up more because the guys won't. The guys will slowly die a death of just, you know, keeping it all inside. And that's a big thing of why I feel very strongly that it's going to be the spouses that are going to have to be the ones to advocate for these men that have gone through all of this trauma, helped to set them on the path to the right direction. And like that's why all of 2020 was devoted to the creation of the book and he worked on the book and then helping him restore and getting, you know, any type of help or therapy or advocacy that we could, that's the most cutting edge for people that have basically sacrifice their

mind, body, and spirit to the cause of protecting this country. And even though the military now wants to discard them and thinks that they're disposable, they're not. I mean, these men have so much to give, we have to do more, we have to be standing up for them. And that's why I just feel really strongly, like that's gonna be one of my main things that I'm going to focus on is like, how can we be better to the people that have served us? And that's like our nonprofit is our tagline is, you know, we're serving those that serve us.

And I do think that this is a big part of it as we come to the 20-year mark of, you know, 9-11, I think we do have to tackle veteran suicide and why are these guys struggling so much and why are the commands keeping them at a breakneck pace to where they get out and it's like the caboose. It's like, you know, they're on a freight train their whole career and then the caboose

just like slams into them, but it's also into the wives. It's into their kids. I mean, these are whole families that are being lost. And Eddie was just telling me, you know, statistically, it's military families to get military families. And I have to say, I don't know if that's gonna be prevalent in this country with the way

that we're treating these people. I mean, we've said, you know, if any of our kids wanna go in the military, you know, we would not discourage them, but I don't know with the way that they're treating the military, like, who's gonna enlist? Who's gonna go when we need them? Right.

That was one of my questions for you, is if Ryan, you know, wanted to join, would you encourage it, or how would you feel about it? I would not deny him that, it? I would not deny him that just like I would not deny Eddie his life dream and goal of being a Navy SEAL and like I remember like I love Eddie's grandmother Dolores. She was just an amazing beautiful woman like straight out of Mad Men. Like she was one of the first airline stewardesses like back when you had to be a basically like a model

to be an airline stewardess. But she was later in years by this time, 70 plus years old, probably closer to 80. And I just remember I talked to her and she's like, I just worry, I just worry for him. And you know, and I'd be like, but grandma, I was like, if Eddie's the type of person that if he sees a burning building, he's gonna go in. And I was like, if, you know, Eddie's a type of person that if he sees a birding building, he's going to go in. And I was like, if we stop him from doing

something like that, someone like Eddie will just slowly die anyhow. And I truly feel that that is part of the problem that we're experiencing. I feel like this society is just suffocating this warrior class of males. And, you know And we just want them all to be, I don't know what we want people to be anymore, but it's definitely not a masculine male. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I still believe in the masculine male. I love men, I love my brothers and the SEAL teams,

and we have to have those people to defend us and stand up and to fight. And I think like, it's just so important. So no, I would never, never. If Ryan truly felt that he was called to do that, I would handle the same way I handled being married to Eddie. And Eddie is my best friend. He is, he is my person in life.

I mean, and I've said before, like, I can't tell you how many times I planned what I would say if he came back in a casket. Like, what would I say? What would I do? Because I had friends that had to do that. And it's like, it was just part of the job, like making peace with the fact

that he was doing something that, yes, ultimately, he could die. And I think, you know, by the grace of God, I was able to kind of compartmentalize that and just still live a very full, happy life knowing that he could walk onto the street and get hit by a car. And that'd be the end of him. And if it's his time to go, it's his time to go. And I mean, I think God has a plan for all of us.

So I don't live in fear of, oh, Eddie could be dead. I would have never thought he would have gone to jail for being in the military. But that's another thing he's been delivered from. So, you know, and I know people go over there and they do. People lose husbands and sons. And so you do have to at some level make peace with it. It might be harder for me to let one of my children go, maybe, than even my husband, but I don't know. I wouldn't stop them. God, that's so much. And, you know, just doing all the research before you guys got here, thinking that I had a somewhat good idea. I really didn't, I mean, not until you're opening up about all this. That's so crazy. It is. That's why the book is going to be over 500 pages. It's like, you can't make any of this up.

You can't leave any of it out. No. That's why we did it that way, because there's no format where you can sit and share every nuance of everything and the corruption and the manipulation and this, and this, and this. And so that's why we wanted the book as kind of an anchor to the story

because it is a long story over the course of years and it still continues. So yeah, we're looking forward to writing the next chapter, but the media will not dissuade me and we will get targeted again, I'm sure. Right. You know, because that's how it is, it's in bits and spurts, like they'll leave you alone.

Like the mob will leave you alone as long as you're not speaking up or speaking out. But I plan on speaking up and speaking out for our military and our service members and their spouses for a very long time. So yeah, I think that's great. Yeah. I really do. And especially the spouses as well. Because I like we're talking yesterday just about it all and the spouses as well because I like we're talking yesterday just about it all and it's the front line, you know, when they get home. And there's not enough resources for women who absorb the majority of what these men go through. And there is, thank God, by the grace of God, there's been so many amazing nonprofits, even

so many of our friends that have started amazing nonprofits, that have given Eddie access to cutting-edge treatment and therapies and new things that they're trying for veterans, and especially to keep people off of pills, which I do not agree with pills. I don't agree with Big Pharma at all in the way they want to medicate our vets. I think it's horrible.

That's another thing. I think it's also tied in with veteran suicide. And I just, we have to do more. And I just went to a retreat, not that long ago, was the very first thing for me that I've ever gone to, just like a spiritual retreat, which I love spiritual stuff and spiritual retreats and growth in general. So going to that and being surrounded by other women and just having those shared experiences of saying like, my husband was not who, like, who he started out. Like, he turned into this person that was just ravaged with anxiety or PTSD or whatever.

And I would hear these women's stories and I was just like heartbroken like, oh my gosh, like, you're the one. You're the one that's absorbing all of it. And there was one of the facilitators at dinner one night. We had this conversation, and it was, it's a really cool experience. It's called ORW. It's Operation Restored Warrior. And so they do drop zones for the men. And these are usually people at their widths and like they've tried everything, they've done every therapy, they've done every and they're on the verge of like, I might not make it. And so Operation Restored Warrior was started by a guy named Paula Val and they're now starting to do female drop zones. And so Eddie went in October and it's just like a spiritual restoration

type retreat for a lot of the wounds that these guys sustain. And I got the opportunity to go in November and talking with one of the facilitators, I heard her story and they shared their own stories because there are military spouses and she happened also be facilitating with her husband. So her husband was a male facilitator, she's a female facilitator, and then they play these clips. And so they play movie clips as a way to kind of like introduce themes or things. And so they started playing a clip of the Hunger Games. And I watch movies, but I forget them. And watching this clip, it was like,

I think I was just bawling. And it's like, it was so symbolic of, you know, it's not catness who's chosen. It's print. And so print is the one that's selected to like be a part of the Hunger Games. And I was like, it's our guys. Our guys are print. Our guys are the ones that sign guys. Our guys are print. Our guys are the ones that sign up. Our guys are the ones that volunteer.

Our guys are the ones that go there and they're the tribute. But ultimately, it's the females. The spouses are catnists. And catnists like stands up and is like, I'm gonna fight on this person's behalf. And I feel like that's like so symbolic of like these women obtained so many wounds from protecting their husband and then protecting their kids

when their husband's having a hard time. And talking that night, I was like, we've got to do more. I mean, these women are bearing such a burden. And so that picture of like, catniz volunteering as tribute, it's a position of strength. She does it out of the love. And that's,

that's how I'm gonna live the rest of my life. Like, he's the one that was chosen to be a part of the military, but I need to, I am volunteering as a tribute to be a voice for him because he won't speak up as much. I mean, he is more because now he's kind of in a position where he knows he's being called to talk more about it. But I do feel like it's just so symbolic of like, I feel like spouses have got to stand up because I know these guys do a lot of hurt and a lot of damage to spouses, so I don't blame anyone that's left. And if something horrible is happening, obviously leave, but

I feel like it's a very hopeless end for so many of these people that give their life and service and then they've ruined their lives. They've ruined their marriage. And so they're alone and they don't have anyone to turn to. And my friends that have stood by their spouses, I mean, they are the most amazing women. A lot of them are very godly, faith-based women though. And I feel like that's part of it. Because otherwise, how can you see through this fog of war

that they come back with? And you're like, you're not even like the person. But in the course of a year, I've seen, like, my Eddie, who had to be, you know, he had to be in a very much like go mode, very hard for all the years of service. And I look at him sometimes and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, getting him back is. It means a lot, not losing him in the first place to war. Yeah. Or then the trial or jail for the remainder of his life.

And then it's beautiful. So I know it's possible. I know healing is possible because I've seen in the course of the year he has, we have tried all different types of stuff to help and support him through transition. So I know that if we just keep doing more to help and support our veterans, it's possible because I've seen it in my husband.

And I feel like if we can survive a military career and a war crimes trial, and within one year, I'm seeing healing and restoration on a level that's just monumental, it's anyone, it can happen for anybody. Yeah, because his transition wasn't like everybody else's. Oh, no, it was, yeah, he was put through the ringer. Yeah, for sure.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I told you yesterday, I wasn't with Sean when he was deployed. Yeah. But I was there when he was home. And after an attempted suicide. Yeah.

And then I come into his life. So I just feel like we're all put together for a reason. And it's huge, you know, it is beyond us. But oh yeah, seeing who he was from our first date to who he is today and it is possible, you know, it is, yeah, know? It is. Yeah. There's a lot of growth and healing that comes along with time,

but you have to be patient and reach out to others and ask for help. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's huge, you know? It is huge, for sure. Yeah, so I definitely feel like, you know, it is huge for sure. Yeah, so I definitely feel like, you know, I hope that as we can

grow our network and our influence and the nonprofit and what we're doing to help and support, I mean, I feel strongly the spouse side has got to be built up in a way that empowers these women to be able to cope and to deal with what's happening in the lives of the men that they love. Yeah. And have the tools there to use and tap into for sure. Yeah. And also get support for themselves because I don't think when your main focus and your main job is like supporting and protecting your family and your spouse and your seeing, you know, all that they've gone through.

I mean, you know why it's happening, but you don't always know how to help and support them in a way that like you said, I think you have to have a lot of patience built in. And I think that for me comes through just prayer and just believing that one day we'll get to the place where we need to be or that he should deserve. He deserves to be happy and at peace.

He served and he gave. I don't believe that our veterans are irreparable or they are worth fighting for. Absolutely. And so I think as spouse is the more that we can stand up for them and the more that we can advocate for them in the future, it's going to be pretty powerful. So yeah, I left that retreat and I'm like, they at the end of it kind of have you choose a new name. And I'm like a couple of years ago, I prayed just that like my word or my thing for the year was like just that like my word or my thing for the year was like a fire inside and I had totally forgotten about it. And that fire was built through basically from 2015 on, I've been having

2020. Yeah. And so from 2015, I started to have this like it was like a real trial by fire and almost over finer fire that I forgot that I had said that a couple of years ago about fire inside. And then at the retreat when I was like praying and I told them I was like, my new name is gonna be Girl on Fire. And so like, now I've got this like whole catness, like I'm coming for you, I'm coming for everybody,

like, but in a good way too, I think. Absolutely. You know, like in the end, she steps into a role that she didn't necessarily know was gonna come upon her, and then she builds her strength, then she trains, and she learns, and she ends up saving, you know,

her people ultimately, and my people are, you know, Eddie and my kids and my family. And those are my immediate people, but I do hope it'll have a ripple effect of helping and supporting other people and other veterans and their spouses. So yeah, well, it sounds like you're already doing it. The ripple effect and the effects.

I've already got fire. I just need Lenny Krabbets to give me the better wardrobe, Lenny. Help me. Yeah. Yeah, were you watching that part too? I had the kids watch it with me when I came back home because Eddie left to go do something else in Texas. And so yeah, we rewatched it in that scene where she's just like spinning with the fire.

I was like, oh, one day. I love it. Yeah. Well, so how do people find PipeHitter Foundation and more about your book? What are some quick things they can look into? Okay, yeah, so everything is all virtually online. You can connect with us. Eddie's account is just Eddie Gallagher on Instagram.

I'm Andrea Gallagher on Instagram. We have all the stuff like kind of embedded in his link there, but we are going to be doing a website in 2021. So nice. We're going to kind of launch all things Eddie Gallagher and affiliated. So we're excited about that. But the PiPitter Foundation or nonprofit is linked under there. You can also find us on Instagram at PiPitter Foundation or the piPitterFoundation.org online in our website.

If anyone is watching this and they realize they know someone that's in crisis, you can reach out. We have an application line online form that they can fill out. If they're a service member, police, first responder, or a veteran, or a family member. Okay. And yeah, just in general, we're really excited about the book. The book website is edigalliger.com. Again, we're going to try to get this all in one place because it turns into a lot, like as you know, if you don't have different passions and stuff. So as we evolve, it'll be on the edigalliger.com, but right now, find us on Instagram, connect with us. We have a lot of good things going on. He has a lot of awesome partnerships and people that have come alongside of us that we love working with. So we're kind of having fun working together. Great, yeah.

I know the gala. The gala.gurbook.com is, right now we're only doing pre-style bundles, but eventually everything will launch online, the book will finally get through DoD, God willing. And we'll have more information on publication and when you can buy it, but it'll be on Amazon and everywhere books are sold. Great.

And all those links that you just said, we could put those in the description down below. Absolutely. And the book is called The Man in the Arena. So yeah, that's my final thought. It's not the mispicture. It's the mispicture. Yeah, which my face is like, it's not the credit coup counts. Because we were the ones that were in the arena.

And so yeah, that's how we live our life. We surround ourselves with people that like you guys amazing individuals out there, like making difference doing good things. And haters gonna hate us. When I used to like T Swift, I can't even say it anymore. So liberal. But you know, it's good. It's a good journey. And it'll continue to evolve. But those are the fun things that we're doing. And then, yeah, 2021 is going to focus on the books. And then Eddie is working with another company.

He's gonna, he's getting into some guns, gun sales, gun kit stuff. Great. So some fun stuff, you know, guy stuff. Yeah. You get wrapped up into this stuff and you're like, how do we get here? How do we get here? I've been asked myself that a lot.

Yeah. But if it leads to gummy bears and guns, like we're doing something right. There's no other place I'd rather be. Yeah. But if it leads to gummy bears and guns, we're not that right. There's no other place I'd rather be. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. Well, all right, this has been really great. I know.

It's really good. So, um, yeah. Girl time. Yeah. It was rough. We got some robes to try on. Yes. We'll put those.

Everyone should see our robes. We'll put a picture. Okay, we can do a picture. We'll take a picture. Yep. So at the end of this, it's going to flash a picture of us looking fabulous. Oh boy. We have really bonded. We have.

And the course of a very short amount. I know. This is how it is though, if you're husband, even if you weren't like a team spouse in the team, like you are a team spouse. If you were married to a former Navy Steel, we, we will get along. Yeah. I love it. Very, thank you so much. This is very awesome.

All right. That's a wrap. That was so awesome. Tim's over here like, oh my gosh. I witnessed the girl bonding. The tear. It's time to get away in a new Hyundai vehicle during the Hyundai Getaway sales event at Woodhouse Hyundai. The Hyundai lineup of sedans at SUVs has the capability you need and technology and features you want, like the all-new 2023 Hyundai Powseh and Hyundai Tucson. This holiday season, get into a vehicle that will give you confidence with Hyundai owner

assurance America's best 10-year 100,000-mile warranty. Visit us online at WoodhouseHundayOfOmaHod.com. The Bullwork Podcast focuses on political analysis and reporting without partisan loyalties. Real sense of day job is sprinkled on our PTSD. So things are going well, I guess. Every Monday through Friday, Charlie Sykes speaks with guests about the latest stories from inside Washington and around the world. You document in a very compelling way. All of the positive things have come out of this, but it also feels like we have this massive hangover.

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