The Armstrong and Getty Show. One year, we asked for money and we picked out really good cause like Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. They are fantastic. We're trying to raise a half a million dollars this week and we've been explaining to you over the last couple of days what Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is what they do. But what better way than to talk to somebody who has benefited. It's a pleasure to welcome Mike Spivey to the Armstrong
and to Getty Show. Mike, how are you, sir? I'm good. How are you good? Good? It's great to talk to you. Well, we're gonna just briefly tell your story so the folks can understand how you came into contact with Warrior Foundation Freedom Station go from there. But um, it was in Afghanistan with the third Battalion, fifth Marines. Mike was leading a foot patrol using a metal detector searching for I E. D S. When Mike, you found one the hard way
it exploded. Mike was seriously injured, taking large amounts of shrapnel to the legs and lower back, including several vertebrae, extensive damage to his left arm, uh and and a few weeks later, I had to make the incredibly difficult decision to amputate the arm Uh. You should know. During seven years of service before being medically retired due to his injuries, Mike received the prestigious Purple Heart to Combat
Action Ribbons first time, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. So there you are, Mike, uh, seriously injured, young, trying to figure out where you're going in life. And was it then that you connected with Warrior Foundation Freedom Station? Yeah,
it was. It was actually while I was at the hospital. Um, there's actually like you know, and whenever the day I first got there, um, they met my family, UM, helped set them up in hotels and everything like that so that they didn't have to worry about all the bills while they were, you know, waiting for me to come
out of surgery. And then a couple of years or a couple of weeks later actually, um, you know, as I started to progress through my rehab, we were encouraged to get out and do different activities, um, just to get moving again and basically trying to figure out how to maneuver our new lives with our disabilities. And that's whenever I met Sandy and the Lady's Freedom Station fantastic. So Joe and I have toured the Werior Foundation Freedom
Station a whole bunch of times. And if you've never seen it, it's a these little cottages that are are are together and a lot of the residents UM are oftentimes from the same unit and are now wounded and they're trying to figure out how to get their lives back together and everything like that. Let me read a quote from you and then you can add to it. Whether it was having barbecues outside or getting together in someone's cottage. We had dinner together almost every night. Many
of the residents were from the same unit. We fed off each other's energy and pushed each other to do more. Get in the gym, go golfing, get out of the house, enjoy nature. That's that's awesome. The idea of UM, you're injured and you're staring all this uncertainty in the face, and rather than being in a in a hospital room with nobody you know around, you're around you know guys
that can understand what you've been through. UM, explain a little bit about how important this um ME it's it's it's almost undescribable how important that is because I mean whenever you're at the hospital, I mean you're literally in a you're in a room you don't have, like you have a bed and a closet and maybe a TV or whatever, but you don't have your day to day
stuff that you know you're gonna need. You're gonna end up having to figure out how to like work out later on UM and so it kind of gives you that um, that advantage instead of having a waiting wait until you're you've left the hospital, left to services, and
then try to figure everything out. Now you're you're still doing rehab, you can go back to the hospital, do your therapy is there and like discuss everything with different amputees, or while you're while you're at your cottage, you know, if you're having trouble, you can go next door and be like, hey, how are you doing this? Oh well, I do it like this, or I do it like that, or you know something like that. So, I mean, it's
it's it's incredible. Helps Wow, that's great. And you know, one thing I think a lot of civilians don't understand is how the transition like from being active duty being militarily retired. How Rocky that can be whether it's getting the benefits going or trying to figure out what to do with your life. Plus you and and people like you're generally very young. What was that experience like that transition? Um, well it would have been it would have been a lot worse had it had I not been within at
the Three Station at those times. Because whenever I got retired from the Marine Corps and they transferred me over to the v A and everything like that, it took almost five months for me to get my my check from the v A. So if if I hadn't have been living at the Freedom Station, I probably, um, you know, I probably would have ended almost because I mean here I am. I had a career. I just retired, and you know that I didn't I had these injuries. I
couldn't like go straight into the workforce. Um. I had no plans really because I was planning on doing another thirteen years in the in the Marine Corps. So I wasn't set up for it. So, like I said, if it wasn't for the Freedom Station, I'd probably be living in my truck. That's sorry, I I hear. It took five months for we the people to get you your benefits.
It makes me crazy, but I know there are folks working on that too, But thank god, Warrior Foundation Freedom Station is there in the interim for guys and gals like you. If you're liking this story, go to Armstrong and Getty dot com. We've got a big banner there. It's easy to see and donate any amount of money
we'll do and it adds up really fast. And we always raise a lot of money because we've been around enough of these um enough of these guys and and toured enough times and heard enough stories that man, we we couldn't be bigger believers. We appreciate you coming on with us today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks Mike. Great to talk. I've known people that left the military and we're trying to transition back into regular life without
the physical injuries. Were the emotional injuries These guys that you know, you're missing a couple of legs or an arm or whatever along with the emotional stuff, and you're supposed to just okay, now, now, good luck out there in the regular world. And you're young, you're not making a bunch of money as a marine or a soldier, and and and you gotta wait months and months and
months and months to get any of your benefits. You know, again, it's a shame that it takes an organization like Warrior Foundation, Freedom Station, but it's absolutely completely needed, really needed, and thank god it's there, and thank you for your contributions.