EP: 343 The Redemption of a Wounded Heart with Blake Cook

The McDonald's snack wrap is back. You brought it back. Ranch snack wrap. Spicy snack wrap. You broke the internet for a snack. Snack wrap is back. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. Pro Savings Day's Doorbuster deals are on at Lowe's. My Lowe's Pro Rewards members save an additional $120 on a GE 21.9 cubic foot top freezer refrigerator. Plus, members saved $70 on a Bosch hammer drill, now only $99. Not a Pro Rewards member? Join for free today.

The history of our Earth is so different from what we can imagine. The Smithsonian, if they found out about a large skeleton somewhere, was to go get it. I'm going to assume at least one person. is right, because if one person's right, it busts the paradigm. It all goes back to the fallen sheriff. And the problem with the modern day church, they have a very truncated view of the supernatural. This backdrop is just pregnant with all kinds of meaning associated with this Mount Hermon event.

And this guy defects from the kingdom. That's a big deal.

again trying to get dan to count in like wayne's world camera guy but in one of these days all right welcome back to blurry creatures today's guest is blake cook Blake, welcome to the Blurry Basement. Wow, thanks for having me here. You just made it into the 80s. You slipped in in 1989, but hey. I made it. You made it. You're a Purple Heart winner and former SWAT team leader. I just didn't.

A true man all around, you know. True badass. And us over here, we're the dummies on Blurry Creatures Basement. But we're going to ask some questions today. Get into your story. And we're going to give you a license to get as weird as possible. I know some of these podcast episodes are a little bit more.

You keep things a little more professional, but you can get as weird as you want here. I'm weird, man, so I'm here for it. All right. And the way we start that is ask you the question, what are your thoughts on Bigfoot? And then we can go where you want to go. My thoughts on Bigfoot's real. He's just smarter than us. He knows how to dodge technology. Any stories? Any run-ins? No. There's a guy where I live. I grew up in southern West Virginia.

in appalachia mountains and there's a um mr stover who is a is a legend a pioneer mountaineer kind of guy lives in the woods he's he's walked He walked like 10 hours one time to the state capitol to get roads paved. He's about it. He lives in the woods and he swears up and down that he has seen Bigfoot multiple times. And I believe him.

Yeah. He's just one of those guys that just doesn't lie. I've never experienced anything, but I believe he's real. Well, there's a lot of places in West Virginia. I believe in aliens too. I don't care what people say. John Denver saw Bigfoot, probably. Bigfoot, I think, avoids the country roads. Oh, wow. Yeah, country roads is not really about West Virginia. It's not even about West Virginia. We like the stories with, you know.

gentlemen in uniform that have had these paranormal experiences on the ground. And I think that, you know, you do enough weird stuff, you're in action for long enough, you're going to have some stories to tell. And on our podcast, we're always sort of looking for the more paranormal, strange, strange stuff. But you have a long career and I'm sure you've.

Had some encounters and some moments that you were like, that's more than just human evil going on here, I'm assuming. Yes, I've had one really weird encounter on duty. Sticks with me forever. uh i'll never forget it my wife made me strip down naked outside wouldn't even let me wear my clothing inside uh because i was like it was weird to square the move yeah it could be normal

Could be. They'll get naked before you come inside. I didn't know how to take that. But then she hit me with a bunch of sage and choked me to death. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Big letdown.

Like tick check. Tick check. That's it. No, but I mean, I'll tell you about that one if you want to hear it. Yeah. It's a good one. Let's start with that. Yeah. Yeah. So. This is back when I was a patrol officer before I went up to the gang unit. I used to love the third shift, which started at 6 p.m. and ended at 3. It was the weird hours.

the car racks but then uh and some shoplifters but then after nine you know when the sun goes down the goons come out to play and and you're really running and gunning but there was an apartment complex where uh the caller on the first floor

called 911 for a physical disturbance for the floor above and said they could hear a man and woman yelling. The man was yelling in a really deep voice that he's... gonna kill her and and he's taking over her soul and and i'm like okay cool this is normal domestic husband's drunk right came home wearing out his old lady and uh she's she's not gonna call for help so so

we're on our way we get there and uh i knock on the door and i hear this deep voice i was like fable police fable police open up and it's like thank you Get the F out of here. We don't want you here. And I was like, oh, well, sorry, we're here. I'm like, you need to open up, my friend. And then I hear, ah, help. So we took a step back, kicked the door in. As soon as the door came open.

uh there was a female that was standing right in front of the door so we grabbed her pulled her back gave her back to the third officer and then myself and the secondary officer cleared the whole structure the place was trashed i mean Couches, like massive sectional couches flipped. All the glass was broken. All the dishes and drawers were out. I mean, anything that was in that house.

was completely destroyed and then we went in her bathroom and the she had a big massive probably six by six um she had like a double sink so it was a massive one big mirror it was completely broken except for this one section that i forgot the verse that was on it but she'd actually cut herself well somebody cut her and then wrote a cross with a verse

on this piece of glass and blood and blood so now i'm going to windows i'm like man this dude's in here he's jumped out right so we clear it we clear it nothing nothing so go back out i'm all right let me talk with her and As I'm talking to her, I'm getting her information. She's cut real bad. EMS comes. They wrap her up. And I'm asking her, hey, man, what happened? Who's in the apartment with you? And she's like, nobody's in the apartment with me. I'm like.

look i get you're trying to protect your man here i might but like this is this is an issue and uh some i'm trying to pry information out which is I'm just thinking it's just a battered wife who doesn't want their husband going to jail. And she looks up at me and goes, I was like, oh, I was like, okay.

i was like that's sounds identical to the voice that i heard yeah i'm like let's go ahead click click you're going in handcuffs for a minute till we can figure this out so we so we're like all right maybe she's super schizo right maybe she's schizophrenic she's sitting there speaking perfect latin don't have no idea what she's saying but perfect latin like fluent and we're like all right she got to go to the hospital right and my sergeant comes in again i'm a rookie

I'm the rookiest guy out there. My sergeant's like, all right, cook, take her down to the hospital. I'm like, you want me to put her in my car after she's, because I believe. that people get possessed y'all might not believe that oh so you thought that at the time oh yeah i was like at first i thought she was schizo until she started speaking perfect latin yeah and then i was like cross bible verse perfect latin what is

This is weird. You need to go to hospitals. You're telling your chief and your crew that I'm telling my supervisor on seeing that. And he's like, you're an idiot. Okay. Oh, she's schizo. Uh, take her to the hospital. I was like, yeah okay cool roger that so get her in the get her in the car and she's just sitting there like she's still yelling perfect light and have no idea what she's saying we make a turn the hospital's mile and a half way max we turn on all american freeway

And again, I hear her do this deep laugh. She's like, what are you going to do, Samuel? And Samuel's my first name. But Samuel's not on my badge. It's not on my shirt. It's not on paper. Anything that I did paperwork-wise was Blake. Yeah, really? There's only one person that calls me Sam and Samuel, and that's my grandfather. All my court documents, everything. There's nothing in that vehicle or on my computer screen that said that my name was Samuel. I hit my lights, my blue lights and sirens.

And I turned my interior lights on, pulled up my camera, made her camera massive on my computer screen. Dude, I probably did 105 to the hospital. Got to the hospital, pulled her out, took her inside and said, hey, she's y'alls.

I'm out. And that's it. I'm not doing this. Do people like that ever break out of their cuffs? There are some people that have the weird joint things where they can pretty much... pull their thumb all the way over but but nobody like that it's it's actually really hard to get out of handcuffs if you put them on properly yeah unless you're a magician well they say that demonic people possessed people can have like superhuman strength throw like 10 dudes off of them and

They just kind of go berserk. I believe it. I mean, I'm a big believer in spirits, demonic spirits of, I'm going to get chill bumps. I don't really talk about it because people think you're weird.

But I've experienced it my whole life. This is your law enforcement career. I love we started with that. Let's start at the beginning, though, because I think your story is your testimony, right? You have this wild story that's very supernatural in the sense of God coming to get you.

i think that will set sort of set the stage for these other crazy things that we can talk about but because you have a wild story and of yourself i mean you're from west virginia that's where we started we kind of jumped ahead to law enforcement but

There's a long story before that and after that for you. Born and raised in West Virginia. Southern West Virginia, coal mine town. Sports were everything. You either got 4.0s and went off to... med school or an attorney or a dentist or you got an athletic scholarship or you went to the coal mines like that was that was your three options and I wasn't super smart I didn't want to go to the coal mines

So I decided to get really good at sports, and I got really, really, really good at football and was able to get a scholarship, played in college. I have the most after-catch yards. uh to this date for the state of west virginia a lot of yak baby yeah a lot of yak yards um i was just super fast man i ran a i ran a four four point four eight

40. That's fast for a white guy. Yeah, I was 5'11", and I was pushing about a 195, so I was a good slot receiver. I catch the bubble screen and just run through people. Didn't really have a lot of moves, so I just kind of hope to your strength. Put it down. Yeah. So, you know, I went to college. You kind of built like a rugby player, too. I would love to have played rugby. I like physical contact.

that that would have been fun or hockey but i went to college man and it just didn't last um part of my way right out and then my mom being the sweet lady she she was at she was like all right move in with me we'll go to a community college

And, you know, we'll work your way back up to getting your football scholarship. And I was like, yeah. You know, her thought was, I have him at a community college in Beckley, West Virginia, and there's nowhere to party. And I'm like, ah, we'll see about that. So. i felt out of community college because uh every day at one o'clock applebee's have happy hour so i was partying every day at applebee's

With a bunch of rednecks and moms with their kids in baby carriers at the bar. Like, people smoking. Like... It was, you know, my mom would call me. I'd go outside. I'd be like, oh, yeah, I just stepped out of the glass. We got a break. There's always a party at Applebee's. Always, man. Two for 20, too. Come on. Wow. So, you know, I broke her heart. She found out six months later that I never even attended a course. That's my reoccurring dream.

That I don't go to class. Partying at Applebee's? No, that I don't go to class. It's like a good drink. Yeah. I wish it was partying at Applebee's. It's karaoke and it's wild. They're playing my song. That's it. It's I have one class left to graduate and I don't go the whole time. That's like.

the worst dream ever i didn't go to any of my classes so then you decide i'm gonna go to the military no that's not how i decided at all oh i i was like all right cool i'm gonna call my mom maybe i just need a year all right maybe i just need a year to find myself okay I took a year and got really good at Call of Duty Modern Warfare. I was on a top 500 team in the world. Wow. I started playing at 7 at night, and I wouldn't go to bed until 6 in the morning.

and i'd sleep until four work out get back from call of duty so finally after about a couple months after this my mom's like she comes in she's like hey you're kind of a loser right now so like you need to get a job

it's like oh she's like if you don't get a job and she swears she never said this but she did and uh or you gotta go i'm like where am i gonna go you know she's just got this uh she's been dating this guy for a couple years he started living with us and he's my stepdad now i love him but he like

would try to motivate me to go to work with him. I'm not going to work with you, dude. I'm going to play Call of Duty. I'm riding this out. Ultimately, my mom calls me and she's like, hey, you got a job. I'm coming home.

uh you need to go get a job i'm serious or you're leaving so i went up to like hibbit sporting goods man i was wearing a white t-shirt with cut off sleeves some gym shorts and some sandals look like i just woke up out of bed and i go in there and i'm like hey man are y'all hiring

The guy said, oh, yeah, we are, but just not you. I was like, mm. I was like, all right, well, I tried. So I go outside, and when I went outside, that's when I met up with an Army recruiter, asked me if everything was all right, and I was like, ah, man, I just need a job. And man, it's a light bulb for him. He was like, you need a job? Son, United States Army's hiring. And I was like, really? I'm like, yeah, I can do that. Get inside, he tells me it's like Call of Duty.

Gets me all worked. I'm like, dude, I'm on the top 500 team in the world, man. If I'm good at Call of Duty, I'll be good at this. He's like, oh, dude, just like Call of Duty, all the gear. I'm like, sign me up, dude. I'm like. I'm like, I don't know what job. He's like, the infantry man. It's like Call of Duty and we need people. I was like, I don't even know what that is, but put me down. So I get home and I'm playing video games, playing Call of Duty.

And my mom's like, you got a job? I'm like, yeah. She's like, oh man, I'm so proud of you. She's like, what is it? I'm like, come here. I'm like, watch this game. She's watching it. I'm like, it's like that. She goes. would you are you working at game stop i'm like no mom signed up for the military dude she she like she starts crying she's like

Oh my God, I killed my baby. He signed up for the military. I wasn't really going to make you leave. Can you get out of it? And I'm like... i don't think you can just get out of your contract i was like i might have signed a bunch of paperwork i went to this building called meps i did all the things today i'm like i'm in it and she's like you know ultimately she ended up it was the best thing that ever happened to me truly i was um

You know, I went down for that year that I was taking a break to find myself. I hung out with some guys who were losers and were into things that they shouldn't. Like I was running moonshine is a real thing.

I was running moonshine for some doctors and stuff where I live that were delivering it to judges and a lot of corruption stuff. Were you brewing it in the woods? Huh? Were you making it in the woods? No, there was a doctor who... had an actual facility like he had like a really nice distillery yeah it wasn't in the bushes he had an overhang and i mean it was he had four wheelers i mean it was it was like dukes of hazard but it was crazy it was insane

and uh he would pay us to go out and deliver a couple bucks to deliver these jars and he would give them give them some to us apple pie moonshine was the best and uh Just got the flavor down. Yeah, dude, it was the best. Get little apples in it, cut them things up, you're hammered. But then that led into, hey, man, if you're running some moonshine, can you run some peels?

you know and it led into some weird things i did that a couple times i was this isn't right i gotta do something with my life like ended up breaking away from those friends like i gotta do the opposite i gotta stop these guys i was like this is this is weird like this at the time i didn't know any better i was 18 you know 19 years old and i didn't think anything of it I really know about drug problems and stuff like that. And so I was like, man, this, this is weird.

So I isolated myself from everybody and just worked out and played. That's when I got really good at Call of Duty because I was like, I'm just going to play video games. Everybody wants to hang out with either wants to smoke weed, either wants to do drugs or wants to just go get hammered. And now I'm.

now I got people handing me little bags of pills and it's just like, that's not where I want to be. Like that's, I didn't know anything about it, but I knew it wasn't right. Right. And, uh, and you can get really locked in on those.

uh small towns in west virginia where people don't have ambition you know and it's uh they don't have jobs so everybody there sells drugs yeah there's no way out there's no way there's no way out the only way out for me at that time the only way out for me at that time was joining the military yeah was it like call of duty absolutely not absolutely not nope because in call of duty uh

I didn't poop into a barrel and have to stir it with diesel fuel and watch it melt away. That was not in Call of Duty. Wow. They did not tell me about that. He did not. That should be in the extended edition of Call of Duty. So I went to Basic. I didn't have anything in my contract. I didn't have anything cool. Get there, all these people were like, oh, man, we're going to Raps. It was Rip at the time. Rap.

I think it was Rip. What's that? It's Ranger Selection. Okay. And I got Airborne in my contract. I got Selection for the Q course for SF. And I'm like... I didn't get any of that. People are getting sign-on, like 20,000 sign-in bonuses. Everybody in my barracks in my company had a minimum of a $15,000 sign-in bonus.

I have nothing, not even a dollar. They got you on Call of Duty. Yeah, he got me. He said Call of Duty, man. I was locked in. And so halfway through basic, you start getting your orders of where you're going. And they're like, all right. Cook, Korea. I was like, Korea? I'm like, what's in Korea? I'm not going to Korea. Like, uh-uh. I eat steak and baked potatoes. I'm not going to survive over there, dude. What am I going to eat? I don't eat.

korean food i'm like this sucks i'm like how do i get out of this i'm like i'm i'm already homesick i don't want to go all the way because that's a minimum of like a year or two that you got to be out there and and i and you know once i joined i've decided like hey man like If I'm going to join, I want to go fight. I want to go to Afghanistan. I'm not going to Afghanistan with Korea. That's a party thing. You go to Seoul, Korea, and everybody parties. It's not what I've signed up to.

I went to my recruiter and I'm like, hey, man, I'm like, what do I got? I'm not my recruiter. Excuse me, my drill instructor. And I'm like, hey, what I got to do to get out of this? Like, he goes, hey, man, like. We offer, you've gotten, so the max that you can get on your PT scores are 300. And I've gotten 300 on all my PT scores. He's like, if you get another 300 on this next one coming up in two weeks.

i'll give you an airborne contract we have one to give out and i'll give it to you and i was like oh my gosh this is awesome so i was really excited and then about two days before that pt test i came down with the flu and you know i just had all the the dehydration the throwing up the the diarrhea issues like i was really bad off and i was like my man i got to be able to do this like i can't go to korea so

The night before the PT test, I was still feeling better, but really dehydrated and tired. And my bunkmate pulls out. Opens up his, lifts his bed up, unzips it, digs all the way in there, pulls out a five-hour energy shot that he had somehow smuggled in. He was like, hey, man, I'll sell it to you. It was like 100 bucks or something. I was like, done. done let me get that in the morning so i take the um

I take it. I wake up the next morning. All night long, I'm holding it, putting it down in my shorts. I don't want to lose it. I get up. I chug it the next morning, put it in my shorts because it has the lining. Halfway through the run, I tossed it out while nobody's looking. And I got 300 on the PT test, and my drone instructor held his word and gave me an airborne contract, which...

that means I don't go to Cree anymore it means I go to either either Washington or not Washington excuse me Italy or Fort Bragg and uh and I went to Fort Bragg and um I was at Fort Bragg for about about 11 months nine months and um We're doing a lot of training. We had a couple of appointments come up. We trained for them. They get canceled. That was when the POW was was missing. So everybody was trying to find him and sending.

help to areas where they thought he might be. Like deserted? Yeah, he was a deserted. I remember that. Bo something. Yeah. Bergall. Bergall. Yeah. Bergall. Yeah. He actually studied the Quran. I mean, he did the whole thing. He left. He left on his own wheel and got captured like a dummy. But, um, so.

I went in, so I went in for a haircut. I was like, I'm tired of going to these little Korean ladies. They give me these high and tights. I want like a normal haircut. So I went into this place called Frederick's for a haircut and I sat down in this chair. And this really, really, really pretty girl started cutting my hair. And it was my wife. I didn't know it at the time. So we got to talking and...

I was like, man, she's super cool. And then the next day they're like, all right, guys, we got to go for another 30 day training. So we left for 30 more days down into Georgia to Dahlonega to train in the mountains. And when I got back. i was like i'm gonna go see that girl again get a haircut so i went to go get a haircut and walk in and she's she's in there and we're talking she's cutting my hair she's trying to set me up with a girl next to her she's like hey we're going out tonight

If you and your friends want to come out with us, come on. I'll bring out this girl and you can hang out with her. And I was like, oh, sweet. So we get at her house that night. And she's like, oh, I'm sorry. Courtney couldn't make it. She had to cancel. I was like, all right, no worries. We'll all go out. So we all went out. And then we started talking. And then at the end of the night, we were at this bar called Patty's.

And we're all still together. And then my team leader at the time texted us and was like, hey, I'm out here, guys. Come on. I'm picking y'all up. So we're leaving. I'm getting in the car. i feel somebody come up and tap me on my back shoulder and it was my wife she's like hey can you just hang out a little longer i'd just like to talk to you and uh and everybody in the car was like get in don't do it i'm like

Oh, see, good boy. You know, shut the van door and we went back out inside and just kind of sat at a table and hung out and got married 41 days later. Wow. Yeah, and we've been married 13 years. Thank you. That's amazing. He had a three-year-old son at the time. He's 17 now, but I've raised him since he was three. In my eyes, he's mine.

We have a massive relationship. His father isn't present. We have a really good bond. It's been... it was it was great but after we got married we got married um we met the week after thanksgiving then got married uh january 4th of 2012 so super super quick

But what was even crazier is after we got married, a deployment came down for the end of February. So I was like, wow, this is army wife right away. Yeah. Right away. Yeah. So I left for deployment.

uh at the end of february and went to ghazi providence afghanistan it was pretty cool at first uh there wasn't the big army uh well we were the big army what year is this like this is 2012 yep so i was in the 82nd first brigade 1504 uh red devils and um our little company got there before anybody else did uh we were there with the polish so it was pretty cool i got to experience a kind of a unregulated

deployment like where there wasn't like sergeant majors and stuff around making you do like stupid stuff and things like that and uh it was cool it was um deployment was was fun And then May 24th of 2012, we were doing a QRF operation. Some third group special forces guys. Third group or first group. What's QRF? Quick reaction force. Okay.

There's always a team that's on QRF that's ready to go. Everything's in the truck. So if there's like a terrorist or insurgency. So if like, no, well, yeah. Like if, if there's somebody in a heavy firefight, right. And they need help. where we run to the truck start with stuff on the guns and everything are already prepped uh you just gotta slap the mo in rock it send it like you know if you go to the to the gym you're in uniform

You're not in PT clothes. You're ready to go. You're ready to go. It's needed. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. When your computer breaks, you don't wait for it to magically start working again. You fix the problem. So why wait to hire the people your company desperately needs? Use Indeed's sponsored jobs to hire top talent fast. And even better, you only pay for results. There's no need to wait.

Speed up your hiring with a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream house or ride, is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home and auto.

Bundling, just another way to save with a personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

Are you ready to dairy-free your mind? This summer, melt away your dairy-free expectations with So Delicious dairy-free frozen desserts. Enjoy mind-blowing flavors like salted caramel cluster, chocolate cookies and cream, cookie dough, and more. For over 35 years, So Delicious has been...

cranking up the flavor with show-stopping products that are 100% dairy-free, certified vegan by Vegan Action, and are so unbelievably creamy, your taste buds will do a double take. Dairy-free your mind. Visit sodeliciousdairyfree.com.

So these boys were out on their operational outpost, which is away from the main fob, which was a Ford operating base. And they got into a tick with some... Taliban forces, they were actually target practicing and were getting ambushed. And they were on four wheelers and stuff. And they were pretty bogged down. So the fastest way to them. was a side road that was a black. So black means that it hasn't been cleared for IEDs in two weeks. That was the first route there. So we're driving.

We pull off a highway one. We hit this dirt road, and about 100 yards after hitting the dirt road, I was a gunner. I took my headset off. We had headsets. We were listening to some Katy Perry song. As one does. Oh, man. Head into a firefight. Starship was the name of that song. So we took the headphones off. I went to holler at somebody, and as I took my headphone off, I saw it.

I didn't hear it, but I saw like a massive bright light. Like imagine if these things were like a million looms in front of you right now, the heat, everything. And then I saw like pieces of dirt and rock and pieces of the truck in like a real slow motion feature kind of going up. It was like everything just slowed down tremendously.

And then it did that for about a couple seconds. And then boom, I came down and I hit the 240 with my face. So immediately, this is a great example. I can use it with this. So I'm in the gunner's turret, right? It's a circle. And I got the machine gun, the 240. The blast comes up. Boom. The pressure throws me back, breaks my back plate in half.

then i come forward and break the whole right side of my face on the gun like i have zero feeling on this side of my face still to this day they broke all this and um they put me on a gurney um so what happens you drive the drive over an ied is that yeah so are you in a humvee or truck or wraps okay one of the larger vehicles so the truck in front of us it was self-detonated it wasn't so it was um

And it was remote detonated because it was blown up right in between the two trucks. And EOD that went out later on the next day after I was already flown out to Bagram estimated it to be about a 500-pound IED. I mean, how much? I woke up like 10 minutes later. Is that C4? Is that like 500 pounds? Does that mean 500 pounds is like C4? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And probably multiple.

multiple yeah probably 500 hundred did they remotely let me ask this like because i don't know anything about cell phone do they remotely yeah they were watching they try to get it on they're trying to get your truck on top of it or they're trying to hit both trucks so they do in between probably trying to hit both trucks at the same time so i wake up 10 minutes later

a lot of chatter on the radio. Somebody said that, so the talk, which is the command post that has the big balloon up that's seeing everything. They're reporting a large heavy presence of possible Taliban fighters moving to our location. This is after you're getting blown up. Yeah, I'm strapped on a board. They can't get a helo in to land to get me out.

Are you the only injury or are there multiple casualties there? I'm the only massive injury. There are people that have injuries, but I was the only one that went unconscious for 10 minutes. Because you're on top. there were some people that got on the bird with us but i was only one strapped to a board and um so uh they can't land a helo um because of these possible people come in

The sky was already, it was a no-fly zone for some reason. I don't know why. So they ended up sending out two Apaches to fly around, secure a landing zone for the Blackhawk. I woke up as I'm being loaded on the Blackhawk. And I tell you what's funny about this is one of my old gang partners, right? Kelton Glorfield. I didn't know this until I met him.

He was the medic, or not the medic, but he was the gunner on the ship that picked me up. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. I didn't know him at the time. He was my partner in the gang unit. So later in the story, you end up being a partner.

eight seven years later the guy that came to rescue you yeah that's wild and uh so you know i'm on the bird and and we're talking about blackbeard right why i love blackbeard so much so i look up and and every helo every black hawk the crew has a flag that they want to fly whether it's their favorite college team their state flag whatever this helo just happened to have a uh black beard flag what's a pirate flag fire flag well just for yeah so we were talking about this pre-roll

yeah you've got a black beard tattoo i got several i mean i got i got this one i got a whole black beard chest piece on my leg i literally have black beard tattooed is that does that happen after this point okay yeah so i see the flag and then Um, I'm like really dizzy from my brain injury. And so I ended up passing out and I woke up in, in, in Bagram air force base. Actually, I woke up, excuse me. I woke up.

at our forward operating base because they couldn't find me to bagram because of the sky was in no fly zone so i'm laid in bagram for about a day um maybe a day and a half and what kind of injuries do you have at this point do you know uh no uh I had some nerve damage. I had a traumatic brain injury for sure. I was thrown up. I just was like, my body was super weak. My legs were really weak. Didn't know because I couldn't.

really see a doctor that's i'm at just some a medic tent is all i'm in they're trying to get me to bagram to the hospital and they couldn't because of the no fly zone so yes so while we're while we're dealing with this um And somebody comes in and says, hey, man, you need to call your wife. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'd like to talk to her. And they're like, well, it could be a little headache at first. I'm like, well, why is that?

Well, apparently, and I found this later on from her, is the family readiness group, which is like the wives of people who are there, called my family. my wife and told them that i there was a accident and i was possibly deceased oh man and so for a little while that's the phone call that they got jeez and um ultimately i was able to give him a call shortly after confirm that was actually alive i'm not dead not dead yeah so you know my mom had a freak out moment and um

So I remember laying there like for a whole day, I'm just laying there staring at the ceiling, just watching multiple dead Afghan civilians come in. I'm watching multiple dead.

i literally watched a surgery on an afghan um a police force guy came in was shot head to toe they're like trying to save hand bloods everywhere i'm just like laying there i can't do it i can't really move i'm strapped to a board have like this other kids it's just kind of sitting with me and uh but then they come over and they start um you start hearing the sirens

that which means they're incoming incoming incoming incoming incoming which means we're getting mortared so we're just getting mortared all day and i'm so i'm laying there strapped to this board with an injury and all i have is just people's i got just a line of bulletproof vests

everybody's just placing bulletproof vests on top of me in case our tent got hit with a mortar yeah i'm like yo that's not gonna help can i get out of here like this is let's fly me out so finally they they got clearance Flew me out to Bagram Air Force Base, which is like a little mini U.S. town at that point. And I stayed there for about a month and a half, two months. And I wasn't feeling great at the time.

and i was like you know i'm good like i want to go back lied on on all my tests said i was good went back ended up coming home and just went and just everything once by the time we got back home from deployment

So I finished it out for a couple of months. And then by the time I got home from deployment, my brain injury was really bad. My nerves, my brain and my nerves in my body wasn't really communicating very well. So I just had a. massive uh list of injuries and uh so they sent me to the warrior transition battalion um so i had three medical appointments every day speech memory and physical therapy

for almost like two years uh well for a year and a half and then after i did this whole so so walmac army medical center did they started a traumatic brain injury pipeline there was six of us i think two of the guys killed themselves one guy One guy just dropped out and three of us actually finished the pipeline. It was a really extensive pipeline. It was a lot of puzzles. Like they would time you unload in magazines and it was really stressful. And so they released me.

Let me ask this. When you say traumatic brain injury, what are the symptoms of that? Are you just in a brain fog? Brain fog. Coordination? Stuttering really bad. Memory loss. Irritated. um depression yeah um just all these all these symptoms and uh so they release me from this pipeline and they give me send me back to my unit and as soon as i get to my unit

They're like, hey, go rig up your rucksack. We're doing a combat jump tonight. Guys, I have eight months until I'm out. I don't want to jump. I just did this for a year and a half. yeah and you want me to go jump they're like it's fine it's a nighttime jump we're gonna jump and then we're gonna rock 12 miles back this is a break is this yeah i was like why they're like you don't you don't there's

I don't even know why we're discussing this. You don't have an option. So I was like, all right, well, whatever. So I went and packed my ruck up. I went home and told her, I'm like, I got to jump. She's like, what? I'm like, yeah, like I got to jump. Sorry. Did the jump that night. It was a smooth jump out. Couldn't really see much. Right before I hit the ground, instead of hitting the ground, I landed on the hood of a Humvee and smacked my head off the glass. Oh, gosh.

um so i woke up i don't know i don't know how long i was out it didn't feel long but i woke up had a massive headache nauseous thrown up i was like oh man not again so i packed my shoe up get all my stuff I dropped my shoot off and I go link up on my platoon and I'm like, Hey, it'll go away. Like you don't need to fuss about this. So I'm laying there in a, in a, in a prone position and my squad leader is next to me and I'm just like throwing up and he's like,

His name was Boca Garcia. I love that dude. He's like, yo, S.A., are you okay? I'm like, no, man. I hit a Humvee on my way down. I'm like, but I don't want to make a big deal out of it. He goes, are you throwing up? I'm like. Yeah. He goes, nah, dude. He goes, nah. I say, go to the medical tent. I don't care. He's like, you're going to get help. Cause he'd been doing this for 20. I mean, he was, he was there for desert storm Panama. I mean, he's jumped in all of them.

And he was like, you got to take care of yourself. So I went to the medical tent and then boom, man, back next day, back in the pipeline. So I get released from that, right? So I do that for a couple months. I actually, I did that until. Yeah, about four months, I finally get cleared. And then about a week later, I'm driving, pouring down rain. And this soldier was in this brand new WRX Subaru.

He stops in the middle of the road and turns his flashers on. And I smacked him at 60 miles an hour. Airbag didn't come out. I had an old Jeep Wrangler. Airbag didn't come out. so automatically smacked my head again for the third time three brain injuries in two and a half years off the steering wheel uh they couldn't get up with my wife because they're asking me for my wife's number and i gave them my cell phone number

So nobody can get up with her. Finally, one of my really good friends had her number and called her. So I went back into the pipeline for the third time and stayed there until I got out.

and then uh i medically retired i didn't medically retire out because i wanted to do federal law enforcement job i walked in one day still two weeks before my ets which is the day the ets is when you get out of the army it's your date when you when you're released i forgot what it stands for something time of service i don't know um don't hold me to that but um i walk in one day and they're like hey like two weeks before i'm supposed to ets like hey here's your dd 214 see you later i might

what? I still have two weeks left here. They're like, no, you don't. You're out. I was like, all right, cool. I have no plan. I don't know what to do now. I'm driving home and I see this armored vehicle.

with Fayetteville Police Emergency Response Team doing 100 miles an hour down Bragg Boulevard. I was like, man, I want to do that. That's what I want to do. And signed up for the Fayetteville Police Department and was very fortunate enough to... be selected to do to do that and i did um i was on patrol for um about a year and uh

they had trials for the emergency response team which is how i met brandon i met brandon uh shortly after the academy we worked kind of the same area together and yeah he just kind of like took me under his wing he's such a good dude yeah um I love that man. Shout out to Brandon. Yeah. Shout out to Brandon. Love you, dude. But you know, he kind of helped me like get prepared for the ER team was like really motivated me to do it. I mean, it was an honor to.

Like, when you saw those SWAT guys walking around with the tab on their shoulder that said Fayetteville Police, and then you had the long tab that said Bernstein Response Team, like, man, when them dudes showed up, like...

You felt at peace because you're going to live because SWAT's here. And so I got a waiver because you're supposed to be on the department for two years. And I got a waiver to... to go try out and um a lot of people fail multiple times and i was very fortunate enough to pass and get selected first go around and uh you know so i did that most of my whole career

um SWAT yeah SWAT lives apart so we're a part-time team full-time status yeah so we still had daily jobs but every almost every day was some type of operation so If there was a call out, a barricade, hostage rescue, active shooter, search warrant. I mean, it's Fayetteville. We have like 30,000 registered gang members. We're one of the highest crime cities in North Carolina.

uh it's a city that never sleeps with violence when the sun goes down man the goons come out to play it's it's dangerous it's a dangerous city and um so we were always doing something swap related but i still had other obligations to my normal job but anytime something came out we were always we went man when the we had two phones when the bat phone went off we took it and we ran with it so um so i did that and then later on a position with the gang unit popped open

and uh i was a man i really want to do that i'm fascinated with the cartel i'm fascinated with gangs and and all this and uh so i did it i tried out and man i got it was one of one of two people that got selected and Funnest job I've ever had, man. Grew a massive, massive long beard down to here, hair down to here. Got my hands tattooed. Was loving it, man. We were like a bunch of cowboys. We made a difference in that city. So what's evil look like?

From like when you started your career till you ended it. Evil is evil, man. Evil doesn't change. I think evil's been the same. Murderers, rapists. People who really aggravate me are people who sell drugs to addicts that are family members to somebody else. To them, they're a customer. My dad's a real bad drug addict, and I struggled with that for a long time. I tried to save him several times.

last phone conversation i ever had with him in 2023 is straight up told me like you're you're a piece of you're a piece of crap you couldn't even save me so you can't even save yourself wow and uh it's the last conversation i ever had with my father and uh And it was really my dad's addiction was the downfall to my personal life and the downfall to my career. Because once I found out that he was that bad on drugs, I became obsessed with.

putting drug dealers in federal prison obsessed i had no no compassion for you your family like you got treated like crap by me like when you went in handcuffs i don't care if you're dying of thirst you're gonna die of thirst

You ain't getting no water. Because I, you know, at first I try to have compassion, but they would say, man, I don't care about the people we sell to. Right. And I'm like, in the back of my head, I'm like, man, I'm about to punch you. Like, my dad's an addict. And so that was hard.

um because i let emotions get involved so i was acting out at work um you know and i want to get into the police chief i did that on the sean ryan show and i don't want to get into that there was a bunch of leadership issues too that just were not good um they wanted to suspend me for a week for telling a guy that i was going to effing kill him and i was i have a scar you can probably see it from over there but

that's this car here and here is for me holding that dude's front sight posts of his gun that he was trying to kill me with. Wow. And, uh, and they said it would have sounded bad on CNN because of George Floyd. So. I was like, all right, I'm out, man. I went to the bathroom, cried, went and saw a doctor and got put on leave and medically retired out. Couldn't do it no more.

But, man, I had a blast in L.E., and I said it, and I'll say it again. You want to make a difference in your city? Crime's high in your city? Man, go get you about six to ten good dudes. Put them in plain clothes. tell them to lawfully go do things right there's no gray line yeah black or white operate in the law right this is america we have the constitution people are protected yeah they're veterans what you fought for like you know we're not breaking people's rights

drug dealers and people who are crime and evil evil doesn't change evils it might be in different forms whether it's murders or rapes or robberies or um anything like that just people who are careless of life like the people who scared me the most were non-traditional gang members so you have traditional non-traditional traditional gang members are ones that are established nationwide

Same gang, multiple cities, like A-Trey Crips, Hoover Crips. Those are all different sets in different states. You know, they can be sex, money, murder. east side mob piru which is little wayne's uh who he's established with they're throughout different parts of they're everywhere right non-traditional gangs are we start a gang right here yeah you know

Blurry Creature Street Boys. It's a tough gang right now. But those are the gangs that are unorganized. They have no leader. They're the first ones to shoot. Do you think there's a spiritual component to that? I think so. Yeah, I had a spiritual component to that in L.E. I think I'd have been a much better police officer. I think I'd have had more success as a police officer if I would have walked with Jesus.

So talk about that. What's your faith journey like? You have these multiple head injuries, you know, where these bad things continue to happen. I'll tell you this, man. I'll tell you my downfall. 2018. black friday me and my brother went to visit my dad and my dad's always you ask my wife my dad was always like don't drink drinks bad it my dad took us to church every sunday he brought so many people to god

And we went to visit him on this Friday. And that was the first time I ever saw my dad high. And he couldn't even talk to us. My brother spoke his piece to him. My dad got... Rage. He was on cocaine. Rage. Demonic look in his eyes. And he took off running downstairs. And I was like, let's go.

That's where he keeps his gun. So first thing I did is I ran out the house, jumped the fence, opened up my driver door. My truck got my gun. I'm like, I'm not getting shot. Like, we're going to do this and we can do it. We get in my truck, and my dad comes outside, and, you know, I didn't see his hands. I just backed out of the driveway. Man, it felt like 100, but it was probably 30, 40 miles an hour, and it was still fast for backing up.

They spun that thing around, and we got out of there. I drank myself into a coma that night, and I was so mad at God. I'm like, how do you let a man of faith, a man that's brought so many people to Jesus, how do you just allow him to get addicted to drugs? Like, Jesus, you perform miracles.

you brought back lazarus from the dead and like you can't just like heal this dude like you know and it's so that was my and we were living in this house i thought i'd bring this up too

We rented this house called 311 Fairfield in Fayetteville. And the moment, this is the same year, we moved into the house that summer. That house, I never physically... seen anything but i spiritually felt the presence of something bad that house was very weird man our son said that he saw something in his bedroom and we was like not we're not talking about it not talking about it

we have nowhere else to go it was a house in a really nice neighborhood that in fayetteville which is rare yeah and uh we lived in that house for how many years two three a couple years and during that time that was i found out that my dad was addicted in december or uh black friday november we moved in in like july

And then we lived there for about two years. And during that two years was the worst I've ever been in my life. Spiritually, mentally, physically, we were partying and drinking. Our marriage was crumbling.

um i mean we almost got a divorce um just because i was so focused on attacking drug dealers at work when i came home i wasn't physically present or mentally present i was on my phone talking about trash dumps and trash pulls like how are we getting this guy just didn't care about them we were constantly we could never ever be on the same page and it was something in that home because once we bought a house and moved out

when we drove away from that house you could feel a sign of like that we've never felt before we lived in this other house for six months before i medically retired and it was just a happy house We got along great. You said the address, so if you live there now, it might be haunted. You might want to have an exorcist come over and take care of that. We would find the garage door, the door that goes into the garage. That thing would just open on its own.

no matter if it was locked we would lock that thing dude like deadbolt lock it it would open itself up and she we would find that thing open in the middle of the night and it's it was weird because it was down the long haul And it bypassed the living room, the kitchen. It was just a dark room. Yeah. And when I would be gone working late nights, because of the gang unit, man, I mean, I probably might go into work.

and i might be in washington dc following somebody yeah and uh and she'd call me and be like like somebody something's in the attic there's there's somebody up there slamming something

And I'm like, nobody's in the attic, Nicole. Like, we don't have somebody that lives in the attic. And I'll be honest with you, I didn't have the balls to go up there to look either. Whoever can be up there. You're chasing gangsters. Like, I'm going up there to see that. Nah, man, you live in rent-free up there if you're up in our attic.

It was just a really bad two years of our marriage and just how we felt both, how we both just felt attempted suicide in that house. a new year's eve of 2018 after i found out my dad uh she had just had a surgery so she was out uh put her in the bed she just literally just picked her up that day took her and put her in the bed it was new year's eve and she was asleep. Our son was at his grandfather's house. I drank two bottles of Jack Daniel's honey and made a suicide video with my family.

and uh told him that nobody will ever understand the pain that i'm in and went to uh had my you know i'm shining the video i'm shining to the bottle of whiskey there's my my duty service weapons in there and uh I'm crying. I got this big biker beard, this long hair. Put the phone down, put the gun up, put it in my head, went to pull the trigger. And two things happened.

I had a female German shepherd at the time. She jumped up and ran straight over to me. But I also heard like this demonic kind of laugh. I was like, he shouldn't have done that because he did that. It angered me because I was like, what are you about to do? You're letting the devil win. The devil won. He's laughing at you right now.

And she was like on top of me. Your dog was. Yeah, moving my arm. So I put the gun down and just continued to drink until I pass out. But there was something in that home in that two years that was.

It was wild. Is that voice similar to? Yeah. To the one that you heard in that lady? Yeah, that, I'm getting chills. When that, yeah.

uh demon man it's a that's just a i don't know how to describe it but it's just it's a very demonic uh it's a very demonic voice it's a very eerie voice that will stops you in your track when you hear it sure i mean i could have been drunk who knows you know i doubt it i mean you hadn't but there was definitely evil in that in that yeah let me just say this though like you know you anybody who's been drunk you don't you don't get

You don't get goosebumps from the time you were hammered. We've had so many experiences with... I don't know what it is about me, but... Man, since my childhood, it's always been, I've always seen, not seen, but I've seen and been around like spirits. It's almost like they find me. Even as a kid, in our house we grew up in, when I was a baby, my mom, my brother was in the bathtub. He's older. My mom was doing her hair in the bathroom next to my brother.

And this little baby walked by the room, the door to the bathroom in the hallway, going to my room. And she thought it was me, so she automatically ran out and then went to my crib.

to see if it was me and she said i was in there sleeping and that house was weird we didn't have like anything bad but tv would change doors would open cabinets would slam in the middle of the night we just got used to it we had nowhere else nothing bad it's just haunted we had nowhere else to live yeah like that was it so it was like we just you know to be honest with you

like i slept with my mom until i was a teenager i was terrified yeah and my brother was was completely different than me he wasn't terrified he lived in the basement he didn't care uh no issues but friends of the darkness down there yeah i want to get to some of the other i know you have some good paranormal stories but like you know you you decide not to not to go through with suicide when does what happened i mean what how does what happens next in the sense how do you

how do you find your faith yeah the next morning i woke up and and went to work got some um one of my really good buddies stopped me in the hallway helped me go get some help got some help and man i find faith For a while. After that. We'll fast forward. I medically retired. Moved to the beach. Got really into partying. One of my really good friends owns a bar there. So we were.

play this game called Liars Dice. It's an old pirate game. I used to play Liars all the time. Man, we'd play that, and we would take a shot before the game, during the game, lose or pour his first shot, take a shot after the game. We'd go through two bottles of Skyblood Orange vodka. Like it was nothing. And again, alcohol was killing my marriage. And she couldn't keep up, nor did she want to keep up. So ultimately, it was just straight up, hey, like.

You either get help or you stop this or we're going to have to go. So I started a training company.

I was training local teams and just get her off my back and I was still drinking, but it was worse because then I was secretly drinking in my garage. And, and then, you know, and once i tore my achilles tendon uh playing basketball my son went through that stopped drinking because i didn't want to get fat like sat around because there's i mean you turn it that was a 12 that was a 12 month recovery yeah

Like I couldn't run and do anything until 11 months. And then I got serious about training and then I got a phone call from my aunt during a training event. It was like, hey, your dad's dying. He's rotting away in this. uh in his room in his house so i went to school with his probation officer called his probation officer set up all this stuff got him

The probation officer went there. The chief police went there, and I was like, arrest him. He's got drugs. There was drugs everywhere, paraphernalia. They wouldn't do anything with it. Real corrupt small town. But the probation officer ended up arresting him on all that.

gave him i gave him the option either go to jail or go to the hospital and he went to the hospital and then literally got transferred to uh roanoke hospital and three days later had an open heart surgery for a valve his valve was so So bad from shooting heroin that it had vegetation on it. So they had to replace the valve. He had a 10% chance to live, made a full recovery. I spent, man, six, $7,000.

cleaning his house, stripping carpet. His house, think about this. He's got a 3,000 square foot house, 3,500, I think. Imagine all the houses I've been in. It's the most disgusting house I've ever been in my life. You're busting drug dealers. The dog had withdrawals from dope and was having diarrhea all over the house. It was bad. The dog ended up dying two weeks later from...

Like drug withdrawals? Yeah, drug withdrawals. And so I spent all this money getting my dad help. My cousin showed up, Josh Lumbo, you know, love him, showed up, got on his hands and knees scrubbing things with me. and uh ultimately the my stepmom still stayed in contact with him and and and uh you know they ended up lying getting um

domestic violence protection order out on me. Once he got out of the hospital, she lied and said that I was laying down the street with a sniper rifle and pointed it at her. And I'm like, guys, I'm... Again, it's a little corrupt town with no good, nothing. I'm like, I have video proof that I'm home right now in North Carolina. I have cameras. I have eight cameras in my house, inside and out. I'm protected.

They still issued it. And I had to pay my dad's wife and write up an apology letter to my dad's drug dealer. That was part of the bargain for her to... dropped the the dvpo and after that man it was um i was like there ain't no god there ain't nothing uh i went down a you talk about a raging drinking binge man i went full sin and uh and then uh may 24th the day i got blown up of 2023 i was uh went to a parking lot and uh

in wilmington and roll the windows down and put my head on the steering wheel and said god please don't send me to hell please don't send me to hell please don't send me to hell i can't do this anymore and at that point i fully surrendered Give me one second. I fully surrendered to him and I went to grab the gun. And when I went to grab the gun, my phone rang that was next to my gun.

and i realized i didn't have him saved at the time but i didn't realize i realized at the time it was kyle kyle morgan the guy that i train with now from blueberry he called me up he's my best friend and uh now and he calls me up it's who we do the podcast with and everything and

calls me up and he's like hey man sorry i missed your call yesterday i'm like man you're calling at the right time and uh he's like i have an opening for my course this weekend you want to come take it so i did it gave me a little hope a little motivation and because you're gonna know what you're gonna

You were going to kill yourself. Yeah, I was about to kill myself. Yeah. I believe at that time I fully surrendered. Yeah. And that's what Jesus was waiting for me to do this whole time. Wait for us all, right? Yeah.

fully surrendered him um and uh i took the course and uh at the end of the course you know as i'm there kyle was like hey man i need your help help instruct him so i started helping him and then uh pretty much after that Started working with Blueberry and, you know, there's three of us. There's Kyle, me, and Steven. Kyle's a former special missions guy, former law enforcement.

And then Stephen's former highway patrol and SWAT guy. And he left highway patrol to go full-time ministry with his dad. Wow. And so we're in ministry now. You know, when we travel to these places, like. First thing we say is, hey, man, we're going to talk about Jesus. We're going to pray. If you don't like it, sorry. And the last event that we did was full of, down in Texas, it was a room full of 15.

hardened swat dudes full-time and uh at the end of this all these guys were crying talking about jesus that's the question i was going to ask you is like do you feel like i mean obviously a lot of military law enforcement getting to help people but it seems like there's a lot of demons that they're attached to the lure to get into some of these the thing with the thing with le is nobody calls us to give us a hug

Nobody calls us to tell us we're doing good. Nobody calls us to tell us, hey, man, I won the lottery today. Or, hey, man, my daughter's getting married. People are calling us at their worst moment.

10 hours a day 12 hours a day every call is somebody's worst moment somebody's raped somebody's murdered somebody's kids been abducted somebody just got robbed some 13 year old gang members shot four times in the face because he's wearing a 50 cent bandana that doesn't it in the same color as the other kid like when you're in le it's hard yeah it's hard to say jesus this is all yeah

Because it's like violent every day. It's just darkness. It's dark. It's pure dark. And then you got to go home and smile to your family. You got to go home and act like you had a great day. My first call ever was a 12-year-old kid that hung himself. And I had to tell the mom. Like, you know, suicides is dark, man. I've seen some gnarly suicides.

But it seems like you were drawn to it as well. What do you think was in you before you gave your life to Christ? I think I just wanted to help people, man. I don't think I was drawn to the darkness. I've always wanted to protect somebody. I just wanted to be a protector. I just wanted to be the one who showed up that brought the others home. I want to be the guy that people called.

when things went bad. I want to be the one that has to take that shot. I want to be the one that has to rescue those kids. I want to be the one that makes a positive impact on somebody's worst day. When do you think that started in you? um i don't know i i thought about this question i i don't know i've just i've always been like that i've always wanted to

Protect my cousins, my brother. I've always wanted to just protect my mom. And I think a lot of it comes from, too, I think from my childhood. I remember my early days, early memories of my mom and dad being together. My dad was really aggressive. terrifying my mom and i always wanted to protect her but i couldn't because i was young and i think in that moment where i saw uh two or three of those incidents one in particular my mom was holding us at the door

Our bags were packed. She said, I'm going to my mom and dad's. My dad is standing on the stairwell, and he's just punching the wall. And my mom was terrified, and I just wanted to protect her. And I couldn't. So now, so after, you know, growing up, I was always into working out and learning survival things i just wanted to be a protector um because of that one incident changed my life what do you think uh in having done the military tour been blown up and how to do all you know

head injury and all that and then getting out and then going into law enforcement like what why do you think guys i mean this is really it's a 90 98 dudes right like why do why do they have such a hard time with

With compartmentalizing, I would say compartmentalizing. You thought about ending your life at least twice. What do you think that does to you, to a person? Because I know that we have a massive, and this is something that... zach bell good friend of ours veteran with a sign he's been on the show before he champions all the time is that like there's this veteran suicide you know it's like one a minute i think the problem in this community is one we attack each other two

There's a stigma that being a follower of Jesus isn't cool. We're breaking that stigma. I have 142,000 followers on Instagram and everything I post is about Jesus. And I'm going to honor Jesus to the day I die. Now, have I always believed in Jesus? Yeah, I have. But have I walked with Jesus? No, not until recently. And I'll tell you where it really dug deep for me.

is i started in the book of john and i watched the chosen the chosen changed my life the chosen showed me the expectations of what jesus wants it not only showed me the expectations but it showed me how much he loves you um the scene in the chosen where mary gets drunk and goes back to the tent and can't even look at him and he says i already forgive you yeah that's love man right

And there's nobody talking about that in LA and in the military. There's nobody preaching about Jesus's love. Right. Everybody's scared to talk about it. Hey man, if you think you're more bad than me, cool. I don't care. I'm going to talk to you about Jesus. Yeah.

I think that's the biggest problem. I think that's why the military and elite community is so dark. It's because all Jesus wants is your faith. Oh, and you got to surrender. You talked about surrendering completely. I think like. I think a lot of people will compartmentalize things like that. Like you said, you go home and then you've got to put on a smile, but you've seen the darks of the dark. You've seen the worst of the worst, right? Then you've got to flip this switch, but you don't...

I don't know where to put that, right? One of the greatest things that I've ever heard said was by BB3, Stephen, our third guy, is he said he heard it somewhere. If guys will stop talking to themselves. I start talking to Jesus. That's when you don't have to keep that inside of you anymore. When you talk to yourself, you keep it in your soul.

when you speak to jesus about it you give it to him yeah you have to carry that do you think that a lot of guys younger guys that are kind of drawn towards the military and things are kind of running from a demon well if i do something good maybe that that darker voice will go away no i think it's just you know i think a lot of guys just uh

Like a lot of hard stories. It is. I think a lot of guys are good until they join those jobs. Really? I think they're good in the sense that they want to be a protector. They want to protect people. They want to be the one. But once they get to that job, they don't understand the true darkness that comes with that. Like you, man, a part of my soul, every time I went to one of those just...

I went to a call one time where it was a murder-suicide. Wife was leaving him. He kicked in the apartment door, killed her, killed his kid, put him on a couch, sat next to him. Put a shotgun in between his legs and blew his head off. And he set it up as a family portrait. Jeez. So sick, man. Evil, bro. Yeah. So when you start doing, taking those calls, it's really hard to find the good.

Do a lot of those guys look for answers after they go to those calls? I think they do, but I think they're scared to ask the questions for the answers. What's like total darkness? like how do you see it now do you see it as as more than just human evil like there's hierarchy satan's there oh yeah yeah for sure i think i think the moment that you and again if i'm not bashing people who drink

I'm just saying if you got issues, don't drink. I think the issue with veteran suicide and law enforcement suicide, you know, 183 law enforcement officers took their life, 2023. And then you compare that to 131 who died in the line of duty. So 183 killed themselves, 131 died in the line of duty. Why are we having more that kill themselves than in the line of duty deaths?

it's because of this it's because we see things and we think that if we speak it into existence of seeking help that it's a weakness yeah so by holding in these dark things and then you allow yourself to get drunk drunkness allows the devil to control you and tell you that suicide is the answer you're worthless you're this you're that and i think a lot of these issues

come from people getting drunk and allowing the devil to take over i think when you drink and you get drunk i think you open a portal that allows the devil to enter and communicate with you they're called spirits right Yeah. Liquor is called spirits. It was interesting. I really believe that if we could stop these veterans and stuff that are having hard times. I mean, if you go back and you look, I guarantee you that 80% of the people that take their lives.

Or intoxicated. Drinking. Drinking. Both times, for me, it was alcohol. When you say you've had spiritual experiences or spirits, you've encountered spirits, you're in... sort of your entire life is that is that perspective look different now on the other side of of surrounding to jesus or yeah i'm not scared yeah because i'm if you have jesus in your heart

the devil's too scared to mess with you yeah the holy spirit yeah do you believe there's the same spirit kind of falling your whole life and then you finally had to have a showdown with it i don't know that's a great question I feel like I've always been around some sort of spirit. But since I've... Because you're like a cat. You just keep coming back.

So since I've fully surrendered, I haven't had any issues with this. Like we stayed at this house in Alaska. We went out and trained in Haynes, Alaska. And this house that we stayed in was beautiful. It was like from the 1800s. And I'll tell you how bad spirits and stuff freak me out. The first thing I did when I went to that room is I took out the rocking chair.

And I took out the mirrors and I put them in the other room. Cause I'm like, I'm not waking up to a rocking chair, rocking and I'm not raking up to a figure in the mirror. I'm like, so I've always like, even like multiple people just. I've just had experiences, and I think when you really have Jesus in your heart and it's a part of your daily life, I think the devil knows that.

He doesn't have a chance. He goes after the ones who are lost. He goes after the one sheep that left in 99, and he tries to get to them first before Jesus. But people need to understand that Jesus does not stop looking for you. Love that, dude.

Can I read something to y'all? Yeah. Can you hand me my phone? This is something that I wrote. And it says something that, you know, any LE guys or military guys that are listening to this or anybody who feels lost. I wrote this one night. It says the love that leaves the 99. Before Jesus says the words in Luke 15, 7, he tells a story that surprises us. A shepherd has 100 sheep and one goes missing.

Most people would say, oh, well, it's just one. I have the 99, but not this shepherd. He doesn't stay put. He doesn't give up. He leaves the 99 in the field and goes after the one that's lost. He climbs hills, searches through dark places.

Pushes through thorny bushes until he finds it. That's the kind of love Jesus is showing us. It's not cold. It's not distance. It's not about rules, but close, fierce, and determined. Maybe you feel like that one sheep. Maybe you've wandered too far, too ashamed to come back. But listen, God's not waiting for you to fix yourself. He's already coming for you. He sees what others don't, and he knows what your heart's missing from his family.

He doesn't count the crowd. He counts hearts and he counts yours. God's love isn't just for the world in general. It's for you personally, fully and completely. That's the love that leaves the 99 and it's coming for you. I think if we can preach things like that to the LA military community, I don't think Satan would have a chance. Yeah. I don't think he would have a chance. I don't think him, I don't think his team of demons. I don't, I think, I think Satan.

is a coward yeah when it comes to if you have jesus in your soul and god he is a coward he is scared it's incredible and your story is incredible i think sometimes you know luke and i have like sort of a micro view into someone's life or some bizarre story some encounter something weird but it's like your story makes me think that there's this battle for everyone's life all the crazy ways you could have died

You could have gone, and you stay alive. At some point, this whole story is going to redeem itself, and it's going to win a lot of people over because you went through hell and back again to get where you are. the supernatural part is just maybe angels keeping you alive at that moment you're like i'm ready to go or i'm done or and there's just this thing that keeps you going and i think suicide when you come when it comes down to it it's a very supernatural thing yeah

it's what the devil wants the most is to kill people before they have a chance to have their story turn around or be redeemed yeah yeah i think that's the beautiful part about your story and you know sometimes we just look for the weird and and the you know Five minutes of weird, but it's like a whole lifetime of a supernatural dogfight to keep you going. I think the devil gets so angry because when one person repents...

And it says, I'm sorry, God, I'm here. I'm here for you. The whole heavens cheers. They play music. They're excited. And the devil is. He knows that he has no power over that person anymore. And I think what I hear in your story, what I think is profound is that God has got a purpose. And when you reach a point where you want to take your own life, you want to end that, it's because you've convinced yourself that you have no purpose.

yeah and i think the truth of the that jesus is trying to say is that you not only have a purpose but i have i have i have plans i have i have dreams for for for all of us right and and i i think that's the big lie is that

Not only is the enemy in the darkness saying you're worthless and you're a failure and you should just end this all because you have no purpose, but Jesus is saying not only that, you're worth everything. I think the biggest thing is... is the difference in me now is, is just having faith and watching the chosen because just, you know, when he asked his disciples, have, have you have no faith?

like they've seen him do all these things and i think the biggest scene for me that was like is when um i forgot the the roman soldier comes in he's like you don't you don't need to come to my house i know you can do it from here and and jesus was just so moved by that dude's faith and that's the journey i'm on now is is i have faith that he can do

Anything. And it's on his timing, not mine. Yeah. I love that. And you have this epic haunted house story. i suppose on a school on a school but then i have a i really want to tell you about the all right let's get let's get to the yellow house because that this one i really wanted to show you because i have pictures man and uh so we'll start we'll start off with this

We just graduated high school. This is Pineville Junior High. It was around for 1930s to right when the county started consolidating schools up until like 2000. my dad worked there my whole childhood right so from 89 to when it shut down in 99 so as kids we would he would stay there so if you look up all right start at the middle door and go straight up and then go um you have the little half window full window so right under high like right under the h in high that was my dad's room right so um

I think it was room 307. We would run that whole school all the time. So, tale has it that 1930, a little girl, she was 12 years old, 11 or 12. was killed in that school when it first opened. And it wasn't put out in the paper because they just built this brand new school. They want to make a big deal out of it, whatever. Then there was, legend has it,

That in 1991 on Halloween. Of course. The janitor was shoving coal into the furnace and some kids jumped out and scared him and he had a heart attack and those kids panicked and they put him in the furnace. Because they didn't want to go to jail. So that's where we start getting to these now, these two images, right? So as a kid, around 93, 94, 95, my dad would stay late and grade papers. Well, what would we do?

We'd go to the gym, shoot me and my brother, go to the gym, shoot basketball. Remember those things that you, I was hoping you guys had one in here, that you used to sit on in gym class on your knees and you would roll yourself. Oh, yeah, the rollerboards? Yeah. So we'd take those in the hallway, man. But we would always hear this man whistling. And you would hear like a mop bucket being pushed. And then you would hear like this little girl giggling.

And we just thought maybe our minds are taking over, right? We're just kids and we'd see it, hear it all the time. Janelle, let's fast forward to the summer of 2008. The school had been shut down for eight years. People would break into it. So the window at the bottom floor right on the back of that staircase. Yep, right there. That window in the corner. That was the arts and craft room. That's the room that these pictures were in. Telling you right now. Telling you. Telling you.

Stuff's falling off. Stuff's falling, dude. Should we say a prayer? Come on, Jesus. But the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts still used that bottom floor right there. They still used it. for a little bit the gym was still an active gym at this time but all the other doors were locked to the school and uh so we broke into it i can say that one does because

That would be a felony, and we're past the statute of limitations, so they can't do anything. A little B&E. All right. A little B&E action. And with a group of friends, there was about... six about seven of us so we go up to the second floor and the two girls that we were with they were kind of hippie-ish into like the witchcraft thing

So they brought a Ouija board. Bad idea. Bad idea. Yeah. They put this Ouija board down. They put this candle down. And they're sitting there and, you know, the girl's name was Ashen. she was messing with it asking it questions and i was like well ask it if it remembers me i don't know if she's doing it or not right so

She's messing with it and this is yes. And I'm like, all right, let me ask the question that nobody in this group knows. I'm like, okay, well, if you know me, you must know me because of my dad. And I was like, what room number was my dad's room? And they had no idea. And it was, that thing went to 307. And I'm like, ah, I'm like looking at my cousin Lumbo. I'm like, did y'all, did you tell her, like, did you tell him the story behind all that? He's like, nah, dude, I promise.

So she starts, she starts messing with it, right? And this thing said goes to L, goes to O, goes back to O, goes to K, spells out look. We're like, what? And we look over. And about from here to that middle camera was a little girl sitting cross-legged, hands on her cheeks like this. She was wearing, she had like white undergarments. She had a blue dress on.

Right. And she had a blue bow and she had white leggings with black shoes on. Everybody gets up, takes off running. Ouija board gets knocked over. Handle gets knocked over. Everybody takes off running. I take off running. I'm like, slowest man dies, right? So I'm like, I'm out. You're pretty fast. I'm saving myself. I'm getting out of here. So we all went outside and everybody's crying. Everybody's freaking out.

But then people are like, oh, my cell phone, my purse, my bag. And they're like, well, we can't, what are we going to call the police and ask to go back in? Is the candle catching the board on fire? Are we burning the building down? Me and my cousin's like, all right, we'll go back in and check it out. Everybody else stays. Everybody else stay here. So we go back into the school and man, we are like.

Because we're moving an inch at a time, right? Back to back, no flashlight. He's a bigger dude, too. So we make it up to the second floor. And no lie, man. Ouija board was right back where it was at when we left. Candle was upright. I watched that candle fall. I watched the candle fall. I watched the wax hit the floor. I watched it. I saw it.

but everything was upright and in position as if it was perfect. So we grabbed the Ouija board, we blow the candle out, we get everybody's stuff. And my cousin's like, We used to love Ghost Hunt, man. We used to love it. He's like, oh, dude, let's pull the app out on the phone. I had a first Gen 1 iPhone. And in the iPhone, well, it might have been, no, yeah, yeah. I think that's when it came out. It might have been the summer of 2009. But the Gen 1 iPhone came out and...

You could get these apps like the Paper Toss. Oh, yeah. They had this one that was like Ghost Finder app. And it was a radar on like a Navy ship. And it would do the whole like ding, ding, ding, right? It would show you spirits around you. It would be a red for demonic, yellow for like a neutral, and then a green for a good spirit. But you could also communicate with it.

through the app and the app would, you would say something and then the app would give you one word back. Sounds terrifying. So we go to this arts and craft room after this. Now we're like, We're full-fledged, straight up ghost hunting right now. After we saw this, we're like, all right, this is our time. This is our time. So we're sitting in this arts and craft room. We're sitting just at a table, a normal square table. He's sitting across from me. We got the app.

And he's like, all right, let's, we're waiting. We're like, oh, I'm holding the Ouija board, right? Bad idea. Right. I'm like, hey, if there's any spirits here, please make yourself known. This thing starts ticking. And it shows us two green at first. And we're like, oh, okay, cool. This is good spirits. We're talking to it. It goes around a couple more times and then both of them turn to red. We're like, well, if you're an evil spirit.

if you're a spirit in here at all like proof to us or this app is stupid and you guys aren't even really here and this is a waste of our time and my cousin is messing with some yarn Because it's an arts and crafts room for Boy Scouts. And he's twiddling it in his fingers. And this app says, string. I'm like, my cousin goes, all right.

I'm out. I'm done. He goes, best way is through the cafeteria. We'll go out the big windows. Food. We're like, oh, no. So I'm like, all right, I'm out. So I see you in the corner. uh where the dot is i took my phone and i went click and i had one on top of me start turning around and i just clicked it so that's the one in the corner that shadowy figure is who i believe is the janitor

So you can see kind of the arm resting on the table as if he's leaning on the table, like kind of setting on it. So creepy, dude. I believe that's the janitor. And if you go to the other picture behind me. so the bottom left of this that's my head the thing directly in the middle of this screen i believe is that little girl you can kind of see off to the left of her head where that looks like hair. So I didn't see these pictures until the next day. So...

Very blurry, so it's on brand. Yeah, very blurry. But there's no one behind you in this picture, right? No, there's only two people here, me and my cousin. And my cousin is sitting directly across from me the opposite way at the table. So we get up and we run out. We get out to the main parking lot. Pull up the picture of the school for me, please. So we're out in the parking lot. And as I'm leaving, me and my cousin look around. We're looking at the school. And there's a...

I'm getting chills. There's a dark figure standing in my dad's classroom staring at us outside the window. I've never been back in that school. School's actually torn down now. It's gone. I never went back inside that school. Pineville Junior High School. Jeez. So the next morning I wake up and I'm like, man, I got something wrong with my neck. It's kind of bubbly. I'm like, man, what? My mom looks at it. It's a burn. I believe that the burn...

is either that little girl touched my neck or that was just her being close to me. And I got to burn down my neckline like that. Yeah, there's a picture, if you're listening, there's a picture of your neck. with burn marks on across the almost across the entire back of your neck yeah so now i have a cross tattooed in that same spot junior high was bad but now that's real bad

yeah that's uh so moral of the story dude don't bring any ouija boards into haunted school so to confirm what we saw there was only one other person that's ever actually saw the little girl and my dad said go speak to charlie keaton Charlie Keaton was a teacher there. And he's told everybody that he saw this little girl walk past his room one night when he was grading papers late. He's the only person that's ever saw anything in this school. So I go to Charlie and I say, Hey, Mr. Keaton.

Can you describe that little girl? And he described her exactly what I saw. He goes, did you see her? I said, yeah, we took a Ouija board in there and you saw her. That's when he started telling me like, yeah, this little girl was actually, they believe was raped because he started doing.

research on it and she was actually stuffed in a closet but then they found her based on the odor but they never proved who who did it so i mean because again there's no like forensics back then or witnesses or nothing it's like 1932 so that's that's that school terrifies me man well it's gone now right yeah it's gone i won't even go back to

to where it's even torn down um and then i'll tell you a story later on in life me and her are looking for houses we've been married a year and a half we're in fayetteville looking looking for houses we got we're looking at all these rental houses we're trying to get out an apartment complex and um

I was in the process of being hired at the Fayetteville Police Department. So we're looking at houses. We've got like six rental keys. We didn't like any of them. So we drive by this one house. It just has a standard for rent sign in the front of it. two-story, slimmer, bright yellow house. We're like, ah, it's ugly, but we're desperate. Yeah. Right? So something drew us to it. We pull in. So I go up. It's got the realtor lock on it.

Pull the handle. I'll push it. It's locked. So I'm looking through the windows. We're talking mid-July. We're talking North Carolina, 80% humidity. Sweltering. 100% temperatures. It is hot. So I'm like, she's like, can you see inside of it? I'm like, yeah, I can only see through this. I was like, come up here. I'll lift you up. So she comes walking up the steps. I grab her. I lift her up. She's not touching the door. I'm not touching the door. The door goes.

I'm like, that's weird. I just pulled the handle. I just tried to get it open. Nothing. Walk in. Dude, it feels like it's 60 degrees in this house.

i'm like man the ac bill here has got to be expensive they got this thing on cold is freezing in here i mean literally it was it was super cold so we're like walking around and the whole time man you feel like something's on top like holding on to your back i'm like man we're talking about it we're like man this this house feels weird yeah i don't know about this she's like well let me just let me just see the upstairs let's just see what the upstairs looks like

We go to upstairs. She takes about three to four steps and stops and goes, and I just grab her. I just grab her. I didn't ask. I didn't say anything. I grabbed her by the waist, picked her up, and ran outside, shut the door, got in the car. I was like, what was that? She goes, Blake. Something stopped me physically from going upstairs. And all I saw was red, like blood. I was like, what? She's like, yeah, something stopped me from going upstairs.

So I became a cop, right? Obviously the first thing I did in my database is I went and looked up the house. For rent, not haunted. That's probably what's set on the sign, right? And there was a lot of domestics in that house. uh nothing that showed like a murder but doesn't mean that it didn't happen because a lot of calls will come out as a domestic and then end up being a homicide yeah but a lot of a lot of the husband drunk beating the wife beating the kids

So what I believed happened is there was actually a homicide in the house. And I think something stopped her from, you know, her dad took his life. when she was six. And we believe that maybe her dad or her grandfather stopped her from going upstairs to something evil. Pretty gnarly. That was gnarly, bro. That's wild.

Don't rent a house in Fayetteville. Yeah, don't rent a house in Fayetteville. Fayetteville four rent houses are wild, man. Well, there seems to be some sort of lingering spirit, and we talk about that a lot. I think some of those circles, people don't like those stories because they sort of have to expand their understanding of the afterlife and other things. I don't know if it's because I've just been open to it as a kid.

I believe that they're there. I've experienced it at a younger age. I don't know if I've... Again, I didn't really have the Holy Spirit inside of me in those moments. I felt like it was a... opportunity maybe a portal for these demons to to open show themselves to me attack me mentally physically yeah um you know i think a lot of that was self-doing by not

having the holy spirit in my heart and i was i believe in them you know i believe in a lot of weird things i believe in aliens that's not weird for our show yeah i mean yeah i saw a ufo i've seen one okay um with my dad stopped at a train in pineville west virginia me my dad and my brother we were in a as is one seater pickup truck i'm in the middle my brother's over here my dad's driving we're stopped at a train in front of the house

Car in front of us, us and car behind us. We look up and there is like, man, I don't know, 70 yards above us. There is this massive circle with green lights. Bright green lights. And before we blinked, that thing was gone. The people got out the car in front of us and behind us and asked us if we saw the same thing.

we said yes my dad looked at me and my brother and said shut up don't talk about it we're going home we go home what year was this man this is i was probably eight so you're looking 97 yeah so my dad goes home My brother was a big drawer, so he had the big white posters. He gives each of us a poster in himself. JR go in that room, Blake go in that room, I'm going in this room. Draw what you saw to detail. We put them all together.

They were all the exact same thing. How big do you think that thing was? That thing was huge, man. That thing was huge. I mean, as a kid, it looked like some freaking thing off Star Wars. That big. But it was huge. And it was gone. Did it have like one piece of metal? Yeah, it was just one big piece, one big circle. Like a disc? Yeah, and it was gone so fast that you could see the green trail. I'll never forget that.

People can, there are people out there who don't believe it. It caught me crazy. I could really care less. Were they actually lights or were they? I don't know. I don't know. It was bright green. Interesting. It was bright green. Quite the blurry life Blake Cook. And it was gnarly, man. As a kid. Like bigger than a car or you're talking like football field big? I'm talking 75 yards by 75 yards. So it's a big.

I mean, it was huge. It was over top of us, about maybe 75 to 100 yards up. And I just remember looking at it, and it was so bright that you had to squint your eyes. And it was 10 o'clock at night. We just got food from Pinnacle Drive-In.

okay shout out pinnacle drive how many lights like all around yeah it was just a bright green and then you could see that it was a disc shape and then and then before you did anything it was gone yeah like it was a blink like fast as a blink and it was a green trail and my dad was like nobody talk about it pinnacle driving still going on is that still happening oh yeah dude all right yeah shout out shout out so the people get out hot dogs in the world

The people get out of the car in front of you. And they ask us, did y'all see that? And we said, yeah. You're at a train stop. No, yeah. There was a train going by. Oh, okay. And it's just loud. You can't hear anything. Yeah. my dad is talking to these other people they're saying that that they heard that they saw it they described the same thing and it was like holy cow like this is gnarly yeah um to see that like yeah you know

I believe in it. I believe that our government has. Blurry grab bag at the end here. The lights is always fascinating to me why they have lights on these. It wasn't like I saw individual bulbs. It was just. Yeah. It was really green. It was almost like. Maybe that's the choice of light for them. Maybe they had them turned on to see what's going on below. I don't know. It's very common.

it's sort of like this advanced tech with like these old just this old school like lighting around it i mean and i think that part of it the lighting part of it kind of makes people feel like they can't believe it because like why would an advanced species have these little lights on their craft, but they do. I'll never be able to explain it. It doesn't matter how much ammo I save up and whatever gun I buy, we're never going to be able to defend ourselves from aliens.

They have laser guns. If I can get my hand on one of their laser guns, game over for them. It's like revert back to Call of Duty. Get back at it. Yeah. Well, I think the whole thing with aliens and on our shows, it's like the spiritual and the physical kind of come together. I think so, yeah.

That's the hardest part about it because as Christians, we sort of have trained ourselves subconsciously that spirits are just floating out there. Heaven is like this see-through place. It's not actually a tangible... society empire whatever word you want to use but uh then we see these little like you know because you obviously see like a ghost in an old junior high that's like that's more like a spirit yeah then you see a craft and go okay

There's some kind of assembly line somewhere building these things. Was it a government aircraft? I don't know. I just know that it was a massive... disc shape with the brightest lights I've ever seen and it was gone.

It's just a bunch of aliens. Look at this old school train that they still use down here. It's these guys in a one-seater truck. What do they do? It's such a bunch of peasants. Well, Blake. Dude, thanks, man. Thanks, man. It's crazy. Dude, talk to our folks because I know you've a podcast. You mentioned that. And also you're doing training and actually try to pitch you on.

Let me ride along and do some training with you at some point. Yeah, man, we'd love to have you guys out at some training. Oh, they're so fun. Yeah, we train private citizens in LE and active shooter response. What's the company? uh blue bearing solutions okay yeah blu bearing solutions and um it's just uh we're able to train people give them the confidence and the skill we implement tactics of hostage rescue and put them into active shooter response and

Really, it's to build confidence in those to be the one to bring the others home. That's the biggest thing. And we do it by implementing our faith. I love that. That's what you're saying. Because at the end of the day, you can be a protector. You can go and have the skill set all day long, but if you're not doing the same training with your faith in Jesus.

then who's going to save you? Yeah. Got to break that spiritual sweat too. Yeah. And we do a fellowship every Friday night, 830 Eastern on our Patreon. You know, there's two tiers. There's a $5 tier, and then there's a $20 tier. $5 tier allows you to do the fellowship. We're consistent with it every Friday night.

It's awesome. We're up to like 45 people now. Let's go. We alternate between me, Stephen, and Kyle on... on who leads it i lead it this friday night so i'm pretty stoked it's my birthday so i get to lead it and we'll have your birthday in advance yeah i appreciate that and uh what's what's really cool is again we have our own podcast called the black and blue podcast and uh

You know, it's a way for us to express ourselves outside the tactical community. We get to talk about just daily lives and daily struggles and our faith, mental health, and when we goof off.

and uh it's a way for people to because everybody's always you know and they see our pictures online they see pictures like this and they think that's our full lifestyle that's you know work is no longer who i am you know i'm a i'm a family man i'm a husband i'm a father i'm a son i'm a i'm a i'm a christian and i'm a trainer last

And that's what we want people to see is you got to find an outlet. And our outlet is our faith. That's awesome. That's such a powerful testimony, Blake. I think like... I mean, our testimony is a story that God's given us, right? And God is in the business of redemption. And I think that's such a powerful story, just the things you went through. And we've talked about this, you know, just you and I before as well. I think it's...

that's your weapon right and you're using that which is which is really cool is that you come from a weapon a place where you were you had weapons of war and and you were protected but god's given you the weapon of your testimony and you're using you're using that yeah For the kingdom. People say it all the time. Hey, man, you're writing your story. And I'll correct them. I'm not writing nothing. I'm a character in this story, and the author is Jesus.

Well, I think you started helping citizens and people, and now you're helping out the people that are helping out the people. And so I think that's cool. That's always been your desire since the beginning is to help people, but it's like you needed someone to kind of reach down in your career and say,

Don't do that. There's a better way. And I think that's cool because I think a lot of times people retire and get the heck out of there, move to some cabin out in the middle of nowhere and be like, I don't want to be around people. I don't want to talk to people. But to be able to give it back to people is awesome. And what's the website they can find you at? So you can find us at Blueberrying.com, Blake Cook Actual on Instagram.

All right. Just started a photography page for landscape photography, so appreciate the support on that. Okay. It's Broken Mask Co., so... I really love, that's my outlet, man, truly, is capturing moments that people wouldn't even know that existed and turning them into something that is healing. Love that idea. Yeah, so it's awesome. Thanks, bro. Thanks, Blake. Thanks for being here, man.

If you guys would allow, I'd like to close this out in a prayer. Let's do it. Yeah, absolutely. Dear Heavenly Father God, thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be here. Thank you, Jesus, for my brothers to my right. Thank you, Lord, for creating this platform.

allowing us to give you the honor and the glory and the love thank you for your son jesus thank you for his sacrifice thank you for his willingness to forgive us for our sins and understand that we're human and continue to love us as long as we just give him our faith lord i ask that you continue to bless this podcast i ask you continue to bless those who need to hear the message gotta ask that

This message just gets to one person and helps them out and just continue to bless those, Lord, who don't know you yet but want to know you. God, please, Jesus, don't ever stop running after the one. The 99 will be okay, but the one needs you. Thank you for your love and your glory and your son, and we do this in his name. Amen. Amen. Thanks, bro. Yeah. Thanks.