Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have an important conversation lined up
for you for this show. With September just days away, there's going to be a lot of focus over the next month on suicide prevention, as September has been designated Suicide Prevention Month, so to discuss that issue from a very personal perspective, along with the tremendous work Simplify and America's Fund is doing in that space. I'm joined now by Army veteran JP Lane. JP. Thank you so much for coming on the show and of course for your service to
our country. We'll get to Simplify in just a bit and for everyone interested in learning more about that organization, you can check out the fund dot org. Again, that's the Fund dot org. But first let's start with your story when you decided to join the army. When was that was behind that decision? Yeah, Ryan, thank you so much for having me, and I just want to say that when people say thank you for your service,
I want to let everyone know you're worth it. But the reason why I actually decided to join the army was of a day that most of us remember, nine to eleven. And the reason why that was so traumatic for me was I was sitting in eighth grade language arts class and I'll never forget the TV. The teacher leaves the room and brings back TV on wheels, and normally, as kids in that grade, were like sweetest movie days, and all of a sudden, yeah, you remember, everybody remembers movie day.
I didn't have to do homework, but this time we didn't have to do homework because we were all in tears watching the Twin Towers fault. And that really struck me. And my teacher was like, hey, you may not understand this, so we're actually under attack right now. And so that's when I decided, you know what, when I'm old enough, I'm gonna make that promise to myself that I'm going to sign up and serve this nation and
hopefully get to be a part of that never happening again. And obviously life goes on, things continue, and shortly after I graduated high school, I was reminded of that promise that I made myself and so I immediately went to the recruiter's office, the Army recruiter's office, and I walked in there and I was like, Hey, what's the most dangerous job you can give me?
Right now? I'm ready to serve. And at that moment, the recruiter said, combat Engineer twelve, bravo, you'll be making bonds, blowing stuff up. It'll be a blast. Don't work, kids. And the funny thing is, I gotta find that guy, because that's literally what he said. And he had no idea what was about to happen. But that was the sole purpose of me signing that dotted line was watching that attack happen, knowing that so many of my fellow Americans had been hurt and killed and
just families were devastated. I wanted to be a part of the protecting force to stop that. It's incredible. Now, at that age, did you have any experience, knowledge, interest in the news or things like that. Was your family politically active focused on the news? Was there some kind of military background within your family at all? So they weren't politically there was nothing about the news. But my dad served sixteen years in the Air Force.
Okay, so I remember hearing many stories about that. My uncle served in the Navy, and so I there was a little bit of that military service in my background. But I'll tell you this though, my dad wasn't excited that I joined the army, and especially when I told him what job I chose, and he definitely wanted me to be a little bit in a safer situation. But I wanted to be frontlines and I wanted to be a part
of that stopping force from the get go. So it's amazing that you know, a couple of grades later, that was still sticking with you to the point where you followed right up on that process. That's how impactful that day was. Yeah. Now, absolutely, once you join the army, once you've signed up, what was your experience like there? And I'm assuming Afghanistan was your first stop? Yep. So I deployed Afghanistan in two thousan ten.
I joined in two thousand and eight, and so shortly after I joined, I impatiently was waiting and I finally got to deploy to Afghanistan and start my true service of how I wanted to give my service to my nation.
And so I got over there with the Soul Mission of doing route clearance, and for those who don't know what route clearance is, Ultimately, every single day I would be going out in some pretty awesome uparmored vehicles and we'd be searching for the massive bombs that the enemy would bury into the roads, and they would they would try to take us out with those. My job was to go first find them and make sure everyone else could go safely on their
mission. What was it about that particular job within the army that drew you to it? Was it just that that was like you had asked the recruiter one of the most dangerous jobs possible, or was there something else tied to it that led you to want to do that. Well, it was one of the most dangerous jobs in the entire military. But also I told them I want frontline, and the in the current war that we were in front
lineman. We're clearing bombs before anyone else went and did their thing. So that's as front as I could possibly get, So that's what I chose. We're joined by Army veteran JP Lane. He's here to talk about Simplify and America's Fund, which we'll get to all the great work that organization doesn't just a bit. You can learn more at the fund dot org. When you first get to Afghanistan, what was that like just setting foot in that country,
so far away from everything you knew? And there had to be a point where the realization set in that you know, you signed up for this, now you're in it, right, Yeah, I'll never forget. The landing was exactly like a movie. The plane literally was flide to the left, slide to the right, then center out, and then dive down. That's the combat landing. And then all of a sudden, the back of the plane drops down and we start walking out and a sandstorm punches us in
the face. I'm talking perfect movie quality, like, you're in it now, You're not anywhere, get comfortable in the stands of Afghanistan, and so we're We get out there and we get situated with all of my brothers in arms and those of us who were in the same company together and they get us situated, and we eventually traveled to the base that we would spend the
rest of our deployment at. And as we get over there, the unit that we're replacing teaches us the routes, shows us, hey, this is where you guys, gotta go. These are all the routes in your entire area of operation that you'll be clearing and covering, and we want to know. I want to let you know these are the most dangerous ones. These are a little bit more chilled than others, so just always keep your head
on a swivel. And nine five percent of my missions, I was a gunner, so I would always be behind a fifty cow or Mark nineteen or two four nine, all the different weapon systems that the army uses. That was mainly my job. The first time that you went out with your unit
without the previous unit on your own, do you remember that experience? Oh yeah, absolutely's that was actually one of the safest days for us, just because they have seasons of when they're the Taliban are one to fight, and when they're not wanting to fight, and this was kind of a down season, so it was a good time to not only teach us the routes, but also for us to do our job a little safer than the weeks ahead.
But the first couple of missions, no nothing exciting, just taking care of ied threats, but no dangerous things happening to me and my unit. And then As the time progresses, while we're there for our deployment, things started to get really, really bad. So let's fast forward. How long was it between when you got to Afghanistan and began your mission and when you were struck by a two hundred pound I eed? So I was actually blown up three separate times. The first two times I wasn't injured at all.
My vehicle was completely totaled. So between the first day that I arrived in Afghanistan, which I believe was about December first, then I was blown up, and about February, then no January, February, then March twenty six, twenty eleven, my best friend, Justin Ross was actually shot and killed by a sniper, and that was what changed who I was as a person internally completely. And fast forward. July second was my third and final blasts
and the last day I was in theater. Let's go back to we just had a moment ago when one of your friends shot and killed by a sniper in Afghanistan. You said it changed you. How so I used to be the happy, go lucky guy, kind of always out there and motivated to push my troops and make sure that they're the best they could be, but that day was filled with flu, anger, hate, revenge, questioning, how could we have stopped this? Why did this happened? You name it
the questions we're rolling through my thoughts twenty four seven. And to be completely honest, we know that soldiers will come home from tragic things that happened like that, and it'll wear on us. It'll be heavy on our shoulders and
and stop us from living life, even though we're already back home. And personally, I knew, besides being killed myself, that anger and hate and everything that was boiling up inside me, I knew there was only one other way that I would be able to go home without any of those feelings.
And to be honest, that one moment ends up happening. July second, while I was out on mission, I was blown up my third and final time, and that time was the first time in history that a truck like mine, an RG thirty one, was actually penetrated by an IEED and completely destroyed my vehicle, causing twenty six injuries inside and out of my body. We're joined here on iHeart Radio Communities by Army veteran JP Lane. I'm your
host, Ryan Gorman in just a bit. We're going to talk about an organization that really helped JP simplifying in America's Fund, which you can learn more about at the fund dot org. So one of the first times your vehicle was blown up, you mentioned that you were uninjured, so the vehicle protected
you in that instance. But like you just said, it was that third incident that was when you were severely entered to the point where correct me if I'm wrong, but you died twice on the operating table, that's correct. Yeah, in that moment when my truck was blown up, it actually amputated both my legs, and I always tell people that is a blessing in disguise, and they're like, why would you say that's that's kind of crazy.
But the reason I tell them that is because my soldiers actually found my right foot and boot melted to the floorboard of my truck. So if I wasn't amputated in that moment, I would have actually been melted to the floorboard of that truck and probably bled out and died. So I'm extremely grateful that I
was amputated directly as I needed to be. But on top of the two leg amputations, my left femur snapped in half, my pelvis snapped in half, my spine dislocated from my pelvis, my right arm snapped in half. My right metal finger was amputated, but nobody needs that finger anyway, so
that was all right. My four front teeth were knocked out when my face hit the steering wheel, my brain collapsed to the size of a pancake and then swelled right back up pressing against my skull, causing a traumatic brain injury within minutes when my skull hit the windshield, and everything inside my torso was
destroyed except for my heart and my left lung. So, like you mentioned, they got me to the hospital, the closest one at the time they started operating on me, and I had died twice on the operating table, but they had done a total of twenty eight surgeries to help put me back together, and I was in a coma for a month and a half during most of those surgeries, and people always ask well did you see anything? Was there any visions or anything like that, And for me, it was
a complete blackout. But I will be honest, it was the best nap of my entire life. Unbelievable. And do you do you still remember the incident or is everything kind of blank from when the ied struck to when you eventually woke up. Yes, So that is the only timeframe I do not have registered in memory, is the moment they put me on the bird the helicopter to give me to the first hospital, all the way through the coma for a month and a half until I woke up in Walter Read looking at
something completely different than I ever anticipated or expected for me. So you're told that you're never gonna walk or even talk again, or at least that's what doctors thought was going to be the case for you. But incredibly obviously we're talking here for this inner view, and you're active on prosthetics, So let's talk about that journey, that recovery. It wasn't easy, and I don't think any of us who haven't been in that kind of a circumstance can really
relate to what you must have went through. So if you don't mind step us through that, Yeah, it's sometimes it's really hard to go back and think about it, and it brings me into tears because it was tough. People don't really realize the pain that I was struggling with. Was for every single day, screaming, bloody murder and pain killers. They legally maxed me out on as many pain killers as they could for the day and it wouldn't
even touch the paint. It was excruciating and looking in the mirror seeing a monster, literally a half a dude, my thoughts messing with me, the medications they had me on, messing with my thoughts, and you name it. It was just a roller coaster of emotions and pain and everything that I was just trying to just trying to move on, but it was very difficult.
I was hospitalized for almost a year just healing up and everything. And during the time in the hospital and actually even more in therapy when I was learning how to use prospects, I would be so frustrated with the situation and
with the pain and everything. And my family would be able to be by my side from time to time, my parents and my siblings, but I had gotten divorced shortly after being blown up and waking up in the hospital, and so I was doing this all on my own, trying to heal up and trying to get through and I almost took my life twelve separate times. Because it's just I couldn't handle it on my own. And I'll never forget that twelfth attempts that I did not press the trigger. And it was a
thought that came to my mind that changed my mind forever. Aside from my faith and giving my life back into my faith in God and allowing him to give me the strength to get through, he gave me the thought that as we don't do this alone. No soldier ever goes to war by themselves, So why would I go through a mental war zone by myself? That's all right there clicked to me and changed my mind on ever wanting to take my life ever again. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Army veteran JP Lane.
Like we said at the beginning of the show, September is National Suicide Prevention Month. That's right around the corner. Or report by the Cost of War Project at Brown University estimated that more than thirty thousand active duty personnel and veterans of the post nine eleven wars have died by suicide. That's quadruple the number
lost in combat. And what was it aside from that realization that helped pull you out of that dark place that you were in, And when does semplify an America's Fund start to come into play for you, helping you along the way. So the first thing that happened was I stopped relying on my own strength or the strength that I thought I had to deal with the situation to try and fight what I've been dealing with, losing my legs and going through
divorce and all of these other things that just were painful and unbearable. But the fact that I realized I needed to trust and from my face back and God and say, look, you need to handle this. I don't I can't do this on my own. And he reminded me that I still have
a purpose here was what got me back up on my feet. No fun intended, because I'm wearing prosthetic feet, but he got me back up on my feet and not only gave me the correct s feet to walk right back to him, but right into organizations and loving people that he has put on this planet to help those that are like myself, who are combat wounded, who have served this nation. And the fund has literally been there since my very first call. I it's a kind of a funny story, but I'll
quickly tell it. I was talking to one of my warrior buddies, and I never called him wounded warriors. I just called him warriors. That's how they always are to me in my eyes. And I was talking to him, tell him, hey, I had a lawn service come out on a gular basis to help me with more in my lawn. But obviously I paid them and stuff like that. But they were kind of getting rude and I didn't want to deal with that anymore. And I figured, you know what,
I'm a grown man. I have two prosthetic legs. I can walk around, but I need to mow my lawn. But I can't get a lawnmark because the lawn that I have, I need a writing lawnmar otherwise it takes me four hours. And so he was like, hey, have you heard of Simplifying America's Funds. They're like the greatest organization on planet Earth, saying they literally will help you with that need. So you should give them a call. And I was like, Okay, I've never heard of them.
I'm really not the tight to reach out to organizations and do much asking of anything, but I mean, this is kind of a situation I need to, so I asked. I called the fond up and right away they were like, sap, we got you covered. Go to home depot and pick out a lawnmar and we'll get you covered. And I've been mom my lawn ever since. That's amazing that that was what connected you to this organization. But it also shows that there's nothing too small or nothing insignificant to where
Simplifying America's fund says that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, it's what makes sense for you. Yeah, Well, that's that's who they are. They're not They're not really an organization. They're a family. That's the difference. That's the beautiful part about it. It's like, hey, if you go to a family member and say, hey, I'm kind of in need of this situation or a lawn mower or whatever, they're the family members who say we're here to help and we'll take care of that need.
The lawnmower was just the smallest thing they've blessed me with my I'm a singer now, even though yes, you said earlier the doctor said I would never sing again because they destroyed my vocal cords during the tracheotomy and all that stuff. But I sing and I record music and go out and perform, and it has been the greatest passion that God has given me to continue to stay here on earth and have joy here doing it. And they have literally helped
me record multiple songs. They have brought me into saying multiple songs for warriors, and it's just been they have been one of the best supporters. And that's literally what they do is they sit down with the warrior and say, how can we support you? How can we remind you that not only do you have a purpose here, but the passions you have, we're going to help support that, and that you're being a little humble. You played in
two presidential inaugurations. Yeah, you gotta tell us about that. Definitely. It has been an amazing journey of saying at Obama's inauguration, Trump's inauguration, I was actually for a very short period of time on American I don't want America's Scott's talent. But honestly, the best things that I've been able to do is continue to try I roll around the United States and inspire everyone I possibly can. And that's because of the fund literally have in my back everywhere
I go, supporting what we do. And it's they're fantastic their family. I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities with Army veteran JP Lane, who's here to talk about a couple of different things. First of all, coming up in September, it's National Suicide Prevention Month. We're discussing that and also America's Fund. The fund dot org is the website for simplifying America's Fund again,
the Fund dot org. So what are some of the different programs that you can tell us about outside of the example you gave us and how America's Fund helped you. What are some of the other things that this tremendous organization does for service members, veterans and military families. Well, I know for a fact they have so many programs. It's they literally have done anywhere from hands cycling, drifts and different supporting events all the way to they literally will help
you the warrior build a facility at their home to start a business. For example, we have a lot of talented warriors out there. I'm talking beautifully coop woodcrafted products that these warriors are building in their homes and able to turn around and open up their own business and sell those products. Like they go from to the lawnmower to your own business. That's what they're here to support is your journey. And they even support athletes. Just to give you an
idea. They have been amazing supporters of Warrior Games, athletes who have traveled across the United States in different locations to be the best athletes they possibly can. And I'm super excited because next year I will be for the very first time ever on the Army's team for the Warrior Games. So yeah, they have already said they would like to support that. I mean, they helped so many warriors in everything that they're passionate about. It is fun, it's
mind blown. I haven't met an organization that has so much love for warriors and their families. It's beautiful. For those listening who are hearing your story, they're hearing about the incredible work that Centplifying America's Fund continues to do day in and day out. What are some ways you would suggest they go about helping support that cause? Oh, I would easily. I always tell people I love to do my homework and find out what the best organization is,
and when I find it, I like to brag about it. And one of those organizations is definitely the fun Centrifying America's fun. And I'm talking way don't need everything that's in our Wallace, right, we can m Dr Wallace
and help warriors out. So I would definitely encourage every listener here check out the fund dot org and check out what they do, the stories that they have about warriors that they help, And I promise you if that doesn't tug on your heart, I don't know what does, because that's all they care about, a supporting the warriors in their family. And there are a lot of ways to support Semplifying America's Fund. You can obviously go to the website
the Fund dot org and donate. You can also host an event volunteer, so once you go to the website there will be a number of different options for everyone to support this. Again, incredible organization. I mean you're hearing
it from JP himself about how much the fund has helped him. For those who maybe find themselves in a similar situation to what you were going through during your rehabilitation, some of the struggles that you were facing, whether they are a fellow veteran or or maybe not, what would you suggest they do to come out on the other ends, like you have, I would suggest that they take a second sit down and realize they woke up this morning, they
have air in their lungs. That means God has a purpose for them still on this Earth, and even though they may not know what it is at the moment, trust me, I didn't know what my purpose was for a whole year inside the hospital and paining that entire time. I didn't know it while I was in therapy learning how to walk again at the age of twenty three. But He has a purpose for you, and do not ever give
up. Know that you need to keep pushing forward and reach out to those who care about you and allow them to also encourage you on a regular basis and lift you up. Because I was not able to do this on my own, and I thought I was army, strong, toughest soldier on planet Earth. But we're not meant to live this life alone. So reach out,
have people help. I don't ever give up. And there are so many organizations that are there to support those going through something like that, whether it's Semplify and America's Fund or various other organizations all across the country, they're available for that support. Finally, JP, you talked about being a singer and you're making music. Are there places where everyone can go to check you
out and what you're doing? Absolutely if you go to YouTube, say JP Lane, I got a couple of songs on Spotify and Amazon Music as well, and a lot more to come. I'm actually working on an album as we speak, so very excited about that and hoping to inspire people through my music. So I love what I do again. Search for JP Lane on YouTube or various other platforms to find his work. Army veteran JP Lane with us year to discuss his personal story and simplify and America's Fund, which you
can find at the fund dot org. JP again, can't thank you enough for coming on the show, telling your story and for your tremendous service to this country. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Ryan, Thank you so much for having me again. You are worth it, your listeners are worth it. And I hope you all have a very blessed day, all right and you as well. And that's going to do it for this edition
of iHeart Radio Communities. As we wrap things up, I want to offer a big thanks to our guest, JP Lane, and of course to all of you for listening. If you want to hear previous episodes of the show, we're on your iHeartRadio app. Just search for iHeart Radio communities. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon