82nd Airborne in Iraq Tasked with TST Missions | Lance Strong | Ep. 325

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Special operations, Cobert Ox Spionage. The Team House with your hosts Jack Murphy and David Park.

Hey, everyone, welcome to episode three hundred and twenty four of The Team House.

I'm Jack Murphy.

I'm here with our guest Tonight, Lance Strong, who served in the eighty second Airborne with Arista squadron. They are we'll get into it, but recon squadron, but they ended up with a very direct action mission, as we'll get into. He was, you know, seriously injured in Bagdad and a pretty horrific accident we'll talk about, med boarded out of the army and have done all kinds of interesting things, varied things in the interim since he got out of

Hey, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.

I definitely feel privileged and honored, you know, not having served in special operations or done anything too special. And I probably hold the record for all of your guests of having the shortest, most condensed military career.

Well your podcast, This is what I offer to you and those like you, is that at least you're not a dirty, nasty leg I don't know.

If I could.

I don't know if I could tolerate that.

I don't know if I can tolerate that.

But seriously, though, this isn't just a.

Special ops podcast.

I don't want people to think that.

We try to include people all across the military, across the intelligence community, including some law enforcement and things like that.

For sure, awesome all right, I'll fit right in then.

So tell us a little bit about growing up. You came out of a small town, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, San Luis Obispo, which is the central coast of California, so most people have.

Heard of Santa Barbara, a lot of famous people. You know. It's north of.

La and then San Luis Obispo is kind of smack dab in the middle between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, rolling green hills, lots of vineyards these days. When I was born and raised, it was mostly cattle ranches. Those are all vineyards. Pretty much small town. It's getting bigger and bigger every time we go back and visit. But yeah, you know what was interesting, I think, you know, unique

What was the size of your graduating class in high school?

Probably four hundred ish, you know.

Oh, okay, so small town, but that's a pretty well graduating class.

Really the only high school in the entire town, right, So that's it.

I think there's one other private high school that was much smaller, but yeah, so big, big class.

I suppose maybe it was only three hundred.

I honestly don't remember, but yeah, only high school in town, so tigers.

Yeah it was good.

My dad went there too, so it was funny, is I So I go, you know, the same high school my dad went to. He was born and raised same you know, same town. And we had one auto shop teacher and maybe like an English or math teacher.

Right, that was the same like.

They started when my dad and the year after having me, they all retired. They could not handle two of us.

So yeah, so three three people from your graduating class end up in the military, and one of them joins the army with you.

Right, Yeah.

So one of one of my best friends that we you know, we grew up. I probably knew him since the first grade, you know, awesome friends, and we kind of were on our own path going to join you know, and obviously, I mean, just like any other veteran in our generation nine to eleven, you know, had a huge, huge part of that. I think my buddy, he he was always.

Going to go.

I mean, like, you know, I don't know when it was for him, but I think Blackhawk Down the movie. You know, he was going to be a ranger from the day he was you know born kind of thing. And for me, I probably didn't get serious about it until nine to eleven. I would have been like eighth grade, fourteen or so, you know, really really had an impact like it did all of us. And really, you know, I always looked up to veterans. You know, I know

The Vietnam era.

I knew a lot of Vietnam veterans who were kind of my heroes, and just the crap that they went through and everything they dealt with. Like I felt so called to somehow say thank you. And the only way I kind of knew how was to be like, Okay, I'm gonna, you know, walk a mile in their boots, you know, And.

So that's what I did.

I was seventeen when I when I joined I needed my parents, you know, permission slip you know, to Uncle Sam. And they weren't super stoked on it just because there was two wars going on in two thousand and five, and you know, my recruiter had been told.

I'm like, oh, I've been in the infantry for ten years.

I've never been to play, you know and stuff, and they knew I was going right over there, and that's what I wanted. I think they knew as soon as I turned eighteen, I was gonna go anyway, so they signed that was in the delayed entry program for the rest of my senior year with my buddy. So I think we even got promoted once, you know, or something like that in that delayed entry program. If you yeah, I don't know, Well.

Do you like take a PT test and you know something like that.

Yeah, yeah, PT tests and then like learning all the ranks and some you know, military stuff whatever. So yeah, And for me, I never looked at any other branch. There's no way I was going to go in the Navy. I don't like water, I don't really like boats. Last the last cool ship to me was a pirate ship, and there's none of those in the Navy, you know.

So I wasn't going to join the Navy.

And the Marines, I I mean the Army for Airborne entry was given out twenty thousand dollars signing bonuses too in two thousand and five, so it was always gonna be the Army. I felt like the way they looked at obstacles, you know, and tried to figure out how to get around them instead of just you know, bashing right through, although some units you know, do that, but I don't know. Yeah, I think if I could live another life, i'd try to be a pilot, you.

Know, or something like that.

But I'm I probably from the time I watched Band of Brothers, Airborne infantry was what I wanted to be. I wanted so badly to go to one hundred and first Airborne. I had no idea they weren't jumping. I just you know, thought they were so cool and in Band of Brothers and uh yeah. So I think I graduated two thousand and six, June two thousand and six, and I mean within a few weeks I was, you know, headed to Georgia, Fort Benning, the whole you know, sand

I don't know if it was the same when you were going through or not.

Yeah, similar, And so I mean, yeah, you, uh, sixteen weeks later, you're a highly trained combat killer and you're also rich with your twenty thousand dollars signed so rich.

Yeah.

Yeah, I probably was the only uh private from our class that didn't blow that on the lemon lock cars and you know strippers and the whole bit. I I saved all that up, luckily. Yeah, saved every dime of it. You know, I really didn't have time to buy much of anything either, So as soon as I finished. It was kind of a weird time too for all the training because they'd like there were so many people joining at that time, they didn't have like enough cadre to

And running a lot and and all that.

I got going home for Thanksgiving, yeah, and then and then finally started. Yeah, but it was Airborne school was my was by far my favorite time in the military. I think, uh uh, you know, nights and weekends off it was.

It was it was fun. I loved Airborne school.

I I didn't I don't know if did you get to do the towers?

No?

Okay, so I lucked out too, because I, you know, the whole time was like I want to do the towers. But then you're like there and you're like, I don't. I don't want to do the tower, so that that doesn't look fun at all. And like the guy before us, like our chalk or whatever, he flew into to the tower and got stuck, and it was just like, yeah, so they call it off. Right when that happens, they call it off. Takes forever to get them down all that, and it was great. Because I heard the towers were

Yeah, it's a little it's a little iffy, right, I don't know what it is, like the like heights hit you differently psychologically, like jumping out of that, like you for sure did what it was a thirty four foot tower.

Oh yeah, yeah, thirty six right something like it's like at the scientific height of being afraid of heights. Yeah. So it's high enough, yeah, to make people not want to jump out, yeah, for sure.

And then when you jump, you know, at well fifteen hundred feet or whatever it is, I mean that's still low enough you can see like little pine trees down there, and you're.

Like, well, I don't know if I want to go and do this.

But then years later when I did the free fall course, it's like you get that high up at like twelve thousand feet, the earth just looks like a painting, like your brain doesn't really register.

Now, yeah, for sure, for sure, it's a all those are different experiences, yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, I loved everyone school.

I my I'll just share.

One jump story, right, because I have to I'm on a podcast, right, So my fourth jump, everything had gone pretty well. Actually, I got a concussion on the first jump, hit the back of my head and I was like throwing up all night and like passing out and stuff. But if you go to sick Hall like you're done, you're you know, you wash out or whatever. So I'm like,

He's like what's going on?

And the guy just puts that taco sized dent in the side of his you know, f one fifty or whatever. Boom, and he's like, you know, God, you guys are gonna kill me today, you know. And he's you know, all mad and everything. So I was actually pretty nervous for the fifth jump because you know, two of them have already hurt really bad, and I was like, maybe maybe this wasn't a great idea. But one of the reasons too, is like I loved flying, loved taking off, I love

He got to pin my wings on me.

That was a pretty proud moment for me, especially because that that was my you know, my my goal. And as I mentioned to you before, some probably towards the end of uh the school, they they took a lot of US Infantry guys in from sand Hill. And you know, if if you didn't have a RIP on your contract, they asked if you, you know, wanted to go to RIP Ranger Indoctrination Program.

I think it's called RASP now.

And I I don't know, just being like young and dumb and already have had to wait for the different schools already.

I just I want.

I wanted to get with the unit. I wanted to get over there. I didn't want to miss the surge, you know, all that kind of stuff. That's what they were kind of talking about, was this huge you know, mobilization and yeah, like I said, I wanted, I wanted to go h first. So when I got my orders, you know, it said eighty second on it. And I remember just being like, oh, man, like I missed, I'm

So you're you're lucky, and I was.

I was like the only guy that I knew of in any of the chalks around me that was going to uh Fort Bragg. So I think I went straight from Airborne school home to do Christmas. So I had a couple couple of days, did Christmas with my family and then got on a plane and then got to UH got to go to the famous Fort Bragg, which is Fort Liberty.

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Yeah, so you get to your unit. Your unit's already deployed right when you get there.

Yeah, So I don't even I don't know if anyone knew like what unit, you know, I'd be in. So when I got to brag, it would have been December, like real late December, I don't know, like twenty six, twenty seventh of December.

It is a ghost town. Like a ghost town.

All of the you know, divisions or the brigades are are already mobilized. One had just gotten back, I think from Afghanistan, and kind of the word on the street was, you know, you'll the new guys will probably go there and train up for like a year and then go back, you know, for another twelve or fifteen month deployment, you know, to Afghanistan. So I had I remember calling my parents and be like, hey, don't worry, I'm not going to deploy for like a year.

I'm pretty bummed, you know whatever.

And then within like a couple of days, it was like, actually, you're assigned to the first of the three two five. So they always said one thing will change three times twice every five minutes in the first of the three two five. So I get to I get to them and it's just their rear D. There's you know, hardly anybody there. So some guys recovering from some things, and yeah, I get to them and we I mean, I thought

You know this this infantry graduate.

Right, I know how to dig a Vietnam style hasty fighting position.

I've never held an M four yet.

I don't think we wait, we had M fours, just not the same ones, you know that the that the the units had.

Maybe we had M sixteens. I can't even remember. That's crazy.

It was like twenty years ago, right, so it happens. But I don't think we had M fours. But you know, someone's gonna tell me I'm an idiot at some point here. But yeah, so we I get there and you know they had those like conics like trucks with the computer screen, and you had the little air guns and you'd like, you know, okay, corral Western style like shoot you know,

It was. It was hilarious.

And then like maybe a couple like rollover, you know, humvy things, you know, where you simulate like grabbing the gunner's legs like that's going to save his life and stuff, you know, so silly stuff. And I remember sleeping a ton, like just sleeping and then eating and sleeping and eating

And we go in there and all.

Right, you know so and so and so and so you're in Alpha company, Go with this guy. You guys are in Bravo company, Go with that guy. And nobody, nobody calls my name. I'm sitting there like alone, and I'm like, am I even supposed to be in Iraq right now? You know? Like am I might even qualified to be in Iraq? Like I'm not even on a list right, Like what's going on? And then somebody walks out and he asked me, like, do you know anybody in the military?

And I said, yeah, my you know my.

Best friend from San Luis Obispo. You know, we went to boot camp together all this. He's like, no, you idiot, because do you know anybody like high up in the military, any family or anything like no, no, you know, my grandpa was in World War two, and he's just.

Like, you're an idiot.

He goes, well, don't expect a worm welcome, but you're going to Charlie Troop, first Squadron, seventy third Calve.

Like I'm not I'm not Calve.

And he's like, no, no, you're going to all the Charlie troops and the squadrons are airborne infantry. It's purely infantry, you know, unit troop. You know, so this is the only infantry troop in these cave units. And these units are attached to each brigade and they're the rist of squadrons, so they're the reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, you know. And he was like, you know, most of these guys, you know, have all the you know, they got the ranger tab.

Expect a warm welcome, right.

I don't know how much you know or can speak to about sort of like the lineage of RISTA, yeah, because I mean it's always interesting and frustrating to me. It seems like the army is always disbanding these you know, dismounted or airborne light reconnaissance elements.

You know, we had worse.

There was the visual worse at eighty second airborn yeap that could go the worst.

Teams kind of go away.

And then it seems like the RISTA guys were the kind of replacements that got stood up.

Yeah, and you know it's interesting you said that. I'm glad that you might.

Before this podcast, I kind of wanted to like, look, you know, look up my old unit, and it just got disbanded, like in June of twenty twenty four, they killed the unit. Yeah, so I think they're now moving to I don't know if they're they're do more mechanized you know RISTA stuff now would have drones and stuff too. I think they're gonna be replaced with like different, you know, different stuff, I guess as the battlefield changes. So I was a little bit bummed out. I was like, no way,

And I have a cool story.

Of meeting alerts guy when I was medically retired and heading home. So if I forget that story and you remember, let me let me share it. But he was in my same unit, but in alerts in you know, eighty second Airborne ALERP Sky in Vietnam.

It was pretty cool. He's the he was the Sheriff of Amarillo.

So if you don't, if I don't remember Sheriff of Ambarillo's story, make make sure you let me tell you that.

So.

Yeah, so the risk the units.

Are basically, you know, or were the brigades recon teams, right, and so if you were thinking of it in like you know, conventional terms of you know, like if world we're you know two or whatever, again, the RISTA would would be out there doing the scouting, the recon, all that target acquisition.

They would do.

Some some engagement, you know when necessary, some direct action, but really their mission was you know, to get in, get the lay of the land, get all the intel you possibly can eyes on again, target acquisition piece of it there too, and then you know that was all before the brigades the airborne infantry would then come in and take care of that. So the way the risk of squadrons were were built up. I wish, I wish

Figure this out. So these guys had had just.

Done five months in in Iraq, mostly into Kret. They were one of the first units or the first unit to support CAG during the Torch missions. They had been flying around Chinook's Blackhawks doing you know, direct action raids, taking out huge caches of of you know, I D s or whatever, doing like super high speed, badass shit for five months. You know, they weren't wearing eighty second patches.

We need you back there.

So not only are they kind of mad that they're back there, but they're also like again like total badasses that it's almost like when you're when you're doing stuff like above, your pay grade.

You you you then have.

The mentality like we're really special and awesome, right, like there's no way to not have that. But then a guy like me coming straight from building, you know, hasty fighting positions in the woods of Georgia with you know, a five jump chump, I have nothing but airborne school, and I'm useless to these guys pretty much, right, I'm

Don't cut your hair for two weeks. That was the first thing he said to me. Uh.

And then he said, look, we played by the big boy rules here. You know, I'm not gonna mess you up unless you mess up. Don't expect to go out on missions with us for a few weeks. Like you don't even have a humbye license.

You don't have.

We didn't do any like air assaults. But you know, I just I have zero experience. I've worn nods for all of five minutes in basic training, right, I have like the the famous amount of experience with close quarter combat, all the all the stuff you need in Iraq, especially with a unit like these guys, I don't have.

I don't have any of it.

So they're not going to take me out until they know, like you know, I'm not gonna shoot one of them on accident or you know all that kind of stuff. So my chores were like at night when they'd go out on mission, I would run around with nods on fully geared up.

Like behind our warehouses there was all these.

Like just like metal garbage like all over the place, and they would have like me run and jump over these things and like just get super acquainted with nods because we we always you know, rolled out in darkness, drove with nods. You know, we had no lights, nothing, and so it was just like you gotta you gotta show us that you can drive a humbie with you know, all that kind of stuff with with nods, you know whatever. So it probably took a little bit before I went out.

As they rolled out.

And then I'd always have tasks or something to do, but it was kind of lame. And then yeah, I remember the first the first mission I did, uh started in the day, and I think going back, so I've really, I've really tried to piece this together because again I wasn't obviously in any leadership role, had no privy of exactly what our mission was or anything. I knew what the surge was supposed to be about. I knew what

What we were really good at.

Again, it'd be awesome to have some of my leadership on at some point to talk about what exactly happened, But we just were doing time sensitive target raids short you know. There we would do some presence patrols and some knock and talks and stuff and our aos during the days, but then almost every night, uh, it was just hitting, hitting targets. And at first we would we would kind of uh switch it up. So you know, first platoon would be the court on and the court

We were.

We were just bagging and tagging dudes left and right every single night. We were waking them up in their sleep. We were using this new technology track and cell phones. It was like find your friends that we have now, you know, but it was like the old school version where someone's sitting in the hum V with like an arrow, you know, and like yeah, yeah, right there, right there, hit that house, you know.

Yeah.

And then as as we I guess became successful in that or whatnot, or word got out or I don't really know, and there's rumors there's like the un you know, like the war talk, like yeah, war talk where guys are like, well, so and So's dad is actually a JSOW commander. So that's probably why we're getting these you know, missions or whatever, and that is true, but I've never been able to confirm that. And then I think it was kind of you know, from the previous experience they had or whatnot.

I don't know.

But after we cleaned up our ao, which was super quick, I mean, we cleaned it up fast, and we got in some gnarly firefights early on. I don't know like what number mission it was, or what night or whatnot. I guess I guess before a firefight was an e FP that rocked us real bad. So I'll talk about these hunter boxes we used. But we had these big, huge LMTV or Juice and a half trucks that up armored and everything open tops.

We'd drape some like sniper netting over the top.

And we had some guns mounted on the side and I think on the top, and then we had humbies, right, so the the platoon that was hitting the target buildings would be in the hunter boxes and then the cord on off would be the humviies.

And again we would switch it up.

But we were doing there was like a huge operation in all of Baghdad where they were like going through and we were going to go like house to house, like everybody had their AO and they were going to clear their entire AO and stuff. So I remember doing this really long, like all day, maybe all night and then into the next day kind of mission where you're

I ended up.

Falling into one of those like shit, creaks, you know where like the sewage goes. So we're running through one of those, and I mean I was like one step, two step, boom, a face plant right into this crap and so I'm covered head to toe and like poop, Oh my god. And I'm trying to run through this like like I don't know, like a field to get online with everybody. And I was like one of the last people, like huffing and puffing, and I had swallowed my eyes are burning, like you know, I'm having a

And I was like I couldn't really say, like like.

It's because I literally swallowed poop and him covered head to toe, you know, what.

Like like no, no, no joke, Like you're lucky to survive that alone. Guys who went into those pits, I mean they got hepatitis A through Z Like bad stuff happened.

I mean maybe that's why I have Crohn's disease. There's a few other other things that might have gave you that. Yeah, who knows, Yeah, probably Yeah, fortunate that that, Yeah, that that happened. That was kind of my first you know, taste of actual real combat, you know, the missions that had gone on. We're just kind of like, hey, when is when is when are things? Like when are we get in a firefight? Like when do we you know, like what happens?

You know?

And we were like doing things too where there was like the guys would have these uh scavenger hunts, Right, you kick a chicken, it was like five hundred points.

You slap a donkey was like a thousand points. You know.

One night, you know, there there was like a donkey noise you know, going off and it was like found one, you know over the columns, and uh yeah.

We kind of did did some fun stuff like that.

But then you know, as as it progressed, it got more and more serious. What one day we had, uh, we had a new platoon leader join us and he was right out of ranger school, super awesome dude. His first time out with us, he gets hit by a sniper in the side plate right hits me in the side plate and part of the fragments when when I don't know if the side plate or whatever, something was like burning in his side and it was some shrapnel from that bowet or whatever.

And he was totally fine.

But we had all like a lot of guys were some of the guys were wearing plate carriers at least by the end.

But you know, I had the.

Eye the cherry iba and everything. But I had noticed everybody's taking their side plates out. That's super heavy, and so my side plates were out, you know, and I was ditching things left and right whenever I could, because we were all usually moving pretty quick. And as soon as he got hitting the side plate, you know, I look around and we get back and everybody is reaching into their foot grabbing the side place and like making sure no one's looking, but putting their side plates back in.

And so yeah, so.

Yeah, and again, like I'm saying with the TST missions, like we you know, at first, we weren't really getting into anything heavy. We were just taking you know, taking guys pretty quick. And as we started moving into other areas of operation and doing things all over the place, so Gazily Academia and then Shulah was the worst place. We've always gotten firefights there. But then yeah, it's like they started getting smarter. They started having you know, their

You know.

We were trying to get out there super fast.

And so as they started getting smarter, you know, is when we started really especially when we started moving into Shula the Cave. I can't remember what cave unit was there, but they had taken crazy casualties in Shoela in two thousand and seven. And when we started operating in their oda's were operating in there. Different task force and stuff

Yeah, don't don't even look at them, don't talk to them, you know nothing.

So those were like the AWG guys and other dudes that were embedded with us.

But yeah, we were getting in some crazy firefights.

I remember my first firefight was was it was funny. It was eerily similar to that black Hawk down scene. At the very beginning, we're like, how do they know? How do you know they're shooting at us?

Right?

I remember asking telling my squadalider like it's so loud, right, And when you're in in that urban environment, I mean, a bullet that's you know, getting sent from over here sounds like it's you know, over here and all that stuff, and when you're really in experience, like you just you have no idea what's going on, and you know it's really up to the sergeants and squad leaders will be like, hey,

I feel isolated and kind of out there.

Yeah. Yeah, And I remember going, hey, how do it?

Because it was getting it was starting to sound really different, and I'm like, hey, are we getting shot at?

No? No, I don't think hey, are we getting shot at?

And it was like it's like now we're getting shot at, you know, And I remember, I'll never forget that snapping, you know, because you could be on a range, you know where where you're getting shot from over the top and hear that snapping. But when it's like aimed at you, there's like a throaty noise to that, you know, it almost like you could hear the barrel like spitting at you.

And that snapping is different.

And and when things start moving, yeah, things get get crazy really fast, and so I'll never forget that.

I'll never forget. There was a few times.

Where we hit a dry hole, but we were like really positive that it was the dude's house. So there was a couple of times where we left and I was with them. It was like me and four other guys just stayed in the house and our humbies and everybody drove off, you know, to a distance. You know, that was going to be quite a while if we got into some you know, bad stuff, And we just waited for the guy to come home and you know, bagged him up and called everybody in and and and

So we saw a lot of crazy, crazy things.

We my Sergeant Meyer, my my squad leader. He ended up becoming the head of like the sniper section.

While we were there.

He he taught me a lot of awesome stuff when I was recovering in the hospital. He actually got second place in the Army Marksmanship Competition sniper competition that year, which is really cool because I'm like watching him on TV while I'm recovering in the hospital. The International Sniper Competition, Yeah, yeah, the Military sniper competition. Yeah, it was incredible. So he was he is he's an amazing dude. But yeah, yeah, I think two towards the end, so we were supposed

Stuff, and these are not a lot of not a lot of sleep.

Yeah, so exhaustion setting in kind of that like zombie not enough sleep started kind of playing into it too, So guys were starting to kind of just it was taking a toll on all of us, and anytime I wanted to complain, you know, I mean they'd already been doing this for five months, so you know, I definitely,

I definitely thought I wasn't.

Gonna make it that night, So we're going back into Shula. We hit a hap, we hit this house, and I want to say we had been there before, like it was a dry hole, you know. And so we go back like the next night or a couple of nights

How are we going to get out of here?

You know?

And he like looked at me, grabbed me, and he's like, you know, like we're gonna make it, don't you worry, you know everything.

It was just one of those like crazy moments, you know.

And unfortunately, right around this time, one of our guys who was outside got hit in the head with with a round and ak round and and collapsed. And this Eddie Sandmeyer interesting story. His sister is Bridget from Hugh Hefner's like third girlfriend.

That's his sister.

So I never got to experience this, but all the all that unit would get to go to the mansion, hang out with his sister and stuff. I I, I'm not sure they would have invited me anyway, but yeah, they got they would get to do that. So yeah, and one of the other platoon leaders his uh his babysitter was Fergie.

Yeah.

I couldn't can't confirm that one, but definitely can confirm

We could just start messing stuff up big time.

And so yeah, so we got him out and then it started getting light and we got to a clearing where they could get you know, bring in a metavac, and they put him on the metavac, and I remember going back to our warehouse and like seeing guys cleaning out his helmet and there's like you know, bone fragments and his helmet and stuff, and like, you know, everybody's just like really really not doing well. And he ended

Yeah.

And I ended up getting to see him after I

And everyone's getting strung out.

Yeah, and I think all of us had really seen seen kind of enough in a way.

You know. We had a commander or.

Yeah, our unit commander was they called him T one thousand, super ripped dude, good looking guy, blonde hair, so T one thousand from Terminator, and he was just always like, when's the next.

You know, tst Target? Why aren't they sending us target?

Like he was just always wanted us out there and and uh as awesome as he was, Uh, you know, some of the guys were kind of being like, dude, we need to like scale back a little bit, like it's just getting too much, you know, and stuff. But yeah, I remember, I remember, you know, getting my first guys. We got ambushed on the way back from a mission, and I was up in the turret that night, and I remember, I remember one of the it was like third squad, their squad leader, sergeant.

Sergeant Gray.

He at one point he was like, you know, don't talk to me, Cherry until you know you've killed.

Someone or whatever, you know.

And I remember after that mission going back to his bunk and just being like, hey, sergeant, so we can we can talk.

Now, huh.

And he's like, get out of your mother after you know, on at me, and I'm like, what the heck. So, you know, for a while there, people were putting up like ace cards, you know, on their bed and stuff. And then and then it just got so much that nobody cared at all. It was just like we're just trying to survive. I even remember like one mission, I was up in a turret, started getting shot at and I'm like shooting back, and it was like so constant

Like that's like a broken something broken.

It's like after a while you transcend the danger reaction, right and yeah, like kind of like just letting it hang out there, not necessarily giving a flock.

Yeah, And there were some guys that like really did didn't care if they died. I mean they were doing dumb stuff like getting out of the humbies and chasing dudes down like an alley and taking them out, you know when we'd get in contact and stuff, and they didn't care.

You know, at a certain point, we just kind of stopped caring.

And I I never got quite there where I was like, yeah, I'm gonna you know, I'm just gonna be fine dying. But you definitely thought it was gonna probably happen. You know, it's either gonna be yeah something, So yeah, I should probably go into kind of the final mission for me. So the final the final mission was September tenth, two thousand and seven. Just like all the other TST missions, you know, it was like are we going to sleep tonight or we're gonna go out on mission?

You know, all the lights would go off and we'd start getting.

Our bunks and maybe we're gonna get some sleep and then like you know, middle of the night, you know, broom, the lights would come on and you know, tst let's go, let's go and grab all your stuff, and like always had like a task like getting the trucks ready or something while they're getting like the op briefing, like all the leaderships like going through everything. Here, targets, here's where we're going to hit, you know, all that stuff. And my job was like making sure everything was ready to

So we were pretty preparing for some heavy stuff.

So we get to the area, which again was in Shula, and that night I'm with Sergeant Meyer again. We're in the No I wasn't he was in the Oh no, okay, so I was in I was in the hunter box, like I said. But that night, instead of hitting the target buildings, I was going to go with the sniper section, link up with them, hit the building and go on top, you know, one of the highest, tallest.

Buildings or whatever in the area.

And we were overlooking kind of this this field or like kind of like a I don't know, playground type area, you know, but you know, Iraq style, and there was probably three or four buildings gonna get hit. And before we were totally set up up there, it was already like coming down like we got them all, like we got him, Like we we got them all. And so they're strapping them up and everything, and so it was super quick and kind of disorienting.

We get back.

Is this back in the day when we were like ratchet strapping.

The h vts down to the bed of the y Yeah truck.

Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't the super nice like flex cuffs. I don't remember the super nice flex cuffs. I remember like probably your you know, your Harbor freight zip ties, you know, the thick ones.

Those different times. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah.

I mean like our humbies were up armored to a sense, but you know, like the turret's pretty exposed, like you've got some glass on three sides, but you know, sniper netting on top, you know, just just yeah, at different times, So they're trying to figure out, how do we get nineteen guys like out of here, you know, like they're gonna be people are gonna be sitting on them in the humbies and people. You know, we can only fit a couple in each hunter box, so I think we

Get out of there.

So they're like, everybody, like load up and we're just gonna shoot our way out of here. So we're all loading up, and I remember so my squad leader, Sergeant Meyer had taken over the snipers section, Sergeant Rivera had taken over our squad, and he was getting he was one of the last in the truck, and we had

Bit of like security you can do.

Like if you see anybody with an RPG or something, obviously you got to take him out or they I mean, you're really exposed, especially when the buildings are high, like there's eighteen Americans. It's a big target. So it's always like just like the worst time trying to drive out. You either gonna be a hit with an ID or you're gonna get shot or blown up from the you know, up top. So you just wanted to like get out of the town, you know, or the urban area and

North of Baghdad.

There's like this massive overpass and it literally goes from like thirty to eighty hundred feet like massive goes in different directions and on this overpass and we're still like we're not taking probably like direct fire, but people are able to always be pop shotting us, you know, the entire way out of there, especially like we got their guy is like they're just you know, trying to get

Drove, you know, no lights with nods.

The driver's an eighty eight mic like attached to us because none of us could drive the big trucks. And it's right in that horrible period of the day where it's too a little bit too bright at dawn to be wearing the nods but too dark for to just be line of sight. And for some reason or whatever, Yeah, he loses control of the of the LMTV. We end

And then I fully like blackout, Like I just I remember.

I remember as we're falling and like seeing the truck and like all the guys like are now not side, they're like down right, And as we're going down, I just remember everything just closed off. And so when I wake up. When I wake up, I kind of like, you know, like when they talk about Hell, it's been like dark and gnashing teeth and all that stuff. Like it literally was pitch dark. I'm crushed under this truck and all these bodies and there's screaming and like.

Metallic noises and stuff.

And I remember like just thinking like holy shit, like I died and this is hell, Like that's so messed up, you know. And then I was like, well, it's not hot, and the Bible said it was supposed to be hot, right, so it's not.

Maybe this isn't hell.

And then the next thing was like, oh my god, I can't breathe, like I couldn't even I was so crushed. I couldn't even breathe out, let alone take like a breath in. And then I started to panic. And then I started hearing all the screams and yells and and you go into like a very weird, I don't know, pre death space or something like where just like it was just unlike anything I'd ever experienced. And right when like I'm like, I'm this is it, Like this is

And so then I.

Remember some of the weight kind of being rolled off me and someone who I haven't talked about yet as was my best friend, the only dude who was even close to looking my age. I looked I literally looked twelve, and like you know, in basic training when they check check your facial hair, you know, and stuff like, I remember not shaving and being put into the like you shaved, good job line, you know, and everyone else getting in trouble, like, yeah, I haven't shaved for a couple of days, but if

And then I broke a bunch of bones in my face.

This ear was taken off like completely, like scooped out and hanging on by like a flap of skin, like scooped out deep. And then there was seventy stables, So my entire school was kind of like filayed open and falling off. And so when he's like dragging me out and like sitting me up with all these shattered vertebrae and everything, I mean like I was in like the most pain I've ever can ever describe. But also this weird like shouldn't this hurt even body experience? Yeah, it

Thirty to fifty feet.

My buddy who pulled me out of the wreckage, he ended up reclassing and went back to the same area like several years later. He says, it was like seventy five to eighty feet. All settle on fifty feet. It doesn't really matter to me how tall it was. It was really freaking I remember on some missions like being up there and like peeing off of this overpass and thinking to myself, like this would really suck to fall off, Like this is gnarly, you know. I even have some

So this is this is super high.

Unfortunately, seven seven of my guys die. I think three like pretty instantly, and then the rest either died on the bird's back to the hospital to to the bag that like green zone, big hospital there, and then the rest of us.

Yeah, we're pretty messed up.

And yeah, I remember, I remember finally our element getting getting down to us. So after he pulled me out, I pass out again, and when I wake up the next time, it's my lieutenant who was in the actually the passenger seat, and he's trying to wrap my head.

He's like pulling my ear up in my head and he's trying to wrap my head.

And as soon as he lets go, he like shattered like everything, like his arm, so he's only trying to.

Do it like one arm.

And as soon as he goes, I gotta go help

Yeah, because I mean, well, looking at you, like, I can't tell that you received these injuries, so I mean they they clearly did a good job putting you back together.

Yeah, And for you know, I used to look like a really young Brad Pitt and then I remember waking up there, this is the best we can do. I'm really sorry. So yeah, I got, I got. I got fortunate for sure, for sure.

Yeah.

So so as quick as it all started for me, it kind of all ended, you know, my military career. Like I said, I spent a little bit, probably a short amount of time there at the Green Zone, and then they flew me to blot and probably one night there before they could get me on like an ICU bird to long stool. Spent a while in long stool, probably a few weeks, and I was in and out of like probably like a morphine induced coma type thing,

Yeah. And then, like I said, flew to long Stool.

And what was so hard too about all this was like I get placed in this unit, I have this crazy nine month experience ends with this you know, crazy traumatic thing.

And when I fly to Germany.

When when I leave Germany after like a week or so or whatever it was, and I take an icy uber to Walter Reed for one night and then they decided to take me to Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon.

When when they it.

That was the last time I really got to see my guys, right, So it was like I got put in there and then it was like I got taken out and even the wounded ones, like all the wounded ones went to different places.

You don't really get the closure on that experience.

No closure. And I missed all the funerals because it was a ten month recovery. It was supposed to be like a year and a half. I did the whole you know, walking with the the like the gymnastics looking thing and and the back brace and all that stuff. And yeah, I never I never got to go to the funerals. I never got to you have any any

Do let me.

And I was actually really fortunate because after they kind of got me to a place instead of just like sending me, they couldn't. I was convalescing, like I was still really bad, right, So I got to go to the very first active duty rehab unit, which was at the Uptown VA in Augusta, Georgia, right by the Masters.

I remember kind of the nightmare starting and a lot of the like I like.

To be honest, I was more afraid of Iraq in the hospital thinking about everything that had happened than I was when I was there right right, like scary as all all of it was, Like I mean, I really honestly was like horrified by everything.

Idea, now now you have time to process all of it.

Yeah, yeah, so that really sucked. And then I'll tell one funny story from recovery. So you know, after six months and being in the you're literally in the hospital Monday through Friday.

They'd have this formation where they were you'd.

Be like, wal if you're in a wheelchair, wheel into this like little cafeteria area, and they literally like it was a wounded warrior battalion, right, and they would like roll call and they'd be like, okay, Lance has got

We're gonna spend a night in a hotel.

Like I hadn't been out of the hospital at all, you know, up into the point. I actually I did get to go home for a little while while I was in a back brace. I got to go home for like Thanksgiving or Christmas, I can't remember, and my parents like rented a hospital bed that like because I had to stay like my spine had to like heal like straight, you know, so I couldn't like just sleep in a normal bed and stuff.

So they got this hospital bed and everything.

But yeah, so anyway, we snuck out of there and we went to a concert in North Charleston and like went to the fort out on the island there, and yeah, totally snuck out of there for a while.

And is this also about the time to tell the Sheriff of Amarillo story?

Okay, yeah, yeah, let's transition to that perfect So we So I finally I remember having to sit down, so we'll get to that.

So I have n't sit down with.

One of the I think it was the back surgeon guy who tragically I tried to look him up because I loved this guy, doctor Burke.

He was a.

I don't know what rank he was, but he was. He was an officer, and he was the back surgeon there, the main back surgeon, and he ended up getting When I tried to look him up, I found his obituary and he had gotten run over by a truck while he was cycling with a big group of cyclists and a dude killed him. There in Augusta, Georgia and left behind a wife and like a newborn baby. And that

You know? And I was like, can I jump out of planes?

And he's like no, and he's like, if you really want to stay in and make a career out of it, like you could do you know, you could do paperwork stuff and everything. I said, look, I gave the army. It was super short, but I gave the everything I had and I did what I wanted to do.

Right.

I was airborne infantry, had a crazy deployment, did all the things, got wounded real bad. I said, nah, I just want to go home. So he's like, okay, I'm going to medically retire you. So I got medically retired at twenty years old to nineteen bag dad turned twenty in the.

Hospital, medically retired at twenty.

So I leave the military with a with a E four retired ID card. So getting you know, on base with a retire I still look twelve or thirteen, getting on base with the retired card.

You know, the gate cards are just like what that?

Like, you know, still to this day they're like you, how are you retired?

You for?

But yeah, so my my Again, I was young and dumb, right, and I was like, I'm gonna pack my car with the little belongings I have, and I'm going to drive all the way from Augusta, Georgia to San Luis Obispo, and I'm gonna do it as fast as I possibly can. So I ended up doing that in forty five or forty six hours straight with one stop in Amarillo.

Texas and on my way.

So I left at midnight, like literally got to the place where I was going to sign out for the last time, like eleven fifty nine.

Boom, you know, I sign out and I leave. So I'm leaving in the middle of the night.

Didn't get much sleep, and as the sun is coming up in Arkansas, I'm like.

Nodding off while I'm driving.

But I'm thinking to myself, like, man, I you know how many times we were on like multi day missions and I stayed up, you know, like you know, I'm fine. Well, I fell asleep and went into the median at seventy some miles per hour and spun out several times and almost hit oncoming like semis at the last second, like it swerved me back this way, and it was like the only strip if you've been in Arkansas on the highway,

So I go to the Big Textan.

I'm famished, and I'm like, I just survived another near death experience, right, so I'm going to get the most expensive thing on the menu.

And it was like a ninety dollars.

Humongous flame and yon, like a thirty two ounce flame and yon like biggest thing ever. And the Big Texan had that seventy eight ounce steak or whatever, and if you ate all of it, you would get it for free, you know, and you get your name on the wall. It was like on all the seat you know, food

You know?

And he's like, well, I heard you talking to the band that you were wounded in Iraq and on your way home. I was in the eighty second Airborne and Alerts Unit in Vietnam. I was like, I was, I'm eighty second in ARISTA unit, you know, in Iraq. So we got to talking and he gives me his card, and he's the sheriff of Amarillo, and he said, if you ever need a job, son, here's my card. You

Yeah, and then yeah, and the transition started.

And they they med boarded you at I think you said that they gave you thirty percent disability for all that shit that you had going on, which is like what p X privileges.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so at the time, I don't so being medically retired, I always had the base access and any any type of thing that you would get as a retired member, I would have got I still get right, So I had all that, but my yeah, my rating was thirty percent.

So then the VA comes and they assumed that thirty percent. Well, I had no idea.

That you could add more and back back in two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, I mean it was not like today. Like today, you know, like people are getting out you know that spent all their time on a on a boat and never saw combat and they're leaving with one hundred percent. So it's it's way way,

I think it's a goose egg. I'm gonna go by.

Like I'm in the hospital and I'm like, mom, Dad, there's this awesome like f one fifty, Like I can custom you know, build this thing, and I'm gonna pay cash for it. And they're like you idiot, Like that's gonna be worth nothing in a few years, like you know, save your money and like, you know, buy a house

All the all the stuff. And then.

I get to a place where, oh so my thought was I was going to go into law enforcement, go into SWAT or something, but I'm also developing this crones disease that I don't know about, right, And I almost died. I didn't say this, but almost died of MERSA after my wounds landing in that trash field, like I was in the ICU for a while before my parents could even see me when I got back trying to beat MRSA.

You know.

It was this VA all hands meeting type thing, learn about benefits, job opportunities, all that kind of stuff, right, And my wife's like, hey, we should go to this, and I'm like, absolutely not. It's just gonna be a bunch of Vietnam vets who are pissed off at the VA.

I don't want anything to do with that, you know, YadA YadA. So I end up going.

She takes me there, and we're sitting in this auditorium at a junior college, and sure enough, it's a bunch of Vietnam vets who are pissed off yelling at you know, apa guys, and I literally my wife is grabbed my hand.

She's like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. You were right. You were right. And it's not even the VA.

It's the California Department of Veteran Affairs, by the way, and so they're yelling at the wrong people. But my wife cresinans because we can leave. So I stand up and at the time Roger brought again. He was the secretary of the VA or sorry, the CALVET, the California Department of VA. He goes, hey, young man, he's speaking. He's like, young man, please stay there, please sit back down. I'm almost done. I came here for you. And I was like, oh, shoot, so I sit down. Make it through,

It was bad news.

So when it finishes, he comes up to me and the first thing he does is he hands me gift cards to In and Out when they had those like in and Out Bucks. So he's already I'm already gonna listen to you now, right, And he's like, hey, there's this new program in California called Operation Welcome Home.

I want you to go through it.

I want you to meet this representative gonna get you all squared away. So he ends up like getting me this Army Emergency relief thing to help me like pay the mortgage we were.

About to you know, not pay.

He helps me get a job as a contractor. So I end up working for SRI doing Sanford Research Institute. Yeah, so the Stanford Researchers had this, had this branch of contractors Conus and Oconis that would train and put on xctcs and exercises all over the country getting units deployable.

So and it paid amazing.

Like I'd be gone for like four to six weeks, but the pay was incredible, and I'd go out and I'd help put on these huge exercises or I'd or I'd go and I'd hide and I'd blow up you know, humpies with sim I D's. It was amazing. So they get me plugged in doing that. Oh and at the time they hit my GI bill had been denied. The VIA said, hey, you didn't complete your full term, asy you don't get your GI bill. I just took that

That experience again.

So one day I'm driving down the road and I get a call from someone who sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, he's the governor at the time, and.

I'm like, now, who is this?

Come on, like, you know, and I pull over because you know, back then you had to like hold the cell phone up and everything. And and then his his chief of staff guy comes on. He's like, Hey, this is David. I'm with the with the governor. That was Governor Schwarzenegger. We'd love to invite you down to San Diego for you to give a speech, you know, about your experiences with Operation Welcome Home and how it's helped you.

Goes Lad's junker. He's a true American hero. He was crushed by a boulder in Iraq.

And I'm just like, oh, oh no, Like, my guys are gonna kill me if they think I told him, like a boulder crushed us right like this, This is not good and so I'm freaking out. But luckily they over dubbed like that whole thing and it was just like Governor Schwarzenegger's legacy will be helping veterans, you know whatever.

So it's like all this good stuff's happening.

And I remember, I'm in one of these meetings, you know, talking about my experiences and stuff, and this guy was one of like a staffer for like some major you know, some some major congressman I don't know who. I don't remember who or what was a governor or something. And he comes up to me and he goes like, Hey, what makes you different? And I'm like, what do you mean.

I remember thinking like I don't know, like I don't know.

And I swear from that moment on, like everything hit the fan as far as like the THESD and like like yeah, just all like things were getting bad too. Working in that space where just getting taken advantage of, like you're the token veteran, not not by Governor Schortznigger. He was amazing. That whole staff was amazing. But other congressmen and women would be like, oh, I'm posing with the veteran.

I'm helping veterans.

And and this one, this one congressman from down here in San Diego, he's no longer.

I'm not gonna say his name or anything. Thank god he got voted out right after this.

But we're leaving his office and he says, I don't care that you brought the veteran.

I'm just glad you brought his hot wife. Wow.

I like turn around, like like you know, I'm a stunned and the door shuts, you know, and we're like off running late to the next meeting. We got to go to the next meeting, and I just as I'm walking back, I'm like, that.

Couldn't have just happened.

Yeah, And I remember going like I almost just lost my poster boy status, Like I just about decked a congressman and I would have lost that poster boy status.

So yeah, I remember that.

So yeah, as that wave was kind of ending and I'm getting my political political science degree, a lot of that Crohn's disease is like trying to kill me, and PTSD is just getting super super bad.

And yeah, and luckily, you.

Know, I have just an amazing wife who'd never let me, you know, get too far without dragging me to something. Because that first thing really helped. And then I had an amazing counselor at the VET centers for a really really long time that helped a lot too. And it probably wasn't until so some things helped with like the flashbacks and the nightmares.

Was neurofeedback therapy.

I kinda was one of the first veterans through this program that did all this neuro feedback, and they thought like they could fix me in twenty sessions or like we'll give you twenty free sessions.

I mean nothing, I don't think.

Anything happened, and they're like they just kept doing it, and probably like seventy some sessions into this, I was like I slept through the night.

I didn't have a nightmare, like and my.

Flashback because I was having flashback like legit like see, smell, hear feel an explosion or a sniper shooting at me or something.

Gnarly.

Yeah, and so that as that started going away and you start sleeping. Sleeping is so important to healing all that. So you know, that's one of the biggest things sleep is you got to sleep, and you gotta sleep deep. You got to get into those core deep and rim cycles and you got to start, you know, rebuilding all that from that trauma. Yeah, and then yeah, counseling really helped. And then it probably wasn't until my daughter was born

I have to take care of her, like she's my daughter.

And I remember almost being able to like force the panic attack like it left and I was just like WHOA. And then I started learning more about our nervous system and about PTSD, and really you're just searching everything the sleep side of things, meditation, brain waves, the chemical side of your brain, trying to get those neurochemicals set up. So when I got the like the brain waves better.

But then I tried it on the Calm app.

Especially there's this Jeff guy on there who does the Daily Trip and he has this one like Meditation for Beginners or whatever, and I did this thirty day course and I remember like, at first I was just using the app when I was having an anxiety attack or like a panic attack or something, and I was using it very symptomatically, like it was a reaction.

I'd use it. I could calm myself down.

And then as I started going through these different programs in there and realizing like, Okay, if my body in my mind, if I can like get my heart rate so jacked up and I can have these panic attacks, if I have that kind of power here, well, then I also have that kind of power here to kind of.

Like start to like regular things. Right.

So it took a really long time, but I had a goal to do to meditate every day for a year, and I did that and that was super super helpful, and I started getting like ahead of the panic attacks. I started getting ahead of the anxiety. I started building up like you know, the resilience to it. Yeah, resilience to it, right, So that was really huge. And another group that was super beneficial to me was Operations Surf. They take you for like a week long surf camp

That.

That was incredible too, and that really pieced together that the meditation side too, because when you're on a wave, especially a big one, if you're doing anything where you have to be in the present moment, you can't be thinking about the future. You can't be worried and you know about the past, right you have you're on that wave. You're gonna get crushed if you're not same with you know, riding horses, whatever it is. You know, if you're in that present moment, those are hard.

Those are interesting things that like I I was talking to somebody about this earlier or last week actually about high performance driving. Yeah, it puts you in this moment you have to focus on this thing. For me, you know, I've gotten really in the past into painting scale miniatures.

Oh there, you're super focused.

On this one thing, and that that does sort of like relieve some of the and the anxiety right.

One hundred percent. And what it is, that's a flow state.

Okay, So being in that pert and you can get in a flow state with meditation, you get a flow state with sports, you can get now when you and I were doing raids and stuff, you're in like a team flow state. You're you're at the pinnacle of a flow state. Combat is is the drug when it comes to being in a flow state, right, because if you mess up, you're dead or your guys die. And so luckily doing things like surfing and riding horses stuff like that.

You know, it's a lot better and streamline now and stuff.

But it's from all of us old guys that had the you know, trailblaze and path find our way through the VA at the early stages. But yeah, so I love,

Get to do those kinds of things again or anything.

And when I saw Saddles in service, I was actually doing physical therapy. So the Crohn's disease after it, you know, decimated my digestive track and we finally got some medicine and that was helping to stop that. It went around that and started attacking my SI joints and my hips and everything, and I could barely walk.

I could, it was so much pain all the time.

And I'm doing physical therapy and my physical therapist owned a horse ranch and she said, Hey, I've got this guy, this marine who he's kind of struggling, and I've been inviting him out to my horse ranch and he seems to open up when he's out there around the horses, like would you come and talk to him about benefits and stuff?

I know what you do for a living and all that.

So I go out there and I'm like, oh, I would want to keep coming back like I want to, I will kind of. I love this horse thing and this might be a way to get back in there. And then one day she's like, Hey, there's this really awesome group called Saddles and Service. I'm doing a fundraiser

For me.

It's felt like coming home, you know, like back to when my grandpa and I'd go out to the ranch. And now, yeah, it's kind of like all I think about is getting out to the ranch and working horses and cattle and stuff like that.

I want to ask you about the next chapter, but real quick, I'm going to pitch to the audience. If you haven't already, please sign up for our Patreon. Five dollars a month gets you access to all of these Team House episodes as well as eyes on ad free. You can ask questions to our guests, all that good stuff. If you sign up at ten dollars a month, we will send you a team house patch.

These are pretty cool.

We just got these in recently, so really appreciate it, folks, and thank you for supporting the podcast. And so Lance tell us a little bit about getting into screenplay writing.

Oh yeah, so we'll go there. So this is a super random thing that just happened to me with So your producer D has a good friend named George, and George has been a producer writer for quite a while.

Movies. I can't go into.

His whole background because I can't remember at all, but you know, one of those producer rider guys, and somehow he got connected with sausand Service and the ranch. And actually in August I had another real bad Crohn's flare and couldn't go to the ranch for quite a while. And then as I started getting better, she was like, you know, hey, you need to come out. We're having this rider producer guy come out. You need to come out again. And I had started coming back out working

And then my.

Story and that you've heard and all that, and so sharing that with him, he was like, hey, like, you know, the goal here is to like make a short film, like a fictional short film that encompasses like a lot of the stories, because there's they've helped over a thousand veterans that this ranch, and so taking a lot of these stories, putting it into like one character, right, so it's kind of manageable and making a fiction, you know, movie story about a veteran who is you know, helped

You're going to be a part of this.

You're gonna help make this, you know, kind of as believable and as honest and authentic as possible, because this happens all the time right where people you know, want to honor the veteran community and military and service and stuff, but it just comes off super cheesy hallmark, especially when it has to do with horses and stuff. So the whole goal is to try and do something that does justice to all of our stories and what we do there at the ranch. And I'm just there to help

Maybe do you can put that link? Yeah, it'll be down the description.

Cool, so that's people can learn more about that. Saddles and Service dot org. They can you know, you know, go there as well. Yeah, just amazing stuff. So I'm really excited about it. So quick little thing when I was five years old. You know, I was a real cowboy, right, help my grandpa out at the ranch and everything. Somehow, the Bank of America is doing this huge marketing thing where they're doing billboards all over the country with like, you know, real cowboys and real you know, workers and

You know.

So when that was done, this producer or whatever wanted me to play this cowboy kid in a movie. I was gonna be shot on the set of Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, and I really thought I was gonna be like, you know, the next you know.

Kid cowboy actor. Well it ended up like falling through.

But since I was five years old, like all I've ever wanted to do is being like, you know, a cowboy movie, and so now he's like, Okay, you're gonna get your shot. We're gonna make this movie and you're gonna you're gonna help write it, but you're also gonna be in it. So I'm really looking forward to finally getting to do that as Wellded.

Do we have any questions from Lance? Sorry, we'll pull it up here.

No worries littering and littering And one question from m corman. Is his friend's last name really Grendel.

Brendel B with a B B R Brendel. Yeah. We didn't hardly any of us went by real names when we were over there either, right, he had a pretty funny nickname.

I won't say it on here.

Yeah they Yeah, we all had nicknames, but yeah, Brendel.

So, Lance, anything else you want to tell people about before we get going tonight? Anywhere you want to direct the audience too, to go take a look? I mean I will have a U R L down the description for folks. But is there anything else you want them?

Yeah, there's a There's a couple of things I think you know. One is.

Everybody's journey is different, right. The most important thing I think is not not giving up is always trying to find that thing that's gonna get you out of bed in the morning. It might not be horses for you. It might not be surfing, but it might be archery. It might be you know, painting the little things like you were talking about. It could be there's so many there's the world is a humongous there's so many things

It doesn't like, I don't know, doesn't make me.

I'm not super jazz on that more jazz on like this part, like, don't let those stories be the best.

Thing you ever did in your life. Like, let that be like one chapter.

You know, you've written a book and I read it and it's like there's there's chapters of your life. There's things that you're doing. You're not stopping right, It's it. It could be one of the best things you did in your life, but it shouldn't be the and only best thing you did in your life.

You know.

For me as like my I'm not really trying to be anybody and I don't have social media really or anything like that. Since having kids, like my focus has been pretty much solely on I want to be like the best father, and I want to be the best husband, and and really you know, really putting everything into that and being a good dad is not is not doing this you know all day, you know, with your kids

And to make before you know, you write off, you write that off or whatever.

You know.

And some veterans that you know, it might be a service animal is really you know, all they need.

It might be you know, might not even be like a veteran group, you know, might be a completely separate thing, you know, getting involved in journalism, you know, something super you know different, But uh yeah, anybody that's you know, struggling, it's I think it's easy to look at the news and your phone and social media and just get so bogged down with all the negativity and all the you know, bull crap and think it's so important if the political theater.

Your recovery is going to be better too, you know.

Yeah, well, Lance, thank you for sharing your experiences with us tonight.

Man.

I mean it's a wild ride. I mean, yeah, ups and downs, but I mean a good good overall. I mean some really good things too.

Yeah.

People always ask me like, hey, would you do it, you know over again? You know, And if I had to do the same life over again, I don't think I'd change a thing because of all the good things that have come out of all the bad things. You know, and it's one obstacle, you get over the next one, and there's another obstacle, and you know it's gonna come, but you know, never give up. I think if I got to live two lives, I would really love to try being a pilot, you know, like a jet jet

Well, there's still time to get your pilot's license though. Well that's true, that's true. Yeah, So thank you again, Lance. Watch some links down the description. Go check out the projects that he's working on in some of the charity organizations. And thank you everyone who joined us tonight.

We will see you again next either.

If you're on Patreon, we'll see you on Wednesday Live. Otherwise the episode will premiere on Friday, so we'll see you guys next time.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Appreciate it absolutely, stay in touch man.

Yeah. Thanks Atta