Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He is a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, among other deployments. He also recovered from a serious brain injury to compete in and excel at rigorous competitions like Beastmaster and American Ninja Warrior. Ken Kurrigliano was born in New York but grew up in Florida. Both of his grandfathers served in World War Two and his brother served in
the Army. But for most of his teenage years, Kurigliano was not thinking about serving in the military, and it is a fascinating story how he was convinced to join the service, and the Air Force in particular.
I think this is a common story in some folks. Is it's either that or you know, maybe jail or who knows. At one point I was homeless. So the Air Force in the military provided a way out of structure and better be a better citizen.
Any particular reason you chose the Air Force?
Yeah, Actually, in ninety seven, the recruiter showed up to one of my classes that I was a particular troublemaker in and he would just was decked out, looked really good, and really embarrassed me in front of my peers. And I finally realized that I probably wasn't on the track that I thought I was, and that professionalism really made an impact on me.
Still my best friend to this day.
That's interesting that you realized that at the time that you are still having some issues. Most teenagers or young adults or whatever age you were at the time probably would have thought very poorly of the person who called them out, But in your case, you saw that as a wake up.
Yes, I mean, I mean I made a crack at him that he looked like he worked at a fast food restaurant, and he basically said, that's my history if I keep it up, And so, I mean, that was very impressionable on me.
But a couple months.
Later, my sister passed and that really created a massive change in the way that my brain worked, in how my family worked, and at that point I knew, like, life is very precious and finite and I really need to like pick it up and get serious.
Wow, where did you go for training?
Well, I went to a basic military training in San Antonio for the Air Force. Yeah, and I listed to That was my first journey.
And then after basic, where did you go?
I went to Shepherd Air Force Base to become an aircraft mechanic.
And you became a flying crew chief on an MC one thirty, which we'll get to in a moment, But tell me about the mechanics training and then what would happen after that?
I really loved it.
It was very structured, it wasn't ambiguous, and it was really important. So we had really good trainers and my first supervisor, Bill Russo, was amazing. He really taught me to be precise and accurate and I hadn't really had that in my life, and so it was very impressionable on me as well to improve the way that I do things, in the methodology behind it and have some kind of proof in what I'm doing and to be accountable.
You had much history and mechanical things or is this a brand new area?
Brand new area?
Actually I did really badly on the ASVAB, and all truth be known, there was a conservative team effort to accomplish the ASVAB with me and friends.
I did construction with my dad, but that was about it.
So did this come relatively naturally to you or was it a steep climb?
It sort of came natural, Like after my sister passed there just something happened where I really wanted it. I had like a below two point zero gpa. I was kicked out of two high schools and like my life was going nowhere, and I really wanted to improve. And so when I went to mechanical training and my first assignment, like there was no stopping me. I just had nothing
to lose. So I did the best that I could and everything that I that I was given, and my supervisors being huge, you know on that to support me.
Now, were you working mainly on the MC one thirty's or was there a wide variety of craft?
Yeah, so training, we had to train on all heavy aircraft, all the systems basically the same, and then we specialized into into a certain one and the MC one thirty E was the one that I got, and that's high high performance infiltration X filtration aircraft basically designed for what was about to happen to our country.
What does the MC one thirty E mainly do? What kind of missions is it generally used?
For sure?
So it specializes in going across enemy lines, infiltrating that territory, landing x filling, or dumping off special operators to seize territory on the ground. Also refuels helicopters in flight as well. And it's all blacked out, has green lights in it, and it has trained following radar so it can it can stay real low to the ground.
It's pretty sweet aircraft.
So you talked about before nine to eleven, and obviously things changed for a lot of folks in the surface after nine to eleven. Let's focus just for a moment on nine to eleven itself. Where were you What were you doing when you heard the news of the attacks.
Yeah, I was at a friend's house in the morning and I had just worked a long shift and I just remember getting the phone call like you better come in. And one of the biggest memories was driving to the gate and seeing like a Humvy at the front gate with the barrel pointed at my car as I was arriving in, and I was like, Oh my god, it's
gonna be serious. And I got at work maybe thirty minutes after the first plane hit, and then I was at work when the second plane hit and I just I just remember everyone being.
Like totally pale. It's just like, okay, this is like, this is going to happen, this is real.
Where are you stationed at this point?
I was at Duke Field, Florida.
And so did that immediately change your assignment or relatively soon change your assignment?
I was trying to excel in all the areas, so I was taking school, I was going to college, and I was getting credits. And I remember my supervisor supervisor going, I want you to be my next officer. And when nine to eleven hit, everyone was fighting to go, like we only had so many people who could go, so many aircraft. We were just fighting over each other to go. Like everyone was just like, yeah, this is what I was born to do, especially someone like me who hadn't
really hadn't had a purpose. So I was fighting all over for it. But my supervisor supervisor knew that I was taking college credit, was trying to excel and I was terrible in high school, and he said, look, you can't go the first round, man, like finish your schooling because that's important too, And so he selected me for the second round, which is about six months later.
So six months later, talk about that deployment, What the where they sent you, what your role is and what you guys are up to?
Yeah, sure this is this is where it gets really awesome. And so right before nine to eleven, I was trying to educate myself on all of the aircraft components. So I went over to the electronic countermeasures place and I was like, look, you know, if we go to war, like what breaks? And they educated me on this system that can overheat and get messed up when we land
really are because plain oil land really hard. And so when I deployed, what we were doing was picking up special Forces, special operators and folks that were undisclosed, flying incredibly long missions from Karshi Kananabad who's Bekastan so only real estate that we had as a as Americans near the fight, flying over through all the mountains, terrain, following everything, landing at airfields and areas that basically a Taliban still owned,
dumping off dudes who would change that situation, and it was just it was super awesome to see that. And that's that was basically my mission was flying those aircraft to make sure if anything went wrong, to ensure the mission like succeeded because there'd be people on the ground, maybe suppressed by enemy fire that we had to augment landing like nearby.
I think it was pretty crazy.
Talk about what it's like to be on one of those missions.
Oh man, so awesome. So really is no place for me. So I had to sleep in what's called the hell hole, and this is a place underneath the cockpit that gets super hot and like just it's just all wires and stuff everywhere. And so for me, these missions were super long because Afghanistan it's like huge means no man's land. So we had to fly I think like six or eight hours just to get to where we're going to
drop off these folks. And so I'd be sitting on the plane, you know, maybe sleeping or whatever.
It was.
It was always night time, and it was always a low lunar illumination, so that's a reflection of the sun off the moon, and so there was only a certain parts of the month that were like prime time and it was low lunar illumination and folks on the ground needed us like it was high time. So we'd fly over land, drop dudes out, and then leave, and we had equipment weapons trucks, like I mean, we had workout devices too.
After a walk.
People need to stay fit while they're holed up in like this airfield in the middle Afghanistan, so pretty much every place in Afghanistan that is well known. Now we were landing at before it was a thing to fill it up full of personnel and that.
Was pretty awesome.
Come under fired anytime.
Oh yeah, yeah, So every mission we would have rounds shooting at us. A couple of times, RPGs arguably some man pads. We weren't too sure which is the portable you know, we call them stingers. And so two missions in particular change my life. The first mission was a liquid oxygen We have liquid auction that we convert into oxygen. It's like eight hundred ratio, so for eight hundred pieces of liquid auction, you'd get forever one like gram of
liqu auction get one hundred breathable grams. So this system is super important because we needed it to fly. And at one time we saw the needle going down. So pilot comes down, He's like, can something's going on with liquid auction and you to figure it out because if we don't have it, we have to go home and we have to judge like how fast is depleting and.
So like I was terrible in high school, like I.
Don't I didn't do any math classes. So I'm just like, Okay, I got to figure this out. So I'm looking at it. I mean, the load master's trying to figure it out. And we determined that, like we can land, let's get these people off. We had on the radio they were suppressed, they were getting enemy fire, and they needed these reinforcements. And it's like, look, even if we have to go home and like struggle, like these people need to land,
like we need to reinforce. And so I made a determination as crew chief too, like we're going to continue on.
Like I will figure this out. And everything was frosting over.
It was crazy, and so we landed and immediately there was tracers and gunfire and everything. So I get out the back. I have two nine mils and M sixteen.
I crawl underneath the aircraft and I go into the nose and I look into those and it's a giant snow cone and I'm like, holy shit, like this is going this is like serious, And so I had to figure out, like what can I do here, and I remember mapping the whole system in my mind and then figuring out okay, and remember the ECM guys like the plane land's really hard, so things are going to jumble around.
So I'm looking in my mind of like where there's a component that's hanging in the in space that could like get loose. I stick my hand in this thing, which my hand is still kind of screwed up to this day. Stick my hand in this total like I think it's like negative three hundred something degrease. This stuff is super cold. I'm sticking my hand in there, and I'm tightening it. I go back, crawl on a new the aircraft, get a wrench, and I'm starting to tighten just random things,
just tightening them. I'm trying to clear out all the snow. Meanwhile, pilots are.
Like, I get out of here, man, like like these people come up like this is going to be bad.
We are not getting stuck here, and so I crawl back under. I go up and I'm like I basically almost lie and I'm like it's good, Like I feel good, Like let's do it. Let's go home, like we're let's not stay the night here, and They're like you sure man, Yeah, let's go. And so we we head back and sure enough, I'm like looking at the gauge, like looking at the gauge, yeah, like twenty one years old, Like, please, God, just don't
let that in a never move man. And thank god, something happened and I was able to tighten whatever the hell went loose, and we finished that mission and the guy's on the ground. Nobody died, and I'm pretty happy about that.
That's retired to US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. When we come back, Krigliano shares another harrowing mission in Afghanistan, and later he describes his serious brain injury and his determination to be the very best in some of the world's toughest competitions. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Just a moment ago, Kyrigliano described one of his most intense missions in Afghanistan as he had to troubleshoot rapidly depleting levels
of liquid oxygen, Kyrigliano says. When they returned to base, the maintenance crew tried to recreate the problem, but they couldn't, and that means his decision to tighten everything he could was the right call. But that would not be the only mission where Karigliano would be sweating as he looked for a solution to keep the crew and plane safe and keep the mission moving forward.
Okay, so the next one was actually my dad's birthday, which is really strange. And I'm flying on the mission and all of a sudden, I'm in the hell hole right and it's getting like super warm, and I move out for some reason, I move out and I go underneath.
Remember that system there telling me that could like have issues.
Well, what they told me was when it lands really hard, there's this like rubber thing called bellows, and as it lands the the lubricant will go through the bellows and the bellows will sink into the lubricant and then it won't work anymore.
Won't cool the system. And the system is designed to detect missiles inbound and shoot the flares and potentially chaff to direct the missiles to not hit the aircraft. Right.
And meanwhile, remember like we've had these things shooting at our airplanes before. So now I'm underneath this system and all of a sudden, like I wake up and I'm covered in lubricant and I'm like, oh, oh my god, what is going on? And I'm delirious because.
The the you know, the fumes.
And the what we called a weapons officer he comes around. He's like, hey, like, we're inbound. I turned on the electronic countermeasure.
It's not working.
And I was like, oh shit, and I, oh my god, this is the scenario. This is the exact scenario. And thankfully I asked these guys if this happens, what do we do? And he's like and they said, you got to shove something in there.
So I take off my clothes, right, I take the system open, and I start cramming my clothes to compress the lubricant so it's stable as.
The plane's flying around on the terrain. It's like, take all my clothes. I'm in my underwear.
I'm cramming all this stuff into this system and like, hey, man, like fire it up, like let's see, we got to make sure it's going to work.
He's like, look everything right now, looks okay. Pilot comes down. He's like, there's no way, Like we're coming into this situation. It was another refuel of humans of personnel into a firefight, and he's like, this is different.
Pilot.
He's like, dude, there's no way I'm going in there without this protection. Like we're going to turn around, like everyone in the aircraft could get killed, you know. And I'm like, I think we're good. Weapons officer. We have a powout in the back and meanwhile I'm in I'm in garbage backs. Now I'm wearing garbage backs in the plane. And so the plane's filling up with fumes. Pilots freaking out, and I'm like, look, we've got to do it. We hear it over the radio they need reinforcements. We're like,
let's go. Man, Like I'm confident, let's do this. And so we continue a mission. We let down in flight the entire back door of the MC one thirty to let the fumes. Meanwhile, I have like people from.
New Zealand and Australia and like special operators are like snake eaters and they're like dude, what's going on with the airplane? We're like, hey, man, it's cool.
And at that point, like that was a major, huge thing in my life of like I'm confident, like I remember this, I did it, and I did whatever it took. And then we had like twelve hour land we refuel there, thankfully, and then we're back coming back home and I fall asleep into the hell hole again. And what I didn't know was the pilot contacted the commander, and the commander contacted the scentcom commander, and who contacted the Air Force
Central Commander, which is now a General Moseley. At the time it was a colonel, and they put me in for an officer scholarship. While I'm flying on the mission, they put me in and they accept me. And so when I land, we're backing in and there's a huge group of people, everybody in our little unit like that was at that base. Every American was there, and they're like celebrating, and I'm coming off the planet.
I'm like, what's going on, man, Like what happened? Is everything okay?
And they're like congratulations, and they give me the letter of acceptance to become an officer.
So technically a field commission.
But since I didn't have a degree to kind of like commission and they're like, you got to find a college in like two weeks, pow. And that was like one of the greatest moments I've ever lived through.
Ever did they need the countermeasures?
I don't think we ever needed it on that mission, Like we didn't get a signal an indication, thank god.
So how long were you on this deployment over there?
I think it was about three months because I had to go to school.
What's the most intense moment related to enemy fire?
I think it was on our base.
We got a report that not the Taliban, but another unit was trying to take the base, like they were trying to invade the base, and everyone was woken up.
We all ran to the weapons cash get our weapons.
And we're running toward the fence, like, hey, you got to meet the enemy, right They can't. They can't get onto the flight line. So I'm running with this weapon and it's at altitude. I thought I was going to die, Like I get behind a building. There's a picture of me with this too, and I get behind this building. I'm going to die Before you even meet the enemy and that was that was like one of my huge realizations that like fitness is super important, not just mental but physical fitness.
That's retired usir Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan and his passion for
our physical fitness is where we'll take the discussion. Next, Kyrigliana will share his story of a horrific bike accident and the serious brain injury that came with it, and he will tell us about his difficult journey trying to convince the Air Force of his injury, how a total commitment to physical fitness was a huge factor in his recovery, and how that led him to pursue very tough competitions like Beast Master and American Ninja Warrior. That's all Next.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurigliano. He is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We now shift to perhaps the greatest challenge Kurrigliano has faced.
In our next few moments, he'll explain his traumatic brain injury suffered during a biking accident in Florida, how physical fitness became a huge factor in his recovery, and how it led to him taking on some of the toughest physical challenges in the world.
So this is this is funny.
So after that moment of where I thought I was going to die before I even met the enemy, I go back home. I join a college, Saint Leo University. I get into ROTC to become an officer. We have our first fitness tests. I fail the fitness test. I couldn't eve run half a mile straight, and you have to run two miles straight non stop, just doesn't matter if it's a total minute pace.
Can't stop. I stopped that half mile.
They disenrolled me, and they were they they wanted to take all of the money that they had spent on me back, and so they essentially sued me for the tuition that they paid to my school. And so here I am coming in Metal of Heroism, right air metal, and I come in and they don't care.
About any of that.
It's like, hey, you got to meet standard right. I was totally unprepared and it was a huge sobering moment in my life. And I was like, I will never be unprepared for a situation ever again. Matter of fact, the gap between me and unprepared is going to be so large that there's not even going to be a question of success. And so I walked onto the cross country team at Saint Leo and I was like, I'm I'm going to crush this. I remember the coach, Kyle Saige,
still a good friend, laughed at me. He's like, where did I remember him biking past me? As I was walking, Like where do they find these people?
I'm walking? I'm on the cross country too, say.
At that moment, Greg, I was like, there's no way I'm not going I'm going to be mediocre anymore.
Like this is it.
And I started training, started trying to fine. What's the hardest thing? I asked Wrung, I'm sorry, triathlon, Okay, let's do it. Sign me up rock and roll.
So I guess twenty twelve when this accident occurred, as eleven eleven and occurred, explain what happened.
I was doing really good at trafon. I was applying to the world class athletic program in the Air Force. I had went to the Beijing Olympics as an observer and I've been I was training very hard, but I was still act to duty Air Force. So I get deployment orders.
It's like, oh, crap, I haven't even gotten the opportunity to get points to compete. So you need points to compete. And so so it was the next race. Wow, that happens being Florida where my family is. So I call race director.
She's like, hey, come on.
So I fly down to Florida with my bike everything days before I'm supposed to deploy to Iraq for six months. Family all flies in with everything, go on a bike ride. The first day I'm out on a bike ride, I go to Siesta Beach, which is very famous in Florida. I swim two miles, get back on my bike going down the road, and it was a long traffic jam of spring break. And I remember a little gap right in front of this suv and I look through the window of the suv and I see this lady in
a sports car on her phone. I remember this before, like texting and smartphones and stuff, right, And she's like this driving and I'm like, oh, she's not looking. She's not going to turn in this gap. Right, there's a
little apartment complex. So look, I'm going twenty five miles an hour my bike, right, I mean like I'm hauling, And I remember just pumping a little bit and she cuts across just at the time where I'm right in front next to this suv and I just remember this car coming and everything slowed down like a thousand times, and I remember looking at the car and going, if I continue my speed of rate right now, she's going to run me over and I'm dead. If I slow
down too much, I'm going to hit the side. My head's going to go into the window, which is, by the way, not like the front where it's breakable like that, Like the sidelines are very strong, Like I'm going to die, Like my head's going to hit the thing.
I'm going to die.
So I need to hit the tire right there. I remember pumping just enough to hit that tire so that my tire two rubber pieces hit and so there's a little bit of cushion and I can roll across the hood.
That's exactly what I did. I remember flying through the air.
My bike is up and pieces and going check out by a new bike before Saturday, because I got a race, and I remember shopping in my head Greg of all the bike shops in the area where I can pick up a bike before Saturday. As I'm flying through the air, and then I hit the windshield as lights out, I slide across the windshield. All the glass that you know, a little pieces of glass just fill up my back. Took years from the come out, years for all that glass come out. And then she slams on the brakes.
Obviously he realized there's a human being that's flying through her windshield. So I fly off into the gravel and slide across the gravel, hit my head and I'm gone, right, I'm up. I'm floating above my body.
You had a traumatic brain injury, but it didn't manifest itself in ways that are considered common. Explain how it what symptoms you were dealing?
Yeah, sure, man, you did your homework, so yeah.
So up until that point, we'd have like seven years in her ack, and the brain injuries were like people missing parts of their brain, right, and so executive level processing was really like the benchmark of brain injury, where I didn't have that, like my reptilian brain was hit,
and so like I could still sort of function. I couldn't really speak or read, but like I still could like look like I'm okay, and so you know, I'm calling back and going, hey, I'm like messed up here, Like I'm really messed up, and they're like, well you sound okay. You need to come back and get care, and I'm like no, Like I like I don't even know what's going on. You need a gay hair or we're sending you know where you're going to be a wall?
Right.
It was just actually a deserted because I had a clearance, and so like I'm like, okay, I gotta figure.
Out how to get home.
So I remember being at the airport like totally lost, just like I see a police officer, Hey, you know where I'm supposed to go.
I couldn't read.
The science can do anything, and so it manifested in such a way that the medical community was not prepared for. Neither was a military.
There's no disqualifying deployment for people who can't who all of a sudden just had a brain injury, can read, can't speak, couldn't remember anything. I can't remember anything, so I still had to deploy. That's where we're at.
I still sent you to Iraq, and from what I understand, it was completely miserable.
It was miserable.
It was I was embedded with special Forces, some seals, rangers, and uh, it was. It was unforgiving. And I was an air Force guy embedded in the army in it, which is not really viewed very well, you know, and so that was tough. And then not remembering things. It was very to right them on my arm I think God was very like creative in the way that I was trying to like mask this, you know, and still
get the mission done. At one point, Greg I was in charge of all the air reconnaissance and surveillance assets in the entire country. It was like fifty I was in charge of all of them. It was crazy, no idea what was doing. It's like ninety chat rooms up on my little chat box to control all these aircraft talk to people.
I was like, oh my god, how am I gonna survive? I was sleeping at my desk and this was it was. Yeah, it was miserable. In addition to the heat and shells coming into our compound. I mean, it was it was mayhem.
Yeah, it was not the place to recover from a brain injury, that's for sure.
Yeah, I'm shocked that they sent you, but I guess because you didn't present in the way they expected you to, they didn't think it was serious enough to right change your orders.
Yeah, and if I can't articulate too, Like I can't really articulate what was going on with me? So that's that was that was a problem too. You know.
So this is a slightly different assignment. It seems like that you're embedded with these special operators. What's what's going on with that?
Yeah, So my first assignment as an officer was Air Force one and the Presidential Airlift Group and the VIP missions,
so faring around the nation's leaders back and forth. Right after that, I went to Cannon Air Force Base where we did the rpas, which is basically m Q nine's drones people call them, right, So we provided the overwatch on all these strike missions, and so we were the experts on like rolling people up, like going to compounds, you know, and so like they needed expertise to do in house.
Support and that's what we were sourced for that. And so that was my deployment.
I had wanted it originally, like I'm like, yeah, man, rock and Roll, I don't care.
I'm like, who cares? Bring me wherever you need me like rock and Roll. So yeah, so that was it was just one of the rotations.
For US mentioned air Force. One is this Bush Obama?
Both? Yes? Both?
Okay? Any cool stories you can share?
Uh oh okay. I'll say this.
Not a lot of people know, but the entire staff is for the aircraft is air Force, and so the flight attendants, pilots everything, they go to like special schools. Like even the flight attendants who cook and care for the nation's leaders as they travel overseas and even in the United States are professionally trained by like five star Michelin like level chefs.
It's amazing. Not a lot of people know that. So that's probably one of the stories I can I can talk about.
No, not a ton of personal interaction you can you can share.
Well, I will say, like people seeing our nations leaders who have to say one thing on TV but be another behind closed doors.
It was very revealing.
You know, some people have like an aura of kind of empathy, but then you know there may be troubled inside and so they would be less kind and then other people like like bulldogs.
In the news and the nicest people you could think of when you know, behind closed doors. So that was interesting.
How many earth did you do? That?
At about three? And that was the assignment. I convinced them to send me to the Olympics too.
So obviously the injury derailed your Olympic dreams. What was your recovery process like once you got home and how did you eventually transition into some of these other things like Beast Master and American Great.
So when I was in Iraq, I was in a lot of pain, but I couldn't really feel my body all that much.
I just didn't feel good, but I felt good when I ran run, I just run. And then we had a pool were I don't want to Saddam's pool pools, and so I bought a tether and tied myself to the to the wall and I swam in place. So I realized that like when my body's in movement, like the pain goes away. I don't have to think about my injuries.
And I just felt really good. So when I came back, I was like, I'm going to keep this up like this is this is wonderful. I'm going to see what happens. But I do remember like coming back and like not wanting to do anything also, like I just want to say this, I don't want to do anything at all.
And that's where I got.
I started getting really like upset, you know, just about things like I had this great trajectory that I was on and now I'm now I'm barely walking right. And when I coached these little kids and swimming, and this one little girl was like, you know, Coach Ken, are you going to like come back?
Are you going to be normal again? And I was like, oh my god.
And she's like can you like continue working out, like continue training? Can we want to see where you're going? And when she was like come back, like I was like, oh my god, I've changed, like a change that hits hard when a little kid sees that and says it, you know. And that's when I was like game on, game on. And I remember like I went to the World Championships a few months later, like very fast, like super fast.
I was really motivated.
What does the does the regiment look like to get ready? Is there a particular type of training that brings you to an elite status.
Oh there's a I will tell you there's a there's like a secret recipe and you got to find it and you have to stick to it. And it's very hard to do that to balance all your systems to train, and so the real secret to success is sequencing and peer what's called periodization and specificity, So be specific to what you want to train and do it over a certain point in time.
That makes sense. And so it's really hard to answer the question.
But basically got to be real comfortable being uncomfortable.
You know. Can you imagine going you.
Know, two three, four five hours with your heart rate at one hundred and fifty five hundred and sixty.
I mean, that's what you gotta with sand that's a lot. It takes a huge toll.
On somebody mentally and physically. And so really it's like training at the level so that when you perform, your body will perform without you wanting to give up.
You know.
I know it's not a super specific it's.
Not a one size fits all thing necessarily, but maybe the general recipe would be the same, right, okay.
And nutrition's gotta be dialing because nutrition won't help you. People are confused people. Nutrition will help you, but wrong nutrition will destroy you, and so there's not a lot of benefit. That's what people get messed up is to just lack on the nutrition because they don't think that it helps. It doesn't, but it can hurt you. So that's why nutrition is really hard.
And so the more intensely you're training, you said that exercise made you feel better. Yeah, yeah, as you exercise more intensely does make you feel even better.
Oh yeah, there's there's lots of science out there on the benefits of exercise. You know, in order to endure that kind of activity, your brain releases all types of dopamine and hormones and your body changes, your mind changes, and people can get addicted to it. Actually exercises a great addiction remedy for people who have who are prone to addiction. And that what became sort of my outlet is to train and winning didn't hurt, Like, winning felt pretty good.
You know that's going to say, I'm sure it's both the answer to this, But is it about challenging yourself or about being super competitive and wanting to prove you're the you're the best and to defeat your competition.
Sure, I think over my entire career, I never thought of like I want to beat my competition. I always thought like, I want to be the best one who shows up, Like I want to be fully prepared in such a way. I want to know how to be the best prepared when I show up, And I want to push the envelope. I want to see I want to change the way people do things. And I've done this in obstacle course racing. People emulate the crazy things that I do now, Like on obstacles I was doing
ten years ago. You know that would scare the hell out of people. But I want to push the envelope and see, like what can we do? What can we really do? So yeah, those two things.
You're an innovator on technique as well. It's not absolutely just intensive training.
Absolutely I can I can count very few times someone has beat me off an obstacle just doesn't happen.
That's retired to US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. When we come back more on Kurrigliano's exploits on Beast Master and American Ninja Warrior. The organization that he says saved his life and his advice to anyone facing major challenges. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm right Corumbas. Our guests retired US Air Force Lieutenant
Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. After all of his work to recover from a serious brain injury, Kurrigliano pursued physical fitness to an even higher level on popular programs like Beast Master and American Ninja Warrior. And we now pick up our conversation with Karrigliano as he explains what contestants faced on Beast Master.
It is Ninja Warrior on steroids.
It is.
Fear factor immersive, right, So going through four different stages. Each stage has elimination fifty percent elimination and very difficult to interpret the obstacles and we don't get to play with them ahead of time. We can look at them and sign that you know, we've seen this and that's it, and then the cameras come on, the mics come on, and it is like go And actually the different most difficult part. We had an incredible array of talent on
my season. Like some of the best people I've ever seen in my entire life, and a lot of them cracked because of the cameras in the stress like like we were in a trailer for hours, ten twelve hours, not knowing when it's time to go, and so these people on my level, like I know what time, the races, I know what nutrition, how many grams of carbohydrate, how many ounces of fluid?
I'm ready to go here, It's like should I eat? Should I not eat? Like what the hell is going on? And then it's like, hey, your turn up. It's like, oh my gosh.
So that was that was the most stressful part is that this is TV now, man, this this is not.
Like a course that I've trained for and I know what's going on. That was super hard.
How'd you figure out inventive ways to deal with the obstacles when you weren't given a chance to play with them.
So this goes into a result of my brain injury. I have synesthesia and I have very interesting ways of seeing things, and so my cause effect relationship is like amped up like ten thousand times. So I see an object, I can make it move around in my head, look at the physics of it, and then picture myself on it, like not only just in like first person view, but like second even third person, like watch someone else, you know,
and I can see myself do it. So I can interpret obstacles pretty well just from this gift that I was given, And so that's super important to do novel crazy stuff that people.
Are like, oh my god, Like I would never think about doing that.
So it's really just sizing it up, judging my own abilities, and then matching the two.
So once you've climb that mountain, you're the beast Master champion. Where do you go from there?
So I took some time off with my career and my body. So at that point, like twenty fifteen sixteen, my injuries were starting to pile up. So I started to feel my body now, so I had this degradated feeling of over my whole body since the accident, like I couldn't feel it, and I started feeling like pains and like fatigue, and I was like, oh man, this is like this might not be super good.
And then I.
Started having some troubles with you know, cognition, you know, like really like it started to pile up because I started to rank up get more responsibility I can hide stuff as a lieutenant and a captain, but as a major and lieutenant.
Colonel, it's a lot harder that way.
And so I really focused on on circling back on trying to fix my body and get adjusted. And then I also got severely burned. So my right arm is super loose, like I can, I lose things. I dropped things and everything, and I was I had a.
Whole pot of like boiling water and my hands just like let loose, and it just built and just went all over me. So I went to burn you. I was like, oh man, this is like arrible.
And then so I finally was like, look, I need to get some help, man, you know, like something's going on, and so they put me in a poly trauma unit for a while. So so that time period after that, I was like focused on, like I'm probably going to get broke here soon because beast mass you can probably recall like they carted me off in a stretcher, you know, like you know me, like I'm gonna I'm gonna go, And I'm like I tell people, I line up on the start line, I go, are you guys prepared to
die on this course? Because I am and they're like, I don't know if I don't know if I want to go that RD.
It's a good intimidation tactic even if you didn't mean it, but you do it is yeah.
Yeah.
So I took some time off and then Ninja Wori reached out to me again and was like, we'd love to.
Have you on the show man as I love to go. So I trained for that.
You mentioned something in passing about your Air Force career that I don't want to skip past, and that's that you mentioned you had a medal for heroism that you received. What does that mean to you to be recognized for excellence and service?
I think coming like from where I came from, it provides motivation to continue on, you know, like the military gives awards and decorations and people joke about it, you know, but it really is to look up in my office now and see all that stuff on the wall. Like when there's challenges in the world or to me or my family, I'm like, look what everything I've done, man, I can handle this and really like press on. So for me, it's an instrument of motivation and commitment.
You've overcome so many challenges in different ways. In your life, from difficult teenage years and obviously being in war suffering a brain injury that you were determined to come back from. Obviously, there are people dealing with all sorts of different challenges, and your never give up attitude is certainly one that I think would encourage a lot of people. You probably do hear from people who want advice from what you've been through. What do you tell them?
I think the number one thing is the reason to persevere is huge, And so what I ask people is, I what would you die for before you let happen? And it's a little bit of play on words intentionally to see where people's heart and really where your DNA is, because I think people have like a programmed purpose in their DNA, and unless you're tapping into that, like, you're just going to be continually frustrated and things are going to happen and your body's going to like manifest disease
and all this other stuff. And so I ask them, like, deep down, like what is your driving force? What would you lay your life down for before you'd let happen? And that typically forms the center and the core of everything else that they want to do. If I can if I can identify that in you, I can link anything that you're working on to that purpose and you will wake up every day like I have to do this otherwise.
This thing's going to fail.
It could be legacy, could be kids, could be spouse, parents, whatever or purpose you know.
So that's what I tell people, is you got to.
Really deep dig into your purpose and then the journey will reveal itself.
How much do you credit the Air Force in your time in the military for helping to develop that mindset?
A lot provided structure, provide a camaraderie, provide a vertical ability, provided like stability. You know, there's a lot of instability in the world and people get stressed. And that's why we have a permanent paycheck, why we have free health care, because there's a lot of stress. And if I reduce those stress is I can focus on the important thing, which is the mission. And so yeah, it's super important, like it's totality.
Last couple of questions here, Ken, what are you most proud of from your time in the service?
I think having respect and honor for everyone who's come before me. And I didn't really get this until they were like I was an officer to realize all the sacrifices that were laid down before I came, so that I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, you know. And it's so humbling to know like how powerful people were before me and how intuitive and how they laid down things that they would never see manifest so that I can benefit. And that's what I do, like every day,
like I lay I lay down. I lay down the foundation that I may never see or the world may never see for like five hundred years, you know.
And that's that's that's got to be it.
And lastly, what does it mean to you to have us capture your story and share it with not only folks today, but generations to come.
Well, I thought you called the wrong person, you know, but it's a it's a huge honor, like pro well, it's like the top.
I mean, just to be recognized and to be here sitting in front of the lights, microphone and you and everything that you've accomplished and what you've done for us to tell our stories.
You don't have to do this, man, It's like it's warming. It gives me purpose and I hope that people will watch this and they'll go, Man, that's like that's incredible, like what I'm going through, like I'm going to persevere because there's a meaning to it, and folks may join our service because of this video. And I'm really honored to everyone who's involved. There's so many of you behind the scenes, and I'm just I'm just here to tell my story and to be very grateful and.
Thankful or honored to have you. And I do have one extra question because I know you're connected to the Transcend Foundation. Correct, tell us a little bit.
About that Transcend Foundation is what saved my life.
I was still really affected by brain trauma, anxiety, body aches, and I met here at the American Veteran Center Brendan Quisenberry, executive director of the Foundation, and he heard a little bit of my story and he asked me a question, what's your blood work? Say?
I don't know.
Can you imagine in twelve and thirteen years to be included in a inpatient polytrauma and never have a comprehensive blood work panel done and be shuffled through three hundred and fifty doctors and tried to be out processed from the Air Force twice, you know, not have a pension, and like man, the stress that I went through, and he's like, let's just run your blood work.
See what it says.
I got on a comprehensive panel that I've never seen before, and I swear to god, I went tell you, I kind of walk like a quarter mile when I got my blood work done. Three weeks later, I.
Was running a ten k and no knowing where my car was in the.
Parking lot as stressfully as a grown adult with kids to not even remember, Like it's just emotional, you know, and especially with all the decorations that I've had and what I've done with my life, to have these simple, really embarrassing things, and like three weeks I saw like
real benefit. And now it's been you know, two years, and I am now the chief Data and AI Officer for the Transcend Company, having never finished the math class in my life, but having the focus and dedication that I want to heal other people that have gone through what I'm going, what I went through, you know, that's my mission.
That's retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, among other deployments. He also recovered from a serious brain injury to compete in and excel at rigorous competitions like Beastmaster and American Ninja Warrior. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi. This is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter We're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course, please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening and please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles