In this milestone 300th episode of Combat Vet Vision, Chief Aaron Seibert sits down with retired United States Army Master Sergeant Brady Fowler to discuss a lifetime of service—from Army aviation leadership and combat deployments to continuing his commitment to veterans and his Colorado community.

Brady shares his experiences serving as a Chinook Helicopter First Sergeant, surviving traumatic brain injuries sustained during combat operations in Iraq, and navigating life after military retirement. The conversation explores resilience, servant leadership, the importance of veteran organizations, and how a desire to improve his local community ultimately led him into public service.

Whether you're a veteran, military family member, first responder, or community leader, Brady's story demonstrates that the mission of service doesn't end with the uniform.

Takeaways:

• This podcast serves as an essential platform for veterans to share their personal narratives and experiences, fostering a supportive community.
• The episode features Chef discussing an upcoming putt putt golf tournament, which acts as a fundraiser for veterans, showcasing the importance of community engagement.
• Brady Fowler, a decorated veteran, shares his journey from military service to civilian life, highlighting the challenges faced by wounded soldiers in transition.
• The discussion emphasizes the necessity of addressing mental health issues among veterans, particularly in light of the increased rates of PTSD and suicide within the community.
• The podcast underscores the importance of camaraderie and support networks for veterans, as these connections can significantly aid in their recovery and reintegration into civilian life.
• Listeners are encouraged to participate in local veteran events, which not only support fellow veterans but also create a sense of purpose and community involvement.

Brady Fowler

Website: http://www.bradyforgilpin.com

Facebook: Brady for Gilpin

Campaign Donations: https://secure.anedot.com/brady-for-gilpin/donate

Host & Production Team

Host: Chief Aaron Seibert, USN (Ret.)

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/aqseibert

Facebook: https://facebook.com/aqseibert

Co-Host: Chef James "JB" Brown

United States Coast Guard Veteran

Veterans Transition Resource Center

Producer: Brian Colburn

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Bcolburn

SitchRadio: https://sitchradio.com

Hey, welcome to Combat Vet Vision.

This is a place platform for our veterans, us, our sponsor, supporters, volunteers, amazing bunch of things that can happen.

And you know, it's really a support network for our veterans to tell their stories.

Our all.

Anybody who comes in here to tell their story and really kind of accomplish, you know, what are they trying to do?

What are we trying to do?

What are we, are we moving forward with and how are things going?

Whether it's chaos or not, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, we want to talk about it a little bit and really get kind of some focus out there.

So, Chef, how you doing?

Hey, I'm doing great, dude.

What's going on in Las Vegas?

That's what we're going to talk about too.

So that's great.

We've got a putt putt golf course come.

I mean, putt putt golf tournament coming up out at the Eagles out in Henderson.

And you want to sponsor a whole.

It's $20 if you just want to come and play.

We have hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, 10 bucks to play.

And they have prizes, so.

And it's a good thing.

And we'll have some raffle prizes.

And you know, they take good care of us.

From 5 to 9.

310 S. Pacific Ave.

In Henderson, Nevada.

And that one road is closed.

They're putting a roundabout.

So come in on Pacific from Main street and you'll be able to get in and get out, no problem.

Lots of parking.

Great.

And it's indoors with air conditioning.

It's supposed to be 105 outside.

Outside, yeah.

Hey, thanks a lot, Chef.

It's good.

We're gonna, we're gonna, we'll come back and review that just a little bit.

Hey, my guest this week, I got, I got Brady Fowler on deck, and he is a United States army vet, Chinook operator.

All kinds of different things that he did on the Chinook and his process through that and, and getting wounded and coming out and facing life and getting involved in that, being a rancher and all kinds of cool stuff.

And I met him way back on Tim Maxwell's property, which is team Separate Max.

He had his non profit doing a whole bunch of cool things.

I call him the grandfather of wounded Warrior Battalion west and east and the regiment.

He's the reason why those exist and a whole bunch of other things about that.

And hopefully I'll get him on the show eventually too.

But meeting Brady out there on his ranch way back in the day was cool.

Brady.

Hey, thanks a lot for being on the show.

Good to have you, sir.

Yeah, it's a pleasure all the way.

Thanks for having me.

From Colorado.

What.

What town in Colorado?

I live in Blackhawk, Colorado.

It's in Gilpin county, one of the smallest counties in Colorado.

Nice.

Nice.

And that's going to be important later on when we talk about some other things that he's involved in his service.

So, hey, Brady, if you don't mind, you know, introduce yourself, talk about what it was that inspired you to join the army and your.

Your history in the army and then, you know, getting out and being, you know, how was your transition?

And we'll get into all that as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I graduated high school in 92 and joined immediately afterwards.

I was framing houses, and I wasn't college material.

I just wasn't ready, and I didn't have the mindset.

So the military seemed like a good place for me.

I thought I'd do four years and I'd get out.

And then I think I was on my 16th year and I had to do another reenlistment, and I was on my way to Iraq and I was going to get a huge bonus.

So I was like, well, I guess, you know, this is the end of it for me.

So I thought I was going to continue.

I had a great career in the military.

Had a really cool job, like you said.

I got to fly on chinooks.

I was a door gunner, a ramp gunner.

I did crew member job in flight engineering.

I was a night vision instructor.

So just a lot.

I mean, it's just a really.

It's a sexy mission for.

For army guys.

And so I did that.

And close to my retirement, I was involved in a.

Just a bad mishap.

I. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I got pretty complacent and got mortared.

So it changed everything after that, of course, you know, like everybody else that gets kind of boogered up, I didn't really, I guess, understand my injuries when I first had them.

It wasn't until later I started having a bunch of different symptoms.

And they come to find out that I had traumatic epilepsy and I had a brain aneurysm.

And it was all because of the percussion from this 122 millimeter mortar that came in.

So that kind of started my life in wtu.

I got, you know, pushed out of the regular unit real quick and pushed into WTU.

I didn't have enough years to retire, but the WTU, you know, because I.

Was an E8, WTU and WTU is wounded transition Unit, Right, or something.

Yeah.

And that's an army for the Army.

Yeah, it's like Wounded Warrior Battalion west for the Marine Corps, safe Harbor for the Navy and so on.

Yeah, so they, they.

I got stationed at.

I was at Fort Carson at the time.

So they put me into the WTU right there.

I got to stay there until I got my care completed.

And, you know, I would say that I didn't agree with the way that the system worked because if, you know, a guy like me that had over.

I had, at that point, I had about 18 years active duty.

They took really good care of me.

The younger guys, they didn't take such good care of.

And I saw a lot of guys get hooked on drugs.

I saw a lot of guys that just had a.

Had a really rough go.

And I could see that, you know, it was really tough for a lot of those guys.

And some guys that had five years in six years and they wanted to make a career and they were just, they were shoved out with nothing.

And so it was, you know, that was kind of tough.

Being a guy like me is that I didn't get to take care of soldiers anymore.

I didn't get to take care of these dudes.

I had to just be one of the injured people and just be a muff and just be this E8 that did nothing.

You know, I answered doing E6 was my, my squad leader.

And so it's, it's kind of, you know, I don't know.

I was a broken toy that they didn't know where to put right.

So my experience with the WTU was good, by and large.

Except for I, at that point, there were so many guys that were coming back.

Those, that crew of guys, when we got done with the push, you know, there's a lot of dudes that, that were 25 off and 50 off.

When I'm talking about limbs and a lot of, A lot of brain injuries, a lot of just.

And a lot of mental health issues too.

So, yeah, you'll probably have to keep me on track a little bit, Aaron, because I.

Hey, it's.

It's okay.

You know, this is your story.

You know, I want to say, you know, it's really easy to skip over a bunch of stuff, but, you know, you have a lot of things in between.

And obviously, I think talking about the, the, you know, the WTU is going to be an important piece, you know, but also your, your career, you know, you know, obviously the Sexy job of being on a Chinook and all these different positions in there.

You obviously have to learn a lot about the bird.

You have to learn a lot about everything.

And the functionality of it all is super awesome.

And like you said, it's, it's the biggest helicopter that the Marine of the services that we've had.

It's, it's, it's a beast, you know, and the 46 is what the Marine Corps had.

I mean it's a, you know, double bladed, you know, overhead flying creature and they don't really fly, they just beat the air into submission.

So helicopters do not fly.

They, they beat the air into submission, as I was told by a pilot once.

But you know, you were on the biggest bird that we had at the time because now, now we're into the Ospreys and a whole bunch of other cool things, you know, that are, that are flying around.

But you know that that bird's been around since world.

Right after World War II.

Right, right after Korea.

Yeah, actually, yeah.

Korean War.

It was, it was designed to carry the big boy.

Yeah.

And it could carry almost a whole bunch of stuff inside the flu.

The fuel slides too underneath it.

It can, you know, it can pretty much pick up a house and, and move it wherever you need it to go.

But it's a beast.

But, but you know, you got to do that and, and catching the mortar round, your professional mortar round catcher like me, it's a hit and miss situation, you know, and sometimes you're here and sometimes you're not.

So luckily we're both here and talk, talk about that day a little bit.

Talk about what, what, what happened, man.

I, yeah, so my testimony on that is crazy.

I shouldn't be here, you know, like a lot of dudes.

Right.

But like I said, we worked nights.

We weren't allowed to fly during the day at all because they wanted a Chinook so bad, the terrorists did, you know, because that was always a big win for them.

You know, they got one Chinook early on that they got.

I think there was 30 people on or.

No, there wasn't 30 people on board.

There was about 18 people on board.

They got one and it always makes big news.

So, you know, the rules of engagement was that we had to fly 100 NVG.

So yeah, I went in early.

We're planning a big mission set.

We were doing an infill X fill, a big air assault, taking out an IED factory.

And so, man, it's, this is a crazy story.

I was on a Porta John And I heard the air raids going off, and I just, I was so numb to the air raids going off all the time.

I was like, man, I'm gonna sit this out, literally.

And at, you know, probably like, I don't know, 30 seconds into the air raid going off, I could hear the fins of mortars coming in.

And I heard the first couple come into our motor pool.

And I could hear people screaming.

And I was like, man, this is.

I'm in a bad way.

I'm in a really bad position here because I was in an alley on the outside of one of the Hesco barriers.

So at the last minute, man, I heard, I heard the fins right in front of me and I heard it land right in front of, right where I was sitting.

You know, perspective.

I'm behind a plastic door in a, in a porta crapper and probably 110 degrees in the middle of the day.

I mean, sweating.

And it went off in rocks and debris and metal.

And all the stuff that's inside of those mortars came through that plastic.

Yeah, the, the, you know, the thruster toilet.

And I was able to exit it.

I didn't have my body armor.

I didn't have anything.

And all I was doing was just trying to get to a bunker.

So I got to a bunker and all my, the guys that we were doing the mission set were, they were like, where you been?

And so I told them and they're all laughing at me and they're checking me.

You know, they're, they're doing a full assessment of me trying to figure out what's wrong.

And the only thing that they could figure out was that my pupils were off.

And so I ended up going to.

Into blood and getting checked out.

And they said, yeah, they did the standard protocol and the protocols for head injuries or brain injuries at that time were, were pretty mild.

They didn't really know, you know, like, how to diagnose that stuff.

So it was just, yeah, basically you, you were.

You're concussed.

So take a couple days off and things will be better.

Chew on some aspirin or have a Motrin and you'll be all right.

So I started getting severe headaches.

I started getting migraines.

So that's when they, they started to do, you know, imaging of my brain and doing a bunch of different stuff.

And this is also at the end of my rotation.

So I think I, I got hit in like August, and we left in September.

So we were already kind of starting our right seat, left seat rides.

I Don't know if you guys, but our new unit is coming in.

We're teaching them how to take our job.

We're already packing up our Chinooks.

We're getting ready to.

We're pulling out.

We got 14 chinooks, and we're taking 12 of them back home.

So we're wrapping them up, getting them ready to go on the boat.

So I just.

Man, I didn't have time to be sick.

I was.

I was an E8.

I'm a first sergeant at that time.

I got 68 people that I got to take care of, so I just gutted it out.

So, literally, I was just taking Motrin.

I was taking whatever I could to just kind of help.

They put me on a migraine medication, and then none of that helped.

So that.

Then finally, like I said, I got back, and they started doing imaging, and they realized that I had a pretty severe brain aneurysm.

And it's in a almost inoperable place in my brain.

It's called the center of Willis.

It's in between your eyes and kind of in the middle.

It's in your sinus area.

And so, you know, they.

They just kept monitoring that and monitoring that.

And then in the midst of all of that, I met, you know, Tim Maxwell in the middle of this.

And the first time that I had a.

A massive seizure was when I was meeting with Tim Maxwell.

So then that kicked off a whole other series of events where I'm having these seizures all the time.

So here I am.

You know, I'm probably at that point.

I'm.

You know, I'm in my 40s, and the state of Colorado takes my driver's license from me because I'm not supposed to drive anymore.

So I'm bumming rides.

I live out in the country.

I'm raising cattle, and it's the most.

You know, everybody just assumed I had a DUI because I was pretty wild when I was in the army.

So, yeah, it was.

It was just.

I don't know, it was kind of.

It was pretty humiliating, actually, for a long time.

And then finally, they just decided that they would transfer me to the wtu, so shifted me over there.

And then, you know, at that point, they were doing so much.

There was so much research going on for.

For brain care that I was actually able to go back to Washington or to Bethesda and go to the Intrepid.

And I spent a couple weeks at the Intrepid center and learned a lot more about what my injuries were, because mine were you know, they were all inside.

I didn't have any physical injuries really, so, you know, just like every other dude, they just packed drugs on me and especially on the seizure drugs.

And the seizure drugs were terrible because I was either kind of like a meth head where I was all strung out and wiry, or I'd be like a garden snail where I was so lethargic I just couldn't do anything.

So I don't remember where it even came up, but somebody recommended that I get an implant.

So I've got an implant.

It's called a vns.

It's a Vargas Nerve Stimulator, and it's.

It's inputted in my chest right here, and it discharges the.

The extra energy that creates seizures.

And so I was the very first guy in the entire.

In the military when I was active duty and also in the VA that got the vns.

And so it's been.

It's been amazing because I'm not on any drugs at all.

I take nothing.

I don't even take aspirin.

And I know there's a lot of guys that can't say that because they have injuries or they have ailments or they have things that they have to be on.

On drugs for life.

And you guys know that, you know, our bodies, we wear out drugs.

So what works for us today, in six months, they got to do a new cocktail.

And that's what they were doing with me is it was a constant.

I would outgrow my seizure meds within three months.

So having this vns, this is my third VNS or, you know, battery pack that they put in has changed my life immensely because I'm not on drugs.

Wow.

See, and that's.

That's the incredible things that we, as veterans and.

And the veteran community obviously needs to know, because, I mean, something that really works for somebody and you can vouch for it, is super power, powerful thing.

It's a tool, you know, to be the first.

I mean, I was one of the first patients at the.

You know, in.

When they finally flew us to the west coast and we got to Naval Hospital Balboa to be placed on their.

Their.

Their C5 or whatever it was that C7 to be a patient there.

And before that, it was only Bethesda and.

And Walter Reed.

So, you know, a lot of things because this.

Because war kicks off, it creates a whole different dynamic of support.

And like you said, they were kicking people out, that, hey, you know, you only got like six years in, even though you want to Make a career.

We got to let you go.

I want to say I saw that, too.

When I was at Wounded War Battalion west, the commandant finally said, hey, we'll let you stay.

You might have to switch MOS's.

They finally.

But it took a while.

But it was not the kind of while that it would take the bureaucracy if we didn't have war.

And.

And I would say, you know, war sucks.

It's unfortunate that we have it, but some of the benefits that come from it become super important to kind of navigate.

And for us, you know, for you to have to feel like, oh, man, people are probably looking at me like, I got a dui.

These are the kind of things that we have to kind of take into effect.

I don't have the physical wounds.

I'm not missing an arm and a leg.

You're not missing arm and a leg.

But I limp, and sometimes I have to be on a cane, but I don't want to be on the cane.

So I fight against it.

So that's.

There's always this conflict within ourselves, right.

Am I just a, you know, am I just, you know, a pansy and I'm, you know, I'm a faker or I. I, you know, I have to pretend like I'm jacked up or are we really jacked up?

And we are really jacked up, but we don't express that enough to say, hey, I may be jacked up, but I'm using these tools to find the ways to make it through.

And it's great.

If you could talk a little bit about that.

And, you know, obviously, seeing the changes that maybe even happened at the WTU for our veterans, I think that's a really incredible thing.

Well, I. Yeah, I'd play off of what you, you know, I.

You.

We've never seen so much prosthetic, the advancements in prosthetics, how fast it went because there were so many dudes that were losing limbs, and it sucks.

But what it did for other people, so many people in sports that are now able, you know, even little children then putting in electronic gyros in these.

In these prosthetics, they've done so much.

It's.

It really.

The veteran community, I'm not saying anybody owes us, you know, not our hat to us, but it really did a lot for the community.

And like, like you said, you know, this different technology that we're using on to combat different things so that guys can have a quality of life is pretty amazing.

You know, I. I was very skeptical about when they offered this to me because I was, you know, if you're the first dude, it's like, so you guys just want me to be a space monkey.

So, you know, and it's permanent.

It's not like they can take this.

These wires that go up, they can't take them out.

They can take out the generator, but I'm stuck with this wiring for life.

So, you know, there was some risk involved in that, I guess.

But, you know, it's one of those things.

I guess most of us are, or I think we're pretty ballsy by nature, military guys are.

And so, you know, we take risks and we do things that I guess other people wouldn't do.

I wouldn't take a, you know, like, I guess, exploratory vaccines, but I was willing to take this so that I could, you know, have a different quality of life.

But.

And then back to what you had asked about, Aaron.

Is that the wtu?

You know, I think it was a lot like, probably what Tim Maxwell had is that, you know, we didn't.

We saw the need was coming, but that we were so far behind the power curve on getting WTUS or, or different mechanisms stood up different battalions so that we could care for our wounded.

We didn't know what we were doing.

And then you've got all these doctors that they're trying to hire out of nowhere.

And these doctors aren't.

Have no military experience.

They have nothing, nothing in common with us.

They don't speak our language.

They didn't understand what we were talking about.

They don't understand acronyms.

They didn't understand just basic stuff.

And for those guys, I think it was probably very difficult to try and navigate that too, because here's this really good job.

I don't know how long it's going to last, but I want to care for these guys.

And so, you know, and there's this huge influx of different dudes that end dudettes, but that some of them are just.

They're totally broke mentally and physically, and they just want out.

And then there's ones that are missing three legs or I mean, you know, three limbs that are going, put me back in, coach.

I want to go play so make me better so that I can get back with my unit.

And I saw that over and over and over of guys that just were so determined to try and get back in.

And there wasn't really a pathway forward for those guys unless they're, you know, there was a silver star involved and it was going to be a PR move.

For, for the DOD at that time.

Those are the only guys that I saw that were getting back on active duty if it was a good, a good story for the nation.

So.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's so true.

You know, and then, and they let you stay until 20 years or, or how many years did you get to stay?

And then obviously talk about your transition and, and then we'll get into your, your still serving and you're, and you're wanting to still serve.

Yeah, so I did.

Sorry, My, my voice.

I got my 20 and immediately after that they pushed me out.

So I got to hang out just a little bit.

They didn't, I didn't have to.

I wasn't hanging out for years, but I was, I hung out long enough to get my 20.

So I got my full military retirement and 100 of my, my pay is CRSC also.

So that boosted my pay even better.

And I, you know, I, I don't know if you guys are familiar with crsc, but, you know, initially I was on crd.

Yeah, initially I was on crdp as,.

As was I. Yeah.

So I just had a really good VSO that said, hey, this is wrong.

Let's look at this.

So they were able to get me 70 on CRSC.

So I get, I get 70, 70 of my base pay.

So I mean, I'm really, really blessed.

And I, the, the good Lord took care of me in ways that I never even thought he was going to do.

I thought I was just going to kind of get put out.

And the wtu when I was there, one of the challenges that they, they were having was that they were taking these guys and they're removing them from active duty.

So they lose their active duty paycheck.

And they don't, they're not lined up with the VA yet.

So they, I was there when they implemented the policy is that I couldn't retire until I had a paycheck in both accounts.

So that was another way that man, the Lord took care of me that way also because my VA hit and then my retirement pay hit and then they said, okay, we saw that in your account.

You're out of here.

Right, right.

You know, in my, you know, Aaron, I wasn't involved in the WTU in any type of leadership fashion at all, except for the guy that ran the, you know, that ran the WTU was.

Ended up being and has been a lifelong friend of mine.

And so it was just small world thing.

I ended up being underneath him.

And it was my experience with the WT was not all bad, but I couldn't say that for other guys.

I saw other guys that they had it rough and a lot of, you know, and a lot of poor decisions by young soldiers too, right?

Yeah, those poor decisions.

I mean, I, I saw the same thing.

You know, I went in there as a first class and luckily I was able to pick up chief from the wounded War Battalion west and retired from there and.

But I saw that, you know, poor decisions from the young, younger guys.

I mean, first two years trying to get those things to stand up.

We lost five to suicide.

And it was like super nutty.

It was just because the systems weren't built to handle the influx of what we gave them.

And we forced, we forced it down their throat to, hey, you have to take care of them in this way because they're scattered like cats.

They all have different needs.

This isn't.

Everyone's going to the gas chamber today.

Everybody's going to go to the range today.

It's like everyone's going everywhere today.

And that somewhere has never been explored.

So we need to find transportation, logistics and all kinds of other things.

And we need to stand.

Yeah, the VA candy isn't going to work.

But the handoff started to happen, right, like you said, the total handoff.

Both paychecks had to be squared away.

Everything had to be squared away prior to getting out.

Those things were in the works and they finally got worked out.

But, but yeah, you know, like you said, you, you, you got out and, and you were, you were working the ranches, you were doing some stuff.

We, we met at Tim Maxwell's place and that was a, that was great because he started a ranch out there and wanted to have veterans come working ranch.

And you still can.

He has an open open policy.

Once, once a year, he's big party out there hunting all kinds of stuff.

You want to fill some of that stuff in, Brady and your transition?

Well, so, yeah, my transition was.

There were.

I had some bumps in my transition and I actually, Shannon Maxwell knew the chief of staff of the army and was able to make a couple phone calls for me.

And he got on the phone and said, this is what's going to happen with Brady.

And so, you know, I mean it.

She cleared the way to where my transition was so easy.

I was just so blessed to meet the Maxwells.

But yeah, I mean, I, I don't even know how I met Tim.

I can't even think of where, you know, I.

How we cross paths.

But they just took to me and just said, whatever it is that you need, we're going to be here for you.

I was at Walter Reed and then like I said, I went to the, the.

The Bethesda.

But I just met up with Shannon and they just started just loving on me, man, and just took care of me and in ways that I, I didn't even understand and told me about benefits and about how to circum.

Not circumnavigate the system, but how to navigate a really complex system that.

For a dude that had a brain injury at that time, man, I, I barely could fill out a check.

I could barely do just normal functions.

I just, I didn't have it, you know, and I had, I had bad shakes and I had a bunch of different things and I don't know, they just loved on me and took me to their ranch and I'd been out there a couple times and then like you said, they flew us out there and I had a little bit of knowledge of.

As soon as I retired, I had this guy that I had always had, always supported me, an older guy.

And so he bought a 2,500acre ranch in eastern Colorado.

And he's like, hey man, I want you to come out.

And I know what he was doing.

I didn't know it then, but I know it now.

Is looking back is he was trying to take care of me and help me with my transition.

He had a family that had all served.

His father was in World War II and he didn't want to see what happened to a lot of his.

His family happened to me.

And so he took me out there, gave me purpose, said, Here's 180 cattle, take care of them, run the hunting operation however you want to hunt it, you know, run it like this and we'll have customers and we'll do this.

And he supplied me with the cash and, you know, all the capital that I needed to make this happen.

And so it kept me busy.

I think that veterans by nature, a lot of us are isolationists.

And so it's really easy for us to kind of go sasquatch and never be seen again.

And that was the only downside, is that I was in eastern Colorado, in a little town called Simla, Colorado, the middle of nowhere.

Just.

It was just me, my dog and.

And 180 head of cattle.

And at the time I thought it was really good for me, but it was probably looking back, it cost me a marriage because I spent all my time out there.

It cost my kids more birthdays because I wasn't there.

It cost them, you know, more holidays where I was not neglecting my kids, but I would come home on the weekend and I'd see him.

But I, I just, I lived there because there was a house for me.

There was everything there, you know, for me to just kind of thrive and survive by myself.

So I ended up, you know, getting into a church out there and meeting some really good friends and, and being part of that little community was good for me.

But like I said, it, it, it took its toll on me in some ways also.

But life is good now.

Yeah, I would say, you know, I, I can relate to that because I think we're so mission oriented that we're so used to dropping everything else off and carrying on the mission.

And so when we're given a mission, we kind of find every way in the book to accomplish that.

And sometimes that does cost relationships and a lot of hard things.

And we're, I mean, it's, it's not that, you know, in the military you have to be that way, but outside of that, it's hard to learn not to be that way.

And, and it's great.

So your transition went into that.

But hey, you're still get, you're still serving.

You're still wanting to serve.

And let's talk about that, because that's on a limited basis because they're wanting to push you.

They're London to, you know, see you in the future.

But you're running for office.

Let's talk about why.

And, and veterans don't run for office too often because we felt, you know, a lot of us already served.

But I'm telling you, the stuff is looking so crazy out there that we have to get involved because common sense stuff that we're talking about is the same stuff that's written in, in the Constitution of the United States of America.

And, you know, we can't keep taking, you know, and, and all these people that are trying to serve, that are changing the entire structure of the, the life of the United States of America into some third world country.

But I don't want to get into that too much, but I do want to hear about your service.

And let's talk about that.

Let's talk about why veterans, you know, need to be involved, but they're not.

And, you know, all these different things.

Yeah.

So I'll just do, like, quick background.

So while my kids were in school, in this small town that we used to live, I got on the district accountability board, which is.

It's a sub, sub, sublet of a school board.

And so you kind of set the agenda for the school board.

Here's what's going to happen on this month.

We're going to talk about the budget, blah, blah, blah.

So that was my first kind of step into politics.

And, man, I was rowdy.

You know, I, I had a hard time with that group because that was.

That we were.

We were really kind of being soft with kids, and I wasn't never soft with my children.

So these other.

These soccer moms and these gymnastics moms would talk about, you know, oh, we have to do this with kids.

And I would say outlandish stuff like, you know, these kids are, you know, they're rocks with lips or they're, you know, and so that my career is a.

As a DAC board member didn't last very long.

They.

They found a new place for me and just said, hey, you should go coach, like, softball or be an assistant coach, but maybe the D's not right for you.

But that was kind of my first little bit of politics where I saw, man, these people don't have a lot of common sense.

They.

They want to make excuses for everybody and for all their children and for everything that's going on in society.

You know, it's not their problem.

It's.

They never were reflective and said, maybe it's me as a parent.

Maybe I suck, you know.

So then I transitioned out of the ranch.

I.

So I. I'd known this lady that I was in the army with, and I'd known her for probably, I don't know, at that point, maybe 15 years.

And I got my divorce, and I'd been divorced for a while, and I reached out to her and I just said, hey, you know, I just, I just wanted to talk to you.

I just, I. I think about you.

And she's an awesome lady.

And we're married now.

She was living up here in Blackhawk, and I was actually raised in Gold Hill, which is a town that's, oh, 40 minutes from here, up in the mountains at 9, 000ft.

So this was kind of an easy transition for me to come back home, back up to the mountains.

So I get up here and I. I'd only been living probably here for like, maybe six months, and the, The HOA that we had was just terrible.

Everybody, we're suing each other with our own money.

I mean, talk about common sense.

There was none.

So there was a couple, I would say, older guys that were, I wouldn't, I don't want to say conservative in a Republican way or a Democrat way, but just conservative minded fiscal guys.

They were like, hey, Brady, your common sense dude, we really want you on this, on this board.

And I was like, I don't want anything to do with that.

So they pushed and they pushed and they finally got me on.

We were able to make a bunch of different changes and kind of make it a common sense hoa.

And I know that that sounds really silly when we're talking about politics, but people always throw out this term grassroots, and it's overused when.

And I'm not trying to like say that I did anything special, but when you get five people that have common sense together that are going to run aboard, things run really well.

And it doesn't matter if they're Democrats, it doesn't matter if they're liberal, if they just have common thoughts and they want to take care of their neighbors and they want to have a voice for their neighbor instead of a voice for themselves.

Things worked really well.

So we have this really successful hoa.

We've been able to, to basically lower dues, do all kinds of neat improvements into our neighborhood.

Just cool stuff.

And that was kind of a mistake, to be honest, because those same people were involved in local politics.

And then that fed into a couple years later.

I ran for school board.

And I didn't get.

I didn't get the nod for school board, but I got beat by a great opponent.

I didn't know that she was going to be my opponent.

I was really scared of.

And I'm not.

I don't want to generalize or make bad assumptions, but I was really scared that there was going to be one of these parents that was pro transgender, that was pro boys and girls sports, all the things that, that don't line up with my morals and my ethics that I see in all these public schools all over America.

So the only reason I ran is because I was going to be that guy.

I was going to be a common sense dude, and I was going to bring the same ethics and morals that I brought to our hoa.

I was going to bring that into the school board.

Luckily, I got beat by a lady that she thinks along the lines that I do.

But she entered the race after I did and I didn't know exactly how she was, but I'm tickled that she got that she got the board position.

She's the right lady for the job.

So two more years go by and there's a county commissioner, you know, position that's, it's not coming up, it's an incumbent position.

And they said the same people that kind of have had a lot of influence over me up here have said, hey, we want you to run for this position.

And I, man, I'm telling you, I said there's no way.

I don't want, I, I never as a kid dreamt of being a politician.

I know there's a lot of people that do that.

Their parents are very influential and they, they say someday you're going to do this, you're going to join the military so that you have that experience so that you look like a good candidate.

All those things where they're checking blocks and that wasn't me, man, I, I wanted to be a dinosaur and I wanted to just, I wanted to be Daniel Boone.

I wanted to, you know, be a mountain man.

I wanted to hunt and just be left alone and fish and do cool things.

And so they finally said, you know, I had so many people that said the reason that you keep saying that you don't want to do it makes you the perfect candidate because if you're in this for your self ambitions then we wouldn't have even asked you because people that have that ambition are about it for themselves instead of, you know, trying to be a voice for the community.

So you know, I just kind of back to what you said is, you know, I full hearted, I completely believe in the Constitution, I believe in individual liberties.

I believe that we should have 100% local, state and federal transparency when it comes to our tax dollars.

And the last thing is I think that we should be able to engage with our neighbors and not necessarily agree, but not consider them an enemy.

And I think that that's where we've gotten as a society now is that if we don't see eye to eye.

Exactly.

Then our society has deemed it and made us believe that we, we can't even talk to each other anymore.

And so we have.

Our politics is so polarizing and I think it at a county level it doesn't have to be that way.

So I've even, you know, I, it's kind of a funny story but I've got a neighbor that, she's from California and she is a, she's a very liberal lady and after I spoke with her for probably an hour and a half, she said, hey, I want to be your campaign manager.

And I did, you know, I. Ideologically when we sit down and we talk to people.

We have so much more in common with people than we, we ever give them credit for.

So this lady, she's a mom and she cares about her kids and she cares about not having boys and girls, sports, and she cares about all the same things that I do.

She might be a little bit more liberal when it comes to handouts instead of hand ups like I believe in and some other things.

Right.

But 75 of the issues that we can agree on, we see eye to eye on.

And so we've become really great friends.

And she helps me with my campaign.

And you know, that's just one person in the county that I'm talking about.

There's, it's countless other ones that are like, when I just tell them, you know, everybody wants to make politics national.

Even local politics now is a national thing.

Well, what's Trump doing?

And I'm like, I don't care what Trump's doing because I'm worried about what's happening right here in Gilpin County.

And so that's my whole message.

That's where it's got to start.

Right, right, right there in front of you.

What you're, what you're, what you're facing.

That's why we're not going to fix this country from the top down.

We've got to fix it from the bottom up.

And that's my philosophy.

Other people have different ones, but I just don't see it.

So if we can't clean up where we live and if I can't police this little area where I live and make it better for the citizens of this county, we can't expect that it's going to come from the top there.

No one's coming to save us.

No.

Yeah, no one's coming.

It's up to us.

And Brady, you, you gotta, you got just a couple more minutes.

Any, any final words, but I want to say thanks a lot for being here and I'd like to have you back anytime if there's something that's coming up that you need to, you know, put it out there.

You know, I got the 10 minute segments that are designed for that and I'd love for you to be able to, you know, throw flyers out there, things that are going on in your neck of the woods.

But I mean, it, it is so rad that you are, you know, going into politics and just real briefly talk about why you're not going to go any further or unless you're pushed really hard, man.

Because I, I mean, as much as you want to say, hey, I can't go to the next office.

I just want to hold this little piece.

You know, things can, things can, can go really well.

And I mean, I think it's an honor that you're, that I know you, that it's, it's a chance for you to kind of take on some, some, some responsibilities that you've.

Hey, man, I already served.

I don't want to serve.

You know, it's such a cool thing.

You're not doing it for you.

You're not being that guy that's like, hey, I'm gonna make these kind of deals because it, it benefits me.

No, I'm gonna make these kind of deals because it benefits the community and that's, that's where we need to be.

I think it's awesome.

Yeah.

Just so kind of what you were saying, Aaron, is that, you know, when you get out there and you establish yourself a little bit in a community and people understand you and they trust you, then they want you to take on more responsibility.

So I'll be 53 in December this year, and I plan on doing eight years because it's, it's two terms, two four year terms, and that's my obligation.

And so I've already been contacted like, hey, what's next for you?

What's after this?

Because a lot of people use local politics is a stepping stone into, into the Senate, you know, state senate, or into a House district.

And I said, I'm not, I'm not interested in any of that.

I don't want anything to do with that.

All I want to do is, is the same thing that I did in the military is that I want to get in and I want to train the next guy or gal to take my job.

So that in two years, when we have another election and we have another open seat, is that I've got a good candidate that understands what it means to be a good commissioner, that cares about the people, that has common sense and, and have them just be a shoe in, to be placed into that.

So somebody that I, you know, just as a first start, where you're, you're training your platoon sergeant, hey, I'm getting ready to go on leave.

You got to be the first sergeant.

How, how does it look?

What does it look like?

Where you got to do my job?

That's, that's my whole motive.

I don't have any bigger ambition than this.

I don't want to be like Mitch McConnell, where you're 84 years old and no one even knows if he's alive or dead because he's been around for so long.

So at the end of this, I'll be 61 years old and that I want to just go hunt the planet with my wife.

We both, that's what we do.

We go on hunting trips, we go on fishing trips.

And so.

And we've saved money throughout our lives so that we can do that.

So my, my career ends at the end of this.

And, you know, the only thing I'd ask is that even if you don't live here, if you'd follow my campaign on Facebook, it's Brady B R A D Y F O R. So Brady for Gilpin.

And it's G I L P I N. Find it on Facebook or you can go to my website is bradyforgilpin.com.

Just follow me and, you know, make comments if you guys have something positive to say or if you're excited about it.

But I'd love for this to kind of spread throughout other communities where guys see that they can still have purpose and that it's not hard to run for office.

It's a lot of work.

But I, you know, it's very rewarding when you can, you can make an effect change in a community and that you can, you know, make this a healthier place where people want to live and they want to thrive and they want to survive.

Awesome, Brady.

Thanks.

And you can always get a hold of Brady through me if you need to.

And, you know, you could see his links.

They're posted on the show notes.

Please look them up.

And if you want to get into office and you have any questions, even if you got something negative, say, hit him up and bring it up.

You know, let's.

Let's talk about it.

He's willing to talk to you about it, so it's not a big deal.

Yeah, I have thick skin and a short memory, so I'm.

I'm all about.

You're okay.

Hey, Brady, Thanks a lot, chef.

You got anything for him before we.

Let him go for the second, talking about Chinook.

My thing with Chinooks was I used to feed special forces.

I mentored a young chef that undertook government contracts.

So we had about 130 special forces at location, and we set them down for dinner one night and they were all sitting there eating.

All of a sudden I was out talking to one of them.

I heard in the background, right long ways away, the guys, they all dropped their forts at the same time, all got up, all ran to their tents, got their equipment, came back, and all you heard was louder and louder and louder.

And finally, man, it like, three of them landed and they were going to the box and for war games that night.

And I'm telling you, these things are enormous, make a lot of noise, and you can hear them coming from probably 20 miles away.

They were probably running to their tents.

To hold them down.

So they didn't blow away.

No, they were in.

Or they were getting their equipment because they were getting ready.

They're like, oh, we gotta go.

Well, we gotta go train.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

Well.

Well, Brady, thanks, Chef.

Thanks for sharing that story.

I mean, these stories are always awesome.

You know, to see a helicopter flying is always a beautiful, crazy sight.

So thanks, Brady.

Yeah, thanks for having me, you guys.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, we're gonna transition real quick to our 10 minute segment.

We got.

I got Tom Gibbons on deck from Darts Only Golf and.

Hey, Tom.

Hey, I can hear you now.

Sorry.

Hey, Frozen.

Oh, no, no, it was.

It was ours.

The Internet kind of.

Internet kind of faded out and killed.

Killed the whole feed and was looking all crazy.

Hey, thanks for being here.

This is.

This is Tom Gibbons from Darts Only Golf, and he arranges golf tournaments all over the Southern California area, from corporate to nonprofits to personal to all kinds of stuff.

But he actually has an awesome program that's helping our veterans find work and opportunities to not, not just work, but therapeutic effect and work.

So, Tom, how you doing, brother?

Good, man.

How are you?

You know, keep them busy.

Good.

Hey, throw it out there.

Darts Only Golf, what does it do and how has it been helping the veteran community as well as just the community as a whole?

And.

And you as a.

That has created this to.

To also help funds and.

Yeah, I remember from the first time we met you, you wanted to help raise money for the PT Foundation Warrior Built, and all the other organizations incorporated.

You're freezing on me again.

Can you hear me?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Go ahead and explain.

You know, what is it that definitely golf does and why does it for the community and all the different things?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So we, you know, the.

One of the big reasons we started the company was, you know, I obviously supported some charities in the past through my real estate career, and I got involved with some other groups and kind of realized, you know, people were running golf tournaments for charities and just kind of how the funds are being misallocated in some form.

So, you know, we.

We started the business to really try to do better, you know, and bring a really good debt result to our clients.

And that's what we've done, we're about a year and a half in to the business and I mean we've done events all over the country now.

You know, obviously south southwest is our core market, but we also just got back from Cabo San Lucas for a five day charity event, running some golf down there.

So technically we're international now, which is pretty cool.

No, but yeah, that's our goal.

We're here to help charities, corporations, marketing events, personal events like you said, to just run a more efficient event, bring more optics to it, bring more efficiency from a cost perspective, you know, and just really try to elevate them and build platforms that kind of can operate in perpetuity, you know, for their sponsors and player profiles so that it can't.

It's not just a one year success, it's a multi year success story.

Nice.

And I'm gonna see if Brian could bring up the flyer real quick.

And if you can talk about what this, what this means, obviously you got all these non profit organizations, Recon Chief, the Veterans Transition Resource Center, Warrior Built and the PTSD foundation of America and Combat Med Vision, of course.

But these, these are all charities that I'm involved in.

And because I have such a cool relationship with Tom, we've kind of made this really cool opportunity for the veterans that are involved with their lives pushing forward in positive directions.

And talk about this a little bit, Tom.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean this, this was a, you know, brainchild of yourself and obviously we always wanted to support veterans in any way we can.

So you know, collectively we came up with the Veteran Impact initiative and the goal was, you know, to give veterans, you know, a platform to kind of, whether it's re entering the workforce or just looking for a supplemental income source or to be part of a team again, you know, be part of a mission.

You know, we look at our, as our tournaments as missions or individual missions, they happen sometimes one a month, sometimes 17 in a week.

So you always have to be ready and organized and efficient.

So.

And we rely on our team on, on course at the events to pull their weight, to execute their overall vision.

So I felt like this was a great platform, you know, for the veterans to get involved in, give them a sense of purpose, give them that camaraderie again with, with a team, you know, and bottom line, you're also supporting great causes.

I mean, we obviously do a ton with the military groups, but we also do a ton outside a lot of the hospitals, a lot of the, you know, schools, things of that nature.

So you know, you also get to be exposed to a lot of different connections and relationships.

What can actually help build your network and maybe create other opportunities outside of our business?

Definitely, because when you're out on golf course and, and it's not just those organizations up there.

I mean, you do a lot with the Navy SEAL foundations.

You, you have a lot of connections there that are businesses that are doing great things for the military and, and for so many other things.

So I think, I think it's awesome.

And Tom, right now, I know it's pretty much we're pulling veterans from, you know, the Southern California area.

But, and we've talked about it, eventually you're going to be.

You're international now, so you, you know, these golf tournaments can take place in your neck of the woods.

And if you're one of the guys that are associated with me and you're, you're in my warrior groups, you're pushing forward with positive direction and you're ready to kind of do this job.

Tom's only commitment is really, you know, asking for six days a year.

And this goes around.

This works around your schedule, this works around your VA schedule, this works around a lot of things, but it gives you an opportunity to get out on the golf course and do something and work for Tom six days a year.

You're gonna get paid for it.

And it's, it's, it's a, a total benefit to that.

And being on a golf course to me has always been therapeutic, so I just want to put that out there.

Yeah.

And Tom, you got anything else to add to that thought.

Thought process?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we're, we're expanding.

I mean, we have a bunch of events, events coming up in the Phoenix market.

We just got back from Northern Californ.

You know, we're, we expect this program to grow with us, you know, and to that point, you know, most of our staff is kind of.

We call event based or, you know, basically called part time, for lack of a better phrase.

So, you know, we work around your schedule, we send you our schedule.

You can kind of say what you can and can't do.

So we're extremely flexible.

But once you say you're going to be there, then we expect you to be there kind of thing.

Right.

So.

But yeah, we give all the training, we give any resources you need.

You know, the goal is to help build your career and your connection base, because again, as we're growing, those could turn into more permanent positions as we scale or again, we can, we have a lot of relationships.

We can also bridge if there's a need.

Nice.

And the other thing I want to put out there is he is taking the.

Your disabilities into effect.

So if there's any special things, we can talk about it.

I mean, it's up to you on what you want to disclose because obviously that's medical information.

But it's better to let Tom know because.

Or is his staff know?

Because he is going to take that into consideration, obviously dealing with the, the, the surrounding elements that we got.

Chef, you got any, Anything for him?

Yeah, you know, any chance of moving into the Vegas area?

We got a lot of.

Oh yeah, it's, it's definitely a target market for us.

We do have some things that are in the works that could be there, you know, sometime next year on a larger scale, so.

Yeah, absolutely.

But if there's events there now, we're happy to travel.

We have our sprinter vans that we can drive out there with all of our production equipment.

So if there's anybody that has an event in Vegas area or Phoenix area, anywhere in the southwest, hit us up, we'll definitely be able to provide some support.

Okay, awesome.

I know, I know the VTRC here is in Vegas.

I know we'd like to do a golf tournament in the future to help raise funds and do a bunch of different things, but we'll look forward to that, Tom, and any last words and how can people get a hold of you if they want to.

If they want to get into the golf tournament?

If they want to.

If, if you want to support these, these military operations and you got, you get it, you get a good pick.

I mean, we got a couple of them coming up.

I know you're getting ready to support the PTSD foundation of America and the American Music Project, Patriot Music Project, and.

Just got done doing it.

Yeah, we just got done doing a guitar build with them.

They're getting ready to do another guitar build here coming up in August.

But Tom, how, how can, how can someone get a hold of you and if they want to start a golf tournament, how does that work?

Yeah, I mean, you can hit us up through our Instagram pages.

We have darts only golf and Darts only golf events.

Those messages come through me at some point and then, you know, my email is Tom Dartson golf dot com.

Pretty self explanatory, but yeah, I mean, if you're looking to do an event and it's a first year event or, or it's been an event you've done for years, look, there's always ways to do it better and to increase your net proceeds.

And that's what we specialize in.

You know, there's a no pressure environment from here.

You know, we want to find ways to support, to enhance the event.

We never want to be a negative impact, but with our resources and our relationships, even with our fee that we charge to run your event, we usually save you that money right from the start.

So we're, we're always kind of a net benefit is our goal and.

Yeah, so I think that's where there's no, no harm in a conversation.

Have us take a look at your event, see what we can do.

Sometimes we'll just go play in your event that like we did with the warrior built and see what we could maybe do better and just continue to enhance it.

So, yeah, it's always worth the conversation.

As well say yeah.

And the expectations of the golf tournament, you know, it should be.

It's a world class golf tournament that, that Tom puts on.

But it's up to you to have a good network of people to kind of, kind of put out there.

Even though Tom puts his network into effect, you know, it only gets better with the amount of work that you put into it too.

And I just want to put that out there.

And a shout out to Adam Brown.

He is, he's, he's running a, a veterans campground in Southern California.

He just hit me up.

He wants to, he wants to get on the team so he can, uh, make some extra cash or just be involved.

So it'd be great, Tom.

And then we could probably make some money for that, uh, veterans campground some, some way down, down the line.

But thanks for being here.

And if there's something else coming up, we're gonna have you back on any, any given time and, and we'll, we'll put it out there.

But shout out to Adam Brown for reaching out to us right here live.

Thanks, brother.

Awesome, guys.

Hey, Chef.

Yeah, I know we got, we've had a lot of really great stuff today.

How you feeling, brother?

It's a amazing.

I mean, you know, the chefs used to do a golf tournament every year and then it just kind of died by the wayside after Covet and our auxiliary board or our, our one group of like brokers and sales people and distributors, they kind of fell off the.

Wagon a little bit.

Fell off and you know, kind of.

Because everything was turned upside down.

Everything was.

Yeah, it just, it's, it's just like we fell off the cliff, you know?

Yeah.

And we're just getting back on top of the cliff to get started again.

And I, you know, Tom sounds like he's got a great program, and we've talked about it.

Yeah.

And for.

For him to take on, you know, as a business leader.

Right.

To.

To take on a veteran centric pathway, to really help our veterans out.

Super cool.

I mean, they know missions.

They just gotta have direction for the.

Mission, you know, and it's such a cool, therapeutic effect.

Just like.

Just like cooking.

Right.

Anytime you're out on the golf course, it's a therapeutic.

And listen.

Yeah.

And it might be.

And you know what you cook too, right?

Yeah.

You could cook it up on the golf course, and that's therapeutic effect.

So if you want to be a chef, this is the guy to talk to, too.

Yes.

You know, I used to do a lot of stuff for Southwest Airlines, and every year they'd come out here and they'd have, you know, different entertainers on the strip, and it was just great.

And I.

We'd be cooking, and they'd be in the booth with us giving out food in Southwest.

I mean, I did it for him every year.

Lt from.

He was a football player, and he's like a vice president now, but he used to be one of the main guys, and he used to say, hey, we'll bring you the chicken, and you marinate it for us.

And you got the grills or the.

The golf course has got the grills just come out.

You know, it's a.

It's a fundraiser.

I'd say, sure.

I'm, you know, so my people and I would come out, we'd put shaping ditches, or they'd have shaving dishes for us there, and we grill up chicken, and we drill up burgers, and, you know, we'd have Always a great time.

Anytime you're outside on a golf course, it's a wonderful day.

I don't play.

But you know what?

I love the golf course course.

It's outside, you know?

Yeah, definitely.

Hey, chef, let's talk about this real quick one more time, and then we'll get into feed drops or you got anything else to add?

Oh, that's it.

I just want to put the flyer back up here so people know that.

Next Saturday, get your flag on Putt putt in, and it's $20 to sponsor a hole.

$10 If you want to play putt putt.

It's nine holes.

It's inside.

It's 105 outside, air conditioning inside.

They have a bar there, the Eagles.

We do a lot of things with the Eagles, and they give us A lot of things.

So it's inside their banquet room.

Great place to have a putt putt and they get creative on building these holes.

Just like if you went to a center to play.

So.

And they have prizes and they have raffle tickets and they have a full bar.

So you know, what a way to spend Saturday night in a family position, so.

Exactly.

And you know, it, it benefits the Veterans Transition Resource Center.

So yes, it does it directly and it supports us and, and our mission to help veterans.

So.

And it's important.

Yeah, we definitely try to pack in those resources into so many cool places and things.

Yes.

And if you're a veteran that wants to, you know, I, I mentioned the guitar build that's going on in August.

Recon Chief Incorporated is, is, is, is doing that along with the, the, the American Patriot Music Project.

And so if you're a veteran that really wants to get out there, it's 200 miles from here, but it's a, it's a three day build.

I think it'll be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday kind of deal.

And you're going to build an electric guitar from scratch.

We just got done doing that in at the warrior built facility.

So there's some things out there.

If you're a veteran that wants to take part in that, that's part of the organizations that we're part of or if you want to be part of those organizations, get involved, get involved with your life.

You know, find your, find your way to get sober.

Find your way to get engaged in positive movements in a, in a forward direction.

Because there's a lot of guys dealing with a lot of things out there.

The PTSD foundation of America has a lot of resources to, you know, it's out of Houston, Texas, headquartered there.

And that's where we send a lot of guys, six to nine months of treatment and they come back and hopefully be engaged in their lives to all the other resources that exist that we can help you out with in some direction, be involved in it and then, and then, and then start working, start doing little things that are going to be important to you.

You made, made a guitar the last time with your son.

I.

What a great way to establish yourself back as a family man and, and get closer with your, you know, with your children and, and engage in building something that is a quality piece of work.

Because these guitars are unbelievable.

I mean.

Yeah.

And it just, it, it just brings, it just brings you close to the, to the music genre of the United States of America and so much all over the world.

Really?

You know, when you talk about rock and roll or, you know, whatever music's going on that you listen to, there might be a guitar involved, most likely.

Yeah.

A piano might be a little bit more.

But if you know how to play a piano, you can learn how to play a guitar and you can learn how, you know, there's so many other things.

That's it.

But, Chef, hey, you got any last things?

And we'll get into Feed Drops.

No, that's it.

All right.

We got a banter a little bit more.

We're going to do all this stuff.

But Brian, Brian Colburn's on deck.

A Feed Drops is his deal.

And Feed Drops is a cool thing to check out.

He, he, he, he rates podcasts and gives them this five.

It's usually a five minute kind of deal.

But Brian comes on here live to Feed Drop us so that you don't have to make the same mistakes or can already improve your ability to get on and be a podcaster.

So, Brian, hey, welcome, brother.

Citradio.com.

Thank you both.

And I first want to compliment you on the improvements in your show notes which we've discussed on prior Feed Drops.

They're really coming together.

Links are there and present and working especially for the guests that come on board.

I love the fact that you're integrating more visuals into the show for those listening and if you're, I'm sorry, for those watching, if you're just listening, links to those things are in the show notes as well.

So you can still, you know, see the flyers or download the graphic or whatnot.

So that's all good stuff.

You know, today I think it, I don't know if I've talked about this before and if not, I should have, but I'm gonna do it now.

Sometimes you'll ask a question, chief, and then you'll answer it and it's like if you're asking your guest a question, let the guest answer the question and then you can relate it.

Yes, that's exactly how it worked when we were working together with Warrior Build or that reinforces what was being spoken by the guest.

Other than that, man, you guys did a great job today.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And Brian, I, I, in my head, I was listening to you Feed Drop me when I was asking three questions at one time.

Y and I was like, I was like, no, I'm supposed to only ask one question at a time.

So that's what's cool about Feed Drops.

That's what's cool about this, this podcast.

I feel like it, it, it's a learning process for all of us because I'm going to learn about Brady's story.

I'm going to learn about his continued service at, you know, at the town Galpin and doing some stuff there in Colorado and the fact that he, you know, it's more important for us to be involved in, in, in our, in our services, in, in wherever you're at to make a difference at your side of the street.

Yes.

Keep your side of the street clean.

The most important thing is that he's continuing with his life.

He's not getting a bunch of va candy sitting as a zombie overlooking that beautiful area that he lives in and not doing anything.

I mean, he's out hunting, fishing, he's got a wife, he's with the population with common sense.

I mean, a lot of great things he was talking about that I could relate to.

And you know, that's from.

Yeah, go ahead.

I was just gonna say, and that's the beauty of this show, you know, we, I have friends who are veterans who I don't associate with much because it's nothing but negativity, moping, drinking and it's like I want to surround myself with people that are going to uplift me and make me a better person person and make me more focused on helping others.

And maybe that's why I hang out with you two knuckleheads.

But yeah, you know, that's all right though.

Other people, it's like I can't, I can't be around the negativity now.

I still check in on them, you know, I still do my buddy checks.

Because that's important, brothers.

But I just, I just have to surround myself with people who are going to make me a better human being.

You know, when I was playing chess, I, I was, my brother in law buddy meets, he's no longer with us.

He was a Marine.

I met him when he was a sergeant.

He started dating my sister and he taught me to play chess.

And he would always tell me because he would just wipe the board with me.

You know, I, I, I can never beat the guy, but he goes, you're not going to get beat better if you're not playing people that are better than you.

And it's that same mentality.

I want to surround myself with people I feel are better than me so I can be better.

And that's one beautiful thing about this show.

Hearing these stories, it's like, oh, life sucks.

And then you hear these stories and you're like, wow.

Their life seems to be A little harder than mine.

And they pick themselves up by the bootstraps, and they've continued to march.

I need to do the same.

So it's.

It's good motivational stuff.

You boys keep it going.

Hey, thanks, Brian.

And I gotta say, you know, Brian and I have also used the Veterans Transition center because we.

We came in here.

I'm always learning from him.

You know, Chef's always coming in here and.

And I'm learning from him, you know, different events that are kicking off and, you know, I've been able to help Chef out with some things and.

Oh, yeah, and it's just been an honor, Brian, because, you know, like.

Like you said, you're.

You're moving here to the Vegas area, and you're going to have, you know, the opportunity to come in here, and we'll be able to kind of hash out how.

How we're going to better, you know, manage the podcast.

Podcast.

How we're going to be able to grow certain things, how I'm going to be able to reach better, you know, a better connective, you know, outreach to our veteran community and drive those guys into some other help and support, wherever that might be.

So I'm looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to the learning process.

I'm looking forward to the Veterans Transition Resource center to grow their resources.

And, Chef, what else you got for the.

I'm out, boys.

All right, thanks, Brian.

Appreciate you.

Thanks, Brian.

You know what?

A lot of things are.

Are really starting to hop, and there's a lot of growth on the horizon and a lot of things I can't share at this point, but growth is coming.

Rapid, extensive growth.

So it's a great time to be involved.

Our.

My hat is off to you.

You said you were going to help, and you've been there for me all along the way.

And that, my friend and brother, I say thank you.

And now we're getting Brian into town, and I'll start putting him to work.

So I knew.

All good.

I knew it was going to be a good thing.

For sure.

Yeah.

God's got the master plan, doesn't he?

Yeah, definitely.

All right, you got anything else?

No, that's it for today.

So I wish everybody out there great food, and bon appetit.

Hey, until next time, thanks a lot for being here.

Thanks to the War Built Foundation Recon Chief incorporated, the Veterans Transition Resource center, the PTSD foundation of America, and Brian Colburn, sitradio.com for making this happen.

And that's sitch S I t c h for the like situation.

Sitradio.com yeah, darts only golf.

Thanks for coming on here and talking and Brady, hope your campaign is doing well.

And if you want to get a hold of him, hit me up.

Or anybody on my show for that matter, hit me up.

And we got these 10 minute segments so that we can, we can advertise for you and put some information out there that's super valuable.

Till next time.

Strength and honor out the only way and we need nothing more.

The only way.

Together forever.

That's for sure.