Become Unstoppable: Rich’s Inspiring Journey from Soldier to Amputee to Endurance Athlete

Matter of fact, while in Afghanistan, he would lose his arm.

But that did not stop him.

No, he would go on to compete in triathlons, continuing to do amazing things, pushing his body to the limit.

And that wasn't enough.

No, he actually went back into service as an amputee.

This guy is remarkable.

He exhibits what it means to have raw resilience.

My friend, you are about to be pumped up, encouraged, and energized by my interview with Rich Ingram.

This is episode 303.

SPEAKER_00: Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life?

Because those bad days, they're just doors to better days.

And that's exactly what we do here at Great Race and Inspiration.

Your host, Kevin Lowe, is just flipping the script on his own life.

And in over 20 minutes of being completely blind, it's just straight up inspiration, motivation, and encouragement just for you.

Stop, click back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

SPEAKER_02: What is up, my friend?

Welcome back into Great Grace and Inspiration.

Today I am excited beyond belief to be in the studio with a guy who has the most insane story.

Matter of fact, it's a bunch of stories, each one of them insane in their own way.

But what's awesome is his personality.

Rich Ingram, he's an awesome guy here to motivate you to more or less get out there and take on this day, no matter what obstacles are standing in your way.

Now, before you dive into all of that goodness, I do want to remind you that if you are somebody at a point in your life where you're wanting a little bit more, you want to be sure that you're making the most out of every day, every second you have, and you want to be sure that the rest of 2024 is a true success.

Well, this is your opportunity.

I'm offering free coaching all summer long.

All you have to do to sign up is text Summer 2024, all one word, no spaces, Summer 2024 to the phone number 33777.

That is 33777.

And you will get a link to my calendar to book that free session right away.

Now, before I turn it over to Rich Ingram, I do just want to give you a heads up.

If you are somebody listening to this podcast, maybe in your car coming over the speakers, or maybe you got one of those Bluetooth speakers and it is being heard by everyone around you.

If you have children with you, I do want you to understand that today's conversation does involve some adult content, especially around language.

Yes, I'm talking about bad words that you probably don't want your kids to repeat.

So I hope you'll keep listening because the story he has to share is incredible.

But I just wanted to give you a heads up so you're not caught off guard that there is some colorful language used in today's interview.

With that said, and that disclosure out of the way, I turn it over to the man of the hour, Rich Ingram.

SPEAKER_01: Raw resilience is what, so first off, I needed like a framework to kind of brand what I was working on.

And that's what I came up with.

And the reason why is because first and foremost, before you do anything, you have to be true to yourself, not to sound cliche.

But the first part of that framework is purpose, finding your purpose.

Because, you know, in what I do, especially in endurance sports, purpose is the true motivator.

When you're hitting a wall and literally think you have nothing left to give, purpose is what is going to make you keep going, not willpower or any of the other executive functions in your brain, but it's purpose, you know, the why.

And in order to find that, just gotta get raw because too often we find ourselves in this culture that we're in, keeping up with the Joneses, and you know, we're not true to ourselves.

And so when we really do a dive into who we are, who, you know, taking stock of inventory of what we have, where we're at, and who we want to be, the only way that you can really get a good answer to that is by being true.

And and then so that's the raw portion of it.

But also it's raw because, man, I like to think of myself as just a one-layered individual, right?

Maybe it's the military and me, but I don't like to beat around the bush.

I like being direct.

I I think that what's the point in talking or speaking or saying anything if if what's coming out of your mouth isn't true?

And and I think I can read through, you know, bullshit pretty quick.

So that's the raw portion.

And then resilience is, you know, the framework of how how do we get there?

How do we become resilience?

Because perseverance and resilience are not the same thing.

Like, dude, I'll tell you, I'm really good at taking some punches and persevering through some stuff, but resilience is coming out better on the other side, you know, and and doing something.

Okay, it's great that you're getting up every time you get knocked down, but what are you doing about it to not get knocked down anymore?

Right.

And so that's what raw resilience is, man, is based off a purpose, mindset, and process.

SPEAKER_02: I love it.

So much more depth to that than I ever could have imagined.

I love it, man.

So now we have a little insight into this mindset that you have today.

I'm curious to figure out how you even got here to this one-layered individual of cutting through the BS.

Take me back to kind of growing up.

I mean, where did you grow up?

What was childhood like for you?

Was it good?

Was it bad?

Was it something you'd care to forget?

I would, you know, just kind of love to hear that story.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

So I had a great childhood.

I actually, obviously, there's a story there we wouldn't be talking, but uh, you know, I was raised in a pretty affluent family.

My parents met a medical school in Birmingham, Alabama.

My dad started his practice in a town called LaGrange, Georgia, right on the Alabama-Georgia border.

But my dad, he was an outlier, and this is before that term really got popular, but he was gone when I woke up in the morning and gone when I went to bed at night.

He worked seven days a week.

And as I started to get into adolescent years, I started to loathe him for it because I saw what all my other friends were doing with their fathers.

You know, they were taking them to football games or tailgates or whatever.

Like they drank beer, never saw my dad drinking.

Um, they took him hunting and fishing, and I didn't have access to any of that.

And so as I got into my teenage years, one thing that I did have access to was booze, right?

And so I became, well, because I was trying to, I had all this energy, like the energy of a supernova, but I just had no direction and no guidance.

And so for me, and I call it chasing air, a great way to fit in or be put on a pedestal was, man, I would be a partier.

And that's what I became uh known for drinking and fighting, man.

And that is not how I was raised.

I mean, my dad, instead of buying me a baseball bat, I remember when I was like seven years old, he bought me the Book of Virtues, and which is a great book for for youngsters, you know, but uh it it was not, I mean, that kind of you know tells you a little bit about how he was.

And and I got into a lot of trouble.

You know, I was never into like jogs or anything like that, and no judgment to anybody that was.

I just, you know, wasn't.

And so when it came time to go to college, my parents would only let me go to one school.

They would not let me go to a university or anything like that because they were like, that's just gonna be a waste of time and you're gonna get in trouble.

So I went to one of six senior military colleges in the country.

And the one that I went to is the one that no one's ever heard of.

It's the university in North Georgia.

And I started to get a little bit of a taste of the military at that point.

And I I really that's where the seed was planted of the structure and the guidance.

And the story there is that I quit after the first semester.

I called my dad and I was like, hey, I'm coming home.

And he said, No, you're not.

So I was like, uh, I didn't really think that one through.

You know, uh I had a one, yeah, I had a 1.7 GPA, and you know, I was majoring in physics and and engineering, I was dual majoring, which you don't take a lot of those courses in the beginning, but we had to, I guess, because we're we would uh graduate with physics in three years and then engineering two.

So it nonetheless, I had a 1.7 GPA, and and little did I know, a lot of kids in the dual major program had a 1.7 GPA, but I was the one that quit.

And I found myself living in a tent on a creek in the North Georgia Mountains in the middle of the wintertime.

It was so cold my heater froze.

Uh I had a little like Coleman heater.

SPEAKER_03: Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01: And yeah, yeah.

And man, after about six weeks, I can't even remember, but you know, brushing my teeth in a creek and taking showers and gas station sinks.

I was like, dude, what am I doing, man?

And so I went I went to a National Guard recruiter and I signed up.

They had a program where you could enlist and then become an officer in the active duty after you graduated.

And so that's what I did.

And I called my dad.

I'm like, Dad, here's what I did.

Um this is January, I think.

I'd like to come home.

And he let me, but he said, under conditions.

And he said, You will read a book and write a book report every week, no television, no alcohol.

You'll be in by 7 p.m.

and you will work out and run every single day until you go to basic training in March.

And he made me write out a plan, so a daily plan for the week.

And at the end of every day, I'd had to write what I did, and he would initial next to it saying the plan was executed.

Literally, it he is that intense.

And he would grade my book reports a few weeks, like the first few weeks are tough because I was back home in the party scene, and you know, I'd have to tell my friends, like, I couldn't, I can't go out, you know.

But after a while, like after a few weeks, I started loving it.

I mean, I was reading way more than a book a week.

And when I got to basic training, I realized without my dad ever telling me, to be successful, you have to become an outlier yourself and you have to sacrifice.

And what he did for me for that, you know, two-month period or whatever it was, was invaluable.

I mean, the lesson that he taught me and how he prepared me was just and so and now my dad's one of my heroes.

He could have done some things differently, right?

But that was just his way.

He didn't he didn't know anything else.

And he was willing to let me sleep in a tent next to a creek for however long to learn that lesson.

And I can't I can't thank him enough for it.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Crazy story.

I want to ask you when you describe your dad as an outlier, uh, talk to me about what that means.

SPEAKER_01: So to me, I mean, you know, statistically, any it can be anything that's outside of our our normal normal bell curve, but he was he was different.

And and the things that he did were not the norm.

They weren't like and but he was revere or is revered in that town.

He is known for, you know, he he will do anything for his patients.

He is known for being an expert in his field.

If he is not at work directly practicing medicine with patients, he's at home studying, looking at scholarly journals, making sure that he hones his craft and his other and and so to me, if we're talking about positive outliers, because there are negative outliers as well, you know, that to me is being strong enough and courageous enough to stand up to the status quo in our society and our culture, and do what you know is the right thing and what is going to take you to be successful.

That is that to me is an outlier.

And, you know, a lot of people can say that, but uh actually, you know, when you when you look at the real execution of what they're trying to do, you know, we end up on Netflix or what whatever else and not, you know, yeah, it's just uh fluff.

So, you know, that's what my dad did not, he didn't come to games.

He didn't come to I I mean, I was uh I loved baseball more than anything.

He never came to a game, I don't think, ever.

And and so, but uh, you get used to that, right?

Like again, I I had a I had a great job.

My mom was at everything, and I knew that what my dad was doing was, you know, he was providing for his family, but I do see a lot of him and me now.

I'm a light switch, right?

I'm either all in or I'm not at all.

Yeah.

And uh and and you know, that that was when I got out of the military the second time, that was one of the reasons uh I went into oil and gas, but that was why I left oil and gas was because I was working so much.

And when I got engaged, my wife was like, Look, you can't be in a salary position working as much as you do.

You know, like if you put if you put the same amount of effort into sales or whatever it is, I mean, your revenue is just uh you know gonna quadruple.

And so that's why that's why I left pulling gas.

But uh, but anyways, yeah, man, that that's uh what kind of planted the seed with everything in uh my rearing.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.

Wow, wow, wow, so powerful.

So kind of going back to this this story you were sharing, you're you're winding down on at-home boot camp before actual boot camp.

And uh and so talk to me about when you actually went away to boot camp.

How old were you at that point?

SPEAKER_01: 20.

No, I would have been 19.

I was 19.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.

Wow.

So we went from living by a creek in the middle of winter to going back home, being in a uh kind of makeshift boot camp.

Now you're in boot camp.

Talk to me about that experience because from what I've seen about it on TV on the Discovery Channel, it sounds like pure hell.

But um, I would love to love to hear it from you.

SPEAKER_01: To me, that was one of the most amazing experiences.

And I don't know how many people told me when I said I was going to on basis training that you know, just blend in with everyone, don't volunteer for anything.

I went the complete opposite route.

I volunteered for everything.

And because I I I was, I was physically fit and I loved it.

I already kind of knew a little bit about the military because of my North Georgia experience.

Like I dipped my toes in the water and I knew that I loved it.

I and I wanted the full experience.

And and so, you know, coming from what I had just come from, from looking from for direction and and purpose in life to now completely being in this environment that I loved.

Oh man, dude, I was all in.

And I'll tell you, I guess they call it hazing now.

I don't know what basic training is like now, but like we we got smoked.

I mean, you know, every day they're dropping me for push-ups or whatever.

And my goal was to never put my knees down during a push-up, to never miss any rep to and to just never quit on anything.

And I did it, man.

I never did.

And we had the best platoons, me and a couple other guys kind of banded together and we led that platoon.

I mean, nobody, we were the only platoon that never had anyone go to sick call.

Wow.

Um, because we we just kind of you know made this environment where that was looked down upon like you, you know, you're being soft, you're gonna miss out on training to go to go do what?

You're gonna let the team down to go do what?

To go get band-aids.

And so it it was really shunned.

And we created that virus and look, man, we did some nasty stuff, you know.

One story, I had this kid, he was in the bunk.

Now I say kid, he had to get like a waiver because he was so old.

And I say old, I'm older than he is now, but he was like 34.

Okay, and and I think that's like the max age you can come in.

But man, he just win so much.

And so one day we got done with a ruck marsh.

This is in the infantry, you know, we just walked everywhere, and he's like, Oh my gosh, Ingram, five blisters on my feet, count them five.

So in the middle of the night, he you know was asleep.

I filled up both pairs because you get two boots, two pairs of boots.

I filled up both pairs of boots with shaving cream.

And uh, and you know, of course he was whining, and I was like, Well, next time you'll learn to complain about your feet.

We were brutal, man.

We're brutal.

We were we were making some hard charging killers for sure.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Now, how long was basic training for?

SPEAKER_01: Man, I I think it was 14 weeks back then, maybe, but it was all so in infantry, it's all the same.

So it's like most people go to nine weeks of basic training and then you have your whatever your specialty training is.

So ours was just advanced basic training.

You did more maneuvering, like tactical ground maneuvering and and weapons training the remaining like five weeks or six weeks, whatever it was.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.

Now, when you joined the military, you're in basic training.

Like when was this?

Like in comparison, like I'm thinking like 9-11 when when things really heated up.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so uh I I think I signed up.

I don't I don't even honestly don't even remember the exact time, but uh Mar March of 2003 was when I went to basic training.

SPEAKER_02: Okay.

SPEAKER_01: So something like that.

SPEAKER_02: You went in pretty much knowing that you would be deployed.

SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, I think I yeah, yeah.

Cause I remember being in it in North Georgia, and one of my buddies like so September 11th happened, and within two weeks, he was in the National Guard.

He was actually he was in the reserves, so I'll tell you that.

He was in the reserves and he he got deployed to Afghanistan.

I mean, like immediately.

Yeah.

And I want to say we declared war on Iraq in March of 2003.

Some somewhere around there.

So yeah, everybody everybody knew my drill sergeant.

Golly, he he was an amazing man and an amazing soldier, so loyal, but I mean, he was so angry because he was uh he was in a senior E7, you know, he was up for E8, and he'd been in the 101st airborne most of his career, and he had just gotten extended for his third year of I don't know what the term would be, drill sergeant C.

And then war was declared in the hundred and first gone, right?

And um, he was so mad that he couldn't go back with his guys.

You know, like he had trained because that generation, they didn't really see anything, right?

You know, you had Panama and a couple other things, I guess, but and I just remember admiring him so much for that.

And and so he I picked him off quickly as just being a guy to emulate, you know, and follow, and taught me a lot.

And so I'm I'm proud for that experience.

But yeah, everybody knew they they were gone.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Wow.

So talk to me then about deploying overseas.

Where did you go?

Just talk to me about that whole entire experience.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I, you know, I I was in the in the National Guard, Georgia National Guard, and we came down for orders in sometime in 2004.

So I I went back to school after basic training, and we got orders, I don't know, but we reported to Fort Stewart to start training January 05.

And we had probably uh I think we ended up actually deploying to Iraq beginning of May.

So we had about a four-month train up leading to that.

And we were in an area known as the Triangle of Death.

Oh lovely.

Yeah, yeah.

And and so it was named for its it's just its intense violence, right?

So from the beginning of the war to around 2007, I think after the, you know, we we had the the huge push in Iraq, it's uh Yusufia, Mammadea, and Ludafia area in the southwest of Baghdad, maybe 30 minutes.

And so we call it, you know, we say thirty clicks.

So we were in a chicken coop in Mammadea.

That's that's uh where we What we had occupied.

And it's funny because we only had like two females in the entire battalion.

And one of them, we were driving back, and this is in like the first couple of weeks.

We're driving back to our base, and we see just smoke everywhere.

And we're calling, we're like, hey, you know, what's up?

Do you need assistance or like whatever?

They're like, no, we're good.

You know, this female had like somehow her hair straightener had burned down the chicken coop.

And we're like, this is why you don't have females in your which which I'm I am completely, I want everyone to know, I am completely okay with females fighting for their country.

That should have never been a thing.

If a if a female, male, what in between, I don't care.

You want to go fight for what you believe in and and everybody else's freedom, man, you should I'll give you a weapon.

But this particular one burnt down our our base.

So um, you know.

Wow.

Whatever.

But yeah, man, we we uh I never got to live in the chicken coop anyways.

Um that's where I think the battalion commander was in there and and like the staff, his staff.

So I was in a I was in a tent.

When we first got there, and we're in these tents that are made for like eight people, and there were 14 of us in there.

We're we were smushed in there like sardines, man.

Within the I don't remember what day it was, but it was like within the first week, we we call it a fob a forward operating base.

So it wasn't anything big, you know, like like what they have in the major cities, but we we got shelled by mortars, and it's really hard to distinguish, especially when you first get there, the difference in the sounds of an incoming round and an outgoing round.

But you can tell because as soon as you hear that sound, and what they do is they try and you know let you know when they're gonna be firing, like when they're gonna be firing that day or whatever it is, so you kind of know.

But when the first round hits, you see everybody look at each other with wide eyes, and all it takes is one guy to grab his stuff.

And I mean, you clear out of there, and uh and so first round hit, and we ran to a bunker, you know, it's just like this big upside down U, the concrete with sandbags all over it.

Second round hits, and we just hear screams, and that's I I don't know if these guys, like a couple of these guys had on, you know, because back then we had like DVD players, maybe they were listening to music.

I I I don't know.

But you know, one of the toughest things to do is to stay put in that bunker when you're hearing screaming.

And because you could just be another casualty, right?

So we waited there and uh for the all clear, and as soon as we got the all clear, we knew my platoon's job was to go get these guys.

You know, you we had the dir the technology that would tell us where where the rounds came from.

And so everybody ran, picked up their gear, and we took off to our vehicles, jumping over the carnage from that round that hit that tent, two tents away from ours.

Just, I mean, blood is on the ground, the canvas of the tent, one casualty was killed.

And we run to our vehicles, we get in our homevees, and we get to the location, and I hear Ingram take point.

And this was like our first real deal, right?

Without the other unit helping us and stuff.

And so I had waited like my entire life for that moment, right?

And it was exhilarating, and I can't describe the feelings, but we we're in this open field.

I'm I'm the point man, and it's nothing but 18, 19, 21, 20-year-old guys, kids, everybody falls in line after everything we had just seen, and now we're walking through this field wondering if we're gonna take more fire, direct or indirect, step on a mine, get into a firefight, what whatever it is.

Everybody executed just exactly as we had trained.

And I know what what was going on in everyone's mind.

You know, no no no one had ever seen blood like we we had just seen.

Nobody had ever been in this situation up to this point of, hey, like I could literally die in the next two seconds.

But we we found these dudes.

And now I don't know if they were the ones that did it or not, because they're pretty stupid to sit sit around that long.

But um, you know, I found some guys, and we the our our our first team, we laid it down what's called a support by fire position, and the team that's behind us came around, enveloped them, and then we we created um you know a security perimeter around these dudes and we captured them and took them back.

And and but the reason I tell that story is is because it was a battle drill that had been rehearsed not until it was gotten right, but it was rehearsed until we couldn't get it wrong.

And from everything that we had just seen, and all that whether it be anxiety or whatever other emotions were going on, thoughts in our heads, everyone executed that battle drill flawlessly.

They were in the right positions at the right time, they knew how to move.

And that gave us, that gave my unit the validation that we needed to know that we were going to be okay in this deployment.

It gave us the validation we needed to know that we could trust in our leaders to lead us to going back home.

And it's no different in the civilian world in how we can posture ourselves to live resilient lives, but we have to work at it and we have to, we have to train our what I call our battle drills to get there.

But that that was that was so our first first like few days in Iraq was hey, welcome.

And so, you know, it was just kind of an indication of what was gonna come.

And and but I it emboldened my love for soldiering.

I had an amazing time.

I volunteered for every single mission I could, and and I just I loved it.

I loved it.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Tell me what is the difference, or if there even is a difference between you were in the National Guard versus, say, somebody who's in the army.

SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I mean, the the National Guard, we were the first unit that was added.

It's so Rumsfeld back at that time, he started what is called an R4 gen cycle.

And so it's a cycle to where all the units, so let's say 82nd active duty unit.

At the time, these units deploy in brigades.

And so in the 82nd, okay, you're gonna deploy one year, 12 months, you get 12 months back home, but then you're gonna go again in 12 months.

And so for multiple years, active duty army was on a 12-month, basically a two-year cycle.

Well, during that time, Rumsfeld added the National Guard to that cycle to where it was every four years.

And so what ended up happening after, so my brigade was the first one to kind of start that, but you still had some cherry guys in there because up to that point, they no one had really deployed before.

But after that deployment that was in 2005, those guys, the same guys that I was with, they deployed again in 2009.

So now you have a lot more experienced and and you know, just a lot more war veterans to, you know, lead your people.

But the National Guard, I mean, look, the National Guard's tough, man, especially nowadays.

I mean, my buddy's on his fourth deployment with the National Guard.

Now, granted, it's not a combat deployment.

I I think they're in Kosovo.

But um, you know, those guys, they they're used to this life of being with their their their soldiers and and everything in this environment, and then they go back home and they go work at go back to work at the pharmacy, you know, and and it's completely different than and look, don't get me wrong, the active duty has it difficult as well.

And I'm not taking anything away from that because I've been on both sides.

I was in active duty when I went back in in as an officer.

But with active duty, you're still with your same people, you know, because you're in the Georgia National Guard and a lot of those people are around where you are, but they're not in your everyday lives.

When you go back home in active duty, you're still in the everyday lives of all those people for the most part.

Now, you do start to cycle out, but I won't get into that.

So, but that's the main difference, you know.

Matt, at the time, active duty was way more trained than we were.

That's why we had a five-month, four-month train up before we left.

And because apparently in the Gulf, in the first Gulf War, whenever that was in the 90s, the 48th Brigade failed and did not deploy.

So you have to go to the National Training Center, and basically you get signed off on that.

Hey, you are ready to go to a combat zone.

And the 48th Georgia National Guard Brigade went out to the National Training Center and they did not pass.

They were that jacked up where they weren't even allowed to deploy.

Oh, boy.

That's got that's gotta be pretty bad, man, because when you're at war, it's like, hey, give us bodies, dude.

Um, yeah, yeah.

So wow.

SPEAKER_02: So wow.

Okay.

Wow.

Okay.

So thank you for for kind of diving into that little, you know, offshoot there just to clear up my confusion and uh to kind of make that all make sense.

So, of course, there obviously came a point in your deployment when things didn't go right for you.

And that's obviously a big part of our story today, is kind of this pivot point.

Well, you walked me through that day.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

So we were on a four-vehicle reconnaissance patrol, and and so, you know, we're a uh a reconnaissance unit.

So we're kind of the odds and ears of the battalion.

We would set up, we call them LP OPs, observation, listening posts, observation posts, take a long gun, like sniper rifle, and and so, but we're just reporting back.

So that's our main objective.

So we also did presence patrols and stuff.

So up to that point, as I said, I volunteered for every I mean, I loved this.

I love I mean, this was my jam.

I was in my element.

And so that day I was the rear gunner on a four-vehicle home V patrol.

So this is before we had the large mine resistant ambush protective vehicle.

So you know, half the gunner's body is outside of the vehicle.

And these are you know, not heavily protected vehicles.

And so I had a 50 caliber machine gun.

Man, so much firepower.

Yeah, it is.

I was oh my gosh.

I I have anyways, we won't get into that.

But um, and so like every time I'm on the gun, man, I'm just you know, I'm thinking about what could go wrong, look looking for gaps, what whatever it may be where things could happen, and and I'm in I'm envisioning a fight, right?

Like, hey, this is what I need to do here, here, there, what what I'm gonna do next if this happens.

And then my vehicle hits a roadside bomb.

And, you know, this entire deployment, I'm wanting these fights that are almost like validation and proof for me.

Because all you look at history and the fights that these guys, our our fathers and grandfathers were in in Vietnam and World War II, and I mean, just the sheer perseverance of them to continue going like in Normandy, just under extreme conditions.

And they they won.

And and so I think part of that was what I I wanted to prove to myself that I want to be in that position.

So the fact that I got hit by a roadside bomb is just not how I envisioned.

And so when that when it happened, the homeview was subsequently catapulted in the air and thrown into a roll.

And I just remember dropping into the turret or through the turret into the vehicle, trying to grab the radio mount, just saying, lights out, say a prayer.

And because I knew I was gonna die because the gunners just don't generally survive, survive that.

And I all of a sudden realized I'm I'm sitting on the ground and I was awake through the whole thing, but I got ejected out of the vehicle.

I'm like, oh my God.

But it was like surreal that I was still alive.

And I look up and I see my driver now unconscious in the passenger seat of our Humvee, and I went to move towards him.

And when I did that, I felt what I thought was just a break in my arm.

And so I remember taking my right hand and feeling for the break, like I could cradle my arm, and my hand just hit nothing, and my stomach just turned, and I kept trying to hit my arm because I could feel my hand still, right?

Because of the nerves.

And my hand was just hitting nothing, and I looked down and it was just blood-soaked uniform, and my forearm is laying on the ground, just hanging on by a piece of flesh no bigger than your pinky finger.

So I'm back into this, I'm gonna die.

And I just remember saying, I am not fucking dying here.

Yeah, and I picked my arm up and just started running with it over to the Humvee.

And uh, I'll just never forget that.

But uh the driver, his name Spotuswood, just had just joined the unit.

Uh, when he came to his eyes just huge, and and you know, he kind of shuffled around and and uh I jumped out of the door, he got a tourniquet on me, and the medic came over, got an IV started.

And uh, you know, that kid, Spotuswood, saved my life.

And you know, he knew exactly what to do.

I mean, just you know, training set in, and I mean, golly, and um need to find him and you know, buy him a beer.

I remember one of my good buddies, Paul Saylor, came over and held my hand because I he and I, because again, this is a national guard, right?

Like you, you know all these people.

You know, like I went to college with Paul and and we were good friends in college, and and he held my hand because I was laying, I was laying down, but I was staring up in the July sun.

It's like July 20th, I think this is when this happened.

It's like 115 degrees.

I just didn't want to be staring at the sun.

And and he was thinking that I was gonna pass out or whatever.

And so he held my hand and he held my hand the entire time until the Medevac chopper came.

And when they put me on the on the helicopter, he let go of my hand and he said, You're gonna be all right, man.

I'll see you soon.

And he was killed a month later.

SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so you know, that that was the triangle of death, and that was that was how our deployment went down.

But uh that it was yeah, that was that was rough for a while.

But I, you know, I stabilized well.

I and I arrived in the states at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C.

Walter Reed Hospital like two days later.

SPEAKER_03: I mean, I was yeah, Oh wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

So, you know, if anybody's questioning the benefits of physical fitness, you know, that's why the doctor said that because I stabilized so well, is my body was very fit.

SPEAKER_02: So Yeah.

Before we kind of continue, I would like to ask were any of your other guys really hurt bad in that bomb, also?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my my squad leader, such a great guy.

His name is Joe Brown.

He was also ejected out of the vehicle.

So, you know, he's in the front passion there seat.

Again, I'm a soldier, so I have and have a sick sense of humor.

But it was almost comical because everyone's attention, well, I say everyone, like everybody we had a security perimeter, right?

But everyone that was around me was only focused on me.

So our failure was that we should have done a head count, but I'm laying down by the back right tire, by the back passenger tire, and all of a sudden we hear somebody like like as if their mouth was closed, saying, Would someone please get this Hum V off me?

Oh no.

So he had gotten ejected out of the vehicle, and then the vehicle landed on him.

Oh and his Kevlar helmet was holding up.

I mean, his his head would have gotten smashed had he not had that helmet on, but but his helmet was like wedged between, I I don't know, I'm not a mechanic, but like maybe the leaf springs or whatever of that back right wheel.

And and so he, you know, he he sustained, I think he broke his back and and there were some other, you know, broke his jaw and some some other things.

But uh I would uh venture to say that his rehabilitation physically, I don't know about mentally, was could have been worse than mine.

And and the reason is because it's your back, man.

Like you that's the center of everything, you know, and so it's tough to lift things, it's tough to move your upper body, your lower body, and and so that that was really devastating for him.

But so we both got on the Medivac Chopper and we were taken to Baghdad.

And you know, the first thing when I woke up, I woke up being wheeled into a hospital room on a gurney, and that's when reality sank in.

I looked over and I see my my nub now wrapped in bandages, and I just closed my eyes and tried not to cry.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Because everything that I identified with, everything up to that point in my life was all taken away from me and came crashing down at once.

Everything, my entire I it was like, I okay, I just spent my childhood figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, and I relied on that physical prowess to spend my life in a combat arms career, and I was just all gone.

And the plus side of that story is that, and I don't tell this that often because it can take away from from that moment, but about 10 seconds later, I I look up and I see because they're you know, they you they have those uh little curtains where it's you know in the hospital rooms where you can't see your your neighbor.

Yeah, they pull the curtain back and and they and it was Sergeant Brown, Joe Brown was next to me.

And and I mean his eyes are on shut and his and I I look at him, and you know, here I am missing an arm.

And I got a couple other small bruises.

I look at him like, man, you look like shit.

And uh and he and he but his he had broken his jaw and some other places in the face, so his mouth was wired shut, and he's like, don't make me laugh.

And um, so you know, we sat there and kind of laughed at our um current situations, but you know, it didn't take away the the fact uh my my mental position at the the time.

SPEAKER_02: No, of course, of course, you you have to, in my opinion, you have to find moments to to laugh at stuff because if not, man, this life can be way too hard.

SPEAKER_01: Well, it's also like what was I gonna do?

You know, like I mean, it's not like the I'm not a lizard, the arm's not growing back, you know.

So all right, just this is this is new normal, right?

And it took me a while to figure that out, but I think I was maybe in a little bit better spirits than a lot of people, because I do think that I I was used to dealing with challenges because I had put myself in challenges growing up, man.

I was always like in trouble and then having to deal with whatever, you know, confront my parents about got in a fight or whatever, not advocating for someone to go that route.

But um, you know, I think there was just always something in me that uh that gave me drive to, okay, all right, what's next?

What's next?

And I can say very truthfully and raw, I have never been one to just think in the dwell in the past ever.

I I thank God that uh, you know, because I think we're all about chemical, you know, the chemicals in our bodies make us feel and do certain things.

They can't make us do things, they make us feel things.

And so some people just might have to work at things more than other people because of the you know, the way that they're made.

And so I was fortunate enough where, you know, I don't I I'm not like that, but yeah, you know, I also had a great support network, which is just, you know, you always I think Hollywood has kind of told us that oh, the hardest dudes, you know, they're they're always out there isolated on an island by themselves, and that's horse shit.

Um and but but that's kind of how I thought too.

Like I thought that's what made you hard, and and you know, doing things on your own and and uh just you know, sucking it up and and it couldn't be further from the truth.

Jesus, the world would be such a better place if if everyone were open about, you know, like what's going on with them again, like getting raw, like you know, there's no reason why someone is suffering so much from whatever it may be childhood trauma, you know, sexual abuse, whatever it is.

I'm not saying like go go air your laundry out on on top of the courtyard, you know, courthouse steps, but but at the same time, like, dude.

You know, grab a friend, whatever you think they are gonna shun you for or think differently about you for, if they are, man, but if we all just did a little more of that, oh my God, I mean, we would just be in such better emotional positions.

So anyway, I'll get off that tangent.

But my support group was just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Well, I mean, that's that's amazing.

How long did you end up being at Walter Reed?

SPEAKER_01: And I am glad to say that at the time I was the quickest amputee to ever leave Walter Reed.

Um Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so pretty much, so when I when I first got there, when I arrived, my mom was there with my fly rod, my fly fishing rod.

And that's not like a Zebco, right?

Like you you, it's not a one-handed job.

And so, you know, of course I just like shook it off.

Like, what am I gonna do with this thing?

But but that was another thing that I had identified with.

There are often times where I would skip school for days.

I mean, that's why I had a 1.7 GPA.

Um, but uh and go fly fishing, right?

I would just set up a tent out in the mountains and I, man, I I love being on a mountain trout stream.

And you know, that that was really my mom's way of saying life doesn't have to change for you.

And a few days later, my cousin Lawrence took me out to the front front lawn of the hospital.

And I probably people probably thought I was escaping, dude.

Uh I was like, you know, I was still attached to this IV tree with a wound vac and you know, three tubes coming out out of me.

And and I'm excited because I hadn't I hadn't been outside.

And so I'm like, well, I'm walking past.

I'm like, yeah, let's let's get on this uh fly rod.

Lawrence wanted to bring it out there and try the try the casting.

And man, it wasn't long before I broke down and started crying.

Because another thing that I identified with had been taken away.

And I I just I couldn't.

And and and so Lawrence came over and he was like, look, we're gonna keep at this.

We're gonna, we're not gonna leave until we can figure this out.

And so, you know, I just channeled all the frustration, all the anger, and I just kept at it, kept trying everything, tried to think of just outside of the box, how forget the traditional way of doing this, like what what other tools do I have?

And so I figured out that I could strip lime using my teeth.

So I literally bite the line and pull it like really quick, and then I could manipulate the casts with two fingers and by by releasing line.

And and man, like every my view on everything changed at that moment from what am I going to do now to whatever it takes, I will keep moving forward.

And so I it wasn't long before I went online, I signed up for college classes um back at North Georgia, University of North Georgia, starting in January.

And I went to the doctor and I said, Hey, doc, look, I signed up for classes in January.

Do you think I'll be able to get out of here in December?

And uh he was like, Let's just get you healed first, all right?

And I was like, No, no, seriously.

I paid for classes.

He was like, Look, if you leave here in December, you will be the quickest amputee to ever leave Walter Reed.

And I looked at him and I was like, challenge accepted.

And man, I'm gonna tell you, I put in the work.

I was in that, I I was in that occupational therapy clinic every single day.

I loved it.

I would time myself, they'd have all these different things.

So, like once you get your prosthetic, you you have all these different tasks to let's say you're you have the the hook, I don't know what it's called, but the body-powered hook, and and you have two boxes without lids on the top, and one of them has you know 20 cubes, small cubes in it.

And so you have to pick up all the cubes, you know, one at a time and put them into the empty boxes right next to it.

And so that was one of the biggest challenges.

But what it does is it it you know, it teaches you finesse and it just you know, muscle and stuff like that.

And so I would time myself and how long it would take me and and just try to really immerse myself in all the tools and resources that they had.

And that that's that's really how I did it.

And it really started off with I signed up for the Army Tin Maler, which I I believe was maybe beginning of October or something like that.

And and I didn't do too poorly, especially for a guy that you know was rehabilitating from losing an arm.

And a guy like the next week comes into the prosthetic lab and he's like, dude, you didn't do too bad on the Army Timother.

Do you want to be on my triathlon team?

And I agreed to do that, and that was really the pivotal moment in my life because I've been asked that question to be on this triathlon team when I had two arms, I would have said no.

Because I was in this fixed mindset of where I knew what I was good at, and I wouldn't want anyone to see me fail or, you know, in my mind to be knocked off a pedestal I thought other people had me on.

And at this point, what did I have to lose?

You know, I was trying to reinvent myself.

One thing that I knew I was good at and that I loved was physical fitness.

Well, look, man, I'm not that smart, but you if you just tell me to go, oh dude, I'll go till I pass out, right?

And so, but I hadn't swam real, you know, competitively since middle school, which I quit.

When I was in middle school, I was so bad.

Everybody was always waiting for me at the end of the pool while I was still going.

And I lied to myself by saying, these people will always be better than me.

I will never be able to get there.

So I didn't put in the work and I took the easy route out and and I quit.

And biking was something that you you did to your buddy's house when you're 12, right?

So, you know, and and so when I agreed to do that, you know, these races started coming up.

Well, I had to train for these races.

And, you know, I remember getting into the swimming pool, and I couldn't even make it the entire length with a freestyle stroke, you know, without breaking into a breaststroke or dog paddling.

And I so I was right back where I was in middle school.

But the difference at this point was that I never quit.

I kept going and I kept showing up every single day, no matter how hard it was, no matter how bad I wanted to just say, Dave, I can't do this.

I kept showing up.

And that's half the battle.

And I'll tell you what, I never became a great swimmer.

Never did.

But the sport of triathlon and the camaraderie and the things that I learned taught me more about myself and where I wanted to go in life than anything else ever could have, especially in that moment.

And so, you know, cycling was the same.

Everyone, when I started cycling, I was the guy that everyone waited on at the stop sign.

And I was embarrassed because just several months ago, I was always one of the quickest at the two mile, the two mile, right?

The part of the PT test.

I was always one of the best runners.

I could bench press over 300 pounds.

You know, I was just, I was just a physical beast in that sense.

And and so it was embarrassing.

But I kept showing up every single day.

I kept asking people, hey, you know, how do you do this?

How do you do that?

I was very inquisitive.

Anytime that, you know, something something bad happened, then I try and figure out how to change it.

You know, this is reality, this is what it is.

And so I adopted a growth mindset without even knowing that I had done that.

And so that's why I say that that decision to join that triathlon team was a pivotal point in my life because it made my perspective and how I operated change forever.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, just very fortunate that that I was able to have that opportunity.

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna ask a really simple and kind of maybe stupid question.

I understand running, cycling, and especially swimming.

How do you do it with one arm?

SPEAKER_01: I mean, you just you figure it out.

There's no one way to do it.

That's everything.

How how do you how do you brush your teeth with one hand?

Yeah, um, literally, but it's a blessing in disguise because it makes me one of the best problem solvers in the world because I am challenged similar to you, you know?

Of course.

How do you you how do you do certain things?

Well, every single day, you were faced with a different challenge of figuring something else out that everyone else living their normal, well, I don't want to call normal, I hate labeling things, but but doing these simple daily living tasks, they just they're they're habitual, they're they're innate in them.

And so, you know, so to get off, to get off that that tangent, I have a an attachment.

So I have a prosthetic, then I have an attachment that just kind of pops around the handlebars.

And it's pretty, it's it's great for road cycling, and it's good for mountain biking as well.

But you have to think when they make all these prosthetic limbs, terminal devices is what we call them.

Like that's you know, whether it be your hook or your push-up arm, you know, whatever.

They're just devices you pop in and out of that prosthetic.

Well, when they're making those things, they're not thinking of guys like me.

Um because you know, and and so you know, they'll say, Oh, yeah, you just use this one and it locks into your handlebar.

Well, hold on a second.

So you're you're telling me if I'm bombing down a mountain dirt bike and I'm still gonna be connected to my bike, like that sounds horrible.

So I I chose to go the route of and I use this thing, so like for bench press, I try and use a Smith machine when I when I bench press, I do dumbbells as well, and I don't use this for dumbbells, but if I'm doing heavyweight, I have to use a Smith machine because my residual limb is only like two inches long, so the the the dumbbell would just fall on my face, which just happened.

That's how that's another way, you know, how it is, how we figure it out.

And that's that's true, man.

You you gotta, but you gotta be willing, you gotta be willing to put your self in a position to do that.

Anyways, this attachment uh is so funny, and I don't mountain bike as much anymore because I just I'm I'm getting, you know, I'm in my 40s now.

And so back in my 20s and and even in my early 30s, dude, there's not a mountain bike ride that we go on where I'm not wrecking.

Yeah.

You know, and and just because like for me to bunny hop stuff or to like lift up the front wheel and do certain things where like that little device might pop off the handlebar.

Well, then my front wheel doesn't come up.

I'm slamming into something, I'm head over.

I mean, I had to I had to go to Hodge because I guess I'd take that back a couple years ago.

I I did bomb pretty bad.

I I had to be taking the hobby.

But anyway, so that's why I don't do it so much anymore.

Swimming, dude.

Again, they're always coming out with these new techniques.

Uh and I say they challenge athletes foundation is pretty good at posting different like training videos for amputees to show my.

And but what I do is I I I just I swim how you how any other person would swim freestyle.

I just I throw my nub out there and I just go at it.

That's it, dude.

That's it.

SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.

Okay.

Talk to me now about your triathlon out in California.

I know I want to hear that story because I know a break cable broke, all the stuff.

Talk to me about that because I I feel like that was a pretty monumental, uh monumental triathlon.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So I was living in in Georgia, and we were doing a relay team in San Francisco, Escape from Alcatraz.

So we had a swimmer, uh a cyclist, and a runner, and I was a cyclist at that time.

So we're out in San Francisco and the swim is just our swimmer is just so amazing.

She did so well.

But the the boat takes you out to Alcatraz Island and you jump off the boat, swim across the bay, and then you know, she comes in and you you're in the transition area.

And so whoever's doing the leg before you, once they get into transition, you can take off.

So once Melissa came in, it was my time to go, and I hop on my bike, and right as I'm exiting the transition area, my brake cable snap.

And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

And I just remember looking at the volunteer at the transition exit, and she's just like, what are you gonna do?

And I remember looking at her, and I said, fuck it.

And uh again, my two words, man.

And uh I my my thoughts were I got I have people counting on me.

My swimmer just crushed the swim.

The runner's not gonna be able to go.

Like, why did he fly out here if he can't run?

Uh like I can't let them down, and I didn't come here to watch.

So I took off and uh, you know, I used my as much as I could, my shoes to brake.

And I ended up beating like 30 cyclists.

Now, granted, these are 30 professional cyclists.

These cyclists, those those professionals, they were doing the entire race.

All I was doing was the bike.

But I say that had my brake cables not snapped, I would not have beaten 30 professional cyclists.

And in because what it did for me was it taught me so much about my abilities that I would have never learned had my brakes been operational.

And so, I mean, it's it's a metaphor, right?

Like, you you know, if we can figure out what is limiting us in trying and remove those brakes, like God, think about what we're capable of.

Because I mean, San Francisco, I'm sure everybody knows, I is I mean, it's nothing but hills.

So, I mean, literally, I'm going extremely fast, turning at high speeds next to other people, which I'm not comfortable with one arm, you know, finessing a bicycle between people.

But I had to get really, I I had to do it.

I didn't have a choice.

And so I learned more about my cycling capabilities than I ever would have otherwise.

And it threw me into just a different realm of cycling.

And and I I mean, dude, you know, so again, like that's just another worldview or or perspective that I like to have on things.

It's like, you know, okay, if I'm not achieving what I want right now, like what is what is holding me back?

And it's usually yourself, you know, whether you don't have the the confidence or you know, afraid of the failure or what whatever it is, is it is is normally yourself.

There's something that is is in you that is limiting your your performance.

You just gotta figure out what that is and say, all right, man, how do I get rid of this?

And you gotta work at it.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow.

I can't help but think it's like, I mean, I'll say it first off.

I mean, I always hope things in life are gonna go easy, always smooth sailing.

But the fact is true, man.

We don't build character, we don't become who we are when it's smooth sailing.

It takes the brakes not working for you to realize another version of you, another layer to you of this pure raw, resilience grit to get through it.

And, you know, probably if you had thought about it, you'd be like, no way, there's no way I could do that.

But you were faced with it and you did it, you crushed it, and you came out the other side growing more than you probably ever would had if the brake cable had worked.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

And you and you know, one of the biggest things is you know, what you're what you're kind of talking about is transformation.

And and and people that that want transformation have to do uncomfortable things.

And and that that's how transformation works.

The the whole purpose behind basic training, one of the purposes behind basic training used to be, you know, we're gonna break the individual down and build them back up.

So how are we gonna do that?

Well, we're gonna make them uncomfortable.

That's the whole point of basic training.

That's kind of how we have to look at things.

If anyone's looking for a lifestyle shift or some kind of change in performance, dude, you're gonna have to get very uncomfortable, but you're gonna have to figure out how to do it, you know, in a controlled environment.

But that's why cold showers are so amazing, right?

You know, daily cold showers or whatever it is.

And a good way to think about it, just to get in the mindset of being uncomfortable, is every time you're faced with a decision, so a personal decision, am I gonna eat this or am I gonna eat that?

What do you not want to do?

Do that.

That's a good gauge of, you know, like, okay, there's an open parking spot right in front of uh Schlotsky's.

Do you park there or do you go park 10 spots away and walk?

What would uh do you want to watch TV or read a book?

And is it as difficult at first, but it does start to become innate.

Yes.

And you know, but I think that's that's one of the biggest things, and that's how we can start to learn to posture ourselves for resilience is by doing those uncomfortable things.

Because over and over again, what we're doing is we're kind of hardening ourselves to adversity.

And we're we're starting to realize that these uncomfortable things are temporary, right?

And like it's just it's just and that's that's one of my biggest things is that you know our pains and gains are equitable.

All all the pains that we we are are faced with or what what whatever it is, they're just a part of the journey, dude.

Like, okay, you get a big deal in your sale, okay, that's fine.

But guess what?

That was a one-time thing.

Get back to work.

Because if you sit there and rest on your laurels, well, then you're in a hyper state, still, the same way you're a hyper state, if you hadn't sold anything all month, you're you're just in a lower state that you got to pull yourself out of.

So the higher you are, the larger you can fall.

So we want to stay in that middle ground.

And and and we do that by resiliently posturing it, and we got to work at it.

And it starts with discomfort.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: You know, so yeah, absolutely, dude.

So I have no idea when this comes in the timeline of what we're talking about, but you would end up going back into the service for three more combat missions.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, three, so three more tours.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about that.

Was I mean, how did that even come about?

I I didn't even know, honestly, an amputee could go into the service.

SPEAKER_01: Well, at the so at the time, amputees had returned to their units, or, you know, if you were, if you were an amputee and you were enlisted, you, you know, guys, guys had gone back to enlisted units or officers that were amputees went back to being an officer, but no one had ever lost their arm as an enlisted soldier and then commissioned as an amputee.

So, you know, commissioning is going back in as an officer.

So I was the first.

So again, it was like figure it out.

But I was competing in in these triathlon events, and I started, you know, wasn't that bad?

And I was I was really good at cycling and running.

But uh, you know, I started competing as these able-bodied guys.

I'm like, why can't I go back in?

And so I was doing an internship with a a state senator in the uh in Atlanta.

I think it was in the two 2007 uh session, and he asked me, he was like, you know, what what do you want to do after you're done with school?

And so I said, sir, I'd really like to go back into the military.

And next thing I know, I am uh with him sitting in front of, I'm not sure if it was inspector general, I'm not it it but it was a general on President Bush's staff.

Oh, wow.

And yeah, and and so we're in DC talking to him, General Kicklighter was his name, and he said, Look, I want you to submit your commission pack as you normally would.

If you can meet the standard, we're gonna make this thing happen and we're gonna follow the progress.

unknown: Wow.

SPEAKER_01: So Roger, Roger, that sir.

And so that got the wheels moving.

I got back into ROTC because in North Georgia, the thing about that school, it's the largest ROTC program in the country.

And a lot of people don't know that, but it's because you know, we're a senior military college.

So the other senior military colleges, just for context, are the Citadel, VMI, Texas AM, Norwich, but they all have the other, all the other armed services branches.

And so we only have Army.

That's why we're the largest.

And but what that means is as one of six, we have a lot of federal resources.

More resources than a normal, you know, University of Texas ROTC is gonna have.

Once I got back into ROTC, I mean, I had the full backing of Fulbird Colonels and Sergeants Major.

I mean, it was.

Just I was so fortunate for that.

And they they had my back in it, but it was always known like you have to meet the standard to do this.

So one thing that helped me was I was very physically fit.

There is no way that they could say, you know, you can't do this when I'm getting one of the highest PT scores in the whole school as an amputee, right?

Yeah.

And um, and so I even remember at Ranger Challenge, the Ranger Challenge is like uh I I we call them like high speeds, but the high speed cadets.

And so once a semester you go out and you compete over two days with with other schools, and you know, on just normal, you know, whether it's land navigation, weapons, physical fitness, all these different, all these different things.

And w we did our PT test the first day.

And for that first day, I held the record with uh 134 push-ups in two minutes and uh with one arm.

And uh and and you know, so it's kind of like, okay, well, we we can't not let them in because of the PT test.

And so, so yeah, you know, look, it wasn't, it wasn't all easy.

There were times where because we had the I was retired, right?

Like I was receiving VA benefits.

And so they didn't know what to do with that.

Well, they were like, well, if he goes back in, he can't continue getting VA benefits if he's on active duty.

And I wanted to be like, well, why not?

But uh, you know, I wasn't greedy.

And so, but there were times where they're like, hey, look, Rich, we we you know, we don't this may not happen.

We would love to keep you in the program, but we understand, you know, if you you want to get out, exit.

And uh, and I just stuck with it.

I was like, you know what?

Well, what else am I what have I got to lose?

I mean, like, I was kind of having fun too.

And and so I just stuck it out.

So, you know, you you commission the same day that you graduate on commencement, and all my family was in town, and uh, I did not know if I was gonna commission it.

So we commissioned Saturday morning or and graduated Saturday morning.

Friday night, I did not know if I was gonna commission.

And I get a phone call from my sergeant major, and he's like, All right, Rich, we finally got the uh the final sign off on your paperwork.

You are good to go.

And, you know, I was like, thank God, because I didn't tell anybody I wasn't, this wasn't happening.

You know, I was just gonna play it off.

What's funny about it is probably two weeks before that, I get a phone call from a buddy, and he was like, dude, why didn't you tell me that you were doing this?

I'm aide-de-camp to the general that has to sign your final waiver.

And that guy who called me, name was Dave Rosell.

That's the same guy that asked me to be on his triathlon team.

Oh wow.

And I I like uh every time I think about it, you know, or say it, I just I get goosebumps because it's like, wow.

I mean, talk about the stars being aligned there.

And and and again, I mean, a lot a lot of life is just luck and timing.

And, you know, so I I was fortunate for that, and I was able to commission.

And I always say I would have made a much better non-commissioned officer than an officer.

And I still agree with that to this day because I like being hands-on, I like being in the battle, and I'm just I don't know, like that.

But and there were certain things that I wanted to accomplish during my officership that, you know, like I I'd always I wanted to try to at least go to to selection, Delta selection, to be a direct action operator and you know, certain things in ranger battalion.

And I just never, I I never got the opportunity.

And and I'm not not saying whatever the military just wasn't ready.

And you know what?

I uh maybe I wasn't ready either.

It just it just never materialized.

And um, I think I I started really having some, you know, it started having a negative impact on me.

And because I wanted to do that enlisted.

Before I lost my arm, I I was going to stay enlisted.

That was my plan was to go active duty, go to Ranger Battalion as an enlisted soldier.

You know, so who knows where I would be uh had that not happened, but or had that happened.

But uh once I became an officer, I started chasing deployments, started chase the fight, and it just wasn't materializing how high anticipated, you know, I think it started to wear on me a pretty good bit.

And, you know, after my my lap, my fourth deployment, we man, I when I got home, I had no reintegration.

Because normally you you have a re-integrated process where, you know, it's like, okay, you just went from like shooting your gun at anything that moved or whatever, to now stopping at traffic lights, right?

And and I I didn't have that, but and I don't know if it would have mattered, but you know, I got into a pretty brutal bar fight, and I mean it was bad.

I I say the bar fight was bad.

The cops were on my side, man.

They were like, dude, just walk away.

I was like, I just want to go back to the bar.

Look, man, we're not taking you in.

We're telling you like everything is good, just go to another bar.

I turned around and like headbutt at this cop.

SPEAKER_02: Oh no.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

And then, you know, dude, I don't know where this like Hulk strength came from, but it took like four cops to hold me down.

They put me in the back of the cop car.

I busted out the back window with my hook, and I hear them saying, like, we don't know how to handle them.

And uh, you know, and I'm they're like, what do we what do we do with that hook?

And and so again, fortunate that like all the charges got dropped.

I went and talked to the officer, I had some other people talk to uh to the police officer, and you know, I was just hammered drunk.

But I think at that point I realized, you know, I and I wasn't court-martialed or or anything like that.

I got a letter of reprimand, which, you know, that's whatever.

But uh, you know, it just kind of made me realize like this is not what I want to do anymore.

You know, I mean, it's like again, you got you gotta be raw, you gotta be true.

Like, all right, man, I can either keep chasing this and it never materializes.

Look, man, you just gotta say, let's start something new and and let's go figure out what else is out there for us, right?

And so that's what I did.

And, you know, once I once I got out, it it it was it was trial and error.

Now, I love that oil and gas job um working for Kendra Morgan.

I mean, I just I relished in it.

Had I never met anyone, I probably I'd probably still be there.

Had I never started a family just because I was able to work for 14 hour days, right?

It was one of those jobs that was similar to the military.

Hey, you got pipeline break, it takes, you know, what what whatever it is in the middle of the night on a Saturday, like you gotta go, you gotta be there.

And and I I just I loved that quick, you know, atmosphere.

But but my wife was right, you know, like, okay, now we we gotta start thinking about the other three mouths we have to feed.

And so that's when, you know, I started up my own insurance agency and and it did really well, man.

It was very profitable, but I realized that I'd rather cut off my right hand than continue to sell insurance.

You know, like l, you know, coming from always just being in this fast, these fast-paced environments to you know, so it was like Bob Parr in that movie The Incredibles is how I felt life wasting away behind a desk.

And but I started like listening to to what people were saying, and and like people might ask me for advice, like, Well, you doing this or that, and I say somebody, somebody's in my head.

Several people asked me, like, dude, are you writing a book?

And I started getting asked to speak.

And that's when I realized, like, okay, we need to redefine purpose here and see what this journey is.

And that's when I decided to do what I'm doing now, take it speaking full time and motivating people.

And I truly believe that is what my purpose is.

It was that way when I was in the military, you know, even as an enlisted soldier, motivating people has always been my thing.

It just took me a while to figure it out and and how to monetize it, right?

Outside of the military.

And I truly believe that that's my purpose.

And so with that redefined purpose, I could pull out of a gas station, get hit by a mat truck, and not be able to walk tomorrow, but my purpose would still be the same.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's why I love, you know, living, living up to that standard because I feel that I'm already resiliently postured, because there are not many things that can take that away from me.

So I can always continue to work towards that angle of you know, helping people see see brighter features in themselves and get on the right path.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

When we talk about your purpose and stuff, do you feel like people who you've known?

Do you feel like people are able to kind of identify that life's purpose who have gone through some type of traumatic event in their life?

More so than if everything had just gone, you know, as is.

SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's that difficult to define your purpose.

I think it's more difficult to execute on it when you had not been in a traumatic experience have not had a traumatic experience.

And and and the reason is because, you know, I go back to saying after I lost my arm, it was I didn't have any other choice.

I was reinventing myself.

When, you know, individuals just think that, okay, I'm not going down the road that I want.

I need to make a change.

Unless you hit rock bottom, like your true rock bottom, it is much more difficult to transform yourself.

And and it's gonna take that much more discipline to do it.

You know, is that that kind of what you're asking there?

Yeah.

So yeah, absolutely.

But but you know, it it's the the first step though, is peeling back the onion of what you find is your purpose, you know, who do you want to be?

What tasks are going to help you get there?

And and what that's gonna do is this that kind of outlines your journey, but that defines, you know, who you really are.

Like what are you passionate about?

Where do you see yourself?

Okay, well, let's now figure out how we can get there.

And we learn from James Clear and Atomic Habits, like you are your habits, right?

And and so our habits are what really define us.

And we can change those.

We just, you know, we we have to find an instate of where what are we trying to achieve?

Where are we trying to get to, and then don't bite off more than you can shoe and and and have some grace, man.

Be kind to yourself.

You're never going to hit the mark every single time.

If you miss a day, what, man?

If it, you know, like, okay, I didn't get my meditation this morning.

You know what?

Just put it in tonight.

Because I mean, my schedule, I try and get mine down to like, okay, 4 a.m.

this, 4.08 this, 4, like, you know, and you try and get detailed, how often are you gonna be successful at that?

And and many people might say you're setting yourself up for failure, but by by being that detailed.

Well, I'm just trying to take it to the next level.

As long as I don't let it bog me down, I'm not setting myself up for failure, right?

So you have to be kind to yourself and know what you're capable of and set realistic expectations of where you're going on this journey.

But that's that's that's what I think about purpose, man.

If everything you're you're doing is not taking you somewhere down that road, you're never gonna be happy, right?

And none of us have ever arrived.

As soon as you think you've arrived, somebody, somebody's gonna knock you off that pedestal.

You've never arrived.

You know, and that's why we always say that old cliche, it's not about the the product, it's about the process.

You know, it's it's the the path that you're on.

The this the true true road to happiness.

Um it's not something you achieve, it's something that you live.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, man, before I get to my last question, which is about a big, big event you got coming up, a big thing that you're raising money for.

For somebody who's heard your story today and and they're looking for a motivational speaker, what kind of places do you speak at and where can they find you?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so uh Rich Ingram.com is my is my website.

You can check me out there, all kinds of tools, some resources, but uh, there's a contact form there.

Love to have a conversation.

So generally, the types of audiences to whom I speak are either corporations looking for leadership, leadership speeches.

So I generally do keynote keynote speeches, but motivational leadership, sales motivation is a big one, nonprofits helping folks raise money just because I am a product of nonprofit organizations.

You know, I my triathlon journey came through Challenge Athletes Foundation, and I wholeheartedly know that without that nonprofit organization, I would not be where I am today.

So I know that um, you know, good nonprofits have the ability to change lives.

I am running Lead Bill 100, let's see, it was that August 17th.

And so for that, I'm trying to raise money for this nonprofit.

I called it Warriors in Quiet Waters.

And this organization, you know, and oftentimes people ask me, like, hey, well, you know, we we are raising money for veteran organization, who's who's the best?

Oh, these guys and spies are amazing.

And they directly align what they try and do is reintegrate, you know, it's reintegration of soldiers back in into society, but using the natural, natural elements, so trout streams and and hunting and and all these things to build that camaraderie and and reintegration, then it's therapeutic, right?

And the difference between these guys and other folks is that they have an alumni program where these guys literally have some kind of support network forever for their life.

And that is not common.

Uh a lot of other organizations are like, oh, hey, you want to go, we'll we'll fly you out here to do this fly fishing trip.

And then you, you know, you do it, and then it's like, all right, later.

So that's one of the biggest things with these guys.

But if you go to my website at richinggram.com, there's a banner at the top of it.

You click that, and it'll take you to my fundraising page for these guys, and there's a pretty good explanation in text that tells you why I think it's a great organization, why you should donate to them.

And I would appreciate it if you do.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man, absolutely.

Dude, I will be sure that for anybody interested, I will be sure that all the links and your information stuff are inside of today's show notes for easy access.

The Leadville 100.

Talk to me a little bit about that because I want people to understand that what we're talking about here is absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01: All right, so let's see.

It's a hundred-mile race in Lidville, Colorado, which has I think it's about 18,000 feet of uh climbing.

But, you know, that's not the most difficult part of it.

One of the most difficult parts of it is it starts at 10,000 feet of altitude.

And so I'm going out there, I'm going out there August 1st, and I'm living in like a little co-op housing.

So literally, I'm in a room with like six other people for two weeks just acclimatizing, getting some good runs in, go out and actually do segments of the course before I move into an actual house for the few days around the race.

But yeah, man, it's an iconic, it's an iconic hundred miler, you know.

It's uh takes a lot of a lot of training, a lot of prep work.

Doing those kind of events, again, you know, it's all about the process, man, because you're having to, you know, like tomorrow morning, I'm waking up at 1 a.m.

to to do a five and a half hour run.

Got to drive to the trail.

I need to make sure I eat breakfast, gotta, you know, prep my turnaround spots.

And then it's gonna be 95 degrees here in Austin, Texas, by like 10 a.m.

So that's why I wake up that early to get those done.

But it takes up so much time that you have to be intentional with everything that you do.

Because it's not just a five and a half hour run, but now I I have to make sure that I recover properly and eat well, sleep well.

You know, I have three kids, I have work, I have clients.

So everything that I do now has got to line up.

And uh, so I'm just very intentional with everything.

But, you know, I do those runs because again, one, it is part of my purpose of motivating others, but two, setting ambitious physical targets and trying to achieve them, it it helps me maintain my emotional stability.

So I try not to say I'm my purpose is a runner, but just because I'm one jacked up knee away from that not being the case.

But I I am a physical fitness enthusiast, so and I love trying to see what my body can do driving.

I love it when my body tells itself, dude, you can't take any more of this.

You can't keep going.

Give me more.

That just means that you're growing.

Give me more growth, make me better.

And so, you know, that's that's why I do these these races, man.

And they are a lot of fun.

Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Rich, man, I want to thank you, dude, so much, man, for being here today.

Just for sharing your story and and even more so than your story, honestly.

Just the insights, the takeaways that you have to offer, man.

It's truly amazing.

And uh, it's been a real gift getting to uh talk with you today.

SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I I appreciate you having me on, Kevin.

Thank you so much.

It's been uh been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

Well, thank you.

And for you listening today, my hope, as always, is that you heard something today and probably a lot of things that can be an impact to your life.

So take what you heard today and put it into action.

Remember, check out those show notes.

I'm also going to leave inside of today's show notes a couple of other episodes.

If you are digging this one, you're gonna be sure to like those as well.

So, my friend, get out there and take on the day with Britt Ray's great.