Ep 938 | Phil Was 100% Right to Pull a Rifle on a Utility Worker & Our Cash for the Taliban Is NOT OK
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What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. This is...

Thanks to Zach, this has turned into guest week. Yeah, that's good. We're trying to keep it versatile. That's right. So we had Cy and Lisa on the last couple of podcasts, which is always good. Everybody loves hearing from our different family members, and they especially like our female audience. Phil has come up. He's hijacked my notes. He's coming up with a thought as we speak. He's drawing something out. Which, you know, real life is...

There's just things that happen that are way more interesting than things you can come up with. I mean, just when I was driving down here, I got about a quarter mile from here. So in between Phil's house and where we're at, and I saw something moving in the ditch. I thought, uh-oh, big, dark. You're like me, and I guess it's just from years of this 30-mile trek we make out here, but I'm always looking around.

I mean, I'm watching the road, but I'm looking as much off-road as I am. I'm going to put you to the test because you arrived two minutes after I did. Yeah. And so did you see a large critter? No, but I was actually 20 minutes ahead of you because I was with the... No, but I mean, just this last one. Oh, right here. Yeah, it was in between. Oh, no, I didn't see it. Who would have passed that? That's what I'm saying. You didn't see it? I didn't see it. I saw something approaching the road, and I looked, slowed down because I thought,

What if this comes out here? It's moving. But it was weird. So upon closer inspection, as I now stopped, and now the creature, the beast, probably six foot from entering the road, it was a loggerhead turtle that I would say weighed 75 pounds. It's a big one. It was dark and wet and had moss all over its back, literal moss.

It's growing on him. Either it's growing on him or he's- I've seen them grow out of the water. I thought maybe he had gotten out of the water and realized that he has some netting-like things on his back. Well, they cut ghillie suit. He was wearing his own ghillie suit. He was wearing a ghillie suit. That's a good illustration. I thought maybe he went up to the high ground because now he's headed back toward there's a pond over here.

No, he was like, not like that. He was like this. Oh, I mean, Phil. You remember that time we ran up on the loggerhead turtle? Fisherman, I guess is what you call it. The biggest one I ever saw was the guy that had the Tacoma truck, and it was in the back of his truck. Is that the one you're talking about? Well, Phil and I were one day on the, well, when you used to have the boat dock, we come up there.

And I think Phil was always inspecting whoever was down there. Oh, yeah. Especially shady-looking characters. He went out there, and the back of this guy's truck was about seven or eight loggerhead turtles. Do you remember that, Phil? Yeah. I mean, like, because as soon as I popped my head over the back of his truck, it was like...

Yeah, and you're, whoa, it looked like a horror movie. Oh, these things were like. And one of them, his sides were touching the sides of that truck. It was one of those little narrow Tacomas. This one was in that range. Yeah. I thought, man. You know, those things are old, Jase. Remember our guy, Harold, Brent Harold, he's the guy that, you know, he studied them up at ULM. And he said those things can be 100 years old and older. Well, what I noticed about the loggerhead truck

Just to finish that up, the professional loggerhead catcher. I noticed he had about two fingers left on both hands. You notice that? His hands looked like a loggerhead snout. It was just like two fingers left. He had trouble with them. Oh, well, they'll take your finger. He didn't even ask. I just assumed if you only got four out of ten digits left and you're a professional loggerhead catcher,

I shouldn't laugh. It wasn't funny, but it was. I don't know. I just thought, boy. He was from deep South Louisiana and was returning that way. But he asked me about did I know where anywhere, and I told him. I said, yeah, just go right on up that bayou right there. There's a lot of them up there. And he did. I told him where to put the nets, turtle nets.

Because they're tricky to catch because they'll die pretty easy in your net. They will. You've got to have the right equipment. But, hey, the Cajun world claims that they're one of the best things. Well, you know, the famous chef, John Foles, when he came up and cooked for Willie one time, he made a loggerhead sauce picone.

And it's one of the best things I ever had. I mean, it was good. So I have tasted it. That's the only time I've ever eaten it, but it was good. I was just curious if you... I did not see him, but I wish I would have. Did you take a picture? No, I didn't. I mean, Al, I'm at a stage in life where I take pictures in my mind. Because I'm married to a woman that... And I love her. She's amazing. But everything we do, I feel like now...

There has to be a picture before we could actually participate in whatever venture. The scary thing is I've never owned a picture taker. Camera? I've never owned a camera. Whatever's happened, I didn't get it on the picture taker. The fact that you're having trouble even describing this thing that humans are into tells us all we need to know. And now, Dad, this is everybody's camera. And I will say that these things...

Like the high definition on them, they're better than most cameras would have ever been. So it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it's pretty amazing the amount of pictures now. Even when we go on vacation. I've had thousands of people through the years come up with that in their hand.

and stick it in my face and i yeah they're wanting to take a picture they weren't trying to intimidate you as like what are you doing with that picture taker you're taking my picture well at least they they're doing that it's worse when people walk by and they they like put it behind them and you hear it click as they walk by i mean i think that's kind of creepy it was funny because we were standing in line the other day lisa and i chipotle down there in foley

And then there were two young girls standing in front of us and you know, their kids are always on their phone. And so she's on her phone. We're just waiting in line. And I glanced over her shoulder cause she had her phone out a little bit. And there was a picture of me and Lisa on her phone.

So she thought she recognized us, and so she was looking, which is what you would do. So she Googles us, and she's looking. Who are these people? Yeah. It's actually Chipotle. What is that? Something. You were in the neighborhood. It wasn't very good. I wasn't crazy about it. Yeah. I try to answer the ones that already have the pictures rather large. It would be a folder like that. Yeah. And they'll have a letter.

Yeah, those are usually people that are trying to sell it. Yeah. Send it in. It's real awesome. I wondered if they just sell them. Well, it depends on, you got to know what to look for. Jason's right. If they look real professional, like they just came off a movie set and there's a stack of them, then that's somebody's selling. That's something you probably don't know. But if it's somebody took a picture and has a letter and a kid or something, then I'm much more inclined. I'm kind of like Jason. I ain't much on the. Some get by me, you know. Well, Phil, it's hard to get by you down here. You know what I mean?

So that leads me to the other real life. There'll be people on your porch and you've never seen them before. Well, that's where I was going with this. So I get a call from Dan, the butler, who I guess we're still classifying him as your butler.

who lives up the way and he's kind of the guardian of the gate he's he's seasonal though so there are seasons where he's butler he's the house guy and like right now his season is he's the plant the stuff guy because every day i see him coming in from the fields out there well he's working in cahoots yeah on that project but i just meant about the gate and let's face it phil lives in a place where people come to run from something or to hide yeah kind of like alaska

Yeah, so there are a few characters that bear having somebody kind of... Law enforcement tends to be here quite often. Yeah, that's where I was going with that. They've been in the studio. Which is, Phil, to your credit, which the amount of people you've shared Jesus with, based on your assumption that if they end up here, they must be lost.

One way or the other. One way or the other. Spiritual or physical. I got it in my mind. God sent them. So let me get this message out to them. Jace, I've got a course, a college course for you. It's called Introduction to Aristotle's Ethics, How to Lead a Good Life. What do you think about that? Now tell me again who Aristotle was. He's a Greek philosopher.

I was thinking planes, but that was the Wright brothers. Aviation. Aristotle. See, so our good friends at Hillsdale College, Jace, they have exactly what you need to make the most of your time to learn some things. Maybe some things you missed the first go around. I think I missed him. Like who Aristotle was. They offer 40 free online courses in the most important and enduring subjects. You can learn about the great works of C.S. Lewis.

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Easy to get started. It's hillsdale.edu slash unashamed to register. That's hillsdale.edu slash unashamed. Phil, through the years, I think one of the best things you've ever done. So people show up at Phil's house back before the gate and all this, and they're lost.

And they're like, hey, can you give me directions? And Phil's like, yeah, I'll give you some directions. Sit down here. And he'll open his Bible. Which I'm like, great segue, Phil. At one time, there was about 50 cars when the television show broke. And I just looked up one day, and there was about 70 vehicles came in mass, just behind one after the other.

And you only have seven acres. Pulled up out of my yard, and they all started getting out of their vehicles, mixed with, we had a couple of vehicles. So here's about 60, 70 vehicles out there, and the crowd has formed. So I walked out there, got my Bible, I walked out there. I said, before there'll be any picture taken or anything like that around here, I said, let me give you something that you need to hear. So I preached the gospel to them.

And of all the whole crowd, I said, how many of you want to go down there now and I'll baptize you down there in the river? I said, whoever, raise your hand. Let's go. One man, one man raised his hand in the back of the pile. He raised his hand. He said, I'm ready. He said, I need you there.

So I said, follow me. So I got with him and all the crowd walked down there. We baptized him. You had a great cloud of witnesses. That's right. It's kind of like Luke 15, the one out of 99, but this was one out of 70. Yep. So that's good. So look, I get a phone call. One got eternal life and the rest just watched. I don't know why that's funny.

So I get a phone call from Dan, and he's like, you know, I'm a little worried. He said, you know, we had a situation. And you know how Dan is. He tends to dramatize. He's a bit of a hand wringer. Well, he'll dramatize things. Not that there's anything wrong with that. My family does the same thing. So you have to keep that in mind. He's like, well, we had a situation, you know, middle of the night. It was an emergency down at Phil's.

And it was an electrical emergency. A tree fell, power lines go down, a fire starts, and I'm like. On the road going out from my house. It was right there in a curve. Not right by Phil's house because once you go through the gate, there's quite a distance there. The tree was huge. And it just came down unbeknown to me.

So somebody called up the people that deal with that kind of power people. Yeah. But I didn't have any info. Well, yeah. My dog started barking. I'm going to explain it. Because you have a generator, so you never lost power. Well, I'm going to explain the situation because this is a crazy story, and it just happened. So somebody calls the power company because whatever was destroyed was

It affected people on both sides of the river. Power line, the lines. Yeah, or the power line. But I mean, that place was like a central hub for other people's power. Actually, the tree that fell going through the wires hit them together, and you had a fire break out, and there was smoke coming out of it. But I'm in my bed in there. So what happened was the power company comes down, and they deemed it emergency, which is important because...

You know, it's like do whatever it takes. We don't want the woods to catch on fire or whatever. So there's some type of emergency. Well, Phil. And then wires are hot. When they break, they're hot. Phil's in there asleep. But now look, everybody knows who lives here. Everybody from the power company, they know whose place this is. And they know that he's armed.

So the first thing they do is they get around the gate somehow. I wasn't sure exactly how they got around the gate without the gate code, but they have the gate code on file somewhere. Well, that and you've got a, they call it a Yelp gate. So they have a certain frequency they can hit on emergency. Yeah, but they didn't use that. They just went around it. I don't know if they tore down the fence and then put it back or whatever. And where the tree fell, I couldn't see that because of the,

Timber. Yeah. Well, right. But Phil's asleep, you know? So then here's where it got wonky. Well, they have a policy that if you're going to be on somebody's property, even though it's an emergency or whatever, you got to go let the landowner know. And so this is where Dan's telling me. And he's like, so you can imagine. I said, oh, I see where this is headed because Phil has the generator that kicks on when his power's off. Phil's asleep.

And we have had multiple shady characters breach the gate and law enforcement's called. And, you know, we've had a history of this. That's the reason Phil is so armed. And when the dogs go off, they send a representative to knock on Phil's house. Well, he was greeted with Phil and an AR-15 pointed at him. That's it. And so, look, the guy tells the story.

Well, we're here to fix your power. We had an emergency. But from Phil's perspective, because at first, Dan was like, well, I'm worried that Phil's traumatized this individual. But I'm listening to the story, and I thought...

Well, from Phil's perspective, this guy starts off the conversation saying, I'm here to fix your power. Well, the generator's kicked on without Phil knowing it. Power's on. He has power. This sounds like the start of every horror movie or Dateline episode. I'm here to fix your power. I mean, he's gotten through the gate somehow. It's just one guy.

I'm here to fix your power. There's an emergency. Phil can't even see where this thing happened. Well, I was going a lot by his clothing, which he did not have an orange hat. Well, exactly. This man here has no...

He's by himself. No uniform, nothing that identifies him. So the guy's upset. He really came about that close coming through the house. Well, exactly. Opened that door up and I said, don't touch that gate. Dan's upset saying, you know, Phil's reaching an age. I mean, he's got the guy at gunpoint. I was like, Dan, I stopped the story right then. I was like, Dan, here's what you do.

I said, I think Phil acted like any person on the planet would act. Including us. It was a quarter to five. That's what time it was. Yeah, it's the middle of the night. You know, this story. I'm like, Dan, if that would have been me, my gun's not going down. This story's not adding up. So, fortunately, he didn't get shot. But I said, you need to call the power company.

And they need to change policies, especially when it's somebody like Phil that they know. And he did. I was like, and if they do anything other than say, apologize, let's just call it even. We won't ever do that. And they did. They were real nice about it and said, you know,

We got to thinking about that. That was just dumb. Right. It just wasn't very smart. Because Phil, I mean, what's he going to do? They're halfway down the road. I knew nothing about the tree falling, the worker. No, you were sound asleep. He didn't have on a uniform like you see a lot of them. Yeah. Not this dude. He had that. I was just looking at his feet.

It got out and the only thing between me and him is my back door. And so I told him that. He was at the back door? At the back door. But then Dan, you know how Dan is, he can be stubborn. He said, I was just worried about the guy being traumatized. And at that point I was like, he should have been traumatized. Yeah.

The story wasn't making sense. He's lucky to be alive. And I'll tell you one thing, he'll never do it again. So were you in your underwear? Part of being well-known. In the underwear. In the underwear with an AR-15. Part of being well-known, if you're well-known enough, there are people who will come at

In the dead of... Middle of the night. Middle of the night. Yeah. And this fella's walking in. All he had to say is, I'm with the power company. He needed a better opening line. So that was the story, but we have our guest coming on. And I actually thought I would ask them about this. Because these guys know about guns. Well, this is a tough situation, but I feel like Phil...

did absolutely nothing wrong and functioned like anyone would under that situation. It was just one door between me and him, and he walked up to it.

And I was telling him, I said, don't open that door. I mean, something to that effect. I said, get back. Get back. Yeah. All right. So we're going to take a break. And our guests are here, zooming in, are here. And so we're going to welcome them to the podcast. We'll be back in just a minute.

I announced on the podcast recently I was starting a new diet. I'm trying to lose 60 by 60. Where are we at on that? We're 10 down, so we're doing pretty good the first couple of weeks. I found out, Jace, that I had fatty liver a while back when I did one of my wellness checks. I don't know if it's a scientific relationship, but fatty liver seems to go with fatty everything.

No, well, the fact that I haven't noticed that you lost 10 pounds is similar to the fact that people don't realize...

They need to take care of their liver, even though they don't notice the liver. Exactly, exactly. It's very good. So when you have fatty liver, the problem is you're three and a half times more likely to have heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. This is a problem that affects 100 million Americans, which is almost a third of the country, including yours truly. And the reason is because we throw everything at the liver. It's kind of our body's filtering system.

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Try Liver Health Formula and receive a free bottle of blood sugar formula to reduce sugar cravings when you order today. Try Liver Health Formula by going to GetLiverHelp.com slash Unashamed. That's GetLiverHelp.com slash Unashamed and claim your free bonus gift today. Welcome back to Unashamed. We have two of our favorite people on the planet. That's what Jay says every time we talk about you guys.

We have Chad and Hunter Robichaux, father and son. I think it's the first time you guys have both been on. Is that right? Hunter, is this your first time on Unashamed? Yeah, it's my first time on here. Excellent. And of course, I know so much about you guys because you guys do jujitsu and a lot of really cool stuff we're going to talk about because there's a new book that's just come out that features you guys.

But Jay is always talking about your jujitsu skills because he's so impressed. And Hunter is a black belt. Is that right, Hunter? Are you a black belt? Yes, sir. I am. Which means you can whip most human beings. Don't mess with this man. Black belt is a belt. Everybody needs to understand the, what would I call it, the atmosphere and

And these times, there's people who shoot up in churches, schools. So someone who speaks there, like me, I drive from 25 miles on down in the woods out there. But when I come to town on Sunday, I'm very aware I've got people paid.

to not let somebody shoot me while I'm there. So that's the atmosphere. And I'll leave, but I'll be followed by a certain amount of law enforcement. Men with certain skills. With certain skills. So when we come out of the gates, whatever, it's just unbeknownst to me, it just crept up on us that preaching the gospel to the public

Doesn't come without a price paid. You need someone there. Yeah. Persecution, spiritual warfare, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, exactly. Well, and the good thing is Chad and Hunter are the kind of men that are standing in the gap for things just like that, which is what a great blessing. And that, in fact, I mean, mentioned the book right off the bat and show everybody it's called a mission without borders.

I'm about halfway through it because I just got it yesterday, but I could not put it down last night. It's so good. And I read it. And then I saw Jason there. He was one of the endorsers on the book. Yeah. I got to read that before it was released. You did. Yeah. I was honored to do that. I can barely read your writing, Chad. You had a bunch of...

Yellow pageant? No, I'm making that up. I've got everything working against me. I was a Marine, and I'm from South Louisiana. In fact, we started before you guys came on. We were talking about loggerhead turtles earlier in this podcast, and I said, what

We're having a couple of guys on that know what a loggerhead turtle is. Oh, yeah. You guys know. One crossed the road this morning up there, and I said, like this, and it was like this. Yeah, it was one of them big boys. Big old turtle. I had to stop, and I thought I was going to wait for him to cross, but he was so big and moving so slow, I thought, nah, I think I can make it.

We were just talking about how real life is interesting. Where else can you go and have to wait and see if a loggerhead turtle is fixed across the road? That weighed about 75 pounds. Monster. Take your hand off. Yeah, take your hand off. No doubt about it. So let's get into a little bit about the book because, like I said, it's fascinating. I didn't even know...

Like the last time we had you on the podcast, we were talking, by the way, I've heard from so many people how inspiring that was talking about Aziz and talking about just, you know, the Afghanistan stuff. And I mean, like.

People have started listening to our podcast because they first saw you on here. A lot of people. So thank you for that. That's super encouraging. Oh, very, very good. And then, of course, Jay spoke at the gala this past year. So we talked about Mighty Oaks. Yeah. Mighty Oaks, which you guys got to check this out. And especially

If you've ever served, if there's issues going on, you got to find out about these guys. Because you guys, I would say, based on me doing some research on what you guys are doing, I think you're doing more for vets than anybody, including the VA. For sure more than the VA. Yeah, for sure. And we talked about that before. That's not hard, unfortunately. Well, I mean, you have a spiritual problem and you bring in a spiritual solution. The VA can't fix it with pills or drugs.

clinicians. You've got to bring a spiritual solution. And since we've gotten to know you, Chad, you send us some really inspiring things that you run across in your travels and a lot of spiritual things. And it's such an uplift to us and to know that God's got you in the position that he's got you in, which is powerful. So I didn't even know about

You guys going to Ukraine and what you've been doing until I read the book. I mean, cause I hadn't talked to you in a while. So that's why I was so drawn to the book. So tell us a little bit about it. Uh, Hunter was, was with you as well, which I know is this the first time you guys have done something like this together or.

Yeah. I mean, um, so Afghanistan, when we did the Afghanistan evacs, which, you know, your audience has heard with, uh, go and get a Z's and ultimately God led us into a miracle, which we've got 17,000 people. Hunter was part of that team. There are 12 people that we put together. Okay. Um, but he didn't go into Afghanistan. So, uh,

And that was large in part because he was needed in Abu Dhabi and he had a role there. But also, as a dad, I would have never wanted to bring him in Afghanistan. He's a Marine. He's an Afghanistan veteran, a combat veteran. But he's also my son. And so as we built up for Ukraine, he wanted to participate in that. But it was taking your son into a war zone.

you know, behind Russian lines is something that no father would ever want to do. Especially, you know, the fact that we survived. I went to Afghanistan eight times. He served in the same war. Going to Afghanistan, surviving that, like, I don't want to be responsible for bringing him there. But the book really tells more than about the Ukraine war. What the book tells to me, the biggest takeaway is that

I'm a father like many other fathers out there who loves our kids so much. We want to protect our kids. We want to control their situations out of our own fear. So the story that really comes back

comes out in my view of this book is being that father, but realizing that as much as I love my son, God loves him more. And as much as I can protect my son, God can protect him more. And God burdens my heart to do things like go help the people in Ukraine, go get Americans out. But God was burdening Hunter's heart too. And so I had to come to the dilemma to where I was getting in the way of what God's burdened his heart to do. I had to make the decision to trust God and trust my son to allow him to go there. And that came through a realization that

The truth is that, you know, the safest place for a hunter to be is not in Texas, back home in Texas or in the Ukrainian war zone facing the Russians. The safest place for him to be is in the middle of God's will. And that's a very difficult thing to come to. It's easy to say, but it's hard to come through in real life when you're going to combat zone. But that's what happened. And now I look back and it's really relinquished me from a lot of fear that I carried as a parent.

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So Hunter, I want to ask you about something because the, I was really drawn to the Benjamin Hall story, which is in the book. And for those of you that remember Benjamin Hall was, there was a, there was, he came under attack and two, four people I think were killed and he was gravely wounded and he's, he's a Fox news correspondent. So a lot of people, our audience watches Fox. And so they, you know, they know the story. I had no idea that you guys were,

you know, instrumental in getting him out and all that until I read it. But in, in reading that story and Hunter, I want to ask this question to you. As I was reading that there was a, at some point kind of in the operational part of, as you guys were planning to go and get him and everything that happened, um,

Hunter needs to stay behind and do something else. I don't remember exactly the particulars, but I remember, Ted, you in the book, you were saying you were fighting that same battle you're talking about. You were kind of glad he wasn't going, but at the same time, you know, it's like you trust that he does the right thing. You told somebody else, part of the team, one of you guys better tell him.

And that happens in the book and part of the story. So Hunter, what was it like for you? And what's it like to do something like this? You know your capabilities and what you're called to do, but then doing it with your dad, who's got this kind of double thing of looking out for you. I mean, how did you deal with that part of it? Fleshly, the fleshly worldly desire in me wanted to be like, what the heck?

I'm here right now. Like, you know, it's like you got a German short haired pointer ready to go after ducks. Like that dog wants to run. And that's exactly how I felt. But then, you know, like I look at it, I looked at it in a biblical way is like, God has us wait for certain, certain times to come around. Right. There's a lot of patients that we see in the Bible, a lot of waiting. And so when I was told that I,

I needed to stay back, that they needed me back at our house, basically providing mission overwatch and coordinating with certain people. I was like, you know, obviously very bummed that I wasn't going to be able to go into Ukraine to physically extract Benjamin Hall. I was very much thinking that

when I was packing my bag and putting it in the vehicle that I was going to be in Ukraine within six hours, uh, going after this guy. And when I wasn't, when, uh, when the crew is taken off and I'm tracking them and I'm coordinating stuff, I was like, man, like this really sucks, but I know God has me here for a reason right now. Like there's a, there's an absolute reason why things happen. Uh, you can relate it to combat. Like, you know,

if I was, if I wasn't in this certain position at this certain time, I would be dead. Uh, or if I wasn't in this spot, being able to support in this certain way, the mission wouldn't have success because overall what we're doing, we want mission success, right? And certain people have to do certain things. It goes all the way down from the administrative guys to the door kickers. Everyone has their role. And I really had to be patient and understanding what the role was that God had me in, uh,

during that season. Yeah, and I love your answer was, I think I'm quoting this right, it said, I'll do what I have to for the team, for the team to do what's best. And we've been talking a lot about that. We've been studying Ephesians on the podcast, and we've been talking a lot about unity and how we have this diversity of thought and people, but the idea is from God's people that we still go forward, and our deal is to do that. And that's what I thought of that. I thought your answer was...

ultimately the right one, of course. I want to do what's best for us to succeed. And wherever God wants me to be, that's where I need to be, which I thought was pretty powerful.

I'll tell you a funny part in that story that you guys may have read. One of the things that got under Hunter's skin, and he loves Adam LaRoche, by the way. One of the things that got under his skin is Adam came over to the house that night for dinner. So he just happened to be in there and everybody else is special operations veterans. And C-Spring gets off the phone and is like, hey, we just got a call from the Pentagon. Benjamin Hall, Fox News reporter is catastrophically wounded. His team's dead. Like a wife and two little girls at home.

if we don't go get him, he's going to die. Like who's in everyone raised their hand and you look over and Adam's there with his hand raised. You know how to drive. You want to drive? Like, come on, you come with us. So Hunter's like, you know, a combat veteran, Adam's a baseball player and Adam and Hunter's like, what the heck? Like,

I'm like the veteran. Adam just came over for dinner. He's never even served in the military. How's he getting to go? And I'm having to stay back. Adam was in my vehicle and came out. Man, props to him for just saddling up and coming with us. That's amazing. I didn't know what he threw himself into. Well, exactly. I think I would have had to say, look, if a baseball game breaks out over there, we'll call you. If it's batting practice, yes. No, I did not. It was literally –

All hands on deck, man. If you're there and you're able-bodied, we're taking you. And I can't imagine that because you guys, like, that was a hairy story. Like, some of the things you faced with the checkpoints and all the stuff, I mean, that would have been something. To do that not as a combat guy, I can't imagine that. I was wondering that. Are you nervous in those moments? You're going through these checkpoints. I mean, what is the – I know the adrenaline has to be pumping, but how would you describe the –

Is it more nerves or...

I mean, it's just like what anything does, right? Like, I mean, if somebody goes out in a first duck hunt with you guys, they're probably nervous. They can't even get their, they can't even get the, you know, barrel pointed at ducks because they're shaking, right? But you've done it so many times, there's nothing, right? So like, I've done eight deployments to Afghanistan. I've done over a hundred operations as an AFO, like working as a singleton, going by myself out, you know, amongst the Taliban and stuff like that. So there's a certain level of composure that comes with that. And you just get used to that kind of environment. You know, like,

And you kind of know what your fears are, what the realities are, what can and cannot happen. So it brings some composure there. But there's always like an element of risk. I mean, when you're going out in a place like Ukraine, these people are... The biggest danger wasn't the Russians. The biggest danger is the local Ukrainians who are scared to death. They're not...

military. They're people who took arms up as a militia in their neighborhood to put a checkpoint to protect their wives and kids in their neighborhood. So they're sitting there with a shotgun and a machete and a hunting rifle, and you roll up in the middle of the night in them. And now we're like fighting age males. They're already told that Russians have American passports and pretending to be NGOs. And so

To them, we're potentially going to kill them. And so that's where the real thing. So knowing how to be calm in those moments, knowing how to calm them down and let them do what they need to do just takes a lot of experience. And unfortunately, Ukraine, there was a lot of

veterans who went out and tried to, there was no criteria to go out there. So you could just go out as NGO and do that. And there was incidents where U.S. American veterans went out there as the NGO to help and wasn't experiencing that capacity and got shot by Ukrainians manning checkpoints. And so, you know, there is a lot of risk, but our team is so experienced. You got C. Sprague, we talked about in the book, who's, you know, special.

Special Forces, Army Special Forces, Ground Branch with the CIA, a couple of our guys with CIA, Ground Branch guys, and a lot of combat experience. So a very mature level of folks that were there. So always scary in those environments, but experience kind of gets you through it. What I didn't realize as I was reading the book is the...

It's not just what's happening, but it's rumors of everything. I mean, that's what got me that you spelled out so clearly because like you just said, they've heard something. And so much that runs through is rumors because people don't have much access to what's going on. And so they're getting little bits and pieces from here and there. And that then drives up

the fear that's going on in those settings. And so when I was reading the book, that's what fascinated me because I thought, man, you just got people out like the story you told about dad, just trying to protect your family. Yeah. And so it wouldn't be like these, a lot of these guys just have a hunting rifle and like, like you described. So it was really amazing to me to think about what would happen if we were all of a sudden cut off from information and

And you're only getting rumors or things. And we would just band together to try to protect ourselves. So it really is a scary situation. Well, let me let me ask you all that. So for for y'all came on, you know, my dad, a tree fell, which y'all been down here. There's trees everywhere. Yes. Down goes the power line, starts a fire. So it happens in the middle of the night or, you know, five o'clock in the morning. And so they come down.

To fix it. The energy people. But y'all know. So they got through the gate, breached the gate. My dad's unaware of all this because he has a generator also that kicks on when the power goes off. So they send one of the representatives to knock on his door at five o'clock in the morning saying they're there to fix an emergency power situation. Well, my dad has got an AR-15.

you know, standing there in his underwear saying, now, who are you? Because his power's on. And how did you get through the gate? And so they were talking about the guy being traumatized. But I was like, well, from Phil's perspective, how would you want him to respond? And so, you know, I told the story about, you know, meeting with the energy company saying you need to change policies when a guy has a gate.

There's been threats there before. When your story's not making sense, you'll maybe change the policy that you physically have to knock on his door.

So I was wondering what y'all would think about that. Absolutely. I mean, look, especially, you know, in Phil's position, you know, you have, I mean, you're a well-known person. You have people that love you and a lot of people that hate you. You talked about speaking in churches. Like I travel and speak all over. And there's some places I go speak that I just spoke in World Outreach Church in Murr Spurrow, Tennessee. And they have a security detail for me every time I go speak there.

uh because you know people that's people that love me and people that hate me yeah and so uh you know you're you have a gate up for a reason and uh you should have that gate up yeah and uh yeah so i mean that's it that should be on the on the power company's responsibility like call

sitting out of the driveway, like announce yourself. Don't just walk up to somebody's door in the middle of the woods, pass their gate without them letting know and not expect to be greeted with a gun. I mean, you come to my house at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., there's going to be a gunman outside the door. There's probably going to be one you don't see, too. I had the dogs. The dogs were at the door. Yeah. They're the first line. Yeah, they were the first line. Yeah.

So the guy just keeps walking and walking. The further you go in, the worse it gets. Coming toward the door. And I said, don't go through that door. Don't try to get through the door. I said, back up, back off of it. So he did. You've been validated, and I'm glad you didn't shoot him. Of course, I stayed up the rest of the morning until it got daylight seeing what was going on, where he came from. There was no going back to sleep after that. Jace, what do you think is the best thing you can say about the Robertson family?

Well, you don't get to pick your family. You have to deal with the hand you were dealt.

That's the best thing I got to say, because when I look around, I just think, well, God's got a sense of humor here. So did you draw a full house or a pair of deuces? What did we draw? We're more in the two pair. I like that. So our good friends at Focus on the Family really have a great new podcast called Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.

And Jim is a good friend of mine. He does a great job by interviewing folks and just telling great stories. Every episode of the podcast is designed to help you confidently guide your loved ones through the unique challenges faced by today's Christian families. Lots of trusted, compassionate stories of redemption you're going to find on this podcast. Jim is going to connect you to biblically sound advice on marriage and parenting that's very relatable into our culture.

It's not just another podcast. It's a lifeline. So we want you to check these guys out. Great to listen to, great to learn, and great to apply into your Christian walk and into your family. Check it out now on your favorite podcast platform, or you can visit Focus on the Family with JimDaily.com and start making a difference in your family's life today. That's Focus on the Family with JimDaily.com. Trust us, you're going to love it.

So welcome back. One of the things I was going to mention about the book is that, Chad, I think you, in the preface of it, or I forgot how it's titled, a note from the author, you articulated how so many of us feel about the whole situation about Ukraine very well. I mean, it really allowed me now to better explain how I feel about it because

You laid it out on the sort of the political side of it, how all of us, the money, the corruption, all the different things are there. You were even very pointed in about how things could be changed and the war could probably be ended by an American president doing what he's supposed to be doing. So it was very clear because a lot of people out there are frustrated with the whole idea. But then you said the most beautiful thing, but what about the people? What about the people who are there? Yeah.

And going through this, and especially a lot of even our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so you went to help people. You guys both went, Hunter, as well, to help people. And you captured it beautifully because we can look at the situation and know that there's a lot of things that need to be done differently on a political front versus

Versus just helping folks. So, I mean, I just wanted to tell you, I thought that was really well done. You helped me to be able to articulate that to people, how I feel about the whole situation. And I wasn't sure because I'm like you, I hurt when people hurt. And then, so you don't want to just say, well, we're just, you know, forget Ukraine, you know, that's just a country someplace, you know?

Well, yeah, we have a lot. I get a lot of I've got a lot of like really aggressive like mail from conservatives and Christians that support me. Like, what are you doing in Ukraine? Like we were sending hundreds of billions of dollars there. And so when he's corrupt and my response has been exactly what I said in that book, like.

If Zawinski is corrupt, and you're surprised that a politician is corrupt, you should probably read a history book, right? I mean, and so is President Biden, and so is a lot of other US politicians in the White House that have been corrupt. But I didn't go there for President Biden or President Zawinski. I went there to help people.

If we as Christians and conservatives let our heart get jaded and we don't do the things that God called us to do and meet the burdens of our heart for people because of our politics, then we should probably change our politics, right? I mean, we should be able to separate. This is wrong. There is corruption. Our money is being wasted. It's going in people's pockets, yes. But

These women and children are there. They didn't ask for this. And they're being slaughtered. Up to a million people. The news only reported up to a million people have been killed since this thing is happening. And those people, Americans, they're women and children. I have personally witnessed mass graves of up to 1400 women and kids. Like, I mean, that's an atrocity. And if God has given me the ability to help, I'm going to help.

And what about you, Hunter? I mean, do you feel like your experience is there from a standpoint of helping people? Has that been something that has strengthened you and strengthened your faith? Absolutely. Yeah, I don't look at politics when it comes to serving people. You could be black, white,

Asian, everything in between. I honestly don't care. I don't care what your political affiliation is. I don't care who you support because I know what the truth is. And I know that there's nothing that can outweigh that truth. You can go there and yeah, you might, you might face certain obstacles on the way and during it, but it's, it's,

it's worth it at the end. It sucks what's happening politically around our world, especially with Ukraine and all the money stuff. Like us Americans, right? We don't want our tax paying dollars to go into the pockets of politicians like

If I want my money to go to Ukraine, I want my money going down to the men in the trenches and it making its way to the right people, which we, most of us can agree that it's not, it's, it's not unfortunately going that way. And that's why people are so upset. I think if there was evidence of the money being used correctly to like preserve world peace, I think it'd be a lot different. But what we get to do is, I mean,

You're allowing God to do things that are extraordinary through you. And by the way, I want to say that this could be over in 24 hours.

100% can be over in 24 hours. Which is what former President Trump is saying. He's saying that it can be, and he says if he gets elected, it will be. He said he would do it as president-elect, and I believe him. And if you've seen the response to it, Ukraine responded in a way that the elites in Ukraine responded in a way that they don't want peace because they want to make money. But Putin responded and said, which I thought was a

that Putin would respond. Putin responded, and I'm not defending Putin here, by the way, he's evil. But he said, President Trump was talking about a peace deal with Ukraine. And he said, I don't know what his policy is, but I want to hear them because we can move forward to ending this. Oh,

Like, as a candidate, he got Putin to say, I mean, come on. Like, you never hear the White House. You never hear Zawinski. President Biden and Zawinski have never talked about peace. Anytime peace comes up, they pass it up because there's billions of dollars being made going into the pockets of politicians and the warmongers and neocons in D.C.,

And kicking off the military industrial complex, like the one thing that they are spending money on that we're giving them is the rockets and missiles. Because every time one of those fire off at the Russians, somebody is making billions of dollars in the war. And they even brag about that. Oh, gosh, yeah. All that's made here. So we only have a few minutes left, Chad, but I saw you recently on Fox and you were talking about speaking of that, because it sounds a lot like what happened in Afghanistan as well.

Yeah. This idea of this industrial complex. So tell me a little bit about that. You were talking about the Taliban, some of this money that's still going on. This is kind of a new thing. So I want you to tell our audience. Yeah, it's brand new. Some reports have been leaked. I think the report came out that $293 million to the Taliban was misallocated. That's actually a really small number.

I just interviewed yesterday on my show, The Resilience Show, Sarah Adams, who's currently with the DOD. She was a CIA human targeter, and she's allowed to be able to talk about some of this stuff because she's investigating numbers. We are currently, your taxpayer dollars, the White House is sending $43 to $87 million a week to the Taliban. That money is going directly to the top. It goes to eight people, but the top four people are...

Sanctioned by the US. They're on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. That's going to be cash, by the way. Pallets of cash are going to them for counterterrorism. But we know that that money is going... These guys are... Which is illegal, by the way. Even for the White House to do this. Illegal. Because these are sanctioned individuals. And on the top 10... That's where $87 million a week is going to fit in the combat terrorism as per the Doha Agreement, which is now in void. It should be retracted. Yeah.

And that money is funding Al Qaeda, ISIS. It's going to the bin Laden family. It's going to the bin Laden family because the bin Laden family is plotting a retaliatory attack for killing their father. So we know this money is going to the wrong hands. And what it will make you guys, it should make everybody's stomach turn when I say this. Part of that $87 million a week going to Taliban goes to a martyr fund. So the Taliban is allowed to use that money to give to

the family members of Taliban that we killed over the last 20 years as a, as a mortar, a mortar fund for their death in a, in the war on terror. They get a thousand dollars a month in a house for,

I can't even fathom how that's possible with our service members' families who suffered during... We're paying our taxpayer dollars to go into those who were killed. By the way, that does not happen for the U.S. military. Yeah. For the U.S. military, for the SGLI, the family gets a cut check and that's it. Yeah. So our taxpayer dollars are going to a terrorist organization paying for their life. Yeah.

We're paying for our next attack. Yeah. So, Chad, why are we – the million-dollar question is – or the $283 million question. Why are we giving them this money?

So about half of it is considered humanitarian aid, which we know is not being used for that. In fact, every NGO that was in for an NGO to exist in Afghanistan has to have a Taliban member overseeing it. So all the humanitarian money is being oversaw by the Taliban. The second half of the money goes in cash for counterterrorism. So we're paying the Taliban to counterterrorism in Afghanistan.

Although since then, since they've been there, we went from four Al-Qaeda training camps to 52 Al-Qaeda training camps. There's been a thousand or no, 6,000% increase in Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. This sounds like we're having a management problem.

I mean, it's reminding me of whoever was the head of trying to protect the former president at his rally. We need to change the management. Well, I mean, I kept waiting for somebody to say, you know, you would think that a rooftop

a couple hundred yards away from the former president might be a place where there may be a threat. I kept waiting for someone in management to say, yeah, no, they just wouldn't. It was a slope roof and it was dangerous. So when you were describing that, I was thinking about the next podcast, we were going to talk about the new Reagan movie. And I was thinking about Reagan, one of his best quotes, he said, the nine most frightening words you'll ever hear is,

is I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Yeah, exactly. Which is very frightening when you think about it. So the book is... Can I say something real quick? Yeah, go ahead. I know you guys were short on time, but myself and Sean Ryan from the Sean Ryan show, his show, my show is The Resilient Show. Uh,

If anybody tunes into those shows or goes to my Instagram, we have a link in our bio to sign a petition. We have about 300,000 signatures on it right now. It's a way that you can be involved to help stop this money. Ahmad Massoud, we're trying to get him to come.

He is our ally. He's the leader of our allies for 20 years. Our White House shows his side with the Taliban, but they blacklisted him to come and testify before Congress for upcoming terrorist attack using our taxpayer dollars. And so we have a petition signed. We're working with Congress. So if anybody wants to be part of the solution for this to do the right thing as American, that's one thing you can do is you can sign that petition. Oh, that's resilience, right? That's the name of your.

The Resilient Show is our podcast. And on my Instagram bio, I have a link in there, in the bio, and you can sign that petition. We need as many signatures as we can to get Ahmad Massoud to testify before Congress so the American people can see. The book is called A Mission Without Borders, Why Father and Son Risked It All.

for the people of Ukraine from Chad. So man, appreciate you guys, the work you do. You're always welcome on Unashamed. We love you guys. You have to get down here during hunting season and

and hunt. That's happening. That's right. That's happening. Yeah, we'll be there. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.