187 - How The VA Failed This Disabled Military Veteran ft. Tejano Space Cowboy | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 187
02:20:16 Share

This episode is brought to you by Skinny Pop Popcorn. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Oh, so light and crunchy. Skinny Pop Original Popcorn is the snack you've been searching for. Made with just three simple ingredients. Popcorn kernels, sunflower oil, and salt. Snacking never felt or tasted so good. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack. And pick up Skinny Pop Original Popcorn today.

I began to put my own tourniquet on. Dude, it was terrible. It's that train. America should have the best prosthetics. I did all this myself. Antonio Stark over here. Dude, how many arms do you have? One. They're thinking I'm going to die. And I'm like yelling at them. You're like in and out of consciousness. You're still a dickhead, dude.

You gotta pop it. Pop it. Are you a big drinker? I do drink. Oh, I'm so sorry. Wait till we come down. I'm so sorry. Damn it, military guys. You lose one arm, you think you're special. God damn it. He told me to... Oh, God. All right. We ready to pop this off? Yeah. Three, two, one.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli Double Tap, Space Tiano. Right? Is that what you wanted me to introduce you as? Yeah, Tejano Space Cowboy. Tejano Space Cowboy. Sorry, I got that. I messed it up again. Brandon Herrera, myself, Donald Operator. Thank you for joining in. It's so good to see you, dude. Okay. We met in the past, and I completely... We sent, I think, show sent. It was like, hey, we should have Sebastian on. I was like, yeah. I was like looking. I was like...

I swear I've met this dude before. And I think the first time we met, I made a joke or something. And then you're like, you didn't know me at that point. So you're like, oh, he's just an asshole. That was at the old, uh, the ranch, the cooking show. We were at the cooking show. I want to say no shit. Okay. The cooking show. Um, I just, I was with Logan and, uh, cause Logan was in three, five. And I just remember, uh,

It was like y'all's content house. And I had a blue arm. I had a different arm at that time. It was a really ghetto. It was a gigantic arm. So it was like really hard to be low-key in that arm. It was like fucking the size of a leg. Dude, how many arms do you have? I have one. Yeah. I have one. Technically, you know what? Jesus. It does get confusing when people... Because you're like, how many arms do you have? Do you have real arms? I was like, to me...

I was like, this is a real arm to me. But I have two prosthetics, three prosthetics, just based on which ones actually work right now. But that one, I have it. It was decommissioned. But I don't consider it in use because it was so huge. It was really hard for me to move around with and stuff like that. Because if you remember, it was gigantic. It looked like something from a fucking anime because it was so big. It was the Mark I version of Iron Man.

Yeah, it was a gigantic arm and it was like the first time that the VA in San Antonio had ever built a prosthetic, an upper extremity prosthetic. So they were terrible at it. And that's that kind of began my journey on like getting into prosthetics myself because I didn't know that not everybody could build prosthetics, upper extremity prosthetics at the level of like the best people.

It's crazy. The VA is definitely like, we have the money. We just don't want to spend that much of it.

Yeah, it's... Go on, Brandon. I was just going to say, with the VA, it's like, oh, you saw the joke face. It's not as much of a joke as it is just sad. It's like, oh, we'd rather spend it on administrative staff, bulletins, and talk about how to use pronouns on the high level in the VA. Yeah, your arm, you don't really need that, but we really need these bulletins, you know? Yeah, like, I fucking... I would really love to talk about the VA at some point, but... Yeah, because I feel like... I feel bad...

I feel bad talking about my situation, but this arm would not have come if the VA wasn't doing such a bad job. Because this guy who built this arm heard about my story and heard about my difficulty getting prosthetics from the VA. No background in prosthetics. And he built this for me from scratch. His background was aerospace.

And so, yeah, the VA, like I always tell people like, like, oh, the VA guy, because I get a lot of that. Like the VA made it. I was like, this has nothing to do with the VA. The VA did not do this. This is not a, it's a different level of prosthetic. But I'm just noticing things like the picatinny on the thumb.

Yeah, I put that on there. I got that from fucking people commented on TikTok for me to put a rail on there. And I was like for a flashlight. And I had done that before lower, but I didn't do this. I never want to insult the guy who made this work. I mean, I did this. He did all this other stuff. I did this because I wanted to take a bite out of this notch right here because I'm a dad. And whenever I carry my son, this notch would dig into his back. So I just wanted to.

Soften up that notch and you can see I try to build up but um, you put a little pack unit on it So if anybody pisses you off you just blind them with IR Let's rewind so tell your story and I know it was probably a bunch of people have heard it through your social media But what what year did you enlist? I? Joined the Marine Corps in 2007

Damn. You were, you were an OG. You did surge time then. Um, no, no, no, no. Afghan Afghanistan. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I think I always say Iraq was a little bit before my time. Um, I joined the Marine Corps to, to go to Afghanistan. Um, and specifically the Taliban, I still tell people, you know, I still think they're terrible people and you kind of have to like educate people about why they're terrible people to like explain, you know, like what they're doing to women. But yeah, I joined, um,

in 27 and 2007 specifically for the, for the Taliban. And, um, I was wounded in the surge in 2010, um, and saying in Helmand province, Afghanistan, it was the ID blast. Yeah. Yeah. Stepping into a canal. And I actually don't talk about it that much on my social media just because I, you know, it's something that you're like, um,

I mean, you know, like you just don't talk about it because it's like for me, it just recently passed. And to commemorate, like whenever I talk about it, like, yeah, I lost my squad leader. And as it gets further away, it gets easier to talk about. But like, you know, whenever you have that kind of thing, it's not something that I talk about just because we lost so many people there. You know, Dark Horse, right?

And we lost so many Marines that I feel like I don't like talking about it just because like, it's kind of like to people because you don't want to take them to a dark place. Civilians, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. A lot of my a lot of my stuff is like kids are asking questions and stuff like that. And so like, I'll explain to them like, you know, Avengers and stuff like you don't take them to like, I don't know, they don't want to know, you know, all the darkness. But specifically, like to me, you know, whenever I was wounded, I was a rifle team leader.

and stepping into a canal. My squad leader took the brunt of the blast. It was a submerged IED and like all of the shit tied to that. Whenever I think about when I was wounded, I don't think about me. I think about, you know, a little girl who doesn't have a dad, you know? So that's something that I think later on got easier for me to talk about, but people were like, you know, why I didn't always talk about it was because like, I'm so close to with all my gold star families that it's not something that I was like,

you know, like, you know, it didn't feel appropriate to talk about because they're, cause to them, they're like, you know, you're whenever you're first, you're inundated with family members asking you questions about like their son's last moments and stuff like that. So you kind of feel like it's not just my story. It's that hard one because it's going through those experiencing yourself. And then how do you handle that? Is it,

ask yourself the questions of how do I honor them? And then it is that older man. It's like the World War II vets you always hear. It's like, oh, grandpa wouldn't talk about his war stories. You have some that talk about it with more ease. And then some people like yourself where you're like, ah, it's not my story to tell. But as time goes on, you're healing through it. You're coming to terms with it. And now you're like, okay, I can...

I can start talking about this or explaining. It was a different generation too. Like my grandfather would just drink and beat my grandma. Spending time with Vietnam veterans really made me feel like, oh, I'm doing okay. Because I'm like, they're like, I got no POWs who were like, they went to fucking prison. My dad was a Vietnam veteran.

And he was drafted into Vietnam. And I didn't know anything about his military service. And one of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps was I resented how quiet he was. He didn't speak at all. And then now, as an adult later on in life, I understood, like, oh, they were spit on. And so they had this shame and stuff like that. But talking to Vietnam veterans, so many of them, especially the combat veterans, they

They spent time in prison, bars, fights, and stuff like that. And I know that from my own people. We have some of those people too. But yeah, it definitely is a different generation. What was – when coming to terms with that, now that you're saying, hey, later in life, it is becoming easier to talk about, what was one of those turning points for you to make that possible? For me, becoming a dad really, really changed because I think before I was so prideful. I was so –

I especially talking to my gold star families like I didn't tell them everything that happened until my son was born. My son was born and I was like, oh, you should really know every detail about your son. What was the what was the time gap there? My son's two years old. So about like eight, like, I mean, like.

Eight, ten years. Because even in college, I went to UIW and I remember like taking pride in my professors not knowing that I was military because that arm was so – it was like – it's got a Catarina Calavera on it. It's like a Mexican sugar school. And I just remember one time –

her telling my professor that I had to like miss something for a VA appointment. And she was like, VA, what's that? And I was like, Oh, it's like the, like, uh, you can't get out of those. And she was like, what's the VA? And I was like, it's the veterans, whatever hospital. And she, she was like, I didn't even know you were a veteran. You had a college professor ask you what the VA is. Yeah. I mean, she's a private school. You know, nothing. UIW is a very rich, rich, rich, rich, good, great education. But I think that like, um,

I you know she wasn't originally from America too um so you know I you you're I guess I'm always surprised by um like people who don't have exposure academics yeah academia academia is something you know that's um people who lived a very insulated life yeah their own their own very it's it is a private school so it is um this poor Hispanic just born with

with only one arm. Yeah, that's what she thought. And I was like, I was like, what? The fun white lady. Let me guess, a lawnmower accident? Yeah. That weed eater just popped back up, man. She brings it back with the weed eater attached. I got you this. Oh, yeah.

By the way, I'm free on Thursdays. What's your schedule? Yeah. Ironic. I did break my other arm mowing the lawn. And that was something that was funny. Like, everybody's like, why are you mowing your own lawn? And I'm like, I'm fucking Mexican. Like, I don't know. It's not like I get to pay somebody to mow my lawn. Holy shit. This is the first time I'm a minority. Oh, no.

Three browns and white. Be the La Raza, am I right?

Yeah. Oh, man. So you were like, okay, going through that started opening up to your kiddos. Did you open up? When did you start talking about it? I'm assuming just with your friends, if you did speak about the incident. And then around the new friends, was it ever talked about? Yeah, so new friends is something that's like, you know, it's a weird space because like a...

I mean, like a lot of my friends weren't veterans and stuff like that. So I just didn't feel like, um, inclined to, you know, like a lot of my life, I would just lie. I just like, there's people in this world who believe like I was, I was a shark attack victim, motorcycle. I would just lie just to like avoid the, um, conversations for a long time. Yeah. I mean, because it's like, you know, it just makes it easier for not have to negotiate like,

all those emotions so it's just easier to lie i swear to god i've told people that you know for the longest time like um i always say whenever i was in the hospital i used to have an arm that i had um a shark on it and it put shark attack victims.org on it for real until until i know and and um and that that one that one um famous surfer came by the therapy center and all of the occupational therapists and physical therapists were like

Is it Soul Surfer? Yeah. They try to push her my way. It's like, you need to talk to this one guy. I see his arm. And I was like, I was so scared. So after that, I was like, no, they're a real shark attack victim. So you can't like, and I think one of them like hit me up on Instagram. Like there's an Australian shark attack victim. But so I stopped using that specific trope. Oh,

shark born IED yeah yeah because I used to tell people that it was just the funniest thing and she just comes up it's like her like the make a wish kind of thing she's like oh well what kind of shark were yours

Taliban. Middle Eastern sharks. I don't know. Middle Eastern sand shark. Like the Red Sea. I think there's sharks in the Red Sea somewhere or something like that. Did you just discover a new slur? Sand shark? Well, I was wounded in the water. Well, actually, all right. That's very funny. Yeah. It was just something that was a natural. Because I did have a fear of the water when I first got injured because I was drowning. Yeah, I was drowning for like,

What was like five minutes because they didn't know I was injured because I was a team leader and so everybody you know Everybody was like confused and my squad leader obviously got injured too. So everybody's confused so that Mexican arm I call that it's a it was an ode to Huitzilopochtli and Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec god of war and the Sun and so it's blue and so whenever I was wounded I was drowning and

All I could see was the Sun and it was so beautiful, you know in Afghanistan like or it's You're like some parts middle of the desert for me was all green So I would open my eyes and it was like super beautiful water and the Sun kept poking in my eyes And so I thought it was dreaming because it was so beautiful and like I think about that still to this day think about it the beauty of it and that the Sun kept flickering in my eyes and it wouldn't let me go to sleep and

And then I realized that I was drowning because I like I saw blood flow and, you know, I couldn't move my I didn't know I was missing my arm. So I was like trying to grab to try to, you know, stop drowning. But I was drowning for so long that I'm like, even after I got, you know, out of the surgeries and stuff like that, I was in the hospital for like three years after everything I

my therapist told me at the time that the things that I was scared of, I was scared of the water, but I couldn't even close my eyes in the shower because I was so scared of drowning. I had no idea that was a drowning thing until a therapist explained to me. I would get bloodshot eyes from not being able to close them in the shower because I was so scared of closing my eyes in the water. Just entirely subconscious or like? Yeah, I had no idea it was a thing until he brought it up. And I was like, yeah, I do get blood. My eyes will go bloodshot just from refusing to close them, just even in the shower.

But I was born in San Antonio, so I couldn't get close to the Riverwalk.

And water was a real big issue for me. And then I conquered it later. I did triathlons and stuff like that. Very specifically, the IED was a canal. Yeah, it was a canal. It was just wild by itself. Yeah, like these motherfuckers. I've never even heard of that. Yeah, same. They're so tricky. Because you were in Afghanistan, right? Iraq. Iraq. Okay, well, but you're like... I think that a lot of people... I'll take it as an insult when people... I've had people... I think sometimes trying to pay a compliment to Americans...

They'll insult the Taliban's fighting capacity. And I was like, no, don't do that. You take away from them how hard it was to fight them when you do that because they were so intelligent and complex ambushes. So they would put it in the water because they'll be like, we were dismounted everywhere and singing.

And so they would put them in the water because they're like, the Marines are not like these other guys. They will cross the worst possible terrain possible to avoid IEDs. So we would never take roads, never take open spaces. In theory, that's what you're trained to do.

And so they would submerge the IEDs in the water because they're like, these guys are going to cross and go in the worst possible terrain possible. So towards the end of the war, it was like the opposite. Go on roads because they learned from your little tricks of like, you know, just cutting through these cornfields and like going in and out of the canal in the worst possible area. And that's where they started to put the IEDs because, you know, like you wouldn't think that when I tell people that I was fully submerged in water when I got hit, they're like, you know, how?

And I'm like, oh, yeah, they're really, really tricky, not just with their IEDs but also like their tactics. Yeah, they're super – I just get a little bit insulted when people are like they're stupid, they're cowards. I was like, no, they defeated – I don't think they beat up – we killed 600 Taliban and they killed 30 of us. When you put the number, you just quantify it like that.

It's amazing what happens when you have no rules to fight with. Yeah, there's no... That's what people don't understand. We could have just destroyed, leveled that place. And I think that sometimes whenever I talk to people, especially internationally, they don't realize that the infantry exists because America is putting a human toll on the war. And it's like, we could just level these cities, but we didn't do that. We put men with kids...

And women with families on the lines so we could mitigate casualties instead of just dropping 500-pound bombs on there. Look at the difference between America going into Afghanistan versus when Russia went into Afghanistan. Yeah, there's just— You've got a massive, massive gap there. Yeah, we just don't do that anymore. And as you're saying, it is like to pay testament to that fighting force, Iraq, Afghanistan—

It's always that. It's like, what would you guys like the U S what would you do if you, you had to fight the U S military? There's nothing you can do. It's like, I assure you, they did quite fine with AKs and IEDs. They, they created what? 12, 12 trillion dollar war.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just because they had a case and that they didn't need air support. They didn't need any of that stuff. It's like, okay, we just use guerrilla tactics and yeah, their willingness. Like, cause like, I mean, my biggest thing is like, uh, dealing with the, the, the injured civilians, their willingness to put civilians like, um, in danger is something that it's like,

talking to some veterans from that area, still to this day, like, because we lost 111... There was 111 Royal Marines killed in Sengen before we got there and replaced them. And it was just like, you know, you're operating under... You know, we have Geneva, NATO has their own rules or whatever. And so people, like, don't realize, like, that's why we took so many casualties. If we were just willing to do the things they were willing to do, it would be, you know, way less casualties. And I think that, like, whenever I talk about, like...

if there's good guys and bad guys, it's like, obviously everybody's bad in war, but there is levels to, you know, like what they're willing to do versus what we're willing to do. It's not like we didn't have the capability. Yeah.

Yeah, we did. We had what they didn't have, which is restraint. Yeah, I think that that's something that I like, especially now that the Taliban has taken over. I think about that because Malala... He's experienced that with that. His business was based out. He was helping putting kids through, females through, little girls through schooling and all in Afghanistan with the combat flip-flops and then just...

Shut down instantly. Yeah, it's so sad. I remember I talked to a prosecutor a couple weeks ago, the Harris County DA, a DA for Houston, and she ran a foundation where she –

She took female legal experts and trained them as an American prosecutor about the law systems. So training them to be prosecutors in Afghanistan, women specifically. She's a FEMA DA, and she was so sad because when the Taliban took over, she was able to get one person out, one of her –

female prosecutors that she trained up but it's like people have no idea that they ripped them out of Congress they were elected congressional members you know ripped them out and then much less you know like two months ago they ripped them out of being able to leave home without a man and so just an idea like it made me so sad that's why I still talk

positively about like you know putting as much hurt on them as possible because people don't know what rights they took away from women and specifically like that DA hearing her talk about it and getting um

academics out because, you know, before they said they weren't going to take them out of Congress or whatever, but then they did. Then they took them out of being able to leave their houses without a male escort. The West has this natural inclination to assume that every culture across the planet is just like us. They're just like us, but slightly different. And they just, they really don't have any idea just how wide that gap can be. Ooh.

Eli! I'm a ghost. What are you doing? I'm here to tell you about Ghost Bag. Is this an ad? It might be an ad. Why are you in my bedroom? I don't know. Scoot over. Let's talk about it. Every ghost mattress has a 20-year warranty. Some even have a 25-year warranty. And you can try them out for 101 nights, worry-free. If you don't like it, just send it back. I don't like this. No hard feelings.

One of our favorite things about GhostBed is that it has cooling technology. So if you get hot at night like we do down here in Texas, it's a lifesaver. I'm uncomfortable. But you're not hot, are you? I'm uncomfortable. But you're not hot, are you? GhostBed also offers bundles so they have everything you need. Just choose one of their four mattresses and pick your bundle. Why are you doing this to me? Four mattresses! Four?

Right now, GhostBed is offering 50% off all their products. Just use code UNSUBSCRIBE at checkout or go to ghostbed.com slash unsubscribe. Please buy some ghostbed.com slash unsubscribe. I'll be under your bed if you need me.

It's the idea of not understanding what evil is. You have like, oh, someone like cut in line. That's their. To them, that's not even evil, though. It's normal. Like they don't have any other concept. Yeah. They're like, oh, well, this. But they can't conceptualize the idea of just like people over there will just kill you to kill you. And then it's just part of everyday life. Like the idea of human life having value. We understand that.

There are places that is not that is not a thing. They don't carry it It's like you have Brazil or some South American countries where it's like kill you just to steal an iPhone It's like a less educated GTA server. Yes Yeah, yeah, it is a little bit like that I mean it sucks but like I feel like um, I like I'll tell people like that America's got a lot of issues but one of the biggest things we have is like I in theory the rule of law is

And those laws tend to be way more liberal than other places. I love it here. I ain't switching. This is my – so you got blown up. You had a – how high was – I'm a transhuman amputee, so I'm above the elbow. I have a really – A trans – what was that? Transhuman. So like right at the delt. So one of the reasons that I think that I was so – I became such a big prosthetic advocate is because –

There's only – there's less than 400 combat-wounded upper extremity amputations from Iraq and Afghanistan total.

So, um, it's crazy. People don't realize because it's just too high of an injury. Yeah. Yeah. So people don't typically survive higher, higher because anytime you get closer to, um, the upper body, you get closer to the heart arteries in the neck. That's harder shit to survive. Yeah. Yeah. So anytime you get closer to the neck and heart, um, it's a lower survival rate. And then, um, even in even modern wars and, and in like the Ukraine, um,

They have a lot more amputees because they're at war in their country. They have hospitals and ambulances that can drive to and from there. They still have an issue with surviving high blasts and gunshots and stuff like that. But yeah, so I was above the elbow. And I think that's why I became such a big prosthetic advocate because a lot of people are below the elbow. There's hundreds below the elbow.

and a lot of them will use their elbow to do things. So you'll see them, like a lot of people bring up Leroy Petrie. He's missing his arm. He's missing his hand. And so they won't rely on their prosthetic so much because they'll use their elbow to do things. And so because I have such a high amputation, I have a useless limb because it's so short and it's so painful to do things with. So without a prosthetic, I'm kind of like...

Very disabled. Do you still find yourself like your natural inclination being to try to use the limb like forever? Phantom limb. Yeah, the phantom limb or for however high it is like to try like you naturally want to do that or is it just non-starter?

um i do i i i don't it's hard to tell if i've trained or not because since i was born with two arms i do think about i this arm has so many injuries i have a nerve injury on this side and i broke my wrist and i'm missing the outside two ligaments so i do oh shit force myself to because a lot of people uh specific questions that i'll get is like why i do things a certain way with weight lifting and shooting and um it's because i was like um

They think I'm like, why don't I just overuse this arm more? But I have to explain, like, you feel bad, like, explain all your injuries. And I'm like, actually, I'm missing out these two outside ligaments. So stabilizing things like shooting is not something that I can do. It's not, I can't out train that. I'm just missing the ligaments. And so this, I forced myself to use in part because the Marine Corps spent a lot of money on my recovery. So one, like the arms that, the other arm that I brought has this thing called targeted muscle reinnovation.

And so they grafted my ulnar and medial nerves, which are the nerves that control your hand open and close to my bicep and tricep heads.

So with that hand, I think hand open and close to open and close it. Yeah. So that made it so... Fucking wild to me. I thought it was more widely... I thought that surgery was more widely done until I got more into the prosthetic field and traveling. And I was like, oh, okay. So that's still a very rare surgery. At the time, it was experimental. But so I think hand open and close and it open and closes the hand. So it does make it... So I... It does feel like...

prosthetics aren't caught up to the level of, um, of the level of, um, advances of that surgery. It was kind of like, uh, in their reasoning was to future proof me, uh, for prosthetics. And so why do you think that is? Why do you think that hasn't caught up yet?

Um, well, it's, it's an expensive surgery. It's an expensive surgery. Um, I remember whenever I got it, all of these surgeons asked to be able to watch that surgery specifically so they could teach it. And, um, I think that one thing is survival and then, um, hospitals, uh, so less than, so less than 7% of amputees are upper extremity. And so that's, that would be specific to the trauma of losing an arm.

So most amputees are leg amputees. So that's like one of the reasons why people are like, why is his arm looks so different? There's just so many more leg amputees that you're like, you know, so many guys that are missing their legs. A lot of people. And it's like, I get this a lot. It's like, why is your arm metal? And I was like, well, you don't ask that to leg people because all legs are metal because they're all to that level where they can be used in the Paralympics and they're all tough. And so it's just that legs are more finished products.

So it's just that surgery is so niche that it's like I remember talking about it in Ukraine and they have, you know, 10 times more amputees than we have from Iraq and Afghanistan. And that's just because they have higher survival survivability because they learned from us the tourniquet thing that happened halfway through the war. That and they're more on like level pure warfare. Yeah. They have, you know, quick access to hospitals. They're literally, you know, ambulatory as in driving them to the, you know, I was like,

Just the casualty count, though, per day is wild for that war. I don't think people realize just how big of a deal that was. People kind of knew in the beginning, but then they forgot. But the amount of casualties in the Ukraine-Russian wars is crazy high compared to even the GWAT. Yeah, that's what I would say. A lot of people don't know that, and I didn't know that until I got there. I went there specifically with the Protest Foundation.

to talk about this arm because they wanted to be able to use it to fucking fight the Russians. And I thought it was like, I kind of like a sitting joke was like, cause everybody calls me the winter soldier. And I was like, the, the Mexican winter soldier. And I was like, let me go to the Ukraine just to fucking rub it in. Um, but I, I talking about that. Yeah. I was like, they, they have,

thousands of army amputees, which is why I went there and I'm like, there's so much technology that's going to come out of that war. I mean, there already is. Yeah. To a scary degree. The companies that are coming out of there, there's a couple of advanced prosthetic companies that I got to visit there. One of them is Esper. I'll always talk about them because they make a metal hand.

And they're barely getting available in the U.S. But, yeah, they have so many more amputees that I think that a lot of the prosthetic technology advancements will come out of there, unfortunately, if Americans don't do it. Just because, you know, it's a lot of... Necessity. Yeah, just necessity. It's just necessity. Getting that. Oh, Cody, you have a question? No. Oh, okay. No, I'm just enthralled by all of this. I'm just listening. It's wild. So with your...

You, as you're saying, upper limbs are a lot rarer to survive or during the GWAT. And you got, I assume, super lucky for the blast to close the wound and then they tourniqueted it right after. Well, no. I began to put my own tourniquet on. Dude, it was terrible. You know what's so funny? It's that training. You're like, oh, that's what's in my fucking eyes. My boys later on were like, my boy, my saw gunner was like, he was like, it's insane because you crawled up this canal and you were just bleeding out. And he started yelling at us to...

Get on the line and lay down, cover fire. And I was thinking to myself, that's stuff that I don't remember. I weigh like 200 pounds now. I think I weighed like 189 at the time. And when they measured me, I weighed 165. I lost so much blood. And I was thinking to myself, I felt so weak and so cold.

And I was like, you know, you don't remember until years later, like, things. And, you know, you piece together what happened from different people. And he was like, yeah, man, you were yelling at us. They're like, you're missing your arm. You think you're still going to be in charge of us? And I remember, like, an award coming up later in the Marine Corps about that. And I was like, that's so badass. I don't even remember that. But I do think I would be yelling at you guys. Like, get on the phone.

You do push-ups. What the fuck, sorry. You're like in and out of consciousness. You're still a dickhead, dude. Yeah, I was like, I can't believe you were yelling at us. And I was like, we thought you were going to die. They're like emotional, crying. And I like, you know, thinking, they're thinking I'm going to die. And I'm like yelling at them. So it's like an emotional. That's wild. Yeah, an emotional thing that I, it's funny like thinking about that. Dude, I was with a guy the other day who was a singing veteran who's, um.

who's a marine who's like in holl trying to get into hollywood he's in film school right now but he does like cinematography and stuff like that out in california and we were talking about like all these crazy little things little moments like that but um but i was thinking about him because like um now i was like okay they thought i was gonna die that's why they were treating me that way they they were like what are you doing giving us orders still and but i remember like i was like i don't know if i'm ever gonna tell this story

But since I was a team leader, I had two or threes on my leg. And I'm lucky that they didn't blow up because people say that they need like 12.7 whatever rotations not to blow up. But we did lose people. That's only to arm.

to arm. Yeah, to arm. There's still a motherfucking explosive. There's still gunpowder in there. You're like more knowledgeable in that kind of stuff. Because I've heard that, but we did lose Marines to team leaders to them blowing up. Because you just need an explosive that is violent enough to set off the explosive that's inside it. Because that really, it can daisy chain.

Yeah, so we did lose people from that. And because people said at first that wasn't a risk, but then we lost people from them getting hit, unfortunately, and them going off because the IED was big enough for that. But on all my two or three rounds, I had a different Ninja Turtle on every one of them. And whenever I got injured, I had Leo in the chamber.

And it's my son. I remember another team leader came up, Baxter. He came up to me and I was bleeding out. And I was like, you're trying to treat for shock. So I was thinking, how can I calm him down? Like,

you know, because he's thinking I'm going to die. If I'm going to die, I don't want him to die. Oh, you're actually calming him down. Yeah, yeah. Everybody thinks, you know, when you're a team leader, everybody thinks you're invincible. And so I remember telling him like, hey man, like you just got to kill somebody with Leo because I got Leo in the chamber. And he's like, okay, okay, man. I was like, I love you. And he was like, I'll kill somebody with Leo. And I just remember like later on asking him about that. And he was like mentally disturbed by that question because it was a very rough question.

it was like yeah i did it's the darkest day of his life he's like what did i do and you're like kill somebody with leo he's like i think he has lost his mind now that guy has never watched teenage youth ninja turtles to this day yeah he's like no i remember thinking about that like whenever they got back you know he was like bringing that up and he was like so it was such a horrible deployment for them that i was just thinking like just to you know try to take them out of the darkness

I love it. That's how we survive a lot of the times. I mean, depending on your job, your occupation. But we always talk about Gallo's humor. And that's even in the midst of it, it happens. Like you're in full combat. Your arms blown off and you're still yelling at your dudes. You're telling them to use Leonardo to kill somebody. It's just the perfect example of how we survive.

Bro, don't put the tourniquet on my neck. Dude, I've had that happen. Are you fucking serious? So it's Jordan. You got shot so high up with an AK and they roll after a certain amount. So eventually he had to lose his leg from the round. Because people were like, well, you're an IED. He's like, no, you got shot in the leg. But I remember his...

Um, that he got one of his balls in the tourniquet. Got shot so high up and it just, and it's just like, you have to go as high as possible when it's, when it's above the thigh, when it's above the knee. And it was really, because it's like, they're going to bleed out. Yeah. And so that's what you're told to do. Yeah. You have to do it. And it's something that it's just like, ah, fuck it's, it sucks to be in that situation. But like now, now it's a joke at the time. It wasn't a joke. No, it's.

- That's just like, I would, that's like you're rushing him and you're trying to protect your body.

Yeah, that's so weird. You're like sliding that ball out of the way. You're like, you'll thank me later. Dude, yeah. There's some dark... Every time I hear a different story about that, I'm like, oh, man. That's good because there is good versions of that and there's bad versions of that where people are able to still use humor. And then there's the opposite where people panicked and people died because people will die from the shock. So it is... That humor does save lives because like...

I've run into guys where they're screaming when somebody gets hit and then somebody's missing their legs and then you're going to literally put them into shock. You know what I mean? Because you're supposed to be calm and we've had people scream. But yeah, I remember the other day I was doing this thing in Maine

When you guys hit me up, I was at some cabin writing a country song, and this guy was telling me about one of his guys had that situation happen, and he lost one ball. And one of the guys ran up and was talking about, like, oh, he lost a ball. And you're like, dude, and this guy is a nurse now, and I was just like, man, what a piece of shit that he would tell him that while he's still getting Kaz back. Because that's the first thing guys still look for. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't tell him. Yeah, it's my dick there. Yeah, and then so he did have that injury, and the guy was like – and so the other guy eventually became a nurse. He was with the 101st. Oh, okay. And he was in the clearing at Iraq and talking about how this guy came up and was screaming in panic, like, oh, man, your balls. And it's like –

And so the guy lied and was like, no, you're good. You're going to be good, bro. You're all intact and stuff like that. You have to lie. You literally are like, man, you look great. You're doing great. Hey, just say with me, hey, let's keep you awake. You're doing good. You're fine. You're fine, dude. You cannot show any emotion in that situation because you want to keep them as calm as possible to keep blood flow down. Which is –

which is kind of funny because I like anytime when you have, uh, like if I was to get fucked up tomorrow on range day, let's just say, um, I've heard people say this before. We're like, this has happened to them. We're like, if, if Cody's around me or Eli's around me, they're like, you're good, bro. You're good. Like everything's going to be fine. You're good. Just like, let's get the fucking truck here now. Like you're fine, man. You're fine. If you guys started telling me I'm fine, I'm, I'm terrified. Like Brandon,

God, you're so stupid. Just hold on. Cody, he is fucked. If you guys started telling me how good I was doing, I'm losing it, dude. I love you. Oh, no. Oh, no. Gentle forehead kiss. I love you, buddy.

Cody brings out a cross. Where did that come from? No, no, no, no. It's funny with the dark humor element of that too. Cause I've had people that like, we'll make, they'll, they'll be irritated with the jokes that we make on the podcast. And it's like, you've never met a veteran. Have you? Yeah. You don't.

People have dark... Yeah, I think that the darkness... Yeah, that changed so much, obviously, because of the military. And now I feel like I relate more to people who are into anime and stuff like that. Because you don't have that light... Because I think about...

All my idols, it's very hard to relate to people because you're like, man, if I would have been in that place, I would have died. You know what I mean? We're talking about Marcus Aurelius and some of his quotes, and I changed some of his quotes thinking about it. I was like, because even in Vietnam, I would have died. And so you look at anime characters, and you're like, oh, man, these are these people that maybe they weren't real, but they created this violent story that's easier to relate to. Oh, you're good. How's it moving?

You know, sometimes it's easier to communicate in those kind of terms because it's like, you know, and if I was a Spartan, I would have fucking died. You know, so I'm lucky to be alive in 2024 because, you know, the advancements of medical technology and stuff like that because – Those chances of your – I mean DNA literally making up to that moment –

They've got all your family members up to that probably did war or something. And then you're the one that survives. Yes. You get blown up, but you're like, okay. At that moment with technology. Yeah. Your DNA has made it millions of years to be able to get to the point where you could survive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude did not. And like now, like as a dad, I think about it, like,

holistically like that where I'm like, uh, or macro, I'll cause my dad was army special forces and he was, uh, he was, um, in Panama, Vietnam, desert storm. Yeah. Um, and yeah, yeah. So he, he served with first, seventh and third group. And, um, he actually served with master and benefit is, uh,

and um it's fucking just the hana warrior but i was like he was such he was more beast he was way more decorated than me and i think about like how tough i was um that i'm like a little bit religiously i think about it like um god took care of me and that i was able to survive that because um me and my boys have even talked about it like i don't know if anybody else would have been able to survive that because i saved myself everybody was like um

you know, who saved you or whatever. I was like, I crawled out of the canal on myself. I lost so much blood. They didn't know I was wounded cause I was in the front. And, um, so yeah, unfortunately the person, my squad leader passed away because, uh, you know, they didn't recognize that he was hurt. Uh, we were both in the front. And so I think about how tough my dad was getting all through all these fucking wars unscathed and, um, you know, all the training that he spent, you know, years, he spent 20 years in the army, uh,

for me to be able to get to where I am. Okay, so some of that is just grit from, you know, my fucking family having hard lives for years. When Cody started his crazy business of podcasting, you know what? He didn't think about merchandise, but now he's selling what? Merch. And it couldn't

Be easier. All because of Shopify. If you've shopped on BunkerBranding.com, you've used Shopify. Shopify is a global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage to the first real life store stage. All the way to the did we just hit a million orders.

Once you start selling Shopify makes getting paid simple by instantly accept

in every type of payment. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers using the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort. Thanks to Shopify magic. Your AI powered all-star. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the United States and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen.

My favorite companies. What is that? No clue, but they also power millions of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash UnsubPod.

All lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash unsubpod now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Go to shopify.com slash unsubpod. It paid off, and now you're adjusting to it. It probably took years to get to that adjustment period because depending, everyone handles trauma differently. I know all of us have our own demons and how we handle that, and it's PTSD either from military or from policing. Like, it just...

how you learn to cope with stuff. I, I got lucky. Uh, how I cope with it is I don't have as much emotional response to things, but then I watched my buddies that did the exact same deployment. I see how that affected. I'm like, Holy shit. But you, you like, Hey Cody, even Cody, like stuff you've done. No, we like, I talk about like, um, now, uh, after you're like, man, there's so many more combat veterans from, uh, from, from being cops than there is from combat. Um,

And so like I didn't know that until, you know, like working with some organizations and then family, like, you know, one of my cousins, one of my primos in Houston, you know, he's a SWAT. And now he's not SWAT. Thank God he got out of it. But he was SWAT. And his first call was – he was a sniper. His first call was responding to Santa Fe. And my little sister was at that school too. And his very first call was –

My sister was like a sister to him because they lived together because, you know, we're really poor. And so he's my cousin. And his first call was responding to her mass shooting. And it was just like, you know, I don't know if you remember Santa Fe, but it was like 10 shooters. And that was his very first call as a SWAT officer. And, like, that's an insane amount of trauma to be able to deal with that. As your first call, your sister's school is, you know –

did he stick with it after that yeah he stuck with it for like you know i think like seven more years eventually he got out he just had a daughter and he's like unfortunately i think that it's like most of you guys like swat tends to be too too same thing with the military there's just um it's too hard physically uh it's just too hard physically i think and the smartest people don't want to stay in they want to get out and be successful on the civilian side so it's just like he stayed with it after that but um

There was a, yeah, I think that we're lucky because a lot of those people don't want to stay in because physically, if you take it seriously, it's very hard. It's harder than the majority of military because the training physical physically side is, is, is like being in the infantry. And, and mentally, this is not the thing that like we, we talk about like, or we've, when we get together, the last thing we talk about is, you know, fucking drama or anything like that. But something I've always heard is, uh,

When you're talking about policing or SWAT or whatnot, the thing that fucks you up the most is that you're thrown into high adrenaline situations, high stress environments that are highly traumatic to most people. But it's not in the context of you are 5,000 miles from home. You are in your county you live in. So you lose that safety net. Cody can probably talk more on that. I know.

It's that unknown, the hypervigilance, and then walking up to each car and you don't know. It's the unknown versus like when we were there, it's back.

bad guys we're like yes vacation vacation you're like I'm gonna go fight the bad guys versus like and I act like because of dealing with people all my family in Texas that another one's police officer in Houston talking about it where it's like that's your neighborhood it's like yeah so you get home from a deployment and you're three blocks away yeah from where the weird thing happened yeah that was your biggest thing with it like policing what was like that what was the most

What was the hardest part about that transition going from like, hey, this is like the bad shit to right back home with your kiddo? Well, I mean, you know, you would go out and you would catch some fucking child or someone who committed a murder. And then, you know, I'd go downtown with John to a restaurant and I'd see that same motherfucker in the restaurant. After Bell. Yeah. Like I'm with my kids and my girlfriend and like.

Oh, that dude's just sitting over there. That guy that I arrested for last week or that guy that I arrested for attempted murder, some DA let him out on the streets and they're standing there looking at me and I'm looking at them and I have John beside me. It's like, yeah, it's, it's home. That's the craziest part about it too, is just thinking that like, Oh, this is not just like thinking how many people haven't been caught for this. How many people have been caught and just made bail and are just out walking amongst you? Yep. Like,

yeah i could i think that's why the attrition is so high for for for for cops and especially swat is really physical so it's like you see it when they want to get out of it because it's like you're just getting the worst calls and it's just it's just fucking terrible what was uh like i don't go down the line actually it's like what was your biggest thing where you that helped you the most and breaking that

This is a lot of what this is. We're going to talk about this before. This is like an entire month of veteran. We wanted to make November big on veteran months. Just like, Hey, we're going to do good. We're raising money for nonprofits, like kicking ass and giving back to the communities that give us so much. And all you all thankfully have done so much for it. So we're just,

That's that's part of this month. It's hearing these amazing stories and then also hopefully helping others. It's like, man, I didn't have a way to cope, but hearing from Cody on how he coped or hearing from Sebastian on how he go, that helped me push through. Cause at the end of the day, we do, we care about all y'all more than you will ever fucking know. Like we are blessed to have, to be in the positions we are and to be put on that level, which we're terrified from because we don't want to fail y'all. But, uh,

we try our hardest to give back, especially during like months like this. It's like, Hey fucking, we thank you. And then you get to hear our stories and hopefully we can help some of you. It's one of the things that I hear most about on sub, which I think is awesome. Cause there's a lot of people that like, you know, they, they come home,

And then they feel they try to reintegrate back in society and nobody understands their sense of humor. Nobody understands what they've been through. Nobody even attempts to get where they're coming from. And then they just feel isolated, which I think that that's rad that unsubscribe has kind of filled a hole in that world where it's like, hey, this is like hanging out with the boys again. We're good at filling holes.

I'd say we're okay at filling holes. We're okay at filling holes. Damn Skippy. What was some of your like, hey, what was that big thing that helped you the most during, like when you were transitioning out of being a police officer? You're like, okay, this is too much. You still have your PTSD, but what was that shift for you that was like, oh, this helps me at least calm my nerves or anything? Video games. Come on.

Oh, yeah, never mind. Yeah, you're like, that's your decompression, which is... I think it's, like, most of our decompression. Gallows humor is the start to that, and then finding video games that have gallows humor in them, which, you know, Hollywood making video games these days is gay as shit. But, like, you know, video games always is, like, such a great transition to, like...

I don't know, just find a good headspace and get away from the world for a moment. Yeah. Come home after seeing Baby on the Highway, catapulted out the window and spaghettied all over the road. Come home, just play some Minecraft. I just see you coming home from a very traumatic day, a fucking Spartanburg PD. You're just like, huh, if I kill the hooker in GTA afterward, I get my money back. Yeah.

Just going home or walking up to a scene, you have Minecraft music playing in your head. Like, I'll make the best of this. John's like, Dad, what happened to nothing? Do you want to play Minecraft? Dude, that's rough. What about...

Um, no, you, you made me like, uh, uh, specifically, um, wanted to mention, uh, an organization, creative vets. I just, the people I wrote that, uh, we wrote a song dedicated to my unit dark horse. Um, creative vets. Yeah. Creative vets. They, they actually, um, they're, they're, they're huge fans of you. I remember when I told them that I was going on this podcast, they were so excited because they, uh, they wrote, they wrote in a lot of famous country music songs. Uh, my people, John and Heidi, uh,

Like, you know, for Libris, Craig Wood, like Lonely Eyes is one of the songs they wrote. But they help. And it was funny because like, you'll get this. I remember I got hit up by them through a Wounded Warrior project, hit me up on DMs. And I remember just seeing the thing. And I'm having so many issues, get prosthetics from the VA that I just told them to fuck off. They were like, for me to help, you want to come write a country music song with somebody? And I was like...

Like, I just think like, this is like a billion dollar organization. I, you know, uh, probably be helping people get prosthetics and stuff like that. Cause that's what people think they do. And I remember I was like, nah, fuck you guys. Like, I don't, I don't like, I don't want to give y'all any credence to what you do or whatever. And then this guy comes up to me in Nashville and he's a Marine veteran, purple heart recipient in Nashville. And, um, asks me about, uh, you know, helping write a song, um,

to just like to tell my story and my song was Dark Horse but it was about my unit just named it my unit but it was about you know my son my dad my dad's journey because like I think my dad had demons from I mean he had way more combat than me

And like that, I really love the idea of like creative it. So they take veterans, Vietnam veterans and parts first responders and they get them with people to tell their stories. And I thought that was so cool because like typically in that space, it's like if somebody is asking to do something, especially with veterans or first responders, it's like –

a fucking ruck or like a Spartan or something like that and that's good physically to an extent but like a lot of those people are getting out of the military or whatever you know because they so much wear and tear on their body so it's like they're not you know they're not thrilled welcome okay we're gonna pop fireworks next to your head for 20 hours yeah it's like ah

Yeah. I've heard some of those complaints where it's like, uh, it's from friends of mine and things like that where they're like, Oh yeah. Uh, my, uh, whoever's in charge of me has decided to do a, uh, a veteran's awareness run where we're now forced to go run three miles in the morning to, to prevent veterans.

It's like, you could have just let me sleep in. I mean, it's for real. Because I don't want it. It's like, how does that... And to me, that was really cool. They have an arts program where they teach people art and they teach them how to write songs and in theater, like screenplays and stuff like that. I was like, that's so unique versus...

It takes you to a mental space. I think that getting into the mental space is so much different than... I think a lot of people do respond to the physical stuff. My cousin that was SWAT, he still does...

He's big into CrossFit and stuff like that. But I think that that's just because he's so young and he's still in the mentality of the fear of having to protect his family. And I have that too. You know what I mean? I do train a lot, mostly probably because I'm disabled. But I think that I thought it was really cool, creative. It's founded by a Marine Purple Heart recipient, Fallujah veteran.

And I was like, and he looked like you, just a really good looking guy, big, strong. And I was like, oh man. Go on. Trying to take Eli home, dude? Just, you know, unsuspecting. You wouldn't know this guy's, you know, you wouldn't, he's not, to me, I have the benefit of having a fucking metal arm. I said that

in a speech to somebody and somebody responded to that where I was like, there's a lot of veterans that don't have a metal arm. You don't look like the winter soldier. So people see my trauma and that works against me a lot. Like, cause that means that people are weirdos with me and they always try to take me to like the worst day of my life. But like, you know, guys like that, that are just going through the struggles and not having that, that thing that, you know, tells people, you know, what they went through or whatever. So I thought it was really cool that he created that space where, you know, part of the reason

partners people with country music, especially from I'm from Texas, you know, I was born in San Antonio and I thought it was so cool that I was like, man, I danced to these songs so many fucking times. Um, and for these people to come out and it was in Maine. And that's why I was like, whenever y'all hit me up, I was there and, you know, in the middle of nowhere writing a song. And, um, and I thought it was so cool, a unique take on, um,

getting veteran stories and they're big into Vietnam veterans, which is so cool to me because my dad, you know, didn't get to tell a story because he was like, he's just super quiet. Didn't even, I wouldn't know until I, until I was in the Marine Corps, I didn't know how decorated he was until I was like, oh shit. You've seen that stack. He did all that shit.

And I'm like, oh man, I feel like such an idiot now. You have three? You're like, yeah, look at me. I'm like, I had no idea. You completed the tutorial. Yeah. Yeah, so you're like, I think that's really cool out there because a lot of civilians forget about that war and he was drafted.

and so it's just i thought it was cool one of their focus was that's what's crazy like that idea of getting drafted that's voluntold you're in the military and then going special forces afterwards a lot of the guys i mean you you were like probably i was like a marine i want to shoot shit like all of us had that image of what we want to do in war that is a time when it was like hey bud

You're doing this like you have no if answer buts about it and then to be like I'm gonna join the Green Berets I'm gonna make team Wild yeah, it's like talking to some of the guys that served with them later on I was like I was like oh like a lot of it had to do with Panama and The groups wanting to recruit people who spoke Spanish because he's I'm from the valley I'm from like five minutes from the border and he's from the valley so he spoke Spanish and he looked like he was from the fucking jungle and

And, um, so I just learning from that, I was like, oh, like seventh group had a, had a big Mexican influence just because of the wars in Latin America. And I didn't know that until later on people teaching me that, you know, cause he was, he was an instructor at the JFK, uh, JFK special warfare school for a little bit. And like a lot of those people don't know that that history is not taught like you it's, it's, it's only taught in that school specifically, uh,

And so if you don't have access to that, you don't get any really, it's not taught in American history, which sucks because even if it's a little bit dark, I do think that it would be cool for people to learn about all those kinds of like jungle wars and that kind of shit. But, um, yeah. So it was like when I tell people that, like, I was like, yeah, man, it's crazy how much more.

obviously like trained he was in me and stuff like that but um so many of those guys got pulled there you know what i mean and uh in the army because uh because the marine corps wasn't really drafting people the same way that the army was and then a lot of them stayed in and they're just like oh fuck i love to fight you know what i mean they're like i had jungle like this is like where i grew up you know so it's um it i i love hearing those cool stories of like um

Where people came from specifically for those Latin American wars because it was like something that it was like I like thinking about it now and

having traveling abroad where i'm like oh america's got this like really cool diverse military where you go somewhere other places and it's like they all look like one thing and i'm like this is why we're so much better than everybody else because we have people that can do well i fucking did well in the desert i'm from the valley it's nowhere there's nowhere hotter in the world than there is in south texas like everywhere like how do you do so well in fucking afghan the jungle and i'm like man where i'm from it's like way hotter than this you

Meanwhile, you got a guy from Arizona, Florida, Alaska, Maine, Nevada, like everybody in one group. You got these mountain men, you got these Vikings, and you got these people that, you know, it's crazy thinking about it now. One or two Florida guys, you know. Yeah, some swamp motherfuckers. And it's forced together and to work together, which is wild too. You don't have much options on your teammates. They're your teammates for better or worse, and they're going to be deploying with you. God damn.

That's crazy. Did you notice he's wearing a Berserk shirt? Oh, dude, I wrote this for him because last time I met him... You know what...

The time that Eli didn't remember, go on. Well, I had a blue arm. I had a blue arm. That's right. I don't see skin color. I see arm color. That's not better, Eli. Well, you mentioned that you're such a huge fan, and I was like, all of the – now I know because of TikTok and YouTube, I know all of the animes that people have robotic arms on.

And for a long time, I didn't like Berserk because it was too dark. But then going through shit worse and worse, and I was like, man, it's hard for me to relate to happier, unfortunately, happier animes. And you're like, man, because my situation, fighting the VA has been such a big part of my life. And then getting prosthetics. And this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't doing crazy shit, breaking all these.

prosthetics and then like you know just get into a situation and now I feel like I relate even more to like the darker anime is did you just say that fighting the VA made berserk tolerable by comparison like because they're the apostles that's right the VA is the apostles they fucking suck they're evil and our boy guts

You're like, wow, I thought that this was super dark. And then I started dealing with the VA and realized it's really not so bad. No, man. I feel bad. Because I feel bad telling my story sometimes as an American. Don't. I've told it so many times abroad. And you're like, because working for prosthetic companies in Germany and working with all of these...

Brits and Spaniards and Ukrainians and Germans. And you're like, you talk about how hard it is to get prosthetics from the VA system. And they're like, that's crazy. Like we have this conception of how people are treated. And I'm like, yeah, like sometimes I feel embarrassed to talk about it. But then, you know, like I think if I didn't talk about it, like China, big.

spotlight on that shit like we all like everyone that's why like brandon one of the biggest things he was when he was having his congress run it was about the va like you you were like dude why the fuck is this so jacked up

All alone? Time to trim the old pubes. Hey there, beach babe! Are you ready to soak up those summer vibes and get the perfect beach bod? I don't have pants on. Yeah, I noticed. Well, you're in luck, because our friends over at Manscaped.com have you covered from head to toe. With the Performance Package 5.0 Ultra, they'll have you looking and feeling good this summer.

Save.

Keep your ear and nose as tidy as your hedges. With the Weed Whacker 2.0 Ear and Nose Head Trimmer, you'll be looking classy as ever. The updated Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra Groin and Body Hair Trimmer got a summer makeover. It's waterproof now. For all those times you need to shave your groin or body hair at a pool party. So get 20% off plus free shipping using code ONSUM at manscaped.com. The summer sun is here to stay, so trust Manscaped to keep those pubes at bay.

I didn't know, especially having a veteran congressman in this district, I didn't realize...

how neglected veterans were in, in, you know, West Texas. It's, it's embarrassing. It makes me, it's embarrassing. And then it's in the Texas cause you're as a, as a Texan, you know, it's a really weird because you're like, I have so much support in Texas, just not from the people that are paid to do it. And like, um, when I told people like I spent years in between like that, that I have a leather harness that I made and I spent years in between getting appointments for the prosthetics and

And I never felt so scared until I became a dad that I was like, I really need prosthetics because being able to change diapers, bathe my son, I never had that fear of being disabled until I became a dad where I was like, man, I really have to figure this out because my son doesn't really care. He doesn't know I'm disabled. He doesn't know that I can't do certain things. He's two, and he can already do things better than me, especially when I don't wear my prosthetic.

And so it comes from like a – being a Texan, it's weird because like this arm was made because one Texan who's like – I call him Tony Stark because he's a fucking millionaire. George Schroeder. He's famous in San Antonio. If you've been outside to like Randolph and Lackland or downtown San Antonio, he made all of the metal structures. Or Houston, he made metal structures for Synergy. Obviously, he's done work for SpaceX. Wild.

But yeah, he wants to ever be on. Yeah, dude. I like, he's a, he's not even in Texas right now. Like I, he just, dude, this guy, I'll tell the story. Um, right before I went to the Ukraine, um,

I broke this arm boxing and yeah, to lay into the veteran thing. I had a, wait, hold the fuck on. Just don't grease over boxing. Who are you? I mean, you both looked up like, hold on. What guys? A car. Don't worry. It's a 10 ounce glove. It's still metal behind it. It's a, it's a guy. I think people like why I trained so much. I was like where I grew up. Like I got, you know, and this is something that I like, I take with me now that I'm like, Oh, it's kind of a weird thing. I grew up in a, in a, in a, in, in,

in the valley. So to non-Texans, it's like five minutes from the border and I got jumped so many times that people think I have PTSD from the Marine Corps and I was like, no, no, no. That comes from growing up in the valley where I have this thing where I can't let people behind me and just always have an awareness, a situation of awareness is because I got jumped so many times.

And so that played really well into the Marine Corps. And people didn't know that about me in the Marine Corps, but I was just like where I got that from. And so I was having that mentality to train, especially being disabled. I never felt so disabled until I got into a couple of situations where I was like, man, people could like if they wanted to, especially without a prosthetic, really hurt me, like just holding my arm. And so after getting injured, I always wanted to train with whatever prosthetics that I had.

And so, but I do box with this arm and, um, you know, that's why one of the reasons it's so popular is because, um, nobody has prosthetics that you can fucking box with, shoot with or whatever arms because they're so, they're so fragile typically. But I did break this one part that he didn't make. So it was a sense of pride of, of him that I broke it through

Three days before I went to the Ukraine because he made this part. He came in, and I love telling this story. I told him last week because he made this other part right here right before he left to fucking, I think, Minnesota or Michigan or something. What's that part do? There's a steel roller right here, and it's where the cable rolls.

But he hand-lathed that. I remember one of his workers was like, did you just CNC that shit? And he's like, no, I actually just hand-lathed that. And I was like, that's his dedication. Because he has all these people that work for him now. He's building it for you. Yeah. I would love to talk to this.

Yeah, George Schroeder he's like I'm so I cuz you're you're you're from Texas like I got to talk about it at the Grand Ole Opry You know the Grand Ole Opry is it's like a it's like a country music place in Nashville. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Ole Opry in Nashville Yeah, next year if we're playing we're doing that dude. That would be I I got to talk about this on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry And I was like talking about how bad it was, you know getting unfortunately

The VA issues are why I got this because I had trouble getting prosthetics. He heard my story and was like, I bet you I can build you something better than you've ever had before. And I did get to talk about it. So now, having traveled to talk about it, I climbed Kilimanjaro with this. And ironically –

Yeah, dude. You can't just drop shit like that. I feel like a lazy piece of shit. This is why I love individuals like you. If you make an excuse, it's like, well, I'm just tired. I get winded easy. Homeboys just drop the bomb of I climb killing Majara. So this part specifically, everybody else...

What these things were for, this was put on there for ropes because I was like, like you, Brandon was asking about how much I use this. This arm is so injured that I get scared to overuse it because it'll wear out if I use it too much. So here's where I put the ropes. And I told him, before I went to Kilimanjaro, I told him, if you build me this, I'm going to let you know right now. I'm going to...

Put my life on the line. No, I told him, I was like, I'm going to rely on it. So like whatever you do, like just no pressure, but I will rely on it to the point where I'll put ropes around it and trust my life with it. So I put the ropes here around here and this is steel. And so people are like, why? Cause there's like fallout and people have said that it looks like the armor from fallout. Oh, it looks like the, what's the suits? The,

Power armors. Yeah. And I was like, that was specifically for Kilimanjaro. But it's so funny because some of the scratches I have from here are from the obsidian on Kilimanjaro. And that shit cut right through. Oh, yeah. Obsidian. Yeah. It cuts right through that. But this part was specifically for mountain climbing. So I could put the ropes here. So I could pull. Because I'm so strong in this side. That's where I would put the ropes. But that was one of the first things that I did was...

I brought multiple prosthetics and I broke my bionic prosthetic like the first day because it was raining. And I didn't even think about the fact that I tried to make it, modify it to be rainproof. But the bionics, they're not remotely waterproof. And so I broke it. I had it on my pack and I fucking and I left it there at the base camp because I broke it. And I was like, oh, man, I can't believe I broke it the first day. And so but I had this arm and I didn't know it was gonna be so tough. And I finished the I finished them.

Kilimanjaro with it and I feel bad sometimes talking about Kilimanjaro because we did lose half of our team like half the team didn't make it and like didn't make it to the top or die yeah no no no no no okay Jesus Christ I was like this is a completely different story dude who the fuck are you climbing with no we had a couple amputees uh this was with the organization that um

that, uh, um, they, um, they, they help first responders specifically like, um, law enforcement and firefighters and, uh, and military. And they'll take them on, on trips like that. And, um, but, but, you know, like, you know, whenever you do things like that, it is to each their own, like how much training you do. And, uh, and obviously it wouldn't be a challenge if people weren't able to, you know, if it wasn't difficult, people would, you know, do it. So we had a double amputee that he didn't finish. And then we had, uh, uh,

Noah Galloway. He's a famous... He was on Dance With The Stars. He didn't make it. And it sucks because it was just the prosthetic limitations. And... That's what's crazy. He had an experimental knee. He had an experimental knee that auto-boxed into him. Oh, he was above. Above the knee. Yeah. Which is crazy. And they're just now refining that shit. Yeah. Dude, it's crazy. Like, the...

How recent bone into the, like the titanium. Yeah. Austin integration. Derek. Yeah, dude. Those are some of the, Derek's one of the first ones. I think crispy. I don't know if Chris, no crispy doesn't have it, but I remember talking to these guys and this is as of the last five years, they're the first ones having this integrated into their bones. Like Derek show was super experimental. That was terrible.

Yeah, people ask me about that all the time. And I'm like, no, I'm too young and too active because I know so many of – it's such a small niche community that I was like it wasn't worth the risk. Because I already had so many experimental surgeries that I was like I do have a really short amputation. So that's why they asked me because they're like I know you can barely use prosthetics because your amputation is so high. But I was like I spent such a long time in the hospital that I was like I just want to move on with my life.

And I know he's had a lot of issues with it too. And it sucks, but that's the people making progress. They're trying because, yeah, it's like there's nowhere else to test it. Dude, like here in Texas, like that's what I'm so proud of this and some of the stuff that I've been able to do with it. Like I went to the Ukraine to talk about it because all their soldiers were hitting me up.

On YouTube and TikTok about it. And like, because people, I remember Logan brought up to me Neuralink. And I was like, nah, like before Tesla, because Tesla started getting into the prosthetic space like two months ago. So before they just jumped into it, I actually moved to Austin specifically for prosthetics.

I was like, man, because it sucked. If I would have realized earlier such a part of my life was going to be about prosthetics, I would have done things differently. Because at first I was like, if I get into prosthetics because people wanted me to get into prosthetics, I was like, I won't really have recovered because then so much of my life will be dedicated to the injury. And then because of where legs were, I really thought –

that arms would be that same thing, you know, like plug and play. A lot of legs are so tough that people are not special forces were the first people to, to get the best legs. Um, auto Bach made them. And that was, I was telling Brandon before we started about, um, the best leg was actually from a company that I worked with before. I still have, I still, you know, have really, really, they hired me and I worked for them in Berlin for a proximity campaign and, uh, for, for just, um, consultation, um,

And the best knee in the world is metal and it's made by them, but it was made through DARPA as a program with DARPA. And so people are like, where did this super advanced knee come from? And it's referenced a lot because we compare this to that. Well, the crazy part is what you told me before that or while we were talking about it was why they developed it.

Yeah, so there was like three guys. You probably know them. I think one of them was Nick. He messaged me on Instagram. It was specifically for Special Forces to return to duty. Not surprised at all. That's like you got your leg blown off. They're like, oh, how do we get you back in? I mean, there's such an investment, especially in the sports. Yeah, millions. I mean, I think it's like 1.2. How much was spent on you, Griff? A million? Yeah, like for your military worth, for all your training you've done. Millions? Yeah. Two million?

Yeah. There's such a huge investment that it's like, that would be... The bottleneck's an $80,000 leg. All right. Yeah, exactly. That sort of thing. Yeah, because the arm that I have, it's funny, the arm that I have is like 2 to 270...

$100,000. And they're so much more expensive than knees. But the best knee came from DARPA working. Because that's what blew my mind. And that's why I'm sorry. I'm just staring at this the entire time. No, I'm so stoked that y'all asked me about it because I'm so proud of it. And we're still grinding to get it more for more people. I feel like the accessibility of that feels so superficially or just...

It limited for no reason because that there's no reason in my mind that this arm should cost a Lamborghini Huracan. It's insane. Especially when you, uh, where's the cost coming from? I guess like yours with, and I'm sure your friend did a great job. Like it's just, I'm, I'm, it's,

It's blowing my mind, like, why this would cost so much. I'm guessing the... Because you... We will... It's hard to figure out what order to talk about. Because I'm like, dude, even the idea, if you think open the hand, it opens. So, I actually brought... Because a hand... Yeah, a hand. Yeah, this is... This is... I like to educate now in Britain. Yeah.

Just because I wish I would have known earlier that I was going to have to play such a big role in educating people because since I was injured such a long time ago, I would have been able to influence people to get into that field. But like he was saying, I think that the cost comes from actuators and computers that are within the process. Because that has like, I think, four...

for individual actuators. And it's just that a lot of that you're paying for R&D. So you're paying for the R&D. Shit.

And so I think that the knees, they're able to bring down that cost because there's so many more knee people. And just on the civilian side too because like a lot of leg injuries are still the survivor stateside for traumatic amputations, motorcycle accidents, car accidents. I was just with the – I was at this like celebrity softball thing in Dallas with the above-the-knee amputee who had just climbed a mountain in Peru.

And she had a knee that wasn't waterproof. And we were talking about that because she can't get the X3 because it's too expensive. That knee that it's, it's still expensive for most amputees. Even military have a, have a hard time getting it because it was originally just created for people that were, um,

for special forces guys. And now they consider it so tough that they consider it a specialty knee. So it's like it's an insurance thing that even veterans have trouble getting it because since it's so tough, they consider it a water knee. So like this, for example...

I just got in a fight with the VA about this, about getting a new prosthetic because they didn't make this. And so... That's what you're trying to do. Eli's going to break the fucking thing. Also, the knuckles, like the paint job on the knuckles, if you could face that to camera, it looks like the hot bitch from Atlantis, The Lost Empire. But...

Hold on. Do you get the space cowboy thing from Jet? Dude, yeah. No, it's so funny because people call me that on – people call me that. Not even on my – people – Because Jet, his right arm isn't real. He lost it in a policing accident. Yeah, I got that from TikTok and YouTube. Before I even got on social media, people were making videos about my arms, and I switched that because I used to – yeah, Tejano Space Cowboy. Tejano is just Mexicans from Texas. That's cool.

um like my family is from texas before texas was america and um in mexico and um and that came from people calling me that and i thought that was funny because um because like uh just because i would wear a cowboy i wore a cowboy hat with it and people were like oh like a space cowboy and i was like i love that shit it's rad and um

Wow, it's not made in America.

Yeah, that was my big point. We're so proud of that because, and this is not to rub anything in their face because I've worked for them before. They're a $4 billion company. They are the best prosthetic manufacturers in the world still. But having worked for them overseas, I was like, hey man, if you guys made things in America...

Not only would, uh, like this is broken, uh, this, I don't have any working hands right now that, so I'm waiting on that to get a new one from overseas because they're made in Austria. So the turnover and getting them repaired is really, is really high. But, um, there's a couple of young companies in America that are making prosthetics, uh, to that level that are not plastic. And, um, I think that, um,

Before I handle this too closely, have you jerked it with this? No. Dude, everybody asks about the stranger. I feel really weird putting my fingers all over this. Cody just took out relief. He's like, I was wanting to ask that. I've been holding back this entire time. So people that are below the elbow have rubber covers, and I hear that they do try shit like that. But since I'm above the elbow, I don't have that level of control. So I feel like I would just rip it off. Just guy to guy, I figure I had to ask. Dude, I fixed this myself with the

Just some steel cable. Oh, yeah, shit. And so I was like, it's so jagged. Can you just imagine? Oh, yeah. No, that's a new, what is that? They call that a saint, the piercing on your fucking... Prince Albert. Prince Albert, there you go. You looked at me for confirmation. Yeah, I was like, why are you looking at a child? Well, here's the thing, you did. You knew the answer. Which saint was it that jerked his dick? Prince Albert. Prince Albert.

We always look to Prince Salmon for... Dude, that's like the number one question on fucking... Saint Master Bates. About that, like the stranger or whatever. And I was like, I know that there's amputees that have rubber covers. This hand, it's open, and that makes it easier for me to repair. So that's why I liked it. But they're closed ones that are all rubber. And I know there's some dark fucking amputees out there that have tried that. Because they've told me about it, and they talk about it. And I was like, no, not me. My injury level is too high, and like...

Dude, what's crazy is the paint. Like, to give you props for the art direction, though, like, it looks so... Dude, an AK with this wrap, this paint, and the blues, like, bro. Yeah, people on... I would put this up. If you ever get rid of one of these, we'll buy it from you. Just the hands so we can put it back. I don't think we can afford them. You know what? So that's another issue. It's funny that you say that. I have... Dude, I have a bunch of these.

Because the company does make them obsolete. So planned obsolescence. Yeah. So like the pro it's a software planned obsolescence. Obsolescence is wild. It's a good rock. Yeah. For amputees. It sucks, man. It sucks because like having got into the space a little bit traveling to like, like I talked to some guys in Egypt and, and I want to go to Mexico to talk about this arm. I mean, the Ukraine, some of the places that they're making tougher ones are

They're making them tougher because amputees can't really afford them. Like in America, for instance, you get them like once every five years. And so, yeah, so I have some of these. I did the art. I call it Mexican camouflage because it's just – I just –

I just, like on this one, literally just camo because my other ones are kind of colorful. And I was like, I want an arm that I can hunt with. And I want to, whenever I was in Africa, I feel really bad in Tanzania. We got like chased out of this village and I felt really bad because the arm was all shiny and metal. And I felt so bad for the group I was with because like literally like our security was running ahead of us. And I was like, damn, like I spotlighted us because my arm was so shiny.

It's got like a cloak or something. Well, I was like, I was like, I had, I had, I had painted a little bit of camo on it. And then after that, I was like, I was in the jungle and I was thinking to myself, like I saw pictures and I was like, Oh, I could disappear. I, I could make it a camo to make it like not because like having a super shiny arm is like cool. I mean like I use it so much, but I was like, I do have that mentality of like, um,

I don't know if it's ghetto mentality of like I don't like people being able to see me before I see them you know what I mean and so like childhood trauma yeah yeah it's a getting jumped especially thing like because the training the boxing and stuff like that the part that I broke before I went to the Ukraine like I've always trained because like especially whenever you're traveling overseas I see you adjusting that every now and again what are you what are you locking that in and out of and why

Um, yeah, so this is... It's Italian. Um... God damn it. Brandon, you can do the Trump thing. The best prosthetics on the ground. The best prosthetics. Yeah, I think we should have the best prosthetics made in America. I think we do. That is a goal of mine, for them to be made in America. It would be really, really cool. America should have the best prosthetics. It, um...

Maybe ever. Tiny ones of it. That specifically, for a long time, we were scared to talk about the inner mechanics of the elbow because we were worried about trade secrets and stuff like that. But after talking to George, the guy is like,

This is so hard to build that he wanted me to the Ukraine is like, give it away, like show it to people. Like his goal is to, is to build it better. So people are not dealing with broken prosthetics that they're like relying on to like feed their families. And so like, yeah,

open sourcing talking about it is this is how the elbow moves up and down so it's a pylon and so typically that would be all inner that would be located in the elbow so all my other elbows it's inner it's it's it's

It's not accessible to somebody to work on, but it's typically plastic. It's typically a plastic gear. And so that limits it. And even sometimes the steel ones. A lot of prosthetics, upper extremity, are limited by the fact that they try to make them look like arms to contain all of that movement right there. But the materials are not tough enough to do something like that. So, like, there's a metal elbow that whenever you try to make it, steel is nowhere near as strong as muscle fibers are. So we don't realize that. But, like, if you get...

metal pylon like rebar and you and you and you you you like tensile strength is one thing but bending it there's nothing like an elbow yeah it's like aluminum that's one of the the arguments like aluminum over uh polymers or polymer over aluminum rather like a polymer isn't quite as strong dude as aluminum so glad you brought that up okay yeah because it's it's one of those things like polymers

Even though that they're not as strong as aluminum, they will bend. They will misshape themselves to be able to fit whatever they need to in the moment. And then they'll go back to their normal shape. Whereas aluminum will just fucking bend. It will break. It will like being stronger on those lines. Bingo. Being stronger is not necessarily better. Yeah. So once you break or fray carbon fiber, that's why people ask about why metal. And I was like, well, there's a reason all knees are metal.

So that's like that gets into a really niche thing. But this was made specifically to protect the carbon fiber socket because I've broken carbon fiber sockets and carbon fiber is so uniquely fragile when it comes to like so when I was on Kilimanjaro, you could see the digs of the obsidian into the aluminum. Oh, yeah. And it dug right into it. And it was funny because this was originally carbon fiber, but we converted it to metal and cut this part out because we're like only metal where it needs to be metal.

But I broke carbon fiber wings because it's so fragile that once you drill into it, you actually – yeah, you shouldn't be drilling. Like the guy who made this arm was like, man, I can't believe this.

VA drilled into this just splintering into your yeah, you split and it's in a car. It's poisonous Yeah, people have no idea that like as a material it's really weird that um prosthetics are still carbon fiber because it's dangerous and Fragile especially if you're somebody's using it for more than a few years you ever seen those pictures of the guys who like Accidentally put the carbon fiber arrow through their forearm or their hand and the carbon fiber just splinters out 80 different directions It's awful

As soon as you split... Have you not seen that? Yeah, no, I've seen that before. Yeah, just archers doing that shit. That's why, like, if you have an arrow, Eli knows now, too, you just got an archery. If you have an arrow, you always, like, roll it a little bit to make sure it's not splintered because if you let it go, it'll just fucking destroy your own... It'll splinter open everything. Dude, arrow, like...

It is so much fun. But also you see those little things like that. Well, that's why the only time I won't cheap out like ammo, you'll buy cheap ammo sometimes. Arrows are the one thing I was like, you know what? I'm just spending. I'm going to spend a little extra money. So just in case it's not.

Opening up and destroying myself. Any archery event I've ever been to, they're like, hey, take your arrows, just roll them down your leg real quick. If it splinters, throw that arrow away. Because it'll just fucking explode your arm. Wild. All I can think about is like...

How easy it would be to put a gun in that and sneak on an airplane. Dude, somebody hit me up from... Oh, no, no. Cody, why does your brain go to sneak onto an airplane? That's okay. That's okay that you brought that up because I get violated so much for the TSA that I'm like, I'm so used to it. Getting through the airport. Dude, I know. I'm like, it's the beard too. The beard and the Lebanese nose for me. Dude, whenever I'm overseas...

especially with the other arms. Like they're like this, not this motherfucker. Like I'll get, I've literally gone through, especially in Germany. Like, this is why you guys have reputation. Um, but, um, I'll, they'll send me through the airport security twice and go to the back room twice. And I'm like, I'm like, listen, man, until you, there's a couple of guys that German special forces that were, you know, served with us in NATO. They're like cooler. But like the security is like, you get the terrorist treatment.

And it's like – but this arm specifically is actually easier to get through the airport because there's no batteries. So lithium is a real issue, man. I had an arm, the blue arm that I met you with. I got stuck in Germany for like six months because I checked it in. I didn't know you couldn't check it in because it's got lithium batteries even though they're completely encased within carbon fiber, layers of carbon fiber.

um it got it got stuck but this one since it's hollow actually it doesn't go off whenever i go on the scans because um they can see everything through it yeah so um there is a setup that i have that's shooting for shooting specifically that i stopped wearing through the airports because it was so hard to get through but um yeah it depends on what country i am in america is like the worst really um but not not texas texas is like

People usually know who I am. They're like, the f***ing guy with the metal arm. Like, he's... You know what I mean? Like... Like your home airports or whatever. Yeah. But then, like... Because, like... Like, getting... Airports in the US, like... If they're, like, bumfucked nowhere, that's the worst. Because they're like... They're like, I've never seen this before. Like, they'll want me, spread my legs. And for a long time... I hate holding people up, too. So, I feel bad. So, it's like almost...

better when they're like take me to the pirate room I'm like just ready for it meanwhile they're thinking in their head they're like brown guy beard

You were the bad IED maker. Yeah, I sort of got it. So it's useful. You know what I mean? It's useful. I like being able to, even with a metal arm, disappear a little bit because I can fit in anywhere I go. And I speak Posh too a little bit still too. I'm sure TSA loves that. Yeah, no, it's not funny. There's no joke. Yeah, there's no joke. I like no joke in front of TSA anymore because it's just like,

Yeah, they have too much power about it. Yeah. It's just really weird when you get stopped in America and you're like, this is, of all the countries that I get stopped in, you're like, man, this is like the one country they'd be like, you would think that would be easier to get through, but... Como estas, nice try, terrorist. Yeah, because in Africa, like, they don't give a fuck. Like, in Africa, they're like, oh, yeah, man, like, you're, you know, you're disabled, whatever. Like, they're almost nicer to you because you're disabled. I mean, try...

go on Brandon finish it fine try playing soccer in most of East Africa without hitting a landmine so they they understand prosthesis you know what no it's true that's why I was there you know what I mean like to talk about the amputees there thanks for pushing me into that Eli appreciate it you're one of us yeah ironically the TSA yeah you were like I don't know what the fuck

Goal. The gift of goals. It is a little bit like, you know, obviously the Marine Corps sent me to fucking language school because I looked, you know, when I was in Afghanistan, they told me to tell people I was Persian.

Iranian. Oh, 100%. They're like, what was that? They make up a story. Assalamualaikum. I had to make up a story about being... My dad was from Iran. I had three kids. Yeah, they just go into that culture. Dude, it's funny. I didn't know that that was a thing that they had people do. I thought it was just...

me but not everybody who goes to language school in the Marine Corps and then special forces like that's all they do right they're like yeah be shady as fuck lie about everything like and um but uh but it is funny because like that is why they sent me to language school because I spoke my first language Spanish and I look Mexican so uh you know over there you look a little bit before I was wounded I looked

middle eastern so you you don't look mexican you are mexican yeah it's just like it's you know it's a fucking ironically that's that's some that's some uses of the diversity of the military super useful for that kind of thing and there's history to that too because like

It's their sister to that because Arabs invaded Spain. And so like we have some language structure that's the same, but also looks. So like the nose, you know, it could come from that because Arabs invaded Spain and they left like, you know, cognates like Mez is table in Pashto, like Kamis is shirt. They left language structure for Arabic. And then also like some of the words are the same too. So people are like, why do so many people...

in the middle East look, you know, Mexican. And it's like, oh, I was like, that's because of Spaniards and, you know, colonialism and stuff. They are. Yeah. It really same, same genetically that we are kind of the same. That's a, you know, it's, it's easy to think that everybody's the same until you realize like history. It's like, oh no, all these places, like there was a, you know, the invasion of the Moors into Sicily, for example, if you've seen true romance, you know,

It's history. I read a lot. No, no, it's useful. It's useful. Cause like you get to see like how you humanity did spread and conquer. It's like funnels that point to a place and then that builds into a funnel and then it goes to another spot. That's always why I've kind of had an issue with like the 23 and me, like the DNA tests. So it's like, okay, well you're Mexican. Cool.

Are you 2024 Mexican or are you 1800 Mexican or are you pre-Spanish Mexican? It's like all of human history is just a history of conquest and different countries and civilizations melding into each other. It's like genetically speaking, which version of that country are you? Because if you go on 500 year increments, that is radically different.

Yeah, that's cool. I love educating because I educated myself on it. Like I remember one of the only times I've ever talked about my story on social media was like years ago on TikTok. And today. Yeah. Well, the Aztec god arm, Quetzalcoatl, like I remember telling people that I said that I put that the arm was this is from it. That's why it's blue. His color is blue. Quetzalcoatl. And he's the Aztec god of the sun.

And his color is blue. And the Aztec god of the sun and war, Huitipal, he's a very violent god. And I remember people, a lot of Christians getting super mad at me for saying that I thought my ancestors woke me up because nobody saved me. And just this light wouldn't stop flickering in my eyes. And my family is from Nuevo Leon, and they're indigenous to Mexico on one side and then indigenous to Texas on the other side. And I thought it was –

because I was able to, I don't think like a lot of people know that like why, and this is me, I would consider myself Christian, raised Catholic, you know, my middle name is Guadalupe because we didn't know Guadalupe in Mexico. But I was like, people don't know. A Mexican Catholic? No.

Yeah, dude. And it's like, people don't know, you know, like you have to educate yourself on, on, on how that history was spread. You know what I mean? That, that, that, that religion was spread by the sword. And so people were like, I remember all this hate that I got from Christian. I was like, well, I can't neglect one side of my history and not like know, you know, how Catholicism got to Mexico specifically and all the gods, you know what I mean? And like, but,

All that goes back to some sort of history because Christmas, you know what I mean? That was a pagan holiday. Christmas, Easter, pretty much everything we see in a modern sense is derived from something that was hundreds of years before us.

Yeah, you get in trouble whenever you don't like... Because you almost always have to educate yourself on those kind of things whenever you're talking to people about that. And then you have to go from how much do they know about it enough to be offended. Would you two quit holding hands? I'm so glad, like...

I'm trying to find, dude, there's these awesome windows. I'm so interested in how the anime versions of Aztec warriors and gods, Quetzalcoatl, and like all of them. But this is one. But, dude, anime, they did really cool drawings of Aztec gods. They look vicious as fuck. Art is a super big, yeah, because even on my arm, the spear, I have 26 dots there. The spear is supposed to be. This is so gangster.

We lost 25 Marines without attachments on that deployment. And this is an Aztec spear. And that's why I call it just Mexican camouflage because I just did designs in camo form. And this is supposed to be an obsidian-tipped lanza spear. But I did a camo rendering of that. But it's cool. The art in Mexico is super, super cool.

Unique. And I love watching the anime. Watching it blend with the Japanese-style artwork and then the Mexican-style. Bleach, yeah, man. Dude, you're just like this. Mexico gets so loved. I remember when I was talking. I had that arm. I had the leather arm in the Ukraine.

And I remember this Ukrainian soldier, WPT, asked me about this guy on my arm. And it's Emiliano Zapata. And he was an indigenous freedom fighter from Mexico. And he's famous. He's a real famous Mexican warrior. And he has a famous quote of his. It's like, I'd rather die on my knees than live on my feet. Yeah.

fighting for a Mexican free. He was eventually killed. And he's got a famous bandolier. Sorry, it was backwards. It was, I'd rather live on my feet or die on my feet than live on my knees. That doesn't sound right. I was playing in my head. I was like, maybe it's a weird Mexican guy. Dude, he's super famous all over Texas. All you fucking Mexicans over here. I'm learning a lot today. Cody goes by as a weed whacker. I want to be like you. Me.

I wanted to learn about your culture, so I went to Home Depot.

I mean, you can't be ashamed because that's the hardest workers in the world. Like now go in other places. Like I travel where I'm like, I'm like, oh man, like where people talk about like me positively. I'm like, oh man, like where I'm from, like the fucking hardest workers in the world. That's why SpaceX is in the Valley, man. Cause it's just the hardest reputation. Mexican specifically, the work ethic is, is, is legendary all over the world now. And even like,

Like, cause you talk about the grass is immaculate. Yeah. I mean, that's why I broke my, I broke this hand lawn mowing my lawn. And I was like, uh, it was just something that's like a.

a work ethic that's unique that i think that uh like people in texas really appreciate because they're like are like oh those motherfuckers are just that's a cool stereotype to have where you're like the hardest yeah i mean i built that harness like people are like why i got into prosthetics i was like because you know um you can't really let people feel sorry for you so long are you even if you have valid reasons to like be depressed or whatever like uh

That mentality of being like, well, fucking nobody else is going to do it. I'll do it myself. That is something that I do take a pride in, that cultural aspect where you're just like, no, I'll work. I'll do it myself. Don't be a victim. You can make the excuses and you know people would validate your excuses. Instead, you're like, no, fuck that. I still want to work hard. I want to better myself. I want to better even what I have right now to –

my day-to-day life i'm going to make that as best as possible i'm not going to quit which it was actually one of the first times you ever came across my feed naturally was a video of you basically explaining you're like yeah people call me the uh the tahano you know winter soldier and everything like this is so cool but you're just like hey just a quick reminder to everybody this is actually a disability like there's shit i can't do and that's kind of

But the ability to go from something that obviously was a very traumatic experience to having something like just taking on a life of its own and making it so cool and making the best of it that you have to remind people like, hey, by the way, this is not great. This was not my ideal situation. But just the idea of making the best of it to the point that people forget how bad it actually is is fucking rad. Yeah. That came as far as learning how to talk properly.

negatively but positively because I felt like I never realized I was gonna have to educate people on the VA side of things where I was like I was like I don't want people to know I don't want I never want somebody to go through what I went through with the VA fighting for prosthetics I never thought I was gonna have to like beg for because people are like like you know you're wounded in combat you get everything I was like no it's not that easy it's not it's been so difficult and talking to other amputee veterans where I like now I know how hard it is fighting the VA for prosthetics and

And it's become such an issue that I was like – I only start to tell people that I'm disabled because becoming a dad, that changed my view of things where I'm like, man, all of the quiet struggles at home –

Especially as a guy, and you're Mexican, like a machista mentality, you have that thing of my dad, super silent. You never heard him talk, would never complain, never talked. Mexican is our toxic trait too. It is a toxic trait, man. I just stay home. Don't worry, give me the Vicks, I'll put it on my chest, I'll just breathe. You're having a heart attack, dad. No, I'm fine. It's good.

Yeah. You're having a heart attack. Dude, imagine. It's great for war, man. We make great warriors. But and then as far as like advancing and things and not like passing on like generational trauma and stuff like that, that's, you know, I was like one of my things after my dad passed away and my son was born, I was like, I want to make sure that I

Like Maya, I think it's Maya Angelou that has a quote. Like if you don't tell people about your suffering, they'll say that you were happy. I think there's a quote about her. She uses a quote like that. And I was like, so I wanted people to know that I'm like,

Talking about this arm. They'll think you had it easy or something like that. I can't remember what it was. I feel bad talking about like, I'm like, hey man, this guy privately funded this arm, built this arm, you know, because of my struggles getting prosthetics from the VA. Let's not, let's not, not talk about the fact that I've had so many, I built my own harness. I went years without appointment. I went years without prosthetics. It's hard to, it is that hard.

It's extremely difficult to talk about your trauma. I know probably a lot of guys at this table, guys out there, gals out there, it is you don't want to have the victim. You don't want to play victim. And the second you bring up something, you're like, no, you feel bad about it for whatever reason. Completely.

yeah you feel like you're complaining in a military i mean you know even in the mexican growing up yeah not fucking allowed to complain about stuff you're just like nope i'm gonna shut the fuck up i'm gonna just push through it but it is awesome for the next generation like your kiddo and you're like okay i need to do this to bring light to it because like one of the biggest things how long did it take for the va to even start working on a prosthetic for you how many years

So I would say two and a half years. So this is a real issue because other amputees, whenever I tell them this, they're like, it's insane. I've actually, I retired in 2015. I've only had two prosthetics built from the VA since I retired. And whenever you tell that to people who know anything about, who know amputees, they're like, that's insane. And I was like, yeah, I didn't know that.

that's why this guy made this arm for me. Like, I feel bad because I feel like a sense of responsibility talking about it because I owe him and, and, and just for other amputees now and then never wanting other combat women amputees to deal with that. I like, um, it's been such an issue like for me in San Antonio, like my, my congressman got involved twice, uh,

and it was like such an issue where they were like, I had to break that mentality of being like, cause if you don't complain about it, that's fine. But then like, you know, complain about it so hard to make things happen. And it wasn't until my son was born that I was like, um, I, I can't be disabled because my son, you know, like whenever he needs me, um, you know, and I'm taking care of him alone. Um, I'm like, it's just really, really sucks. I always tell a story about like changing diapers with one arm is so hard. I,

I always, whatever my son's mom's not there, I always wear my prosthetic because I need it to be able to carry him and to move him. And like, you know, toddlers, it's so scary. Oh, God. Like they have no idea how many times they put their lives in jeopardy. So you have to be able to grab them. They're just constantly trying to kill them. Dude, it's terrifying. Two-year-old veterans.

Yeah, it's scary. Jesus Christ. You're like, how did I make it this far? And doing that with one arm, it's like I never felt the need to be undisabled, to mitigate my disability as much as possible until I became a dad where I was like,

This is not just about me. Like I have to be able to get prosthetics so I can be able to take care of my son and be a dad. And it was just something that I was like, never, I would have really continued to try to do it alone myself. And actually one of the guys that found me to make this arm was a, was a special forces veteran who heard my story and heard my dad's story. So he was like, so, so upset by the fact that my dad served so many wars and

And the guy was from 7th Group. And then a lieutenant colonel from 7th Group. They were like, your dad fought so hard in Panama. And for you to still be going through this. I couldn't get prosthetics made at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio. Which was built for veterans. And so there was a big thing there. Because people were like... They're definitely down to build bigger buildings. Yeah.

They really love that. I didn't know to educate myself on that where I was like, people are like, why talk about the VA negatively? Or I'm like, well, because these are taxpayer funds. People have no idea that these are million dollar facilities employing whole teams. And I was like, there's not that many amputees for them to be saying that they don't have the capacity to build prosthetics where I'm like, if you don't,

hundreds of millions of dollars to build a bigger building to tell you no inside out. - Look at this giant prosthetic we built. - Dude. - To represent prosthetics. - It's insane. - Can I just get a prosthetic now? - It's like, how can you dedicate, 'cause I feel like I have a sense of responsibility to talk about it because I'm like, hey man,

The civilian side, they're not as funded well as the VA. So I'm waiting for weeks in between appointments to get it on the civilian side. This guy has nothing to do with prosthetics. He's doing it specifically to advance them, heard my story, get into it, get into the weeds with me specifically just to better... To make it arms or whatever for the future. But it's so sad when you're... I tell people, why am I pushing the VA to do it? I'm like, because...

they have million dollar facility. They have fabrication capacity that small civilian side don't have. And if they're not going to use that, people need to understand that then we shouldn't be spending millions of dollars on those facilities because there's not that many combat wounded APTs for them to be like, to, to, cause they, I got turned down. Justify spinning. And then you're, why do you have the facilities that are just million dollars? Like Audie Murphy, the VA is huge. And people, when I tell them like, I have the biggest, what's the biggest VA facility.

which would have been such an issue for combat with an amputees to have such an issue getting prosthetics from what is supposed to be the biggest VA. And I'm like, you have all of this staff that don't do anything. And if they don't want to work, um, I remember taking part in a study this year with the VA tech, with the army nurse who retired and here her, her telling, uh,

I got like a part of the study to improve the VA and she was telling me about how she was an officer in the army, a nurse in the army. And she just got out and she had appointments canceled. And I had mentioned about my getting me getting my appointments canceled for, for like group meetings, like a worker meetings, like,

multiple times and she was like, that's so weird. Like I've had my appointments counseled for the same reason, like just nonchalantly, like two weeks for an appointment that you've been waiting six months for. They're like, um, actually we don't have spots. Uh, we're, we're working. The doctor's not going to be in the office that day. Um, can we schedule you for this many months out? And I told her that story and she thought it was so weird cause you just got out of the army and she's, uh, now dealing with the VA side of things and now, you know, helping, uh, on the admin side to improve the VA. She's like, I'm literally an officer. I work for the VA and,

Get out and to help you know improve the V at and I keep hearing the story about veterans getting their appointments canceled that they had to wait months for because the doctor doesn't come in and I'm like and when I tell people it's just a work ethic thing because this guy's a millionaire this guy's a millionaire SpaceX private company flying all over the world to do all these different things for metal technology technologies Is this company specifically for that and I'm like, how does this guy and then I have make time for me to make an arm and

And then when I worked for Autobach, they're a $4 billion company. I would work for them in Berlin. I would fly to Germany and back before I could get an appointment for the VA. And I was like, it's so embarrassing to tell that to a tech company where you're like, I can't get an appointment at the VA in time to get my arm working on. My arm worked on. And they're doing this $10 million campaign based around me and my arm on my arms. And I'm like, it's so embarrassing. $10 million campaign. And they're like, look. It's the opportunity. Yeah.

They just want the photo op. They literally, it's just a photo op. So like that's the shit that smile, smile. No, I just said big government. Yeah. Spending your money wisely. Well, no, like I couldn't get an appointment for the VA and the auto box worked on my arm. The company who built the arms. Cause they're like, listen, we need you. We need your, we need your, we need your face. We need this to work.

private funding yeah and it's like it's like on the private side of things it's like because if you don't want to work they'll fire you and that's that's a different thing i think the structurally with the va is that people when they don't want to work and they want to make excuses or they don't want to come to work there or whatever um okay they they it's so hard to fire them because i've had yeah i've had so many better i mean even my congressman my congressman castro i don't want to talk negatively about him because well i know he's probably going to go to jail

He's like, I will take that bullet. I'll do that. And I hope it happens. I really do. I don't think he didn't believe my story until I was like, deal with the VA. Talk to them yourself. If I'm having these issues, if I'm lying and dealing with the VA, he's like, yeah, it's insane that it's taking so long. And I was like, yeah, I don't know why that problem is. And I was like, this is the best VA. This is Texas. I have so much support here. This motherfucker built me an arm.

down the road and he has time to make me appointments. A billion dollar company has time to work on my arm overseas and I can't get an appointment at the VA in that time. I remember I waited a year for an appointment at the VA and I was like, listen, there's less than 400 combat wounded arm amputees and there's 10,000 leg amputees. You guys have the most money out of all the VAs. Why do you guys have such a hard time getting people appointments? And I was like,

It's just that I think it's just a cultural work ethic thing because people who don't want to do their job

get hired at the VA. So if you don't... Because on the civilian side of things, if you don't want to do that work, it's contractor stuff. So it's like they get paid per prosthetic. So they're like, as much work as I do, I'll get that money, right? On the VA, if they want to take their time and they don't want to do things and it's hard for them, they're like, okay, well... Makes my... I still get my paycheck. Yeah. I still get paid every week. I said that whenever...

Um, whenever my son's mom was pregnant, um, I was like taking care. I was going to the grocery store, working multiple jobs. And I was like, I had this arm. Thank God I had this arm. Everybody's like, why don't you do more crazy shit with this arm? Like, you know, YouTube stuff. And I'm like, because I use it to work. Like I, you know, I, I, I don't have other prosthetics. And, um, but I just remember, um,

talking about like, they don't care because they still have their two arms while they're not giving me appointments and working on my prosthetic. They're not disabled. So they have, they don't rely on the VA. And it like makes me sad. They don't care that like my, you know, that my girl's pregnant or that my son has a disabled dad. They get to go home every day and they get to like cook and shower and bathe themselves with two arms. So they're not thinking about that sense of responsibility that like,

The guy who made this arm is like, "Oh man, you're using the carry your son. I'm gonna make it the best. I'm not gonna break it. I'm not gonna let it break." - Well, that's the thing. It is that human connection that plays. It's no different than policing at your level versus the randoms. It's no different than like if Brandon, you were taking on, you're already fascinated with that thing and the above and beyond you would go to to help. You're like, "Cool, I can do." You put a gun on it.

whatever you'd want to do with it, but it's still your engineering side. That wouldn't be my, that wouldn't be my second thought. But it is that like actual having a connection. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, when you have a billionaire like that, he's like, fuck, this dude has his struggles.

I'm going to allocate my time to bettering this because, yes, it benefits you, but it's also something you can roll out and benefit others. Yeah, it's a sense of pride in engineering. The thing that's just egregious to me still is thinking about why a singular arm like that costs several hundred thousand dollars. That blows my mind because I'm just looking at this and I'm still awestruck because I'm like this –

If this was any other widget that we, you know, outsource to Amazon, man, it's like, I look at textiles in the production and I'm like, I think a lot of it is the fact that it's not made in America.

because you're right. When I look at things, because before I had this arm and that harness, I would buy tactical things and modify them to be able to use them in a prosthetic sense. And I was like, man, if I could get fucking Nike, the shells that I had, their ability to make shells and stuff like that and just to produce high quality products like y'all's

you know, all of y'all's equipment, you know, your, your mic stands, all this kind of stuff. Yeah. It's just a lot of that. It's, it's manufactured in such quantity. And so that competition obviously makes things better. But yeah, it's just that there's not, that's why I, our selling point on this arm is that,

It's made in America and bringing that price down. This is actually cheaper than the other arms because – Are there any electronics in it at all? No, this is all hydraulic. This is all mechanically operated. I'm looking like most of that's like 550. You probably can't see it on camera. That's like 550 cord and – Yeah, it's so funny. Yeah, yeah. This is the – that's the one that has all the computers in it.

That one has all the computers in it. What's the cost on this? So this would be right... I mean, $40,000? Yeah, this is... $40,000 is way more reasonable. That one you were saying is like a quarter of a million dollars. Yeah, yeah. So that one... The issue with this, I think, is...

You know, I don't really well I guess I can I can be honest is that There's there's there's patents so well It's because I've worked for this company before and they are the best but so to give you an idea they bought this company they bought the company that made this hand and

And so one of the reasons that we've been careful about, because we have been approached about making, about somebody buying this arm and bringing it to manufacturing capacity in America. And we've said no one time. And it's just because experiences in the prosthetic industry made me understand that, you know,

People will sometimes buy patents just to take it off the market. Yeah. So they decide competing with their product. So that's actually the most popular... We have no experience with that. So, yeah. Can't say anything about that. Yeah, unsubs never. Yeah. We will own that space. Yeah. So this is the most popular arm on the market right now, right? So they...

They own 60% of the market share. And so in order for them to, the overhead is so expensive to be able to just change like little colors on that thing. And so for them, all of that R&D that gets done, people are like, why is it still plastic? And I was like, I can be critical of them because their knees are not plastic. Their knees, they do have a knee that's waterproof, water resistant. This has an open circuit. So this right here is an open circuit.

So people are like – I remember one time I was embarrassed at school because a veteran asked me why I was carrying an umbrella with that arm at the time.

and i was like i got pissed because i was like man this motherfucker doesn't know he put me on the spot all these kids are like surrounding me like i like i'm a freak because uh he asked like why i had an umbrella and um it was a navy kid and um i was like well it's because like i didn't explain to him tomorrow i was like i was like uh just it's because in case it rains i just said in case it rains you know what i mean instead of being like fuck off uh i was like all right in case it rains but i

I've actually ruined $110,000 elbow getting caught in the rain because they're an open circuit. So this is an open circuit. So there's no battery in this, right? The battery is in the arm. And so this is exposed in order to get the battery from, uh, to, to move the actuators within the fingers. Um, it's actually in the socket covered by carbon fiber. And, um,

I actually covered it myself, this arm. I made it tougher. That's another open circuit right there. And that covers the charge port, and that's where I turned it on. No shit. And I did all this myself. Before I found this guy, I was like, I'm going to build all that myself. Yeah, because it was like...

I wanted to sell Mexican. Yeah. Antonio Stark over here. Cause people are like, why? I am worth hundreds of dollars.

Dude, I know you did. Antonio Spark built that in a cave. You built this in a one-bidroom apartment with a box of scraps. I know. It's fun because you do it yourself and a fucking Mexican mentality. I remember I'm in Austin now. This guy came up to me to a bug control guy and he was Mexican. And I was wearing that arm and he was like,

about all of it. And I was like, I made it, I made it specifically. I worked on it and I was like, if I did leather work beforehand and I was like, no, like I just wanted to be able to work. I needed it. And I had this opportunity of a lifetime to work for this company. So let me build it myself because I wasn't going to wait on the VA. Cause at that time I waited a year for the appointment and he's Mexican. And he was like, Oh, you're Mexican, huh? And I was like, I was like, what do you mean? Like, it was like, cause you just, you just built it yourself. And I was like, I was like, yeah, man, like that's, I guess like my dad was the same way. Like,

like uh you know what i mean like i have so many friends that are like they have like whole houses in their backyard that they built just because they're like old school they're like i'll do it myself and um appreciate the like inner workings of that because it's especially dude again like you're

King Cosplay over here. You're like, I've watched a few animes. I'm going to put some leather and make this dope-ass fuck. Dude, some of the straps for that specifically, I got inspiration for how to put it on from animes. Because I was like, in animes, you're like, how do you hold it on? Because it's hard, man. Give me that high five. Oh, bro. Who did I do? I accidentally punched this country singer the other day. That's wild.

How do you accidentally punch a country singer? You accidentally punch a country singer? No, because you forget. Because I'm so used to fist bumping on this side. Because it's weird being – I'm missing my right arm.

And people ask that because sometimes the videos are like left or right. I switch them because of like, and that hitting. But he was like going to give me a fist bump. And like I was second nature because like everybody shakes hands with the right side. And so I took a swing at him because he was giving me a fist bump. And I was so excited. I was at this fucking, this softball classic. And you don't think about it because you're like, you know, I did this to him and I punched his hand and he was like, oh my God. And I was like, I actually never punch with this side. I get so scared of hurting somebody.

He's got some weight behind him. Yeah, but it's just like because people – Yeah, you're like, fuck yeah. I do fist pump people with my right side just because it's like – it's just everybody reaches for the right side. So it's awkward if you don't. You know what I mean? Like they get that – you know, you get that weird – The turkey. That's what I always say. It's the turkey. Bro, I hate – Thumb hand. But what – missing my right arm, it's so weird because you're like – I get so many awkward interactions where you're like, what do I do? And I'm like, I'm confused too. Like I don't know what the fuck to do. But yeah, like I – Just kiss them.

Yeah, you just like, you go in for a kiss. You just kiss their hand. They'll never do that. Well, like, sometimes, because like, I'll get people that get weirded out. They're like, oh, I shake the f***ing claw.

And that's why I just bump it. And it's like, yeah, but sometimes you get carried away. Because my best friend, he's a big old guy. He's an MMA fighter. He was with the 82nd. And I'll always fist bump him because I know I'm not going to hurt him. Because he's like, you know, he knows. He's a big boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But somebody you don't know, you're just like, you know, it's a weird thing, right? You just brace yourself or whatever. But I remember I hit this guy. You also know the speed to go at a metal object with.

Yeah, yeah, because I do do a little bit of MMA training, and I can only train with people that are really, really good. This armbar is not working. Yeah, how does that work, like MMA-wise? Only good people, only good people...

Yeah, only good people because I remember I got asked to do this boxing thing and they wouldn't let me use my arm, which I thought was bullshit. That's why I was like there's so many different things that are obstacles for amputees, but I remember thinking like they want me to box with one arm, literally with no arm. They were like, cool, I can't protect my entire right side. Versus a guy who was missing his arm below the elbow, and I was like, well, he's going to be able to beat the shit out of me.

out of me like what do you mean like because he's going to be able to put up a glove on that and just hit me and I'm like here like this the whole time and I was like I thought you guys asked me to do this because you saw me train with my prosthetic that because I was like just for an exhibition I'm not going to hurt anybody like I'm just going to you know just like point shit and but one my saw gunner was the somebody how I have trained with besides my best friend

but he, cause he's a really high level MMA guy. And so I told him like, he, he let me, he's so good. He's so much better than me that like I could throw full swings at him and not worry about hurting him. You know what I mean? Like he's, he was just so good at like dodging and showing me technique and stuff like that. Punching pads. Um,

It's just like unfortunately I felt better in the MMA space because they're so good with their bodies that they're good with avoiding things. Because boxing, it's like there is a lot of worry about like me hitting somebody's head. You know what I mean? But I do have an MMA hand that I train with specifically that I would – it's rubber. It would be soft.

that I do train with to not hurt somebody. What is it? Does it bend? It's just like a... They call it a dragon TD. It was made specifically for martial arts. It's got spikes on it. I put it in glass. I still put it in a glove. I still put it in a glove because this right here...

This is like one solid piece of aluminum. So if you miss somebody, you know what I mean? Like if you miss, you still hurt them. Six hypodermic needles covered in ketamine. Yeah.

I win. Oh, good. Fatality. So I'll use big gloves, big boxing gloves to wrap it so I don't hurt anybody. Right. But that is the one I train with. And I broke that hitting a tree right before I went to the Ukraine. What the fuck are you hitting trees for? Dude, I was just poor, man. I don't have a gym on the south side. So you were punching the tree? Yeah, I was just punching the tree. Oh, I didn't know if you were on a four-wheeler or something like that.

Like that. I can already picture you like drinking your coconut water.

Do a line work like you you do line work where you're just like, you know, you're moving and ducking and you're like that under a line and um, and so and and I I padded the tree because everybody's like Why don't I use a glove with the tree? I was like because this is I just stole my arm. I don't want to break it so I padded the tree wore gloves and I would just hit the tree and um Not like really really hard, but I broke it. It was it was apart from a bicycle and so like I remember like three days before I went to the ukraine

I always tell this story about George because he's got this huge facility in San Antonio. And I went there and his secretary was like, George is not here.

And I was like, I thought it was funny because I was like, well, he's texting me on the phone, right? He told me to come here. I'm going to the Ukraine, fix this arm. I'm going specifically to talk about this arm because these guys want to be able to use it to fight these Russians. So I'm like, of course, I'm going to take that opportunity because like one of the only benefits of being me and our background is that I have that. I'll fucking go to a combat zone just to sell an arm. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because these guys want to use it to, you know, fight Russians.

And so his secretary is there and she's like, well, he's not here. And I was like, well, I'm texting him right now. And then George comes out of the back of his facility. He's like, oh, I'm sorry. Like my secretary, you know, she's like –

She was told not to tell anybody or not to disturb me because I was in a meeting with SpaceX and I just thought that was so funny because this motherfucker is in a meeting with SpaceX and he's coming here to make this part in three days specifically for me to go to the Ukraine and talk to their soldiers about it. And he was like so insulted by the fact that it broke. Even though he didn't make that part, we used a bike part.

And he was like, man, like, I can't believe how you broke it. Cause that's his level of engineering where he's like that sense of pride. How was that able to break? Yeah. He was like, so, so mad about it. And he like fucking told me like, he's like, man, um, now like this, this part won't, won't, wouldn't break for, you know, to take like 10,000 pounds. And I was like, George, I'm not going to.

right i'm i don't know what you think i'm doing but you know like if you're shadow boxing an oak tree yeah jesus that's i was trying to say 10 000 pounds that's impact yeah because i was like because people asked the limits of the strength and i was like it's limited by my strength because i've deadlifted 400 pounds with it and that's limited by that that's me like that's like in the weightlifting world that's like no i didn't exactly and um

Yeah, so that's the most I've ever put on it before. But after that, I felt way safer shooting guns with and stuff like that because a crack had developed in it, right? So shooting guns, it does take a lot of torque

You know, just the recoil. Impact torque. It's like quick. Because it's sharp. Yeah. Yeah. You know, shoot, people ask about it, and that's why the Ukrainians were so interested in it because they kept breaking theirs. This is the vulnerable part in the arm right here because there's like a little bit of a spring in there. I don't know if you can tell that absorbs something. This is plastic. So this is a $40,000 hand. This is plastic. So this is super vulnerable to breaking right here.

Um, anytime you break it, those ball bearings fall out. It's completely useless. And it's like a huge repair. So it's super fragile right there. And the Ukrainians for their part, they have an arm that they're making. That's mostly metal. It's all metal right here on the wrist. So it doesn't break, but they, they built it specifically for shooting. And they're like, it's a lot tougher than, um,

than what this is but you know because these are made for people to be able to like do desk jobs and stuff like that um the ukrainians i think that a lot of tech's going to come out of there because um

uh, to prosthetic companies, I'm like an outlier. Somebody who wants to lift weights, shoot guns, swim, uh, you know, do fucking triathlon stuff like that. That's, that's an outlier for them. Um, so they're not making a proximity prosthetics for people like that. Ukrainians, I think they're, they're going to have a lot of tech come out of there because, um,

They are building them to fight wars. So it's a lot like the best knees, the best knees, the best knees were made from DARPA being like, we want our boys to be able to get back in combat. And so I think that, um,

Me and them got along because we shared that sense of engineering integrity. We were like, hey, how did you break this? Well, the only time I broke it was boxing. And shooting guns was – I never risked shooting guns breaking it because it was so tough. Boxing specifically was something – I remember I met an MMA fighter there visiting the hospitals, and I gave him my cowboy hat because he was so stoked about meeting me because he saw my videos online, and I was like –

I was like doing training and he was like before he was wounded before Russia invaded he was you know MMA fighter and then you know you get invaded then you you become a fucking soldier and he was missing his arm above the elbow and so they they made me visit him so because it was like that relation where he was like he was like oh I'm not gonna be able to do these things again then I was like

Well, I had that same thing in me where I was like just Mexican growing up in the valley where I was like you tell people we're like why do you train so much? I was like because I have that thing as a man where like you want to be able to take care of yourself with or without a gun because there's places where you can't take a gun. Bars and like I'll get tried all the time because like a motherfucker will be like oh, like a guy with a metal arm did like, you know, alcohol. People will try me and so I do train. I do train. So I've never seen a guy with an amputee and be like

Crispy, I want to fight you. Fuck you for your burns. I bet I can fuck with this guy. I think, like, I don't know. You need to move. Be my own people. Be my own people, man. Yeah, like, I always tell a story in San Antonio. And this is, we're friends now, so I always talk about it. But, like, this guy was a Marine.

uh this guy was a marine you know how fucking marines are so this guy was at a uh at a bar and um he was actually a uh he was not a detective at the time he was sapd he was a san antonio police officer this was years ago and um but uh i remember i was like i was all like benado i was all like dressed i was you know real dressed nice and at the time i had an arm so good that i could fit under her clothes and um

told him I was a Marine or whatever, but you couldn't really tell because I only had my hand. So whenever my shirts tuck long sleeves, all you see is my hand. Yeah. Like you sticking out. Yeah. I could be low key. And, and, uh, this guy came up to me and yeah, like it's, I could be more discreet. And again, if you're buzzed or you're like a far, I'm not going to, I'm going to, I might glance and not recognize. Yeah. That one is Brown for a reason. So like, it's more, it's, it's easier to, um,

My reasoning for that was breaking up the shape of the patterns. The colors on it specifically are for me to be able to, whenever it's dark, to be able to look what the fingers are because I'm tracking that with my eyes because I can't feel it. That makes sense. So when it's down here, I want to be able to see what directions the fingers are pointing. So that was a thing. But this dude got really mad at me because he was like –

I heard you were a Marine. At the time, my hair was all spiked. And I was like in a dress shirt. And I was like, yeah, I was. And he was like, well, you don't look like a Marine.

I was like, I was like, I was like, dude, I was like, I was like, you know, first of all, this is language. I don't even like using it anymore. But I was like, this little poke motherfucker is like, you're like that. I wasn't a Marine. And he, but he was like, yeah, but that's how Marines are like, bro. I love that Marine culture. Like, I love that, that violence to protect the culture where they're like, you don't look like a Marine. I was like, well, I guess I wasn't like, if you know, if you say I wasn't, I wasn't, I don't give a.

I started laughing and walking away. And this guy got so mad. He was like, you stole a mallet, motherfucker. You weren't a Marine. And at the time, like, dude, all. Yeah, he tried to. He tried to grab me. Right. He grabbed me and he started swinging on me, bro. He tried to hit me like three times and he didn't hit me every time I was laughing. He got so mad at me because he was swinging on me, but he couldn't hit me. I trained so much. I was like, all I do is train. And I was like, I just kept laughing. And all his friends tackled him. They're like, what the fuck are you doing? This dude's a cop. And he's still a cop.

And he's a detective now, but we talked about him the other day because I guess he's a hot-headed motherfucker. But he's a Marine, combat veteran. You understand. I just thought it was so funny that it would be your own people. Mexican Marine, drunk, belligerent, trying to fucking start a fight with you because you're not a Marine. Ah, Mexicans, yes. I was like, dude, I was like... Cody understands now. You said brown. No, he was getting so... Minorities, yes, browns. Go on. That's right. Be your own people. I was like, this drunk-ass motherfucker is like... But that's who it is, man. It'll be motherfuckers.

Like that world, but like, like, uh, like I've had people like literally stop me walking out of a bar or I'm like, and it's, it's the Valley. It's growing up where I grew up, where I have that mentality of like, like, I'm not gonna kill this guy. Um, where they'll say, I've had like a couple of things that are memorable or a guy's like, um, bro, can I fucking punch you? And I'm like,

I'm like, I'm outside of a bar. At least they're polite enough to ask, I guess. You know what I mean? Like multiple guys, like where I grew up, I've been jumped before. So I'm like, you know, people say they're going to do something. You have to like take their word for it. Yeah. Just, just worse. And I'm like, I'd have no, can I punch you? Dude, it's a weird man. It's a weird, like I remember this guy's face. He was a big old, no, no, no, no, no punch.

I think about that and I was like, oh man, usually I'll carry fucking brass knuckles on me or something like that, but I was just thinking people see it. I think it's an arm thing. They see a metal fist, a metal arm. I've never wanted to fight somebody when they say I'm like, ha ha.

Yeah, but you obviously you train the people who train the most are the least violent. I think that people that are like my, you know, I don't even think you need to train. You just look like, wow, a disabled man. Haha.

I'm like, dude, that's what it is. I'm like, autism, I hear. Especially with my other arms. That's wild to me. My other arms, I'm way more vulnerable because they were made by the VA, so they're terrible, so I can't move as fluidly. You're like, I love, I am glad you're on this soapbox and just how bad the VA sucks because you'll get zero. No, no.

Don't defend it. Because you see my other arm. It's so big and so gigantic. I could barely move it. So I'm like moving so disabled. Like I could barely lift it. You know what I mean? So like I was super scared, paranoid of getting in a fight with that arm because it was very hard for me to block on my right side. And that's something that I know.

It's because I've been in a few scuffles since I got wounded. I know that the first thing people do whenever I get in a fight is grab my arm, which is fine. Now it's fine because I've trained around it. I'm like, okay, the first thing people do whenever they're going to, you know, drunk and they grab me is they grab my arm. Especially now that you use the taser function you built. That is crazy. That's crazy.

Taser. Okay, speaking on real quick, it looks like the gun that Gary Oldman used in the fifth element gave the goblin people.

Does anyone else see that? Is it the pylon? Just like the top part right there. Oh, yeah. The forearm. Yeah. Yeah, this forearm is like... I just made this forearm to be able to carry things. And it's actually leather under here. There's an actual... There's a Mexican Aztec warrior. There's an Eagle warrior and a Jaguar warrior under here. But it's all leather. And I made this. And then there's metal under here. But that design, that's just for me to be able to...

Is there a red button you shouldn't push on that? No, nothing. You need to start adding. You hang out with us some more. Yeah. Brandon will get you situated. I'm already sitting here just like, hmm. Now I just lose up. I'll say that. Like somebody, I'll get up, I'll get hit up by like random producers and stuff like that. These fucking, the Discovery Channel people hit me up about making a gun arm. And I was like, like,

Like TV show. I do. We seen an injured Mexican. Yeah. Oh, you're a veteran. That's crazy. I don't even care about that. Yeah. It's like, that's why I'm like, people are like, why haven't done more with that? And I was like, this is my arm.

And, but now like having gotten to the space where I'm like, fuck man, like the things that you have to do to be able to make like, sadly, I'm like, now I'll be like, I wish I would have, I said no to so many things before that I, I wish I would have said yes to if I would have known it to help me get prosthetics from the VA. Cause I remember I did the warrior games thinking that doing that with a DOD would like help me get a better situation with the VA. And they were like, that didn't help at all. And I was like, fuck, you don't even care about like ESPN. I was on ESPN. I was on ESPN.

Because I was doing like... You're sending the resume and they're like, cool. Chucked it. Like, yeah. Like, they don't... I mean, there's just no... The DOD... Fucking wild. The DOD is much better at making prosthetics than the VA because they care because they're like worried about getting their people back in combat. And I've had some DOD people reach out to me to be able to...

to fly to DC to be able to, because they're like, Hey, we hear the VA is terrible. We'll do this shit. They have like, you know, black budgets where they're like, we'll do it out of pocket, whatever. We're not worried about the VA bullshit. Yeah, man. One of the guys that, that came down, I'm honored that he came down. I mean, I don't know if I could talk about it too much, but there was a guy here. What we can do actually on the now is, Hey, if you want to hear this story,

go over to patreon but before oh hey cody you're gonna close out with that where where fucking sebastian i'm so happy you're here thank you for hanging out we're gonna have the after show if you're down where do people find you um i just mostly tiktok um tahano space cowboy t-e-j-a-n-o tejano tejano it's just mexicans from texas that's what the hano is arrivederci arrivederci um

But, um... Goddamn it, Eli. That's all we're using is your Italian hand. Using your Italian hand? Speak the second best Italian. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.

I left it in that fucking position too. Cody closes out your video. Oh wait, we go on you guys. No, no, it's just on TikTok and I started YouTube because people on YouTube kept asking me to make a YouTube and I was like, I'll do YouTube. Yeah. Donald Space Cowboy. Yeah. Go check it out. We have the links below. Cody, do the,

Guys, thanks for joining the unsubscribed podcast. We're going to be over on Patreon now for the after show. You're more than welcome to join us. I'm joined today by Eli Double Tap, Tejano Space Cowboy, Brandon Herrera, myself, Donald Operator, the only white guy in the audience. I'm really happy to see you guys on Patreon. Thank you, white man. Bye. ... ...

♪♪ ♪♪