GRP 81-Against All Odds: Two Green Berets overcoming Adveristy| Transnational Terrorism

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GRP 81- Co-hosting for this episode is Army veteran Tim Kolczak founder of The Veterans Project. On with us are two medically retired Green Berets. Mark Belden is a former 18 Delta (Special Forces Medic) who received several traumatic brain injuries during his operational service, and Jared Bullock a former 18 Echo (Special Forces Communications Sergeant) who rode over an IED in Afghanistan. Jared lost his right arm and right leg as well as one of his best friends in the blast. We discuss how both of these men have dealt with their injuries and what it took for them to adjust. We also touched on the topic of terrorism in today's day and age with the recent terror attacks taking place in the United Kingdom. Below is an excerpt.

Tim Kolzcak: I love freedom. I love the freedom of speech. There are certain dangerous viewpoints that can affect the nation. At what point does it become almost like a minority report where you're arresting people for thoughts and speech. Actions are really the problem. I'd rather we stop those types of people from coming in before we get to the point of having to go after people over speech.

Jared Bullock: I didn't want to sit in an office for another 8 years before I retired. I told the Sergeant Major I wanted to retire, and he was kind of butt hurt about it. I'm like ahh well I'm missing half of my body. I started making goals. I did races. I did a bodybuilding competition.

John: That's awesome.

JB: I beat dudes with four limbs. That's got to make you feel like shit (Laughs). This past weekend I met Clint Eastwood. I was speaking to raise money for the Gary Sinise Foundation because they are building up my new home. I made some amputee jokes and they actually laughed at them.

John: Jared and I were in a group chat. They started to joke about his arms, and I remember looking at my phone horrified. I see Jared laughing and going along with the jokes. I guess it takes some getting used to if you haven't been around that.

Tim Kolczak:
www.thevetsproject.com

Jared Bullock:

Instagram: Jared_Bullock

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Global Recon:

www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram

BlackOpsMatter- Instagram

Mission_Critical – Instagram

IgRecon- Twitter

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 61-Matthew McClintock, Special Forces Medics, Transitional Process

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GRP 61- The one-year anniversary of the passing of Staff Sergeant Matthew McClintock. Matthew was an Army Special Forces Engineer Sergeant. With news of his passing circulating through the United States, the online military community really came together to contribute what they could to support his wife and young son. I remember feeling proud to see how Americans rallied around a gold star family.

Co-hosting for this week's episode is Tim Kolczak, the creator of the Veterans Project. Our special guest for this episode is one of Matthew's Special Forces teammates a retired Special Forces Medic named Chris. Chris talked about some of his experiences with Matthew as they had gone through the Special Forces selection course together, and eventually ended up on the same team deploying into a war zone together. Chris took out the time out of his busy schedule to record with us while he's in Afghanistan working as a contractor. We also talked a lot about Trauma medicine, bleeding control, and how the lessons learned from 16 years of hard war on the medical side are now being applied back here in the States raising the level of knowledge to new heights. We also touched on the veteran transitional process and what veterans can do to be successful as a civilian. Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a story of when you treated a casualty overseas?

Chris: This happened within the first week that I'd set up a VSO (Village Stability Operations) site in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. I was still setting up my clinic, and it as told we had a patient at our gate.  They told me he'd been shot in the foot. The guy comes in, and he'd been hit by an RPG. He had shrapnel sticking out of his skull. He had through and through gunshot wounds to both thighs. He had a partial evisceration of his stomach, so his intestines were sticking out. All of these obscure medical techniques that they teach you in the 18 Delta course (Special Forces Medical course) I got to experience on my very first week deployed. We got em out of there completely bundled up. The helo was there in 45 minutes he survived, and he was back with his unit when we left country 9 months later. I wasn't prepared, but the training I'd done over the past two years took over at that point.

Chris:

www.readywarriorllc.com

Social Media: SpecialForcesMedics

Tim Kolczak:

www.thevetsproject.com

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net