Finding Purpose After Special Forces: Josh Burch's Journey :: Ep 47 Try That in a Small Town Podcast

What happens when the mission ends? For Josh Burch, a 20-year veteran Green Beret, the transition from elite warrior to civilian brought unexpected challenges that mirror those faced by countless veterans. From humble beginnings as a high school dropout working construction jobs in Tennessee, Josh's life changed course when his grandfather shared a simple but profound piece of wisdom: "As iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another."

That moment set Josh on a path that would lead through the grueling Special Forces selection process, mastering Arabic, and numerous deployments to the Middle East. But perhaps his greatest challenge came after hanging up his uniform. Like many veterans, Josh initially planned to simply hunt and fish in retirement. Instead, he discovered a deeper calling that speaks to anyone facing major life transitions.

Now serving as the director of people for the Honor Foundation, Josh helps special operations veterans navigate the complex journey from military to civilian life. The three-month program addresses not just practical concerns like resume building, but the more profound challenges of identity and purpose. "For so long we've been a part of something bigger than ourselves," Josh explains, "and being a Green Beret, that's who I was, but that's not who I am."

His insights on finding purpose after losing a defining identity resonate beyond military circles. Whether you're leaving a career, changing direction, or searching for meaning in a new chapter of life, Josh's experience offers valuable perspective on what it means to remain part of something bigger than yourself.

Ready to be inspired? Listen now and discover how small town values of community, mentorship, and service continue to shape Josh's mission to ensure no warrior faces their next battle alone.

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Transcript

Introducing Josh Birch, Green Beret

Speaker 1 0:00

Josh, do you have a nickname? What was your nickname in the?

Speaker 2 0:03

show. Well, no, we have call signs throughout, but your call sign changes. Everybody called me Banjo on my first team because they couldn't understand what I said.

Speaker 3 0:14

Neil wrote a song called Banjo. Who's tougher, you or the Seals?

Speaker 2 0:20

I always like to say who's smarter. For so long we've been a part of something bigger than ourselves and identity and being a Green Beret or a Special Operations Soldier, that's who I was, but that's not who I am. Even in my role as director of people for the Honor Foundation here in Tennessee, I'm still a part of something bigger than myself and I tell them I don't care if it's like helping a little league soccer team you know running for mayor in your town. Whatever, your leadership is needed in our community.

Speaker 4 0:53

The Try that in a Small Town podcast begins now.

Speaker 1 1:03

All right, this is Cobb. I don't know, and I'm coming to you from the patriot mobile studios. I got my friend kaylo I got thrash.

Speaker 4 1:19

I just built his original glory I got tk to my right.

Speaker 1 1:23

This is going to be a fun episode. This is Cobb hey. This is Cobb hey. But we got to get serious because we got a bad ass coming to join us tonight Josh Birch he Green Beret. I don't even know if I need to say any more than that.

Speaker 5 1:41

That's right. 20-year Green Beret that's right.

Speaker 6 1:44

I mean that's Instructor at a ranger school.

Speaker 5 1:47

Yeah, crazy.

Speaker 6 1:48

He's done it all.

Speaker 3 1:49

He's done it all.

Speaker 6 1:50

All the movies you've seen. That's that guy.

Speaker 3 1:52

Also just an amazing person.

Speaker 1 1:54

Yeah, yeah and we're going to get to a lot. I can't wait for you guys asking some fun questions. We're going to get in serious. He's doing some stuff now for the honor foundation. He helps veterans kind of transition, figure out what they're going to do when they leave the service. And you know, I'm wondering if that's kind of like when Tully and I are done playing, you know, when we're done with our music it's a lot like that.

Speaker 6 2:20

Is it a lot like that?

Speaker 5 2:22

It'll be very much like that.

Speaker 6 2:24

It's a lot like that, I mean to be serious, though to go from that. It's two different things. Obviously, combat and all those things, but you're at the height and you're in it, right, yeah, and so if you're on stage, if you're in battle, whatever that is, and then all of a sudden, you're not anymore On stage or in battle.

Speaker 6 2:43

It's one or the other, well, the whole thing, josh. He's going to tell us about the purpose, because I've looked up this guy. It's really amazing and it's kind of the same thing. It's purpose for you, me, anybody. Once your job is kind of done, what are you going to do?

Speaker 1 3:10

Are you going to sit in your chair and drink whiskey and smoke cigars for the rest of your life and just die out on the oxygen tank? Some people can. I don't know if that's what I'm gonna do, but it sounds anyway. It's now. You're right. It is about, uh, and I think we seriously, if we're being honest, we'd all say that, uh, you want to have purpose, and it's kind of like with the podcast too. It's like you know, we want there to be a purpose, and even when we're done on stage, whenever that that may be, it might be a while.

Speaker 6 3:28

Hopefully a really long time.

Speaker 1 3:29

Hopefully a really long time Super depressing conversation. But we're anxious for you guys to hear this, josh Birch, and we'll get to it right now. I was going to say listen, we're fortunate enough to have a lot of cool guests on here. We've been very blessed, but tonight it's kind of like what it's all about. This guy right here was in the service for 26 years 20 as a Green Beret let's go. He's currently the director of people for the Honors Foundation. It's Josh Birch.

Speaker 3 4:04

Yes, let's go.

Speaker 1 4:04

Josh. Thanks Josh, and there's go Josh. Thanks Josh, and there's Josh and there's your introduction Josh, do you have a nickname? What was your nickname in the?

Speaker 2 4:11

service. Well, no, we have call signs throughout, but your call sign changes. Everybody called me Banjo on my first team because they couldn't understand what I said.

Speaker 3 4:22

Neil wrote a song called Banjo, so I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 2 4:25

Hopefully you all have subtitles for this podcast.

Speaker 5 4:26

You can probably see it in the background on his camera. So Banjo is good, no but that's not.

Speaker 2 4:32

Yeah, my mother called me Josh. That's what I go by, whatever she says.

Speaker 5 4:38

That's a great idea, that's right.

Speaker 3 4:40

So, before we get to the real reason that we're having you on. It's just a great cause. I got to know some of the Green Beret stuff.

Speaker 3 4:51

He wants to get right to it, I get right to it, because we've got a lot of Navy SEAL buddies that we you know. You guys are so amazing and what you do is so beyond anything we can comprehend, which I know it's hard for you guys to realize that, but the whole special forces family and what you guys do is so incredible. How much little backstory. So. So when did you go into the service and when did you know, okay, I'm going to be a green beret Cause? That seems like a. That's a good question. It sticks a lot of training. It is a great question.

Speaker 6 5:24

A lot of people just go in and they they want to do that later yeah, that's a great yeah.

Speaker 1 5:27

Like are you going to go on the service and just do it for a year and then what point did it be like, oh, we got something here well, I was, you know, born and raised right here in tennessee.

From Dropout to Special Forces

Speaker 2 5:36

Um, you know, grandparents have a farm in manchester uh area and, uh, I lived in chattanooga area, spent a lot of time between both those locations and you know I was a little bit more drawn to the the countryside because I enjoyed hunting fish and doing things like that. At 17 years old I had asked my dad. I said, hey, I need to tell you something. You need to promise you won't tell this mom and it was that my girlfriend was pregnant oh and uh yeah he's like you know, I want you to, you know think about what you

Speaker 2 6:07

just told me. And, uh, you know, tell me how. I'm not supposed to tell your mother that but and but. That really is that's kind of where my head placement was at that point in my life. Um, I dropped out of high school.

Speaker 2 6:21

I, uh, you know, immediately went into, you know, working at a construction. You know doing framing. You know job, hop, went to work for a lumber mill where, you know, pulling logs off that were, you know, three times the size of me. That was not for me. I was about 150 pounds, soaking wet then and, you know, I was went into this apprenticeship for auto body and paint and I was, you know, determined that that was going to be the route I was going to take. But after spending six, seven months with some folks who had been doing paint their entire life, I was like there's not much of a health future for me in this line of work.

Speaker 2 6:59

So I was doing some work on my grandfather's farm. We were separating fences for cattle, putting in a lot of fence posts. He asked me to come sit down on the back of his tailgate and, uh, you know, shared proverbs 27, 17, as iron sharpens iron one man does, mother. And he said I know you look up to me he's. You know my grandfather was like the king of my world, you know, like always inspired to be like him. And uh, he said, I think you need to surround yourself with some people and inspire you to be a better version of you, to be the best dad you can be.

Speaker 2 7:28

So I, you know, a couple weeks later, went and joined the military, went in. You know, I was a, you know, basic in AIT as a combat engineer, which is essentially like explosives and demolition. And then, you know, I went to my first duty station, which is where I met that other piece of iron Iron sharpening iron is not an easy task and the gentleman I met, joe Fancher. He became a lifelong mentor. He, you know, he, put the boot to me.

Speaker 2 7:55

He was determined to make me less of a dirt bag, and he did, and so I went to ranger school. He went to SF and I, you know, said I want to do that. You know, I found someone that inspired me to pull me out of where I was as a young man, and it just kept that in the forefront of my mind is I want to continually try to be the best person I can be and surrounding myself with the best people to make me a better person, and that's how I ended up getting to SF and Special Forces.

Speaker 3 8:24

So they kind, of you know, like the SEALs, our buddy, they literally break you down and build you back up.

Speaker 2 8:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3 8:31

Is that what it's like?

Speaker 2 8:33

Yeah, you know, I think in the military in general it's you know, people come from all over the world and you're coming together so they break you down so that when you leave there you're a soldier. You so they break you down so that when you leave there you're a soldier. You know it's like you don't see a difference in the state they're from the accent they have or the accent they don't have. You know, it's just you leave there. You know, I always say it's commonplace to build bonds is when you're in suck. You know what.

Speaker 4 8:57

I mean.

Speaker 2 8:57

So when you're in misery, everybody's your friend. You know You're just looking for a lifeline, so, yeah, um, yeah, that's uh, that's kind of how it was with uh special forces, assessment and selection too. But there they really kind of focus on on two ways, you know. Focus on you as an individual. Um, how do you handle working by yourself? And then how do you handle working as a member of a team? Because when you're a small team navy seals, uh special operations, special forces you're working in a small team, so you need to be able to trust the people to your left and right.

Speaker 6 9:27

Curiosity, just because I was just a foot soldier at Fort Benning so I did that in like 87, 89, and you said Ranger, and you were taught a Ranger school later. Yeah, so to be Special Forces, do you need to be a Ranger first? Is that the way it is or is that the that's?

Speaker 2 9:44

you don't. Is or is that just two different? No, it's two different, two different pathways. Um, I just happened to go to ranger school. I wasn't in ranger regiment, I just went to ranger school. Um, as kind of a stepping it was actually my first school right out of basic training was. I went to a pre-ranger and then to ranger school and before airborne did you do airborne I?

Speaker 2 10:03

did airborne after ranger after ranger okay I was what you call a leg ranger. I was not airborne qualified for a little while, um, but I'm. I was thankful that I made ranger school. Uh, you know that first goal, because it kind of set the bar for the rest of them. You know, I feel like it was one of the most demanding outside of special forces qualification, if you can do that you can do anything.

Speaker 6 10:24

yeah, it was one of the most demanding outside of special forces qualification.

Speaker 2 10:26

Yeah, If you can do that, you can do anything.

Speaker 6 10:26

Yeah, it was just, you know, like go go all in, you know, and you got the Rangers have that week like the hell week with seals, right. So that's a can you? How's that differentiate? That's a good question, you know.

Speaker 2 10:45

Uh, I'm actually the CEO of the Honor Foundation. Who's?

Speaker 3 10:47

tougher, you or the SEALs? I always like to say who's smarter.

Speaker 2 10:50

No, they're great. I mean, you know we all give each other a hard time, but when it comes down to it, when you're overseas, you're all wearing the same flag, right that's right Amen.

Speaker 3 10:59

We appreciate that. So is that Green Beret so what's is that?

Speaker 2 11:10

green beret so is. Is the next step delta, or is that just another branch? They're a different, yeah, it's a whole different different organization?

Training and Selection Process

Speaker 3 11:14

yeah, so how do you make that choice? So at some point you have to make the leap to be. Is it another? More training to be a green beret after you've been a ranger and all stuff, right yeah?

Speaker 2 11:23

So the Special Forces, army-wise going to Special Forces, the first step is Special Forces Assessment Selection, which is about 30 days. It's where they test who you are as an individual and as a member of a team through a series of events a lot of land navigation, a lot of carrying a heavy ruck on your back and runs, a lot of land navigation, a lot of carrying a heavy ruck on your back and runs. And then, once selected, you attend what's called the qualification course and that's where you're given an MOS, a job specialty. My first job was a weapons sergeant on a team, and then you learn your job as an individual and then you're paired up with other group and you go through what what we call small unit tactics, which is working as a member of a team in your mos. And then you learn a language my second language was arabic um and then you go through um, what we call robin sage, which is, uh, the culmination exercise which puts it all together, and you're a member of an oda in a in a mock environment.

Speaker 2 12:23

Is. Is that a year long? It's about two years.

Speaker 5 12:28

I got to know what the average is city boys and country boys that make it.

Speaker 2 12:34

I'll tell you, there's a lot of country boys and southerners. Everybody was fearful of land navigation because you're doing I mean you're doing some long distance movements. When I say long, I mean you're putting a lot of miles, I mean lots of miles going through the woods at night. You're not allowed to use the roads and they'll catch you if you use the roads. But I loved it. I was like I'm in the woods by myself, no one's yelling at me. This is heaven. You know what I mean. Mean I could stay out here all day, um, but you know, I think you know that gets some people who are not used to being in that environment and the different noises, those yeah noises, put me to sleep, you know, yeah, so, uh, yeah, that's just incredible the arabic thing is blowing my mind, though like how long does?

Speaker 1 13:16

that take to actually be I don't want to say fluent, but I guess somewhat fluent yeah, well, like a rosetta stone thing itetta.

Speaker 2 13:25

Stone thing, so it's six months long, I mean, and it depends on the language that you have Six months. That's it yeah but it's six months of immersion. You're all day long. It's like college, all day and night. I wouldn't know what that's like Me either. Remember high school dropout?

Speaker 1 13:42

Yeah, okay, yeah, but so six months like all the time, every day, all day, yeah, that's what you're doing and that's what you're doing, and then that you know it's.

Speaker 2 13:52

It's not a skill like. Everything you learn throughout the course is not designed to be like oh, I learned that now I'm not ever going to use it again yeah everything that you learn you're going to be using yeah, there's a purpose, yeah there's a reason behind it and people are going to use it again.

Speaker 2 14:05

Everything that you learn you're going to be using later on. Yeah, there's a purpose, yeah, there's a reason behind it and people are going to rely on you to have those skills. So we take it seriously. It's something that you continue to train on when you're at your unit and actually it becomes a little bit easier because you go on deployments. The number of deployments in those locations is full immersion.

Speaker 2 14:21

How much time did you spend over there? My wife and I were trying to do the math. I think we've been married for 22 years and I think I may have been home about eight and a half of those. So a lot of time Almost exclusively in that area. Oh yeah, so each special forces. So, unlike other soft units, special forces we are assigned. Each group has an area of responsibility and 5th Special Forces Group, where I'm out of at Fort Campbell or where I was out of, is assigned the Middle East. That's our area of responsibility. All the other groups have had to help us and participate in the Middle East, so it's not like we've been solely there, but it's just been a lot of work.

Speaker 6 15:03

When you say soft units, is that the other branches of service?

Speaker 3 15:06

Yeah, soft, that's your unit. He's talking about you, caleb.

Speaker 2 15:10

Hey, I was actually in the Army Special Operations Forces, it's not fair that you were in the Army too.

Speaker 5 15:16

This is not fair. So you know you had to dig on the Marines.

Speaker 6 15:24

No gosh no, how long did you do that? Just two years, how long?

Speaker 4 15:27

are your socks, do you know?

Speaker 6 15:28

Arabic.

Speaker 4 15:29

I don't know Arabic. No.

Speaker 3 15:33

Different mission.

Speaker 6 15:34

Now look you, look at these guys who've not served at all. No Making fun of somebody who hasn't.

Speaker 3 15:39

That's like on a day.

Speaker 6 15:41

No, you're making fun of it?

Speaker 4 15:42

No, I promise you I wouldn't laugh today. What are you looking at me for?

Speaker 6 15:44

You've got guys that have been in for a year or two and they're dead.

Speaker 1 15:47

And you're making fun of somebody that joined the service. He's looking right at me.

Speaker 3 15:50

I couldn't make it. I wouldn't. No, I mean as a matter of fact. I mean I've got to know how many Go ahead.

Speaker 6 16:06

No, I'm just Years ago we did like a USO kind of tour in the Middle East. What year was that? When we served, when we served.

Speaker 1 16:13

We served drinks all night, yeah, we served drinks, we served drinks all night.

Speaker 3 16:19

No, it's actually, truly, it's true, though we were out there in the middle of nowhere. I mean Iraq, iraq in the desert somewhere, secret, base, secret base, night vision, you know 155 degrees and you and blown away by I mean truly what you guys do, and all joking aside, it was a life-changing experience.

Speaker 1 16:38

It was, yeah, it absolutely was, and just the appreciation we had for what you guys do, which actually makes me think did you guys ever have anybody that came over and played music for you guys? Do you remember any of that oh?

Speaker 2 16:51

absolutely. I remember Zach Brown Band coming, great Kid Rock came. I enjoyed those was. It was super cool to see. You know, people take time, I mean, and this was during christmas, right, you know it's like they should be home with their family.

Speaker 1 17:06

That's exactly when we did it and they're coming so telling I couldn't believe how appreciative the military was and we're like what are you talking about? You guys are the heroes. Like the test for us come over here is nothing but uh, just so much appreciation. And it's cool to hear that, like zach brown, I know kid rock does that a lot yeah, of course toby keith. Yeah, he did.

Military Deployment Experiences

Speaker 3 17:28

Yeah, three doors down yeah, there's a lot of stuff. I mean, I remember one of the coolest things in, even maybe before that this late 90s did one one at Guantanamo Bay and we were in a bar and it was probably 20 Marines and they were to this day. I remember every one of their faces. They were so appreciative and they had so much fun and it was like just to get back. As Kurt said, I mean, we're musicians and songwriters and what we do, compared to you guys, is a job in the bucket. So thank you for 100%, yeah, thanks for your service and for being here.

Speaker 6 18:08

I know we want to get to what you're doing now.

Speaker 4 18:10

It's such an honor for us.

Speaker 6 18:12

None of us could do anything of what you've done. We don't even know what you've done and things that you've seen. But just for the entertainment side, before we get to what you're doing, right now um movie wise cause. You've been at the highest level of combat military, all the training, the worst of the worst, best of the best. Uh, do you have a couple of movies you would drop that are as close to reality? As you, as you think, like like full metal jacket I know that's a great question like full metal jacket.

Speaker 2 18:43

I know that's marines, but like things like that, or heartbreak, ridge or any, any kind of things that you would say is kind of close to the way they communicate and talk and act as buddies and or rambo one through three that would throw us off because we love those movies well, I always blame my uh, my grandparents for allowing me to watch the a-team growing up, because you know, like I kind of wow, like man, subliminally, they were telling me I needed to be a green beret five you know, but um, really, uh, the one I will say is you know, tried and true is blackhawk down, yeah oh, yes, okay, because it's you know.

Speaker 2 19:12

You know sometimes it's, and I'll I'll caveat that with what you see in the movies is only five percent of what we do. There's a whole lot of other things that we do to continue to support our freedoms here. But Black Hawk Down, there's confusion and one of the characters in there says, talking about politics, he's like when bullets start flying, politics go out the the window. It's all about the person. You're left and right and that's really truly what it is that's the air being your character.

Speaker 3 19:45

So have you seen the documentary that just came out on netflix?

Speaker 2 19:49

I thought that was great yeah, it was really really good yeah what's it?

Speaker 1 19:52

called. Do you know black hawk down oh it's surviving black hawk down I believe is

Speaker 4 19:56

what it is on netflix and it's, and it's done and the book is incredible.

Speaker 3 20:01

Yes, it really is. Um, but like that, the way they did that documentary for the most part, I thought was pretty, pretty true, getting both sides of that yeah situation from a civilian standpoint and from the american soldier standpoint, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, 100, because I would have never in my mind wasn't really thinking about the somalian civilian side of that yeah, that could have turned into a much bigger shit show than it already was, and that's you know, that's one of the things that you have to have on your mind constantly as a small team is you're there.

Speaker 2 20:34

You know, in special operations we're there with an indigenous partner, we're there with a partner force and in a perfect world scenario, we go in, we accomplish a mission, we leave and they get the credit for it. But there are things that can flip the script on that real quick and you have to have that combat maturity to be able to say, hey look, we need to slow things down, or you know when to know, or when not to pull the trigger um and you know, it's just, that's where that's why we have such a you know grueling, um, you know selection processes.

Speaker 2 21:10

So we have to have the right people. It's all about the right, you know getting the right person.

Speaker 6 21:14

Yeah, yeah, it's not your basic soldier, you know, because they did a study, I read a lot about vietnam, because my uncle was in vietnam and that your your basic soldier, they said. They just said he like 15 would actually fire their weapon because if you fired the enemy would know where you were. Yeah, but in those kind of dedicated teams all you guys are firing.

Speaker 6 21:34

I mean right and that's just a whole nother level and I could see why people I mean, if you're in a combat, you're in and you're thinking, well, if I don't shoot, nobody's gonna know, I'm over here and you might live another day. You know, I don't know, but it's kind of interesting that 85 percent weren't firing.

Speaker 2 21:48

Yeah, that they could live, or even, even when tensions are high and you could fire, knowing that you shouldn't fire because it could cause this to spin out of control. You know that's, that's one of the things is that operational maturity to be able to you know, to make those decisions and trust everyone around you.

Speaker 3 22:06

That's it's really I mean me and Kurt talk about every now and then and Jason, where we're like after the Vegas scenario with the shooter in Vegas really made us. I talked to a lot of my navy seal buddies after that and I said, you know what, after going through that, the amount of training you guys need to go through to accept or know what's happening, was crazy to me because when it was happening, we were, you know, such a difference you couldn't even fathom what was happening, right and to know we're not equipped for you guys run towards that, or or your mind works that way yeah, it was so different to what you know.

Speaker 3 22:49

The everyday mind works like yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 22:52

Well, I mean it's no different than the music industry. You know like very different.

Speaker 6 22:57

No, go on. We are heroes. We are heroes.

Speaker 5 23:02

No, josh, you're the reason, guys like you are the reason that we wake up. At 11 o'clock in the morning, you start waking up.

Speaker 6 23:14

Oh, that would be, a great day. Draw that comparison.

Speaker 5 23:18

From a training aspect.

Speaker 2 23:21

When you first started playing the guitar, you weren't singing along too. You were still trying to figure out where you should put your fingers for the chords. We train a lot because that needs to become second nature, so that your brain can actually comprehend what's going on in the situation and make you know the decisions that it needs to make. So you know, it allows you to understand. When you're playing your instrument, you know like, hey, that's not in tune or we need to adjust that and be able to communicate that's really nice of you, but it's pretty much that, yeah, I can kind of see where you go.

Speaker 6 23:53

that's pretty much the same, so let's go on to what you're doing today. Tell him he won't even carry his own bass, neil.

Speaker 1 24:00

Stop. Hey, listen guys. This is a fascinating conversation with Josh Birch. Let's take a quick break for our sponsors. We've got to come back and talk about what he's doing now. It's super important and we want to make sure we get to it. Stick with us here and we'll be right back. Try that in a small-time podcast. But stick with us here and we'll be right back. Try that in a small-town podcast.

Speaker 7 24:21

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Speaker 5 25:17

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Speaker 6 25:26

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Speaker 1 25:32

Join our original glory family and help ignite that original glory spirit. All right, we are back from the patriot mobile studios. This is try that in a small town podcast we have josh first with us, badass green bray he is currently the director. You got to explain to us what this is director of peoples for the honor foundation. This is what you're doing now. You you said you should be hunting and fishing somewhere, but it led you somewhere, to this right.

Speaker 2 26:01

Well, when I was transitioning from service, well, back up a little bit, at 18 years, I thought about retiring from the military. A good friend of mine, jamie Kornowski he was a command chief warrant officer of 5th Special Force Group at the time called me in and asked you know, like, what's your plan? You know, you said you want to retire. And I'm like I don't really have a plan. And it's kind of odd because, as you know, special operations I'm always planning for whatever's next. But I didn't have a plan and it really it got me thinking. So I just elected to stay in.

Speaker 2 26:34

A gentleman I worked with was on terminal leave and he was overseas doing contract work, which was usually the fallback plan for our folks. There was a lot of money in it. He was killed while he was on terminal leave and I was like I don't want to take that path. So I decided to stay in so I could have the Air Force's finest and medevac if I needed it. While we, we uh, executed our plan, my wife and I came up with strategy which is to dave ramsey, dave ramsey, essentially pay everything off, uh, so that you know, you know, I could pursue my dream of hunting and fishing every day.

Speaker 2 27:08

Um as I was yeah and uh, you know, I mean, sounds amazing, yeah well, and at 26 years, when we finally uh, pulled the trigger on retirement, my wife said I'm not used to you being around this much, I'm going back to work full time.

Speaker 5 27:27

That's our first real true thing, that we have in common.

Speaker 6 27:30

Connection right there.

Speaker 3 27:31

When the tour ends, my wife's like when do you leave again? Wait a minute, 100%. So we are like we're you leave again Wait a minute 100%. So we are like. We're like Green Berets and musicians.

Speaker 2 27:43

Exactly, you know.

Speaker 6 27:45

Well, except for there may be one difference, because I was going to ask this. But now, since y'all stopped there, it's like you know, when you get back from your missions and all that, and you're fresh off and she's glad to see you and everything, and you cry, you embrace, do all the things, and she's glad to see you and everything, and you cry, you embrace, do all the things. A few days, a few weeks goes by and then you're just a husband and you're a dad and you're there Every night. Does she lay on your chest and say thank you for being such a hero?

Speaker 4 28:10

Can I say yes?

Speaker 6 28:13

You better say yes when you're taking out the trash and stuff. Do you think special forces?

Speaker 3 28:16

Why am I taking out the?

Speaker 4 28:17

trash.

Speaker 2 28:19

I'm a freaking green beret. No, I know who runs our house.

Speaker 1 28:22

Well, amen, she, she takes care of it.

Speaker 2 28:26

I mean she, you know she's taking care of our kids and everything. When I always say you know our chaplains, when we come back we have like reintegration, training and everything, and they're like you know they call it passing the remote. They're like don't, don't go in and take the remote on night one. I'm like I just don't take the remote because I know she's going to need that remote in a few weeks. You know I'm going to be going back to do some training or or on another deployment.

Speaker 3 28:48

So my wife, you know taking we need someone to help us after tour.

Speaker 2 28:58

Reintegration yes To the house. I mean, it sounds like what's the severance?

Speaker 4 29:04

Do you?

Speaker 3 29:04

guys watch Severance. Severance is great Reintegration, because anyway.

Speaker 5 29:08

Yeah, you do. I mean people out there tuning your bass.

Speaker 3 29:11

My wife goes Carrying your bass. She always says she goes, you're treating this house like a hotel.

Speaker 4 29:16

Yes, yes, you're treating this house like a hotel.

Speaker 3 29:18

Yes, Do you?

Speaker 6 29:24

know who I am. Do you know who I think I am?

Speaker 3 29:27

Surely I'm not going to have to straighten this place up.

Speaker 5 29:31

Have you ever taken the garbage out? Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 29:33

Oh, come on, please Make my son do it In show clothes. That's why I have children.

Speaker 6 29:38

That's the whole point of this. But when you guys come back from the road with Aldine, just as a comparison, josh, Are they at the edge of the?

Speaker 3 29:48

It's our deployment. We have a 45-shot deployment.

Speaker 6 29:51

Do they run to the end of the driveway and are there tears when you guys get back? Oh, my God Father.

Speaker 4 29:58

Oh Father.

Speaker 2 29:59

Welcome home, Father. Thank God you're back safe.

Speaker 1 30:02

No, not a lot of that.

Speaker 6 30:03

No, okay, not a lot of that. I don't know. If there's an exact comparison, go ahead, josh. Which one are you talking?

Speaker 2 30:09

about. That's one of the things. At my retirement my daughter got up and it broke my heart I haven't even given my speech yet, like my retirement, you know, like thank everyone. And my daughter got up and she said my dad always said, you know, I'm going on a deployment. She never understood what that meant and it didn't really click until my retirement that I never really explained what is a deployment. All she saw is dad is going to get dropped off and he is going to be gone for six months or who knows how long. And you know my son was the same way. You know they never explained what was happening. So you know it was kind of. You know they resented me a little bit for that because they didn't understand why I was leaving. They just, you know, knew that I was leaving. So you know, fast forward to now, you know they are extremely appreciative. But I've always said that I volunteer, my wife even volunteers because she married me. But my kids, they were put through it sacrificially, 100%. They truly did not have any say-so in it.

Speaker 1 31:15

We started to talk about it, but make sure we get to this, because the Honor Foundation what they're doing for veterans.

Speaker 2 31:21

Please explain that, yeah, so the Honor Foundation is a program. It's a transition program, like I mentioned earlier is you know if you're a musician your whole life and then all of a sudden you can't be a musician anymore and you have to find out what's next. You know that's what the Honor Foundation does for special operations. It's a three-month course that really takes you through. You know, phase one is all about you as an individual introspective look of what are your strengths, what are your preferences, because this is the first time in our military careers we've actually had like, you know, the world's your oyster, what do you want to do? And it's the first time that our spouses and family have had a say-so in it. So we have a course that runs parallel with the Honor Foundation which is called Transition as a Team Sport, which has the spouse do the same thing Look at their strengths, look at their preferences, and then you put the two together, because across my military career, I've always planned as a member of a team. Now, when it comes to transition, I don't have that team anymore. So it was like, either I'm planning or, you know, my wife has her own ideas of what, you know, transition should look like, and our kids too, but we try to bring everyone together to plan.

Speaker 2 32:33

And then you have the cohort and our volunteers. You know we solely rely on volunteers throughout our course to help with the networking. And then phase two is all about, you know, providing them the tools you know, like LinkedIn, resume mock interviews. We do business 101, just like we learned Arabic and other languages. We're teaching them, you know, the business language and we're not a job placement. We want to help them do whatever they want. If it's hunting, fishing professionally, then by all means let's help them do that, um, but if it's opening up their own business, you know, small business startup, uh, whatever the case may be, we want to provide them the tools and the network to do that, uh so that's I, and I didn't mean to interrupt, so that's a great point, because I didn't really know.

Speaker 1 33:18

This isn't like a job placement service. This is just how do I get from here to here and transition into what I haven't known for 25 years.

Speaker 3 33:29

It's a structured process. And that's completely like rewiring your brain. Yeah Right, to enter into normalcy. And there is another parallel that I see, as you, as you speak, and it's we talk about this, like our identity is is in music and what we do, and you have an identity. So how do you, when that identity is changing, like there's a certain amount of accepting that too? Yeah right, so we have that difficult.

Speaker 2 33:59

The brief that we give as a recruiting brief for our fellows. We have a word cloud in it. It's all the stressors that people say that they're dealing with during transition from military and you know one of the ones. That is, you know, probably you know the different word clouds where the words are different sizes.

Speaker 2 34:17

Identity and purpose are not the largest, you know, usually it's family, career, but identity and purpose are the two that kind of stand out to me and it's because for so long we've been a part of something bigger than ourselves. And identity and being a Green Beret or a Special Operations Soldier, you know, that's who I was, you know, but that's not who I am, you know, even in my role as the director of people for the Honor Foundation here in Tennessee, is, you know, I'm still part of something bigger than myself. And I tell them I don't care if it's like helping a little league soccer team, you know, running for mayor in your town, whatever your leadership is needed in our community and we really encourage them, you know is needed in our community and we really encourage them, you know, to find, you know, purpose in life, so something that'll fill that cup. Because, looking back at you know, and I really feel that we're, you know, you know, suicide awareness, you know, with veteran suicide, you know, is such a high rate. I think that part of that is purpose.

Speaker 4 35:15

Like you, want to feel pride waking up every morning.

Speaker 2 35:19

And I think that we are on the front end of that. We're not suicide prevention, we're suicide prevention in the. On the front end, um so you know, like helping them find purpose, helping them find a value in themselves and a reason to get out of bed every morning, so that you know that that's not even a thought yeah, so it's like some physical tools, but it's a lot of mental tools too right, absolutely yeah, so it's like some physical tools, but it's a lot of mental tools too right.

Identity and Purpose After Service

Speaker 2 35:40

Yeah, absolutely, and it's the network, I mean our alumni. It's not, you know, we say with honor for life, and you know we are. I mean, I have alumni who come in every cohort to share with the next cohort their successes and to encourage them and inspire them, and these are folks who have accomplished things that 99.9 of the population would never even want to do, and it's like going into the normal society is like scary, it's like we just we're just there to encourage them, provide them the necessary tools in the planning process to be able to accomplish what they want to do yeah, and that's.

Speaker 6 36:15

It's cool. We kind of kidded about you know being similar, but but it really is. Purpose is the thing. When you said that, and reading about you, that's the most important thing for everybody. At some point, the job that you do, you're going to age out of it physically, mentally, whatever. And then what do you do? Do you just talk about the old days? And some people do, and that's fine too, but you're young enough to where and we are too that if something happened and hey, we're not getting a lot of songs recorded or whatever what are we going to do? Are we just going to talk about how cool we were back here when we were doing this stuff, or do we do that? Are we Christians? Are we telling people about Jesus? Whatever that purpose is, people got to find it, and if you don't have that purpose, it's hard to get out of bed. Yeah, well, what's?

Speaker 3 36:58

interesting is, on a side note or serious note really just the other night I texted, uh, kurt and jason. I said is anybody missing the stage yet? And that just kind of clicked in my brain as we're talking about this, like how the identity, that's how we're wired right now, like it's it's the same, it's for years, for forever. We're wired to have that perception of us which is up there and it's it's weird, like I'm sitting around or we're, you know, just in town, like okay, I can see that being an issue, like you guys are trained at the highest level military and that's a certain pride in that. And then when it's gone, it's like okay, well, you know what?

Speaker 1 37:53

now, what now?

Speaker 5 37:53

yeah, um I did the same. I went through the same thing, like not the same thing that you did, but no one goes through the same thing, like not the same thing that you did. No one goes through the same thing, but it's like, okay, I'm going to wind it down here, I'm going to slow it down, I'm going to go hunting and fishing. That's what I'm going to do.

Speaker 4 38:12

I'm going to spend all my time and play golf.

Speaker 5 38:13

Yeah, I'm going to hunt fish and play golf. It sounds fantastic. And then once you start doing that, you're like wait a minute.

Speaker 1 38:25

I can still be relevant.

Speaker 5 38:26

I think I can still make up stuff. I mean, you went through the same thing.

Speaker 1 38:30

So you were saying that, like just how Neil was saying. That was like, hey, that's what I'm going to do. So what happened inside of you to say, no, I need to get involved in something like this I went through the honor foundation.

Speaker 2 38:45

Yeah, oh really yeah and I I turned down. You know I had so many of my mentors. You know talking about mentorship, you know mentorship has been part of my whole life. I mean, I went from high school dropout I I do have college now, but you know to a senior leader in special operations and I only got there because I listened to mentors. But when it came to transition and everybody was like, hey, you need to go through the honor foundation, you need to go through the honor, I was like I don't need that unless they're giving me good fishing spots.

Speaker 4 39:12

I don't need it.

Speaker 2 39:20

I love it. I went through the course and, like I said, introspective look. Phase one was when they sprinkled voodoo magic on me because I started looking at who I am, what are my strengths and what are my motivators. My primary motivator is altruism helping other people. And I look back over my career. We do the Simon Sinek Start With why program and if I think about the stories, even back to when my grandfather said, you know, you need to find people to inspire you to be a better version, it's all about mentorship and helping other people.

Speaker 2 39:50

I saw that, you know, in a community in Manchester, tennessee, where you know, every time somebody gets sick at church, my grandma's making them a potluck to take to them or something you know, just helping people in your community. And I'm like I need a reason to get out of bed. I need to be a part of something and helping other people. And then, as I was going through the course, matt Stevens, ceo, had offered me an opportunity to start a campus here to support Fifth Group and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and I knew I had to jump on it because I'm not a believer in coincidence.

Speaker 2 40:27

You know like I went through this course for a reason. And then these opportunities opened up and you know, I've got three jobs now. I work for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce part-time in a consultant role, working veterans initiatives on the business side and working with the state. I work for the Honor Foundation full-time and then I'm a volunteer at the Special Forces Association vice president, where we help Gold Star family members. So I realized, like you, when I took a break, I wasn't accomplishing the things that I wanted to accomplish and I said I've got this laundry list of stuff I need to do on our farms.

Speaker 2 41:01

I need pressure to accomplish this. And having that busy schedule helps me accomplish it.

Speaker 5 41:05

And guess what? You still have time to go fishing and hunting.

Speaker 2 41:08

Exactly, you still have time Went on my first elk hunt this year. There you go, got to harvest bulls, so it was a great experience. But yeah, wow.

Speaker 6 41:17

So you're one of those amazing people that make everybody else feel bad about it no, taylor, I was just self-reflecting.

Speaker 2 41:25

I was here talking my name every morning. I'm kidding.

Speaker 6 41:28

I was going to say just be thankful for your hardwiring, because in your family DNA you've got some good stuff in your mind and your heart that helps you make those decisions.

Speaker 2 41:38

Well said, I'm grateful for the folks who raised me and really you know, like I've always said, if I owned and I appreciate you all have me on here and listen to some of your podcasts that you you like to bring out the good in the community, because I've always said, if I owned a news agency, for every bad thing that was reported I'd report three good things, because there's a lot of good that goes on in the community and that's what inspires people.

Small Town Values and Community

Speaker 3 41:59

you know it's like well, you were the reason, people like you are the reason why we started this podcast, amen yep. It's to try to give back, especially to our military and our veterans, because I I really do feel like over the last few years, just a complete last lack of disrespect or lack of respect for the military. I feel that, um, I feel like more. I feel like we're getting it back, but I feel like it's important that people know what you guys go through and how hard you train, but also what you do after and uh, it's incredible. Thank you so much for well I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 42:30

Yeah, josh I mean and seriously, we, we said at the beginning we, you know, we've been fortunate to have some you, whatever guests on and we've been like, oh, that that's cool, that's cool, but this is what it's all about. This right here is what it's all about, and what you do means the world, and I can't even tell you what an honor it is for you to come here and be with us. I promise you it's been an absolute pleasure.

Speaker 2 42:56

Well, I appreciate it. And even with the Honor Foundation, nothing I've ever done across my career has been a me, it's been a we. And with Honor Foundation I have two great teammates. I have Shane Minnick, who's been a longtime teammate of mine. He's a Green Beret retired Sergeant Major. He's just an excellent, excellent individual. And then Jackie Edwards. She's a spouse of a Night Stalker, a retired Night Stalk. You know, I've never accomplished anything by myself. It's always been a part of a team and I'm glad that it's continuing that way. Post-military Well, we thank you for being here.

Speaker 6 43:30

Thank you very much, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 43:34

God bless you. Yep. All right, jimmy, I think that was great. Do you want to get to?

Speaker 2 43:41

something.

Speaker 5 43:42

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 43:43

So we've got, so the big thing all right, so we're a nonprofit. We have one fundraiser here a year.

Speaker 5 43:50

Oh, let's get to it.

Speaker 2 43:52

It's a Nashville Music City event.

Speaker 3 43:53

Let's do it. It's coming up. Yeah, let's get right here, bring it back, bring it back on.

Speaker 1 44:01

Hey, before we go, we got it, we got to uh, talk about the fundraiser you got coming up right, yes, sir, what is it?

Speaker 2 44:05

uh? So, uh, we have one fundraiser we do here in in uh in tennessee every year and it's uh, this is our fourth annual uh music city fundraiser. It's for the honor foundation. Uh, this year it's going to be on april 3rd, um, at the geotis park. Um, it's a great opportunity.

Speaker 1 44:20

How do people find out about it? Is there a website we can?

Speaker 4 44:23

go to.

Speaker 2 44:23

Yeah, go to honororg forward slash events. There's an opportunity to sign up sponsor tables. We have a live auction. We have entertainment. It's a good night. You hear from our alumni. We have business leaders in the community that'll speak and share. You know folks who have actually hired our alumni and share the positive impact they're making in their organizations. So great opportunity to get involved. And if there's any other, like I said, we rely on volunteers. We have mock interviews, resume review and we have what we call cups of coffee, which is how we inform our fellows of different you know careers, help them make an informed decision on what they want to do next. So if anybody's interested in getting involved, absolutely check it out.

Speaker 1 45:06

Give it what's the website again, or how they check honororg, honororg forward, slash events or slash events go there and check that out. Hey, before you go, I do have to ask you because I know you're from a small town and you love community and paying it forward and doing right by your neighbor. Uh, did you know of the song? Uh, try that in a small town jason, yes, I did yep, yeah, what did uh? What was your thought when that came out?

Speaker 1 45:35

because there was a lot of people that didn't like it, uh. But I know that you're from a small town and I've heard you talk about just that sense of community and it kind of brought a smile to my face and I was like, man, that's, that's what we were trying to do.

Speaker 2 45:47

Yeah, you know, I, you know, I think people can read whatever they want, or or, you know, find conflict in anything.

Speaker 2 45:55

you know but that's really like I think the small town, what anything you know, but that's really uh, like I think the small town. What I learned from a small town is even the small town I live in now in cooper town is I know more people within eight, ten miles than I did when I lived in a neighborhood, and it's because you rely on each other a lot more when it snows. I know I need to go check on, you know, the elderly couple down the road to make sure they don't need anything so they don't have to get out.

Speaker 2 46:22

And I really think that's where the song resonated with me. Like in a small town people are a little bit closer than in a bigger city, where everything is so rushed that you really don't have time to acknowledge the world around you. And that's just me personally.

Speaker 1 46:37

By the way, that was unrehearsed.

Speaker 3 46:38

That was amazing.

Speaker 6 46:43

He is taking over our podcast would you like to join us thursday?

Speaker 1 46:48

seriously, josh, thank you for being here.

Speaker 2 46:50

It's an honor.

Speaker 5 46:51

I appreciate the opportunity thank you so much, brother. Thank you, I mean. Josh makes me want to get in shape, he makes me want to plank every night before I go to bed. When you sit across from a Green Beret, you want to.

Speaker 1 47:11

I'm with you. You feel so inferior.

Speaker 6 47:14

Well, because we are inferior. You're right. I don't even feel inferior, I am inferior. I'm not sure if planks is going to level the playing field, if we could do a minute plank or even a 90-second plank or two-minute plank like Telly said if you can do a three-minute plank, that's amazing, and that's a whole other topic.

Speaker 5 47:31

A three-minute plank. He can't do a three-minute plank. There's no way in hell.

Speaker 6 47:35

Okay.

Speaker 3 47:35

Even if he could, let's end this episode right now. You can't. There's no way to tell him how much.

Speaker 6 47:39

Tell him you can't. Your hair weighs too much. I can't do a three-minute play. You can't do it. This is about Josh Birch, a retired Special.

Speaker 5 47:44

Forces Green Beret. I know right, we always make it about us.

Speaker 1 47:48

You know what my favorite question was, for whatever weird reason, was what movie I seriously thought that was amazing.

Speaker 6 47:57

That's K-Lo magic right there. Well, we all love movies.

Speaker 1 48:00

Well, thank you.

Speaker 4 48:01

Thank you very much, guys. My name is Kelly.

Speaker 6 48:05

Jim, can you turn this up please? No, I really love that because we're obviously fans of all the military stuff Rambo and all those things which we know are sensationalized and all that but for somebody who's actually been in combat, what do they think what's?

Speaker 1 48:18

your favorite military movie.

Speaker 6 48:19

Well, I mean, I like all of them. I like any Vietnam movie.

Speaker 5 48:22

He's a Rambo guy.

Speaker 6 48:23

I mean Rambo, but I like Chuck.

Speaker 4 48:25

Norris, I like Missing in Action.

Speaker 6 48:28

I mean, I like the old stuff too, but like Mission, band of Brothers, that whole thing you know a couple times, Just so many, yeah, but when he mentioned Black Hawk Down, Then you think of the sniper ones and all the Middle East stuff, which is there's a lot of combat. I like a lot of them.

Speaker 1 48:42

It was fun hearing his take, that was incredible Blazing Saddles.

Speaker 6 48:49

Yeah, and there's another great military movie.

Speaker 1 48:51

Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today, by the way.

Speaker 5 48:54

No, it could not.

Speaker 1 48:55

No, not a chance, no chance, not a chance, not a chance, no chance, not a chance, not a chance I wouldn't think so.

Speaker 6 49:01

I wouldn't think so.

Music City Fundraiser Event

Speaker 1 49:03

Oh my gosh, Listen, we got to make sure everybody. We got a lot of things to plug here. Go to the. Try that in a Small Town website, right, you can get some of that right there, get some sweatshirts, come on. Sweatshirts. Follow us on all the socials. Follow us on all the socials. Make sure you go to X. Make sure you go to Insta TikTok. Where else are we? Are we missing any Facebook? Follow us on all that stuff. Allie, anything, allie is that all of us. What else do we need?

Speaker 5 49:31

We on Rumble, yet Are we on Rumble, we are Heck yeah.

Speaker 6 49:39

Let's get ready to Rble do it.

Speaker 1 49:41

Oh my god, we love you guys. Thank you for uh sticking with us. And just to reiterate, seriously, we we have a lot of guests on here. We've been incredibly blessed, but tonight I don't know. It's what it's all about yeah it's special night yep special night and the fact that he's giving back and making sure we're taking care of our veterans. It is what it's all about. These are the Patriot Mobile Studios. Why don't I say these?

Speaker 5 50:11

No, it's too bad that we can't do the plank off on video. It's too bad.

Speaker 1 50:16

I promise you it's going to be on video. It's too bad. I promise you it's going to be on video. We'll figure it out.

Speaker 3 50:20

This is not going to be close. Let's explain to people you can't do a three-minute plank.

Speaker 6 50:25

Really no.

Speaker 5 50:26

Really no, you can't. Your hair weighs too much.

Speaker 6 50:28

It's not going to happen, your head will be sagging like I can't keep my hair up and I'm not going to say you can't do it. If you do a three-minute plank, that's beyond impressive, that's really impressive.

Speaker 3 50:41

I want to see your abs. Well, we can't end this fast enough. Let's go Three-minute plank, all right.

Speaker 6 50:46

Right after the golf tournament Ten tops everyone.

Speaker 1 50:50

This is Try that in a Small Town podcast. Thanks for joining us, guys Make sure to follow along.

Speaker 4 50:55

Subscribe. Share, rate the show.