BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 49 - Faith After Firefights: Retired Colonel George Glaze on Trauma and Transformation
When retired Army Colonel George Glaze rolls up his sleeves to help troubled youth through horse therapy or counsel police officers as a chaplain, he's drawing from a lifetime of hard-earned wisdom. In a powerful conversation with hosts Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr, Colonel Glaze opens up about his journey—from leading troops through the streets of Baghdad to guiding his congregation at Beach Grove Church of the Brethren.
With raw honesty, Colonel Glaze recounts the emotional toll of delivering 23 casualty notifications to families of fallen soldiers. “A mom crying in Spanish is a mom crying,” he reflects—capturing the universal language of grief that knows no boundaries. His words connect deeply, whether or not you've worn a uniform.
What makes this episode stand out is Colonel Glaze’s ability to blend battlefield leadership with deep vulnerability. He shares the moment his own healing journey began: after losing his temper at a bus driver in front of his family, he realized he needed help. It’s a powerful gateway into a broader discussion about PTSD and the ongoing mental health challenges faced by veterans and first responders.
Listeners will also be moved by his tribute to his wife Valerie, who attended over 100 memorial services while raising their children alone during his deployments. Her quiet strength and resilience shine as a reminder of the emotional weight service families often carry behind the scenes.
From soldier to pastor, equine therapist to police chaplain, Colonel Glaze's story is a testament to the power of faith, service, and transformation. “In loving one another, you're loving God,” he says—a simple yet profound truth at the heart of his life’s work.
Have you ever wondered how true warriors carry their invisible scars? Join Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr for an unforgettable conversation with Colonel George Glaze, as he shares wisdom on processing trauma, finding purpose, and turning pain into healing for others.
Father, we thank you for today, we thank you for your son and we thank you for the blessings that we have. And may we not take it for granted, father. May we use this platform, this discussion, this fellowship, to bring honor and glory to you. May we get out of the way of the message that's in our hearts that again may lead more people to live Christ and to live life, for it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Speaker 2:Amen. Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass.
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Speaker 4:Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 5:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 4:We're your hosts, dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives. This is Be Tempered. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, episode number 49. All right, episode number 49. All right, he got it. 49. Today, we've got an inspiring man here. I'm going to read a little intro about our guest.
Speaker 4:Retired Army Colonel George A Glaze is a distinguished military leader and community figure. His notable military service includes a focus on soldier welfare. In 2012, colonel Glaze emphasized the importance of creating a supportive command environment to address suicide prevention within the Army. Beyond his military career, colonel Glaze has been active in his local community. In 2020, he was introduced as the new pastor at Beach Grove Church of the Brethren, bringing his leadership skills to serve the congregation. Colonel Glaze's dedication to both his country and community underscore his commitment to service and leadership. His multifaceted career reflects a dedication to both national service and local involvement, reflects a dedication to both national service and local involvement, highlighting his diverse contributions to society. Colonel Glaze spent decades leading soldiers in the United States Army, not only on the battlefield, but in the fight for mental health and soldier welfare, emphasizing the importance of leadership and preventing tragedies like suicide. Colonel Glaze, it's a privilege and honor to have you here today. Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast.
Speaker 1:It's my honor. I appreciate being here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we had a couple. We've got some common friends. You got a neighbor that I see at the Y every morning and I told you when we met last week that two different instances both of them came up to me not knowing that the other did and your name was brought up that you needed to come and tell your story on the podcast. So I'm grateful for both of those men and I'm grateful for you having the courage to come in and tell your story.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it, and those two people are suspect.
Speaker 4:you know, that's the advice we got from them. That's why we won't mention their names.
Speaker 1:I am humbled. That introduction is very humbling. Um, I want to put up front that I want to get out of the way. Uh, I know you asked me to tell my story and how it could help people. I know that, Um, but in telling my story, it, it, it a lot of. It's crazy. I don't believe half of it. Um, there's a lot of experiences that I was able to have and I'm grateful and blessed for it, but when you list them all together, uh, it can go and inflate my ego. I have a healthy, uh ego from having the room called to attention, to whole building you know I had a parking spot as a Colonel all these things that can make your ego large. And so I have a really big chain that ties down that tiger in my head and we don't want to feed him. We don't want to feed him, or he gets hungry.
Speaker 1:But I hope that this can benefit others is what we're doing.
Speaker 4:Well, and you say that, but I also, as people, will hear your story. We will come to find out that you are a servant leader, you're someone who leads by example. You're someone who deflects. You know all the recognition that you do deserve, and so by hearing this, people will come to recognize that. So, yeah, so what we want to do is how we start every, every episode is we want to know your story. We want to start from the beginning. We want to hear about childhood. We want to hear about those, those people that had big impacts on your life and your family and your friends and all those good things. So your thing.
Speaker 1:Um, I have notes, yeah, um, it's a good childhood. I had two older brothers. Uh, we had our fair share. I was the baby, that means I'm right all the time, that also means I'm spoiled but we had our fair share of brotherly love and fights and all that. But it was a good childhood. I was in the Boy Scouts early because my dad was a Boy Scout and my other two brothers were Boy Scouts. He was Eagle Scout and all three of us are Eagle Scout and that even was interesting that my son, josh, he's Eagle Scout too. So that's in there. A lot of skills come from that.
Speaker 1:I'm in the middle of ranger school and we're canoeing and I realized the water is about 59 degrees, it's about 32. This is in Florida in the winter, and the guy in front of me is not feathering his paddle. He does not know that concept. He is splashing and it's getting on my leg and we got hypothermia. That could be, you know, minutes away. So I'm trying to instruct him to do the J stroke.
Speaker 1:A silly little thing like that comes all the way back from when I was a boy scout and I got to canoe and mirror badge. That's a little aside. I went. Uh, I grew up in enon, which is a little town and backwards it spells none, it has one traffic light. But it was a great place to grow up with little league and the high schools and middle schools and the elementary schools, everybody. It was a community. So that was cool for us. Um, this is going to be interesting with the Boy Scout thing.
Speaker 1:When I was young Boy Scout I looked up the ranks. This is corny, okay, but there's tenderfoot, there's first class, there's second class, first class, star, life and eagle. There's six Early on. I put together those six ranks is the same thing as being a second lieutenant, a first lieutenant, a captain, a major lieutenant, colonel and colonel, which is 06. The eagle is on the top. I know that sounds corny, but in my little mind that back then even that's kind of where I was wanting to go I didn't know how I'd get there, I didn didn't know if I could, but that that Eagle Scout and then uh, the rank I was able to uh get uh meant something.
Speaker 4:So you knew from an early age that you wanted to be in the military.
Speaker 1:I initially was Navy because my dad was Navy. Um, I stayed up every year, uh, had to get extra sleep to prepare for it. My mom thought you could bank it, but you remember when Tora, Tora, Tora and Midway would only come on once a year there's no DVD, there's no VCR and so I would stay up with my dad and watch those and those were the best ones going. So I was Navy until the applications came back and had said the army said we'll take you as you are, and the military academy, and then the Naval Academy, said we'll take you with a waiver because of your eyes. And so I went with the folks that like me as I am so you were ready to go.
Speaker 4:I was ready to go, so you rolled into the army yes, I went to.
Speaker 1:Uh well, so I'm at west point. I get in there somehow. I'll tell you how I I get a handout flyers. My mom arranged it. I get a handout flyers for a young congressman from springfield just coming up through the ranks and it ends up being Mike DeWine and I think he had something to do with me being able to get into West Point.
Speaker 1:West Point was amazing, tough, and so here's a funny aside that I was doing fine in high school. I wasn't a 4.0, but I was up there advanced calculus and stuff like that. I ran four years cross-country and track. The track was really only keeping me in shape for cross-country, the same coach, but I was all that and a bag of chips. I mean, I was running a 59 quarter. I was running a 201 half mile. I was running a 501 mile. I was running a 1028 two and a half mile. I was running a 501 mile. I was running a 1028 to an app mile. I was all that.
Speaker 1:And then I go to West Point and then I go down to try to get out of the hazing that is normally going on with the plebes. I want to go down and be a core score, a core squad athlete. I want to be on one of the teams and then it lets me eat like a human or normal and be socializing a lot more than I am getting when I'm getting hazed in the mess hall with all the other freshmen. Okay, well, I go down to the, to the track house. I stand in front of it, had attention to the track coach, civilian. He's what do you want, glaze? And I said, well, sure, I, I'd like to help the track team. And he's okay, what do you do, sir? I run a 59 quarter. Okay, what else A 501 mile? What else A 201 half mile, a 1028, two and a half mile. And he laughed he goes Glaze. I got girls running that in practice right now. Go back up the hill and I just scooted. It was humbling, it was amazingly humming, yeah.
Speaker 4:So talk about so what's next for you while you're in West Point? Now you're. Now you're back in the mess hall. Right Now you're. You're one of those plebs you talked about.
Speaker 1:And it is a tough grind. If I got those good grades you know the close to 4.0 or 3.9, I mean I'm hanging in with a 2.65. It's tough. It was tough to physically. I was in it, I was sold out, if you will. There was nothing else going on in the world but me trying to go through those four years. I kind of also got a little philosophy. They don't shoot the lead duck and they don't shoot the rear duck. They shoot the duck in the middle usually, and so I'll stay. No, it's the other way around. They usually shoot the first duck or the last duck and I'm in the middle at 265.
Speaker 1:so I'm good, um, but I was able to get infantry out of that uh graduated and then was uh at ranger school okay, so talk about ranger school ranger school is a whole nother start overseas because, again, I was west point grad and had to stick her in my car and a ring on my finger and ranger school immediately humbles you. Um, you take the ring off, you're going to 62 days of intense training where they try to um, get you to be hungry, wet and cold and those three things in my life I will try to avoid to have those three things all at once. I can be cold and wet, but I'll be nibbling on something. I always try never to have those three together because psychologically, physiologically, you are not making as good of decisions as you could.
Speaker 1:A couple, for instance, is again, you report in at a ranger school and there's a physical test, a PT test, and you're doing push-ups and sit-ups and just to mess with you, get in that head of yours early. You come up to do your push-ups. There's a line of 50 guys and you come up to do your push-ups and you'll get one, two, three this is the ri, the ranger instructor, counting them. Three, four, four, four, four, get up, go back to the end of the line and you could do that five or six times, I mean. And that's just the sit-up or the push-up and then you've got the run. So it's a constant messing of your mind and you end up having a twisted sense of humor where you've kind of got to laugh. You've got to laugh it off. If you take it serious it could break you. So that came on at an early age.
Speaker 4:So not only physical, I mean major physical challenges, but the mental probably tougher than the physical.
Speaker 1:right yes, Again, the cold, wet, hungry hits after that and the funny thing is you know all that in a bag of chips coming out of West Point. Okay, you're a roster number. I was. I was R 43 or something, so it wasn't colonel or captain or major or Lieutenant, it was kid idiot. I bet you're a kid idiot. And he'd come over and call you by your roster number and you weren't wearing your rank or nothing and again you outrank the guy in the in the army world but not in ranger school, and you go and do whatever they say. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Did you ever feel like quitting?
Speaker 1:I got married. I went on a winter break so I graduated, or I was in the desert phase in Utah on the 15th of December, on the 19th of December of December, being married by Ellis Guthrie in the Eaton Church of the Brethren, and then I go back for the Florida phase, the final phase, into January. And so when I got down there after Christmas break and I look at my ring, I have a wife, I have a lovely life to go, there was chance, there was opportunities, there were things that you would think about, but I just couldn't. Uh that half moon shaped patch, ranger, gold and black, I couldn't leave without it yeah, so you were determined you weren't stopping, you were going to continue on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was in there, had to, so talk about finishing up ranger school finishing it up, there's another funny story.
Speaker 1:My dad and Valerie come down for the graduation and my dad is out there to pin on my tab. He pins on my tab and he bumps into the guy that's putting his tab on his son in front of me who's a Marine Lieutenant. They go to Ranger school and it's G Gordon Liddy. And in G Gordon Liddy's tenure my dad bumps into him and there's two guys, one on either side of G Gordon Liddy, and they're obviously have things under their jackets that make them bulky. And I'm like dad, don't bump G Gordon Liddy, please don't do it again.
Speaker 1:Graduating ranger school, then I go to my first assignment at Fort Campbell, kentucky. Um, that was an adventure. Uh, the wife moved along right there with me, valerie. Uh, we had gotten married again on that ranger break. Um, me, valerie, we had gotten married again on that ranger break. But then we go to the field immediately at the 101st for eight weeks. So Valerie's in an apartment saying what just happened?
Speaker 1:You fast forward a couple of years. I'm going to Desert Shield, desert Storm. Valerie's six months pregnant. I'm getting on the aircraft to go to Iraq and my XO, the major above me, said turned around on the aircraft said you're not coming back for that bird. You know that I'm like Roger, that sir. So again the hardships. We're over there. Six months we deployed after the Ohio National Guard here. My brother-in-law's in that Ohio National Guard was. He deployed first, and then I deployed active duty and then I come back active duty and then I'm there in the in the Preble County Fairgrounds when they return that summer. And so it does tell you the hard work that the National Guard does. You can't, you can't take that from them. They go the first in, last out.
Speaker 4:So how was that on your?
Speaker 1:wife Tough because she came home and she had Josh at Wright Patterson Air Force base because she stayed with her mom and dad, uh, in Eaton. Um and I came home three months later and and held Josh for the first time when I was, when I got home. Um, that was a tough time, um, but we got through it. That. That that's an early indicator, which I'll get into later about Valerie, how special she is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so. So keep going with that. So you, you come back. What's, what's next on the horizon?
Speaker 1:So we were at 18 divisions at that time and we went down to 10. A third of the army is let go and if you had the combat patch, you're obviously looked on a little bit better than those that didn't. So it was a tough time in the army. Uh, they were letting people out without fulfilling their commitment, like from west point or all that. But um, obviously, um, we're solid and so we just kept moving along.
Speaker 1:Our next assignment was at fort riley, the big red one. Uh, fort riley, kansas, and I was able to have a couple company commands there, which is usually only have one. But I was fortunate, and I was also interestingly able to deploy to Cuba and be a company commander down there over the Haitians that were getting in the water and swimming towards the United States, and because the president at the time I believe Bill Clinton, coming in, had said we'll accept you if you come to the Florida shoreline. And they were getting in the water, trying to swim and the Navy was picking them up and putting them in Cuba, not knowing what to do with them. And then we find out there's 115 of them that are HIV infected and that's a whole nother game.
Speaker 1:That was back. Magic Hadn't even come out yet with it. It was just you could look at you and get hiv. It was really misunderstood and I had a camp, uh, to house those hiv infected haitians uh, and so I'm trying to provide for them for their food. They like plantains, all these things that were a different cuisine for them, but that was an interesting 93 days um down in cuba yeah and then so Fort Riley was.
Speaker 1:It was good again set me up with the jobs that you need to have to continue to promote. Then I was able to go to Fort Polk, louisiana. I was an observer controller which hangs out a unit. The units come into Fort Campbell to train and we cadre fall in on them and help coach them through train ups and then they can go to war. I it's, it's what we've done for the last 20-25 years. You either go to the national training center at fort irwin for tank and bradley or you go to the light infantry down at fort polk, and that was very good, because now I'm coaching, uh, and learning at the same time. I was able to get a live fire job. That was cool. We picked on the guys that didn't have live fire.
Speaker 4:There they play laser tag so explain live fire for those that don't know.
Speaker 1:So laser tag is you shoot and a blank goes off and it shoots a laser out and it kills a guy because his buzzers go off, gotcha, and that's kind of play live fire. Though we actually have the live fire ammo, we have ranges, we we set up live fires where the individuals practice during the day and we coach them, and then it goes to nighttime and we we hit either the wood line or we can. We have a, a mount site, a military operations on urban terrain site, a little city. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was named Shugart Gordon for the two warrant officers that were in the Blackhawk down rescue. So Shugart Gordon was the village and that was a great job to have to oversee that. The complexities of the urban environment and military operations, oh yeah, and that would stead me in future military operations we'll talk about.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's good. So then, what's next from there?
Speaker 1:I go to Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth, not the prison. I go for the school. That's good. There's the Command and General Staff college where you learn how to be a major. And then I was able to, again selected for a pretty cool school called Sam's school for advanced military studies. The nickname is Jedi warrior. They pull about 52 kids out a year and let them go to this intensive training on not what to think but how to think. Go to this intensive training on not what to think but how to think, and it was really cool. And then when you graduate you go to a division and two of you usually go and you're the planner behind the two-star general at the commanding general level, and that was cool. I'm always planning and templating, and trying to control chaos is what you do in combat, and so that gave me a whole nother skill set in doing that. It was pretty cool, and oh, by the way, I got a couple of masters out of that.
Speaker 4:So yeah, so you just continue to reeducate yourself. You're moving up the ranks. Yeah. And then what's next?
Speaker 1:This is blessed. I mean, this is a blessing, all of this is a blessing. But you saw this as a young kid, okay, but not this detail. But yeah, as it came out. But you're right, yeah, so then we're from leavenworth, snow kansas, and we go to hawaii. And the funny story there is we have, uh, snowboards for the kids from from leavenworth. We get to hawaii and they're unloading our household goods and the hawaiians there go, hey, bruh, what's this? And they hold up the, the snowboard, and they're like, yeah, that's snowboard. And they're like you're not going to need that here. So within a couple years we get boogie boards which are in the surf. And then we next assignment go to germany. And when we get to germany, uh, the germans are holding up these boogie boards and they're going vases das? And they're like what is that?
Speaker 5:I'm like, yeah, that's for the surf and they're like you're not. What is that?
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, that's for the surf, and they're like you're not going to need that. Snow shovels and all that were gone too. It's kind of funny. But Hawaii was amazing. Four years Blessed again to get there. Kids loved it, family loved it, made great friends. But then I deployed for 14 months to Iraq in 04 to 05. 14 months, so 14 months out of the uh 48 months of Hawaii. I'm I'm down range and by the time I get back, ready to get my Hawaii back on um we're, she's already packed the household goods Valerie has and is sending them to Germany, because that's the orders that came down. Uh, so I get a couple of months on the beach, maybe don't even get a sunburn right.
Speaker 1:But over in Iraq I really got to know the Kurds. The Kurds are in the northeast of Iraq, kurdistan. They really don't consider themselves part of Iraq. They're between Iran and Iraq and the Kurds are just great people. They want to be like us. They have an economy like us. They're just great folks. And that was our entry point when we started the Iraq war is they went through Kurdistan and the Kurds made the way for us to be able to get in there. So I was able to work with them, but obviously the Arabs in the area were not content with us working with them, so I was able to be an operations officer. There, had a great mentor, colonel Miles, milo Miles. I'm going to mention a couple guys specifically because they're the mentors that you remember. I could even go into a little bit of the lessons learned, or vignette here, I determined early on, watching this guy for sure, but others.
Speaker 1:There's a couple different leadership styles in the Army. There's compliance and then there is inspirational. And in the compliance mode you are going to do that and I'm going to stand here and watch you do it. And I'm going to use language, I'm going to use energy, anger, to make you do that. I will get you to do that. And the crazy thing is I'm not blaming the Army for any ptsd or anything like that, but that's the fuel that gets it to move and I get recognized for that and then I get promoted. So anger is a fuel that is, as you know. They won't brief it, they won't put it in a fuel manual, but that gets results. And I will get that, uh, by using anger. But the compliance is the leader that has to stand over you to get it done.
Speaker 1:Inspirational, which is what you try to be, you try to be able to give an intent or the vision and then, once they've been around you for a while, you know, first six months you can't do this in battalion command, but after a year and certainly you know half a year in combat they start to see. I think that's what he wants. I know what he wants actually and they start moving out under that and then it may not be exactly what you wanted, but you don't dare take away that initiative that they just showed. You encourage it, you resource it and, uh, maybe give them a little bit. Uh, uh, corrected vision, but again, not critical. Uh, you want to encourage it when they use their initiative. And so that's the compliance.
Speaker 1:I believe I had leaders that did that. I believe I was a compliance leader. And then we have the inspirational. And if you ask me as a pastor or as a Christian, then Jesus Christ was inspirational. He's not standing or be to do this. He doesn't want a robot, it is. He is inspiring you from your heart by showing you the vision, by showing you what this should look like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's all great. The inspirational leadership, I think, is what we all strived for right Strive for that type of leadership.
Speaker 1:So that was Hawaii, and then I get to Germany. Now I'm a battalion commander. It's at Big Red 1 again. See, fort Riley had the big red one and then it moved to Germany and now I catch back up with my unit. I was only in three units, if you think about it, and all three.
Speaker 1:I went to combat with the 101st, the 25th ID, out of Hawaii, and then the big red one and I'm out of Schweinfurt, germany. 806 soldiers. We train up and we deploy and we're in baghdad, uh, with tanks and bradley's. So 101st is light infantry, the 25th is light infantry, there's not tanks and brads. And then now I have tanks and brads and uh and 806 soldiers, and that was 15 months during the rotation, 12 months they come down halfway through. Um, general petraeus and others had, you know, made a decision that we need to get out off the main bases and be lily pads. It's a technique and we need to help the, the local populace, and so we did that. But they also extended us another three months. So imagine that, that you have got your soldiers for for 12 months in the headspace. Right, that's what they're thinking. Now you've got to tell them okay, you're going to stay an extra three months and remember they have all the ammo they'd ever want.
Speaker 5:So I'm joking.
Speaker 1:But that was a tough one and 15 months is a long time to be deployed. And then we came back. I was in charge of an area it was the southeastern part of Baghdad, if you will Um 65,000, I mean it was pretty, pretty big chunk, um yeah.
Speaker 4:Can you talk about that a little bit and what that was like being in Baghdad and some of those challenges you faced?
Speaker 1:See, it's an urban environment too. So we go back to that. What I learned at Fort Polk, it's all this is God's hand in everything, see, and I know that now I perhaps didn't fully recognize it at the time it was going. I had a lot of conversations with God when I was downrange, obviously, and he had some with me, but really didn't come home to put it all together, uh, until I retired. Um, it was tough times, uh, 23 casualties, um, and around 86 wounded at 806. And then, uh, that's a tough one. I'll go into my wife on this one too, because it really uh, it really showcases her as her character.
Speaker 1:And so we would have a casualty in Iraq and the platoon or the company would stand down, we would bring them back on the base, we would cover them down with leaders and chaplains and a psychologist could show up and they'd be not doing any combat operations for 24 to 48 hours. You would have the individuals that were killed. They would then be taken to the combat surgical hospital there in Baghdad, which was interestingly manned by forks from folks from right pat, which was pretty cool. Okay, the 88th cache. We would have those flown out and they're on their way back to germany, probably, and then back to the states, but we would have that casualty and then, within about four or five days, we would have a memorial service there downrange. An amazing grace would be played, and it happened to be played with bagpipes, because we had a surgeon there on our base that was proficient with bagpipes and amazing grace, and so, to be quite honest, that that goes to a place for me when I hear the bagpipes amazing grace. But anyway, we have that soldier be taken out. We would do a memorial down range and then we would get those soldiers back out.
Speaker 1:They, they had to get back out. I don't want to say they have to get back on the bike or they have to ride the horse, but they need to get back out. And they need to get back out and do justice. Now, that's a fine line, because they may want to get revenge. They're angry, they saw their buddy in pieces. It's just horrific. But they need to go out with the leadership and look, we don't do that. We're americans, we don't play that way. We will get them, we will prosecute them, but we, we don't do what they do, and so that was something, though, that we felt we were going out and doing something. Now go back to germany. My wife's in germany with around 200 spouses. There's probably 110 spouses that are over in the States that chose not to deploy with their husband, but there's 200 up there in Germany. I've already called after the incident one or two days the mother or the new widow would be contacted by a chaplain or someone in the chain of command.
Speaker 1:I would then phone call from there from Iraq on a phone that I had specially given to me for this, and it would call anywhere and I would talk the mom through or the widow through how their loved one passed.
Speaker 1:He died with soldiers all around, with friends all around. I would not be graphic, of course, but let them know that they were doing their job, doing their mission, and they were with loved ones and, in general, went quickly. The lethality of the weapons we have these days does that, but I would be able to provide that. I also want to say that 13 out of the 23 were Hispanic, and so I don't play nice with the Hispanic disparaging, I don't. Anyway, I would have to have a translator. I had an Iraqi translator when I was out on the block, but I'd have to have a Hispanic gentleman. One of my soldiers was from Cuba and we would call and I would start talking and he would translate and then the mom would cry out loud and that also probably stay with me forever. And a mom crying in Spanish is a mom crying. There's no, it's universal. So that was part of what I, what we had to deal with, um.
Speaker 4:I stopped you for a second.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 4:How do you process all of that? Because that's a heavy burden as a leader to have to make those calls and to hear those screams and cries after you already, probably in a lot of cases, knew the young person who lost their lives. How does that affect you? Hmm?
Speaker 1:Usually you don't handle it well, um, had to be stoic, had to be on the I can't be off for the unit, for the soldiers, for the mission, uh, and so didn't handle it.
Speaker 1:Then, when I got back retired, at the dayton va I, I am being talked with uh to a doctor and we're going through some of that, and he it's kind of funny, but it's not, it's uh, it is he said, george, you you took those events and you put them in a crate and you put them in a warehouse, okay, and you have a warehouse with 23 and probably the 82 wounded and you have a lot in there and that warehouse is full and, george, we need to pull each one of them out and process better and then put them back in, if that's what we need to do. But need to do that. And I, without even batting an eye or thinking, I said let's just build another warehouse, and it's my humor disarming. But it's a challenge. You deal with it slowly. You deal with it with all the support groups and the support folks I have in my life and I'll be able to talk to those as well. Um, but it's, it's an ongoing process obviously.
Speaker 4:For sure, and I, you know, for those who are listening, if you're, if you're watching, and I know, ben and I can see, I mean, we can see it in your face, we can hear it in your voice, um, because you care, right, and um, that's a, that's a, um, I mean it. It almost makes me emotional just hearing you, hearing you talk about this, because I try to put myself in other people's position and as a leader, as a business owner, um, you know, just having difficult conversations is one thing, but when you got to call someone and tell them, hey, johnny's no longer here, but he, he served his country well but you see, I went to the train ups or I could even had him in front of me holding court, do an article 15 and take money from him.
Speaker 1:I could have, or I could have put a ward on him or gave him a coin that week or there. There, yeah you, you know him, you have to, and I in a but direct, no direct way, and sometimes indirect. They were doing it on my orders. They worked for other bosses, company commanders and platoon leaders, but no, the responsibility is on me. I took them down there to Iraq from Germany, and so I feel that I think you're supposed to yeah.
Speaker 4:It would be hard not to yeah. So 15, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I got to tell you about not to yeah, so 15, go ahead. Oh yeah, I got to tell you about my wife yeah.
Speaker 1:So they're back in Germany and they're waiting on a phone call, waiting on a phone call that one of the soldiers passed and I tell, I call my wife and then she now, within about five days they'll have a memorial back there and she now will be with that widow back there and she now will be with that widow and she will be sitting behind that widow at the chapel with two kids, one on either side maybe crying their eyes out, and there's boots and the dog tags in the rifle up front and they're doing a memorial by the great folks we had in our rear detachment back there in germany.
Speaker 1:But she is helping that new widow through that, that their life is gone, it's just uprooted. The kids are out of school, they're going back to a school somewhere in the United States Don't know the new widow processing and what is she going to do for housing, all of this stuff. Now the Army is really good about taking care of that. We really did a good job. When they would come back They'd always have a casualty assistance officer and all these things. There were systems, but the system for my wife, I just say if you watch the movie we Were Soldiers Once and Young and how they process.
Speaker 1:It's not as elementary as that, but it is close where they have to deal with that. I would ask you what schooling my wife had in dealing with that. Okay, she had just raw character. And then what help does she come? I have a VA, I have medications, I have doctors that can help me, and how does she come? I have a VA, I have medications, I have doctors that can help me, and how does she process that with 23 casualties?
Speaker 1:And of the 108 casualties in the brigade, each battalion commander's wife went to the memorials of their sister battalions and so she's gone to more than 108 memorial services in a 15-month period. So hats off to a wife that could do that. She also raised the kids while I'm downrange. In fact, josh got his eagle specifically because my wife and the wives stepped in the Boy Scout troop and went camping with them and did all those things to make sure they're merit badges. She also knows all my warts, she knows all my faults, she's seen me angry, she's seen all of the stuff that comes back and she has chosen to stay with me.
Speaker 1:And it's a character, it's just inherent in her a goodness and I saw it today before leaving. She's talking to the dog, gracie, as she comes in from being outside and just being as sweet. The voice changes and just hi, gracie, and making Gracie feel special and that dog's tail is going crazy. She makes who she's with special feel special and equal. Now, that's funny to play on because I'm probably a little more ornery, but when we had pigs on the farm, she's wanting it to be equal. So when she sees the alpha pig picking on the other pigs, she's taking a stick and hitting on that alpha pig, saying you be fair and uh. But that's just the sweetness in her Uh, and I couldn't have done. I could not do any of it without Valerie.
Speaker 4:Yeah, an amazing relationship sounds like and a very pivotal person in your life, as as every wife should we be. But, like you said, I think that's a that's an important point to make, because it's not something you know. I thought about, um, you know, dealing with what you dealt with, but then on the backside, having that support, an amazing woman to be able to, to get through that unsung hero.
Speaker 5:I mean, when you think about it, you know you went up through this training and they teach you how to you go through all these different drills and scenarios to get you prepared for it. I never knew that about. Like the wives and stuff I you know they're not prepared. I mean right, training or anything, and then they go deal with over and over and over seeing what could possibly happen to their husband.
Speaker 4:And probably having the fear of what if they get the call about you. Right, Right. So just constant fear.
Speaker 1:The widows have a death day, they have a wedding day, they have all these things every year. So they have a smell of a cookie. He liked peanut butter cookies, and so we do remember. We need to remember the spouses of our servicemen and women as well, as we'll talk about law enforcement and first responders. Okay, that's pretty deep. We'll go to the Pentagon, so from Germany yeah.
Speaker 1:That phone rings that I only send out casualty notifications. My phone rings in the middle, out in the field. I'm out in Baghdad and I'm like, okay, who's calling me? And it's the XO, a colonel to the vice chief of staff. I didn't get any permissions for names on those folks.
Speaker 4:Nobody listens to this.
Speaker 1:Phone rings for the vice chief of staff says, hey, colonel Glaze. I said yes, sir, you would you consider being a legislative assistant for the vice chief of staff of the army? I'm like, okay, I don't know what that is, I'm in combat right now with living a dream and but yes, sir, I certainly, obviously wouldn't refuse it, but I need to get back to you. And in two weeks my boss there in Baghdad called me who do you know in the Pentagon? I'm like I don't know anybody in the Pentagon.
Speaker 1:And I'm getting assigned to be the vice chief of staff's legislative assistant, without political science as a degree or any of that. I'm a mechanical engineer but I was chosen, I believe, probably for combat experience ranger tab life experience fresh, and he was a tanker. So he's also a combat vet several times over. But I think he wanted that. He wanted the raw honesty.
Speaker 1:When we're down range, I'm looking at you and I tell you some, it's true. And and he surrounded himself with folks like that, uh, that would tell him the unvarnished truth. Now I will tell you that we went to a private uh dinner around Christmas time at that gentleman's house and his wife said some very important stuff. That do you know. I thank you for giving your boss the unvarnished truth, because two doors down right now is Stan McChrystal packing out his house because he had folks that didn't tell him the unvarnished truth. You are invaluable. You need to continue to tell the general the truth and we did that as best we can and that would get us in trouble sometimes with other generals, but they weren't four stars, they were three or two or one, but they still got a big bite and you would tell them things that he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear.
Speaker 4:That's what I was going to say. You know, sounds like a very impressive leader because he he had probably seen plenty of politics people, you know, just telling him what he wanted to hear and he recognized. For this to be done right, I need real people that can tell me real things. He was another inspirational.
Speaker 1:he's one of the three that I count as inspirational and could. All he had to do was give me a look. He didn't have to yell although he was italian so he could but he just had to give me a look of disappointment and I'd be crushed and I would move everything. I'd move hell and high water not to have that happen again and get ahead of him. And that's that was our job. So yeah, it was great. I learned a lot. As he was retiring, he said, george, I want you to go over and be in charge of the suicide prevention office for the army. And I'm like, I looked right at him I go no, and he's the vice. So he's in charge of all the colonels in the army. He tells them all where to go. He's telling me there, right, and I was funny by saying no. He smiled a little and I said, roger, that sir.
Speaker 5:He let me get away with it.
Speaker 1:That's the kind of guy he was. He was just a great guy and I went over there with his mantra of making sure people know the truth. He had a special knack he wanted to know everything about traumatic brain injury and suicide and so he wanted uh, himself, his representative over there, to to make sure because it was over in the g1, the personnel side of the army, and they, uh, they may not have his flavor, and so he was retiring and he put me over there as a stay behind to make sure the rear on the personnel side of the Army and they may not have his flavor, and so he was retiring and he put me over there as a stay-behind to make sure the rear guard, if you will that his vision could be still implemented. And I tried to do that. In doing so I was briefing the 9 to 17 suicides a day that we were having out of active duty to the SEC Army, to the chief and to the vice and to the sergeant major of the Army. It was a lot for a couple years and we could probably we'll get in. Yeah, we'll jump to that page. I hope we get to come back. We'll jump to that page. I hope we get a comeback In that I am seeing the damage and the damage of suicide and PTSD and TBI, traumatic brain injury.
Speaker 1:They all lead to a negative result a permanent solution for a temporary problem. If you will, I go, I'm out at dinner. This is HIPAA protected, but I'm telling everybody. I go out to dinner with my family and we're in downtown DC and a bus is in the way metro bus parked right there in the middle of the road and ain't nobody able to go around. And I'm the third car back and I sit there for five minutes. I'm not honking, I'm not from New Jersey, but obviously I'm getting elevatedking. I'm not from New Jersey, but obviously I'm getting elevated.
Speaker 1:Uh, and I get out of the car and I go walking by, uh, the second car and the first car, and they're looking at me, um, and I go up to the bus driver, uh and I, I let him have it. Uh, I am. I am barking like I'm in Baghdad. Right there, I'm a battalion commander. There's a problem and I'm going to fix it and thank goodness that that gentleman was not armed or that he did not.
Speaker 1:He returned in kind but he did not elevate, which is thankful for everybody involved. We went back and forth to a bus supervisor who was there and they ended up moving the bus, but I had presented my way in a way, unlike my kids and my wife. So I'm walking back and the first car is giving me the look, the second car is giving me the look and I get back in the car and the worst thing the most catastrophic, if you will, the one that got me to go get help was my wife's look. And then I look back and my two kids are just looking at me like what. And so I went that next week down to Fort Belvoir and I see a doc, I see a couple of docs.
Speaker 4:Was that the first time anything like that had happened?
Speaker 1:No, there was, I'm sure, a lot of subtleties, a lot of probably not as out in the open like that, but I'm sure the wife and friends and coworkers had seen parts of that. But that's where it came out. I go down and I see a doc and again, I'm not picking on a system, I'm just explaining my experiences. But I see a doc who is a civilian and not like me, and so throw prescriptions at me, would say, but they're doing their best, they're seeing so many right and they're trying it, but it is meds here, meds there, meds there, and I'm loaded up with meds and then continue on working for the vice. Of course it's all good. I don't let him know, because the stigma and all that, I'm still playing at that game probably. But um, I then, within a couple weeks, I'm seeing a psychologist, uh, at fort belvoir, and this is, he's a navy guy, but anyway, a little better than a psychiatrist. Um, I'm seeing him and I'm there for like a month every month and I'm coming down and he says something that was funny to me and again, I you always got to have humor in this or you could go, you could go crazy. But he said to me you know you're doing a lot for us, you're doing a lot for the service and I'm like, okay, what are you doing here? Where's this coming from? Well, you're coming in here with all your scare badges, your uniform you're not and you're sitting right out front. You sign in, you sit right out front and you come in for your appointment. I'm like, okay, I that's, I don't get it. Have you ever noticed that there's no one else sitting there with you? I'm like, well, no, I just thought I was here. No, when you go out there next time, look down at the two doors down the foot doctor, the foot doctor he's got a little crowd out there and foot doctor is on leave this week. Okay, I'm just gonna let you know. So, ah, okay.
Speaker 1:So now I'm honoring my normal self with loving soldiers and I gotta okay. So the next week I'm coming in, I sign in and I go down by the foot doctor and sit with a bunch of soldiers and I'm loving it. Within a week or two, I'm striking up conversations with them, getting to know their kids or wife or whatever. I'm chatting with them and having fun. That's what I'm in the army for is to be with those guys. Um, and so within about probably gave it a couple more weeks, maybe five weeks now do the same thing and I go down same crew, we're all talking and I just looked over to one of the NCOs non-commissioned officers I said, hey, sergeant, how's that foot coming? Anyway? I looked right at him and his foot he's like wow.
Speaker 5:It's just like I did something in church.
Speaker 4:You gotta be kidding.
Speaker 2:Did you just do that and I, yeah, I really know you've been coming a while, how's your foot coming?
Speaker 1:And he like wow, sir, you know my like. Yeah, I know. So what are we doing down here, man? What are we doing? Right, we're getting help. So I'm going back down there y'all be silly down here if you want and we moved down there and it's just a small thing, but it shows the stigma. It shows I don't want to get help and I can continue to perform without getting help.
Speaker 4:Trying to compartmentalize all those thoughts and feelings and everything and not show your emotion.
Speaker 1:You're a man and you don't need that help and all that. Now here's a funnier story and I'll try to keep names out of it before I get you in trouble. I come to work and the boss, so we'll just leave it at that, right? The boss is yelling to get this quarterback Monday morning, get this quarterback on the phone. And his XO is like what, okay, sir, you don't say no, right? And he's getting someone on the phone and within 45 minutes we had the quarterback for one of the professional teams. It's really only 50 miles away from here or so and he's chewing them out. He's chewing this quarterback out. Do you know what you did this weekend? I'm sure he's on the other angle. I got a clue. Why is it? Why is a four star got me on the phone at 8 30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:You got hurt, you got hit. You got a concussion, admit it, yeah, and you went back in. Do you know what that does? Do you know what that does? All of my soldiers watch you, a lot of you too, specifically, you're that good and you went back out there playing hurt. You had a brain injury, a concussion, and you went back out and you just said I'm tough guy and all that, and I don't work, it don't work.
Speaker 1:And then he proceeded to explain in the same illustration I use Okay, your head's like a Mountain Dew, can you get a concussion? It puts a dent in that Mountain Dew can, okay, you need to go somewhere, someplace and not take any more stimuli in and we'll work out that dent, we'll put it, but they'll never not have a crease in that Mountain Dew. Can the dent's out, but the crease is still there. And you didn't do that. Go to a place, no light, no sensory perceptions, just stop. And if you get hit again when you have a dent, it will be a dent on a dent and you can't get a dent out of a dent. It is not repairable or it won't be the same out of a dent. It is not repairable or it won't be the same. So you need to not do that. And I'm pretty sure that quarterback changed his viewpoint and it was pretty cool to hear that and have it explained that way. But that's how passionate that boss was and I think I still carry some of that with me you do.
Speaker 4:It's obvious's obvious. Yeah, it's obvious, yeah. So so how, through through your journey with all of that is are you feeling better? Is it being released? How's all that going?
Speaker 1:Um, so let's go jump back to retirement Sure, because that's going to get to that. Yeah. I have a hobby farm. I got out in 13. I got 20 acres hobby farm. I'm an expert because I watch, you know, four YouTubes. So I have chickens, I have rabbits, I have turkeys, and then I get pigs, and then I get sheep, and then I get cows, and it's huge. We don't have any running water to all the barns or nothing, and so there's a lot of work.
Speaker 4:You're a glutton for punishment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I, yeah, and my wife really, as you just said, valerie, and so within a month or two it's getting pretty large. But I hear a sermon at Church of the Brethren from our brand new youth pastor and it was about Adam and it was about Jesus and the framework and the structure and the similarities were there and I was like, wow, I'm a mechanical engineer, I understand that. I think that's pretty cool. I need more of that. I want to see the structure and the framework and the theology. And so I went to my pastor, dan, and I said, hey, I need more of that. He goes, okay. Well, I don't want you to go to this university, I want you to go to this one.
Speaker 1:And I went down to Cincinnati Christian University in Cincinnati. It used to be the Cincinnati Bible College. I went down there and I want you to take courses from this specific professor, johnny Presley, because it's awesome and he will teach you more than you can handle. And so I went down there. Within two weeks I'm in a course and it's an intensive course that's over six days. It's a whole semester in six days. He does it once a year and I fall in on it and it's the doctrine of grace and that gets jam-packed into my head and I'm loving it. I'm in there. Whatever I got to do, I'm going to seminary.
Speaker 1:Well, valerie comes to her senses and says, okay, while you're doing that, I'm not going to be doing the farming thing by myself. So within the next year, everybody goes into freezers you know all the chickens and the rabbits and everybody. But along the way down there I'm trying to take the courses from all the guys with the deep water. They are the ones, the Reggie Jacksons and the bullpens. I don't want to go to the new guys, I want to go to the guys that are and I've gotten lucky blessed to have them. But one of them is a Dr David Roadcup, and he teaches me spiritual formation and, all of a sudden, that framework of theology that you can control because it's framework, engineer, I can control it. You talk spiritual formation, you talk about your heart and relationship with Christ. Now it's another game. It's not even a game, it's another way of life. It's not controllable, it's not, it's soft and yeah, yeah, and so that changed my life, with dr david roach cup as a mentor. He still is to this day and that, just that is one mechanism.
Speaker 1:Obviously, within a year I graduate, they close. I say I broke, but the university closed, sadly. But within a year I'm pulpit filling in a church and after that year they're like would you like to stick around? We can only pay you part-time. And I said, sure, but I know this job, just like battalion command. I mean, it's not, you can pay me part-time, I have a pension that's going to take care of the rest easily, but it's at 2 in the morning at hospice and I'm needed. I'm going to be there Tuesday morning so and they knew that and that's what we've been doing so far. So, um, that's where I'm at on on the church part.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so as as you go through, you're getting through part of your PTSD and you're getting stronger in your faith and stronger in your religion. Are you still involved with the suicide prevention or is that all in the past?
Speaker 1:It has been on specific instances, talking with folks that are dealing with someone with suicide ideologies or thinking that or um, and also in just can I say representing it in conversations when it's not, uh, it's not commit suicide, it's die by suicide. You don't commit heart attack, you die by a heart attack. And so getting that kind of mindset out there gets it away from a mysterious and they're messed up. Here's a good, for instance um, you break your arm, then you go to the doctor and he sets it and he puts it in a cast and you're going through six weeks in a cast and then you'll go for six more weeks after that's off through some, uh, physical training, therapy. You'll get it fixed and it's okay by everybody. You have something challenging with your emotions. It's in your head. People can't see it, the protocols aren't defined and noticeable. Like a cast, then you're, then you're cast out or alienated, or or he's weird, or he has something in his head and it's not treated like an illness or like a medical condition that we can fix with therapy and with chemicals, with prescription drugs, that kind of stuff. It's treated in an ambiguous way. I mean, if you think 60, 70 years ago we used to have a sanitarium where we would send folks away and they would. They would just be locked away or they'd be at shock treatment and some of these other things that I think we've figured out by now. That just don't. It's not sustainable, it's not working.
Speaker 1:So if I can represent that in some of the endeavors and go into the part-time pastor, which is really full-time I've also now been part of a stable moments. It's a horse therapy for youth that needs to have therapy, youth that's had trouble whether they're scenarios at home or whatever that they can come out once a week and be at a horse ranch and that they can then use the horse as a medium. A horse again, I sound like an expert, but I just watched a couple of YouTube videos. A horse is again I sound like an expert, but I just watched a couple of YouTube videos. A horse is a prey animal. It's always scared of being eaten. It's going to be prey. It's not an alpha or a predator, and so it has the same timid personality that perhaps someone that has been damaged or needs assistance, and so when you can get someone that has those challenges to interact with an animal that has those challenges, there's empathy in the past, and then there's sympathy and then there's understanding and then I'm possibly there as a mentor to facilitate that or to offer encouragement or do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:The part that got me on that is similar to doing the police stuff I'm doing now too. I took the 13-hour course online to be a horse therapist and you get certification and all that. There was like a 20-minute clip where the psychologist is trying to explain to you that a kid a kid can come at you with outrage and displaying acts of aggression and anger and cuss words and acting out and they may most likely be doing it for you then to be mad and then finally get to the point I can't handle it. I give up on you. They drive you to that point so that you reconfirm their belief of themselves.
Speaker 1:And I heard that and I rewound it. I played it again that are you saying a kid may act out just so that you confirm the identity he already thinks he has and he's worthless? I can't get help, I'm worthless. Something like that how can I not be part of. I mean I just was like, okay, you could have shown me that 20 minute clip and not the 13 hour scenarios, but that got me into how can you not be part of something If that and that's out there. I'm not saying that's any particulars where I'm at or any cases or anything like that. I'm just saying if that's out there, I kind of need to be part of that.
Speaker 4:I think and I can tell that it's helping you as well it does.
Speaker 1:You're seeing that? Yeah, exactly it. The therapy by me helping is helping me. Obviously, I also say, when I'm doing the Lord's work, I'm not doing somebody else's Right, and so I want to continue to try to be doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 2:One other opportunity, and again these are all like wow, look what he's doing.
Speaker 1:And it's not that, it's just. I'll probably tell you how much therapy I do need. Richmond police department has taken on a couple of chaplains there's four of us, uh, volunteers, and they're from a couple churches here in town, as well as a deacon, I believe, and then myself, and we are there to assist the officers. I haven't gone on a ride along yet. I do have a badge and an IE card and but we've gone to some devotionals and all that. But the same population can be challenged first responders. They see things, they experience things that no one should experience or see, just like combat, just like these kids in the horse therapy, and they could use some assistance and they may not want it, just like the soldier with the stigma, right, but if, but, if I could be any way helpful. Just ministry of presence is just being there. You don't have to say anything witty, you don't have to talk, you just be there and listen and try. If there's any way that I could help, how can I not be part of that? I mean?
Speaker 4:yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I mean hearing your story and I heard part of this as we met there last week. Man, like you are on a mission from God. You know there's obviously been things in your life that you've seen that you will never unsee. There's conversations you've had that I'm sure that you will never forget those cries and those screams of those widows. But look at what you're doing now. You're right back into it. But I can tell by the conversation, the tone of your voice, I can see your face change that it's helping you just as much as it's helping those other people, and that is an awesome thing to see.
Speaker 1:It does, it helps and in helping others you you're helping yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, part of that is and this was from this conference I just went to last week the International Conference for Police Chaplains. It was in Indianapolis. It's an organization, again international, but that's an organization for chaplains that help the police, the sheriff, first responders. Love God, love one another as yourself. So we're to love God, love one another. And in loving God, it's sometimes hard to see that tangible, but you can love one another. That's tangible. In loving one another, you're loving God.
Speaker 1:But don't forget that last couple words as yourself, how can you not love yourself and help others? How can you not love yourself and then love others? If you can't love yourself, it makes it really hard to not love others. And so love your neighbor as yourself means self-care, and that was a big part of the conference. To talk about that, to be able to talk to the officers or to be able to talk to the congregation we need to take care of ourself. Who's not going to want you to take care of yourself? And that's straight up Satan. Is your parents or your loved ones going to be telling you don't take care of yourself? They're not. So we need time to do that, to decompress, to take some of that noise that you hear at work and get rid of it and that was a big piece of what we talked about this weekend is to love thy neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 4:It's amazing, I've got two final questions here. You've been awesome. I mean it's awesome, I've been talking too much.
Speaker 1:No, no, this is what we want.
Speaker 4:This is exactly what we want and you know, as you're telling all these stories, I can only imagine someone listening right now who's battling PTSD. Maybe it's someone from our military, maybe it's a first responder, a police officer that's hearing you talk, that's been holding all this stuff in. That's why we do this, is because there's one person out there that needs to hear it and will hear it, and it's because of you being vulnerable and open and sharing your story and super thankful for you doing this. Final two questions. If you could sit on a bench somewhere and have a conversation with someone, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Speaker 1:It would have to be Jesus Christ. It's a lot of your answers I understand. It would be interesting to go back to some interesting specific people on how they made decisions or what, but to obviously sit down with jesus, which we'll be able to um to see the viewpoint, if I'm looking at all these jobs and all these experiences and getting perspectives and tools to then help others and myself, then to sit with the master that has all the tools he built you so to be able to sit with him and get the why it's not so much the what, it's the why you can tell a soldier what to do, but when you tell him the why he can go and do it without you over him, you're inspirational. That way To sit with Christ and hear him would be over enriching, it'd be amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, great answer. Any closing thoughts, words of wisdom. Bible verse quotes something you lean on when, when, when you're in maybe a dark moment where you're thinking about you know some of those difficulties and things you've. You've seen conversations that you've had that you, you fall back on, as is there something you can share with our listeners.
Speaker 1:Well, I, I use first Samuel three, 10, and it's speak, lord, for your servants listening, because I want to be able to hear. There's a lot in that verse. Speak, lord, for your servant is listening. It's orientation, your orientation, must turn to the Lord. Your attitude must be willing to take advice, in it's humility, it's obedience. So speak, lord, for your servant is listening. The trick for me, and a lot of us, is listening. Stop and listen. And I strive to do that every day. You know, pick up your cross daily. It might be every five minutes for me to do that, but I try to do that.
Speaker 1:One little cute one and this is me for the anger management piece, which, again, I'll tell you when I went to the BA, I go see a nice lady. She's the the door catcher, you know she's your. You got to go through her to get to a doc and I said I, no offense, but I need a rooster. And she's like what I said yeah, I kind of need to see a rooster. And then she thought, oh, I kind of know what you mean, okay. So then of course I get assigned to the anger management specialist and he is a rooster, he has hawk all around the room and he's had challenges like that great relationship.
Speaker 1:I worked with him for over a year. He did transfer out one little technique which is kind of silly. But the mint that you get at an Italian restaurant, it has medicinal purposes. The mint actually does calm your stomach from all the acids and the Italian food, the spicy, and so it does have a chemical process. But he, he, he gave me a mint. He took one too. He said put that in your mouth, don't chew it, suck on it. And it took me one minute and 32 seconds to suck it down.
Speaker 1:No chewing on it, no biting, just suck it down and he goes. Okay, while you're doing that, imagine that you've just been cut off on a Walmart parking lot, took your spot, you pop that mint in your mouth. You are not allowed to make a gesture, you're not allowed to make a reaction, you're not allowed to say anything. You sit and think until that mint is gone, and that will give you separation, that will give you a minute 32, if you will, um, maybe get a bigger mint, I don't know, but that will give you time to think. And he, uh, from his perspective, was what would your wife want you to say? What would your mom and dad? And then I added at the end of it, after I put the mint in the way, was what would Christ want you to do in that moment? You're representing him here or not. You can choose how your response is. You can't choose sometimes the situation you're in, but you can choose your response and that will show a lot what's coming out of your heart.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you are an amazing man and again I thank you for sharing your story. You know it's one, it's obvious. It's rooted in service and sacrifice and a deep sense of purpose. You've worn the uniform with honor, you've led with conviction and now you continue to serve your community with grace and humility and it is an awesome, awesome thing to see. Thank you for your service, thank you for your leadership, thank you for doing all that you did, even though that was your job. Beyond that, it was so important because I'm sure those conversations you had you were trained to have those difficult conversations with those family members, but you held a lot of that in right and you still do to this day.
Speaker 4:I know that you do, I can see it and I can feel it, but by talking, by helping others, by having those conversations, that's therapy for you right and it's therapy for others and I hope anyone out there listening that hears your story recognizes that there's someone I need to go speak with, there's someone that needs to go speak with, there's someone that needs to hear my story and so super appreciative of you and your service and coming up here today.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you and speak Lord, for your servant is listening.
Speaker 4:That's great, ben, you got anything to add?
Speaker 5:Yeah, you were going to read out of your book. Was there something that you wanted to read out of there?
Speaker 1:Out of the conference. A couple books, the Body Keeps the Score. Amazing, the Trauma that we Accumulate. And then this is one more Bulletproof Spirit, if I were to say some of the statistics. The number one cause of death for police is suicide. There are nearly 200 such deaths every year in the United States. The rate of suicides for retired officers increases tenfold. Military statistics are even grimmer. On the average, one active-duty soldier and 21 veterans die by suicide every day. And of all the working police officers, 15 to 18 percent have post-traumatic stress disorder and over 200,000 vets suffer from this disorder. The statistics in here. But this is just one tool, a handbook that could help everybody. But specifically this is geared towards the officers that are serving in this town in the sheriff's office and all the other first responders. A medic rolls up, uh. An EMT rolls up and sees things. That's just tough, uh, and he's saving lives and making a difference. But, um, he needs taken care of, or she needs taken care of, just like, uh, the rest of us, yeah man.
Speaker 5:And what was the? And you said in the Catholic conference, what was said about the suicide? It was said to love others right, or you know, love others or Christ, right Love love God, love one another and love yourself.
Speaker 1:So all those come in play with what this book is trying to do. It's taking care of each other, but it's also taking care of yourself, and all of that points towards honoring God. So yeah, I just think that's powerful.
Speaker 4:It is very, very powerful If someone wants to find you, to get a hold of you. I don't expect you to give out your cell phone number here. How can they maybe come in to a service to see you? Or do you have social media or anything where someone can find you to have a conversation?
Speaker 1:I don't. I have email, but you can go through the church. Sure Church website has my email, so talk. Which is what? Beach Grove Church of the Brethren out of Hollinsburg, ohio. Okay, and then maybe if they bug you, they'll bug you, yeah we can.
Speaker 4:I can get you connected.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying I'm trying to invite myself back, but here's what I did. Mention you ready you ready. Yeah, I scuba dove in Cuba and I saw the continental divide. I went down 120 feet, which is not legally possible for a beginner. I had also goat eyeballs in Iraq and I also had them, meaning you ate them ate them, and then I have had to remove unborn piglets from their dying mop. These are experiences that maybe I need to share. On episode two.
Speaker 1:If someone bugs you enough and they want to hear how did he eat goat eyeballs, we'll get bugged, it'll be me.
Speaker 4:I'll bug Dan and Bob. We'll get you back to tell more of those stories. You're an inspiration to many and I hope here's what I hope. I hope whoever's out there listening and hears this shows up at your church, shows up to hear you preach, shows up to tell you how big of an impact that your story had on them. That's what I hope.
Speaker 1:It's a family, that's all I can say. There's maybe 35 to 50. It's a family. After the third year I've been doing it, maybe five on six. Now I'm no longer apprehensive. I got to say the right or the. I'm talking to a small group, I'm talking to family, and so everybody there has that giving spirit and forgiving spirit and they know God's talking and I may get in the way once in a while, but God is really laying it on me to to say this or that, and so it is a great family church way out in the country. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, if you want to get ahold of of, uh, George, hit us up, be tempered. Uh, we'll be happy to make that connection. Or or go see him on a on a Sunday and hear him preach. But thank you again, Thanks. Thank you for your service, Thank you for your time. Everybody share this thing. You know you've got service men or women, first responders, police officers, firefighters out there who need to hear this story and can be deeply impacted in a positive way. So share, subscribe, do all those fun things. We appreciate your ears, Go out and be tempered.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Cajun's Glass.
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