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Lost Without Direction? | Veterans Talk Purpose, Mental Health & Opportunity
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In this episode of The Dap and A Hug Podcast, Sergeant Morgan Morris and Staff Sergeant Dewillis Lytle of the South Carolina Army National Guard continue an honest discussion about military life, mentorship, purpose, veteran mental health, and healing.
This episode explores:
- PTSD and veteran suicide awareness
- Conversations surrounding ibogaine research and alternative therapies
- Why mentorship and accountability matter
- The importance of structure and purpose for young people
- National Guard benefits and career opportunities
- Financial, educational, and home loan resources many people don’t know exist
- Brotherhood, resilience, and community support
The conversation closes with heartfelt reflections about overcoming hardship, reaching out for help, and building stronger communities through compassion, accountability, and respect.
If you or someone you know is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is available by dialing or texting 988 and pressing 1.
To connect with the guests or learn more:
Sergeant Morgan Morris — @recruiter_moe
Staff Sergeant Dewillis Lytle — @solo_n_dacrowd
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Fellas.
SPEAKER_03What's up?
unknownMan.
SPEAKER_04Where do we go from here, man?
SPEAKER_03I don't know too much about that.
SPEAKER_04You know what? Let me go ahead and just go ahead and finish reading this and then we're gonna keep it moving. Cause Stanford did research on this, bro. Like, this is the same old So here we go. A 2024 Stanford Medicine study published a it was in Nature of Medicine. It examined uh medically supervised Abergain treatment combined with magnesium and special operations veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury. That's TBI, PTSD, depression and anxiety, man. So the key findings were the PTSD improvement. The participants experienced an average of 88% reduction in PTSD symptoms one month after treatment. 88%. Now with depression and anxiety, researchers reported an average of 87% reduction in depression, those symptoms, and an 81% reduction in anxiety symptoms. Disability reduction, or average disability scores reportedly drop from mild to moderate levels down to no disability category. Cognitive function. Participants show improvement in memory concentration and information processing, bro. Now, there are some downsides to it. I'm gonna obviously I gotta include that. I'm not, you know what I'm saying? It's the whole thing, the whole perspective, all sides. Important risks can carry uh cardiac risks, dangerous heart rhythm complications, psychological distress, and possible death in unsafe environments. Medical supervision is mandatory. I mean, it should be mandatory. It has to be. We have to be in a safe environment, but those are some pretty good numbers, man. If you think about those commercials about that stuff that the the pharmaceutical, the you know, the different medicines that are available through prescription, man, one of the actual side effects is suicide at the end of the damn commercial, man. So what are we doing? What do you what y'all feel about that, man? As far as what you can share if you don't mind. I think getting that information. Uh because y'all in it, man. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_03So I feel like uh if the if the numbers show, then maybe they should keep pushing or keep doing research on it to see uh how it can help us in you know the United States. Yeah. Uh but all in all, uh there's some this is this is my second time hearing about this information, so I can't give you too much about it. But I think if if it's working, you know, keep trying.
SPEAKER_04Because there's a lot of stuff out there that ain't working.
SPEAKER_03100%. 100%, right? Like trying to give somebody drugs to get off of drugs.
SPEAKER_04Right now, when I had pulled up here though, I I told you I got emotional. I could have cried in the corner wheel here, but I didn't. So this could have been, this research should have been going on. You know what I'm saying? So there might have been a slight chance. I don't know. I don't know. I can't the what if. So I'm just saying, man, it's a lot of people that's done. Man, y'all have some people, man, right? That have like the suicide and stuff like that, man, that's struggling out here.
SPEAKER_02And I I'll say it's with any drug, you can say it's a double-edged sword. Because as I say, once again, it's going to affect each person differently. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but from this research, the statistics, the numbers have shown it's helped improve whomever went through the process, who's been on these drugs, who's tested it, um, which is a good thing and is, you know, something that we need. Um, as far as it being open to the public widely, um, that's another conversation to where why hasn't this been pushed widely when the you know the results are showing positive results? Um and I just, you know, hate to say it, you know, typically when you have something that's working real good, very good, it starts out small as you know, the gentleman who just left, if it's presented to the government on this end, it's going to be a money grab. At the end of the day, I hate to say it. They're going to try to figure out some kind of way to where they can introduce this to where they can get some kind of, you know, get back return on investment on it, which isn't fair because this stuff right here can dictate a lot of people's lives. If it's showing that it's it's, you know, preventable or it's able to help or whatever it may be, you know. Um, I think overall society has to get out of this greed state because that's what's hurting a lot of people. If there's a treatment that's there, that's working, numbers have been shown, proven, just let it flow naturally. Like, it's there to help the people. Um, yeah, they're going to be, as you say, some negative side effects to it, but the good in this outweighs the bad.
SPEAKER_04I agree with you, man.
SPEAKER_02And that's, you know, just the thing right there that's shown with the statistics. Um, but it's trial by case. You know, it's it's trial by case when it comes to something like that. So for those, you know, that may be suffering those experiences, you know, PTSD, TBIs, depression, um, severe depression, you know, suicidal thoughts or whatever it may be, you know, if this is a solution for them, why not push this out, you know, nationally and let it be there instead of trying to hinder it and keeping it in a certain specific region or whatever. Maybe it doesn't make sense. Um, you know, and like I say, that's just my take on it. You know, as you say, you know, like, what if, you know, this would have been introduced. What if? And I know that's that's kind of like a a swinging door. You know, it don't never close as it's kind of always, you know, going back and forth with it. Like, man, if this could have happened, this could have happened. Um, and so that's just my take, you know, with that.
SPEAKER_04I want you to chime in, but I want to get back to this real quick, the the risks. That's like what four bullet points, five bullet points? Now think about it again, these these commercials now, all them lists, they they read them out real quick, too. Come on, man.
SPEAKER_03Like at least 30.
SPEAKER_02At least. Yo, stomach ulcers, headaches, skin rash.
SPEAKER_03Dude, I just I just want to kind of just touch back on, right? Um, and I I get it, you know, what we're talking about right now. But one thing I want to say to you is you can't go day by day thinking, what if, what if, what if I don't. Right? Okay, good.
SPEAKER_04Like I told you, it hit me right there, bro. I was like, what if? Like literally, it hit me because I know I know a guy went to high school where he overdosed. You know, stuff is getting spiked with fentanyl now. So, and that's from the opioid crisis. And we ain't gonna we ain't gonna get into all that how that got started and all. It's a whole nother situation. We, you know, we just this day one, we scratching the surface, man. I ain't gonna do no deep diving and all that, man. But something going on, bro. And I'm trying to help people heal and restore, restoration, so we can grow and come together, dog, and build. I mean, it's just so much division and everything, but just the mental health, it the jig is up, dog. Like, something gotta give, and this is the starting point, at least.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. I I I 100% agree. Um, I kind of I kind of had something I was gonna say. Oh my bad. No, it's okay.
SPEAKER_04No, because you were saying that I have the what if.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. So um I think of it, I think of it like this, and this could be me going on a on a whole nother tangent, right? Go ahead, bro. Um I lost my older brother. I lost my best friend uh one month after my older brother, right? So I lost my best friend to a drug overdose, and I lost my brother to COVID, right? And everybody always say, you know, oh what if, what if you did like this? That whole instance when my friend overdosed, I offered him, like, hey, you know, I'll come and get you. He was in Maryland, right? I told him, hey, I'll come and get you. Oh, yeah, I'll be right back. I'll come down right now and come and get you. He asked me to give him a day to think about it. And uh that that day that I gave him, found out that he tried this stuff again and overdose, right? And I I was beating myself up the whole time. Man, what if I just, you know, instead of saying, hey, I gave him that day, I just hopped in the car and drove that six hours and came and got him. He'll still be here right now, right?
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_03But then I think about it like this, right? And this could be a bad way of putting it, but my my best friend who passed away, he was a pawn in my life to kind of direct me into being the person that I am right now, right? And my older brother, when he passed away, I felt like using the word pawn, it sounds like I'm being disrespectful, but everybody what I'm saying is plays up peace plays. Everybody plays a piece plays a part or a role. Exactly. If I didn't lose, I'm I'm Aaron, you know, to the drugs, I wouldn't have made the decision to uh to go into the management role that I got into, correct? Right? And then if my older brother uh didn't pass away so abruptly, I wouldn't have made that decision to secure my family and their and our lives uh with the military, right? Uh so I I just wanted I just wanted to put that out there. You know, it's not a it's not a you can't really think about, you know, if I did it like this or if this happened like this, you gotta think of it as in you, I don't know what your religion is. I don't know what your religion is, but I'm just gonna put it out here as a universal religion and just say God puts makes everything happen for a reason. Like I feel like if my brother if Aaron didn't pass away, I wouldn't have went into the role that I went into work. If my brother didn't pass away, I wouldn't have decided to go in the military because my brother passed away so abruptly. Um his wife and his and his son didn't have enough money to pay for the funeral. So that kind of put our family in a hole, in a, in a, in a financial hole, trying to, you know, come together and come with those finances. I told myself I would never let my family, let that happen to my family. Right. Um, so that just made me go down a different path. That's I just wanted to drop that in there. I know kinda kinda went on the tangent, but that kind of yeah, get where I was. And I'm gonna say why I'm putting that in there.
SPEAKER_04And I'm gonna say thank you. And I'm gonna try to be rude earlier when you had said like going every day saying what if. Right. I'm gonna say thank you because you stopped me right from dead from doing it. Day one, literally, man. I don't know why it never really hit me like that until I pulled up in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_03Because that's the biggest weight on our shoulders. Is is what is and and what coulds, or that's that's the biggest weight on everybody's shoulders every single day. Oh, what if I made this left instead of making this right? Or if I, you know.
SPEAKER_04And really, I could do the same thing about myself. Like, what if this was available to me before I you know while I was doing my early stages of alcoholism? Ain't no use to doing that. Right and I just drive myself crazy, man. I ain't got time for that. I gotta do what I'm doing now, man. Have these conversations with y'all, man, and build and move forward and help people, man.
SPEAKER_03So I mean our stories make other people stronger.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, man. That testimony and stuff like that, bro. Like, it's important to share this kind of stuff, man. So what are the responsibilities that come with what y'all do regarding the young kids, the youth that look up to y'all?
SPEAKER_03So one of the main responsibilities is uh not only just recruiting, uh, but being a mentor. Um I I've noticed that as being a recruiter, uh, your job doesn't just fully entails of or details, just bringing people in and putting them in boots, right? Your job uh is basically mentoring them to be the next replacement for you when it comes down to it. Uh being there for them when it comes to you know trying to sign up for school or uh just any type of personal issues they have going on. Um I've like I was I stated earlier about my my first sergeant, absolutely amazing dude. My recruiter, 10 times better, right? Um I I mean you touched on this a little bit, but when I joined, I I was 29, turned 30 in basic training. I just found out my wife was pregnant, but when I already signed my papers, you know. Um so that was one of the hardest moments that I had to go through is leaving my pregnant wife in uh in a new place because we just moved here and everything. Um but to have my recruiter go above and beyond um writing me, you know, while I'm gone, texting my wife to make sure she's fine while she was going through the pregnancy. Um I remember when my wife was about six or seven months pregnant and she was explaining to me how you know she needed to go out and get some groceries, but she couldn't, she couldn't get it because she was, you know, bedridden, you know, yeah first pregnancy. But my my sergeant or my recruiter, starting first class, Thomas, I actually took his spot as a recruiter, which is kind of funny how things played out. Um, but he he went out and and and got groceries for my wife, didn't ask me to pay for or anything like that. Shout out to him, man. You know, uh that right there made me realize that as a recruiter, your job isn't just recruiting, it's it's being there for your soldiers.
SPEAKER_04It's real brotherhood right there, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. I wouldn't expect my own family to do something like that. But for somebody who barely knew me, you know, to go out and go above and beyond and take care of my family, that right there meant the world to me.
SPEAKER_02And that's it. Um, when it comes to, you know, a lot of people throw the word or the phrase out, brothers and sisters in arms. Some people just throw it out there and joke at it. But literally, like, that's a true thing. Um, you know, just from what he's saying, you know, his recruiter, Sergeant First Class Thomas, me and him, we pretty much join at the same time. So, like I say, it's it's crazy how stuff works, how stuff comes full circle. Um, and you know, shout out to Sergeant Thomas. He's always been like that. From when me and him You the man? From from, you know, from young Jits coming in to, you know, he's retired now, next I'll be on my way out, the same thing. It's that responsibility. You know, we're not just recruiters, you know, we're mentors, you know. We're someone, you know, you can speak to, you can talk to, like, you know, your recruiter, you're a counselor, you know, you might be a big brother, you might be a big sister in some eyes. You know, just an outlet to some people, and especially the youth when it comes to them, because a lot of times now they feel they don't have no one to talk to. You know, they feel someone is always going to come at them. They feel someone is always going to get on them. Not because we're getting on them because, you know, some of them may need it, it was it's because, you know, we see a lot of potential in them that they may not see in themselves. And, you know, my biggest thing as far as, you know, becoming a recruiter was to give back. You know, a lot of kids don't know. Some of them, they just like how I was. I mean, I just wanted to work, that was it, get a job, and I was gonna figure out the rest. No, it's so much more than that, especially when you see it that's already in a kid. Get them a sense of direction, get them some drive. That's the main thing. You know, get out your comfort zone for a little bit. You know, with the National Guard, is you're not full-time. You know, if you want to serve in the military, get to see how the military is, you know, get that experience under the feet, take the guard route. You know, you're gonna get that experience. You're gonna see how the military works. And if you want to be at home for that little time while you're still getting, you know, if they say initially your feet wet, do that. You know, if the gentleman just said here, when he got in, hey, you know, jar really wasn't good. I just want to go full time. Now, you have that option from the guard side, you can do that, but first get in and see what it's like.
SPEAKER_04Bruh. I'm glad you brought that back up because earlier I was like, man, we was kind of the same then. Because I made like A's and B's or whatever, you know what I'm saying, in high school, but I didn't have I didn't know what I wanted to do. That's it. I didn't have a specific like plan on what I wanted to do. So I would say for any individual out there that's going out of high school, and instead of going to college for all that money, you don't really have any direction, take the route that you took. That's it. You can develop a skill. Right. That's true. So specifically, to get that guidance and get that resilience built up with everything that y'all mentioned earlier in the podcast, man. I really like that to what if I really wish I would have with that route, at least at least the National Guard, bro. You know what I'm saying? Right.
SPEAKER_03Uh a lot of people don't realize, but you go to school, get a bachelor's degree, you know, you're stuck paying that that degree off for the next 15 years. That's that's one of the most expensive things you can get in your adult career, is is a home, a degree, and a car, right? Uh and maybe it's medical bills, depending on if you if you have to deal with that. But that's the beauty of the National Guard, is we alleviate most of those debts so you don't have to worry about it. And the car and the housing debt, we put you in a position to where financially you're doing a lot better compared to what you would do straight out of high school, you know, 17, 18 years old. Uh, we give you certificates that you can work with, or we can help you pay for a degree. Um, we even have active duty guard jobs in the National Guard where you you do you're getting paid the same as active duty army or Air Force, whatever it may be. Uh, but you have the the freedom to at nine or at five o'clock, six o'clock, to take your butt back home, you know, exactly 20, 30 minutes away. I live an hour away from here, but you know, and and and then do it again the next day.
SPEAKER_04You live an hour away from here?
SPEAKER_03I live in North Carolina. But soon we'll be uh just put that out there. We're gonna be selling this house real soon.
SPEAKER_02So if anybody's looking for a new house in my own, sell a house for he put it out there, y'all. I'm just saying he put it out there.
SPEAKER_03And then and then to go back, right? Um dang it, you you said something about oh man. I'm sorry, y'all.
SPEAKER_04I'm I'm not gonna say you good. You're gonna you're gonna remember because I'm just gonna kind of go back to what I was saying earlier. Like, I don't know if the multiverse is real, if there's whatever about the multiverse. I'm not a physicist with the matrix. The matrix, all that. You listen to Styles P all the time. You know that song uh Don't You Come Back? He was like, I'm at the Matrix Nucleus. Shadow came to the mirror, setup was the spookiest. God look, I'm telling you, man, I think that is a big issue with kids. As far as me, I didn't have any purpose. So I just went to Clemson, and bruh, the alcoholism just got way worse. I was parting. It was the worst decision that I made. You know what I'm saying? As far as just going to college and parting. If I would have gone to boot camp dog, you know what I'm saying? You would have gone to discipline. I ain't have I ain't really had no discipline. But like you said, I mean, like, like I say, I made good grades, man. But like not having purpose, not having a specific plan. I didn't go to be a lawyer, no standard doctor. I just was like, okay, I guess I'll just do engineering because my parents say that's where the money is. I love my mom and daddy, but I ain't taking that in front of them, dog. But it's just the real truth, bro. That's not the right way to go about it, man. Find your purpose, find your passion, do that, get that direction, bro. Like I mean, you know, you you already know, man. You don't know.
SPEAKER_02Um one thing is so funny in this cliche that I've I've heard if you're never playing, you're planning to fail. Exactly. That's all that is a true statement. If you just go through life and you never have no specific route, plan, detail, anything laid out that you want to do, you're planning to fail. Because you're just going to go with the flow. And wherever that flow takes you, that's where you're going to land. So it's it's very important that even in your everyday routine, have a routine. Wake up, take a shower, wash your face, brush your teeth, get something to have something structured. Like it helps keep you focused. It helps keep you on track with anything that you do daily, and especially when it comes to a degree-wise or career-wise, if you just go do a lot of stuff and you don't have nothing specific in the end that you're shooting for, you can be a jack of all trades, but your value is deteriorated because you're not fully in one thing. You spread out over a million places, so you're cutting yourself all the way across. How can you fully invest? How can you fully be in something if you're spread all over the place? Yeah, what's that term? It's like uh master of none. There you go. Something about the jack of all trades, right? You said the jack of all trades, master of none. Yeah, bro. You know, so so things like that. Um but you know, like I say, man, as far as recruiting wise, man, it it was to give back, you know, it was to give back to, you know, to the kids to try to give them some sense of direction, some sense of purpose. And you know, um, a lot of kids, you know, and I'm just gonna say it and put it out there, you know, there are certain stereotypes about kids or certain minority groups or whatever it may be. That's not the case. Don't fall into that spectrum. Like when we recruit, we don't recruit just one particular type of kid or color or race. We recruit all: male, female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Chinese, whatever it is, because if it's something that we can help you do and put you in a direction to where we see something that's positive for you, and if you qualify and if you want to do it, we're gonna help you get to your goal. And that's the thing I can say I love about the military, is they say it's a melting pot. People from everywhere and all over comes for one purpose. Pretty much is to better themselves. I don't even really think a lot of time it's for people because they want to join the military. I think that's a misconception. They want to join the military to better themselves because they see they have a lot of options. If I just get my foot in the door, I can go anywhere. And I think that's the thing when it comes to people joining the military. Now, I can't be wrong. Some, you know, some of you, hey, I'm army, army, army. My family's this. I come from a generation of, you know, military family and this and that or whatever it may be. But for the most part, people are trying to find their way, and people are looking at ways to where they can get there faster by taking an easier route.
SPEAKER_03And that's the military.
SPEAKER_02And that's pretty much what it is, you know. And we get a lot of backlash about it, you know. I don't want to do this, and because it's not something I agree with, and I'm just gonna say it again, you know. With our president, because a lot of people want to bash that at the end of the day, it's not about the president. It's about you as a person finding your way. It don't matter who the president is at the end of the day. So it's gonna be a good thing. That's the thing. Exactly. Every president gonna have his stuff. He's gonna have some stuff hidden. He's gonna have some stuff he talks about. We don't never truly really know. All we can control and know what we know is what we have ourselves. So it doesn't matter who is at the top at the end of the day. You do your job, do what you're supposed to do, and make your way from there.
SPEAKER_03Because that's just like any any company you ever go to. Exactly. Everything's not a good idea. Civilian side, whatever, you know, you're gonna have a manager that treats you like trash or talks to you like trash or makes you do stupid stuff. Um, but then at the end of the day, you work on the civilian side, you're not gonna get those benefits like we're gonna get in the military side, you know? Um, yeah, we got the president, but uh how often are you gonna really see the president? You know, yeah, you gotta you gotta deal with the orders that get pushed down, but how often are you gonna see this man face to face and he's gonna give you trash? You know what I mean? Um that's that's the way I like to think about it. You know no matter where where you work at, no matter where you go, you're always gonna have somebody in your workplace that you're not gonna agree with, or you're not gonna like the way they talk to you or treat you. But as an adult, there's something you're just gonna have to deal with and keep trucking, you know.
SPEAKER_04Accountability, dog. Exactly. A lot of people that be throwing up the president's name, like you said, like don't do that. Just focus on local stuff going on. Get out here, join the conversation, stop complaining, man. If you really want to make a change, matter of fact, what you need to do is make a change inside yourself. That's always started. That's always where it started. You got if you want change, what's that saying? If you want change, you gotta make change yourself. But that's what that's what the whole concept of dapping a hug is, bro. Like respect and love. Like, you have to respect yourself first and love yourself first. Then you can go out here and spread that, man. Right.
SPEAKER_03You know what? I love that you said that. Um growing up, especially back, I I like to say DC, Maryland, it's a different ball game. You know, here in South Carolina, you hold the door open for somebody, they're gonna be like, oh, thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, over here back home, you hold the door open for somebody, they're gonna be thinking that you, you know, you're waiting to get behind them so you can steal some out their back pocket or something, you know? Um that that that respect and and and that uh that love, I feel like is it gets a lot more down here, but it's amplified. It's amplified in the military, right? For example, um back me and you, right? I've been I've been working with with Lido since I came into recruiting. Um his rookie year is basically my rookie year, right? Um I I had to go through this course um that helped me, you know, take that next step forward into my recruiting career. Um that that course is is known for people not making it through because of the information that you get in a short amount of time. Um I called Lytle because I I didn't make it the first go around, right? I called Lido the first go around. Man, I didn't make it through. Basically holding back tears, you know, like dang man, I I'm not making it for myself. I'm not, I I thought that I was setting myself up career-wise for my family, and just to have all that weight on my shoulders to come back home and tell my wife that I failed, you know, that hurt. But one thing Lido said to me that day, and I and I and I bring it up to you all the time because you need to start working on it too, is when you got something going on, call somebody, talk to somebody, right? I never realized, I've never realized maybe it was just because, you know, of the work, the the time that I put into being an area manager and management in restaurants and stuff like that. You don't have somebody that you can call on. You can call the bosses, right? But what are they gonna do? Uh figure it out, you know? Yep. But not having that mindset to know that I can call on my the person that works with me to help me motivate me through this next step and to get over this. Shoot, I took the I I went through the course again and I and I've been past the first test. Call this man again. Hey, Lido, bro. I don't know if I'm gonna make it, man. Hey, hey, what'd you do wrong? Uh this, that, this, and that, Morris. How many times I can tell you to slow down, read the question, because you know the stuff. And look, I'm here now, you know, just because of having somebody on my side to motivate me to somebody that I can come to and talk to, somebody that I felt like I had a bond with that knew something about me that helped me through a very I want to say detrimental. Um say it was trying. I ain't gonna say it was detrimental. When I mean trying, I was uh look, guys, and this is for everybody who's watching this, uh, that was one of the scariest moments in my career, right? Uh basic training is easy. But moving forward, taking these courses to move forward and progress into your career, those are those are the times where it gets a little bit hard, especially when you have, you know, uh a family and people that that you're supporting. Like my wife's a stay-at-home mom, you know. If I didn't make it through that course, I would have been looking for another job, you know. Um, but to have somebody support me and build me up to motivate me to show me that I know what I'm doing and to help me get past that, I'm I'm so thankful to this dude because for without him and Sergeant Ingle motivating me through that and showing me like, hey, definitely Morris, you know this information, bro. You know, take your time. That right there meant meant a lot to me. So I just kind of touched back on family and and having that, you know, that bond.
SPEAKER_04What are some opportunities that the army provides that people may not be aware of?
SPEAKER_03Oh that's my favorite conversation right there. Um I'm gonna let you run with that one. So first things first, right? Since we're talking about mental health, every in the National Guard, every unit has somebody that you can come and talk to for mental health, right?
SPEAKER_04Um wait time out. Didn't you tell me that y'all had a person here for that? But since the tariffs or whatever shutdowns.
SPEAKER_03We did, so we did uh we did have a shutdown, uh, which kind of you know it cut down as many people as civilian jobs that we can have in each unit, but they're still there. Um given you might have to call two two or three different units to find somebody uh because of the shutdown. The the option is still out there for y'all to grab when needed, right? Um Dangy threw me off of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. I think uh at Battalion in Columbia's uh Master Sergeant Sherry Sultan, she's down there, she's like the mental health um consultant that can help as far as with the National Guard here in South Carolina. I know she's one of the ones you can reach out to um with that. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but we were talking about the opportunities that the RA offers that people may not know. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So that's one of the opportunities. A lot of people don't know that is there, but um, their names should be posted just about everywhere in that unit for you to be able to grab that information. And if you don't know the information, go to your uh your platoon sergeant, your readiness NCO, or your commander, and they'll give you that information. Um But also a lot of people don't realize the National Guard, the South Carolina National Guard in a whole, um are one of the incentives that that I've I love talking about is education, right? Uh because without education, you know, what are you doing? You know, you want to if you want to get more money in your in your pockets, education. You know, you want to to have make better decisions, education. Because the more information you know, the better opportunities you have in life. Um we the education benefits that we give people, uh it can it basically it helps you out to you know better yourself down career-wise, and also it alleviates you having to once you get that education to take that, let's say, six-figure salary that you just signed up for, at least half of that is gonna be going going back to your education benefits or your your degree that you that you worked four years to get. So that's that's huge. Um but people also don't realize in the National Guard you can get paid to go to school. You know, who wants who wouldn't want to get uh a thousand dollars to keep a C average and go to school? That takes that takes a lot of weight off your shoulders. Um it it helps you you know focus on uh just going to school and coming home instead of having to work that part-time job to make that that thousand dollars that you're making. Um it's it's that's one of the the biggest things. Um but one of my favorite things uh is real estate, right? Um everybody knows that you know you do a certain amount of time in the military, you get you know your VA home loan, et cetera. That is one of my favorite things to talk about because I'm working my way into try to get into real estate, you know. Uh but you do 90 days with the National Guard on an active duty order. Active duty side. You your VA benefits open up VA home loan, via small business loan. And then you do six years on a six-year contract, showing up one week in a month, two weeks during the summertime. Same thing. You open up your VA home loan, your VA benefits. Um, a lot of people don't realize that you can get these things, or they might know about it, but they might not know that they're eligible for them, you know, because they don't do the research on it. Uh that's another thing that pretty much that I feel like that in a in itself is an opportunity for people to create passive income. Um, I'm huge on passive income because why am I gonna sign up for something if I'm not gonna get something out of it, you know? Uh what am I missing, Ly?
SPEAKER_02Oh, even with the uh relief advanced. There you go. You already know how I'm going with it. I'm sorry, I was about to say something really.
SPEAKER_04No, I was gonna say, I'm glad that you mentioned that you have to maintain the C average, bro, because I used to work in collections. You know, you default on your student loan, or you your grade, you G pay, you know, you make below a C or something like that in your class. People still think like, you know, your financial aid gonna pay for or the GI bill. And those were tough conversations to have with people, man. They did sacrifice their time for our country, man, and then they having hard times. And either they were trying to bamboozle me in lying, or they just made a mistake, man. An honest mistake, bro. Either way, it was tough to talk to people about that, man. And like those are the people that I really wanted to help, bro.
SPEAKER_03Like, and I think that's another reason why I got into recruiting.
SPEAKER_04And that's back to education, and they can get all the information from you from you guys. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_03And then I can if with me being a recruiter, I am the the first line of the fence, right? To give you all the information you possibly can get so you can be successful in your career. Right. Um like the Service Member Relief Act, that's a that's something that a lot of people don't realize. If you go on, if you go on active duty orders for over 90 days, um, if you are in any type of interest rate, like credit cards, car payments, anything like that, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes, any loans you may have.
SPEAKER_03The you go to whatever bank that you bank with or whatever, you know, whoever you got a car payment with, and you turn in your orders to them. Some some companies can uh can pull your your orders automatically and find them themselves. And what that does is if you can prove that you was working or she was on military, active duty military orders for at least 90 days, they take your interest rate and knock it down to 5%, right? Funny store under 5%. It's 4%. So funny story, right? Um me and my wife, we uh I knew that I wanted to marry her. She didn't know that I wanted to marry her just yet, right? Me and her went to go buy her buy her her first car off the lot, right? I put the money down on for her. Um, all she had to do was sign on the data line. Um, we had that car for four years. We still had two years left on paying that car. Uh, I used a service member relief act. They knocked my wife was in 20%, she was in a 24% APR percent uh interest rate. Like basically she was she was paying like heavy for that. Um I found out that my wife was eligible for it because we were married and I was gonna have to do the orders. So I we signed up for it. They knocked my wife's car down to I want to say 4% interest rate.
SPEAKER_02Voila.
SPEAKER_03Come to find out that we pay so much in the interest that we ended up owning that car. We still had two years left, and they sent us a almost a thousand dollar paycheck because we paid too much when it came to interest. So that right there, I thought, because single member, I said one income in that household, right? I thought that I was gonna be stuck paying my wife's car for another two years. That her pet her car payment was like around $500 for a Honda, right? A lot. But to come and get that Service Member Relief Act and for us to not have to pay that payment anymore, huge, huge, financial-wise, mental strain-wise, everything. Yeah, that that that brought that kept $500 in our household every month now, you know? So that's a lot of people don't realize what they what they're eligible for. But that's why I'm so glad that I came in so late in my age, because now I'm asking questions and I'm repeatedly asking those questions. I'm gonna write it down and I'm a and I'm gonna figure out how I can use those benefits for myself.
SPEAKER_02What's your perks? What's your benefits and everything? And just to piggyback off what he was saying about the VA home loan, so as many homes as you can afford that you can buy and get, you can use that same VA home loan over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_03Let me refine that though, right? So every person, when you sign up for the VA home loan, they do a soft credit check, right? And once they do a soft credit check, income-wise, all that stuff, then they'll give you a set amount, which is going to be your VA home loan limit, right? So say you got a $350,000 VA home loan limit, you can go out and buy two homes for $175,000. I think it's $350,000, right? I'm I suck at math. I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that's right. I'm terrible. Okay, but as long as any five times, right? So if you can go and buy two properties, you know, say but the the stipulation to it is you have to live in your house. Well, I want to say I could be wrong, y'all, so don't, you know, don't judge me if I'm wrong, but I want to say you have to live in your house for at least 90 days. What's what's three months living in your house? And then after that, you know, you putting it up for rent or or something like that to bring some passive income into your household. So that's what that's currently what I'm working on now, you know. So man, when I mean uh it's if you if y'all TikTok it or or Instagram search, Google search, whatever they do nowadays, but if y'all look it up, it's it's a bunch of military service members who did six years uh for the in the military and then came out being millionaires. Um it's it's ways around, it's ways to do it. You just gotta be smart about it.
SPEAKER_04That's it. I had no idea about 99% of what you just said. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03And that's why I hope we do this more often. Yeah, we will. I want to give you all the information.
SPEAKER_04Oh, and back to the being bad at math. You know, you're talking about the $500 that you were saving per year. I was like $12 times $500. $12 times $500.
SPEAKER_02That's why it's like, you know, I'm saying six thousand dollars a year and everything with that. But yeah, man, it's you know, certain perks and stuff that you get, you know, just from being in the National Guard. You know, once you win, hey, you can do the research yourself. Find out about stuff, you know. We don't, you know, South Carolina, you know, for one thing, with us, we don't pay taxes on our military checks, you know. That's another thing we don't pay. You know, you get your military check, we don't pay taxes on it. Stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04I'm too old to join, ain't it? Nah, I'm not gonna. I'm 41?
SPEAKER_02No, you know, they just increased the limit to 45. You know, you're good to go. 42. Well, you know, just stipulates.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's something I'm seriously thinking about. I don't think considering just you know what's stipulated.
SPEAKER_03We just enlisted last year a 42-year-old teacher.
SPEAKER_02I got him. That's my guy. Great Falls.
SPEAKER_03So trust me, I'm not here to recruit you.
SPEAKER_02And so the thing is with that, with recruiting him, so you know, he was a teacher of Great Falls, master's degree, and all that stuff. The main thing we try to tell these kids, we don't want you to take out a student loan because it includes debt. You take out a student loan, you're gonna be paying nearly 20-something years to pay off a loan. When you can come in with us, find your school that you want to go to, find out how much the tuition is, use our money and see how much you can get paid to go to school. That's, you know, per semester and per year, and what you can make while you're in school. So, long story short, Mr. Robinson, he, you know, he had a lot of money in student loan debt. While he enlisted, he qualified for a student loan repayment. National Guard is gonna pay off $50,000 of his student loan debt that he's had. And he's 42 years old. So that means to tell you over the 20 years it may have taken him to pay off that student loan, he still had that loan. But with him serving, they're gonna pay $50,000 of his student loan debt off. So now if I'm telling you they're gonna pay $50,000, just imagine what his number is. Because I'm not putting it out there. I'm not putting it out there, but you mean to tell me they're gonna pay $50,000 out of that?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he just has to pay the rest. So, like I said, it's a lot of things that's in there that, you know, once you get in, you qualify for them, use them.
SPEAKER_03It's up to you to use them.
SPEAKER_02And that's it.
SPEAKER_03What's the saying? You can leave the uh uh water, but you can't make them drink.
SPEAKER_02You know, so and you know, so so that's it, man. It's it's it's a lot of things, you know, that goes on. And I'll say this about anything you do in life. You're gonna give it time. Everything you do, you have to give it time. You have to sacrifice your time. So why not sacrifice your time real liftly? If you do six years, you're going to work 38 days a year, part-time service, full-time benefits for those that are going to school. You can get your degree paid for and earn money. Why not do that? Because if you if you do it your way, you're going to go in debt. And who wants to be 17, 18, 19, 20 years old with over $100,000 in student loan debt?
SPEAKER_04I wish I would have we would have crossed paths and I would have had a conversation with you when I had graduated from high school, but you know, I was just a couple years ahead of you, so we was kind of high right there together.
SPEAKER_03I think he was still a private around that time.
SPEAKER_02You know, but and this and this is the biggest thing. Like, you know, I'm a parent myself. You know, I talked to my, you know, my daughter, she's older, she didn't go to college right or anything with her. But my son, he's 17, he's getting ready to be a senior next year. I've never pushed the National Guard on him, I've never pushed the military on him. I've just talked to him about my job, what I do, why I recruit, the things that are there available for kids. And I always told him, for one, I say this, I ain't gonna have no rich dungeon. Because for when I tell him, you know, a lot of kids, y'all fall into this thing, sports, sport, sports. There's more out here than just sports. Because with sports, you're one injury away. You think about professionals. One injury away, if they haven't made millions to save their money, one injury away, their career's over, they're done. They'll be back out here working it for a company themselves if they didn't do their money right. So always have a backup plan. With him, I told him, yeah, I can pay for my son to go to school. Because once again, guess what? Those are benefits that I have. I can pass my educational benefits on to my son. But guess what? If you're able-bodied, you can do it yourself. Because at the end of the day, mom and dad ain't gonna always be here. Make your own way. And I and I told him that. You sacrifice time for sports, you sacrifice your body for practice, all this stuff right here. Sacrifice your time for something that's gonna help build your future too, as well. And that's what I tell him. And so he's listening now. He comes to me and he asks me stuff about it. And that's the thing, and that's why when I talk to kids, I talk to them like they're my son as well. Because at the end of the day, I still have the mentality it takes a village. Yeah, I literally think it's it takes a village. I know a lot of people don't want to hear it in the like, well, ain't nobody gonna touch my kid, ain't nobody gonna say this and that. But you think about it. For those of us, I would say that's at least 38 and up. Hold on now. I'm just saying. I'm just saying from my from my experience, from 38 and up, probably, we come from that village to where our friends' parents, our aunts and our uncles, when we got out of line, they tighten us up. When we got home, we got tightened up again. Oh, Miss Johnny over there, I'm gonna tell your daddy, grandma. Or you don't even hear about it. You get home, where were you at today? Oh, you was over here, you was over there. How you know that? I told you I got ears and eyes everywhere. And that's a and that's a true thing. So I think to a certain degree, yes, we have to come back to the village mentality, but only if the village is correct in itself. And I'm gonna say that first because we can't have grown adults out here that's kids trying to lead kids. It's not gonna work. You know, if if you're blind, if you're a true adult and your your your um your program works for your kids and they're never in trouble and they're on the up and up, well, yeah, if you see my child out somewhere, hey, by all means, do what you gotta do, but do it respectfully. Respectfully. And that's all I ask. You know, and I and I think once we as a whole get back to that, it benefits everyone overall, you know, whether it's, you know, military side, civilian side, even in recruiting, you know, whatever it may be. Um, and I think that will help overall, you know. But as far as like, you know, the benefits and stuff that we have, certain stuff like that, like we have education benefits. We serve the soldiers, we can give it off to our kids. We have home loans, stuff like that. We don't pay taxes on certain stuff. We have um civilian acquired skills programs, you know, we can help you get certain certifications, you know, whether it's welding, electrician, stuff like that. You come in and get the same certification, you may go pay three, four thousand dollars for yourself out of your own pocket. You go through a course, you go through some training, you get that same certification with us. We're going to pay you while you're getting that certification. Now you can use that same certification to come out to get a job at a higher level and keep on moving.
SPEAKER_03And then you got the military to box a check on your application too. There you go. I mean, it's that simple. It's that simple.
SPEAKER_04Bro, what's crazy is I didn't really consider joining the military till about 10 years ago I was at that job. Working collections. And I was like, I can't do it. You know, because of the situation with my my my daughter and baby moms and all that. So see at that point, 30 something years old, I still ain't had no purpose. I was still trying to figure out what I could do because that that wasn't it, bro. Mm-hmm. I'm right there with you. But man, I'm gonna tell you, y'all did a good job on this podcast, giving that information, man. Appreciate it. Um now we talked about a lot of positive things, but we gotta figure something out and get the VA whipped into good shape, man. They're gonna have the something got to change for that, man. Where do we start, man, with that? Like, who do we talk to, man? Maybe get them on the podcast. They ain't gonna wanna come on, is it? I I uh like what do we do? To be honest, everybody talks about that, bro.
SPEAKER_03People need to hear you, you know what I'm saying? Right, right, right. My bad. I'm talking my hands a lot, so I might be swinging the mic around a little bit. Like animated, but when it comes, so just like how the gentleman was saying South Carolina is trash, but North Carolina's 10 times different, right? Yeah, I feel like like we like we discussed MEPS, right? MEPS exactly the same way all across the board. Processing paperwork, the way they accept stuff, all of it's exactly the same, right? So why not if if MEPS runs exactly the same, why not run the VA exactly the same? Why is a neighboring state having better success than the other state right next to it? You know what I mean? Doesn't make sense. Um I feel like they need to come up with with just a strict guideline on this is how it should be ran and and and leave it like that. If that's if it's successful at one spot, it should be successful everywhere.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so can you do that? Can y'all do that? Come up with a guideline and then maybe you know we talk about it on the podcast and then maybe go talk to some people in person. What can we do, man?
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna say that's above our pay grade. Right, right. Um, because that's you know, that's the VA, that's that side of the military. It would have to be a representative from, you know, the VA themselves to answer those questions. Like, well, why South Carolina runs differently from North Carolina? Somewhere it's a disconnect. Um, like you say, it's the you know, same script or same movie, different characters. You know, it's the same guidelines across, but people are running it differently in their prospective states or whatever it may be. So I think that's the biggest disconnect. Like, they know the guidelines. My thing is this who's checking in behind them? The checks and balances. There you go. Nobody's been checking in behind them to where if they've had surveys, well, this state right here is VA is this, this state's right here VA is that. Well, somebody needs to come in and see what the problem is and see what the issue is. And I think that's the only way that would be able to get resolved within itself.
SPEAKER_04And then going back to the stat I said earlier, I think it was like 61% of the veterans that had committed suicide didn't have their VA benefits the year prior. That should That should be enough to get people to man, what do we march for nowadays? What do we protest for nowadays? What was the last like major protest we had? I'm not gonna Google it. Um I don't even try to like watch the news like that. I don't watch the news really myself.
SPEAKER_03Respectfully, I don't wanna. I can think of it, but I just don't want the I don't know. I think I know I'll put I'll put I'll put it out there, man. I think I know what she's talking about. I'll put it out there. Write it down.
SPEAKER_04Just write it down real quick.
SPEAKER_03It was uh no, I'll I'll I'll say it. Listen, but respectful. I'ma say it, right? But this has nothing to do with how I feel about you know what's going on in the world. I am a military uh in the military service, and I have you know obligations to the military in my country. Um but with that being said, I think the most one of the the recently, like within a year or so, one of the biggest protests was the no kings protests. That was one of them, right? No kings protest? Nobody would agree with that?
SPEAKER_04What I don't even know what that is. Like I said, I don't watch the news, man.
SPEAKER_03So the no no kings protest was uh is a protest where uh people went into the streets um and they were protesting against Donald Trump, basically stating, you know, no kings, he's no he's no king, he's not gonna be a king, he's not gonna be treated like a king. And again, I want to be sure to make this very clear that I am a service member and my he is my commander in chief, and I follow suit with whatever I need to follow suit with. We really don't talk about politics. We don't, right? But that's just uh I just wanted to say that I thought that's where we were going with this, but that's one of the one of the big one of the biggest uh protests.
SPEAKER_04It's just a man, like obviously y'all about that action. You know, what I do for a living now, like a podcast, I talk, but I'm about that action too. I'm here. Right. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to come up with a solution and whatever I can do to help y'all and to help those in the VA, man. Because the the the rates, you know, the numbers are are there, the statistics are there. But it's like, what are we as brothers and sisters gonna do for our other brothers and sisters? You know what I'm saying? Because the brotherhood is real, bro. I'm gonna tell you I found that out doing jujitsu, man. Like, football didn't mean, you know. Some people love football, nothing takes it against them. Like, that's all it was for me. Just play football. I didn't play soccer. I used to play back back to being like, like, we used to play keekball. You know what I'm saying? I went to York Royal Elementary, man. We play keep ball all the time. I was never put in soccer or nothing like that, man. Or you gotta be versatile out here, bro, especially nowadays. You know what I'm saying? It's it's a lot of yeah, it's just it's it's a lot of competition in various ways of life, man, and just developing your child to be versatile, though, that's a pretty good thing to do, man. I don't know why they even say that. I think uh Yeah, let's do closing remarks. I gotta go pick baby girl up from school. She's gonna be on me, though. I was supposed to be there at 3 o'clock. Um 350. So any closing remarks to anybody out there that's lost, uh, I'm gonna go ahead and say this real quick. So if you are feeling suicidal, there's a veterans crisis line. Uh you call or text 988 and press one for the veterans crisis line. Is that correct? Okay. So with that being said, like any final thoughts that y'all have for the people out there, somebody that might be lost, maybe on the verge of suicidal, don't have purpose. I'll just say you know, all that stuff, man.
SPEAKER_02Um I'll just say for anyone that's, you know, maybe battling, you know, depression, suicidal thoughts, or anything like that. Um, first of all, you're not weak. Let's let's put that out there. You're not weak. Um, whatever your issue is, circumstance may be, it's overwhelming. I know a lot of times, you know, people try to deal with stuff by themselves, they try to figure it out, they try to come up with an answer, have a solution. You're not gonna always have it. And that's okay. There are people out there that are there to help you. Um, I will say to you, you just have to put your pride to the side if that's the case, if that's the issue. You know, and I say this, for one, people gonna talk. If that's what you're worried about, people talk every day. But if it's going to save you and get you back on track, reach out to the people that's there for you. Whether it's a pastor, whether it's a counselor, a close friend, somebody, reach out. Because you know, when it comes to suicide, as we say, one is too many.
unknownUh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Because you can never turn that back. You can never get that back. You there's no reverse uno. There's no hit the reset button. There's no do it again. So if you're in that state or within that mind frame or whatever it may be, reach out. Reach out. You have to take the first step. Nobody's gonna do it for you. Um you know, and I'll say myself, I've been through a lot of stuff myself with my family and friends that know me. I'm very resilient. I've been through. Um, and there's been times, you know, I've been down on myself, and I can honestly say, you know, I may have thought about suicide once, but at the end of the day, that's very selfish. You're being very selfish because when you do something like that, think about the people that you're hurting, you're leaving behind. You don't have no answers for them. Don't be selfish. Reach out. You know, and that's you know all I have to say when when it comes to that, you know, just just reach out, man. Like just reach out, put your pride aside, put your ego aside, get the help.
SPEAKER_03My I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it quick, right? Um I don't know y'all, but I love y'all. Um times is hard out here. Um, and if you ever just need somebody just to talk to, um you can find me on Instagram. Uh I know it's not the the most the the best way to communicate with somebody, but you know, if you need somebody to talk to, if you need some information, uh it's recruiter underscore mo e. Uh, feel free to to reach out to me. If I can't help you, I will do my best to find out the information to help you. Um I know times is it's a struggle out here, but just like uh Sergeant Lido said, Um, we need you around more than you know. So if there's anything that I can do to help you out, um reach out, you know. Uh and and I and I'll do my best to do to help you with whatever situation you got going on.
SPEAKER_04To everybody that, you know, watching the video, all my listeners, I want to say thank y'all. Uh, this is a very good opportunity, man, and I'm really trying to make some positive changes out here for my, you know, my environment, man, my the people around me, like family, friends, everybody in York County, really. And hopefully beyond. But right now it's about getting the work done here in Rock Hill, South Carolina, man, in York. You know, that was my stomping grounds a little bit back in the day, man. But I can't do it alone. We have to do it together. That's what it's all about. Back to symbiosis. What can we do to help each other beneficially to be a greater society? Thank you for tuning in. Peace and love. Thank y'all, man.
unknownThank you for having us.
SPEAKER_04For real, bro. I appreciate y'all for having us. I ain't mean no disrespect about no mic, bro. Oh no, you did. I realize I started talking like this.
SPEAKER_03It's all good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because I'm like, I'm looking at I'm like, I can't hear it, so I'm I just it's important that people hear every every word you say, man. Like, this ain't no game, bro.
SPEAKER_03You're right. 100%. I appreciate y'all for having me. Appreciate you for having us. Um, I'm glad everything played out the way it did. Again, like we said before we started, I was walking out while you was walking, while you were trying to walk in. So us meeting each other. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_04Right. So I'm gonna say my uh my guest that was on early here to leave and go handle some business, man. Um, I was talking to him at the sauna, telling him, like, I was like, man, I've been at the V the VFW. Well, I called up there, I can't never get nobody on the phone. Well, I got somebody on the phone one time. She said to call the next day or whatever happened. I went up to the American Legion because I'm really trying to do this thing, man. Like, I haven't I've never served in the military. My sister did. Both my granddaddies did. My non-biological granddaddy did. I mean, I got uncles, not to mention my jujitsu brothers, man. Shout out to all of y'all. Like, so many veterans around here, bro. You know what I'm saying? So I just got this calling to help y'all, man, and that to help. Because I feel like y'all really deserve it first, man. You know what I'm saying? But everyone deserves these possible alternative medicines that don't have as many side effects. And you said the word drug earlier. Like, when does it turn into drug? Like that word is so crazy to me, man. If it's something that was put here by God, how can somebody tell me I can't use it? Especially in like a safe environment. So, do you want me to stay depressed? Or do you I'm not saying I'm depressed. I mean, everybody, I deal with depression sometimes. But like, why can't I alleviate my anxiety, bro, in a better way? You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just raw dogging it with jujitsu and working out, man, and hiking when I can, bro, and doing breathing exercises. Right. Not that I'm looking for an easy way out, man, but if it can help me manage it better, man, and why I ain't gotta worry about that stress, man. I can focus on something else, man, and not have that monkey on my back.
unknownWhy not?
SPEAKER_04I surrendered to Christ about a year ago. That's why I have my relationship with as far as religion. You know what I'm saying? I'm spiritually, you know what I'm saying, inclined to say that. So all right, we out. Y'all good? Oh, yeah, thank you. Peace.