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Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
I Host 2 Podcasts. Life Is Crazy and The Buckeye Battle Cry Show. The Life Is Crazy podcast is designed to help with suicide prevention. That is the #1 goal! This is also a Podcast of perseverance, self-help, self-Improvement, becoming a better person, making it through struggles and not only surviving, but thriving! In this Podcast the first 25 episodes detail my life's downs and ups. A story that shows you can overcome poverty, abusive environments, drug and alcoholic environments, difficult bosses, being laid-off from work, losing your family, and being on the brink of suicide. Listen and find a place to share life stories and experiences. Allow everyone to learn from each other to reinforce our place in this world. To grow and be better people and help build a better more understanding society.
The early podcast episodes are a story of the journey of my life. The start from poor, drug and alcohol stricken life, to choices that lead to success. Discusses my own suicide ideations and attempt that I struggled with for most of my life. Being raised by essentially only my mother with good intentions, but didn't know how to teach me to be a man. About learning life's lessons and how to become a man on this journey and sharing those lessons and experiences with others whom hopefully can benefit from my successes and failures.
Hosting guests who have overcome suicide attempts/suicide ideations/trauma/hardships/difficult situations to fight through it, rise up, and live their best life. Real life stories to help others that are going through difficult times or stuck without a path forward, understand and learn there is a path forward.
The Buckeye Battle Cry Show is a weekly show about the greatest sport in the world, college football, and specializing in discussing the greatest team in the world, THE Ohio State Buckeyes,
Want to be a guest on Brandon Held - Life is Crazy? Send Brandon Held a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/brandonheld
Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
Episode 64: From Battlefield to Civilian Life: A Ranger's Journey with Chris Brewer
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Christopher Brewer shares his journey from Ranger Battalion NCO to Special Forces officer and the challenges of transitioning to civilian life after 24 years of military service. His candid stories reveal both the camaraderie of military service and the profound sense of displacement many veterans experience when entering civilian life.
• Born into a military family and joined the Ranger Battalion when it was reactivated in 1974
• Transitioned from NCO to officer to avoid being stuck as a drill sergeant for five years
• Served in critical roles worldwide including Okinawa, Colombia, Panama, and classified locations
• Found himself installing burglar alarms after retirement despite his elite military background
• Eventually leveraged his expertise as a threat options analyst for government contracting
• Emphasizes maintaining connections with fellow veterans during the transition to civilian life
• Suggests finding purpose through helping others as a powerful antidote to depression
• Shares a remarkable story about protecting a radar site from Pablo Escobar in Colombia
• Has written two books: "Old School Ranger" and "In the Shadows Between the Wars"
• Believes in staying open to different perspectives and meaningful human connection
Check out Christopher Brewer's books on Amazon in hardcover and audiobook formats to learn more about his experiences in military operations that occurred between major conflicts.
Developed by a team of Practitioners, men's health scientists, neuroscientists and peak performers. MNLY harnesses the power of blood analysis, machine learning, and AI to evaluate data from four essential components: Biological, Environmental, Nutritional, and Clinical analysis. By leveraging this advanced technology, we develop precise, evidence-based solutions that are tailored uniquely to each individual.
https://www.getmnly.com/
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Want to be a guest on Brandon Held - Life is Crazy? Send Brandon Held a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/brandonheld
Their supplements have been developed by a team of Practitioners, men's health scientists, neuroscientists and peak performers. MNLY harnesses the power of blood analysis, machine learning, and AI to evaluate data from four essential components: Biological, Environmental, Nutritional, and Clinical analysis. By leveraging this advanced technology, they develop precise, evidence-based solutions that are tailored uniquely to each individual.
https://www.getmnly.com/
Welcome. Welcome back to Brandon Held. Life is Crazy, and today I have one of my favorite type of guests actually my favorite type of guests on today, a fellow veteran. His name is Christopher Brewer. Name is Christopher Brewer. He is a veteran with just a ton of experience as a Ranger Battalion NCO, a Special Forces officer. He's served critical roles in Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria, and his career spans with strategic consultant and specialized training in high stakes environment as well, along with other things. I'll let him tell you about it. It's just too much to list. He's done so much. How are you doing today, chris?
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm doing good, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's my pleasure, Definitely happy, to have you here. So let's just start by telling everyone you know just a high level overview of who you are and what you're about.
Speaker 1:Okay, basically born into the military, my dad was a officer in the military, grew up moving every year school to school, went to North Georgia College as a cadet. Got tired of going to school, enlisted in the Army. I was with the Ranger Bat when they got reactivated in 74. Went up to about E7, got stuck at Fort Benning and they wanted me to be a drill sergeant for five years and I just couldn't see it. So did the ultimate act of betrayal to the NCO Corps.
Speaker 1:Went to OCS, became a mere second lieutenant but started over, which was not what I wanted to do because it kept me down at company level as an officer. Went to SF I have the worst timing of anybody that you've ever spoken to, because every time I go someplace it turns out being the worst possible time to be there. So I showed up at the Special Forces Qualification Course At the very time they decided to start something called Selection and Assessment no more gentleman course for the officers. And then spent some time in Columbia and Panama and the Far East, retired and then I've been in the military all my life. So I went into security contracting Five years Afghanistan, middle East, africa. Now I'm old and I'm at home and I just write books.
Speaker 2:And now you have stories to tell of back then, back when, which is awesome because I love those stories. That's one of the reasons I really wanted to talk to you. So you started off with saying you were born into the military. Your father was an officer, so you knew when. What age did you know? Okay, well, I'm just going to follow in his footsteps and join the military.
Speaker 1:It just always seemed to be a matter of course. You know, I didn't really know anything else. So they wanted me to go to West Point, and I actually got a nomination to West Point, but I couldn't do pull-ups to save my life, oh wow. So I failed their PT test and since I was too weak to go to West Point, I wound up in the 1st Ranger Battalion.
Speaker 2:It seems ironic, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Yeah, because being a Ranger is not easy at all. Yeah, because being a ranger is not easy at all. And then you know, you went on to be an SF officer For those of you that don't know military lingo, that's special forces which I had alluded to earlier and so you were going through and you were what fine being in the rangeralion until you got to Sergeant First Class, and then they wanted to make you a drill sergeant.
Speaker 1:Is that how that went down? Well, the thing about the Ranger Battalion is most people, especially privates, don't usually want to be there when they find out what it's really like. Okay, and they do now because they've done a much better job about educating everyone and letting them know what you're getting into. But for us, we had no idea what we're getting into. But once there, you don't want to quit on your buddies. You don't want to be looked at as a quitter, so you just hang on and hang on and then you get used to hanging on and that's pretty much how it goes. And so far as going to OCS maybe seven after seven years I got picked up. But I had to wait almost two years on the list. That's really fast. It's really fast If you're in units like that Ranger, bet and other places.
Speaker 1:One you're going to get a lot of good schools, you get a lot of good experience and you're going to get picked up to move up if you can hang with that organization. But when I got to Fort Benning I actually just re-enlisted, so I figured everyone's got to be an instructor. I really don't want to be a drill instructor. So I'll re-enlist for Fort Benning and go be a ranger instructor at the ranger school and then I go back to the battalion as a platoon sergeant.
Speaker 1:And the sergeant major greeted me when I got there and told me well boy, buy yourself a house, you'll be here for the rest of your military career. I said what, sergeant major? I've only got eight years in the Army. Man, now you don't understand. You'll be here for two years. Then you're going to get picked up for drill sergeant. It's a five year stabilized tour That'll put you up right around 15. You get done with a get off the trail. We'll bring you back here for two, three years. Maybe go be a black cat, you'll have your 20. Just buy your house. You ain't going nowhere ever.
Speaker 2:It is. Oh hell, no. Yeah, it's funny that you know what your story reminds me of. It's not exact, but it's something that led so my ex father-in-law. He was a a staff Sergeant in the army and he was going to a base somewhere and they were going to make him live in a barracks because he was single as a staff sergeant and so because he didn't want to live in the barracks, he decided to go to helicopter school and become a helicopter pilot and a chief warrant officer, and he only did that because he didn't want to live in the barracks. So that I see a little similarity in that story there yeah and uh the.
Speaker 1:The downside of being a fast mover getting promoted quick is being a platoon. Sergeant would have been cool, I was okay with that. But if you're successful as platoonant, you're going to make master sergeant and then you're going to make sergeant major. And once you make master sergeant and sergeant major in the infantry, your time in the field working with soldiers is kind of coming to a close. You're with the officers more than anyone else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're office duty at that point, right.
Speaker 1:Yep, but by going, by starting over being a second Lieutenant, I had another 10 years of proving myself, so that's cool yeah.
Speaker 2:No, that's cool, I mean, I don't know. So when I was in the army I only enlisted. I had a bachelor's degree. But I only enlisted because I wanted to use the army to get my MBA. And then I didn't want to have to pay them back time and service. And, as you know, if you're enlisted they pay for it and when your time's up it's up. But my buddy, he was a staff sergeant and he got direct commissioned to a second lieutenant and he was trying so hard to convince me to become an officer. He was like man. The officer life is so much better than NCO life. You'll love it. But I couldn't do it. I had to get out and see where my MBA could take me in the civilian world. How did you like the officer life compared to NCO life?
Speaker 1:To be honest, I enjoyed the NCO life more. But when I got to be an officer, every time I'd come up for an evaluation they'd look at me and say, hey, you're doing a great job, but this number one block right at the top, we have to save that for the guys who are going to make general and you're never going to make general because you're already so old and got so much time and service. Yeah, but you're doing great. And oh, by the way, we've got this assignment coming up that nobody wants because it's high risk. It could be a career render, god knows what will happen. But you've got exactly the background that we need and that's what I wanted. So I got all the strange stuff and usually I'd have a new boss come in and he'd see what I was doing, especially in special forces, and the first thing he'd do is say how in the hell did you come up with this?
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. So, uh, how many years did you end up serving in the army? 24 years.
Speaker 1:Uh yep, I was a commander of charlie uh one one first of the first and the special forces out in okinawa and charlie one one has got the hostage rescue mission, a close quarter battle. So I had a I was a team leader out there with a long hair team and then I was the company commander. And then we had one of those who in the hell came up with this crazy idea missions that came down and they extended me for another year as the company commander and by the time I got done with that, with 24 years I'd have gone back to US Army Special Operations Command and been the third major from the left, waiting for enough seniority to decide who gets to make the coffee in the morning.
Speaker 2:So Okinawa, though I bet that was a pretty sweet gig, Did you like Okinawa, oh?
Speaker 1:loved Okinawa Great and I also had the opportunity to be stationed in Bad Tölz, germany, with first to the 10th, so I got all the good assignments. I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 2:That was horrible. That absolutely sucked. And then when I joined the army when I was 29, they put me at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. So they put me in the desert and I've been here ever since. So I've been in Arizona for 22 years at this point. So I love the warm weather. I'm from Ohio. I don't like cold weather. I hate cold weather. But I never got to go overseas either. Of my military terms. That's the part that kind of sucked when your military career comes to an end. You know you're, you are an officer, so I guess I would imagine that that helped you transition into civilian life in the positions available. Would you say that's true?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:But only because I'm the poster child for how to do it wrong. Okay, I made every mistake that you can possibly make. I made every mistake that you can possibly make. I could have taken an assignment and gone back to be that guy running the coffee pot for another two or three years and got a little extra retirement and figured out what I was going to do with my life in the States. But no, you know, I'm walking out of here with my head up. I want to retire as a commander and I'll go back to the United States and figure it out from there. Bad move, oh, no, okay, all right. And then when I did get back and I started going around with my resume, all the high-speed stuff that I've been doing, people would look at it and go, oh my God. Yeah, that's very interesting, mr Brewer, but I really don't think there's any place for you here.
Speaker 2:And I literally wound up working in a burglar alarm company for a while, just installing burglar alarms. That's wild to me. I mean, you were a commander, you were in charge of, you know, troops. At a very minimum that should be. You can manage people, so that's wild to me.
Speaker 1:And had I done some research and figured it out, I probably could have found a job like that, but I didn't do that.
Speaker 2:You're giving yourself a little kick in the pants for that one. I respect that. I appreciate that. Okay, so obviously you didn't do that. Forever the alarm gig. So what happened from there?
Speaker 1:Well, I finally figured out, started going to some of the job fairs that I saw advertised. And that's where that resume meant something and that's what got me into government contracting. Because with my background they brought me in to be what they called a threat options analyst and I worked for Army Material Command and I would go around to all the bases where they manufactured the tanks and the ammunition and the bombs and explosives. And if I was Osama bin Laden and I wanted to come, just mess you up, how would I do it? And I'd build a target folder and I'd tell them this is how we would do it. And then I'd build a target folder and I'd tell them this is how we would do it. And then I'd teach a class. This is what they do pre-attack surveillance and using ruses to get in and cover stories and try to train the security forces to recognize it. And that kind of got me started on government contracting.
Speaker 1:One thing I should mention here is that several organizations in the military and outside the military have recognized how much trouble young folks have coming out, and the older folks too, and they work very hard on helping people transition out. It's much better than it was in 1997. And for the folks that do get out, who don't have that kind of a support where they're at the VFW, the American Legion, almost every state's got some kind of a veterans association and that's exactly what they're due to help people that come in that just don't know what to do with themselves and help get them started on a new life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's much needed. We can transition that into. One of the things we want to do here on Life is Crazy is help with suicide prevention and a lot of veterans I don't know if the number is still 22. I don't know what the current numbers are for veterans that commit suicide, but, whatever it is, it's still too high and, uh, I feel like a lot of veterans are lost when they get out of the military. They don't know what to do with themselves. Um, what do you think, chris? How can we better help veterans?
Speaker 1:You're exactly right, and that's what I was going through too, because you know it is in the military. You've got your friends, you've got your family. It's a culture, and when you get out, none of that is there and it's like you're on a different planet and everybody speaks a different language and what's important to you is not important to anyone else and it's really tough to fit in and that can lead to suicide. That's my life is over. Everything that I did when I was in the military that meant something. And what does it mean? To go sell vacuum cleaners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, or install alarms, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we are heading in the right direction, all I think, for the transitioning I got out in 2007. I didn't really get much help transitioning. I don't know if that was a Fort Huachuca thing or if it was a. You have an MBA, so you know, good luck. I don't really know what that was, but I think the transitioning part is super important for not only to help veterans survive out after the military, but understand that their life will be different. Like you said, there's no, you can't find. I've tried to explain this to people before. I've been in the corporate world. I've been. I've played a lot of sports. I've done a lot of different types of things in life. In the camaraderie of the military, the brotherhood is like nothing else. You cannot find that anywhere else.
Speaker 1:And that's very true, and that's why I encourage everybody that's coming out, you know, stay in touch with your buddies that are out and stay in touch with your buddies that are still in. Keep those communication lines open, because the ones who went out ahead of you, they've already been down some of those bumps in the road you're going to run into and they can help you get past it, give you some good advice, and then you can do the same thing when you're helping one of your buddies who's getting ready to get out and he's stressing over I don't know what I'm going to do. Just having somebody to talk to who's going through it can help both of you on both sides of that equation. And the lines of communication you got to stay open. You can't get inside that box and close the door, because that's where you really start going downhill yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:It's the buddy system right, it's what we're taught in the military. It certainly applies there, but you don't really hear people talking about that. Um, at least I didn't when you try and I got out of the Air Force once and the Army once and I didn't really. The buddy system wasn't really a thing that was communicated or put out there. That's a good idea. I think more people definitely should follow that thought process.
Speaker 1:And the VFW and the American Legion and all those organizations. Just go down there and have a beer and you'll find somebody in that bar that you can talk to. It'll resonate even if it's just listening to another old boring war story from an old guy like me. But that's a little bit of home, it helps yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also the most important thing that I always like to say on every show is you know, if you do get to that point, if you know the other systems are breaking down and you find yourself feeling like what's my purpose, why do I need to go on? And you're considering ending your life, Just remember that it will pass. The way you're feeling in that moment, in that time it will pass. You just got to get through what you're feeling at that time and make the right steps and make the right choices and you will get through that time and life will go on and you can still live your best life. So that's the biggest thing I try to stress to people is don't just live in the moment, look long term, because that's what can get you in trouble.
Speaker 1:And something else I like to tell people too is that you know we've got a lot of skill sets, we've got a lot of problem solving, a lot of things that we can do, and when you're really feeling depressed, you know, one of the things that we miss is the ability, when we go someplace, to do something. It's not all about killing people and breaking things. It's about someone really needs help.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we're going there to help and we're organized and we're prepared to help, and there's someone out there that needs that right now and you got to look for him. You got to find him because I can give you back your purpose. I had a friend not too long ago. That was just. He was alone, he was by himself and he was overseas. He was living down in Central America and his dog died. Literally his only friend in the whole world died. And he was living down in central america and his dog died. Literally his only friend in the whole world died. And he was having a tough time.
Speaker 1:He was and I talked to him says look, man, what you got to understand is number one it's good that your dog died when it did, because think about this, you're old. What had would have happened to that dog if you had died first? Who would take care of it? You gave that dog your best buddy, a good life right up to its last moments, with someone who loved him and cared about him. You did a good thing. And now there's another dog out there that's suffering. It's got no one to take care of it. It's got no food, no water. It's near death's door. All you got to do is go look and you'll find him. So get up, get out there and go rescue that living creature that needs your help. And that's exactly what he did. He found an old stray that was just ate up with ticks and near death's door, and he nursed it back to health, and that's what got him back on track. You know, you got to find a purpose and there's always somebody who's in worse shape than you are that really needs help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, finding a purpose is definitely huge for everyone in life and just for waking up every day and and you know, ready to face the world, having a purpose is important and one thing I always tell people you know ready to face the world. Having a purpose is important and one thing I always tell people you know it may not be true for everybody, but it's true for me. Uh, doing things for other people that has helped them change their life or turn their light around life around has meant more to me than anything I've ever done for myself.
Speaker 1:So you know, if you find that's true for you, let that be your purpose. Yeah, and there's a thousand things you can do. All the churches out there have got something to help the homeless, feed the poor. There's a thousand ways that you can be of service and help if you just get out there and go do it. I mean, someone told me once that to take our own life is the most selfish thing that we can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because that may end the pain for us. But, man, it's going to cause a lot of pain for other people and now you're denying them all the help that you could bring to help them through their worst day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely agree with that too. So, all right, I think we covered that pretty well. If you need help, reach out. There's always someone to help, always. So let's on a lighter note, what's? Uh, so let's on a lighter note. What's if someone asks you what is the wild and craziest story of your military career that you could tell?
Speaker 1:What would that be?
Speaker 2:Oh, I can only pick one. Yeah, well, because it's the wild and craziest one. Yeah, it's like number if you had to rank them, it would be number one on your list, for, like, this is the craziest thing that happened.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know if it is the craziest, I've got a couple that are neck and neck with it, but the Columbia story was pretty good. Okay, we'd just come back from Costa Rica. I was in special forces and we were going to do a training iteration down there and I was sitting in the living room having a beer and I saw presidential candidate for Columbia Galan get assassinated on stage on TV live by Escobar Sicario's. And I looked at that and I was in the 7th Special Forces group Spanish speakers. So I'm thinking, well, somebody's got to get a phone call. And I swear to God, telephone rang Right when you were thinking that, right when I was thinking that, and the boss said come in, we got a mission. So and this I didn't realize, I thought it was a live telecast but it wasn't live. This had happened the day before it was live for me, okay.
Speaker 1:But this had been recorded, there'd been 24 hours. Okay, george Herbert Bush was the president at that time and he said that we're going to help the Colombian government fight the narcos but we're not going to send combat troops. So Colombians asked for a medical corpsman school. They didn't have any medics and their guys didn't want to go out in the jungle to fight the narcos because if they got wounded out there they tend to die. So normally that would go to an organization called the Security Assistance Training Management Office, an organization called the Security Assistance Training Management Office, and that's logisticians and engineers and doctors and nurses, and they do non-combat stuff for foreign armies to go help train.
Speaker 1:Now, since they couldn't send combat troops and there was like 100 people getting whacked in Bogota almost every day at that time because the government was starting to fight back against the narcos they couldn't put the doctors and nurses in there. So they decided to put sf in. But you couldn't put sf in because that's a combat arm, right? So so we were transferred, reassigned, to the security assistance training management office and from there, on orders from Satmo, we got on a commercial airliner to fly from Miami down to Bogota in civilian clothes and we had some camis, camouflage uniforms in our luggage and we had a radio with us, but we had no guns, we had no ammunition, nothing. They said you guys go down there and figure it out. On the way down I bought this brand new book that had just come out by Tom Clancy, called Clear and Present Danger.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Great book. Yeah, read that and I was thinking, yeah, this will never happen. But and this story's in the book, by the way, it's a lot longer than what I'm going to do now because I know you've got limited time. But once we were down there and we'd been there for a while, we were the only Americans that were going out in the city. But we had to because the embassy dropped us down right in the middle of where all the fighting was going on and said we can't come get you because it's just too dangerous. You guys will have to figure it out if you need anything. So we're wandering around the city BNSF in plain clothes, getting to know people, because the base got overrun. We had to have somewhere to go and after about three, four months we were getting pretty good at it. And then the embassy got a phone call from Escobar. And then the embassy got a phone call from Escobar.
Speaker 1:At that time they had a US Air Force radar site that was set up outside of Medellin, in the valley where Tom Clancy's book talks about the American team that went in trying to blow up all the drug houses and the flight strips drug houses and the flight strips and they were picking up those drug flights and handing them off to both American aircraft on a carrier out in the Caribbean and Colombian aircraft to shoot them down. And Escobar was pissed. So this was ultra top secret, special compartment and information. No one can know. But of course Escobar knew yeah, but it didn. Escobar knew yeah, but it didn't make the newspapers. And they asked us to go help. But we were running classes. So me and one other guy flew out on a Colombian general's plane landed and we spent two days down there. Escobar did try to come up on the hill to kill everybody, but by the time he came up that hill we were on top of it. Things had been arranged where he decided that was probably not the right thing to do and he turned around and went back. And the funny part of this story was that he then called the embassy again and said I don't give a damn about your radar or your green berets and hung up and everyone was hooray, great job, you backed them off. You did it. You didn't even fire a round. Come on back to Bogota. I said okay, when's the general's plane coming? You know, we're in the valley between Bogota and Medellin. It's all jungle and Escobar's guys control this valley, all the roads, everything. And well, you know the general's very busy and he needs the airplane for something else. But your Green Berets, you can make it back on your own right.
Speaker 1:So we looked at our options. No one from the air base is going to drive us. I said, oh hell, no, we're not going out there. And there was one little village that we knew escobar's men were in, but there was a bus, an old beat-up bus, that came through there every day.
Speaker 1:And I called the embassy and said look, we hadn't got a card. Nobody's going to give us a card. The only thing we can do is we're either going to have to walk through the jungle, and it'll take us about a month to get up there, or we're going to hijack this bus at gunpoint and tell them you ain't stopping until you get to Bogota. And the passengers are along for the ride too, because they're going to know that we're US military, even for the ride too, because they're going to know that we're US military, even though we're just laying close. Do you really want us to have to do that? And they sent one guy whose mom lived in that village in an old beat up station wagon and he came down and picked us up after seeing his mom and his mom gave him a chicken in a cage and we put that chicken in the cage in the back of the station wagon, put on our black leather jackets and our blue jeans and rode back through all the checkpoints back to Bogota.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, I mean I'm not surprised that they told you to figure it out, how to get out of there. I mean that you know, at this stage in life we've heard those stories.
Speaker 1:But back then that was probably pretty much like, oh my god, they're just leaving us high and dry yeah, and then we found that was, that was the norm, because you got to remember too, this was back in the uh 80s, early 90s and uh, cell phones weren't really there. There existed, but no, everybody didn't have them Right? No internet, no laptops All of that stuff didn't really exist yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, oh, man. Well, I mean, when you say you lived it, you really lived it, so that's a great story. I appreciate you sharing that with us today. So yeah, before we get out of here, I understand you wrote a new book.
Speaker 1:I've got two books that are out. One is called Old Scroll Ranger and it was about when I was a private in the Ranger Battalion, our first two or three years, and I wrote it for people who've never been in the military, as well as my friends who were, so it's got some pictures from when we started. I try to explain things so everybody can understand what we were doing and why we did it. There's some funny stories about being in South Georgia in 1974, which was a different world of its own and when we went to Panama to the Jungle Warfare School, we went to the North Slope of Alaska. In February we went to Germany, went to the combat diver course as a ranger instructor and as a ranger student. So if somebody's thinking about going in the military, I'd recommend you get that book and take a look at it. It's funny, it's got a lot of history in it and it'll tell you a lot about being in the military.
Speaker 1:The one that's out now that I've just done it's called In the Shadows Between the Wars, because I came in after Vietnam and I retired before 9-11. So we didn't have a lot going on. There was Grenada and there was the Panama invasion desert storm, but I wasn't involved in any of those. But we were getting shot at on a regular basis in places no one knew about or talked about, and a lot of those stories were top secret. I went to the Department of Defense, gave it to them. They redacted parts I can't talk about. But there's stories in there that most people don't know, to include what happened in Panama after the invasion when everybody went back home because the war wasn't over yet. It lasted for another six months, but nobody knows about that. And Republic of Korea, when we thought the North Koreans were going to invade. There are some stories in there so I think folks will find that interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's a lot of military history buffs out there and firsthand experience like that. It makes for a great book. So that uh really really cool. Uh, do they? Do you have them just in um in book form like paperback, or do you have audiobooks yet?
Speaker 1:uh, I've. For some reason, amazon took the paperbacks off. I guess they weren't selling, but they're not offering them but I'm about.
Speaker 1:I'm going to open up my own website here in the next month or two and I'll get something set up with IngramSpark so I'll be able to offer paperbacks again, but right now they're both available in hardcover. They've got color photos of everything that we've talked about in the books on Amazon. They took the second one off Kindle. For some reason. They won't explain Amazon. They get kind of funny sometimes. They just do their own thing, huh. But there is a audio book on the second one that's out. Okay, and I'm finishing up an audio book on the first one right now. It should be out in another two, three weeks.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that's great. I only ask that for people like me, because I'm not someone that can read books and stay focused and concentrated to get through it. So I'm an audio book listener. I really prefer audio books. So if other people are like me, I wanted to know if that was available for them too. All right, so I will put that, if you provide that to me. Later, after we finish this podcast, I will put it in the bottom of the podcast, in the text description of the podcast, and I will put your links in there for your books. So before we go, chris, what's the biggest nugget of advice you would give anyone in the world?
Speaker 1:Jeez, yeah, it's a big question yeah, geez, yeah, it's a big question oh, just be open to the things that uh, keep that you haven't heard before. Because, like right now, what I see with the politics, we got people shouting at one another, yeah, that back and forth, and nobody's listening Right, and if you do listen, both sides have got some valid points. If we would just listen and try to understand where the other side is coming from, I think we could actually get something accomplished. But when we get into this, you're wrong and you have to go and you're evil. Whatever you believe, whichever side you're on, we're not going to get anywhere.
Speaker 2:good, I completely agree with you. You know it's funny. You say that. My son, who is turning 18 next month, was asking me the difference between the divisiveness of people in politics and the divisiveness that kind of men, young men and women are having right now. And I said well, the difference is men and women are complaining, but they have an opportunity to hear each other, and maybe men can learn what women want and are looking for nowadays, and vice versa. The women can hear what the men want and they're looking for nowadays, I said but in politics everyone has to come together or nothing will change. That's the difference. If they stay divided in politics and everyone just keeps focusing on I'm right, you're wrong. I'm right, you're wrong, nothing's ever going to change.
Speaker 1:And you've got to be careful about falling into the trap of technology, because it used to be. You'd run into people anywhere and you'd have discussions and you'd hear something new, and I used to really enjoy those discussions. Talk to people that don't think like I think, don't believe what I believe, because I want to know why they believe what they believe. But now everybody's inside that little box, whether it's the telephone or whether it's a laptop or the chat room or YouTube or Instagram, and you get into those groups where it's a big echo chamber because everybody believes the same thing, everybody's reinforcing. You want to be cool and if you say something that people don't like, they'll kick you out, they'll block you. Yeah, and that gets to be a self-reinforcing thing and that's really dangerous. And that's where. Just get out of the box and go talk to a real breathing human being, see what they think breathing human being, see what they think.
Speaker 2:It is hard to decipher what's real and what's uh overblown media, you know, in this day and age, unfortunately. So that does make it a little tougher, for sure. All right, chris, I really appreciate you being on my podcast. Uh, I love the stories, I love the, the discussion for assisting veterans, both transitioning and, you know, trying to prevent suicide. That's always huge and important for us here at Life is Crazy, and for me, I would like you all to go to BrandonHeldcom and click subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker 2:To Brandon heldcom and click subscribe to the podcast. It's only 10 bucks a month and it you know it goes to supporting the podcast, and I do put out a couple of podcast episodes a month that are only for subscribers, that are not for the general public. So please go, support the show and grab a couple extra episodes, for free or not for free, but you know that only you can listen to while you're at it. And then, finally, if you want to be a guest on my podcast or other podcasts at all, go to pod match and I'll put the link in my description below as well and sign up, and that's where you can meet other podcasters and become a guest on their show. So, as always, thank you for giving us your time, because we know how valuable time is and we appreciate that, and until then, I will talk to you next time.
