WEBVTT

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(soft music)

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- I was in denial a lot that I was even injured.

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And I was in denial that I even waited for a part for awhile

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Which was difficult for me, you know

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because I had a lot of friends

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that been more severely wounded, physically than I had.

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(soft music)

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(dramatic music)

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During my fifth deployment, like I said

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I was in Afghanistan.

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There were four vehicles,

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I was the Convoy Commander

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^and then there was probably a squad reinforced

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^that was doing a dismounted sweep.

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Kind of on the outskirts of Marjah in Afghanistan

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so down in Helmand Province.

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They saw us coming, they went and did a hasty dig

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and then placed the IED.

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When we got hit, it basically sounded like a water bottle

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filled full of air, went off.

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I remember being hit.

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The whole front noise of the vehicle lifted up

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and I saw blue sky.

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I remember my head hitting like the ceiling

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but I was still conscious at that point.

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I remember there was a lot of smoke and dust

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inside like the cam.

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I immediately realized that my Eye Pro was off my face

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and one of my gloves was off my hand.

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(soft music)

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I didn't have any pain.

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Like, my adrenaline was going through like the roof.

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The radio handset was not in my hand anymore

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so my thing was okay where is that at

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and I want to make sure there's still power

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to the radio so I can talk.

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From there, I used the vehicle in front of me

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to give a ten digit grid of where our location was.

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Then I was told "Hey, you need to go call in a Medevac

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for all three of you."

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So, I proceeded to go call in the Medevac

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and then we waited

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'cause then they, the guys on the ground

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needed to sweep and make sure there was no secondaries.

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From there, they pulled outside the vehicle

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and we went to a casualty collection point.

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So, they screened me and they said,

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"Hey you have a Grade three concussion"

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and this thing called a TBI.

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And I'm like okay two weeks of light duty

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and then you're good.

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So, I passed all the psychological testing.

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They did a C-scan on my brain

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and they said I was fine.

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So, I said great, I wanna go back

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and mentor my guys.

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So, my second week of light duty

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I managed to get back and then my Battalion CO approached me

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and said, "Hey, I want you to stay inside the Base

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but we want you to be in charge

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of firing one of the two guns

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that's going to be permanently on standby to shoot.

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And I said, great.

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(soft music)

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The next two months, roughly I

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stayed inside the base, fried cannon thirty to forty times

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the two highest powder charges.

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And as time went on, I started noticing

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slight symptoms, like

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hey we haven't fired the cannon in a week

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why are my ears ringing?

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And I started noticing

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these weird headaches that were appearing.

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I said, it's 'cause it's hot.

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And I'm Pting and I'm dehydrated.

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Then I started noticing this weird pressure

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in the left side of my face.

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Me being me which is stubborn,

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I probably should have went and had it looked at.

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My acting XO came over and said

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"Hey, I hear you're jacked up,

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I want you to go to medical."

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In my jacked up thought process of everything,

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I'm thinking, I'm like,

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Hey, I wonder if these two things are connected.

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Firing the cannon and getting blown up.

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Which it turns out it was

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because you know it takes they say,

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unless the data has changed,

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nine months for your brain to pretty much

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establish its new baseline and heal

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from an original blast exposure traumatic brain injury.

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Well, it was about a month for me or less

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so, basically being exposed to all that cannon fire

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was basically many war grade one concussions

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over and over again

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so it was re injuring my brain you know like a trauma.

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So, from there, I was Medevaced.

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And I ended up in Germany for two weeks

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and then there I got back state side September 4th of 2010.

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Looking back and the steps I've had to take

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to establish my new baseline in life

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I do accept my injuries now.

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The biggest thing that got me through this is was

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whether is was the PTSD aspect or like the TBI,

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if I continue to let this injury

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control my life, then the Taliban,

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the insurgents

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whoever it is, Al-Qaeda, then they're still winning.

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And I didn't want that.

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(soft music)

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As a whole, it isn't too challenging anymore

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you know, for all these years so

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it's seven years later and I'm still trucking along

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so yeah!

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(soft music)