I tell a story when I speak

and I think it's such a profound thing and a relatable thing and you'll appreciate this.

Jumping out of an airplane is an interesting thing.

And when I ran a nonprofit, I created, myself and Matt Thompson, a ranger friend of mine, we created an event called Jumping for a Purpose.

And we took wounded warriors and families of the fallen, we threw them out of airplanes.

And a lot of people were like, oh my God, why would you do that? And the reason being is in life, when you go through trauma, there's a natural tendency to not ever want to do that thing again.

You see it all the time.

yeah.

Yeah

... because so many people, when terrible things happen to them, and, and- And it's hard to be human.

God does things to us or allows things to happen, I guess I should say.

He doesn't do them to us.

There's free will, which creates these horrific situations.

Yeah.

And sometimes we can't wrap our head around...

Yeah.

But give me a minute on it because I think my sons will enjoy it, and I think a lot of people love hearing about just what we put you guys through in order to call yourself a SEAL.

Yeah, training is hard.

It's, uh...

I mean, there's no doubt about it.

But at the flip side of that coin, I kinda knew what I was getting myself into.

I had researched.

I actually served with one of the East Coast SEAL units before I went out to BUD/S.

Mm

Mm-hmm.

We are becoming a nation of individuals who are being convinced, um, because of the color of your skin or your, you know, gender or your gender persuasion or where you came from or any of this, that you're a victim, and that you cannot help yourself, that somebody else has to help you, which I unequivocally, unequivocally don't believe in.

I believe in self-leadership.

Right.

And having to push back against that.

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We have some big guests and content coming up.

But when you're faced with the reality of like, okay, I know I feel different, but now I know I look different.

Yeah, I think all of that came together, though, to create a moment.

And I think that's the difference.

I talk so often about life and I survived this vicious life ambush only to step into this, or I survived this vicious enemy ambush only to step into what I call a life ambush.

And oftentimes life ambushes, the bullets and bombs of life are more painful.

Emotional and mental bullets and bombs are significantly more painful than the physical ones.

The aftermath of some sort of traumatic event oftentimes is the life ambush that follows and and navigating like yeah you're facing years of being put back together and i think in the beginning trying to navigate that you know in the beginning like blaming myself like boy you made a bad decision and like i had to accept you know i think it took about a week to finally say no you didn't you did things according to our tactics what happened happened stop beating yourself up you can't change the past all we can do is drive forward so that was kind of the first catalyst um And the second became, I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a little bit of anger and like, where do I go from here? And I'm going to be broken and disfigured my whole life.

And this is something that obviously way too many are dealing with every day.

I think from my experience in like when you're rebuilding your life and what I've heard from other people, a lot of it comes down to how do you get those small wins and rebuild confidence when you're moving forward? What were some of the things you did early on to help you rebuild your self-worth and confidence to, to build momentum, to, to change and to transform?

So, one, have a framework to follow.

Create discipline and set goals.

When I talk about those three rules, lead yourself, lead others, lead always, lead yourself is the most critical thing.

You should be looking in the mirror every day and ask yourself, how well did I lead myself today? If I have goals, did I execute on those goals? Did I hold myself to the highest standards? Am I working to be the elite version of myself? The answer is no.

Guess what? And you're the only person that will know this.

I mean, because there are a lot of people who are super talented in areas of their life and they can get away with being, I'll be honest, when I was younger, I bet I was only operating at about 60 to 70% of what I was capable of.

falling into the victim mindset like when when life throws us one of these ambushes and i think it's tough i think people are more likely to fall into it when like something happened that wasn't their fault and some like life experience happens that sets them back for a period of time like what's your advice to people that have a habit of falling into the victim trap when when life throws them curveballs

When you was 17, 18, that you got into sort of the tr- training of the military, what was that experience like, your first, you know, your first time? Did you know what you was, you know, coming to expect because of your, the family that you'd been around and stuff?

Yeah, and I did a lot of...

I mean, thankfully, um, as I got closer, I found books.

I mean, I read things.

Um, I actually, I was very fortunate.

The, the first training school I went to in the Navy was here in the Virginia Beach area.

The, the SEAL teams are based here in Virginia Beach.

Could you paint a picture for somebody who doesn't know anything about what that training looks like? Like, the, the, the tougher days.

How many minutes elapsed between getting shot, waking up being like, oh, I don't even know what's going on, just trying to stay awake here until you're waking up in a surgery center a few hours later?

It was, we know that gunfight lasted about 40 minutes.

I was hitting the first couple of minutes along with teammates.

So I was pinned down for probably 35 minutes, which is a long time to be shot at by big bullets.

But, you know, we're here, man.

And that's, you know, lots of rabbit holes we can go down.

At the end of the day, Everyone in life will go through trauma.

Because

Um, so it's scary, but yeah, so as a professional soldier, it, y- I guess you look at it a little differently.

Yeah, Megan, 100%.

First off, thanks for having me on.

My thoughts and prayers to not only the pilots and their families, but to the su- CSAR crews that are now launching on what they do best.

And Wizz is 100% right.

These guys and gals, they've trained for years.

That package, once it launches, if we didn't already have some high level of air superiority, we've even, we've, we've upped the ante exponentially in the levels of jamming and things we're doing.

Yep.

They're very thankful what's going on here.

Well, and I think CPAC embodies exactly what the Iranians are chanting about.

It is this embodiment of freedom, and that is what makes America so amazing.

That's why at CPAC and so many of us understand the power of freedom.

I think there's a lot of individuals on the left.

I'm a Virginia resident.

You look at right now what Abigail Spanberger is trying to do to the state of Virginia.

How major is that? And how much of a consideration should the midterms be in President Trump's mind?

And I'll be honest,

I wanna unpack even a little more, let's step back for a second.

So many people get confused in this life and they define things that happen to them as a bad day.

And I have a slogan, there are no bad days.

If you woke up this morning, it's still a good day.

Cause that means you have the ability to deal with whatever problem or challenge you're facing.

Real bad days leave permanent scars, physical, mental, emotional, financial, and sometimes they'll cost people their lives.

Is that, is that part of what you did to put yourself back together, both emotionally and physically?

How about you?

Dan, I mean, this was astounding.

And it was a message, a clarion call sent around the world.

I mean, this is a one-two punch.

The first punch happened with Iran, with the penetration into Iran to take out the nuclear facilities.

This is the second punch.

And this is so layered.

If Petro keeps saying, come get me, could we pull off another one of these? Would it be easier in a Cuba or a Colombia? Are they as, I doubt it, sophisticated as Venezuela? Would it be easier?

We did strikes by drones, strike by choppers, by jets, whatever, and if guys were climbing out of pickup trucks and tanks and everything else, could you please tell me what the rule was when you guys were in combat? Did you have to stop, pull back, and go render aid, or did you take out the terrorist until they were dead? How'd it work?

Yeah, Dan, we took out the enemy.

I think a big problem that's occurring in American society, and I will admit some of this, I feel like it started to occur in the war on terror, is this blurring between the rule of law and the law of armed conflict.

And there are a lot of people out there who have never been in combat.

They don't understand what a combatant is.

And they want to apply the rule of law, thinking that they should receive due process and they should be questioned and they should be read their Miranda rights and all these different things.

And that doesn't work on the battlefield.

Oh my gosh, where's the war crime? That's what we're doing to the terrorists in the boats with the

I will, I will definitely yield to him.

Welcome.

It's truly an honor to be here for the Navy 250th honoring the greatest naval force the world has ever seen.

Now you have to understand, there's a lot of history packed into the last 250 years, but make no mistake, the history of the United States Navy from its beginning to today was built on a foundation of choice and sacrifice.

We chose to raise our hands and swore an oath to the Constitution, a choice to sacrifice our freedom, our earning potential, and even worst case, our very lives, to fight against all enemies foreign and domestic who presented a threat against the sovereignty and people of the United States of America.

So it was in the beginning, all the way to today.

In order to understand the full context of what you are a part of, I think it is important to remember our history.

The most inspiring men are those who carry the seal of an American hero-

definitely yield to him.

Welcome.

It's truly an honor to be here for the Navy 250th, honoring the greatest naval force the world has ever seen.

Now, you have to understand, there's a lot of history packed into the last 250 years.

But make no mistake, the history of the United States Navy from its beginning to today was built on a foundation of choice and sacrifice.

We chose to raise our hands and swore an oath to the Constitution a choice to sacrifice our freedom, our earning potential, and even worse case, our very lives to fight against all enemies, foreign and domestic, who presented a threat against the sovereignty and people of the United States of America.

So it was in the beginning, all the way to today.

Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and across Western Africa.

I, I'm not feeling that from you.

Well, I have an inside track.

I'm friends with Pete.

I worked with him with the Concerned Veterans for America tour.

When they tried to tear Pete down and say he did this and he did that, I was there.

So I didn't see that.

Pete understands that the military is about war.

Jason Redman, tell the folks who maybe are hearing your name or are seeing you for the first time, your story, your personal story, uh, a little bit.

I'm not feeling that from you.

Well, I have an inside track.

I'm friends with Pete.

I worked with him with the Concerned Veterans for America tour.

When they tried to tear Pete down and say he did this and he did that, I was there.

So I didn't see that.

Pete understands that the military is about war.

Jason Redman, tell the folks who maybe are hearing your name or seeing you for the first time your story, your personal

Wow, really? He was like, "I'm gonna do whatever it takes."

And he did, and, and, uh, and that, uh, I mean, amazing, and that journey was incredible.

But I remember feeling depressed, like, "Where do I go from here?" But this is where this journey-...

of failure, redemption, really coming to understand what it is.

A leader finally, uh, not finally, but kind of came to a, a intersection.

And, and there were several things that happened.

Um, the one last thing that kind of made me come to this, this pinnacle or this, this intersection was about all that time, I had somebody else there come into the room and, and they were, um, they were having a conversation with me and then I started to drift off.

Right.

What was it? How would you describe what you were doing in your marriage that was not so great?

Well, I think, uh, for many of our warriors, you know, so many people wanna focus on the physical wounds, and obviously mine I wear on my face, so they really stand out.

I mean, people oftentimes they look at amputations and things like that.

But so often, it's the invisible wounds we carry.

I mean, Megan, you nailed it.

I mean, if a marriage comes to an end, oftentimes a career comes to an end.

I mean, really, that individual is lost trying to find themselves and where they go from here.

So like, a lot of it, like, it was brave of Erica to say, "I see you drifting away from me, and I see you not talking to me, and I can feel the separation, like, on a fundamental level," and it was brave of you to, to say, "You're right." So how did you get to that? Like, there, you know right now, there are other guys listening to this, like, "I don't think I can talk about this."

Uh, Jay, you're, you know, notably a positive person and, and were all throughout your recovery. Do you, besides what you have inside you, do you think that that positivity was bec- helped because of Erica or, or was it, some of it for Erica?

Um, we talk about in the book, you know, as a spouse, a- and I think anyone in this life, having self-awareness of the impact of your words and your attitude is a really powerful thing. And there's no doubt, we had some really hard times. I mean, when, when they brought me home, we had three young kids and, and even though we had an at-home nurse that came in a few times a week, Erica was really taking care of me. I mean, I was, uh, non-ambulatory. I c- you know, I couldn't move. I, you know, I had to have a wheelchair. Um, you know, they're feeding me through a stomach tube. She had to grind up meds. Um, trachs are very, um, high maintenance and Erica had to help with the trach. And I think at any point, it would've been easy for her to say, "Why did you do this to us? Why did you choose this job?" And, and even if she felt that, and she told me she never did, even if she felt that or, or if she had said that, that would've been very difficult for me. I was already struggling to stay positive. And I think self-awareness of that, I mean, whatever you're going through, if a partner is going through maybe, um, a job loss or maybe they're going through some sort of health issue or maybe they're going through some major external family crisis, whatever it is, having your spouse support you regardless of what they think sometimes, you know, they're your most important teammate. And they should be supporting you, not attacking you or, or, you know, shooting... we, you know, I jokingly say, "Don't shoot your teammate." Um, and she was that way. So yes, it made it easier for me to be positive. I'm a positive person, and having that support was huge, and it showed me how strong she is through that whole thing.

I know that, uh, awareness of, of, of mental health for veterans, um, you know, h- i- is certainly... It's better than it was decades ago and it gets better all the time. How are services for the military within the VA? Is there anything? Marriage counseling, for example.

Um, you know, there's a lot of tremendous doctors, nurses and people in the VA. There's also a lot of bloat and massive bureaucracy and very old and antiquated systems. Um, the biggest challenge to so many of our veterans is when they have a need, number one, they may not be aware that there is a solution to that need, and number two, navigating all that, uh, paperwork, bureaucracy. And then deciding where's the best place to go. Is it the VA? Is it the benevolent organizations? So, I, I would say the awareness is better. Are the solutions all better in the flow? I don't know. I mean, I'm involved in a brand new company, Turbo Vets. That, that is our goal. We are revolutionizing the way we're managing, uh, veteran disability and benefits for life so that we can expedite and make more efficient using AI automation integration technology. At the end of the day, that's really what we need to do. If they're aware that there's a problem, in this case marriage, you know, P: "Hey, I could use a marriage counselor." Are there... There... I know for a fact, there's a lot of great benevolent organizations that are happ- happening, uh, with that. I know... Shout out to Debbie Lee, mom of fallen SEAL Mark Lee. Um, her org- America's Mighty Warriors has marriage retreats. I know Taya Kyle, the wife of Chris Kyle, she runs marriage retreats to take care of our military law enforcement fire. So the resources are there, we just gotta do better about connecting those who need them.

So and did you, was that a wake-up call for you?

Oh, 100%.

'Cause, you know, it's one of the things we talked about in the book.

We have always run our marriage almost like a mission.

I mean, in the special operations, we have no-fail missions.

Um, we approached our marriage this way.

It was gonna be a no-fail marriage.

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