Scrolling Through Life

Grief is something we all endure and face at some point in our lives and we all have our own way of processing all those emotions.

All though there are 7 stages of grieving, there is nothing that says that you have to do them in order and in fact, there is nothing that says how long you need or should spend on each stage. It's all on you and how you feel when you are ready to begin your healing journey. Some people just don't understand the power that grieving can have on you not just mentally but also physically and how it just slowly deteriorates you if you let it.

There is a major difference in how we deal with the passing of one of our brothers during combat to when we lose someone back home stateside. The key difference is that you have no time to even recognize that there are stages of grief, you might hit one and that's anger and you hope that eventually, you can work through it all.

Tim and I speak about the people we have lost from very close relatives that meant the world to us to our brothers during our service in the Army. We touch on how we dealt with those losses, are dealing with them today, and how we remember and honor them today in our everyday life.

One question any Veteran that has deployed to combat hates to be asked is that one dreaded question "have you ever killed anyone" and most people will never understand how invasive, ridiculous, and just plain inappropriate that question is to ask someone that's served.

So on our Third Part of deployments, Tim and I speak on our individual experiences and our personal journies through our numerous combat deployments.

We touch on what was combat like and what it means to us in our own words and how we processed it all. There is a certain type of feeling that comes over you after completing your first combat deployment. How you become aware and how you adjust to those newfound feelings make a world of difference in your marriage, friendships, parenting, and mainly your mental health.

'Owning' it as Tim and I refer to it is something we touch on quite a bit through our episodes but in different sayings. What we mean is how we are dealing with the things we saw, did witness, or experienced during our combat deployments and also just our time in the military as a whole.

Lastly, we touch on where we are in our lives today. This is a whole new chapter for both of us as we reflect but not suppress our military past and aim to help our fellow brothers and sisters that have walked a similar path.

In our Part two of Deployments, we talk about the romantic relationships that take place during combat deployments, many people outside the military never think these types of relationships take place and that deployments are just always chaos and no time for them but there are those that find the time to build relationships and some have found the love of their life during deployments.

We talk about relationships and bonds you build within your own unit, platoon, and teams. we talk about our experiences working with other branches and other militaries. The military is a brotherhood when it boils down but let's be honest every MOS in the military believes they are better than the next MOS and rightfully they should think that, but Tim and I hit on why it pays off to have a good working relationship with other MOSs and other branches and how treating everyone you cross with respect and dignity will only benefit you in the long run.

We also talk about how those relationships you created during deployments and our time in the military as a whole have benefited us today.

Tim and I have known each other our entire military careers from our first unit at 1-14 INF in Hawaii and have deployed to Bosnia together early in our careers, and we have maintained in touch throughout the years and now are building a podcast in the hopes to reach people about mental health, success and hope to motivate and inspire whoever listens.

Andy Santiago and I served together at 1/ 75th Ranger Regiment. Andy tells me the reasons he joined the Army, and how deciding to go to Ranger Battalion was something he didn't know much about at the time but he always wanted to challenge himself and what better way to do that than join the Army and volunteer once again to try and become part of the Army's elite infantry unit the 75th Ranger Regiment. He jokes with me about how everything he has done to this point with the military was always just been on a whim to see 'why not'. Andy explains how he's always wanted to just push himself to that next level whatever that may be.

Andy touches very briefly on a battle that happened on August 29, 2009, and how that day would change the rest of his life. Andy not only lost a leader but his closest friend, his Ranger Brother SSG Jason Dahlke.

We talk and trade our stories having been in both the 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces, Andy having gone to 7th Special Forces Group and myself going to 5th Special Forces Group.

As Andy was nearing his retirement he yet again saw a challenge that he wanted to master and that next step was the Stack market. He explains to me how all he really started doing was implementing the same techniques he's learned in the military and especially the skills he picked up while being a Special Forces 18F Intelligence Sergeant.

Andy is in the works of creating a YouTube channel that breaks the stock market down in a way that anyone can understand and that is helping other soldiers to understand it in a language that we are all accustomed to, putting it all into a perspective that we use in our everyday life in the military.

When Tim and I speak about how to make this podcast very unique the one thing we always settle on is that we always want to talk about every other aspect of military life and never only focus on engagements with the enemy and death.

There is so much more to military life that a lot of folks do not ever get to hear about. We just want to bring life to the lighter side of deployments.

What's so unique about these episodes is that we both have varying experiences and compare them so that everyone can get a first-hand account of Big Army and Special Operations all in one episode.

In this episode, we talk about the worst and best living conditions both of us have ever have experienced during our deployments. We also hit on the best and worst foods we have eaten from local foods to the best foods that Ranger cooks would create to make everything just a little better for us.

Lastly, we hit on how everything that deployments made us have an appreciation for once we returned back home.

This is by far one of the best series that we have put together and it's all due to Huggy creating this three-part series.

follow him at

@timmypetty_

I sit done with Jose and talk about our time in Ranger Battalion. The Op tempo we were under during our years serving together with deployments and training cycles, and how it was tougher on our loved ones than it was on us due to the nature of being in Special Operations.

Jose speaks with me about how he fell in love with martial arts and MMA when he was about 12 years old when he watched the original bare-knuckle fights before the UFC days. After losing his mother at a young age he began heading down the wrong path and knew he needed to make some changes sooner than later. not knowing anything about the military he just wanted to do "whatever the hardest thing" was and that was Ranger Regiment and going to Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP).

Jose explains to me what it was like for him when he decided to leave the Regiment to become Ranger school Instructors and then moving on to the big Army.

Jose has always pursued MMA throughout his military career whether it was representing his Battalion or pursuing it on a professional level. Due to injuries, he had to step away some from MMA and he explains to me how he got into modeling for Romance novel covers.

Jose is in the works of building a consulting business and a gym in his hometown in North Carolina.

IG: @jbarreiro217

James and I sit down and discuss what it means to 'Do the Work'. Most individuals think that going to a treatment facility is all you have to do is show up and that is it. The road to any recovery is not easy at all. You will be tested mentally, you will feel as though you aren't getting anything done, you will miss family and friends, you will have days that you don't want to do anything at all. You will have to remember why you are there and what are the consiquences if you don't get better. It takes a tremendous amount of work and dedication but if you understand that you will be at your most vulnerable but it is then that you need to put that effort and do your part.

We all have or had Toxic People in our lives at some point. We also know how much they can play with our Mental Health, the toll it takes on us, and how it just withers you down if you aren't careful. It's not easy when we have Toxic people in our lives usually, that person has some sort of hold over you, whether its a co-worker or a boss at work, we normally don't have a choice and need to figure out how to deal with them sometimes you are powerless in doing something. Or you could be in a toxic relationship and feel a number of ways from "I won't find anyone else" to "it's ok this is normal".

Tim and I talk about traits most toxic people in our lives share and how to let go and deal with toxic people. It's hard to see when you are in a toxic relationship because most of the time we are blind because we care so much for that other person but you have to ask yourself If someone cares so much for you and loves you how could they want to hurt you as they do?

Jeremiah Wilber is a Retired Green Beret who is of Native American descent, he has a very impressive career and has accomplished more than most have in a lifetime and he has only begun.

We talk about his Native American background and his growing up in Montana and then later moving to Las Vegas. Jeremiah explains how moving to Las Vegas and growing up around gangs shaped and made him the man he is today and how it helped him later when he joined the Army.

Jeremiah explains how he has lived by the saying 'Today is a Good Day to Die' and it has been his mantra ever since he was young and it has helped him get through the toughest of times. He goes on to talk about how self-doubt played a huge factor in not going to Ranger Battalion or Special Forces Selection early on in his career, it was never that he wasn't good enough, wasn't physically tough enough, or that he didn't have the x-factor, he just never believed in himself enough. Although he was always above all his peers at everything that he has always done, it wasn't until he was constantly told what are you doing as an MP that he finally decided to make the move to Special Forces.

Jeremiah served in both 3r Special Forces Group and 10th Special Forces Group and he tells me the huge differences between the two Groups and how going to 10th Special Forces Group was the first time in his career that he experienced racism within the ranks and we talk about how these are always isolated incidents and never the norm.

We talk about the benefits of CBD and THC and how they have helped us with our mental health. Jeremiah talks about Equinox and Mountain Therapy and the work he is doing with Non Profits like Heros and Horses, Heros Harvest, and how he plans to set up his own nonprofit down the road helping give veterans a way to escape and deal with some of the mental health issues that we all battle with today.

Lastly, Jeremiah talks about all the work he is doing fighting against Human Trafficking and his company that he is building called 'War Party Movement' helping others veterans with fundraising.

IG: @jeremiah_blackbeard

@heroesandhorses

@heroes_harvest

www.heroesandhorses.com

Markus talks to me about growing up in Michigan and how seeing a buddy enlist made him want to also join and serve, he was wanting a better life and a way to provide for his family.

Markus joined the Army as Ammo Specialist and talks very passionately about the importance of his job and the joy he gets out of doing it. When he first joined he initially went to Regular Army and then made his way to the SOF community and that was where we both crossed paths at 5th Special Forces Group (5SFG). He talks about the differences of both worlds and having the freedom to do his job freely and mainly alone while being at 5SFG and then having to go back to the big Army.

Markus doesn't just have passion for music but he is a very talented Rapper and Producer and has released few albums out. Markus got the music bug at his first unit when he heard some of his friends rapping and he says that the first time was not great but it was what his friend said to him that made him continue and pursue his love for music.

Go and download his music and show him some love and support

FB: Mookie II BLK Markus

IG: Mokkie2blkk

TikTok: Mookoe2blkk

YouTube: Mookie2blk

Spotify: Mookie2blk

Applemusic: Mookie2blk