Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is presented by The Mac Parkman Foundation
The mission of this show and the foundation is To serve as a source of information, resources, and communications to the community of parents, coaches/Athletic trainers, medical staff, and athletes that are affected by sports-related concussions and to raise awareness of the long-term implications of concussive and sub-concussive trauma to our children.
Broken Brains will also explore how Concussive Trauma impacts our Service Members and Veterans.
Join us every week as Bruce interviews leaders and experts in various Medical fields, as well as survivors of Concussive trauma.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman
Fighter Pilot to Healing Advocate: Wiz Buckley on PTSD, Trauma & Psychedelics
In this powerful episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman, we dive deep into the mental and physical toll of repetitive brain trauma, particularly among fighter pilots and military veterans. Host Bruce Parkman sits down with former Navy fighter pilot and Wall Street entrepreneur, Matthew ‘Wiz’ Buckley, to explore his extraordinary journey—from soaring through the skies to battling PTSD, addiction, and personal loss.
🔹 The Hidden Cost of Service – Wiz shares his firsthand experience with repetitive brain injuries, the stigma around mental health in the military, and the struggles of transitioning to civilian life.
🔹 A Radical Approach to Healing – Learn how psychedelic therapy, including Ibogaine, has helped Wiz and many others recover from trauma, addiction, and PTSD.
🔹 A Mission to Save Lives – As the founder of the No Fallen Heroes Foundation, Wiz is now on a mission to prevent veteran suicide and redefine how we treat mental health in the veteran community.
This conversation is raw, eye-opening, and transformative—a must-listen for veterans, active-duty service members, mental health advocates, and anyone passionate about healing, resilience, and personal growth.
👉 Don’t miss this powerful episode! Subscribe, like, and share on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts to help spread awareness and save lives.
Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman is sponsored by The Mac Parkman Foundation
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Repetitive Brain Trauma
02:57 The Life of a Fighter Pilot
06:04 The Stigma of Mental Health in Aviation
09:07 The Impact of Repetitive Head Injuries
11:55 The New York Times Article and Its Implications
15:00 The Military Industrial Complex and Mental Health
17:51 Personal Stories and the Reality of Trauma
21:08 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
32:32 The Weight of Loss and Compartmentalization
34:29 From Aviation to Wall Street: A Culture Shock
36:25 Turning Profit into Purpose: The Birth of a Foundation
37:51 Psychedelic Therapy: A Journey to Healing
39:42 Transformational Experiences: Reconnecting with Faith
41:04 No Fallen Heroes Foundation: A Mission to Save Lives
43:53 The Power of Healing: A New Perspective on Life
46:11 The Psychedelic Revolution: Changing Lives and Perspectives
49:07 Breaking the Cycle of Addiction: The Role of Ibogaine
51:35 The Transformative Power of Medicine
54:01 Lessons Learned: Healing and Helping Others
57:22 Advocacy and Change: The Fight for Veterans' Health
01:00:14 The Future of Healing: A Call to Action
https://www.mpfact.com/headsmart-app/
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LinkedIn: Matthew “Whiz” Buckley
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ematthewbuckley/
Instagram: officialwhizbuckley
Join Blue Fusion and Horse Soldier Bourbon for the inaugural Special Operations Army vs. Navy Tailgate Event
Celebrate with us and support veteran wellness. Your participation helps fund The Mac Parkman Foundation's Veteran Program and Team American Freedom.
Your sponsorship ensures vital education, screening, and treatment for veteran mental health, aiming to reduce the tragedy of veteran suicide.
Enjoy food, beverages, and live music by Razor’s Edge, one of the top-perform
Produced by Security Halt Media
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Broken Brains with your house, bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Mack Parkman Foundation, and on this podcast we look at the issue of repetitive brain trauma in the form of repetitive head impacts from contact sports and repetitive blast exposure. For our military veterans, and for pilots and people banging around those little tiny boats as well, these two issues right now are the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country. Yet both these issues RHI and RBE are poorly understood by our medical, nursing, psychiatrical and suicide prevention communities. So we reach out to people that have experienced the impacts of these issues scientists, researchers, authors, journalists, moms and dads like me whose kids are no longer here, to bring you the latest and updated information, for you to make an informed decision, because you are the only thing that can help. You're the only person that can help yourself and protect those valuable children that are there Today.
Speaker 1:We have another amazing guest on this show, matthew Wiz Buckley, and if you haven't seen Tom Cruise, this guy's got Tom Cruise learned from this dude. Man here right now, man, he's the founder and president of the no Fallen Heroes Foundation. Man here right now, man. He's the founder and president of the no Fallen Heroes Foundation. His call sign, wiz is a former decorated Navy fighter pilot and the CEO for Top Gun Options LLC and Strike Fighter Financial LLC in Boca Raton. Wiz, I'm raising money right now for my company. We need to talk.
Speaker 1:From 1991 to 2006, wiz was a highly decorated Navy aviator with the United States Navy serving at multiple duty stations worldwide.
Speaker 1:He was an F-18 Hornet instructor and adversary pilot and flew combat sorties over Iraq and was awarded two strike and flight air medals. He graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School Top Gun Adversary Course and has combined his unprecedented experiences in the military and corporate America to write three books From Sea Level to Sea Level, a Fighter Pilot's Journey from the Front Lines to the Front Office, and COVID Crash, from Panic to Profit, and his book Strength and Gratitude is an international bestseller. He's on the Advisory Board for Healing Reality Trust and hosts the Max Afroburner podcast, a long-form podcast covering a wide range of topics, from psychedelics to veteran issues to politics and markets We'll be addressing those two right here for a while and the podcast is ranked in the top 2.5% of 3.3 million in the world, which is man. That's a feat we hope to achieve here, and congratulations on your success Wes. Thank you so much for taking the time out to join us on the Broken Brains podcast today.
Speaker 2:Bruce, I'm going to bring your average down if anything, so be careful.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm an NCO man. I was educated at the Boston Public School System, so we know how that's going to happen, man you guys ran the military, so thank you, thanks for running the military, so us officers didn't screw it up too bad.
Speaker 1:No, I appreciate it, sir. You know I can't even imagine what it's like on your side of the military working on those aircraft carriers and just all those days at sea and just being, you know, just being alone. You know, and there's a lot of research coming out talking about fighter pilot, fighter pilots and the impacts of landing those jets on those carriers and takeoffs and how that might be the equivalent of repetitive blast exposure on the brains of fighter fighter pilots. I don't know if you call them fighter jocks or whatever. I've heard that term thrown around, but I am not tossing around without your approval here. So tell us about that, uh, before you even dive into it, because it just popped in my brain and if I don't, if I don't talk about it, I lose it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's a great place to start, Bruce. We actually were featured in the New York Times Sunday edition a couple of months ago. It was front page about repetitive injuries to fighter pilots. Bruce, if you went in your driveway and sat in your car and a crane took you up to the second story and dropped you, that's the equivalent force of landing aboard an aircraft carrier every time.
Speaker 2:That force is never less, or else you wouldn't land, you'd miss. There has to be about an 800, 900 foot per minute rate of descent. Sometimes it's even greater. I remember trying to get aboard the boat in between Tasmania and Australia in the Tasman Sea. There was water coming over the bow of the aircraft carrier man and I remember slamming into the deck and I thought I literally broke my back. It was brutal. So not only the landings aboard a ship are pretty brutal, but the takeoffs. You go from me sitting in this chair from zero to about 150 to 200 miles an hour in a second second and a half. So you know we're moving the brains all over the place. And then, not only that, we're pulling Gs.
Speaker 2:I remember, you know, being a young 27-year-old kid from South Jersey flying off the Kitty Hawk and doing a dog fight. Just catapult shot, went up, pulled some Gs, slammed aboard the carrier. I'm sweating. I remember walking in the ready room and every squadron has a flight surgeon and I remember my flight surgeon looking at me and shaking his head and he's like man. You guys, you just don't want to know what all of all of this does to your bodies. You know, 27 year old kid, I'm like I don't give a shit. Well, guess what? Um, you know it does do a lot to our bodies, but unfortunately, for decades aviators haven't been able to speak out. Because if you went to that same flight surgeon and said, hey doc, you know something is a little wrong with me, ok whiz, you're not flying anymore until we figure that out. So you actually, you know, as an aviator, you have to hide anything that's wrong with you, either to your military flight surgeon or your FAA doctor, because if you are honest, you're done flying. So it's a perverse system that we have.
Speaker 1:So the stigma that we have in special operations and in law enforcement, again speaking up again. For you know, if you're feeling down or you know you're mentally ill, it's the same, it's still, it's pervasive in the fighter flight, the fighters community, oh God yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's so stupid because the flight surgeon would, of course, get in front of the ready room like, hey, you know, if anything's, you know you got a headache or anything, you can always come talk to me. And we'd all laugh because we're like dude, you're the last guy we're going to come and talk to, which is you know it's. It's sad technically because and of course, if you did, let's say you're, you know, you're feeling a little depressed. And you went and talked to the flight surgeon like, hey, doc, I'm feeling a little depressed, what's he going to do? He's going to remove you from flight status, which is probably one of the only things keeping you happy right now. Right, so now you're going to be even more depressed that you know he or she's taking you off. What you're doing.
Speaker 1:That's actually making you happy, happy. So we gotta we gotta fix a lot of stuff. Uh, that's going on and well, yeah, let's talk about those fix in a second. Like I was talking to one of my navy seal buddies and you know, and I can remember back in those days, you crack off some charges and you're just like, you're just eating a blast. Like, yeah, you know, and he was telling me one day he was the range safety officer and you know, and he's standing right next to these guys shooting these carlavs off, so he's eating the equivalent of everyone he must have. There must've been like 45 shots. He's like, you know, he couldn't feel his fingers anymore.
Speaker 1:And he couldn't wait to get back the next day, and, and I mean so we, but that's because we're kind of ignorant on this stuff and and we think that you know as men right. And women nowadays that this is really cool to be taking this punishment.
Speaker 2:Bruce, I forgot to mention something. So, in addition to everything landing aboard the boat and being a pilot, I was what's called an LSO, a landing signal officer. So when I wasn't flying, I went on the back of the boat with a set of little foamies and I would help my fellow aviators land aboard the boat. So if you've ever seen, you know, the movie Maverick or Top Gun, you see all the, you know 18, 19 year old kids running around on the flight deck. They have the Mickey Mouse hearing protection on right. So not only do they have the Mickey Mouse ears on, but they have the foamies and even they suffer hearing losses. But as an LSO on the back of the boat, we only wore the foamies because I had to be able to hear the engines, I had to be able to hear if the pilot was taking off a little power or adding some power. So here I am standing on the back of the boat as an F-14 Tomcat comes by 20 feet away from me in full afterburner. So you know, you get out and you tell the VA like, hey, I have horrific tinnitus, I have horrible hearing loss. It's not service related, what, what, really? Oh yeah. So it's infuriating to me the VA, right.
Speaker 2:So one day I went from being an F-18 fighter pilot with a top secret SCI clearance to, literally the next day, being a liar, right? How can you go from having the absolute highest trust that our nation can award you to the next day You're full of shit. We don't believe you in anything. Prove it. I'm like whoa, I thought you guys trusted me. Nope, yeah, it's a court case. Now you got to prove everything that's wrong with you. How about you start with? We'll believe everything and if we find out you're lying, you're going to jail.
Speaker 2:I would have agreed to all of that. It's such a. The system's inverted. It's. We don't believe you in anything. You got to prove everything. No wonder these young kids go into the parking lot and put a bullet in their head. It's like you don't believe me. You used to believe me and you had me do a bunch of crazy shit, but now I'm a liar. Okay, great Thanks.
Speaker 1:It's like Johnny Ramsey's, like I used to drive a fucking tank.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right, man yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and it is right you are, you get called a liar and that's why the education is so important, because I had to go educate the VA on RBE. I had to go educate the VA on RBE, I had to come in. I brought my MOS, all my years of being a Green Beret being shot in the face. You know, hey, I was in combat, whatever Right. And then all they wanted to say said, do you got any scars? And I said yeah, I can look at my eyebrows, cause I played all army rugby for eight years and eight, and he's like I got broken orbital bones. You know, like, wow you are. They wanted to see scars. So I was a liar until I could prove that I actually had trauma, because it's all inside her head. You're right, we need to trust our veterans more. They're not there if they've got a, if they've got a demonstrated history, like you, sir, right, I mean, how many times did you launch off those characters?
Speaker 2:hundreds of times 357. I almost I should know the number to the exact landing because you probably remember almost all of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hundreds of times, right. So you count those like we count parachute jumps, exactly, yeah. So you walk in there and you got, especially the night ones. Jesus, you know, I'm gonna tell you one thing I'm, I'm a, I'm a. I'm a small boat coast guard captain. How big does a wave have to be to go over the bow of an aircraft carrier, bro I?
Speaker 2:mean I think they said they were 40 or 50 foot waves in the tasman sea and they let you fly.
Speaker 1:Well, here's well, here was I mean combat.
Speaker 2:You know you don't have a choice, but you know and you know what it was it was a beautiful day, it was sunny. It wouldn't look like this right. And I remember waking up that morning on the boat and I think our TV had fallen in our stateroom and smashed. I mean, walking to the ready room to brief. I'm saying to myself, I'm like there's no way we're going to go flying. Sat in the brief, sat in the brief, things are falling off the ready room walls. I'm like there's no way we're going to go flying. The reason so you know we we left the persian gulf and they pulled the rods in the nuke to get us down to perth as quick as possible, so the jets hadn't flown for like a week or two and then we went from perth over to hobart so the jets didn't fly. So this day was supposed to be a maintenance day. These were all broken aircraft that needed experienced pilots like me to get them up there to check out all the repairs.
Speaker 1:Those are broken aircraft that they needed our best pilots to go up there and process that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean when they guess what, when they change out an engine or the flight controls they got to, how's the only way to test it? Get airborne right.
Speaker 2:So I remember walking to the jet right, I got up on the flight deck and you just it's literally, you know Titanic. I'm like, oh my God man, there's no way we're going to go fly Next minute. I am attached to the catapult and I'm literally so. You run up to full power, you wipe the flight controls out and everything looks good and then you salute the catapult officer. That lets the catapult officer know WIS is ready to go flying. But I remember doing all that and saluting the catapult officer as we went down and I'm looking at a full tasman sea in my windscreen, I remember looking at the catapult officer and I'm shaking my head. Then the guy gave me look like dude, I got it, I'm not gonna shoot you right now, right. And then the bow went up and all I saw was sky and he shot me. Right I'm so, I get airborne, I'm like I gotta land now.
Speaker 2:I didn't care about the maintenance portion of the flight I'm like I gotta land back aboard this thing and, bro, I've never seen it my naval career. When I came in the land, first of all I was like, maybe midway through the landing there's about 20 of us, like the first 10, I'm in the middle, the 10, it sounded like a Civil War hospital man. They were screaming and power and wave off and I'm like, oh my God, what's happening down there? And then I get into the landing pattern and I've never seen this in my naval career.
Speaker 2:Speaking of Titanic, as the stern went up, you could see the back two screws of the Kitty Hawk. No way, yep, I think it had four. So the back two, you could see the tips of the screws. I'm like I've never seen that. I think I got waved off on the first pass because I was just out of cycle with the deck, and then the second, one same thing. But I, when I've landed that last one dude, I put that thing on there. And here's the plant. It's not funny, but here's the funny part. Every one of the jets that got airborne fixed the airborne problem, that that made it require a maintenance flight, and every one of us. The jet was broken because of hard landings so they had to put all the jets in the hangar bay put them up on stilts and have to inspect the landing gear.
Speaker 2:So we fixed one thing and we broke them all for landings. It was insane.
Speaker 1:I mean I've seen that aircraft carrier in San Diego Harbor and that deck has got to be, you know, 100, 150 feet off the water. Yeah, so to get those screws out of the water. I mean, dude, that's one of those. I don't know if I really want to do those moments.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no as an old guy now, I would have thrown my own mother in the cockpit to do it instead. But as a young kid I'm like I'm at the top of the world, man, I'm a maintenance pilot and this is great. But man, that was brutal, that was a hard landing and all those jets broke. It was, yeah, that that was one of those. You know. I remember trying to taxi out and of course, you're at the five month point in cruise and the deck has what's called non-skid on it. It's like this you know this material, that. So the it's a non-skid, so you don't skid, but at at the five month point in cruise, man, from landings and all sorts of stuff, that stuff's gone, so it's like bare steel and you have oil and hydraulic fluid. So when you're taxiing, I remember I you know on that day the boat does this and I'm I'm sliding towards the edge of the boat and the directors are like I had to come up on the power to climb to taxi.
Speaker 1:It's not like you can steer those things either. No, man.
Speaker 2:I've actually had the steering input in to turn that way and just kept going that way because the tires ain't gripping any of the non-skid. It was brutal, it was some stupid shit going on, but I'm here to tell about it.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's all that counts, man. Tell you the truth. So tell me about this New York Times article, because that's kind of you know, that was kind of you know, creating a lot of this whole repetitive head impact, repetitive brain trauma issues, what you know. We're kind of calling it now because it encompasses so many different forms of repetitive head injuries. Correct, you know, causing some stink. I mean, just you know a little bit. You know we know about. You know the mental illness rates, maybe just the suicide rates, and I know the military's looked at. You know the. You know we know that artillerymen, tankers.
Speaker 2:EOD right.
Speaker 1:But our aviators, you know helicopters, kind of a softer landing. There been in them a whole bunch of times. So are you, you see, an like what you would say is an elevated you know uh, incidents of mental illness you know amongst uh fighter pilots that could be related to this, because obviously that article I think it even pointed at suicides.
Speaker 2:No, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I'll, I gotta get my. Take my hat off to the helo dudes and and the helo ladies. It ain't flying a fighter jet and pulling Gs man. You've been on helos, the engine and the motors and the vibration for hours at a time and they might be sitting on the cushion, but that ain't no airline seat and it can't be too cushioned in case you catch a roundup through your ass, type of thing. So the helo babas are also having some repetitive stress injury, just really the constant shaking. Your body's not designed to constantly vibrate for hours on end, never even the helo folks. Uh, we, we've helped a lot of black hawk and a lot of helo. Bubba's heel too, man, because they they're in it. But um, to your point about the new york times article. Um, you know, obviously.
Speaker 2:Then of course I, you know, I make fun of the Air Force. They're barely on our side. They don't have the landing, you know, board of boat issues or catapult shots. But it's also the pulling jeans. I would fight the jet on the edge of consciousness, right on the edge of consciousness, right when I come into the merge with another hornet or any fighter aircraft that I'm dog fighting man. I pull to the limit of the aircraft and the blood is pulling out of your head. Man, that's how people it's called G-lock, g-loss of consciousness. So you got to squeeze your legs and your abs and then obviously we're wearing what we call a G suit. It's like some metrosexual dude in Miami. It's like the tightest skinny jeans you know. And then they inflate and they squeeze your legs to give you about a half a G to maybe a full G of protection. So I would actually fight the jet on the edge of consciousness. If you've ever passed out before, the first thing you notice to go is what you start getting tunnel vision, it's called gray out Scoop school crossovers.
Speaker 1:I know exactly what that looks like.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right and it's interesting because as you gray out, you can still hear the radio, you still know you're flying, but your vision is the first thing to go if you're going to pass out. It's like your critical bodily functions are like let's get rid of vision first and try and keep at least a heartbeat.
Speaker 2:So fighting the jet on the, you know I pulled a gray and then get an advantage I unload a little bit to get the blood in my head so I could see again when is he Okay, there's the bad guy and get on the G again. So you're you're literally fighting on the edge of consciousness. That can't. I didn't go to med school. But there's no way on God's green earth that's healthy.
Speaker 2:The human body is not designed to fight on the edge of consciousness repeatedly. And once a year we had you've probably seen it in the movies once a year we go to a centrifuge training. They put you in a capsule and they spin you man to do up to nine Gs. So if on a good day I weigh 200 pounds, that's 1800 pounds of force, and after that when I go home, my, my, you know Susie, my wife's, like you, have old man ass because, and underneath my arms, all, all the blood vessels, the capillaries, would burst. We call them g measles. So underneath your arms and your legs and your ass, where all the blood got pulled to, all the blood vessels would burst.
Speaker 2:So the new york times was like hey, for all, the top gun, maverick poster, recruiting poster stuff, these fighter pilots actually go. You know it ain't all sunshine, unicorn and lollipops. They're in it and they're putting us through it. But it's interesting. The New York Times interviewed, you know, our chief medical officer. She flew Tomcats and she's the chief medical officer of our foundation after sitting with psychedelics. And then also another one of our grant recipients who was also a tomcat backseater. They didn't interview a pilot. Now they could have interviewed, or they did interview me. My quote didn't make it in there and here's why the vast majority of fighter pilots, when you leave the military, where do you go?
Speaker 2:go to the airlines and guess what when you get your FAA physical? Have you ever had PTSD depression? Do you have any head trauma? Nope.
Speaker 1:Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 2:Nope, nope.
Speaker 1:Just like you answer yes to any of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you answer yes to any of those and you will not be an airline pilot. You won't have a career. So there aren't too many pilots running around out there saying, hey, this happened, I can't Right saying, hey, this happened, I can't. My first and last day at work in American Airlines was 9-11. So I ended up going to Wall Street instead. But years later I got back into flying. I bought my own fighter jet for our foundation to help raise money.
Speaker 2:So I can talk about this. I don't give a shit if the FAA comes after me, because I'm not going to lose my airline career. I was not designed to sit in front of pressurized aluminum for eight hours a day. I can't say I'm not going to lose my airline career. I was not designed to sit in front of pressurized aluminum for eight hours a day. I can't say I'm glad 9-11 happened. That sounds weird, but everything happened for a reason. I'm not designed to be an airline pilot. So that New York Times article really turned the lights on in the kitchen to fighter aviation and a lot of the stress involved. In 15 years of flying fighters, I lost 16 brothers Also in mishaps. Bad weather, stupidity, mechanical failure, all sorts of issues.
Speaker 1:Not one. Combat Accidents, accidents, training actions, combat, hold on, we don't call them accidents.
Speaker 2:Right, they were mishaps, because there's no such thing as an aviation accident. None of that is by accidents. We always use the term mishap.
Speaker 1:Okay, we don't have training mishaps in the Army, we have training accidents.
Speaker 2:Oh, you call them accidents.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we call them training accidents right.
Speaker 2:But in addition to the 16 buddies I lost in cockpit issues I lost in in cockpit issues I lost three F-18 brothers to suicide, including a groomsman in my wedding, one of one of my best friends. He was a Marine Hornet pilot. You obviously can't go back in time and debrief, dude, why'd you kill yourself? But you know a lot of the the three guys that were buddies of mine that aren't here any longer. It all had to do with flying, in my opinion. So I can never. You know, I meditate and stuff like that, but I can never sit in silence In this interview.
Speaker 2:Tonight when I go to bed until my last breath I have a horrific high-pitched squeal for the rest of my life and it's maddening at some times. The medicine work that I've done helps me deal with it, but I could tell if I was not a healed individual with the psychedelics I've done, I might not be here. And then debilitating back issues, man, thank God, knock on wood, that hasn't crept up on me yet, but I have brothers and sisters who are just hunched over man pulling nine g's for decades. You know you lose your height, so that can't be healthy either. Um, so I'm thankful that we're we're starting to turn the lights on to some of these, uh, other other veterans issues, because I'll be honest with you, man, you're an operator.
Speaker 2:When I went to go heal with Marcus Luttrell and JT Jared Taylor from Black Rifle, I remember going I'm embarrassed I was up at 30,000 feet in air conditioning. You guys are at three feet. My trauma is a joke compared to yours. And then you know I've learned to not trauma shame or trauma grade. As veterans. We're awful at this, right yeah, if something's hurting you, something's hurting you, trauma is trauma and you deserve to heal. Don't compare your trauma to anybody else's, man, we do that as vets and we're bad about it.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad that the aviation side of the house is getting a little love too, and you know, and I think it's unfortunate that right now we're just starting to recognize this as an issue. So when I got involved with brain trauma if my son took his life and I learned about RHI, then it started. You know, I started looking at blast exposure. I'm like, well, who's picking this one up? I mean, who? What are we doing? And it just kind of appalls me that we have studied TBI. We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars studying TBI. Well, tbi is not the TBI. You know, it's an event. It's like one hard landing. Did you get hurt? We can heal you, as long as you don't keep hard landings and pulling jeeps right, correct, when that becomes a lifestyle and you've got something like customer exposure.
Speaker 1:Why the hell, as we, as we got the VA, we've got the military, we've got researchers, cdc, nih you name your foundation that are all research and all this stuff, correct? How have we overlooked this issue? Why, now, right, and we still got to go back to the tens of thousands of pilots that have flown and done your job, all the operators, all the tankers, all the artillery. We have so much tragedy that has occurred as a result of this oversight and for a long time. We just didn't know. I got there, I don't, I don't care, we got. Now we know, we know this is an issue, we We'll talk about fixing it. But why do you think this, just you know, has not been a focus? I mean, we fought two wars. You know, we've had thousands of kids. We got 100,000 Maine kids out there, we got 9,000 dead and we lose 9,000 more, 8,000 to 9,000 more a year, because of suicide.
Speaker 1:This is part of that, so why aren't we more on it?
Speaker 2:You know like you know, like you know, just that, just well, bruce, you're not going to like the answer. You know the answer since, since you've been in it, it's the mick man, the military industrial complex. Uh, you know, when I saw three four months ago that tom cruise is side on side on to do top gun three, I'm like, oh great, does he get out and he has to fight the va because they're not denying all his claims?
Speaker 1:hey, hey, be careful. St Petersburg's, where all those guys live up here, man, yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 2:Maverick faces his toughest enemy, the VA. You know. Part three.
Speaker 1:It's the truth, it is.
Speaker 2:You're not going to. You know the Pentagon loves the Paramount Studios and Maverick, the military industrial complex loves great recruiting videos and stuff like that. They ain't going to show any of this stuff, period they. You know the military can do an incredible job training you and I to do some awful things to another human being, but when they're done with us, they spit us out and they do a pretty shitty job of turning us back into being a human. So I'd like to believe things are getting better, but they're still paying lip service to it being better. There's still no radical changes. I would love to believe the President Trump is ain't going to be any more foreign wars or anything like that, which would be awesome. Last time I checked, the only duty of a military is to protect the homeland, and the border has been open for four years, so finally, our military is being used to protect the country. So I'm I'm getting there with being a little hopeful, but I'm just not fully there yet.
Speaker 1:It's, it's looking back to. I mean, you think of all the kids that are no longer here. You know, we're estimating between 130,000, 140,000 suicides since 9-11, right? Yep? Then we have all the other issues that really are suicides, but in our county you got, you know, death by alcohol, drug overdoses, correct, all the stuff that's out there, and we're looking at a long line of cars that still needs to be addressed. I mean, these kids and yourself, sir, did nothing wrong. We signed a line, we did our jobs, and now all we want is we're not looking even for money, right?
Speaker 1:It's all about look, just take care of me and take care of me properly. Don't give me drugs that of me and take care of me properly. Don't give me drugs, numb me and have black box warnings and give me talk therapy that doesn't work and that's all your. You know, we just had a guest on the podcast. She went to the VA for a process. They said no drugs and therapy. Those are our protocols back to your military. I call it the pharmaceutical industrial complex when it comes to mental illness, because they are all in this box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I, you know it's, it's. It was interesting because I saw yesterday that the, the Pentagon, has hit and hit the recruiting numbers for the first time in five years and I wonder why.
Speaker 1:because of the new commander in chief.
Speaker 2:But I got to tell you, for the past four years, five years or so, I didn't know a single. I know hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans. I don't know a single vet who wanted their kids to serve. I got two boys, man. They grew up coming into their dad's fighter squadron in their little flight suit that their mom made them wear.
Speaker 1:And they wanted to.
Speaker 2:I steered both of them away from serving. Now my oldest re-boomeranged in and said Dad, nope, I want to fly fighter jets. I'm like, I love you, son. You can do it every one, but I tried to steer too. My middle boy listened to me and he's at the University of Colorado in Boulder. But the number one source of recruitment for the United States military for the longest time has been you and I, veterans. When you lose us, when you break your promises to help us when we're done, we're going to bad mouth. The hell out of you to kingdom come.
Speaker 2:Take good care of us and your recruiting numbers will go through the roof. This ain't hard right, this isn't rocket surgery?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know a lot of the things that the veterans do is like the kids look at us like we know that most of us came from nothing. If it wasn't for the military, I know I personally would not be in the situation that I am without. Even with the unfortunate loss of my son, it was the military that allowed me to start companies and do my thing. But that's what gets into our kids Like man, dad got here. And if I don't want to go to college, you know. So I do have a lot of friends whose kids are serving, even under the last administration, and fortunately they weren't placed too much at risk given what happened. So I mean, so talk about the transition. You come out of the Navy, kick-ass fighter pilot, you know top gun guy and then bam, you know what. What happened between retirement and you know the foundation? What were the next steps you took in your life?
Speaker 2:Well, so there's a lot of bams. Right To your point, you know most people that joined the military, they're not Donald Trump's kids.
Speaker 1:They're not, you know, george Sor soros's kids rich kids aren't going into the military right the affluent, if anything, stealing their kids away from service above self right.
Speaker 2:So you know I was. I was born in south jersey, south philadelphia, uh, one of six kids, typical irish catholic family. And uh, unfortunately, I was sexually abused as a child. Then I lost a? Uh, my middle sister, monica, to a drunk driver when she was 19, which, uh, was just a, it was a hand grenade in in the middle of our family and technically I lost my parents. That day too. They were just my dad was done. Um, so why do I bring this up? Because I took that.
Speaker 2:You know, when you go in the military you don't take off your childhood trauma. If anything, you hide it. And then, as we talked about earlier, 15, you know buddies, 16 buddies in 15 years and then three suicides. So I've been, and in aviation, just like the folks on the ground, we're taught to compartmentalize. Right, if you and I are flying on a mission and you get smoked, I can't mourn Bruce right now. Man, I got a mission to do, I got to press, or I'm going to get killed too. I'll mourn him later. Well, guess what happens? You don't get to mourn you later there's another mission and there's another loss. So all those compartments were taught to compartmentalize, end up, building up, building up and then one day, like a jack in the box, all of them spring out on you and it could be something really bad. So I left.
Speaker 2:I just mentioned briefly losing my job at American Airlines on 9-11. So I went to Wall Street. So I was flying F-18s for the reserves out of Naval Air Station, fort Worth and I was helping to run a trading firm up in Chicago. So when you go from a fighter squadron where you trust the men and women in that squadron with your life, or they're just not in that organization anymore to Wall Street, where I couldn't trust a guy to watch my wallet for five minutes when I went to take a leak, so talk about a culture shift, right, you know the the some of these people would push their own mother in front of a bus for a buck. I mean, I it was disgusting, it is. But so that led to some booze, that led to some drugs and that led to me just spiral in the drain, man, and it was just some very, very dark nights of the soul. Um, so in 2020, you know, god takes care of fools, drunks and sailors. So you know, bases loaded for whiz. Um, I had a buddy in the white house. He was a military aide and and this is December of 19. He gave me a heads up. He's like bro, pentagon is going apeshit. There's a level four weapons. The only level four weapons facility in a whole country of China is in a city called Wuhan. They are digging up the highways, they're building mobile crematoriums, something got out of a lab and they're going ape shit and it's going to spread around the world.
Speaker 2:So I didn't do insider trading, I did outsider trading. I told everybody who would listen I bring that up because that's one of the books I wrote. It was called COVID Crash from Panic to Profit. So there was a couple of senators who heard the same things I did. And what did they do? They went out to microphones and said everybody, relax, remain calm, it's not coming here. And then got on their phone and called their broker and told them to get out and told their friends Right, and. But of course the government investigated that and said well, no, we won't charge them with insider trading. That's the definition of it. But anyway, I did outsider trading. Why am I bringing this up? Because remember the smart money. Oh, this is the bottom. I'd be a buyer of stocks here, donald Trump. A week into it. I have a screenshot of the tweet. He deleted it. Stocks are looking good here.
Speaker 1:I'd be a buyer of stocks. The next day the.
Speaker 2:Dow went down 3,000 points. I made 75 grand on a couple of puts in like minutes.
Speaker 2:I bring this up because I think we made like two and a half million bucks in like a week of trading, think we made like two and a half million bucks in like a week of trading. And I bring that up because, you know, my old man was like you know, matthew, you can't take it with you, right? You know you're not a Pharaoh, they're not putting this stuff in your casket, right? Um, pharaoh, yeah, so, and you know and I'm not wanting to quote scripture too often, clearly, but you know it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a wretch man enter the kingdom of heaven. And that was right around the time that my buddy Swede checked out. So I looked at my bride and I said you know what, susie, let's take this money and start a foundation to try and end veteran suicide, because you know I don't want to lose any more buddies. But how do you? You know I don't want to lose any more buddies, but how do you?
Speaker 2:You know, at the time we looked at each other. We're like how do you keep a veteran from killing themselves? I mean, help them pay the rent, buy a suit, write a resume. You know we're throwing stuff at the wall. And then that's when a buddy of mine reached out to me and he said hey, there's a group of Navy SEALs and special forces guys who go down to Mexico and they do psychedelic assisted therapy to heal their traumas and there's a really cool group going in a couple of weeks. Would you want to go? And I said, man, go to Mexico and do drugs with Navy SEALs.
Speaker 1:Sign me up, man.
Speaker 2:Let's fucking go. I had no idea what I was in for or what was about to unfold, but thank God that it did and I love you talking about that. So here was my group man, marcus Luttrell obviously the lone survivor, one of his team guys. His name's JJ Jared Taylor. He was a JTAC, you know, runs Black Rifle Coffee now. And then the last guy in our group, his name's Robert Gallery, all-american from Iowa, just got into the uh college football hall of fame, uh, last year and then played for the uh raiders for six, seven years.
Speaker 2:And this guy and I know you they only know if you had cte after you die and they open your head. Up, this guy, we so y'all meet. You meet in san diego and then you kind of convoy down to the clinic. Why? Because if you do what I'm about to tell you in San Diego, you're a criminal, you're a felon. If you do it an hour south, it'll save and change your life. Now let that sink in.
Speaker 2:But I was in the car with Robert. I remember sitting in the backseat next to this six foot five, 350 pound dead human being. He looked like a gray iceberg. Let me fast forward. A year later I'm at a fundraiser in San Diego and this massive thing bumps into me, I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to get my ass kicked. What's going on? It was Robert. He's a different human being, completely different human being, starting or has started his own foundation to get ibogaine and psychedelic assisted therapy to his nfl brothers and brothers and and other athletes in other sports.
Speaker 2:Um, because he, he was in a bad place. And then, obviously, the seal guys I would were with had the concussion and the and the and the tbi. Um, but man, it was without. Uh, the most profound and transformational experience of my 52 years at the time. Uh, it was not fun, it was not recreational. Uh, it was. You know I've landed in the middle of the Pacific at night on a boat, low on fuel and bad weather. That was enjoyable. That was a cakewalk compared to this experience, 12 to 14 hour in it, but man, it literally it saved and changed my life. I got to experience my sister again, I reconnected with. I lost my faith for decades. Got to experience my sister again, I reconnected with. I lost my faith for decades. What type of God has? Lets me be molested, kills my sister, kills my buddies?
Speaker 2:There ain't no God man. I was wrong.
Speaker 1:Give him a chance to talk to you, man, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I was on my knees in tears and he lifted me up and said Matthew, get up, I don't make imperfect things. Let me take all this trauma, Let me take all the shame and regret and drugs and alcohol. That's gone. And literally it was with a wave of a hand and he said let me show you the good you can do. And I've just, I've never looked back. We got home. I got home and I said, Susie, this is how we're going to end veteran suicide.
Speaker 2:So the no Fallen Heroes Foundation is we give grants to veterans, first responders and their families to sit with the medicine. So why first responders? Well, as you know, a lot of guys and gals leave the military and when they take off that uniform, they don't take off the trauma and they go home and they throw on a police officer, a firefighter, they become a first responder and they add to their trauma. Right, I had a Marine buddy, 20 year Marine. He's like dude. My, my Marine trauma is a joke compared to fire rescue. He was a fire rescue guy in Miami. He's like the things that people do to a child and he's like man. So we help first first responders as well, and then family members, gold star wives, spouses, moms and dads uh, they serve too and they deserve to heal.
Speaker 2:My wife, uh, is a saint. She had to put up with my shit. I I don't know how, you know clearly she truly loves me because I don't know how she dealt with me for this long. But she, after I got home, you know, and she's like, whoa, I'm like get up, let's go. Life is great, Everything's great. She's like well, yay for you. So a couple months later she went with some veteran wives, a gold star wife and some other team wives, and she came home and we've never been better parents, humans or just you know, it's been incredible.
Speaker 2:Knock on wood, I think, our number I'm working on my 2024 annual debrief. Wood, I think our number I'm working on my 2024 annual debrief. I think we're close to about let's just round up a hundred folks, you know veterans, first responders and family members that we've helped heal. Knock on wood, man, Not a single person has come home and said complete waste of time or I'm worse, or sucked. Every one. People have gotten home and had challenges, right, because you're going to get home a with a clean piece of paper. You are, it's a control, alt delete. God literally scrubs your your shit and hands it back to you like now go. If you get home and you go back to old habits and and stupid stuff, you're going to have a challenge.
Speaker 2:I'm not one to use this term too lightly, but I was born again. This is the second half of my life. The first half is in the rearview mirror, with all its pain and trauma, and now I am a different human being. I still have my shitty days, but I'm not walking around sunshine, unicorns and lollipops all the time. But my old whiz in a bad day man, I was in it, and if I was in it, everybody else was going to be in it, and everybody else was going to watch me drink a bottle of vodka tonight and get out of my way. Me now, bad day, I get out of me and I look at me and go dude, sucks, Wake up, embrace the suck. It ain't forever. You're going to pass through it, you know so. It's a completely different life before the medicine and after the medicine.
Speaker 1:So before we go to that because when I go on your show I will definitely embrace the suck with you on a similar experience, but got the the you know you think of 100 veterans and then you think of all the family members in a circle, out of circle, the network of people that they're going to impact with their new self. A month ago I was. This will probably never happen again, but they put 900 Green Berets on a cruise ship and I got- Did everybody live, everybody lived and this boat sailed.
Speaker 1:It made it back to port. It was all good.
Speaker 2:I thought you guys would have turned into like pirates or something and taken over the Red Sea.
Speaker 1:If I was still drinking that might've happened, but we were good, we let it go see if we were. If I was still drinking, that might've happened, but we're, we're good. Well, we left, we let it go. But anyways, I get this guy. He used to work for me and I did not know, um, how bad it got for him. And he's uh, his name's uh, pat Flatley. He's been on podcasts. Very Pac-Man, that's my nickname. Most people don't even know my name.
Speaker 1:It's like we need some help. I said, what's up? Because he knows I've had some companies. I got an SF captain with a nine mil in his mouth and I got to get him to Mexico and I'm like, what do you need? He says I need some money. I said, all right, put me in touch. So, dude, what's up with you? He goes, bro, same story I am back.
Speaker 1:I am back and I want our audience to understand this, this psychedelic movement, when we are looking at a, you know, a loss of 8,000, 9,000 veterans a year because the VA still gives them drugs and therapy. They will not alter that. And we have not only this medicine. We have ayahuasca, we have psilocybin, we have MDMA, we have NMEO5DT, bufo, whatever you want to call it. You know these drugs. You call them drugs because they're not legal. I don't care. These medicines are saving lives, and I'm not saying just saving lives. They reforming, transforming lives. And whiz's story I have heard this over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yet, like he says, you go to america and do this um, then then you're, you're a criminal. But you got to go to mexico. Now there is a new iboga church that just started in america with the loophole now and I don't know um, I got somebody attending that um to see how that might affect but the transformation of individuals like Wiz. You're not, you're not, it's not like you're a criminal, right, you haven't. You know molested kids. You're not a bad human being.
Speaker 1:You're imperfect, like we all are, and it just shows you how much we have to grow that, even though we're good people like you take, you're a good provider, you're a good leader, you're a good pilot, you're a good mofo, right, like that, we still, when we get in these medicines under, need to understand. You know, talk to the guys about. You know the, the transformation, if you, if you want to discuss it like you know, it's um, you know I. I just want them to understand the reach of these medicines and how they take people, even though if you, you know, had alcohol, sleep, you know whatever problems you did have, and you come back and your wife's looking at you like my wife calls me Bruce 2.0, right, and it's so. So I mean, just tell the audience about you know just the experience, if you go a little bit deeper into it, if you could, just so they understand how profound these medicines are and why they're impacting these vets the way they are are and why they're impacting these vets the way they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, let me share this with you I try and go on every retreat that we do, but you know, now we're starting to just send people individually so we don't have to do like our own retreat type of thing. I bring that up because if I don't go on a retreat or we're sending people in onesies and twosies, almost every time when I'm not there I get a text from these people that say Wiz, I don't want to kill myself anymore, you can't put a dollar amount, you can't put anything amount on.
Speaker 2:I screenshot those. I have a folder. I have a shitty day folder. When I'm having one of those shitty days, I read all those texts and emails that I get from people that says you saved my life or I don't going to listen. God's pretty smart, obviously. God's like veterans, ain't? Going to listen to some dude wearing a drug rug and mala beads. Right, You're out of there.
Speaker 2:You know, smelling like weed. We're not going to listen to that. We are going to listen to a Navy fighter pilot veteran, a Navy SEAL or a spec ops operator, a gold star wife. So you know, the first psychedelic revolution, timothy O'Leary hey, let's put it in the water probably freaked a lot of people out and that was the wrong approach. Right, they were fishing with hand grenades. This psychedelic revolution is being led by veterans.
Speaker 2:So if mom and pop walking down the street look up to us, for whatever reason, maybe that's when they start listening. Like, wait a minute, these guys are, you know, anti-crime, anti-drug, pro-america, wrapped themselves in a flag and they're doing this stuff. Maybe I should listen, maybe I should sit up straight. But you know, like we talked about a little bit earlier, I was a drinker. I don't know if you can be a good drinker, I wasn't, I was a bad drinker. And up to eight months, I'll say a year, let's just round up up to a year.
Speaker 2:After sitting with Ibogaine once, if I looked at alcohol God forbid, I smelled it, I would dry heat, it made me physically ill. So ibogaine is an addiction interrupter. Heroin, alcohol, porn, caffeine you name the addiction. It will break it. I didn't say, cure it, I said it'll give you a reprieve. That's why I say when you get home, you got to put in the work. If you fall back into all the shit that was making you sick, you get home, you got to put in the work. If you do, if you fall back in all the shit that was making you sick, you're going to be in a dog fight now and it's going to suck. But if you come home and you don't do that stuff I mean there was a study. People can look it up 85 percent of heroin addicts who sat with ibogaine once up three years never looked at the stuff again. Why up to three years? Because they stopped the study. They're like, okay, if you do heroin after three years, it wasn't the Ibogaine.
Speaker 2:You were cured or something that ain't something else is going on. And these people in this study I mean. As you're probably well aware, one of the worst things about heroin addiction is what Breaking it, the shakes, the vomit, it's just the side effects. These people, after Ibogaine, came downstairs and had breakfast, type of thing. They're like wait a minute, I haven't eaten breakfast in a decade and I'm not shaking and vomiting and needing a fix. It destroyed it. So it is literally that transformative that a guy like me now full transparency, guess what I can do now. I can have a glass of wine with my steak or my pasta, but it's a glass, old whiz, a glass man a bottle, probably two, maybe even three.
Speaker 2:Man a bottle, probably two, maybe even three. So I control it now the old days, man, it controlled me. And then, like I said it, just literally going to the airport when I got home from Mexico, or you know, we got into San Diego from Mexico, just the airport, I was friendly, I said hi to people, I the flight was delayed. I'm like yay. I'm like wait a minute, I'm happy. You know it was. It was literally just a a different. I remember talking to myself like dude because people were yelling at the gate agents. I'm like I was nice to the gate agent, I got upgraded the first class. I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, he's like you were the first, yeah.
Speaker 2:He's like you're the first, you were the only nice person to me today. You want to sit first. I'm like, oh my God, I probably would have been one of the guys yelling at that poor guy, right. So it literally transformed everything in my life a magic pill, right, as we've talked about. You got to get home and you got to put in the work, but I will. You know, one of the questions I get asked the most is can it be one and done? The answer is yeah.
Speaker 2:I know guys and gals that have done the medicine once and are great and never go back. We do me and my original medicine brothers, and if we can't all make it together, we at least do it on our own. I do an annual knock the rust off my, my, you know my vehicle or you know my as an aviator. I'll give you an aviation analogy. I get about an annual or a year's worth of ice build up on my wings. I need to go de-ice or I'm gonna stall. And it's so cool, uh, pac-man, because every every year I go for an annual, uh, knock the rust off. I just learn more and more. And it's interesting because the more medicine work I do, the less medicine I actually do and you know, five years ago, whiz, if I heard me talk like this, I would have kicked my own ass. But my guide reminds, reminds me she's like you are the medicine. Technically you don't need this stuff, but radical trauma might need radical healing. So the more medicine work I do, I actually really don't even need that much and I'm in it and healing.
Speaker 2:Let me share this with you the second time I about a year later, I sat with the medicine. It was tough. The first time was flowing robes, god healing me and stuff like that. The second time was pretty challenging and I will. I'm as thankful, if not more, than my first time. And here's why. First of all, my guide said you know, the next day I'm like man, that was a. That was a little bit more challenging. And she's like oh, I probably should have told you. I'm like, told me what she's like. She said and I've been doing this for decades Anybody I've helped who does the medicine, again with the intention of helping people. The medicine shows you everything. She's like the first one, you got your wings. The second one, this time you went to Top Gun, didn't you? I'm like that's a great analogy. I get this Because God was still loving and everything like that. And this was a really cool part, because that year the ice buildup was my ego meaning this.
Speaker 2:I thought I was failing. I was helping vets and first responders and family members go on retreats. I was going on these retreats and people weren't healing right At least I thought that, because this is how I healed. So I remember feeling kind of shitty going into the medicine the second time. I'm like man, I'm a failure. Let me go hit the medicine again to see why I'm a failure. Man, I'm a failure. Let me go hit the medicine again to see why I'm a failure man.
Speaker 2:God came to me and he was. God clearly is always loving and gentle and he was. But it was kind of like you know, son, what are you doing here? You know all of this stuff, what can I help you with? I said God, I'm failing. I'm trying to help these people heal and I'm just I'm letting you down Very loving and very full of light and energy.
Speaker 2:No-transcript, they have to heal themselves with me and that's my job. Buddy, keep doing what you're doing. Keep walking to the door, carrying them to the door, drag them to the door. They got to walk through son and I was healed. I felt that 100-pound backpack I carried for 12 months. It just dropped to the ground. I'm like, oh my God, it's so funny because when you come out of medicine it's this type of transformational. And then you're like, well duh, why didn't I know that Right, but I clearly didn't Right. So the medicine can kind of do what we call moto master, the obvious sometimes. But sometimes the obvious is not so obvious because of our ego. I'm a fighter pilot, I'm this, I'm that and I'm helping people heal.
Speaker 2:Dude, you can't help anybody heal man they have to do it themselves, which was very transformational. So, even though I know that now, still working in this space is tough, man, I haven't. I was about to say I don't want to wake up in the morning. Of course I do, but when I wake up in the morning, man, sometimes I don't even want to look at my phone, because every grant request that comes into the no Fallen Heroes, I haven't read one that's full of shit, right. I haven't read one that doesn't make me tear up or cry. These people are hurting, they need help and I just feel so, so futile sometimes, man. You know the past week watching the bullshit in DC one point five million dollars for trans opera in Serbia. I'm like what the fuck is going on. If our foundation had one.5 million bucks I could clear half my list, if not the entire.
Speaker 1:We're getting ready to talk to that because it infuriates me. I just wrote the con, the legislation for congress. Uh, congressman derek brandt orton has it right now that great american.
Speaker 1:He puts together. It's put together a full pack, and I'm talking to morgan latrell, marcus's brother, who's the head of the Brain Caucus. I have put together our foundation. We wrote the entire plan for awareness and education, advocacy, diagnosis and treatment to include billing options and insurance coverage. Good, and we're going to get this funded. Good on you, and our foundation is going to be part, because you know it's going to be. You know we have to the the country, the veterans, not me, but the va needs to get out of its box and they need to start trusting folks like you with a demonstrated history. So let me ask you one question correct all the the veterans that you've helped? First responders off, what is the rate of people that have been through your experience? That said, this has positively impacted my life, not even completely transformational, but this has helped me get on the path.
Speaker 2:I hate saying this, bro, but I'm going to say 100. But you know, maybe I'll say 99.9, because 100% is never fully statistically accurate.
Speaker 2:I again, nobody has said dude, I'm worse, this failed, this sucked. What a waste of time. Not a single person. So when I look at something like what is it S-ketamine or Spravato? 12% effective rate, I'm like, okay, 12% versus 100%. But as you know, man, it's a revolving door between the VA and big pharma. You just alluded to it, man. If you get an appointment 10 months down the road and you get in there and they say what's your symptoms? These things, here's the script. Next, whoa, what about what's inside?
Speaker 1:What's on?
Speaker 2:your script, dude. What does this do to me, man? That's exactly right. So we helped a seal, a team guy who was on 15 meds, dude, hear it all the time bro five to wake up, five for lunch, five to go to bed. He hasn't taken a med in four years. So if you're sitting in uh, you know pfizer headquarters listening to this podcast, you're're like oh shit.
Speaker 2:So clearly and to your point, the new VA secretary seems like a good dude. Get out of your office, Get these people out of their cubicles, throw some hiking boots on and join me at a retreat in Colorado. Hold space. Don't believe me, I'm full of shit. Assume I'm a liar liar. Go on these retreats, hold space, sit in ceremony and you see it for yourself.
Speaker 1:I can't stand this man damn drug and see what the heck the medicine is, see what they love that to happen too, but if, if anything, just hold space.
Speaker 2:Oh bro, if I tell people if I could kidnap putin and zielinski and throw them in a room with iboga for a week, we there would be no more war and people. People think I'm full of shit and I'm not. It's the truth. There would be. You know that. That's one of the reasons these medicines are still illegal at a federal level is because they can turn warriors into peacemakers. I've seen it.
Speaker 1:I've seen knuckle dragging yeah, I know, I just got up, I had a uh meaning this. Uh, we uh, god damn it, I hate microsoft office, so anyway, no. So I mean, and here's the point, we're talking about va, that's giving out drugs that have a 25 possibility of impacting somebody's life, and we're talking to you saying we've got 99.9 percent people coming back. And these, you know the people like I've been helped with ketamine, I've been helped with stellate ganglion blocks, I've done the journey with ayahuasca several times. You know, and I haven't. I'm going out for uh, you know a little bit of your medicine as well, because I want to, I I want to walk the walk. When I talk, I say this stuff works, it's worked for me. It's just that this whole issue, like you said, can be addressed. Ibogaine and Iboga addresses ketamine, everything ketamine stuff. Ptsd, anxiety. You're talking and I've seen this with other plant medicines like ayahuasca people that are snorting heroin with guns in their mouth, multiple suicide attempts. I was with a marine who has, from uh tbi rice krispies in his head.
Speaker 1:You know at like, you know a level eight, like your tinnitus and the only thing that helps him is plant medicine, and he's got to fly himself, pay money to get this relief that he incurred at the cost of serving his country.
Speaker 2:It's infuriating man.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely infuriating and it must change, and that's why having you on this podcast and talking about what you're doing is so unbelievable, man. I mean, this is you know. What you're doing right now, sir, is you're saving lives and, yeah, you might feel like you're not saving nothing. We all feel like that. Every life that you have saved is a blessing from our Lord, amen, and it's a blessing to your foundation. It's a blessing on you personally, sir. You are delivering God's you are doing God's work. Thanks.
Speaker 2:You are doing God's work. Thanks bro.
Speaker 1:I absolutely want to help you as much as I can. It's all about money right. When you do what we do in this business, which is help people, it's all about cash bro.
Speaker 2:Doesn't that suck man. I joke with my wife because I can't. I'm like I'm fucking awesome at everything except raising money. It's the worst thing I've ever had. I can't. That's why I'm glad I went out and bought my own fighter jet. I'm like maybe I'll fly donors in the backseat because I can't, it's a skill set that I simply don't have.
Speaker 2:I assume that if people heard this story, they'd be throwing money out the windows to the foundation. Bro, it's insane. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you crack the code.
Speaker 1:Well, we just alluded to it.
Speaker 2:Clearly you and I needed to live in Northern Virginia or DC and make up some bullshit. Help build clogs in Ireland Foundation, and we would have been Politico. Politico gets $8 million. Are you insane? So you and I are clearly doing it wrong.
Speaker 1:We don't know the right people, but yeah, we're working on now and I think between who you know and I know and then all the other people we're working with in this space, this psychedelic space is revolutionizing. It is the only thing and I'll tell everybody in this podcast here since 9-11, this is the only area and whether you include ketamine or not, or in stelaganglian blocks, this is the only thing helping our veterans. That's it. That's in those electronic therapies, stimulation and H5, stuff like that. But when you start talking about end-of-life scenarios where men and women are at the brink of extinction and it's going to cause all the suffering for their families, then this is it.
Speaker 1:The Ibogaine is absolutely through the roof with its success rate on healing veterans and we have to fix this, we have to address it. And, wiz, you are all over this space and I am counting you as a friend and I am counting you, as you know, and I am supporting you 100% on this mission. Man, I can't wait no more and uh, and we'll get that um absolutely knocked out. I cannot thank you for coming on this show sharing your story with our audience and I think it's going to be an amazing journey. I know it's an amazing journey that you're on and I cannot wait to help you and see you succeed more, sir, this is amazing.
Speaker 2:Pac-Man, thank you for having me. My brother, your son, is living through you and he's a good wingman for all of us. What do we say? Lead, follower, get out of the way. So thank you for leading, thanks for leading, I'll follow you anywhere man I got you from the air and you got my, my air support.
Speaker 1:We're on it, man. Thank you so much, and uh and uh, we're going to have you back on the show and I guess I'm coming on yours here in a little bit.
Speaker 2:Can't wait to talk.
Speaker 1:We are definitely going to share and, uh, I'll be in Miami soon, so I'll make you a link up. Folks. Awesome Again. Another awesome podcast. Please do not. Oh, oh wait, how do people find you All right, so we always close the show? Sorry, I almost forgot. Yeah, yeah, you know how do people find your foundation? Where do they find your books? Tell us all about you know, websites, URLs, whatever they know to find the whiz, even especially if they're looking for help. And uh, and we can, we can help you give them some help too, sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, nofallenheroescom. That's step one. Just go to NoFallenHeroescom On the top right on the dropdown. If you're a veteran first responder, family member interested in healing, it says grant request form or application or intake form. That's how you can get the ball rolling. So NoFallenHeroescom, no-transcript kind of getting shot at, bro.
Speaker 2:I got to tell you that we've helped a lot of females and, unfortunately, males, who experienced they weren't shot at by their enemy. You know what MST military sexual trauma. You expect the enemy to shoot and try and hurt you. You don't expect your squadron mate to do it. So we're helping veterans that didn't even see the enemy to shoot and try and hurt you. You don't expect your squadron mate to do it. So we're helping veterans that didn't even see the enemy, except the enemy that was in their own unit. So, yeah, so go to YouTube, our YouTube channel, and if you or somebody you know wants to go flying in the backseat of a fighter jet man, just make a nice donation and we can go bend the jet around the skies of uh, florida. My only suggestion is you eat a banana for breakfast, because it's the only food that's going to taste the same, coming up as it does going down and you got to clean up your own you got to clean up your own.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right.
Speaker 1:It is well you're talking to a guy that's done a lot in his life. That's something I've never done, so I'm diving in on that one man. You got it, so yeah. All right, my brother, thank you so much, and we'll definitely talk about the sexual trauma piece when we come back All right Pac-Man.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, wiz, can't thank you enough. Folks, just to close, don't remember, get your free book. It's the only thing out there for you parents to make form decisions for your kids 130 reference papers in there, endorsed by everybody in the CT community. Go get it. Download our free app on the Google Store, head smart, to understand concussions, subcustum trauma and how to take care of your kids.
Speaker 1:We're holding a town hall for veterans on the issue of repetitive blast exposure and the trauma that Wiz and I just discussed in Tampa. That'll be live streamed March 26th, the date we've invited. Several politicians got to have one open up, but it'll be three hours of RBE, what to do to get your diagnosis and how to go to the VA. We're going to do the same for NFL veterans and the second international conference on repetitive brain trauma will be held, again hosted here in Tampa, the first week of September. Stay tuned for the dates. If you'd like to present, be a part of it, please let us know. It'll be held at the new Special Forces Teamhouse here in Tampa, florida. So for all of you, wiz, once again, thank you so much. Take care of yourselves, take care of your children, but, more importantly, take care of yourselves so you can take care of your children. God bless you all and have a great day. See you on the next episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Park. Take care, thank you.