Ray Care:
The Overcome and Conquer Show is presented by The Project. The Project is a full immersion, 75-hour experience designed for men who know in their core they are not living up to their fullest potential. Rather than waking up every morning ready to dominate life, the mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides into the same unfulfilling routine they’ve unhappily been in for way too long. The Project is for men that have lost their internal flame and motivation to conquer. It’s for men living an unfulfilling life that lacks excitement and purpose. Sound familiar? Then, listen up.

Ray Care:
The Project is specifically designed to challenge you mentally and physically. We push you to the ledge of self-limiting beliefs and prove you’ve got much more in the tank. We kill the bitch and unleash the beast. We uncover the demons that hold you back and turn extreme pain into superpowers to dominate life. In the end, we turn mediocre men into modern-day knights. We forge a brotherhood and bond that levels you up as a better husband, father, and friend, but The Project is not for every man. In fact, it’s not for most.

Ray Care:
For men who are okay with being in a rut and achieving less than their fullest potential, The Project isn’t for you. If you’re not willing to put in the work to fix what isn’t working, The Project isn’t for you. However, if you’re done white-knuckling it through life, living one day at a time with no sense of purpose and are willing to do what it takes to improve, The Project holds the key to unlocking the next chapter. Graduates of The Project join a brotherhood of modern day knights and become the authors of their destiny. They have their fire reignited and reclaim dominance over their family, fitness, finances, and faith. If this resonates with you and you want to learn more, we encourage you to apply today at www.mdkproject.com/ocshow.

Jason Redman:
Everybody wants to be on top of the hill. The problem nowadays is people want to get dropped off at the top of the hill in one day.

Speaker 3:
It’s that, “I overcome,” mindset that makes all the difference.

Jason Redman:
See, the way we’re taught is you’re going to claw, you’re going to scratch, you’re going to bite, you’re going to dig, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get to the top of that mountain.

Speaker 3:
That unequivocally is how I have managed to keep myself moving forward and finding success.

Speaker 4:
Two SEALs, one mission. The Overcome and Conquer Show.

Jason Redman:
And welcome back to The Overcome and Conquer Show. We got an amazing guest today. An incredible friend to both of us. We go back-

Ray Care:
Gosh.

Jason Redman:
How many years, man? 20?

Ray Care:
BUDS.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. We go back to BUDS.

Ray Care:
BUDS.

Jason Redman:
So this individual was not in the Smurf Crew, though. He probably could have carried the entire Smurf group by himself.

Ray Care:
I’m not going to say who this is, but even now he wouldn’t be in the Smurf Crew. We’ll get into it-

Jason Redman:
Yeah. We’ll get into that, but-

Ray Care:
… because holy shit.

Jason Redman:
But he is a teammate, he is a friend, he is a brother, he has an amazing story. For those of you that are out there that right now you’re going through the trials and tribulations of life, maybe you’re walking through a life ambush right now, this guy went through an incredible life ambush, and he came out of it just with a smile on his face, with gratitude, just crushing it every single day. And I love him as a brother, and I love him for his spirit whenever I talk to him. So I said, “Dude, we have to have you on the show, there’s no doubt about it.”

Ray Care:
Yes. This is going to be a powerful one.

Jason Redman:
It is.

Ray Care:
Emotional.

Jason Redman:
I think so. So, yeah, man, why don’t we just jump right into it? I’m going to do the intro, and I want to get this guy on. My man, my teammate, he graduated from Bud’s class with us, with 202… Hey, did you start with 202?

Dan Licardo:
I did.

Ray Care:
Oh, you’re a one-shot. He’s an iron horse.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. I’m the only guy here that-

Ray Care:
Iron horse like me.

Jason Redman:
… out of the three of us that got rolled back. I did not finish with my original class. But Dan spent time on both coasts while he was enlisted, and then he served with multiple East Coast SEAL teams before he went on doing contracting work with the US government, and went on to do tactical training down in Texas, and had a beautiful family, and was just living the life, man. He was out there helping others, he was focused on helping Wounded Warriors, and on September 4, 2018, his life changed in an instant.

Jason Redman:
You talk about an unexpected life ambush. Dan got in his truck and with the kids in the back of the truck, was driving along, and like many of us he had sustained a traumatic brain injury from many of the blasts and incidents we encounter overseas, and even with all the blasts we encounter in training, and Dan had a seizure. He had a seizure which locked him up and shut down on the accelerator of his truck, which launched it at over 100 miles an hour across the median, and it struck a large tree that absolutely destroyed the vehicle. The entire front of the vehicle was crushed up into Dan’s lap. It crushed his pelvis. It crushed his legs. The vehicle was on fire. Massive internal injuries. Broken bones in his arms.

Jason Redman:
I will never forget when I got that call that night. I remember somebody said to me, “Hey, man, did you hear what happened to Dan?” And I said, “No, what happened?” They said, “Yeah, man, he’s in the ICU. They don’t know if he’s going to survive the night.” And my heart sank. We’ve lost too many brothers, and too many friends. And it started an amazing long journey, but I tell you what, he has recovered, he is doing amazing things. So without further ado, I want to introduce the man, the myth, the legend, about to be the $6 million man, Mr Dan Licardo. Welcome to the Overcome and Conquer show.

Dan Licardo:
I’m not quite sure I deserve that intro, but I truly appreciate it, gentlemen.

Jason Redman:
You do, my brother.

Ray Care:
Dude, you definitely deserve it, and we are known for our big intros on this show.

Jason Redman:
Oh, yeah.

Ray Care:
Man, it’s kind of like we’re the Viagra of podcast intros.

Dan Licardo:
I can dig it.

Ray Care:
We go downhill from there, but the intro’s great.

Jason Redman:
Don’t worry. It’ll get worse. We promise.

Dan Licardo:
Sounds like a plan. Yeah, man, good to be here. I appreciate you guys offering to have me on.

Ray Care:
So my question to you is, before we get into the meat and potatoes and everything, why don’t you tell the audience, because we got a lot of listeners, how I mentored you, how I guided you, how I made you the man you are through BUDS and in life, because true story, I’ve been with you through a lot of monumental points in your life. I remember with Trisha, and FYI, my wife loves this man. Lily, she’s written me three times, she’s given me hearts and flowers, saying, and look, I’m reading this, “Tell Big Dan,” I said, “What the fuck is the supposed to mean?”

Jason Redman:
Well, he is a devastatingly handsome man. I mean, I am straight-

Dan Licardo:
No, but I am a little bit taller than you.

Jason Redman:
… I love women, but I tell you what, Dan is a good-looking man, you know? And it even makes me question myself a little bit when I look at him. I’m like, “He is pretty hot.”

Ray Care:
Does anybody still call you what I call you? Diamond Dan Licardo, boy.

Dan Licardo:
No, just you.

Ray Care:
This guy has got a smile that makes me question my sexuality.

Jason Redman:
Sexuality. Yeah. It does that.

Ray Care:
Because when he smiles, I’m like, blushing and shit. I’m like, oh, my God, Scott [Litalia 00:07:59], Scott [Oates 00:08:01], they were the three Adonises in the SEAL teams. I hated and loved you all equally.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah. Well, you know.

Ray Care:
Well, you know.

Dan Licardo:
I don’t know if I can live up to that. But I mean, I do okay. I do okay. And it’s got me where I am today as far as the incredible woman that I’m with, so I’m happy about it.

Jason Redman:
Amen to that. Here’s to all the incredible women we all managed to snow into staying with us.

Dan Licardo:
Exactly.

Jason Redman:
I don’t know how we did it. We have all these women that basically married down to be with us. So shout out to them. All right. As we do in every single show, we have the word of the day, and because Dan’s story’s so amazing, when we asked him what his word of the day was, when he gave it to me, I’ll be honest, it took my breath for a moment because as someone who has had such a horrific near-death experience, also, it resonated with me and it meant a lot to me, the word that he gave.

Jason Redman:
And I think there’s so many people out there who, they take this life for granted. You take the air you breathe, you take the friendships you have, you take all the things we have for granted, not realizing that someday this life will come to an end. And every now and then there are a few of us out there that have one of these moments where we think it is the end. We think it is that moment when you’re going to pass on to the other side. And for whatever reason, the big man above gives you that second chance, and allows you to stay around.

Jason Redman:
When Dan told me his word, it perfectly reflected that. So without further ado I’m going to turn it over to Captain Care to get into the word of the day, and then, Dan, we’re going to kick into you, on why you chose this word.

Ray Care:
Yeah. Usually guys come out of the gate with something funny and hard, but when Jay told me this word, this word describes just the mental fortitude that… And I’m looking at you brother, and I love you, and I swore I would not get emotional during this fucking podcast. You know how much I love you and how far we go back. But-

Dan Licardo:
It’s like a Sarah McLachlan TV commercial.

Ray Care:
Yeah.

Jason Redman:
All I see are puppies and I’m already choking up.

Dan Licardo:
That’s right. That’s right.

Ray Care:
Yeah. But the word that Dan chose after the event that took place in your life, the traumatic event that took place in your life, the word was thankful. Now, the dictionary wording of that is expressing gratitude and relief, but I think no one has more of a right to give their definition of that word than you. So Dan, without further ado, what is your definition of thankful?

Dan Licardo:
Well, I think that we all have those moments in life where we take things for granted. We’re not appreciative of what we have, and we want more. I definitely have a lot of regrets, throughout my career, things that I wish I would have done differently throughout my life, things that I would have done differently. Taken a different approach. And I’ve lived with those regrets for a long time.

Dan Licardo:
When the accident happened, when I didn’t even know it happened, I don’t remember anything about it, I barely remember getting into the truck, but I remember waking up and after being told what was going on, and what the situation was, it was a shock, without a doubt. Especially with the condition that my body was in. But man, I’ll tell you what, I was just overwhelmed and completely humbled by all the people that were surrounding me. By the outpouring of this love that was being sent my way from people I hadn’t talked to in years.

Dan Licardo:
Knowing what the situation was as far as how closely I came to losing my life, just being able to breathe, being able to, hell, just being able to see my son grow up, I’m incredibly thankful just for being here. Just for having the life that I have. Being able to be on the show with you guys. I can’t even describe it, man. It’s a life changing event, it really is. It makes me really put into perspective what you have and what’s important and what’s not important.

Jason Redman:
Dan, let’s go back, because a lot of people… I gave a little bit of summary of what happened, but-

Dan Licardo:
Sure.

Ray Care:
Yeah.

Jason Redman:
I think it would be remiss, and here you are, this amazingly talented guy who served at the highest levels of the SEAL teams, who did combat deployment overseas, who took the fight to the enemy, came home, took those amazing skills and was training other people on how to be better shooters and better contractors, and basically paying forward that knowledge, growing a family, you moved to Texas and everything was great. And then suddenly this moment, this devastating life ambush came.

Jason Redman:
I know you don’t remember everything about the accident, but if you could tell everybody how it unfolded, and really the extent of your injuries, because your injuries were catastrophic.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah, you could say that. Basically, I had been having issues over the years, even while I was still in the SEAL teams, times when parts of my face would go numb for a little bit. I remember one time in particular I was driving down Holland Road and I got double vision. I look over at my ex, and I was like, “I don’t want to freak you out, but are my eyes crossed?”

Ray Care:
“I’m not even drinking.”

Dan Licardo:
And she was like, “No, man. Freaking me out. But no, your eyes aren’t crossed. What’s wrong?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I’m seeing double.” There were things like that that would happen. And then in 2012, I had what considered an anxiety attack. For the listeners out there who have had any issues with TBI, this is something to take note of. It wasn’t an anxiety attack. Come to find out they were what they called microseizures.

Dan Licardo:
They started off, and it typically starts off, with the smell or taste of something metallic, in your nose, or your mouth. As soon as I experienced that, I had this overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia, like the room, which, I was in a good-sized room, was just closing in around me. And honestly, guys, I went back to dive pool comp, when the regulator gets ripped out of your mouth and you think to yourself, “Okay, well, I know for a fact I had at least two minutes of good air before I’m going to basically be in trouble.” That’s what I went through, was breathe through it. That was the first time it happened. That was summer of 2012.

Ray Care:
Dan, where were you at when that happened?

Dan Licardo:
I was training state department guys in Memphis, just north of Memphis.

Ray Care:
Okay. [crosstalk 00:15:58]

Dan Licardo:
And then it started happening regularly. At least, I would say, once or twice a month. It didn’t really hit me as far as how bad it was, or how serious it was, until after, well, we both remember Dave Collins’s memorial.

Ray Care:
Yeah. Yeah. We do.

Dan Licardo:
I remember, that was one of the first memorials that we ever went to where I was looking around at men that I mentored under.

Ray Care:
And I’m going to interject, Dan, just because people out there, they might not know who that is. So Dave Collins was a teammate of ours that we served with. We all went through BUDS together. Dave was, you talk about a shining ray of positivity. I mean, the guy-

Dan Licardo:
Absolutely.

Ray Care:
… never didn’t have a smile on his face.

Dan Licardo:
Yep.

Jason Redman:
And like many of us, Dave saw a lot of combat. He was actually on my 2007 deployment in Iraq with me when I got wounded. Dave came home, finished his career, but he was on a downward spiral.

Ray Care:
Yeah.

Jason Redman:
And was really struggling. He wasn’t sleeping. Depressive episodes. And finally one day basically texted his wife and said, “Hey, please pick up the kids, I’m not going to be able to do it today.” And then took his life. Dave’s wife, being an incredibly smart woman, basically said, “Hey, autopsy his brain.” And they did and Dave had severe blast-related CTE.

Jason Redman:
So it was a blow for all of us, as friends of Dave’s, and something now I’m incredibly passionate about. But that’s who Dave was, and Dan, go back, man. Sorry. I just wanted people to understand who he was and the extent of that.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah, no, no, no. You’re good. No. Honestly, Dave is one guy who I definitely want remembered. Like you said, Dave was one of those guys who you could hang out with him all weekend long, and if you saw him first thing on a Monday morning, he would treat you like he hadn’t seen you in forever as far as how surprised and just honored he was to have you there in his presence. He was just an amazing person.

Dan Licardo:
I mean, Jason, you and I were fortunate enough to grow up with him in SEAL Team 4. Well, anyway, seeing all these guys that I knew and mentored under visibly shaken, and it was because they were all talking to Jennifer and finding out, and to each other, finding out what his symptoms were, and realizing that they were all same symptoms that a lot of us were experiencing.

Jason Redman:
Yeah.

Dan Licardo:
And so I mean, I wasn’t sleeping very much. My sleep cycle was roughly two, three hours a night, and then sometimes I’d go a full night without sleeping, and then I’d just crash and start over again. So what do you call it? I continued on. After I had this one issue where I was on my way out to Kentucky, I was actually teaching Kentucky State Police tactical training and shooting, stuff like that. I was about an hour outside of Louisville, and had one of those episodes.

Dan Licardo:
Now, when I would have one of those episodes, I could do whatever I was doing without issue. I could drive. I could type. I could write. It would be hard, but I could concentrate on it, and I could do it. It wasn’t debilitating to the point where it would keep me from actually doing the act that I was engaged in.

Dan Licardo:
As I’m driving, I had one of those episodes and I had the double vision thing. Ended up pulling over, and it subsided. Well, it subsided and I called Chris [Frisenbrock 00:19:45] who I did a platoon with him, and Chris was a corpsman.

Ray Care:
There’s a name.

Dan Licardo:
For those who don’t know, in the SEAL teams. He’d also done work with a lot of the guys on the whole TBI studies. So I called Freeze, and this is about 11:00 at night. I’m like, “Freeze,” and I said, “Hey, man, I know it’s been a long time, but what do you know about TBI?” He said, “Jeez, Lic, it’s 11:00 at night, I haven’t talked to you in about two years, and the first thing you’re asking me about TBI? Tell you what, I’m going to ask you a series of questions. You just answer yes or no, and we’ll go from there.”

Dan Licardo:
So I guess I answered yes too many times, and he said, “All right, here’s what’s going to happen. I want you to clear your schedule. Dave Hall,” another team guy, “is going to be calling you, and Mike Day is going to be calling you.” At the time, both Mike Day and Dave Hall, both phenomenal team guys, and good friends, they were basically vetting guys for going to the Carrick Brain Center, doing the TBI studies.

Dan Licardo:
They called and talked to me for a little bit, and yeah, the following week I was sent out to Irving, Texas, and I went through the Carrick Brain Center. I’d never been blown up in an IED explosion or anything like that, but I was a breacher, I’d been on target multiple times, when 105s were coming down, that kind of thing. But I was never blown up.

Dan Licardo:
As soon as I got to Carrick, I was like, “Look, Navy SEAL Foundation is paying a lot of money to be here. If I don’t have TBI, I need to know now so that I can get out of here and save some money for the next guy who needs it worse than me.” They’re like, “Just relax, just relax, and let’s just see what we got.”

Dan Licardo:
Well, come to find out they did diagnose me with what they call breacher brain, which is a form of TBI, but it has to do with, it’s not so much where there’s one overwhelming event, it’s a cumulative type of deal, where there’s all types of explosions that lead up to it. It’s funny because my girlfriend, she always laughs when I talk about this. In the movie Concussion, there’s a scene where… I can’t think of his name. Will Smith is showing an onion in a jar, and in that onion, it’s basically floating in this liquid, this oil. And he said when someone gets hit, the punch, or sack, could be a quarterback type of deal, it causes what they call a contrecoup, where the brain bounces back and forth in the skull.

Dan Licardo:
It’s a great analogy of what happens to the brain, but the difference between what a boxer or a football player goes through compared to what we go through, is we deal with what they call a coup contrecoup, which they can’t even count the number of times the brain bounces back and forth in your head, not to mention the overpressure wave affects things like the thyroid, the pituitary grand, all your organs. It messes things up.

Dan Licardo:
So, I went through this study, it helped me out quite a bit, but it was a year later, roughly around July timeframe, I had my first grand mal seizure. It was while I was sleeping.

Jason Redman:
Dan, what year is this?

Dan Licardo:
This was 2016, July 4.

Jason Redman:
Okay.

Dan Licardo:
Woke up in the hospital. Didn’t know what the hell happened. Actually that time I woke up fighting the paramedics that were in my room, and I remember my son was down the hallway, and I remember he had this scared look on his face. I’m like, “It’s okay, buddy, it’s okay.” Which, I don’t even know if that’s what came out of my mouth, but that’s what I was going for.

Dan Licardo:
But I remember I was fighting the paramedics for a little bit, and then I realized, okay, there’s something going on bigger than me, let’s just go with it. They told me it was a grand mal seizure, blah, blah, blah. Long story short, I didn’t have another grand mal seizure until almost exactly a year later, and I was doing safety and security for oil and gas up in Ohio at the time. I was by myself, I woke up, lethargic, very, very sore, had bit the inside of my lip and my tongue. So I knew that I’d had one during the night.

Dan Licardo:
I called my ex and told her about it. She says, “You know, it’s almost been exactly a year since the last time you had it.” Well, we ended up moving out to Texas, September of 2017.

Ray Care:
I remember that.

Dan Licardo:
My ex and I started having some issues, and long story short, we decided that we were going to… Well, she decided for me, but you know, we decided that we were going to get a divorce. I didn’t take it very well, and to be honest, it took three guys to keep me from going after the guy who she ended up with. But one of my friends said, “Hey, look, there’s a guy I want you to meet. A guy named Dave Vobora.” Dave Vobora, he used to play for the Seattle Seahawks.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. I know Dave. He’s a good dude.

Dan Licardo:
Solid dude.

Jason Redman:
Yep.

Dan Licardo:
He runs the Adaptive Training Foundation in Carrollton, Texas. A phenomenal foundation where they bring in personalities who are veterans, lost limbs, issues, TBI, you name it. Also civilians, same deal. And he basically teaches them how to work out, how to live life normally, so to speak.

Ray Care:
Yeah.

Dan Licardo:
And I went out and talked to him for a couple of hours, and he was like, “Let’s come out on the floor with me. I want to introduce you to some of the athletes.” Well, one of the first guys they introduced me to was a guy named Brian Aft. Brian was in the Marine Corps, got blown up in an IED, and he lost both his legs below the waist to where he has nothing but a little bit below his pelvis on the left hand side. This dude is doing pushups to where nothing’s touching the ground but his hands. He was doing 20.

Ray Care:
Nice.

Jason Redman:
Wow.

Dan Licardo:
I mean, it was incredibly motivating. I’m watching some of the other physical therapists, and they’re motivating and pushing the athletes. And I got right down in Brian’s face, and I’m like, “All right, man, show me something. Impress me.” And he was on 20 at the time. At about 24 he starts slowing down, “Come on,” I start going off on him. All the other physical therapists are looking at me like, “Goddamn.” And Dave Vobora looks at me, and he’s like, “You’re going to fit in just fine.”

Dan Licardo:
So I started working with those guys, just little by little. I wasn’t training or anything like that. I was just basically, I’d work out with them from time to time and help motivate them. Well, fast-forward, I met my now-girlfriend about, I would say, a little over a month and a half after I got served with divorce papers, and we had been together for about five months. September 4 rolls around of 2018, and I was watching her kids, her daughter and her son, daughter was, at the time, 11, and her son at the time was nine.

Dan Licardo:
He was in the back seat, she was in the front seat, strapped in. He was in the back seat, strapped in. And we were actually driving, we were going to pick up my son who at the time was eight years old, and we were going to go to a park where we were going to meet Christie, my girlfriend. Honestly, I don’t remember getting in the car. I barely remember putting the kids in the car. From what I understand, coming from police reports, and witness accounts, I was sitting at a light and the road was a main thoroughfare in Flower Mound, Texas, which is just north of Dallas. You had, I think, five lanes each side of the road.

Dan Licardo:
I crossed over, I seized up, both legs just nailed to the floor, and I nailed the gas. I was driving… At the time I had a 2014 Ford Raptor, and honestly, I tell you what, if I was driving anything less than that I wouldn’t be here right now. It had to do with the fact that the Raptor’s got a phenomenal suspension system. I jumped the curb, went into a parallel driveway, parking lot, and I was basically going through the parking lots, scaring the hell out of the kids. I guess I clipped a couple cars. Went down an embankment, and jumped. We jumped about, they said, 10, 15 feet in the air. Came down, and the suspension took it. If I was driving a regular point 50, even personalities from Ford were like, “Oh yeah, the suspension would have crumbled and you would have flipped,” which would have killed all three of us.

Dan Licardo:
But then I landed, basically threaded the needle in between two telephone poles, so much so there was rubber from the tires on either telephone pole, and crossed the street, and slammed into a tree. I wasn’t going 100 miles an hour. They said I was estimated about 60, which still did the job. Andrew was in the back seat. He ended up just crawling right out without any issue whatsoever. Ava, her daughter, was in the front seat with me, and she had actually, in the crash, slid through the harness and went in and got pinned in between the seat and the dashboard. Luckily for her, the way she was pinned, her face was facing away from me.

Dan Licardo:
I talked to the paramedic that was the first at the scene, and he said it was probably one of the worst things he’d ever seen. He said that they all thought I was dead at first. They said that my left leg, the shin bone at the tibia basically just completely severed. It gave and fractured in half and it basically blew my leg apart. My right leg, they said, it held tight to where it pushed up through my knee, pushed up through my thigh, and my thigh went up into my hip, and then my shin from the knee end down just basically exploded.

Dan Licardo:
The thing that he said worried him, when I finally came to, was the fact that there was no blood pooling on the floor, which meant that I had massive internal bleeding. It took them roughly about, I would say, took them about 30 minutes to get Ava out of the truck. Took them another half hour to get me out of it. Christie showed up on the scene. Andrew had gave the paramedics her number and called her, and she showed up on the scene 10 minutes after everything happened.

Dan Licardo:
Now, here’s the thing. A lot of events that led up to this definitely… It was like a series of unfortunate events that put me in the place where I was mentally and physically. Mentally-wise, well, let’s back up a little bit. Physically-wise, when I showed up to Flower Mound, I was asked to talk to the fire department and the fire chiefs and all those guys about flood rescue, about preparing their gear for water rescue, and this, that and the other. They had been donated Zodiacs and some water stuff, because of all the flooding they had in 2015. But they didn’t know how to use it. So I went and met with those guys. Well, I met the majority of the fire department, from all throughout Flower Mound and Denton County.

Dan Licardo:
So when the fire department showed up, it wasn’t like, “Okay, this is a nasty scene.” It was like, “Holy shit, that’s Dan.” They recognized the truck right away. I’ll tell you what, it’s always good to have firefighters with a vested interest in saving your life.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. Amen to that.

Ray Care:
Yeah. Amen.

Dan Licardo:
Chief [Griza 00:32:22] who was the chief of Denton County, he actually met with Christie, and Christie lied to him, saying she was my wife. And he actually protected her and brought her up to the truck to calm me down. By then, I had woken up and I was screaming, basically, “Rip me out of this truck,” and using a lot of obscenities that I won’t go into. But again, I don’t remember any of it.

Dan Licardo:
The truck had caught on fire, and they were using everything they could to keep it out. The truck had a 35 gallon tank on it, and it was just leaking like a sieve and catching fire every time it would leak. So she said that she was basically up to her calves in gasoline and foam.

Ray Care:
Jesus.

Dan Licardo:
She was rubbing my back, trying to keep me calm. They could not release my legs from the dashboard. The steering column had pretty much wrapped itself around it. The firefighters were going back and forth on, do we put the tourniquets on him now or do we wait? Blah, blah, blah. They waited. Which was fine. I was pretty much occluded the way I was at, anyway.

Dan Licardo:
They called in LifeFlight, and LifeFlight was held in a loiter for about 20 minutes overhead until they could actually get me out. And it was one of the firefighter’s ingenuities, like, “You know what? Screw this.” He took a chain, hooked my truck up to the bumper of the fire truck, and yanked my truck off of the tree. When he did, the steering column released my legs and they were able to put tourniquets on me and throw me in the helicopter.

Dan Licardo:
They said that I… First off, Christie was one of the first ones to save my life, in that Parkland Hospital in Dallas is a teaching hospital. It’s probably one of the best teaching hospitals that’s there. And their LifeFlight had already been sent out to be used for another crash, and Fort Worth had sent theirs to pick me up. Well, Christie was like, “Do not send him… He’s not going to Fort Worth. He needs to go to Parkland.” So they sent me to Parkland, and that right there saved my life, and probably set me in the way I’m going now, as far as on the way to getting back to somewhat normal.

Dan Licardo:
But they said that on the way to the hospital, I coded in the helicopter. They brought me back, and then I got to the hospital, and the trauma surgeon, a doctor named Dr Michael Cripps, absolute genius, he met with me. He said I was somewhat lucid and I was talking while I was in the ER. He said that he started walking away from me to check on something, and he said that his spider senses were tingling. Turned around and my SATS just dropped, and I coded for the second time.

Dan Licardo:
This man, who I’d never met, jumped on my chest, and he ended up doing 45 minutes of CPR on me. Breaking every rib in my body, dislocating my sternum, and he wasn’t giving up.

Jason Redman:
And Dan, I just want to interrupt for people to understand. I mean, your story’s so powerful, but you’re a big dude. Dan is a big dude. I mean, Dan, how much did you weigh then? 245, 250?

Dan Licardo:
I was weighing about 250. I had been working out. I was coming down off of a hiatus, basically gaining way too much weight. About 6′ 3″, 250.

Jason Redman:
I’ve done CPR. Real-world CPR. People that have done real-world CPR, dude, it is a physical effort. It takes effort to compress, especially for somebody as big as Dan. So 45 minutes, I guarantee that doctor was smoke shack sweat.

Dan Licardo:
They said that he was sweat from head to toe. In fact, he’d been doing it for so long that the OR staff, they pretty much gurneyed me into the OR with him on my chest doing the compressions. You see it on TV all the time, but it really does happen. He was doing it for so long that the OR team was actually ready to give up. He said they were actually getting ready to leave the room. He said, “Don’t go anywhere.” He used some different verbiage, but I’ll save it for now. He said he changed the angle at which he was doing the compressions, and that’s when I showed signs of life. And he started work. With me, I bled out seven times. The hospital went through 94 units of blood to keep me alive.

Ray Care:
That’s what I was waiting for. I knew this. We had this talk. Yeah. How many units are in your body?

Jason Redman:
The average human body has eight to 12. So Dan had probably been on the 12 spectrum. I was closer to the eight spectrum.

Ray Care:
You’re more of a six.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah. Luckily, while they were working on me, the fire chief who knew me met with Dr Cripps, and asked Cripps, “What’s the deal?” Blah, blah, blah. Cripps was like, “I would give him right now maybe a 5% chance.” And he’s like, “Look, man, I’m going to tell you right now, this guy was a Navy SEAL,” which doesn’t mean anything as far as save a life or not, whatever, but he said, “He’s got a big following here, and he’s a good man.”

Ray Care:
People that know you know you’re tough, because I remember when I saw it, I remember Trish and I, we literally immediately… I don’t know. I’m sure eventually you checked it, or someone did, but you must have got 50 calls from me. “I’m worried, man. Where the fuck are you?” I couldn’t get ahold of you. And I remember Trish saying, “If anybody…” Because, you know, shit was going around. There wasn’t conclusive information. It was, “Dan was in a serious accident. We think he lost a leg. We think he lost two legs.”

Ray Care:
I remember Trish looked at me, because you know, obviously you’ve known her since the beginning, and she was like, “If anybody can get through this, it’s Dan.” Because dude, you are a mentally and physically tough, pardon my language, motherfucker. You always have been, you always will be.

Jason Redman:
I remember that.

Dan Licardo:
I appreciate that, man.

Jason Redman:
And I remember that night, hearing they didn’t know if you were going to make it through the night. And I mean, that was just crushing. I was getting different reports. People were texting me. I think there was Facebook messaging.

Ray Care:
Oh, dude, it was viral. It was going around crazy.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. I mean, within the community, man, we were just praying for you, and just pulling for you, and I just remember thinking about that, and yeah, so hearing your play-by-play is just powerful, man.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah. The doctor was like, “Look, I’ve worked on green berets, I’ve never worked on a Navy SEAL, but I’m sure as hell the first Navy SEAL I work on, I’m not going to lose him.” He was pretty adamant about keeping me alive. I say that to send it home to you.

Ray Care:
So when he was finished, did he say, “And I got to tell you, having worked on Navy SEALS and green berets, you’re much better looking and tougher than they are. I just want to let you know that”?

Dan Licardo:
[crosstalk 00:39:51] He said, “Hands down, Navy SEALS are much better kissers,” is what he said.

Ray Care:
Boom. Boom.

Jason Redman:
Well, we know that’s true. We know that’s true.

Dan Licardo:
We know that’s true. What he did tell me though is hospitals, because at that point they usually think it’s a lost cause, hospitals usually stop at 60 units, as far as when they are giving people blood. So again, thankful. So as far as I know I didn’t wake up for a couple days. I know that I will give a shout out to Navy SEAL Fund and Navy SEAL Foundation. Navy SEAL Fund especially, they contacted my mother. My mother and father were both contacted that evening, after it happened. Navy SEAL Fund had plane tickets for my mom and dad by 11:00 that night. Actually had them there at the hospital by 10:00 in the morning the following day. Even at that point in time, I only had a 50% chance of still living.

Ray Care:
Amen.

Dan Licardo:
When I finally woke up, and I was having some really weird hallucinations and stuff like that. I guess it was just me coming to and then going back under. But a very close friend of mine, Seth Farwell, Navy SEAL from the West Coast-

Ray Care:
Oh, yeah.

Dan Licardo:
Seth is a monster of a dude and just a phenomenal person. I remember seeing him multiple times in those hallucinations. I’m like, “All right, this is really weird to be hallucinating about Seth.” And then when I finally came to, I remember seeing this bright light, and no, this is not the proverbial bright light everyone sees talking to God. No, this was basically I had a overhead light that was blinding from the ceiling in my eyes.

Dan Licardo:
The next thing I see is Christie, and then I see my cousin John, who I hadn’t seen since 2009, and I see Seth, AKA Monkey, come into frame. And I’m thinking to myself, “I can’t talk,” because I was intubated at the time. And I’m thinking to myself, “Okay, if Monkey and John are there, this is bad. Whatever’s going on is bad.” Now, I don’t know how familiar you guys are with John Grant, SEAL from the West Coast. John Grant, he basically-

Jason Redman:
I try not to talk to those West Coast guys.

Ray Care:
I hate those fucking guys.

Jason Redman:
Yeah.

Ray Care:
I hate West Coast.

Jason Redman:
Fucking West Coast sucks. Much love. Long live the brotherhood. Talking shit.

Dan Licardo:
Absolutely. Wouldn’t have anything less. Anyway, John came back from deployment, and him and his friend were driving from one place to another, and they don’t know what happened, but they ran off the road and the car flipped. Well, John, if you look up on Instagram under LauraBPilates, it talks about his struggle. You want to talk about someone who’s come 180 degrees from when he was in the hospital to where he is now? It’s amazing. But the point of the story is, when John came to, when they knew he was alive, John couldn’t talk. Mentally wasn’t there. Doctors said that he wasn’t going to be functional, this, that and the other.

Dan Licardo:
Anyway, long story short, his wife didn’t give up on him. So my first and foremost, I wanted to make sure Christie and everyone knew that I was okay mentally. So when I had the wits about me, I signaled to them, “Give me something to write on,” and they brought me a whiteboard. My right hand was all screwed up, so I could barely write, “I’m okay,” and it came out, “I okay.” Which I’m not really sure how that was taken. But they understood that I was still there somewhat mentally.

Dan Licardo:
I started trying to vocalize and talk around the intubation tube, which was not easy. Finally Christie and I were able to communicate, and the first thing I asked was, “Are the kids okay?” I said, “Is Ronan okay?” She said, “You were in a crash.” Sorry, that’s right. I said, “What happened?” She said, “You were in a car accident. It was really bad, but this, that and the other.” The first thing I said was, “Is Ronan okay?” She said, “Ronan, he wasn’t in the car.” She said, “Andrew and Ava were.” And she said my eyes lit up like saucers, and she said, “No, no, no, they’re fine. They’re okay. Both of them. Ava had a cut above her eye and a black eye and that was it.”

Ray Care:
Gosh.

Dan Licardo:
Thank God. Honestly, it was almost like at that brief second, right before impact, God asked me, “How do I want to play this?” And I was just like, “You know what? I’ll take everything. Leave them alone. Give it all to me.” Because I’ll tell you right now, if anything had happened to either of those two kids, I would have just been like, “Give me a gun, put it in my mouth, pull the trigger.” Because I would not be able to live with that. You know what I mean? Hurting one of those kids, I wouldn’t be able to live with that.

Dan Licardo:
Anyway, she told me that basically Ronan was fine, the kids were fine. So I looked at her and I said, “All right, how bad is it?” And she said, “Do you want me to sugarcoat it?” And I said, “No. I want you to tell me.” She said, “Well,” she said, “It’s pretty bad.” She goes, “You lost both your legs. Your body’s pretty broken up. But you’re going to be okay.” She said that my eyes widened. I got teary-eyed. She goes, “I’m here for you. And you got a lot of other people here for you as well.”

Ray Care:
We’re still here for you, brother. We’re still here for you.

Dan Licardo:
And that’s why I love you guys. It’s like this, man, like I said, I have a lot of regrets. From my life, from my career, everything. And I was overwhelmed and completely humbled by just the outpouring of love and support that was sent to me via email, text, Facebook, whatever. Not to mention the nurses at the hospital said they’d never, ever felt safer their entire life, because the waiting room was full of MMA fighters, and Navy SEALS. I mean, at any given time there was about 20 to 50 guys, people in the waiting room, just waiting to see me. My room had no less than 15 to 20 people in it at any given time. It was just overwhelming, straight-up humbling. I will say-

Ray Care:
People don’t know you’ve got some mad fucking skills in the ring, brother. A lot of people don’t know that. I do. But this is not a man… I wouldn’t fight you right fucking now. I know better. I’ve seen you. You are a big, destructive yet kind warrior, man. You got…

Dan Licardo:
You know, I will say this. There’s a hell of a lot better fighters out there than me, that’s for sure. But I will say that I’ve been incredibly fortunate. Like being trained by some of the best, and having been working with some of the best instructors with regard to shooting, at the same time I was… Out there. I mean, I won’t get into it, but I had a butt-ton of people that were there that were just phenomenal individuals, and just people who were just mentors in my life, that I really could never begin to thank anyone. The people who did show up… I’m rambling now.

Jason Redman:
Dan. Man. I mean, this story is just incredible. From the start of the traumatic brain injury incidents, all the way to the horrific accident, to wake up in that moment and to find out, wow, I’m not going to sugarcoat it, your body’s crushed, and you’re missing your legs, you started a whole new journey of recovery. I can empathize with that. I remember when I first started mine. And our injuries are so different, but it is that moment where you have to start, “Where do I build my new… How do I get myself to my new 100%?” And that’s the journey you’ve been on now.

Dan Licardo:
Absolutely.

Jason Redman:
I’d like to hear about that. And there’s so many lessons that people that are out there right now, maybe they’re going through cancer, maybe they’ve suffered a grievous accident, maybe they’re a Wounded Warrior that’s listened to this and they’re like, “Dude, how do I get through what I’m going through, man? You’ve got a wealth of knowledge right now, after a little over a year that you’ve been going through. I know you and I talked about some of the struggles you had starting to walk, so I’d love to hear that. Your road to recovery, and what are some of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned that you could pass on to others?

Ray Care:
Or your biggest lesson learned, you know? What was the pinnacle lesson learned? The one that if you had to pick one, do or die, that you learned? Because I think that’s what people are going to retain.

Dan Licardo:
Well, starting off with Ray, I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned is just, I guess, patience. I’ll start off by saying, I don’t care, with Jay, you know what? Our injuries are definitely different, but at the same time it’s all relative. Someone going through cancer, someone breaking a leg, someone going through depression, it’s all relative. It’s one of those things to where, if you’re not able to be you at 100%, then there’s a struggle in your life, and you need to find what I like to call your new normal.

Dan Licardo:
I will never be the Dan Licardo that I used to be. It’s just the way it is. It’s what I’ve had to come to terms with. I won’t be able to run as fast. I’ll put it that way. I won’t be able to do a lot of things that I used to do, especially as well as I used to do them. But I’m here. And it’s going to take time, but I’ll get to the point where I will find my new normal, and that’s the biggest thing to remember. And just be patient.

Dan Licardo:
You can’t compare yourself anybody else. There’ve been a couple guys that I’ve dealt with who, it was profound to have them there, for me, when I first was in the hospital, and it had to do with the fact that they had injuries, just like me, and they were like, “Look, man, I’m going to tell you straight. Right now, this point, this is the worst it’s going to be. This is the worst part. It gets better. It sucks, it’s going to suck for a while, but I promise you this, it does get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dan Licardo:
Those same guys, they were blown up, both of them blown up in IEDs. One of them stepped on a landmine and they were pretty much mirror image of me. Both of them are below the knee, on the right side, above the knee on the left side. The one in particular, when I asked him about walking again, he’s like, “Yeah, I went down to the Center for the Intrepid,” which is where I’m at now, and he said, “When they first got me onto my legs, I just basically took off and started walking. Blah, blah, blah.” I was like, “Okay, well, great.”

Dan Licardo:
Well, my first time getting in my legs, I have a video of my son, at 11 months old, taking his first steps. He did a hell of a lot better than I did, put it that way.

Ray Care:
I got that video. I got that video. What people don’t know is I actually got that video, before everybody else, because you were wearing… And this is no plug, but I love that you were wearing my fucking shirt. You could have worn any shirt in the world and you wore my Conquer shift. Unless you walked beforehand, and I’ll punch you in the face, because you just did that to make me feel happy. No, I’m serious. I think it was probably one of the best of two shirts you could have ever worn, because the other one would have been Overcome.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah. Well, I don’t have an Overcome shirt, so… Hint, hint, wink, wink.

Jason Redman:
We’ll rectify that situation for sure.

Dan Licardo:
No, but I look at it like this. They didn’t have any injuries above the waist. Myself, my pelvis was shattered, actually, it was what they call an open book fracture. Broken in three different places. My right hip was completely shattered. Luckily, and this is why I was incredibly fortunate to go to Parkland Hospital, the doctor who put me back together again as far as my hip, the procedure he used to put my right hip back together again, he actually utilized the procedure that’s actually named after him.

Dan Licardo:
Anyway, hip was completely toast. Everywhere broken. My clavicle was broken. My sternum was dislocated. My scapula was broken in nine different places. My right hand had a fully internally… Not decapitation, but it was completely severed, my left wrist, internally.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. Dan, I was actually there. I had come to visit you right as that happened. When you found out about that. I remember being there. But-

Dan Licardo:
About having to be fused?

Jason Redman:
Yeah, yeah. Because I talked to you about it. But listen, man, we’ve talked you up, what an amazing beast, and beautiful man you are. I know there’s a ton of women out there that are just wondering, the piping still works?

Dan Licardo:
The piping still works. [crosstalk 00:54:53]

Jason Redman:
Yes. And my second question is I heard Ray sent you a glossy of him. Ray wants to know if his picture helped with the piping working.

Dan Licardo:
Of course it did.

Ray Care:
He’s actually got it hanging on his ceiling, I’ve seen it.

Dan Licardo:
Any time I can see a picture, especially an eight by 10 of Carebear.

Jason Redman:
Carebear.

Ray Care:
People don’t know Carebear. They know Cash.

Dan Licardo:
[crosstalk 00:55:18]

Jason Redman:
We need to bring up Carebear. A lot of people don’t know that back in BUDS, Ray was known as Carebear.

Ray Care:
Yeah. That was many moons ago.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. Wow. Dan, I had totally forgotten about that.

Dan Licardo:
Many moons ago, but it still holds true.

Jason Redman:
It still says-

Ray Care:
Like when I experimented with boys in college. But no, it is a phase. Dan, it was you. What the fuck you laughing about?

Jason Redman:
Those aren’t pillows. All right, well listen, man. Dan, that is… I know that there’s so many people out there right now… Dude. I mean, your journey, and you’re still on it, man. You’re still walking it. You and I talked the other day, and it is. I mean, any time you suffer a catastrophic life ambush like this, you will carry the scars forever. You will carry the mental, the physical, and the emotional scars. But dude, you are going to crush it, and right now, in this show, there are people out there that are motivated and inspired. You are a guy that, that night, I don’t know what the odds were, did they give you a 5% chance? I think that’s what I remember them telling me.

Dan Licardo:
It was literally 5%.

Jason Redman:
So you had a 5% chance of making it out alive. This is one of these pivotal moments that people have, where you have a choice. Once you came out the other side, Dan, you chose to drive forward. You chose to be relentless. You chose to overcome, and you chose to conquer your injuries, which is amazing. It’s everything this show is about. So for everybody out there that’s going through some kind of life ambush, like we talked about, whether maybe you’re going through cancer, or maybe you’re that mother that’s out there and you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, and they’re saying, “Hey, we’re going to have to do a mastectomy.” You can drive forward.

Jason Redman:
Maybe you’ve been hit with some life-threatening accident, illness. Whatever it is. You can push forward. Dan Licardo is a shining example of that. You’re still on the journey, brother, and I love it because it brings us back to the word of the day. You’re on this journey, but most importantly, you are-

Ray Care:
Thankful. Yes, sir.

Jason Redman:
Thankful.

Dan Licardo:
Yes, I am.

Jason Redman:
Man, that is just powerful stuff.

Ray Care:
It’s rare I’m speechless.

Jason Redman:
So we’re going to close the show on that, everybody. I mean, in this world, hit off with all the negativity, you never know when your time is coming. You never know when that moment is coming. This pivotal moment that’s going to change your life. And it may be your time where you’re moving on to the great beyond. Or it may be your time that it’s going to be the great reset where you start a whole new path. No matter what, you got to learn to be thankful. Dan, I’ll let you close with just a couple minutes, just saying how important it is, how critical it is to be thankful for those people out there. I’m going to wrap this show up.

Ray Care:
Get them, Diamond Dan.

Dan Licardo:
Yeah, man. Like I said before, just be thankful for the people you have in your life. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t be afraid to say I love you. I do it to all the boys, all of my guys. Not afraid. Don’t care. Speak your mind, and be thankful.

Ray Care:
I love it, brother.

Jason Redman:
We love you, bro. You’re a stud, man. You’re going to keep rocking it, and I owe you an overcome shirt, for sure.

Ray Care:
And an eight by 10 glossy.

Jason Redman:
Yeah. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of The Overcome and Conquer Show. I mean, what an incredible episode. If you are not motivated and fired up listening to this story, I tell you what, you need to check your pulse.

Ray Care:
Yeah. No shit. Amen.

Jason Redman:
All right. This has been the Overcome and Conquer Show. I am Jason Overcome Redman.

Ray Care:
And I am Ray Cash Care.

Jason Redman:
And we are out. Boom.

Speaker 4:
Thanks for listening to the Overcome and Conquer Show. Tune in next time, and please remember to subscribe on iTunes. Please visit overcomeandconquer.com.

Ray Care:
The Overcome and Conquer Show is presented by The Project. The Project is a full immersion, 75-hour experience designed for men who know in their core they are not living up to their fullest potential. Rather than waking up every morning ready to dominate life, the mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides into the same unfulfilling routine they’ve unhappily been in for way too long. The Project is for men that have lost their internal flame and motivation to conquer. It’s for men living an unfulfilling life that lacks excitement and purpose. If this resonates with you and you want to learn more, we encourage you to apply today at www.mdkproject.com/ocshow. Boom.