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Jason Redman: Hey, this is Jason ‘Overcome’ Redmond. Thanks for tuning in to the Overcome & Conquer Show. If you love this show, we want you to do us a huge favor. Go to iTunes, subscribe, leave that five star review, leave a comment, and most importantly, share with your friends because sharing is caring.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be on top right now. The problem nowadays is people want to get dropped off at the top of the hill and look down.
Jason Redman: It’s that I overcome mindset that makes all the difference.
Speaker 1: See the way we were 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.
Jason Redman: That unequivocally is how I have managed to keep myself moving forward and finding success.
Speaker 1: Two seals, one mission. The Overcome & Conquer Show.
Jason Redman: And welcome back to the Overcome & Conquer Show. We have been crushing it out there with Overcome & Conquer. We’ve been laying it down. Ever since you talked about sucking Chris Pratt off, dude, people cannot stop reaching out to us.
Ray Care: Chris Pratt’s actually reached out to me. We got a dinner date coming up soon.
Jason Redman: Well, I did notice that selfie you took with him, and I will admit I was a little jealous. I was a little jealous. I mean those moments when we cuddled in BUD/S together on those long cold hell week nights, I thought they meant something. Ray.
Ray Care: He’s a fantastic lover.
Jason Redman: He’s a good kisser I hear.
Ray Care: Yeah. Nothing but respect. Mr Pratt. We love you. We love you.
Jason Redman: Hey, you are a patriot. You keep wearing that don’t tread on me shirt brother. I will do the same.
Ray Care: We support you 1000%
Jason Redman: So, all right guys, we’ll, we have had some amazing guests and this show-
Ray Care: Yeah.
Jason Redman: this show is going to be a little tougher. It’s a little bit of public service announcement
Ray Care: Hits home.
Jason Redman: It’s, it does. And it’s really important. I want to get this message out there to all our veterans, our teammates or our friends, those who have experienced the clash of steel in the sting of battle.
Ray Care: Yeah, I think it’s time.
Jason Redman: So, about a month ago, I attended the funeral for a good friend of mine. We buried him up in Arlington, on August 19th, and great dude, he was a EOD warrior, 26 years with… he was a bomb tech, for those who don’t know what EOD is, it stands for explosive ordinance disposal men. He was a navy bomb tech, special operations. Ran with the seal teams
Ray Care: Way the fuck away.
Jason Redman: Yeah, and our EOD guys, I mean we train them to where literally they’re right next to us in the stack.
Jason Redman: I mean, we teach them, although I ha… I will admit that I often had to tell our EOD guys, “hey, get to the back of the train” and they would get mad at me. And I’m like, “listen man”. I said, “no offense”. I said, “if you in the flow end up being up near the front then so be it”, but I was like, “I need you not to be shot. I need you to diffuse bombs”.
Ray Care: Yeah. So know your purpose. I mean, with all due respect.
Jason Redman: So, they would get mad at me, and I was like, “back of the train”. It’s right but-
Ray Care: Take the cheap seats.
Jason Redman: But Ron was just a… he was an amazing guy, and he basically went through his entire career, and just slayed it, man. He was doing great. He experienced quite a few blast injuries. He experienced a trauma on one of his missions, traumatic brain injury, and it eventually he ended up getting out.
Jason Redman: He retired with 26 years. But I tell you what, Ron had another amazing passion and that was skydiving. He was a member of the navy’s skydiving team, the Leap Frogs.
Ray Care: Leap Frogs.
Jason Redman: And they do for any of you out there that have seen the seals jump into events, they do it all across the country at major events, the army navy game, stuff like that, and Ron jumped in with those guys. A lot of people don’t know, it’s not only just seals, we actually have other-
Ray Care: it’s changed over the time.
Jason Redman: Yeah, it has. It used to only be seals.
Ray Care: I actually tried out for the Leap Frogs. I have… I actually was told that I have a record for being on the Leap Frogs, the shortest of all people in history.
Jason Redman: Do you think that was discrimination? Because I hear… you and I both be members of a Smurf crew, we hear short a lot.
Ray Care: No, it’s because when I did my jump, I had… there was a guy, we’ll just call him JC.
Jason Redman: There was that guy
Ray Care: Named JC Ledbetter, I’ll fucking call you. I don’t care. You were a boat guy, whatever. and he wasn’t a big fan of mine, but anyway, I’m drinking with, [Turbo 00:00:04:25], [Lash 00:04:25] and a bunch of guys, these are fucking pipe hitters from the seal team guys, seal team six, and long story short, I had a few too many cocktails. They asked me how it went. I told them that I got a bunch of negative AAR, after action report, from this guy. They asked me to see it. So I still had it in my car so I showed it to them. Lots to drink and I just pretty much… Turbo said, “hey, can I borrow your phone?”, and I said sure, and all he did, back in the day this is pre i-phones, he just hit last call, and he asked to speak to JC Leadbetter, and he actually, I think, was speaking to Gus Kaminski. Very good friend of-
Jason Redman: Oh I know Gus.
Ray Care: Yeah, Gus.
Jason Redman: I went through BUD/S… Oh, we went through BUD/S with Gus.
Ray Care: Yeah, thanks. We went through BUD/S with gus.
Jason Redman: I got a funny story about Gus. I can tell it after this.
Ray Care: And we’ll do that. But a long story short, I guess the gist of it was the Leap Frogs suck balls. They’re not real seals. They’re this, that. I had no clue. So, this was like on a Friday, Monday, I personally called Gus, I have Gus’s number. Gus is passed, God rest his soul, and he was like, “Oh yeah, Ray, about that phone call”, and I’m like, “What phone call?” So literally, I guess there were threats being made, and a lot of things that weren’t happening. A lot of people don’t understand, but when I checked into the teams, I actually had to get held six months from retrieving my trident. There was this bar fight that involved me in a bottle, and the police commissioner’s son, [Norfolk 00:05:44]’s under age, and literally long story short, a bunch of seal team six guys, Div group, boom love you all, made a comment to the Leap Frogs on my behalf without me knowing, and I was told that I was picked up and taken off within minutes.
Ray Care: So, I hold the record for that. So I’m pretty proud of that. But you know what, if that didn’t happen, I would have met my beautiful wife. So let’s go on-
Jason Redman: So basically you were on the Leap Frogs without ever making a demonstration jump.
Ray Care: Actually, I did try out, I had a run, I was in the best shape of my life. I literally ran a mile and a half in like, I think it was like a 9:01, which is good for me, I’m short, little legs, and then I had to get up and sing in front of 20 women, the national anthem, which we put the jumpsuit on. Man I have no shame. I can’t sing for shit, but I sang for those ladies. Oh you know I laid into it, and I got picked up, I heard, but then kicked off.
Ray Care: Everything happens for a reason.
Jason Redman: Everything happens for a reason.
Ray Care: But I want to keep it light before we get serious. So lay into it.
Jason Redman: I got a funny story-
Ray Care: Oh, tell me about Gus.
Jason Redman: about Gus Kaminski. So, went through BUD/S with Gus, and Gus was a great-
Ray Care: We went through BUD/S with Gus.
Jason Redman: We went through BUD/S with Gus, Gus was an amazing American.
Jason Redman: I don’t know if you were with me when this happened though. This was… It was post hell week. We were still in the class, but I don’t know, you may remember this. So, after hell week, everyone is absolutely hydrophobic, and basically, not homophobic, but hydrophobic. You are scared of the water, because you literally spent the last week freezing your ass off. So, what they do is they do a easier week, and you’re doing hydro recons during that week. You’re going through training, learning how to map out beaches, and you’re not doing a lot of physical activity, because your body literally has to recover, it has just been beat to hell. So, we were getting ready to do, I think, our first hydro recon, and they did a rubber check, which basically means they checked to see if anybody was wearing cheater tops or anything underneath the crappy wet suit tops, that they give you out of BUD/S, that have holes and don’t fit right now.
Ray Care: See I thought you meant wearing rubbers to keep your cock warm, but go ahead.
Jason Redman: No, no, Ray, no.
Ray Care: I must’ve been in a different BUD/S class-
Jason Redman: Different class, yeah.
Ray Care: Okay, go ahead.
Jason Redman: So, that was the class that was up in L.A. Filming at that time.
Ray Care: Gotcha, Gotcha. Gotcha.
Jason Redman: So, they’re going down the line and they’re checking, and there must be 25 of us that get busted, and I’m one of them. I had gone out and bought a cheater top, because I was just super hydrophobic, man. I had just froze my ass off, but Gus Kaminski was the most senior man that got busted also.
Jason Redman: So, we did the hydro recon all night. Sun’s rising. We got to go. We draw all our charts, and then by this time it’s about 11:00 AM, and they cut the class away. They say, “Okay, you guys are done. You can go to bed. Hey, all you cheaters, you are done. We’re going to hammer you till somebody quits.” And a class 201 was going through… they were doing surf passage that day, and they said, “all you assholes…” and we were brown shirts, they were like, “take those brown shirts off, put a white shirt back on. You are going out and doing surf passage right now.”
Jason Redman: So, we did surf passage for awhile, and then finally they called us back in, and it turned into a contest as to who could come up with the most fucked up thing that we would have to do. Dude, we were doing stuff like we had to go get our masks, we had to fill our mass up with seawater, and we had to hang upside down on the pull up bars, with someone holding our feet, while we did sit ups with a mask full of salt water. They were throwing sand in our faces, while we did it. So, it just turned into who could think up the most jacked up punishment.
Jason Redman: So, now this has been going on, it’s like three or four in the afternoon at this point. So finally they’re like, “Mr Kaminski, we are losing track of what we’ve done and we need to come up with like the most screwed up thing we can do to you guys,” and Kaminski goes, “Well, you know, we got in trouble by trying to cheat the cold so we probably should be beat by the cold,” and dude, it was like breaks, like a car wreck happened. All of us looked at him like, “you asshole,” and yeah, they put us in the water and started surf torturing us.
Ray Care: Well I’m not gonna lie, we were in the same BUD/S class-
Jason Redman: Wait, wait, wait. Hang on.
Ray Care: That didn’t happen to me.
Jason Redman: Okay, well then you must have gone to bed. You must have gone to bed.
Ray Care: Okay. But go ahead. Continue. I wanted to let you know that.
Jason Redman: I carried you and kept you warm during that hydro recon so that’s probably why.
Jason Redman: So, we’re being surf tortured, like all of us are just miserable, man, and they keep telling us, “hey, we’re not stopping until somebody quits.” It’s like 4:00 PM in the afternoon now, and all of a sudden we’re all laying there, Jack Hammering together in the surf zone, and just miserable. It’s gotten to that point where there’s no more jokes. Everybody’s turned inward and just… you’re laying in the suck, shit got real. Yeah, there’s no more talking. I mean, probably a lot of people were like, “Dude, I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”
Ray Care: I’m sure a couple of people had to kill Gus too.
Jason Redman: So in the middle of this misery suck fest, the quiet has set in and Kaminski is in the middle of us, and he goes, “Hey guys,” and we’re like, “what do you want?” And he goes, “You know, telling the instructors that, you know, we cheated the cold so we should be punished by the cold,” and we’re like, “Yeah, motherfucker,” and he goes, “that was a bad idea,” and dude, everybody started busting out laughing.
Ray Care: You needed that though.
Jason Redman: Oh dude, and right at that moment the instructors saw it, and they secured us.
Ray Care: And that’s what they were looking for.
Ray Care: I’d like to just back up a few seconds, before we move on, about carrying me through hell week in BUD/S. Ladies and gentlemen-
Jason Redman: I kept you warm.
Ray Care: I want you to know something.
Jason Redman: Like a blanket.
Ray Care: My nipples are sensitive, to this day, from all-
Jason Redman: Yeah, from my blanket keeping you warm.
Ray Care: [crosstalk 00:11:49] because he was sucking off my teats like this. [crosstalk 00:11:53] I milked Jason Redman.
Jason Redman: I wrapped my skinny little arms around you.
Ray Care: Look, I’m milking myself. I’m giving you the nectar of God’s. Look at that, Ray ‘Cash’ Care breast milk.
Jason Redman: All right.
Ray Care: Let’s go. Let’s get serious.
Jason Redman: All right, so we’re coming back full circle to Ron Condrey. Ron jumped with the Leap Frogs, huge skydiver, and a traumatic brain injury, and basically I watched… working with wounded warriors, and both Wounded Wear and the Combat Wounded Coalition, my old organization, I used to believe that if I could help a wounded warrior find purpose, a new mission in life, that it would get them past post traumatic stress. It would allow them to get the new focus and a new course they needed to drive forward in life.
Jason Redman: And Ron kind of shattered that for me. I realized that that wasn’t the case. There are some things we can’t fix. And because Ron had his purpose, man. He got out of the military, being a big sky God, big skydiver, and he got hired with a group called teen fast tracks, and jumping all across the country. They were like a civilian version of the Leap Frog. So jumping into stadiums, Ron was a huge, we call them a relative work, RW guy, he could do all kinds of amazing stuff with a canopy, and he was amazing. He would jump flags, thousand square foot flags.
Ray Care: Wow.
Jason Redman: Yeah, I mean, he was insane, and he used to always jump the flags in for our nonprofit events, our jumping for a purpose events. He met a beautiful, beautiful gal, Nicole, who became a skydiver also. She, he taught her how to jump into RW, and so here he is, he found his purpose, man, you got out of the military, he’s jumping all across country, but despite that, that whole year, Ron was spiraling down, man.
Ray Care: Yeah. The demons.
Jason Redman: Aw. And he would just have these massive highs, and then these massive, massive lows, and Nicole had to talk them off the edge several times. I talked him off the edge. He would call me, I tried to get him into different programs. I recommended for him, and it wasn’t working. And I told Nicole like a year before I said, “I think Ron has something called a concussive traumatic encephalitis” it’s called CTE, which those of you who may follow the NFL, it is what a lot of our NFL players are getting diagnosed with. Guys like Jr Seau-
Ray Care: Who did a movie about it.
Jason Redman: Absolutely. The movie Concussion as about it.
Ray Care: Yup.
Jason Redman: So, we had lost, we’ve lost special operations guys to CTE. A great friend of mine, Dave Collins, you know Dave, we went through BUD/S the same time.
Ray Care: [crosstalk 00:14:26] at his funeral.
Jason Redman: Dave was amazing, and Dave did the same thing in 2013, he took his life, and he was diagnosed with CTE, and-
Ray Care: Left a beautiful family. [crosstalk 00:14:37] Beautiful family.
Jason Redman: Absolutely. And we’ve had multiple guys now, multiple guys now, seals, special operations guys, EOD guys, who are dying, and killing themselves.
Ray Care: Let me ask you a question. Why do you think we can’t isolate this before it’s too late? What is your thoughts on this? I mean, I know we both know the answer, but it always seems like certain people like operators recognize that there’s something wrong, obviously operators are Alphas, we don’t want to do anything about it, or they say nothing’s wrong with me, and the next thing you know-
Jason Redman: We don’t, we don’t understand it well enough.
Ray Care: There you go. That’s what I was looking for.
Jason Redman: This is… I’m glad you brought that up, because a perfect example is a seal from the west coast, Ryan Larkin, who took his life, and a Ryan was a stud. Ryan was a stud, he did three deployments, two were back to back, and came home, did these deployments, and he was a rock star. Ranked, top of the pile. Always the guy that they wanted on board, but when he came home after that third deployment, he was struggling.
Ray Care: I remember this.
Jason Redman: He was struggling with the bottle. He was struggling with discipline problems, and you know, he kept saying, “Hey, there’s something wrong with me,” and they tried to provide some different treatments and counseling and they said, “No,” at the end of the day they’re like, “it’s you, you’re the problem,” And so they finally, he went down this rabbit hole where they processed him out of the military. They said, “Hey man, I’m sorry you’re a problem child. You’re just, you’re not cutting it,” and so they put them out of the military and he took his life. And when he took his life, he left a note that said, “there is something wrong with my brain. I want to be autopsied. I want my brain autopsied when you find me.”
Ray Care: I remember that.
Jason Redman: And they did. They autopsied him, and sure enough he had severe CTE.
Ray Care: And what you guys need to understand is this can be caused, obviously in NFL it’s from two machines colliding, but with us it can be from blasts. It can be from… we get head trauma too
Jason Redman: Well it’s total blasts for us
Ray Care: But as far as, you can get your head rocked. I’ve been mortared before where my heads hit something, and I’ve seen stars, and you know the deal, you… shit, you know the deal, your rocked, your ears are ringing. I mean, it’s something that’s real. It’s in our face, and we have to stop avoiding it. You can’t keep pushing this shit off. Jason’s doing some great things, and we’re going to talk about that in a minute, but the thing is is if you think there’s something wrong with you, don’t even get me started with the VA. I mean, we can talk about the time that it takes. The problem is this is something that needs to be treated immediately. You cannot be put on a waiting list, but it’s so hard to diagnose because we don’t-
Jason Redman: It’s impossible. We don’t, we can’t right now.
Ray Care: Yeah. What do you see for the future? What do you see for the future of being able to diagnose this, and stop it before the tornado comes?
Jason Redman: Well, I think the tornado is coming. I think the tornado is coming. I think we’re going to see more. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Warfare has changed drastically since 911, you and I know.
Ray Care: Yeah.
Jason Redman: We did not use explosives at the level that we did post 911 that we did pre nine 11. One of the things was the budget wasn’t big enough for us to always blow things up, but post 911 we got into where we breached everything. Why? Cause it’s more efficient. It’s faster to breach than to use explosives to breach. So, you talk about some of our guys that are breachers out there, they… and all of us, because we all do it. The military lists, hey this the minimum safe distance, we all push it, we all push it. So we’re exposing our brains to more blasts, and now you get into combat where we push it even further, and then on top of that you put the enemy blasts, indirect fire, or IED blasts that guys you’re being exposed to on an astronomical level in this war. Man, it is a cocktail of brain trauma, and that’s why we’re seeing so many guys who are coming back, and they’re struggling, and they’re spiraling down, and we don’t have any way to diagnose it.
Jason Redman: So, Ron took his life and September of last year, and I was heartbroken. I was heartbroken, man. And it made me, I’ll be honest, it was one of the reasons I decided on top of many that I was going to phase down my organization, because I wanted A to get out there and help other people more. But B, I wanted to find the organizations that could help guys with this, and it is a two front war. So one front is how do we deal with post traumatic stress, and individuals who are struggling with traumatic brain injury in the moment. And there’s a lot of studies that are out there that are doing those things. I know Morgan Luttrell, and Marcus work with the boot campaign who is also funding some good programs that are trying to do some work with brain health and brain trauma. I know Morgan is actually getting his degree.
Ray Care: He is. He’s a smart cat.
Jason Redman: In a brain neuroscience, which is awesome. But there’s also one of the things is their ability to get psychological help immediately. Mental health support immediately. And that’s been one of the biggest problems man. The VA is trying to do the best they can, but man, I tell you what, they’re so backlogged and depending on where you’re at, there is a wait anywhere from, I’ve heard, two weeks, and I’ve even heard as much as a month, when a guy reaches out and he calls to suicide heartland and says, “Hey, I really need help.”
Jason Redman: And we’ve got guys that are killing themselves waiting to be seen to get mental health.
Ray Care: This is a TST. For you guys who don’t understand, that’s a time sense of the target. That means there is time is critical, guys. Somebody calls in, and they’re there begging for help, and I couldn’t even imagine, your brain is not doing what you want. You’re not acting the way you want. You feel, I’ve heard that people feel like they’re actually coming out of their own body. I’ve heard some horrible things that… I mean, I got goosebumps right now and it’s like… and I love the VA. I’m a supporter of the VA, I love the VA, and I get it, they’re undermanned, understaffed, and they’ve just got too many people with problems.
Ray Care: We have got to figure something out, which I think it’s something you should talk about, and maybe we can talk about the brain banks, we can talk about a few other things that I know that are near and dear to you and me. We’ve got to make a change.
Jason Redman: Absolutely. In the headstrong project is a group started by veterans who-
Ray Care: Yeah, there we go.
Jason Redman: There are incredible psychiatrists and psychologists from all across the country, and they ran across, and I see this all the time. I meet doctors, I meet business people who go, “Hey man, how can I help?” But it’s too big of a problem sometimes in the moment to think about, man, I don’t know. How do I make this happen?
Ray Care: Yeah.
Jason Redman: So, basically they said, headstrong project basically said, how do we create a network where we get the psychologists and psychiatrists that want to help from all across the country, and we have a funnel, a system, that if a veteran reaches in and says, “Hey man, I need help.” As long as they’re within the area of where they’re building this, and they are trying to build it in every major city in the country, they’re slowly growing right now.
Ray Care: Amen. Amen.
Jason Redman: That if a veteran reaches out, they will be seen in less than 48 hours.
Ray Care: And that’s what we need
Jason Redman: From the time they put in a submission and say help. So I am a big, big advocate for the headstrong project. I am raising money for them, and I am trying to raise awareness. If you are a veteran, and you are struggling, I will tell you right now, I cannot guarantee, depending on where you are, I mean if you’re up in the middle of the Dakotas, or Alaska, I can’t guarantee that they have the full network-
Ray Care: The resources right now
Jason Redman: But they are filling it, and in almost all the major cities, they have people in their network so that they can connect them. So, go to getheadstrong.com, you can follow them on Instagram, Getheadstrong, or look up the Headstrong Project. Any of those will get you to them.
Ray Care: And if memory serves me correct, didn’t you go to a function a while back and got a donation, or am I wrong?
Jason Redman: No, you’re absolutely right. [crosstalk 00:22:54] Yeah, I know this a while back. Yeah. QTS Data Centers, big shout out to you guys. Thank you for your support of our veterans, and our military. They made a $10,000 donation to Headstrong Project, and it was just fantastic, and that’s what we need. The, they need funding to expand their network, and obviously they have a staff that is working behind the scenes, behind the phones, behind the computers, when a veteran types in, they have a staff that will immediately get that message so they can start the process so that veteran can be seen in 48 hours.
Jason Redman: So, that’s one front of the war that we have to fight. We have to get our guys and gals immediate help. So, if you are a veteran, or even your active duty, and you’ve seen a lot of combat and you’re struggling with post traumatic stress, hey man, it is okay, and you need to get help. Don’t try and hide behind this facade of, Oh, I’m bigger than that. I’m stronger than that. I know so many guys who have tried to do that and they spiral down to where they were out of control. A good friend of mine, Jimmy Hatch, if you want to read a good book about somebody that’s spiraled out of control before they finally needed help, Jimmy had to be committed, because he basically tried to do suicide by cop. He was a tier one operator, wrote an amazing book. We actually interviewed Jimmy on one of the very first shows.
Ray Care: Yeah, amazing story.
Jason Redman: Yeah, his book is Touching the Dragon.
Ray Care: Yeah.
Jason Redman: But hey, don’t be that guy. If you can be a tier one operator, you can be a navy seal, or special operations guy, and say, “Hey, guess what? I’ve got some demons that are clawing away at my brain” you can get help. So Headstrong Project is one of them. Please refer people to them.
Jason Redman: Second Front of the war is research. One of the problems with a seat blasts related CTE, which is exactly what our veterans are sustaining, what they’re finding. You can’t diagnose it while somebody is still alive. So just like I told Ron’s wife, I think Ron has CTE, just because of how he was spiraling. It wasn’t until after he passed away that they were able to autopsy, or after he took his life, that we were able to autopsy his brain.
Jason Redman: And the problem is there is not enough brains. There are brain banks, I think there’s about three in the country, and they don’t have enough veteran brains, and they definitely don’t have enough combat veteran brains. So, I am on a national push. I want, if you are a combat veteran, I want you, are you ready for this?
Ray Care: Yeah, they need to hear it. I know. I know what you’re gonna say.
Jason Redman: I want you to pledge your brain.
Ray Care: Yeah.
Jason Redman: And you know, and I know a lot of people are like, I’m not giving up my brain. Dude, you don’t need it when you’re dead.
Ray Care: Yeah, and that’s the first time I think on the history of any fucking podcast that someone says, I want you to pledge your brain, but you know what guys and all seriousness. It’s the only way we’re going to make a difference.
Jason Redman: Absolutely. And not only that guys, think about it, it’ll be your final act of giving back to fellow veterans, because if you go to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, that’s the group we’re working with, and they have a program called Project Enlist. So Concussion Legacy Foundation. It’s the same group that works with the NFL on concussions. They’re now focused on veterans. The program is called Project Enlist. And you can pledge your brain, and they’ll send you some paperwork. Listen, they’re not going to collect early. Nobody’s gonna show up at your door and be like, “Hey, captain Ray. Sorry Bro. Time’s up.” But what will just happen is if anything ever happens to you, you’ll have a card, it’ll be in the system, and they’ll know that, hey, Jason Redmond is a brain donor. I am. I pledged my brain, because I hope someday that this is my final act of giving back to fellow veterans.
Jason Redman: It’s scientists will be able to, and doctors will be able to take my brain, look at the trauma I sustain. I’ve been, I’ve been through multiple, multiple, multiple blasts. Obviously I took a bullet hole, a bullet to the face that created a massive traumatic brain injury on the right side of my head. They’ll be able to study that and they’ll be able to say, these are the markers. These are the way we can fix this because that’s what they’re looking for.
Ray Care: I can see, and again, I’m trying to keep this light. I can see, and again, I love you like a brother. You know you’ve done your time, you’ve, you’ve given to a greater good, and a bunch of scientists sit in a room, scratching their head going, “Holy Shit, what happened to this dude?
Jason Redman: Yeah. Exactly, or more like how did this guy even function.
Ray Care: Holy God, this guy looks like he’s got scar tissue, he’s been blown up. I mean, but you know what? You’re still a trucking and I get it. And you know what, I’m going to make the pledge to. I’m going to do it. I am too. I’m not talking shit. I am going to do it. Even without consulting with my wife.
Jason Redman: You know what we should do, we should get Chris Nowinski on the show. Chris Nowinski is the head of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, and we should have you pled your brain on the show.
Ray Care: I’ll pledge my brain.
Jason Redman: Let’s do it. We’ll do another episode, and I would love that, but we can’t identify blast related CTE and our veterans right now, and there are no biomarkers. Which is basically they can look at your blood and there’s something in your blood that says, “Hey, this guy has some sort. He has blast related trauma.”
Jason Redman: We can’t do it right now. There’s no way to do it. So because we can’t even identify it, we obviously can’t treat it. So these are the things. So that’s the two front war guys. Please do it in honor of my friend Ron Condrey. Ron took his life and I loved Ron. He was a brother to me. He was a great dude. And I know there’s a lot of veterans out there that are struggling. They’re trying to find their purpose and they can’t figure out what’s wrong with them. Just like Ryan Larkin, he was banging the drum saying there’s something wrong with me, and doctors overlooked it. They couldn’t see anything so they just thought it was him.
Ray Care: Yeah, and to add to that, guys, listen, if you’re a vet out there and you’re struggling, you need to understand you’re not alone.
Ray Care: There is nothing wrong… You did nothing wrong. We just need to help get you the treatment you need so we can get you back to kicking ass, and being the best version of you you can be. Don’t… like he said, don’t hide from it. You’ve got to attack it. You’ve got to attack the hill. We’re trying to save lives one at a time.
Jason Redman: Yup. Amen to that. So once again, guys, two front war, one front is immediate support. So Headstrong Project is doing that headstrongproject.com or you can look them up at getheadstrong on social media, but if you know of a veteran that’s struggling, look up that program and connect them to it. Encourage them to sign up, that you got amazing mental health professionals from across the country that will get to them within 48 hours. And then the research side, Concussion Legacy Foundation, look up a Project Enlist, and if you are a stud, or a studette, pledge your brain, and if you are a pussy, don’t.
Ray Care: End it strong. That was a strong, strong finish. I didn’t see that coming sir. Wow. But yeah, I agree with you. If you don’t, you’re a pussy. Good guy. That should be a campaign Slow-Go, donate your brain, if you don’t, your a pussy.
Jason Redman: Hey man, I’ll tell… I don’t know if Concussion Legacy Foundation will buy off on this and I like it.
Jason Redman: All right. All right guys, listen, I really appreciate it. I know this show was a little more veteran focused today, so for all of you out there, maybe you’re not a veteran, I just want to say thank you. This country wouldn’t be what it was without every single citizen that makes it into what it is. At least every patriotic citizen who believes in it.
Ray Care: Yeah. And I’m not ashamed to say whether you are a veteran or not, listen, our hearts go for veterans. We, we love the veterans. They made this country what it is. So if you’re a civilian and you don’t get it, realize that the freedoms you have are for the brave men and women who, who have sacrificed and given the ultimate sacrifice, who have, who are, and who will serve this great nation.
Jason Redman: Amen to that man. So all right guys. We’re gonna wrap this show up. We are The Overcome and Conquer Show. This is Jason ‘Overcome’ Redmond
Ray Care: And this is Ray ‘Cash’ Care
Jason Redman: and we are out.
Ray Care: Boom.
Speaker 1: 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: hey, this is Ray ‘Cash’ Care. Thanks for listening to The Overcome and Conquer Show. If you love the show, we want you to do us a huge favor. Go to iTunes, subscribe, leave a five star message, leave a comment, and share with your friends. Boom
