SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome to the Faithful Warrior Podcast, where courage meets conviction. Each episode shines a light in the powerful testimonies of veterans, first responders, and godly men of faith who have walked through the fire and found strength in Christ. These are the real stories of warriors on the battlefield and life who share journeys of struggle, redemption, purpose, unwathering faith. Join us as we dive deep into the heart of what it means to be faithful in the fight and anchored in hope. And man, I want to I want to welcome Bet on the Mike today. He's a retired U.S. Air Force veteran who spent 23 years and completed 21 deployments. But today's conversation isn't just about Bet on the Mike's military career. It's about the man behind those years of service. What life looked like when the uniform came off. Find a purpose in a new chapter. And how humor, faith, and real conversations have come part of his mission today. So, man, welcome on the show, brother. Good to have you.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

I appreciate it, Dwayne. Thanks for having me, man. I'm excited to be here. Um I like what you're doing, and I've always loved uh what you do, man. Uh since early on. You know, you and I go back almost a year now, if not, if not a year. Time flies.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Yeah, it does, man. It does. And uh for our listeners out there, man, we met on social media on uh TikTok and uh and just uh met the platforms and you can use them for good. I know they're bad out there, but you can sure use them for good, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

So that's a great message, man. I mean, really anything you can do with that, right? Yeah, good or bad, it's your choice. The choice is in your hands. That's why God gave us free will.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

Ooh, come on. Yes. So, man, let's uh let's just dive right into it, man. I'm gonna get you some good questions. And uh man, as I opened up and said, You spent 23 years in the Air Force, man. So take us, take us back to the beginning. Back when you raised your hand, man, and decided military was a direction of life for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

That that's uh that's been eons ago, it seems like, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Uh to be honest with you, it started it started with my dad. He's a Vietnam vet. Excuse me for just one second. Go right ahead. I don't know about anybody else that talks on the mic, but as soon as I get on here, man, the voice is like, all right, we're done. But no, my dad was in in the U.S. Army in a time where service was not appreciated. Uh he was drafted uh into a company clerk, Vietnam kicked off, uh, or was kicking off, and he got moved to be a gunner on on a Medevac unit. So fast forward 20-something years. We we went through a house fire in '86, moved down to Florida. I joined, uh went to Middleburg High School there with an ROTC unit, which was Navy, Jacksonville, NAS Naval Air Station, Jacksonville. Uh through that experience, I knew that I wasn't gonna have my last name taped on my rear right cheek. Um, you know, and my dad and I talked quite often, you know, on about what service makes the most sense. I mean, I love being on the water uh driving boats. Yeah. But I loved aviation more. And matter of fact, it was him that got me enveloped into aviation. And it started real young. I mean, I I grew up, you know, around Superman, Batman, Spider-Man. And uh I would always have my basically my head in the clouds and playing with airplanes and stuff. And my dad had a college buddy that he uh was a mortician or uh what do you call those guys, an undertaker? Um yeah, yeah, I think it was something like that. Yeah, he had an airplane that he would go around and pick up cadavers and bring them back to their hometown and process them and bury them, you know. Yeah, man. Um so his name was Roy Crosby, and he took me up and we flew around my town, saw my home, you know, and I was like, this is what I want to do. I want I want to be a pilot. Well, my parents didn't have the money after the house burned down to go into any kind of flight school. The next best thing was what branch of the military had the most aviation, you know, component of that branch? And of course, it was the Air Force, but I had an infatuation with Rotor Wing, uh the AH-64D Longbow Apache.

unknown 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

And my dad was like, you're not joining the Army. You're gonna be in the field with the Joes, you know. If you really, you know, he's a trust me, I've been on Air Force bases. If you want to live a posh lifestyle and have good skills when you separate, join the Air Force. So I joined the Air Force and I became uh I was introduced to at MEPS, the military entrance processing station, right? Um, a career field called Aerospace Ground Equipment. It's a very articulate title for something we shortened to age, AGE. And basically all that translates to is ground support equipment for aircraft while they're on the ground. Our condition, the the equipment that we maintained, delivered, inspected, etc., was support equipment so that the crew chiefs and the maintainers on the aircraft could put that aircraft into a flight condition while it's on the ground and troubleshoot any of the things the operators uh found. So obviously, basic trainings in San Antonio. Uh after that, uh, my first duty station was Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Spent uh I was out there from '97 to '99, right before that F-5 came through May of '99. Um and I went to Korea. I I really didn't like the plains area of America. Uh I was young. There really wasn't not a lot for us. They didn't have they had Bricktown, but they didn't have the river walk that they have today, right? Um, so I was talking to my supervisor, who I still am in contact with today, Russell sentenced. Shout out Bart. Um, you know, and said, Hey, how do I how do I get out of here? He's like, Well, the fastest way off this rock is to go to the rock. I'm like, what? And he's like, the Republic of Korea, South Korea. And I was like, okay. He's like, you single, right? I was like, as far as I know, I am, yeah. So he's like, that'll that'll do you good. You can go over there and hang out for a year and learn what mop 4 is. Um mission posture, mission, I forget what mop stands for. Something. It was the chem suit, right? You know, in in the military during during that era was post-Gulf War um and Gulf War, uh, Desert Fox, Desert Shield, and then after that, Global War on Terrorism. But anyways, during the Gulf War, they used chemicals on us, and we had to wear mop gear. And I'm telling you, we we got enough practice to become experts at that in Korea. After that, uh when you take a short tour in the Air Force, you get a ch you get a preferred choice on your next duty station, and it's called a dream sheet. On there, you put what assignments you want. Right. Of course, I was still a homegrown kid. I wanted to be close to family, but not close to family. So I chose where everybody in the Air Force wanted to be, and that was Eglin Air Force Base for Walton Beach, Florida. That's the panhandle, right in between Tallahassee and Panama City, or Pensacola, which was at that time home of the Blue Angels. So I got that assignment and loved it. Loved, loved the shop, um, loved the area. Summertime was horrific because of all the snow, not snowbirds, the tourists that would come down, right? Um the redneck Riviera is what we called it. Because everybody out of the southern states would come down to that part and party it up. So uh that's where I met my wife, met her at Fud Pucker's in Destin. Oh, yeah. It was uh a bar, and there was a cover singer there that um sounded like pink, and that's what brought my wife there. And when she walked in the door, we locked eyes, and about eight months later we were married.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Twenty-three years later, we're still married.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

So yeah. Um, right place, right time, right? You know, man. That's awesome. So we we did that life for about five years there, had a kid. Um, I have a bonus kid, you know, and had him since he was five, so he's mine, regardless of what anybody thinks. He's mine. That's right. Um and I asked the wife, I said, what do you want to do? She's like, want to get out of here, because we were still dealing with the X O man, you know. Um, and so I said, Okay, well, let me see what assignments are available on this rotation. And come to find out, Okinawa, Japan, mainland Japan uh was open. Um so we put in for Okinawa, Japan. Little did I know what I was about to endure. We got the assignment. We were uh extended long, so there's two different categories of an accompanied tour. There's uh long and then extended long. Long is three years, extended long is four, so additional year. Went over there and for my job, my career field in on that island, it was a very corrosive environment. Leadership wasn't bad, the morale was okay, um, but the equipment was just garbage. Horrific. Um so it was 12 hours a day, pretty much six days a week. We had a thing called minimum equipment listing. So, for instance, if you had four of an asset and you got below 50%, meaning two were down, you'd go on 12s. You'd work 12-hour shifts until those are back up. And it didn't matter if you were awaiting a part to be delivered, you're still running 12s because these two here were mission critical, they had to stay up. And you kept them up by cannibalizing parts from other uh equipment. So that was long story long, that was probably the toughest assignment that I had in my 23 years, deployed out of there several times. Um, when I was at Tinker with AWACS, deployed out of there for several um several times. Nearly about once a year, I was deployed. And um, you know, the whole time I was in, I'll I'll get to the next duty assignment after that, but the whole time I was in, we were at war, right? So after Okinawa, Japan, we you know, my wife's like, I could stay here four more years. I said, I can't, I'll I'm gonna die. I contracted Epstein Bar virus there. The environment stressed me out so bad that I was on six-hour workdays for about four months.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

And then they changed my my uh shop that I was working in from the flight line to the ammo uh storage area, the what we call MUNS munitions storage area. Or aka ammo dump. If you ain't ammo, and there'll be guys and gals on here hollering. So um yeah, I worked out there, the distress went down, Epstein Barr virus kind of recited and was treated for that. Um, and then the assignment, the return listing came out. Here's the thing when you're overseas, you get a better chance of staying overseas with what they call a consecutive overseas tour. Okay, it's cheaper to trout to piece it permanent change of station to change your assignments uh while you're overseas. So we put in for Germany and was blessed, and we got Germany.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Now, there was one individual, I won't call his name because I don't even know if he's still breathing, but um was a very toxic leader at Okinawa that went over to Germany and I followed him. Caused a little bit of rife in the life, if you know what I mean. Yep, yep. Uh, but worked through that and he retired and and uh life got better, and our leadership from from uh USAB came down and wiped out the leadership up from the group commander all the way to the wing commander during that time frame. And Spangdalam went from gloomy to boomy. Uh it was it was an amazing assignment. We spent almost eight years there. Um, I did a consecutive or a Epcot in-place consecutive overseas tour, and we traveled all over Europe.

unknown 14:03

Loved it.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Uh then the time came where that in-place consecutive overseas tour of seven, almost eight years, because my oldest son was a graduate from high school at Bidberg High School, it was time to go PCS from there. We were gonna try to PCS back to Okinawa, and we had it, and then um my wife was on an EFMP, which is uh it's a medical program for special needs. Um and she wasn't clear, they weren't gonna take new new patients. So we needed an assignment where they could give her the health care that she needed.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

And that happened to be Davis Moth in Tucson, Arizona. Davis Moth in Air Force Base, the home of the A-Tens, the mighty war dog.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

So those things, you you know those, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Oh, I love them. Yeah, that's probably when it comes to our special operators, our 11 bravos, our grunts, no, no pun intended, fellas, ladies and gentlemen. Um that was the weapon system that could hit the gnat's ass from a thousand yards away, you know, with with uh 30 mic mic, about the size of a Coca-Cola bottle. And very, very capable with weapon system. Absolutely. And I got the opportunity to be a superintendent over the phase and equipment maintenance squadrons maintaining those and the uh C 130H model, the compass calls.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

There were 90 A10s at the time I was there and deployed with those guys as well. Now, when you deploy with the A10s, you're you're right there just outside the wire. Yeah. And that was uh fun seeing them take off and instantly engaging.

unknown 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Yeah, that was awesome, man. Awesome. So, man, let me jump into this. So, talking about, man, all these deployments and and living overseas for so many years, when you think about everything that you experienced during those years, how did that shape the life how did it shape your life personally, not just as an airman?

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Well, not only Europe, but Africa and and you know, East Asia, um, Afghanistan, Iraq, UAE. You're you're open and exposed to different cultures, thought processes, um experience of that, you know. We and this is gonna sound like I'm anti-American, but I'm not. I'm just I'm sharing my experience living overseas. We are self-centered, egotistical, arrogant nation. I've partied with Germans, I've partied with Russians, I've partied with Africans, I've partied with English, I've partied with Scottish. Um lived around all of that. Arabics, UAE, Middle Easterners. We're all human. Um it it opened the eyes of this country boy who grew up around ignorance. Yeah. You know, and and it gave me a new newfound respect for the way people think and act and interact with those around them outside of what we're used to. Yeah. You know, we we were welcomed as Americans in Germany. We were welcomed as Americans in Okinawa. We were there were times where living on Okinawa was rough because of some incidents with a helicopter crashing into an elementary school, you know, some uh pontification of of sexual assault uh on from a different military branch, you know. There there's dirt bags in every branch of the military. So I to to full circle that it gave me a it gave me a ni a respect of things that I had no idea about.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

I can see that. Man, I tell you, I've I've got the chance to to travel to some third world world countries, man, and uh it's totally different. Uh and you don't come back thinking the same thing. If you you got common sense, man, you just don't come back thinking the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

That's exactly right. You know, whenever the the meat market is out on the street corner and the flies are getting shooed off with mint leaves from a from the mint branch or olive leaves from the olive branch, you know, that's that's a different standard of living.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

Absolutely it is. Absolutely. People just don't realize, man. Don't realize. All right, we're gonna jump in now to uh man, after 23 years, you eventually had to take this uniform off. And we thank you for your service, man. Appreciate that. What was that day like for you and what happened when the structure and the mission you'd known for so long were suddenly gone?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

It was an upheaval. You know, what do I do? I mean I I say that jokingly, but there's some sincerity behind it as well. The the unknown is the unknown, you know. When you transition from something that you've done since you were 18 years old until you're 30, 32 years old. I think maybe I was 38. No, no, eighteen, twenty-three years. Yeah, I wouldn't do the math. But that's what I knew. And it was structure. If you had a dental appointment, it was given to you. You know, all of your needs, your basic necessities were met. Uh, you just had to perform the mission. And that day came and I was preparing for it almost a year in advance. Because I had some great mentors in my life say, vet, whatever you do, make sure that you start looking, you start networking, um, building your resume, going to TAPS class, but boss, I I'm a year away. He said, I don't care. Go. Because it's going to change. As close, the closer you get to your data separation, your DOS, it's going to change. It's ever evolving because of the feedback from the predecessors that come in and say, hey, this didn't help me, or this helped me, you know, and made the program better. You know, right before I, or right after I separated and took off the uniform, they had this program called Skillbridge, where you take six months of your active duty service and you go, in essence, you're you're paid by the government to work in a civilian setting in a job that you may fancy, right? I didn't have that opportunity. I um, in true transparency, I had Two companies that are well known recruit me through LinkedIn. I had uh, you know, through that mentorship of my predecessors who retired before me, was highly encouraging me to set up my LinkedIn to make it match my resume, you know. And this was the time where service was greatly appreciated because it wasn't too long before that, it was 9-11. Right. That was the most united that America has ever been since the time when uh Pearl Harbor was bumped. When you really look back at the broader scope, that 20,000-foot view, America was united. And so, with that, there was a lot of companies that was looking for that military leadership, and also I think there's a tax incentive there as well, right? But um, the two companies were Walt Disney World and Walmart as uh as a maintenance manager, and I ended up in Walmart. I started as an operations manager. I I had applied for uh the midnight shift, like as a mid shift on the weekend, so Friday night to Monday morning, and went through the interview process and through all that, I was offered the next position up, which was coming vacant, which I'd have to turn around and fill back that role that I was trying to get in because I I only wanted to work three days a week, man. I've already worked 23 years. I wanted something easy. Yeah, you know, and uh they taught me, they gave me the biscuit and the gravy uh and talked me off talk me out of that role. Of course, my wife was like, I don't really want you working nights because that means I gotta change my sleep schedule, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Right, right. Yeah. Oh man, that's that's good stuff right there. So let me ask you this, just to follow up to that. During that process, because I mean you you you said it was structured, it was everything, you know, you just giving it to you. Did you ever find a point where you said, Who am I now?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

After after the wife pulled the gun from my hand. You know, uh, going back when I first separated, I I'll tell you that the worst thing I think I could have ever done was jump straight out of the uniform into the civilian attire and start working. Yeah. There needs to be a transition period to where you can almost decompress and understand that that way of life that you had is a chapter that that door is closed. I've got a I've got a probably a four-minute video deep in the archives of Bet on the Mic content on TikTok that explains how it all occurred. You know, I um with my disabilities, it prevent I it prevented me from doing what I dreamed of. I've I got my pilot's license when I was at Davis Mothin from through a buddy of mine who owned an airplane. So I'm jumping all around here, but it correlates. When they took away my medical certificate to fly, that crushed me because I didn't have an outlet. I didn't I didn't have an outlet. And um I picked up a hobby, fly fishing. And that the the darkness came on me pretty heavy after they took the certificate and all of it, you know, the the the transition from the service to losing the medical certificate to fly, I I didn't have an outlet anymore, and I didn't feel like being around you know, and I sought help after that incident, and the psychiatrist was like, There's this thing called healing waters, Operation Healing Waters. I said, What is that? She's like, It's fly fishing and I was like, I've never really had an inkling to do that. She said, You should give it a try. Um and I did. I met with um the local chapter here in Charlotte and we went out. And Duane, let me tell you, you know, it takes a lot of concentration to fly an airplane, but it takes more concentration to catch a trout with a fly than any other type of fishing. There is. You're you're in tranquility. You've got the babbling brook running beneath your I say beneath your feet, but underneath you, right? Right. And you're focused on presentate on the presentation of this aquatic insect in front of a fish that has more brains than really any, I would say, fish out there, to be honest with you. Because if it's if that aquatic insect is doing something that is not natural, it gets away from it. It does it, it doesn't, but you're so focused on presenting that in a natural state, you forget about everything else. That's that's what saved me um in that aspect. Now give me the question again because I'm leading up to that question.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

Uh it's here. Um It said, uh, what was the day like for you when uh the structure of the mission had gone so long was suddenly done? Yeah. Um and then it was uh sorry, I I kind of lost my spot too. Did you ever question yourself, who am I now?

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah. I mean, still today, I question myself. Yeah, you know, because it is I I'm doing I'm doing something that is not my dream job. My dream job was to fly airplanes. Um that didn't work out. But I gotta survive, I gotta take care of my family. The Bible says I gotta be the provider, right? Uh and I morphed into vet on the mic because I was tired of being depressed, I was tired of having anxiety PTSD from losing an airman. So I created this character to put on a mask. Um I grew from I don't know, a hundred and hundred and some odd when I first started. I I started on the mic Father's Day of last year.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

Yeah, 2025.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Yeah, whenever it was dad supporting dads. That was a great movement. Great movement. And now I'm up twelve thousand followers. And it's you know that's not to me, that's not c clout, it's not what I sought. My my mission stays the same, it's to help those that suffer from the same things that I do. Um but I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. You know.

SPEAKER_03 29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Um, as you know, I'm in between jobs and had an interview called today, which is going to lead to an on-site interview, which God's great. Give him the glory there, you know, and this may be something I want to do, and it may be something I don't want to do. Um I'm not in a bad position in life to say I'm gonna retire. It's boring as crap, though, I'll tell you that. I mean, there's more fishing time, but we got to get out of the summer because trout don't like the heat, you know.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So, man, that that shot us right into the next question was you know, we were going to talk about how vet on the mic got started, and you just answered that. So, um, and man, I'm telling you, if you don't check his content out, you gotta follow him. Because your content can be super hilarious. I mean, it it's good. I've sent you some videos and you've used some and some you hadn't, and it and it's awesome, man. But underneath the humor, there's usually something that's real. And do you think laughter gives veterans and men permission to talk about things they might otherwise keep buried?

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Absolutely. Absolutely. If if laughter to me is food for the soul. I mean, outside of spiritual reading, right? Feeding the right feeding your spiritual the the flesh you it takes, I think, less muscles to smile than it does to frown. Right? So there's less energy there, but the the there's a chemical release when you laugh, endorphins. And I've I've never been, I really have never been a funny guy. It it um I'm I've been a very serious, pointed, poignant prick in in around folks. Um and I think that a lot of that had to do with the job, the leaders that I was around. I mean, I wasn't the biggest jerk, but whenever it came to getting things done, I was dead serious about it, you know. And that's the side of me that I don't like, and to hide that side, I use comedy.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

You know, and um me and my wife, we have a great time, you know. She likes being silly. And after I retired from the Air Force, it allowed me to be silly. I was scared to be silly because I assumed that I would lose my credibility.

SPEAKER_04 32:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

But being funny has actually gained me credibility.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Ooh, come on. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah. So to answer that question, you know, I I think what it does is it relaxes the environment so that you can talk about things that may be uncomfortable, but if you put it into a comedic, into a comedic sense, it it relaxes the room, it removes the pressure. I mean, for instance, you know, it was taught one of my posts, I don't know if you've seen it yet, was um I was asking the question, do you know why men walk bow-legged? And there's a male chimp that's walking apparently in the zoo, but he had a pair of cojones about the size of uh tennis balls, and he was walking all bow-legged. And I said, Guarantee it's not because their feet hurt. And one guy said, and I one guy said, a night of banging, that's what he looks like when he gets out of the shower. And I'm like, good lord, that's TMI, man. I you know, and he's sharing. He's he's sharing, and he felt comfortable apparently in front of almost 12,000 people too or millions, whoever's, you know, that one's up. I think we're about 120,000 on that one.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Nice. Nice. Well, putting out this content, man, you know, in humor, because you know in the career that you were in and in the field that I was in, dark humor is there. It it is. And uh when you get out, you know, sometimes you carry that and and the humor goes. But it's a it's an outlet. It's an outlet sometimes for them. And the question is, is has ever has anyone ever contacted you after seeing your videos or that that made you realize that this is more than just entertainment. They're one that just stands out to you.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

There's several, brother. Several. I get DMs every day. But one thing that I want to share, and those that are watch, it the live it was a live stream, and he was he was a retired E9 that did an in lieu of what we call in lieu of assignment overseas deployment, where he was outside the wire on patrol, he was security forces a cop. And they got hit by an ID and he lost some of his airmen. Well, he was inebriated that night on the live and he just wanted to be heard, and we didn't know it at the time. He was making comments that were concerning, you know, in the chat below below the panel. And he had made a comment about self-harm, and I stopped the live immediately and brought him up into a box. And he was I mean belligerent, but not in the not in the sense of uh aggression y yet. And he was inebriated to the point. He he was talking about, you know, seeing their faces and it was his fault. Survivor guilt scenario. And that live that night, I think we had two or three hundred in that live, and we started at twelve. It got to the point where he brandished his weapon and TikTok turned the video off and kicked him from the live. And prior to that, we had uh some folks come in and was really trying to military manhandle him. Well, the thing about an E9 in the Air Force that's a chief in the Air Force. It's a senior uh what is it in the Navy? Uh senior Master Chief? Master Chief? Master Chief, maybe? Yeah, Master Chief. The equivalent E9. And you can't talk to them guys like that. You gotta you kind of gotta grease the gravy, if you know what I mean. And I shut them two down. I was like, hey, you guys can't nope, gotta go. And there was a specialist that was in the live that was watching. She was a mental health specialist, and she was limited by HIPAA, what she could do and interact and whatnot. But long story short, we talked him off the live. We had somebody within 15 minutes of his home all during this episode, and they visited with him all next day, took him out to lunch, got him help that he needed, and he's still with us today. Praise the Lord. And that's happened a few times. You know, one thing that the the community will always hear me say whenever I'm alive is I let live go where God allows it to go, as long as it's legal, ethical, and moral. Right. If it's outside of that, kick rocks and flip-flops. But there's been several instances to where my content, my live, my interaction, my words have brought people off the ledge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

That's amazing, man. There's so many out there, so many out there that are struggling and fighting the darkness every single day. And uh, man, just like that, alive. You're just hosting a live and somebody sees it, comes in and just just wants help. And I tell you, the the the word that I hear the most, because I've had that experience too, is I'm just tired. I'm just tired, man. And uh there's so many people out there that care about them, that want to help, and there's help out there. There's help out there. And uh, man, I just want the listeners, man, if that's you today, just reach out, reach out to either one of us. Um, you know, we we we are here and uh we we battle through that darkness and and come out on the other side. So there is hope.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Absolutely, and the resources are are endless. Like the connectivity that we have as veterans. I might not know what resource you need, but I guarantee I know somebody who knows somebody who knows.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

That's right. That's right. Definitely. So, man, uh, I noticed that you described this chapter of your life by saying the mission has changed, but it hasn't ended. So, what does this mean to you today as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a veteran, and the man behind Fed on the mic?

SPEAKER_01 39:49

To be truly transparent, Dwayne, God is still building this community. I don't know exactly other than what we've talked about, is just to be that voice. So going back to that night, I asked him, I said, Why my life? Why? He's like, It was your voice. Your voice brought me in. It was cool, collective, it was decompressing, and you got my attention. Well, I said I begged a different, sir, you got mine. You know, so the mission has changed. What is the mission? The mission to me is providing that comic relief of when you, even if you had a bad day at work, you know, somebody's been a jerk, and and maybe there's something that that I've put out there that you know just makes you stop and go, man, I can't with you right now. Like, for instance, the the one video of notoriety that I'll share is the Beaver Dam video. And I think you and I talked about that on a DM because I you know, I asked you, and I'll I'll be quite transparent, and I say it jokingly, but there's some sincerity behind it, is it's difficult to be a comic and a Christian. Yes, it's not impossible, it's difficult. And there's risky moments to where I have to say, God, I'm sorry. But people remind me, God's got a sense of humor too. Yes. You know, and my mom, she's on me, she's like, You just need to ask yourself, what would Jesus do? And I say, Mom, I do every time I hit that post button, and I I say, God, I hope this is exactly okay with you. If not, I'll repent Sunday whenever I'm in church. But you know, it's the you know, the the beaver dam went pseudoviral. It was one I I mean honestly, I think we're around two million. TikTok star stopped counting after seven days. We were inside of 1.3 in seven days.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

I mean, it was it was nearly a like every two and a half seconds on that video. Wow. Um and the funny thing is, is it was a simple dad joke. You know, you you you got these women that's on a raft in northwest Arkansas on a river, which is apparently a popular place, and they got it's nothing but women in this raft, and they got stuck on a rock. And I was like, Yeah, yeah. You know, and uh I'd point that way and cut to the women stuck on the rock, and man, it just it just took off from there.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

Yeah, you know, man, it did. So that would yeah, that's that's some humor right there for sure. But it's just crazy how uh the platforms, you know, when you can reach different people, because those algorithms just get absolutely crazy sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Right. And it it it's like it's it's transmissional gates. You know, this is okay, I'm gonna release this to 300. If 300 of them share it, okay, then I'm gonna open it up to 600 that and a thousand, and then it just you know, the floodgates were left open, and I have not been able to hit that same formula. I'm getting close.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

It's kind of hard to rhyme to reason. I've tried to figure it out, but I just post and do whatever. So I I used to try to do a time schedule and everything. I just nah.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

It just Yeah. I mean, it's God's will anyways, right? He's right, you know, if it's meant to be, it will be. And if it's not, then you know, keep keep moving forward, keep showing up. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

That's right. So, man, uh tell us about how uh our listeners can get a hold of you, how they can uh find you on your social media platform. And and do you have got any events or anything coming up or lives or something like that? How do you how do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 44:06

Yeah, so uh DMs are open in TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. Uh I don't do Snap, but it's Vent on the Mic. All of my platforms are Vent on the Mic. Uh, true transparency. I need to figure out how to link all of them whenever I post on TikTok. It posts to all of the all of the the uh socials so that that's easy for me because I'm lazy and I hate going platform to platform to upload the same videos. I mean, I'm even on YouTube. Um, you know, something that's coming up. I've got um the Military Influencer Conference in Tampa, Florida. September 23rd through the 26th, I'll be down there with a good friend of mine that uh well over a million people know, and that's Josh White, Hero Front Podcast. He actually served with me and was uh someone who I led at Okinawa, Japan, and later uh met him, met back up with him at Eglin prior to his retirement from the Air Force. So shout out Josh White. You are definitely an influence for me uh doing what we're doing right now, and I've really considered doing a podcast. Um the the the opportunity for me would be having an insurmountable amount of guests to come on and to to discuss, you know, something that's worth listening to.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

Right. Yeah. Well, man, y'all y'all check him out because uh don't you do Friday nights lives?

SPEAKER_01 45:36

I do, thank you for I can't even promote myself. Um I do Friday night live, 7 p.m. Uh, if all is well in the house, would you know, uh and I'll hold it. If not, I typically will put out a message, but um, I want to do more. Yeah. But work life balance.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

Most definitely. Most definitely. So as we wind down, man, uh man, it's been a great show. Uh I always ask all of our guests, uh, what is your favorite verse?

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Well, I that was one I wasn't prepared for.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

I put you on the spot.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

You know, I don't remember the verse verbatim, but I will never leave you nor forsake you. Yes. You know, regardless of what stage of life you're in, you know, I talk about stay undefeated, stay blessed. And on typically every post that I end with. On the 26th of June, I recommitted my life to Christ through baptism and became a member of my church. And since then, God has blessed me abundantly with continuing to provide the message of Christ that He is my Lord and Savior. And anybody that's willing to commit to Him and give everything to Him, you know, you you have to give everything. Yeah. So in the darkest of times and in the best of times, He will never leave you, nor will He forsake you. You will have seasons of silence, you will have seasons of darkness, but that isn't Him giving up on you, that's Him strengthening you. I say it a lot, you know, people ask, well, He He took my daughter, he took my son, or he took my mom I can't reason to a point that as humans we would understand the why. What I can tell you is to continue that faith to know that He is strengthening your armor, closing the chinks in it, so that when you have somebody that goes through loss you can relate. You can comfort them. You can pray with them. You can rest assured them that you will see that loved one again. I mean, when you look at the book of Job and what all he went through, God let the devil have at Job. And God never left him, nor did he forsake.

SPEAKER_03 48:37

No.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

No.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

Wow. That's pretty powerful, dude. Wow, I wouldn't expect a net from just a verse. So, yeah, thank you. So I got one last question for you, and then I'll let you say whatever you want to say before we close out. But this one is, and and I like to do this just because it's peer-on-peer, man. People just been there. For someone lit that may be listening right now that's struggling. Who's struggling to their worthiness and to even be here today who is struggling with that transition. What can you say to them to give them some hope right now?

SPEAKER_01 49:16

You're not alone. Yeah. You're not alone. Many, many, many thousands have come before you, have experienced the same thing. There's an unsurmountable amount of resources at your disposal. You know, we talk about the gift of God, but there's also the gift of you. And God'll meet you. You just have to give your half. Not taken away from your service. That's not your half I'm talking about. You committed to a selfless life the time you served your nation. Keep moving forward. Stay undefeated.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Yeah, that's a good one. Stay undefeated. You may be in hostile territory, but stay undefeated.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

You've you've survived your worst day, and it's got you here. That's right. Keep showing up.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Amen. Amen. So, man, uh, as we close here, just remember this. Being a faithful warrior is not about being the strongest person in the room. It's not about having it all together. It's about remaining faithful to Jesus no matter what battle you face. If you're walking through a difficult season today, don't quit. Keep trusting, keep praying, keep moving forward. God is not finished with your story. So until next time, stay faithful and keep your eyes on Christ. And remember, the battle is real, but so is the God who walks with us through it. We'll see you on the next episode.