Retired Green Beret takes on a new mission: mine clearing in Ukraine

I remember even when I was a Green Beret, I remember I would have a very hard time looking in the mirror because all I would see is failure

And now for, you know, the first time in my life, I can look in the mirror and I'm happy at what's looking back at me

I'm proud, you know, of the man that's staring back at me in the mirror

And I just want to share that with as many veterans as I can, because I know I'm not the only veteran that looks in the mirror and you just see pain and chaos

And I want veterans to look in the mirror and see peace

I retired out of 7th Special Forces Group where I was a Green Beret

I was an 18 Charlie. After 22 years in the military, 22 and some change in the military, started contracting

And I went back to Afghanistan for nine months in 2020. and about, yeah, nine to 10 months in 2021, leaving Afghanistan right before the full withdrawal

I left Afghanistan in July 2021. And that was it. And so I was, you know, the way we left

Afghanistan and how that was conducted, I was hurt. I was upset. I was confused, lost. But the biggest

thing that really hit me the hardest was I had no identity anymore because my entire military career

had been wrapped up in Afghanistan or Iraq. I stepped on an IED that nearly took my life in

2010. Thankfully, grace to God, I was able to go back to Afghanistan seven more times

I left Afghanistan in July of 2021, and I was mentally not in a good place

February 2022 I was watching the full invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation And I just felt this nagging feeling that I wonder if there something I can do to help

And I didn't really know what that something would be. I didn't know if it was going over there to fight or just what

But I just had that just that nag in my gut. So I headed over to Ukraine in March 2022

Not really sure what mission I was going to be doing. And I actually ended up volunteering with a missionary organization called YWAM or Youth with a Mission

and um i was volunteering with them and we were actually driving into areas um with vans buses

and stuff like that that the russians uh were threatening or at times even moving into and we

were evacuating women children and the elderly it completely rewired my brain after afghanistan

And now I had my purpose and I had an identity back. And and so our job kind of pivoted a little bit because as people started coming home, they started hitting landmines and and explosive remnants of war and stuff like that

booby traps and explosive booby traps and anything like that that were left over from the battlefield

And so something that, you know, I was familiar with from Afghanistan was finding and reducing

improvised explosive devices or IEDs and occasionally landmines. So I started working

with Ukrainian units territory defense units and you know basically doing what I did as a green beret train advise assist force multiply equip And I would come back to the States raise money get um get detectors get um safety

equipment and stuff like that. Things that you would need on a minefield

Then I would go back over, I would work with a unit, you know, rapport, empathy, compassion

building, you know, building relations with a unit that I would donate all the equipment over

to them and move on to the next unit and rinse and repeat. And that just became the cycle. I

decided to start up our nonprofit 501c3 so people could get tax deductions if they were donating to

us. And we just kept, we just kept moving and I just kept going back and forth to Ukraine

And then all of a sudden, I had an opportunity to kind of sit back and reflect

I need to share this with veterans. This is the answer for post-traumatic stress or the mental health issues that a lot of veterans go through

Because a lot of veterans' mental health revolves around lack of purpose, service, and identity post-uniform

So I'd bring over more veterans that helped me out. And it just started snowballing to this now mission that I'm going to do for the rest of my life

And it's not just in Ukraine. It's everywhere. There's people that are suffering all over the globe. We're expanding. Now we have tip of the spear Veterans Humanitarian Corps. And tip of the spear Veterans Humanitarian Corps is basically the full array of area revitalization from landmine removal all the way up through reconstruction, agriculture, teaching, medical, whatever it is

but there's so many skills that veterans bring with them from active duty

And, and, and, and if they had a platform where they could utilize these skills but for saving lives and rebuilding So you go from killing to healing Through this experience it has gotten me closer with God

I've been wanting to seek and I've renewed my relationship with Christ and everything like that

because I've seen the hand of God in arguably some of the worst events or situations in Ukraine

that I've ever seen before. The other thing that this mission has given me the courage to do was to finally get treatment for myself

And so I went through psychedelic therapy. I went through Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment

It completely changed my life. but it gave me a new perspective on how I can help veterans

And so with Tip the Spear Veterans Humanitarian Corps, I want to start off with the mental health aspect of it

Let's get you healthy mentally. With mental health, this comes physical. And then with physical, maybe spiritual

There's a lot of veterans that are hurting. They're really, really hurting. and I just want to have an opportunity or a platform for them to come and and get that peace

that that I've received and it's through helping other people and I mean if I could spread that

with every single veteran out there that has that line in the sand like I did where it's if things

get any worse than this I'm just you know I'm just gonna check out I'm gonna self-select and I I

I want to show veterans that let me take you on a mission

Let me, let me show you the healing power of helping other people that have lost everything

And it's going to change your life. And that's my mission