EOD Ball 2024 Keynote - U.S. Marine Corps EOD Staff Sergeant (Ret.) Joey Jones

combat wounded staff sergeant retire Johnny Joey Jones turned a traumatic lifechanging disability into a personal mission to improve the lives of all veterans and share the life-changing perspective and gratitude he has found in his recovery Jones is a fellow EOD Tech as we all know a contributor across all Fox news media platforms a New York Times best-selling author a novice woodworker an avid Hunter and dedicated college football and Atlanta Braves fan his message focuses on overcoming adversity finding a positive perspective in dire situations leaning on those around you and finding strength in yourself and your community please welcome Joey Jones good evening I don't normally write notes when I talk and for those of you that don't know I talk for a living so it comes pretty natural to me um normally when I'm giv a presentation I've got shorts on and early on I say something along the lines of I used to be a Conta and I wasn't very good at it and then I point to my legs and hopefully I'm a hell of a lot better at talking than I was that so we won't have too many hazards here tonight but you know I did write a few things down that I'll pull from because there's some things I want to say that mean something to me um that I don't say in just any crowd and so I wrote some notes down and I you know I wanted to get a good opinion so I sent them to a couple of uh Marine EOD teexs that are retired good friends of mine couple EOD teexs and the resp responses back the first one said not bad but that's not the way I'd do it and then the second one came in and that one was really good it said I piss on it and call the Navy so I don't think that works anymore though I things are uh things are changing um when I first got the call and I was asked to come down here it was through a friend Ken faul he asked me first um I met Ken when I was recovering and he was a very enterprising person and he's the kind of guy that when he meets you he asks you questions you know just almost intrusively but it's because he wants to know really who you are what your goals are that kind of that kind of thing so Ken and I become friends and he text me said hey I think they want you to speak at the uh EOD ball would you do that and my first answer was yes of course and then I kind of thought oh oh no what have I done you know who am I to speak at the EOD EOD Memorial ball and so when he finally connected me with Nicole I I have to admit I took a while to respond and it was because I was waiting on them to come to their senses and say hey actually we've got General so and so uh but if you want to like you know talk at the cookout or something you can do that and um all that's to say is that you know hell I guess they're scraping the bottom of the barrel and here I am so thanks for having me you know you know people ask me if I get nervous talking in front of three million Americans on Fox News it's like no not at all normally when people ask me that I go well you know it's not a bomb it's not going to blow up I think I'm going to amend that to say it's not a room full of VOD test cuz this is probably the scariest thing I've done a pressure plate doesn't have Facebook so they won't uh you know they won't charge me beer afterwards I'm going to have a I used to say I'll have a a bud truck delivered at first company but I don't I don't know if I can even say that anymore so we'll get through this anyway um you know I there are a lot of places I wanted to start tonight a lot of things I wanted to say like I said I've got a bunch of them written down here it's an honor to be in front of you one that um is hard for me to Fathom having sat here as a student and having sat here just recently lost uh recently losing my legs with a table full of Marines that had recently lost their legs watching our friends like Sprat sof and day get put on the wall that tried to teach me how to swim I never forget da took a camera and went under the pool he was trying to teach me how to swim because they were considering me for marso and uh obviously that didn't work out cuz I couldn't swim but he he took me to the pool with Sprat off and and they both went Maro after school for those of you that don't know their story and they took me to the pool with my buddy Danny Ridgeway and they were trying to teach us how to swim and Danny's doing great and da takes the camera on the water he films me and we come up you know and he shows it to me and he goes Joey see this I go yeah he goes that's exactly how you're not supposed to do any of this he's like I think you're going to be a hell of a Marine Corp yod detch but you're not going to be a marsak yod detch and uh and so to be here as as someone that was recently injured back 2011 12 when we were still coming and and to do this Memorial this morning and and hear their names but not hear someone else's name added to it I haven't been probably since 2014 or 15 because honestly it was just difficult to do and uh the first year that wasn't going to be one of the guys I knew I took that opportunity to take a step back kind of let the Next Generation have it so here we are back my my wife Meg is here my son Joseph is here for the first time in probably 10 years and um this morning was a moment a life-changing moment for me to be there and to hear the those names and to know that this is a moment of reunion as much as remorse or sorrow uh to hug the necks of gold star moms that I may not have met yet but I knew their son well and they hear them say I love watching you on TV um first of all for those of you that don't know I work with Fox News Channel a host there if you're under 30 or live in an airport it's like CNN but different and I'm not here to talk to you about politics tonight too much a lot my government small my Gun Room big everything else you can convince me on you [Applause] know but to but to be here this morning and and meet some gold star families that I knew of their son or I knew their son and to have them say that you know the truth is if you're Neo Tech and your own television to a certain set of this group you're already a bad guy right you screwed up you've done something wrong and um I mean that's funny but it's true you know and so I didn't get into television as an EOD Tech but man I'm so proud to be a marine EOD Tech on television not because I want to represent you all but because rather I want to or not in some way I do because I wear this badge proudly it's a basic badge like I said I wasn't that good and so to be welcomed here tonight honestly I came down here on pins and needles cuz I just don't know I don't know how this field thinks about having one of their own on television espousing opinions that are divisive sometimes never on purpose I love this country more than I love any issue um but to be welcomed here and to have people that I'm sure don't even share my politics come up to me and say thank you for representing us well if I had knees I'd be weak in them it's humbling and so as I'm thinking about what I want to talk about tonight the truth is normally when I when I talk to a crowd I'm talking I'm giving my story my War Story and what I consider to be the more important part of my recovery story and in front of this group given a war story like you would be asleep you've got one better you've got one that you that you kept your legs through you know like and so that's not the right message for tonight but some of that is how I learned what I want to talk about so I'm going to hit a little bit of it but the first thing I want to bring up is my father-in-law is a Vietnam veteran and he didn't talk about his service until I got hurt and he was around the military and his real veterans again and it was the first time he knew he could be proud of his service and I just want you to take a moment to look around this happens every year we are so proud of our service and we are honored in this country for our service by anyone that matters we are told we can be proud we should be proud We are told it's not the warriors's fault if the war is political we are proud of our service and it's because those Generations before us especially that Vietnam generation that didn't have that opportunity was so selfless and so wise that they kept this country and made this country better for us so that when we picked up the Manel and fought our 20-year War we never knew anything but being proud of our service I say this in a room full of military people so it's a little bit different now but people come up to me and they say thank you for your service and I don't want to take credit for it ostens I'll accredit whomever I heard say it first but when they say thank you for your service it's hard to know what to say back and eventually I understood the best thing to say back is thank you for being worth serving and so what does that mean why is that important it's important because in my opinion we live in the greatest country in the world and I'm not up here just yeah I'll take it I'm not up here just delivering lines that I learn from politicians I mean it like when I say we live in the greatest country in the world you know i' I've had a chance to you know go to other places like Iraq and Afghanistan and you know I mean Europe came here that's why we exist so it's not any better you know and so we live in the greatest country in the world it's crazy when you're giving the OD deck and education we can pull stuff out of anywhere you know and so we live in the Great country in the world but it's not because of the the strength of our military or the size of our economy or our free system of government if you if you watch me on TV I might tell you all those things are a little bit in question it's the greatest country in the world because we're the only country like us we're the most prosperous country in the world that did it completely differently than Society had ever said was possible we have fought for freedom and equality in this country since the day we started and by all means it took too long to get there for some obvious groups of people and for some of you that that feel like we're not there I understand that but we get up every morning and we want to be there and we try to be there we live in a country that's made up of people that speak different languages eat different foods pray to different gods pray in different ways vote differently but when but when we go out in the morning and we see someone stumble we don't think about those things we don't know know what their politics are we don't know what service they were in we know that that's a human being that's in need of help and for some reason we need to do this together and it's the only way it gets done so what do we do we walk over there we pick them up we dust our back off we say you're going to get through this when I was injured in 2010 it was my first deployment as a school trained EOD Tech I'd gotten to OJT a few years before when I put my package in because you know Iraq you know outad had night Club so of course you could do paperwork there and so I'd known of EOD in a little bit more of an intimate way before school went to school down here lived here for a year went to Camp Pendleton California first EOD company some of us might say America's EOD team and I know that's just gonna you know there we go I got a couple I have I got to give the dirty Deuce a first company uh a nod while I'm here if you want to know why we're the dirty Deuce we'll talk about that later but uh second platoon so you know go out there and I and I learned from these men and women who had just gotten back from Afghanistan in 2008 they get back in 2009 it's like hey by the way you're going again in 10 we don't know when so go ahead and get ready and so you learn about as as as a young EOD Tech you learn about what not to do and you learn about what to do just like our parents and so for me the The Humbling nature of being here is that I got to see firsthand and the service and sacrifice it takes to wear this badge and to protect this country and how beautiful it is I couldn't tell you they politics I can tell you we were a diverse group of people just on our Hobbies I mean some of us like you know some of us our hobby was how many DUIs can you get you know can you get this bus driver fired today and so that to serve in in the Marine Corps and in the EOD field in a time of war was something that when you're living it you don't know what it's going to mean in 10 years and now we do you go back to first company and you meet EOD TCH and and they don't know what that's like and hell I'm glad I don't want them to they don't know what it's like to put a friend on the wall to have friends lose their legs to see that as their own fate but we live in a place that after 20 years of that our sons and daughters are still signing up to do it not just join them military but to join the military and become an EOD Tech and so you know I I do work in politics and I get this a lot of times I don't think I could let my son or daughter join the military right now the way things are that's the way people say in the nicest way possible I have zero faith in our government and leaders they say the way things are [Applause] so we we had one of those leaders here this morning he might be here tonight I'm not taking a stance on that right now but what I am saying is people are concerned about it and they genuinely and and not in a selfish way say I don't think I can send my sons and daughters to to be in the military right now and that just blows my mind and I said well why is that I say well you know just some of the policies and okay it's like and like really it's just you know the people the leaders right now and they don't have their mind right they're not focused correctly they're not they're worried about this instead of that and I say back to him well if you believe that to be true that today the leaders aren't good enough and you keep your sons and daughters home who's left to lead what are we leaving our beloved military to if you don't like something you fight for it if you don't like the way things are you fight for it you don't give up on it so no matter what your politics are or whatever your perspective is and I've had that conversation with somebody last night that may be in this room and I understand what he's talking about but I don't feel the same way and this is why I love the Marine Corps I loved being an EOD Tech I love being a retired marine and an EOD Tech that wasn't that great if I had got blown up that probably taken my badge away who knows I don't know some Cowboy going on out there I'll tell you that but uh and so I come here today and one of the first things that was said to me when I walked in tonight was welcome [Applause] home and it it shocked me because that's what I say to Vietnam veterans because they didn't hear it enough so I had to think for a minute what do they mean welcome home they're talking about welcome here to the mecca of EOD and for so many of us this is where it starts and where it ends for some of us that ends in a Twilight tour for others it's retirement for others it's the last place we wear our uniform on active duty and for a select few it ends in the way of being put on a wall and our families come to see it and that's where I take issue because it doesn't end this is where the Journey of being an active duty EOD Tech begins and ends but this community in this room right now this community that's represented by folks that couldn't be here tonight that is coast to coast top to bottom this is home but it's not home because it's a beach or it's IND Destin or Okaloosa it's it's home because of the people that are here in the events that happen this week in the wall that stands over there through rain or shine and the fact that that Schoolhouse is continuing to make amazing people better and testing them to their wits end and testing them in a way that you got to make an 85 or better to pass makes no sense at all it's home because no matter how many how much things change they stay the same it's home because 10 years later we see faces of people that we might not have even liked when we were serving with them and with 10 years of wisdom we give them a smile and a hug and we say man it's good to see you it's home because the honest of God's truth is there is no way to tell anybody what this job is and how it's done nobody you are you're not the unsung heroes of this war you're the unknown known Heroes of this war because even when we sing the praise there's only a select few of us that really understands this job yet we we Embrace that to the point we don't want people on TV to the point that we charge beer when they do we embrace the fact that if you come in this job looking for Glory you're going to get somebody hurt if you come in this job looking to be a hero you're going to get somebody hurt and so what term do we use for that well in true EOD fashion I couldn't get a consensus today so I brought both the lonely walk the long walk I don't know it the Long Walk is what I heard and for those of you that might not understand and for those of you that do it's this idea that when there's an IID or a piece of ordinance that needs to be rendered safe the team leader walks by his or herself down maybe in a bomb suit Maybe not maybe after a robot maybe it's in a flag jacket a helmet with some trauma shears like we were doing more than we should and this idea this is the lonely walk The Lonesome walk the long walk you're the idea is you're doing it by yourself and the belief is you know you're sending one EOD Tech down so if something goes wrong no nobody else gets hurt that's our job right that if this IED takes a casualty it's only going to be me right that's our that's it and so we have this culture that we don't mean to create that tells us we're on this journey by ourself and I absolutely take issue with that this is not a lonesome Journey this is not a lone Journey when you're walking down range aside from your team members that are there with their eyes on you helping you not get tunnel vision there are dozens of mentors and teachers and leaders who have given you the knowledge and experience through training to make that walk they're with you there are men and women who have paid the price of Lessons Learned in Blood and you read the reports and you read about what what went wrong for them and you're using that to make the correct next little literal step they're walking with you and keeping you safe and there are families at home that are on their knes praying going to PTA meetings and football games and cheerleading camps and keeping that house alive whether it be your parents or your spouse or your kids depending on your age and where you are in your career they're with you when you're on that lonesome walk and I bring that up tonight because I had too many conversations in the last 24 to 48 hours with men that still feel alone and that's our job now I often talk about what it would look like to be a warless core and I worry about does the Marine Corps look the same if it's without a war was that a necessary evil well there are EOD tchs in this room that are retired there are EOD tchs in this room that that got out because they were tired but didn't retire there EOD Texans room coming up on the end of their career and there are EOD Tex in this room that are starting it and my message to you tonight is do not believe this is a lonesome Journey do not accept loneliness as the best next step in your life and I'm here to tell you you can be on television and in front of crowds and be lonely look at those people that love you look at those people that expect something from you know that although your mission may change it doesn't go away as a matter of fact it becomes more important when you're not the one doing it and you're the one mentoring the one doing it that's not just this job that's life see when I was in there was a marine engineer that was with me now I'm from Georgia we do good football there by the way go dogs Hey listen a year ago that joke hit hard okay I'm from Georgia I'm an active duty Marine I'm an EOD Tech and God with a sense of humor puts this guy that's from Tennessee a big balls fan he's he's uh he's an engineer and he's a reservist and he puts him right in front of me and says that's going to be your best butt you know I'm like hell I got more in common with the Taliban than this dude like come on so I meet this guy Daniel Greer from Tennessee we become fast Buds and you know he had he had been married for a while and he had had a um a son for a while and I I just reconnected with my high school girlfriend who's now my wife there you go and my son was not not a year old right at so I really hadn't had a chance to be a dad yet if that order confuses you hey I'm Marin o detch and so I was just starting my family but I'd been in Afghanistan for 6 months he had been a full-time fireman for years he's about my age and he had had his family for a little while and he was just starting his career as a marine engineer here and he had just been there for a couple months so he mentored me on life and I mentored him on how to stay alive and it was a great friendship and so when I was injured I'm told you I'm not going to tell you War story but when I was injured I stepped on an IED I my team leader had had moved a piece of uh recovered ordinance I thought from school I knew something that he didn't I went over to check it out he had walked away Daniel stood near me to provide OverWatch because we hadn't seen what was over here and we were afraid there would be snipers while we were working and so when I took a step right we had cleared this area multiple times I stepped on an ID it blew me up took my legs that part's you know whatever so I look down and Daniel's laying on his belly he's looking back at me and he's not all that messed up like he just looks knocked out you know so I I'm I'm getting her done over here you know like I got punched lung and the legs are gone and this arm look like that scene in Harry Potter it's just flipping around you know and I'm glad I got to laugh out of that cuz when the crowd's older they don't have a clue and so they they come in and they do Tri eyes and they take Daniel out first and as always my understand like you take the worst first unless the worst doesn't make it you know and I'm like well I don't know my lips felt they were like blown open From the Inside Out lady's like a full syringe you know what I mean it's like I'm sorry I can't say anything serious for more than two seconds I said that joke in Palm Springs California and got beat up even the men knew what that meant that was a little weird and so they take Daniel off the battlefield and they roll by and they're like hey we got a heavy breather and I'm and in my mind I guess I was thinking mouth breathing I'm like why are y'all talking about this guy like we just got blown up and they run by with Daniel you know and and they they keep working on me a marine gets to me he's working on me and I remember thinking my arm was all messed up and I remember thinking you know they took us to this pig course before we deployed live tissue course and they're like yeah when the when the bunch of Navy guys when the when the flesh is all burned up just cut the burnt part away to get all that Mera and stuff out of there it's like you're telling a bunch of Marines to cut flesh do you know what you're doing right now you know I remember thinking God let there be a dock you know and so so I'm laying on the battlefield my arms all messed up and I see it and I'm thinking you know my legs weren't much to write home about but I kind of like my arms and I want to keep this one so I threw it on my belly and in my mind I'm hiding it from the Marines that's going to come cut it off I'm just thinking if I can just get somebody with an education somebody from the Navy here he'll save this and I'll be okay and so we get through this and the Marine gets there and he doesn't know what to do with tourniquet he hadn't been there very long and um and so finally I'm like listen man just say the Lord's Prayer with me so we're like you know our father who are in heaven and there's a pause and it's like with liberty and justice for all I don't where do we go from here and so you know we get through that and mind SW shut and they knock me out and they get me to the hospital and I'll wake up in La schol Germany two days later now the only reason I said any of that is to get to this part cuz this is a part I do want to tell you about and so I wake up in laun Germany a couple days later and I I know I'm going over but I'm from Georgia so it's just it is what it is you know takes us five minutes say I'm from Georgia so so I wake up in La stool Germany and they wake me up and it's it's a difficult thing my mouth is dry they they won't let me drink water if any nurses in the room they're Angels they're also a little bit evil she's circling my mouth with this sticking sponge and water and I'm like lady y know water board me I don't you know you can have the cheesecloth if I die I die I need water right now like let's make this happen and she's just going around my lips and so finally enough of that water gets into my mouth that I can talk and I don't think anything about what I'm about to say I think maybe they like zap you when they wake you up and they get you some energy there the begin with because it doesn't last long and and so I can talk and I want to get some words out and finally enough of that water gets into my throat and it breaks up and the first thing I said was where's Greer and I didn't mean to it just where in my mind it was the last thing I saw and it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this August 6th when we got hurt August 8th is when I woke up two days later and the nurse looks at me and she puts that cup down and she comes back and she smiles and in response to my question of where's Greer she goes don't worry hun you're going to walk again and so the truth is Daniel GE was two or three doors down I took a right step stepped on an ID he was too close a piece of that wall that was next to me flew in front of me and hit him in just a right spot took his brain activity away and so the truth was Daniel GRE was a few doors down and either had just or was about to have his family say goodbye and his mom and wife were going to take him off life support and let his body go on and I bring that up for a couple reasons one because this crowd more than any understands how I feel about that and I'll get to that in a second but most importantly I bring it up because that nurse had this wisdom and this understanding what she knew was she could tell me what I was asking to hear and that's a gamble how will I respond to that will I carry that guilt will I give up will I ever walk again knowing that I stepped on an ID that took a man's life or she could tell me what what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it even when that wasn't what I was asking to hear she changed the trajectory of my life forever by telling me don't worry hun you're going to walk again so as I went through my recovery in the most senior EOD Tech in the Marine Corps and his wife come break me out of Walter Reed so I can have a couple of hours of normaly and this whole field ascends upon Walter Reed and Bethesda cuz we take care of our own like no others organizations spring up places are built for us to go Retreat people start mobilizing and and we're and they thank you for your service and they take care of you and they put you back together and no matter how difficult and insurmountable that was thanks to her words and the actions of the people in this room in large part thinking about anything other than I'm going to walk again was not an option who the hell was I to prove these people wrong that believed in me so much and so I say that tonight to go back to my message it's not a lonesome walk it's not a lone walk it's not a lonesome journey I don't know what you came here tonight to hear or what questions you're asking many of you have asked me about politics but I hope I'm telling you what you need to hear and when you need to hear it I'm glad we we didn't put anybody on the wall today but there are I think 20 gold star families here tonight there are dozens if not hundreds of folks in this room tonight about to retire or leave there are hundreds others who came back just for this and many this is their first time in a while what I'm telling you tonight what you need to hear is that this is not a lonesome journey and that's not just because you should know people are here for you it's because you still have the responsibility to be there for them we owe that to each other if there's anything I learned in my recovery it's that responsibility is the greatest gift in the world because when all those motivational quotes go out the window knowing you owe something to somebody that only looks to you to do it is the greatest motivation you could ever have whether you're a father a mother a daughter a son a friend a boss an employee a mentor a mentee whatever it is in your church your workplace your family your group your motorcycle club there are people in your life that look at you and say that that's the person that can do this thing that's who I can depend on for this thing that responsibility should absolutely crawl up your spine and come out looking like Tony Robbins if I could jump I would right you know like this is me hopping take those responsibilities that stress you out and remind yourself how great of a gift that is how amazing of a thing that is and then go remind your buddy go tell your buddy that's gray and he's got the beard and he's been out for two years and you're like you can't grow that in two years what happened and he's moved off to the woods and he got his cabin and his 40 acres and he doesn't want to have anything to do with anybody and say no you're not you're not running away from me I'm not running away from you we need to be here for each other we need to be here for these families that have paid the ultimate sacrif and we need to be here for the men and women in this room who are about to or have just gotten their badge so they don't forget what this job means what this community is and that this sacrifice is absolutely worth it because this country is a country worth serving I got so much more I want to say but this time man they got a rod over here with a hook on it they're going to pull me off stage it's an honor to be here people look at me and they have adoration cuz I lost my legs and I didn't give up I look at this room and I think it's crazy I don't know what it's like to lose a son or a daughter I don't know what it's like to have cancer I don't know what it's like to lose my house my business to go through a messy divorce I don't know what it's like to lose faith in a life of ways and all those things are probably at every table in this room right now if it's not happening to you it's happening to someone you love and that's worse but here you are in your uniform in your suit in your Tux in your ball gown looking beautiful sounding awesome still sober that's an amazing thing here you are celebrating here you were last night giving money to a cause that you believe in here you are surviving here you are thriving so whatever congratulation or adoration you have for me or those like me like my buddy Andrew right here man it's like missing more limbs than me and outshoots me every time for my buddy Aaron that can't see or hear and has has more width than I'll ever have you know listen whatever agulation or adoration you have for us I appreciate it and at some point we earned it in some way but look in the mirror tomorrow morning and exercise that gift to tell somebody what they need to hear when they need to hear it pat yourselves on the back and be that America that's worth serving because that's what I believe each and every one of you are God bless y'all Hey listen real quick I always try to tell a funny story before I leave and I want to tell this one because it's a good one for right now in 2012 or 13 I was at the White House having dinner with President Obama and 34 of at the time 36 fourstar generals all right it's called the combatant commanders dinner and I was there for one reason and one reason only I can and I don't have legs that's the only reason I was there at the time the Marine Corps did not know I was a verbal liability all right they didn't know that I had political opinions and aspirations and they said it would be a good idea to put this guy next to President Obama for a whole dinner and so Meg and I went and we get into the room and I'm going to tell this whole story I don't normally tell the whole story but this crowd does deserves the whole story so I go in there and we go in the room and none of the generals are there at the time there were no female four-star generals at the time only M so the reason why I bring that up is all the generals in the president were at like whiskey and cigar hour and all the wives were at like dessert and champagne room and I walk in there and of course like I'm not going to go to Whiskey and cigar hour cuz I just don't have legs and I can bull like I'm not a four-star general and so I'm like you know jokes on you cuz I prefer dessert over whiskey anyway and so Meg and I walk in and there's one General in with the wives and it's General Petraeus and for those of you that um study this stuff that was a bad week for him and so he walks up to me and he starts talking to me and he had thoroughly enjoyed the Champagne Bar and so I have egas on on my service uniform and he must have thought I was in the Navy because he kept trying to turn my anchor straight up and down which pushed my Eagle at a nose dive and that is unsat like if Mattis had rounded the corner I would have died from laser beam you know and so like I'm like trying to work my way through this conversation and finally the General's coming in like oh thank God you know somebody else he can mess with you know but he was incredibly gracious and it was an an out of this body moment for me as this humble Marine staff started so finally we get ushered into the White House or we get ushered into the dining room and I'm sure it's named after color don't know the White House that well right and so we had ushered into this room we're having dinner and like you had Petraeus and Mattis and Mullen and mccristal and all the Heavy Hitters were there right well you can't put all those guys at one table it to fall through the floor you know cuz there's so much ego there so they had them scattered you know all your Heavy Hitters were at different tables and it was kind of cool that way and you don't sit with your date so even the wives weren't with their husbands and they let Meg and I stay together cuz I'm crippled right and so we're sitting there and the president's right here and we're he's elbow to Elbow with me and he keeps pulling his phone his BlackBerry out and I'm thinking oh man I'm going to see something I'm not supposed to and they going to like interrogate me you know or something and and so finally he checks back into the conversation and because of what had happened with General Petraeus that week and President Obama letting him know who the who the boss was all the generals at that table were pretty amicable like the president could have said anything like yes sir you're right sir that's the way we do it you're right sir you know and so the the conversation was a little Bland you know and finally they get into this is 201 I think 12 so right midterms you know and so they get into we're going to end this war you know we can laugh at that right now right it took 10 more years in this war you know and and so they get into that conversation and they're going around the table and the president to his credit looks at me and he goes Johnny get in here if you were back in Afghanistan doing the same thing you were doing in the same place what would you do different said Mr President I'd step left God bless yall God Bless America and God bless EOD