"Are my boys ok?!"

Mike served as an enlisted US Marine from 1995 to 1999. After he was honorably discharged, he became a firefighter and has served his community for several years.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Troy Gent

Troy Gent is the Host of The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast. He served a total of eight years as an infantryman in the US Marine Corps.

Editor

Rebecca Gent

Rebecca is the editor and publisher of The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast.

What is The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast?

The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast was born out of a place of grief. Having lost my best friend from the Marine Corps in the early hours of 2023, I realized that this feeling was all too familiar. I wanted to do something, not only for the loss I felt, but for the loss I knew many families were enduring day to day.

We believe that a major way to relieve the stressors of life is to talk, laugh, cry, and share our experiences without fear of offense. We hope to attract veterans and first responders as well as anyone who is interested in knowing more about what it’s like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.

  Welcome Mike. Thanks for being on the show. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and your service record. That's a pretty broad, pretty broad question there, but uh, I had no, no intention, whatever, after high school of going in, going into the military, much less the Marine Corps, but uh, Senior year I was walking, walking down the hallway and literally bumped into some guy and like, initially didn't see who he was and I turned and it's this, this big swole up black dude in his Charlie uniform, Jamaican guy.

And I was like, whoa man, sorry about that, and he knew my name. He's like, hey Mike, I've been looking for you, man. I'm like, You know my name, that's freaky, because I've seen him around campus. He's like, I want to talk to you, and I'm like, no, no, like, that's not what I'm looking for. I didn't really have a whole lot going, so I bumped into him again, and he, he sucked me into the recruiter office, and we started talking, and I was like, Well, that's interesting, right?

And he had, uh, he had two guys there on recruiter assistance. One guy was a machine gunner, so a 31, 03 31. The other guy was a, uh, saltman, so 03 51. And these guys were talking about what they did, what their jobs entailed, and I'm like, man, that sounds, sounds pretty awesome. He got me in there to take the, take the ASVAB, got through all that.

And my ASVAB scores were like, well, like electronics and mechanics is like what you score good at. I'm like, well, I could do that. Like in the Navy, Air Force, right? Like I want to go in the Marine Corps. I don't want to be a. So I asked for it and I got it. 0311 Infantry, right? Like that's, that's what I was blessed with.

My recruiter tried, he tried like hell to talk me out of it. He's like, Mike, you don't want to do that. Like, all you're going to do is hike around everywhere and carry a bunch of heavy stuff. And you're going to be in the desert and the jungle. And I'm like, well, that's what the Marine Corps is about, right?

Like that's, that's what I want or I'm not going. So he happily gave me that. He's like, I can guarantee you 03. I don't know where you're going to end up, and I'm like, that's fine. That's kind of how it all started. So I ended up in like the delayed entry program. With a handful of other knuckleheads that I went to school with.

And we do our training once a week, whatever it was. Go down there and PT. Learn some things about the Marine Corps, kind of brief you before you went to boot camp. I got to know all those guys pretty good. We were all hanging out one day, and just all the cadets, whatever you want to call us, the deputies, whatever.

Doing things we shouldn't have been doing, and we're at a house having some beers, underage, whatever, and like, we get a little screwy, and I'm like, well man, how's everybody going to get home? Someone's like, call, call Sergeant Brown, the recruiter. Like, that's a great idea. Right? Like he's got, there's like, you know, six of us here, right?

Like we're all, he needs us all to sign up and go and, you know, fill his quota. So he wasn't happy about it, but he came and picked everybody up and got everybody home. So how many guys. Uh, was he signing up in that group, would you say? Um, I don't know. There, there was probably, there was probably eight or ten of us in the program at the same time.

So he had some incentive to, to save your butt, basically. Oh yeah, yeah. He, he, he would have done whatever we needed, right? To meet, meet his quota. But I remember going to like the first little session, PT session is what it was, right? So. We're doing like our pull ups and sit ups and our run, whatever, and he was just jacked up.

I mean, the dude was like, he was shredded. So we're just down there in our regular civvy gear, and he comes out in like this onesie, like a, like a bodysuit. And I'm like, what in the world is that, right? Looks like tighter than hell, but I mean like he's proud of it, right? Like grabs the bar and does like 20 like behind the head strict pull ups, and I'm like, oh man, this guy's, this guy's bad, right?

Anyway, kind of got off, kind of got off subject there, but, uh, yeah, from that went, went to boot camp. A lot of it was not fun at all, but, uh, I remember, well, you know, you, you went through there too, right? But I remember in, uh, in second phase, they handed out the Long John underwear. They were like thermals, and that's what we wear at night.

We'd do like the hygiene inspection, and then, I remember they were like, let us pray so you'd like bow your head, and I looked up at the kid across from me, and he was a weird looking kid anyway, but, uh. He had his long john bottoms, like, pulled up to his armpits and was like standing at attention with his neck bent back in the wrong direction and I saw that and I chuckled.

And then all I hear is this. And I was like, oh shit, is he coming for me? And next thing I know, like, this drill instructor's got me by the, the long john top underwear by the neck, like holding me up against the rack, just screaming in my face. Up to that point, none of the drill instructors knew my name, but, uh, that guy knew my name after that, but you remember in bootcamp, like if you wanted to address the drill instructor, you had to first, like you had to misrecruit request permission to speak, right.

You had to ask to talk first and then they'd either say yes or no. Right. Yeah. It's like a whole new language. Like, I don't think I ever got it right. Even after three months. Yeah, I know, I always screw it up too, but we were doing drill, and I could hear this kid popping off like, Sir, recruit blah blah, I request permission to speak, like, get away from me.

I heard it like three, four times, right? All of a sudden I hear the drill instructor go, you have got to be kidding me. He used some different words, but uh, he's like, you gotta be kidding me. And so we're all like, what the hell just happened, right? Apparently he needed to use the head, but the drill instructor wouldn't even let him ask to use the head So he literally stood there and was standing in a puddle.

Like man you you must have really had to go at that point, right? Like you must have really had to go also in second phase. I remember I had a I had a girl back home that was sending letters, and we're in second phase during mail call, and it's muddy and rainy and crap, and they call my name, so I go run it up there, and the drill instructor is like feeling, he's feeling the envelope, like there's something in there.

And he's like, I need you to open that. And so, like, wet hands, whatever, I rip it open, and, not glitter, but you know the little hole punches that you use, or like, you punch paper down for like the binder? Oh yeah, confetti. Confetti, essentially, right? Well, I rip this thing open, and that stuff goes everywhere.

Right into the mud. And the drill instructor takes a look at it, and he's like, you're going to pick up every one of those. So, I'm trying to pick these little things out of the mud, like, where am I going to put them? And he's like, put that, put that trash in your pocket. I'm like, oh god. So I got a pocket full of mud and when I wrote her back, I thanked her for that one.

And bootcamp, there was always, I always posted Firewatch, right? So it was like An hour at a time or whatever they went through like, I was on fire watch and I heard something out the window of the barracks. I heard like, boots. I look out and I see what looks like, I mean he's dressed like a first phase recruit, like pants still folded down, but he's got like, He's got web gear on with like two canteens and he's making a beeline for the fence.

He's by himself. And I'm like, go brother, go! That's what you got. I don't know where you're gonna end up, man, but. Probably at the airport or on the freeway, one of the two. Yeah, I think, I never saw it, but I think I had, we had a recruit that tried that. I don't know if he made it. I don't know if he got away with it or not, but he was, he was in full stride, just headed for the fence.

After boot camp, you went to SOI and then 3 7, right? Yep, exactly. Oh man, uh, you remember Range 400? We had like 400, 410, Alpha. I ran those as a lieutenant too, as a platoon commander, so. Oh yeah, you got, you got to go back for another round. I remember early on I got range 400, like I was the boot at that point, right?

So we were, I was 400 or 410, the one that had all the trenches dug in it. Oh yeah, is that the one that had the, uh, the Ivan targets? Yeah, I believe there's pop ups and I think that's 410 alpha or something. Okay. Yeah, that's that sounds right But so they had already like pounded it with mortars whatever and so we jump in the trench and start clearing the trench and I'm on Point so I'm making my way through there and I come around this bend in the trench and I see fins sticking out of the trench And I'm like, whoa, whoa, like, stop everybody, like, hold up, man, like, there, there's a 60 Mike Mike, I'm pretty sure, like, unexploded in the trench in front of us.

So, like, stop everybody, squad leader comes up, and like, yep, we're, we're backing out of here. So, EOD had to come out, and of course, you know, that's a couple hour deal. So we all got a, we all got a little break out of that, but it may have been a total dud, but I wasn't going to run up and kick it. That's for sure.

Yeah. I've jumped down a few times with a fin sticking right in my face, you know, stuff like that. You're like, Oh yeah. I remember running a, running another range out there. I don't know that it was like a designated range, but. One of the guys in our platoon, I won't say his name, but we didn't really have targets on that range, but we're, we had live rounds.

So we're doing the whole fire movement thing, and uh, I could hear the guy next to me, like, he'd fire and he was hitting something, like, there was, there was a ping. Like, he was hitting something metallic, something metal. I'm like, what the hell is he shooting at? And I look up, and it's like an old, I mean, it could have been a Sim round, but it was like an old, it was a big bomb laying there, essentially.

And old Dave was punching rounds right off of that thing, and I'm like, dude, are you that stupid? He's just shooting at it. He's like, well, I didn't think it was real. I mean, whatever, man. Like, that's, that's just silly. Thailand. You went to Thailand with us, didn't you? Cobra Gold, uh, probably 99, right? 99, yeah.

99, yeah. So we, yeah, we were there twice, but I don't know if it was 97 or 99, but we'd go stay in those hotels when we got Libo. I remember who I was sharing a room with, but we left the hotel and walked by a certain sergeant's room and you could just hear like all this like screaming back and forth going on in there and like, as we're going by the door, the door opens up and he's like, Hey, I need you guys to get this girl out of my room.

I'm like, well, what's going on? He's like, it doesn't matter. Just get her out of here. And she's mad. Like, I don't know what's happening, but like, Hey, you need to leave. So a few of us like helped get her out of the room. And later that day, we're sitting down in Pattaya Beach, and we see this same sergeant running down the strip in Pattaya Beach, and there's a girl coming after him in hot pursuit, carrying a steel pipe of some sort, and she's screaming, I don't know, I don't know what she was saying, but uh, Shore patrol, I think was, was like the Navy, the Navy cops that they'd have on, on shore.

And anyway, they got them stopped. So we walked over, they're like, Hey, what's going on, man? I was like, apparently he owed her some money. Didn't know he owed her money. And she demanded her money. But the best part was he's like, all right, whatever. Like pulls out his wallet and gives her money. And she's like, Oh, that's too much.

Like gives him back like 10 bucks. Gives him back 10 bucks. When we were in Oki, were you there for any of the lockdowns, the typhoon lockdowns? Yeah, a couple. So, I remember during the typhoon lockdown, someone had the harebrained idea, like, strap on the flak jacket, Kevlar, and grab a poncho and let's go, like, windsail the parking lot.

It was like 120 mile an hour winds whipping across there. Yeah, yeah. It was a great, it was a great idea, right? I know you weren't, you weren't a drinker, but those of us that were, when we knew those were coming, we'd go to the package store and stock up on beer and whatever they'd let us buy. But my roommate at the time, he drank quite a bit, so the little mini fridge was always full.

And we woke up the one morning during lockdown, and he goes over to the fridge and he's like, Dude, where's all the beer? I'm like, I have no idea. Like, it was full. Like, well, nobody came in, I don't think. So we started looking around and the ceiling tile was, like, out of place. And I know, I know who it was, even though I never fessed up to it, but somebody, somebody got up in the ceiling and went between.

He snuck over there. Went between, got into the room, and got all the beer out. He knew about the beer. Well, yeah, but we slept through it, is the impressive part. You know, my, my second pump there, I had a, I had a chance to do a, a FAT, fleet assistance program. I, I don't know how I can remember what this stuff even stood for, 20 plus years ago, but, Yeah, I don't remember what I did yesterday, but I, I can remember this stuff, but uh, I went through like the range coach's course, being a guy from one of the other platoons in India Company.

And when we got to Oki the second time, they offered me a spot to go work on the rifle range. So I'm like, in six months? I'm gonna miss like, NTA, CTA, like, all the jungle crap? Like, hell yeah. My roommate at the time, the old guy in the platoon, you know who I'm talking about, probably. Yeah. He was able to talk me out of it.

He's like, man, think about the times, right? Like, all the things you're gonna miss. Like, you're gonna miss And I'm like, exactly! Two week packages in the jungle, all the humps, all the nonsense that I don't want to do. So he's like, I'll tell you what, I'll make you, I'll make you a deal. If it ever gets so bad that you're really mad at me, he's like, I give you free reign.

You can just come up and whoop my ass. Is he a real estate agent now? Yeah, he does. Yep, exactly. Yeah, I'm gonna actually, he's, I'm working on interviewing him, so. Yeah, no, he would be, he would be a good one. He's, he's, even as old as he is, he's still pretty sharp. Yeah, so he, he talks me out of it and we're up in the northern training area and I, I forget who our lieutenant was, but.

He'd got us lost, and we'd been out there, been raining for a week, week and a half, whatever, and we're out of food. It was, it was just, it was crap. I'm pretty sure I was a squad leader at the point. I was getting pretty pissed off, and I'm like, this is, this just sucks, and I'm like, you know what? I got a freebie.

Where's Carney? I go, like, walk in the line, I'm like, hey Carney, where's Carney at? They're like, oh, he's down to the left, second squad or whatever he was in. You go creeping down there like, Carney, it's off to the left. Yeah, man. Where you at? He's like, I'm right here. I like jump on his back. We roll around in the mud and just like punch each other a few times.

And he's like, he's like, dude, the times, right? Like I told you this would be a good time. I'm like, I hate you right now. I hate you so bad right now. But afterwards, you know, it was terrible at the time, but you can look back and laugh about it. Yeah. It's after the hardship. That was the best part about it.

So that's the best part of it. I mean, really, because when you're doing it, I mean, you think about the. Some of crest humps and all that stuff like like, all right, we're gonna walk out, you know 15 miles and turn around and walk right back. That's a great idea For what just just to say we did it, you know, like I regretted that but then afterwards I thank them I'm like, you know what like I wouldn't I wouldn't trade that time for I've got a, a photo album about three inches thick full of pictures of that, that six months over there.

Yeah. I've, uh, I've, I've actually got a picture of you in the back of a five ton with, I think it was Gorsuch and Gartman with their head between their legs. I don't know what they were doing, but yeah, you were sitting next to him, like making a smirk at him. Uh, they were doing something funny. I don't know, but you finished up at three seven and then you got out and became a firefighter.

Yeah, so I had done a ride along while I was home on leave with a guy I knew. Worked in the next town over and did like a, I don't know, 8 or 12 hour ride along. And I was like, man, this is, this is cool. Like, this is what you guys do. And like, showed me all the equipment. I was like, I could get on board with this.

So while I was still in You know, we didn't have the internet back then, so I was buying books. Yeah, and you've been on, you've been in Firefighter for, did you say, 20 years? 22 years, just this week. Yeah, full time. I was a volunteer for a little while. It's worked out good. My department was really small 24 years ago, so they still had volunteers, so they put me through all the training that I needed to basically get the prerequisites to test for a full time spot.

So, full time spot came around. I missed it the first time. I got beat out by. So yeah, it took me two years of trying to get on, but Since your department was so small, what was your academy like? Uh, my academy was small. There was only three guys in it. Both these guys were Quite a bit older than me. At that time, the city wasn't blown up like it has over the last 15, 18 years, whatever.

The department has changed a lot over the years. You know, the academies now, I mean, they're taking laterals. If you work for one department and there's an opening, you can come in and potentially get in there, whereas before that, that wasn't a thing. It was good. We got, we got messed with a bit, but nothing, nothing too crazy.

It wasn't boot camp or anything like that. What are, uh, what are some of your more, more ridiculous emergency calls you've experienced? Calls that you got to, and you're like, what the heck, why, why did you call us? Well, there, there's a lot of those, man. One of the guys I work with, he likes to refer to us as, uh, professional men.

Professional men, professional men, right? Like if you're like a married couple and your smoke detector starts chirping in the middle of the night, like, are you gonna run out of the house and call 911 Probably not professional men. It took me a second. Yeah. And it's like, all right, well we get there and like, okay, cool.

Like, yeah, that detector's, chirping usually means the battery's low. Like, I see you have a ladder right there. Did you like pull the battery out or I'm like, no, no, no. I just wanted to get out of the house. I didn't know, like, something was on fire. I'm like, really? Those calls are pretty common. We get a lot of calls for, like, the smell of gas.

You know, gas leaks in houses. And it happens, and it's absolutely dangerous, but I remember one we had where we responded to the smell of gas in the structure. So it's typically a multi engine response, battalion chief. Or the gas company is probably going to be coming, too. But we go in there and start like, like looking around the house, and like, I don't smell anything, and this whole house is electric.

Electric stove, electric water heater, electric furnace. Like, walk out into the garage, and I'm like, I smell gasoline out here. And the guy walks out and he's like, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Oh, it's gasoline. Like, you have, like, lawnmowers and cars and motorcycles and stuff in here. Uh, a call, a call will come in for a house on fire.

Not a definite address, but an area. So he'll go out there, and like, driving around, like, I don't see anything, smell anything. And you finally get a hold of the calling party, and they're like, Yeah, like right over there to the north, like a block over. Like, oh, those Christmas lights? Really? Ha ha ha. In the season here, when all the ducks are having their little litters, we actually carry a net on the fire engine, because the ducks are not very smart, right?

So the little Little baby ducks are following mom and mom goes across, you know, the storm drain the gutter or whatever and the babies fall in there So people call us. Okay, it's it's a normal thing to the point. We start carrying these mats Yeah so we went to one of those like we went to one of those and it's like on the corner of a pretty busy intersection and like Yeah, you can hear them down there, so.

Usually, like, we'll put a hose in one side, and just kind of push them the other way, and somebody will scoop them out, and mom will take off with them. So this was by, like, uh, I want to say it was a dentist's office. We get there, and there's, I don't know, five, six little baby ducks come out. Mom kind of corrals them all up, and they're pretty amazing, because they'll, they keep track, right?

Like, if there's one missing, they, they seem to know. And all the girls from the dentist's office are up there like, Oh, you guys are so awesome, that's so cool. Well, all of a sudden, Mama Duck goes straight out into a 45 mile an hour, uh, intersection. And here comes a, a jeep like Grand Cherokee and, and just one swoop, man, it was just a puff of feathers.

And the girls, the girls from the dentist's office are screaming and like, Oh my God. I'm like, Oh shit. That was horrible. Like I had no control over that. Like not gonna. We can't do anything with them, right? Like, we let them go, mama takes care of them, but she let them Oh, I feel She let them right into the, right into the grinder.

Slaughtered the whole litter, huh? Not all of them. Mama, all the babies, they all went together. The first call that I went on that really made me laugh, I don't know, this was, this was a long time ago, but it sticks with me. We want to call for a, a dog bite. Like, it could be a legit call, right? Like, dogs tear people up, right?

So we show up, no idea what's going on, and there's, there's a few cop cars there already, and there's cops standing in the front yard, and they're all, they're all kind of giggling. Like, well, it can't be too bad, you know. So we go into this house, and the guy's laying in between the bathroom and into the hallway, and he's got a towel, like, over his midsection.

So we go walking down there, and the ambulance folks had showed up right about the same time. And it's, it's like five in the morning and there's blood all over the bathroom floor. There's beer bottles floating in the bathtub that's still full of water. Blood in the bathtub. Is this his dog? Yeah, it was his dog.

But so we get up to him and start talking to him like, Hey man, like, what's going on? Where you been? He's like, you don't want to know. Like, well, that's, that's what we're here for, man. Like, there's a lot of blood. Like, we need to check you out. It's like, well, where is it? And he's like, well, it's on my dick.

I'm like, oh, shit. This is not going to be good because the amount of blood was everywhere, right? But I mean, that piece is pretty vascular, right? Like, it cut on the face, you know? It bleeds a lot, especially probably if you're at, like, full staff, but So, the paramedic off the ambulance, like, his first question, and this medic, you'd have to know him to appreciate his that side manner.

He's like, so, what was the dog doing, you know, with your junk in his, in his mouth? And I kind of chuckled. I'm like, uh, he's like, well, I was playing with the dog and he must have mistaken his bone for mine. I'm like, come on, man. Like, where's, where's the peanut butter at? Like, you're, you're lying to us right now.

Right? So like, all right, man, well, let's take a look at it. Like, we got to see it. He's like, we got to see it. And he's like, do you really want to like, no, I don't want to, but like, we got to check it out. Right. So he uncovers himself and he's got like two puncture wounds, like right in the tip. I was, I was expecting like a full, like a full, like severed, like it was gone.

Bobbit. Yeah. Like, I mean as much blood as there was like that. Yeah. That's, that's kind of what I was expecting to see, but luckily, luckily for him. It wasn't that bad, but. So did the, uh, did the bite, um, settle him down, like as far as, uh, full staff to no staff? Oh, he was no staff. Yeah, he was less than half staff anyway.

He was flying low. Flying low. I felt bad for him. I was getting a vasectomy, and I hadn't gone in yet. I was telling the UPS guys I was getting a vasectomy. And, uh, I don't know how the joking started, but. He says, oh, yeah, I went to get a vasectomy. The nurse started touching me. I started getting excited So she took a wooden spoon and smacked me on the, Smacked me on the tip And he says it, it went to zero.

That's what he said. I can't believe that. Oh, man, I might've went the other way with that. I don't know.

Well, sorry, I'm not supposed to talk like that. Oh, it's all right. There's a lot of calls like that, man. I mean, I, I could go on and on about them, but, um, people never fail to amaze me. You know, like car, car accidents, we had one where a, a car had went into, you know, like a, a three rail post and pole fence.

The post are probably six inch, eight inch diameter, and then the, the rails are, I don't know, probably two inch diameter, maybe, maybe a little bigger. But the call came in as a, a car into a power pole, lines down, et cetera. And we get there, and there's, yeah, there's power lines down, there's, again, people sitting on the power pole, like, waiting for us to get there with, You know, hotlines on the ground.

There's a guy in the car. He's in the driver's seat. I don't know exactly how the accident actually played out, but one of the rails, the smaller wood rails, had went through the driver door like a pixie stick, right? Or like a skewer. It went through the door and had him pinned in the car. So, we like, you know, safely, quietly, make our way around the car lines, get access like through the back window into the car.

And start talking to the guy, but I can't, I can't really assess him from the backseat, right? Because the car is just, it's on its wheels, but kind of on its side. But he's like, my legs, my legs are, like, I just, I can't get my legs out of here. So that, that pull, that pull hadn't gone through him. It was just pinning him in the car.

That's what we thought, right? That's what we thought. So he's like, he's like, no, my legs are pinned, right? So from the backseat it looked like, again, he's in the driver's seat, came in through the driver door, and it looks like it's over the top of his left leg and under the bottom of his right leg. And it's, you know, it's still like connected to the post that it came out of.

So he's wedged in there and I'm like did it it's not in your leg, right? It's not in your right leg. Like it looks like it went right over your left leg, but it's not going through your right leg He's like, no, I just I can't move my legs. So I call for a For a sawzall and they're working on taking the top off So I cut between the door and his left leg and the guy doesn't wheeze shimmer grunt nothing, right?

Like I make this cut through the wood post Hand the saw back. I'm like, all right, well, let's try to move. Let's try to move your leg. So like lifts up his left leg and Now I can kind of see I'm like you sure that's not that's not in your right leg And he's like what it doesn't hurt or anything. So about this time they're getting the top off the car So I'm in the backseat, the guys come around the front, and they start cutting his pants off, because I'm like, I think he's impaled.

So, they get his pants cut off, and I hear one of the guys go, Oh, shit. And I can't see anything, like, I'm in the backseat leaning over, they're working on him. And the guy's like, what man, what, how bad is it? And he's like, I don't know how bad it is, but we're gonna get you out of here as quick as we can. So, we get him out of the car, onto a backboard.

And on to the gurney, and that post had went over his left leg, splintered, and half of it split his nutsack, and then continued on just below his femur, and on the outside of his right leg, I don't know how to describe this without like, drawing a picture, right? But so, on the outside of his right, the outside of his right leg, his underwear were poking out.

And the stick was behind it, and it wasn't bleeding. So it, it went through his leg, pushed his underwear, and the stick, completely through his leg, and out the other side. And somebody said something about his genitals or something, and that's when he started to freak out. Oh my god! He's like, are my boys okay?

Like, man, I don't know, but I can see both of them. So I think you're all right. So we, we'd heard a followup. It missed both of his balls and he was out of the OR in like two hours or something, and he was okay. Missed his boys, missed his femur. So why wasn't he bleeding? It just didn't hit any, uh, blood vessels or anything.

It didn't hit his femoral artery and it, it didn't go through his leg. But I mean, there was, it wasn't, it wasn't bleeding. We had another one, and this was like, it was winter time, and we got a call for a car into a building. And I was coming off shift, but I'm like, well, this sounds, sounds interesting. You guys want another hand?

They're like, yeah, let's go. And so we pull up on this house, and it looked like the car is up on its side, with the frame, chassis side of the car facing the road. And there's a body draped over the car. So you can see, like, the legs. Part of the torso, but you can't see the head. It's on the opposite side of the car.

It looked like it was staged. There's a massive blood splatter, probably 20 inches in diameter. I'm like, man, it's not Halloween. Like this is, like I said, there's like, it was like 7, 7 30 in the morning. It's daylight. We go walking up there. Like what in the hell is going on? Walk around the front side of the car, which would be the roof side.

There was a female in the vehicle. Somehow lost control, went off the road into a ditch, tangled up in barbed wire. And the car went into a tumble. And the only thing that stopped it was the front, the front portion of the house, that front porch. I mean, her body, her body came out and was wrapped in barbed wire, essentially.

And I'm assuming smacked over the top of the car. Her face, her face hit the A post, so like the windshield post. That's like where the majority of her face was, but it just threw it all at the house when that car stopped. So, it's not a funny story by any means, except that. We'd been there a few minutes and all of a sudden that front door opens and some like 90 year old man Walks outside.

He goes, what in the, what in the world's going on out here? You know, there's a couple fire engines and an ambulance there, he looks right and he's like, Oh my goodness, what in the sweet Jesus happens? So he, he said that he thought he heard like some thunder or something the night before or you know, early in the morning or something like that, but yeah, she was, she was froze solid.

I mean, the car, the car was cold. She'd been there a while. Who ended up making the call? Someone driving by down the road. Yeah. Someone saw a car overturned and called it in, but I'm sure it wasn't the first car that drove by there after that happened because she was frozen, right? So, and that's, I mean, back in those days there wasn't, wasn't a ton of traffic on that road, but Have you experienced, um, any post traumatic stress or, um, mental health challenges as a result of your job?

And if so And you feel comfortable enough sharing some of it, how you overcame it or manage it. I would say that anybody that does this job for any period of time, whether they realize it or not, absolutely had some exposure to it, how it affects them. You know, everybody's different. Some people can brush it off.

Like for me, the, the gore of it and the, you know, the blood and whatnot, that doesn't really bother me. It's always kind of shocking to see it. It's just like, Ooh, bad. But for me, and I figured this out early on, it's, uh, It's like the empathy, right? So not, not so much for the dead person, but the family, friend, loved one.

Right. So they're, they're dealing with the hard part. Right, like we're doing everything we can. I can go on some bad ones, I'm not going to do that. But, typically after those calls, you know, we'll talk about it a bit. And, like the critical incidents, that stress debriefing is, is a thing. But, I've only seen it happen one time and it was, I'll say it was just very poorly managed.

But, in the department's defense, they didn't know, they didn't know how to deal with it. It was, it was one of our own guys. It was a post surgery medical complication. Young guy. We went on the call, we worked on him. He didn't make it, so we all went to the hospital and they kept us all there as all the family and other engines were showing up and so you're seeing everybody coming in.

The department at the time didn't know how to handle it. So they sent us all home, right? So all the crews that were on, once they got coverage, they sent us all home. So what do we do? You know, we all got together and got drunk. Got a call from the chief a day or two later, like, Hey, how you doing? Just checking in.

Like, yeah, doing all right. Like, it sucks, but it happens. But that was the end of it. I think a lot of guys, they don't realize what it can do to you over time, right? And they just brush it off, right? I don't need help, like I'm a dude. I don't know, I feel, I feel pretty good. I've, I've talked to some people and I mean that, just life in general, it can be trying.

Based on what you've told me, you've got some good habits, um, outside of work? I think it, I think it's a good way to keep your mind off of it. But, kind of what I've figured out is keeping your mind off of it and not addressing it. You have to face it sometime. That's the way it was explained to me, right?

Like you can You can keep packing it away and packing it away, but at some point it's going to rear its head. But I don't, I don't think anybody can do that job that long and not have some form of negative impact on the rest of it. I think it's awesome what you're doing. Hope it gets to some people and if nothing else they get some laughs out of it or maybe get some guidance on where to get some help.

I appreciate you taking the time Mike. Anytime man.