The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 40 - From Eight Tours In Iraq and Afghanistan to Civilian Life: Stu Sword's Journey

• Scott McLean • Episode 41

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From a challenging start in Virginia Beach to Army Command Sergeant Major, Stu Sword's journey is anything but ordinary. Discover how a pivotal high school decision led him to a remarkable 26-year military career, including eight intense tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stu, now COO of Fort's Logistics, shares his story of finding camaraderie in the military and the high-stakes missions that defined his service, offering listeners a rare glimpse into the life of a soldier.

Listeners will find themselves captivated by the raw and poignant narratives that underscore the unpredictability of warfare and the personal sacrifices made by those who serve. With a focus on mental health, we unpack the challenges faced by veterans after returning home, exploring societal perceptions and personal experiences. Stu and I discuss the importance of seeking help, sharing insights on the transition to civilian life and the broader role of Veterans Affairs in supporting soldiers' well-being and benefits.

We also dive into innovative physical training approaches that foster both fitness and morale, plus the intricacies of veteran benefits. Stu's work with Fort's Logistics highlights the transformative power of portable structures in disaster response, showcasing how veterans are crucial to these efforts. Wrapping up, we appreciate fellow podcasts, hoping our conversation resonates with veterans and their families, reminding everyone of the vital helplines available for support.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Stu Sword. Stu is the Chief Operating Officer for Fort's Logistics, located in Coconut Creek, florida. How you doing, stu? I'm doing. Great Thanks for having me companies, even though there are some that are very veteran friendly. I try to keep this informative and pretty much nonprofit based. But Stu and I we met through the Mission United in Broward County and we had we just had a conversation, we and we hit it off and Stu had some interesting things to say. So he's had some interesting experiences. So I thought you know what it's my podcast, I can bring whoever I want on. And he said hey, I'll come on. Okay, you're on, and here we are. Here we are. So, stu, tell the listeners a little about yourself where you're from, when you went into the military, what branch, and a little bit of what you did, because I know there's some interesting aspects to your military career also.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, for sure, and we'll kind of dissect that a little bit during the episode. But again, thanks for having me on For the listeners. Thanks for tuning in. Got an interesting story to tell. Hopefully I'll share it all today. If not, maybe we'll have a second cut followed up with another episode.

Stu Sword:

But I've got a lot of unique knowledge from my experience in the military, but also my childhood. So I'm a Virginia boy, originally Grew up in Virginia Beach, kind of bounced around a little bit, Originally born in North Carolina but I grew up in Virginia, virginia beach. A lot of people when you think of Virginia you don't think of a beach. But I grew up on the beach doing a lot of surfing and I found myself in really good shape. But also found myself running with the wrong crowd right Hanging out with some kids skateboarding. That probably wasn't going to lead to the brightest future.

Stu Sword:

And one day in the common area high school, you know, I saw some recruiters standing there and it was kind of the taboo thing to do at the time, like don't go talk to the recruiters, like that's not the cool thing to do, right, I'll make money off surfing and skateboarding. But I knew that was far from reality so I went up to the recruiters one day and I just asked like, hey, what's some bad-ass stuff you got and what can I do? And they're like well, you got to take a couple of tests and you got to do a couple of things and I'll our listeners probably know they're familiar with the ASVAB and stuff like that you want to do well, because that sets you up for what you're going to do in the military. You can always retake it. But I think, luckily enough, I hadn't done very well in high school. I'd come from a broken home. You know a lot of like things I was processing as a child, you know, from a broken home. So the military became my new family at a very young age.

Scott McLean:

All right, and you went in the army.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, I chose. I chose the army. You know, when I was serving I was a little biased to the army. You know, if you ask like an air force guy, what's the only branch, they're going to say air force, and it is, by the way it is. And you're an Air Force guy, what's the only?

Scott McLean:

branch, they're going to say Air Force, and it is, by the way it is.

Stu Sword:

And you're an Air Force veteran, scott. But the Air Force and Army worked closely together. Wow, the Air Force came out of the Army, the Air Force came out. I was kind of thinking Marines Army. I wasn't sure the Marines definitely caught my eye with their uniform and stuff. But I started talking to the army recruiters about joining the rangers at a young age and I was cross country runner, I was a surfer, I was teed up to be successful in the army.

Scott McLean:

Right, and so you went in and you went to ranger school prior or after.

Stu Sword:

That's an interesting conversation that we could probably take this whole podcast on. But yeah, I'm definitely a certified army ranger. To get to that is is a very difficult, you know, process. I'm sure some of the listeners can can relate to that. But yeah, definitely went over to the desert. What?

Scott McLean:

year what?

Stu Sword:

year. I was there for the, so I missed I was not present for the beginning of the Afghanistan invasion because I was actually in Korea serving over in Korea. So everyone was chomping at the bit to get over on the army side, right, cause, like the, the ground force invasion was coming Right and that's like the game you don't want to miss, right? That's why everyone joins Right To kind of like get to put the smack down on someone, right? You don't know and I tell this to people that don't know anything about the military it could be, you know, the guy or gal on the National Guard. It could be your tier one operator, delta Force, seal type guy. Everyone joins to do their job right, and when you're going overseas it's a chance to do your job on the grandest stage. So, everyone, when you tell everyone you're rolling out, you don't see many people looking to miss the bus. Now some people don't make the bus for other reasons.

Stu Sword:

But yeah, I did eight tours in Iraq, afghanistan, kind of joked. When I was serving in Iraq I had the key to Baghdad because we were doing 15 month deployments. I'm sure some of the listeners can relate to that. That's a long time. It's a long time and one deployment I distinctly remember the most is we deployed in November of 07 and came back in January, february of 09. So take a few seconds and process that Two Thanksgivings, two Christmases, two New Years, not to mention all the other like holidays in between. But that's a long time.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, absolutely. So you went over there. Give us some of the experiences that you. You told me that you uh about an ambush.

Stu Sword:

Oh yeah, so we were. We were fighting pretty much house to house is how the army would describe it doing a systematic clearance of Haifa Street and I'm sure a lot of the listeners can. They've heard of Haifa Street or they know about Haifa Street in Baghdad, iraq, very kinetic area, we would say. The weather forecast is bullity, right, because there's going to be some shooting. It's just a matter of you know, is it the first block or the second block? And we had been fighting house to house and doing rather well. Premier Army infantry unit out of the 82nd Airborne Blue Falcons and it's kind of funny to hear Blue Falcon, a lot of people call that the buddy fuckers right, but the Blue Falcons were a very prestigious unit. The unit's no longer around because they sunset it, but the Falcons still are around, so it's just the red and white. The blue was the third battalion of the regiment and we were fighting house to house.

Stu Sword:

Snipers up high and probably a 20-story building and we started taking contact through an area we had already have cleared. So essentially the enemy's trying to encircle us at that point they're coming from the rear. We've got some fixed to the front but they're now coming from the rear. But the snipers eliminated them quicker than we could say oh shit, right. The snipers dropped them real fast. And there was one guy that they had observed on a moped, that was kind of like yo-yo in the battlefield and what he was doing was relaying messages and grid coordinates and at the time the snipers relayed to the ground force commander, he's still alive, headshot. We think we need to detain him. So the commander put it out over the radio net like hey, I need two guys to go do an EPW search on this guy and secure him and bring him back up here. Epw for the listeners. Yeah, epw would be an enemy prisoner of war. So you know, even though we can be rather kinetic, you know, if someone's wounded and we assess them as a wounded enemy person, you know, oftentimes we will like render them aid. Yeah, right, but the guy had taken a headshot with a 50 cow, so that's that, it's not going to end well for him, but he, so that's that.

Stu Sword:

Typically the army will search prisoners with a buddy team. So we're going to move about 400 meters from the main element, which is still within like small arms range. The snipers can see us. So initially we're like, ok, this isn't too bad. But as soon as we get down there and we're in the open area of essentially the middle of Haifa Street, we start taking gunfire and grenades from every single alleyway to the south, to our rear that we possibly could. And Specialist Mitchell, one of my soldiers who was a part of my fire team, was hit instantly with a grenade right. So now he's wounded, but he's still conscious and able to fight.

Stu Sword:

We grab this fighter and we drag him to the side right, because obviously you don't want to be in the middle of the street while a bunch of gunfire is raining down the street. We get him to the side. We communicate back up to the ground force commander, a true American, captain Massey. We called him Ranger Massey and if you're listening, ranger Massey, man, I love you, you're awesome, all the troops love you too. And he saw what was happening.

Stu Sword:

The snipers are communicating like hey, they're taking heavy fire down there, grenades are coming over walls and luckily enough, me and Mitchell were both carrying the 203, the old school grenade launcher. So a lot of the sergeants back then in the 82nd we would all carry. The sergeants would have the grenade launcher Now typically off your ilmto your military table of organizational equipment. The sergeant wouldn't have the grenade launcher. We just knew it was a very valuable weapon on the battlefield. So him and I both had about 18 grenades we could launch. And we just started launching grenades down every single alleyway. But we were now fixed. The larger element couldn't move to us and it's just a matter of time. We're going to be, we're going to be overwhelmed, right, but we're, we're of the mindset and we're going to fight, you know, until we're down to the last round.

Stu Sword:

But luckily, very competent company commander, ground force commander, ranger Massey, he calls in two Bradley fighting vehicles that were in the area from the third infantry division and I can hear these engines coming from like around about three blocks away, right, because they were kind of set up in like a blocking position. Like hey, we got some guys fixed. The snipers were shooting armor-piercing rounds, right, and these rounds, you know, sometimes they ricochet, they've got some kickback and stuff like that. So they're like, hey, we can't engage, they're too close. We've got some kickback and stuff like that. So they're like, hey, we can't engage, they're too close. So we're so close to any contact the snipers can't even help us because of the type of rounds they're firing.

Stu Sword:

So the Bradleys move up into the position and, like I said, you can hear these Bradleys coming. They came around, not quiet, they're not quiet, they're loud. They do a 90-degree—now it's a tracked vehicle. It's not a wheeled vehicle, right, but it's got a badass like machine gun on there, a 30-millimeter Bushmaster like cannon. It's got some other toys on there too, of smaller caliber, and they roll up right in front of us. They came around that turn on like one track, right.

Stu Sword:

And it's interesting because a lot of the light infantry ranger guys don't like the mechanized guys. It's just a weird counterculture, right. But at that instant I really had a very fond appreciation for them, right, because, as we talked about the little rivalry earlier amongst the branches, right, if those guys and those Bradleys had not come up, I probably wouldn't be on this podcast right now. I would have been me and Mitchell would have been killed right there. And they're buttoned up. So they've got all their hatches closed and they're in essentially an armored protective vehicle and they are looking with their thermals through their 30-millimeter Bushmaster cannon and they see us on the ground and they just tilt that cannon like up, down, like north, south. I see where you're at Because you know a lot of the military folks can relate.

Stu Sword:

You got to know where your position is on the battlefield, right? If not, you're extra vulnerable. And they point that cannon right at us and give us a north south and then just start firing full auto down every single alleyway, which was perfect timing because at that point we're almost out of all of our grenades, our grenades Right, and then one of them backs up as close as they can get to us and they drop ramp. Yeah, so Mitchell, even though he's wounded, great American, is still fighting, conscious and able to move on his own. So me and him grab a leg of this enemy combatant and and drag him up into the back of that Bradley, of this enemy combatant and drag him up into the back of that Bradley.

Stu Sword:

And at that time we're still kind of in the elementary stages of the war, right. So it's just communicated. Hey, we've got one friendly wounded, one enemy wounded, and we're so close to downtown Baghdad, the green zone, the cash, the combat hospital, that those Bradleys just moved together through the streets taking us directly to the front door of the cash. And as, as we roll up, you know we're trying to do, and me and Mitchell had violated a few things that we should have searched that guy in detail before we drug him in the Bradley right Cause he could have had a suicide vest on, could have had a weapon on which he did.

Stu Sword:

We found it while we're in the Bradley right Cause he could have had a suicide vest on, could have had a weapon on which he did. We found it while we're in the Bradley Right, but at the time we're we're so focused on, like, eliminating the threat and trying to survive.

Scott McLean:

We couldn't.

Stu Sword:

We couldn't search the guy, we had to do it in route. And so we roll up and I'll never forget there's about five surgeons outside and the ramp drops on the Bradley and this guy you know his brain matter is starting to run down the ramp. The combatant he's shot in the head with a .50 cal and the surgeons are like where's the friendly wounded at? Because we always treat our friendly first and Mitchell walks out. Yeah, I'm the guy. He's right here in my leg.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, yeah yeah, and they're like all right. So all these surgeons are focusing on him and the enemy combatant's still there. And then they scooped up the enemy combatant and stuff, but it didn't end too well for him. But he had a pistol on him and he had a GPS device on him, and in the GPS device were all the grid coordinates for where they had all their weapons stored. Oh, there you go.

Stu Sword:

So it was a valuable you know, prisoner of war in terms of the intelligence value so huge and for that you know, as you do things in the army, I never did things for recognition, I just did things because they were the right thing to do. But you know, after that everyone was like, oh my gosh, that was so badass, like we thought y'all were dead because there's so much gunfire and grenades going off, like the fog of war is a real element. At that point they know we're down there but no one can see because grenades are kicking up dust and dirt. Luckily those Bradleys rolled in so big shout out to anyone's ever served in a Bradley or the 3rd Infantry Division. Y'all saved my life.

Scott McLean:

There's an episode that you could probably listen to. This kid that I interviewed that was in a bradley got blown up yeah I think, and it's. It's a very, it's the number one. Listen to episode on my podcast. It's a good story, good kid. You'll probably relate to it in in more than a few ways. But so you did eight tours.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, it was a total of eight tours Iraq, Afghanistan. I had thought I had served more tours in Iraq than Afghanistan, but when I was getting discharged Iraq, so I got caught up in the surge of the 15-month cycle, so you start to lose track of time. At that point Some of the initial Afghanistan deployments were only like three, four months. We'd go in, we'd just lay the smack down on people and then we'd bounce.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, hit and run. So you did 23 years 26. 26 years. Have you ever totaled up the amount of time out of those 26 that you were over there?

Stu Sword:

Yeah, I never really cared, but as I was doing my final discharge, when I'm sitting with the kind lady, Kind of a look back. Yeah, they tally it up and it literally she's tallying it. I'm watching it. I'm like, oh shit, that's a lot of months right. It literally stopped on a hundred months. Wow, and I couldn't. If you gave me a sheet of paper when I joined at age 17,. Stu, how many months overseas in combat where you serve? I wouldn't have like stopped it at a hundred, because who stops?

Scott McLean:

at a hundred 26,. Just less than half was over there.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, it's like like, like, I think it's like eight and a half years. I mean, I have to do the math, but it's like a hot minute. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of time right.

Scott McLean:

Over there. I don't know if I've met anybody that's done that much time over there.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, god bless you, buddy, there's definitely. You know well. The thing with the army, you know, is during the surge, you know we called it March Madness is when Mutada al-Sadr in Baghdad was trying to retake, trying to really purge the surge, if you will. So the army was maxed out. There were soldiers that literally had been on a return flight, had touched down at their home base and got sent back. They came right back. They never got off the plane. That's rough. So literally the army was maxed. They were, we were maxed out. I say the army, I'm saying, like my branch, we were maxed out during the surge. And there's still some people serving that were in during the surge and they'll tell you yeah, that was a rough time. Expect to be gone for 15. I'm almost certain. I never went longer than 15 months overseas, but there were some units that did. So you know the amount of service and stuff like that is just like unbelievable.

Stu Sword:

Although you weren't in it for this and it's, you know, it's nice to have, but you weren't looking for awards, medals, yeah. So back to that, that ambush we were talking about. You know, I was still just a young, motivated sergeant. I really wasn't paying attention to promotion to the next level, I was just doing the best.

Stu Sword:

At my current job, I was a team leader in a premier you know, infantry ground unit and when we came back from that deployment, you know we had all earned our combat infantry badge, which is like the rifle with the wreath that you talk to, you know the army. Now they got the combat infantry badge, which is like the rifle with the wreath that you talk to you know the army. Now they got the combat action badge. It just signifies you've been in combat and received fire from an enemy element which is huge, right, like someone's trying to kill you. Yeah, right, it's not many, it's a very small percentage of Americans say that someone tried to kill me, right, and then to be in that type of ground combat where I don't even know how many grenades came over the walls, probably in the range of 10 to 20. We I think I had about two of my HE grenades left out of 18 when we were getting in the back of that Bradley and then we drove down to the green zone, the cache, with only two Bradleys.

Stu Sword:

So you talk to people that served later in the war. You couldn't drive down the streets in two Bradleys. You'd get ambushed and killed, right. So you'd have to have a larger vehicle package, I think it's. Sometimes the minimum package is like either four or six vehicles. You had to have to go down the streets in Iraq. That's a lot of firepower, a lot of armament, right. So we'd shot it down in two. But for all that, I got an Army Accommodation Medal with a v device, which is a valorous award it's. It's something I hold near and dear to my heart. Even today I've got that award where I live at, and you know it means a lot because when you read it you're like, oh, wow, like yeah, you know, risked own life and like imminent danger to assist and save others. Like oh shit, that's powerful, yeah. So it means a lot. It's very special to me.

Scott McLean:

There, you go so you retired as a. What was your rank?

Stu Sword:

Command Sergeant Major.

Scott McLean:

Command Sergeant Major.

Stu Sword:

So for all your branches, for the enlisted it goes E1 to E9. Yeah, I was at E9, and then there's levels to E8, and there's levels to E9. Same thing with the officer structure, but I was an officer so I'm not really qualified to comment on that. But there's levels of command select right. So not only are you badass enough to get selected to E9 and then graduate the Sergeant Major Academy, which is a pretty difficult task to do right, it's a year long course, constantly being evaluated on a lot of different things, very stressful environment. But then you are identified above your peers to go into a command position, which the army's saying you are one of our best. So I was a command select d9 at the battalion level and I was running boot camp in south carolina when I retired.

Scott McLean:

Ah okay, so out of all, if you don't mind me asking any after effects, if you know what I mean from all the yeah, it's interesting you frame it like that, scott, because I think you know exactly what we're about to talk about.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, and the listeners probably hear it too. Yeah, I definitely. You know, like I said, when I was just serving I was in the moment I was current I was present back in that near ambush and even after that, because you're still on an adrenaline high right, the adrenaline's continuing like days, weeks for the entire deployment. Right, you're just switched off, you don't go backwards.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, no, so you don't want to go backwards either.

Stu Sword:

No side effects from that, I'd say probably the largest is like post-traumatic stress disorder, which a lot of veterans are familiar with. For me, I started to identify that probably back in about 2006. Okay, now I didn't retire until 2023. Yeah, I was going to say I did a lot of self-coping for those like whatever that is like you know, 16, 17 years. I did my own research. We'd come back from deployment, we went through reintegration training, but it wasn't like robust reintegration training. It was more so like the importance of getting your paperwork signed right, because that's what stands in between you and your first weekend back Right. So everyone's just trying to blow through it, right. But the impacts of adrenaline, the impacts of doing night operations continuously really had an adverse effect on me that I had to self cope with to the point it kind of started to manifest in about 2022. It kind of started to manifest in about 2022.

Stu Sword:

Now, luckily for me, I was close to the end of my time in the military and you'll see, a lot of vets don't step forward. A lot of the active force serving today don't step forward right, because you don't want to get certain types of medication, because then you can't deploy. If you can't deploy. You're a shit bag. You know what I mean. You probably won't make the next rank, even though you're going to be told you will. Because how can you stack up? How can you stack up when you're down range for six, 10, 12, 15 months and then the other person's back in the rear sweeping the floor? It doesn't stack up, it can, can't be quantified. So a lot of folks don't step forward. Hey, my knee hurts. Oh shit, don't go to sick call. You're gonna be a sick call ranger. Right, don't do this, right? So a lot of people just self-cope and they quickly want to get in and out, but they're harboring a lot of things inside.

Stu Sword:

So definitely ptsd in terms of me, like like night terrors and stuff like waking, waking up at night, like sweating, like bad to the point, like the mattress is soaked. That's not good, right. I used to have to go grab towels out of out of my like a linen closet and lay towels down. That way I could stop sweating. And then, you know, when I started to seek care back I think in 2022, the initial assumption was like we've got to check you for leukemia, you know Cause. I guess that's a sign. I mean, I'm not a doctor. I'm just going off what I'm told. But like a lot of people that sweat profusely at night, you know perhaps have other disorders and leukemia being one of them.

Stu Sword:

So they did a full on like leukemia workup just make sure I didn't have like leukemia, that's scary. Which all that stuff came back negative it was like. And then I did a sleep study with a doctor in South Carolina really older gentleman like 70, been doing like sleep study for a very long time and they, you know, they record you. They got like 30 sensors on you and a lot of people do it for sleep apnea. Right, but I was doing it to confirm or deny like night tears, because this is what's causing me to sweat, ah, interesting. And my heart rate? When I would have these night tears, my heart rate would be running like 160 beats a minute. I mean that's like you're out on like a moderately intense workout.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

Very intense workout While you're sleeping, while you're sleeping right, and that's what would wake me up. So did a sleep study and the doc's like, yeah, you're, you're like a historical guy. You just been down range too long. You're like too switched on Right and at and at night, you're like re, re, experiencing things through your own, your dreams, which isn't good, right Cause if you're not sleeping well, you're more susceptible to other things and stuff like that. So he's like yeah, you've, you've definitely got night terrors, which I was diagnosed with, diagnosed with adrenaline fatigue and stuff like that. Like we could be filming this podcast right now, scott, and someone could get shot in front of me and my heart rate would probably stay about the same. Yeah, it's like, oh shit, like someone got shot, you know.

Scott McLean:

But that's, that's one of the things with with the PTSD is you just look at something and you're like, yeah, so I saw that before.

Stu Sword:

Yeah.

Scott McLean:

Like it's like it's, it's, it's part of it is almost being desensitized to things. In those situations everybody's situation is different, but like I could see something I'd be like yeah, it's not nice to see, but I've seen it before. Like it's not shocking to me yeah, which isn't good.

Stu Sword:

No, you, you're desensitized to a lot of that stuff. Just like me, I was jumping out of airplanes. Yeah, you know I mean like I like me, I was jumping out of airplanes. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like I don't jump out of airplanes anymore. I got a few friends that still do some skydiving stuff, but like, not for me, not for this guy, that's a law of averages thing yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like in my last episode I talked about one of my.

Scott McLean:

Eventually, you're going to be searching for a bomb. That's going to be there. It's going to be there.

Stu Sword:

And it's jumping out of planes, jumping out of planes. Eventually someone's going to have a failed canopy, and I saw it. I'm not going to say a lot, but I saw a fair amount of failed canopy. Now, luckily, they had a second canopy. They hit it about a few seconds before they were about to make impact.

Stu Sword:

But yeah, I don't, I don't do any skydiving or the other, the other things got that that I got diagnosed with. That I hadn't really thought about. I kinda I kinda knew it was like weird or wrong, but like I'd be walking through like Aldi, thinking of how to like breach a door Is that a door?

Scott McLean:

A lot of cops do that, Like I do, that I was on. It's a wonderful world, whatever it is in Disney. What's that? It's a one. It's the the one where you go in the little boat ride and it's like all happy. I'm looking for like exits. Yeah, You're looking for like exits.

Stu Sword:

Like there's a door behind that rock over there, like, yeah, just live like that, just too switched on, you know which is not good, right? You're like, I'm in aldi, you know, with with my, with my teenage girls, and I'm thinking about how to like breach the grocery door. Yeah, it's not, that's not something like healthy, right? I should be in again, going back to what I said, be current and present where you're at. Yeah, right, I'm in aldi with my teenage girls. I shouldn't be thinking about how I blow the door in. Is it inward, is it outward? Is it a slider? Do I use a cutting charge? Do I use a C charge? Do I use a pushing charge? Like all that stuff isn't healthy, not normal.

Stu Sword:

And actually, interestingly enough, scott, I actually went to, while I'm still on active duty, like I'm preparing to retire. I went to an inpatient facility in San Antonio, texas, called Laurel Ridge, and I'm a big proponent of anyone that's struggling with anything going to any type of facility. It doesn't have to be Laurel Ridge, right, but Laurel Ridge is one of the premier places that the military DOD uses to help people essentially rewire off-ramp, being too switched on, and it's really performance-based, it's outcome-based. So if you think about my career badass infantry guy award for valor, fighting through ambushes, all kinds of schools. I know you got my bio. It goes on and on and I don't like to self-boast, but the last school in the army was a psych ward. Think about it Interesting, it's very interesting, right, yeah? And you get a little certificate and one of my roommate there, cause, you know, it's two people in a room and it's and it's not like prison, but it's kind of like a soft prison, like you can't leave at night. You know what I mean.

Scott McLean:

I went through the three-week inpatient alcohol rehab at Travis Air Force Base. I kind of get an idea of how that is run.

Stu Sword:

You can't go anywhere. You know what I'm talking about, right, but I'm a big proponent of mental health. I'm talking about right, and I'm a big proponent of mental health. I'm a big proponent of people seeking help talking to a professional. So, anyone that's listening, if you're struggling with some of the stuff we just talked about, or you know someone that is, I encourage you to go talk to a professional. And there's nothing wrong with talking to someone about how you feel.

Stu Sword:

Right, think about the amount of money we spend on ourself. Like I'm going to go get a haircut, I want to go get a beard trim, I want to go get my nails done, I want to go get my toes done. Manny petty, I want to get a new pair of shoes. Guys, do that. No, I've done it once or twice. It's kind of cool. You know what I mean. Okay, yeah, sometimes you got to get a little cleanup, especially the feet. The feet, yeah, I'm a career infantry guy, right? You know what I mean. Like, the feet are our primary mode of transportation, so you got to keep your feet in tip top.

Scott McLean:

Now, I've only done it like twice.

Stu Sword:

I got you. I'm not like a regular person, but people will spend $100 on their feet or their nails, but they're reluctant to pay $100 to go talk to someone about some things that are going on in your head, right, but it should be somewhat normalized like, hey, I'm not doing okay. So when I talk to a lot of people these days, I ask them and we talked about this, scott, before I ask you how you're doing. But then I ask you how are you really doing? You know what I mean. Are your bills paid? Have you paid your electric bill? You know what I mean.

Stu Sword:

How's your family? When's the last time you talked to your parents? You know what I mean. Like, how are you really doing as a man? And it's okay to tell me that you're not doing okay, because maybe I mean I can definitely slide a $5 bill your way. You know what I mean. I may not be able to pay your rent for the month, but I can help you, get in touch with some services and some people that can help you. Right, and I know we're all familiar with like the 22 a day and I've seen some studies and research say it's even higher than that Right, yeah, I just had that discussion in my last episode.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, my last interview.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, and it's. It's really a shame. You know, think about you know, some of these people that you know choose to harm themselves, and I know I've got a very personal story and I don't know if you want to get to it now, you want to wait till a little later. But I can. I can share that as well, but it's really a shame that, like, someone is more reluctant to not spend a hundred dollars to talk to someone and then take their own life.

Scott McLean:

Tell me the story Tell us the story.

Stu Sword:

So quick, quick testimonial from myself. I was in Iraq on that 15 month deployment we had talked about earlier and it's late at night, you know. It's like 11 o'clock at night. We weren't on a mission cycle that night, so that we still kind of stay up late Cause also it's done at night and I get called up to the battalion commander's office, you know, which is like oh shit, I'm like I'm an e5 in the army. What the hell does the car want to see me for?

Scott McLean:

yeah, you know, I mean, I've had those calls, it wasn't good.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, this is typically not good. Yeah, it's typically not. Yeah, but I'm just thinking, did I screw something up, like you know? You know, did I lose my rifle? You know how it is when you're downrange right, like someone left their rifle at the port-a-john or something. You know what I mean. So no, I've got my rifle, I've got my night vision, it's definitely not that. And I walk in and I'm just at that point I'm a younger version of me, right, but I'm not stupid. I can tell something isn't right. And I walk in and the colonel's like, hey, stu, sit down. Yeah, I think he called me Sergeant Sword. Sit down, sit down.

Stu Sword:

I'm like, oh shit, he's like you're going to need to go home. We got a helicopter inbound so you don't need anything. Actually, you know you'll leave your rifle out there. I think I left it with like the S3, the op cell. Leave all your stuff there. You got to go home. Your brother's in bad shape. I was like, wow, my brother, what the hell happened to him? You know what I mean? A car accident, like someone tried to rob him and he didn't know right, cause it was a red cross message, and I'm sure a lot of listeners know the red cross message is kind of vague, but it's been verified by a doctor that. Hey, your brother. His real name was Micah, but Mike's sword is not in good shape. So, long story short, I ended up going back, grabbed the helicopter some soft guys.

Scott McLean:

Where were you at this point?

Stu Sword:

I was in Fah Rustamaya, which is kind of like East Baghdad, okay, but I got to get over to Baghdad International Airport. You know, because they got flights going every night back to Kuwait and I hopped on a helicopter some soft guys it'd get me over to Biop Baghdad International Airport. Get on a flight in uniform going to Kuwait. Get to Kuwait, there's like a little cell there and they put me in civilian clothes, right. They go like go over there and find some clothes that fits you, leave your uniform in the bag and we're taking you to Kuwaiti International Airport.

Stu Sword:

Here I am like sunburnt guy, I got the raccoon eyes. We've been in the desert for a few months and I find myself in Kuwaiti International Airport in like some clothes that don't fit me and literally fly all the way back to Virginia. So my brother was a veteran as well. Long story short, I'll just give you the abstract version. My brother committed suicide and it was fatal. He didn't survive and, as we were talking earlier about, if you need help, ask someone for help or go seek help.

Stu Sword:

He was a guy that had served in the invasion of Iraq and a lot of these units that aren't, like, you know, premier top infantry units, were trailing behind and taking over territory, you know land, and they had taken over some area and they got uh, they got overrun, like here it is a unit that's not designed to fight fighting, and that affected him immensely. And he got his VA decision letter. You know cause? All the uncles in the Sword family are all Vietnam vets, right? So when my brother, mike, came back, they're like hey, mike, you know, if you're not using the VA, like go use the VA. Which he did, right. But the VA was still going through some processes at that time he got his decision letter. His wife got it the day after he killed himself. 100%, permanent, total. Appreciate your service.

Stu Sword:

Day too late. You've been struggling too long, right? So, as I say that, you know it hits near and dear to me, but I can't change the past. I do recall my brother calling me before that deployment and talking to me about wanting to come back in the army. He's like hey, could you help me get back in? Well, of course I can help you get back in. I know a bunch of people have been serving the army, people know me. Of course I can help you get back in and but I was flying out the next day and he's calling me. He called me and I'm like hey, I that that was cool. I remember that it was great skateboard. You know we started talking about that. I'm like all right, bro, I love you, but I gotta go. I gotta go hang out with the kids. He's like and what about this and what about this? Yeah, and it was like you know, again, I was so like into the moment well, you don't think about that as you know, that's the last thing that you're thinking about.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, that's your brother.

Stu Sword:

That's like you know it's not going to happen to you. Just like we talked about the parachuting stuff like, oh, the parachute is not going to happen to me, but that was him starting to think of harming himself. You know what I mean and as I look back, I'm that was him, but at that point I was nowhere near where he was. I wasn't in a position to really influence that. But I say that to be aware that don't be in a mental state that, oh, it's not going to happen to me. No, it can happen to you, it can happen to your friends, it can happen to people you've been serving with right.

Stu Sword:

As I continued to serve, I knew a ton of other people in the Army that harmed themselves. I'm not going to mention the names just out of respect for the family, but a team leader I was serving with we went to lunch one day and we came back from lunch you know we start doing tasks after the lunch break and he wasn't there. And where the hell is Sarge? Sarge hung himself in his room during lunch. You know what I mean. Yeah, and I got another friend of mine Ranger, badass guy. This guy would have been a command select sergeant major too I'm not going to mention his name out of respect to the family.

Stu Sword:

But he killed himself on Thanksgiving Day and everyone knew he was struggling. He was in a bad divorce. We had played the football game the day before you know what I mean, the turkey bowl right and first started to talk to him and he was like bro, why don't you stay here with my family and why don't you spend Thanksgiving with us? You know, I know you're going through some times, but like we love you, man. And he's like no, no, everything's cool man. He's like I got a plan and we're like okay, we respect you. If you got a plan, you got a way to work it out, work it out. He hung himself that night in his house, yeah, yeah it's just, it's really a shame.

Stu Sword:

You know, like good friend of mine, both these guys, good friends of mine, just like harmed themselves. They're no longer on this planet.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, man.

Stu Sword:

Gone to another place. So, as I say that you know, if you need help, get help, talk to someone, take care of yourself. If you spend a hundred dollars on a manicure, pedicure, a haircut like, be willing to spend a hundred dollars and go talk to someone, but but for a veteran, there are a slew of benefits out there for the veteran right.

Scott McLean:

So when you got out, you got out in what year?

Stu Sword:

I retired in 2023.

Scott McLean:

2023. And you worked for the VA for a little bit.

Stu Sword:

First job out the gate was a program manager with the VA, which is kind of like a broad title Like what the hell does that mean? You know what I mean. It means we're doing some shit.

Scott McLean:

You're the manager of every program. In other words, but it was.

Stu Sword:

It was a very rewarding experience for me, because here I am, command select D, nine sort of 26 years, like no one's going to bullshit me, right? You know what I mean. Like I I kind of know what you're saying, I know your experience and I graduate, you know, to work for the VA. I mean some people get a job and they just like answer the phone or like low level people, great Americans, but they just it was just a phone answer right, yeah, but I was more of like a benefits guy.

Stu Sword:

You know what I mean In terms of like being able to help people unlock their benefits. But you got to go through an academy to be at that level. You don't just get hired off the street and you're like the benefits guru, right? So no, I went over to St Pete very beautiful place over there VA Academy over there, graduated the academy over there, did a ton of other training to get access to a lot of the systems that help benefits.

Scott McLean:

So let me stop you there. You mentioned the VA Academy, right? I've never heard of that, and I'm probably not the only person that has ever said what is that and how long has that been around? So this tells people that they don't just hire somebody. Okay, study this pamphlet and now you can start talking about benefits. Now you can start talking about benefits.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, it's not. It's not just a day or two. Oh, JT, you know what I mean. It's like all right, start like processing claims, you know? No, no, no, it's, it's like a. You know, I'm a career army guy, right, I would compare it, you know, to you know a lot of courses in the military where it's like very robust right there, Like being a recruiter, recruiter's school in all the branches is the hottest school.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, you're going to go through training and a lot of people that know the VA. There's three components, sections to the VA. There's the benefit side money, people. The healthcare side the VA hospitals and a lot of the CBOCs, the community-based care type stuff, and then there's the National Cemetery Administration for Veterans, right. So there's three components. So, based off who you're working for and what you're doing determines on which type of you know VA academy you would go to right, then you get certified right.

Stu Sword:

You got to essentially graduate. Now, if you show up every day with a good attitude and you got a good aptitude, you're probably going to graduate right. It's not that difficult. But I mean, there's tests. It's like a hundred question closed book test that you have to score I think it was an 85 on to get certified right. And that doesn't even unlock your access to all of their programs they use. So hey, as a veteran and as a person that's an alumni of working for the VA, hats off to how they onboard and train the people that have the access.

Scott McLean:

I never knew that.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, and I see veterans too that sometimes they're disgruntled, right yeah, and that's one of the things I did as a program manager there for Miami VA, working in downtown Miami, was helping veterans unlock all their benefits. Veterans unlock all their benefits If it's healthcare, if it's percentage for compensation payments, if it's other programs, then I'm just like a wealth of knowledge of benefits. So when I see a veteran and they start talking to me, hey, I'm having struggles with X, y or Z and I meet people all the time. I love the vets that are wearing those hats. If you see me, scott, you would not think I'm a vet. You definitely wouldn't think I'm a 26 year command star major, would you? I didn't?

Stu Sword:

yeah, okay no offense, but not you know, I think like I aged well, if it's genes, or like running every morning. I don't know what it was right, but I look you were a surfer. So there you go, right. Good, maybe it's the vitamin back to the roots, the vitamin d, right, and then maybe it was running every morning. You know, maybe it was the adrenaline stuff kept me A lot.

Scott McLean:

All of it.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, All of it Right. So you know I look younger than I am.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, and people don't think the guy wearing all Lululemon is an army ranger who spent his career like smashing doors and breaking people's faces, Right that is.

Stu Sword:

That is by no way a plug for Lululemon on this podcast, but okay, yeah, well, it's like not that guy and I would get that when I was working with the VA.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

Right. But then when vets found out I was a SAR major, like it was, it was all hands off. Like, like you know, cause a lot of the vets and sure I love the old timers, right, they sit there in the va. You meet them in the cafeteria. They hang downstairs by the free coffee and as I would walk in the morning, I'd be like sergeant major, good morning, sergeant major. It was almost like I was on active duty. Yeah, right, and I, I'm a guy who's very humble. I don't like people refer to me as my rank. If you want to, I'll let you sure. Right, but they felt compelled to do it. And then, you know, I would find myself like cutting the cake on the Army's birthday. I'm like, hey, we're about to sing the Army song, let's take it from the top. You know what I mean. Like, if you don't know the Army song, shame on you.

Stu Sword:

Like, if you're a fat and you don't know your branch's song, shame on you, you should learn in right Cause, like if you don't know it, just start doing pushups, right, but no, I, you know, I look young and I say all that to say sometimes people don't. You know, you don't look like the typical veteran, but I like to seek out the vets that have the hat on, cause I thank them for their service. Yeah, and you know, oftentimes I'll have like a good opening line right, oh, wow, you're in the navy, like watch your wallet around that guy, yeah, and they'll be like, yeah, they'll be like what the hell are you talking about? Yeah, I was like I and sailors can be rowdy, you know what I mean. And they're like are you a vet? Yeah, I'm a vet. Now, oftentimes, like vets are like a different culture.

Scott McLean:

you know what I mean so a lot of times you know what we are. We're different, we. We we're no better than anybody else, right? And any veteran that thinks that they are is thinking the wrong way. We're no better than anybody else. We just did something different than everybody else yeah, for sure, and I, you know.

Stu Sword:

You know, when I was a young sergeant, I used to think like there was only one branch right. Because I became more senior, I realized that each branch accomplishes a specific mission set that's very important for our country, regardless of your branch Right. So when I meet vets like I, it's like, it's like a, it's like a homecoming yeah, it's great to see you, I appreciate your service, tell me your story, right, and I like to talk to them and and just thank them.

Scott McLean:

But also, when I meet vets, you still, you still think like a Sergeant Major. Yeah, you still think like I guess you can't break that, like that's just in you now, and that's how a good leader does. It's like tell me about yourself, don't worry about me. I want to know about you, and that's what a good leader always does, is it's you first, I'll tell you about me later. But, like you said, how are you doing? Yeah, how are you doing?

Stu Sword:

Yeah, how are you doing? Tell me about you, are you doing?

Scott McLean:

okay, I'm sorry, a command Sergeant, major, excuse me, I'm an Air Force guy. What do I know? I don't. I don't want to lower your, your, your rank in any way. No, I'm not, I'm not, and my last name was sore too, right. So like yeah, yeah, that's, that's actually pretty cool, like sergeant sword just asked me, did you change your name? No, I didn't change my name, dude. When I was in basic training, the the ti across the hall is literally sergeant rambo. Oh, oh, geez, this was the 80s.

Stu Sword:

so yeah, that was a big deal so we're about to do some pt with sergeant rambo.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, sergeant sword, that that's another. That's a good name too. Sounds like a wrestler actually, but okay.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, if you told some of my soldiers, I was known for doing some rather elaborate physical training.

Scott McLean:

There you go.

Stu Sword:

Because you always hear safety stand down. You know what I mean Like different stand downs. But I'm like why don't we do like a physical fitness stand down? Yeah, and I actually like brought that on board and we used to do those where we'd go like 10 mile run and we'd come back and go to the weight room and then we'd go to the track, Then we're going to go to the pool and then we're going to cook some hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone's going to go home.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

You know what I mean. Like really core to military people is their fitness level right, which is important.

Stu Sword:

So always try to think outside the box and like come up with creative solutions and that's a good lead is to and it goes back to what we said like, just be the best at what you're doing. If you've got the ability to shape the schedule and you can do a physical fitness, stand down, we just do three or four hours of physical training nonstop and have a burger too, and I send you home at 1 PM. You know I and oftentimes say we don't have to make things harder than they are.

Stu Sword:

We don't have to make things suck worse than they already do. Yeah, right, so we don't have to stand out here in the rain without our like wet weather gear on.

Scott McLean:

Yeah exactly Already miserable. Why don't you put your rain jacket on?

Stu Sword:

Like well, we didn't want to look like hard, you know what I mean. Like no, you look stupid right now. Like put your rain jacket on, yeah.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

So, but I like to thank veterans for their service, and then I like to ask them like have you unlocked all your like VA?

Scott McLean:

benefits. You know what?

Stu Sword:

I mean Cause like there's programs out there I didn't know existed and I can give everyone a teaser if you want to follow this up on another episode. I'm not sure how long we've been talking. Scott or I can deep dive this into like a VA academy, right now.

Scott McLean:

No, we could do this on another episode. Absolutely, because I think you definitely have more to say about that and that would be a good episode right there. But you could give a teaser if you want.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, I'll just give everyone a teaser of a couple things to maybe research on their own.

Stu Sword:

But I'm a big proponent of the VA.

Stu Sword:

I know a lot of people like to bash the VA and that's one of the things I would do when I was working for the VA is like contact folks that were having problems, right, and I'd help them solve their problem. But oftentimes I would find you know the veteran or the caregiver, the family member they don't really understand what they're trying to do and in that process they're talking to the wrong person, right. So I would encourage all vets to like, if you don't know what you're doing, find a veteran service officer, and oftentimes they're located in your nearest like VA hospital, right. So if you're trying to like unlock college benefits for your kid, you can go talk to a VSO. But you know you got to be careful, right, and I'm not trying to bash some of these like veteran organizations but you may find yourself talking to a VSO that was just appointed a VSO by you know their veteran nonprofit. They haven't graduated the VA Academy. So you really want to find someone that's graduated the Academy to help you unlock benefits.

Scott McLean:

How would you determine that? Would you ask that particular person like, hey, all right, stewie, did you graduate the VA? Like if I was just Scott veteran guy who wants to do that and I go, okay, I go to this organization. Oh, go see, stu, he's our VSO. Yeah, so I don't know anybody, because now you are the authority figure, you're the one that I'm going to, right, yeah, I would ask you know, are you a certified? Vso service officer, that's good, good information.

Stu Sword:

Now, like you and me, scott and now I am, I've got the paperwork to prove it. But we could both just walk down the street and be at a local pub and just be like Scott Scott's a VSO Because he's like a ninja veteran stuff. But like you know, scott, like you know, if you haven't graduated the VA academy, you're not a certified VSO. We might be self-appointed, self-appointed, yeah Right.

Stu Sword:

But, that's kind of like working with a barracks lawyer. Yeah, A lot of people know what a barracks lawyer is. Right, you might get led astray, and I think that's where the gap is with a lot of vets. You talk to someone who has the title but they're not actually certified. Then they're giving you bad information.

Scott McLean:

We'll get these people and I have talked to them, so this is personal lived experience.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, and you get led astray and you're not using the systems that are in front of you. If you're not using the VA app or Vgov. If I ask you to log into your account, you don't know how. That's probably your first problem, right, you need to have a VA account.

Stu Sword:

Programs that, like, vets don't know about and I run to them all the time and this is the teaser for a follow-up episode is veteran housing assistance. Yeah, how do I unlock my va loan? How do I turn on my crsc combat related special compensation pay? How do I turn that on right? Because crsc and this is a great way to like tease up for the next episode combat related special compensate compensation pay pays retroactive up to six years from your date of discharge. So if you've been out eight years and you finally get approved for CRSC, which is in addition to VA benefits because it's paid directly from your branch, it back pays up to six years because there's vets walking around all the time. Oh shit, I didn't know about that. Well, here I am. I'm sharing the gospel with you and it's very simple. On the next episode, I'll talk about how you do that and how you can unlock that.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely, absolutely. I think that's a good teaser. So you left the VA and you work for FORTS F-O-R-T-S Logistics. Now, when we first met at the Mission United Broward event, you mentioned Forts and I was like I wasn't really getting it right. I wasn't really getting it. I went to the website. I was like, oh shit, this is some crazy cool shit, like right here. So tell the listeners about Forts, because Stu actually gave me a tour of it's not just a warehouse, it is numerous warehouses. Like this is a serious made in America business. Like that was that's no joke. Like we took a golf cart. Okay, when someone says, hey, I'll give you a tour of the warehouse, and they they put you in the golf cart. You're not going from one end of the warehouse to the other, you're going to other buildings, although and we did and I was extremely impressed. So give the listeners a background on what FORTS does.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, so FORTS stands for. You know, you hear fort. You think of like an army fort, right, and the logo is very similar to that. But it's fold-out, rigid temporary shelter or structure, right. Some people interchange the last word for S, but that's what FORTS stands for and it's just that it's literally fold out structures that are rigid, right. So it's not a tent, it's not a camper, it's not an RV they're not. It's just that it can be customized to any specific organization.

Stu Sword:

And we do a ton of business with a lot of government agencies federal, state, local. We do a lot of business with power companies. We do a lot of business with anyone that may have a need in their mission set to have structures that can quickly and temporarily be deployed anywhere, have their own power source, have their own HVAC, be self-contained, be pre-wired with ethernet cables, 110, 220, three-phase, single-phase. We can do it all right. If you can dream it up, we can build it. Now I'm on the logistical side. So we typically maintain stuff.

Stu Sword:

And we maintain stuff for the VA, because a lot of people don't know, the VA's fourth mission is like disaster response, augmenting a lot of the civilian hospitals. So we maintain a temporary field hospital, a medical intensive care unit that can be deployed anywhere in the United States when asked to do so, we maintain it. We do the maintenance on it, we store it. They call we take it wherever they. So we maintain it, we do the maintenance on it, we store it. They call, we take it wherever they ask. We set it up, we leave on-site subject matter experts and they maintain the facility, just like a facility manager would do at a property you might live at. It's super cool. We do a lot of work with agencies. I can't mention a lot of work with. You know agencies I can't mention. But if you can dream it and you're interested in it, you know we can. You can buy one and put it on your, your hunting land right, you can fold it out, it's all customizable.

Stu Sword:

You dream it, we can build it, we can bring it to you, we can set it up, we can maintain it, we can do anything you ask for. But it's super. Not only is it all made in the USA, yeah, but it's veteran friendly and heavily employs veterans. Yes, and I've been lucky enough, and very fortunate, to work there and assist them in accomplishing their mission at forts like uh, you know we like to hire veterans. Yeah, right, so we look to uh to hire veterans so how do you deploy?

Scott McLean:

You have kind of a system and it's kind of run like a military style thing, right yeah.

Stu Sword:

So I've been kind of like, given the ability to craft my team. What does Stu Sword's team look like? And I use a sealed team methodology, right, where we're a big company but we're small. On the logistics side we're small. All of my employees are very tactically and technically competent, right. So we show up just like a SEAL team would pretty much in the cover of darkness, because the time we get stuff there it's dark, it's at night. We're doing it in the dark and we set it up and we did it multiple times. We were across seven different geographic locations during this last disaster cycle of hurricanes Debbie, helene and Milton that hit Florida back-to-back 10 days and dumped all that rain up north in the Carolinas. So we were one of the companies that were a first responding agency setting up. We helped build a thousand person base camp. We've got field hospitals. There was a hospital in Largo, florida, that was flooded with nine feet of water. We brought a hospital from time of notification and set it up in 22 hours.

Stu Sword:

You know, so we possess like tremendous, like capability to forward project assets and set them up in one period of darkness. We're going to set it up overnight. Now if we've got to go further across the continent United States, you know add on the travel time, but we can typically get stuff set up during a disaster time in one day.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, it's an extremely impressive facility and I got to see all sorts of different kinds, from medical to just basic art, like here's your home base office, right here, and they're all shapes and sizes. Well, they're usually the same shape but they're different sizes. Some can get dropped from planes.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, stuff can be airdrops. Stuff can be airlifted in a cargo net. We're in the business of portable structures, but also in the business of portable hospitals, portable auction generation, portable power generation. You think about the power grid goes offline because trees fell on it. You know snow, ice. Whatever the situation may be, we can augment. You know the power. But if you think of a lot of people that depend on oxygen first responders, hospitals, the elderly we're also in the business of mobile oxygen generation so we can bring mobile oxygen and set it up in a parking lot. First responders can come by, we can top you off and it's really remarkable, it's innovative and I'm super proud. I'm probably just as proud, if not more proud, to be a part of the FORTS team as I was a part of the Army. Yeah, because it's badass and we're here to help people, right? Check it out fortslogisticscom, super badass website. Check it out If it's interested or someone may benefit from it. Check it out, give us a call.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely Well, Stu, my friend, this was a great episode. I appreciate you coming on. I'm glad we got this done. It was very informative, very interesting episode. What do you think of the big pink couch that you sit in? You like the big pink couch?

Stu Sword:

Yeah, it's very soothing. After we're done and you wrap this episode, I might take a nap right here. It's a nice couch, but a shout out to you, scott, what you do and your facility here, and I look forward to coming back and shooting another episode and just deep diving into VA benefits, right, because it really kind of tugs at my heart when I see a veteran, you know, and they're so proud and they spent their $20 on their hat.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

And they haven't unlocked their benefits.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Stu Sword:

And oftentimes I see, when I was working at the VA, I would see spouses come in and they'd have a binder and I'll leave it with this. There was a lady that came in for a Korean War vet. The veteran had passed and she was just like I wonder if I'm eligible for any burial assistance and all this stuff, and we'll get into the next episode. Yeah, but he had like a silver star, a bronze star, a combat infantry badge. It was a private, served like two years and of those two years, like majority was in the korean war, had never used any of his VA benefits, just just didn't know anything about it. Right, and I was like wow, like so many benefits left on the table that could have benefited not only the veteran but the family Right.

Stu Sword:

So as we, as we shoot, another podcast and we'll talk about these benefits like I really like to see vets like unlock the benefits that you've earned right, it's not welfare, it's not taking something that someone else needs. No, it's unlocking benefits that are already like allocated, earmarked and funded for you as the veteran.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, absolutely yeah, this is definitely another episode here, so we will set that one up and in the meantime, again, thank you for coming on. I appreciate your time, appreciate you taking time off from work. I know you're a busy guy over there. So thank you for coming over to Delray to the One man, one Mic Foundation Studio, sponsored by Willow and Palm Construction. Willow and Palm Construction, located in Delray Beach, florida. Willow and Palm Construction, south Florida's premier builder. I always get that live plug in. Sometimes it's smoother than others, but I get it. And thank you, willow and Palm for this. Yeah, so with that we built another bridge today. Very interesting conversation with Stu Sword, command Sergeant Major Stu Sword see, I got it in this time.

Stu Sword:

Yeah, shout out to Willow and Palm. Shout out to One man One Mic. Shout out to Willow and Palm. Shout out to one man one mic. Shout out to the Veteran Connection podcast. Great job, scott. I look forward to coming back. So thank you.

Scott McLean:

Yes sir, yes sir. And to the listeners if you like it, share it, Tell another vet about it, tell another nonprofit about it. I appreciate you listening. This has gotten some legs. That's always a good thing and, as I always say, listen all the way to the end. There's a public service announcement concerning 988 and 211. It's good for veterans, family members of veterans and just civilians in general. It's very informative. It's only 30 seconds long, so take a listen to it, you won't be disappointed. No-transcript.

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Scott McLean

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