The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 66 - Veteran, Jalen Auer from The Fire Watch Shares Loss, Healing, And The Tools That Help Prevent Suicide

• Scott McLean • Episode 66

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We trace Jalen Auer’s path from Air Force rescue pilot to South Florida program manager at The Fire Watch, and we go deep on grief, stigma, and the tools that save lives before a crisis explodes. A full-circle Huey Helicopter story sets up a candid look at transition, mental health, and community action that works.

• origins in Boynton Beach and drive to serve
• rescue pilot training, Huey inspiration, instructor years
• duty stations, family life, and tough transition out
• sudden loss, depression, attempts, and getting help
• clearing up PTSD myths and stigma across veteran and civilian life
• the strain on first responders and why small cracks grow
• what The Fire Watch is, who it serves, and how training works
• VA SAVE steps, 988 Press 1, and practical tools that help
• real saves after training and how to access it statewide
• holidays, vigilance, and why one trained person matters

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If you want to get in touch with me, you can email me at VetsConnection Podcast at gmail.com
Go to thefirewatch.org. There’s a donate button right on there. Every penny counts


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Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Jalen Auer. Jalen is the newest representative for Firewatch. The Firewatch. I do Henry Angula will get pissed at me if I just said that. Henry. And uh the Firewatch, the amazing Firewatch, great program. Jalen's gonna tell you all about it. But he is uh the what? Uh the South Florida program manager. There you go. Yeah, South Florida program manager for the Firewatch. And we're gonna get into all their information and what they do. They do amazing work. I have a little side story that I don't usually do, but it's very pertinent to the Firewatch and uh how they helped me help somebody else. So uh let's get right into it. So, Jalen, where are you from?

Jalen Auer:

Uh so first of all, thanks for having me. Uh and I'm a uh Palm Beach County native, actually, uh born and raised in Boynton Beach and uh lived here the first 18 years of my life before uh leaving for the military. So you graduated high school. Did you do ROTC in high school? No, I didn't. Uh I did in college. Uh, but I went to Park Vista community high school out in uh Boynton Beach. All right.

Scott McLean:

And so you decided I'm I'm going in the military.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah. Uh I couple things. One, um, so my grandpa, he served in the Marine Corps, uh, master gunny in the Marine Corps. He was my idol. One tour Korea, two tours in Vietnam. And uh, so I always just wanted to join the military. I wanted to be like him. And then another thing, I wanted to leave Florida. Uh, we have a lot of people that want to come to Florida. I was the opposite. I wanted to uh get out of Florida, and uh that led me to wanting to join the military to kind of get out. And uh my mom wanted me to go to college, like everyone's parent. Uh, and my grandpa always told me that uh he wishes he would have joined the Air Force. So uh went off to college, Indiana State University, and uh joined Air Force ROTC there.

Scott McLean:

You know, just from my personal experience, us Air Force people, we're few and far between in this nonprofit world. Yeah, it's always the Marines. It is, yeah. It's always the Army, and then like you get these peppered little Air Force people.

Jalen Auer:

I I've noticed that too, and I've noticed actually, which I guess is a good thing. A lot of the Marines are in the higher up of those nonprofit positions. Yeah, uh, so good on them.

Scott McLean:

And that's what I say. I say the same thing, but I never say it to their face. Yeah, uh-huh. I will not give them that credit.

Jalen Auer:

No, uh-uh, never. No, Henry, my supervisor. Uh yeah, same thing. Yeah, exactly. Don't ever give them credit. Uh-huh.

Scott McLean:

No. Yeah. They know because they already know. That's the thing. I am not stroking that eight. No, we all do great work regardless. Uh, I have to say that. So you went in. What was your job? What did you do? Where were you stationed? Give us all that.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, uh, so I was in for 10 years from uh 2014 to 2024. I just got out uh actually a year ago, two weeks ago. Um, I was a rescue helicopter instructor pilot. Uh flew predominantly on the uh UH1N at Huey. And then at the end of my career, I was a ROTC instructor at Indiana University. Nice. Yeah. Uh stationed all over the place, all over the country. I don't know how many times we moved, six, eight times, somewhere in that ballpark. And uh all I wanted to do was help people. Uh, I've really just wanted to again help people in their worst day. Uh, I was a big fan of the stories that I heard from my grandpa, uh, and a lot of it was uh again Vietnam era. So the Huey and the Huey pilots are the ones who came and rescued him, uh his troops, and so being a rescue pilot meant a lot to me. So uh applied for it, got picked up for being a pilot for the Air Force. Um when I went through, we all went through fixed wing training, so flew the jet for a little bit. Uh that was fun, but it wasn't my style, and then got picked up for helicopters and got picked up for rescue.

Scott McLean:

Before the interview started, we talked a little about that. There's a story about the Huey. Yeah. That's a great story. Why don't you tell us?

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So this past weekend was the air show up at Stuart, and uh I always enjoyed going to it. My kids love aircraft. Um, unfortunately, this year they weren't they didn't have military aircraft, but they still had a phenomenal show. But uh so the backstory of it, 13 years ago, I was out at an airport uh and when I was in high school, 17 years old, and there was a Huey on a trailer there, an old school Vietnam Huey just sitting on a trailer that someone had bought and restored. Uh, an old army aviator bought it and restored it. And I saw at the airport, went up to him and asked him if I could sit in it. Uh, he let me, which was awesome. My mom took pictures of me wearing the helmet and being in the in the cockpit. And uh I've always looked back on that picture. And even when I became a Huey pilot, I would look back on it, kind of comparisons of how far I've come, all that. And then at the air show, uh, we saw a Huey that was on a trailer. I've got three kids now, and uh they're used to daddy flying in the Huey, so they would always come and sit in the helicopter with me, uh, watch me fly over. So they immediately saw it, ran up to what they said was Daddy's helicopter. And uh my daughter, who's five, got behind the machine gun. She loves the M240, so just got behind that immediately and then went up to the cockpit. And while they were sitting in the cockpit, I noticed that it was the exact same helicopter that I had sat in 13 years prior that made me want to be a Huey pilot. What what what was the tell? It was actually um the crew chief's name on it was last name was Carol. And uh that's just something that stuck in my brain. And when I read it, I was like, Carol, I think that's that same crew chief that was the helicopter that I had sat in. And uh, sure enough, I pulled up the picture, found it, pulled it up, and it was the exact same one. And uh I took the picture, have side by sides of me when I was in it when I was 17 with my kids now, and uh went up and talked to the owner of the helicopter, and sure enough, he remembered he didn't remember me, but he remembered the event 17 years ago. Uh, and so he wanted to take a picture with me. It was Project 425 at Aloxahatchie, uh, and just a phenomenal uh circ full circle moment.

Scott McLean:

That's exactly what I was going to say, my friend. That is an absolute full circle moment. What are the odds, number one? Yeah, right?

Jalen Auer:

That's amazing. Yeah, and he because he was stunned um just from the story as well as I. Uh we were talking about Fort Rucker, the Army Post, uh, because that's where he did his training with the Army. That's where I did it with the Air Force. And uh, we were like, well, who knows? Maybe our kids will grow up and do the same thing. Huey's probably still gonna be flying then. Uh so yeah, yeah, it's just a huge full circle moment. So you got your picture taken with it again?

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Jalen Auer:

Uh-huh.

Scott McLean:

Oh, yeah. You know you got to put those side by side and frame them, right?

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, yeah, I actually did on uh like Facebook, and it was when I was 17, and then when uh I was in flying, and then now I've got beard now and long hair, so a little bit different. That's right, because while you were in, you have that picture too. That's amazing, man. Yeah. And we even had the color scheme was the same, and the ones that we flew, it was like the camo green. So yeah, it looked, it was it's a cool thick stitch.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely, man. That's amazing. That's amazing. So you're in for 10 years and you you bounced around while you were in there for 10 years. Where did you go? What's what bases were you at?

Jalen Auer:

All right. So started in Indiana, went down and did fixed wing training down in uh Texas, uh, kind of went on a bunch of other side side quests, if you will, uh, for different trainings while there. Went out to Fort Rucker for helicopter training, uh, New Mexico for advanced helicopter training. Where in New Mexico? Albuquerque.

Scott McLean:

Kirtland? Yeah. That's where I was stationed. No kidding. I got out in Kirtland. Okay, yeah.

Jalen Auer:

They have a lot of the rescue all down there, so that's where I did my training. Um, spent a ton of time in Kirtland. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then uh up to North Dakota, where we spent the majority of our time on Minot, North Dakota. Why not my not? Yeah, freezing for a reason. Yeah. Because it's freezing for a reason. Exactly. Yeah. The the two weeks of summer are fantastic, but the other 11 months of winter, not so much. So did you finish up there? No. Uh so I did a lot of my flying up there and then uh went to instructor training back down in uh New Mexico, then back up to North Dakota and kind of scattered about, um, and then uh finished up, ended up transferring to uh ROTC to be an ROTC instructor out at uh Indiana at Indiana University and finished out of there.

Scott McLean:

What did you think of Albuquerque?

Jalen Auer:

I like it if you know where to not go. It's a very interesting place, right? Yeah. Um it has a lot to do, which is nice. The the mountains, fantastic, uh a lot of history, a lot of art, uh, a lot of crime. A lot of kachina dolls in the stores. Yeah, you just had to know uh one, which kind of chili you liked. Yeah. Uh green, red, or uh Christmas tree, and then uh know where not to go.

Scott McLean:

That's right. Yeah, that's right. It always seemed to me, and this was back, I was there from I think 95 to 97. Okay. Albuquerque love the seasons, huge, the thunderstorms. You see those thunderheads coming up over the mountain, and then they just start rolling in, right? That's amazing. Yeah, that it snows there and then it's gone by one o'clock in the afternoon because it's mile high. A lot of people don't know Albuquerque's mile high, and it has the same altitude and same issues as far as thin air as Denver, right? Uh but it just seemed to me like Albuquerque is a place where people go to drop out. It just had that vibe, like everybody minds their business, everybody's cool. Uh, I used to go to the sports bar and it was a very eclectic group of people that were there. Yeah, you know, but the vibe was good as long as you knew where not to go.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, uh-huh. You know? Yeah. I enjoyed it a lot. My family enjoyed it. Um, it was again safe, which is uh, especially with the family and all, as long as you didn't go to the wrong place at the wrong part of night, uh, then it's it was a great place. Breaking bad and better calls all pull it, put it on the map. Yeah, we did the whole tour of going to the different houses where they don't want you to be there. Yep.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, it's uh interesting place. It was very and it's college town.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh University of New Mexico, I believe.

Scott McLean:

Adds that little flavor to it. Yeah, yeah. I used to see concerts there. I saw Rage Against the Machine there. Oh nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back in '96. Okay. Concert history. Yeah, nice. Not relevant to the story, but relevant to Albuquerque. Yeah. Because I have I have met very few people that were stationed there. Really? And even less that lived there.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I loved it. Uh, we actually had the opportunity to go back after I got out. Uh, we did it, we moved down here instead, but definitely thought about it long and hard for it.

Scott McLean:

Yeah. I always uh tell people if there's any reason to go to Albuquerque, right, other than you're going to college there or you're stationed there, it's the balloon fiesta. Yeah. Uh-huh. That is world class. That is a world and the ascension at the end, yeah. The last day. Right. Absolute world class event.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, and it it is. They bring in people from across the world for it. I think it's September, October time frame. And it's the weather's beautiful.

Scott McLean:

It can be a little windy sometimes. Uh, but yeah, world-class event. If you ever go to Albuquerque, that's where when you want to go and where you want to go to that. So you end up getting out, and tell us about were you married at the time?

Jalen Auer:

I was, yep, yep. Actually got married before joining the military, um, like right at the very beginning, and then uh had children throughout the military. So we had three when we got out.

Scott McLean:

That rare bird that got married right before they came in. Yeah, yeah. Not many of us did that. Yeah, uh-huh. We got married while we were in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And a lot of a lot of them married and divorced. But married and divorced is that. So you get out. What's the uh now you got a wife and kids? Yeah. And I experienced this. It's different. How was your tra it's not always comfortable? How was your transition? It was tough. Yeah.

Jalen Auer:

Uh, it was not what I was expecting at all. Yeah. Um, I one, I was uh medically retired, so that was kind of impromptu. Um it happened very quickly where uh all of a sudden I was going through what's called the the med board, and then within two, three months of when they said I'm gonna start the med board, I was out. Uh so I really didn't have that transitional period while I was in. I would say while I was uh in ROTC and teaching that, it was geographically separated. So I was five hours to the closest military base. So I already had the feel for what it was like not being near a military base. Uh I had my own civilian doctors, my own civilian everything. So that was kind of a nice transition in itself. But I really didn't have time to get an internship, uh, to do skill bridge or other type of opportunities because I kind of they gave me 20 odd days from when they said that uh I'd be getting out to when I was when I was out. Uh so that was it was a pretty quick turnaround for that. Um and then also the transition was hard for me because I think a lot of people in the military, you do a lot of really cool things, you gain a lot of confidence, and then you're kind of on top of the world. Uh, I thought when I got out, I would have no issues finding a job, um, having being an officer and a pilot and project management, all those different keywords. And uh turns out so does everyone else. So uh I even had my master's degrees and all that different experience, but uh it was it was difficult. Got out, and now you're just in the same level playing field as everyone else. And kind of to a detriment, all of my uh degrees, all of my background is in aviation. I was an instructor pilot, all my degrees are in aviation, and now I'm uh medically disqualified from flying. So now I couldn't fly anymore. So there goes there goes my fallback. Um, so then I was trying to find jobs that I had no experience in, no education in. So it was pretty difficult uh for the transition. And then I think a lot of people go through you lose your identity, you lose your sense of purpose. Uh so yeah, it was it was a struggle. What was, if you don't mind me asking, what was the medical issue? Um, so yeah, I can kind of get into that a little bit. It was for mental health, okay. Um, for depression. Um when I was in when my family and I were in uh Mayanat in North Dakota in uh 2022, uh we lost our son, um, our our oldest boy. Uh unfortunately, he he got sick, uh, passed away. It was completely unexpected from the time he got sick to when he passed away was five days. Uh so it was three days before uh Christmas in 2022. Uh so he once he passed away, um struggled a lot with mental health. Um the military is a great organization, loved it, wouldn't change it, but uh you really don't say the words mental health because uh you're either gonna I think I thought personally that I was gonna be looked down upon or my peers wouldn't respect me, my troops wouldn't respect me. Um as a pilot, I knew if you went to mental health, you could be grounded, get your wings taken, uh you might not be able to arm up, or your security clearance could be affected. So uh I never said the words mental health throughout my career. No matter what you saw, what you did, um just didn't say it. And I think it bottles up. And then once my son passed away, it all just got released. Uh I did a deep dive, uh spiraled, really dark, depressing uh place. Uh ended up having two uh suicide attempts from that, and uh which is when I learned to get help and and uh which I'm sure we'll get into. But that led me to uh wanting to go back to Indiana, which is where my wife's family's from, so kind of fought tooth and nail to get that. Uh luckily had some great leaders that helped me get to Indiana to do the ROTC, and then I was uh medically retired out of there.

Scott McLean:

First of all, of course, sorry for that. Second of all, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. That's it's a tragic story, but it's an important story. Sure. And God bless you for being able to just say, yeah, this is what it is. Not enough of us do that. And this is why we're gonna get into the firewatch. Right. Uh, which is we'll we're getting we're getting there. We're getting there. But thank you for that. Um we'll finish up with your transition. Now you moved around while you were in. I was in for 10 years, like you. Okay. And when we got out and we settled in Hollywood, Florida, it literally, like every two years, we got this itch. Even my kids did it. Like, are we moving? Like it became part of our lifestyle. Because I went from the Philippines and I then, you know, March Air Force, May 3 Air Force Base, Sacramento, that base closed, then I jumped to March Air Force Base, that base closes, then I jumped to Albuquerque. So literally, in those 10 years, I was at four bases, and my family just got used to moving. And they were excited about it. They weren't like, oh, are we moving again? Yeah. It was a family thing because your family is never tighter. They are never tighter than when you move. Sure. In the military. Uh, because everything goes with you, and it is a team effort. You know what I mean? So all right, so you come back to South Florida. How did that happen?

Jalen Auer:

So, uh, like I was saying, when when we got out, it was pretty impromptu, um, trying to find jobs, trying to find all that. And uh we were living in Indiana at the time and it was winter, and uh we uh we had came came to Florida quite a few times to visit family, friends. Uh, they all still live down here, and we were like, man, it's so much warmer down here, so much nicer than we love the Midwest. I absolutely love it, but uh in February and that time frame, it's Florida's a bit nicer. Flip-flops and shorts. Exactly. Yeah, so again, we were still struggling with our mental health, both my wife and I, and uh the beach helps her a ton. Uh I grew up outdoors in South Florida and just loved it. So we thought, well, moving back to Florida would be nice. Um I had actually applied for a position with the U.S. House of Representatives that I completely forgot about. Um, but I had applied for it before I got out, and then I happened to uh get an interview for it months later when we were talking about moving to Florida, and it was for West Palm Beach area, uh, for Palm Beach County, Broward County. Uh so I ended up going through the interview process, got picked up for it, and so it kind of worked out great. Moved back down to South Florida. And you did that for how long?

Scott McLean:

Uh like eight months. Eight months. Yeah. And then how did you find out? How did you learn about and what did you know before the fire watch?

Jalen Auer:

Sure. So it was actually the hat I'm wearing is from uh Wounded Veteran Relief Fund. And uh who the director of operations of that is Nick Cannon. I just interviewed him a couple weeks ago. Okay, yeah, great guy. Fantastic guy. Yeah, so that's a good thing. Not an Air Force guy. Exactly. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, we're taking over now. We're trying. We're trying. Uh-huh. Gotta push the Marines back out. That's right. But uh full circle right there, by the way. He was working for the uh congressional district in the same exact position that I was before me. So he reached out and we just talked a lot about the position I was in. So I got to learn about it and we kept in touch. And then uh we still talked all the time outside of that. We would see each other at events, and uh, he's actually the one who uh showed me once the job opened up for the firewatch. He sent me the link and he said, Hey, this is a great, fantastic organization. Uh I think you would love it with your story and your background. Uh so I applied and talked to Henry quite a few times and uh ended up getting it.

Scott McLean:

And you've heard me say this already, right? We just met about two months ago, right? Uh-huh. And uh you've heard all you have to say is Henry. That's it. I didn't even have to say his whole name at the beginning. It's just everybody knows Henry in South Florida. Yep.

Jalen Auer:

It's it's amazing. Any event, anyone you talk to, yeah. You say Henry and they know Henry.

Scott McLean:

So you took over Henry's spot down here, which I'm telling you, as you already found out, it's a very hard act to follow. It is, yeah, yeah, I know. God bless you, but he laid a great foundation for you, buddy. That's exactly what I'm sure that's gonna you're gonna do just great.

Jalen Auer:

And and uh Henry's a fantastic guy, and he's great about um introducing me to everyone that he knows, and and he knows everyone. Very humble, he is, yeah, extremely. He's very humble.

Scott McLean:

And I I did a great with the interview with him last year. Henry's always a good interview, interesting guy, quietly interesting, right? You know, it's like still waters run deep. Yeah. That's Henry, right? So okay, so Firewatch comes up. Tell us what Firewatch does first. Sure. So Firewatch the Firewatch.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, the Firewatch is Florida's foundation for combating veteran suicide. Uh, the Firewatch has three goals in mind. That one, that suicide is preventable, two, that we can get the community involved rather than just directly on the veteran, and three, to uh get the uh the veteran help that they need before they fall into the actual crisis. And the way that we do that is by going around to individuals, businesses, anyone, and doing a short free training on one, what the military is like, the culture, and then the transition and how it can be difficult, and then two, on uh red flags, uh what to look out for for mental health, for suicide, and it's not applicable only to veterans, but to everyone, which is what I always like to talk about in my in our training sessions, is it we're focused on the veterans, but it can be used, the training can be used for anyone at any time.

Scott McLean:

That's the amazing part of it. It's dual, it's I won't say dual purpose, but for lack of a better term, it fits everything, it fits everybody's life, it fits every situation. Um so what does your experience uh what is that tell us what the what you what that brings to the table.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, definitely. So that was a huge draw for me for this position. Uh, like I was talking about before, after our son passed away, experienced the depths of uh depression, uh mental health struggles, uh suicide. I had two attempts from it, uh, struggled with the ideations for a while after that. And uh I learned I learned a lot from it. Uh I learned one, uh we were kind of to what we were talking about before. I I knew mental health health was a thing, uh, but I'll be honest, I was kind of one of those people that were like, oh well, just you know, suck it up. Um, and that's not the case at all. A lot of us, men and women. Yeah. Unfortunately. Uh-huh. And and um kind of side note, I was at a training recently and uh we all went around the room. There were 20 of us, we all went around the room, we all talked about mental health, and every single one of us talked about how when we were growing up, it wasn't really talked about. Mental health, depression, all that wasn't really talked about. And now today it's it's like a 180 from that. Uh so, anyways, while I was in, I struggled um at the at the uh the latter half of my career, and what I realized after my attempts is I went out and got help. Um, I started because I knew that my kids would if I was gone, uh, my kids, my wife, my parents would struggle um as much as I was at that point in time, and and I couldn't do that to them. Um that was actually after my first attempt, my my daughter was my motivation to uh to start getting help, and she's the one who kind of snapped me out of it. After my second attempt, my dad was my motivation, and he's the one who kind of snapped me out of that one to get me help. Uh so after that started going to the therapy, started going and opening up to the military side of mental health. Um, so I was getting help on both the civilian side and on the military side. I was a lot more open about it, and what I found out was the military actually does care. They, it's not if you say mental health, that's good. Even as a pilot or if you arm up or any of that, it doesn't mean you're gonna go uh and not be able to fly anymore. You can even take medication, antidepressants, and a lot of them are approved to take and it won't ground you. This is stuff that I had no idea about. And uh I learned you could actually reach out for help, get help. It's pretty much anonymous outside of your therapist or counselor or uh psychologist, and then uh it doesn't affect your career. Uh so I tried to be an advocate about that while I was in the military to my friends who were still flying, still active, um and try to tell them like it's okay to get help and that it's important because if you're not here anymore, that's a permanent that's a permanent solution. Uh so you know, reaching out and getting help. And so I tried to advocate more for getting that help and getting it early. Um same thing when I went into uh ROTC, I would talk to the students who are all 18 to 22 year olds going into their career. And so I tried to reiterate getting help. Uh it doesn't show that you're weak, uh, it doesn't show any of those to to kind of crush those stigmas behind it. Um and it's okay to get it because now you might not burn out after a couple years or after a deployment. Um so I I I just became very involved with mental health. And then once this position opened up, uh it was it was perfect. It was talking about suicide. Uh and that can be a hard word to say for a lot of people, and a hard word to hear for a lot of people. Um as is, you know, cancer. That's a very hard word to hear, but people say it all the time. Uh suicide is a very similar thing where you can you die by suicide just as you would die by cancer. As uh it's not a crime that you commit, it's not anything to be ashamed of. It's um just trying to spread the awareness on that.

Scott McLean:

Yeah. Your story is um it's interesting. It's again, I'm I I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Sure. Um a lot of people, a lot of I'll just say uh non-military members, I used to call them civilians. It just sounds weird now.

Jalen Auer:

And so I still do that, and I always feel we I do. I feel odd when I'm like for lack of better term, uh civilians is who we teach, things like that. And I don't know what else to say.

Scott McLean:

I was talking to somebody about that actually, probably during an episode, and they were like, How about um non-military members? Okay, that's that seems because I'm out now, right? I've been out for a while, but exactly still call them civilians, right? It's kind of embedded. So um they someone actually led me in that direction. But uh a lot of non-military members uh believe you know that in wartime there was a 20-year war, just about and every veteran that comes out that might have PTSD or might have you know uh some sort of other mental health issue must have been in combat, right? Whereas in your case, this was real life, although combat is real life, but this was just you living your life and this happened. And I don't think I could be wrong, but I don't think the majority of people think of that. They don't think of those situations that are non combat. Uh my stuff was the first responders of suicides infants. I just think the average person doesn't think much of it. It's right. It's like, oh, you must be PTSD, you must be in combat. Right. Yeah. Well, no, not all of our issues. It's what happens while you're in, while you're serving. Right. Uh, there's PTSD from uh from sexual assault. Right. Yeah. There's there's a lot of things that go on inside the military. It's it's it's a it's a world in its own, as we know. And it's sometimes you just want to rip that curtain back and say, there's some fucked up shit that goes on in this thing. There is. Yeah. You know, it's it's like I always say, as as a I was law enforcement, I was a cop. Every base is like a small town or a small city. It is. And and shit happens to people. We just don't talk about it. Yeah. It's like a very dark secret that the military keeps.

Jalen Auer:

That's the stuff that isn't in movies. Correct. It's all just the uh, you know, all the medal of honor, valor that you see in the movies. And yeah, uh, in reality, life is hard. Uh, and it's no different in the military, and people struggle just out. Uh what was the word you said? People that who aren't military. Non-military people, yeah. It happens in everyone's everyday lives, depression, mental health, all of that. Uh, in the same way in the military, a lot of even though we've been in a wartime scenario for the last 20 odd years, not everyone went to combat. And I don't think a lot of people understand that either. Uh plenty of people have gone to combat. Yeah. Uh, but there's also there's two sides of that. Just because you went to combat doesn't mean you have PTSD, uh, or just because you didn't go to combat doesn't mean that you can't develop depression, mental health, PTSD in other ways. Uh, that's one of the things we talk about in our in our course, actually, is specifically that. Um let's talk about that. Yeah. So just because you go to combat, you might experience very traumatic things. Uh and you may struggle with it, but it doesn't necessarily mean it will be PTSD. You may be able to get through it on your own through other ways, uh, and that is fantastic. I think that is the best thing you could hope for. Um, but you may also develop PTSD from it, and that is when it's important to reach out, get help, get the use of resources, utilize all that. But just because you go to combat doesn't mean that you're going to experience there's so many different jobs, so many different types of combat, so many types of not everyone who goes to combat is just has bullets whizzing by them. Uh, could be combat support, could be in a country nowhere near where the the bullets are flying. Um so there's there's a lot of different different uh we're all we're all human and and we're all we're all vulnerable, we're all frail in certain ways. And like you were talking about, MST is a big one, military sexual trauma. Yeah that's a huge one. Uh people who just get burnt out. Yeah. Uh because you you're sometimes you're worked like a dog, uh, and then even more so. And you just day after day after day, and then you're gone from your family, and then now your family's mad at you or upset, or you're having financial issues, and stuff just piles up. It's just life events pile up, and then uh depression occurs, and uh again, uh oftentimes, unfortunately, suicide attempts or uh people die by suicide. I actually just had a person in my we call it like a sister unit. So I was I was a helicopter pilot, but we would carry uh it's called TRF, um, tactical response force, security force members, and it's basically like a SWAT member that we would fly around the missile fields. And uh, we unfortunately just had one of our members die by suicide uh just a few days ago. And again, it was she was the youngest person to be part of the TRF team. Uh, she was a fantastic person, doing great. I want to say she was like 20 years old, so very young, um, and things just add up. Um, and unfortunately, it's so easy to fall into that that that darkness and that trap.

Scott McLean:

So the uh something that, and again, this isn't about me, this is just my experience. Um, something that troubled me, and I still kind of battle with it, I'm still trying to find an answer for it, is uh in law enforcement. But this could apply to anything. Sure. Um, but law enforcement, uh you know, you got uh you have to go to a house where somebody's baby just died, yeah, and it's their fault because they were drinking, and it's very emotional. And as law enforcement as a cop, you have to keep your shit together, sure, you know, and you go through the whole scene and it's like go back to work, like there's no going home, like bro, take the rest of the day off. Right you were back out on patrol three hours later, four hours later. And I they never asked, like this dawned on me later, and I I always say this even the hardest piece of granite can crack on the inside, right? And that crack grows. My issue was like, why didn't they just say, hey, are you guys alright? Like they never did that, they never asked. So I would kind of that made me a little angry. Sure. And I would say, like, what the fuck? Like, you're a flight chief, you're you're a sh, you know, you're a squadron commander, you're whatever. You know this happened. And so I kind of pointed a finger. Yeah. Not it was internal. This was never expressed until after I went to you know seek help. Sure. But then it dawned on me like I could have fucking asked too. I could have asked. But but like what you said earlier, there's that thin line. It's a razor's edge. All right. If I go and tell them this, I'm gonna lose my gun, I'll probably not be eligible for worldwide mobility, which means I won't be a cop anymore, which means I lose my dog because I was a canine handler. And like all those things run around in your head. And in your 20s, you can kind of figure it out, I think. You put up with it so you deal with it. Uh in your 50s, it's when it creeps up. Yeah. And so I I'm kind of I kind of learned it's it wasn't just their fault. I think we look for people to blame. We look for things to blame.

Jalen Auer:

That's a that's a really good point. Um, and I think you're you're onto something with that. Yeah. Is uh I want to say uh that's probably human nature is it's hard to take, especially for such a hard thing like that. It's hard to take responsibility, or you you are you're looking for someone to blame, or you want to say it was again my my chief's fault, my colonel's fault, my uh it was my command's fault or the military's fault. And maybe it was, but uh other times too, it it could be something too that you could uh get help with. Um when you were talking about that, I think it goes back to the stigma too, the mental health stigma of uh like, oh I just you know, I'm a cop, so I just want to be uh, you know, hardened in charge. Um I can't show, yeah, I can't show emotion, I can't show any of that, or what are my peers gonna think of me? What are my uh am I gonna get that promotion? What is the public gonna think of me? And uh so that's a hard game to play. Because on one hand, it is true. Um, you don't want to be, you know, taken advantage of from public, from other people and all that, but on the other hand, you're a human, yeah, and all humans have breaking points.

Scott McLean:

I think a lot of that with and I don't want to get off subject, sure. I think a lot of that uh is in law enforcement too. I always say, because I I was 22 years afterwards with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, although we were behind the scenes, we dealt with people um and issues in some serious situations. And uh I I try to tell people like if that cop treated you like shit, okay, he might have been an asshole. But that cop might have just left a dead baby call. And he has two kids at home. Yeah, and that we're human. Like that I'm just gonna say that fucks you up. Yeah. When you see that, and then like you gotta go back to work. And now I get I pull you over and you start giving me an attitude. You just don't know what this guy or this woman had just been through. Right. You really don't, or what happened last night, it's still affecting, or as you said earlier, it accumulates and everybody has a breaking point, and in those positions, you can't show weakness. It's really uh to use the phrase again, a razor's edge. Yeah, you know, some handle it better than others, yeah, definitely. Uh one goes for military members, for combat people. Like I know guys that are in Connor that will say, uh, I'm fine. Right. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Jalen Auer:

You know, I'm glad you are. Yeah. Um, I think a lot of folks will hear about someone that was deployed to come back that was in the military and uh give them the R, give them space, give them all that. But then again, look at the first responders, cops, all that every single day that are doing it day in, day out, every shift, 12, 24 hour shifts for years. Yeah. And then they're going home. They're going back to their house, they're going to their kids, picking their kids up from school, going to sporting events, and they just got these awful calls. Yeah. Uh so I when I did the ROTC gig, I was still active duty at the time, but uh I was working as an EMT for the uh county's 911 emergency. And uh That's a job, buddy. It was, yeah, yeah. I learned a lot from it. Saw a lot, uh, learned a lot, um, utmost respect for all first responders. Uh, but before that, when I was still in the military, I remember I had uh responded to an accident once. Um I wasn't an EMT at the time. I was just on my way home from a flight one night in December in North Dakota, and unfortunately, a uh a person hit hit a moose while they were driving down the uh the highway. Uh I happened to be one of the first ones on the scene uh because I was out driving home from work. Uh rolled up, went over to check on them, and they were they were badly, they were messed up. Um whole face was caved in and they were messed up pretty good. Um so I did what I could. Uh unfortunately the uh he didn't make it, uh went into a coma and and passed away about a week later. But uh ended, they ended up the military gave me like a medal for it, a whole accommodation, all this. And I was like, oh, well, you know, it's honorable, appreciate it, thank you. And then when uh I was working as an EMT, that was multiple calls sometimes a day that you're doing. And that was like every day, every shift, you're doing the 24s. Some shifts, not much happened, some shift gets call after call after call of traumatic different events. Again, it could be an infant that had just passed away, or you just did CPR on this person for an hour because we were rural EMS. Uh, and now you're going to another call over someone who's talking about suicide, and then your next call is back to responding to an infant that's choking, and uh you're like, man, this is every day, every shift.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, it's rough. Um so back to the fire watch. What what region do you cover? Like from where to where?

Jalen Auer:

So technically it's a southeast region, but it's from Brevard County all the way down to Miami and then out towards uh out west to the uh to the Gulf. To the Gulf. So it's a lot. A lot of miles. Yeah, uh, I would say our primary is Brevard to Miami on that east side. Uh so Brevard, Martin County, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami Dade. Um statistically, if you if you go on the website, thefirewatch.org, you can see the regions, you can see how many people are affected, uh, the deaths by suicide for veterans for each county. Um a lot of good graphics on there and data to support it all. But uh so Palm Beach County and Broward are probably the the number one and number two in our region of the most affected.

Scott McLean:

Now I just want to uh say this before we go on. We keep saying the firewatch because there is an organization called Firewatch. And I think as people, we have a tendency to just drop the because it's like an add-on sometimes to a name, like One Man One Mike Foundation, which is my foundation, by the way. Uh not I don't have to say the one man one mic foundation, right? But you had the firewatch is the is an important part of that name.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, and it's actually kind of funny. Uh so like in an email, I always have to capitalize the T and the and go in and capitalize it. It is literally part of the name.

Scott McLean:

Yep. So you work not only with so you you work with a lot of nonprofits, right? A lot of nonprofits around these areas. But the Fire Watch also works with civilian companies, too. Right.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, so that is our I would say that's our audience. We are a nonprofit, so we work with other nonprofits as a partnership. Um, it's a huge, and as you know, but it's a huge family. Uh it's nonprofits can be difficult. Uh, so you're trying to help each other out. It's not just your own nonprofit, you're trying to help out other nonprofits. But our audience is the community. So whether it's one singular individual or a business, an organization, a club, any of that. We try to get the community educated and the community involved. Right.

Scott McLean:

And I took the course through Herd Foundation with them, and it's it's a very informative, interesting, not dull course. I think it's specifically designed to keep your attention. Yeah. There's a lot of data in there, there's a lot of a lot of information in there, but it's done in a way where uh you can sit there for the 45 minutes and and understand it. And you're not looking like, oh, what the fuck is this thing done yet? Jesus. You know, because your boss said, hey, we have this training coming. Exactly. So the Fire Watch does a really good job at the programming and how you teach the course. It's very fine-tuned, I think.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah. Um, yeah. And that is, uh, we're all busy. Uh every one of us are busy. So we we want to get the information out there, but like you said, if you're so busy at work and now your boss is pulling you aside to go do this uh additional training, nobody ever likes those. Um you're right. Yeah. Um, sometimes they'll get you with the free lunch, you know, that's involved. So you go to it and you have to. But um, so we try to make it interactive and show how how real it is. That's why I really personally I like it because I get to share my story. I found that sharing my story and being open about my experience is the most therapeutic thing that I could personally do. And then it always, always has someone else coming up afterwards and just saying, hey, I had something similar. I appreciate you sharing and talking about it. Um I again, I have found that by talking and sharing, being open about it, uh, helps me tremendously. And it helps break that stigma too, because I can actually say the word suicide without I used to tear up. Um, I used to talk about my son, and I would just tear up and I couldn't talk anymore. Uh, and I still do internally, yeah. But I in I like that I can actually talk about it and be be real um about it.

Scott McLean:

And that's and that's so that's a that's an interesting segue because that's what One Man One Mike Foundation does, and I'm not using this as a plug moment. Uh one of our pillars is storytelling, and I put this together because it helped me. And I've learned uh, you know, it's podcasting and storytelling, and a podcast is a story, no matter what you're saying. But your story when I was asked to speak in front of an audience for the first time through Heard Foundation, it was fucking amazing. Like it's emotional. Yeah, and I say that you know, people in the PTSD world or the TBI world, dramatic brain injury world, we don't we don't retell our story, we relive our story. That's why we cry. We can't just blaze through these stories and and tell it like, you know, hey, I was at a bar with my friend's story. You know, we relive these things. And that's part of the PTSD issue, is there's no cure for it. It's like I'm a recovering alcoholic, too. There's no cure for that. You carry that. And I found that storytelling, so PTSD is a weight, as I put it. It's a weight that we carry. And if you want to shed that weight, shed some of that weight, tell your story. I I say you can carry 500 pounds or you can carry 50 pounds. You're carrying something. Yeah, I'd rather carry the 50 pounds. So I will tell my story and I feel fucking good after I tell it. Where it used to be like that was an emotional roller coaster. It still is, but I feel good after I tell it because I know I just made a difference to somebody. Right. And they understand because no one can walk in our shoes but us. Like no one can walk in a drug addict's shoes, a recovering drug addict, like another drug addict or an alcoholic. You know, we understand each other, so we know that this is what it takes to help us. Right. And it's getting people to know how to do that. That's part of what my foundation does. Know how to do it because it's not easy. You know, we don't stitch these stories together like on the fly. Right. You know, so it's a lived experience. It's a lived, absolute lived experience that you know you have the um the vulnerability. My friend Johnny Schre, he always says that he's like, You gotta be fucking vulnerable. You just have to be vulnerable, you know. And and you know, he's a he's a street guy, like we grew up kind of the same way, you know. I grew up in Boston, he was down here, but it's still the same attitude. And he's very raw about it, you know. You gotta be fucking vulnerable. Just open up, yeah, and you'd be amazed at how easy it is once you do that.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah. And it's important to know that vulnerability doesn't mean weakness. No either. I think a lot of times people have those the synonyms with each other, but it it they're different things. You can be vulnerable and still be strong. As that actually shows a lot of strength by doing so. Yes.

Scott McLean:

So um, what's the uh what's the future look like for you and the firewatch? Like you're gonna go bigger, you're gonna like yes, territory is your territory, right? Yeah, you know?

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, so uh like we talked about there's the territory is massive. Uh and that's how it is. There's only a few of us. What kind of car do you drive, first of all? A Ram 2500.

Scott McLean:

Now I asked that question because I have inside information just from Henry, like how many miles do you put on Henry? He's like, oh my God.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, yeah. I've I've looked at other cars. Uh because yeah, driving a Ram 2500 isn't the best. Yeah. I love my truck, but yeah, the gas, I could get like 12 miles the gallon. I'm like, oh man. Yeah, that's a big gas pill. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. I need to get a Tesla or a hybrid or something.

Scott McLean:

But so um I I also wanted to touch on this, and and people that have listened to the podcast consistently probably know this story by now, but and I might have told you, but this is how the firewatch helped me. Is I had a friend of mine. I hadn't talked to him in 30 since 1991, and this was last year. It was probably around this time last year, actually. And I get this phone call through Facebook, and I don't know if you've ever gotten a phone call through Facebook, but it doesn't stop ringing. Facebook does not have an answering like service or an answering machine. It's 10:30 at night on a Wednesday. I'm like, ah and this this guy happened to be in Indiana. Okay, right? And uh he had reached out to me on Facebook. We refounded, we were stationed together at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento. He was like 18, 19 years old. Good kid. I finally answer it and he tells me that he, you know, the whole attempted suicide. I don't want to get into all that. But as soon as I heard that, and I had taken the class literally two weeks earlier. Like, no lie. Two weeks earlier, I took this class, and my head just started spinning. Like, what the fuck? Like, I don't care how much you have your shit together, I don't care how you know uptight you are, and how you know you got your shit, you know, you're just the man or the woman, and I handle situations. Like we all have that, most of us, some of us, or whatever. I like to think that I'm that guy, right? I can I'll take any situation, I'll help you. Like you said, you like to help people. I didn't know what the fuck to do. Like I was caught totally off guard. My head literally was spinning. And I fucking firewatch, the firewatch, the firewatch, right? I just took although in law enforcement I kind of knew, but you just I never came across it. Sure. Not in that sense.

Jalen Auer:

And it's different too with when you're on the job professionally versus a friend or an old coworker or like you're the private side of your head. Yeah.

Scott McLean:

And um he's I I do what you know, I'll just talk to him, just talk to him, keep him on the phone and keep talking to him. And but at the same time, you have to think like, okay, what's the next step? And his wife had come home and she was on the speakerphone. And they're like, 211, call two. She's like, call 211. And I'm like, yeah. No. It took me like two minutes to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, don't. I I I knew the number, 988, press one. Henry had given me a card and I put it in my wallet. And you think, yeah, you remember that shit. No. Right. I'm fucking here to tell you no. Like when that happens, you really are like in a tailspin. Yeah. But you have to stay in control, right? Because you got this person at the end of the phone. Right. I ran to my wallet. Because I said, no, call 988. And then I second guessed myself. I literally second guessed myself. Is that right? Is that right? And I while I have my I ran to my wallet and I yeah, yeah, 988. Call 988. Yeah. And the story went on. And everything worked out. I'm friends with this guy now. With he sent me uh a text message right before Christmas last year. He said, Because of you, I can spend uh Christmas with my grandchildren. Right. But because of Firewatch, I was able to do that. I I can't take 100% credit. Okay, I answered the phone, and people would be like, No, you didn't but fire the firewatch um gave me that refresher. And everything happens for a reason in life. I swear it does. And that was a I mean, that was what are the that's like what are the odds again to say that again. But the firewatch, the class, the course, the the the the information they give you afterwards. Keep that fucking card in your wallet, buddy. Yeah. You know, everybody, people, if you keep that card in your because I used it, you know, and it and it it helped.

Jalen Auer:

I think our two most useful items that we have is that card that you were talking about, that and it's like a plastic, so that way it can go in your wallet. Um it also has as the 988-98 press one, two one one, even though the 211 is not necessarily for the emergency, that's what the 988 is for or 911. Uh, and then it also has that VA save that are just four steps to spot the signs, ask the question directly, validating them and just being there for them and encouraging to get help. Um, and then we also have the same one, but as a magnet that we like to give the businesses to put on their fridge or to put on somewhere. But yeah.

Scott McLean:

And I got that right up on my uh Yeah, yeah, perfect. I got my certificate, I have my firewatch stand against veteran suicide poster. Uh-huh. I got it, buddy.

Jalen Auer:

I'm in, I'm all in with the firewatch, buddy. Yeah, and and uh thank you for sharing that for sure. Uh I don't know how many times uh I've heard similar things to that, too, where and it's happened to me uh countless times, even though I've had my own lived experiences, EMT, I've responded to professionally to people that are uh actively attempting. Um if someone calls you and it's a personal connection, everything goes out the window. Everything, like I've had I've had some of my best friends call me and say, you know, very, very similar stories, and I'm like, uh, I don't I don't know what to say. I was like, I because you're like, I don't want to compare, but I want to get you help. Uh what what step am I on? What what am I doing? And uh yeah, yeah.

Scott McLean:

And when I I called Henry like the next day, yeah, I was like, dude, dude, I I got it, you got a minute? And he's like, Yeah, sure. And I told him the story. And I'm not saying he chuckled in a bad way. He knew exactly what I went through. Like he just kind of went, uh-huh, yeah, I got that. He said, Don't worry about it. But he knew he he knew exactly what I was saying to him. Like, it's that everything what you just said, Jalen. Out the window, buddy.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, and like you said, you 10 years military, 22 years of uh outside law enforcement, and you're like, uh, deal under stress? Yeah, easy. And you're like, nope, yep. Nope.

Scott McLean:

Yep. That's a different kind of stress.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah. Especially when you have a connection with someone. Exactly. You know. Uh, we just had in your story too, reminded me, I gave a training to a nonprofit a couple weeks ago, and that it was I want to say on like a Tuesday, I gave the training. That Friday, they ended up having a vet come in showing signs of crisis and all that. And uh, when I went back to give them their uh veteran safe place certificate the following week, they told me just a few days after the training, they utilized their training that they had to just again make make a connection, ask the questions, and then get them the help they needed. Absolute validation.

Scott McLean:

Yeah. It absolutely validates everything you guys do. Uh, so I know this is for groups, I know it's for nonprofits in businesses. If you're a business out there or a business owner and you're listening, go to the firewatch.org and get in touch with wherever area you are, because this podcast reaches all across Florida. It's nationwide, but for the Florida people. Right. Uh but if there's an individual that wants to get that training, how would they do that?

Jalen Auer:

So uh a couple ways, the exact same thing you just said, if you go to uh firewatch the firewatch.org, um, then uh you can get connected on there, send an email message. Uh my contact information is uh J A U E R at the Firewatch. And you can send an email to me. But uh we will go out. If it's one individual an hour away, we will go. If they want to do a one-on-one class, I'll gladly drive to somewhere just because it all it takes is one person. That's right. You train one person and they might be the difference in someone's life. Uh, and again, that is our uh that's our mission, and that is our entire thing. It's all completely free, and we'll drive to you. If you want to do it in person, we'll do that. If you want to do it on Zoom or on uh Teams, we can do it that way. Uh, we even have on our website it is the course, it's the watch standard course that you can go on and take it uh just on your own terms. So there's numerous ways of getting the information.

Scott McLean:

This is such a vital service, it really is. There's a there's a few nonprofits, and I've talked to a lot of them now. Um and there's there's a lot, but there's few that in my mind to me stand out. And I'm not gonna put anybody in any, you know, like because I don't wanna, but I can honestly say the firewatch is one of my favorite. Uh it's always good to interview you guys as much as I can promote the firewatch. I love doing it. I understand it now, you know. Uh, but you uh and your services are absolute standouts in in this community. I have a lot of respect, a lot of appreciation, a lot of admiration for what you guys do. It's not easy, like you said, there's only how many. Many of you? Eight. Eight to cover the whole state of Florida? Yeah. Are you kidding me? Like, really? You know, like I'm and you're a nonprofit, so it's not like you have, you know, like it's a business. Yeah, you're making all this. It's all based on donations. So as I say every episode, if you like what the Firewatch is doing, as much as I do, I'm look right at the camera now. For the people watching this, give them your money. Nonprofits, money is the engine that runs the machine. It absolutely is. And money is something that we don't really talk. We don't want to sound greedy and we don't want to sound like, oh, they're money grubbing. I can tell you right now, if you like what the Firewatch is doing, give them your money. Go to thefirewatch.org. There's a donate button right on there. Uh every penny counts in this situation. They do amazing work. Uh Jalen, I think you have a uh oh, and I'm sorry, I I I owe you an apology from the beginning of the episode. Your last name is A-U-E-R. Correct. And how do you pronounce it? Hour. Well, unfortunately, my Boston accent said our good enough. I I brutalized it. No, no, I heard you say it's not A-H at the end. It actually ends in an ah.

Jalen Auer:

Yeah, no, no worries. It's uh I thought you said it just fine. Okay, good.

Scott McLean:

As long as we get the point across. Yeah. And it's not about you and me, it's about the fireworks. Exactly. The word the was the most important word in this whole conversation. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So listen, man, I I I thank you for coming on the podcast. This was a great, great conversation. Great conversation. Thank you so much, honestly, for sharing that story. Of course. I know it's not easy, but it's it. I'm almost guaranteeing you, I could probably say this is a stone cold lock that that story helped somebody that listened. I can guarantee that. Because it's it's it's it's just hard. It's hard to go through those things. And when you hear somebody that went through it, you're like, uh, I it's such a cliche. Oh, you're not alone. Sure, sure. You're not alone. Well, you know what? There's been many times that I've been fucking alone in a crowd. Yeah, exactly. Yep, yep. You know, um, so um again, Stone Cold Lock, your story helped somebody. Thank you so much for sharing that. And uh yeah, good luck with your career. We're gonna cross paths a hundred more times. Sure. At least. At least. Um, and we'll talk anytime you ever want to come back on. Is there anything you guys are promoting, any fundraisers, anything uh you have coming up?

Jalen Auer:

Uh nothing major. Uh really, just the only thing is if anyone, even if you can't donate, if you want to do the training, please, please reach out.

Scott McLean:

Let's touch on this. Sure. Um, and I I should have thought of this earlier. I'm glad I did think of it. Sometimes you do an interview with somebody and you just forget, like, oh shit. It's the holiday seasons. Yeah. And I I don't think I have to say any more about that. I think everybody listening understands what I mean. Yeah. Um so please, if you get a chance to the audience, take take that course. Don't ever, please, don't ever say, oh, it'll never happen to me. Not just the ideations or the attempts. Somebody's gonna call or somebody you know. Don't ever think that that's the case. Because I did, and it meant it messed me up. It had an effect on me that I will never let my guard down again. Sure. Do not let your guard down.

Jalen Auer:

And that's with uh the title, the fire watch, that's the whole point, being on guard for everyone else.

Scott McLean:

Yes. So with that, I'm gonna do my outro. Stick around. We'll talk a little more afterwards. Fantastic. And thanks again for having me. Oh, my pleasure, man. This was a great conversation. Great conversation. Well, we built another bridge today. This one was a uh suicide prevention bridge, which is a very important bridge. It's one of the bigger bridges that I've built in this podcast. I want to thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you liked it, share it. If you didn't like it, well, thanks for watching and listening for an hour and four minutes. I appreciate that. Uh, if you want to get in touch with me, you can uh email me at VetsConnection Podcast at gmail.com. And yeah, uh that's it, buddy. I think uh that's it. I usually say something else, but now that I'm doing video, I'm just kind of more relaxed. So, all right, everybody, you will hear me and see me next week.

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Scott McLean

Host