Episode 543 Aaron Hale Losing Sight Finding Strength Transcript

This transcript is from episode 543 with guest Aaron Hale.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: You ever had a point where life knocks you flat and you wonder if you’ll ever get back up the same way again? Our guest today, Aaron Hale, knows that feeling better than most. He started out as a navy cook, then switched to the army to become an EOD tech. His job was to keep others safe from bombs. But one day in Afghanistan, one of those bombs took his sight.

[00:00:22] Years later, a disease took his hearing too. Most people would’ve called it the end, the. Aaron decided though that it was just a new kind of mission for him. In this episode, he’s gonna talk about learning to live without sight or sound, finding purpose and serving others and why giving up was never an option.

[00:00:41] Before we get into this episode, though, I want to take a moment to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community, the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who are impacted by the global war on terrorism.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] This memorial will serve as both a tribute to those who served and as a way to ensure that their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come. If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can support their mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.

[00:01:30] Hey Aaron, welcome to the show. Really glad to have you here.

[00:01:34] Aaron Hale: Scott’s so great to talk to you again.

[00:01:36] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Speaking of that, you know, talking to you again you know, you had me on your podcast you know, a few weeks ago, and it was really great conversation. I’m looking forward to kind of picking up the conversation here.

[00:01:46] But for the listeners who maybe haven’t caught that episode or, or maybe don’t know, a, a ton about you and who you are, can you just give us a little rundown about your, your background, your time in the army and all that kinda stuff?

[00:01:56] Aaron Hale: Absolutely. Yeah, I I, I grew up in the [00:02:00] Midwest, Akron, Ohio kind of, you know, the, the, the, the burbs and one of those guys that had enough natural talent and ability to kind of get, get by on without, without having to work hard or do a whole lot of effort

[00:02:16] until, of course you get to college and then everybody learn, knew how to. Work passed me by really fast. I, I, I call myself the, the All American slacker. So, you know, finding myself after three semesters with nothing to show for and booted outta college, I, I joined the Navy and it was one of those things where it was gonna be four years out, get that tuition money. I just pissed away back and, and, you know, with the GI Bill. Go become a chef. And that was gonna, that’s, that’s what I wanted to be that week. I would get the college money, go to culinary school, become a chef, and during the maximum four [00:03:00] years, I would do the OJT thing on the job training. I’d be a cook in the Navy.

[00:03:07] It is mostly because I’d like the, you know, those, those commercials let the adventure begin type of thing when I was growing up and I didn’t, didn’t want to hold, carry a rifle in the middle of a jungle or desert or anything, and knew nothing about the Air Force, so it kind of cut out all the other branches. I would’ve literally did, went in completely unin fart, just walked into the recruiter Navy recruiter’s office and said, I wanna be a cook.

[00:03:33] It’s like we took, I took that asvab the aptitude test, and I’m like, do you sure. We were giving bonuses for nuke tech on a submarine. I’m like, I saw K 19. No, thank you. I wanna be a chef.

[00:03:47] Make me, I like, I, I had no misconceptions about what I’d be doing, like cooking mashed potatoes in a vat the size of a Volkswagen on board a carrier, but. Might as well [00:04:00] practice what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life until I joined the Navy, got top of my class in cooking school, which is, I don’t, it’s like being the smartest, nevermind.

[00:04:11] Scott DeLuzio: I think for, for, I think all the, the, the listeners who, who have experienced a military cuisine, let’s put it that way. They pro probably are laughing along with you.

[00:04:21] Aaron Hale: And anyways, I got, I got the, my pick of the orders for the class and I, uh, I got shore duty in Naples, Italy only. They didn’t, didn’t tell me, at that time, like going through the school that cooks, Navy cooks don’t, don’t cook on, on shore duty, just on, on the ships. So I get, I get off the plane and I arrive in Italy.

[00:04:48] I’m like, where am I gonna be cooking? They said, oh, no, no, no. We’re more like hotel restaurant management equivalent from the, you know, the civilian side. And our version of the hotel is the [00:05:00] barracks. And because you’re the FNG, you get to do the night clerk, like the night desk watch, hanging out, lost keys, and taking in trouble.

[00:05:11] Call tickets. Super. But the, one of the, the first things I learned in the, in the military was that it was going, I was gonna get. Responsibility thrust upon me. Uh, and the, just the rank and position and responsibility, it just, it happens so much faster than I felt ready for, and I just have to fill those chevrons the best I could. And within. A couple very, very fast years. I was cooking for a three store admiral, a commander of the sixth Fleet in Gata, Italy. So I spent my first four years in the Navy, [00:06:00] uh, in Italy. Hardship duty was not. But I went from the night desk watch at the BEQ to cooking for dignitaries and royalty and floated around the Mediterranean making real food for, for the top brass.

[00:06:18] It was, it was pretty amazing.

[00:06:20] Scott DeLuzio: That is, that is pretty cool. And, and especially being, being the new guy, getting a, you know, kind of position there in, in Italy, that doesn’t sound like a, a terrible place to be stationed. You know, I, I’m sure there’s worse. In, in the Navy that you could have been, you could have been stationed, right?

[00:06:35] Aaron Hale: Nothing. That was, that was amazing.

[00:06:38] I mean, I, because I love travel and I love food and I mean, I, I, one of my first Italian friends I made. When I got there, he says, congratulations. I’m like, for what? You are in Italy, have the, we have the best cars, the best motorcycle, the best women, the best coffee, the best food, the best architecture, the best history.

[00:06:58] I’m like, that sounds [00:07:00] pretty arrogant. And I’m an American, but I, four years later, I get back to the United States. They’re like, so how was it? I’m like, they have the best cars, the best food, the best coffee.

[00:07:12] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And, and you got to experience all of that, which sounds like a, a pretty damn good deal. So, let, let’s fast forward a little bit kind of in, in your, your time in and, and. You had to experience some, some challenges, let’s just say you know, during your service, how, you know, tell us a little bit about that and kind of kinda what, what took place there.

[00:07:30] Aaron Hale: Well, as I progressed in my career. I, I became responsible. Not just it, it was just, it was one of those things, the maturity and growth. And I went from the selfish needs. I needed to be a better me.

[00:07:50] I had those internal values work ethic, the sense of pride and accomplishment, uh, looking towards the future.

[00:07:59] Having [00:08:00] goals and having some, you know, all, all that internal

[00:08:04] values. And I gained that. But along the way, I accidentally picked up those external values, like teamwork, sense of duty selfless service and, you know, pride in being a part of something far bigger than just me and. That was a lot more fulfilling than just, you know, just the internal values. And I, I enlisted in,

[00:08:36] uh, 99 Peace time and, you know, two years later where we’re at war and by the time I was on board the the USS LaSalle Cooking for the Admiral, we were in two wars.

[00:08:54] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:08:54] Aaron Hale: And even though everybody’s got that, that job to do every, every [00:09:00] role is important. And I, I believe

[00:09:01] that I, I also believe that my, my, my natural talents and abilities and the skills and values that I’d picked up, that my. All of that was being, was, was, was being underused, used, underutilized by the military, by the Navy. And I felt I could be a, a greater asset to the war fighting effort. So I volunteered to deploy. I went to Afghanistan. I went from cooking for the admiral, and it was top staff to cooking for 3, 4, 5, 600 NATO troops.

[00:09:39] Isef. In Farra, Afghanistan. It was me, another navy cook and nine local national Afghan cooks all running this defect. And that’s when I met some EOD techs, explosive ordinance, disposal, and the military’s bomb squad and everything about. You know, the, the [00:10:00] tight knit brotherhood, the technical challenging aspect of the, the job and the fact that they’re first responders on the battlefield, it, everything just clicked.

[00:10:11] And that’s did everything said this was what I was meant to do. So I put in my request in the Navy to. To strike or switch over from from culinary specialist to EOD, and they promptly denied me. I guess my ki was too important to the Navy. So, when my, that first deployment was up, I came back to the States and my, my contract was coming to an end.

[00:10:40] Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

[00:10:41] Aaron Hale: So I knew this is what I needed to be, and I loved being a sailor. I saw my, my veins, I loved being out to sea. And I still, I, I still, you know, think I I and hoy type stuff, but, I had to, I had to [00:11:00] do everything I could to become an EOD tech.

[00:11:01] So I let my contract expire. I went over to the Army recruiter and I said, I wanna be EOD. They looked at, they looked at my record and said, welcome, we need you. Uh, and they did. It was very busy. About, this was by about 2007, 2008. And yeah we were busy. So I became an EOD Tech changed, uniforms changed. I, I got to keep my rank, but instead of a petty officer, I became a sergeant.

[00:11:31] Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. So, and, and I was actually wondering how that that transfer from Navy to army would’ve would’ve taken place. And you know, how. Would rank transfer over, would, would, you know, prior, you know, experience matter when it crossed branches and I guess, you know, in this case it did. And so, so tell us about your, your time as, as a EOD guy.

[00:11:52] You know, what, what, what did that entail and kind of how did that how did that lead you through the rest of your career?

[00:11:58] Aaron Hale: the Transition [00:12:00] from Sailor to Soldier, it was more like just being, I was, I was like a pretender,

[00:12:08] right? And. The funny thing is I didn’t have to go through the basic training

[00:12:15] for for Arm the Army. I went to this like gentleman’s version, the gentleman’s course. You know, it was all the technical port part.

[00:12:24] None of the dog.

[00:12:26] You know, initiation type thing. So I felt like I was still a sailor, just in a weird uniform. But then I got to EOD training and that’s when I, so I, I feel like I went from Navy Cook to EOD,

[00:12:43] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:44] Aaron Hale: and that was, it was a year worth of. Training to become an a, an explosive technician, a bomb tech. And it was amazing. It was difficult. We were, it was, took a test on average every two [00:13:00] to three days,

[00:13:01] Scott DeLuzio: Oh, wow.

[00:13:01] Aaron Hale: and the attrition rate is huge and it’s, it’s physically demanding, but it’s far more mentally demanding because there’s so much to know. Even after you, you go through a year or worth of really intense training, they, they tell you that’s how you learn how to learn how to be an EOD tech.

[00:13:25] ’cause then you really get your training once you get to your unit.

[00:13:30] Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

[00:13:30] Aaron Hale: And the pace was, was pretty, pretty high tempo. We were always training. If we weren’t deployed or getting ready for deployment or spinning, you know, doing a post-deployment, uh, spin, you know, spinning up, spinning down. We’re also, we also do stateside response. So there are very few police departments in the United States that actually have bomb squads. So when a local, you [00:14:00] know, township or municipality. Has something like that, they call the closest military base. And so we would do things like old cannon balls that got dug up or marine flares that just wash a shore or you that, that souvenir grandpa brought back from the Pacific.

[00:14:23] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:14:24] Aaron Hale: Anyways, and we’re also, we also support the US Secret Service. Wherever a protector goes, they take bomb squad with them.

[00:14:35] So you, you went in 2010 when president Oba went to Indonesia to visit his old, you know, elementary school, give us speech at the Jakarta University. I was there. I cleared that amphitheater.

[00:14:49] Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

[00:14:50] Aaron Hale: You know, when president Carter went to church? I kind of cleared his church for him,

[00:14:56] And sat outside in those sweaty hot Alabama [00:15:00] Georgia you know, summer heat, you know, swatting flies and checking purses for any little explosives before they go in. Anyways,

[00:15:09] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:10] Aaron Hale: we were always doing something

[00:15:13] Scott DeLuzio: Well, and it, it sounds like the, the work. Like, like you were saying, when you go through the, the initial training for, for the EOD you learn how to learn because I would imagine over time, enemies, tactics and materials that they’re using and different things would probably evolve. So if you just rely on just that initial training and that’s all that you.

[00:15:38] You go off of, eventually things are gonna start to evolve and change and stuff, and that, that training becomes, I don’t wanna say outdated, but it’s not as complete as it as it could be had you not kept up with it over time. And so, so yeah, you know, continuing the, the training and, and all the, the stuff that you do you know, on, on the day to day when while not being deployed [00:16:00] is, is probably just as important as it, the initial training too.

[00:16:03] Right.

[00:16:04] Aaron Hale: Well, there was something that I, I mentioned earlier in the Navy where I’d, I’d learned that the, it, the Navy was always kind of force feeding me responsibility, and I kind of got, I learned to get used to not remaining being complacent,

[00:16:24] not, I, what are the things I used to do? I would reach a certain level and plateau

[00:16:31] like, all right, I, I, I achieved it.

[00:16:34] I made it. Now I can sit back. I I got that license, or I got, you know, that rank and now I can be, I can be that, I can get comfortable here. But the truth is, what was it? Ray? Ray Crock once said, you know, you’re either green and you’re growing, or you’re brown and you’re dying. He was talking about business, but. It’s true. If you’re not constantly, you know, moving, looking for the [00:17:00] next thing and you’re sitting back with your feet up, that’s, you’re not staying still, you’re actually backsliding. It happens faster than you know it, and it ca the EOD in the army. It was true, and we were, every, every time we took one of those tests and I passed, it was like, okay, next. There was no, there was no chance to plateau. We were constantly training, we were constantly getting better. You, you achieve one thing and yeah, that doesn’t mean you don’t kind of sit back, take a breather, congratulate yourself. You celebrate the achievement, but you don’t, you don’t, you know, dwell there. And that kind of mindset really helped me later on.

[00:17:49] Scott DeLuzio: So, so going, going into, you know, all these different situations, these places that you had to go, you know, clear them, make [00:18:00] sure, you know, for dignitaries and all that kinda stuff. And you know, even you know, being on deployments you know, you’re, you’re on your toes quite a bit. Like it’s, it’s a.

[00:18:10] Pretty intense environment. I would imagine being the guy who’s responsible for making sure that, you know, the stage doesn’t blow up that, that somebody’s about to walk on or like, to me anyways, that would be like a pretty huge responsibility. I, I would think that, you know, you know, putting that on any one person or even a group of people that that’s, that’s kind of a big deal.

[00:18:28] How, how did that, that stress kind of work with you? Did you, did you use that? Like some people use that, that kind of stress as like fuel, like, like that keeps ’em motivated or, or did that kind of like eat you up a little bit?

[00:18:39] Aaron Hale: It’s certainly a motivator to, to know that you have other people’s lives in your hand

[00:18:44] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:45] Aaron Hale: and. I, I’m, I’m the guy that goes ahead, clears the path, and then goes back and tells the rest of the support, you know, the unit I’m supporting. Okay. I’ve cleared the way it [00:19:00] says it’s safe from all known hazards, and you, you may, you know, you could proceed with a mission if I don’t do my job, to the best of my ability. Somebody, somebody definitely, you know, can get injured, die,

[00:19:17] and, you know, it doesn’t put, it puts a pretty fine point to it. In fact, the, the, the, motto for EOD is initial success or total failure.

[00:19:27] That’s not just about our own procedures and, you know, what could happen to us? That’s about what could happen to others.

[00:19:36] If I don’t succeed, the whole mission could fail. And mission failure. It could mean you know the difference between life and death.

[00:19:45] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I, I, I’ve heard other, other folks who were, you know, EOD guys that who they, they were asked like, how do you re remain so calm under, under all this immense pressure to get this job right? Like you said, either. Either it’s a [00:20:00] success or it’s a failure and, and you know, everything. And you know, how do you just, how do you stay calm and be able to, to handle all of this?

[00:20:06] And, and they said, well, well, look, it’s pretty simple. Either I’m right and everything goes according to plan, or I’m wrong and it’s all of a sudden somebody else’s problem. And that’s just kind of the mindset that they had was like, look, I’m gonna do it to the best of my ability. Not, not that I want it to become somebody else’s problem, but.

[00:20:25] You know, like it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be and, and, you know, so I’m gonna do it to the best of my ability and, and kind of take it from there.

[00:20:31] Aaron Hale: Yeah. How does, does, how does, how does the team drive the ball down the field at the Super Bowl of all games? right.

[00:20:40] Blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling, blocking and tackling from day one, we are taught safeties. You know, all the ways piece of ordinance or an IED can kill us, right? You know, what can set this thing off? What do we, what do we recognize about this new munition [00:21:00] that makes it function? How can we accidentally, inadvertently make it function as designed or another way and endanger ourselves or others. So we learn safeties and we learn to recognize that safety, safety, safety. In fact, when one tech says doesn’t say goodbye to another tech, we say, stay safe.

[00:21:23] Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

[00:21:24] Aaron Hale: right man, stay safe. I’ll see you later. And that’s, it’s absolutely true. So. We’re we, we, when I say blocking and tackling, it’s about the, the fundamentals we learn like day one, it’s safeties, and then it’s the basic physics. We literally have classes on physics and lec, basic electronics circuitry, and we build upon those foundational. You know, building blocks to specifics of the ordinance. [00:22:00] And then we practice and we train constantly. So that’s when it comes down. When we get to the Super Bowl, the, you know, we’re still, you know, just blocking, tackling.

[00:22:13] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, EE even like you said, even even the Super Bowl, the, the professional athletes who are performing at that elite level they. Rely on the basics. You know, they, whether it’s the Super Bowl or the World Series or, you know, whatever it is, they, you know, this is a football, this is, you know, this is a baseball.

[00:22:32] That, that, that, it gets as basic as that. And, and, and you have to you know, be able to do all the, the basic things that. You know, the young kids who are just starting off have to learn how to do, you have to be able to do all those things, plus all that other stuff. And so, you know, the basics are, are super important.

[00:22:48] So, you know, to your point you know, when it comes down to, you know, your Super Bowl of, you know, clearing an I, whether, whether it’s an IED or some other explosive device, like the [00:23:00] basics, like you gotta rely on those and, and you can’t ignore those and, and get, get cocky or, or whatever. You know, you, you have to, you have to look at it like, Hey, yeah, this thing, this thing could.

[00:23:09] Really, really ruined my day, you know?

[00:23:12] Aaron Hale: What was at Grover’s book? Relentless from Good to Great to Unstoppable.

[00:23:18] He, he talked about Kobe Bryant, and immediately after an actual game, he would go to the, the gym and he would, he would practice and because maybe, maybe

[00:23:30] it was something he made a mistake on the on the court and he wanted to figure out how he made the mistake, but often he was just there throwing thousands of free throws or from a certain position. This, you, you, a soft spot, a blind spot on the court. He, he needed to get stronger at, and he would just throw the ball into the hoop over and over and over again until it just became muscle memory. And then that’s what [00:24:00] you’d do in a game. It,

[00:24:01] it wouldn’t have to think about it, it would just be the right action.

[00:24:05] Scott DeLuzio: Right. And I, I think that’s the best kind of training that you could do is when that stuff becomes muscle memory, whatever it is, whether it’s, you know, shooting free throws or, or. You know, diffusing a bomb. You know, if, if you just have that muscle memory, that way your, your mind is freed up for other things.

[00:24:24] And, and that way you can, you can do the things that you’re supposed to do and then you know, use, use that freed up capacity to focus on other variables that, you know, maybe, maybe are showing up in, in a unique situation. Right. Now. So your, your time as, as a EOD tech. Tell us about kind of how all of that kind of came to an end, and, you know, kind of how you, you transitioned outta the military. What, what was, what kind of took place with all that and, and how, how did outta that transition look for you?

[00:24:56] Aaron Hale: Well, the transition [00:25:00] from Sailor to Soldier wasn’t actually a transition, like I said, but

[00:25:05] my transition from Cook to EOD Tech, uh, was nearly complete. I still. I still love being a cook,

[00:25:15] but, I had, it was, it, it was like fulfilling my destiny to become an EOD tech. I loved going to work. I loved doing the job, I loved being of service to a fellow, um, the war fighters to our allies, being that, you know, cog in the effort. To the maximum I felt in my ability and I was constantly trying to improve. And in my downtime, you went on deployment. I also, it was kind of far away on my last deployment when I was injured. I was there for eight months still, still a [00:26:00] cook with chef at heart and built a mud brick. Pizza oven.

[00:26:06] Scott DeLuzio: Oh.

[00:26:07] Aaron Hale: Well, some guys were playing video games and you know, goofing off in their downtime. ’cause you gotta have your downtime. I was out back of our hooch making mud, mud, sun bake bricks and put ’em together. I even wrote king Arthur flour and they sent out a pizza stone and

[00:26:25] all this awesome stuff. It was pretty cool.

[00:26:27] Anyways I, I, I, it was an enjoyable time. It was hard, but that also felt good. ’cause I, I was, I was being physical. I was I was challenging by my, myself mentally, my emotionally, and becoming stronger and more resilient. And frankly, it, it was like I’d finally found. Or created my purpose. And I think that was one, that’s one of the [00:27:00] biggest things too, resilience is that we need to, and purpose isn’t something you find like in a Where’s Waldo book? You know, it’s, it’s something you create

[00:27:11] and sometimes in a who is it? Dog G Jordan grew at. He is written a couple really great books. His most recent is called the Purpose Code. He talks about purpose being, you know, everybody talks about purpose being the big, big P purpose like that, you know, destiny stuff.

[00:27:28] But I, but sometimes, sometimes it could, it could be a little p purpose, just something to do, something that’s fulfilling in the moment and maybe that turns in your big P purpose.

[00:27:42] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:27:44] Aaron Hale: But we need, you know, we need to occupy ourselves. We need need to serve others. And sometimes that’s by becoming excellent at what we love to do.

[00:27:55] Sometimes it’s just becoming pretty good at something we should be doing to [00:28:00] be of service. But in the end, it’s being of service to others is what makes the human, um. You know, and, and contributing to the community. So yeah, that’s, that’s what I felt like I was, I was being a maximum service to my human community.

[00:28:20] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah. And, and you, you had mentioned you know, an injury in the, this last deployment. And, so could you tell us a little bit about that, that injury and, and kind of like what, what took place there and, and then how that, that kind of affected the rest of your, your career.

[00:28:35] Aaron Hale: Yeah, well, I deployed once to Afghanistan as a cook, then deployed to Iraq, and then in 2011 I was on my third deployment, second time to Afghanistan for a. Time as an EOD team leader, that’s the guy that actually gets into the bomb suit and makes the, the long walk,

[00:28:55] you know, that, uh, you know, the, the, the green [00:29:00] space suit,

[00:29:01] uh, down towards some unknown or known device. But months into a 12 month deployment, one of ’em had my name on it. I

[00:29:10] was working on a, an IEDI did not have the bomb suit on the, the robot had taken that apart, so there was no reason to be in the bomb suit. I was just collecting evidence. So I had an evidence kit, a metal, excuse me, a metal detector, and I was making my way back down towards the, the IED to, to collect that evidence when the secondary device had found me.

[00:29:36] Yeah.

[00:29:37] Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

[00:29:37] Aaron Hale: So, it detonated putted me into the air. Took my eyes, cracked my skull, so I was leaking spinal fluid

[00:29:45] right out my sinuses. I was leaking spinal fluid right out my nose, but with everything else going on, I, that de had, but I didn’t even register, uh, and just rung my bell, something good and [00:30:00] turned my lights out. I was kind of in and out for the next 48 hours, but I was it is it. I’d just come back from two weeks of r and r back stateside. I got to see my firstborn turned one. I got to witness the whole family gather around for Thanksgiving feast. And it was a, I just call it the best last page in the photo album in

[00:30:34] my head that you could

[00:30:36] possibly have. It was an absolute gift that I’m, I’m so grateful for. And then I was literally coming I was on my way. It was a, one of those, you know, travel worldwide, travel to battlefield that takes days, sometimes weeks.

[00:30:54] But I was two weeks. From, you know, the United States [00:31:00] coming back towards my area of operation, but I was still the, had the luggage in the back of my team truck and we’d jumped a supply convoy out to our, you know, area of operation when this, when we got this Id call. So I hadn’t even gotten back to our, our tent to unpack. And I was heading right back to the United States,

[00:31:27] um, sitting and Walter Reed. Both of my eyes were destroyed,

[00:31:35] Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

[00:31:37] Aaron Hale: skull busted. It was a lot to go through, a lot of the process and they don’t, they don’t realize very quickly that if you, with total blindness, you also get a sleep disorder.

[00:31:51] You circadian rhythm doesn’t reset with

[00:31:54] a sunlight. So it’s kind of like living on a 26 hour clock,

[00:31:59] Scott DeLuzio: Oh, [00:32:00] wow.

[00:32:00] Aaron Hale: you know? So I’d be sitting wide awake like it was the middle of the day, but it was in the middle of the night

[00:32:10] with just my thoughts. Mind me, what if I can’t do this anymore and my life is over? And that’s it. it. was very sad, depressing, you know, and frustrating, angry, you know, place to be very lonely. They have a great family. They supported me.

[00:32:33] Scott DeLuzio: That’s

[00:32:33] Aaron Hale: Uh, I also, you know, they, I, there was warriors up and down the halls that I, they were fighting their own fight,

[00:32:43] right? They had their own personal battles. And I realized that I’m not the only one here in my am I field lonely, but I have no monopoly on pain.

[00:32:55] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:32:57] Aaron Hale: And who was I supposed, who’s I to say that [00:33:00] I my was a good enough excuse to quit

[00:33:04] all.

[00:33:05] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:05] Aaron Hale: And you know, I went through all the stages of grief. It was actually a pretty textbook. I almost embarrassed to say it was very statistically accurate. But I went through ’em and, and, came out the other end realizing that I still got a role to play. I’m still the father, husband, soldier.

[00:33:27] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:28] Aaron Hale: I call myself a army sailor, but I think I’m responsible to the army. I’m still active duty, technically, and I’m still a soldier still. An E tech. Wounded Warrior. I don’t like using that term. I prefer, you know, recalibrated, carnivore, or re-engineered expert.

[00:33:48] But, I, I have these hats, these roles I have, I’m responsible to and for others. So after I [00:34:00] was done, you know, crying, done mourning the loss of my eyes, it was time to get back to work. And I kind of turned, you know, the, the shut the demons in my mind. You know that self-talk, the what ifs? The why mes I just turned it off and I started, instead of saying I can’t, I I said, how can I, I started asking myself, how, how do I do this?

[00:34:26] How do I function without the loss, without my eyes?

[00:34:31] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:33] Aaron Hale: And I cheated. I, I I started looking for other people that were doing it and just follow them.

[00:34:40] I, I started as soon as I learned how to use, you know, the phone with accessibility features, the Texas Peach software. I was on the online looking for, you know, searching blind plus this, blind plus that.

[00:34:53] How do you, how do you do this? None of how has somebody else done it before? I’m not gonna reinvent the wheel. There’s lots of blind people out [00:35:00] there, and I found Eric Wine Bears the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. I found that guy. I went mount climbing with him, uh, Lonnie Bedwell and another Navy guy, first blind person to kayak the entire Grand Canyon. I found him. Guess what? I went, went kayaking with him. So I just kept finding these people. We were doing amazing things despite not even watching what they were doing. And I joined them. I

[00:35:29] learned from ’em. And I’d ended up in the Florida panhandle. On the Gulf Coast, it’s really hard to find decent mountains to train on.

[00:35:40] I started, started running. You know, just to get in shape because man, they feed you like you’re going through buds at Walter Reed. I mean it, my lunch, dinner tray, they look like, you know, Belushi in Animal House, you know, he was going through the cup. I don’t know why, but man, I was eating well, [00:36:00] so I’d get a couple pounds and I didn’t wanna carry all that up the mountain.

[00:36:04] Uh, so I, I started running, learned how to be, you know, run with a sighted guide. And eventually I was, I was running marathons and then it was the Boston Marathon. And then doing okay. Just started speaking, telling my story. I started teaching at the ERA school and, you know, four years later I was, I was well on my way to figuring out this whole blind thing, but. It was like, yo, destiny, fate, God, you, whatever. Maybe, maybe I was getting a little complacent and it didn’t sound like it, but I was getting kind of comfortable with my situation.

[00:36:47] Right. Maybe plateauing a little bit or made me feeling a little too much pride in my accomplishment. And you know, I, I say God, he’s got like that soldier’s sardonic, [00:37:00] sense of humor, kind of.

[00:37:01] He’s like

[00:37:01] a prankster too, just like me. And he is like, oh yeah, you get a little bit, you know, big for your britches body. Try it again. Here, try this. Yeah, you think you can do it. And I contracted bacterial meningitis.

[00:37:17] That crack of my skull, the bin patched out, but I guess not completely. I had a small leak for four years right down my sinuses and the path out is a path in and bacteria went in and made it its home and started. Multiplying in my brain and it was like acid being pour, being poured directly in and being stirred around. It was one morning I, you know, I woke up and it was so excruciating. It was so, it was actually a little embarrassing while I called 9 1 1 and I said, I have a really bad headache. The the the operator said on a scale of one to 10, how, [00:38:00] how bad is the pain? I said, ma’am, I’ve never felt a pain like this in my life. And I’ve literally been blown up before. And she said that ambulances on his way.

[00:38:11] Scott DeLuzio: Ugh.

[00:38:12] Aaron Hale: Four days later, I was kind of in this like weird, where I wasn’t very lucid or conscious, but I was scared and freaked out and I did confused. And, um, the meningitis I was fighting for my life.

[00:38:25] It was actually a closer to death kind of fight than the bomb blast itself.

[00:38:30] Scott DeLuzio: Oh wow.

[00:38:31] Aaron Hale: And when I came out the other end, uh, I fought off the bacteria, but it took what was left to my hearing

[00:38:39] that the bomb blast hadn’t along with it. I was left completely deaf as well as completely blind. Oh yeah. And that had a bonus, bonus gift, just like the sleep disorder. It took my vestibular balance that in your ear gyro.

[00:38:55] Not that I’m complaining or anything, but come on.

[00:38:57] Scott DeLuzio: I mean, it, it’s kind [00:39:00] of a, kind of a big deal, keeping that, that balance and not. Toppling over, especially if you can’t really see what’s, what’s going on and, you know, that, that, that’s

[00:39:08] Aaron Hale: I had to hold onto the, you know, the railing

[00:39:11] in the bathroom to keep from falling off the toilet.

[00:39:14] Scott DeLuzio: You know, and so as, as I’m hearing you, you talking, I, I can see how somebody who, somebody else in, in your same situation, going through all of these hardships and difficulties and, and everything just being completely defeated and.

[00:39:30] Just saying, you know what, screw it. I, this, this is it for me. And I, I’m, I’m not gonna be able to do anything else with my life because of the circumstances of what’s happened to me. But then, then I’m hearing this story from you and the, the stuff that, that you went through and the attitude that you had, you know, obviously yeah.

[00:39:50] You’re gonna, you’re gonna go through that grieving stage initially. I, I think that’s normal. And if you didn’t that might be a little bit weird. You know, but if. You’re gonna go through [00:40:00] that, that stage, and then it’s like, okay, well how, how do I do these things that I want to do? And then you went and found inspiration.

[00:40:07] You found call ’em mentors, if you will. OO other people who have been there and you said you, you consider it cheating. I don’t really think of it as cheating. I, I think of it as you know, kind of being smart. Like, why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to, you know, there’s, there’s other people out there who’ve gone through the same you know, kind of situation and they’ve, they’ve figured things out.

[00:40:27] So yeah, learn from them. That, that makes a ton of sense to me. But you, you went and did all these things that. Other people wouldn’t even consider, they wouldn’t even, sometimes, probably not even consider leaving their house, nevermind go climb a mountain or go kayaking or do all these other things that that are, are, are difficult for someone with all of their senses.

[00:40:47] It’s even more difficult for somebody without some of them. And, and you know, it, it makes. It makes it to me anyways, like a kind of inspiring story that it’s like, Hey, yeah, this, [00:41:00] this is a crappy situation. These, these things happen to me, but I’m not gonna, I’m gonna, not gonna let that define me and be the, the thing that keeps me down in, in, in everything.

[00:41:09] I’m gonna keep moving forward. And, and that, that to me is, is just like a obviously like hats off to you because like without, without that kind of attitude you know, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t feel the, the drive or desire to, to do any of those kind of things. And, and it feels like, based on just the, the conversations that we’ve had that.

[00:41:28] You know, continuing, continuing to serve people and, and support other, other folks is a big part of who you are. And, and service is a big thing. And, and that probably wouldn’t have taken place if, if you didn’t have that sort of attitude or mindset, right?

[00:41:45] Aaron Hale: Well, a couple things on that. For one, like I said, second time I had gone through the stages, textbook stages of grief, but it’s a process.

[00:41:58] It’s literally your, [00:42:00] your your mind, your heart, your body going through this process of change that she didn’t really want. And

[00:42:08] you’re, you, you, sometimes sometimes it’s for the best.

[00:42:13] Sometimes it’s just what is, but it, it doesn’t, you don’t turn on a dime. So it’s okay to feel angry to, to, to be bitter. It’s okay to feel those feelings. And, but, but on the flip side though, have you ever tried to extend, like. And guys cry. I mean, I cry most of, most of the time. It’s when I stub by toe, which is all the time. But have you ever tried to cry more than you needed to?

[00:42:47] Scott DeLuzio: No, I can’t think of that. No, I mean, I.

[00:42:50] Aaron Hale: Okay.

[00:42:50] Scott DeLuzio: It’s probably not a normal thing for most people to do, right?

[00:42:54] Aaron Hale: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing is, when you’re done feeling the feeling. [00:43:00] There’s, you gotta, you gotta move

[00:43:02] on. And frankly, you know, I was, I was, I came back home from, from the from the hospital the second time and I’m there sitting at my breakfast bar, you know, the counter on a stool holding on for dear life. But I was angry. I was lonely, I was frustrated. I mean, I was trapped in my body.

[00:43:21] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:43:21] Aaron Hale: No sight, no sound. My whole world ended at my fingertips. When the COVID thing came through and it all the quarantine and everybody’s talking about like you on TikTok, like how frustrating it is. I’m like, welcome to my world people.

[00:43:36] This is nothing. But, but seriously, I was, I was, I was angry, I was upset. And, and then one day I was just bored ’cause I’d, I’d gotten through, you know, I’d process that. And part of that was turning it around. You stop thinking about me.

[00:43:57] And, That’s, you know, one [00:44:00] of those things about resilience and you know, the military, you know, EOD techs, three person team, the given like a Tricon Quad con full, the partial shipping container full of tools. Everything that explodes, that’s our wheelhouse. So there are specialized tools from everything from bullets to nuclear bombs. We’ve got some pretty intricate and specialized tools for things we’ll

[00:44:28] never need, but we get ’em all just in case. We get to the battlefield and we get, we get that armored truck I talked about, and it’s not nearly as big as the shipping container.

[00:44:41] So we gotta do a little triage and leave some tools behind. We take what we’re most likely gonna need and we drive on Mission. Still has to continue whatever tools we have, and then we got to Afghanistan. We’re on, we’re on Gulf trails, dirt paths.

[00:44:59] [00:45:00] There’s no roads in Afghanistan, so definitely not that can, you know, fit our massive trucks.

[00:45:06] So. Most of the time we were dismounted, we’re on foot and we could only bring the tools we can carry on our backs.

[00:45:15] Ended up being, you know, a few blocks of C four, some rope carabiners, some knives, and then our standard battle rattle, you know, water, food, ammunition. And you know, you know, D techs were big about knives.

[00:45:29] Got a couple different knives. Anyways we still got to do the job no matter what. Is ahead of

[00:45:36] us and things being hard is never a good excuse for mission failure.

[00:45:43] Scott DeLuzio: Right. Right.

[00:45:44] Aaron Hale: So I was there. I sitting at that counter, you know, you know, kitchen. I had to leave a few tools behind. Now I gotta figure it.

[00:45:58] I have, you know, the [00:46:00] people around me, the skills and the attitude that I’ve learned my resourcefulness and creativity and had to drive on, right?

[00:46:11] You had to continue the mission, so it went from I can’t do this to how can I, and then I modified it to how can I, so that I can teach others because. I don’t know where I heard this. It’s stuck in my head. It’s tattooed to the inside of my brain, but I heard someday the story of your struggle may be the blueprint for someone else’s survival.

[00:46:40] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:46:41] Aaron Hale: So I need to learn the best I can so I can present it to the next person that might be going through their own personal struggle. And I gotta be able to teach them the best I can. And you know, as well as I do in the military, half our jobs are [00:47:00] teaching our successors.

[00:47:02] Scott DeLuzio: Right. That’s right.

[00:47:04] Aaron Hale: we teach, we teach a lot. We give trainings. We teach, you know, we teach us, we teach people to replace us because, you know, we want to be promoted.

[00:47:16] Right. But what if, you know, on the, the, you know, darker side, what if we fall.

[00:47:21] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:47:22] Aaron Hale: We need somebody to fill in. And that’s, that’s the way I, I, I look at it. I just, I want to teach others so that they can succeed too.

[00:47:33] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I mean, your attitude about all of this is just, to me, first off, it’s inspiring. It’s, it’s, it’s really a, a great attitude to have. Like I said before, I can definitely see how someone would, would go the other way though. You know, because they’re, they’re. They’re just defeated and it’s just a struggle for them.

[00:47:52] And they’re, you know, having all sorts of issues with that. But you know, your attitude is like, no, [00:48:00] we’re, we’re gonna make this happen. You know? Yeah, sure. Like you said, maybe you gotta leave a couple tools behind. But still you have a mission, still a father. You still have, you know, people who rely on you and, and need you for certain things and Okay, well gotta get it

[00:48:17] Aaron Hale: always, there’s always, you know, two sides to that coin,

[00:48:20] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,

[00:48:21] Aaron Hale: There’s, there’s that, that victim mentality, and then there’s that winner mentality,

[00:48:25] right? There’s excuses versus reasons.

[00:48:29] And I could have used it all as an excuse, you know, just throw in my hands and like, all right, I quit. This is too

[00:48:34] much. And you, there’s, I don’t know who it was but talking about can you have. Courage without vulnerability.

[00:48:45] Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

[00:48:45] Aaron Hale: And what is courage? That’s the ability to stick your neck out for something more important than the potential to get your hot, your head locked off.

[00:48:56] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right.

[00:48:57] Aaron Hale: That’s what is more vulnerable than [00:49:00] having Being courage. Having courage and, well, I had to have the courage to try.

[00:49:08] I had to have the courage to figure it out. Get off, get off my butt, get off that stool. And frankly, I was terrified. I was, I was not just terrified. The thing was, I was terrified of what might happen, but I was more terrified of, well, what would happen if I didn’t try? If I got stuck sitting on the couch, feeling sorry for myself for what would inevitably be a much shorter life.

[00:49:45] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right.

[00:49:47] Aaron Hale: So that fear is what drove me to seek out mentors, to seek out, you know, peers and to get the heck out of the house.

[00:49:59] [00:50:00] Uh, and, you know, and find, find, you know, friends. To socialize, to, to get out there and um, and try harder.

[00:50:11] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And it, it seems like you’re doing, you know, such a great job at it. You know, I, I’m just hearing your story and everything that you, you are doing is is just, you’re moving in the right direction, right. And, and. We briefly talked about your, your podcast at the very beginning of this episode.

[00:50:28] I wanna give you a chance to talk a little bit about the podcast and, and tell people what it’s all about. And you know, kind of how you know, some of these, these lessons might tie in and some of the stories and other discussions that you have on, on the podcast you know, can help help other listeners kind of, you know, take away some valuable lessons.

[00:50:45] Aaron Hale: Absolutely. Well, since I have a really hard time reading notes,

[00:50:51] so you know, or, you know, a teleprompter, I’m a real, it’s hard for me to do monologue type episodes though. I’ll try.[00:51:00]

[00:51:00] I, I use a podcast platform, the point of impact with Aaron Hale to, to share other people’s incredible stories because, well, what, you know, as a podcaster with a, you know, you’ve got this platform, people gravitate to that so they can tell their stories, and you get to have these incredible conversations one-on-one with people that probably wouldn’t even answer the phone if you didn’t.

[00:51:24] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:51:25] Aaron Hale: So I get to talk to some amazing individuals and they’re doing awesome stuff and I get to learn from them. At the same time, I get to do that whole teaching thing I

[00:51:38] love, but I’m not really doing the teaching, I’m just being a facilitator.

[00:51:41] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:51:42] Aaron Hale: So it’s, it’s, it’s fun, it’s engaging, it’s entertaining, educational, and it’s something to do.

[00:51:52] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and that’s important too, having, having something to do to keep, keep busy. Like you said, when you were deployed, building that, [00:52:00] that you know, that mud brick you know, pizza oven there like. It was something to do. Some people found video games, some people found other things to do to keep themselves busy.

[00:52:08] But yeah, you need, you need something to do, keep you, keep you going and you know, why not have conversations with, with folks like, like yourself and, you know, other folks that I’ve had on this show. Who have inspiring stories and different perspectives that maybe maybe I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

[00:52:25] And, and then I, I start talking to someone, it’s like, Hey, you know what? That, that guy might be onto something. And, and let me, let me dig into that a little bit more. And you know, that, that type of thing helps you know, me anyways, as a host of, of a show helps me to kind of put certain things in, into perspective.

[00:52:41] I mean, I’ve never been in your shoes. I, I haven’t, you know, lost all. You know, sight and, and hearing and stuff. I do have some hearing loss, but not, not to the same extent, but you know, it, you know, hearing where you came through and, and the the motivation that you had to keep going. Something that, you know, for [00:53:00] me, I, I don’t know, sometimes I, I, I feel like I, I might be the, the type of person who would struggle with that type of thing.

[00:53:05] Not to say that you didn’t struggle, but where I don’t know that I, I would’ve ended up on the same same path, same trajectory. But, but then hearing stories like that, I’m like, you know what, man? There,

[00:53:16] Aaron Hale: I struggle. I struggle all the time. I mean,

[00:53:18] you should have been recording that whole thing before with the microphone. And before, before the show started. Oh my gosh, I just, a hundred runways, I can mess something up.

[00:53:30] Now, a blind deaf guy trying to do a podcast,

[00:53:34] but

[00:53:35] Scott DeLuzio: you, but you figured it out that

[00:53:37] Aaron Hale: at home dad with three young boys

[00:53:40] and I mean, I get to have real adult conversations right here at

[00:53:44] home.

[00:53:45] I get to learn, I get to share with my boys. You wouldn’t believe who I got to talk to to today. And it’s, it’s, it’s extremely fulfilling. And the whole point of the point of impact is that, [00:54:00] you know, the audience, the listener, and myself, I get to become that potential. Me. I get to be better so that I can give my best, be my best, I can give my best. And it’s like it comes full circle so that you can contribute the best you can to your community.

[00:54:19] Scott DeLuzio: And that’s, you know, I, I think that’s all anyone could ever, ever ask of you is, you know, just provide. The best you can do, do your, do your best, do do what you can, and you know, just, just keep moving forward. And you know, it’s, it’s really great that you are, are putting out this show with, with all the, the different guests and stories and, and things like that, that you have.

[00:54:41] You know, again, it’s, it’s really inspiring and insightful conversations that you, you have on, on there. And you know, it helps. Build a community or, or, you know, connection to other folks as well, which I think is really important for, for people, especially veterans who like to, you know, sometimes just isolate from other [00:55:00] folks and you know, it, you know, kinda just shows those, those connections are, are available.

[00:55:03] They’re out there to be made. And you know, all those things I think are, are, are really important. But you know, I, I, I do, I did want to give you that, that opportunity to talk about the show because I, I. I wanna encourage folks to go check it out and listen to it because you know, there’s a, a lot of great stories and conversations that are, are had on there and, and I, I, I think folks can definitely take some good information away from it.

[00:55:24] So, but Aaron, I I want to thank you you know, for, again, for coming on the show really great having you here. It’s always been, you know, great conversations when, whenever you know, we get to chat and, you know? Yeah. Barring any technical difficulties, which for, for the listeners you know, what Aaron was, was referring to is before we, we started recording, there was just some technical issues with the, the microphones and stuff, and it was just hard to hard to select the right microphone on, on, on his end, but.

[00:55:50] We figured it out. No, not we, he figured it out. You know, he, he was able to, to just keep pushing forward and, and, you know, trying different things until something worked and, and then it did, and here we are, [00:56:00] and I think everything sounded great and we’re, we’re all good to go as far as that goes.

[00:56:04] But you know, but it, it’s because of that, that same attitude, you know, like, Hey, I got a job to do here. I’m going to, I’m gonna just keep push pushing forward until I get it done. And you know, here we are. We were able to have that, that conversation you know, and everyone is able to hear you, you know, crystal clear, and you know, everything is is is great.

[00:56:22] So, so thank you for you know, first off, for pushing through on the technical difficulties, but also for, you know, coming on and sharing your story. I know that that story’s not probably the, the easiest one to share, but you know, one once when. Your story gets out there, like you said, it becomes that it could become that blueprint for somebody else to you know, start their healing journey.

[00:56:41] And you know, hopefully that that’s somebody who’s out there listening today and they, they get that they get that message across to them and, and they, they start moving in the right direction. So thank you again, Aaron, for, for coming on the show.

[00:56:51] Aaron Hale: Well, I really appreciate having on one. It was great to turn the microphone around ’cause I got to, got to talk to awesome guests. Like, like, like you [00:57:00] Scott, and, and I, I appreciate your patience as, even though I’m being a guest at, on your show couldn’t figure out how to unmute myself. Yeah, if we got figured out, and I appreciate the end of art.

[00:57:13] I’m glad to be here.

[00:57:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much.