Hemingway's TBIs

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

What is going on, everybody? Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert Palmitessa, and this podcast serves to deliver tools, tactics, strategies, and ideas to help The US military veteran community and anybody else willing to listen to live their absolute best lives. Been doing this podcast for over seven years now. It's been absolutely amazing.

I've gotten to interview some amazing people. But most of all, I've gotten to deliver a lot of help. Help to a community that needs it. Right? We, as veterans, I believe, are the sleeping giants in this country.

And when I say you need help, it's not because I think you're you're pathetic or incapable or anything like that. I say you need help because you're capable of great things. Because you can turn this life into whatever you want to turn it into if you've got the will, and you got the motivation, and you got the tools. Right? But the problem is a lot of us, we don't think we're capable.

We don't think that that that we have it in us to do everything that that we want to do because we don't believe it's possible. Right? We don't believe it's possible for ourselves, and because we don't believe it's possible for ourselves, we just don't try. Well, I'm here to tell you to try. To get out there to take a chance on yourself, the things you've been putting off, the the the the issues that you've been facing, fix them, and then get out there and make this life into the life you want.

Right? A lot of people complaining about the country right now. Guess what? You know, the way to change this country is to take charge of your life first. Right?

To be an active participant in your life. Right, to to do the best you can at your job, for more and more veterans to open up businesses, for more and more of us to earn more money, for more and more of us to have an impact on our community. That's what this podcast is about. That's what it's always been about. Right?

Man, I've been absolutely crazy lately. I, I'm trying to buy another house. I, have been running this manufacturing company here in Fort Lauderdale. I am also doing stand up comedy. I've got shows coming up.

I've got July 7, I'm gonna be at Exit One Brewing. I believe that's over there in South Miami or Homestead, somewhere around that area. But look it up, Exit One Brewing. If you're in South Florida, come check me out. I'm also gonna be at the New Faces of Comedy.

I'll be performing there at the Dania Beach Improv on July 27. So if you're in South Florida, definitely come check it out. Come up to me, say what's up. I wanna know you. I wanna know your story.

I wanna know who you are. Alright? Please do so whenever you see me out and about. But what I wanna talk to you about today is I've I got a chance to get away last weekend. My girlfriend, her sister, who's also married to a Marine Corps officer, a really really great guy, and myself, we went down to West.

And when you go to Key West, Key West is awesome. Right? It's like this little island. It's a real chill vibe. There's a navy base over there, but it's got great food, great people, great cigars, and the sights to see are a couple things.

There's this buoy there that says you're 90 miles from Cuba to the southernmost point. Though I don't think it's really the southernmost point. I think the navy base, has the southernmost point, but but that that buoy says that you're at the southernmost point. There's a great hotel down the street from there that has this lobster pizza. It's amazing.

That's the southernmost southernmost inn, I think it's called. Definitely go check that out. But the other thing to see over there is Ernest Hemingway's house. Alright? And if you're not familiar with Hemingway, he's like the most iconic American author that's ever lived.

He wrote a bunch of books, For Whom the Bell Tolls is One, Farewell to Arms, Old Man and the Sea, whole bunch of awesome books. But the other thing about Hemingway, and I don't know I didn't know much about him. I don't read a lot of fiction or anything like that, so I'm not gonna go into his work. But the the thing about him is he was a dude that all of us would have loved to hang out with. He was a man's man.

Right? The guy, you know, he liked whiskey. He he loved fishing. He loved hunting. He went on around the world fishing and hunting.

He was a boxer. Right? He he he used to used to just practice over there on the docks. He he got a bunch of after he became famous, he got a bunch of well known boxing trainers to to to to work with him, and he he he was known for that. He he also loved his women.

Right? He he went through five wives, throughout the course of his life. Right? He also served as an ambulance driver in World War one up in the trenches. He actually got blown up by a mortar round that that left shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life.

And one of the things that really caught my ear when I was down there oh, before I say this, he was also present at d day at Normandy, not as a military member, but but as a war correspondent. He was reporting back. He wanted to be up there on the front lines to report back what he saw there that day. So very well known man, very manly man. Right?

Hemingway is like the epitome of that era of manliness. But, another thing that caught my ear about him is is two things. The man took his own life back in 1961. He shot himself. And what really caught my ear about that is is that, well, in the course of his life, he suffered from nine known concussions.

Nine known concussions. So on top of everything I've told you so far, right, he's he he was a boxer, got knocked out a bunch of times. He he served in World War one where he got hit by a mortar round, and he was present at D Day where he also also got knocked around a bit. I believe there was an impact and and his head bashed into into the side of a vehicle. But but besides all that, he suffered from nine TBIs.

And in the course of his life, you know, he had this amazing life, but but he consistently fell down this spiral, alcoholism. Right? Couldn't hold a wife. Right? Five wives.

And he eventually ended up taking his own life. And what I wanna slam home to all of you today is this. Alright? In Hemingway's time, they didn't know much about traumatic brain injury. Right?

But we've learned a lot, and we've learned a lot from the last couple of wars that we've been in. Right? Traumatic brain injury can happen. It doesn't you don't need to have been blown up by a bomb for it to have happened. Right?

If, from speaking with my good friend Andrew Marr, the head of the Warrior Angels Foundation, Special Forces Green Beret, who suffered from severe traumatic brain injury before he was able to heal himself through the awesome treatment that the Warrior Angels Foundation provides to veterans. Traumatic brain injury can happen from as little as manning a 50 cal getting your brain shook around. It can happen from from landing hard in a helicopter. It can happen from just bumping your head. It can happen from being in close proximity to explosions, and that's how Andrew's happened.

Right? He was never directly hit by anything. He was a breacher, and he was in very close proximity to countless explosions. Right? And he ended up with debilitating traumatic brain injury.

I think that this is an issue that the media does not talk about enough. Talking about it more than they used to, but they do not talk about it enough. And it's important. Right? Everything else that's out there is important too.

We need to be talking about traumatic post traumatic stress. Right? We need to be talking about depression. But traumatic brain injury has been linked to both. Right?

Has been linked to a lot of the stuff we're seeing with post traumatic stress. Rates. It's been linked to depression. It's been linked to alcoholism. Right?

And I think that more of us have TBIs than what the authorities would like to believe. You know, if you've been in close proximity to explosion, which is pretty much everybody in the combat arms in the military. Right? If you've been shaking around, you know, people in the Navy, people in the Air Force, if you're close proximity to jet engines, things like that could happen. And you need to be paying attention to it.

There's too many of us out there who don't ask for help or who ignore little things. Right? Maybe you're forgetting things. Maybe you're you're you're you're, you know, maybe you're not feeling like you used to. And too many of us tough it out or try to tough it out and we ignore it, and it becomes too late.

Alright? You know, as we get older, as this generation of veterans gets older, the other thing that we're gonna be staring down is is dementia. Right? By the end of Hemingway's life, he couldn't complete a sentence. He he was trying to write his book, another book, couldn't complete a sentence, couldn't couldn't do what he used to.

And, you know, in his times, sadly, there wasn't much to do about it. You know? But now, through people like doctor Mark Gordon, through people like Andrew Marr, through organizations like the Warrior Angels Foundation that are out there to help you, you can get this taken care of. Alright? You can you you you don't have to to be sentenced to a life of depression, to a life of of, you know, feeling like you're you're never gonna get anywhere.

Alright? Fix the problem. Go out there and attack it at the root cause. Right? So right now, if you believe that you've been affected by TBI, right, Go over there and check out the Warrior Angels Foundation.

Www.warriorangelsfoundation.org. You can look up all the interviews that that Andrew Marr has done on this podcast, on on other podcasts, like the Joe Rogan podcast. He's been on so many podcasts. Right? Check him out.

Right? Check out his book, Tales From The Blast Factory. Check out the documentary, Quiet Explosions, the name of the documentary. Right? Go check this stuff out.

Right? For you, for your family, above all, you know, for this country too. Because this country needs this generation of veterans more than it ever did. And that's all I got for today, guys. Hope you guys are getting out there and living your best lives.

I love you all. This is Chris Albert Palmitessa with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.