The Power of Advocacy: The Inspiring Story of Sarah Verardo, CEO of The Independence Fund

The Team Never Quit podcast is sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal has been helping the military community for over 90 years. You can learn more at NavyFederal.org. On his very first foot patrol back in, it was 14 days to the day of the first ID. He was the eighth guy taking a wall, and it was an old Russian landmine that had been hooked up to two 15 gallon jugs of homemade high explosives. It was just game over. His left leg was immediately blown off. Most of his left arm was blown off. They actually ended up sewing it to his back during his medical flight, which was super cool. He's burned over about 30% of his body damaged to his airway. His ear drums were blown out. It's just significant polytrauma. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the TNGU podcast. I'm your host, Marcus LaTrell. Every week, it's my job to fire you up, to ignite the legend inside of you, and to push you to your greatness. Join me every week as I take you into my briefing room with some of the most hard-charging people on the planet. They're going to show you how to embrace the fuck of life, teach you the values of working your ass off, and charge through whatever life throws at you. This is the Team Never Quit Podcast. Don't fuck a lot, fluttercup. Welcome back to another episode of the Team Never Quit Podcast. Thank you guys for listening in, and please, if you haven't yet, go check us out on social medias at Team Underscore Never Quit. All right, let's kick it off to our Patreon question of the day, which is, what sentence can you say now that would seem totally insane 20 years ago? I'll kick it off. All right. All right. I would say, hey guys, you want to go meet up in the metaverse? Yeah, I still don't know what that means. That's good because it didn't even exist. Yeah. You're talking about saying, it's talking about something that didn't even exist. Yeah, exactly. We can go technology, whatever it could be. I would say, can you get me an Uber to ex-restaurant? Chick-fil-A. Yeah. Yeah, an Uber to Chick-fil-A. So my turn, I think I would say, Alexa wakes my kids up. I mean, it's just, who's Alexa? How about that? Exactly. What is that? Hey, yeah, like if we were in, back to the future, and we went back 20 years. To 1955. Yeah. Yeah, back in the day when you would see somebody stay on the side of the road, just talking to themselves, they would be crazy. Now everyone does that. Everybody does it. I think the sentence, I would be like, my twin brothers, the United States congressman. I mean, I would have never ever even thrown that line out back in the day, man. Now it's kind of pretty, of course, we're in the upside down world for sure. What you guys got? Well, can you believe that 20 years ago you were in your 20s? I was younger than that. No. My math's not that good. You're almost 30. Yeah. You wouldn't be too dangerous. You got it. That's it. I think it's one of those phrases that you end up saying to the kids, like, don't lick your brother or get off of the dog. Don't lick your brother. Yeah. Stop doing stuff. Don't do weird things. There's a lot of statements that come out of my mouth. Make good decisions. Yeah. I say to my kids every day, I'm driving my school. Make good decisions. I never said that back in the day. Yeah, that's true. I say to my husband all the time, like, did you charge your leg? Is your leg plugged in? And that's actually a good point. I sometimes people hear me say that and they're like, what did you just say? And I said his leg is his leg charged. He's plugged in. That is crazy. That is a really crazy line. Yeah. The world is upside down. Yeah. That's a good one, Hunter. That came from Patreon. Yes, it did. Awesome. Okay. All right. So let's get into your story. So how we like to do it on the podcast is take it back and tell us who you are as a person, like where you grew up and just a little bit about you, whatever you're willing to share. And then you can just roll into kind of your story as an adult, how you met your husband, what it was like as a military wife. And then we can talk about how you got involved with being like this underground get shit done girl. Because you definitely have a reputation for that for sure. I think really it's like the girls who are told they talk too much in school, I have made a career out of it. I mean, that's where like when I hear about my daughters, I'm like, gosh, that's all I do all day. I'm the oldest of three girls. And now I have three girls. And I think that first daughters can get stuff done. Like that is for sure. You have a problem. You just you have the oldest daughter figure it out. But I grew up in Rhode Island and loved it the ocean. Oh, well, really? I've never met anybody in there. Yeah. Have we? That no more. You know, I just have never met anybody from there. It's because it's beautiful up there. It's beautiful. Have you been? I have. I've actually had to do the flight from Rhode Island to San Diego. It's the longest one on the planet of Earth, I think, because it was felt like I was thinking of it. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. So I grew up there. Ocean State people living in North Carolina for so long now. People say to me, oh, like you're from Long Island. And I say, no, Rhode Island, like is a state people, you know? Yeah. And so my husband and I met in high school there. And a really small school and we're like 14, 15 years old. And the rest is kind of history, but you know, I can give you a deeper dive on any one of those subjects. So when y'all were growing up, did you know immediately when you were dating that you didn't hear? Same town. I mean, same grade school kind of deal. It was high school. It was actually a boarding school. Mike, my husband, he was a boarding student. I was a day student, so he lived there. And no, he was so shy. I mean, he was just so shy. So I didn't know what the future would hold, but it's been an adventure ever since. Oh my gosh. So were you on the ocean or not? Yeah, we grew up in a town in Barrington and Newport and it was right on the ocean. So I grew up, like I sailed. We were on the water a lot. And then even living there as a young adult, like I had three dogs and they would swim every day at the beach. That's the only thing about living in North Carolina. I do, you know, in Charlotte, I should say, I miss being near the ocean. So if you're date, did you actually start dating or you just met him? Nope. We were really good friends. I dated somebody else all through high school. And again, it was a really small school. So that was kind of funny. I'm like, oh, she's got a thing. I'm just kidding. I got a small school. I know exactly what that is. You do. You do. It's so true. So no, Mike was real shy. Like I knew he liked me mostly because his mother would always tell me. You know, that was like the kind of giveaway. But we were just really good friends. Like he did all of my biology dissections for me. He would do like all the squeamish stuff I didn't want to do. He did it. And we're really good friends. And then that friendship kind of slowly turned into more. And then you, what happened after that? Did he decide? As far as, I don't know what I'm going to say, but as far as guy code goes, does that work? Like when we do that? Like when we intervene? I don't know. I have no experience. I don't know. It did in that case. It did in that case. Oh, I'm sorry. So it does work. Well, we got to try to attempt to do like that. I got a little young boys now. I'm trying to teach them because apparently I gave my oldest boy some advice on how to approach women. And it was a bit aggressive. Oh, yeah. He's like, how do you go on a date with a girl? Like just go tell her you were going on a date, you know, something like that. Yeah, and the girl was like, you're not going to tell me what to do. I was like, so a lot of this advice helps. Yes. Yes. Some of that might help. Oh, my gosh. OK, so did he decide he was going to go into the military young or when did you all decide that that was going to be your life, your path? He did. So we were we were juniors in high school during the events of 9-11. And he made a pact with two other buddies and most high school packs are a really dumb idea. And he really wanted to be in the 82nd. He was so proud to do so. And he had a preexisting condition. So he had to have a few very painful surgeries just so that he could enlist. That's how committed he was to joining. And so, you know, at first he, he went to Benning. He went to Airborne School. First he went to Korea for a year. And then and then it was his dream come true. He went to he was in 82nd and they went to Afghanistan. And at this point, had y'all started dating when he was actually enlisted? What got him fired up about that? I'm always curious as to about 82nd. Yeah, especially that that's that's particular. Most guys when we go in like we'll seal and like with that, they have an idea. But for him to pack up is one thing to go get some surgeries to continue. Are they still boys? They still hang out? They're they're still good friends. They have to be. They have to be. They have to be. I mean, one of his friends who Sean was the first one who was there. And so and he had just gone out of the army about six months earlier. And when Mike woke up and he's coming out of coma and he's pulling his tubes off and stuff, the first thing he said he said to Sean is you need to go back in. And Sean did he re enlisted within 48 hours of of Mike getting to Walter Reed. Oh my goodness. Okay, so let's take it back to he's. And I skipped a whole bunch. Yeah, sorry. So we're you're in let's get to the point where you you're actually dating and you get married. Tell us about that. So we actually got married during his time at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. So I was kind of adamant that I did not want to have a wedding until we could actually plan a wedding. And so that time it was a little bit clunky. We Mike did his confirmation as an adult with an Catholic faith. He went through our CIA and that was a very long process as well. We got married at the parish where John and Jacqueline Kennedy were married in Newport. It's just beautiful. But it was really important to us to be married or home parish. So that that took a little longer than we had expected. Wow. Marcus just did that. We know all about that. That is what we're talking about. That's right. That's right. He did our CIA and he got all of his sacraments last Easter. I love that. Yeah. So a rookie. That is a really big deal though. I mean, as an adult, and to have a career going on at the same time, I mean, to go through, it's a huge commitment. It's a lot of hours that you put in to do that. That shows his commitment to you. And yes. Yeah. That's awesome. So he went straight out of high school? Yeah. Well, he took him about probably two years before he could actually enlist. And we had to go through it. He had four surgeries. Yeah. Yeah. Before he could join. Get in and think of it today. 80 seconds. Y'all, and all his buddies there at the same time as well? No, they didn't go to the 82nd. They went, I don't know, different army units. And but he loved every minute of being in the 82nd. And what, so he goes into the 82nd and is he have a specialty? I don't know much about you. Yeah, he was in Bravo. So just, you know, infantrymen. And they went to Southern Afghanistan, Uganda Valley area, August 2009. And he was entered twice in April of 2010. So he was about nine months into his first deployment, one and done, unfortunately. Obviously, you know, he, he wanted a lifetime in the military. So there was just, there was so much loss. There's that initial loss. And then he tried to continue on active duty, but that process, you know, with his injuries being as severe as they were, was just impossible. Can you tell us about his injuries? What happened that day? I can. And so April 10th, 2010 was the first time he was injured. And I actually just share with my daughters the other night that their dad was injured twice. Because I often forget that part of the story, but I think it speaks so much to his character. So he was injured the first time. He was riding as a gunner. They hit a roadside IED and he was ejected out like in the turret, like 30 feet, you know, he twisting in the air. Everybody kind of thought he was a gunner. And he was badly banged up enough that they medically evacuated him. So he went to Kandahar at that point. And he was given the choice to go back to the United States to heal or to return to the unit. And I think the preference from family would have been, of course, to come on home and heal. And at that time, they had just taken so many casualties. And so he went back in and on his very first foot patrol back in, it was 14 days to the day of the first IED. He was the eighth guy taking a wall. And it was an old Russian landmine that had been hooked up to two 15 gallon jugs of homemade high explosives. And it was just game over. So his left leg was immediately blown off. Most of his left arm was blown off. They actually ended up sewing it to his back during his medical flight, which was super cool. Oh, my gosh. He's burned over about 30% of his body, you know, damaged to his airway. His eardrums were blown out. It's just significant polytrauma. And as you all know, you know, when a medevac is called in, there's different classifications for that service member. And Mike's medevac was called in as very seriously injured, expected dead on arrival. And I was telling the first hurdle he jumped is that he was not dead on arrival. He flatlined several times during the flight. But he stayed in a coma through kind of stand to Germany to Walter Reed. Oh, my gosh. And when did you get the call? With summer ride around the corner, it is the best time to feel confident in your own body. Between all the pool days, going to the beach, or whatever it is you love to do, your fitness level really determines how positive and bold you really feel. That's exactly why I love to use Fitbod. This AI powered app creates customized workout plans based on your goals, your equipment, and it automatically updates with your progress. So you can finally say goodbye to all these boring, engineering workout plans that they've just been using for centuries. 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So and then when I was going to see him, it was just, she wanted to make sure that I knew what I was, you know, we weren't married. So like that I knew what I was walking into. And Michael is just so humble and selfless and I knew that was not a life he wanted for me. And in fact, many, many times during that early period told me that. Oh my gosh. So. Oh, yeah. He got banged up and then y'all got married. So you're a unicorn. They're not too many y'all running around. There were a lot of, you know, there were a lot of wives who left, right? At Walter Reed and Nancy. Oh yeah. There were, I can't judge them. I really can't. And I don't think we should. I think that ultimately. No, we're not saying anything about them, but what we do say, we talk about are y'all. Yeah, the people that stay. Just because you don't say one thing about the other, there's not downgrade in anybody. But don't, you can't get on to me about complimenting somebody and staying around as a, that's a, that's a hell of a thing. And he went back and this is the thing. That's how you know God. Step it in. So he got busted up and then the first one back in got hit again. Yeah. You know the odds of that happening? No. That's how you know when you're not behind the wheel. I got a thing happen to me. I got my ass kicked and I went back again and got kicked again. So I was like, okay, maybe, you know, I'll do this. Right. Right. But you know that sense of that, that calling, that patriotism. I mean, that was all he wanted to do is he wanted to serve. And so I never knew he'd pay such a high price for it. And it even sounds naive now. We're almost 13 years later. And his injuries, he's had such significant declines. It's, it's been horrific. More than I could ever have like a worst nightmare would have not thought it went the way it has. But I look back to how naive I was. Really thought, okay, we're going to get a prosthetic leg and he's going to be on his way. And I'm going to learn to push him in a wheelchair and it's, and it's all going to be okay. So at this point when he's injured, y'all are dating though, right? There's, it's not just a friendship. You were actually dating. So there was a romantic, you were actually being romantic at this point. And you had to learn how to adapt to all sorts of things. So when did you, when you saw him, what was that like for the first time? I mean, it was just, it was just, he was Michael. And thank God, because I was so worried and nervous about seeing him about what that would be like. And it was exactly the same. Wow. That's, I mean, that shows a lot about you. When, so how long was he in all of his, you know, at Walter Reed and Bampsie and all of that? He spent three years at Bampsie. And so when I would go back and forth from Rhode Island to, to San Antonio, learn to love Texas, and really just got used to, like, I would have to psych myself up. Sometimes going into the hospital. I had never been around someone who, you know, had these severe burns or these injuries and everybody had them there. I mean, it was, you couldn't walk. I'm hitting someone. The burn ward is a different story altogether. I wasn't get put in there. That's, that's a different story altogether, man. Wow. Okay. And so at kind of walk us through that journey with that healing was like, and when you decided to get married and all of that. Um, I mean, we decided to get married. I think it was more a formality at that point. So, and then I started just saying, well, you know, he officially asked me to marry him on one of his first outings out of the hospital on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. And he actually handed me a Bible before he handed me an engagement ring. And, you know, he said to me that it was going to be, you know, much more important than any ring was going to be that we, that we really understood that starting a journey of marriage together, the most important thing we could do for one another would be to make sure that the other one, you know, lived a life to get to heaven eventually. And, um, and just that our holiness would always be need to be more important than our happiness. And, um, I've had to, I've had to rely on that alone, obviously in the last few years and just kind of remembering all of that for both of us. Um, but it was a, it was a long journey. It was a lot of, you know, up and down learning brand new things. I never, I never thought that these systems would be so broken. The DoD medical care was phenomenal. I mean, it was truly, it saved his life many, many times because he spent, um, gosh, he spent quite a few weeks on imminent death status. So he was, you know, not expected to live and, and the breakthrough and the advancements of battlefield medicine are incredible. And my only prayer is that what happens at home will start to move in tandem because we're saving these guys. Thank God. But there is a society and these families who are just not prepared to receive them that way. And so there was a lot of trial and error highs and lows. And, um, in 2013 or late 2012, we went back to Rhode Island. And I had, I was so ill prepared for what was to come. So I called the Providence Rhode Island VA and I said, you know, we're going to come in and he, he needs a prosthetic line or he needs all this stuff. And they said, we don't have his name. We don't have any record of him. You're going to have to try to get an appointment with a primary care physician. And so I had to, I went on YouTube and I learned how to pack his wounds by watching YouTube videos. Oh my gosh. And my dad and my dad in the fire department were carrying him in and out of the house, um, because we didn't have a ramp. And so, um, and then his only prosthetic leg broke and I duct taped it for 57 days. Well, I waited for someone at VA to sign a piece of paper authorizing repair or replacement. We're going to have to get him a duct tape sponsorship commercial. Oh my gosh. It worked. All right. I bet it did. Stuff fixes everything. Good job, girl. That is crazy though. So have you taken the bull by the horns and actually tried to get things done for home health, like home care after once they're released from the hospital? It's so today's VA is a much better VA than it was 10 years ago. But I think what we see is like with different administrations and different people in charge, the priority of where VA falls and like, you know, we're care to our nation's severely injured falls. It really like your mileage may vary. And I have, I've lived it and I've seen it, you know, for the past decade plus. And it's disappointing to see that veterans, they should be an issue that are, it should be purple. It should be that every single American can rally behind this population, but they're just not a priority. Sometimes to some leaders or some officials. And it's evident by, you know, how VA is at any given time. Oh my gosh. That's probably the barometer actually. And to see it, I mean, I know the generation ahead of us, their war messed them up Vietnam, messed them up. The baby boomers, they hate each other. And like one would get in there and push down. You could tell they were throwing out my VA experience is awesome. And somebody coming behind me was terrible just because that switch, you're right. It should be purple. Anybody who gets busted up, you just go into any facility and get your treatment. That's how it should be, period. We got enough money floating around and not enough veterans to where that even shouldn't be even issue. Well, the super cool thing living in Rhode Island is that we were in a Navy town. And you know, Mike was army, but the Navy in Newport, Rhode Island, they heard that he was there. And obviously, you know, he's like decades and decades younger than any of these other retirees. And the Navy and the Navy hospital specifically, like they grabbed him and they took care of him like he was one of their own. Well, we waited for VA to kick in. Oh, that's so good. It is way too, man. You can tell when you walk into different facilities. I know it's crazy to sound, but it is like walking to a different house. It just depends who's working there. He's working there. He's passionate about it because there's some, I mean, that goes with like the USO too. You go into some and they're like so rude. You can always tell when there's been a lull without wars, but we just finished up two of them for 20 years. So I would imagine this stuff's going to start ramping back up. I mean, you already see it. Our guys and girls are coming in to the political realm and the wives, especially the guys who got busted up. When you say the medical treatment is the way it is now, as opposed to 10 years ago, that's because we were getting hurt and it had no choice. It had to catch up. But it's scary because like in these hospitals, you know, we did the rescue of Benjamin Hall, the Fox correspondent who was severely injured in Ukraine last year. And then, you know, I helped his family navigate through these challenges. Secretary Austin did a special designation to allow this Fox correspondent to recover in a military hospital. And so just walking through that with his family, but realizing the doctors that are there that have these 20 years of blast injury experience, there being some of them are being pushed out, some of them are being retired out, some of them just, you know, timing out. But we're losing that experience that we that we it is essential to our national security our readiness that we have the ability to treat these injuries. Hopefully those guys come back in that GS position who got pay them. Right. But I mean, that that's that OJT right there, that on job training with them guys, getting girls get from just working in young doctors in the theater. When we first started having to do that, and then all the way through the clinical, sure. So as a wife and caregiver, what would you if you could just create your own system for the VA when there is an extreme injury like your husband's? What would that look like with him coming home? Well, I think there needs to be permanent designations for certain conditions. So, you know, now we're in a very different point, but for example, you know, Mike, he doesn't, he's totally dependent on another grownup for what's called his activities of daily living and his independent activities of daily living with the exception of he feeds himself. So if someone, you know, cuts and prepares the food, he does put it in his own mouth. But even he has supervisory care when he's eating. So he needs a shower chair and he's got open wounds. So he needs a new shower chair every three to six months. And until about a year ago, VA was telling me again, well, we need you to bring him in, which mind you, it's a three hour round trip for me. We need you to bring him in so that we can check to see if he still has his injuries. And I said, if he still has his injuries, I mean, like are you looking at his chart? He's, his arm and leg were blown off. Like he's a total, you know, and unfortunately common sense. It seems that some people, not all, but some at VA would rather fail following the process than succeed by deviating from it. Yeah, well, you can't, a lot of times can't blame them because they're, they're, they're so reprimand. I know exactly what you're talking about. Does he still have the injuries? I've heard that question. I'm like, what are you talking about, man? It's like, can't grow back. Yeah. I mean, his leg can't grow back. They have to read it the way it says it. And it's some of them get put in that, but it's a, it's a funny storm that there were, of course, ever, are going through a funny storm right now. But. So what would you, so you would say that there needs to be like a permanent, instead of these, what do they call it? TDRs or something like that, the temporary disability. Yeah. I mean, there's, so like Mike's obviously 100%. There's a whole scale beyond 100%. But there needs to be like, I'm talking about the hospital at the medical side of the house. It needs to be some sort of permanent designation. Like if you need a prosthetic leg, you're always going to need a prosthetic leg. So if you need liners for that leg, you don't have to get checked again to see if you still need those. Yeah, you just go get it or they send it to you. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. And that's what DOD does. DOD does it right. Sure. That's the problem is the gaps when we get out. Because you want to talk about either keeping you in line or getting you out of there, we can do that quick. Anything you ask for, you need it's right there. That's true. Has that changed since, since the beginning, since you first got out and started dealing with this, or is it still like that? Yeah. You know, so for us, we've had an easier road, I think, because I've been such an outspoken advocate. And we had growing up in Rhode Island. We had, Mike was probably one of a handful of people that were injured being or wounded from Rhode Island. And so I developed relationships with our US senators. And I remember one time he was still in, and I was back in Rhode Island, and he was texting me. And he said, did you file a congressional complaint? And I said, no. What are you talking about? And he said, I'm getting screamed at. They're saying, your wife filed a congressional complaint. And I said, no. I just told Senator Reed that they're being really bad to you about whatever. And he was like, that's a congressional complaint, Sarah. So I think like learning to use my voice and then telling others to use theirs has helped certainly like my family and those that we've been able to walk through this with. But overall, this is a humongous bureaucratic system that in many ways is broken. And I don't know that it's not going to be broken. Are you tired of waking up all night drenched in sweat? 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Plus they offer a 90 day risk free trial and free shipping and returns. Check out my sheets rock at my sheetsrock.com slash T&Q. Minter our code T&Q for 10% off and free shipping. That's my sheetsrock.com slash T&Q code T&Q. So as a wife I'm just thinking for the people that don't have access to our local political leaders, what was it like for you the first time reaching out to one of your local senators or any kind of politician? Were you just so pissed one day that you're like, okay, let's go and knock on this door? Then I'm like, and another thing, and another thing. But when you get to that point where you realize our elected officials, they work for us and they need to hear from us because if they don't they can't affect that kind of change. I'm grateful for all who are continuing to serve in public service. It's so important and gosh, there's so many people that would be great at it that don't want to do it because of the absolute just disgusting nature of how divided our country is right now. It's really sad. But I think ultimately these are people who want to hear what's going on and then when they hear, they want to do something about it. And it's our job to, I tell my girls, I just stole this quote. It's not mine, but I say, you got to speak up and even if your voice shakes, you got to use your voice, even if you're nervous. Well, there's two different types of people. There's people who will speak up and say something and then there's people who speak up because they want it and they'll go do something about it. I mean, those are two different types of people. You need them though. Yeah. So once you started getting their attention, did you see changes happening? We did. I saw some changes. I saw some from Mike certainly right away, which was nice. But then I just realized I couldn't be a passive participant in all of this. I had to be an active participant. So we moved to North Carolina and went to the VA hospital there and I just realized it was the same thing, a lot of delays waiting for someone to sign a piece of paper so that items could be repaired or replaced. And I said, I've got to use my voice. So I wrote this very almost unhinged email to the hospital director and said, these are my list of grievances. And to her credit, she wrote to me and said, well, then come on in and help me fix this. And that's where I think I've got to give people a chance to fix things. People the top may not know these systems are broken. What made you want to move to North Carolina though? Is there a certain hospital there that helps with his certain kind of injuries? No, not really. I mean, a lot of our army family and friends were still at Bragg. So I didn't, I love Fayetteville, but I just did not think that was where I necessarily wanted to live. And so I needed to kind of headquarter the independence fund somewhere. And Charlotte just fit the bill. It's been a great city. We've been here for about a decade now. So getting on to Independence Fund, how did that start? So it started just with this mission for this, this one man who's a volunteer who wanted to provide track wheelchairs to people who had been very severely injured. And so it started out in the halls of Walter Reed wanting to give independence back to those who sacrificed theirs for us. And so the track chair program was teeny tiny when it started. And we've awarded more than 2,600 all-terrain track wheelchairs about 42 million dollars, just a wheelchair. Thanks for doing that, by the way. That's awesome. Yeah, those things are great. It's only a matter of time for, I mean, going from the prosthetics, some of the veterans that grew up out here at the Vietnam guys, you know, they were doing, we're in the mannequin arms. Or nothing, period. And now you're talking about. Then being able to run faster than me. That's not saying much, but I mean, these guys are awesome. That stuff that this, when our guys get busted up, man, they can fix you. It's true. They can. They really can. It's amazing. So did the guy that you met in the halls of Walter Reed that was doing this, did he ask you to come on board or were you excited about it? How did that happen? Yeah. I mean, it was just like an all volunteer effort, the right people kind of in the right place. And then the organization was all volunteer for many years. I went on to kind of found many other programs. We got about 10 programs in addition to the track wheelchair programs. And we were just so proud of the work we've been able to do. We've been able to distribute more than $100 million in direct support to our nation severely injured and their families. Gosh. By how the best curriculums show up as a loved one, trying to fix another one. It's like, especially when it wasn't implemented. All these guys and girls are getting hurt afterwards. I mean, the fundamentally man, the path was walked by somebody who got hurt before you. And somebody cared enough to get in there and say, hey, this is how this has to go. This is how we fix things. Unfortunately, but that's how it gets done. It gets done the right way when it has to be done like that too. When it's set in blood. Yeah. So you've been doing this for about 10 years now, the Independence Fund. And then I started hearing your name when the Ukraine stuff happened. How did you get involved with that? So we actually have to go back to Afghanistan when Afghanistan collapsed. And so I'm sorry, that was first. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, August 2021, you know, my good friend Nick Palmuchano, he called me and this was like that time you guys know it. You lived it. Like it was people were desperate to help our friends or allies in Afghanistan. And I had just this personal connection to Afghanistan because of my husband. I'd develop programs with the Afghan government to, you know, bring US veterans to the embassy and have that kind of experience and closure. And so when we saw the writing on the wall, when President Biden said, you know, all troops are pulling out and then the horrific botched frenzied way that withdrawal went down, which much of that was so avoidable. And we saw that it was just heartbreaking to me. And so I'd actually been with the government here in North Carolina in a meeting and I came out and my phone was just blowing up and it people said, you know, Kandahar had fallen. And so Mike, you know, Mike has a cell phone. He doesn't really initiate communication, but he can receive communication and he like, he watches movies and everything. So I called my nanny for my girls and I called his nurse and I said, I'm coming there as quickly as possible, but please power down Mike's phone. And so I got to the house and I said to him, you know, he sleeps in a hospital bed, like he needs 24 hour care. And I said, Mike, I have to tell you something very, very sad. And I said, you know, Afghanistan and Kandahar specifically fell to the Taliban. And he didn't say very much, which he's sometimes he's not super verbal. He's got a dog Bravo for his beloved Bravo company. And he kind of snuggled his dog and I shut the door and I heard a few minutes later, my nanny grabbed me and I heard like wailing, like just wailing coming from his room. And I went in and he was he was so upset and I said, what's wrong? And he said, I just wish I could help those people. And so I realized like I had I'd had two years earlier, like take over so much of his fight for him and like this this was going to be another another time. And I could not console him, but I could just promise him that I was going to try to make sure that like all of those sacrifices were worthwhile. And, and you know, my girls and I were heading to the beach on vacation, which very sadly our family vacations don't include their dad. And I think that's probably part of what I may have skipped over in the in the story is that, you know, Mike's had 120 major surgeries since Afghanistan. And he he has a very severe traumatic brain injury. And so he does not. I always want to be respectful about how I explain this, but and I rarely talk too much about this part, but you know, he doesn't understand things at the level of an adult his age anymore, just for his ability to comprehend and his neuropsychological abilities are at an age that is, you know, far younger than his actual age. And so that's it's been very challenging to navigate that. And you know, he doesn't have bowel and bladder control. And you know, he just he he really needs full full full time support. So we go on these vacations, unfortunately without their dad, and it's like the sole parenting and all of that that just the way my life has changed in so many ways as I've had to watch these declines for him and just my heart is with him all the time because he's got such a good spirit about all of it. But the girls and I were going to the beach and Nick Palmachano called me and he said, I know you're really upset about Afghanistan. I know you're trying to help. I was trying to do a couple of things on the official side with DoD. And he said, you should call Chad because Chad has the ability to maybe get some more people out. And and I know Chad and you know, Chad had worked a little bit in the previous administration. We had done work together there. And so I said, Chad, what do you need me to do? And he said, there are just so many like there's so much contact. And of course, I'm like, we need to put order to this. And so I started just taking over all of that in processing. And I said some of my staff to UAE where they were going to, you know, meet these folks and figure out what would come next. And I mean, everything from calling the joint staff and getting their support to clear our manifest, I felt like I had these really good relationships that I had built. And I was willing to light every single one of them on fire if it meant being able to get people out of Afghanistan. So I mean, I'm calling the personal cell phones of, you know, four star generals and US senators and people in the White House. And I'm just trying to kick in any and every door I can, having frankly, like no regard for what that could have done to my relationships. And thankfully they were preserved, but I was also okay if they were not. Because if someone did not care about Afghanistan at that time, it told me everything I needed to know about them. And so I asked Nick Palmishano and I asked him Kennedy if they would go over and be part of this really like ragtag informal team we were putting together. And I would set up the kind of operation center in DC to start processing these and we were co located with the government to do so. It's crazy how that started ended started in a fight they attacked us and at the end of the war we were trying to save them. Right, right. I mean, how about that? What about upside down? Natalie, you know, talk about it. Yeah, that is crazy. But to me, I get asked to do a lot of things. And I know how hard it is to actually coordinate all of that. I mean, that that's another level. But just getting all of those people together and getting everything to fall in place in the time frame that you had to do that. That's a really incredible. That's super power. That's a hell of contact list you got girl. Well, it's not just that contact list. I hadn't asked these people. I mean, that's where when I say like, I had never asked these people for a thing ever. And so like, I hadn't even when things were hard for me and Mike at the VA, I was never calling in personal favors to fix it. And this was the first time that I'm like, Oh, I have your number. Okay, I have your number. Somebody on the joint staff. I'm calling you. I have your number, US Senator. I'm calling you. I mean, and I was just like, if you are not willing to do the right thing right now, then like, you're going to be on the wrong side of history and I'm going to make sure of it. I mean, that's how it worked up. I was. Well, you know, we record this, right? Yeah. Oh, I know. That gets her attention quick. Like, Hey, man, we record this. What's that? You need to get there needs to be a medal for you or something though. I mean, there's something that like, no people know, I don't know. I just I feel like you are very deserving of just this huge reward for being able to do that. And that carries a lot of weight to respect you yet. Well, you know, I did so I was in the US completely safe the entire time. Like that for me, like my respect goes to the people who who did like they picked up their lives. Like, look at Nick, look at Tim. I mean, everybody. So them guys love that. Yeah. So you're talking about a section of man down here that loves that kind of environment. The fact that you facilitated that for those two specifically. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. They love it. They love doing that. No matter if they get their ass kicked, they love doing that stuff. That's just how they're made. Well, I tell Tim all the time because you're using this one of my like dearest friends on the planet. And I tell him all the time the number of veterans and sometimes I will lovingly call them the vet bros. But I say that with love that right to me and say like you deployed Tim Kennedy to Afghanistan and Ukraine. Can I go and they're sending me their DD 214s and they're saying and I'm like, you got to stop joking and telling people I like deployed you somewhere because now I feel like we should make a movie out of this one man deployed. Yeah, like you're actually the military. Like you're Jack Bauer and then you're the one you're the handler, right? It's like, yeah, I got some bad asses online. You want me to call them up? I just sent one man back in that. Yeah, it's great. No, it's great. Yeah. I can't make that up. It's really awesome what you did. I mean, there's a more professional way of saying it. But if you're looking for a cool movie way to say that, I feel like that's the way to go. But on top of just coordinate all of it and making, even when you make phone calls, not everybody gets back to you on time. I mean, I know that just from my own things that we've had to deal with. It's hard to get everything to fall in place in the timeframe that you need it. Well, yeah, because usually never happens from the person you call it's who they have to call. It's always that that's always the point. So the fact that your reach goes that deep. Yeah. But it also takes money. How did you how did you actually get that money to be able to get everybody over there? And I mean, whatever it took airline, I mean, it takes money to be able to do it. No, I mean, this is this is the cool thing about those guys. And you know, and you know, this Tim takes a lot of heat. And I'm sometimes I feel like I'm like Mama bearish about him because like I I've seen his good heart on so many different things. The way he showed up for my family over and over and over again. But you know, they went over on their own dime. And when I say like, I asked them to go and that's every time because I have, I've asked him to go to Ukraine, I've asked him to go all sorts of places. And and all of these guys, some of whom, you know, their names and faces we can't talk about. And every single time they say yes, no matter what they have going on. And it would also never occur to me that they would say no, because of who they are. So, you know, financially, they pay their own way to get there. And then we just had this incredible outpouring of support from the American public side said to Chad, I said, you know, I'm using this hashtag. I've been using this hashtag in August, save our allies. And I'm not even like big social media person, but I just felt so unhinged about all of it. And I said, let's just let's just throw our organizations together and call it Save Our Allies for this movement thinking it's going to be a couple weeks and done. And that movement went from Afghanistan to Ukraine. And now we're looking at Taiwan. So, you know, we save our allies has expanded our mission to help Americans and our allies in contested areas around the globe. 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Navy Federal is insured by the NCUA and the dollar amount shown represents the results of the 2021 Navy Federal Member Give Back study. As it sounds like everybody's worked up, our time at Turnal and Tea, we turn on the news this morning and it was all every story was about a shooting. And like everyone wants to go fight. Like we just got done. For the last 20 years, everyone wants to catch up and like, man, trust me, you don't. You don't want to fight. Especially with the tech we have nowadays, you can't make a movement without anybody knowing it. Think about how we fought back in the day. You could move entire countries and people wouldn't know it. Now you can't do anything. I mean, not even firing up an engine without somebody knowing it. So just think about the only way to win a war like that is way far away from each other with weapons that just kill indiscriminately. Right. Well, I remember going through Ukraine, like going through a checkpoint and I look over and I also went into with a lot of ignorance, like not really understanding what we were getting into and thinking this is going to be like Afghan understand. People are going to be rushing the borders to get out. And at one checkpoint, I'm going through and I look over and there's a woman like my age in a Range Rover with three little kids. And I thought like, this is so scary because this feels like like there's an Apple store. There's a Sephora. This feels like to be in America. And I remember the guy C sprayer who was our ground leader. He said to me, Sarah, you have to understand like, this is this is not America versus Afghans or the Taliban. This is like everybody went to Harvard. You got to look at this war this way. Everybody fighting both sides went to Harvard. Oh my gosh. That's a tie completely different dynamic. So with Save Our Allies, did you actually build that into like a legit 501c3 after the Afghanistan thing? We did. So it's a so after kind of we everybody came back together and I held a meeting for about 100 people including like White House, the cabinets, any key stakeholders in DC about a month after the withdrawal. And it was so great to see that people were still committed even if the White House was actively, you know, thwarting our efforts, the American people and all these NGOs were still really committed to doing right by our allies. And so we did we formed it as a separate 501c3, which it is still today. And we've been able to affect a lot of good around the world. And are you so are you running that and Independence Fund still? So I'm the CEO of Independence Fund, founder of Save Our Allies and but yes, I mean I'm very involved. I serve, you know, a lot of the liaison work with the US government for what we're doing. I handled that part of it. Are they helping? I mean, do you feel like the government's actually doing something? So you know, it's interesting. So I would say like for Afghanistan, it's tricky because I will I will say this unapologetically that the White House wants to double down. You know, they called it an extraordinary success. They, you know, John Kirby, who I have long respected and admired and really thought very highly of him, he just said that he didn't see any chaos around the Afghan evac or surrender, whatever you want to call it. Oh, you know, that was his words. I say that somebody told him to say that. There's a couple of tests. Yeah, that's crazy. And John Kirby is one of the ones I mentioned. Like I called his personal self on 11 o'clock, you know, not too long ago about an issue. And he answered it. And he was, I have always found him to be like a just a stand up guy. And then to hear him reading that, I was just shocked by it. So I'd say the White House wants us to move on from Afghanistan. They are not only not helping. I think they are actively in the way of groups who want to do good. Oh, so they put out a bad movie. Yep. They put out a bad movie and they're trying to get past that. Yep, exactly. Exactly. They just wanted to, and we still have people in safe houses, you know, in Pakistan, we still have that we're waiting to get them to the U.S. They should absolutely qualify certainly more than some of the people who got here kind of randomly because they were in the airfield during the evacuation. So that's a tricky one. Now, when it comes to Ukraine, we're well partnered with the government. So because we've got to be very, very particular about like the OFAC compliance and making sure all of our eyes are dotted and tees are crossed. We work in some cases co-located with different government units and in other cases, like just with the permission and authorities that come with working kind of side by side. That's the only way you can get stuff done. You have to have those independence in there to get the ground until. I mean, not just good on your sister, for sure. You know what that breeds though. You know what we're dealing with now when you come out Afghanistan and we still have people there. This is where the Jason Bourne, all those crazy kind of movies going, got us sneaking in to get our got the Cold War type stuff. This is how that happens. It does. So I mean, all that fighting and those two wars for 20 years and we got sick, we all got COVID together. You know, we got the flu and then ending to our favorite movie sucked. You know, Afghanistan was terrible. It was just kind of like, okay, now what? Right. Here's some more chaos. You know, it's just always something with our generation. It seems like we're kind of running something. The fact that we went in there to save the ones that we were fighting from the beginning to the end, there wasn't even a gap. They didn't even gap our war before we went back in there to help them. How crazy is that? Just the whole way. So one of the things like, and Tim, Tim who is like the kindest person to me, he has like, he's yelled at me one time and it's because whenever I say the Neo, I'm like, oh, you know, we have our next Neo and he's like, that was not a Neo, Sarah, you have to stop calling it a Neo. That's not a Neo. You know, it was a Neo DoD would have been in charge. That is the hill he will die on. That's funny. So, I mean, the fact that you're running both of these organizations, you're a mom, you're a caretaker and you wrote a book. Is that right? Oh my gosh, it doesn't really count. You can't say I wrote a book. It's a children's book. It's like 15 sentences, but yes, I have a book. Can you promote that? Can you talk about it? Because it is a big deal. It's called Hero at Home. I think it came out in 2018. It was really meant, you know, my girls, my girls never knew anything was wrong or different with their dad until other people started to tell them because he's looked like that their entire lives. And so, when they were very little, Grace, my oldest, you know, she went to preschool and somebody said, you know, Grace's dad doesn't have a leg. You know, that's weird and gross. And so, I wrote this book just again, kind of from a place of probably like anger, but wanting to give my kids some tools. And it's been shared in, you know, hundreds of classrooms across the country. So, that's been, that's been really special. Although now, I think we may need some sort of sequel about these invisible injuries because it was so much easier to explain it back then to my kids about like dad has a robot leg. But explaining to them now is a whole different ball game. Well, it helps out that we have all the movies out that you see people. I mean, it went from being something that people look down upon a frown upon, which I don't know how that even happened. Like if you have somebody lose something for you, oh my God. Now these guys are showing back up with those prosthetics that are just, I mean, they, they, they work. The robot. Freaking. They're so cool. They're so cool. So, I mean, oh my gosh, what they can do like Garrett Carnes, you know, he, he's this incredible veteran, he's worked for me and he else works at Sheepdog. And like, I look at him and I think he is more capable of things than most, you know, able-bodied people. And it's just so inspiring because they have this like truly like to your point, like never quit attitude. It's just, it's amazing to say the best of our country. You said something about Mike earlier that caught, caught my attention. And it was, it was like he wanted to be military his entire life. I was like the minute he got hit, he did. He became it. Like our guys get hit like that's an immediate stamp right on them because you always recognize them, especially guys like that. Like some of you can't see, some of them you can. They got hit so hard on the inside, it came to the outside. And the fact that he got hit twice, that happens to some of our guys and girls, but they get over shot because, you know, which is unbelievable that dude went back for some more. How about that? It is. I mean, but that's who, that's why I say like this time of year that like April 10th to April 24th timeframe, like from one I do to the next, I spend it in such a, like a period of like what could have been. And ultimately I had to find some peace even a couple of weeks ago for myself saying if he had not gone back out and I, because I think like would I have a husband, would my kids have a father who talks to them and knows that they're his children, like how different life would have been. And I think if he had not gone back out, he wouldn't be who I know he is. So ultimately, like I have to rest in that that that is like the very, that is the essence of who he is that he fought to fight again. I mean, it really is both you and him really embrace the never quit spirit. You on a daily front with what you're dealing with now and him in that moment. Oh yeah, good Lord patch y'all up. Yeah, I mean, which I'll get a reason. Yeah. One's fuel for the other. For sure. You can see that. I can hear it. Yeah, I love that. So how can our listeners help you and help like everything that you've got going on? Well, I think, you know, in terms of the veteran side of the house, one of the things that I feel passionately about is we need to help these, these children who are living with the aftermath of a war that they never signed up for. And you know, how we can rally around the kids of our nations most severely injured. My my husband's brothers, his military brothers, they are truly brothers forever in so many ways. And my daughter said to me, mama, why do you have two sisters? But but data has a hundred brothers. And I think that understanding that these kids need so much support and my kids get it. Thank God. But I will I really want every single child living with you know, a different circumstance to understand and feel pride in their family's service. So I think reach out to the wounded veterans in your community and just help these families. The caregivers, there are more than 5.5 million caregivers in the US. And just making the load a little bit lighter for them on this very long road home for more in any way possible. And then encouraging people to ask for help. I mean, that's the thing you get it as a mom. I mean, you guys are a busy family. And the other night we come back from vacation and I had, you know, no child care and I had no nursing care at my house. And so I'm trying to bathe four people, three children, one adult separately, of course, and then get, you know, for I'm doing cutting four sets of nails and I'm getting four people ready for bed. And then I realized my daughter's like prize gene shorts that she wanted to wear the next day. I couldn't find them. And I thought, I mean, I this feeling like I could just want to jump into traffic and I don't. But you know, I need to feel comfortable asking for help. And I asked one of my girlfriends, I said, Can you please do me a huge favor? And can you bring a pair of gene shorts over for me for Gigi? And she and she did. And she said to me after, I am so happy that you felt like you could ask me. And I said, you created an environment that I could. And that's what that's the support that I want every single family like ours to feel. That's so true, though, because anytime you like will say, call us if you need help, you know, like whatever to local families. And nobody ever calls because nobody ever wants to ask for help. But if you do, you would be surprised who will go mow your yard or who they don't want to. Yeah, who does show up? They don't want to know that you know about it. But they'll still, it's the great humans. And it's for nothing in return other than to help. I mean that people do want to help. I mean, just go do the dishes or go, you know, just go do some sort of some small active service to help somebody else put water out for the dog, whatever it is. They're kind of ask, just do it, just show up. That's my thing is like, well, yeah, that's the thing too. Yeah, just show up and do it. Just start doing it. Yep, exactly. That pro actors thing. That's a big thing. They're like, they and they love this. They all say it now. I say like when they're dealing with a hard time, I say, unless otherwise directed, I'm dropping dinner off at your house at 5 p.m. And and I love it because it forces them to just accept that. And they can say like we would say, well, we just got dinner delivered. Okay, fine, then I'm doing it tomorrow night. But you have to just you have to like kind of force that help on someone to to really do it selflessly and to make an impact. Yeah, that's true. That's where the term grumpy old people come from. You know, it's just like, hey, I'm gonna help you. I don't want you to try to be nice. Sure. That's another thing we deal with down here, which is what's just something. But you can see it and you won't probably won't ever hear it. But they'll tell somebody else like, yeah, you know, she looks out for me. I don't know why she does, man, but she just does, you know, it means something for sure. Well, we are super proud of you. Yeah. And we've never met you, but or I've never met you, but I am super proud of you. And I just want to give you a big ol hug and hang out with you for a weekend. I wrote out in connection now. I know in this restaurant here in Charlotte, I mean, now we got multiple reasons. Make sure you text Texas when you go in there. Yeah, I'm going to. I'm serious girl. You got my fact, we'll come down there next time and we'll go. We'll ask you. So how can you offer all you do you guys, you really are an inspiration to this whole country. And I hope you know it. And what an honor to talk with you. I mean, that's pretty amazing. So thank you. How can people donate to save our allies or to Independence Fund or get involved? Sure. So get involved, you know, www.saveourallies.org or independencefund.org. And we need volunteers for both. So, you know, please check us out and just help us. I think spreading that message is the most important thing we can do for both organizations. Awesome. We'll do it. Thank you so much for coming on. Have a blessed day. Yeah. I hope Mikey from us. Yes. Thank you very much. Bye. Thank you. Thank you everybody else for listening in. We'll see you next week on Team Never Quit Podcast. ♪♪♪