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Jan. 3, 2023 - Tulsi Gabbard Show
01:20:41
Veterans are Dying from Cancer at Alarming Rates. We could save their lives | The Tulsi Gabbard Show
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Time Text
If you're a politician, do your job.
Do your job.
If you're in the VA, if you're in the administration, do your job.
Do your job.
Fulfill the mission that President Lincoln laid out for the VA.
Do your job.
Hi, Chelsea.
Okay.
Hi, how's it going?
Good.
How are you?
Oh, I'm impressed.
Look at your studio.
I mean, I'm impressed.
Look at all those books, man.
I've read them all, too.
Isn't that some of them a few times?
You know, most people who would say that, I would not believe them.
You, I believe.
100% I believe.
I feel like every time I talk to you...
You are just a wealth of knowledge on a lot of fronts.
I am.
It's a good time.
It keeps me busy.
It keeps me out of trouble.
You're just sitting around twiddling your thumbs, just trying to figure out how to stay out of trouble.
I don't believe that.
I don't believe that part for a second.
We'll have to talk offline now.
Yeah, right.
Thanks so much for doing this.
Because I do, actually.
In all seriousness, your time is so precious and so valuable.
I mean, you have a day job, shockingly enough, that is...
That is not the Hunter 7 Foundation.
And yet, you do so much, Chelsea.
I first met you at Warfighter Health Symposium just off of Fort Bragg.
Gosh, that was last year, actually, right?
Last year.
I first met you in person, but my office, like me and my office, people on my team, we had worked with you and Hunter 7 Foundation while I was in Congress, but I kind of snuck in the back of that health symposium and was there.
You know, our mutual friend Jeff Dardia from Task Force Dagger had invited me to come, and it was the last minute I wasn't sure I was going to be able to be there.
I happened to be in town.
But I was really, I walked in, I think it was a little bit late, but you were giving your talk.
And I was just really moved, first, about your own story, why you do what you do.
you know you are a health care professional you have a day job and you volunteer pretty much every minute of your spare time towards the hunter seven foundation and fighting for our brothers and sisters in uniform who are still with us and for the families of those who are no longer with us and um i just uh i had you know
obviously we had worked together on legislation and things like that before but i just i'm really blown away by your commitment and your dedication uh to continuing this fight because unfortunately it's not in the headlines every day i'm
Unfortunately, you know, the plight of our men and women in uniform, those who are still serving on active duty or in the Guard of Reserves, as well as those who are, you know, retired or have transitioned back into civilian life, like, These challenges are not being...
They're not front and center.
And I think that's one of the many important things that you do.
Hunter 7 Foundation does.
And so I'm glad to have this opportunity to talk more about it, to dive more into the work that you're doing, and to introduce more people into the work that you're doing and the community that you're continuing to serve and advocate for.
So I would love to just start with...
Why Hunter 7?
What was the thought process behind the founding of the organization and naming it what you did?
Yeah, that's one of my favorite stories, and thank you for the support.
Ever since I left the military and began dealing with Congress, you've always been incredible, and I can't thank you enough on behalf of the entire DOD population that we serve.
But Hunter 7, yeah, so I served in the military myself for a long time, about 10 years, not as long as you.
So what branch of service?
The Army.
The Army.
I was a flight medic.
I broke my back twice.
And so the second time they said to me, your career's over, find another job.
How'd you do that?
How did you?
That's like, you mentioned like, it's some nonchalant thing.
Like, yeah, I broke my back twice.
Not a small thing.
What happened?
Yeah, the first time was a difficult situation.
But the second time I was doing burpees.
So it's kind of ironic.
I had I had.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So don't do burpees.
That's radical.
That's a radical burpee move.
It was.
And I was on like 30 and I was like, man, I feel good.
And then all of a sudden I felt snap and I collapsed and I lost control of my legs.
It was a bad situation.
I required another surgery and then they were like, your career's over, Chelsea.
Go find another job.
And I was like, dang.
There are so many people watching right now smiling and nodding their heads saying like, oh, thank God.
Now I have a legitimate excuse to not do burpees anymore.
And there's some private who's going to go back and tell his team sergeant or squad leader, platoon sergeant, like, hey!
I heard it.
Tulsi and Chelsea.
Burpees are not allowed.
It's a danger and a risk.
But it really is.
When you think about the physical movement of it, it puts a lot of stress on your back, so don't do burpees.
I think especially for people who don't.
To me, it's a lot of...
Don't get me wrong.
I hate burpees.
I just did some yesterday.
When you...
Do these exercises wrong?
I mean, obviously there's risk.
There's risk in all these different movements.
And that was the turning point in my career in the military.
And so, you know, I said, well, I guess I'll just go be a nurse.
You know, that's a valid transition.
So I went to nursing school and it was an awkward time because I was older.
Sorry, can I just ask, like...
So did you start going to nursing school while you were still in uniform?
Because I think this is also, I know this is a little bit of a sidebar, but I know people currently who are starting to think about getting out of the military, who are on active duty, and kind of figure out how do you prepare for that next step?
How did it work for you?
So I was kind of in limbo.
They weren't sure if I was going to get medically retired or medically discharged or the process.
And I wasn't sure either.
I was so young and not really into the whole process.
I just wanted to continue on.
Get on with life.
Yeah.
So my team was forward deploying to Syria at the time and there was nothing really for me to do.
What year was this?
2018. Okay.
And so they said, you're on terminal leave, go do your own thing.
And I said, okay, I'm going to go home and have back surgery and then go to school.
And I will say it was one of the most dangerous times in my life.
Not so much my safety in terms of other people, but for myself, it was the first time that I had actually been separated from my team and emotionally it took a big toll.
I wasn't really sure how I could continue serving.
It was like these were my kids that were going off to war.
Did I train them enough?
Did I educate them enough?
And so it was a tough time for me mentally.
This is common.
I mean, this is common.
I know people who I've served with, who I've deployed with, who have gone through exactly that of Of feeling that sense of loss in purpose.
When you say finding ways to continue serving, now that you're not wearing that uniform and you're not with your team, being able to find that drive and motivation that's rooted in a purpose that's greater than yourself that you've dedicated your life to so far.
Right.
And I mean, it's a huge deal.
And I advise people when they're leaving service, you know, find something, find a purpose that benefits others and not necessarily yourself.
You know, not a hobby.
Find a purpose.
You know, do good.
And so I met my husband around the same time I got out of the military.
And it was funny.
I made fun of his coffee.
He got a coffee and it was like extra, extra with the sugar melted.
And I was like, who is this for?
And we were in line at a Dunkin' Donuts.
I made fun of him because who gets a coffee like that?
That's how you get diabetes.
So he told me about, we started talking and he told me about his military service and he's an Iraq war veteran.
And he was one of the ones that got stop lost and he was there for 16 months and And so, you know, about a year later, we were sitting in this pickup truck and he said to me, you know, a lot of my friends have died from Iraq.
And I said, well, you know, it's war.
You know, I don't want to sound insensitive, but it's war.
And he said, no, they died when they got home.
And so I assumed it was suicide.
And when I said to him, oh, you know, suicide, and he said, no, from cancer.
And it was the first time in my experience, period, that somebody said that to me.
And he said it so nonchalant, like I should have known.
And so he started naming off the names of all these people that he served with, 24 years old from lung cancer, 36 years old from leukemia, you know.
And then he mentioned his sergeant major.
At the time, it was his first sergeant.
His name was Rob Bowman, Sergeant Major Rob Bowman.
And his call sign was Hunter 7 when he was in E7 and deployed.
So we actually said, you know, let's do something good.
And at the time, I was in nursing school.
I was an undergrad nursing student.
And that name always resonated with me.
So I went back to my instructor and I said, hey, I want to do research.
And they laughed.
They were like, you're an undergrad nursing student.
You're a sophomore.
Like, get out of here.
And I was like, no, this is a big problem, and this is what I want to do.
And so by my senior year as an undergrad, I published internationally studies on pre-, during-, post-deployment carcinogens and toxicology and epidemiology in Iraq war veterans.
Wow.
Yeah, it sounds impressive.
It is impressive.
And so, you know, we said, okay, there's a huge gap in knowledge.
Nobody seems to know about military related exposures.
And what is out there is all burn pits.
Everybody assumes it's just burn pits.
We know it's more than that.
And And so when I went to the academic, you know, the literature and I looked for studies pertaining to this, I couldn't find anything.
And so that's kind of where Hunter 7 was founded, solely based on clinical research, you know, doing research and forwarding that on the academic side.
But then when I got into practice myself as an ER provider, I noticed that we never asked questions about veteran status or service, but we saw a lot of veterans in our ER. And so when I asked fellow healthcare providers, why don't we ask about this or this?
We don't know about it.
You can't screen for what you don't know.
And so then it became research and education.
And then finally, you know, once social media, we started getting on social media, we just got an abundance of people to us that were just like, hey, I have cancer.
Hey, my teammate just died of cancer.
And, you know, when I say last year around this time, we were getting one, two new cases a month and maybe, maybe one death a month.
Now it's every week we're getting about five to 10 deaths every week.
Wow.
And it's, it's, It's one of the most difficult things I've had to deal with.
Because we can do better.
We have the tools.
We have the knowledge.
We can do better.
So Hunter 7 is a way for us to pay tribute to, you know, Rob Bowman and his team.
And, you know, two thirds of his platoon from that deployment have passed away from cancer.
So it's, it's, that's our way to continue service without actively wearing the uniform.
That's the, the, the, there's so much behind what you said that is, um, shocking and powerful.
Shocking in the sense that this...
Why isn't this being covered every day?
You know, why aren't these stories being told every day?
Why is Congress not acting with the sense of urgency...
That is required and is real.
The sense of urgency that these men and women who've served and their families are certainly feeling and pleading, pleading for action and pleading.
For help.
You mentioned toxic burn pits and how, gosh, I don't know, over the last several years, that has become something that was unknown, but is now quite common as far as, you know, people...
You mentioned toxic burn pits.
Most people have heard at least something about it, whether they've served in the military or not.
You know, we've...
You know, it's been over 20 years since 9-11 happened, and so we have a couple of decades of those of us who are in that category of the post-9-11 veterans.
And, you know, I think most, if not all of us, I know, you know, for me, where I was, there was a massive burn pit that, you know, I walked by every single day for the year that I was deployed to Iraq, and there are countless people who have those similar exposures or worse.
You know, I've talked to Gulf War veterans who are like, yeah, nobody ever talks about us.
You talk about post 9-11, nobody ever talks about us and the exposures that we had.
You look back at, you know, I mean, it took decades for Vietnam veterans to have their exposure to Agent Orange.
Made aware of, acknowledged, and then, even once that was acknowledged, acknowledging the service-connected cancers and illnesses that they dealt with and that they were pleading for help with from the VA and from the DOD, from Congress, and how long it took for any of that to happen, for that acknowledgement, and then for the VA to say, okay, well, we'll take care of you.
I remember I was in Congress and I was in the passenger seat going from one place to another in D.C. and I got a call from a Vietnam veteran who was on the Big Island.
And I had gotten a message the day or two prior from a family member of this veteran saying that he had cancer and they didn't know how much longer he would have.
His passing was imminent.
And so he called me on my cell phone.
And his cancer was so advanced he could hardly speak.
He spoke in a whisper.
And he used some of those final breaths of his life to ask me to continue the fight.
For those that he served with and those that we have served with.
And to make it so, to continue that fight, to make it so that others would not have to go through the struggles and anguish and frustration and anger and suffering that he and so many Vietnam veterans have and continue to go through.
Even as toxic burn pits is something that has become more well known, and we'll get into some of the other things that you're working on, but I just want to start there because it is a starting point.
Congress just passed some legislation in the PACT Act.
There are still, I mean, it was, and this was some of the legislation that we worked on with you, like, first step with toxic burn pits is getting that acknowledgement.
You know, having, you know, obviously the registry is there within the VA. Now people are asking, you know, when you go through, you know, the annual physicals in the military, like, have you been exposed to toxic burn pits?
And so, you know, yes, starting point.
But even for those who have been exposed, there is no...
You tell me if I'm wrong, but...
Or actually, talk about the presumption of service connection with some of these illnesses, cancers, respiratory diseases, and so forth that are connected to that exposure, and is it being recognized?
Is the care being delivered?
Yeah.
Sure.
The PACT Act has definitely caught a lot of attention, and it helps out individuals in supplementation of funding when they're out of funds.
One of the things about the PACT Act, we had a lot of medical perspectives.
It turned out to be controversial.
It was surprisingly controversial for a bill that was written or at least intended initially to actually help solve some of these problems that veterans and service members are facing.
What happened with that?
So, there was a lot, you know, as you can see, I like to read, there was a lot of stuff in the bill, and our team went through line by line, and there was a lot that medically wasn't necessarily sound, and there was a lot of leeway and stuff that necessarily shouldn't have been looked at that way.
So, like, with the PACT Act, we're going to establish more VAs.
We're going to establish 37 new VAs across the country.
Like actual VA hospitals or clinics.
Yeah.
Actual VA hospitals.
Oh, wow.
And so being a Massachusetts resident, they're going to put another VA here.
So we'll have eight or nine.
But we have one of the lowest rates of post-9-11 veterans, and we can see the trends over the next 20 years on where these veterans need those hospitals the most.
And one of them is Hawaii.
Hawaii, Alaska, Montana.
And the theory was by the VA that, oh, we don't need VA locations there because the wait time is so small.
And I said, in theory, that makes sense.
But look at the size of Montana.
Look at how many islands are on Hawaii.
Nobody's going to fly to another island to go to the VA. They're going to go someplace local.
It's very hard.
And so, you know, the PACT Act, it meant well.
But it's focused on a downstream tertiary approach to healthcare.
And so, it's one thing as a disabled veteran myself, it's one thing to give somebody compensation while they're recovering, sure.
But if they're terminal or stage four, that funding isn't going to help them at all.
That's not going to bring back your loved one when they pass away.
And so with such a low rate of post-9-11 veterans going to the VA, so less than 30% continuously use the VA for healthcare services, we're missing 70% of that population.
And so when I talked to Miranda Schuer, Ron Schuer and Miranda were very close to me.
And when Ron passed away, he said, I don't want my name to be used in a way like this.
You know, I want it to be used.
Can you talk, just backtrack just for a second about who Ron and Miranda are for people who don't know?
Yeah, so Ron Schuer, he, Medal of Honor recipient, he was diagnosed at 38 years old.
He was working for the President of the United States at the time.
Prior to that, he served in 3rd Special Forces Group and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service and saving lives as a medic in Afghanistan.
And he went on to the Secret Service and he was hiking up a mountain in, I want to say it was Delaware, with the President, President Obama, and he started having hip pain.
And he went to his doctor and he said, and meanwhile, this is somebody who works for the president.
His healthcare is probably great.
He said, I'm having hip pain.
Something doesn't feel right.
And they said, oh, it's probably a muscle strain.
It's probably overuse.
You know, you were a Green Beret.
You're active.
You know, give it time to heal.
And he said, okay.
A few months goes by and it got worse.
And he said, you know, he was with the president.
He had to be carried away.
That's how severe this injury was.
And so finally, he went to his doctor about a year later and said, something's not right.
And they scanned his hip and they saw the cancer that had started in his lungs.
And so he was already stage four before they even caught on.
But he was young and otherwise healthy.
He was a Green Beret.
He didn't meet that criteria or the profile of somebody who had had lung cancer because he didn't smoke, you know?
And so, when I spoke with Ron and Miranda, his wife Miranda, before he passed away two years ago, he said, you know, I don't want my name to be used in a way to get benefits.
I want my name to be used in a way to save my teammates' lives.
And I said, oof, that's, you know, that's deep.
And he said, if I could Go over and do everything again.
If I knew what was going to happen, I'd still do it all over again if I knew the outcome.
And it's humbling, really.
But if we would have caught his cancer when he first showed symptoms, he'd still be alive, you know?
Because he wasn't diagnosed for an entire year after he first started feeling that pain.
Right.
And they said it's because your career musculoskeletal is the number one injury in the military.
And so, you know, this happens.
This is every day, though.
This is every single day.
You know, as healthcare providers, you know, looking at it from this side, we're very quick to throw a Band-Aid on a bullet hole, right?
So, oh, you have pain, here's some Motrin.
Oh, you have acid reflux, here's some medication.
You know, we're very quick to provide tertiary solutions without looking at the root cause.
And that's where the PACT Act is flawed.
We're very quick to throw a monetary solution onto a much deeper problem.
And eventually, putting that bandaid on that bullet hole, it's going to bleed out.
We're not saving lives at all.
And I see that firsthand.
Before we jumped on today, I got a phone call.
A 22-year-old who deployed to Iraq, diagnosed with sarcoma, is about to die.
My counterpart, Jack, he called me crying.
22 years old.
His mom called my counterpart crying and said, her son's gonna die.
Maybe he has the rest of the night to live.
Oh my gosh.
22. And so, you know...
It's uncommon.
We see cancer in somebody who's in their, you know, upper 60s, 70s.
We don't see it in young, otherwise healthy.
You know, we're the top 1% in terms of...
So, the PACT Act, it's good in theory, but it misses the root cause of the problem.
And it won't save lives.
And I think that's where I got most upset and offended is...
When Jon Stewart went on and yelled, respectfully, I'm not that kind of person, I don't yell at people, but when he went and yelled at members of Congress and yelled at Tom Tillis, Tom Tillis has been a great assistant of ours, he's been very helpful, but when he yelled at him and said, you're the reason veteran lives are going to die from cancer, And Senator Tillis being a cancer survivor himself, it blew my mind because how are we saving them?
We're expanding care, which is appropriate, entirely appropriate.
I understand, but how are we going to screen these veterans?
So two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I was down in DC at the VA, the national office.
And the secretary of the VA told us that on November 8th, this new toxic exposure screening questionnaire is going to come out.
So I'm excited.
And I'm like, finally, this is great.
It was three questions.
And the first question was asked, have you been exposed to toxins while serving in the military?
That was the primary question.
Oh my gosh.
And I was like, I have a question.
Are we for real?
I was heartbroken.
That's offensive.
Like, literally, it's offensive to every single person who's ever worn the uniform.
And that's offensive.
I mean, gosh, like, the arrogance, the condescension, the just, like, I don't know.
I don't even know what the right word is to say for anyone who has served.
Like, it is, frankly, like, The amount of quote-unquote toxins that anyone in any branch of the military is exposed to, not even just while deployed.
Like, yeah, certainly when you are in certain parts of the world where, you know, they don't have kind of the health regulations that we have here.
They don't have EPAs.
They don't have a lot of those things that are put in place to try to minimize those exposures.
But even here at home, again, to minimize those exposures.
Those exposures happen...
Every day for a lot of people who just show up to work at the motor pool, you know, on the ship, on the aircraft carrier, you know, I mean, going to the range and doing weapons qualification.
That's outrageous!
Well, and more so, I mean, I think that the big connotation with burn pits is that, you know, overseas we deal with burn pits, right?
But there's an interesting fact.
And so the DOD gave us data, specific data sets over a million different numbers on different diagnoses and different trends by the years in active duty service members diagnosed with cancer.
And so first and foremost, out of the 3.7 million who deployed and served on active duty between that 20-year period from 9-11-2001 to 9-11-2021, over 520,966 have been diagnosed with cancer.
That's one in seven.
Wow.
One in seven.
That's an exact number.
Exact number from the Department of Defense.
And that's only on active duty.
Those are diagnosed on active duty.
Wow.
And those are the ones who've been diagnosed.
Those are the ones who've been diagnosed.
What to speak of those who have not.
So the number is probably bigger.
Much, much higher.
And another interesting, you know, more scary of a fact is that, you know, we looked at how many people died from ill-defined and unknown causes of medical mortality.
This is an actual ICD-10 code, R99. Over a half, a quarter of a million, quarter of a million, 250 It was something crazy and no known etiology as to why they died.
What is it?
Ill-defined?
Ill-defined unknown causes of medical mortality.
Wow.
That's a true number.
Yeah.
So we have the years broken down.
It's crazy.
And so a lot of people died overseas related to cardiopulmonary exposures.
You know how it is.
The small particulate matter running around the base.
I mean...
That's more dangerous than people realize because of how fine the sand is and how deeply it goes into your respiratory system.
But of those one in seven post-9-11 service members on active duty diagnosed with cancer, we took those numbers and we put it into a system that compared it with the age-adjusted civilian population.
Who were non-military to see if there was an increased rate.
And so the Air Force has the highest rate in relative risk ratio compared to civilian populations for cancer.
So the Air Force has the highest rates of cancers, but they're treated the best, hands down, They have the nicest living conditions.
They deploy the least.
Why does the Air Force have the highest rates of cancer as well?
The Marine Corps has the lowest rates.
Age-adjusted, oh yeah.
And so the ratio is like 3.7 times more likely to be diagnosed with cancer compared to a civilian if you served on active duty in the Air Force.
And so this brings up that point.
What are you exposed to?
Because a lot of these people in the Air Force are stationary.
They don't have to deploy because...
Their job doesn't require it.
Their job doesn't require it.
So why are they diagnosed at such high rates with such severe cancers?
Like cancers that you don't even hear of.
I have a fighter pilot who was 30 years old diagnosed with appendix cancer.
Like, what?
I've never even seen that.
And so that misconception that, oh, you know, were you exposed to toxins while deployed or while serving?
What if you didn't deploy?
Or what if you don't understand the full broad spectrum of toxic exposures?
Because anything can be toxic, you know?
Mm-hmm.
So there's a lot of work that needs to be done on that for sure.
Was there any response given to you when you were at the VA and you were told this great news of this very informative questionnaire that they would start giving people?
Any serious response?
I was pulled aside afterwards and one of the key leaders on the medical side said, I understand you're upset.
And I was like, he said, but by law, we had to provide something by law or we'd be held accountable under penalty.
I don't know how it all works, but he said we had to provide something.
And so not only did the PACT Act not necessarily adjust or address the root cause, but the PACT Act didn't allow for the leeway and the time period necessary to enact this stuff.
So you end up with a situation where they're doing something because they have to or so they can say, hey, look, we did something, but it's not based on a recognition of what actually needs to be done.
You say the PACT Act does not address the root cause.
What should it have been?
What root cause are you talking about?
So the big win with the PACT Act, a lot of it was presumptive conditions.
And so when you look at the presumptive conditions, I think that was the first time I sat there and I said, is this a joke?
Has anybody medical read this?
Because they said, oh, we just enacted 20 new presumptives, but they didn't because they put lymphoma and lymphomatic as two different cancers.
And I said, that's not a real case.
I was like, this is the same thing.
I think you mean leukemia.
Or, you know, I tried giving them the benefit of the doubt.
And these, for people who aren't kind of tracking this, when you say presumptive conditions or presumptives, what are you talking about?
So the VA assumes that if you are diagnosed with this condition, if you served in this location, that it's automatically connected, which makes total sense.
Sure.
Absolutely.
But, you know, another interesting fact is that a lot of people don't realize that those presumptives, even though, yes, you're considered service-connected, you don't always get rated that percentage.
So a lot of my people in remission who have these presumptive conditions are rated 0%.
Because they're in remission.
Yeah.
Wow.
Even though they have all these secondary side effects and issues long term.
And so it's a tough, the VA math and the VA system is difficult.
Very, very difficult.
Difficult is a nice way to put it, Chelsea.
Yes.
Some would say horribly broken and dysfunctional.
Some would say.
I mean...
Yes.
The fact that, and so, you know, when I was in Congress for eight years, and I had, you know, a person who specialized and was dedicated to veterans policy in my Washington, D.C. office,
and a person in my Hawaii office who was dedicated to veterans K-Circ, veterans calling the office or emailing or whatever and saying, hey, I need help with Benefits, disability ratings, claims, healthcare,
back pay, you know, purple hearts that were never awarded for a guy who fought in Vietnam who had shrapnel in his leg for decades because they couldn't find the paperwork proving that he had shrapnel in his leg but that an x-ray showed was still there.
Anyway, We had by far, by far, more calls for assistance from veterans than calls from anyone else for any other reason like Social Security or Medicare or immigration claims or anything else that had to do with anything in the federal government.
By far, veterans' claims were the most that we had.
And I think one of the things, as we talk about so much of the dysfunction in the VA and how, you know, just throwing more money at the problem isn't going to actually solve it.
Obviously, the person on my team, who was also a veteran, who was handling these cases, worked very closely with other service organizations like the DAV and others.
Literally, the DAV across the country has a team of people dedicated to helping those who are like yourself, they were med-boarded out or they're retiring, to navigate their way through the disability rating system.
Because it's that complex, that complicated, it takes so long to get to that point.
And anyway, I just mentioned that because unless you've been through it, and I have not been through it myself, I'm still in the Army Reserves, but I have a ton of friends who have.
We've helped serve a lot of veterans who have been so frustrated in trying to work their way through this, for the exact reason that you said.
Like, okay, somebody who's been diagnosed with cancer, it is acknowledged that it's been service-connected, but because it's in remission...
According to their flowchart, like, okay, well, therefore that equals zero.
Like, there's just no common sense, even, at all.
You know, it brings up an interesting story, the PACT Act, because it's not inclusive, and some of the most significant, serious, and most deadly cancers that we see, and large numbers aren't covered.
But we were invited to the White House for the PACT Act signing.
And, you know, A friend said, bring down some veterans that you help that have cancer.
So, of course, I brought all veterans that weren't covered under the PACT Act because that's just how I am.
Of course.
As you should.
It's why you're effective.
It's why I'm effective.
So, I have one kid, and I say he's a kid because he's so young.
He's 30, 33. His name's Josh.
He was diagnosed.
He's had cancer three times.
Three times.
He was an E6 in the army.
He did two tours, three tours in Iraq.
He was misdiagnosed with a fungal condition behind his ear in Iraq.
They treated him with an antifungal and it didn't go away.
So six months later, they said, oh, it's skin cancer.
It was squamous cell skin cancer.
So he came home, had treatment, went back in the military a few years later, same issue.
But it was a different cancer.
He had a different type of skin cancer.
And so finally he was misdiagnosed again.
So we're talking three cancers.
He was misdiagnosed by the VA twice, once by the army.
And so now it's so severe that it's traveling to his brain.
And he's only 33. He had to sell his house and move into an RV with his wife and two children and homeschool his children.
He's from Kansas.
And so we've supported Josh since day one.
And he was at the VA in Kansas.
And he had to do all this because his cancers have not been recognized as service-connected.
So he's paying for his own health care.
Yes.
And so he went to the VA and the VA said, we're going to treat you this way.
And he said, well, how do you know that this is the right treatment?
And it was almost like they got offended.
And as a healthcare provider, I can't stress enough.
Question.
It's your health.
It's your body.
There is nothing wrong with questioning.
How do we know this is the right care?
And so he asked to go to community care to go to MD Anderson from Kansas.
And community care for people who don't know is a way for veterans to get care from a non-VA facility or provider.
Right.
And so they dragged their feet for six months until his wound became so severe that you could see the base of his skull.
Yeah.
And so he's down at MD Anderson.
And they dragged their feet in just approving his...
Just approving.
Which means they're paying for it.
The VA is paying for it.
And so they waited six months.
It took them six months to just approve him being able to go and see an outside provider.
Right.
And that...
Considering he's stage four with metastatic cancer, that's most likely terminal.
How do you tell somebody, hey, you're not service-connected?
He ended up getting facial paralysis because of how severe the cancer traveled to his brain.
I physically put in the referral myself to MD Anderson and we paid.
We said, here's all the money up front.
Go do what you need to do.
You're a father of two children.
You're so young.
And so I flew him out from MD Anderson in Texas to DC for the PACT Act.
And he went up to Jon Stewart and he said, my name's Josh and this is my story.
And you fought For a cause that's not going to save my life or my teammates' lives.
And I was like, oh boy.
He called him right out.
He said, we're here and everybody's celebrating.
Meanwhile, he's there with a terminal skin cancer, not even a brain cancer, a terminal skin cancer.
And next to him is a female who was diagnosed at 24 with sarcoma, who should be dead right now.
She coded numerous times.
Her name is Brandy.
She was standing there and she's not covered under the PACT Act.
And so I think it's most hurtful and harmful when you see all these people that A, aren't covered, but B, they're still fighting for their lives.
Literally.
And when I watched, I've never watched a full hearing before or a full vote before, and I did that night, and I threw up afterwards because of how painful it was to watch.
And a senator from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, I think her name is, she said, you know, we want to Able and create an eligibility for immediate community care for cancer patients to seek, you know, community care and send her tests or shut her down as if she was trying to privatize VA healthcare.
And I said to my husband, I said, can you imagine that?
Imagine having stage four cancer and being told you don't have the option to seek care where you want.
This is insanity.
It is.
Insanity.
It didn't, you know...
For me, being in Massachusetts, I have amazing healthcare facilities and cancer treatment centers here.
But what about somebody in Hawaii?
Or what about somebody in Montana?
Or Josh in Kansas?
You know?
Yeah.
That example you just gave of Marsha Blackburn and Senator Tester, he's the chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
He is.
That example right there speaks to one of the root causes that is not being addressed, where if you look at the mission of the VA, it is to take care of those who have served and their families.
That literally is the mission of the VA. And so it is such an outright dereliction of duty and a rejection of that mission for whether they're bureaucrats or politicians to deny that care to veterans.
Period.
Full stop.
And they're doing so because they care more about protecting their union donors.
That's what it comes down to.
This whole debate around privatization of the VA, it comes down to, I guess it's a fear that veterans will actually go to the place where they can get the best care.
And in some places that may be the VA. I have friends who get their care from the VA and absolutely love it.
They're so happy.
They have no complaints whatsoever, which is awesome.
But unfortunately, that's not the case everywhere.
And unfortunately, like you're mentioning, just from a geographic perspective, from the kind of specialists that might be necessary, that's not always the case.
And why would you put it in the hands of a bureaucrat to decide if and when and how a veteran can go and get the care that they need?
And God, that makes me so angry because...
Especially, and when I reached out to Senator Tester's office, I said, please reconsider, because your state is projected to have the highest rate of post-9-11 veterans in the next 20 years.
And he's Montana, right?
He's Montana.
He has one VA. And the health equity there, the study that, one of the studies we did was that a lot of civilian providers were less likely to be more in tune to toxic exposure-related illnesses in veteran healthcare.
You know, their biases were extremely off.
And so, You know, on a 19 to 1 ratio, civilian providers are more likely to assume that your physical presentation of symptoms is related to mental health, so psychosomatic.
And so when you say that, and as somebody who's experienced that, you know, when you are told that it's all in your head, that you're physically fine, just based on your demographics and appearance, it's heartbreaking.
And so when I reached out over and over again without response, and I said, this is not good, this is not safe.
I mean, there's a well-known seal up there, Andy Stumpf.
And I've actually spoken with Andy about this because he has friends that he does jiu-jitsu with that are struggling.
He's in Montana, right?
Yeah, they're struggling for healthcare.
And so, like, why?
And so, it really bothered me when I saw that this It's so blindsided.
We're not thinking about the veteran population and their health and wellness.
You're thinking about either a political affiliation or your donor basis.
It hurt my feelings that it was totally shut down because we see it firsthand.
So they were not receptive to your feedback?
Not at all.
That is heartbreaking.
And the two senators, Senator Lankford and Senator Tillis, were both very open in hearing about this.
Of course.
And they both voted against it.
And they caught hell.
They caught hell.
But when we started telling people, like, hey, this isn't the best thing since sliced bread.
This is actually, like, read through it.
You know, we provided people with notes.
It looks good until you read into it.
And so, you know, we were getting, we were harassed as a foundation and they said, you don't care about veterans and you don't care about health.
And I said, that is the funniest thing I've heard all day, you know, because it affects me.
It affects my husband.
It affects so many I care for and care about.
And so, you know, the news, it goes both ways.
Well, and the problem there is, and you've been in and around Washington enough to have seen this firsthand, is that you have a bunch of politicians who then go, and like you said, this bill does some good.
But it doesn't address the root cause.
It doesn't go nearly far enough to even do what it was intended to accomplish.
But now you've got politicians who can go around and they're on the campaign trail and they can tout, hey, look at this great success and look at all that we have accomplished.
And then they kind of cross that off the to-do list.
And then move on to whatever the next thing is.
So it's not like, okay, hey, yes, we were able to do some things.
Now let's tackle the other things.
Are you aware of anything happening in Washington right now to plug the holes that were in this bill?
I'm just, I'm sincerely curious.
So we've been kind of blackballed in the sense of...
Because you force them to literally look people like Josh and Brandy in the face, the people who have been left behind?
Yes.
Yes.
We've been blackballed, whether it be the White House or the, you know, the VA. I'm not here to, and this is what I tell people, you know, I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, male, female, black, white, I don't care.
Yeah.
Do your job.
I'm not a business person.
I'm a healthcare provider.
My phone's always open.
If somebody needs something, I pick it up and I get it done.
I don't have people or donors that pay my salary.
This is solely based on the care and the passion for the people that we served with.
I can't handle another death, another preventable death.
I can't.
I can't face that family.
I can't face those children.
I can't face, you know, a preventable death.
It happens way too much.
And so when I call people out, not in an inappropriate way, but when I say, hey, we did this when we should be doing this.
These people are dying, but we're compensating until they die.
Right.
And then, you know, and studies prove it.
We have the data that shows this.
We're published in numerous journals.
So I didn't realize how tough DC was.
I did not realize how tough it was.
And unfortunately, a lot of the times it's very rare, you know, we have amazing advocates there now, but it's very rare for us to go say, hey, let's talk about healthcare in a proactive way and cancer prevention and cancer screening and early identification and be heard.
Right.
And I think that really is the key there, what you're talking about, is that early identification.
And unfortunately, for too many, they may be too far advanced in their cancer or their illness, but there are many others who are not.
And that's really what the key here is in this early identification so that you can prevent yet another life being taken that maybe didn't have to be taken so soon.
We lost a 33-year-old Marine Recon veteran who turned Green Beret.
I don't know why he did both, but 33 years old.
His name is Dominic Hall.
And I met him about a year and a half ago.
And he was from Wisconsin, Appleton police officer, and Bronze Star recipient, two tours to Afghanistan.
And Dominic ended up having stomach pain, and he went to a civilian hospital because the Wisconsin is out in the middle of nowhere.
I think there's like two VAs, if that.
He went to a civilian provider and they said, you know, it's probably nothing.
You're young, healthy, 31. And so he went back a few days later because the pain was so severe and they found a tumor.
And they found a tumor on his pancreas and they ended up doing a biopsy.
And most people don't realize this, but to have a successful biopsy to actually test and determine the root cause, you need 20%.
20%.
What does that mean, 20%?
20% of a tumor specimen.
Okay.
So yeah, you need a decent sized chunk.
If it's less than that, you're not going to be able to detect it?
Right.
Okay.
Right.
And so they knew it was pancreatic cancer.
You know, this young, fit, special operator.
Didn't smoke, didn't drink, you know, very healthy.
They said, you have pancreatic adenocarcinoma, stage one.
They said, there's no way this is anything but genetics because you're so young and otherwise healthy.
And...
Okay.
Fair.
Fair assumption to a civilian provider.
And they treated him as if it was genetically related, using immunotherapy.
And within seven months, his cancer was stage four terminal.
Oh my gosh.
And so they did a biopsy.
It spread to his liver and they did a biopsy and it showed that there was no genetic component that was involved.
And so I met Dominic and he was telling me this story.
And so I pulled his service records and something about him, he's a father of two, his wife, amazing, amazing woman.
And it bothered me so much.
And I actually met him through Black Rifle Coffee.
And so I hear his story and I see his service records and I see where they went wrong.
And so we actually created a machine learning trace model to track his exposures based on him.
He's veteran zero.
And what caused his pancreatic cancer was cesium that he was exposed to while on a ship in Fukushima during the nuclear reactor incident.
No kidding.
Not the two tours in Afghanistan.
It was that exact...
We had it down to the genomic compound.
And so Dominic passed away.
He had just turned 33 and he said that he wanted to see his youngest son off to school.
He was his son four years old.
He wanted to see his youngest son off to school and he died on September 4th.
And I remember I was heartbroken.
And, you know, his wife, God bless her, a strong woman, but...
Things like this, if we knew what we knew now, what we knew then, we could have prevented this.
And so we're taking just the tools that we can find.
We actually tell people that, hey, if you don't have next generation sequencing done, it's two tubes of blood.
We can test your blood and determine the cause of your cancer right there and specify your treatment.
Exact to your genomic compound.
Like, why aren't we doing this?
It's covered by insurance.
And so I find myself writing these prescriptions to get this blood work done.
You know, why isn't DOD doing this?
Why isn't VA doing this?
Exactly.
It changes how we provide care.
You know, if we did this with Dominic, he'd still be alive.
You know, it's heartbreaking.
And not to get back on the PACT Act, but you just opened up a huge whirlwind and influx of flood.
You opened up the floodgates to a lot of people requesting care.
And of course, those who are presumptive that have those cancers are going to be front loaded, which is totally appropriate, even though most of them want to go external to specialized hospitals.
But now what about all the people who are undiagnosed that are symptomatic?
How are we going to help them?
We're going to screen them and ask them if they've been exposed to carcinogens and then what?
You know, then what?
And so all these people are coming to me and they're coming to the foundation and they're saying, help us.
Help us get screened for cancer.
And so, you know, we do our best.
We use cell-free circulating tumor DNA through two samples of blood that we pay out of pocket for per veteran.
How much does that cost?
$950 a test.
Just this year alone, we've spent $120,000 on those tests with an ungodly amount of positives that were confirmed positives.
Our youngest was a 25-year-old Navy SEAL diagnosed with lymphoma.
Wow.
And so for him or any of the other thousands of people that you've helped who come back with a positive test, what do they do next?
So, and this is something we're really proud of, because time is of the essence, right?
And we want to make sure that this young, otherwise healthy population gets hit with the accurate medication.
You know, their system might be able to withstand a lot heavier duty of a medication than somebody who's, you know, 70 years old.
So, with this individual, it was...
It was perfect.
You know, he returned from Africa, special operator, very, very healthy.
He said he was having chest pain, shortness of breath, and, you know, just not feeling right, fatigued.
And so I said, let me test you for cancer.
And he said, I don't have cancer.
Had he already gone to a doctor or the VA or, you know, a DOD doctor?
Okay.
And they said that he was negative for the flu, negative for RSV, negative for COVID. He looked good.
And so they said, we don't know.
They sent him home.
And they said, maybe it's depression.
Maybe it's stress.
And so he goes home and, you know, I get in contact with him through another friend from Damnek, who is also a cancer survivor from DevGrew.
And he says to me, you've got to talk to this kid, you know, so I do.
And I write the order for the prescription.
Sorry, I'm just going to help translate here for our non-military background friends.
Damnek and DevGrew are part of the special operations community.
A bunch of high speed, great people down there.
Amazing.
In the Navy, yeah.
And so day one, he comes to me with symptoms.
By day two, I order this test.
By day seven, it comes back positive.
So I get the result on day seven.
That it was lymphoma.
And so we have a certain select amount of doctors that we use based on specialty across the country.
And so I pick up the phone and I call Dr. Loretta Nostopel out of MD Anderson and I said, hey doc, I got this situation.
I know you know.
We're on the same team.
We're on the same wavelength.
You know what I'm talking about.
Instantly, she was like, bring him in Monday.
So I flew him out two days later to get a confirmation that yes, this was in fact that.
I ordered blood work done to get him the next generation sequencing so he could determine what exactly the mutation was.
And with that, we went to an organization called CureMatch, which uses knowledge.
It's way above my pay grade.
It's so impressive though.
So they take that genomic code and they put it into the software system and it runs through 4.5 million different combinations of drugs based on this individual's demographics and genomics.
And so it gives you the top cancer drug regimens and how successful they'll be for this individual.
So we're all working together.
Everything's circulating.
I bring all this to Dr. Nostopel.
I get him a second opinion up here in Boston.
And they all came to the conclusion that, yeah, he's young, healthy.
He can take up a heavy hitting of medication.
Within a month and a half of treatment, he was in remission.
Oh, my gosh.
This was in August.
And he texted me about a month ago, and he said, I'm cancer-free.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
Like, that should be the standard.
That should be the standard.
That should be the standard.
That should be the norm.
You know?
Wow.
And I mean, like, the gallery test is one of our go-to between gallery and guardian.
That's the early detection cancer test that you do.
Yeah.
And so you have the blood test, and then you also have a skin test.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Yep.
We use the gallery test, which is the blood test.
We actually, you know, I've showed people it takes a minute, one minute, and I put a quick blood draw, two tubes of blood, and I send it off to the lab, 50 different types of cancers.
And of course, you know, it ranges on variability, you know, like melanoma, for example, it's a lot harder to detect early on with circulating tumor and blood samples because it hasn't gone deep enough yet, which is a good thing.
But we also, we do use DermTech too, which is, it's like stickers.
And you put them on your skin, you know, and you circle the spot and you send it back to the lab.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah.
And it checks for cancer.
And skin cancer is one of the highest, you know, cancers in post 9-11, obviously.
But yeah, it's pretty cool.
We just have so many tests for colon cancer.
Colon cancer is a big deal for people that have gone to Africa.
Yeah.
You know?
Identifying that early on.
And these tests not only tell you, hey, this is somebody who has cancer, it tells you to how much more detail beyond that do you get from this test that costs, what, $975?
950, yeah.
So it goes all the way to the genomic compound.
So it tells me what type of mutation it is.
It tells me the DNA, what section of the chromosome and what part of the DNA arm is actually mutated.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
And it gives me a list of medications that are most adequate and accurate for this individual's treatment.
Wow.
So the next, like, logical question, right, would be, okay, so this is more than just an anomaly.
Obviously, there should be people in Congress and the DOD and the VA who are saying, oh, okay, well, this is interesting.
Why don't we look and see in our records all of the different people from different branches of the military who've deployed to the continent of Africa, for example.
Or maybe it's more specific down to a place within a specific country or a country itself or whatever because there is a trend here and let's have this preventive early identification screening to actually see what the level of exposure was or is and how many people are similarly being affected.
That's got to be happening.
No?
I'm going to take your silence as a no.
We're working on it.
Chelsea, don't be nice.
Nobody's doing anything.
Because nobody knows.
Nobody wants to talk about it.
That right there is the key though.
If you're saying nobody knows, it's because they're not listening.
And if they're not listening, it means they don't care.
Yes.
Ultimately.
Ultimately.
I will say SOCOM's doing a great job behind the scenes.
Thank you a lot to you.
I know you won't take public credit for it, but you had a lot to do with that.
That's the Special Operations Command.
Obviously, a lot of people within that community across all branches of the military are affected, given the places that they are deployed to, the frequency of those deployments.
They're not, more often than not, not just going and sitting around in an embassy or a fancy base somewhere.
No.
I don't think people realize that we have over 750 bases across the world in over 80 different countries, and a lot of those are in Africa.
There are certain places in Africa that are nice, but you hit that equator and you go about 15 degrees north.
And it starts to get really suspect environmentally.
And by a base.
I mean, when people think of bases, like here in Hawaii, you might think, oh, well, you know, Schofield Barracks is a base.
Hickam Air Force is a base.
Sometimes those bases are literally just a couple of shacks or buildings in the middle of a city.
Right.
And for those who deploy to that area, you know, the news is so focused on Iraq, Afghanistan, but You know, looking at the data and seeing the different trends, like Helicobacter pylori is a GI bacteria and it's prevalent across the country, but more so it's, you know, the prevalence rate in Africa is about 70%.
In Afghanistan, it's about 80%.
And so, you know, one of the biggest symptoms that we saw on our studies was acid reflux post-deployment.
You know, as somebody who, you know, ironically, this is a true story.
I went to the doctor, civilian doctor, and I had severe stomach pain and I didn't know what was going on.
They told me I need to stop drinking and I need to stop eating spicy food.
I was like, I'm 28 years old.
I don't drink that much.
You know, and I'm an Irish female in Boston.
We don't have spicy food here.
And so when they told me this, they said, we don't know what's wrong with you.
And my blood pressure was like 200 over 100. It was high and they were concerned.
And so They couldn't tell me what was wrong.
They said it was all in your head.
It's all in your head.
And so finally it got so bad I went to an urgent care and they did this test.
It was a urea breath test.
It cost me $15.
And they said, oh, you have H. pylori.
They treated it with a $10 medication and I was fine.
Oh my gosh.
And so the big concern about that is, you know, everybody's so quick to say, oh, you have acid reflux.
Here's a antacid.
We spend so much money on antacids and DOD and VA, but what's the root cause?
If we don't treat it, if we don't treat H. pylori, it can cause gastric cancer, it can cause throat cancer, esophageal, colon.
It's crazy and you don't think about it because it's not a problem in this country.
That leads to a much bigger issue that we can save for another conversation just about the problems with our so-called healthcare system.
In this country.
And yes, this applies, you know, with the VA as well as just across the so-called healthcare industry.
And I say so-called because it is often just that, like putting what you said, putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound, not even being interested in like, hmm, like, I can't figure out what it is.
Let me actually try to dig further or deeper.
And just, I mean, it's like the epitome of...
Of arrogance for a healthcare professional to say, well, obviously it's just in your head.
Obviously you're just imagining things to a person who's clearly struggling or suffering or in pain in whatever way, shape, or form that may take.
Like, my gosh.
It's tough.
Yeah, it's tough to say the least.
You are, what I love so much about what you're doing, Hunter 7 Foundation, by the way, I just want to remind people, what you're doing with the Hunter 7 Foundation, all of the people that you are helping and working with every day, that's not your full-time job.
No.
What is your full-time job?
I'm an APRN, so I'm an advanced practice nurse.
I focus on public health and trauma emergency in Boston.
So full-time, that's my gig.
Three days a week, 12-hour, 13-hour, 14-hour shifts.
And then in my spare time, I do this.
So you are a volunteer for the foundation?
100%.
That's so important.
Thank you, first of all.
Thank you.
And I know you're not doing it for thanks, and you're not doing it for attention.
You're not doing it for anything else.
I mean, you're...
You and your husband, your passion and your commitment to this is just, it's incredible because you're not just talking about it.
Like, you are doing the research.
You know what you're talking about.
You've got the evidence and the data to back it up.
And you are both engaging with policymakers in Washington to try to bring about some of the more systemic change and to try to bring about some solutions from a governmental standpoint, which is thankless work and incredibly frustrating, especially when you have people who are...
More interested in political games than they are in actually helping serve our veterans.
But you're not sitting around and waiting for Congress to take action.
This is what I want people who are watching this or listening to it to really hear is you are one of those nonprofit organizations who is putting everything that you raise into actually helping save people's lives, literally.
Helping save people's lives in the ways that you've talked about with finding real solutions, early detection, making sure that people once diagnosed are getting the care that they need and helping to pay for the expenses that go along with that.
How are you fundraising?
You have a full time job!
People like to joke.
We were established January 2019, so we're extremely small, all volunteer.
There's about 10 people that work with us.
Most of us are post 9-11 veterans, and some of us are still on active duty, but we're also healthcare providers.
We all have great jobs.
And so I think it's that guilt.
Everybody's like, take a paycheck.
I'm like, I don't need it.
All my needs are met, right?
I'm very thankful for everything I have.
So why would I take a paycheck when I could spend this money in potentially saving somebody's life?
And you are.
You are saving people's lives.
Well, no.
I mean, it's honor.
It's honor.
And what you're doing is very honorable.
I mean, we, and the fundraising part, I mean, we've had, so like Black Rifle Coffee, I know you were just on their podcast, you know, Evan has been incredible.
Evan's the founder, the co-founder of Black Rifle Coffee, Matt.
And they get a lot of crap from people, and I'm not sure why.
I don't follow the whole situation, but their coffee's good, and they literally have donated so much money to us to help us save lives.
If I said to Evan or Black Rifle as a company, hey, I need some money because we want to do XYZ testing, he would be the first one there.
But the other thing is we also get a lot of donations from smaller military, you know, companies, you know, you name it.
But one company that has been there since day one is a firearms company.
And a lot of people don't like that.
What company is that?
Noveski, Rifleworks.
And Lorraine is amazing.
She's the owner.
Amazing woman.
But somebody said to me, we don't want to take money that's dirty money.
And I said, wow, that's amazing.
I'm shocked.
And this is Massachusetts for you.
But a lot of military grassroots companies have come out to support us.
Warm Fuzzy is another one.
And it's just these simple little things.
And you think that there would be some bigger organization that would jump in and do this, but it's all grassroots.
You know, it's, we're literally, we're from this community and we're for the community.
So, so many of these smaller companies are just there for it.
You know, that, uh, Matt Box, another one, a company that was created by Navy SEALs, they gave us $70,000 to do cancer testing.
That's incredible.
And so it is.
The coins in the back, people always say, oh, look at all those coins.
And it's like only like three of them are mine from the military.
Everybody that...
We help a lot of people.
And so most of those coins are from people that we've helped with cancer.
Wow.
And so when I tell...
There's a story behind every single one.
Some of them good, some of them not the outcome that I hoped for.
But it's incredible.
And I mean, the community is really their hair for us, you know?
And more importantly, it's...
The financial aspect helps, but that word of mouth, getting out there, like, hey, listen, you don't need to be deployed to be exposed.
It's that education.
And so if one person says, oh, that's me, I have those symptoms, and we're able to test them, and they're positive, and we can save them early on, that's why we do what we do.
Those victories.
Yeah.
I'm just thinking about the different names and faces that I've seen you post on social media, on Instagram, and the stories that you've shared of young service members.
Most recently, I think it was a young Marine who you posted about where he couldn't even speak anymore, but he texted, was it his sister, saying, Hunter 7. Yeah.
Or was it a family member?
And that family member then called you because they got online and started, what is Hunter 7?
What does this even mean?
But the fact that that young guy...
He trusted what you guys are doing and who you are.
That's the most powerful thing for people in their time of need, knowing that you're there for them.
By you, I mean you and your team and the people who support you and the work that you do, both those who may be donating and the doctors and the other providers, people all across the board.
I want to make a direct plea to anyone who is watching right now, to anyone who is listening right now, go and support Hunter 7 Foundation.
I don't do this very often.
There are a lot of great non-profits out there.
There are a lot of great people doing great work.
But what you are doing at Hunter 7 Foundation is unique.
It is very special and is having direct and immediate impact both from a policy perspective as well as literally impacting and saving people's lives and the fact that you're having on their families, both their actual families and then their military family as well.
So where can people go to support you?
You know, the website www.hunter7hunter7.org.
That's the best place, you know, share the information that we put out because it could, you know, on social media, it could save somebody's life.
You know, they might see that and think, oh, this is something I need to get checked out.
You know, we've seen it happen.
And where can people find you on social media?
Hunter 7 Foundation, spelled out.
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
Perfect.
All of those.
And that's, you know, that's really where, that's really the call to action here.
You know, every year as Veterans Day rolls around, you know, we're often greeted with people saying, Happy Veterans Day and thank you for your service.
And I'm asked often by people saying, like, well, like, what can I do?
And, you know, the farther away we get from 9-11 and...
I mean, there's just fewer and fewer people who feel a direct connection to someone that they love or care about who has served or who is serving in the military.
That's just the reality of where we are as a country right now.
And yet, around Veterans Day, people are reminded of those Americans who love this country and raise our right hands and volunteer to serve and wear the uniform.
And so I just think it's important that there are organizations like yours that in a very practical, real way, those who are saying, hey, to a veteran, thank you for your service.
I ask you to take those thanks and that feeling of gratitude that you have.
And turn it into action.
And supporting the work that you do at the Hunter 7 Foundation is a very impactful way to do that.
If you choose to do it in other ways, awesome.
If you're a politician, do your job.
Do your job.
If you're in the VA, if you're in the administration, do your job.
Do your job.
Fulfill the mission that President Lincoln laid out for the VA. Do your job.
Thank you so much, Chelsea.
I just can't thank you enough.
You know that I'm in the trenches with you and I'm a phone call or a text away.
I look forward to continuing to support the work that you and your team are doing in absolutely any way that I can.
You are incredible.
Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for everything you do behind the scenes.
It means a lot to all of us.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for your time.
I know today's your day off, so I appreciate you.
No, I worked this morning.
Oh, you worked this morning?
Okay, sorry.
I was misinformed.
It's good to see your face.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
I don't know how you travel so much.
Sarah Rose was like, yeah, Chelsea's over here.
I was like, I don't know how you do it.
I would lose my mind.
I don't know how you do it.
I don't.
I was on the road in the last three, three and a half weeks before Election Day.
I think I was in like 18 or 19 states in that period of time.
One day, I was in three states in one day.
And it was when I got home.
Oddly enough, it was when I got home.
I like woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I was looking around.
I was like, where am I? Where am I? This doesn't look familiar.
What's going on?
Which is horrible.
That's a horrible thing to say.
But, you know, I mean, look, you do what you got to do.
You do what is necessary.
And that's...
Well, you ran into one of my friends, one of the kids that we actually helped.
Really?
Leukemia survivor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Was it in South Carolina?
In Charleston?
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
That kid almost died.
He's doing a lot better now.
He was diagnosed at 27. Yeah.
And he was like, hey, you know Tulsi Gabbard, right?
And I was like, yeah.
And he's like, she's here.
She's here.
Can I go up and say hi to her?
And I was like, I'm so glad he did.
I was like, go ahead.
He was very happy to meet you.
It meant a lot to him.
But yeah, no, I saw you've been everywhere.
You were with Joe Kent.
Yeah.
And up in my area, you were with the general.
Yes.
General.
Yeah.
Don.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's Yeah, a lot of disappointing outcomes.
Mostly the biggest disappointment is far too many people didn't show up to vote, ultimately.
Yes.
No, I can't tell you how frustrated I am with this administration.
I am horrified on how poorly it...
I don't even know what to say.
I stood there and spoke with the president, and I said, hey, this is the situation.
It was like talking to a wall.
Wow.
I was like, hey, man, your son would still be alive right now if we did X, Y, Z. Yeah.
It was the whole...
And there was not any...
I don't know how you did it.
You didn't feel a connection in the conversation.
Oh, man.
No.
That's tough.
So it was...
Yeah.
I'm glad you went.
I'm glad you went.
I'm glad that you brought the people who you brought because just, you know, being in the room and continuing to be that voice and that reminder is so, so, so critical because too often they just don't invite people like you and me.
Yeah, well, not anymore.
Yeah, right.
Not anymore.
I don't think, yeah, they had a Veterans Day thing and, you know, yeah, not anymore.
Yeah.
You're not part of the cool kids club if you speak outwardly about something.
And hey, I'm not here to make friends.
And that's why you're great and effective at what you do.
And that's what I'm hoping through the podcast and through social media and through everything else, just trying to increase awareness writ large so that you become an entity that cannot be denied entry, cannot be silenced.
Well, we have.
There's some stuff.
There was a bill that your office wrote and they were going to add it into the NDAA, but something happened in between.
Not on your end, but it was something.
No, I remember that.
I was so frustrated by that because I know you guys worked hard on it.
Our team worked hard on it.
And it was, I think the clock ran out or something because I was like, wait, why can't we just get this in?
And there was some issue.
I don't remember exactly what it was.
Right.
But we created that software program, so as soon as that bill is enacted under federal law that we have to ask, civilian providers have to ask, we have a software program that will do all the work for them.
Good.
Good.
When you have more time, I'll show you.
It's pretty wild.
Sounds good.
Cool.
Well, I look forward to seeing you in person one of these days.
I'm sure our paths will come.
Seriously, I know you know this, but it's just a reminder.
Just let me know how I can help and where I can get plugged in with some of the stuff you're doing with the Fort Bragg folks.
Yeah, that's a whole other conversation.
Do you ever head down to Tampa, like the SOCOM area?
I haven't yet, no.
The SOCOM's looking to enact a lot of this stuff on a wider scale.
Okay.
Yeah, so that's a good conversation.
But yeah, I have to head down there and test a lot of the squadron guys from the unit.
Yep.
Yeah.
What a mess.
Oh yeah.
Totally.
Totally.
I, yeah.
So, okay.
Yeah.
We'll, we'll chat.
Yeah.
And, and I'll let you know when I do, I've got a few things that I do need to do in Florida.
So, um, it might make sense to tack a stop in Tampa on the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let me, let me know.
Yeah.
Let me know.
That would be a good one.
Yeah.
Okay.
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