tv After Words CSPAN March 31, 2016 2:49am-3:50am EDT
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something, i don't know about the ghost stories. my wife doesn't watch scary movies so i'm stuck by myself watching them. so scary. i can't run away. my leg is usually off so that's okay. that would be great. i plan on coming back with my wife and showing her this great city. >> the hotel conference, the con -- glad to hook you up with the ghost scare. >> i appreciate that. am i going to get scared? >> one trip josh, he didn't trip you, or she? no. whatever. okay. thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> happy valentine's day. >> aim married, but thank you. >> i'm married, too. i wanted to find out -- you don't get paid through your foundation so you make money from selling books or how too
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you -- >> selling books, speaking. i'm also retired from military so i do that. so we have a different -- couple different avenues to make sure i can take care of my family, but as far as the foundation that's correct all about giving back. never want to take a salary. we have to pay our staff but the board members never get paid. it's all about giving back. some foundations need to but this one we don't. [applause] >> another buckeye. >> the worst. >> we're going gang up on you. and you know, your coach at the university of michigan is a buckeye. i can keep going. anyway, first -- >> made a great switch, then, obviously. there's more presidents from ohio than anywhere else? >> that's correct. >> they want to change the world they had it so bad.
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[laughter] >> on a serious note, on behalf of everyone here ex-i'd like to thank you for everything you have done for this country. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. [applause] >> thank you. i appreciate that. i was just fortunate to serve my country. i love my job. i would never get blown up again but would still sign up for the army. it was a great ride, and i am happy with the way the government takes care of my medical needs and my family and things like that, my retirement and my wife and stuff like that. so we have been blessed with living in a great nation. >> not to keep blowing smoke, but also -- >> build me up. i love it. >> miss perino said earlier, i'm really impressed be the fact of your foundation and you take nothing, especially after reading a recent "new york times" piece about the wounded warriors program and how little money is going the warriors
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versus what is helping make it go. but my big question is, do you have another book? >> not right at the moment. we're thinking of what i can do for the next book. aim a mentor with a lot of ptsd guys in the army. i take a different spin on it so we're thinking of a hard truth bit or fitness by forecasts, where we eat a lot of cheesecake. some barbecue, and then figure out how we can make this work into our diets. spoiler alert. never works out. except for happiness, that's what you get when you eat cheesecake and barbecue. we're work that out right now. maybe you get excited and we'll have a movie and then you can play me in the movie. you look like -- you got it? you stand in the mirror and flex and then eventually it comes.
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i actually ripped my skin open lifting weights. now it's my soon to be girlfriend, i never met in person, so i had to look good. not the brightest guy right here. i got a truck big enough where i couldn't get into it from the ground. i had to put run can boards on it to get into it. idiot. i know. no one claimed i was the smartest, but i love chess. who wants to play me in chess? let me no. i'm that good. just kidding. i'm trying to hustle you out of money. >> i have a couple questions. just because i didn't introduce you the way you wanted me to. >> you nailed it. i was just giving you options. >> all right. as you travel for speaking engagements, to different states what are the best ways you see communities helping local vets? >> having vet centers, getting where they have job fairs and they understand what the veterans have done overseas and understand their jobs in the
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military and how they can plug them into society and having resource officers that are veterans that know what the balance is between the militarys' civilian life. when people get out you would never guess i had great custodial duties. i could cut grass like nobody's business, with scissors. management skills. i was in charge of 700 lives and told them where to go and how to do it and if it made a mistake it was their life on the line. so how somebody knows military speak and i have seen communities in the u.s. trying to do that more and get veterans back to work and understand how to plug them in. >> can i ask you another? >> you got it. everybody is like, oh, my gosh, aim going to catch what he has some. >> we talked about that the foundation is raising funds for national retreats. are there other foundation projects going on?
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>> right now we're doing the programming for -- to raise 2.7 to have programming for five years. kayaking, boating, tubing, fishing, bro -- pro bass and they catch fish. we want to build a network that people can get back out there and do things and chris everyday activities with their families because i do it every day, but someone might be less inclined to try something new if they're not around people in the same situation. so the foundation is very -- has been very helpful in showing people what they can still achieve and building confidence. we have had two proof of concepts which made us decide that this was a direction we wanted to go, and we had four families and then we had seven families come up to maine, the last two years, and just been such a great support from everybody around maine and the nation, plus the people that get to come benefit from it, can go away a skill, they can go and do things. we don't just show them how to
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do and it send them home. we give them tools to night their own house and their own area. i'm out there hopefully encouraging people, and they know they can call me if they have an issue or problem. the wives are in this together. my wife and i text messages with six other wives. they talk about nothing in general. they're all, bling, bling, bling. i'm like, it's 11:00, but she said, daniel danielle and page sis this -- i'm like this, stop. that the right ones. good style. it's a joke. well, it's not. i really do -- impressed. i was just trying to tell jokes to keep everybody entertained. uh-oh. he found me last night so i know it's coming. >> an easy one. we spoke last night, and i know
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your agent pretty well. i wondered, just share with the audience the process of how you sold the book and your reaction when it actually was sold. >> absolutely. so, we went to a couple meetings where we had five meetings scheduled, random house, and simon some schuster and other big names and went to random house and my literary agent said there will be one or two people here to interview. i walked in the room and there was seven elm he said don't talk to fast, which you can tell i do already. when i shake people's hand is tell them, our, it hurts or i spin it in a circle. and he said, don't do your slapstick humor, and i did. he said don't talk too long. we were there for an hour. and then i left and when i crossed the street, and as he was telling me what i did wrong, we got an offer to talk all the other offers own the table. i said what did i do wrong? he said literally everything but you can get away with it.
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i play golf and my handicap -- that's how it went. when i went to another meeting the next day i met with the sales force and with barnes & noble and amazon and walmart, and a bunch of other people. no one liked me until i cried, and then they said, whatever. want to have your book. it was pretty cool process, seeing how it comes together. took eight to nine months in total with editing and revisions and i had someone help me with my writing because -- i used to be right-handed. now i'm left. but it's a fun process. the worst part before the the process is when i had to narrate it. that was the worst three days of my life. nine hours a day in a hot booth. talking too fast. it was a fun process and looking forward to future projects with random house or anybody that
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wants to partner up and see what we can do. >> i'm originally -- my name is m.j. learner and i'm originally from michigan. >> that's right. >> wolverines. >> that's right. go blue. i get it i-i'm al from maine and i heard you speak at a rehab hospital several years ago, when i was there rehabbing from something, and you were with -- >> you look familiar. >> you withwith the governor's wife and had just gone skydiving with her. you should tell about that. >> the governor's wife is onboard wife verns in maine and is a great friend. you call her first lady but a she wants to be call anna banana. and i got an option to skydiven into event and i said i'll only it if ann does it, thinking i would get out of it. ann said, sure. so the next big event i'm going to challenge her to go great white shark diving in a cage
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with me. they can't bite my arms and legs off. i'm not that worried. because they're gone. but ann is a very great supporter of the foundation, an advisory board member, and i'm thankful to have them six miles down the street from hi mouse. i go in the service entrance, not the front door. wanted you to know that. and then they come out and treat me like i'm family, i guess. they're like, sit down, quit. they're great. yes, ma'am. i like your boots, by the way. >> my name is mary alice and i used to work -- my old boss used to have -- he had lost his arm -- i'm not sure how -- but in army, trying to detonate a bomb, and he has -- i'm curious how your arms work, john used to wear a vest and had hooks and they would open -- >> tom -- come on up here. i need your help.
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>> i remember he couldn't get coins or -- >> come on up. demonstrate. ladies and gentlemen. mary ellen, right? >> right. >> my demonstrator. >> ladies and gentlemen, how this works. ever rode a motorcycle before? >> no. >> moped? okay. make fist like this now. rev the engine on a motorcycle. that's down go up -- let them here the noise. i need you right now. i need you right now. >> vroom vroom. >> the muffler right here, i have my arm up to right here, so the muscle right here on your hand, when i you flex it toward the ceiling slow it flexes and opens. now rev it up fast. i can't hear you revving it. fast. vroom, vroom, vroom. >> right. so you picked it up fast, rotates to the left until i stop
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the flex. now make a fist and drop your hand to the ground the other way. make a -- errr. so the mussel down here, you -- the muscle down here -- hit he brakes hard. i can't here it. >> crash? >> no. >> that's why i don't ride a motorcycle. >> don't forget the brake. don't just crash. >> errr. hitting the brakes. so that's how fast and slow i switch the muscles. that's one way. ladies and gentlemen, there's new technology out there, so this technology is actually horrible. walter reed has three guys trying to step out -- wait, wait. you can't go anywhere now. you have to hang out, mary ellen. so walter reed has all this technology and voice activated control, like, hey, siri -- they have voice activated control. so click this button, blue light is on. it's engaged. now i'm like, open.
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close. how cool is that? >> super cool. >> a cup of coffee with shorts on. and someone says close spills all over you in your white shorts. to be fair i said close, and i was cover -- anyway, my mom and dad's house at my daughter's birthday pear, we were living in michigan, and she had a big remodel done. we had a machine and i was like, open that window. and it was beige carpet that came out. how bad do you think i felt. i want to show you, give it a close. i just did it. your hand worked fine. [laughter] >> just saying. >> i'm opening. >> open. >> one more time. >> open. >> usually works. give a little growl. baritones -- >> are you kidding me?
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>> no,. >> open! >> try one more time. do a little growl, raspy, ike open. >> open. >> really loud. really loud. ready? open! >> open! >> so ladies and gentlemen, you realize i said open three times. so, mary ellen, i appreciate you coming up. this button right here, on-off switch. this one, that's my battery charger i have left. it's not voice activated. thank you for playing. [applause] >> i have to be honest. i've gotten peyton manning with the same thing. he kept yelling, "ohama." he didn't get it. and a couple other people -- thank you for playing. we have a -- two rows.
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craig, my father-in-law right here. yes, sir. >> hi, travis, drew brook. ptsd is a huge problem with guys coming back from the war. what's your take on that? what do you think will help? >> i know it's definitely out there definitely real. account call it the invisible -- i don't suffer for it but i do counseling and instead of asking for feelings i'm like, look at what you have in front of you, your wife and two kids, why are you dwelling on the past, and see them what their future holds instead of dwelling on the past, i reminisce the past but as soon as there's more studies done and people nor more about it we'll open up programming for that at our foundation. i'm fortunate and i know that, not suffer from anything with ptsd or flashbacks or traumatic brain injury. so right now, try to mentor and counsel the best i can with my limited knowledge on what the situation is. but i definitely hope that
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people that need help, get help. that a big problem. very prideful and don't want to ask for help. and anybody can e-mail my web site and reach out to me, but i don't suffer so i don't know the symptoms of causes well enough to have people come to the camp and try to help them reform right now. we're hoping in five to ten years when more research is done, we can help people in those kind of situations. thank you for the question. >> hello, sir. >> how's it going? >> one statement. i'm from bangor, myself. my one question is, why did you move to bangor? >> oh, yeah. it's not c-span so i can't tell my normal jokes. actually we had the ability to build a house anywhere in the nation we wanted. my body, when the heart boats it pushes the -- normal people get to fingers and toes and comes
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back cooled down mitchell goes to residual limbs and comes back warmer. a thirds of my body has three layers and it's caps off so i overeat very fast. also last week you really see from your body, head, hands and feet. i'm missing four of the five. you can't tell that but i am. so my wife and i moved to texas because she grew up at texas, at age 11. wanted to go to dallas and that would have been great but i didn't want to have six amongst a year i was in ac and crying all the time. i'm a whine. then she is originally from maine and i told my wife to leave me, sell everything we had, and she didn't. she has huge family base up there, 140 people met in one day. had item press them. that's the first time we met, back in '08. they loved me. just like you guys do. but if she could sacrifice everything and help me through my recovery, sit by my bedside,
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i was in a medically induced coma for five days and she sat there until she was forced to go back to the room and come back itch thought my family is great, love. the. i i can fly out and see them. my mom and dad are retirement stage can visit me as much as i'll see them. we're meeting up in miami tomorrow, and my wife deserves to be around her family and we want to have more children. like i said no problem there. so, how great would it be if she had that. not every day is roses in this situation she faced with, that she has decided to be in. she married me but that was in 2008 when i was 6'3", 250 pounds, and a different man. same person upstairs but she stuck with me and knew it would be a long road to recovery. so i thought why not move to mississippi for her -- move to maine for her? and we did. now i'm thinking, oh, crap. it's like, what, 40 below tomorrow or something. i'm not there, though.
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ha-ha-ha. pick tiers of me on the -- pictures of me on the beach. yes, sir. >> since you're up there now, do you find that you get great support from the politicians, the public figures, and also, since you're up there, do you find that you can bring more support, more encouragement to the vets that are currently living up there? >> ly. the politicians are very gravity. i have no probable -- are very great. everybody is nice to me because i'm so pretty. on top of that, with helping the vets out and things like that, i'm able to be a voice because right now in this society everybody says, you're a veteran? and you must have the ptsd or problems or issues, and i'm hoping to get on the platform and stay not all veterans have issues weapon don't need a negative, what's wrong with this one?
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i'm here with a positive message, telling people never give up and never quit and keep pushing forward. it's anywhere i go. i feel thankful that i'm able to have the stage to tell people, don't pity me. i'm not a substory. i know i sound like marco rubio, repeating myself. i'm sorry. [laughter] >> that's not a good job? trump '16? no? i like to help vets throughout the night. i travel quite a bit. we were just in san antonio at the alamo and now we're in miami and then st. louis, vegas, and orlando if you want to catch my next show. i was joking about the trump '16. i don't know if i was joking. whatever. yes, sir, a commanding voice. >> faced with the -- do you still interface with the active duty military? talk about that and -- >> absolutely. i talked to my old soldiers, my friends. we still get along.
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but the military has asked me to do a few things and i've been able to accommodate that. general odierno asked me to stay in the military and go around with him. i said i appreciate that about i don't want you to move me. i'm building a house in maine. he said we wouldn't move you. i said, i know because i'm moving. i broke down and said i can't do my job anymore, which i love, infan tri. i enjoyed my job and i said if i can't do my job i don't want to put the uniform on anymore. i'm going to retire out with what i have and be thankful what i was able to do. i'm still active with supporting, still counseling soldiers. if they call me up for an event i can make, die it, and i talk to my friends regularly. throughout the nation. matter of fact one guy -- two guys got hurt with me the day i got blown up and they went home with me, and ryan has since had a child and named is phoenix travis after me is that correct was cool. in the book, you can see that
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there is a nice letter written from the flight medics after i yelled at them. i was yelling really loud and making them take their helmets off. i told them to take care of my buys and they couldn't believe it, the situation i was in. i hope everybody buys the book, and check it out on travis milts.org. i am not going to-for-you to buy it but you should feel awful if you don't. i'm not an orthodox. buy it. i can see the timer is going you're in charge, not me. >> well, speaking of your book that we want everyone to buy dish jive you want, to don't feel obligated. >> travis will be out in fair square at the author book signing as soon as we leave here. he's going out there and signing books. just want to say, i am very honored and blessed to be here today, and i want to thank you for being here with us. >> thank you so much, everybody.
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