Ep. 65: Travis Wilson - Four Corners of an Envelope

Conversation:

Story behind ‘Wookie’
1:43 Travis Wilson My nickname in college was Wookie, and then it became my call sign when I joined the military. So it's big Travis Wookie Wilson. I had a beard and long hair when I was playing hockey. Just. Sorry. And I'm tall, so people just started calling me Wookie, so it stuck. The girls liked it.

Camp Mackall
2:10 Travis Wilson Ooh, a lot of hard work. Sweat, tears. On some occasions, vomit so much comes to mind, man. Camp Mackall. That's where it all happens. That's where boys go to become green berets. Boys go to become men.

Why life is great right now
2:43 Travis Wilson Life is great, right? Man, I don't know. Everything's just firing on all cylinders. That's all I can say. I don't have anything negative to say. Just life is great.

How Nighttime Appreciation Led to Alpha Elite Performance
3:00 Travis Wilson I figured that's where you were going. I know you do your homework. So I was just like, oh, man. I was just thinking, this guy really has done his homework. Yeah. Nighttime appreciation, we had a jump that we decided to jump. We were actually there to jump with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs) as one of the first freefall teams to start doing so.

And then towards the end, we decided that we were going to jump without NVG's and nighttime appreciation just kind of go back to jumping and following that green chem light in front of you, hopefully you're not seeing a red one because that means you're coming at somebody. So, yeah, nighttime appreciation jump. And I ended up having a near fatal free fall accident below 500ft, had a partial canopy malfunction, and there's no room for emergency procedures after 500ft or below 500ft.

Self-talk when in the midst of a near fatal free fall accident
4:44 Travis Wilson Honestly, I think I reacted. I started climbing the left risers because I started spinning to the right. So I started, when I say climb the left risers, I was just starting to pull on them to try and get some of that capability to go back to the left and straighten out. But I think I didn't really think anything other than just trying course correct this, what was going wrong and before you know it, there's the earth and it's. You can hear it coming.

I broke my back. Only two knee replacements, partially replacements, but multiple knee surgeries, ankle reconstruction, shoulder, but also, I mean, there were some other surgeries that were post service for just wear and tear, like partial bicep tendon tears and all sorts of stuff. Elbow. Elbow surgeries. And the big one was I spent eight weeks at the brain treatment center in San Diego. I've had a couple blast injuries, but also hit my head when you bounce off the ground, tends to rattle things up. So spent some time at the brain treatment center to fix that.

When you have that accident and you think, well, the army's just going to kick me out, I'm not going to make it back to the teams of. I just started planning my exit and I had to do something right. So I went to school for exercise science and I used supplements, working out and stuff like that. And I thought, well, why don't I just open up a store? And I had the funds to do so. I wasn't one of those guys that uses deployment money to buy a charger or challenger or corvette. I saved that stuff up and I started a store called caliber nutrition and selling other people's products, other supplements, but I ended up healing pretty well. Stayed on the teams for a little bit, maybe six months, and then it was just recognizable that I wasn't going to be who I was prior to that accident. Fortunately, this was towards the latter part of my career.

So I went over to the intel side of the house and stood up a team called the RSE and went through their first pipeline, so. And then I had this store also while it was active duty. So you talk about being busy now.

Reflecting back, what he views as his core strengths and areas to explore
7:47 Travis Wilson Core strength. I've always been pretty headstrong. Lean forward in the foxhole and don't look behind you and don't quit. And even going through selection, I remember I wasn't the most physically fit and I wasn't the smartest, but I damn sure wasn't going to fail and I wasn't going to quit. So I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and leaning forward, and I kept moving, kept my mouth shut, and did the best that I could. And so I wouldn't say that I was the best green beret out there. I wasn't the smartest green beret. For the most part, I kept my mouth shut.

I did my job. I excelled in some areas, and I wouldn't say I failed at anything as a green beret, but didn't do as well as others. So I think that core strength is just determination and a never quit attitude. And I carry that with me today. It's something that I think that I'm trying to figure out or I'm trying to find or follow more is faith. You lose a lot of friends when you start talking about religion, but I lost my way with God a number of times. Still kind of struggle with it today. But I think that's one that I'm working with really hard now, is trying to be a better human and get that. Get that faith back.

500 meters
11:35 Travis Wilson Oh, yeah, I got a few stories. I'll go back to selection. I was just standing there and big old head sticking out above the crowd. He's like, you get up here on the stage. It was about 1130 or whatever it was right before midnight. And he's like, you get up here on the stage and sing the national anthem.

It was before midnight, and if you mess up, you're going to go home. And so of course I was nervous and it was right at the beginning of selection for the most part. So there's like 300 candidates there. And I started singing the national anthem. And what I think also saved me because I know the words of the national anthem, but you get nervous. So I started singing it and I was just thinking in my head, gosh, don't, don't mess this up. But everybody else started singing it as well. That was a good team effort there to keep me in selection.

But, yeah, just standing out, you big guy, get up here. But then, again, in selection, Bitterman was one of the hardest instructors that we had at selection. And he called me to the front of this movement during team week, and he was just dogging me and dogging me the whole time. They say they don't try and get people to quit, but yeah, they want to see if you're going to quit. So he was just dogging me the whole time and I was dying. We were moving out at his speed. We all had rucksacks that weighed more than 55, 60, 70 pounds. But we had to keep up with him.

And I was a hurting unit. And I don't know if it was him or divine intervention, but I just remember him leaning into my ear and just saying, 500 more meters. That's it. And this is not from a guy that I thought would ever…I took that to be a very kind gesture at selection because I didn't know how long we were going for. But he said 500 meters. And that's actually what's funny is that I've taken that 500 meters story with me and a lot that I do now today. You know, if I'm tired, if I'm just not feeling like doing something, I'm just like, 500 meters.

Just go another 500 meters and you'll be fine. So, but that was another big guy get up here.

How physical struggles benefit us in mental ways
13:54 Travis Wilson Physical struggles and mental health. Well, I mean, let's just think about an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Object at rest tends to stay at rest. Right. I have a huge problem with guys, gals, veterans who have their entire career just kept moving forward physically and, and trying to be physically fit. And then when they retire, they think they don't need to do it anymore because they're not getting paid and they don't have to get taped or any of that stuff or take a pt test. And it really, really hurts them physically because their bodies just stop. And we see it a lot within special operations. There's even a book written called The Operator Syndrome.

And these guys have a lot of issues throughout their whole career, but some of it, most of it or a lot of it has to do with just the physical aspect and how they've been so physically fit for so long, and then they just abruptly stop. Well, that takes a toll on the body, which also takes a toll on the mind. All the good serotonin and all those good chemicals that are released when you're working out tend to disappear or dissipate, and depression sits in. There's nobody out there that could say I didn't feel good mentally after a workout. So huge proponent of physical activity during and after the military. I turned 50 in February. As soon as I'm done here, I'll be in our gym out back.

I'm working out just to make sure that I get it in for today. And I don't care if it's, an hour or 30 minutes. I'll make sure to do at least 20 of something, just to keep moving, so. But, yeah, mental health and physical fitness, they go hand in hand. If you're not going to be physically fit, then your mental health isn't going to be there, either.

Focusing on our purpose versus what it looks like to the outside world
16:41 Travis Wilson Oh, my God. I think only you know what your purpose is. So I'm a writer. If  I could show you my office right now, I've got a lot of whiteboards, and if there's. I write things down.

Yeah, I don't know. That's a hard one for me. Because you focus on purpose, man. I don't know. That's a tough one for me.

Purpose, man. So many people struggle with that. And I have. I'm struggling with trying to get the words out. I think that I still try to. I'm trying to figure out my purpose, too, because I've got my hands in so many different pots of things that I own a supplement company. I'm in the nonprofit industry with Green Beret Foundation. I started my own nonprofit.

I've done a lot of speaking engagements for nonprofits, for other types of benefits, like homelessness, veteran homelessness. So I'm constantly looking for my purpose, but maybe my purpose is just to. To keep searching, but keep doing good while searching. I don't know.

How the Green Beret Foundation has made a difference in the lives of veterans and their families
18:39 Travis Wilson Absolutely. So the Green Beret Foundation, one, I've been an ambassador for the Foundation for a long time. This was an organization that reached out to me when I got hurt without me having to reach out to them. And so I've just always pledged my allegiance to the Green Beret Foundation. And I've supported other nonprofits that give back to our green berets. One example is myself in my injuries and my surgeries. The Green Beret Foundation came to me with a game ready device where the VA wasn't going to facilitate that machine, but having seven different knee surgeries. They provided me with this device that was compression in ice, and this machine was regulated the pressure of the.

Anyway, they provided that for me, and it was phenomenal. It's a very expensive machine, but I was able to use it for both of my knee surgeries and ankle reconstruction surgery. But now that I'm in the director of mission program delivery here at the Green Beret Foundation, I can tell you that we have helped many green berets. We've given away $15 million to green berets and their families. $0.86 on the dollar goes back to our green berets and their families. But we've sent guys to warriors heart, which is a wonderful addiction and alcohol recovery out in Bandera, Texas, Tom Spooner started that. He's a former CAD guy.

We do a lot of medical devices as well where the VA fails and says, no, you don't need that. But the doctor thinks that they do. We'll step in and we'll pay for that medical device for those guys, whether it be normatec leg device to a gamma cord. Gamma core is something that you use it on the vagal nerve and it goes from brain to stomach, and it helps with pts and migraines and all that. We do a lot of SGB's stellar ganglion blocks, alpha stems. If you can think of it, if you're a Green Beret and you can think of it, then you just do a support for request and we'll figure out how to get it done. It's funny, right before I got on this podcast with you, I had a green beret reach out to me, and there's an, you know, he's trying to get his buddy, who's a green Beret, into warriors heart, because right now, mental health and addiction issues seem to be pretty prevalent in our community.

Biggest Challenges currently facing Green Beret community and how the Foundation is addressing
21:07 Travis Wilson Well, I think the biggest, the biggest challenges right now with the special operations community. But green berets fall within that are a sense of, what's the word? Self. These guys are just losing their identity. There's a loss of identity. These guys have been at war for 20 plus years, and they're starting to retire, get out medically. And so that's the biggest problem right now is mental health is our biggest issue, and we're treating a lot of guys for mental health and trying to, obviously, keep them from committing suicide. We have a fund called the Andy’s Fund within the Green Beret Foundation, which raises money for suicide awareness. I wouldn't say prevention for legality reasons, but, yeah, we're just trying to.

We're trying to stop it, but how do you stop it, right? I mean, yeah, so we're trying to get to those guys before they even think about that word or that action. And we're doing that a number of different ways through treatments, therapies, but also reaching out to these guys now with our next Ridgeline program that we started, which is our transition program for guys in 15 to 24 months out, and it encompasses. It's different than what most people will go through in a transition program with resume writing and all this stuff and how to speak or how to do an interview. This is mind, body, spirit is what we're trying to do at the Green Beret Foundation and reach these guys on a real intimate level and allowing them to, well, we start off with our vsos, and so they get to learn about their VA claims and all that stuff. But then it goes into stress less Fridays where they get to talk about things they can't talk about with their spouse or their friends, but they could talk about it with each other. And in the middle of the week, they have another class, whether it be finances, where they should be.

Now, financially, this is just a number of things. It's a ten week course that we do, six phase, ten week course. Yeah, it's just all about mind, body, spirit, health and wellness, making sure that these guys are going to stay physically fit and getting them keyed up for the future and not slowing down mentally or physically. And so we're trying to reach them so that they don't get to that big issue that we're having right now with, with mental health.

What Green Beret Foundation is excited about
23:53 Travis Wilson Well, we actually have one that's called, one coming up that's called task force Tatonka. It's something I came up with kind of on my own, maybe help of some others. But if you think about, so I love to hunt, and so I have a buffalo in my office, and I, and I respect all animals. They all get a little prayer after I harvest them, but I have a buffalo in my office and. The buffalo goes through the storm, right? It doesn't go around the storm. It goes through the storm. It takes that the quickest way through that ass pain, if you will.

So task force, Tatonka is just that the logo is the buffalo with the soldier who's going along with the buffalo, and then there's a soldier facing in a rear echelon there, and that's supposed to be us. We're going to have your six, and we're going to help you get through the storm. So that initiative task force Tatonka is ultimately about suicide prevention as well, suicide awareness, but helping these guys and raise money to get these guys the treatments and therapies that they deserve and need where the VA will fail theme.

Father’s Humility and singing parts of “The Ballad of the Green Berets”
25:59 Travis Wilson That's a tough one, man, because he's no longer with us.

He was all about embarrassing me when he was alive. But he warned me when I was little. He's like, I'm going to embarrass you when you're older. But no, I think that, he was a huge, there's a lot of times that I disappointed him, having gone to an early on to a military academy after I graduated high school, but I quit I would just recognize now that I was just too immature for that part my life. But he always used to write on the envelopes. Back then, we didn't have computers and email.

It was right before that he would spell out attitude in the four corners, front and back of an envelope every time I'd get a letter from him, which was weekly, and he'd write me weekly, and it was just gibberish, or your mom made a pie, your sister's doing this, or whatever, but it was always attitude. He really, really pushed attitude. Have a good, positive attitude and never quit. That was his biggest thing, was never quit and be happy and have a positive attitude. Once I matured, I really focused. I went back and I thought about my dad writing attitude on all of my letters that he wrote me, and just started to focus on my attitude and it being a positive one, one that not only would I recognize, but that other people would recognize as well. Like you said, I have a big presence when I walk into a room, but I also want to have a positive presence when I walk into a room. So I would imagine he would tell that story, that he.

He's responsible for me and having a positive attitude in majority of things that I do. Although my wife would say that I'm a negative nancy most of the time.

Warthog Skull
29:22 Travis Wilson So I was asked to come to Namibia and be of added value to some anti rhino poaching unis. I went over there to really just kind of just offer my expertise and skills and showed up. And these guys were phenomenal already, but they're constantly looking for assistance and new training and all that stuff. But anyway, I went over there, and because I volunteered, essentially, to go over there and do that, the owner of the, it's also a hunting safari lodge and also a regular safari lodge for people to come see animals. But he asked me if I wanted to hunt some animals, and so I did. I hunted an impala.

But came across the warthog, and it was a big boy, and he was older, and he had been in some scraps and some fights. He's got a broken lower tooth, and if you've ever seen these things, I didn't realize that they're like razor blades. They are so sharp because they keep rubbing against each other every time they eat. The ivory gets really sharp. But we got close enough. We stalked him, actually, and got close enough for the shot.

Took the shot, and this warthog took off like, I hadn't even hit it, and I was pretty upset. But my guide was like, you hit it, trust me, you hit it. They're just resilient animals. This thing took off, but before we could go find it, we were surrounded by about 41 elephants, and they were already coming, but we ended up getting surrounded by 41 elephants.

My guide is like, just stay here. Don't move any points. He's like, if any elephant's going to charge us, it's going to be that one, because it had two babies. And I'm like, well, what do we do? He's like, oh, nothing, we're dead. I'm like, oh, my God, bro. Like, why did we do this now? So. And he's like, just stand put, stay here.

So I did, and then I kind of look around for a second. He's gone, and he's doing whatever he's doing as a guy and as a bush. He's from the bush. He's from Namibia. And I finally see him 30 yards away with his stick and just standing there and looking at the elephants. And they went around us, so they were headed toward us, and then they just went around us. But we had to wait for those elephants to pass.

And of course they did. I was nervous, so I started filming and taking pictures just in case I died. I wanted somebody to see how I died. They passed. And so lucky is the dog that we called in to track my warthog because that thing took off and it really didn't get that far. But lucky did. Came in and found the warthog. And, man, I hit that thing where you would shoot it right behind in its heart region, right behind its shoulder blade. And then that thing ran for, I don't know, 100 yards with its entrails hanging. They're just a resilient animal. But the story was awesome. I'll never forget it, being surrounded by elephants and finding my warthog. But now he is at my house.

New friendship formed in the past 2-3 years and how it came about
33:24 Travis Wilson Jessica Manfre, she wrote my speech that I did in Atlanta three years ago, and just this year at Military Influencer Conference (MIC), people came up to me like, hey, are you that guy that did that speech at VEO? And one of them happened to be the spouse of the Atlanta Falcons? I think she's. Yeah, she or the ex spouse, I'm not sure. But for her to remember that from three years ago, and she said it was pretty impactful, that that meant a great deal. And I wrote this speech, but Jess just cleaned it up quite a bit and made it a little bit more eloquent. And then I just studied it. But, yeah, there was a number of people at MIC that came up to me and referenced that speech. And from that speech, Jess and I became really good friends.

She worked for We Are The Mighty, and now she's there doing things for MIC, among other things. And our friendship is. I just spoke with her today. That's one good friendship that I think will last forever and has been very meaningful and impactful in my life. Another one's Eddie Wright, who is a marine that I met on a fishing trip who, you know, went through Fallujah and all that, and he lost his arm, both of his arms and. And parts of his leg and stuff like that.

He ended up moving to Montgomery, Texas, and we just hit it off, and we've been buddies ever since. And he's a great dude. He's the guy that, has his own demons and challenges. I've always been here for him to assist where I can, but he's just a good human, and he's been a positive light on my life. And then my neighbors. I mean, I've just met so many wonderful people, people at the Green Beret Foundation, my ranger buddy Derek, who was now a cop here in Montgomery, Texas. People are like, oh, you got to meet Derek. And they tell him, oh, you got to meet Travis.

You guys are both Special Operations Forces (SOF), and we're just like, we don't care, you know, like, great. And then we met, and he's like, ah, man, you're cool as hell, you know? So, yeah, so I've met wonderful people in the last few years to include the Luttrell brothers. You know, I've been on their podcast and became friends with them.

Movie Image
36:22 Travis Wilson I got it. This is weird. Nobody's going to know this movie, but Youngblood is a hockey movie. And it's also part, a big part of my life. It's with Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze. There's a love story aspect to it. Youngblood, played by Rob Lowe, is this young kid, and he makes it to this higher level hockey team. And there's a song in there that says, you got to put 1ft in front of the other.

And he's just out there practicing and just becoming the best hockey player that he can be. And he ends up fighting like the goon of the league. And I just took that song, you got to take one foot and put it in front of the other. And I took that to selection with me. And I remember singing that to myself in my head a number of times on a lot of those long movements and. But that one there, , he was his own leader. He led himself into victory, which a lot of people don't do, but should and should have that, that intestinal fortitude to do so, because it's not really that hard to be a self-leader, a self taught leader for yourself and others.

If there was a GIANT BILLBOARD that he could place anywhere in the world with his message on it for the world to see, where would the billboard be and what would the message say?
41:17 Travis Wilson Well, I wouldn't want a billboard if it was forced on me, because, well, that's just. Where would I want it to be? That's a tough one. These are some good questions. I don't think that anybody ever thinks about. I don't have an answer for where I would want it to be, but the message would just never quit, never give up. Be positive.