Veteran Voices: Sergeant First Class Brian "Mayor" Keaton

The American dream is something that makes our country so special. The fact that you can choose your path, set your goals, and achieve success however you define it. That is why we're known as the last place on Earth to escape to. Well, that comes with a cost. The cost of freedom is paid for by our veterans, vife, labor day Happiness is happy to be playing a small part in capturing our heroes stories. Our series called Veteran Voices, will focus on getting to know the men and women that have sacrificed so much. We hope you enjoy this series like we are. If you're a company that wants to sponsor this segment, please contact our staff at four three four four four four, eighteen seventy four or email Emma at mediasquatch dot com. Be a part of preserving our history for future generations. Stay tuned as Veteran Voices is about to begin. Welcome to the program, Sergeant Brian Mayor. Thanks brother, It's a pleasure to be here. Man. Man, I'm like I was excited when his father came on a couple of weeks ago, but man, I think I have outgrown that. It's sorry, Sarge, but I've outgrown that with having you on the program. Oh man, I don't know why. Well, let's start off with the best part about I think this series is I do zero research because I don't want to know any I want to find out everything here. I want to be as surprised as I I haven't googled, I haven't done anything. Okay, so I want to know all about you. First, Let's start with where were you born and raised? I was born in New Albney, Indiana. My father was a pastor in a little town called New Albney. It's right on the Ohio River. He and so I was born there. I was number eight of nine kids. I did have a sister come out for me. So I was born into a big old family and we lived there. My dad ended up being a chancellor of a seminary. He has a doctor of theology and he was so we kind of raised up near Westfield, Indiana, which is just north of Carmel in Indianapolis, maybe thirty minutes from Indianapolis. And so we grew up there and basically stayed in Indiana until I moved out. I couldn't wait to get I hate their winters. I hate winter, and as a little kid, you know, you go out play in the snow and you try to breathe and one noster would stick together. I'm like, no, I'm not living here, that's not happening that. But my dad was from. Virginia, West Virginia and Virginia Okay, So in the summer we came here every summer and that's where dad and mom retired, and so after the military I joined him here. Yeah all right, So what were your inspirations? I mean, how does the when does the military start to become a real focus? I mean when is that? Oh? Wow, I couldn't really remember. I was probably ten eleven and my dad I might have been nine. My dad had this thing at the college where it was a patriotic event, you know, and we had Walter mondel Oh, I can't remember, Jackson Reagan and they had these masks on it and this is a big thing at the college, you know. But my dad brought in the recruiters, local recruiters, and so when they got there in their dress uniforms. Well, I already had a thing for though, for the military, because both of my grandparents, my grandpa's were World War Two veterans. One went over one didn't, but they were both served. So one was killed in the line of duty in nineteen forty five, so seven days before my father was born, he was killed by an MG thirty four Bush. So this was we were very patriotic, very patriotic family, so I was kind of born into it. But when I saw those guys walk through those doors, I'd never seen them, you know what I mean, And I was just standing there and all like, holy smokes, They're perfect, They're squared away. You know, everything looked sharp. That's what you want from your military. When I had these grander thoughts in military, if they'd have walked in there any lesson they're dressing for THEMS, I probably wouldn't know. But it's just been a lifelong thing. And my whole family are servants. Dad and Mom taught us to be servants and to give back, and you know, so of course we had preachers and everything come out of the family. There were four boys and five girls, and I just never, you know, got that call or I always felt, you know, I just I don't know, it just worked out weird. But that's kind of how I fell in love with the military. Through my father and my mother. And of course my older siblings influenced me because they were already patriotic because my mom and dad and then you know, I didn't even know the truth of everything yet, but I was very patriotic. But that would have got me fired up right there. Day I saw them guys walk through the door, I was like, oh, my goodness, you know. Were you the first in your family? As far as I have, Like I said, eight siblings, all of them are somewhat in the ministry, they do other things from you know, they do all kinds of things. But yeah, I mean, it was just a what was the question again? Just you were the first? Yeah, from both grandparents, from any of my uncles and aunts and my cousins and everybody. Because my grandpa's family lost three out of their thirteen kids in World War two, three boys and our two boys. I'm sorry, but like five went to war, gotcha. So the families just you know, it was World War two, man, and they took a beaten and you know, the family had lost two five had been in there, and my mom, my dad's mom's side had served as well, her father, and they were just getting away from more, you know what I mean. And so the next generation didn't do it. We've got you know, construction highway builders that owned companies that built the highways around Lake Anna and all that stuff. We've got my dad who who you know, his passion was to serve Jesus Christ and be a preacher and to spread the word of the Gospel. So he you know, he came from nothing. He didn't have a father, you know, the military pay because his dad was killed more to send him to God's Bible School where he met my mom, because my mom's from Columbus, Indiana, they'd never met. So yeah, but I was the first one. Now I have some nephews, and both of my sons or all three of my sons have served. So one this is the ones Coast Guard right here. This is when he graduated. He's stationed Honolulu right now, the young the other one was in a Navy captain for the Poseidon where he just a ground crew. And then my other one was third Ranger Battalion in the Army. So but yeah, since I was the very first one. Sorry I went off on that. No, No, what made you choose Army over the rest of them. I don't like water and I don't want to go to the Air Force, but both of my grandpa's were Army too, so I was already partial. Walked in talked to marine re creiter one time and he said, and I didn't realize the Marines went out on a ship at the time. I didn't know that. I didn't know the Navy carried him around. And he's like he started talking about him ute and going out and all this stuff, and I was like, you live on a ship. He's like, yeah, dude. I'm like, nah, I ain't even I lost all interest. I just wanted to blow stuff up. Amen. So did you do that? Were you thinking that? Like in high school? As soon as you graduated. I I was going to play bay. Oh okay, that was kind of my passion. I had thoughts of that, but you know, life happens and babies come along. And when she got pregnant, I went and I signed up and said, you know, it took me a while to get the basic, but I said, I'm going to have a future here, and I love my country. I mean, come on, you live in the greatest country in the world. So if you don't believe that, then she'd probably move. Yeah, that's a two thousand is what time went. Now, that was nineteen ninety one, ninety three. I went in the army in ninety three. I retired in twenty fifteen. I got you. Wow. So you so you were in embedded ten years before nine to eleven hit. I mean you were in the well. I had a little break. Well, I was still irr, but I had a little break, and then of course nine to eleven happened, and then I went straight back. Yeah. You know, I was like, I wasn't even you couldn't have kept me out of that war. Yeah. Everything I've gotten for more good and bad I deserve. Yeah, because I made a very conscious decision. Awesome that day driving down ninety five when the twin tiers were hit, and I'm like, nah, nope, my grandpa went to war. He lost his life, my other one didn't. They were men. I come from them. This is the greatest country, and you ain't coming over here and killing our people, you know what I mean. I don't care if I have to sweep up after everybody just put me on the team. I just want to find my niche so I can be of use to the United States, you know. All right, So where was your Basic at. Fort Lando Wooden, Missouri, Missouri engineer. I just wanted to blow stuff up. That's what I told my recruiter, and that's you know that qualified for other jobs she tried to give you take us. Nope, where do I blow stuff up? So they sent me to Combat Engineers twelve Bravo to Fort Land wood Missouri in ninety three. Absolutely loved it, and you know, I was already in athletes, so uh, I was in shape, you know, So like I got there and basically was other than getting trapped throat in the first two weeks and still continuing. But basically, you know, we stayed with our drill sertants fourteen weeks because we did basic and a I T together. So it's like a T basically is where you learn your skill. So basic is you know you're gonna go in there, you're gonna leave, You're gonna lose your learn drill, basic, rifle, martmanship, all these different things, all the things to make you a squared away soul. And then after that you go to your to what is your mos So mine was twelve Bravo. But the way it's set up Winningwood at the time was you just your drill sertants kept you from the day you got there till the day you graduated Engineer school, which I thought was awesome, you know, because we had a you know, it was a great school and you're messing with explosives, so you got to have trust, and you know, it was just a good way the Army had it set up. I loved every bit of it. Cool, all right. So after you get that where you headed, then. Well I do that, and I do infatry for a little bit, and then I get out, okay to I RR and then still connected, but out a little bit, and then nine to eleven happened. So I went and just said, hey, I want to I want to go now, you know. So the only thing I had was an engineer unit was a National Guard unit and from the twenty eighth Inftry Division and three three seventh Engineers. Which is cool about that is it's the oldest unit in the military bend and Franklin's you know what I'm saying. So I have a coin, the last coin that came from that unit. I got coin because I got deployed with them on their last mission ever. We went to Kosovo with EO. D and back when they were still wearing flat vests and stuff early on, and I was just it started. Everything came back, went to nineteen delta school, thirty day school for them. Me and another guy got everything right, did everything right. He got on a grad and the guys told me we're going to coin you, but we want to talk to you afterwards. And the Master sargant and the colonel came up. I was leaving for they said we want to talk to you. I just went back to Berry started packing. They came up and said, hey, you're not going anywhere. So that's back when Ramsey was standing up the Striker brigades. They had one of Fort Lewis and one at the twenty eighth Temptre Division. People don't really know the twenty eighth Themptraterre Division is a monster of It's the second largest by number, I think it used to be. I think California is number one just because of the size. But it has a ton of active duty they were, I mean, they have a very rich history of just you know, they're deployed all the time. And these were all my guys man, and now talking about some just some awesome people. Of course, uh so I started teaching and then uh, we stood up that Striker brigade that I actually got deployed with. So they took some of us instructors and put us in you know, different places and uh and is that k was going to Iraq? Yeah after Yeah, I was going to Rack and uh but they were you know, we train. I'll tell you what all I got to say about citizen soldiers are they're they're amazing. D Like because in your active duty, you get up every morning and you have a tune, right, and you're gonna peetee together. Yeah, and your battle buddy's gonna make sure you're squared away because you got to show up formation every day twice. Right. So these National Guard and guys that because the National Guard got crushed, I mean they lost a lot of people in that war. And uh, but you got to be like all squared away. But yet you got to go home your kids, and you got to go to a civilian job and then you got to pull yourself out. But you got to train. You know, you've got all these requirements you got to keep up with. That's a hard job, man. I got so much respect for those people, and I love the like the twenty ninth. I love the twenty ninth. You know, I love the twenty eighth. There's so many great people in the twenty eighth. My whole career really ended up. I was with one six sixth Regiment, and but I went to combat with rival troop second one or fourth Cave and it was just you know, it was experienced, like I had a whole different world than most guys, you know what I mean, Like I just lived. It just happened, and I was willing to do anything. So that's still combat engineering type roles. Well, no, I got trained type. Okay, So I have three MLS's infantry eleven Bravo, nineteen Delta and twelve Bravo. The reason I rolled so good into the nineteen Deltas was because I had back. Those are the three combat and WES is really to start with? Does that make sense? From basic and ait? So you start with those three. So I had, you know, explosives in it. And the scouts do everything. I mean, the nineteen Dellars they do. Their their book is huge because you're doing everything from route classification to anything you can think of. We do explosives like engineers. We do all the infantry task. Plus we have all this route reconnaissance, which is you know, is you go out and you know, snoop and poop and get to where you can everything from a radius of a curve to a slope to the running water in case we have to forward something. But you got to do this undercover. So it's you know, it's just it's it was so much fun. I mean I loved it. If I wasn't injured, I'd still be active. Yeah, I guarantee it. Yeah. It was just I got paid to do that stuff. War sucked, you know, like there's times that things sucked, but like I got to shoot. Dude, I was around fifty calorine. It was Mark nineteen, you know, all the two forty Bravos in sixties, back in the day. You know, Like, dude, you know one thing I love about this segment that we're doing, Like you're saying things like he and I have no idea about a third of what you're saying, of. Course of it. No, no, no, that is cool. This is what we love. I mean, that's right. My favorite line is if we had another caption of veteran voices, is war sucked? I mean, you just said it Like I said that that menu was bad, you know what I mean, that's just so cool. Yeah, and you were in the I mean really you were in the heat of everything at that time, right, I mean. Yeah, we were. We weren't like rolling thunder. This was eight so we were trying to nation build. Yeah, that's a very difficult thing when they shooting at you. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So really it got down to where we were just you know, we had a town called Saboor and our mission obviously was not to take anything off anybody, do a lot of presents. Patrol was to make people feel safe and then gather intel and then we had targets and stuff that we needed to take care of her we need to deal with. But we were you know, like I built this relationship with this one oil guy, Okay, And we actually rated the compound and the Stanley three I think it was in the three big compounds. We had some like fixed wings come down. They got on the air right before we hit it and said you need to show a force. They came down and raked this compound like you ain't never seen, dude, and they hit them after burners. All the people came out because I've never you know, dust and smoke and you can just it vibrates everything. I'm sure everything on the walls were off anyway. That's it's just a jet that came down and just to them. And I had black Hawks and apaches. We had we had black Hawks apaches there, and we had this EREC. We were trying to work in the Iraqis with us, of course, you know, but we didn't trust them so like the IP or the you know, the Iraqi army and stuff, but we were doing real mission so there was no trust. Yeah whatever, you're staying on the striker. So like we put him in the least you know, striker we could get so that we could not we could talk a little bit and then I was just crazy, you know, it was. It was weird, but we did. We built a lot of relations Oh the story I was gonna say was so this oil guy. So afterwards we built this really good relationship with him. Super dude man. He didn't have he wasn't a bad guy. It was you know, it was somebody else connected kind of thing. Really good guy. But all he had all eight of his kids come and kiss me on the mouth. One time, and I was just like, I didn't see my interpreter is staying with me, you know. But I built this relationship. And I had a picture of me and the kids, the wife and the that I held my wallet and it was always on me, and it was like a thing, you know. So they value family obviously. There's a lot of things I love and respect about them people when it comes to the family and how they've there's also a lot of stuff that he's stopping immediately, he was saying, but I was showed him this picture and we built this thing. So one day, all eight kids come in and kissing on them out and he's like, I'm like, oh, and I knew we were friends now, but and the interpreter's like freaking out and it's like they all lined up straight mine and it's boom boom. And then Turper's like, dude, I've never seen anybody does this happen? And I'm like, what this mean? You know. He's like, you could come back here when you're one hundred and you're their family. Wow. He's like, they trust you that much now that you know, and and Intel that was good. Yeah, you know, you get intel on the back of you get, you know, build trust with the good people. Yeah, and I'll tell you you know what's happening in the in the town. But that was kind of our you know, it was I had the best team ever. I had the best group ever. My LT was a cop, so and he was you know, he was just like way more mature than some of the young lts that just come out of college. Not that they're not, but they have to do more work. But when you've already been a Jersey cop, you know, did a key leader engagements, interrogating people, and last time it was like, yeah, he's good to go, man, we're rolling now. I had a great team. Yeah. So when you're in Iraq that let's see, Hussein has already been dealt with, and so you're you're in a role of just getting intel, but at the same time you're kind of assisting the Iraqis at that point, Oh yeah, there's no at that point. Was there a clear goal set at that point? Well? I think there was. I mean, you got to understand theirs levels, you know, and I only I can only take over what my lane is, you know, And I tried to do the best in my lane, and I knew that we weren't there to go and seek and destroy everything. I knew we were going to get hit. I knew we were going to have content, but our goal was it had wind down. So you know, we want to because Americans don't go over there killing nobody, y'all. I mean, we're not We don't pick a fight. We're not going to go dominate another country, right sure, so when you're fighting us, yeah, we will destroy whoever is fighting. You do not want to do that, it's bad ju ju. But if you're a good person, America is fair man like other countries, ain't, you know. But if you're a fair person, we see that. You know, we're We're about as close as a just country that you can get. When it comes to like, you know, that's right, let's just say life and death, you know what I mean? I still believe that to this day. I know everybody has all the problems and we could all do better. But if we'd have nothing to strive for, U, it's perfect. Are you near are you near a Bagdad? Or are you in town. North west of Baghdad? A kind of I think I was just a little bit southeast of Fallujjah, it's a it's called and back in the day when before we got there, it was known as you know, that's where everybody went to get their combat action batch, because when you went there, you were going to make contact, you know what I'm saying. It was eighty thousand people and broke up in these k's and these we had three. We had Western villages, which we dealt with those two we had that was under our control Eastern villages. So we had three major shakes that we dealt with. My commander was cool. He took care of the one shake. When we got there. They all wanted to hit us, you know, make it because they're trying to keep us. You know, they're running their stuff man, and it's crooks, you know. But my commander captain has he he had a conversation with the with a shake and we didn't get hit by him no more. Yeah, it worked out. But you know, we were there to really take care of the people. You know, when you have a weapon in your hand in war, that's as closest you get to having the power of God in you that you can use because you can give or you can take life. Yeah, you know, and we all know it happens to anybody who's a war like that. But you know, everybody's going to change some when they come back. But you know, two people definitely change when you pull the trigger, the shooter in the man that dies. So you know, it's just yeah, we had a you know, it was it was overall really good mission. Of course, seeing how they lived was a bigger shock than me, yeah, than anything. And you know how they treat their women, which is absolutely absurd. Okay, Like one day we were we had to blow up some we found ID somewhere and so we called an EOD and they came in. I'm standing up there, and you know, they have several wives, you know, and this girl she couldn't have been twenty eighteen, twenty years old, and her husband was like sixty five, and they make them do all the work. But this one was nine actually had to be nine months pregnant, you know. And so I'd had enough that day, you know what I'm saying. So I just sent a couple of boys and I just went up there and I just let him know. You know, I was like, because she was on a hill like this getting sage brush. Yeah, I mean it was and she was down probably fifty yards trying to carry this stuff up a hill. I knew. She was like, wow, I mean we're gonna have to deliver this baby on the side of this dag on hill. You know. Yeah, but they were just brutal, you know, they just they're so brutal. So how do you engage in something like that is that you'd go talk to him that he needs to do it himself. You go just tell him get out of the way. Official business makes him get her up off that hill. Yeah, that's cool. I ain't I ain't think none of my business, but you ain't gonna do it around me. It's a little justice, though, Well it was the whole reason that. Yeah, I was like, nah, she ain't working this hill today. Yeah, you know she appreciated that. Sure, Yeah, it's good. You know, we weren't trying to make nobody want to come up let's hit it anymore. But it was a different but it was good. It was a great experience, great experience. How are they making their money? I mean, what's the what are they are they selling product? They or is it like this like our economy? It is somewhat on a much, much much smaller scale, like well, if you got a bad day, you're going to see the city. But it's not in New York, you know what I mean, Like it's it's got airports and all that. But in the towns like I lived in a town of eighty thousand, you know, they have stores and you know, just like everything, but they'll be selling like gas in a two liter bottle. You know, it's just it's and then the one oil gas station down there, it's it's pumping oil out of the ground. They're making it right there. Bro, it's not it wasn't pumped in. It was pumping right there. Wow. And they have massive tanks. And that's the dude that made me all those kids kiss me and uh, but yeah, they make it right. It's just you know, it's just they do have stores and stuff and and but you know, like they're fish. You know, they just throw it on a blanket out there and they eat, you know, and people one hundred thousand flies about it, people picking them up taking them home, you know, said they're gonna throw up. It was gross. They don't live. They ain't the cleanest people, let's put it that way. So how I know you. The tough part of this so you're all through that, and if you don't want to discuss about it, that's cool too. If but I know you're a wounded warrior and was that in Iraq? And then yeah, it was a very odd thing that happened to me because it wasn't like I was blown up there and got meta backed out. Uh. It was ended up being you know, seizures and I had issues, physical issues that I was hiding because I wasn't leaving my guys, you know what I mean. It wasn't going it was not going to happen. So you know, we went there. But a bomb we had they had hit somebody with an r KG three. Uh, our sister platoon, one of our sisters. R KG three. That's like the old school grenades. Is that No, it's actually rushing Russian maid It's a handheld shape charge. It kind of looks like a great big Campbell's soup can and it's got a stick coming out and when they throw it up, once it comes down, that parachute to ploys and that ignites the igniter and then that shape charge melts through up armor like it's butter. So like you know, you have these plates this size on the side of the striker. But when they hit the driver, you know, it took his leg. I mean, it just went right through to the drive. Because he's lucky he died. But then they so we deployed. We were QRF. We were just right around the box. We came. I got down with my guys. I ran the ground, I had Alpha brable Teine deployed a secure the area, do norm procedures. As soon as we got down, one of my guys Wicks saw saw another RKG that they had thrown didn't go off. This is a serious explosive. You don't just pick it up, you know. So I'm like, call you O D. And then he had D came, Mark bought with the Mark Bot, puts the four all over, went back to the truck and and I I would already put the ramp up on the striker, and my my lt and my commander was still down. They were trying to figure things out, you know what I mean, because this is a big deal for you know, you got to do a lot of crap. And so I just dropped and went over there and said, hey, guys, they're getting ready to blow it. Because it was already you know, I'd done a to the point with the OD I already know and I was inexplosive, so I know what they do with that stuff, and I'm like, they're getting ready to blast, you know, we need to get out of here or button up everybody butt. No, it just went off, so it didn't you know. I didn't get no shraping or nothing. But I went back in my truck and I sat down, and Harrison, well, he ran my truck, our truck. He was another eighty sixth time, and I just told him, I said, hey, take the ground because I didn't really It shook me so hard. I didn't know I remember all this. Yeah, so I didn't get knocked out or anything. And then I looked at my gunner, Hanner, and I'm like, I was like, you got anything to drink or something? And he gave me a red Gator. I don't know why I remember all, but I was in such shock, you know, because I was like, well, I was probably thirty feet from him. Wow, and it was just like I couldn't think or something. It was like trying to catch up with my thoughts. Yeah, you know what I mean. And then I realized Harrison, I didn't really want him on the ground. He'd been a war too long, an amazing warrior, amazing person, amazing father, all that stuff. I love him with all my heart, but we didn't want him on the ground. A little trigger happy at this point, so you know, we're trying to keep everything to a minimal here, you know what I'm saying. And so I remembered it, and I was like, I just got on the radio and said, no negative, I got the ground. I got the ground. So then it was I don't know how long, but then my brain I started losing my memory a little bit, and then I fell in a hole we were We thought guys were bearing weapons, so we deployed the rival team out team. I was leading off team. We went down and I fell on one of their irrigation ditches. So with nods on, you know, ready to I didn't see it and curbed me real bad and got my neck in my back, which I didn't find out for years, but I lived in pain, like through Walter Reedon never found it, and it was broke, you know, like now my next metal wow. But it was like I just you know, I couldn't leave, So I went back to my job in the regiment. That's the point I'd become, well, a guy that could pen and eat things, you know, like as an instructor, which I went to a school to learn how to write tesps, run pilot programs, do all this stuff. But I couldn't keep up. So I'm keeping all these paths and I'm trying and used to. I can remember everything. I have no problem at all. So I just I got, you know, one day out I feel that I was training a guy to be an instructor and just went down and then I just had seizure at the seizure and and so eventually they got me to walk to read, and then they really started working on that part of it, and then found out a bunch of other injuries that I've been hiding, you know, and son, right now it's it's all good. I'm good to go. But yeah, that's that's what happened to me. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't I was shot up. But it was just a long, difficult story. It's hard to tell people because no, no, in a way, having an invisible well, I had other injuries, you know, but like having a real invisible injury that dictates your day to day life, Like when I asked you a question, if I have to reask the questions because it's just I just lost everything, you know what I mean. I just try to get back on track because that's what happens to you. But yeah, I've had a great life, you know, And that's just what happened in Baghdad and the rest is just because you know, life happens. You got to either roll with it, pick yourself up, or you're gonna go down with it. You know, you said you had a wife and three sons. Are you at Walter Reed and you have that because they were in your wallet and you had a picture of them. Is that difficult on them obviously or you? Okay? So yeah I did. I had my three youngesters five total that I have two bonus children that I've remarried. Yes, Cameron is the one in the Coastguard right now. But at the time I had five kids. So my oldest was playing baseball in college and my youngest was doing working somewhere else. But the other three lived with us still. So they lived in Walter Reed with us for about three years. Wow. And I tried to die a couple of times in there. I did one night they had come get me out of the bathroom floors, seized up and lost so much blood that they had to shoot me up with Like, dude, it is crazy stories. I don't even care about that. But the Lord has been good to me. That's all that matters in this life, you know, And all that stuff just built. He had a mission for me, you know, And what I'm doing today. I look back over everything, like I lost my wife, you know, we got out and I just thought differently, you know, and then more and then just seeing everything, and then just doing everything, and then the pain in which they didn't even know my neck was, you know, and I went through both hands and all my shoulders I lived in this forever, you know, and my back which is cut and fixed now. But it was just it happened. And around twenty fifteen. Twenty sixteen is once she left. Yeah, And so I went and lived in the woods for eighteen months. I had no money. I had not So let's get back to the kids. I'll talk about that. I'm telling you right now, these stories. I know you don't want to get that. That's when I meet the dude living down there that holds me gunpoint okay, which we all fixed up whole, no sword man. But so my kids are living at wall Threed with me. You know, they don't have any private education for them. I'm nothing but living in the hospital, you know, not a stop in and out, and I have a lot of procedures there, and so that was difficult. But you know we had like like I always talk about the Nationals because like the Learner family and Mike Rizim and Bob Boon or Bob Boon who's the assistant there, those people love their veterans man at Walter Ree, bro, and like they took me and my family there were three kids, me and my wife almost to every home game in the presidential speech, no kidding. So if you look from like twenty ten to twenty thirteen at a home game, you can see me because I know everybody there. I know the chefs. You know, that's where the chefs are. Like it's like five hundred bucks a ticket, you know what I'm saying, And they get twenty five hundred dollars worth of tickets every home game. Bro. I'm a baseball lover and my son's artis yeah, well it really did help heal me. Like America healed me, but not. The sad thing is, I've got these stories, but dude, the guys I run into that have not been taken care of. It will make you lose sleep. It will give you nightmares of You know, America does try, but our standard operating procedures for reaching veterans in trouble it's broken. Yes, And you know that's why I dedicate my whole life to this. Now. Luckily you know now this is years ago. In twenty sixteen, I lived in the woods. I was helping veterans. I was running stuff from Texas. I went to Texas for six months, started an organization out there called Getting a three hundred then, but while I was in because we couldn't get education, we actually started. I have another nonprofit which is called Mayor's Military Kids, and we started that and it was twenty thirteen or twenty fourteen. And was that your nickname, Mayor? That was my call sign, your call sign mayor, Yeah, Mayor's Military. Let give you your call sign when you earn it. And that's what I earned. And you were the mayor. I was the mayor. I would talk to the officers and nobody else would because we lived with a bunch of hardcore guys. You know, we didn't really deal with officers too much. We were always training. We ran our own show. But when we'd break stuff, you know, like somebody had talked to him, it's bad because that's literally because we had to teach these scouts how to drive these beests through the water. You have to ford, you know, it's called forty you checked Bob and all this stuff. I mean, we do whatever it takes. We're American, right, so we're driving through creeks. Who cares build something that'll make it? You know what I mean, We're America. So we'd break fanblaies because people would tide awave it and it was water, come back up and snapped those fan blies. Well, the chieftain't like that. They had a motifle. So all the guys hated Chief hated him, you know. And I was so sick of hearing it. One day because I was a new guy. I hadn't earned my call sign yet, and so I was just like, give me the daggum keys man, like I'll go talk to him, you know. And Laver, who gave me my call sign, he was He's like do it, you know, So I went over and I took a sheet. I made a check least because I wanted to check my own vehicles in. I didn't want them, guys, that's motipole doing it because they didn't even check the proper stuff. They just look for dirt. I want certain things cleaning, you know, I'm picky. So I went up the chief and had this and I said, dude, why don't you let us check it in. He's liked, why are you going to do that? And I handed him down this list. He's like, that's awesome. It was more than what they did, you know. And I had to do this and I personally had to sign each one and then he would never check anything. So I walked back down and he gave me my own set of keys. I walk in doing this with the keys and Laver was like, how'd you get well? Didn't you give him the keys? I said, no, man, he just came to me because we got a deal. Now we don't have to deal with anymore. He's like, you're the freaking mayor. And that's how Mayor's military kid is. That's the name, well, Mar's military kids. Yeah, that all came from our kids not having options while we were at Walter Reed and we are a Christian family. So my brother, one of my brothers, owns a company called renew a Nation and they're all over the country and they're a big part of why we have tax credit and all that stuff. His name's Jeffrey Keaton and he uh so I called him and I said, Jeff, you know, this is the problem I have. And jeff said, I said, I want to do something for active duty and when the warriors at first, now it's veterans as well, but I said, I want to take care of their kids because some of these schools aren't you know, I'm not bashing their schools, but some of the schools aren't where you want your kids, you know, and at least me, and I felt like I earned the right to put them where I wanted and h but so we started Maryor's Military Kids. It's free Christian education. Uh. We we have online we have people all over the whole country. Uh. We take care of people that aren't near military bases, that are still active they don't have any support. Uh. We have homeschooling with like computers where they are actually taught by a teacher. We have you know, we pay for actual bricks and mortar schools. Now, is this only for like military. Kids, military military duty warriors, but they are military active duty window warriors and veterans. But they get a Christian education kind of online remote across. No, no, no, no, we pay. We pay for bricks and mortars too. We just adapt to whatever military situation there is, because we have a standard of what a military base looks like in the education that's there. And it's good. You know, they have good, good schools on these big bases. But a lot of guys don't live on big bass, you know what I mean, And and and the schoolings on them, and they might be in a city. I don't want to be downtown d C And kids there, I mean I don't. That's just I'm a country boy. It's too much stuff for going on them. You know. I don't want to deal with that with my children and my children in my prize possession. So what else was I going to do? Just say, oh no, you know, but my brother in his group, I don't do anything like. They're a great company and they have the right they do everything for the right reasons. And it's been going We average between thirty thirty five scholarships a year, so and that's a lot of money. We don't even have actually very many homeschoolers on that, but we do some guys that are still active that through remote places and stuff. We do whatever we got to do, you know, to do that because I'm a firm believer. If you know, you can't make us go to a public school and then dominate what we're going to teach. It's not happening, bro, you know, it's not the America I would die for. You know what I'm saying. It's not happening. And these are my kids, and I love you America. But there's some things that need a little bit of fixing. And so renew a Nation has done phenomenal job. I mean, the people they know, I don't even know. I just came up with a good idea. That's about it. I tried to raise money here and there, and that's about it. Yeah, you know, I mean I stay in contact, but it's so a little so what I was talking to you a little bit about too. You also do something down at Mariner's Landing. Is it sound going on down there? This is my passion. Yeah, So I got out of Texas and my wife had left me twenty seventeen. My brother passes the church here called Eastlake Community. I hoped Troy. Yeah, we're two years of parties. He's been my guy my whole life, you know. And so we came back and I called him, and that's you know, I was just no money at this time, nothing was settled. I didn't even want to take the money because she had the kids. Of course, they were already my one son's graduated high school, so she really had the two younger girls which were already in high school as well. And uh got me back here, and and I didn't have my VA benefits. I didn't even know I qualified for him. So that's a whole nother story, you know what I'm saying. And I came back here and Troy Sailist lived the next thirty years together, you know, man. And so I said, all right, and we're you know, we're polar officence and a lot of like if that makes sense. I'm military. He's a preacher, but he's competitive. Yeah, you know, he would have been a Green Great officer or something. You know, he's an athlete and everything. But so I did and then I met my wife here and we just you know, I I would have never written this story from my life, but you know, I've been blessed so much that it's like, you know, you can't be anything but thankful for everything. And we're I'm here right now, man, I seem here. Yeah. Yeah, I mean this is a blessing. Yeah, so yeah, that's a I'm a blessed man, dude. But it's it's been good. Smith Mountain Lake has embraced me. And then Charlie Jones, who's a remax realter. She's like, I call her the female Donald Trumpet of the Lake because she's a businesswoman, you know what I'm saying. And we got to know each other, and so she kept bugging me get into something, get into something, you know. And Troy told me, he's like, don't lead anything for a year because it was the best, you know, because he knows I'm going to do stuff because I've been helping veterans and all this stuff. And I was in zero place to lead anything. And I told him, I said, Troy, I can't leave myself, and he just laughed, otter, you know, I said, but you know, and I actually waited three or four I started in twenty twenty one, you know, got home, got back in church, got my all my benefits, which I should have walked out of a lot to read with was a whole nother story, but that was a big reason my wife left me. Finance stress with young kids. I had one son and four ku military academy, which was paid for from somebody. I guess that I had done something for. I don't know what exactly what it was, but I don't even know it was. But so we lived in Palm Ayra and I had a beautiful, you know, brand new cape caught home on five acres and and I went to make a little extra money with my best friend from Indiana. I got two best friends we grew up together since we were seven, Aaron and Dave. I came back to an empty house and but it was, you know, the money, not understanding my injuries, not having clear enough guidance on that stuff, and help was it was just too much to bear because before all this happened to me, you know, I, you know, it was a different person. You know I was you know, I never you know, I slept for hours a night and everything got done. Yeah, you know what I'm saying but it was just it was different. And so but to think I come back here. And then we were sitting around the American Legion that was here from twenty ten. Me and another I had found out where their meetings were, and actually Troy had always let him just have a place because they didn't have a building to meet at East League, and so I went over there too. Nobody showed up. I thought, what's going on? Yeah, so another guy meet was there. So the next meeting we go, he wasn't there. The other guy's actually there. I'm running there and he called me, nobody's here, and I'm like, let's start it back up. So we called the state find out that they had already turned the chapter and everybody had resigned turned the chapter in. And so only reason, so let's make this very clear. The only reason I used the American Legion is for two reasons. Secondly, or you know, not the most important, but it is important, is our voice on Capitol Hill. We have an office up there and we get to be the voice of almost two million veterans in our database. But the most important thing was the Service Department. So it's we get a vso veteran Service officer trained through the VA certified and then we can actually when I find them. So I'm usually the one that's in the dirt, right that's where I like to be. But now I have the I mean, the most amazing team you ever heard of, this legion. But let's start back. So we called them. We got it. Five guys swore in our wait, two ladies, three or four guys, two ladies we swore. In August of twenty twenty one, we had our first meeting at Drifters, Ryan and Jacqueline. They let us tall he's a veteran as well, so they let us in and we meet there. We start, you know, with like ten or eleven guys, and it just started running. But the premises on which we run it is so we don't wear their hats, we don't wear their metals, we don't wear seat cats. Okay, I could care less. I'm gonna be honest, not that it wasn't important and didn't have its time. I don't want to be disrespectful anybody that went before us, because they've done this at the Legion. But our generation we just you know, that's just dude, Come on, well, flip flop shorts and tank top when we're on the lake and but you need help, Yeah, we're in you know what I'm saying. So we we just we don't do any of that stuff, but we build a team. We run all of our programs are our meetings like S one through S six shop in the military, which is all the different shops that have to report to the general. Does that make sense? And we run it just like that. We don't run it per the American Legion. But we went from five and last meeting this month, we're at one hundred and seventy two members. Wow, we have so many. We have admirals, generals, we have so our majors we have they're all special, but you usually don't get like this special ops guys to come and play a lot. But seeing that we're under the radar and this lake is very special. Yeah, So we have a lot of great people around this lake and it's just blown up. But like since we started report to date this past two or the second Tuesday this month, we've brought in twenty point six million dollars to our veterans pockets from the Service Department. Okay, and that means lifetime benefit value. So if you say the life expectancy of a manner now seventy nine years old. Okay, So if he gets four thousand dollars a month at fifty years old, so take that time his lifetime and that's called the lifetime benefit value. So because it's permanent, once we get it for you get the rest of your life. So we've had you know. So that's how much money we've brought in just from our Service department. Really in the last two and a half years is when it started with the Service apartment. This is our fourth year. We didn't have that before. And doctor Kristen Swinson my favorite person in the world now. I love her to death. She came in. She was a colonel in the Air Force, medical physicist. Her dad was a war to prisoner of war, married to her mom till they were seventy five. Then he passes away and her mom marries another buddy of his that was a prisoner of war and they were married for twenty years till they were in ninety five. And Kristin loves both her dad and her stepdad. He loves so she's on a mission to get all these veterans their benefits. And she's talking about a sharp woman there. Oh my goodness, she is a you got to be on your toes bro. She is so good and she does not play games. She's got a lot of clout. She doesn't cheat the system, but she gives everybody a fair shake. So that's the whole reason we wanted the Legion. You know, this is our mission. Our mission statement is two words, and we don't have anything else. And help veterans. We don't care like we've been working with someone. We've just got him place to live, had him in a hotel. You know, I almost say somebody worked with us. We got him a place. He'd been in his car, Vietnam vet seventy some years old, doesn't drink or smoke or nothing, living in his car for six weeks. Took us two days for him to stand up straight in the hotel. You know, we did health warfare, we check and everything. Great guy, you know, but this is the community we live in. Uh. The lake is so supportive of our legion and and we just you know, right now we have an event going on all week. Matter of fact, when I leave here, I have to go pay a bill because we have nine people in right now using the lake. This is just one avenue of what we're doing, you know, and that's the active duty side. So we're not just you know, we're also using Smith Mountain Lake to help the people that are doing real missions now to you know, get away, take a breath, tactle pauls and relax. So but yeah, it's been a it's been a wild ride with this all this and and the agent, and like Jeff Prows is our commander. He's the owner of Mitchell's Point Marina. He didn't need to be I had to begging because he turned me down three times. I'm the XO. I don't ever become the commander, you know what I mean, because I'm an operations guy. I know my lane, you know, and we have some I mean I Addmirles and all these other people. I'm like, no, just sit in the seat. Make sure the meetings. He set us up. I'm like, we need to set up S one, three, six, And I mean he he changed the face of us, you know. And then but yeah, we have a lot of fun. Do we work. I literally work it outside Like if I don't have if I'm on vacation, the only time I'm not working something. You know, it's crazy, man, you just you keep serving. I mean, really, just keep serving. I think once you're a servant, I don't think you can get away from. Even when I thought I was hiding in the woods and I'm at you know, I met Andrew Man and he had his dog tags, you know, tattooed around his neck. He's Marine in combat boots and shorts, living off the hot river and a little blue right there at the mouth, living in a nineteen seventy one a bago with woodstove in it, no engine and no outhouse and no electricity. And he just killed deers and make fish. Oh well, you know what I'm saying. But he was on meth. Yeah, so he couldn't live with his demons. Because it's like a month after he got back from his last tour, he was on three. He stayed on because he couldn't come home, you know, after Felujah freaked him out, and then they put him put him on morchar bears and work. Why should do that, man, They get a kid a break, you know. But he just he was off and then we built this whole relationship the whole time and lived in that woods. So looking back, it has to be the Lord given him to me. Not to get personal on how you do that, but how does someone that's meth and had all that in their head? How do you get them back to the civilization there? I love them? How do you build them? Oh that's awesome, dude. Come on, we greet all of our veterans, this is our mino, with a love and acceptance, and do our best to leave them with hope and confidence. Love is the greatest healer of all. Judgment is the fight starter. Yeah, you understand, I'm saying, like they know when they're right and wrong. I'm not God. Yeah, I'm not judging. You know, I don't care if I don't care who you are, I don't care what you've done, you know what I mean. My Jesus tells us the love right. Yeah. Like, I'm not a preacher. I'll never be a preacher. But I'm just saying, like I live, I try to be like Christ even in combat, you know, with pulling the trigger, not pulling the trigger. You know, there's you know, you just don't carry that kind of with me everywhere, you know, because love always winsday. You might seem like you're losing, but just give us some time, you know, if it's real love. Who's gonna whoop you? You're an amazing guy, bron Yeah. I want to buy the grace of God when you're listening, life lived, the happiness we're here with Sergeant Brian Keaton. Hopefully you'll come back on the show. This is just a snippet for the fans to I would absolutely be honored. Okay, great, well we'll definitely have you back on. But before you leave today. Yeah, we always finish our guests with a question. Okay, if you could choose anybody, whether it's present, past, anybody in history, if you could choose one person to hang out with one day, you get twenty four hours with him. Who is it and where are you hanging out with him? At? Oh? I'm going with Jesus. I want to see some miracles. I want to see the time he stood out there and got so tired, went to the tent and nobody paid attention, and mother Mary finally over. I want to hang with Jesus. I want to see something. I want to see those lives change. We think about that, dude. I think if you had it like you were crippled, Yeah, and all of a sudden, I mean, you know, I went to Rack to keep peace. I want to Rack to fix things. Yeah, ultimate fixtion, like I'd love to sEH Man, no doubt, in not even a question. If it was a person other than Jesus Christ, I want to hang with Abe Lincoln, you know, because I think he he had more pressure on him from a nation and he was the first white dude to actually stand up for African Americans. And I know he wasn't the first. There was people that loved him and helped him in all this, but in that setting, correct in that setting, and with that amount of power, and with the nation divided, you know, I think it's probably that's a pretty godly thing to do, don't you think I love him instead of treating like slaves. I mean, you know it's a terrible sin of our nation. But the thing about sin, you know, God is a youth. Sin be forgiven. You know, none of us are perfect. But yeah, if it was a person that had a Lincoln, if it was if just anybody that's been on this erve of Jesus, that's awesome. Thank you again for joining us on the show. M