After two and a half years of war in Ukraine and countless casualties, attention has waned in D.C.
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00:00Two and a half years and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, the war in Ukraine rages
00:06on and while attention has faded in Washington, D.C., it has not and will not for our next
00:13guest.
00:14We're thrilled to welcome in retired U.S. Army Green Beret, the founder of Tip of the
00:18Spear Landmine Removal Group, Ryan Hendrickson, who's also an author and a mental health advocate
00:24for veterans and first responders.
00:26And for that, we say thank you for your service, sir.
00:28Great to have you here.
00:29Appreciate it.
00:30If you could, take me back to 2010, an incident that is certainly always fresh on your mind
00:36but painful to recall.
00:38Yeah.
00:39First of all, thank you for having me.
00:40This is amazing.
00:412010 is actually September 12th today, is my...
00:46Today's the day.
00:47Today's my live day.
00:49September 12th, 2010, we were conducting a village clearance of a Taliban stronghold
00:55and I stepped on an IED that nearly took my life.
01:00And so, yeah, it's a pretty sobering day.
01:04We just went, you know, we just paid our respects and are remembering September 11th, what happened
01:10in 2001, and September 12th, 2010, was the day that almost gave my life by, you know,
01:18when I stepped on a landmine.
01:19I know it's painful to talk about, but I think it is important.
01:23Did you think you'd get through that?
01:25Did you think you'd survive that moment?
01:29There was a point in time when I was laying on the ground, and I remember when I looked
01:36back and I saw, you know, my team, they were trying to get to me, but I was in a minefield.
01:42Well, IEDs.
01:44So there's IEDs everywhere.
01:45And I remember looking back and I remember like as I was starting to kind of fade out,
01:50I had the real realization, I'm going to die here today.
01:56And so I do remember thinking like, yeah, today, September 12th, I'm going to die here
02:02today along the Helmand River.
02:04And yeah, so I did think that I was going to die that day.
02:08How grateful must you be here on this day, on September 12th, and walking around the
02:13New York Stock Exchange, Ryan?
02:15It's amazing.
02:16It's America.
02:17It's, you know, I mean, you know, me coming back from that day is, you know, hundreds,
02:23thousands of veterans have done it.
02:26My story, I, you know, I have my story, but it's very similar to thousands of veterans
02:31out there.
02:32But the fact that I'm here today, September 12th, you know, 2024 in the Stock Exchange,
02:38I'm talking with you.
02:39I just look around and I just, you know, I see the flag on the wall there and it's like,
02:44God bless America.
02:45That's all I can really think right now.
02:47I'm far more grateful for you.
02:49Next step in the process is you decide to write a book, Tip of the Spear.
02:53Why?
02:54What's in the name?
02:55And what did you hope to accomplish with the book?
02:58So Tip of the Spear, the name, my job on a special forces ODA team as an engineer was
03:05in the front clearing for whether it was an objective we were going to assault or a target
03:12or whatnot like that.
03:14And so we are the spear and the guys in the front would be the tip of the spear.
03:19But I had wrote the book.
03:21It's not a, it's not a chest pounding war story.
03:24It's a, it's a, it's a real life story about my struggles with mental health, the dark
03:29places that I went to recovering from my injuries, what, what veterans can relate to the struggles
03:35that veterans are having today.
03:37And I just, I put it on paper because I thought, you know, my story could reach out and help
03:42somebody in every single veteran has a story.
03:46And if they would tell their story, somebody out there can benefit from that person's experiences.
03:52And you just got to tell that story.
03:54And that's the reason why I wrote, you know, wrote the book tip of the spear and told my
03:59story is hopefully it will, somebody will read it and it'll help that one person.
04:03That's incredible.
04:04And it's also the name of your nonprofit tip of the spear landmine removal.
04:09What inspired you to start that?
04:12So 2021, um, I left Afghanistan.
04:16My last deployment was about a month before the full withdrawal.
04:19And during the withdrawal and after the withdrawal, I went to some really dark places as a lot
04:25of veterans have.
04:27And I remember having the, having a lack of purpose, like what is my purpose now?
04:33And so February, um, 2022, the, you know, the full scale invasion of Ukraine, I quit
04:40my job.
04:41Um, I was already retired from the military at the time, but I quit my contracting job
04:45and I just went to Ukraine to see how I can help.
04:49And that, that evolved into, um, you know, evacuating civilians from areas that the Russians
04:54were moving into with a missionary organization.
04:57And then as the Russians moved east, civilians started to come back, started hitting landmines,
05:02killed and injured from landmines.
05:04And I said, Oh, I I'm familiar with this from my previous job.
05:07So I started to help out with training and advising and assisting Ukrainian, um, sappers
05:13to clear these minefields and the purpose and the fulfillment I got from that.
05:18I said, well, I got to, you know, we got to make this official because other veterans
05:22were, they're struggling like me.
05:23They're going to benefit from this.
05:25And that's what turned into tip of the spear, landmine removal.
05:28Wow.
05:29That is an astounding story.
05:30Um, as I mentioned, I fear that attentions have faded from the war.
05:35Uh, look, we have a presidential election going on.
05:38We have, of course, the situation in the Mideast.
05:40Can you update us on the status of the war, where it stands today?
05:44So the, so Ukraine has definitely faded from the front lines are from the, from the news,
05:51the, the, the highlights and everything like that.
05:54It is not faded from the Ukrainians that live it every single day.
05:58And the, the, the war that is raging on in their country, it is still front and center.
06:03Even though it's not making our headlines anymore, people are dying every single day
06:07in Ukraine and the crisis gets, um, gets bigger and bigger, um, as it goes on.
06:13And that's with landmines, that's with, um, you know, the, the UXO situation there, um,
06:19just the war in general.
06:21And um, no, it's, it's, it is still, it is still a very, um, it, it's, it's a huge situation
06:30that's going on.
06:31Even though we're not paying attention to it as much as we did, you know, even a year
06:36ago.
06:37Um, people are still dying every single day in Ukraine, regardless if it's making our
06:41headlines or not.
06:42Well, hopefully some attention is put back on the situation if we could, if you'd want
06:47to take the time to tell those veterans that are struggling with their mental health, what
06:52would you tell them?
06:53Like, what's your message to those who are struggling with purpose and things that you
06:58battled through?
06:59What should they do?
07:00What's your message?
07:01My message to veterans is, is pretty simple.
07:04You have to find a higher purpose.
07:07You have to find something that's bigger than yourself.
07:09And it usually revolves around helping other people.
07:12And if you can find something that gives you that sense of service, that sense of purpose,
07:17again, you're back into that tribe that you were, that you had when you were in the military.
07:22If you can find that again, because it's out there, you have to search for it though, but
07:27it's out there.
07:28You need to find your higher purpose and it usually comes from helping other people.
07:32But don't ever go into the mental minefield or that war that rages on in your mind.
07:38Don't ever go at it alone because you're never alone.
07:41You're always, you always have the soldier to the left and to the right of you.
07:46You never have to go at it alone.
07:49And that's, that's my biggest, that's the biggest, I guess, bit of information I want
07:54veterans to know is you're never alone.
07:56Don't go at it alone.
07:58And there's, and you can find your purpose.
08:01Get out there and help some people because it's fulfilling.
08:04And then you start to, you start to fill in that gap, that void that was left in your
08:09life, especially after our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
08:12You can find that higher purpose and it comes from helping others.
08:15Sorry, man.
08:16I got a little bit.
08:17Yes.
08:18Made me a little emotional.
08:19I got chills.
08:20That's incredible stuff.
08:21He is retired Green Beret.
08:23He is the founder of Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal.
08:27He's an author and clearly a mental health advocate for troops as well.
08:31Good to see you, sir.
08:32Thank you for your service.
08:33Thank you so much.
08:34I appreciate it.