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This is Later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you

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here weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Israel del Torro Junior was a senior Master

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Sergeant in the Air Force served in
Afghanistan as a Special Ops paratrooper. Injured

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in action in two thousand and five, and his long recover recovery included a

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lot. He has now written all
about it and his advocacy for his fellow

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warriors in his newest creation, It
is called a Patriots Promise. Israel del

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Toro Junior, Welcome, I mean, thank you for having me on.

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It's a pleasure. Well, let's
us start at the beginning of your military

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career. What made you join the
Air Force? Honestly, I was twenty

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two years old. I was at
home and I just I just felt like

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I was a deep challenge, like
I wasn't fulfilly what I should be doing,

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and and I was at home.
I committed a confirmed than I I

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might have had a whiskey and coke
on my in my hand, but much

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so. And I was like,
you know, why not? I was

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like I grew up in the age
of Rambo, who didn't want to be

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Rambo? And you know when I
grew up, you wanted to have the

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long hair, tip of body.
Well now I don't have the long hair,

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and I sort of like to say, you have more of a dad

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bob. But that's what really got
me in. I just I just felt

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like I wasn't fulfilling what I should
be doing. And I enjoyed every moment

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of it when I joined it.
The book of the memoir that he's written,

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a Patriots promise, protecting my brother's
fighting for my life and keeping my

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word. What was the word that
you kept? So my dad January twenty

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says he had called at home.
He was in Mexico receiving to a medical

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treatment, and I was the last
time to speak to him. And the

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last thing he asked me was promise
that you always take care of brothers,

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sister, saying your family. And
of course, the twelve year old kid

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at the time like, okay,
yeah, whatever that and it makes me

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repeat it again. Then I don't
know if he knew that he wasn't going

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to be here the next day,
but unfortunately the next day Dad was done.

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And that promise, it has shaped
me who I am and how I

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get through. And then yes,
that promise has evolved to now being you

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know, fighting for people to feel
that they don't have a voice or they

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need someone to help them overcome some
adversity. And you speak of some of

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your brothers in the faith who were
wounded as well as you. Let's go

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back to that story about how you
were initially wounded in a humby. Yeah.

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So I got hurt December fourth on
a mission. We're on our way.

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I think about our teammates when an
ID exploded under underneath me, and

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you know, when I got out
of the truck, out on fire from

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head to toe, but there's a
creep behind me, so I ran to

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it, but I collapsed and I'm
thinking, well, there's there for me,

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and then one of my teammates took
me out. We jumped into the

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creek, but it was a plant
ambush because as soon as they hit,

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I got hit my team and they
were gonna pretty go. They got class

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fire out there needing help, and
I remember the medic saying, hey,

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you're trying to take care here.
I'm like, oh no, I'm okay.

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I got to take care of my
brothers, honoring that promised my dad.

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As I take care of Bailey,
who I got blown out of the

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truck and the humby had rolled over
his legs. So you know remember that

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promise. Yes, my teammates were
army. I was air forced out.

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But we're down the range. We're
all brothers and sisters. Man, we

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all have each other's back and like
brothers sisters be bus chops. But when

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needed, we are there for each
other. And I had to be there

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for my teammates. And luckily one
of my other teammate had a radio because

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mine were destroyed. It's like,
hey, repeat everything I say so we

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can get some aircraft in here to
help our teammates. By that time,

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I was I started getting scared and
I was whining asleep at the medic news.

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He let me fall asleep. I
wasn't a wake up and he kept

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me up until the METABA came and
I remember to fly to landing at our

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Ford Operating Base, going in our
field hospital. The doctor cut him off

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my watch and be telling me I'll
be okay. That was seven fourth or

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five. I wake up much full
six. Wow. Yeah, you were

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out for a long time and almost
died three times. Died three times given

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a fifteen percent chance to survive and
received eighty percent thirty three burns on eighty

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percent of my body. Israel Dotorro
Junior is with us. He's a senior

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Master Sergeant in the Air Force and
his new memoir is out. It's called

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a Patriots Promise and it's available everywhere
you get books. My Protecting my Brothers,

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fighting for my life and keeping my
word. I don't know that everybody

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realizes the Air Force had its paratroopers
were We'd like to say we're the quiet

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professionals. My official title for my
currus is a tag tea attached square control

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party where the guys on the radios
calling an air strikes man, and not

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many people know about us. We
were embedded with the Army, were embedded

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with the Moraines or fagged, embedded
with the Seals and all special operations out

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there. Uh so, you know, most people don't realize that we Air

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Force when we're out there, because
we just blend in it. In your

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memoir, you advocate for better care
for the wounded. How so, so

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when I was in the hospital,
the burned patients out numbered people with missing

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limbs empties easily to one. But
yet we had very crappy therapy room.

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It was tiny, small compared to
the Amphi tee therapy room. And when

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the hospital was building the state of
the arts center for the Intrepid, they

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wanted all the burn patients show up, but yet they weren't gonna have any

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of us in there for therapy.
So, you know, I told my

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yes, I was wounded, but
I was still an NCO in the Air

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Force and at the role and NCO
and it's like, you take care of

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your teams. They think better for
them, even if you may never see

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the benefits. So I told it
was like, we're not going to go,

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and the leadership found out and they
came down to talk to it.

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And I probably should have used better
tack the leadership, but I felt it

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was like you just wanted us as
prompts to show that we're there, but

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yet you ain't gonna allow us to
be in at that state of the art

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therapy. You wanted to keep us
in this the size of the living room,

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and and they changed their mind,
and you know, I ended up

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being one of the first ones.
And my attention was never to be one

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of the first ones. I was
trying to make it better for my guys.

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But again. That's you know,
I'm going back to that promise of

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my dad take care of family,
and those wounded guys weren't my family,

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and I have to take care of
them. Israel del Toro Patriots promised protecting

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my brothers, fighting for my life
and keeping my word. For those who

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are reading the book, is there
any call to action or anything you would

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like the reader to do? Uh? No, you know, I just

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I just wanted them to read it
then and maybe you realize, you know,

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you can overcome what's in front of
you, that bad day you're having,

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or you know you're just feeling like
you want to give up. You

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know, there's there's always hope out
there. Uh, you just got to

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find it because we all have that
spark that drives us. And that's what

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I hope the book does. Because
I'm a realist. I know I'm not

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gonna touch everybody, but maybe those
one or two that really need it,

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or someone knows something that need to
need read of the book and they hand

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it so and it helps them and
all that pain and stuff and I ever

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went through is worth it. And
that's what I hope the readers get out

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of it. And I laugh about
it because there's also some some some funny

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part. Today Patriots promises the memoir
protecting my brothers, fighting for my life

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and keeping my word Israel del Total. Thank you for your service to our

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country and for joining us today.
Thank you to thank for having me on

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a pleasure. Thanks for listening to
Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews

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Podcast, and remember to listen to
The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to

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seven and I Hearts Media Presentation