Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano.
Speaker 1: He is a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, among
Speaker 1: other deployments. He also recovered from a serious brain injury
Speaker 1: to compete in and excel at rigorous competitions like Beastmaster
Speaker 1: and American Ninja Warrior. Ken Kurrigliano was born in New
Speaker 1: York but grew up in Florida. Both of his grandfathers
Speaker 1: served in World War Two and his brother served in
Speaker 1: the Army. But for most of his teenage years, Kurigliano
Speaker 1: was not thinking about serving in the military, and it
Speaker 1: is a fascinating story how he was convinced to join
Speaker 1: the service, and the Air Force in particular.
Speaker 2: I think this is a common story in some folks.
Speaker 2: Is it's either that or you know, maybe jail or
Speaker 2: who knows. At one point I was homeless. So the
Speaker 2: Air Force in the military provided a way out of
Speaker 2: structure and better be a better citizen.
Speaker 1: Any particular reason you chose the Air Force?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Actually, in ninety seven, the recruiter showed up to
Speaker 2: one of my classes that I was a particular troublemaker
Speaker 2: in and he would just was decked out, looked really good,
Speaker 2: and really embarrassed me in front of my peers. And
Speaker 2: I finally realized that I probably wasn't on the track
Speaker 2: that I thought I was, and that professionalism really made
Speaker 2: an impact on me.
Speaker 3: Still my best friend to this day.
Speaker 1: That's interesting that you realized that at the time that
Speaker 1: you are still having some issues. Most teenagers or young
Speaker 1: adults or whatever age you were at the time probably
Speaker 1: would have thought very poorly of the person who called
Speaker 1: them out, But in your case, you saw that as
Speaker 1: a wake up.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, I mean I made a crack at
Speaker 2: him that he looked like he worked at a fast
Speaker 2: food restaurant, and he basically said, that's my history if
Speaker 2: I keep it up, And so, I mean, that was
Speaker 2: very impressionable on me.
Speaker 3: But a couple months.
Speaker 2: Later, my sister passed and that really created a massive
Speaker 2: change in the way that my brain worked, in how
Speaker 2: my family worked, and at that point I knew, like,
Speaker 2: life is very precious and finite and I really need
Speaker 2: to like pick it up and get serious.
Speaker 1: Wow, where did you go for training?
Speaker 2: Well, I went to a basic military training in San
Speaker 2: Antonio for the Air Force. Yeah, and I listed to
Speaker 2: That was my first journey.
Speaker 1: And then after basic, where did you go?
Speaker 2: I went to Shepherd Air Force Base to become an
Speaker 2: aircraft mechanic.
Speaker 1: And you became a flying crew chief on an MC
Speaker 1: one thirty, which we'll get to in a moment, But
Speaker 1: tell me about the mechanics training and then what would
Speaker 1: happen after that?
Speaker 3: I really loved it.
Speaker 2: It was very structured, it wasn't ambiguous, and it was
Speaker 2: really important. So we had really good trainers and my
Speaker 2: first supervisor, Bill Russo, was amazing. He really taught me
Speaker 2: to be precise and accurate and I hadn't really had
Speaker 2: that in my life, and so it was very impressionable
Speaker 2: on me as well to improve the way that I
Speaker 2: do things, in the methodology behind it and have some
Speaker 2: kind of proof in what I'm doing and to be accountable.
Speaker 1: You had much history and mechanical things or is this
Speaker 1: a brand new area?
Speaker 3: Brand new area?
Speaker 2: Actually I did really badly on the ASVAB, and all
Speaker 2: truth be known, there was a conservative team effort to
Speaker 2: accomplish the ASVAB with me and friends.
Speaker 3: I did construction with my dad, but that was about it.
Speaker 1: So did this come relatively naturally to you or was
Speaker 1: it a steep climb?
Speaker 2: It sort of came natural, Like after my sister passed
Speaker 2: there just something happened where I really wanted it. I
Speaker 2: had like a below two point zero gpa. I was
Speaker 2: kicked out of two high schools and like my life
Speaker 2: was going nowhere, and I really wanted to improve. And
Speaker 2: so when I went to mechanical training and my first assignment,
Speaker 2: like there was no stopping me. I just had nothing
Speaker 2: to lose. So I did the best that I could
Speaker 2: and everything that I that I was given, and my
Speaker 2: supervisors being huge, you know on that to support me.
Speaker 1: Now, were you working mainly on the MC one thirty's
Speaker 1: or was there a wide variety of craft?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so training, we had to train on all heavy aircraft,
Speaker 2: all the systems basically the same, and then we specialized
Speaker 2: into into a certain one and the MC one thirty
Speaker 2: E was the one that I got, and that's high
Speaker 2: high performance infiltration X filtration aircraft basically designed for what
Speaker 2: was about to happen to our country.
Speaker 1: What does the MC one thirty E mainly do? What
Speaker 1: kind of missions is it generally used?
Speaker 3: For sure?
Speaker 2: So it specializes in going across enemy lines, infiltrating that territory,
Speaker 2: landing x filling, or dumping off special operators to seize
Speaker 2: territory on the ground. Also refuels helicopters in flight as well.
Speaker 2: And it's all blacked out, has green lights in it,
Speaker 2: and it has trained following radar so it can it
Speaker 2: can stay real low to the ground.
Speaker 3: It's pretty sweet aircraft.
Speaker 1: So you talked about before nine to eleven, and obviously
Speaker 1: things changed for a lot of folks in the surface
Speaker 1: after nine to eleven. Let's focus just for a moment
Speaker 1: on nine to eleven itself. Where were you What were
Speaker 1: you doing when you heard the news of the attacks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was at a friend's house in the morning
Speaker 2: and I had just worked a long shift and I
Speaker 2: just remember getting the phone call like you better come in.
Speaker 2: And one of the biggest memories was driving to the
Speaker 2: gate and seeing like a Humvy at the front gate
Speaker 2: with the barrel pointed at my car as I was
Speaker 2: arriving in, and I was like, Oh my god, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be serious. And I got at work maybe thirty
Speaker 2: minutes after the first plane hit, and then I was
Speaker 2: at work when the second plane hit and I just
Speaker 2: I just remember everyone being.
Speaker 3: Like totally pale. It's just like, okay, this is like,
Speaker 3: this is going to happen, this is real.
Speaker 1: Where are you stationed at this point?
Speaker 3: I was at Duke Field, Florida.
Speaker 1: And so did that immediately change your assignment or relatively
Speaker 1: soon change your assignment?
Speaker 2: I was trying to excel in all the areas, so
Speaker 2: I was taking school, I was going to college, and
Speaker 2: I was getting credits. And I remember my supervisor supervisor going,
Speaker 2: I want you to be my next officer. And when
Speaker 2: nine to eleven hit, everyone was fighting to go, like
Speaker 2: we only had so many people who could go, so
Speaker 2: many aircraft. We were just fighting over each other to go.
Speaker 2: Like everyone was just like, yeah, this is what I
Speaker 2: was born to do, especially someone like me who hadn't
Speaker 2: really hadn't had a purpose. So I was fighting all
Speaker 2: over for it. But my supervisor supervisor knew that I
Speaker 2: was taking college credit, was trying to excel and I
Speaker 2: was terrible in high school, and he said, look, you
Speaker 2: can't go the first round, man, like finish your schooling
Speaker 2: because that's important too, And so he selected me for
Speaker 2: the second round, which is about six months later.
Speaker 1: So six months later, talk about that deployment, What the
Speaker 1: where they sent you, what your role is and what
Speaker 1: you guys are up to?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure this is this is where it gets really awesome.
Speaker 2: And so right before nine to eleven, I was trying
Speaker 2: to educate myself on all of the aircraft components. So
Speaker 2: I went over to the electronic countermeasures place and I
Speaker 2: was like, look, you know, if we go to war,
Speaker 2: like what breaks? And they educated me on this system
Speaker 2: that can overheat and get messed up when we land
Speaker 2: really are because plain oil land really hard. And so
Speaker 2: when I deployed, what we were doing was picking up
Speaker 2: special Forces, special operators and folks that were undisclosed, flying
Speaker 2: incredibly long missions from Karshi Kananabad who's Bekastan so only
Speaker 2: real estate that we had as a as Americans near
Speaker 2: the fight, flying over through all the mountains, terrain, following everything,
Speaker 2: landing at airfields and areas that basically a Taliban still owned,
Speaker 2: dumping off dudes who would change that situation, and it
Speaker 2: was just it was super awesome to see that. And
Speaker 2: that's that was basically my mission was flying those aircraft
Speaker 2: to make sure if anything went wrong, to ensure the
Speaker 2: mission like succeeded because there'd be people on the ground,
Speaker 2: maybe suppressed by enemy fire that we had to augment
Speaker 2: landing like nearby.
Speaker 3: I think it was pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: Talk about what it's like to be on one of
Speaker 1: those missions.
Speaker 2: Oh man, so awesome. So really is no place for me.
Speaker 2: So I had to sleep in what's called the hell hole,
Speaker 2: and this is a place underneath the cockpit that gets
Speaker 2: super hot and like just it's just all wires and
Speaker 2: stuff everywhere. And so for me, these missions were super
Speaker 2: long because Afghanistan it's like huge means no man's land.
Speaker 2: So we had to fly I think like six or
Speaker 2: eight hours just to get to where we're going to
Speaker 2: drop off these folks. And so I'd be sitting on
Speaker 2: the plane, you know, maybe sleeping or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was always night time, and it was always a
Speaker 2: low lunar illumination, so that's a reflection of the sun
Speaker 2: off the moon, and so there was only a certain
Speaker 2: parts of the month that were like prime time and
Speaker 2: it was low lunar illumination and folks on the ground
Speaker 2: needed us like it was high time. So we'd fly
Speaker 2: over land, drop dudes out, and then leave, and we
Speaker 2: had equipment weapons trucks, like I mean, we had workout
Speaker 2: devices too.
Speaker 3: After a walk.
Speaker 2: People need to stay fit while they're holed up in
Speaker 2: like this airfield in the middle Afghanistan, so pretty much
Speaker 2: every place in Afghanistan that is well known. Now we
Speaker 2: were landing at before it was a thing to fill
Speaker 2: it up full of personnel and that.
Speaker 3: Was pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Come under fired anytime.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, So every mission we would have rounds
Speaker 2: shooting at us. A couple of times, RPGs arguably some
Speaker 2: man pads. We weren't too sure which is the portable
Speaker 2: you know, we call them stingers. And so two missions
Speaker 2: in particular change my life. The first mission was a
Speaker 2: liquid oxygen We have liquid auction that we convert into oxygen.
Speaker 2: It's like eight hundred ratio, so for eight hundred pieces
Speaker 2: of liquid auction, you'd get forever one like gram of
Speaker 2: liqu auction get one hundred breathable grams. So this system
Speaker 2: is super important because we needed it to fly. And
Speaker 2: at one time we saw the needle going down. So
Speaker 2: pilot comes down, He's like, can something's going on with
Speaker 2: liquid auction and you to figure it out because if
Speaker 2: we don't have it, we have to go home and
Speaker 2: we have to judge like how fast is depleting and.
Speaker 3: So like I was terrible in high school, like I.
Speaker 2: Don't I didn't do any math classes. So I'm just like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I got to figure this out. So I'm looking at it.
Speaker 2: I mean, the load master's trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2: And we determined that, like we can land, let's get
Speaker 2: these people off. We had on the radio they were suppressed,
Speaker 2: they were getting enemy fire, and they needed these reinforcements.
Speaker 2: And it's like, look, even if we have to go
Speaker 2: home and like struggle, like these people need to land,
Speaker 2: like we need to reinforce. And so I made a
Speaker 2: determination as crew chief too, like we're going to continue on.
Speaker 3: Like I will figure this out. And everything was frosting over.
Speaker 2: It was crazy, and so we landed and immediately there
Speaker 2: was tracers and gunfire and everything. So I get out
Speaker 2: the back. I have two nine mils and M sixteen.
Speaker 2: I crawl underneath the aircraft and I go into the
Speaker 2: nose and I look into those and it's a giant
Speaker 2: snow cone and I'm like, holy shit, like this is
Speaker 2: going this is like serious, And so I had to
Speaker 2: figure out, like what can I do here, and I
Speaker 2: remember mapping the whole system in my mind and then
Speaker 2: figuring out okay, and remember the ECM guys like the
Speaker 2: plane land's really hard, so things are going to jumble around.
Speaker 2: So I'm looking in my mind of like where there's
Speaker 2: a component that's hanging in the in space that could
Speaker 2: like get loose. I stick my hand in this thing,
Speaker 2: which my hand is still kind of screwed up to
Speaker 2: this day. Stick my hand in this total like I
Speaker 2: think it's like negative three hundred something degrease. This stuff
Speaker 2: is super cold. I'm sticking my hand in there, and
Speaker 2: I'm tightening it. I go back, crawl on a new the aircraft,
Speaker 2: get a wrench, and I'm starting to tighten just random things,
Speaker 2: just tightening them. I'm trying to clear out all the snow. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: pilots are.
Speaker 3: Like, I get out of here, man, like like these
Speaker 3: people come up like this is going to be bad.
Speaker 2: We are not getting stuck here, and so I crawl
Speaker 2: back under. I go up and I'm like I basically
Speaker 2: almost lie and I'm like it's good, Like I feel good,
Speaker 2: Like let's do it. Let's go home, like we're let's
Speaker 2: not stay the night here, and They're like you sure man, Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's go. And so we we head back and sure enough,
Speaker 2: I'm like looking at the gauge, like looking at the gauge, yeah,
Speaker 2: like twenty one years old, Like, please, God, just don't
Speaker 2: let that in a never move man. And thank god,
Speaker 2: something happened and I was able to tighten whatever the
Speaker 2: hell went loose, and we finished that mission and the
Speaker 2: guy's on the ground. Nobody died, and I'm pretty happy
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: That's retired to US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano.
Speaker 1: He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. When we
Speaker 1: come back, Krigliano shares another harrowing mission in Afghanistan, and
Speaker 1: later he describes his serious brain injury and his determination
Speaker 1: to be the very best in some of the world's
Speaker 1: toughest competitions. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 3: Sixty Seconds of Service.
Speaker 4: This sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile.
Speaker 4: T Mobile offers exclusive discounts for a veteran and military
Speaker 4: families and are proud supporters of the National Defense Network.
Speaker 4: Visit t mobile dot com slash military to learn more
Speaker 4: about how they support our military community. In North Campton, Ohio,
Speaker 4: Waltsh University has a new space for veterans. The Veterans
Speaker 4: Lounge and the Paul and Carroll David Family Campus Center
Speaker 4: is a welcoming environment for veterans that provides them with
Speaker 4: a sense of community. The new lounge symbolizes Walsh's commitment
Speaker 4: to help military members transition into civilian life with support
Speaker 4: and resources so they can thrive academically and personally. Official said,
Speaker 4: it's a benefit to all college campuses to have veterans
Speaker 4: in their midst, said university President Tim Collins, a US
Speaker 4: Air Force veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Today's sixty Seconds
Speaker 4: of Service is brought to you by Prevegen. Prevagen is
Speaker 4: the number one pharmacist recommended memory support brand. You can
Speaker 4: find Prevagent in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere.
Speaker 1: This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano.
Speaker 1: He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Just a
Speaker 1: moment ago, Kyrigliano described one of his most intense missions
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan as he had to troubleshoot rapidly depleting levels
Speaker 1: of liquid oxygen, Kyrigliano says. When they returned to base,
Speaker 1: the maintenance crew tried to recreate the problem, but they couldn't,
Speaker 1: and that means his decision to tighten everything he could
Speaker 1: was the right call. But that would not be the
Speaker 1: only mission where Karigliano would be sweating as he looked
Speaker 1: for a solution to keep the crew and plane safe
Speaker 1: and keep the mission moving forward.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the next one was actually my dad's birthday,
Speaker 2: which is really strange. And I'm flying on the mission
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, I'm in the hell hole
Speaker 2: right and it's getting like super warm, and I move
Speaker 2: out for some reason, I move out and I go underneath.
Speaker 3: Remember that system there telling me that could like have issues.
Speaker 2: Well, what they told me was when it lands really hard,
Speaker 2: there's this like rubber thing called bellows, and as it
Speaker 2: lands the the lubricant will go through the bellows and
Speaker 2: the bellows will sink into the lubricant and then it
Speaker 2: won't work anymore.
Speaker 3: Won't cool the system. And the system is designed to
Speaker 3: detect missiles inbound and shoot the flares and potentially chaff
Speaker 3: to direct the missiles to not hit the aircraft. Right.
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, remember like we've had these things shooting at
Speaker 2: our airplanes before. So now I'm underneath this system and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, like I wake up and I'm
Speaker 2: covered in lubricant and I'm like, oh, oh my god,
Speaker 2: what is going on? And I'm delirious because.
Speaker 3: The the you know, the fumes.
Speaker 2: And the what we called a weapons officer he comes around.
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, like, we're inbound. I turned on the
Speaker 2: electronic countermeasure.
Speaker 3: It's not working.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh shit, and I, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this is the scenario. This is the exact scenario. And
Speaker 2: thankfully I asked these guys if this happens, what do
Speaker 2: we do? And he's like and they said, you got
Speaker 2: to shove something in there.
Speaker 3: So I take off my clothes, right, I take the
Speaker 3: system open, and I start cramming my clothes to compress
Speaker 3: the lubricant so it's stable as.
Speaker 2: The plane's flying around on the terrain. It's like, take
Speaker 2: all my clothes. I'm in my underwear.
Speaker 3: I'm cramming all this stuff into this system and like, hey, man,
Speaker 3: like fire it up, like let's see, we got to
Speaker 3: make sure it's going to work.
Speaker 2: He's like, look everything right now, looks okay. Pilot comes down.
Speaker 2: He's like, there's no way, Like we're coming into this situation.
Speaker 2: It was another refuel of humans of personnel into a firefight,
Speaker 2: and he's like, this is different.
Speaker 3: Pilot.
Speaker 2: He's like, dude, there's no way I'm going in there
Speaker 2: without this protection. Like we're going to turn around, like
Speaker 2: everyone in the aircraft could get killed, you know. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, I think we're good. Weapons officer. We have
Speaker 2: a powout in the back and meanwhile I'm in I'm
Speaker 2: in garbage backs. Now I'm wearing garbage backs in the plane.
Speaker 2: And so the plane's filling up with fumes. Pilots freaking out,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, look, we've got to do it. We
Speaker 2: hear it over the radio they need reinforcements. We're like,
Speaker 2: let's go. Man, Like I'm confident, let's do this. And
Speaker 2: so we continue a mission. We let down in flight
Speaker 2: the entire back door of the MC one thirty to
Speaker 2: let the fumes. Meanwhile, I have like people from.
Speaker 3: New Zealand and Australia and like special operators are like
Speaker 3: snake eaters and they're like dude, what's going on with
Speaker 3: the airplane? We're like, hey, man, it's cool.
Speaker 2: And at that point, like that was a major, huge
Speaker 2: thing in my life of like I'm confident, like I
Speaker 2: remember this, I did it, and I did whatever it took.
Speaker 2: And then we had like twelve hour land we refuel there, thankfully,
Speaker 2: and then we're back coming back home and I fall
Speaker 2: asleep into the hell hole again. And what I didn't
Speaker 2: know was the pilot contacted the commander, and the commander
Speaker 2: contacted the scentcom commander, and who contacted the Air Force
Speaker 2: Central Commander, which is now a General Moseley. At the
Speaker 2: time it was a colonel, and they put me in
Speaker 2: for an officer scholarship. While I'm flying on the mission,
Speaker 2: they put me in and they accept me. And so
Speaker 2: when I land, we're backing in and there's a huge
Speaker 2: group of people, everybody in our little unit like that
Speaker 2: was at that base. Every American was there, and they're
Speaker 2: like celebrating, and I'm coming off the planet.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what's going on, man, Like what happened? Is
Speaker 3: everything okay?
Speaker 2: And they're like congratulations, and they give me the letter
Speaker 2: of acceptance to become an officer.
Speaker 3: So technically a field commission.
Speaker 2: But since I didn't have a degree to kind of
Speaker 2: like commission and they're like, you got to find a
Speaker 2: college in like two weeks, pow. And that was like
Speaker 2: one of the greatest moments I've ever lived through.
Speaker 1: Ever did they need the countermeasures?
Speaker 2: I don't think we ever needed it on that mission,
Speaker 2: Like we didn't get a signal an indication, thank god.
Speaker 1: So how long were you on this deployment over there?
Speaker 2: I think it was about three months because I had
Speaker 2: to go to school.
Speaker 1: What's the most intense moment related to enemy fire?
Speaker 3: I think it was on our base.
Speaker 2: We got a report that not the Taliban, but another
Speaker 2: unit was trying to take the base, like they were
Speaker 2: trying to invade the base, and everyone was woken up.
Speaker 3: We all ran to the weapons cash get our weapons.
Speaker 2: And we're running toward the fence, like, hey, you got
Speaker 2: to meet the enemy, right They can't. They can't get
Speaker 2: onto the flight line. So I'm running with this weapon
Speaker 2: and it's at altitude. I thought I was going to die,
Speaker 2: Like I get behind a building. There's a picture of
Speaker 2: me with this too, and I get behind this building.
Speaker 2: I'm going to die Before you even meet the enemy
Speaker 2: and that was that was like one of my huge
Speaker 2: realizations that like fitness is super important, not just mental
Speaker 2: but physical fitness.
Speaker 1: That's retired usir Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's a
Speaker 1: veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan and his passion for
Speaker 1: our physical fitness is where we'll take the discussion. Next,
Speaker 1: Kyrigliana will share his story of a horrific bike accident
Speaker 1: and the serious brain injury that came with it, and
Speaker 1: he will tell us about his difficult journey trying to
Speaker 1: convince the Air Force of his injury, how a total
Speaker 1: commitment to physical fitness was a huge factor in his recovery,
Speaker 1: and how that led him to pursue very tough competitions
Speaker 1: like Beast Master and American Ninja Warrior. That's all Next.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is
Speaker 1: Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition
Speaker 1: is retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurigliano. He
Speaker 1: is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Speaker 1: We now shift to perhaps the greatest challenge Kurrigliano has faced.
Speaker 1: In our next few moments, he'll explain his traumatic brain
Speaker 1: injury suffered during a biking accident in Florida, how physical
Speaker 1: fitness became a huge factor in his recovery, and how
Speaker 1: it led to him taking on some of the toughest
Speaker 1: physical challenges in the world.
Speaker 3: So this is this is funny.
Speaker 2: So after that moment of where I thought I was
Speaker 2: going to die before I even met the enemy, I
Speaker 2: go back home. I join a college, Saint Leo University.
Speaker 2: I get into ROTC to become an officer. We have
Speaker 2: our first fitness tests. I fail the fitness test. I
Speaker 2: couldn't eve run half a mile straight, and you have
Speaker 2: to run two miles straight non stop, just doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if it's a total minute pace.
Speaker 3: Can't stop. I stopped that half mile.
Speaker 2: They disenrolled me, and they were they they wanted to
Speaker 2: take all of the money that they had spent on
Speaker 2: me back, and so they essentially sued me for the
Speaker 2: tuition that they paid to my school. And so here
Speaker 2: I am coming in Metal of Heroism, right air metal,
Speaker 2: and I come in and they don't care.
Speaker 3: About any of that.
Speaker 2: It's like, hey, you got to meet standard right. I
Speaker 2: was totally unprepared and it was a huge sobering moment
Speaker 2: in my life. And I was like, I will never
Speaker 2: be unprepared for a situation ever again. Matter of fact,
Speaker 2: the gap between me and unprepared is going to be
Speaker 2: so large that there's not even going to be a
Speaker 2: question of success. And so I walked onto the cross
Speaker 2: country team at Saint Leo and I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: I'm going to crush this. I remember the coach, Kyle Saige,
Speaker 2: still a good friend, laughed at me. He's like, where
Speaker 2: did I remember him biking past me? As I was walking,
Speaker 2: Like where do they find these people?
Speaker 3: I'm walking? I'm on the cross country too, say.
Speaker 2: At that moment, Greg, I was like, there's no way
Speaker 2: I'm not going I'm going to be mediocre anymore.
Speaker 3: Like this is it.
Speaker 2: And I started training, started trying to fine. What's the
Speaker 2: hardest thing? I asked Wrung, I'm sorry, triathlon, Okay, let's
Speaker 2: do it. Sign me up rock and roll.
Speaker 1: So I guess twenty twelve when this accident occurred, as
Speaker 1: eleven eleven and occurred, explain what happened.
Speaker 3: I was doing really good at trafon. I was applying
Speaker 3: to the world class athletic program in the Air Force.
Speaker 3: I had went to the Beijing Olympics as an observer
Speaker 3: and I've been I was training very hard, but I
Speaker 3: was still act to duty Air Force. So I get
Speaker 3: deployment orders.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, crap, I haven't even gotten the opportunity
Speaker 2: to get points to compete. So you need points to compete.
Speaker 2: And so so it was the next race. Wow, that
Speaker 2: happens being Florida where my family is. So I call
Speaker 2: race director.
Speaker 3: She's like, hey, come on.
Speaker 2: So I fly down to Florida with my bike everything
Speaker 2: days before I'm supposed to deploy to Iraq for six months.
Speaker 2: Family all flies in with everything, go on a bike ride.
Speaker 2: The first day I'm out on a bike ride, I
Speaker 2: go to Siesta Beach, which is very famous in Florida.
Speaker 2: I swim two miles, get back on my bike going
Speaker 2: down the road, and it was a long traffic jam
Speaker 2: of spring break. And I remember a little gap right
Speaker 2: in front of this suv and I look through the
Speaker 2: window of the suv and I see this lady in
Speaker 2: a sports car on her phone. I remember this before,
Speaker 2: like texting and smartphones and stuff, right, And she's like
Speaker 2: this driving and I'm like, oh, she's not looking. She's
Speaker 2: not going to turn in this gap. Right, there's a
Speaker 2: little apartment complex. So look, I'm going twenty five miles
Speaker 2: an hour my bike, right, I mean like I'm hauling,
Speaker 2: And I remember just pumping a little bit and she
Speaker 2: cuts across just at the time where I'm right in
Speaker 2: front next to this suv and I just remember this
Speaker 2: car coming and everything slowed down like a thousand times,
Speaker 2: and I remember looking at the car and going, if
Speaker 2: I continue my speed of rate right now, she's going
Speaker 2: to run me over and I'm dead. If I slow
Speaker 2: down too much, I'm going to hit the side. My
Speaker 2: head's going to go into the window, which is, by
Speaker 2: the way, not like the front where it's breakable like that,
Speaker 2: Like the sidelines are very strong, Like I'm going to die,
Speaker 2: Like my head's going to hit the thing.
Speaker 3: I'm going to die.
Speaker 2: So I need to hit the tire right there. I
Speaker 2: remember pumping just enough to hit that tire so that
Speaker 2: my tire two rubber pieces hit and so there's a
Speaker 2: little bit of cushion and I can roll across the hood.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what I did. I remember flying through the air.
Speaker 2: My bike is up and pieces and going check out
Speaker 2: by a new bike before Saturday, because I got a race,
Speaker 2: and I remember shopping in my head Greg of all
Speaker 2: the bike shops in the area where I can pick
Speaker 2: up a bike before Saturday. As I'm flying through the air,
Speaker 2: and then I hit the windshield as lights out, I
Speaker 2: slide across the windshield. All the glass that you know,
Speaker 2: a little pieces of glass just fill up my back.
Speaker 2: Took years from the come out, years for all that
Speaker 2: glass come out. And then she slams on the brakes.
Speaker 2: Obviously he realized there's a human being that's flying through
Speaker 2: her windshield. So I fly off into the gravel and
Speaker 2: slide across the gravel, hit my head and I'm gone, right,
Speaker 2: I'm up. I'm floating above my body.
Speaker 1: You had a traumatic brain injury, but it didn't manifest
Speaker 1: itself in ways that are considered common. Explain how it
Speaker 1: what symptoms you were dealing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, man, you did your homework, so yeah.
Speaker 2: So up until that point, we'd have like seven years
Speaker 2: in her ack, and the brain injuries were like people
Speaker 2: missing parts of their brain, right, and so executive level
Speaker 2: processing was really like the benchmark of brain injury, where
Speaker 2: I didn't have that, like my reptilian brain was hit,
Speaker 2: and so like I could still sort of function. I
Speaker 2: couldn't really speak or read, but like I still could
Speaker 2: like look like I'm okay, and so you know, I'm
Speaker 2: calling back and going, hey, I'm like messed up here,
Speaker 2: Like I'm really messed up, and they're like, well you
Speaker 2: sound okay. You need to come back and get care,
Speaker 2: and I'm like no, Like I like I don't even
Speaker 2: know what's going on. You need a gay hair or
Speaker 2: we're sending you know where you're going to be a wall?
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: It was just actually a deserted because I had a clearance,
Speaker 2: and so like I'm like, okay, I gotta figure.
Speaker 3: Out how to get home.
Speaker 2: So I remember being at the airport like totally lost,
Speaker 2: just like I see a police officer, Hey, you know
Speaker 2: where I'm supposed to go.
Speaker 3: I couldn't read.
Speaker 2: The science can do anything, and so it manifested in
Speaker 2: such a way that the medical community was not prepared for.
Speaker 2: Neither was a military.
Speaker 3: There's no disqualifying deployment for people who can't who all
Speaker 3: of a sudden just had a brain injury, can read,
Speaker 3: can't speak, couldn't remember anything. I can't remember anything, so
Speaker 3: I still had to deploy. That's where we're at.
Speaker 1: I still sent you to Iraq, and from what I understand,
Speaker 1: it was completely miserable.
Speaker 3: It was miserable.
Speaker 2: It was I was embedded with special Forces, some seals, rangers,
Speaker 2: and uh, it was. It was unforgiving. And I was
Speaker 2: an air Force guy embedded in the army in it,
Speaker 2: which is not really viewed very well, you know, and
Speaker 2: so that was tough. And then not remembering things. It
Speaker 2: was very to right them on my arm I think
Speaker 2: God was very like creative in the way that I
Speaker 2: was trying to like mask this, you know, and still
Speaker 2: get the mission done. At one point, Greg I was
Speaker 2: in charge of all the air reconnaissance and surveillance assets
Speaker 2: in the entire country. It was like fifty I was
Speaker 2: in charge of all of them. It was crazy, no
Speaker 2: idea what was doing. It's like ninety chat rooms up
Speaker 2: on my little chat box to control all these aircraft
Speaker 2: talk to people.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, how am I gonna survive?
Speaker 3: I was sleeping at my desk and this was it was. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was miserable. In addition to the heat and shells
Speaker 3: coming into our compound. I mean, it was it was mayhem.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was not the place to recover from a
Speaker 2: brain injury, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm shocked that they sent you, but I guess
Speaker 1: because you didn't present in the way they expected you to,
Speaker 1: they didn't think it was serious enough to right change
Speaker 1: your orders.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if I can't articulate too, Like I can't
Speaker 3: really articulate what was going on with me? So that's
Speaker 3: that was that was a problem too. You know.
Speaker 1: So this is a slightly different assignment. It seems like
Speaker 1: that you're embedded with these special operators. What's what's going
Speaker 1: on with that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my first assignment as an officer was Air
Speaker 2: Force one and the Presidential Airlift Group and the VIP missions,
Speaker 2: so faring around the nation's leaders back and forth. Right
Speaker 2: after that, I went to Cannon Air Force Base where
Speaker 2: we did the rpas, which is basically m Q nine's
Speaker 2: drones people call them, right, So we provided the overwatch
Speaker 2: on all these strike missions, and so we were the
Speaker 2: experts on like rolling people up, like going to compounds,
Speaker 2: you know, and so like they needed expertise to do
Speaker 2: in house.
Speaker 3: Support and that's what we were sourced for that. And
Speaker 3: so that was my deployment.
Speaker 2: I had wanted it originally, like I'm like, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: rock and Roll, I don't care.
Speaker 3: I'm like, who cares? Bring me wherever you need me
Speaker 3: like rock and Roll. So yeah, so that was it
Speaker 3: was just one of the rotations.
Speaker 1: For US mentioned air Force. One is this Bush Obama?
Speaker 3: Both? Yes? Both?
Speaker 1: Okay? Any cool stories you can share?
Speaker 3: Uh oh okay. I'll say this.
Speaker 2: Not a lot of people know, but the entire staff
Speaker 2: is for the aircraft is air Force, and so the
Speaker 2: flight attendants, pilots everything, they go to like special schools.
Speaker 2: Like even the flight attendants who cook and care for
Speaker 2: the nation's leaders as they travel overseas and even in
Speaker 2: the United States are professionally trained by like five star
Speaker 2: Michelin like level chefs.
Speaker 3: It's amazing. Not a lot of people know that. So
Speaker 3: that's probably one of the stories I can I can
Speaker 3: talk about.
Speaker 1: No, not a ton of personal interaction you can you
Speaker 1: can share.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say, like people seeing our nations leaders
Speaker 2: who have to say one thing on TV but be
Speaker 2: another behind closed doors.
Speaker 3: It was very revealing.
Speaker 2: You know, some people have like an aura of kind
Speaker 2: of empathy, but then you know there may be troubled
Speaker 2: inside and so they would be less kind and then
Speaker 2: other people like like bulldogs.
Speaker 3: In the news and the nicest people you could think
Speaker 3: of when you know, behind closed doors. So that was interesting.
Speaker 1: How many earth did you do? That?
Speaker 2: At about three? And that was the assignment. I convinced
Speaker 2: them to send me to the Olympics too.
Speaker 1: So obviously the injury derailed your Olympic dreams. What was
Speaker 1: your recovery process like once you got home and how
Speaker 1: did you eventually transition into some of these other things
Speaker 1: like Beast Master and American Great.
Speaker 2: So when I was in Iraq, I was in a
Speaker 2: lot of pain, but I couldn't really feel my body
Speaker 2: all that much.
Speaker 3: I just didn't feel good, but I felt good when
Speaker 3: I ran run, I just run. And then we had
Speaker 3: a pool were I don't want to Saddam's pool pools,
Speaker 3: and so I bought a tether and tied myself to
Speaker 3: the to the wall and I swam in place. So
Speaker 3: I realized that like when my body's in movement, like
Speaker 3: the pain goes away. I don't have to think about
Speaker 3: my injuries.
Speaker 2: And I just felt really good. So when I came back,
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to keep this up like
Speaker 2: this is this is wonderful. I'm going to see what happens.
Speaker 2: But I do remember like coming back and like not
Speaker 2: wanting to do anything also, like I just want to
Speaker 2: say this, I don't want to do anything at all.
Speaker 3: And that's where I got.
Speaker 2: I started getting really like upset, you know, just about
Speaker 2: things like I had this great trajectory that I was
Speaker 2: on and now I'm now I'm barely walking right. And
Speaker 2: when I coached these little kids and swimming, and this
Speaker 2: one little girl was like, you know, Coach Ken, are
Speaker 2: you going to like come back?
Speaker 3: Are you going to be normal again? And I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god.
Speaker 2: And she's like can you like continue working out, like
Speaker 2: continue training? Can we want to see where you're going?
Speaker 2: And when she was like come back, like I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I've changed, like a change that hits
Speaker 2: hard when a little kid sees that and says it,
Speaker 2: you know. And that's when I was like game on,
Speaker 2: game on. And I remember like I went to the
Speaker 2: World Championships a few months later, like very fast, like
Speaker 2: super fast.
Speaker 3: I was really motivated.
Speaker 1: What does the does the regiment look like to get ready?
Speaker 1: Is there a particular type of training that brings you
Speaker 1: to an elite status.
Speaker 2: Oh there's a I will tell you there's a there's
Speaker 2: like a secret recipe and you got to find it
Speaker 2: and you have to stick to it. And it's very
Speaker 2: hard to do that to balance all your systems to train,
Speaker 2: and so the real secret to success is sequencing and
Speaker 2: peer what's called periodization and specificity, So be specific to
Speaker 2: what you want to train and do it over a
Speaker 2: certain point in time.
Speaker 3: That makes sense. And so it's really hard to answer
Speaker 3: the question.
Speaker 2: But basically got to be real comfortable being uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: You know. Can you imagine going you.
Speaker 2: Know, two three, four five hours with your heart rate
Speaker 2: at one hundred and fifty five hundred and sixty.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what you gotta with sand that's a lot.
Speaker 3: It takes a huge toll.
Speaker 2: On somebody mentally and physically. And so really it's like
Speaker 2: training at the level so that when you perform, your
Speaker 2: body will perform without you wanting to give up.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I know it's not a super specific it's.
Speaker 1: Not a one size fits all thing necessarily, but maybe
Speaker 1: the general recipe would be the same, right, okay.
Speaker 2: And nutrition's gotta be dialing because nutrition won't help you.
Speaker 2: People are confused people. Nutrition will help you, but wrong
Speaker 2: nutrition will destroy you, and so there's not a lot
Speaker 2: of benefit. That's what people get messed up is to
Speaker 2: just lack on the nutrition because they don't think that
Speaker 2: it helps. It doesn't, but it can hurt you. So
Speaker 2: that's why nutrition is really hard.
Speaker 1: And so the more intensely you're training, you said that
Speaker 1: exercise made you feel better. Yeah, yeah, as you exercise
Speaker 1: more intensely does make you feel even better.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's there's lots of science out there on
Speaker 2: the benefits of exercise. You know, in order to endure
Speaker 2: that kind of activity, your brain releases all types of
Speaker 2: dopamine and hormones and your body changes, your mind changes,
Speaker 2: and people can get addicted to it. Actually exercises a
Speaker 2: great addiction remedy for people who have who are prone
Speaker 2: to addiction. And that what became sort of my outlet
Speaker 2: is to train and winning didn't hurt, Like, winning felt
Speaker 2: pretty good.
Speaker 1: You know that's going to say, I'm sure it's both
Speaker 1: the answer to this, But is it about challenging yourself
Speaker 1: or about being super competitive and wanting to prove you're
Speaker 1: the you're the best and to defeat your competition.
Speaker 2: Sure, I think over my entire career, I never thought
Speaker 2: of like I want to beat my competition. I always
Speaker 2: thought like, I want to be the best one who
Speaker 2: shows up, Like I want to be fully prepared in
Speaker 2: such a way. I want to know how to be
Speaker 2: the best prepared when I show up, And I want
Speaker 2: to push the envelope. I want to see I want
Speaker 2: to change the way people do things. And I've done
Speaker 2: this in obstacle course racing. People emulate the crazy things
Speaker 2: that I do now, Like on obstacles I was doing
Speaker 2: ten years ago. You know that would scare the hell
Speaker 2: out of people. But I want to push the envelope
Speaker 2: and see, like what can we do? What can we
Speaker 2: really do? So yeah, those two things.
Speaker 1: You're an innovator on technique as well. It's not absolutely
Speaker 1: just intensive training.
Speaker 3: Absolutely I can I can count very few times someone
Speaker 3: has beat me off an obstacle just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: That's retired to US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano.
Speaker 1: He's a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. When we
Speaker 1: come back more on Kurrigliano's exploits on Beast Master and
Speaker 1: American Ninja Warrior. The organization that he says saved his
Speaker 1: life and his advice to anyone facing major challenges. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 1: I'm right Corumbas. Our guests retired US Air Force Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. After all of his work to recover
Speaker 1: from a serious brain injury, Kurrigliano pursued physical fitness to
Speaker 1: an even higher level on popular programs like Beast Master
Speaker 1: and American Ninja Warrior. And we now pick up our
Speaker 1: conversation with Karrigliano as he explains what contestants faced on
Speaker 1: Beast Master.
Speaker 3: It is Ninja Warrior on steroids.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: Fear factor immersive, right, So going through four different stages.
Speaker 2: Each stage has elimination fifty percent elimination and very difficult
Speaker 2: to interpret the obstacles and we don't get to play
Speaker 2: with them ahead of time. We can look at them
Speaker 2: and sign that you know, we've seen this and that's it,
Speaker 2: and then the cameras come on, the mics come on,
Speaker 2: and it is like go And actually the different most
Speaker 2: difficult part. We had an incredible array of talent on
Speaker 2: my season. Like some of the best people I've ever
Speaker 2: seen in my entire life, and a lot of them
Speaker 2: cracked because of the cameras in the stress like like
Speaker 2: we were in a trailer for hours, ten twelve hours,
Speaker 2: not knowing when it's time to go, and so these
Speaker 2: people on my level, like I know what time, the races,
Speaker 2: I know what nutrition, how many grams of carbohydrate, how
Speaker 2: many ounces of fluid?
Speaker 3: I'm ready to go here, It's like should I eat?
Speaker 3: Should I not eat? Like what the hell is going on?
Speaker 3: And then it's like, hey, your turn up. It's like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: So that was that was the most stressful part is
Speaker 2: that this is TV now, man, this this is not.
Speaker 3: Like a course that I've trained for and I know
Speaker 3: what's going on. That was super hard.
Speaker 1: How'd you figure out inventive ways to deal with the
Speaker 1: obstacles when you weren't given a chance to play with them.
Speaker 2: So this goes into a result of my brain injury.
Speaker 2: I have synesthesia and I have very interesting ways of
Speaker 2: seeing things, and so my cause effect relationship is like
Speaker 2: amped up like ten thousand times. So I see an object,
Speaker 2: I can make it move around in my head, look
Speaker 2: at the physics of it, and then picture myself on it,
Speaker 2: like not only just in like first person view, but
Speaker 2: like second even third person, like watch someone else, you know,
Speaker 2: and I can see myself do it. So I can
Speaker 2: interpret obstacles pretty well just from this gift that I
Speaker 2: was given, And so that's super important to do novel
Speaker 2: crazy stuff that people.
Speaker 3: Are like, oh my god, Like I would never think
Speaker 3: about doing that.
Speaker 2: So it's really just sizing it up, judging my own abilities,
Speaker 2: and then matching the two.
Speaker 1: So once you've climb that mountain, you're the beast Master champion.
Speaker 1: Where do you go from there?
Speaker 2: So I took some time off with my career and
Speaker 2: my body. So at that point, like twenty fifteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: my injuries were starting to pile up. So I started
Speaker 2: to feel my body now, so I had this degradated
Speaker 2: feeling of over my whole body since the accident, like
Speaker 2: I couldn't feel it, and I started feeling like pains
Speaker 2: and like fatigue, and I was like, oh man, this
Speaker 2: is like this might not be super good.
Speaker 3: And then I.
Speaker 2: Started having some troubles with you know, cognition, you know,
Speaker 2: like really like it started to pile up because I
Speaker 2: started to rank up get more responsibility I can hide
Speaker 2: stuff as a lieutenant and a captain, but as a
Speaker 2: major and lieutenant.
Speaker 3: Colonel, it's a lot harder that way.
Speaker 2: And so I really focused on on circling back on
Speaker 2: trying to fix my body and get adjusted. And then
Speaker 2: I also got severely burned. So my right arm is
Speaker 2: super loose, like I can, I lose things. I dropped
Speaker 2: things and everything, and I was I had a.
Speaker 3: Whole pot of like boiling water and my hands just
Speaker 3: like let loose, and it just built and just went
Speaker 3: all over me. So I went to burn you. I
Speaker 3: was like, oh man, this is like arrible.
Speaker 2: And then so I finally was like, look, I need
Speaker 2: to get some help, man, you know, like something's going on,
Speaker 2: and so they put me in a poly trauma unit
Speaker 2: for a while. So so that time period after that,
Speaker 2: I was like focused on, like I'm probably going to
Speaker 2: get broke here soon because beast mass you can probably
Speaker 2: recall like they carted me off in a stretcher, you know,
Speaker 2: like you know me, like I'm gonna I'm gonna go,
Speaker 2: And I'm like I tell people, I line up on
Speaker 2: the start line, I go, are you guys prepared to
Speaker 2: die on this course? Because I am and they're like,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I don't know if I want
Speaker 2: to go that RD.
Speaker 1: It's a good intimidation tactic even if you didn't mean it,
Speaker 1: but you do it is yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I took some time off and then Ninja Wori
Speaker 2: reached out to me again and was like, we'd love to.
Speaker 3: Have you on the show man as I love to go.
Speaker 3: So I trained for that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned something in passing about your Air Force career
Speaker 1: that I don't want to skip past, and that's that
Speaker 1: you mentioned you had a medal for heroism that you received.
Speaker 1: What does that mean to you to be recognized for
Speaker 1: excellence and service?
Speaker 2: I think coming like from where I came from, it
Speaker 2: provides motivation to continue on, you know, like the military
Speaker 2: gives awards and decorations and people joke about it, you know,
Speaker 2: but it really is to look up in my office
Speaker 2: now and see all that stuff on the wall. Like
Speaker 2: when there's challenges in the world or to me or
Speaker 2: my family, I'm like, look what everything I've done, man,
Speaker 2: I can handle this and really like press on. So
Speaker 2: for me, it's an instrument of motivation and commitment.
Speaker 1: You've overcome so many challenges in different ways. In your life,
Speaker 1: from difficult teenage years and obviously being in war suffering
Speaker 1: a brain injury that you were determined to come back from. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there are people dealing with all sorts of different challenges,
Speaker 1: and your never give up attitude is certainly one that
Speaker 1: I think would encourage a lot of people. You probably
Speaker 1: do hear from people who want advice from what you've
Speaker 1: been through. What do you tell them?
Speaker 2: I think the number one thing is the reason to
Speaker 2: persevere is huge, And so what I ask people is,
Speaker 2: I what would you die for before you let happen?
Speaker 2: And it's a little bit of play on words intentionally
Speaker 2: to see where people's heart and really where your DNA is,
Speaker 2: because I think people have like a programmed purpose in
Speaker 2: their DNA, and unless you're tapping into that, like, you're
Speaker 2: just going to be continually frustrated and things are going
Speaker 2: to happen and your body's going to like manifest disease
Speaker 2: and all this other stuff. And so I ask them, like,
Speaker 2: deep down, like what is your driving force? What would
Speaker 2: you lay your life down for before you'd let happen?
Speaker 2: And that typically forms the center and the core of
Speaker 2: everything else that they want to do. If I can
Speaker 2: if I can identify that in you, I can link
Speaker 2: anything that you're working on to that purpose and you
Speaker 2: will wake up every day like I have to do
Speaker 2: this otherwise.
Speaker 3: This thing's going to fail.
Speaker 2: It could be legacy, could be kids, could be spouse, parents,
Speaker 2: whatever or purpose you know.
Speaker 3: So that's what I tell people, is you got to.
Speaker 2: Really deep dig into your purpose and then the journey
Speaker 2: will reveal itself.
Speaker 1: How much do you credit the Air Force in your
Speaker 1: time in the military for helping to develop that mindset?
Speaker 2: A lot provided structure, provide a camaraderie, provide a vertical ability,
Speaker 2: provided like stability. You know, there's a lot of instability
Speaker 2: in the world and people get stressed. And that's why
Speaker 2: we have a permanent paycheck, why we have free health care,
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of stress. And if I reduce
Speaker 2: those stress is I can focus on the important thing,
Speaker 2: which is the mission. And so yeah, it's super important,
Speaker 2: like it's totality.
Speaker 1: Last couple of questions here, Ken, what are you most
Speaker 1: proud of from your time in the service?
Speaker 2: I think having respect and honor for everyone who's come
Speaker 2: before me. And I didn't really get this until they
Speaker 2: were like I was an officer to realize all the
Speaker 2: sacrifices that were laid down before I came, so that
Speaker 2: I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, you know. And
Speaker 2: it's so humbling to know like how powerful people were
Speaker 2: before me and how intuitive and how they laid down
Speaker 2: things that they would never see manifest so that I
Speaker 2: can benefit. And that's what I do, like every day,
Speaker 2: like I lay I lay down. I lay down the
Speaker 2: foundation that I may never see or the world may
Speaker 2: never see for like five hundred years, you know.
Speaker 3: And that's that's that's got to be it.
Speaker 1: And lastly, what does it mean to you to have
Speaker 1: us capture your story and share it with not only
Speaker 1: folks today, but generations to come.
Speaker 2: Well, I thought you called the wrong person, you know,
Speaker 2: but it's a it's a huge honor, like pro well,
Speaker 2: it's like the top.
Speaker 3: I mean, just to be recognized and to be here
Speaker 3: sitting in front of the lights, microphone and you and
Speaker 3: everything that you've accomplished and what you've done for us
Speaker 3: to tell our stories.
Speaker 2: You don't have to do this, man, It's like it's warming.
Speaker 2: It gives me purpose and I hope that people will
Speaker 2: watch this and they'll go, Man, that's like that's incredible,
Speaker 2: like what I'm going through, like I'm going to persevere
Speaker 2: because there's a meaning to it, and folks may join
Speaker 2: our service because of this video. And I'm really honored
Speaker 2: to everyone who's involved. There's so many of you behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, and I'm just I'm just here to tell
Speaker 2: my story and to be very grateful and.
Speaker 1: Thankful or honored to have you. And I do have
Speaker 1: one extra question because I know you're connected to the
Speaker 1: Transcend Foundation. Correct, tell us a little bit.
Speaker 3: About that Transcend Foundation is what saved my life.
Speaker 2: I was still really affected by brain trauma, anxiety, body aches,
Speaker 2: and I met here at the American Veteran Center Brendan Quisenberry,
Speaker 2: executive director of the Foundation, and he heard a little
Speaker 2: bit of my story and he asked me a question,
Speaker 2: what's your blood work? Say?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine in twelve and thirteen years to be
Speaker 2: included in a inpatient polytrauma and never have a comprehensive
Speaker 2: blood work panel done and be shuffled through three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty doctors and tried to be out processed from
Speaker 2: the Air Force twice, you know, not have a pension,
Speaker 2: and like man, the stress that I went through, and
Speaker 2: he's like, let's just run your blood work.
Speaker 3: See what it says.
Speaker 2: I got on a comprehensive panel that I've never seen before,
Speaker 2: and I swear to god, I went tell you, I
Speaker 2: kind of walk like a quarter mile when I got
Speaker 2: my blood work done. Three weeks later, I.
Speaker 3: Was running a ten k and no knowing where my
Speaker 3: car was in the.
Speaker 2: Parking lot as stressfully as a grown adult with kids
Speaker 2: to not even remember, Like it's just emotional, you know,
Speaker 2: and especially with all the decorations that I've had and
Speaker 2: what I've done with my life, to have these simple,
Speaker 2: really embarrassing things, and like three weeks I saw like
Speaker 2: real benefit. And now it's been you know, two years,
Speaker 2: and I am now the chief Data and AI Officer
Speaker 2: for the Transcend Company, having never finished the math class
Speaker 2: in my life, but having the focus and dedication that
Speaker 2: I want to heal other people that have gone through
Speaker 2: what I'm going, what I went through, you know, that's
Speaker 2: my mission.
Speaker 1: That's retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ken Kurrigliano. He's
Speaker 1: a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, among other deployments. He
Speaker 1: also recovered from a serious brain injury to compete in
Speaker 1: and excel at rigorous competitions like Beastmaster and American Ninja Warrior.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi. This
Speaker 1: is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
Speaker 1: a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
Speaker 1: please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
Speaker 1: the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter We're
Speaker 1: at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
Speaker 1: channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
Speaker 1: please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Thanks again for listening and please join us
Speaker 1: next time for Veterans Chronicles