0:00

Up next out WOUD with Gianno

0:02

called part of the gig which switch SI. Imagine

0:05

you're a marine deployed to Afghanistan.

0:08

Your job is to find and dispose of enemy

0:10

bombs. One day, you're out there with

0:12

your team. During your duty, you

0:14

pause for a few minutes to take a breather and readjust

0:17

your gear. But then you take one

0:19

step to the right and directly

0:22

onto an I E. D. The explosion

0:25

changes your life forever. Today

0:27

we'll hear this very story from the man who lived

0:29

it. This is out Allowed with Gianno called well.

0:39

Welcome back to Allow with Giano called well.

0:42

I'm Gianno called well. And on this week's

0:44

show, we're talking about the military,

0:46

overcoming adversity and helping others.

0:49

My guest today know something about all three.

0:51

He's Johnny Joey Jones, a retired

0:54

U. S Marine who served two combat

0:56

deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan

0:59

in eight years of active service in the Marine

1:01

Corps. In twenty ten, Joey

1:03

suffered a life change and injury while

1:05

deployed in Afghanistan as an explosive

1:08

ordinance disposal technician after

1:11

stepping on an improvised expulsive

1:13

device placed by the enemy. He

1:15

lost both his legs above

1:17

the knee and suffered severe damage

1:20

to his right forearm and both wrists.

1:23

Since recovering, Joey has dedicated his work

1:25

to help veterans and their families.

1:27

In twenty nineteen, Joey became a Fox

1:29

News contributor and now he currently

1:32

hosts Fox Nation Outdoors

1:34

and Fox Proud American Podcast. Today,

1:37

we're going to discuss his life story,

1:39

all things military, and what drives

1:41

him to devote so much of his life to help

1:43

veterans. And with all of that, I welcome

1:46

Joey Jones to the show. Thank you so much for

1:48

coming on out lot with Gianno Caldwell. Well,

1:50

thanks for having me on. Man. When you when you hit me

1:52

up about this, I was really excited. I love these

1:54

long form conversations. No,

1:57

I'm excited myself now. I want to

1:59

just go right into it because you've achieved

2:01

great success in your life and you have so much

2:03

going on professionally. But I want to begin

2:06

this conversation by going back before all

2:08

of that, even before the military. I

2:10

know you come from humble beginnings. You were

2:12

the first in your family to graduate high school.

2:15

Big deal. Yeah, No, sincerely,

2:18

I'm telling you it's someone who's coming from these kind

2:20

of environments too. I know how big of a deal

2:23

that is. And at one point you worked

2:25

as a forklift operator at a flooring

2:27

manufacturer. Can you talk a bit about

2:29

how you grew up and the values

2:31

that were instilled in you at a very young

2:33

age. Yeah, you know, I mean that

2:36

kind of says it, all right. The first one in my family

2:38

to graduate high school, to walk across the stage.

2:41

And it's not for lack of intelligence, it was for lack

2:43

of opportunity because you had other responsibilities.

2:45

My dad had two brothers, my mom had four

2:48

siblings herself, and they were

2:50

both born for the purpose of being a

2:52

part of the family farm kind of thing, like you

2:54

needed all hands on deck. That's why you had children.

2:57

And I kid all the time and tell people like my

2:59

dad's experience went

3:01

from like nineteen fifty nine

3:04

to two thousand, and he

3:06

didn't really catch all that that happened in between, because

3:08

it was like he stayed in this

3:10

kind of no technology, you worked hard

3:13

and and take care of your family mentality

3:15

up until he was sixty and had no

3:17

choice but to have a smartphone to talk to me

3:20

and Uh. And so all

3:22

that time in between, things

3:24

were pretty pretty much. You know, you're a lot

3:26

on your family and your you.

3:28

You owe what you owe to your family and they

3:30

owe it to you. And there were a lot of hiccups

3:33

and a lot of problems, a lot of adversity. But

3:35

to have that coming out and going

3:37

into the world. UM, any

3:40

success I've had, it's because I had that foundation.

3:42

Mm hmmm. Now you just

3:45

mentioned something that I want to dig into more.

3:47

You said that there was a lot of problems and a lot

3:49

of adversity. You mind talking about

3:51

that a little bit? No, not at all. And I talked about

3:53

this fairly freely. My dad was an alcoholic

3:56

and my mom suffered from her own problems.

3:58

Uh. I think her diagnosis is manic.

4:01

Um, I get him mixed up like mannic or

4:03

bipolar or something. She has really high

4:05

highs, really low lows and doesn't trust anybody.

4:08

And when she's in her lows, she thinks everybody's

4:10

legit at me, trying to undermine

4:12

her, hurt her. And it's because she was, um,

4:15

you know, abused in a lot of ways growing

4:17

up and um like, for example, my mom

4:20

was woken up at fifteen and said,

4:22

hey, you're gonna go with this man and you're gonna marry

4:24

him. And it's because he had traded

4:26

her dad basically his truck and

4:29

um, and that's in South Alabama,

4:31

you know. And so not

4:34

not to paint everyone that from her

4:36

side of the family is bad, but that was the experience

4:38

they had. So my mom, you know, lost

4:40

her virginity and and got pregnant

4:42

on her wedding night, and my sister was born.

4:44

She was was sixteen, seventeen years older

4:47

my sister, and so and my sister's

4:49

early years, my mom was figuring it out. She went

4:51

through a lot of depression and drug

4:53

addiction, and when she found my dad,

4:56

she also kind of found redemption. And he

4:58

had had his own struggles through his first

5:00

wife and and they were kind of each other's

5:02

saving grace at that time in their life. And from

5:04

it came me, and then a few years after that came a marriage.

5:07

So I mean, if you can talk about as as redneck

5:09

and hill bill as it, yes, that was it. But from

5:12

that adversity came a lot of things that they were

5:14

never able to overcome, but always had

5:16

the heart and the mindset to overcome it, you

5:18

know, they, more than anybody I've ever known,

5:20

focused on making life better for their kids

5:22

than what they had had. And my

5:25

dad's family was very positive. I mean they were solid

5:27

of the earth. I mean not as

5:29

not as maybe parody backwards,

5:31

but very much likely the clamp its from Beverly

5:33

Hillbillies. Like they just everything was

5:35

about the family. My dad had two brothers, his mom

5:37

and dad. My grandparents on my dad's

5:39

side was the epitome of what a love should

5:42

be for two people. And

5:44

so when my safe for example, like

5:46

my dad always wanted me to play football, but he only

5:48

ever came to two football games because he couldn't drink

5:50

there. But I had a grandfather and two uncles that

5:52

were there, So if you put all four

5:54

of them together, I had all the right positive

5:57

experiences for a father and um

5:59

and I was a lucky in that, you know, and we talk

6:01

all the time about like a nuclear family and how

6:03

important the father is. Well you know what aunts

6:06

and uncles and grandparents are important to like it does

6:08

take a village and um, and I

6:10

just wish people would understand the honor and importance

6:12

it is to be in a child's life,

6:14

regardless of kind of where what position

6:16

you hold by title. Because it

6:19

took my aunts and my uncles and my grandparents

6:21

and my older sister um and

6:23

they all invested in me, and man, then

6:25

I just owe it to them to go out and get it done.

6:29

Wow that man,

6:33

you know as you talk, it's so much reminds

6:35

me of my own life, although the circumstances

6:38

were a bit different. My mom was addicted to crack cocaine

6:41

and my dad was in my life. I saw him

6:43

on the weekends, my grandfather's small business,

6:45

plumbing construction business, if you take me with them on

6:47

the weekends. But things were really rough during

6:50

the week at home and the things that I

6:52

saw, and it reminds me

6:54

so much of my own upbringing. And

6:57

I know that even years after

6:59

being removed from that environment because

7:01

I'm thirty four years old now, moved

7:03

out of the house when I was nineteen years old, those

7:06

issues from way back when

7:08

still impact me today.

7:11

And you think about the reality of how

7:13

you think right now, how you move, you

7:15

know, when people say things to you, how it makes

7:18

you feel. How is that impacting

7:20

you today? You

7:23

know this, And what I love about this is we're

7:25

so different yet so alike and that's that's what cause

7:27

the human conditions consistent. Right, Like more

7:30

than likely you and I were exposed to the type of trauma

7:33

and had the just the good luck or good

7:35

influence respond to it in a way that

7:37

it ultimately became a positive thing for us

7:39

because when we started to experience trauma

7:41

as adults, we had tools to deal

7:43

with it and it didn't just wreck us because

7:46

hey, we've been there, We've done that, and we figured it out through

7:48

God's grace, good luck and maybe some good

7:50

people. And so not

7:52

to jump over away from your your question

7:55

to begin with, but today, when I experienced

7:57

trauma, like for example, getting blown up in Afghanistan,

8:00

I've got a basis of knowledge, Like I've been

8:02

through the valley and

8:04

I know that I'm gonna make it to the mountaintop, like

8:07

I've done that before. I mean, I've I

8:09

sit there and watch my dad get mad

8:11

about things and throw the refrigerator out the back door

8:13

and my mom just crying, and it's like, man, it can't

8:15

get worse than this. And then we wake up the next morning

8:18

and he takes us to breakfast, and he owns

8:20

up to what he did wrong, and he explains himself

8:22

when we go on about our lives. And it's not because that will

8:24

never happen again, but it's because he doesn't

8:26

never want it to happen again. Right, And so, like humans

8:29

make mistakes and keep making them. But if

8:31

you can survive that as a child and come

8:33

out in a positive way, come out

8:35

knowing these people loves you, even if they hurt you sometimes

8:38

and not on purpose, and and we're remorseful,

8:41

and you can learn to forgive them and see

8:43

something in them that's better than your than their

8:45

worst moment. Then when you go through

8:47

trauma of your own as an adult,

8:50

one you know whatever that is, you're gonna

8:52

survive it. Two, when you do make mistakes,

8:54

you know there's redemption there for it. And

8:56

three you see that love is complex and it's

8:58

not black and white. It's not a m calm. It

9:01

comes with its own skeletons, but it also comes

9:03

with the sunshine too. And

9:05

and so that's kind of with the way I process

9:07

things. And and it's

9:09

been very helpful, Like it you and your

9:12

words said, I'm very successful, and I think I am, but I'm

9:14

successful because I have two kids and I love them and

9:16

they know it, and I just don't know that there's more

9:18

success than that. Man,

9:21

I mean, you're just dropping jewels.

9:23

Is what you're saying is very profound, and I think

9:26

for a lot of people who are listening right now, they

9:28

can just apply some of these principles to their

9:30

own lives, no matter if they came

9:32

from a wealthy family, no matter if they came from a poor

9:34

family, whatever the set of circumstances were.

9:37

They can take exactly what you're

9:39

saying and just reevaluate their lives

9:41

based on that and say, man, I

9:43

can do battert what do you say with the grace

9:45

of God, um, good luck and some

9:48

good people. I think that's just I think that's

9:50

really amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Joey

9:52

No, you mentioned Afghanistan

9:55

and you joined the military when you were eighteen

9:57

years old. Why did you join the military

9:59

at a you know, what was your experience like during

10:02

the first few years in the military, including your

10:04

deployment in Iraq? You know

10:06

why during the military is you know, I'm

10:08

a product of that nine eleven generation,

10:11

right. It affected all of us and we all found

10:13

different ways to respond

10:15

to it. But I don't believe any of us did

10:18

not have the trajectory of our lives changed

10:20

if we were adolescent preteen

10:22

or teen and watched those towers fall and what happened

10:24

to our country afterwards. For me, the

10:27

military was just the avenue, like I remember,

10:29

um, you know a lot of people remember

10:32

the towers falling. I saw that, but it didn't have an

10:34

immediate impact because growing

10:36

up in North Georgia with not a lot of money, never been on an

10:38

airplane or even a bus. New York was as

10:40

far away as Tel Aviv, Like, it just

10:42

was not even it didn't even register. So

10:45

I didn't have that immediate impact

10:47

of hey, they attacked us on our home school. But

10:49

what I did have was a few years later when

10:51

a guy that was on my football team and upper

10:53

classmen deployed and came back and

10:56

just the changes in him he had seen

10:58

ward. Yeah, but it also boys

11:01

become men and women or girls

11:03

become women, and like he had seen a new

11:05

team in a brotherhood, and and just you

11:07

could see that's what came from it, not just the

11:10

war. And I thought, man, how how cool

11:12

to be to have some of that in my life. So when I graduated

11:14

high school, that was the accomplishment.

11:16

There was no expectation beyond that for my

11:19

parents, who had never seen that,

11:21

that was the accomplishment, even in two thousand

11:23

four when college was more mainstream.

11:26

So for me it was like, well, I didn't have the financial

11:29

support or really the attention span to

11:31

go into college. Laying brick and block

11:33

was not easy. So I joined the industry

11:35

in my town, which was to make carpet and didn't really

11:37

like that a whole lot, and it just

11:39

needed to be something more. And I just remember the day

11:42

I woke up and realized my mom

11:44

cleans houses and my dad builds

11:46

them. They provide services

11:48

for other people, and they do it with hard work. What

11:51

can I do? Like, how do I honor that? How

11:53

do I honor everything they give up to give me

11:56

decent clothes to go to school in in a vehicle

11:58

to drive things they didn't get? How

12:00

do I honor that? And the military just was

12:02

the most obvious thing for me. So in

12:04

short, because nothing I say short kind

12:07

that's okay. I kind

12:09

of went for selfish reasons because it was about me

12:11

in my life, but it was also for

12:14

others in the sense that I'll

12:17

put three this way. I joined the Marine Corps eighteen

12:19

and that was all about me, but by the time I was

12:21

twenty, it was all about being something, a part

12:23

of something bigger than myself and and serving

12:26

it. Really did everything they preached. Man,

12:28

I just soaked it up and it made sense to me more

12:30

with Joey jem was right after this. How

12:39

old are you? Joey, I'm thirty

12:41

four for about three more weeks, so I'm

12:43

I'm hanging in there. Wow,

12:46

bro, I'm thirty four two. Okay, so you're

12:48

a little older, been than me by what five

12:51

months or so? So now that that's

12:53

great to know. I didn't really realize that. Now

12:57

you were deployed in Afghanistan. It's a technician,

13:01

and I mean there was

13:04

a life event that pretty much changed

13:06

your entire existence. Now,

13:08

it was a day that you stepped on you

13:11

improvised explosive device i e.

13:13

D and lost both your legs. Can

13:16

you take us back to that day? Can you describe

13:19

what happened? Yeah? Unfortunately

13:22

or unfortunately one of the big mixed

13:24

numbers and movies are probably to blame for this,

13:26

but also just trauma in general. Like

13:29

people think when you get hit by a bomb, you're knocked

13:31

out and you wake up in the hospital, And the truth

13:33

is, unless your head gets hit, you don't go

13:35

unconscious. A matter of fact, you're going through

13:38

shock, which means in some ways you're way more

13:40

alert than you probably want to be. So my

13:43

job as an e O D. Explosive ordnance

13:45

disposal or bomb technician, it's

13:47

kind of like the movie hurt Locker, although the movie

13:49

doesn't really show the job

13:51

correctly in in reality.

13:54

By two thousand ten, in Afghanistan, we didn't

13:56

wear bomb suits, and we worked on

13:58

two man teams, not three men teams. And

14:00

we were walking on foot with a patrol.

14:03

We weren't in a vehicle with robots, and the majority

14:05

of the work we did was by hand. Um.

14:07

We tried to use robots when we could, but in

14:10

Afghanistan the bombs were placed in

14:12

in so remote places we couldn't get

14:14

the equipment there. And so my number

14:16

one tool for taking a part of bomb was a pair of trauma

14:19

shares um and like

14:21

a little hook with some cord on it so I could get

14:23

some distance when I needed to black

14:25

tape and in another explosive charge, I've

14:27

had to blow it in place. And it was all by hand. And

14:30

so I say that because a lot of people don't understand

14:32

that, and so how did

14:35

this for six months on that deployment, and

14:37

then on the sixth morning of an operation

14:40

it was August six. We started it on August

14:42

one. The job was to go in and

14:44

clear out a town called Safar Bazar.

14:46

You can look it up and google it. We have our little Wikipedia

14:49

page. It was Operation Roadhouse

14:51

too, and we took a couple hundred marines

14:53

in six bomb texts, and those six

14:56

bomb texts were three teams

14:58

of two men each, and each

15:00

team had its own responsibility, and my team

15:02

mate and I had the responsibility of being

15:04

with the main effort, so clearing the

15:07

main path ahead of us. And so for

15:09

five days we cleared city blocks, street

15:11

by street, and then on the sixth day

15:13

we started clearing the buildings, and

15:16

the town was pretty much a ghost town. Because

15:19

our respect for collateral damage in civilian

15:21

life means we're gonna let them know we're coming. And

15:24

this town was known for stockpiling the

15:26

bomb parts that they would send up to other

15:28

places. So when we told him we were

15:30

coming in order to keep the civilians safe, the

15:32

bad guys took all those bomb parts and put them

15:35

in the ground and made a mind filled out of the town.

15:37

But we had to go in and clear to the town because they were using

15:40

it basically as a as an enemy base.

15:42

And so for five days we were very successful. I worked

15:45

thirty eight eight s and five days, and UM

15:47

on the sixth morning, Basically what happens. I

15:49

stepped on an idea I didn't know it was there, and that

15:52

happens. It's kind of ironic, considering I had knelt

15:54

down and touched a hundred of

15:56

them with my hands, and it was the one I didn't even know it was there

15:58

that got me UM. And the unfortunate

16:01

part about that day is that a marine engineer, Corporal

16:04

Daniel Greer from Knoxville, Tennessee,

16:06

UM lost his life to the same bomb.

16:08

And that's really the irony war I stepped on it.

16:11

He was twenty ft away a piece

16:13

of a wall, a big rock hit him in the head.

16:15

Traumatic brain injury took his life. And of

16:17

course I lost my legs, but man, you know, it

16:20

would be very selfish to me to complain about losing

16:22

my legs when that could have taken my life. And so

16:25

really what that was, if anything, was just a wake up

16:27

call. It kind of kind of reset my compass

16:30

a little bit. As I began to recover, a

16:32

lot of other things changed in my life and

16:34

and I had a chance to just kind of refocus.

16:36

And my recovery was an

16:38

opportunity, to to say the least.

16:41

And it's you know, I tell people all

16:43

the time, let today be the last worst

16:45

day of your life, which means you can

16:47

change your perspective and make every day after

16:50

a tragic event better. Um,

16:52

and that's what I chose to do. Did

16:54

you have children at that point? I

16:56

had a son, And you know, I told

16:58

you before we got started. I love these kind

17:00

of conversations, get a chance to kind of let it go.

17:03

And uh So the whole story of

17:05

my son is I was very single and very

17:07

much a marine and in very good shape and enjoyed

17:10

to meet new people, to include ladies. And

17:12

so I had a son from

17:14

a one night stand and I just found out

17:16

about him right before I deployed. He had made it

17:18

to about five months old before I met him.

17:21

And uh I like to say

17:23

I did the right thing, but I just did the the only

17:25

option I had, which was I was ecstatic

17:28

I had a child. I gave him my name. His

17:30

mom and I worked together to figure it out and do

17:33

all the legal stuff. We we didn't get

17:35

together, but we decided to raise this sun

17:38

as two parents that love him. And so

17:40

when I got hurt, I'd only spent two or three

17:42

days with him. And by the time I got hurt and made it home,

17:44

he was a year old. Um.

17:46

And so I tell people, you know, we learned to walk

17:48

together and uh. And that's how we became

17:51

friends and and the father and the son, and he's been

17:53

here with me ever since. Now I've got

17:55

a little daughter. M h. That's

17:58

a that's a

18:00

man. I tell you, that's one of the more interesting

18:02

stories, especially when you know that

18:04

life isn't all about you anymore. And

18:06

you had this experience that you just mentioned

18:10

was from a one night's thing. You didn't know that

18:12

you had a child out there, but you find out

18:14

right before you go. And I'm imagining

18:17

as you have this experience,

18:19

because you talk about a bit about the recovery,

18:21

but as you have this experience, mentally,

18:24

I just wonder what was going on with

18:26

you at that time you got you got a child.

18:29

Now you're like, okay, how you know, how are

18:31

they gonna look at me. I didn't spend much time with

18:33

them. Your family, I'm sure probably

18:35

was, you know, all concerned about

18:38

what was going to happen, what life was gonna

18:40

be like for you, And I know

18:42

you were wondering what life was gonna be like

18:44

for you, you know, one of the

18:46

I guess unfortunate blessings of my

18:48

job and there when I joined the

18:51

Marine e O. D. Field And and what's different

18:53

about the Marine Corps than the other services. Has to become a bomb

18:55

tech. You volunteered into it, but

18:57

you have to have served for a certain amount of years and reach

18:59

a certain rank before you can do it. And they really

19:01

want anybody that goes through that training to be dedicated

19:04

to it and know really what they're getting into. And

19:06

so just to join the Marine Corps e

19:08

O. D. Field, Man, I had seen it happen.

19:11

I'd had Buddy's deployed come back without legs. I kind

19:13

of knew the process. And then even on that

19:15

deployment, I've seen it happen a half a dozen times, either

19:17

right in front of me or showed up immediately after and help

19:19

clean it up. So when I lost my legs

19:22

and went through the recovery, it was more about

19:24

just kind of uh, setting a goal

19:26

and checking it off. Setting a goal and checking it off.

19:29

I can't say that I was prepared for it,

19:31

but it didn't hit me by surprise either. If

19:33

your job to take bombs apart, you better

19:35

be mantally prepared for the probabilities,

19:38

if not, if not, the possibilities and

19:40

uh and so for me, like, for example,

19:42

man, I got a picture of the first time I pete standing

19:44

up, and it's kind of funny, but it

19:46

was also a goal I set, like, Hey, that's something I

19:49

used to do without thinking twice. I can't

19:51

do that anymore. I need help to go to the bathroom

19:53

when I'm walking enough that I

19:55

can take myself to the bathroom and stand up

19:57

and urinate like I'm gonna take a picture of it. Mark

19:59

that a And I did that with every

20:01

goal. And as far as my son

20:04

goes, I mean, I often say he kind of saved my

20:06

life because I never wanted

20:09

for motivation. Nothing motivates

20:12

you like responsibility, and I had his responsibility

20:15

to be a father. And you can't do that laying

20:17

in the hospital bed worried about what you lost. You

20:19

gotta be able to appreciate what you have and do

20:22

the right thing. And so for me, it was like, you

20:24

know what, I've got learned how

20:26

to throw a baseball without legs. I've got to learn

20:28

how to teach this kid to drive. I've got to learn how to

20:30

take him to a restaurant. I gotta learn how to discipline

20:32

him and work him like my dad

20:35

did me. Um, and these legs

20:37

can't be the reason why I don't do that. He deserves more

20:39

than that, you know, Joey, thank you for sharing

20:41

that story. But I'm reminded

20:43

of how we first met, and

20:46

I believe, if I'm correct, the first time we

20:48

met was in a Fox Nation

20:50

studio and we were on a panel

20:52

together, and I just remember

20:55

thinking and seeing you and wondering, how

20:58

the hell does this guy have such a

21:00

a great attitude? You were just and

21:02

every time I've seen you since we were just hosting

21:05

a show together on Fox News Channel, maybe

21:07

you were three weeks ago or so, and

21:09

you're just always in good spirits.

21:11

I text you your good spirits? How

21:15

do you have such a

21:17

good disposition after all that

21:19

has happened um to you,

21:22

and and and and certainly with

21:25

your family, how do you continue, You're happier,

21:27

seemingly to me than people who have

21:29

had everything good go for their lives.

21:32

And I get it. Not everyone's had everything

21:34

good going for the lives, but certainly they

21:36

got all kind of things to call for money,

21:38

success and all these other things. You're more

21:40

happy than they are. How is that possible, Joey?

21:44

You know, you see these movies and you have these full brass

21:46

and are always complaining because they've

21:49

never they've never needed to want for

21:51

something, and they

21:54

had created this false expectation

21:56

that everything's supposed to happen and happens when

21:58

they wanted to. That is never a factor

22:00

in my life. I'm not saying that I wasn't

22:03

taken care of, but it was never presented

22:05

to me that things will go the way I wanted them to, or even

22:07

in my favorite was presented to me that things got

22:09

to get done towards gotta get done work. It's gotta get

22:11

done and you've gotta be the one doing it. And

22:14

so I just have a gratitude for the positive

22:16

things that happened in my life, and it's hard

22:18

for me not to focus on them about it. You know,

22:20

there's some people that are really good at sports, are really

22:22

good at dancing and seeing it. I don't have any of those

22:24

gifts, but life has a way of

22:26

working out for the for the positive things I

22:28

want in my life, and I'm always grateful

22:30

for that. That's a blessing. And I

22:33

mean, I wish I had a

22:35

better answer, because I know, I

22:37

know how difficult it is for some people. Um,

22:40

but I just, you know, something clicks for me a long

22:43

time ago that made me just incredibly grateful

22:45

to still be alive, but also to still have these

22:47

blessings in my life. And I've never

22:50

felt like they were supposed to happen.

22:52

I've never felt like I was oathed them. I never felt

22:54

like they were gonna happen no

22:56

matter what. And so when you're raised

22:59

to work for it and then things happen

23:01

and you don't feel like you've even worked that hard for

23:03

like you're like, it's hard to explain, but

23:05

it's like I didn't do anything for my daughter

23:08

to love me but make her, but

23:10

she loves me unconditionally. Oh my god, that's

23:12

such a blessing that I wake up happy. Like

23:15

when I wake up and I hear her say Daddy, It's like,

23:17

why in the world would would she

23:19

be so happy to see me like that? Those

23:21

things happen every day. And if you're not

23:23

grateful for that, if it doesn't make you happy,

23:25

like I don't know you can be happy? And I worry

23:28

for you. Man, this

23:31

is your an adultes is so inspiring.

23:34

Now, let me ask you this question, what role

23:36

does guy play in your life? Because I hear a lot

23:38

of tones and what you say and

23:40

everything you say, and you've've seen it on air.

23:43

What role do this guy really ultimately play

23:45

in your life? All the roles and none

23:48

of them are defined. Like I was raised

23:50

in church and I don't go to church now,

23:52

um, but I don't have anything against it, just isn't

23:55

um the experience I'm looking for. I have a

23:57

very spiritual experience. I pray and talk

23:59

to out a lot and um, but I

24:01

don't want to limit God. And so my

24:04

experience is that the

24:06

difference between faith and religion is

24:08

religion as we as people

24:10

trying to figure it out, and faith is

24:13

just feeling it. And so I've leaned into

24:15

faith and a and I'm worried

24:17

that if I ascribe to a specific um

24:20

dogma, I guess I would be limiting God's

24:22

ability to play a role in my life. If I if

24:24

I put rules on God, then perhaps

24:27

I limit God. And so I

24:29

believe in faith, and I believe

24:32

in things of that nature. Um,

24:34

and I don't I don't corner it, so

24:36

I don't stop it from from working the way

24:38

it's supposed to. I don't think any human

24:40

being makes it through most of

24:43

life's adversity for any of us, by ourselves.

24:45

And if it's through the works of a deity or other

24:47

people, um, I call that

24:50

God and I give it credit. And it doesn't

24:52

have to be one to fine thing for me to

24:54

believe in it. Now, thank you for sharing

24:56

your perspective on that. Now you

24:59

have to retire ring from the military. You want

25:01

on to graduate from Georgetown University

25:03

in teen with a degree in liberal

25:05

studies and social and public policy.

25:09

And you often went to Capitol Hill to introduce yourself

25:11

to politicians there. What were

25:13

you thinking at that time? You

25:15

know what I was thinking. I was thinking, every

25:17

one of these dudes and ladies up here are gonna

25:19

want to take a picture with me because I'm a shandy object.

25:22

Right, I'm a warder and uniform that lost his legs. But

25:24

what they don't know is I'm smarter than they think, and I'm

25:26

gonna sneak up on them what's something I care about

25:28

and make them care about it too. And

25:30

so that's kind of how I handled that. I um,

25:33

I kinda it's a crazy story,

25:35

and if I don't have enough time to say it, But basically,

25:37

when I was recovering, I recovered pretty quickly

25:40

and the paperwork couldn't keep up with my pace.

25:43

UM I got injured August six, two thousand

25:45

and ten. I was walking and

25:47

by all accounts, fully recovered by February

25:49

two thou eleven. And it takes about

25:51

two years just for the retirement

25:53

process to happen. And usually in

25:56

those two years, you go to college or you do

25:58

Paralympics, and they kind of keep you busy E up

26:00

in d C back in during this time. But

26:02

I wanted something more than that. I knew I wasn't gonna

26:05

lay breaking block for a living. I knew I probably

26:07

wasn't gonna earn my living as a marine for

26:09

the rest of my career. So what can I

26:11

do. I can go educate myself. And so I started

26:13

college with a community college on

26:15

campus October. So I got injured in

26:17

August. I started doing classes in October, and

26:20

as soon as I was independent could leave campus,

26:22

which was around February. I had rolled at Georgetown

26:25

and started school there, and

26:27

in doing school while I became interested in

26:29

policy because I was at Georgetown and we were learning

26:31

kind of how policy started for mankind.

26:34

And so I had an opportunity to go up to

26:36

Capitol Hill and meet Chairman

26:38

Jeff Miller. Actually I met him over at Eighth

26:40

and N if you're familiar with d C over at the Marine

26:43

Corps barracks. And I rolled

26:45

up to Chairman Miller, who's the chairman of

26:47

the Veterans Affairs Committee at the time for

26:49

the Republicans who were in charge. But

26:51

more importantly, he represented the first District of

26:53

Florida, where the e O D School is and a lot

26:55

of EO D retire. And I said, Mr

26:58

Chairman, I know all your constituents and they think you should

27:00

give me a job, which was a very ignorant

27:02

thing to say, but it worked. No, it wasn't.

27:04

It wasn't ignorant, so

27:08

it was naive

27:10

maybe, and uh it was attention.

27:14

He thought I was retired. He didn't know all his

27:16

active duty and had a daily commitment

27:18

to the hospital and was living right

27:20

beside it. So that was on a Friday. On

27:22

Monday, they're like, hey, will you come up and submit a resume

27:25

where we'd like to look at hiring you for a

27:27

fellowship or an internship unpaid.

27:30

So I went and bought a suit. I typed up probably

27:32

the worst resume that has ever made its way

27:34

to Capitol Hill and was successful, set

27:37

in front of him, did an interview, and they're like, yeah,

27:39

next week to lot four, but the Monday after that would

27:41

love for you to start coming in And I did a fellowship,

27:44

So I went and worked out with my therapist

27:47

from seven and nine. I was

27:49

at Capitol Hill by ten, and then I left at

27:51

three or six, depending on the day, at

27:53

three two to three days a week to

27:55

go to college that night. And that was kind

27:57

of my routine until the Marine Corps found

27:59

out out that they had some realgunded warrior working

28:01

up on Capitol Hill and they're like, listen, you gotta have ethics

28:04

training and it's got to be approved. And by

28:06

that point, I've been there so long that like

28:09

they didn't have a choice but to leave me there, and

28:11

so I ended up having a pretty good impact on some

28:13

policy and just really have been

28:15

involved in some way

28:18

with it ever since. So

28:20

that's interesting. And you were in in d C

28:22

the same period I was there. I was there from twelve

28:25

seventeen, so we we might

28:27

have even ran into each other,

28:30

maybe the r n C or something like that, who knows,

28:32

but I would have remembered you, for sure. I

28:34

would have some I'm thinking probably not, but we

28:36

were in the same place. So you go from

28:38

Capitol Hill, you had some good impact on policy.

28:41

I'm interested real quick, what was that policy?

28:43

And I want to I want to get to your started

28:45

Fox News. Yeah, so what

28:47

the big things at the time was right before I started

28:50

working for Age fact, John Baynard

28:52

being the Speaker of the House and put some kind of a hiring

28:54

freeze and so like. Basically

28:56

it was all about the fiscal responsibility side

28:58

of being a Republican. They weren't letting Congress

29:01

just hire and fill all the seats and

29:03

jobs that the Democrats had held

29:05

before him, and it was kind of more of a we're

29:07

gonna show you all that it can be done fiscally

29:09

responsible. It's what that meant was. I didn't

29:12

even havev into college education. And I was working

29:14

as the only other staff member in

29:16

the Disability Assistance and Momoral

29:18

Affairs Office of the House Winners Affairs

29:21

Committee, And so I set across the table

29:23

from veteran service organizations lobbying

29:25

for different things to be done. But

29:27

I had a little bit of a card that I could pull

29:30

because they were used to sitting that across

29:32

the table from civilian Harvard

29:34

grads, not guys and gals that actually been

29:36

through the system. And so there was something called the improvised

29:39

or the it's called the I D E S. I

29:41

can't remember what the eye stands for, but it's the disability

29:44

evaluation system, and so used

29:46

to when you got injured like me catastrophically,

29:49

you were completely evaluated by the D O D.

29:52

They finished their evaluation, then

29:54

you got a rating from them, and then you started

29:56

from scratch with the v A and then a full

29:58

evaluation with them, and you got your

30:00

pension. And we were able to combine

30:03

that into one process and UM

30:05

and they really looked to me to

30:08

give the user experience side of it.

30:10

And then there were other things where people

30:12

were just lobbying for random things, and I could

30:14

really sniff the bull crab, this

30:16

podcast the bullshit and uh

30:18

and and let the decision makers know, hey, this

30:21

is not something that this has not helped

30:23

the veteran community, or this is not what it

30:25

looks like. Um. And so those were

30:27

two of the places. I mean. Unfortunately, even back

30:29

then, getting substantive bills passed

30:32

was not easy, but just having that type

30:34

of influence on policymakers was a lot of fun.

30:36

We're talking to Fox Nation hosts and retired US

30:38

marine Joey Jones. You got so much more

30:40

with him right at their kid break. How

30:51

did you go? You? You

30:53

talked about your background, family background,

30:55

and you talked about going into the military. What happened

30:57

there? And then you just happened to go up

31:00

to someone to say your

31:02

constituents, I know a lot of your constituents,

31:04

give me a job. How did you from

31:07

all of that experience, how did you end up on

31:09

TV? Where did Fox News come and play

31:11

with all of this? Well,

31:14

basically what happened is in all

31:17

of that, I really got a lot of assistance

31:19

from military nonprofits, and I felt guilty

31:21

about it early on, like, hey, yeah, well doing way too much

31:23

for me. How can I help you? Like, obviously

31:25

I'm a communicator. I like to talk. Maybe

31:28

I've got a gift for it. Can I lend my voice

31:30

and communication experience to you. One

31:32

of those nonprofits was out of d C, and

31:35

of the many things they did, they took monded veterans

31:37

to NASCAR races and did some

31:39

fun stuff. And I ended up meeting this lady,

31:42

Jen Williams while I was volunteering

31:44

for that, which was about the same time I worked on

31:46

the Hill and went to Georgetown and most

31:48

of my voluntering town was on the weekends, and

31:51

um Jen Williams had been a Fox and Friends

31:53

producer and left to be freelance

31:55

and she was working on a project with a NASCAR

31:58

and I met her that way and we became

32:00

friends. A few years later in Kyle

32:03

Carpenter, who had taken my fellowship

32:06

that I created and took it after me

32:08

was about to get awarded the Medal of Honor I had

32:10

recovered with him and and Gay

32:12

and told them, Hey, this is the guy you want working on

32:14

the Hill. So she asked me to come on and talk about

32:17

him during Gression Carlson's show at the time because

32:19

it was called The Real Story. So I go

32:21

and a mike up and it's my first time doing live TV

32:24

and I'm just gonna talk about my buddy Kyle,

32:27

and President Obama interrupts and does

32:29

the speech and he's like, hey, there's a scroup called ISIS

32:31

and we're probably gonna have to go to war with him.

32:33

And she's like, Hey, since you already miked up,

32:35

do you mind to just talk about it? What was an

32:37

important enough speech and lasted long enough that

32:39

everybody had tuned in, So if you were

32:41

tuned into Fox News watching President Obama

32:43

when it cut away, there was Joey Jones giving

32:46

you given Obama the what for on

32:48

this and UM, and that was my introduction

32:50

to television news. And from there,

32:52

I've had a really a fast

32:54

success on Twitter. And Greg

32:57

gutt Felt and Mike Huckabee saw me on Twitter,

32:59

didn't even know I had been on each invited

33:01

me onto their new shows, respectively, and the

33:04

rest kind of went from there. What what did

33:06

you say about Obama at that time? UM?

33:09

I don't remember. You know, I was

33:11

still in uniforms UM

33:13

up until twelve, so at that time I was recently

33:16

retired and I just didn't um.

33:18

You know, here's the best story I can get. For President Obama.

33:21

I went to the White House and had dinner with him

33:23

with a bunch of four star generals, and

33:25

while I was having dinner, he kind of looks at me, goes, Johnny,

33:27

if you were back in the same place doing the same thing,

33:29

how would you do it differently? And I said,

33:31

well, Mr President, I'd step left, and

33:34

like you know, Maddess started laughing, but none

33:36

of the other ones got it. And what it was is like,

33:39

you know, when I stepped right and step on a bomb. But the

33:41

bigger point there was, hey, man, that's for you to

33:43

figure out. Like my job was to do

33:45

what was in front of me, the big stuff

33:47

up to you, like figure it out. And

33:50

um, so that's how I've treated all politicians.

33:52

Like I tell you, he's very charismatic and

33:54

very good at his words, but

33:57

I never, really it always felt like

33:59

he was on. I mean in actually a handful of times, and it it always

34:01

felt he was performing. And I

34:03

can't be insincere because I haven't

34:05

met another sitting president. I met Trump

34:08

before he was president, I met Bush after. But

34:11

I can imagine it may be that they're all kind

34:13

of feeling like they're performing at all time. So

34:15

I was never overly harsh

34:17

of President Obama. But I've always called

34:19

balls and strikes with any of the presidents. That's just who

34:21

I am speaking of. I would like for you

34:23

to put on your Fox News Fox Nation hat

34:26

for a minute before we close out

34:29

this show. First, you're a veteran

34:31

of war in Afghanistan. I just read

34:33

on Fox News dot Com that all

34:35

US forces have been removed from

34:38

the Bagram Airfield, the largest

34:41

military base in Afghanistan. We're

34:43

going to be completely out of Aghanist Afghanistan

34:46

by September eleven, according to the Biden administration.

34:49

A lot of Americans want out

34:51

of the longest war in American history.

34:54

But we also see now

34:56

that we're leaving the Taliban

34:58

taking over district after

35:01

district from the Afghan government. It

35:03

looks like the Taliban could very well take over

35:05

the country in a matter of months. And of

35:07

course, the Taliban is aligned

35:09

with al Qaeda. So with all that

35:11

in mind, what's your opinion of America's policy

35:14

towards Afghanistan as it stands today.

35:17

You know, I'm glad you're talking about wrapping

35:19

it up with this this most important policy thing we'll talk

35:21

about right rest of us just Joey's story. And so now

35:23

we talk about some business. Um,

35:25

here's the deal. I don't think we've been in the

35:27

twenty year war. I think we've been intend to year

35:29

wars because in America we hold

35:31

our politicians accountable and sometimes that's

35:34

even to our own detriment. And what I mean by that is

35:36

politicians have a way of of crafting

35:39

their foreign policy to reflect what the ballot

35:41

box has in mind. So if it becomes

35:43

populars and not want troops to Afghanistan, then they'll

35:45

change their mind. And if if it becomes posular to

35:47

go attack, um isist,

35:49

and they'll do that. And and a lot of times

35:51

it feels like it's not really about what makes us safer

35:54

as much as what gets us to vote. And

35:56

so the really I don't have an opinion

35:58

as much as questions, which is the

36:00

problem, right Like I lost my legs in Afghanistan

36:03

and I've got more questions than than definitive

36:05

opinions on it. And that's the problem right

36:08

there. But if I were talking to the President Biden,

36:10

I would say, you know, in two thousand and ten and eleven,

36:12

you were the second person in charge. It was it

36:15

was the Obama Biden administration that

36:18

believed in this war and the victory of it enough

36:20

to send forty troops to Afghanistan

36:23

and me being one of them, and to let my buddies

36:25

die and me lose my legs. That's how much you believed

36:27

in it. Now you're president and you're

36:29

unconditionally withdrawing, which means you don't

36:32

ask for anything in return, You're just bring everybody

36:34

home. What changed? What changed for

36:36

you? Why did you go from believing in it enough

36:38

to let me die for it to not believing

36:40

in it enough to have anything to show

36:42

for it? And that would be my question if

36:45

he answered it correctly, I you know, if he answered

36:47

it genuinely and understood, maybe I'd accept

36:49

it. But right now, that's my question.

36:51

Are you optimistic about the future of America?

36:54

Always? Eternally? Look, man,

36:56

there was a time where we were at war with half

36:59

the western world out the eastern Western

37:01

world, right and and our grandparents,

37:04

I mean, your grandparents didn't have rights that mine

37:06

had at that time. I mean, that's just insane to

37:08

me that even though the world existed that way,

37:11

but all of our grandparents were turning in still

37:13

for the cause right and get and

37:15

standing in the government cheese line because we

37:17

have a rash in our food. All of

37:19

that just for fight for our survival,

37:22

and now we fight over how we feel. And

37:25

so we've advanced a long way,

37:27

and we've been through tougher times, and

37:29

I just believe that it's in our in our blood

37:32

that we will when we're backed against the wall, honestly,

37:35

we'll survive and do the right thing. We just

37:37

unfortunately, even with nine eleven in my war,

37:40

maybe we haven't been backed against the wall and we've

37:42

been left to our own devices a little

37:44

too much. Now, my last question before

37:47

we get into projects you may have coming

37:49

up in your Fox Nation show and all that good

37:51

stuff you said before you were raised

37:53

the Republican and still hold many of those beliefs,

37:55

but are still critical of the right these

37:58

days looking at the GEO p and

38:00

the right more broadly, do you think

38:03

conservatives are going in the right

38:05

direction? You know, it's fun as raised

38:07

as a conservative, but back then that was a blue

38:09

dog Democrat, right like, because we

38:12

were poor, So you couldn't be poor and be a Republican

38:14

back in the eighties and early nineties, and

38:16

so the conservative idea of

38:18

personal responsibility and respecting someone

38:21

else's ability to live their life

38:23

and doing it without the government growing

38:25

to the point that it becomes just arbitrary

38:27

authority. That's never changed in me, it's

38:29

just who represents that from one moment to the

38:32

other, or if anybody does it all changes depending

38:34

on who the politicians are. And

38:36

so for me, like I'm more critical

38:39

of the people on the right because they're

38:41

the ones that are supposed to represent my ideas,

38:44

and when they mess it up, it matters the

38:46

people on the left that I don't always fully understand

38:48

their ideas, so it's hard to be critical of it because I don't agree

38:50

with it. So I can't tell you how to do it better. I can

38:53

just say I don't like it. But if you're on the right

38:55

and I feel like you are taking advantage

38:57

of our passion for the

38:59

opportunity get elected, then I'm definitely

39:01

coming after you or at least asking you to explain yourself.

39:03

And that's kind of position I've holden. And

39:05

as far as um you know where

39:08

we are now with politics. If you've got

39:10

a team mentality, you know, the Georgia football

39:12

fan. If I've got the ninth best

39:14

quarterback in the SEC. I'm going

39:16

to give you a full throated argument on why it's really

39:19

the third best because that's my team, right

39:21

And we can't do that with our politicians. We can't

39:23

make excuses for them. We can't make a reality

39:26

that isn't true. We've gotta be able to be honest about

39:28

it, and sometimes that means critiquing

39:30

the politicians are supposed to be on our side.

39:33

I love that we share that.

39:36

I absolutely appreciate that. I'm gonna start

39:38

calling you common sense joe common

39:41

sense Joey, you're you're up now

39:43

before we go, Do you have any big projects

39:46

coming up at the folks at home so you know about and what can

39:48

people find you on social media and elsewhere? Yeah?

39:50

On social media Twitter and Instagram is

39:52

permotional. I think I'm active on that's Johnny

39:55

j o h N and why Underscore Joey

39:57

j o e Y same handle as

39:59

far is what I'm involved in. You know, I have I have

40:01

my own little podcast called Proud American on Fox

40:04

News Radio. You can get it wherever podcasts are and we'll

40:06

have you on there soon, I'm sure and thank

40:08

you absolutely. And then on Fox

40:10

Nation, have a couple of different projects. I've done

40:12

two seasons of Fox Nation Outdoors is really

40:15

cool. It's a hunting show, but it's really about

40:17

learning the country abroad. Um.

40:19

And then I have a couple of projects. One it's called USA

40:22

Inc. That tells the history of tattoos in America

40:24

and all the military involved. And I've got a

40:26

project that's dropping July four,

40:29

um, and I don't know, you know kind

40:31

of when people will access this, Yeah,

40:34

it's the day after. It's

40:37

July five, So you get you had a

40:39

project that came out yesterday. Basically

40:41

we're recording on the Friday before. Guy, So

40:44

I gotta I got a

40:46

really cool thing that should be available on Fox

40:48

Nation around the Monday

40:51

after the fourth of July. They haven't told me, but I

40:53

sit down with four veterans from

40:55

Vietnam, Desert Storm,

40:57

Iraq, and Afghanistan and talk to

41:00

them about why they're proud Americans and where

41:02

they see the country today. It's pretty amazing, yo.

41:05

I just want to thank you for joining

41:07

me, Joey Jones, And it's so

41:10

wonderful actually to know even

41:12

more about your story and know how we

41:14

really are connected. I want to consider you my

41:16

new brother. Because there's so much connectivity

41:19

there and I look forward to being in touch with you and

41:21

building a stronger brotherly bond with

41:23

you. So thank you for joining me here on out Loud with Gianno

41:26

Caldwell. And I'm sure you're gonna get

41:28

a lot of new followers who are going to be interested

41:30

in your story because it's one that's amazing. I

41:32

hope that you've got a book that you're working on because

41:35

you're hill billy. Elgie was a great

41:37

book, but yours would be much

41:39

more powerful and profound. That's

41:42

my opinion. I appreciate it, man, I

41:44

appreciate you and all you do, and I look forward to working

41:46

with you more. M

41:56

I want to thank Joey Jones a good for a great interview.

41:59

If you're joining show, wease leave us a review us

42:01

the Five Stars on Apple podcast. If

42:03

you have any questions for me, please email

42:05

me at out Loud at Gingerishtree sixty dot com

42:07

and I'll try to answer them in our future episodes. And

42:10

please sign up for my monthly newsletter at ginglish

42:12

Street sixty dot com Slash out loud. You

42:14

can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and

42:16

parlor at Giano Caldwell,

42:19

and if you're interested in learning more about my story,

42:21

please pick up a copy of my best selling book titled

42:24

Taken for Granted, How Conservatism Can

42:26

win back to the Americans that liberalism failed. Special

42:28

thanks to our producer John Cassio, researcher

42:31

Aaron Klingman, and executive producers

42:33

Debbie Myers and speaker New Gingridge,

42:36

part of the Ginglish Street sixty Networks