A Green Beret's Lessons On War, Accountability, & Counterculture Living

Today, I sit down for a somber but necessary conversation with Joshua Daniel, a retired Green Beret and the founder of Counter Culture Solutions and the Hero Games Charity. Mr. Daniel spent nearly 21 years in Army Special Operations, first with the 75th Ranger Regiment and then with the Green Berets. 

We open this episode discussing his upbringing in rural Bedford, Virginia where he was raised in a single-parent home marked by hardship, resilience, and unwavering love. Mr. Daniel shares how his early exposure to instability shaped his character, and how joining the military was never about finances—it was about becoming the hero he always felt called to be.

We dig into his deployment experiences, including an intense first-person account of a life-or-death moment in Afghanistan during a mission to neutralize a high-value target. Mr. Daniel walks us through the critical seconds that could’ve ended his life, how a suicide vest malfunction changed everything, and the emotional aftermath of surviving such moments. His global perspective on war, humanity, and empathy is grounded, deeply spiritual, and refreshingly nuanced. Despite fighting extremists, Mr. Daniel emphasizes his belief in human dignity—even when faced with those who would never offer it in return. His reflection on honor, sacrifice, and staying emotionally connected despite repeated trauma is chilling and a grounded wakeup-call.

We also explore Mr. Daniel’s incredible post-military mission. He explains how the Hero Games Charity was created to honor fallen Special Operations warriors and support their Gold Star families with immersive, life-giving memorial events. We also dive into Counter Culture Solutions, a coaching and mentoring platform that offers treks, leadership development, purpose retreats, and holistic wellness rooted in military wisdom and spiritual accountability. Mr. Daniel’s commitment to humility, discipline, and human connection is a powerful reminder that heroism doesn’t end on the battlefield—it continues in how we live, lead, and serve.

https://www.counterculturesolutions.com/

https://herogamescharity.com/

https://youtu.be/JykMn5uo9W0?feature=shared

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*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.

Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and today we're gonna be seeing what lessons can we take from the special operations community particularly from a man who spent a lot of time in there and is now in the civilian world.

We've talked a lot on the show about the differences between the military world and the civilian world and how it can kind of affect the way you see things and do things. It could lead to you making counterculture solutions, one might say. And we're gonna talk today about that here to share his story with us.

Mr. Joshua, Daniel, so great to have you here, and could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Hey, Mr. Whiskey. What's up dude? Good morning. Thanks for having me. I guess, roll it into like the one minute pitch. Grew up in Bedford, Virginia, God's country. Joined the Army at 17. Went straight into the special operations community, the 75th Ranger regiment to be specific.

Spent five years there. Then I moved over to Special Forces earned my Green Beret, spent the rest of my almost 21 year career there. Met my wife along the way. I've been married for almost 19 years, and we have four kids. I've since retired. I retired at 38, which was pretty rad experience. Moved back here to God's country and started a new business, counterculture solutions.

We also, through our time in service, started a nonprofit called Hero Games Charity. Those are really my two professional purposes at the time being. And otherwise, man, I'm hanging out in the mountains, enjoying good people and sleeping as much as I can nowadays, enjoying all the, the comforts that I missed out on for a long time.

And, you know, life is kind of presenting this new taste that I've never experienced, man. I mean, it's a, I'm happy. For sure coming up on that big 20 year anniversary, so make sure you got that date marked down and something planned. And yeah, the, the military definitely you do go into sleep debt as we call it.

I remember actually in, just in bootcamp there were the guys in charge of my division used to yell, you know, killers need sleep too, petty officer. And she said, y'all ain't no killers and y'all ain't sleeping. So, you know, I totally get that. And I want to go back to, I was reading your bio online and you talk about reading, being raised in a single parent home, obviously in a rural town as you mentioned.

What, how did that affect you and impact you being in a single parent household? Yeah, you know, I wanna preface everything I'm about to say with the idea that my parents are amazing. My father was very much active in my life, but. We were poor. And I was, I raised by my mom, you know, we lived with mom.

And, you know, I don't think I settled into a, a single school until seventh grade. And then I, I stayed in the Bedford County School system. But up to that point, man, I think I, I probably went to five or six different schools from kindergarten to sixth grade. We, we were below the poverty line and we didn't know it, you know, 'cause we were happy and we had a lot of love in the house.

My, my parents, they just couldn't make it work. Dude. They were young. They had me. And they're wonderful people individually. They're wonderful people together now at the time, they just couldn't make it work and. You know, I felt that you know, we had struggles that my kids don't have, and I think that that was beneficial to me and to my brother.

I think we learned a lot. You know, we, we learned that character was everything, right? Like, we can, we can lack all of these things that other people have. You know, I went to school you know, in good clothes because my, my parents always made sure that they put money into us to make us feel strong and, and and attractive, you know?

But yeah, I went to school smell like cigarettes and, and that, you know, like, it's not, it's not a fun thing. I went to school. Not necessarily knowing what the future looked like because other kids had two parents in the house. And man, you know, like that was such a desire, such a dream for us.

And it creates a lot of anxiety. I think that I was a very worried kid, man. I was always worried, dude, I worried about my mother all the time, all the time, dude. But they loved us. And that was, that was critical. It was the most important thing. And because of that, you know, my brother and I are very happy and very successful people.

And we came, we really came from very little man, I'm telling you, like moving apartment to apartment. We lived in a hotel at one point for a short amount of time, you know, just because it was tough as a single mother. And my, my father. Paid his child support and did even more than he was expected to do.

But he didn't make much money, man. He, my father's been a foreman at a graveyard for 40 years. Wow. That's a whole nother thing because, you know, he's just an exceptional, amazing person. He, he, he is truly top tier man. But I mean, he would've made an excellent Green Beret, I'm telling you, probably better Green Beret than myself.

But that's not that, that those weren't his cards, man. You know, it didn't work out that way. And so he did his best. My mother did her best. And dude, I, I think that it was a success overall because like I said, here we are happy, we're both, my brother has been with his wife for 19 years as well. You know, we, we learned a lot and we were able to take those lessons and translate them over into our lives and make our lives better, and hopefully give our children a better opportunity.

And I kind of assume, was that part of the drive for at 17, signing that pay paperwork, seeing the military as an opportunity to get into something that was financially stable and new? No, not at all. Actually not financially driven at all. I, I didn't really realize that I was that we were poor when I was a kid.

You know, at some points I had free lunch at school. Most, the rest of the time I had reduced lunch. So like other kids would pay $2 and I would pay 40 cents. I didn't realize that that was because we, I didn't, it didn't click man, you know? So I always felt like we had everything we needed. I look back at watching my mom get this little red Nissan sports car that it was, dude, it was nothing to be like impressed about, but my brother and I, I guess we were, I, I was probably about eight.

We were just so stoked about this little red sports car. And it, you know, she probably got it at some crazy high finance. It was used crazy high finance you know, rate. And, but she got it. And dude, we just, I just thought, man, we're the coolest. Like, I think we're, I think we're rich now, you know, I think we're rich, but we weren't, dude, you know, and then she was actually, we were living in a trailer at the time and she was actually able to purchase her, her, her first home on her own.

Man. She, she did so well for herself, given her lack of, I guess opportunity or maybe just a little bit of a rough start on life. She did so well. And I'm proud of her for that. But no, I didn't, it didn't really click until I was an adult man. And, you know, I'm financially stable and I'm buying a house and then selling a house, I'm buying another house and getting nice cars and, you know, special forces pays.

Well then, then I was able to look back and go, whoa, okay. I've provided my children with the life that a lot of my friends had. I remember going to my friends' houses, some of my friends, a lot of my friends were poor too. I remember going to some of my friends' houses and being like, whoa, this is crazy, dude.

This, this house is huge. You have your own room. Like all of those things. So no joining the Army had nothing to do with my financial goals. Okay. So what was the motivation behind that then? Yeah. I ever since I can remember, I always wanted to be, I always wanted to save people. I wanted to be a hero, but not in the sense of getting the acclaim.

I just, I just wanted to make an impact here. With my time, with my capability, my energy, I just wanted to be able to do something that was special. And I started watching war movies at one, at some point, I guess probably about 12 years old, 10, something like that. I was always infatuated with it.

Most little boys are there comes a point when a lot of little boys go, okay, that's cool, but it's not what I wanna do with my life. And that never happened with me. You know, I had war movie after war movie, and I was just sold, dude, just watching these things. I'm like, yeah, I want that. Okay, I want that.

I want that moment. I want that moment. Whatever it was, dude, you know, Mel Gibson, and we were soldiers on a knee, on the radio calling Broken Arrow. Like, I'm, I'm watching that as a kid, going, dude, gimme that. I want that. Right? And then nine 11 was a bit of a catalyst. I remember I was in ninth grade shop class and they pulled us in.

We watched the news as it was happening, and then there's a lot of, there's a lot of panic. My mother came and pulled us out of school. She just, she was unsure about what was happening. And I remember going home that day and I had my own little rifle, and I got my rifle and I was like. You know, I was, I, I was like expecting more, you know, I kind of have this core memory of me looking out of our window across this cal pasture and kinda envisioning like red Dawn Russians jumping in, you know, who knows what's happening, man, what People just flew planes into towers.

There's thousands of people that are dead. What, what is happening? What is this? And so I think that was no doubt the moment I said, okay, dude, this is, this is it. For sure. Yeah. So we've talked before on the show about how different in times of peace or or times of, or for most people in the service, even that, that war movie mentality, that, that.

Propaganda is very different from what you experienced, at least in most of the rates. Again, very few people are combat deployed the special forces. However, did you find that was very much what you were able to achieve that same kind of energy and feeling? No doubt, man, it, I got exactly what I wanted. Of course, I don't know that there's a war movie that I've seen yet that really captures war the way that it's experienced.

You can't, I don't think you can man that you need more time and maybe you shouldn't be able to, you know, maybe you shouldn't be able to capture that. Maybe it's something that's reserved for those who partake, but I don't know. The

I think that.

What I did get was that sense of purpose, the brotherhood, the higher calling, everything that you feel when you're watching those movies. I got, I got all of that, man, it delivered. Yeah, I, I feel that on some regard as well. And I like what you said, what I, what I have to ask is, so obviously you went on a lot of different missions during your time in the service and I'm sure you know, a lot of things are not discussable, but out of all the missions, did anyone stand out in particular or has had the most impact on you compared to the others?

Yeah, I think so, man. I think, I keep getting roped into this, into this one. When I talk about my experience, and this is just one of so many, but this one I always kind of come back to this one. It's 2008. I'm in Afghanistan. This is my first deployment, two Afghanistan. But I've already done three deployments to Iraq at this point.

Iraq started to cool down a little bit around that time, and this is when Afghanistan really heated up. The leadership in charge at the time in Afghanistan shifted from the SEAL Team six and their command to the ranger regiment. So the ranger regiment was now handed the special operations command in Afghanistan, in Afghanistan.

They, they identified some shifts they wanted to make and they made a big push. So we really started to pick, pick up the kinetic activity. You know, some of my buddies in my platoon who had been to Afghanistan prior to this, they're like, oh man, it sucks. We're not getting Iraq Afghanistan's quiet, because they had done trips in like oh 5, 0 6, and it was relatively quiet for some people at that time, for rangers for sure.

And so we're headed back and then we hear like, Hey dude, the command really want, they really wanna push hard, so expect this to be super kinetic. And it was, man, it was the most kinetic deployment that I've ever had in, in different ways than some of my others. But we hit the ground. We're there from September to January.

Generally that's a more quiet time. There is a summer fighting season in Afghanistan and it typically spans whenever the weather's good, right? So probably some, some areas start fighting around March ends around November. So we knew we had a couple good months. The reality was, dude, we were banging it out through December, no problem.

Like the, the enemy wanted it and, you know, we were willing to give it. And so the we hit the ground and we're immediately going out and getting into gunfights. Of course, the ranger regiments roll in Afghanistan at the time was conduct pinpoint raids on high value targets. So this guy is here, go kill or capture him, right?

Pretty cool job. A lot of helicopter assault forces, a lot of ground assault forces in Humvees driving through mountain passes, you know, thinking you're gonna roll off the edge of some cliff and fall, you know, a thousand feet at night under night vision. So super, super fun, super kinetic deployment.

So many stories outta that. But this mission, I think really changed things for me in so many ways. We are targeting a specific individual. We conduct a helicopter assault force, so we enter via helicopter ripping through the valleys. We fast rope into an offset infiltration. So we're gonna walk in and I don't recall the walk, man.

There's so many, right? But it's cold. And and we're walking in, we get up to the compound. And I'm on primary assault, so that means, you know, my team is gonna be the first in or my squad. So we moved to the breach point. We enter and clear the top of the structure and it's, there's nothing there. Like, I don't even remember it looking like anyone lived there hardly.

So this is typically called a dry hole, right? Hey, we're in the wrong place. Well, attention to detail. We exit the building. It doesn't look like there's multiple levels, but we start to search for anything else, man, we can't leave this building without ensuring that it's been completely cleared. So we rip around to the right side of the building as, as I'm looking, and we find this barricaded barn door.

We get it open and then it opens up to a, a basement, but with rooms and. I enter, I bypassed the first room on the right, it was a closed door, and I enter the open door just beyond it. And I come in, I clear along one of my squad mates and it, it's, there's about 12 people in there. It looks like all women and children.

And so clear through, look at my squad mate. He exits and I stand there and I'm on security. So essentially like my night's over at that point, which sucks, right? It's like I, which door are you gonna pick? And all of us want the door of the bad guy. Every one of us is going, dude, I hope I get that door right.

Reality is most likely you're not getting that door. You're gonna get what? I got room full of women and children. But we always look for work. So. I start to scan them and I'm watching their behavior in their body language because they're not talking. I'm like, dude, something's off. I just felt it. I felt, I felt like something was wrong.

So there were three women in the room and there were completely covered in kind of on their knees or squatting down like this. Like, dude, something is off here, so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go inspect a little bit. And I come over and I grab the Shema of the first female, which, you know, back then we would do this later on in the war.

You're not touching females, but grab her MOG and I pull it up and I look right at her and just hate, pure hate dude. Like, all right, well, whatever. I don't care. Go for the second one. Pull the Shema up, dude. Full beard. It's on at this point, as soon as I realize it's a man. And I know that the TTPs, the tactics, techniques and procedures of the Taliban over in that area, which are Haqqani network fighters, they're gonna dress as women and they're gonna wear suicide vests.

So yeah, I immediately knew that I had a problem and I was now by myself in this room. The rest of my platoon or, or the assault force was clearing through the structure. They're not worried about me. You know, they know that there's women and children in there. And at that point, I, I was pretty shook, like, because it clicked that it, you know, it's about to be on.

I took a step back and that's when he attempted to initiate a suicide vest, which later find out that he did. Actually initiate the vest, but it was a low order detonation, so it, the vest didn't blow. Right. And then, and I saw this, I saw his hands, I saw what he was doing, and I knew that I had to make an engagement.

You know, I'm, I'm a ruler's length off of the end of my barrel, you know, that's where his head is. I mean, I'm right there. And at the same time that he went to initiate the suicide vest, his wives grabbed me. They like tried to pull me in. So I'm striking them with my rifle, my hands. I don't, I don't really recall what's happening here, but I'm, I'm striking all three of them.

I guess I didn't want to make the engagement at that point. Things just weren't clicking entirely. And then that's when. He went for a grenade. So he had realized that his vest malfunctioned and he went for a grenade and that's when I made the engagement. So right there, nestled between his two wives and all of his children, I drilled this dude repeatedly in the upper thoracic region.

And even through that, he fumbled through this grenade. I'm, I'm pumping rounds into this guy, a ruler away from his face and he's, he's literally still handling this grenade. So I just start to create distance, continue to engage him and eventually find the mark. 'cause he kind of had his head down, so I couldn't really see his facial structure at this point.

He was just kind of nestled down, just trying, frantically trying to get this probably vest and grenade to go off and yeah, eventually. I put him down and right as my platoon sergeant, my squad leader came in the room and I just remember making the engagement, taking a big breath and feeling my platoon sergeant's hand on my shoulder and he goes, good shooting.

Let's go. And I'm like, and so we called landslide, which was a term that meant the building would potentially drop. This guy's got a grenade and a suicide vest on. So we called landslide, we left. And then about 20 minutes later, I went back into the house with our F-B-I-H-R-T operator to get forensics on this guy.

And there he was, suicide vest grenade and hand clenched to his chest. And we left. And that was one of 60 missions. I did that deployment, but. I, I provide all that detail just to kind of get you into that moment. How that changed me was, that was a major brush with death. S so many things happened to keep me alive that night.

Let's just take a step back from the actual suicide vest and the engagement. The helicopter that got us there didn't crash. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're these pilots that are the best in the world. They're ripping through valley, a valley in Afghanistan going, who knows how fast Napa the earth, barely above the tree line.

Like every time we did that, it was a blessing, right? Slide out of the back of the aircraft at 30, 40, 50, sometimes 90 feet, you know, down a rope. Another blessing. Walk in, don't step on an IED. Another blessing come through the breach point. Don't get shot in the face. Another blessing, like they're all stacked up.

And then when you narrow it all the way down to the fact that this dude's suicide vest malfunctioned. No dude, like the, you gotta, you have to know that your life was spared. And that was a catalyst for me where I came home from that deployment and I just felt different. Dude, I felt very different, a little shook, but honestly, I felt on top of the world after doing that, he happened to be the, the objective that we were looking for as well.

So I, I happened to kill a pretty high value dude, which was it, it definitely gained me some, some notoriety within the community. Like people heard about it. Guys from other platoons are like, dude, I heard you smoke, right? I heard this happen. And you know, it just gave me this outlook that there's gonna be more of these.

But dude, you gotta. You gotta really be thankful for this and use this as leverage and almost as like, propulsion into your future, that you've been given a gift and you, you can't, you can't let it go. And there's a bunch of other things that came outta that. Right. But that that made a mark on me for sure.

How would you say that all of this, you know, all your missions and everything has affected your view globally or that global perspective? Global politics, and especially here in America with so much, you know, hate towards the military people calling us baby killers. I've been told that myself as a veteran, you know, and talking about foreign relations.

How has that really changed for you, if at all? I think my exposure to these various cultures through nine deployments has been. Rudimentary in my growth and, and understanding people. I'm very empathetic to all causes. I'm empathetic to the Taliban dude. I can't tell you that if I grew up in Afghanistan, that I would not have been Taliban.

Think about it. I'm religious. They're religious. The Taliban is predominantly rural. Grew up in a rural environment, they're pretty poor. They have a strong focus on the family. They have the, the Pashtoon people, which is the core of the Taliban. They have a beautiful culture. It's full of honor. These are amazing people.

I'm not saying the Taliban's amazing. The Taliban has done some horrible things. They're, the Taliban as a whole is disgusting, but if I'm that young man. Now these American invaders are in my country, I'm probably grabbing an AK and fighting, right?

So then you look at Iraq. Iraq was a little different man. You had foreign fighters piping in to come killing American. It was a little different. The empathy is not quite there, right? I, I find this Jordan Jordanian dude on the objective, like, nah, no empathizing there. You know, this dude wanted Jihad and he got it right.

My non-combat deployments, you know, I've trained with Chileans, Colombians, I've been to El Salvador and Wai, and had exposure to many different cultures and, and, and Central and South America. And. You know, dude, we're all very similar. We all share very similar values. It's the extremists that are the problem on all ends.

Whether you're an extremist Christian or an extremist Muslim, or maybe it's politically driven, whatever it is, it has nothing to do with religion. Extremism is the issue, right? And so, just my exposure, my exposure to all of these people, and dude, humans are beautiful. There are amazing people doing amazing things all over the world, and I really try to make sure that I view things through a human lens.

You know, you look at what's going on right now in Israel with Palestine, specifically Gaza, Hey, you know what? I'm not there, so I don't really need to have an opinion on this, right? Hey, should I be doing something about this? I don't know, maybe. Not everything is yours, right? Not every bad thing that's happening in the world is your responsibility, and I think we have to know that.

With that being said, can I look at it through the lens of just every human's eyes and know that, you know, yeah, people are really being affected. There are people that are, their lives are being turned upside down, and I think that we need to be careful to not become hardened to that. I think if anyone should be hardened, it should be someone like me who has killed a father in front of his wives and children.

I killed that. I killed another father in front of his children. Same, same deployment. This guy's trying to kill us this time with a different weapon. I've literally. Gone into houses, been in gunfights, and then picked babies up and held them. I mean, I'll never forget that same deployment. I had a brand new, my, my daughter, she was brand new man.

I just had her, we had my daughter in December of oh seven and I, I deployed and we had her at the end of December and I deployed the first week of January. So I didn't, I didn't get to see my daughter's first six months or I guess four months. And I remember that deployment, actually, that was a different rotation.

I did, I did two deployments in oh eight. It was a hell of a year. I was in Iraq for the first half of the year, and then I was in Afghanistan for the second half. It was a wild time, but I remember holding this tiny little baby and this little Iraqi girl and just feeling like it was my daughter.

Because you go into this house and you kill or capture these bad guys. They have children, dude, bad guys aren't like, hey, they're not gonna have kids. So yeah, dude, like, let's, let's really treat people like people and we can't remove that human aspect. Or we become really horrible, nasty people, man. Or just as a, as a whole.

So you, you talked about how like if anyone should be desensitized or hardened in the heart, it would be a guy like you. What has enabled you to stay in touch with humanity? Andy? Is it something you're actively doing or is it just your nature as a person just 'cause of, of your upbringing? Like, is is it something conscious or is it just a subconscious?

It's both. I, I tell everybody, I'm a lover, not a fighter, and every person in my life disagrees with me. But I know that. I'm a lover, not a fighter. And I also believe in accountability. I'm spiritually grounded with Christianity. I mean, you know, I have this idea that every life, whether it's an animal or a person, it's special.

And, you know, one day I might, I might be held accountable for how I treated all of those, right? Like, we got chickens out here, dude. And I have two roosters that they need to be shot, right? 'cause we can't sell 'em. No one wants to buy these things. And there's, everybody's got too many roosters. I don't wanna shoot these things, dude.

I want nothing to do with violence. I want nothing to do with it. You know, I wish they could just figure their situation out. But I treat everything like that, that, you know, I'm gonna be held accountable for how I treated this. This person, this soul in that case, right? And that's kept me grounded in that sense.

I, I'll be honest, you know, at some points I was a little desensitized to it. You know, you're, you're going out and you're fighting the nastiest people in the world. I mean, if the roles were reversed after the mission, you have them here and you've captured them and you're putting them in a detention facility, ma'am, if the roles were reversed, they would just cut your head off.

Like that's the people that they are, right? They would never show you any sense of safety. And so you become a little desensitized when you're consistently around that and seeing those types of people. But I always tried to bring myself back, man, and, and see people as people, even the nastiest ones.

I think it's difficult when so much of this society here in America, people who have never gone through what you've been through, people who grew up very privileged and spoiled, you know? I mean, I won't even begin to start on a, on the privileges here in America because people are so spoiled. You know? I know for a fact when you said what you said, they would've said, well, we need to be the bigger person.

You know? That's exactly what they would've said. I've, I've heard them say it before. Well, we should be the bigger person and, and, and take them captive, but it's the same with. Even, you know, people with, not to get political, but even with the illegal immigration, you know, you talk about, imagine if you snuck illegally into another country or any other one of these countries, how they would treat you compared to how they treat us.

I mean, or, or anything you do, you know, in other countries, I mean, some countries even, I, I've heard stories of military guys who got drunk and acted up. I, I knew a guy at sailor who acted up in Singapore and got a little drunk in public, you know, disorder and littered on the street and they beat him with canes for three days, you know, and that's a nice country Singapore, let alone a third world country where if you were to do what you do.

So I, I think, you know, it's that perspective and I think you've been through something that not a lot of people have. And I don't wanna say a lot of people need to, but to some degree people. They, they, they just think it's like all a, a, a story, you know? Especially with, I think our, just our generation, gen Z and Gen Alpha and Gen Beta, all the new generations coming up.

You know, Vietnam is like a fictional story to them. You know, I, I'm more in touch with it because I have Vietnam veterans on my show all the time, and I listen to their stories in great detail. But there's a lot of people who grew up, you know, nine 11 is just a story to them. Vietnam is just a story to them.

Even the stuff in the Middle East you know, it is so far away and I think it's hard for people to be grounded in the reality of it when they haven't been over there. And it's a shame to see men like you are often villainized for, for what they've done. But everything that they're living and appreciating now is a result of people like you going out over there and making sure that this people forget that without the military doing what they do.

Because I've heard a lot of people on certain parts of society here in America, like, we need to get rid of the military. The military, you know, like I said, baby killers, they are, they are pointless. They are a waste of money and they don't do anything for the country. They're just a means of having a, a, a big attack weapon named at other countries all the time.

I mean, I think people are so born into everything they have that they take it for granted so, so easily. And you know, it's even, I was in combat deployed and a lot of times I, I wish I was, because you talked about purpose and I know a lot of the guys that I served with who weren't actively deployed in combat felt purposeless, you know, running into nuclear reactors and doing stuff stateside, we felt.

We all had that drive to be out there doing something and every guy who was deployed and the combat said, we wish we were just chilling in the reactor room. And, and we always got briefed on the importance of everyone's role in the military. Every person in the military's a thousand moving parts, right?

And sure, maybe the active duty combat parts are a little shiny and flashy. But everything behind the scenes, keeping the ships in the submarines running is just as important. But I think, you know, I saw because of that just how the sacrifice of even the people who aren't combat deployed, I mean, living through conditions you know, and that's not to say that we're anywhere near the level of sacrifice of the men and women who are out fighting, but giving up our sleep, not seeing our family for the holidays, working overnight stuff, right?

Even just the most peaceful side of the military still requires sacrifices to a degree. And people don't acknowledge or recognize that as much. And it's a real shame. I mean. People say we've changed, like we don't treat veterans the way they were treated when they came back from Vietnam and they were booed and spat at and disgraced.

But I think it's growing back up again to that same level of hate and disrespect, and I'm not sure if you have anything to say on that. Yeah, I, I love everything you said, man. I have a lot to say about that. I, I'll try to keep it brief. First what stands out to me is what you described is just selfless action.

It's the guys that don't have the, the deployments and the cool stories that that's real selfless behavior, man. You know what I'm saying? It's like my dad, I'm telling you. Best example of a man that I've ever seen. He just lives it. Dude, my kid, my kids call him the. The greatest of all time. Yeah. And they believe it, dude.

He's just, he's just that good. But guess what? He doesn't have a green beret sitting behind him on his couch. Doesn't have a tan beret, doesn't have these, these cool pictures and plaques, and he doesn't have any of that. Man. There's nothing that shows his 40 years of giving people an honorable last thing on earth.

Right. His job is literally to put human beings into the ground with honor. We need him immensely, and we need him to do it well. I mean, it's the last thing that we ever get right? Especially for the surviving families. He's so important. He gets none of the acclaim, none of that. It's, it's truly selfless behavior for him to wake up and be exceptional.

He doesn't have to, he wakes up at four 18 every day, four 18. He doesn't have to be at work till seven.

He's exceptional. He gives it everything he has. And so that's gotta be tough for some people. For him, it's not, it's, it's kind of strange. I ask him sometimes, like, you know, you do, you, you, you still love it. You know, you feel good. Oh yeah. I wouldn't do anything different. Like, man, that's so special for someone to be able to put in the work and not get the cheers.

So to those people who are out there doing those thinkless jobs, man, thank you because we need you. We, this world needs you desperately. And I, I hope that more people can see how necessary you are. Regarding the first thing that you brought up, which was privilege. Everyone knows here in America we have first world problems.

For the most part. There's, there's poverty, not, it doesn't touch what I saw in El Salvador doesn't touch what I saw in Afghanistan. Okay? People who get to eat meat once or twice a year because it's their birthday and they're going to go into San Salvador and, and go to a restaurant once a year. 'cause otherwise they live out in rural El Salvador and they walk to school.

They don't have a vehicle. They live in a, in a little, you know, hut that doesn't have electricity. They have the threat of MS 13. They lived under civil war. 30 years ago. Like, there's, there's so much there, man. We don't endure that. America is amazing. America is amazing, and if you haven't had the opportunity to go see what I'm talking about, then maybe you should keep your opinion to yourself a little bit, right?

Maybe you, maybe go check that stuff out and then come back here and see. I was in El Salvador when Boule, the president was rounding everyone up that even smelled like MS 13, 65,000 people incarcerated in a mega prison. A is it making El Salvador safer? Absolutely. Are there human rights violations occurring there?

Absolutely. Would that ever happen here in the United States? No, regardless of what people wanna say about alligator, Alcatraz and all of these other narratives that people run with, they don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what real injustice looks like. Is there injustice in America with our judicial system?

Absolutely. No doubt. 'cause guess what? We can't get it right. Humans can't get it right. We just, it's impossible. But what we do is we mitigate it. We try to minimize it. And so yes, there's injustice here, no doubt. But I think as a whole, most people are doing their best. I think most people are doing their best, especially in this country.

This is a light. This is the light on the hill, right? Everyone across the world wants to be in this country, wants to have the opportunity that we were given just by being born here. So, you know, for anyone that feels like they have an opposing opinion to that, I'd love to chat. I would guess that you probably, your opinion is probably not grounded in much, and maybe you should be a little more curious and exploratory before you open your mouth about something that you know very little about.

I know you said earlier that the experiences of war maybe should be kept sacred and personal to those who experienced it. And, and I, there is some beauty in that, but at the same time, I wonder if we had a TikTok live stream of El Salvador, of Iraq, of Afghanistan that people were swiping through and viewing as much as they were.

All of this, all of these only fan girl pages. All of these trends, all of these political rant story times and book talks on on TikTok and Instagram and all these social media platforms. How that would, would change their opinion, you know, if they, because I think, like you said, they're not exposed to it at all.

Not even online really. You know, they, they, obviously there's some news coverage of stuff, but even the news coverage, it's never like that in that, that personal, you know, experience. You're getting this across the globe view. Maybe the reporters are there in, in person, right? But they're still all with this American fixed point perspective.

You know, like, I don't, I don't see a lot of live interviews of, hey, the, like, like when you just got out of the foxhole, you know, there's no reporter standing there saying, Hey, Mr. Daniels, how do you feel? Right. You know, it's always, we're here after the fact and, and, and this is how this went in X, Y, Z, you know?

So I think people are very disconnected with the reality of it. And I mean, you know, this may not be necessarily true, but kind of what I heard from, from your end was. The poorest American is still richer than the richest person in El Salvador almost. You know, when you look at the, the global shifts, because yes, there is a lot of homelessness in America, don't get me wrong.

And the amount of money we've sent in foreign aid or spent on other stuff that could have been used to help homelessness makes me sick, you know? But there are a lot of programs in America that, I mean, the amount of people on Medicaid and disability and, and homelessness programs, living in shelters and stuff still in better condition than these people who you said, you said they're walking in school, mind you, barefoot most likely.

I know a lot of countries don't even have shoes. They don't even have shoes for their feet and everything, so it is very ridiculous. I love Tom McDonald. He is, some people call him a political rapper, and one of his songs, he said you're complaining as you sip on your Starbucks and tweet from your iPhone.

Two things that cost more than you know. I mean, just think. I don't drink coffee, but I mean, I, I assume they're like six, seven, $8 a coffee. I mean, think of how much that money would mean to those people in other countries who don't even have water, who don't even have clean water, let alone, you know, frat pays and all that stuff.

So it really is about perspective. And you talked about the selfless acts with no accolades and everything, and it, it comes down to integrity and humility. You know, it, it really is a beautiful thing. And it made me think of, Tom McDonald has a song called Heroes and he made it about the everyday people.

He said, there's so many songs about rappers and gold chains and clubs and stuff and this and that. And he made a song for first responders, for the janitors, for the clerks and the, and people at grocery stores and saying, everyday people, you know, we don't know who they are, they're not superstars, but they're, they're heroes.

And so I have that song in description below for anyone who wants to check out. 'cause it was a really. Bone Chilling song, you know, because he said all the, all the plumbers and, and contractors making the buildings that we live under. You know, like you said, they don't have these war stories, they don't have these trophies or awards, you know, and it's like almost either you go to a big university or you go to war and it's the only two times they're recognized, you know, unless, until you pass away.

Then they'll have this little poster, you know, at your funeral of everything you did. And I think we do need to acknowledge one another more for that humility, integrity. But I wanna go ahead and move on from the wartime stories to get more into what you're doing now, because I think as important as all your special missions were, I want to recognize what you're doing now.

Like you said that especially your, your charity, you mentioned it earlier to rec help recognize people. Can you tell us a little more about the Hero Games charity and what that looks like and who that's for? Yeah, man. So 2017, I'm back in Afghanistan and before I left, I came here to Bedford on leave and wanted to challenge my brother and his wife's CrossFit gym.

They own it to like a military style workout, and it was cold and wet and I put 'em through it and they loved it. And so I deployed, came back, we did it again, like, man the, this, this seems like something people may be interested in, right? This was kind of before the explosion of similar events, right?

Similar military style events like Go r or any of those things. And so we, we did it again and. We said, well, what can we do to have an effect, a positive effect with this? How can we use this as a tool? And one of my company mates was had just been killed. And so we ran the hero games and we took all of the money.

This was the first time that we had ever charged anyone. We charged them and we took that money and donated it to his wife. We wrote her a check, sent it in the mail, didn't even, didn't even tell her. And we didn't hear anything. And about a year later, she wrote us a letter. And that was that was the key point where we were like, wow, we really impacted her.

And there's, there's something special here, right? It's not just a workout. So the next year we decided to go big and that was COVID 2020. And we had a lot of people telling us, no you know, don't do it. You can't do it. We did it anyway. And we grew immensely. You know, we had 150 people gathered that year for the Hero games to honor Sergeant First Class Antonio Rodriguez, and we had his wife there.

And now we're going, okay, this is, this is evolving, right? We paid for her to be there. We paid for her b and b, and we wrote her a check after. And it just kept growing. And now what the hero games is, and I think this is, this is its final. I guess evolution, it will continue to get bigger and better every year, but it will never deviate from where it is now in, in the general structure, which is we identify a special operations gold star family.

We invite them to be honored at the hero games once a year. It's only once per year. We pay for all of their expenses to fly them here, put 'em in a beautiful b and b, give 'em a vehicle, stock the b and b with all the foods that they like. We decorate it. We have a bunch of gifts there for them from the community.

Then we go the next day and in place a brick at the National D-Day Memorial honoring their loved one. The National D-Day Memorial was here in Bedford because Bedford, Virginia lost more boys per capita on D-Day than any other town in the country. Oh, wow. So, yeah, Bedford you know, has, we've done our part and so, we put a brick in and then that night we have a big team party because before deployment you always have a team party, platoon party, whatever you wanna call it.

And we break bread and we listen to the family to tell stories about their loved one. The next day we wake up and we do the hero games. The hero games is about a six hour fitness comp. There are six teams. These six teams battle all day long in a special operations style event. Everything from swimming to rucking to shooting BB guns.

We have an involved live ammunition. It's a little different. It's I don't think we'll ever go there. It's been recommended. Just a lot of fun, man. And it's physically and mentally demanding. We give them a little taste of special operations, but the whole point is not for them to like come out of this crucible and be, you know, this mega alpha, you know, survivor that made it through this tough thing.

It has nothing to do with you. We say all the time, this isn't about us. It's not about you. This is about this year private first class Eric Hario, right? So when you're doing the event, I want you to think about Eric. I want you to think about Eric's last days, his last moments, what he was doing when he was killed, and you know, that little bit of pain that you feel in your back because the ruck is heavy and your feet are wet and all of that doesn't touch what Eric, what Eric felt.

And then we have a big after party shoot fireworks, eat good food, drink beer. Have a good time. Socialize and the next day we record a podcast with a family. This is our way of giving the family the opportunity to forever digitally record their story about them, about their person that they lost.

Our podcast is called the Catalyst Collective, and yeah, that's generally it. We send 'em home and we maintain a relationship with 'em. So we have families from previous years that come back to be involved in the hero games. And so, dude, it's been a, an immense blessing to us. It gives back to us in so many ways.

One way that it doesn't give back to us is financially, and this is. A transparency thing that I like to tell everyone. 'cause there's a lot of nasty 5 0 1 c threes out there. We are a 5 0 1 C3. We're an official nonprofit, but we, I believe are a true nonprofit. We do not make any money off the hero games.

We, every single dollar that comes to the hero games goes towards the hero games or administrative support to the hero games. Right. We don't pay each other, we don't even put gas in our fuel tanks. Like I used to drive up every year from Florida to run the hero games. Okay. We do not take anything from the organization.

We never will. So I think that's really important. When people donate a dollar to the hero games, that dollar is going exactly where you think it's going. So the way that it has given back to us, man, getting to bring. The mother, the wife, the brother of one of your buddies here, and treating them like royalty and giving them the almost like the final honor and respect that they deserve, and then getting to maintain a relationship with them.

Dude, it's so intrinsically fulfilling, you know? So like, it almost feels selfish in that manner. And I don't, it's not that that we always just choose our friends. In fact sometimes it's our friend, but in the past there have been people I didn't know Sergeant First Class, Antonio Rodriguez, you know, the 2020 recipient.

I didn't know PFC Eric Carrio, our recipient this year, we let last year's family choose next year's family. So it's, it's a big family, right? Yeah. But that's the hero games. No, I just wanna clarify in case anyone got lost, is this civilians can participate in watch, or this is only the special operations families?

How does that work? Yeah, great question. It's open to everyone. So we have six teams. We do keep this rather organic to this area. So four of those teams are from local CrossFit gyms. So you're not gonna be able to join that team unless you're local. We have two teams that we fill with people from all over.

So every year there's only 24 competitor tickets to the hero games that are available. And so that. It kind of narrows your ability to come out and, and jump on board, but pay attention to social media. You'll be able to grab a ticket, you know, and come out and see what we're doing. And it's also a spectator event, so we have plenty of spectators that come out and they watch and they get to en engage as well a little bit.

Have a good time. Could you plug when the next one is gonna be for, I assume 2026 will be the next one. No, we're about to run the 25 Hero Games. It's September 6th. Okay. So I assume you got all the teams made already? Yeah, yeah, we do. We actually just had some spots open up on the, so we have a Gold Star family team and we reserve slots on that team for the Gold Star family.

So really it's less than 24 open tickets. This year our Gold Star family did not fill. All of those slots. So we just opened those up. So there's actually, there's some tickets right now that if you went and bought a ticket, you could be competing right next to Eric Rio's dad, who is on the Gold Star team.

Which man, like that's, we've seen this in years past where the Gold Star team, 'cause we, we put, we put very special people, very special competitors on the Gold Star team. We don't just put anyone there because they're right there next to the Gold Star family. We need to have confidence that they're gonna give them an exceptional experience and they're going to, they're just gonna be upstanding.

But dude, man, I mean, we have pictures of the Gold Star family competing alongside some of our competitors and just. You can see the, the admiration and the honor that our competitors have and the respect that our competitors have for those gold star family members. It's it's special man. It's special to see people like really honor.

That's, yeah. That's what we're doing. We're, we're really honoring these fallen For sure. And I wanna also, before we end things here, talk about counterculture solutions. We mentioned it in the very beginning, uh mm-hmm. You know, I wanna get back to that and talk a little bit about that. I know you have merchandise for it, but what else is it?

Yeah, so Counterculture solutions is my way of taking everything that I've learned over almost 21 years in special operations and sharing that. Translating that into the civilian community. So I have one-on-one mentoring clients, which is a really fulfilling process, right? Where I help them navigate life.

We have other coaches as well that work with one-on-one mentoring clients. So we offer that. Again, Hey, we have all of this experience. My brother and his wife, they've been entrepreneurs for 15 years. Like, you want to learn how to build a gym? Cool. Come do one-on-one mentoring with my brother, his wife at counterculture, like that they're gonna teach you.

We also do treks in the mountains. So we've done a purpose trek multiple times where we're going up into the mountains. We're gonna talk about why we're here. We view it all through the eight dimensions of wellness spiritually, physically, emotionally. We're hitting, we're hitting everything and just looking at you holistically and saying, Hey, what are you doing here?

What are you doing with your time? Where do you, where do you want to go? Where do you want to be? While being out in nature, it's, I love the purpose track. It's myself and our, we have an operational psychologist on board. She was actually an operational psychologist in special forces, so she and I work together on that purpose Trek.

It's awesome. I also do a men's trek with another former special operator called the Wait. We carry it's men in the mountains on a simulated mission simulated mountain rescue Mission where you're gonna learn some skills, but mostly we're there to talk about what it means to be a man in today's society.

Outside of that, we do speaking engagements, right? So people have me come speak at various things that they put together. We do have merchandise because why wouldn't we have some cool designs? Some cool shirts, for sure. And, you know, that's just a nice little way to get our name out there. And, you know, we we're also working contracts right now with local law enforcement, so this goes everywhere from, you know, help helping an 18-year-old kid join the military and do it the right way to training the Bedford County Sheriff's Office on nighttime engagements.

Right. Like it's, it's pretty broad. So that's what we're doing, dude. And, you know, I, I created counterculture to separate this from Hero Games because it's very important to us that Hero Games is, is strictly that annual event and it's purely focused on that. Nothing else. It's not about us. Can you give a little history behind the name Counterculture Solutions?

So obviously I know you were making your own separate thing, and it covers a broad array of different, you know, military and mental health things. So where does the counterculture name kind of come into play? Yeah, well, you know, it's pretty in line with culture nowadays. To be a victim of your circumstances, to not really take charge and take lead on your life it's pretty in line with culture to be average.

It's pretty easy to just wake up and be average, especially in the United States. Counterculture is about being exceptional. Anyone, it's, it's, it's available to everyone. Being exceptional is available to everyone. Not everyone wants it. The truly people may say they want it. Not everyone wants to be exceptional.

So we are offering a different path. We can show you the path to being exceptional, and that is why we're counterculture. It's not because we're, we're different. To be different. No, not at all. Being exceptional is different just because of the circumstances of our modern society. For sure. I like that a lot.

I, I do really hate the victimization mentality that so many people have right now. You know, that ties in perfectly to the, you know, drowning in privilege so to speak, that victimization and, and no sense of accountability and integrity. So I think that we're counter to the culture and, and I, I think that's really important.

And we're gonna have your website and description below for everyone to check out your different services. You know, you've got a lot going on there, like you said, as well as your podcast, honoring all of those special operations families and, and their stories. So I think that's really beautiful.

'cause I think you know, not everyone is, is doing that. And so many people who are lost in combat, their story never gets out there. You know, like, it, it should. So I think it's really important to have that platform where people can discover that and to bring awareness to that. So I appreciate. What you're doing a lot and I thank you for coming on the show today.

I know everyone listening that it was a pretty heavy episode, but I think there was a lot that you unpacked that's really important for people to reflect on and to think about with a little more thought than they put into a lot of things. So everyone listening, please go check out Counterculture Solutions.

There's a lot more information there and sure ways to contact Mr. Daniels if you wanna talk to him in more detail about some stuff. So, Mr. Daniels, thank you for coming on the show today. Yeah, thank you bro. It's been good.