Podcast appearances and mentions of tristan smith

 On Tuesday's show: We learn about the progress of some bills regarding bail reform being considered in the waning days of the Texas Legislature.Also this hour: We discuss the complicated, cloudy future of the Texas Lottery, which has been under fire over a scheme that essentially allowed gamblers to purchase every single lottery combination possible and guarantee a jackpot win. Then, ahead of an event at Brazos Bookstore on May 27, author and poet Ocean Vuong shares lessons from working in fast food and considers what drives acts of kindness between strangers. Those themes are explored in his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness.And some Houstonians might visit Galveston during the upcoming holiday weekend, and there are a number of intriguing historic sites to check out on the island, if you're so inclined. We learn more about some of them from Tristan Smith, the author of A History Lover's Guide to Galveston.

The EAH team discusses shipping green house gas emissions elimination with Dr. Tristan Smith, who also helps translate some relatively positive developments at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 83 in early April 2025. About Dr. Tristan Smith:Dr. Tristan Smith is a Professor in Energy and Transport at UCL Energy Institute and since 2010, has grown a substantial group focused on modeling and analysis of shipping's efficiency emissions and decarbonisation pathways. He is an author of the 3rd and 4th IMO GHG (International Maritime Organization Green House Gas) Studies. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineers, Scientists, and Technologists, through which he attends and participates in IMO GHG debates.About UCL Energy Institute:The University College London (UCL) Energy Institute delivers world-leading learning, research and policy support on the challenges of climate change and energy security.From data analytics to environmental economics, they equip graduates with the tools needed to succeed in a career in energy industry, academia or policy.UCL research combines different approaches to develop tools, models and methods that address global energy challenges. Students and staff have a genuine passion for energy research, cutting carbon emissions and reducing energy demand. --Links:UCL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/environment-energy-resources/energy/about/ucl-research-guiding-global-energy-transitionUCL Newsletter https://ucl.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c46e9f5e89e162ce6e4df39c&id=4fa6573287

Tristan Smith (Spring Game Recap) 04-05 by Phil Kornblut, Chris Burgin, and Josh Cohen

Send us a textIn this episode, AMP Lab student Tristan Smith opens up about mental health, breaking down common challenges and sharing practical strategies for managing stress, staying balanced, and prioritizing well-being. Through his personal experiences and thoughtful reflections, Tristan highlights the power of simple strategies that can make a big difference. 

This week (17th to 21st February) is the last full week of dedicated talks by regulators about the way shipping will be forced to decarbonise. After this there's a couple of additional days planned in March, and then the MEPC meeting itself where a decision has to be agreed. So what to expect and how have we got to where we are now? In this special Green Seas episode, TradeWinds technology editor Craig Eason offers a short recap of the journey so far and talks to University College London's maritime decarbonisation policy expert Tristan Smith about what to expect from this week and what comes next.

We're back with the first episode of 2025 and we've got a good one. Jeremiah Alexander, Tristan Smith, and Will Heldt open up about their transfer journeys. Hear what Coach Swinney told each of them on their visits, the unique role relationships played in their decisions, and why each person feels Clemson was the perfect fit. Plus, a taste of home cooking and Will's shock at how South Carolina reacts to snow!Watch full episode on ClemsonPlus.com

Send us a textJoin us as we discuss the latest in college football and the NFL. We kick things off with OG Strangsta's weekend adventures in DC and the Army-Navy game. We then dive into some  transfer portal news, including Clemson hitting the portal for wide receiver Tristan Smith and Marshall losing 75% of their roster. We also cover some of the most riveting games of the week, from the Lions vs. Bills barn burner to Aaron Rodgers' vintage performance against the Jaguars. Finally, we touch on the wild NFL playoff picture across various divisions aFollow us on Instagram and Threads at Pod Pony PodcastSupport the showIf you have a topic or want to respond to the pod, you can always reach us at Email - pineponypodcast22@gmail.comThreads / Instagram - @pineponypodcast

The global climate circus heads to Baku, Azerbaijan this weekend for the start of the annual COP confab. That's the Conference of the Parties, meaning signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP 29. Shipping will be there, but don't expect much in the way of headline conclusions this year. If there is going to be any progress from this meeting, it's going to focus on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. So why are we talking about COP this week? The reality is that COPs have never really been about shipping, but what happens inside COP has a direct bearing on what happens next in terms of shipping's long term regulatory future. This year specifically COP is taking place just six months before the International Maritime Organization sits down agree the economic and technical measures to hit the industry's 2050 net zero targets. What happens in COP has at least some bearing on what happens in the IMO and perhaps more importantly, shipping's ability to make connections across the energy departments out in Azerbaijan over the next two weeks are going to be crucial to the process that follows whatever comes out of the IMO. Shipping may not be a huge part of COP, but COP matters hugely to shipping. Joining Richard on the podcast this week are: Dr Tristan Smith, University College London Katharine Palmer, Shipping Lead, UNFCC Climate Champions

Lumberjack 100 - the iconic 100 mile mountain bike race through the Manistee National Forest. Tristan Smith once again joins the pod to take us through his first attempt and finish.

HC Erik Bakich, Tristan Bissetta, and Tristan Smith recap Clemson's 4-3 win over High Point in the NCAA Regional.

On Wednesday's show: We get an update on cleanup efforts across Greater Houston from last Thursday's severe storms.Also this hour: Is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton auditioning to be the U.S. Attorney General, should former President Trump win in November? We discuss that, the latest in the former' President's hush money trial in New York, and other developments in our regular Wednesday's political roundup.Then, with Compicpalooza this weekend featuring some stars of various iterations of Star Trek, we revisit our 2019 conversation with Ben Harrison and Adam Pranica, the hosts of the Maximum Fun comedy podcast The Greatest Generation.And we talk with author and historian Tristan Smith about his latest book, A History Lover's Guide to Galveston.

Best of the underground, week of April 16, 2024: Satan=danger. (All podcasts are on www.hlycrp.com, and you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.)  

In 2023, the International Maritime Organization adopted a new strategy for shipping's greenhouse gas emissions, targeting net zero emissions by around 2050. In the year ahead, it will carry out important work to turn its ambition into action. We interviewed UCL Energy Institute's Tristan Smith, and hear from IMO secretary general-elect Arsenio Dominguez and Union of Greek Shipowners president Melina Travlos.

Recent bikepacking converts, Tristan Smith and Sebastian Stankiewicz, sit down with Trevor to share stories all about their successful attempt at completing the lower peninsula leg of the MORE Route - the Michigan Off-Road Expedition. Also discussed was this year's Lumberjack 100, which both Trevor and Sebastian raced earlier in June.

On paper the industry is pushing ahead with a twin track project of near term efficiency gains while politicians agree a clear regulatory timeline that unlocks the investment, scales low-emission fuels, and addresses ongoing concerns about future supply and demand. In reality the distant prospect of any meaningful political agreement is being routinely used as a pretext for widespread inaction, or worse, outright greenwashing as companies attempt to keep up the pretence of progress amid growing uncertainty and the likelihood of an expensive delayed zero carbon transition regulated by a fragmented patchwork of national regimes. And yet, this week the Lloyd's List Podcast is offering you a case for optimism and an argument that progress is possible. Because it seems the industry is not sold. The International Chamber of Shipping's recent survey of executives published this week made it clear that green fuel availability and infrastructure remain the top concerns for those holding off on investment beyond a hedge bet on bridging fuels like LNG. This hesitance to divest away from fossil fuels is a problem for shipping's ability to reduce emissions in a meaningful way. But there is another view – a convincing view backed up by solid research commissioned by the IMO that tells us that achieving a more ambitious decarbonization pathway is not limited by the technical and commercial readiness of fuels and technologies, nor infrastructure and shipyard readiness. While fuels are and will be more expensive than currently used fuels, this is not a barrier to their uptake for the shipping industry if the demand signal is clear. That's a view very much aligned to another report that's about to come out, this one being published by Trafigura who will argue next week that there is potential to produce large volumes of so-called electrofuels in Africa, Asia and South America, to meet future demand from the shipping industry and provide countries in these regions with the chance to develop new export industries and create thousands of skilled jobs. The Global south provides the supply, industry provides the demand and we get that equitable transition of a zero carbon economy we all want but until now have assumed to be out of reach. Easy really. Well inevitably, there's a catch - it relies on progress being made inside the IMO this summer at the pivotal Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting. Is that possible? We asked one of the lead authors of the report, Trafigura's head of energy transition research, Margaux Moore to join the discussion this week along with podcast regular Tristan Smith, Associate Professor in Energy and Transport at UCL and co-founder of hugely respected climate research body UMAS.

This episode is with past guests Rob Smith and Tristian Smith who both host a entertainment news show called "Smoke & Mirrors Podcast" where they give their takes on films and entertainment. Catching back up with the brothers as we cover a wide range of topics such as celebrity trends, awkward social interactions, crazy family gatherings and Operation Midnight Climax. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/out-of-the-blank/support

Listen to Monica Narula and Jeebesh Bagchi from Raqs Media Collective, Dr Tristan Smith, researcher at UCL and director of UMAS, shipping historian Maddie Philips and poet Laila Sumpton examine our relationship with the sea and the shipping industry how this is changing in a moment of climate crisis. This series of Audio Postcards is produced by Lucia Scazzocchio from Social Broadcasts as part of Sea Change, commissioned by the Royal Docks Team in collaboration with University College London and curated by Invisible Dust. Featuring the voices of Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, Dr Tristan Smith, Laila Sumpton and Maddie Philips. Rolling down the River is sung by the London Sea Shanty Collective.

Welcome to the first episode of NuckolsDeep Podcast with one of my best friends, Tristan Smith. We had a lot of fun discussing getting our first tattoos family dogs and drinking Lipton hard ice tea if you guys enjoyed hit that like and subscribe thanks for watching.

Tristan Smith is a highly successful second-year representative in the pest control industry. He manifested his first Golden Door from last year's D2DCON 5 and now he's on the Golden Door Pest panel at D2Dcon 6! If this doesn't inspire you, well, you're missing out!He achieved impressive results in his rookie year, effectively servicing $330,000 in revenue. This past summer, he made a considerable leap and doubled his rookie performance, setting a personal best of $651,029 in pest revenue and servicing 874 accounts. He made a record-breaking single-day sale of $10,465 and had his highest weekly sale of $36,657.With such amazing accomplishments, Tristan is well on his way to ensuring even greater success in the upcoming summer! This man is the real deal. In order to be the best, learn from the best

Tristan Smith joins the podcast to share about his 300+ mile experience at the 2022 Gravel Worlds - The Long Voyage out of Lincoln, Nebraska.

In this episode, we speak to Dr. Tristan Smith (Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at the University College London Energy Institute), leading expert on maritime transport GHG emissions and the sector's energy transition.

The brand new radio show from Tidy Trax showcasing the sounds of their world famous Untidy label. Hosted by Sam Townend, expect cutting edge music and classic cuts from across dance music encapsulating tough house through to banging Techno and Hard House. For tracklistings, full details of the show and for all things Tidy, go to tidytrax.co.uk N/A

Roe v. Wade overturned: God is watching & she's pissed. Swampscott Roe vs Wade Vigil with candidates for MA State Rep. in the 8th Essex District, Jenny Armini, Doug Thompson, Tristan Smith, and Swampscott Select Board Chair Polly Titcomb. Closing with a speech from vigil organizer, Keiko Zoll. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theyoungjurks/support

WE all know shipping needs to decarbonise, now the industry is confronting the detail. Countries meeting at the IMO next week now have five plans for carbon price policies in front of them. Island states and the International Chamber of Shipping are for carbon levies. Norway and European Union members prefer a cap-and-trade scheme, while China and Japan have proposed more complex rebates. This is a huge change from the IMO's usual technical fare, and the pressure on it has never been greater. The sluggish, secretive IMO is set to tackle fundamental questions, including how to measure emissions cuts, and how steep the curve to zero-emissions shipping should be. But while states are sure to argue over the best approach, and about how much to spend on helping developing countries, the work is in many ways just beginning. Joining us this week to are: Tristan Smith, the director of University Maritime Advisory Services Edmund Hughes, a consultant and former IMO emissions chief And Mads Peter Zacho, head of industry transition at the Maersk McKinney Moller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping

Tristan Smith is the Founder of Fit Lab USA in Mansfield, Texas.  Fit Lab USA provides athletic development training for athletes in multiple sports and at  all levels.  Tristan is a former college & pro basketball player who grew up in Amityville, New York. Tristan played his high school basketball for Jack Agostino at Amityville (NY) High School where he was a two-time New York Public School State Champion, a McDonald's Top 100 High School All-American, and the Suffolk County Player of the Year in 2001. Smith played his first two seasons of college basketball at St. John's before transferring to St. Francis College where he finished his career.  Tristan later played professional basketball in Uruguay, the ABA, and the USBL.  If you're looking to improve your coaching please consider joining the Hoop Heads Mentorship Program.  We believe that having a mentor is the best way to maximize your potential and become a transformational coach. By matching you up with one of our experienced mentors you'll develop a one on one relationship that will help your coaching, your team, your program, and your mindset.  The Hoop Heads Mentorship Program delivers mentoring services to basketball coaches at all levels through our team of experienced Head Coaches. Find out more at hoopheadspod.com or shoot me an email directly mike@hoopheadspod.com Follow us on social media @hoopheadspod on Twitter and Instagram and be sure to check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content. Take some notes while you listen to this episode with Tristan Smith, Founder of Fit Lab USA in Mansfield, Texas. Website - https://thefitlabusa.com/ (https://thefitlabusa.com/) Email - mrtristansmith83@gmail.com Twitter - http://twitter.com/fitlabusa (@fitlabusa) Visit our Sponsors! https://www.drdishbasketball.com/ (Dr. Dish Basketball) Mention the Hoop Heads Podcast when you place your order and get $300 off a brand new state of the art Dr. Dish Shooting Machine! http://www.fastmodelsports.com/ (Fast Model Sports) Use Code HHP15 to get 15% off the number one play diagramming software for coaches. https://www.qwikcut.com/basketball/ (QwikCut) QwikCut is all cloud-based, and comes packed with features to help high schools and youth programs - STORE, SHARE, and ANALYZE game film.   Make the switch, get double the storage, and save your program up to 50% on the fastest-growing video editing system in the country.     Twitter Podcast - https://twitter.com/hoopheadspod (@hoopheadspod) Mike - https://twitter.com/hdstarthoops (@hdstarthoops) Jason - https://twitter.com/jsunkle (@jsunkle) Network - https://twitter.com/HoopHeadsPodNet (@HoopHeadsPodNet) Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hoopheadspod/ (@hoopheadspod) Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hoopheadspod/ (https://www.facebook.com/hoopheadspod/) YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDoVTtvpgwwOVL4QVswqMLQ (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDoVTtvpgwwOVL4QVswqMLQ) Support this podcast

This summer, I'm releasing bonus episodes of The Take Home. No new lectures on leadership, instead I'm sharing the amazing podcasts created by the students in my Leadership for Sport Professionals class.  In today's bonus episode, The Take Home is turned over to Leadership Dunk produced by Tristan Smith and Brian Schaub. In the show they discuss Situational Leadership and Path-Goal Theory with Zachariah Paul, formerly of Spurs Give. Zach also talks about why it's important for those wanting to work in sports to have varied experiences and why strong leaders must take the time to learn the needs, interests, and motivations of each team member. Zach also details why being empathetic and asking good questions are foundational for leaders. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think at @TingleJK. Music used in Leadership Dunk: "I Love My Spurs" by Leon Shannon and Caddilac Muzik  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QryErf-gF6Q The podcast cover photo was taken by Jacob Tingle near a housing estate in WC1, London, England.

The consensus findings of the world's leading climate scientists were issued this week as a “code red for humanity”. We are already too late to avert dangerous climate change and can only now manage the amount by which we overshoot our stated target, argues our guest on this week's podcast, the leading climate expert of low carbon shipping Dr Tristan Smith. He joins Lloyd's List Editor Richard Meade to discuss the IPCC report, what it means for shipping, why LNG is going to get more expensive and whether there is any optimism he can offer as we consider shipping's difficult transition to zero carbon.

After a chat again with Rob its time for another awesome chat from this family with his brother Triz talking all sorts of fun of tech and near death experiences. Always a fun chat that starts creating possible scenarios with the age of technology creating and making the world a different place than it was before makes you wonder what's next.

Mark Bryson and Tristan Smith join the podcast to talk about this year's Sancho 200, Don Quixote, and the importance of a strong mustache. Hear Tristan's recap of last year's Sancho on episode 37 Photo by Rob Meendering @robmphoto

Join Tristan Smith as we discuss Maggotkin of Nurgle using the new Broken Realms: Teclis warscrolls in Warhammer Age of Sigmar. I'll get Tristan's view on the army, how he's getting the most out of them on the tabletop, and deep dive into two of his lists. ----------------------------------

What a treat! NC Dave and Joel are joined by 2 very special guests - Pat Nevin and first timer Tristan Smith. Covering broad topics and 2 massive events - VicGT and SAGT in one action packed episode with a runtime rivalling Zack Snyder's Justice League (and we know which one the fans are more excited about!) and more references to scandi-orgies than any episode to date!! Also, who's the biggest bully in Aussie AOS? Listen to find out - the truth will shock you! Also, Pat shows his sensitive side and we enjoy the return of What's in the Box!?! Its all good baby.

Join us once again as we click record after a few beers and talk about the latest trials and tribulations of Measured Gaming in the world of competitive AOS. NC Dave, Joel and debutante Tristan Smith shoot the shit and talk about recent tournaments. Also included are in-depth battletome reviews for DoK and Slaaaaaanesh, the defence of ones honour, VGT list previews, contraception options and plenty of hugs and kisses. Enjoy!

In this weeks episode I was joined by a friend of mine Tristan Smith. Tristan survived an airplane crash and while it changed his life forever he hasn't let this situation stop him. Tristan has an incredible attitude and I so appreciate his perspective and approach to life and handling his blindness. Tristan talks about the accident and then goes into what life looked like for him after going completely blind from the wreck. I really appreciate that he is all about the journey and states in the interview that this is definitely a speed bump in his journey but it's only slowed him down just a little bit. He has an incredible wife and family and I am just so excited for you guys to hear his story. Thanks for tuning in this week I hope you enjoy.Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.comSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thefirepodcast)

Tristan is a gamer/streamer and one of the three members of the podcast "Smoke & Mirrors" where past guest Rob and his other brother talk all things from movies to media to even vapes. From talks of games and how it seems like some are a good way to tell if you could survive whether it's in the future or the past.

The adventure continues in 2020 and friend Tristan Smith joins the Midpack to recap his amazing 2nd place finish of the Sancho 200 out of Traverse City, MI. We also chat about how great it was to see a full week of racing in Michigan and throughout the country - from friend of the podcast Alexey Vermeulen killing it at the Belgian Waffle Ride in Cedar City, UT to seeing so many of our local friends getting after it at the Dirty 30 out of Saranac, MI and the VineCross CX race up in the Leelanau Peninsula. Episode Breakdown Belgian Waffle Ride - 2:18 Dirty 30 - 5:07 VineCross - 6:25 Future Race Calendar - 8:14 Sancho 200 2019 vs 2020 - 10:00 Sancho Bike - 15:20 2020 Recap - 18:30 Hydration and Nutrition - 31:25 Recap Continued - 34:00

4 guys walk into a pub... 5 hours later they walk out and decide its high time to record a new episode of Bush Radio. Join NC Dave and Joel McGrath along with 2 (count em!), 2 special guests. Appearing for the first time on Bush Radio are Brushy (#like-and-subscribe) and Tristan Smith (finally!). We talk about the new GHB, points changes, fluff, muff and some sloppy stuff. Also Joel calls out somebody for a grudge - is it you?? Listen to find out!

A new MP3 sermon from Mountain Valley Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: 1st Annual Revival Day 1 Subtitle: 1st Annual Revival Speaker: Tristan Smith Broadcaster: Mountain Valley Baptist Church Event: Special Meeting Date: 6/14/2020 Bible: Matthew 16:21-26 Length: 41 min.

A new MP3 sermon from Mountain Valley Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: 1st Annual Revival Day 1 Subtitle: 1st Annual Revival Speaker: Tristan Smith Broadcaster: Mountain Valley Baptist Church Event: Special Meeting Date: 6/14/2020 Bible: Matthew 16:21-26 Length: 41 min.

Well, if you tuned in last week you know this is our last episode! Call it a hiatus, cuz, you never know what might happen. But it looks like this is it. We've both had a lot of good times making this, learned a ton, and had the opportunity to work on something we were both proud of. We go into better detail as to why in the episode. This week is a playlist that was pretty open to interpretation. We both kind of went different routes. Since we don't have them on the thumbnail, Chance's selections are: Red Foot by Fortezza, Reaper by Mormon Goth, Camel Crickets by Matty Garau, Pocketwatch by Tristan Smith, and Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House. Nick went with So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish by A Perfect Circle, Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar, Here I Go Again by Whitesnake, My Way by Frank Sinatra, and Against The Wind by Bob Segar and the Silver Bullet Band. Genuinely, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for listening and all your support. It meant the world to us. We'll see you around. -Nick and Chance Instagram: www.instagram.com/otrcast/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ3wLMZpEqCG6BWBrdoWDgA Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1gzsakLzEvOUMaA7srFOB9 Soundcloud: @ontherecordpodcasts

It's a STUDENT TAKEOVER on this edition! Sort of... The female and male recipients of the 2020 OFSAA Character Athlete Award - Grace Petsnick of Fort Frances High School and Tristan Smith of École secondaire publique Maurice-Lapointe in Kanata - share high school memories, thoughts on their unusual graduation year and let us in on their post-secondary plans. Both will receive a $1,000 grant from Jostens as they stood out in the minds of the voting panel for their commitment to OFSAA's values of leadership, equity, respect and sportsmanship.

On this episode myself and Tristan Smith, my business partner and best mate, were asked to be on a live Q+A for F45. It was great to talk about our journey, what we have learned, what key pillars to our business, how COVID-19 has affected our business and how we plan to bounce back.

It’s a special edition of the Lloyd’s List Podcast this week, featuring an extended debate on shipping’s decarbonization prospects taking in everything from state support, future fuel options fake zeros and the overwhelming need for clarity and standard definitions when it comes to ambitions Debating shipping’s decarbonization pathways on this week’s podcast: Peter Boyd from Yale University, Matthieu de Tugny from Bureau Veritas, Tristan Smith from University College London’s Energy Institute and Adrian Tolson from Blue Insight.

On Wednesday's Houston Matters: As April draws to a close, another month's rent is about to be due. We learn about resources for renters in crisis because of the coronavirus pandemic. Also this hour: We discuss Gov. Abbott's decision to gradually reopen the Texas economy and other developments in our weekly political roundup. Plus we learn how the pandemic might advance the use of automation and robotics in some industries. And a new book offers... Read More

Things get a bit loose in the Midpack studio as Sheldon, Trevor, Brett, and Rich drink beers and swap stories recapping their 2019 season. We also hear from Dirty Chain listeners Dr. Tracy Berman (@drtracyberman), Kristin (@rockzarr), and Tristan Smith (@tristan.I.smith). #thebeardisback

Shipping’s first major far-reaching moonshot initiative is here. The Getting to Zero coalition has set its eyes on delivering commercially viable zero-emission vessels by 2030. On the podcast this week to explain what the coalition is all about are the Environmental Defense Fund’s Baroness Bryony Worthington and Tristan Smith from the University College London Energy Institute and University Maritime Advisory Services

Donnie B.: All right, guys. So I want you to strap it in today. So we're going to get pretty deep and heavy on this one. This is a hell of a story from a hell of a guy and my buddy, Patrick Mudge said, “Donnie, you got to sit down with Charlie and let him tell you his story and everything they're doing.” So just strap it in, guys. It’s going to be a really good episode. So I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Charlie Strange. Welcome to the show, my friend. Please, tell us your story. [Music] Donnie B.: Hey, before the show starts, I wanted to jump in here and let you guys know that I could not do this show without the support of Point Blank Safety Services. Stacey and Michael McGovern over there have been a huge asset for the show, the Success Champions Family and everything we do and it's because of their support, we're able to bring you such awesome guests and such awesome stories. So do me a favor. Go check them out. Man, if you're in Texas and you need security officers or you need active-duty police officers on off-duty hours, protecting your sites, construction, security sites, commercial offices, whatever, go check out Point Blank Safety Services. You'll be glad you did. Now, guys, I'm not kidding. Strap it in today. This is a hell of a story. Here comes Charlie Strange. Charles S.: Thank you, Don. My name is Charles Strange. I'm the gold star father of Michael Strange. Michael was killed in action in August 6, 2011 along with 38 other men and 29 Americans and Bart, The Warrior Dog. It was the biggest single loss of life in Iraq and Afghan War and it was the biggest loss of life in the history of America. 22 men from DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare. And it was the worst day of my life. Michael is my oldest son from Philadelphia. He grew up in Philadelphia. Not too far for your audience. From the Rocky Steps, the famous Rocky Steps. Michael ran the Rocky Steps before he went in. “Adrian!” We're Philly and cheesesteaks and Michael joined the military right out of high school and he took off. He took off from there and went to the Great Lakes. I flew out, seen him graduate boot camp. From there, he went to Pensacola, Florida. And from there, he finished first in his class for cryptology. Michael was a code breaker. They actually gave Michael the National Intelligence Medal of Valor. Only 17 have ever been given out in the history of America since World War II and the windtalkers. Given that at the NSA with Admiral Alexander under about five floors underground. But he went to Hawaii because he was a crypto and Admiral McRaven was there and he loved it. We flew out to Hawaii, spent 15 days with Michael in Hawaii and he became a surfer and he got really into the intel there and he started getting deployed on different missions. His buddy, I also don't want to forget about, who died with him, John Douangdara was there. John was the dog handler for the Gold Team DEVGRU. And from Hawaii, he spent a little over three years in Hawaii and then they put him on DEVGRU in Virginia Beach where he had to buy a home and he was with SEAL Team Six, the Gold Squad. His call sign was GY4, Gold Yankee 4 and I said, “Michael! How are you affording a $300,000-house here, Michael? You're 21 years old.” And he loved it and he had to be by the secret base and we still take the train down, drive down. He drived back to Philly because he missed his family, his friends and I'll tell you what, like yesterday was the day we killed Bin Laden and a lot of memories going by one night and Michael called me before that, before the Bin Laden raid. Two weeks prior, he said, “Dad, everything's getting shut off.” I'm like, “What?” He said, “I'm not going to be able to talk to you, Dad.” And I tried to get information out of him and me and Michael had a little code. Even if it was January, he’d ask me, “Are the Phillies winning?” That means, “Don't ask me any more questions, Michael.” Because they would give them a lie detector test every two or three months. And the first question on the lie detector test was, when was the last time you lied? So he wouldn't have me ask any more questions. And he said, “Look, Dad!” He was getting mad. He said, “Dad, look, if something happens, I'm sure you'll hear about it.” And that was the Bin Laden raid and yesterday was, every day is emotional. But he loved what he was doing. He loved protecting and serving his country and his family and August 6th, he came home from the Bin Laden raid in June and it was his birthday, June 6th. It was his birthday and we had a big party, his friend, Kevin and Danny and all of them and the girls. They had about four kegs and a hundred bottles of Jameson's in the pool. But he was different. He was different after the raid and something was going on. A guy by the name of Joe Biden opened his mouth and after the Bin Laden raid at the Ritz-Carlton in Delaware and told everybody, “SEAL Team Six killed Bin Laden.” Nobody ever heard of SEAL Team Six before that. And I don't know if that was one of the things that was bothering Michael after the raid. But he was different. He was different in June when he came home. He talked about a will. He never talked about a will before. A couple of other parents were telling me about the guys in Michael’s crew and they talked about a will and something was going on. Something was going on, Don. He calls me up. He goes back and he's getting deployed back to Afghanistan. I still have his voice on my cellphone here and he said, “I love you, Dad. I'll see you for Thanksgiving for Eddie and Maggie.” That's my sister. We always do Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, in Fishtown and, “I'll see you for Thanksgiving.” And I knew something was up, something was going on and he was completely different. He had just told me about the will. He told my sister. He told his buddies, his brother, his sister and he got deployed in the worst day of my life, Don. August 6, they came knocking on the door. There was like four or five different guys, CAOs, Casualty Assistance guys and they didn't really say much about what happened. They didn't know. Some of the parents said, they ran into a mountain. Some people say, you know. The guys who came to the door, God bless them. They were very nice. They said, “Your son passed along with a tragedy on a helicopter in Afghanistan.” A couple of the parents I know, when you hear that, that's a piece of your heart. Donnie B.: Right. Charles S.: You get rushed to the hospital and I was screaming and yelling and crying and it's like a nightmare. It's a nightmare that actually really don't stop. You learn to walk with a limp the rest of your life, Don. And there was a lot of questions about that August 6, 2011 and the Taliban, actually, after they killed them guys, it was on the internet a half-hour later, bragging. “We just killed SEAL Team Six.” How did they know who was in the Chinook? And there's a lot of questions and we did the ceremony in Arlington. 17 to 30 men were in Arlington. In October 2011, we went down to Little Creek and a guy by the name of, Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt did the investigation on what happened and we were in the auditorium, the 60 parents and he was explaining about the pilots. God bless the pilots and some other things. He seemed like, it took a while due to the presentation, but he was only over there for two weeks to do this investigation for 30 men dying and I know and I still don't know today, Don, about the black box which is really orange. And General Colt put his hands up in the air like theatrically and he said, “A flash flood came and washed it away.” I said, “Oh, you didn't find it?” And they said, they never found the black box and there are some people who say, there is no black box in them CH-47. These are some kind of recording device. Then he said, “An RPG hit the helicopter from 200 yards in the pitch dark and it was a lucky shot.” So I stood up and the Philadelphia in me came out and I said, “Did you just say lucky shot and all our sons are dead?” And I threw a couple of F-notes out there and a couple of gentleman from the military grabbed me. Yeah. So it was, you got to be kidding me? And I asked questions. I had some of the other parents asking questions. When we left there, Donnie, they gave us a folder, a binder and you don't look at it. Just hearing about how your son died. They told me, my son burned to death because of the fire, the fuselage which was all a lie. My son wasn't burned at all. I have pictures of him. Four months, I called Dover and asked for the autopsy and a whistleblower in Dover, God bless his soul, I still don't know who it is, sent me a disk and the paperwork and my beautiful wife, Maryanne, she took the disk. She said, “Don't look at it. Don't look at it.” And she looked at it and I said, “Pretty bad?” And she says, “Well…” I'm like, “Well, they said he was burned beyond recognition.” And it was in all the papers. All over the world, 38 skulls, 38 c-spines. No identifiable remains. So I said, “I want to see. I want to see.” And not that bad and I looked at the pictures of my son and he wasn't burned at all, Donnie. He jumped out of the helicopter or got thrown out of the helicopter. They weren't that high. They weren't that high. I have pictures of the helicopter where they gave us this binder in October after Jeffrey Colt got done doing the thing and there was 25 pages in there. In the first page, you can look at, as you open it up, you can't read it. It ran out of ink. I know the government's doing bad, but they didn't have no ink. So I called Admiral Sean Pybus. He was Commander-in-Chief and God bless him and I said, “I got a bad copy here, Admiral Pybus. Can I get another copy?” He said, “Well, Mr. Strange, we had a lot of complaints about that.” I said, “Okay, good. Send me another one.” He said, “We can't. We burned it.” I said, “You burned it? Already?” But in that packet was a disk and I put the disk in the computer and as you can tell by earlier, I'm not super suave. And there was like a hundred little blocks on this disk and I'm like … My wife, Maryanne, she says, “Let me look at that.” And she took it somewhere and she printed out 1,364 pages, Don. Donnie B.: My God. Charles S.: Which was encrypted with a virus. And the Taliban knew. The Taliban knew. Don, I'm going to read something to you from these 1,364 pages. I wasn't in the military. But in Jeffrey Colt’s investigation, he says, “For the Tangi Valley,” he says, “The next piece of reporting that I have that fits within the timeframe comes from May 11th, 2011.” And it's late May. There's no date on this and it's going to be, I'm reading it. There was a couple of blank spots. It's very brief. Again, it’s out of the task force and it says something to the fact that over 100 Talibans planned to travel from the Blank Province through the Tangi Valley to possibly shoot down the coalition force aircraft. They knew. A 100 Talibans were going to the Tangi Valley. I got it right here in front of me, Don. Right in front of me. Donnie B.: Wow! Charles S.: So these 1,300 pages, some of the other parents started asking questions and they're like, “How did you get that information? How do you know that?” And my wife wrote a letter to the gold star parents down in Florida, telling them how to download the disk to get the 1,364 pages. And then our phone got tapped and our computer got tapped and we won the first case in the history of America for the NSA when we went against the NSA and Obama down in Washington, DC. Judge Leon was our judge. You might remember, he called it, “Aurelian state that we live in.” And so we went to Congress. We went to the Senators. We went to President Obama when he was President. I met President Obama in Dover and tried over and over to try to get answers. I met President Obama in Dover. He came up to me and he said, “Michael changed the way America lived. Michael could do this and Michael could do that.” I grabbed President Obama by the shoulders and I sort of shook him and I said, “I don't need to know about my son. I need know what happened.” Then the Secret Service guys grabbed me. Donnie B.: I see a theme with you, Charlie. Charles S.: Yeah. And President Obama whispered in my ear and he said three times. He said, “Mr. Strange, I want to look into this very, very, very deep.” And we tried going back and not just me and my wife. We had other gold star parents. We’re just asking questions. We had a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We had like 12 of the gold star parents. We had Allen West. We had General Boykin, General [inaudible] and this needs to be a congressional hearing. And we never got anything. We never got any answers and even if nobody's going to take accountability for the biggest loss of life and my son getting killed, just don't let it happen to someone else's son. Who put 38 men in a Chinook helicopter? 8 of the Afghans, Don, right before they took off, got off and no one's got on. Their names were never on the manifest. I'm like, and they told us this and then I think they wanted to not tell us that but, who were they? Who were they? They told us in Dover. They brought the Afghan bodies back to Dover and they had their flag over the coffins. My daughter said, “What's this?” I said, “That's the Afghans.” She said, “What the eff are they doing here?” That was our question. And they had to call the families from the Afghans and tell them they had the wrong people. They didn't know who they were. You don't know who they are getting on the helicopter? Their names’ not on the manifest? Who okayed all this? And then it was supposed to be a rescue mission for the Rangers and there was no … the Rangers, I’ve talked to personally, who were coming out said, “We didn’t need a QRF. We didn't need a Quick Reaction Force.” They had eight of the Talibans locked up. It's in the 1,300 pages. I got their names. I got their names. And then they said, “Well, we were after Qari Tahir.” Qari Tahir is a high-level guy. He was a big target. Qari Tahir, in the 1,300 pages, knew. Knew. He moved from village to village. Somebody was giving him all the information. Here you go, Hamad, I can't talk. I don't know these Middle Easterners. Harad, Hamad, Hamaz, Zaha, Guli, Nabi, Al-Qazar. The raid in Khawatir Village was targeting Qari Tahir, Ismael, Qali, Tahir had been located in another village during the raid, at the house of Habibur Rahim in the [inaudible]. Everything's written out here, Don. And I can't get no answers on who killed my son? Who made the call? It's crazy. So we went through all kinds of stuff. Donnie B.: Here's the crazy thing, Charlie, is one, God loved you, and I mean this wholeheartedly. I mean, I'm sorry for the loss of your son. It’s tragic. It sucks. No parent needs to go through that, right? But God loved you, man, because somebody's going to pick the fight, right? When something goes like this and I love your Philly freaking attitude, your vibe for you. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes in that room. But I love the way you've handled yourself all the way through this and fucking kudos for just picking the fight because I mean, I'm hearing your side of it. So I've got to go with what I'm hearing. And from what I'm hearing, man, shit, why the hell isn't there a further investigation? Why isn't there more people asking questions? And I get it, man. Some of the parents that have tragically lost their kids in this, they're like, “Okay. We just want to move on and get past it.” But I'm thinking, man, if I'm in your shoes, I'm still asking fucking questions. I want somebody's ass to fry because they made a bad call or they're a traitor to the freaking country. One of the two. Why the cover-up? And what dumbass put the disk in the freaking binder to you guys? Charles S.: Right. Donnie B.: Somebody's ass should get fired just for that stupid mistake on that side of things. So wow. What a shitty thing to go through, man. My heart hurts for that kind of stuff but fucking kudos for your boy for stepping up and doing what not many have the courage to do and fucking defending our country, man. Being a veteran myself, that dude is just freaking awesome. That's just awesome. So now, you guys are doing a lot of cool things for gold star families and you guys are holding events and bringing these families together and helping them get through some of these tough times they’re going through. Tell us a little bit about your foundation, your organization and what you guys are doing. Charles S.: Well, there's a lot of support at the funeral and after the funeral, everybody goes back to work. Everybody goes on vacation. Everybody is still going on. I'd be looking out my window saying, “My son died and everybody is still moving on.” And I was, the five stages of grief. Like I didn't know nothing about the five stages of grief and the first one is denial. No way. He was just sitting on my couch. We were just at a party and the second stage is anger. I was shopping in a food market and some guy had a towel around his head and he had to call the police on me for that one. My wife was at my back. Somebody was going to get it, Donnie. You know what I mean? The third one is bargain. And God don't bargain. And the fourth one they say is depression. I don't like to use that word. I think it's the Grim Reaper and the fifth one is acceptance. But like any other ones, what I learned is, with the loss of a son or a daughter or burying a child, it don't stop. It just keeps coming. I buried my father. I buried my cousin. I buried good friends. Not even in the same circle is burying a child and I ran into another gold star father named, Grant Smith. His son Tristan Smith was killed in an IED from Philadelphia three years prior. So I got in touch with this guy and we met for coffee and he started crying and he was angry and I felt good, Don. I was like, “This guy's just like me. We’re both fucked up. All right!” And I came home. I told my wife. I said, “We should bring more parents together.” And my wife, she started reaching out to some gold star parents and we did it. I said, “Let do …” in Philadelphia, we call it Beef and Beer and some guy named Drago, a Navy SEAL named Drago came along and him and his wife, great wife, Rachel and their two kids came down and we had an Irish band, of course, Blackthorne, donated their time and we raised some money and we brought like 20 gold star parents in for a weekend and we had a grief counselor there and we get the parents to talk. I want to hear from the other dads and moms. How do you get through the birthday? What are you doing in the holiday? How do you get through every day? And from there, the other gold star parents started telling other gold star parents. “When are you doing that again? Are you doing that again?” And I was like, “Well, okay. We'll do another one.” And we went to Wildwood, New Jersey and we did Thursday to Sunday and we brought some gold star parents from Michigan, Heath Robinson’s dad, he was on Team 6, Heath was a sharpshooter and we brought Debbie Anne who lost her son and they never seen the ocean. They never seen the ocean. So it was really cool and we did a lot of healing in Saturday night, whatever area we’re in, we ask the VFW or American Legion or [inaudible] Club, the hostess for dinner. We get the motorcycles, the cops, the firemen involved and my wife makes these beautiful reefs, biodegradable reefs and we go to the ocean and we say our sons’ names and we say a few prayers and we throw them, knowing that we'll see our sons again on the other side. We went to Tucson, Arizona to this guy Mike and Bonnie Quinn's house and we had a beautiful hotel out there and we had gold stars. We had Bob Huff. His daughter was Samantha Huff, the first girl killed in Iraq. My man, Bob and we had about 38 gold star parents out there. So the healing begins in meeting these other families and just to know what you're walking into, knowing you're not alone because a lot of the gold star parents go, “Don, nobody cares if my son died.” I said, “There is people that care, man. There is people that care.” I brought my buddy in, Kali Thomason. He's from Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana and you think I got an accent. I live about 60 miles from them duck boys. That's where I live at. “You better look for the gators, Charlie.” You can look Kali up on Facebook. He was putting up on Facebook, “My son died because of the rules of engagement.” His son was, they had to pull over to the side of the road. He was in the middle with some brass. And the van coming down since they pulled over drove right into the middle loaded with bombs and killed his son, Josh. But yeah. Meeting Kali and we brought Kali down to Ocean City, Maryland in the Royal Princess Hotel. We had 36 gold star parents and I tell you what, they put the fire engine trucks. They put it in the newspaper. Me and my wife go wherever we're going to go for the weekend retreat with the gold star families, we go down like a month early to let the VFW Post know, the police and firemen and they put it in the newspaper. There was people out in the street, Don with the flags. They brought the bugler. Each city that we've been to really rolls out the red carpet. But we're a small foundation. We need help. MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. Donnie B.: Well, hold on. Let me jump in here just one second, Charlie. A couple of things. One, you guys are close because obviously, it's your kids, right? I mean, that's not going to be something that's ever going to be [inaudible] place in your life, right? So it's really close to you. But I want to say it for all of us that aren't gold star families, man. It's not that we're not thinking about it. We're just not as close to it as you guys are. I mean, you guys are there every day. But I want you to also recognize that everywhere you've been, look at the good people that show up to support. I mean, at the end of the day, man, they're special people in this world. And unfortunately, society as it is, as a whole, likes to just paint a bad fucking picture on everything. So if you turn on the false shitty-ass news and all the other BS out there, all that you're going to see is the negative stuff. But for all of your friends that you guys are doing these amazing things for, just remember, it's not that we’re not thinking about it. It's just, we're not as close to it as you guys are. And we show up. Because there's still some of us that that sacrifice means a fuck ton to a lot of us. So I just wanted to get that out. Now, tell us about your damn foundation. Charles S.: Thank you, Donnie. Thank you. And that means a lot, man. That means a lot. Thank you. Donnie B.: You get me all freaking choked up here, Charlie. Charles S.: I make you cry. I do. My wife's over here on the side crying and tearing up. A piece of my heart's missing now, Don and meeting these other gold stars, we got a big event coming up. We got Drago coming back, November 2nd with a guy by the name of Rob O'Neill who’s coming back from his second time. One of Michael’s buddies. A lot of you guys’ buddies and we're teaming up with another foundation called Operation First Response, Peggy Baker and Nick Constantino’s. And we're doing it, November 2nd. I know you guys don't like to come to the East Coast over here, Donnie. Donnie B.: That’s cold-ass weather in November, dude. You’re crazy as hell. Charles S.: We’ll get you a Philly cheesesteak at [inaudible]. Donnie B.: That’s awesome. Charles S.: In case you do, Nikki and Joey bag of doughnuts and Rocco and all the guys. Yeah. We’ll take care of you. But November 2nd, seriously, Pat Mudge is speaking, one of Michael's close friends. Donnie B.: Just really quick, Charlie, for the ones that have listened to this podcast all the way through, if you guys go back before, I think, Episode 50, someone there, you'll hear Patrick Mudge’s story, man. And let me tell you, Patrick Mudge is the only interview I've ever done where I think I said two words through the whole thing, man. When that dude tells his story, holy fuck. That dude went through some shit. So great dude, great story. So to see him speak in person will be huge. Charles S.: Pat spoke at our little dinner event last year when he came down. He was close with Michael. It's hard, man. And you got to ask God for help. A guy opened up the Bible to me a little bit about Jesus and He died on the cross for us and His only Son and so we meet new veterans and asking God for help and we meet these other great gold star parents from all over the country, Don. We’ve had 250 gold star parents. We’ve done weekends in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Ocean City, Maryland, Tucson, Longmont, Colorado, Washington, DC, Lenox, Massachusetts and we need help with the airfare. We need help with the hotels because the parents already paid the ultimate price, right? I don't like saying that. Ultimate sacrifice. I don't like that shit. It was no sacrifice. My son had a gun in his hand when he died, you know what I mean? And that fucks with me too. He was alive for 15 minutes and nobody came to help him in my nightmares. Donnie B.: Here's the thing, man, is you guys are doing a freaking awesome thing, right? It's a hell of a thing you guys are doing and through your story, what people are able to feel, see and embrace is, this is a tough fucking thing and I personally can't relate to any of it. I've never lost anybody that close to me, right? But I will tell you, the fucking strength that you guys have to bring these families in across the world, across the US and be able to put them in one place, one room so you all can freaking go through this shit together and then you realize, you're not fucking alone is huge, is really, really, really huge and fucking kudos. I mean, there's always somebody who picks up the torch and says, “Come sit by my fire,” and you guys are doing it. Charles S.: Thanks, Don. Donnie B.: Yeah. Really freaking awesome. Charles S.: Thank you. Yeah. It helps. It helps meeting these gold stars. My friend, Jeannie Cathcart, his son was Michael Cathcart and all over, all over and we did one up in Lenox, Massachusetts, the gold star families with Derek Benson's dad there, Fred and a couple of the families from Extortion 17 came. Doug Hamburger and his son, Patrick was on there, out of Nebraska, full-time National Guard. And I'll tell you what, the one up in Lenox, Massachusetts, it's called Pug’s Farm. The guy bought a Chinook helicopter, Don. He bought a Chinook helicopter and has a memorial site. It’s called Pug’s Farm. If you're ever up in Lenox, Massachusetts, it's free. It's a beautiful memorial site. A guy by the name of E.L. Shapiro. Just amazing site. So we did a weekend up there with them. That was, going inside the Chinook, seeing the pictures but it's healing. Something else that’s healing too. You learn to walk with a limp every day and some days are harder than others. Sometimes, that Grim Reaper comes in on you and then it's good to … through the foundation, I met Mike Anderson. His son was a Marine. Fast-track, killed in Fallujah. His son got hurt. He was out, came back and then got shot right through the heart. Mike Anderson, good friend of mine. And meeting Michael and his daughter, Ally. Sometimes, we bring the siblings in if they're over 18 and they asked me to do the siblings and as you can tell, I'm not a doctor. I do have a PhD though, Donnie. Plumbing, heating and drainage. See, we learned to laugh again, bro. We learned to laugh again. Donnie B.: I get that, Charlie. I come from a blue-collar lifestyle. So I get that, man. That's awesome. Charles S.: Absolutely. I was in the laborers’ union in Philly. So that's the Michael Strange Foundation. You can see videos on Michael Strange Facebook. You'll see all the videos, all the gold star parents, different events. But November 2nd is our big dinner. Everybody's welcome. We’ll have it up on the website in about two months so you can buy tickets online. We’ll have auctioneer. Pat Mudge is going to battle for us, get some stuff donated. We need some donations for the auction. Rob O’Neill is coming in to speak. He's going to be there. Drago, Pat, a couple of veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq through Operation First Response who will talk for a few minutes to tell their stories, how Operation First Response helps them and then of course, I have some gold stars there from all over the country just to do some healing and show people that freedom is not free, babe. Freedom is not free. 9/11, man, Boston Bombing, San Bernardino and I know Michael did some things in this country to stop certain things that even went on here and you never hear about it and that's what I love about everybody who serves in the military. To sign that line and to protect us for our freedoms, man. For our freedoms. We live in the greatest country in the world. Donnie B.: That's it. That's it, man. That's it. Charles S.: President Trump had me down to the White House. He was great. He asked me to bring ten gold stars down there. It was a trip. They even put it in the newspaper in Philadelphia. “Family and Fawn Meets the Trumpster.” They put the Trumpster up. They had to throw a little shot in. But he was good. I had 15 minutes alone with him. Me and my wife. Him and the First Lady. He opened up an investigation about Extortion 17. I gave him some of them 1,300 pages. He actually read them in front of me. I said, “President Trump, my son got killed in a 1960-helicopter, man, with 30 other guys.” He goes, “You see what I did about that? I just signed a bill. $500 million gives them new damn helicopters for them.” Then I said to him, I said, “When you drop that mother bomb over there,” I said, “Next time you call Charlie Strange from Philadelphia and drop like eight or nine on them motherfuckers. Kill them all. Kill all them fucking people.” He goes, “Yo, yo, yo.” I said, “Yo, yo, yo?” I said, “Your son is still here. My son's not.” Then he gave me a hug and then he invited me back for Christmas dinner, Don. Yeah. That was cool. Donnie B.: So tell the family. You're not going to be home for Christmas. You're going to be chilling in the White House. Charles S.: We were in the gold room, the green room, the red room. They were feeding us all kinds of stuff. They did a beautiful tribute to the men and the gold star families. The First Lady, she was elegant. She said, “I don't know what you're going through. I can't understand what you're going through. I can't imagine.” She read a beautiful poem. General Kelly was there. He lost his son. And that's what the gold stars. You get a gold star pin and a folded flag. And we've had some of the parents, some of the mothers come to our weekend and they’re wearing their gold star pin now and another lady says to her, “Man, I like that pin. How do I get one of that?” People don't know what a gold star is and you don't want that gold star pin. It’s the pin that nobody wants but I wear it with honor. My son wore his uniform with honor and what he did to protect and serve for our freedoms and he loved what he did. You hear all kinds of things on our weekends. The one guy said, “I know what you're going through.” His neighbor told him, “I know what you're going through. I had my dog for 12 years.” “You lost your dog? I lost my son. I don’t think you know.” We understand. You know what I mean? Just don't say something like that to me the first year it happened. Donnie B.: Right? Charles S.: Michael Strange Foundation. Donnie B.: That's awesome, brother. Charlie, I got to tell you, I'm honored to have you come on here and share your story. I mean, because you're right. There's a lot of people that don't understand what the gold star families are. I mean, it's thrown around every once in a while but not a lot of people fully understand what it means. So thank you for coming in and really sharing Michael’s and your story, your family’s story. Thank you for everything you're doing. It means a ton and I just have so much respect for what you guys are doing. You're doing so much for other families going through it and thanks for being the light for those people. That's a really truly beautiful thing. How do people get in touch with you guys? So what's the website? What's the best way for them to reach out to donate, to get help if they're a gold star family member that maybe don't know about you guys, those type of things, how do people get in touch with you guys? Charles S.: The best way for the gold stars is Michael Strange Facebook. Message me, Charles Strange Facebook. Message me. Our PO Box is Michael Strange Foundation. PO Box 6038, Philadelphia, PA 19114. Philadelphia, PA 19114. The PO Box is 6038, Michael Strange Foundation. We got PayPal. We got PayPal on MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. You see some t-shirts for sale. You'll see the PayPal in there. We could really use your help. We could really use your support. We're a 501(c)(3). All the money goes to paying for the hotel, the food, the plane tickets and we give the parents a little present at the end, a little gold star bag and it pays for the lodging and that's what we need help for. We need to raise money for these gold star families. Because it's not like after you burry a child, you wake up and go back to work in two weeks or three weeks. I did. I went back to work like two months later, but I couldn't stay for a full week. I go every day but I'll break down and the Grim Reaper ain't no joke and then you wipe yourself off, you drink a bottle of water, you smoke a cigarette, you wash your face, you go back out, you're good for another hour and then bam! It's like, “Damn. My son, you got to be kidding. I got to go to a cemetery to see my son? Who the fuck came up with this? Who the fuck put all these guys in a helicopter?” But the only thing for me is meeting these gold star parents and learning what you're walking into, knowing that you're not alone and it is God working through me. Believe me. That’s the other thing. I give God credit for everything. If it was up to me, I'd be smoking some left-handed cigarettes and drinking, but I don't do that. I probably shouldn’t have said that. Donnie B.: You’re fine. We live in a new time, Charlie. Everybody smokes. Charles S.: I know it is God working through me and meeting that other gold star to start this off and my wife, God bless her, she was Michael’s stepmom and she's like my rock and my boulder. And like you just said, a guy named Shawn Greener from Delaware, Navy veteran, he did some of our counseling. We had another guy from Wildwood. We're looking for a grief counselor actually, Donnie. If anybody … I just interviewed a gentleman yesterday. He's becoming a doctor. He works at a couple of VA’s. He's going to get back to me. If anybody wants to reach out that does grief counseling, we could use some support on that too. My friend in Delaware is not doing too good. He's going through some problems. But yeah. We need a grief counselor. I got two on the line but they’re not sure. We're having an event, June 21st in Jersey, Edison, New Jersey. We’re having a weekend for gold stars we have gotten from Florida, Chicago, coming from all over. So we could use your support. MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. We have PayPal. You can order some shirts and also, our PO Box is on the foundation page. Donnie B.: Awesome. Awesome. Charlie, thanks so much for doing this. Thanks for sharing your story with us. I really appreciate it. Now, here's how I like to wrap up every show. And I do stump some people with this, Charlie. So stand by for that. If you were going to leave the Champions who listen to this show, 91 countries that tune in every day to hear the stories of the Champions that have been through heaven and hell in their life to figure out what they're going to do and where they're going, if you were going to leave them with a quote, a phrase, a saying, a mantra, something they can take with them on their journey, especially when they're stacked up against it, what's that quote or phrase you would say, “Remember this…”? Charles S.: My one phrase I would say would be, “Easy does it, but do it. Remember the fallen and freedom is not free.” Donnie B.: That's awesome, Charlie. Just freaking beautiful, my friend. Thanks so much for doing this. Keep rocking. Keep being the torch for those gold family members and we're fixing to show up to support you, brother. Appreciate you. Charles S.: Thank you so much, Don. Thank you so much for your service. And thanks for helping us. Donnie B.: Absolutely. Charles S.: God bless, brother. Donnie B.: Man, if that story didn't hit you, wow. Charles, I got to say bud, I'm really grateful for your time coming and sharing your story on the show and everything you guys are doing. If you guys would do me an honor, take a minute and just think about the guys who gave it all so we could enjoy the freedoms that we have. Think about all the guys that are deployed overseas now protecting our freedoms and by God, thank a veteran when you see them. They've been through hell in their own form or fashion and those kind words go quite a long ways and for the veterans, when somebody thanks you, take that, receive that and own that for me, because you deserve it. I know I struggled the longest time when people said, “Thank you for your service.” I found a great phrase that allowed me to continue to embrace it because it's not about them thanking me. It's about how it makes them feel that they can do something for us. So anytime they thank you, just turn around, look at them and say, “It was my honor.” Embrace that. Guys, I hope you come hang out in our Success Champions group on Facebook. Over 600 members and growing strong. It has become a family. It has become networking. It is a bunch of badasses all going forward. We are creating Success Champions on a daily basis and let me tell you, you want to come hang out because as I am a Success Champion, so are you. Just go to Facebook, type in ‘Success Champions’, click on groups and we'll see you there. [Music]

Donnie B.: All right, guys. So I want you to strap it in today. So we're going to get pretty deep and heavy on this one. This is a hell of a story from a hell of a guy and my buddy, Patrick Mudge said, “Donnie, you got to sit down with Charlie and let him tell you his story and everything they're doing.” So just strap it in, guys. It’s going to be a really good episode. So I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Charlie Strange. Welcome to the show, my friend. Please, tell us your story. [Music] Donnie B.: Hey, before the show starts, I wanted to jump in here and let you guys know that I could not do this show without the support of Point Blank Safety Services. Stacey and Michael McGovern over there have been a huge asset for the show, the Success Champions Family and everything we do and it's because of their support, we're able to bring you such awesome guests and such awesome stories. So do me a favor. Go check them out. Man, if you're in Texas and you need security officers or you need active-duty police officers on off-duty hours, protecting your sites, construction, security sites, commercial offices, whatever, go check out Point Blank Safety Services. You'll be glad you did. Now, guys, I'm not kidding. Strap it in today. This is a hell of a story. Here comes Charlie Strange. Charles S.: Thank you, Don. My name is Charles Strange. I'm the gold star father of Michael Strange. Michael was killed in action in August 6, 2011 along with 38 other men and 29 Americans and Bart, The Warrior Dog. It was the biggest single loss of life in Iraq and Afghan War and it was the biggest loss of life in the history of America. 22 men from DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare. And it was the worst day of my life. Michael is my oldest son from Philadelphia. He grew up in Philadelphia. Not too far for your audience. From the Rocky Steps, the famous Rocky Steps. Michael ran the Rocky Steps before he went in. “Adrian!” We're Philly and cheesesteaks and Michael joined the military right out of high school and he took off. He took off from there and went to the Great Lakes. I flew out, seen him graduate boot camp. From there, he went to Pensacola, Florida. And from there, he finished first in his class for cryptology. Michael was a code breaker. They actually gave Michael the National Intelligence Medal of Valor. Only 17 have ever been given out in the history of America since World War II and the windtalkers. Given that at the NSA with Admiral Alexander under about five floors underground. But he went to Hawaii because he was a crypto and Admiral McRaven was there and he loved it. We flew out to Hawaii, spent 15 days with Michael in Hawaii and he became a surfer and he got really into the intel there and he started getting deployed on different missions. His buddy, I also don't want to forget about, who died with him, John Douangdara was there. John was the dog handler for the Gold Team DEVGRU. And from Hawaii, he spent a little over three years in Hawaii and then they put him on DEVGRU in Virginia Beach where he had to buy a home and he was with SEAL Team Six, the Gold Squad. His call sign was GY4, Gold Yankee 4 and I said, “Michael! How are you affording a $300,000-house here, Michael? You're 21 years old.” And he loved it and he had to be by the secret base and we still take the train down, drive down. He drived back to Philly because he missed his family, his friends and I'll tell you what, like yesterday was the day we killed Bin Laden and a lot of memories going by one night and Michael called me before that, before the Bin Laden raid. Two weeks prior, he said, “Dad, everything's getting shut off.” I'm like, “What?” He said, “I'm not going to be able to talk to you, Dad.” And I tried to get information out of him and me and Michael had a little code. Even if it was January, he’d ask me, “Are the Phillies winning?” That means, “Don't ask me any more questions, Michael.” Because they would give them a lie detector test every two or three months. And the first question on the lie detector test was, when was the last time you lied? So he wouldn't have me ask any more questions. And he said, “Look, Dad!” He was getting mad. He said, “Dad, look, if something happens, I'm sure you'll hear about it.” And that was the Bin Laden raid and yesterday was, every day is emotional. But he loved what he was doing. He loved protecting and serving his country and his family and August 6th, he came home from the Bin Laden raid in June and it was his birthday, June 6th. It was his birthday and we had a big party, his friend, Kevin and Danny and all of them and the girls. They had about four kegs and a hundred bottles of Jameson's in the pool. But he was different. He was different after the raid and something was going on. A guy by the name of Joe Biden opened his mouth and after the Bin Laden raid at the Ritz-Carlton in Delaware and told everybody, “SEAL Team Six killed Bin Laden.” Nobody ever heard of SEAL Team Six before that. And I don't know if that was one of the things that was bothering Michael after the raid. But he was different. He was different in June when he came home. He talked about a will. He never talked about a will before. A couple of other parents were telling me about the guys in Michael’s crew and they talked about a will and something was going on. Something was going on, Don. He calls me up. He goes back and he's getting deployed back to Afghanistan. I still have his voice on my cellphone here and he said, “I love you, Dad. I'll see you for Thanksgiving for Eddie and Maggie.” That's my sister. We always do Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, in Fishtown and, “I'll see you for Thanksgiving.” And I knew something was up, something was going on and he was completely different. He had just told me about the will. He told my sister. He told his buddies, his brother, his sister and he got deployed in the worst day of my life, Don. August 6, they came knocking on the door. There was like four or five different guys, CAOs, Casualty Assistance guys and they didn't really say much about what happened. They didn't know. Some of the parents said, they ran into a mountain. Some people say, you know. The guys who came to the door, God bless them. They were very nice. They said, “Your son passed along with a tragedy on a helicopter in Afghanistan.” A couple of the parents I know, when you hear that, that's a piece of your heart. Donnie B.: Right. Charles S.: You get rushed to the hospital and I was screaming and yelling and crying and it's like a nightmare. It's a nightmare that actually really don't stop. You learn to walk with a limp the rest of your life, Don. And there was a lot of questions about that August 6, 2011 and the Taliban, actually, after they killed them guys, it was on the internet a half-hour later, bragging. “We just killed SEAL Team Six.” How did they know who was in the Chinook? And there's a lot of questions and we did the ceremony in Arlington. 17 to 30 men were in Arlington. In October 2011, we went down to Little Creek and a guy by the name of, Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt did the investigation on what happened and we were in the auditorium, the 60 parents and he was explaining about the pilots. God bless the pilots and some other things. He seemed like, it took a while due to the presentation, but he was only over there for two weeks to do this investigation for 30 men dying and I know and I still don't know today, Don, about the black box which is really orange. And General Colt put his hands up in the air like theatrically and he said, “A flash flood came and washed it away.” I said, “Oh, you didn't find it?” And they said, they never found the black box and there are some people who say, there is no black box in them CH-47. These are some kind of recording device. Then he said, “An RPG hit the helicopter from 200 yards in the pitch dark and it was a lucky shot.” So I stood up and the Philadelphia in me came out and I said, “Did you just say lucky shot and all our sons are dead?” And I threw a couple of F-notes out there and a couple of gentleman from the military grabbed me. Yeah. So it was, you got to be kidding me? And I asked questions. I had some of the other parents asking questions. When we left there, Donnie, they gave us a folder, a binder and you don't look at it. Just hearing about how your son died. They told me, my son burned to death because of the fire, the fuselage which was all a lie. My son wasn't burned at all. I have pictures of him. Four months, I called Dover and asked for the autopsy and a whistleblower in Dover, God bless his soul, I still don't know who it is, sent me a disk and the paperwork and my beautiful wife, Maryanne, she took the disk. She said, “Don't look at it. Don't look at it.” And she looked at it and I said, “Pretty bad?” And she says, “Well…” I'm like, “Well, they said he was burned beyond recognition.” And it was in all the papers. All over the world, 38 skulls, 38 c-spines. No identifiable remains. So I said, “I want to see. I want to see.” And not that bad and I looked at the pictures of my son and he wasn't burned at all, Donnie. He jumped out of the helicopter or got thrown out of the helicopter. They weren't that high. They weren't that high. I have pictures of the helicopter where they gave us this binder in October after Jeffrey Colt got done doing the thing and there was 25 pages in there. In the first page, you can look at, as you open it up, you can't read it. It ran out of ink. I know the government's doing bad, but they didn't have no ink. So I called Admiral Sean Pybus. He was Commander-in-Chief and God bless him and I said, “I got a bad copy here, Admiral Pybus. Can I get another copy?” He said, “Well, Mr. Strange, we had a lot of complaints about that.” I said, “Okay, good. Send me another one.” He said, “We can't. We burned it.” I said, “You burned it? Already?” But in that packet was a disk and I put the disk in the computer and as you can tell by earlier, I'm not super suave. And there was like a hundred little blocks on this disk and I'm like … My wife, Maryanne, she says, “Let me look at that.” And she took it somewhere and she printed out 1,364 pages, Don. Donnie B.: My God. Charles S.: Which was encrypted with a virus. And the Taliban knew. The Taliban knew. Don, I'm going to read something to you from these 1,364 pages. I wasn't in the military. But in Jeffrey Colt’s investigation, he says, “For the Tangi Valley,” he says, “The next piece of reporting that I have that fits within the timeframe comes from May 11th, 2011.” And it's late May. There's no date on this and it's going to be, I'm reading it. There was a couple of blank spots. It's very brief. Again, it’s out of the task force and it says something to the fact that over 100 Talibans planned to travel from the Blank Province through the Tangi Valley to possibly shoot down the coalition force aircraft. They knew. A 100 Talibans were going to the Tangi Valley. I got it right here in front of me, Don. Right in front of me. Donnie B.: Wow! Charles S.: So these 1,300 pages, some of the other parents started asking questions and they're like, “How did you get that information? How do you know that?” And my wife wrote a letter to the gold star parents down in Florida, telling them how to download the disk to get the 1,364 pages. And then our phone got tapped and our computer got tapped and we won the first case in the history of America for the NSA when we went against the NSA and Obama down in Washington, DC. Judge Leon was our judge. You might remember, he called it, “Aurelian state that we live in.” And so we went to Congress. We went to the Senators. We went to President Obama when he was President. I met President Obama in Dover and tried over and over to try to get answers. I met President Obama in Dover. He came up to me and he said, “Michael changed the way America lived. Michael could do this and Michael could do that.” I grabbed President Obama by the shoulders and I sort of shook him and I said, “I don't need to know about my son. I need know what happened.” Then the Secret Service guys grabbed me. Donnie B.: I see a theme with you, Charlie. Charles S.: Yeah. And President Obama whispered in my ear and he said three times. He said, “Mr. Strange, I want to look into this very, very, very deep.” And we tried going back and not just me and my wife. We had other gold star parents. We’re just asking questions. We had a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. We had like 12 of the gold star parents. We had Allen West. We had General Boykin, General [inaudible] and this needs to be a congressional hearing. And we never got anything. We never got any answers and even if nobody's going to take accountability for the biggest loss of life and my son getting killed, just don't let it happen to someone else's son. Who put 38 men in a Chinook helicopter? 8 of the Afghans, Don, right before they took off, got off and no one's got on. Their names were never on the manifest. I'm like, and they told us this and then I think they wanted to not tell us that but, who were they? Who were they? They told us in Dover. They brought the Afghan bodies back to Dover and they had their flag over the coffins. My daughter said, “What's this?” I said, “That's the Afghans.” She said, “What the eff are they doing here?” That was our question. And they had to call the families from the Afghans and tell them they had the wrong people. They didn't know who they were. You don't know who they are getting on the helicopter? Their names’ not on the manifest? Who okayed all this? And then it was supposed to be a rescue mission for the Rangers and there was no … the Rangers, I’ve talked to personally, who were coming out said, “We didn’t need a QRF. We didn't need a Quick Reaction Force.” They had eight of the Talibans locked up. It's in the 1,300 pages. I got their names. I got their names. And then they said, “Well, we were after Qari Tahir.” Qari Tahir is a high-level guy. He was a big target. Qari Tahir, in the 1,300 pages, knew. Knew. He moved from village to village. Somebody was giving him all the information. Here you go, Hamad, I can't talk. I don't know these Middle Easterners. Harad, Hamad, Hamaz, Zaha, Guli, Nabi, Al-Qazar. The raid in Khawatir Village was targeting Qari Tahir, Ismael, Qali, Tahir had been located in another village during the raid, at the house of Habibur Rahim in the [inaudible]. Everything's written out here, Don. And I can't get no answers on who killed my son? Who made the call? It's crazy. So we went through all kinds of stuff. Donnie B.: Here's the crazy thing, Charlie, is one, God loved you, and I mean this wholeheartedly. I mean, I'm sorry for the loss of your son. It’s tragic. It sucks. No parent needs to go through that, right? But God loved you, man, because somebody's going to pick the fight, right? When something goes like this and I love your Philly freaking attitude, your vibe for you. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes in that room. But I love the way you've handled yourself all the way through this and fucking kudos for just picking the fight because I mean, I'm hearing your side of it. So I've got to go with what I'm hearing. And from what I'm hearing, man, shit, why the hell isn't there a further investigation? Why isn't there more people asking questions? And I get it, man. Some of the parents that have tragically lost their kids in this, they're like, “Okay. We just want to move on and get past it.” But I'm thinking, man, if I'm in your shoes, I'm still asking fucking questions. I want somebody's ass to fry because they made a bad call or they're a traitor to the freaking country. One of the two. Why the cover-up? And what dumbass put the disk in the freaking binder to you guys? Charles S.: Right. Donnie B.: Somebody's ass should get fired just for that stupid mistake on that side of things. So wow. What a shitty thing to go through, man. My heart hurts for that kind of stuff but fucking kudos for your boy for stepping up and doing what not many have the courage to do and fucking defending our country, man. Being a veteran myself, that dude is just freaking awesome. That's just awesome. So now, you guys are doing a lot of cool things for gold star families and you guys are holding events and bringing these families together and helping them get through some of these tough times they’re going through. Tell us a little bit about your foundation, your organization and what you guys are doing. Charles S.: Well, there's a lot of support at the funeral and after the funeral, everybody goes back to work. Everybody goes on vacation. Everybody is still going on. I'd be looking out my window saying, “My son died and everybody is still moving on.” And I was, the five stages of grief. Like I didn't know nothing about the five stages of grief and the first one is denial. No way. He was just sitting on my couch. We were just at a party and the second stage is anger. I was shopping in a food market and some guy had a towel around his head and he had to call the police on me for that one. My wife was at my back. Somebody was going to get it, Donnie. You know what I mean? The third one is bargain. And God don't bargain. And the fourth one they say is depression. I don't like to use that word. I think it's the Grim Reaper and the fifth one is acceptance. But like any other ones, what I learned is, with the loss of a son or a daughter or burying a child, it don't stop. It just keeps coming. I buried my father. I buried my cousin. I buried good friends. Not even in the same circle is burying a child and I ran into another gold star father named, Grant Smith. His son Tristan Smith was killed in an IED from Philadelphia three years prior. So I got in touch with this guy and we met for coffee and he started crying and he was angry and I felt good, Don. I was like, “This guy's just like me. We’re both fucked up. All right!” And I came home. I told my wife. I said, “We should bring more parents together.” And my wife, she started reaching out to some gold star parents and we did it. I said, “Let do …” in Philadelphia, we call it Beef and Beer and some guy named Drago, a Navy SEAL named Drago came along and him and his wife, great wife, Rachel and their two kids came down and we had an Irish band, of course, Blackthorne, donated their time and we raised some money and we brought like 20 gold star parents in for a weekend and we had a grief counselor there and we get the parents to talk. I want to hear from the other dads and moms. How do you get through the birthday? What are you doing in the holiday? How do you get through every day? And from there, the other gold star parents started telling other gold star parents. “When are you doing that again? Are you doing that again?” And I was like, “Well, okay. We'll do another one.” And we went to Wildwood, New Jersey and we did Thursday to Sunday and we brought some gold star parents from Michigan, Heath Robinson’s dad, he was on Team 6, Heath was a sharpshooter and we brought Debbie Anne who lost her son and they never seen the ocean. They never seen the ocean. So it was really cool and we did a lot of healing in Saturday night, whatever area we’re in, we ask the VFW or American Legion or [inaudible] Club, the hostess for dinner. We get the motorcycles, the cops, the firemen involved and my wife makes these beautiful reefs, biodegradable reefs and we go to the ocean and we say our sons’ names and we say a few prayers and we throw them, knowing that we'll see our sons again on the other side. We went to Tucson, Arizona to this guy Mike and Bonnie Quinn's house and we had a beautiful hotel out there and we had gold stars. We had Bob Huff. His daughter was Samantha Huff, the first girl killed in Iraq. My man, Bob and we had about 38 gold star parents out there. So the healing begins in meeting these other families and just to know what you're walking into, knowing you're not alone because a lot of the gold star parents go, “Don, nobody cares if my son died.” I said, “There is people that care, man. There is people that care.” I brought my buddy in, Kali Thomason. He's from Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana and you think I got an accent. I live about 60 miles from them duck boys. That's where I live at. “You better look for the gators, Charlie.” You can look Kali up on Facebook. He was putting up on Facebook, “My son died because of the rules of engagement.” His son was, they had to pull over to the side of the road. He was in the middle with some brass. And the van coming down since they pulled over drove right into the middle loaded with bombs and killed his son, Josh. But yeah. Meeting Kali and we brought Kali down to Ocean City, Maryland in the Royal Princess Hotel. We had 36 gold star parents and I tell you what, they put the fire engine trucks. They put it in the newspaper. Me and my wife go wherever we're going to go for the weekend retreat with the gold star families, we go down like a month early to let the VFW Post know, the police and firemen and they put it in the newspaper. There was people out in the street, Don with the flags. They brought the bugler. Each city that we've been to really rolls out the red carpet. But we're a small foundation. We need help. MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. Donnie B.: Well, hold on. Let me jump in here just one second, Charlie. A couple of things. One, you guys are close because obviously, it's your kids, right? I mean, that's not going to be something that's ever going to be [inaudible] place in your life, right? So it's really close to you. But I want to say it for all of us that aren't gold star families, man. It's not that we're not thinking about it. We're just not as close to it as you guys are. I mean, you guys are there every day. But I want you to also recognize that everywhere you've been, look at the good people that show up to support. I mean, at the end of the day, man, they're special people in this world. And unfortunately, society as it is, as a whole, likes to just paint a bad fucking picture on everything. So if you turn on the false shitty-ass news and all the other BS out there, all that you're going to see is the negative stuff. But for all of your friends that you guys are doing these amazing things for, just remember, it's not that we’re not thinking about it. It's just, we're not as close to it as you guys are. And we show up. Because there's still some of us that that sacrifice means a fuck ton to a lot of us. So I just wanted to get that out. Now, tell us about your damn foundation. Charles S.: Thank you, Donnie. Thank you. And that means a lot, man. That means a lot. Thank you. Donnie B.: You get me all freaking choked up here, Charlie. Charles S.: I make you cry. I do. My wife's over here on the side crying and tearing up. A piece of my heart's missing now, Don and meeting these other gold stars, we got a big event coming up. We got Drago coming back, November 2nd with a guy by the name of Rob O'Neill who’s coming back from his second time. One of Michael’s buddies. A lot of you guys’ buddies and we're teaming up with another foundation called Operation First Response, Peggy Baker and Nick Constantino’s. And we're doing it, November 2nd. I know you guys don't like to come to the East Coast over here, Donnie. Donnie B.: That’s cold-ass weather in November, dude. You’re crazy as hell. Charles S.: We’ll get you a Philly cheesesteak at [inaudible]. Donnie B.: That’s awesome. Charles S.: In case you do, Nikki and Joey bag of doughnuts and Rocco and all the guys. Yeah. We’ll take care of you. But November 2nd, seriously, Pat Mudge is speaking, one of Michael's close friends. Donnie B.: Just really quick, Charlie, for the ones that have listened to this podcast all the way through, if you guys go back before, I think, Episode 50, someone there, you'll hear Patrick Mudge’s story, man. And let me tell you, Patrick Mudge is the only interview I've ever done where I think I said two words through the whole thing, man. When that dude tells his story, holy fuck. That dude went through some shit. So great dude, great story. So to see him speak in person will be huge. Charles S.: Pat spoke at our little dinner event last year when he came down. He was close with Michael. It's hard, man. And you got to ask God for help. A guy opened up the Bible to me a little bit about Jesus and He died on the cross for us and His only Son and so we meet new veterans and asking God for help and we meet these other great gold star parents from all over the country, Don. We’ve had 250 gold star parents. We’ve done weekends in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Ocean City, Maryland, Tucson, Longmont, Colorado, Washington, DC, Lenox, Massachusetts and we need help with the airfare. We need help with the hotels because the parents already paid the ultimate price, right? I don't like saying that. Ultimate sacrifice. I don't like that shit. It was no sacrifice. My son had a gun in his hand when he died, you know what I mean? And that fucks with me too. He was alive for 15 minutes and nobody came to help him in my nightmares. Donnie B.: Here's the thing, man, is you guys are doing a freaking awesome thing, right? It's a hell of a thing you guys are doing and through your story, what people are able to feel, see and embrace is, this is a tough fucking thing and I personally can't relate to any of it. I've never lost anybody that close to me, right? But I will tell you, the fucking strength that you guys have to bring these families in across the world, across the US and be able to put them in one place, one room so you all can freaking go through this shit together and then you realize, you're not fucking alone is huge, is really, really, really huge and fucking kudos. I mean, there's always somebody who picks up the torch and says, “Come sit by my fire,” and you guys are doing it. Charles S.: Thanks, Don. Donnie B.: Yeah. Really freaking awesome. Charles S.: Thank you. Yeah. It helps. It helps meeting these gold stars. My friend, Jeannie Cathcart, his son was Michael Cathcart and all over, all over and we did one up in Lenox, Massachusetts, the gold star families with Derek Benson's dad there, Fred and a couple of the families from Extortion 17 came. Doug Hamburger and his son, Patrick was on there, out of Nebraska, full-time National Guard. And I'll tell you what, the one up in Lenox, Massachusetts, it's called Pug’s Farm. The guy bought a Chinook helicopter, Don. He bought a Chinook helicopter and has a memorial site. It’s called Pug’s Farm. If you're ever up in Lenox, Massachusetts, it's free. It's a beautiful memorial site. A guy by the name of E.L. Shapiro. Just amazing site. So we did a weekend up there with them. That was, going inside the Chinook, seeing the pictures but it's healing. Something else that’s healing too. You learn to walk with a limp every day and some days are harder than others. Sometimes, that Grim Reaper comes in on you and then it's good to … through the foundation, I met Mike Anderson. His son was a Marine. Fast-track, killed in Fallujah. His son got hurt. He was out, came back and then got shot right through the heart. Mike Anderson, good friend of mine. And meeting Michael and his daughter, Ally. Sometimes, we bring the siblings in if they're over 18 and they asked me to do the siblings and as you can tell, I'm not a doctor. I do have a PhD though, Donnie. Plumbing, heating and drainage. See, we learned to laugh again, bro. We learned to laugh again. Donnie B.: I get that, Charlie. I come from a blue-collar lifestyle. So I get that, man. That's awesome. Charles S.: Absolutely. I was in the laborers’ union in Philly. So that's the Michael Strange Foundation. You can see videos on Michael Strange Facebook. You'll see all the videos, all the gold star parents, different events. But November 2nd is our big dinner. Everybody's welcome. We’ll have it up on the website in about two months so you can buy tickets online. We’ll have auctioneer. Pat Mudge is going to battle for us, get some stuff donated. We need some donations for the auction. Rob O’Neill is coming in to speak. He's going to be there. Drago, Pat, a couple of veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq through Operation First Response who will talk for a few minutes to tell their stories, how Operation First Response helps them and then of course, I have some gold stars there from all over the country just to do some healing and show people that freedom is not free, babe. Freedom is not free. 9/11, man, Boston Bombing, San Bernardino and I know Michael did some things in this country to stop certain things that even went on here and you never hear about it and that's what I love about everybody who serves in the military. To sign that line and to protect us for our freedoms, man. For our freedoms. We live in the greatest country in the world. Donnie B.: That's it. That's it, man. That's it. Charles S.: President Trump had me down to the White House. He was great. He asked me to bring ten gold stars down there. It was a trip. They even put it in the newspaper in Philadelphia. “Family and Fawn Meets the Trumpster.” They put the Trumpster up. They had to throw a little shot in. But he was good. I had 15 minutes alone with him. Me and my wife. Him and the First Lady. He opened up an investigation about Extortion 17. I gave him some of them 1,300 pages. He actually read them in front of me. I said, “President Trump, my son got killed in a 1960-helicopter, man, with 30 other guys.” He goes, “You see what I did about that? I just signed a bill. $500 million gives them new damn helicopters for them.” Then I said to him, I said, “When you drop that mother bomb over there,” I said, “Next time you call Charlie Strange from Philadelphia and drop like eight or nine on them motherfuckers. Kill them all. Kill all them fucking people.” He goes, “Yo, yo, yo.” I said, “Yo, yo, yo?” I said, “Your son is still here. My son's not.” Then he gave me a hug and then he invited me back for Christmas dinner, Don. Yeah. That was cool. Donnie B.: So tell the family. You're not going to be home for Christmas. You're going to be chilling in the White House. Charles S.: We were in the gold room, the green room, the red room. They were feeding us all kinds of stuff. They did a beautiful tribute to the men and the gold star families. The First Lady, she was elegant. She said, “I don't know what you're going through. I can't understand what you're going through. I can't imagine.” She read a beautiful poem. General Kelly was there. He lost his son. And that's what the gold stars. You get a gold star pin and a folded flag. And we've had some of the parents, some of the mothers come to our weekend and they’re wearing their gold star pin now and another lady says to her, “Man, I like that pin. How do I get one of that?” People don't know what a gold star is and you don't want that gold star pin. It’s the pin that nobody wants but I wear it with honor. My son wore his uniform with honor and what he did to protect and serve for our freedoms and he loved what he did. You hear all kinds of things on our weekends. The one guy said, “I know what you're going through.” His neighbor told him, “I know what you're going through. I had my dog for 12 years.” “You lost your dog? I lost my son. I don’t think you know.” We understand. You know what I mean? Just don't say something like that to me the first year it happened. Donnie B.: Right? Charles S.: Michael Strange Foundation. Donnie B.: That's awesome, brother. Charlie, I got to tell you, I'm honored to have you come on here and share your story. I mean, because you're right. There's a lot of people that don't understand what the gold star families are. I mean, it's thrown around every once in a while but not a lot of people fully understand what it means. So thank you for coming in and really sharing Michael’s and your story, your family’s story. Thank you for everything you're doing. It means a ton and I just have so much respect for what you guys are doing. You're doing so much for other families going through it and thanks for being the light for those people. That's a really truly beautiful thing. How do people get in touch with you guys? So what's the website? What's the best way for them to reach out to donate, to get help if they're a gold star family member that maybe don't know about you guys, those type of things, how do people get in touch with you guys? Charles S.: The best way for the gold stars is Michael Strange Facebook. Message me, Charles Strange Facebook. Message me. Our PO Box is Michael Strange Foundation. PO Box 6038, Philadelphia, PA 19114. Philadelphia, PA 19114. The PO Box is 6038, Michael Strange Foundation. We got PayPal. We got PayPal on MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. You see some t-shirts for sale. You'll see the PayPal in there. We could really use your help. We could really use your support. We're a 501(c)(3). All the money goes to paying for the hotel, the food, the plane tickets and we give the parents a little present at the end, a little gold star bag and it pays for the lodging and that's what we need help for. We need to raise money for these gold star families. Because it's not like after you burry a child, you wake up and go back to work in two weeks or three weeks. I did. I went back to work like two months later, but I couldn't stay for a full week. I go every day but I'll break down and the Grim Reaper ain't no joke and then you wipe yourself off, you drink a bottle of water, you smoke a cigarette, you wash your face, you go back out, you're good for another hour and then bam! It's like, “Damn. My son, you got to be kidding. I got to go to a cemetery to see my son? Who the fuck came up with this? Who the fuck put all these guys in a helicopter?” But the only thing for me is meeting these gold star parents and learning what you're walking into, knowing that you're not alone and it is God working through me. Believe me. That’s the other thing. I give God credit for everything. If it was up to me, I'd be smoking some left-handed cigarettes and drinking, but I don't do that. I probably shouldn’t have said that. Donnie B.: You’re fine. We live in a new time, Charlie. Everybody smokes. Charles S.: I know it is God working through me and meeting that other gold star to start this off and my wife, God bless her, she was Michael’s stepmom and she's like my rock and my boulder. And like you just said, a guy named Shawn Greener from Delaware, Navy veteran, he did some of our counseling. We had another guy from Wildwood. We're looking for a grief counselor actually, Donnie. If anybody … I just interviewed a gentleman yesterday. He's becoming a doctor. He works at a couple of VA’s. He's going to get back to me. If anybody wants to reach out that does grief counseling, we could use some support on that too. My friend in Delaware is not doing too good. He's going through some problems. But yeah. We need a grief counselor. I got two on the line but they’re not sure. We're having an event, June 21st in Jersey, Edison, New Jersey. We’re having a weekend for gold stars we have gotten from Florida, Chicago, coming from all over. So we could use your support. MichaelStrangeFoundation.org. We have PayPal. You can order some shirts and also, our PO Box is on the foundation page. Donnie B.: Awesome. Awesome. Charlie, thanks so much for doing this. Thanks for sharing your story with us. I really appreciate it. Now, here's how I like to wrap up every show. And I do stump some people with this, Charlie. So stand by for that. If you were going to leave the Champions who listen to this show, 91 countries that tune in every day to hear the stories of the Champions that have been through heaven and hell in their life to figure out what they're going to do and where they're going, if you were going to leave them with a quote, a phrase, a saying, a mantra, something they can take with them on their journey, especially when they're stacked up against it, what's that quote or phrase you would say, “Remember this…”? Charles S.: My one phrase I would say would be, “Easy does it, but do it. Remember the fallen and freedom is not free.” Donnie B.: That's awesome, Charlie. Just freaking beautiful, my friend. Thanks so much for doing this. Keep rocking. Keep being the torch for those gold family members and we're fixing to show up to support you, brother. Appreciate you. Charles S.: Thank you so much, Don. Thank you so much for your service. And thanks for helping us. Donnie B.: Absolutely. Charles S.: God bless, brother. Donnie B.: Man, if that story didn't hit you, wow. Charles, I got to say bud, I'm really grateful for your time coming and sharing your story on the show and everything you guys are doing. If you guys would do me an honor, take a minute and just think about the guys who gave it all so we could enjoy the freedoms that we have. Think about all the guys that are deployed overseas now protecting our freedoms and by God, thank a veteran when you see them. They've been through hell in their own form or fashion and those kind words go quite a long ways and for the veterans, when somebody thanks you, take that, receive that and own that for me, because you deserve it. I know I struggled the longest time when people said, “Thank you for your service.” I found a great phrase that allowed me to continue to embrace it because it's not about them thanking me. It's about how it makes them feel that they can do something for us. So anytime they thank you, just turn around, look at them and say, “It was my honor.” Embrace that. Guys, I hope you come hang out in our Success Champions group on Facebook. Over 600 members and growing strong. It has become a family. It has become networking. It is a bunch of badasses all going forward. We are creating Success Champions on a daily basis and let me tell you, you want to come hang out because as I am a Success Champion, so are you. Just go to Facebook, type in ‘Success Champions’, click on groups and we'll see you there. [Music]

In this episode we’re talking business with Haydn Elliott Haydn is the host of The Inspiration Space Podcast and co-owner of F45 Oxford Circus I met Haydn for the first time in 2017 when he asked me to come on his podcast and since then we’ve become good friends In this one Haydn talks about how starting his podcast and building it on his own from nothing helped him rebuild his confidence and self-belief after struggling with his mental health He describes it as just ‘exhausting’ and like ‘going 12 rounds every day’ and as Scottie asks more questions I can tell it’s the first time he’s spoken about some of this stuff ... Haydn also talks about what he’s learned about himself building F45, his gym in Oxford Circus that he runs with his best mate Tristan Smith, and we talk about everything from what drives him, to what he’s proud of and how he balances his ‘inner chimp’ with being himself Haydn’s pure passion for life and for health & fitness (both mental & physical) is pretty special and his realness in an industry that is often criticised for lacking authenticity is inspiring Absolutely top guy and one of the people I feel lucky to have got to know and met through doing what I do - hope you enjoy :) GB x

Join Joel and NC Dave with special guest Tristan Smith as they recount the many happy fun times that were had at the recent South Australia GT. We also answer your questions, discuss the player pack for the upcoming Lord of War and constantly make jokes about Tristan's height during a hard nosed 4 corners style interview. Strap yourselves in because the boys were knocking back a few and the slurs got a bit speeched towards the end ;)

Going behind the scenes of Mondo Bizarro's BONIFACE! Director Tristan Smith and lead actor John Walker join us to discuss the nitty gritty of film making.

This is part 2 of the TABOO recording. If you haven't listened to part 1, go do that first. In this part, we talk about Tristan's history of being bullied and (sort of?) bullying and how that influenced his dark sense of humor. We also listen to him drone on about the unique perspective and skillset of his improv background, failing with fun, and the function of joy in comedy.

Absurdly dark Tristan Smith wades into the nasty, deep end of the comedy pool: TABOO feat.This is one part craft and comedy theory and one part societal debate, all marinated in total fuckery. We dive right in with some David Cross, followed by the great "Kramer Meltdown," Dave Chappelle's response to it, and then George Carlin's seminal bit from the 90's about taboo words and their context. And we argue the bejesus out it all.

Dr Tristan Smith is a lecturer in Energy and Transport at the UCL Energy Institute, where he leads a shipping modelling and analysis research group. Tristan has degrees in Engineering and Naval Architecture and he has been the coordinator of the project Low Carbon Shipping – A Systems Approach, leading two of the six work packages on ‘modelling the global shipping system’ and ‘regulation policy and incentives for low carbon shipping’. Tristan's research interests cover all aspects of shipping economics, logistics and operation and he has been leading a consortium of ten organisations to produce the Third IMO Greenhouse Gas Study 2014: a major publication for the industry, which is used as a reference for CO2 emission regulatory discussions for the future. It's interesting to hear Tristan explain the challenges the researchers meet when trying to explain the shipping industry and it mechanisms to the policy makers and what difficulties there is for the same researchers to reach the industry and convince them to let go of the mind-set of "what can we get away with". Hear how Tristan examines the often used arguments for why shipping should benefit from not making any changes to the current state of the business; Shipping is the greenest form of transport, Shipping is too important to the global economy, Shipping is intractable for developing countries & that the current technology is the only solution. It's a bright future with no shortage of stimulating employment opportunities that Tristan describes for the #shipping industry. Thank you for listening, please share this podcast with your friends! Any comment you may have on the content of this episode is welcome, use @ShippingPodcast for twitter or go to the website www.shippingpodcast.com don't forget to include @tristanps ;) Let's get the debate going!

Ross Brown continues his 10 Questions With segment for WGCY radio during the 2014 GCMS Football season.  This week's guest is Tristan Smith.