Jason Waller here true underdog podcast and YouTube channel listen make sure you subscribe today you can go to iHeartRadio Spotify Apple podcast you can go to our YouTube channel true underdog or you can visit true underdog.com and subscribe to all of it.

Jason Waller here true underdog podcast underdogs out there I have got a fantastic story here to tell you about someone who really wasn't your underdog somebody who almost lost their life.

This gentleman here is one of five quadruple amputees that have survived he was in the war in Iraq he was in Afghanistan and you got to had an issue with an ied an improvised explosive device and lost his legs and his arms and since then he has built a great life he's married he's got two kids he's traveling the world and he's given back to everybody has a wonderful foundation let's give it up for Travis Mills how you doing buddy.

Hey i'm doing great thanks for having me I appreciate it live in life to the fullest every day I can because I'm fortunate still be able to be home and and make it through my injuries well listen first I want to say thank you for protecting our country and out there and risking your life and and you know serving our military not enough people understand that it's really hard for you to be away from your family and go out there and serve something you truly believe in and you come back in your life.

Life is upside down and it changes we're going to get into that story but what you're doing now Travis talk about the foundation now that you that you've built and then let's talk about the story.

Yeah I mean so my wife and I wanted to give back we were showing so much love and support at the hospital that we thought we do care packages overseas we started the Travis Mills foundation it went so well with the care packages and I learned how to go downhill mountain biking and snowboarding and all these cool activities and I realized like I was only doing it because my daughter was six months old and I got injured and I wanted to be able to stuff with her.

Knowing that I'm not going to throw softball you know I'm not going to play soccer but we can still do outdoor like action you know activity sports and we thought you know let's bring some families out to Maine where my wife is from we settled and we brought some families out and it went so well that we bought a facility and fix it up for like two years to like three and a half four and a half million dollars and now we bring out eight families per week that have been through physical injuries of paralyzation amputation spinal cord injuries due to service.

Could be combat could be just something to happen in training and you know we show them the hey life goes on and they live up the slogan of never never give up never quit and we make sure they realize they need to be active in their family as well as active in their society and it's going really well I mean we've helped over 500 families to date we opened officially in 2017 and we're opening our season back up June 27th so that's exciting and then we want to do a little bit more we always want to keep expanding our horizons and I was going to ask about post-traumatic stress.

Post-traumatic stress I don't suffer from anything I mean I've killed people I've watched my buddies die doesn't bother me I don't you know lose sleep over it but I know post-traumatic stress is real and we became a partner with warrior path which is on a boulder crest foundation and it's a leading post-traumatic growth program in the nation and family out there has deployed post 9-11 that is going through post-traumatic stress go to my website Travis mills foundation.org and sign up for the warrior path program it's free it's one of the best in the nation if not the best.

And you know we have a program actually starting today so I'm very fired up to eat more veterans in here and let them know hey life goes on let's find out what triggers you and let's find out how we can divert our anger and make sure we live a positive more helpful and longer you know lasting happiness is what we go for so better life.

Well Travis I mean you give me goosebumps when as positive as you are and as the curve balls that you've been thrown you know let's let's talk about that I mean despite losing portions of both arms and legs

on your duty in Afghanistan 2012 you overcome life's challenges you broke physical bears to fight the odds and you live by a motto called never give up never quit tell me what that means what are the listeners need to know when Travis mill says never give up never quit.

Yeah so after my injury I was working out and I was really frail I went from 250 pounds 6 foot 3 to like I guess 3 foot 6 maybe I'm not sure how tall I am with my legs off but in 140 pounds also 110 pounds

and I was so weak at one point I couldn't roll over set up by myself but I went to occupational therapy and as I was doing some setups the occupational therapist was like hey do you want to take a break and I'm like I'm never going to give up and you know I'm just never going to quit like that and she's that was a silly question like yeah I'm never going to quit

and then I just kind of coin like never go never quit because that's how my recovery went whenever something was hard I just had to push through I had to make the decision early on to live my life and understand I have two choices

and the one choice was stay here and be miserable or the other you know option 2 is get better you know you get better you don't and there's nothing I can do change what happened so I might as well get better

and that's kind of where the whole slogan of never give up never quit came from and in the military you're fortunate that you don't have an option

you get told what you got to do and you got to get the job done you can't quit or you can't give up and I just live you know took that to my everyday life

and now we're you know we're doing pretty well I'm not going to sure go ahead I think I'm I think I'm thriving in a world where I have you know fake hands big legs and I can still do everything I want to do

you know I looked at your Instagram when we first set up to do this podcast and I was sharing it with my wife and my kids and I was like look at this guy look how happy he is look at his family this is a guy who is trying and you can tell when people are putting BS on social media

but you're living your life like you that is amazing people don't understand they find excuses to not do things they find reasons to not excel they find bear they put their own obstacles in their own way

where you said this is BS I'm doing this now this is how I'm going to do things I'm going to kill it I'm going to crush it I'm going to get back I'm not going to be stuck in this that's that mindset of never give up never quit right

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