You're listening to software, radio, special operations, military meals, and straight talk with the guys in the community.

Hey, what's going on? This is rad and another episode of software radio coming your way. This is a special episode. This is airing around Veterans Day, 2022.

You know, I don't like to date my episodes because I wanted to be forever, but this is a very special guest. I have David Velovia, who is a recipient of the United States Congressional Medal of Honor in its entirety, as well as some other accolades as well, like Braun Starr's and things that he wears on his chest.

David has taken time out of his busy day to join us and discuss the situations that presented themselves to him while he was in the military in combat.

And we're going to talk to him about transitioning after that. And you know, just get to know David and his story. So welcome to the show David.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, David. So like the big elephant in the room is you served in the military, right?

That is the big reveal is, yeah, veteran. That's right.

And if I read what I read so far in your book and understanding you joined a little later in life, right? You were not the 17 year old in boot camp. Tell me how old you were.

I was 24 when I joined the Army. I was in college at the very end of it. And I was just really it's one of those decisions. I think we all kind of whether you make it early or you make it later in life.

There's a lot of advantages to having your life in order before you join the military. And then you have the fact that physically you feel like a dinosaur.

And you know, when you're approaching 30 and you're running around with a bunch of 22 year olds, you know, it humbles you because, you know, these guys are sweating out vodka and Copenhagen through their pores and you're out here.

But at the same time, it was something I had to do with my life. I really did. And I'm glad I made the decision, but I'm glad that I had life behind me so that I could be able to be a surrogate father to young people.

And you have my head on straight. It was the right time to do it.

Yeah, as a surrogate father, I can totally see how that would that mental toughness that you had already built up from being a school having to stay on task and you know, get your accomplishments done.

You know, they probably look to you in boot camp and basic. I bet you've ever talked to you, but I hear instructors like, hey, look, you're older. You're going to need to like, you know, be in charge.

But you know, that's also a false sense of a little bit of a false sense that you're ready to lead on day one.

And I think the biggest lesson I learned was that you can't really lead until you know how to follow.

You've got to learn how to follow before you can get to a position where you could say, look, man, you're going to have, you're going to learn more from bad leaders than you learned from the great ones.

And you can't distinguish a great leader until you've had a couple of, you know, shitty leaders. Let's be honest.

You got to have a few people that you're just like, what's going on here? This isn't, you know, this isn't the way it should be done.

So all of those things kind of lead, you know, they build up to a data bank of information that you could use when you get tapped to being charged.

Yeah, you finally see who a good platoon leader or squad leader is once you've had a few other ones.

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