Episode 788: Resilience in the Face of Adversity with Matias Ferreira - America's First Active Double-Amuptee LEO

Street Cop Podcast

Street Cop Training

Education

4.9 • 933 Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today's episode, Dennis speaks with Marine veteran and America's first active double-amuptee LEO, Matias Ferreira. Matias was born in Uruguay, and immigrated to the U.S. (Atlanta) with his family when he was six, joining the Marines at 19. He took his oath to become an American citizen in September 2010, days before he deployed to Afghanistan as a machine gunner with the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines.

Just months into his first deployment in January 2011, Lance Corporal Ferreira lost both legs and broke his pelvis after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Treated by a Navy Corpsman and medically evacuated to Bagram (Afghanistan) hospital, he was flown to Landstuhl, Germany, and then brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. There he underwent several surgeries and aggressive therapies. Months later, he eventually learned to walk confidently on prosthetics, advancing to running, and other sports a short time later. He was medically retired in May 2012. Matias is now a police officer for the Suffolk County Police Department in New York and a drill instructor at the Suffolk County Police Academy.

Today, Matias tells his story of the events that unfolded on the day of his incident, the recovery process, what motivated him to become a police officer, how he overcame adversity as a double-amputee police officer, how he became a drill instructor, the blessings in disguise that came from his incident and the changes they are implementing in academies to move in the right direction to train the future officers the right way.

Follow Matias on IG: @matias_n_ferreira

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And you know, we get there as an element of surprise at night time and
0:02.8	boom, you hear the doors get kicked down and the dog sniffing around the IED
0:07.3	detectors going off and nothing's there. So, you know, we stabilize our units overnight and I go on the rooftop with my team and I tell them guys just stay put I'm going to go down and get the rest of the equipment and I'll be right back and before you know it and I jump off the roof down to the ground which is like a five foot drop and all of a sudden I'm just looking up at the sky and I just hear you know kind of like that pin drop and it's almost like your your drums are busted out and I'm just seeing little flickering lights everywhere and I hear it you know don't move look for secondaries and I'm just like what the hell's going on you know and all of the sudden bam it hits me like a bus
0:40.5	Hey guys check up the 2023 street cop conference
0:43.0	April 23rd through the 28th Gaylord Convention Center.
0:46.6	It's gonna be the event of the year.
0:48.0	Key note speakers include Rob O'Neill,
0:50.6	the guy who killed bin Laden,
0:52.1	Kyle Carpenter the youngest living medal of honor recipient.
0:55.0	Navy SEAL Jason Redmond, Fox News host Tommy Laren,
0:58.4	Marine Corps Special Forces and Leadership Coach Cody Alford,
1:01.8	Sheriff Wain Ivy, Sheriff David Clark, and Sheriff Mark Lamb.
1:05.0	It's going to be one Helmut event and on top of that we have all of our instructors and additional instructors from other companies going to be at the event giving you everything they know for you to have a successful career and get the results you want to get in the field as a police officer.
1:19.0	On top of attending the event, you'll get face-to-face time with every instructor attending the event and all the keynote speakers will spend time with you.
1:25.5	We got special events all week giveaways, night life. It's going to be really, really worth your time, energy, and effort.
1:31.5	I promise you you will not regret it for a second.
1:34.0	To register for the conference, check out Streetcop.com, click conference, and everything you need will be there on the home page.
1:40.0	If you are looking for a room, just click Book a room.
1:42.6	The block has been sold out at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center,
1:46.7	but there are many hotels nearby within a walking distance of the event.
1:50.8	You don't want to miss out of this opportunity.
1:52.4	We will see you there. You training to be a street cop?
	...

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