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Wall Street Meets Humanitarianism: RSU Founder Iryna Vashchuk Discipio Joins Gayed, Block & CNBC
Join this powerful and heartfelt panel discussion on how American veterans are stepping up to support Ukraine's fight for freedom. Featuring inspiring stories from Adam Kishleski, a retired Marine and CEO of MLB Outdoors, and Irina Vashchuk, founder of Revived Soldiers Ukraine, this video highlights the incredible resilience of Ukrainian soldiers and the crucial role of U.S. veterans and charities in providing medical aid, rehabilitation, and hope. Discover how individuals and organizations are making a difference in the lives of those affected by war. Watch now to learn how you can help support this vital mission. Together, we can make an impact.
#ukraine #ukrainewar #military #charity #usveteransukraine
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This is a first very special session. I asked Peter if he would moderate it. He said yes, there is a film, and I'm going to let him take over, introduce this wonderful panel and share the experience and at the end I'm going to ask for some help.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Norbik. So I think we'll start by having everyone here introduce themselves.
Speaker 4:My name is Adam Kishleski. I'm a retired Marine Sergeant, a double amputee I got wounded in Iraq in 2005, and currently the CEO of MPLB Outdoors.
Speaker 5:Hello everybody. I'm Irina Decipio and I'm the president and founder for Revived Soldiers Ukraine, a US-based charity that helps Ukrainian women servicemen and I'm a former athlete. I used to run for the Ukrainian national team and I ended up at USC, so I compete for University of Southern California and I'm All-American in Triton Field.
Speaker 6:Hello, my name is David Pesetsky. I'm Ukrainian soldier. I was on frontline for about a year.
Speaker 7:Hi, my name is Diana Barslavska-Piasetka. I'm David Svay for the last eight years and currently it's my main job.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I want to start with you guys first Living in Ukraine. It's January 2022 for Russia and the Soviets. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that this was actually going to happen? So?
Speaker 6:I would say that, like one month before that, everybody like we're talking about this and no one wanted to believe in this. I would say that for sure. But at the same time, uh, quite a lot of people are started to prepare, uh, just like just in case. So same thing I did. I kind of bought a lot of food, uh and water, is you don't really know? Uh, we didn't know how war could look, like you know. So we were kind of prepared, but no one like could even imagine how like bad it will be, and I don't think it's like it'll be possible to prepare like fully for this so when you so, the war begins february 2022, when what was your step from there in terms of joining the military and then actually going into battle?
Speaker 3:sorry, uh, dead or deaf.
Speaker 6:It's about my wife diana. Uh, the first thing, uh, a lot of like families uh did. Uh. I also did the same.
Speaker 6:I started to think how I can, like keep my wife safe and then how I can join to the military and I believe, on the second day of the war, I sent Diana. It was also, I would say, quite a journey, because even if we live in the western part of Ukraine and we are about 60 kilometers from the Polish border, and we are about 60 kilometers from the Polish border, and even to get there was really really hard and scary to send Diana because Russians were bombing, actually border crossing as well, and we would have like a traffic jam for like many, many kilometers. Basically, it means like I'm sending Diana and she could stuck there like who knows for how long, and she ended up staying like on this line for three days, three days, yeah. So, and like I'm sitting here with with one small bag and our dog and I would think how she can eat, what she's going to drink, is she going to be safe? So that's the first thing that I did, and after that I still had a good job and I decided to become a volunteer.
Speaker 6:I had some equipment. It was not really military equipment, it was. I bought a lot of stuff for Airsoft because I used to play and I went and donated to the guys all my stuff. We were driving across the city trying to buy a lot of products, a lot of food, because guys who would join military at the very beginning we didn't have any kind of supplies for the army, for the guys who joined, even not just army. They just went and asked look, can I have a gun and go fighting. So yeah, I started to kind of as a volunteer at first.
Speaker 3:Well, I think there's one thing that's really razor about this is that Putin thought he would come in and invade and it would be over in three days and that ukrainians would just give rose right to the russian soldiers. And I think there's one thing we learned is an incredible resilience and grit of the ukrainian people in terms of fighting back and not giving this guy just free will over your country. And do you think that that grit remains the same today as it was when they first indated? Is that still that same strong desire to push back?
Speaker 6:I would say for sure, gus, if it will be not true, I wouldn't be here a lot right now. It's one thing. Of course, everyone tired, that's true, that's a natural thing. But our people, uh, they can like, uh, I don't. We, uh, we will fight till the last man.
Speaker 3:I will say this for sure as well, I'm gonna going to bring Irina in here, because when we see on the news, we read the papers and we see soldiers getting injured and whatever. When someone gets hurt it's not like there's a hospital down the street that they can be cared for. Irina is going to explain what she does, where they literally take injured Ukrainian soldiers and they bring them to the United States for treatment, and there's this whole infrastructure of support to treat these soldiers.
Speaker 5:So the war started in 2014.
Speaker 3:Yes, when they first got to Crimea, correct.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so annexation of Crimea and east of Ukraine, where a lot of guys went to fight, including my brother, and we lost a lot of guys back then and I did realize that the Ukrainian medical system is very poor. Our rehabilitation system is really as America had after World War II, so there's none. And what can we do? Right, we're regular civilians here in the United States and I understand that American medical system is very generous. So, one by one, we start to find hospital and medical facilities to get our soldiers over here. One by one, whatever we can find prosthetics and whatever like doctors, a Yale hospital, massachusetts General Hospital, wilson Hospital so many hospitals opened the door back then since 2014. But in 2022 we were established charity. We were like 8 years old by then and a lot of people knew about us and people just start to like give us money, who they can donate to Revive Soldiers of the Sky. They know us. So we start to work hard. We stopped bringing soldiers in 2022.
Speaker 5:When the war started throughout the country, all we did we were fighting bulletproof vest jackets, we were fighting drones, we were fighting generators, we were fighting cars. All over the place US, europe, whatever we can find and I really hope that all that money that we put into this help like it's mostly like military help because all civilians become military, so it's no more civilians, everybody was fighting. I hope some of it saves lives. I remember I distribute one bulletproof jacket for 10 people. 10 people show up for one jacket. It was like we couldn't find anywhere. I was bringing my suitcase two bulletproof jackets. I knew that I can give it to people and they will be safe. So it's a helmet. So it was like it was insane. We didn't sleep, we didn't eat, we just work every single day. But then you know, we realized that there will be insane casualties. So I start to email hospitals how many soldiers you can take? How many soldiers you can take? The entire nation is under occupation, not occupation, but my city was. My parents left with a suitcase, only Like 70 years old people, entire life In a suitcase. But Ukrainian army free my city, my parents could go back home. A lot of people cannot deal and they probably don't have home anymore. So I would say this war is the biggest tragedy for us. It's our tragedy and you know what Americans step in, if not for United States, probably we'll be gone by now. That's what I think. So many American veterans emailed me asking give us a letter, we will go get US passports, we will go and fight for you, and I did. They want to go and defend my home. Yes, sure, I will do the letter. So I'm really thankful to American nation for that.
Speaker 5:And then, of course, soldiers, our guys, defenders. So many trains, trains of people wounded and killed trains. They would not release bodies at once to family. They have to release one by one body because otherwise it will be chaos. Release bodies at once to family. They have to release one by one body because otherwise it will be chaos. Entire country is like under chaos. We don't understand what belongs to Russia and what belongs to Ukraine, where to go and where not to go, which path to take, the cars even volunteers, volunteers, would get trapped and get imprisoned as well and entire chaos. And now we kind of figured out this is Russia, this is Ukraine. We kick Russians out of my city and I'm really thankful to Ukrainian army, entire world who stepped in. And now I have home, I can come back home. Everybody wants to go home, right? So we start to work with the soldiers again. In May we brought a couple guys to Mass General for free After May, one by one. I think we got 100 guys, since it's very hard.
Speaker 5:The war is not the same as it was in 2014. It's very long evacuation Evacuation could take from 12 hours to 24 hours or longer and guys losing limbs so high. We have about 60,000 amputees right now and as we spoke with Adam, he was saying America fought in the war for so many years. There's only 2,000 amputees. Can you imagine the scale of losses? And prosthetic companies they don't do discounts your tragedy. They make money and we start to fundraise. I mean, what can we do? And we start to fundraise. I mean, what can we do? We start to fundraise and give these guys a chance to live.
Speaker 5:Actually, at this point I want to show one of the videos. It's this one that's one of the prosthetic centers that we work with since 2016. Our guys are dying on our prosthetics in this war, like I would call like new war. Life divided in three parts life before war, which is my sport and athletics and whatever I did before, then the war, life with the war and now new war. So three lives in one. So I would like to show this video and see what this guy is going through every day. What does our day look like? Every day, we are dancing we are dancing.
Speaker 8:You are metal. Heal our wounds Because we are people. We are people, titans. I will ask you you are the one who controls everyone there in heaven. Why don't you call us with you? Have we not paid our debt? We haven't paid them back their debt. Do you really think it's necessary? We've been holding on to you. Your Mona Lisa is already three hundred. She's a secret woman, a secret woman, monalisa taidobisa, vola, taidobisa, a myshe, a myshe poruyemo, a myshe, a myshe potantsuyemo. Tyme salom, sly nasi raly. ¶¶, ¶¶. We will fight again. We will dance again. We will fight with all our wounds Because we are people. We are people of the times, thank you.
Speaker 5:So practically the entire nation of guys like there were athletes, there were actors, there were musicians, they all went to fight. It's not professional fighters or soldiers, they became them, and usually it's from 20 years old to 30 years old. So practically entire generation is either injured or killed.
Speaker 3:Where were those recovery, those rehab facilities?
Speaker 5:This one is Prosthetic and Orthotic Associates. They're based in Orlando, florida, and that's one of the points that Revived Soldiers, ukraine, bring our guys to For legs it's only legs, as you see. Hospitals is, as I said, massachusetts General, which is Boston, chicago, university of Illinois Hospital and medicine, we will say, and prosthetic innovations in Philadelphia. There you go, yes.
Speaker 3:Now, after they go through this rehab, then what for them?
Speaker 5:So majority of the guys were returning back to Ukraine to our rehabilitation centers. So we ended up opening in 2018, next Step, ukraine in Irpin. That we lost with the Russian occupation, but then we came back, we survived and we started to bring in the first civilians who got hurt during the evacuation from Irpin Bucha, and then soldiers and we opened up a second one. Because we got Americans who stepped in and gave us funds. We opened up a second rehab in Lviv. So between two of those centers we accept 45 underserved men a day.
Speaker 5:And it's varieties of injuries it's neurotrauma, it's orthopedic trauma and amputees.
Speaker 3:You said there was a second video that you wanted to show.
Speaker 5:Yes, so this is one of the projects that we work on. Of course we cannot. You know, I have this friend. He's a priest, he's from Chicago, that's Father McCullough. He said we cannot save entire world we cannot but we can change entire world for one person, and that's what we do. We can say but we can change entire world for one person and that's what we do. So this video will show this incredible project that we saved somebody Due to poor medicine.
Speaker 5:Our doctors are amazing doctors, don't take me wrong. They have so much experience. It's been 11 years but we still don't have that medicine, that technology that will help us to save lives. Usually, guys with abdominal organs wounds live in Ukraine for three months and then doctors cannot do anything, they just die. They slowly die from hunger due to lack of nutrition and IVs and antibiotics and so on.
Speaker 5:So this story is about one soldier that was rescued from Ukraine and we happened to find an airplane, a private aircraft, with a billionaire on the aircraft who actually put the soldiers with him and flew with him from Poland to Chicago. So this is a very short story with him and flew with him from Poland to Chicago. So this is a very short story and maybe you will think maybe you know somebody who knows somebody and who has a plane and maybe can help us to rescue our guys from Ukraine. But we're still of help, they're providing us with the ambulance and then it's going by chain so we can take a look for this short video. Thank you, thank you. So unfortunately, in this evacuation, in particular one, we had to leave one soldier behind. He died in two days after we were short, one week short all right, adam, we'll, uh, talk to you next.
Speaker 3:I had the opportunity to sit with you at dinner tonight and learn a lot about your background. Um, you were, you said you were 15 or 16 when you decided that maybe the military was, was a path for you, and then you would sign the papers, you said. And then 9-11 comes along. And why don't you give some color here on what motivated you to go to the military and what 9-11 meant to you? And then we'll go from there.
Speaker 4:I know those speakers are like really loud. Can you guys hear me better like this way? Yeah, yes, all right. Yeah, I had wanted to be a deputy sheriff. When I was a teenager probably 14 years old started hanging out with the Explorer Post and always been kind of pragmatic. Something like 70 percent of the sheriff's department were former Marines and mostly the guys that I aspired to be like were Marines. I think I had about a 1.8 GPA in high school at the time. I think I had about a 1.8 GPA in high school at the time. So college really wasn't an option. My economic background, my family's wealth, didn't really open up many opportunities for education. So the military seemed like a strategically good plan for me. And then I joined my junior year when I was 17, right before the 9-11 attacks, and then when the 9-11 attacks occurred, I'd expedited my high school graduation, so I graduated in January 2002. I was in boot camp by March of 2002.
Speaker 3:And then, instead of going to Afghanistan in response to 9-11, you ended up going to Iraq.
Speaker 4:I did. I ended up getting sidetracked. So I spent the first two years working on the president's security detail. I wanted to join the Marine Corps in part to travel too. I'd not really gotten the opportunity to see the world. I thought the president's probably traveling to nicer places in the Marine Force, so that might be a good opportunity, and instead I ended up at Camp David in Maryland. You didn't really get to travel much. I didn't get to travel at all for the first three years of my Marine Corps career. Then I thought well, if I'm going to Iraq or Afghanistan, maybe at least I'll get on a MEU, a Marine Expeditionary Unit, on a ship and at least stop at a Liboport or two on the way to Iraq or Afghanistan. Um, but they chartered a uh, uh commercial airliner. Um, I did get to stop in Ireland for maybe about a half hour, uh, while the refuel. Uh, I got to drink again it's uh in Ireland airport. So that was the one level port that I got. Um, pretty much straight to Iraq and your experience there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, iraq was a pretty dynamic place in 2005. I guess you guys probably remember the Sunni triangle of death right outside of Fallujah Really pretty hot spots. We had landed in Iraq. I think within our first hour the airport had gotten struck with a rocket attack. You know, nobody got hurt, but that was kind of dictating the op tempo right off the bat.
Speaker 4:We had gone to Al-Karma in the Fallujah area of Iraq and because I was an infantry squad leader, I got to go snap on with the guys who had been in country for the six or seven months leading up to us coming to replace them. So we went out at 10 o'clock at night and my first real night in Iraq. We're going after a high-value target known for wearing suicide vests. I made it very clear, like, when you see this guy, don't try to detain him, don't try to tackle him and shoot him um, and try to keep your distance. You know, fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it we missed him by about a half hour, um, but by six or seven o'clock, uh, the following morning, um, we got hit with our first ied, totally destroyed the vehicle uh, behind me, and then pretty much every other day we were getting into some sort of conflict, be it a roadside bomb or vehicle-borne IED, a mortar attack or some sort of direct gunfight.
Speaker 3:Now I had asked you at the table when there's a pattern of their attacks against you, how do you guys adjust to that?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I mean, the first strategy is like, what are they doing to exploit, you know, our weaknesses? So one of the things with the vehicle-borne IEDs was, you know they were blending in with the populace. You know, hiding large amounts of explosives in regular civilian cars and then driving them, um, you know, right up uh into our convoy and destroying whatever they could.
Speaker 4:Uh, so you would do things to try to defeat that uh, you know, however we could, so it ended up being we would drive down the wrong side of the road and, uh, any cars that didn't immediately get out of our our way or getting uh get out of our way or we're getting shot at. Generally we're trying to hit the engine block, but if you know cars are still coming, you know then you're going for the driver. So it's, you know, sad reality. You know there's civilians out there that don't know what's going on, that are getting caught up in this violence. But we're doing whatever we can to kind of protect our convoys. And you know it's one of those just kind of unfortunate instances where you know violence is escalating and people are getting hurt as much as we can.
Speaker 3:So you want to tell us about the day at the school.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we had been operating out in the communities we lived out where we were patrolling for generally six and a half days, and then we'd go back in to reslide for about a day and go back out six and a half days, and then we'd go back in to resupply for about a day and go back out and uh, we gotten into this, uh, gunfight at a school of all places. And uh, two days later, um, our sister book in with walking up to that school, there's some bad guys hanging out in there, uh, and it conducted an ambush and uh, a couple days after that we got intel the bad guy from back in that school. So we were kicking indoors extracting you know somebody to potentially be hiding behind one of them. And uh, instead came across a house for an id which hadn't really been a threat up until that point, um, but it was a 97 pound artillery round rigged in the door. Um, it exploded, killed the lieutenant that was left.
Speaker 4:Mean, I was fortunate enough to make it out alive. We got obviously pretty banged up, lost my left arm, my right leg, almost lost. My left leg, had some abdominal injuries, spear injuries, burn.
Speaker 3:And how long was the recovery before you were able to get back in the world again?
Speaker 4:It took about a week to get from the battlefield back to the United States and then I was inpatient, going through surgery pretty much every other day for the first three months and then another eight or nine months of physical therapy, occupational therapy, that sort of thing. So it considered me recover, but even back then they were kind of pumping us through because they didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3:Uh, the recovery, I think, is still going on even today why don't you tell everyone the story of the son of your comrade that died that day?
Speaker 4:yeah, uh. So the lieutenant who was with me is named james cappy. Um, you guys all got your bones. You, you ever get a moment, just you punch in his name. We kind of james cappy. You'll see, uh, a pulitzer winning uh picture of a marine being offloaded from um an airplane and uh, uh, his wife sleeping next to a cascadeket. They're two really powerful images. But yeah, his son was unborn, never got a chance to meet him. His mom unfortunately didn't do very well following the loss of her husband and ended up getting into drugs and just trying to cope. It was really a great tragedy. His son ended up being raised by his grandparent and great people really stepped up.
Speaker 3:But yeah, he just graduated high school over Memorial Day weekend last year and some Marines, myself included, got to go out there and tell him a little bit about his dad and a guy who never had an opportunity to meet and why don't you tell everybody the progression of how, when you left the rehab and all the surgeries and all that, and how you got to where you are today, and then expand on what you're doing today to help wounded soldiers?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I was really fortunate, I guess, in a couple of ways. Obviously, first and foremost, I live in. The lieutenant who was with me didn't. So that was a pretty life changing event for me in a bunch of ways, but the most profound one was I felt like I had a moral obligation to live my life, you know, as best I possibly could in honor of him. And if you guys know anything about, uh, close quarter battle and room clearing it's just numbers game, oh, and he, he got killed that day and I, I made it out just because of the layout of the hallway and uh, uh, you, you obviously have some serious trauma that you got to deal with and you know, both physically and mentally, me and trying to recover from that. But all along the way I had people looking out for me. You know, just, you're looking out for, you know, the Ukrainian soldiers that are getting injured. The same is true for me in my recovery. You know we're very fortunate to have, you know, kind of top tier medical care and a lot of resources that you guys didn't have and training and stuff like that. They kind of helped, you know, from me not getting as injured as I could have been to the corpsmen who were patching me up, to the doctors who were taking care of me afterwards.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, I got out of the uh, the military and um felt like I needed a sense of, you know, job satisfaction that I had gotten. While I was in the military, my first job was a defense contractor. Uh, it was not very rewarding. Um paid pretty well, which was cool, uh, for a guy who lost an arm and a leg. Uh, you know, things that cost an arm and a leg are a big problem, oh, but I felt like I need to make some money. Um, if you didn't laugh at that joke, I don't care, it's my favorite one, I. But uh, uh, you know, there's people that were looking out for me, helping me get into school, helping me, you know, get into a good career path, and man code kind of requires you to not be all consuming all the time.
Speaker 4:So I basically started volunteering as nonprofits and then found, like you know, this is like a really uh thing I'm getting to do to help other people, but I'm getting more out of it than ever put into it and uh, uh, to be a long story short, I think I've spent like 10 or 15 years working in non-profits, uh, all across the country and in different realms, mostly veteran focused and entirely um went to school and grad school and, uh, you know, figured out that, um, I think I can make the biggest impact working for nonprofit, and got to work with uh NPLB outdoors, um doing outdoor recreational therapy for veterans, um, starting in December 2018. So, uh, mplb started as a hunting and fishing organization. Um, it was never about hunting and fishing. Uh, it's about getting disabled veterans connected with other disabled veterans that are facing similar challenges, uh, in an outdoor environment, some place that you know can be uh feeling something that they're passionate about.
Speaker 4:Uh, I realized pretty quickly hey, the activities are cool, but, uh, you know, it has nothing to do with you know those activities, um, and not everybody's interested in hunting. Maybe we could expand, uh the scope of what we're doing. Um, my board is uh eager to do that as well, so we expanded to start doing a bunch of hiking and mountaineering, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, motorsports, learning how to drive race cars, how to fly airplane and helicopters. And, if you can think, if you could think about it, we've probably done it or still do it, unless insurance told us we had to stop, which is true for a couple of things, I guess. But well, you also have the ability to fly it, unless insurance told us we had to stop, uh, which is true for a couple of things I guess.
Speaker 3:But well, you also have the ability to fly. I asked him how do you get up there? He goes all right flow. Yeah, um, you want to explain that and some of the the cool things that you've done with some wounded soldiers about flying them around the country to different places yeah.
Speaker 4:So my first job, uh, was doing similar work. We were having problems with veterans that were coming out of the hospital to go on these sites of activity. So it's like you take a group of guys who want to go fishing in Maine and then be like, yeah, we're all about it, but they're still going through recovery, they're going through surgeries every week and dealing with infection. So stuff would come up all the time. We were spending a lot of money on airfare for guys that would ultimately not end up going on these trips. So I found a group called the Veterans Airlift Command that did private airfare for disabled veterans and explained my mission, what I was about, who I was veterans, and explained my mission, what I was, uh about, who I was, and uh, uh told him I know for sure, on such and such date I'm gonna have eight veterans that I want to bring the main to go fishing and uh, uh, those guys may end up switching out at the very last minute. I have no idea he is going to be on there until you know hours before, um, but do you think you could help me out? And that group was awesome. It's led by a disabled um. Vietnam veteran got hurt in a rocket attack, clawing a helicopter, um. But uh, he's like, yeah, we can definitely help out.
Speaker 4:And I got the opportunity to fly right seat with some of the pilots, um, on these missions and thought, uh, much like the sheriff's department, hey, this is a community of people like I want to be involved with, I want to be associated with. So, um, I started taking some flying lessons and um me and kind of got into it. Uh, not because I really wanted to fly airplanes much as I wanted to uh just be associated with those guys that, uh that were doing that kind of mission and, um, I found that it was one of those kind of challenging skills that uh rivaled. You know, the military um, it's a license to kill yourself for sure. So you, you could fake uh, your ability, uh, as much as you want, but you know, at the end of the day, when you're the only one flying the airplane, um, you know it's uh, uh all on you when you're trying tell us about that fight the silly um.
Speaker 3:She's gay, she's big.
Speaker 4:She's big, yeah, so one of the things our, our nonprofit does now is, uh, take disabled veterans up, you know, for intro flights. So, um, if they've never had an opportunity to get in a small plane, we'll, we'll pick them up wherever they're they're at. And uh, uh, one guy said what do you want to do? What are your interests? He's like I've never had a Philly cheesesteak. So I was like, well, let's go get a Philly cheesesteak in Philly and we'll bring you back on the same day.
Speaker 1:Which place did you go to where cheese is from?
Speaker 4:Go to Pat and G g knows and just knock them both out on that same day so one thing I had asked you.
Speaker 3:So you have a 15 year old boy I do and he has an interest in possibly going into the military. And, after your experience losing an arm and a leg and everything that you went through, what's the advice you give him if he decides to go down this path?
Speaker 4:So I'm very guarded in my messaging to my son because I don't want him to feel like there's an expectation for him to follow in my footsteps footsteps that's been like kind of a cautious thing from the time he was born, for better or worse, because I've spent my career and his entire life working with disabled veterans. He's been kind of exposed to the military and to that community of people. He's been around a bunch of generals and rock stars who recovered against amazing adversity and I feel like he wants to be part of that community. But I also feel like 15-year-olds don't really do a very good job of evaluating risk and certainly not risk reward, don't really do a very good job of evaluating risk and certainly not risk reward. So he sees kind of the glamour side of the military without really appreciating, I think, the risk that's associated with it. He sees a dad's injured but he also sees dad goes to the plaza or planes, you ride the motorcycle and he's fine. I'm never complaining to him. So it's one of those. We try to educate him. You know there are risks associated with you. Know whatever your decision, you know may be, but you know we want you to come to the right decision. I think we convinced him. Going to school first and then joining the military as an officer will provide him a lot more opportunities. So I think he's on the same page with that and hopefully we'll give him a little more of an opportunity to mature.
Speaker 4:But it's a complicated world, you know, and when I had gotten injured, my hope was maybe I did this so that my son wouldn't have to. And uh, you know we see what's going on with, uh, iran and with russia and um, you know we're, uh it kind of imminent risk of being in a war. Uh, pretty much always right, and uh, it's not lost on me that you know what happened to me or worse, to happen to my son. It's obviously not something I want him to have to deal with. Um, so I'm conflicted on, you know, whether I want him to go in the military. Be immensely proud of him if that's something he decides to do, but not something uh, I will ever push him to do, but not something uh, uh, I will ever push him to do, and not something I think I could live with myself. Uh, if I had pushed him to do and something happened to him, you know, I don't know, it would be bad.
Speaker 10:So uh, questions. I guess I appreciate all of you Seriously. Um, a comment, seriously A comment. I'll keep it short and then a question for the Ukrainians. I'm glad you guys think that America has stepped up on your behalf.
Speaker 10:There are a lot of us who think America has not done nearly enough and feel kind of embarrassed for our country both Biden and Trump that they haven't done more to actually help Ukraine win this war. There are a lot of people who feel that way. I just want you guys to know that the question is what is wrong with the Russians? I just want you guys to know that the question is what is wrong with the Russians? Why do the Russian soldiers ride motorcycles to almost certain depth on the front lines? Is it true that they are press, ganged into service, that they're getting paid so much money that they're willing to die because their families will be better off and I'm not asking about Putin, that they're willing to die because their families will be better off? And I'm not asking about Putin. I'm asking about why are there hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers that are willing to do that? Do you understand?
Speaker 5:Can I say one word and then I will pass to David? There's a big time propaganda Like it's crazy. If you're going to watch Russian TV, sometimes I do just to see what they think, because if you want to fight enemy you have to think like they think. You believe I'm like sometimes oh my gosh, like that's, like that looks true and people who that's the only nation Ukraine is.
Speaker 5:Well, yes, like I mean, like they said that Ukraine is bad, all of a sudden, like we're not young brother, like smaller brother, Now we enemy and we bad like everybody. I used to run for Ukrainian national team. We were always together with Russian national team. We go to sports camp together. We were training in Russia. All the world championship, european championship, we were together. And all of a sudden we're like are you seriously like killing us right now? Like that's it and that's what TV told them to. And they believe if, if you're going to see every day the same information, you will believe in it eventually. So David may say something from him.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so David may say something from him. Yeah, same thing. But I will add if you look at the history, russians are always following their Tsar like a king right. And unfortunately it's not the first time Russia attacked Ukraine. It happened over the centuries quite a lot. It's not the first time Russia attacked Ukraine. It happened over the centuries quite a lot. And for us it's not new actually. And if SARS says go and die over there, they'll do it for sure. And like Irina said, propaganda works really great in Russia. They believe whatever they're told, even if they have a doubt. They don't really care to dig deeper to find the truth. They're okay where they are.
Speaker 7:If you don't mind, I will also add something. You know, I saw some very interesting quote. Like in Russia, when you love Russia, it means that you are patriot. In Ukraine, if you love Ukraine, they call us Nazis, so it's like. And also about your question I don't know if you're okay to listen to tough stories. Every family in Ukraine has different stories.
Speaker 7:I have been talking with my neighbor. He arrived from Chernitsy, is very close to Russia, and he told me that his whole family of neighbors has been killed and died the daughter. She was 16 years old. She was raped by Russians and then they killed her, the house and their mother her mother, she can't take this. So she died from heart attack because they were raping her daughter and make her look like this. And I think the main reason why the Russians are coming here is because when they came to Ukraine, they can do whatever they want. They can rape, kill, rape, they're taking houses, they're destroying everything. And when they came to Russia, they called them heroes. Like, if you want to gain some money, if you want to have some fun, you need to go to Ukraine, you need to kill people, you need to kill people, you need to kill women, and they call their heroes because they're killing Nazis, because we love our country and we live in Ukraine. That's our main crime.
Speaker 9:I'll try to talk loudly. Irene and David. The question of Adam talked a lot about community. Yet we're past in the day that you all are currently in, but how are you all dealing with a community of those like David who are wounded today, trying to stay together because you need something positive so it can be more in your lives? How is that working? Any success you have there?
Speaker 5:Community. Well, it's hard to win a war, it's hard to have a community. But every time I drive around cities in Ukraine there's people either on the crutches, on the prosthetics. Ukraine is not ready to be a community like United States where people come in and shaking hand and thank you for your service and coming to Ukrainian guys right. And once one gentleman came to one of Ukrainian soldiers. He's younger, he was 21 at the time, and he's oh, thank you for your service. Obviously the guy with no legs and they understand that it's a veteran, right. And he's like oh, no, no, no, I'm not, I'm not American, I'm Ukrainian. Oh, buddy, let me hug you. So that was like much better acceptance here In Ukraine.
Speaker 5:Unfortunately, nobody does this. People leave every day under bombs. They don't sleep enough, they like it's hard to get job or go by. The economy is struggling right now. Really, there's no investments into the country that are under war and people are just tired. Three and a half years of sirens. Every night you have to go to bomb shelter, like some people it's like I don't even gonna go. But it's hard to build community right now.
Speaker 5:But a lot of Americans, european charities, comes in. They do create some sort of like welcoming home, like us. We have Next Step, ukraine, two rehabilitation centers, our soldiers, just to come and drive into our rehab, just to hang out, have a coffee with us. They just want to be around people like they are, and we always open our all our doors are open. Anybody can come in and just hang out and and talk to us, talk to the team, talk to soldiers, but it's not enough. It's not enough.
Speaker 5:And when? When we're going to be in where United States are, I don't know. It's going to take us years and years of recovery. I'm still driving around. My city is like half gone. We're slowly rebuilding Warren Buffett. I don't know where he is, but he rebuilt half of my city, thank you very much. So people can come back and kindergarten and schools were rebuilding in the first place so infrastructure can function. But then you never know when it's gonna fly back to you again like and it's gonna be destroyed again. So it's very hard to build it yet, but we will go for it. We will try to make our function. We will come back, with your help, of course like for now.
Speaker 6:In the big picture we don't really have these communities, but I would say that so many people join the army that you can say like every other family has a member, like a family in the army. So we for now we are fighting and we can't afford like really kind of relax and our families are taking care of like soldiers. So we have kind of super small communities like family, basically family community for now.
Speaker 1:Let's think question for David. I think you guys did talk earlier. The average age is like 20 to 30 as far as on tiers, but in the rain I mean the first video it looked like there was one kid, looked like he was 40 or 50, 19 my question is like how, what's it like?
Speaker 1:20, it looks like it's 40 or 50. 19. My question is like how, what's it like when you have younger kids that are like trying to step up and jump in and volunteer, or even, on the opposite side, the older people that are trying to come in? I'm just curious, how do you guys handle that? What's that dynamic like?
Speaker 6:So by the law you cannot sign a contract if you're not 21. If you're younger, you have to bring a letter that your parents allow you to. And I went to the UK for the training and I was fortunate to have a lot of buddies from my own brigade there and I would say more like not more than half, like almost all of them were way younger than me and I was kind of old there. It was really weird. But we have, especially in my brigade, so many young people. Some found themselves in the joint army in the 17th. Unofficially, as soon as they get 18th they can sign papers and join. I would say sometimes families even don't know they are going.
Speaker 6:But that says a lot about a younger generation. They know, like how important this uh, they know who they are and what they are protecting. So, uh, it's uh, on one side, you know it's really hard to see really young person who didn't even like had a proper life. Uh, he just like finished this coon. Basically, you know to see you with you in the front line. But on the other hand, uh, you see like really highly motivated person who can like fight with you and you can trust him like he'll like carry like really like a lot of weight. He can go like for a longer time, like than older people. So we are always like is it a word of carry those people? No, because they are right now the bow of our army. I hope I answered your question. Right now, the bow of our army. I hope I answered your question.
Speaker 5:You have to understand all these guys, young guys. They born in Ukraine, not USSR. Like I was born under USSR for six years, so it's more than six, it's like eight years, nine. I was nine when we got free from Russia. These old guys don't know russia and they don't want to know russia, so it's they. They born free.
Speaker 2:We can donate a lot to you guys, but what, what? What aren't you getting that we could help?
Speaker 5:us provide soldiers, okayitals, great doctors, politicians, politicians, exactly. You know, twice a year in Washington DC, ukrainians gathering together and they go and lobbying bills that support Ukraine. I think it's in April and in October. So a lot of Americans actually stepping in and go with the Ukrainian teams to its congressmen and senators and pushing to support Russia.
Speaker 5:As you know, I'm sitting in front of Brian Mast who is receiving prosthetic legs where we are and he actually donated his prosthetic legs to one of our soldiers. He's sitting in front of me in April and saying Europe has to step in. We're not going to do anything. I'm like we're losing territories, we're losing people, we're kind of struggling. Now he's like't, like europe has to step in, we're done, and I mean like and he's, he's, he's been with us, like for all these years. He's there, he sees all these guys all the time, like when he comes and service his legs. So it's um, if we're gonna go and push and ask, some bills are going through, and one bill is actually going through right now. We pushed it in April and it's going through right now.
Speaker 5:So Americans have a right to say and audition and listen, because they need your vote. That's what I think. It works. It works they like, for a sudden, overnight, we became an enemy and there's I think it works. It works they like, for a sudden, overnight, we became an enemy, and there's, I mean conversion, like you know, like there's so many people that didn't rock, or Ukraine, it's mixed, you know, someone likes this camera doesn't talk about it, and so on, but and they and they're like okay, let's take him on to Ukraine.
Speaker 6:But they still were like, no, that's all, it's okay. I hope it will sound like, as I'm trying to figure out how to say it in my mind, but there's no such thing as Ukrainian Nazis. Why? Because Russian propaganda uses a lot of like swords by Ukrainians, and why they're using like the word Nazis is because of their history. They have a certain thing that we call a Belobesia. They are tabling down on the twisted history of victory and Second World War. They are actually kind of nuts on this thing.
Speaker 6:Because of that, their government finds this very easy to control and propaganda. If we call like anyone nazis, why? Because they like fought and the previous war they won, and they are not just celebrating. It's like really like a twisted uh now, like holiday uh in russia, and that's why it's so easy to manipulate Russians. Because of that, they're calling us Nazis, not because we have Nazi people in Ukraine. If it would be Poland, they would call them Nazis. If it would be Estonia, they would call them. It doesn't matter. It's just like it's comfortable to them and easy to manipulate people that way.
Speaker 2:Christine and I donate to both these organizations and what I want to do is make a pitch and everybody, do what you want. That's up to each person. General Gray, who has been here, cannot be here, otherwise he would be. I spoke to him Sunday night and we have seen the work done here for two years of Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge. Some people here fished with some of the vets. We watched them pull milfoil from a lake that had an infestation. We had lunch and dinners together.
Speaker 2:Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge is merged into Adam's organization. He's the CEO. That means he has to absorb and add to the programming from the scuba activity in Key West to other things. So this is an absorption of two organizations. This is not a business transaction. It's a philanthropic transaction and, as we all know who have encountered this, it's geared to American vets who are amputees. He needs absorption help. That takes money and other things. It's up to Adam. He will be with us until Saturday morning and you can all converse with him and he will be able to tell you. Here's what I need for my organization, need for my organization.
Speaker 2:I want to explain or comment on the acronym. You use four letters outdoors, but not everybody here wore a uniform. What do the four letters stand for? No person left behind In the US military. That's a code. You don't leave a comrade. I'm getting a shiver. So anybody who wants to help this organization here's the CEO and he can tell you how to do it. What to do, we know, and it includes sending money from a donor advised fund to help them. That's a merger, it's a one-time absorption and an expansion of that organization. Let me go to Irina. She's the CEO of an organization that is taking a vet in Ukraine and helping the medical treatment, including bringing that person to the United States. We talked earlier today. There were three cases. One died.
Speaker 5:The patients that are waiting for evacuation One died.
Speaker 2:They cannot receive the treatment they need in Ukraine. It's not there, it's in Chicago. So, what does it take to get them? When a Ukrainian soldier is wounded and needs treatment in the United States and it is possible to get them here Now, remember the institutions in the US are doing this. This is not. There is no VA. This is a war zone. There are no services that we all take for granted that we have. They're not there. So if they can move on a commercial flight, it takes money.
Speaker 2:But, if they can't, then it takes a private plane. You saw one Now. If everybody in this room had a golf stream, we could move everybody here. Well, we don't have that, but if we know someone who can, if we can assist in the transportation, if we can provide funds.
Speaker 2:David is being treated at Will's Eye in Philadelphia. I've had surgery in that house and everything that is being done for him there is because of philanthropy 100% philanthropy, there isn't anything else. 100% philanthropic, there isn't anything else. So anybody who wants to help Revive Soldiers of the Ukraine, brenda can tell you how to do it. If you have a golf stream, she can tell you what we can do with it, and if you want to write a check or help, she will say thank you. And the same thing is true for Adam. They are with us until Saturday morning, and it took a little moving beyond the economics and finance to another level. But I'm glad you came, I'm glad I invited you. You didn't know what you were in for. This is a wonderful group of people. This is a wonderful group of people. So each person decides on their own what they want to do. Here are the people to talk to. Thank you for coming and joining us. All right, we're going fishing tomorrow, so we've got a big day. Thanks,
