Nick Lavery
Appearances
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's a dangerous person to be around. And you mentioned, we both mentioned self-awareness. I would argue, and you mentioned the word ego. I would argue that self-awareness is a subset ingredient of humility and humility for most of us. probably all requires time, requires maturity for you to recognize the value of it and then couple that with the confidence to then be able to deploy it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And those two things work very powerful hand in hand that as I'm advising newer commanders that I work alongside of, as a warrant officer, that one-two punch combo is one that I typically focus on most of the time. Certainly with like younger, like captains and like junior officers.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's like, if you can get on this trajectory of wielding those two things simultaneously, you're on amazing trajectory. Kind of the ironic part about it is many people misassume or miscorrelate humility with insecurity. Meaning if I display humility, that's going to be seen as me being weak and I can't have that. Where in fact, those are two entirely separate things. Yeah, I agree.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
When you can have a degree of confidence, authentic confidence, which you and I would probably agree is earned, it's evidence-based over a undeniable track record of developing skill and the ability to do hot shit consistently, authentic confidence is earned, that then can enable us to deploy that humility. Because I know I'm good. I know I'm capable. I don't need to...
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
tell people that I eat cockiness because it's real, because I've earned it. Now I can deploy that humility, which can suppress the ego and can allow the things to happen that we just discussed. But it does take time. It takes a minute. It took a while for me to get there as a brand new team guy. Man, I was just like what you just said. I'm like,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I was John Rambo reincarnated when I graduated the Q course. And I got that little green hat on my head. And I'm like, all I need, guys, is a ride. And I'm going to fix this whole GWAT problem myself. Beyond confident, almost full-blown arrogance. And it took me a minute to kind of start to realize that humility is a bit of a superpower.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And those that are at the absolute best of their game absolutely have it and deploy it almost automatedly. I need to be more like that. I have a lot to learn, a lot to figure out. And there comes the honesty, the self-awareness, the gratitude, and some of those other elements of humility.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, there was an interesting... ongoing discussion about that exact thing. Once it became more and more of a trend and in those pockets of the world, while technology exists, you know, to a degree, it's mostly word of mouth as that spreads, but it moves fast. Like that line of communication can move fast because they've really mastered it over, you know, millennia in that area specifically.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
There were discussions of this, of, hey man, like, are you this like known figure that's now maybe a higher threat risk to what we're doing because people want to capture you or kill you and say like, we killed the machine. Is this a concern that we need to have? And it was kind of thrown around almost jokingly at first.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then towards the tail end of that first Afghanistan trip, it became like a legitimate discussion. So it was something we were cognizant of. It didn't affect what we did or how we did it. In fact, you had plenty of my team guy knucklehead brothers that were like, good, we want us to have an additional target because we want more people to come and try to play the game. They want to duke it out.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Nick, it's been a long time coming. Long time, man. Yeah. Welcome, brother. Thanks. Good to be here, man. I appreciate you.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So it's like, great, let's make this louder so that we can go find ourselves in contact, which is also very common amongst team guys, especially in those environments. So- Was it a concern? I can't say it was a concern. It was something that we were aware of, but it really didn't change anything. It's like chumming in the ocean for sharks. Kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Immediately post 9-11, actually during 9-11, was the initial surge of desire to serve. I ultimately stayed in school, grinded out the rest of my degree, barely. So the sight of joining the military got a little bit less clear. And I started going down some really poor lanes, making some really poor choices towards the latter year of my college career.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But then it was maybe during my last term, it ended up being my last term or last semester, that I kind of re-zeroed in back on that target. And now it's 06, and we're surging now in both Iraq and Afghanistan. So it's like, man, not only is this game still being played, but we're ramping things up. Initially, post 9-11, I had this fear that this game was going to be over and done with like that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I mean, I was really angry and wanted to serve, but I wanted to finish playing ball and graduate. So I was kind of stuck. And Because my only real context of military warfare was really like Desert Storm in the early 90s. And I was obviously a young kid, but that was over very, very quickly. So that was kind of the context I had to go off.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Like, yeah, we're definitely going to respond, but this is going to be over in like a week. And ultimately, again, decided to stay in school, graduate. And now it's not only game on, but it's game we're amping up. So- I was like, yeah, I'm going to make this move now and come in. And then it was really just a matter of what branch do I want to go in and what do I want to do?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, really a couple of things, man. So I knew I wanted to go into special operations.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
i felt like my physical capability could be utilized in that capacity but really more than that man i just wanted to make as much of an impact as a single person could in a very short amount of time this was not intended to be a career for me at all in fact quite the opposite it was like i'm gonna come in i'm gonna do a five-year contract i'm gonna get to the tip of the spear i'm gonna kick as much ass as i can get some payback for 9 11 and i'm gonna get out of the army and figure out what i want to do with the rest of my life that was really the game plan so
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
okay, how do I get into special operations? And I walked into a recruiter station in downtown Boston, and there were actually three branches in the same building, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Army. And I went in that order. So I started out actually with the Navy. I walked into the Navy recruiter office. I said, hey, what do I got to do to be a Navy SEAL?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Of course, back then as today, you think of like the best ass kickers in the DOD enterprise, and the Navy SEALs come to mind very, very quickly. And for good reason. And because they're also very good at what they do, not just tactically and operationally, but also as it pertains to like marketing. So these guys jumped out at me. I'm like, I want to do that. Talk to a Navy recruiter.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And he's like, yeah, man, sounds great. We got to get you enlisted into the Navy first. And then eventually you could request to go to Bud's and go that route. And I was like, awesome. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your time. And I left. went to the Marine Corps office, asked the same question, got basically the same answer, thank you, left, walked into the Army office, and I got a different answer.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And they're like, hey, we actually have this program called the 18 X-ray program, which is a special forces recruit, which gives guys off the street the opportunity to bypass any kind of service in the conventional Army. And if you make it through that entire pipeline from start to finish, your first real job will be as a Green Beret on an ODA. I didn't make my decision right there.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I said, thank you. I left. I went home and started doing a little bit of research. I really didn't know what Green Berets did. I had movie references, Rambo and John Wayne, but I really didn't know. So I started kind of just digging into what do these guys do? What are they all about? And Unconventional Warfare, which is our primary mission set, just really jumped off the screen at me.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I said, man, that really sounds cool. I think I want to do that. So it gave me the fastest route to get into Special Operations. And then it also was the mission set I was most drawn to. That was it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'd say the first time I was truly humbled was was probably at the end of around the first week of being with my team. I mean, you get humble going through training, for sure. It's brutal. It kicks your ass. This is all post... selection, post-Q course, actually getting into the team?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
That was the biggest wake-up call for me in terms of like an ego check was when I actually started to go do the work. Interesting, okay. And I realized, because you graduate that course and it's like, I got all these special skills. I can do all this cool stuff. I'm literally a walking weapon. And now it's game on. And you walk into that team room
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you're around guys that have been over there and done that four, five, six times, like hardened warriors. And you realize that you barely know anything. You got like a fraction foundation of what this means. And now you're actually going to start to learn how to really do this job.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Going through selection and going through Q course, there are certainly times when you get your absolute ass kicked.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
um so humbled at points of time during training for sure but the real wake-up call for me came once i actually started started going to work with the guys kind of like it was like a gut check putting you in your place 100 yeah i think in order to be a professional you need you need that wake-up call
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, I mean, it's a catalyst to what we've been talking about where it may be for me that first real step towards humbling myself and yeah, you can do some things and you can run fast and you can do a lot of pushups and you can shoot a rifle and that's all great, but you got a lot to figure out. One thing I do like to highlight, people often are interested in selection and how hard was that?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And selection is designed to kick your ass. That's the whole point. And really the different selections within different military units, they're slightly different on how they go about doing it. But the science and the concept is the exact same, where you're going to break down a human being to the point where their authentic self is right there on display for you to see.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And of course, there are trained professionals, cognitive psychs and performance psychs and trained cadre with years of experience that are there to then assess you. But that's what it's designed to do. And I came in at a peak level of confidence in what I could do physically and mentally and And so I did absolutely get my ass kicked many, many times during that point because that has to happen.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's done by design. Right. But I still had a sense of ego that was still with me despite those ass kickings and then overcoming them, which almost fueled it even more. Like, yeah, I can just keep going. As long as I never quit, I'm going to make it to the end, which is true to a degree. But then that real wake up call hits once it was about time to really go to work.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
We're like pushing out the door in the next 45 days and we're going into Kandahar and it's going to be game on. And you're around these dudes like you're no longer the biggest, baddest dude in the jungle because you're in a whole new jungle. And now you're like a tadpole amongst lions and you got a lot to figure out.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it's one of those moments where you want to display confidence and say, no, I'm good. I'm here. I'm here for a reason. But also you're drinking from a fire hose where there's a lot to try to take in and assess and your teammates are just, they're operating like it's another Wednesday going to the grocery store because they've done it so many times.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
They're just almost just casually walking through what needs to happen. And I'm like, pie, I just trying to keep up and not mess anything up. And of course, they're there to provide guidance and make tasks very small and manageable. Like, hey man, the ammo guys are over there. Like, go get us some ammo so we can load up and we're going to hit the road in an hour. Like, okay, that I can do.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But from a big picture, it's almost too overwhelming in the beginning to try to conceptualize what's going on. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So it's an honor to sit here with you. Thanks, man. I appreciate that. You'll have me thinking about that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah. Great, great point. And you actually mentioned one word already kind of in the question or in the setup that I'll tell you right now what special does not mean, at least organically. Special does not mean elite. Special does not mean better than. Special does not mean we are coddled and catered to.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
special is synonymous with the word different or the word unique which you just said that's it if they change the name of all of socom to different operational forces instead of soft nothing would change tomorrow we would go about our business the exact same way it's just those of us in this career field think differently, and then more importantly, we behave differently. That's it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it's just, you're going outside the norm. So we're a different group of people that think differently and act differently that are designed to solve complex problems differently. That's it. And it's really by virtue of how different we're willing to be that that is what makes us elite. Because yeah, special operations is elite. based on how different we're willing to act.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So I'd like to set the stage on that for people that are aspiring to be better, to win and grow and these things, which are great. I think it boils down to that. How different are you willing to be? How often and how aggressively are you willing to go against the grain, to defy the norm? By different is by definition outside the norm. This is what normal is. And there's nothing wrong with normal.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Normal is just a mathematical average. This is just what most people do in these circumstances. This is how most people eat. This is how most people sleep. This is how most people exercise. This is normal. Nothing wrong with it. But for some, normal is like a death sentence. I can't live my life normal. I have to be an outlier. I have to be different.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then it's based on your thoughts and then more importantly, your actions. Some of the more surprising trends to get a little bit more granular of team guys and special operations, because you do have the aggressiveness and you do have the type A competitive, goal-oriented, driven personalities.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But operating in that 12-man team, to take the ODA as the example, is that does not thrive without a healthy dose of humility, which is what we mentioned quite often, which can almost catch you off guard. We were talking about some of the most savage, lethal weapons the world's ever known, even outside of SF specifically.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
We have worked with tier one units and three-letter agencies from our country and others. And those that are at the absolute best of their game have weaponized humility. It almost can surprise you when you are alongside these individuals in a battlefield environment. And then 10 minutes later, they give you the shit off their back. They ask you like, how's your son doing?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
They actually care and they're empathetic and they're compassionate. They're decent, kind human beings that are also savage animals. And they have a very deliberate control of that switch and they can flip it whenever they want. So Humility is without question present because I think it needs to be for a functional team, as we talked about.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
If every single person believes that they're the absolute best at everything, there's no possible way that that can work in any kind of harmony. So that exists within those team room walls. And then what is necessary to lead towards that, and here's where I get to maybe what is the root, if I were to put it the absolute baseline, is emotional regulation, is emotional control.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
that is in my opinion the differentiator between elite teams or elite individuals or even high performing and everybody else is emotional regulation and the reason why it is such a difficult skill to shop in because it is a skill is because it also defies mother nature and biology quite a bit like dale koenig he says it best
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
When you're dealing with a human being, you're not dealing with a creature of logic. You're dealing with a creature of emotion, which is 100% true, proven by neurology, biology, physiology, psychology. There is an emotion attached to every single thought or action you take. And it just goes on a loop. Emotion, thought, emotion, act, emotion, thought, emotion, act. It just keeps going around.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's the exact same thing that makes us the most dominant species on this planet that also opens us up to a massive vulnerability. The same exact thing. Because emotionally charged decisions oftentimes aren't the greatest. And what we know to be true is emotion and logic are antagonistic of each other. So as one goes up, the other one goes down.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's almost impossible scientifically to make a highly logical decision when you're at a highly heightened state of emotion because they counteract each other. Special operations, and this is something that we teach with clients in all walks of life, athletes, corporate, law enforcement, is...
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
without a degree of emotional control emotional regulation without deliberate effort in sharpening and harnessing that skill that will that will forever remain a crux in your ability to grow and employ and be an asset in whatever environment you're within because we're going to be met with endless amounts of adversity and challenges and be sent in emotional states Can you control that?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Not remove it. That's a huge misconception, particularly in special operations, that we're these emotionless creatures or fearless, for example. That is wildly inaccurate. In fact, the fact that we have the emotions is part of what makes us able to do what we do. It's just over time, you learn how to control those. Not eliminate it, but control it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
When I'm feeling angry or sad or even overly joyful or happy or I don't let that decide what decision I'm about to make. And you shorten the time horizon between an emotional reaction and a logical response. You're not eliminating an emotional reaction because it's part of being a human. That will happen. That hurt my feelings. I'm now angry. I'm sad. I'm enraged. I'm really, really happy.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
That's going to happen. How long, if at all, does it take to move from that point An emotional reaction to a logical decision that you make. That becomes the question. And over time in the teams, that's one that you have to learn and be able to weaponize.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, so I mean, that is 100% a character trait that is being assessed going through selection without question. Is that through like a psych eval or is that just observational? So both, you know, we take a series of like written psychological evals that goes through, you know, assessments, the kind of grading criteria.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'd say the majority of it is done through execution and through our performance throughout whatever given time period someone's going through that interview process. Like when I went through selection, it was 14 days. which was a little trial experiment that they did for lasted about 18 months where they took a 21 day model and they smushed it down into 14.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And the only things that were removed was sleep hygiene and food, but all the tasks were the exact same. They were just trying to condense the timeframe. and it proved to really not work all that well, dudes were just getting broken off, and they were losing a lot of potential talent. So it's now a 21-day interview experience.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And mostly during that phase is when they're doing their assessments, and one's ability to control their emotions is absolutely part of that assessment.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
No, you need to be deliberate about it, you know, for sure. You know, the crawl, walk, run approach is one that's like typically employed, certainly as or when we get newer dudes onto the teams, which does happen. You can only move as fast as your slowest individual. So depending on the makeup of the team at that time will determine how fast during our train up do we progress through that cycle.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it begins small, but you're deliberately including stressors on purpose to get after specific emotional responses, emotional reactions on purpose. And then as that scales over time, it's getting more complex, more aggressive, and more intense. And I think that that's where many miss out on massive opportunities to increase their own emotional regulation.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's like there are certain scenarios that most people can experience on an everyday basis. They can almost say with certainty, at some point during this window, something annoying or frustrating is going to happen. Take your commute to work, whatever that is, where you're walking, taking the subway, taking the T, driving through traffic.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You could almost guarantee at some point on that 15, 20, 30 minute experience, someone's going to cut you off. Someone's going to bump into you. Someone's going to do something silly during that window. And that becomes a rep. That becomes an opportunity to employ that skill, to sharpen that edge a little bit more. You just have to be deliberate about it and see the opportunity as it comes.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And hey, if you happen to go through that whole thing and Nothing happened. Like, okay, great. But you were prepared for it. And then when it hits, when the person cuts in front of you, gives you the bird, whatever it is, it's like game on like right now. And I got about five seconds to play this game. And if I play it right, it's going to enable me just that much more the next time.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you just keep going on that cycle.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, so it's a 12-man model. which is built by design. 12 just didn't come out of nowhere. ODAs, which is an acronym for Operational Detachment Alpha. So sometimes you hear the term A-Team, although that's kind of an outdated term. I haven't heard that in real utility for many, many years. Operational Detachment Alpha, otherwise known as an ODA, is a 12-man team.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And the reason why is we are built to work in split team capacity. So six and six. That's how the team is built. So we can split up into two elements. You have your command team as part of that, which is a traditional officer, which is usually a captain. You have your senior enlisted leader, who's typically a master sergeant, and really he like runs the team.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
All the guys, all the NCOs, they really work for him. And then you've got me, which is your warrant officer, otherwise known as your assistant detachment commander. So in a split team environment, which we're built to do, detachment commander takes one cell, warrant officer takes the other cell as the commanders. And then you've got the rest of the team. So you've got an intelligence specialist.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And every enlisted guy on the team has a specialty that they focus on, although we cross train amongst each other. So everyone has to have an idea of how to do everyone else's job, just not to that extent. You have your intel sergeant, and that is not a position you can take right out of the gate.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You have to come in as one of the other four jobs, and then you can request or be assigned to then move into the intelligence sergeant position, who really operates also as kind of the 2IC or the second in command for the team sergeant. So in that split team dynamic, when you've got your officers that are in charge, you would also split your intel sergeant, otherwise known as an 18 Fox,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'm so glad you asked this question. I don't think I've ever really even shared this openly.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And your team sergeant, otherwise known as an 18 Zulu, would be the senior enlisted guys for those two sections. And then you got your four baseline enlisted positions. So you're 18 Bravos, which is what I was, which is a weapons and tactics specialist. You've got your 18 Chalis, which are your engineers and your demolitions experts. You've got your 18 Deltas, which are your medics.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then you've got your 18 Echos, which are your comms individuals. And then what usually goes unnoticed or uncared for until you're in the team and actually doing it is ODAs are built to be self-sufficient. So of course, in the army, in the military, you've got all these support functions that support operations. You got your S1, your S2, your S3, your S4.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
These are all your support entities that enable us to do what we need to do when it comes to operations. So your finance and your paperwork and your logistics and your supply and your intel and all these things that are necessary for us to go do the work. ODAs build those support functions into the MOSs.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
so eric and i um and to back up a little bit eric was really the genesis of this book project he brought this to me uh actually it was in 2020 and i was in dive school which ironically i'm wearing a combat diver t-shirt right now i was in dive school down in key west just getting my ass kicked it's a six-week course it's absolutely brutal and he calls me out of the blue and i'm hanging on by a thread down there physically and mentally i got a couple weeks left and
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So an example would be your 18 Charlie, who's your engineer and your demo guy, is also your S4 function. So he's in charge of property. So he's managing a ton of paperwork, 2062 hand receipts. He's managing the team's inventory as well. So those are the internal staff functions, support functions that each guy on the ODA also maintains so that we can truly operate in a self-sufficient manner.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah. So there's these secondary jobs and responsibilities. Yeah. Like our medics are S1s. So all of our pay and leave and like admin, like paperwork shit, that guy's managing all that. That actually surprises me. Yeah. That's really impressive. Yeah. It's, I mean- It's not what most of us sign up for is that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
There's a method to the madness, you know, if you want, because these functions are, you need these functions. And it's not to say that every time we go anywhere, we are truly completely isolated from all support assets. That will very rarely be the case in today's world, but it's built to be able to do that. And that comes with a lot of additional work and effort.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But that's also kind of why we exist to be able to operate that way. Yeah, I did not realize that. It's impressive.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, so the tactical term for objective secure is something that you would reach that point of objective secure if you looked at, say, an urban operation, urban military operation. We were going to, say, take down a compound. It's divided up into different sectors, and you've got your assault team and your overwatch and your cordon, isolation containment. You've got all these things set up.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
as you're moving through and you're clearing you're clearing different sectors so sector alpha clear or sexual section one two three clear whatever eventually you get to a point of objective secure so this is our objective it's this compound we've now cleared the whole thing we've back cleared it we've consolidated anyone that we have under our control we've done all the searches we need to do we are now at a point of objective secure which gives everyone
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
on that operation a little bit of an opportunity to kind of take a breath and take a minute. And we can kind of zoom out and reassess what's going to go on, what needs to happen next, priorities of work, comms, are we moving, exfil, whatever happens after. So there's a pause point that happens once you reach objective secure in a tactical environment. The mission is not over.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You are on the objective still physically. At a minimum, you need to get back to your camp or onto the next objective or whatever, but it's a pause point. Mission's not over, but it's a good place to be. It's a warm, comfortable place to be, regardless of how chaotic or kinetic it was, to earn your way, and I use that term on purpose, to earn your way to objective secure. It's a good feeling.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Man, we made it. This is a great point in time. Awesome. Objective secure in the context of the book is really used almost the same way. Whereas here's where I am today. Here's my mission. Here's my desired mission and state. The macro goal, the big picture, the holy shit, like this is actually scaring me a little bit. Vision of what I want to do.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Start a business, write a book, get a scholarship to play football, whatever. create visible abs, build my arms to look like yours so there's no sleeve gap. Like whatever your current mission is, that's the end state. Odds are, and hopefully, it's going to take a little bit of time to get to that point.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I would argue most goals worthwhile are going to take a little bit of time to invest in, to create into a reality. So here I am, here's a need to create. Maybe I have an idea of how long it's going to take, maybe not. Well, in between here and there, there are a series of objectives that have to be met. That at least I think are going to be done in this sequential order.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So that's really all we're doing is we're just mapping it out over a time horizon of now. And then all these kind of micro goals that need to be done in between here and creating that vision into reality. So reaching objective secure as it pertains to personal development or business development.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
a professional development is seen as that same, through that same lens where it's a great milestone to get to. You get that moment to breathe. It was chaotic. It was crazy, but I made it. Awesome. Look up, take in some sunlight, take in a deep breath, give yourself a pat on the back, grab your spouse, give her a kiss.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
we go back and forth real quick. And he just says to me, Hey man, I've been thinking about this and I think you need to write a book. And I just hung up on him. I'm like, I am in no position to entertain anything even remotely close to this right now. followed up, eventually I decided to pursue it. It was in 2020, so we're mid COVID, all the gyms are closed, the fight house is closed.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then now we got to zero in on the next objective because the mission isn't over yet.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
that's a good question um was i able to of course did i not really not out of choice or uh just i think it was more out of a couple things a lack of appreciation for the value of having a system and strategy and tactics to work within coupled with a sense of confidence and being more work ethic driven. More about just blunt force trauma and just doing a lot. I'm just going to outwork everybody.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
That kind of mentality, which I would argue is a great one to have, this idea of I'm just going to be the hardest worker in the room. Harder, not smarter. And just beat everybody, right? Yeah. That only takes you so far.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
At some point, you have to introduce a little bit of strategy into the game so you can streamline efficiencies and processes and create the kind of habits you want, SOPs, so that things can happen faster and more efficiently with greater outcomes. But I don't think you can get to that point until you just start doing stuff.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But if you're not learning as you're doing, then you're slowly losing that advantage that you have because the smarter way to go about doing it will almost certainly surpass you despite your greatest blunt force trauma effort type approach. So up until my injury, I could do a lot of things. I had a lot of margin for error.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I took a day off from training if I blew off my mobility session or my cool down or I missed a meal like I can make that up. And it was kind of like, yeah, I'm like, I'm good. I'll be good to go. And that was reinforced by the way I was able to perform. I proved myself right despite it not being optimized whatsoever. I can just continue to outwork everyone around me and outwork my poor choices.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Lost the leg. almost all of those advantages disappeared overnight. Now I'm trying to do something deemed to be impossible. My margins just shrunk to nothing. They don't exist anymore. I don't have the luxury of blowing off. If I blow off that mobility session at the end of that workout, I won't be able to get out of bed tomorrow, literally. And I had to learn how to hide away a few times.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So it's like, nope, can't miss that. If I miss a meal, if I come up shy with my hydration, my residual limb would change in shape. And now I physically can't get my prosthetic leg attached to my body anymore. Those margins have disappeared. And I just felt one after another, my margins just kept going away.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So I have all this extra time and energy on my hand that I have to reinvest somewhere and decide to write the book. So it was even while I was writing the manuscript that Eric and I were talking about doing an audio book version together. We knew we wanted to do that together at some point. And then once we got to a position to be able to start taking that idea seriously,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it's like, man, I need a system to work within here so I can streamline efficiencies and outcomes. And economy of motion is a term, I think I talk about it in the book, where every single step I take, every action or movement I make, there has to be a correlated ROI with that, like down to like the micro detail, which of course, we're not going to bat a thousand.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
We're not going to be perfect with every single thing we do. But that was how granular I wanted to get with my efficiency. because I didn't have the luxury of time and I didn't have the margins that I could rely on to make up for my misses.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I found that, I'm glad you shared that in the book, because I found that so interesting. I appreciate that feedback, man. I don't think I've ever heard that from a non-amputee or non-prosthetic user before. So it's actually really cool that that connected with you a little bit, that little bit of education. Because it is a massive kind of misconception.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you could use the word guilty of enabling that misconception because people see me or read something and this like, oh man, this dude just like wakes up, clickety-clack, leg goes on and he's just like off and running, doing whatever he wants to deadlift in, climbing mountains, scuba. It's like, oh yeah, it's just like, it's not his leg, but it works the same way as...
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
His actual leg, when of course, maybe not of course, but that's wildly inaccurate. It's those like little sneaky extra challenges that you don't really anticipate, because I guess how could you anticipate it? Where you lose your leg, you come to the reality of, yep, that's part of my body is gone. Got it. Hey, we're going to give you a new one. And you're like, awesome.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'm going to strap this thing on. I'm just going to be right back to it. It just looks different. It maybe makes some sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator. That could be kind of cool, but that's it. And it's all these little like micro challenges that just like stack up over time. And those can be the ones that can kill you. Yeah. Like death by a thousand cuts.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
The more obvious route to take would be for me to share kind of the more personalized stories and then Eric to read more of the objective stuff. That was the way we were going to do it. It was maybe a week before we went into the recording studio to record it. And I hit him up and I said, hey, man, I think we may be going about this the opposite way. Just hear me out.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It's like you come to the realization of I no longer have my limb. That's tough, but cool. I got a new one. And then it's all these little knickknacky,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
pains in the ass that for some they just it they'd say they i can't the hell with it i'm not going to do it i'm just going to live my life in a wheelchair on crutches or whatever it is because it's just it takes its toll there's just like so much that comes with it you don't even a lot that comes with it maintenance lifestyle changes yeah a lot
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I think they don't want to flip the script literally. And without hesitation, he goes, no, I think you're right. I was thinking the same thing. Because I want those stories to be able to be translated into the mind and the heart of somebody else.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
What were the first two injuries? First one, I took some grenade shrapnel to the back of my shoulder, blew about a lemon-sized hole in me. I was out of the game under medical treatment for like three or four days. And then I was back to the, with the guys back to work. Second, I took an AK-47 round to the face during an IED-initiated ambush that we drove into.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Six of my friends, my teammates, were in a lead vehicle that was decimated by about a 400-pound bomb. Limbs blown off, like severe blast damage, eyes hanging out of faces. So those guys were really jammed up, and I caught a round during that. Similarly, after the first one was the same experience. I got medical attention at Bagram. I was there three or four days and then I was back with the guys.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then the leg incident with the attack was the third one.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah. We were, we refer to it as a green on blue, which is really just based off of a system we use that gives different types of individuals on a battle space, like a color code to loosely define who's who. Um, So green being labeled as unknowns and or like friendlies, blue being like US forces. So green against blue.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So when one of the guys we're working with turns on us, hence the term green on blue or insider attack. So we were set to drive out on an operation and just prior to loading up our vehicles, a member of the Afghan National Police Force, climbed up on the back of a Ford Ranger pickup truck that had a mounted PKM machine gun attached to it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And he opened fire into me and the guys from about 30 feet away. So considered the most catastrophic insider attack that we knew of at the time, since the beginning of the GWAT. And then to make matters more interesting, this was the initiation of a pre-planned complex ambush
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
we didn't know there were about 30 taliban fighters that had our compound almost entirely surrounded so when this guy initiated from inside our perimeter they all began launching mortars and rpg rockets and belt and machine gun on top of us so it was a really bad day at the office you could say 12 u.s casualties another dozen or so afghan casualties
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I thought that coming from a vantage point outside of my own could maybe enable that, but maybe more significantly, I wanted the emphasis of my voice, which is where most people are coming to the book for, to be driving at the points that I wrote that book to create. This is not, as you read, this isn't an autobiography. This isn't like the Nick Lavery story. There are
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Three of our guys were killed, one of which was our detachment commander, Captain Andrew Peterson Keel, who I speak on in the book. He's from Connecticut. I was standing right next to me, really, right before the round started flying. And then myself and another eight Americans, just varying degrees of wounded. I took an estimated five or maybe six rounds or so to my right leg.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
which basically just vaporized it. And the onslaught really continued. One thing I do like to highlight, man, real quick, you were an infantry officer, is that right? Yeah, correct. And I love when I share this. I don't share it often enough. is we had an infantry uplift squad that was there with us. It was about 14 dudes, most of which on their first deployment fresh out of basic training.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So we had like some legitimate kids, like 17, 18, 19-year-old kids. Their squad leader was Staff Sergeant Rex Shad, who was the only one, I believe, out of the group that had any kind of Afghan combat experience. He was actually also killed during this attack. These guys were attached to us as well as another three or four enablers
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
to literally hold down the fort for us while we were out conducting operations with our patina force. That's why they were assigned to us. And we're doing village stability operations. We're up in the mountains of Wardak. We're not operating out of a FOB. We're operating out of like this little camp with like nothing.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Those guys were really our primary means of defense and like defending the compound. But over time, we're training these guys because that's what Green Berets, that's what soldiers do really. It's what Green Berets do specifically. We're training these guys and we start bringing these guys out in operations with us over time. It's drivers and turret gunners and, It was awesome.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
These are these young kids and now they're, they're attached to an ODA and they're growing their beards out and they're wearing like, you know, non official uniforms and like, they're really getting into it. And we needed them to be into it like that with us. They were like very much part of the team.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, yeah, quite often. A lot of firefights? Yeah, like maybe two, three, four times a week. Okay. Yeah, so we're going out on most days. We take a day off here too, but it was pretty much kinetic throughout the entire trip. Watching these young studs develop over time was awesome. It was amazing. On the day of the attack- Most of the ODA was wounded as we were getting set to go out.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And as I'm laying there, and I eventually end up treating myself with tourniquets and some other stuff. But as I'm laying there dying, as I'm bleeding out from oral artery is severed, and I know I'm dead. I know I'm going to die. Watching these young infantry soldiers come out of the...
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Ops and come out of wherever they were on the main camp and they start flooding into Our motor pool, which is where the attack happened and these guys just start going to work and they're taking up fighting positions They're calling out distance direction enemy threats there.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
They're reloading each other with belt fed They're firing up the mortar that we taught him how to use I mean these guys were like game on as most of the ODA is down dead or dying And these young studs are just going to work. And that to me was, I thought, going to be kind of my last vision as I was laying on the ground looking up and watching these kids just go handle business.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And dude, I don't know if, at least up until I became a father, I don't know if I've ever felt that amount of love and pride and respect for a group of others to watch them save us and protect us. These kids just doing what they do, man. It was an amazing moment coupled with pending death that would have been a great way to go had that been it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
experiences i went through in there but my intent behind that was to drive the principles into people's minds so if we looked at it from what are they more likely to take away from what i read or what you read odds are i may have at least a slight advantage being the author i got this unique voice 51 49 me versus you what do we want to prioritize the stories or the associated messages it's the latter cool i'm going to read that
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Were you pretty convinced at that point that you were going to die? 100% convinced. Yeah, 100%. When I saw the amount of volume of blood that was pumping out of me, I'm talking like just like a hose. I was like, yeah, man, my femoral has been cut. I might have eight or so minutes here, give or take.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So I was convinced that no matter what I did or what anyone did, that this was going to be my last day on earth. I was able to kind of get my head out of the clouds pretty quickly and go to work. So I started to treat myself with tourniquets and eventually with an internal pressure dressing, which is a wild experience to go through. But yeah, I thought that that was it, man.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, so Powerball is just a term we use when you're dealing with like soft gauze, medical gauze, and you just ball it up to create kind of like a golf ball out of it, just to give it a little bit of a density to work with. And it's used to create pressure dressing. Whoa.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
What I needed was an internal pressure dressing because of where the location of the femoral artery had been severed was towards the top of my leg. It had retracted up into kind of where my pelvis is. So the artery is cut, it retracts. So now it's up almost by my hip.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And while we do have techniques like laguinal tourniquets, and actually we now have equipment that's built specifically to be able to apply pressure to the hip area specifically for this kind of injury. We didn't have any of that equipment. I didn't have anything on me. It really wasn't built into the way we trained. It was just get the tourniquet as high as you possibly can.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
We couldn't get the tourniquets high enough on me because of where the artery was actually bleeding from. I ended up loosening up one of the highest tourniquets. And fortunately, I was hit from behind. And I say fortunately because the exit wound on most gunshots are typically a much larger cavity. So goes in, creates a small hole, comes out, much bigger hole.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So that bigger hole is right in front of me as I'm looking down at my leg. So I loosen up one of the tourniquets, create this power ball with this gauze, and I'm able to ram it into the wound, but then up towards my pelvis in order to get direct pressure on the femoral artery. So like half my hand is basically in my thigh at this point, and I'm reaching up towards my pelvis.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And eventually, I think I feel like a pulse. It was tough to tell. It's complete chaos going on around me. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming. But I think I feel something. And I'm kind of like, hey, what the hell with it? Let's just go. So I just squeeze as hard as I can. I feed all the rest of the gauze into the cavity on top of that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then I was able to secure a tourniquet on top of the gauze and wrench it down tight enough just to create that upward pressure directly into the femoral. And time would tell you that that worked because I didn't get medevaced for almost two hours after I was hit because of the ongoing gunfight. It just took a while. for them to be able to start landing birds.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But eventually I would hear from the doctors that treated me years later when I first got to that aid station for initial treatment. And they were like, dude, you nailed your femoral artery. You were like dead on with that thing. So a little bit of luck, a whole lot of phenomenal training from some great teammates and great medics over the years that enabled me to do what I needed to do. Yeah.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Were you feeling all of that or was it just numb at that point? It definitely wasn't numb. The first time I remember feeling any legitimate pain was during that procedure because I was scraping past shattered femur. My femur had been shattered into 18 pieces. So I was scraping past broken bone. Up until that point, I didn't feel any pain at all. Adrenaline was just dumped into the system.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
When I was doing that was when the pain kicked in for the first time. And when I say it kicked in, I mean, it came in like a freight train. It felt like I was actually trying to like explode. I could feel almost my eyeballs like popping out of my head, that amount of like heat and pressure.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
internal trying to explode out my body was so powerful that it almost just like put me out cold like i could see my peripheral vision just like went completely away and it was like i was hanging on through this like soda straw looking into you know the sky or the abyss i was
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
barely hanging on consciously and just telling myself man like you cannot pass out right now you gotta you gotta get this in there and you gotta get this right on the mock so just stay in the game stay awake stay awake and just battle through that discomfort and i was able to do that just long enough to
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
secure a turn to get back on top of that and then i did go unconscious when did you wake up after that the first time i woke up after that was about a minute or so later um and i looked at my the work i had done and i had no idea if it really did anything but i was out of options so now the question is what do you want to do with the rest of your life um which is a question i think that we should all ask ourselves from time to time
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Regardless, of course, without knowing how long that is. In my case, I was supremely confident that that was maybe 30, 60, 90 seconds. So what do you want to do with the rest of your life? The next minute and a half. And I glance over and I see some of my teammates that were wounded about 10, 12 feet from me. And so I just dragged myself over to where those guys were.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And the first guy I got to was our senior medic. His name was Elliot, who had treated me
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
many times on that with deployment and he had taken a round through his calf but he had a tourniquet on and he was in stable condition but he was feeling every ounce of discomfort that comes with a properly applied tourniquet i mean when that thing's on right it sucks as you know so i just thought i'd i'd do what i could to distract him and
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Thank him for everything he did for me as a teammate, as a medic, everything he taught me as a man. And that's how this game of life would end. And I was surprisingly okay with that. Sure enough, I did kind of fade to black and I thought that was it. And then I came back again.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And that process happened like 10 or 12 times until eventually I came to and I was being carried on a stretcher and I was being loaded on a helicopter to be medevaced, which was almost two hours later.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
About eight or nine days. They had to get you stable first? They had to get me stable first. Yeah, they medevaced me to an outpost. I had some treatment there. Some mistakes were made there for sure that caused things to get even that much more challenging. From there, I arrived at Bagram basically completely dead.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
hooked up to a bunch of machines and those machines kept me kind of alive for about a week. And then I just kind of came back and then it took another day or two for me to get stable enough to survive a flight to Germany. Was there for a day in Germany is where they amputated my leg up to my knee because everything below that was just dead. And then I arrived at Walter Reed the day after that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And we wanted to do the little interview stuff in between because we wanted to give those that had read the book a new thing. It's not just going to be what you've already read. We're going to give you a little bit more on top of that. That's where we came up with that format.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It was at Walter Reed. I think my first surgery at Walter Reed was the day I got there. And they just went above the knee at that point. And it's a really cool story where I was there maybe two or three days. And the chief orthopedic surgeon, John Claude Delorand is his name, still a great friend of mine. He just recently retired as a full-blown colonel. He's the chief ortho.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And Walter Reed, with all military installations, they also have students and those that are in training and they have residents. So it's like this whole team of people that are at different varying degrees of skill set and experience and whatever. Well, his entire team, his whole staff, advised him on day two or day three to amputate my leg at the hip.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
and just get rid of the problem, which was all the infection that had set in. I was dealing with MRSA and some extreme circumstances with infection that was literally a threat to my life. So they're like, we got to do a hip disarticulation to basically just take the hip apart and get everything below that gone and save this guy's life. His whole staff recommended that. And he was like, okay, cool.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Got it. Thank you, guys. And now he's at a decision point. And he comes over to me, and I'm whacked out of my mind. I'm on huge doses of ketamine. I just got out of surgery, like anesthesia. I barely know where I am or what's real. But I can remember this conversation crystal clear. And he looks at me, and he goes, hey, Nick, my name is Dr. Deloran. I'm the chief ortho here. I'm like, yep, OK.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I just see this random dude hovering over me. He's like, here's your situation, brother. He's like, my whole staff wants to take your leg off at the hip, which is the right call to make. But I think I can save more of your leg. But it's just going to be a street fight. And I need you in this fight with me. That's what he said to me verbatim. And I think I may be processed.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
a 10th of what he actually said to me. And that 10th being, Hey dude, I'm going to go get into a fight and I'd like you to come with me. Do you want to go? And I was like, I'm in. And he's like, cool. And he did have a subsequent conversation with my, both my parents that were there as well, that it happened either before that with me or right after.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And he tells them the situation and their, their son is they're dying. Right. And he's like, Hey guys, listen, like he explains the situation to them. And he, He goes, I don't know this guy at all. This is the first time I'm in a room with this dude. You've known him his entire life, right? There is a considerable risk is if we go about this the way that I'd like to, a risk to his life.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You're his parents. what would you think he would want us to do in this situation take the risk save more of his leg which will give him more opportunities to live a life an active life or take the more cautious by the book answer and do what my staff wants to do.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And my mother and my father, they had a quick conversation with each other, which lasted 15 seconds, because they both know me very well. And they looked back at the doc, and they were like, no, save as much as you can. That's what he would want. And that's what he did.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, that's a great question, man. I live... I live in the world of what's possible. Impossible to me is a very difficult word for me to accept to be true. I'm not sure if I do accept it to be true. But I could say that a hip disarticulation is a massive difference than being an above the knee amputee, as is a massive difference than being a below the knee amputee.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
When you lose a limb, it's really not so much the loss of the limb as it is the loss of the joint. That is what we have yet to be able to recreate anywhere close to that of what mother nature gives us. We can recreate tibias and femurs where you would really never know the difference. The joints compound the challenges tremendously from below the knee to an above to a hip.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
There are three entirely separate worlds of quality of life and ability to perform actively. So as much as I believe anything is possible, for me to have gone back to the ODA and to do some of the things that I've done since as a hip disarticulation, I would argue is as close to impossible as it gets.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah. The decision for me was made actually before the road to recovery even started. It happened when I was still in the intensive care unit was when the decision was made. And it was... A wild scenario where I barely knew what was real, what was not. But that was the thing that I could see crystal clear. It was right there. This is what you're going to do.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Quick story that I'd like to share that highlights that is I was maybe on day three, four, five time frame, ICU. Parents are still there going through surgeries. It's a whirlwind of activity. People are coming and going, doctors, nurses, practitioners, 24-7 nonstop. It's amazing. I'm there maybe three, four or five days.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And all of a sudden in walks all these people in black suits and they start positioning themselves around the room. And I'm like, it's kind of weird. And then in walks the first lady at the time was Michelle Obama. And she comes straight over to me and she starts talking to me and I'm laying there and I'm looking up at her and she's talking. I have no idea what she was initially saying.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
i don't recall what i said back to her i think it was just a bunch of me mumbling and stuttering some like nonsensical gibberish back to her so she's kind of like okay i'm not really getting anywhere with this guy right now so she diverts to her attention starts talking to my mother who's at the foot of my bed so they're having this conversation basically like right on top of me and they're talking for a minute or so and then i interrupt them by saying to the first lady i just say excuse me ma'am
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I said it so loudly that it actually like startled her. She like jumped back and was like, oh, this dude just totally said something to me. That's kind of cool. So she leans in. She's like a foot off my face. And I said to her, I need you to do me a favor. And she doesn't respond. I said, I need you to tell your husband that I am still an asset. That I will be back. And don't give up on me.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And she starts crying. So she's crying. My mother starts crying. I think the Secret Service agents start crying. Everyone in the room is going through this emotional experience except for me. I was dead serious. And if I'm being honest with you, man, I just saw a strategic opportunity to get a message to the guy. To the commander in chief.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And if you've been in the military longer than a day or two, you realize that there's an exception to every policy we have. All it takes is the right person to put the name on the right piece of paper, and anything can happen. So for me, that story is one that's still impactful to me. My mother tells it actually much better than I do. That was what was crystal clear.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And of course, I didn't have a clue as to how I would go about doing that. But I felt in that moment, I was probably going to need some administrative love from probably a whole bunch of people. So maybe if I get the endorsement from the guy in the Oval Office, that may go a long way. So the decision was made right there and then. I saw things quite clearly.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I had two options on the table, roll over and die, as you just mentioned, or go back to doing what you were put on this planet to do. And this was almost, this was over 12 years ago now that this happened. And things for me have changed since then. Becoming a father, as you know, will change your perspective. You have kids, yeah? Yeah, two kids. Yeah, okay.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Will change your perspective on a lot of things in life. Everything. Right? Back then... Being a Green Beret, being a professional warfighter, it really wasn't what I did. It was who I was. My whole identity was wrapped up in this one function. This is the reason I was put on this planet. So I was able to see things just that simply. Die or go back to living your purpose.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I don't do very well with the whole rolling over and dying thing. So that quickly was removed from the table. This is the only option that's left. Now you just got to figure out how to do it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, it's a great question. I think in an ideal scenario, determining what the mission is, is essential. And some, maybe most, struggle to determine what that is. What do you want to do? Or maybe more importantly, is who do you want to be? And that's a very kind of almost easy philosophical question to ask and some really struggle in determining what that is.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But without that, to serve as a beacon or a guide to begin driving towards the cliche expression, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. You're just kind of like acting in life, digging holes, just that random thing. So I think determining what the mission is is essential. And people tend to overthink it, I think.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
People tend to overthink this, I need this perfect vision, idea of who I want to be or what I want to do, which of course doesn't exist. There's no such thing as perfect. And it's going to change no matter what, no matter how close to perfect you were even to get, it's going to change. Because one of three things is going to happen.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You're going to accomplish it, and then you're going to be moving on to the next one, While in route to accomplishing that, you realize that you may want to pivot in another direction. And here's where people, that's where the paralysis by analysis comes in is, well, if that happens or when that happens, does that mean that everything that I did up to that point was all for nothing?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I would argue no. For one, you would not have been positioned to make that pivot had you not done all the things you needed to do to get to that point.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And almost certainly, you've learned some things on the way, you've grown, you've increased your physical capability, your mental resilience, your disciplined behavior, you got new habits, you got new people around you as a direct result of you launching on this path.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Now I'm going to make a slice in this direction, but now I'm equipped with everything that I've been given and earned by moving forward. So that's going to happen, or you're just simply going to drop dead while in route, which of course can happen. So the mission is going to change one way or the other. The paralysis by analysis loop can just keep going on forever.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So make a decision, plant the flag, and then begin moving. Now, when people struggle to decide what that is, I usually give three pieces of advice. Two of them's in the book, one of which I've kind of pondered on since I published that is internal dialogue. Is that even a thing in your life? Call it prayer. Call it reflection.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself the question, like, who do you want to be? And then shut the hell up and listen. and let your soul speak to you, which, in my opinion, rarely comes blasting through the glass. If you're looking in the mirror and punches you directly in the face, I say more often than not, it shows up in the form of a whisper.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But if you're not listening for it, you're not going to hear it. So internal dialogue. The second is play more of the statistical route, meaning I'm going to focus on my talents then I'm going to move in that direction. A definition of talent is something that you do better than with the least amount of effort. What do you do well with the least amount of effort? And everybody has that.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'm not talking about how good you are in something. I'm talking about your talent, like organic capability. We all have at least one, usually a lot more than one. It's just identifying what it is and then start stacking skill on top of talent. because those are two separate things. And when you wield both of them, your likelihood of success will skyrocket.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then the last one, which I don't mention in the book, because this is more recent for me, is what I call weaponized curiosity. I love that. Just start trying stuff, man. And sometimes you have to just be disciplined to do that. Maybe you're not genuinely interested in it, but start trying things. Or if you're like, I wonder what that's like. Go figure out what that's like.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Because most of us, I would argue, the passion and drive... And sense of purpose behind something usually comes as a result of executing on something just to begin with, based on curiosity or even an emotional trigger towards just doing something. That was what it was for me. I was not in love with being a soldier. I had no sense of purpose with being a soldier until I started being a soldier.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it was like, oh man, I really love this. I want to make this a lifestyle. Cool. That's what I'm going to do. I had no passion for... impacting people's lives and helping businesses and entities develop themselves and grow until I became obsessed with writing a book. Like that was the first thing for me. And I just went all in. I wonder what that's like. You know what? We're going to find out.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And oh man, I really do love this. So I think there's a lot of lost opportunity and lack of execution because we want to have this clearly defined pathway between now and then. And that can just keep us stagnant for a really long time. Yeah, I love that last one.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you mentioned one component to that is failure. the instant we can begin to see failure as opportunity is the instant that what you just said opens up as an option. I'm actually seeking failure. I want it to happen. Now it's got to be deliberate and authentic. You can't just like half-ass something and be like, oh, I failed. I'm really happy about that. No, no, no.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'm talking about going at something to win and then losing and That becomes the opportunity because that's where most of the knowledge is located. You could be talking about a new hat. Like, you know what? I'm curious. Like, what if we start selling hats? What if BPN starts selling hats? Like, I don't know. But you know what? Like, let's find out. And you do the whole thing.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You manufacturing and printing and blah, blah, blah, distribution. You get it going. Let's say it totally flops. Not a single person is interested in a hat from you. that totally failed. Okay. What did we just learn from that? I mean, we went at that aggressive. We went at that to win. We were going to sell a million hats this year, starting right now, game on. And it doesn't work.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
That happens all the time in business and in life, in sport, in physical development, in education. This is the game of life. When that happens, this is a random example. For you, that's not the case, but it's a random example. When that happens-
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
those that have operationalized it, those true weapons, those outliers, those really dangerous people, see that point in time and going, good, okay, here's what we just gleaned from all this. Was it the hat? Was it the design? I don't know. But we're going to continue to dig and figure it out. Or you take that knowledge and go, you know what? This isn't our market. It's not the right time.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But you wouldn't have gotten to that point had you not been willing to have the courage to execute in the face of fear, which I think is enabled once we see the value of failure.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I said, no, this is the biggest win we've had of the year. Yeah. I mean, you could say it's only a failure if you stay down or I like to dissect the dichotomy between failure and defeat because I think that that is a failure. Like this was the goal. You failed to meet the goal. Correct. Got it. But you're not defeated because you're going to learn.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You're going to get back up and you're going to move. And you know what? With your team, it has to hurt. It has to sting. Otherwise, it's not an authentic loss. Correct, yeah. And that catalyst isn't there to drive the knowledge transfer, acquisition, and improvement. So it has to hurt. And that's where many are just unwilling to go because it's damaging. It's damaging to this system.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I'm just unwilling to take that risk. I'm going to play it safe. Most will stay in that bubble. Weirdos like you and like me are willing to venture outside that because that's where the growth actually happens. Yeah.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you just, you took the words right out of my mouth, man. I would define purpose, a term we've used many times here, as being a part of something bigger than yourself that creates impact on others. And that's the difference between passion and purpose. Passion is for me. I love what I get to do. Purpose has to be, by definition, to impact somebody else.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So purpose is for you or for them or for him or for her. Passion is for me, purpose is for you. But when you wield those two together, you become a very dangerous asset. very capable individual. And to be clear, the little story you just shared is that epiphany to me actually happened while I was in the process of earning my way back to the team.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I was about 25% through what would end up being about 12, 13 weeks. And I was cranking out these tests and assessments. I was like five, six different seven tests in. All the confidence, these guys can throw anything at me and I'm going to dominate. And that epiphany hit me in the middle of the night. with all this momentum and it just stopped me dead in my tracks.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It was like, boom, like brick wall. And went in, talked to the guys and their response was, hey man, we've talked about this like a dozen times. We don't know if this is going to work. We don't know if you're going to be an asset back here, but we want to be the ones to figure that out. So if you're able to make it back here by some miracle,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You know, this is them talking to me, you know that there is no room in this team for a liability. In this business, it is that black and white. You're either an asset or you're a liability, and that's it. You either meet the standard or you don't, and that's it. It's very cut and dry. Them talking to me, you know that that's how this business operates. Yeah, man, I know.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Okay, so you know that we are going to hold you accountable to that standard, period. We love you. We respect you. We want the best for you and your life. But business is business. You understand that, Nick, right? Yes, I do. Cool. You stay on target. You focus on what needs to happen. We'll handle the objectivity. We'll handle the logic.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Because for me, it was highly emotional thing I was trying to do. I was obsessed with this thing. We talked about emotion and logic. They don't play nice together. So what I was able to do based on that tribe and my love and respect and trust in those guys was, you know what? That's fair. You guys will handle the objectivity.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I will remain out of my mind, obsessed and laser focused on the next thing. And if I get back there, I know that there's no spot here if I don't meet that and I'm willing to accept whatever that outcome is. Yeah. Because you had to be an asset. It was about them. And it took, dude, what was already me operating at a high level. I mean, I was...
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I was dialed in and I was putting out and things were moving on the right trajectory. That flip of a switch from me to them took what was already at what I thought was max output and surged it up just that much higher. Because when I was going in now to my third training session of the day,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
beat to shit, tired, all the excuses sounding the most convincing when I'm at my weakest state, rather than me thinking about this glorifying moment of getting back off the bird back in Afghanistan with both fingers in the air saying, I'm back and you done messed up. You should have killed me when you had the chance. That's what was driving me almost this entire time.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Rather than me thinking about that, I was now thinking about my teammate's five-year-old son. I was thinking about my teammate's wife. And no, you need to do this workout right now or eat this food or do this thing, get into bed, get out of bed, not for you, but for them. And it just took things to a whole nother level, which is why I'm such an advocate for team, tribe, community.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Are you still eating that much? No, not even close. That's wild. Yeah. One of the things that I like to remind people of is as an above-the-knee amputee, for me to walk... at a normal walking pace requires 70 to 75% more energy spend than you to walk at the same speed for the same distance. It's that much more, it requires that much more energy, i.e. calories.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So that only gets amplified when you're talking about running, thinning, training, and you're doing more intense activity, the calorie requirement gets doubled, tripled, sometimes even higher than that. So that's something I had to learn over time. Like the science was given to me almost during like my recovery. Like you're going to be fatigued, this is tiring, and here's why.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
It just requires that much more energy to move you from point A to point B. I'm like, oh man, so I really gotta, I really gotta be loading up. And I was familiar with it when I, there was a window in time, post-college football and pre-military that I transitioned more into like strongman and like powerlifting type stuff. I was doing a little bit of boxing, a little bit of wrestling.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But I was doing VIP security and nightclub security in Boston. And I was getting a lot of business based on my physical size with what I was doing for work. But I just wanted to see how big and strong I could get. So I had gone through a phase where I was hammering down crazy amounts of calories.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So I was used to kind of this forced feeding concept, but actually during that window, I was burning so much that I was genuinely hungry most of the time that I was eating. There were certainly phases when I was like, oh, I just got to choke down this, another chicken breast or like whatever I was eating. But there was so much output that I needed the fuel.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it took me a while to kind of dial that in and play around with it. I had some great coaches and dieticians that helped me with those formulas. But at the end of the day, you're the one that's got to have it all prepared, have it all with you, and actually just do it. And those that are listening, and you and I live in the fitness world, preparation, it goes a long way, man.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
At the end of the day, you're going to eat when you're hungry. And if you don't have the thing that you are supposed to be consuming right there, when that alarm starts to go off, that's when we typically just start to stray. So most of that effect takes place before the actual task itself.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Yeah, and I think that goes both ways. It works more in a cyclical fashion where individual development is essential, as you mentioned. No one can do the work for you. No one can get you up out of the warm, cozy bed. No one can put in the extra rep. No one can run the extra mile. Like you have to do that stuff yourself. So we do live quite aggressively in the realm of personal development.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And it's a lot to consume, but you can knock that out in an hour or two, once or twice a week, have everything you need to go ready to go. And then it's just automated discipline of execution.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Some of the people I get to work with that are focused more on like HPW and performance and wellness and fitness and health is, I just did this with a client. I'm like, here's what I want you to do. I want you to get a cooler, like a lunch pail, like some kind of receptacle that is dedicated to carrying food and nutrients around. That's it. Just go acquire one if you don't already have one.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
No, I got one. It's a lunch pail. It's really nice. It's made by Arctic or like whatever. I'm like, perfect. You got that? Cool. All I want you to do is every night before you go to bed, take that cooler and put it right next to wherever your keys, your wallet, your phone, like your everyday carry items that you're going to leave the house with every single day and just bring it with you.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
That's it. He's like, okay, well, like, what am I putting in it? I'm like, nothing. Empty. Just have it with you. He's like, I don't get it. I was like, might put my keys in there. I don't care what you, no food is needing to go into it right now. All I want to do is build in the habit of this being as essential of an item to you as your keys, your wallet, and your phone. That's all we're doing.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And in 14 days, you come back and you said, I've had this thing with me every single day for the last 14 days. It was with me in the office, in my truck. It was when I went to the gym, when I went to the park, when I went to the grocery store. I had it with me or in the vicinity of where I was every day for 14 days. then we're going to start loading stuff into it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And I think that that very, not necessarily that's like the only way to go about doing this, but just a very small iterative, small victory approach to executing discipline on a relatively small scale. doing that with consistency that now becomes automated and then move on and then move on and then move on.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And when it comes to training and health nutrition, people see you, people see me and they get these, like this grandiose idea of like what they want to look like or be able to do. And I got, I got to eat right calories and macros. And it's like all this stuff is flooding in and they go from zero to a hundred and out of the gate.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And you may be able to sustain that for a week or two or a month, but chances are almost certainly it's just too much too soon. I don't care who you are, how disciplined you are. It's just too big of a shift and the wheels are likely going to fall off new year's resolutions. There's a reason why they don't usually last past like the first week of February. It's just all in.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And then you lose that drive and it's done. But if you go very, very incrementally, whether it's food, nutrition, getting up in the morning. Hey, normally I wake up at 7 a.m. Cool, tomorrow I want it to be 6.55. We're going to do that for 14 days. And then we're going to move to 6.50. And then we're going to go 45, 35, 25, 06.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Over 90 days, we're going to get you an hour of extra time to use on whatever you want. And you won't even notice the difference. You've made it up 45 years of your life at this point without making this adjustment. Another 90 days isn't going to matter. In fact, it's going to help you.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
But I do believe to your point, Nick, is that is empowered and enabled within a tribe because having others that will hold you accountable, support you, call you on your bullshit that are better than you, that you are pushing to keep up with in many ways, is I would argue an incredible component to how we get better as individuals. Who do we surround ourselves with?
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So just those little small wins compounded as I think how you end up getting to a more systemized, automated way where it just becomes the way you live.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Oh, good question.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Awesome. So I appreciate it, brother. I appreciate it, man. I'm humbled. It's been a long time coming. I'm glad I finally got a chance to sit face to face with you, man, to say that I have an enormous amount of appreciation and respect for you as an individual and what you have built here and seeing it in three-dimensional time and space and seeing where you guys are moving towards
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
is nothing short of spectacular. And I can only begin to get an appreciation for how hard it really is. So it's a privilege for me just to be here with you, brother. I wish you nothing but the best, and I'm looking forward to watching you take this thing to the next level, man.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
They don't necessarily have to be pursuing the exact same desired end state, but they have ambition, they have drive, they have a sense of passion and purpose. They're like going after life. Those are the types I would argue you want to kind of surround yourself within that circle. The whole machine mentality thing, it's a real interesting story.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'll tell it quickly is on my first deployment back over back in Afghanistan, after I was wounded and lost my leg within a couple of weeks, the locals, as we were going out and doing our thing, started referring to me as Palawanemoshina, which is Dari for the machine fighter. And that just became like this nickname. And they're trying to process like all of this walking into their village.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And this can be a difficult thing to process here in Texas. You go to a place like that, and I'm like a cyborg from another planet, like Terminator 2, like reincarnated. So that's what became what they referred to me as. And it was kind of like a running joke.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And we'd go to a new village or a new area and like the kids would come out and they'd immediately be saying, oh, Palawanamashina, Palawanamashina. Like it's the machine is here. None of my teammates called me that. It wasn't a nickname. It was just kind of a thing while we were there. Next year, next deployment, we're in Eastern Africa. Same thing happens. So whole different part of the world.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
And now the locals there and some of our partner force there are referring to me as machine. So that's kind of the genesis of it. It became about me as an individual. I kind of ran with that concept a little bit. because it was just tied to me and some of the things that I was able to accomplish. But then as I reflected on it more,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I'm like, I'm not where I am literally right now had it not been for hundreds of other people that enabled me to do the things I needed to do to then accomplish the things I just decided I wanted to accomplish. I'm not who I am without them. So I just continued to analyze this one word that kept coming out in my mind because it was being thrown at me so regularly. It's like machine.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I started thinking, what is a machine at the end of the day? If you use an engine of a truck, what is a machine? Well, machine is a series of different components that when brought together to work in harmony can create something powerful, like an engine.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
So a machine is a singular entity, but what gives it its life force, its ability, is all these different components that have to work together together. in a system to then create the end state you're looking for. I'm like, that's what a machine is. It's not an individual, it's a team. So I see those words as almost synonymous and that's how we've continued to run with it.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
I think I'll take it from two vantage points. One, I think the spirit of what many take that to be true, is something to be respected. That is the early mornings, the late nights, the putting in the grind when no one's there to care, when no one's watching, when your boss isn't watching, when your haters aren't watching, your wife, your friends, your colleagues, when no one's there, it's just you.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
and you do what needs to be done anyway. I think many correlate self-made with that. And in that instance, I would agree that that's a requirement 100%. I think those that take that term literally, are going to lose and they're going to lose bad because I would argue nobody has done anything worthwhile truly by themselves.
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
At some point, someone or something has given you an opportunity or provided you with some knowledge, provided you with some guidance or some support or some resources that has enabled you to do the things that you want to do. So I think if you go at life literally self-made,
The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
You may win a couple battles here and there based on your drive and grit, resilience, and discipline, but you're going to lose the war. And you're going to lose the war to the person or the team that has the honesty, the self-awareness, and the willingness to recognize their gaps, recognize their shortcomings, and then go find resources and assets to help fill those gaps.