Bryan Anderson’s Story of Survival and Strength After Losing Everything in Combat

And so literally from that moment on, everything's kind of up to you.

The people you put around you, things in the decisions you make, and so also being able to have this extraordinary life that I've led and getting to peek into other people's lives, a lot of other people's lives, celebrities' lives, my friends' lives, my family's lives, soldiers' lives. I'll come to realize that what's important in life, and it's not flashy stuff, it's

not whatever. You know, like my ovens, the same temperature, bread, the poopers oven, it's like it's the people you put around you, and the memories you make, and the information you pass along.

“But that's what matters, and so when you look deep, try to find happiness in what you”

have. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Hey everyone, welcome to the American Potential Podcast.

I'm your host, David Frost. Have you ever caught yourself wondering, what is it? What if I'd taken that job? What if I'd made a different decision? What if that one moment had gone a little different?

We all have those moments, and we really wonder how life might have turned out. Well, today's guests have one of those moments, because while serving, in a rack, on patrol, an idea exploded.

“In an instant, everything changed, and even though that moment dramatically changed”

his life, it didn't change his attitude online. I want to welcome to the podcast, Brian Anderson, who's an Army veteran and Triple Amputee. Brian, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, David, appreciate being here. Yeah.

Well, I'm so excited to talk to you. I mean, I know you joined our American for Prosperio, high-o team, and their celebration of America's 250th event, and we weren't able to be there, but I'm so glad that we get to catch up and talk about your experiences and just your kind of an inspiring story to be honest with you.

So, set the stage for me, you know, you enlisted in 2001, in the military, and your ship out date was September 11th, kind of crazy, maybe take us through that day, and what you're thinking, you know, as that day unfolded. We have, sir, so, in 2001, earlier in the year, me and my girlfriend, we were tossing

around the idea of joining the military and whatnot, and always wanted to do something

bigger than myself. I was a little guy, but I was a tough little guy, and I wanted to help other little guys, I guess. And if somebody was going to take the hits, I thought I could do it. I don't know. And then I was a gymnast, and so I was very fit and athletic, and I just thought I could

do it. So we signed up in April of 2001, and we were on the delayed entry program, so you had a few months prepare yourself for about what you were about to do. And then September 11th rolled around, and I was, so September 10th, we all kind of party that night, like my last night as a civilian, I get to, you know, whatever, and we

were all sleeping at my aunt's house in the basement. And that morning, I was supposed to go into maps station at like noon, or something like that, and I wake up to my aunt running down the stairs of the basement, screaming, "Oh my God, oh my God, Brian, turn on the TV, turn on the TV," and I'm like, "What? What?"

And I turned on the TV, just in time to see the second plane hit.

And then immediately, well, not exactly just in time, like a couple minutes before the second plane hit, because prior to that, I was working with American Airlines, and so I had airport experience, and I've been in that industry for three years now, almost, and my mind was, "How does a plane hit the tower?" Like, "Whoa, that's a major mess up." Somebody had air traffic control messed up, or whatever, and then I saw the second plane

hit, and my brain immediately went, "No, we're being attacked." And I was just like, "Oh, look, my heart sank into my chest." And then there's just so much uncertainty. And so I

“call up recruiters, and I'm like, "Hey, man, what's going on? Do we need to be going in?”

What's happening?" He's like, "I don't know, man, we'll figure it out. Just come on in."

And so we ended up getting there, and we just sat, huddled around the TV's all day, watching what was going on. And then it was around one o'clock in the morning, and they got us onto some buses, and we drove seven hours of Fort Leonard with Missouri. And then we sat there for two weeks, not doing anything waiting to see what happened, but it was a crazy, crazy day. Yeah, what a way to start your military service. So you're in, you've entered an Iraq,

and what were you doing in Iraq? Okay, so I ended up spending two years in Iraq, two separate deployments, and the first one was the invasion, and that was interesting, and we did a lot of kicking indoors, and the top

“55 people, some people remember the top 55-baked cards that came out.”

Yeah, I remember the cards, the top leaders. Yeah, so I got to kick in some of them doors, and take those people out. And then a second year, our mission was so different. It was strictly, because I was military police officer, to train the Iraqi police force, and you teach them how to police their own country. And so for like the first three months, I was a police academy instructor, and then after those three months, then they said, oh, we need to start going

out to the police stations, and I was basically just holding the hands doing everything arrayed, making sure they have food and weapons, and vehicles for patrols, get everything that just goes into running police station. He made jail cells, food for prisoners, you know, trip them with respect, you know,

“like it was kind of like that. And so we had like six police stations in our responsibility,”

and like eight to ten mile radius, I would say. And so every day, we were kind of just going out to each police station, checking on all of them, making sure everything is good. And on October 23rd, 2005, we headed out to the first police station, and we just didn't even make it. My tires broke the beam of a laser beam, and this EFP blew up sideways. I could not run it over, and I don't know why it bothers me when people say, did you run overnight? He was like, no, I did not run over a bump. Sorry.

Not that it would be a mistake or anything on me, like it probably would have been hidden, you know, but for some reason that just gets me, like, no, I didn't run over a bump. It was in the curb, it was hidden. They painted it, plastered it, made it look like one long curb, and it just blew outside ways. And it cut my legs in my hand up instantly, like my legs were laying in the floor board,

my handers in the passenger seat. It spun me sideways, whereas laying in my seat, but I was never,

it never knocked me out or anything, and never lost consciousness. And that's a whole story. Yeah, come, come see me speak, I'll tell the whole story. That's good. But it was interesting, and I knew what was going on. I never felt like I was going to die though. Wow. And then the first thing I said was holy crap, do you ever think I'll get laid again? Okay. So those are the bullet points. Now come see me.

A young man at the time. It's a little trick question. I was twenty-four.

“Wow. I mean, that's what a traumatic time. But I mean, it is pretty amazing that you were”

aware of the whole time. And it is pretty incredible that you just let you live through it.

I mean, you know, that's a lot to go through. I mean, a neat fact is that because of the type of IED it was probably what saved my life. So the type of IED, the canisters, plastic explosives, nails, ball bearings, whatever you want to throw in there and they top it off with copper plate. And they'll put like six canisters. So three on bottom, three on top, all angle the different directions, things like that. But when it explodes, that copper plate, they exploding it's so hot. It

liquifies immediately. And it's not piercing through our truck. It's melting through our truck. Like the armor. Yeah. So when it went through me, it quadurized everything as it went through me.

So I didn't bleed out. No way. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, two to the extent to where at least I didn't got, you know? Right, it's right. Yeah. I would think you had a straffed glass of blood. It was a big killer there.

I think it took 180 units of blood. And you only have 10 units of blood in your body.

Really? Oh my gosh. But that wasn't like right then, and all in one day, it was over the five weeks or four weeks that I was technically inside the hospital. Yeah. You know, I ended up throughout that whole time. It was a 180 units of blood. Wow. So you ended up. So thank you for everybody that donates blood. I really do appreciate that. Yeah. Good plug. Um, so you end up, I imagine go through a few different hospitals, but you also

“you end up doing recovery at Walter Reed. Um, you know, what was that like?”

It wasn't just saying, and it was tough. Um, so the reasons that it's tough is if it's the biggest thing is the uncertainty, the fear, and the not knowing what the future looks like or or even what you're going to be able to do or physically do and what kind of quality of life looks like, like all those things play a part. Um, but for me, one of the hardest parts was seeing how many soldiers were coming in every day. Um, and 2005, it was really bad. Yeah. And that was depressing

in itself. And the sea soldiers that didn't have anybody, no family, no nothing. Really. That was even tougher. So, you know, all of our soldiers, we all became brothers there. Like, we're here. We're going through this together. We became the family, you know, and help each other through it.

“But for me, for some reason, I was a little bit different. And I was able to accept things for”

what they are really quickly. And like, hey, these don't go back on. Um, it sucks, but like you still got stuff to work with. I had to do it enough attitude to take a day to time, see where it went. And, uh, I told myself that when I left Walter Reed that like, you're healed, you're done. But there's no more hospitals. There's no more whatever. You're living your life. Like, next play. Um, so it's been 13 months there in total. And then that sent home. But just because of my

attitude and in, in, I don't know, whatever, ask why I'm magazine wanted to do a story on a soldier. And they called and said, hey, can we do a story on you? And I'm like, yeah, sure. I don't care why I went up. Yeah. And they followed me around for like two days. And then they left. Oh, and they did

“a photo shoot too. Um, but I didn't hear anything for a couple months. And so I'll hear whatever.”

And then like two weeks before they're like, this is going to come out in January and whatever. And two weeks before it's going to come out, they call me and said, hey, this, this art of

we really turned out pretty amazing. Um, and I was like, really? Oh, okay, whatever. So again,

so we're going to put you on a cover to you though. And I'm like, what? Wow. Yeah, let me put you on a cover. And I'm like, well, okay. Well, it's your magazine. You do whatever you want, man. And, uh, in January, 2007, I ended up coming out on the cover of that square magazine. And that was right at the same time as I was coming home from Walter Reed. And then so it's just opened about your doors for me. And when I got home, I just started going out and doing things. And so when I told

myself, with Walter Reed's done, you're healed and you're moving on, that is exactly what happened.

So what kind of things did you start going out and doing? Um, well, at first it was just

discoverer what I can do. And I jumped on a skateboard. I started doing that and it's no boarding. And, oh, I can still do, okay. And then the wheelchair company, quantum rehab and primability. So hey, we need a new spokesperson. Can you come on and help us out? Let's give it a shot. And the first year it was like, the pay me a thousand dollars. I did one event or two events. And he were like, wow, we kind of like you. You want to do a couple more? And I was like,

yeah, sure. And did some more. And then I was like, hey, I like this. And then I moved to Pennsylvania. So I can go and get more involved. And then I helped by kind of testing and designing chairs and getting more involved and helping them. And then I really kind of became somewhat of a name in the industry, uh, power with your chairs and things like that. Um, well, I mean, all of the meantime, I was like acting and doing stunts and public speaking and, well, I mean, just you were a magazine

cover boy. So I mean, it all makes sense, I guess. Well, tell me about the acting. Yes, I'd say that.

if I could help one person, this would make it kind of worth it. Yeah. And you know, I guess I'm the one who can handle it.

“Oh, yeah. And I want to be a stuntman and actor. And I think it'd be really cool to get”

blown up again and have my legs from flying off. Oh, my gosh. And then I'll sudden this guy calls me up, who's like, hey, I saw the article in S. Grier. I'm a stunt coordinator. And we're doing a movie in Chicago right now. Um, would you like to come down and check it out and see if this might be something you want to get into or you would be interested into getting into? And I was like, oh, absolutely heck yeah. And so I came down and guess what that movie was?

What? It was the dark night. I'm just going to guess that because I knew the first movie I ever worked on was the dark night. I had that to meet meet ledger and a couple of the other guys that did

not get to meet Christian Beale. But it was such an amazing, awesome experience. I was just like

100% absolutely all in a new stuff like this. And, and then it just kind of started from there. He called another stunt coordinator from New York. And he put me in this movie called the wrestler with Mickey Rark, a verse of today. I've seen it. Absolutely. I pull off my leg and I

“give it to Mickey Rark. So we could hit somebody with it. That was me. I remember that scene.”

I'm totally going to watch that again. So like we were all just standing in a circle. Like, what do you think we could do? And it's like, oh, I could like have them come into like hit me and we roll off the back of my chair or whatever. And then the director Darren Aaronowski's like, do those legs come off? Like, he popped them off. I was like, yeah, do we hit him with it? And I'm like, yeah, but hell yeah, let's do that. And it was fun. Like,

would you said fun with it? And it just seemed to continue to open a lot of doors. I really just kind of have been going on in life with it. As long as I continue to put good out, good will come back to me. And it'll just allow me to keep being mean. Do what I do. And so far, it's what's happening. And I'm just I'm very happy. I'm very grateful. I feel very fortunate and

“lucky. Well, when it comes through, for sure. The, you know, one of the measures in life is like,”

you know, can you constructively deal with reality? And whatever your reality is and your reality's more difficult than the vast majority of people. But my gosh, have you dealt with it constructively? I, you know, it's an inspiration to to anybody who's facing any challenge. So, you know, I know you also met the actor Gary Sinese who's been super involved in veterans causes. A lot of people might remember him as Lieutenant Dan from Forest Gump. Can you share that story? And maybe what you

are how you engaged with him in his foundation? Yes. So that's actually a long and fun and interesting

journey and story and also another one of those incredible amazing experiences I get to experience

in life. It's so cool. So I was practicing walking around at Walter Reed and this is in 2006. And they would have peer visitors. They call them. They would be celebrities or politicians that want to come and take pictures with wounded soldiers. And that's exactly what most wounded soldiers feel. It's like, oh, yeah, here comes another guy. I want to take another picture, cool, shake his hand, whatever. And that day, somebody walked in and didn't know, didn't care, whatever.

And I was in the back of the room and as I was walking around coming up to the front of the room now, now I'm starting to walk through people and I'm excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, and I tripped over somebody. And I fell forward and I put my hands out to like catch me or catch myself or hit the floor or whatever. And I hit somebody right into their chest and it stood strong and it pushed forward, held myself up. And it looked up and it's Gary Sunnis. And I'm like, whoa, Gary Sunnis,

and he's just like, oh, we grab the real Lieutenant Dan and I'm just like, no, no, no, no, no.

You go always can be Lieutenant Dan and he's like, now that he's just started cracking up and

then we sat down and talked for like 10 minutes, just like, where you from, like, whatever. Well, I'm from Chicago, too. And oh, hi the part. Oh, wow, cool. And you could just tell how genuine he was, like how he actually just really wanted to know or was like, there was feeling and

And he was extremely genuine than whatever. So, it was a great first meeting and

“had taken a picture and whatever. So then after that, because of coming out on the cover of”

Esquire and both being Chicago boys, we ended up at a lot of the same events together and we just kept running into each other, oh, hey, how you doing? Hey, what's up? Hey, and then he was like, well, hey, so I have this band, it's like the Lieutenant Dan band. And sometimes we travel around and do fundraises to help build the homes for soldiers and stuff. And this is before the foundation was created. He was already doing stuff like this. He said, why don't you come

travel around with us a little bit and like, okay, and so and through American Airlines and Gears and East and all that, like we would go and play concerts across the country and it was

a lot of fun and I've been to a lot of Lieutenant Dan band concerts. But they're amazing,

“like they're great band, great cover band. And so then in the journey of doing that,”

he realized that he needed to create a foundation. And then right before that, we started becoming more friends and I was like, hey, I need help. I need to build my body a house in Hawaii. Things like, okay, I got your back. I'm like, I don't know what that means, okay, whatever. I start trying to get this house to donations, things like this to help the house for my body and he calls me up another day and he's like, what are you doing? I'm like,

what do you mean, what are you doing? I'm trying to fillings like, yeah, but I told you I got you back. I'm like, yeah, but I don't know what that means. I got you back, okay, give me a couple of days. And if not, we'll we'll do it your way. And I'm like, okay, and he calls me back and he's like, yeah, we're doing it my way. I know this celebrity chef Robert Irvine, he's got this show, restaurant, and possible. We're going to do it as a thing for restaurant, and then like three weeks

later, we're flying down to Hawaii, we tore his house down and built the new house with Robert Irvine on his TV show. And just like, and so then, that's when he decided, I'm creating a foundation, and then he asked me to be an ambassador. And I was like, I would be honored. And we still

continue to do amazing things and build homes. And I just saw him last Saturday. We had our 15

years of service, gallop. And then I was talking to him on the 4th of July. He's in Washington, D.C. doing the the air show and all that. And he's sending the videos of the jets flying over, doing the practices and all that. And all that, that crane with the American flag that was behind and everybody's seeing on TV. It's right in front of him on his bed. I'm just like, you couldn't have brought an opportunity. I had other things to do anyway, but it was like,

that'd be really cool to be at. That would be awesome. Well, don't you've had no shortage of super cool experiences, my gosh. How did you send your gymnast? I'm sorry, I wanted to let me know to that. A bunch of my kids are all gymnast also. And it is kind of unique. How do you

“think that affected you how you could deal with like the physical challenges after your injury?”

Well, so I would say it's not even physical. A gymnastics literally helped in every aspect. Discipline knowing your body, what your body is capable of. Like you learn all those things in gymnastics when you're learning how to control your body in midair to do whatever you want it to do. And like after I got blown up instead of looking at the world as an obstacle, I looked at it as an apparatus. And how can I use it to make my life easier instead of, oh,

that sucks. It was like, no, oh, that's like a ramp. And like I can jump to, okay, I just looked at the whole world very differently. And because of that gymnast mentality, I was also, it also helped me gain that mentality of, or I'm not going to be that guy that says, I don't have any legs that can't go climb a tree. I'm that guy that says, how do you know until you try? Like, I don't know. So that's, that's, that's what I got. That's awesome. I'm going to tell my kids about that.

some of this can do for you. So I guess, you know, cut it a wrap up. I mean, the overwhelming

thing, I mean, you had to amazing, some of the amazing experiences. And yeah, I think most people

listen, you're probably like, how do you have, you know, how do you have such a positive attitude when you've had to deal with such trauma? And yet, you know, because so many people, it's far smaller things that kind of take people out, you know, and put them on a bad path. And yeah, you've managed to just lead an amazing life. And it's probably going to keep getting better. I mean, you tell me about how you're building and, you know, realizing your dreams there. But what would you attribute that to?

I would attribute that to my mind, your brain. So your mind and your brain and like, it's your most powerful weapon or your most powerful enemy. Like, what you choose to think and you

“can choose to think certain ways. Like, um, and that's how it's going to be. So if you choose to”

think, oh, this is going to suck. Guess what? It's going to suck. If you choose to think, oh, well, it might suck or it could be good or I'm sure I could learn something out of it. Guess what?

It won't be as bad as you think it is and you might actually learn something. And then I always

kind of looked at everything. It's like an adventure and adventures aren't always fun, but it's still an adventure. It kind of goes down to going back to the basics in life and like, what do you focus on? And I feel that a lot of people focus on what they don't have, what other people do have, and instead of focusing on what they do have. And then I think back to like, what we're, what we're guaranteed in life and what are we guaranteed in life? Absolutely nothing.

Like, you're born and you're born with your skin. You don't get guaranteed a good mom or a good dad or with the color of your skin or where you're born or what state you're in or whatever, how much money you're born with. You've no control over any of that, at least when you're born. And so literally from that moment on, it really is kind of up to you. The people you put around you, the things and the decisions you make. And so also, being able to have like this extraordinary

life that I've led and getting to peek into other people's lives, a lot of other people's lives, celebrities' lives, my friends' lives, my family's lives, soldiers' lives, I'll come to realize that what's important in life. And it's not flashy stuff. It's not whatever. You know, like my ovens, the same temperatures, Bradley Cooper's oven. It's like, it's the people you put around you

“and the memories you make and the information you pass along. That's what matters. And so,”

when you look deep, try to find happiness in what you have. We don't need that much to be happy. Yeah, a lot of people talk well like what's the deep, the happiness and it sounds like you kind of hit on it. It's, you know, being happy with what you have and making the most of it and building authentic relationships and living life. That's what it is backwards, but looking forward.

Absolutely. Well, Brian, thank you so much for sharing with us. This is what an amazing story.

And I'm so excited to see what the next stage is. The next stage of life kind of hold for you. I'm excited to see you. I think it's going to be a heck of a ride. Yeah, I mean, heck, you've done this much in this short amount of time. You got a lot more in front of you. I hope so. Yeah, cool. I don't know what's happened. It was super life brings us awesome. Well, thanks so much. Hey, thank you guys so much for having me.

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“I always remember, liberty and freedom are easily taken for granted. Don't take it for granted.”

Go out there and defend. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to American Potential. You may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting of americanpotential.com.