Faith After The Fire with Gene Bennett

We talk with Iraq War veteran and author Gene Bennett about PTSD, grief, and how faith, discipline, and real community can steady a life that still feels on edge. We also wrestle with the VA, medication culture, and why understanding and reconciliation matter more than winning arguments. 
• Gene’s background, family life, and time in Iraq 
• How Man Camp helps us slow down and listen to God 
• Why asking for God’s will changes our mindset 
• Using cooking, fitness, and creative projects to support mental health 
• Grief and unfinished work after losing veteran friends 
• Frustration with VA healthcare and pill-first treatment 
• Trenot as a tool to support better daily health habits 
• A call for churches to practice wiser communication using Job and Matthew 18 
• The idea that unity requires actual understanding, not assumptions 

Transcript

A Tribute To The Disruptors

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the ones who see the world differently, who don't fit neatly into boxes, and refuse to live by someone else's script. You can quote them, you can disagree with them, you can glorify them or vilify them, you can shake your head at their ideas or be inspired by their courage. But the one thing you cannot do is ignore them. Because they change things. They disrupt what's comfortable, they challenge what's normal, and they push the human race forward. Sometimes with loud revolutions, sometimes with quiet persistence that changes everything over time. They see possibility where others see limits. They dare to dream out loud when the world tells them to be silent. They take risks, they stumble, they rise again, and they keep going. Not because it's easy, but because they can't imagine doing anything else. These are the ones who remind us that every great leap forward was once considered impossible. So here's to them the ones who won't sit down, won't be quiet, and won't stop until the world is different. Because they're the reason it will be.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Oh no, that's good. Was it like Mississippi style? What kind of pot roast was it?

SPEAKER_03 2:08

My buddy's wife just threw it in the crock pot and let it do what it did. You know, I was yeah, so there you go.

Gene’s Background And Military Service

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Oh, yeah, yeah. I like to put all the stuff in it. Carrots, potatoes, onions, all that good stuff. Oh yeah. Yep, just let it go, man. Let it go. Well, tell uh tell us a little bit about you. Tell us how old you are and where you're from and family, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Uh I'm just turned 50. I'm from a little town called Menominee Falls, Wisconsin, but through a series of weird events, I ended up in a little town called Salisbury, North Carolina, about 10 years ago. Um, I I'm an Iraqi freedom veteran, so that that that adds a little spice, you know, to the conversation, you know, and uh appreciate your service, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Appreciate your service.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Well, I I learned I I wrote a book about my time in Baghdad as a prison guard, and I learned a lot about I don't want to say the business side, but the the advertising and the marketing and the smoozing side, and I made every mistake you could make, dude. Because when you go from writer to to marketer, all the people you you weren't exactly nice to in the process of defending your content, you know. Oh wow they're there wait they're right there waiting for you, and boy, you're gonna you're gonna catch you're gonna catch hell. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Comes around, goes around, huh?

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Well, the problem is the good thing is I defended my guy's content about it. The bad thing is there was nothing kind or gentle in the which in the way in which I did it because I came I became so protective of them based on you know some of the struggles they had in the process of me interviewing them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

I understand, man. I get it. I get it, man. You got family? What's going on? You got kids?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

I mean, I got no no kids as far as I know. Uh my mother and my father are still alive, and they've they they've been divorced for years, and I still got my sister that I love to death. Uh some of my cousins that I love to death. I got, you know. So I got I got I got my family. Oh wow. They're they're doing alright.

Man Camp Silence And Listening To God

SPEAKER_02 4:16

I got you. I got you. I got you. So um when did you go through man camp?

SPEAKER_03 4:23

When was your uh because that's how we met uh October 2024, I want to say? Yeah, 2024.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Okay, so right before yeah, right before I did. What'd you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Oh, dude. The the it was what I needed. I didn't plan on I didn't I didn't plan on, you know walking up the hill and discovering that my I'm my my 40-year-old lungs, my 49-year-old lungs at the time would, you know, start on fire, but it is what it is. Yeah it's a lot uh it's first of all, it's in a beautiful, peaceful place, so you can actually be a lot more present with the Lord, you know. Right, right. And the silence thing where you did the fast where you didn't even talk too much on here now.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

We can't talk too much about what you find. Yeah, it's all good. How did it affect your life? I guess. How did it yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Oh, um you're good, man.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

You're good. I have to catch myself too.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Oh, yeah. It took enough of the edge off to where I can I I felt like I could kind of keep going because it's like one thing it taught me is you don't you don't ask for patience, you don't ask for strength because you're just gonna take a just you're just gonna take a beating. So you just ask for God's will, you know. And I I got a I got a lot of time to to really listen to God, and that was really, really, really, really valuable. Listening to God. When it's easier to listen to God, that that's what helps your relationship grow.

Projects For Healing And Forward Motion

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Absolutely. Yeah, I feel the same way. Yeah, I feel the same way. I thought it was an amazing thing. Yeah. So what you got going on now? What you what you're doing right now for me.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

I'm doing right now, I I'm I'm dealing with my grumpy Iraqi freedom issues. Um, and I'm I'm working on getting some projects done. I've got a I've got a cookbook I gotta get around to putting together. I've got a uh simply or else would refer to as a hybrid brick oven smoker.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Oh yeah, I think you told me about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Uh when I yeah, it's it's not small, but it's it's okay. The the cookbook will get you from your cave into the kitchen, and then the smoker will get you from your kitchen out of the house. And as a part of my uh as a part of my proposal that I wrote for the VFW originally, I railed extensively against uh pellet smokers because, well, first of all, it's a fire and forget weapon, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah, it's not it's not grilling.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Well, not only that, but it doesn't help your PTSD because you could just you can just set it and go right back in the house, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Right, right. It's like an outside oven.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Well, not not only that, but have you seen the the pictures of what happens when you don't you have to take imma immaculate care of them or they will turn into a torch? I've got pictures of them just just up in flames. It's like, yeah, that's not how you want to steer your meat, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah, no, I've mine's done that before when I didn't clean it. Yep.

Grief Over Lost Brothers And The VA

SPEAKER_03 7:45

But yeah, so I'm doing that, and I'm gonna put all that stuff together, and I'm gonna try to get my book republished. Um because here's the here's the problem. Here, here's why I'm doing that. I had two of my friends, one of them which was was with me in Baghdad, and one of them's a fellow veteran author. They both died in June and July 2020, but I didn't find out about the first one until 2021. And it they didn't the book was not published before they died, and it just crushed me because uh everybody's like, oh, you got it done. Not for them. They did not get to read it before they died. One of them, one of them died of uh bone cancer because he caught COVID in like 2018, he beat it. He he got it again, but he was in a VA hospital, and he told them, dude, I can't do chemo, it will kill me. They chemoted him to death. They chemoed him to the point where COVID came back and brought back the bone cancer with him and it killed him. And I've still got anger management issues about that. And my other guy, another VA involved thing, we don't want to say he commits suicide, even though he literally did a TED talk on it and he took me to where he said he was gonna do it. And that then we had would have to get into a whole other ugly, nasty conversation about how the veteran community treats each other, you know, ve various factions of the community, and yeah, that's yeah, it's it's bad. So yeah, I'm trying to get I'm trying to get all this stuff done is is a way to atone for failing to get the book published properly, because it's self-published on Amazon, right? But it's not properly properly published. And I yeah, so there you go. That's what I'm doing. And that and I'm trying to get into a gym right now so I can get back to working out because it's had a real effect on my mental health. And yeah, I'm I'm dealing with I'm dealing with projects and I'm still dealing with with with you know my mental health and everything, and that's just always fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Yeah, we'll we'll definitely keep you in our prayers for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, what do you think of um how did you meet Nikita and how did how did the whole man camp thing come about for you?

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Oh, that was Ricky Pate. Um, he he got me in there uh because I've I was not doing well. I'm not I'm still struggling, but it's better, you know. But yeah, we Ricky got me set up and and got me in so I could get away from the house and get out of the house and get out of my own head and listen to God a little bit better or a lot better. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

That's awesome, man. That's that's amazing. So that's the first time you met Nikita? Mm-hmm. Yep. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

I mean, I I'm I'm old as dirt, so I'd heard of him. You know, I remember old enough to remember when he would wrestle, but yeah, that was the first time I actually met him.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

You know, I got you. Come on now, I'm 51.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

I'm feeling, let me tell you.

Trenot And A Plan To Help Veterans

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Oh, I bet, you know, I'm sure as far as bid places, yeah, you've been a lot more places than I have, that's for sure. Yeah, that is for sure, man. So what do you um what do you think about have you tried the Trenant stuff? I mean, I know you're you're doing it, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Oh yeah. Here's the thing about that. That's gonna be if I I cannot tell you about my loathing and contempt for the VA because I would get really, really grumpy because that I I have my issues with them. But Trenant, I'm gonna, I'm wanting to be, I'm wanting to be an underground railroad of sorts where we replace some of their poisons because when during COVID, I had to re I I they had to recall the metformin because it had cancer-causing agents in it.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Yep, yep. Come on with it.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

And uh that's not I haven't even gotten all the research back from a buddy of mine of all the times they've had recalls, you know. And it's I'm using it right now, and like the greens, it's it's it's like cleaning me out, and the appetite suppressance actually working.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

And I'm on it, and the plan is I'm gonna get a couple of my veteran buddies on it and get them to where they're not being poisoned by the VA's meds because they don't the VA doesn't care. They just they just shove the pills down. VA represent your average VA doctor represents the bottom 30 to 50 percent of any given graduating class. So that their job is to shove pills down your throat and tell you to conform.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah, well, I mean, it's trust me, it ain't it ain't much different. I I do life insurance, so I see I see what they do to all the seniors as well, period, across the board, man. VA and the state.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Yeah, and so the plan is to get them uh at the very least, supplement what they're taking or augment what they're taking with the VA to where they'll have something that will actually be helpful, and ideally just get them off VA meds because I I have talk after talk after talk with VA doctors, and they're just like, here's your meds, and as soon as you don't take their meds the way they want you to take their meds, they label you a problem and they basically just ostra they blacklist and ostracize you. So right, right. Hopefully, Trenot will help a lot of my veteran brothers get out of the a system as far as all the meds they're on, you know, yeah, because they're actually treating they're actually treating the problem, not just masking it, and you know, absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

That's that's amazing. That's good stuff. Yeah, the um the appetite suppressor, the daily health system thing, it it actually helps with the blood pressure. I've I'm off my blood pressure pills. Yeah, it helps with all kinds of stuff, blood sugar for diabetics. Yeah, it's it's great. It's good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

I've got I've got the diabetic equivalent, and I'm gonna say one more thing about it. Uh with the VA, I literally, when I had a podcast, I could I I didn't send it to you because it's a big graphic, but I could have sent you a video when I did had a podcast with uh Woe Entertainment way back in the day. I interviewed an Air Force veteran and his pain man uh management doc literally told him to kill himself and gave him 60 morphine pills to do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

So yeah, I've heard stories. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Yeah, all the horror stories you've heard are true. So yeah, I'm trying to get my guys out. And I'm trying to get them out to where they're actually their conditions are actually being addressed and not just just you know the the the the at least when you're getting trained, you're having things explained to you and you're not being talked down to, you know. So yeah, it's gonna be I'm gonna try to make it their way out. You know what I'm saying?

A Prayer For Resources And Protection

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Yeah, man. I'm in fact, the Lord just brought it on my heart, man. I'm let's pray right now about that. Let's pray, let's pray specifically about that right now. Dear Father, we come to you today, Lord. We just come to you, we just lift, we hope you lift Gene up to help his brothers, Lord, to help these veterans that are stuck in this system, Lord, this poisonous system, this beast system that they're stuck in, Lord. We just we just pray that you lift him up and give him the resources, Lord. We pray that's in Jesus Christ's holy heavenly name. Amen. Man, dude, that's that yeah, that's that's that's tough. That's I see it every day with seniors because that's what I do is write their life insurance for them. But still, that's yeah, it's sad, man. It really is. And and those being your brothers, man, that's yeah, I could not imagine. I couldn't imagine.

Church Culture, Judgment, And Repairing Trust

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Yeah, it it it gives me honestly, it it's it it it makes me hang as as angry, if not angrier, than everybody I ever dealt with downrange that was trying to kill me, you know what I'm saying? In the prison, we all a lot of us had extra, you know, uh bounties on our heads. And I know, I know that I know that I had one because I made in the process of doing my job, I made some people angry, you know, and but I was doing my job, you know, and it was a mess. And yeah. So yeah, I'm right now I'm just trying to get my projects done, and I'm trying to get God to give me the go-ahead to do some of my stuff, you know. So I can I I I want to get my projects done, and I wanna get to where I can get my brothers in a better place, and I can get myself in a better place, and because right now the uh dealing with I'll just say it like this Southern Baptist manners and veteran manners are sometimes two different things, and it causes you know communications issues and stuff. And I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna say this. The church needs to do two things. We need to do two lessons. First of all, we need to take the book of Job and turn it in turn it into a master class on how to not talk to people, you know, and how to how to not turn into judge, jury, and executioner like Job's friends did at the end at the end of the book before God stepped in and intervened.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

I feel you. I feel you.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

And then we need to do a like like in the in the in the New Testament, there are seven different uh versions of the word judge. We need a class on that because it seems like everything is condemnation, and we can't we can never talk about God's authority to be judged, which is three or four of the different definitions, and then there's one that has to do with a diagnosis and assessment, and there has one that has to do with making command decisions. Everybody's just like, shut up, forgive, stop talking. It's like what happened to the whole come let us reason together? What happened to Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 18, where we have a three-step process to reconcile? You know, God gave us a process, and you got you got some of the people that are just like, no, shut up. I'm not doing that. It's too much like work, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah, no, trust me. I can I uh I've been reading some of the the Ethiopian, the lost.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Oh, I've heard about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yeah, I've been reading that, and it's it's totally contradicts a lot of the stuff. And I've also been reading another book that actually talks about how the Bible was changed and it divided people and the Constantine, and I can't really like tell you word for word because I I just read it like two days ago. But yeah, I'm read I'm reading into a lot of this stuff and the whys and the yeah, but I I think that I mean I I'm with you. I I I don't I don't really have a church family because of those those issues.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Yeah, yeah. And I my thing is first of all, I'm I'm a second of all, I'm a mechanic, and my my my attitude really is I'm gonna stand in front of God one day, and I don't want him saying to me, Why did you move when I did not move you, or why did you not move when I wanted to move you? You know, right. And uh being a mechanic, you you don't interpret the the the the the manual the the the tech manual the way you want to interpret it, you interpret it the way God wants you to interpret it. So my thing has always been find a pastor you absolutely trust and say, hey, what's this all about? Is this legit? How legit is it? How legit is it not? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, the truth, the truth, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

You're searching for the truth. And I want to clarify, I I when I say I don't have a church family, I mean a physical, like building church, you know, like but I wanted to clarify that for my listeners because my listeners are my family and my man camp brothers and my trade-on business partners. Yeah, oh yeah, that's that's my church family, absolutely. Yeah, but um, you know, sometimes you got to clarify before somebody runs off at the mouth.

SPEAKER_03 19:56

And again, that goes that goes to diagnose and assessment, that goes to making command decisions. We gotta do more of that and say, hey, this this is what this really means. Stop all condemnation.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Right, absolutely. I agree, I get it. Hey, man, I'm all about communication. Yep. Yep. Well, man, it's been it's been uh it's been a it's been a time, man. It's you got anything else you want to say to the listeners?

Reconciliation Through Understanding And Food

SPEAKER_03 20:24

You know, we we are we are living in insane times, and in the end times, really, and and let's not okay, I don't okay, I'll just say it like this. We need to take Job and make it a masterclass on how not to treat each other. We need to sit down, we need to break bread and say, okay, what do we need to fix to get unity that's based on actual understanding? Because I had an old technician to say to me, there is uh he said he was teaching me how to build engines, right, when I was a kid. Right. He said there's no substitute for cubic inches. Well, there is no substitute for understanding. Come let us reason together.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Not club us over, not club each other over the head like with like rock'em sock'em robots just to be right. No, we need uh we we we need good old-fashioned reconciliation and what when I reconcile with my brothers and sisters, I usually shove a lot of comfort food down their throats. So we need some of those just sit down, just heart-to-heart talks and be like, okay, what what doctrine are we really well what are we what mistakes are we making? What what what do we need to do to fix these these communications issues so we can actually be unified as an actual result of actual understanding? Because there's no substitute for actual understanding when you explain things to each other and you don't assume what you think you know, you know, you you gotta talk everything out. So let's let's sit down and have one of those heart to heart talks. Over some good ass comfort food.

Mission Statement, Restraint, And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 22:02

I understand. I get it, man. Words from the wise Gene Bennett. All right, my friend. It has been nice having you. What's your uh Tranot website for the audience?

SPEAKER_03 22:16

Oh, I don't have that just yet. Me and Ricky are going to set that up here. Okay. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Yeah, that'll work.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

The thing is, I gotta write out my mission statement, but my mission statements get so out of control.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

I understand. I I be I be overthinking too.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

I have to be reined in. I've had veteran brothers say, uh, like I back in the day when I was really ranting on Facebook, they're like, dude, you are one manifesto away from the from from the FBI paying you a visit. Tone it down.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So hey, hey, true true story. FBI's been to my house because of the same thing. True story.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Good to know. Good to know. Let me and Ricky get together and I'll pound out a really basic mission statement and we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Cool. Sounds good. And if y'all need help setting it up, man, just reach out.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

All right, brother. Love you, and it was uh it was good to have you on, my friend. Appreciate you, dude. I really do. All right, man. Thanks, brother. Later, bye. Bye.