The Green Beret Who Lost His Leg and Returned to Combat | Nick Lavery

**Nick Lavery** (0:00)
You do see a lot of service members that are all of a sudden finding themselves as veterans, and then they're going, what do I do now? And my response is, well, we can't go back in time. However, for those that are early run in that process, I'm like, start thinking about this today. Yeah, I realize you got 24 months until you think you're about to be a civilian. Now is actually the time to start doing it. Do not kick that can down the road. Do not procrastinate. Retirement or ETS is gonna show up like that.
And all of a sudden, they wake up, and that no longer exists. And I didn't put any thought or action into what the next chapter looks like up until this point.
And it can get ugly pretty quick. One of the things I tell everybody, man, live life like you are the hero in your movie.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:01)
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**Richard Taite** (1:23)
Our guest today has spent his life proving that impossible is often just somebody else's opinion. Nick Lavery is an active duty Green Beret, a Silver Star recipient, and the first above the knee amputee to return to combat with the US. Army Special Forces team after losing his leg in Afghanistan. He's an author, speaker, husband, father, and a leader whose message isn't about surviving adversity, it's about finding purpose through it. I also had the privilege of interviewing Nick's wife, Sergeant Major Tony Lavery of the US. Army Special Operations, whose own remarkable story adds another dimension to their family's journey. When you finish this episode, you'll want to go watch hers. Please welcome Chief Horn Officer, Nick Lavery. So thank you for being here. I really appreciate it.
You know, I hear things like thank you for your service all the time. But it sounds to me like thoughts and prayers.
Okay, it just doesn't mean enough. They say it like, I love you.
Not, I love you. Okay, it's just a different vibe and it drives me nuts. So I wanted to thank you for coming on because you're a true hero. You protect us. You've done great things. You're still doing great things. And I'm very appreciative. We're living in a very scary world right now. And we are divided as a country. And that's repugnant, as far as I'm concerned.
All we've got is each other, our Republican brothers and sisters, our Democrat brothers and sisters and our independent brothers and sisters. So again, thank you for everything that you do, man.

**Nick Lavery** (3:22)
I appreciate that, brother. Thank you.

**Richard Taite** (3:25)
So, you're a pretty rich man. Have you ever seen a movie called Meet Joe Black?

**Nick Lavery** (3:35)
Is that with Brad Pitt?

**Richard Taite** (3:36)
Yes, it is.

**Nick Lavery** (3:37)
Yeah. I feel like I may have seen it at some point, although don't ask me to regurgitate it because I couldn't tell you. But I feel like I've seen it before.

**Richard Taite** (3:46)
I'm not going to. I'll just refresh your memory. Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins is the man who is the head of the family, owns a huge publishing company, the most elegant man in probably any movie I've ever seen. And then you've got his daughter who looks at Brad Pitt so intently and is so in love that her eyes well up. Okay. That's how much she loves him. When I saw that and it still hits me today, I'm like, I want that. I'd give anything for a woman to love me like that. Anything. The truest form of love I've ever seen. I know it was acting, but I'm pretending and I loved it. That's how your wife thinks about you.
She is so in love with you.
I've never seen anything like that. How do you take that in? Do you feel grateful? All the bad things that have happened.
To have her and to have children with her has got to be something that you look at and say, I win. I win.

**Nick Lavery** (5:11)
Yeah, man, I guess to put a single word on it would be grateful, although that doesn't quite do it justice.
We have a unique bond and we've lived a unique roller coaster ride together as a team, even before we were married, but certainly coming up on our 10 year wedding anniversary, which is this year, actually next month. And I can assure you that her sentiment towards me is compounded, I'd say, by a factor of 10x from me to her. And her and I would probably debate that back and forth, which is part of the fun and also I think part of what allows us to operate the way that we do and have the household that we have, that we're blessed to have. And also has enabled us to do great things in the professional world as well, as having that unique dynamic. And her and I were just talking about this the other day, during one of our more interpersonal connection conversations that we have structured within the way that we just live our lives. And she, I think, framed it a way that was said great was some of the effect of the pandemic on our lives. We're both incredibly capable as individuals.