All right. All right. All right. Welcome to the Ocean Water Podcast. I have my friend Doc Jacobs on with us today and you're gonna hear a really inspiring life and a really inspiring story today. Doc, thanks so much for being with us, brother.
Well, thank you for having me. Yeah. So, Doc, when you're at home these days and you're hungry, where do you like to go? Where do you go and what do you get?
Food wise, Chick-fil-A is my go-to.
Nice. Yeah. You can never go wrong with Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwich.
No, you can't. In fact, I've been building one by my house here in San Clemente, so...
Oh, nice.
That's super fun. I can't wait for that. Yeah.
Yeah. So what are you doing these days and how did you get into it?
So these days, I'm more or less doing authoring. I just wrote an autobiography that's going to be published on August 31.
I'm writing a second book, which is based on a series of dreams I had while I was at a Padres fantasy camp.
I'm writing a third book, helping another amputee out and sharing her story and then I'm creating a fourth book off of another dream idea I had. So I got into writing and I also play sled hockey with the San Diego Ducks.
And I still run half marathons with the Achilles Freedom team and I still do other nonprofit stuff other than my own, which I run a nonprofit that provides sports scholarships for kids and military and veteran families.
So I'm all over the map, but you know...
Well, it's because you've lived a full life. It's because you have so much experience and it's because you have so much to share. It's really exciting.
So if you could just take a couple minutes and just sort of explain to people who might be meeting you for the first time, kind of your sports background and your service background and kind of how that's led into authoring.
Okay.
Well, so I grew up divorced family. My mom and my dad split when I was young. My dad was a quartermaster in the Navy.
So I grew up military brat and I knew when I graduated high school I'd want to go in the military. Just wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do.
And I ended up being a Navy corpsman, which is combat trauma specialist for the Marines.
And I did one tour overseas. I went to Ramadi right away.
And I had right around over 225 combat patrols and over 60 confirmed combat lifesavers on my one deployment. And I was, I want to say about two weeks away from being out of country and I got hit by a roadside bomb.
And that was a life altering life altering day for me because I was going to come back home be a paramedic firefighter work reserves and go back overseas whenever the military wanted me to, but got a bigger plans for me.
So I got hit by this triple stack IED ended up losing my left leg below the knee my right leg's a limbed salvage I'm missing three partial fingers. I broke my back.
I had a traverse fracture of L3 shattered my right forearm had TBI had a couple of jaw surgeries, and so I wanted to stay in, I fought I stayed in I did two years rehab recovery, but I passed the Navy's physical readiness tests like everybody else like I was going back in.
And then I encountered a lot of discrimination because of my physical parents, and my quote unquote disabilities, and how people perceive themselves in my shoes with my injuries and so I ran into a lot of discrimination and nobody to set back me so I do is a constant uphill battle
I continue to fight on and doing so to maintain that sanity I started getting back into track and like running half marathons and hand cycling marathons and playing softball and was on the team USA Paralympic volleyball team and so I use sports as like an outlet to heal and better myself
and to set aside any rage or anger or any, any negative emotions and so when I got out by the military after eight years I met a wonderful legend Dodgers legend Tommy Losorda and I tried out for professional baseball I tried out with the Dodgers in February 2013.
And then I tried out for the Chicago White Sox twice the Detroit Tigers and the Milwaukee Brewers, all while being on team USA Paralympic volleyball team and running half marathons around the world so.
And then that that transitioned me into starting my nonprofit and helping create the opportunity for kids of military veteran families to play sports that otherwise wouldn't be available to them because of lack of funding, so I transitioned into that
and I started being told by Major League Baseball that I'm too old and you know they respect my service, what I did for our country and sacrifices that I, I wouldn't be able to keep up and that's just their general guidelines so I decided that it's time to step away from that
and I started playing sled hockey with the San Diego Ducks and I continued to run half marathons I summited Mount Kilimanjaro in February 29 for this year. And so, I'm literally all over the map but I decided to tell my story and make myself vulnerable.
I think it's going to be published on August 31 2020. And, but I don't want to say let age and others determine me to be an author or let them force me into that but I think me trying to educate and help share my story, transition me into being an
author opposed to someone just telling me oh you're injured, go sit in the corner and you know, either cry about it or do something. I figured by telling my story can impact others and make them better aware of the situation of what someone with a disability goes through
and turn it into an educational piece and all around a positive piece opposed to negative with hatred and drugs and alcohol so that's, that's what I'm up to.
Wow, so inspiring man you've lived a full full full full life and love how I mean super super inspiring and wonderful wonderful to talk to you.
You know you you're getting into writing now and part of writing is black and then you think about what you might want to say to people that are that are that are within the audience that are, you know, kind of that are in your heart to talk to.
So, if it current doc could talk to doc that was maybe half his age right now what are what are a few things you might say.
I would, I would just tell them to be aware and open minded about the possibilities of any sort of discrimination, or any, any changes that might not go your way.
And to not take it personal because a lot of people aren't educated and, and how to deal with somebody with an imputation, let alone anybody with a disability because the average American is not trained or educated and in such a, you know, in such a manner you
know, just walk by and someone says, Oh cool leg, you know, just instead of, hey man, how that happened I'm so sorry. Are you okay like, you know, the VA treating you good. So there's, there's a lot that can be done so instead of young doc and getting angry and frustrated
with the system and people not knowing and thinking that they're, you know, hating on me because of that, you know, I want to say that that's more of a thing and just be patient, but things sort themselves out.
Talk to people in a more peaceful manner instead of being judgy and angry right away. So,
yeah, I mean, anytime we have to deal with
people that are hard, people that are tough people that people that discriminate it's it's hard man. I can't yeah I can't imagine being on the on the receiving end of that because of that. Yeah.
I mean even your peers in the in the military when you're doing the job at the same level that they are and then they tell you that you're not physically capable of doing something.
And telling you that you would never know the difference between a rock and a landmine. And, you know, I look at them and tell them, you wouldn't either because by the time you step on it and realize it's too late so
whatever what are we even talking about here but to have the military change my medical record to say that I'm not medically ready and to lie about things and say that I wasn't there at this time or whatever that I didn't show up to that physical readiness test and you know I got zeros on all of that even though it wasn't true that you know it just it sucks but
you know it's that's why I'm writing my book is to educate people and tell people that you know this is what to expect.
If you want to go down this path.
You know raising raising money is one is one quality but raising minds, you know raising raising minds is oftentimes harder. A lot. Yeah. Amazing money and and both are important. Both are important. Maybe raising minds is more important.
Oh yeah, getting people to think differently about about their own thinking.
Yeah. Yeah, and I, I mean, even I was doing a contracting gig in Germany, and one of the, the ladies at the bar.
She was telling me she said, Why do you work.
Why are you out here working in the field and you know doing this job, you know here and here in our country if you have a disability we just expect you to just sit at home and kind of not be an eyesore on the rest of the community and it's like, this is 20.
Well this was like 2017.
You know and I'm like, Why, why, why do you have that mindset that that's not right.
But apparently you know that's how a lot of people think.
So, so, part of, you know, being driven and having a lot of energy is the drive never goes away. And so neither do the personal goals, which is one of the wonderful things about being a human so same thing that enabled you to to excel and in trying out for professional
services, the same thing that enabled you to excel in your service to our country the same thing that is enabled you to excel to overcome all of your obstacles, and now get into get into writing and authoring.
That's a tremendous energy and a yes.
And so one of my favorite questions to ask people is, what are you curious about these days like what are you really interested in.
Curious as in, you know what I would, you know, could have happened, or curious as in like what would, what would intrigue me as in, you know, I would want to go do next.
Yeah, yeah, what intrigues you.
Yeah, yeah, that stuff intrigues me really even just this whole authoring stuff is new to me.
I grew up and I didn't like reading and I just thought it was boring, you know, and now here I am
I'm writing four different books and I'm opening my second book to sequels and yeah I already have
all these outlines planned out like it's exciting to have that creative mindset and to share that.
And so for me I want to travel around more, I want to travel the world more and share my story and
and help other people of different cultures. Like it's intriguing to go to other countries and see
their ways of life and see how I can better those ways. So I don't know, I mean a lot really intrigues
me but mostly traveling and sharing my story. Well I'm glad you're traveling and I'm glad
you're sharing it and I can't wait to read your stuff. I'm really excited about it.
Yeah. Let's let's hang a bit of a write. Okay. And what is your understanding
right now about like the world of water? You know what's kind of your take on what's happening in
the world with water? With water? Yeah. I find it to be a very interesting
interesting world with water and mostly because I don't know, I know some countries are running out
of water. Yes. And it's kind of one of those things like you know go to Africa and you know
you see these kids that have to hike miles with jerry cans and before they start school and
they're risking their lives by going out and lions and all kinds of other predators that are out there
just to get water to bring back to the school and bring it to boil that they can use for that day.
And they get up the next day and they do it again and that's their way of life. But you know there's
there's countries that are running out of water like South Africa was running out of water.
Yes. It's crazy and you know then you have all of these these companies that just waste so much
water and it's our basic human right as creatures of this earth to live here but
we're running out and then in some areas where there's plenty of water it's so so much bacteria
in it that you can't drink it and you know you can't really use it. So it's interesting. I've
been in countries where you know you you can't even open your eyes in the shower because you're
using rain water and there's chickens and birds that are pooping on top of the roof
and there's so much bacteria in that that you know like it's just absurd you know but that's
your shower water. And so you know it's yeah I mean I wish there there was a better solution.
I know desalinization is is one way but that's very costly and even putting in self-sustaining
clean water wells in local regions in Africa is very costly too but it's efficient and so
I don't know and then there's how many cities in America that have so many old you know systems
from the 1950s and 60s that are still in existence that are falling apart and there's so much lead
and other bacterias that are unknown and the government doesn't want to release that information
to us. So I don't know there's there's so much out there that I wish I knew an answer and I tried my
best to help. You're right about it. You're right about it being a fundamental human right in 2010
the UN passed an act and they they made sure that it was recognized officially as a as a fundamental
human right and so and you're right there are a variety of problems that exist in the world so
some are infrastructure based in the first world those are like US water and then there's the
US water problems there are a kind of interior land based problems you'll find that in interior of
of sub-saharan Africa quite a bit yeah and then you'll also find kind of what we work on ocean
waters you'll find that there are also a lot of marginalized groups along the coast of the world
so that the earth has about 200 countries about 108 of those have have access to to the ocean on
their coast and so what we what we have found in our research is that there are there are thousands
of marginalized groups around the world like in what I there's small pockets of people though so
there yeah 20 families 40 families 60 families these families have either very little access to
water or very poor water quality so kind of one of the things that we work on it at at at ocean water
is uh is providing these systems and yes you're right the the large scale systems are
extremely expensive and they're coming yeah and they but the other problem with the large systems
is water is then water is then turned around and charged as a commodity so yeah there's sort of a
war right now in the world about well is water going to be a fundamental human right or is it
going to be a commodity that we annually raise the price on one to two percent so kind of where
ocean waters land it is let's be a privately funded group of people that that make uh water
out of the ocean for free and distributed to those people yeah yeah so it's it's really exciting you
know there's there are many many many people around the world doing wonderful work in the
world of water ours yeah ours is uh ours is ocean based and that's that's the thing I have a passion
for and and exciting and it's something that Justin and I have is who is how who is how we know
each other from from our friend from our mutual friend Justin Spire yeah and I have been
friends for a long time but also working together on on this issue and yeah someday someday you and
Justin and I are gonna have to go on a trip oh yeah yeah absolutely and you know it's it's super
heartbreaking um my last trip to uh Arusha you know these kids at the local school they're washing
their hands and you know like looks like an outside bathtub of water and then they scooped
their water bottles in there and then they drank it and how many you know millions of bacteria are
in there and then like it's just it's sad it's it's heartbreaking and then in another country
like you said that are you know how many countries border water or the ocean and this country Tarawa
where there was a main battle on world war ii a three-day battle with the marine corps and the
Japanese their lagoon they dump all their trash and sewage in there and then they go hunt fish
and you know spear fish and stuff in there and then they bring it back and eat it and it's
it's sad and you know when when i was going over there they were telling me that
if you see someone with gray hair they're they're very rare person over there because the the
waterborne illnesses that they get just kills them off before they're 55 60 and you know so
their their longevity of life is not that great and it's heartbreaking yeah there's a core there's a
correlation between um good good lifelong quality water and life expectancy yeah so you you just
look around it's exactly what you said and and because it's a little bit like you know if you
have a motorcycle you're supposed to fill it with 91 octane and you don't decide to fill it with
87 octane well a motorcycle will function off of 87 octane but you yeah you've just shaved about
a third of the life off of the engine yep that's the yeah that's the analogy for for why we need
high quality high access to water versus low quality low low access to water you know you know
quite a bit you know quite a bit yeah oh yeah well like you said i've lived a full life yeah it's
great i'm it's really it's really an honor to talk with you and uh and it's really an honor to to
meet you and and to be friends with you a few things um well we're gonna definitely have to
make sure and get out on a on a bicycle ride together i'd be happy yeah absolutely absolutely
absolutely want to want to do that with you uh and yeah i just want to say that it's really inspiring
what what you're doing um and i love how you're making it a point to go out and raise minds it's
really important that as we move forward as humans on this earth that we rethink our thinking on so
yeah so many levels and so what that does is it starts with with someone like yourself who's
who's willing to write who's willing to yeah willing to write willing to speak willing to make
their life about helping others so uh yeah thank you for your friendship it's really exciting what
you're doing and and um yeah it's just it's it's an honor to meet you are there any um and are there
any parting words you might give us dude anything at all that we need to be thinking about anything
that we need to hear um not really i mean i i know what the world with everything going on in the
world you know i just want to tell everyone you know love one another and you know we got to stop
this hate and you know just we have one shot on this planet together and why not make it a peaceful
loving experience with each other so i just want to say that to everyone so amen yep thank you dot
thank you doc it's an honor thank you i can uh on behalf of everyone who's gonna hear this today
thank you for your time you gave us your most important commodity today your time and your
energy yeah thank you we really appreciate it brother yeah thank you yeah have a wonderful day doc
thanks so much all right thank you