From the Battlefield to Brotherhood: Ret. Sgt. Major Brendan "Duke" Durkan

Do something a little different and kind of go outside of our typical bookshelf discussion. And today's episode, in honor of Veterans Week, because I really feel that they deserve 365 of acknowledgement, we are talking about brotherhood, sacrifice, and lifelong impact. And now joining me is veteran leader, and president of the Hard Rock Charlie Foundation, Brendan Duke Durkan. How are you, Duke? Hello, Ms. Senn. How are you doing? You're too kind with those words. I feel honored and blessed. Thank you. Of course. Well, I feel honored and blessed for having you take the time to come on and share your story, you know, a little bit of, you know, back when you were in the military serving and then how you're continuing that legacy now. And, you know, as I've said, I'm a military brat. My dad is a Navy veteran. So it kind of runs through, you know, through our blood. And so, Duke, tell us a little bit about you. I know you were in the Rangers. You have over 30 years of experience when it comes to the military. So tell viewers a little bit about who you are before we kind of dive deep into the foundation. Absolutely. And thank you. I like to tell the VA this, because you hear, thank you for your service with other veterans. And most veterans have an extremely hard time responding to that, other than saying it's an honor or a thank you. I'd like to see it changed to, thank you for your sacrifice. And the reason I say sacrifice is because it's not for the individual veteran, no matter it's he or she, whomever. It's for the spouse, if married, especially for the parents, the siblings, the children. It's a whole family team package that comes together, and you know that extremely well. So I want to thank you for your sacrifice, because we all volunteered to do this, even though that may be a lot of sacrifices in different ways, as we know about missing birthdays, holidays, special events, but you did too. And so did all the families with that being away. So that is a huge burden to carry. So thank you, my dear. We are definitely family because we're from the same cloth. Yes, of course. We always stick together. You know, that's the main thing. And so looking back at your time leading Young Rangers, what core principle of leadership have you carried into the Hard Rock Charlie Foundation? Yes, ma'am. I think a lot of it had to first do with the family upbringing. And I'd like to say my family, well, first of all, is from first generation. I am from two Irish immigrants. So their background in instilling hard work and values education and teamwork were instilled in me. I like to call it, for those that might remember, father knows best and leave it the The Beaver type of atmosphere, so it's. Yeah. And so with the organization, what was the transition like going from being, you know, a ranger and then, you know, being on active duty to serving them through the nonprofit organization? Absolutely. And I think that probably comes a lot from taking care of others or treat you how you want to be treated. You have to be hard, yet fair. The key word is you can't coddle them. You can't baby them or teach them to do it. You have to get them to understand, one, so they take your job, because a lot of things, as we all know on the outside or in the civilian populace, they're very protective of your job. Well, our training was I want to train the next person to take my job while I was working to do the other. One, so we brought them back alive, God willing, or two, with minimal injuries, because it's a very serious incident when you have to face a family and look them in the eye when they're no longer with us. And two, to be very proud of them, that you could do something if it was like your children or a sibling or your best friend, that they've accomplished something. So it's never about yourself going, oh, look what I did. It's really, look what they did. And it's not because I did it for them. We might have been a part of their teaching, their coaching, and their mentoring to get there. But it was really on them to see them blossom and do so much better. I think that's the key element is. Having the value and the faith and the trust in the seeing good of others and to see them succeed and God willing, bring them all home. Yeah, because eventually, ultimately, that's the end goal, you know, especially bringing them home safely and everything that's, you know, going on nowadays. But it kind of goes beyond, like, if you get them home, there's so much that goes through, you know, their minds with PTSD and trying to cope, you know, back into the civilian lifestyle. And so you guys are kind of coaching them through that when it comes to the Hard Rock Charlie Foundation. And it focuses intentionally on a narrow, small unit scope rather than taking a broader. Um, approach. So why is that tight knit focus so vital for Ranger veterans or really any veteran? Absolutely. Absolutely. And great question. Um, one, they probably got PTSD from being under my leadership, but that's a whole different discussion. Uh, the Hard Rock Charlie, and there's a lot of veteran organizations. Some are extremely well known that I call it the high High altitude or the 36,000 feet level. Hard Rock Charlie is more of a grassroots, and it was formed from veterans of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and it really started off with a water jump, and the guys, when you get your band of brothers together, say, hey, why don't you come for this, why don't you come for that? And get together and we'll do a reunion, do a little water jump out of a World War II aircraft. Wouldn't that be great? We don't have to do it on land. We can do it in water. It's like, yeah, let's do it. So my chairman of the board, Dan Mead, who was also, of course, in Charlie Company, First Ranger Battalion, he gathered us all together. And we sat there. It was down in Orlando or Lake Dora in Tavares, Florida. And the water jump and the whole reunion went well. And we had wives there. And I'll come back to that with the families and the wives. But we sat there and we had a day room. I call it a day room. That's what we had in the barracks. Most would call it a hospitality room. And the hotel that we had chosen was away from Tavares, Florida, which is a very nice spot, closer to Orlando. But it was kind of in a business district. And there was nothing there. So it kind of forced the group to come together in this room. And as we sat there, we could hear stories coming out where the guys were starting to let things off their shoulders and off their chest at the grassroots or, as I call it, tactical level, feeling in a safe place. And that's also key. They felt safe enough where they could say, I'm having not major problems, but you could feel the hints that, okay, they said something that clued us in. Hey, they're not the only ones that feel in this. And as we went around the room, just the bantering went back and forth. This person would say something. And then that gave the freedom or the courage for somebody else all of a sudden to say something. And then all of a sudden, some of us turned to each other, about four of us, and said, we have to do something. We need to maybe figure out a way to redo this, but not make it a reunion. Because even while we were doing it, most of them had four years, six years, eight years. And finally, I interjected and they're like, I retired as a sergeant major after 32 years. They're like, hey, sergeant major, how could you have any problems? You spent 32 years and you have to be squared away because you're like 1% of people that get promoted that high. So how could you have any issues? I said, well, you realize it or not. We all rode the same train, as I call it, on the same tracks, or you could say same airplane or the same bus or any type of vehicle where somebody gets on, somebody gets off at a period, somebody may get on and you get on and you may get to know who that person is and you may get off and they're still riding it, but all of us rode that same vehicle at some point in time, whether we realized it or not. Taking the same route, whether it's rail or air or by road, and not realizing we all have the same type of issues or the same type of feelings. And I go back to movies a lot, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, when they said, we're not the only one on the island of misfit toys. There's more of us. So you don't have to think of yourself as the Charlie in the box. Not to go back on Hard Rock Charlie, You're not the Charlie in the box. There's more of us. Not saying that you're broken, but it's okay. And it's my fault. And many others have said to train you to not show any weakness or any part of the link that may be frayed. So you always felt like you had to be strong and invincible and be as hard as nails because that's the way we trained you and coached you to be. We quickly learned. I circled back when we were talking with each other. We got to do more than this. We trained them very well on how to be rangers, how to be infantrymen, how to be paratroopers. We got them through life's lessons, family lessons when they were not deployed, when they were deployed doing that. But I don't think we did a great job. And I hold not just the Army, but all the services. And I'll put it down to what you can control in our left and right limit, or as I say, our box. I put that on us, too. We didn't do a very good job of training them when they left. It reminds me of another movie, like Forrest Gump, when they were out there running, and all of a sudden, Forrest Gump just stopped and turned around, and the whole group go, well, what do we do now? It's the same. When veterans get out, it's like, oh, we're going 100 miles an hour, go, go, go, and then all of a sudden, what do you mean I'm getting out? Whether you get out of four years, eight years, 12, 20 years, 30 years, even for me, I said, What do I do now? And I felt angry, not agitated, but at myself going, I felt lost. And everybody else did too. Thus, we said, we got to do something. We got to put this together. So we decided to form Hard Rock Charlie Foundation. And I call that the cornerstone when we get to the mission statement, because that's the foundation of it was members of Charlie Company, First Ranger Battalion that did it. And it started off going the following year, making it a summit, i.e. not a reunion, not a drinking fest like a binge fest, you know, where you have a frat organization get together, but bringing Rangers back where they felt safe again, because we already experienced that. But even more important, the wives and the family members included. That's what I call the secret sauce. Because I'll have my wife turn to another one going, what do you mean your husband does that too? I thought he was the only one that acted that way. And they started talking and they formed their own bond and non-cattiness, trying to understand and work with each other, which became a whole healing package. Just like I was saying about thanking for your sacrifice. It was a healing package for the whole family package to understand the veteran. The Ranger, which is very difficult to understand or get to know because we are unique in our own little way, but we think we're normal. But the secret sauce was the family. So calling it a summit. And it's not a one and done once a year coming to do that, like down in Florida. And we do the water jump out of a World War II aircraft, the Tyco Bell, which is very cool. But that's more of attraction. It's really getting the families together. And why is that key? Because there's so many great ranger organizations and veteran organizations. And we've everybody's heard of the best ranger competition or when you have Ranger Rendezvous or change of commands or whatever ceremony. But it's like you're running up and I might recognize you and go, hey, Sid. Hey, it's great to see you again. Let's get together sometime. You know, let's end up. We're gone. Flashing a pan. We're running from an event to event. There is no event at this. It's just a whole long weekend. Usually we get there like a Thursday to a Sunday of families being together. And it drives us to go come back together. I call it a back azimuth. And there's a reason we do our symbol in a circle. And it's in the back behind me. There's a Hard Rock Charlie circle, which is our symbol. And it's not the guide on. The reason it's a symbol is because it's like a compass. And most compasses are round. And you have the north, south, east, and west. And we call coming back to a certain location the back azimuth, and that's the key, back azimuth. So 180 degrees, no matter what direction you go to. If I went to Ohio, I went to Washington State, Texas, California, South Carolina, you come back in whatever direction, they come back together. A 180-degree azimuth is what's key, and we call the back azimuth. And that's our true metal, our mission essential to bring. People back together at least once a year, and we talk throughout the year, but at least once a year, come together to spend that critical, valuable time sharing in a safe place, laughing, crying, sharing birthdays, what's going on with families, not just a phone call, not an email, not a text, but personal interaction. Without running from event to event. So you can have breakfast together. You can sit at, go, you're at the pool together. You're down at the beach. You're coming back together, you know, whether it's for dinner. We make, we have a couple of presentations from acknowledgments of different Rangers, what they're doing or what's accomplished or what's on our mindset, even from the foundation about like our top five things that are going on, whether it's helping. Falling rangers with scholarships, taking care of the Antelope Island, which was an incident when we lost two ranger commanders and another colonel from a commander from the Air Force on Antelope Island on Salt Lake, you know, off the Great Salt Lake in 1982. And we're heavily involved with Wreaths Across America, especially laying wreaths directly involved in running at Arlington National Cemetery. What's the so what to this? It's giving back. All Everything that we were allowed to do and people, and we all talk about Veterans Day or Memorial Day. Memorial Day, we remember people. right. And some will go, well, you shouldn't celebrate or do like barbecues or cookouts or go to the beach. Now you stop and honor those who are no longer with us by doing that, but you never forget. You always remember. You never forget because they'd want us to do the same thing. And that's why the laughing and the humor is so powerful. And the safe environment to have these type of discussions, whatever it may be, and help guide it with the right type of people. We have a huge amount of our board of directors and advisory boards that are veterans that have unique skill sets from four-star generals to senior sergeant majors that have the experience to help guide, but not be in charge or talked down to, but to help coach. Um, what they may need to do as if they're, they're still within the command, they recognize them, but not being in the command so that, so that they can still learn or take care of each other and not spiral into a dark place. And there's many things as we all know, whether it's alcohol or drugs, let alone, we talk to suicide and then it's not 22 a day. That's a great catch word, 22 a day. It's, it's over 40. And why is it over 40? Because we're not talking about the prescription drugs and other things that cause other people to go beyond it. So it's not just a gun. It's not just a hanging. It's not just drowning. We have a major issue, and one is too much. But if there's over 40 a day, okay, what's going on? What is the key? And we have learned, and coming back to this, An idea and getting together. And just finding that safe place to talk and bring back the memories will make you feel like it's okay. You're not on the island of misfit toys. It's okay to say, I'm feeling not perfect. I need a little help. I don't mean I need a whole lot of help. And those that need a whole lot of that need help that's outside of our skill set, which we don't pretend to ever do. But we have We have a pretty darn good Rolodex of knowing. I know who you need or need to talk to, or let's take a look at this. Are you willing to do this? If this was one of your rangers, what would you do? Well, I'd tell them to go, you know, do this. Well, yeah, it's okay to do that. And a lot of them, even like psychological help, are going for, you know, weeks of training. Like I even did a month-long traumatic brain injury in house therapy in Pennsylvania. Mm-hmm. And that's uncommon to say that you have traumatic brain injuries, although it's not uncommon because you don't want to admit to have a weakness. And I felt it was important enough to say, well, if Durkin can do it, I can do it. We used to always say, that's the same with guys who went to ranger school. Well, Durkin can pass ranger school. I know I can pass it, you know, because look at him. So when you set that example, it's not as tough as you think it is. Life's tough. We don't have to make it tougher if we work together. Full circle comes back to the whole teamwork and the secret sauce and staying together. The key, communication. And when people become very quiet or we stop doing what we feel is important, communication is broken and we have failed. We have failed others. So that's kind of how it came from. And then we lifted it past Charlie 175. And other people from AECO and BECO and the other companies and battalions said, hey, we want to come on board. And even had members from 2nd Ranger Battalion and 3rd Ranger Battalion come join us. One in particular, a dear, dear friend from 2nd Battalion, is paralyzed from the waist down. And he was at the first one that we did in 2020 before it became the summit. And he says, Duke, I can't jump. I said, OK. Understand. I see what you're saying. Thus, you know, he couldn't use his legs. I go, well, we'll tell your wife you're not going to jump. We're going to tape your legs together and sit you in the door and call you a door bundle. And what a door bundle is, is it'd be like the size of a refrigerator full of ammunition or big weapons or something. And we'd rock it to the edge of the door of the airplane. And when the green light came on, we'd push it out. A few seconds before the first jumper would follow it out so they wouldn't get entangled. We did the same for him. We sat him there, had a special boat set up for him, this large separation so he'd have his own airspace. And he didn't jump. He slid out the door and he had no issues with his parachute, hit the water with no issues, retrieved with no issues. But when he came out, I don't want to call it a baptism. Maybe it is, but he came out. You could see his shoulders were higher. He was smiling. He felt normal again because he was paralyzed from too much weight. On a combat jump going into Panama on 20 December 1989, not by enemy rounds, but because so much weight hit the air and he became paralyzed. But that little thing. Just that one little thing, besides the brotherhood and meeting the wives and families, just that little water jump did enough where you could see it may have been life-changing, yet it was very positive. And we've seen that over and over and over, interdictions, and in the Ranger Regiment. And I'll come back because I just said Hard Rock Charlie and First Battalion. In the Ranger Regiment, we grew up on an 18-hour sequence, meaning from time of notification, we were wheels up and going somewhere. We've instilled that same idea inside the Hard Rock Charlie Foundation and not taken away from any others. There are so many great ones. I'm not going to concentrate on that. I applaud them all they do, but we're uniquely different. And we don't pretend to be what anybody else is doing. We do know in 18 hours, we're going to do something, or we're going to find somebody who does that mission, not trying to replicate it, going, if I know this group does it, I'm going to give them a call, or one of our board members calling them to say, can you please help with this, or help support us doing this? So within 18 hours, we're acting on it in some manner. We may not be directly there, but we're acting on it. Thank What's also key to that is, as I said, 2nd Battalion and 3rd Battalion, we changed our mission statement so it wasn't just Charlie, Hard Rock Charlie of 1st Ranger Battalion, it included all 1st Ranger Battalion, it included all the 75th Ranger Regiment. you. So our mission statement really takes care of all current Rangers, even though they have... The backdrop of the units and the Army to take care of them, if they need assistance in any way, we will try and do that. Recently, there was a young ranger that died of an incident in Savannah, First Ranger Battalion, on a long run. And his family requested that his platoon, about 40 men, try and join him. Well, the Army can only Do so much. They're only authorized to do so much. Usually a firing squad and a burial detail. So maybe about 13 to 15 personnel. We were able to assist, get his whole platoon there. Wow, the war with Iran is still going on. And I know that's been 47 years, but I'm talking the direct combat recently. Units from the 75th Ranger Regiment have been deployed constantly since after 9-11. Somewhere, nonstop. So we were able to get his platoon, minus a couple of people there, for his funeral in California from Savannah. Not looking for any pat on the back. Anybody else would have done the same thing. But it leads into, yeah, we got to do something because if this had been us, it might have been nice if we were there to honor with the family. They may have lost their son or their brother or their uncle. But you've now gained an entire family. It's not the same, but you've got some direct interaction like we're doing now or with the Summit. You now have a face to the name and a number, and we're here for you because we will always speak that person's name because they'll never die twice. You stop saying their name, they pass a second time. So we always remember our fallen, whether from training or from combat. We'll never forget them. So that whole mission has been opened up to current Rangers and especially former members of the 75th Ranger Regiment and their families, which we also assist if we can too. Because once again, it's a secret sauce that puts up with us in so many ways. It's just, what can we do to give back? So that's kind of how it happened. I hope that answered your question. A little bit long-winded. I apologize. That's the honor it should be. No, that's totally fine. I can honestly listen to you talk, you know, and share these stories all day. And so Duke, before I let you go, is there any final words that you would like to say to our viewers? One, Veterans Day is more than a day. So happy Veterans Day. I say the same thing about Mother's Day. Once again, I circle back. It's like the BB and the wind tunnel inside of My brain housing group. Mother's Day and Veterans Day is every day because there's the sacrifices that get more done than probably anything else. So thank you. You don't have to be you didn't have to be a military member. I believe sacrifice goes further than that, whether it's. First responders, police, fire, teachers, especially my mom was a teacher in Ireland and also here in the United States. Teachers are so important. Hospital workers, coaches, religious people, whether Catholic or Baptist, whatever religion you may be in, I'm not taking away from any others, no disrespect. But these are so important and it's circled back to all these touches. It's not stovepipe. Circling back to all these touch points makes it so important with communication and taking care of each other. Not everybody is good. That was kind of our mission statement in the 75th Ranger Regiment. We did bad things to bad people. We do bad things to bad people. But probably 98% of people are good. And you know on the back of your neck who a bad person is. Some are misguided, some are misinformed, but they're not bad people. We have a lot of super people, and I would like to see all of us take time to try and listen, look, and talk less and understand, even if you agree to disagree. We've got a lot of great people, and I think that's the one thing the veterans have. so much in common. We give each other a lot of heck. You know, Army gives Marine Corps heck, Navy gives, you know, Air Force heck. All of us give each branch a lot, but nobody else can say anything. That's like siblings, you know, siblings can give each other or pick on each other all day long, but nobody else can pick on us. We are family. Veterans are family and our families are especially important to us. You know, our spouses, our kids, our parents are all important, so thank you for your sacrifice. Happy Veterans Day. Every day is Veterans Day. Thank you, moms. Every day is Mother's Day, and I enjoyed your company, and I apologize for monopolizing so much time, but I could probably spend another couple hours speaking with you because you're a phenomenal hostess. Once again, very humbled and honored just to be a part of your day. Well, Duke, thank you. I'm going to quote you. Thank you for your sacrifice and your families. And thank you for, you know, helping the veterans that are out there that put so much on the line for, you know, our country and everybody involved. And thank you for taking the time to come and share your story. More about the Hard Rock Charlie Foundation and chatting with me and all the viewers out there. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you, my dear.