Former Navy SEAL and Founder of two nonprofit organizations benefitting Veterans and First Responders, is originally from Detroit, Michigan. Birdman enlisted in the Navy after watching the Twin Towers collapse on 9/11 and served eight years as a U.S. Navy SEAL attached to SEAL Team SEVEN, completing three combat tours to Iraq before being assigned to Advanced Training Command as an Instructor.

In 2005, while serving in Iraq, Birdman was riding atop a Humvee manning the gun turret in enemy territory, when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED), causing a detonation and throwing him from the Humvee. Birdman regained composure with his face and hands burned and witnessed his fellow team members suffer devastating burn and blast injuries. His entire team survived their injuries and went back to operate.

In 2012, Birdman established Sons of the Flag to help Veteran and First Responder burn survivors and their families find the help and medical attention they truly deserve. He recognized that burn care treatments and advancements had not been evolving as other forms of injuries, so he made it his mission to do something about it!

He is also the founder of the Birds Eye View Project, addressing the extreme needs of Veterans and First Responders through extreme sports.

In the midst of running two nonprofit organizations, Birdman also authored “Sons of the Flag: Real Accounts from the last 100 years of American Service”, a book dedicated to relaying a selection of real stories of American Heroes.

Then, Birdman had a special calling because of a teammate and dear friend he lost too soon. Now a sponsored athlete in the extreme sports arena, he has founded The Human Performance Project. This Human Performance Project will encompass taking a deeper dive into health and wellness giving our next generation a better understanding and roadmap on taking proper care of their bodies through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual guidance from world-renowned experts in their fields



Notable moments in this episode:
(25:40) - How much of Navy SEAL training is physical vs mental?
(30:29) - An Iraq deployment that led to an IED
(50:10) - Ryan’s #1 habit to set you up for the day

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Follow Ryan:
LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/birdmanactual

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