Brian Marshall & The ROCK 108 Morning Show - "Samuel R. Stratton / Echoes From The Sandbox""

This individual was brought to my attention by friend of the show, P1 Steelers Girl, who her husband had served overseas.

Sam Stratton is our guest and the author of Echoes from the Sandbox.

Sam, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you.

Glad to be here.

Wisconsin by birth.

all born and raised what made you want to join and get yourself into the army

well you know i never really thought about joining the military growing up to be honest with you i'm a pretty compulsive person when it comes to different things i had a recruiter call me on a monday i called him back on a tuesday and i

joined up the weekend after I got sworn in.

It was that quick.

It was that quick for me.

I just decided that's what I wanted to do and that's the way I went.

How many years between when you made your commitment and with the events of this book?

Well, I joined initially in 1994 and this book happened the years that we were there were 2006 to 2007.

So getting up to that point, as the events of the book unfold, are you a staff sergeant at that point?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And getting to that point, there's an interesting thing that you talk about with some of the other members of your squad and some other people that you had served with that you kind of were finding ways to elevate each other.

Can you explain a little bit about that with some of the some of the friends that you made within the squad?

I think people who are or who have been in the military would understand this pretty well.

You make family when you're with your squad.

It's not just friendship.

It's not just

camaraderie, it's family because you eat with these guys, you sleep in the same barracks, you're with them 24-7 in these types of situations, and that just makes everybody

close.

Even the guy who likes you the least, you know, is going to have your back when the time comes, if needed.

I really enjoyed the chapter about your squad in your book because you described each one of them, and I'm going to use a civilian way and maybe a nerdy way, but each one almost had their own special power, as it were.

And you know what?

It's really interesting that you say it that way because that's exactly how we felt over there, especially having a lot of guys in our squad that were, well, in our platoon.

that were from all different walks of life because we were all reservists.

So we had different guys that were better at different things and it really brought us all together and we really lead on each other's expertise as we moved on.

Sam Stratton is our guest.

He's the author of Echoes from the Sandbox, which is available now on Amazon.

We'll tell you about that here in just a few moments, but some who have served keep their story to themselves.

Why did you want to share your story?

Well, I got to tell you, when I started this out,

um I was actually just just having a lot of different stories here and there and I thought you know what nobody ever talks about this stuff and number one I would like my kids to know a little bit more about me and why I am who I am and what what made me who I am and that and that's a huge part of my story so I started writing it for them and then it kind of just turned into well you know what this this might be a book I could sell somewhere and maybe it'll help somebody

Do you find that there are times that you need to take a step back because maybe something is coming back to you?

You know, that's interesting.

You should ask that question because when I started this, I thought I had already gotten over, I should say, all of my trauma for my rack.

I thought I had dealt with it years ago and things were good.

But as I started to write this book, man, a lot of things is just just pop back up.

and things that I hadn't dealt with are things that I had even forgotten about.

And this really helped in the healing process for me where I thought I was good.

But I needed this little extra step.

You know, God had his hand on this thing and this book and my relationship throughout this whole thing.

And I think this was the final healing that I needed, I believe, was just getting it out there and trying to help other vets and people with trauma.

One good thing about this book that I didn't realize I was gonna hit were people that are maybe military, but not deployed, haven't gone to Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever the deployment may be, have commented that it's great to read the story and hear things about everyday life.

It's not all just war, shoot, boom.

There's a lot more to our time over there that people don't understand.

I don't think, and I think it's good to get out there that it's not, it's not war fighting every day, every second.

There's a life you have to live in between there.

Samuel Arcstratton, the book echoes from the sandbox available now.

You continue to share that story, not only through the book itself, but you have a podcast.

Tell me more about that.

I do.

After I got done writing the book and, you know, you're going to kind of laugh at this, but to be completely honest with you, I'm not a big reader.

I don't like to read that much.

And not that I can't, but it just, I don't retain anything.

And I never really listened to podcasts.

And now a year later, I'm thinking from a year ago, a year later, I'm sitting here with a book and a podcast.

And I don't know how that happened.

But, you know, it's like, I just feel God's really led me to help people.

And my podcast isn't just, I mean, it is about the book, but it isn't just about military trauma.

It's about any type of trauma that you've had.

I'm just trying to encourage people to talk about their trauma, to let somebody else help them carry the load.

And I know this sounds cliche and I hate cliches and I've said this before in my podcast.

If we could save just one person from trauma from becoming one of the 22 veterans a day who commit suicide or anything for anybody, then this whole thing was worth it.

Echoes from The Sandbox, available now.

Where can P1 Nation find it, Sam?

If you go on Amazon and just

Type in echoes from the sandbox.

That's where the book is.

And if you are interested in the podcast, that is called echoes on filtered.

And that could be followed on all the major streaming platforms, but it's mainly on Spotify.

Sam, thanks for sharing your story and your time here today.

Ryan, thank you so much for calling and giving me this opportunity.

The Rock 108 Morning Show.

With the American Express Platinum card, I can unlock experiences like no other.

Since I'm always booking my next trip, I'd love that I can earn points on travel.

Plus, I get a Resi benefit, so you know I'm hitting the restaurants everyone's talking about.

And you can find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175,000 points.

For experiences like no other, there's nothing like platinum.

Learn more at americanexpress.com slash explore dash platinum.

Terms apply.