The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast

INTRODUCTION: Hello everyone and welcome to Ghost Turd Stories.

I'm your host, Troy Gent.

Ghost Turd Stories mission is using humorous stories from veterans and first responders to reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder committed suicide.

Ghost Turd Stories vision Is to use humor for veteran and first responder stories to prevent suicide within our ranks and reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder committed suicide.

We hope to attract veterans and first responders as well as those interested in knowing more about what it's like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.

TROY GENT: Welcome everybody to Ghost Turd Stories.

This is Troy Gent, your host.

My guest tonight is Dylan Morgan.

He was one of my team leaders in Afghanistan and, for a time, one of my squad leaders when units were getting shifted around but ended up as one of my team leaders.

One of my favorites, honestly, and I just really appreciate him being here.

Welcome Dylan.

DYLAN MORGAN: Hey, Troy.

Thanks for having me.

TROY GENT: Yeah, so tell us a little bit about yourself, who you served with, and what units you were with.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, so as you kind of alluded to, I was in the Marine Corps.

I had the privilege of serving in two different commands.

The first was first Battalion, seventh Marine, C-Company, also known as Suicide Charlie, two Guidons.

And then third Battalion, fourth Marine, India Company, also known as Dark Side.

TROY GENT: Tell us why Suicide Charlie was nicknamed Suicide Charlie.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, so it's kind of a beautiful history.

Suicide actually got the name back in 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

There was an infiltration of the Japanese soldiers kind of given an abrupt force attack and Suicide was right there in the middle, Alpha on one side, which is Animal Company, and Baker on the other side, which is Bravo Company.

Suicide took kind of the brunt force of the attack.

We actually had Chesty B. Pooler as our battalion commander at the time and then John Basilone was also a part of one-seven.

As we continued to take the brood of the attack, we had shot down some enemy planes and a parachute had landed in our vicinity and the next day, after the battle cleared, you could see a Marine flying a flag and it was a piece of that white parachute and there was a skull and crossbones and on it, it said, "Suicide Charley."

What's so amazing about that is Charlie was spelled wrong.

They spelled it C-H-A-R-L-E-Y.

To this day, it has stayed the same spelling with Charley.

C-H-A-R-L-E-Y.

And I just...

I think that's amazing that our history can continue to survive us.

I believe that we are still the only company in the Marine Corps that has the privilege of flying two flags.

TROY GENT: That's awesome.

So some knucklehead misspelled Charlie when he made the flag.

DYLAN MORGAN: He did.

He did.

And to his credit, I'm sure it was probably a pretty intense moment.

It's kind of funny too.

It's not really funny, but it's pretty awesome.

If you've ever watched the docu-series, the Pacific, I believe in the first or second episode you can actually see the suicide Charley flag flying.

That whole little story revolved right around what we were doing as a company at that time.

TROY GENT: You deployed to Iraq twice with one-seven.

Is that right?

DYLAN MORGAN: I did.

I did.

I deployed twice with one-seven in the Al Anbar province there both times from 2007 to 2008 for my first deployment and then 2009 for the second deployment.

As soon as we came home from that second deployment, a group of men from our battalion went right back over with three-four.

I remember our first sergeant had called all the Marines in who were on their second deployment and he said, "We've got our sister battalion about to deploy and we wanted to ask all you Marines who are on your second deployment, those who don't necessarily have big families at home, if anybody wants to volunteer."

And I think at the end of the day, there were only about seven or eight guys from Charley company that ended up coming over.

We were home one month and then turned around and went right back with you guys over to Afghanistan.

TROY GENT: Okay.

Yeah, at the time you didn't have a family, but was it more a sense of obligation or like, "Yeah, I want to go back over.

This sounds exciting."

DYLAN MORGAN: So I had a really close friend, San Sim, who had volunteered to be a combat replacement for three-seven.

He had actually passed away in Afghanistan right before that deployment and in my mind, it was a great way to honor that Marine, to go over and serve and try and see if we could complete the mission that he wasn't able to fulfill.

I had a lot of anger and built-up resentment.

I just felt like it was something that I needed to do.

That was the driving force behind me raising my hand.

TROY GENT: Okay.

So how did you feel after our Afghanistan deployment?

I think at the end of the day, where I'm at now, I'm pleased with what we were able to accomplish as a company and as a Marine Corps.

I'd like to say that everything that I did and the people that were around me did, we could have only done what we were allowed to do.

At times I still felt like I had left something on the table or I didn't give it my all but I know that that's not true deep down inside and I know that there's always going to be a part of me that wishes things could have been a different way.

But what I've come to realize is I'm okay with doing exactly what I've done and I'm okay with the events that transpired and it's just time to live another day.

TROY GENT: Sure.

Yeah, and I went through some of that when I got back.

I wanted to go right back over and join.

I think it was...

Oh, Dark Horse is their nickname.

I just felt so obligated to go back over there and I almost convinced my wife but I think we could have gone over there twenty times and we'd probably still feel the same thing.

You know?

DYLAN MORGAN: I agree with that completely.

TROY GENT: Tell us a little bit about the funny experiences that you've thought of already.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, I had taken some time to kind of think about this.

On my very first deployment, we had the honor of being there during the summertime and during the wintertime so we got the beautiful weather of both winter and summer.

And at this particular time, it was really hot and I just remember it being probably two-thirty, maybe three o'clock in the morning and I leaned over to the guy I was with and was like, "Dude, I am so freaking hot right now.

I could take all the stuff off and I'd probably still be hot."

I was like, "Isn't there a water bottle around here somewhere?"

And he was like, "Yeah, man.

I think it's right over there up against that HESCO barrier."

So I reached over, I grabbed it, and all I could tell was it looked like a Gatorade bottle.

And I unscrew it and I'm like, "Oh man, this is going to be great."

And I pour over my head.

TROY GENT: Oh my gosh, dude.

I already know what you're going to say.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, it was somebody's piss bottle.

It was somebody's pee that they had pissed in a bottle and left it on post.

They didn't have the courtesy to take the trash, right?

Like, “Hey man.

Take that off the post, dude.”

No, no.

Why would you do that?

So sure enough, like instantly you could smell that ammonia and I was just like, "Are you effing kidding me right now, man?

Like now I've got to sit another four hours with just pee all over me.

Like, how is this even remotely acceptable?"

I can tell you what, it cooled me down for a little bit though, but I sure did stink.

TROY GENT: Oh my gosh, dude.

That's hilarious.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, it is.

TROY GENT: I was thinking you were going to say a Gatorade bottle full of dip or piss.

One of the two because Marines dip.

I won't say his name.

In Afghanistan, they were on an observation post but they came back and they were all laughing at him.

You know but just so everybody else knows, in Afghanistan, the locals crap everywhere.

When they got to take a crap, they stop where they're at and they crap.

So there's crap all over the place.

This Marine was on an observation post late at night and he stuck his hand in some human crap and didn't know what it was and was wiping it all over himself and they can see him through the night vision goggles.

DYLAN MORGAN: No, I don't remember.

TROY GENT: They were on an observation post but they couldn't laugh so they're all laughing silently as best they could so they wouldn't give their position away.

DYLAN MORGAN: Oh man, that is that is too funny, man.

No, I wasn't aware of that one.

I'm gonna have to start asking around.

TROY GENT: Yeah, I'll give you the name when we get off the hook here.

DYLAN MORGAN: Okay.

Okay, that'll work.

But that happened on my first deployment and I'll maybe try to go a deployment to deployment here because there are a couple that just kind of coincide with each other.

Being a junior Marine, I was a SAW gunner on my first deployment.

Somehow this squad leader looked at me and was like, "Hey, man.

Yeah, I'm gonna give you the SAW.

You look like a dude who can handle seventy-five percent of the firepower for your fire team and collectively the squad."

I was like, "Alright, dude.

Yeah, that'll work.

That'll work."

But for some reason, I just had a love of the food in Iraq: the kebabs, the bread, the gus or shawarma, whatever you want to call it.

It was just so delicious to me.

I don't know if it just happened to be the fact that I just love to eat everything and my stomach wasn't used to it all the time but I just got notorious for having to carry around TP with me.

I’d try to go handle my business prior to it but when you're in the COC getting a breakdown, a brief of what the mission is going to be.

You can't always make it and when you're out there, sometimes duty calls.

TROY GENT: Was this a natural result of you eating the local food?

You were like, "I better start taking TP with me.”

Was it only you or was it the whole squad?

DYALN MORGAN: It was only me, believe it or not.

It was honestly only me.

I don't know if it was just because I had quite a few other senior Marines who were adjusted to that.

I think there were only three boots in my entire squad and I seem to be the only one to have this issue.

It got to the point where I had to carry around TP every time we left the wire.

We'd take an OP or go in and take over a house but nine times out of ten, and I hate to admit it, there were times when I'd have to go up on the roof and once that three-sixty was set, I'd have to lay a deuce and cover it up or put it wherever I could so it wasn't noticeable but it got to that point, man.

Anybody, if you're familiar with some of these Middle Eastern countries, they don't have plumbing inside.

They've kind of got these trenches that are cut out and just kind of like how you had mentioned in Afghanistan if there's a hole, if there's a wall, somebody will go behind it and take care of their business.

This didn't happen to me, thankfully, but I know of two guys that were coming back in the middle of the night and they just happened to, I don't know, cut a corner too quickly or what, but they actually fell into the poop river that was in Iraq.

And it was pretty disgusting, man.

The worst part about it for one guy was he lost a piece of his gear and he had to go back in after it.

TROY GENT: In the Marine Corps, at least, they stress gear accountability so much that if you lose a piece of gear, it's either your life or the piece of gear.

Yeah, I lost my K-bar once as a lieutenant and was exposed to the whole company.

It was pretty embarrassing as a boot lieutenant.

DYLAN MORGAN: Did you ever end up finding it?

TROY GENT: Yeah, I had this prompting to ask the XO, who was a friend of mine, and I just kept denying the prompting and I finally just told my platoon sergeant.

He didn't really like me anyway so he was like, "We'll get the platoon online, sir."

So we got the platoon online.

I was like, "What are you doing?

We're looking for lieutenants K-bar."

And then I found out later the XO had it.

He had found it on the ground so I should have gone to the XO and no one would have found out.

I've made plenty of mistakes as a lieutenant but I don't feel like I ever...

I don't think I was too prideful with my mistakes.

DYLAN MORGAN: No, man.

You were always pretty locked on.

TROY GENT: Well, I appreciate you saying that.

DYLAN MORGAN: Well, I was going to say, man, a K-bar is not as bad as losing your rifle.

We had a Lieutenant and I’m not going to name any names, but this guy was a character.

I know you're a Mustang and I really respect that about you.

That's something that really speaks volumes of your character.

But this guy was straight out of college, went to OCS, came in with just a gung-ho attitude, and really thought he was the bee's knees at everything he did.

Well, I don't really recall the certain circumstances of how this all played out but as you know, being an officer in theater, you guys pretty much always had a pistol on you at all times, a pistol or an M4.

I don't know if he just had thought, "I'm only wearing my pistol.

I didn't bring my M4 with me," but he had left it in the Humvee the entire time and the only way we all figured it out...

Somebody was just like, "Hey did you leave your rifle anywhere?"

And the guy was like, "Yeah, man, it's right here.

It's been here this whole time."

And the Lieutenant's over there.

He's nowhere near it.

I'm like, "Oh, okay.

So that's not yours.

That's his.

Oh, okay.

We'll just leave it at that.

We'll just leave it at that."

TROY GENT: Yeah, it's odd to see a rifle all by itself.

You're supposed to see the human and the rifle together, at all times.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, you really are.

But no, you were mentioning something about the second deployment.

TROY GENT: You said there wasn't a whole lot that you wanted to share about that.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, that deployment...

There was just a lot of... nothing really of importance, I guess, in that one.

The third deployment, however, I just kind of got thrown into a brand new battalion, brand new company, brand new platoon, but I think I kind of lucked out out of all the Marines that got sent from one-seven over to three-four because everything that we did as a platoon is exactly what I was doing on my first deployment and it felt like home and that's something that can't say for the other guys that got deployed over there or that came with me.

They either got stuck in trucks or they got stuck on the FOB.

But I literally got to enjoy everything that I did with those guys and that's just something that's amazing to me.

They became like a second family.

TROY GENT: I feel like when you came, it's almost like you were with us the whole time.

Like you just fell right in and you fit right in.

It was like, “Dylan's one of us.”

It was really cool.

DYLAN MORGAN: Oh, it was and to be accepted like I was.

That made it even easier and more enjoyable.

TROY GENT: What do you think you enjoyed most about it?

DYLAN MORGAN: I think, honestly, the fact that we got to continue to run patrols the way that I was used to running patrols, going out into the city.

Well, I wouldn't really call it a city.

It was more of a little town or village, but still.

Being able to just get right back in there and do exactly what I was wanting to do.

We didn't locate close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver a whole bunch but we definitely patrolled that little village like it was our own.

We took over and the fact that we were able to control it with just a platoon, I think that should speak volumes of you and those other Marines.

TROY GENT: I got to give credit to the platoon sergeant and the squad leaders.

They had two combat deployments each already.

That was their third.

And then, people like you had two combat deployments.

Like I...

They made me look good and I didn't really deserve it but I was just blessed that way and I count my blessings all the time for that.

DYLAN MORGAN: Well, I can say this.

That platoon sergeant is one of the best platoon sergeants that I've ever got to deploy with.

TROY GENT: Yeah, he knew what he was doing.

He was awesome.

He did, man, and I'm very grateful that I kind of got to slide in with him and thankfully the guy liked me so that was kind of a plus.

I remember he was giving us some cigars one night and he was like, "Hey, do you smoke?"

And I was like, "Do I smoke, man?

Hell yeah, I smoke."

I want a cigar.

But speaking of cigars, this right here is something that I'll never forget.

We did an OP there in Afghanistan.

It was me and I think we had maybe like a squad reinforced or something and my squad leader was I think the squad leader in charge of the entire thing with another lieutenant who came over who actually turned out to be a really cool guy.

We did a little mission and I think it was like a six-day OP.

We took the gunner.

TROY GENT: Oh, that was up in Bougie Bass.

DYLAN MORGAN: That was exactly right.

In Bougie Bass pass.

TROY GENT: Okay.

DYLAN MORGAN: It was such a cool OP.

I'll never forget it.

It was enjoyable.

It definitely sucked at the time because we got rained on.

Like four out of the five nights we were there, we got rained on.

I remember the hilos dropping us off and us having to hike up this mountain.

Well, dude.

I was point man, at that point.

I was hiking up this mountain the gunner was right behind me and I couldn't see anything that was in front of me.

Not a thing.

TROY GENT: Was that because it was dark?

DYLAN MORGAN: Oh, because it was dark and I was sweating so bad and my glasses were fogging up.

So what was the first thing I do?

I was like, "This eye pro has got to go, man.

I'm not going to be able to take these guys up."

I take off my eye pro.

I just put my Oakley's on, the ones that are clear.

I just put them, tuck them right here in my vest and I start guiding us up, man.

We're cruising up here.

And out of nowhere, this guy comes up to me and he grabs me and he's like, "Hey, Marine!

Put your effing goggles on your face, man!"

And I'm like, "But I can't see!

How am I gonna get us anywhere I can't freaking see, man."

He's like, "Well, I don't give a shit!

Put your effing goggles on your face right now!"

And I'm like, "Alright, whatever you say, sir.

You're the bee's knees right now.

I can't argue with you.

I think it's dumb, but whatever."

I think I ended up putting the frames back on and just taking the lenses off of them and continued up because he couldn't see.

All he could see was the frames of it anyway.

I remember specifically before this brief, we were like, "Hey, look.

There's no tobacco.

There’s no cigarettes.

There's no dip.

If you've got a vice, you better figure out how to kick it real quick because you're not bringing any of that junk up here.

We don't want to give away our position."

I'm gonna let you take a guess, but what's the very first thing that the most enlisted senior Marine did?

Not enlisted, he was a warrant officer.

But what does this guy do as soon as we get up on top of that hill?

He lights up a freaking Stogie, man.

Like we had just conquered Mount Sarabachi.

Like he lights up a Stogie and is just puffing on that thing and I look at one of the other guys and I'm like, "Huh?

No tobacco, huh?

That really made it over to him.

Didn't it?"

TROY GENT: Do you remember the Highway Patrol Marines?

They were attached to the Highway Patrol down the road from us?

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

TROY GENT: They had gotten into a firefight...

I don't know, thirty or forty clicks to our west.

We were the QRF.

We had just gotten there and I was an inexperienced lieutenant.

And I looked at the squad leader...

This wasn't your squad. It was a different one.

He was a great Marine.

I was like, "Hey, we gotta stop at every culvert to make sure there are no IEDs in there," because I read these stories about the Taliban putting IEDs in culverts.

So he's like, "Uh...

How often?"

And I said, "Every single one."

And he's like, "Okay, sir."

We take off in four vehicles and he doesn't stop at any of them.

Right?

We're just zipping over these culverts one after another.

I'm like, "He's supposed to be stopping on these things!"

I didn't get on the radio.

I stopped for a minute and said, "Let me make sense of this.

This squad leader has two combat deployments, this is his third, and there's a covert every quarter mile.

If we stop at every covert, we're never going to get to the objective.”

Right?

And so I didn't say nothing.

I'm like, "Okay, that was a stupid thing," but I didn't say nothing.

I just let him go.

I let him lead it.

DYLAN MORGAN: I mean good initiative.

Good initiative.

What's the old saying?

Bad judgment.

TROY GENT: Yeah.

DYLAN MORGAN: But on that very same field op, I developed a sense of snoring at nighttime and I didn't really realize it until about that deployment when the guys would always come over to me and be like, "Yo, dude.

Can you shut up or can you get on your side or something."

While we're up there....

TROY GENT: This was on the mountain?

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, this was on the mountain.

TROY GENT: Okay.

That would lieutenant, he was like, "Hey, man.

I heard you snore."

I was like, "Yeah, it's news to me, man.

Who would have known a guy snores?"

He's like, "Well, you understand this is an OP, right?"

We got to be pretty quiet and can't really give away our paws."

And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, man.

No problem.

Not a big issue."

And he's like, "So I'm going to sleep with you.

We are gonna get real close and every time you snore, I'm going to start kicking you."

And I was like, "Alright, yeah.

That sounds fine, dude.

No problem."

I don't think I got a wink of sleep that entire OP.

He was like, "Dude, yeah.

You were snoring so bad.

I think everybody down the mountain could hear you."

TROY GENT: That's crazy.

I've never had an experience with a snoring Marine in the field before.

Were you with me on that OP in the middle of town?

We had gotten shot at three times in a week and we thought, "We need to go out in the middle of town where these guys are shooting at us from and set an OP to see if they shoot us so that we can kind of be behind them."

Were you on that one with me?

DYLAN MORGAN: I don't think I was on that one, no.

TROY GENT: Okay.

That was a crazy one.

We were out there for a few hours, probably four or five hours, and we had the vehicle patrol drop us off as if they were just out on the vehicle patrol so we kind of snuck out of the back.

There were only five of us.

That place died when it got dark.

Right?

It was just nothing.

DYLAN MORGAN: It was nothing, man.

Yeah.

TROY GENT: After about five hours, I said, "Let's patrol back."

We walked down the steps because we were on top of a building and two Marines had gone one one each way and I was a third guy down.

There were two guys behind me.

And right when I got to the bottom step, a set of headlights just turned on and a car accelerated.

Sounded like it was accelerating like they put the pedal to the metal.

Right?

A car hadn't come by in like four hours and so my only thought was, "They've been waiting for us.

This is a VBIED, Vehicle Born IED."

The two marines that were in front of me were already off, they just jumped behind something on the sides.

The two Marines behind me were still on the steps.

They ran back up to the roof.

I had my MVGs on so I turned around.

I didn't know what else to do.

I was like writing the headlights.

I turned around and started running up the steps.

I got about six feet up and there was an empty space, so there were the steps and then the empty space from the top of the roof down to the bottom so the steps landing and then steps back up.

When I was almost to the landing…

The depth perception in my goggles was awful.

My left foot missed and I went head first and there was a motorcycle at the bottom.

I went headfirst on top of the motorcycle and then there was just like this giant, "Boom!"

Right?

I landed on my head so I saw stars, I felt blood in my mouth, and everything.

The vehicle just drove by.

I got up and the two Marines at the bottom were like, "Are you okay, sir?"

I was like, "I don't know.

I think so.

I'm good.

Let's get out of here."

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DYLAN MORGAN: I think we missed a ball.

We didn't get to celebrate it.

We had like a makeup ball.

I remember being with this Marine and we had just gotten done with the ball.

We just decided, "Let's just keep the party flowing," popping back and forth from place to place.

I can't remember exactly what time it was but I know it was before daybreak and way after probably everybody's bedtime.

We started walking by this hotel back to our hotel room and the hotel we were walking by was the Venetian.

TROY GENT: Oh, this was in Vegas?

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, this was in Vegas.

And I was like, "Hey, man.

Wouldn't it be a good idea for us to tactically acquire one of those gondolas and go for a boat ride?"

And he looked at me and was like, "Yeah, man.

I think it would be."

So we did the only smart thing we knew to do.

We did a little hasty search of the area and did a little reconnaissance to make sure we were clear and we went ahead and jumped on one of those gondolas and started riding it around that little pond right there in front of the Venetian.

We had seen this couple.

It was a Navy man and his wife and we assumed that they were just newlyweds but they were probably just coming back from the same ball we were.

And we said, "You know what?

Wouldn't it be just the most romantic thing in the world to give this couple, this nice, beautiful Navy couple a ride on our gondola?"

And we're like, "Yeah, it would, man.

Yeah, it would."

So we go over there and we say, "Hey!

It looks like you guys need a ride to the other side of the pond here."

And the guy was like, "You know what?

Yeah, sure enough, we do, man.

Sure enough, we do."

So they hop in with us.

Granted, this water was like probably the size of two Olympic swimming pools.

It's not like a huge lake or massive lake.

It's pretty dang small.

So we're just kind of going around in circles giving this couple a ride and lo and behold somebody was sweeping the streets right there who worked for the hotel.

He came and started yelling at us.

He was like, "Hey!

Do you guys know what you did?

This is grand larceny!

You guys could be arrested and sent to jail and it's grand larceny because it's a twenty thousand dollar boat!"

He started screaming and yelling at us and he was like, "I'm going to get the cops!

I'm going to get the cops!"

Man, sure enough, he went and grabbed them.

We pulled the boat up and everybody got off and two cops came over to us and were like, "You guys could be arrested for taking this thing.

Do you know what the hell you were doing?"

I was like, "Man, it's not like we're stealing anything.

We were giving some people a boat ride.

Hell, where do you think we're going to take it?

Do you think we're going to take it back to the barracks with us?

Yeah, we're just going to hook this up to my Mercury Grand Marquis and haul this thing on back!"

One of the cops looked to the other and was like, "Man, to the best of my memory, I've never seen two drunk Marines tactically acquire a boat in front of the Venetian.

This is a first for me."

He's like, "Alright, if you guys are good to walk home, just go ahead and go home now and please stay away from the Venetian for the rest of the night."

And we're like, "Hey, you got it, man.

We're out of here."

I just thought it was so awesome that we could literally take a gondola from one of the nicest hotels and drive it around for a minute and two cops just come up and laugh at us and say, "Hey, get your drunk butts out of here, man, and go sleep that thing off."

TROY GENT: After we got back from the deployment, how much longer did you have until you EAS'd?

DYLAN MORGAN: We got back in May.

I got out in August.

I can't remember if you asked me but I definitely remember the platoon sergeant asking me, while I was still in Afghanistan, if I wanted to go on another pump.

And I was like, "Man, three and four years is enough for me.

I think I'm done."

What I can say, and I know that this is really geared towards helping people see that there's a better way of doing things and I'm just kind of bringing awareness...

Troy, I don't know if you're aware but whenever I came home, I was just kind of a mess.

I really got heavy into drinking.

I started to smoke weed.

I would skip out on class and not really focus on myself and do the right thing.

And man that that lasted for a good ten years.

It was a tough and rough time in my life but the one thing that I did and I can say has been the most grateful and beneficial thing was I went and asked for help.

I found men who told me that there was a better way to do this, that you could live your life without fear, without guilt, without remorse, without resentment, without looking to the bottle.

My wife walked in on me and I had a loaded pistol in my hand.

Thankfully, she jumped right on it and I went and got help.

I put the bottle away and man, I've just been extremely grateful.

I've got God in my life and I've got a young son that I get to cherish every single day and I get to take him to school, to daycare.

I get to pick him up.

My only plug is if you're struggling and you think that there's only one way, reach out and talk to somebody.

I definitely know that there are resources out there, even if you think that you reaching out and asking for help is less than or it makes you a pussy or a bitch or whatever people say because we've all heard those things.

But it doesn't and I think that you'll really find there are answers out there if you just look for them.

TROY GENT: Everybody has value in this life.

Everybody has something to contribute so thanks so much for sharing that.

I appreciate that.

DYLAN MORGAN: Yeah, of course.

Of course.

Man, it's been a pleasure getting to see you and do this.

I'm grateful for the opportunity, brother.

It really means a lot to me.

TROY GENT: Yeah, thanks for coming on, Dylan.

I appreciate it.

OUTRO: Thank you for listening.

Please tell your friends and family so that we can bring more joy and awareness to those struggling with suicide ideation and the families who desperately need help after the loss of someone they love to suicide.