Leadership, Faith, and Global Missions' Effect on Leadership and Global Impact- with Chad Robouchoux

Prepare to be inspired as we welcome Chad Robichaux, a man whose life story reads like an action thriller. From his distinguished military service to his success in the UFC and his impactful faith-based nonprofit work, Chad brings a wealth of experience and profound insights to our show. In this episode, we promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of the intertwining roles of leadership and patriotism in shaping our nation's future. Chad shares his firsthand experiences from the chaotic Afghanistan pullout and his heroic efforts during the Ukraine conflict, offering a sobering look at the consequences of poor leadership.

Discover the heart and soul behind Chad's latest book, "A Mission Without Borders," featuring the incredible journey he undertook with his son Hunter in Ukraine. Despite facing criticism for their international focus, Chad and Hunter's mission is driven by an urgent need to help those suffering amidst corruption and chaos. We explore their tenacious efforts in rescuing Americans and vulnerable Ukrainians, providing support to civilian militaries, and offering essential aid to frontline chaplains. Through their story, we reflect on the broader implications of U.S. foreign policy decisions and their ripple effects on global conflicts.

We also tackle the critical situation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and its far-reaching implications for American lives and global security. Chad frames this struggle as a moral battle between good and evil, transcending political affiliations. He underscores the importance of strong leadership for military recruitment and national strength, while highlighting the valuable support systems for veterans like Mighty Oaks. We touch on his book "The Truth About PTSD" and discuss ways veterans can find new missions post-service, including running for office to continue serving their country. Join us for an episode brimming with powerful stories and invaluable lessons from Chad Robichaux.

Chapters

• 0:07 Faith, Culture, and Chad Robichaux
• 7:26 Mission Without Borders
• 17:21 National Security and Faith-Based Programs
• 22:00 Military Veterans Leadership Congress

Transcript

Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. Thanks for joining us today on the Wall Builder Show Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. Thank you for joining our conversations about the hot topics of the day and always looking at them from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. You can learn more at our website, wallbuilders.com. That's wallbuilders.com. Lots of great resources for you there. And then's wallbuilders.com lots of great resources for you there. And then, if you want to just hear more of the radio program, go to wallbuilders.show.

Super easy way to catch up on some of the archives, maybe just in the last week or two, but maybe you missed some a month ago and you want to go see. Or maybe you just need some more good news in your life. Today you can just go listen to some of those good news programs. Chad Robouchoux is going to be joining us again. Guys, always good to have Chad on the program. I think he's one of the few guys that's busier than the three of us. He's out there doing all kinds of great work and has a new book coming out as well.

Tim Barton

Yeah, he is an incredibly busy guy. He is doing so much and Dad, you actually were with him, man, was that very recently, a week, two weeks ago something because he has his own show, now called Resilient. It is one of the fastest growing podcast video format shows doing a little bit more long form interviews which have become far more popular. Joe Rogan has kind of changed the dynamic and game of podcasting and what that looks like and his show is incredible. He has, of course, the military background, the UFC background, and in his military he was special forces. He's run a faith-based nonprofit helping military veterans. He's still very involved and active in the community. He travels all over the nation speaking to churches and he has written yet another book which, as you point out, is just amazing for a guy who is that busy 

And, as we're looking at the nation, there's so many things we could talk about. Of course, I know we're going to spend time talking with him about his book when we have him on in the interview, but if we look at the nation now, where we're having all-time lows in recruiting and we're not getting the numbers. We've not had issues this bad since what it was I mean 30, 40, 50 years ago. Something is the last time it was this bad. Patriotism is at an all time low. There's so many issues going on right now that it is a reflection of the poor leadership we have in this nation, and Chad is a guy who certainly can speak to that.

But he's also a guy who we were able to work with when President Biden was doing the debacle with the airport over in Afghanistan and the pullout. Chad was one of the guys who was working, trying to get boots on the ground to go rescue some of the Americans left behind, to rescue some of the allies who had helped American forces and troops who were going to be targeted by terrorists when they were left behind. And then when stuff happened in Ukraine and again President Obama well, no, president Biden. That was a Freudian slip. President Biden left Americans again in Ukraine.

And Chad is one of the guys who has a particular set of skills that he is able to go and help in these times of need, and he's just got so much wisdom and insight to help us navigate some of what we are seeing in the culture, and again, not the least of which. He has a new book out, which his books are so story oriented, faith based, but just telling part of his journey and what he's gone through, and he sent us an early release copy. It was great and I really enjoyed going through it and hearing firsthand accounts of some of what he saw and how they navigated, what they went through. But I'm very excited to have Chad back on the show.

David Barton

And a lot of what he covers in this new book is really what's gone on in Ukraine and so much of the missions he's had in Ukraine. You go why would you have missions? Well, there's Americans involved in Ukraine, just like there were in Afghanistan and elsewhere. As a matter of fact, there were actually American media folks, notable national media, folks who were actually killed in that war going on covering that war in Ukraine, and Chad was able to go in and get those bodies and bring them out. So things that our own State Department should have been doing.

And, by the way, I kind of think I kind of agree with Trump on this that if he'd been president, this war wouldn't have happened. He was strong enough with Putin and laid it down on the line enough that Putin was not going to make that invasion and cross that line, but nonetheless it did happen, partly, I think, with weak national leadership. But Chad responded to that and filled in the hole that was not filled in properly, not thought of well ahead, by national leadership. So he's actually doing what we should have not had to do at all, but he did it and it's just absolutely fascinating stories. I talked to him offline about some of the stuff they did, the rivers they had to cross, getting people out. It's kind of in some ways like the Exodus story out of the Bible on a much smaller level, but really, really, really cool stories that happened, trying to save real people. Forget the political policies, forget politics. The human life side of this was fascinating.

Rick Green

Chad Robouchoux, our guest today, stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.

Break

Rick Green

Welcome back to the WallBuilder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Always good to have Chad Robouchoux with us. Chad, great to see you, man. Thanks for coming on.

Chad Robouchoux 

Thanks for having me on. Pretty excited to catch up with you, man.

Rick Green

Well, you have been busy, as always, of course, always doing great works with Mighty Oaks Programs which we support and love and encourage people to check out mightyoaksprograms.org Mightyoaksprograms.org. We'll have a link today at our website there at wallbuilders.show Chad new book. How do you manage to write a book almost every year and go on all these missions and run Mighty Oaks? Do you sleep? Do you sleep, man?

Chad Robouchoux 

I don't, I don't, I confess in a in a, probably not the best marriage advice would be to do those things, but uh, but, yeah, you know.

I journal a lot with the operations I do. It's kind of therapeutic for me and I enjoy doing it and keeping notes of what I do, so that makes writing a little bit easier. And uh, you know, I want to share a lot of the stuff that we do with people because it you know people, it gets people engaged and involved, that people get more knowledge of what's going on in the world and and and honestly, it brings support to us. People hear what we're doing and they they get behind it.

Rick Green

And so, yeah, amen. Well, new book, a mission without borders. Uh, pretty cool here bringing the family in talking about what you and hunter have been doing. Uh, did he help you write the book, or is it just about him? And and what y'all did?

Chad Robouchoux 

no, I mean he did write the final chapter, which is uh which is super cool.

I mean he did the concluding chapter and, uh, you know he got a whole book that was written about. You know our time as a father son going in Ukraine. I did 10 trips into Ukraine. He did 13. You know, about half of mine were with him and so it's kind of the story of it is, you know me coming off Afghanistan Afghani evac and moving into the Ukraine rescue operations as our White House made the decision to once again abandon Americans and a lot of people, by the way, a lot of people I know this show.

The audience is full of conservatives and Christians and I got so much heat from my conservative Christian audience, like why are you in Ukraine? You know Zelemskyy corrupt and we're sending hundreds of billions of dollars there. And I heard all that and I agree with it, by the way. And I opened the book with the author's note saying that, like I don't agree with sending hundreds of billions of dollars there, I'm firsthand. I can tell you it's not making it where it's supposed to go. There is massive corruption, not just from Zelemskyy, right?

so yeah I didn't go there for president Biden, I didn't go there for president Zelemskyy or participate in the corruption. What I went there for is to help innocent people that's a victim of this corruption and I and I kind of message to the conservatives and christians out there listening if you let your politics and your jadedness over corruption keep you from doing the right thing for the people, then you should probably change your politics. These people out there need help.

Rick Green

It's literally meeting the need in front of you, feeding the mouth in front of you. This is such a wimpy comparison to what you do, Chad, but we went on a little. It was a tornado took out a big area and we went to help feed people. And the guy that took me with him he had this thing called Angels in Cowboy Boots and we had these buckets of food that were given to these families.

And so we're in this really, really poor area where all these houses have been just wiped out and we go to dinner after we're out there cutting, trimming trees, trying to help clean up, doing all this stuff. And I say to this guy I'm like man, I'm having such a hard time not looking at what's going on here and thinking policy and thinking, well, if we do this, we teach them to fish. And if we do this, and he says to me Rick, feed the mouth in front of you, meet the need in front of you, and I feel like that's what you're doing You're literally saying, okay, I have the skills and the team and the people that can go relieve some of the pain and save some lives. I'm not going to sit.

Chad Robouchoux 

And I think people get so tied up on what the mouth in front of them is right, like I had people say what are you in Ukraine for? What about our homeless veterans here? What about our Southern border? I'm like, do we have to pick one?

Can we do both right. Why do we?

have to pick one. And, by the way, why don't you get off your keyboard and go down to the Southern border? Why don't you get off your keyboard and go to the homeless veterans, like, and go to the homeless veterans Like, why am I supposed to do everything you're burdened for? Like we could all participate. We don't have to pick one thing. We could all do different things, and that's why God burdens our hearts, right? God burdened my heart for this. There's thousands of needs, or millions of needs all over the world. God burdened my heart for this. And you know I just come off of the Afghanistan evacs facts president Biden and and vice president harris abandoned americans, our allies, forfeited the most strategic place in the globe and between iraq or iran, russia and china, with baghdad air base, and left millions of dollars in equipment and, by the way you know, continues to fund the taliban with 87 million dollars a week, which I could spend the whole episode talking about that, but um, but watching that happen, uh, I wasn't the only one paying attention.

The whole world was, including our enemies. And Putin went to the Ukraine Eastern Ukrainian border. He put a hundred thousand troops there, he flexed and, and president Biden closed our embassy, closed, our consulate, moved out our US troops in that rest, NATO followed and it left a green light for Putin to come in, uh, into Ukraine and invade Ukraine. Uh, since then, over a million people have died.

But, uh, but, when I watched that happen, I'd just seen the same thing he did in Afghanistan, he, and the same thing he did in Sudan he moved out our, our, our security, our military and our embassies and consulates before he moved out Americans. And so, when that happened in the White House once again and they've done it like four times now in this administration abandoned our Americans. I knew that we need to be there, first and foremost for my fellow Americans, and that's why we were there. And then, of course, we rescued tons of other people there. But originally, that's why we were pre-positioned, a week before that invasion, we were pre-positioned to do this and we rescued Americans. We rescued, uh, a lot of vulnerable Ukrainian folks that couldn't get out, women and children. We provided support to the civilian militaries that were defending their homes and freedom. We did ministry thing. We trained pastors to chaplains to get them on the front line. So we brought essential medical equipment that that corrupt money never made it to get essential medical equipment to the front lines.

I don't know if your audience knows, but when Benjamin Hall, the Fox News reporter, was catastrophically wounded and his team was killed, that was us that went in and recovered the bodies of Benjamin Hall's team and got Benjamin Hall safely out of Ukraine and back home to his wife and kids. He was catastrophically wounded because our White House didn't allow our 201 special operations units to do it. They didn't allow our CIA to go across and rescue them. They and we have. We work as a surrogate and we coordinate and de-conflicted those agencies and the pentagon contacted us and asked us to do it on behalf of as patriots, on behalf of our government. We did wow and uh man.

Rick Green

Okay, there's so much there to unpack, brother. What I mean? First of all, just the policy. On the policy side. Why, why do they keep doing this? Why? Why do do they not learn from their mistakes? Is it just? it doesn't make sense

Chad Robouchoux 

 well, there's a there's, you know. One perspective could be they're incompetent and they're making these mistakes. The other perspective could be that there's uh deliberativeness behind it, it's intentionality behind it, uh, and, and I would lean on the latter- yeah these aren't as as dumb as they may appear.

These aren't right, they're strategic and they're smart, and then somewhere is the. You know I hate to. You know I don't sit on any, any side of the aisle of republican or democrat. I sit on the aisle of good policy that puts America first. But on the Democratic side they seem to be smarter at these strategies than us and they're working against the national interests of America. And so to do something like Afghanistan.

Afghanistan did not go to the Taliban, as one might look at it, see, it went to our enemies. That base, the Bagram Air Force Base, right now is occupied by China. The mineral rights in the Hindu Kush Mountains, trillions of dollars worth it went to China two days after we left. The sanctioned oil in Iran goes across the Afghanistan landscape to China. All of our $80 billion equipment is in the black market and is owned and owned by, owned and operated by china and pakistan, isi and iran, uh, and we're given 87 million dollars a week to uh to, by the way, sanction people. It goes. It goes half of it in cash and half of it per week by 87 million. 40 and humanitarian aid that goes to ngos that are now controlled by the taliban and the other cash goes to eight individuals, all of which are sanctioned by the US government, four of which are on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list.

One of which is holding American prisoners.

The other is the Madladen family. That's where half of that money is going to cash every week, which is illegal, by the way, to give money to sanction, but the White House tends to do the rules right now. Is that an accident and incompetence? Absolutely not. Uh, is it? Are they unaware that when we went through from afghanistan, there was four al-qaeda training camps and now there's 52? Uh, they aware of this?

So this is very deliberate, uh, to keep us engaged in, in long-term wars, while they accuse the other side of trying not to? And Ukraine, look, ukraine is. Who benefits from Ukraine? All the neocons in Washington DC, all the warmongers, all of those involved in the military industrial complex, to include the big contract companies Lockheed Martin, raytheon, all these people who are lobbyists and putting money in the pockets of our politicians. This war is making people absolutely rich, and the people that are becoming rich are the same people that have the power to end it.

When President Trump said on the debate stage that he can end this in 24 hours, not only do I believe it's true, but if you read that book about a year before that, I wrote that it could be ended in 24 hours. Wow, and it can't. And, by the way, when President Trump said that it was the first time you heard Putin talk about peace, no one's talked about peace. President Zelensky didn't talk about peace. President Biden didn't talk about peace. They talk about pumping more money into that military industrial complex for people to get rich, and the cost of that isn't just our taxpayer dollars. The cost of that is the lives of millions over a million people right now and destabilizing the world. So this isn't incompetence, this isn't an accident. This is corruption at the deepest and most grotesque level to keep American taxpayers paying for a war that goes back into the pockets of the neocons and war wrongers.

And look, I've been to combat for eight deployments and for 30 years now I've been involved in the military and in war. The people that have been to war like me and go do stuff like this, people would say that we're chasing combat. We're chasing. I don't want any of this. My son deployed in the same Afghanistan as me. My son got drug in the Ukraine to go help. But I don't want any of this. I don't go to be chasing the dragon or being involved in this stuff. I want this to end just like President Trump said it perfectly or you're on the side of Ukraine, you're on the side of Russia. I'm on the side of people not dying anymore, and the people that have the power to end that are the ones getting rich.

Rick Green

I mean it's also just literally using the lives of Americans as pawns by not getting them out first before you move all of those other pieces of the puzzle. They're literally playing with their lives in order to stoke the fires of war to get what they want. I mean it's just evil, it's just absolutely evil.

Chad Robouchoux 

There's nothing that would benefit them more than an American being killed by a Russian rocket, because now the American people are more inclined to be willing to pay tax dollars. Yeah, yeah, this has become Rick, not a Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal or left or right. This is good versus evil. These people are making decisions that are just rooted in evil, and there's no concern about the national security of America, there's no concern about Americans, and this is completely self-benefiting for the political interest and the financial interest of people that are not with the people. That's for sure.

Rick Green

Yeah, no doubt about it, what a difference leadership makes. Mission Without Borders. Is the book A Mission Without Borders? You can get it at Amazon, but definitely go to MightyOaksPrograms.org today as well, make a contribution so Chad can keep serving our warriors that come home. And, man, the mission that you guys are doing here with those guys when they come back, continues to be one of the most important things that we can invest in. It's a way of saying thank you and it's also a way of keeping us strong into the future because, man, if our young men don't know that we're going to take care of them when they come home, they're less likely to sign up in the first place. So you know, what you're doing continues to be not just meeting the need right now in front of us, but also keeping us strong as a nation going forward.

Chad Robouchoux 

Yeah, I mean, we're the lowest recruiting rate since Vietnam. Right now we're in a recruiting crisis for the military, which is a national security issue. And, by the way, I want to say this thanks to you guys at Mercury One and Glenn Beck, and because these international operations we did one was in Afghanistan you guys stepped up and and uh, greatly, uh financially supported that operation to rescue the 17 000 from there and, uh, you know the uh, the rescue benjamin hall and all these uh other things we did in ukraine. Uh, mercury one was, you know, one of the first people. I called for financial support to do these things and and some of the, some of those vehicles that we used to do those rescues were purchased by you guys through Glenn and Mercury One.

Rick Green

Well, thank you for being willing to go man and be on the front line. Tell Hunter thank you from us. Yeah, and at some point I still want to get you and Hunter down to Patriot Academy and go through our leadership congress. I think you all would have a blast and you'd just tear it up, you're so good at the policy side of this stuff as well.

Chad Robouchoux 

We'd love it.

Rick Green

And, by the way, I was talking about you the other day because we were talking about the Trump campaign all the way back to 2016. And I said it was when I was listening on the radio to the chaplain gathering and you stood up and asked a question of Trump and I recognized your voice and I can't even remember what you asked something about chaplains being able to pray, or something, and he goes off on the johnson amendment. I was like that was an epiphany moment for me, that this guy's instincts are actually pretty good and and the fact that his instinct on the on the uh, you know, johnson amendment and he could, you know, pontificate on it a little bit. I'm sure he's brief, but it was just, it was just really really good and um, anyway, so, talking about you the other day, and you've been right there on the front lines politically and, uh, physically in the in the firefight, so thanks for just being a warrior for freedom well,

Chad Robouchoux 

 yeah, keep be praying for me for that, because I'll be uh, I'm still involved in that fight.

I'll be in and, uh, September 24th I'll be in front of congress and the Secretary of the VA, I think, finally getting them to move the needle on what President Trump's executive order called for, and that's the faith based programs for the VA, for the veterans, and it's pumping $1.2 billion a year into clinical programs and the problem's only getting worse. And meanwhile, ngos and faith based programs and alternative mentoring programs are actually wildly successful, but yet they're only pumping their their you know, government contracted clinical programs and pumping medication in our troops and the problems getting worse. So I'm going to have the opportunity to present faith-based programs once again, uh, right there in front of the secretary of va, va and before Congress.

Rick Green

I was trying to remember the book you wrote on this. Was that an unfair advantage, or was that what was the one? You talked about a lot of this in one of your books, and I can't remember which one it was. Now.

Chad Robouchoux 

I talked a little bit about an unfair advantage, but I wrote a small pocket-sized book called the Truth About PTSD.

Rick Green

That's the one I'm thinking of. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Okay, thinking of yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's also available at at amazon. Um, yeah, I've been so important and and uh, and also just uh, purpose man, getting back into the purpose of why these guys serve and, when they come home, being able to, um, you know, find their next mission here in in the us and and be a part of uh, part of our country. So that's one reason I.

I really want to team up with you on our military uh leadership congress, military veterans leadership congress, because it helps them see how to be good. You know citizens now, when they come home what's their next mission here running for office even. Um, so many ways we can plug these guys in chad. I wish we had more time, brother. Always good to talk to you, man, thanks for coming on anytime, man, anytime, let's do it.

That's Chad Robouchoux Folks, the book is a mission without borders. We'll have links today at wallbuilders.show. Stay with us. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Break

Rick Green

Welcome back to the wallbuilder show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Chad Robichaux for joining us, as always. I'm I'm curious to him. I know he's like a jujitsu black belt and and a MMA champion and I know you're really good. Have you ever got to roll with Chad Robichaux?

Tim Barton

I have yet to. We've talked about it many times. I had the chance to do a podcast show with him a while back and schedules just didn't align, but he's invited me many times. Also, his son, hunter, I think Hunter is now a black belt. He might still be a brown belt. So I'm a purple, I'm just, I'm kind of in the middle, I'm not, I'm not terrible, but I'm not really that good yet comparatively. And Chad has many stripes on his black belt and, again, this is a UFC fighter.

So this is not somebody you take lightly going. You look at him and you're like, ah, this guy's like five and a half feet tall, maybe, maybe not even that. He might be five, two, five, three, five, four and you could easily underestimate him. But if you look at his ears and you recognize some of the cauliflower ears, you're like, oh no, this guy knows what he's doing, which, by the way, is why he's able to do things like go over into Ukraine.

This guy has absolutely unprecedented or maybe not that's the right word maybe unparalleled experience when it comes to some of these operations, because of what he did in Afghanistan helping to find ways out, helping to rescue Americans, to rescue some of the allies and then helping to do the same thing in Ukraine and that, as you mentioned some of the stories he was telling us about some of what he firsthand saw, some of the war crimes that have gone on, and even, as he mentioned in the interview, that the reality that there's a lack of accountability with so much of the money that's gone over there.

But he doesn't go because he's pro-Ukraine or anti-Russia. He goes because he's pro-human and I thought what he said was so great about President Trump's position that President Trump can end this in 24 hours and the most important thing is that we stop the killing and save lives. And just so grateful for all. Chad does all his work and I'm very hopeful that if President Trump gets in, he can be part of that transition team, encouraging President Trump on some of these action steps and maybe giving him some guidance on the right direction or right decisions.

Rick Green

Okay, In the final few seconds. So, as a jujitsu guy, do you actually like? Do you go? Hey, I'd like that guy to beat up on me for a little bit. That would be an honor.

Tim Barton

I mean, it kind of would be, you know, in a weird way maybe maybe yeah.

Rick Green

Yeah, all right. Well, folks, thanks for listening today. I bet you didn't think we were going to take it that direction. You've been listening to the WallBuilder Show.