Adversity to Triumph + Resiliency with Captain Rich Ingram

What if you could turn life's greatest adversities into your most significant opportunities for growth? Join us on Reignite Resilience as we welcome retired US Army Captain Rich, whose journey from a challenging upbringing and a period of homelessness to a transformed life in the military will leave you inspired. Despite losing an arm in combat, Rich's story is a testament to the power of resilience, purpose, and an unbreakable spirit. Through his compelling narrative, he shares how he navigated early struggles and found his calling, demonstrating that no matter the challenges, perseverance can lead to triumph.

In this uplifting episode, we explore the concept of the emotional threshold and how discovering one's true purpose can fuel overcoming immense hurdles. Hear personal stories, including an extraordinary 50-mile race run with an injured knee and the healing power of fly fishing and triathlons. This episode is a call to action, urging you to embrace every opportunity and challenge head-on. Whether you're facing personal struggles or seeking inspiration to keep moving forward, Captain Rich's journey and our shared experiences will ignite your resilience. Subscribe, like, and share to help others find their path to unwavering strength.

About Rich Ingram

Retired United States Army Captain Rich Ingram is a keynote speaker and endurance athlete. Despite losing his arm in combat, he continues to embrace life’s challenges and thrive in adversity. 

On July 20, 2005, Rich sustained injuries from an IED (improvised explosive device) attack that resulted in the amputation of his left arm, and the Army forced him to retire. Not one to back down from a fight, he was relentless in pursuing his dream of leading men and women in combat as an officer. Working with military leaders and government legislators, policy was changed to allow amputees to commission as officers, and Rich was the first, commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in December 2008. He went on to serve three more tours between Iraq and Afghanistan as a combat engineer officer before retiring in 2013. 

Upon retirement, Rich held Leadership positions with a Fortune 500 company and built and sold a profitable small business,.

While recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Rich began competing in the sport of triathlon, which proved to be a catalyst for his recovery and adaptation into a growth mindset, and he continues to push limits running triple-digit mile ultramarathons across the country.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

In the grand theater of life. We all seek a comeback, a resurgence, a rekindling of our inner fire. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience. This is not just another podcast. This is a journey, a venture into the heart of human spirit, the power of resilience and the art of reigniting our passions.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I'm your co-host, natalie Davis, and I am so excited to be with all of you today. And today's a little special because, pam, how are you? I am fabulous.

Speaker 1: 0:43

And we're in the same room Exactly.

Speaker 2: 0:46

It happens.

Speaker 1: 0:47

We happen to be traveling, we are in the beautiful state of Oregon, we are with an amazing company doing training with them all yesterday and today, and it's been amazing and we're like, well, let's just do a podcast while we're here, exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:01

Might as well, Absolutely. I just realized our listeners probably thought that we built out the studio.

Speaker 1: 1:07

No we're still doing that.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Pam's son just graduated, so congratulations on that. But we have I have plans of converting his room into a podcast studio. I haven't told him that yet, but it's okay, I think it'd be great He'll find out when his stuff's out front.

Speaker 1: 1:22

I'll unbox it and put it in the basement. You're nicer than me.

Speaker 2: 1:29

Well, we have a special guest today for all of our listeners that are joining us, and we are really excited. As you all know, we focus all of our attention and our episodes on overcoming adversities and staying in that space of resiliency, because it's so important for us to continue to take steps forward and not just survive but actually thrive through this fabulous journey that we call life. Our guest today is a retired US Army captain and is also who is a keynote speaker and an endurance athlete Again, we're going to learn a lot, because that's not my space and despite losing his arm in combat, he continues to embrace life's challenges and thrive in adversity. His message of raw resilience resonates with all of his audiences and it inspires them to keep moving forward through three things you guys Purpose, mindset and process. Rich, welcome, how are you?

Speaker 3: 2:24

Doing well, ladies, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 2:27

We're so excited to have you join us. You have a fabulously rich background in terms of life experience and I think we're in the same age range category. We definitely connected a little bit.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Okay, you too I'm on the other spectrum.

Speaker 2: 2:44

No, not even close and very similar stories in terms of upbringing, and so, before we dive into it, first and foremost I want to say thank you for your service to the country.

Speaker 3: 2:55

We really appreciate you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Yeah. So I would love to just hear if you could share with our listeners your experience. So you are a retired US Army captain. Talk to us about that journey in getting to that space, because I know that wasn't easy, and then your experience while you were serving.

Speaker 3: 3:16

Yeah, that was definitely not easy. So I retired twice. I was retired after I was injured. I was enlisted during my first appointment and then, when I was injured, they said here's a check, thank you for your service. And I got out and I came back in.

Speaker 3: 3:31

But for me, I chose the Army for multiple reasons. One when I was growing up, I was raising a fairly affluent home but I had no real guidance or direction. I was just a big ball of energy. My dad worked seven days a week, gone when I woke up, gone when I went to bed, and I started to loathe him for it growing up, because he was an outlier. I knew that and I saw my other friends doing cool stuff with their dads going to tailgates and hunting and fishing.

Speaker 3: 4:05

We didn't do stuff like that. I mean, my dad didn't come to my games and I'm not saying what was me my dad is one of my heroes to this day Um, but what I did have access to was drinking and fighting. And so when I got into my, my adolescent years, when I was in high school, that's what I did and I mean it, it, it. There was an issue for me finding, finding purpose. I always kind of steered towards the military because we, my entire family's lineage has been in in the service, so you know both my, both my grandfather's fathers and and and so forth. So, nonetheless, somehow, I guess. Uh, they give scholarships out to anybody in the state of Georgia, and I got an educational scholarship.

Speaker 2: 4:50

That's a very broad stroke there. Anyone, anybody.

Speaker 3: 4:56

Look, I'm telling you, but Georgia does have it going on as far as their scholarships, I think all you have to have is a 3.0. Yes, but my parents wouldn't let me go to any other college than the one that I went to. It was one of six senior military colleges in the country and it's the one you've never heard of, university of North Georgia, and that's where I really started loving the military. But I quit after my first semester. I had a 1.7 GPA. I called my dad. I was like Dad, I'm coming home. And he was like no, you're not. And I didn't plan for that.

Speaker 3: 5:34

I found myself homeless, sleeping in a tent by a creek in the mountains of North Georgia In the wintertime. It was so cold. My little Coleman heater froze in my tent and after taking gas station sink showers and brushing my teeth in the creek, I was like dude, what am I doing? This is not how I was raised, this is not. And so it was kind of a wake-up call. And so I went down to the National Guard, the Army National Guard recruiter, and I signed up Because at the the time they had a program where you could be enlisted in the Guard and then commissioned on active duty as an officer. So I called my dad. I'm like, dad, go on a basic training in March I think this is January at the time and he was like, okay, you can come home until you leave, under conditions. You will be in by seven. You will not watch any television, no drinking, you will work out and run every day, you will read at least one book a week and you will write a book report on it. And he had a daily calendar printed out that was on a week, where I had to write out everything that I was going to do each day for the week, and then at the end of every day, I'd have to write down what I did and he would initial next to it saying that the plan was executed. I just like you know, at the started getting older and throughout the process, that, yes, my dad was an outlier, but to be on the journey to whatever you call success, you have to be an outlier and you have to be willing to be uncomfortable to do that. And so the reason why I bring all that up is because I found purpose in the military. It became my identity, and so, in 2005, when my National Guard unit got orders to deploy. I couldn't wait. I mean, you know, because in my mind I wanted to see if I could. You know, I wanted to see if I could fill any part of the shoes that the guys before us in Vietnam, the guys that were scaling the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc in France, I wanted. That Three months in the fight, did not happen how I envisioned.

Speaker 3: 8:02

Right, I was a gunner in the four-vehicle patrol in an area known as the Triangle of Death, so this is southwest of Baghdad. You used to feel Mamadiya Ludafia if anybody is familiar with the area, I'm probably not and so, as a rear gunner, I have rear security and you know, I mean, like I said, ready for a fight. I mean this entire. I volunteer for every mission and I mean we were doing stuff. You're doing video games, setting up sniper OPs, and you know, I mean just, it was amazing.

Speaker 3: 8:35

And my vehicle going down the road strikes a roadside bomb and, you know, subsequently catapulted into the air and into a roll, you got as a gunner. This is before they had those large, you know mine resistant vehicles. We were in Humvees, so half my body is exposed, but we're trained. You drop down, grab the radio, mount and I mean you hold on right. Well, I got ejected. It's a little bit harder in the real world, but I remember closing my eyes and saying to myself lights out, say a prayer, lights out, say a prayer. Because I knew I was going to die.

Speaker 3: 9:13

So when I landed, I could not believe that I was alive. I mean, it was almost like am I in purgatory? Like how did I, you know, am I in another dimension? And when I look up, I see my driver is now unconscious in the passenger seat. And when I went to move towards him, that's when I felt what I thought to be a break in my arm. Because at this point, because it takes a while for your nerves to kind of catch up to what's going on I didn't feel anything, up to what's going on, I didn't feel anything. And so I took my right hand to feel for the break and I just hit nothing, my. I looked down and my uniform was just covered in blood and my forearm is just laying there, connected by something no bigger than a pinky finger. And so I'm back in this mode of die. And so I just, I just, you know, not today, satan I grabbed, picked up my arm and I took off running with it and sort of kicked a humpty door.

Speaker 3: 10:12

My driver came too and I mean, he saved my life. He got a tourniquet on it, put it in the proper place and at the time one of my best friends came over, cause, you remember, this is a national car. It's like, you know, you grew up with these people and I had gone to college with this, with Paul Saylor. He came over and he held my hand cause he was, cause I was closing my eyes, it was so hot, you know, he's thinking I was going to pass out. And he held my hand until they put me on the medevac chopper and when he let go he said you can be all right, man, I'll see you soon. And he was killed a month later and it's. You know that that is what our young children, our young kids I was, I think it was 21 at the time whatever, that's what they had to deal with.

Speaker 3: 10:57

And so, as I'm wheeled, as I woke up, so I'm flown to Baghdad and they anesthetized me and I was put under. And I remember waking up, being wheeled into a room on a gurney in Baghdad before I flew out, and I just groggily rolled over to see my nub wrapped in bandages and I closed my eyes and tried not to cry. Bandages, and I closed my eyes and tried not to cry, because that's the reason why I told you the preface story is because I've spent my entire life figuring out who I was, who I was going to be in this world, and it all came crashing down at once. I mean, I relied on my physical prowess to spend my life in a combat arms career. I mean I had it all planned out, everything I was going to go do, and now I was back at zero.

Speaker 3: 11:51

That's very difficult, but, at the same time that's why I start with purpose in my framework is because we need to be careful when we are doing our soul searching and trying to find purpose, because willpower willpower is just a bullshit word, right? It is an executive function that's part of your prefrontal cortex, and it gets. It's like a gas tank it gets depleted as you hit the gas pedal throughout the day. So purpose, though, is the true motivator, and so I always, always try and educate folks that, when you're talking about your purpose, you need to think about if you were to pull out of your driveway or, you know, out of the gas station, get hit by Mack truck, and you're now paralyzed with what you you're calling your purpose today. Still be your purpose when you're sitting in that hospital, because if it wouldn't be, that's not your purpose. Yeah, so you know I can't. It's appealing back an onion.

Speaker 3: 12:55

I can say all day long as an athlete, I am a runner, but I'm just, you know, one jacked up knee away from not being a runner. And now where am I at? So I call it the emotional threshold. I think of it as like a two-lane highway, and you can bounce around in there, but you don't want to go outside it. You don't want to go below it because it's very tough to get back in it, and you don't want to go above it because now you're on a hyper high which just makes you crash that much further. But you can raise that entire threshold by doing certain things. So that's where you want to be. So when, when adversarial challenges or adversarial experiences occur, you're not going on that low, low, because you know what your purpose is. And I'll tell you.

Speaker 3: 13:44

You know, I had my knee blow up at mile eight of a 50 mile run in the mountains and my purpose is what got me the remaining 42 miles, hopping on one leg is is because, you know, for me I am a motivator, so it doesn't matter if I lose my legs.

Speaker 3: 14:02

That's what I have found out through this process. I love doing it, it's a part of who I am. I remember being connected to an IV tree shortly after I lost my arm. It was within a week and I was on a treadmill because I hadn't ran in so long, just pushing it and everybody's like my God. Of course, the PT came over and unplugged the thing or whatever she freaked out. But if we can find our purpose, we're on the step to being unstoppable, because that's where the true motivation starts. And so for me, that's why I say what I thought was my purpose was soldiering, yeah, and that I was looking at it the wrong way. I was fortunate because when my when I arrived at Walter Reed, I arrived in the States two days later and my mom had my fly fishing rod in the hospital room.

Speaker 3: 14:56

So I'm thinking what am I going to do with that? But that was another thing that I had identified with being on a mountain. Trout stream is my sanctuary. I mean, I just can speak to the earth. I love it, just can't you know, and that's why I'm addicted to trail running as well. But I didn't know what I was going to do that fly rod until my cousin shows up a few days later and he's like, hey, let's go try this out. And so I go out to the front lawn with him of the hospital. I know some they probably thought I was escaping because I'm still connected to an IV tree.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Not quite yet. Give us a moment, like we'll get there.

Speaker 3: 15:32

It was brutal and, but it wasn't long before I started I started to cry as a grown man because I couldn't do it, I couldn't cast, and you know another thing taken away from me. And my cousin came over and he was like, look man, we're not going to leave until we get this, Like let's try like this, try like that. And we stayed out there and I just channeled all that anger and frustration. Just channel all that anger and frustration and I removed any sense of how I thought I would do it with two arms and just started kind of looking at it as like, okay, what do I have? So I started I could strip the line using my teeth and I could manipulate the fly line to cast with two fingers. And suddenly my view on everything changed from what am I going to do now to whatever it takes, I'll keep moving forward.

Speaker 3: 16:29

Yeah, and from that point forward it was no hold bar. I mean, I was, I was. I said yes to almost everything, right, and, and so that's how I got into the sport of triathlon. Uh, a guy asked me to be on his triathlon team. I'd signed up for the army, army tomorrow, something like that. And and um, he asked me to be on his triathlon team and I mean I hadn't swam competitively since I was I don't know in middle school and I hadn't really ridden a bike competitively ever. But since I was 12, to my buddy's house, um, you know, johnny's house in the neighborhood and I was like you know what fuck it man, I'm, I'm in and that decision right there. Second part of raw resilience is getting your mindset right. Had he asked me that question when I had two arms, I would have said no, I was in this fixed mindset. I mean, I used to be a pretty jacked dude.

Speaker 3: 17:29

I mean I was weighing over 200-something pounds, very little body fat, and I was great at lifting weights, soldiering stuff and running and I wouldn't have wanted anyone to see me fail you know, because in my mind and in my mind I was on a pedestal because I was so good at those things and I thought everybody now is completely opposite, like I want people to see me fail.

Speaker 3: 17:53

So they know that it's OK and this is the first step to progress and to growth. And so you know, the first time I got in that swimming pool I was so embarrassed the only lane that was open was um one of those double lanes where they took one of the ropes out to make it bigger, and all the 110 year olds are doing their pool neutral exercises, and so you know. So I'm showing up and there is another story that I'll leave out of here, but I have on this Speedo that's literally eating my ass, because I just have this little waist and a big ass, and so I'm already embarrassed that I have to jump in here with these 110-year-olds and dodge their pool noodles. But I'm also wearing this thing that I thought all swimmers wore and nobody else had one on when I showed up at the pool.

Speaker 2: 18:38

There's so many lessons in that one moment, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 18:43

There's so many tangents.

Speaker 3: 18:46

But I get going in the pool and I mean I can't make it the entire length of the pool in a freestyle without breaking into a breaststroke. I mean I was horrible. But instead of quitting, like I did in middle school and this is where it's a little easier for me, or I think was a little bit easier for me is I didn't have a choice of reinventing myself. People now you look at this experience and it's more difficult for them. But because they're not backed into a corner, right, they have options. So, which, you know, we get into with the process part. But when I was cycling, everyone had to wait on me the stop signs. I was embarrassed because I had never. I wasn't, I wasn't really like that right Like running. Never, nobody ever had to wait on me. Nobody ever had to wait on me. But the difference was, I asked for feedback, I asked for criticism. I welcomed the failures. I welcomed okay. Well, I started to breaststroke at 15 yards. Today, when am I going to start it more? Maybe I can get a little bit closer to the end, but I kept showing up every single day.

Speaker 3: 19:57

I put myself in an environment for success. I put myself in an environment for success Not the only reason I chose my roommate, thomas Odom, but Thomas is an Ironman, he's a together. We did everything together. That's how I mean we. We we ate, slept, breathed, this, and so you know, my mindset took this shift for growth, without me even. You know that was before all the buzz around around mindset Right and but. But it's so true you have to look to fail, to transform. There's going to be failure. And so which kind of leads into the third part of my framework, which is process, which I can touch on.

Speaker 3: 20:51

But the triathlon is what led me to get back into the military. After I lost my arm, they handed me a check, they saluted me and said thank you for your service. And so I went back to college, thinking I'm going to go work for Merrill Lynch, and I did an internship with a state senator and he asked me. He said what do you want to do after you get out of school? And I was like well, you know we're talking about going to, because my degree was in finance, which is so easy. Again, you know, degree was in finance, which is so easy. Again, you know, they'll let anybody into that career field as you can. You can see, with all the, all the stuff that's going on in finance.

Speaker 2: 21:25

The challenges that we're currently facing.

Speaker 3: 21:27

Yes, so, but you know, so I thought I was like I'd really like to get back in the military. And next thing I knew I was with him sitting in front of a general that worked on president Bush's staff retired general in Washington DC, and he was like, hey look, if you can meet the standard, we're going to, we're going to follow your, your, your progression and we're going to make this thing happen. Now, it wasn't obviously as easy as that. You know the whole, the whole time. And then I went back, I got into ROTC and there were times where I was like, hey look, we don't think it's going to happen. Obviously, we'd love for you to stay in the program. And I just stuck with it.

Speaker 3: 22:09

And I'll tell you, one of the things that helped me was a relentless pursuit of overachievement. I mean you, you tell me to to like the maximum. So I joined a ranger challenge which is kind of like um. They started calling it a collegiate sport at some point in time, like a little bit before I started um, because it's so time consuming, but but it's, you know, it's kind of like a sport for ROTC, and so the maximum pushups is like 77. In two minutes I did 134. So I well, I guess I didn't. I almost doubled 134 in that first competition. And the reason why I say is because no limits, I didn't, I didn't stop, I never took a break. You're allowed to do like a. You can arch your back or do this other thing Like no dude. We we got, we have two minutes. We can train ourselves to do anything for two minutes, you know.

Speaker 3: 23:08

Um and and and same thing, like two miles, and I think they've changed the fitness test since then, but you had to run a PT test in two miles or whatever, as fast as you could, and so I was really really good at those things. I really love the tactical aspect of it, the leadership aspect of it. I've always just loved motivating people and taking care of people, and that's kind of how I arrived where I'm at now, but that is what got me back into the military. There's no way that they said, for physical reasons, this kid can't go back in, and and you know. So what's what's kind of crazy about this story is it didn't happen in a vacuum and I it wasn't independent of of anyone else, right, like I had, I had a group behind me helping me, and there's so many, um, like Hollywood has kind of put this image in our minds that we, we loners, are the hard guys, right, that's a facade of shit there. It is just not true. I mean had my mom. My mom knew about bringing that flower ride. Yeah, it was her way of saying things don't have to change, right.

Speaker 3: 24:29

And so my school, I mean everybody got on board and now, look again, I went overboard. I was in student government. I mean I volunteer for everything I could. We started a triathlon club, thomas, and I did like we. You know I was all in, and so that experience that is how I take everything in my life is all in. It's like in the military. They say, oh, don't ask questions, dude you. Or they say, don't volunteer for you. You volunteer for everything you can, yes, and show failure. But you know what? Just give it your all and I'm telling you, you will learn and transform and grow so much quicker and so much further than anyone else ever will. That hides behind the other guy, than anyone else ever will that hides behind the other guy.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Thank you for joining us on today's episode of Reignite Resilience. We hope that you had amazing ahas and takeaways. Remember to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like it and download the upcoming episodes, and if you know anyone in your life that is looking to continue to ignite their resilience, share it with them. We look forward to seeing you on our future episodes and until then, continue to reignite that fire within your hearts.