Surviving Post-Combat Darkness: Beating PTSD, Addiction, and Writing 'Moon Child'

In this episode we sit down with Anthony Dyer, retired U.S. Air Force Special Missions Aviator and author of 'Moon Child.' We discuss Anthony's upbringing in Sylva, North Carolina, his military career, the impact of 9/11, and the emotional toll of combat. Anthony shares his journey of writing as a cathartic process to cope with his experiences and the importance of close air support in military operations. He offers advice for young veterans and reflects on the significance of fatherhood and personal growth.

About Anthony Dyer:

Anthony Dyer hails from the small Appalachian town of Sylva, North Carolina and served in our military for over 20 years. Enlisting in July 2000, Dyer’s extensive military career began as a weapons loader on F-15E Strike Eagles before he realized his goal of becoming a Special Missions Aviator on the AC-130H Spectre gunship. Driven by a desire to leave a lasting impact after 9/11, he deployed to combat zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and East Africa with the 16th Special Operations Squadron, where he provided critical close air support and participated in high-stakes rescue missions.

Dyer’s debut book, Moon Child is a memoir that bridges his Appalachian upbringing with his intense life in special operations. Born from a therapeutic need to process the "silence that followed" his service, the book explores themes of trauma, addiction, and the search for identity beyond the uniform. His work serves as a call to break the stigma around mental health for veterans and others seeking redemption.

Purchase ‘Moon Child’ on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Child-Special-Missions-Aviator/dp/B0DZMXBHJ4

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Anthony Dyer's Journey
01:36 Growing Up in Appalachia and Military Beginnings
03:37 The Impact of 9/11 on Military Service
06:55 Transitioning to the Gunship Squadron
10:16 The Importance of Brotherhood in the Military
11:21 Finding Purpose Beyond Military Identity
13:04 The Cathartic Process of Writing a Book
16:20 The Symbolism of 'Moon Child' and Personal Growth
18:15 The Duality of Combat Search and Rescue
19:53 Words of Wisdom for Young Aspirants
21:39 The Journey of Fatherhood
22:51 The Writing Process and Its Challenges
24:22 Innovative Solutions for Veterans' Stories
26:23 The Importance of Community and Connection
28:43 Taking Risks and Healing Through Vulnerability
30:47 The Value of True Friendship

#military #veterans #mentalhealth #ptsd #veteranmentalhealth

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Transcript

Brad Banyas (00:08)
All right, everybody, welcome back to the McBastard's Studio. You're listening to the Salty MF Goat. I'm Brad Banyas. I will be your host today. And today we're really excited to talk to Anthony Dyer. He's an ex Air Force ⁓ combat specialist, as well as he just wrote a book and really want to highlight his book about his story, ⁓ you know, how the book came about, how it helped him, you know, kind of the cathartic side of writing stuff down.

But I'm gonna let Anthony tell you that. Anthony, welcome to the show, brother.

Anthony Dyer (00:40)
Hey thanks for having me Brad, it's an honor and privilege to be here man.

Brad Banyas (00:44)
Yeah, it's an honor too. So you and I are from a similar area. So you're from Sylva, North Carolina. I was from Brevard and born in Asheville, North Carolina. So, Western Carolina, pretty well.

Anthony Dyer (00:56)
Yeah, remember playing,

yeah, my mom went to actually Western Carolina University there. I remember playing the Bravada Blue Devils if I remember right, the high school there in basketball.

Brad Banyas (01:06)
Yeah, yeah, I wasn't there. I wasn't there long. I didn't grow up there. I grew up in Atlanta, but that was where the roots of the family were. so, you know, for Moonchild, you know, I, you know, to me, I have no agenda where to go with this other than to tell your story about, know, where you're at. You know, you've got a good story about kind of growing up and having to go be a man and figure out what you want to do. So let's let's tell the Salty audience a little bit just about you and your background.

Anthony Dyer (01:15)
yeah.

Yeah, no problem. So you know from my West North Carolina, we sort of hit on a little bit earlier, but you know, grew up deep in Appalachia. I like to say that you know small town of Sylvo and like at the time it felt like you could throw a baseball across the whole town and you know how that is. And you know, the sense community was strong and everybody knows everybody's business which could be either really good or really bad, right? And you know, it's a lot of that stuff. But yeah, it's really cool. Everybody had each other's back there growing up and ⁓ you know, we played sports.

basketball there for two years, my junior senior year at Smokey Mountain High School. And I get to my senior year, my dad gives me the typical dad talk of, you're about to be a man, it's time to either get a job, go to college or get out. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna, they want to go to college. And I talked to a Army recruiter and then a Navy recruiter was talking about being on a boat for six months. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna talk to my dad about sort of the quality of life at Air Force. did four years down at McDeal, way before I was born. But yeah, about the good shot holes and.

golf clubs and TTY money writing. I was, I'm going do the Air Force. And yeah, yeah. So there I was on my first, you know, fixed wing flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was MEPS at and then to San Antonio, Texas of July 18th of 2000.

Brad Banyas (02:49)
That's awesome. And then you kind of show up there and you were in several areas, were in munitions loading on the aircraft and helicopters and things, and you kind of progressed, right? I think you kind of took some other routes as well, right?

Anthony Dyer (03:08)
Oh yeah. I, you know, my first base, Seymour Johnson, I was a weapons loader and they used to call us load toads and what they mean by that. Yeah. But basically there was these hydraulic lift trucks that we would load the even up to 2000 pound bombs. like for, my case, for example, was the F15E Strike Eagle. And yeah, so when the jammer and you put the legs out, it looks like a, tow there. So they call us load tows and I'd been there for, yeah, for about a year and some change. Then, uh, that's when a nine 11 happened. And then, um, I just remember.

Brad Banyas (03:14)
Ha ha!

Hahaha

Anthony Dyer (03:37)
I was on mid shift from 11 to 7 AM or whatnot. about 9 AM, if I remember right, or 8 or 9, one of my buddies is beating on the door and he's like, hey, Darv, have seen what happened? I was like, no, I haven't, man. I was in the day room and had a tube style TV there. And basically, the first plane had hit and we saw the second one hit. Yes, I remember that changed everybody in America mentality at that point. I knew it was on war wise and-

I always looked at those 343 firefighters that ran in that building that day and like, what's different those guys DNA, right? And I always wanted to sort of to do more. I never felt like I'd done enough and sort of test my metal. So did that job for five years and then at my five year mark, I retrained into aircraft or Air Force firefighting, did the ARF stuff there at Charleston Air Force Base. And long story short, did about five years of putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff there. And I still felt like I was really sitting on the sideline there and

Brad Banyas (04:12)
Yeah.

Ha

Anthony Dyer (04:34)
And I was actually home on leave of all places. I was at a pizza parlor and I looked out and the same windy road, right? Where I see the same cracks in the road. And what I'm getting at is I was sitting on the sideline and I didn't want to leave cracks, I wanted to leave craters. And that's when I finally decided to find the mighty AC-130 gunship, the H-model Spectre gunship in 16th Special Operations Squadron.

Brad Banyas (04:42)
Yeah.

That's awesome. know, know, uh, nine 11 was so impactful. I remember, you know, I, I, we had an office and we had TVs throughout the office and I walked out to grab coffee or something. And I saw the first plane like hit. I didn't really pay attention to it, man. I thought it was like, you know, next Bruce Willis movie. Cause it looked like so surreal, you know, it's like, the hell, you know, you know, it's, thought, that's some kind of.

Anthony Dyer (05:21)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (05:26)
crazy movie they're coming out with. Came out again and saw it on another TV and I was like, wow, they're really kind of promoting the shit out of this movie, right? And then I was like, holy shit, this is not a movie. my God. You know, so I remember that like, you know, I think it was a point, you know, everyone in America was kind of glued to that. And a lot of military guys that we talked to said, you're sitting in the same situation you were, you know, when that happened, you know, it was like they're calling to go.

Anthony Dyer (05:35)
Yeah.

yeah.

Brad Banyas (05:55)
to go serve, know, ⁓ kudos to you on that.

Anthony Dyer (05:58)
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. know, I remember like loading the even the next day loading the F-15, the strike evil fighter jet. They're like looking at those missiles, those air to air missiles thinking like that was for Noble Eagle. like, man, if one of these don't come back, that means it was on likely an airliner. Right. Is what I was thinking, you know. And then, but yeah, just it was definitely a wake up call. And, know, there was words like duty honor and like, you know, one of the core values of service before self. Like, I didn't really know what that meant until till later in my career still, you know.

Brad Banyas (06:14)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, but you know, man, a lot of that too with age, man. I you know, I'm old now, but you know, you, don't really, you, the older you get, the more experience you have. Like I, spent 21 years, I believe, or 20 plus years in United States Air Force. I mean, the older you get, you know, there is that, that wisdom does come to, right? You, start to realize what those old guys were talking about. You just have to kind of go through it and have your own horror stories and.

Anthony Dyer (06:32)
yeah.

yeah.

Brad Banyas (06:55)
And you know that because you were in Afghanistan, Iraq and East Africa, correct?

Anthony Dyer (07:01)
Correct, Yeah, you know, what's ⁓ talking about sort of the things you learn as you get older, it's a good way to put it. I ⁓ remember when I first got to the Gunship Squadron, the 16th SOS, and you walk around that squadron, man, there's letters all around that squadron from, like, for example, one of the ones I'd always read was a Ranger holding his baby girl and, you know, basically thanking the Gunship Squadron for the rounds and the close air support, and he was able to go home and see his baby girl, you know, and you don't think about those letters when you're young, you know, and...

You just want to go get in a fight, but you look at him a lot different when you have a family when you get older, right? And that was sort of my, my why my sense of purpose, you know, was, you know, I, realized like not everybody could be like a special operator, right? The whole water is a game changer in itself, but I realized what I could do is, you know, provide that close air support and the whole, my identity was to, you know, in my mind, make sure those guys got home to their families. And that was that why for all those years. And then when the dust settles, when you see the end of that tunnel and that's, that's over, man, that's a real thing that.

Brad Banyas (07:55)
That's awesome.

Anthony Dyer (07:59)
I think a lot of veterans I struggle with and a lot of people reached out to me after the book and even mentioned that.

Brad Banyas (08:05)
Yeah, well, I bet they're happy as shit, you know, that Delta Force or SEALs or whoever, Green Berets, whoever on the ground, know, air cover, air covers life or death, right? You get in a situation. mean, so they're happy to have you. know, it's funny, I think the one thing about the military working so in sync, we had an ex SEAL on and he was talking about just how important it was to communicate across a different service.

Anthony Dyer (08:17)
⁓ yeah.

Brad Banyas (08:33)
groups, right? So if they had to communicate to the Green Bear A's or whatever, field guys, you're responsible for giving the best communications you can or someone dies, right? It's not like withholding information. You got to give them all the information, all the intel, everything you have because if you don't pass that, you don't pass it timely, that person could die. So I'm sure those guys are much grateful for you and vice versa.

Anthony Dyer (09:01)
Yeah,

it was was always it was a really awesome community like you so calm in general, you know, and I you know, there's the five soft truths there, you know, one of those is as humans are more important than hardware and I always thought about that too, you know, so there is that sort of my brother's keeper mentality or sheepdog mentality, whatever you want to call that. And you know, at the other end of all this, there is the action part that that'd be line if I said I don't miss, you know, and like, you know, there's nothing better like talking about, know, basically providing that close air support for those guys when you're a few miles out and.

You start picking the enemy up on your sensors, right? And they feel your, your four fans of freedom. Like the Taliban knew about the gunship specifically, you know, and you see them start running. They run like bees and they know it's over. know, it's over. And then it's a, you chase that feeling, right? And I'd be lying if I said I didn't all those years, you know.

Brad Banyas (09:33)
Yeah.

yeah, they're amazing.

I mean, you look, mean, you know, look, you know, it's it's it's your family, right? I mean, if if just the general population or civilian population or whatever, it's why sports and athletics are, you know, in my mind, very similar to like the military. I mean, if we all were looking at it like, hey, you know, this is my brother or sister, this is my American, whether what whether it's your neighbor or some some guy down the street or whatever. I think that that unity in community is you miss it.

Anthony Dyer (09:53)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (10:16)
And everyone we talk to, everyone we talk to like misses that. And ⁓ you know, get into the real world and that just a general world and you know, it's it's, you know, military is chaotic. But you know, also the civilian world in real world is it's insane. There are no rules many times for people to follow or to have really kind of you talk about loyalty, right? You talk about trust. You talk about, you know, things like that. You know, it's it's

Anthony Dyer (10:17)
yeah.

it.

Brad Banyas (10:44)
It's column fodder in some of the business worlds that you deal with. People don't give a shit. They do whatever they want to do for the almighty dollar.

Anthony Dyer (10:49)
yeah.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, man. And I always thought about too, there's sort of a symbolic moment. Like, I don't know if I put this in the book. I should have, but I didn't think about it till later. you know, one of those things where you walk out of this MPF or this personnel is flight when you're filling out for your DD 214, right? And a lot of times in these offices, a common thing is like, you'll walk out, but there's no door handle on the other end of that door seat. You know, it's like sort of like the opposite of hotel California, you can leave, but you can never get back in. And, and yeah, man. And with that, like that whole.

Brad Banyas (11:17)
Yeah, that's right.

Anthony Dyer (11:21)
sense of identity, self, my purpose, my why. And I had to get over myself a little bit too and realize, hey, this thing goes on. I know there's a saying, what's this brief mortal life if not the pursuit of legacy? to me, now it's being the best dad, I could be the best father, I could be the best friend, I could be to someone. And to answer that phone when those phone calls happen.

Brad Banyas (11:40)
Yeah.

Yeah, no doubt, man. mean, you you it's, you know, you kind of equate this stuff to the other world, like people are losing their jobs, crazy, like thousands of people, right? I mean, it's crazy. And, know, it's kind of hard not to tie your identity to your service or what you did, you know, as a gunner or

you know, whatever you did is kind of hard because you did that shit for 20 years, right? You did for a long time. So it's, it's, it's tough for people. think I always try to tell you, you know, your, your job sometimes is not really your identity, right? It's what your, whole makeup is. Are you a good dad? Are you a good friend? Are you a good whatever? you, know, those things make up like truly a dude's or a woman's identity. And, uh, but when you're in that every day and you're, know, Hey, this is what we do. We get up at this time.

Anthony Dyer (12:13)
Right, right.

yeah.

Brad Banyas (12:30)
dress this way we do this it's ⁓ I can't imagine and I've read some of it I've not read the whole book ⁓ but moon child is such an amazing name and I liked how you're you know you talked about your born and full moon and you know tell everybody a little bit I know it's kind of your I love how you're like it's kind of helping you it's cathartic it's helping you kind of get through some of the demons or things that you face so you know I don't I don't want to steal your show but you know let's

Just tell us about like, hey man, I sat down like I'm going to write a book, right? So.

Anthony Dyer (13:04)
Yeah,

yeah, no problem. So I had my last year, so my last, 20th to 21st year, ended up starting to see a U SOCOM psychiatrist and doing the prolonged therapy exposure. And there was different reasons. I was part of a cast of admission that four or five years when I was in the payback helicopters and sometimes in that life you see the unfortunate, the worst thing that could happen to someone. And so I was dealing with that. ⁓

And I went back to gunships to my last deployment to Iraq and it was so slow. think we shot once in like 90 days and you know, I could see that into the, you know, that last year in the tunnel. Like this is this chapter is about to close in my life, you know, and that hit me like a ton of bricks. And I remember getting back and you know, honestly, what started as a weekend drinking happened, you know, two or three beers ended up being a pine of night with a sleeping medication, you name it, man. And anybody that's ever been in that vicious cycle of alcoholism, like if you had that bug, I feel for you. You know, I know how that is.

My wife gives me the ultimatum like, like it's either me or your daughter or the bottle, you know, and, you know, thank God and with his grace, I chose my family, you know? And so I went to see the, the psychiatrist and we were doing this prolonged exposure therapy and part of that process is getting comfortable being uncomfortable. You know, you write your story out and then you get to where you can basically say it without, you know, being a big ball of emotions like, like I was, I remember the first time to be honest with you, I told her that I cried, heck, she cried, the psychiatrist and.

Brad Banyas (14:07)
Absolutely.

Anthony Dyer (14:27)
She was like, should tell your story over and over. And I was like, no, you know, there's always this quiet professional part of all this. And, but when I got out in the dust settle, man, and I was craving that, that bottle, right. Like I pick up a pen and start writing things out. And I was like, you know, maybe I should pay it forward. Maybe I should publish a book. And if, one person gets help from this and to me that that's a, that's a blessing, you know.

Brad Banyas (14:48)
Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think it's, you know, I don't know about courage, everyone's like, it takes a lot of courage to do that stuff. The reality of it is that if you can get comfortable with it, what we all realize and you realize it, I realize it, we're not alone. We're not alone in the troubles. We're not alone in the alcoholism. We're not alone in whatever we think we are. We think like, shit, it's just me, right?

I think if you get over that, you know, shit, maybe this someone who won't come forward or can't come forward, this just breaks them out. listened to a podcast and I forget the gentleman's name. He was an ex military guy and he was interviewing and it was really awesome to hear like him making comments on your book and the things that he wrote down and the things that helped them and the things that related. So I can tell you from the brief time I've just kind of.

try to learn you and know about you, ⁓ it's an impact, right? That's awesome.

Anthony Dyer (15:52)
yeah, and to be honest with you, it's been overwhelming the texts and the emails from men and women I flew with, like, some of them are still in, and they're like, hey, I struggle with the same thing. And we're all very normal men and women doing very uncommon, not normal things, right? And so I think sometimes with the, I don't know, the macho of it all, I would forget that. that the hardest thing for me, sort of like you were saying, was to be vulnerable.

Brad Banyas (16:20)
Yeah.

Anthony Dyer (16:20)
to

really let yourself out there. And as far as the symbology, I'm big on symbology in the book. there's the whole, the moon part of it comes from that quote, stay a while moon child. And I remember thinking like flying in this, especially in Afghanistan and with the train on a full moon with that a percent of lumen, those NVGs, it was like my lighthouse, my get well point. We often use that term flying a lot. And I started thinking too, like on those worst nights, like

Brad Banyas (16:43)
Right.

Anthony Dyer (16:47)
You got the weathers against you, the communication, the comms are out, emergency procedure, your gun jams, whatever the case is, you know, those very worst nights. That's when everybody depends on me, needs you to be your very best. And what I mean by all that is like, you know, that darkest night, man, that's when that moon burns the brightest for me. it's, you know, you don't get to fall, you get to rise.

Brad Banyas (17:07)
It's awesome. I mean, the name of the book, it's just a great name and the meaning behind it's really awesome. I saw that quote. It's a great quote. I'm going to get that put on our wall. It's a great quote. I think you've been on a lot of podcasts. I want to try to get some things. When you're out there and you're getting guys, like whether you guys were flying in to get hurt,

Anthony Dyer (17:20)
Awesome, thank you.

Brad Banyas (17:36)
hurt other hurt guys and bring them back. And I know a story where you guys lost, you won a particular, you won the Jolly Green, right, rescue award and one of our soldiers didn't make it. The team really takes, the team even there, even though they weren't on the ground when he got shot, mean, everybody in there really takes accountability and really feels guilty if that man doesn't make it.

Anthony Dyer (17:54)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (18:07)
Like, can you explain that? Because you know, like, you're like, you know, we did everything we could, but the reality of that burden still sitting on your soul years later.

Anthony Dyer (18:15)
Oh yeah. Yeah. And I tell people on that, you know, June 8th, uh, 2018 in East Africa, we, we saw the very best side of combat search and rescue and the worst side, you know, and this was the pay fuck the helicopter part of my journey. uh, you know, meaning we save five, you know, five lives and then one American when he got back, unfortunately passed away on the operating table. the mind is a very, very tricky thing. You know, I remember, you know, the, the guy on the left told me to check the bottom of the hole, the aircraft for bullet holes. And we got back and I come around to the aircraft's 12 o'clock and

the aircraft commander, pilot, Lee Piles, his face is white. And I knew at that moment that an eagle, an American had passed. ⁓ when you get back and that adrenaline cells, man, that really hits you like a ton of bricks, man. And there's moments I talk about where I remember they were trying to find enough OSB board to build a casket for the guy. And that's someone's brother, someone's son, someone's friend that, like I said, I didn't know what service before self meant until that day.

Brad Banyas (18:51)
Yeah.

Anthony Dyer (19:11)
I wouldn't have said sacrifice, and that stays with me forever.

Brad Banyas (19:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean,

absolutely. mean, absolutely combat and stuff is horrible. And I mean, just, you know, everyone around trying to get that guy back and, I can't imagine, I couldn't even imagine that. I couldn't imagine that. So, I mean, some of the, you know, I mean, you obviously, you know, for your service and what you've done, everyone's grateful and appreciative of that. Like what kind of advice would you give that 17 year old kid coming out of Silva, North Carolina?

Anthony Dyer (19:27)
yeah, and that's

Brad Banyas (19:42)
⁓ that may want to go into the services. Like what would you, like would you give them some words of wisdom, like how to get through or what to do? Just curious.

Anthony Dyer (19:53)
Yeah, I would, you know, if I could sum it up in two words, would say perseverance and repetition and what I mean by that. I'm going to paint a picture here, man, from my first flight on the 1830 gunship. It went so bad, man, to where the instructor said, you're the reason you to brief seat belts on airliners, right? yeah. But, but he, but he taught me probably the most important lesson I've ever learned. And he saw me lick my wounds towards the end of this flight. You know, it went so bad. I didn't get to shoot and there's range conditions, all this stuff.

He's like, what's the most important word in the dictionary? was like, man, I don't even know where I'm at right now, right? And he said perseverance, because I want you to think about that, come back next flight ready to fight. And then for the roots part of back home, I remember basketball camp, this guy came down. I think he coached at the North Rhine College at one point, this guy from New Jersey. But his whole thing when he would sit there in front of his free throw line and shoot 100 free throws and make like everyone, man, I swear I didn't miss. And his whole idea was the key to success in anything in life is repetition.

So I would tell that 18 year old kid like, hey man, like with those two words, like you can go anywhere. But also there's gonna get a point doing this in that world, you you're gonna have to take that tactical knee. When it happens, it happens, you know.

Brad Banyas (21:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that's some really good advice. so what did you, what are the some of the things, you know, I don't know how old your daughter is, not really important for the audience, but just like, ⁓ you know, being present with your daughter and being present now. mean, you you've come through some of the things and you talked about alcoholism and things and you chose your family, which is awesome. You know, God bless that. like, so

Anthony Dyer (21:28)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (21:30)
What are some of the things you really like, you're really grateful now that you kind of made that transition? Because you're still young man, so.

Anthony Dyer (21:39)
Oh

yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't, go to bed, sort of wake up, crunchy man. So I don't, I don't feel too young, but yeah. Yeah. And if fatherhood is one of those things, you know, I said this the other day, I was thinking of this the other day, but like the kids don't really come with a checklist, you know, like Gunners were very, Eric was very checklist oriented, right? And kids, you sort of have to like figure out what works for you and go with it. You know, cause there's all these people giving you all this advice about your kid, you know? And, but I remember my parents gave me the best thing they could have gave me and that they believed in me.

And they pray for me, know? just being, like you said, present with my daughter, just being there for her and believing in her, goes to me that that's everything, you know?

Brad Banyas (22:09)
Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome, man. That's amazing. That's amazing. So when you were writing the book, ⁓ you know, people have always like, hey, write a book, you know, everyone thinks like, yeah, I'll try to write a book. I'm like, add adhd, dude. I'm like, Hey, there's a butterfly chasing around. it be very tough for me to do it. So, you know, did you kind of get into a rhythm and you like, did you kind of know the order you wanted to write in or you just kind of

Anthony Dyer (22:34)
I'm there with you man.

Brad Banyas (22:47)
writing things down and then kind of compiling it.

Anthony Dyer (22:51)
So I knew like I had had the roots and wing parts like I didn't have the title moon child yet but ⁓ I had a somewhat of a you know a flood timeline to flow with it and then I had reached out at least where I thought I had enough for a book to ⁓ a war journalist named Holly McKay and and she's in a you know responding really quick it was in minutes and I was at Walmart text and the next thing you know I got a phone call appointment and I told her sort of my idea and the way I wanted to go so yeah you know I'll do it and so

Brad Banyas (23:12)
Yeah.

Anthony Dyer (23:19)
you know, a word document back and forth. Basically, she did a really good job of like, you know, getting me to say the loud part out loud, you know, and give my words teeth, you know, and make it, helping me make sense of all this, right. And then start to finish pen to book in hand was about seven months, you know, and I had to add a lot more after, you know, working with her. I'm so thankful for her and Robbie Grayson was a publisher. He recommended the actual title Moonchild because that was one of my favorite points that I'd put in the, you know, the Rita Klint.

Brad Banyas (23:25)
Yeah, absolutely.

That's good.

Anthony Dyer (23:47)
appointment in the first part. But yeah, was a journey, was experience and sometimes man, you just gotta pull that trigger, you gotta send it man, know, and bleed it on a page and you'll feel better if you do,

Brad Banyas (23:56)
Yeah.

Well, I'm not all the way through, but so far I think it's great, man. And, you know, one of the things I kind of went through just listening to another podcast with you on it is so you've come up with ⁓ kind of an app or an idea for other veterans ⁓ to tell their story and kind of talk into it. And then it kind of organizes that right to help them get the whole publishing process done. Is that correct?

Anthony Dyer (24:22)
That's correct. Yeah. The, the state just approved the name for the nonprofit and, the app would be called itself the debrief and, what I'm, what I'm trying to do and, know, I need some sort of big, you know, tech guru or something like that to help me out with this. But, basically you would speak into this phone or your app, you know, and the veteran first responder, these, these uncommon type jobs, right? They could, you know, say everything and it was soft edited for them. And then, you know, for either free or very low cost, get it edited and published. ⁓

for either cheap or free, you know? And I think it's important that, I'm sorry, good?

Brad Banyas (24:55)
Yeah, that's awesome.

No, I just said it's a great idea. It's awesome. It's a really good idea. think it makes a lot of sense. we happen to know some tech people so we can. Yeah, we can talk offline on that. Another thing, have you ever heard of Operation Song?

Anthony Dyer (25:01)
Thank you, I appreciate it.

If you do, man, I would love that man. So thank you.

I have not, no sir.

Brad Banyas (25:16)
Yeah. So operations song, Mike Byer was on here. He's kind of the executive director. They're out of Nashville. And what they do is they pair songwriters with veterans about their story. And I was going to, I was going to say, I'd like to introduce you to them because I think Moonshaw would be a really amazing, tell your story through a song. And so they pair songwriters with the veterans. We're veterans families at, you know, it's been anyone related to the veteran and they, they write.

and create songs around it. And it's an amazing thing. And I see kind of what you're wanting to do with your debrief, just flowing right into that and amazing and getting the stories out of these veterans even to a broader media. So that's amazing.

Anthony Dyer (25:51)
yeah.

Again, would 100 % do that. Man, that's an awesome idea and I'm gonna definitely get with you about that, appreciate that. And I think writing is helping and helping is healing, I found out. It's therapeutic. Cuz there's common struggles between all the veterans and that one, that sense of purpose. That's the main theme in all these, a lot of my stories, so.

Brad Banyas (26:14)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you know Brothers Keeper Veteran Foundation, Chris Kather is he's an ex Green Beret, health, the force guy. And it was, it's basically was built to help prevent veteran suicide. And, ⁓ you know, so, I mean, one of the things I would love for everyone to do, we have such a broad veteran community now that's just doing, just doing really amazing things. It's trying to get all of us in like a, like a room or something and just like.

Anthony Dyer (26:49)
yeah.

Brad Banyas (26:52)
figure out like what we could all even do more, right? I mean, our role is try to help tell stories, but the reality of it is all you guys have the same heart, same mission, like, you know, trying to help each other and it's just amazing. If we can harness all that energy, dude, it'd be amazing.

Anthony Dyer (26:56)
Yeah. yeah.

Yes, some of the most creative minds to like I thought about veterans and you know first responders these uncommon jobs these Unconventional jobs, know that I think being creative comes comes with that just the nature of it a lot, you know

Brad Banyas (27:24)
Absolutely, Absolutely. ⁓ you wanted to, so everyone needs to get out and get Moonchild. I you can get it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. I mean, there's probably, if there's any other places, like let everybody know. But I want to ask a couple of this questions to you about kind of getting through some things, if that's okay.

Anthony Dyer (27:42)
Yeah,

yeah, that's fine.

Brad Banyas (27:45)
Yeah, so is it Amazon and Barnes and Noble the main places to get it or? Yeah.

Anthony Dyer (27:49)
Yeah, correct. Yeah, you can get

on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Then there's ⁓ my publisher, Robbie Grayson, it's called Traitmarker Media. He has it on the page there where you can go down and click the country you're in, the flag on it, and that's when it'll lead you to the Amazon link as well.

Brad Banyas (28:04)
awesome. the audience to get out there. you know, through through just if you don't, you know, if you're like, Hey, man, you're getting too personal. I don't want to do that. That's fine. I just, know, a lot of people struggle with the to get through recovery and make the decisions to kind of, you know, move forward. I mean, can you give, you know, veteran, non veteran? I mean, there's a lot a lot of things going on that are non vet related. Like just I know we talked about perseverance and you

just keep going. like, is there some things that you found, you know, riding, obviously getting that out? What are what are some things maybe that really that really helped you when you thought maybe you couldn't be helped?

Anthony Dyer (28:43)
Yeah, so I thought like risk is I think in, you know, after it's all said and done, you have to take some risk, you know, and we're all used to taking a little bit of risk, right? know, I heard a quote and it was some of the effect of, you know, let or what was it? Empires are built on risk and then nine to fives are built on avoiding them. And I would like to say that, you know, legacy is built on, taking risks and nine to fives are built on avoiding them. Meaning like, you know, like what we do in life echoes an eternity man. like,

you know, being vulnerable, that's how you really get your story out and that's how you heal, you know. And once you do and you bleed it on the page, like that's therapeutic and you get to look at everything with a different perspective, you know, and you're ⁓ like, that's everything and getting other veterans perspective and just thoughts on it, you know, and it helps you grow.

Brad Banyas (29:31)
Yeah, that's great, man. That's great. Because there's a lot of suicide and just things that, you know, going on even more so today. I mean, when we got involved kind of with the Brothers Keeper veteran, like I didn't realize, I mean, the suicide rate for veterans is like, you know, through the roof. You know, it's insane. So and you don't hear that every like you don't hear that every day. You don't you don't really understand, you know, stats.

Anthony Dyer (29:48)
It's insane,

Brad Banyas (29:58)
People throw stats around like, oh, know, 120 % more or whatever. Oh, big deal. Whatever. Well, yeah, it's a huge deal, you know.

Anthony Dyer (30:04)
It's

even one's a big deal, you know, and I think that, you know, after two decades of war and doing these these uncommon things, you know, the one thing I've learned is there's people that in my, you know, my life that the biggest thing the Air Force and military and this community gave me was I could call it a moment. So I know they would pick up a phone and, know, I like to say often like we surround ourselves by our four quarters, not 100 pennies, right? Those those four quarters that you can depend on at any time. And that's if you've got that, if you got everything in the world and

Brad Banyas (30:28)
Yeah, I love that.

Anthony Dyer (30:33)
And I think checking on each other, I ⁓ think we are getting better as a community with that. And there's a difference between saying, hey, we know each other more than anybody, And saying, hey, how's it going, man? Versus, hey, how are you doing really, man? How are you feeling, right? So I think that's went a long way.

Brad Banyas (30:47)
Right.

Yeah, I mean, most most men like I'm good man. Like, yeah, figure it out, right? I got I'm fine. How are you? Oh, my leg just got blown. I'm good, man. Don't worry about me. So I mean, we're kind of I think it's just kind of in our nature to kind of do that. But you're right. You know, you got I love that kind of sputter four quarters and 100 pennies. You know, my dad always used to tell me, hey, man, if you can count the number of good friends you have when you die on one hand. You got a good life.

Anthony Dyer (30:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

yeah.

Brad Banyas (31:20)
Not both hands, like one hand. And as I watched him through his life and he was an outgoing guy and good guy and everything, but he had like, had like, you know, out of those four quarters, he had, he had two 50 cent pieces, right? And they were good. You know, they were, were, they were solid. And I think, uh, so I love that four quarters to about 100 pennies.

Anthony Dyer (31:22)
Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah, that's ⁓ man, that's awesome. said that the other day I was on Instagram and it's one of my favorite reels and I think the guy's name was like Joe Stan 44 and basically talked about the movie Tombstone. That's his favorite movie, right? And he, ⁓ he gets into this thing where he's like, you know, Doc Holliday and a wider getting a shootout with the outlaws down by the river. And one of the outlaws asked Doc Holliday at the end of his like, do you do it doc? He goes, you know, cause wide herb is my friend. And he goes, why have lots of friends and Doc Holliday said, Doc Holliday said, well, I don't.

You because you understand the value of if you have one or two people that you can really truly count, then you've got everything in the world, man.

Brad Banyas (32:11)
Yeah.

Absolutely, It helps to have numbers sometimes in a fight, but it's always good to have somebody walking right beside you or behind you or in front of you. that's amazing. Well, mean, you've been awesome. I'd love to, you you and I to talk a little bit about some things. We can talk offline, but I've got some things maybe we can jointly do and, you know, we'll have all this in the notes where you can get the book. This will come out next Wednesday.

Anthony Dyer (32:23)
yeah.

is priceless for sure.

Brad Banyas (32:46)
So, mean, first of all, man, I'm proud of you. You you made it through, you're doing a good job. The good Lord is walking with you. I mean, what more can you want?

Anthony Dyer (32:57)
Thank you, brother. And I'm proud of you, I tell people that I don't believe in coincidences, and I think collaborations and collision happens for a reason, whatever reason God's got for us, you know? So it's a great meeting.

Brad Banyas (33:08)
Absolutely, man, absolutely. So stay on, we'll close it out. So everybody, you've been listening to Salty Mef Goat, we had Anthony Dyer on. Please go and check out his book, Moon Child. We will have that in the notes as well, you can get it. But it's a great story about what he went through, ⁓ the operations he was in. It's pretty cool if you're an AC 130 fan, these gunships are pretty amazing. So I think if anybody heard that thing coming,

be a little bit scary. would try to run and hide, but Anthony's a good man and we are grateful to have him on. So that's it. Let's go.