Couple O' Nukes
Welcome to a self-improvement podcast dedicated to mentoring young adults, rebuilding broken dreams, and combatting trauma. This show is an abundant network of experts and resources that you can utilize to improve your life. We're all on our own journey, and we're all at different parts in our journey. Hosted by Mr. Whiskey, a U.S. Navy veteran, author, and speaker, this show is designed as a place where you can get connections and information to improve your mental health, fitness, career, finances, faith, and whatever else you want to focus on, wherever you are in your journey. From nuclear operators, young pilots, and scientists, to recovering addicts, actresses, and preachers, this diverse collection of voices, stories, and life is a resource for your use, anytime, anywhere, to be entertained, educated, and connected.
Check Out The Website: https://coupleonukes.com
Couple O' Nukes
CVN 73 USS George Washington: Another Suicide And The Truth They Aren't Telling
Today, I confront a devastating story that is some of the latest Navy news: the loss of Navy Sailor Jose Antonio Rivera Lynch IV, a 19-year-old aviation boatswain’s mate serving aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73).
Officially, Rivera was reported missing at sea during operations in the Banda Sea near Australia. However, sources close to the situation claim this was not a simple man-overboard tragedy, but a suicide—one that leadership ignored and may have attempted to cover up.
As a former sailor who lived and worked aboard the George Washington, I share my own first-hand knowledge of the ship’s dark history with suicide, toxic leadership, poor mental health resources, and cover-ups. Ms. Imani McLemore joins me as co-host to bring an outside perspective, and together we explore the heartbreaking details surrounding Rivera’s final phone call home, the alleged suicide note discovered in his rack, and the broader culture of silence within the Navy.
This conversation goes beyond one sailor’s death to address the systemic crisis across the fleet. The George Washington has already been under scrutiny for setting records in suicides, including multiple deaths in a single week, and sailors continue to report delayed care, ignored requests for help, and retaliation when speaking out. We discuss how this toxic culture damages young men and women fresh out of high school, stripping away their humanity and leaving families blindsided by tragedy.
Ms. McLemore and I also compare military struggles with civilian workplace stress, highlighting how poor leadership, overwork, and neglect can drive individuals to despair. She opens up about her own experiences with toxic environments and mental health challenges, creating a powerful parallel that shows these problems are not confined to the Navy alone. This is a call for accountability, prevention, and real mentorship—solutions that could save lives if leaders are willing to act.
Website: https://coupleonukes.com
Exodus, Honor Your Heart, & Thrive Alcohol Recovery: https://www.coupleonukes.com/affiliates/
Want to be a guest on Couple O' Nukes? Send me a message on PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1726279485588093e83e0e007
Sign Up For A PodMatch Account: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/coupleonukes
*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode, a couple of nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, but this is no normal episode. This is last minute, but this is necessary as soon as I got the news today about the news that we're gonna be going over. I was very, very angry. I was very upset. I still have a lot of emotions going on about it, and I'm in the works of doing a lot of things about this because this is not okay, and here to help me cover all this and Monty mcc, Glenmore friend, coworker.
She does a lot of things, graphic designer, check it out. I wanted a co-host for this subject 'cause it is something I wanna have a back and forth dialogue about. And I definitely want anyone who has any information or has anything to say, can definitely email me a couple of nukes@gmail.com and yeah, we're gonna get into it.
So, Ms. MacLemore, I hope you're ready. If you just wanna say hi to everyone, you can as well. Hello? Hello. Hi, uh, Dylan. Yeah, if that's the best, if that's the best one. That was good enough. We're gonna get into, I'm gonna present to you this article. You may have heard about it, maybe not. I didn't tell you ahead of time on purpose, but.
There was a sailor who went missing from CVN 73 USS, George Washington Aircraft carrier. I served aboard that aircraft carrier and as soon as this sailor went missing, a couple people contacted me about it saying, do you know anything? You were on board that ship. Do you know the person? The whole usual ordeal.
Anytime something happens with a military command or a ship that you were on at some point, everyone assumes you'll know everything that's going on. I didn't know about it, so I researched it lightly. And it seemed like you know your run of the mill situation. I'm gonna read all the articles now, starting with the most recent one.
I'm gonna have all the links in the description below for all the news articles I referenced for this, because I did go through a couple different ones from a couple weeks ago to a couple days ago. The headline of this one was Sailor 19 was Living the Dream. Then his dad got a call that he was missing.
My universe imploded. And so this was published on August 16th, 2025, 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. So literally just a few days ago last week. Literal last week. Yeah. Three, three days ago. Need to know Navy Sailor Jose, Antonio Rivera Lynch The fourth was declared Lost at Sea on July 30th. Two days after he went missing during a training exercise on board the USS George Washington, his dad, Jose Rivera III, opens up to people.
That is the, uh, current news article that I am reading about the moment he learned his son was involved in a man overboard incident. He also reveals the final words he said to his 19-year-old son Now. This article was also covered on USNI news and the official website in the United States Government C seven FTA Navy Mill slash a bunch of different things.
Link in the description below also covered it, and it was even covered on. Jack's News, website because the sailor was from not too far away from Jacksonville, which brings it close to home for me. And Ms. MacLemore, we were both south Easterners, and yeah, it was covered by, news four Jax.
The WJXT. So. Multiple, people covered it. And, I'm just reading from the people, news article because that is the most recent one. Jose Rivera iii, a Dad of the Late Navy Sailor Jose Antonio Rivera Lynch. The fourth is recounting the moment when his quote universe imploded.
Speaking with people. The grieving father, 63 years old, recalls receiving a heartbreaking call informing him that his 19-year-old son went missing on Monday, July 28th during a trainer exercise on board the USS George Washington in the Indian Ocean just north of Australia. And, other articles referenced it as, the Banda
it was near Australia and Australia's, forces were involved in the search and rescue efforts. Basically the father shared with all the different news articles that,, interviewed him and talked to him that he got home on Monday after work.
He gets a phone call. Basically the person is like, we have information about your son. We need to spa face to face. And when the car got in his driveway, a chaplain came out. Uh, he learned that a person on the phone was a casualty notification officer. And that's when quote, his universe imploded. Some of the news articles say Universe exploded, right?
Uh, tomato to tomato. And he talks about that moment being devastating. Also, there's a bunch of pictures of the sailor, available in these news articles. And basically they said to him, sir, your son has been involved in a man overboard incident. He has been considered missing since Monday at around 10 28 in the morning, and he has not been recovered.
He was a aviation bosons mate, a launch and recovery equipment airman. And they searched for him for 45 hours. Some articles say 48 hours, but almost two days. Both the Australian Defense and the Australian Board of Forces US Navy. On July 30th, Rivera Lynch was declared lost at sea.
His dad was an Army veteran who served as a combat medic, and most of them report that the father had just spoken to, sailor Rivera on the cell phone 12 hours before he went missing a positive phone call. Basically where his son said, yeah, it's long hours, it's rough work. But I, you know, and, and doing great, very positive about the future.
He was enjoying Japan, Yokosuka, where they were stationed and, he went to the ROTC and everything, and so they list a whole bunch of different airplanes, helicopters, sea squadrons, and different ships involved in the search and rescue efforts. But, they were unable to find him. So Ms.
Glenmore, I'll stop right there for any thoughts on that one. Well, it's really sad, especially for someone that young to go missing that really is sad and I think what usually the cap of when people search for someone is like, what, up to 48 hours after that. It's like, what?
Cold case after that. So the fact that no one has seen him since, that's already concerning. Yeah, like you pointed out, the age is so sad. The other day I posted about a special Forces member who had been killed in action being honored at the Hero Games charity.
And again, the thing I saw as soon as I saw his picture, I was like, what a young gentleman. And most people forget that the military is mainly 17, 18, 19, and 20 year olds. From some of the other articles that I read and consumed, he had joined, in the delayed entry program de while 17. And as soon as he graduated, basically, shipped out.
He's been in, about a year. 'cause June was when he went to bootcamp, right after he graduated. And yeah, he went to, he was in Japan. They, went to deployed. He went missing after their poor call in the Philippines, if I'm not mistaken.
Around that same timeline now. Normal. Normal story, right? Normally I wouldn't cover it except I am still in contact with sailors on CVN seven three USS, George, Washington because I, you know, lived aboard that ship for some time and, um, that's all a lie. That story actually. He committed suicide and they have his note and they found it.
He talked to the chain of command and the chain of command basically told him to go F himself and then he did and he killed himself. A lot of people, when I was going through the comments on the news articles and the Facebook feeds and read it and all these other platforms that posted about it. We're saying that it was a hate crime, that white supremacist had thrown a Latino sailor overboard and so many people were accusing, oh, someone threw him overboard and killed him.
And that's not at all what I thought. Now, a lot of sailors or family members of sailors who had served a board CVN seven, three years of George Washington or or sailing now suspected a coverup. And I got the call today that it is that when they went to his rack, he had a note there. That he had killed himself.
And that phone call he made right beforehand was right before he committed suicide. So one of the last things he did was call his family and talk to them. And this is not the first time that the ship has done this.
Okay, I can't cuss in here, can't I? But that's like, again, what the as moment right there. First of all, that's really sad for someone so young to take their life. It is really sad and because I, I have a little brother, he's 20 and he's in the military and right now he's in Guam and there are times where I do worry about him.
I do worry about things like this, especially when you're so far away from home and from family. And I heard stories such as the military is not as. You know, not as great as people seem, but especially they recruit young people and especially, you know, more men with benefits and that's so, so I've heard, I'm not in the military, but I've heard coworkers who are in the military.
I have family that's in the military and I've heard some horror stories. I've heard people that just couldn't take it or. Horrible things that do it and things like this, they cover it up because they don't actually want you to know what actually goes on. So it's scary and I, and condolences to the family for finding out something so horrible because like that's, that's a lot.
What's my knowledge? They don't know. To my knowledge, they believe that he was lost as the training exercise. And what I know is that according to the sailors who spoke with me, obviously they remained anonymous. They said that, um, even the search and rescue efforts were done in a delayed manner and that there's a lot of suspicious things about it.
Now, here's what I also know is that, when I was at Nuke school, we had about one to three suicides a month or attempts. You know, and the flag was always at half-mast. You know, they would serve steak and lobster to raise morale when there was a suicide. Ridiculous stuff like that. My ship, the CVN seven three USS, George Washington, I don't even wanna call it my ship, so to speak, you know, set a record for suicides.
Went under investigation. They had three in a single week. They had almost 13 in a, in a year and a half. More than that, there was a man who murdered his wife on board, not on board the ship, but both of them were serving on board the ship. Um, again, I, and I'll, I'll tell the story real quick. And this is a personal firsthand account.
I was guarding a radioactive space on the ship and I was behind a certain type of door and it got real quiet and I peeked my head out and saw that the ship was empty. I was the only person left on it for like 30, 40 minutes. Not a single soul went by. And I remember at the end of that, a shipmate comes up to me and he goes, you know, petty officer whiskey.
Where were you? You know, where you at? The emergency muster all hands cough in the hangar berry. I said, no, whatcha talking about? He goes, the captain was on stage crying. An aviation guy just killed his wife. And he talked about how it's, it's his fault and the chain of command's fault because all the stress and issues in the military travel back down and then you take it home.
Now that was Captain Goff, who is no longer on the Gub. Long story short, uh, what they said was basically Captain Goff's wife said, listen. Either you retire now or we're gonna start having marital issues. And he had been in the Navy a long time. Now. I personally really admired a guy. I had had lunch with him on more than one occasion because he would sit down and talk with us.
He was very approachable, very friendly. He cried. I, I'll never forget, he came on the one mc one day crying and, and, and it brought me to tears. And a lot of people reflect, he said last night. Or as of this morning, I have to announce that we just lost another shipmate, another family member of this ship.
He goes, and it is frustrating and I have to be real with all of y'all because this was irresponsible. Essentially, the story he told was a sailor decided to go drinking and decided to go for a joy ride on his motorcycle went so fast that he got cut in half when he crashed like a cartoon character. And I'll never forget this, the captain said I've already had to make so many phone calls this year for the suicides.
Every time someone is lost on this ship under my command, I make the phone call, sir slash ma'am, your son slash daughter was lost under my command, under the command and supervision of my, shipmates and the people I trust and I take full responsibility. And he was crying, telling us, he goes, those are difficult phone calls to make.
Especially back to back now to call another sailors family and talk about this as if the suicides weren't enough. And he really kind of humbled all of us and kind of held us accountable and was like, it's bad enough and now y'all are gonna act stupid. And, and again, you know, that's not what he said, but basically he was saying, y'all gotta stop acting stupid.
On top of everything going on, we got people committing suicide left and right. Three in a week, three in a week. Of all, again, like I've been asked on every show I've ever guessed on, is there, is there a pattern? It unlisted officer, black, white, chief petty officer. There, there is no pattern because it's just a, a symptom of the lifestyle, the leadership of the stress of all this stuff, you know?
And, and so my ship has a history with this already, and I remember there was a suicide in reactor, uh, a sailor who had a brain tumor. And they basically hush, hushed, covered it up. But, uh, so people in reactor made a bit of a scene because they worked with this person. They knew this person, they served with this person, and they held a little memorial.
At some point, it wasn't really announced. See, that's the issue. Some suicides were announced on the ship and some weren't. And you can't pick and choose like that. You can't, and. Some of, some of the higher ups would not address it. Would not talk about it. You know, mental health services on the ship were booked out for months.
Civilian doctors nearby were booked out for months because of the backlog of patients. And from my personal experience and experience of sailors on my ship, it was ridiculous because you would have to wait months for an appointment, weeks for an appointment unless you were actively suicidal. Then they would see you on the spot.
But again, like I've said, check sheets. On a scale of one to 10, have you had pleasure doing things that you enjoy normally lately, on a scale of one to 10, have you had an appetite lately? They fill out this, they score you. The VA does the same thing. They score you for PTSD, for anxiety, for depression.
They just do a score sheet. They don't actually listen to your stories. They're not individualized care. Now, with the va, it's a little more easy to get access because you have more civilian doctors. More VA doctors. And, and you know, you don't have these thousands of people on aircraft carrier, but it's, it's ridiculous.
I've had medical appointments on the ship where the, where the guy literally was like, you control your emotions. Just, just choose to be happy. Are you kidding me? I mean, I, that, that's B. Yes. Okay. We had sailors, guess what? The number one reason people were getting maed and kicked outta the Navy on my ship and in a lot of ships was because of weed.
And do you know why? Now I'm not someone who, who endorses or supports or encourages weed, and I don't think you should do it. Mm-hmm. But here's what I'll say. All the sailors I talked to who did it for the most part, said. Mr. Whiskey, I had to do it because of my mental health, because I was being overworked.
My chain of command was not following proper protocols to allow us to sleep. They were having us work through meals. They were having us work extended hours, and it was the only way I could show up and do my job because I could not get mental health help. And I decided either I do weed and do my job, or I get kicked out for drugs.
Either way, it's better than just suffering to the extent that I am. And so I, I, I, I, my heart felt for those people, even though I don't agree with that. I understand because I saw the way chains of commands treated people. Now there are some great people out there. I met a chief who said, Hey, this sailor did weed because you pushed him to the brink.
He said, you know, the sailor was doing like 18 hour work days, and the chief called out the chain of command. He's he, he said to the sailor, because DRB basically imagine court, but you're not allowed to say anything and everyone just screams and curses at you. That's what DRB is in the military, and they were just.
You know, him and all the sailor. And then finally the good chief he stepped up and he said, why are you doing this? And he said, well, chief, my chain of command is having me work 18 hours and this, this, this, and this. And he said, I want you to point out in the room right now who's doing it. You know, so there, there are good people in the Navy, don't get me wrong, but they're far and few in between and they're often withheld rank.
Which is, is the worst part. But, uh, I know I went on a, a tangent there, so I'll pass it over to you for a little bit for thoughts, but it's, it's just from an outsider perspective, hearing stuff like this, it's sad. It's really sad, and it's a bit similar to what some people go through, even as civilians, because we're working like 12, 15 plus hours just to barely scrape by.
Of course toxic environments, especially in the work. And I went through some, I went through something like that. I'm not in the military. I never joined the military, but working. But I've worked in warehouses where I was pretty much, first of all, there's no AC working. And then imagine pretty much doing physical labor for 15 plus hours, damn near almost every day, strict.
And then on top of that. Your coworkers are messy, they're toxic, and then your boss is toxic. It doesn't help with your mental health, but you do it because you gotta scrape by. You got bills to pay. You just gotta bite the bullet and it's not fair. And there have been times where I have tried to commit suicide.
As a matter of fact, it was at my own job to be, to be exact, to to be exact. It was to the point where I couldn't take the toxic environment from my boss 'cause he was just so petty at this point. The micromanaging the way things were being ran, the long hours. I was at a machine and I saw a box cutter and immediately it was just to the point where I grabbed it and I tried to slice my ribs vigorously.
The play was dull, luckily, but I'll never forget that. My friend, she saw me and she was like, Imani, like, you know what? What? What the fuck? What are you doing? And right then and there, I broke down crying because I could not take that stress. I couldn't take it. There was no amount of vacation days, even if I wanted to.
It is just the fact that I had to go back and endure that. And I, I just couldn't do it anymore. And that's when I was like, I have to get the hell up outta here. I have to, yeah. Now I can only imagine what I went through, but maximize that in the military. Like I said, I don't have experience in the military.
I do have friends that are military. I, and like one of my friends, he was in the army. All I can say is that he's not the same anymore. And he even said that they just, they take your humanity away. You're not, yeah. You're never gonna be the same person coming out because of what you witnessed and what you go through in the military.
And it's sad to see that. And it's sad that he just accepted it. And he told me, he was like, yeah. And he was also, you know, smoking weed. 'cause if, if not. He wouldn't be here. He had to endure whatever amount of stress seeing his friends die in the field going and on top of all that. So it scares me and hearing that, especially you going through that and everyone's family and friends going through that.
And that's why I said I have a little brother, he's 20 years old and. He's in the military now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad that, you know, he used traveling abroad and he's doing things that he wants to do. But at the same time, when I hear these stories, I do get worried. And the last thing I wanna hear is that phone call.
That's the last thing I wanna hear. So, yeah. Talk about the, the humanity aspect is so true, where they take it away. Because I literally had a master chief, I'll never forget this, literally said, I don't have to justify myself to you because I wear an anchor with two stars, basically. You know, my will is law.
I can do what I want. Right? And the idea that rank justifies everything is, is so wrong. And we see that in, in law enforcement with police officers and sergeants. We see that in the military across all the branches. And you know, I literally had a leader. And LPOI said, you know, petty officer so-and-so, we have the manpower and the staffing to do the watch bill.
This way, instead of doing Port Starboard where every other day is due day or even a three section, and for those of you who don't know, duty day is a 24 hour watch period day where you are on call for 24 hours. Typically, you're standing watched once or twice during that 24 hours. Sometimes four hours at a time, sometimes eight hours at a time, sometimes six hours at a time.
Depends on the, on the ship, the duty and all that. But imagine doing that every other day. So you cannot leave the ship. Um, which under deployment you, you can't leave anyway. But this is like, you're in uniform, you're on call, right? And I said Topsiders, were doing it every eight days because of the manning.
We had the manning to maybe run it six section instead of three section, which is a huge shift from being a 24 hour shift. Every three days to every six days, that really frees up people's time to catch up on qualifications, to have some tres time to actually live their life. And you know what he said to me?
He said, y'all don't have it worse than me. So I don't care. When I got on the ship, I had to watch paint dry. So until y'all have it worse than me, even then. I don't care. You know, maybe I would feel bad if he had it worse than me, but you have it better than me. So guess what? You don't deserve or need to have it any better than that.
Like you talk about toxic leadership and workplace culture, and that's exactly what it is. The amount of ranking up that is done in the military based off bribery and favoritism and popularity and screwing over other people, it's ridiculous. Now, the same sailor who reported to me that it was a suicide, and they, he said.
The first thing they do is go check his rack. You know, the sailors, go check, Rivera's Rack and see if he's there because maybe he's there or maybe there's some clues. Suicide note right there. And of course everyone told everyone like, oh my goodness, there was a suicide note. Now I'd love to get a copy of that.
Obviously that's gonna be very hard to do if they turned it into the chain of command. 'cause guess what? Guess, guess where that went? Boom. Overboard. Now I do wanna pivot back to, I kinda made a point like, hey, so many people were quick to assume that this was like they threw him overboard and that's wrong.
I will say I don't blame people because when I've had Navy sailors on the show who talked about being pulled outta the Iraq and beaten called dirt bag, made fun of for having faith in God called E, nothing literally diminished, sexually abused. The amount of sexual assault in the military, including men on men, is ridiculously high.
The amount of. Suicides that are covered up. The amount of harassment and bullying they've done anti-hazing steps. They've done anti-harassment steps. But guess what I mean, there's still a lot that goes on. Alright. When I was in Navy, you know what I saw? I saw people pissing on each other's racks, spreading their spit on it to get back at each other.
I saw people just like doing gross things. All right? People just like literally beating each other. Sometimes in like a friendly, were guys hanging out, waiting and other times just like trying to mask it up as like military, you know, making a man out of you kind of stuff.
It's ridiculous. So I will say, while I don't believe that people threw him overboard and if they framed a suicide note and threw him overboard, that's, that's a whole nother conspiracy theory. But I do understand that it's very easy for people to group up and throw a guy overboard and then say, oh no, a man overboard happens.
Uh, you know, but. I believe my source, right? I mean, he wouldn't lie to me. I was like, make sure you swear to God, like this is the truth 'cause I don't wanna talk about this and then find out you were wrong. And now I look like a jerk, but I believe it. He said that when they pulled into port in Yokosuka just a few hours after their first landing in Japan, a reactor sailor was found dead in a hotel room.
They don't know if it was murder or suicide. What? It was dead within hours of pull into port. And guess what happened? CO never said anything about it. According to him, he said the ro the reactor officer, basically like the captain of reactor only kind of pulled him aside and spoke to them about it.
'cause it was a reactor sailor, but the whole ship, like didn't know about it. And the amount of times where like things are kept divisional, like no, anytime there's any death or any incident, the whole ship should know. The whole ship should know. And, and the whole side of the fleet should know because if you have incidents on one ship, how likely is it that they're happening on others?
Right. And that's what scares me the most about this. If this sailor did commit suicide, which I believe he did, and it was covered up. Okay, what about other ships? How many other ships are hiding this? What about other branches? Now, I've talked to a lot of people in the Army, Marines who say that they're a lot more transparent in the Navy, which I don't know what's up with that, but you know.
Yeah, it's just ridiculous. And again, the having the turn of drugs to cope with the Navy lifestyle and then being kicked out for the whole irony, you know. But like the one guy that I talked to who was doing weed, he waited one year an entire year for a single half hour therapy appointment. And you know what they told him?
Basically we've had him fill out the paperwork. Told him, you know, he was in control of his feelings and to check back in five months, you know, or whatever it was. That's not ridiculous. That's just so useless. Not words at all. So useless. So in other words, y'all lives mean nothing. And yet y'all push literal lives for this damn country and y'all are not being taken care of at all.
And these are. Young adults 18, 19 20, who, whose brains are still developing. It's their first taste of adult life outta high school. Yeah. Literally they're fresh outta high school. Yeah. In the real world. And you have these four examples, poor examples, all over the ship for them.
I mean, we had, I mean it's, it's just insanely about people who were leaving and it is so sad because the military. Could be an amazing thing where people make good, uh, where they, again, they could make significant money, have the benefits, and, and live out a dream sheet that they actually fill out. Here's the issue.
There's no mentorship. You know what they did for mentorship when I, I was on a gub. All right. Here's some sailor who's a little more high ranking than all the new sailors has 20 other jobs to do and isn't meant to be a mentor, but we're gonna stab them with 15. New sailors and have them meet once a week for like 10 minutes on a Friday.
It's so checkbox like one of my biggest goals is to create a third party program made up of veterans who are certified counselors and actually mentor these young adults who are fresh into the military, who are dedicated to them. They're not also standing reactor watch or electrical watch or doing aviation stuff or you know, whatever it is.
Their sole purpose is to mentor these young adults. You know, like, actually have this and more mental health resources for these military matters. We need individualized care, you know, so, you know what we do. Adding to the dehumanization aspect, we just throw them to resources. All right? You're, you're an active duty sailor who's feeling suicidal?
Here's nine aa, here's a email address for mfl and, and, and this and that. No, I need to know that someone cares. Like someone right here, right now, right? It's Ask care. Treat. And they just skip to treat and it's so paperwork. I don't want you to read a psychology textbook to me. I want you to say, Hey, I'm a sailor and I know exactly what you're going through right now because I've been there, or because I can understand so they did, um, group therapy sessions, you know, on, on board the, on the ship.
And I, I won't share too much, but basically one sailor, I'll never forget it. Was crying after one of the recent suicides. It basically got hushed up, was one of his best friends in Reactor. And he was like, I just don't get it. We're in home port. This was supposed to be at the time of our lives where we're going out after work, skateboarding and, and hanging out at the gas stations and getting food before we go on this big deployment where we're gonna have to work long hours and we're losing more people port side than overseas in combat.
You know, and this isn't just a United States issue. I've had members of foreign military, forces on my show talking about losing more people to suicide than conflicts in the Middle East as well. You know, it's just so ridiculous. And my thing is, why can't CVN seven three USS George Washington just take responsibility?
Hey, we just had another suicide. Well, you're embarrassed to look bad because it'll be the 15th, 16th, 17th, one, one in a year. And it's not just George Washington, the Bush, the Truman, the Lincoln, all of them have different issues and different suicides that happen. You know, I don't wanna just pin it on my ship in particular, but it has the worst track record and it's just ridiculous.
Like. Covering it up is so much worse than just saying, Hey, we know this is number 17. This is really bad. But you need to be transparent so that Big Navy and other government people can say like, okay, wow, this is still an issue. We need to do something. The issue is, here's what they do. Oh wow. There was like a, a bunch of suicides ownership.
We're just gonna fire all the leadership, move them somewhere else, put in all new leadership who still think the same relatively, or the, or. The ship conditions are still the same. And think that's gonna fix everything. No, it's not. You're just basically putting a bandaid on a deep wound and thinking that's gonna heal and it doesn't.
You need to get to the deeper root of the problem. But unfortunately, even in the civilian world. We don't actually fix the problem. We never get to the root. We just find temporary fixes because the work's gotta get done. It's like, oh, you, yeah, you'll make it. You'll be fine. Just find other ways to cope with your stress.
Find other ways and it's, it shouldn't be like that, especially with people like you guys. You would think because y'all are putting so much on the line, literally your life for this country, y'all should be getting. Better care. That's to be really taken care of. But the fact that your lives mean nothing to them, like absolutely nothing.
The fact that the amount of suicides y'all get a month, a week, and he would just scoff it off like, ah, alright. We like, like it's like a protocol. All right, you know what to do. That's sad. It shouldn't be like that. And then especially to teenagers getting out into the world. And then this is the first thing you see.
The moment you get out, that's what you see. You see sexual assault, you see nepotism, you see it just physical assault. You see all this depravity the moment you get out. And that's not a good look on the world for any young mind, especially when you're develop. Yeah, and civilian side, they push a lot of antidepressants, which they can't do.
Military side because here's the issue, military side, if you do want to get help, basically they say, yeah, you can get medicated, but you're gonna lose your job. You know, 'cause the military, because of what we work with, especially reactor side as nuclear operators, but in general, I mean, basically any position you work on the ship, if you are in control of weapons, whether that's ammunition, mounted weapons, torpedoes, whatever it is, or in charge of steam or electricity or chemistry, anything, right?
You cannot be medicated for certain positions. That goes for a DHD medication that goes for. Antidepressants. It just depends. Each command in each job is different. So I can't say too much about that. But there goes your options for treatment. Right Now, again, this show is I, and I am very anti just pushing people on pill for the ill, right?
Because basically it, so those are your options. You either die from suicide or you get fired because you need the medication, right? And here's the issue, basically. You lose your job, right? You get removed from your position and now you get put into an even worse one sometimes or the military just basically throws you into the wind.
And the issue is a lot of these medical separations take one to two years, right? So these people who are like, I need to get out now, taking a year or two, and people are giving them hell, they're calling them sad boy, sad girl. Basically if you get out for mental health, like you get help for it, from everyone.
You know where they say, aren't you concerned about the watch bill? You know someone's gonna have to stand your watch now that you're gone. That's what they care about is the watch bill. Unless, unless I have an idea to make the watch bill more easy, then they're like, I don't care. 'cause I had to watch paint dry on the wall.
But then if you're getting out for mental health or any medical physical injuries, it's like. What about the watch bill? Funny because when people offered to upgrade the watch bill and even offered to do it for you, you were like, go f yourself. Like I don't, I, you know, I, I don't curse. I hate to even say that, but that is basically what we get told so much.
Military is like, go f yourself. Like, that's how a lot of people word it is, is how it's perceived. And, and don't even get me started on the military medical horror stories. You know, I know veterans have a lot with the va, but just in general, I have both good and bad experiences with it, but it's like, yeah.
Basically what you're given is like these resources to read through online about mental health, about choosing how you feel about, um, maybe journaling, maybe breathing exercises, like, and, and I'm not knocking any of that stuff, but it's like. They, there's not individualized care. Right. And I, and to a degree, I don't blame the navy in the sense that I understand.
Like if they've got three people who are actually licensed in psychology and mental health on onboard the ship and you've got thousand people, thousand plus people who are just a couple hundred who are saying they have mental health and it, how are you gonna fit in therapy for all of them every week?
Right. We're looking so much on intervention and recovery. We need to look at the prevention more. How do we change it from a couple hundred people need help to 10 people need help. And that's all about the lifestyle and the leadership. And that's why I say the former captain, Mr.
Brett Hollywood got, you know, he would always speak to us like it felt like he knew every single one of us. He cared. I can't say anything on the new captain. I never met him. But it's just like so ridiculous and you have so many of these higher ups who are like are who never even like take the time to get to know you like they don't know
they just had this perceived notion of you. And the worst part too is like when I love the Navy and I had that who ya military spirit. I got bullied and clowned on for loving the Navy. Uh, try hard sail or, oh shit. Made this shit made that, yeah, bravo, zulu for you and they, and everyone hates you for it.
Then when you hate the navy, you're called a scumbag, useless piece of garbage, useless property. You like, you literally can't win it. It is just ridiculous. Starts to lose, lose situation no matter what. Yeah, and again. I will say there are good chains of commands out there, and that's why I say the chain of command can make or break you.
'cause you could be in the prettiest place on earth, like Hawaii's a beautiful place, but if your chain of command is, is terrible and you wanna kill yourself every day, you're not gonna reenlist. You could be in Newport News, the ghetto shipyards and have the best chain of command. And you're like, dude, I'm gonna do another six years.
You know? So it's, it's really just the leadership and the lifestyle. Point being, I, I, this needs to be talked about. This is the GW covering up another six. This definitely needs to be talked about. Not the first time. All of this needs to be talked about, talked about enough, and it's not talked about enough.
Yeah. It really isn't. Even not from, even, not even from my friends, they don't even talk because that, that's just gonna bring a whole bunch of memories they, they don't wanna experience anymore, which I, I completely understand. Yeah. But it's sad to see your loved ones go from this vibrant full of life.
And then when they come back from the military, it's gone. It's like, where, what happened? What did it, it's What did they do to you? And from my friend's perspective, when he knew was in the Army, he says, oh, they, I don't like the way they say it, but. They break you down to mold you for war or to mold you into how they want you to be, to prepare yourself for war.
I don't like that. You should not. I should not have to be broken down like my humanity gone to turn me into this cold to piece of flesh to just kill. War done. You don't need dehumanization to be disciplined, to have a good work ethic. Right, right. You don't need that. And then, and then you expect me to come back home and then just let my life, like nothing happen that, no, that, that's not how it works.
That's not how it works at all. And seeing that, and he just accepts it. He just, I'm not saying he doesn't have his emotions, but you can tell it. It wasn't like it used to be before he left and he said, yeah, but I signed up for it. I knew what I was getting into, and I just, I just had to go through. I don't think anyone does, to the extent that it is, like you think you know what you're getting into.
You had this preconceived notion from the propaganda, from the movies, from the TV shows, from the commercials. Maybe you've talked to a few veterans, you cannot expect this, you cannot prepare for this. You know, like, and I've, I've stopped several suicides too, you know? And I don't say that to be an expert in the subject, but like I've had suicidal sailors show up at my barracks room at 3:00 AM being like, I need to talk to someone right now.
You know, this started as soon as bootcamp. We had suicidal people in bootcamp. I know a person who tried to hang themselves in bootcamp. I know a person who did kill themselves in bootcamp. Like it's ridiculous. It was a bad time, especially during the COVID Times bootcamp, like stuff just went crazy.
There was people who kept getting quarantined over and over again, spending months in bootcamp, just stuck in this endless cycle of being quarantined. You know, it drives a person the same, but like, there are suicides for, for so many reasons. There was a suicide on my base because a sailor, and this is just passed down information, so I'm not sure how accurate it is.
I didn't know the individuals, but a sailor went to medical. For, for anal pain. Found out that he had been getting drugged and raped by his roommate every night. And he jumped, he jumped off the building, the skipjack and, and killed himself. Uh, at least that's what I was told. Maybe it wasn't a skipjack, but like there, there is stuff that happens, right?
And then there's other stuff and I had a petty officer address me, I prototype. He said, you know, petty officer whiskey. Do you know why this is so bad about? The ship you're going to. This was when I got assigned. He said, what are your orders? I said, CVN seven three US, George, Washington. He said, no, no, no.
You don't want to go there. That's bad. And he said, the issue is that they didn't start making change until enough suicides happening. Quote enough. And what that sends is a message of sailors. Were starting to say, I gotta take one for the team. Someone needs to die for change to happen. If enough suicides happen, we can get a better lifestyle.
And to have that mindset to, to accidentally implement that into people. That's awful. You know what they did? They had civilians come into the ship and they were standing around the ship in, in the pwa, especially the galley with a tablet. And they had us, they said, Hey, like for example, I, I did one. They said, petty officer Whiskey, we're giving out Amazon gift cards to people who fill out the survey on the command climate, the mental health of the place and stuff.
And I filled it out maybe like 30 minutes. And it's like how would you rate your experience with medical on the ship? Um, never been terrible. Good. On a scale of one to 10, why do you answer this way? How would you rate the mental health if the ship gave you money for food instead of having the galley open and stuff like this?
And they ask all these questions and it's like. Again, that public upfront we're trying to make change, but again, what did they do with that information? Right? And, and, and did they implement any changes? You know, so it's just so ridiculous to tie it back to the news article. What I wanna say is to the family of Jose and Antonio Rivera ly to forth, I don't mean to stir up trouble, but if your son did commit suicide, first of all.
My condolences, as someone who served and has experienced a lot of suicides and, and, you know, spoken with those sailors, it's terrible. And the fact that he called and was so positive and spoke about stuff, so well, I, I get that because the minute I left my ship, I got a phone call.
Maybe two, three weeks later from a suicidal sailor on a gub saying, um, basically their thing was, Hey, you're not a mandatory reporter now that you're outta the military. And when he shared about being suicidal, it was, when we were serving together, he had been suicidal. And I never knew he was smiling. He was working hard.
Great guy played magic to gathering a time or two, would've never expected it. And so. It can really be anyone, you know, even the higher up, as much as we talked bad about them, there are higher up. I mean, they're like, don't get me wrong, officers commit suicide chiefs with wives and children or husbands and childrens like no one is, is safe in the suicide ideation in the military or the civilian world.
You know, it can happen to anyone and we all most likely know someone who has dealt with something like that. So. I am trying to get to the bottom of this. I'm trying to get more information as far as if I can get a copy of this note, if I can find out any, you know, firsthand account witness statements from this.
But this is just ridiculous and I bring this up because I doubt this is the only one. CVN seven three U Sister George Washington has covered up other stuff before and I doubt it's the only ship in the Navy doing it. And I think. People need to be aware of this. And the fact that so many people in the comments on these news article websites on the Facebook, the Facebook had so many comments you don't even wanna know.
So many people pointed fingers at foul play or something seems off, but no one really wanted to say the word suicide. And so it really shocked me when I was talking to that sailor on the phone this morning and I said, Hey. They identified the missing sailor. They released his name and everything and, um, lost overseas and something, and the sailor just stopped me on the phone and he goes, you know, Mr.
Whiskey, he committed suicide. Like they did find it. He, he, like, as in he committed suicide and well, he said, frustrated me the most that he tried to get help and they told him to go f himself. Basically, he tried speaking to his chain of command and getting help. And if that's true, they need to be held responsible, whether that was medical or his actual aviation chain of command.
And, it is truly sad and I hope that I can get more information on this and that people will look into this further. And if anyone knows anything hit me up. But this is just so sad to, I had to talk about this, like, it's been bothering me all day. I can't stop thinking about it 'cause it's just.
So frustrating. It, it is really frustrating. Like I am really upset and angry about this, you know, to think like you said, this could happen to any of our brothers, sisters, sons or daughters, grandkids serving in the service. And we always wanted truth. And I believe Mr. Rivera, you know, the father, he has to know in his heart that like something seems off,
and it's a shame that we have to have a questioning attitude with the people who are in charge of our brave men and women who are serving this country possibly keep us safe from other dangers. Meanwhile, we're we're you experience your own danger, right within your own damn community.
That's the irony of it all. And that's really sad. It shouldn't be like that and think about how long has this been going on and we're just not hearing about it because I'm thinking about like. My stepdad was in the military. He's retired. I have uncles that are in, were in the military and they retired.
So I can only imagine how long this has been going on. And just now it's becoming aware just now. Yeah. Yeah. So ladies and gentlemen, we have, several news articles and website links in the description below where you can read more about the case. You can see the photos. Which, when you see them, it's really sad to see the family together and smiling and this and this young sailor full of life and joy and has a 19 years old.
You know, that is just, that is truly sad. Absolute. You haven't even lived life yet. He just got outta high school. Yeah. Yeah. And the worst part is that this is all preventable. You know, to, to a major degree. Uh, obviously we can't stop every single suicide all the time, but with these ones being a symptom of the leadership of the military lifestyle, of the way people are being treated on that ship in all these ships, that's preventable.
It's because we're not a prevent. We're not, we don't have a preventive mindset. We have a reactive Yeah. We wait until we go bad. To find like, oh, let's find a solution instead of creating the solution and preventing the problem from starting in the first place. Because now, because just like you said, look how many lives we've lost, just for somebody to just somewhat make it aware, to somewhat care, and even then, that's not even enough.
So it's to the point where people like me. Who have loved ones in the military, it's gonna be to the point. It's like, how much more do you need? How much, how many lives need to be lost in order for y'all to say, all right, you know what? Let's actually get to the root of the problem so we can prevent this.
It shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't have, we should not have to lose so many loved ones, so many tears that have shed because now we can't spend time with them anymore. Lives gone. Didn't even live. Didn't even live life. He just gone. Yeah, because no one wants to do their job. Nobody wants to prevent it.
We wait till things go overboard. We wait till things hit the fan. And that's what really makes me mad about our system. Just our system in general, not just the military, but we go through this even in the civilian world too, we wait until things hit the fan. Now y'all wanna, now y'all wanna help. Now y'all wanna like, okay, let's get to the root of it.
It shouldn't have been like that. Damage is way done. It's beyond, it's beyond repair at this point. The other day, Steve, or at least shared a quote, one death is a tragedy. A million is a statistic. So I say that in a sense of, with all of these suicides on the gub look it up.
And actually like, look at these people let's humanize them because it's just become a statistic. 13 suicides on a gub. 15 suicides on a gub, another suicide on gub. These are people, these are human beings who had families and lives and names and identities and, you know, purpose. And you know it's be when this is becoming a stat and that is truly sad.
So please check out the articles in the description below as well as just look up this ship and find out more. Um, and if, if you're able to make a change or impact in some way, or have information that could help, that's definitely useful. But yeah, that's all I want to get on and talk about today.
My friends told me not to. They said, Mr. Whiskey, if they're willing to cover that up, they're willing to cover you up. They'll destroy a couple of nukes, tear down everything you've made, but, you know, uh, with God as my witness, if this is the truth, this is the truth, and, and I'm not gonna hide that. So any of your crops.
Making it aware. Even though, even though your friends say it might not make that much of a difference, you don't know that. You don't. You don't know that because maybe that's all it had to take for someone like you to make it more aware, to bring this to light. Because in order for your change to happen, we have, we have to make it aware, even if it might not seem much, it's a start.
It's a ripple effect. It starts with you, and then more people are gonna listen to this and then they're gonna like, yeah, I'm tired of this. I'm sick of this. We need to get to the bottom of it, and then change can actually happen. It only takes one time. And that's all it. That's all we need. You just need one person to finally say, enough is enough, because everybody else is also thinking the same thing you're thinking.
They're just too scared to speak up about it. And the fact that you're willing to do this. At such a late hour and say, I'm done. We need to do something about this. That's all it takes. You just need that one person to finally say, enough is enough, and people will follow through. Yeah, and so not just for Navy Sailor Jose, Antonio Rivera, Lynch the fourth, but just in general, you.
Know anyone on the GW that you feel like something was wrong or not told correctly, or any branch and you want to come on the show or have me discuss it and review stuff, email a couple of nukes@gmail.com, because I think it needs to be talked about and yeah. So Ms. MacLemore, I appreciate you co-hosting.
Again, I didn't tell you what we're gonna be talking about. All I said is it's gonna be a heavy topic, and it, it is. I know you were not ready for that. No, I wasn't. Now, now I'm definitely caught. I'm not saying I don't call my little brother at all. But now, like I said, I worry about him every day and I, and maybe he is fine, but still that that's, that's my brother.
That's my blood, that's my family. I wanna make sure he's fine. And even though he's, and he is a good kid, you know. So the last thing I wanna hear. It's a phone call that he's gone, or I call him and he says, oh, everything's fine. When things are not fine. Yeah, that's, that's my worst nightmare, honestly. Yeah.
So everyone listening, if you've got someone in the service right now, you should give them a phone call too. See how things are going. You know, that can be all it takes to save a life sometimes is just a phone call and a. You know how you been and are you truly okay? You know, and, and, and probably a little deeper than that first surface, I'm fine, you know,
