Erik: [00:00:00] And so on our podcast today, um, the viewers and I can learn together. 

Matt: Yeah. I'm trying to think of my geography that way.

Narrator: You are listening to EMS with your hosts, Erik Axene and Matt Ball. 

Erik: So tell us a little bit about what the motivation was for you to go to Ukraine. Um, just tell us a little bit more about it. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Why, the why of why you went. 

Matt: Uh, I've done other, uh, trips similar to that. Obviously not into a war zone necessarily, but I've done other really medical mission trips.

Um, and when the war started in February, a friend of mine who you met, Sean. Mm-hmm. Um, he runs Mission 8 2 3. Um, Sean used to go to my church. He lived in my neighborhood. Uh, he was a missionary, lived in the Ukraine for over a decade, has been a missionary doing work there for 22 years. [00:01:00] Um, so when the war broke out in February, I just kind of reached out to him and said, you know, Hey, what can I do?

What do you need? Um, one of the things that's always been important to me is people that have like a real immediate need, like people in Ukraine that they're dealing with. An invasion of their country. They have an immediate need, they need help right now. And, um, a lot, you know, there's several groups that, that, uh, get organized and do those kind of things.

So that's always been kind of something to me of going and helping people that are really in a time of need. So I reached out to Sean. We did some fundraiser things. Um, we got some medical kits, uh, put together, sent over there, uh, some medical supplies sent over there. Um, and then I told him if there was ever a trip, um, I'd be interested to go.

And so he contacted me in June with about a two lead, two week lead time. Like, Hey, we're gonna go kind of a short trip. Uh, well I [00:02:00] couldn't get off work. Um, so I told him, you know, as much lead time as you can give me, 'cause you know, with our schedule it's difficult to get time off. Uh, so in August he reached out to me and said, Hey, we're thinking about planning a trip in October.

Uh, so I went in there, took off some days, and then it all just kinda fell into place that I could go. So, um, and my intention was to go over there and, you know, do some teaching and use the little bit of knowledge that I have about medical stuff to, uh, you know, be any kind of help to them whatsoever. So 

Erik: tell, tell us more about that.

So what specifically? I mean, you've told me a little bit about what you were doing. I know. That when we were at the, uh, EMS World Expo. You got some, you know, uh, we did a fundraiser for tourniquets. Tourniquets, so I know you're doing some tourniquet stuff. Yep. Um, some generous folks donated some tourniquets too.

Yeah. So, but tell us more about, we've got the why here, but what, tell us a little bit more about what you did. 

Matt: Yeah, so we traveled over there. Um, we [00:03:00] ended up, uh, we had several different places that we were gonna go. Um, and talking with Sean. Especially going into that type of a situation, your, your itinerary has to be a little bit fluid.

Mm-hmm. Uh, due to what was going on over there, we had to be flexible, uh, so as to not put ourselves intentionally in harm's way in, in more of harm's way. We certainly didn't want to go over there. I was trying to communicate to that, to my wife very much that, you know, I really trusted Sean and his, his judgment of keeping us safe.

He's got numerous people that. Obviously are Ukraine citizens that he talks to daily. And so I felt like Sean's not gonna put us in a situation where it's gonna be, you know, extremely dangerous. Um, so our schedule had to be fluid. So we were mainly in Kiev for most of the time. And, uh, he got, 

Erik: see I used to say Kiev, but that's 

Matt: so, so did I.

So I actually learned that on this trip that so Ukrainian in UK Ukraine, they speak Ukrainian, not Russian. Most of them also speak Russian. Sean [00:04:00] speaks fluent Russian. If you speak Russian, you can pretty much understand Ukrainian and vice versa. Kiev is actually the Russian pronunciation. Oh, interesting.

Of the city where, didn't know that. I didn't know that either. I just learned that on this trip. That's cool. I noticed Sean kept calling it Kiev. And not Kiev. 'cause all my life I've heard Kiev, Uhhuh. And then I was asking some of the interpreters. I said, why is it different? And he said, Kiev is the Russian pronunciation.

Kyiv is the Ukrainian pronunciation. 

Erik: I thought it was an Americanized way of saying Kiev. Yeah, because I'd heard you say Kiev and Sean say Kiev. And so I thought that must be the right way to say it. 

Matt: Yeah, that's what I thought. I just followed in his 

Erik: footstep. I on this, on cnn. 

Matt: Yeah, 

Erik: exactly. 

Matt: I know. Better than these guys Russian.

So that Russian, that was interesting. Yeah, it was a Russian verse, Ukrainian pronunciation. 

Erik: Now you flew into Poland, right? 

Matt: Yeah. So no civilian flights can go into Ukraine right now. Uhhuh, uh, that's one of the big threats right now is a lot of the danger is from the air. Yeah. The, they have Iranian drones that are flying around and they're, they're doing a [00:05:00] lot of bombing stuff.

Erik: You said Iranian? 

Matt: Yeah, they're getting I drones from Iran. Huh uh, and they're doing a lot of the bombing using those small drones. Um, so you can't fly civilian aircraft into Ukraine. So typically you would fly into Kyiv. Typically when Sean would go over there, he would actually fly into Kyiv. Uh, but we couldn't do that.

So. Uh, we flew into Krakow, Poland. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: And then, um, it was about a 14 hour drive from Krakow over to Kiev. The next day, we spent 

Erik: day. Tell us, tell us about the drive. What was that like? What was the, what was the topography like? I mean, what, what did, did it remind you of something you've seen in the United States that, as far as the terrain, or was it completely foreign?

Matt: No, it wasn't. I mean, it's, the terrain isn't different. It, it was, uh, the area that we were kind of in is. Is kind of flat, rural farmland. Uh, the Ukrainian flag actually is blue and yellow. It's blue on top with yellow on the bottom. And I learned this while I was over there, is that the blue indicates the sky and the [00:06:00] yellow indicates the golden fields of wheat.

Erik: Interesting. 

Matt: And so that's what this flag stands for. So farming and agriculture is a big part of their culture. Mm-hmm. Um, so most of the part that we drove through was mostly. Agricultural farming lands. 

Erik: I was born in Iowa, was probably like 

Matt: driving Exactly. Illinois. Yeah, same thing. Very, yeah. Except corn fields.

Yeah. A lot of grass 

Erik: wheat. 

Matt: Kind of some rolling hills wheat. Mm-hmm. Um, things like that. Um, they have the, uh, oh gosh, I'm drawing a blank on the mountains. The, the, uh, western, or excuse me, eastern side of, or no, is it western? I'm trying to think of my geography that way. It would be western side of like Romania, the mountains, Carpathian mountains come up through Ukraine.

Very beautiful. And it's very mountainous. Um, so I saw those flying into Poland, but the drive was relatively flat. Um, crack alleys about two hours from the border. Um, so the border crossing, so the Ukraine is under martial law right now, which so that everybody understands what that means. The military is basically [00:07:00] policing the entire country.

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: Um, and the police, the local police, like the Kyiv Police Department, they're basically under military rule and law. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: Um, so. As you're driving through all over the country, uh, main thorough affairs, um, there's military checkpoints all over the place where you have to constantly show your passport and all that kind of stuff.

So the, the border's about two hours from two to three hours from Krakow. Um, and you have to get out of Poland and then you have to get into the Ukraine. So it didn't really have any problems there. Uh, we didn't have to wait long. It was pretty, pretty simple. Um, getting through those, those border deals.

Uh, and then once we were in the Ukraine, it was just kind of a long, long drive. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: Um, and then we traveled over to Kiev, uh, and then Sean had set up with a local church in Kiev, uh, a two day seminar. Um, and I went over there with a doctor from, uh, Florida who, uh, he runs a deescalation and kind of A-P-T-S-D center.[00:08:00] 

He does a lot of work with law enforcement and, um, so it was kind of my. I was teaching like Stop the Bleed type classes. There was everybody in this group from Citizens Church, people that were members of this church. Uh, there was four members of the Kyiv Fire department that were there, including, um, a colonel, which is kind of an interesting story.

We'll probably get to. Um, there was members of the military there. Um, all, all span of people. Um, so I taught kind of a Stop the bleed class. Um, just kind of basic how to put on tourniquets. Mm-hmm. How to do chest seals, where to do like, um, wound packing, how to do wound packing, just because even the citizens need to have that information.

Mm-hmm. Uh, it's not just military. I mean, they're, 

Erik: yeah. 

Matt: We ran across several citizens that had, you know, bombings and, and, and, and penetrating trauma from, you know, that kind of stuff. So they need to know how to address these wounds. So, um, taught that class and then I helped. 

Erik: Were these real big classes or were they smaller classes?

Matt: They [00:09:00] were fairly large. Uh, I'd say probably 200 people were in the group. Wow. Yeah. There was, there was fairly large groups. I can give you some pictures we can put up, um, of the, it was a pretty large auditorium. Yeah. I'd say probably about 150 to 200 people. Um, were in attendance, like I say, all different.

Mm-hmm. Um, types of people from different areas. So it was good. And then, uh, this doctor from Florida, he gave, came up and talked about like deescalation. Um, and then mainly kind of, uh, focusing on acute trauma and then post-traumatic stress trauma. Yeah. Because again, the citizens and the military, um, are gonna deal with some, some real trauma mm-hmm.

Um, in regards to, to the invasion, so. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: Uh, so yeah, we spent two days in Keefe. Uh, doing that seminar and talking with them. And then our, our plan was to go to, uh, Kirk if, and then another town called, uh, Ana. But those areas got under some pretty heavy [00:10:00] fighting. 

Erik: Oh, really? 

Matt: And so, not only was it not probably a smart idea for us to go over there.

The people that we were gonna meet with were kind of busy. How 

Erik: close were you to the fighting? Were, did you, 

Matt: uh, so like, uh, Herson is a big, uh, area of fighting. Mm-hmm. I, if I'm saying the name of the city, right. Pota, um, which was a little bit east of where KI is. Um, that was our, we were gonna have two more seminars set up in those two cities, but Sean got word every day.

He was kind of doing 'em. Security check on his phone, like Sure. You know, where the hot areas and, and so on. So he got word that they were having some, uh, ground fighting over there. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And obviously, like I said earlier, we weren't gonna put ourselves intentionally in, in direct, in, in intent, more intentional harm's way.

So not only that, but the people that we were going to talk to, uh, were people that are involved in the conflict. So they wouldn't have been available to meet and have the seminar anyway. Yeah, so like I said, we had to kind of alter our schedule a little bit. We stayed in Kyiv, [00:11:00] um, and we kinda set up a few other things.

Uh, one of the things I didn't, um, you know, like I said, most of the Groundfighting was in the east an hour or so east. Her son. 

Erik: And how close did you get to the ground foot? I mean, did you, 

Matt: within a couple hours. Yeah. We, we didn't go any further east than Kiev. 

Erik: So it be like, if there was, in Texas here, like from here to Waco, it's about two hours away 

Matt: probably.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I mean, it was quite a way, and I mean, you're talking also probably, and, and I'm not, I'm, I wasn't there, so I don't know. But I mean, you're talking about small pockets. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: You know, villages and towns that are kind of under. Con Russian control and little by little, the Ukrainian military kind of goes through and takes those cities back.

Um, but then they pop up elsewhere. So those areas got hot. So we decided we're not gonna go over there. We stayed in key for a couple of days. Um, some of, one of the things that I wasn't gonna share with my wife, or didn't share with my wife or my family while I was there mm-hmm. Um, was that the air raid sirens would go off pretty much every day in Kiev because [00:12:00] as I said earlier, the big threat there was the drone.

Yeah. Strikes. So the first time I heard them, uh, we were actually walking downtown Kiev. Uh, Sean had had another meeting that he's like, there's no point in you going to this meeting if you wanna go look around Kiev a little bit. I went with some of his guys that work with his organization. They were just kind of showing me around.

Erik: There's three guys I saw in the, 

Matt: yeah, yeah. The three guys from the video. That's, that was the day this happened right before I made the video of us where the tanks were burned out and all that. Yeah. So right before that, we were in this big, beautiful open. The Ukraine is a beautiful country. They're very Orthodox, it's very Eastern European.

I mean, when you picture Eastern Europe in your mind, the cobblestone streets, uh, the very eastern European buildings there, it's very Bri, uh, very beautiful. Uh, you get on the outskirts of the city and there's still a lot of remnants of communism, the way that the apartments are structured and stuff. But a lot of the old buildings in the town of Lake Kyiv and, and, uh, Aviv.

La ViiV is actually way west. It's just [00:13:00] outside, just out, out of the border. Uh, that is like the cultural center of the Ukraine, where Kyiv is more the business center of Ukraine. Mm-hmm. Kyiv is the largest city in the country. Um, so we were in this beautiful, open, kind of square town, square area in the city, and they had these, um, like portable canvas.

Signs up. There was numerous ones of them. And so as we walked closer, I realized that they had pictures of military people on them. And so I asked the interpreter, I was like, what is this? And it was basically a temporary monument that they were setting up to all the Ukrainian military members who had been killed in the conflict.

And so as I was kind of going through and taking pictures and kind of reading some of their stories. The sirens started going off, and mind you, there's citizens, there's civilians walking all over the place. I mean, it's kind of life as usual. Really. Sean had made the comment, he goes, if you see moms out walking with strollers, you're probably [00:14:00] safe.

Was kind of his judgment of how safe the area was. And there was plenty, I mean, there was people shopping, there was people dining, you know, it would be like going into Dallas. There wasn't anything unusual, but all of a sudden the air raid sirens started going off and I was like. Okay. And I started to look around to see the local's reaction to this.

Like, okay, if they start running, maybe nobody seemed really excited about it. They just kind of went on about their time uhhuh. And so I looked and asked one of our interpreters, I said, you know, do I need to be worried? Do we need to like get into a basement? He is like, no, you know, somebody might have just seen something in the sky.

You know, it's kind of a common occurrence here. I was like, okay. Um, so we kind of went about our day, nothing much, and they, they did go off several other times. Um, but yeah, Keith's a beautiful city. A lot of this conflict started back in 2014, uh, where they had their former president that was definitely more on Russia's side.

They had a big protest. We went down to the area of Kyiv where they had this 250,000 people protesting against the president, and he was literally executing people with [00:15:00] snipers in the streets. Uh, but he eventually got booted out. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And then, um, if I remember correctly, that's when Zelensky took over. Um.

So, yeah, it was very, a lot of history. Beautiful city. Um, and they are very united. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: Uh, in this, um, uh, defense of their country. They're very much united against, against Russia. 

Erik: Uh, you, you mentioned something just a moment ago, and I remember when I met Sean, I, I was, um, surprised, uh, or I was not aware of the fact that this had been going on Yeah.

For so long. Yeah. Where Sean almost said, well, yeah. It's not, it's not a big deal. But he said, well, we've been dealing with this for a decade. 

Matt: Yes. Yeah. 

Erik: Uh, yeah. Uh, if I remember correctly. Yep. Uh, that was, that was something I didn't understand. 

Matt: Yeah. 2014, I think is, if I remember the date right, that's, or the year correctly.

That was when they had this big uprising. They booted out this former president who was very much a Russian sympathizer, I guess, for lack of a better term. And during that protest. [00:16:00] Two of the interpreters that I was with and Sean 

Erik: mm-hmm. 

Matt: During that, two of the young guys that I was with, they were there, they were part of the protest.

Hmm. And the president had hired, had had military up there, several bridges, high points, and he had put military snipers up there, literally ordering them to shoot into the crowd of civilians, murdering civilians. Um, Sean, during that time had actually went over there to help. Um, and was there, um, along with a couple of other people from our church went over there.

But, uh, but yeah, so that's, it's kind of been this on now the actual invasion where Russia actually started to invade the country. Obviously that happened in in February, but yeah, ever since then, Russia, yeah, you know, they're saying that they're trying to take. What was originally there is back, well, that's not historically accurate.

Ukraine was a country before Russia was a country. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And so they're, they have no claim to, to the Ukraine. Russia has no claim to any of the, it's like Canada coming in saying, well, we're gonna take back part of the us. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: We were never part of the, you know, [00:17:00] uh, since we were established. So yeah. It's, uh, it's pretty sad.

And, and most of the, it's the civilians that are really paying the price. The military is paying the price too. Mm-hmm. Um, but. The bombings are very inaccurate. Uh, most of the missile strikes don't hit their targets. Uh, they're trying to, they're aiming for infrastructure, electrical plants, water filtration systems, things like that because they know winter is coming and winter and Ukraine can be very rough.

And so that's, they're trying to demoralize and take the spirit out of the Ukrainian people. And I can tell you that's not going to happen. 

Erik: Uh, I, that I have read some of that. Uh, their resolve and their sense of purpose in this is, uh, is, is pretty inspiring. 

Matt: It's very, and, and to be over there, um, I wished I could say it in proper Ukrainian.

Uh, but there's a phrase, actually, when we were in Aviv on our way to Kyiv, we stopped and we were walking around and we went to lunch, [00:18:00] and this restaurant was down in these catacombs. Mm-hmm. Like from Old World War ii, these dungeon. It was a very cool experience, and Sean came up to us and said, to get into this restaurant, you have to say this password.

Cool. And it was, I made this video, it was on TikTok. I videoed it with the guys, but it's a very common saying that they have over there. And basically in Ukrainian, the guy says, uh, glory to Ukraine. And then the response back is glory to the heroes. And it's this kind of, this patriotic cry to unity to, you know, defend against the Russians coming in.

And it's a very common thing that people say all the time. So that was kind of the thing. He said, glory to Ukraine. And then in Ukrainian, you had to say back to him, glory to Glory. The heroes. Heroes. And they allowed you into this restaurant. Um, and so, uh, that was a common saying that, that they had all over the country, but I can tell you they're very much united.

Mm-hmm. As a country, they're very much behind their president. Their [00:19:00] president is, has stuck in there. He could have easily had fled Kyiv, give him a lot of credit. Uh, he could have very easily had fled Kyiv and he's very much at risk in being in Kyiv. 'cause it's no secret where he is, you know, or at least where his buildings are.

You know, it's like hiding from the White House. Everybody knows where the White House is. Right. Um, so, uh, he has been very strong leader, I think. Mm-hmm. Uh, done a really good job in uniting his country and defending against, uh, Russia. Um, but yeah, it's, it's really neat. I kind of thought I, I got a rocky picture kind of in my head.

When I was over there, because obviously the Ukraine is a much smaller country, their military is much smaller than Russia. However, I almost feel as bad for like the rank and file Russian military guy as I do to Ukrainians because a lot of them, from what I've seen, and I didn't, this isn't in person, but from what I've seen and read, they are severely uh uh, un undersupplied.

They're going into [00:20:00] these areas. At first, several of the Russian. Units. When they came into the country, they didn't realize they were invading the Ukraine. They were told they're on a training mission. And actually we're asking, why are you shooting at us? When they started to roll into these towns, and the people were said, because you're invading our country.

And we're like, no, we're a training. A lot of the rank and file guy has no idea. And now he knows, but at the be at initially, he didn't know. He didn't. Now they know and they're against it. They're like, I don't, they're being drafted into the Russian military and literally the next day with zero training, get a gun stuck in their hand and they're being sent over the border to go fight.

And they're like, I don't believe in this war. I don't want to do this. Then they're out in this cold, wet conditions. They have no food. They have very little ammo. They have like no body armor. So you're fighting an enemy. From the Ukrainian standpoint, you're fighting an enemy that, for the most part, doesn't wanna be there.

Erik: Mm-hmm. [00:21:00] 

Matt: And the Ukrainians are very, well, I mean, for the most part, they're getting world assistance. And so they're pretty well supplied. Um, and, but the biggest thing is that they have the heart. I mean, they're, it's like somebody 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: Coming in to take over your home and your family, well, you're gonna fight with everything.

You have to keep that from happening. Yeah. Well if the guy coming in doesn't have equal heart, it's, he's not gonna be a very hard enemy to beat. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: Um, so yeah, there, it's really neat to see the unity. Uh, you know, unfortunately in America right now, we don't have a lot of that. After nine 11 we did. And that's kind of the patriotism they have is very much united.

Erik: Yeah, I know that, uh, I believe that the majority of Americans are deeply patriotic. 

Matt: Yes. 

Erik: Unfortunately. I I think that, uh, some of that is, uh, uh, we don't see a lot of that. Yeah. Uh, but I, I do believe that the majority of, 

Matt: yes, 

Erik: Americans are more patriotic than they get credit for. That's my opinion. 

Matt: I agree.

And, and they're not, you know, out there yelling it, it's, it's always the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, 

Erik: you know? I know. Yeah. 

Matt: But the, [00:22:00] yeah, I, I agree. I think the majority of Americans. I'll just, same one. 

Erik: You know, I, you, you sent out a, a text to me with a picture of you by candlelight eating sushi. Yeah.

I'm just ignorant, you know, I was like, sushi in Ukraine. That's, yeah. Not what I would've expected, but 

Matt: yeah. 

Erik: It was a really cool picture. You sent, I think I remember, uh, the candles and uh, obviously you lost power. 

Matt: Yep. 

Erik: And, uh, 

Matt: didn't lose power. They were doing rolling brownouts. 

Erik: Oh they were? Okay. 

Matt: In 

Erik: key 

Matt: just to 

Erik: safe power.

Matt: Correct. Okay. 

Erik: Okay. 

Matt: Trying to conserve for winter. 'cause it's not that cold there yet. So rolling. Uh, black brownouts were, were kind of a common occurrence. Uh, 

Erik: um, did you eat traditional Ukraine food when you were there? Yeah. Or were you eating? I mean, 

Matt: yeah, no, we ate kind of everything. Uh, definitely ate a lot.

The, like the restaurant that we went to down in the catacombs, that was definitely traditionally glory to 

Erik: Ukraine. 

Matt: Glory to Ukraine, glory to glory to the heroes. That's right. 

Erik: What kind of food did they serve there? 

Matt: They had a very Hamburgs, huh? Kidding. No, they, they didn't actually, most places did. I did actually have a really good burger at a place.

Oh really? In [00:23:00] Kiev one time. Uhhuh. But most of their food, they ate a lot of, uh, pork, chicken, fish, a lot of fish, 

Erik: uhhuh, 

Matt: very healthy, uh, diet. Um, a lot of vegetables. Mm-hmm. Um, salads, steam vegetables, uh, not, um, some carbs. But not, I mean, some beef. I, I ordered a steak one time. Mm-hmm. Totally different than an American steak.

Completely did the taste, the way it's cooked. Okay. The herbs that they put on it, just everything is totally different than an American steak. Um, still good. Good. Okay. Yeah. Still very good. Just different, just, you have to go into it with a, this isn't gonna taste the way I think this is gonna taste. I was in Romania a long time ago, and I remember, uh, we, we had had dinner at the hotel.

And they came out with dessert and it looked like these delicious, like almost like a Danish or a cinnamon roll. Yeah. It was this pastry and it looked like it had this just delicious cream cheese icing on it. And I thought, oh, that looks so good. And I, so in my mind. I had it. 

Erik: Was [00:24:00] mayonnaise 

Matt: an expectation?

No, it was a sour cream 

Erik: sauce. Oh, really? That's a 

Matt: lot. D So I had in my mind a cream cheese sweet icing taste. Mm-hmm. And I bit into it. And what your mind's expecting in one of your mouth tastes completely different. That was very common in Ukraine too. They, they make these, uh, cottage cheese pancakes.

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: They're these little mini pancakes and they put this sour cream sauce on it. It's delicious. It's like a sour cream yogurt kind of a thing. Yeah. It's, it's very good, but it's not what your mind thinks it is. It's not that sweet cinnamon roll pancake kind of a thing. Um, so yeah, no, we ate very good.

Mm-hmm. Had very good food. B if I'm saying that correctly. Uh, it was a really, the first day we were in Raow, Poland, I actually got this soup. It was delicious. It was kind of a beat, uh uh. Uh, soup and it would have like potatoes and different things in it. Tor they put different things in it. It was delicious.

Very good. 

Erik: That is very cool. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. 

Erik: Well, um, I've got some questions about the EMS system out there. What's the EMS system organized? Like is it similar to the United States, is it? 

Matt: No. So [00:25:00] their fire departments, um, so I told you I met some members of the chief. Yeah, so they actually called him when I, through the interpreter, was calling him the chief.

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: And so I was a little bit confused 'cause I think the interpreter's understanding of a chief, my understanding, and then lost in translation. I was trying to get a clear picture of who this gentleman was. They kept introducing him as the chief of the Kiev Fire Department. And so I was like, oh, okay.

You know, so talked to him a little bit. Um, and he invite us, invited us to come to his fire station in Kiev. 

Erik: Oh, cool. 

Matt: So the next day we went that evening, we went to his station, met us outside. Uh, just a phenomenal guy. They were completely out of power at their fire station. And this was kind of in the evening, so we were going around with flashlight.

And he gave us this two hour tour of his station, mainly a museum that he has. And you could tell this man was very, very proud of his museum and the collection they had, uh, [00:26:00] from gear and uniforms from all over, mainly Europe. 

Erik: Mm-hmm.

Matt: Um, um, an amazing collection of stuff. Uh, and he was telling us his history.

After he gave us this tour, we went into this beautiful office and it was his office. And then he gave us a little bit of his history. He had been with the key Fire Department for 40 years, as you said. He was a colonel. I had to actually look up the emblem that he had on his uniform. 

Erik: Hmm.

Matt: I looked it up.

And in the Ukraine, the fire service is a government agency, a uh, a state or not a state, a a uh, country government agency, basically, almost like a military. And so they have a minister of like emergency services in Parliament. Mm-hmm. The rank directly under that minister is Colonel. Oh, wow. This guy's rank now I, I'm guessing that there's probably numerous colonels throughout the country in different areas, and he was the colonel in the [00:27:00] KE area, which again is the largest city in the 5 million people.

So that's, you know, being like the chief of the Chicago Fire Department or you know, yeah. A large, large department. He had worked for over 40 years for them and. As they were telling me they were talking about Chernobyl. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And they said something about him going to Chernobyl and being in the fire service and I, during the time of Chernobyl, and I was like, trying to get clarification.

It 

Erik: was like mid eighties, right? 

Matt: Yeah, 

Erik: 83, 

Matt: 84. Something that I, I can't remember the exact year, but yes. Close to there. 

Erik: Yeah, 

Matt: we could look it up. He responded to, I thought they were just telling me he was a fireman. During Chernobyl, he actually responded to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. 

Erik: Wow. 

Matt: To help mitigate the incident and had the pictures and metals to prove it.

It was amazing. I was, that's like saying, you know, you were with Rescue one on nine 11 and you went to the Twin Towers. It's a big deal [00:28:00] because that there was. Basically every firefighter that first responded there was died of radiation poisoning because they didn't realize, uh, all of them died. Very sad.

Uh, but yeah, he responded. Very interesting guy. Um, had numerous pictures of presidents and just kind of a side note, it, it was an amazing honor. He was talking about different memorabilia he had in his office. And he pulls out this plaque. Uh, Orthodox religion is very big in Ukraine. Lots of Orthodox, Greek Orthodox types, churches structures, things like that.

So they have a patron saint of like the Ukrainian emergency services. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: And it's basically a very orthodox picture of the Mother Mary, with baby Jesus. And in her right in the, in her left hand, she's holding the baby Jesus in her right hand. She has a ladder. And so this is a very important symbol to the Ukrainian Emergency Services.

Say it 

Erik: again. 

Matt: What's 

Erik: that? Is that the ladder? 

Matt: A ladder, [00:29:00] yeah, like a step ladder. 

Erik: On this quick side note. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Uh, my favorite artist is a Russian artist. He's an North Greek Orthodox. He's Russian artist. His name's Victor Brigetta. It's the picture right up there. 

Matt: Oh. 

Erik: And he puts a ladder in every painting he does.

Really. Um, anyway, uh, it's interesting. He's stuck. He wants to get his family out. He can't. And, um, 

Matt: really? 

Erik: And I got to meet him. Uh, very interesting artist. 

Matt: You've told me the story of that painting is 

Erik: really fun. Yeah. Anyway, sorry, but No, no. You mentioned ladders, so that's interesting. 

Matt: That was the, the connection to the emergency services.

Erik: Okay, cool. 

Matt: And so this symbol is very important to them. Mm-hmm. Like they had a mural of it painted in their station. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: So he pulls out this glass plaque with this image on it. And he's speaking in Ukrainian, the interpreter's talking to him. I thought he was just showing this to us, Thomas, you know?

Yeah. And then the interpreter tells me that he's giving this to me, uh, since I came over in their time of need as a fireman, since I came over in their time of need. And I mean, I didn't do [00:30:00] anything, you know, but just my presence there. 

Erik: Not, not true you 

Matt: Well, but I'm just saying, you know, in, in my opinion, you know, the grand scheme of things, I, I get what his point was.

Um, but he was saying he was giving this to me to bring back and to present to my fire department as a blessing over our fire department. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And it was just, it was really cool. I mean, I was almost choked up by it. It was, it was such an amazing, I was terrified the rest of the trip. 'cause this thing was glass.

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: And so we're traveling every day. We're in a vehicle, we're traveling around at, you know, 15 hour flights home. I am terrified that this thing is gonna break. 

Erik: How big? How big is it? 

Matt: Uh, it was probably 14 inches by 10 inches. Okay. Um, and so I was terrified that this thing was gonna get broke 'cause I couldn't bring it in my, in my, uh, carry-on luggage.

I had to put it in my check bag. So I actually bought towels and a pillow to really protect this thing in my bag. But I was terrified all the way home till I got this thing home that it was gonna break. It [00:31:00] didn't break. I got it all the way home. I, I also got a patch. Yeah. Uh, from their fire department.

And I was able to just this week, uh, I was able to, or last week, I guess, uh, take it to my chief and present it. That's so cool. To our fire department as, I mean, just, it just shows the brother and sisterhood of the fire service. It doesn't matter if you don't speak the same language. Uhhuh, if you're 6,000 miles away, if you're firefighting tactics, your uniforms mm-hmm.

Your bunker gear. That can all be totally different, but at the end of the day, it's all that. 

Erik: That's 

Matt: family. It was amazing. That was the coolest experience 

Erik: and never told me that. That is so cool. 

Matt: Yeah, it was very unique 

Erik: and well received. I mean, I'm sure the, 

Matt: oh yeah, my chief was, thought it was, 

Erik: was there some pomp and circumstance with that, or 

Matt: was it Well, he had no idea.

I just told him, so to back up before I went over there, Shawn, I had asked Shawn, do I need, mm-hmm. Body armor, do I need to bring any kind of protective clothing? And Sean said, we have, [00:32:00] uh, body armor for you to wear over there if we need it. We have plenty. But he said, if you have access to a Kevlar helmet, that wouldn't be a bad idea.

If you can get one, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have. And so I asked our chief, 'cause we have Kevlar, you know, for active shooter stuff. I asked our chief, would it be okay if I borrowed, you know, an extra helmet or something like that. And my chief was gracious enough to say, I'll tell you what, I, he asked what I was doing and so I told him and he thought it was really cool.

He was very, very supportive of it. And he said, I'll tell you what, you can come get my personal helmet. 

Erik: Hmm. 

Matt: And you can take it. If it gets lost. If it gets destroyed, I'll just, you know, cover the cost. He was very gracious in letting me, that's do, that's so, yeah. So I went and got his helmet and so when I, I didn't tell him that I had this plaque, I just said, Hey, I'm just gonna meet up with you.

Because he said, when you get back, I'd love to talk to you about your trip. And so I said, well, I'm just gonna bring you this helmet and I got something for you. So he had no idea what I was bringing him. Um, and so I [00:33:00] brought him his helmet back, gave him the patch, and then told him the story that I just told you of this kernel that I met and, uh, gave him this plaque.

Wow. So he thought it, it was pretty cool. So it now sits in our, uh, admin building. Uh, for now, uh, we have a museum. Mm-hmm. Uh, our fire department or 

Central 

Erik: station. That's 

Matt: right. That's correct. Yeah. 

Erik: Similar to the museum, maybe in the fire 

Matt: department. It's very similar to his museum. And I, I actually talked to our guy that runs our museum and I told him about this plaque and I said, I would like this plaque to either go in there.

We also have display cases at our Mond, so it will go in a permanent place in the McKinney Fire Department. Another cool thing is I talked to the guy that does our museum and I said, I would love to make. A box of like American, like a helmet, boots, gear patches stuff, and send it to him. For him to put in his museum.

I, they did have a patch wall. The only American patch I saw in there of course was FDNY, which makes sense. 

Erik: Yeah. 

Matt: So, but it's kind of cool to think that my fire department patch will be in a Kiev fire station. So, cool. Along. Cool. I mean, that's really neat connection. That's neat. That's, yeah. Really, really neat.[00:34:00] 

Made the, that right there made the trip. 

Erik: But even though your patch isn't there, and even though whatever patch in whatever city in the United States Fire Department patch isn't there. There's that brotherhood, sisterhood, I mean, of the, the department 

Matt: and we, and you could tell, like talking to them when we were on breaks at the seminar, there was three other firefighters there.

You could just tell the way that they interacted with each other, the way that they were interacting with me through the interpreter. They're just firemen. Yeah. I mean they're just firemen and firemen are firemen, you know? Yeah. It was, it was really, really cool. Uh, they were, the people were very welcoming.

Mm-hmm. Um, very, uh, very happy to have any support. Um, at one time we had gone over, I'm not gonna give too many details on what we did, just for their safety over there, but we went and met with a group of people that are helping the Ukrainian military. 

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: And they do some training over there. And I had asked about, Hey, would you be interested in, or I asked them, do you do any kind of medical first aid training?[00:35:00] 

And they said, yes. They do have a portion of their courses that they put on as a March trauma assessment basically. So I asked 'em if they would like more in depth training, like maybe TECC or TT Triple C type training. Mm-hmm. And they were interested and I said, well, would, would you be interested in Americans coming over and teaching this kind of stuff?

And they said, you know it, the information's probably very similar to what we have, but the fact that a foreigner, especially an American, is taking time out of their life, putting their life at risk, so to speak. Risking even a little bit, putting their life at risk, spending the time and effort to come over here to help teach military civilians, whatever they said.

Just the fact that they have an American instructor there to teach them is a massive morale boost to them. It just is a massive morale boost for the citizens, for the military to know that [00:36:00] people care, people know what's going on, and they support what they're doing. Hmm. Uh, even to the point of coming over there and supporting it, he said that is a massive boost.

So he said, yes, we would. Absolutely. 

Erik: That's so 

Matt: cool. Take that. So, yeah, it was very neat. Very neat. Experience there as well. 

Erik: Couple, couple things as we close here, uh, for our, um, podcast and I so cool to hear your story. Yeah. Experience. I mean, you know, you and I are friends and 

Matt: Oh yeah. 

Erik: And, and I'm so happy to hear it now.

'cause you, I know when you were there you were sending me some texts, but that was a little bit nervous for you. You were in harm's way. I was 

Matt: a little bit nervous for me at first. 

Erik: And I know your family too, is nervous and, and, uh, I'm so grateful you're back home safe. But I'm also grateful just to be your friend and to know that you had done these things.

It's just, I think it's, it's inspiring and I, I, I'd love to do it too. Um, we'll 

Matt: do it. 

Erik: But a couple things I think to end with a, uh, was there anything else that you, um, saw or experienced that you wanna tell our friends about? Uh, as a first. [00:37:00] Part of the question. The second part is, uh, I know that there may be some folks listening that would like to help support 

Matt: Yeah.

Erik: Um, some of these efforts. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: And maybe you could share a little bit about how they could do that. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: Um, 

Matt: yeah, there's a number of volunteer organizations. Um, actually on one of the videos that I posted, at first, I was kind of cautious about posting things on social media. Uh, but then, you know, through talking with Sean and stuff, it kind of became a little bit more obvious that.

It was okay to do that by the time people would see it. And I'm like, I, I doubt Putin's coming after me. Right. You know, oh, ball's in Ukraine, let's go get 'em. You know, I doubt that was gonna be the case, 

Erik: Uhhuh, 

Matt: but there's numerous volunteer organizations. Um, I will say that the Ukrainian people need help.

Erik: Mm-hmm. 

Matt: Uh, this war is not over. Mm-hmm. Uh, you might turn on the news every night and see the weather and watch the updates on the football game and not realize that there's a country of innocent people that are under attack. And people's homes are being bombed. I mean, they're sitting in their homes and a missile's supposed to hit an electric [00:38:00] electrical power pant, and instead it hits the lows and decimate a whole neighborhood of houses and people die.

Innocent people that are in their homes. 

Erik: Mm-hmm.

Matt: Uh, so there's people that are suffering. They're about two, um, going to winter. And it gets, as I said, it gets very cold. They have a lot of snow. Gets brutal. Um, so Sean's organization, mission 8 2 3 that I'm sure we can put a link with this podcast on. We'll do 

Erik: that.

Matt: I can guarantee you that all the money that you donate to Sean's organization, mission 8 2 3, is going to directly help the people in Ukraine. Hmm. Whether it's purchasing medical supplies, that's what, there's three guys that we dealt with that we were with the whole time that drove us all over the country, literally.

And all these guys are the real heroes, these guys, and they're in that TikTok video. And these three young guys, they all, uh, two of them are married, one of them has a family, or actually all three are married, but one has kids. They are really putting their lives at risks. These guys get these medical [00:39:00] supplies, food, water filters, and they literally follow right behind the military when they go into these hot areas.

And they're delivering these medical supplies to the front lines, to the f the, the fighters, the military. They're bringing water filtration to the citizens that have been affected. Food. Those guys are the heroes, truly are the heroes. Um, so any amount of donation, if you can donate, even if it's 10 bucks, if you can donate 10 bucks to show an organization, I promise you, your money's gonna go to the people.

But just go online. There's numerous, if you're a medical person and you want to go there and do something like I did. Yep. 

Erik: That's really, 

Matt: we can do that. 

Erik: Well, we'll have to check us on a TikTok 

Matt: will do 

Erik: it. But thank you for joining us today. This is great to hear. 

Matt: Awesome. 

Erik: Alright. Safe out there.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to EMS, the Erik and Matt Show.