SRS Special Edition with Katie Jean | Andrea Gallagher Wife of accused Navy SEAL War Criminal

Shawn Ryan's wife, Katie Jean sits down with Eddie Gallagher's wife Andrea, to discuss what life was like for Andrea and her family while her husband was behind bars. Andrea opens up about the NCIS raid that took place at her home on her children, and how she took her husband's freedom into her own hands by creating the #FREEEDDIE campaign which got the attention of President Donald Trump, and the national news. This interview goes in depth with Andrea like no one has ever done before. Follow and Support Eddie and Andrea by clicking the links below. https://theeddiegallagher.com​ https://pipehitterfoundation.org Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website - https://www.shawnryanshow.com Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/VigilanceElite TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnryanshow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shawnryan762 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:23Andrea Gallagher?

  This 20-year generation, of the 9/11 generation, is going to be so unique because they deployed, for Eddie, for example, he deployed back-to-back, nonstop. I don't think people have a clear grasp and understanding of the sacrifice that these families and these men have made the last 20 years.

• 1:42Katie Jean?

  I know for me, being with Sean really opened my eyes to what actually goes on over there. They're so quick to just place judgment and think that they know, but they have no idea.

• 1:57Andrea Gallagher?

  These men have so much to give. We have to do more. We have to be standing up for them. I was made for this, for him, for this purpose.

• 2:15Katie Jean?

  First, let me say how awesome it's been getting to know you and Eddie and your son, Ryan, and just like really getting to spend quality time with the two of you, the three of you, and just learning more and more about you guys and seeing you together and not just on television. So, thank you for being here.

• 2:35Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, we've loved hanging out with you guys. We appreciate you having us.

• 2:38Katie Jean?

  Thanks. I really want to start by diving into when and where the Andrea and Eddie story begins. Where did it all start? What's your love story?

• 2:52Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, so it's pretty incredible. We have a really powerful story. So, we had met. We were 16, 17 years old. I was born and raised in Indiana. And then Eddie was kind of a transplant. He was a military kid. His dad was in the Army, so they would move every two years. But after his dad exited the military, they actually ended up in Indiana. And so Eddie and I met for the first time. I had snuck out of the house to hang out with my friends and be wild and crazy and ornery. I was very rebellious, as was Eddie. And so snuck out and met up. And it was, at the time, was a little abandoned road called

• 3:37Andrea Gallagher?

  Till Road. And there was a little abandoned house there. And you'd like go and hang out. And like, we happened to be, that night, smoking weed. So, I came in a big hooded sweatshirt and was just, you know, being me. And he was like, "Who is this?" So, yeah, he said he fell in love with me like that night and was just like, you know, "Oh, my gosh." But we actually became best friends. So, he was just like so familial to me. It was like, I grew up with like a lot of like boy cousins. And that's what it felt like. Like a person that's just like, "This is my person. This is mine." You know, and that's how he always

• 4:20Andrea Gallagher?

  was to me. He felt like my person. And so, we joke all the time about how I would page him and be like, if it wasn't two minutes, I'd get a call back. And this is when you had a call from payphones. And I'd be like, "911, 911, ho, ho, ho." Do you know how to do that? You 304 and then you turn it over on a pager. It's ho.

• 4:41Speaker 05

  I do remember that.

• 4:43Andrea Gallagher?

  Yes, I'm that person. That's like, hey, and I'm like, I'm not, we're not dating, we're just best friends. But it was, we were just so close and we would always hang out and we have the funniest, you know, craziest stories together and, um, but he was always just such a sweet guy, so, so kind and genuine and very different than, you know, a lot of other guys. He was super respectful and kind and just really, you know, kind of put me on a pedestal even back in the day, even though we were just best friends. So, um, you know, we parted ways. Uh, I think we both were kind of striving to get out of our little town and do life differently.

• 5:24Andrea Gallagher?

  So I can remember there was a time where we were both out of high school, um, and then we had gone to a community college together. Um, and I just felt like there was a day that he was gonna tell me, you know, we like met and just the way he was acting was a little different or weird and I felt like he was gonna tell me like, I love you and like do something more. Um, but he didn't and I ended up going to Florida. I met, um, I went with a girlfriend and met a guy there. I was like, I'm going, I'm, I'm moving, I'm going to fashion design school. So I went my way, he went his way, which was ended up being, he enlisted in the military shortly thereafter.

• 6:06Andrea Gallagher?

  So our lives just totally, you know, took a big turn. Um, I ended up being a mom and I got married and I really just went on this totally different trajectory while he was in the military and that was like obviously at the height of the war getting into it, cause he would have enlisted in 99. And then, you know, shortly thereafter, he did a couple platoons with the Marines because he is a Navy corpsman, so the Navy outsources all of their medics to the Marines. So he was actually with, you know, he did do some ship tours, but then he was on, um, you know, mostly on target with Marine. Infantry troops as a corpsman. So yeah, he had a whole life experience.

• 6:48Andrea Gallagher?

  I had a whole life experience and that separation was about 10 years. So then we reconnected just totally random. He was coming back through our little town. He had just graduated. Well, he just had gone through BUDS and then SQT. And then he had gone to do like the SOCOM program where it's for the medics. And he was just coming back through maybe one last time because his parents were putting their house on the market and just on a whim. He called my parents and asked, you know, how I was or how I was doing and if he could have my number. And I'm like, oh, hey, by the way, I'm a single mom with two kids.

• 7:28Andrea Gallagher?

  Like, you know, and it was like right where we left off and just friends and just That's awesome. So, so close and so fun. Like, we just have the most fun, just authentic, sweet relationship. And, and we weren't necessarily like seeking to like evolve it, but we were just spending that time together. So he canceled all of his plans. He was supposed to go like swim with great whites and go visit all these people across the country before he joined up with SEAL Team One and none of that happened. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. Almost serendipitous that it just all came together at just that right time. Yeah, it's, it's beautiful. Yeah, and we, we spent those couple of weeks together and I didn't let him meet my kids

• 8:13Andrea Gallagher?

  because my ex had left and had an affair and was doing all types of crazy stuff. And so I was like, I, I have got to have very strict ground rules. I have two kids. I'm a mom. I'm not wild and crazy anymore. Like, I love Jesus. Like, I have to be with someone that has faith and we have to be like on the same path, like, you know, and I gave him like a laundry list of stuff that I'm like, I won't do this, I won't do that. Like, we will not be together before marriage. That's how I end up pregnant out of wedlock and married to this total loser for six years. Which I got my two beautiful children, but I really was, you know, he was taking on a lot. A single mom, two kids, and I gave him every rule in the book that, you know, we're gonna do this the right way, or it's the highway type of thing.

• 8:56Andrea Gallagher?

  And he was just like, okay, sounds good. And, and by the way, I'm gonna go join the SEAL teams now after I've put all this work and effort. And like, I don't even know what a Navy SEAL is.

• 9:07Katie Jean?

  You had no clue?

• 9:08Andrea Gallagher?

  I had no clue. I, I don't have family that's in the military, like a lot, you know, like maybe like super old uncles that had like a military tattoo, like, oh, I was in the military. But I'm like, no, like my family, my dad and mom, like they're, they're a pacifist. And so of course, like I married a Navy SEAL sniper. So, you know, my parents are awesome though. They, they're very amazing people, but it was a total no idea what I was getting into, which was probably better.

• 9:38Katie Jean?

  Right.

• 9:39Andrea Gallagher?

  Better for me not to know.

• 9:44Katie Jean?

  Wow, that's a lot, though. That's a lot for him to take on, but, and then also you not knowing. I didn't know either with Sean. No idea. I mean, nobody in my close knit of family is in the military, so you just don't know.

• 9:57Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, and military is one thing, but like special operations too. It's like, I don't think anyone can even explain it to you until you're in it. And they're like, oh, this is what it is, okay.

• 10:06Katie Jean?

  It seems that way, yeah. It is, yep. That's what I'm kind of figuring out. But now moving forward to here we are today. But I remember seeing you first. When Eddie's case was in the news, you know, it was all over everywhere. I just remember seeing you stand out the most. The hashtag free Eddie shirt, all of that. And that's what made me be like, who is this chick? And like, what's going on? And like, what happened to her husband? But that really made me dive into seeing what you guys were going through. And then, you know, obviously Sean and I were talking about it and all of that.

• 10:47Katie Jean?

  And I just can't imagine what you have been through. Obviously, I can't imagine what Eddie's been through either, but you being the wife, the mother, dealing with all of this, having Eddie locked up.

• 11:03Katie Jean?

  Where do you start? Like, how does, how can you even like let me in and explain what that was like?

• 11:09Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. Well, the best way that I can describe it is I feel like I was made for this, for him, for this purpose. It's like a little

• 11:24Andrea Gallagher?

  emotional to think like I knew, I knew him as, you know, we were 16 and 17 and to get back together and to truly feel that God connected us for this purpose. Cause I was thinking about that the other day. I'm like, I don't know who could have done this besides me. I feel like I was, who I am, my personality, my drive, everything about what I had done leading up to this was all really a part of how I was able to do what I was able to do and to help him. And just, you know, I did imagery, I do branding and things like that, but I,

• 12:03Andrea Gallagher?

  my, my strength is like in my heart and my love. Like I love super deep. There's no in between. I either, you know, I love you hard or that's it. Like I don't have like this way to just not be fully invested in the people that I, that I love and that I care about. So I feel like all of my skillsets that I had been culminating through my small business that I was running and all the things that I was doing to help people and support people and coach people and consult and imagery and how to relate that and to translating a message. Like it was all strategically designed for me to be able to help him through this completely unforeseen event that occurred and the navigating it was just like every waking hour I would devote

• 12:48Andrea Gallagher?

  to figuring how to help him to be free from this, like oppressive, just whirlwind that we had been entrapped in. So yeah, I mean, it's hard to put it into like all of the things that I did on a daily basis or how it happened, but I do feel like because of my relationship with God and because I am so faith-based, I really, truly from the get-go, I would feel very strongly and that we were

• 13:16Andrea Gallagher?

  We were supposed to go through this. I didn't feel like, oh, God, why are you doing this to us? I felt like God was allowing us to go through it and that I would feel Him telling me, like, this is bigger than you. This is bigger than you.

• 13:31Katie Jean?

  That's powerful.

• 13:33Andrea Gallagher?

  It is. And on the day that Eddie got locked up and he got taken from the TBI clinic, it was on 9/11 that they took him nonetheless from a TBI clinic. They locked him away in pretrial confinement with, at the time, we had no idea what that meant, but it would end up being a seven and a half, almost nine-month stint in some type of confinement even before the day of his trial. And that was super eye-opening for me. I mean, I really had held out so much, like, faith and hope that, like, the command was going to come to our aid, the investigation would be done properly and we wouldn't have to go into what we went into, but we did. And so by the time that he got arrested, they didn't even have charges

• 14:15Andrea Gallagher?

  against him. And I was just like, how in the world is this happening? And then I just devoted all of my energy to really exposing what was going on to us. And we had not shared it at all with anybody too much, other than very close friends, because we trusted the system. We had faith that things would be worked out or people would do the right thing, but it never happened. So then we had to stand up. And that's, that's why you saw me first, was because they locked Eddie away in a jail and confined him so that he couldn't have access to his own defense or his own legal team.

• 14:55Katie Jean?

  Was that September 11?

• 14:56Andrea Gallagher?

  Yep. That started on September 11, 2018. And then he remained in pretrial confinement all the way up until our trial, which wasn't until June of the next year.

• 15:10Katie Jean?

  Oh, my gosh. So how exactly does that happen?

• 15:15Katie Jean?

  Cops come to your door? Or is he taken in for questioning and then just he stays there? Like, what exactly happened?

• 15:22Andrea Gallagher?

  So, the situation that we had, um, I mean, I guess I should start with initially, this is from a deployment that took place in 2017. So, he was with a platoon that was formerly the worst performing platoon and he evolved that into the number one platoon at SEAL Team 7. They got the billet to go to Mosul, Iraq. And they were there. They cleared Mosul in half the time. Eddie was awarded the number one chief. They got number one platoon. They cleared Mosul. And it really was just a, really a paramount moment in his career. He had really wanted to evolve slowly. He did not want to pick up chief. He wanted to stay operational as long as he could.

• 16:03Andrea Gallagher?

  So, he's probably, you know, as far as like the scope of how our friends evolved, um, he kept hanging back because he wanted to be operational. So, this was a very big moment for him to be a chief as an E6, um, E7, go over there, um, perform so well, come back. And at the end of the deployment, it was just standard stuff. It was just like the petty stuff that they do, that they used to like just punch each other in the face if they had disagreements. That would have been the 10 years SEAL Team prior. But this group, um, it was very passive aggressive and they were apparently having a lot of issues that, which Eddie did not know or didn't recognize, that, um, these guys who had been

• 16:47Andrea Gallagher?

  a part of, um, many platoons together, had kind of united and staged a bit of a mutiny. Um, in what is like an ongoing thing, but again, Eddie wasn't aware of it because Eddie was the only one staying on target the full time. I think Eddie and his OIC Jake were the only two. And then everyone would go back every two weeks and do a week-long rest and refit. And then he'd cycle out the other half of the platoon. So, this embryonic mutiny was actually starting back at the other base that was like the safe house. And so, they'd go back there and they'd drink and they would, you know, basically were developing this kind of like a cancer in the platoon. And that kind of evolved to, there was a couple of big moments, I think that Eddie was telling

• 17:31Andrea Gallagher?

  me, like, it became clear to him, because it was all going on very behind the scenes, but he saw, he asked, I think it was one of the guys for their phone to text someone back at the safe house, and as he's pulling it up, there's a thread coming through from one of those individuals to the guy. Oh, wow. Saying Eddie is gonna get us killed, da-da-da-da-da, and he's like, what the heck is this? And so then it kind of started to unravel near the end of deployment, but again, it's so typical at the end of deployments for these guys to get, you know, crazy, and they're, sometimes they're the best of friends, and they even have that. So I knew, like, with this, and Eddie's an authority figure, these guys are very young,

• 18:12Andrea Gallagher?

  they're not combat trained, other than this is their first real combat platoon, I kind of was like, this is, this is bound to happen, you know, in this type of a scenario. So Eddie came back, and we had amazing reintegration, which is not typical, a lot of times when you reintegrate, there's a lot of drama, and it's just really hard, you know, on the family and the guys. So usually if they're gone six to seven months, I like allow six to seven months to like get our footing. But he came back, and it was just like, I feel like he was so relieved to be back with us, and it just was like seamless reintegration. We had an amazing time reconnecting as a family, and we always just put our family first.

• 18:56Andrea Gallagher?

  But it was really towards when the other guys started to come back, we started to hear whispers of like, these guys were in the bars in Germany, like shit-talking you non-stop as their leader, and Eddie's like, dude, what the heck is up with these dudes? So it ended up, I think it was towards the end of 2017, because they would have come back from that deployment in like August and September, were flights back. It went through all of, you know, the end of the year, through the holidays, people are kind of, you know, supposed to be decompressing, really. Mm-hmm. Which is what we did, reconnected, and I think it was towards the beginning of

• 19:35Andrea Gallagher?

  2018, these rumblings and these little rumors and little escalations were just, they weren't going away, and we were just like... What is this? Because we had never experienced anything like that in the community. Because the community, what we knew of it, it was a very tight knit community and we didn't really know why it was happening. But all this to say, 2018, it really started to ramp up and the command even, because this small group of guys from the platoon, three to four of them, were, basically, they selected a guy to kind of be the ringleader of like, go and take these accusations to the command.

• 20:18Andrea Gallagher?

  And so they would go and they'd be like, oh, you know, he was eating too many protein bars and he was stealing stuff from care packages, he was putting us in danger, or just petty, petty stuff. And the command several times was like, okay, tell us what he did. And they would recount different things or try to make more extreme allegations, well, he did this or that. And they're like, is there any like legitimate LoAC violations, which is the law of armed conflict violation? And they, every time, they said no, three different times. But again, the rumors just continued to escalate and it was getting crazier. Like the stories that you'd hear recounted back were just more extreme and more crazy.

• 20:59Andrea Gallagher?

  Like, you know, just something totally made up about one of the guys that had gotten shot. They're like, oh, we heard you didn't call for the nine line, you held it off. And Eddie's like, dude, I literally carried him on my back to the nine line. Like, what are you talking? So it was, it was almost like anything that was real was flipped and lied about. So we had been experiencing that for the better part of six months before Eddie finally went to the command. And he said, listen, whatever this is, I need to address it. I mean, as a leader, he really felt that he needed to address it. So he had an all call with everyone that was a part of the deployment, whether you were a tech or anyone. And he said, listen, you don't have to like me, I don't have to like you, but we need

• 21:41Andrea Gallagher?

  to get this out on the table because really what is happening is all of this, you know, gossip and stuff that you guys are doing behind the scenes is ruining what we did on deployment. And what we did on deployment was we had an excellent deployment. No one died, we all came back, so just tell me the grievances. And that turned into like a three to four hour, just like, They supposedly were going to get everything out on the table. Eddie confronted everything, asked about where these rumors were coming from. Whoever it started with, say your grievance, let me know. There was stuff as juvenile as this one time we went out on town and you didn't pay me back for a haircut. And Eddie's just like, what?

• 22:23Katie Jean?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 22:24Andrea Gallagher?

  And back in the day in the SEAL teams, if you were a new guy, you're playing credit card roulette.

• 22:28Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 22:29Andrea Gallagher?

  And you'd get stuck with a thousand, you know, a couple thousand dollar bill, you know, from, from all the dinner and drinks of the whole platoon. And so like, that was where we were from. So to hear this type of stuff, we were like, this is crazy. It's so absurd and like, oh, you stole someone's Red Bull. Okay, whose was it? Well, it was the one guy that wasn't there, which Eddie knew and he was a good dude and they were friends. And he's like, if that's really true, I will confront him about it. But like, you guys are so worried about like a Red Bull and oh, I mistakenly borrowed and I broke your magazine, like a gun magazine. And he's like, did you ever tell me I broke it? And he's like, well, no. So it was just like so petty.

• 23:13Andrea Gallagher?

  And so that's kind of was really the culmination of, we thought that was going to be squashed by the beginning of 2018 and it didn't work.

• 23:20Katie Jean?

  And you were living on base at that time when you were hearing all these things too?

• 23:24Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, so the situation isn't necessarily like a base situation. It was a military housing, but it's very much like open. So we lived at the Village at NTC. It's right in the heart of Point Loma, right by downtown San Diego. And yeah, we had resided there 11 years. Um, that's kind of where we spent the majority of our marriage and raising our kids. So, um, yeah, we were there in a military housing. You're mixed in with every type of military branch though. It's not like you're with a bunch of team guys necessarily. There was sporadic team guys, but.

• 23:58Katie Jean?

  Did you feel like you were hearing things like throughout the community in such a way that you felt maybe people were looking at you guys differently now or after hearing things like starting to rumble because there is a lot of drama and all of that, you know? So were you feeling any of that or was it just really stuck to the SEAL teams?

• 24:17Andrea Gallagher?

  Well, so I feel like Eddie would be the one that would come home and tell me different stuff because I don't really keep company like that that would sit there and perpetuate that type of stuff. So all of my friends and all of my close, you know, acquaintances remained the same and it wasn't, you know, it was just a very under the radar thing that was going on that was directed to us. But I have to say, like, in the SEAL community, it's very common to be like, the guys have this phrase, like, a hate train. So like, they'll start to fixate on someone or something and it turns into this just escalated hate train. And we were like, dude, we have never been like, we've never been one to try to

• 24:59Andrea Gallagher?

  participate in that stuff and we've never been the catalyst of it. So to have that was very eye opening. It was like, dude, this is crazy. And then the rumors and just escalation of rumors. And, I mean, yeah, it's hard to describe that the guys in the community, they really have a lot of, you know, this type of stuff, like the rumor mill is a real thing. So yeah, that was eye opening for me. But I'm like, okay, these stories are being exchanged by people over like their 20th beer at Danny's. Of course, it's escalating from you were putting people in danger to, you know, you smashed a toaster over someone's head and killed them. And we're like, how does that even get made up? But, but it was,

• 25:43Andrea Gallagher?

  it was so outlandish that we didn't put any credence in it, which, looking back, was maybe a little bit of a mistake. But at the same time, it's like, I don't have that part of me that I am not insecure. I don't buy into that stuff. So to me, I was just like, we're living our lives as a family. We're good. The things that were happening to him at work were definitely affecting him. But I just believed like it would work itself out ultimately. But he was bearing a big brunt of it because it was just this continual like, almost like shunning him, closing him out more and more and more because it wasn't going away. So then it was turning into a bigger problem. And then every time they tried to address it, like it wouldn't go down.

• 26:27Andrea Gallagher?

  It would kind of escalate. And then it finally escalated to the point where, um, I think one of the last times that I went to, um, the head of SEAL Team Seven, he had asked, um, actually, let me back up. So one of the last times before, you know, when, when he continued to escalate and try to see if there was anything, and the command just kept on telling him, you need to go decompress, they're not going to take him because their goal was to not start a war crimes case. Their goal was to ruin his reputation. And they had three main goals, which were they did not want him to pick up senior chief. They did not want him to be awarded a Silver Star because he was getting nominated for a Silver Star for that deployment.

• 27:09Andrea Gallagher?

  And because he had done so well, and he was number one chief and number two, and his performance in Mosul, he had been selected for a very coveted spot at Trade at Assaults. So Trade at Assaults is, um, the training command that basically trains every single Navy SEAL on the West Coast to go out into theater. So these guys knew that he had been awarded that spot and that they would, in essence, be going back under him for the remainder of as long as his bill at last. So for the next foreseeable two to, you know, three years, this guy would be, you know, my husband, Eddie, would be the top guy there. And so I think at one of the last interchanges, you know, the command was just like, you guys need to go home and decompress and just let it go.

• 27:53Andrea Gallagher?

  Like, he's not losing the, you know, that spot. He will pick up senior chief because he's got everything going in the right direction. And, you know, he's going to get nominated for that Silver Star. And it was kind of a weird way, but I would, I, I say this because I think the command unwittingly coached them. And I don't think that they did it on purpose, but they said, unless you have a legitimate LoAC violation.

• 28:22Andrea Gallagher?

  You've gotta let it go.

• 28:24Katie Jean?

  Oh, I see.

• 28:24Andrea Gallagher?

  And that's when this turned from cookie butter and haircuts and Red Bulls to we have tax threads of these guys on a tax thread that they themselves called the Sewing Circle. And it was dedicated on how to take Eddie Gallagher down. And it was this embryonic group of guys that were all roommates and they were all together on multiple platoons. It was, it was these guys that were the two roommates and then the, the third. So it was, and then we unbeknownst to us had a crazy ass neighbor that was a part of this that he had nothing to do with anything, yet he was so wanting to be a part of something,

• 29:08Andrea Gallagher?

  I guess, like he's such a spaz. And he had lost his marbles over the course of the platoon.

• 29:16Andrea Gallagher?

  Because of some things that he did on deployment. And he is the only one that actually killed civilians on that deployment. And I think it affected him in a way that it made him an easy target to get involved in this. And you can see on the text threads when he gets in and he's like, they almost like invite him in like, welcome. And he's like, happy to be a part of it, like can't wait. So they're talking about taking Eddie down. No mention of war crimes on the whole thread. It's, but it's all about what do we have to do? We gotta get our story straight. We gotta meet, we gotta have an airtight thing. And so that we have all of this. So in the background, we know all of this is made up. We know all of this is based on rumors, lies and accusations.

• 30:01Andrea Gallagher?

  So we just keep on thinking it's going to work itself out. And then it really never does.

• 30:05Katie Jean?

  Yeah. And I feel like those are two drastic things because of war crime. There's an ending point, but if somebody wants to take down and ruin your reputation, I feel like that's something. That doesn't have an end date.

• 30:17Andrea Gallagher?

  Mm hmm.

• 30:18Katie Jean?

  So that's gotta be extremely hard.

• 30:21Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 30:22Katie Jean?

  And to move forward and to think that it's going to work itself out and yet it doesn't.

• 30:26Andrea Gallagher?

  Right.

• 30:27Katie Jean?

  And it just escalates from there.

• 30:28Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. So by March, that one of the very last times that had gone back after kind of being somewhat coached, that they needed a legitimate LoAC violation. It was the only way they were going to be able to take him out. They came back with the story of he stabbed a ISIS with a knife. And that's where it began. And so they're like, okay, there it is. If you are legitimately going to report this and put your name to it, well, they didn't want to put their name to it. They didn't want their names involved. And so they're like, here's NCIS's number. If this happened, you have a responsibility to report it. Well, then they sat on it and they didn't,

• 31:12Andrea Gallagher?

  you know, they didn't want to come out and be accountable for what they were saying. So then they circumvented that part of the command at some point, that individual, which, which is, he's a really good guy. He actually testified on Eddie's behalf about all of this at trial and what really happened. These guys decided they were going to circumvent the entire chain of command. And then they said, we have a videotape of him doing this and we're going to turn it over to CNN. If you guys don't take him off a trade at, pull the Silver Star and basically ruin him.

• 31:50Katie Jean?

  Unreal.

• 31:50Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. And they did it. And the command was like, put him on timeout. They pulled him off a trade at. They stopped his Silver Star. They stopped his, so he had already picked up EA. So he had already picked up Senior Chief, which is another misconception. People think that He was just a chief. He was awarded senior chief and he got, he got selected for it. They held off pending him for it. They said, listen, if this goes to NCIS, um, after everything's cleared up, we'll give you everything back. Well, of course, that never happened. So yeah, he was actually supposed to be, um, retiring as a senior chief. But, um, yeah, that was the beginning of the end. And then NCIS got involved.

• 32:30Andrea Gallagher?

  And then that's when we were like, we've got to figure out what does this look like? Because we've never been a part of anything like this before. And what do we do? We just sit here and wait like we're sitting ducks and like no one's helping us. No one's advising us. They're shunning him, you know, at this point. Right. It wasn't going away. He had done everything in his power to address it. So yeah, we pretty much just sat there like sitting ducks for, um, another few months. We knew that NCIS had picked it up as a case. And so only do we know now in hindsight that, um, as of April, these guys started being called in for NCIS interviews. So we have their first interviews and we have the second interviews and just

• 33:11Andrea Gallagher?

  the escalation. And we have on the footage, um, there's another really big moment that happened. So, you know, a catalyst is like a unique thing that it's the thing that it takes to trigger something, you know, exponential. Um, so we got that. And the lead NCIS agent, he was just such a amateur kind of nitwit, but he was very, very driven, um, and driven by a level of incompetence that basically his drive overrode anything to look at this in a case as far as an investigatory body would. And he did everything against the book that you would do.

• 33:54Andrea Gallagher?

  So he started developing a relationship with these guys. He started to get on text threads with them. He started to send them articles, like negative articles about like, oh, it's working. And so these guys were being coached by the NCIS agent. And then we have video footage of their initial interviews where he has them off camera, coaching them and telling them, he's like, Don't worry about anything. Your name won't go on any of this. So he's telling them everything they want to hear because these guys are kind of nitwits too, and they didn't want to be known. So he's like, this is going into a source file. Your name will never come out. Anything that you did, we're not worried about that. We're after Eddie Gallagher.

• 34:37Andrea Gallagher?

  So this was like, April, they started this investigation with, within the first couple interviews, you hear him say to these guys, this is an open and shut case. All we care about is Eddie Gallagher. We know. And so he was leading them through the whole thing, which then they compiled enough information that then by June, they were staging a raid on our home and they raided our home thereafter in June 2018.

• 35:03Katie Jean?

  So you guys, knowing that NCIS, this was in, you know, their hands, were you just uneasy? Were you thinking like, was this going to work itself out with NCIS? Or were you thinking like, any day they might show up at our door? Like, how are you feeling at that moment?

• 35:19Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. The raid was something we did not know was possible.

• 35:22Katie Jean?

  Okay.

• 35:23Andrea Gallagher?

  We did not know, we had no clue that the raid was even on the table. We had really assumed, again, almost naively, saying that now, according to, you know, hindsight, I'm like, oh, my gosh, I cannot believe that we had so much trust in the system that we were like, okay, if you have this escalation of allegations and everything is built on rumors, lies and hearsay, you're thinking in a judicial sense or in an investigatory sense, like, you cannot possibly make a case out of this. So we naively just did not, you know, we, it was frustrating and it was annoying, but we were like, it'll work itself out. I mean, I'm perpetually positive. I think Eddie might have been a little bit more like, this is crazy. Like, this is not going away.

• 36:08Andrea Gallagher?

  And obviously, it's specifically targeted at him. It's going after his reputation. It's going after his career. I mean, so I think he had a lot more anxiety about it. I ultimately felt like it would work itself out and that we would be vindicated, whatever you want to call it, through the investigation. But that's definitely not what happened. Yeah, and they ended up raiding our home June 20th of 2018. Were you home at that time? No, I was not home. They had been casing our home for a couple of weeks. And so they'd been watching our movements. And we didn't know it at the time, but they were working in tandem with our crazy neighbor who was invited to be a part of this little sewing circle to take down Eddie. So this was by far the craziest out of all of them.

• 36:50Andrea Gallagher?

  And he wasn't even a part of anything that they were necessarily looking to make up. But he just wanted to be a part of anything involved in taking Eddie down that he was willing to, and he said, I'm willing to do or say anything. I'll say whatever I need to say to the command. Be on that train. And so basically started working directly with, when he found out that he lived down the street from us. So he had moved his wife. He didn't live near us at the beginning of the deployment. So this is also the other irony of him is that he literally moved his wife and kid right next to us. So according to him, like my husband's crazy and all this. But yeah, my daughter's babysitting for them. I know this girl casually. They're living right next to us.

• 37:33Andrea Gallagher?

  And so after he got back from this deployment and they're just continuing to spiral behind the scenes to like evolve this plot against my husband. You know, we're out in the neighborhood, like we're walking the dogs. We're on Eddie's Harley, just like waving. And we're like, dude, they're so weird anymore. Like they're just such weird people. Like we can't even like wave to them without them being bizarre because we had no idea that was basically like the Matt Damon movie, The Informant. Like that's, if you've never seen that movie, go watch it. He is the informant. So he's exposing all of this stuff that's not true, but like he's the real bad guy, but he's so crazy, he doesn't even know. Oh my gosh. He starts to tell them like all this stuff, like, oh, they're getting ready to move.

• 38:16Andrea Gallagher?

  Like my wife saw them turning in paperwork to move. So you guys got to move quick. You got to raid their home and telling them like where we're going and what we're doing. And like, oh yeah, Eddie's working out. Like he always works out in the evening and then like they go to hot yoga together. They walk to church together on Sundays. Like the guy is a full on informant. Oh my goodness. And this is a member of the SEAL community. This is a guy that's a Navy SEAL. And so it ended up that unbeknownst to us, the two weeks of casing our house, they started to watch our movements through NCIS. We had family in town prior. We had my parents. We had my husband's parents. Our son was graduating high school. He had just turned 18, like a week or two prior.

• 39:00Andrea Gallagher?

  So on June 18th, they set up a siege on our house that they sent like seven armored, seven to eight armored vehicles with 25 plus agents and full militia riot gear, M4s. I mean, they look like they're kitted up to go to war. And they had already had Eddie in custody because they took him from work that morning and they threw him in a room. They didn't read him his rights. They didn't offer him a call to his lawyer. They locked him in a room and they didn't tell them what they were doing, but they were raiding our home. And they had seen me leave that morning. So they knew that their access point was the newly minted 18-year-old that was in the house with another eight-year-old, two children, and they did this.

• 39:42Katie Jean?

  Oh, my God.

• 39:43Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. And I had left for a meeting that day. I was meeting up with a girlfriend and then I had a meeting. And yeah, I was at, I was at that initial first meeting with my girlfriend when I got the call from Ava. And Ava at that time was in Ohio for the summer. And she just told me, she's like, Mom, she's like, the neighbor girl just called me. She's like, Trevin and Ryan are outside in their underwear and there's police everywhere. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So I'm like, my friend sees the terror on my face and she's a team wife. And so she's like, just go. And so I just, I just took off. I ran out, got in my car. I tried to call my neighbor, called multiple times. It just went straight to voicemail. And then when I finally got her, she's on the phone

• 40:26Andrea Gallagher?

  screaming, saying like, they're everywhere. They have your dogs. They have your kids. I'm like, who has my dogs? Who is doing this?

• 40:34Katie Jean?

  Oh, my God.

• 40:34Andrea Gallagher?

  And then they're yelling at her to hang up the phone. They're telling her, you know, hang it up, hang it up, go back inside. And she's like, this is their mom. This is their mom on the phone. And then at that point, an agent, a female agent gets on the phone and identifies herself and is like, we're within CIS, I'm gonna call you back on a secure line. And then so she calls me from a blocked number. I pick up, I'm like, what is going on? And yeah, they were like, we are at your home, we have your children, we have your animals, they're fine. And when you come through, we have the streets barricaded, tell us what type of car you're driving. And I'm like, barricaded? Yeah, yeah. Knowing Eddie wasn't there, knowing you're not there. Mm-hmm.

• 41:19Andrea Gallagher?

  We look like we're members of the cartel. It was the most bizarre scene. I mean, why do you need 25 people in militia riot gear? Why do you need seven black vehicles? It was all for show. It was all to terrorize us. And that's what we found out. This whole thing was a very much like homegrown terror, that these agencies are in essence allowed to inflict on military service members because there's no oversight. Of every investigatory body of the government, NCIS is the worst. And these are people that like, they couldn't make it to the FBI, they couldn't make it to the CIA. They were the worst of the worst of the worst. That then, they're going in with less training than probably basic beat cops, and they are

• 42:03Andrea Gallagher?

  doing a total overtake of a home. And they're going in there with loaded rifles, machine guns, on kids. And so, what we put together after the fact, like, it was very, we were all in parallel universes, like going through our own experience. So Eddie was there going through what he was going through, not knowing anything was going on. I, that was my experience. But when I got back to the home and was let through, they immediately pulled me into the van and started to interrogate me, which is also illegal. And the boys had at that point gotten clothes on, and I had them go walk the dogs. And I'm like, what is going on? And why are you guys here? And why are you all in my house? Like, what is the point of all of this? What are you even looking for?

• 42:48Andrea Gallagher?

  And so, they kind of asked me if I knew any rumors, or I knew anything that had hearsay, anything that had happened. And I'm like, I know rumors and I know hearsay and I know gossip, but I'm not going to sit here and recount that because it's not enough for you to be in my home. So what, why are you here? And then they kind of like said, well, if we tell you too much, like we, you know, we could incriminate you. And I'm like, okay, well then what are we doing? What are we doing here, really? And then the lady mentioned something about a knife. And I see a warrant that has our friend's knife company on it. And I'm like, why is our friend's name on this? And then it just like started kind of unravel. She's like, have you heard anything about like your husband killing ISIS?

• 43:32Andrea Gallagher?

  I'm like, my husband's a Navy SEAL. Like he went over there to kill ISIS. I don't know what you're talking about. And it was just very cloak and dagger. And then one of the guys came out, they asked me for my phone. I was like, here you go. There's nothing on it, nothing incriminating on it. And, you know, other than we knew that there was like mounting whisper campaign that was going on, but we had no clue the level it had now gotten to since these guys had gone and did their NCIS interviews. So yeah, it was pretty surreal. And then my kids, their experience, my daughter experienced it through the neighbor girl that told her. So like, that was terrifying for her to know that the boys were home alone and this was going on. Absolutely. And then she was in the dark, you know, and she's young at the time. She's like 11 or 12.

• 44:17Andrea Gallagher?

  And then my, the way that it happened for the boys was like Ryan was kind of inside, watching the television. My older son was 18, upstairs asleep in his bed. And so Ryan's sitting there watching television. We have a porch landing window right here. And he can see through the curtains that there's people with guns coming on to his porch. Oh my God. Which you think an eight-year-old knowing that these, like, almost like that's what he thinks his dad does. It's like he goes to fight people or he goes to get the bad guys. And then Ryan seeing these people stream on to his porch, which look like, you know, some type of military riot gear and guns.

• 44:57Andrea Gallagher?

  So he runs upstairs, you know, and he's just in his little jammy underwear stuff and same as my son. And he starts to tell my son, like, there's people with guns at our door. And my son's barely awake. And he's like, dude, if this is like your friends outside with Nerf guns, like I'm going to hurt you. And then Ryan just starts crying. And so Trevon obviously gets up.

• 45:19Andrea Gallagher?

  Walks down the stairs and then Trevin can also see the people out front. And so he goes and like opens up the door. And so the first door that opens is like the actual door, but then there's a screen door. And so they all start screaming at both of the boys to put their hands up. They're holding the rifles at them. They're saying, you know, put your hands up, put your hands up. And they're simultaneously screaming for them to open the door. He's like, do you want me to put my hands up? Or do you want me to open the door? And so this is how like, you know, these people are the like, most unqualified Bush league people to go in and be doing a house clearance with loaded weapons on children. And so that basically was the start of the seven hour raid. They

• 46:04Andrea Gallagher?

  dragged both of our kids out into the street into their underwear and our animals. And then they they gained access that way through my son who had just turned 18.

• 46:15Katie Jean?

  Unreal. That is, that's just like, the worst nightmare ever.

• 46:20Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 46:21Katie Jean?

  I just can't imagine.

• 46:22Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 46:25Katie Jean?

  Oh, my God. And then when Eddie, when did Eddie find out about this? Because he was being held, right?

• 46:31Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. So I think that's when we really first started to realize that we were systematically being terrorized by the community and NCIS and was soon to be the prosecution was basically at the very end of the seven hours, one of the agents who had been at the home had walked in and was like, okay, you're free to go. And Eddie's like, okay, like, what, what was this all about? And he's like, oh, I saw your wife and kids today. And Eddie's like, what? And the guy just snidely is like, yeah, I was at your house with your wife.

• 47:11Katie Jean?

  Oh, my God.

• 47:12Andrea Gallagher?

  We were in, basically, that's how he found out they were raiding our home. So like, if you can even grasp someone that they have trained for the last two decades to go and fight the worst of the worst evils overseas to prevent things from happening to me and my children on American soil, they then lock him away and on his own soil do this just completely, almost like a terror raid on our home, where he's helpless to defend us and protect us.

• 47:46Katie Jean?

  I don't know how you guys have gone through all of this and plus some. I mean, that I know was just the beginning of it.

• 47:53Andrea Gallagher?

  That was only the beginning.

• 47:54Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 47:55Andrea Gallagher?

  That was only the beginning and that pales almost in comparison to everything else that we went through. It was just an escalation of like, yeah, when I talk about it, I call it homegrown terror.

• 48:06Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 48:07Andrea Gallagher?

  It's very frightening and I think that's like when Bush was like, you know, we're fighting from nine 11 on, enemies foreign and domestic, and we have been exposed to both. But I can say it's more terrifying to know that like your own government can target you and go after you. If they want.

• 48:26Katie Jean?

  Yeah. Unbelievable.

• 48:28Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 48:29Katie Jean?

  God, I'm so sorry that that's all happened to you.

• 48:32Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 48:33Katie Jean?

  It's awful. At that point, who do you, first of all, what do you say to your kids? I mean, because now you know, like shit's gotten real. Like it's something's happening here that it's no longer just whispers or rumors or what if scenarios or oh, they're going to take care of it. It'll work itself out. Now shit just got real. So what do you explain, like what does that family meeting look like?

• 49:00Andrea Gallagher?

  Wow, um, well.

• 49:04Katie Jean?

  Like to protect your kids too at that point.

• 49:06Andrea Gallagher?

  I know.

• 49:07Katie Jean?

  They're going to hear things at school and I, I just, and I mean, I'm sure media is getting involved at this point or no?

• 49:16Andrea Gallagher?

  No, I don't think the media had gotten involved at that point. So, so by June of 2018, um, you know, we were prepping to leave San Diego. We were prepping to retire. We had bought our retirement home. We were getting ready to relocate. So they actually raided our home the week prior. So we went directly from a home raid to packing up all of our belongings that we had, you know, had the last 11 years in his service in San Diego. And we were going to move to our retirement home. Our oldest son was prepping to leave for college. We were moving our two youngest there in order to start my daughter's freshman year of high school.

• 49:59Andrea Gallagher?

  So Eddie was kind of going to geo-batch it and just live in San Diego for the last remaining year, you know, go back and forth. He was also screening. He was screening for Ground Branch and doing a lot of things to prepare to get out of the military, basically. Because at that point, it was point of no return. I was like, I am not doing this anymore with these people. If this is the quality of people that are involved in this community at this point, like, we're, you know, we're relics at that point. Like, we're nearly 40. And we're dealing with these, you know, mid-20-year-olds. And I'm like, this is not the community that we came from. Like, they've either pushed out, you know, this warrior class of people that was fighting

• 50:41Andrea Gallagher?

  all the wars since 9/11, they've got this whole new mindset of people that are involved, or most of our friends didn't make it. They passed away. So it's like, you know, you kind of go through all of that. So, leading up to the home raid, we had made the conscious decision that we were on our way out, that he was going to do his 20, we were calling it. And I had never told him that he couldn't do, you know, anything, or I wanted him to be happy, I wanted him to be fulfilled. Right. And so that meant, you know, letting him continue to deploy and letting him continually go back. And he loved it. He loved every part of his job. But I remember specifically, I just had this moment. We had actually been in Coronado, we had met up with the parents of our friend Brad

• 51:26Andrea Gallagher?

  Kavner, who passed away in a trading accident. So, we call them Mama Kavner and Steve. And then also our other friend, who had passed away in Extortion 17, his parents. And we were all at Danny's, and Danny really has, Danny's has a lot of memorialized members of the community that have lost their lives. And I think, you know, it was the first time they'd ever gone to see Aaron's picture and Brad. So it kind of took this whole, you know, we call them our family. There are friends that have become family. And so we took this family picture, and I remember leaving, and it was just such a surreal moment, because I remember when I first met Eddie... I was in Danny's and I sat down and Brad Kavner is like sitting there.

• 52:10Andrea Gallagher?

  Eddie had gone to the bathroom and he's like, I think he knew, like I didn't know enough about what I was getting into. And he's like, hey, like, don't worry. If something happens, he's like, I'll give my life. Like, he's gonna come back to you.

• 52:24Speaker 05

  Oh, God.

• 52:25Andrea Gallagher?

  And that was the community that we came from. And now, a decade later, I'm sitting there knowing that like my husband is being targeted by these, you know, people. No character, no morals, like they're just all bent on somehow, you know, a vendetta against him. And after we left that bar that night, we went and had one more drink at McPease. And I just remember, like, I couldn't control it, like, and I'm super like, and like, spiritual, I feel like I see things sometimes. And I just remember having this like internal panic, which I'm not a panicky person. I don't even have really anxiety like that. But I was just

• 53:07Andrea Gallagher?

  like, I was in full on tears. I'm like, they've either killed off our friends or they're pushing guys like you out. Like, they don't want you anymore. They don't want these people that have been fighting these wars. They want this new, kind of evolved

• 53:25Speaker 05

  A whole new breed.

• 53:25Andrea Gallagher?

  in the fields guys, like they want Boy Scouts. And I'm like, I'm done. Like, I cannot send you over there again, knowing. I'm like, I feel like these guys would push you in front of a grenade to write a book about it, to have a stepping stone. Because a lot of these guys are stepping stone seals. They're not the new. They use it as a resume pad to go on to bigger and better things. And like, the guys that Eddie knew, like, they were lifers. Eddie would have stayed in for 30 years, would this not have happened? So, yeah, it was, it was a really interesting moment, the evolution from my entry into the community and the level and the caliber of guys that he was blessed to serve with.

• 54:09Andrea Gallagher?

  And like, we call those guys our brothers. Their wives are my sisters, to this day. A lot of us had kids at the same time. So like, you know, Aaron Helm's baby girl was...

• 54:23Speaker 05

  Oh, God.

• 54:24Andrea Gallagher?

  And then Kimberly's oldest son is like the same age as Ryan, because we were all on Bible study together and we all got pregnant.

• 54:34Speaker 05

  So it's like, you know, we have a very sweet, amazing friend group, but we've, we've lost quite a few in the midst of everything. So Eddie was roommates with Brad and Aaron. So there's a picture that he still has as his profile picture. It's Brad and Aaron are gone and Eddie got sent to jail. And it was just so surreal. We're like, what is happening to this country? Not even 20 years after nine 11, you know?

• 55:00Katie Jean?

  Hmm.

• 55:01Speaker 05

  And they just wanted to throw him away.

• 55:06Katie Jean?

  God, I'm so sorry.

• 55:07Speaker 05

  I'm really tired.

• 55:10Katie Jean?

  It's okay.

• 55:13Katie Jean?

  Do you want me to go get you a tissue?

• 55:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, I probably need a tissue. It's crazy once you start talking about it because it gets.

• 55:17Katie Jean?

  I know.

• 55:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, I love that verse. Romans eight 28, for God works for the good of all those who are called according to his purpose. Yeah, I had a pastor that used to say, all means all, you know, it's everything. He can work everything for good. And that's, that's definitely what he's done for sure. Am I like totally all over the place with my makeup? No?

• 55:43Katie Jean?

  No, from here you look good. Good?

• 55:46Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 55:48Katie Jean?

  God, Andrea, I'm so sorry.

• 55:50Speaker 05

  It's crazy. That, that's actually out of everything that gets me the most, like the, um, the, that's why I get so emotional.

• 56:02Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 56:02Speaker 05

  Cause like the brotherhood thing.

• 56:06Speaker 05

  It's like, you know, these guys fun died and then these guys are setting him up. They couldn't be more a thousand miles apart on what brotherhood means and looks like. And I mean, it's just, it's just such a degradation to the community and we still love the community. We still have family, you know, our Eddie's brothers and the community and.

• 56:32Andrea Gallagher?

  And we're just, we're worried, you know, about that. Like, we want to see, you know, and I, there's so many good people still in the community, but you worry about, you know, the degradation of that. And that's why when we created the T-shirts with our friends, Andy and Kelsey, Half-Assed Blades produced that first Free Eddie shirt with Eddie, the picture of him. That's an awesome picture. It's a whole story behind that. But he had fallen in a well on a deployment, and that was after he got out of the well, and after he, he went back in a second time for his rifle that he dropped. And so, that's

• 57:14Andrea Gallagher?

  the picture after he had done all of that. I mean, like, he's, he is just such an amazing human being. So like, I wanted that picture to be like, the symbol of everything that he'd done, and like, the hashtag Free Eddie we came up with. But on the back of the shirts, it says, "Long live the real brotherhood."

• 57:32Katie Jean?

  Yes.

• 57:33Andrea Gallagher?

  And that's, that's how I signed my first, like, coming out email to all of our friends in the community, saying what the Command was doing to us, saying what NCIS had done to us, saying that Eddie had been taken from the TBI clinic. And I signed it, "Long live the real brotherhood." And I firmly believe that. And that's why I get so emotional about it. I'm like, it's, there is a chasm in our nation. You know, I think of the quality of individuals, that there's these people, it's like the 80/20 rule, like, you know, that don't do anything. And then you've got this, like, very core, upper echelon group of people that are giving everything, and their families are giving everything. And the pressure that they put on the SEAL community during everything after 9/11. I mean, I think

• 58:15Andrea Gallagher?

  we'll write books and do movies about this generation of the 20-year war, and what does that do? You know, when you're taking the brunt of it. And I think it's all kind of like entrenched in our story somewhere. Like, maybe down the line, we'll get into it. But we do feel very passionate about supporting the community. This is not what the community is about. Our story is not emblematic of the SEAL community. It's actually a very big black eye on them. And, I mean, the men that we knew... In the community and the women that are a part of it. I mean, they're the most amazing individuals on the planet.

• 58:50Katie Jean?

  It's just, it's so much. Your story has so much. It really does. So many layers to it.

• 58:59Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, there is a lot of layers. Yeah. Our story, like Eddie and I's story, and we go into it like in the book, like it's just such like it's a love story. Even what we went through with the trial and with, we call it, I call it more persecution versus prosecution. It's like, it truly is like a story of like love and devotion. And like, you know, I really did learn that from the SEAL community. Like in the SEAL community, like they're brothers, they have swim buddies, you know, they support each other for life. And I feel like, you know, I jokingly tell Eddie sometimes, like, I was the last man standing for you.

• 59:37Andrea Gallagher?

  Because everybody either took a seat on the sidelines because they kind of had to because the command was really putting a lot of pressure on people not to support or get involved, which we understood. And then just a lot of people that developed snap judgments and thought, well, you guys had to do something wrong. Because I think that's more comfortable for people to assume the worst. Because if you really think of it from the perspective that what we were saying from the beginning was that if this can happen to us, it can happen to you. And that's a scary thing. And so people, I think, as a self-protective nature, just have this way of being like.

• 1:00:17Katie Jean?

  Blocking it off.

• 1:00:17Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, I'm not gonna. And I think that's why a lot of people, they didn't want to know the truth of how bad it was or how deep it got or how corrupt it was. And all the things that happened because it's kind of scary to think it's possible.

• 1:00:30Katie Jean?

  It is, yeah. Everyone is safer to think it's not in my backyard.

• 1:00:34Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:00:36Katie Jean?

  How did, who did you know who to trust at that point? When you're saying like, people are turning or, you know, they're kind of just sitting there, not doing anything, not speaking up. How did you, for you, like, how did you, because you started this Free Eddie campaign and you have your husband's back, obviously, and it's just like, how do you, who, who do you turn to? How do you, how do you know, like, who to call? You know what I mean at that point? Because you did such an incredible job at

• 1:01:04Andrea Gallagher?

  Thank you.

• 1:01:05Katie Jean?

  getting it out and, and really being like, the face for it and being there for, for your husband and, and, you know, I know you had told me here, like, yesterday, that he wasn't so much seeing all of this. You had to relay the messages to him and say, you know,

• 1:01:23Andrea Gallagher?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:23Katie Jean?

  we're getting it out there, like, the word is spreading and, and how, how did you know who to call?

• 1:01:29Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:29Katie Jean?

  who to trust?

• 1:01:31Andrea Gallagher?

  Um, well, again, like, I really relied on my faith to just, like, guide me and support me and get me through everything. I mean, I, I have such a close, like, relationship with God, and so I'm like, I very much feel like that was like my guiding light through everything.

• 1:01:49Andrea Gallagher?

  You know, in the end, there's honestly not much people even that did want to help could do. You're just so in the weeds with something like this that you, even if you had someone that was like, oh, I want to do something to help, it was like, I didn't even have the bandwidth to, you know, I couldn't even think of anything, because like, what can you do? This is unknown territory, like, we're being targeted by, you know, the command and these people and the government and we are, you know, we're in it. And so after he was taken on 9/11, um, again, it was just navigating day to day to day, because we did not know, we did not know that was possible. We didn't know the home read was possible.

• 1:02:33Andrea Gallagher?

  We didn't know pre-trial confinement was a thing. I mean, there's third world countries that you can't do that in. But in the military, the UCMJ, you can lock someone up before their trial and you can incarcerate them. And the irony of that was, I mean,

• 1:02:53Andrea Gallagher?

  There's so many ironies, really, but it was just really, we had to every day wake up and navigate an unknown territory with no roadmap. And so he went to the brig. We totally thought he was gonna get out. He was supposed to have a hearing, basically about the validity of why would he have to be locked up? Because you have to have some level of validity of like, why is this guy being locked up? And especially on this level, it was like the highest level of pre-trial confinement. And so that was supposed to be within about 72 hours that we, he was gonna go to this hearing. And I didn't even fly out for it, because I was like, this is just like preliminary mumbo jumbo. Like, I think they're just scare

• 1:03:36Andrea Gallagher?

  tactics to us. Like, I don't think anything's gonna happen. Like, he'll get out. And I can remember, like, getting a call from someone after the hearing, and they're like, yeah, no, he's not getting out. And I was like, well, what do you mean? Right. What do you mean, he's not getting out? Like, what, what grounds do they have to hold him in the brig? And so if you look into, like, IRO hearings, like, what they're trying to prove is like, are you a flight risk? Or are you a risk to yourself, or to someone else? And they clearly knew he wasn't a flight risk, because we had relocated, he was going back and forth, he was screening for ground branch, he was doing interviews

• 1:04:17Andrea Gallagher?

  in DC, he had even done lie detector tests. Like, he was that far through the process. So it was like, okay, that's not, you know, a valid thing. Like, and yes, San Diego's right by Mexico, but he has a family. Like, you think he's gonna go turn into some renegade, like, in Mexico? Like, so that didn't make sense. But they really used his training all against him. So they said, oh, well, you know how to do stuff, because you're a Navy SEAL. So you could go to Mexico and evade us. And even though there's no legitimacy to that, but this is how crazy it got. And it gets crazier. So it's like, every level, it's the new level of crazy. So at the IRO... Eddie calls me back later that night. He's like, babe,

• 1:05:03Andrea Gallagher?

  they said the most horrendous stuff about me during this hearing. He's like, they have said things from, I abused drugs. We were drug muling in Mexico, all this stuff. So like, we went to our friend's wedding in Mexico and they're like, we're drug muling. They said that. Oh, my God. So we are like getting together pictures of us, like him in a wedding of his friend, like one of his best friend's weddings in Mexico, like we weren't going across, like this is how crazy it got. Unbelievable. So he was like realizing, he's like, they can say anything they want. Right.

• 1:05:46Andrea Gallagher?

  They can say whatever, doesn't have to be true, doesn't have to have any validity. So he sat there for like four or five hours during this hearing and they said all the stuff about him. He's a monster, he abuses drugs, you know, he's a drug mule. He's horrible, he's abusive, he, like, everything you could think of. And the charges they were bringing against him were like, we have information on charges that like, he's shooting civilians over there, he's doing this. And this is all made up. And we're like, how can this happen? So then he doesn't end up getting out of the IRO. That was when it got real. Like, I was like, this is a concentrated,

• 1:06:29Andrea Gallagher?

  coordinated effort to get him on something. It doesn't matter if it's real anymore. Like, I've let reality go out the window. Like, any common sense, throw it out the window when dealing with the military. Any like, level of like, oh, well, this is how it should go. It didn't matter. It was only rumors, lies and hearsay. It was like, it was moving forward and like, full steam ahead. And so, yeah, they locked him away. They pretty much appointed him a JAG that was located in Lemoore, like three, four hours away from San Diego, that had to go on TAD to come and consult with him, his client. So he didn't see him for weeks. When he was in jail.

• 1:07:14Andrea Gallagher?

  And so we had hired an outside lawyers and gotten involved with a nonprofit at that time, which come to find out, that's a whole nother layer of corruption.

• 1:07:23Katie Jean?

  Oh, God.

• 1:07:24Andrea Gallagher?

  This was a corrupt set of lawyers, corrupt nonprofit that was just, yeah. So, so we fought on every single front you could think about behind the scenes and then got involved with this corrupt nonprofit that would have made more money off of him going to jail because they have these cash cows where they get behind cases where it's guys in jail and they just like a steady stream of promotion. We're, we're in a lawsuit with them right now.

• 1:07:49Katie Jean?

  Were you able to see Eddie?

• 1:07:51Andrea Gallagher?

  Barely. So I was relocated in Florida. So if I would go, I'd have to get, care for the children, care for the dogs, go fly in, stay for a limited amount of time, go see him in the brig, go behind, you know, closed doors during visiting hours, couldn't touch him, couldn't hug him, couldn't do anything because he's in jail. He's a prisoner. But in the military terms, when you're in pretrial confinement, you're not a prisoner. Well, you're sleeping in a jail with rapists and pedophiles and sex offenders. You sure seem like a prisoner, even though he hasn't even gone to trial yet.

• 1:08:25Katie Jean?

  And not to mention all, all of the good that he's done, everything he's been awarded for as an American fighter. None of that is brought to light at this point.

• 1:08:35Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, it was all used against us, actually. And then really what they got him on, the reasoning behind holding him in pretrial confinement was they were, so they couldn't prove he was a risk to himself. So what they did was they worked in tandem with our neighbor and they knew that they had to have something to basically warrant holding him in jail. So they had to write a note saying that he was afraid for his life because my husband would walk our French Bulldogs like by his house. And that was Eddie's way of intimidating him.

• 1:09:08Katie Jean?

  Oh, my God.

• 1:09:11Andrea Gallagher?

  So he wrote all of this. They gave that over and this was like, yeah, he's a, he is not only a flight risk to go to Mexico because, you know, he's a drug mule in Mexico, but he also is intimidating these guys. He's intimidating by walking our Frenchies by his house. So yeah. And that gave him the right to hold him. Yeah, because he's a risk to others. So that was also part of a diabolical plan that only on the stand did we get them to admit that they had already had Eddie locked up when they had to do that note. So it was just totally in cahoots with this completely unstable individual that they used as an informant and turned him to then work the system to get Eddie locked away,

• 1:09:53Andrea Gallagher?

  appoint him a lawyer four hours away, so he doesn't have the ability to defend himself. And then we had filed congressional inquiries on the brig at Miramar. We filed human rights violations. There was an individual at that brig that they basically ended up releasing because I would not stop fighting against what she was doing to him. Her name was, and she would throw away his lawyer chits and wouldn't let him call. And I mean, he was basically wasting away in there. I mean, he turned into a skeleton in that brig. And it was just unbelievable. And you don't think it's possible. And you don't want to think it's possible. But they were, they use those briggs in tandem because they're under the UCMJ. So it's affiliated with like, you know, the commands and the prosecution and the brig.

• 1:10:38Andrea Gallagher?

  And they use them as plea factories. So it's just like you see in A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise. Like, he doesn't even go to trial. They get these guys to break and plead on stuff they didn't do. And there are, of course, guilty people. But then there is people that just, they don't have the wherewithal. They can't fight. They don't have the money. They're appointed some, you know, ragtag JAG lawyer that's not going to fight for them. Their goal is just to get them to plead. And they do. They plead the craziest stuff. And then if you look at the rates of conviction, there's not that many guilty people in the world. The conviction rates are based off of the corruption that's involved in the UCMJ. So everyone basically pleads guilty because they crush you. They crush you. They crush your family.

• 1:11:23Andrea Gallagher?

  They crush your children. Uh, you know, and you lose everything. Your livelihood, your money. If you do try to fight, you can't fight the government. You lose faith. Yeah. And if you don't have someone on the outside, like if Eddie would not have had me, and if I wouldn't have had Sean, his brother. Um, who Sean was the one that helped with moving the ball on all of the political. He worked on Capitol Hill. He had inroads to help and really expedite the process of activating our congressional and constitutional rights. I mean, people don't even know their rights. I mean, we, we see it right now in 2020, like people are just turning over their rights on a daily basis. And I'll tell you what, we have to stop because if what can happen to us comes to you, you

• 1:12:07Andrea Gallagher?

  will pray to God that you are able to afford to exercise the constitutional rights that were afforded by God in this country. But if you don't have the money to fight. And so we had to go, we fully raised funds to, to defend Eddie. And when we dropped that nonprofit and those corrupt lawyers, when we did that, we had to start over. With a whole new team. With a whole new team. And we knew, they weren't even trying to win this case. They weren't even trying to look into the case. They were a part of a corrupt system.

• 1:12:47Andrea Gallagher?

  These are two lawyers that were former trained JAGs that got out of the military and then set up their own independent law firms as like ambulance chasers outside of military bases. So they just prey on military people. So we're in a lawsuit with them because they came after us after Eddie was found innocent and tried to sue us for a million dollars. So are they still functioning right now? Are they still? I have no idea if they are. We've tried to expose them. We've tried to let people know. And, you know, there's stuff out there. People can look it up. You know, we, we've been very open even before the lawsuit about how corrupt and it's just a big Ponzi scheme that they're running on these people that we got out of because we

• 1:13:31Andrea Gallagher?

  were identifying like they're not working on the case. They're asking the same questions since, you know, like months and months ago. And so when we, um, by the grace of God, leading into the trial, so he would have been locked up, um, September 11th, 2018. He stayed through all the way up, basically, um, he was incarcerated in some shape or form, leading into March, um, of 2019. And at that time, our trial was scheduled for April. And so by the grace of God, we got connected with, which is another six degrees of separation, was the police commissioner on nine 11 in New York City.

• 1:14:12Andrea Gallagher?

  And I mean, I remember seeing pictures of him and he had like this huge mustache and he worked side by side with Rudy Giuliani during that whole crisis and President Bush. And someone was like, I really think that you should connect with this guy. Like, he's just so good and he's had different trouble that has come upon him. And so he was locked up and incarcerated for a period of time. And so he's kind of made it his life mission to help and support people. So he's got like, got a book like from jailer, because he was like the head of like the jail system and then he got the police commissioner job. And it's like, then he ended up going to jail for something innocuous because he was supposed

• 1:14:54Andrea Gallagher?

  to be a part of, I think, you know, the presidential cabinet. And when he got nominated for that, they went on him full tilt and they locked him away for like, I think, something totally innocuous. But he went to jail and so he had this really strategic mindset. And so he started calling, I got in touch with him, I talked to him. He would go back and forth, he'd talk to me, he'd talk to Sean, Eddie's brother. Yep. And he just kind of became this like honorary godfather figure who was guiding us through this process and helping and supporting. And he asked me to talk to his lawyer at the time. And I was just uncovering kind of like some of the more seedy stuff about that nonprofit and the lawyers at the time.

• 1:15:38Andrea Gallagher?

  And they had started to try to basically extort us. They had tried to extort our family, get us to turn over the money that we had generated on his campaign because we were also working with Navy Sales Fund, which was amazing nonprofit. And they set up this portal so that we could raise money. And so, you know, that we could fight the full power of the United States government. And then at that time, the media, the media was getting involved in terrorizing us. So we were fighting everybody. So Navy Sales Fund had started this portal, which was the Justice for Eddie page, which we would direct people to, to donate and to help and support our case. And that, that was just being held by Navy Sales Fund. We never got that money.

• 1:16:20Andrea Gallagher?

  But that was to help and defend Eddie and God forbid, if something happened, to help the kids and I. And I don't think that the other nonprofit at first, they knew that they were setting it up and they were well aware of it. They helped us with the verbiage and with the language. But then when they saw the money being raised and this nonprofit is not really that together, they started to come after us saying, um, you know, someone could say like, you're raising that money and like, you're doing wrong thing. And I'm like, what? So they started to try to like systematically like extort us.

• 1:16:56Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:56Andrea Gallagher?

  As a family and they targeted my brother-in-law, Sean. Um, and then they, and then when I found that out, I went after them and basically called them out under the carpet and I had a call with, and I was like, are you doing what I think you're doing? Like you're trying to intimidate us. You're trying to like.

• 1:17:13Katie Jean?

  Break you down?

• 1:17:14Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. And I basically called him out and at the time, G, which is the lawyer, who's supposed to be helping to defend my husband, is actively sitting on the board of directors and leading this nonprofit. And so I'm uncovering all of this and I'm like, you are so compromised in so many ways. Like what you're doing is not right. You're sitting on the board of a nonprofit that's basically making money off of people going to jail and you're the one that's bringing them in and I'm, I'm going after him hard. And then finally, I think he realized he couldn't intimidate me. So then he started thereafter to try to like, hey, just checking in. And I'm like, you creep, total creep.

• 1:17:56Andrea Gallagher?

  And so we just created this like, we got rid of the bad news bears and created the A team and like by the grace of God.

• 1:18:03Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:03Andrea Gallagher?

  The trial got pushed after that because they did the Spygate thing. So NCIS and the lead prosecutor ended up spying on our team. Uh, yeah, that's a whole nother.

• 1:18:14Katie Jean?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:18:15Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:16Katie Jean?

  Everything has been thrown at you guys.

• 1:18:18Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:18Katie Jean?

  Everything.

• 1:18:19Andrea Gallagher?

  Yep.

• 1:18:20Katie Jean?

  And I admire you so much because you've kept your cool. You've, I mean, keeping your family together, keeping Eddie to get like everything, you know, you've really, you've really done it all and, and, and gracefully and.

• 1:18:37Andrea Gallagher?

  Thank you.

• 1:18:38Katie Jean?

  And really by like creating like the whole campaign that you did and, and getting this dream team together.

• 1:18:44Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:45Katie Jean?

  And, and getting them home. I mean, that's incredible.

• 1:18:48Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. Mission accomplished.

• 1:18:49Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:51Andrea Gallagher?

  I sleep safely at night next to him.

• 1:18:54Katie Jean?

  So the picture, I think on your Instagram, when I was on Instagram, I remember like stalking your Instagram. And one of the things you said, it was the picture that's on the cover of your book. And I think you said that that was your favorite picture. What makes that picture so significant? And like, what are you thinking in that photo? Because we'll link the photo here in the podcast, but.

• 1:19:19Andrea Gallagher?

  Well, it's so funny. Like, it's hilarious. As many like podcasts and stuff that we do, people always ask me about like, my dresses and my stuff and like the fashion. And they're like, did you have like specific stuff? And I was like, I just, I like wake up like this. Like if I, if I'm in the mood, like, you know, we went out the other day. It was like a little like emo, like I had a tiger shirt on. Like, it's just like, it's a vibe that I get and I love. And so I had things picked out and specific things that I brought to trial. But, you know, some of it, I wouldn't know when I would wear. And I ended up wearing a lot of like beautiful, like muted florals, or just like crisp white, or things like that. And I love white. I just, it's just purity, color of purity. And I felt like we

• 1:20:03Andrea Gallagher?

  were, we were on such a like battleground. But I was like, again, I like, I fight everything straight from the heart. And I'm like, we will be vindicated. I'm like, when this goes to trial, we will expose, all of this is BS. And like, we were the only ones that knew because everyone else had all of this. You'd either watch Fox and get one thing, or you'd watch this and get another, or you'd read an article like the New York Times, and you would get the most skewed, you know, clickbait. And so I feel like, you know, waking up that day, I'd pretty much run through everything because it was like the day of the final day. So I, I was left with this beautiful, black, like silk blazer and like a white

• 1:20:46Andrea Gallagher?

  jumpsuit. And I don't know, it just felt strong. It felt strong, but it also had this mix of like, I'm a badass, but there's like the purity component. And like, this is one of my favorite necklaces. I think I wore this with it. Um, but that picture is so funny because all through the trial, I was just watching all of it just unravel. I'm like, this is a mix between A Few Good Men and My Cousin Vinny. Like, you cannot make this stuff up. I'm like, I mean, everyone, they fell apart on the stands, they couldn't keep up with their lies, and I knew that was gonna happen. And I just felt so vindicated, like progressively vindicated. I was like, I knew this was gonna

• 1:21:27Andrea Gallagher?

  happen. I knew we would expose this. And our team was amazing. So just such huge credit to them. And everything that we faced, even with the Spygate and the trial getting pushed and everything, and Eddie being incarcerated, it just felt like such a culmination. It was so surreal. And like, we rented a house, like, at the end of Point Loma, like, right down the street from where our military housing was raided. And we just woke up every day, like, our whole family stayed together. So we had, like, all of the kids with us. We had Sean and my mother and father-in-law with us. And we wake up and we'd overlook Point Loma. And it was just so symbolic of, like, how far we'd come and how much they tried

• 1:22:07Andrea Gallagher?

  to squash us and kill us and keep us silent. And they didn't. And it didn't work. And so I think, like, leaving that day, we would always get ready, get ready with the boys, my boys, my Sean, and then Eddie. And so they're four years apart. Sean's the baby brother, and then Eddie's the oldest. And then, like, we just have such a strong, we obviously got severely bonded together during that experience, too. I would imagine. So, like, a lot of the media would be staged before we'd go in and they'd snap pictures of us. And so we'd all go, we'd get our coffees from Better Buzz in the morning. And then we, you know, we'd go into the court and we'd drive in, like, okay, here we go, like, run the gauntlet of all the media and all the cameras. And they'd try to get us to say something or whatever. And so usually you see pictures, it's either me and Eddie

• 1:22:50Andrea Gallagher?

  or me and Eddie and Sean, which looks like, almost like a CIA, like, CIA agent behind us. That's Sean. That's, that's my brother-in-law, who was also, Sean was like, the key component of Eddie being free. Like, if Eddie had Sean and not me, or me and not Sean, it wouldn't, I don't, I firmly believe it wouldn't have worked. So it was just, like, such a beautiful moment of support of his brother and myself. And, um, you know, same as always, like, walking in, you, you do the gauntlet, we had the day in court. It was probably the most nerve-wracking day, for sure, because it was the day of the, um, they were announcing the verdict.

• 1:23:30Andrea Gallagher?

  And we would have had, you know, the final statements from our team. And so, you know, I remember being called back in, Eddie and I and Sean, like during the day, just because it was such a long day. We had left, we went to the, you know, PX or whatever it is over there and like, we're shopping a little bit just to like distract us and get out. And like, people were stopping Eddie and like, taking pictures. Like, it's, it was surreal. And then we ended up going back. We go into the court, they bring all the jury in and just like, as they're going through all of the charges and reading them, they're not reading them as the charge, they're reading them as a number prefix. And we were like, okay, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. Guilty, not guilty, not guilty,

• 1:24:11Andrea Gallagher?

  not guilty. And I'm like, what, we didn't know what the guilty is. So like, I'm looking at our team and I'm sitting like, right behind Eddie. And I'm looking at Catherine and I see Catherine just like, start to cry. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm, what I'm crying about. But I'm like, waited and waited. And then Tim just looks at Eddie and he's like, it's the picture. It's the picture's the only thing you're guilty of. Which we had never said that he wasn't guilty of that. We told the military, like, he will plead guilty to taking a picture, just like everyone else in the platoon did. But if you want him to die on this cross, like, yes, we never denied he took a picture with

• 1:24:52Andrea Gallagher?

  ISIS terrorists. And so, it was just crazy. I think I just burst out in tears. Everyone in the courtroom, in the audience who'd been there, our friends and, you know, Brad's parents, just tears, tears from people in the media. And then, you know, the jury walked out. And then the next day was the sentencing. So we had this like, reprieve where we knew... That we had, you know, basically, everything was found not guilty. Right. Except for the photo charge. So it was a huge win. And we knew based on how they had leverage and just they, they did this whole list of charges against him. So the charge sheet was a mile long.

• 1:25:37Andrea Gallagher?

  So out of everything, that was the only thing that we knew that they could get him on. So it was kind of best case scenario considering because we knew that they were not going to just relent and, you know. So I just remember walking out of the courtroom area, walking into like where everyone was in the overflow and all of our friends that were watching the overflow and just, we just all just cried and cried and cried and tears and relief and just. Like overwhelming. Overwhelmed. Yeah. And so the picture that you see is after all that day. And it's like, okay, we have a brief reprieve where it's done. Yeah. The trial is done. The trial is over. We have one more day. We have sentencing tomorrow,

• 1:26:20Andrea Gallagher?

  which we didn't know what was going to happen with the sentencing, but we're like, we did it. We did it. And the team was thrilled. We were all going to go meet up at one of our favorite little spots, right there in Point Loma that night. So walking out of that, my face looks like a smirky, I told you so. Yeah. And I was right all along and now you all know. And then Eddie's just looks like straight, like, I don't know, relief mixed with like, fuck this. Like just pushing the door open, but you know, he looks amazing. And I'm just right there next to him, like hand in hand, like we told you so.

• 1:27:03Andrea Gallagher?

  And now you all know that we overcame this and like you can't hold it on us anymore. God, what a feeling. Yeah. What a feeling. It was. I feel like it captured that. Yeah. Yeah. When you know the context, you're like, oh yeah, that does look like what they're saying facially.

• 1:27:24Katie Jean?

  And now knowing your style a little bit, it's perfect.

• 1:27:27Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah. Yeah, and I went out to the media thereafter and we would, we would sometimes after the days, the long days or big days, we would do a debrief with the media. So there is some footage after where I basically go after everybody and I'm like, this is why we as a nation uphold innocence until proven guilty. And what we've created out of this system, you know, is we're doing it all wrong and we should not be doing this to people. And like the whole trial by media thing, I mean, it's a real thing.

• 1:28:01Katie Jean?

  For sure. And it's amazing to hear that the team that you put together all has some backstory with personally dealing with this themselves.

• 1:28:10Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, isn't that crazy?

• 1:28:11Katie Jean?

  It is crazy.

• 1:28:12Andrea Gallagher?

  It's, it's a total God thing. It was totally orchestrated and ordained, appointed, anything that you can say to be like, it does not make sense that I would have been on nine 11, I would have been 21 years old, Trevin would have been just under a year old. And I can remember holding my baby the night of nine 11 and thinking, what in the world did I do? How did I bring this child into this world? You know, the twin towers had collapsed that day. And in a way, we are all so enmeshed through everyone that went through nine 11 because you know where you were, you know what you were doing and you know what you were feeling. And I remember feeling that feeling of hopelessness and especially for

• 1:28:56Andrea Gallagher?

  my child and just like holding my child and rocking my child. And I remember having God like kind of tell me like, this is how I care for you. Like I hold you when it seems out of control. Like he didn't know. He was great. He was sleeping soundly and snuggled up and I'm like bawling, thinking, how am I going to protect this kid in this world that we're living in, which was only progressively, you know, getting worse. And then I can distinctly remember moments when Eddie and I got back together and we had that moment like where he was getting ready to leave for the SEAL teams in San Diego and I was a single mom in Indiana. And I was like, I don't know how we're going to make this work. And it was almost like, okay, well, is this the end of like the story?

• 1:29:40Andrea Gallagher?

  And then there was a moment where he was like, holding me, rocking me in the kitchen. And I'm not kidding you, we like had a bolt of lightning that went through us. And I stepped back and I remember that feeling of rocking Trevin and God telling me it was gonna be okay after nine 11. And then this man that's been brought back into my life, that's like this warrior that's now gonna go fight for everything our country stands for since nine 11. I mean, it's just, there's so many points where I feel like God orchestrated so much. And you know, our, our whole team is just badasses. Like, we must be like honorary New Yorkers by now, because everyone on our team is like a New Yorker.

• 1:30:21Andrea Gallagher?

  And we have that, I think, that like level of like, you know, fight in us. That they embodied during all of that struggle to rebuild. And like, I don't know, I think it is pretty beautiful now, just the, the storyline of like, we knew each other and then we got back together and then now it's, it's been a three decades journey for us.

• 1:30:45Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:46Andrea Gallagher?

  So yeah, the vindication in 2018 would have been about at the other 10 year mark. So, meeting at 16, reconnecting 27, 26 and 27. And then now, that was, yeah, 2018, I would have been just 28. But we started to go through it during the like 20, 26, 27 years mark.

• 1:31:06Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:07Andrea Gallagher?

  So our, our story is very interesting and very, a lot of connecting points that make it pretty fascinating.

• 1:31:15Katie Jean?

  Yeah. And one of your interviews that you did, it was after he got released and you said, let me see if I can find it. Oh.

• 1:31:25Andrea Gallagher?

  What everyone meant for evil, God used for good. Do you still feel that today? Yes. Like 100%? Oh, 100%. So that's actually crazy, too. We put this in the book. So Eddie was at NICO and he was going through, because at NICO, they're kind of like, when you get out of the SEAL teams, a lot of people, if you've done that many deployments, like, it's just part of getting out. Like, you go to NICO, you get all of the testing done, you get everything documented, all the things that you've suffered or gone through, you know, you test for TBI and PTSD and everything. So it's just part of a precursor of him getting out and making sure we're doing due diligence before he leaves the military, so that he also gets all of his VA benefits.

• 1:32:04Andrea Gallagher?

  So he had actually, so the timeline is this, like, so we, we had the home raid in June 20th, 2018. We relocated by the 4th of July. We were at our new home. He was then taken on 9/11. So that year in September, I would have been in Florida with the kids. My son would have already been at, were leaving for college, almost. And then Eddie was back at NICO. So he was doing kind of the geo-batching thing, and he was there at the program. And he was going through it, and he was really taking everything in. So he'd do anything from, you know, an art class to music therapy, to acupuncture, and, you know, everything in between. And so he had called me that morning on 9/11. It's always a somber day, obviously, for everybody.

• 1:32:51Andrea Gallagher?

  And I remember, the first time he called, I was like so invigorated, because I had been listening to a podcast. I've listened to Joyce Meyer for decades, and her podcast was all about Joseph. And so the story of Joseph, he's the youngest of 12 brothers, so he's in a community of brothers. And he's the youngest, and he's kind of called by God, and he has these dreams and these visions of things. And his brothers ultimately get jealous, and they plot against him, and they decide that they're going to kill him. And one of the brothers intersees and like, "Don't kill him. Let's just throw him away. Let's throw him in a pit." So they like, take his coat, they cover it in blood, they throw him in a pit,

• 1:33:33Andrea Gallagher?

  and eventually slave traders come, and he gets sold into slavery. And then the story continues, that Joseph is basically... Thrown in all of these horrific nightmare situations, but then he somehow gets elevated. So when he's in jail, then he gets elevated to the head of the household of Potiphar. And then Potiphar's wife has the hots for him. So then the wife goes after him and tries to throw herself on him after multiple attempts. He runs out of the house and then she's like, he raped me. So then this guy goes on basically trial for rape. And the kid is like doing the right thing. He's a righteous individual, but he keeps on finding himself in these situations. So then he gets thrown back in jail. And so then he's like in jail again for something he didn't do. And then while he's in jail, he has this interaction with two individuals.

• 1:34:18Andrea Gallagher?

  And so this is all in the Bible. And so I'm like telling Eddie the story. I was like, I feel like this is so symbolic, like this is like you, like you're a Joseph. Like you've been betrayed, you've been betrayed by your brothers, but it's happening for a purpose. And this is happening in that verse. What it symbolizes is, were it not for the negative things that happened to Joseph, he would have never been elevated to the place that ultimately he was given. And so the story goes that as Joseph is in there with the king's cupbearer and with the king's cook, he's like, tell, tell the king, you know, I can interpret dreams and remember me when you go before the king. And so one day the king starts having these crazy bizarre dreams.

• 1:35:01Andrea Gallagher?

  And then at a certain point, way later, Joseph is called before the king. He then ultimately ends up being the second in command. He's given a ring on his finger. He's in charge of the entire, basically the saving of, of the people of Egypt, but also subsequently the Hebrew people. So Joseph gets put as second in command. He ultimately ends up saving all of his brothers and his father. And they come before him and they don't know who he is. Cause it's so long and he's so different. And they're in the midst of this famine and drought and they go before him and he basically encounters his brother and he says that verse to all of them, to his, you know, the 12 brothers.

• 1:35:46Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:46Andrea Gallagher?

  And he's like, what you meant for evil, God meant for good and the saving of many lives, what is now happening? So he was ultimately their salvation at the end of the day.

• 1:35:56Katie Jean?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 1:35:57Andrea Gallagher?

  And that's, I've said that, I've quoted that, but that morning Eddie heard me out on that podcast and, and like how much I was getting from it and the story of Joseph became an anchor for me and that scripture became an anchor for me about

• 1:36:10Katie Jean?

  It's like a full circle.

• 1:36:11Andrea Gallagher?

  Why God was doing what he was doing and I, and I had told you or Sean, I said, you know, God audibly told me this is bigger than us. This is bigger than us because when I would just fall in a, you know, a heap and cry and, you know, I, I had to hold on to what I believed and what I believed was that God was allowing us to go through this for a purpose. That was bigger than us and I do, I do see that now more than ever.

• 1:36:36Katie Jean?

  Yeah, that's so powerful.

• 1:36:38Andrea Gallagher?

  It's a powerful story, very symbolic.

• 1:36:41Katie Jean?

  Yeah. But it's powerful that that kept you going, you know? And, and kept that in turn kept Eddie going and your family and, and all of it's just, it's, it's remarkable. It truly is.

• 1:36:53Andrea Gallagher?

  It is.

• 1:36:54Katie Jean?

  Which leads to where you guys are today and the Pipe Pitter Foundation and now helping others.

• 1:37:00Andrea Gallagher?

  Yep.

• 1:37:01Katie Jean?

  And do you want to talk about that and kind of explain a little bit more about that?

• 1:37:05Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, so, yeah, that, that was really birthed out of the overall struggle of dealing with an amazing nonprofit that had our best interests. They had our back, they supported us, um, and that was the Navy Seals Fund. Um, and then we had this other nonprofit that targeted us and was corrupt and I thought of all the things, of all the evil that we're experiencing and then trying to additionally capitalize off of our misfortune and extort us and all of these things, I was like, it doesn't get much worse. And I'm like, for military families especially that don't have the wherewithal, they don't know how to even circumvent the level of pressure that this system is able, I mean, and they put their thumb on the scale.

• 1:37:50Andrea Gallagher?

  I mean, they had their thumb on the scale of our trial the whole time and it was from every angle. And so we would always say like, We saw behind a curtain that we never knew existed. And most people don't want to know it existed. But now that we do, we cannot unsee what we saw. And knowing that if we, let's say, we just go into the night and we, oh, gosh, thank God we got out of that. I, I could not, in good conscience, live my life, knowing that it's possible for these types of things to happen to people, and not do something about it. So even before Eddie got out of the military, and they continue to terrorize him even after his trial.

• 1:38:34Andrea Gallagher?

  So he got vindicated almost near the 4th of July, 2019. That was the day of our sentencing. And then, um, the 3rd of July, I think, was the day. And then, from that point through, I think, November, he retired late November 2019, so just last year. I started the process of looking into, how do we create a nonprofit? How do we do something to stop this from happening? How do we put another good and righteous nonprofit on the map? And potentially take this other nonprofit out that's like using these people? So it took a very long time. I never intended to start a nonprofit, but the Pipehitter Foundation was just born out of our struggle.

• 1:39:19Andrea Gallagher?

  And between Sean and I, the map that we carved was one that was totally unique. So me utilizing my background in like imagery and branding and messaging and just like fighting, basically, for what's right, and fighting to get our message out there. And then Sean fighting through the channels of, um, you know, utilizing the Congress and the members of Congress. We had them sign on to, um, a piece of paper that actually, basically, in essence, it was the reason that President Trump got involved. So we had over 50 members of Congress sign on to, um, To basically saying that Eddie needed to have the right to defend himself, that he should have the right to do that.

• 1:40:01Andrea Gallagher?

  And so when we crafted this path, we felt like we had, we had a purpose in sharing how to help people through trials and struggles, because what we had done was pretty unprecedented. So that's what our foundation does. We help to guide people through crises, through advocacy, PR, legal defense funds, and then emergency relief grants. So what we knew was, they went after our whole family. They just didn't go after Eddie. They went after his children. They went after me. They tried to break us apart. They tried to crush us. They tried to financially overwhelm us. So we try to empower and equip people and walk alongside of them in a way that will enable them to hopefully get through and come out on the other side of being wrongly targeted

• 1:40:45Andrea Gallagher?

  or caught in the midst of a crossfire of whatever it is. So that's kind of the vision behind it. And so we basically got our IRS approval during the middle of 2020 COVID. But we immediately started to set out to help people. So we've been raising money online. We obviously haven't been able to do events, but we've partnered with amazing foundations like Charlie Daniels, The Journey Home Project. They've helped us to get off the ground and done special donations. And like, we're just really trying to help as many people as possible. But it's not just service members. It's police, first responders, service members, and their family.

• 1:41:24Speaker 05

  Oh, okay. I didn't know that.

• 1:41:25Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:26Speaker 05

  That's great.

• 1:41:27Andrea Gallagher?

  So yeah, we have an amazing board of directors. Mark McCasey sits on our board of directors. Actually, a lot of people that were involved in the fight to free Eddie are involved.

• 1:41:35Speaker 05

  I was gonna ask. Okay.

• 1:41:37Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, we have an amazing board of director. And then, so those individuals, a lot of them were critical in helping us to tip the scales to free Eddie. And then our executive director is incredible. So yeah, definitely did not set out to start a nonprofit, but here we are. And I feel like it's a total calling for us. And we just, we have to do it. There's no, no other option, because people need help. And now... Sadly, our police are getting targeted just as bad as our military. It's just, it's just sad and we, we wouldn't have been able to foresee that. So yeah, by the grace of God, we're now able to help and support these people through these types of struggles or if their families are targeted.

• 1:42:21Katie Jean?

  Wow. And it's currently undergoing, like you guys are working with?

• 1:42:24Andrea Gallagher?

  Oh, yeah. We got IRS approval in April and then we immediately started to go through the applications. We had gotten an influx of once we kind of did a soft launch and launched the website, we also launched the application portal and we got a backlog of over 40 applications of people that are sadly in, you know, some level of hardship situation that we're specifically looking to help them with. So we have, you know, we have a pretty tight wheelhouse of what we will take and what we will onboard. So our board of directors votes on the people that we want to approve, but we offer help and guidance and then emergency relief grants. So yeah, we've already been able to help people and their families and

• 1:43:05Andrea Gallagher?

  give emergency relief grants to people that are struggling and going through similar legal hardships or maybe even a hardship related to some type of illness or hardship about them getting pushed out of the military. Cause that's the common thread too. Even after Eddie's trial, he was consistently targeted and pushed out and they wanted to take everything from him. They wanted to take his retirement. They wanted to take his military benefits. They wanted to take his trident. It was just injury to insult to insult and it was all just sour grapes, you know, because we have exposed so much about how badly they handled this case. So we see that a lot sadly with our nonprofit. It's a consistent problem that

• 1:43:46Andrea Gallagher?

  these commands are weaponizing the UCMJ and they're basically targeting service members and stripping them at like 18, 19 years of everything for stuff that they've, some of them for stuff they've been found not guilty of. And it's like, what's the point of the process if you're going to just then in essence, leave them alone and destitute, because their wives leave them, their kids are taken, they have no income, they can't go get a job. They're, you know, if their trident's taken, it's such an identity for them. And then you're basically putting these people at risk for veteran suicide.

• 1:44:26Katie Jean?

  Yeah, that's another thing. I was just briefly talking to Eddie downstairs between Sean and Eddie's break, but. They're targeting an already like fragile group of guys that are coming back. You know what I mean? Although there are our war heroes, but you know, like 22 a day. And it's just like, what are they getting out of that? And it

• 1:44:47Andrea Gallagher?

  I don't know.

• 1:44:48Katie Jean?

  It's awful because we're coming up to 20 years of these guys. And I just feel like there needs to be more awareness, more talk about

• 1:44:55Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:55Katie Jean?

  all of that and the transition and to then hear that these guys are getting targeted and losing that purpose that they fought for. It's awful.

• 1:45:05Andrea Gallagher?

  Right.

• 1:45:05Katie Jean?

  It's really awful. So I think you guys are doing God's work. You really are.

• 1:45:08Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, I believe so. I feel like there is just such a bigger underlying reason why we got into this. And now what we're discovering is through the level of hardship that these people are experiencing, one of our main goals that we're evolving for 2021 is doing more about the veteran suicide. But when you think about all of the pressure that is put on these guys from the beginning and the onset of their career, and a lot of research has been done. Now that we've been navigating transition for the better part of 2020, it's just so eye opening. A lot of the injuries to their brains and the TBIs are even obtained during training before they even go to combat.

• 1:45:46Katie Jean?

  Really?

• 1:45:46Andrea Gallagher?

  So you think about these guys with, you know, huge tears in their brain through even the developmental process to become a SEAL and to be able to be trained enough to go over into theater. And these guys, this 20 year generation of the 9/11 generation is going to be so unique because they deployed, for Eddie, for example, he deployed back to back, nonstop. He was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, on and on and on and on. I mean, eight combat deployments. And then the level of services, okay, so everyone's like, well, why are they so messed up when they get out? I'm like, when do you think, when they're

• 1:46:29Andrea Gallagher?

  Working up for a year and a half, deploying nonstop, and then coming back and doing another workup. And that's the other thing. The cycles of the SOF community are you're at workup, doing your special pro dev and your training, preparation longer than you are usually deployment. So your family is just on hold, on hold, on hold. And, you know, I don't think people have a clear grasp and understanding of the sacrifice that these families and these men have made the last 20 years. And the weight of the burden of 9/11, it did fall on to the SOF community. That's just common knowledge. So the idea that someone that served for 18, you know, 20 years has maybe done anywhere

• 1:47:12Andrea Gallagher?

  from two to 10 to 20 combat deployments. And then, yeah, you messed up. Like, there's people that we help and support. Yes, they messed up. They did something wrong. But the punishment does not fit the crime. Like, if you think of these guys, and they've been used and abused, and they have, you know, mental and emotional, and that's what they signed up for. And Eddie is very open about like, listen, I knew I was disposable in a way. I was disposable to the military. Yes, they invested a lot into me. But, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, he would have given his life for this job. But there, I think there's a very big, fine line

• 1:47:57Andrea Gallagher?

  where at the end of their careers, I think there's this, they're, I guess the word is they're expendable. They're expendable, but they're not disposable. These guys have fought and given so much. And then they do one thing, or they get caught up in something, and then they're discarded by their commands and the community and everything stripped. It's like, there is something bigger that's going on that I think that we need to address by like, how do you just discard someone that clearly is suffering? That because you put them through years of sustained combat, and you really didn't have a proper break in there, that, yeah, they probably do have issues they've never addressed. So therefore, that's why you're seeing

• 1:48:41Andrea Gallagher?

  the veterans that are trying to navigate transition. These are people that have been operating and going nonstop for sometimes two decades straight.

• 1:48:50Andrea Gallagher?

  And it's been happening. And so therefore, they have a backlog of trauma that they've never dealt with. And in transition is where they have the time to sit and to think and to be like, I really am screwed up. It comes to light. It comes to light. And they don't have the wherewithal. A lot of times, so many of them have broken marriages because they gave everything to the community that they served. I mean, the divorce right now in the SEAL community is over 120% because they're calculating second marriages. I mean, it's a trickle down effect. These guys get affected. The battle rhythm that they were called to serve is obviously it's going down operationally now.

• 1:49:34Andrea Gallagher?

  We're not at the height of a war, but these guys were. And so it's just all part of a bigger problem that I think we're only going to start seeing the real consequences of a 20-year war on our service members, their families. And so that's why we just want to be prepared and ahead of the game. And that's why the Piper Hitter Foundation, we will take that on more as a pillar of our service to the veteran community and even to the police community with everything they're suffering. I know their suicide rates are skyrocketing. I mean, there's no appreciation there either. Right. So it's like these guys that are the heroes and the best among us, have given everything for us, have now turned to just having targets on their backs. And then we wonder, why is the rate going up? And I mean, the suicide rate, it isn't even 20 to a day anymore.

• 1:50:19Andrea Gallagher?

  It's higher. And the VA, I don't think they'll put a new number to it because it would probably just be too overwhelming. Right. But I've heard it's closer to 30, which that's probably not even accurate. It's probably double that. But they're not calculating. And I've talked to people that have lost, you know, children to the war of suicide that served. And there's just not enough being done. So we're just, we're looking to partner more in 2021 to do more. But we do feel like it's uniquely entrenched into how these commands are just discarding these people. And you can't strip military benefits away from someone that's just getting to the point where they have to figure out how to do a new way of life after serving for 20 years

• 1:51:02Andrea Gallagher?

  and they've sustained horrific injuries internally or externally in combat. It's just, it's unfathomable. It's actually, it's a horrible thing that should not be allowed. I don't care if someone did do something horrible. If these people have internal wounds that they suffered in combat, there should be more to offer that because otherwise they don't have any other choice. They're destitute.

• 1:51:24Katie Jean?

  I agree, and they're forgetting that they're human. You know what I mean? And humans make mistakes and, and that's just what humans do.

• 1:51:31Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:32Katie Jean?

  So to discard them almost like machines where it's like you're programmed to do a job. If you mess up, they can just discard you. You know what I mean? And I just think that it's awful that they're, they're doing that and they're getting away with it. And, and they're forgetting that they're human, you know? So I, I, again, I just think it's, it's amazing what you guys are doing and

• 1:51:54Andrea Gallagher?

  Thank you.

• 1:51:55Katie Jean?

  Bringing all of that to light and it's, it's incredible.

• 1:51:58Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah, the fight continues.

• 1:52:00Katie Jean?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:52:01Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:03Katie Jean?

  Like, how do you then prepare neck for this next chapter for, no pun intended, but for the book to be released? And there's gotta be a wall that you're starting to maybe put up for like this next wave possibly of, of more press and all of that. Do you think that that would, would come? And, and obviously you guys are ready to handle it, but are you though? You know what I mean? Like

• 1:52:33Andrea Gallagher?

  I don't think that you get into a situation like this. Like we, we would have never been able to predict like what would have happened or how popularized like his case and the trial. And then when, when President Trump got involved and rightly so, in my opinion, like when we put that before Congress and the people were like, he deserves a right to a fair trial. He deserves a right to innocence until proven guilt, you know, guilty. When that happened and then Trump ended up tweeting to get Eddie out of pretrial confinement. I mean, so much has been so eye opening, but we did turn into a bit of a political football because of the, you know, just the contentious nature between the media and President Trump. It actually, we got spiraled into a very weird environment where it wasn't about the case. It wasn't about what was true.

• 1:53:18Andrea Gallagher?

  It was about what was the best clickbait. And so if it was some egregious charge that they threw on there that was completely fabricated and made up like, oh, um, so first things first, no one, and the prosecution knew this. No one really cared too much about a dead ISIS fighter. So strategically, they

• 1:53:39Andrea Gallagher?

  Got people to fabricate and make up insinuations that there was people that they saw killed on deployment, which were formerly on deployment, reported as ISIS killing them, that then they turned into, oh, Eddie Gallagher was killing them. Now, none of this was founded or real, and it never happened, but it got to the point where this became such a fabrication and story that the prosecution and then the media also furthered this narrative. So actually, what you can see that people are most upset about, or what's most egregious to everybody, is that one of the charges was that Eddie killed a little girl and a father on Father's Day, an old man that was probably a father on Father's Day. I'm like, you can't make this up.

• 1:54:21Andrea Gallagher?

  Like, it was completely false. It's fictitious. It didn't happen. But in the media, it is the most prevalent and widely known egregious war criminal story about Eddie Gallagher. Right. And you're just sitting, watching. And it's so eye-opening. So to answer your question, the fake news media is real. Suppression of conservative values, beliefs, anything opposing is real, because it happened to us the entire time through social media and anything that had to do with if we spoke out against whatever, or if we said the truth about this, it was like you get thrown in Instagram jail, or whatever.

• 1:55:05Andrea Gallagher?

  And it's like, okay, this is only really going one way. And then you've seen it just escalate and escalate and escalate. And you talk about this stuff, and you're like, you sound like a crazy person, because no one really wants to think that it's possible that we're under this much control, and that the media and that everything is just so convoluted, and the narratives are just made to get eyeballs. So if you look at any article, nine times out of 10, it's Eddie in dress whites and sunglasses and, you know, because it's like, someone's bound to click on that. Yep. And even articles that are not even about us, they'll find a way to put Eddie Gallagher's name in, and the headline picture is Eddie in dress whites.

• 1:55:50Andrea Gallagher?

  And it's like, it's not even an article about us. It's about, and then, remember this happened, and Eddie Gallagher, and it's like... It's just clickbait. Yeah. And so the media is the media. I do feel like it was trial by fire for us. I don't have whatever chip it is that makes me care about other people's opinions or whatever. Like, I know what the truth is. I'm a child of God. I'm an amazing human being. I do my best to be kind. And I can bust some balls, but as long as you're on my good side, I'm a nice human being. I love my friends. I love my family. I'm fiercely devoted. I'm loyal. I don't buy into any of it. And I didn't, I didn't care. But I do have people that are very close to me that it affected them greatly.

• 1:56:34Andrea Gallagher?

  It hurt them. It hurt them to hear stories of Eddie. And it hurt them to hear the media saying these things about Eddie. And it would put them into a tailspin. And it's hard. It's hard to watch people be terrorized like this. So for me, it's not as much concern for me. It's concern of protecting my children, protecting my husband. Because he is a little bit more sensitive when things get said. And it's just such, it's such a sad reality that like, you could have an elite career, and you could have nothing bad about you. Your reputation is spotless. And then you just have this huge thing that's just all false and made up.

• 1:57:19Andrea Gallagher?

  And you're, you know, it's who you are now. Right. And now you're, you're labeled as a war criminal. By the way, everybody, taking a photo is not a war crime. It's just not. I'm sorry. Everyone does it in the military. I know people don't want to, aren't we better than that? No. People in the military are exposed to horrific violence, and they are desensitized. And that's how they have to be. They're members of the military. That's why only 1% of 1% signs up for the military and special ops. So it's like, I think- You know, people need to stop being so naive and they also need to stop looking at clickbait. Look into it. Taking a photo is not a war crime. By the way, everyone else in the platoon took

• 1:58:03Andrea Gallagher?

  a photo with that guy. Individually, cumulatively, collectively, why did they only go after Eddie Gallagher? It's because Eddie Gallagher was the target. And it's just, it's hard to see how little bandwidth people have for the truth, but how much they will spin out on lies, false information. And people still think Eddie was pardoned. They still think Trump pardoned Eddie.

• 1:58:27Katie Jean?

  After all, and they just want to believe the negative. It just, they're more comfortable in stewing in that, you know, and not looking into it and, you know, coming up with their own conclusions on things. But, I mean, I know we both said that we both don't come from military backgrounds and I know for me, being with Sean, really opened my eyes to what actually goes on over there. And I don't just mean that with our guys, our military guys. I mean, the culture over there. And, and I thought before Sean, I was pretty up

• 1:59:09Katie Jean?

  to date with my news and I could pretty much tell you what was going on. And I was much more news savvy then than I am now, by far. Because now I just don't trust any of the news. But, people don't want to know that stuff.

• 1:59:24Andrea Gallagher?

  They don't.

• 1:59:25Katie Jean?

  And I, I remember just being like, what? Like, there's no way. And to then jump on something like Eddie's case, where you don't know. And when they see guys take pictures with ISIS and it's like, oh my God, but they don't know. And the media doesn't tell people that. And it's completely shielded. So then, once something like this, your case is thrown into them, into their living room to see this, they're so quick to just place judgment and, and think that they know, but they have no idea. And it's, it's just amazing. It is absolutely amazing because you can't, there's no way in knowing. I wish so many times that.

• 2:00:09Katie Jean?

  Some of the people closest to me could really hear

• 2:00:12Andrea Gallagher?

  Right.

• 2:00:12Katie Jean?

  Sean and other guys' experiences and inform them on what that culture is like, what the world is like over there, what our guys go through and it's just so mind blowing.

• 2:00:26Andrea Gallagher?

  It's pure evil and no one, no one over here really wants to know.

• 2:00:29Katie Jean?

  No, they don't.

• 2:00:30Andrea Gallagher?

  Cause you wouldn't sleep at night.

• 2:00:31Katie Jean?

  No.

• 2:00:31Andrea Gallagher?

  If you knew on a given day what these guys encounter.

• 2:00:34Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:35Andrea Gallagher?

  I mean, I can remember Eddie telling me stories about this last deployment and Mosul and that like they would try to draw them out by just sending little kids at them to draw them out and then they would just spray these little kids and kill women and children all the time to draw the guys out and Eddie would just be like, there is dead bodies everywhere. There is stuff all over the place like ISIS is just brutal, brutal with the women and children over there.

• 2:01:05Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:01:06Andrea Gallagher?

  So they cut off little kids' heads and they put them on spikes outside the schoolyard. And this is the things that our country, they wouldn't want you to know that.

• 2:01:15Katie Jean?

  They don't.

• 2:01:16Andrea Gallagher?

  Because then you wouldn't be so superficial to just, all you're worried about is keeping up with Kardashians or scrolling through social media or laughing at cat videos. It's like, people need to wake up. In this world, there is evil. In this country, there is evil, pure evil, the purest form that they would murder you, your children in a second. And that's what they're over there fighting. And then we want to armchair quarterback and act like we know better or we would be above it. And I'm like, if you've never had a bullet whizz by your head or someone die beside you or seen a woman and children, you know,

• 2:01:55Andrea Gallagher?

  just brutally murdered in the streets, don't give me your mental platitudes or your opinions. Keep your mouth shut. And that's what I think military spouses need to start speaking up more because the guys won't.

• 2:02:10Katie Jean?

  I agree.

• 2:02:10Andrea Gallagher?

  The guys will slowly die. A death of just, you know, keeping it all inside. And that's a big thing of why I feel very strongly that it's going to be the spouses that are going to have to be the ones to advocate for these men that have gone through all of this trauma, helped to set them on the path to the right direction. And like, that's why all of 2020 was devoted to the creation of the book. And he worked on the book and then helping him restore and getting, you know, any type of help or therapy or advocacy that we could. That's the most cutting edge for people that have basically sacrificed their mind, body and spirit to the cause of protecting this country.

• 2:02:52Andrea Gallagher?

  And even though the military now wants to discard them and thinks that they're, you know, disposable, they're not. I mean, these men have so much to give. We have to do more. We have to be standing up for them. And that's why I just feel really strongly like that's going to be one of my main things that I'm going to focus on is like, how can we be better to the people that have served us? And that's like our nonprofit is our tagline is, you know, we're serving those that serve us. And I do think that this is a big part of it as we come to the 20 year mark of, you know, nine 11. I think we do have to tackle veteran suicide and why are these guys struggling so much? And why are the commands keeping them at a breakneck pace to where they get out?

• 2:03:37Andrea Gallagher?

  And it's like the caboose. It's like, you know, they're on a freight train their whole career and then the caboose just like slams into them, but it's also into the wives. It's into their kids. I mean, these are whole families that are being lost. And Eddie was just telling me, you know, statistically it's military families beget military families. And I have to say, I don't know if that's going to be prevalent in this country with the way that we're treating these people. I mean, we've said, you know, if any of our kids want to go in the military, you know, we, we would not discourage them. But I don't know with the way that they're treating the military, like who's going to enlist?

• 2:04:17Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:17Andrea Gallagher?

  Who's going to go when we need them?

• 2:04:19Katie Jean?

  Right. That was one of my questions for you is if Ryan, you know, wanted to join, would you encourage it or?

• 2:04:28Andrea Gallagher?

  How would you feel about it? I would not deny him that, just like I would not deny Eddie his life, Yeah. dream and goal of being a Navy SEAL. And like, I remember, like, I love Eddie's grandmother, Dolores. She was just an amazing, beautiful woman, like, straight out of Mad Men. Like, she was one of the first airline stewardesses, like, back when you had to be a, basically, like, a model. Oh. To be an airline stewardess. But, you know, she was later in years by this time, 70-plus years old, probably closer to 80. And I just remember I talked to her, and she's like, "I just worry. I just worry for him." And, you know, and I'd be like, "But Grandma," I was like, "if, you know, Eddie's the type of person that if he sees a burning building, he's gonna go in."

• 2:05:13Andrea Gallagher?

  And I was like, "If we stop him from doing something like that, someone like Eddie will just slowly die anyhow." And I truly feel that that is part of the problem that we're experiencing. I feel like this society is just suffocating this warrior class of males. And, you know, we just want them all to be, you know, I don't know what we want people to be anymore, but it's definitely not a masculine male. And I'm like, "I'm sorry, I still believe in the masculine male. I love men, I love my brothers in the SEAL teams, and we have to have those people to defend us and stand up and to fight." And I think, like, it's just so important.

• 2:05:52Andrea Gallagher?

  So, no, I would never, never, if Ryan truly felt that he was called to do that, I would handle the same way I handled being married to Eddie. And Eddie is my best friend. He is, he is my person in life. I mean, and I've said before, like, I can't tell you how many times I planned what I would say if he came back in a casket. Like, what would I say? What would I, what would I do? Because I had friends that had to do that. And it's like, It was just part of the job, like making peace with the fact that he was doing something that, yes, ultimately, he could die. And I think, you know, by the grace of God, I

• 2:06:35Andrea Gallagher?

  was able to kind of compartmentalize that and just still live a very full, happy life, knowing that he could walk onto the street and get hit by a car, and that'd be the end of him. And if it's his time to go, it's his time to go. And I mean, I think God has a plan for all of us, so I don't live in fear of, oh, Eddie could be dead. I would have never thought he would have gone to jail for being in the military, but that's another thing he's been delivered from. So, you know, and I know people go over there, and they do. People lose husbands and sons. And so you do have to, at some level, make peace with it. It might be harder for me to let one of my children go, maybe, than even my husband, but I don't know. I wouldn't stop him.

• 2:07:15Katie Jean?

  God, that's so much. And, you know, just doing all the research before you guys got here, thinking that I had a somewhat good idea, I really didn't. I mean, not until you were opening up about all this.

• 2:07:26Andrea Gallagher?

  It's so crazy.

• 2:07:27Katie Jean?

  It is.

• 2:07:27Andrea Gallagher?

  That's why the book is going to be over 500 pages. It's like, you can't make any of this up. You can't leave any of it out. And that's why we did it that way, because we really, there's no format where you can sit and share every nuance of everything, and the corruption, and the manipulation, and this, then this, and this. And so, that's why we wanted the book as kind of an anchor to the story, because it is a long story over the course of years, and it still continues. So, yeah, we're looking forward to writing the next chapter, but the media will not dissuade me, and we will get targeted again, I'm sure.

• 2:08:05Katie Jean?

  Right.

• 2:08:06Andrea Gallagher?

  You know, because that's how it is. It's in fits and spurts. Like, they'll leave you alone. Like, the mob will leave you alone as long as you're not speaking up or speaking out. But I plan on speaking up and speaking out for our military and our service members and their spouses for a very long time.

• 2:08:21Katie Jean?

  Good. Yeah. I think that's great.

• 2:08:23Andrea Gallagher?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:24Katie Jean?

  I really do. And especially... The spouses as well, because like we were talking yesterday just about it all.

• 2:08:30Andrea Gallagher?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:08:31Katie Jean?

  Um, it's the front line, you know, when they get home. So.

• 2:08:35Andrea Gallagher?

  And there's not enough resources.

• 2:08:37Katie Jean?

  No.

• 2:08:37Andrea Gallagher?

  For women who absorb the majority of what these men go through. And there is, thank God, by the grace of God, there's been so many amazing nonprofits, even so many of our friends that have started amazing nonprofits that have given Eddie access to cutting edge treatment and therapies and new things that they're trying for veterans and especially to keep people off of pills, which I.

• 2:09:00Katie Jean?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:09:01Andrea Gallagher?

  Do not agree with pills. I don't agree with Big Pharma at all in the way they want to medicate our vets. I think it's horrible.

• 2:09:07Katie Jean?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:09:07Andrea Gallagher?

  Um, that's another thing. I think it's also tied in with veteran suicide and I just, we have to do more. And, um, I just went to a retreat not that long ago was the very first thing for me that I've ever gone to, just like a spiritual retreat, which I love spiritual stuff and spiritual retreats and growth in general. So, um, going to that and being surrounded by other women and just having those shared experiences of saying like, my husband was not who, like, who he started out. Like, he turned into this person that was just ravaged with anxiety or PTSD or whatever. And I would hear these women's

• 2:09:47Andrea Gallagher?

  stories and I was just like heartbroken, like, oh, my gosh, like, you're the one, you're the one that's absorbing all of it. And there was one of the facilitators at dinner one night, we had this conversation and it was, it's a really cool experience. It's called ORW. It's Operation Restored Warrior. And so they do drop zones for the men. Um, and these are usually people at their wit's end. Like, they've tried everything. They've done every therapy. They've done every, and they're on the verge of like, I might not make it.

• 2:10:17Speaker 05

  And so Operation Restored Warrior was started by a guy named Paula Vell, and they're now starting to do female drop zones. And so Eddie went in October, and it's just like a spiritual restoration type retreat for a lot of the wounds that these guys sustain. And I got the opportunity to go in November and talking with one of the facilitators, I heard her story, and they shared their own stories because they're military spouses. And she happened to also be facilitating with her husband. So her husband was a male facilitator, she's a female facilitator. And then they play these clips. And so they play movie clips as a way to kind of like introduce themes or things. And so they started playing a clip of The Hunger Games. And I watch movies, but I forget them.

• 2:11:01Speaker 05

  And watching this clip, it was like, I think I was just bawling. And it's like, it was so symbolic of, you know, it's not Katniss who's chosen, it's Prin. And so Prin is the one that's selected to like be a part of The Hunger Games. And I was like, it's our guys. Our guys are Prin. Our guys are the ones that sign up. Our guys are the ones that volunteer. Our guys are the ones that go there and they're the tribute. But ultimately, it's the females. The spouses are Katniss.

• 2:11:43Speaker 05

  And Katniss like stands up and is like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna fight on this person's behalf. And I feel like that's like so symbolic of like, these women obtained so many wounds from protecting their husband and then protecting their kids when their husband's having a hard time. And talking that night, I was like, we've gotta do more. I mean, these women are bearing such a burden. And so that picture of like Katniss volunteering as tribute, it's a position of strength. She does it out of the love. And that's...

• 2:12:27Speaker 05

  That's how I'm gonna live the rest of my life. Like, he's the one that was chosen to be a part of the military, but I'm the, I need to, I am volunteering as a tribute to be a voice for him. Because he won't speak up as much. I mean, he is more because now he's kind of in a position where he knows he's being called to talk more about it. But I do feel like it's just so symbolic of like, I feel like spouses have got to stand up. Because I know these guys do a lot of hurt and a lot of damage to spouses. So I don't blame anyone that's left. And if, and if something horrible is happening, obviously leave. But I feel like it's a very hopeless end

• 2:13:12Speaker 05

  for so many of these people that give their life in service. And then they've ruined their lives. They've ruined their marriage and, you know? And so they're alone and they don't have anyone to turn to. And my friends that have stood by their spouses, I mean, they are the most amazing women. A lot of them are very godly, faith-based women, though.

• 2:13:29Katie Jean?

  Right.

• 2:13:30Speaker 05

  And I feel like that's part of it. Because otherwise, how can you see through this fog of war that they come back with? And you're like, you're not even like, the person. But in the course of a year, I've seen like, my Eddie, who had to be, you know, he, he had to be in a very much like go mode, very hard for all the years of service. And I look at him sometimes and I'm like, oh, my gosh. You know, getting him back is, it means a lot. Not losing him in the first place to war.

• 2:14:04Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:05Speaker 05

  Or then the trial or jail for the remainder of his life. And then it's beautiful. So I know it's possible. I know healing is possible because I've seen in the course of the year, he has, we have tried all different types of stuff to help and support him through transition. So I know that if we just keep doing more to help and support our veterans, it's possible because I've seen it in my husband. And I feel like If we can survive a military career and a war crimes trial, and within one year, I'm seeing healing and restoration on a level that's just monumental. It's anyone. It can happen for anybody.

• 2:14:45Katie Jean?

  Yeah, because his transition wasn't like everybody else's.

• 2:14:48Speaker 05

  Oh, no.

• 2:14:49Katie Jean?

  It was.

• 2:14:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, he was put through the wringer.

• 2:14:51Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:52Speaker 05

  For sure.

• 2:14:52Katie Jean?

  Absolutely.

• 2:14:53Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:14:53Katie Jean?

  And, I mean, I told you yesterday, I wasn't with Sean when he was deployed.

• 2:15:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:15:00Katie Jean?

  But I was there when he was home and after an attempted suicide.

• 2:15:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:15:06Katie Jean?

  And then I come into his life. So I just feel like we're all put together for a reason. And it's, it's huge, you know?

• 2:15:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:15:18Katie Jean?

  It is beyond us, but.

• 2:15:20Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:15:21Katie Jean?

  Seeing who he was from our first date to who he is today. And it is possible, you know?

• 2:15:30Speaker 05

  It is. Yeah.

• 2:15:31Katie Jean?

  There's a lot of growth and healing that, that comes along with time, but you have to be patient and, and reach out to others and, and ask for help.

• 2:15:42Speaker 05

  Right. Yeah.

• 2:15:44Katie Jean?

  Yeah, it, it's huge, you know?

• 2:15:46Speaker 05

  It is huge, for sure. Yeah. So I definitely feel like, you know, I hope that as we can grow our network and our influence and the nonprofit and what we're doing to help and support. I mean, I feel strongly the spouse side has got to be built up in a way that empowers these women to be able to cope and to deal with what's happening in the lives of the men that they love.

• 2:16:10Katie Jean?

  Yeah, and have the tools there to, to use and, and tap into, for sure.

• 2:16:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, and also get support for themselves because I don't think when, when your main focus and your main job is like supporting and protecting your, your family and your spouse and you're, and you're seeing, you know, all that they've gone through, I mean, you know why it's happening, but you don't always know how to help and support them in a way that, like you said, I think you have to have a lot of patience built in. And I think that for me comes through just prayer and just believing that one day we'll get to the place where, you know, we, we need to be or that he should deserve. He deserves to be happy and at peace.

• 2:16:53Katie Jean?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:54Speaker 05

  You know, he served and he gave and I don't, I don't believe that our veterans are.

• 2:17:01Andrea Gallagher?

  Irreparable, or, you know, like, they are worth fighting for. Absolutely. And so I think as spouses, the more that we can stand up for them and the more that we can, you know, advocate for them in the future, it's going to be pretty powerful. So, yeah, I left that retreat and I'm like, they at the end of it kind of have you choose a new name. Yeah. And I'm like, a couple of years ago, I prayed just that, like, my word or my thing for the year was like a fire inside, and I had totally forgotten about it. And that fire was built through, basically, from 2015 on, I've been having 2020. Yeah.

• 2:17:42Andrea Gallagher?

  And so from 2015, I started to have this, like, it was like a real trial by fire and almost a refiner's fire that I forgot that I had said that a couple of years ago about fire inside. And then at the retreat, when I was like praying, and I told, I told them, I was like, my new name is going to be Girl on Fire. And so like now I've got this like whole Katniss, like, I'm coming for you, I'm coming for everybody, like, but in a good way, too. Absolutely. Like, you know, like, in the end, she steps into a role that she didn't necessarily know was going to come upon her, and then she builds her strength, and she trains, and

• 2:18:22Andrea Gallagher?

  she learns, and she, she ends up saving, you know, her people ultimately. And my people are, you know, Eddie and my kids and my family, and those are my immediate people, but I do hope it'll have a ripple effect of helping and supporting other people and other veterans and their spouses. So, yeah. Well, it sounds like you're already doing it. The ripple effect is in effect. I'm already on fire. I just need Lenny Kravitz to give me the batter wardrobe. Lenny, help me. Yeah. Yeah, rewatching that part, too. I had the kids watch it with me when I came back home because Eddie left to go do something else in Texas. And so, yeah, we rewatched it, and that scene where she's just like spinning with the fire, I was like, oh, one day. I love it. Yeah.

• 2:19:07Andrea Gallagher?

  Well, so how do people find Pipe Hitter Foundation and more about your book? What are some quick things they can look into? Okay, yeah, so everything is is all virtually online. You can connect with us. Eddie's account is just Eddie Gallagher on Instagram. I'm Andrea Gallagher on Instagram. We have all the stuff like kind of embedded in his link there, but we are going to be doing a website in 2021. So we're gonna kind of launch like all things Eddie Gallagher and affiliated. So we're excited about that. But the Pipe Hitter Foundation, our nonprofit, is linked under there. You can also find us on Instagram at Pipe Hitter Foundation. Okay. Or thepipehitterfoundation.org online in our website. If anyone is watching this and they realize they know someone that's in crisis, you can reach out.

• 2:19:52Andrea Gallagher?

  We have an application line, online form that they can fill out if they're a service member, police first responder, or a veteran, or a family member. Okay. And yeah, just in general, we're really excited about the book. The book website is eddigallagher.com. Again, we're gonna try to get this all in one place because it turns into a lot, like as you know, if you guys have different passions and stuff. So as we evolve, it'll be on theeddiegallagher.com. But right now, find us on Instagram, connect with us. We have a lot of good things going on. He has a lot of awesome partnerships and people that have come alongside of us that we we love working with. So we're kind of having fun working together. Great, yeah. Yeah, theeddigallagherbook.com is, right now, we're only doing pre-sale bundles,

• 2:20:37Andrea Gallagher?

  but eventually, everything will launch online. The book will finally get through DOD, God willing. And we'll have more information on publication and when you can buy it, but it'll be on Amazon and everywhere books are sold. Great. And all those links that you just said, we could put those in the description down below. Absolutely, yeah. And the book is called The Man in the Arena. So yeah, that's my final thought. With the infamous picture. The infamous picture. Yeah, which my face is like, it's not the critic who counts, because we were the ones that were in the arena. And so, yeah, that's how we live our life. We surround ourselves with people that, like you guys, amazing individuals out there, like making difference, doing good things, and haters gonna hate us. When I used to like T. Swift, I can't even say it anymore. She's so liberal.

• 2:21:20Andrea Gallagher?

  But you know, it's good. It's a good journey and it'll continue to evolve. But those are the fun things that we're doing. And then yeah, 2021 is going to focus on the books and then Eddie is working with another company. He's gonna, he's getting into some, uh, some guns, gun sales, gun kits and stuff. So some fun stuff, you know, guy stuff.

• 2:21:41Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:21:41Andrea Gallagher?

  You get wrapped up into this stuff and you're like, how did we get here?

• 2:21:45Speaker 05

  I ask myself that a lot. Yeah.

• 2:21:47Andrea Gallagher?

  Hey, but if it leads to gummy bears and guns, like we're doing something right.

• 2:21:51Speaker 05

  There's no other place I'd rather be than right here. So.

• 2:21:54Andrea Gallagher?

  Same.

• 2:21:55Speaker 05

  Well, all right. This has been really great.

• 2:21:57Andrea Gallagher?

  I know. So fun.

• 2:21:59Speaker 05

  So, um, yeah.

• 2:22:01Andrea Gallagher?

  Girl time.

• 2:22:03Speaker 05

  Let's wrap it. We got some robes to try on.

• 2:22:05Andrea Gallagher?

  Yes. We'll put those, everyone should see our robes. We'll put a picture.

• 2:22:10Speaker 05

  Okay, we could do a picture.

• 2:22:11Andrea Gallagher?

  We'll take a picture.

• 2:22:12Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 2:22:13Andrea Gallagher?

  So at the end of this, it's going to flash a picture of us looking fabulous.

• 2:22:19Speaker 05

  Cowboy out.

• 2:22:20Andrea Gallagher?

  We've really bonded.

• 2:22:21Speaker 05

  We have.

• 2:22:21Andrea Gallagher?

  In the course of a very short.

• 2:22:23Speaker 05

  I know.

• 2:22:24Andrea Gallagher?

  This is how it is though, if your husband, even if you weren't like a team spouse in the teams, like you are a team spouse. If you are married to a former Navy SEAL, we, we will get along.

• 2:22:35Speaker 05

  Yeah. I love it. Very, very cool. Thank you so much. This has been great.

• 2:22:40Andrea Gallagher?

  Awesome.

• 2:22:40Speaker 05

  All right. That's a wrap.

• 2:22:43Andrea Gallagher?

  Oh, that was so awesome.

• 2:22:47Andrea Gallagher?

  Tim's over here like, oh my gosh, I witnessed the girl bonding. Tears.

• 2:23:02Speaker 02

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