Scott DeLuzio:    00:00:03    Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast, where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I’d like to ask a favor if you haven’t done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. If you’ve already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience. And while you’re there click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes as soon as they come out. If you don’t use Apple podcasts, you can visit Driveonpodcast.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email list. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.  

Scott DeLuzio:    00:00:44    Hey everybody. Today, my guest is Josh Mach. Josh actually lives in the same neighborhood as I do. And we got together from a connection on a neighborhood group. He is also a Veteran and he’s starting up a podcast, Make Veterans Great Again, kind of play on words with the make America great again; but it’s a podcast geared towards the mental health of Veterans. And so, I thought it was a great opportunity to get together with him, chat with him, see what he’s up to and find out the type of stuff that he’s into doing, with his podcast. So Josh, let me turn it over to you. Introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself and we can go from there.

Josh Mach:  00:01:36    Thanks for having me on, my name’s Josh Mach. I spent four years in the Marine Corps as a combat engineer. I honestly didn’t get a chance to deploy and do all that gun shit that we signed up for. So, I felt like I needed to help out in a way. And I didn’t know, and I’m not going to lie, I felt lost when I got out. And as I was telling you earlier, I got tagged in to doing the 22-pushup challenge about three months ago, and I still haven’t done it. But then the next day I saw a buddy that posted a meme saying, pick up the phone or stop doing your pushups and pick up the fucking phone and call your buddies. And I was like, okay. So, I came up with this idea where I’ll just do a podcast and I’ll just call and reach out to different veterans.  

Josh Mach:  00:02:14    And it’s not really scripted. We just talk and see how each other’s doing. And my mission is to reach out to fellow brothers and sisters in arms to conquer our mental health together. 

Scott DeLuzio:  And that’s a great, great mission, a great idea that you have to just do what we all should be doing, pick up the phone and talk to each other; we served together with. We went through some hard times together and then you come home and you lose contact and you don’t pick up the phone and talk with each other very often and it seems to be a common thing. And then when something does happen, you end up having that kind of guilt, like, Oh, why didn’t I pick up the phone? You know, absolutely. It’s an easy thing to do, you know, it’s, it’s easy to just pick it up and make a call. Right.  

Josh Mach:   00:03:02    It was easier to be next to that person while we were in, because you were forced to be their family. You were forced to see them every day, whether you wanted to or not. Right. So, when time dissipates and you guys separate, like neither person wants to pick up the phone because they feel like, well, they’re not calling me. Well, they’re not calling me. Well, it doesn’t fucking matter. Just pick up the phone. 

Scott DeLuzio:  Exactly. 

Josh Mach: They’re going to answer, and they’re going to talk to you like, you guys just s...