Urban Valor: the podcast
Welcome to Urban Valor, where we hear the stories of our veteran heroes in their own words. Within these vet interviews, you'll hear everything from combat stories, life stories pre/post military, military transition, and everything in between. Our interviews aren't just war stories or combat veteran interviews, but interviews from any military veteran willing to share. Our mission is to educate the masses with what military veterans go through while serving their country and how life has been since their military transition back to civilian life. Join our cause, online community, and show your support for Urban Valor at https://urbanvalor.com
Urban Valor: the podcast
Marine Remembers Blast That Left His Friend Dismembered
This week on Urban Valor, we sat down with Marine veteran Ernesto Menjivar. A man who watched his brother lose both legs to an IED right in front of him. Ernesto was 19 years old when he first hit the ground in Afghanistan, assigned to one of the most IED-infested regions in Helmand Province. The firefights came fast. The first one he was ever in, RPGs were flying over his head, and the next minute they were sweeping for pressure plates in the dirt, praying one of them wouldn’t go off.
But then it did.
His brother, Langston White, stepped on an IED while on patrol, and Ernesto was just feet away. The way he describes that moment — the sound, the dust, the blood, the moment they locked eyes — it’ll sit with you. Langston survived but lost both legs. And that was just one chapter of what became a brutal deployment. Ernesto talks about the emotional toll of trying to stay mission-ready after something like that, the Marines he lost during Operation Deuces Wild, and how that experience changed him forever.
Now years removed from combat, he opens up about the PTSD, the dreams, the random moments where he sees civilians missing limbs and flashes back to war. But he also shares what’s helped him — therapy, music, painting, his faith — and how he’s still working through it. This isn’t a sanitized version of war. It’s the real cost. The kind of story that shows what combat veterans carry with them long after the fighting stops.
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Video Chapters:
00:00 - Intro: War Outside - War Inside
01:07 Recruitment & Bootcamp
08:31 Deployment & Military Life
40:11 Beyond the Battlefield
49:23 Share Your Story
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