Byron Rodgers: The IED That Killed Him & His Conversation with God | AJ Buckley Show

AJ Buckley Show

On this episode of The AJ Buckley Show, host AJ Buckley welcomes Byron Rodgers, a Marine Corps veteran and former high-profile protector, who shares his

Key takeaways

• Byron Rodgers experienced a near-death event during an IED explosion in Iraq, where he claims to have left his body and had a spiritual conversation with God that transformed his worldview.
• His early life between the Bahamas and Washington State fostered self-reliance, adaptability, and resilience from a young age.

Main topics

• Near-death experience during an IED explosion
• Spiritual awakening at age five

Notable quotes

"I think I died. Like, I'm dead. And that's right when I hit that realization, the deepest sorrow just exploded from the center of my being."

"At five years old, I heard God's voice for the first time… and it saved my family from an assassination attempt."

Conclusion

Byron Rodgers' journey from a young boy with divine encounters to a Marine Corps veteran and spiritual leader exemplifies

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) I think I died. Like, I think I think I died. Like, I'm dead. And that's right when I hit that realization, the deepest sorrow just exploded from the center of my being. And I started to realize, like, oh, my gosh, like, I'm a pile of guts on the floor in Iraq. And I just started to, like, just lament and apologize. My next guest, Mr. Byron Rogers. A kid from Bahamas, raised in Washington State. Out of high school, he joined the Marine Corps Infantry, and that sent him to Iraq, twice. When he got out, he was bussing tables until a man watched him work and told him, hey, go get two permits and call me. Three months later, he was 21 years old, on one of the most traveled protection details in the country. Seven years, private jets, 60 countries. Today, he runs his own company and teaches protectors how to do... Speaker 1 (0:52) What he did. And there's a reason we're all sitting down today. Byron got hit in Iraq and he says he was dead. He said he was outside of his own body watching it happen. And what he told me he saw, I have not stopped thinking about since. Please welcome to the show, Byron Rogers. Speaker 1 (1:13) Byron Rogers, welcome to the AJ Buckley Show. It is an absolute honor to have you on here. And as we were talking in the pre-show, we figured out where we first met, and that was at Core Medical, at their event. So what a great group of people it is. I always have to give props to Sidney. He is great at many, many things. And he is, that's 100% with some... Absolute studs that you meet through him. He just puts so many great guys in the room together and does a lot for the veteran community, which is, I think he's one of my, he's become one of my favorite people. And he's just a guy you can always count on. So welcome to the show, brother. Hey, it's an honor, man. Shout out to Sidney. So much love and respect though for what he does. And I'm glad we're finally able to pull this thing off, man. I know. Well, I always find it so fascinating too when, you know, you, you, Speaker 1 (2:09) I start researching, going through, you know, finding, you know, people's journeys in life and what they've been on. And trust me, I've, I've started interviews with people before and the internet's full of shit sometimes. So it's like, it's like, like, I didn't do that. I was like, all right, well, it sounded cool. But, um, I, so I read that you were born, uh, in the Bahamas and you, and you grew up in Washington state. So you'd summers on the island with your father spearfishing. And then winters were with your, Your mother in Washington. Yes. You call it the hybrid situation. Now, what does it do to a kid having two homes in two different countries? Speaker 1 (2:50) I think it really depends on like the flexibility of the kid, you know? Yeah. Because we all have this, we all have this seat, you know, of, I don't know, like our psychology that everything comes out of, you know? So for me, it just built in a lot of self-reliance and it built in. um a lot of dexterity right so like in the bahamas i you know i was the american kid you know and in the bahama on the island they straight up with you you know fat boy hey fat boy come here and i remember being like who is she talking about i got a crush on this little girl like what's going on you know she's like yeah you you with the red shirt fat boy you know and i'm like oh my guess i had to fight all the little bahamian kids you know and then in in the u.s like it was completely different sometimes when i was in des moines washington it was all samoan so i had to like Speaker 1 (3:38) earn my trash with them because they're all super physical and I play football. They're big boys. They're big boys. Yeah. Big boys. They're fast. It's very rare you meet a small, it's very rare you meet a small Simone. And if you do, it's because they're five and that's it. Yeah. And that's it. Even the, even the women, man, I had a woman, one of the girls roll up on me once and she's like, you look uncomfortable. And I was like, I am uncomfortable. But, um, you know, but I love them. Great people. They can sing, which is, which was kind of caught me off guard. Speaker 1 (4:07) But so it really built a lot of self-reliance because I was traveling coast to coast by myself on the plane and, you know, spearfishing by myself in the day. My dad would be at work and I'd just be out in the ocean, you know. And then I come back to Washington. Then I went to like an all-white school and I was the only black kid, which was kind of awesome to be honest. I started falling in love with all the pumpkin spice lattes. And everyone's like, dude, she's so basic. I'm like, she's exotic. Speaker 1 (4:38) That's so funny. I read, I read that. I was looking up, um, that you said that somewhere inside your childhood that you already at a young age at five years old, you knew exactly who you were. Take me to that. Well, I, I had, you know, I was just so blessed as a young man that my mom at a young age, she said, you know, your father's not here. So your heavenly father is going to be your father. And she was like, you need lunch money. You need whatever. You better start working it out with your father in heaven. You need to know what kind of man you need to be. You need to go to your father in heaven. Speaker 1 (5:14) At a young age, I got in the habit of just being like, Father, I don't know what I'm going to do. Like, can you please help me? You know, I want to be cool like my friends. I don't have money for this. And I really want to go to this school. And we don't have money for this school. You know, and I would pray about it. And then like, you know, some donor or the pastor or someone would pay my tuition. And so I started to really realize that, you know, like God was with me. And then I had some experiences, which we may get into when I was. Speaker 1 (5:40) I think about five where, you know, I was like the first time I really heard God's voice and saved my family from an assassination attack and all this kind of stuff. So at a young age, I started being like, wow, like God's real, God's with me. And, you know, if I would use the vernacular I've learned now, I would say that my priesthood kind of started back then because I really didn't have anyone except for like my God and my mom and dad were switching seats all the time. Yeah. So at an early age, I mean, it's so like, because I, at a young age, I don't even know what I was thinking at five, like, you know, but to actually comprehend of like, that God was speaking to you, or that you could feel what is it in a sense, like, Speaker 1 (6:30) Because now my journey back to my, through my faith, which has been, been in the last two years, I, I, I was brought back to church and it's, it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. Um, but it's some, I like, I've got to really quiet the noise to try and hear what it is. And that's through my own discipline of trying to. less on the phone and more outside and you know go for walks with no technology and like just sort of you know or go to church and and and really try to understand what it is that is but it's it's it's I struggle with it sometimes so at five to be able to know directly you know what what was it that you you felt that was different that you're like no I mean I feel like I'm being spoken to right now Speaker 1 (7:16) You know, one thing I would say that I think is interesting is I didn't feel like I fit in at church, right? So, you know, church was a very interesting thing for me. My mom always tried to give me like church role models. And I had this warrior ethos even as a young man, which obviously I got from my father. He's a hardcore warrior, dude. Got a shot at Point Lake Range when I was a kid, survived. That's another story. With a shotgun. With a shotgun. I'm going to help you out really quick. Take my advice right now. Go to GhostBed.com forward slash Buckley. Code word Buckley. Type that in, get 10% off, and get the best sleep of your life. Here at the AG Buckley Show, we just started working with a company called Cortrex. Cortrex is an e-commerce team out of Walmart's backyard that takes brands from launch to millions a month. It is a risk-free guarantee. Speaker 1 (8:07) You want to book a strategy call with these guys? I highly recommend it. Go to coretrex.com. That's C-O-R-E-T-R-E-X.com. These guys are the game changer. Yeah, no worries. So yeah, my dad's like a super hardcore warrior kind of guy. So I had that ethos. And so that was tough for me in the American church because there's all these nice guys in there. And I was just like, I don't know if I can like. Speaker 1 (8:34) you know, I can learn Bible verses from you guys, but like, I don't know if I'm going to be one of you when I grow up. So there's that conversation. But for me, you know, and so that pushed me more into relationship, like, like father, what do you have for me to do? Like as a young warrior, you know, like I'm looking at these dudes that don't have calluses that I'm supposed to want to be like, I don't want, and I was kind of sad, pushed me in that direction. But when it came to hearing God's voice, when I was so young, the reality was. when it comes to your imagination and reality, I just didn't really have much of a, there is no strong veil between the two. So when someone's like, you could talk to God and he's going to help you. I was like, cool. Like just pray. All right. Just pray. And then I was also, this is a very interesting component. Speaker 1 (9:23) I was really saturated with the word of God and revelation when I was young. So my mom forced me, and this is even after the whole hearing from God and assassination attempt thing. My mom forced me to watch four televangelists every single morning on TBN while before school. So that's when I started working out. So I'm like doing pushups and sit-ups. trying to deal with the frustration of listening to these people all morning. Then I go to school. And it's a Christian school. So first course is chapel. You start with chapel and you got Bible class. Speaker 1 (10:01) And then we went to church three times on Sunday because you got that night service in. And then we went on Wednesday. And then we went to choir practice on Thursday. And then Saturday was youth service just to make sure you didn't do anything too fun. So I was saturated. Yeah, baby. And then it's a miracle it didn't ruin me, right? But that's because I was able to get past religion and get into a relationship with Christ. But I was saturated in revelation. So it wasn't like sit there and read your Bible. It was like, you know, this, whoever's preaching, there's an ultra developed individual who has distilled the word of God and is now just sending it to me as if it's a reality. So I'm, um, so, and, and I think that really played a big part in, uh, the maturity that I was able to have as such a young man. Cause I was, I mean, four sermons a day before I started my elementary school day. Speaker 1 (10:54) Yeah. Whether you like it or not. That's over training in a sense. In a sense, it's like it's to the point where like, you know, I mean, there's so much to learn within it, you know, and I've got to move sort of at my speed because it just, there's so much. there's so much to download and I'm constantly and I'm like oh actually that's not what it meant this is what and then I think it means something then it keeps changing like actually this is what it means so not to change the subject there but you'd mentioned this assassination attempt and you heard something or what can you talk about that yeah for sure man so you know coming out of that hyper spiritual type of childhood my frame of reference and my whole paradigm was shaped by these mighty men of god that are talking like normal about you know the exploits of christ in their life and teaching you know really chewy doctrine so Speaker 1 (11:50) um i'm in the bahamas i'm like four years old i'm about to go to sleep on the couch and this is before my dad made any money but dad's a businessman and he ended up making doing all right right but this was before all that we're living in like the shantytown you know there's roosters outside and gangs and you know it's like you know it's like somebody probably going on a missions trip too and um you know i uh Speaker 1 (12:14) I'm getting ready to go to bed and the air condition's blasting. I got the TV on, visiting my dad for the summer. I'm out there on the couch by myself with my big sister. And I start to doze off. And I'm like, I remember making the conscious decision, like, I'm just going to sleep out here. This is cozy. You can get a blanket. And I start to curl up and go to bed. And then I just, I get, I feel this, this, this pressure, this pressing that's like go in your dad's room. And I'm like, no. Speaker 1 (12:42) Yeah. I'm going to do what I want. It's not like a text by an angel story. You know, I'm a human and I was comfortable. I was like, I'm comfortable. And then they came back almost like a voice. Like I didn't hear a voice, but I heard of like, I, it was what they call a similitude. Like it was like, this has happened to me four times over the course of my life. Every, every time it was a very important moment. Iraq, like these super important moments in my life. And. Speaker 1 (13:10) And I remember being like, I argued with it. And I was like, hey, I'm comfortable. I'm going to sleep out here. And I just went back to sleep. And I remember the story of Eli and the temple, you know, and the voice of God calling him in the night. And I just learned it in Sunday school. And I remember being like, hmm, well, maybe this is God, you know. And the next time the voice came back, I was like, fine. And I said, if you're not going to let me sleep out here, I'm going in my dad's room. Okay, fine. I'll go in my dad's room. So I go in my dad's room. Speaker 1 (13:39) And, um, and I, the spirit of God comes back to me and is like, go get your sister. And I'm like, Hey, you're supposed to know everything. If you know everything, you know, I can't get my sister. She's my big sister. And my big sister's like, we, my teeth, a status, like going to beat me up. Like, it's going to be bad, dude. So I'm like, you're just, you know, like you're supposed to, if you know everything, you know, I can't get her. And, uh, and then I hear like. Speaker 1 (14:03) Just go in the living room and I'll tell you what to do. I'm like, okay. So I go in the living room. Before I can say anything, I get the download that's like, grab her blankets, run in the room. Because the air condition is piping. So if I snatch her blankets and run in the room really quick, she's going to get cold. She's going to come in. So I snatch her blankets. I run in the room. Lay down. A few minutes. She comes in. Smacks me around. Takes all the blankets. Lays on the floor next to me. And now I'm sitting here. I'm cold. And I like get up underneath like the little kind of little bit of the blankets as I can. Speaker 1 (14:32) And I'm listening. And the last instruction was lock the door. So I'm like, okay, I locked the door. And then I sit there and I'm like, is there anything else? And it's just quiet. Now I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go to bed. And I, and I, and I go over there. I crawl underneath the little blanket. Me and my sister are sleeping back to back on the floor. And I, I go to sleep. And then all of a sudden I'm woken up again. And this time. I don't even get a feeling like I'm going to hear anything. It's just like, wake up. And I wake up and I'm just looking around my room and I'm trying to like, why am I awake? Like, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you need for me? And, um, all of a sudden I start to hear this scratching, this like rattling, clicking noise. Speaker 1 (15:19) And I'm looking around and I'm like, is there a mouse in here? Like maybe there's a mouse like eating its way through the wall or something. So I'm like looking at the seam of the room and I remember crawling up on the bed to look at the vent to see if like a rat was coming through the vent. And I hopped down and then I look in front of me and I'm doorknob height and the doorknob's just sitting there rattling in front of me. And I'm just that boogeyman fear comes over me, man. And I just remember being like. I have to move. I have to move. I have to move. I have to move. And I kind of snap out of it. Now my dad snores like a chainsaw, right? So he's snoring. I'm like the ceiling fan is like grating. Like this dude's ripping. Speaker 1 (16:01) And sure enough, like I and I remember and, you know, if I'm wrong, my dad's I'm a ketchup whooping. So I'm like, this is high stakes waking dad up like I got to be right. But the doorknob is shaking and someone's trying to get in the room. Someone's trying to pick the lock in real time. And so I'm like, dad, dad, dad, you know, someone's trying to get in the room and he stops the door and they stop. And I'm just like, I'm going to just get a whooping now. I'm like, yeah, they were trying to sneak in. When you stop snoring, they stop. There's someone outside the door. And he's like, son, get my shotgun. And right underneath the crib, I knew his shot. He was under there. I grabbed his pistol grip shotgun, handed it to him. He racks around. And you hear a