Military Manhood

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When only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com This is the Truth Network. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to the Man Up show. Yours truly, Nikita Kolov, your host, once the Russian Nightmare, now the Devil's Nightmare. Hey, I appreciate you tuning in each and every week, and today is special.

Anytime I have a military man on the line, one who serves his country, and in this particular case, 34 years of military service and counting. Don't go away. You're going to want to hear some of these stories today.

David Blagg, welcome to the Man Up show. Hey, Nikita. Good to be here. Well, great to have you with us, and of course, I do want to jump in and talk about the 34 years of military service. Thank you, by the way, for serving our country. I appreciate that. I appreciate your time today. But before we get there, let's just, for our listeners, talk a little bit more about David Blagg, and of course, you're currently in Virginia, is that right?

That's correct. Yeah, I live in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I've been out here for about a little over 20 years, yeah, about 23 years. Fredericksburg, Virginia. And of course, I know your family, man. You've got three kids, and I think you say your youngest is getting ready to graduate high schooled.

But before we get there, even, give us some back story. I don't think you're not from Virginia, correct? No, no, I'm from Indiana originally. I grew up born and raised in Indiana, born in Indianapolis, moved around a little bit just because Dad had different jobs. And my parents divorced when I was about five, so I lived with my mom, my brother and I. I lived with her for a few years in Ohio, and then we moved back to Indiana with our Dad.

And I was there until I graduated high school and into college. Yeah, Indiana University, is that right? Yep, go Hoosiers.

Go Hoosiers. In fact, I think there's just not long ago, a legendary coach from Indiana had just passed away somewhat recently, is that right? Yeah, Coach Knight, he passed away about a week ago, or a little over a week ago, and really sad time for the Hoosier base, fan base, but he's a really good coach.

Definitely going to miss him. Yeah, I know. A dear friend of mine played against one of his teams in the national championship. His name was Al Wood, played for University of North Carolina, defeated by Coach Knight and his team there that particular year. But I don't think that left sour grapes. Well, it might have left some sour grapes in Al's, you know, the taste in his mouth.

But anyway, I know Coach Knight had a legendary career there at Indiana University. Tell me about your three children. Yeah, so actually, I was married for a little over 17 years, currently going through divorce, unfortunately, but there's Jora, she's oldest, she's 26 now, then there's Dimitri, he's 24, then there's Aiden, 18. And I actually adopted Jora, but they're all my kids, raised them, so when you raise the kids, I don't even think of them not being biologically mine, right? They're my kids, I love them just like all of them, just the same. Now, let me ask you on that note, so what prompted you to adopt? Because, you know, there's actually my youngest daughter, Colby, and her husband, Andrew, are going through currently an adoption, they've just began an adoption process. And what prompted you or what put that desire in your heart to want to adopt? I think, well, one, I've always wanted to have kids.

When I was younger, I mean, I didn't obviously have kids until later on, I was in my 30s, and I'd always loved kids. I think that, you know, Jen and I, my soon-to-be ex, Jen, when we got together, just became really close with Jora, loved her immensely, and I'd asked, you know, if she'd be up for it. I asked Jen if it would be okay to adopt her, and then, you know, we had a few discussions about it, probably more than a few, and then we talked to Jora about it.

So, Jora was definitely on board, because her biological father was not involved in her life. And how old was Jora? Like, when you first met her, and or through that process of adoption, she was how old? So, when I met her, first, let me think about that, she was about five, she was five years old. And I'd say probably about, I don't know, three years later is when I adopted her. Okay.

Two years later, yep. And I know there's a lot of, you know, again, when I think about even my own daughter and walking through that process, I mean, there's a lot of kids out there, right, that would love, you know, to have a mom and a dad, love to have a family. And so, you know, you embrace her as your own, like you said, which is important, right? It's important for them to feel like they have, not only experience that love, but to feel like they're wanted and, you know, to be a part of the family, right?

Oh, yeah, definitely. I think that's what she wanted. I mean, the kids crave that, you see it. When they're that young, they need that love. They need that attention, too, right, from both parents. So, when you see today what's happening in our society, and I don't mean this in a negative way to anybody by any means, but kids need more of that. And things that I see, I mean, I guess we all see in today's society, but, you know, you have single-parent households, and one parent's trying to do all they can to, you know, put food on the table, close on kids' backs. And, you know, they don't have the time necessarily that the kids need, that time you spend with the kids every day, you know, help them grow up to be, you know, productive citizens every day. Now, is that a case for everybody? No, but I think we need more of it.

Sure. Yeah, I mean, the ultimate goal is to, you know, raise children to be, you know, in my view, responsible adults, right, and, you know, functional in society. And, you know, I have in my travels and all my experiences, you know, whether it's, you know, doing speaking in churches or I've done a lot of youth-type events, there was a season where I was doing a lot of school assemblies and, you know, hearing a lot of stories. Of course, similar to you, you know, I grew up raised by a single mom. It wasn't until much, much later in my life that my dad came back into my life, and that's a whole story of restoration where God brought a genuine restoration between my dad and I, you know, in his latter years and in my mid-40s. And I then once had, at that point, I had that father-son relationship, but certainly that is one of the things, in my view, too, lacking, especially in America, maybe worldwide, but especially in America is that encounter, that love and embrace and encounter from parents and just wanting to sow into and pour into and invest in their children.

No, no, I agree. That's, you know, I think it's, you know, me being involved in the kid's life in such an early age, it made a difference. I'm not trying to toot my own horn. It's just that father figure that you're there, you know, that, like you talked about, that helps them develop responsibility, you know, self-discipline, and it kind of gives them a, helps give them a track in life, I guess you could put it that way. Yeah, some purpose and intent, right? I mean, it's a purpose to their life, right?

And help to steer them in the right direction. Now, Jor, right? So you have three, did you adopt all three or just adopt her or? I just adopted her. I was wanting to adopt Dimitri, but that didn't work out because of other reasons, but like I said, and it's what's rewarding about that is, you know, even though we're going through this divorce, Dimitri had text me and said that, you know, you're always the dad that was there for me. So that meant a lot to me.

And it's a reward right there. He's doing okay. He's on track with, he's developing his career, so. That's cool.

Yeah. And Dimitri, so Dimitri sounds like a good Russian name there, David, just so you know. Where's, I'm not saying he's, what's the backstory on Dimitri?

Give me some backstory on Dimitri. So I'm not sure where Jen got, where she decided on his name. Okay.

I don't know that she ever told me that other than she just liked the name, I think. Okay. It is a cool name just for the record, so. No, I, yeah, I mean, I agree. Yeah, I like it too. So, all right. So, so. And Dimitri's very musically talented, so he actually went to Indiana as well and got his music degree, and his main instrument's clarinet, but he can play the piano, sax.

There's another two, one or two instruments that I know he can play, and the piano he self-taught, for the most part. Wow. That's a gift right there.

That is a gift. And so, so let me ask you, kind of shift gears a little bit on, on the military career. I mean, what, what prompted you to, I mean, you've spent 34 years in military service. What prompted that? Was there always that desire from, from a young boy growing up, or what, what led to that? I think initially, well, so in high school, I was actually wanting to play football in college, so that's where I actually went to IU and tried out and walked on for a little bit. But I think probably what prompted was, I needed direction, kind of just floating by and not really focused on maybe a possible career down the road, and I think that's what prompted me initially to do it. Plus my grandfather was a World War II veteran, my brother's army as well. I had a great uncle way back, World War, World War I timeframe, so there's some family history there as far as military service.

And I think that's probably what really pushed me more towards joining, and then helping with school too, from a financial standpoint. And like it, and follow today. Many people often ask me, is Nikita Koloff your real name? Well, I have news for you, now you can get the whole story on my audio book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, narrated in my own voice, bringing all perspective and insight into my whole life, including my redemption.

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You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Now, I'm not a military guy, but I know lots of people who are. It'll definitely do that, right? Set a foundation of stability in your life, right? Oh, it does, for sure. Discipline, right? Yeah, definitely self discipline, motivation. It gives you some direction or helps you to develop some sort of compass and direction you want to go.

So that's what it did for me. I obviously see today. Dimitri, he's actually serving in the Illinois National Guard now and my youngest, Aiden, he actually joined the Virginia Guard as well this past summer. He was 17, but he wanted to join, so his mom and I signed a piece of paper that allowed him to go to basic training. So he went to basic training this past summer, finished, and then he's finishing up his senior year of high school, and then he'll go to college next fall. That's amazing. So multi-generational military service there for your family. Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool to hear that. And you're currently in the Virginia National Guard as well, right?

Yeah, that's correct. I've been in since 2004. Once I got off active duty, I went to the Virginia Guard. It was called at the time data processing. It was basically information technology, what we call the Signal Corps. It's part of the Signal Corps in the Army, dealing with a lot of different types of communication. Because you're in, you also work in the cybersecurity field, right?

That's correct, yeah. So on the Guard side, I'm what they call a cyber warfare technician. And then on the data side, I work as a cybersecurity risk analyst slash engineer. So I do a lot of site assessments, see how well people are maintaining their systems from a security standpoint and posture. And is that related to, I mean, so is that, I guess what I would call more of a, like a secular job type thing, like for a company, or is that also for the military? Yeah, I work for a company.

We support the military agency, but yeah, the civilian side, it's a purely civilian company, privately owned. Gotcha. Okay. And you've been, how long have you been in that field then? A long time.

Yeah, probably, I'm trying to think here, it's at least 2006. Okay. So for quite some time. Now, we met recently, and you talked about, certainly we talked about your family, talked about the marriage struggles. And of course, your story is not unlike many others, honestly, right? And we talked, whether it be in single family homes or just the struggles of marriage and what it entails. And a while ago, you came down to Georgia, you attended a man camp. I know it was recommended, we had met, I've been up to your church there, Montclair Tabernacle, right, Pastor Brad Lewis, Gary Carruthers, Tom Stewart, and others that really kind of connected us together and encouraged you, right, to come down to man camp, right?

Oh yeah, Tom Stewart was a big player in that. So he talked to me, it's been a couple years that he'd been trying, I think at least two years, trying to get me to come down. But because of scheduling, I couldn't make it. I tried to do it last April, but because of my guard commitment, I couldn't do it. And then this last October, I was able to make it. I wasn't able to stay the whole time just because of the guard, but I thoroughly loved every minute of it. The experience itself was a good watershed for me in my life. I know when I left, I was more at peace.

I'll just put it that way, and it gave me a different perspective in looking at life and looking at the Bible and reading it and applying it to my life each day. And that's the hope when we do these camps. And of course, I've done it several times up there at Montclair, the Man Up conference.

We're going to shift gears slightly and do a little bit different the next one we do, where we're going to do more of an evening, kind of a dinner-type function as opposed to an all-day conference. But part of the goal, part of the vision when the Lord gave Lex Luger and I the idea of these conferences in these manned camps was to provide an opportunity for guys to get away from the routine of life and get away from what they might normally be used to. You might say, get outside their own village or get outside even their comfort zone and just unplug in a sense or just disconnect from all the outside influences to be able to center their focus on their relationship with the Lord. And then while they're at camp, empower them, you might say, equip them to go back home with the tools necessary to be that godly man, a godly husband, a godly father, and in some cases, a godly grandfather. Now on your particular camp, we had a guy that you connected with from Ohio who had also been a military guy, right? Green Beret, Special Forces, Silver Star recipient.

Were you guys able to connect at camp? Oh yeah, Chad. Chad's a great guy. I just love listening to him, his story, learning about his family, the struggles in his life, and how he's turned more to God and his everyday life and how he applies it.

I had a text message from him recently where he was talking about, he was spending Veterans Day with his daughter, who was also a veteran, and he did a, I think it was for his grandson, they did a school Veterans Day type event, and he was able to go in and, I guess, share basically his story with the kids. And I thought that was tremendous, and I loved hearing it. Well, and I think what's significant in his story, and I always find it fascinating how the Lord, who the Lord brings to man camp, right? And you with your military background, Chad with his military background, and I remember the opening day, you talked about his story, him saying, 71 years old, my desire and why I'm here is I want to be equipped to go back home and be that patriarch of my family, to be that Godly man, and model that for my children, and of course, for his grandchildren as well. And so regardless, you're listening out there and to David's story today, and I hope one of the things you're taking away is no matter what the struggles are in life, because we're going to struggle in life.

We're going to, Jesus himself said, in this life, you're going to have trouble, right? And so whether it's struggling in marriage, or the raising of kids, or just in life in general, one of the things, perhaps, especially if you're a guy out there listening, or maybe you're a wife, of course, we get a lot of women listening to the show. We had a mother who encouraged her son, David, to come to man camp and just wanted him to be equipped and empowered to be a Godly man.

So you're listening out there. I want to encourage you to consider, consider, Lex and I do these camps every spring and every fall, typically in April and October. And maybe it's something that the Lord might direct you to, lead you to go to mancamp.info, mancamp.info, and be sure to check that out.

You can message me right through the website if you have any questions. We have scholarships available, especially if you're in the military, like David or Chad. We have special, or you just wear the uniform.

You're an EMS, you're a police officer, you're in the sheriff's department. We want to honor all of you that put the uniform on, and so we have special scholarships just for you to be able to come and attend camp and schedule that time away so we can just minister to you and bless you. What would you say, David, was perhaps one of the, if you can think for a moment, one of the biggest, maybe the biggest takeaways, you know, that you experienced at camp? I think the biggest, like our devotional times that we would have in the mornings, I always look forward to those and just going out and sitting in the woods and just taking it in and what, you know, the message God was trying to send that day. And it's just, you're such at peace, right?

Just the sounds of the woods, you know, birds, whatever it might have been, breeze, going through the trees. It's just so relaxing and it really allowed you to focus more on you and your relationship with God as we're, you know, as we're reading or doing our daily diary type thing. So, and those are the things that I probably take away the most that I try to apply back here where I'm, you know, back in the thick of things.

I'm going to get it wrong, it's hard, but it goes back to that self-discipline of really making that more of a priority in your life. And that's what I'm trying to do, because it allows me to focus more, to maybe understand what the Bible is saying to me, you know, to read it and really understand it. You know, I might have to do that three or four times, but I'm trying to get it and understand it and what God is trying to tell us. And you bring up a very valid point and that is one of the things, one of our goals and, you know, the way we set camp up is to be able to organize it or, you know, to where, again, like that, the guy can go, okay, I haven't really had this set structured time back home prior to coming to camp and when I go back home, that's something I definitely want to implement into my life is make sure. And, you know, it doesn't have to be an entire morning, I mean, it can be, you know, 10, 15 minutes, it can be five minutes, you know, just, but I want to encourage you out there listening, you know, that if you don't have that quiet, I'll just call it quiet time. You know, maybe starting your day, you know, with some time alone with the Lord, whether it's five, 10, 15 minutes, maybe it's an hour, but, you know, however much time you can prioritize, set that aside.

You know, take, let that be your takeaway, one of your takeaways today from David's story. And, well, David, you know, I certainly, one, appreciate you being on the show today and sharing some of your story and appreciate, again, your service to, you know, 34 years to the military. You have an exit strategy, I think a couple, three, maybe two, three more years and then retire from the military? Yeah, I have about three years left and then I'll hang it up, you know, service to the country. So I have one more, I had a goal that I wanted to achieve and I reached it as far as my last rank and I was able to get that this year. So I'll serve about another three years and then call it a day. That's awesome. You reached a milestone, reached a goal and that can be a whole show in and of itself. And are you a goal setter out there?

If you're not a goal setter, can I just encourage you to consider setting goals and then working towards those goals until you achieve them. And so, David Blagg, we're going to hold you up, keep you in prayer, you and your family and the God's protection and covering over you and all that you're doing for the kingdom, even out there in the marketplace and as you model the Lord for your children. And so thank you for being on the show today. Thanks, Nikita. It was great being here.

We really enjoyed it. Well, and I appreciate you making that commitment and coming down to camp and I look forward to hearing more stories in the future of how things you learned at camp beyond morning devotionals, how it's impacting your life and the life of those around you. And I want to thank all of you each and every week you're so faithful to tune in and dial into the Man Up show and help spread the word, get the word out there that the Man Up show is making a difference through all these stories that you hear week in and week out and go out today and just live a God-filled, God-blessed life. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Kolov.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Kolov. Be sure to check out the Man Up show now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Kolov here.

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