Interview #63: John Kriesel
Iraq War Veteran, former MN State legislator and Twins fan who's Still Standing
John Kriesel is a veteran, legislator, radio personality, motivational speaker, golfer and huge sports fan, especially of any team in Minnesota. Although he’s currently in a complicated relationship with his hometown Twins and their owners, the Pohlad family, he agreed to talk about baseball with me, since at least that won’t put an extra penny in their pockets.
He enlisted in the military before he graduated high school, serving in multiple operations before and after 9/11. John was deployed to Iraq, where in 2006 he had to get up in the middle of the night to watch the Twins get swept by the A’s in the ALDS. Three months later, he was severely wounded in a roadside bomb blast that killed two of his best friends and resulted in numerous injuries, including having both lower legs amputated.
He fought to walk again and just a few years later was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in an upset victory. He also is now a two-time ceremonial first pitch thrower, plus a director of veteran’s services for a county in the state. He’s not only an inspirational story of how to turn adversity into a strength, he’s also a lot of fun to talk to; funny, smart and confident. There’s a load of interesting answers below.
You can find more about John on his website www.johnkriesel.com, including information about booking him for speaking engagements. He also has a book titled Still Standing, which covers his service, injury and recovery. He is also appears on a radio show at KFAN Minneapolis and can be found on Twitter @johnkriesel.
The State of the Twins
You're a native Minnesotan, right?
Yes, born and raised.
Twins fan then?
I'm on a little bit of a strike against the Pohlad family because of their lack of spending. I love the Twins. I absolutely love them... Those are some of the worst owners in all of sports. They just are. The original owner, their father Carl Pohlad, was known to be a penny pincher, tried to contract the team in the early 2000s, so that upset a lot of people. They end up making a decent run in the early 2000s because of a good farm system. Torii Hunter. Cristian Guzman. He passes on, they get the new stadium. The sons take over and the sons fund their private endeavors with the team.
I was happy to see that they're trying to sell the team starting last year. But no one wants to buy them because they have over $400million in debt, allegedly, and it's because the kids have borrowed against the team. I love the Twins, probably my second favorite team behind the Vikings. Of course (in 2023) they make a nice run, they win their first playoff game, the last time they'd won a playoff game was when I had legs, which was a long time ago. And they cut payroll by $30million the next year. So that's why you don't see me talking about the Twins. I watch them, but I won't talk about them. I won't give them the time of day. Most people on our radio station that I appear on don't really talk much Twins because of that. It's frustrating.
I get that feeling from other people in Minnesota. They're all fed up. I know the Vikings are king, and I wish them the best.
Is it a baseball state?
Absolutely. Everyone here is chomping at the bit. That season, two years ago, was so fun. Target Field is an awesome ballpark. The vibe is great when the team is good. Right now they're OK, they're treading water. They had a 12- or 13-game winning streak and they're still 5 or 6 back of the division lead. They've definitely taken a backseat to the Wolves as being the runner up in the market for eyes.
I’ve been to Target Field and the Metrodome. The Metrodome felt like a blue-collar kind of place and now some say Target Field is too expensive to go to many Twins games. What’s the vibe like between the two stadiums?
It's quite expensive. They've now tried to lower it, ‘cause attendance for a good chunk of this year has been bad. I think people are fed up with the team. I'm proud of the fans in this market. I think for too long, and there's that “Minnesota nice”, people think that everyone here is “Minnesota nice”, it's more of a passive aggressive thing. For a long time it was just like, hey, we just want to see them try. We just want to see good effort and a good ballgame. That's what I love about going to a baseball game. You don't have to sit there and stare at it. It's not stressful. You can go there, enjoy the weather, have a few beers, chat with who's next to you, watch the game. It definitely is different from the Metrodome, and it should be. The Metrodome was a dump. It was our dump, so we liked it, but that thing was depressing.
Minnesota, contrary to popular belief, from May to mid- to late-October, beautiful weather. It's great that we have a full outdoor ballpark. With that, naturally prices go up. They were drawing really well for a long time, and again, that that season two years ago, everybody was so close. But cutting payroll sent a message to the fans what the real priorities of the ownership is. People have just gotten fed up. We just want new owners.
What are some of your favorite Twins memories? You would’ve been pretty young for their World Series wins.
So ’87, I barely remember. ’91, I remember the parade and the whole deal. I grew up in a football family, but I loved baseball. My dad would take me to Twins games and we'd go with our baseball team. Fond memories of that. And of course, that's the last championship, this market has had. The Twins got good again in in 2002, when they went to the ALCS against the Angels.
Yeah, Moneyball days.
Yep, Pierzynski hit that bomb that ended it. I think that might have been in the movie, too. They had a good run there for a few years. They were good until 2010. Moved into Target Field in 2010, took a minute for them to get back up and running, but then they were in the mix again. The Yankees always just were the dream killer for the twins.
In Iraq, the 2006 season, they absolutely were set up to make a run. Liriano and Santana. But in the playoffs, they should have crushed the A's. I think they got swept. But waking up in Iraq in the middle of the night to go watch these games was something to distract you from the dangers of war… and then the reminder that it's Minnesota sports, so it's never going to go well.
Did you play a lot of sports growing up? What was your sport?
Baseball was my sport growing up. I played baseball. I didn't play in high school because I joined the military when I was 17. And the year before, I was kind of prepping to join the military. I didn't play at a high level. I played Little League. It was fun. I love it. I mean it was America's sport for a long time.
What did you like about playing baseball opposed to other sports growing up?
I mean, all of it. Baseball is baseball. You're out there with your best buddies. And we had it by neighborhood, so it was people from my area and we are all buddies growing up. So then our parents are hanging and you're playing against people from other communities. Beautiful weather and again, our weather here, beautiful from May to October, but compared to other places, that's a short window. It's fun being outside, soaking up the sunshine with some of your best buddies. And it is one of the few sports you can easily grab a bunch of people, boys or girls, and get a neighborhood game going at the park. I mean, my sister wasn't going to be playing tackle football with the crew.
I do remember that 2002 Pierzynski homer well. I was a 16-year-old washing range balls at the golf course I worked at on a Sunday afternoon while my dad, brother and friends were at the game. My dad said working was more important than Game 5, so I got to listen to it on the radio, and it wasn’t fun. Now I’ve interviewed 4 Minnesota people who speak of that game fondly, so at least someone enjoyed that play.
Military Service
You knew that early that you were going into the military?
Yeah. When I was 10 years old, when I saw the first Gulf War on TV, I said that if I can get paid to do that, if that can be my career, count me in. So I joined on my 17th birthday. My mom had to sign. I joined the Minnesota National Guard. My plan was that if I loved it, I could go active duty from National Guard. But if you join active duty and you don't love it, you want to just do the one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year, you can't downgrade until your active duty contract’s up. Not super different from going from the minors to the majors. But then 9/11 happened. I didn't have to join active duty. We were getting deployed. We got deployed pretty quick after, and then again to Iraq.
So that would have been late 90s you joined?
Yep, ‘98.
So you had three years and then things changed.
Then it took a turn. I did basic training the summer between my junior and senior year in high school. After graduation, I had to go back down to Fort Benning to do my job training as an infantryman. And then after, it's the fall of 2000, starting college, going to work full time. I had school part time, work part time. Switched to full time, dropped out of school. And then that fall, I had just started a brand new job at an ink manufacturing facility, I’d been there a week and a half when 9/11 hit. And then things got real.
So it the was National Guard. You can be activated to federal active duty. And so we were put on alert. We didn't end up going because our active duty military is amazing and they're always ready to go. They sent them, they handled it. But as active duty got pulled to Iraq and Afghanistan, active duty was busy. So they took reserve components and started using them for other contingency operations. We first got deployed to Kosovo in support of Operation Joint Guardian to keep the peace there. Once we got back from that, two or three months later we heard about the deployment to Iraq.
Since we hadn't been back long enough, they couldn't force us to go because you have to be home at least a year before they can send you somewhere else. But a bunch of us that had been in Kosovo, we had been in the chow hall seeing the news stories every day, our brothers and sisters in harm's way on the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan, coming home either wounded or killed. We felt guilty and we talked about how that's where we should be. When we got back and heard about the Iraq deployment, a bunch of us went down and signed the waiver so we would be able to be a part of that deployment.
You got hurt in 2006?
Yep, December 2, 2006.
That's wild. Whenever I think about people, especially the military, deployed and in danger, and I know where I was on 12/2/06: I was in college trying to pass International Marketing 303 class, and you are on the other side of the world doing things that make it so a class presentation is all I have to worry about.
That's part of the deal, though. But this truly was my dream. This is what I wanted to do since I was a kid. And I got to do it. I got to go and serve in a war with some of my best friends. Unfortunately, three of them didn't come back. I came back missing legs from a bomb blast, but obviously those are the things you can't really change. It forces perspective on you. That's why every day I wake up, I'm thankful to be alive. I'm thankful I remember what happened; the bomb going off, being blown from the vehicle, looking down, seeing that my legs were mangled. I thought at that point, at 25 years old thought, I'm going to die. I'm not going to survive this. There's no way. It was horrific.
My buddies saved my life. They put the tourniquets on. They kept me around long enough for the medevac helicopter to get there. The medevac helicopter brought me to the first field hospital. They had to shock me back to life three times in the operating room. Those doctors didn't give up on me, stabilized me for a flight to Balad Air Base in Iraq, then to Landstuhl, Germany and then back to Walter Reed. When I woke up at Walter Reed alive, saw that my legs were gone, learned that two of my best friends were killed, and then another one shortly after in a separate attack, I realized that it would be crappy of me to sit there and feel sorry for myself when I got a second chance at life that my friends didn't get. That truly is the moment I started living my life and appreciating every day I wake up. Life is good.
Given the nature of those injuries, and the survivor’s guilt, and knowing what was ahead of you physically and mentally, you then made the choice to turn it into a positive in your life. But in the day-to-day fight, especially once you were back in the States, how did you keep pushing?
It's taking it one step at a time. We call it the Walter Reed Shuffle because there'd be days you take five steps forward, then the next day you take 2 steps back. They'd find another infection. I had 35 surgeries from when I got hurt to when I left Walter Reed. Trimming parts off that were infected. All the physical therapy. Every day was a battle. But it was trying to keep an eye on the prize. Look at the stock market, you zoom in on it and it's like this (roller coaster hand gesture), you zoom out and it's always up. You have to hit your stride. At first, it's awful. It sucks realizing that my friends were killed. The rest of my unit, they had to say goodbye to those guys and then go back to work and take the fight to the enemy and make that a safer place.
Knowing that my buddies were in harm's way every single day… I wasn't going to be killed at Walter Reed. There could be a medical setback that I could perhaps die from. But nobody at Walter Reed was going to kill me. My friends, my best friends, my buddies, my family that were still in Iraq, near Fallujah, in the belly of the beast, every day were in harm's way. So they were my inspiration. I thought, all I have to do today is go to physical therapy, bust my ass, give 110% effort. And when I'm there, if I'm feeling a little bit down or having a tough moment, I looked to my right , there's a dude missing 2 legs and an arm. I looked to my left, there's a guy missing 2 arms. And they're saying, let's go, cupcake. And you're making fun of each other, but motivating each other. It's a shared thing and everybody's got a smile on their face, no matter how tough or difficult it is. We're all so lucky to get that second chance. To be that close to death and still be alive, it changes you, and I think in many good ways.
Was there ever a time where baseball helped you get through any of these situations?
When I was at the hospital, a gentleman named Patrick Klinger, who was the marketing director for the Minnesota Twins, came through Walter Reed and was checking on me. He was coming through with the adjutant general from the Minnesota National Guard, Larry Shellito. They’re chatting with the Minnesotans that were in there and they saw that I had a Johan Santana poster on my wall in my hospital room. He was like, big Twins fan? I was like, Yep. And he was asking how the therapy was going and learning how to use the prosthetic legs. And in an effort, I think, to motivate me, he was like, when are you thinking you're going to be home to Minnesota? I said, well, I'm planning on being back, God willing, if my rehab goes well enough, in late April, early May. And he was like, you think you'll be well enough to throw out a first pitch?
I was like, I absolutely will. And now I had a carrot dangling in front of me. I worked my ass off. There's a therapy dog there named Sergeant Troy. The dog's name was Troy, so they gave it a rank and he wore the vest. He would fetch the ball on the Walter Reed lawn. Between that and golf, those are the two things that really got me to trust my prosthetics. But standing on the lawn of Walter Reed, practicing my throwing motion, he'd go get the ball, bring it back. I would throw and move back and move back. And then eventually, I believe it was May 5th, 2007, I got to throw the first pitch in front of a sold out Metrodome for a 2-1 Twins victory.
I recently got to throw a first pitch again, and it was kind of a nice side by side for me being real skinny, being on IVs and everything at Walter Reed, to being full of home cooking and beer. I got back to my fighting weight. Baseball was a fun little part of the recovery. Patrick is just a great guy and I was happy that he gave me that opportunity.
When you’re rehabbing and learning how to walk again, that’s one thing. But throwing and swinging a golf club are very complex movements for your lower legs. So you’re still getting acclimated to the prosthetics and then how did you add in the extra agility needed? There’s no way you were going to bounce that pitch.
I stood right at the bottom of the mound, 52, 53 feet. Still a challenge. There was that motivation of going, I never thought I'd get to throw out a first pitch at a baseball game. I'd better figure this out. And so Captain Rogers, my physical therapist, was all about it. The other guys in physical therapy would be cheering me on because they're like, don't mess this up dude, this is a big opportunity. It was sweet. If I fell, it was on grass.
In the practicing phase at the hospital out on the lawn, and then same thing with golf, my prosthetist was a golfer and he was like, do you golf? I was like, I used to, and I want to golf again. He was like, well, let's go golf. And he'd bring his tools out and he'd make adjustments. And in the process of learning to swing with prosthetics, you know that if I do fall over, it's going to be on nice soft grass, I'm fine. And it taught me to balance, it taught me to trust my prosthetics. Between the first pitch and golf, that really did speed up my recovery.
Are you still good in sand traps?
I take the ball out of the sand trap. If it's a flat one, I'll do it. Otherwise I want to be respectful to the group behind me. I don't want to be in there for 10 minutes hopping around.
How have the prosthetics improved over the years you’ve had them?
They're amazing. They're just they keep getting better. I started with a it was called a C Leg for computer leg, and now I have an X3. It's a bionic leg. My left leg is missing above the knee.
My right leg is below the knee. So on my right leg I have a knee, it's basically from my mid shin down that's gone. So I can bend that. I can drive without hand controls. It's easier for golf.
My left leg, it has to, if I take a good step, it will know that and then the computer releases the leg, so it swings normal. If I take a goofy step, like I stumbled and I might fall, it will lock up to prevent me from falling. They continue to get even better.
That's incredible that you can golf like that.
I’m taking the family golfing this afternoon after work.
That side-by-side of his two first pitches 15 years apart is striking. On the left, he’s throwing out a pitch not even 6 months after losing both legs, dying more than once on the operating table, dozens of surgeries, and learning to use prosthetic limbs. He honestly still looks like he should be in a hospital bed. The one on the right shows how far he’s come, with some meat on his bones, no cane, a more athletic looking throw, and he ditched the cargo shorts. It’s amazing not only what one man can endure, persevere through and overcome, but also the miracle the doctors, other soldiers and his entire support group orchestrated after a catastrophic explosion.
Switching from Breaching Doors to Knocking on Them
You went into politics in 2010, so barely 3 years after. Was that something you always wanted to do, or did the injury spur you to do that?
I was always interested in politics. In high school I had this awesome American government teacher who just made it fun. He made the process fun. I am still friends with him to this day. He owns horses at Canterbury Park Racetrack. We go and bet ponies together. Just a great dude, teaches it so well, makes it fun because it doesn't seem fun. Politics seems ridiculous, and in many ways it is, but I always had an interest in it.
But I thought maybe City Council, and then after I was hurt and then medically retired from the military there, there is a bit of a void there of service. I'm fortunate to be around and talk to so many of my buddies that I served with because they live not far from me, my best buddy who was in the seat behind me when we hit the bomb blast, we work together, we golf once a week together, so I'm fortunate to be surrounded by these guys, but there's still this kind of a void because, the military said I could stay in and have a desk job to finish out my 20 years. I didn't want to take someone's spot that was deployable and could go on the front lines if need be. So I medically retired.
Even though I chose, it still wasn't on my terms. There was a void there. And it was going to be a hell of a challenge. The people that asked me to run told me, oh, you've got this, you're going to win. In hindsight, I found out that my name was notable at that point, and I had already started being on KFAN so people knew who I was. The plan was I was going to be used to take up resources from the other party and have them have to spend money in the district. But then I went ahead and out door- knocked my opponent and won the thing by 452 votes.
So yes, I had some interest in it. I never thought I would run for the Minnesota House of Representatives, though.
You were one term?
Yep, I chose not to run for reelection.
I read you didn’t always vote with your party. What was your philosophy in government?
We had battles. Before your party goes on the House floor, you caucus with your own party, so you have the battle behind closed doors. You go up to the House floor unified and you have your plan. I wasn't always going for the plan. If I went with the plan, it was because I believed in it. I don't care. Like I said, I didn't owe the party anything. I was the one that door-knocked. I was the one that won in the district that someone from my party had never won before.
I made a promise that I wasn't going to change who I am. I wasn't going to change my principles. I will say there are certain things that maybe personally, what's best for my family weren't the votes that I took because it's not my job to represent my family. It's my job to represent the 40,000 people in my district, whether they voted for me or voted for my opponent. That was an eye opener. I was 29 when I got elected. I knew that if I'm going to vote on something, I want to be able to look somebody in the eyes and explain why I did it. They might not agree with it, but at least I can explain it and stand behind it. And that's really how I operated while I was in office.
What do you do these days?
My day job is I help veterans get VA benefits. I help them go through the process that I had to go through when I got out of the military. Cut through the red tape, help them find access to VA care, disability compensation, all that stuff. I work for a local county here in the Twin Cities. That's my day job.
I'm on KFAN Power Trip morning show every Friday morning. I've been doing that for 17 years. My other thing is I am a motivational speaker, so I travel the country and give those. And then I bought part of a vodka company recently. So I'm part owner of Northland Vodka. Staying busy, but busy is good.
What do you wish we could do better with veterans?
I think a lot is being done. I think the problem we have, and it and it was similar with veterans in eras before us, is that you're taught your entire military career to suck it up. “Drink water, drive on” is a phrase. Alright, you cut yourself, you fall, you get scraped up, drink water, drive on, you're going to be fine. Sort of like the Robitussin bit with Chris Rock. Then suddenly you get out and you need certain things.
If you are in the military for 10, 12, 15, 20 years, your body takes a beating, whether you're in a bomb blast or not. You're doing things that other occupations don't, and so your body feels older faster. It's getting people to realize that, okay, the VA is there to take care of these ailments and help you with your healthcare. They are uniquely equipped to help veterans with these unique challenges. It's getting people to take the VA up on the offer because unfortunately, the way America is wired, it's a clickbait society; if it bleeds, it leads. The top story on the news is never this great story.
We're fortunate to have one of the best VA medical centers in the United States here in Minneapolis. I work for the county, I don't work for the VA, so I don't have to say good things about them, but they are fantastic. If one thing goes wrong, then that's on the news. But it's not on the news that they'll call me every couple of years and say, we have this new prosthetic that you should try out, it fits your needs. Come in and give it a try, we'll order one for you. Or when the check engine light goes on on my left leg, it's a bionic leg, and so there will be certain beeps that I know, OK, I gotta bring it in to be tuned up. They'll swap it out and they'll have a loaner. They're amazing about it. They take care of it. The VA never says no to me about things I need to live a productive, happy, healthy life. The VA is able to take care of veterans.
The thing I love about my job is I'm helping veterans navigate it, but also, I don't just say here, let me do this for you. I'm teaching them how to navigate it themselves as well, where it's like, for instance, I needed a new shower chair. When I get into the shower, when I hop into the shower, literally, every day, I have a shower chair. I take my legs off at night and go to bed. Then in the morning, I hop in the shower to take my shower, put my pants on my legs and I put my legs on just like you do, right?
Wait.
So when my shower chair was getting worn out and I needed a new one, I went through the process and a person was like, well, we need to set up an appointment to evaluate whether you need a shower chair or not. Which obviously, I need a shower chair. I've needed one for the past 18 years. Instead of getting mad, calling the local news and going, they're mistreating me… that person didn't know, they didn't look in my chart. I just talked to my liaison and said I need a new shower chair. It showed up on my doorstep 3 days later. So there's certain things like that. There are methods, they could talk to their doctor who will cut through that red tape for them. It is a big bureaucracy, and that can be confusing and frustrating, but I think once people use the VA, they learn how to navigate it and then they'll realize how great it is.
Any parting thoughts?
I think that sports are a perfect example of what makes America great. Sports are something that bring everybody together for a common cause. A stadium full of fans cheering for the same team, there's some opposing fans there, but everyone's there for the same reason. And that's really how politics and how this country is. We all have a lot more in common than differences, right?
I think that's something that we can all focus on in our regular lives, too, is we all have things that bother us, things that are not going well. It's a choice to focus on the good, and that's where sports are awesome. You could have had a terrible tough week at work, or not even a terrible week, I've had a very, very busy week, it's been an awesome week, but I enjoyed sitting down last night and watching game one of the Stanley Cup Final because it was a distraction. I didn't have to think about the emails that I have to send today and the work I have to follow up on and all that stuff. Sports is one of the few distractions from real life that we have left.
If anyone's looking for a keynote speaker or a speaker for their business or organization or event, go to johnkriesel.com and give me a look. I would love the opportunity.
I did not know that prosthetic limbs have “check engine lights”. I also didn’t realize when they go in the shop you get a loaner, like a mechanic’s office. It was also nice to hear his view of the VA, since there is never anything positive in the news about them, and they always get used as a political tool to attack one party or the other, with politicians seeming to forget its true purpose. The employees in the department are determined to assist veterans as best they can, as are people like John who help navigate the labyrinth of forms, phone numbers and services.
Interview conducted June 5, 2025