WEBVTT

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Hey guys, it's Jack. I
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at patreon dot com. Slash the
Teamhouse, Special Operations, Cobert sb and

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I the Team House with your Hopes, Jack Murphy and David Bark Murfey here

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with Dave Park. Our guest on
today's show is Jay Dorlias. He served

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in third Special Forces Group before that
was Conventional Engineer, served as a Special

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Forces Engineer and then a team sergeant
in Third Group with deployments to Afghanistan Iraq.

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Jay also runs a YouTube channel called
The Green Beret Chronicles. Go take

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a look at that. And Jay, thanks for coming in studio, man

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of course, Man, of course, I appreciate you guys having me.

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All right, So I'm looking forward
to this. Yeah, so are one

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of the few Green Burray podcasts out
there, you know what I mean.

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So I'm really happy to be in
here. And you're originally from Brooklyn,

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right, Yeah, So I was
originally born in Haiti, but when I

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was ten, we moved here,
right, So I grew up Crown Heights

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area, moved out of there,
went towards Brownsville, spent some time down

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there, and then KNARSI prior to
joining the military in two thousand and three.

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So, so what what inspired you
to join the military. As you

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know, there's not too many people
from you know, where we're from in

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New York where either where either of
us are from that end up joining the

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military. So for me, so
I was one out of eight kids,

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right, so you know, growing
up in New York, city. Man,

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Like, there wasn't a lot of
opportunities. I was a horrible student,

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and for me it was a way
out right. I can sit here

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and say, hey, I was
patriotic. I wanted to go do you

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know my part for you know God
in country. But for me it was

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just hey, like, mom and
dad has seven other kids to worry about.

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I'm of age, I'm becoming my
own man, I need to go

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find something else to do. And
after high school, like, high school

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was easy, but college was a
different beast, right, So I got

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good grades in high school. My
guidance counselor was like, hey, you're

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really smart, why don't you go
to college? So I was like fine,

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I went to City College in Harlem
and then, dude, that was

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horrible. Teachers didn't really the teachers
don't care in college, right, They

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get up there, they give you
their lecture and you either listen or you

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don't. They getting paid out of
the way I was supposed to. High

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school, my teachers were getting after
me. They were like, hey,

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get your homework done, turn it
in, I'm gonna call your mom.

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I'm gonna do this. College he
was like, hey, man, you

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want to come here and slept,
sure, go ahead, like I don't

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care. And that's what I did. Like I show up to English one

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on one and I just fell asleep
and the professor would wake me up just

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in time to leave. So horrible
grades. But I was small enough to

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realize at a very early age,
like, hey, college isn't gonna work.

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So instead of doing what most kids
nowadays do and just change majors and

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just keep uh forcing it down and
death throat to try to make it work,

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I just left. I was like, you know what, college isn't

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gonna work. I need to do
something else. And my first option was

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NYPD. Like I wanted to be
a New York City cop. And reason

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why chose public service was because hey, we're we're from Haiti. This country's

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taking us in, uh my family, and I was like, how can

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I repay this debt? Right?
Like? How can I give back to

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this country for what it's done for
my family? So I wanted to be

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a New York City cop. So
I went in there. I spoke with

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the recruiter. He was like,
hey, in order to be a New

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York City cop, you have to
either have two years of college or military

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experience. Uh. College wasn't gonna
work. So I was like, you

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know what, fine, I'll do
military. So that's what drove me to

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joining the military. So I went
in there, spoke with the recruiter,

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and I'm like, hey, man, like I wanna join. I took

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the ASVAP and then uh ended up
watching one of those high speed videos that

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they show every single one of us. Mine was an engineer blowing stuff up

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right slow crawling landmines and then building
the bridges and blowing them up. And

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I was like, yep, I
want to be a combat engineer, and

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I signed my contract. Man in
two thousand and three, I shipped off

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to basic training now in Fort land
Wood, Missouri. So yeah, and

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so how did you take the military
life from Brooklyn to Fort leonard Wood and

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going through all of your training and
become a combat engineer? Man, it

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was rough, man, because you
know, like you guys know, being

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from the city, you weren't like
a badger hounor right. Like, there

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was five of us that joined out
of New York and we were all in

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the same basic training class. So
we rolled in there like yo, we're

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from Brooklyn, Like we're tough,
you know, like we we were like

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our own little gang within basic training, and so I had a rough time

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breaking out of that because drill song
would get in my face. And you

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know, I had this one drill
song specifically, like I till this day,

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he's he's all right now because he
ended up. He was the post

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on major for fort Hood not too
long ago, and every time I see

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him, I just have PTSD,
Like when he spoke, he got right

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up in your face and he purposely
spit and I'm like, oh my god,

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I'm like, dude, don't you
know, Like he would do it

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on purpose and I'm like, don't
spit in my face, but he would

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do it. And I'm like,
ah, God, if I ever see

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this dude, I wn'na beat his
ass. And I've seen him a couple

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of times, but I didn't get
a chance to because he was E seven

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at the time. I was still
at E three, and I'm like,

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I'm gonna get you. And then
once I got to SF and I'm this

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big badass. Now he's in for
like he's in charge of fort Hood.

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I'm like, I'm not gonna go
mess with that dude. But it took

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a while, but eventually, like
I started to wrap my head around why

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they were doing what they were doing. They were breaking us down so they

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can build us back up. They
were showing us the right way to be

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a soldier, how to follow orders, how to do all these basic soldier

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tasks that we didn't want to come
forward to. And eventually I got in

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line and the rest was history.
Man, what what is training for combat

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engineer? Like? Like, do
you remember how long the training is and

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what the different topics are? Yes? So it was one station unique training

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at Fulnwood, Missouri. Basic training
was nine weeks and then the remainder eight

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weeks. We went over land minds, so identifying them and properly disposing of

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them. We learned how to build
the bailey bridge, which is a big

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metal bridge that we can that we
haul around and throw up whenever folks need

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to cross rivers and such, and
then we learned basic demolitions and and and

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a I T and that was that
was basically it. Yeah, I didn't

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get to do any of the cool
stuff that I saw in that video,

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especially once I got to my unit. It was a completely different mission than

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what I thought I was gonna be
doing. So when you arrive at what

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was your first unit, and I
mean, this is getting pretty hot into

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the war at this point. I
mean, I'm so Iraq kicked off.

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So March two thousand and three I
left for basic training. June July two

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thousand and three, I think is
when the Second War kicked off, when

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Iraq kicked off, right, And
I remember this vividly because we would be

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like in our bays because it was
open bay. I'm sure it's the same

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when you guys went through, but
we would be in the bays just you

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know, doing you know, activities
like folding socks or whatever, and a

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drill songe would come in and they
would be like, hey, we just

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got the call. Everybody, pack
up your shit. You guys are going

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to Iraq. And dude, they
would have a slow down entire locker who

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would go outside and they would have
buses there as if you were gonna load

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on right right, And I'm talking
about guys off fucking crying like we had,

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you know, other privates, Like
I figured out it was just a

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ploy, but guys were like crying
and just fucking wan't having it. They

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were like, Oh, I need
to call my mom, I need to

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do this, Like are we really
going and then they have us go back

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inside, and but it's weird because
they would do it multiple times they got

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the same reaction, you guys.
Yeah. So finished in July two thousand

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and three, and then I got
to my first duty station, Fort Riley,

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Kansas, Big Red one in August
of two thousand and three after coming

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back to New York for hometown recruiting. And then as soon as I got

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there, man, I got to
my unit, I checked in and then

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my squad leader he was like,
hey, don't unpack your bags. I'm

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like, oh, motherfucker, I've
heard this before. You're doing the same,

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you know. My recruiter like,
what's going on right? I mean

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my drills long like, so I
thought he was running the same ploy.

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So I was like, I was
like, why not. He was like,

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oh, we're going to Iraq in
September. I was like, yeah,

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whatever, you've been hanging out with
song first class day over a recruiting

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over at a drillsone command. So
I went upstairs unpacked all my stuff.

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And then a month later I was
in Kuwait waiting to go into Iraq.

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So got thrown into the fire there
pretty quick. And then what was your

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how is it set up for combat
engineers. Were you at you were so

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you were with bigger ED one?
Yeah, so were you attached basically Q

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and infantry? Were you So the
entire brigade got deployed. Okay, all

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right, so first brigade, first
Infantry Division deployed. Within that you had

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one sixteen infantry, one three four
arm or first Engineer Battalion. But when

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we got there, everybody had that
different mission that support each other. The

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infantry guys would go out and conduct
patrols and raids. One through four armor

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they were out there just shooting their
biggest tanks. And then our mission was

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to clear the route. Because this
is two thousand and three. Like I

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was there for OEF one. Oh, I caught the telling of OEF one.

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I stayed for OEF two, and
then I left during the beginning of

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OEF three. So we were Our
main mission was to clear routes for supply

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to actually come into the country because
i D was still at its infancy,

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but they were still putting out shells
on the side of the road and I

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mean it was amateur hour but doing
it. So our mission was clearing the

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routes so the supplying line could flow
into Iraq. So how would you guys

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interact with EOD because that's their job, but you guys had a big part

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of that. Yeah, yeah,
So what we would do we would go

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when I said this and this is
amateur hour, Like we had the one

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to one threes tracks, like they're
like APC for combat engineers, right,

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that's what we deployed with because there
was no RGI thirty one's there was none

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of that high speed up warmercy off
right, So we deployed with our vehicles

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that we had at Fort Riley,
Kansas, and we put sandbags at the

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bottom of it as if that was
gonna stop an ID blast. Right,

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So we conducted rock Clarence on those, and then we conducted them dismounted like

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we were like I remember walking up
and then I saw a bag there and

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I kicked it and I was like, oh, he'd like that's how we

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were conducting rock clarence. So what
we would do, we'd go out,

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we would find them, and then
we would sit on it for hours waiting

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for EOD to come out. It
was it was painful. Like we would

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go out early in the morning,
like nine o'clock in the morning, find

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an ID and then two pm EOD
would come rolling up and it did take

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care of it. So we actually
because of that, the Engineer School of

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Fort Lennon Wood they created a program
called EOCA Eyoka which allowed us has come

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by engineers to identify and also disposed
of IDs, but that didn't come online

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until two thousand and seven time frames. Yeah, I mean it makes sense

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because you know, EOD, like
they do a lot of stuff outside of

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IDs. You don't need that depth
of training for everything AOD does. But

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dismantling or handling an ID doesn't seem
No, it's not. It's not.

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And at that point, like they
were so spread out, like it's not

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like they were sitting back a base
camp hanging out. They were on other

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calls, right because there was IDs
being you know, spread out everywhere within

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the AO, and we had like
two or three EOD teams, so they

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were running out to a bunch of
different calls and by the time they got

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to us, they had already been
on like fifteen or twenty other missions,

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you know. So yeah, but
yeah, man, that was the early

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part of my stayover at the first
I D and what I mean, there's

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a second part. Yeah, dude. So there's because I ended up doing

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too deployment with first Infantry Divisions,
so two thousand and three, two thousand

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for I did twelve months, and
of course doing that stayment, it was

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like the wild Wild West. We
lost just from that deployment along we lost

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like eleven dudes IDs. The company
commander got blown up, the first soniant

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got blown up, the supply guy, the mechanic. So we lost eleven

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dudes to that. And of course, you know, as I'm PFC at

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that point, and I'm out there, you know, picking up body parts

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and putting in a fucking bag.
So I was like Jesus fucking Christ,

206
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like there's got to be something else, right, So I got back and

207
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I just spiral out of control,
like I was just a menace to society

208
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from Brooklyn. I went back to
my hood just causing havoc everywhere. Man.

209
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But it wasn't just me, It
was all the other lower enlisted guys

210
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that because you figure out I'm nineteen, man, I shouldn't be, you

211
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know, like on the side of
the riverbed picking up you know, body

212
00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:58.639
parts of my squad mates, right, you're gutting off all that steam.

213
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Yeah, yeah, And we didn't
know how to cope with it. Our

214
00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:07.480
way of coping with it was going
down to Aggieville and beating up on the

215
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football players, right, like,
that's what we did. So I got

216
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.559
back. We started partying, drinking
every weekend. We're getting in fights,

217
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getting thrown in jail. And I
remember this because I had a squad leader

218
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and his entire like he came.
He was an an outsider, like he

219
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Pcus from a third ACR out of
Fort Carson, and he showed up and

220
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we were just running amok, like
nobody could tell us nothing, Like leadership

221
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was just fed up. They were
like, we don't know what to do.

222
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These dudes. Just put him at
headquarters. And this squad leader,

223
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he he came in. He was
like, Hey, I want all these

224
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guys in my squad. And his
plan was to build enough paperwork to pretty

225
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much chapter. He was like I'm
He's like, I'm, you know,

226
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God's great gift to the army.
I'm cleaning house. We're getting rid of

227
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all these dudes. So he comes
in and he pretty much started doing paperwork.

228
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Like we kept mess enough. He
kept doing paperwork, and his plan

229
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was to chap the me out.
I didn't find this out until like four

230
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years like ago, right, because
he and I are best friends now.

231
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But in the midst of this,
we had a platoon sergeant that also came

232
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in and he saw potential. He
was like, hey, like, you

233
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wan't here for the deployment. You
don't know what these guys went through,

234
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Like they went through some traumatic shit. So instead of trying to give them

235
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the boot, let's find a way
to help them, because if you kick

236
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him out now, all they're gonna
do is all the stuff they're doing right

237
00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:34.720
now, they're just gonna go do
it civilian, and now we're gonna happen

238
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we broke them. Yeah, the
least you can do is fix exactly.

239
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So that was his mindset. So
they started to just find ways to help

240
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us. Man. They got us
into the site, we started talking,

241
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We started unpackaging a bunch of stuff, and I slowly started to get my

242
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shit together, got married realized that
I do like this Army stuff. It's

243
00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:00.600
pretty easy. I show up,
I work out, they tell me what

244
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to do, they tell me how
to do it, they tell me what

245
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to wear. Like I have everything
that I need. I needed structure and

246
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:11.920
the Army gave me that and I
started to flourish, got promoted Mayey six

247
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.039
within four years, and then we
deployed again in two thousand and seven,

248
00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:23.559
this time to create Iraq. More
the same conducting rock Clarence, but this

249
00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.559
time it's a little bit more advanced. We have the the RG thirty threes,

250
00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:33.480
we have the buffalo's, we have
the robots. So that deployment wasn't

251
00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:37.240
as bad as the first one,
but I was still losing buddies left and

252
00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:40.680
right, Like guys were still getting
blown up, this time with the covert

253
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:44.680
bombs, this time with the EFPs. It's like as soon as we found

254
00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:48.119
a way to defeat one tactic,
they came up with another one, right,

255
00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.559
So it was that constant chess match. And this deployment was fifteen months

256
00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:56.680
because stop loss kicked in around that
time. Wow. Yeah, So after

257
00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:00.000
that, man, I had,
you know, like I went through the

258
00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.759
deployment and I had enough, and
I was like, there's gotta be something

259
00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:06.160
else out there, you know,
And that's when I started looking at Ranger

260
00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:10.200
Bad. And then that's when I
discovered that SEF so real quick, because

261
00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:12.599
you were a combat engineer, we
you know, we have to bring this

262
00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:19.039
up. SF TAB ranger tab,
sapper tab. Yeah, I think it

263
00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:22.400
should be the other way around.
It should be SF tab, supper tag,

264
00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:26.960
ranger tab. Okay, yeah,
so tell us about tell us for

265
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.480
people who don't know, tell us
what a sapper is and you know,

266
00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:34.960
and you know what the school is
like, yeah and everything. So the

267
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.839
sapper tab didn't become an actual It's
always been a tab, but it wasn't

268
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:44.400
authorized to be worn until like two
thousand and five. Right, so,

269
00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:49.319
uh, supper tab is what rangers
tab is for infantry guys. Right,

270
00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:55.440
Doing Soper School, you learn a
bunch of twelve Bravo combat engineer tasks.

271
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Right, so demo is a big
one, right, clearing mind fields,

272
00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:07.200
watercraft operations, and then we also
have patrolling. Right. Another way to

273
00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:11.480
describe it is, Hey, Saper
School is the last two weeks of the

274
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:15.759
age and Charlie FTX, that's exactly
what it is. You're going on demo

275
00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:19.839
related missions, only this time after
the ambush. You know, your your

276
00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:22.279
pl tells you, hey, grab
all this stuff and bring it to the

277
00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:26.319
top of the hood. Right now, once it gets to the top of

278
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:30.160
the hood, now, as a
sapper, I'm actually blowing that stuff up

279
00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:33.279
I'm doing all the demolition, I'm
doing the time fuse, and I'm actually

280
00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.000
blowing it up because in real life
that's what we would do. We wouldn't

281
00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:38.720
just leave it there for the enemy
to take. Somebody has to blow it

282
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.279
up, right, so we actually
blow that stuff up. But yeah,

283
00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:47.960
that's exactly what it is. Man. It's a specialized school for twelve bravos,

284
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:53.319
right that they teach leadership there along
with all the demolitions. So hopefully

285
00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.680
that made sense. Yeah, and
you made sure to wear that sapper tab

286
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:03.240
everywhere you went. I did next
because it was one of those things like

287
00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:07.759
growing up as a combat engineer,
all my leaders had sapar tabs just like

288
00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:11.839
a guy. Yeah, just just
like a guy going up in the infantry.

289
00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:15.079
His leaders had ranger tabs. Right. So when I wore down my

290
00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:18.839
hallway back and group guys would look, they were like, man, what

291
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:22.200
is I never I've never seen that
before, right, touching it as like

292
00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:26.119
a foreigner. I'm like, no, man, it's a sabotag uh.

293
00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:30.519
And then once I got to group
and eventually the eighteen Charlie course, I

294
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:33.480
told everybody was like, hey,
as a as a you know, eighteen

295
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.240
Charlie, you need to go to
saparate school because there's a lot of similarities

296
00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:41.000
with the eighteen Charlie course and uh
the Engineer School down of Fort Lynnwood because

297
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:45.880
a lot of the tasks that we
conduct an ancient Charlie course comes from the

298
00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:49.240
Engineer School. That's the big Army
component of it. Like UXO we get

299
00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:53.400
from like my ux O instructors.
When I was an instructor in eighteen Charlie

300
00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:56.559
course, I would have to send
them to IOCA. That course that I

301
00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:00.680
was talking about that allows us to
blow id's, I would have to send

302
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:04.599
him there so they can get certified
to teach you XO in the schoolhouse.

303
00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:10.319
Right, So there's a lot of
tie in to the Engineer School back.

304
00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.960
So what year did you go to
SFAs and then the Q course? So

305
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:19.200
two thousand and eight, after that
last diployment IRAQ. Again, I was

306
00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:23.519
fed up with losing buddies left and
right. And I think the real reason

307
00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:29.440
why I went towards SF was like
being in big army and doing that mission,

308
00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:34.480
like we were being reactive, like
it was like groundhog Day. We

309
00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:37.839
go out, we get blown up, and then we go through a battle

310
00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:41.680
drill like there was no pursuing,
there was no hunting. We're sitting ducks.

311
00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:44.200
It was annoying. So I'm like, man, how do we like

312
00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:47.400
who's taking the fight to the enemy? Like, how do I get after

313
00:21:47.480 --> 00:21:48.960
it? Like? How do I
get these guys that are killing my buddies

314
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:53.240
left and right? So I did
some research. Raingerbat came up and then

315
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:56.440
that squad leader, that same squad
leader that was trying to get rid of

316
00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:00.720
me, he went to selection right, and he didn't make it. I

317
00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:03.720
was like, this is a way
to better than him, right, So

318
00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:07.599
I was like, he didn't make
it, and he squared away, right,

319
00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:10.680
He's trying to fire me. So
I was like, I'm gonna go

320
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:12.680
to selection right. So I went
in two thousand and eight to answer your

321
00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:18.680
question, and I got picked up
and then I started claring fort Riley and

322
00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.720
then I PCs and started the Q
course early two thousand and nine. Awesome.

323
00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:26.680
What was your relationship with him?
I know you said you guys are

324
00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:30.359
really good friends. Now what was
your relationship with him? Like when you

325
00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:37.200
came back from that sef as having
been successful? Like we joked around it,

326
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:40.240
like I would tell him, hey, man, like what happened.

327
00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:41.920
You know, He's like, I
don't know. I made it all way

328
00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:42.519
to the end. I didn't get
selected. I was like, yeah,

329
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:47.880
that's because they won't looking for your
strict military you know, dress right,

330
00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:52.839
dress standards. You know. But
by that point he and I had like

331
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:56.480
a better relationship, right because he
saw in me what that platoon saw on

332
00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:00.440
initially saw, right, because I
became a squad leader with him, so

333
00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.880
he had first squad, I had
second squad, right, So we were

334
00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:08.160
pairs at that point. Yeah,
whenever I went that's awesome. And then

335
00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:11.480
the eighteen Charlie course, I mean, do you have any stories or anything

336
00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:14.599
you want to tell about that?
And go and what was it like going

337
00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:18.359
through as a combat engineer. Yeah, so going in as a combat engineer

338
00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:22.160
because at that point I didn't have
a sabatas, Like, I didn't go

339
00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:25.680
to SAPER school until I got to
like like my first team. Okay,

340
00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:32.240
okay, that's when I went.
So going there as a twelve bravo.

341
00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:37.599
Yeah, I understood some of the
tasks, but not as deep as we

342
00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.559
went into it in the Agent Charlie
course, right, it was big army.

343
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:45.519
Hey, these on land mines,
these are how you put them in

344
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.319
the ground. As opposed to Agent
Charlie course, it was like, oh,

345
00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:52.519
these are land mines. Here are
five safeties that goes with that landmine.

346
00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.400
These are five ways that it can
kill you. Essentially is what they're

347
00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:00.359
telling me. And this is how
to properly dispose of them. So the

348
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:04.200
eighteen Charlie course was very eye opening. I grew growing up in New York

349
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:07.039
City, Like I didn't know how
to build a house, Like I didn't

350
00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:10.160
know how to lay foundation. I
didn't know how to do any of that.

351
00:24:10.599 --> 00:24:12.680
But you get six weeks of it
in the Aching Charlie course, right,

352
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.200
special operations, construction, and then
the demolition part learning. I've always

353
00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:22.480
been good at math, so it
was that part of it was easy.

354
00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:26.720
So learning how to calculate to take
down trees, how to you know,

355
00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:30.039
blow up bridges, like all that
math that goes into that. So I

356
00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:34.480
thrived there. Then we did UXO, which is essentially, you know,

357
00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:40.519
learning how to do eod's job is
exactly what it is because on a team

358
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:41.880
like Ahing, Charlie has to do
that, especially if we don't have any

359
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:47.480
EUOD attachments. Right, So I
learned that and then talking analysis knock that

360
00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:51.720
out, and then the FTX that's
where I had a little bit of trouble

361
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:57.720
because it was cold. Man was
still out in the woods where they had

362
00:24:57.720 --> 00:25:00.079
that big tower in the center.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. That

363
00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:06.160
was one of the missions Man,
and for whatever reason, I couldn't get

364
00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:10.799
the time fuse to cooperate, right. So we'd go out on our mission

365
00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.119
and I was the senior Charlie and
we had to take down I think it

366
00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:18.440
was a bridge mission that we had
to take down. So we went through

367
00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.359
just like we're supposed to, and
I had time fuse set up and then

368
00:25:23.400 --> 00:25:32.319
I just couldn't make the time,
So I failed my mission right, went

369
00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:34.319
back through it, and that was
a defeat for me that I wasn't looking

370
00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:40.920
forward to because we're at this point
phase this is phase three, right,

371
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:44.640
I have language and then I have
Robin Sage and I'm done. So I

372
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:47.599
was worried about failing. So I
got in my head and it really fucked

373
00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:49.240
with me, and I didn't know
how to calm my mind. Like I

374
00:25:49.319 --> 00:25:52.039
was worried about failing and failing and
failing, and the next mission I went

375
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:56.640
out and I felt it again.
Right, So it's like so when you

376
00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.759
fail it the second time time fuse, now the uh the Cadre has to

377
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:07.519
you know, build a time system
and make sure that it's not the actual

378
00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:11.640
batge right right, because there you're
being graded and what does it have to

379
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.119
be within thirty seconds or six No, it's it's not. I think it's

380
00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:18.599
three seconds? Man, oh is
it? Yeah? Yeah, thirty seconds

381
00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:22.720
a long time? Yeah yeah yeah, h thirty yeah yeah yeah yeah,

382
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:27.599
it's uh plus on minus three seconds
okay, okay. So Cadre then goes

383
00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:33.640
out after I fail my second time, and he built a time system off

384
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:37.519
of that same batch, that the
same lot. Yeah. So he goes

385
00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:41.559
out and he builds it, and
his fucked up all good. I was

386
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:45.559
like, yes, yeah, the
time fuse itself is bad. Yeah,

387
00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:48.400
so that lot was bad. It's
like a slow burning fumes or whatever.

388
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:55.359
Yeah, and it's because the weather
has a way of affecting the time few

389
00:26:55.400 --> 00:26:57.240
systoms, especially the ship we yet
man, it's like from like Vietnam man,

390
00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:02.720
right stuff they're playing yeah, out
of storage. So he goes through,

391
00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:06.160
he build his, and he is
also missfires. So I'm like,

392
00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.720
yes, I'm not getting recycled,
right because he can't make it work,

393
00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:11.160
Like, how does he expect me
to make it work? Right? I'm

394
00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:14.400
a student, you're the expert.
You're teaching me this stuff, right.

395
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:18.480
So because the lot was bad,
I ended up, you know, getting

396
00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:22.119
a third mission, and this time
we didn't do time fuse. We just

397
00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.839
did command debt, I mean,
which is pretty self explanatory. So I

398
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:29.400
ended up you know, getting through
the at and trolley course. But for

399
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:30.960
a moment there, like, I
was worried that I was going to get

400
00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:34.960
recycled. And at that point in
time, if you get recycled and you

401
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.440
feel like one other thing, then
you'll kicked out the Q course right,

402
00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:45.359
never to return. So that all
played in my head and I'm learning it

403
00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.279
from it now as far as how
I should have dealt with it, as

404
00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:52.920
far as hey really like, you
know, the information, you pass,

405
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.480
all the exam, you've done all
the work, like reassuring myself, you

406
00:27:56.519 --> 00:27:57.279
know what I mean. But at
that point in time, like I was

407
00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:02.480
a mess. Man. I was
like, man, well, you mentioned

408
00:28:02.839 --> 00:28:06.599
special operations construction, and this is
something I don't think we've really gone into

409
00:28:06.599 --> 00:28:10.720
depth on the show, but can
you talk a little bit about the eighteen

410
00:28:10.839 --> 00:28:15.279
Charlie, not just like the wartime
eighteen Charlie all the unexploded. When we

411
00:28:15.319 --> 00:28:18.480
say UXO, we mean unexploded ordinance
and demolition and stuff like that, which

412
00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:22.160
I think people often think about with
Charlie's but like building a house, Like,

413
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:26.920
what is the role of the eighteen
Charlie on a team? So the

414
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:32.599
eighteen Charlie is responsible for because the
best way that I explained it, and

415
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:37.559
it goes for all of our moss
is the eighteen Charlie mos is eight separate

416
00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:41.559
jobs packed in one. Right,
So you have your big army component,

417
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:47.119
which is the twelve Bravo, then
you have your supply guy, right Like,

418
00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:51.200
So when I was on a team, not only was I responsible for

419
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.480
you know, the ied the demo, I was also responsible for building my

420
00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:00.200
base camp, right, which the
eighteen Charlie. Like, that's that's one

421
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:07.000
of your your functions. You acquire
building materials and you build this base camp.

422
00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:11.039
We did vso and that's exactly what
I did Village Stability Operations in twenty

423
00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:14.960
ten. I, you know,
had my little workforce, I ordered you

424
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.160
know, all the building materials,
and then we build a shit ton of

425
00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:22.839
bee huts, right, We laid
foundations. Right. I also ran that

426
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:29.160
base camp as the camp mayor,
right, responsible for getting the cook all

427
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:33.480
the supplies he needed, responsible for
getting the dudes whatever they needed. Right,

428
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:36.480
essentially a glorified supply guy. Right, I did all of that.

429
00:29:36.519 --> 00:29:40.319
And also defense, to bas Well, based defense is the Bravo. But

430
00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:44.720
whatever the Bravo needs, Constantino wire
Hes goes like that would fall on my

431
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:49.400
shoulders to get form. Right,
So in a nutshell man, so jack

432
00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.440
of all trades when it comes to
the Aging Charlie, because all the other

433
00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.640
guys, like the aging Bravo has
his base defense and all of that,

434
00:29:56.759 --> 00:30:00.640
the echoes comms, the Delta has
his linox, right, everybody has the

435
00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.519
little part. But I always joke
like, if you have a shitty eating

436
00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:07.839
Charlie, you're gonna feel it.
Yeah, if you have a shitty Echo,

437
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.039
you might notice something once you're out
on a mission. Right, if

438
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:12.799
your Delta sucks and you get shot, yeah, you're gonna know it then.

439
00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:17.119
But if you don't have an eighteen
Charlie, you're gonna feel it right

440
00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:19.119
away because your quality of life is
gonna be shipped. You won't be able

441
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:22.119
to get anything that you need.
Your property book will be all messed up,

442
00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.079
right, So I always joke Jack
of full Trade and probably one of

443
00:30:26.119 --> 00:30:32.640
the I'm not gonna say the most
important ms, but definitely one of the

444
00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:36.640
most important ms is that needs to
be solid when it comes to the team

445
00:30:36.680 --> 00:30:42.799
room. Yeah. And so you
talked about going back to the Q course.

446
00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:47.720
I mean, you get your language, you get go to robinsage and

447
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:51.559
then did you know you were going
to third group? No. So I'm

448
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:56.480
a French speaker, so when I
got to language, I already had like

449
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:59.960
a you grew up speaking from Yeah. Yeah, so I already had like

450
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:07.359
a DLPT score. But like throughout
that you know, year long process,

451
00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:08.640
Like, I grew pretty tight with
the dude, so I didn't want to

452
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:12.880
jump ahead. Language was six six
months at that point. So I was

453
00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:15.720
like, man, I don't want
to leave these group of dudes. So

454
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:18.319
I opted to go back through language
so I can stay with the dudes.

455
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:26.160
But what that did was it it
decreased my chance of getting third group,

456
00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:29.319
right. So when I graduated,
I had orders to go to tenth group,

457
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:32.759
right, but I wasn't trying to
have that. I was like,

458
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:36.119
I can't go to tenth group.
Europe and I was like, no,

459
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:42.640
I'm gonna lose my mind, right, So I went to the Batterian CSM

460
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:47.319
Bob I think it was Bobby Sinko
at that point, and I was like,

461
00:31:47.359 --> 00:31:52.519
hey, like, my wife is
going to ECU, like I just

462
00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:56.960
moved her out of k State so
she could come here, like I can't

463
00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.960
move my family again. And he
was like, I don't want to tell

464
00:31:59.960 --> 00:32:01.240
you, man, like you gotta
orders for Tans Group, And I was

465
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:07.559
like shit. So I found a
classmate that was also an eighteen Charlie and

466
00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:12.960
who also had Fringe, and he
had orders the Third Group and he didn't

467
00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:15.920
want to go to Third Group.
He wanted to go out to Fort Carson,

468
00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:17.799
so he and I did a one
for one, so he ended up

469
00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:22.160
going. I was gonna say that
your desires pretty are pretty much countered a

470
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:27.759
typical so I imagine that it wouldn't
have been too hard to find, you

471
00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:31.279
know, somebody just swapping people would
have been like lining up, auctioned it

472
00:32:31.319 --> 00:32:37.079
off, auctioned the spot off.
Yeah, because at that point, Third

473
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:43.960
Group had just switched its AO from
its area of operations from Africa to just

474
00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:45.680
Afghanistan. Right, they were like
yep, that's what the fight is like,

475
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:49.319
we're going straight there. I didn't
know that at the point. I

476
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:52.160
just didn't want to go to Fort
Carson, you know what I mean.

477
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:57.640
So, but it all worked out. So tell us about like landing on

478
00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:02.079
your first oh da, what that
experience was like. And so so I

479
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:06.559
got done with the Q course and
I took about two weeks worth a leave

480
00:33:07.839 --> 00:33:12.519
and when I showed up to a
third group, that was the group headquarters

481
00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:19.240
was for deploy So the the group's
CSM and the group commander, they were

482
00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:22.839
both with Camp Fans down at a
siege of Soda because Third group had the

483
00:33:22.599 --> 00:33:28.079
sie JASODAF at that point. So
I showed up. The group headquarters is

484
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:30.119
empty, you know what I mean. So staff duty takes me to the

485
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:34.799
back and they were like, hey, nobody's here. I was like,

486
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:37.279
well, I'm here, Like what
do you like? You guys gotta do

487
00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:43.519
something with me, right, so
they so I deployed right away. So

488
00:33:43.640 --> 00:33:49.839
within two weeks I was en route
to Afghanistan to go to Camp ins and

489
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:52.519
Lake Uh and make link up with
Third Group. So I go over there.

490
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:58.559
In process, group headquarters got a
chance to speak with the time Commander,

491
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:06.000
Colonel Bulldock, General Bulldock and then
the Beatin CSM or Group CSM,

492
00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:07.239
and I told him, hey,
I just got out the Q course.

493
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:13.559
I'm ready to go to whatever team
you want me to go to. And

494
00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:15.280
they were like, Nope, you're
not going anywhere. We need you here

495
00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:20.400
at the Beatdock. And I'm like, based offence whatever the acroanym is,

496
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:24.880
I'm like, so you keeping me
here at Bagrum as opposed to me going

497
00:34:24.920 --> 00:34:29.800
to Candahar or wherever link up with
the dudes. So I ended up staying

498
00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:37.159
at the bath for s for four
months. It was horrible, man,

499
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:44.079
it was horrible. But I was
like, hey, since I'm gonna be

500
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:47.119
here, I'm gonna make the best
out of it, right because now I'm

501
00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:54.239
the camp mayor. You know,
I became the guy on camp fans.

502
00:34:54.280 --> 00:34:57.960
Everybody knew me, so I was
like, oh man, this SF guy

503
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:04.880
stuff is awesome. So I'm just
I'm living too good right as a new

504
00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:08.760
guy. I'm living like way too
good to where I started to piss some

505
00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:14.880
people off. Dude, it was
I can't make this ship up, man,

506
00:35:14.920 --> 00:35:21.000
Like I was like we were throwing
parties, like like we were inviting

507
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:24.280
like, uh, chicks from like
this from like Big Army to come on

508
00:35:24.360 --> 00:35:28.679
the camp vans, and we were
like every Thursday, dude, we had

509
00:35:28.719 --> 00:35:31.719
a little bee hut by the Beatoc
and we were just partying it up every

510
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:39.199
Thursday like clockwork. We're having parties
in there. And finally somebody, I'm

511
00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:45.599
not gonna say his name, but
somebody went to the group's CSM and they

512
00:35:45.639 --> 00:35:50.559
were like, hey, for a
new guy, Jay shouldn't be having this

513
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:54.880
much fun those were here. Is
exactly right because I was sitting at one

514
00:35:54.880 --> 00:36:00.639
of those parties and the the S
one and c I. He came in

515
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:04.159
and he was like Jay, like
what did you do? I was like,

516
00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:07.159
what do you mean? He was
like, Yo, such and such

517
00:36:07.719 --> 00:36:13.119
just went to groups CSM and he
told him that you are having too good

518
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:17.320
of a time. You need to
go grunted out like all the other SF

519
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:21.719
guys and earn your keep to have
this much fun. And I'm like,

520
00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:24.159
I showed up. I need to
go to a team. I didn't choose

521
00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:27.719
this, but if you're gonna give
it to me, I'm not just gonna

522
00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:30.519
suck and be miserable, Like I'm
gonna have a good time, right,

523
00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:38.519
come and find out later on that
guy was upset because there was a certain

524
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:45.599
girl that he was pursuing was hanging
out with me, And I'm like,

525
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:47.639
man, this dude is supposed to
be like a senior leader, Like I'm

526
00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:51.599
just an E six. This dude
is like an E nine, Like why

527
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:54.039
is he worried about me? But
he wanted the girl and he couldn't have

528
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:57.679
it because I had it, so
he had to get he had to remove

529
00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:01.760
me from a picture. Bro Like
within two days, I was on a

530
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:07.840
SEE one thirty like literally en route
to fucking sort of South. I was

531
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:13.880
like, I didn't even get a
chance to say goodbye or anything. So

532
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:17.159
I get to kender Heart and that's
where First Battalion was, right, So

533
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:22.920
First Battalion was down there leading up
to that point, like throughout my entire

534
00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:27.360
four months there, I had buddies
that I graduated the Q course with.

535
00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:30.760
I was, you know, doing
work and sort of south. So I

536
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.039
was talking to him on the regular
like, hey, do you guys need

537
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:36.840
a charlie Like I'm over here.
If I get a chance to leave,

538
00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:38.280
like can I come to your team? So I was already politic and in

539
00:37:38.400 --> 00:37:42.639
networking, so whenever I got the
boot, I went straight to sort of

540
00:37:42.679 --> 00:37:45.360
South and I was able to get
on the team right away. But once

541
00:37:45.400 --> 00:37:47.920
I got there, man, I
was like, I wasn't ready for the

542
00:37:47.960 --> 00:37:52.360
new guys, Shenanians because I didn't
know anything about it, right. So

543
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:59.039
I showed up and for the first
four months no one called me by my

544
00:37:59.159 --> 00:38:02.639
name. I think they call me
Daryl, And I was like, shit,

545
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:05.920
man, just call me token,
like what the fuck? Right?

546
00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:09.880
But you know they called me Darryl. I had a little box that they

547
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:15.960
made me build to keep all my
clothing. But throughout all of this,

548
00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:19.519
like I was still you know,
like building the firebase because this was the

549
00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:23.519
the era of I think it was
my Crystal his coin. Yeah, you

550
00:38:23.559 --> 00:38:28.639
know village stability operations and stuff,
right it was like twenty eleven. Yeah,

551
00:38:28.719 --> 00:38:31.320
yeah, yeah, so this is
twenty ten, so doing you know

552
00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:37.559
all that stuff. Like I'm I'm
building like the firebase with my a senior

553
00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:44.239
you know, managing the base camp, running the workforce, training the ALP,

554
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:49.519
managing the NASF. So but as
a new guy, man, like

555
00:38:49.519 --> 00:38:52.119
even though all that shit was going
on, like I just did my job,

556
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:55.320
right, you know what I mean, Like I I earned my keeps

557
00:38:55.400 --> 00:38:58.360
you know what I mean, because
I knew why they were doing it,

558
00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:00.360
and I'm like, dude, I
grew up in New York City, Like,

559
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:04.840
You're not gonna get under my skin
by talking. If you if you

560
00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:07.800
put hands on me, it's different. But eventually, once they realized it

561
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:12.679
was just talking, it wasn't affecting
me, then everything kind of started to

562
00:39:12.719 --> 00:39:16.400
switch and I slowly started to integrate
myself into the actual team. Now and

563
00:39:16.639 --> 00:39:20.880
uh, in twenty ten, a
lot of the guys had probably had quite

564
00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:23.480
a bit of experience in Afghanistan.
What was that like for you coming in

565
00:39:24.039 --> 00:39:28.280
brand not only a brand new Charlie, but also brand new to this combat

566
00:39:28.360 --> 00:39:30.840
environment? Oh no, but you
had already been. I'm sorry, so

567
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:36.599
I thought, yeah, so my
So we're in Kandahart in my camp brown

568
00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.800
and my team comes to pick me
up and my team so it goes,

569
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:46.159
you know, hey, like I
need you to get on the gun trucks

570
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:50.960
and he starts telling me what I
need to do right, And I look

571
00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:53.719
at him. I'm like, they
s are like, like I've deployed before,

572
00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:58.320
what I'm doing through He looks at
me and we all know, like

573
00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:00.920
that's something you don't do right,
especially to your team song. And he

574
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.719
doesn't even know me. He looks
at me. He was like, this

575
00:40:02.760 --> 00:40:06.880
ain't that type of war. This
isn't ira This is the wild, wild

576
00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:08.800
West, right, And I'm like, oh shit, heint talking for like

577
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:14.119
two weeks just because of that statement. But to your point, it was

578
00:40:14.159 --> 00:40:19.119
completely different, because, like I
mentioned earlier, Iraq, I was,

579
00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:22.199
you know, reactive. Something happens
and then we react to it. Now

580
00:40:22.280 --> 00:40:27.920
we're being proactive. We're going out
on missions every day, and we're creating

581
00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:30.920
white space. Right. So I
was loving it, man, It was

582
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:32.800
It was exactly what I was looking
forward to answer your question. Yeah,

583
00:40:32.880 --> 00:40:36.679
yeah, yeah, sorry for some
red in my mind blanked down on now

584
00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:42.320
on your first deployments, but and
what like, what was it? How

585
00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:46.159
did the team treat you? Like, knowing that you sort of already had,

586
00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:50.239
you know, this experience as you
called Bravo, it didn't matter,

587
00:40:50.280 --> 00:40:52.719
man, Okay, now, it
didn't matter at all. I was still

588
00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:57.079
the new guy because and I tell
guys this now, whenever they reach out

589
00:40:57.079 --> 00:41:00.840
to me for guidance, I'm like, you, I don't understand. You're

590
00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:05.039
going from a conventional space to a
unconventional space. Now, just because you've

591
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:08.719
deployed before, you know, with
big army, your missions were probably different

592
00:41:08.719 --> 00:41:10.920
than what you're gonna do in that
stuff, right, all right, So

593
00:41:12.559 --> 00:41:15.320
and it was what I was doing
when I was a big army was even

594
00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:17.719
the way we cleared id's were completely
different than how I used to do it.

595
00:41:17.800 --> 00:41:21.280
Yeah, it was, Hey,
there's an idea over there, like

596
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:25.360
like where's the robot, you know, like where's and my senior Charlie's like,

597
00:41:25.920 --> 00:41:29.360
robot, what do you talk about? Man? Like just go over

598
00:41:29.400 --> 00:41:31.920
there. I'm like, I'm not
going over there. He's like I'm not

599
00:41:31.960 --> 00:41:37.960
going to all the juniors go over
there. Right, But it was different

600
00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:39.960
like we you know, walked around
look for command wire. You know,

601
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:43.400
we cut it if we found it. If there was no command wire,

602
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:47.000
we had the backpack jammers like and
if it was something that wasn't saying,

603
00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.039
were just marked and bypass. A
big army there is no marking bypass,

604
00:41:51.079 --> 00:41:53.760
we have to get rid of it. So even you know, it was

605
00:41:53.760 --> 00:41:58.079
different from that aspect. So everything
that we were doing was was completely different,

606
00:41:59.159 --> 00:42:00.679
and it really opened my eyes.
I'm like, man, like I

607
00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:06.079
wish I had done it earlier,
but I didn't know about it until that

608
00:42:06.119 --> 00:42:09.079
point in my career. When you
were with Bigger One, Were you guys

609
00:42:09.079 --> 00:42:15.119
involved in any tics? No,
No, it was all I guess you

610
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:17.760
can call we weren't involved. We
were just getting shot at right right like

611
00:42:17.840 --> 00:42:22.199
that. I wouldn't call that involved
because I would when I think of involved,

612
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:24.320
I'm thinking of a two way range, like they shooting, we're shooting

613
00:42:24.360 --> 00:42:28.400
back. It was more, hey, you know, we're conducting Rod Clarence

614
00:42:28.440 --> 00:42:30.719
ID goes off and they shoot at
us, and we just stand there like,

615
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:34.559
oh God, like shoot back,
We'll shoot back in it. But

616
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:37.199
we stayed on the hard ball,
like there was no maneuvering, there was

617
00:42:37.239 --> 00:42:42.920
no giving chase, Yeah, come
in, was just risk averse at that

618
00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:45.559
point. You know. That's why
I like, looking back at it now,

619
00:42:45.559 --> 00:42:46.599
I'm like, man, we never
saw a chance, you know what

620
00:42:46.639 --> 00:42:51.599
I mean, because you put an
ideal over there, like dudes get blown

621
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:54.079
up and all we do is shoot
back. We can't chase after that because

622
00:42:54.079 --> 00:42:57.840
they won't let us. It was
just a yeah, it was just a

623
00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:00.159
buss man. I mean, you
said that you want the SF largely for

624
00:43:00.199 --> 00:43:02.440
that reason, looking to take the
fight to the enemy. Yeah, I

625
00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:06.280
mean did you find that when you
got Yeah. Yeah, So that first

626
00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:10.599
deployment again it was vso so we
were kind of like stuck to our little

627
00:43:10.679 --> 00:43:15.800
village there, but just within that
we're able to you know, create white

628
00:43:15.800 --> 00:43:21.480
space and take it to the Taliban. But then the consecutive trips I was

629
00:43:21.519 --> 00:43:24.239
able to, like we were a
lot more kinetic. We were running commandos

630
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:28.800
like two rotations in a row,
and we had a chance to go all

631
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:32.480
over the country because the Kandak commandos
Yeah, yeah, I had second Kandak

632
00:43:32.679 --> 00:43:38.960
out of Jabad and they were the
national response force for Afghanistan, so whenever

633
00:43:39.039 --> 00:43:44.760
something jumped off, they were the
first to go. So running those guys,

634
00:43:45.559 --> 00:43:47.079
we had a chance to go all
over Afghanistan and just take it to

635
00:43:47.079 --> 00:43:52.000
the enemy. What was that like
for you personally? You know, because

636
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:54.880
everybody has this you know, first
sort of combat experience or this first sort

637
00:43:54.920 --> 00:44:01.400
of target prosecution experience. You like
you went to SF because you were tired

638
00:44:01.480 --> 00:44:05.519
of being on the receiving end of
that. So what was it like for

639
00:44:05.599 --> 00:44:09.199
you personally the first time you like
went at it, like prosecuted the target

640
00:44:09.239 --> 00:44:12.840
as it just reacted. Yeah,
it was good. Man, because I

641
00:44:12.840 --> 00:44:15.920
felt like I was getting revenge.
Yeah, Like I was getting paid back,

642
00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:19.480
you know, for all the dudes
that I had lost prior to and

643
00:44:19.480 --> 00:44:22.440
couldn't do anything about. Right,
So it was awesome. Man. I

644
00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.599
think I got to the point where, like most of us, I enjoyed

645
00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:30.239
it too much, to the point
where once I got to that point in

646
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:31.400
my career, it was hard to
turn it off, you know what I

647
00:44:31.400 --> 00:44:37.480
mean. Like I found myself like
wanting more and more of it even though

648
00:44:37.480 --> 00:44:40.679
there wasn't any to be had.
So I would say that was a byproduct

649
00:44:40.719 --> 00:44:45.480
of you know, that first initial
experience. Now I wasn't cutting off ears

650
00:44:45.519 --> 00:44:52.039
and wearing it and you know anything
along those lines. But for normal people,

651
00:44:52.039 --> 00:44:55.360
when you take a life, you
feel some sort of sadness or whatever.

652
00:44:55.480 --> 00:44:59.400
For me, it was like you
had it coming. Who's next,

653
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:04.039
right, and just you know,
over the span of you know, twelve

654
00:45:04.119 --> 00:45:07.079
thirteen years, it just got worse
also with a time right to where I

655
00:45:07.079 --> 00:45:09.320
didn't feel any remorse at all.
Yeah, you know what I mean.

656
00:45:09.480 --> 00:45:15.920
So that's the I guess the blowbag
that could come from, you know,

657
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:19.559
having that type of you know,
hatred that most of us have when we

658
00:45:19.639 --> 00:45:22.280
lose somebody. Yeah, I mean
so, uh, from that first trip,

659
00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:25.760
are there any like really like notable
stories that stand out to you.

660
00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:32.599
Yeah, So from that first trip
doing VSO, the first one that was

661
00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:37.280
like the first time I got shot
at, I think is what stood out

662
00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:40.400
the most because it was just a
regular patrol and we were, you know,

663
00:45:40.440 --> 00:45:45.320
pushing that a little bit further away
from the VSO site at that point

664
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:49.960
because we had enough white space within
the site to be comfortable, but always

665
00:45:49.960 --> 00:45:52.800
like, yeah, we still got
a village that we're responsible for, but

666
00:45:52.920 --> 00:45:57.039
it's a little like it's further out, so we had to push out towards

667
00:45:57.039 --> 00:46:01.760
that village. So we did,
and we went into the village, did

668
00:46:01.800 --> 00:46:07.480
our key leaders engagement Kelly, and
once that was done, we're coming back.

669
00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:15.119
And then we got engaged. And
I remember, uh this because like

670
00:46:15.360 --> 00:46:17.639
we're on the other side of the
waddie now heading back towards the VSO site,

671
00:46:17.679 --> 00:46:22.159
and we had a element that was
still coming out of the waddies and

672
00:46:22.199 --> 00:46:24.840
they started engaging while they were down
in there, so we turned around it.

673
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:29.199
We started shooting back, and of
course, like your typical firefight,

674
00:46:29.400 --> 00:46:32.320
like they're not like right up on
you, right there there's some standoff,

675
00:46:34.199 --> 00:46:37.360
so we're shooting at you know,
muzzle flashes and windows and all that stuff.

676
00:46:37.679 --> 00:46:43.039
But their fires were pretty effective,
like they were like we can see

677
00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:45.800
'em. And I remember I was
standing there and you know, rounds were

678
00:46:45.840 --> 00:46:50.079
hitting around my feet and I just
stopped and I'm like, oh man,

679
00:46:50.159 --> 00:46:52.800
this is what it feels like to
get shot at, you know, not

680
00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:54.440
ducking for fire, like not taking
cover, none of that stuff. I

681
00:46:54.440 --> 00:46:58.119
was just standing there like, oh, Like I was amazed by it,

682
00:46:58.159 --> 00:47:00.039
you know, cause leading up to
this point, all I saw was what's

683
00:47:00.079 --> 00:47:02.960
on television, like, oh you
get you get shot at. It's supposed

684
00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:06.360
to sound like this, and I'm
like, no, this is nothing like

685
00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:08.480
it at all. It's just dirt
coming. It's just kicking up dirt,

686
00:47:08.559 --> 00:47:12.800
right, And I got yelled at
by my you know, senior Bravo.

687
00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:15.320
He's like, hey, idiot,
get me on cover, you know what

688
00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:16.840
I mean. But I almost got
shot in the leg that day. So

689
00:47:17.800 --> 00:47:21.920
that would be, you know,
the most memorable thing that came out of

690
00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:24.960
that deployment, because all the other
ones were like pretty similar. Right,

691
00:47:25.079 --> 00:47:29.480
we would there's some standoff, they
shoot at us, we shoot at them.

692
00:47:30.119 --> 00:47:32.039
If it lasted a certain amount of
time. We called for airs right,

693
00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:36.079
right, And that's how it was
until I got to like the more

694
00:47:36.159 --> 00:47:39.280
kinetic stuff. Yeah yeah, so
yeah, good times. Yeah, so

695
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:44.119
let's jump into that. Working with
the Kandak commandos. Yeah, you guys,

696
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:46.960
I imagine had like ch forty seven
support, get you guys where you

697
00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:52.360
needed to go. Yeah, So
that one was so twenty twelve we went.

698
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.519
So that first one was thirteen months
for me because I had my time

699
00:47:57.559 --> 00:48:02.679
of the BEATOC and then I did
ten months with the team, go back,

700
00:48:02.920 --> 00:48:07.440
went through all that crazy admint stuff, and then we deployed in twenty

701
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:13.639
twelve. This time we're running commandos
out of Jbad and that was we had

702
00:48:14.920 --> 00:48:16.760
at that point, we had ten
dudes on the team because you never have

703
00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:21.119
a full le SF team just because
yeah, it is what it is.

704
00:48:21.480 --> 00:48:27.760
And then we were running a Kandak
that had three companies and then each companies

705
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:32.719
had about one hundred and fifty dudes, right, three platoon of fifty plus

706
00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:38.519
dudes, right, And we would
do twenty four on forty eight off right,

707
00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:42.639
So we would go out for twenty
four hours, we would cleare village

708
00:48:42.639 --> 00:48:45.880
and then we were strong point a
building wait for the sun to come up,

709
00:48:46.039 --> 00:48:50.280
because that's when they typically fight us
and we would fight and then would

710
00:48:50.440 --> 00:48:57.000
x fill the next day. So
we did that because how we routed,

711
00:48:57.519 --> 00:49:01.760
how we rotated was so be a
kandak on green cycle, W one on

712
00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:05.320
amber, and the W one on
red, just like we have ours,

713
00:49:05.400 --> 00:49:08.079
right, so which everyone was on
green cycle, we did missions with them,

714
00:49:08.840 --> 00:49:12.800
and then whenever we were back we
would train the other ones. We

715
00:49:12.840 --> 00:49:15.840
would go check out their training.
So that forty eight off typical wasn't really

716
00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:20.840
off because we were still go train
the other guys. But that one was

717
00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:24.960
good man, because one we had
a chance to you know, be in

718
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:30.480
helicopters everywhere we went, and we
had all the air support whenever we went

719
00:49:30.519 --> 00:49:36.000
out right, which made it that
much more better. My father in law

720
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.440
would say, right, so yeah, we had a ball. One of

721
00:49:39.480 --> 00:49:45.679
the probably one of the best missions
that I did during that rotation was we

722
00:49:45.760 --> 00:49:50.880
got a chance to go back to
kack kating, right, so in two

723
00:49:50.880 --> 00:49:55.480
thousand and April of twenty twelve,
and for those that don't know about cock

724
00:49:55.519 --> 00:50:01.239
kating, that was where that entire
five got over ran, right and nurse

725
00:50:01.239 --> 00:50:05.400
stand they had at the bottom of
the bowl, and yeah, they got

726
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:10.880
over several guys got medal of honors
out of that trip. But after that

727
00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:15.960
incident, the US pulled, uh, the coalition pulled everybody out of that

728
00:50:16.039 --> 00:50:20.599
area. Right, there was no
US presence at all the only thing that

729
00:50:20.719 --> 00:50:24.400
was left was the militia that was, you know, guarding that area or

730
00:50:24.440 --> 00:50:30.280
that lived in that area. So
in twenty twelve, the militia was getting

731
00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:34.280
was getting ready to get over ran. And then the district the District center

732
00:50:34.360 --> 00:50:38.719
was next. So we since we
were a national asset, we got spun

733
00:50:38.840 --> 00:50:44.159
up to go down to Camp Dash
Nurse Stand and actually go take take,

734
00:50:44.239 --> 00:50:47.599
take take, go take the fight
to those dudents. So we spun up

735
00:50:50.199 --> 00:50:57.400
for sevens with all sorts of air
assets because again since we're a national asset.

736
00:50:58.360 --> 00:51:01.440
The president at the Cause I literally
called down to see just Soda Fingers

737
00:51:01.559 --> 00:51:05.599
was like, hey, I need
commandos in there like now. So we

738
00:51:05.639 --> 00:51:09.079
spun up, went down in there
commandos and it was dude, it's forty

739
00:51:09.079 --> 00:51:14.320
eight hours of just duking it out
with those dudes. It was ridiculous.

740
00:51:14.360 --> 00:51:16.199
And I mean that's I've never been
to Nerves Stand, but I've been told

741
00:51:16.199 --> 00:51:21.280
by many people. That's like the
most challenging terrain can possibly imagine. Oh

742
00:51:21.400 --> 00:51:27.800
man, there was one one HLZ
that we had to use that was usable.

743
00:51:27.960 --> 00:51:31.599
The other one was on camdat was
on Kadi. Huh. Right,

744
00:51:31.719 --> 00:51:37.280
So we either land at that one
HLZ that everyone in the area knew was

745
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:43.280
serviceable, or the pilots they wanted
to put us down to cop Kat and

746
00:51:43.320 --> 00:51:45.960
then we would have to fight uphill
to get to opposition. We're literally going

747
00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:51.000
through the Taliban. As we were
trying to get to the high ground.

748
00:51:51.039 --> 00:51:52.840
It was like, no, we're
not doing that, man, put us

749
00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:57.840
on the serviceable HLZ and just have
air, just have them prepped the area.

750
00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:00.599
Yeah, and then once we're on
the ground, then we could maneuver

751
00:52:00.719 --> 00:52:04.760
and get where we need to go. Right, was that service fall was

752
00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:07.280
at at a higher elevation? Oh
yeah, it was literally because the way

753
00:52:07.320 --> 00:52:09.239
he set up, you know,
all the collots and all that stuff.

754
00:52:09.280 --> 00:52:13.760
So we had upper camdash and then
you had lower camdash. All the bad

755
00:52:13.840 --> 00:52:15.480
dudes were at lower camdsh you know
what I mean. So they ended up

756
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:21.559
putting us up here. We linked
up with the militia and then we do

757
00:52:21.719 --> 00:52:24.280
one hundred and fifty commandos. We
just let him loose. Man. And

758
00:52:24.360 --> 00:52:28.320
I remember this because we linked up
with the commander of the militia and they

759
00:52:28.400 --> 00:52:30.760
told us straight up. He was
like, hey, all the women and

760
00:52:30.880 --> 00:52:35.320
children are gone. Yeah, everybody
that's down there, they're all Taliban.

761
00:52:36.239 --> 00:52:43.320
And my captain he actually was with
the one seventy third a couple of years

762
00:52:43.360 --> 00:52:46.159
prior to and he used to be
in that same area. Wow. Yeah,

763
00:52:46.199 --> 00:52:50.000
So it worked out because he still
knew some of the militia dudes,

764
00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:52.440
and he looked at him and he's
like, Okay, that's all we need

765
00:52:52.480 --> 00:52:57.039
to know, bro. Like that
night, like we we got into our

766
00:52:57.039 --> 00:53:02.000
positions and then we just waited and
it's like clockwork, man daybreaks, because

767
00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:06.679
they did knew we were there like
daybreaks, and it was just man,

768
00:53:06.719 --> 00:53:12.199
it was on. Like they they
they put up. They put up a

769
00:53:12.199 --> 00:53:15.719
pretty good fight because the way they
were set up, like inside those mud

770
00:53:15.800 --> 00:53:22.239
huts, they cut out like firing
holes. So and then they backed off

771
00:53:22.280 --> 00:53:25.679
all them to where we didn't see
the muzzleflash. So the sun comes up

772
00:53:27.239 --> 00:53:30.559
and we're taking like effective fire,
like I'm talking about like you can hear

773
00:53:30.559 --> 00:53:34.599
the rounds going by your head.
But we didn't know where it was coming

774
00:53:34.639 --> 00:53:38.159
from because they were like inside the
buildings, but they had it set up

775
00:53:38.199 --> 00:53:42.679
to where the rounds were still like
a loophole. Yeah, so we're like

776
00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:45.400
Jesus man, like, what is
going on? Like we don't like we

777
00:53:45.480 --> 00:53:49.159
hear it, like it's coming in, but we don't see who we're shooting

778
00:53:49.159 --> 00:53:52.360
at. And finally we're just like, you know, fuck it, like

779
00:53:52.719 --> 00:53:57.880
gun runs right, Like, so
we just called in casts man and it

780
00:53:57.960 --> 00:54:00.199
was like, hey, all of
this, we're taking fire from right here

781
00:54:00.280 --> 00:54:07.360
and it's effective, Like get the
freaking apaches down here and just fucking like

782
00:54:07.559 --> 00:54:09.000
level all this stuff, right,
and that's what they So as soon as

783
00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:14.000
the Apache started doing that, they
started to run right And at that point

784
00:54:14.039 --> 00:54:17.519
you got commandos with the two forties
up top, like we got our freaking

785
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:23.960
gustaves and it was just like open
season man. Forty eight hours later,

786
00:54:24.360 --> 00:54:30.480
like sixty eight e kia, Wow, that was the first two days.

787
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:32.840
How are you guys getting I mean
I assumed that over forty eight hours you

788
00:54:32.880 --> 00:54:37.920
have to get some combat resupply house. Yeah. So prior to leaving as

789
00:54:37.960 --> 00:54:45.239
the Age and Charlie, I had
bundles speed bundles planned, right, so

790
00:54:45.880 --> 00:54:52.039
we had airy supply schedule, and
then we also had like we also went

791
00:54:52.119 --> 00:54:55.880
in heavy since we had the CH
forty sevens. We loaded that thing down

792
00:54:57.079 --> 00:54:59.679
and when we came off the helicopters, we just threw everything off and we

793
00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:05.719
left on the HLZ right. So
throughout the entire days we had like the

794
00:55:05.800 --> 00:55:08.559
locals were on upper Camp Desh with
us, and they had donkeys. So

795
00:55:08.639 --> 00:55:14.280
my team, my team song had
them doing runs back and forth grabbing supply

796
00:55:14.360 --> 00:55:16.800
off the HLZ and bringing it down
to us up upper cam Desh. So

797
00:55:16.920 --> 00:55:21.480
food, water, more amo and
all that's. And we had commandos man

798
00:55:21.480 --> 00:55:24.199
one hundred and fifty commandos, Like
we we gave each of them like a

799
00:55:24.280 --> 00:55:28.519
thing of gustav round to carry because
you know, had those two rounds in

800
00:55:28.559 --> 00:55:30.239
each. We just handed into them
be like hey carry this, carry that

801
00:55:30.280 --> 00:55:35.239
carry right, So we had like
our own little freaking resupply going. And

802
00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:37.119
on top of that, we had
those bundles that and we ended up using

803
00:55:37.159 --> 00:55:40.800
them later on because we ended up
staying out there for seven days fighting those

804
00:55:40.840 --> 00:55:45.360
dudes. Yeah, imagine that many
rounds, like shooting that that many good

805
00:55:45.360 --> 00:55:50.719
shot I was really ranked some thoughs
oh yeah, oh yeah, because I

806
00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:52.920
fired three and you know the max
is two. I fired three, and

807
00:55:52.960 --> 00:55:57.199
then of course you're not keeping count
right and the heat of the moment,

808
00:55:57.400 --> 00:56:01.239
we're just sending them. So my
Bravo had to pull me off of it

809
00:56:01.280 --> 00:56:04.719
and then he got on it and
then we just kind of swapped out like

810
00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:07.719
that. But yeah, it was
wild, man, because we can we're

811
00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:13.159
shooting from upper cam Besh into lower
km Besh right, and then you can

812
00:56:13.280 --> 00:56:17.039
see them like going through like their
kasvak plan, right, so as dudes

813
00:56:17.079 --> 00:56:22.199
get injured, like there there was
a bridge down the road, because Pakistan

814
00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:25.840
is like I would say, about
ten minutes also down the road, so

815
00:56:28.599 --> 00:56:30.840
they have like a pickup com they
load up there wounded and then they haul

816
00:56:30.920 --> 00:56:34.800
but you know, and then they'll
go do whatever, and then they'll throughout

817
00:56:34.800 --> 00:56:38.599
the entire days they just repeat that
same process. But it was nice,

818
00:56:38.599 --> 00:56:43.119
man, because after everything was done, we had a chance to go down

819
00:56:43.199 --> 00:56:45.679
to cop Kading and actually walk those
same grounds and he was like, man,

820
00:56:45.719 --> 00:56:49.320
they left a bunch of shit behind, like what the fuck? Like

821
00:56:49.400 --> 00:56:52.800
connex is full of stuff. You
can tell, like the Talabana been living

822
00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:55.719
in there, just pillaging all that
crazy stuff down there. So, yeah,

823
00:56:55.719 --> 00:57:01.079
that was a pretty good experience going
back there actually fighting off the same

824
00:57:01.119 --> 00:57:05.199
guys that probably had a lot to
do with top kating. Yeah. Yeah,

825
00:57:05.239 --> 00:57:08.360
so that was actually pretty cool.
That's wild man, Yeah, good

826
00:57:08.400 --> 00:57:15.760
time, all of these Like there's
so many stories about Afghanistan that like unless

827
00:57:15.760 --> 00:57:19.119
you talk to the guy who was
there, Like, I don't think did

828
00:57:19.119 --> 00:57:21.960
this ever come out in the papers
or anything? Probably not. Yeah.

829
00:57:22.039 --> 00:57:29.480
So there was like a short snipbit
on it about you know, Oda's going

830
00:57:29.519 --> 00:57:34.400
back into that area and doing work
and killing like seventy two plus dudes.

831
00:57:35.159 --> 00:57:40.280
And then there's a book out called
The Outposts by the guy from CNN,

832
00:57:40.400 --> 00:57:45.280
Jake Tapper. There's a verbiage on
there about you know, us being the

833
00:57:45.320 --> 00:57:52.039
first Americans to go back there since
cating fail. But again, to your

834
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:57.039
point, there's a lot of history
that isn't being talked about. Yeah.

835
00:57:57.280 --> 00:58:00.320
Yeah, I think we do ourselves
a disservice and until this day, similar

836
00:58:00.360 --> 00:58:05.000
to you guys, like I'm trying
to do podcasts, I'm trying to get

837
00:58:05.639 --> 00:58:08.480
our community out to talk more,
right, because it's like I get it.

838
00:58:08.519 --> 00:58:13.440
There's a difference between being a quiet
professional or like I got it,

839
00:58:13.519 --> 00:58:19.280
man, but that's just when the
realm of podcasting and social media, it's

840
00:58:19.320 --> 00:58:22.000
not going to go away, right. We can be like the dinosaurs and

841
00:58:22.079 --> 00:58:24.159
kind of fade away, right,
because if we don't tell the youth who

842
00:58:24.199 --> 00:58:28.760
we are and what we do.
Even due till this day, man Like,

843
00:58:28.840 --> 00:58:30.400
I still get questions from some of
these younger guys that reach out to

844
00:58:30.400 --> 00:58:34.880
me through Instagram and YouTube, what's
a Green Beret? Man Like, what

845
00:58:34.920 --> 00:58:37.039
do you guys do? Are you
guys like Navy seals? I'm like,

846
00:58:37.079 --> 00:58:42.119
no, man Like, we're a
completely different entity. Yeah, these are

847
00:58:42.159 --> 00:58:44.880
the missions that we conduct, right, Yeah, uncommissioned warfare, and not

848
00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:47.440
a lot of people can do that. I'm having to explain to them what

849
00:58:47.480 --> 00:58:52.280
it is when other units have done
a really good job at selling themselves,

850
00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:55.079
right, and that's something that we
don't really do a lot of. And

851
00:58:55.119 --> 00:58:59.760
there's a substantial difference, you know, because you talk about the quiet professional

852
00:58:59.800 --> 00:59:06.960
there's a substantial difference between beating your
chest and and relaying like personal history.

853
00:59:07.199 --> 00:59:14.039
And while you're relaying personal history,
you're relaying history itself right as you tell

854
00:59:14.079 --> 00:59:15.800
me the story. I mean,
it sounds so much like the mic Force

855
00:59:15.920 --> 00:59:21.800
mission in Vietnam or Hatchet for mac
V Sagad you know, going in heavy

856
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:25.840
yeah, direct action, but working
with indigenous personnel. It's really cool.

857
00:59:25.920 --> 00:59:30.199
Yeah yeah. And there's a lot
more of these type of stories out there,

858
00:59:30.440 --> 00:59:34.119
right, we just don't know about
them, right, right, dude,

859
00:59:34.440 --> 00:59:37.960
Like we have metal Fual winners,
we have dudes that's done incredible things,

860
00:59:37.119 --> 00:59:39.679
right, And sometimes it breaks my
heart knowing that, hey, that

861
00:59:39.800 --> 00:59:45.199
story is gonna die with that do
or some of these history it's just gonna

862
00:59:45.239 --> 00:59:49.159
go away. You know. The
folks that are gonna you know, backfill

863
00:59:49.440 --> 00:59:52.719
us are gonna have to relive some
of the same pitfall right when it could

864
00:59:52.760 --> 00:59:57.679
easily be mitigated by them getting on
YouTube and watching a podcast and saying,

865
00:59:57.679 --> 01:00:00.320
oh wow, Jami dismstake or Jack, like, let's not do that again,

866
01:00:00.440 --> 01:00:02.480
right, Like that's what it's all
about, is better in the next

867
01:00:02.519 --> 01:00:07.199
generation. Well, how many like
Vietnam lessons for Vietnam did we have to

868
01:00:07.280 --> 01:00:13.159
relearn? You know, you know, like the heritage isn't is not continued,

869
01:00:13.199 --> 01:00:16.400
it's not kept on unfortunately. So
after that one, you went back

870
01:00:16.400 --> 01:00:21.199
and did another deployment with Kandak.
Yeah. So this one was with second

871
01:00:21.280 --> 01:00:25.119
kandyc out of Jbad. The trip
after that, twenty fourteen, we did

872
01:00:27.199 --> 01:00:31.360
third Kandak out of Gordaz. We
did a rotation with them, and that

873
01:00:31.559 --> 01:00:37.039
was a really kinetic operation too,
Like that one itself was you know,

874
01:00:37.199 --> 01:00:42.880
like twenty fifteen, like we're done
in Iraq right, like where this was

875
01:00:42.920 --> 01:00:45.679
the era where we close everything down
right, and then we went back in

876
01:00:45.719 --> 01:00:52.760
and opened everything up right. So
that one out of Gordaz was more area

877
01:00:52.840 --> 01:00:55.360
focused, so we didn't have the
entire country at that point. We just

878
01:00:55.400 --> 01:01:00.400
had our little slice of the pie. And that one was just more of

879
01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:05.239
the same, just connectic. But
the only different there was hey, like

880
01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:08.320
they already told us that we're leaving, like after this, like this is

881
01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:14.559
the last hurrah, We're closing,
Like we were going out and conducting ops

882
01:01:14.599 --> 01:01:17.760
and then we were retrofitting a base
camp at the same time. So that

883
01:01:17.800 --> 01:01:22.519
one was a different beast because I
don't know how the Tyler Bann found out

884
01:01:22.519 --> 01:01:28.599
that we were supposed to leave.
So it was sporadic here and there because

885
01:01:28.639 --> 01:01:30.559
we would go out, you know, have an awesome mission, get into

886
01:01:30.559 --> 01:01:34.360
some firefight, and then we'll go
out the next day and it'd be dead

887
01:01:34.480 --> 01:01:37.880
because at that point they're just waiting
us out, like, hey, you

888
01:01:37.960 --> 01:01:40.159
guys are leaving in a couple of
months, then we can have all this

889
01:01:40.199 --> 01:01:45.440
shit, right. But that one, I remember, I got one takeaway

890
01:01:45.480 --> 01:01:52.480
from that, and that was a
lot of people call it your happy to

891
01:01:52.519 --> 01:01:55.320
be a live day or whatever,
you know what I mean. So I

892
01:01:55.320 --> 01:01:58.880
remember when I got shot at,
and I also remember when I almost died,

893
01:01:58.960 --> 01:02:02.039
you know what I mean. And
this one in particular, we had

894
01:02:02.119 --> 01:02:07.480
hit this village. It wasn't even
our op. It was a first group

895
01:02:07.519 --> 01:02:15.079
team that that needed support because since
we had commandos, if other teams want

896
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:19.960
us to come in and help them, since we had like one hundred and

897
01:02:19.960 --> 01:02:22.679
fifty dudes, like we can easily
go in and support them. So they

898
01:02:22.719 --> 01:02:25.719
requested us to go in. So
we went in there and we cleared this

899
01:02:25.880 --> 01:02:32.719
entire village, and I remember we
got them with the clearing operation with strong

900
01:02:32.760 --> 01:02:37.719
point and then we just kind of
hung out. But the day prior to

901
01:02:37.800 --> 01:02:42.639
there was no move like, there
was no intel saying that there was bad

902
01:02:42.679 --> 01:02:45.519
dudes there. We didn't have any
issues while we were clearing through the village.

903
01:02:45.559 --> 01:02:47.760
So we're like, oh, this
is another dead spot, like whatever,

904
01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:52.280
man, like we're just gonna hang
out. So I told my we

905
01:02:52.679 --> 01:02:55.000
we had the American flag, we
had the Texas flag under that. Just

906
01:02:57.400 --> 01:03:00.800
one of my buddies was sun tanning. Like it was like, okay,

907
01:03:00.840 --> 01:03:05.519
this is what we're doing, right, So I was on uh one of

908
01:03:05.559 --> 01:03:09.039
the rooftops with my buddy and we
were just talking and at that point,

909
01:03:09.079 --> 01:03:14.159
we every time we go out,
we always rolled in heavy, like that's

910
01:03:14.159 --> 01:03:17.599
something that we've always done. So
my bravos were genius in that way that

911
01:03:19.239 --> 01:03:27.800
they brought it. They brought out
the the uh the grenade launcher Mark nineteen

912
01:03:28.239 --> 01:03:32.559
right, so yeah, so we
had the Mark nineteen. We also had

913
01:03:32.599 --> 01:03:36.639
the Mark fourteen, the handheld one. Oh no, no, no,

914
01:03:36.840 --> 01:03:39.360
this is like the Mark nineteen.
Got your vehicle the vehicle, right,

915
01:03:39.440 --> 01:03:44.519
yeah, Because we have the commandos, we're like yo, Like wherever we

916
01:03:44.559 --> 01:03:49.000
went, we always rolled heavy,
worst case scenario, right, So we

917
01:03:49.079 --> 01:03:52.320
had the Mark nineteen's, we had
the mini gun. We had all that

918
01:03:52.360 --> 01:03:55.119
stuff and every time were strong point
because we would always roll with the razors.

919
01:03:55.119 --> 01:04:00.119
Also, every time were strong point, we took am off the vehicles,

920
01:04:00.199 --> 01:04:03.480
the razors and then we put them
on top of the buildings and we

921
01:04:03.559 --> 01:04:09.280
build fortified fighting positions, right,
we had all the command We always had

922
01:04:09.280 --> 01:04:11.920
all the commandos fill sand bags,
and like we set it up as if

923
01:04:11.960 --> 01:04:15.320
we're expecting the fight. So we
had it set up, you know,

924
01:04:15.599 --> 01:04:18.960
identical to how we've done it like
hundreds of time, and but this time

925
01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:21.800
it set up manning it and hanging
out, like we're just hanging out because

926
01:04:23.039 --> 01:04:28.320
we're not expecting to fight. So
we're up there talking and then like I

927
01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:31.320
remember it vividly, like he and
I were talking face to face and I

928
01:04:31.840 --> 01:04:35.880
heard the rounds going between him and
I. That's how closed they were,

929
01:04:36.760 --> 01:04:43.480
and it was like and then I
watched it hit. There was a first

930
01:04:43.480 --> 01:04:46.960
group dude with us. He had
a scar heavy. The rounds hit his

931
01:04:47.039 --> 01:04:53.800
scar and ricoshetted into his bicycle.
Oh yeah, so he got hit.

932
01:04:54.679 --> 01:04:59.480
And then I just jumped off because
like I didn't have my kid on,

933
01:04:59.679 --> 01:05:01.519
I didn't have my gun on like
anything. I was just up there just

934
01:05:02.039 --> 01:05:06.199
playing around, right, So I
dove off the roof and my buddy did

935
01:05:06.239 --> 01:05:12.400
the same. And then that entire
morning was just us going back and forth

936
01:05:12.440 --> 01:05:16.000
with them called Gee's the Mark nineteen. I was like, oh shit.

937
01:05:16.280 --> 01:05:23.039
The first group dude like his bicycles
all like trah, his score heavy was

938
01:05:23.039 --> 01:05:27.480
all messed up, and I was
like, man, I credited to my

939
01:05:27.559 --> 01:05:29.960
lucky hat. That's why I wear
this all the time. I'm like,

940
01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:32.320
oh man, this this hat has
saved my life more time than I can

941
01:05:32.440 --> 01:05:38.719
remember. But yeah, so that
was the because just an inch over and

942
01:05:38.840 --> 01:05:42.760
my whole jawline would have been gun
not my entire like head, you know

943
01:05:42.800 --> 01:05:45.000
what I mean. Like, that's
how close I came to not even having

944
01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.599
a freaking face. Yeah, So, how how easy was it for you

945
01:05:49.679 --> 01:05:53.840
guys? It's being kandack. How
easy was it for you guys to get

946
01:05:53.880 --> 01:05:57.559
air on station? And pretty easy? Yeah, pretty easy? Pretty easy

947
01:05:57.559 --> 01:06:00.360
because running commandos, man, you
you get everything that you asked for.

948
01:06:00.480 --> 01:06:08.119
So we had two j tax,
two comeback controllers that were attached and everything

949
01:06:08.199 --> 01:06:12.400
we want on were level ones,
right, So that's just the level of

950
01:06:12.440 --> 01:06:14.800
the conduct for the audience if you
guys don't know what we're talking about.

951
01:06:15.119 --> 01:06:17.960
So with the level ones, we
had the ability to you know, gunships,

952
01:06:18.159 --> 01:06:25.039
apaches, like we had all of
that, but they weren't they were

953
01:06:25.039 --> 01:06:30.079
there for infill and nex fil right
and then on like doing the actual engagement,

954
01:06:30.880 --> 01:06:33.159
we would still have to call and
ask for it, but also a

955
01:06:33.159 --> 01:06:39.599
ton of stuff on station during an
operation just they cover infill the next field

956
01:06:39.639 --> 01:06:43.440
because we both know, like that's
the most injurious time. But during the

957
01:06:43.519 --> 01:06:45.960
day, since it's a twenty four
hour up, they push off and go

958
01:06:46.039 --> 01:06:51.239
support wherever. But if we did
get into a firefight and we call for

959
01:06:51.280 --> 01:06:56.360
support, they normally show up because
we were still priority. Yeah know what

960
01:06:56.360 --> 01:07:00.239
I mean. So so yeah,
and so as time goes on, I

961
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:03.480
mean, you're doing these deployments,
and when was it about that you took

962
01:07:03.519 --> 01:07:10.440
a team sergeant position. So twenty
fourteen into twenty fifteen, we get back

963
01:07:10.480 --> 01:07:16.559
from that rotation, and at that
point I'm like, man, this we

964
01:07:16.639 --> 01:07:19.519
just closed down a base camp like
this, there's normal fight to be had.

965
01:07:19.719 --> 01:07:24.280
So I went, I go to
Swick, and I go to the

966
01:07:24.280 --> 01:07:29.960
eighteen Charlie Committee. I was an
UXO instructor, then I was the op

967
01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:33.199
sergeant over there, and then I
became the committee chief, and then I

968
01:07:33.239 --> 01:07:38.559
got promoted out of Swick and then
went back to third Group and took over

969
01:07:38.960 --> 01:07:43.920
my team in twenty nineteen. Twenty
nineteen awesome, yeah, and then from

970
01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:47.880
there probably the best job in the
regiment, you know what I mean,

971
01:07:47.920 --> 01:07:51.440
Because at that point, man,
like, I'm you know, I had,

972
01:07:51.480 --> 01:07:58.880
like I had a really young group
of dudes, right, but my

973
01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:02.360
most senior guys had two years in
Wow, So it was all eighteen x

974
01:08:02.480 --> 01:08:06.920
rays. Yeah too much, yea, to where I had to go outside

975
01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:12.400
and recruit some senior guys just to
help mentor those dudes. Yeah, but

976
01:08:12.480 --> 01:08:15.480
it was awesome, man, because
now I had a chance to you know,

977
01:08:15.679 --> 01:08:19.319
coach, teach and mentor and develop
all those guys until this day,

978
01:08:19.359 --> 01:08:24.199
man like, I'll hit them up
and be like, hey, man,

979
01:08:24.199 --> 01:08:27.239
I'm going to New York call a
team House podcast. Give me two coins,

980
01:08:27.319 --> 01:08:30.640
right, And they give me two
coins, right. So some of

981
01:08:30.640 --> 01:08:32.359
the best dudes that I've ever worked
with. It's cool. Yeah, it's

982
01:08:32.359 --> 01:08:34.960
pretty. So what was it like
being a team sergeant? I mean,

983
01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.279
aside from what you described, I
mean, like operationally at that time,

984
01:08:39.399 --> 01:08:45.119
twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, Yeah, so twenty nineteen. I always joked

985
01:08:45.119 --> 01:08:49.359
that I had my hardest deployment in
twenty nineteen because when you're in Iraq,

986
01:08:49.439 --> 01:08:55.439
I mean, when you're in Iraq
Afghanistan, like you know, you're left

987
01:08:55.439 --> 01:08:58.239
and right limits like you know,
Hey, I'm gonna wake up. I'm

988
01:08:58.239 --> 01:09:00.960
gonna do this. I'm inside the
wire. I go out to the wire.

989
01:09:00.960 --> 01:09:01.880
It's game on, right, and
I mean shooting at me. I'm

990
01:09:01.880 --> 01:09:09.239
shooting back twenty nineteen. I took
my team at Jordan for seven months,

991
01:09:09.520 --> 01:09:14.239
all right, and I like,
so you're sending me to Jordan, permissive

992
01:09:14.840 --> 01:09:18.600
area of operation. Guys can go
drink, Guys can go party, Guys

993
01:09:18.760 --> 01:09:24.640
can essentially hang themselves if they wanted
to, right just through all the yeah,

994
01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:28.720
not literally yea, yeah, yeah, but they're giving a lot of

995
01:09:28.760 --> 01:09:32.439
rope, yeah tons away to get
in trouble. But I've always been that

996
01:09:32.600 --> 01:09:41.279
leader to where like I'm a demand, not necessarily demand, but I treat

997
01:09:41.319 --> 01:09:44.600
my guys in a matter as if
they were my own kids, right Like

998
01:09:44.760 --> 01:09:48.520
I invest in them, I took
care of them to where when it's time

999
01:09:48.520 --> 01:09:50.680
for them to do the same for
me, they'll do that. Right.

1000
01:09:50.720 --> 01:09:57.159
So when we hit Jordan and we're
you know, working with Jordaanian special Forces,

1001
01:09:57.239 --> 01:10:01.359
guys, like we trained them from
seven to to about one o'clock and

1002
01:10:01.399 --> 01:10:04.840
then guys off right spread to the
fall wings to go do whatever they wanted

1003
01:10:04.880 --> 01:10:08.920
to do. But at no point
in time did any of my guys ever

1004
01:10:08.920 --> 01:10:13.439
get in trouble because I had,
you know, instill that discipline and they

1005
01:10:13.479 --> 01:10:15.319
gave a shit about me, and
they knew, hey, if I go

1006
01:10:15.439 --> 01:10:17.239
drinking and I get myself in trouble, then Jay's gonna get fired, and

1007
01:10:17.279 --> 01:10:19.760
then who knows who we're gonna get
in here? He's gonna funk sit up

1008
01:10:19.840 --> 01:10:25.600
right. So I say it was
the hardest deployment because for me, it

1009
01:10:25.720 --> 01:10:29.079
was hard because it's like, man, I have no control over my dudes,

1010
01:10:29.239 --> 01:10:32.439
right. I'm not gonna you know, restrict them to you know,

1011
01:10:32.520 --> 01:10:36.000
casodic or the base that we were
at. I want to let him go

1012
01:10:36.079 --> 01:10:40.199
do all that stuff right like,
and I want to trust that they're gonna

1013
01:10:40.199 --> 01:10:45.239
do the right thing. But at
night I was still like, it's two

1014
01:10:45.239 --> 01:10:48.960
o'clock in the such and such is
still missing, like what's going on?

1015
01:10:49.119 --> 01:10:51.960
Right? So that kept me up
at night because I'm like, I don't

1016
01:10:51.960 --> 01:10:54.600
want to be that guy that's like, hey, man, where you're at

1017
01:10:54.600 --> 01:10:58.159
this two o'clock like you're supposed to
be. I'm like, nope, these

1018
01:10:58.279 --> 01:11:01.399
these are grown men. Like go
like, if I can't trust you here,

1019
01:11:01.600 --> 01:11:03.960
then how am I gonna trust you
in combat. Yeah, I should

1020
01:11:04.000 --> 01:11:09.319
be able to give you your your
you know your left and right limits.

1021
01:11:09.319 --> 01:11:12.079
Hey, you guys can go out
and do whatever, but you know,

1022
01:11:12.239 --> 01:11:15.439
don't fight with the locals or don't
drink, don't drive drunk. Like I

1023
01:11:15.439 --> 01:11:17.399
should be able to give you simple
guidance, and you follow them in a

1024
01:11:17.399 --> 01:11:20.479
permissive country, Ye'll be okay.
If you can't do that, then you

1025
01:11:20.479 --> 01:11:24.840
don't belong on this team. And
it worked out perfectly, man like we

1026
01:11:24.920 --> 01:11:28.119
did seven months down there working with
the Jordanians, and then we came back

1027
01:11:28.119 --> 01:11:31.319
and no incident at all. Out
of curiosity, why why did third group

1028
01:11:31.359 --> 01:11:38.079
go to Jordan because Fifth Group couldn't
hold their own But no, So at

1029
01:11:38.119 --> 01:11:42.319
this point Fifth Group was heavy in
Syria. They were doing a lot of

1030
01:11:42.359 --> 01:11:45.920
work in Syria and O would dwell
time as far as had. The pillow

1031
01:11:46.640 --> 01:11:51.800
was getting out of whack for Fifth
Group, right, so Soulcum sord Fit

1032
01:11:51.880 --> 01:12:00.000
forced to step in and uh rotate
in Syria and also Jordan and also Lebanon

1033
01:12:00.199 --> 01:12:02.039
to give them a break. And
we did just that. We had a

1034
01:12:02.039 --> 01:12:06.760
team in Lebanon, My team was
in Jordan. We had guys at Tower

1035
01:12:06.840 --> 01:12:14.720
twenty two ATG Kabani and all those
other places. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

1036
01:12:15.079 --> 01:12:18.000
but yeah, it was just to
give them like a quick break so

1037
01:12:18.039 --> 01:12:23.439
they can get back on a cycle. Because a lot of folks like when

1038
01:12:23.479 --> 01:12:27.680
they you know hear you know SF
guys, they don't realize that we're a

1039
01:12:27.840 --> 01:12:32.800
line based on language. And so
five group had like they've been in the

1040
01:12:32.800 --> 01:12:36.960
Middle East for so long and you
know, your first groupers are probably doing

1041
01:12:38.039 --> 01:12:42.039
sit in Thailand, and yeah,
they don't rotate over there as much,

1042
01:12:42.119 --> 01:12:45.159
right, so these guys are stuck
like going back to back to back.

1043
01:12:45.319 --> 01:12:46.800
Yeah, and it's up to the
leadership of un Silicon and say, hey,

1044
01:12:46.800 --> 01:12:49.560
man, like let's rotate some of
these guys. And so these guys

1045
01:12:49.560 --> 01:12:53.680
don't get burned out. So they
did that. We went in. I

1046
01:12:53.720 --> 01:12:55.720
was like, man, Jordan is
awesome, you know what I mean.

1047
01:12:55.800 --> 01:12:59.319
So it was a good trip over. That's cool. And so how did

1048
01:12:59.760 --> 01:13:01.119
you came back home? And then
how did you sort of like wind down

1049
01:13:01.159 --> 01:13:08.000
your career in the army. So
I got back and I was supposed to

1050
01:13:08.079 --> 01:13:14.319
do a third year as a team
sergeant. And at this point, like

1051
01:13:14.600 --> 01:13:16.880
I finally got my captain to get
a shit together, like we're just gelling

1052
01:13:16.960 --> 01:13:20.319
as a team, right, and
we go to Sefaiwic. We go to

1053
01:13:20.319 --> 01:13:27.439
Sphaiwic and like team is closed,
Like I'm happy, I'm having a good

1054
01:13:27.479 --> 01:13:31.119
old time. And of course that's
when the universe has a way of humbling

1055
01:13:31.159 --> 01:13:34.760
you, right, Like that's when
adversity kicks in. So we're at Safaiwic

1056
01:13:34.920 --> 01:13:38.399
and I'm just having one of those
days like I'm on the range like my

1057
01:13:38.399 --> 01:13:41.159
team, because all we did in
Jordan was like we trained the heck out

1058
01:13:41.159 --> 01:13:44.720
of it, so we were like
probably the best shooting team in the company.

1059
01:13:44.800 --> 01:13:47.920
Right. We go to Sefhawic,
like I had like five guys in

1060
01:13:47.960 --> 01:13:51.199
the top ten stress shoot, right, So we're just crushing it. And

1061
01:13:51.279 --> 01:13:57.520
I remember that day like we're doing
breaching procedures right, So we had our

1062
01:13:57.600 --> 01:14:02.039
guns loaded, but we weren't doing
anything with them, right. So I

1063
01:14:02.079 --> 01:14:06.159
get a couple of phone calls,
so I step away. The guys go

1064
01:14:06.319 --> 01:14:11.239
to the bay and they clear their
stuff because it's time to leave. I

1065
01:14:11.359 --> 01:14:14.800
clear my loan gun, but I
completely forgot to clear my pistol, so

1066
01:14:14.840 --> 01:14:17.640
my pistol was still lie. So
I go into bay and I have an

1067
01:14:17.720 --> 01:14:23.239
ND inside the bay, right,
So that took place, and I'm like,

1068
01:14:23.439 --> 01:14:27.560
god, man, so that was
defeating for me because I'm the team.

1069
01:14:27.640 --> 01:14:30.800
Sorry, right right, there's nobody
around, It's just me and my

1070
01:14:30.880 --> 01:14:34.800
team, and I'm fucking defeated,
Like I am just pissed, right,

1071
01:14:35.560 --> 01:14:39.760
So I go outside. I'm like, God, what the fuck just happened.

1072
01:14:40.319 --> 01:14:42.199
Of course, we look around,
we find a hole, make sure

1073
01:14:42.239 --> 01:14:46.680
nobody's hurt. But I go outside
and my guys come out there like,

1074
01:14:46.680 --> 01:14:50.159
hey, ye Jay, like nobody
heard anything, like nobody saw anything,

1075
01:14:50.239 --> 01:14:56.439
like like we can call this good
and be done right, But of course

1076
01:14:56.479 --> 01:14:59.159
we know, like that's not how
that works, right, especially when I

1077
01:14:59.359 --> 01:15:03.199
as the stair the bird. I
told my guys when doing counseling, Hey,

1078
01:15:03.399 --> 01:15:08.600
this happens. This is the consequence
right now. I can't now turn

1079
01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:12.960
back and say, hey, it's
me. I mean what I do what

1080
01:15:13.000 --> 01:15:17.319
I say exactly exactly. So I
had three months left, so I called

1081
01:15:17.319 --> 01:15:19.680
my company song major. I was
like, hey, man, like this

1082
01:15:19.880 --> 01:15:25.600
just happened. My Fox is gonna
be in charge of the team in the

1083
01:15:25.640 --> 01:15:29.840
meantime, like I'm I'm just gonna
go to switch because at that point I

1084
01:15:29.840 --> 01:15:32.319
had already lined up a first song
job at Swick, right, so I

1085
01:15:32.359 --> 01:15:35.640
was like, hey, if it's
cool with you, like, I can't

1086
01:15:35.680 --> 01:15:40.439
stay on the team and have double
standards going on. That's pretty hardcore that

1087
01:15:40.520 --> 01:15:43.720
you, yeah, fired yourself from
the team because you didn't meet your own

1088
01:15:43.720 --> 01:15:47.239
standards. That's that's hardcore. Man. I didn't like it, you know

1089
01:15:47.239 --> 01:15:50.199
what I mean. I didn't like
it. My guys didn't like it.

1090
01:15:50.319 --> 01:15:55.479
But at the end of the day, though, like I couldn't honestly like

1091
01:15:55.920 --> 01:16:00.359
not I wasn't gonna kill myself,
but I couldn't look at my guys way

1092
01:16:00.520 --> 01:16:03.560
right because at then, like in
the back of their minds, even though

1093
01:16:03.600 --> 01:16:06.640
they didn't have a problem with it, it would still be like, oh,

1094
01:16:06.800 --> 01:16:11.520
like he had an incident and he's
still well at least in the back

1095
01:16:11.560 --> 01:16:15.199
of It gets harder to instill discipline
at that point once like you've you've sort

1096
01:16:15.239 --> 01:16:20.319
of laid down a law and the
standards and then you know and then you

1097
01:16:20.359 --> 01:16:25.600
know they're human error yeah and yeah, yeah, so it sucks. So

1098
01:16:25.880 --> 01:16:28.600
I, you know, told my
my saw major, Hey, this is

1099
01:16:29.159 --> 01:16:32.880
what my plan is. Fox took
the team, finished it off, and

1100
01:16:33.720 --> 01:16:40.119
I went to Swick, right.
But when I got to Swick, since

1101
01:16:40.199 --> 01:16:45.079
I had already like laid out the
job and I had to ensure yours and

1102
01:16:45.119 --> 01:16:49.600
I was honest with them. Then
it wasn't a big deal. Because I

1103
01:16:49.640 --> 01:16:51.439
went to the CSM. I was
like, hey, like, I had

1104
01:16:51.439 --> 01:16:57.520
to leave three months early. This
is what happened. Like do with that

1105
01:16:57.560 --> 01:17:00.279
information. Whatever you see fit right, and that's why. And he was

1106
01:17:00.319 --> 01:17:01.199
like, hey, man, like, I've known dudes over at the unit

1107
01:17:01.239 --> 01:17:04.399
that blew their leg off, or
I've known guys that's done X, Y

1108
01:17:04.439 --> 01:17:09.720
and Z. So the fact that
I was open and owned it went a

1109
01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:13.640
long way, which is why I
try to tell these kids nowadays. Shit

1110
01:17:13.720 --> 01:17:16.279
happens to all of us, right, we all have bad days. But

1111
01:17:16.880 --> 01:17:20.119
what you do about it, that's
what really matters, right, like holding

1112
01:17:20.119 --> 01:17:24.840
yourself accountable. I didn't have to
fire myself. I could have let my

1113
01:17:24.920 --> 01:17:27.039
team covered for me, but at
the end of the day, that wasn't

1114
01:17:27.039 --> 01:17:30.439
the right thing to do, and
I knew like that would fuck with me

1115
01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:39.920
and in case in point, the
following the following month, another sister team

1116
01:17:40.359 --> 01:17:45.720
had a similar incident, and the
warrant tried covering it right, and then

1117
01:17:45.359 --> 01:17:49.600
battalion finds out, and then group
finds out, and it's like a whole

1118
01:17:49.640 --> 01:17:53.720
fucking shit show. It's the cover
up that becomes the problem, right,

1119
01:17:53.960 --> 01:17:56.840
yeah, exactly. So I'm like
I'm sitting back like whow, I'm glad

1120
01:17:56.840 --> 01:17:59.279
I did what I did, you
know what I mean? But yeah,

1121
01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:02.119
so I go to SWICH. But
at that point, you know, I'm

1122
01:18:02.560 --> 01:18:05.560
behind the desk as a first aunt. I'm like, man, this is

1123
01:18:05.680 --> 01:18:12.399
fucking horrible, dude. It was
not. I was like, god Lee.

1124
01:18:12.840 --> 01:18:15.640
So I'm sitting there fucking working on
TPT reports and telling guys what to

1125
01:18:15.720 --> 01:18:19.800
do. I'm like, Jesus Christ, man, I need to do something

1126
01:18:19.800 --> 01:18:25.960
else, right, So I jump
on GOV and I'm like hey, like,

1127
01:18:27.840 --> 01:18:30.439
yeah, I go through that process, I fill out a packet,

1128
01:18:30.600 --> 01:18:35.800
they send me all the paperwork,
and then then I had to sit back

1129
01:18:35.840 --> 01:18:38.680
and just kind of think about it. Man. I'm like, man,

1130
01:18:38.760 --> 01:18:43.399
like, this is like I'm nineteen
years in Like, like what am I

1131
01:18:43.479 --> 01:18:46.840
doing? You know what I mean? Because I was chasing that high that

1132
01:18:47.520 --> 01:18:50.720
and I was being selfish because I
had two kids, Like I have a

1133
01:18:50.800 --> 01:18:53.760
six year old and a three year
old. So I'm like, man,

1134
01:18:53.800 --> 01:18:57.399
like, I spent you know,
nineteen years doing this, doing what you

1135
01:18:57.479 --> 01:19:00.720
wanted to do. Yeah, now
I have I finally have a chance to

1136
01:19:01.079 --> 01:19:05.000
make a decisions that's gonna be my
own, and I'm choosing to keep going

1137
01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.199
down this path and ignoring what matters. Yeah, you know what I mean.

1138
01:19:09.319 --> 01:19:11.760
So so yeah, then I was
like, you know what, I'm

1139
01:19:11.760 --> 01:19:15.880
done. And I felt comfortable saying
that because we didn't have anything going on.

1140
01:19:16.000 --> 01:19:20.399
Yeah right, Iraq was dying down, Afghanistan is dying down. Syria

1141
01:19:20.520 --> 01:19:24.880
wasn't a thing anymore. So I'm
like I could comfortable, like I comfortably

1142
01:19:24.920 --> 01:19:28.920
say hey, I've had enough,
like let me go focus on you know,

1143
01:19:29.159 --> 01:19:31.359
like my family, right, And
that's what I did. Man,

1144
01:19:31.399 --> 01:19:35.760
it's it's it's it's still sucked.
I got out and I was like fuck,

1145
01:19:35.840 --> 01:19:40.520
man, like this is worse than
being the first argeant. So I

1146
01:19:40.560 --> 01:19:44.439
had to find something to fill that
board. Yeah, find something to do.

1147
01:19:44.920 --> 01:19:46.000
And that's when I got on YouTube, and I was like, I'd

1148
01:19:46.119 --> 01:19:51.279
like, like, the most fun
I've had, aside from you know,

1149
01:19:51.399 --> 01:19:55.319
being non range, was when I
would had my team and I would help

1150
01:19:55.359 --> 01:19:59.680
those guys problems solve. I would
give advice and watch it play out,

1151
01:19:59.800 --> 01:20:02.760
right, So like I like to
mentor so I started YouTube. Man,

1152
01:20:03.239 --> 01:20:09.439
Now it's like, how do I
help the younger generation of SF guys get

1153
01:20:09.479 --> 01:20:12.840
to where we were, Like,
how do we how do I help them

1154
01:20:12.880 --> 01:20:17.720
become successful? Like avoid all the
pitfalls that we went through, Like you

1155
01:20:17.760 --> 01:20:23.079
don't have to go through through three
divorces, right, you don't have to

1156
01:20:23.119 --> 01:20:27.880
do that. You can if you
want to, but you don't have to.

1157
01:20:28.039 --> 01:20:31.159
And this is how that can play
out, right when you're back home

1158
01:20:31.520 --> 01:20:34.600
instead of you know, spending eight
hours in the team room drinking beer,

1159
01:20:35.520 --> 01:20:42.199
go home, right, Like you
don't have to go to jail for you

1160
01:20:42.239 --> 01:20:45.640
know, selling fucking fuel or whatever. Like, these are the things that

1161
01:20:45.680 --> 01:20:49.399
I've seen like play out. You
can do it different. This is what

1162
01:20:49.439 --> 01:20:54.279
it should look like, just coaching
and mentoring the next generation. Your your

1163
01:20:54.359 --> 01:20:57.880
channel is the Green Beret Chronicles,
And is that sort of like the theme

1164
01:20:58.079 --> 01:21:01.399
overall that it takes that you're trying
to impart some of this information to a

1165
01:21:01.479 --> 01:21:06.880
younger generation. Yeah, like all
the because you mentioned Vietnam earlier, could

1166
01:21:06.920 --> 01:21:10.680
you imagine what it would look like
for us doing the globe War of terrorism

1167
01:21:10.760 --> 01:21:15.840
if we had Vietnam era Green Berets
shearing their stories and what they went through,

1168
01:21:15.119 --> 01:21:18.039
Mike Force and all that stuff.
Could you imagine, like some of

1169
01:21:18.039 --> 01:21:21.239
the mistakes we made in Afghanistan,
we probably would not have made it right.

1170
01:21:21.319 --> 01:21:29.239
So it's like now we're at that
road to where like you have three

1171
01:21:29.359 --> 01:21:33.000
separate war better like we have Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan. Yea, like

1172
01:21:33.239 --> 01:21:39.680
three separate countries that we were involved
in, and so many lessons learned that

1173
01:21:39.720 --> 01:21:43.800
we can share with this next generation. We're no longer in it. That

1174
01:21:43.880 --> 01:21:46.000
information is just gonna die with us
if we don't do anything about it.

1175
01:21:46.039 --> 01:21:49.920
So why not share it with the
next generation so they can learn from it

1176
01:21:50.039 --> 01:21:54.279
right and make better decisions. So, you know, I want to hear

1177
01:21:54.319 --> 01:21:58.000
you, you know, sell the
channel to our viewers out there. What

1178
01:21:58.319 --> 01:22:00.960
are like You're like, if you
had to pick like your top two or

1179
01:22:00.960 --> 01:22:03.119
three favorite videos that you've done that
you'd like people to go check out on

1180
01:22:03.159 --> 01:22:12.760
there? All right, So the
first one's gonna be man, right,

1181
01:22:12.840 --> 01:22:15.279
So I have one on there that
talks about what you should do as a

1182
01:22:15.319 --> 01:22:17.800
new guy when you first show up
to a group, because we all know

1183
01:22:17.840 --> 01:22:19.720
everybody shows up. Hey, sorry, Major, I want to go on

1184
01:22:19.720 --> 01:22:23.960
a Halo team. Don't do that, right, don't watch that video.

1185
01:22:24.239 --> 01:22:27.439
It'll be very insightful. For you, and that's the Greenberry Chronicles dot Com.

1186
01:22:27.560 --> 01:22:32.000
Right. Another one I had is
women in Special Forces. Right,

1187
01:22:32.000 --> 01:22:35.159
that's a sensitive one for some folks. Right on there, I shed my

1188
01:22:35.199 --> 01:22:40.520
thoughts, uh, and they go
so spicy. It's very spicy as it

1189
01:22:40.520 --> 01:22:44.000
goes along, something like this.
Don't put them in there. They're gonna

1190
01:22:44.039 --> 01:22:47.439
destroy my team room, right because
we're men and we want to put our

1191
01:22:47.479 --> 01:22:56.039
stuff and stuff. So that's the
second one. And then the third one

1192
01:22:56.039 --> 01:22:58.560
that I have on there that's getting
a lot of traction, believe it or

1193
01:22:58.600 --> 01:23:03.600
not, is Minorities in Special Forces
right, and on there, I just

1194
01:23:04.119 --> 01:23:12.800
elaborate on exposure. Yeah, because
growing up in this very town, like

1195
01:23:12.960 --> 01:23:15.840
even you know, going from GfK
and you know, driving to Lower Manhattan,

1196
01:23:16.279 --> 01:23:18.760
all I saw was you know,
basketball courts and all of that.

1197
01:23:18.840 --> 01:23:23.319
And I'm like, man, like
I did. I went and I linked

1198
01:23:23.359 --> 01:23:26.640
up with a buddy of mine that's
currently recruiting. I couln't even find the

1199
01:23:26.680 --> 01:23:30.319
recruiting office. It was like tucked
in like behind a wall somewhere. And

1200
01:23:30.319 --> 01:23:34.319
I'm like, dude, Like,
exposure would have went a long way when

1201
01:23:34.359 --> 01:23:39.239
I was growing up if I knew, like green berays existed. If I

1202
01:23:39.319 --> 01:23:43.119
knew Navy seals worth thing, if
I knew about come back controllers more sock

1203
01:23:43.640 --> 01:23:46.560
like, I probably would have.
There is a perception out there, you

1204
01:23:46.600 --> 01:23:49.399
know that. I mean, I
want to hear your opinion, but I

1205
01:23:49.439 --> 01:23:55.720
think mostly it's wrong that there's a
perception on some that Special Operations as a

1206
01:23:55.720 --> 01:23:58.800
whole is like a white boys club. No, no, not at all,

1207
01:23:58.800 --> 01:24:01.119
man, especially over third group,
and I'm sure fifth Group, seventh

1208
01:24:01.119 --> 01:24:05.439
Group, No, not at all. But again that's the exposure that that's

1209
01:24:05.479 --> 01:24:12.560
the exposure because like once we find
it, just I found it. Yeah,

1210
01:24:12.560 --> 01:24:15.680
it was five years within my career, but once I found it,

1211
01:24:15.680 --> 01:24:17.159
I couldn't get out of my head, right, So I went and I

1212
01:24:17.199 --> 01:24:21.439
tried out. And that could be
said with any race, right, Seven

1213
01:24:21.479 --> 01:24:26.800
group is full of Hispanics. Fifth
group has the majority of black dudes.

1214
01:24:26.840 --> 01:24:30.640
Third group is you know, dude, I was on a team with three

1215
01:24:30.640 --> 01:24:34.079
black dudes, right, My team, my team when I was a team

1216
01:24:34.119 --> 01:24:38.880
song, I had three Hispanics Doe
in there. So it's definitely a melting

1217
01:24:38.960 --> 01:24:41.399
pot of ms. Right, And
when you think of the missions that we

1218
01:24:41.479 --> 01:24:45.520
do, it's it's it's beneficial.
But again it comes down to exposure,

1219
01:24:45.600 --> 01:24:49.159
and now that social media is throwing
to become a thing, it makes exposure

1220
01:24:49.199 --> 01:24:54.079
a lot easier. Do you think
there's also because I wasn't it Jason When

1221
01:24:54.119 --> 01:24:59.560
we had him on the show,
he was on a college campus and talked

1222
01:24:59.560 --> 01:25:04.560
to a a CIA recruiter who was
also who I think the recruiter was also

1223
01:25:04.600 --> 01:25:06.359
black, And Jay said, well, they don't want somebody like me,

1224
01:25:06.399 --> 01:25:10.720
and the recruiters like, don't self
select? Yeah, Like yeah, they're

1225
01:25:10.760 --> 01:25:13.880
like, they'll tell you if they
want you, but don't self select based

1226
01:25:13.920 --> 01:25:16.640
on some false promise you have.
Do you think that's also an issue with

1227
01:25:17.359 --> 01:25:21.439
Yeah? I think it is,
man, because a lot of folks see

1228
01:25:21.479 --> 01:25:25.279
it, and they don't see themselves, right, because we're not out here

1229
01:25:25.319 --> 01:25:27.880
like that, right, And the
folks that are they don't look like them,

1230
01:25:27.920 --> 01:25:30.399
so they're automatically and oh, man, I don't belong out here.

1231
01:25:30.399 --> 01:25:31.760
Oh I shouldn't be out here,
right. Well, that's not the case

1232
01:25:31.800 --> 01:25:34.640
at all. If you self select, regardless of how good you are,

1233
01:25:34.720 --> 01:25:39.439
you're not gonna make it right.
Show up and let them tell you whether

1234
01:25:39.520 --> 01:25:42.600
or not you're good enough, right, right? But yeah, I just

1235
01:25:42.640 --> 01:25:45.000
wanted to break that mold by coming
on there and saying, hey, check

1236
01:25:45.039 --> 01:25:48.159
it out, man, that's not
the case at all. We're not there

1237
01:25:48.239 --> 01:25:56.039
because the exposure just isn't there.
Right, No fault of the regiment's on

1238
01:25:56.239 --> 01:26:00.159
fault, like, no fault of
the regiment, Like, the exposure is

1239
01:26:00.239 --> 01:26:02.319
just not there. Right. I
didn't find out about it until I was

1240
01:26:02.359 --> 01:26:06.039
five years in. Right. And
the other services they do a really good

1241
01:26:06.079 --> 01:26:12.079
job at recruiting, Like the Navy, they go to the NFL combines and

1242
01:26:12.119 --> 01:26:15.039
they recruit out of there, right, they're in the colleges. I don't

1243
01:26:15.079 --> 01:26:18.359
know why the Army doesn't. But
exposure, man, that's what it comes

1244
01:26:18.359 --> 01:26:20.800
down to. And now with social
media, like I try to do as

1245
01:26:20.840 --> 01:26:26.159
much as I can to expose everybody
that, hey, SF is for you,

1246
01:26:26.239 --> 01:26:28.439
Like, if you don't like math
and you don't like all this other

1247
01:26:28.520 --> 01:26:31.319
stuff, and if you want to
go towards the military and do this type

1248
01:26:31.359 --> 01:26:34.600
of work, it's okay, right, Yeah, we're not all supposed to

1249
01:26:34.640 --> 01:26:38.840
be normal. It's all right to
want to go jump out of planes and

1250
01:26:39.359 --> 01:26:42.760
you know, shoot dudes in the
face. But it's okay, yeah,

1251
01:26:42.880 --> 01:26:46.039
it's all right to you know,
to not fit the norm you mentioned like

1252
01:26:46.279 --> 01:26:49.720
mentoring the younger generation, but you
also sort of you know, you touched

1253
01:26:49.760 --> 01:26:54.119
on both when you came back as
a twelve bravo having seen this stuff.

1254
01:26:54.119 --> 01:26:58.600
And then also you know your misery
as a first sergeant in a civilian and

1255
01:26:58.840 --> 01:27:01.000
we see things like with as SEF
groups now get in trouble, the guys

1256
01:27:01.000 --> 01:27:05.319
who were like who were at that
one hundred mile an hour limit and now

1257
01:27:05.359 --> 01:27:14.840
it's not there and finding it difficult
ways or finding it difficult to to fix

1258
01:27:14.920 --> 01:27:17.239
that, yeah, right, and
to deal with that. What do you

1259
01:27:17.239 --> 01:27:23.359
think aside from the younger generation,
what do you think of like your generation

1260
01:27:23.479 --> 01:27:27.399
of guys, how are they managing? What services and help do they need?

1261
01:27:28.159 --> 01:27:31.159
And what personally do you think,
like what helped you like manage that?

1262
01:27:31.800 --> 01:27:36.640
So two things right, So idle
hands like we just had a big

1263
01:27:36.680 --> 01:27:46.119
incident over a third group. I
read your article that was awesome the boys.

1264
01:27:46.439 --> 01:27:50.840
Yeah, so yeah, we just
had that big incident and it's idle

1265
01:27:50.840 --> 01:27:56.199
hands man like guys came in to
go kicking doors and do work and now

1266
01:27:56.239 --> 01:28:00.039
it's no longer a thing. And
guys just don't know how to you know,

1267
01:28:00.279 --> 01:28:04.039
conform to anything else. They don't
know how to get back on the

1268
01:28:04.119 --> 01:28:09.039
right Asthmith right, So they're gonna
find ways to entertain themselves. And what

1269
01:28:09.079 --> 01:28:12.159
I would say to the leaders,
and I say this all the time on

1270
01:28:12.279 --> 01:28:15.239
my channel, is you got to
keep those guys engaged. You gotta give

1271
01:28:15.279 --> 01:28:17.159
them something to do, because if
you don't, they're gonna find things to

1272
01:28:17.199 --> 01:28:20.399
do and then you're not gonna like
it. So get creative as a teams

1273
01:28:20.439 --> 01:28:25.000
are and as a team leader,
get creative. Make sure that training calendars

1274
01:28:25.239 --> 01:28:28.560
is full, like no white space. If guys don't have that time available,

1275
01:28:28.560 --> 01:28:30.960
they're not gonna get in trouble.
But you gotta keep them busy.

1276
01:28:30.479 --> 01:28:33.520
And for the guys that are getting
out, like, you gotta find that

1277
01:28:33.600 --> 01:28:39.399
purpose, right, you gotta,
cause you're going from you know, doing

1278
01:28:39.439 --> 01:28:46.039
something that was incredibly like rewarding and
now you're you know, just at home

1279
01:28:46.119 --> 01:28:48.680
and you're just babysitting kids. You
know, like you don't have anything else

1280
01:28:48.720 --> 01:28:51.520
going on. You are you went
from one hundred miles an hour to just

1281
01:28:51.800 --> 01:28:56.560
complete stop, right, So what
is that next purpose? Like what is

1282
01:28:56.640 --> 01:29:01.000
your entire mission of life? And
a lot of guys don't don't have that

1283
01:29:01.239 --> 01:29:05.319
second identity, They don't like they
think they're just a Green Beret and that's

1284
01:29:05.359 --> 01:29:08.439
it, right, Right, So
they come out and they're like, I

1285
01:29:08.479 --> 01:29:11.880
used to be Tom the Green Beret, and now I'm just Tom. It's

1286
01:29:11.960 --> 01:29:15.640
like, dude, it's like you
can do other things. The green Beret

1287
01:29:15.840 --> 01:29:19.479
is not who you were. It
was just a section of your It was

1288
01:29:19.520 --> 01:29:23.159
just something that you did. It
was just a job. Right. You're

1289
01:29:23.199 --> 01:29:27.279
still a father, a son,
you know, a pastor like whatever.

1290
01:29:27.439 --> 01:29:32.359
Like look towards those other equalities and
start tapping into that, right, Like,

1291
01:29:32.520 --> 01:29:36.239
find ways to give purpose to your
life, because if you don't,

1292
01:29:36.279 --> 01:29:40.680
then like dudes are killing themselves over
this shit, man, because they don't

1293
01:29:40.720 --> 01:29:45.000
have another identity outside of the job
that they used to do. What has

1294
01:29:45.039 --> 01:29:48.479
that been for you? Like what
shape has your life taken after retiring from

1295
01:29:48.520 --> 01:29:51.239
the military. I mean it sounds
like being a dad big part of your

1296
01:29:51.279 --> 01:29:56.279
life. Yeah. So since I've
been out, man, like enjoying my

1297
01:29:55.880 --> 01:29:59.239
my kids more, you know what
I mean, just watching them, you

1298
01:29:59.239 --> 01:30:01.840
know, wake up and coaching t
ball, taking them to jiu jitsu.

1299
01:30:03.039 --> 01:30:06.760
And then my purpose have been you
know, like I said, through the

1300
01:30:06.840 --> 01:30:11.319
YouTube channel, I've been able to
find my purpose and my voice, you

1301
01:30:11.319 --> 01:30:14.039
know, what I mean, on
top of you know, becoming a better

1302
01:30:14.119 --> 01:30:15.880
dad and realizing the holy shit,
if I had gunned this other rode,

1303
01:30:15.880 --> 01:30:20.079
I was gonna miss all this stuff. Like there's a lot of people that

1304
01:30:20.119 --> 01:30:25.039
we probably know that you know,
they're they're at a point now where their

1305
01:30:25.119 --> 01:30:28.840
kids don't even want anything to do
with them, Like they call that kids,

1306
01:30:28.880 --> 01:30:30.560
and the kids are not picking up, you know what I mean,

1307
01:30:30.800 --> 01:30:32.520
They don't even want you to be
a dad. Like I wouldn't want to

1308
01:30:32.560 --> 01:30:36.239
put that on anybody, you know, dealing with my kids now, you

1309
01:30:36.239 --> 01:30:40.960
know what I mean. But that's
what it's gonna get to if if guys

1310
01:30:41.000 --> 01:30:45.800
don't find ways to kind of horn
in into like their secondary life. It's

1311
01:30:45.840 --> 01:30:50.199
a small chapter and what you're meant
to do. You just have to find

1312
01:30:50.279 --> 01:30:54.960
what that next purpose is. And
we do a lot like we sell ourselves

1313
01:30:54.960 --> 01:30:59.760
short a lot as SEF guys,
like not realizing what we're worth and beyond

1314
01:30:59.760 --> 01:31:03.119
me a good fucking job, and
you think that, yeah, this is

1315
01:31:03.199 --> 01:31:06.640
all you're meant to do. But
then you come out here in the civilian

1316
01:31:06.680 --> 01:31:12.920
sector and this, dude, there's
so much stuff that we learn as SF

1317
01:31:12.960 --> 01:31:16.680
guys that is valuable out here right
like this, there's a ton of shit.

1318
01:31:17.279 --> 01:31:19.680
And the more I get out and
I talk to people and I,

1319
01:31:20.279 --> 01:31:24.239
you know, network, I see
it. I'm like, dude, you

1320
01:31:24.359 --> 01:31:27.920
used to be in soft Like look
at what you like. There's a lot

1321
01:31:28.000 --> 01:31:30.800
more out there. Yeah, guys
just sell themselves short. Yeah. I

1322
01:31:30.800 --> 01:31:33.880
mean, it's like a really important
message, I think, because you're absolutely

1323
01:31:33.920 --> 01:31:38.039
right that there's so many guys are
like I'm just a big dumb ranger.

1324
01:31:38.079 --> 01:31:40.520
I can't do anything. It's like
no, man, no, you can

1325
01:31:40.560 --> 01:31:43.880
go do anything. And you know, those guys can go out and they

1326
01:31:43.880 --> 01:31:48.159
can get a business degree or they
can do something that I could never do.

1327
01:31:48.279 --> 01:31:51.520
Yeah, and so yeah, I
mean, especially I feel like a

1328
01:31:51.560 --> 01:31:55.840
lot of the younger guys get down
on themselves like that, and it's really

1329
01:31:55.840 --> 01:31:58.720
important to like make sure they know
that, like you can have an entire

1330
01:31:58.800 --> 01:32:03.199
second life and career, like if
you can do like special operations, whether

1331
01:32:03.239 --> 01:32:09.319
it's Rangers, seal marsc SF,
like, there's nothing that you can't do.

1332
01:32:09.800 --> 01:32:13.119
And that's that's the mindset that I've
adapted. It's like, dude,

1333
01:32:13.560 --> 01:32:16.760
I go to other countries and I
tupple governments if I need to. So

1334
01:32:16.800 --> 01:32:20.720
you're telling me like creating an LLC
and starting a business in the United States

1335
01:32:20.840 --> 01:32:26.319
is different. No fucking way,
I'll crush this. And that's the mindset

1336
01:32:26.359 --> 01:32:29.560
that I've just taken on. It's
like, dude, I go overseas and

1337
01:32:29.640 --> 01:32:32.119
I do the impossible. You're telling
me I can't start a YouTube channel and

1338
01:32:32.159 --> 01:32:35.840
grow that bitch. No, right
right, And that's the way guys need

1339
01:32:35.880 --> 01:32:39.039
to think. It's like, there's
nothing that you if you can do what

1340
01:32:39.119 --> 01:32:43.039
the top one percent of the one
percent you know is doing, just like

1341
01:32:43.119 --> 01:32:45.399
we've we've done, There's there's nothing
you can't do, you know what I

1342
01:32:45.399 --> 01:32:48.039
mean? And that's how guys need
to approach it. And so where can

1343
01:32:48.079 --> 01:32:50.600
people find you if they want to
find you on YouTube or they want to

1344
01:32:50.640 --> 01:32:56.000
find your other endeavors out there?
Where can they go find Jay sure Man

1345
01:32:56.079 --> 01:33:02.640
So Instagram, greenberg Chronicles and then
YouTube, Greenberry Chronicles and the website greenberay

1346
01:33:02.720 --> 01:33:11.399
Chronicles dot com. We offer mentorship. We also offer rough programs and also

1347
01:33:11.600 --> 01:33:15.039
training programs also in there, and
we'll have links to all those down the

1348
01:33:15.079 --> 01:33:18.760
description for you guys. And also
I'll take two seconds to plug the teamhouse

1349
01:33:18.800 --> 01:33:21.760
Patreon. If you guys get on
there for five dollars a month. You

1350
01:33:21.800 --> 01:33:26.279
get all these episodes add free,
and you keep the channel running. We

1351
01:33:26.359 --> 01:33:30.800
really appreciate all of you, guys, Jay Dave, final thoughts. Anything

1352
01:33:30.840 --> 01:33:34.319
I failed to cover here, No, man, everything was perfect. And

1353
01:33:34.359 --> 01:33:36.880
again, man, I appreciate you
guys giving me the opportunity to come on

1354
01:33:36.920 --> 01:33:45.840
and pasure anytime. Yeah, you're
welcome in anytime you want. My wife

1355
01:33:45.840 --> 01:33:49.359
would kill me, but yeah,
man, I appreciate it. Guys.

1356
01:33:49.800 --> 01:33:53.800
Awesome all right, so we will
see you guys next time.