WEBVTT

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about special operations Cobert ask me and h

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the Team House with your hopes.
Jack Murphy and David Park, Hey everyone,

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welcome to episode two hundred and fifty
two of The Team House. I'm

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Jack Murphy. My co host Dave
Park is out tonight. He'll be back

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next week. Thank you for joining
us. It's been a it feels like

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it's been a long spell since the
holiday break, so I'm glad to be

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back. Our guest on tonight's show
is Mike Halterman. Mike served for twenty

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years in the Marine Corps, was
part of the standing up of MARSK and

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all kinds of other interesting stuff we'll
get into. And he also works with

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the Honor Foundation helping transitioning veterans,
so we're going to talk about all of

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that as well. So, Mike, thank you so much for joining us

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tonight. Hell yeah, thanks for
having me. Yeah, absolutely, man,

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it's great to have you here.
And you know, I'll start off

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the interview the way we start off
almost all of them, asking about your

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origin story. If you could tell
us a little bit about like how you

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grew up and how that took you
towards a path of military service. Yeah,

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so I was a small town kid, grew up in a really small

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town on the central coast of California. And central coast California is like the

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dead zone between La and San Francisco. No one's ever heard of it unless

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you unless you grew up there.
It's very different, right, It's not

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like the rest of California. It's
a lot of red, white and blue

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and football and backyard barbecues, so
I grew up doing that. But it

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was also California, so I got
to surf a lot too, and ride

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skateboards. And you know what I
realized was although I lived in a cool

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small town, it was small and
my life was going to be small,

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and if I was going to stay
there, that was I kind of saw

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the writing on the wall. And
so as I finished high school and all

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those things I wanted, you know, I want to go adventure young man

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stuff. You want to go see
the world, go travel. And I

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had a couple of buddies who joined
the Marine Corps, and I thought,

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well, if those guys could do
it, I could probably do that too,

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And so you know, I found
myself following suit. Joined the Marine

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Corps in nineteen and joined more or
less right after high school as I was

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early late teens, early twenties,
and man, it was the exact thing

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I needed at the right time of
my life. I was a bit of

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a wayward child that wasn't great in
high school. And the discipline you have

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to get up at this time and
you're doing this and this is your job,

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was was what I needed at that
time. Plus I got to play

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with guns and I got to make
a lot of new friends. So that

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was pretty cool. So I found
myself going through boot camp and in San

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Diego and then they're like, hey, so you're from California, let's go

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ahead and send you to North Carolina. Right. So I had more or

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less did my first five years in
North Carolina, which was great because I

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never would have, you know,
been in a platoon or been around,

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you know, a bunch of kids
from New York, a bunch of kids

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from the South, a bunch of
guys from Miami, you know, and

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from all these different places, and
so you're thrown into this mix of America

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and it's just a great growth opportunity, learning new culture, learning new interesting,

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different perspectives on life, and then
learning how to survive. The infantry

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is young e nothing's together. Where're
you're being challenged? I'll say in the

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in the late nilies, late nineties, early two thousands, a lot of

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tree lines, and a lot of
things happened in those tree lines. And

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you know, in the first four
years, I made such good friends.

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I was like, Yeah, I
could do this for twenty years, no

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problem. I was having a great
time. Yep, those first that first

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enlistment in the Marine Corps during quote
unquote peace time. What was that like

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for you? I mean what was
there? You know, do you go

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on training to like okay, nahwa, I mean I know the Marines definitely

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get around a little bit. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was

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a lot of travel. It was
I think we'd only you know, I

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checked in and it was like,
hey, you're going straight to the field

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and we started doing nuclear biological chemical
one training like immediately, like that was

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the very first thing. Getting gassed. Getting gassed in the in the fleet

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as a young infanstrument is way different
than all of the safety protocols that they

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put in boot camp. So that
was that was an uphill learning experience,

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but builds character. And so being
a young infantryman a lot of a lot

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of travel to places we probably don't
go to as much anymore. Greece and

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a couple of other spots that I
can't really recall off the top of my

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head. But what we did a
lot of shining boots because we had the

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old black boots that you shine,
and uniform inspections and a lot of standing

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in formation waiting for the word right, so what are we doing tomorrow?

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You know, and then okay,
throw your pets on and go pet So

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I mean, you're having a hell
of a good time, and the Marine

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Corps sounds like you're decided you want
to do this for a career. And

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then it must have been around I'm
guessing around the time when you re enlisted

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that nine to eleven happen. Yeah, so I'm out. I'm on the

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USSQRE Sarge and we are floating around
the Mediterranean and somewhere around I guess July

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August. They drop us off in
Kosovo because Coastvo was the hot thing still

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going on. So we go into
Kosovo and we're going to do interdiction operations

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on the Macedonian border, make sure
drugs and moneys and things are not going

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one way and you know, guns
and human slaves are not going the other

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way and all of those things.
So first real world op and we're setting

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up defensive positions. We're kind of
out in the hinterlands doing kind of old

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school infantry stuff, patrol based operations, and I'm patrolling around. I'm literally

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taking out my very first patrol for
the first time. We had been there

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a couple of weeks since my first
pl lead, and we get a call

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across the radio that's America's been attacked. Return to base. And I'm like,

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come on, man, you're messing
with me. Nobody attacks America.

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Like come on. They're like,
no, seriously, return to base.

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And so I'm thinking, you know, I get the boys together. We

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all take a knee face outboard.
I'm like, all right, drink water.

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We're gonna hump it back. We're
gonna move pretty quick. Sure enough,

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we get back to our little patrol
base and it's already being torn down.

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Army forty sevens are coming in,
already taking platoons out. My platoons.

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One of the last ones to leave
takes us back to Bond Steel,

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and the Bond Steel chow hall is
just raucous. Every time you walk in

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there. It's Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, all of

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the K four forces. It's loud, just all kinds of nonsense going on.

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I cracked the door open, and
I'm still thinking like this is crazy,

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Like what's the real story here.
I cracked the door open and you

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could hear a pin drop, and
so we slide in quietly, and they

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have these big old school TVs and
it's just the repeat over and over again,

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and the planes flying into the towers, and it was just it's surreal

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and just to see like two hundred
you know, guys and gals in uniform

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just in complete silence, like no
one's even serving food or anything. We're

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all just standing there in shock.
Jump back on the cure sarge, and

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we're like, okay, we're already
out here. What are we doing?

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Where's the fight we're getting into?
But it happened to be right at the

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end of our deployment, the next
MEW had already spun up. They had

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already done their final exercises and stuff, and they're like, no, you're

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steaming home. The next MEW is
going to come out, and whatever happens

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next is it's going to be their
game to play. So I steamed home,

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not knowing what was going to happen
next. We were home a couple

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of months and commanders started saying things
like, you know, be prepared.

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You're probably gonna find yourself in a
desert here shortly, so you know,

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let's start getting our things in order, make sure you know where all your

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stuff is. You know, Will's
power of attorney started happening, and all

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of those things. And then yeah, two thousand and three, we found

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ourselves in the desert of Kuwait staring
north, going, man, is this

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really happening? Yeah? I mean
you could you expand on that a little

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bit, like as a young marine
and like you're about to push across the

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berm line, right, yeah,
yeah, And it was so you know,

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at the E five level, nobody's
telling you nothing, especially back then,

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and it's not like I'm able to
just jump on the red side and

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figure some things out that's not even
available to me. Right, I'm living

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in a GP tent, sleeping on
the desert floor one hundred and ten,

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one hundred and fifteen. It's pretty
much the norm for Kuwait around that time

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of year. And we're all just
wondering, right, And we're in this

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giant grid square with a berm around
us, with lots of other units,

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and we're all just kind of wondering, is this thing really going to happen?

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And sure, you know, and
then we're doing the gas mask drills.

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You know. That's why I alluded
to my very first training op ironically

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was NBC nobody cares until they care
because nuclear biological chemical is bad. Right,

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So we're doing all the drills,
throwing on gas masks, throwing on

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Saratoga suits that are green, ironically, and here we are in the desert.

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And then we get the call like, okay, this is the order

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of March, this is the vehicle
you're in. Here's where everyone's going to

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be. We're driving north, you
know, here's here's probably where we're going

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to stop, and so on and
so forth. And I remember it taking

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off, you know, zero dark
something and driving and we did it for

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three days, four days. It's
been quite a while. I don't really

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remember how long it was, but
it was a long time. Driving twenty

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four hours straight night and day,
non stop, switching out, drivers just

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keep moving, and massive trains just
in parallel of vehicle, American vehicles going

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over the Berm and through the southern
deserts, and you know, even crossing

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through the Berm was pretty surreal because
it was literally this giant sand dune of

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a Berm with giant you know,
ditches on either side and Constantino wire and

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all kinds of things that had already
been cleared out, and we're going through

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those breach points. It was,
you know, it was surreal. I

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what was it like when you when
you crossed over the berm and got into

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a rack, and I mean it's
like this is war mm hmm yeah,

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right, is okay? So have
I checked the box yet? Is this?

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Yeah? Yeah? Is this?
Did I do it? Am I

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doing it? Yeah? It was. It was a lot of that,

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literally, you know, because what
do you have, you know, thinking

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back to the movies and the books
that were available back then, you're comparing

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yourself to like Commando Rambo, Predator, Delta Force, you know, Charlie

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Sheen jumping off the bridge and Navy
Seals and you're like, you know,

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Platoon, like okay, none of
this equates, right, Like what am

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I actually doing? You know?
And then you you know, a couple

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of days later with some broken vehicles, you know, and all the madness

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that happens in a really long log
train movement, All of it happened right.

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Literally, wheels fell off of vehicles
because they were just were just grinding

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them up. Was all the weight
of all the things we're carrying and so

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on and so forth. And then
there were also times where we would see

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you know, Patriot missiles going overhead
and gas gas gas like throw everything on,

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let's go and we would just be
riding around a gas mask for six

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hours, seven hours, eight hours
straight, just waiting for someone to say,

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like, it's real, it's not
real. That was just a really

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good drill. Good job, buddy, you're still alive, so keep going.

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And then we pulled into southern nazarea
and well, excuse me, before

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that, we we gotten just south
of the third largest city in Iraq nazarea,

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and it was our artillery with Iraqi
Artillery kind of trading rounds back and

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forth. We just weren't moving forward. That was the flot at that point,

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I guess, and they're just kind
of figuring it out, just throwing

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rounds back and forth. And we're
a truck company, so we moved pretty

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quickly through the desert. And this
is just it probably allude to this a

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few times through my telling and my
own story. There's these little moments that

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happened that at the time you have
no idea how impactful it is, but

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then they become something that is it
changes the trajectory of the rest of your

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life. And so because we had
to stop because those aready rounds were getting

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tossed back and forth between those two
units, it allowed an AAV track company

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to catch up because the AAVs don't
move as fast, but they were able

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to catch up. So when we
continue to push forward, the AAVs took

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our mission to push into the city, which literally saved our lives because they

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got eight up hard when they hit
the city. But they were in armored

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vehicles, so they took a brunt
of that off the armor. As if

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we would have been in trucks,
that would have been a that would have

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been a whole different story about the
entirety of Iraq because the amount of instant

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casualties that would have happened, and
just prior to that, So then you

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know, the artillery goes back and
forth, that kind of ceases. They

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pushed the tracks up, we kind
of follow behind. And it's the first

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time I'm sitting in the southernmost portion
where we entered was really the city dump

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and so we're just getting swamped by
the flies for the very first time.

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And they're like, oh, little
did we know that is Iraq. That's

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that's what you're going to experience the
rest of the time you're here. Welcome,

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Welcome to Iraq. And it was
the first time I saw American vehicles,

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bullet holes in them, on fire, tipped over American uniforms. This

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is no longer training. This was
okay, we're in Warnow. This is

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real. And I want to say, less than forty five minutes later,

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we took a contact Left and it
was one of the coolest things I ever

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got to be a part of.
We dismounted, got online as a company,

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a rifle company, and pushed through. It was just total mayhem.

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But it looked exactly how it's supposed
to look like on range three hundred at

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what you know, whatever complex where
you do that. And I was like,

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wait, we did it like that? That actually went really well,

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Like I saw all my parts,
so I'm like, like, everyone's okay,

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oh that was cool. So you
guys did like a like a bounding

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overwatch as a company, like moving
forward. Yeah, yeah, the machine

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guns sixty orders got out and three
ms in and a little bit you know

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about how many Who was the the
OP four? I mean, what was

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the ambushing force composed of? I
couldn't tell you. E five Halty had

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no idea. I just heard bullets
come from this way and we said contact

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left. I was an anti tank
assaultment. So I'm running around with a

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eighty three milimeters recoilist rocket launcher,
and I just remember my company commander saying,

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that building hit it, Roger.
That what I forgot during that little

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piece was, you know, we
put in earing protection at the range.

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Yeah, I went hot with a
small for the very first time in combat

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and didn't put in hearing protection.
And I felt like my head, my

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head was gonna melt. For about
the next three five days, it was.

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It was pretty narly, and and
then you came to find out if

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you could tell us a little bit
about like what you found out after the

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fact about like the vehicles you came
across. It wouldn't come together for another

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couple of weeks. I mean,
there was a you know, beyond that

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first contact left, there was some
legit gunfights. We got to experience lots

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more probing the lines as we dug
in the defense and kind of held the

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southern inn asarea. And it was
a couple of weeks to a month.

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I mean, the timelines are sketching
now at this point, it's been you

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know, a couple decades. I'm
standing on a rooftop though. This is

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after the major rain storm where we
I'm on a rooftop again doing firewash,

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and I'm a slide off the roof
because of the amount of rain, and

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those mud buildings are just coming apart
underneath us. But a couple of days

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after that, we got intel that
some of the survivors of those vehicles were

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local to the area and they were
correlating their position and trying to find them

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in the city. And we had
done shaping operations and a couple of other

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things that I knew I was a
part of to just to attempt to make

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that happen. So fast forward,
I'm standing on a roof again. It's

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zero two. I'm kind of reflecting
on all I experienced up to that point.

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I'm loving my infantry career. I'm
reaffirming this is a twenty year thing

250
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for me. This is awesome.
Wars pretty cool as a young man.

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It's a mixed bag of e motion, but it's it's mostly pretty cool.

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And I see three tanks and they
just face abrams and they just face their

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their cannons outboard, go over the
bridge and just start lobbing rounds into buildings

254
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because it was a free fire zone
because of the the gunfights that had been

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happening. I'm like, okay,
I've seen some stuff, never seen that

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happen. That's that's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see. Let's see

257
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how that plays out. Some other
vehicles start laying out some some pretty heavy

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twenty five millimeters rounds into the into
the city, and then basically what happens

259
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next is I hear a C one
thirty pull into orbit over a set of

260
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compounds and then the wump wump wump
of forty sevens and little birds come screaming

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in and it just lights off.
And it would take me several months after

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that fast forwarding to realize that what
I got to watch on a monocle device,

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so it's not like I was watching
it like we're seeing each other right

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now. It was highly grainy,
but I got to see the big muscle

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movement. So it essentially the raid
to get Jessica Lynch back. And the

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whole time I'm standing up there,
I'm thinking, I'm really enjoying combat.

267
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I think I'm actually kind of good
at it, and we're performing well.

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I'm enjoying it. I'm gonna do
this forever. But whatever that was,

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I've got to go be a part
of that I've never seen anything like that

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was the cool stuff ever, Like, I didn't know that, so calm

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was a real like a real thing. I thought it was movies and books

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and all of those things. So
that just put me on a completely different

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path after that. How did the
rest of that deployment to the two thousand

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and three deployment to Iraq? How
did that continue and then eventually wind down

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for you? Mm hmmm. It
was you know, we thought incorrectly upfront

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that you know, we had we
had defeated the Iraqi army, that we

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had liberated the people, and so
they started ex filling forces pretty rapidly.

278
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We were probably only there about three
months was probably the total total amount of

279
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time in country. I think I
was there, and uh yeah, we

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x filed. I got right back
on the cure sergeant, and steamed home

281
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yet again. And then it right, it just slowly unfolds, and then

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it starts to turn in this meat
grinder that just doesn't end. And then

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I'm thinking, well, going back
in the fight, coach, get me,

284
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get me in there. But I'm
also in this career point in the

285
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Marine Corps where they're like, that's
not your it's not your future. That's

286
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not the needs in the Marine Corps. You're going to go be an infantry

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00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:30.359
instructor at the School of Infantry,
which I also felt pretty I felt really

288
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good about because I was my experience
at the School of Infantry was not a

289
00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:40.240
great one. I learned a ton, but I felt there was a lot

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00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:44.119
of room for improvement over what I
experienced, and I was excited to go

291
00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:48.960
back and give back meaningfully to my
my job field, my MOS. And

292
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now that I have combat experience,
I've I've done something, I can bring

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00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:56.720
something relevant, and this thing's going
to continue. I mean, I know

294
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that I'm sending these young men straight
into it, and I'm one hundred percent

295
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:03.839
in, like, if I've got
to do this, then all right,

296
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.640
let's go. Yeah. So that's
where I went next. Yeah, I

297
00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:11.720
mean, it sounds like you were
pulled in two different directions, or maybe

298
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more than two. I mean,
part of it was that you wanted to

299
00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:17.400
get back in the fight, but
part of it was also you were realizing

300
00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:22.000
how big an impact you were able
to make on these young marines. It

301
00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:27.039
was I mean, it was the
impact portion was in retrospect, right,

302
00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:30.960
because in my early twenties or mid
twenties or whatever it was at that point.

303
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I didn't have the prefrontal cortex at
that point to have enough understanding and

304
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really think that completely through. But
it was it evailed itself, I would

305
00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:48.799
say, over my time as being
an instructor, and the relevance of it

306
00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:53.400
was really tough for all the instructor
cadre watching like the big things like Fallujah

307
00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:59.440
unfold and we're getting it, you
know, on the very early version of

308
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YouTube and all the other different platforms
and things way back when. Yeah,

309
00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:12.039
and so tell us about like your
pursuit of Special Operations and at the time

310
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at the time, we have to
also mention for viewers that the Marine Corps

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was not a part of Special Operations
Command at that time, yep, yep.

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So, and I knew that I
wanted to pursue a different path and

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I started, really I had to
do the research to figure that out.

314
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So I'll also remind everybody Google didn't
exist yet, so doing the research was

315
00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:40.640
actually really tough. SOCOM didn't have
a public facing web page, so it

316
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was a lot of books and research
and talking to a buddy who had done

317
00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:47.799
this thing, who had a cousin
who was a ranger who in all of

318
00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:49.279
these conversations, and I figured out, Okay, if I was going to

319
00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:52.480
get to SOCOM, I was gonna
have to leave the Marine Corps. Inner

320
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.599
service transfer is an option. And
so when you say that as an E

321
00:22:56.759 --> 00:23:02.519
five, you don't get treated real
well. You it's not the most popular

322
00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:04.400
thing to say, and First Start
will be the first ones to let you

323
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know that is not going to happen
in fact, and there's a whole lot

324
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of other things I now have for
you to do right now. Yeah,

325
00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.759
So I got to learn the hard
way that I was gonna have to be

326
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a little more strategic about it.
And I saw the opportunity also going to

327
00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:26.640
School of Infantry to be an instructor. They would lower my op tempo and

328
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I could really start to work out
harder. And I knew I'm a terrible

329
00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:36.640
swimmer, so I knew. I
knew regardless of the selection process I was

330
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:38.359
aiming towards, I'd have to get
better at that, and I'd have to

331
00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:42.680
get better rucking and all the other
gambu of skills. And so I started

332
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trying to layer those things on and
that allowed me to be mentally and physically

333
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:55.519
prepared for what eventually happened in two
thousand and seven. I'm again right time,

334
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right place, and it's one of
those fortuitous moments you just don't know.

335
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I'd made really good best friends and
one of my brothers to this day

336
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with another instructor who's very close to
a bunch of force recon guys, and

337
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they by named him over to the
unit that was going to become MARSK on

338
00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:18.039
the West coast, and he by
named a couple of other people, and

339
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I got to be one of those
other people. He said, check it

340
00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:25.400
out, this outworks. I'm gonna
vouch for you one time, and the

341
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rest is on you, Like you
have to show up and do the work

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and do the rest, but I'm
gonna vouch for you this one time.

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And I was like, all right, let's do it. I'm all in

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because just before that, him and
I had already gotten our orders. I

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knew him and I both knew where
we were going. We had already talked

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to our infantry platoons that we were
going to and the commands and all of

347
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those things. And they're like,
yeah, we're sixty days out. You

348
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know we're gonna you know, we're
gonna go do the right thing and say

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hello first and get acquainted with everybody, and then that way it's a super

350
00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:59.319
smooth transition. And then this thing
just kind of pops up and we went

351
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for it. We had to,
We had to do a lot of work

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to fight the system to make it
all happen. Get orders changed like that

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doesn't that is That's a rarity,
I would say. But we got lucky

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and him and I both got to
stay for twenty years, which is also

355
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very fortuitous. Yeah, I want
to ask you about the birth of MARSK,

356
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:23.400
but I'm going to give a quick
shout out to my friend at Costa

357
00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:29.519
Carabeo Cigars. They keep us well
stocked over here. I hope you guys

358
00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:33.680
go check them out. Really love
what they do. Cosacarabeo dot com is

359
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.640
the website where you can go and
get them. And I also just wanted

360
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.319
to plug real quick our Patreon.
If you guys want to get ad free

361
00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:44.279
episodes of the Team House five dollars
a month, you can get all of

362
00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:47.000
them ad free, So please go
and check it out. And you know,

363
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:49.359
we of course really appreciate your support
and it keeps the show going.

364
00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:56.599
So Mike walk us through a little
bit about the birth of Marine Special Operations

365
00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:02.039
and also like your personal experience what
you were kind of going through to get

366
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that, because I mean, standing
up any unit from scratch like that is

367
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a huge, huge pain in the
ass. Yeah. Yeah, but such

368
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an opportunity and I'm I'm so grateful
that I got the opportunity to do it.

369
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And it was so that, as
the legend was told to me,

370
00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:25.240
old old Donnie Rumsfeld is trolling around
the different Special Operations communities and asking the

371
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Solcom commander what else do you need? And he said I need more bodies

372
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like it's a war. And he
goes, okay, well how do I

373
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how do I facilitate that? And
I think he probably kind of said Marine

374
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Corps is not Yeah, Marine Corps
is not helping us out none. And

375
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I think he pretty much turned to
the left and said, hey, Marine

376
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Corps, you have X amount of
time to get this done. So Debt

377
00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:49.920
one, the very first so COM
test unit, was stood up. They

378
00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:56.119
went out and they were catastrophically successful, is the best way to put it.

379
00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:00.880
They did some great work that I
hope goes down and chronicled in So

380
00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:06.279
Calm history and especially in all of
those men who paved the way for us.

381
00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:11.799
And so then that happened and they
that was the left seat right seat

382
00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:15.279
essentially, so com said, yeah, check, that's a check in the

383
00:27:15.319 --> 00:27:22.240
box. We'll take them. And
then the command was stood up on the

384
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:26.319
east coast, and the year late
was in six and then in seven,

385
00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:32.720
uh, the command was stood up. First Marine Special Operations Battalion was stood

386
00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:36.440
up, and I had just showed
up, Nick, the new guy,

387
00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:41.519
brand new, looking lost and not
knowing uh what to do, and I

388
00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:47.799
find myself in formation where they traded
the first Force Reconnaissance guide on for the

389
00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:52.799
first Special Operations Guide on. And
the other thing that happened in that formation

390
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:57.640
that really changed my perspective and understanding
of what the rest of my career would

391
00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:03.279
be like was there was I don't
know three four silver stars in that formation,

392
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:07.039
and there was at least as many
bronze stars, and I think every

393
00:28:07.079 --> 00:28:11.079
single one of those dudes was also
getting a purple heart. Plus there was

394
00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:15.240
a whole section another guy is getting
purple hearts and calms and everything's with v's

395
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:22.279
And it was just I had done
some really cool things in the infantry,

396
00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:26.079
and I had worked with some of
the best infantrymen possible, some of the

397
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:32.759
best machine gunners that taught me invaluable
skills, mortarmen and great guys. But

398
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:36.759
now I was definitely in a different
place, and I was to hear those

399
00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:41.440
citations. It was just like,
these are the things of legend, and

400
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:45.400
I'm standing in formation with these gentlemen
shoulders shoulder, and I realized instantly I'm

401
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:49.599
not working hard enough, I'm not
smart enough. So I've got to fix

402
00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:55.799
both of those things as fast as
possible. So shut my mouth, listen,

403
00:28:56.119 --> 00:29:02.119
and do everything as best I can. Could you explain also a little

404
00:29:02.119 --> 00:29:04.039
bit about like, you know,
this is a brand new unit, I

405
00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:08.039
mean, what's what's the what was
the mission as far as it came down

406
00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:11.519
from higher I mean you must have
had, you know your mission essential tasks,

407
00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:15.240
and how did you go about beginning
like training for those and getting prepared

408
00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:22.680
eventually for deployment. Mm hmmm.
Luckily, again, I was young enough

409
00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:25.559
of my career where I didn't know
any of that piece. I was a

410
00:29:25.559 --> 00:29:29.440
staff sergeant by that by that time, and still a very young E six

411
00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:33.960
staff sergeant. Uh So I was
literally just doing what I was told when

412
00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:34.960
I was told, and doing it
to the best of my ability, and

413
00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.440
when I was asked how can we
do it better or ask for my opinion,

414
00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:42.000
I was trying to provide really good
feedback. So my experience was more

415
00:29:42.039 --> 00:29:48.720
of one of go to a school, pack all of your things, because

416
00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:51.720
as soon as you fail anything,
you're gone, you're getting orders and you're

417
00:29:51.759 --> 00:29:59.839
leaving h And so my very initial
experience was people would show up to formation

418
00:30:00.359 --> 00:30:03.359
and meetings and I would never see
them again. And then new people would

419
00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:07.039
show up and they would be around
for a while, and then I would

420
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:10.359
never see them again. And I
would go to a school, come back,

421
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:11.720
go to a school, go to
a training package, come back,

422
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:15.599
and people were just in and out, in and out, in and out

423
00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:21.319
because the selection process was pre having
a hammered out selection process in place,

424
00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:26.319
and it was happening at the unit
level, so it was very It was

425
00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:30.559
a free market economy if you were
not playing and putting in, but again,

426
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:34.759
your your number of points on the
board and you were gone. So

427
00:30:34.839 --> 00:30:41.039
that that happened quite a bit.
And so that's how I got to experience,

428
00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:45.440
and I got told more than once, you don't belong here, You're

429
00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:49.759
not an O three twenty one recon
marine that this place was built on recomrine.

430
00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:55.000
You're just an infantryman, and just
make it easy for us fail something

431
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:56.960
so we can get rid of you. And that got said to us,

432
00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:00.640
me and my buddy, who vouched
for me to get over there. Uh.

433
00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:04.440
And the master sergeant who said that
to us. I don't think he

434
00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:07.559
realized the effect that had on us, because as soon as he walked away,

435
00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:10.720
me and my buddy looked at each
other and we didn't have to say

436
00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:12.200
a thing. I already knew what
he was thinking. You're gonna have to

437
00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:17.319
kill me and drag my dead body
out of here, like I'm I'm here.

438
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:19.960
So that was my initial experience,
but then after that, once I

439
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:25.640
kind of earned my place and my
ability to have an opinion, it was.

440
00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:30.240
It was well received, and it
was a very entrepreneurial environment, figuring

441
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:34.039
out the uniform, figuring out how
to where, what, where when and

442
00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:37.599
how and how much all of those
things were being figured out in the moment

443
00:31:37.720 --> 00:31:42.119
at the at the ground level,
and it was it was It was really

444
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:47.400
again just grateful to be there at
that time, even like what what you

445
00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:49.480
guys were going to be called,
like now you're raiders, but I mean

446
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.400
it took some time even to get
to that, didn't it. It did.

447
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:57.559
So the original unit was Marine Special
Operations BETIME because the Marine Corps wanted

448
00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:04.160
nothing to do with standing up the
raider battalions. Again, it's very against

449
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:12.160
the culture of the Marine Corps and
so even calling ourselves raiders was highly hoopooed

450
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:15.920
upon. I would say, uh, it was or or in other words,

451
00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:19.279
it was illegal. So we couldn't
use like the skull and stars that

452
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:23.000
you see behind me. Guys were
getting it tattooed and they were literally getting

453
00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:27.599
kicked out of the Marine Corps,
out of Munich for those things. M

454
00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:31.240
jps and all kinds of things couldn't
use raider and so it was. It

455
00:32:31.319 --> 00:32:35.839
was very much, Uh, Marines
are who we are, special operations or

456
00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:39.359
what we do where we're more than
a one trick pony. We're willing to

457
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:45.960
do windows and and I understand why
all that was happening, Stay humble,

458
00:32:45.079 --> 00:32:52.599
work, hard check got it and
then over over the course of a couple

459
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:55.519
more years later, we were able
to procure the device, change the name,

460
00:32:57.079 --> 00:32:59.759
get an MOS, you know,
we didn't have an MOS upfront,

461
00:32:59.799 --> 00:33:02.839
and and secure the MS for officers, so they didn't disappear and they were

462
00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:06.680
able to stay as well. So
all of those were critical steps in the

463
00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:10.359
years following. And how long do
you think it took the stand up,

464
00:33:10.359 --> 00:33:15.839
like your task organization, get all
the equipment and weapons and everything you need,

465
00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:20.680
and start to go into like that
pre deployment cycle. The GWOT money

466
00:33:20.759 --> 00:33:23.440
was flown in pretty hot and heavy, even from day one. I mean,

467
00:33:23.559 --> 00:33:28.440
just Duffel bags of gear and trying
out lots of new things. If

468
00:33:28.440 --> 00:33:31.279
you're going to sniper school, you
got another Duffel bag of things to try

469
00:33:31.319 --> 00:33:35.400
out. You're going to free fall, another Duffel bag, and it was

470
00:33:35.559 --> 00:33:38.240
very okay, this works, this
doesn't work, these combinations things, and

471
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:43.759
we were doing that for a lot
of my initial package. My initial workup

472
00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:51.079
was probably probably the longest one at
about eighteen months, where it was just

473
00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:54.039
our company together doing the work up, going to schools and all of those

474
00:33:54.079 --> 00:34:00.519
things. It contracted considerably after that, and then in terms of the too,

475
00:34:00.759 --> 00:34:04.640
like what does the team consist of? That changed from we went from

476
00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:09.079
a three four team model, excuse
me, four team, three fourteen four

477
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:15.639
element model to a three team model, just like deployment. After deployment were

478
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:19.440
changing the model, changing the model, and in terms of as I roast

479
00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:23.880
the ranks, understanding enablers, when
they're added, who is added, how

480
00:34:23.880 --> 00:34:29.320
many were added, that changed considerably, So the construct of the entire company.

481
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.199
It was just an ever changing model, I would say up until about

482
00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:39.639
twenty sixteen. Then it got very
solidified and it became very yeah in stone

483
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:44.519
at that point, and I'm sure
they're changing again now. For the world

484
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:49.119
is changing. It's fascinating and like
you said, I means, as challenging

485
00:34:49.159 --> 00:34:52.440
as it is, it's also a
big opportunity to create something new, a

486
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:57.760
new model, you know, because
there's nothing said in place already, Like

487
00:34:58.039 --> 00:35:00.679
right now, there's a there's a
you know, internal debate and Special Operations

488
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:06.639
Command about changing the twelve man oda
to potentially the sixteen man oda. And

489
00:35:06.679 --> 00:35:08.960
this is like sac religious, you
know. The twelve man oda is like

490
00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:13.159
the rider or die for a lot
of people. But I mean, and

491
00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:15.400
I only bring that up just to
talk about, like institutionally, how it's

492
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.039
interesting that you know, you're able
to kind of like mold this block of

493
00:35:20.119 --> 00:35:23.079
clay. Yeah yeah, and to
be at the team level really, you

494
00:35:23.079 --> 00:35:29.440
know, my humble contribution was really
more at the tactical level and being able

495
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:31.800
to you know, to attribute in
that way. But there were I mean,

496
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:37.119
some of my peers and mentors were
really doing the hard struggle with big

497
00:35:37.159 --> 00:35:39.719
marine corps, you know, fighting
for being able to be called raider,

498
00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:45.880
renaming the battalions no small thing,
fighting for the mos and and all of

499
00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:49.400
that. And of course, as
a young enlisted do this is my chance

500
00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:53.679
to eat humble pie and in a
live broadcast or in a large way like

501
00:35:54.079 --> 00:35:57.679
I was probably one of the complainers
back then about all of that. It's

502
00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:00.920
not happening fast enough, and it
should be this should be that the device

503
00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:04.519
should look like this and all that, and it worked out the right way,

504
00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:08.480
and I appreciate all of those,
yeah leaders who fought for all of

505
00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:13.480
that. Ahademy. Yeah, I
mean the military is a huge ship that

506
00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:17.239
takes a long time to change its
as myth. Yeah, absolutely no getting

507
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:25.039
around that. So tell us about
you know, going into when you I'm

508
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:30.159
sorry tripping over myself, but when
you finally get orders to deploy as MARSK

509
00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:37.280
and what was that like training up
for that and then getting deployed initially that

510
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:39.719
workup is probably one of the best
and most comprehensive because it had the longest

511
00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:45.599
timeline and lead up to it.
It was probably the most schools I got

512
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:50.400
in terms of going to sniper school, going to jump school, and so

513
00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:52.679
on and so forth, because they
just all kind of fit in because we

514
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:57.639
had the time to do it.
And then driving driving schools with your team

515
00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:02.480
and shooting schools with your team and
all of those things. We were playing

516
00:37:02.519 --> 00:37:07.880
with a very funky model because we
didn't know how the command structure was exactly

517
00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:13.480
gonna work above us, So we
still had Marine Corps tasking us and thinking

518
00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:17.159
they could task us all the way
through the deployment, along with SOCOM,

519
00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:22.599
you know, asserting no, no, no, no, there ares once

520
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:27.000
they deployed, they're they're deploying under
our deployment orders, and so my team

521
00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:31.880
ends up back on boats where they're
not supposed to be, and I do

522
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:38.599
half of my first deployment with my
team on a boat out in the in

523
00:37:38.679 --> 00:37:45.639
the Pacific and heading towards yeah,
Asia. And finally, over all of

524
00:37:45.639 --> 00:37:50.199
that, it was a little bit
like dad slap slapping mom at the dinner

525
00:37:50.239 --> 00:37:53.719
table, who's super awkward? When
SOCOM came over the top called the boat

526
00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:59.280
and said, where's the commander.
Hey, commander, get your team off

527
00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:01.800
the boat, get them to quit. We've already logistically planned all of that.

528
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:05.159
Then you need to figure out how
to get to Afghanistan, where we

529
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:10.360
told you to be three months ago, ready to execute. Oh okay,

530
00:38:13.400 --> 00:38:15.880
yeah, yeah, now go ahead. We show up on the you know,

531
00:38:16.039 --> 00:38:19.719
and we're taking up half the boat
too, because we've got all of

532
00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:23.480
this cool guy so Calm equipment.
We've got vehicles and quad cons full of

533
00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:27.079
stuff, and we're taking up way
more than our fair share of the boat

534
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:31.079
because we're ready to world deploy.
But we didn't follow the basic quarters,

535
00:38:31.079 --> 00:38:35.360
which was you're supposed to be in
Afghanistan. So when we left the boat,

536
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:37.920
the boat was happy. And when
we left the boat so Calm was

537
00:38:37.960 --> 00:38:40.960
happy. The only one that wasn't
happy was the Marine Corps. But they

538
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:45.519
got over it. Yeah yeah,
I mean, it's not exactly the correct

539
00:38:45.519 --> 00:38:49.639
way to employ your brand new special
option unit to put them out a fleet

540
00:38:49.719 --> 00:38:53.679
like that. So logistically, how
did that work getting from the ship to

541
00:38:54.280 --> 00:39:00.559
Afghanistan? Lots of planes, trains
and automobiles, lots of borrowing flights and

542
00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:06.400
flight space got the majority of the
guys to quit and then got everything into

543
00:39:07.320 --> 00:39:12.239
I'm pretty sure we were in Bastion. We started in Bastion, got the

544
00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:16.880
whole company collesced there, and then
spent the next three months doing you know,

545
00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:20.159
because we show up late, you
know, what do we what do

546
00:39:20.199 --> 00:39:22.000
we give the guys to show up
late? We'll give them whatever's left,

547
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:24.360
right, so all the good jobs
were taken. They said, you know,

548
00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:30.400
basically, why don't you guys go
out west and disrupt. That's that's

549
00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:34.519
your mission statement. So that's what
we did. We we went out to

550
00:39:34.599 --> 00:39:38.519
Farra Province where they told us to
go, and we disrupted. Yeap,

551
00:39:39.960 --> 00:39:45.440
how did disrupting go? Disrupting was
awesome. We did a lot of We

552
00:39:45.559 --> 00:39:51.360
did a lot of driving around waiting
to be shot at and just annihilating anybody

553
00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:53.320
dumb enough to shoot at us because
we're you know, we're in gun trucks.

554
00:39:54.239 --> 00:39:58.559
Fra Province was not full of IEDs
yet, it was. It was

555
00:39:58.639 --> 00:40:04.760
mostly uh level shooters, low level
fighters, I should say. So we

556
00:40:04.760 --> 00:40:07.519
weren't doing anything or shattering by any
means, but it was a great way

557
00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:13.320
to get our feet wet and to
really shake out how do you operate in

558
00:40:13.320 --> 00:40:17.920
the desert with new Vick's new guns
and all the things, And so what

559
00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:22.280
did you think of the unit itself? Of like this unit that you,

560
00:40:22.280 --> 00:40:24.119
you know, you helped stand up
even though you were a pretty junior guy,

561
00:40:24.440 --> 00:40:28.719
and now you're getting to see it
in action, what was that like?

562
00:40:30.559 --> 00:40:35.480
It was because it was such an
entrepreneurial Guys are leaving at any given

563
00:40:35.480 --> 00:40:37.639
moment. You never see them again
or even no one even talks about them,

564
00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:43.239
like they're just gone. I was
doing the best I could to keep

565
00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:45.840
my head down and just kick ass
at whatever any task I was given,

566
00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:51.960
do it better than was asked for. But the caliber of humans I got

567
00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:54.239
to be around, I mean,
so calm and being in the teams,

568
00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:58.159
and it's interesting. I don't hear
this talked about enough, but I find

569
00:40:58.159 --> 00:41:00.920
it fascinating. Is you run in
to all the genetic freaks, right,

570
00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:05.639
it's a gene pool of genetic freaks
to end up in this one place.

571
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:10.280
They're just super athletes who are also
extremely intelligent. And so the level of

572
00:41:10.320 --> 00:41:15.199
conversation in the infantry, I would
just say, is a little different than

573
00:41:15.239 --> 00:41:20.440
the level of conversation in a team
room with a bunch of guys who have

574
00:41:20.519 --> 00:41:25.840
to have a standard IQ that's a
little above the norm, and so being

575
00:41:25.880 --> 00:41:31.119
around all of that made me raise
the bar of my performance. And I'm

576
00:41:31.159 --> 00:41:36.480
just again, I don't know that
I helped stand up. I can't claim

577
00:41:36.519 --> 00:41:38.480
that, but just being able to
be there, like, I just feel

578
00:41:39.320 --> 00:41:43.440
grateful, you know what I mean. Yeah, I mean that must have

579
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:45.480
been such a cool experience to like
get to see it all come together after

580
00:41:45.639 --> 00:41:47.840
you know, all of you guys
put a lot of hard work into that,

581
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:52.119
I know, yeah, absolutely,
and then to see the way it's

582
00:41:52.159 --> 00:41:58.320
progressed, you know, watching the
selection process come together and seeing literally bigger,

583
00:41:58.719 --> 00:42:02.519
stronger, faster, more intelligent young
guys come into the unit and you're

584
00:42:02.559 --> 00:42:06.960
like, oh man, this whole
thing's working. Like this is working.

585
00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:13.440
Yeah, And so readaploying back home
and then is it like getting ready to

586
00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:17.400
go back back into the breach.
It was it where we kind of figured

587
00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:23.159
out that that initial hiccup, if
you will, That was Afghanistan one of

588
00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:28.719
three, and I'm pretty much the
next one. I hopped the rotation because

589
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:30.119
I didn't I was still on the
edge whether or not I was going to

590
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:34.840
get to stay in the unit.
Because I was not a recomerne and that

591
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.400
was what it was predominantly fielded by. We still didn't have an MOS yet.

592
00:42:38.079 --> 00:42:40.440
I was too senior to go to
BRC. They were, you know,

593
00:42:40.480 --> 00:42:46.599
basically reconstance course. So they were
not gonna they had They had no

594
00:42:46.719 --> 00:42:50.119
reason to let me in. They
had every reason to let me fail,

595
00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:54.400
which I totally understand. And so
I snuck away to some of the special

596
00:42:54.400 --> 00:42:58.360
schools because I had a team sergeant
that looked out for me, a team

597
00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:00.920
chief that looked out for me.
Said hey, you know, we're just

598
00:43:00.920 --> 00:43:02.800
going to make you too valuable that
they you know, we're gonna invest too

599
00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:05.920
much money in you, and they
were going to make it dumb for them

600
00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:08.360
to get rid of you. So
I did some of those special schools that

601
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:12.199
are hard to get into. And
then like free fall, Like you can't

602
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:14.320
put a free faller out in the
fleet, Like what's he going to do?

603
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:17.159
And so I got very fortunate because
I got taken care of my great

604
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:25.239
leadership honestly, and in all of
that, Yeah, it was just amazing

605
00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:30.519
experience. What was the what was
the second trip to Afghanistan? Like,

606
00:43:30.559 --> 00:43:34.639
how did it differ from the first? We actually knew what we're doing.

607
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:37.719
Yeah, that made a huge difference, and we were given a legit mission

608
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:45.440
and so VSO had just started and
we got to be one of the first

609
00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:50.360
VSO teams. Not not popular,
but it needed to be done and needed

610
00:43:50.360 --> 00:43:52.800
to be executed well. And so
we ended up in a little village call

611
00:43:52.880 --> 00:44:01.199
them Sao and Man. We took
a ragtag group of local indigenous villagers and

612
00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:05.920
turn it into a police force,
and we built bridges and we built a

613
00:44:05.960 --> 00:44:08.920
school. We got to kick that
school off before we left, so we

614
00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:13.920
got to actually see like the first
class start, you know, dug some

615
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:17.679
Wells, the kind of the stereotypical
stuff, and we we made a you

616
00:44:17.679 --> 00:44:21.199
know, it wasn't a it wasn't
a quantum change, but it was certainly

617
00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:25.000
a step change in the right direction. And it was Yeah, it was.

618
00:44:25.079 --> 00:44:30.320
It was really good to be a
part of and to have you know,

619
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:32.679
we used to call it, uh
season two, right, season one

620
00:44:32.760 --> 00:44:37.440
is your first season, kind of
like the TV shows, and so season

621
00:44:37.519 --> 00:44:40.920
two is just very different because you
you have a much better sense of what

622
00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:45.280
is right and wrong what to do, and so we just operated much better

623
00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:49.880
and a lot of far more efficiencies. I would say how do you think

624
00:44:49.960 --> 00:44:54.840
the Marines did transitioning from you know, where combat were meat eaters and now,

625
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:58.639
hey, you're fighting a counter insurgency. You need to make friends with

626
00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:01.480
the villagers. We're trying to build
of security. Uh, you know,

627
00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:07.639
security apparatus around this area. What
what was that sort of transitional or if

628
00:45:07.679 --> 00:45:10.760
there was one, what was that
like for you guys? Yeah, I

629
00:45:10.760 --> 00:45:14.400
would say the general consensus at my
level again, I was I was like

630
00:45:14.440 --> 00:45:19.000
a brand new East seven at that
point. Kindery sergeant and everybody, you

631
00:45:19.079 --> 00:45:22.719
know, my my rank and below
was like, nope, we're here to

632
00:45:22.800 --> 00:45:25.800
kill people. Like, what are
you telling us to do? There's there's

633
00:45:25.840 --> 00:45:30.159
a war going on, and you
want me to buy and sell goats and

634
00:45:30.199 --> 00:45:34.519
dig wells Like this seems like not
the right job for us, seems like

635
00:45:34.519 --> 00:45:37.719
a job for somebody else. So
it was not overly popular. Uh.

636
00:45:37.800 --> 00:45:42.719
And we were still looking to get
in gunfights no matter what, and so

637
00:45:43.320 --> 00:45:47.360
we pursued that fairly heavily on the
side while trying to you know, train

638
00:45:47.480 --> 00:45:52.159
and do the right you train our
indigenous forces to do the right things and

639
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:57.400
all of that as well. So
not not overly popular. Well, what

640
00:45:57.559 --> 00:45:59.960
was what were your thoughts by the
end of the deployment. I mean,

641
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:04.239
and it sounds like you did make
a tangible difference in that village. Mm

642
00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:08.400
hmm. It was kind of like
I alluded to that only in retrospect.

643
00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:10.880
You know, it's really hard to
do when you're in the moment and you're

644
00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:15.559
hot, tired, eating, you
know, terrible food and all of those

645
00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:20.920
things, and you just want to
be in gunfights. But to see a

646
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:23.239
school open, right, and it
was a burnt shell that was like literally

647
00:46:23.320 --> 00:46:29.119
just like ashes, and to rebuild
that and see the first class kickoff and

648
00:46:29.119 --> 00:46:31.280
and all of those things, it
was you can look back and go,

649
00:46:31.320 --> 00:46:35.519
okay, like I don't know if
that school is still there, but I

650
00:46:35.559 --> 00:46:38.920
mean, you guys, did you
did good while you were there? Yeah?

651
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:45.920
Yeah, yep. And then third
trip to Afghanistan? How did that

652
00:46:45.960 --> 00:46:52.119
one differ from the previous two?
Third trip was I would say the tactical

653
00:46:52.159 --> 00:46:55.800
pinnacle of my career by far.
I got to be on a commando team,

654
00:46:57.320 --> 00:47:01.000
so we're just doing raids. Uh
was seven commando KANDAC out of Bastion,

655
00:47:02.159 --> 00:47:07.800
all all helicopter raids, so seventy
two hours ish was was kind of

656
00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:14.880
the sweet spot to go into you
know, if a VSO, a village

657
00:47:15.719 --> 00:47:20.400
village stability operation was having a hard
time because they're doing the handing out soccer

658
00:47:20.440 --> 00:47:23.320
balls and doing all of that stuff, and they're they're having a hard time

659
00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:27.239
with fighters and I eights and all
those things. We'd go in and smash

660
00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:30.840
the problem for him. And so
that is just a lot of fun,

661
00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:35.360
that's all. Yeah. Yeah.
And so finally getting to ride on black

662
00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:40.159
helicopters on a on a very regular
basis and then interfacing with I mean,

663
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:45.880
hats off to the one sixtieth.
They're just what an amazing unit that is

664
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:52.840
so professional and totally made me rethink
the way I approach, how I speak

665
00:47:52.920 --> 00:47:57.079
to other units and how I coordinate
with them because the professionalism that they showed

666
00:47:57.719 --> 00:48:00.800
at every step of that. And
in a small short story aside from that,

667
00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:05.280
we we had a guy that was
injured. I happened to be injured

668
00:48:05.559 --> 00:48:08.719
at the same time. It was
a twisted ankle and Mike guys love beat

669
00:48:08.760 --> 00:48:12.039
me up about that, but they're
like, well, you're the most useless,

670
00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:14.880
so you got to take this other
useless guy and you're gonna take him

671
00:48:14.920 --> 00:48:20.079
back to the hospital. So I
ended up taking that ride and I show

672
00:48:20.199 --> 00:48:22.320
up, you know, Candahar,
and I have no idea. I get

673
00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:27.039
rid of my dude that I'm responsible
for. It's a local national and I

674
00:48:27.159 --> 00:48:30.239
kind of I don't know what to
do next, but the soda shows up

675
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:31.800
and then right on the heels of
the soda is the one sixtieth guys,

676
00:48:31.800 --> 00:48:35.280
and they're like, we got your
brother, like, come get some hot

677
00:48:35.360 --> 00:48:37.119
child with us, Like we knew
you were coming. We've been tracking the

678
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:43.239
whole thing. And I go into
the one sixtieth talk coolest thing I've ever

679
00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:45.000
seen to this day. And one
of the dudes actually gave it to me

680
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:50.360
at the end of the At the
end of the operation, they were tracking

681
00:48:50.440 --> 00:48:54.320
on paper the entire operation, and
they were they had my guys on you

682
00:48:54.360 --> 00:48:58.519
know, because you can listen to
them on satcom, and they're tracking every

683
00:48:58.519 --> 00:49:05.159
fighting position, They're tracking every gunfight, they're tracking every movement and everything that's

684
00:49:05.199 --> 00:49:07.960
happening on paper and on it because
they're like, well, yeah, if

685
00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:13.559
everything, if we lose you know, electricity or whatever else, why of

686
00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:15.599
course we do this. But it
was just in like we do it too

687
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:19.599
in our own talk, but just
to see the level of detail and care

688
00:49:19.800 --> 00:49:22.199
that was being done amazing, and
they're like, hey, you want to

689
00:49:22.239 --> 00:49:24.599
go back, Yes, get me
out of here. So they had a

690
00:49:24.599 --> 00:49:28.400
bird going back, so you got
to go back into the gunfight. It

691
00:49:28.440 --> 00:49:32.760
was good. Any particular stories from
that deployment that like stand out in your

692
00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:36.960
mind where you know you thought that
you know, your team really kicks some

693
00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:43.480
asks. That day. We had
one particular gunfight we had been in zone

694
00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:46.760
for. It was we had been
in an area where a bunch of the

695
00:49:46.800 --> 00:49:52.519
red dots had kind of come together. So we were chasing red dots and

696
00:49:52.559 --> 00:49:57.519
there was some bigger red dots that
were important there, and so it was

697
00:49:58.719 --> 00:50:02.519
my team and an ODA and to
do a joint operation. And then I

698
00:50:02.760 --> 00:50:07.599
just happened to be in just one
of the best gunfights of my career.

699
00:50:07.840 --> 00:50:12.480
And I'm I'm a team chief,
so I'm really just tagging along with my

700
00:50:12.519 --> 00:50:16.079
element leader who's doing all the all
of the real work, and a hell

701
00:50:16.079 --> 00:50:19.719
of a dude Modronso wherever you're at, I hope you hear this. You're

702
00:50:19.760 --> 00:50:22.320
a badass. He let me tag
along, right, And so I'm supposed

703
00:50:22.320 --> 00:50:27.440
to be runing the radio because I'm
the GFC, the GFC for the gunfight

704
00:50:27.480 --> 00:50:30.239
and all that, but we get
lit up pretty good and we just happened

705
00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:34.800
to have a bird overhead, sort
of like, oh, you boys aren't

706
00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:37.480
getting away with this one. And
it was the first time I'm wearing a

707
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:42.880
garment and I can fully track everything
that's going on, and we had great

708
00:50:42.920 --> 00:50:45.920
comms with the bird and like everything
was just clicking and it was still daytime,

709
00:50:46.599 --> 00:50:51.480
so they're just yeah, we tuned
them boys up, we chased them

710
00:50:51.519 --> 00:50:54.679
for then they didn't They had no
idea what we were chasing them, and

711
00:50:54.760 --> 00:50:59.159
so we end up catching them boys, and they had called in reinforcements,

712
00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:04.159
so we tuned up their buddies who
came into reinforce and then they made some

713
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:07.440
phone calls and got some more buddies
and yeah, it just it was.

714
00:51:07.880 --> 00:51:13.480
It was a great day. Mayhem, absolute mayhem. Yeah. I think

715
00:51:13.519 --> 00:51:15.960
we may or may not have stacked
all of their motorcycles after we took care

716
00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:22.519
of them and lit it into a
large hire. It was great area pacified.

717
00:51:23.960 --> 00:51:27.960
Yes, it was very quiet in
that area after that, you know.

718
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:31.960
So, I mean, it's super
cool that to hear your story about

719
00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:37.400
going from being this young marine on
the rooftop watching the Jessica Lynch raiding like

720
00:51:37.480 --> 00:51:42.639
now you are that guy. I
mean, did it dawn on you?

721
00:51:42.760 --> 00:51:46.880
Like I'm here, I'm doing it. I've honestly never thought about it that

722
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:52.000
way until you just said that.
Really it's surreal. Yeah, I mean,

723
00:51:52.360 --> 00:51:57.440
I'm a small town kid who grew
up riding skateboards and then fast forward,

724
00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:01.119
I got to have these experiences and
yeah, it's amazing, grateful I

725
00:52:01.119 --> 00:52:06.639
got to do it. You also, when we were talking earlier, you

726
00:52:06.719 --> 00:52:09.800
mentioned that you got to do some
J sets with Morisak mm hmm yep.

727
00:52:10.079 --> 00:52:17.000
So in between those Afghanistans, we
managed to find some time to go Philippines

728
00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:22.880
and some other places to do some
J sets and work with you know,

729
00:52:22.800 --> 00:52:30.159
local country police forces atfs FBIS and
all of those and really you know,

730
00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:32.679
worked on their shooting capacity, working
on their intelligence gathering capacities and all those

731
00:52:32.679 --> 00:52:37.920
things, and doing the kind of
the classic foreign internal defense kind of stuff.

732
00:52:37.960 --> 00:52:42.159
And yeah, and it was It's
a great way to kind of decompress

733
00:52:42.239 --> 00:52:46.719
from a from a tougher deployment from
an Afghanistan to go do one of those.

734
00:52:46.719 --> 00:52:50.440
It's a little bit of an Ada
boy and still doing good work.

735
00:52:54.400 --> 00:52:58.760
Talk to us a little bit about. I mean, we get up to

736
00:52:58.840 --> 00:53:01.440
twenty eighteen, you know, the
years, the years are ticking by here,

737
00:53:01.639 --> 00:53:05.079
and I mean, you've had a
pretty amazing career, and it sounds

738
00:53:05.079 --> 00:53:08.360
like you had a hell of a
lot of fun after you know that those

739
00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:10.960
deployments. I mean, what's sort
of like the next step for you?

740
00:53:13.039 --> 00:53:17.079
Yep. So I find myself too
senior to have fun anymore. I find

741
00:53:17.079 --> 00:53:21.920
myself riding the desk and you know, future ops or somewhere upstairs in the

742
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:24.760
s you know, pick a number, probably last three, and I'm I'm

743
00:53:24.800 --> 00:53:29.320
coming to work one day, I'm
a little bit late. I'm I've like

744
00:53:29.400 --> 00:53:32.760
spilled my coffee. I'm trying to
find my badge, like where's Where's how

745
00:53:32.760 --> 00:53:35.480
do I get it? You know, trying to get into the building.

746
00:53:35.519 --> 00:53:42.079
What's my code? Again? I
get to my cubicle and you know,

747
00:53:42.119 --> 00:53:45.079
my left knees hurting, my right
shoulder's hurting. I'm already late for the

748
00:53:45.079 --> 00:53:50.159
first meeting, and I'm like,
hmm, am I still here for the

749
00:53:50.199 --> 00:53:54.000
right reasons? Or am I now
part of the problem? And I spent

750
00:53:54.079 --> 00:53:58.559
the rest of the day not really
tuned into the meetings, but I realizing

751
00:53:58.639 --> 00:54:00.880
I was at like the seventeen and
a high fear mark, and maybe twenty

752
00:54:01.079 --> 00:54:06.119
was the hard stop. Maybe maybe
it was time because like I said,

753
00:54:06.119 --> 00:54:09.960
I saw the selection process working and
that the new young guys coming in were

754
00:54:10.440 --> 00:54:15.400
jack studs man and they were smart, and so it felt it felt like

755
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:17.840
a good, really good transition point
in twenty years. So I started looking

756
00:54:17.840 --> 00:54:23.760
around. I started really paying attention
to my peers and mentors who are kind

757
00:54:23.800 --> 00:54:25.599
of a couple of years ahead of
me. You know what are they doing?

758
00:54:25.679 --> 00:54:30.000
What's successful? Would what does success
even look like? You know what

759
00:54:30.320 --> 00:54:32.760
do they recommend? And starting to
have those conversations about I'm thinking about dropping

760
00:54:32.800 --> 00:54:37.280
my papers and all of those things, which makes you super popular too,

761
00:54:37.400 --> 00:54:40.760
by the way, right you So
you got to be very careful how you

762
00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:45.159
have those conversations because no one wants
to hear that you're a quitter. Right.

763
00:54:46.920 --> 00:54:52.280
But I started having those conversations,
and I really start realizing that the

764
00:54:52.360 --> 00:54:55.920
longer the runway and the more my
finances are locked down, that's going to

765
00:54:55.960 --> 00:55:00.960
predicate my best possible transition. So
I started working on those things. Is

766
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:05.519
that was in my sphere of control. And then on the weekends or at

767
00:55:05.599 --> 00:55:08.280
nights when I could go to a
networking thing or something being put on by

768
00:55:08.679 --> 00:55:14.800
a veteran support organization, I would
go do that. And then what I

769
00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:19.159
got told though, right around that
same time, U the Honor Foundation was

770
00:55:19.199 --> 00:55:24.519
standing up and it was primarily aimed
at seals and swick down to Coronado,

771
00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:29.280
and they had opened up the first
couple of seats to raiders, and the

772
00:55:29.280 --> 00:55:30.559
first couple of seats that went,
and one of them happened to be one

773
00:55:30.559 --> 00:55:35.880
of my former commanders. Great guy, Andy, wherever you're at. You

774
00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:39.719
did a hell of a job.
And then another guy, Matt, one

775
00:55:39.719 --> 00:55:45.079
of my seas who still mentors me
to this day and is a really good

776
00:55:45.159 --> 00:55:47.599
friend. They both said essentially the
same thing. No matter what you do,

777
00:55:49.280 --> 00:55:52.400
you have to go through the Honor
Foundation as your that's your men force

778
00:55:52.719 --> 00:55:58.239
for infill to civilian life. If
you don't do that, like you're you're

779
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:02.679
you're making the wrong choices here.
So follow tute with that. And so

780
00:56:02.760 --> 00:56:06.559
I I had done a couple of
other things. I had a resume I

781
00:56:06.559 --> 00:56:08.719
felt good about, and I had
all of these other I kind of figured

782
00:56:08.719 --> 00:56:12.440
out how to talk about myself a
little bit, and all these things and

783
00:56:12.400 --> 00:56:15.719
then I'm in the seat very first
night at the Honor Foundation, and the

784
00:56:15.760 --> 00:56:20.320
director says, Okay, we've all
introduced ourselves all of that. You're going

785
00:56:20.360 --> 00:56:22.599
to introduce yourselves. And I'm sitting
in the room with thirty other seals and

786
00:56:22.639 --> 00:56:27.159
Swick and there's the odd green bray
in the background somehow, I don't know

787
00:56:27.159 --> 00:56:30.039
how he snuck in and because there's
not a lot of green brays in southern

788
00:56:30.079 --> 00:56:35.519
California, and it said. The
director says, so check it out.

789
00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:37.880
You're going to introduce yourself. But
here's the catch. You can't tell us

790
00:56:37.920 --> 00:56:42.599
your rank, and you can't tell
us what base or what you you know,

791
00:56:42.760 --> 00:56:45.280
what you used to do. We
want to know who you are,

792
00:56:45.679 --> 00:56:49.159
not what you did. Ready to
go. We're all just like, wait,

793
00:56:49.400 --> 00:56:52.760
what what do you mean? So
what did you What did you say?

794
00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:55.760
Yeah, yeah, I'm Master Sergeant
Halterman, like I worked in can't

795
00:56:55.800 --> 00:56:59.679
pedal like all of these things right, And he stopped us. He's like,

796
00:56:59.719 --> 00:57:02.320
don't we know you don't know how
to do that, not yet.

797
00:57:02.440 --> 00:57:07.119
That's what the next three months are
about. So then I go through the

798
00:57:07.159 --> 00:57:14.440
program and it's just a absolute change. I mean, it's it's completely different

799
00:57:14.440 --> 00:57:16.880
than anything I experienced to that point, and it is at the level that

800
00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:21.920
you would expect for so coom,
like all of the things that takes you

801
00:57:22.079 --> 00:57:25.559
to get in and be and stay
on the teams at whatever level. This

802
00:57:25.679 --> 00:57:30.440
is the next logical step as you're
transitioning to the next phase, and it

803
00:57:30.800 --> 00:57:34.239
is at the level of professionalism and
done in such a way that you're like,

804
00:57:34.280 --> 00:57:37.639
oh, yeah, this is this
is what looks like. So I

805
00:57:37.639 --> 00:57:40.559
finished that and I was ready to
go be a tech entrepreneur, like I

806
00:57:40.679 --> 00:57:45.559
knew that's what I was doing next. And I got offered the opportunity to

807
00:57:45.559 --> 00:57:47.880
stay at the Honor Foundation as a
staff member though, and they're like,

808
00:57:47.920 --> 00:57:52.159
we have a tech problem that we're
trying to solve. You seem to have

809
00:57:52.199 --> 00:57:58.239
a propensity for it. Why don't
you solve our hard tech problem and you

810
00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:00.559
know, continue to serve And I
was like, Yes, let's do it.

811
00:58:00.639 --> 00:58:04.000
I had I had no idea I
could have even had a chance to

812
00:58:04.039 --> 00:58:08.199
work here, like absolutely So in
September of twenty eighteen, I hit my

813
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:13.519
twenty year mark, I got my
DD two fourteen, I'm retired. And

814
00:58:13.559 --> 00:58:21.360
then January second of twenty nineteen,
brand new Civilian brand new employee showing up

815
00:58:21.360 --> 00:58:24.719
the Honor Foundation as a staff member. Yep, Wow, what was that?

816
00:58:24.800 --> 00:58:28.039
I mean, it sounds, first
of all, like you were very

817
00:58:28.079 --> 00:58:30.840
smart about how you transitioned out of
the military and made a lot of really

818
00:58:30.840 --> 00:58:35.519
good choices to kind of set yourself
up for success those last few years.

819
00:58:36.880 --> 00:58:40.480
But nonetheless, I mean even more
so for the Marines that that's just like

820
00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:44.679
such a part of your core identity. I mean, what was it like

821
00:58:44.719 --> 00:58:46.880
when you finally got that DD two
fourteen and you know, leave the base

822
00:58:46.960 --> 00:58:52.320
for you know, the last time
in uniform? Anyway, Yeah, it

823
00:58:52.360 --> 00:58:58.320
is. It's another surreal experience,
especially if you do twenty years. Yeah,

824
00:58:58.760 --> 00:59:02.960
I'm sure even a ten year or
beyond. It's a surreal feeling because

825
00:59:04.199 --> 00:59:07.360
at that point I had as much
time in the Marine Corps as I had.

826
00:59:07.719 --> 00:59:12.800
You know that that was half my
existence on the planet, and a

827
00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:15.360
good chunk of that was spinning war, and a good chunk of that was

828
00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:20.800
So it is a It is a
It is the most mixed bag of emotions

829
00:59:20.840 --> 00:59:24.559
you can possibly have, of joy, excitement, pure fear because you don't

830
00:59:24.599 --> 00:59:28.920
actually know what you're doing next.
That really right, because you haven't done

831
00:59:28.920 --> 00:59:31.719
it yet. It's easy to talk
shit about being a good gunfighter and then

832
00:59:31.760 --> 00:59:37.519
you go go get in a gunfight, though, because training and reality don't

833
00:59:37.519 --> 00:59:43.920
always match. So all of those
things are churning. And I was just

834
00:59:43.920 --> 00:59:47.039
trying to you. You are correct. I did the best I could with

835
00:59:47.119 --> 00:59:52.960
the information I had to make the
best decisions to posture myself for best possible

836
00:59:53.000 --> 00:59:59.159
outcomes. Yeah, and if you're
in special operations and you're transitioning the Honor

837
00:59:59.199 --> 01:00:02.599
Foundation, I would to you,
is is that step? Well? Yeah,

838
01:00:02.639 --> 01:00:06.599
let's let's take a moment right now. I'd love to hear you tell

839
01:00:06.679 --> 01:00:09.639
us. I mean, you talked
about your interaction with Honor Foundation, but

840
01:00:09.639 --> 01:00:13.119
if you could kind of give us
the elevator pitch or you know, the

841
01:00:13.159 --> 01:00:16.159
thirty thousand foot view, like what
is the Honor Foundation, what's their mission?

842
01:00:16.159 --> 01:00:20.239
What do they do? Sure,
so the elevator pitch, and then

843
01:00:20.360 --> 01:00:22.559
I'm gonna transition from that and give
you kind of the real real Sure.

844
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:28.199
The elevator pitch is it's a three
month executive style education and we're gonna bring

845
01:00:28.239 --> 01:00:30.039
you in two nights a week.
And if you're in a physical campus,

846
01:00:30.679 --> 01:00:34.960
which we have eight of, you're
we're gonna feed you dinner because we know

847
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:37.960
you're coming from your challenging day job. We're gonna ask you to be in

848
01:00:37.159 --> 01:00:44.679
civilian attire and business business casual at
that at that caliber, We're gonna feed

849
01:00:44.719 --> 01:00:47.760
you dinner because you know you haven't
had time, and we're gonna have some

850
01:00:47.880 --> 01:00:53.599
interesting people in the room anywhere from
executive coaches to business owners, to executives

851
01:00:53.599 --> 01:00:59.079
in corporate to entrepreneurs, and then
you can just naturally have some conversations.

852
01:00:59.440 --> 01:01:01.320
And then from six pm to nine
pm you're going to grind over the actual

853
01:01:01.360 --> 01:01:06.719
curriculum, and then the doors don't
close intil the last person leaves, might

854
01:01:06.760 --> 01:01:08.719
be a couple of a couple of
drinks. But then you start to have

855
01:01:08.800 --> 01:01:14.519
sign of the other conversations and you
do it over the course of three months.

856
01:01:15.159 --> 01:01:19.320
Each phase or each month is a
phase. Excuse me, So each

857
01:01:19.360 --> 01:01:22.639
phase is one month long. And
where we start, which makes the Honor

858
01:01:22.639 --> 01:01:28.840
Foundation very different from all other veteran
support organizations, is we make you work

859
01:01:28.880 --> 01:01:32.280
on you, and so you know, if you're wearing ranks and titles for

860
01:01:32.480 --> 01:01:36.760
a good chunk of your life,
it's hard to remember who Jack is again

861
01:01:37.360 --> 01:01:40.679
and what does Jack actually like?
And what does he actually want to What

862
01:01:40.760 --> 01:01:45.719
are you good at that you never
want to do again? That's a really

863
01:01:45.760 --> 01:01:51.119
good question to ask yourself in transition. So we work on a bunch of

864
01:01:51.119 --> 01:01:54.440
those things, a bunch of introspection. We don't let you flounder. We

865
01:01:54.559 --> 01:01:59.159
put you in a cohort of other
like minded, high performing individuals who are

866
01:01:59.199 --> 01:02:02.320
also in transit. So now you've
got battle buddies or swim buddies, you

867
01:02:02.360 --> 01:02:07.320
know, depending on who we're serving. And then we give you an executive

868
01:02:07.360 --> 01:02:10.679
coach that you've got to check in
with once a week, who's a civilian

869
01:02:10.840 --> 01:02:15.800
more often than not, who's volunteering, who's going to help you figure out

870
01:02:15.960 --> 01:02:17.960
your transition because your needs are going
to be a little bit different than mine.

871
01:02:19.280 --> 01:02:22.239
Even though we're both we could both
be eights getting out twenty years,

872
01:02:22.719 --> 01:02:27.199
been in gunfights together, all the
things. You may have kids and you're

873
01:02:27.199 --> 01:02:30.559
moving back to New York and I'm
single and I want to go be at

874
01:02:30.599 --> 01:02:35.480
Google. Right, those are just
very different outcomes. And to facilitate that,

875
01:02:35.519 --> 01:02:37.360
we give you a coach so that
you can get really down and in

876
01:02:37.719 --> 01:02:43.880
on what those individual needs are.
So broad curriculum that helps everybody with individual

877
01:02:44.079 --> 01:02:47.440
one to one care if you will. And then the big proposition, without

878
01:02:47.440 --> 01:02:51.360
going into all the rest of it, is we serve you for life.

879
01:02:51.400 --> 01:02:54.400
Once you graduate with us, you're
in a growing population. There's two thousand,

880
01:02:54.519 --> 01:03:00.280
five hundred and fifty plus alumni right
now. So if you're going to

881
01:03:00.280 --> 01:03:04.360
get in the company as soon as
you graduate, you have access to a

882
01:03:04.480 --> 01:03:07.880
ranger or somebody at Google. You've
got to access to a switch or a

883
01:03:07.920 --> 01:03:12.599
seal who's an entrepreneur in the industry
you want to be in, and on

884
01:03:12.880 --> 01:03:15.360
and on and on. If it's
a company you've heard of, we probably

885
01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:19.360
have a connection to it at this
point, either directly through one of our

886
01:03:19.360 --> 01:03:23.840
graduates or through our great supporters,
or the company is actually donating to us,

887
01:03:23.920 --> 01:03:29.679
or a myriad of other things.
That's the elevator pitch. But I'll

888
01:03:29.679 --> 01:03:34.679
tell you what we're really doing,
and we never expressly say it. We're

889
01:03:34.719 --> 01:03:42.800
helping guys deal with identity, community, sense, making, purpose and meaning

890
01:03:42.840 --> 01:03:46.320
in life when the uniform comes off. And because even though you're gonna have

891
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:50.800
to do a really long checklist to
get out of Army, Air Force,

892
01:03:50.920 --> 01:03:54.039
Navy, Marine Corps or Space Guardian, and you're gonna have to do another

893
01:03:54.079 --> 01:03:58.639
really long checklist to get out of
your individual unit, and you're gonna have

894
01:03:58.679 --> 01:04:00.760
to do all of these things for
medical, and you're gonna have to do

895
01:04:00.800 --> 01:04:03.400
all these things for the VA,
and you're gonna get a job. None

896
01:04:03.440 --> 01:04:08.920
of that is transition. That's change
management, right, That's all that is.

897
01:04:09.880 --> 01:04:14.039
Transition happens in your heart and in
your head. It's how you feel

898
01:04:14.239 --> 01:04:16.719
about all of those things. It's
how you make sense of it. It's

899
01:04:16.760 --> 01:04:21.440
how you figure out who you are
and who your new team is going to

900
01:04:21.519 --> 01:04:27.119
be, and then what is my
purpose? And how am I going to

901
01:04:27.159 --> 01:04:30.760
find meaning from all of that now? Because if you're wearing the uniform,

902
01:04:30.840 --> 01:04:36.880
all of those things are answered like
instantly and then it's gone. So that's

903
01:04:36.920 --> 01:04:42.639
what we really try and help guys
and gals grapple with. I'm really glad

904
01:04:42.679 --> 01:04:45.719
to hear you say that so explicitly
and that the Foundation helps guys with that

905
01:04:45.880 --> 01:04:50.920
issue, with those that series of
issues, because you know, I've been

906
01:04:50.960 --> 01:04:55.519
out long enough now, what fourteen
years, long enough to kind of reflect

907
01:04:55.519 --> 01:05:00.079
back on my own transition experience,
and I mean I really think that you

908
01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:03.840
know, we'll take special ops guys. For example, you have to fight

909
01:05:03.920 --> 01:05:09.119
as hard to transition as you did
to get into that unit. You know,

910
01:05:09.239 --> 01:05:12.559
like you talked about your fight.
You know that to get into special

911
01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:16.599
operations as a big, uphill battle
for you. In my opinion, it's

912
01:05:16.719 --> 01:05:20.599
just as big a battle to transition
out of the military and find that purpose

913
01:05:20.719 --> 01:05:26.199
and find that identity that you mentioned. Absolutely, and hey it's hard.

914
01:05:26.480 --> 01:05:29.960
Yeah, Like I'm just like,
if anybody's listening, you're not there yet,

915
01:05:29.960 --> 01:05:32.000
but you're thinking about transition. Yeah, it's hard, but that's not

916
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:35.079
a bad thing. It was hard
to get in, it's going to be

917
01:05:35.119 --> 01:05:39.280
hard to get out. And the
things that are the most meaningful to us

918
01:05:39.280 --> 01:05:42.360
in life, the things that have
the highest amount of value, are the

919
01:05:42.400 --> 01:05:45.559
things that we had to struggle through, that we had to grind over and

920
01:05:45.599 --> 01:05:48.559
that we eventually found a solution to. So when you do it, and

921
01:05:48.599 --> 01:05:51.639
you do it right, it'll be
one of the most gratifying things that you

922
01:05:53.159 --> 01:06:00.000
one of the most gratifying things you
accomplish. Now, it's super cool.

923
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:02.400
Well, and it sounds like right
now, the Honor Foundation serves the Special

924
01:06:02.440 --> 01:06:08.639
Operations community. I mean, is
there a specific We are ten years old,

925
01:06:09.400 --> 01:06:13.400
and that's that is our that's what
we are charted chartered to do as

926
01:06:13.440 --> 01:06:19.800
a national five oh one C three
nonprofit. The dream or the vision really

927
01:06:19.840 --> 01:06:24.159
not dream. The vision has always
been, though to serve, how do

928
01:06:24.239 --> 01:06:28.880
we effectively make a bigger impact than
that? And so the vision has always

929
01:06:28.880 --> 01:06:33.360
been what would it look like for
us to take our knowledge and look,

930
01:06:33.400 --> 01:06:35.559
we do all the other things too. We do resumes, and we do

931
01:06:35.639 --> 01:06:40.360
LinkedIn because all of those things are
required. You have to have all of

932
01:06:40.360 --> 01:06:43.960
those things to get in and through
a hiring funnel, start your own company,

933
01:06:44.519 --> 01:06:46.800
or go on to be a college
student for a while. And those

934
01:06:46.800 --> 01:06:50.840
are kind of the three big buckets
most guys gals fall into. But how

935
01:06:50.840 --> 01:06:57.280
do we how can we contribute to
the greater two hundred thousand who get out

936
01:06:57.320 --> 01:07:00.199
of Army, Air Force, Navy
and Marine Corps in every single year.

937
01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:09.119
And so we think the unique area
that we can provide a real meaningful difference

938
01:07:09.400 --> 01:07:13.480
is in the areas I talked about
working on identity, community since making purpose

939
01:07:13.480 --> 01:07:15.719
and meaning in life, because we
really feel like that's an area that's not

940
01:07:15.760 --> 01:07:20.880
being touched at all because everything is
focused around the necessity of getting in and

941
01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:25.239
through a hiring funnel or getting to
a school or starting your own company.

942
01:07:26.119 --> 01:07:30.199
But to do that effectively, knowing
who you are first is starting with the

943
01:07:30.280 --> 01:07:34.320
self, we would submit to you
is the best place to start. And

944
01:07:34.360 --> 01:07:40.719
so we're currently piloting a program.
We have about one hundred pilot participants right

945
01:07:40.719 --> 01:07:46.199
now from a wide swath of military
experience who are in the transition process.

946
01:07:46.280 --> 01:07:54.159
They're going through this curriculum with us
right now, and once we get done

947
01:07:54.159 --> 01:07:59.039
with that, we're looking at launching
and making it available potentially in May of

948
01:07:59.039 --> 01:08:03.559
this year to all transitioning veterans,
so that we're really giving them that,

949
01:08:03.679 --> 01:08:08.199
you know, we would call it
phase zero, like, here's the initial

950
01:08:08.199 --> 01:08:11.280
step you need to take before you
can navigate to a point. You have

951
01:08:11.320 --> 01:08:15.480
to know where you are. So
let's help. Let us help you figure

952
01:08:15.480 --> 01:08:17.680
out where you are, and now
you can plot a course with all these

953
01:08:17.720 --> 01:08:23.800
other great foundations who've already figured out
best in class, you know, building

954
01:08:23.840 --> 01:08:28.560
the best LinkedIn, building the best
community. You know, Bunker Labs already

955
01:08:28.600 --> 01:08:33.199
figured out how to do entrepreneurship.
And we're going to hand you off closer

956
01:08:33.239 --> 01:08:36.439
to a whole human who knows who
they are, so you can chart a

957
01:08:36.439 --> 01:08:44.199
better path. I mean, it
sounds incredible. And you said you served

958
01:08:44.520 --> 01:08:49.960
or the Honor Foundation served seven hundred
troops last year. Yeah, we served,

959
01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:55.600
Yeah, about seven hundred. We
will serve about eight hundred ish,

960
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:59.520
you know, depending on how it
goes this year of special operations individuals.

961
01:09:00.279 --> 01:09:03.720
And that's Army, Air Force,
Navy, Marine Corps, jaysock and enablers.

962
01:09:05.479 --> 01:09:09.760
And what has your role been at
the company since you took the job

963
01:09:09.800 --> 01:09:14.039
there in twenty nineteen, I got
hired to be the virtual director was the

964
01:09:14.119 --> 01:09:17.479
very first virtual campus, So I
got to be director of the fourth campus

965
01:09:17.880 --> 01:09:24.039
in existence at that time, and
it was literally figuring out is it possible

966
01:09:24.159 --> 01:09:29.640
to deliver high quality content over zoom
or over another digital medium so that we

967
01:09:29.640 --> 01:09:33.279
can scale it and do it for
you know, we've got guys and gals

968
01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:36.720
in SOCOM who were all over the
map, not co located with the base,

969
01:09:38.199 --> 01:09:41.279
and we hadn't we hadn't really grown
at that point yet either, and

970
01:09:41.279 --> 01:09:44.880
so we knew it was a capability
we needed, and so I got to

971
01:09:44.920 --> 01:09:47.880
prove the concept. I got to
there was already pretty much an eighty percent

972
01:09:47.920 --> 01:09:53.239
solution that was handed to me by
it's people that did much harder work than

973
01:09:53.279 --> 01:09:56.560
I had to do to figure out
a lot of the base stuff. All

974
01:09:56.640 --> 01:09:59.840
I had to do was get it
over the goal line, and so figuring

975
01:09:59.880 --> 01:10:02.680
out out, yes, it is
possible to deliver high value, high touch

976
01:10:03.479 --> 01:10:08.960
quality content over Zoom is possible.
Although we all now hate it because of

977
01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:13.000
twenty twenty. It's just the reality
of the world we live in. But

978
01:10:13.039 --> 01:10:15.960
it was fortuitous, right, and
that I got to figure it out in

979
01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.199
twenty nineteen so that when twenty twenty
happened, the entire company was able to

980
01:10:19.239 --> 01:10:26.439
pivot and we served about two hundred
more service members in twenty twenty than we

981
01:10:26.479 --> 01:10:30.760
did in twenty nineteen because of the
team just going okay, Halty, you

982
01:10:30.800 --> 01:10:33.560
already figured this out, like how
do we do it, and just having

983
01:10:33.600 --> 01:10:38.560
great team members, just like in
special operations, who know how to feel

984
01:10:38.600 --> 01:10:43.359
flow and go make it happen.
Do we have any questions for Mike?

985
01:10:44.039 --> 01:10:47.640
We do we have. One of
the interesting things about doing these interviews live

986
01:10:47.720 --> 01:10:53.079
is some of the viewers chime in
with some questions, Awesome, yeah,

987
01:10:53.159 --> 01:10:56.720
yeah, go ahead, please date, thank you. Jackson asks do you

988
01:10:56.760 --> 01:11:00.399
ever foresee a more sock Tier one
element being stood up? Kind of like

989
01:11:00.479 --> 01:11:03.399
dealt the Force, but for raiders
or is it unlikely. Oh man,

990
01:11:03.479 --> 01:11:11.000
that's a great question and so contentious. It's a spicy question. Yeah,

991
01:11:11.000 --> 01:11:14.039
that is a spicy one, and
I'm thankful to not be in uniform be

992
01:11:14.079 --> 01:11:18.520
able to answer this honestly. You
know, it's been talked about since the

993
01:11:18.960 --> 01:11:28.199
very early days, and we we
do have an allocation and opportunity to go

994
01:11:28.399 --> 01:11:38.159
that direction under other already formed Jasock
commands currently in terms of the future,

995
01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:45.159
that's a that's a big you know, it's easy to say the men are

996
01:11:45.159 --> 01:11:50.079
capable, it's easy to say have
the experience. It's hard to say that

997
01:11:50.199 --> 01:11:58.239
is standing up something very different that
is also a big budget somebody much higher

998
01:11:58.239 --> 01:12:01.079
than any decision maker and the d
OD is gonna have to make and all

999
01:12:01.119 --> 01:12:05.399
of those things. So I don't
know the actual reality of that. So

1000
01:12:05.479 --> 01:12:11.039
yeah, I'm I'm hopeful though,
because I think I definitely worked with some

1001
01:12:12.319 --> 01:12:16.319
genetic freaks who are also highly intelligent
and would fit in over there, and

1002
01:12:16.359 --> 01:12:18.960
there might be one of one or
two of them over there. Right now,

1003
01:12:21.039 --> 01:12:25.399
that's it for the questions I have
a question. Yeah. So we

1004
01:12:25.479 --> 01:12:30.720
heard from journalist Matt Cole, who
wrote the book Code over Country that at

1005
01:12:30.720 --> 01:12:36.159
some point during the gat. I
guess so Calm or Jasock was wanted to

1006
01:12:38.399 --> 01:12:44.159
bring in like a bunch of marines
into buds and like flood buds with marines.

1007
01:12:44.199 --> 01:12:46.439
I remember this story. Do you
know anything about that? Like,

1008
01:12:46.800 --> 01:12:51.920
was that something that came across your
radar when you were there? No,

1009
01:12:53.079 --> 01:12:54.960
that's the first time I ever heard
that. And I don't know if I'm

1010
01:12:55.680 --> 01:12:58.560
I don't know if that's awesome or
terrifying or a bit of bowl like.

1011
01:13:00.880 --> 01:13:02.840
No, I mean, the closest
thing that I had and experience, it's

1012
01:13:02.920 --> 01:13:10.000
and it's it's only mildly close to
that was eighteen Delta got opened up to

1013
01:13:10.079 --> 01:13:14.079
us for like a heartbeat, and
I got to be on a short list

1014
01:13:14.079 --> 01:13:17.800
to potentially go to eighteen delta,
and then that got shut down very quickly

1015
01:13:17.840 --> 01:13:21.520
because when you talk about how do
you how do you sustain that over long

1016
01:13:21.560 --> 01:13:25.680
periods of time and all of those
things that we had, I think the

1017
01:13:25.680 --> 01:13:30.880
command had no answers for that,
and so that got shut down. So

1018
01:13:30.079 --> 01:13:34.680
what's what's next for you, Mike? What's the next step in your transition?

1019
01:13:34.720 --> 01:13:39.359
I guess you're transitioned out now,
but in your civilian career and life.

1020
01:13:39.359 --> 01:13:44.680
What's the next step for you.
Yeah, So after after having the

1021
01:13:44.680 --> 01:13:47.920
privilege of being a director and serving
cohorts for about two and a half years,

1022
01:13:47.960 --> 01:13:54.119
and I transitioned into being the vice
president of operations. So I've been

1023
01:13:54.159 --> 01:13:59.520
doing the super sexy behind the scenes
stuff like insurance and hr and it,

1024
01:14:00.239 --> 01:14:02.399
I mean, just the really cool
stuff everyone when you get out wants to

1025
01:14:02.439 --> 01:14:08.960
go do. And I say that
obviously because a knuckle dragon, door kicker

1026
01:14:09.000 --> 01:14:14.279
infantrymen like myself is probably the wrong
choice. But I have an amazing CEO

1027
01:14:14.479 --> 01:14:16.760
lets me run with scissors, so
thank you, Matt, You're awesome.

1028
01:14:17.720 --> 01:14:23.319
And he's let me figure out a
lot of things. And so I've pseudo

1029
01:14:23.479 --> 01:14:28.640
gotten an OJT NBA along the way
and learned a ton some of it the

1030
01:14:28.640 --> 01:14:32.560
hard way, most of it the
hard way, and I really enjoy I

1031
01:14:32.600 --> 01:14:36.279
get to be the one person now
second person on the team, because I

1032
01:14:36.319 --> 01:14:41.439
have a teammate who's joined me in
ops in earnest, so she is she's

1033
01:14:41.520 --> 01:14:44.520
kind of like current ops and I'm
doing future ops as best as possible.

1034
01:14:45.079 --> 01:14:49.399
And we're the two people on the
team who really get to focus on the

1035
01:14:49.479 --> 01:14:55.880
team because most of the team are
kind of inside culture or motto is fellows

1036
01:14:55.880 --> 01:14:58.720
first, and the fellows are the
ones who are in transition going through the

1037
01:14:58.720 --> 01:15:02.279
cohorts. We do everything for the
fellows, like, no matter like if

1038
01:15:02.319 --> 01:15:04.560
we've got to pay for it,
or if we've got to bring in a

1039
01:15:04.600 --> 01:15:11.279
world class instructor. You know,
we don't have special operations guys teaching LinkedIn.

1040
01:15:11.399 --> 01:15:15.359
We have LinkedIn professionals teaching, you
know, and for all the classes.

1041
01:15:15.439 --> 01:15:19.600
So we put fellows first. And
because the team does that, they

1042
01:15:20.319 --> 01:15:25.319
burn themselves out and they work extremely
hard. I mean, it's it's really

1043
01:15:25.359 --> 01:15:29.279
no different than a special operations team. I mean they work really hard.

1044
01:15:29.800 --> 01:15:32.039
So being able to focus on the
team trying to make their lives easier that

1045
01:15:32.199 --> 01:15:35.960
is very meaningful to me. And
if I can get little wins for them

1046
01:15:36.000 --> 01:15:41.920
to make their lives easier, like
that's I'm still really enjoying that. So

1047
01:15:42.000 --> 01:15:45.960
I kind of don't see myself leaving
anytime soon. It's awesome. Yeah,

1048
01:15:46.239 --> 01:15:48.960
well, Mike, I mean I
really appreciate you coming on the show,

1049
01:15:49.000 --> 01:15:54.920
and I really appreciate what you're doing
today and what the Honor Foundation's up to.

1050
01:15:56.119 --> 01:16:00.079
I'd actually never heard of them until
tonight, so I'm gonna have to

1051
01:16:00.359 --> 01:16:02.840
push that out to people. When
people ask me and friends are transitioning out

1052
01:16:02.840 --> 01:16:04.800
of the military, I'm going to
have to make sure to mention this to

1053
01:16:04.840 --> 01:16:08.920
them. Yeah, I appreciate you
putting up on the screen too. If

1054
01:16:08.920 --> 01:16:12.880
anybody wants to learn more, we
have a ton more information on there.

1055
01:16:12.920 --> 01:16:15.560
I literally touched like the snowflakes at
the tip of the iceberg. There's a

1056
01:16:15.560 --> 01:16:19.439
lot more to it, and I'm
hoping in May of this year we're gonna

1057
01:16:19.439 --> 01:16:24.039
have a big announcement. Do you
want to give the website for the listeners

1058
01:16:24.399 --> 01:16:29.680
who check out the podcast? Absolutely, h O N O R dot org.

1059
01:16:29.920 --> 01:16:31.960
That's Honor dot org. Hopefully it's
up on your screen right now.

1060
01:16:32.279 --> 01:16:34.960
If you go check that out,
it gives a lot more information on the

1061
01:16:34.960 --> 01:16:40.920
program and if you're interested get involved. There's a lot of different ways to

1062
01:16:40.920 --> 01:16:44.880
get involved. There's some easy ways
to sign up as a volunteer if that's

1063
01:16:44.960 --> 01:16:47.640
interesting to you. If you've been
working in corporate, if you're an entrepreneur,

1064
01:16:48.039 --> 01:16:51.520
if you've been working in finance,
if you've managed a hedge fund.

1065
01:16:51.520 --> 01:16:57.720
Those are all things and opportunities and
industries that guys and gals who are transitioning

1066
01:16:57.720 --> 01:17:00.399
are looking at and they would love
to have a converse with an individual like

1067
01:17:00.479 --> 01:17:04.079
you so they can understand that.
And it's one of the big things we

1068
01:17:04.119 --> 01:17:09.279
push is don't just research it online, which is also important, but go

1069
01:17:09.359 --> 01:17:12.920
have a conversation with somebody who's doing
it nine to five and find out what

1070
01:17:12.920 --> 01:17:15.520
they're actually doing each day before you
say you want to be at SpaceX,

1071
01:17:15.960 --> 01:17:20.079
because you might get yourself into something
you're not ready for with your three kids

1072
01:17:20.640 --> 01:17:26.399
and all the rest. So if
you're you know, if you're out there,

1073
01:17:26.399 --> 01:17:30.640
you're a great American and you've been
working hard in the private sector,

1074
01:17:30.680 --> 01:17:33.439
and if you're a veteran and you've
been doing the same, love to have

1075
01:17:33.479 --> 01:17:39.880
you come contribute as volunteer. Yeah, and you can find the links down

1076
01:17:39.920 --> 01:17:43.119
in the description and the show notes
if you're listening or watching. Definitely it's

1077
01:17:43.159 --> 01:17:46.319
right there for you. Thank you, Mike. Any final thoughts. Is

1078
01:17:46.319 --> 01:17:50.680
there anything I failed to ask that
you really want to talk about? No,

1079
01:17:51.199 --> 01:17:55.359
I really appreciate this opportunity. I
mean, I see the caliber of

1080
01:17:55.399 --> 01:17:58.359
people that you have on the here, so I'm a little bit shocked you

1081
01:17:58.399 --> 01:18:00.600
allowed me on here. I just
really appreciate it. Yeah, No,

1082
01:18:00.680 --> 01:18:04.279
you're welcome anytime. And like I
said earlier, if you know, the

1083
01:18:04.319 --> 01:18:08.560
Honor Foundations have an event and some
of the guys are coming through New York

1084
01:18:08.560 --> 01:18:12.079
City, we'd love to have you
guys here. That'd be awesome. Absolutely,

1085
01:18:12.079 --> 01:18:14.600
We'll get together and smoke some of
these cigars. Yeah, hell yeah

1086
01:18:14.640 --> 01:18:19.399
absolutely. And next episode, next
Friday, we're going to have Travis,

1087
01:18:19.439 --> 01:18:27.319
who served as a Special Operations weatherman
weather technician uh Dack's dream come true finally.

1088
01:18:27.479 --> 01:18:29.479
Yeah, we've been talking. We've
been talking about it, and you

1089
01:18:29.479 --> 01:18:31.479
know, it always comes up,
you know, and usually there's a joke

1090
01:18:31.560 --> 01:18:35.960
being made about special ops weathermen,
and I figured, instead of making the

1091
01:18:36.079 --> 01:18:40.119
joke, let's actually half one of
these people on here and talk about their

1092
01:18:40.119 --> 01:18:43.479
profession and what they do. Oh
quick story, I will not make a

1093
01:18:43.560 --> 01:18:46.319
joke about those guys ever, because
my very last jump was into the Yellow

1094
01:18:46.359 --> 01:18:53.000
Sea on the border between North and
South. Obviously pretty far south of the

1095
01:18:53.039 --> 01:18:56.840
border, but it was in the
Yellow Sea. This guy figured out the

1096
01:18:56.880 --> 01:19:03.239
weather like cllling six years of data
and he called the weather to a t.

1097
01:19:03.720 --> 01:19:06.720
It was exactly what he said it
was gonna be, and we were

1098
01:19:06.760 --> 01:19:11.600
able to jump it was amazing.
That's awesome. That's the kind of stuff

1099
01:19:11.600 --> 01:19:15.279
I want to hear. Like I
said, it's interesting to learn about career

1100
01:19:15.319 --> 01:19:18.399
fields that you knew nothing about before, so I will never talk trash about

1101
01:19:18.439 --> 01:19:23.359
them. Yeah, good dudes.
Awesome all right, So Mike, thank

1102
01:19:23.399 --> 01:19:26.199
you, thank you everyone who joined
us tonight, and we will see you

1103
01:19:26.199 --> 01:19:30.319
next Friday. Take care out there
and have a nice weekend. Thank you.