Speaker 1: The Team House with your hopes.
Speaker 2: Jack Murphy and David Park.
Speaker 3: This is episode three hundred and eighty of The Team House.
Speaker 3: I'm Jack Murphy with our guest tonight, Drew Estelle. Drew
Speaker 3: served in fifth Special Forces Group. The guys most of
Speaker 3: our viewers know, they fixate on the Middle East, that's
Speaker 3: their aor and Drew did a number of deployments all
Speaker 3: over that place and today works on films, works on
Speaker 3: training with law enforcement, and number of other things. So
Speaker 3: we're gonna get into all that with Drew here. Thank
Speaker 3: you for joining us tonight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's great to have you on the show. Finally,
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you with the first question,
Speaker 3: which we pretty much ask everybody, is if you tell
Speaker 3: us a little bit about your origin story, like how
Speaker 3: did you grow up, where did you grow up, and
Speaker 3: like how how did that sort of eventually take you
Speaker 3: towards military service.
Speaker 4: I was waiting for that one. I've been a fan
Speaker 4: of your podcast for a while, man, I think you've
Speaker 4: got some phenomenal people on here, by the way, so
Speaker 4: it's really cool to get to sit here.
Speaker 2: So thank you.
Speaker 4: So yeah, man, I grew up in Texas, Houston, Texas
Speaker 4: outside of it place called Spring And if anybody's from Houston,
Speaker 4: the way you know the area is by what high
Speaker 4: school you went to, right, They're like, oh, what high school?
Speaker 4: You know? So Klein Oak I grew up in that
Speaker 4: area right there on the northwest side. But yeah, so
Speaker 4: it's kind of funny. My buddy who is now also
Speaker 4: a Green Beret, Like we knew each other from kindergarten
Speaker 4: playing te ball and all that, and we're in elementary school.
Speaker 4: We used to go out in the woods and play
Speaker 4: Green Berets with like my uncle's you know field manual
Speaker 4: like Special Forces you field manual that stuff, survival manuals
Speaker 4: and shit, and like all this old gear from Vietnam,
Speaker 4: and we'd go to the Army surplus store. And it's
Speaker 4: kind of cool. We both grew up to be Green
Speaker 4: Berets like we were when we were kids.
Speaker 2: So it was pretty neat. Man. But yeah, he's a
Speaker 2: good dude. He played football at Texas A.
Speaker 4: And M, and then he joined and I joined after
Speaker 4: my third freshman year of college. We could call it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. Drew.
Speaker 2: I had a great time.
Speaker 4: So the yeah, man, I grew up in Texas, grew
Speaker 4: up playing football, also played lacrosse, growing up, just normal family,
Speaker 4: good family, all that middle class, just your standard ship.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, I went to a private school my
Speaker 2: senior year.
Speaker 4: I got a scholarship because that's just the way Texas
Speaker 4: high school football works. Otherwise I probably wasn't going to
Speaker 4: college because I was an idiot.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, it worked out really well.
Speaker 4: I went to a small D three school called Marietta
Speaker 4: College my first year and I played football and I
Speaker 4: went to play lacrosse there too, but they dropped the
Speaker 4: program from like whatever, and I ended up leaving there
Speaker 4: and I went to Texas State University.
Speaker 2: He used to be called Southwest Texas.
Speaker 4: Well known for being a party school at the biggest
Speaker 4: party school in the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: So as.
Speaker 4: I got kicked out of there twice. I going to
Speaker 4: community college, and then I kicked out of a community college,
Speaker 4: and then I was like, you know what, man, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna join the army. You know, I think this is
Speaker 4: a good idea.
Speaker 3: So I grew are any of those stories about how
Speaker 3: you got kicked out still classified or you permitted to
Speaker 3: tell some of those.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, dude, oh bro Okay. So I was in
Speaker 4: a fraternity for a little bit, and like, I joined
Speaker 4: a fraternity because my dad was like, hey, you're not playing.
Speaker 4: I went to play football at Texas State, but I couldn't.
Speaker 4: I had too many head injuries and injuries. And then
Speaker 4: they changed coaches, so I lost my transfer, like little
Speaker 4: offer and scholarship. And then so I joined a fraternity,
Speaker 4: and my dad's like, yeah, it's a good idea. Attorneys
Speaker 4: are good, not at this school, bud, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So I joined the fraternity that was literally
Speaker 4: all former military guys and for college athletes, like my
Speaker 4: little dude, Graham Big or whatever. He was a captain
Speaker 4: in the Marine Corps. He was as he was, he
Speaker 4: was twenty eight years old, went to college to do
Speaker 4: like Green to Gold, and so then he went on
Speaker 4: and all the dude just military guys everywhere, and nobody
Speaker 4: knows how to party better than them. And yeah, so
Speaker 4: I got my nose broke or got a fake tooth
Speaker 4: because I have a smart mouth, and so I got
Speaker 4: kicked out the first time I got in big trouble.
Speaker 4: I thought some other dudes stole like my pledge jersey, right,
Speaker 4: like the chirt you wear. So I knock on his
Speaker 4: door and I'm like, yeah, man, like you got my
Speaker 4: jersey and he's like, no, no, I don't. I didn't
Speaker 4: take a shit, you know. And for some I think
Speaker 4: I was still drunk when I did this. This is
Speaker 4: the next morning, and he's like no. So I went
Speaker 4: in his room and tried to do all this well.
Speaker 4: He called his buddies and whatever, and they showed up.
Speaker 4: And this dude's the biggest dude I've seen in a
Speaker 4: long time. He set the record for like collegiate bench
Speaker 4: press like powerlifting in the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: His name is bj which I thought was hilarious.
Speaker 4: And he did not and he touched me pretty hard
Speaker 4: and basically turned my face inside out, you know. He
Speaker 4: broke my tooth and everything. So that was a fun
Speaker 4: conversation with the dean. And then I had another conversation
Speaker 4: too where he's like, what are you gonna do with
Speaker 4: your life, you idiot?
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna join the army.
Speaker 4: He's like, son, that is a great idea. You need
Speaker 4: to go do that right now. But yeah, I worked
Speaker 4: on Sixth Street in college if you're familiar with it. No, No,
Speaker 4: all the bars. So it's like Broadway Street, you know
Speaker 4: in Nashville, or like Beal Street Memphis. It's like the
Speaker 4: bar club street of Austin. And I actually worked for MTV.
Speaker 4: Oh really so yeah, dude, So like that TV show
Speaker 4: The Real World. Yeah, like what they do. And at
Speaker 4: the time it was a guy named Wes was on
Speaker 4: the show Nea Maya. They were super cool. They're the dudes.
Speaker 4: I remember the chicks. But when they go to the
Speaker 4: different bars on Sixth Street, what they do is they
Speaker 4: kind of work out a deal with the bar owners
Speaker 4: and the club owners. And somehow I got picked up
Speaker 4: at twenty years old to be like the security manager
Speaker 4: for them when they were at our bars.
Speaker 2: And uh, the only reason was because Wes.
Speaker 4: He and I looked a lot alike with that drunk
Speaker 4: girls would think I was Wes and then I'd be
Speaker 4: like I'm not and He's like, yeah, ladies, this is
Speaker 4: what I'm like. Oh God, here we go, right, So
Speaker 4: it was kind of he man. But yeah, I joined
Speaker 4: the army. I was. I had a great time before
Speaker 4: the army. I learned some valuable lessons.
Speaker 3: To say the least, So what what year was it
Speaker 3: that you enlisted?
Speaker 4: Two thousand and two thousand and five. I enlisted and
Speaker 4: I went to basic training in like January two thousand.
Speaker 3: And six, okay, and what mos eleven X ray, which okay,
Speaker 3: so you were yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 4: I didn't know what an extra. I just thought it
Speaker 4: was infantry. I'm gonna be an eleven Bravo. And I
Speaker 4: showed up and they're like, you're a mortarman. I was like,
Speaker 4: the hell is a mortarman? You know?
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, and.
Speaker 4: They were like, you're gonna like you know thing, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not doing that. That's not what I signed up to do.
Speaker 4: Because they wouldn't let me have the SF contract coming
Speaker 4: in because I had shoulder surgery from college football.
Speaker 2: So I was like, no, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 4: I mean they would let me have the SF contracts,
Speaker 4: were like all right, well they come this, you'll just
Speaker 4: get it when you're in the Army, all right. So
Speaker 4: I was pretty pissed. I didn't know what a damn
Speaker 4: mortarman was. So I called my recruiter and was like
Speaker 4: you son of but just cussing him out. I don't
Speaker 4: get Joe Flores phenomenal dude. I think he's a sergeant
Speaker 4: major in recruit and he might have retired, but great, dude, man.
Speaker 4: And he was like, calm down, you're fine, you can
Speaker 4: still go SF you know. So I ended up it
Speaker 4: worked out fine, but I was pretty pissed off. I
Speaker 4: was like, you lied to me, you mother for you know,
Speaker 4: like going off like I didn't know what a mortarman was.
Speaker 4: I just know I'm going to carry heavy shit and
Speaker 4: I'm not going to be like the other infantry guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Well, to explain to some of the young
Speaker 3: folks out there within the infantry eleven Bravo and every
Speaker 3: Special Forces guy has at least their secondary mos is
Speaker 3: infantry eleven Bravos split into you know, riflemen and more.
Speaker 3: And that's what Drew's talking about. So I imagine that training though,
Speaker 3: must have really come in.
Speaker 1: Handy down the line for you.
Speaker 2: It did, because I ended up being an eighteen Bravo.
Speaker 4: So I was like, oh, well, God has a plan
Speaker 4: that makes sense, and thank you.
Speaker 2: I I know what.
Speaker 4: To do with the little sticks and the you know, turning.
Speaker 3: Thing and the whiz wheels and the hi fire direction
Speaker 3: center board.
Speaker 1: That confuses the hell out of me. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So like I figured it out. I had a
Speaker 2: little leg up on the other guys, so that helped.
Speaker 2: That definitely helped.
Speaker 3: So so two thousand and six you go through basic
Speaker 3: training and then SFAs the Q course all of that.
Speaker 1: What was that experience like for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah? It was, uh, it was good man. I you
Speaker 4: meet so many different people, right, But when I actually
Speaker 4: got into SF, I was supposed to go to Kelly
Speaker 4: Kelly Hill or something like that for I was supposed
Speaker 4: to stay on forbidding in third I d right, and
Speaker 4: I was gonna be eleven Charlie there. But I called
Speaker 4: the SEF recruiter like every chance I got during a
Speaker 4: t like the final hony weeks, and just left messages
Speaker 4: because we were always at the Mortar Square. So when
Speaker 4: he'd come by, ah, he didn't you know, I never
Speaker 4: got to see him, and so I would just call
Speaker 4: him NonStop and leave a messages like excuse me, master sergeant,
Speaker 4: my name's private Estil.
Speaker 2: You know, can I please?
Speaker 4: And he finally I called and it was like he's
Speaker 4: supposed to be gone for the day he goes.
Speaker 2: I just hear sor and So, and I'm like.
Speaker 4: Oh, hi, master Sergeant, my name is So and So
Speaker 4: he goes. He just goes, God, dang it, are you
Speaker 4: That little idiot keeps calling me every day. I'm like
Speaker 4: that's me, you know. So he's like, if you can
Speaker 4: get here in twenty minutes, man, i'll give you a
Speaker 4: stuff contract. I was like, oh shit, okay.
Speaker 2: So I went over like the one of the drill Sartens.
Speaker 4: Who is this, you know, big old black dude from
Speaker 4: the city, you know, gold teeth and shit. And I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, drills are and I do just lied
Speaker 4: to him. I was like, So and So said you
Speaker 4: got to take me down.
Speaker 2: There right now. He was like what. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I listen, not Lake.
Speaker 4: I can't for the life for me.
Speaker 2: And he goes, he said, you by name, got to
Speaker 2: take me down there. He's like, he said my name.
Speaker 4: I was like yeah. He goes, oh, oh shit, Oh okay,
Speaker 4: we'll get your ass in the truck.
Speaker 2: So he drove me down.
Speaker 4: You know. He's like, you need me to go in.
Speaker 4: I'm like no, now we're good. He said, just drop
Speaker 4: me off, but thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Ill let him know.
Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, you tell him. Tell him. I I
Speaker 4: was like, yep, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 2: So I got my RUD down there and I got
Speaker 2: my contract.
Speaker 4: It was really interesting because, like I guess, one of
Speaker 4: his friends was in town again, like massive dude, flame
Speaker 4: tattoos of his forearm, wearing a Harley Davidson's shirt, and
Speaker 4: they were third group guys, and he just sat me,
Speaker 4: he said, and he's like, you really want to join SF,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, yes, please, you know mattress Hart. And
Speaker 4: of course this other guy that's his buddy is just
Speaker 4: making fun of me the whole time.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, this is this seems cool.
Speaker 3: So I know exactly what you're talking about. That the
Speaker 3: little one story SF recruiting station on Fort Benning.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: I remember when I went in there because I was
Speaker 3: with three seven five at the time, and I went
Speaker 3: in there and said, hey, I'd like to do SF.
Speaker 3: I want to go to SFAs and I just remember, like, well,
Speaker 3: a couple of things. One of them was he said
Speaker 3: what mos is do you want? And I said, well,
Speaker 3: I'm pretty open minded. And then he asked me what
Speaker 3: my GT score was and I told him and he said, well,
Speaker 3: let me narrow your.
Speaker 1: Mind a little bit for you. You could be an eighteen, bravo.
Speaker 3: And then the second thing was when I walked out
Speaker 3: of there, just a smile on that guy's face. He
Speaker 3: was like he knew it. He's like, I got another one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, what year was that?
Speaker 1: That must have been two thousand.
Speaker 3: That was probably two thousand and six because I graduated
Speaker 3: the course in two thousand and seven, so I went.
Speaker 3: I went to SFAs the last class of two thousand
Speaker 3: and five, so it would have been five that I
Speaker 3: went in there.
Speaker 4: Okay, gotcha nice dude, Yeah, I got a It's funny
Speaker 4: because I started out and I was an eighteen. I remember,
Speaker 4: you know, you get your little she you go through
Speaker 4: selection and you're like I did it, you know, and
Speaker 4: you go to the room. You know what I'm saying. Uh,
Speaker 4: So it's fun funny. Man. You know that guy Libelsburger
Speaker 4: that blew himself up in the tesla? Yes, he and
Speaker 4: I went to selection together and I knew him and
Speaker 4: we went to the Q course together, so like, you know,
Speaker 4: just notting.
Speaker 2: A random factory. But when you uh fuck was it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? You go through and they give you your moss
Speaker 4: and everything. It was like I remember taking the d
Speaker 4: lab and then being like are you retarded? I was
Speaker 4: like I think so, yes, you know, uh there's a
Speaker 4: high chance of this and they were like okay, well
Speaker 4: then I guess they looked at my GT score and
Speaker 4: we got our moss and like, you're gonna be an
Speaker 4: eighteen delta. I was like, I ain't get fucking wrong.
Speaker 4: There's no way I'm gonna be an eighteen delta. They're
Speaker 4: like and Arabic and I was like, no, thank you,
Speaker 4: you know. Like, so I was like I don't know
Speaker 4: what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna die, you know, like mentally,
Speaker 4: my brain's gonna explode trying to do this.
Speaker 2: But we'll figure it out.
Speaker 4: So I started out as an eighteen Delta and I
Speaker 4: remember the whole time in the delta course.
Speaker 2: It was like me and like three former Marines and.
Speaker 4: They'd always call us the Bravos, like, hey, future Bravos.
Speaker 4: You know you're up, you know, for like tea trible
Speaker 4: c and all this other craft you know, and surgical skills.
Speaker 4: And they'd be like like why do you call us
Speaker 4: future Bravos Because you idiots are all going to fail
Speaker 4: and we're all going to put you in the Bravo course,
Speaker 4: because you are retarded and we're.
Speaker 2: Like, oh okay, cool sounds good, you know, and uh,
Speaker 2: sure enough.
Speaker 4: I think three out of four of us end up
Speaker 4: failing becoming brothers.
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Speaker 4: Again, it was good.
Speaker 2: You know, God has a plan.
Speaker 4: And I did a lot of medical stuff overseas man,
Speaker 4: and I think that really prepared me really well and
Speaker 4: my team is a great team. So got through the
Speaker 4: key course, did all that and called the long Bravo. Right.
Speaker 4: I was so happy to be an eighteen Bravo and
Speaker 4: out of Delta. However, I used a ton of medical
Speaker 4: especially on the first and second trip to Iraq.
Speaker 2: It was a lot.
Speaker 3: So so the I mean, how much of the Delta
Speaker 3: course do you think you did, like eight weeks or
Speaker 3: something like that.
Speaker 4: There's A and P patho, which is like the first
Speaker 4: six weeks, and then there's is it surgical skills.
Speaker 2: I think is right after that.
Speaker 4: I got through surgical skills, yeah, something like with the
Speaker 4: hands on doing chrikes, chest tubes all that.
Speaker 2: I was great at that, but you couldn't get.
Speaker 4: Me to pass a written test, Like if you this
Speaker 4: pisce is me off, right, because have you ever seen
Speaker 4: the written test of the Delta. Okay, It's like here's
Speaker 4: a question, right, and they give you like a scenario, go,
Speaker 4: what's the best answer?
Speaker 2: A only A and C, D and D, D D
Speaker 2: E or E all or like F all of the above.
Speaker 4: And you're like what, like what what do you mean?
Speaker 6: And they're like, oh, you're right, your answer was right,
Speaker 6: but this other answer was a little bit more right,
Speaker 6: And you're like, that's the stupidest shit I've ever heard,
Speaker 6: you know, So like that wasn't I was not a delta.
Speaker 4: Obviously, so yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: But I mean, yeah, those skills came in handy later.
Speaker 3: The training that you did go through.
Speaker 1: That's cool. So get the fifth group.
Speaker 3: Uh do you go right to an ODA or do
Speaker 3: you have to spend some time on a B team
Speaker 3: first or how's it work? No?
Speaker 4: I was I was really lucky. I went right to
Speaker 4: an ODA. I went to five eight four and then
Speaker 4: it was five through two four. Now it's five eight
Speaker 4: four again because numbers are hard, evidently, so they changed
Speaker 4: it again, like fucking commanders and their infinite wisdom.
Speaker 2: I'm in oe R bullets, but they did that.
Speaker 4: I went to that team, so the third battalion, and
Speaker 4: I showed up like you know every new guy does,
Speaker 4: Like the only.
Speaker 2: Thing I can do is pass the eyeball test.
Speaker 4: I obviously don't know anything, So I'm gonna show up
Speaker 4: in shape, you know, and whatever they thought me and
Speaker 4: be able to do, have a great attitude, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Right, mindset and do that. And I
Speaker 4: ended up going to two four the Halo team or
Speaker 4: eight four, and it was good. And I remember a
Speaker 4: guy named John Knipe wind Up worked for Magpole later
Speaker 4: he was on the B team. He's like, what team
Speaker 4: are you going to? It was like sor Matrix said
Speaker 4: two four or eight four, and he was mad. He
Speaker 4: was like, you're going to He was that's the best
Speaker 4: team in the battalion. Guys worked so hard to get
Speaker 4: on that team, all this stuff, and I was like,
Speaker 4: oh shit, all right, I got a lot to work on.
Speaker 4: I gotta really, you know, do the right thing here,
Speaker 4: and I gotta, you know, step up.
Speaker 2: And I did. I got a really great team, very
Speaker 2: experienced team.
Speaker 4: There were three of us new guys that all got
Speaker 4: there pretty much within like a month of each other.
Speaker 4: And yeah, the rest of the team was really experienced.
Speaker 4: We lost a guy the trip before Jason, so he
Speaker 4: was killed up there in julul Asida the trip before
Speaker 4: Jason Brown. And then so we were deployed in like
Speaker 4: two months by the time I got there. So I
Speaker 4: got there just enough time to do some some ranges.
Speaker 4: We did PMT at four Knox and then we were
Speaker 4: off and it was kind of like the the attitude
Speaker 4: of the team was, hey, you're ready, cause uh, we're
Speaker 4: going right back there and we're gonna fuck some people up,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, all right, there's low joint.
Speaker 1: You know, we're where did you get the.
Speaker 2: Point Julula Acida?
Speaker 1: Back to the same point for them?
Speaker 4: Yeah, back at the exact say, And they just kept
Speaker 4: going to that team house, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It would be us and then another team and then us,
Speaker 4: and then it was like a first group team and
Speaker 4: then us and then so it was enough fifth group team,
Speaker 4: so like we were there every other time and they'd
Speaker 4: have another team kind of fill in between.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that was kind of our place. So they called
Speaker 2: it Firebase Brown.
Speaker 3: What was the general like friendly enemy situation at that base?
Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever been in that area.
Speaker 4: It was a really interesting because we're right south of
Speaker 4: Canikin and very near the curd airbline.
Speaker 2: So the situation was was different.
Speaker 4: We absolutely had a lot of you know, you had
Speaker 4: your oh man, you had your who the hell was
Speaker 4: I'm getting all confused from Afghanist and everybody else, but
Speaker 4: it was at j RTN was big up there. We
Speaker 4: had a lot of radiant influenced too, and we had
Speaker 4: your typical like you know, al Katas or whatever the
Speaker 4: hell you want to call it, you know, but it
Speaker 4: was very interesting because a lot of what we did
Speaker 4: we had to do. We had to work with the
Speaker 4: Curves and we had to work with the Arabs. So
Speaker 4: and I don't know if you're familiar, they don't like
Speaker 4: each other, you know what I'm saying. So, I mean, hell,
Speaker 4: we go on clearing ops with them with Arabs and
Speaker 4: Curves on the second deployment there, and it was like, hey, guys,
Speaker 4: here's what we're doing.
Speaker 2: Brief them, get ready going out.
Speaker 4: We'd pull into the city and we'll turn around, look
Speaker 4: back down the road and they both have their guns
Speaker 4: pointed at each other on the trucks and we're like, oh, god,
Speaker 4: dang it, you know, like point your guns out, not
Speaker 4: at each other, and they're like no.
Speaker 2: Then first, you know, like, oh god, dang it, fucking children.
Speaker 4: You know. So middle was cool, man. We did some hits,
Speaker 4: got out the door, got a few people. There was
Speaker 4: a lot of infiltration into the police forces where we
Speaker 4: were at and the military, and usually I feel like
Speaker 4: with other guys that would say, hey, the police are
Speaker 4: really where you see a lot of that, and yeah,
Speaker 4: we did. We'd go after targets, you know, like this
Speaker 4: one dude and more Mohammed's or whatever the hell.
Speaker 2: Went after him.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, he was a police officer that you know,
Speaker 4: was doing stuff and we went and got his ass.
Speaker 4: And then the military though, had a lot of stuff
Speaker 4: too with the IA, and they were actually planning IDs
Speaker 4: on the road into our base which we shared with
Speaker 4: them on the bigger base, Bob Cobra, and so they'd
Speaker 4: be putting out IDs and no shit, dude, we'd go
Speaker 4: do like a sniper mission set up the jammers, take
Speaker 4: over a little area and like just laying sniper Overwatch
Speaker 4: and we'd watch these guys sneaking out there laying id's
Speaker 4: like where.
Speaker 2: They do come from, Like dude, came from base, Like
Speaker 2: oh shit, you.
Speaker 4: Know, so yeah man, And they always try to blow
Speaker 4: us up and they end up blowing each other up
Speaker 4: and we're like, dude, you're not even hitting us, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, Like you're just killing your buddies.
Speaker 3: So I mean I imagine that like you guys had
Speaker 3: to be cleared to snipe the IED teams. But then
Speaker 3: there is like the inevitably there's going to be fallout
Speaker 3: from that if there are you know, military people on
Speaker 3: a base right next to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and yes, And so we had to let them
Speaker 4: know what we were doing, which we didn't necessarily want
Speaker 4: to do, right, We had to let the command know.
Speaker 4: And as we let the command know, sorry am I
Speaker 4: not close enough to this link? As we let the
Speaker 4: command know, we went out one time to do it.
Speaker 4: So we took over a little checkpoint, we got out there,
Speaker 4: did it, and then the IA came out to do
Speaker 4: their own little ambush. And have you ever watched you know,
Speaker 4: the Iraqi army under nods and thermals sitting in an
Speaker 4: ambush line. It's hilarious, uh, to say the least. But
Speaker 4: we were like, well, we're not getting shit done tonight.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna shoot nobody, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So and then we actually did have some movement off
Speaker 4: to one side, we saw some dudes and we're like, oh,
Speaker 4: here it comes. Well, then they obviously spotted that Iraqi
Speaker 4: army and we were like, dude, because they're just smoking cigarettes. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: performing sexual favors on each other, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: so you're like, oh, great, we're just watching that inner nods.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 3: So another day in the life. They don't teach you
Speaker 3: that part in the Q course do that?
Speaker 4: Oh, I know, they don't teach you that. They They
Speaker 4: have one dude per company named Hamza, and they're like,
Speaker 4: what is HAMSA mean? Hamsa like as a number, it's
Speaker 4: a little circle stands for a bothole, you know, and
Speaker 4: that's their dude. And you're like, oh, okay, I got it,
Speaker 4: you know, like fuck, they don't teach any.
Speaker 2: Of that in the QY course. Uh.
Speaker 3: And So as that deployment went on, you guys, I've
Speaker 3: rolled up some bad guys and dealing with IEDs. I mean,
Speaker 3: how did things kind of progress as you got deeper
Speaker 3: into that deployment.
Speaker 4: So that the first deployment, I think it was pretty standard.
Speaker 4: I think for me as a new guy, I was
Speaker 4: just trying.
Speaker 2: To learn as much as I could. You know, I
Speaker 2: was the junior.
Speaker 4: Bravo had a senior and just trying to pick up
Speaker 4: as much as I could from him. So I was learning,
Speaker 4: you know, base defense and operations and convoy ops and
Speaker 4: you know, trying to stay on top of it as
Speaker 4: best I could.
Speaker 2: So for me, it was just a really good learning experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we went after some people, but there was always
Speaker 4: everybody we went after, you know, they want war, and
Speaker 4: so it became like we're a swat team more than
Speaker 4: anything else. And now we got to deal with the
Speaker 4: Iraqi judicial system, which is not exactly stellar, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, and corrupt as hell. So it's like
Speaker 4: they wouldn't even like really fight back a lot of
Speaker 4: times because they just needed to be like, hey, what's up,
Speaker 4: I'll be out tomorrow, like who cares, you know. And
Speaker 4: it was like, well that sucks. It's like you know,
Speaker 4: and the point I was like, can we just shoot him?
Speaker 4: Like now you can just shoot him, you know. It's
Speaker 4: like yeah, but can we like shoot a guy? Can
Speaker 4: we just shoot the guy?
Speaker 2: They're like no, he's not armed. You have to actually
Speaker 2: take him in.
Speaker 4: We're like, oh, this is stupid.
Speaker 2: So we did all that, but uh, that was frustrating.
Speaker 2: That really was. However, it was good experience. We had
Speaker 2: some clearing ops.
Speaker 4: We did get some dudes, and we did get some
Speaker 4: you know, we found out some very interesting networks, some
Speaker 4: things that were going on that opened up to see
Speaker 4: some of the connections. Especially the one thing that we
Speaker 4: kind of couldn't cross that line was a lot of
Speaker 4: the Iranian stuff going on, which I know you're very
Speaker 4: familiar with. But one thing that was interesting was on
Speaker 4: that trip and then the second trip. The second trip
Speaker 4: was Operation New Dawn I believe. Oh okay, and yeah.
Speaker 4: What they would do is they'd have these like you
Speaker 4: know those buses like Greyhound buses, so they would actually
Speaker 4: black out all the windows or put little things up
Speaker 4: and you think there's people in there, but inside it's
Speaker 4: just a giant sigand bus and like they were driving
Speaker 4: those things around and we were like, all right. I
Speaker 4: remember our head human guy was telling us about it
Speaker 4: in our fox who were going over all that, and
Speaker 4: was like wait a second, what Like, yeah, they're they're
Speaker 4: just hacking everything we have and just listening whatever they can.
Speaker 4: You see the same bus parked out here. Then sure enough,
Speaker 4: the iraqis pulled over like oh crap, they saw going,
Speaker 4: oh let that go, you know, because they don't want
Speaker 4: anything to do with that. And then we so it's
Speaker 4: like we know the Iranians are driving cigate buses around us,
Speaker 4: and we know all this other stuff's going on, like
Speaker 4: and there was you go into a meeting and then
Speaker 4: the Iranians would be they'd have their agents there, going
Speaker 4: to talk to somebody right after you, and just all
Speaker 4: kinds of crap. Man.
Speaker 2: It was just it was a very interesting seeing that.
Speaker 4: I think that was my first introduction into I don't know,
Speaker 4: maybe the politics of it, or a larger scale strategic
Speaker 4: you know, kind of looking stuff, you know, instead of
Speaker 4: just what you see in front of you.
Speaker 3: And the ROE at that time prevented you guys from
Speaker 3: really actioning the Iranian targets.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because when we'd send that up, it was always hey,
Speaker 4: don't mess with that, that's not for us. We're like, okay, cool.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So that worked out well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I.
Speaker 4: Was like, well, can we just like put an idea out,
Speaker 4: you know, because these guys are good at blowing themselves up.
Speaker 4: May just put one in front of this bus and
Speaker 4: called a day, you know what I mean. So, but
Speaker 4: now there's.
Speaker 1: Nothing I like. I like your thinking, Drew, good initiative,
Speaker 1: but they shut you down. That sucks. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So afterwards you get deployed, redeployed back home, back to
Speaker 3: Fort Campbell, and now you're going through the whole training
Speaker 3: cycle with your team, and I imagine they're sending you
Speaker 3: to MFF and all that stuff too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So went to MFF, went to SODAC at Fifth Group,
Speaker 4: and as you know, Fifth Group my personal opinion, like
Speaker 4: I know some guys some other groups, they do great stuff.
Speaker 2: I think Fifth Group really with our.
Speaker 4: Sodac and Sephaic, they'll run a phenomenal course like I've
Speaker 4: seen some of the other courses out there and talk
Speaker 4: to people and it's like, I feel that Fifth Group
Speaker 4: does a really good job of stuff like that. So
Speaker 4: I went to SODIC like a week after I got back.
Speaker 4: SODIC two at Campbell did that that was given to
Speaker 4: MFF as we got right as we got a new
Speaker 4: captain me and like we sent four guys to Halo
Speaker 4: School at the same time, and uh, we weren't supposed
Speaker 4: to get all of us in.
Speaker 2: But like one of.
Speaker 4: Our old teammates, what was his damn name, al he
Speaker 4: was at the Halo committee as an instructor, and he
Speaker 4: was like, just send him to get him in and
Speaker 4: shut up.
Speaker 2: He walked by some dude and was like, uh, he goes.
Speaker 4: Oh, you're fat, get out, and then he.
Speaker 2: Was like Drew you're in. I was like yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 4: And then some guy didn't have something and he was like,
Speaker 4: all right, out of here, ship bag, you know.
Speaker 2: And then we all got in the course, which was
Speaker 2: super cool.
Speaker 4: But we had our new captain, phenomenal officer, phenomenal team leader.
Speaker 4: He had up be a Battalian commander later on did
Speaker 4: really good stuff. He's a company commander and Battalian commander.
Speaker 2: A guy called friend. Have a lot of respect for
Speaker 2: his name's Bill Heffron.
Speaker 4: He's out now, but uh yeah, I remember we go
Speaker 4: to Halo School and our team Sartant was an old
Speaker 4: school team, Sarten and redneck as hell.
Speaker 2: And he's like, hey man, you.
Speaker 4: Break that cat and in right, we were like, okay,
Speaker 4: sounds good, dude, you know us cat and bought drinks.
Speaker 2: We go out and hang out and do stuff and
Speaker 2: it was a great time.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: We had we've got real close to the four of us,
Speaker 4: so three new guys and our new captain.
Speaker 1: So that's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, that's very rare for like, you know,
Speaker 3: almost half a team to go to the school at
Speaker 3: the same time.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, we were very fortunate to be able
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 4: So but yeah, man did that had some other stuff
Speaker 4: in there, and then not too long after that we
Speaker 4: went back again. So we went right back to the
Speaker 4: same place and we had our second deployment there, which
Speaker 4: I kind of already touched on. Was different because it's
Speaker 4: new Dawn. It's supposed to be the draw down, and
Speaker 4: we're doing less. We're letting them take the lead. So
Speaker 4: it was a lot more advisory missions. When we did
Speaker 4: go out. It wasn't a whole lot, but we did
Speaker 4: get out the door some you know, not as much
Speaker 4: as we liked, but you probably never get out the
Speaker 4: door as much as you want to in any job.
Speaker 4: So it was it was a good good.
Speaker 2: That was much more seeing the effect of how you
Speaker 2: train your.
Speaker 4: Guys and then going out with them, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, and seeing how that works.
Speaker 2: Like, yes, they're different. You know, we're not working with
Speaker 2: I saw off Iraqi Special Operations.
Speaker 4: We're working with Iraqi Army and you gotta just you know,
Speaker 4: set your expectations and you know, can't I get him
Speaker 4: to do this? Did they complete the mission? Did they
Speaker 4: go out the door? Did they do what we told
Speaker 4: them to do? Well?
Speaker 2: They did and that was good, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Uh we had I got yeah, I ate a charge
Speaker 4: on that one pretty good.
Speaker 2: On that deployment. I got knocked out pretty good. But
Speaker 2: it was fun. It was a good time.
Speaker 1: You got too close to the breach.
Speaker 4: Well, I didn't know the breach was going off because
Speaker 4: my junior brother didn't fucking say shit. So we uh,
Speaker 4: he got so excited. We we pulled up to this house,
Speaker 4: you know, and outside the courtyard and I'm in the
Speaker 4: truck and I'm the gunner, and I'm covering this second
Speaker 4: story as they you know, line up with the dudes
Speaker 4: and so I remember two of our guys are standing
Speaker 4: there at the end. They're going to breach the gate.
Speaker 4: So I'm covering, you know, like the fifty calve on
Speaker 4: the saw a night vision. I'm like, okay, we're good.
Speaker 4: Like what's going on, man, Like, what's taking us along?
Speaker 4: So I look down and all I see is them
Speaker 4: stecked up and I see loading like this, and he
Speaker 4: goes and I see that quarter turn, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I mean, we're like, I can't be I'm not even
Speaker 4: fifteen yard, you know, ten to fifteen yards from this thing.
Speaker 4: I'm right in front of the big gate just because
Speaker 4: of how the street was and everything else, and I
Speaker 4: was like, oh crap. So I like started to go
Speaker 4: down right as the breach went off, and uh, he's
Speaker 4: a Bravo, and you know when a Bravo makes a charge,
Speaker 4: they do their math is pe for plenty, and uh,
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure he just stuck a whole you know,
Speaker 4: block sticking, yeah, block, you know, C four on there
Speaker 4: when it breached and it went off, and I just
Speaker 4: remember going boom and like my head whacked off the
Speaker 4: turret and the gun flipped and came down in the face.
Speaker 4: My nods were all messed up, and I was out
Speaker 4: and I just remember hearing that me and and I
Speaker 4: kind of like, oh crap. So I got back up
Speaker 4: and I just remember that it didn't just hop the
Speaker 4: gate open. It like it took the gate and blew
Speaker 4: it completely out of the like the courtyard, you know, walls,
Speaker 4: and it blew it all the way to the house.
Speaker 4: And then it blew the glass out of the house,
Speaker 4: like off all the windows, and so there was nothing clear.
Speaker 4: All these Iraqis were just coming out with their hands
Speaker 4: up coughing. You're like, we're sorry, and like the Iraqi
Speaker 4: Army's coughing, and they're just like, oh, it's okay, please
Speaker 4: come over here and have a seat. Let me get
Speaker 4: you some water.
Speaker 2: It was like it was like a casualty.
Speaker 4: Event at that point, and I'm just you know, they're like, hey, Drew,
Speaker 4: you okay, and I'm like yellow seven. They're like, what
Speaker 4: the fuck are you saying? You know, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I was out, But then our teams are was pissed
Speaker 4: because he didn't call breach, so he thought an ID
Speaker 4: went off and we were all messed up.
Speaker 2: And I just remember it being like, I was just
Speaker 2: so excited to breach a gate. I don't I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have control, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4: But he said all that in his head, not at bottom.
Speaker 2: Radio's So thanks a lot, jerk.
Speaker 3: So and you, I think you mentioned that you got
Speaker 3: to use some of your medical training on these first
Speaker 3: couple of deployments. I mean, was it mostly on you
Speaker 3: or on HAMSA or how did that work out?
Speaker 4: So we, uh, we had a lot of guys on
Speaker 4: our team that had We had several guys that started
Speaker 4: out in the eighteen Delta Couruse and we had two medics.
Speaker 4: At one point we had lost two of our medics,
Speaker 4: so I became the medic on the team.
Speaker 2: I carried the medbag.
Speaker 4: And by lost, I mean like they had to go
Speaker 4: back to this base to cover something with like finance,
Speaker 4: and some popped up, so I filled in for him.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times it was just medical stuff.
Speaker 4: They'd get blown up and they'd call us and we'd
Speaker 4: rush over there, you know, and like do it we could.
Speaker 2: Usually they're putting out IDs on each other or whatever.
Speaker 4: But so I mean with that, like, for instance, one time,
Speaker 4: we had a guy that's pretty messed up, so I
Speaker 4: got to amputate his leg, and I remember the CF
Speaker 4: metics were there, the conventional dudes. He's from a mid team,
Speaker 4: and you know, he was a little overwhelmed and he's like, hey, guys,
Speaker 4: we gotta here's what we got to do. And it
Speaker 4: took about ten seconds. And I remember one of our
Speaker 4: medics was like, get out of the way, like we're
Speaker 4: in charge, and I think he was very like appreciative
Speaker 4: of that. And so he was like two eighteen deltas
Speaker 4: are working up top and they're creaking this dude. He's
Speaker 4: trying to get an IV the conventional force medic and
Speaker 4: I was amputating the leg right and so cut off
Speaker 4: his leg, you know, set it down, and this guy
Speaker 4: couldn't get his stick on the get the IV started
Speaker 4: because he was Yeah, I think this is new for him,
Speaker 4: you know, like it's probably a little bit less experienced dude.
Speaker 4: And you know that's understandable, especially when the guys you're
Speaker 4: having to hold his arm down because he's still alive,
Speaker 4: kicking and we're creaking this dude, right, So he's fighting
Speaker 4: the whole time. So final I had to grab it
Speaker 4: and I just stuck him real quick, did it, you know,
Speaker 4: flash and we're up. And that guy was just like,
Speaker 4: oh my god. I'm like, I'm not an eighteen Delta dude,
Speaker 4: I'm just the Bravo. I'm the gun guy. And he
Speaker 4: was just like mind blow, you know. But I think
Speaker 4: that's a testament too. Is just our team was very
Speaker 4: very good at training each other up right. And for example,
Speaker 4: I hate radios. I don't want a damn thing to
Speaker 4: do with the radio. I don't want to fill the radio.
Speaker 4: I don't like radios. I mean they're stupid, right, very
Speaker 4: very important part of the job though, and like.
Speaker 2: A if I was ever like, hey, echo, how do
Speaker 2: I get this.
Speaker 4: He'd be like, you're gonna do this, you will learn
Speaker 4: and I'd be like a child, just like, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't want to, and then I'd do it, you know.
Speaker 4: So we were very good about teaching each other how
Speaker 4: to do stuff like you had to be very very
Speaker 4: self sufficient, and that's something I was very grateful for
Speaker 4: our team startants on that team between Lee and Doug
Speaker 4: that they really made sure of that, and the teammates too,
Speaker 4: you know. So everybody had to do their own radios.
Speaker 4: Everybody could do medical. Everybody knew how to build a charge, right,
Speaker 4: I mean everybody could you know, headspace and time to
Speaker 4: fifty cows. And when the you know, grenade launcher went down,
Speaker 4: you know we knew Mark forty sevens went down.
Speaker 2: You knew how to fix it and get back up,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean there was nothing like you don't
Speaker 2: get to call somebody else.
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Speaker 2: So it was very very good about that on our team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's awesome. Yeah, there's only twelve of you.
Speaker 3: You're not getting anyone else.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think we only ever had on that team
Speaker 4: maybe ten or eleven. We were never full with twelve
Speaker 4: that I can think of. Maybe at one time, but
Speaker 4: one time we had eight guys on the team and
Speaker 4: we went to Afghanistan. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so after that, rotating back home and what
Speaker 3: was kind of like the next sequence of events getting
Speaker 3: jocked up to go again?
Speaker 1: I imagine, Yeah we did.
Speaker 4: I had a jay sitting there to Jordan. Cool was
Speaker 4: that after the second point that was in twenty ten,
Speaker 4: I went to Jordan. I think that was a phenomenal time.
Speaker 4: Like I really really appreciated going.
Speaker 2: To Jordan and doing that.
Speaker 4: Jaysa.
Speaker 2: We worked with a company of their.
Speaker 4: Special forces guys and it was a Mere Hasham, so
Speaker 4: the King's youngest brother, Prince Hashim Amir Hasham a Mere
Speaker 4: stands for Prince. It was his company. So we got
Speaker 4: to work with him very closely. And he was a
Speaker 4: phenomenal guy. And he had two odas that we were
Speaker 4: working with. One that was like younger guys and less experienced,
Speaker 4: one that was older guys and more experienced. And it
Speaker 4: was really cool seeing how they did stuff and just
Speaker 4: you know, they're Jordanians. You know, they're Jordanians special forces.
Speaker 4: They don't do things the way we do. You know,
Speaker 4: they don't have the resources, they don't have this and that. However,
Speaker 4: we learned a lot from them. It was really great
Speaker 4: getting to work with them, and then on top of that,
Speaker 4: you're in Jordan. Dude. We went and saw Petra, we
Speaker 4: saw Bethany. Beyond Jordan, we went down to the Dead Sea,
Speaker 4: like we we really our team Stare and Doug at
Speaker 4: the time was there in our Captain Bill when he
Speaker 4: took over, and that at that time was real big
Speaker 4: on Mike, these might be the only times you ever
Speaker 4: get to do this. We're We're not just gonna be
Speaker 4: going to getting drunk at some Russian hooker bar, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, Like we're going down and we're.
Speaker 2: Gonna go see Sy.
Speaker 4: It's like you're gonna learn some shit, Like this is
Speaker 4: stuff that ten years from now you're really gonna appreciate.
Speaker 4: And they were absolutely right, Like it was phenomenal and
Speaker 4: we did a lot of stuff together. So I loved
Speaker 4: that trip. We stayed at Casotic if you've heard.
Speaker 1: Of that, that's what they do, Like it's a huge facility.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like brand new, they just built the barracks.
Speaker 4: So we stayed there during the week and then we
Speaker 4: stayed at a ridiculously.
Speaker 2: Nice hotel in downtown and I'm on on the weekends.
Speaker 4: I don't know how we got that approved, but there's
Speaker 4: always a warrant somewhere, you know what I mean, who
Speaker 4: knows how to do that crap?
Speaker 2: But yeah, man, it was.
Speaker 4: It was a really good experience and I had a
Speaker 4: lot of fun there and then Le Specie. We did
Speaker 4: two trips to Iraq. I did a Jay said I
Speaker 4: think in twenty ten, which was I think it was
Speaker 4: between the first and second trip.
Speaker 2: Shit, I can't remember. Yeah, it was between the first
Speaker 2: and second trip because.
Speaker 4: I met my wife when I was in Halo school
Speaker 4: on the weekend out in San Diego.
Speaker 3: So yeah, out of the tried.
Speaker 2: It bar absolutely not fuck no, the one that.
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 3: Miller owns No, yeah, dev group guy owns the Trident
Speaker 3: bar out there?
Speaker 2: Oh does he?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah? Yeah everyone wife had tried it. What's what's up? True?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Did you okay?
Speaker 2: Fair enough? Yeah?
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: We met it on Halloween of all things.
Speaker 4: So she, uh, she was a very respectable lady, and
Speaker 4: I didn't know what that meant. I was like, what
Speaker 4: do you mean, We're not like, you know, She's like, no, dumbass,
Speaker 4: like no. So I had to keep you know, calling everything,
Speaker 4: and it worked up. We we end up getting married.
Speaker 1: Man, so that's great.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that was so Yeah, that happened between the
Speaker 4: first and second trip was Jordan. And then after the
Speaker 4: second trip, yeah, we went to Afghanistan. There was some
Speaker 4: other stuff in there. There was some j sets. I
Speaker 4: missed one because I went off to a school I went.
Speaker 4: We went to Afghanistan in twenty twelve, which was a
Speaker 4: really good trip for me because I was the fox
Speaker 4: on that trip.
Speaker 3: Okay, so do you want to tell the listeners what
Speaker 3: the fox is on the team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the fox on the team is your intel sergeant, right.
Speaker 4: And if you look at kind of like the hierarchy
Speaker 4: on the team, you have your captain and then sometimes
Speaker 4: you have a warrant officer whatever that means, and then
Speaker 4: you have your team sergeant, right, And so below that
Speaker 4: is your fox, and it's generally a more experienced guy
Speaker 4: that's been on the team before. And it is a
Speaker 4: position where not on every team, but for a lot
Speaker 4: of teams, if you're the fox, you're going to be
Speaker 4: the team sergeant next. Right. I was in East six
Speaker 4: and I was the fox. So the reason I was
Speaker 4: is because ours had a terrible taste in women and
Speaker 4: he had a shitty personal life. And she stole all
Speaker 4: his shit and sold it and so like he couldn't go,
Speaker 4: and I think she was in jail or something.
Speaker 2: I don't know, dude.
Speaker 4: We're like, bro, He's like, I can on the trip.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, but.
Speaker 3: Uh where in Afghanistan did you guys go?
Speaker 4: Kundus?
Speaker 1: So okay, So, I mean that place got very hot
Speaker 1: at one point.
Speaker 4: It did. And we were the first team to be
Speaker 4: in Archie and a mom Saheb, so we had a
Speaker 4: team before us. They built the teamhouse and they situated
Speaker 4: themselves right in between these two districts called Archie Archie
Speaker 4: and a mom Saheb. Archie was to the east and
Speaker 4: a mom Seebe was to the west. Just north of
Speaker 4: that was the border, right. So for us, the biggest
Speaker 4: thing going in it was it was a black hole.
Speaker 4: And actually, you know a lot of people were trying
Speaker 4: to tell us how this is how it is up there,
Speaker 4: and I remember thinking, no, it's not, because you don't
Speaker 4: fucking know, dude, Like nobody knows anything what's going on.
Speaker 4: This team that's been up there has been very concerned
Speaker 4: about building the base out and they've only been in
Speaker 4: a mom Sahib. They haven't even gone over to Archie yet, right,
Speaker 4: so we're going to be the team that pushes to
Speaker 4: Archie and then potentially from there right and then towards
Speaker 4: back Shawn Province. I think it is up that way.
Speaker 2: So for us, there was a lot of unknowns.
Speaker 4: And right before we got there, there was like a
Speaker 4: YouTube video of then like stoning a chick. There was like,
Speaker 4: you know, reports in Archie they the Taliban killed all
Speaker 4: the police and then stole their vehicles and had a
Speaker 4: parade down the main road and like made everybody come
Speaker 4: out and if you didn't, they cut their heads off.
Speaker 4: And I was like, okay, cool, So this is gonna
Speaker 4: be a good time, you know. So that was very
Speaker 4: interesting though being the Fox. I was not a school
Speaker 4: trained fox by any means. I got given the fox
Speaker 4: job I think three weeks to four weeks before we
Speaker 4: deployed and had to brief the command. I got that
Speaker 4: out of Friday and had to brief the group commander
Speaker 4: on Monday or like Tuesday. So that was unique. But yeah, man,
Speaker 4: it was It was interesting figuring out the area and
Speaker 4: then trying to get through everything and kind of what
Speaker 4: we found was this is kind of a financial hub
Speaker 4: and by that I mean they would harvest everything and
Speaker 4: then they'd smug go up through Tajikistan. I think it
Speaker 4: was right there and yeah, that's it, yep, and they
Speaker 4: would smuggle through there. So our goal was to help
Speaker 4: disrupt some of those routes, identify the money, and then
Speaker 4: try and negate that or you know, cross that out
Speaker 4: and create a block for it. But when you don't
Speaker 4: have any information, you have to do a lot of
Speaker 4: fact finding when you get there.
Speaker 2: So we just had our ink blot strategy.
Speaker 4: We're gonna start here, we're gonna go visit this, We're
Speaker 4: gonna get to know this tribe and these people you know,
Speaker 4: and like these guys or whatever their names were, and
Speaker 4: how they're all related whatever, and then we're gonna go
Speaker 4: down here to this part right, And there was a
Speaker 4: lot of Taliban influence, right, but there's a lot of
Speaker 4: other stuff too. You know, who who's the Uzbek guy
Speaker 4: that like was also the terrorist organization working in there.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 3: I know exactly what who you're talking about. Yeah, they
Speaker 3: were fairly dangerous, as I recall.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they were kind of like the big hitters, smaller organization,
Speaker 4: serious stuff. We had a lot of them in the
Speaker 4: area too, so that was interesting and we got in
Speaker 4: some firefights. You know, we got some dudes, We had
Speaker 4: some suicide bombers at the gate, you know, things like that.
Speaker 4: So it was it was a very formative time, and
Speaker 4: I think mainly because my team Sergeant Dug at the time,
Speaker 4: someone I respect almost more than anybody I've ever met.
Speaker 4: Phenomenal guy, very reserved, kind of soft spoken dude, but
Speaker 4: very squared away, and he was kind of he was
Speaker 4: the Fox before me, and he picked me to be
Speaker 4: the Fox. And he's like, hey man, I know you're
Speaker 4: not gonna do it the exact same way I did,
Speaker 4: but I hope it's had a good example. The thing is,
Speaker 4: I want you to do it feels right and basically,
Speaker 4: you know, do your best. I was like, okay, you know,
Speaker 4: and he's like, you're gonna mess up, You're gonna get
Speaker 4: things wrong, but just remember, as the Fox, your goal
Speaker 4: is to make sure when this team leaves this base,
Speaker 4: every time we leave, they're one hundred percent prepared for
Speaker 4: everything coming at them. Because if you missed anything, that
Speaker 4: could be someone you know, that could be their life,
Speaker 4: for injury.
Speaker 2: For our lives. And I was like, okay, no pressure thanks.
Speaker 3: Uh so, you know, but that was I'm sorry, I'm
Speaker 3: sorry to interrupt. But the group I think is Islamic
Speaker 3: Movement of Uzbeccistan.
Speaker 1: I am you.
Speaker 4: No, Maybe there was somebody else that was like something
Speaker 4: network maybe not was it Hakani?
Speaker 1: Hakani was in Pakistan? That was south?
Speaker 4: Yeah, God, what was the name of that?
Speaker 2: Maybe that is a.
Speaker 4: Man. Honestly you said it. I probably wouldn't remember now
Speaker 4: because it's been so long. Yeah, the but yeah, Doug,
Speaker 4: I remember him saying that, and I always took back
Speaker 4: to like, Okay, my goal is not to see her
Speaker 4: and bore you with data and tell you where everything's at,
Speaker 4: is to give you obviously your most likely are most
Speaker 4: dangerous and then make sure we're all prepared as we
Speaker 4: go out right. So it was it was good, man,
Speaker 4: It was very good, very very good experience. And I
Speaker 4: feel like that's the trip where for me personally, I
Speaker 4: grew a lot. I was still just a status surgeon.
Speaker 4: So it was, uh, sorry, am I getting all weird feedback?
Speaker 1: I think we got you.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, it's just.
Speaker 2: My computer then, So that was it was really good
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 3: And so it sounds like it was or it became
Speaker 3: primarily like a counter narco mission.
Speaker 4: Kind of. We didn't encounter the drugs where we were
Speaker 4: at per Se. It was all the getting the financial
Speaker 4: aspect of it. But we also had a lot of
Speaker 4: pockets of ie D makers. And there was this one
Speaker 4: guy we called his name is like doctor Z or something,
Speaker 4: you know, he was a and we were very unsure
Speaker 4: about him. And I remember, you know, the B team
Speaker 4: and one of the sergeant majors being like, I don't
Speaker 4: agreere about that guy. He's probably just a little T Taliban.
Speaker 4: I was like, no, man, I don't. I don't know
Speaker 4: that's the case. The things aren't lining up that says
Speaker 4: he's that. And he's very hard to pinpoint. So we
Speaker 4: know he travels from here, he goes to some of
Speaker 4: the other provinces. He does this, and he also spends
Speaker 4: time in the South. And if he was just little
Speaker 4: T Taliban, he would so the listeners by little T
Speaker 4: thing of that as like a gang member, right, like
Speaker 4: a guy who has nothing else to do, so they hey,
Speaker 4: it's something to do, I'll join up with these dudes whatever.
Speaker 2: Right, They're not necessarily true to believers.
Speaker 4: They might just be bored more than anything else or
Speaker 4: adventure seekers kind of like a gang member.
Speaker 2: And then your big T Taliban. How we looked at it.
Speaker 4: Was these are your true believers, right that this is
Speaker 4: a real mission for them, and this is a purpose
Speaker 4: so much more formal, okay, And from what I've seen,
Speaker 4: it kind of pushed him into that big T you
Speaker 4: know kind of classification, and we really wanted to stay
Speaker 4: on him, and I remember just being real dismissive about it. Nope,
Speaker 4: that's not it, Nope, it's fine, whatever, And I gave
Speaker 4: a lot of pushback on that.
Speaker 2: Well I kind of find out, you know, I was right,
Speaker 2: you know, as we went on.
Speaker 4: He was a very big player in the North for
Speaker 4: the Taliban, right and then also you know everything that
Speaker 4: was associated with the Taliban and the other people too.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of the money. He also organized
Speaker 2: the different ID.
Speaker 4: Cells they were making the command wire and mote initiated
Speaker 4: IDs as well as pressure plate IDs and so that
Speaker 4: trip we had multiple IDs that I found out that
Speaker 4: we did our signet back, you know and talk to
Speaker 4: people and they're like, hey, man, listen to this, and
Speaker 4: it was the icon's chatter and the dude's talking from
Speaker 4: all the numbers we give them and it was literally
Speaker 4: being like, hey, I can see these guys right now, Okay,
Speaker 4: go ahead do it. And it's like it's not working.
Speaker 4: The id's not working. They like, how is it not working?
Speaker 4: They're standing right on top of it, and it's like
Speaker 4: they're like, oh, it's this truck, the second truck or
Speaker 4: the third truck and the convoy. Because we got like
Speaker 4: when something got like we had to stop. We got
Speaker 4: out and did some stuff. We were parked on top
Speaker 4: of an ID and it never went off. And the
Speaker 4: thing is, it's like, oh, jammers right, this was a
Speaker 4: command wire idea wasn't jammer wow, So we couldn't figure
Speaker 4: out why their stuff wasn't working. That happened seven times
Speaker 4: that we found out we were on top or drove
Speaker 4: over an ID and it didn't go off. So I
Speaker 4: think we encountered id's at one point in the tr
Speaker 4: about every three days, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And we were very lucky we spotted him.
Speaker 4: We got out, we set out, you know, did all
Speaker 4: of our stuff in our sweeps.
Speaker 2: A lot of times it was our Charlie.
Speaker 4: Aaron is a super interesting guy, right like he was
Speaker 4: a marine and then he was a cowboy before that,
Speaker 4: like an actual cowboy like Yellowstone. You know, he had
Speaker 4: drove cattle like in Montana and Kansas, and then he
Speaker 4: is out now and now he was a smoke jumper
Speaker 4: in like Montana, right, Like you're like, what he raises horses? Right,
Speaker 4: He's the best dad ever. Like him and his wife
Speaker 4: are just phenomenal parents too, Like incredible, You're like, what
Speaker 4: how did make people like you gonna? But uh?
Speaker 2: He and I would actually go up and get the
Speaker 2: I eds.
Speaker 4: And be like you know, like old school that yeah,
Speaker 4: with the stick and the knife, you know kind of deal.
Speaker 4: But yeah, man, it was. It was good. We had
Speaker 4: a lot of I ds, a lot of Man, my
Speaker 4: computer just froze on like the worst picture ever.
Speaker 2: It looks like.
Speaker 1: Who we got you?
Speaker 2: Can you guys hear me?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah we got you fine.
Speaker 2: Back now?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah we never lost to.
Speaker 4: Yeah I saw the computer freeze like the worst moment
Speaker 4: in time. But yeah, man, it was. It was really good.
Speaker 4: He was a phenomenal guy. And we'd go clear these
Speaker 4: IDs and everything and all that. We got a few
Speaker 4: firefights on that trip, pretty good. We had a suicide bomber.
Speaker 4: I remember it came to our gate, you know, as
Speaker 4: we're trying to get in our guys that we're training
Speaker 4: up to handle some of this.
Speaker 2: I guess something happened.
Speaker 4: We heard it outside and we saw this dude running
Speaker 4: and our ALP Afghani Local Police ALP commander ended up
Speaker 4: shooting at this dude and he's like running away. So
Speaker 4: I just grabbed my sniper rifle and ran up in
Speaker 4: the towers and I think I got maybe the record
Speaker 4: for like the shortest sniper kill in Afghanistan, so which
Speaker 4: is funny. I think it was like twenty yards away.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, but yeah, that's my big sniper
Speaker 4: claimed the thing. But anything over thirty yards worth of ship,
Speaker 4: but as long as it smooth and thirty But yeah,
Speaker 4: man did that. It was good.
Speaker 2: It was like I said it was.
Speaker 4: I think when I look at that deployment, when everybody
Speaker 4: hears what SF does and they look at all these
Speaker 4: different things, I think that really embodied that a lot.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, Like you are going out,
Speaker 4: you have to be self sufficient. There's only you know,
Speaker 4: there was eight of us and we had ten third
Speaker 4: ID kids, like five infantry and five tankers and like
Speaker 4: a medic.
Speaker 2: You know, attached to us and like an extra intel
Speaker 2: person to help me out.
Speaker 4: We also had a CST team with us, so but
Speaker 4: that is your and it was just us, you know,
Speaker 4: like someone would getting firefights. The Germans would come up
Speaker 4: and help us if they were in the area. But
Speaker 4: it's going to take people you're looking at people get
Speaker 4: on the ground you're looking at a couple hours to
Speaker 4: get to you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So that was that was awesome.
Speaker 4: I love that trip. I loved everything about it. It
Speaker 4: was basically, go do the right thing and let us
Speaker 4: know how it's going. Like, all right, perfectly can do this.
Speaker 3: You're having to develop all of your own intelligence, and
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, you're right. A lot of people don't
Speaker 3: realize that. They think, like, oh s f the CIA
Speaker 3: must come with a big binder full of intel and
Speaker 3: just like here you go, Drew. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 3: work like that. You guys hit the ground. It sounds
Speaker 3: like in this case you had very little in terms
Speaker 3: of intelligence and situational awareness and all of that had
Speaker 3: to be built out.
Speaker 4: It did. We had a guy on our team who
Speaker 4: was who kind of took over that human role that
Speaker 4: level three, right, So the guy who goes out and
Speaker 4: he builds the networks and his sources and everything. He
Speaker 4: and I never really got along that will. However, I
Speaker 4: have immense respect for the guy. He did the phenomenal job,
Speaker 4: right like he was that that was his thing that
Speaker 4: he he really got good at and he's gone on
Speaker 4: to do better things and bigger and better things in
Speaker 4: that world. And again, we never really got along, but
Speaker 4: I have an immense amount of respect for him.
Speaker 3: It's so funny how it works, Drew and and it's
Speaker 3: because the fox and the humans, and they do have
Speaker 3: a different job, like the Fox is more of an analyst,
Speaker 3: whereas the humans are talking to people. And I've seen
Speaker 3: that dynamic before where they don't necessarily get along with
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we well it started before that, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, Like when I was just a Bravo
Speaker 4: and he was an echo. Like we're just very different personalities,
Speaker 4: right Like I'm not your average eighteen fox, like I
Speaker 4: have going to the Sief and I was an assaulter
Speaker 4: and that's that's my mentality, right Like later on I
Speaker 4: went over there, I am an assaulter. I'm not a sniper, dude.
Speaker 4: I think that's boring I don't have the patience for it. Like,
Speaker 4: let's I don't like talking to people, you know, like
Speaker 4: as sources and be like, oh you have many children,
Speaker 4: Oh you are very strong and doing all that bowl crap.
Speaker 4: Like let's get to the point, dude, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, like what we're doing here. So but he
Speaker 4: was he was really good at that, you know. And
Speaker 4: he he got to the point where he got us
Speaker 4: access to some very interesting networks and people that we
Speaker 4: would follow with ISR and they would do exactly what
Speaker 4: he asked him to do.
Speaker 2: In mark places for us.
Speaker 4: And it actually got us onto a named objective for
Speaker 4: you know, some some of the higher level dudes of Jaysock,
Speaker 4: and we actually got to pass that off and they
Speaker 4: were like, we're gonna go hit. It's like we could
Speaker 4: just call him and he'll come in, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like he's one of our sources now, you know,
Speaker 4: Like I think that's a pretty big deal to do
Speaker 4: like that. Again, he killed it, man, you know. But
Speaker 4: again I didn't help the situation. I was probably just
Speaker 4: a you know, a meathead, you know what I'm saying
Speaker 4: the whole time. But uh, he was really good at that.
Speaker 4: So it was cool looking back at it, seeing that
Speaker 4: dynamic and how we built that out so if it
Speaker 4: wasn't for him, and then how we took it as
Speaker 4: a team and the things that we did, like everything
Speaker 4: works together, it's a it's a big environment and a
Speaker 4: lot of working pieces, and that when we left, like
Speaker 4: I can honestly say when we left Afghanistan after that trip,
Speaker 4: it was better off for what we did. We were
Speaker 4: value added to that area. And you could see noticeable
Speaker 4: differences in the area because before people couldn't come out
Speaker 4: of their homes, you know, like there's people getting their
Speaker 4: chopped off and put on pikes, you know, and sticks
Speaker 4: out on the roads and we drive by and see them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: When we left, there's kids playing outside with their families,
Speaker 4: you know, and it was like, all right, man, we
Speaker 4: did something good here. And we had people actually come
Speaker 4: up to our gage just to give us stuff and
Speaker 4: be like hey, thank you, like and it wasn't like
Speaker 4: the typical It was genuine, you know what I mean, Like, yeah,
Speaker 4: there was always always gona be little kids. You're gonna
Speaker 4: throw rocks at your trucks because little kids like to
Speaker 4: throw rocks at trucks, you know what I mean, but like,
Speaker 4: generally speaking, I think we did a good job.
Speaker 1: So that's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like reminiscent of you know what you
Speaker 3: hear about those sfobs and Vietnam, you know, where they
Speaker 3: really ingratiated themselves with the local villagers and become a
Speaker 3: part of that kind of community.
Speaker 4: It did, man, we were we had some very close
Speaker 4: relationships and alliances with the people there, to the point
Speaker 4: where if we were with some of our alp and
Speaker 4: as a firefight, they weren't running away.
Speaker 2: They were they were staying there with.
Speaker 4: Us, and they were looking out for us, which I
Speaker 4: thought was very He's like, oh, that's not everybody's experience,
Speaker 4: you know, like they were bought in. They were with us.
Speaker 4: So that was really good.
Speaker 3: And so after this deployment, you're going back to the
Speaker 3: mother ship at Fort Campbell. Is this when it starts
Speaker 3: coming into your mind, You're thinking you want to make
Speaker 3: the jump over to the A one to five.
Speaker 2: Yes, I knew I wanted to.
Speaker 4: I still did two more small deployments before that. I
Speaker 4: wanted to do something different and go on and try
Speaker 4: something else. And I always knew A one five, Like,
Speaker 4: I just thought that was cool. Man, that's very much
Speaker 4: what appeals to me. But I went to the B
Speaker 4: team after that, and while I was on the B Team,
Speaker 4: I don't think I spent more than a week actually
Speaker 4: on the B team. So when I got there, the
Speaker 4: first thing I did was I deployed to Afghanistan again
Speaker 4: and I was on a I was the L and
Speaker 4: O for a general Nargata was this name Yea and
Speaker 4: I I was in cobble at integrity over there. So
Speaker 4: my goal was basically to report back to him what's
Speaker 4: going on, then also to my group commander and everything else.
Speaker 4: But the side mission was I had another job which
Speaker 4: was a surveillancey type job and it was anyway i'll
Speaker 4: kindlated with that, but driving around one or two guys
Speaker 4: in the truck man jams undercovered vehicles and were setting
Speaker 4: up locations right places for people to meet and things
Speaker 4: like that. So I got to do that for a
Speaker 4: little bit, which was cool because I got to go
Speaker 4: to England as one of the schools I went to
Speaker 4: before then, and I went to the CTR Cluck Course
Speaker 4: run by former British Special Reconnaissance Regiment, so they're close
Speaker 4: target reconnaissance, so basically following people surveillance mobile in a
Speaker 4: vehicle and foot mobile right then breaking into buildings and
Speaker 4: collecting evidence, and that was kind of neat. So there
Speaker 4: was a little bit of that. I got to apply
Speaker 4: to that job, you know, with vehicles and everything else,
Speaker 4: So it was neat.
Speaker 2: Man's cool.
Speaker 4: It was right after I left, that's when they attacked
Speaker 4: the base and McKinnel got killed. So that happened, like
Speaker 4: I think within like weeks after I flew out, and
Speaker 4: we've been saying the whole time, like, hey man, security
Speaker 4: here is not good, dude, but that integrity is literally
Speaker 4: over half of that base is rank major or higher.
Speaker 4: So it's all it's generals, colonel's, lieutenant colonel. I didn't
Speaker 4: know there's that many damn colonels in the Army first
Speaker 4: of all, and in Afghanistan. And then there's a bunch
Speaker 4: of majors who are all trying to be colonels, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. And then there's the foign guys right
Speaker 4: like in there, you know, the Polish, and every Polish
Speaker 4: are hilarious by the way, and then those dudes, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. And then there's like some random
Speaker 4: enlisted people and like I never wore a uniform.
Speaker 2: I just wore civilian clothes the whole time.
Speaker 4: And I was told like, don't tell anybody a rank,
Speaker 4: like whatever you do, don't talk because don't never respect
Speaker 4: you or listen to you. I was like, okay, cool. So,
Speaker 4: like the one person that knew was like the base
Speaker 4: commander and a couple of the colonels. Everybody else was like, oh, Drew,
Speaker 4: we how do we address you. I'm like, Drew's fine,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: Like, so they were like, I got a beard, That's
Speaker 3: all you need to know.
Speaker 2: Say that again. Sorry, you just.
Speaker 1: Say I have a beard, That's all you need to know.
Speaker 4: Something like that. But I told him I'd be like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm in the Coast Guard and they were like what
Speaker 4: Coast Guard?
Speaker 2: Like yeah, Coast Guard Special Operations. You know, like we
Speaker 2: got like there were a couple of people who actually.
Speaker 4: Believed it, but it was like, you're such an idiot,
Speaker 4: no one's gonna believe that, you know. So, uh but
Speaker 4: it was good man. And then uh so I did
Speaker 4: that for a little bit and that was interesting because
Speaker 4: it's just it's writing reports. But then in my off
Speaker 4: time I'm going and doing these kind of things. You know,
Speaker 4: in a vehicle with maybe two other guys driving around
Speaker 4: the city.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, man did that.
Speaker 4: I came home for a few weeks and then I
Speaker 4: immediately went That's when Syria was kicking off. So I
Speaker 4: went to Turkey and I was Task Force Turkey, so.
Speaker 2: And it was pretty much just me so from fifth grade.
Speaker 4: There was another guy there before me, but he was
Speaker 4: kind of it wasn't really his job, but they sent
Speaker 4: me over as because they're like, Hey, just did this
Speaker 4: for Nagada. Now you're gonna do it for our battalion
Speaker 4: commander and group commander. So you're gonna report back in
Speaker 4: Turkey and you're gonna set up all the training bases
Speaker 4: in Turkey for our guys. You're gonna help understand the
Speaker 4: people that were bringing in from Syria. You're gonna do this,
Speaker 4: and you're gonna work closely with some agency people and
Speaker 4: also jaysok and I was like okay. So I was
Speaker 4: at an annex from the embassy wearing a suit every
Speaker 4: day and I worked at the agency office and that
Speaker 4: was eye opening.
Speaker 2: I briefed a lot of politicians.
Speaker 4: I briefed colonels, generals, senators, and I had to know
Speaker 4: what was going on on, and I'm really actually there
Speaker 4: was a female agency lady there, and I'm very grateful
Speaker 4: for her. She was very good at her job and
Speaker 4: she always helped steer me in the right direction. But
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't know if I trust you, right,
Speaker 4: so I'm gonna go back And they're like, no, that
Speaker 4: sounds right.
Speaker 2: Whereas like other people were trying.
Speaker 4: She'd be like, hey, y'all ought to look into that
Speaker 4: a little bit more like okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's trying to help you.
Speaker 2: She genuinely was, and I really appreciate her.
Speaker 4: She might have been pulling one over on me the
Speaker 4: whole time, I don't know, but I feel like it
Speaker 4: was just with everything going on, I felt like she
Speaker 4: truly was a team player with everybody and wanted to
Speaker 4: do the best and she helped me out a lot.
Speaker 3: And so were you mostly just kind of like briefing
Speaker 3: these visitors coming through on like the situation in Syria
Speaker 3: at that time, or was it getting more intense than that.
Speaker 4: It was a little bit of both, but mainly what
Speaker 4: our unit was preparing for. So here are the training
Speaker 4: sites we've identified, Here's how we're going to bring them in.
Speaker 4: Here's how I'm going to try out a time. Once
Speaker 4: that kicks off, you'll see as many odas, here's how
Speaker 4: we're going with recruitment, everything else, and who are identifying
Speaker 4: and here's how we feel about this. Right, So we
Speaker 4: narrowed down the training sites, we identified equipment. Part of
Speaker 4: that was coordinating with customs right through Turkey, which may
Speaker 4: be the worst thing you could ever do in your life,
Speaker 4: because Turkey uses their customs as basically like they hold
Speaker 4: everything hostage.
Speaker 2: To get what they want from the United States.
Speaker 4: So, for example, I'd be sitting in meetings and again
Speaker 4: I don't know why the hell I'm in this meeting,
Speaker 4: but I was sitting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Speaker 4: and the Minister of Interior Affairs, and they're asking me
Speaker 4: questions and giving me information. I'm like mm hmm yeah.
Speaker 4: In my head, I'm like, I'm gonna have to google
Speaker 4: that later. I don't know what the hell that means,
Speaker 4: but like, I'm gonna put this in report and to
Speaker 4: say back. But they're trying to get us to sign
Speaker 4: a treaty, which is what we were absolutely trying not
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 2: And when I would ask questions, they would actually go.
Speaker 4: Out in the hall and they would call Ertuwan is
Speaker 4: see the Prime Minister or president depends on what years
Speaker 4: is because he just goes back and forth, right because
Speaker 4: he's a dictator, so like as he does all that,
Speaker 4: they'd be calling him.
Speaker 2: They'd be like, here's what we think. I'm like, do
Speaker 2: you just call Ertuwan? You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like, what am I doing here? I shouldn't be talking
Speaker 4: to you. I'm ann E seven dude, like I'm a
Speaker 4: sergeant first class. But it was it was really interesting.
Speaker 4: So I would be taught. I'd have to coordinate with them,
Speaker 4: and all showed Turkish soft a little bit, and then
Speaker 4: a lot of what to get back to your question, sorry,
Speaker 4: A lot of what.
Speaker 2: I would do with the.
Speaker 4: Congressmen and women and the senators was we just have
Speaker 4: to be available for their questions. And I really only
Speaker 4: had one that showed up ready with questions that genuinely
Speaker 4: wanted to know what was going on and.
Speaker 2: Had a clue. Other than that, I couldn't.
Speaker 4: I can't say enough negative things about congressmen and women
Speaker 4: that showed up over there.
Speaker 2: It was very disheartening, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It was very like oh wow, and actually so an
Speaker 4: example for it, we're in a meeting.
Speaker 2: You matter if I.
Speaker 1: Tell this story, please want to do?
Speaker 4: Okay, So we go in and do this briefing, right,
Speaker 4: and at least one of the names out of it
Speaker 4: for people and all this speaking probably infer what's going on.
Speaker 2: So we go in and we're giving our briefs and everything.
Speaker 4: I do my part, and I'm in there with the
Speaker 4: commander of a special operations unit.
Speaker 2: He is there, he flew in just for this.
Speaker 4: I'm in there with an agency lady and then his
Speaker 4: sergeant major that's there also, that's been there with me, right,
Speaker 4: And he's talking given the brief and he's like outlining
Speaker 4: the map, here's what we have, here's what we need, everything,
Speaker 4: and I never forget this congressman. It's like he's like, well,
Speaker 4: what do you mean you need this? And that He's like, sir,
Speaker 4: we got this, and he's like, why can't you just
Speaker 4: see him and shoot him.
Speaker 2: He's like.
Speaker 4: Because there's clouds, sir, Like they can't see through clouds,
Speaker 4: you know, And like everything was like talking to a child,
Speaker 4: you know. And he goes, I need so many ISR
Speaker 4: birds with this capability. Right, And this guy's the head
Speaker 4: of like that thing in Congress, and I'm just sitting
Speaker 4: there the whole time, like and that. The commander guy's
Speaker 4: getting mad, veins running out of his neck right, and he's.
Speaker 2: Just like you can tell he's frustrated.
Speaker 4: And he's like, well, I don't know what ISR means,
Speaker 4: but I got some I got some drones.
Speaker 2: He want some drones? He goes, I got some withhistles
Speaker 2: on him. You want that? And the guy's like, yes,
Speaker 2: I would very much like this.
Speaker 4: Like he's like, how many knee you know, like, I'll
Speaker 4: get you some son, how many in meat? And he's like,
Speaker 4: for the third time, like twenty six of them because
Speaker 4: I did to put him here, here and here.
Speaker 2: And he's like can we do that?
Speaker 4: And some guy's like, oh yes, Congressman, we can do that.
Speaker 4: He's like, all right, I'm gonna get him for you, right. Well,
Speaker 4: then he makes this joke. He got real serious real
Speaker 4: quick because he made a joke and he's like, here,
Speaker 4: we're in this part of Africa, we're partnered with the French,
Speaker 4: this and that, and he goes, ah, the French, huh.
Speaker 4: He goes, oh, they're too busy being cowards and running
Speaker 4: away that they suck and starts ragging on the French,
Speaker 4: and this dude like stopped what he was doing, turned
Speaker 4: around and like slammed his fist on the table and goes,
Speaker 4: the French are the greatest partner we could ever ask for.
Speaker 4: They're out actually targets and killing bad guys, waiting for
Speaker 4: bureaucratic approval.
Speaker 2: And you just saw this conversation. J melt into his seat.
Speaker 4: He's a big old fat boy too, and he just
Speaker 4: melted like he couldn't get small. Okay, thank you, you know.
Speaker 4: But like we walked out of there and this dude
Speaker 4: like grass and brought the arm. You know, he's a
Speaker 4: big dude.
Speaker 2: He like grassed me.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh shit, I do something wrong, and he's like,
Speaker 4: listen to that.
Speaker 2: Man makes decisions that affect people's lives. And I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm supposed saying anything.
Speaker 4: I'm just like and he just goes just walks out,
Speaker 4: and I was like, okay, like sounds good man.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, like it was.
Speaker 4: It was very interesting seeing that and then all the
Speaker 4: behind the stuff too, then going to the embassy and
Speaker 4: having to interact with them between Department of State, you know,
Speaker 4: the Paul Mill officers, the people running us AI D
Speaker 4: like that was a big issue back then, you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean.
Speaker 4: Like, and obviously that's popped up in the news. We
Speaker 4: had a lot of issues with USAID and what was
Speaker 4: going on. It was obvious they were just shoveling money
Speaker 4: straight towards you know, all these terrorist groups in Syria.
Speaker 4: They were just giving them free money and supplies and
Speaker 4: everything else. It was crazy. So it was it was
Speaker 4: very interesting. I determined politics probably weren't for me.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And yeah, man, the massive disconnect between the people who
Speaker 3: are making these decisions and what's going on on the ground.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they they live in a different world, Like they don't.
Speaker 4: They literally live in the high tower looking down on
Speaker 4: everybody else, you know, Like I mean, you could have
Speaker 4: stories for days on this stuff. But it's like that
Speaker 4: guy's not the right, that's not good. And they're like, well,
Speaker 4: you need to understand how they feel, like just like rape,
Speaker 4: like killed everybody in this village and raped everybody and
Speaker 4: enslaved a bunch of others, Like what you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like you're throwing gaze off a roof, like
Speaker 4: and I said, that's not good and you're telling me
Speaker 4: I need to think about how this person feels. Like, no, dude, no,
Speaker 4: I don't you know what I mean. Like, I think
Speaker 4: it's pretty cut and dry. So it's just it was
Speaker 4: fucking crazy. So I get to see behind the curtain.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the fat man behind.
Speaker 2: The really good people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And how do you like what you're was that when
Speaker 3: you kind of like left Turkey and kind of like
Speaker 3: what kind of state did you feel like it was
Speaker 3: in as you were leaving out of there?
Speaker 4: I think that was twenty twenty fourteen. It was either
Speaker 4: twenty thirteen into fourteen or fourteen into fifteen, because I
Speaker 4: felt Christmas over there. I think it was thirteen, man,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm sorry it was one of those
Speaker 4: years it was Christmas, because I remember I was. I
Speaker 4: flew home for like three days for Christmas and flew
Speaker 4: right back right. I almost got arrested coming home too,
Speaker 4: which was crazy, but it is what it is. I
Speaker 4: had a bullet in my bag, got it all the
Speaker 4: way from America through Germany and into Turkey, and somehow
Speaker 4: there was a green tip five five six in my backpack.
Speaker 4: Don't know where it came from. Because we weren't shooting
Speaker 4: guns over there as an office job. And like I
Speaker 4: came back through and they were like ready to arrest
Speaker 4: me for this round. I was like, oh god, crap,
Speaker 4: you know, so whatever, but man, it was different, so
Speaker 4: different deployment. But after that is when I went to
Speaker 4: A one five. I went to Sephardic did all that
Speaker 4: and everything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so tell us about that.
Speaker 4: So people aren't familiars. Sephardik is a school. It's considered
Speaker 4: like assaulter school. It's about eight or nine weeks for
Speaker 4: you spend the first two weeks on the flat range shooting.
Speaker 4: We shoot about one hundred and fifty thousand rounds between
Speaker 4: fifty guys in ten days, right, and we'll start with
Speaker 4: fifty and in my class we've bumped down to about
Speaker 4: thirty five by the end of that first two weeks.
Speaker 4: And then after that you're doing CQB all day every day,
Speaker 4: you know, minus Sundays, and if you suck at it,
Speaker 4: you got to go in on Saturdays. Right, So I
Speaker 4: mean it's twelve fourteen, sometimes sixteen hour days just doing
Speaker 4: assault or stuff, clearing buildings, vehicle in addictions, repelling out
Speaker 4: the side of buildings, air inserts, you know, halfs all
Speaker 4: that crap. I mean, you're just NonStop CQB from hostage
Speaker 4: rescue to just regular going after a target whatever it
Speaker 4: may be.
Speaker 2: You're working on breaching.
Speaker 4: You know, you're doing breaching charges, mechanical breaching, you're using
Speaker 4: quickie saws, you're doing broco toorches. We're going elsewhere to
Speaker 4: like old Rundown prisons and stuff like that. So it's
Speaker 4: a very very intensive school. I'd say it's probably the
Speaker 4: best school in the entire military, right. I don't think
Speaker 4: you can top it. It's everything that commercials make the
Speaker 4: military out to be. It's that, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: And it's awesome. So to be in the SIEF you
Speaker 4: have to go to that school and you have to pass.
Speaker 4: So I went over to the SIF without the school.
Speaker 4: They let me come over and they say, hey, man,
Speaker 4: we'll get you the course when you get here. So
Speaker 4: I went the first time and I actually broke my neck.
Speaker 4: So yeah, So we're doing combatives and the dude like
Speaker 4: neck control with this guy who's an idiot.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget him, this dumb ass. He just grabbed
Speaker 2: my neck.
Speaker 4: Instead of doing what we all had done. He just
Speaker 4: dropped to his knees and cranked my neck down. Well
Speaker 4: when he did, he cracked or broke two of the
Speaker 4: vertebrate and then herniated three of the discs over So
Speaker 4: it's pushing on my spinal cord. So when it came time,
Speaker 4: and that was in the first couple of weeks. So
Speaker 4: when I got to the shooting the stress test on
Speaker 4: the flat range portion on week two, when I bring
Speaker 4: the rifle up, I couldn't see my sights because my
Speaker 4: head wouldn't move from like right here. So they were
Speaker 4: always joking like hey, Batman, you know, because it was
Speaker 4: like what you know, you got to turn like this.
Speaker 4: I couldn't do anything. So I went home rehabbed as
Speaker 4: best I could, and then I went back a second
Speaker 4: time and I passed. But after I went back the
Speaker 4: second time, I was like, man, I'm having some problems.
Speaker 4: I went back to the doctor and they were like,
Speaker 4: holy crap, it'd been a year and they were like,
Speaker 4: your next broken. It's been broken the whole time. Why
Speaker 4: did you go to Supartica second time? I was like, uh,
Speaker 4: because I wanted to go to the school and pass,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And like I remember I
Speaker 4: was at jiu jitsu that morning rolling and they were
Speaker 4: like get in here right now. And so the original
Speaker 4: MRI clearly showed it was there, but one of the
Speaker 4: it was a PA. He had asked me, he goes, well,
Speaker 4: who told your neck was fine? And I was like,
Speaker 4: oh that guy right there, that more on and he
Speaker 4: was like, oh shit. So I had to get like
Speaker 4: emergency surgery because they were afraid my arm was gonna
Speaker 4: a trophy because I had really bad like my left
Speaker 4: arm wasn't working right, you know, I couldn't really grab
Speaker 4: things very well. So I went up to Walter Reed
Speaker 4: and uh, have my neck fused?
Speaker 2: And then uh, actually I was high as hell and I.
Speaker 4: Started beare solutions in the things. But yeah, man, it
Speaker 4: was it was good. I did a deployment before that,
Speaker 4: and then we figured all that out so after the fact,
Speaker 4: but I went the second time I passed, and then
Speaker 4: I did a deployment and then that's when we figured
Speaker 4: out what happened.
Speaker 1: So, wow, where did you go with with the sith?
Speaker 2: Bagdad?
Speaker 1: Okay? Cool?
Speaker 3: And I mean yeah again, didn't they used to call
Speaker 3: a one to five like bag dad swat?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, dude, Like back in the day Task Force Rapptor.
Speaker 4: You remember those days. Yeah, when we were in like
Speaker 4: those guys, they were going out every night hitting two, three,
Speaker 4: four buildings.
Speaker 2: You know that.
Speaker 4: There's a video on YouTube with like the Team America song. Yeah,
Speaker 4: pretty much do the mini guns and everything that's them.
Speaker 4: But when I was there, it was, you know, we're
Speaker 4: just mostly doing training stuff. I rack a died down.
Speaker 4: We tried to get out the door a little bit.
Speaker 4: You know, not a whole lot happened, did a lot
Speaker 4: of training and just kind of hung out and doing
Speaker 4: standby for the crisis response for US.
Speaker 2: Okay, anything happened.
Speaker 4: We got to be wheels up in three hours ready
Speaker 4: to go to an embassy to evacuate it or whatever.
Speaker 4: Our guys did go to the US embassy in Baghdad
Speaker 4: and help and reinforce them when they were the riots
Speaker 4: and everything going on around it.
Speaker 2: But really not a whole lot of that trip.
Speaker 4: It was just really good being with the dudes and
Speaker 4: seeing how that works, and then just getting really good
Speaker 4: at uch do. Like you know, this man in fifth Group, like,
Speaker 4: we're not like other people. If you got downtime, you
Speaker 4: better be in the gym or be training. You know
Speaker 4: what I mean, Like, you better be improving yourself somehow.
Speaker 4: And I'd always heard things about eight one five like, oh,
Speaker 4: they think they're cooler this or that, Like not really, man,
Speaker 4: They just when you have more people to do, like
Speaker 4: to schedule the ranges and do everything, you get to
Speaker 4: set yourself up for success a lot better, right, and
Speaker 4: you give yourself more opportunities.
Speaker 2: And I was their mission. They worked really hard and
Speaker 2: train all the time.
Speaker 3: Their mission is like I don't mean to short change
Speaker 3: it at all, but like it is a little bit
Speaker 3: more focused than an ODA that's like all over the place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very narrow, right.
Speaker 4: You have the ability to specialize, and I think that's
Speaker 4: super cool. Like you specialize in CQB, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. Personnel recovery is part of that, you know,
Speaker 4: evacuating embassies. But you are assaulters and heavy hitters and
Speaker 4: hard and fast, you know what I mean, And you're
Speaker 4: doing hostage rescue and everything else on a regular ODA.
Speaker 4: You've got to understand your networks, right, you got to
Speaker 4: do that. You've got to develop all your own intel.
Speaker 4: And we do that in the Stiff too, but not
Speaker 4: to the same you know. And then you've got to
Speaker 4: be able to do you know, maybe one season two
Speaker 4: missions and split up.
Speaker 2: You got to do the normal FID thing. You got
Speaker 2: to do all this different stuff.
Speaker 4: Whereas you know, if there's like five pillars to the
Speaker 4: missions you have when you're an A one five, you're
Speaker 4: only doing like one or two of them, you know,
Speaker 4: compared to all five or six or eight or however
Speaker 4: many there are.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and after that was when they realized how
Speaker 3: jacked up your neck was, and.
Speaker 1: Did you have to be medically retired because of that?
Speaker 4: I did. They gave me the opportunity. So at that point,
Speaker 4: I had had quite a few injuries. I've had shoulder reconstruction,
Speaker 4: I had both my knees done. I've had left ankle reconstruction.
Speaker 4: I have a broken neck that they fused, and also
Speaker 4: my L four and L five is broken, which I'm
Speaker 4: not letting them fuse my lower back. Like the doctor
Speaker 4: who fused my neck was like, don't do your back.
Speaker 4: Whatever you do, don't let them touch your shit. I
Speaker 4: was like, okay, cool. I've got a lot of TBIs too,
Speaker 4: head injuries from combatives. I used to do a lot
Speaker 4: of combatives, A lot of fighting, you know, here and there, enrolling,
Speaker 4: eating some charges, you know what I mean, just stuff
Speaker 4: like that. But it does, man, and it kind of
Speaker 4: came time for me. I remember talking to my battalion
Speaker 4: starting major laws. Phenomenal guy. He came down and goes, hey, man,
Speaker 4: whatever you just go I want, you know, talk to
Speaker 4: the doctors. He goes, I will do whatever. I will
Speaker 4: put you wherever you want. I will go out of
Speaker 4: your way to do everything. But it sounds like your
Speaker 4: time being a soldier is probably done, you know. And
Speaker 4: I was like, I think you might be right. I
Speaker 4: think it's time to do something different. So my option
Speaker 4: was I could stay in a program called co ED
Speaker 4: called Continuing on Active Duty, but I would be non deployable.
Speaker 4: And if I stayed in then I would, you know,
Speaker 4: go be a SOPHA constructor or a SOFARTA constructor. But
Speaker 4: then I might have to go work in so Calm
Speaker 4: in Tampa, right or some of those things.
Speaker 2: Which is cool.
Speaker 4: But I actually wanted to go to the Army Marksmanship
Speaker 4: Unit is really where I wanted to go. And if
Speaker 4: I can just finish my time at the AMU because
Speaker 4: I love shooting like that would be awesome, but they
Speaker 4: did not. They wouldn't allow me to come over because
Speaker 4: I was at E seven. They like it to come
Speaker 4: over younger. So at the time, whoever's running and said no,
Speaker 4: And I just decided, hey, man, if I'm gonna stay
Speaker 4: in the military, like, I'm not staying in the military
Speaker 4: if I can't deploy, you know. So I wanted to
Speaker 4: get out. That's the whole reason I'm in the military.
Speaker 4: So we decided to get out. And that conversation I
Speaker 4: kind of jumped around a little bit. That conversation happened
Speaker 4: before I got surgery, and then also kind of, you know, whenever.
Speaker 4: So when I started Bare Solutions, it was the morning
Speaker 4: after I was had my surgery.
Speaker 2: In Walter Reed Hospital. I was laid in the bed
Speaker 2: and I was making a.
Speaker 4: Website on Squarespace and like, oh, and I'm like applying
Speaker 4: for an FBI.
Speaker 2: In you know, and I'm like, what is this?
Speaker 3: And that's because you're already having to like kind of
Speaker 3: come to terms like I'm not going to be a
Speaker 3: soldier anymore.
Speaker 1: What am I going to do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't like knowing. I don't like not knowing
Speaker 4: what I'm doing. Right, I figured I think had something
Speaker 4: the military teaches you, well, if you just wait, you know,
Speaker 4: like the army will tell you what you're doing and
Speaker 4: you're probably not gonna like it, but if you're proactive
Speaker 4: about it, you can kind of control where you go
Speaker 4: and what you do. So I've always wanted to, you know,
Speaker 4: I thought it was cool to have a training company
Speaker 4: everything else. And I had some good buddies that I
Speaker 4: knew in the industry, and they were like, hey, man,
Speaker 4: you should do this.
Speaker 2: You should. You should absolutely start a company and get
Speaker 2: out and train.
Speaker 4: I think you do.
Speaker 2: Okay, you do well?
Speaker 4: He was like, all right. So I remember I was
Speaker 4: sitting in the bed, you know, just high as hell, dude,
Speaker 4: just misspelling everything. Danny came in. He was like my
Speaker 4: escort and he's like, what are you doing because he
Speaker 4: hadn't even seen me yet. I think he saw me
Speaker 4: like when I came out of surgery, and then he's like, okay.
Speaker 4: He went and got breakfast and came back and he's
Speaker 4: coming in ready to make fun of me, and he's like,
Speaker 4: what are you doing. I'm like, oh, I starting a company.
Speaker 4: He's like, no, no, you're not, you know, like, what
Speaker 4: are you talking about? But yeah, that's Bear Solutions, and
Speaker 4: that's what I do now.
Speaker 1: So fedanyl kicking that ass.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and so tell us about Bear Solutions, what
Speaker 3: that company is, what it's sort of evolved into, what
Speaker 3: you're doing with it today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, So Bear has been great.
Speaker 4: I've been very fortunate, very blessed about a lot of
Speaker 4: people in the industry.
Speaker 2: You say, hey, man, you're doing good stuff. Let me
Speaker 2: help promote you, right, let me do this. We've grown
Speaker 2: very well.
Speaker 4: So one of the things that the number one thing
Speaker 4: we do is we do training. We do firearms training.
Speaker 4: We teach you how to shoot. We teach you how
Speaker 4: to shoot fast and accurate. Right, it's got to be
Speaker 4: a balance, Okay, like accuracy accuracy without.
Speaker 2: Speed is kind of worthless, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So we got to be fast while we do it.
Speaker 4: And then so we teach pistol one, pistol two, rightfle one,
Speaker 4: rifle two. But we also do a lot of courses
Speaker 4: for law enforcement. We do CQB courses. We've done hostive
Speaker 4: rescue courses for people. We've done a lot of CQB
Speaker 4: courses where I keep it just two man CQB.
Speaker 2: Especially for those patrol officers.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, getting in and going and
Speaker 4: knocking it out and do what they gotta do. We
Speaker 4: do consulting and we've done a lot of people. We
Speaker 4: train some really cool people, got to know some awesome people.
Speaker 4: But number one what we do is training. After that,
Speaker 4: we also make products. We just came out with our
Speaker 4: first belt, which is a you know, tactical style belt
Speaker 4: called the voy Tech belts spelled wosh Tech, but it's
Speaker 4: pronounced void tech. It's a Polish word. Have you ever
Speaker 4: heard of voy Tech?
Speaker 2: The Bearjack no World.
Speaker 1: War Two, he's the one that carried the artillery shells. Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah.
Speaker 4: Did drank beer? Killed Nazis? Like did?
Speaker 2: How do you not love that bear? You know what
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 4: So we named it after that. So but yeah, that's
Speaker 4: our first product. We have some building off of that.
Speaker 4: We have some others coming out too. We do the
Speaker 4: YouTube thing and everything else, which brings us to bear Cinna.
Speaker 4: So Bear Cenna is our video production. Uh. My business
Speaker 4: partner with that is Thomas ch phenomenal guy man. Just
Speaker 4: he's been to film school, he does camera work for
Speaker 4: He's been on Netflix, He's worked on Netflix project, He's
Speaker 4: done music videos, he's done all kinds of stuff. Man,
Speaker 4: he is an incredibly talented guy. So everything that we
Speaker 4: do with our YouTube goes under Bear Center and then
Speaker 4: our other video production. Like, we did a short film, right,
Speaker 4: So Tom has in Nashville. There's a company called Action
Speaker 4: Design Services. They are a stunt team and stunt coordinators
Speaker 4: and fight choreographers in Nashville, and they've done some great work.
Speaker 4: Phenomenal people. One of them is working on She's incredible.
Speaker 4: She's like this tiny little former gymnast. She's working on
Speaker 4: some Netflix shows. She's like, she's insane. Dude, She's such
Speaker 4: a badass. Right, they have so Jared's great. They have
Speaker 4: so many cool people in this stunt team. So we
Speaker 4: wrote a script and we made a short film highlighting
Speaker 4: a lot of the stuff they can do, along with
Speaker 4: our weapons stuff and everything else and tactics and things
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 2: So we're almost done with that.
Speaker 4: We're just getting special effects done and then we're gonna
Speaker 4: submit it to film festivals. So yeah, so.
Speaker 3: It's like an actual like short film with a plot,
Speaker 3: but it's sort of showing the tactics that you guys teach.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's about eighteen minutes long.
Speaker 4: Cool, so it does have a plot, right, And we
Speaker 4: filmed it over about a week at a private school
Speaker 4: in around the Nashville area and then also some other locations. Right.
Speaker 4: We actually went into like a it's a studio and
Speaker 4: it's got these giant screens behind it so we could
Speaker 4: like Dolly in the truck for the driving scenes and
Speaker 4: then mount the camera on the hood and then we
Speaker 4: filmed there called plates and it's just the video you
Speaker 4: get and then they put it up on this big
Speaker 4: screen behind the vehicle so it looks like he's driving,
Speaker 4: but we can control all the environmental factors.
Speaker 2: So that was super cool. We use that. We did,
Speaker 2: I mean tons of stuff.
Speaker 4: Dude, we uh make up artists, you know for the
Speaker 4: blood and the gunshot wounds, blanks and gun I mean, dude,
Speaker 4: it was sick. So it was It's a very big
Speaker 4: learning experience, I'll say that much.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I was gonna say, man, look at
Speaker 3: all this new stuff that you're learning. Not exactly uh,
Speaker 3: just a big dumb eighteen Bravo here putting some things together.
Speaker 2: Trying to Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a lot of really awesome people around me,
Speaker 4: which is great. That've taught me a ton of stuff.
Speaker 4: You know, Tom, I feel sometimes I don't know what
Speaker 4: Tom works with me because sometimes be like, ugh, you know,
Speaker 4: he's just like, oh, you idiot, you know, like think
Speaker 4: about this, you know, and he's like explained to like,
Speaker 4: oh okay, I get it. So it's been really neat man,
Speaker 4: and that's worked into some writing, you know, doing some
Speaker 4: stuff and everything else. But so yeah, so we do
Speaker 4: that with Bear Solutions and Bear Center. Then I have
Speaker 4: another company called AgNIC, and with that we make considered
Speaker 4: concealed carry belts. So we make a flexible kind of
Speaker 4: you know, one size fits most concealed carry bell but
Speaker 4: it doesn't look super tactical, and then it helps to
Speaker 4: hide your clips.
Speaker 2: So that's called AgNIC and we have that over there.
Speaker 1: Super cool.
Speaker 3: So we'll have some links down the description for the
Speaker 3: viewers or listeners. You can go and check out Bear
Speaker 3: Solutions and some of these products that Jre's talking about.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else you want to talk about? About?
Speaker 3: I don't know, service, military service or post service, what
Speaker 3: you're doing today, anything that I didn't mention.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it's I think the thing is that you
Speaker 4: never know where life's going to take you, man, Like
Speaker 4: I mean, look where you're at. Dude, You're sitting in
Speaker 4: a big leather chair, you know what I mean, you
Speaker 4: brought in thank you sitting in that sucker, you know,
Speaker 4: and you're in a fifth group, you know, I mean
Speaker 4: running a podcast and all the incredible like stories you've done.
Speaker 4: You're a journalist, man, Like you've done incredible things, right,
Speaker 4: they're probably not what you were thinking about.
Speaker 2: And you're in the military.
Speaker 4: No, But for me, if you were like, hey, man,
Speaker 4: someday you're gonna be on a movie set, you know.
Speaker 4: Like I was just up in Utah and I'm working
Speaker 4: on this movie right now, and I got to be
Speaker 4: in the movie, which was super cool. It was also
Speaker 4: terrifying because like there's real actors and they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: you're so and So's buddy, aren't you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I know what that means. You know,
Speaker 2: I expect it. So I was like rehearsing and practicing, and.
Speaker 4: I was with this guy, Jeff, and Jeff is he
Speaker 4: does a lot of casting for Clint Eastwood's movies and
Speaker 4: he's name was phenomenal guy, right, And so we do
Speaker 4: these video calls where he's like coaching me.
Speaker 2: I'm like okay, and He's like, Ah, that's not bad.
Speaker 2: I'm like just.
Speaker 4: Saying it sucked, Jeff, just tell me it sucks, you know.
Speaker 4: And so but you know, it went well. You know,
Speaker 4: they told me I did a good job. I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: thanks god. You know, so actually in it doing that.
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to be a big action movie star
Speaker 4: by any means, but it was a neat experience.
Speaker 3: I recently too, I tech advised on a film over
Speaker 3: the summer, and just because they needed a body essentially
Speaker 3: to do it, I ended up having like a very
Speaker 3: small role, microscopic role, but I have one line where
Speaker 3: I tell someone to shut the fuck up or I'll
Speaker 3: blow their head off. This is a Vietnam War, you know,
Speaker 3: documentary film, so there's not a lot of acting like
Speaker 3: to be like the disgruntled army guy chewing out a
Speaker 3: subordinate like, there isn't a whole lot of acting that
Speaker 3: I felt like, you know, I wasn't outside my comfort
Speaker 3: zone with that.
Speaker 2: It was kind of the same in this thing.
Speaker 4: It was they were like, hey, you're gonna play Kenny
Speaker 4: the gun store.
Speaker 1: Guy, and I was like, okay, I do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, fair enough. Yeah you type cast me
Speaker 4: for that, you know, so but I got to call
Speaker 4: somebody a stupid, stupid moron or something dumb motherfucker or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, cool, have your your mug of
Speaker 3: coffee and be like, well, actually, if you knew anything
Speaker 3: about forty five ACP, you'd know, yeah pretty much.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, red shirt just be like slow down
Speaker 4: and get your hits, you know, like but oh man, yeah,
Speaker 4: it was fun Dudel.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The funny thing about these I'm sure you saw it too,
Speaker 4: Like I was just kind of blown away, like being
Speaker 4: on set, like all the moving pieces.
Speaker 2: It's like a large military operation exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It was like everybody has their roles and doing this,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, that's S four, that's S three,
Speaker 4: you know, like that's S two. You know, there's this
Speaker 4: you know, like it's they all have their pieces and
Speaker 4: they're all working together, and you have these guys in
Speaker 4: the top there's making sure everything's doing what they need
Speaker 4: to do, and it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is just like a military yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and it requires the other commonalities, like it
Speaker 3: requires everyone doing their job, like everything has to line
Speaker 3: up to get that shot. Yes, right, Yes, it's a lot,
Speaker 3: and it's a lot of people and a lot of
Speaker 3: technology working together to get that like one moment and
Speaker 3: I found that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very similar to what you experience in the military.
Speaker 4: It is. It's kind of like that, but just add
Speaker 4: an HR element and then you have a movie, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like like, you can't what do
Speaker 4: you mean, I can't call that person retarded? And they're like,
Speaker 4: you can't talk like that. That's me.
Speaker 3: You're like, okay, Yeah, the unions are are a different thing.
Speaker 3: We don't have that in the military either. I think
Speaker 3: we have a question for you, Drew Sure from our
Speaker 3: Patreon folks.
Speaker 5: This is Damn Bash. Ask him who his second favorite
Speaker 5: Border Patrol firearms instructor is from the Casa Grande station.
Speaker 3: That's a very specific questionry Dan, It's uh, it's either
Speaker 3: it's probably Darling, because I know who my number one is,
Speaker 3: so dude, Darling's my boy.
Speaker 4: Dude, He's uh, dude, those guys down there at Cassa
Speaker 4: grand Dan, Darling, all those guys phenomenal dudes. I've gotten
Speaker 4: a lot of Border Patrol guys. I really really really
Speaker 4: enjoy the Border Patrol guys like they are hilarious.
Speaker 2: So they're really good dudes, very professional.
Speaker 4: They do a really good job.
Speaker 3: So I drew anything else before we get going, anything
Speaker 3: that I failed to ask you.
Speaker 2: I don't think so I kind of just started.
Speaker 4: Going with it.
Speaker 1: So I hope that's cool.
Speaker 4: So no man other than that, dude, Uh yeah, I'm
Speaker 4: just kind of a husband and a dad first, and
Speaker 4: I try and do all this other stuff.
Speaker 2: I got a daughter and uh, one thing you may.
Speaker 4: Not know ifnybody's listening, if you ever go to dance competitions,
Speaker 4: you might see me there, okay, because I my daughter's
Speaker 4: in dance and I'm a dance dad, so I will
Speaker 4: say hi if you're over there.
Speaker 2: So, which is awkward as ship for a guy like me,
Speaker 2: but I love it.
Speaker 1: So that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: Well, Drew, thank you for doing this man taking some
Speaker 1: time out of your day.
Speaker 3: Really appreciate it. And thank you everyone who joined us
Speaker 3: tonight for the show. And we'll see all of you
Speaker 3: next time and make sure you check out Bear Solutions again.
Speaker 3: There'll be links down the description for you, guys.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Thank you very much, Jack. Thanks guys.
Speaker 3: Hey, guys, I want to tell all of you today
Speaker 3: about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both
Speaker 3: the team House podcast, the eyes On podcast, and the
Speaker 3: high Side News outlet, which I run with Sean Naylor.
Speaker 3: The newsletter is gonna be once a week. It's going
Speaker 3: to come into your inbox and you're gonna get the
Speaker 3: most current podcasts on eyes On and the Teamhouse and
Speaker 3: whatever's topical or current on the high Side. So it's
Speaker 3: another way for us to get the information out to
Speaker 3: you as social media algorithms are pretty iffy and you
Speaker 3: never really know.
Speaker 1: What you're gonna get. So this is a once a
Speaker 1: week email.
Speaker 3: It'll slide into your inbox and it will have you
Speaker 3: know the greatest hits that week.
Speaker 1: It's really good checking it out.
Speaker 3: The website for it is Teamhouse Podcast dot kit dot com,
Speaker 3: slash Join, Teamhouse Podcast dot kit dot com slash join.
Speaker 3: You go there and you enter into your email list,
Speaker 3: or you enter your email into the little thing on
Speaker 3: the website and you're good to go and that'll be it.
Speaker 3: So we really appreciate your support and I hope you'll
Speaker 3: consider signing up.
Speaker 2: Where's the link.
Speaker 3: The link will also be down the description if you're
Speaker 3: looking for it there
Speaker 4: And that's Teamhouse Podcast, dot kit k I, t Kilo India,
Speaker 4: tango dot Com, backslash join