1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 1: M H foot Force. If it doesn't work, you're just 2 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: not using enough. You're listening to Software Radio Special Operations, 3 00:00:24,960 --> 00:01:07,400 Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys in the community, 4 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 1: SOFTWAREP Radio on Time on Target. Very excited to have 5 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,880 Speaker 1: Stuart Stu Steinberg, author of This Is What Hell looks 6 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:22,200 Speaker 1: Like Life as a bomb disposal specialist during the Vietnam War, 7 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:25,920 Speaker 1: on with us. If you're not on YouTube, we're we're 8 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: gonna video of this as well that you might be watching. 9 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: And uh, I was gonna get into your bio. But 10 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 1: it's like every year from the Vietnam War until now, 11 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,759 Speaker 1: you've done so much, so I'm excited to to get 12 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: into all of it with you. And I know Jack 13 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: is as well. Cool. Um, the just the resume that 14 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: you sent me, it's pretty amazing, you know, between being 15 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: an e O D serving the U. S Army for 16 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: five years and then getting a law degree specializing in 17 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: capital murder as a criminal defense investigator from two thousand three, 18 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: and then too was in nine ten working with the 19 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: U N Office on Drugs and Crime as an advisor 20 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: to the Afghan police officer I said with the Afghan 21 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: Afghan Border Police, I should say, and training the Afghan 22 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:16,240 Speaker 1: Border Police personnel in the conduct of counter narcotics operations 23 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 1: along the border of Iran. It's it's a pretty amazing resume. 24 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,600 Speaker 1: So there's a lot to start with. And uh, I'm 25 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: not sure where we should even start. Well, I mean, 26 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,120 Speaker 1: I think we should probably start st with, you know, 27 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 1: um going into the United States military and UH, this 28 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:35,960 Speaker 1: incident you mentioned in your biography of chemical weapons prior 29 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: prior to you even going over to Vietnam. I think 30 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: that'd probably be a good place to start. Yeah. When 31 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: I graduated from U D School, they sent me to 32 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:52,639 Speaker 1: this uh dumped in Utah called Dugway Proving Grounds and 33 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: UH at that time, UH Dugway was where we stockpiled 34 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 1: the vast majority of our chemical and biological weapons. And 35 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: this included like mustard rounds left over from World War One, 36 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: UH and uh and a lot of nerve gas rockets 37 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: and UH one of our jobs was checking these rockets 38 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,680 Speaker 1: for leaguers and there were a lot of them, and 39 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: we would find the leaguers and destroy them. So UH, 40 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: it was it was an interesting job. And then um 41 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: in uh March of n actually marched the thirteenth, which 42 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: happens to be my son's birthday, not eight but March 43 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: of thirteen, we uh accidentally nerve gased a sheep ranch 44 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: and with about a ton of saren. And what happened 45 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: was they were testing a new uh uh dispensing unit 46 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: and it malfunctioned, and uh it ended up killing thousands 47 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: of sheep and pretty much everything that walked, crawled, or 48 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:28,799 Speaker 1: flew uh in an area of about forty thousand acres. 49 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: So you confirmed that it worked? Though, Oh, yeah, it worked. 50 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, um, and I think I mentioned 51 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: this in the book and the chapter about Dug Way. Um. 52 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: You know how you hear that, you know, cockroaches can 53 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: survive a nuclear blast, Well, they can't survive nerve gas 54 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:54,359 Speaker 1: because they have a central nervous system. So, uh, it 55 00:04:54,480 --> 00:05:00,480 Speaker 1: was fortunate that for whatever reason, this happened on a Thursday. Um. 56 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: And the herders, for some reason, Thursday was their day off, 57 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,719 Speaker 1: so they were gone. But their horses, their dogs are 58 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: all dead. And uh, after we clean this mess up, 59 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 1: there were actually three of us who volunteered for Vietnam. 60 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: Uh you enough. Yeah, I just figured, you know, kind 61 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 1: of idiotically actually that you know, in Vietnam, at least 62 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: you would hear the enemy coming, which of course turned 63 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: out not to be the case. And uh so, yeah, 64 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: I got out of there. I wanted to ask, isn't 65 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: this is this the famous chemical weapons accident that Seymour 66 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: hersh ended up writing about, and there's like a big 67 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: expose a on it. Yeah, And what was really interesting 68 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:00,279 Speaker 1: is that do you guys know who Jack Anderson was? 69 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: Name rings a bell, but bring up he was. He 70 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 1: was an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, and every 71 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: year on the anniversary of this event, he would write 72 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: something about it and how the government was covering it up. 73 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:17,840 Speaker 1: I mean they covered it up for I don't know 74 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 1: seventy and I don't know, maybe thirty years. Um, they 75 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: denied that it had happened. And of course, I mean 76 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: at one point, um, they had some guy who was 77 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: claiming that it actually was the result of overspring of 78 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: some kind of uh insecticide or something, you know. Uh. 79 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 1: And what was really sad about it was that they, 80 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:49,599 Speaker 1: you know, tried to blame this on the F four. 81 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: The device was being flown by an F four. They 82 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,880 Speaker 1: tried to blame it on the pilot four as a phantom. 83 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: Isn't it a phantom. Yeah, F four phantom. And you know, 84 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: when I look back on it now, I mean the 85 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: thing about Doug Waye. They tested these weapons systems UM 86 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: on live animals, mostly beagles and sheep and rabbits. Why 87 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: they chose beagles, I don't know, Uh, but it well, 88 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: it was a really weird place. You know. It was 89 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere. The back end of 90 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: it actually butted up to the Bonneville Salt Flats. And 91 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:40,440 Speaker 1: you know, one of the things I was kind of 92 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: looking forward to, uh while I was there, was being 93 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:46,680 Speaker 1: able to watch the world land speed record runs. But 94 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: I had to get out of there. How when you 95 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: say you were involved in the clean up, I mean, 96 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,440 Speaker 1: what what does that mean? How do you even go 97 00:07:55,520 --> 00:08:01,120 Speaker 1: about cleaning up a searing gas accident? Well, mostly it 98 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: was identifying the area that had been contaminated. And what 99 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: actually ended up happening was they ended up bringing in 100 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: these rome plows UM. I think they may have been engineers, 101 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: I'm not sure. And and uh and they dug a 102 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: huge pit, I mean huge, like the size of a 103 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: football field, and they basically scraped everything into this pit. 104 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,640 Speaker 1: And in the same way that we used to destroy 105 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:41,079 Speaker 1: these nerve gas rockets. They filled the pit with tires, 106 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:46,439 Speaker 1: thousands and thousands and thousands of tires, and then uh 107 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:52,960 Speaker 1: we uh laid out charges see for tied all together 108 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: with dead cord white fosphorus grenades and then soaked the 109 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: whole thing in jet fuel and then we set it 110 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: off and uh and after it burned out and they 111 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: pitted cooled off, they covered it up, they put offense 112 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: around it, and UH said no trespassing. One of the 113 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,120 Speaker 1: interesting things that I learned when I was doing the 114 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: research for my book was that this land was actually 115 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: owned by the family of Orange Hatch. Uh. Interesting and 116 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: so that probably helped them keep it quiet too. Yeah, 117 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: and they obviously, you know, they paid the sheep farmer 118 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,120 Speaker 1: a lot of money, uh to shut up basically. And 119 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: we were debriefed by these guys from the Department of 120 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: Defense and we're told, you know, we had to sign 121 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,439 Speaker 1: non disclosure agreements and all of a sudden crap and 122 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 1: uh it was it was just another reason, you know, 123 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:50,760 Speaker 1: to get out of there. What do you what do 124 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:52,920 Speaker 1: you think about that now that you know we're decades 125 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 1: later and you reflect back on it, do you have 126 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:58,079 Speaker 1: any thoughts about you know, say, the legality of chemical 127 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:02,760 Speaker 1: weapons or the legality of test them, uh, or the 128 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,440 Speaker 1: moral you know, ethical implications. I think yeah, it's completely immoral. 129 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,880 Speaker 1: It's completely unethical as far as I'm concerned. Um, why 130 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 1: we still have these weapons? Obviously we know that the 131 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: Russians are using them. We know that, you know, because 132 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: of the poisoning of the skirtballs. Uh. Yeah, you know 133 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: what's going on in Syria. I mean yeah, well, yeah, 134 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,080 Speaker 1: they should all be gotten rid of. I mean it's 135 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:43,440 Speaker 1: bad enough that, you know, we've got enough nuclear weapons 136 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: to destroy the world five thousand times. You know what 137 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:48,600 Speaker 1: do we need this stuff for it? Do you think 138 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: we need to maintain a chemical deterrent or should we 139 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: take the high road on that and get rid of 140 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: ours and just encourage the rest of the world to 141 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 1: do the same. Yeah, that's a tough question. Um m hm, 142 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,679 Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what the answer is. I mean, personally, 143 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,000 Speaker 1: I guess yeah, we should take the high road and 144 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: get rid of them. I mean you're gonna have you know, 145 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:20,440 Speaker 1: you're gonna have uh countries out there, people out there who, 146 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: um aren't going to care what we do. Um, you know, 147 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:32,880 Speaker 1: the bad actors like for instance, the Syrians, the Syrian government. 148 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,400 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and uh, you know, whether we have a 149 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: stock problem or not, it's not going to stop them 150 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:45,480 Speaker 1: from using these weapons for bad purposes. And now that 151 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:47,719 Speaker 1: you've told that story, it actually does begin to make 152 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 1: sense of why a young man would willingly volunteer to 153 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:57,040 Speaker 1: cover the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia. You know, I 154 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: kind of believe that everything happens for a reason, And 155 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is, if that event hadn't happened, 156 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 1: I mean I probably would have eventually come down on 157 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: orders for Vietnam anyway. But volunteering to go, um, and 158 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:15,240 Speaker 1: then I extended my tour, so I was actually in 159 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: Vietnam for eighteen months. Um. I met the best men 160 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: I've ever known in my life ever. And Uh, I'm 161 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:27,560 Speaker 1: on the board of directors of the National Lee O 162 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:31,520 Speaker 1: D Association. We just had our convention in Scottsdale, and 163 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 1: so every year, you know, I get to see most 164 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,880 Speaker 1: of these guys um uh that I served with. UM. 165 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: Most of the guys I served with on the first 166 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:44,200 Speaker 1: team I was on our deceased. Now there there's not 167 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: many of us left. Um Um. Most of them UM 168 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: have passed away from herbicide related diseases. Um. But the 169 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,560 Speaker 1: third team, I was on the seventh Ordiency Attachment up 170 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:01,280 Speaker 1: in Northern I Corps. You about fifty clicks f in 171 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:06,640 Speaker 1: the DMZ. There was something special about that unit. First 172 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:08,360 Speaker 1: of all, we were the only team in Vietnam that 173 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: never lost a man. We had people, you know, wounded 174 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,640 Speaker 1: of course, um, you know, and one guy that lost 175 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:20,120 Speaker 1: a foot, but uh, yeah, the other teams I was 176 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:25,920 Speaker 1: on all lost people. So yeah, you were talking about 177 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:28,600 Speaker 1: the guys that served with that are still here. Jack 178 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: made the connection with you through Mike Vining, So I 179 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:33,559 Speaker 1: think our audience would have to hear how you how 180 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,199 Speaker 1: you met Mike was such a like in my community. 181 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 1: Mike and I are actually in Vietnam at the same time. 182 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:42,640 Speaker 1: He was on a team down in the Delta, and 183 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:48,599 Speaker 1: uh we never met U while I was there. Um, 184 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: you know, in my book, I talked about these three 185 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: attacks on this AMMO dump that the team I was on. Uh, 186 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:57,920 Speaker 1: for the first ten months I was there, I was 187 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:00,960 Speaker 1: responsible for and a lot of you do you guys 188 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,679 Speaker 1: came in from all over the country to help us 189 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:05,599 Speaker 1: clean it out. Mike wasn't one of them. So I 190 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:11,600 Speaker 1: actually met Mike. Um. I think the first uh any 191 00:14:11,679 --> 00:14:13,520 Speaker 1: t e O D A convention I went to was 192 00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: in two thousand four. It was in Colorado Springs and 193 00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:19,600 Speaker 1: that's where I met Mike. And of course his story 194 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: is yeah, grang out loud. He was the first of 195 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,040 Speaker 1: you do you guy that went to Delta and of 196 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,400 Speaker 1: course was involved in the fiasco in the desert trying 197 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: to rescue the hostages. Um. He's just a great guy, 198 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,640 Speaker 1: A great guy. And my wife and his life Donnas, 199 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: spent a lot of time together down in Scottsdale, and uh, 200 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 1: they're just just wonderful people. Wonderful people. Just a brief 201 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 1: segue because you mentioned your book, I just wanna um 202 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: let the listeners know. The title of the book is 203 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:53,520 Speaker 1: This Is What Hell Looks Like A life is a 204 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: bomb disposal specialist during the Vietnam War. And you go 205 00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:01,600 Speaker 1: look for it on Amazon. It's available now. Um. So 206 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:03,800 Speaker 1: can we talk a little bit about, you know, when 207 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,600 Speaker 1: you first landed in Vietnam and what your experience was 208 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: like as a young E O D technician. Yeah, we 209 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: uh flew out of Oakland, Uh, you know, stopped in Hawaii, 210 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,080 Speaker 1: had been in oakanhaw and then we landed in Vietnam 211 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: at ben Wai Air Base and then they chucked us 212 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: over to Long Ben Uh, which was kind of where 213 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:34,120 Speaker 1: all the big army units were, personnel and whatnot. And uh, 214 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:37,920 Speaker 1: you know, they started, you know, lined us all up, 215 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:40,320 Speaker 1: and they started calling out names, and there was and 216 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: I went with another guy from dub Waite, a guy 217 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: named Tom Brown, and they called us out and told 218 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:52,240 Speaker 1: us to go stand over wherever and uh and a 219 00:15:52,280 --> 00:15:54,680 Speaker 1: clerk from our control unit ended up picking us up. 220 00:15:55,080 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: And UH we stopped at this UM Air Force Enlisted 221 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: Men's club. It was like being in the States. I mean, 222 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,560 Speaker 1: you would never know there was a war going on. UM. 223 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: And I had some burghers and whatnot. And then we 224 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,120 Speaker 1: flew out, uh from ben wa Tom went to the 225 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:24,120 Speaker 1: one uh in uh Cameron Bay, and I went to 226 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:26,960 Speaker 1: the one in four. He flew out on the See 227 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: one thirty. I flew out on a chinook. I know 228 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:32,280 Speaker 1: we landed somewhere to refuel, but I just don't remember where. 229 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: But um, one of the things I talked about in 230 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:39,400 Speaker 1: the book was, you know, wondering when the hell I 231 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: was going to get a weapon, uh, because you know, 232 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: h the chinook I was on. Uh was a lot 233 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,720 Speaker 1: of guys from the hundred and seventy third Airborne Brigade, 234 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: and of course they were all armed, and man, I 235 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 1: was really jealous, you know that these guys said guns 236 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: and I didn't because I'm thinking, you know, we're in 237 00:16:57,800 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: a helicopter here. You know, it's not like we're flying 238 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,640 Speaker 1: and really fast. And you know what if we get 239 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 1: shot down and you had to wait to get to 240 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:06,440 Speaker 1: your unit before you were Yeah, I had to wait 241 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 1: to get to the unit, yeah, before I ended up. 242 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: Really that sucks. Yeah, I did, you know, And of course, 243 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: you know, back then, unlike now, you know, people went 244 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,000 Speaker 1: to Vietnam individually. You didn't go with the unit. Now, 245 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:25,239 Speaker 1: you know the e O D teams and when they 246 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:29,160 Speaker 1: originally came over, you know, they came over as a unit. 247 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 1: But after that it was you know, when your tour 248 00:17:32,359 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: was up, you got replaced by someone, and you know, 249 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,440 Speaker 1: it kind of started all over again. And so what 250 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: kind of missions were you getting once you once you 251 00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,040 Speaker 1: arrived at your unit, you finally got your M six team, 252 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: What was the e O D mission? Like? What were 253 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 1: the type of operations that you guys participated in? Well, 254 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:52,040 Speaker 1: the basic you know the thing about the e O 255 00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:56,600 Speaker 1: D is to identify renders safe uh and and destroy 256 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,920 Speaker 1: all forms of explosive ordinance. You know I E D 257 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:07,840 Speaker 1: s and UHDUD two thousand pound bombs. I mean you know, 258 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:14,399 Speaker 1: uh bad ammunition. Uh. Now that the first team I 259 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:18,280 Speaker 1: was on, we had we had two man on site teams, 260 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 1: uh where we ran pretty much constant combat operations with 261 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: the units of the D seventy three Airborne the game 262 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:36,200 Speaker 1: in the fourth Imagery Division, excuse me, and uh so 263 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: we were went on a lot of combat assaults. Uh. 264 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:41,639 Speaker 1: You know, we went into hot l z ease and 265 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:47,080 Speaker 1: took off from hot lse ease and um uh it 266 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:53,320 Speaker 1: could be anything from you know, a long range recon 267 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:57,040 Speaker 1: team would be out doing an assessment after an air strike. 268 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,480 Speaker 1: And the thing about air strikes particular really be fifty 269 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:05,360 Speaker 1: two strikes. They were always going to be Dud's um. 270 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: So you know, these long range recon teams would stumble 271 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: on Dud who knows five pounder seven fifty thousand pounds 272 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:18,160 Speaker 1: two thousand pounder and enable call us. So we would 273 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: get inserted. Sometimes, you know, we had to hump you know, 274 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,560 Speaker 1: four or five, six, seven clicks to get to you know, 275 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:30,399 Speaker 1: where the ordinance was, and and then you know, we 276 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: do our thing, you know, we blow and of course 277 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,159 Speaker 1: then that told the enemy that we were there. So 278 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: um yeah, so so you had a high tail it 279 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,399 Speaker 1: out of there pretty fast. Yeah yeah. And sometimes what 280 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: ended up happening is you'd get sucked in. You guys 281 00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:53,240 Speaker 1: are the weather. You couldn't get a bird out. So 282 00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: then we'd end up like being the you know, the 283 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: eighth and ninth members of this long range recon team 284 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:04,440 Speaker 1: and you know, well we'd be grunts for the rest 285 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:06,600 Speaker 1: of the day in the night and you know, hopefully 286 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,160 Speaker 1: get out the next morning. These were all ORP teams 287 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: or recon lurks, long rangery continents. Yeah, and sometimes eight 288 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:19,440 Speaker 1: teams you know, special Forces guys. Um we did one uh, 289 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: I did one gig when I was staying. I was 290 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:23,920 Speaker 1: t d Y in the Delta for a couple of months, 291 00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:27,879 Speaker 1: and we did one gig with a team of Navy seals. Um. 292 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:35,280 Speaker 1: So yeah, it was it was. It was the best 293 00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:39,880 Speaker 1: job I've ever had, you know, despite the danger and everything, 294 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,560 Speaker 1: and you know, getting my ass blown up in the 295 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: AMMO dump and you know everything else, that's just you know, 296 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: well tell us about the m O dump story. Then 297 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,280 Speaker 1: how did how did that happen? Yeah, I commented on 298 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: shirt before we recorded a new album, the the uh 299 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,080 Speaker 1: are you thinking of the live albums and Beast in 300 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,160 Speaker 1: the East. Yeah, well here's the crazy we're getting onto 301 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: doc and now. But I actually went all the way 302 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,760 Speaker 1: to South Dakota to see them play that Rainion show. Yeah, 303 00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: and I hung out with a guy who we had 304 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:18,920 Speaker 1: on the podcast before, um Matt Vererkand and it was 305 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,080 Speaker 1: a great time. I mean, Don's voice is definitely not 306 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,439 Speaker 1: at its peak. Seeing George Wench though on guitar, I mean, 307 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,640 Speaker 1: guy is there's there's something wrong with that guy. I mean, 308 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:33,119 Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to play like that. He's an 309 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:38,240 Speaker 1: incredible man, He's a monster. Yeah. Yeah, anyway, I'm glad 310 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:40,600 Speaker 1: you noticed that that. Right when I saw the Motorhead show, 311 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:42,920 Speaker 1: I was like, I think there's a big cross section 312 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,440 Speaker 1: of guys on this show who are just like metalheads. Yeah, 313 00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: I think I think that's probably true. What did you 314 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:55,240 Speaker 1: ask me the AMMO dump story? Oh? Yeah, well on 315 00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:01,720 Speaker 1: February March eleven, twelve. In March nineties sixty nine, the 316 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,159 Speaker 1: VC got into the queyan Ammo dump and blew it up. 317 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:14,240 Speaker 1: And during all three attacks they never saw a single VC. Uh. 318 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:17,880 Speaker 1: They got in and out of the dump without being seen. 319 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:25,199 Speaker 1: It was yeah, And every time the dunk got hit, 320 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:29,679 Speaker 1: they would then increase the amount of security. And by 321 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:31,600 Speaker 1: the time the dunk got blown up the third time 322 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:38,960 Speaker 1: on Marche, I think you know, between the two field 323 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:45,359 Speaker 1: forces lurbs and Korean Marines and uh and uh some 324 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,520 Speaker 1: Vietnamese Army rangers, they had nine or ten ambushes set 325 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: up around outside the dumpy. They never caught anybody. On 326 00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: one occasion. Uh, they did hit a VC patrol, but 327 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,320 Speaker 1: they weren't sappers. They were just happened to be a 328 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: patrol um And uh yeah, so how the hell were 329 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,359 Speaker 1: they getting in and out? Did you guys ever figure 330 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:18,840 Speaker 1: that out? Well? Yeah, to two times they actually came 331 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 1: through the wire and we're not seeing the second. The 332 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 1: third time they actually tunneled under a creek and came 333 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,920 Speaker 1: up in a location in the Ambo dump. It was 334 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,080 Speaker 1: a blind spot to the guard towers. And not only that, 335 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:39,119 Speaker 1: they actually had roving patrols with dogs inside the dump 336 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:45,480 Speaker 1: by the third attack. And you know what was really 337 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,479 Speaker 1: irritating about it was they blew it up. We started, 338 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: and of course all three times we were in the 339 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: dump while entire paths of you know, eighty one millimeter 340 00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: mortars eight inch around won seven fives were detonating. And 341 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,080 Speaker 1: how we never lost anyone. Yeah, it's just one of 342 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: those miraculous things that you know, you just can't comprehend. 343 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: And now the m of battalion, the one four Ordinance Battalion, 344 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: they did lose three guys during the third attack. Um, 345 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: and uh, I'm kind of sick. The thing about that 346 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:32,119 Speaker 1: was every week in the Army Times they would publish 347 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,119 Speaker 1: a list of people who were killed in action or 348 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: missing or whatever the week before. So the week after 349 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:41,879 Speaker 1: the dump went up the third time, those three guys 350 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: who were vaporized basically because they were on a pad 351 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,199 Speaker 1: eight inch rounds that went up, they were listed as 352 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,280 Speaker 1: missing in action, presumed dead because they didn't have the remains. Yeah, 353 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:57,119 Speaker 1: they found the ring finger of Captain Allen, his citadel ring, 354 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:00,920 Speaker 1: so I guess they thought the rest of him was 355 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:05,520 Speaker 1: in de Moine or something. Yeah, I mean I remember, 356 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:07,159 Speaker 1: I mean a friend of mine was telling me this 357 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: story about how in Afghanistan there out on patrol and 358 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 1: the guy behind him get they think he stepped out 359 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: a pressure plate. Explosives went off, and the dude was 360 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 1: just vaporized, and he's telling me how surreal it was 361 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:20,920 Speaker 1: that one second there's a human being there, the next 362 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 1: second the guy's gone, like it's a fucking magic trick 363 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: or something. And they found the dudes ember or radio 364 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,240 Speaker 1: like two deployments later. Um, you know, a kilometer away 365 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:36,960 Speaker 1: from where the explosion took place. Yeah, I have to 366 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:40,040 Speaker 1: understand was the trip Yeah yeah, you know I saw 367 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:42,000 Speaker 1: in your on your resume that you spent some time 368 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: over there too. Will definitely get into that. So your 369 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: role on the on that was to clean up the 370 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: mess I guess again, yeah at them. And there are 371 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:56,359 Speaker 1: some pictures in the book of the devastation. Um, you know, 372 00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:01,159 Speaker 1: we're um, there's a there were a pado one of 373 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: five rounds that just you were like ankle deep in 374 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,880 Speaker 1: you know, unexploded rounds and shrapnel and you know whatever. Um, 375 00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:14,879 Speaker 1: can you describe for people a little bit about like 376 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: as far as the size of this facility, how much 377 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: uxo we're talking about? Uh, this dump originally before the 378 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:30,159 Speaker 1: first attack, had nineteen tons of ordinance and after the 379 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:36,119 Speaker 1: third attack, eleven thousand tons had been destroyed it and 380 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: we ended up uh blowing a lot of the damaged 381 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: ordinance and and dumping hundreds of tons, thousands of tons 382 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,200 Speaker 1: of it off the coast of Vietnam into the South Genes. See. 383 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,119 Speaker 1: I'm sure that that area where we dumped this stuff 384 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:54,160 Speaker 1: is completely dead now, you know, because we did dump 385 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,440 Speaker 1: a lot of chemical weapons, particularly white Foster's rounds. Oh 386 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,239 Speaker 1: my god, it's crazy. So I mean this, this, uh, 387 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,960 Speaker 1: this facility must have been like a major logistical hub 388 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,200 Speaker 1: for the entire VIE. Second largest dump in Vietnam. Yeah, 389 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,160 Speaker 1: I think the only one bigger was the Air Force 390 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,919 Speaker 1: dump in the name this is. This is like an 391 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,119 Speaker 1: interesting case study as far as like if you were 392 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 1: to study like a rule of warfare, unconventional warfare or 393 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,720 Speaker 1: something like that, that they were able to sneak in 394 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: there three times. Yeah, yeah, I have to wonder, you know, 395 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 1: going back to something you said earlier, how do you 396 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,160 Speaker 1: balance out being a guy who is proud of your service, 397 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,160 Speaker 1: is still working with you know, e O D Veterans Association, 398 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:42,080 Speaker 1: and then at the same time, as you talked about earlier, 399 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: have ethical concerns with you know what type of weapons 400 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:52,280 Speaker 1: we were using. Uh, You're gonna have to say that again. 401 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:55,520 Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, how do you balance out between being 402 00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,200 Speaker 1: a guy who's obviously and as you should be proud 403 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: of your service, writing a book, working with other EO 404 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:05,119 Speaker 1: D veterans, and at the same time, as you expressed earlier, 405 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: you have ethical concerns with the type of weapons we're using. Well, 406 00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:18,240 Speaker 1: I don't. I don't see any um, I don't see 407 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 1: any problem with those two things. Um. Uh Uh. The 408 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,119 Speaker 1: guys I served with, I mean I sort of I 409 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,200 Speaker 1: sort of saw us, or see us as having been 410 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:38,880 Speaker 1: existential doctors. Um. Every time we disarmed or destroyed uh, 411 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: you know, bad ordinance or a booby trap or something 412 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: like that, we saved lives. Uh. One of the events 413 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:50,120 Speaker 1: that I talked about in the book was where uh 414 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: we disarmed a bouncing betty that had been uh putting 415 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 1: the floor under some boards of a school, a school 416 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,320 Speaker 1: for Christ's sake. Um. And the reason the VC did 417 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,160 Speaker 1: that was because this village I had allowed a marine 418 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 1: cap team, a combined accent betune team to operate and 419 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: run ambushes out of their village. Um. And so because 420 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: of that the VC decided to punish them. Um and uh, 421 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: you know so, Yeah, and every time we took care 422 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 1: of like, for instance, you know, even you know, a 423 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: five hundred pound you know, air dropped bomb, you know, 424 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: if we blew it up the VC and weren't sawing 425 00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: it in half and steaming out the explosives and making 426 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,840 Speaker 1: homemade bombs with it. Yeah, and it's worth pointing out. 427 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,160 Speaker 1: I know you're well aware of, Stuart more so than 428 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,320 Speaker 1: I am, that e O D technicians continue to do 429 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 1: a lot of work in places like Loose and Burma, Cambodia, 430 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: diffusing these bombs that you know, kids are playing around them. 431 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,520 Speaker 1: You know, the the UXO is just spread across the 432 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 1: countryside over there. It's terrible in Southeast Asia. Yeah. And 433 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,440 Speaker 1: yet you were, you know, crazy enough to extend your 434 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: deployment to Vietnam for what another six months? Yeah? Well, 435 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:15,480 Speaker 1: what what made you want to stay? I mean it 436 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: wasn't because you guy, You had these great guys you 437 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,240 Speaker 1: worked with. Yeah, it was you know, the men that 438 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: I served with, and the adrenaline. I mean, you have 439 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,560 Speaker 1: thought of coming back to the States, Uh, and being 440 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:35,600 Speaker 1: on a state side team seemed like kind of a 441 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:44,840 Speaker 1: boring proposition, and I would have extended again, except that 442 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,800 Speaker 1: I was knee five with a lot of time in grade, 443 00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: and they told me I had to go back to 444 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 1: school for nuclear weapons. So yeah, I would have stayed 445 00:30:54,440 --> 00:31:00,560 Speaker 1: longer and eventually you didn't have to come home, of course. 446 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,960 Speaker 1: Um what what was that like? Was there any thoughts 447 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,680 Speaker 1: about staying in the military or was after Vietnam you're 448 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,320 Speaker 1: kind of yeah, there was. I ended up on a 449 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,240 Speaker 1: team in Ohio and we were located on an old 450 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:21,400 Speaker 1: arsenal and I had re enlisted once already, and yeah, 451 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,880 Speaker 1: I was thinking of making it a career. Um and 452 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: uh uh they actually the career counselor had to go 453 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:34,480 Speaker 1: down to Fort Campbell actually talked to me about re 454 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:41,760 Speaker 1: enlisting in um. Uh, the possibility of me going to 455 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,440 Speaker 1: the prep school for West Point, which at that time 456 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,320 Speaker 1: was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, And I thought about that. 457 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:55,240 Speaker 1: Um they offered me six and then I decided that, well, 458 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: they were doing a lot of drug testing back then, 459 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:07,080 Speaker 1: and I was smoking weed and I knew that center 460 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:08,840 Speaker 1: or later and I was going to have a bad 461 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: piss test and uh. And then I found out that 462 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,720 Speaker 1: I could get out sooner if I was going back 463 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,680 Speaker 1: to school. So that's what I did. And I mean, 464 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,920 Speaker 1: you didn't just go to school, You went to George 465 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: Georgetown went to law school, right. Well, I actually got 466 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,360 Speaker 1: my law degree. At the time, it was called the 467 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,880 Speaker 1: Franklin Pierce Law Center in conquered New Hampshire is now 468 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: the University of New Hampshire School of Law. And uh. 469 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:41,880 Speaker 1: During my third year of law school, my constitutional law 470 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,080 Speaker 1: professor in the demon of the law school had submitted 471 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:48,560 Speaker 1: my name for this graduate teaching fellowship at Georgetown and 472 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,640 Speaker 1: I ended up getting that. So I taught at Georgetown 473 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:55,400 Speaker 1: in the clinical program for two years and instead of 474 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,120 Speaker 1: paying us more money, they let us work on advanced 475 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: law degrees. The adjunct high jinks that universe. So I 476 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: ended up with the Masters in Law in administrative law. 477 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:09,480 Speaker 1: So why law? I mean, was this an effort to 478 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:17,080 Speaker 1: get marijuana legalized or no? Um? Uh, how it actually 479 00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:21,520 Speaker 1: happened is actually pretty funny. Um. I had my b 480 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,160 Speaker 1: A and uh, I was living with a bunch of people, 481 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: including the woman I eventually ended up marrying uh in 482 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:40,880 Speaker 1: in d C. And uh to excuse me, two of 483 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: our roommates, we're law students We were getting high one 484 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:49,880 Speaker 1: night and one of them said, oh, you should take 485 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,040 Speaker 1: the law school aptitude tests and go to law school 486 00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:56,400 Speaker 1: while it was the next day and I said, Uh, 487 00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,600 Speaker 1: aren't you supposed to take a course or something like that? 488 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:00,520 Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, just go. It's somebody want to 489 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:01,800 Speaker 1: show up and you'll be able to get in. And 490 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: that's what happened. UM. I took the test and UH 491 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: got pretty high scores. UM and I ended up actually 492 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:15,360 Speaker 1: picking Franklin Pierce because they offered me a scholarship for 493 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:17,759 Speaker 1: my first year. I think I may have been their 494 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:24,919 Speaker 1: first Vietnam veteran. UM. Interesting. Yeah, and then from two 495 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: thousand three you specialized in capital murder as a criminal 496 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:33,719 Speaker 1: defense investigator. I'm wondering how you got into that. Well, 497 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:40,080 Speaker 1: we were living in Michigan and I had hooked up 498 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:45,719 Speaker 1: with another Vietnam guy who was a recon marine and 499 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:51,560 Speaker 1: Steve and I UH had a contract with the Michigan 500 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:56,840 Speaker 1: Indigent Defense Services to do investigations UH in UH for 501 00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,719 Speaker 1: defense lawyers who were handling homicide cases in most of 502 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:06,160 Speaker 1: no in Michigan. And so when we left in UH September, 503 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,880 Speaker 1: we ended up in Oregon out here in the high desert. 504 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,320 Speaker 1: UH and mostly because we had friends that had a 505 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:18,040 Speaker 1: place uh near where I live now in Maddres, Oregon, 506 00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,759 Speaker 1: UH that they only used a couple of times a 507 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 1: year for skiing or golf or whatnot. And they said, what, 508 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,320 Speaker 1: you guys can stay there, just pay the utilities. And 509 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 1: and so when I first got here, I ended up 510 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:42,160 Speaker 1: actually working uh for uh a lawyer in Bend, UH 511 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:46,839 Speaker 1: doing legal research and stuff like that. And somehow during 512 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: that process I met a criminal defense attorney from Madras 513 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,200 Speaker 1: and I went to work for him, mostly doing you know, 514 00:35:55,320 --> 00:36:00,719 Speaker 1: felony stuff, you know, misdemeanors whatever. And I ended up 515 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:07,920 Speaker 1: UH with a partner UH and UH we ended up 516 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:09,800 Speaker 1: one of our cases took us over to core of 517 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:14,759 Speaker 1: Allis where Oregon State is, and UH we had this 518 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:21,200 Speaker 1: wild uh sex crimes case and UH and basically because 519 00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:25,960 Speaker 1: of our investigation, the defendant was found not guilty. And 520 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:32,200 Speaker 1: an attorney who was part of the capital defenders had 521 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,399 Speaker 1: been in the courtroom the day you know, the jury 522 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,840 Speaker 1: came in with the not guilty verdicts, and he basically 523 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:38,960 Speaker 1: asked us if we'd be interested in working on capital 524 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:41,800 Speaker 1: cases and we said sure. So I ended up we 525 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:43,840 Speaker 1: ended up actually with an office over there, and we 526 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,880 Speaker 1: were living over there at part time, going back and 527 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: forth over the mountains. Um. They were they were complicated 528 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:59,120 Speaker 1: and very complex cases. And I'm, you know, glad to 529 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: say that him. None of my capital clients was sentenced 530 00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,800 Speaker 1: to death. Can you talk about some of those cases 531 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:11,919 Speaker 1: now that they've been you know, prosecuted and everything. Well, 532 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,440 Speaker 1: I guess the one you know that I remember the 533 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,239 Speaker 1: most would be the last one that I worked on. Um. 534 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 1: This was a case where my client and his buddy 535 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:31,840 Speaker 1: killed this guy who was uh some kind of martem 536 00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:39,919 Speaker 1: up with the local newspaper and uh it turned out 537 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:46,200 Speaker 1: that this guy had been abusing young boys and the 538 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: co defendant was one of those boys. Sh It, So 539 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,480 Speaker 1: he and my client uh went to this guy's house, 540 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 1: and the co defendant confronted the guy and told him 541 00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:02,760 Speaker 1: if he didn't give him some money and any pictures 542 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,880 Speaker 1: or videos or whatnot that he had of them, um, 543 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,840 Speaker 1: he was going to go to the cops. And so 544 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:12,120 Speaker 1: he attacked the kid, and my guy, who was waiting 545 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:17,000 Speaker 1: in the garage heard the ruckus ran in and and 546 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:20,759 Speaker 1: this guy was huge to defend the victim. He was 547 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,640 Speaker 1: I think six seven or six eight and waged about 548 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:29,479 Speaker 1: three d and fifty pounds. My guy, uh was maybe 549 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 1: six too and probably waged but he was buff. I mean, 550 00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:40,240 Speaker 1: this guy was a weightlifter, and he ended up dragging 551 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,480 Speaker 1: this guy off of the other kid and ended up 552 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,279 Speaker 1: stabbing him something at sixty five times something like that. 553 00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:58,239 Speaker 1: So uh uh, how we won this case was when 554 00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,479 Speaker 1: we finally got into the crime scene, which was about 555 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:04,319 Speaker 1: a week after the cops had done their thing. Uh, 556 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,400 Speaker 1: the other investigator and I, because each defendant had their 557 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:10,720 Speaker 1: own investigator, and Mike and I became really good friends 558 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:16,759 Speaker 1: because of this case. Uh. We were searching different parts 559 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,920 Speaker 1: of the house, and the state's case had always been 560 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,279 Speaker 1: that this was about a robbery and uh, but we 561 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:29,839 Speaker 1: noticed that things like the guy's wallet, which had cash 562 00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,080 Speaker 1: in it, was still on the dresser, and there were 563 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:38,520 Speaker 1: all kinds of expensive items around the house, um that 564 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:43,400 Speaker 1: hadn't been taken, cameras and video gear and whatnot. Anyway, 565 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,920 Speaker 1: so I'm out in the garage and I'm kind of 566 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,200 Speaker 1: doing my thing, you know, I'm doing a three sixty 567 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,360 Speaker 1: one way and on three sixty the other way, and 568 00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: then I looked up and I saw a trapdoor in 569 00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:00,320 Speaker 1: the ceiling of the garage. So I pulled up the 570 00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:05,760 Speaker 1: the return on the search warrant and I'm looking for trapdoor, trapdoor, trapdoor. 571 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:10,160 Speaker 1: There's nothing there. So I got a ladder, I pulled 572 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,840 Speaker 1: it down, got up into this attic over the garage, 573 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,920 Speaker 1: turned on my flashlight and discovered this guy's pedophilia cash 574 00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:27,799 Speaker 1: Holy sh it, videos Uh young boys underwear, Uh dildoz, 575 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,360 Speaker 1: I mean, what the fuck? Yeah. So, you know, we 576 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:36,040 Speaker 1: unloaded all this stuff, and the state we notified him 577 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,120 Speaker 1: about it. They tried to force us to turn it 578 00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:42,919 Speaker 1: all over to them, and of course our lawyers told 579 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 1: the judge that that ain't happening, and the judge basically said, yeah, 580 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,279 Speaker 1: you're right, that's not happening. You know, the cops should 581 00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,880 Speaker 1: have found this stuff. So this dude was a serial predator. 582 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,160 Speaker 1: I mean he he had. I mean, was there any 583 00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:59,680 Speaker 1: idea how many victims? There were dozens? Oh my god. Yeah. 584 00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:04,320 Speaker 1: And there were like, I don't know, a hundred and 585 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:14,080 Speaker 1: something videos of mostly homosexual stuff, you know, men on men, 586 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: men on boys, and there were eight millimeter videos to 587 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:23,719 Speaker 1: he had been filming, you know, Uh, some of his encounters. 588 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:27,279 Speaker 1: Was this dude, like I had school teacher. Was this 589 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:29,720 Speaker 1: guy like a school teacher or a soccer coach or something. 590 00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:37,160 Speaker 1: It was like the classified editor for the Albany, Oregon newspaper. 591 00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:39,680 Speaker 1: It was a fairly good sized paper for that party 592 00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:41,640 Speaker 1: of Oregon. And he was just grabbing kids off the 593 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:45,759 Speaker 1: streets or something. No, he was meeting them, uh like 594 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:50,920 Speaker 1: by being uh football coach or a little league coach, 595 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:54,600 Speaker 1: stuff like that. And some of them were street kids too. 596 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,640 Speaker 1: You know what I'm wondering you mentioned, and it ended 597 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:06,320 Speaker 1: up uh that uh, once the evidence came in, you 598 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:11,239 Speaker 1: know our evidence. Uh, the jury ended up finding my 599 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:16,759 Speaker 1: guy not guilty of everything, including stealing the victim's card. Good. Well, 600 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,759 Speaker 1: what I was gonna say, I'm I'm wondering though, is 601 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,480 Speaker 1: you spoke earlier about the adrenaline rush of being in Vietnam? 602 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: Is an e O? D Are you just a guy 603 00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:29,040 Speaker 1: who's addicted to that adrenaline rush, whether it's you know 604 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:34,440 Speaker 1: this scantling bombs are taking down predators like this? Yeah, Um, 605 00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:39,359 Speaker 1: I think that's fair to say. Um. The capital work 606 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:47,840 Speaker 1: was very exciting and often dangerous because a lot of 607 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,080 Speaker 1: times the people we were looking for weren't much better 608 00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:54,600 Speaker 1: than the guy we were defending. Um. You know, one 609 00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:56,600 Speaker 1: of the things about a capital case in Oregon is 610 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,920 Speaker 1: there are two trials. First there's the guilt and renis 611 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,279 Speaker 1: his trial, and then there's the death penalty trial. So 612 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:05,919 Speaker 1: you would try to track down people who knew your 613 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:09,800 Speaker 1: guy and hopefully, you know, they would be able to 614 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,879 Speaker 1: tell you something good. You know, it's something that would 615 00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:17,439 Speaker 1: save your client's life because you only needed one juror 616 00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,960 Speaker 1: to hold out. Going back to the thing I mentioned about, 617 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,560 Speaker 1: you know, ethical concerns with weapons. Did you have any 618 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:29,360 Speaker 1: ethical concerns with that job? Nope? Nope. Yeah, weapons. It 619 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,239 Speaker 1: sounds like you're taking down some dirt bags in this case. Uh, 620 00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:35,000 Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. But I mean you said you work, the 621 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:37,320 Speaker 1: work was dangerous. I mean I imagine you came across 622 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,719 Speaker 1: what like outlaw biker gangs and stuff like that. Yeah. 623 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,000 Speaker 1: Actually I did have a case that involved outlaw bikers. Um. 624 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:50,200 Speaker 1: And uh this was up in h Classic County. I'm 625 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:56,080 Speaker 1: in uh a northwest corner of Oregon. And this guy, 626 00:43:56,280 --> 00:44:01,000 Speaker 1: this is very interesting, was a stone cold white supremacist, 627 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:06,759 Speaker 1: neo Nazi whatever. And uh, I remember when I first 628 00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:11,640 Speaker 1: met him and he said something. He said, Steinberg are 629 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:15,479 Speaker 1: you Jewish, I said, yeah, and I and he said 630 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:20,200 Speaker 1: that's interesting. And I said, well, Jude, I'm gonna do 631 00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,120 Speaker 1: what I came to save your life. And we did. 632 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:28,399 Speaker 1: We did save his life. Um, so you know, maybe 633 00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:31,480 Speaker 1: that had some effect on his inherent anti Semitism. Might 634 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:34,560 Speaker 1: not know, uh and uh, but he and I actually 635 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,640 Speaker 1: ended up getting along really well, that's great. That reminds 636 00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,040 Speaker 1: me of you know, if you've ever seen American History X, 637 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,960 Speaker 1: like where these guys are jailed together, you know, like 638 00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:45,800 Speaker 1: a black guy being in the same cell as a 639 00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: white supremacist and at some point like you're gonna have 640 00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:50,279 Speaker 1: to communicate with this guy, You're gonna have to find 641 00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:52,920 Speaker 1: something that you could get along on. And I think 642 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:57,520 Speaker 1: sometimes out of that lack of of being able to 643 00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:08,359 Speaker 1: find an alternative, you realize, hey, we're not all that different. Yeah. Yeah, well, 644 00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:11,160 Speaker 1: at that point it's uh, it literally is kind of 645 00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:19,399 Speaker 1: a do or die moment. Yeah. Um. And then from there, 646 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:22,360 Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier two thousand nine to two thousand 647 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,279 Speaker 1: and ten, working for the UN Office on Drugs and 648 00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,680 Speaker 1: Crime as an advisor to the Afghan Border Police, training 649 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,640 Speaker 1: the a p B personnel and the conduct of counter 650 00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:35,279 Speaker 1: narcotics operations along the border of if we were on 651 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:40,720 Speaker 1: another high a frontaline job. Yeah, and how that happened 652 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:45,400 Speaker 1: was UM, one of my good friends who's retired UH 653 00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:53,000 Speaker 1: Army major ranger, UM multiple tours in the Balkans War, UM, 654 00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:58,480 Speaker 1: the First Gulf War and then Afghanistan. When Tony retired, 655 00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:03,600 Speaker 1: UM after being an Afghanistan for about eighteen months, UM, 656 00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,200 Speaker 1: he took over this program that U n o d c. 657 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,279 Speaker 1: Was running where UH they were training the Afghan border 658 00:46:12,360 --> 00:46:18,480 Speaker 1: police and doing counter narcotics operations and UH at that time, 659 00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:20,960 Speaker 1: I was working as a veterans claims officer for a 660 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:25,080 Speaker 1: group called Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, UH strictly a volunteer 661 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:28,279 Speaker 1: kind of thing. And UH, I'm in the office one 662 00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:30,920 Speaker 1: day in my cell phone rings and I'm looking at 663 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,200 Speaker 1: it and it's got like nineteen numbers, kind of going 664 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:37,640 Speaker 1: what the know is is? And it was Tony and 665 00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:40,600 Speaker 1: he says, UH, I need you to come to Afghanistan. 666 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:44,080 Speaker 1: And I said, well, he said, well, they keep sending 667 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:47,120 Speaker 1: meet people who don't want to do the job. UM, 668 00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:51,439 Speaker 1: they would do the class work and then they were 669 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:56,399 Speaker 1: they would not UH, they wouldn't go out on operations, um, 670 00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,560 Speaker 1: because it was dangerous and they were bunch of chicken 671 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,839 Speaker 1: chips and uh. So you know, I talked it over 672 00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:08,200 Speaker 1: with my wife and my son and they said okay 673 00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:13,320 Speaker 1: and uh and I went, so what did the job involved? 674 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:16,320 Speaker 1: Then you you went out there and train them and 675 00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:17,719 Speaker 1: then you had to go out into the field of 676 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:23,800 Speaker 1: these guys. We uh I taught courses and improvised explosive devices, 677 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:29,680 Speaker 1: ordinance identification, tactical convoy movement, and searches of people, places 678 00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:36,279 Speaker 1: and things, um. And then we would help them develop intelligence. 679 00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:38,080 Speaker 1: And one of the ways we did that was by 680 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:43,480 Speaker 1: going out uh into basically the desert and meeting with 681 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:48,959 Speaker 1: the sure as, the councils of these nomadic tribes people 682 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,440 Speaker 1: and we would because they were very concerned that a 683 00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:55,160 Speaker 1: lot of their young men were getting involved in drug 684 00:47:55,200 --> 00:48:00,160 Speaker 1: trafficking because of what they were getting paid to run 685 00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:05,520 Speaker 1: these drugs over the border into Iran and uh and 686 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:07,400 Speaker 1: what we would do is we would find out you 687 00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,680 Speaker 1: know what they needed, you know, a well better cell 688 00:48:10,719 --> 00:48:14,200 Speaker 1: phone service, and we would try to get that stuff 689 00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:17,400 Speaker 1: to them. In one case, we delivered sixty metric tons 690 00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,680 Speaker 1: of food supplies in this one district that was really 691 00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:25,920 Speaker 1: in bad shape food wise, and by doing that, than 692 00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:31,279 Speaker 1: people would give us good intelligence and then we would 693 00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:34,880 Speaker 1: help the a bp UH you know, plan the interdiction 694 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:38,960 Speaker 1: operation and you know, we'd go out with them and 695 00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:42,480 Speaker 1: stop the bad guys and sees the drugs. And you know, 696 00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,600 Speaker 1: this is an interesting topic. I wanted to mention with 697 00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:50,920 Speaker 1: you because you have this UM service from Vietnam to Afghanistan, 698 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:53,720 Speaker 1: and I wanted to know if you have any observations 699 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,640 Speaker 1: about improvised explosive devices between the two conflicts, and if 700 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,720 Speaker 1: they've changed, if it became a lot more sophisticated in Afghanistan. 701 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:08,400 Speaker 1: I ended up actually discarning a device that unfortunately I 702 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,680 Speaker 1: figured out how to discern it before picking it up, 703 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,279 Speaker 1: because I eventually found out, you know when I sent 704 00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:19,479 Speaker 1: UH technical intelligence stuff back to the Hazards Devices School 705 00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:24,719 Speaker 1: the Redstone Arsenal, that it hadn't any and anti lift device, UM, 706 00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:30,959 Speaker 1: very sophisticated, and all of the parts inside this little 707 00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:36,400 Speaker 1: box about you know, this big UH came from Radio 708 00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:42,360 Speaker 1: Shack and that was that the trigger mechanism, yeah, the 709 00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:47,440 Speaker 1: detonator yeah, and so they had like fail safe built 710 00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:52,600 Speaker 1: into them, and like you said, anti tampering devices yea, yeah, 711 00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:54,920 Speaker 1: who do you how do you think they learned to 712 00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:58,400 Speaker 1: do all this stuff? I mean, I've been to Afghanistan, um, 713 00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,360 Speaker 1: but in a different region. I mean there, it's pretty 714 00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: bronze age out there, you know. I mean where do 715 00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:06,719 Speaker 1: you think they were acquiring something? Were being trained at 716 00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:11,239 Speaker 1: Iran about sixty clicks over the border from islam Calla, 717 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:18,640 Speaker 1: which was the border crossing up in the northwest. We 718 00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:21,880 Speaker 1: knew that camp was there. Why we didn't bombit is 719 00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:27,480 Speaker 1: beyond me. You know, they didn't want upset the Iranians. 720 00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:29,760 Speaker 1: I don't know what the deal was. This is also 721 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:33,240 Speaker 1: you know, there was another place in the same area 722 00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:35,520 Speaker 1: in Iran where they were making e f P s 723 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,680 Speaker 1: explosively foreign penetrators and these were just killing people left 724 00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:45,000 Speaker 1: and right. And uh this was like the I r 725 00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:47,080 Speaker 1: g C. It was like the Iranian government that was 726 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:53,560 Speaker 1: training them to do this. Uh yeah. And of course 727 00:50:53,880 --> 00:50:56,960 Speaker 1: that was completely at odds with the Iranians position on 728 00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:03,160 Speaker 1: narconics UM because at the same time they're counting arconics guys. 729 00:51:04,640 --> 00:51:07,080 Speaker 1: Over the years, at least by the time I got there, 730 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:12,800 Speaker 1: they have lost a couple of thousands UH narcotics cops 731 00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:17,920 Speaker 1: in UH gunfights and whatever, you know, with the people 732 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:22,320 Speaker 1: that were you know, making these devices and smuggling the 733 00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:27,160 Speaker 1: drugs over the border, and nothing happens in Iran where 734 00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:29,480 Speaker 1: the I r g C is not involved, especially if 735 00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:32,839 Speaker 1: it involves money. Yeah, and it's interesting too because at 736 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:36,319 Speaker 1: least my understanding of it is, you know, let's let's 737 00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:39,480 Speaker 1: take our own government by for example, like the CIA, 738 00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,120 Speaker 1: if they were to run a covert operation, U S 739 00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:46,160 Speaker 1: taxpayers would fund that covert operation through official channels, right, 740 00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:49,920 Speaker 1: official governmental channels that funded I've been told that with Iran, 741 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:52,000 Speaker 1: with the I r g C or kodes Force or 742 00:51:52,040 --> 00:51:54,200 Speaker 1: one of those, that they will say they will approve 743 00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:56,839 Speaker 1: a covert operation, and then the Iranian government will tell 744 00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:58,960 Speaker 1: that unit, okay, now fund it. Like you have to 745 00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:02,439 Speaker 1: find funding. And maybe maybe that's through trafficking drugs. Maybe 746 00:52:02,480 --> 00:52:06,400 Speaker 1: that's to be um maritime shipping through some other illicit 747 00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:12,960 Speaker 1: business to fund that operation they've assigned. Yeah, it could be. 748 00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:16,160 Speaker 1: I don't know. Yeah, No, I don't either. I'm just 749 00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:18,759 Speaker 1: speculating in this case as well as what may have 750 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:23,359 Speaker 1: been happening, you know, in the overall scheme of things. 751 00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:26,400 Speaker 1: I mean, we didn't even put a dent in the problem. 752 00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:29,840 Speaker 1: During the time I was there, Um, you know, we 753 00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:35,880 Speaker 1: probably seized several hundred metric tons um of you know, 754 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:44,600 Speaker 1: either opium or heroine excuse me. And but at this 755 00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:47,279 Speaker 1: point two thousand nine and ten, I think you know, 756 00:52:47,719 --> 00:52:51,880 Speaker 1: they were manufacturing something like eight or nine thousand metric 757 00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:57,040 Speaker 1: tons uh a year. So what we took care of, 758 00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:02,320 Speaker 1: uh was basically just scratched in the service. But I 759 00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:06,040 Speaker 1: just figured that every every kilo of this stuff that 760 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:09,520 Speaker 1: we kept out of the system meant that maybe somebody's 761 00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,879 Speaker 1: kid wasn't overdosing and dying. Before we wrap things up here, 762 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:18,080 Speaker 1: any last story that you can maybe give us from 763 00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:21,080 Speaker 1: this is what hell looks like. People on the show 764 00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:23,960 Speaker 1: love to hear those great war stories, and I know 765 00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:32,720 Speaker 1: there's a lot in the book. Well, h the first chapter, Uh, 766 00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:39,320 Speaker 1: it's about a hundred and first base called fire support 767 00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:46,880 Speaker 1: based Rifle and uh it got overrun and and it's 768 00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:49,640 Speaker 1: where the title of the book came from. When my 769 00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:56,200 Speaker 1: partner and I were overflying the base. Um, you know 770 00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:59,680 Speaker 1: the destruction, the carnage, I mean it was right there 771 00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:08,600 Speaker 1: your face. Um. And this was a small outpost maybe uh, 772 00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:14,440 Speaker 1: you know, a company of hundred first guys, an artillery 773 00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:19,000 Speaker 1: unit and some Vietnameese army guys, probably not more than 774 00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:22,839 Speaker 1: two people that got hit by a reinforced regiment um 775 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,360 Speaker 1: and uh as we were flying over it, and I 776 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,320 Speaker 1: turned to Paul and I said, dude, this is what 777 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:32,239 Speaker 1: hell looks like. And that's where the title of the 778 00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,759 Speaker 1: book came from. A lot of audience is going to 779 00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:38,040 Speaker 1: pick it up. Huh. I know a lot of our 780 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:39,960 Speaker 1: audience is gonna want to pick it up. So, yeah, 781 00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:47,920 Speaker 1: it was. It was a weird event because the actual 782 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:51,880 Speaker 1: title of that chapter is um. I remember right as 783 00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:53,960 Speaker 1: fire support based right of the day, it was Reigning 784 00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:57,160 Speaker 1: Dead UM. And what that relates to is what they 785 00:54:57,239 --> 00:55:00,680 Speaker 1: did with the bodies of the dead NBA soldiers is 786 00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:03,640 Speaker 1: they basically put them all on the sling and flew 787 00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:06,440 Speaker 1: them out over the jungle and dumped them from the air, 788 00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:12,160 Speaker 1: which is a work ring. That's wild. Yeah, it's difficult 789 00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:17,840 Speaker 1: to imagine. I mean there were uh three different gunfights 790 00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,360 Speaker 1: that broke out while we were there, including as we 791 00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:23,600 Speaker 1: were landing. I mean, as soon as we got on 792 00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:26,560 Speaker 1: the ground, we were in the middle of a pitch battle. Uh. 793 00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:29,879 Speaker 1: A patrol that had gone out of the perimeter had 794 00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:34,200 Speaker 1: gotten hit by an ambush uh and uh. And then 795 00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,480 Speaker 1: during the rest of the day, Yeah, there were two 796 00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:42,320 Speaker 1: more events like that, our patrols had gone out and 797 00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:48,640 Speaker 1: gotten hit. Um. So it was uh, yeah, it was something. Well, 798 00:55:48,719 --> 00:55:51,320 Speaker 1: let me ask you in one more question, what brought 799 00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,759 Speaker 1: you full circle in a sense to come back and 800 00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:57,520 Speaker 1: decide that you wanted to write a book the same thing? 801 00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:01,480 Speaker 1: Um to you know, reflect back on your pretty extensive 802 00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:07,839 Speaker 1: career and write about all these things. M hmm. Well, um, 803 00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:14,000 Speaker 1: I felt like I had something to say. You know. 804 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:18,320 Speaker 1: The process of going from actually starting to work on 805 00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:23,880 Speaker 1: it until publication was took about ten years. I had 806 00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:29,759 Speaker 1: actually started writing it differently, much differently than the way 807 00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:35,960 Speaker 1: it's ended up now. And I got about maybe halfway 808 00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:38,800 Speaker 1: through it, and one day I was reading it and 809 00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:42,640 Speaker 1: I was thinking, then mistakes, I don't like this, and 810 00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:45,879 Speaker 1: I literally ship candid. I don't even have a copy 811 00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:50,840 Speaker 1: of uh and uh. And I started over and I 812 00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:57,520 Speaker 1: was fortunate that I found a lot of historical stuff 813 00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:02,880 Speaker 1: at the National Archives um um daily incident logs and 814 00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:05,680 Speaker 1: the teams I was on. Unusual incident reports like the 815 00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:11,600 Speaker 1: one I wrote up about rifle uh and after action reports, 816 00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:16,760 Speaker 1: uh from you know, the daily journals, daily staff journals 817 00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:21,040 Speaker 1: for infantry units that we were out with, UM and uh. 818 00:57:23,840 --> 00:57:28,000 Speaker 1: And it was also kind of a It was also 819 00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:32,040 Speaker 1: I think of Catharsis for me, you know, being able 820 00:57:32,120 --> 00:57:34,920 Speaker 1: to you know, say what I had to say and 821 00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:45,120 Speaker 1: UM kind of like I guess, uh, I felt better afterwards. 822 00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:48,360 Speaker 1: In the process of doing that research for your book. 823 00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:51,400 Speaker 1: I mean, really, you're researching your own history in your 824 00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:55,720 Speaker 1: own life. Were there any things you discovered unexpected or 825 00:57:55,840 --> 00:58:00,240 Speaker 1: things about operations that you're like, WHOA, I didn't know that. Yeah. 826 00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:08,280 Speaker 1: There's a chapter in the book called uh Elz Sally 827 00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:13,600 Speaker 1: the battle raged all around us And when I recovered 828 00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:19,240 Speaker 1: the unusual incident report about this particular event, uh where 829 00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:21,600 Speaker 1: my seal and I have gone out with a pink 830 00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:24,680 Speaker 1: team from a hundred and first not gonna arrow rifle tune. 831 00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:30,480 Speaker 1: A chinook had gotten hit flying AMMO into a remote 832 00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:35,600 Speaker 1: base and it jettison a slang load of unconventional ordinance 833 00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:39,760 Speaker 1: M one five rounds that when they were fired, opened 834 00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:46,000 Speaker 1: up and little bomblets came out cluster unitions, cluster bombs. Yeah, 835 00:58:46,360 --> 00:58:50,280 Speaker 1: and of course these are really dangerous items. UM and 836 00:58:51,560 --> 00:58:55,160 Speaker 1: line as short of it was. You know, we end 837 00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:58,440 Speaker 1: up setting the shot after gathering up all this crowd, 838 00:58:59,120 --> 00:59:03,080 Speaker 1: and it was me, my CEO, the platoon leader, and 839 00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:05,640 Speaker 1: his r t O. And he had sent the rest 840 00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:09,800 Speaker 1: of the Pink team back to secure the LZ. And 841 00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:11,800 Speaker 1: right when we're getting ready to pull the shot, all 842 00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:14,840 Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're in the middle of a gun battle. 843 00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:19,880 Speaker 1: Um and we were actually behind this huge pilot ordinance 844 00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:24,000 Speaker 1: firing back at the enemy and uh, you know, with 845 00:59:24,120 --> 00:59:29,240 Speaker 1: everything we had and and uh and they broke off contact. 846 00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:31,680 Speaker 1: We pulled the shot. We've all asked down the trail, 847 00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:34,920 Speaker 1: and we get down the trail and we can hear 848 00:59:35,320 --> 00:59:37,400 Speaker 1: somewhere up ahead of us, about a half a click 849 00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:40,560 Speaker 1: or whatever, the Pink team, the rest of the Pink team, 850 00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:43,840 Speaker 1: they get ambushed. So now there's this other gun battle 851 00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:47,000 Speaker 1: we're running into and you can't retreat back to the charge. 852 00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:49,200 Speaker 1: You should go back because the shot was cooking off. 853 00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:54,479 Speaker 1: So we eventually, you know, they were able to stave 854 00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:58,920 Speaker 1: off this ambush, and uh and we ended up getting 855 00:59:58,960 --> 01:00:03,800 Speaker 1: extracted and the shot went clean. And uh, so I'm 856 01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:08,280 Speaker 1: reading this report. I have no memory at that time, 857 01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:12,960 Speaker 1: no memory of this event, having occurred. So I called 858 01:00:13,040 --> 01:00:17,880 Speaker 1: up my former CEO, Andy Brelan, who unfortunately has passed away, 859 01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:21,400 Speaker 1: and I said, Andy, I'm gonna read you something. So 860 01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:23,480 Speaker 1: I read him this page and a half long thing 861 01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:29,280 Speaker 1: and he says, I don't remember that, And I said, dude, 862 01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:36,240 Speaker 1: you wrote it. And this supports my theory, which I 863 01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:41,880 Speaker 1: referred to as Kelly Bundy brain. You know from uh 864 01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:46,680 Speaker 1: married with children. Well, the brain is only capable of 865 01:00:46,800 --> 01:00:51,360 Speaker 1: handling so much ship and you one point, at some point, 866 01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:53,280 Speaker 1: you get to the place where your brain is full. 867 01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:58,840 Speaker 1: So the next thing that you get or whatever that 868 01:00:58,920 --> 01:01:00,960 Speaker 1: you're going to retain, means that you've got to get 869 01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:05,560 Speaker 1: rid of something else. So, you know, I'm guessing that's 870 01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:07,880 Speaker 1: what happened. I think it's just like something to do 871 01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,880 Speaker 1: with evolutionary biology that you're so overwhelmed that your brain 872 01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:14,640 Speaker 1: decides what the focus on to get you out of 873 01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:19,680 Speaker 1: the immediate situation. Yeah. I mean even to a you know, 874 01:01:19,840 --> 01:01:22,920 Speaker 1: totally different extent here. But I always think about, you know, now, 875 01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:25,920 Speaker 1: with technology, with cell phones, with how little we have 876 01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:28,680 Speaker 1: to memorize. I mean, how many people's numbers do you 877 01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:32,680 Speaker 1: have memorized? Three? I can remember my home phone number 878 01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:34,160 Speaker 1: from when I was a little kid and we had 879 01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:37,760 Speaker 1: rotary phone still but but everybody remembers, like at least 880 01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:41,919 Speaker 1: if you know you're our age or older, like ste 881 01:01:42,720 --> 01:01:44,880 Speaker 1: when you know, you know, you had a crushed on 882 01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:46,800 Speaker 1: some girl and you got her number, and you know, 883 01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:49,840 Speaker 1: like the middle school before. You gotta remember those digits, 884 01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:51,760 Speaker 1: you would you would remember those and it would be 885 01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:54,280 Speaker 1: you know now, I I, how many times have you 886 01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:56,720 Speaker 1: and I said, what's the bathroom code again? Which is 887 01:01:56,880 --> 01:01:58,720 Speaker 1: four digits? So we can't remember my Sun and I 888 01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:01,160 Speaker 1: talked at least you know, us a week twice a week. 889 01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:03,919 Speaker 1: I don't. I couldn't tell you his phone number. Yeah, 890 01:02:04,280 --> 01:02:06,920 Speaker 1: it's I agree with your theory. I think it. It 891 01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:09,200 Speaker 1: works in other ways, but I think for what you're 892 01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:11,240 Speaker 1: talking about, it also probably has to do with the 893 01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:17,200 Speaker 1: traumatic experience as well. I'm sure. Yeah, so it's one 894 01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:19,800 Speaker 1: more time. I want to read the title of the 895 01:02:19,920 --> 01:02:23,520 Speaker 1: book of Steuze. Stu's book it's called This Is What 896 01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:26,640 Speaker 1: Hell looks Like Life as a bomb disposal specialist during 897 01:02:26,680 --> 01:02:30,960 Speaker 1: the Vietnam War and uh stew this has been super interesting. 898 01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:32,960 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on the show today. 899 01:02:33,080 --> 01:02:35,280 Speaker 1: Well thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks, 900 01:02:35,560 --> 01:02:37,160 Speaker 1: and I think we'll be able to talk some more 901 01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:39,680 Speaker 1: at some point, so really appreciate. Yeah, yeah, you'd be 902 01:02:39,760 --> 01:02:41,440 Speaker 1: more than welcome come on any time you want, and 903 01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:45,080 Speaker 1: will make it happen. All right, sounds good. Well, hopefully 904 01:02:45,200 --> 01:02:48,760 Speaker 1: i'll have this pinchon nerve taking care of by then. Yeah. Absolutely. 905 01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:51,720 Speaker 1: I hope you're all right, uh and hanging in there, 906 01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:53,960 Speaker 1: and I'll put this up tomorrow and send it over 907 01:02:54,040 --> 01:02:57,520 Speaker 1: to you. All right, great, awesome, Thanks so much, Stu. Yeah, 908 01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:01,400 Speaker 1: thanks to have a nice afternoon. Thank you, see, take care. 909 01:03:02,080 --> 01:03:07,200 Speaker 1: That was great man, A great suggestion from Mike Vining. Yeah, yeah, no, 910 01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:09,800 Speaker 1: that was super interesting. You know, I haven't read stews 911 01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:13,800 Speaker 1: book yet, so I didn't really know much of what 912 01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:15,800 Speaker 1: to expect other than that he was a NEO D 913 01:03:15,960 --> 01:03:19,640 Speaker 1: tech in Vietnam. Um, those are some incredible stories though. Yeah, 914 01:03:19,720 --> 01:03:22,400 Speaker 1: but even just looking at his bio before reading the book, 915 01:03:22,440 --> 01:03:25,320 Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's so much so I mean, and 916 01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:28,640 Speaker 1: then even the stories after being an e O D. 917 01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:34,000 Speaker 1: We're pretty insane. The you know, basically the working as 918 01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:39,880 Speaker 1: a sorry, working as a criminal defense investigator for capital 919 01:03:39,960 --> 01:03:44,200 Speaker 1: murder cases pretty insane. Um. I do have some emails 920 01:03:44,240 --> 01:03:46,280 Speaker 1: I want to get to before I do, I want 921 01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:48,640 Speaker 1: to talk about Great Club. Jack and I were talking 922 01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:51,720 Speaker 1: about earlier the videos up of you know, things being 923 01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:53,600 Speaker 1: sent out, so I know there was a bit of 924 01:03:53,640 --> 01:03:56,200 Speaker 1: a delay there. But now we have everything being sent 925 01:03:56,320 --> 01:03:59,200 Speaker 1: out and they're doing an awesome job. So the long 926 01:03:59,240 --> 01:04:03,760 Speaker 1: anticipated collaboration watch with NFW Watches that's being sent out 927 01:04:03,760 --> 01:04:06,360 Speaker 1: in the next premium crate. We have different tiers of 928 01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:08,840 Speaker 1: membership depending on how prepared you want to be, and 929 01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:12,520 Speaker 1: gift options are available as well. Scott Whittner has been 930 01:04:12,560 --> 01:04:14,760 Speaker 1: talking to me about all the great stuff that we 931 01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:18,920 Speaker 1: have coming as the new year is approaching pretty soon really, 932 01:04:19,520 --> 01:04:23,840 Speaker 1: and it's a lot of custom products and it's gear 933 01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:27,880 Speaker 1: hand picked for you, um and you know, it's a 934 01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:30,800 Speaker 1: club fore men by men, and that's what we're doing. 935 01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:33,280 Speaker 1: You can check that all out of Create Club dot Us. 936 01:04:33,400 --> 01:04:35,960 Speaker 1: Once again, that's Great Club dot Us. Scott Whittner is 937 01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:37,720 Speaker 1: doing an awesome job. You guys have heard him on 938 01:04:37,760 --> 01:04:40,760 Speaker 1: the show before. Former Marine editor of the load out 939 01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:44,200 Speaker 1: Room load at room dot com. Now for your dog owners, 940 01:04:44,520 --> 01:04:47,680 Speaker 1: you're gonna love this. We've partnered with Kuna. Kuna has 941 01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:50,280 Speaker 1: a team of trained canine handlers picking out a box 942 01:04:50,320 --> 01:04:53,280 Speaker 1: through dog every month of healthy treats and training aids. 943 01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:56,760 Speaker 1: It's custom built through your dog's size end age as well. 944 01:04:57,160 --> 01:05:00,280 Speaker 1: The products are US sourced, all natural and they not 945 01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:03,440 Speaker 1: only promote a healthy diet but also promote being active 946 01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:05,760 Speaker 1: with your dog. So it doesn't matter what type of 947 01:05:05,840 --> 01:05:08,760 Speaker 1: dog you have, they have something for it. That's Kuna 948 01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:11,720 Speaker 1: dot Dog. It's efficient for you. Your dog is going 949 01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:14,400 Speaker 1: to appreciate it as well, of course, and that's spelled 950 01:05:14,680 --> 01:05:17,320 Speaker 1: c U N A dot d O G visited now 951 01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:20,280 Speaker 1: sign up um and then as a reminder, you can 952 01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:23,320 Speaker 1: check out the spec ops Channel. Spec ops channel dot 953 01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:27,720 Speaker 1: com training seller is on there. UM also the inside 954 01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:30,000 Speaker 1: the team rooms that we've done, whether it's the Navy 955 01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:33,160 Speaker 1: Seal Army Rangers cut from the same cloth, those are 956 01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:35,919 Speaker 1: all up on their spec Ops channel dot com. Take 957 01:05:35,960 --> 01:05:39,000 Speaker 1: advantage of a limited time offer of a subscription for 958 01:05:39,120 --> 01:05:41,960 Speaker 1: only four ninety nine a month. And we also have 959 01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:44,800 Speaker 1: the app, and we have the app now for software Radio, 960 01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:47,919 Speaker 1: which Chris did an awesome job on. So check out 961 01:05:48,240 --> 01:05:51,600 Speaker 1: software radio dot com. Check out the software Radio app 962 01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:54,280 Speaker 1: that's available now if you have an iPhone, I know 963 01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:57,760 Speaker 1: the Android is gonna be up in pretty much no time. Um. 964 01:05:58,400 --> 01:06:00,840 Speaker 1: Very cool, but I want to get into emails because 965 01:06:00,880 --> 01:06:03,520 Speaker 1: we had a few really good ones. Sorry, I'm a 966 01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:07,880 Speaker 1: little congested today. I don't know why, but here we go. 967 01:06:08,640 --> 01:06:11,680 Speaker 1: Or say it's the weather moving in. Yeah, probably, Um, 968 01:06:12,200 --> 01:06:15,120 Speaker 1: all right, I'll go with the shorter one first. This 969 01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:18,080 Speaker 1: is from Sean. Hey. Uh, this is from Sean from 970 01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:20,640 Speaker 1: in Atlanta. I don't want to pull name him unless 971 01:06:20,680 --> 01:06:23,800 Speaker 1: he wants to do it. Uh, Sean says, Hey, guys, 972 01:06:23,840 --> 01:06:26,400 Speaker 1: I was wondering if someone could explain some of the 973 01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:30,920 Speaker 1: similarities and differences between mac vi SAG and the Phoenix 974 01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:34,760 Speaker 1: program versus modern units like Omega teams and Task Force. 975 01:06:36,080 --> 01:06:38,360 Speaker 1: I'm sure Jack has a really good answer for this one. 976 01:06:38,480 --> 01:06:41,600 Speaker 1: So yeah, the difference between MACVIE SAG and the Phoenix 977 01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:44,959 Speaker 1: program versus modern units like Omega teams and task course 978 01:06:45,080 --> 01:06:48,320 Speaker 1: A eight pretty to the point. Well yeah, okay, it's 979 01:06:48,320 --> 01:06:50,680 Speaker 1: a short question, but I mean that's a really ill 980 01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:55,440 Speaker 1: aford answer. Um. Okay, So, back during the Vietnam War, 981 01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:59,680 Speaker 1: you had MACVIE SAG, which was Military Assistance Command Vietnam 982 01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:04,600 Speaker 1: s He's an observations group which was a endeavor that 983 01:07:04,760 --> 01:07:09,120 Speaker 1: saw American Green Berets partnered up with UM. You know, 984 01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:12,120 Speaker 1: one or two Green Berets partnered up with four or five, 985 01:07:12,320 --> 01:07:16,040 Speaker 1: maybe six mountain yards. I believe there was also Chinese 986 01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:19,960 Speaker 1: Nung mercenaries in the Fold, and they would go across 987 01:07:20,040 --> 01:07:22,600 Speaker 1: the fence, so to speak, into Laos and Cambodia and 988 01:07:22,840 --> 01:07:27,400 Speaker 1: North Vietnam. Their primary function was to do reconnaissance operations. 989 01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:32,240 Speaker 1: They also did things like sabotage diversions UM. There's some 990 01:07:32,320 --> 01:07:38,360 Speaker 1: psychological operations run UM ambushes. They they did a prisoner 991 01:07:38,440 --> 01:07:42,520 Speaker 1: snatches or attempted prisoner snatches UM to take people alive 992 01:07:42,640 --> 01:07:45,840 Speaker 1: for intelligence value. There's all sorts of different stuff they did. UM. 993 01:07:45,840 --> 01:07:49,560 Speaker 1: It's very direct action kind of hands on UM, either 994 01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,640 Speaker 1: direct action or reconnaissance. The Phoenix program was a little 995 01:07:53,680 --> 01:07:56,680 Speaker 1: different now as I recall, it was also a joint 996 01:07:57,000 --> 01:08:00,320 Speaker 1: endeavor with the c I a UM. And what had 997 01:08:00,320 --> 01:08:02,680 Speaker 1: happened that the Phoenix program was more focused in South 998 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:06,480 Speaker 1: Vietnam because the Viet Cong had established a shadow government 999 01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:09,640 Speaker 1: in South Vietnam, so that you had this the actual 1000 01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:14,120 Speaker 1: official government, but then you had this secret Vietcong communist government. 1001 01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:18,320 Speaker 1: And the Phoenix program was an attempt to neutralize that 1002 01:08:18,439 --> 01:08:23,040 Speaker 1: shadow government UM and and a counterinsurgency effort. UM. Some 1003 01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:27,000 Speaker 1: people have decried the Phoenix program as this like criminal 1004 01:08:27,120 --> 01:08:31,880 Speaker 1: assassination unit. UM. I mean whatever you want to say. 1005 01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:33,400 Speaker 1: I mean, how the hell are you going to deal 1006 01:08:33,479 --> 01:08:36,519 Speaker 1: with a communist shadow government? I mean you kind of 1007 01:08:36,720 --> 01:08:38,439 Speaker 1: have to go out and whack some of these guys. 1008 01:08:38,960 --> 01:08:43,680 Speaker 1: It is what it is. UM. Now, by comparison to that, UH, 1009 01:08:43,920 --> 01:08:46,760 Speaker 1: he asks about OMEGA teams and Task Force AT eight, 1010 01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:51,440 Speaker 1: which is more of our contemporary modern War on Terror timeframe. 1011 01:08:52,120 --> 01:08:54,160 Speaker 1: Test Force A D eight was just one of the 1012 01:08:54,320 --> 01:08:57,439 Speaker 1: many names given to the task forces the special Joint 1013 01:08:57,479 --> 01:09:02,240 Speaker 1: Special Operations task Force UH UM that existed in our Iraq, 1014 01:09:02,479 --> 01:09:04,559 Speaker 1: and you know we can we continue to have one 1015 01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:07,320 Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. UM. I was a part of one of 1016 01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:14,360 Speaker 1: these task forces. UM. It combines UM, you know, Seal 1017 01:09:14,439 --> 01:09:18,519 Speaker 1: Team six, Delta Forest Rangers, UM, some special Forces elements 1018 01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:21,439 Speaker 1: are brought into it, and some other different special mission 1019 01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:24,960 Speaker 1: units are all brought into the fold. And UM. You know, 1020 01:09:25,120 --> 01:09:28,479 Speaker 1: primarily we were in the business of capturing and killing 1021 01:09:28,600 --> 01:09:32,439 Speaker 1: high value targets. So in that sense, I suppose you 1022 01:09:32,479 --> 01:09:34,960 Speaker 1: could draw some parallels to some of the programs that 1023 01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:38,640 Speaker 1: existed in Vietnam. Although there's there's so many differences to 1024 01:09:39,040 --> 01:09:44,280 Speaker 1: dictated by the way technology has evolved institutionally and structurally, 1025 01:09:44,360 --> 01:09:47,439 Speaker 1: how the military has changed since the nineteen sixties and 1026 01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:52,640 Speaker 1: early seventies when Vietnam came to a close. UM, what 1027 01:09:52,880 --> 01:09:57,960 Speaker 1: I say, UH terrain, UH, structure, and then the technologies 1028 01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:00,599 Speaker 1: itself of course has evolved. There's of such thing as 1029 01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:04,760 Speaker 1: a cell phone during Vietnam now, so the signals, intercepts 1030 01:10:05,000 --> 01:10:09,959 Speaker 1: and everything else has dramatically changed. The way we're UM finding, fixing, 1031 01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:15,080 Speaker 1: and finishing targets has changed dramatically since the Vietnam War. UM. 1032 01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:18,160 Speaker 1: The other thing he asked about is Omega. UM. The 1033 01:10:18,240 --> 01:10:21,840 Speaker 1: Omega program, it's called something else now, but that is 1034 01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:26,800 Speaker 1: a CIA endeavor and the way that worked and continues 1035 01:10:26,880 --> 01:10:29,920 Speaker 1: to work is it's a CIA program that sees active 1036 01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:35,320 Speaker 1: duty military personnel seconded to the auspices of the Central 1037 01:10:35,360 --> 01:10:41,360 Speaker 1: Intelligence Agency. UM. So you will have UH usually it's 1038 01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:45,320 Speaker 1: been Seal Team six members or rangers who have been 1039 01:10:45,400 --> 01:10:49,400 Speaker 1: seconded to this program. And what they do is the 1040 01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:55,400 Speaker 1: Omega program specifically targeted foreign fighters in Afghanistan. So these 1041 01:10:55,439 --> 01:10:58,760 Speaker 1: arabs that come in from the Gulf States or Iranians, 1042 01:10:58,800 --> 01:11:02,080 Speaker 1: whoever it is. Foreign fighters that come in Afghanistan, OMEGA 1043 01:11:02,120 --> 01:11:06,080 Speaker 1: would target them quite specifically. And the military personnel. I mean, 1044 01:11:06,120 --> 01:11:10,000 Speaker 1: the Omega teams were UM contractors a lot of times 1045 01:11:10,080 --> 01:11:14,800 Speaker 1: CIA contractors, but then these military personnel were seconded to them, 1046 01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:19,320 Speaker 1: primarily so they can call in air support for the 1047 01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:21,840 Speaker 1: for a c I A element. Because a c I 1048 01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:26,200 Speaker 1: A guy cannot call in UM air strikes. But now 1049 01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:28,760 Speaker 1: you have military personnel on the OMEGA team, they can 1050 01:11:28,840 --> 01:11:31,960 Speaker 1: call in air strikes. UM. There was an article in 1051 01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:36,000 Speaker 1: the New York Times which is a very um mind 1052 01:11:36,120 --> 01:11:39,400 Speaker 1: bending article to read because it's it's like one of 1053 01:11:39,439 --> 01:11:41,559 Speaker 1: those things like the CIA wants you to know something, 1054 01:11:41,640 --> 01:11:43,960 Speaker 1: so they we get to the New York Times. The article, 1055 01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:46,640 Speaker 1: the way it's written is really weird. But what they 1056 01:11:46,680 --> 01:11:50,040 Speaker 1: were saying is that under the Trump administration, OMEGA has 1057 01:11:50,120 --> 01:11:53,639 Speaker 1: been UM had their focus changed from just going after 1058 01:11:53,720 --> 01:11:58,000 Speaker 1: foreign fighters to going after UM, the Taliban, the indigenous 1059 01:11:58,640 --> 01:12:02,360 Speaker 1: UM you know, guerilla though fighters, insurgents of Afghanistan and 1060 01:12:02,439 --> 01:12:07,120 Speaker 1: going after not just foreign fighters but the actual taliban UM. 1061 01:12:07,960 --> 01:12:10,599 Speaker 1: And how how that's working out, I I'm actually not sure. 1062 01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:12,439 Speaker 1: Off the top, of my head. But that's kind of 1063 01:12:12,479 --> 01:12:15,280 Speaker 1: where we're at now. So there are similarities and there 1064 01:12:15,320 --> 01:12:18,559 Speaker 1: are differences between all of these units, um, and how 1065 01:12:18,640 --> 01:12:23,040 Speaker 1: they work the legal framework, um, what the missions are, 1066 01:12:23,720 --> 01:12:26,920 Speaker 1: and um again, I think a lot has changed between 1067 01:12:26,960 --> 01:12:31,640 Speaker 1: these elements from Vietnam to today because of military structure, 1068 01:12:32,240 --> 01:12:34,920 Speaker 1: because of the technology, and because one war was fought 1069 01:12:34,960 --> 01:12:36,400 Speaker 1: in the jungle and the other was fought in the 1070 01:12:36,439 --> 01:12:38,960 Speaker 1: desert and in the cities. So there are some pretty 1071 01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:43,960 Speaker 1: big differences. Um, that's a lot of information. Like, that's 1072 01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:46,599 Speaker 1: that great answer. That's a fucking thesis paper right there. 1073 01:12:46,640 --> 01:12:50,040 Speaker 1: Like you could write your PhD uh dissertation on that subject. 1074 01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:53,240 Speaker 1: Jack Murphy, dropping knowledge. But that's that's the long and 1075 01:12:53,320 --> 01:12:56,040 Speaker 1: short of it, you know, all right. Um, I like 1076 01:12:56,200 --> 01:12:57,920 Speaker 1: this one. This one's a little longer, but it did 1077 01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:00,880 Speaker 1: make me laugh. This is from Jack White uh Ian 1078 01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:04,560 Speaker 1: and Jack. First off, I love this. It's rebrushing to 1079 01:13:04,640 --> 01:13:08,040 Speaker 1: get some quality news mixed with comedy rather than listening 1080 01:13:08,120 --> 01:13:11,880 Speaker 1: to the Bukhaki. The mainstream media feeds my generation, and 1081 01:13:12,400 --> 01:13:15,439 Speaker 1: I'm a feeling this audience knows what that means. If not, 1082 01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:20,040 Speaker 1: I'm not gonna explain. Google. Google is your friend. Folks. Yeah, 1083 01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:24,519 Speaker 1: but not not safe for work that um second. For 1084 01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:27,759 Speaker 1: a while now, I've been inching towards joining the military, 1085 01:13:27,880 --> 01:13:31,120 Speaker 1: whether it be the Army, Navy, or Marines. I cannot 1086 01:13:31,200 --> 01:13:34,040 Speaker 1: decide where I would best fit. I would like some 1087 01:13:34,200 --> 01:13:37,599 Speaker 1: clear advice on what the pros think, y'all being the pros, 1088 01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:40,240 Speaker 1: I'm certainly not a pro. Maybe Jack. I am married 1089 01:13:40,280 --> 01:13:42,519 Speaker 1: with a five month old son. I'm in shape, just 1090 01:13:42,720 --> 01:13:46,120 Speaker 1: built like a ship brickhouse, built to move heavyweight. Thus, 1091 01:13:46,280 --> 01:13:49,679 Speaker 1: I have been a multi time state powerlifter. That's pretty cool. 1092 01:13:49,960 --> 01:13:52,360 Speaker 1: I'm able to get my stamina above part to meet 1093 01:13:52,400 --> 01:13:55,559 Speaker 1: the majority of requirements. I've just caught between sitting down 1094 01:13:55,680 --> 01:13:58,479 Speaker 1: with the wife and taking the next step or constantly 1095 01:13:58,560 --> 01:14:02,000 Speaker 1: being unsatisfied with a regular twelve hour a day job. 1096 01:14:02,439 --> 01:14:05,679 Speaker 1: I know I want to UH to serve a purpose 1097 01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:08,160 Speaker 1: larger than myself. I have a great job and a 1098 01:14:08,200 --> 01:14:11,800 Speaker 1: comfortable life, but I constantly seek more gratification for my work. 1099 01:14:12,280 --> 01:14:14,439 Speaker 1: My goal, if I am the plunge into this world 1100 01:14:14,600 --> 01:14:18,680 Speaker 1: is too is too is to spend UH whatever time 1101 01:14:18,760 --> 01:14:22,240 Speaker 1: necessary to put myself way beyond the physical standard and 1102 01:14:22,439 --> 01:14:26,599 Speaker 1: quality for special forces. I'm sufficiently educated and level headed 1103 01:14:26,760 --> 01:14:30,479 Speaker 1: enough to learn most anything, any advice on what may 1104 01:14:30,600 --> 01:14:34,479 Speaker 1: make the choices and transformations easier and the path have 1105 01:14:34,560 --> 01:14:36,720 Speaker 1: a little more quarity. And then he writes, you guys 1106 01:14:36,800 --> 01:14:39,800 Speaker 1: are the ship always blow the Joe Rogan experience out 1107 01:14:39,840 --> 01:14:41,760 Speaker 1: of the water. That's a pretty high compliment. I don't 1108 01:14:41,760 --> 01:14:45,559 Speaker 1: know if I agree with that, uh, because this guy 1109 01:14:45,680 --> 01:14:48,960 Speaker 1: seems interesting. At the same time, I'm gonna say has 1110 01:14:49,000 --> 01:14:51,760 Speaker 1: a pretty high opinion of himself. But I like it. Yeah. 1111 01:14:52,200 --> 01:14:54,960 Speaker 1: I mean it's like I'm tough, I learned anything. What 1112 01:14:55,040 --> 01:15:00,360 Speaker 1: do I do well? Self confidence is a good start. Um. Yeah. 1113 01:15:00,400 --> 01:15:02,280 Speaker 1: People ask me this kind of question all the time, 1114 01:15:02,320 --> 01:15:05,160 Speaker 1: and I mean there's no real answer because it depends 1115 01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:07,840 Speaker 1: on you as a person, Like people should I be 1116 01:15:07,960 --> 01:15:10,080 Speaker 1: for Srikon or a Navy seal? I mean, I don't know, 1117 01:15:10,560 --> 01:15:14,080 Speaker 1: it depends on you. Um. I think the question you 1118 01:15:14,160 --> 01:15:17,080 Speaker 1: really have to answer is what do you want to do? Um? 1119 01:15:17,560 --> 01:15:19,240 Speaker 1: You know, once you know what you want to do, 1120 01:15:20,080 --> 01:15:22,200 Speaker 1: then you have a much better idea of what you 1121 01:15:22,280 --> 01:15:24,479 Speaker 1: want to do in the military or what branch you 1122 01:15:24,560 --> 01:15:27,479 Speaker 1: want to go into. Um. You know, do you want 1123 01:15:27,479 --> 01:15:30,519 Speaker 1: to do? Do you like do you like to swim? 1124 01:15:31,520 --> 01:15:34,439 Speaker 1: If not? You know, Yeah, don't be a seal. You know, 1125 01:15:35,080 --> 01:15:37,360 Speaker 1: it's just I'm not trying to be a smart ass, 1126 01:15:37,439 --> 01:15:39,920 Speaker 1: but like, do you want to go overseas and work 1127 01:15:40,000 --> 01:15:43,000 Speaker 1: with far in foreign cultures, with foreign people, and special 1128 01:15:43,120 --> 01:15:45,680 Speaker 1: Forces is probably a good option for you, even though 1129 01:15:45,680 --> 01:15:47,760 Speaker 1: it's funny. Rob O'Neil has said on the show he 1130 01:15:47,800 --> 01:15:50,960 Speaker 1: could barely swim before he became a seal. And then 1131 01:15:51,120 --> 01:15:55,200 Speaker 1: sometimes you have um guys who joined for really weird, 1132 01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:57,680 Speaker 1: bizarre reasons and it ends up working out. I mean, 1133 01:15:58,160 --> 01:16:00,679 Speaker 1: Drago has said before on the podcast that he signed 1134 01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:02,840 Speaker 1: up to be in the army as you you know, 1135 01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:06,719 Speaker 1: just coming into America, then saw the movie Navy Seals 1136 01:16:06,760 --> 01:16:09,360 Speaker 1: with Charlie Sheen and said I want to do that, 1137 01:16:09,840 --> 01:16:13,559 Speaker 1: and then changed, yeah, I mean you have to figure 1138 01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:15,400 Speaker 1: out what it is you want to do. I think 1139 01:16:15,439 --> 01:16:17,920 Speaker 1: for this dude, um, he has a wife already a 1140 01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:21,160 Speaker 1: wife and a kid, and uh in a job. I mean, 1141 01:16:21,240 --> 01:16:24,680 Speaker 1: I'd encourage him to think very carefully about what he 1142 01:16:24,960 --> 01:16:28,000 Speaker 1: wants to do. Um, if you want to go and 1143 01:16:28,360 --> 01:16:32,640 Speaker 1: join special Forces or something like that, it takes a 1144 01:16:32,760 --> 01:16:34,760 Speaker 1: hundred and ten percent, so to speak, well, maybe not 1145 01:16:34,800 --> 01:16:36,920 Speaker 1: a hundred and ten percent. It takes a percent effort. 1146 01:16:37,040 --> 01:16:38,920 Speaker 1: Like you're you're kind of all in, and you're like, 1147 01:16:39,040 --> 01:16:41,880 Speaker 1: psychologically you have to be all in. It's not something 1148 01:16:41,960 --> 01:16:45,120 Speaker 1: you can have asked. Um. And when you have a 1149 01:16:45,200 --> 01:16:48,360 Speaker 1: wife and kid, you're in like a totally different world. UM. 1150 01:16:48,880 --> 01:16:50,360 Speaker 1: And I'm not saying you can't do it or you 1151 01:16:50,360 --> 01:16:52,080 Speaker 1: shouldn't do it. I'm just saying you have to think 1152 01:16:52,160 --> 01:16:56,800 Speaker 1: that over really carefully. Especially do you want to Um. 1153 01:16:58,240 --> 01:17:00,360 Speaker 1: You know, you're gonna be in training a lot, You're 1154 01:17:00,360 --> 01:17:03,640 Speaker 1: going to be deployed a lot, um. You know, and 1155 01:17:03,760 --> 01:17:06,479 Speaker 1: with that in mind, maybe you can serve your country 1156 01:17:07,160 --> 01:17:09,800 Speaker 1: UM and another job that doesn't require you to be 1157 01:17:09,880 --> 01:17:12,080 Speaker 1: away from home so much, but you're still serving in 1158 01:17:12,160 --> 01:17:14,720 Speaker 1: some capacity. Um. But you still get to be with 1159 01:17:14,760 --> 01:17:16,920 Speaker 1: your wife and kid. I mean that's all stuff. You really, 1160 01:17:17,080 --> 01:17:20,280 Speaker 1: I really encourage anybody in that situation to think carefully 1161 01:17:20,320 --> 01:17:23,439 Speaker 1: about um and and not make a hasty decision. I'm 1162 01:17:23,439 --> 01:17:25,200 Speaker 1: not telling you not to. I'm just saying you need 1163 01:17:25,240 --> 01:17:28,040 Speaker 1: to think about that real hard and and discuss it 1164 01:17:28,120 --> 01:17:31,400 Speaker 1: with your family. UM. I was a young single guy 1165 01:17:31,479 --> 01:17:34,240 Speaker 1: when I did it, so I mean, who cares? You know, 1166 01:17:34,600 --> 01:17:37,720 Speaker 1: I run myself into the ground. UM, But now you 1167 01:17:37,760 --> 01:17:40,719 Speaker 1: know I'm a little bit older. Um, I have a wife, 1168 01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:44,519 Speaker 1: I have a kid, Like I can scarcely imagine doing 1169 01:17:44,600 --> 01:17:47,360 Speaker 1: it over again. Um, and it makes me have that 1170 01:17:47,439 --> 01:17:49,960 Speaker 1: much more respect for some of my teammates who were 1171 01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:51,640 Speaker 1: away from their kids. I mean some of them had 1172 01:17:51,720 --> 01:17:54,240 Speaker 1: like three, four or five kids and they're away from 1173 01:17:54,280 --> 01:17:56,160 Speaker 1: home for like six months at a time. I mean 1174 01:17:56,240 --> 01:17:58,920 Speaker 1: that's fucking crazy, and it makes you. It makes me 1175 01:17:59,520 --> 01:18:02,240 Speaker 1: a pretty she Now the sacrifice not a lot of 1176 01:18:02,280 --> 01:18:04,800 Speaker 1: our soldiers make. I mean, I don't think I made 1177 01:18:04,840 --> 01:18:06,679 Speaker 1: a sacrifice. I was having fun. I was there because 1178 01:18:06,720 --> 01:18:09,080 Speaker 1: I wanted to be. But um, you know a lot 1179 01:18:09,120 --> 01:18:11,240 Speaker 1: of these other guys spending so much time away from 1180 01:18:11,240 --> 01:18:13,080 Speaker 1: their family, I mean that's really hard, and I have 1181 01:18:13,200 --> 01:18:16,320 Speaker 1: that much more respect for them. Um, you know that 1182 01:18:16,479 --> 01:18:18,639 Speaker 1: is a sacrifice. Now now that now that I'm older, 1183 01:18:18,680 --> 01:18:22,439 Speaker 1: I can understand the sacrifice, spart a little bit more. Yeah, 1184 01:18:22,600 --> 01:18:25,800 Speaker 1: good answer. Um, send those emails. I get questions all 1185 01:18:25,840 --> 01:18:27,720 Speaker 1: the time on Twitter and all that. Send them to 1186 01:18:28,840 --> 01:18:31,680 Speaker 1: soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com. Uh 1187 01:18:31,840 --> 01:18:34,799 Speaker 1: to other pieces of news to get into the sixty 1188 01:18:34,920 --> 01:18:39,160 Speaker 1: minutes interview with Trump. He almost hinted at maddis no 1189 01:18:39,240 --> 01:18:41,920 Speaker 1: longer being a part of the administration when asked about it. 1190 01:18:42,360 --> 01:18:44,439 Speaker 1: So Alex Hollings wrote a piece for the News rep 1191 01:18:44,479 --> 01:18:47,439 Speaker 1: about this, called the Man Without Party. Trump calls Defense 1192 01:18:47,479 --> 01:18:51,479 Speaker 1: Secretary James Maddis kind of a Democrat in hint of 1193 01:18:51,600 --> 01:18:56,120 Speaker 1: departure um. After months of rumors that Defense Secretary James 1194 01:18:56,200 --> 01:18:59,760 Speaker 1: Madis maybe the next high profile departure from the Trump administration, 1195 01:19:00,200 --> 01:19:03,559 Speaker 1: President Trump himself added fuel to the fire over the weekend, 1196 01:19:03,920 --> 01:19:06,960 Speaker 1: calling the former Marine in general in air quotes kind 1197 01:19:06,960 --> 01:19:10,000 Speaker 1: of a Democrat and suggesting that Madis may soon be 1198 01:19:10,080 --> 01:19:13,240 Speaker 1: moving on. So that was from sixty minutes. I know 1199 01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:15,600 Speaker 1: that there was there was a much larger context of 1200 01:19:15,640 --> 01:19:17,720 Speaker 1: the interview. I didn't watch the full interview. I know 1201 01:19:17,840 --> 01:19:20,400 Speaker 1: you read the transcript, but that was the big bombshell 1202 01:19:20,479 --> 01:19:23,360 Speaker 1: of the interview. And I don't think that is something 1203 01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:25,960 Speaker 1: Trump would say unless they're you know, because I know 1204 01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:27,960 Speaker 1: he added and we get along great. You know, he's 1205 01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:30,439 Speaker 1: a good guy. But I don't think he would add 1206 01:19:30,560 --> 01:19:34,360 Speaker 1: this weird um jab of kind of a Democrat unless 1207 01:19:34,439 --> 01:19:37,280 Speaker 1: the guy was looking to leave or was being sent down. 1208 01:19:37,760 --> 01:19:43,679 Speaker 1: It's a it's a super weird, strange, unprofessional thing to say. 1209 01:19:44,520 --> 01:19:47,880 Speaker 1: I but I mean this is this is an administration 1210 01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:50,400 Speaker 1: like no other where, Like he sells out and undermines 1211 01:19:50,800 --> 01:19:54,280 Speaker 1: his own administration. And also in to be fair, it's like, 1212 01:19:54,760 --> 01:19:57,639 Speaker 1: what does kind of a democrat mean in the case 1213 01:19:57,720 --> 01:20:00,280 Speaker 1: of James Maddis, because you know, what does I mean? 1214 01:20:00,439 --> 01:20:03,599 Speaker 1: Maddie is a guy that anytime the media has tried 1215 01:20:03,640 --> 01:20:06,080 Speaker 1: to get him to play politics, he has said, look, 1216 01:20:06,400 --> 01:20:09,200 Speaker 1: I'm in charge of war, I'm the Defense Secretary. I 1217 01:20:09,240 --> 01:20:11,400 Speaker 1: don't want to get into all of this. So he's 1218 01:20:11,400 --> 01:20:14,120 Speaker 1: a guy who's done his best, I think to be 1219 01:20:14,280 --> 01:20:17,120 Speaker 1: completely a political There's been a few things he said 1220 01:20:17,160 --> 01:20:21,160 Speaker 1: that he's against enhanced interrogation, UM, his stance on the 1221 01:20:21,240 --> 01:20:23,720 Speaker 1: idea of transgenders in the military. He's said a few 1222 01:20:23,800 --> 01:20:26,640 Speaker 1: different things. But I'd say he's a guy, more than 1223 01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:29,560 Speaker 1: anyone else in the administration who does not play politics. 1224 01:20:29,640 --> 01:20:32,120 Speaker 1: So I don't know what democratic well, I mean it's 1225 01:20:32,320 --> 01:20:36,400 Speaker 1: it's being secretary of Defense is inherently a political position. 1226 01:20:36,479 --> 01:20:39,800 Speaker 1: You're a political appointee. Um. But yeah, he has tried 1227 01:20:39,840 --> 01:20:41,920 Speaker 1: to stay a political I think it's to the best 1228 01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:45,800 Speaker 1: of his ability as far as staying above the partisan politics. 1229 01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:50,200 Speaker 1: You know, he sees himself as someone who executes defense policy, um, 1230 01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:54,920 Speaker 1: not somebody who wants to muck around um with a 1231 01:20:55,080 --> 01:20:59,519 Speaker 1: with a political nonsense in DC. Um. Yeah. I think 1232 01:20:59,560 --> 01:21:02,519 Speaker 1: Trump he's just laying the groundwork with this kind of 1233 01:21:02,600 --> 01:21:04,960 Speaker 1: bullshit um, so that he can push Maddis out of 1234 01:21:04,960 --> 01:21:08,560 Speaker 1: the administration. Um. I think that Trump kind of is 1235 01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:10,640 Speaker 1: afraid of Maddis in a in a sense because the 1236 01:21:10,680 --> 01:21:14,160 Speaker 1: guy has credibility um, and that doesn't make him look 1237 01:21:14,200 --> 01:21:17,639 Speaker 1: good by comparison. And uh, I think John Bolton wants 1238 01:21:17,680 --> 01:21:20,559 Speaker 1: Trump or I'm sorry, I think Bolton wants Maddus out 1239 01:21:20,880 --> 01:21:22,800 Speaker 1: because he wants to push for us to go and 1240 01:21:22,920 --> 01:21:25,960 Speaker 1: do Iran and topple the regime there. And Maddis is 1241 01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:28,560 Speaker 1: one of those guys who's he's pragmatic, he's smart, and 1242 01:21:28,600 --> 01:21:31,160 Speaker 1: he's like pumping the brakes like whoa, whoa, whoa, Like 1243 01:21:31,280 --> 01:21:33,559 Speaker 1: we've seen this ship go down in Iraq, We've seen 1244 01:21:33,560 --> 01:21:35,800 Speaker 1: it go down in Libya, we've seen it go down 1245 01:21:35,840 --> 01:21:39,120 Speaker 1: in Syria. Um, why the hell do we want to 1246 01:21:39,160 --> 01:21:43,599 Speaker 1: do that in Iran? I think a replacement of maddess 1247 01:21:43,880 --> 01:21:47,880 Speaker 1: um of both into Maddie's position would be unpopular for 1248 01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:50,920 Speaker 1: people who aren't necessarily the biggest Trump supporters, but like 1249 01:21:51,080 --> 01:21:54,200 Speaker 1: Maddis and then even people who are Trump supporters, because 1250 01:21:54,360 --> 01:21:56,760 Speaker 1: I think I've said it on the podcast before. I 1251 01:21:56,800 --> 01:22:00,639 Speaker 1: think Bolton is looked at as a Republican establish ASHMNT guy, 1252 01:22:01,240 --> 01:22:04,639 Speaker 1: and people who voted for Trump voted for him because 1253 01:22:04,680 --> 01:22:06,840 Speaker 1: he was a departure when do we drain the swamp 1254 01:22:07,280 --> 01:22:10,720 Speaker 1: were waiting? I do feel he was a departure from uh, 1255 01:22:11,120 --> 01:22:15,560 Speaker 1: you know, from the political establishment. And and one of 1256 01:22:15,600 --> 01:22:18,360 Speaker 1: the biggest examples I could think of, whether you love 1257 01:22:18,439 --> 01:22:21,439 Speaker 1: or hate the guy Steve Bannon, there's no one else 1258 01:22:21,880 --> 01:22:24,040 Speaker 1: on that stage, whether it was like Marco reb Ruby 1259 01:22:24,160 --> 01:22:26,680 Speaker 1: or Jeb Bush, who would have appointed Steve Bannon new 1260 01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:31,160 Speaker 1: a position. Steve Bannon to me, was as um anti 1261 01:22:31,320 --> 01:22:34,120 Speaker 1: establishment as they came. And a guy like Maddis I 1262 01:22:34,160 --> 01:22:36,760 Speaker 1: think was a departure from the establishment as opposed to 1263 01:22:36,920 --> 01:22:39,760 Speaker 1: a guy like Bolton. And now we're bringing in these 1264 01:22:39,840 --> 01:22:42,160 Speaker 1: guys who were seeing as a part of the you know, 1265 01:22:42,360 --> 01:22:47,120 Speaker 1: long standing Republican establishment, right They're they're pushing Trump where 1266 01:22:47,640 --> 01:22:49,760 Speaker 1: you know, the system is so much bigger than any 1267 01:22:49,840 --> 01:22:55,440 Speaker 1: one person, and Trump is being pushed in certain directions. 1268 01:22:55,680 --> 01:22:58,840 Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm not trying to defend Trump. But 1269 01:22:59,000 --> 01:23:01,400 Speaker 1: I mean this this, like I said, the system is big. 1270 01:23:01,640 --> 01:23:03,800 Speaker 1: The power wants to do what power wants to do. 1271 01:23:04,280 --> 01:23:05,960 Speaker 1: And I think Trump is the kind of guy who 1272 01:23:06,080 --> 01:23:08,040 Speaker 1: if Bolton comes to him and it's like, hey, do this, 1273 01:23:08,160 --> 01:23:10,280 Speaker 1: it'll make you look tough. I think Trump just bride 1274 01:23:10,320 --> 01:23:12,280 Speaker 1: nods and said, yeah, yeah, I do that. You know, 1275 01:23:12,360 --> 01:23:14,240 Speaker 1: I don't think he has a wherewithal And you can 1276 01:23:14,280 --> 01:23:16,360 Speaker 1: see through the sixty minutes interview. I mean it's just 1277 01:23:16,560 --> 01:23:22,880 Speaker 1: like like this total rambling, nonsensical cagning. I saw this 1278 01:23:22,920 --> 01:23:26,160 Speaker 1: stuff about climate change. You read that, And I mean 1279 01:23:26,280 --> 01:23:28,719 Speaker 1: it's hard to talk to Trump supporters about it because 1280 01:23:28,720 --> 01:23:30,960 Speaker 1: they're like, oh, he's playing four D chess. You know 1281 01:23:31,240 --> 01:23:34,760 Speaker 1: he's doing he's moving the chess pieces around, and you're 1282 01:23:34,800 --> 01:23:36,800 Speaker 1: just you know, not smart enough to see it. You know, 1283 01:23:36,920 --> 01:23:41,400 Speaker 1: we're we're all awed by his brilliance. Um or you know, 1284 01:23:41,520 --> 01:23:44,559 Speaker 1: Trump is just playing a character on television. This isn't 1285 01:23:44,560 --> 01:23:47,320 Speaker 1: who he really is. And it's like, well, yeah, that's 1286 01:23:47,360 --> 01:23:49,840 Speaker 1: one thesis or or the other is that he really 1287 01:23:49,960 --> 01:23:52,800 Speaker 1: is as dumb as he appears in these interviews, And how, 1288 01:23:53,479 --> 01:23:56,080 Speaker 1: how and why are we going to make continuously make 1289 01:23:56,160 --> 01:23:58,600 Speaker 1: excuses for him when he comes off sounding like a 1290 01:23:58,680 --> 01:24:02,880 Speaker 1: complete moron and he's unable to speak intelligently on you know, 1291 01:24:03,320 --> 01:24:06,160 Speaker 1: hardly any subject. You know, you asked him about NATO. 1292 01:24:06,240 --> 01:24:08,280 Speaker 1: I know about NATO. I know a lot about NATO. 1293 01:24:08,920 --> 01:24:12,519 Speaker 1: It keeps like saying, okay, you say you know about NATO, like, 1294 01:24:13,400 --> 01:24:16,280 Speaker 1: but you can't speak to it on at length. I mean, 1295 01:24:16,320 --> 01:24:18,840 Speaker 1: do you even know what that acronym stands for? I 1296 01:24:18,920 --> 01:24:20,960 Speaker 1: think he knows that. I don't know if he doesn't 1297 01:24:21,040 --> 01:24:25,280 Speaker 1: or not, which is scary. Um. So, I mean, this 1298 01:24:25,479 --> 01:24:27,120 Speaker 1: is this is who he is. I mean, I think 1299 01:24:27,280 --> 01:24:30,840 Speaker 1: he's just very easy to manipulate. Um. He has thin skin, 1300 01:24:31,120 --> 01:24:33,519 Speaker 1: he has a shallow ego, and I mean that's not 1301 01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:36,560 Speaker 1: a good combination and a president, especially when you have 1302 01:24:37,600 --> 01:24:41,360 Speaker 1: sharks in the water circling like John Bolton and uh, 1303 01:24:41,680 --> 01:24:45,400 Speaker 1: you know they're going to maneuver the more pragmatic, mature 1304 01:24:45,520 --> 01:24:49,080 Speaker 1: personalities like James Maddis out of the administration. The only 1305 01:24:49,200 --> 01:24:52,880 Speaker 1: time I saw Maddison Trump publicly butt heads that I 1306 01:24:52,920 --> 01:24:55,639 Speaker 1: could remember that was, um, you know that we all 1307 01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:58,800 Speaker 1: heard about was when Trump made a statement on Twitter 1308 01:24:58,840 --> 01:25:01,439 Speaker 1: about trans genders in the military and came out and 1309 01:25:01,520 --> 01:25:03,600 Speaker 1: said that you know, he hasn't consulted with it. It 1310 01:25:03,760 --> 01:25:06,320 Speaker 1: wasn't even I don't really see it his butting heads 1311 01:25:06,320 --> 01:25:08,519 Speaker 1: as much as it was just like Trump saying stuff 1312 01:25:08,560 --> 01:25:12,000 Speaker 1: on Twitter, but D O D hadn't received any like 1313 01:25:12,120 --> 01:25:15,120 Speaker 1: policy changes or policy memos or anything. So they're kind 1314 01:25:15,120 --> 01:25:17,920 Speaker 1: of like what you know, I mean, you're kind of 1315 01:25:17,960 --> 01:25:21,640 Speaker 1: being caught with your pants down again. And uh and 1316 01:25:21,760 --> 01:25:24,519 Speaker 1: you know that leaves you know, people like Madison in 1317 01:25:24,560 --> 01:25:27,320 Speaker 1: the lurch because now they have to respond to tweets, 1318 01:25:27,640 --> 01:25:30,160 Speaker 1: you know, and say like, well, I haven't heard anything. 1319 01:25:30,960 --> 01:25:32,640 Speaker 1: And then the other piece of news I know you 1320 01:25:32,720 --> 01:25:35,599 Speaker 1: wanted to bring up, there's this BuzzFeed article that's going 1321 01:25:35,680 --> 01:25:39,200 Speaker 1: around regarding mercenaries. Yeah, and that's pretty good scoop that, 1322 01:25:39,439 --> 01:25:41,760 Speaker 1: uh that this dude at BuzzFeed got. If you want 1323 01:25:41,760 --> 01:25:43,880 Speaker 1: to pull up the article really, yeah, I mean I'll 1324 01:25:44,360 --> 01:25:46,640 Speaker 1: look at UM. I read. I read through it this 1325 01:25:46,800 --> 01:25:48,639 Speaker 1: morning and I really need to go through and read 1326 01:25:48,680 --> 01:25:52,400 Speaker 1: it again. UM in detail. Yeah, it's a good scoop 1327 01:25:52,439 --> 01:25:55,960 Speaker 1: they got. It's about UM. It's about this Israeli cat 1328 01:25:56,640 --> 01:26:02,519 Speaker 1: who UM talked to Uato given his firm a job. UM. 1329 01:26:03,000 --> 01:26:08,040 Speaker 1: And they were going into Yemen, uh to do assassination missions. 1330 01:26:08,400 --> 01:26:13,160 Speaker 1: The journalist name is uh Aarum Roston. I don't know 1331 01:26:13,240 --> 01:26:15,600 Speaker 1: the guy, but hey, it looks like he did some 1332 01:26:15,720 --> 01:26:19,519 Speaker 1: good work here. He really uh nailed this story down. Um. 1333 01:26:19,880 --> 01:26:22,400 Speaker 1: And you know, so these firm hired you know, special 1334 01:26:22,520 --> 01:26:26,200 Speaker 1: forces guys, a dev group guy, a couple of seals 1335 01:26:26,360 --> 01:26:28,840 Speaker 1: sounds like one Delta guy in a bunch of French 1336 01:26:28,880 --> 01:26:32,320 Speaker 1: foreign legionnaires. And the whole fucking thing was like amateur 1337 01:26:32,439 --> 01:26:35,120 Speaker 1: our front words to back. I mean, like they show 1338 01:26:35,200 --> 01:26:38,519 Speaker 1: up at the hotel to fly over there, and like 1339 01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:41,360 Speaker 1: the dudes are all wearing fatigues and ship walking around 1340 01:26:41,360 --> 01:26:45,200 Speaker 1: the hotel and I'm like, oh my god. And then 1341 01:26:45,200 --> 01:26:47,160 Speaker 1: and the whole thing was just like it's like a 1342 01:26:47,240 --> 01:26:49,720 Speaker 1: cluster funck. Like they claimed that they actually did some 1343 01:26:49,840 --> 01:26:55,160 Speaker 1: successful assassinations. Um, there's one that was botched. They definitely 1344 01:26:55,200 --> 01:26:59,200 Speaker 1: attempted one that was botched. Um, it's just some of 1345 01:26:59,280 --> 01:27:01,360 Speaker 1: the quotes the sky got out of some of the 1346 01:27:01,720 --> 01:27:05,000 Speaker 1: some of these uh, some of these special operations veterans. 1347 01:27:05,160 --> 01:27:07,519 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm like, how in the world would you 1348 01:27:07,600 --> 01:27:10,680 Speaker 1: say that to a journalist, you idiot. The whole thing 1349 01:27:10,880 --> 01:27:14,120 Speaker 1: is just like a case study and and like how 1350 01:27:14,240 --> 01:27:17,360 Speaker 1: not to do it? And I mean it's like some 1351 01:27:17,479 --> 01:27:21,680 Speaker 1: Hogan Hogan's heroes type shit um and uh, I mean 1352 01:27:22,160 --> 01:27:24,040 Speaker 1: I wanted to bring this up because well, it's an 1353 01:27:24,080 --> 01:27:28,240 Speaker 1: interesting story. This this article. Actually it's basically the plot 1354 01:27:28,360 --> 01:27:31,360 Speaker 1: of my third novel that I published like maybe four 1355 01:27:31,439 --> 01:27:36,800 Speaker 1: years ago now, direct Action and The Pot of Shameless Plug. 1356 01:27:37,200 --> 01:27:40,840 Speaker 1: The plot of the book was, Um. It's about a 1357 01:27:40,960 --> 01:27:44,680 Speaker 1: group of former Seal Team six guys who are contracted 1358 01:27:44,760 --> 01:27:48,240 Speaker 1: to go to the Middle East and uh and kill um, 1359 01:27:49,080 --> 01:27:51,600 Speaker 1: not just terrorists, but kill people who are involved in 1360 01:27:51,640 --> 01:27:56,160 Speaker 1: the Arab Spring, like pro democracy movements, political people, um. 1361 01:27:56,560 --> 01:27:59,960 Speaker 1: And so it's like a rogue merk operation. And that's 1362 01:28:00,000 --> 01:28:02,480 Speaker 1: exactly what happened here. You have a bunch of misfits 1363 01:28:02,520 --> 01:28:06,400 Speaker 1: and weirdos um that were hired by this firm uh 1364 01:28:06,800 --> 01:28:08,720 Speaker 1: to go to the Middle East and kill I mean, 1365 01:28:09,280 --> 01:28:11,519 Speaker 1: we don't even know. And that's a main subject in 1366 01:28:11,560 --> 01:28:13,879 Speaker 1: the articles. How do you know these people you're targeting 1367 01:28:13,960 --> 01:28:16,360 Speaker 1: or terrorists? Some of them are just probably people who 1368 01:28:16,400 --> 01:28:19,160 Speaker 1: fell out of favor with the royal family. Uh. Some 1369 01:28:19,360 --> 01:28:24,559 Speaker 1: of them are um, you know, political people. So it's 1370 01:28:24,600 --> 01:28:27,760 Speaker 1: like it's really like the novel I wrote, coming to Life. 1371 01:28:27,800 --> 01:28:30,519 Speaker 1: In some ways, it's kind of creepy. UM. And I 1372 01:28:30,600 --> 01:28:33,240 Speaker 1: remember I remember years ago, I had an interview with 1373 01:28:34,040 --> 01:28:37,000 Speaker 1: another author and uh, someone who was a member of 1374 01:28:37,040 --> 01:28:40,320 Speaker 1: the intelligence community, J. T. Patton, and I was on 1375 01:28:40,479 --> 01:28:43,800 Speaker 1: his podcast and we were talking about my book and uh, 1376 01:28:44,120 --> 01:28:45,360 Speaker 1: and I was telling him, I was like, you know, 1377 01:28:45,400 --> 01:28:47,439 Speaker 1: there's a lot of real things in this novel, a 1378 01:28:47,560 --> 01:28:50,320 Speaker 1: lot of real incidents, a lot of real facts that 1379 01:28:50,400 --> 01:28:52,760 Speaker 1: I bled into it. But the actual plot of the book, 1380 01:28:52,800 --> 01:28:55,479 Speaker 1: this notion that these there's these renegade former soft guys 1381 01:28:55,560 --> 01:28:58,080 Speaker 1: running around the Middle East killing people. That's bullshit. I 1382 01:28:58,160 --> 01:29:00,640 Speaker 1: made that plot up. It's a word, a fiction, and 1383 01:29:00,680 --> 01:29:02,599 Speaker 1: I'd be shocked if it turned out to be true. 1384 01:29:02,960 --> 01:29:04,840 Speaker 1: And out today, I like, I will, I like roll 1385 01:29:04,960 --> 01:29:07,880 Speaker 1: over in bed and open my cell phone and uh. 1386 01:29:08,040 --> 01:29:10,639 Speaker 1: Some friends had sent me this article, like several different 1387 01:29:10,720 --> 01:29:12,880 Speaker 1: people and I got pull it open and I'm still 1388 01:29:12,960 --> 01:29:15,439 Speaker 1: laying in bed reading it and I'm like, holy fuck, 1389 01:29:16,120 --> 01:29:19,960 Speaker 1: it's really very depth article. I haven't read the whole thing. Yeah, 1390 01:29:20,280 --> 01:29:24,800 Speaker 1: it is um and you know, this is uh again, 1391 01:29:24,880 --> 01:29:27,439 Speaker 1: this is a it's a total like amateur hour deal. 1392 01:29:27,840 --> 01:29:29,960 Speaker 1: It just reminds me of like, you know, one of 1393 01:29:30,000 --> 01:29:33,280 Speaker 1: these Robert the Nero movies, like it should serve as 1394 01:29:33,320 --> 01:29:36,439 Speaker 1: a warning. Like you you feel the heat around the corner, 1395 01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:39,120 Speaker 1: you need to walk. You just turn away and walk. 1396 01:29:39,960 --> 01:29:41,840 Speaker 1: And if I was recruited for something like this and 1397 01:29:41,880 --> 01:29:45,120 Speaker 1: I'm in a hotel room and my secret black ops 1398 01:29:45,680 --> 01:29:48,880 Speaker 1: uh murk assassination unit shows up and they're like wearing 1399 01:29:48,960 --> 01:29:52,840 Speaker 1: cry precision pants and like runt style T shirts. Bro, 1400 01:29:53,200 --> 01:29:56,040 Speaker 1: that is the heat. Okay, you turn around, you walk 1401 01:29:56,120 --> 01:29:58,800 Speaker 1: your happy ass out that fucking door. Because this is 1402 01:29:58,800 --> 01:30:03,240 Speaker 1: amateur our ship. There is no fucking way any of 1403 01:30:03,439 --> 01:30:06,400 Speaker 1: any of our guys should be involved in bullshit like this. 1404 01:30:06,840 --> 01:30:08,920 Speaker 1: Like you want to go and do cool stuff, you know, 1405 01:30:09,080 --> 01:30:12,240 Speaker 1: you go to Jay Sock, You go through the recruitment process, 1406 01:30:12,320 --> 01:30:14,880 Speaker 1: become a c I, a case officer, go do that 1407 01:30:15,040 --> 01:30:18,160 Speaker 1: kind of ship. Um. I have talked friends at well, 1408 01:30:18,200 --> 01:30:20,519 Speaker 1: I've had people try to rope me into like bullshit 1409 01:30:20,680 --> 01:30:24,680 Speaker 1: mercenary stuff before. I've also had friends of mine who 1410 01:30:24,760 --> 01:30:27,120 Speaker 1: have told me about stuff they're thinking about jumping on. 1411 01:30:27,320 --> 01:30:30,519 Speaker 1: Like one one friend came to me years ago and 1412 01:30:30,720 --> 01:30:33,040 Speaker 1: was like, Oh, yeah, Jack, I'm talking to this uh 1413 01:30:33,439 --> 01:30:36,559 Speaker 1: this firm. Uh they want me to smuggle guns into 1414 01:30:36,640 --> 01:30:40,000 Speaker 1: this African country and like, go assassinate somebody has something 1415 01:30:40,040 --> 01:30:41,920 Speaker 1: to do with like gold mines or something like that. 1416 01:30:42,080 --> 01:30:45,960 Speaker 1: I was like, stop, stop, stop, Okay, they want you 1417 01:30:46,040 --> 01:30:50,760 Speaker 1: to smuggle guns from America into Africa. Fucking think about this. 1418 01:30:51,080 --> 01:30:53,320 Speaker 1: Nine nine times out of ten, what you're dealing with 1419 01:30:53,520 --> 01:30:56,040 Speaker 1: right now is an FBI sting and the second you 1420 01:30:56,160 --> 01:30:59,400 Speaker 1: move a weapon, you're going to fucking federal fucking prison. 1421 01:31:00,120 --> 01:31:02,439 Speaker 1: Think about what you're doing here, Like you gotta be smart, 1422 01:31:02,760 --> 01:31:04,880 Speaker 1: Like you get out of the military, and all these 1423 01:31:04,960 --> 01:31:08,800 Speaker 1: guys they have no idea what's legal or not legal 1424 01:31:08,920 --> 01:31:10,800 Speaker 1: a lot of times, or they're jumping on board with 1425 01:31:10,880 --> 01:31:14,360 Speaker 1: stuff that they really shouldn't be without thinking it through. Um. 1426 01:31:14,479 --> 01:31:16,920 Speaker 1: It goes back to that article I wrote about Tiger Swan. 1427 01:31:17,240 --> 01:31:23,360 Speaker 1: It's like, look, if somebody is giving you a a contract, you're, 1428 01:31:23,720 --> 01:31:26,559 Speaker 1: you know, a sergeant that just came out of range 1429 01:31:26,600 --> 01:31:28,680 Speaker 1: of battalion or a chief that just came out of 1430 01:31:28,680 --> 01:31:31,720 Speaker 1: a seal team. Maybe you should take that contract to 1431 01:31:31,800 --> 01:31:35,240 Speaker 1: an attorney and have them review it. And that's about 1432 01:31:35,360 --> 01:31:38,080 Speaker 1: keeping your ass out of the fire, because the people 1433 01:31:38,160 --> 01:31:40,640 Speaker 1: you're working for they don't give a funk about you, 1434 01:31:41,080 --> 01:31:43,559 Speaker 1: and they will hang you out to dry in a second. 1435 01:31:44,040 --> 01:31:47,680 Speaker 1: And even on the off chance that this is like 1436 01:31:47,840 --> 01:31:49,960 Speaker 1: some sort of like c I a cut out or 1437 01:31:50,040 --> 01:31:52,519 Speaker 1: something like that, I mean, here's what you look. The 1438 01:31:52,640 --> 01:31:55,040 Speaker 1: nature of cutouts is that they're designed to be burned. 1439 01:31:55,600 --> 01:31:58,920 Speaker 1: Like the second something goes sideways, whoever's behind it is 1440 01:31:58,960 --> 01:32:01,639 Speaker 1: just gonna walk. They're gonna turn and walk. And when 1441 01:32:01,720 --> 01:32:04,280 Speaker 1: some reporter calls up the CIA and it's like, oh, hey, 1442 01:32:04,760 --> 01:32:06,960 Speaker 1: did you guys ever do work with x y Z 1443 01:32:07,120 --> 01:32:10,160 Speaker 1: private military company, the CIA is gonna be like no, 1444 01:32:10,840 --> 01:32:15,000 Speaker 1: click done, And that's it. I mean, that is the 1445 01:32:15,120 --> 01:32:18,640 Speaker 1: nature of a cutout, and it's nothing personal. That's the 1446 01:32:18,760 --> 01:32:23,519 Speaker 1: nature of deniability, right so, and so I just want 1447 01:32:23,560 --> 01:32:26,920 Speaker 1: to say this to you know, young rangers, young seals, 1448 01:32:27,600 --> 01:32:30,880 Speaker 1: young green berets getting out of the service, do not 1449 01:32:31,120 --> 01:32:34,599 Speaker 1: get involved in this stupid petty bullshit with this want 1450 01:32:34,600 --> 01:32:38,759 Speaker 1: to be operator nonsense. And I know you're you're looking 1451 01:32:38,840 --> 01:32:42,240 Speaker 1: at these pictures on Instagram about how you're a fucking 1452 01:32:42,720 --> 01:32:46,920 Speaker 1: Ronan warrior and you're looking at operator is fuck Nation 1453 01:32:47,120 --> 01:32:49,479 Speaker 1: and it's telling you about doing hood rat ship and 1454 01:32:49,600 --> 01:32:53,080 Speaker 1: goon ship overseas. No, that's fucking gay. All right. I 1455 01:32:53,120 --> 01:32:55,240 Speaker 1: know you're not supposed to use gay as a pejorative term. 1456 01:32:55,280 --> 01:32:57,120 Speaker 1: I got it. But it's just like real talk for 1457 01:32:57,160 --> 01:33:00,720 Speaker 1: a moment here, Like, don't be fucking stupid guys. Come on, 1458 01:33:01,120 --> 01:33:03,439 Speaker 1: it's not worth going to jail, all right, It's not 1459 01:33:03,560 --> 01:33:06,640 Speaker 1: worth dying over some stupid ship. You're working for some 1460 01:33:06,760 --> 01:33:09,680 Speaker 1: fucking amateur who thinks he's gonna cash in big. The 1461 01:33:09,760 --> 01:33:11,840 Speaker 1: guy who ran this whole thing, it says in the article. 1462 01:33:11,880 --> 01:33:17,000 Speaker 1: Now he's he's doing like some vape cannabis uh company 1463 01:33:17,200 --> 01:33:19,920 Speaker 1: in California. Now, Like that's the kind of ship you're 1464 01:33:20,200 --> 01:33:23,519 Speaker 1: you're dealing with here. Don't do it, man, Go use 1465 01:33:23,560 --> 01:33:26,599 Speaker 1: your g I bill, go to school, do something normal 1466 01:33:26,680 --> 01:33:28,640 Speaker 1: if you want to go and do cool ship man, Like, 1467 01:33:29,160 --> 01:33:32,200 Speaker 1: like I said, apply to the c I A apply. Uh. 1468 01:33:32,400 --> 01:33:34,280 Speaker 1: You know, if you're in the military, go take the 1469 01:33:34,360 --> 01:33:39,560 Speaker 1: long walk. Uh. Go to Delta Force. It's a good unit. Professional, 1470 01:33:39,840 --> 01:33:41,880 Speaker 1: you know, go be it, Go be a Green Beret, 1471 01:33:42,120 --> 01:33:44,320 Speaker 1: whatever the funk it is. But don't get involved in 1472 01:33:44,360 --> 01:33:47,320 Speaker 1: this stupid amateur ship. Don't do it. Like I'm I'm 1473 01:33:47,400 --> 01:33:49,360 Speaker 1: tired of it and I'm tired of seeing Like good 1474 01:33:49,400 --> 01:33:52,479 Speaker 1: guys get hemmed up and don't even come to you. 1475 01:33:52,600 --> 01:33:54,679 Speaker 1: Some of these companies will come to you and they'll 1476 01:33:54,720 --> 01:33:57,599 Speaker 1: pretend like they're working. You know, we're we're doing we're 1477 01:33:57,680 --> 01:34:01,440 Speaker 1: drafting up some report for for names Maddest and Pompeio. 1478 01:34:01,800 --> 01:34:05,760 Speaker 1: So go overseas and collect all this intel for us. No, dude, no, 1479 01:34:06,479 --> 01:34:09,600 Speaker 1: get it in writing. You take that fucking thing. You 1480 01:34:09,680 --> 01:34:13,840 Speaker 1: know I want that in my contract right here. Well, 1481 01:34:14,240 --> 01:34:18,600 Speaker 1: the article is American mercenaries were hired to assassinate politicians 1482 01:34:18,640 --> 01:34:22,320 Speaker 1: in the Middle East, written by A rum Roston for 1483 01:34:22,520 --> 01:34:24,560 Speaker 1: buzz Speed check it out. It's like I said, I 1484 01:34:24,560 --> 01:34:26,760 Speaker 1: haven't read the whole thing. It's very indebted. I mean 1485 01:34:26,800 --> 01:34:29,880 Speaker 1: this is like a small book here. Yeah, man, Like 1486 01:34:30,000 --> 01:34:32,400 Speaker 1: I said, I mean, this guy locked in the story 1487 01:34:32,560 --> 01:34:35,080 Speaker 1: I think pretty good. And I don't have any firsthand 1488 01:34:36,040 --> 01:34:38,400 Speaker 1: or set even secondhand knowledge of this because it's not 1489 01:34:38,520 --> 01:34:41,040 Speaker 1: my story. I didn't work on this. But it's well 1490 01:34:41,120 --> 01:34:43,799 Speaker 1: done though, just from the liddle of that. He interviewed 1491 01:34:43,840 --> 01:34:45,800 Speaker 1: a number of people who are on this team, and 1492 01:34:46,000 --> 01:34:49,360 Speaker 1: he has drone footage, he has some documentation, so I 1493 01:34:49,400 --> 01:34:52,479 Speaker 1: mean he spent some time on it obviously, um, and 1494 01:34:52,600 --> 01:34:55,599 Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. Um. 1495 01:34:56,479 --> 01:34:58,760 Speaker 1: And again, I'm just kind of like beside myself by 1496 01:34:58,840 --> 01:35:01,080 Speaker 1: some of the similarities to this book I wrote four 1497 01:35:01,160 --> 01:35:05,320 Speaker 1: years ago. Um, you know, down to um, you know, 1498 01:35:05,560 --> 01:35:10,360 Speaker 1: former dev group guys carrying hatchets out on mercenary operations. 1499 01:35:10,520 --> 01:35:13,400 Speaker 1: It's like down down to that like granular level of detail. 1500 01:35:13,439 --> 01:35:15,840 Speaker 1: I'm like, what the funk? Man, It's it's exactly the 1501 01:35:15,880 --> 01:35:18,320 Speaker 1: same kind of crap I wrote about in this book. 1502 01:35:18,360 --> 01:35:20,800 Speaker 1: And I wish it had remained in a novel and 1503 01:35:20,880 --> 01:35:24,120 Speaker 1: it remained a work of fiction. But somebody is always 1504 01:35:24,160 --> 01:35:29,160 Speaker 1: dumb enough to actually do it. Yeah, crazy stuff man. Well, uh, 1505 01:35:29,760 --> 01:35:33,479 Speaker 1: next episode better Death to Our Grea because I am 1506 01:35:33,520 --> 01:35:37,680 Speaker 1: the Revolution is about to be in theaters. Well, so 1507 01:35:37,760 --> 01:35:40,120 Speaker 1: why there's gonna be a premier in New York. I 1508 01:35:40,120 --> 01:35:42,720 Speaker 1: don't know if it's gonna be my wife's documentary. She 1509 01:35:42,800 --> 01:35:46,360 Speaker 1: just did a Ted talk in Milan, you know, which 1510 01:35:46,439 --> 01:35:49,400 Speaker 1: is it's about, you know, amongst other things, it's about 1511 01:35:49,600 --> 01:35:52,720 Speaker 1: a a YPJ commander in Syria that she spent some 1512 01:35:52,840 --> 01:35:56,000 Speaker 1: time with. Um. But we'll talk about the other personalities 1513 01:35:56,000 --> 01:35:59,000 Speaker 1: in the documentary. And yeah, it's we're gonna do a 1514 01:35:59,080 --> 01:36:03,680 Speaker 1: premier in in November here, I'll be there as long 1515 01:36:03,760 --> 01:36:06,639 Speaker 1: as I'm invited to come from I might be able 1516 01:36:06,680 --> 01:36:09,840 Speaker 1: to hook you up, I would hope. So so yeah, 1517 01:36:09,880 --> 01:36:13,559 Speaker 1: Benny will be in next episode. Check out softwarep radio 1518 01:36:13,640 --> 01:36:16,600 Speaker 1: dot com. Check out facebook page. We're now on Spotify 1519 01:36:17,360 --> 01:36:20,920 Speaker 1: and the uh the new act SOFTWAREP Radio Act, which 1520 01:36:21,040 --> 01:36:25,200 Speaker 1: is all the episodes, all the way back episodes that 1521 01:36:25,280 --> 01:36:28,680 Speaker 1: aren't on Apple Podcasts anymore as well, so back and 1522 01:36:28,760 --> 01:36:32,479 Speaker 1: we at buzz Aldern on Diamond Dallas page all these 1523 01:36:32,520 --> 01:36:35,320 Speaker 1: crazy guests that we've had on from the past, so sweet. 1524 01:36:35,320 --> 01:36:38,639 Speaker 1: Appreciate you guys checking it out and uh as always 1525 01:36:38,680 --> 01:36:41,400 Speaker 1: leave a review on Apple podcast New episodes up every 1526 01:36:41,520 --> 01:36:45,679 Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday, and we're out guys. Hope you're checking 1527 01:36:45,720 --> 01:37:31,040 Speaker 1: out and enjoying these videos. We're doing as well. You've 1528 01:37:31,080 --> 01:37:35,400 Speaker 1: been listening to self red Radio new episodes of every 1529 01:37:35,439 --> 01:37:39,479 Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter 1530 01:37:39,920 --> 01:37:41,240 Speaker 1: at self red Radio