Speaker 1: The United States Military is facing its biggest recruiting challenge
Speaker 1: since we ended the draft in July of nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: The military has a recruiting problem. The Army missed its
Speaker 1: recruiting goal by about fifteen thousand new soldiers in two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty two, coming up short of its goal. I
Speaker 1: wonder why that is. Could it be because of this
Speaker 1: et cetera. I'll obviously have to get much sparter on
Speaker 1: whatever the theory is. UM. But I do think it's
Speaker 1: important actually for those of us in uniform to be
Speaker 1: open minded and be widely read. And the United States
Speaker 1: Military Academy is a university, uh, and it is important
Speaker 1: that we train and we understand UH. And I want
Speaker 1: to understand white rage. And I'm white and I want
Speaker 1: to understand it. So what is it that caused thousands
Speaker 1: of people to assault this building and try to overturn
Speaker 1: the constitution of the United States of America? What caused that?
Speaker 1: I want to find that out. I want to main
Speaker 1: in an open mind here, and I do want to
Speaker 1: analyze it. It's important that we understand that because our
Speaker 1: soul is sailors, airmond marines, and guardians. They come from
Speaker 1: the American people. So it is important that the leaders
Speaker 1: now and in the future do understand it. I've read
Speaker 1: Miles Tongue, I've read I've read call Marks, I've read Lenin.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make me a communist, So what is wrong
Speaker 1: with understanding having some situational understanding about the country for
Speaker 1: which we are here to defend. Although given some of
Speaker 1: the things he has said in the past, you might
Speaker 1: want to retract that statement about not subscribing the Communism
Speaker 1: and the fact that he was trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: work with the Chinese as uh President Trump was leaving
Speaker 1: office during the transition might raise some eyebrows as well.
Speaker 1: But you know, I digress. But what he was doing
Speaker 1: there was he was defending critical race theory because it's
Speaker 1: being taught in the United States Military Service academies. They've
Speaker 1: introduced some sort of form of critical race theory or
Speaker 1: anti racism training. In addition to that, the U. S.
Speaker 1: Army is putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns
Speaker 1: and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery.
Speaker 1: This has all been reported. So maybe that's why we're
Speaker 1: having recruiting challenge. Maybe that's why you think, and what
Speaker 1: does that recruiting challenge mean for the country. More broadly,
Speaker 1: what does that mean for fighting future wars? What kind
Speaker 1: of people are recruiting, what kind of people are choosing
Speaker 1: to sign up in today's military. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: do a segment about all of this, and I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, who better than to have the guy who
Speaker 1: killed Osama bin Laden, Rob O'Neil, Seal Team six, American badass,
Speaker 1: American hero. So we're gonna talk to him about his
Speaker 1: take all of this, also get into Ukraine a little
Speaker 1: bit as well, and really ask him the question, would
Speaker 1: you join today's military in this environment? Would you join it?
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk to him about that, and also
Speaker 1: just some of the missions that he's been on as well.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk to him about that morning a little
Speaker 1: after midnight when he took out a Sama bin Laden.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about his rescue of Captain Richard Phillips
Speaker 1: from Somali pirates in two thousand nine. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about being on the team leading the team that rescued
Speaker 1: Marcus Latrelle. So we're gonna talk to him a little
Speaker 1: bit about that as well. So it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: really interesting conference. I've met Rob too, He's an awesome guy,
Speaker 1: So stay tuned for Rob O'Neill. So I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to do a segment about the state of the military,
Speaker 1: and I thought to myself, who better than the guy
Speaker 1: who killed a Sama. So Rob O'Neill, thanks for the
Speaker 1: notorious badass American hero. Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for happy. I'm glad we finally
Speaker 1: got to make this happen. Great to be here. I
Speaker 1: know I've been wanting to get you off and so
Speaker 1: I'm so glad to happen. We were we were exchanging
Speaker 1: Twitter messages I think back and forth, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna make this happen because I think the two
Speaker 1: of us together we can make a lot of sense
Speaker 1: of nonsensical issues. So already, and Rob, if you've been
Speaker 1: paying attention, which I know you have, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of nonsense, right It's all nonsense. That's what keeps us
Speaker 1: both in business. Nonsense is just it's it's in no
Speaker 1: short terms right now, it's just it's madness. But we'll
Speaker 1: try to make some sense of it and bring some
Speaker 1: common sense. Yeah, well, we'll do our best. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: but before we get into kind of the state of
Speaker 1: the military and how we got here, I I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to you about that morning, a little after
Speaker 1: midnight on May second, two thousand eleven, when you took
Speaker 1: out a SAMBI laden. It was an honor for me
Speaker 1: to be invited to be part of a team. It
Speaker 1: was the right place at the right time. I was
Speaker 1: a Seal Team six and I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: the butterfly effect that I got there on accident. I
Speaker 1: made it to se in a long time before that
Speaker 1: to join the Navy because I tried to join the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps and the Marine recruiter was not in the office,
Speaker 1: and had he not been to lunch, I would not
Speaker 1: have joined the Navy. And you know, if you fast forward,
Speaker 1: I would not have done the mission. I would have
Speaker 1: my daughters. Um. But I got to a spot joining
Speaker 1: the Navy, a guy from Montana who didn't know how
Speaker 1: to swim. But um, I had a seal instructor tell
Speaker 1: me that I know you've read the books, I know
Speaker 1: you've seen the movies. Regardless of what you've been told,
Speaker 1: this course is not impossible. People graduate so I will
Speaker 1: never ask you to do anything impossible, but I will
Speaker 1: make you do something very hard followed by something very hard.
Speaker 1: Fallowed was something very hard, day after day after day
Speaker 1: for for ninth straight months. And that sounds like a
Speaker 1: lot to get from now to nine months or now.
Speaker 1: But don't think about it that way. That's not how
Speaker 1: you achieve a long term goal. Do it like this.
Speaker 1: Wake up in the morning on time, make your bed
Speaker 1: the right way, and brush your teeth. You just started
Speaker 1: the day with three victories. Make it to the foam
Speaker 1: workout on time. As I'm beating you, don't think about
Speaker 1: the pain concentrated your next goal of life, which is
Speaker 1: making it to breakfast after breakfast. Your net to go
Speaker 1: in life is making it to lunch after lunch, make
Speaker 1: it to dinner after dinner. Do everything you need to
Speaker 1: do to get back inside that perfectly made been. And
Speaker 1: because you took the time in the morning to make
Speaker 1: your bed the right way, regardless of how bad today
Speaker 1: was and it will be bad, tomorrow is a clean slate.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is a fresh start. And when you feel like quitting,
Speaker 1: which you will do, not quit right now. That's not
Speaker 1: how you achieve a want to go quick tomorrow. If
Speaker 1: you can keep quitting tomorrow, you can do anything in life.
Speaker 1: And that's how I became a Navy seal. That's how
Speaker 1: I got to seal Come six and then I was
Speaker 1: invited to be a part of that team twenty three
Speaker 1: of the best people I've ever met. UM got on
Speaker 1: the ground and I've been asked, how do you how
Speaker 1: do you? How do you clear a compound that big?
Speaker 1: And the way we did it was by a mastering
Speaker 1: the basics. UM, it's the guy in front of yours left,
Speaker 1: you go right. And I happened to be there. I
Speaker 1: had a front row seat to the greatest mission of
Speaker 1: modern history. And I just followed my guys, watching some
Speaker 1: of the coolest guys in the world. UM go from
Speaker 1: Florida floor and I ended up being the guy went
Speaker 1: at the last of the stairs, and because the guy
Speaker 1: in front of me went left, I went right, and
Speaker 1: there was a sawn and been lud and I shot him.
Speaker 1: And it was it was simply because we we went there.
Speaker 1: We didn't go there for the fame. We went there
Speaker 1: for the first Americans who actually fought Al Qaeda. Tote
Speaker 1: of toe Um on flight ninete and the reason they
Speaker 1: fought al Qaeda, um was to save the Capitol. And
Speaker 1: the coolest thing about them is that before they thought
Speaker 1: to the death, they voted. And that to me give
Speaker 1: me goose bumps right now as I tell you that. Sorry.
Speaker 1: And I just happened to be the right guy at
Speaker 1: the right place, at the right time, with the with
Speaker 1: the perfect team, the best pilots and the best air crew.
Speaker 1: And I just did what the nation asked. And that's
Speaker 1: as simple as it gets. What was that like to
Speaker 1: take out a guy who has killed so many Americans,
Speaker 1: has done so much harm to our country? It was,
Speaker 1: it was. It was almost surreal when when when the
Speaker 1: guy in front of me went up the stairs, I
Speaker 1: was right behind him. I remember, I can still close
Speaker 1: my eyes and see it. It wasn't um. It was
Speaker 1: more of a we're gonna blow up now, let's get
Speaker 1: it over with. And I squeezed him. We went up
Speaker 1: the stairs and when I saw him, he was taller
Speaker 1: than I said I thought, skinnier than I thought. Um.
Speaker 1: This the nation deserves it. It It was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was so surreal after I shot him as a
Speaker 1: good guy, as an American, when I shot because he
Speaker 1: was he had his hands on a Maldon Lawton's shoulders.
Speaker 1: He was pushing her towards me and I shot him.
Speaker 1: My first reaction was to move her out of the
Speaker 1: way because other Navy seals will be coming in the room.
Speaker 1: And then I saw his two year old son staring
Speaker 1: at me, and as a father, I remember that the
Speaker 1: humanity thinking this poor kid's got nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: and I moved him aside, put him on the bed,
Speaker 1: and another guy came in the room and I was
Speaker 1: standing over ben Lawn's body. I can hear him taking
Speaker 1: his last breath. And one of my guys came in.
Speaker 1: He looked at me. I was standing there and he
Speaker 1: said are you okay? And I said no, Um, what
Speaker 1: do we do now? And he said, well, now we
Speaker 1: find a computer. We do this every night. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: times we've done this. And said, yeah, you're right, I'm back.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, and said, yeah, you just killed a
Speaker 1: sombit lot of your life just changed. Is it just
Speaker 1: training that kicks in during that, because how do you
Speaker 1: I think clearly under that kind of I mean, is
Speaker 1: it just all of the training that just kicks in?
Speaker 1: Like I don't think at least it was it was
Speaker 1: the training. It was more of the missions we've been
Speaker 1: on before, because the I think the average guy there
Speaker 1: had done about three fifty four in a combat missions.
Speaker 1: We were experienced, so we knew what we were getting into.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't there wasn't even fear anymore. It was
Speaker 1: more of acceptance of what we're going to do. But
Speaker 1: we've done us so many times. It was just he
Speaker 1: was just a bigger threat, of bigger target. Even Bill mccraven,
Speaker 1: Admiral sorry, Admiral Bill mccraven. Before we left on the mission,
Speaker 1: he pulled us aside right before we left, and we're
Speaker 1: into all of that Afghanistan. We're gonna launch across the border,
Speaker 1: and he said, uh, he said, hey, you know what, guys,
Speaker 1: last night, I watched my favorite movie. Uh. It's called
Speaker 1: Hoosiers and it's about a basketball team in Hickory, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and they went to play the national or the state
Speaker 1: championship in Indianapolis. And there's seven guys on the team
Speaker 1: and they've never really been out of that gym, but
Speaker 1: they went to this huge arena and they're looking around,
Speaker 1: they're all star struck. And he recognized how his team
Speaker 1: was starstruck, and he grabbed a tape measure and said, okay,
Speaker 1: what's the measurement from the back of the rim to
Speaker 1: the feet of line? It's coach, Okay, they he got
Speaker 1: a short guy on the tall guys shoulders. What's what's
Speaker 1: the measurement from the hoop to the floor ten feet
Speaker 1: coach And he said, you'll find these are the exact
Speaker 1: same measurements as you're as you're gym and Hickory. It's
Speaker 1: just a bigger audience. And he looked at us Bill
Speaker 1: mc craven and said, gentlemen, you do this every night.
Speaker 1: It's just a bigger audience. And as we're leaving to
Speaker 1: get the helicopters, I pulled him aside. I said, Admiral,
Speaker 1: you're so busy selling this to the administration, right and
Speaker 1: I have really doubt you watched Hoosier's last night, but
Speaker 1: you were born to give us that speech right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: talk about a you know, a pep talk. It was
Speaker 1: really good. Well, like I said, I try to claim
Speaker 1: we were professionals. We didn't need that. But it's your health.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know. I played sport which does not
Speaker 1: even comparable with obviously what you guys did. But you know,
Speaker 1: those things do help because it gets you in the
Speaker 1: headspace and and you know what, it gets you ready
Speaker 1: to go out and get in the game, so to speak.
Speaker 1: So I don't playing team sports as a child is
Speaker 1: important for life. Um, I'm a big believer in it.
Speaker 1: I talked to professional football team NFL all the time,
Speaker 1: and I tell them it doesn't matter why it's second
Speaker 1: and fifteen, it just is. It's time's ticket, let's go,
Speaker 1: come on. That's it. Well, I was actually captain of
Speaker 1: the lacrosse team, but I didn't know that by the
Speaker 1: way too, so I probably should have. But you led
Speaker 1: the rescue teams for Captain Richard Phillips from the Smalley
Speaker 1: Pirates in two thousand nine, and also the team to
Speaker 1: rescue Marcus Littrell. So you have seen some things in
Speaker 1: your life. Yeah again, um. One of my favorite quotes,
Speaker 1: I don't know where to give credit, um, but something
Speaker 1: I heard was wherever you are, be there, and if
Speaker 1: you apply yourself, you can you can. You can find
Speaker 1: yourself in situation. So I I was. I was on
Speaker 1: the mission to find Margot's trail. I was a lead jumper.
Speaker 1: I actually left Virginia Beach on Good Friday, April tenth,
Speaker 1: three thousand nine, on my birthday for my daughter's preschool
Speaker 1: tea party, and fifteen hours and forty six minutes later,
Speaker 1: we jumped into the Indian Ocean, rescued uh Captain Phillis
Speaker 1: from Smally Pirates. So it's just it's just apply yourself,
Speaker 1: the realization that doesn't matter what you look like where
Speaker 1: you're from, you can do anything you want. You can
Speaker 1: find yourself in situations, but apply yourself and that's it.
Speaker 1: And it just I happened to be there a couple
Speaker 1: of different times, but my brother actually was messing with
Speaker 1: me today. I was talking to me, he said, I
Speaker 1: reminded Beforest. Gump, only I didn't have a shrimp boast.
Speaker 1: So so you're basically just at your daughter's tea party.
Speaker 1: And then they're like, yeah, so get ready, we've got
Speaker 1: something big for you. I had. I had a pink
Speaker 1: plate in my hand, and she was four years old,
Speaker 1: and I was giving I was putting smiley face cookies
Speaker 1: and cupcakes on on a plate and I walked over
Speaker 1: and I got a text message and said a guy
Speaker 1: by the name of Captain Richard Phillips has been captured
Speaker 1: by some of the pirates and your team is going
Speaker 1: to go get him now. And what's so cool about
Speaker 1: that is So that was two thousand nine. I was
Speaker 1: at Seal Team six, which is the count of Terror
Speaker 1: Team We. Seal Team six was designed to rescue American
Speaker 1: hostages at sea. It had never been done, says twenty
Speaker 1: nine years. It had never been done. And we jumped
Speaker 1: in there and and and if you're not familiar with
Speaker 1: the story, it was a Navy destroyer towing a light
Speaker 1: bulb with Captain Phillips on it. We didn't go there
Speaker 1: to kill those guys. We jumped in to rescue the hostage.
Speaker 1: We simply put snipers on the back of that boat
Speaker 1: to watch them to make sure nothing unsafe happened as
Speaker 1: we're preparing for the rescue. As we were preparing for
Speaker 1: the rescue, something very unsafe happened of a sniper shot.
Speaker 1: And the coolest thing about that those three snipers four
Speaker 1: days prior were in their own beds in Virginia on
Speaker 1: a long weekend. We've never done this. They're guns that
Speaker 1: not need to be sited in for the most difficult
Speaker 1: shots of their lives. But their guns were sited in
Speaker 1: for the most difficult shots of their lives because they
Speaker 1: were prepared. And one of the lessons I tell my
Speaker 1: guys is um complacency kills. Don't get complacent, don't rest
Speaker 1: on your world. The worst thing you can say is
Speaker 1: this is the way we've always done it. And I
Speaker 1: would tell my guys before mission, guys, don't die because
Speaker 1: you got bored. Do everything like you do everything well.
Speaker 1: And I know it's cited in it means now because
Speaker 1: I am an out officially gun owner and have been
Speaker 1: shot shooting guns over the past couple of guns, so
Speaker 1: I so I'm worth familiar. Do you have a shotgun
Speaker 1: at home? That's the best I tell my wife all
Speaker 1: the time. That's the best deterrent is a shotgun because
Speaker 1: as you're walking down the stairs if someone breaks in, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you could hear a shotgun cock, nothing else sounds
Speaker 1: like that, that's the best thing you can do for yourself.
Speaker 1: So Rob, we're doing baby steps. I just got a
Speaker 1: six hour three, so we're going to start with like
Speaker 1: a concealed carry. All'll start there. And no six six
Speaker 1: hours of my six hours of my favorite too. They
Speaker 1: don't they don't sponsor me. Yet they should. I've I've
Speaker 1: fired a six hour P six probably a million times
Speaker 1: in my life. I love that gun. I know how work.
Speaker 1: They should absolutely sponsor. But yeah, it's my favorite so far.
Speaker 1: So we're we're starting small and then maybe we'll but
Speaker 1: I have shot in a R fifteen and it's very
Speaker 1: easy to shoot, so and like, oh, it's it's amazing,
Speaker 1: it's amazingly uh friendly, it's a great gun. I love that.
Speaker 1: And then, by the way, it doesn't stand for assault rifle.
Speaker 1: It's it's not that. That's not even though the liberals
Speaker 1: say that to us, it's not, but it stands now.
Speaker 1: But I do. I do like it. So maybe if
Speaker 1: I was to get one, I would and it would
Speaker 1: also just make people go crazy, which I would appreciate.
Speaker 1: So but I think it'd be awesome. We we should
Speaker 1: actually you should get one, and you and I can.
Speaker 1: We we we should we should do that regardless. I would
Speaker 1: like that would be a lot of fun. I would
Speaker 1: love to do that quick commercial break back with American
Speaker 1: badass Rob O'Neil. You're talking about sort of this, you know,
Speaker 1: camaraderie with your team and working together as a cohesive
Speaker 1: unit and what we're saying in the military right now
Speaker 1: is you know a lot of this woke stuff like
Speaker 1: critical race theory and and all these things that actually
Speaker 1: drives division. What kind of impact do you think that
Speaker 1: has now on the military and moving forward, Well, it's
Speaker 1: it's a huge impact because you gotta figure put yourself
Speaker 1: in the in the shoes of a young man or
Speaker 1: woman that potentially wants to join the military, but they're
Speaker 1: seeing the negative repercussions of joining. They're saying, that's it's
Speaker 1: white supremacy. It's it's a negative and the same thing
Speaker 1: as trying to be a cop. They're saying, all this bad,
Speaker 1: Why would you want to do that? And it it
Speaker 1: really impacts them. When when when we have the Chairman
Speaker 1: of the Joint Chiefs, General Millie saying he doesn't understand
Speaker 1: white supremacy, but it's got to be there, it's that's nonsense.
Speaker 1: And the way that I h the way that I've
Speaker 1: seen it before is you know, you know, I think
Speaker 1: we're all in agreement that there shouldn't be you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be racist, you shouldn't be a pessimistic or anti anything.
Speaker 1: But that's as that's the conversation you need to have
Speaker 1: with them. And here's the thing that's bad. You're an asshole,
Speaker 1: don't do it. But they're spending all this money, wasting
Speaker 1: their time training people on what they should already know,
Speaker 1: because it's when when when When I first joined the Navy,
Speaker 1: the first thing they do is they put you in
Speaker 1: the same uniform. They cut your hair because there are
Speaker 1: no individuals and that's it. You're not you're not there
Speaker 1: too to show, to to to to represent yourself. That's it.
Speaker 1: One team, one fight. And I realized the first day
Speaker 1: that we're all from different places, but we're all scared.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a
Speaker 1: company or the guy that went and ben Lan's bedroom.
Speaker 1: We're all we've all had our first day and we're afraid.
Speaker 1: And that's okay, that's fine, and it's one team. But
Speaker 1: they're just bringing this negative political nonsense that doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be there when we should be concerned about determines
Speaker 1: forward defense and alliance solidarity, and they're taking away from it.
Speaker 1: And you're saying that the Army, I think was below
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand recruits this year and the only the only
Speaker 1: branch of service that's staying up is the Marine Corps
Speaker 1: because moneys are just awesome, and that's it. But they're
Speaker 1: they're they're they're they're they're taking away from what we
Speaker 1: should have in the military. And it's and and these
Speaker 1: these politicians don't really care because all all a politicians
Speaker 1: cares about, especially a congressman, is uh the next election,
Speaker 1: so that they'll spend eighteen months out of a two
Speaker 1: year term um on the campaign trail. That's it. And
Speaker 1: then they'll say this nonsense to get someone else to
Speaker 1: to whatever. And it's it's really affecting, um, what we
Speaker 1: have in the world, our our deterrence, our ford defense,
Speaker 1: like I said, our alliance solidarity is dwindling just because
Speaker 1: of these politicians. It's nonsense. Well, and it's also like, okay,
Speaker 1: so the I was reading that the U. S. Army
Speaker 1: is putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns and
Speaker 1: coaching officers on wind to offer soldiers gender trans transition surgery.
Speaker 1: And it's just like, the way I look at that
Speaker 1: is if you're a bad guy, right, like, if you're
Speaker 1: a Roan, you're terrorists, your isis your whatever I mean,
Speaker 1: are aren't you like looking at that as weak? That
Speaker 1: this is the focus of our military. The Vladimir Putin
Speaker 1: is laughing at us right now. You said that, he said,
Speaker 1: look at these idiot Americans. They can't even decide what
Speaker 1: gender they are. And and he he really is. And
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in in in personal freedom. You
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you want to do doing yourself. You
Speaker 1: don't affect someone else. Fine, But we've made such a
Speaker 1: big deal out of it, especially the media. And I'm
Speaker 1: not even sure what the media has to but they're
Speaker 1: gaining out of this nonsense. But Voltomer buds watching, Jesu
Speaker 1: Ping is watching, and and it's it's like it or not.
Speaker 1: It's making us weak and they're taking advantage. Um, look
Speaker 1: look at Voltomer Putin getting Ukraine's inde Ukraine right now,
Speaker 1: I know so many parts and Jesus Biggs going bade
Speaker 1: Taiwan probably for the end of the year, and there's
Speaker 1: nothing we can do about it. We're begging Saudi Arabia
Speaker 1: for oil because they know we're weak, because they look
Speaker 1: at the way we're talking to each other, and it's
Speaker 1: complete weakness. If you were young Rob O'Neil today, would
Speaker 1: you still join the military, Would you join today's military.
Speaker 1: What I would, Um, I've thought about this a lot.
Speaker 1: I could ask that, of course, quite a bit. If
Speaker 1: I had, I thought it was unique. No, no, it's no,
Speaker 1: it's good. I think I probably if uh, maybe a
Speaker 1: freshman high school, I would tell Rob O'Neil to get
Speaker 1: straight a's and get into the Naval Academy and learn
Speaker 1: how to fly jets. Um, I would definitely join. But
Speaker 1: the best advice I had for myself, and and I'm
Speaker 1: just breaking it down simplicity, master the basics. If I
Speaker 1: could give fifteen year old Rob O'Neil any advice, that
Speaker 1: advice is this simple, ask her out. Take the shot.
Speaker 1: That's it. Take the shot in life. And then, I
Speaker 1: don't mean you know either him or her manner woman
Speaker 1: asked her out, ask him out, but take the shot,
Speaker 1: because because I mean, the worst thing happens is she
Speaker 1: says no, and you're right back where you started, or
Speaker 1: she says yes. When whenever people say well why is that?
Speaker 1: Why is that good looking girl dating that ugly guy?
Speaker 1: You know why? Because he took the chance, he asked
Speaker 1: take the shot. But the point I'm getting at is,
Speaker 1: in life, take the shot. You mentioned the recruiting challenges. Uh,
Speaker 1: So the armed forces is facing it's the biggest recruiting
Speaker 1: challenge since the military very draft ended in July of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. As you mentioned, ERMI missed recruiting goal
Speaker 1: of about fifteen thousand soldiers, coming up short of its goal.
Speaker 1: Recruitment challenges sort of all around. You know what, how
Speaker 1: do we reshape that? You know what? What do you
Speaker 1: think behind that? Why aren't people wanting to join the
Speaker 1: military right now? I think it's the wocus. I think
Speaker 1: it's the um uh. I think the masculinity is being
Speaker 1: shown as weakness and and you know you shouldn't try
Speaker 1: to be a part of this more I don't. I
Speaker 1: think it's um. The two oceans on our left and right,
Speaker 1: Atlantic specific and have given us too much freedom, and
Speaker 1: we don't realize the bad stuff. And there's bad people
Speaker 1: in the world, uh, and they want to do us
Speaker 1: harm and we need good people to defend us. And
Speaker 1: the the unfortunate thing is when it comes to I
Speaker 1: mean we I have nothing but faith in this country,
Speaker 1: and I know that good men and women are joining
Speaker 1: and I think right now is kind of being cast
Speaker 1: over because of stuff like Minecraft or TikTok or or
Speaker 1: what China is doing sending spies into our schools at
Speaker 1: n y U. I don't know how many spies are
Speaker 1: in New York. Um. And it's just the bad thing
Speaker 1: is that once the day comes where we need to
Speaker 1: defend ourselves, we do have the men and women there.
Speaker 1: But if I don't want it to take it something
Speaker 1: to shake us up, and I think it might that
Speaker 1: that's it. But but you know, I have faith. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm an eternal optimist. Um. But but you know
Speaker 1: we're we're closer that day and it's gonna be. I
Speaker 1: mean you look at look how many uh on both
Speaker 1: sides of the eye. Look how many Congressmen, how many senators?
Speaker 1: The President talking about nuclear holocaust when they don't quite
Speaker 1: realize what that means. What what the collapsing of the
Speaker 1: ozone layer? When d nuclear weapons are detonated in Russia, China,
Speaker 1: the West, and the United States. It's it's a very
Speaker 1: real thing. But I I do have faith on a
Speaker 1: lot of our people. I just think one of my
Speaker 1: favorite quotes is from Babe Ruth. He said, the loudest
Speaker 1: booze come from the eat of seats. So we're hearing
Speaker 1: the loud mouths on the left and the right, but
Speaker 1: I think most of us in the middle, and I
Speaker 1: consider you and you and I in the middle. Um,
Speaker 1: I think that the reality will set it. It just
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a hard price to pay. Do you
Speaker 1: think the standard should be if you are not willing
Speaker 1: to send your own son or daughter to that specific war,
Speaker 1: then we shouldn't go. Yeah, I think so too. It's
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a tough one too, because I has
Speaker 1: some as someone who's been to war as a young
Speaker 1: Navy seal when we invaded Iraq, I was so excited
Speaker 1: to go to war because I will kill anybody. But now,
Speaker 1: you know, pushing fifty years old, I kind of look
Speaker 1: back and realize that a lot of people are making
Speaker 1: decisions based on politics. I think the war is uh.
Speaker 1: I think war is nasty. War's violent, war is fast,
Speaker 1: and it's permanent, and I don't wish it on anybody there.
Speaker 1: I've seen so many people in combat zones that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize that most people are just
Speaker 1: trying to get on with their lives. Most people are
Speaker 1: good people. Some of the most welcoming people I've ever
Speaker 1: met when Ramadi Iraq when I was in the house,
Speaker 1: Um getting mud on their floor and looking at them thinking,
Speaker 1: I understand why they hate us, but we should most
Speaker 1: of us shouldn't be doing that stuff. But you know,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to it, um, yeah, we will
Speaker 1: need those people that you know in the parents too,
Speaker 1: that will send their kids to do that. There were
Speaker 1: no consequences for our military leaders with the botched Afghanistan
Speaker 1: pull out or lying to us about that drone strike
Speaker 1: that ended up taking out a were an AID worker
Speaker 1: and his kids. What happens when there are no consequences
Speaker 1: for failed actions like that. The only officer that was
Speaker 1: funnished for that was the lieutenant colonel and I forget
Speaker 1: his name, sorry, but he came out on Facebook and
Speaker 1: said that they shouldn't be doing or YouTube and said
Speaker 1: they shouldn't be doing this. Somebod needs to be held
Speaker 1: accountable and he was used fired. The only person speaks
Speaker 1: up against the system. Um, everyone else is scott free.
Speaker 1: There's no no repercussions at all because nobody gets held
Speaker 1: accountable because again our news cycle and then there's trying
Speaker 1: to get you know, the politicians trying to get re
Speaker 1: elect two months he or six months there for senators,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's nonsense and and and uh, it's
Speaker 1: you know, how much money can we make from the
Speaker 1: military industrial complex to get re elected, to get to
Speaker 1: make sure that a lot of these places make more
Speaker 1: money based on the wars were funding. It's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a vicious cycle because a lot of the money
Speaker 1: that we make, you gotta figure DC doesn't produce anything,
Speaker 1: but they make a lot of money and then they
Speaker 1: pay the contractors. The only thing more expensive than war
Speaker 1: is preparation for war, which we're doing right now, sending
Speaker 1: billions to Ukraine, and the only people suffering in that
Speaker 1: are the civilians in Ukraine. But no one knows where
Speaker 1: the money is going. We spent billions and maybe four
Speaker 1: land canvas made it there. No nobody knows where it's going.
Speaker 1: No one's seeing No one knows what Zelinski is doing.
Speaker 1: He's an actor in a green room and Hollywood if
Speaker 1: he's so under durest, but he's got Hollywood actors going
Speaker 1: over there taking picture. Nobody knows what's happening. And this
Speaker 1: is this is the self licking ice cream cone. And
Speaker 1: it's a shame that they're using war to make money
Speaker 1: to to keep funding themsel we're also just being told
Speaker 1: nonsense like Russia sabotaged their own pipelines, Like why they
Speaker 1: already control the supply right, Like we've already seen them
Speaker 1: shut lord Stream off. We've already seen them shut other
Speaker 1: pipelines off, turn them back, like they already control it.
Speaker 1: To why would you sabotage your leverage over Europe? It
Speaker 1: just makes no sense. You can't can't even get an
Speaker 1: answer out of them. Because something happened with nord Stream.
Speaker 1: No one knows what it was, and they're asking you
Speaker 1: if it's the United States, they're asking if it's Russia. Um, No,
Speaker 1: nobody knows what's happening because nobody tells anyone the truth.
Speaker 1: They tell you what you want to hear, and then
Speaker 1: we forget about it. Um. The energy energy is the
Speaker 1: end all deal. The reason that the reason that the
Speaker 1: gas prices so high, the reason that how woween treats
Speaker 1: are are so expensive, the reason it's so expensive to
Speaker 1: send your kids back to college, all comes back to
Speaker 1: being energy independent. And the only thing you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: the only person we ever had. They went to d
Speaker 1: C to try to get the Goddess Energy Independent filled
Speaker 1: our strategic loyal reserves of Donald Trump, and and he
Speaker 1: realized the hard way that if you go against the swamp,
Speaker 1: swamp has fangs and it will come at you non stop.
Speaker 1: And that's all that happened. You have one guy in there,
Speaker 1: the only president, by the way, that hasn't started the war,
Speaker 1: and he got ostracized. That's it's it's it's crazy if
Speaker 1: you if you just stop and look at what is happening,
Speaker 1: you can see like the Lindsay Graham's, the the the
Speaker 1: uh Ms, McConnell's, the Hillary Clinton's. It's not the person
Speaker 1: that's in the White House for four years that's the problem.
Speaker 1: It's the person that's in the capital for fifty years
Speaker 1: that's the problem. And for some reason we just keep
Speaker 1: buying their nonsense, like we like Nancy Pelosia. There are
Speaker 1: people in California. They don't even realize she's their representative. Trump. Well,
Speaker 1: Trump totally reshaped my thinking on all of this stuff
Speaker 1: because he really showed us that you can legitimately have
Speaker 1: peace through strength, you know, like sending those tom Hawk
Speaker 1: missiles to Syria or the Mother of All bombs. And
Speaker 1: so he absolutely reshaped my thinking on all the foreign policy. Well,
Speaker 1: look what he did with the that Iranian general when
Speaker 1: he killed him right outside of the bag that an
Speaker 1: national airport. That was a That was a ballsy move
Speaker 1: to kill him right outside to show them I'm not
Speaker 1: messing around with you guys. And that's what we need,
Speaker 1: peace through strength. We need the Ronald Reagan that said,
Speaker 1: uh to Michail Gorber that not only is a nuclear
Speaker 1: war unwinnable, it should never be fought. The realization and
Speaker 1: not the transgender pronoun bathroom bullshit? Who who was telling
Speaker 1: you the truth and legitimately cares about you, me and
Speaker 1: our families. That's it, And it's not that hard. Once
Speaker 1: they start spinning this nonsense. You start to get these
Speaker 1: politicians to talk up both sides of their mouth all
Speaker 1: they're trying to get reelected, and it's I I just
Speaker 1: I really wish for people would because I think most
Speaker 1: people are are centrists. I really did like I'm more
Speaker 1: liberal than people would realize as far as socially, um
Speaker 1: fisically I'm conservative, but most of us are like that.
Speaker 1: But you get these nonsensical nonsense, which even sounds ridiculous
Speaker 1: to say it all they're trying to do is personal power,
Speaker 1: get re elected and make more money. Look how many
Speaker 1: uh like Paul Pelosi. Oh my god, he's you know,
Speaker 1: he better than Steve Forbes as far as trading stocks
Speaker 1: because oh this is coincidence. Nows wife has given him
Speaker 1: inside information. Quick commercial break. You're gonna want to stay
Speaker 1: right there, trust me. Well, I think Trump might be
Speaker 1: the only guy that went to d C and came
Speaker 1: out worse, you know, like they all go to like
Speaker 1: he because he was already rich. Right, he didn't need
Speaker 1: the job. You have all these other people like Gear
Speaker 1: pointing out they go to get Ridge. Yeah, he didn't.
Speaker 1: He didn't need that. The last thing Donald Trump needed
Speaker 1: it was to be in the White House. But he
Speaker 1: did it, and he did it for the right reasons
Speaker 1: because he, I mean, believe it or not, he cares
Speaker 1: about Americans and and and nowadays being America first is
Speaker 1: racist or something, which is nonsense because every country has
Speaker 1: a border. Martha's vineyard has a border, but we don't
Speaker 1: in the South. And all he wanted to do was
Speaker 1: a border security and freedom, freedom to prosper. That's all
Speaker 1: he was wanting to do. But they started labeling in
Speaker 1: because that's that's what these politicians, that's what these um
Speaker 1: reporters do. For some reason, I can't figure it out.
Speaker 1: I'd love to figure it out, but I can't. Well,
Speaker 1: and to like they're all afraid of them, you know,
Speaker 1: like Putin didn't try this stuff under Trump. And then
Speaker 1: one of my friends, uh, well, when someone was telling
Speaker 1: me in the military about like Iran took out one
Speaker 1: of her drones and it made a bunch of news.
Speaker 1: But they were telling me that if you understand flight patterns,
Speaker 1: you which you probably do, but I don't. This is
Speaker 1: just what the person told me who I trust. But
Speaker 1: they were saying that if you looked at the way
Speaker 1: the drone flies, it was clearly not man it was
Speaker 1: not man craft or what is it, it was an
Speaker 1: unmanned drone because of the flight patterns, and so when
Speaker 1: they took out or drone, they knew it wasn't manned.
Speaker 1: So it was like a way to like quote unquote
Speaker 1: retaliate without actually instigating anything further. It was like more
Speaker 1: of a safe face a face saving operation. So like
Speaker 1: even with stuff like that, it's like they didn't want
Speaker 1: to really mess with Trump because they knew they'd be
Speaker 1: on the receiving end of a lot. No, Well then
Speaker 1: they understood what what no, but Donald Trump do and
Speaker 1: and that's what we need as a leader. And um,
Speaker 1: you know he he would do that. President Obama would
Speaker 1: do that. Um. The two missions that we talked about,
Speaker 1: would we rescued um long survivor I'm sorry when we
Speaker 1: rescued Captain Phillips and killed Bin Laden. Obama was in charge.
Speaker 1: And because he understood, even though we disagree politically that
Speaker 1: southside politics, don't mess with me, or I will do this.
Speaker 1: And that's called deterrence. And we just don't have that
Speaker 1: right now because everyone'sn't worried about like John Federman from Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: what's called up, John Federwoman whatever nonsense he's saying in
Speaker 1: between his strokes to try to sound like someone that's
Speaker 1: just begging for votes. I think it's a shame. I mean,
Speaker 1: when when when we're a position like that where potentially
Speaker 1: gonna put someone in office, they can't even hear how
Speaker 1: much of our recruiting challenges with the military. Do you
Speaker 1: think comes down to Joe Biden, Like just people young
Speaker 1: guys being like, you know what, I'm not fighting for
Speaker 1: this guy. You know, like he's destroying the country. He
Speaker 1: hates America. I'm not. I'm not doing this for him.
Speaker 1: Do you think that has anything to do with it?
Speaker 1: I think I think it's a lot because nobody wants
Speaker 1: to get involved with a lot of this. Uh uh.
Speaker 1: It goes back to defund the police, It goes back
Speaker 1: to anyone trying to defend this country is a certain name,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of it has to do
Speaker 1: with it with the borders. It's with it's all, you know,
Speaker 1: all that stuff where they're they're making the people who
Speaker 1: just want to do the right thing by us the
Speaker 1: bad guys, like when we're we're handing out xboxes to
Speaker 1: illegal aliens in New York, homeless veterans are a problem.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be a part of that. It's just
Speaker 1: a shame, I mean, and at all, even though it's
Speaker 1: political talking points for a lot of these people, it
Speaker 1: comes it does come back to the individual making the decision,
Speaker 1: and you can see it, I mean, the results of
Speaker 1: the results of themselves. Nobody wants to be part of this.
Speaker 1: As someone who was quite literally willing to give his
Speaker 1: life for his country, how infuriating and frustrating is it
Speaker 1: to see the deterioration that has taken place under Joe Biden. Well,
Speaker 1: the faith that I have is with the engineers, with
Speaker 1: the pilots, with the people that design the aircraft carriers
Speaker 1: and the submarines and missiles, the torpedoes. I know they're
Speaker 1: out there and I know they're doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: And again the noise gets the attention. So we do
Speaker 1: have good people out there, but we're just cutting it.
Speaker 1: We're cutting it short of more good people that could
Speaker 1: be in there. Um And and it's it's everything from
Speaker 1: from you know, just just the way that for some reason,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of the media, a lot
Speaker 1: of social media, or making America the bad guy. And
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be that way. It is that way until
Speaker 1: they need us, um. But it's definitely an effect. Was
Speaker 1: a COVID vaccine mandate, an attempt to purge the military
Speaker 1: of certain people. I don't know what was going on
Speaker 1: with that. I UM. I was a guy like I said,
Speaker 1: when when we invaded Iraq, they they did make us
Speaker 1: get vaccinated for smallpox, And I said, I don't know
Speaker 1: how many thirteen or fourteen shots of anthrax. And at
Speaker 1: the time, I was like I'm in the military and
Speaker 1: they they're telling me to do what I gotta do it. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that I do think they were making a
Speaker 1: political stance again with the guys in the military, the
Speaker 1: men and women in the military that said they're not
Speaker 1: going to do it for religious reasons. That's that's kind
Speaker 1: of on you. You are at a point where you're
Speaker 1: taking wordse so you kind of got to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: But I think that you know, now that they are
Speaker 1: admitting that the vaccine didn't work, I think they should
Speaker 1: reinstates you guys, because they wore definitely make political points
Speaker 1: out of it. Yeah. Uh well, and then to like
Speaker 1: the Florida Surgeon General did some research and studies finding
Speaker 1: that for young men in particular, it increases the chance
Speaker 1: of cardiac arrest I think by like something like over
Speaker 1: eight percent, which is pretty wild figure people in that shape.
Speaker 1: They're pretty good shape. They don't really need it and
Speaker 1: they're not not in the kill zone. Yeah, and like
Speaker 1: probably not good to increase her issues for guys who
Speaker 1: are going to be you know, writting like a billion
Speaker 1: miles and you know, doing some pretty crazy workout stuff.
Speaker 1: That stuff that I couldn't do, like Uh do you
Speaker 1: miss serving? I missed the camaraderie. And like I'm saying earlier,
Speaker 1: ID talk to three of my guys today and uh,
Speaker 1: it's just nice to reminisce. Some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I miss is the skydive trips that we would go
Speaker 1: to Tucson, Arizona, do ten jumps a day and they
Speaker 1: go to the trident, burn grill, hang out with Nelson
Speaker 1: Miller of beers, and wake up the next day. Scott,
Speaker 1: I missed that part. Um the other stuff, Um, we
Speaker 1: we we can make a lot of things suck. We
Speaker 1: make scuba diving suck, we make sniper stuff suck. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily miss that, but I tell you what,
Speaker 1: the camaraderie. That the old adage that misery loves company
Speaker 1: is true because some of the worst times, some of
Speaker 1: the darkest times in my life, brought out the best humor.
Speaker 1: And I do miss that. Um and and again, to
Speaker 1: answer your question earlier, I would totally do it again.
Speaker 1: We're saying, you know, real concerns with suicide rates for veterans.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that is and what should we
Speaker 1: be doing differently to help our veterans postermatic stress disorder
Speaker 1: is real. And a lot of the stuff that we
Speaker 1: were sent to do, they asked a lot of us
Speaker 1: and it's okay. And I tell veterans right now that
Speaker 1: if you're having a bad day, just call someone. But
Speaker 1: if you're having a good day, call someone because they
Speaker 1: might be having a bad day. And the isolation is
Speaker 1: um and just the realizing some of stuff we did
Speaker 1: was bad and it was it's not normal. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: there're there are people that I think about every day
Speaker 1: that I killed, that I fought in Iraq, And the
Speaker 1: only reason I killed them was because they grabbed a gun.
Speaker 1: The only reason they grabbed a gun is because I
Speaker 1: was in their room. And had we met, you know,
Speaker 1: the only reason I shot this guy's because we were
Speaker 1: born on different parts of the planet. Had we met
Speaker 1: somewhere else, would would we have gotten along? Would he
Speaker 1: have been a funny guy? And I figured about these people? Um,
Speaker 1: So you know a lot of people that a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff. You're not alone, just um, you know,
Speaker 1: get out there talks, so get outside. You wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning, get outside, see the sun and and
Speaker 1: and call a friend. And you're not You're not alone.
Speaker 1: I see too many of my friends killed themselves and
Speaker 1: it's not it's definitely not worth it. Like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: the clock keeps tick and tank keeps going and and
Speaker 1: it will heal everything. You'll be just finding I mean
Speaker 1: even if like even on Twitter, I'll tell people give
Speaker 1: me a call, I'll talk to you as here guys
Speaker 1: talk about you know, boots and suits. Do we need
Speaker 1: changes in terms of people like Mark Millie who's the
Speaker 1: chairman of the Joints Chief and Staff. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: an easy fix to the problem, is there. Uh, what
Speaker 1: what I always say about the military brass is when
Speaker 1: you get to a point where you're not carrying your
Speaker 1: own luggage, you need to leave. So we we shouldn't
Speaker 1: have four star generals in charge. We should have majors
Speaker 1: for a lieutenant colonel in charge, people that that know
Speaker 1: the sergeant that met the startain major know the master
Speaker 1: chief to talk to the people that realize the pulse
Speaker 1: of the men and women on the ground. We they're
Speaker 1: promoting themselves out of work and they're just they're they're
Speaker 1: so these are people that when they go to the
Speaker 1: v a uh, they call a week before so the
Speaker 1: VA spit shines everything. So they just see the best version.
Speaker 1: I want people that I want to I want people
Speaker 1: to see us that are worse because you don't learn
Speaker 1: from success, you learn from failure. And guys like Mark
Speaker 1: Miller just so out of touch and they're surrounded by
Speaker 1: yes men. They're surrounded by people that simply tell them
Speaker 1: what they want to hear so that they can get
Speaker 1: their job eventually. And that's a shame. That's that's just
Speaker 1: typical with government bureaucracy everywhere. So I have the have
Speaker 1: the lower ranking manner woman immediately in charge and they'll
Speaker 1: handle the flight. Would we win a major war right now, yes, Um,
Speaker 1: we would, um, just because we have so many smart
Speaker 1: people that are controlling the satellites and the the ships
Speaker 1: and the subs. China's got a bigger navy than we
Speaker 1: do right now, but um, we are designed to destroy
Speaker 1: big militaries, and so I think personally we can beat
Speaker 1: Russia and China at the same time and a matter
Speaker 1: of days. Um. And we're not going to announce that,
Speaker 1: but that's that's just the way it is. That's that's
Speaker 1: the way we're built. And like I said to the
Speaker 1: nuclear war is not even worth talking about. That that's
Speaker 1: well nobody wins in nuclear war. But yeah, we we can.
Speaker 1: We can win all the Yes, beer badass in an
Speaker 1: actual American hero. Is there anything else you want to
Speaker 1: leave us with before we go? Um? No, at least
Speaker 1: I really appreciate having me. Definitely check out the Operator Podcast.
Speaker 1: I just did episode eleven, and I talked about stuff
Speaker 1: like this and and the way that I break it down.
Speaker 1: I called the Operator Podcast because I used to be
Speaker 1: an operator. But everyone's an operator. The single mom raising
Speaker 1: her kids, the guy that takes up the trash at
Speaker 1: three am in New York City, the plumber that those
Speaker 1: are operators making light better, and I just break it
Speaker 1: down operator Operator, and I talked about stuff just like this.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you to check that out. That's awesome. Thanks for
Speaker 1: your service. Rob, you are a badass, and I really
Speaker 1: you're You're awesome. I've met you before. You're a great guy.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you taking the time to come on
Speaker 1: the show. You've made my day. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for having I really appreciate it. So that was Robin
Speaker 1: Oleo still Team six Hero took out a Salma bid Ladden.
Speaker 1: I've met m be Or at Fox is a really
Speaker 1: good guy, a really great guy. So I appreciate in
Speaker 1: this time and I appreciate you guys listening to the
Speaker 1: show every Monday Thursday, but you can listen whenever you
Speaker 1: want because that's how it works podcast. But I would
Speaker 1: love you to leave us a review, give us five
Speaker 1: stars and Apple if you wouldn't mind. I want to
Speaker 1: thank John Cassio, my producer, for for putting this together
Speaker 1: as always. Uh until next time.