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Speaker 1: Ah beaute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not

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Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military

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Speaker 1: News and straight Talk with the Guys and the Community

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Speaker 1: Softwrep Radio on time on Target. This show is brought

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Speaker 1: to you by Create Club, a club fore men by

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Speaker 1: men of gear, handpicked by Special Operations military veterans. Visit

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Speaker 1: create Club dot Us for an exclusive promotion for our

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Speaker 1: listeners of off any gearbox of your choice. This is

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Speaker 1: know how long we can keep this promotion live. So

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Speaker 1: dot Us coupon code soft rep for off any gearbox.

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Speaker 1: Sign up now. And on this show we have Jose Toblada,

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Speaker 1: a thirteen year veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps

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Speaker 1: and a Force Reconnaissance Marine. The guy's background is pretty insane,

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Speaker 1: being a scout sniper, a whole lot of other stuff

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Speaker 1: and I'm I'm excited to talk to him, but before

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Speaker 1: we do, it's so funny. Man C. J. Ramone is

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Speaker 1: like the number one fan of this show, and uh

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Speaker 1: like when when we did the Q and A show,

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Speaker 1: he said a bunch of questions, and then we had

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Speaker 1: him on and then he's still sending questions. But I

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Speaker 1: thought this was a good one because it seems like

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Speaker 1: everybody is very interested in this Eddie Gallagher um case.

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Speaker 1: Every time it's it's discussed on this show, we get

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Speaker 1: a lot of feedback, sometimes negative, sometimes positive, but it

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Speaker 1: definitely evokes a reaction from people. Um. So he actually

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Speaker 1: messaged me this, He wrote, Ian, I can't direct message Jack,

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Speaker 1: but I wanted to ask the both of you your

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Speaker 1: opinions on the Eddie Gallagher case. I'm not arguing for

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Speaker 1: his innocence. I haven't seen all the information on it,

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Speaker 1: but what's expected of our Special Operations teams and the

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Speaker 1: r o s they operate by. I believe it puts

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Speaker 1: them under unreasonable darrests and creates an environment in which

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Speaker 1: the rules of engagement and even human decency are guaranteed

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Speaker 1: to be compromised. I understand that the law is the

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Speaker 1: law and the rules are the rules, but they are

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Speaker 1: extreme mitigating circumstances in cases like these. How much can

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Speaker 1: we expect from a small group of people tasked with

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Speaker 1: the safety of the free world. Being considered a professional

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Speaker 1: does not exempt them from the same mental breakdowns that

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Speaker 1: are common to all human beings exposed to UH and

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Speaker 1: involved in situations of extreme violence. I don't believe operators

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Speaker 1: can be judged in the same way the average citizen is.

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Speaker 1: No one should be given a pass, but when judging

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Speaker 1: the men and women who do the jobs, only the

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Speaker 1: elite can do what they've seen and done before must

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Speaker 1: be taken into consideration, also in fairness to them. So UM,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot to unpack there. I actually disagree quite profoundly.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that special operators should be judged in

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Speaker 1: any different way. I don't think that just because you

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Speaker 1: go through selection that like you have a license to kill,

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Speaker 1: or you know, like I can go out and just

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Speaker 1: like herb stomps some old lady and like, that's okay

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Speaker 1: because I went through some selection course. It's not. Um.

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Speaker 1: If anything, our standards should be higher. Uh. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been asked about this, and I've weighed in on it,

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Speaker 1: and I've tried to be um fair about it because

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Speaker 1: I don't have the facts of the case and a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are out there playing barracks lawyer right

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Speaker 1: now thinking they know what they're talking about, making these

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Speaker 1: like very um strong proclamations um, either of innocence or

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Speaker 1: guilt um, neither of which you know, I don't think

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Speaker 1: any of us unless you're somehow involved in the court

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Speaker 1: case or a direct witness. I mean you you just

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Speaker 1: don't have that information. Um. What that the allegation is

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Speaker 1: is that Eddie Gallagher murdered a prisoner who has brought

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Speaker 1: into their camp with a knife. Um. If I remember correctly,

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Speaker 1: you said a teenager, right yeah. Um, so there is

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Speaker 1: we that that is not part of our training to

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Speaker 1: execute prisoners. Uh, that is clearly a war crime. Um, there,

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Speaker 1: there is there. I don't know. I don't understand what

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Speaker 1: the mitigating circumstance would be Like Is it okay because

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Speaker 1: he's a seal? Is it okay because you know, oh

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Speaker 1: the horrors are soldiers face? That then that makes it okay?

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Speaker 1: I mean I I don't really understand, Um, some of

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Speaker 1: the emotional appeals that get made in the circumstance. Now

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Speaker 1: I understand things, Um, you know what we would say

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Speaker 1: in combat, like shit happens, like you know, maybe a

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Speaker 1: Navy seal kicks in the door goes into a room,

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Speaker 1: you think there's a terrorist in there, and you open

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Speaker 1: fire on somebody thinking they have a gun and it

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Speaker 1: turns out it's a fucking kid. I mean, ship like

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Speaker 1: that happens and it's horrible, but of course we understand

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Speaker 1: how that could happen, and the law does account for that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like, Holy Ship, We're throwing you

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Speaker 1: in the slammer for murder. I mean, that's not how

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Speaker 1: it works. Um. So. I mean, I think there are

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Speaker 1: nuances in in the military justice system ums as well

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Speaker 1: as our civilian legal system. But I mean, I don't

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Speaker 1: think that it's just like you know, you wear a

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Speaker 1: Special Forces tab or you wear a tan beret, and

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Speaker 1: that just means it's okay. Like we like, it's okay

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Speaker 1: to just murder people, and we're okay with that as

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Speaker 1: a society. You know. Um, I disagree with that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: There's been a lot of different opinion on this, and

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Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing more because, as you said,

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Speaker 1: we don't we don't know all the facts yet. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I saw somebody commenting on one of the articles that

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Speaker 1: um one of our writers wrote about the case, and

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Speaker 1: he's like, you train lines to do lion ship. What

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Speaker 1: do you expect? It's like, no, dude, Actually, we do

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Speaker 1: not train our soldiers to execute prisoners. That does not happen.

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Speaker 1: We trained them to kill and fight the enemy in combat. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there is nowhere that you know we trained soldiers to

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Speaker 1: execute people or or fucking cut people's throats with knives.

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Speaker 1: And maybe and see, there's also two separate arguments happening,

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Speaker 1: because there's there's um. The people are simultaneously claiming he's innocent,

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Speaker 1: it never happened, but they're also claiming, yeah, it did happen,

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Speaker 1: but it's okay. So it's like you will make up

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Speaker 1: your mind, dear, which is it? Um? But I mean,

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Speaker 1: we'll see what happens with the case. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: hope all of the facts come out, you know, and

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Speaker 1: maybe this maybe it did not happen. Maybe it didn't

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Speaker 1: happen the way it's been alleged, and you know, that

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Speaker 1: would actually be a big um, you know, relief for me, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I'm obviously for his family, for Eddie

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Speaker 1: Gallagher's family. But I don't want to believe that our

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Speaker 1: soldiers do this kind of ship. I don't want them

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Speaker 1: to do this kind of stuff. So I mean if

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Speaker 1: if the allegations are false, I mean I'd be very

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Speaker 1: very happy to hear that. Yeah, well, we have um

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Speaker 1: jose To Bladha standing by before we get to him,

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Speaker 1: of course, want to let you guys know about what

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Speaker 1: we have going on here at Hurricane Group. As always,

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Speaker 1: those listening, now is the time to sign up for

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Speaker 1: the spec Ops Channel. That's our channel that offers the

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Speaker 1: if you're not already sign up at the News Rep,

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Speaker 1: you've got to get on board expert reporting and actionable

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Speaker 1: intelligence from your favorite writers you've heard on here, like

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Speaker 1: Jack uh and the many guest writers who pop up

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Speaker 1: as I've been mentioning every show, we have our own

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Speaker 1: softwrep radio dot com where you can see our full

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Speaker 1: archives of shows and as always, keep up with us

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Speaker 1: at softwarep Radio. With that, let's get over to Marine

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Speaker 1: recon veteran Jose to Ablada. So joining us for the

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Speaker 1: first time on the podcast is Jose pep to Blata,

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Speaker 1: thirteen year veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps as

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Speaker 1: a force reconnaissance marine, serving as both a team leader

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Speaker 1: and platoon sergeant. Retired from active duty service for medical

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Speaker 1: reasons in two thousand five and is now the Assistant

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Speaker 1: Chief of Staff for Operations and International Engagement with the

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps Forces Pacific, as well as a board member

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Speaker 1: with the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation. And then I mean that's

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Speaker 1: really the tip of the iceberg, because looking through your bio,

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Speaker 1: you've served as a marine scout sniper, You've done a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of things, and we're excited to get into

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Speaker 1: your background. And uh, thanks for coming on. Hey, good

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Speaker 1: morning guys, and thank you very much for having me

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Speaker 1: and giving me the opportunity to represent the Marine recon

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Speaker 1: Foundation today. Yeah, thank you. Uh, you know, I know

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Speaker 1: the Foundation does some really important work. Um, but you know,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you first question kind of the

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Speaker 1: thing I'd like to ask everybody when they come on.

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Speaker 1: Here's why did in your case, why did you join

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps? How? How and why did you hear

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Speaker 1: that call? Well, so, honestly, at a very young age.

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Speaker 1: You know, my family had a level of service. My

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Speaker 1: father was a United States Marine and he was kind

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Speaker 1: of the what I would look at as the American dream.

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Speaker 1: He didn't have a high school education. In fact, back

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Speaker 1: in those days, you know, if you got into trouble,

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Speaker 1: which you did, um, you know, you were either offered

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Speaker 1: a stint in the lock up or joined the Marine Corps.

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Speaker 1: And and my my father made a wise joyce joined

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. Uh and came out of the Marine

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Speaker 1: Corps after eight years of service. UH. And from there

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Speaker 1: because of what he learned, UH, he gained from Marine

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Speaker 1: Corps service and service to our country, an incredible story.

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Speaker 1: And he came back here to Hawaii UH and he

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Speaker 1: UH and my mother started a very large business that

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Speaker 1: was instrumental in the construction of most of the large

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Speaker 1: buildings in downtown Hallelulu. So again, this is a person

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Speaker 1: that did not have a full education. His education was

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. And I gave him the tools, you know,

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Speaker 1: to become a very successful businessman here in the state

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Speaker 1: of Hawaii. UM. Since that time. You know, my father

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Speaker 1: had kind of told me when I was younger, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna join the Marine Corps, You're gonna go

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Speaker 1: to college. Uh, and then maybe you'll come and work

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Speaker 1: for the family business. So that was kind of baseline

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Speaker 1: my dad with my mom. Uh. You know, I'm a

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Speaker 1: first generation American. My mother is actually a Spanish citizen,

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Speaker 1: and she came here on a green card, uh and

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Speaker 1: married my father in the 's maybe the mid sixties,

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Speaker 1: early seventies. And the takeaway I got from my mom

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Speaker 1: really never actually becoming an American citizen. I was always

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Speaker 1: struck at how patriotic she was. And she used to

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Speaker 1: tell me and and our family. You know, I came

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Speaker 1: from Spain during the Franco Civil War, basically escaped from

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Speaker 1: that and came to the United States of America as

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Speaker 1: a teenager. Uh you know. Um from that became a

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Speaker 1: very successful businesswoman with my dad, as I described earlier.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know my mom, she she's she passed

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Speaker 1: away three years ago. But she was always inspiration to

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Speaker 1: me because you know, we would be like at a

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Speaker 1: Blue Angel's airshow, that's just an example, and we're watching

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Speaker 1: the jets. I would see my mom crying, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, as a young kid and understand why right,

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Speaker 1: And you know, as I became older, I acutely realized

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Speaker 1: how lucky that I and we are to be American

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Speaker 1: citizens and live in the greatest nation on earth. So

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Speaker 1: I think those two kind of things drew me initially

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Speaker 1: into I want to serve, I want to do something. Um.

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Speaker 1: I was an avid reader when I was a young teenager. UM,

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Speaker 1: so I used to read about the Marine Corps and uh.

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Speaker 1: And then for reconnaissance instrument enough kim upon an article

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Speaker 1: in the local newspaper at that time, Alpha Company through

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Speaker 1: Reconnaissance Betime was here on a walloon, Hawaii. And the

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Speaker 1: article is about a local boy from here from Kailo,

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Speaker 1: my hometown, UM, who was an eagle scout. I knew

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Speaker 1: him and his brother who was a reconstance marine and

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Speaker 1: kind of the things that they did. And now I

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Speaker 1: was like, whoa wait a second, what is this? You know,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a marine, but what what is this

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Speaker 1: all about? Uh? And there are some other formulive things. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Uh, there's a helicopter crash out here in

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Speaker 1: Kailua off of Lonikai. H You know, with our marines

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Speaker 1: perished and the both the reconnaissance Marines as well as

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Speaker 1: the sealed attachment. We're out at the beach every day

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Speaker 1: with their I think back there was probably IBS boats

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Speaker 1: not for seventy azoliacs, and they would go out, you know,

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Speaker 1: motor out there and put divers in the water to

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Speaker 1: try to recover body. And I used to ride my

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Speaker 1: bike down there every day and watch watch those guys

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Speaker 1: go out and do that. There are other things since then,

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Speaker 1: but those are kind of formative things that that led

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Speaker 1: me to say, you know, probably when I was eleven

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Speaker 1: years old, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna join

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps and i want to become a reconnaissance marine.

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Speaker 1: That's really cool to hear, you know, because it reminds me,

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Speaker 1: if you know, my own childhood as well, and wanting

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Speaker 1: to you know, go into the army in my case.

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Speaker 1: But it's really cool to hear, you know, hear your

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Speaker 1: story and you know, people who realize at a very

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Speaker 1: young age what they want to be and then they

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Speaker 1: go and do it. Yeah, follow through is an important

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Speaker 1: component in that, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially you know,

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Speaker 1: to be a reconnaissance marine or anything, you know, a

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Speaker 1: ranger or a Green Beret or a seal or whatever.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the commitment has to be there. It's just

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Speaker 1: not going to happen. Um. So then you entered into

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps, and I take it you went into

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Speaker 1: Marine Infantry before going recon Yeah. So I was kind

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Speaker 1: of lucky when or maybe unlucky sinse I look at

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Speaker 1: it is there was an ability at at the time

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Speaker 1: that I came to the Marine Corps to kind of

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Speaker 1: there wasn't a really a formalized pipeline, but there was

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Speaker 1: a movement to kind of get young marines uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: were quality. Uh, you know through the process that back

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Speaker 1: then it would call rip in doc rip and then

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Speaker 1: you would go through the reconstance course at at Coronado.

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Speaker 1: At the time, the entirety of it was there, uh,

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Speaker 1: and then you would go straight to your insert schools

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Speaker 1: uh you know, jump dives here, and then from there

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Speaker 1: you would you know, build off of that, you know, sniper, breacher, this,

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Speaker 1: that the other. So I was pretty lucky in the

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Speaker 1: sense that although I did go through training school, that

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Speaker 1: I almost immediately got into the pipeline. And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: back then it was kind of rarity. But as a

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Speaker 1: lance corporal, I was what we refer to in the

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Speaker 1: in the in the in the force recon community as

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Speaker 1: as a as dual cool as as a lance corporal.

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Speaker 1: So as an E three, I was I was already

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of through the pipeline sots dual cool

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Speaker 1: that airborne and dive qualified. Right, Yeah, that is correct, yes, yea.

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Speaker 1: So back in the day, you know, some of our

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Speaker 1: our elders, you know, I mean, they're they're legendary stories

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Speaker 1: about guys would be like, hey, there's one quota and

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Speaker 1: three of you, so go out and parking lot. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, do a little fisty custs and figure out

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Speaker 1: it's going to one right, so uh you know, so

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Speaker 1: I mean again, I was very very fortunate to go

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Speaker 1: all the way to the pipeline. And that also included

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Speaker 1: uh Military free Fall Halo school out at Bragg and

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Speaker 1: New Marizona. So by I want to say, I had

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Speaker 1: been through that entire pipeline again rarity as as a

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Speaker 1: young three in the Marine Corps, and I was very fortunate.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of how I started. What was it

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Speaker 1: like being in uh in a recon battalion at that

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Speaker 1: time in the Marines. I mean there was some the

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps was doing some stuff in the nineties. Some

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Speaker 1: people think, you know, the military is doing nothing, but

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Speaker 1: I mean there was some stuff popping off here and there. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So what I would say is back then, during this

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Speaker 1: time in the in the mid nineties, uh, there were

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Speaker 1: standalone enforced reconnaissance companies versus uh what today recoon battalion

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Speaker 1: has a forced recon company inside of it. So, um,

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Speaker 1: I would say first that you know, the Marines that

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Speaker 1: I came in contact with through the pipeline to include

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Speaker 1: the instructors as well as when I got to my platoon. Um,

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Speaker 1: it was it was humbling because when I was a

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Speaker 1: young youngster, you know, I boxed, I wrestled, that was

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Speaker 1: in good shape. But you know, I thought I was

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Speaker 1: pretty smart, you know, so I thought, yeah, I'm I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm a pretty tough guy. And then you

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Speaker 1: get around uh you know Marines and Reconnaissance corman. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know who've been there and done that, And there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of things struck me immediately. One was,

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Speaker 1: you know, you thought you were something pretty cool and

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Speaker 1: then now your average if that when you're amongst these guys,

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Speaker 1: and that was humbling, But that that really caused me to,

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Speaker 1: you know, to want to excel every single day because

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Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to be a valued member of

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Speaker 1: the community, my platoon and my team. Um So I

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Speaker 1: think that was that was kind of a humbling experience.

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Speaker 1: But the other thing I learned very quickly was you know,

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Speaker 1: as a youngster and then you understand you guys understand this.

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Speaker 1: You know, before you had gone through your selection and assessment,

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Speaker 1: before you had you know, you know, received the accolades

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Speaker 1: of achieving what you did, whether it's Special Forces enabled,

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Speaker 1: special warfare and Marine Force constance. Uh. You know, everyone

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Speaker 1: thinks about, you know, the cool things. I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to go to this school and I'm going to that school.

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Speaker 1: And you know, when you get there, when everyone's already

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Speaker 1: been there and done that, nobody cares about that cares

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Speaker 1: what school you went to, how many jumps you got,

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Speaker 1: you know, are you a sniper, are you this or that?

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Speaker 1: Because you know, the majority guys have done all those things.

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Speaker 1: So it really truly is about your individual reputation as

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Speaker 1: a teammate. Uh, you know, what you bring to the table.

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Speaker 1: I mean uh, and so again I think those two

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Speaker 1: things are great factors. Um, you're right, we had marine

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Speaker 1: doing things. Uh that a lot. Uh. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: kind of sad that the reconstance community. Uh well, let

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Speaker 1: me back up. The reconnaissance community is a very quiet community.

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Speaker 1: So I even myself coming on this radio station is

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Speaker 1: uh is a little I have a little trepidation because

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Speaker 1: you know, our forefathers are very much uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: we don't talk about, you know, the job we do.

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Speaker 1: We don't talk about the things we do. And I

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Speaker 1: and I truly respect that. But you know, if you

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Speaker 1: understand reconnaissance history and you know what the reconnaissance, the

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Speaker 1: force reconstance community has done through history, it's it is

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Speaker 1: fascinating and it is incredible. I mean, what a deep history.

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Speaker 1: I mean, just as an example, you know, we had

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Speaker 1: marines in Somalia prior to you know, the famous black

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Speaker 1: Hawk Down battle from Second Force Recount Company doing things

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Speaker 1: and I'll just leave it there. Um, you know that

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Speaker 1: real world in line of the same type of missions

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Speaker 1: that um, you know, that's a single example of you know,

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Speaker 1: in the nineties, that kind of things that were happening.

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Speaker 1: Now we had marines down South with our Army Special

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Speaker 1: Forces brothers doing things in southcom again which I want

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Speaker 1: to expand here. So there were absolutely things going on, um,

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Speaker 1: And I would say, today's your reconsistance marines. UM. I

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Speaker 1: think we all should do a better job of passing

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Speaker 1: that lineage of history on because it is amazing. But

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Speaker 1: I will tell you that a lot of people do

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Speaker 1: not know that fascinating, you know, piece of American Marine

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Speaker 1: Corps and reconnaissance history. I absolutely agree, UM. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I constantly learned so much. I consider myself I'd like

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Speaker 1: to think of myself fairly well read. And you know

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be episode like we're close to like

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Speaker 1: episode four D and fifty. But I'm constantly learning things

385
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:56,800
Speaker 1: from when we have, um, you know, guys from the

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Speaker 1: Special Operations community come on here, and even things that

387
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Speaker 1: happened in my own unit. If I like, what that

388
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:06,439
Speaker 1: really happened? UM. So yeah, passing those lessons onto the

389
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,679
Speaker 1: next generation are really important and I totally respect UM.

390
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Speaker 1: You know the trepidation you have about you know, I

391
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 1: know there's a it's a closed um culture, the recon culture,

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Speaker 1: and you guys have to decide, you know, what parts

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Speaker 1: of it do you share with the public in which

394
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,800
Speaker 1: parts are just for you guys, which is understandable. Um,

395
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Speaker 1: But at the same time, UM, you know, I really

396
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 1: believe that some of these stories need to be shared

397
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,399
Speaker 1: and uh, and we do need to pass some of

398
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Speaker 1: these things on. Um. You know, I'm looking here another

399
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,560
Speaker 1: book that just landed in our office, A Life of

400
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,880
Speaker 1: Blood and Danger by Daniel Hill. And uh, this guy

401
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,560
Speaker 1: had way back. It looks like in the fifties and

402
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 1: sixties he had quite a career. Um, and this book

403
00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:50,440
Speaker 1: is like probably five pages. So, UM, I do thank

404
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Speaker 1: you for you know, coming on here and and um

405
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 1: educating us a little bit. And I guess that would

406
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 1: be my next question then is could you tell us

407
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: a little bit about what are recon marine does and

408
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: getting also to the differences between recon and force recon

409
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:06,200
Speaker 1: because I think some of our listeners will be really

410
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,480
Speaker 1: interested in that. Yeah, okay, Well, first if I could

411
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: go back to the the coming on the radio station,

412
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:15,919
Speaker 1: so I want to be clear that you know, the

413
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,920
Speaker 1: purpose today for for being coming on again, thank you guys,

414
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 1: is really in the end of this is to talk

415
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,920
Speaker 1: about the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation and what we're doing for

416
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 1: our community, whether it's traumatically injured, whether it is our

417
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 1: gold Star families, or whether it's the active duty recovering

418
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 1: or SARK the Special Actoristry classes Corman and their family today.

419
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 1: So you know, we have to make a decision of

420
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,120
Speaker 1: the Foundation that if if we're going to garner any support,

421
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 1: we have to tell some of the story we have.

422
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,720
Speaker 1: There's no way without exposure are we gonna be able

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Speaker 1: to do things. And I know it gets this a

424
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,360
Speaker 1: little later, but as an example, you know, I think

425
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Speaker 1: you guys are aware that we're we are flying us

426
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 1: six gold Star families out to Hawaii for an all

427
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,239
Speaker 1: expense paid trip in uh, you know, in less than

428
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: a month. I mean, you know, to make that all inclusive,

429
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: all expense paid, you know, on a thirty million dollar

430
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: state with their own private chef and own private helicopters

431
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: and and all the great things we want to do.

432
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: That does not happen unless we're talking about it and

433
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 1: we're we're seeking support. So I'll stop there. I know

434
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: we're gonna kind of get to that. So, uh, back

435
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: to your your question about reconstance marines. So, so first

436
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: it's important to understand that that the core or the

437
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: United States Marine Corps is the Marine Corps Infantry and

438
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,360
Speaker 1: the Marine Air Ground Task Force that built around UH.

439
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:48,880
Speaker 1: You know that battalion Landing Team UH and on up

440
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: is really support you know, whether we're talking about F

441
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:58,440
Speaker 1: three five generation UH aircraft, whether we're talking about Cobra

442
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: attack helicopters, mcconos, marines UH. You know, we at the

443
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 1: fundamental core of our doctor in the marine and around

444
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 1: task for supports the marine instruments. So that's that's an

445
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: important note here, So riconstance. Marines in the what was

446
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 1: formally referred to as division recond their role largely with

447
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: the to support the Marine division against the marine division

448
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: is infantry and there are for marine divisions UH, and

449
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:31,919
Speaker 1: their job to basically conduct ground and amphibious reconnaissance in

450
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: support that marine division. You know, is it a landing,

451
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:40,680
Speaker 1: is it an air assault? UH? Is it a route clearing, etcetera. UH.

452
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: Back in the older days, the Force Reconnaissance Company were

453
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 1: kind of the the the more senior folks. I mean

454
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,679
Speaker 1: back in the nineties. If you were a recond battalion

455
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,120
Speaker 1: Marine and you wanted to go to say first forced

456
00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: recond of company, although you're basically trained recarsus marine. You

457
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 1: could be jump a dive rangers sere this that the

458
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: other you would still have to take the forced Reconnaissance INDOC,

459
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: so you would take another selection to move up to

460
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: force reconnissance. The grade shaping at that time was more senior,

461
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: so you would look at the vision recon as the

462
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 1: you know lance corporal, corporal sergeants and maybe a platoon

463
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: sergeant and a a staff sergeant, a platoon commander, probably as

464
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: a first lieutenant, where Forced recon company you know, took

465
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 1: the more mature, experienced marines who had the excellent baseline.

466
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 1: By the way, I got to add that marines that

467
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: came from recombattalion are some of the best. Uh, you know,

468
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: special operators that have gone to national mission force had

469
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,479
Speaker 1: done all over the place. But in the recon community,

470
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,080
Speaker 1: that's kind of the way things work, you know, you

471
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: would INDOC, you go to force recut company. Uh. And

472
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: at in my time, platoons were pretty senior. I mean

473
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 1: when we were in Iraq, we had platoons that had uh,

474
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: you know, a senior captain or a junior major as

475
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:17,440
Speaker 1: a platoon commander. Uh. We had platoon sergeants that were

476
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,680
Speaker 1: very senior seven gunnery serrants or even the master sergeants,

477
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: and most of the team leaders were either senior staff

478
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: saunts or guns. So when you look at that context,

479
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 1: you realize, you know, simply front experience and years on

480
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: the job, that you have a lot of seniority. And

481
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: it was fascinating. And I'll use Iraq as an example.

482
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: Is when uh, you know, force reconnaissance would go. And

483
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: although we are technically not part of Special Operations Command,

484
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: I will tell you that during you know, most of

485
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: five time in Iraq, we were with Fifth Group, Seal Team,

486
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: three other government agencies doing basically that you know, the

487
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 1: same mission in different you know, different battle space. So um,

488
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,920
Speaker 1: and I realized as a team leader, as a staff ares, wow, man,

489
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: we we we bring a pretty senior group here. That

490
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: other guys that I noticed that we're senior in rank

491
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 1: would be that the Army Special Forces guys. Obviously those

492
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: guys are you know, I have tremendous respect for the

493
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: knowledge based those guys have. But now they're all the

494
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 1: six and higher. Um, where there were other units that

495
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: were you know, pretty junior in rank. Now not that

496
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: rank is all things, but I'm trying to demonstrate that

497
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 1: years of service and years of doing that type of

498
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 1: work matters, especially when it's going to be something very sensitive,

499
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: uh you know, or something that's gonna take a lot

500
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 1: of maturity to go and do. Um. So because of that,

501
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 1: we were a positioned to do some pretty neat things,

502
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: uh you know with other units and other government agencies,

503
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: and those experiences you know, carried me to where I

504
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 1: am today. And I also just wanted to take a

505
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: second to point out, I mean, the the difference between

506
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: Recon and Force Recon is Forced Recon had the direct

507
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: action mission correct. That is correct. How However, there were

508
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 1: times in Reconstance history when either Force Recon had been

509
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 1: disbanded in the eighties where the recombattalion how was what

510
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: was referred to as a DRPEP Reconstance platoon, So those

511
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: guys as a platoon, not a company, kind of acted

512
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 1: at Force Recon element and in those kind of transitional

513
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: years when a lot of when the commandant was General

514
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: Al Gray, when we kind of started the ren Expeditionary

515
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: Units bestal operations capable of the new stock program, there

516
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: was kind of a lot of overlap where there were

517
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: senior Recon Marine that were in recompetition maybe DRP and

518
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: the day took on. Uh. You know what we were

519
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: sort of back then at the Black Side techn Mission

520
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: in extreme as hostage resting, limited scale direct action. And

521
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: during those formative years, you know, our our units got

522
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: to do again a little recon history. I mean, they

523
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: trained with l APD SWAT, which is probably the premier

524
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: law enforcement squat team out there. They trained with the

525
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: National FBI h r T, They trained with some elements

526
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 1: of the National Mission Force um so in in in

527
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: in specific j t F, which I won't go to.

528
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 1: So it's interesting how things kind of evolved, um in

529
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: the eighties early nineties through that progression and then now

530
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: today what we have really uh when uh, when Marine

531
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: Special Operations Command now referred to as the Three Raider

532
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 1: Battalions were established, you know that the beginnings of our

533
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: direct uh connection to so CALM, other than individual billets

534
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: and individual Marines serving you know, National Mission Force and

535
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: other things, was really our what was referred to as

536
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: uh mcs O com Detachment one DEBT one, uh, you know,

537
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 1: under Colonel Bob Coates. So that organization was kind of

538
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: our first step directed by h Secretary Rumsfeld to to

539
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: quote unquote get the Marine Corps in the SOCM. There's

540
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: a delivered the decision. Earlier on I talked about General

541
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: Al Grey R. Comment doant that he decided at that

542
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: time there was consideration of putting forced recon on the

543
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: so common and he decided to get it in order

544
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: to retain the capabilities of forcer connaistance in support of

545
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 1: the Marine Air Ground Cask Force. So, uh, you know,

546
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: Ash DEBT one went out the door. The way the

547
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: unit was organized fascinated. Um. Really some insightful process into

548
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 1: developing the unit. A lot of those Marines are are

549
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,520
Speaker 1: my teammates, by peers, my close friends still today. Uh.

550
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: And you know, basically Colonel Coach and the team approached

551
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: the as a MAGCAP right, a Marine ever Ground Task Force. Now,

552
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: the thing that never got off the ground, that never

553
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 1: finalized was the A and the MAGCATH. There was no

554
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:17,800
Speaker 1: dedicated aviation combat element for DEBT one, which is a shame, um.

555
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: But you know, larger needs of the Marine Corps came

556
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,160
Speaker 1: into play about hey we can't just give you guys,

557
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: you know, a detachment of fixed ruing. But what DEBT

558
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: one did do was really look at you know the

559
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: core of Debt one. You know that the shooters and

560
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: the UH and the R and S element were force

561
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: reconvers There's there's a lot of talk about, oh, they

562
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: were the most senior guys and they were hand selected

563
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:48,520
Speaker 1: and this and that. Um, there's a little bit of

564
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: truth to that, but I will tell you that. You know,

565
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: if you ask the Marines, they're they're like, hey, man,

566
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: we were just force renk kind of guys. So they

567
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 1: made up the core element. But what made Detachment one

568
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: really the thought process in the going into not just

569
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: you know the shooters and and UH and the constance element,

570
00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 1: but the enablers, you know, the fires uh, you know,

571
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 1: the intel, the the ability to have you know, military

572
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: working dogs, your own armorers, you know, on and on

573
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: and on, and those support Marines enablers were expected to

574
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: go through a selection of sorts uh, not only initially

575
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: but throughout the work up for their deployment. I mean

576
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,720
Speaker 1: there's some stories about Colonel Coates and and the team,

577
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: you know, putting them on you know short I don't

578
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: know whatever, fifty sixty rut march at you know, ten

579
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: thousand feet and that's just the weekly you know kind

580
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: of man up type of event, you know, so um

581
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 1: and those support element guys were expected to do those things.

582
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 1: They were expected to be able to come onto a

583
00:34:55,840 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: target as part of the security element. So it was

584
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: it was really fascinating the way that uh, you know,

585
00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: DEBT one was brought together. Now, I will tell you

586
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:11,319
Speaker 1: there was nascinations in the beginning about the command relationships

587
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: with the uh DEBT one go special forces where they

588
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: go with nable special warfare. Uh. And so the ultimate

589
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 1: decision was they did go with the Seals. Now that's

590
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,359
Speaker 1: where in my understanding, and I was not a member

591
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: of DEBT one, where things kind of went bad because

592
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:36,080
Speaker 1: this organation, this organization had very very rapid come together,

593
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 1: trained up, and certified in a very compressed amount of time.

594
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 1: And you know, the intent was to deploy them as

595
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:48,839
Speaker 1: a detachment in totality where when they ended up going

596
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: down range, really they were kind of picked apart a

597
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:56,879
Speaker 1: little bit elements when here leadership went there. But besides that,

598
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: if you've ever read the unclassified or the classified after actions,

599
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:07,000
Speaker 1: which I have, UM, uh, the Navy CEO five, his

600
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: last name is Devined. I remember his first name kind

601
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:14,840
Speaker 1: of like yeah, market divine, Yes, he was kind of

602
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: like the evaluator. I'm sorry, go ahead, and I was

603
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 1: just saying he's been on the show before. I could

604
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: probably uh find that in the archive. But yeah, he

605
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: he runs that whole seal fit thing. I believe, Oh

606
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 1: is that is that what he does? Now? I don't

607
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 1: know the man personally, but reading the after actions that

608
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 1: he has the I guess the senior seal evaluator. I

609
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: mean it's it's it's awesome, and it's really telling of

610
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:39,239
Speaker 1: the quality of the United States Marine Corps, of the

611
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 1: individual marine Uh. And within that the elements that made

612
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,719
Speaker 1: up you know, our enablers hugely powerful. Uh. And then

613
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: of course my teammates, the force Condissance, the radio recon guys.

614
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the bottom line is the is

615
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: the comments within all those after actions were you know,

616
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 1: this was the force of was These guys brought things

617
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:06,239
Speaker 1: that none of the other soft elements weren't organized. Uh,

618
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 1: We're organized in a unique way that allowed them to

619
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: do things. And and I will tell you, although I

620
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: was not in the detachment, I am very proud of

621
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:16,920
Speaker 1: that because a lot of those marines, uh, you know,

622
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,520
Speaker 1: some of the most professional, competent people that you will

623
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:23,919
Speaker 1: ever know, they went there and just did their job,

624
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: no no, no pomp and circumstance. And then following that

625
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,399
Speaker 1: when when they came back after doing a fantastic job,

626
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:35,280
Speaker 1: I mean again incredible. You know, the thought was, okay,

627
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 1: debt one would kind of in that sort of mancalf

628
00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: minus the ACE organization at some point become what Marsak

629
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: is today and and and largely that did not happen. Understand. Yeah,

630
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 1: they basically we're in limbo for a while after after deployment,

631
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 1: and all of this is available in the unclassified I

632
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,839
Speaker 1: think there's a marine called vacational you can can fact check.

633
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 1: But um, they basically were kind of been a limbo

634
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 1: like waiting to go. And then again my recollection it's

635
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,399
Speaker 1: been a while is that, uh, you know, they were

636
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 1: basically disbanded and an organization was stood up by you know,

637
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: really standing down first and second forced reconnaistance companies, you know,

638
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: furl the flag and then bring out a new flag.

639
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 1: And it's his first Marine Special Operations Battalion m SOB

640
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: and second Marine Special Brings Battalion. So that's kind of

641
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 1: and there actually was a third battalion that was made

642
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 1: up of our UH. We tried to use what was

643
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:46,200
Speaker 1: referred to as fourth Marine Expisher Brigade and I Terrorism

644
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: UH and then they became kind of the fit the

645
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,439
Speaker 1: Foreign Intern Defense. It was the Foreign Military Training Unit

646
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 1: f m TU. So those are not necessarily reconnaistant forcer

647
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: constance guys. They were guys who were trained to go

648
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 1: train belts at units. So they used those organizations to

649
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 1: basically stand up three Marine Special Operations battalions. So that's

650
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: kind of the genesis of how that all happened. So

651
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: I think an important note is first, um, I think

652
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: the capabilities that the Marine Raiders have today and the

653
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:25,200
Speaker 1: job that they do and what they've accomplished is tremendous,

654
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 1: I mean incredible bunch of marines. The current commander of

655
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,320
Speaker 1: MARSTOK is a friend and a teammates Force recon offson,

656
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 1: Major General Dan You Um. But I think it's important

657
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 1: note that that organization was stood up by by disbanding

658
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 1: Force Reconnaissance. I mean that that's a point here, So

659
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 1: there's there's a direct lineage there. Now today there is

660
00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:54,840
Speaker 1: you know, there are three battalions of now Raider battalions

661
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: what they're referred to, and there are reconnaissance battalions, two

662
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 1: different Marines, UH military occupational specialty, two different organizations, two

663
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,720
Speaker 1: different changes of command, one working for the Marine Corps

664
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,879
Speaker 1: and one working for us SO Calm. And they did

665
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 1: import to understand how that happened. They did restand up

666
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: Forest recon as well, didn't I. Yes. So the organization

667
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: today is UH basically Forced Reconnistance is a company within

668
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 1: reconstant battag So the reason why that's different from the

669
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 1: nineties early two thousand's is that back in that time

670
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: when I was in forced constance, the Forced Recon Company

671
00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: was a stand alone organization. So although the term companies there,

672
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 1: it really had the table of organization equipment much like

673
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: a UH infantry bettend. What I mean by that is

674
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: the company commander wasn't oh five was lieutenant colonel. His

675
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:57,920
Speaker 1: EXO was a major in OH four. The oppso was

676
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: a major OH four. So the structure, the budget was

677
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: was not that of a company, It was that of

678
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,479
Speaker 1: a battalion. But you know it's the name. The normal

679
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,840
Speaker 1: claysrew was Forced ReConference Company, So you know, different uh

680
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:19,879
Speaker 1: ul n, different budget, you know, all of that, UH

681
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: for a force recond company. So distinctly different units force

682
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:28,359
Speaker 1: recon first Forced recond Company, first ReConference Battaion, second Force

683
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:34,480
Speaker 1: Recond Company, second Recombettaition. UH. Okaynawa was kind of interesting

684
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:36,960
Speaker 1: where they did have a standalone Force recond Company that

685
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: they referred to as that was referred to as fifth

686
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 1: Force Recond Company, and then there was third Recombettiition and

687
00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: then finally in the reserves there was fourth Force Constance

688
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 1: Company and fourth Recompettiition. So again different units separated, where

689
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,160
Speaker 1: today the force recon companies and the active duty are

690
00:41:56,239 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: inside of the reconnaissance battalion. Uh. Normally a company commander

691
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:05,800
Speaker 1: is probably a senior captain or a major UM. So

692
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: again they maybe competition isn't the right word, but the

693
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:18,360
Speaker 1: company has to use the same assets, facilities, Uh you know, uh,

694
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:23,719
Speaker 1: school quotas, budget that reconbotnant happens. So that's kind of

695
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 1: those are kind of the differences from the then again

696
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:30,200
Speaker 1: nineties through or you know, mid two thousand's And now

697
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 1: does that answer your question? Yeah? Absolutely, uh And you know,

698
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,920
Speaker 1: following up on that, I wanted to ask what you

699
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: make of, um, some of the recent scuttle but I

700
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: guess our grumblings UM that are being talked about the

701
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 1: Marine Corps actually wanted to do away with marsk Um,

702
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:50,319
Speaker 1: which seems quite shortsighted after the Marines spent a substantial

703
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 1: amount of time building that capability. Well, I mean, I

704
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 1: guess it depends on what advantage point you're looking at

705
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:02,640
Speaker 1: first and formal most you know that I'm familiar with

706
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 1: the article or the information paper you're referring to. Uh,

707
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 1: it doesn't have some insight? Are there some valid points? Yeah?

708
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:13,960
Speaker 1: Maybe the truth that matters that that, in my personal

709
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:17,280
Speaker 1: and professional opinion, that's not going to happen. The the

710
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: Marine raiders of today. Uh, you know, if you think

711
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: about the genesis of them and how rapidly they came

712
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:27,879
Speaker 1: together while our nation was at war, and what they've

713
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,759
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish, I mean, it's it's incredible. It's

714
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,720
Speaker 1: it's like building an airplane while in flight. I would

715
00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: like to put in plug that a lot of that

716
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 1: was based on the the knowledge and skill sets of constant.

717
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: Do I believe they're going to be disbanded? Absolutely, if

718
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,799
Speaker 1: you look at it from a big Marine Corps perspective, um,

719
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 1: which you know, the United States Marine Corps isn't just

720
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:55,480
Speaker 1: mar Sock is just force recon right. UM. I can

721
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:59,360
Speaker 1: understand why some may think that, because the truth of

722
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:02,640
Speaker 1: the matter is is that uh, you know, uh mar

723
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:06,960
Speaker 1: Sock as well as it constantly draws uh you know

724
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: some of the finest marines of the Marine Corps, Mar

725
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,640
Speaker 1: Sock is not directly in support of the marine ever

726
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 1: around cast fors uh. You know, there may be command

727
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 1: relationships down range where you know, you know, raider companies,

728
00:44:21,080 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 1: raider m socks are doing something supporting marines, but there's

729
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,400
Speaker 1: no direct relationships. So I can see the big green

730
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 1: Marine Corps considering, well, there's this huge investment in time

731
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 1: and some money. You know, people go, oh, the money

732
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 1: is off from so calm. That's not entirely true. Much

733
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:40,319
Speaker 1: of it is that is true, but you know, a

734
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: lot of the initiative investment in those marine you know,

735
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 1: the young Marine empty Officer, the young Marine uh entry

736
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 1: Stephan Ceo, you know, came from the Marine Corps. I mean,

737
00:44:50,719 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 1: we have to be clear about that. UM. So I

738
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: don't think it'll happen. I think that the truth of the

739
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:59,799
Speaker 1: the matter is that our soft forces are you know,

740
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:05,719
Speaker 1: truly today force multipliers, the things that a young are

741
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 1: a small team, you know, O D A M. SOT

742
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 1: can go and do around the world in austere locations.

743
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:18,319
Speaker 1: Is just incredible. I mean, it's just it really truly, uh,

744
00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:21,480
Speaker 1: you know, has evolved so much so um you know,

745
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:27,319
Speaker 1: from a tactical perspective, understanding what you know, what the

746
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:31,320
Speaker 1: soft forces in general, but really the Army, Special Forces

747
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 1: soldier uh and the Marine raiders specifically in in the

748
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:40,359
Speaker 1: realm of interacting with potential partner nations and what and

749
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: what what you guys do you know fit u w

750
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 1: et cetera, um cappy matched. There's there's nowhere else in

751
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,719
Speaker 1: the military that does it the same way that of

752
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,360
Speaker 1: course the forefather of all that was the green beret

753
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 1: of the Special Force soldier and now the Marine raider. UM.

754
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:03,279
Speaker 1: So the big Marine Corps, our service are, our commandant

755
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:06,759
Speaker 1: are are the service chiefs in general, they have a

756
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:11,799
Speaker 1: much much broader, you know, twenty foot strategic view of

757
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: what they need to be doing. Right. So you know,

758
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 1: if you if you've read the uh you know, the

759
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:22,240
Speaker 1: current National Defense strategy, you understand that the Department Defense

760
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:27,279
Speaker 1: and the whole of government realizes that today, uh, you know,

761
00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:32,040
Speaker 1: our potential peer adversaries are different, and so we need

762
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: to start to look at how we're going to address

763
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: those concerns. Do we want to go to war? Of course,

764
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 1: we don't want to go to war, that's ridiculous. Do

765
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 1: we need to be prepared to go to war with

766
00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:47,920
Speaker 1: with you know, other nations who have rapidly developing capabilities? Yes,

767
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,279
Speaker 1: we do. So you know, when you look at it

768
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:54,160
Speaker 1: from that perspective, you know what Marstock or Rican or

769
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:58,879
Speaker 1: anything else brings is relatively miniscule, you know. So that's

770
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 1: why you're going to see two different sides of the camp.

771
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:06,200
Speaker 1: But if you ask me, if you ask blot Nors

772
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, you know, they've proven they're worth uh,

773
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: you know, rapidly in an incredible fashion. H And I

774
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: can't see that happen. Is it impossible? No? I guess not.

775
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,360
Speaker 1: But do I think it's gonna happen? No? I don't. Yeah, No,

776
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,719
Speaker 1: I sure hope that you're right about that. I mean,

777
00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 1: I know that Marines and Marsac in particular, they they've

778
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 1: been quite aggressive in developing some of these special operations

779
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 1: capabilities and it'll be interesting to see where they go

780
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:34,879
Speaker 1: in the future. Um, but you know, with all that said,

781
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:36,960
Speaker 1: unless you've had anything else you wanted to add, I

782
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 1: did want to ask you about the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation. Okay, great, UM,

783
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 1: so I just to go or you have specific questions, No,

784
00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:48,320
Speaker 1: I mean go ahead, tell us about the foundation and

785
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:55,520
Speaker 1: what you guys do. Okay. So, UH, First, the Marine

786
00:47:55,600 --> 00:48:01,800
Speaker 1: Riconcissance Foundation is an organization that UH has been around

787
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:08,320
Speaker 1: for I honestly about six years. UH. The current president,

788
00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 1: David Dunelle, retired E eight first sergeant, a reconcmmunicator that

789
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:21,480
Speaker 1: served with the first Reconnistant Battalion, UH first Force Recon Company,

790
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 1: First Raider Battalion at then called m SAB and then

791
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:29,920
Speaker 1: at our schoolhouse the Recon Training Companies. He and a

792
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,439
Speaker 1: couple of white minded Marines UH decided, Hey, we there

793
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 1: needed to be an organization that was focused on supporting

794
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:43,560
Speaker 1: our teammates. UH. You know, the man, the mission, and

795
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:47,440
Speaker 1: the families today. Okay. So there are other organizations that

796
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 1: are out there, and they all do great work. But

797
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,759
Speaker 1: in this specific case, you know, understanding that, you know,

798
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 1: we're a nation at war. That's what we wanted to

799
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 1: focus on, was trying to get at that. Now. I

800
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 1: was not a I'm not a planet folder of the

801
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,239
Speaker 1: m r F. I've only been on the board for

802
00:49:04,239 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: a little over a year. Um, I was asked to join,

803
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: I was voted in, and I was lucky enough to

804
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:16,839
Speaker 1: become a board member. So uh, really, for me, my

805
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 1: personal experience to the m r F, uh, you know,

806
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:21,439
Speaker 1: I wanted to know what it was about because I've

807
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 1: been involved in some other organizations. Uh, and some of

808
00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 1: them are incredible, and some of them are more involved

809
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 1: than just kind of getting the boys together and you know,

810
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 1: kind of drinking beer. Uh, you know, hanging out and

811
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 1: and for me, my aspiration was always, Hey, you know

812
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,320
Speaker 1: our younger teammates that are serving today because I'm retired,

813
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:43,560
Speaker 1: what can we do to help them? What couldn't do

814
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 1: to help their families? You know, our marines are you know,

815
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:50,400
Speaker 1: we have dramatically injured marines. We have marines with severe PTSD,

816
00:49:51,239 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 1: We have marines that have you know, emergency financial needs.

817
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 1: You know. Of course, like every other community, we have debts.

818
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:00,160
Speaker 1: You know, we got you know, a few parachute us

819
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:03,799
Speaker 1: in the last few years as an example. UM, you know,

820
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 1: those families. Although there's a support structure within the Department

821
00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 1: Defense and within the Marine Corps. UM, you know, those

822
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: their needs are not always addressed. Or sometimes it's a

823
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 1: recent separated veteran that no longer has those uh support

824
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,840
Speaker 1: elements because he's no longer attached to the d O

825
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 1: D to the Marine Corps, you know, and as they're

826
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: transitioning from military to civilian. Um. So when I started

827
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: to understand what the foundation has done, um, you know,

828
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I want to be a part

829
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,520
Speaker 1: of that. Now. I'll be honest with you, this is

830
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 1: just Pep's opinion. Um. Again, going back to the tenant

831
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:50,880
Speaker 1: of sounded professional, I felt like, wait, why don't I

832
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,560
Speaker 1: know about all this great stuff that the mrs doing.

833
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:56,560
Speaker 1: I should know it. I mean, this is my community.

834
00:50:56,600 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 1: I should know that. You know, a marine was killed

835
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: in the parents and accident. We helped the family by

836
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,760
Speaker 1: doing this. That another uh you know, a traumatically wounded marine,

837
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: we helped him with X Marines. House got flooded and

838
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:15,919
Speaker 1: I severely damaged, and you know, we worked with organizations

839
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:18,479
Speaker 1: to get people out there to physically cut the house.

840
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:20,879
Speaker 1: I mean, why didn't I know about it? So for me,

841
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: one of the tenants that I put forth to the

842
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:27,960
Speaker 1: boarder was, Hey, we need to tell the story because

843
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:32,279
Speaker 1: young RecA marines need to know that there is an

844
00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:37,040
Speaker 1: organization like the Marine Reconfiquence Foundation. Uh, that's there to

845
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:40,719
Speaker 1: support them in their families. So uh, you know, that's

846
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,279
Speaker 1: kind of in a nutshell what the organization does. It's

847
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:47,760
Speaker 1: all volunteers, it's a it's a few active duty Marines.

848
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:52,120
Speaker 1: It's mostly retired, senior enlisted, although we do have a

849
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:57,160
Speaker 1: few uh commission officers, some of them that are still

850
00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:00,759
Speaker 1: on active duty again silent professionals. You know, this is

851
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:04,640
Speaker 1: this is an uncompensated job. I will tell you for

852
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: me personally, I mean I'm I'm I'm at work twelve

853
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:11,399
Speaker 1: hours a day. I'm sometimes seven days a week. Uh.

854
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:13,400
Speaker 1: It depends on what's going on in the world for

855
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,920
Speaker 1: my civilian job. So being on the board is really

856
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:20,480
Speaker 1: a second job. I mean I could easily say in

857
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 1: any day, I put in between two and five hours. Uh,

858
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:28,640
Speaker 1: you know, help work in support the foundation. But you know,

859
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 1: the key point here's all of us as volunteers, all

860
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:35,000
Speaker 1: of us as board members believe in the mission. Uh.

861
00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: You know, we we believe in in the Riconstus community. Uh.

862
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:41,319
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you if I get to interact some

863
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: of the young Recondo's of today. Um, and they're awesome. Um,

864
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:50,440
Speaker 1: you know they are. I'm really impressive what our marines

865
00:52:50,560 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 1: and and special on fishery constas cormat or during the day,

866
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: and so that re energizes me, like, hey, dad, I

867
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,880
Speaker 1: need to stay in the fight. Guys at some point

868
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,520
Speaker 1: may need help, you know. So does that kind of

869
00:53:02,560 --> 00:53:05,359
Speaker 1: answer your question? Yeah, I think so. Um, but could

870
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 1: you also get into a little bit um specific as

871
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,160
Speaker 1: far as what the foundation does, because you had mentioned

872
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:13,080
Speaker 1: some things that they were doing for the families and

873
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:15,319
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I'm sure people would like to know,

874
00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:18,440
Speaker 1: you know, how how the foundation gives back to you know,

875
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:22,560
Speaker 1: these young marines and their families. Sure. So, um, you

876
00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:26,440
Speaker 1: know really again, it's it's everything from emergency support and

877
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:30,839
Speaker 1: that could be financial or that could be uh you know,

878
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,759
Speaker 1: in persons support. And I'll give you some examples. Uh.

879
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:40,560
Speaker 1: We had a a marine teammate that had severe PTSD.

880
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: He had left service going through a rough time. Uh.

881
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:51,440
Speaker 1: Some great Americans, some police officers uh uh in his

882
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:55,400
Speaker 1: state had to respond to his house because of potential

883
00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:59,200
Speaker 1: suicide attempt. So as the marine as the police officers

884
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,719
Speaker 1: got there, Uh, you know, one of the guys looking around.

885
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:04,600
Speaker 1: He's not even a marine, but he goes, whoa this

886
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 1: guy look at this, you know, and he has his

887
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:12,240
Speaker 1: you know, our teammate has his you know, time and service,

888
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: what he's done, recon this and that. And so the

889
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:18,600
Speaker 1: police officer reaches out to the foundation because hey man,

890
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:21,319
Speaker 1: I'm not a marine, I'm not a recounk guy. I

891
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: know what you guys are. This guy needs help, and

892
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that. The Foundation, within probably six hours,

893
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:32,200
Speaker 1: coordinated you know, a team of guys, located guys are

894
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 1: actually in his platoon and his team, and got them

895
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:39,200
Speaker 1: on site to get positive control of him. Uh. And

896
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:43,120
Speaker 1: since then we have helped in this specific case try

897
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:47,520
Speaker 1: to locate and lock on follow on patients. So that's

898
00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:54,120
Speaker 1: an example. Um, we lost a young marine, Alice Romero jeez,

899
00:54:54,320 --> 00:55:00,080
Speaker 1: maybe about fourteen months ago. Alex was out of a

900
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:04,440
Speaker 1: third recombattanition. We lost him in a parachute accident, double bags,

901
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:11,320
Speaker 1: static line accident. And we are rapidly able to appride

902
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:16,280
Speaker 1: funds and raise funds to support his wife as well

903
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,080
Speaker 1: as a support his family and some of his teammates

904
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:23,000
Speaker 1: to to you know, fly places, get the funeral. You

905
00:55:23,040 --> 00:55:25,239
Speaker 1: know that sort of stuff. So that's where that's the

906
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:29,160
Speaker 1: kind of emergency category. Another recent example, we have a

907
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 1: we have a teammate that's uh out in the northeast. Uh.

908
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:39,239
Speaker 1: He left the Marine Corps service because of a stroke. Right,

909
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,800
Speaker 1: So think of a you know, a young stud staff

910
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:48,720
Speaker 1: sergeant medical issues. He's medically separated, you know, really bad stroke,

911
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:53,120
Speaker 1: parsonally paralyzed. H. Lind is kind of in a very

912
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:57,400
Speaker 1: rural area, has a little toddler, has a baby literally

913
00:55:57,480 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 1: on the way, probably going to be delivered rout soon

914
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,560
Speaker 1: in any day now if if the baby hasn't already

915
00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:06,520
Speaker 1: been born, and uh, we kind of got swacked over

916
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:08,840
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. There was a tornado, there was flooding,

917
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 1: there's some snowing. His basement got flooded out. Um, you know,

918
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:15,960
Speaker 1: he reached out to us and said, hey, you know,

919
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:18,760
Speaker 1: I don't like to ask, of course no one does.

920
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:22,200
Speaker 1: But if you can do anything so within twenty four hours.

921
00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:25,920
Speaker 1: I mean, we work with numerous organizations, reserve Marine reserve

922
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:30,080
Speaker 1: units in the area, uh and a few other organizations

923
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 1: that do really great stuff Team Rubicon UH, and they

924
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:38,399
Speaker 1: got out there to physically help him, you know, drain

925
00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:42,040
Speaker 1: the spot, you know, pull the you know the moldy

926
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:44,759
Speaker 1: carpets out, you know, just that the other and then

927
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,440
Speaker 1: now we're trying to work up you know, financial package

928
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:51,080
Speaker 1: to help offset some of his costs. So that's kind

929
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 1: of in the emergency fund, realm Um. We do other things. Uh,

930
00:56:55,880 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 1: we do some outreach and mentorships. So and example that

931
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:03,759
Speaker 1: I would use is our gold Star Family retreat that

932
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:09,000
Speaker 1: we're doing here on a wall. Who may second through

933
00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 1: the eighth. You're in Hawaii, Jose, I am, yes, very cool. Yea, yeah,

934
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:19,560
Speaker 1: I know it really sucks a found the guy and

935
00:57:19,600 --> 00:57:22,680
Speaker 1: it's eighty degrees and I'm about a mile from beach.

936
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,919
Speaker 1: So um. You know, this is a concept that my wife,

937
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:29,720
Speaker 1: Charity and I came up on behalf the foundation. You know,

938
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:31,320
Speaker 1: I don't think that a year ago, and it's just

939
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 1: kind of a pipe dream, right. Uh. We all know

940
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:37,920
Speaker 1: we have fallen friends and teammates. Uh and uh some

941
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 1: of us you know, deal in different ways, you know

942
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,040
Speaker 1: with that loss. You know, we know their families, we

943
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: know their lives, we know their children. Uh. And so

944
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:49,120
Speaker 1: we had thought about, hey, why don't we try to

945
00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:52,520
Speaker 1: see if we could put together something that would be

946
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:57,600
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, all inclusive uh, no a retreat.

947
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:03,800
Speaker 1: So this concept was kind of discussed. Uh and uh

948
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:06,840
Speaker 1: the foundation doesn't take no for an answer, and my

949
00:58:06,880 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 1: wife and I certainly don't do not. So we took

950
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: kind of a lead on this and we said, well,

951
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:15,400
Speaker 1: let us look into the art of the possible and uh,

952
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:18,840
Speaker 1: you know, for us and I think you probably have

953
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:21,320
Speaker 1: some of the same, you know, knowing these families, it's

954
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:23,120
Speaker 1: sad because the truth of the matter is, over the

955
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: last fifteen years, we've lost many teammates and you know,

956
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:31,640
Speaker 1: some of these families right there, their son or dad,

957
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:36,920
Speaker 1: or husband or brother is gone. And although there may

958
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 1: have been a big rush at that time to support

959
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 1: the family, you know, at some point over a decade

960
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 1: decade and a half, you know, I don't want to

961
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:46,880
Speaker 1: see they've forgotten, because they're not. I mean, we all

962
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:50,840
Speaker 1: are in touch, we talk all the time, but you know,

963
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:54,160
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, you know, those families have to

964
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:59,240
Speaker 1: deal with that every day. They literally wake up every morning. Uh.

965
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:01,640
Speaker 1: You know, one of one of the family members of

966
00:59:01,680 --> 00:59:03,920
Speaker 1: one of our teammates told me, and she says, you know,

967
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 1: we're a strong Christian family, but sometimes my husband and

968
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:10,680
Speaker 1: I wake up every morning and we don't even know

969
00:59:10,720 --> 00:59:14,400
Speaker 1: why we're still here. What's the point? You know? And

970
00:59:14,480 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 1: so you know, when you when you put that context

971
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 1: and realize that that nightmare of losing a family member

972
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:26,120
Speaker 1: happens every day every morning when you wake up. Um,

973
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:29,320
Speaker 1: you know, the Foundation thought the least we could do

974
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:32,200
Speaker 1: is reach out to some of the families. We all

975
00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:34,760
Speaker 1: can do a certain number because our accommodations, but we're

976
00:59:34,760 --> 00:59:37,360
Speaker 1: going to do this every year and say, hey, we

977
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:45,440
Speaker 1: haven't forgotten about your son, your dad, your brother, uh,

978
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:48,960
Speaker 1: your husband will never be forgotten and you will never

979
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:51,560
Speaker 1: be forgotten. So um, you know, it was kind of

980
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,600
Speaker 1: interesting that we kind of start to do some exploration

981
00:59:54,680 --> 00:59:57,840
Speaker 1: why what what might be in the in the realm

982
00:59:57,840 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 1: of the possible. And I will tell you that I

983
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 1: am proud of my state. Um. I literally was crushed

984
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:08,240
Speaker 1: with yes. I could only think of one or two

985
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:12,720
Speaker 1: organizations that declined to support uh. And so it really

986
01:00:12,760 --> 01:00:17,360
Speaker 1: started off the Paul Mitchell Estate. Um. You know, they

987
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:22,000
Speaker 1: have an incredible, uh probably thirty million dollar three acre

988
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:26,240
Speaker 1: state on Lana Kai Beach in Kailua. Lanakai Beach has

989
01:00:26,960 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 1: historically been in the top five beaches over the world

990
01:00:30,080 --> 01:00:32,840
Speaker 1: every year that they've been doing you know the beach

991
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:36,960
Speaker 1: rank and they have an incredible state. And they immediately said, yes, yep,

992
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:38,720
Speaker 1: when you want to do it, what do you want

993
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,480
Speaker 1: to do? So I'm like, okay, um, how about a

994
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:45,880
Speaker 1: one week every year? Yep? Tell us when so you

995
01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 1: know this this this property. I mean, you know, five

996
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 1: star in every way, you know, every movie star you

997
01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 1: can think of, you know, former presidents UH stay at

998
01:00:57,360 --> 01:01:00,160
Speaker 1: this estate when they're when they're in Hawaii and and UH.

999
01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:03,160
Speaker 1: The initial states that yes, we will support. And so

1000
01:01:03,440 --> 01:01:07,320
Speaker 1: when we were able to lock on the accommodations, okay,

1001
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:09,880
Speaker 1: that's the biggest part. Where would we put sixteen to

1002
01:01:09,960 --> 01:01:15,040
Speaker 1: twenty people? Okay, well, now now this is becoming reality.

1003
01:01:15,120 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 1: So we started to reach out to vendors, to companies

1004
01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 1: this and that, can you provide this and that. I'll

1005
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:25,680
Speaker 1: give you some examples. Paradise helicopter. UH here in Hawaii.

1006
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 1: UH a lot of leadership are our marines retired and

1007
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,560
Speaker 1: former UH came out and said, yep, we're going to

1008
01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:36,919
Speaker 1: give you guys private helicopters to fly fly these downtas. UH.

1009
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:40,240
Speaker 1: You know, local businesses such as restaurant six o four

1010
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:43,920
Speaker 1: which is down on Pearl Harbor. Again no military service.

1011
01:01:44,080 --> 01:01:48,160
Speaker 1: The owner, uh, Donovan Maples and his wife. You know, however,

1012
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,439
Speaker 1: patriotic Americans are like, yeah, what can we do? Dave

1013
01:01:51,520 --> 01:01:54,360
Speaker 1: helped us. Helped us raise probably over the last year.

1014
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:58,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, maybe fifty or sixty dollars something like that.

1015
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:06,000
Speaker 1: UM Tarot Brand, a food company, HFM Foods, Tito's Vodka,

1016
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:12,680
Speaker 1: the chin In Marketing Group, UH, Landmark Transport Services. I

1017
01:02:12,680 --> 01:02:14,680
Speaker 1: mean I could go on and on and on. People

1018
01:02:14,840 --> 01:02:16,840
Speaker 1: just came in and said, hey, what can we do?

1019
01:02:17,040 --> 01:02:20,280
Speaker 1: How can we help? Uh So, since that time to

1020
01:02:20,360 --> 01:02:26,320
Speaker 1: raise money at you know, multiple UM fundraisers at some

1021
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 1: of the places I've talked about, like restaurants six or four,

1022
01:02:29,720 --> 01:02:32,720
Speaker 1: We've had a golf tournament put on by those people

1023
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:36,320
Speaker 1: that I'm referring to. Uh And all of a sudden

1024
01:02:36,360 --> 01:02:38,280
Speaker 1: are like, Okay, well we have the money to do this.

1025
01:02:39,200 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 1: Uh So, now what has become reality and the families

1026
01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:46,760
Speaker 1: are going to be arriving on the second of me

1027
01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:51,080
Speaker 1: We're able to go and outright by a purchase airline

1028
01:02:51,080 --> 01:02:53,680
Speaker 1: tickets to fly them. So that's all loft on. So

1029
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:56,520
Speaker 1: when they come out here. They should expect you know,

1030
01:02:56,600 --> 01:03:01,600
Speaker 1: a week uh at that private resort with a private

1031
01:03:01,680 --> 01:03:05,840
Speaker 1: chef uh and an open bar seven uh, you know,

1032
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:12,760
Speaker 1: transportation ground and private helicopter uh. You know, yoga every

1033
01:03:12,840 --> 01:03:18,000
Speaker 1: morning donated by twenty four our fitness uh, scuba lessons,

1034
01:03:18,160 --> 01:03:22,760
Speaker 1: fishing lessons, I mean, you name it. Even the military

1035
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:26,400
Speaker 1: community here, it's been awesome. They've leaned in the whole

1036
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:30,520
Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor Pacific Fleet, which is before Star Navy Command

1037
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:34,480
Speaker 1: uh leaned in. You know, here's the Admiral's barge. Go

1038
01:03:34,480 --> 01:03:37,560
Speaker 1: ahead and take the families on a private tour out

1039
01:03:37,600 --> 01:03:40,960
Speaker 1: of Pearl Harbor, the non standard you know v I

1040
01:03:41,000 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 1: P sort of thing, the U. S. S. Missouri the

1041
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:46,600
Speaker 1: curator yet come up here. We're gonna give you guys

1042
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:49,520
Speaker 1: a curator led private tour of the entire ship. Again,

1043
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:52,840
Speaker 1: public doesn't normally get that. So that's the type of

1044
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:56,080
Speaker 1: thing uh in this specific retreat. This is our first

1045
01:03:56,200 --> 01:03:59,120
Speaker 1: one that's going to take place, and we're really proud

1046
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:03,200
Speaker 1: of that. UM. But what I'm really excited about is

1047
01:04:03,520 --> 01:04:07,440
Speaker 1: when I first, you know, had the honor of reaching

1048
01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:09,960
Speaker 1: out to each one of these families. You know, imagine

1049
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:14,280
Speaker 1: a family who lost you know, a husband or a dad,

1050
01:04:14,720 --> 01:04:17,440
Speaker 1: you know, over a decade ago, and some guy calls

1051
01:04:17,480 --> 01:04:19,240
Speaker 1: you and says, I am I am calling you on

1052
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:22,480
Speaker 1: behalf of this foundation. This is who I am. I

1053
01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:25,800
Speaker 1: did know your husband or dad or I didn't some

1054
01:04:25,880 --> 01:04:28,240
Speaker 1: of the some of our teammates families that are coming,

1055
01:04:28,280 --> 01:04:31,200
Speaker 1: I didn't know them, and I'm trying to explain to them, hey,

1056
01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:32,880
Speaker 1: this is what we would like to do for you.

1057
01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:37,400
Speaker 1: And I mean I had every response from go to hell,

1058
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:40,640
Speaker 1: why are you harassing us? You know? Uh, you know

1059
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:42,680
Speaker 1: because because the truth of the matter is is some

1060
01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:45,960
Speaker 1: of these families get harassed. There's there range people out

1061
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:49,440
Speaker 1: there right or even just like the amount of robo calls,

1062
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,360
Speaker 1: and some of them sound legit. I remember I was

1063
01:04:51,400 --> 01:04:55,080
Speaker 1: out eating barbecue with my friend actually about a year ago,

1064
01:04:55,160 --> 01:04:58,800
Speaker 1: and he got duped. He was like he went outside

1065
01:04:59,040 --> 01:05:00,640
Speaker 1: to take a call and like what was that about.

1066
01:05:00,680 --> 01:05:02,400
Speaker 1: It's like some free trip. I was probably like free

1067
01:05:02,440 --> 01:05:05,200
Speaker 1: trip to Y or something like that. They're definitely bullshit,

1068
01:05:05,280 --> 01:05:08,520
Speaker 1: hang up the vone. So I think people automatic reaction

1069
01:05:08,560 --> 01:05:11,080
Speaker 1: to something like that, even if even hearing from you,

1070
01:05:11,120 --> 01:05:13,720
Speaker 1: if they don't know you, is you know, this is

1071
01:05:13,760 --> 01:05:17,640
Speaker 1: some type of scam, sure, and you know, and then

1072
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:20,840
Speaker 1: on the other end of the spectrum, it was outright emotion,

1073
01:05:21,120 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm not gonna lie by, you know,

1074
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:26,520
Speaker 1: on each one of those six families that I called,

1075
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:31,160
Speaker 1: I got emotional. I cried with the families because you know,

1076
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:34,680
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing, you know, we as Americans, right, these

1077
01:05:34,760 --> 01:05:38,600
Speaker 1: people are good salt of the Earth Americans, right. They

1078
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:42,800
Speaker 1: live in the Midwest, the Southeast, they're from the East Coast,

1079
01:05:42,800 --> 01:05:47,880
Speaker 1: the West coast. They're just people trying to be good citizens, right.

1080
01:05:47,920 --> 01:05:50,720
Speaker 1: So you know, I had families that literally broke down

1081
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:53,200
Speaker 1: into tears and like, you know, I'm on speaker phone

1082
01:05:53,280 --> 01:05:55,760
Speaker 1: talking to to mom and maybe it maybe a daughter

1083
01:05:55,840 --> 01:05:59,040
Speaker 1: or something, and it was really emotional, man, you know,

1084
01:05:59,080 --> 01:06:01,600
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to keep my professionalism and I'm trying

1085
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:05,200
Speaker 1: to maintain uh, you know, my emotions, you know, to

1086
01:06:05,240 --> 01:06:07,080
Speaker 1: be able to walk them through this. But you know,

1087
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:10,760
Speaker 1: since that introduction about that's probably eight months ago now,

1088
01:06:10,880 --> 01:06:14,760
Speaker 1: and I talked, I correspond with the families at least weekly,

1089
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:17,560
Speaker 1: some of them daily, you know, to to keep them

1090
01:06:17,600 --> 01:06:20,200
Speaker 1: up to speed on behalf of the foundation. Here's here's

1091
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:22,920
Speaker 1: what's going on here. Are things to consider. You know,

1092
01:06:23,000 --> 01:06:26,400
Speaker 1: here's what we've got planned for you. Um, so we're excited.

1093
01:06:26,760 --> 01:06:29,040
Speaker 1: This is this is an inaugural event for us. We're

1094
01:06:29,040 --> 01:06:31,800
Speaker 1: gonna be doing every year, and we would like to

1095
01:06:31,840 --> 01:06:34,640
Speaker 1: expand it a little bit. Uh, not so much in numbers,

1096
01:06:34,680 --> 01:06:38,800
Speaker 1: because you know, maintaining positive control of sixteen to twenty

1097
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:41,480
Speaker 1: family members, you know, with a couple of you know,

1098
01:06:41,560 --> 01:06:44,920
Speaker 1: my wife, myself and a few teammates is enough. But

1099
01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:47,640
Speaker 1: we we want to at some point bring in our

1100
01:06:47,760 --> 01:06:52,160
Speaker 1: traumatically injured marines, and that includes marines that don't have

1101
01:06:52,200 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 1: the physical injuries. Right. What we all know intrinsically but

1102
01:06:56,400 --> 01:07:00,200
Speaker 1: most average citizens don't is you know, traumatic injury can

1103
01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:04,920
Speaker 1: be brain injury, can be effects of post traumatic stress disorder.

1104
01:07:05,360 --> 01:07:08,920
Speaker 1: So we want to start to bring in teammates and

1105
01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:13,160
Speaker 1: their families that are affected by those maladies as well.

1106
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:16,200
Speaker 1: The truth is, we didn't really know how to approach

1107
01:07:16,240 --> 01:07:18,960
Speaker 1: it because some of the special needs for those folks,

1108
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 1: you know, we we didn't you know, this is the

1109
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:23,320
Speaker 1: first time for us, we didn't really know what we

1110
01:07:23,400 --> 01:07:26,480
Speaker 1: might need to consider, whether it's an amputet or whether

1111
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:29,560
Speaker 1: it's some of the severe PTSD. So we're kind of

1112
01:07:29,600 --> 01:07:32,840
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, our next generations, we want to

1113
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:36,040
Speaker 1: include them, and how would we go about doing it?

1114
01:07:36,120 --> 01:07:38,960
Speaker 1: What would we need that's kind of special to be

1115
01:07:38,960 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 1: able to support their needs. So again that's an example

1116
01:07:42,520 --> 01:07:46,000
Speaker 1: of the kind of stuff that the Foundation UH is

1117
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:49,080
Speaker 1: doing for our gold Star families and our falling teaving.

1118
01:07:49,320 --> 01:07:52,680
Speaker 1: How can I'm sorry, go ahead, I was just gonna ask,

1119
01:07:52,720 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 1: how can either you know, former marines out there or

1120
01:07:56,200 --> 01:07:58,400
Speaker 1: John Q public how can they get involved in the

1121
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:02,440
Speaker 1: foundation and the work you guys are doing. Well, you know,

1122
01:08:02,520 --> 01:08:05,400
Speaker 1: that's a great question. What's really neat is I have

1123
01:08:05,480 --> 01:08:08,959
Speaker 1: been contacted personally, and I'm sure the Foundation and other

1124
01:08:09,000 --> 01:08:11,840
Speaker 1: board members have people say hey, what can I do?

1125
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,760
Speaker 1: How how can I do it? UM? I would say

1126
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:20,120
Speaker 1: right up front that UM, we have a online fundraising

1127
01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:24,639
Speaker 1: platform both within our you know, our social media Facebook

1128
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:30,240
Speaker 1: page as well as UM on our our baseline foundation page.

1129
01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:34,000
Speaker 1: Someone can go there and you can click donate. When

1130
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:37,200
Speaker 1: the donate page comes up, there's a drop down menu.

1131
01:08:37,360 --> 01:08:41,080
Speaker 1: You can donate to an individual case, you can donate

1132
01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:44,040
Speaker 1: to the emergency fund, you can donate to the gold

1133
01:08:44,080 --> 01:08:47,080
Speaker 1: Star families. So there are categories and you can write

1134
01:08:47,080 --> 01:08:50,679
Speaker 1: a little narrative saying, hey, my you know, my friend

1135
01:08:51,360 --> 01:08:53,920
Speaker 1: is so and so and he was recently injured in

1136
01:08:54,040 --> 01:08:57,799
Speaker 1: a training accident or you know, killed in action or whatever,

1137
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,160
Speaker 1: and I want to donate to this to him, or

1138
01:09:00,240 --> 01:09:02,759
Speaker 1: it can go to the emergency fund. So right up front,

1139
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:05,360
Speaker 1: I mean, the truth of the the matter is that we

1140
01:09:05,560 --> 01:09:09,759
Speaker 1: as a nonprofit work on donations. I mean, if people

1141
01:09:09,800 --> 01:09:14,640
Speaker 1: are non involved and and financial and uh product donations

1142
01:09:14,640 --> 01:09:18,240
Speaker 1: are key, we simply cannot do the things that I've

1143
01:09:18,240 --> 01:09:21,080
Speaker 1: described to you today. It's it's just that's just the truth.

1144
01:09:21,560 --> 01:09:24,960
Speaker 1: So if someone wants to help immediately, financial help is

1145
01:09:25,040 --> 01:09:28,800
Speaker 1: always well. Now, if someone wants to donate time, there

1146
01:09:28,840 --> 01:09:32,479
Speaker 1: are other things we do in the fundraising realm Uh.

1147
01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:35,080
Speaker 1: You know, a guy might run the Marine Corps Marathon

1148
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:38,800
Speaker 1: on behalf of the foundation and raise money. You know,

1149
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:43,280
Speaker 1: some Marines may go and summit you know, Mount Rainier

1150
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:47,639
Speaker 1: for time and raise money. Uh. You know those sort

1151
01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,880
Speaker 1: of activities. Someone may throw a golf tournament and then

1152
01:09:50,960 --> 01:09:55,000
Speaker 1: within those, you know, people can volunteer to help execute.

1153
01:09:55,320 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 1: So for example, uh, this year, in November eight, will

1154
01:10:00,240 --> 01:10:05,519
Speaker 1: be the third UH annual a ha Koa golf tournament

1155
01:10:05,560 --> 01:10:09,160
Speaker 1: here on o Wahhao Huge golf tournament. I was involved

1156
01:10:09,280 --> 01:10:11,760
Speaker 1: last year for the first time on behalf of the foundation.

1157
01:10:12,560 --> 01:10:19,519
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you know, probably two dozen businesses, three golfers. Uh,

1158
01:10:19,560 --> 01:10:24,280
Speaker 1: you know, just a huge venue food, drink, entertainment and

1159
01:10:24,320 --> 01:10:27,320
Speaker 1: then there's some golfing. It's a golf tournament, but it

1160
01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:30,439
Speaker 1: was more of the other than it was golfing. Uh,

1161
01:10:30,479 --> 01:10:32,640
Speaker 1: and all to raise money and uh you know, at

1162
01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:35,280
Speaker 1: the end of the night, uh, you know, the foundation

1163
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:40,160
Speaker 1: was was awarded a very handsome check. Um. If people

1164
01:10:40,200 --> 01:10:42,559
Speaker 1: want to come out and support that, really it's just

1165
01:10:42,600 --> 01:10:46,880
Speaker 1: a fun day out there on the golf course, eating, drinking, entertainment,

1166
01:10:47,439 --> 01:10:51,040
Speaker 1: interacting with the young reconstance marines. Um. They can come

1167
01:10:51,040 --> 01:10:53,559
Speaker 1: out and say, hey, I would like to help donate

1168
01:10:53,600 --> 01:10:57,120
Speaker 1: my time, to organize, to pack, you know, to do

1169
01:10:57,200 --> 01:10:59,559
Speaker 1: this at the other So I think those are some

1170
01:10:59,640 --> 01:11:03,680
Speaker 1: ways that people can get involved in the foundation. And

1171
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:06,800
Speaker 1: what I will tell you is, in the end, the

1172
01:11:06,840 --> 01:11:11,960
Speaker 1: beauty of this foundation specifically is that every dollar that

1173
01:11:12,080 --> 01:11:18,200
Speaker 1: comes in, every product that comes in is directly in

1174
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:20,840
Speaker 1: support of the foundation. It isn't like some and I'm

1175
01:11:20,840 --> 01:11:22,639
Speaker 1: not going to mention them where you know, you get

1176
01:11:22,640 --> 01:11:25,559
Speaker 1: a dollar and five cents of that dollar goes to

1177
01:11:25,600 --> 01:11:30,759
Speaker 1: help the actual audience, the actual people you're supposed to support. No, no,

1178
01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:32,760
Speaker 1: none of us are getting paid. Not that there's no,

1179
01:11:32,920 --> 01:11:36,200
Speaker 1: there's no. Everything is about what we can do the

1180
01:11:36,320 --> 01:11:39,400
Speaker 1: further support in the recon community. So I can assure

1181
01:11:39,439 --> 01:11:41,840
Speaker 1: you personally, I'm saying it today on the air that

1182
01:11:42,000 --> 01:11:45,479
Speaker 1: in my experience with the foundation, that has been the case,

1183
01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:47,720
Speaker 1: and while I'm on the board, that will continue to

1184
01:11:47,760 --> 01:11:50,640
Speaker 1: be the case. That's awesome. Man. Well, the website is

1185
01:11:50,720 --> 01:11:54,320
Speaker 1: Recon foundation dot org. The gold Star treat It sounds amazing.

1186
01:11:54,360 --> 01:11:55,960
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like you're going to make these

1187
01:11:55,960 --> 01:12:00,200
Speaker 1: families feel like rock stars and well deserved. I guess

1188
01:12:00,200 --> 01:12:02,400
Speaker 1: the last question I have before we wrap this up,

1189
01:12:02,439 --> 01:12:05,679
Speaker 1: and this has been a fascinating discussion, uh, is where

1190
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 1: does the nickname Pep come from? I'm I'm off and

1191
01:12:11,320 --> 01:12:15,560
Speaker 1: asked that. So my first name, right, being a Spaniard,

1192
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:21,120
Speaker 1: first generation American, is Jose. Right, So Jose is basically

1193
01:12:21,240 --> 01:12:27,360
Speaker 1: Joseph in Spanish. Uh So Peppe is sort of slang

1194
01:12:27,520 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 1: for Joe in Spanish. So when I grew up, literally nobody,

1195
01:12:32,360 --> 01:12:35,439
Speaker 1: not even my mother called me Jose. Uh. It was

1196
01:12:35,479 --> 01:12:38,840
Speaker 1: always Peppe, which turned into Pep. Now as I got

1197
01:12:38,880 --> 01:12:42,160
Speaker 1: older in my professional life. Um, you know, when you

1198
01:12:42,200 --> 01:12:46,840
Speaker 1: meet someone, I don't introduce myself as Pep off the bat,

1199
01:12:46,960 --> 01:12:49,360
Speaker 1: unless like you're a teammate, and people know me by

1200
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:52,280
Speaker 1: that in the community, because I would go, Hi, my

1201
01:12:52,320 --> 01:12:56,200
Speaker 1: name is Pep, and they would say, what Pep? Pep?

1202
01:12:56,400 --> 01:13:00,000
Speaker 1: What Pp? Just never mind? Never mind Joe? How about

1203
01:13:00,120 --> 01:13:02,240
Speaker 1: Joe Joe works? Because that's kind of a common name.

1204
01:13:02,320 --> 01:13:04,600
Speaker 1: So it's a funny story. It's funny you asked you that.

1205
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:07,960
Speaker 1: I was literally just asked that day before yesterday that

1206
01:13:08,120 --> 01:13:10,799
Speaker 1: that's the background. That's cool, man, I was just wondering.

1207
01:13:10,840 --> 01:13:14,360
Speaker 1: So once again, the website is our recon Foundation dot org.

1208
01:13:14,439 --> 01:13:16,840
Speaker 1: It's been great having someone of your background because, as

1209
01:13:16,880 --> 01:13:18,840
Speaker 1: you said, a lot of guys in your background don't

1210
01:13:18,920 --> 01:13:21,080
Speaker 1: really do a lot of speaking, not a lot of

1211
01:13:21,080 --> 01:13:24,120
Speaker 1: books put out by guys of your background, and it's

1212
01:13:24,120 --> 01:13:26,800
Speaker 1: been great having you on. Anything else to plug before

1213
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:32,400
Speaker 1: we wrap this up, I would just say that I

1214
01:13:32,439 --> 01:13:37,560
Speaker 1: appreciate having the opportunity to represent the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation

1215
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:42,200
Speaker 1: and the Reconsistance community, which is UH our reconnaissance Marines

1216
01:13:42,320 --> 01:13:46,639
Speaker 1: and our special on Fibish Reconstance Corman. Um, you're lucky

1217
01:13:46,680 --> 01:13:49,680
Speaker 1: to be an American as we all are, and uh,

1218
01:13:50,040 --> 01:13:52,599
Speaker 1: we believe in our mission. And if you're like minded

1219
01:13:52,640 --> 01:13:56,000
Speaker 1: and you'd like to be involved, please get involved because

1220
01:13:56,120 --> 01:14:00,800
Speaker 1: action speaks louder than words. Awesome. Thanks, yeah, thank you

1221
01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:02,960
Speaker 1: so much for spending some of your day with us today.

1222
01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:05,320
Speaker 1: This has been really informative and I think a lot

1223
01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:08,840
Speaker 1: of people are gonna want to get involved. Awesome. Thank

1224
01:14:08,880 --> 01:14:12,960
Speaker 1: you guys, very much. Great having jose Pep de Blada

1225
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:15,719
Speaker 1: on the show today, Um, and next to Nick Kaufman

1226
01:14:15,800 --> 01:14:19,639
Speaker 1: for the connection, and especially for a guy who sounded

1227
01:14:19,680 --> 01:14:21,439
Speaker 1: like he didn't want to talk so much about himself,

1228
01:14:21,680 --> 01:14:23,880
Speaker 1: I'm very glad that he did get into his back

1229
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:26,520
Speaker 1: now he said, he seems like a really cool guy. Yeah,

1230
01:14:26,600 --> 01:14:28,880
Speaker 1: And at first, you know, because he was just like, well,

1231
01:14:28,920 --> 01:14:31,040
Speaker 1: I just want to talk about the Recon Foundation. I

1232
01:14:31,040 --> 01:14:32,880
Speaker 1: didn't think I thought he was gonna be kind of

1233
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:35,680
Speaker 1: tight whipped about his service. And I'm glad he got

1234
01:14:35,680 --> 01:14:38,439
Speaker 1: into it with us. Yeah. Well, I mean, you want

1235
01:14:39,240 --> 01:14:41,639
Speaker 1: the thing is, we live in a democratic country, right

1236
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:46,960
Speaker 1: and we need the public support for our military. And

1237
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:50,439
Speaker 1: if the public doesn't know what a reconnaissance marine is,

1238
01:14:50,479 --> 01:14:53,280
Speaker 1: they're not going to support him. Yeah, that's just the truth.

1239
01:14:53,320 --> 01:14:54,840
Speaker 1: I mean, if they don't know what a ranger is,

1240
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:57,880
Speaker 1: they're not going to support him. Um, basically a Navy seal.

1241
01:14:57,920 --> 01:14:59,960
Speaker 1: I think the public understands what a Navy seal is

1242
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:03,760
Speaker 1: at this point. Um. But you know, as as jose

1243
01:15:03,960 --> 01:15:07,240
Speaker 1: was talking about, I mean, it's important to talk about

1244
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:10,400
Speaker 1: the reconnaissance marine because we want the public to support them.

1245
01:15:10,600 --> 01:15:12,600
Speaker 1: We want the public to support the Marine Corps. We

1246
01:15:12,640 --> 01:15:16,000
Speaker 1: want the public to support foundations like this that help

1247
01:15:16,040 --> 01:15:19,400
Speaker 1: out the families and and injured marines. So it is

1248
01:15:19,439 --> 01:15:21,880
Speaker 1: important to tell some of these stories. Yeah, and I

1249
01:15:21,960 --> 01:15:25,439
Speaker 1: do appreciate him going into, you know, extensive detail about

1250
01:15:25,439 --> 01:15:27,800
Speaker 1: their mission and that everybody is a volunteer. You know.

1251
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:32,439
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you do hear about organizations and it just seems

1252
01:15:32,439 --> 01:15:34,519
Speaker 1: like they're doing a lot of like networking and charity

1253
01:15:34,520 --> 01:15:37,599
Speaker 1: events and and and you wonder where the money is going.

1254
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:40,040
Speaker 1: You know, he gave us all the details of where

1255
01:15:40,040 --> 01:15:43,240
Speaker 1: that money is going. So it sounds like an incredible organization. No,

1256
01:15:43,360 --> 01:15:45,599
Speaker 1: they sound like they're really hands on, which is great.

1257
01:15:45,760 --> 01:15:49,519
Speaker 1: Like I have a friend without naming names, but doing

1258
01:15:49,560 --> 01:15:52,880
Speaker 1: it was like one of these charitable galas um down

1259
01:15:52,920 --> 01:15:56,640
Speaker 1: in downtown Manhattan, and like these millionaires were coming up

1260
01:15:56,640 --> 01:15:58,400
Speaker 1: to him and they're like, yeah, I just donated one

1261
01:15:58,439 --> 01:16:00,840
Speaker 1: point five million to the Organized Nation. But then on

1262
01:16:00,880 --> 01:16:02,800
Speaker 1: the on the back side of it, he knows that

1263
01:16:02,920 --> 01:16:06,240
Speaker 1: organization isn't doing anything, so he's like, where the fund

1264
01:16:06,320 --> 01:16:09,400
Speaker 1: is the money going? What the hell is going on here? Um,

1265
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:12,360
Speaker 1: So I've seen the same type of thing, man. Yeah,

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01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:16,040
Speaker 1: So I mean it sounds like the the Recon Foundation

1267
01:16:16,640 --> 01:16:19,320
Speaker 1: is small, it's staffed by volunteers, and it sounds like

1268
01:16:19,360 --> 01:16:21,479
Speaker 1: it's hands on, you know, So it's it's probably a

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01:16:21,600 --> 01:16:26,240
Speaker 1: much safer bet. And he's definitely passionate about it. And

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01:16:26,240 --> 01:16:28,960
Speaker 1: and I think being able to fly these gold Star

1271
01:16:29,040 --> 01:16:32,040
Speaker 1: families out to lie for you know, a few days,

1272
01:16:32,080 --> 01:16:35,840
Speaker 1: to both unwind and learn some new stuff, like, it's

1273
01:16:35,920 --> 01:16:39,519
Speaker 1: really like an awesome experience. And and also the reaction

1274
01:16:39,600 --> 01:16:43,960
Speaker 1: he got from those families. So yeah, visit Reconfoundation dot org,

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01:16:44,720 --> 01:16:46,960
Speaker 1: and uh, I think that's that's it for us. I mean,

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01:16:47,000 --> 01:16:49,479
Speaker 1: that was a great interview, and for a guy who

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01:16:49,479 --> 01:16:51,360
Speaker 1: doesn't do a lot of media, I thought he was

1278
01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:54,400
Speaker 1: excellent and I had a lot to say yeah, absolutely,

1279
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:56,719
Speaker 1: I don't love to have him back on sometime definitely.

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01:16:56,960 --> 01:17:00,519
Speaker 1: Um alright, so follow us as always at Soffer Radio.

1281
01:17:01,439 --> 01:17:03,600
Speaker 1: Check out the News rep dot com for all the

1282
01:17:03,600 --> 01:17:06,519
Speaker 1: way it's special operations news as well as everything else

1283
01:17:06,560 --> 01:17:09,479
Speaker 1: we're covering over there, and uh, we'll talk to you

1284
01:17:09,479 --> 01:17:16,479
Speaker 1: guys soon. You've been listening to self Rep Radio. New

1285
01:17:16,520 --> 01:17:20,519
Speaker 1: episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on

1286
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,479
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio