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Speaker 1: Two hundred and fifty years of the most aggressive, badass

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Speaker 1: fighting force on the planet, the United States Marine Corps.

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Speaker 1: Mister Tommy James this week on The David Brutherford Show.

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Speaker 1: All Right, So, one of the things that I learned

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Speaker 1: really early on in life was the power of the

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps. And that is because my best friend I

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Speaker 1: grew up with, who was in five different high schools,

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Speaker 1: didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, graduates,

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Speaker 1: joins the Corps, goes to Parris Island, turns his entire

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Speaker 1: life around and becomes one of the hardest work in

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Speaker 1: human beings I've ever known in my life. Now, that

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Speaker 1: set the tone for me as I went in the Navy,

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Speaker 1: and then every opportunity that I got to work with

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Speaker 1: Marines over the eight years that I was in the

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Speaker 1: time I was at Blackwater and the time that I

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Speaker 1: was at the Agency, every single time they were the

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Speaker 1: most hard charge and focused, dialed in guys on every opportunity,

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Speaker 1: every op, every interagency op, everything I ever did, the

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps was always the most gung ho. And so

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Speaker 1: to honor them and to honor their stories, I had somebody,

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine, an SF buddy, say, hey, we

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Speaker 1: need to interview more grunts, more guys that were in

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Speaker 1: the thick of it in the GWAT, And so I

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Speaker 1: put it out on X and I got flooded with

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Speaker 1: people reaching out to me to come on and tell

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Speaker 1: their stories. Well, this man today, Sergeant Tommy James, he

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Speaker 1: did not reach out to me, but he was rogered

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Speaker 1: up by one of his buddies because obviously him and

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Speaker 1: his story and his commitment to the country had such

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Speaker 1: an impact on his buddy that he felt like it

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Speaker 1: would be an incredible opportunity for my audience, all of you,

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Speaker 1: to hear Sergeant James' story. So, without further ado, it

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Speaker 1: is a great privilege and honor to welcome you to

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Speaker 1: the show.

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Speaker 2: Tommy. God bless you, buddy. Thank you David.

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Speaker 1: Okay, here's what I want to know. Let's just start

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Speaker 1: from the beginning. Describe what was the allure, what was

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Speaker 1: the thing that brought you into the Marine Corps and

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Speaker 1: why the Marines.

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Speaker 3: Well, the way I've always looked at it, if I'm

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Speaker 3: gonna do something, I'm gonna.

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Speaker 2: Put in my all.

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Speaker 3: And I chose the Marine Corps because everybody else says, oh,

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Speaker 3: I almost joined the Marine corps and all these things,

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Speaker 3: you know, or and I didn't want to be an

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Speaker 3: almost guy. You know, if I do anything, I do

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Speaker 3: it to the best of my abilities. It don't matter

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Speaker 3: what it is. We're cleaning the toilet, that toilet's gonna

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Speaker 3: be spitch shine clean. It don't matter whatever I do.

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Speaker 3: I try to do the best of my villies' abilities

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Speaker 3: and put in one hundred percent every time.

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Speaker 4: Did you learn that growing up? I mean, where are

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Speaker 4: you from?

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Speaker 3: Originally I was born in Oklahoma City, but we moved

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Speaker 3: to Arkansas right after the Federal building got bombed in

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Speaker 3: ninety six. And that's what they used to call me

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Speaker 3: in boot camp and coming up, they always said.

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Speaker 2: Arkansas getting stiff. Yeah over allowed figure.

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Speaker 3: I was a guide in boot camp and all that.

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Speaker 3: I went to MCRD yeah, you know west of the Mississippi. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: in Arkansas, and you know, I've had an accent my

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Speaker 3: whole life, and it's just kind of followed me in,

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Speaker 3: you know.

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Speaker 4: Right, Well, that's that's what I always remember.

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Speaker 1: I always remember the guys from Arkansas, Oklahoma, right, Mississippi, Alabama,

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Speaker 1: like everybody who had those thick Southern accents. It was

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Speaker 1: like you were a magnet for the instructors, right, they

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Speaker 1: just they heard you talk and then it was it

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Speaker 1: was just pylon time.

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Speaker 2: M hmm. That's right.

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Speaker 1: So tell me what year you went in and what

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Speaker 1: was the reason why you wanted to join.

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Speaker 2: Was it nine to eleven?

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Speaker 4: Was it a family thing?

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Speaker 1: Had people served before you? What was the real catalyst

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Speaker 1: that it was? Like, you know what, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: go serve my country.

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Speaker 2: The thing for me is my dad.

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Speaker 3: He served in the army in Vietnam, and all he

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Speaker 3: was older dad, you know, he was born in forty three.

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Speaker 3: So I went in the Marine Corps in two thousand

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Speaker 3: and six and I got out from active duty in

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Speaker 3: twenty eleven.

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Speaker 2: And the biggest thing that you know.

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Speaker 3: Drove me because was whenever I was a saint, well, no,

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Speaker 3: whenever I was in high school. I'll never forget to day,

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Speaker 3: you know, when every thing stopped, the whole world stopped,

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Speaker 3: and in every class they was playing you know, the

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Speaker 3: news and for me to wash them planes, you know,

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Speaker 3: you steer right into them buildings and all this.

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Speaker 2: You know, I immediately wanted to do something.

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Speaker 3: Of course, you know, I've never been in JR, JR,

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Speaker 3: OTC or any of that.

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Speaker 2: Stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: But I just from that day, I just said, you know,

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Speaker 3: it'd be awesome if I could do something, you know,

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Speaker 3: to help protect our country.

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Speaker 1: I love it now when you decided to go into

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Speaker 1: the recruiters, just did you know right away it was

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps or did you have that little itch

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Speaker 1: because your dad served in the army that you're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to keep the tradition.

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Speaker 4: Going, or did you want to break that cycle?

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Speaker 1: And it was, as everybody always says, it was those

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Speaker 1: damn uniforms that sucked me in.

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Speaker 3: Well, to be honest with you, I knew nothing about

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Speaker 3: the military or the uniforms or anything before I prior

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Speaker 3: to me joining or even speaking to a recruiter, because

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Speaker 3: it was I didn't even speak to a recruiter to

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Speaker 3: two or three years after I.

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Speaker 2: Got out of high school.

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Speaker 3: And so none of that really swayed it. You know,

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Speaker 3: my dad would talk about it some, but he didn't

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Speaker 3: you know, he didn't just press in, you know, pressing

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Speaker 3: us to join the military.

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Speaker 2: You know, I have two brothers, you know, that lived

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Speaker 2: and come up with men.

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Speaker 3: It's just something that I felt like, you know, I

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Speaker 3: wanted to do, and if I was going to go

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Speaker 3: into any service.

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Speaker 2: It was going to be the hardest one, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, absolutely what what tell me the path? So went

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Speaker 1: to MCRD. Was it summer of six or fall?

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Speaker 4: What?

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Speaker 2: What?

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Speaker 4: What period of time did you go into boot camp?

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Speaker 3: I went to boot camp in October of two thousand

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Speaker 3: and six, Okay, you know, it was getting towards winter

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Speaker 3: and we come out. I believe five January of No.

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Speaker 3: Seven is when we graduated. I was about two weeks in.

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Speaker 3: We went to Pugle Sticks and I didn't know this

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Speaker 3: ch after I graduated in the drilling struke to come

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Speaker 3: and talk to me and my dad and said, you know,

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Speaker 3: do you know why I made you the guide?

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Speaker 2: And I'm like, no idea?

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Speaker 3: And he said it was because in pugl Sticks you

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Speaker 3: kicked so much ass they had to drag you off there.

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Speaker 3: And I was just like, I didn't even remember it,

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Speaker 3: you know, Yeah, but that he made a big impression

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Speaker 3: on me, that drill instructure that chose me to.

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Speaker 2: Be the guide.

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Speaker 3: And ironically enough, when I got back from Afghanistan and

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Speaker 3: was back stateside with had about five six months left

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Speaker 3: on my contract, I went to the golf course.

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Speaker 2: One day. We go to tee up and who is.

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Speaker 3: It that I'm paired up with my drilling structor from

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Speaker 3: booth Awesome.

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Speaker 2: That's so awesome.

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Speaker 3: I immediately knew it was him whenever he you know,

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Speaker 3: spoke and introduced hisself and said, hey, I'm you know

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Speaker 3: so and so, and I'm like, man, the voice sounds

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Speaker 3: so familiar. And then the more I looked at him,

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Speaker 3: you know about the third hole, he comes to me

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Speaker 3: because I honestly made an impression on him, and he said,

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Speaker 3: was you one of my recruits? And I said I was,

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Speaker 3: you know, because I didn't know where he's at in

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Speaker 3: his career at that time. It was five years later,

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Speaker 3: you know all this, and so that was that was

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Speaker 3: pretty cool to five years down the road, out of nowhere,

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Speaker 3: you know, get paired up with one of my drilling structures.

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Speaker 2: You know, that made a lasting impression on me. That

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Speaker 2: was a that was cool to me.

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Speaker 1: You know, Oh my god, seem for me. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I you know, I had I ended up, you know,

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Speaker 1: my first platoon and our sister platoon. There was probably

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Speaker 1: I think there were three guys that were instructors when

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Speaker 1: I went through buds that were in that platoon. And

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Speaker 1: that was really cool to see, you know, that ability

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Speaker 1: to how how the ideas the training just keeps passing

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Speaker 1: down through the generations and what that means, right to

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Speaker 1: come up in the ranks and then they have the

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Speaker 1: opportunity then to give back as an instructor is such

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Speaker 1: a powerful impact, and in particular within the.

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Speaker 4: Core when you were in boot camp.

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Speaker 1: When you were in boot camp, what were some of

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Speaker 1: the things that really stood out to you in terms

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Speaker 1: of the training, the attitude, or the camaraderie that you

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Speaker 1: felt with the guys going through with you.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, I didn't I didn't have a clue

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Speaker 3: of what to expect before I went to boot camp.

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Speaker 3: I didn't look anything up, you know, before that, I

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Speaker 3: never been an athlete or anything, you know, and I

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Speaker 3: just went in blind and didn't have a clue what

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Speaker 3: was coming up. But after had a month or so,

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Speaker 3: I figured out, you know that half of this stuff

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Speaker 3: is mind games.

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Speaker 2: You know, I would see them, we'd be you.

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Speaker 3: Know, marching to chaw or this or that, and you know,

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Speaker 3: I would see them always pull their cover off and

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Speaker 3: look in their hat from their cover, and they had

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Speaker 3: a schedule in there, And I figured it out real quick.

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Speaker 3: You know, we're gonna play some games if we're early,

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Speaker 3: and we got some time before we have to go

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Speaker 3: to our next event.

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Speaker 2: But it was slam packed.

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Speaker 3: I mean every day there was multiple things to do

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Speaker 3: for thirteen weeks.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: There is never a day where we just set around

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Speaker 3: the squad bay, you know, and played the scrub Brush

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Speaker 3: five hundred. So it was just all it was something

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Speaker 3: every day before that I'd never even shot with iron

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Speaker 3: sights or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: And I was lucky enough to be one be prior

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Speaker 2: to where they went to a cobs and all that,

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Speaker 2: and it taught a.

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Speaker 3: Lot, you know, on really good instructions on shooting and

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Speaker 3: all that. You know, before I just looked through the

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Speaker 3: crossairs and you know that's all I knew, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, right.

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Speaker 3: I never even shot a pistol before, which I didn't

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Speaker 3: shoot a pistol to later on. But it was just

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Speaker 3: deer hunting rifles and shotguns. I did a lot of

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Speaker 3: duck hunting whenever I was younger, and I love shooting

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Speaker 3: them ducks. Well, that's awesome. It's funny. You raw dogged

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Speaker 3: the Marine Corps like you didn't.

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Speaker 1: You didn't look anything up, You didn't have any expectations.

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Speaker 1: You just went in and you went in hard, and

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Speaker 1: I think that's for me what was always the amazing thing,

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Speaker 1: and that thirteen weeks the Marine Corps produces, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: probably the greatest, the greatest basic troop. Right without any

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Speaker 1: other training, you could take that group of young Marines

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Speaker 1: and you could put them into war. And that's because

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Speaker 1: that training is so efficient, the mindset is so in,

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Speaker 1: the indoctrination is so well seated, and I think that's

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Speaker 1: really what the unique aspect of it is.

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Speaker 4: I want to ask.

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Speaker 1: You about when you were going through Marine Corps boot

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Speaker 1: camp and whether or not there was this profound shift

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Speaker 1: where you started to really feel like a marine, that mentality,

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Speaker 1: that devil dog emerged at you. But before we get

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Speaker 1: into that, I just want to pay some bills and

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Speaker 1: really talk about one of my great sponsors I have

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Speaker 1: and lately we've been reminding of just how high the

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Speaker 1: but it only strengthens our resolve in the fact that

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Speaker 1: we will never back down in terms of our dedication

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Speaker 1: call nine to seven to two Patriot and make the

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Speaker 1: switch today.

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Speaker 4: All right, Tommy, was.

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Speaker 1: There a time in that thirteen weeks that you really

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Speaker 1: kind of felt a shift, You felt that.

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Speaker 2: What is it?

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Speaker 1: You felt that real deep connection to becoming a marine, right.

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Speaker 1: What did it happen quickly? Did it happen in the middle,

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Speaker 1: did it happen at the end?

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Speaker 3: Well, for me, it happened in the second month when

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Speaker 3: we went from mcrd up to Pendleton for Crucible Week,

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Speaker 3: And that was that was just kind of the pinnacle

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Speaker 3: for me, going three days without eating, you know, and

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Speaker 3: humping so many miles and miles up and down the

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Speaker 3: mountains at Pendleton. You know, it was just me watching

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Speaker 3: all these other people fall out, can't keep up, and

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Speaker 3: I'm just like, I keep pushing, pushing, pushing.

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Speaker 2: I'm on the drill instructure, but.

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Speaker 3: You know, and look back and it's just strung out

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Speaker 3: like a big slinky.

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Speaker 2: You know, and I'm let's go, you know.

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Speaker 3: And that's where I really got motivated, and I realized

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Speaker 3: that it was it wasn't really hard for me to

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Speaker 3: stay up there and do the things that was real

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Speaker 3: hard for a lot of the other guys, and it's

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Speaker 3: almost like it was natural for me, you know. And

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Speaker 3: I just that's whenever I really knew, whenever we completed

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Speaker 3: that crew and got to go to the towel hall

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Speaker 3: by yourself.

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Speaker 2: And I got more than twenty three seconds to eat

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Speaker 2: a meal because it's the guy.

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Speaker 3: You know, you're you're the last person in and as

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Speaker 3: soon as the first.

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Speaker 2: Up, you're done. So it was mini meals that I

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Speaker 2: didn't even get a bike.

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Speaker 3: I'd go to sit down and the first dude got

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Speaker 3: up and I'd be so mad at him.

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Speaker 1: For the audience, he doesn't know what Tommy's talking about.

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Speaker 1: As the guide, you basically keep the entire formation in step.

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Speaker 1: You keep everything you you're did you carry the colors?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and so and and and what what

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Speaker 1: everybody needs to understand is that this is one of

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Speaker 1: the most historically admired positions in the history of the Core.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 1: This is the guy that carries the flag that keeps

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Speaker 1: everybody in time as you more arch into battle. Right,

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's the symbolism that is attached to that

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Speaker 1: that individual is as deep as the legacy of the

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Speaker 1: Marine Corps itself. And so to be able to get

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Speaker 1: that honor is a really really huge thing for anybody.

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Speaker 1: And going through boot camp when you graduated, talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about that graduation ceremony and what was it

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Speaker 1: like to you know, get the globe and anchors.

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Speaker 3: Man, it was it was awesome for me. I mean honestly,

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Speaker 3: I was a guide, so I was the only one

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Speaker 3: in the hope of tune one hundred and twenty three

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Speaker 3: guys that got to graduate in his dress blues. So

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Speaker 3: that was back before you know, they started letting everybody

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Speaker 3: wear their blues. So everybody else was in camis now

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Speaker 3: hold on Charlie's. They were in Charlie's and I was

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Speaker 3: only wanted full with dress blues. And I got married

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Speaker 3: TORSLEI promoted straight out of boot camp, you know, because

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Speaker 3: I was a platoon honorman as well. Wow, and being

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Speaker 3: able to march, you know, on that parade deck at

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Speaker 3: San Diego, was listening to the you know, they always

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Speaker 3: said march to the bee of the drum, and it

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Speaker 3: took me a long time to figure out what he

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Speaker 3: was even talking about.

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Speaker 2: You know, I never you.

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Speaker 3: Know, had to march or do anything like that. And

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Speaker 3: you know they kept screaming, march to the bee of

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Speaker 3: the drum. Getting stepp Arkansas and you know it was

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Speaker 3: after about the fourth or fifth oh practice or whatever,

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Speaker 3: you want to call it, you know, getting ready for

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Speaker 3: the you know, the ceremony that I actually learned what

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Speaker 3: he was talking about when that drum hit your left

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Speaker 3: neat left footneys be hitting the ground, you know. But

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Speaker 3: me standing up there with five other Marines and doing

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Speaker 3: retiring the guy on and all that, it was a

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Speaker 3: he did pretty cool, pretty special, you know.

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Speaker 2: And when I got that ego globe and anchor pinned.

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Speaker 3: On me on that day, you know, I felt like

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Speaker 3: I really accomplished something.

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Speaker 2: I bet.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so cool man.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's just there's so much folklore attached to

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Speaker 1: the Marine Corps, right, you know, from from you know,

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Speaker 1: all the way back to the Barbary Wars. It's funny.

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Speaker 1: Buddy Mine that is a current MARSOK Intel officer up

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Speaker 1: at Pendleton and reservists and when we work together at

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Speaker 1: the agency. He got a chance to be at Libya

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Speaker 1: and go to where the Barbary Wars, where the Marines

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Speaker 1: that are still buried over there are and he did

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Speaker 1: this etching on one of the gravestones. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you look at that, you look at Bellowo Wood, the

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Speaker 1: Devil Dogs, you look at the bottom Battle of Taroa.

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Speaker 1: You look at Iwo Jima, you look at Quesa, right,

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Speaker 1: you look at Felujah, you look at Lambar, right, you

356
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Speaker 1: look at Marja push and nine. And it's continuously the

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Speaker 1: core that rogers up and goes deep into the heart

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Speaker 1: of the enemy's mind, right, because you bring the fight

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00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:24,399
Speaker 1: to them. When you left boot camp, where did you

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Speaker 1: go and how did the pride continue to build inside

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Speaker 1: of you with your service?

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Speaker 3: Well, whenever I left boot camp, I went to three

363
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Speaker 3: weeks of I was basically teaching training you how to deploy,

364
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Speaker 3: because of course we was in the middle of the fight.

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Speaker 3: And it was called Marine Corps training and it was

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Speaker 3: three weeks, three more weeks of additional combat training that

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Speaker 3: we went to. And out of that, I went to

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Speaker 3: Ford Leonnerwood for Military Police School and I done nine

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00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:06,280
Speaker 3: weeks of training there. And whenever we got ready to

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Speaker 3: graduate a military police school, about a week or two before,

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00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 3: they took the top five percent of the class and

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Speaker 3: asked them, you know, if they want to go to

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Speaker 3: canine school to learn how to be a military working

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Speaker 3: dog handler, And you had to fill out some you know,

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Speaker 3: questionnaires and stuff basically smid application to it. And I

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Speaker 3: called one of my good buddies, Rick Staggs, that you

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Speaker 3: know I grew up with, and he went into the

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Speaker 3: Marine Corps about a year ahead of me, and he.

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Speaker 2: Was a Military Police officer too, but he was a

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Speaker 2: field MP. He got to deploya.

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Speaker 3: Iraq immediately after he got out in p school on

382
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Speaker 3: most so he already had the format under his belt.

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Speaker 3: And I call him up. He's at Lejeune and I said,

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Speaker 3: hey man. They asked if I want to go to

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Speaker 3: canine school.

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Speaker 2: What I tell him? He said, hell, yeah, you do,

387
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Speaker 2: he said.

388
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,200
Speaker 3: Them dudes and her act the canine had it made.

389
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 3: They got an air conditioned hug when they was back

390
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Speaker 3: on base and everything else. And we're out here sleeping

391
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Speaker 3: under the tents. And I said, you want to pick

392
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Speaker 3: a nine Henley.

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Speaker 2: You know.

394
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Speaker 3: So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to submit

395
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 3: a package and see where it goes. So I left

396
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 3: for Lannerwood and went to San Diego, a Lackland Air

397
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Speaker 3: Force base, and I had another three and a half

398
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Speaker 3: months of training there, you know, in Military Working Dog School.

399
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Speaker 2: And it was crazy to me when I got there.

400
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,200
Speaker 3: It took about three to four weeks before I even

401
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:37,880
Speaker 3: get picked.

402
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,360
Speaker 2: Up in the class and so we're just sitting.

403
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 3: In the barracks doing you know, whatever the local staff

404
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 3: wants us to do, just doing crap work and all,

405
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 3: and finally get picked up and there's like three or

406
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,399
Speaker 3: four Marines in the class. But it's mixed services, you know,

407
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 3: we got Air Force, Navy, Army, and Marines. But the

408
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,680
Speaker 3: Marine Corps was the only service where a Marine can

409
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Speaker 3: come straight through out of his training and go to

410
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 3: Canine School. Every other service, Army, Navy, and Air Force

411
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 3: you had to do a full you know, enlistment of

412
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 3: four years and then then you could request that is

413
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:23,920
Speaker 3: kind of like a b billet is what we called it.

414
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 3: In Marine Corps. You could request the b buillet and

415
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 3: come to CA nine school. But Marines were the only

416
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 3: service that could go straight through because obviously we were

417
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Speaker 3: a different breed, you know.

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Speaker 1: So, well, your military bearing is definitely, I should say,

419
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,600
Speaker 1: your military bearing when you're not on leave is.

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Speaker 2: Exceptional, that's right.

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00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,760
Speaker 1: So all right, so you're in Canine School, you go

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Speaker 1: through that, you graduate.

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Speaker 2: What happened next, Well.

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Speaker 3: Straight out of Canine School, I get orders to Quantico, Virginia.

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Speaker 3: So I go to well, I get a couple of

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Speaker 3: days leave go home and actually, see that was one

427
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:13,919
Speaker 3: of the things that my recruiter straight up lied to

428
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Speaker 3: me about, you know, whenever he got me to sign

429
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 3: that five year contract, I.

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Speaker 2: Was like, hey, you know, am I gonna be able

431
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Speaker 2: to have my vehicle?

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Speaker 3: And they said, oh yeah, man, you got like a

433
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 3: year of training, you know, you can take.

434
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 2: Your motorcycle, your vehicle and all that straight up there

435
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:27,919
Speaker 2: with you.

436
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 3: And of course, you know, I figured out real quick

437
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 3: that he was full of shit, you know, So I

438
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,959
Speaker 3: come back home and I actually get my motorcycle and

439
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 3: my truck and moved to Quantico, Virginia.

440
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Speaker 2: And that place was awesome because we got to do a.

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Speaker 3: Lot of training on the west side of base with

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Speaker 3: FBI and CIA.

443
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,399
Speaker 2: And we're in the middle of everything up there. You know.

444
00:24:55,520 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 3: It was that base was so so big, and and

445
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,400
Speaker 3: you know, we just every week it was something else,

446
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 3: you know, the FBI guys and the CI guys, they

447
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 3: was always calling, you know, trying to coordinate training activities

448
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 3: and stuff together.

449
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 2: So I got to do a lot.

450
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 3: Of that, which a lot of other marines you know,

451
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:17,760
Speaker 3: wouldn't never got the experience, you know, unless they were

452
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 3: stationed at Quantico and was in certain groups, you know

453
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 3: that they always wanted to train with the dogs. And

454
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 3: when I got a sign there when I first showed up,

455
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 3: it was me and a buddy of mine, Mendoza, justamith Nosa.

456
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:31,120
Speaker 2: He's a master sergeant now.

457
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,200
Speaker 3: He stayed in and last I seen he was in Hawaii,

458
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 3: uh stationed. There was one one of the other guys

459
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 3: that was stationed with us in Quantico.

460
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 2: We show up there, we go to PMO and was like,

461
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 2: you know, what do we do?

462
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,840
Speaker 3: And they said, well, there's only one open dog because

463
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 3: another buddy that well, another guy that became a buddy

464
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 3: of mine, Sergeant Paldino, he was getting out and it

465
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:02,919
Speaker 3: was this hunter, thirty pound check shepherd that had like

466
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 3: thirty two unauthorized.

467
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,200
Speaker 2: Bites, you know, and.

468
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:12,160
Speaker 3: You know held just fight and attack out of nowhere,

469
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 3: and you know, just this dude had massive paws and

470
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 3: everything else. There like he's the only open dog and

471
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 3: otherwise you're gonna have to go to PMO and go

472
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 3: to the road.

473
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:24,360
Speaker 2: And I was like, well shit, hell, I hand him.

474
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 2: I don't want to go. I don't want to be

475
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:26,880
Speaker 2: a regular cop.

476
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 3: You know, I'm going I want to you know, be

477
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 3: on lee straight, you know, right off the back, and

478
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:36,399
Speaker 3: me and Donnie Paldeno got together and you know, and

479
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 3: he's told me, you know what he does, and you

480
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 3: know what to watch for and this and that, because

481
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 3: that's something he was smart too.

482
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 2: I'm talking a straight up hoodini. The first week I handled.

483
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:52,880
Speaker 3: Him, he broke out of his kennel and come into

484
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 3: the office and cleared the whole some bitch out, but

485
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 3: I mean there were people staying on top of desk,

486
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 3: Get your dog, get your dog, and he just come

487
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 3: to the desk I was sitting at and crawled up

488
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,959
Speaker 3: under my feet and laid down, you know, because Donnie

489
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 3: is like, man, you're gonna have to put in a

490
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 3: lot of extra time and word, you know, to trust.

491
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 2: Yeah.

492
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 3: So he One of the other things was handling Santo.

493
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 3: He was non deployable because he had hip displace yet

494
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 3: and he was already an old dog.

495
00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 2: It was Santo Echo zero five zero.

496
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,159
Speaker 3: He's actually in the Marine Corps Museum now, because I

497
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 3: remember when we first got there, they was, you know,

498
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 3: just putting all that stuff together, and whenever I got

499
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 3: out or whenever I PCSD, nobody else would handle them,

500
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 3: you know, so there's only you know, in that case,

501
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,879
Speaker 3: you know, if nobody, nobody wants to adopt the dog

502
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,360
Speaker 3: whenever he gets ready to retire, you know, the only

503
00:27:57,440 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 3: other option is he gets euthanized.

504
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:04,640
Speaker 2: Right. So my kennel master there, you.

505
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 3: Know, reached out to the Marine Corps Museum and asked him,

506
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 3: you know, if they wanted him to be in there.

507
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 3: So that was a and I didn't know that until

508
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 3: years later, you know. But about a year into my

509
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 3: uh stay there at Quantico, another school come up, another

510
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 3: training opportunity, and it was called Specialized Search Dog School.

511
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 3: It was six months of training and I got to

512
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 3: go back down to San Diego or not, I mean

513
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 3: San Antonio to Lachland.

514
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 2: So another six weeks at Lachland.

515
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 3: And of course this time I'm out of the fleet

516
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 3: and I could stay at the you know, the hotel there,

517
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 3: and you know, have my own vehicle, and you know,

518
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 3: it was a straight up party, dude.

519
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 1: I did my uh, I did my paramedic refresher time

520
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: in San Antonio for three months and uh, I'll tell

521
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: you what that place is is definitely a lot of fun.

522
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, a lot a lot of fun, A lot

523
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 2: of good memories there. Yeah.

524
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 3: The reason why I wanted to go there because I

525
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 3: was non deployable hemling Santos and we only had six

526
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 3: dogs there at Quantico, so you wasn't getting you know,

527
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 3: them dogs were like equipment, you know, there was a number.

528
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 3: You just didn't get a new dog unless something happened,

529
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 3: you know, he died or retired, something happened. You wouldn't

530
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 3: wanna get a new dog. So the chances of me

531
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 3: deploying was zero. So that's why when another school came up,

532
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 3: you know, I was like, hell, I want to do that,

533
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 3: you know, and I knew that I'd be put in

534
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,000
Speaker 3: the field. Then whenever I got through with that training,

535
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 3: I would PCs to either.

536
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 2: Le Zune or Okinawa or.

537
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 3: Pendleton and being a deployable unit. And that's what made

538
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 3: it so so good for me going is I knew

539
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 3: that there was no way I wasn't gonna get to

540
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 3: get in a fight after I got done with that.

541
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 3: Of course, I had no idea what SSD dogs was.

542
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 3: Whenever they asked if you want to go to the course,

543
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 3: you know, I just I asked a couple of buddies

544
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 3: of mine.

545
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 2: And you know, and figured it out.

546
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, yeah, you want to do

547
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 3: that because you're gonna go to a field unit and

548
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 3: you know you're gonna get in a fight and go

549
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 3: get some So I've done that six months there, san

550
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:39,160
Speaker 3: Antonio came back and there wasn't him. Ten days after

551
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 3: I went back to Quantico, I already had orders to Pendleton.

552
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 2: Oh wow.

553
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 3: So that was a three thousand mile journey from Quantico,

554
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 3: Virginia to Camp Filton, California.

555
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 2: Yeah.

556
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 4: I made that one a few times myself.

557
00:30:56,080 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's something you could do and you know,

558
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 2: more than in less than three days in my opinion.

559
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So you go back out to Penalton.

560
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: What unit did you go with? And then what was

561
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: your job at that moment? And where where? What timeline

562
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: were you on? What what what year was it, what

563
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: month was it? Where was the g WATT in Iraq

564
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 1: and Afghanistan at that time?

565
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 2: So I show up to Penlton in December of.

566
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 3: Eight and so I'm a couple of years in, you know,

567
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 3: and I'd already picked up corporal whenever I was in

568
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 3: SSD school because and it was one of the things

569
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 3: that the other guys couldn't believe it is like, can

570
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 3: he pick up you know, corporal?

571
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 2: Can he be an n c O in training? And

572
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 2: you know, it was.

573
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 3: Cool that I had a cousin that was one of

574
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 3: the instructors there that I didn't even know was a

575
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 3: cousin until I went back, and you know he was

576
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 3: a corporal James. Well, he was there in the first

577
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 3: deployment or first time I went. That's when I first

578
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:10,719
Speaker 3: found out about him because a lot of the other

579
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:13,960
Speaker 3: guys was giving them shit, saying, you know, who's this

580
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 3: other James?

581
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 2: And he calls his mom and.

582
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 3: Puts her on the phone and he starts to ask me, oh,

583
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 3: you related to this guy, this guy, this gun. I'm

584
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 3: like yes, no, yes, no, And then she's just like, yeah,

585
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:29,959
Speaker 3: we'k in. And so, of course, you know, my first

586
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 3: three months there in that military worka dog school. You know,

587
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 3: we talk and you know a little bit, but I'm straight,

588
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 3: I'm fresh, you know, I'm still a boot to them,

589
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,760
Speaker 3: you know, so you know, he doesn't give me any

590
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 3: special treatments, you know, but we get to know each.

591
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 2: Other a little bit. And there's another.

592
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 3: Exciting moment that happened in that first three months.

593
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 2: They called it the Battle of Chaparral.

594
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 3: And it was you know, we had about twenty three

595
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 3: marines uh in between Canine School and Correction School because

596
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 3: corrections went there too, and we was that first military

597
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 3: working dog school. It was it was like the rest

598
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 3: of the training before. You know, we were still treated like,

599
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 3: you know, not recruits. But we marched at chow Hall

600
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 3: on Thursdays, you know, in a child and then come

601
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 3: back did.

602
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 2: Phield Day and all that. You know, it was still strict.

603
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 3: You couldn't have vehicles, you know, no liberty off base

604
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 3: you know on the weekends, that kind of stuff.

605
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 2: But it's the attenson started building up.

606
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 3: Going to chaw is it. They was like a DLC

607
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 3: or how it was a bunch of army folks that

608
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 3: would join the military, but if they didn't know English,

609
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 3: they'd send them to Lachland so they can learn English

610
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 3: and all that.

611
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 2: And it's like one hundred and forty of them. Wow,

612
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 2: and we're marching.

613
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 3: The out every week and the tension just starts rising

614
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 3: because they get real close to our ranks. And you know,

615
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:09,280
Speaker 3: one time they cut us off and the master guns

616
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 3: of that Lachlan at the time was the deep most

617
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 3: senior enlisted gun master.

618
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 2: Guns in the Marine Corps. Wow, so he's salty.

619
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 3: You know. I was in his office one day and

620
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:25,439
Speaker 3: he was dipping and he was spitting in his coffee cup.

621
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 3: And it was the morning, and I see him, you know,

622
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:31,720
Speaker 3: I was just like, well, maybe that's just a spitter.

623
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 3: So I see him go over to the trash can

624
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 3: and he dumps that dip, spit out and then puts

625
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 3: it under the coffee pot and gets a cup of coffee,

626
00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 3: and you know, goes a dressing.

627
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,479
Speaker 2: This hardcore salted man.

628
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 4: That's your salt.

629
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:49,840
Speaker 2: That's awesome.

630
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 3: You know, I've never see somebody do that stuff before.

631
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 3: I you know, I took took an accidental you know,

632
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 3: sip of dipspit before and turn and green them keep

633
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 3: my guts out. And this dude just pouring it out

634
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 3: in the trash can and you know, pouring straight black

635
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:11,479
Speaker 3: coffee in there, and you know, and you know he's

636
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 3: he's hard, you know, And this starts building up, and

637
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,799
Speaker 3: finally master Gun shows up and it gets through the

638
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 3: detachment there. You know, it was just about nine or

639
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 3: ten staff marines stationed there, you know, and then just

640
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 3: the training personnel and they see it building up, and

641
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,919
Speaker 3: so Master Guns comes with us and marches to chow.

642
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 3: And they gave us a little pep talk before we

643
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 3: went and said, hey, you know, if they try to

644
00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 3: march in our ranks or anything, you know, this is

645
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 3: the day we're gonna let him know. It ain't happening.

646
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 3: We're Marines.

647
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 2: And so we go to chow. You know, everything's fine.

648
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:48,359
Speaker 2: On the way there, we don't see him.

649
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,800
Speaker 3: But when we're marching back to the barracks coming back,

650
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,959
Speaker 3: here they are. We're you know, getting ready to turn,

651
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 3: make a column right onto the little boulevard and more

652
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,760
Speaker 3: back to our barracks and they're in a column left

653
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 3: and I'm up.

654
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 2: Front, you know, calling Cadence and all.

655
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 3: Because of course we had every you know, you had

656
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 3: to have guides that march them, the marine, the instructors

657
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:15,400
Speaker 3: and stuff. They didn't do that, you know, they always

658
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 3: had somebody assigned to do that. And they marched into

659
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 3: our ranks and they got about one person deep, and.

660
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:30,240
Speaker 2: I yelled fall out. And it was a huge battle, dude, I'm.

661
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 3: They we go to swing in and kicking, and it

662
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 3: was crazy. You know, people like master Guns was over there,

663
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 3: just kept tapping on the shoulders, you know, dodging blows

664
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 3: and everything, and you know, the instructors are trying to

665
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:49,880
Speaker 3: stay out of the fight. And you know, it was

666
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,439
Speaker 3: twenty three marines out against over one hundred of them,

667
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 3: and they ended up being a plaque maid behind that.

668
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:02,720
Speaker 3: And they called you know, PMO and K nine Marine

669
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:04,959
Speaker 3: showed up the Air Force K nine guys, and we're

670
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 3: just laughing like, yeah, send you a dog on me.

671
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 3: You know, I'll call them off. You know, they know

672
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,879
Speaker 3: that we were K nine Marines and stuff. Oh my gosh,

673
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 3: it's a huge thing.

674
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 2: Man. We took their guide on, you know and everything.

675
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 3: And man, there was fifty eight of them that went

676
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:24,359
Speaker 3: to the hospital and.

677
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, and about I think.

678
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 3: We had two female marines and both of them went

679
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,960
Speaker 3: to the hospital. But that was it out of twenty

680
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:37,960
Speaker 3: three marines and all them. And of course there's a

681
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 3: big investigation behind all that. And about I don't know,

682
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:46,399
Speaker 3: four or five days later, I'm in training and here

683
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 3: comes cee id. They picked me up, and I'm just like,

684
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 3: you know, why are they picking me up? So we

685
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 3: get down there and they start you know, questioning me

686
00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:01,240
Speaker 3: and all this, and there's like we had fourteen guys

687
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 3: positively identify you as the one, you know that hit them,

688
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 3: and I was just like, so I'm the only one,

689
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 3: and they're just like yeah. I was like, well, what

690
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 3: I mean, how did they identify me? It was like

691
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 3: off your D O D I D you know my

692
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:17,200
Speaker 3: cat card?

693
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: You know.

694
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, really, And so I'm in there

695
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 3: for a couple of hours and here comes Master Guns.

696
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 3: He shows up in there and I'm thinking, oh, ship,

697
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 3: my ass is yeah.

698
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:31,399
Speaker 2: You know this ain't gonna be good.

699
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 3: You know, how why did why did not you know,

700
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 3: one of my instructors or something show up?

701
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 2: Why you go straight to the top?

702
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 3: Master Guns is here and he pulled me aside and

703
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 3: he's like, look, son, don't.

704
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 2: Worry about it. I got it. And I was like, sir,

705
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take responsibility for my actions. You know. What

706
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 2: happens happens, you know. And he's just like, there's nothing

707
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 2: gonna happen to you. I promise you that. And next day,

708
00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 2: you know, we.

709
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 3: Always had a weekend safety breed and this is a

710
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 3: I got arrested on the fourth day that after well,

711
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 3: now about the sixth day, because it was from Thursday.

712
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 3: We're on to the next Thursday. So it's been a week.

713
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 3: Whenever they come, you know and detain me. I didn't

714
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 3: get arrested all, they didn't put me in cuse. But anyhow,

715
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 3: the next falling up Friday, UH comment on of the

716
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 3: Marine Corps there and the sergeant major of the Marine

717
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 3: Corps show up to Lackland because he wants to talk

718
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:35,239
Speaker 3: to this group of Marines because the word spread like

719
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:39,200
Speaker 3: wildfire of that battle, you know that happened.

720
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 2: There was blood everywhere.

721
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,240
Speaker 3: You know, people was on the balconies of the gateway

722
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,280
Speaker 3: in you know, videoing and you know, yelling stuff.

723
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:48,360
Speaker 2: It was.

724
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 3: It was pretty entertaining and word got around and in

725
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,279
Speaker 3: the fleet units they were telling our story, you know,

726
00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 3: on the weekend safety breefs about you know, how twenty

727
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 3: theme were mas fought one hundred and forty or something.

728
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 3: So army guys and uh Camawana saw Marine Corps show

729
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 3: up and you know they want to talk to me

730
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 3: and a couple other guys. You know that was uh

731
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,719
Speaker 3: in the unit and everything, and he gives me a

732
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 3: challenge coin and all that was you know, you know, man, y'all,

733
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 3: are you know motivating and glad? You know, the spread

734
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 3: of corps is high right now and all that, and

735
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:33,840
Speaker 3: master Guns ended up retiring behind that, Oh wow, because

736
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:39,200
Speaker 3: they wanted me to go down and he he looked

737
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:41,800
Speaker 3: out for me and he basically saved my career.

738
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 2: Wow, you know.

739
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,879
Speaker 3: And he ended up retiring and that of course I'd

740
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 3: already graduated that I wasn't far from graduating when all

741
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 3: that went down, and they present some of the other

742
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,360
Speaker 3: instructors that were still there. They had a list of

743
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,960
Speaker 3: all the marines on a little plaque, and they had

744
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 3: that pike from the guide on that we took from him,

745
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,400
Speaker 3: and they mounted that on there and said the battle

746
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:12,399
Speaker 3: Chaparu and uh in his retirement, they presented that to them.

747
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome. And I didn't you know. Of course,

748
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 2: I had no clue.

749
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 3: And this happened until I went back over a year

750
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 3: later for SSD school and i'm I walk in the

751
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:28,239
Speaker 3: barracks and look and see this plaque and I read it.

752
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:30,880
Speaker 2: If you of course, my name's plastered up there.

753
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,439
Speaker 3: Pfc James at the time, and I was like, holy shit,

754
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 3: I didn't have a clothe that. I asked my cousin

755
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:43,040
Speaker 3: because he was still there, and I called him like Chris.

756
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 2: They tell me about this plaque day, what's up with that?

757
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:49,600
Speaker 3: You know, he told me the whole story, and that

758
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:51,719
Speaker 3: was pretty cool, you know for me to show up

759
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:54,840
Speaker 3: a year year and a half later and uh be

760
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,959
Speaker 3: able to tell them guys, you know that was there,

761
00:41:58,160 --> 00:41:58,440
Speaker 3: you know.

762
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,200
Speaker 2: Green, you know, coming right straight out of.

763
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 3: Boot camp and all. You know, that's me until the story.

764
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:07,600
Speaker 3: That was a that was pretty rewarding down the road.

765
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:08,000
Speaker 2: You know.

766
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,760
Speaker 4: That's like the pinnacle of the Marine Corps.

767
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:11,000
Speaker 3: Right.

768
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:14,440
Speaker 1: It's like it's like you're gonna do everything just as

769
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: hard as you can, right, You're gonna defend the court

770
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,920
Speaker 1: the unit at every at every stage, right, whether it's

771
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:26,439
Speaker 1: against you know, meatheads going out and drinking on the weekends,

772
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:29,600
Speaker 1: or it's you know it's other units that are trying

773
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 1: to you know, flex on you.

774
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,799
Speaker 4: It's just it's the mentality of the Core.

775
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 1: It's that camaraderie, that brotherhood that that can't be broken

776
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,400
Speaker 1: no matter what. And I you know that that just

777
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: falls in line with I think the great allure of

778
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: the Cores. Right, That's why people have such profound respect

779
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:51,400
Speaker 1: for it, because they know that they you all stick

780
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:56,319
Speaker 1: together no matter what. After you finished that. When was

781
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 1: your first deployment overseas?

782
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 3: That's so we finished finished that and I get PCs

783
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 3: to Penning ten and then in June of twenty ten

784
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 3: is whenever I actually, well, that was my first combat deployment.

785
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 3: Prior to that, like when I was at Quantico ANDOL

786
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 3: with me being there with non depurbo dogs, I got

787
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:21,280
Speaker 3: to do a lot of work.

788
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,759
Speaker 2: With POTUS so SOS.

789
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 3: I got to do a lot of missions work with

790
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 3: the Secret Service and stuff. We covered the G twenty

791
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,440
Speaker 3: something we covered when Bush went to Africa.

792
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,520
Speaker 2: He went to four different countries, Liberia.

793
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 3: And Tanzania, Ghana and one other one maybe Liberia or something.

794
00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:45,080
Speaker 3: And you know, so I got to do a lot

795
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:47,640
Speaker 3: of tad stuff like that, you know, for a couple

796
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 3: of weeks at a time. They'd always pull me up

797
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 3: and you know, we had HMX there, which was headquarters

798
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 3: the Marine Corps Battalion. They had their own dogs and

799
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 3: they got to do the local DC stuff, you know,

800
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:06,360
Speaker 3: searching compounds and buildings you know around d C wherever.

801
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,240
Speaker 2: Potus was going or VIPs period.

802
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:11,880
Speaker 3: You know, so I got through a lot of that

803
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,040
Speaker 3: stuff and that was cool, you know, being able to

804
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 3: work with the Secret.

805
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,400
Speaker 2: Service and all that. You know, that was awesome.

806
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:21,880
Speaker 3: You know, I gained a lot of respect for them guys,

807
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 3: and of course you know, they always loved it when

808
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 3: that Marine showed up, you know, to work with them.

809
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 3: Because I didn't know it before then, but probably over

810
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 3: fifty percent of the Secret Service is former Marine Corps.

811
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:38,880
Speaker 2: That's right, yeah, you know, so you know they get it.

812
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 3: They know, you know, right off the bat, and it's

813
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 3: instant connection whenever you show up and they're there.

814
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 2: So fast forward.

815
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:50,280
Speaker 3: I'm in Pilton now, I'm there for I'm a corporal

816
00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 3: when I show up and they immediately give me my

817
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,399
Speaker 3: own I guess you could call it a fire team

818
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 3: or whatever. I get, you know, six D eight guys.

819
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:07,440
Speaker 3: I'm over and we start training, and the longer I'm there, the.

820
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 2: Bigger my leadership role gets.

821
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:13,200
Speaker 3: And I worked all the way up to chief trainer

822
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:17,440
Speaker 3: there and so I'm training sixty dogs getting ready.

823
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 2: For deployment and we're taking the bed thirty.

824
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:24,600
Speaker 3: You know, we only deployed half the platoon at a time,

825
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:28,480
Speaker 3: so that was something else that was way different at Pilton.

826
00:45:28,880 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 3: You know, I go from eight dogs in Quantico and

827
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,320
Speaker 3: show up at Pilton and there's sixty dogs there.

828
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,920
Speaker 2: Wow. So it's a lot more going on.

829
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,360
Speaker 3: And every day you're gonna put them dogs on oder,

830
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 3: do some basic obedience, do bite work.

831
00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:45,840
Speaker 2: You know, there's.

832
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 3: Multiple different canine units within the Marine Corps. You know,

833
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:55,279
Speaker 3: you got your regular patrol dogs that are on the

834
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 3: PMO and patrol with the guys that wear badges and

835
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 3: guard the gate and all that, and you have explosive

836
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 3: and narcotic dogs in that dim units.

837
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 2: You know.

838
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:10,960
Speaker 3: Then you then we had another unit that just come

839
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,440
Speaker 3: up as I was coming up through the ranks. It

840
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 3: was combat trackers and these dogs were trained to track

841
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 3: personnel and and bite at the end of it. You know,

842
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:24,319
Speaker 3: it was a lot of BikeE work and stuff and

843
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 3: that and a lot of tracking and that kind of stuff.

844
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 2: And then as I was coming up, SSD wasn't even

845
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:33,800
Speaker 2: a thing.

846
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 3: Whenever I was in uh Kdine school the first time,

847
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 3: and they was few and far between because SSD dogs

848
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 3: were specialized search.

849
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 2: Dogs and they were mainly Belgium allay walls.

850
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 3: We had a couple of labs here and there, and

851
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:52,840
Speaker 3: very few shepherds because and we did all our training

852
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:57,520
Speaker 3: off leash, so when we got when I got to Penpton,

853
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,200
Speaker 3: and we had just a hand well several of the

854
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 3: guys that come out of the same training that I

855
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:03,759
Speaker 3: went through.

856
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 2: Lachland or yeah, Lachland was there with men. There was like.

857
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 3: Twenty three specialized sirch dogs handlers in the whole Marine Corps,

858
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,480
Speaker 3: so they were very few and far between, and the

859
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:21,720
Speaker 3: SSD guys was kind of the high speed, low drag guys.

860
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 2: You know. We we got attached with, you know, the

861
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 2: Seals and.

862
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:30,839
Speaker 3: The free Con guys and you know Force ree Con

863
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 3: all that.

864
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 2: You know, they always put.

865
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:37,320
Speaker 3: Us with, you know, the ss basically you know, MORISC

866
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 3: wasn't really it was just coming around back then, and

867
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 3: they didn't have any any of their own dogs. Me

868
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 3: and another buddy of mine, William Suser, we kind of

869
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:51,320
Speaker 3: spearheaded that. Matter of fact, he's a he got awarded

870
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 3: the Navy Cross.

871
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 2: Oh wow. Over there, Billy Susser they called him. He

872
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:57,399
Speaker 2: was working with.

873
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:03,840
Speaker 3: That was the first time that we had canine, actual

874
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 3: Marine Corps doll handlers attacked.

875
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 2: With marsde guys. Wow.

876
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:10,920
Speaker 3: And he was working with them, and you know, he

877
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 3: showed out one day and you know, basically doing the

878
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 3: same stuff that we do every time we're in a fight.

879
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 2: But one of the brass put them.

880
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,239
Speaker 3: Up and you know, he got awarded and I was

881
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:22,399
Speaker 3: really proud of him for that.

882
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:24,279
Speaker 2: You know, that's amazing.

883
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:31,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's that honor is just people. It's extreme.

884
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: And to be able to you know, serve your country

885
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:37,759
Speaker 1: at that level, man, it's just a whole nother, a

886
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:39,320
Speaker 1: whole other level of courage.

887
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 2: Right.

888
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 1: So, all right, so you you trained, you're at you're

889
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:46,480
Speaker 1: at this elite level of the dogs. You're you're working

890
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 1: with a bunch of guys. When did you find out

891
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: you were going to Afghanistan? And because you got there

892
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:55,760
Speaker 1: in June twenty ten and so the big Marsa push

893
00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,600
Speaker 1: it happened, you know what the fall of two thousand

894
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:03,759
Speaker 1: and nine into twenty ten, that's when what Kyle Carpenter

895
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:06,960
Speaker 1: got hit. And during all that time, I was actually

896
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: in south central Afghanistan working for the agency what and

897
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 1: just listening to the daily reports of all the Marines

898
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:21,160
Speaker 1: in Marja, just getting lit up doing daylight over patrols,

899
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: you know when roes that are basically you know, hand

900
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 1: tying you guys from actively engaging the enemy. What was

901
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,040
Speaker 1: that like? Like knowing you're going into that environment.

902
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's what and I don't know why

903
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 3: it is, but you'll never meet a marine that wasn't

904
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 3: just itching and dying to get over there and getting

905
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 3: a fight. You know, a lot of people ask me,

906
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:52,719
Speaker 3: you know, even since I've been out, you know, man,

907
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 3: was you scared? You know, were you afraid of dying?

908
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,279
Speaker 3: And I said, absolutely not. There's like, what do you

909
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 3: mean you wasn't afraid? I said, because marines don't die.

910
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:06,400
Speaker 3: Our spirits is left forever. You know. There's always some

911
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 3: stories told, you know, about these legendary marines and you

912
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 3: know what they did, and it just that's that, that's

913
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:13,839
Speaker 3: spree the core.

914
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 2: You know, your legacy lives forever.

915
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:19,520
Speaker 3: You know, and stuff like that, you know, and you

916
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:22,840
Speaker 3: just you know, whenever the stuff popped off, you know,

917
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:24,360
Speaker 3: everybody else would retreat. You know.

918
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:26,200
Speaker 2: Of course, marines we're running towards the.

919
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 3: Sound of fire, you know, So that was a that

920
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 3: was always you know, kept me motivating everything like that,

921
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 3: doing that but coming showing up.

922
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:37,800
Speaker 2: We get there.

923
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 3: Around the first of June, and of course, you know,

924
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:46,799
Speaker 3: well for y'all probably didn't have to do it, but

925
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:50,880
Speaker 3: almost every other marine that shows up to Afghanistan.

926
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 2: You get two weeks.

927
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:58,120
Speaker 3: Of oh what you called it's uh getting up used

928
00:50:58,160 --> 00:50:59,200
Speaker 3: to the heat and all that.

929
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 2: Kind of stuff. I forget what's call it.

930
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:05,719
Speaker 3: But and about the week and a half in they

931
00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 3: tell us, you know, because we show up there with

932
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:09,840
Speaker 3: thirty dog teams.

933
00:51:10,080 --> 00:51:12,239
Speaker 2: And then we get separated out.

934
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,920
Speaker 3: We're IA's on different units all over, you know, so

935
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:20,839
Speaker 3: your individual augmentees with different you know units, and you know,

936
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,360
Speaker 3: our senior leadership would always you know, put the you know,

937
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:26,800
Speaker 3: certain guys with certain you know units.

938
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,719
Speaker 2: You know that he knew they would, you know, excel in.

939
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:32,319
Speaker 3: So about a week and a half end ah being

940
00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 3: in Afghanistan, I find out that I'm going to be

941
00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:39,439
Speaker 3: attached with first Recom Battalion and they're out of Pilson too,

942
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:43,400
Speaker 3: and so we go up there and I'm kind of

943
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 3: one of the leaders now, uh, having trained all these

944
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:49,960
Speaker 3: marines you know, to come up and all that, so

945
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,280
Speaker 3: I'm one of the spokespersons.

946
00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 2: You may say.

947
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:56,799
Speaker 3: I would always go around to different units and you know,

948
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,200
Speaker 3: familiar as ourselfs and introduce, you know, and let them know, hey,

949
00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 3: you know, we're forced multipliers here to help you know,

950
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 3: where do y'all need us the most?

951
00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,480
Speaker 2: And they put us put me with Force Recon.

952
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 3: They had, uh, they still had a Force recombatant because

953
00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 3: they'd cut them out there for a little bit and

954
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:24,680
Speaker 3: they brought them back, you know, and I'm pretty sure

955
00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 3: that was the last deployment that a Force Company got

956
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 3: to deploy. And then after that, they was, you know,

957
00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:34,200
Speaker 3: like whenever I got back from Afghanistan, I was being

958
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 3: forced to join MARSOK and they were trying to force

959
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:41,320
Speaker 3: all the other guys, you know, the Force Recon guys,

960
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:43,799
Speaker 3: They was, you know, trying to force them to just

961
00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:45,120
Speaker 3: join Marsok.

962
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:48,240
Speaker 2: They was kind of trying to downsize.

963
00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 3: The Marine Corps you know at that time, and you know,

964
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 3: you had to meet certain requirements to be able to

965
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:55,279
Speaker 3: rein let us and stay in and all that.

966
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:59,439
Speaker 2: But they put me with Force Company, and.

967
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 3: My first day out in the in the fight was

968
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:07,680
Speaker 3: June sixteenth, So I'm about.

969
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:10,680
Speaker 2: Two weeks in and you know, I meet these guys,

970
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 2: and you know, when.

971
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:13,879
Speaker 3: I show up to meet these guys, it was kind

972
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:18,319
Speaker 3: of different because I show up there and I'm not

973
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 3: Sergeant James when I get there, you know, I'm just

974
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 3: Tommy yeah, and you know the captain and all that,

975
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:27,799
Speaker 3: he's not you know, sir this or that. You know,

976
00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 3: he's just John, you know, and you know these this

977
00:53:31,719 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 3: twenty four guys in first name basis, and you know

978
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:40,120
Speaker 3: that was awesome, you know, being being there with these guys.

979
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 3: We had I think like twelve or thirteen snipers in

980
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 3: the platoon.

981
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,840
Speaker 2: Wow, you know it was. It was a stacked stack

982
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:47,920
Speaker 2: group of guys, you know.

983
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 3: And first day in we show up and we're uh,

984
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 3: we are what spearheaded what they called Operation New Down

985
00:53:58,280 --> 00:54:00,480
Speaker 3: and it's a little different. They had to Operate New

986
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 3: Don in Iraq that I later you know, found out about,

987
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:08,160
Speaker 3: and we were Operation new Don. That's what they called

988
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 3: our first mission out. You know, for the first time

989
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 3: we went out. We stayed out in the field for

990
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 3: thirty days. You know, we moved every four days. We

991
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:21,080
Speaker 3: would just go take these compounds, you know, four o'clock

992
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,480
Speaker 3: in the morning. Our hands were tied. We couldn't you know,

993
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 3: do many hard knocks and none of that.

994
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:27,120
Speaker 2: Wasn't able to.

995
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 3: Do a lot of that high speed load drag stuff

996
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,080
Speaker 3: that recom guys the stuff get to do.

997
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:34,399
Speaker 2: We were just you know, trying to do what we can.

998
00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:38,720
Speaker 3: Every four days we're moving compounds, and we couldn't knock

999
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:41,480
Speaker 3: on their doors to four o'clock in the morning, you know,

1000
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:44,640
Speaker 3: we'd wake them up. And it was so crazy. We're

1001
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 3: in the country with no electricity, no running water, living

1002
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 3: in mud huts, and three hours after we knock on

1003
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,960
Speaker 3: somebody's door, the Taliban knows we're.

1004
00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:58,320
Speaker 2: There and we're in a tick, you know, just crazy.

1005
00:54:58,440 --> 00:54:59,920
Speaker 2: They had these dag of no key.

1006
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 3: It is like they come out with in the early

1007
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,960
Speaker 3: two thousands and that was their new phones. And how

1008
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:09,440
Speaker 3: they had cell phone service over there still blows my mind.

1009
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:12,400
Speaker 2: You know, that they had a cell phone service.

1010
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 3: You know, to be able to communicate, but we didn't

1011
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 3: have running water and all of that crab you know.

1012
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,439
Speaker 3: So first day in we're supposed to we went there

1013
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,360
Speaker 3: and get breathed like we're gonna set up to snap

1014
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:28,919
Speaker 3: VCP on this main route that allow of the high

1015
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:34,600
Speaker 3: rank in Taliban h officis are using. So we show

1016
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:37,120
Speaker 3: up there, we insert about three o'clock in the morning,

1017
00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:43,520
Speaker 3: he lo insert and we go set up our VCP

1018
00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 3: point and basically we had one irrigation ditch.

1019
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 2: It was about I don't know, eight.

1020
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:54,359
Speaker 3: Foot wide and probably ten foot deep, but it's just

1021
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:56,120
Speaker 3: it's not deep in water.

1022
00:55:56,800 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 2: So and there's a little burn there.

1023
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 3: And later find out that we're the ones that dug

1024
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:08,879
Speaker 3: all the irrigation ditches in the eighties there and for

1025
00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:11,840
Speaker 3: them to you know, be able to farm and stuff.

1026
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:13,560
Speaker 2: So we're on the bank.

1027
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:17,799
Speaker 3: So this irrigation ditch kind of spread out and the

1028
00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:23,480
Speaker 3: captain and guns the gunnery sergeant Moss, I believe he

1029
00:56:23,719 --> 00:56:25,200
Speaker 3: just got out, Brian Moss.

1030
00:56:25,239 --> 00:56:27,399
Speaker 2: He's he was the gunny in my.

1031
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:33,520
Speaker 3: Force recon group of guys, and uh, they're the ones

1032
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:35,680
Speaker 3: that's up there, you know, actually stopping the people.

1033
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:37,960
Speaker 2: And we're thinking, we're gonna have a.

1034
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:40,160
Speaker 3: Bunch of people come through here and you know, gonna

1035
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:41,879
Speaker 3: be able to talk to them. They had to turf

1036
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:45,879
Speaker 3: with them, you know, to all that. And this dude

1037
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:48,399
Speaker 3: drives up on a mop head about twenty minutes after

1038
00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 3: day Life, and they talked to him, and of course,

1039
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:54,319
Speaker 3: you know, he says he's nothing and blah blah blah,

1040
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:58,879
Speaker 3: and he drives off and not even ten minutes after that,

1041
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:04,960
Speaker 3: we're in a ten yeah, and now we're surrounded. We

1042
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,759
Speaker 3: figure out real quick that they got snipers set up

1043
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:11,000
Speaker 3: in every location. How they get intell that we're going

1044
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:14,040
Speaker 3: to show up in these places, it's crazy to me.

1045
00:57:14,239 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 3: You know, you can't like everybody over there, you don't

1046
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:21,800
Speaker 3: know who's Taliban and who's not. You know, they all

1047
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 3: wear the same clothes, you know, and there's just no

1048
00:57:26,240 --> 00:57:29,000
Speaker 3: telling telling them apart. You know, it's not like fighting

1049
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 3: an enemy like another military unit, you know, because they're

1050
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:35,960
Speaker 3: all wearing man dresses, and you know they may might

1051
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,320
Speaker 3: have an e k under the man dress or ak

1052
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:40,840
Speaker 3: under the man dress or not, who knows.

1053
00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:42,400
Speaker 2: You know.

1054
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:45,680
Speaker 3: So first day in we get pinned down by these

1055
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 3: snipers and it's all day affair, dude. We're just on

1056
00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:53,320
Speaker 3: these you know, irrigation dishes. We're calling in air support.

1057
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 3: We didn't get air supports around child time, you know,

1058
00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:58,120
Speaker 3: twelve o'clock.

1059
00:57:57,960 --> 00:58:00,000
Speaker 2: Before we got our first air support.

1060
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 3: And so they you know, come showed up and dropping

1061
00:58:05,240 --> 00:58:08,400
Speaker 3: hell fire and you know, took out a couple of

1062
00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:12,960
Speaker 3: the snipers. And then there's this other little half of

1063
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:17,400
Speaker 3: a mud hut. It had about three foot walls on it,

1064
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 3: behind the irrigation ditch that we was pinned down on.

1065
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,480
Speaker 3: You know, all our guys were spread out along that

1066
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 3: ditch on both sides of them, and Captain comes on

1067
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 3: the radio and it's like, hey, James, can you go

1068
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 3: clear that that compound so we can get some better

1069
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 3: cover and you know, reassess, you know, our situation and

1070
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:39,400
Speaker 3: all that. So it was pretty sweet. I got to

1071
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 3: send my dog. You know, that was one of the

1072
00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:44,479
Speaker 3: high speed load drag things. I could send my dog

1073
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:47,760
Speaker 3: off lease. We're ninety nine percent of the other dog

1074
00:58:47,800 --> 00:58:51,080
Speaker 3: handlers in all the military or on a six foot

1075
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 3: lease or thirty thirty foot retractable lease. Yeah, you know,

1076
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:58,440
Speaker 3: my all my worst off drag. My dog has radios

1077
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 3: on her. You know, I got the mic and I'm

1078
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 3: you know a little microphone.

1079
00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:03,360
Speaker 2: I'm giving her.

1080
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 3: Commands you know, over her radios and have her search

1081
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:12,080
Speaker 3: that whole thing. And you know, all I had was

1082
00:59:12,080 --> 00:59:15,520
Speaker 3: a little about ten foot opening that I sent her

1083
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:19,560
Speaker 3: in and I had her you know kind of cross that,

1084
00:59:19,960 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 3: you know, several times smelling and you know, searching for explosives.

1085
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 2: And then I send her.

1086
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:28,480
Speaker 3: You know, she knows my specialized search dogs, no directions

1087
00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:31,920
Speaker 3: and everything, so I could stop her, send her left,

1088
00:59:31,960 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 3: send her right, send her forward, bring her back. You know,

1089
00:59:36,280 --> 00:59:39,240
Speaker 3: that was what made the specialized search dog, so elite.

1090
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 3: And you know that was no other military working dogs

1091
00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:44,120
Speaker 3: done that, you know, only.

1092
00:59:43,920 --> 00:59:46,720
Speaker 2: The specialized search dogs. So I cleared it.

1093
00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:50,040
Speaker 3: And then you know, I ran out run out there,

1094
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:53,080
Speaker 3: and I got a spotter everywhere with being a dog handler,

1095
00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:56,880
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have a spotter because my eyes are you know,

1096
00:59:57,480 --> 01:00:01,320
Speaker 3: obviously on the dog watching her if you're in all that.

1097
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:04,280
Speaker 3: And I always have a guy you know, right beside

1098
01:00:04,360 --> 01:00:07,600
Speaker 3: me that he's my eyes and ears.

1099
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:07,320
Speaker 2: You know.

1100
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:10,720
Speaker 3: So me and my spotter go and you know, actually

1101
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:16,400
Speaker 3: enter the compound and by by around time sun's going down,

1102
01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:19,600
Speaker 3: you know, the rest of the platoon finally made movement

1103
01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 3: over there, and then we regrouped, and so it's an

1104
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 3: all day affair, you know, that day one, you know, Jason.

1105
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 1: Yea, not even like a stake out, nothing right into.

1106
01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:38,480
Speaker 3: You know, straight into it. You know, we we do

1107
01:00:38,560 --> 01:00:41,560
Speaker 3: several little recalling things. They you know, about the middle

1108
01:00:41,560 --> 01:00:43,760
Speaker 3: of the day, they they asked me to come over

1109
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:45,640
Speaker 3: ready to hey, James, you think you can go clear

1110
01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:48,440
Speaker 3: us a route to these compounds over here to the

1111
01:00:48,480 --> 01:00:53,240
Speaker 3: south and so we can you know, take the fight

1112
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 3: to them. And uh so, me and three other marines

1113
01:00:56,720 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 3: were walking down this ditch, you know, searching.

1114
01:00:59,600 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 2: I'm with the dog, I'm searching.

1115
01:01:01,240 --> 01:01:04,080
Speaker 3: This and that, and you know, we did that and

1116
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:06,560
Speaker 3: then come back and of course it's one hundred and

1117
01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 3: forty degrees up there.

1118
01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 1: People don't understand. People have no can't even fathom the heat.

1119
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:15,200
Speaker 1: It's out of control.

1120
01:01:15,960 --> 01:01:18,760
Speaker 2: Oh man, it's crazy. What the dogs?

1121
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:21,800
Speaker 4: How did you keep the dog engaged in that level heat?

1122
01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:26,160
Speaker 3: Well, I carried double the water from everybody else, of course,

1123
01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:28,840
Speaker 3: you know, I carried my whole load, my whole gear list,

1124
01:01:29,600 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 3: just like the rest of the tune. And I had

1125
01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:33,720
Speaker 3: to carry all her food and all her water with

1126
01:01:33,840 --> 01:01:36,080
Speaker 3: me as well. So we got a lot of I

1127
01:01:36,120 --> 01:01:38,560
Speaker 3: got one gallon a day and she got one gallon

1128
01:01:38,560 --> 01:01:43,880
Speaker 3: a day. And so I just the Marine Corps dog

1129
01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:47,200
Speaker 3: countlers that we get so much training, man like, leading

1130
01:01:47,240 --> 01:01:50,720
Speaker 3: up to the deployment. You know, we're basically vettecs. When

1131
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:53,520
Speaker 3: we get ready to pour, you know, we get a

1132
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:55,720
Speaker 3: lot of training with the vets. We get to work

1133
01:01:55,800 --> 01:01:59,280
Speaker 3: with a lot of other agencies, all the three letter

1134
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:01,560
Speaker 3: guys you know, we work with, you know, all them

1135
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:04,200
Speaker 3: dues they put us on hm ME when we put

1136
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:08,160
Speaker 3: on our pre deployment training, you know, work with HF

1137
01:02:08,240 --> 01:02:09,640
Speaker 3: out there, Hugh Arizona.

1138
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:11,560
Speaker 2: You know, they had mount towns and all.

1139
01:02:11,440 --> 01:02:15,240
Speaker 3: That set up there was that's another you know, hell hole,

1140
01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:16,320
Speaker 3: you know.

1141
01:02:17,080 --> 01:02:19,160
Speaker 2: But yeah, they teach us, they train us.

1142
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:21,560
Speaker 3: You know, to learn the signs, you know, all three

1143
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:23,840
Speaker 3: of the signs of you know, heat exhausting, heat stroke

1144
01:02:23,920 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 3: and heat for heat stress and heat stroke you know

1145
01:02:26,240 --> 01:02:27,600
Speaker 3: in our dog, and be able to.

1146
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:29,920
Speaker 2: Tell, you know, when they're getting too hot.

1147
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:33,320
Speaker 3: And you know, that's one of the biggest reasons why

1148
01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:35,600
Speaker 3: the first two weeks when you get there, they make

1149
01:02:35,720 --> 01:02:37,440
Speaker 3: us acclimate to the weather.

1150
01:02:38,040 --> 01:02:38,240
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1151
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:40,160
Speaker 3: You so for two weeks we had to just do

1152
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:44,080
Speaker 3: basic obedience out in the weather, full gear dogs and

1153
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:47,240
Speaker 3: full gear. And for the first two weeks you get

1154
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:51,240
Speaker 3: your dog acclimated to the weather over there, and over

1155
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:53,640
Speaker 3: time that you know, they get used to it, you know,

1156
01:02:53,720 --> 01:02:55,720
Speaker 3: and are able to stand the heat.

1157
01:02:56,800 --> 01:02:58,880
Speaker 1: What was the name of your dog and how long

1158
01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:01,520
Speaker 1: had you been operating with that dog prior to leaving.

1159
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:07,080
Speaker 3: So whenever I show up to Penton, I have a

1160
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:09,720
Speaker 3: dog named Macky that I had was a love low

1161
01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:13,640
Speaker 3: about fifty five sixty pounds Belgium mount that I trained.

1162
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:16,600
Speaker 3: It was the when we're in SSD school, you get

1163
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:19,720
Speaker 3: to sign two dogs when you show up there and

1164
01:03:20,320 --> 01:03:24,960
Speaker 3: you're training two dogs the whole time you're there, you know,

1165
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:28,240
Speaker 3: and then at the end of the training, the best

1166
01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:30,600
Speaker 3: dog out of the two gets a.

1167
01:03:30,640 --> 01:03:31,240
Speaker 2: Sign to you.

1168
01:03:31,280 --> 01:03:35,520
Speaker 3: And unlike the rest of the military working dogs, if

1169
01:03:35,560 --> 01:03:39,640
Speaker 3: you get a sign an SSD dog, that's your property.

1170
01:03:40,000 --> 01:03:40,160
Speaker 2: You know.

1171
01:03:40,160 --> 01:03:43,560
Speaker 3: If you PCs to Penlton, she's going with you. You

1172
01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:46,480
Speaker 3: move to you knowlesume that dog's going with you. No

1173
01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:50,919
Speaker 3: other dog handlers and any of the military for that,

1174
01:03:51,240 --> 01:03:56,400
Speaker 3: you know, for you know, for that, you know, nobody else,

1175
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:58,120
Speaker 3: Like when you go to a base, you just got

1176
01:03:58,120 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 3: to sign a dog at that base, and that dog

1177
01:04:00,320 --> 01:04:02,840
Speaker 3: lived at that base its whole life, except for the

1178
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 3: specialized search dogs, you know, because they took so much

1179
01:04:05,760 --> 01:04:09,320
Speaker 3: more of a poor to you know, train them dogs.

1180
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:13,000
Speaker 3: So I show up with Mecky and there's another guy there,

1181
01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:20,160
Speaker 3: Chris Bady. He was one of the few israel SSD handlers.

1182
01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:24,280
Speaker 3: They sent some select guys over there to Tell Aviv

1183
01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:27,520
Speaker 3: and instead of going to Lachland for their six weeks

1184
01:04:27,560 --> 01:04:29,880
Speaker 3: to train, and they went to Tel Aviv and got

1185
01:04:29,880 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 3: to work with the Israeli guys you know on specialized

1186
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:36,000
Speaker 3: work dogs search dogs, and they got.

1187
01:04:35,760 --> 01:04:39,800
Speaker 2: To you know, learn the real training you know, over there,

1188
01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:40,600
Speaker 2: they their.

1189
01:04:40,440 --> 01:04:43,600
Speaker 3: Hands wasn't tied by the moms of America, you know,

1190
01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 3: like it was in the fleet everywhere else. They got

1191
01:04:47,320 --> 01:04:49,360
Speaker 3: to really train a dog. They didn't ask a dog

1192
01:04:49,440 --> 01:04:50,880
Speaker 3: to do something, they told it.

1193
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:53,240
Speaker 2: You know, and and they was going to learn it

1194
01:04:53,280 --> 01:04:55,120
Speaker 2: one way or another, you know.

1195
01:04:55,320 --> 01:05:01,520
Speaker 3: But so I show up there with Mecky and he's

1196
01:05:01,560 --> 01:05:04,720
Speaker 3: an okay dog, but he's just not great, you know.

1197
01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:08,160
Speaker 3: He was green when I got him, and the staff

1198
01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:11,440
Speaker 3: star and Batty was getting in the process of getting out,

1199
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:15,360
Speaker 3: and so there's only so many SSD handlers at each

1200
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:17,920
Speaker 3: you know, each base.

1201
01:05:17,800 --> 01:05:20,840
Speaker 2: And so I get a signed with rona kilo four

1202
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:24,600
Speaker 2: five eight. That was my dog. Her name was Roona.

1203
01:05:24,800 --> 01:05:27,840
Speaker 3: She's about a fifty five sixty pound on Belgium malawas.

1204
01:05:28,000 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 3: She'd already been on two deployments di Iraq with baby,

1205
01:05:32,160 --> 01:05:36,440
Speaker 3: so she was she was teaching me a lot of

1206
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 3: stuff because whenever we showed.

1207
01:05:38,320 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 2: Up on base, you know, when we was in Lackland.

1208
01:05:40,760 --> 01:05:43,520
Speaker 3: We couldn't use you know, e callers and a lot

1209
01:05:43,560 --> 01:05:46,000
Speaker 3: of that stuff, you know, you had to you know,

1210
01:05:46,320 --> 01:05:48,840
Speaker 3: foods reward and high phrase stuff training.

1211
01:05:49,160 --> 01:05:51,520
Speaker 2: But when we showed up to sleep, you know, that's

1212
01:05:51,560 --> 01:05:54,840
Speaker 2: when the training really started, right right, you know.

1213
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:59,520
Speaker 3: So I get a sign with RONA about a month

1214
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:03,680
Speaker 3: or two after I get to Pillton, and that's when

1215
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:07,600
Speaker 3: we start building our rapport and getting ready for the deployment.

1216
01:06:09,040 --> 01:06:10,280
Speaker 2: So that was.

1217
01:06:12,120 --> 01:06:15,520
Speaker 1: Go ahead, all right, all right, so you're you're you

1218
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:18,400
Speaker 1: get in, go in country, get attached to that Force

1219
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:22,720
Speaker 1: parsuon day one. It's canatic, you're getting into it. Did

1220
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:27,360
Speaker 1: it maintain that pace that time? That that that level

1221
01:06:27,400 --> 01:06:29,920
Speaker 1: of engagement through your whole deployment.

1222
01:06:31,040 --> 01:06:33,680
Speaker 2: Well, the whole time I was with Force Company it

1223
01:06:33,760 --> 01:06:36,720
Speaker 2: did you know we stayed out that first time?

1224
01:06:37,240 --> 01:06:40,520
Speaker 3: Of course, you know Force they would always put us

1225
01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:42,840
Speaker 3: in the hottest places and stuff like that. You know,

1226
01:06:42,880 --> 01:06:45,800
Speaker 3: we was we were lucky for that because we got

1227
01:06:45,800 --> 01:06:46,560
Speaker 3: to stay in the fight.

1228
01:06:46,640 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 2: I mean every day it was multiple ticks. You know, you.

1229
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:51,800
Speaker 3: Always know you was going to get in a tig

1230
01:06:51,880 --> 01:06:53,880
Speaker 3: and then you know there'd be a break where they

1231
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:56,880
Speaker 3: would pray you know, thirteen times a day or whatever,

1232
01:06:57,640 --> 01:06:59,600
Speaker 3: you know, and then after they got through, you know,

1233
01:07:00,160 --> 01:07:04,240
Speaker 3: it starts again, you know, it starts with small arms

1234
01:07:04,240 --> 01:07:07,520
Speaker 3: and all that. So it was out for about thirty

1235
01:07:07,640 --> 01:07:11,200
Speaker 3: days the first time. And of course, you know, none

1236
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:13,919
Speaker 3: of us shaved and all that. So whenever I show

1237
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:17,840
Speaker 3: back up to Camp Leatherneck, and I didn't know it

1238
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:21,160
Speaker 3: at the time, I show up in country as a

1239
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:25,600
Speaker 3: corporal and the first we stay out for thirty days,

1240
01:07:25,640 --> 01:07:28,200
Speaker 3: and then I go back to the Camp Leatherneck to

1241
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:31,080
Speaker 3: our kennels there that was set up at leather Neck,

1242
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:36,080
Speaker 3: and everybody thinks I'm a turk at first, because I'm full.

1243
01:07:35,840 --> 01:07:40,720
Speaker 2: Beard, you know, hair, you know, grown out for thirty days.

1244
01:07:40,760 --> 01:07:42,760
Speaker 3: You know, they're just like, some of the guys just

1245
01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:45,240
Speaker 3: looking at me, like, what's this turk doing in our kennels?

1246
01:07:45,280 --> 01:07:50,440
Speaker 2: You know. And then some of the guys was you know,

1247
01:07:50,520 --> 01:07:51,840
Speaker 2: calling me sergeant.

1248
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:54,720
Speaker 3: Once they figured out, you know who I was, you know,

1249
01:07:54,760 --> 01:07:56,240
Speaker 3: they started calling me certaint James.

1250
01:07:56,200 --> 01:07:59,280
Speaker 2: I'm like, what the hell was you know, I haven't

1251
01:07:59,280 --> 01:08:01,680
Speaker 2: been promoted that I know of. You know at that time,

1252
01:08:01,760 --> 01:08:02,120
Speaker 2: you know, you.

1253
01:08:02,120 --> 01:08:05,360
Speaker 3: Only got promoted by compositive scores, and you know, they

1254
01:08:05,400 --> 01:08:08,120
Speaker 3: had the level so high, you know, they wasn't looking

1255
01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:09,320
Speaker 3: to promote me any you know.

1256
01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:11,280
Speaker 2: Corporals and sergeant right.

1257
01:08:11,880 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 3: Finally I figured out, you know, I asked Willie. I said, hey,

1258
01:08:16,120 --> 01:08:18,479
Speaker 3: you know, why are some of these guys you know

1259
01:08:18,560 --> 01:08:21,320
Speaker 3: calling me sergeant? You know, Willie was a staff sergeant

1260
01:08:21,400 --> 01:08:24,000
Speaker 3: that was a kennel master that deployed with us, and

1261
01:08:24,640 --> 01:08:27,559
Speaker 3: we were, you know, good buddies by this time, and like,

1262
01:08:27,600 --> 01:08:30,120
Speaker 3: what's going on? He says like, oh shit, you hadn't

1263
01:08:30,120 --> 01:08:33,120
Speaker 3: heard him. Like no, He's like, man, you got meritoriously promoted.

1264
01:08:33,520 --> 01:08:35,000
Speaker 3: He said, you need to go down to the meth

1265
01:08:35,080 --> 01:08:38,320
Speaker 3: and take a promotion picture. And I was like what.

1266
01:08:38,880 --> 01:08:40,400
Speaker 3: I was like, well, can I go just like this?

1267
01:08:40,600 --> 01:08:42,360
Speaker 3: And like, you know, you can't, dude, you got to

1268
01:08:42,400 --> 01:08:45,080
Speaker 3: shave and you know, get and all that shit.

1269
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:45,840
Speaker 2: You know.

1270
01:08:45,880 --> 01:08:47,640
Speaker 3: I was like, man, that'd be so awesome if I

1271
01:08:47,640 --> 01:08:50,280
Speaker 3: got to take a promotion pick full beard, you know,

1272
01:08:51,160 --> 01:08:52,519
Speaker 3: And uh, they wouldn't let.

1273
01:08:52,439 --> 01:08:52,960
Speaker 2: Me do that.

1274
01:08:53,640 --> 01:09:00,479
Speaker 1: So yeah, some similar happened to me to my summer

1275
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:03,479
Speaker 1: O too, my first trip to Afghanistan, my only combat

1276
01:09:03,479 --> 01:09:06,519
Speaker 1: appointment in the teams, and and we got like this

1277
01:09:06,920 --> 01:09:09,960
Speaker 1: unsung hero thing. We went and met the general from

1278
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,000
Speaker 1: SOCOM and and uh, you know, I was at Sealed

1279
01:09:13,040 --> 01:09:15,599
Speaker 1: Team one and they call it No Fun one. And

1280
01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:18,240
Speaker 1: and you know, I had the beard was out to hear.

1281
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:21,240
Speaker 1: The hair was long, you know, and they looked at

1282
01:09:21,320 --> 01:09:23,680
Speaker 1: us and they're like, go get your starch, cammis on,

1283
01:09:24,040 --> 01:09:27,559
Speaker 1: shave your face, cut your hair, and and we showed

1284
01:09:27,640 --> 01:09:32,160
Speaker 1: up and it was funny. Every other unit, the SF

1285
01:09:32,360 --> 01:09:35,200
Speaker 1: unit that was getting recognized, the two guys you know,

1286
01:09:35,400 --> 01:09:39,679
Speaker 1: long hair beards, the Mars. It was a forced guys.

1287
01:09:39,760 --> 01:09:42,200
Speaker 1: They looked, you know, they were out in doing it.

1288
01:09:42,560 --> 01:09:45,840
Speaker 1: And then the the Air Force JAYTAC guys that had

1289
01:09:45,840 --> 01:09:47,880
Speaker 1: been there for like nine months at the time.

1290
01:09:48,240 --> 01:09:50,120
Speaker 4: They had like zz top beards.

1291
01:09:50,160 --> 01:09:54,120
Speaker 1: They were wearing cutoff bedus and like tivas. And I'm

1292
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:58,200
Speaker 1: like this sucks, man, But yeah, I feel you when

1293
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,320
Speaker 1: you got to get you got your good combat flow

1294
01:10:01,439 --> 01:10:02,720
Speaker 1: going and you got to.

1295
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:04,000
Speaker 4: Get all trimmed up.

1296
01:10:04,120 --> 01:10:04,360
Speaker 2: Man.

1297
01:10:04,960 --> 01:10:06,639
Speaker 4: That's funny.

1298
01:10:07,080 --> 01:10:10,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that was you know, whenever I first got back,

1299
01:10:10,439 --> 01:10:12,640
Speaker 3: you know, of course I hadn't had a shower and

1300
01:10:12,680 --> 01:10:13,320
Speaker 3: over a month.

1301
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:16,360
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, a lot of people don't understand.

1302
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:18,479
Speaker 3: You know, when you deploy, you know, there's not just

1303
01:10:18,640 --> 01:10:22,160
Speaker 3: bathrooms and shower huts everywhere. You know, when you're a marine,

1304
01:10:22,200 --> 01:10:25,120
Speaker 3: you know, Marines are out in the field the whole time.

1305
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:28,720
Speaker 2: You know, we don't get none of that luxury coming.

1306
01:10:28,479 --> 01:10:30,720
Speaker 3: Back to a big bob every day, you know, and

1307
01:10:31,200 --> 01:10:34,640
Speaker 3: being able to take a shower and all that. So

1308
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:38,639
Speaker 3: but I got squared away, and you know, then hell,

1309
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:41,559
Speaker 3: all the guys was forced and you know, figured it

1310
01:10:41,600 --> 01:10:44,920
Speaker 3: out already before I even knew about it, you know,

1311
01:10:45,040 --> 01:10:47,400
Speaker 3: And and so there's like, hey man, let me come

1312
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:49,720
Speaker 3: to your ceremony and all that, and so we did

1313
01:10:49,760 --> 01:10:50,400
Speaker 3: all that crap.

1314
01:10:50,479 --> 01:10:54,519
Speaker 2: It was cool, and that's cool. Yeah, going back out

1315
01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:55,440
Speaker 2: the second.

1316
01:10:55,120 --> 01:10:59,040
Speaker 3: Time, you know, we we didn't helo insert the second time.

1317
01:10:59,160 --> 01:11:03,400
Speaker 3: We took VIX out. And I don't know why we

1318
01:11:03,439 --> 01:11:06,960
Speaker 3: took Vex out because once we got to that little

1319
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:12,360
Speaker 3: fob that we was going to, we parked them there

1320
01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:14,320
Speaker 3: and we never got in the sunbitches again.

1321
01:11:17,720 --> 01:11:18,000
Speaker 2: You know.

1322
01:11:18,520 --> 01:11:20,760
Speaker 3: So I'm thinking, why do we even drag these out

1323
01:11:20,800 --> 01:11:22,559
Speaker 3: here and have to, you know, deal with all this,

1324
01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:25,160
Speaker 3: you know, if we're not going to actually use them,

1325
01:11:25,680 --> 01:11:27,599
Speaker 3: you know, but that's the Marine Corps for you, if

1326
01:11:27,640 --> 01:11:31,840
Speaker 3: it makes sense, We're going to do the complete opposite.

1327
01:11:33,360 --> 01:11:35,840
Speaker 4: Just to keep you on us, just to keep you harder.

1328
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:38,479
Speaker 2: They gonna keep you on your toes, you know, every

1329
01:11:38,520 --> 01:11:39,400
Speaker 2: time you left.

1330
01:11:40,600 --> 01:11:43,040
Speaker 3: You know, whatever little pb you were at, you know,

1331
01:11:43,080 --> 01:11:44,720
Speaker 3: are a little compound, you're at them.

1332
01:11:44,760 --> 01:11:48,280
Speaker 2: Irrigation ditches was everywhere over there. You know.

1333
01:11:48,400 --> 01:11:51,680
Speaker 3: We're a helm in province, so we're almost in the

1334
01:11:51,680 --> 01:11:55,240
Speaker 3: middle of the country and these these irrigation ditches are everywhere.

1335
01:11:55,280 --> 01:11:58,439
Speaker 3: So as soon as you leave, your feet are getting wet.

1336
01:11:58,479 --> 01:12:00,840
Speaker 3: Because of course we don't travel bridges or.

1337
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:01,840
Speaker 2: Walkways or nothing.

1338
01:12:01,880 --> 01:12:05,439
Speaker 3: We're gonna, you know, try to jump these ditches, which

1339
01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:08,599
Speaker 3: was hell wearing nods, and especially when you got a

1340
01:12:08,640 --> 01:12:11,920
Speaker 3: dog attached to you. Oh, every time I was ready

1341
01:12:11,920 --> 01:12:14,960
Speaker 3: to jump, she wasn't, and vice versa. And I woke

1342
01:12:15,040 --> 01:12:17,400
Speaker 3: up in the middle of the ditch most of the times,

1343
01:12:19,240 --> 01:12:20,959
Speaker 3: all out on my hands and knees.

1344
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:24,800
Speaker 2: You know. It was because you could never judge a dish.

1345
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:26,840
Speaker 3: And so I'm thinking, you know, when first walk up

1346
01:12:26,840 --> 01:12:28,720
Speaker 3: to them, well, man, this ditch is only a foot

1347
01:12:28,760 --> 01:12:29,920
Speaker 3: and a half two foot wide.

1348
01:12:29,920 --> 01:12:31,559
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna jump it, you know.

1349
01:12:31,600 --> 01:12:33,599
Speaker 3: And you go to jump it, and you realize when

1350
01:12:33,600 --> 01:12:35,920
Speaker 3: you're about six foot across that you're not at the

1351
01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:36,519
Speaker 3: other side.

1352
01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:39,679
Speaker 2: You're in the bottom now, and each wet every time.

1353
01:12:40,640 --> 01:12:43,920
Speaker 3: Thirty minutes from leaving feet are soaking wet, so you're

1354
01:12:44,320 --> 01:12:49,840
Speaker 3: wet feet, you know, hole daggum, you know, patrol and

1355
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:52,280
Speaker 3: then coming back, of course you're gonna get your feet wet,

1356
01:12:52,320 --> 01:12:53,160
Speaker 3: you know, right before you.

1357
01:12:53,120 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 2: Go back in. That's right. That was every day, you know,

1358
01:12:57,640 --> 01:12:58,960
Speaker 2: So it's it's miserable.

1359
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:00,960
Speaker 3: You know, your only care and you know, a couple

1360
01:13:01,080 --> 01:13:04,599
Speaker 3: pairs of camis and your you know, rucksack, and then

1361
01:13:04,840 --> 01:13:07,120
Speaker 3: you know, as many socks as you stuff in there,

1362
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:12,280
Speaker 3: you know, six may pairs, and you know that was

1363
01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:15,080
Speaker 3: just part of it, you know. And I always had

1364
01:13:15,360 --> 01:13:18,559
Speaker 3: you know, fifty pounds on average, extra weight on top

1365
01:13:18,640 --> 01:13:20,920
Speaker 3: of me because you know, of course I got to

1366
01:13:20,920 --> 01:13:23,840
Speaker 3: carry my dog's food, my dog's water, and you know,

1367
01:13:23,920 --> 01:13:26,040
Speaker 3: the same gear list as all the rest of the guys.

1368
01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:28,400
Speaker 3: And of course you know, they spread out, you know,

1369
01:13:28,479 --> 01:13:30,760
Speaker 3: the stuff for the barrio and all that, so I

1370
01:13:30,840 --> 01:13:33,040
Speaker 3: might have two or three mags and my rug too,

1371
01:13:33,200 --> 01:13:36,080
Speaker 3: you know, and you know we always got spread.

1372
01:13:35,720 --> 01:13:40,920
Speaker 2: Out the load. You know. So how long how long

1373
01:13:41,000 --> 01:13:42,840
Speaker 2: did that did you go out? Another? Thirty days?

1374
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:45,840
Speaker 3: On that second it was about forty five days that

1375
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 3: second go around. Wow, And we had a it wasn't

1376
01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:54,519
Speaker 3: nearest Connecticut as the first push we went out, but

1377
01:13:54,800 --> 01:13:56,800
Speaker 3: you know it was still you know, we got in

1378
01:13:56,840 --> 01:13:59,479
Speaker 3: at least one to two ticks a day. You know,

1379
01:13:59,560 --> 01:14:02,479
Speaker 3: it was always, you know, something every day. And we've

1380
01:14:02,520 --> 01:14:05,320
Speaker 3: done all our movement at night. We've done very few

1381
01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:08,120
Speaker 3: patrols during the day. We would always patrol at night.

1382
01:14:08,920 --> 01:14:13,720
Speaker 3: And do you know our knocks or soft knocks, you know,

1383
01:14:13,840 --> 01:14:16,120
Speaker 3: four o'clock in the morning, they had our hands tied.

1384
01:14:16,160 --> 01:14:19,760
Speaker 3: We couldn't just rush in. You know, we did get

1385
01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:21,080
Speaker 3: to do a couple of hard knocks.

1386
01:14:21,080 --> 01:14:24,479
Speaker 2: That was sweet. You know, that was when the real fun,

1387
01:14:24,800 --> 01:14:25,639
Speaker 2: you know went down.

1388
01:14:25,800 --> 01:14:28,760
Speaker 3: You know, it's nothing like doing a you know, hard

1389
01:14:28,840 --> 01:14:31,759
Speaker 3: knock going in, you know, two o'clock in the morning.

1390
01:14:31,760 --> 01:14:33,479
Speaker 2: They don't expect it, you know, and.

1391
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:37,439
Speaker 3: You know, just you know, you got the element of

1392
01:14:37,479 --> 01:14:41,120
Speaker 3: surprise at that point. You know, the rest of the time,

1393
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:44,040
Speaker 3: you know, they see it coming, they expect it, you know,

1394
01:14:44,080 --> 01:14:46,800
Speaker 3: because they always knew where we were at, you know,

1395
01:14:47,640 --> 01:14:50,200
Speaker 3: two or three hours after we showed up, if not sooner.

1396
01:14:50,280 --> 01:14:53,960
Speaker 1: Who knows what was the feeling, What was the feeling

1397
01:14:54,000 --> 01:14:57,960
Speaker 1: in the core during that time with those roes. Why

1398
01:14:58,479 --> 01:15:02,080
Speaker 1: was there frustrate now obviously because you're with force, You're

1399
01:15:02,120 --> 01:15:04,000
Speaker 1: you're getting to move at night, you don't have to

1400
01:15:04,040 --> 01:15:07,080
Speaker 1: do over daylight stuff. You know what what was the

1401
01:15:07,160 --> 01:15:11,479
Speaker 1: greater sense within the core about how constraining the roe

1402
01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:15,839
Speaker 1: E'SE were and and was what was that mood like throughout?

1403
01:15:17,560 --> 01:15:20,559
Speaker 3: Man, it was like having your damn hands tied behind

1404
01:15:20,600 --> 01:15:24,880
Speaker 3: your back. You could not engage first they you know,

1405
01:15:24,960 --> 01:15:27,759
Speaker 3: you had to be you know, declared troops in contact

1406
01:15:27,840 --> 01:15:28,519
Speaker 3: before we can.

1407
01:15:28,479 --> 01:15:31,760
Speaker 2: Even engage the enemy. You don't know who's who.

1408
01:15:32,360 --> 01:15:35,040
Speaker 3: So we're just out there on our you know, toes

1409
01:15:35,120 --> 01:15:37,759
Speaker 3: and you know, heads on a swivel with the whole

1410
01:15:37,840 --> 01:15:40,760
Speaker 3: time because you know, you don't know who's who everywhere.

1411
01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:46,720
Speaker 3: And it was, you know, it was frustrating a lot

1412
01:15:46,760 --> 01:15:48,840
Speaker 3: of times. You know, we would look and you know,

1413
01:15:49,320 --> 01:15:52,960
Speaker 3: get this intel. You know, intel would come in headquarters.

1414
01:15:52,960 --> 01:15:54,400
Speaker 3: You know it's like, hey, y'all need to go check

1415
01:15:54,479 --> 01:15:56,519
Speaker 3: this out, this and this and but of course you

1416
01:15:56,560 --> 01:15:59,200
Speaker 3: know you can't engage, you know, going in the door.

1417
01:15:59,240 --> 01:16:01,760
Speaker 2: You know they have to engauge you. You know.

1418
01:16:01,840 --> 01:16:06,120
Speaker 3: And the craziest thing about me, you know, I walk

1419
01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:09,600
Speaker 3: point my whole deployment. You know, everywhere we go, no

1420
01:16:10,120 --> 01:16:12,679
Speaker 3: discrepancy on where I'm at, I'm gonna be point man,

1421
01:16:12,840 --> 01:16:16,040
Speaker 3: you know, so of course, you know that didn't bother me.

1422
01:16:16,080 --> 01:16:17,680
Speaker 2: That's what I was trained to do, and that's what

1423
01:16:17,720 --> 01:16:18,479
Speaker 2: I wanted to do.

1424
01:16:19,439 --> 01:16:25,240
Speaker 3: And so anytime you was point man, especially with the

1425
01:16:25,320 --> 01:16:27,479
Speaker 3: k K nine, you had.

1426
01:16:27,360 --> 01:16:31,200
Speaker 2: A bigger target on your head. You know, absolutely, I

1427
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:33,160
Speaker 2: was the one walking around with a target.

1428
01:16:33,200 --> 01:16:35,760
Speaker 3: And anytime we got into the tick, you know, the

1429
01:16:35,800 --> 01:16:39,719
Speaker 3: bullets was always flying at me first, you know, because

1430
01:16:39,960 --> 01:16:42,160
Speaker 3: they realized, you know, if I got a dog, you know,

1431
01:16:42,200 --> 01:16:44,479
Speaker 3: I'm a forced multiplier. I'm the one finding all the

1432
01:16:44,560 --> 01:16:48,000
Speaker 3: right ads and you know all that and you know,

1433
01:16:48,360 --> 01:16:52,200
Speaker 3: keeping them from being able to you know, take mass.

1434
01:16:51,920 --> 01:16:53,439
Speaker 2: Caws te's on us and everything.

1435
01:16:53,520 --> 01:16:56,640
Speaker 3: You know, I was, you know, always the one that

1436
01:16:57,240 --> 01:16:59,559
Speaker 3: they just all the eyes were on me, you know,

1437
01:17:00,400 --> 01:17:03,599
Speaker 3: and being you know, all the training that we went

1438
01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:06,280
Speaker 3: through leading up to the deployment, you know, they got

1439
01:17:06,320 --> 01:17:08,800
Speaker 3: you mentally and physically ready for it.

1440
01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:11,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it was no doubt.

1441
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:15,800
Speaker 1: You know, did you did you guys take any casualties

1442
01:17:15,880 --> 01:17:20,120
Speaker 1: during that deployment, Well, that.

1443
01:17:20,640 --> 01:17:24,240
Speaker 2: First time we went out, we had no casualties whatsoever.

1444
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:29,559
Speaker 3: The second time we went out, one of our guys

1445
01:17:29,560 --> 01:17:32,479
Speaker 3: that's in the patune. He was a sergeant at the time,

1446
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:40,680
Speaker 3: sergeant rolling, and he took a shot. I believe it

1447
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:44,439
Speaker 3: was the first Yeah, it was the first patrol we

1448
01:17:44,479 --> 01:17:46,720
Speaker 3: went out on the second mission we went out on.

1449
01:17:47,360 --> 01:17:50,880
Speaker 3: We went go take this compound. And we're taking this

1450
01:17:50,960 --> 01:17:53,160
Speaker 3: compound four o'clock in the morning. We do our knock

1451
01:17:53,200 --> 01:17:55,920
Speaker 3: and everything, nobody answered, do our call out and all that,

1452
01:17:56,400 --> 01:18:01,760
Speaker 3: nobody answers. And then right at daylight, HQ comes on

1453
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:03,280
Speaker 3: the mic and it's like, hey, there's a lot of

1454
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:05,840
Speaker 3: activity next door, you know, a lot of movement. They're

1455
01:18:05,880 --> 01:18:08,160
Speaker 3: digging it up in the garden. He said, we need

1456
01:18:08,200 --> 01:18:10,760
Speaker 3: y'all to go check it out. So we You know,

1457
01:18:10,800 --> 01:18:13,240
Speaker 3: of course, every time we took a new compound, every

1458
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:16,760
Speaker 3: four days, you spent from four thirty to day, like

1459
01:18:16,920 --> 01:18:20,520
Speaker 3: filling sand bags. Everybody carried at least twenty five sandbags

1460
01:18:20,520 --> 01:18:23,360
Speaker 3: with them, and that sucked every time.

1461
01:18:23,439 --> 01:18:24,000
Speaker 2: You know, you had to.

1462
01:18:24,040 --> 01:18:29,480
Speaker 3: Fill sandbags and barricade the entry ways rooftops for watch positions.

1463
01:18:29,560 --> 01:18:33,760
Speaker 2: You know, So you're doing that every time every four days.

1464
01:18:34,240 --> 01:18:39,439
Speaker 4: You know, so and saandbag sucks.

1465
01:18:39,880 --> 01:18:41,360
Speaker 2: Do what and Sam?

1466
01:18:41,439 --> 01:18:43,280
Speaker 4: Filling sandbags sucks?

1467
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:46,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, dude, I don't if I never see those sandbags

1468
01:18:46,760 --> 01:18:52,800
Speaker 2: in my last body. Awesome. So we're in the middle

1469
01:18:52,840 --> 01:18:53,479
Speaker 2: of doing that.

1470
01:18:53,520 --> 01:18:56,400
Speaker 3: We had we got maybe three sandbags high on our

1471
01:18:56,439 --> 01:19:00,639
Speaker 3: watch positions, and so they call us and they're like, hey,

1472
01:19:00,640 --> 01:19:03,479
Speaker 3: when you go check this compound next door. So we

1473
01:19:03,520 --> 01:19:05,760
Speaker 3: take a little fire team. We got about eight or

1474
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:10,320
Speaker 3: nine guys and we run out of that compound we

1475
01:19:10,400 --> 01:19:13,000
Speaker 3: took and go next door to you know, see what

1476
01:19:13,040 --> 01:19:15,080
Speaker 3: the hell's going on over there? You know, they got

1477
01:19:15,240 --> 01:19:18,439
Speaker 3: of course we got the I R above us, so

1478
01:19:18,479 --> 01:19:21,080
Speaker 3: that they're the ones who notified us. You know, it's like, hey,

1479
01:19:21,080 --> 01:19:23,280
Speaker 3: we're picking up a lot of activity on the isol

1480
01:19:23,360 --> 01:19:23,880
Speaker 3: and all that.

1481
01:19:24,600 --> 01:19:26,320
Speaker 2: We go over there, and.

1482
01:19:27,800 --> 01:19:32,080
Speaker 3: Dude, it was one of the worst days that you know,

1483
01:19:32,200 --> 01:19:35,920
Speaker 3: I remember being over there because we we go to

1484
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:36,639
Speaker 3: run by.

1485
01:19:36,479 --> 01:19:40,320
Speaker 2: This door and I don't run by the door.

1486
01:19:40,360 --> 01:19:44,040
Speaker 3: I run in it, and some other guys run by

1487
01:19:44,080 --> 01:19:45,320
Speaker 3: it and I get on the micro.

1488
01:19:45,479 --> 01:19:47,640
Speaker 2: Hey, we can't run by this entry with you know,

1489
01:19:47,680 --> 01:19:51,080
Speaker 2: without clearing it. Dude, y'all know better than that.

1490
01:19:51,120 --> 01:19:52,640
Speaker 3: Of course, you know, they're just trying to get in

1491
01:19:52,640 --> 01:19:55,360
Speaker 3: a fight seat, you know, find what these guys are

1492
01:19:55,439 --> 01:19:57,880
Speaker 3: hiding and all that stuff. So I run in there,

1493
01:19:58,439 --> 01:20:01,719
Speaker 3: and then I got my spotter follow and then finally

1494
01:20:01,760 --> 01:20:05,200
Speaker 3: they looped back and they come in and we start

1495
01:20:05,240 --> 01:20:07,080
Speaker 3: searching this compound and there's.

1496
01:20:06,920 --> 01:20:08,679
Speaker 2: A couple of people in there. You're yelling.

1497
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:12,040
Speaker 3: You know, we had to turf with us. Of course,

1498
01:20:12,080 --> 01:20:15,599
Speaker 3: you know, he's always, you know, doing his own damn thing.

1499
01:20:15,760 --> 01:20:19,000
Speaker 3: You know, we had these we had to carry these

1500
01:20:19,040 --> 01:20:22,559
Speaker 3: A and A guys everywhere we went. The first time

1501
01:20:22,600 --> 01:20:25,120
Speaker 3: we went out, we took four or five of them.

1502
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:29,000
Speaker 2: Man, big paint ass. You know, we couldn't go nowhere

1503
01:20:29,000 --> 01:20:32,360
Speaker 2: without them. Then the second time we went, we said, hey,

1504
01:20:32,400 --> 01:20:35,080
Speaker 2: how many of these guys are we actually required to take?

1505
01:20:35,600 --> 01:20:37,519
Speaker 3: And they're like, well, you have to have at least

1506
01:20:37,560 --> 01:20:40,840
Speaker 3: two of them, And so that's all we took, and

1507
01:20:40,920 --> 01:20:41,400
Speaker 3: we got.

1508
01:20:41,240 --> 01:20:44,960
Speaker 2: A lot better ones. They knew some English and stuff. Yeah,

1509
01:20:45,120 --> 01:20:49,640
Speaker 2: so we go over there and man, we're not in.

1510
01:20:49,760 --> 01:20:51,920
Speaker 2: I hadn't got a quarter of this building cleared.

1511
01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:57,280
Speaker 3: And Roland was on the roofs next door, you know,

1512
01:20:57,479 --> 01:21:00,760
Speaker 3: he had to bury it up there and everything, And.

1513
01:21:00,280 --> 01:21:01,599
Speaker 2: We got into a big tick.

1514
01:21:02,200 --> 01:21:07,160
Speaker 3: If they busted off with a damn RPG that buzz

1515
01:21:07,920 --> 01:21:09,759
Speaker 3: two inches from my ears.

1516
01:21:10,200 --> 01:21:13,080
Speaker 2: Wow, And that was that.

1517
01:21:13,120 --> 01:21:15,400
Speaker 3: Was one of the first times where I'm just like man,

1518
01:21:15,439 --> 01:21:17,599
Speaker 3: if I would have leaned back done anything, you know,

1519
01:21:17,800 --> 01:21:21,559
Speaker 3: it's over with, you know, and Eric, it was all

1520
01:21:21,600 --> 01:21:27,080
Speaker 3: concentrated on me and Andrew Perryman, he's still in no

1521
01:21:27,840 --> 01:21:30,040
Speaker 3: but no thinking is still in. It's hard for me

1522
01:21:30,080 --> 01:21:32,960
Speaker 3: to keep up with these guys anymore because I unplugged about.

1523
01:21:32,680 --> 01:21:35,719
Speaker 2: Four months ago, yeah, all together.

1524
01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:38,800
Speaker 3: So I used to keep up with them on Facebook

1525
01:21:39,320 --> 01:21:43,160
Speaker 3: and now I'm just I got tired of that stuff,

1526
01:21:43,200 --> 01:21:45,800
Speaker 3: and I you know, I just unplugged from the rest

1527
01:21:45,800 --> 01:21:47,160
Speaker 3: of the world, doing my own thing.

1528
01:21:47,240 --> 01:21:49,880
Speaker 2: You know, the older you get, the more you realize.

1529
01:21:49,920 --> 01:21:53,640
Speaker 3: That, you know, you got very few friends, you know,

1530
01:21:54,000 --> 01:21:57,120
Speaker 3: in the civilian world. You know, there's still guys that

1531
01:21:57,200 --> 01:22:00,200
Speaker 3: I would go to war with today, you know that

1532
01:22:00,280 --> 01:22:04,200
Speaker 3: I served with. But civilians, you know, they don't have

1533
01:22:04,280 --> 01:22:07,439
Speaker 3: the mindset that we have, and you know, they wouldn't

1534
01:22:07,520 --> 01:22:10,240
Speaker 3: take a bullet for you, Like, there wasn't a person

1535
01:22:10,320 --> 01:22:12,160
Speaker 3: over there that I wouldn't have took a bullet for.

1536
01:22:12,760 --> 01:22:12,960
Speaker 2: You know.

1537
01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:17,040
Speaker 3: In my group of guys, we got really tight, really

1538
01:22:17,120 --> 01:22:19,160
Speaker 3: quick and rollings.

1539
01:22:19,520 --> 01:22:20,880
Speaker 2: He's raining down on it.

1540
01:22:20,960 --> 01:22:23,240
Speaker 3: We finally figured out where the sniper fire and arbag

1541
01:22:23,280 --> 01:22:26,280
Speaker 3: he comes from. It's another compound over They had this

1542
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:30,599
Speaker 3: high up spot with an open window that could see.

1543
01:22:30,640 --> 01:22:33,280
Speaker 3: I mean, it was almost like they stage that whole

1544
01:22:33,360 --> 01:22:36,320
Speaker 3: scenario because they was already set up. And that was

1545
01:22:36,360 --> 01:22:40,360
Speaker 3: one of the worst firefights we've been in. And so

1546
01:22:41,200 --> 01:22:46,040
Speaker 3: we clear all that and about ten minutes into that,

1547
01:22:46,160 --> 01:22:52,240
Speaker 3: Tick Roland takes a round in his back and so

1548
01:22:52,400 --> 01:22:56,640
Speaker 3: when he did, they said, hey, we're banning in this,

1549
01:22:56,920 --> 01:22:58,320
Speaker 3: We're going back, and we got.

1550
01:22:58,200 --> 01:22:59,280
Speaker 2: To support these guys.

1551
01:22:59,320 --> 01:22:59,519
Speaker 1: You know.

1552
01:23:00,160 --> 01:23:02,479
Speaker 2: Of course we got to call intimating back and all that.

1553
01:23:03,320 --> 01:23:05,120
Speaker 2: And that was the first.

1554
01:23:04,800 --> 01:23:05,960
Speaker 3: Time that.

1555
01:23:08,320 --> 01:23:10,880
Speaker 2: We got the gloves taken off. You know.

1556
01:23:11,760 --> 01:23:14,920
Speaker 3: He come over the radio and said, hey, if it moves,

1557
01:23:14,960 --> 01:23:18,680
Speaker 3: it dies, you know, we ain't letting you know this

1558
01:23:18,800 --> 01:23:22,680
Speaker 3: is this is it. So that was a that was

1559
01:23:23,240 --> 01:23:26,080
Speaker 3: uh first thing in the morning when that went down,

1560
01:23:26,360 --> 01:23:28,639
Speaker 3: and it was like that for the rest of the day.

1561
01:23:28,720 --> 01:23:32,320
Speaker 3: We called in man, I think seven or eight you know,

1562
01:23:32,400 --> 01:23:36,840
Speaker 3: air support missions, and man, it was crazy, you know,

1563
01:23:36,880 --> 01:23:39,960
Speaker 3: we we everybody was on the wall or on the roof.

1564
01:23:40,200 --> 01:23:42,400
Speaker 3: There wasn't just you know, normally we only had two

1565
01:23:42,439 --> 01:23:45,880
Speaker 3: guys on overwatch, you know, and everybody else you know,

1566
01:23:46,120 --> 01:23:49,360
Speaker 3: was doing whatever and you know, but that day, if

1567
01:23:49,400 --> 01:23:52,160
Speaker 3: there was a peep hole or anything, everybody was on

1568
01:23:52,200 --> 01:23:57,000
Speaker 3: the walls, you know, looking from every direction, and we did.

1569
01:23:57,080 --> 01:23:59,639
Speaker 3: We wasn't able to meet evact rolling out that night

1570
01:24:00,280 --> 01:24:04,000
Speaker 3: because we stayed, you know, of course, you know, with

1571
01:24:04,160 --> 01:24:06,639
Speaker 3: us being force recon. We had our own dock with.

1572
01:24:06,560 --> 01:24:09,880
Speaker 2: Us, you know. And he was a Navy guy, but

1573
01:24:09,960 --> 01:24:11,479
Speaker 2: he's not a normal Navy guy.

1574
01:24:12,160 --> 01:24:12,360
Speaker 1: You know.

1575
01:24:13,120 --> 01:24:14,040
Speaker 2: He's got the training.

1576
01:24:14,080 --> 01:24:16,240
Speaker 3: I forgot what they called him, but you know he's

1577
01:24:16,240 --> 01:24:18,479
Speaker 3: got all the training, you know, and he's high speed

1578
01:24:18,560 --> 01:24:21,599
Speaker 3: load drag, you know, and he deserve to be there

1579
01:24:21,640 --> 01:24:24,320
Speaker 3: with us, you know. He you know, he was bad

1580
01:24:24,400 --> 01:24:27,360
Speaker 3: to the bone too, you know, and of course he

1581
01:24:27,680 --> 01:24:31,280
Speaker 3: you know, he was with us whenever we went on

1582
01:24:31,280 --> 01:24:34,280
Speaker 3: that raid next door, of course, you know. And that's

1583
01:24:34,320 --> 01:24:36,400
Speaker 3: what caused us to cut that short and have to

1584
01:24:36,439 --> 01:24:39,680
Speaker 3: go back because when we you know, whenever they come

1585
01:24:39,720 --> 01:24:41,800
Speaker 3: on said, you know Roland got shot. You know, of

1586
01:24:41,800 --> 01:24:44,479
Speaker 3: course we got doc with us. We got a hall

1587
01:24:44,560 --> 01:24:48,040
Speaker 3: ass back. Yeah we don't know the severity of it

1588
01:24:48,160 --> 01:24:51,360
Speaker 3: or anything at this point, and we haul ass back

1589
01:24:51,439 --> 01:24:54,519
Speaker 3: and you know, we get him off the roof and

1590
01:24:55,320 --> 01:24:56,880
Speaker 3: replace on course, you know.

1591
01:24:57,120 --> 01:24:58,680
Speaker 2: We're when we get back we have.

1592
01:24:58,880 --> 01:25:00,800
Speaker 3: We realized we got to you know, get some more

1593
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:03,280
Speaker 3: cover because that was one of the reasons why he

1594
01:25:03,320 --> 01:25:05,760
Speaker 3: got shot, is because he didn't have no cover. You know,

1595
01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:09,320
Speaker 3: they're in prone position, but you know, he didn't have

1596
01:25:09,760 --> 01:25:13,639
Speaker 3: enough cover to even you know, protect itself there. Yeah,

1597
01:25:13,760 --> 01:25:15,760
Speaker 3: and so we had to get all that set up

1598
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:18,240
Speaker 3: and send the firefight all day. We didn't get he

1599
01:25:18,280 --> 01:25:21,320
Speaker 3: didn't get a ride out that night, but when the

1600
01:25:21,400 --> 01:25:24,760
Speaker 3: gloves come off that day and that was the only.

1601
01:25:27,640 --> 01:25:31,320
Speaker 2: Injury we had in the first two times. About the

1602
01:25:31,320 --> 01:25:34,960
Speaker 2: middle of the deployment, the army.

1603
01:25:34,800 --> 01:25:38,320
Speaker 3: Was getting ready for a big push in Candor and

1604
01:25:38,720 --> 01:25:41,960
Speaker 3: at the time, the command in General for Afghanistan was

1605
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:47,400
Speaker 3: a dagum Army dude, and that asshole pulled all the

1606
01:25:47,479 --> 01:25:51,000
Speaker 3: marine dog teams that was there away from all our

1607
01:25:51,120 --> 01:25:58,360
Speaker 3: units and reassigned us to a different units in candle Hort.

1608
01:25:59,000 --> 01:26:01,000
Speaker 3: So we had to pass back up all our ship

1609
01:26:01,360 --> 01:26:04,680
Speaker 3: and we left all the guys that you know you

1610
01:26:04,880 --> 01:26:07,160
Speaker 3: was with, you know, don't belt your repoort with and

1611
01:26:07,200 --> 01:26:09,680
Speaker 3: got to know and we got stuck with you know,

1612
01:26:09,800 --> 01:26:13,720
Speaker 3: these army guys, and man, you don't realize how much

1613
01:26:13,800 --> 01:26:16,799
Speaker 3: training you actually have until you get put.

1614
01:26:16,600 --> 01:26:19,719
Speaker 2: With you know, one hundred army guys.

1615
01:26:19,720 --> 01:26:23,360
Speaker 3: And I'll never forget the first mission we went out on.

1616
01:26:24,320 --> 01:26:28,080
Speaker 3: You know, they put me with uh, the ranger guys

1617
01:26:28,120 --> 01:26:29,920
Speaker 3: that was there with one hundred first I think one

1618
01:26:30,040 --> 01:26:33,160
Speaker 3: dash one eighty seven or something. It's on a couple

1619
01:26:33,200 --> 01:26:37,559
Speaker 3: of these commendations up here. But they put us with

1620
01:26:37,600 --> 01:26:40,040
Speaker 3: them Racassians or something like that.

1621
01:26:40,160 --> 01:26:42,360
Speaker 2: I forget. Couldn't even pronounce the dudes it was with.

1622
01:26:43,160 --> 01:26:46,280
Speaker 3: And we go to do it, you know, mission that

1623
01:26:46,400 --> 01:26:50,719
Speaker 3: first night, and they said we're gonna We're not gonna

1624
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:52,160
Speaker 3: go through any entry ways.

1625
01:26:52,520 --> 01:26:55,160
Speaker 2: We're gonna climb over the walls or blow through the walls.

1626
01:26:55,920 --> 01:26:59,439
Speaker 3: The first time we went out, you know, I get

1627
01:26:59,520 --> 01:27:02,559
Speaker 3: up there and you know, I'm taking off, you know,

1628
01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:08,439
Speaker 3: falling this my spoder. Then I get down over that

1629
01:27:08,800 --> 01:27:11,800
Speaker 3: and I look back and then you see the silhouette

1630
01:27:11,840 --> 01:27:15,160
Speaker 3: of thirty or forty guys standing up and running across

1631
01:27:15,200 --> 01:27:18,479
Speaker 3: this rooftop. And I get on the radio and I

1632
01:27:18,600 --> 01:27:21,599
Speaker 3: just start screaming. I say, hey, get down, get down.

1633
01:27:22,400 --> 01:27:24,559
Speaker 3: And we had a butter bar with us. Of course,

1634
01:27:24,560 --> 01:27:28,679
Speaker 3: there's nothing like being with you know, a marine officer

1635
01:27:28,800 --> 01:27:31,639
Speaker 3: that's in charge. And I said, what are y'all doing?

1636
01:27:32,320 --> 01:27:35,639
Speaker 3: And he's just like, you know, we're assaulting where I said,

1637
01:27:35,760 --> 01:27:38,840
Speaker 3: I mean, dude, one machine gun burst and you're all dead.

1638
01:27:39,439 --> 01:27:41,519
Speaker 3: How do you not realize that? You know, they're just

1639
01:27:42,240 --> 01:27:46,720
Speaker 3: gradually walking across no discipline, you know, no sense of urgency,

1640
01:27:47,640 --> 01:27:50,679
Speaker 3: you know, and of course these guys are all fresh,

1641
01:27:50,920 --> 01:27:54,679
Speaker 3: you know this thing dream, yeah, you know, a couple

1642
01:27:54,720 --> 01:27:57,679
Speaker 3: of weeks, two or three weeks, and you know, we'd

1643
01:27:57,720 --> 01:28:00,679
Speaker 3: already been there four or five months, you know, and

1644
01:28:00,960 --> 01:28:03,880
Speaker 3: they just they didn't get it, you know. And after

1645
01:28:03,960 --> 01:28:08,519
Speaker 3: that they brought me into headquarters and they put me

1646
01:28:08,560 --> 01:28:09,479
Speaker 3: as in charge.

1647
01:28:09,479 --> 01:28:13,360
Speaker 2: There was we had like four or five Marine dog teams.

1648
01:28:13,520 --> 01:28:16,320
Speaker 3: This was that ram Rod. We got moved to five

1649
01:28:16,439 --> 01:28:20,360
Speaker 3: ram Rod. Actually it was five Wilson first is where

1650
01:28:20,400 --> 01:28:23,519
Speaker 3: we went to. And then they we spread out from

1651
01:28:23,560 --> 01:28:26,360
Speaker 3: there and I got I went to five ram Rod

1652
01:28:27,200 --> 01:28:29,400
Speaker 3: and I had about four or five Marines with me,

1653
01:28:30,320 --> 01:28:33,200
Speaker 3: and then we had some other personnel, you know. I

1654
01:28:33,240 --> 01:28:36,320
Speaker 3: had a female Army dog handler, and I had a

1655
01:28:37,120 --> 01:28:39,640
Speaker 3: Navy guy and an Air Force dude that I was

1656
01:28:39,680 --> 01:28:43,120
Speaker 3: over there, and of course I was I was a sergeant,

1657
01:28:43,160 --> 01:28:45,840
Speaker 3: and some of the other guys was you know E

1658
01:28:46,080 --> 01:28:50,080
Speaker 3: six's and E seven's, but I was still in charge

1659
01:28:50,080 --> 01:28:50,439
Speaker 3: of them.

1660
01:28:51,000 --> 01:28:57,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right on. So that was that the sixth month.

1661
01:28:57,560 --> 01:29:01,080
Speaker 1: How much longer did your platoon did your last? And

1662
01:29:01,160 --> 01:29:02,719
Speaker 1: when did you finally get out of there?

1663
01:29:04,040 --> 01:29:07,479
Speaker 2: We stayed there till the end of December, okay, and

1664
01:29:08,240 --> 01:29:10,240
Speaker 2: uh we didn't we didn't get to fly.

1665
01:29:10,439 --> 01:29:13,960
Speaker 3: It was I think we left either Christmas Eve or

1666
01:29:14,000 --> 01:29:14,720
Speaker 3: Christmas Day.

1667
01:29:15,360 --> 01:29:16,799
Speaker 2: And you know how it is if you're.

1668
01:29:16,640 --> 01:29:18,680
Speaker 3: Flying on a C one thirty, If that some bit

1669
01:29:18,720 --> 01:29:20,400
Speaker 3: stops anywhere, it's broke down.

1670
01:29:20,960 --> 01:29:22,719
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know how we got.

1671
01:29:22,520 --> 01:29:25,320
Speaker 3: There, but anywhere it stops, it's gonna be broke down

1672
01:29:25,400 --> 01:29:27,920
Speaker 3: for twenty four hours or so, who knows.

1673
01:29:27,960 --> 01:29:31,000
Speaker 2: They tell us at first six to eight hours.

1674
01:29:30,560 --> 01:29:33,080
Speaker 3: And then about fourteen hours in they're like, oh, we're

1675
01:29:33,080 --> 01:29:34,719
Speaker 3: gonna be here twenty four hours.

1676
01:29:35,080 --> 01:29:39,080
Speaker 2: They got a problem, blah blah blah. But what one

1677
01:29:39,080 --> 01:29:39,240
Speaker 2: of the.

1678
01:29:39,200 --> 01:29:41,879
Speaker 3: Things that really pissed me off is when they pulled

1679
01:29:42,160 --> 01:29:45,360
Speaker 3: all our you know, we had guys with like all

1680
01:29:45,479 --> 01:29:49,080
Speaker 3: other different branches of people, with SF people and all that,

1681
01:29:49,439 --> 01:29:51,120
Speaker 3: and they pulled us off, put us off with the

1682
01:29:51,360 --> 01:29:52,240
Speaker 3: army guys.

1683
01:29:53,200 --> 01:29:58,360
Speaker 2: We lost right off the bat. We lost Cookele Max Donahue.

1684
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:04,439
Speaker 3: He lost him on I think about a week after

1685
01:30:04,479 --> 01:30:09,920
Speaker 3: we got yeah, about a week after we got as

1686
01:30:09,960 --> 01:30:14,639
Speaker 3: signed to these other units. He was searching a roadway

1687
01:30:15,680 --> 01:30:22,879
Speaker 3: and his dog responded or you know, oh shit.

1688
01:30:24,680 --> 01:30:27,400
Speaker 2: Alerted on an ied and.

1689
01:30:27,360 --> 01:30:30,439
Speaker 3: Of course we set up a you know, he set

1690
01:30:30,520 --> 01:30:32,840
Speaker 3: up a court on you know, and everything flagged, it

1691
01:30:32,880 --> 01:30:35,360
Speaker 3: all off and they're setting up and as he's backing

1692
01:30:35,479 --> 01:30:39,559
Speaker 3: up to you know, set up a perimeter, he steps on.

1693
01:30:39,400 --> 01:30:44,160
Speaker 2: An ad blows him and fingey up. And that was

1694
01:30:44,200 --> 01:30:48,360
Speaker 2: on like August the eighth of twenty ten. We lost him.

1695
01:30:49,320 --> 01:30:53,760
Speaker 3: And the first mission that my force buddies went out

1696
01:30:54,520 --> 01:30:58,719
Speaker 3: after I got pulled from him, they went to singing.

1697
01:31:00,120 --> 01:31:02,960
Speaker 3: So we left hellmar or that we was in hell

1698
01:31:03,000 --> 01:31:04,600
Speaker 3: Ma the first couple of times and they went to

1699
01:31:04,680 --> 01:31:07,320
Speaker 3: sing it. It was a big puss that the Marine

1700
01:31:07,320 --> 01:31:11,479
Speaker 3: Corps was doing up there. And man, it wasn't two

1701
01:31:11,600 --> 01:31:15,719
Speaker 3: or three weeks in h one. One of the guys

1702
01:31:15,760 --> 01:31:19,720
Speaker 3: that slept right beside me on my second mission out

1703
01:31:19,760 --> 01:31:23,559
Speaker 3: with them, Jonathan Blank, He was a sergeant. He stepped

1704
01:31:23,560 --> 01:31:27,400
Speaker 3: on I d and he got critically injured. He lost

1705
01:31:27,520 --> 01:31:31,719
Speaker 3: both of his legs right above his knee caps down,

1706
01:31:32,880 --> 01:31:35,080
Speaker 3: and several of the other guys rolling.

1707
01:31:35,400 --> 01:31:38,439
Speaker 2: He got rolling was like a damn magnet, dude. He

1708
01:31:38,560 --> 01:31:39,679
Speaker 2: was always getting hurt.

1709
01:31:39,760 --> 01:31:42,320
Speaker 3: That first day we went out, he twisted his ankle,

1710
01:31:42,400 --> 01:31:44,639
Speaker 3: had to go back to the fog for a week,

1711
01:31:44,720 --> 01:31:46,519
Speaker 3: and then of course he gets shot.

1712
01:31:46,640 --> 01:31:48,600
Speaker 2: Then you know, the second.

1713
01:31:48,240 --> 01:31:51,519
Speaker 3: Time, and then the third time they go out, you know,

1714
01:31:51,600 --> 01:31:54,439
Speaker 3: he gets scrapping on from the A A D that

1715
01:31:54,600 --> 01:31:57,640
Speaker 3: Jonathan steps on, and a couple of other guys you know,

1716
01:31:57,680 --> 01:32:02,000
Speaker 3: gets scrapped on, gets injured and stuff. But yeah, that

1717
01:32:02,000 --> 01:32:06,880
Speaker 3: that really pissed me off because the whole time I

1718
01:32:07,040 --> 01:32:10,960
Speaker 3: was with them, we had zero injuries. Other than that time,

1719
01:32:11,160 --> 01:32:12,879
Speaker 3: you know, he zero injuries.

1720
01:32:13,000 --> 01:32:13,520
Speaker 2: Ads.

1721
01:32:14,240 --> 01:32:18,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I felt like, you know, I was

1722
01:32:18,080 --> 01:32:20,640
Speaker 3: helping keeping our guys you know, safe and on. That

1723
01:32:20,760 --> 01:32:23,240
Speaker 3: pissed me off so bad that I felt like it's

1724
01:32:23,280 --> 01:32:26,240
Speaker 3: always haunted me. I felt like Jonathan would still have

1725
01:32:26,400 --> 01:32:29,200
Speaker 3: his legs if they wouldn't have pulled me from him,

1726
01:32:29,720 --> 01:32:32,960
Speaker 3: you know, because Roman would have alerted on that hands down.

1727
01:32:33,600 --> 01:32:35,479
Speaker 3: You know, it was a big enough ad that she

1728
01:32:35,520 --> 01:32:40,759
Speaker 3: would have got on older way before the actual explosives device.

1729
01:32:40,840 --> 01:32:45,200
Speaker 3: You know, So that really pissed me off. And Jonathan

1730
01:32:45,240 --> 01:32:49,280
Speaker 3: he's actually works with the Black Rifle coffee. Now you'll

1731
01:32:49,960 --> 01:32:54,479
Speaker 3: you'll see them on their advertisement commercial and it's I've

1732
01:32:54,520 --> 01:32:58,200
Speaker 3: always thought it's pretty cool to you know, know the

1733
01:32:58,200 --> 01:33:01,280
Speaker 3: military guy that they're person you know, putting on their

1734
01:33:01,320 --> 01:33:03,960
Speaker 3: advertisement because you know they're not going to advertise.

1735
01:33:03,479 --> 01:33:06,000
Speaker 2: Who he is and all that. He got real lucky.

1736
01:33:06,760 --> 01:33:09,439
Speaker 2: Lieutenant Dan was a Swayzey dude.

1737
01:33:10,080 --> 01:33:13,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, he built Jonathan a damn house.

1738
01:33:13,880 --> 01:33:15,040
Speaker 2: That's cool.

1739
01:33:15,360 --> 01:33:18,040
Speaker 3: So he got a house, you know, bill Form in

1740
01:33:18,120 --> 01:33:21,519
Speaker 3: Texas where he was from. He you know, he got

1741
01:33:21,560 --> 01:33:24,880
Speaker 3: out a couple a year or two after we got back,

1742
01:33:25,680 --> 01:33:30,960
Speaker 3: and you know, then going back to our diplomas, he's

1743
01:33:30,960 --> 01:33:35,160
Speaker 3: asking about the injuries and stuff. You know, Jonathan stepped

1744
01:33:35,200 --> 01:33:38,080
Speaker 3: on I D first with the Ricon dudes and we

1745
01:33:38,160 --> 01:33:43,599
Speaker 3: lose uh Corporal Donahue. And then in September, my actual

1746
01:33:43,720 --> 01:33:48,520
Speaker 3: roommate that room that I was roommates with before deployment,

1747
01:33:49,720 --> 01:33:53,320
Speaker 3: he stepped on a damn I A D and he

1748
01:33:53,400 --> 01:33:55,800
Speaker 3: got injured real bad and he lost his dog.

1749
01:33:56,800 --> 01:33:59,960
Speaker 2: And his dog's name was Grief. His name was out

1750
01:34:00,120 --> 01:34:00,719
Speaker 2: for Brenner.

1751
01:34:00,720 --> 01:34:04,080
Speaker 3: He was a corporate matter of fact, he ended up

1752
01:34:04,120 --> 01:34:12,040
Speaker 3: writing a book surviving with grief, and ironically it was

1753
01:34:12,040 --> 01:34:15,000
Speaker 3: already it's already a best seller on Amazon. You know,

1754
01:34:15,080 --> 01:34:18,240
Speaker 3: he's been spreading a message and talking about what, you know,

1755
01:34:18,400 --> 01:34:20,639
Speaker 3: what people we had to go through and everything for

1756
01:34:20,840 --> 01:34:21,920
Speaker 3: ever since he got back.

1757
01:34:22,000 --> 01:34:25,519
Speaker 2: You know, he's stand up golden, do you know.

1758
01:34:25,600 --> 01:34:28,360
Speaker 3: And Chris Williamham one of the other buddies, he was

1759
01:34:28,400 --> 01:34:33,639
Speaker 3: a kennelmaster. He stayed in whenever we got got out.

1760
01:34:33,680 --> 01:34:37,240
Speaker 3: Obviously he was already a lifer and he got to

1761
01:34:39,000 --> 01:34:42,960
Speaker 3: travel around do a lot of you know, interviews with

1762
01:34:43,120 --> 01:34:46,360
Speaker 3: different major news people and all that over his dog

1763
01:34:46,439 --> 01:34:50,519
Speaker 3: that stepped on an ied with a junior Marine that

1764
01:34:50,880 --> 01:34:53,439
Speaker 3: was on our first deployment and it's like two years later.

1765
01:34:54,360 --> 01:34:56,840
Speaker 2: His name was Rodriguez. One Rodriguez.

1766
01:34:57,560 --> 01:35:01,040
Speaker 3: He got a sign with Luca was his dog's name,

1767
01:35:02,000 --> 01:35:04,040
Speaker 3: and she was so special to me.

1768
01:35:04,200 --> 01:35:08,759
Speaker 2: Is because Growna and Luke Luca were out.

1769
01:35:08,560 --> 01:35:12,639
Speaker 3: Of the same group of dogs out of Tel Aviva.

1770
01:35:12,840 --> 01:35:18,559
Speaker 3: She was both of them was Israeli SSD's and their

1771
01:35:18,840 --> 01:35:22,439
Speaker 3: their tattoo numbers, you know, were Kilo four five eight

1772
01:35:22,479 --> 01:35:23,639
Speaker 3: and Kilo four five nine.

1773
01:35:23,680 --> 01:35:25,920
Speaker 2: They were one number off, you know.

1774
01:35:26,040 --> 01:35:29,760
Speaker 3: But she she lost the leg and stepping on I

1775
01:35:29,840 --> 01:35:34,280
Speaker 3: A D. Well, they've gotten smart, you know, they changed,

1776
01:35:34,560 --> 01:35:38,880
Speaker 3: you know, their tactics. Once they figured out what SSD were.

1777
01:35:39,360 --> 01:35:44,360
Speaker 3: You know, they would they started putting the pressure plates

1778
01:35:44,400 --> 01:35:48,120
Speaker 3: behind the damn I A DS. So they set it

1779
01:35:48,200 --> 01:35:52,280
Speaker 3: up to where by the time the dog responded on it,

1780
01:35:53,000 --> 01:35:55,759
Speaker 3: you know, they would have a pressure player or something

1781
01:35:55,800 --> 01:35:59,000
Speaker 3: behind them so that it would, you know, cause more

1782
01:35:59,040 --> 01:36:01,800
Speaker 3: casualties in the whole you know, group of guys out

1783
01:36:01,800 --> 01:36:05,200
Speaker 3: there right you was always changing, you know, the way

1784
01:36:05,240 --> 01:36:05,600
Speaker 3: they did it.

1785
01:36:05,600 --> 01:36:06,720
Speaker 2: You couldn't never figure them out.

1786
01:36:06,760 --> 01:36:09,519
Speaker 3: You couldn't stay on top of them, man, and you

1787
01:36:09,560 --> 01:36:12,200
Speaker 3: don't know how they was communicating and everything else. It

1788
01:36:12,240 --> 01:36:15,080
Speaker 3: was every day it was a new day. You didn't

1789
01:36:15,080 --> 01:36:19,559
Speaker 3: know going out, you know, from day to day.

1790
01:36:19,680 --> 01:36:23,960
Speaker 1: So after when did you so you came home in

1791
01:36:24,040 --> 01:36:30,240
Speaker 1: December twenty ten, and how much longer did you stay in?

1792
01:36:30,479 --> 01:36:33,720
Speaker 1: When did you punch out? And tell me what that

1793
01:36:33,800 --> 01:36:34,680
Speaker 1: decision was like?

1794
01:36:36,520 --> 01:36:40,839
Speaker 3: Well, we actually didn't get back to sometime in January,

1795
01:36:40,840 --> 01:36:42,960
Speaker 3: about the first week of January.

1796
01:36:43,320 --> 01:36:44,960
Speaker 2: Of course, you know, it took us a week or

1797
01:36:44,960 --> 01:36:46,160
Speaker 2: two of them get back.

1798
01:36:46,520 --> 01:36:50,800
Speaker 3: You know, we was hung out in different places, spent Christmas.

1799
01:36:50,320 --> 01:36:53,639
Speaker 2: Eating some out of gas station, and food.

1800
01:36:53,680 --> 01:36:56,639
Speaker 3: You know the only thing that was open on Christmas

1801
01:36:56,720 --> 01:36:59,840
Speaker 3: Day was some gas station, and we you know, staying

1802
01:37:00,000 --> 01:37:02,559
Speaker 3: she bloney sandwiching the crap out of there, you know,

1803
01:37:02,600 --> 01:37:03,840
Speaker 3: trying to make her way back.

1804
01:37:03,920 --> 01:37:06,320
Speaker 2: And we got back about the first second.

1805
01:37:06,040 --> 01:37:09,639
Speaker 3: Week of January, and I'd already made up my mind

1806
01:37:09,680 --> 01:37:10,320
Speaker 3: that I wanted to.

1807
01:37:10,320 --> 01:37:13,759
Speaker 2: Get out, yep. And because I have, I got a daughter.

1808
01:37:13,880 --> 01:37:16,240
Speaker 2: She was born in two thousand and four July two

1809
01:37:16,280 --> 01:37:17,960
Speaker 2: thousand and four, and.

1810
01:37:19,720 --> 01:37:25,600
Speaker 3: I married her mom. Whenever I PCs from Quantaco to Pendleton,

1811
01:37:26,360 --> 01:37:27,120
Speaker 3: I had ten.

1812
01:37:27,000 --> 01:37:28,360
Speaker 2: Days to make that move.

1813
01:37:29,120 --> 01:37:31,720
Speaker 3: And when I come through Arkansas, I stayed there a

1814
01:37:31,760 --> 01:37:35,800
Speaker 3: few days, you know, and I ended up marrying her,

1815
01:37:35,920 --> 01:37:39,280
Speaker 3: and they went out to Penlton with me, and of course,

1816
01:37:39,400 --> 01:37:42,080
Speaker 3: just like most Marine Corps marriages, they felled within four

1817
01:37:42,120 --> 01:37:47,639
Speaker 3: or five months, you know, and she left. She was

1818
01:37:47,800 --> 01:37:50,320
Speaker 3: in Penlton with me for five months, and she left

1819
01:37:50,360 --> 01:37:53,160
Speaker 3: and you know, told me she wanted divorced.

1820
01:37:53,160 --> 01:37:55,760
Speaker 2: Two weeks later. I didn't even know we were fighting.

1821
01:37:56,080 --> 01:38:00,120
Speaker 3: You know, you know, cause of commanding Officer house. If

1822
01:38:00,120 --> 01:38:03,240
Speaker 3: she gets finds that information gives me in a whole

1823
01:38:03,320 --> 01:38:05,599
Speaker 3: lot of shit. And I hadn't done a damn thing

1824
01:38:05,640 --> 01:38:07,840
Speaker 3: wrong and blah blah blah.

1825
01:38:08,280 --> 01:38:13,240
Speaker 2: So we got it took a year for me to

1826
01:38:13,320 --> 01:38:15,080
Speaker 2: divorce her. I figured I went to the.

1827
01:38:16,920 --> 01:38:19,559
Speaker 3: I figured out I could file for divorce myself, didn't

1828
01:38:19,600 --> 01:38:21,200
Speaker 3: have to hire a lawyer, and I took a bunch

1829
01:38:21,240 --> 01:38:23,439
Speaker 3: of classes out there in California and it was sweet.

1830
01:38:23,479 --> 01:38:26,639
Speaker 2: Man. I got to do everything myself, and it took

1831
01:38:26,680 --> 01:38:27,200
Speaker 2: a year.

1832
01:38:27,080 --> 01:38:31,400
Speaker 3: Long process, but our divorce was final the day before

1833
01:38:31,439 --> 01:38:32,920
Speaker 3: we left for Afghanistan.

1834
01:38:33,360 --> 01:38:36,160
Speaker 2: Okay, So I knew that I wanted to be in.

1835
01:38:36,120 --> 01:38:38,000
Speaker 3: My daughter's life and I wasn't going to be able

1836
01:38:38,040 --> 01:38:39,559
Speaker 3: to do that if I was going to stay in

1837
01:38:39,560 --> 01:38:40,560
Speaker 3: the Marine Corps.

1838
01:38:40,840 --> 01:38:44,240
Speaker 2: So I had about when we got back in January.

1839
01:38:44,280 --> 01:38:47,240
Speaker 3: I had ten months left on contract because I went

1840
01:38:47,280 --> 01:38:49,960
Speaker 3: in ten October six and was supposed to get out

1841
01:38:50,080 --> 01:38:53,599
Speaker 3: nine October of eleven. But they had some up That's

1842
01:38:53,640 --> 01:38:56,000
Speaker 3: when you know, part of that time that they were

1843
01:38:56,200 --> 01:38:59,599
Speaker 3: trying to downsize the Marine Corps whenever we got back.

1844
01:38:59,760 --> 01:39:02,320
Speaker 3: So they had a program out you know, where they'd

1845
01:39:02,360 --> 01:39:02,960
Speaker 3: let you.

1846
01:39:04,800 --> 01:39:05,320
Speaker 2: Ees.

1847
01:39:05,520 --> 01:39:08,559
Speaker 3: They would move your ES date up to ninety days

1848
01:39:08,600 --> 01:39:11,760
Speaker 3: ahead of time if you were going to get out

1849
01:39:11,760 --> 01:39:14,439
Speaker 3: to further your education, So you had to put in

1850
01:39:14,520 --> 01:39:18,880
Speaker 3: a package senior already accepted the college and this or that,

1851
01:39:19,560 --> 01:39:24,519
Speaker 3: and the Marine Corps change your ES date and you know,

1852
01:39:24,640 --> 01:39:28,160
Speaker 3: up to ninety days ahead to you know, allow you

1853
01:39:28,200 --> 01:39:32,000
Speaker 3: to further your education. So I decided I was going

1854
01:39:32,080 --> 01:39:35,640
Speaker 3: to go to college because I wanted to get out

1855
01:39:35,760 --> 01:39:38,679
Speaker 3: ninety days earlier was the main reason.

1856
01:39:39,200 --> 01:39:39,400
Speaker 2: You know.

1857
01:39:39,479 --> 01:39:41,080
Speaker 3: I wanted to do whatever I could do to be

1858
01:39:41,080 --> 01:39:43,200
Speaker 3: able to get to my daughter, you know, sooner.

1859
01:39:43,240 --> 01:39:44,920
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen her in over a year and a

1860
01:39:44,960 --> 01:39:48,800
Speaker 2: half at this point. Wow. So I put it in

1861
01:39:48,840 --> 01:39:49,479
Speaker 2: the package.

1862
01:39:49,560 --> 01:39:52,800
Speaker 3: Get all that accepted, and I already knew, you know,

1863
01:39:52,840 --> 01:39:56,160
Speaker 3: before we ever deployed that, you know, I wanted to

1864
01:39:56,200 --> 01:39:58,960
Speaker 3: get out. So I started saving up leave for terminal leave.

1865
01:39:59,479 --> 01:40:01,519
Speaker 3: So I had sixty days saved up. So I got

1866
01:40:01,600 --> 01:40:05,400
Speaker 3: out in May. They changed my ironic thing, They changed

1867
01:40:05,400 --> 01:40:07,439
Speaker 3: my ees from October.

1868
01:40:07,000 --> 01:40:11,320
Speaker 2: Ninth to July ninth. And that's my daughter's birthday.

1869
01:40:11,840 --> 01:40:15,559
Speaker 3: Oh wow, So I'll never forget that day, you know,

1870
01:40:15,640 --> 01:40:18,479
Speaker 3: whenever I got out. You know, she was born July ninth,

1871
01:40:18,560 --> 01:40:20,800
Speaker 3: o four. You know, I got out all right. My

1872
01:40:20,840 --> 01:40:24,640
Speaker 3: actual ees date was July ninth, twenty eleven. But I

1873
01:40:24,680 --> 01:40:27,599
Speaker 3: got out in May. You know, it's when I actually

1874
01:40:27,680 --> 01:40:30,680
Speaker 3: got to leave, you know, on my terminal leave and

1875
01:40:31,720 --> 01:40:36,120
Speaker 3: come back to Arkansas. And to be honest, it was

1876
01:40:36,160 --> 01:40:39,760
Speaker 3: a struggle, you know, whenever I got out, you know,

1877
01:40:39,800 --> 01:40:42,040
Speaker 3: I did connect with this one other guy.

1878
01:40:43,360 --> 01:40:43,720
Speaker 2: I went.

1879
01:40:44,120 --> 01:40:46,840
Speaker 3: You know, I got out in May, and of course,

1880
01:40:46,880 --> 01:40:51,200
Speaker 3: you know, college wasn't in until August. So I moved

1881
01:40:51,240 --> 01:40:54,640
Speaker 3: back into my same place I was in whenever I

1882
01:40:54,760 --> 01:40:58,679
Speaker 3: left the Marine Corps, and I go back to work

1883
01:40:58,680 --> 01:41:01,479
Speaker 3: at the motorcycle shop that I grew up working in.

1884
01:41:02,000 --> 01:41:07,360
Speaker 3: It's Cooper Motorcycles and there in town. And I started

1885
01:41:07,400 --> 01:41:12,000
Speaker 3: working in there almost immediately after we moved to Arkansas,

1886
01:41:12,520 --> 01:41:15,400
Speaker 3: and so I already had a lot of experience there

1887
01:41:15,400 --> 01:41:17,479
Speaker 3: and I come back and I start working there. Of Course,

1888
01:41:17,520 --> 01:41:19,439
Speaker 3: you know, I got a pocketful of money because you

1889
01:41:19,479 --> 01:41:22,599
Speaker 3: just get back from Afghanistan. You know, you got your

1890
01:41:22,640 --> 01:41:25,320
Speaker 3: deployment money and stuff. So I wasn't really kind of

1891
01:41:25,439 --> 01:41:28,559
Speaker 3: hustle or nothing. You know, I was in pretty good shape,

1892
01:41:28,840 --> 01:41:34,360
Speaker 3: you know at that time. And like it wasn't what

1893
01:41:34,439 --> 01:41:37,360
Speaker 3: I expected. You know, before I left, I was really popular.

1894
01:41:37,439 --> 01:41:40,479
Speaker 3: I was always popular guy in school, had a lot

1895
01:41:40,520 --> 01:41:44,240
Speaker 3: of you know, good times with different people. And I

1896
01:41:44,240 --> 01:41:46,439
Speaker 3: thought when I got back. You know, man, I'm gonna

1897
01:41:46,439 --> 01:41:48,720
Speaker 3: call up my buddies. You know, we're gonna drank some

1898
01:41:48,800 --> 01:41:51,599
Speaker 3: beer and party, you know, having all these girls and stuff,

1899
01:41:52,080 --> 01:41:54,479
Speaker 3: and it's almost like it's a different world. You know,

1900
01:41:54,600 --> 01:41:58,519
Speaker 3: I was gone for five years and nothing was the same.

1901
01:41:58,560 --> 01:42:01,160
Speaker 3: You know, these same buddies that you partying with before

1902
01:42:01,160 --> 01:42:04,240
Speaker 3: you left, you know, done moved on or through lives

1903
01:42:04,280 --> 01:42:08,000
Speaker 3: and then started families and you know, got a career going,

1904
01:42:08,240 --> 01:42:11,559
Speaker 3: and nothing's the same. So you know, you come back

1905
01:42:11,600 --> 01:42:13,639
Speaker 3: thinking you're gonna go back to how it was before

1906
01:42:13,680 --> 01:42:17,080
Speaker 3: you left and joined the military, and it's like a

1907
01:42:17,120 --> 01:42:20,799
Speaker 3: wake up call, man, and a bunch of other stuff

1908
01:42:20,840 --> 01:42:23,960
Speaker 3: just starts pissing you off, you know that you never

1909
01:42:24,000 --> 01:42:26,799
Speaker 3: would have dreamed of before. You know, you get upset

1910
01:42:26,840 --> 01:42:29,880
Speaker 3: about stuff and you know, things that people would do

1911
01:42:29,960 --> 01:42:33,519
Speaker 3: and say and all that. And then going to college, man,

1912
01:42:33,560 --> 01:42:37,080
Speaker 3: that was you know, man, I heard like my so much,

1913
01:42:37,920 --> 01:42:41,640
Speaker 3: you know, But whenever I joined the Marine Corps, I

1914
01:42:41,720 --> 01:42:44,280
Speaker 3: was already older. When I joined the military. You know,

1915
01:42:44,320 --> 01:42:46,840
Speaker 3: I wasn't seventeen or eighteen fresh out of high school.

1916
01:42:46,880 --> 01:42:49,920
Speaker 3: I'd already been on my own working, had my own

1917
01:42:49,960 --> 01:42:52,479
Speaker 3: place and everything else, and I think that's another thing

1918
01:42:52,560 --> 01:42:56,559
Speaker 3: that made me succeed so much whenever I went in,

1919
01:42:56,920 --> 01:43:00,680
Speaker 3: because I you know, I was already he's you know,

1920
01:43:00,760 --> 01:43:03,280
Speaker 3: taking care of myself. I wasn't fresh off mom's tad

1921
01:43:03,360 --> 01:43:04,040
Speaker 3: or nothing like that.

1922
01:43:04,200 --> 01:43:06,120
Speaker 2: You know, I already knew how life worked.

1923
01:43:07,000 --> 01:43:10,160
Speaker 3: So that's why I felt like it was so easy

1924
01:43:10,160 --> 01:43:13,840
Speaker 3: for me to assume a leadership role, is because I'm

1925
01:43:13,880 --> 01:43:16,559
Speaker 3: already older than these guys, you know how you know,

1926
01:43:16,840 --> 01:43:19,880
Speaker 3: most of them hadn't ever had a real job or

1927
01:43:19,880 --> 01:43:24,880
Speaker 3: nothing at all. So I get out and now I'm

1928
01:43:25,320 --> 01:43:27,920
Speaker 3: now I'm the old guy going to college. You know,

1929
01:43:28,280 --> 01:43:30,439
Speaker 3: I've already done five years of Marine Corps and now

1930
01:43:30,479 --> 01:43:33,720
Speaker 3: I'm in college. I'm like I was twenty eleven so

1931
01:43:35,040 --> 01:43:37,800
Speaker 3: and I.

1932
01:43:36,840 --> 01:43:38,080
Speaker 2: My dad do the math on it.

1933
01:43:38,120 --> 01:43:40,920
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm several years older than ninety nine percent

1934
01:43:40,920 --> 01:43:44,160
Speaker 3: of these people. And yeah, lucky one dude in there.

1935
01:43:44,840 --> 01:43:48,320
Speaker 3: I was going for mechanical engineering. There's one dude going

1936
01:43:48,360 --> 01:43:52,320
Speaker 3: for the same thing. He's a grunt, you know, marine grunt.

1937
01:43:52,400 --> 01:43:56,120
Speaker 3: So we connected, you know, and we would sit next

1938
01:43:56,160 --> 01:43:58,240
Speaker 3: to each other and on that's I think it helped.

1939
01:43:58,280 --> 01:44:01,720
Speaker 3: He just got out too, And I think that me

1940
01:44:01,760 --> 01:44:04,719
Speaker 3: and him connecting helped both of us make.

1941
01:44:04,600 --> 01:44:08,519
Speaker 5: It absolutely a lot easier, you know, because we would

1942
01:44:08,560 --> 01:44:10,880
Speaker 5: cut up and you know, make our own jokes and

1943
01:44:10,920 --> 01:44:15,160
Speaker 5: shud make fun of these kids, you know, these kids wearing.

1944
01:44:14,880 --> 01:44:16,760
Speaker 2: Socks and sandals, like who does that?

1945
01:44:17,560 --> 01:44:20,360
Speaker 3: You know, we'd be clowning, you know, and we were

1946
01:44:20,439 --> 01:44:22,360
Speaker 3: just kind of away from the rest of.

1947
01:44:22,280 --> 01:44:24,960
Speaker 2: The people because they were all, you know, eighteen nineteen.

1948
01:44:24,720 --> 01:44:28,240
Speaker 3: Years old, you know, and they hadn't even you know,

1949
01:44:28,280 --> 01:44:31,160
Speaker 3: they had no clue what the real world was really like.

1950
01:44:32,160 --> 01:44:35,120
Speaker 3: You know, he'd done a deployment tyraq, and all sudden

1951
01:44:35,880 --> 01:44:36,640
Speaker 3: we connected.

1952
01:44:36,680 --> 01:44:39,200
Speaker 2: It got to be pretty good buddies.

1953
01:44:39,640 --> 01:44:43,080
Speaker 3: While we was going to school together and only done

1954
01:44:43,720 --> 01:44:48,680
Speaker 3: the first that one semester of college because.

1955
01:44:50,200 --> 01:44:52,400
Speaker 2: You know, I had to had to maintain a certain

1956
01:44:52,479 --> 01:44:53,160
Speaker 2: GPA and.

1957
01:44:53,120 --> 01:44:56,000
Speaker 3: Everything the whole time I was in, you know, to

1958
01:44:56,040 --> 01:45:00,360
Speaker 3: meet my requirements from our early release from the Marine Corps.

1959
01:45:00,760 --> 01:45:03,280
Speaker 2: So I'd already started putting in applications.

1960
01:45:03,320 --> 01:45:08,280
Speaker 3: And when we was off on that Christmas break, I

1961
01:45:08,320 --> 01:45:12,280
Speaker 3: put in an application for the Union Pacific Railroad as

1962
01:45:12,320 --> 01:45:14,440
Speaker 3: a transportation employee.

1963
01:45:15,200 --> 01:45:16,000
Speaker 2: And while we was.

1964
01:45:15,960 --> 01:45:18,760
Speaker 3: Off on that break, I got called in for an

1965
01:45:18,760 --> 01:45:22,080
Speaker 3: interview and I'd had an interview prior to going into

1966
01:45:22,160 --> 01:45:22,800
Speaker 3: the military.

1967
01:45:23,200 --> 01:45:26,240
Speaker 2: That was one of the reasons why I went in.

1968
01:45:26,360 --> 01:45:29,800
Speaker 3: I had an interview in six I already been trying

1969
01:45:29,800 --> 01:45:33,720
Speaker 3: to get on for almost three years, and I had

1970
01:45:33,760 --> 01:45:35,920
Speaker 3: one interview and I said, look, if I don't get

1971
01:45:35,920 --> 01:45:39,560
Speaker 3: this in, if I don't get this job with the Railroad,

1972
01:45:39,760 --> 01:45:42,759
Speaker 3: I'm going to the Marine Corps. Because I've read where

1973
01:45:43,520 --> 01:45:47,000
Speaker 3: the Union Pacific Railroad was the number one most military

1974
01:45:47,000 --> 01:45:51,240
Speaker 3: and fl friendly employer. I said, if I go do

1975
01:45:51,360 --> 01:45:53,760
Speaker 3: four or five years the Marine Corps, I won't have

1976
01:45:53,800 --> 01:45:57,160
Speaker 3: a problem getting on. So that was one of the

1977
01:45:57,240 --> 01:46:03,200
Speaker 3: plans going in. So long story, short cut back. I'm

1978
01:46:03,400 --> 01:46:06,599
Speaker 3: out on that Christmas break, you know, and I'd already

1979
01:46:06,720 --> 01:46:09,160
Speaker 3: re enrolled for the next semester and all that. But

1980
01:46:09,200 --> 01:46:12,040
Speaker 3: I get this interview with the railroad, and I go

1981
01:46:12,120 --> 01:46:14,800
Speaker 3: in and do it. I pass everything with flying colors,

1982
01:46:14,880 --> 01:46:18,120
Speaker 3: get a actual sit down to interview with them again.

1983
01:46:18,880 --> 01:46:21,599
Speaker 3: And I told the guy, you know, I said, look, man,

1984
01:46:21,640 --> 01:46:24,720
Speaker 3: I said, I need to know yes or no real

1985
01:46:24,800 --> 01:46:28,200
Speaker 3: quick like, because I'm supposed to start back school middle

1986
01:46:28,240 --> 01:46:31,360
Speaker 3: of January, and I have to repay back all these

1987
01:46:31,560 --> 01:46:35,240
Speaker 3: you know, grants and all this crap. If I don't

1988
01:46:35,280 --> 01:46:39,360
Speaker 3: go to school, and the very next day I get

1989
01:46:39,360 --> 01:46:43,960
Speaker 3: an email saying they've extended a job offer. So and

1990
01:46:44,040 --> 01:46:48,080
Speaker 3: it was for a conductor position on the railroad. Well,

1991
01:46:48,120 --> 01:46:51,320
Speaker 3: I started out making you know, like eighty thousand dollars

1992
01:46:51,360 --> 01:46:54,599
Speaker 3: a year, and if I was to stay on as

1993
01:46:54,600 --> 01:46:58,000
Speaker 3: a mechanical engineer, like the highest paying job in the

1994
01:46:58,040 --> 01:47:00,719
Speaker 3: state was only like eighty five thousand, that was maxed

1995
01:47:00,720 --> 01:47:04,320
Speaker 3: out somehow, Hell would I do three more years of this?

1996
01:47:04,960 --> 01:47:06,840
Speaker 3: And I started making this kind of money now and

1997
01:47:07,040 --> 01:47:10,200
Speaker 3: go up from there. So that's why I, you know,

1998
01:47:10,600 --> 01:47:13,839
Speaker 3: dropped out of college and accepted that position on the railroad.

1999
01:47:15,080 --> 01:47:21,719
Speaker 3: And that was that was an adjustment, you know, because

2000
01:47:21,760 --> 01:47:25,599
Speaker 3: it was the railroad. Believe it or not, the railroad.

2001
01:47:25,640 --> 01:47:30,000
Speaker 3: That railroad is a whole lot like the military. You know,

2002
01:47:30,080 --> 01:47:33,280
Speaker 3: if it makes sense, let's do the complete opposite kind

2003
01:47:33,280 --> 01:47:36,920
Speaker 3: of you know, you don't know how they'd make, you know,

2004
01:47:37,040 --> 01:47:41,400
Speaker 3: four point six billion dollars a year when when you're

2005
01:47:41,560 --> 01:47:44,280
Speaker 3: in the trench is actually doing the work. And the

2006
01:47:44,320 --> 01:47:46,840
Speaker 3: way you got your hands tied, you know, it's so

2007
01:47:47,040 --> 01:47:49,680
Speaker 3: much like, you know, you got your hands tied, you

2008
01:47:49,720 --> 01:47:51,479
Speaker 3: can't do it the fast way. You got to do

2009
01:47:51,560 --> 01:47:55,040
Speaker 3: it the railroad way, the saft way, yeah, you know.

2010
01:47:55,520 --> 01:47:59,679
Speaker 3: And so that's where I actually met Clifton. Brian Clifton,

2011
01:48:00,080 --> 01:48:05,439
Speaker 3: the guy that you know told you about me. So

2012
01:48:05,479 --> 01:48:08,800
Speaker 3: that's where I met him. And it was a whole

2013
01:48:08,880 --> 01:48:11,960
Speaker 3: lot of similarities as far as howis run and you know,

2014
01:48:12,080 --> 01:48:13,880
Speaker 3: the bullshit you got to put up with and all.

2015
01:48:14,000 --> 01:48:18,439
Speaker 3: You know, it's just I'd never understand and still to

2016
01:48:18,479 --> 01:48:20,120
Speaker 3: this day. I actually got in a little bit of

2017
01:48:20,160 --> 01:48:24,320
Speaker 3: trouble in my training because I figured out real quick.

2018
01:48:24,960 --> 01:48:27,599
Speaker 3: You know, it didn't make sense to me they would

2019
01:48:27,640 --> 01:48:30,559
Speaker 3: spend all this money hiring you in training. You trained

2020
01:48:30,560 --> 01:48:33,320
Speaker 3: you for three and a half months to be a conductor,

2021
01:48:34,280 --> 01:48:38,240
Speaker 3: and as soon as you marked up and got your certificate,

2022
01:48:38,680 --> 01:48:41,599
Speaker 3: they were looking for a way to fire you. Man,

2023
01:48:42,439 --> 01:48:45,120
Speaker 3: I was just like, why in the hell are they

2024
01:48:45,400 --> 01:48:47,960
Speaker 3: running around, you know, testing us, making you, you know,

2025
01:48:48,200 --> 01:48:50,599
Speaker 3: trying to fire us, and when they just spent sixty

2026
01:48:50,640 --> 01:48:54,160
Speaker 3: thousand dollars training us. So during our training, you know,

2027
01:48:54,200 --> 01:48:56,400
Speaker 3: we had some managers come in to talk to us

2028
01:48:56,439 --> 01:48:59,920
Speaker 3: in our last couple of weeks, and of course, you know,

2029
01:49:00,040 --> 01:49:03,640
Speaker 3: I'm about spoking guy, so all the instructors know me

2030
01:49:03,720 --> 01:49:08,200
Speaker 3: and everything, you know, during all the training and all that,

2031
01:49:08,320 --> 01:49:10,240
Speaker 3: and we had a couple of managers come in there's

2032
01:49:10,240 --> 01:49:15,400
Speaker 3: just like, you know, asking us questions and stuff. And anyhow,

2033
01:49:15,520 --> 01:49:18,800
Speaker 3: they they called on me for something and asked me

2034
01:49:18,800 --> 01:49:20,720
Speaker 3: about how I felt about it, and I said, I

2035
01:49:20,720 --> 01:49:21,400
Speaker 3: ain't gonna lie.

2036
01:49:21,439 --> 01:49:23,760
Speaker 2: You know, this doesn't make any sense to me.

2037
01:49:23,840 --> 01:49:26,200
Speaker 3: And he's just because the instructors had already told us

2038
01:49:26,240 --> 01:49:31,000
Speaker 3: we got sixty days whenever we graduate from our training

2039
01:49:31,080 --> 01:49:34,120
Speaker 3: that we're on a derail process they called it. And

2040
01:49:34,240 --> 01:49:38,240
Speaker 3: during the derail period they could fire you and terminate

2041
01:49:38,360 --> 01:49:43,559
Speaker 3: you completely for almost anything you've done wrong, didn't make

2042
01:49:43,560 --> 01:49:45,720
Speaker 3: a shit if it was your fault or not. You

2043
01:49:45,800 --> 01:49:48,200
Speaker 3: go out there and you get hurt on the job

2044
01:49:49,000 --> 01:49:51,920
Speaker 3: and no fault of your own, they.

2045
01:49:51,840 --> 01:49:53,920
Speaker 2: Would terminate you. Wow.

2046
01:49:53,960 --> 01:49:57,200
Speaker 3: And the instructor had told me that a couple of

2047
01:49:57,320 --> 01:50:03,560
Speaker 3: days before that, and so that was still.

2048
01:50:03,280 --> 01:50:04,320
Speaker 2: Spinning around in my head.

2049
01:50:04,439 --> 01:50:08,160
Speaker 3: And when the managers come in, you know, talking to us,

2050
01:50:08,360 --> 01:50:11,240
Speaker 3: you know, I spoke up about it and I said, man,

2051
01:50:11,280 --> 01:50:14,160
Speaker 3: I think it's bullshit, and you're just like, excuse me,

2052
01:50:14,400 --> 01:50:15,760
Speaker 3: and he says, like, what are you talking about?

2053
01:50:15,840 --> 01:50:18,720
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I brought it up. It's like

2054
01:50:18,800 --> 01:50:19,880
Speaker 2: it makes no sense to me.

2055
01:50:19,960 --> 01:50:23,080
Speaker 3: How y'all can terminate us, you know, our first sixty

2056
01:50:23,160 --> 01:50:25,080
Speaker 3: days and it not being any false of our own.

2057
01:50:25,760 --> 01:50:28,600
Speaker 2: Wow, why is this place operating like that?

2058
01:50:29,760 --> 01:50:35,479
Speaker 1: And now they never do those those organizations, it is

2059
01:50:35,520 --> 01:50:35,960
Speaker 1: what it is.

2060
01:50:36,000 --> 01:50:37,640
Speaker 2: Once they get become these.

2061
01:50:37,760 --> 01:50:41,839
Speaker 1: Golias of corporations, you know, they they it never seems

2062
01:50:41,880 --> 01:50:45,000
Speaker 1: like anything makes sense, much like the military.

2063
01:50:45,280 --> 01:50:46,840
Speaker 4: All right, let's let's wrap it up.

2064
01:50:46,960 --> 01:50:51,720
Speaker 1: Let's tell me about what were the greatest lessons that

2065
01:50:51,800 --> 01:50:54,479
Speaker 1: you learned from your time in the Marine Corps and

2066
01:50:54,560 --> 01:50:58,240
Speaker 1: what would you recommend to young men who are thinking

2067
01:50:58,240 --> 01:51:00,519
Speaker 1: about going in right now.

2068
01:51:01,640 --> 01:51:05,559
Speaker 3: Well, some of my greatest lessons was, you know, learning

2069
01:51:05,840 --> 01:51:11,320
Speaker 3: what integrity was, and you know, all that kind of

2070
01:51:11,320 --> 01:51:15,560
Speaker 3: stuff up, the real values and stuff that the military

2071
01:51:15,600 --> 01:51:21,240
Speaker 3: teaches you about, you know, and the I guess, the

2072
01:51:21,800 --> 01:51:23,080
Speaker 3: way it makes you grow up.

2073
01:51:23,840 --> 01:51:26,599
Speaker 2: You know, my three months in the military.

2074
01:51:26,680 --> 01:51:29,120
Speaker 3: I mean I was already almost twenty one years old

2075
01:51:29,120 --> 01:51:34,880
Speaker 3: when I joined, but then three thirteen weeks of boot camp, man,

2076
01:51:34,920 --> 01:51:38,160
Speaker 3: I grew up more than thirteen weeks, you know, than

2077
01:51:38,200 --> 01:51:41,720
Speaker 3: I did, you know the rest of my life, you know,

2078
01:51:43,080 --> 01:51:46,400
Speaker 3: and you know these new guys coming in, you know,

2079
01:51:47,680 --> 01:51:51,360
Speaker 3: I would tell them. You know, man, apply yourself, you know,

2080
01:51:51,520 --> 01:51:53,719
Speaker 3: and learn about it before you ever joined.

2081
01:51:54,360 --> 01:51:57,880
Speaker 2: And there's no greater brotherhood than the Marine Corps.

2082
01:51:58,360 --> 01:52:02,400
Speaker 3: If you do happen to earn the title and earn

2083
01:52:02,479 --> 01:52:06,479
Speaker 3: that Eagle globe and anchor, there's no greater feeling on

2084
01:52:06,520 --> 01:52:09,120
Speaker 3: earth than when you get that pend on your chest.

2085
01:52:10,040 --> 01:52:14,760
Speaker 3: You know, it's a brotherhood that you know, like you

2086
01:52:14,760 --> 01:52:16,280
Speaker 3: said earlier, it never dies.

2087
01:52:16,720 --> 01:52:16,960
Speaker 2: You know.

2088
01:52:17,280 --> 01:52:19,519
Speaker 3: The people that you deploy with and the people that

2089
01:52:19,560 --> 01:52:23,200
Speaker 3: you train with and do stuff with every day, you

2090
01:52:23,280 --> 01:52:26,360
Speaker 3: create a bond with that's never ending.

2091
01:52:26,680 --> 01:52:28,120
Speaker 2: You know, if they call you.

2092
01:52:28,120 --> 01:52:31,439
Speaker 3: If one of my buddies, you know, Rolling Andrew, any

2093
01:52:31,479 --> 01:52:34,000
Speaker 3: of them forced boys, if they call me saying, hey, man,

2094
01:52:34,840 --> 01:52:37,360
Speaker 3: I need you out here. You know, I'm shutting down

2095
01:52:37,400 --> 01:52:40,880
Speaker 3: my shop, putting sign on the door, and I'm gone

2096
01:52:40,960 --> 01:52:41,960
Speaker 3: a couple hours.

2097
01:52:42,479 --> 01:52:45,120
Speaker 2: You know, we're going wherever they're at. We're gonna help them.

2098
01:52:45,040 --> 01:52:45,200
Speaker 1: You know.

2099
01:52:46,479 --> 01:52:50,520
Speaker 2: So do something that challenges yourself.

2100
01:52:50,560 --> 01:52:53,760
Speaker 3: You know, don't just join the cheer force because it's

2101
01:52:53,760 --> 01:52:54,960
Speaker 3: the easiest.

2102
01:52:54,520 --> 01:52:55,240
Speaker 2: One to go to.

2103
01:52:55,479 --> 01:52:59,519
Speaker 3: Everybody says, you know, and you know, don't do it

2104
01:52:59,560 --> 01:53:03,040
Speaker 3: because it's easy, you know, don't you know, try to

2105
01:53:03,800 --> 01:53:07,920
Speaker 3: you know, challenge yourself and make yourself a better person,

2106
01:53:08,520 --> 01:53:12,320
Speaker 3: you know, because there's so many people. You know, when

2107
01:53:12,360 --> 01:53:15,640
Speaker 3: you get out of the military, and these people you

2108
01:53:15,720 --> 01:53:18,280
Speaker 3: know ask you about your time and certain stuff, and

2109
01:53:18,479 --> 01:53:21,599
Speaker 3: every one of them, all these army guys, Air Force guys,

2110
01:53:21,640 --> 01:53:23,400
Speaker 3: you know, they're always saved.

2111
01:53:23,400 --> 01:53:23,559
Speaker 2: Man.

2112
01:53:23,640 --> 01:53:26,960
Speaker 3: He said, I almost joined the Marines, but you know,

2113
01:53:27,320 --> 01:53:30,679
Speaker 3: but what you know, you got scared. You know why

2114
01:53:30,720 --> 01:53:35,400
Speaker 3: didn't you? You know, there's you know, and just it's

2115
01:53:35,439 --> 01:53:40,559
Speaker 3: a challenge, and it puts so much respect in front

2116
01:53:40,600 --> 01:53:46,240
Speaker 3: of your name. You know that there's people just knowing

2117
01:53:46,280 --> 01:53:48,559
Speaker 3: that you're a Marine. I mean, it puts fear in

2118
01:53:48,680 --> 01:53:51,320
Speaker 3: most of their eyes, you know, where you can walk

2119
01:53:51,360 --> 01:53:57,280
Speaker 3: around and almost feel like Superman, you know, because these people,

2120
01:53:57,320 --> 01:53:58,720
Speaker 3: you know, they look at you and you know your

2121
01:53:58,880 --> 01:54:01,880
Speaker 3: marine and this and that you know and there you know,

2122
01:54:01,920 --> 01:54:04,400
Speaker 3: they're gonna think twice about what they say to you

2123
01:54:04,439 --> 01:54:07,439
Speaker 3: and how they speak to you, and what I One

2124
01:54:07,479 --> 01:54:12,479
Speaker 3: thing that I still haven't figured out is why Marines

2125
01:54:12,520 --> 01:54:16,320
Speaker 3: when they get drunk, there's every time, it's no matter what,

2126
01:54:16,400 --> 01:54:17,639
Speaker 3: if you go out with a group.

2127
01:54:17,479 --> 01:54:20,719
Speaker 2: Of Marines and you get drunk, there's gonna be a fight.

2128
01:54:21,520 --> 01:54:25,680
Speaker 2: You know. They Marines love to fight, dude. You know

2129
01:54:26,280 --> 01:54:26,840
Speaker 2: it's true.

2130
01:54:27,120 --> 01:54:30,120
Speaker 3: And even now, you know, I got so damn mad

2131
01:54:30,160 --> 01:54:33,440
Speaker 3: at my nephew that that drove me out to you know,

2132
01:54:33,640 --> 01:54:36,280
Speaker 3: to a bar a couple of weeks ago, and uh,

2133
01:54:36,400 --> 01:54:38,080
Speaker 3: I told them, you know, there's a bar right down

2134
01:54:38,160 --> 01:54:39,800
Speaker 3: the road from my house, and like, man, we go

2135
01:54:39,840 --> 01:54:40,320
Speaker 3: down there.

2136
01:54:40,600 --> 01:54:42,880
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about getting two miles back down here

2137
01:54:42,920 --> 01:54:44,920
Speaker 2: to the house. We'll walk if we have to.

2138
01:54:45,560 --> 01:54:48,080
Speaker 3: You know, I said, don't carry me into town though.

2139
01:54:48,960 --> 01:54:51,360
Speaker 3: Of course, you know, you know what happens. You know,

2140
01:54:51,440 --> 01:54:53,800
Speaker 3: you make a plan and then you know, the drinks

2141
01:54:53,800 --> 01:54:56,760
Speaker 3: start rolling and you see some hobbies in there, you know,

2142
01:54:56,800 --> 01:54:58,720
Speaker 3: and it's like, where are we going? You know, of

2143
01:54:58,720 --> 01:55:00,640
Speaker 3: course we end up with this other the place, and

2144
01:55:01,360 --> 01:55:05,400
Speaker 3: you know, however, it just it's almost.

2145
01:55:05,040 --> 01:55:10,960
Speaker 2: Like marines are magnets to trouble. You know, they're just magnets. Man.

2146
01:55:11,000 --> 01:55:14,600
Speaker 3: There's always every weekend and it's like, you know, there's

2147
01:55:14,640 --> 01:55:18,520
Speaker 3: so many more admins and stuff that are wrote behind

2148
01:55:18,560 --> 01:55:22,600
Speaker 3: this junior marine getting in trouble out in town, you know,

2149
01:55:22,720 --> 01:55:26,200
Speaker 3: and causing shit and stirring up a scene. You know,

2150
01:55:26,280 --> 01:55:28,080
Speaker 3: they're just magnets too.

2151
01:55:28,320 --> 01:55:32,120
Speaker 1: Well, I think marines are magnets to the fight always.

2152
01:55:32,160 --> 01:55:34,280
Speaker 1: It's just the way it's been for two hundred and

2153
01:55:34,400 --> 01:55:37,440
Speaker 1: fifty years. It's the way it will always be as

2154
01:55:37,480 --> 01:55:41,840
Speaker 1: long as that as free of gorgeous continues. So, Sergeant

2155
01:55:41,880 --> 01:55:45,720
Speaker 1: Tommy James, I can't thank you enough for coming on

2156
01:55:46,000 --> 01:55:50,160
Speaker 1: and sharing your story with my audience, and.

2157
01:55:50,840 --> 01:55:53,480
Speaker 4: Just a real privilege and a pleasure to meet you.

2158
01:55:54,840 --> 01:55:56,160
Speaker 2: Man. It was an honor to meet you.

2159
01:55:56,320 --> 01:56:01,840
Speaker 3: Dan or David, I'm sorry, and I never got the

2160
01:56:01,920 --> 01:56:04,200
Speaker 3: chance to work it with any Seal guys, but I did.

2161
01:56:04,320 --> 01:56:06,200
Speaker 2: My buddy Mendoza that's still in there.

2162
01:56:06,840 --> 01:56:10,120
Speaker 3: His first deployment Iraq, he got to work work with

2163
01:56:10,240 --> 01:56:14,200
Speaker 3: some and that was in either seven or eight, and

2164
01:56:15,360 --> 01:56:19,440
Speaker 3: you know that was it was cool to no, no,

2165
01:56:19,800 --> 01:56:21,480
Speaker 3: you know, he got to work with y'all. And then

2166
01:56:22,320 --> 01:56:25,720
Speaker 3: you know, to know, like even whenever the Seal guys

2167
01:56:25,760 --> 01:56:29,840
Speaker 3: went in there and you know, took out Osama, you

2168
01:56:29,880 --> 01:56:32,480
Speaker 3: know the fact that you know they had a male

2169
01:56:32,600 --> 01:56:32,920
Speaker 3: with him.

2170
01:56:33,400 --> 01:56:35,560
Speaker 2: You know, I said, man, that would have probably been

2171
01:56:35,640 --> 01:56:39,200
Speaker 2: me if I would have stayed in. That's right, that's right.

2172
01:56:39,720 --> 01:56:43,360
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, one one other reason why I got out of

2173
01:56:43,360 --> 01:56:46,800
Speaker 3: the military, because whenever I got out, you know, they

2174
01:56:46,960 --> 01:56:51,320
Speaker 3: was putting Morsack together and making it bigger, and if

2175
01:56:51,600 --> 01:56:54,800
Speaker 3: you met the requirement some more sock, you had to

2176
01:56:54,840 --> 01:56:55,920
Speaker 3: go take the assessment.

2177
01:56:56,960 --> 01:57:01,240
Speaker 2: And I met all the requirements, so that if I wanted.

2178
01:57:01,000 --> 01:57:03,520
Speaker 3: To reenlist, I couldn't re enlist and be a K

2179
01:57:03,720 --> 01:57:06,000
Speaker 3: nine handler anymore. I was going to have to re

2180
01:57:06,120 --> 01:57:10,040
Speaker 3: enlist and go to Marsaw, which didn't bother me whatsoever,

2181
01:57:10,440 --> 01:57:12,480
Speaker 3: especially after working with the forced guys and.

2182
01:57:12,440 --> 01:57:13,960
Speaker 2: All that, you know.

2183
01:57:14,160 --> 01:57:17,200
Speaker 3: So, but one thing that was kind of a Debbie

2184
01:57:17,200 --> 01:57:21,280
Speaker 3: downer for me is during all that screening process, they

2185
01:57:21,320 --> 01:57:22,520
Speaker 3: asked you if you've ever had a.

2186
01:57:22,440 --> 01:57:26,440
Speaker 2: Concussion, and my dumb ass told the truth.

2187
01:57:27,320 --> 01:57:29,480
Speaker 3: You know, I said, yeah, I had a concussion whenever

2188
01:57:29,520 --> 01:57:31,720
Speaker 3: I was a kid, and that disqualified me.

2189
01:57:32,360 --> 01:57:32,720
Speaker 2: Yeah.

2190
01:57:32,760 --> 01:57:37,080
Speaker 3: So, you know, well I could have reenlisted after that,

2191
01:57:37,240 --> 01:57:41,040
Speaker 3: but I lost the interest, you know, you know, I

2192
01:57:41,200 --> 01:57:44,080
Speaker 3: was motivating always gung hold, you.

2193
01:57:44,040 --> 01:57:44,320
Speaker 2: Know, to.

2194
01:57:46,000 --> 01:57:47,680
Speaker 3: If I you know, even though I'm a marine, I

2195
01:57:47,680 --> 01:57:50,000
Speaker 3: want to be the baddest marine you know there.

2196
01:57:50,000 --> 01:57:52,400
Speaker 2: Is, you know for sure?

2197
01:57:53,200 --> 01:57:56,560
Speaker 1: All right, sergeant, thank you so much, God bless you,

2198
01:57:56,720 --> 01:57:59,280
Speaker 1: and I wish you all the best man someper five

2199
01:58:00,120 --> 01:58:00,280
Speaker 1: hey

2200
01:58:00,320 --> 01:58:04,560
Speaker 3: God bless and Tomorrow's marine corpse two hundred and fiftieth birthday,

2201
01:58:05,000 --> 01:58:08,320
Speaker 3: and I just want to sign off with saying Happy birthday, Marines.