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

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

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Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community

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Speaker 1: Soft Prep Radio on Time on Target. I think just

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Speaker 1: about all of you in the audience know who I

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Speaker 1: am by now, but I always keep in mind there's

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Speaker 1: new people listening every episode. So I'm Ian Scotto, and

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Speaker 1: this episode I decided to compile some of the really

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Speaker 1: awesome special ops guys we've had from the Army branch

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Speaker 1: from the past. It's hard to believe we're in September,

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Speaker 1: so two thirds of this year. UM. We've just kicked

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Speaker 1: off this this first two thirds, and I keep feeling

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Speaker 1: like I'm gonna say one half, but the year just

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Speaker 1: just flying by, UM with some incredible guys, whether it's

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Speaker 1: from Delta Force, Army Rangers, for Special Forces, UM, guys

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Speaker 1: who have served in multiple branches as well. I'm really

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Speaker 1: excited did for you guys to hear this, uh, and

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Speaker 1: I'm excited to get right into it. But before we do,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you all, of course about Create

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Speaker 1: Club I've been talking about for the past bunch of

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Speaker 1: episodes about the NFW watches collaboration we're doing, and I

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Speaker 1: actually just spoke to Scott Whittner to see the status

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Speaker 1: of that. First batch of watches have delivered to the

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Speaker 1: warehouse and those are gonna start going out to premium

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Speaker 1: Create Club members. So if you're a premium tier member,

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Speaker 1: you have that to look forward to, which is really cool. UM.

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Speaker 1: And also the big push right now is they're going

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Speaker 1: to a model of custom products for the Greate Club,

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Speaker 1: so everything from sunglass cases to E d C bags

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Speaker 1: and other manly products, you're gonna get it all with

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Speaker 1: Create Club. It's a club four men by men, and

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Speaker 1: that's Create Club dot us. There's several tiers of membership

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Speaker 1: depending on how much you want to spend, how prepared

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Speaker 1: you want to be. I mean, the premium is really

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Speaker 1: the way to go. You can get the most bang

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Speaker 1: for your bucket. Is the most expensive, but the gear

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Speaker 1: is just awesome. Scott Whitner and the guys do a

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Speaker 1: great job picking out that gear, so hopefully you've been

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Speaker 1: enjoying it if you're a member. UM. Also, of course

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Speaker 1: we have Kuna. Kuna has a team of train canine

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Speaker 1: handlers picking out a box through dog every month of

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Speaker 1: treats training aids. It's gonna encourage you to be more

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Speaker 1: active with your dog, and we hope you enjoy it.

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Speaker 1: So it's Kuna dot Dog and it's specified to your

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Speaker 1: dog's size, your dog's age. We think you'll dig it.

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Speaker 1: So check that out. Kuna dot Doug. Last, but not least,

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Speaker 1: the spec Ops Channel. Uh. If you've been a fan

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Speaker 1: of Inside the Team Room every now and again, I

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Speaker 1: get comments of like, oh why did this Inside the

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Speaker 1: Team Room go down? Or you know this full series

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Speaker 1: is and up anymore? It's all on the spec Ops

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Speaker 1: channel now, guys, So spec ops channel dot com and

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Speaker 1: you can watch all of those inside the Team rooms

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Speaker 1: as well as training sell our premier show on there. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna enjoy it. If you haven't become a member already.

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Speaker 1: I get tons of great reviews and messages sent to

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Speaker 1: Softrep dot radio at softrep dot com of people who

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Speaker 1: are just really into what we're doing over there. So

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Speaker 1: become a member for a limited time. It's only four monthly.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how much longer that's gonna last. We've

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Speaker 1: been running that promotion for a while, But become a member.

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Speaker 1: It's worth it. You're gonna enjoy it. Um. With that,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to start off this compilation episode with Nate Boyer.

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Speaker 1: Nate Boyer is all over the news again. I actually

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Speaker 1: put a tweet out that kind of went viral of

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Speaker 1: a clip from Nate Barriers episode, which was episode three

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, because as we know, Colin Kaepernick has now

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Speaker 1: been sponsored by Nike. So with that, Nate's name is

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Speaker 1: back in the news as well. UM So we get

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Speaker 1: into that whole origin story, like I said, from three

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Speaker 1: sixty nine and what the flag means to Nate Boyer,

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Speaker 1: Let's get right into it. Take us back to that

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Speaker 1: whole time frame of Colin Kaepernick sitting during the nation

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Speaker 1: the lanthem and how you got involved with that. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So it's literally exactly a year later. Um and and

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Speaker 1: and through the rest of two thousand and fifteen, and

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Speaker 1: I got relief from the team. UM. I ended up

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Speaker 1: with Jay Glazer starting this nonprofit called m v P,

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Speaker 1: which stands for Merging Vets and Players, where we're bringing

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Speaker 1: together when we're professional athletes and combat vets and helping

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Speaker 1: them walk to walk together through that transition, you know,

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Speaker 1: and find purpose again once the uniform comes off and

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Speaker 1: we lose that identity, and I was, and I was

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Speaker 1: involved in this clean water project with another NFL player

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Speaker 1: named Chris Long who plays out in Philly, Philadelphia for

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Speaker 1: the Eagles right now, and where we're every year we

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Speaker 1: take we take wounded vets and we take former NFL

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Speaker 1: players to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for

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Speaker 1: clean water. I mean, I was like constantly looking for,

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Speaker 1: you know, the next mission, which I think of many

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Speaker 1: of us that were the camouflage do when we get home,

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Speaker 1: you know, another way to fight, another way to serve

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Speaker 1: um and to stay involved with the community. And so

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Speaker 1: I had all this stuff going and then you know,

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: we've had we've heard the drumbeat of um, you know,

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Speaker 1: stuff involving the excessive force with police officers, and you know,

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Speaker 1: the Black Lives Matter movement, all this stuff for years.

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Speaker 1: This is it wasn't a new thing, but this was

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Speaker 1: during the election cycle, you know, Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton,

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Speaker 1: and it's like this, which side are you one thing?

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Speaker 1: I mean, we are just getting pulled apart. Um. You've

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Speaker 1: got to pick one. You know, you can't you can't

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Speaker 1: be in the middle. There is no middle. It's like,

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Speaker 1: are you on the right side of the history or

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Speaker 1: the wrong side of history whatever that is? And it's like, man,

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Speaker 1: it is exhausting and it hurts I think a lot

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Speaker 1: as a as a service member to to like fight

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Speaker 1: for the United States and it just doesn't feel like

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Speaker 1: it at all when you're here, right, And then this

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Speaker 1: happens and the forts Colin Kaepernick was at. That's my

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Speaker 1: favorite team. I grew up in the Bay Area, like

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Speaker 1: Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig,

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Speaker 1: like these guys are my heroes, right, So, and I

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Speaker 1: pulled for Kaepernick the minute he got to the team,

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Speaker 1: even when he was backing up Alex Smith, because I

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Speaker 1: just thought he was a better athlete. And I just

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Speaker 1: was like, we'd see him play in the preseason and

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Speaker 1: be like, we've got to get that guy on the field.

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Speaker 1: He's amazing, and uh, you know, sure enough, the next

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Speaker 1: year he leads the team to the Super Bowl, which

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Speaker 1: they almost won. Um and so I'm like the huge

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Speaker 1: Kaepernick fan and boom, there he is on the sidelines,

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Speaker 1: sitting down on the bench during the anthem, and it's

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Speaker 1: like this huge news story, and I'm like, what is

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Speaker 1: that all about. I'm like, there's gotta be misunderstanding, you know.

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Speaker 1: And then they do the the media around it, in

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Speaker 1: the press and some interviews, and you know, he straight

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Speaker 1: up says, I'm not going to stand um for a

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Speaker 1: flag that oppresses black people and people of color or

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Speaker 1: a song or whatever. It was exactly. I'm probably misquoting

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Speaker 1: slightly there, but essentially it was I'm not gonna I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna stand for the national anthem because this country

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Speaker 1: is oppressive. And my understanding and and envision an idea

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Speaker 1: of what oppression is from my experiences is I think,

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Speaker 1: very different from what he was talking about. And so

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Speaker 1: I think, like a lot of people who who fought

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Speaker 1: it was just incredibly angry, you know, and it really

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Speaker 1: hurt more than anything. It just it It was it

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Speaker 1: was upsetting to see one of my kind of my

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Speaker 1: heroes um say things like that, you know, And when

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Speaker 1: I when I thought, well, that guy doesn't know what

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Speaker 1: he's talking He isn't, He hasn't he has no idea

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Speaker 1: of perception of what oppression is. Nate. Just to back

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Speaker 1: up one second, I mean, when we talked about the

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Speaker 1: national anthem or you know, the flag, and the flag

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Speaker 1: is it's a piece of cloth, of course, but it

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Speaker 1: symbolizes something else, the national anthem. I mean, I'm just

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Speaker 1: kind of curious what those things mean to you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: to some people there they could be seen as superficial

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Speaker 1: expressions of patriotism, you know, saying the national anthem before

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Speaker 1: a ball game or something like this. I'm just curious

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Speaker 1: from your point of view what that meant to you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean that's all. That's all, you know, a matter

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Speaker 1: of uh, you know, of our experiences shaping that feeling.

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Speaker 1: Because I felt the same way before I served, you know,

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Speaker 1: I was like it was kind of this, like who

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Speaker 1: cares saying, Oh, we're at a ball game, the national

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Speaker 1: anthem is playing. Okay, I got out a stand. I

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Speaker 1: gotta take my hat off, you know, out of respect,

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Speaker 1: of course, but like I didn't care, you know, I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to get to the ball game. Let's just

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Speaker 1: fast forward this part. And it wasn't because I was

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Speaker 1: an American. I just didn't give a damn because I

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Speaker 1: had no experience in my life that had, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: given those symbols meaning really and then after after serving,

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Speaker 1: after you know, I remember going through Sear school and

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, they raised that flag, and it just meant

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Speaker 1: it's just it's just different. You know. From then on,

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Speaker 1: I was like, this means something. This is not it

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Speaker 1: is not just ritual or tradition that we have to

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Speaker 1: do because of our forefathers. Is this like means a lot,

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Speaker 1: you know? And that just stuck with me, right, So

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Speaker 1: that's you know, that's that's my feelings and experience towards that,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I I just there's there's there's so

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Speaker 1: much that goes into that, from the history of the

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Speaker 1: song and the poem originally and all that and what

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Speaker 1: it means and it can be interpreted in so many

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Speaker 1: different ways and I get that, um but either way

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Speaker 1: it slice it. It was just like my initial thoughts

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Speaker 1: with Colin was, you know, you haven't gone through anything.

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Speaker 1: You don't know, you know, you know, I just made

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Speaker 1: judgments and decisions and choices for him, judge based on

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Speaker 1: my experiences, not his experiences. And I had to stop

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Speaker 1: myself because I was falling into that trap that we're

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Speaker 1: all falling into in this country of like, Okay, now

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Speaker 1: I'm going to pick a side and just dig in

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Speaker 1: and not listen, and so I decided to not do that, UM.

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Speaker 1: And part of that was I spoke to I spoke

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Speaker 1: to my parents about this. I spoke to a lot

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Speaker 1: of people in my life that I respected, because I

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Speaker 1: was being approached, you know, by different publications to to

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Speaker 1: write something or to speak out on this issue or

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Speaker 1: come on the news and let's talk about it. Because I,

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Speaker 1: you know, was in the Special Forces and I played

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Speaker 1: in the NFL, so like I had that distinction of

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Speaker 1: doing both UM, and I think I was seen as

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Speaker 1: just like one of these patriotic symbols and shoulder pads

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Speaker 1: and a helmet, and so they I finally, you know,

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Speaker 1: my mom said something really important to me, which was

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Speaker 1: interesting because she doesn't like to get into this stuff,

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Speaker 1: you know, and she's a pretty conservative person just all around.

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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about politic politics, that's just how she is.

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Speaker 1: But she straight up said, you know, Nate, at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, more hate is the last thing

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Speaker 1: we need in this country. So just remember that before

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Speaker 1: you do anything. You know, that's absolutely last thing we need.

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Speaker 1: And so I finally agreed to write an open letter

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Speaker 1: for the Army Times. And the reason I picked the

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Speaker 1: Army Times, just because it was it's not political, it's

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Speaker 1: not a political uh what you call it publications? Um.

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Speaker 1: And also it just was like, you know what, I'll

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Speaker 1: probably be able to really trust these editors more, be

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Speaker 1: able to control my message. I'm not gonna I was.

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Speaker 1: I was nervous to write something for like, you know,

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Speaker 1: the USA Today or whatever, and then I send it

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Speaker 1: off and all of a sudden, it's printed the next

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Speaker 1: day and it's like all chopped up and change and

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Speaker 1: it's like things taken out of context. And so I told,

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Speaker 1: you know, the Army Times, I will do this if

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Speaker 1: I can see the final edit and and and that's

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Speaker 1: the only way I promised to I agree to do it,

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Speaker 1: and they agreed, And so I wrote this open letter

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Speaker 1: just kind of sharing my experiences but also saying, look,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what you've been through. I don't know

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Speaker 1: what you've experienced. I can only imagine what it's like

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Speaker 1: to be a person of color in this country. UM.

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Speaker 1: And it's and I will never I will never really understand.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm just I just want to listen, and

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Speaker 1: I want to try to figure this thing out, because

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you know, I want

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Speaker 1: to do whatever it takes to get you to stand again.

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Speaker 1: But stand because you feel the same things that I feel.

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Speaker 1: You feel somewhat this pride in your country, and not

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Speaker 1: because it's a social exactly, not because you have to,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, I don't want anybody

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Speaker 1: to stand because they have to. I would rather have

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Speaker 1: somebody that I was doing what they could in the

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Speaker 1: in the community to actually make things better and change things,

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Speaker 1: not stand than someone that just stands out of obligation.

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Speaker 1: But they just live for themselves and they don't care.

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Speaker 1: They just want to, you know, tell everybody else why

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Speaker 1: they should be doing this and that what were right

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Speaker 1: and wrong and everybody else is wrong. Like I don't

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Speaker 1: care about that, you know what I mean. I want

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Speaker 1: things to improve. I want um, I want less crime.

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Speaker 1: Uh you know, I want safety from myself and my family.

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Speaker 1: I want better policing. I want better everything. Like we

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Speaker 1: we are the best, but we should always and that's

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Speaker 1: why we're the best, because we always strive to just

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Speaker 1: fix things. Were never satisfied with being pretty good. You know,

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Speaker 1: we shouldn't be. That's not what our country is about.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, you know, I wrote this thing and and

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Speaker 1: calling will Actually First America responded to this in in

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Speaker 1: a pretty profound way, like nobody reads the Army Times.

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Speaker 1: No offense to anybody that works for the only Times

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Speaker 1: listen to this, but like unless you're on an Army base, Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: Like the only time I remember seeing it is when

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Speaker 1: I was in the latrine and it's like there's a

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Speaker 1: couple of copies and the floor there, and I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure they're just back up in case we run out

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Speaker 1: of TP, you know what I mean. Like I'm just

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Speaker 1: saying I'm not saying that, I'm not saying it's bad writing.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like we just you know, it's obviously

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Speaker 1: well a lot of the stuff they put out too,

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Speaker 1: is like, um, it's a you know, it's not political,

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Speaker 1: it's not a lot of opinion pieces. It's just you know, fluff,

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Speaker 1: a lot of fluff. And that's that's okay. That stuff

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Speaker 1: is not that all the time. But um, but like

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Speaker 1: then I woke up. I wrote it that night after

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Speaker 1: hed you know, Santa said that, or the next night

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Speaker 1: maybe after he had said some of those things. And

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Speaker 1: it took me like an hour and a half to

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Speaker 1: write this thing because I just like, I just like

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Speaker 1: it was a stream of conscious consciousness conscious or consciousness,

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Speaker 1: and I can't remember one of those two. Obviously I'm

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Speaker 1: not a writer, so um, you know, but I put

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Speaker 1: all that stuff down. I went back and you know,

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Speaker 1: proof reread it a couple of times, and I was like,

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Speaker 1: I had something I knew. Look over it and I

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Speaker 1: was like, all right, cool, sent it off to them.

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Speaker 1: I wake up in the morning. They've they've they've run

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Speaker 1: the thing already. I was out on the West Coast

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Speaker 1: and so you know, I probably got up at like

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Speaker 1: seven or so, and so it's ten am East Coast.

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Speaker 1: My phone's got like yeah, saying like by then, the

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Speaker 1: news is everywhere everywhere, Like you know, it was. I

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Speaker 1: literally had like a hundred emails and thirty miscalled waste

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Speaker 1: smails and requests to go on all these you know,

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Speaker 1: it's just nuts that, you know, the social media state

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Speaker 1: you got shared. I think mostly through through Twitter and

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Speaker 1: maybe Facebook. I don't even know. I think mostly Twitter though,

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Speaker 1: But it was like all these journalists and people that

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Speaker 1: work in the sports world, and I think it was

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Speaker 1: because it was this balanced the idea of like, man,

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Speaker 1: this like hurts for me. To see this, but like

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Speaker 1: I want to understand why, and I want to like

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Speaker 1: move forward, and you know, how can I like help

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Speaker 1: me understand better what what's going on and what I

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Speaker 1: can do to help? And you know, I think of us,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel the same way for the

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Speaker 1: most part. We may lean left or right, but like

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Speaker 1: that's what you know, we respect the other side. We

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Speaker 1: just don't ever hear those voices because it doesn't sell.

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Speaker 1: You know, the media doesn't doesn't want those voices heard

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Speaker 1: because it's too it calms down a pretty rational situation,

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Speaker 1: and they want to keep to everything irrational and like

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Speaker 1: over the top and highs and lows. I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: just what that's what sells, that's what keeps us watching.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it was, it was It was crazy, you

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Speaker 1: know that that day and the one interview, the exclusive

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Speaker 1: interview I agreed to do was with NFL network because

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Speaker 1: once again, it's not a political you know channel Um

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Speaker 1: people might argue with that the NFL, I guess could

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Speaker 1: be constiguous political, but it's it's it's less political part

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Speaker 1: of yeah yeah, yeah, not part of them. Yeah, I wasn't.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't CNN or Fox. So because I figured out

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Speaker 1: if I do one of those, everyone's going to make

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Speaker 1: a decision depending on the channel I went on. No

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Speaker 1: matter what. I was just so ridiculous, if you make

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Speaker 1: a CNN appearance, they'd be like liberal activists, green beret,

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Speaker 1: bleeding heart, bleeding heart, or you know, never the opposite.

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Speaker 1: So it was just like I couldn't, So I didn't

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Speaker 1: do that. So I went on NFL Network. I did

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Speaker 1: this interview and like I'm in the I'm in the

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Speaker 1: green room waiting to go on, and it's not gonna

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Speaker 1: be this live interview. And all of a sudden, I

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Speaker 1: get a phone call from from Colin Kaepernick's publicists saying

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Speaker 1: Colin read your letter and he wants to sit down

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Speaker 1: with you tomorrow if you can. I was like, okay, um,

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Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. So I go on the air,

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Speaker 1: do the interview. Don't obviously mentioned that. And the next

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Speaker 1: day they were actually playing the San Diego Chargers in

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Speaker 1: the last preseason game of the year down in um

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Speaker 1: San Diego, and so I, uh, you know, I got

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Speaker 1: in a car and I went down there, and about

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Speaker 1: four hours before kickoff, I meet Colin and the lobby

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Speaker 1: of the team Hotel and you know, he's got like

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Speaker 1: the afro and he's a huge dude, and he's like

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Speaker 1: six five six six, Like there's no hiding what's going

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Speaker 1: on here. And and we're sitting in front of the

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Speaker 1: big window windows of this hotel. It's like in the

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Speaker 1: middle of Horton Plaza and San Diego. If anybody knows

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Speaker 1: where that is. I mean, it's like a very high

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Speaker 1: viz area, and we like sit down and there's no

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Speaker 1: there's no media around, there's nothing like that. Eric Reid

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Speaker 1: actually joined us, who was the person that knelt alongside

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Speaker 1: Colin uh in that first game, and you know, we

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Speaker 1: just talked about this stuff, and you know, he even

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Speaker 1: wanted to assure me, like, I'm not this isn't anything

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Speaker 1: against the military. I'm very appreciative of the military. And

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Speaker 1: he's like, I'm appreciative of a lot of police officers too.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I got people that served, you know, in

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Speaker 1: the law enforcement community, in my in my family and

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Speaker 1: all that stuff and our extended family, I guess. And

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Speaker 1: I was like, well, you know, in my opinion, you've

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Speaker 1: got to recognize those things. You gotta say people need

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Speaker 1: to understand that you're not generalizing or painting broad strokes

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Speaker 1: against all cops, because that's exactly what you're fighting against,

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Speaker 1: you know, generalizations and people making judgments because of the

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Speaker 1: way somebody looks, you know, and you gotta be sensitive

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Speaker 1: to that. You've gotta be willing to listen if you

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Speaker 1: want people to listen to you. That's just the way

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Speaker 1: it is. And you know previously that some stuff it

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Speaker 1: leaked out about him, you know, whearing the pig socks

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Speaker 1: the cops you know, depicted his pigs on his at

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Speaker 1: a football practice, and the Fidel Castro shirt and like

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Speaker 1: the Malcolm X hat and a lot of these sort

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Speaker 1: of I guess militant looking, you know, articles of clothing

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Speaker 1: that he was wearing, and some of the ways that

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Speaker 1: he was talking, you know. And but when I sat

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Speaker 1: down with him when I wanted, wasn't like that. You know,

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Speaker 1: he was very just kind of candidates, like one human

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Speaker 1: being to another human being. Like he was a very

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Speaker 1: reasonable person and sensitive to what I had to say. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I was the same way with him, just like

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Speaker 1: I really just want to understand man and try to help.

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Speaker 1: And it was it was a very positive, powerful conversation.

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Speaker 1: And through that conversation, um, we got to the matter

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Speaker 1: of not standing for the anthem, and I'm talking about

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Speaker 1: what that looks like. And I said, you know, straight up,

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Speaker 1: I mean to me and to a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: it looks more like you just don't care than anything.

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Speaker 1: Like you're back sitting away from the team, you know,

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Speaker 1: your head down, sitting on the bench, like you're just like,

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Speaker 1: you know whatever, I'm not into this. You know, um,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't look like you're taking making any kind of

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Speaker 1: a stance quote unquote uh towards anything or like doing it.

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Speaker 1: It's not very powerful at least, And now you know, yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: And and I said, I think at this point, like

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Speaker 1: everyone's very aware of what you're talking about and doing.

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Speaker 1: Like I think we should figure out a program or

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Speaker 1: or or a plan or what we could do to

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Speaker 1: reach some of these goals and make some measurable goals first,

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Speaker 1: like what do we need to see here? You know what,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what's going to get what's gonna what's what's

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Speaker 1: gonna make you feel better about the way things are going?

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Speaker 1: And so I suggested standing, you know, I said, like, look,

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Speaker 1: I think for a lot of us, it's gonna be

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Speaker 1: hard for people in the military community and not just

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Speaker 1: the military community, but just people Americans. UM to be

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Speaker 1: okay with that because they understand things aren't Things have

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Speaker 1: never been perfect, you know, but we we have come

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Speaker 1: quite a distance, I think in the civil rights movement

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Speaker 1: and whatnot. Um, there's still a long way to go, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: but um, there's there's issues all over the map. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm a veteran in the veteran you know, the veteran community,

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Speaker 1: we have a ton of issues. You know, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of things that need to change and improve with

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Speaker 1: people that are fighting for their country, willing to take

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Speaker 1: a bullet, going to war, making not a lot of money,

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Speaker 1: and coming back and struggling with the transition, not getting

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Speaker 1: the care that they need. Um, and that's all of

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Speaker 1: our problems as Americans. That's not the responsibility of you know,

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Speaker 1: the government to just take care of fifteen million of

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Speaker 1: us or whatever. There's a lot of us, and you know,

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Speaker 1: and he understood that, and he was appreciated with that stuff,

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Speaker 1: and he said, Okay, what else I'm not going to stand.

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Speaker 1: I already said I'm not going to stand until I

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Speaker 1: see these change. And I was like, what changes? Like

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Speaker 1: you got to know? And he didn't really have an

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Speaker 1: answer for that at the time. UM, I think it

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Speaker 1: blew up much bigger than he thought it would. Um,

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Speaker 1: I know it did. And so you know, it got

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Speaker 1: to this matter of the actual gesture itself. And he said,

426
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 1: all right, you know, I'm not going to stand, but

427
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 1: what else can I do? Um to demonstrate? What else?

428
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: What's another way I can protest where I'm not hurting you.

429
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,919
Speaker 1: I'm not hurting you know, other people that served our

430
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: country and thought and those ultimately paid the ultimate sacrifice.

431
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: And I said, well, no matter what, if you don't

432
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,919
Speaker 1: stand like people are going to be, they're gonna be upset,

433
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:51,680
Speaker 1: you know. But I think I think an option, potentially

434
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: it would be to take a knee instead of sitting,

435
00:24:55,400 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 1: I said, I think I personally, I think it more respectful, Um,

436
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: I said. I said, most importantly, I think you need

437
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: to be alongside your teammates because, um, that's sort of

438
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: a snapshot of where we're at as a country right now.

439
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 1: We're not We're not next to one another. Those that

440
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: we maybe disagree with, we're not willing to, you know,

441
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: work alongside them to improve things. I said that, like, visually,

442
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 1: that's an important part of this, But also I said,

443
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people take a need to pray,

444
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 1: people take a need to propose to their wives. Um,

445
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: you know, we'll we'll take a knee. You see a

446
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,040
Speaker 1: common image of a of a war fighter taking a

447
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: knee in front of a cross um or or a

448
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: grave of a representing you know, a service member that

449
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 1: has been lost. I just that's just how I see things.

450
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 1: I said, I think if you did that, it would

451
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: at least show that you're willing to listen and adjust

452
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. If you won't stand, you know,

453
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 1: I would. I would ask you to do that. And

454
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,200
Speaker 1: if you do that, I'll stand. I'll stand alongside gim

455
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:05,120
Speaker 1: and will stand next to you. And and he he agreed,

456
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: He said that that he thought that was more powerful actually,

457
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 1: and um, and that's what he decided to do that night.

458
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: And so you know, at the game, it's military appreciation night.

459
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,480
Speaker 1: It's like the week before nine eleven, I think, Um,

460
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:25,360
Speaker 1: and there's like a seal team jumping into the stadium.

461
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 1: They've got an African American naval um, African American sailor

462
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: that's singing the national anthem. You know what I mean.

463
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: It's just very bizarre. And U do you think purposely

464
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,400
Speaker 1: done on some level to say no, no, I think

465
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: that some racist organization. No, I don't think so at all.

466
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: I think that that was just that those decisions usually

467
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,920
Speaker 1: are made long before the game, you know what I mean,

468
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: like weeks before, so I think it was before this

469
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: even became it was even an issue. It's just, you know,

470
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of black people in the military,

471
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,479
Speaker 1: and that's awesome because I love them and I had

472
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 1: some on my team, and we always have the we

473
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,400
Speaker 1: have these images, you know, immediately what pops in our head.

474
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: When you think professional athlete, we typically think black guy.

475
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: We think, uh, you know, a member of the military,

476
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: we think white guy. Yeah. It's just it's it's funny

477
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: because it's just like, man, we're the most the military

478
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: is is is probably the most diverse organization in the country,

479
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: maybe the world. Although you know, I would say, you know,

480
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 1: we we've talked about this before in the podcast. When

481
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: you think special operations, you do think white guy. There

482
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: is ah, there is a stereotype about and then a

483
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: perception of public perception that's only partially true that I mean,

484
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: there are a lot of white men in special operations.

485
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,879
Speaker 1: But again that that image that comes into people's mind,

486
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: like there's also you know, my first team sergeant Special

487
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: Forces was half black, half Korean. I mean, so there

488
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,120
Speaker 1: there is diversity there, and most people, you know, like

489
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: like Nate said and you said, unfortunately, the diversity is

490
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:09,960
Speaker 1: not the first image that comes into the publics. I

491
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: get it on some level though. I mean, like, what

492
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: would you say, eighty plus percent of the guys we

493
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: interview on this podcast or white males. And it's not

494
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: like we seek out white males. This is just it

495
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:27,200
Speaker 1: sounds like you do community no no, I yeah, I

496
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: mean in the special operations community. Yeah. Um. And I

497
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: don't know what the reason for that is, but I

498
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: mean that's that's a whole another discussion of sure. Yeah.

499
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 1: I mean, well, you know, I just went to a

500
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: reunion for a Marine battalion to seven who you know

501
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: that that battalion has lost more guys, um, I think

502
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: in the Global War on Terrorism than any other battalion

503
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 1: in the military. And you know, I go to this

504
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: reunion it's like hispanic you know what I mean? And

505
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: it wasn't the not what I was expecting. And call

506
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: me racist, I guess for not thinking, but I was

507
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 1: expecting what I saw. And you know, in the Special

508
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: Forces team, which is probably, like you said, maybe I

509
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: don't know the white guys, you know, and I go

510
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: in there and it's like all these Hispanic dudes and

511
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 1: they're all pipe hitters too, and they've seen you know,

512
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: far more you know, crazy stuff than than I have

513
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 1: in combat probably, and you know, so that was It's

514
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: just interesting. But the demographics are I think, are not

515
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 1: what people expect at the end of the day. So anyway,

516
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: you know, he uh, they go out there and and

517
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: after all the pregame ceremonies that the anthem starts playing

518
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: and Colin takes a knee, you know, and I'm I'm like,

519
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: I'm looking up at the flag with my hand on

520
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: my heart, and at the corner of my eye, I'm

521
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:50,239
Speaker 1: like noticing this, and you know, I'm like, Okay, at

522
00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 1: least he you know, he did what he says was

523
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 1: gonna do. And then all of a sudden, the booze

524
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: come in and it's like it is loud, you know,

525
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: it's there's people saying things behind us, uh, you know

526
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: about him white and white. You know why you better,

527
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get into it. But it just was like, man,

528
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: you know, and in that moment um I really felt

529
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: for him and for what he was kneeling for because

530
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: of that, And that's not man, most of us in

531
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 1: our country aren't going to be that jackass in the stands.

532
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: That's like, you better stand for the anthem. But then

533
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,239
Speaker 1: when this is all going on, the last thing you're

534
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: thinking about is the anthem, you know what I mean,

535
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: that same person that I was maybe before and just

536
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 1: you know, just just wanting to tear this guy apart um.

537
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: So anyway, it was, yeah, it was, it was. It

538
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: was really bizarre, you know, and and it just that moment.

539
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 1: I mean, those are my two anthems on the field,

540
00:30:54,360 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 1: you know, and very different experiences. Both of them are

541
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 1: excellent to have Green Beret Nate Boyer on the podcast.

542
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: We had a really cool guy join us in studio.

543
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 1: Took a trip to join us UH, Todd Apalski, who

544
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: had an awesome story. Todd served in Marine Force Recon

545
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: then went to Army SF also served in the unit. UH.

546
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: He gets into the differences between the branches and this

547
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: interview also answered some questions for people wondering if they

548
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: could go from Force Recon Too Special Forces. TODDA. Palski's

549
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 1: a living proof that you can. This is originally from

550
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: episode three sixty Todd Apalski. Let's get right into it.

551
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 1: People always ask us this question, Can you be a

552
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 1: marine and also serve in the Army Special Mission Unit?

553
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: Is that possible? Yeah, that's possible. Yeah, there's a certain

554
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: things you have to get over. You know, I don't

555
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: want to see your own ego, but where you come from,

556
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: I think most people have question is it technically possible?

557
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:07,040
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I think so. I mean guns, guns

558
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:11,040
Speaker 1: are guns, and uh, well, I think that there's confused

559
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: that like how does a marine like you remember when

560
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 1: Benghazi happened and they handed out that one Distinguished Service

561
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: Cross to an operator and one Navy Cross and they're

562
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: like what what? What the heck? How did who is

563
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: that guy marine serving in the unit? Yeah? So, um,

564
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: some some opportunities opened up there where they started selecting

565
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: or recruiting from outside. Can you talk about it at

566
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: all about how you went in that direction? Uh? Yeah

567
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 1: I can. Uh it's kind of um, you know, you

568
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: go in the military. Um, for me, I when I

569
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 1: went in the Marines, I had no clue what Force

570
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: Recon was. And then as you go in you start

571
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: learning more and more about it. And guys like us,

572
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 1: we just want continued challenges, make ourselves better and always

573
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: chasing that shiny object per se. And uh, once I

574
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: was in the Marines, you start hearing about Rangers, Special

575
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:13,479
Speaker 1: Forces and then the unit, and uh you hear some

576
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: things about the unit and it's like, yeah, that's that

577
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: sounds interesting. They sound like they're the ones that are

578
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: doing it. They're the tip of the spear. So uh,

579
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: some openings came about and I figured I'd wanted another challenge,

580
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: and I applied and went through a assessment selection and passed.

581
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: It was really just a matter of signing up, putting,

582
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:42,240
Speaker 1: throwing your your name. Yeah. Application process like for the

583
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: just like for the Army SF selections, interview process, application process,

584
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: very well vetted. Yeah it's all I mean, if you

585
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 1: have the skill set is really what it's all about. Yeah. Yeah,

586
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: and the aptitude too, and and and they're looking for

587
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: the right people two and that's the big heart behind

588
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: the assessment selection. And uh, it's a very lengthy process.

589
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 1: And then you go, you show up and they put

590
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 1: you through the rigors um, and that's their assessment selection.

591
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: It's been ongoing. They know what they're looking for and

592
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: it's something that I applied out in the civilian world

593
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 1: once I left the military, put together assessment selection for

594
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: people coming into heart business. We knew what traits we wanted,

595
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: what attribbutes we wanted. So instead of doing the traditional

596
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: phone interview resume, put them through an assessment, bring him

597
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:36,880
Speaker 1: in Saturday morning, put them through a skills test. They pass,

598
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: we hire and uh so the assessment selection, it's there

599
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 1: for a purpose and looking for the right person. I

600
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: had a friend to tell me once who he at

601
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 1: one point ran the selection course and he said, listen

602
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: to me very carefully. Now, selection is an art supported

603
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 1: by science, just like leadership, just like combat, just like

604
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: more so. Um, it was definitely a process and selection

605
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 1: is ongoing even today. Every day is an in doc

606
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: as us re kind guys would like to say, So

607
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,280
Speaker 1: you got to go through that and then go through OTC,

608
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,320
Speaker 1: and what was it like culturally going from the Marine

609
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: Corps to Army Special Operations? A lot of similarities, believe

610
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: it or not, a lot of similarities. Um. We we

611
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:30,399
Speaker 1: pride ourselves both special apps Marines being expeditionary, doing more

612
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: with less um independent thinking problem solving. So I was like,

613
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 1: oh wow, this is great, this is really cool, you know,

614
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 1: being around like minded people. Um. The biggest difference, I

615
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 1: would say are the were the resources at our disposal.

616
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:49,360
Speaker 1: In the Marine Corps. You just don't get certain resources,

617
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 1: the mobility helicopters, airplanes to get from point A to

618
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:59,360
Speaker 1: point b. Uh. Information was another resource, you know, you

619
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:04,680
Speaker 1: need soil. Intel wise, marine Corps takes a long time,

620
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 1: I would think. I mean just from guys I've heard

621
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: and other authors we've had on who served in the Marines,

622
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 1: that is something when we can talk about this more too.

623
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 1: I mean the Marine Corps evolved a lot over the

624
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: years during the war, but I mean early on in

625
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: the war, I mean they didn't have any intelligence assets

626
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,839
Speaker 1: for a marine battalion. Yeah, they didn't know. I mean

627
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 1: it was just they've been I don't want to say

628
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: they're out of the fight, but you know, they just weren't.

629
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: They didn't they weren't operating, you know, to really um

630
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:40,360
Speaker 1: use information and intelligence like it should be used. And um,

631
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 1: you know, working at the unit, you know we had information,

632
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: strategic level information, intelligence at our fingertips and information that

633
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: helps make the sound decisions, good intelligence, good decision making.

634
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 1: As an officer too, I mean you were in a

635
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: leadership position and how is that commanding army operators and

636
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,319
Speaker 1: how do they look at you as a marine. Where

637
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,279
Speaker 1: did you come from? Yeah, yeah, it was all that

638
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 1: and um, different caliber of person. There are guys there,

639
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:17,280
Speaker 1: They've been at the UNI for ten fifteen years, different maturity,

640
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:21,919
Speaker 1: different experiences. So uh, I knew my role was more

641
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: than managing them. I still strongly feel as a leader,

642
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 1: one of your primary responsibilities to resource and facilitate with

643
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 1: your equipment and synchronize a fight. So when you have

644
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: people of that caliber, that those type of leaders, you

645
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,919
Speaker 1: know it's gonna happen, and it's it's the premier ball

646
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 1: club decentralize. Uh. They one word and they're making it happen,

647
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: the ultimate problem solvers. So I you stand off a

648
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 1: little bit more and let them make it happen and

649
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: just make sure they have the resource stadequately and your

650
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 1: anchronizing those assets outside to facilitate those missions on the ground.

651
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,560
Speaker 1: I think when we had Rob Trevino on a few

652
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,880
Speaker 1: podcasts a few episodes back, you know he said something

653
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: very similar. You know that they just expect you to

654
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,839
Speaker 1: do the right I heard him say that great podcast, Um,

655
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: that's cool that you listen. Yeah before man, what a

656
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:25,840
Speaker 1: humbled warrior professional. I really enjoyed his podcast, and he

657
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 1: said something to effect, Um, it's just no, it's just

658
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: expected of you to do the right thing. To paraphrases

659
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: words and coming from the Marine Corps, one of the

660
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:42,439
Speaker 1: biggest differences is, especially in ground combat conventional operations, there's

661
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: a lot of permissions that you have to request permission

662
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 1: to move from point A to point B, and there's

663
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: a purpose and there's a reason behind that, primarily to

664
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,719
Speaker 1: avoid blue on blue and or make sure you're not

665
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 1: in the wrong place when bombs come down range. Um,

666
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: in the unit's expected of you to do the right thing.

667
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,440
Speaker 1: Now you have the experience and maturity, you know your

668
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:06,560
Speaker 1: decisions on the ground. You know there's no questions. So

669
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:11,160
Speaker 1: that that was liberating, UM, and I can concur with

670
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: with Rob. It's a liberating experience when you have that

671
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: freedom to where you can just operate and maneuver like

672
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,400
Speaker 1: you're supposed to on the ground. And now you also

673
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: found yourself I would think in a different position. And

674
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: previously you're in recon force. Now you're in what is

675
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: for the most part of counter terrorism in it. Yep, yeah,

676
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: but UM, principles remain the same. I'm a firm believer

677
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 1: in principles and principles tactics, right as a right as

678
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: a right, speed, surprise, and violence of action. Those principles

679
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,839
Speaker 1: remain the same. So UM, that was something I kept

680
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 1: at the forefront of my mind when I went from

681
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 1: the Marines and I went over to UM that environment.

682
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:57,400
Speaker 1: Just remember the principles, principles of leadership, principles of tactics

683
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 1: and operations. And you know, to this day, you know

684
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: I still apply a lot of the same principles. I

685
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 1: was taught as a private in the Marine Corps with

686
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 1: um an the outside world, and you were there as

687
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: a troop commander, troop commander UM and operations officer. So

688
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:17,800
Speaker 1: what what are some of those lessons by the way, Todd,

689
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: that that you feel that you've able, you've you've been

690
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:24,279
Speaker 1: able to use from the Marine Corps in your life.

691
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 1: And we'll get and by the way, we'll get into

692
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:29,320
Speaker 1: you know, so a con valley to what you're doing now. Sure,

693
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: and people asked me. When I left the UM the unit,

694
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,760
Speaker 1: I went back to the Marine Corps. I was sharing

695
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,600
Speaker 1: this with Jack earlier. They always ask, hey, what did

696
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: you learn? You know, what type of new, cool, high

697
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,719
Speaker 1: speed UM tactic did you learn? And I would say,

698
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:50,040
Speaker 1: one of my biggest lessons learned is the importance of relationships.

699
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is when I first

700
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,319
Speaker 1: went to the unit, one of my senior officers took

701
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,479
Speaker 1: me aside and he said, Hey, here's the deal. There's

702
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,240
Speaker 1: three things that are going to either make or break

703
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: you here at the unit as a leader. First is

704
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:09,280
Speaker 1: your competency. Okay, we know that that's a given. Second

705
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 1: is your integrity and integrity more from the sense of

706
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:19,600
Speaker 1: structural integrity, mind, body, spirit, not just UM what we

707
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:24,000
Speaker 1: normally associated with regards to character. And lastly, he said relationships.

708
00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,360
Speaker 1: And I paused for a moment, and I'm like, relationships,

709
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,799
Speaker 1: What the heck does he mean by that? You know,

710
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: it's like aha moment, and he, thankfully he went on

711
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:38,440
Speaker 1: to further elaborate what he meant by that. UM and

712
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: he met relationships with not only internal agencies, but external agencies,

713
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:48,399
Speaker 1: you know, working and collaborating in a positive manner, working well,

714
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: playing well with others, and knowing your people, knowing yourself.

715
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,359
Speaker 1: And that's something that I took um away from that

716
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,319
Speaker 1: and brought it back and it's something I'm a firm

717
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 1: believer in his relationships. How you treat others is how

718
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna be treated. What you project is

719
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: what you reflect. And uh, what I'm about to do

720
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: with this project I have going, it's focused on relationships.

721
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:17,400
Speaker 1: Relationships with yourself, you know, getting yourself right, relationships with

722
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: your surroundings, and then relationships with others. So relationships are

723
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: a huge part of success, you know, And I'd like

724
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,040
Speaker 1: to say create relationships, not only a network. When you

725
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 1: call up another agency and ask for information, or you

726
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: need to call up the pilots and ask for an

727
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: air strike, I mean, those are all different types of

728
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:38,319
Speaker 1: relations different types and you have to know you know

729
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 1: who you're speaking with and what to ask and when.

730
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 1: But it takes time developing relationships and you guys, building trust,

731
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,560
Speaker 1: filming trust. You know, when you go into new region,

732
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 1: new country, you really have to sit down, drink the

733
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 1: tea with them and spend time and communicate and let

734
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: them know you're there for them. You know, creating those

735
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 1: relations and ships. They require a lot of time, a

736
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:06,840
Speaker 1: lot of nurturing. So I imagine there was a certain time, uh,

737
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: you know, a tour you did at the unit, and

738
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,720
Speaker 1: then I guess there was a point where the Marine

739
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 1: Corps was like, you need to come back home. Todd, Yeah, Yeah,

740
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: there that time came and my branch manager monitor as

741
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 1: we call them in the Marine Corps, They're like, hey,

742
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: your time is up. It's time for you to come

743
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: back and share with us what you've learned. And um,

744
00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:32,799
Speaker 1: you know, your staff officer, now you need to make

745
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:37,799
Speaker 1: power point slides and start writing doctrine so when you

746
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:41,359
Speaker 1: get back. So I left the unit and went back

747
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:46,360
Speaker 1: to the Marine Corps and that's spent probably three following

748
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:50,360
Speaker 1: years before I got out in the Marines. Yeah, and

749
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:53,320
Speaker 1: I took a desk job. My final three years was

750
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,839
Speaker 1: the first time I ever took a break um per

751
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,760
Speaker 1: se from the tactical operational side and took a job,

752
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 1: uh at a training bill it um special ops training

753
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:09,359
Speaker 1: group where we prepared marines to go overseas and do

754
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: different types of reconnaissance and close quarters battle. Well, you're

755
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:15,759
Speaker 1: probably able to have a pretty big impact on the

756
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: force from behind that desk I did. It was great experience,

757
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 1: and that's one of the reasons why I selected to

758
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,360
Speaker 1: go back to that position, just to offer a different

759
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 1: way of thinking, a different way of looking at a

760
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:30,399
Speaker 1: problem vice doing the same things that we always did.

761
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 1: And I remember going back back to that position and

762
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:37,879
Speaker 1: looking at the training curriculum and it was the same

763
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 1: curriculum that I had experienced when I was a young sergeant.

764
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:45,319
Speaker 1: And reconnaissance and forced reconnoissance it remained unchanged. A little

765
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:48,080
Speaker 1: bit of it changed a little bit, but it's like,

766
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: there's so much more we can do. Well, you just

767
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 1: heard Todd speaking about Rob for Vino. Rob joined us

768
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:58,120
Speaker 1: on the podcast just a few episodes before that on

769
00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: episode three sixto, and here he is talking about joining

770
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,319
Speaker 1: the army, becoming an army ranger in the whole process.

771
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,319
Speaker 1: Check it out. Since you were a little boy, you

772
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 1: were interested in the military, and then you know, acted

773
00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: out on those dreams. You know what I think you

774
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: said two days after you graduated high school, you were

775
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,040
Speaker 1: in a car head into the army. And I mean

776
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 1: it sounded like, you know, as you described, you had

777
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: kind of um, I don't know, in one way a

778
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 1: very wholesome, you know, childhood, but in the other way,

779
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:28,400
Speaker 1: kind of sheltered. You said it was the first time

780
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:33,520
Speaker 1: you've ever seen an airplane. Yeah, we were pretty poor,

781
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:36,800
Speaker 1: so we didn't travel much and we didn't go outside

782
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: of our our circle of friends much. And I was

783
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:44,800
Speaker 1: very sheltered in that way, Um, primarily because we didn't

784
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: have money to go anywhere to do anything. When when

785
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: you're really poor, everything you see is something you can't have.

786
00:45:52,560 --> 00:45:55,600
Speaker 1: And it was kind of it wasn't that bad, but

787
00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 1: it was near that bad for us. So, yeah, it's

788
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 1: just the first time going to the airplane was just

789
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 1: there was just so much new stuff. As as a kid.

790
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: When I joined the Army, and just like you said,

791
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 1: I graduated high school June first, June third, I was

792
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:16,359
Speaker 1: on the airplane going to basic training. And I had

793
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:18,840
Speaker 1: always been drawn to the military as a kid. I

794
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 1: loved the old army shows and anything that that was

795
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 1: army ish I was into. And hopefully you know, look

796
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: early on there were a couple of reasons why I

797
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 1: wanted to leave. One was because there was no way

798
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,880
Speaker 1: I was going to college, and um, we just didn't

799
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 1: have the funds and and number two is I knew

800
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 1: if I stayed in my little hometown, I would just

801
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:47,360
Speaker 1: find trouble. So and my decision was made easier. People

802
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 1: going into the service these days have a hard decision

803
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,600
Speaker 1: because they may find themselves overseas in a combat zone.

804
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 1: And I didn't have to make that decision. I was

805
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:59,400
Speaker 1: I was getting money for college, and I was wanting

806
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:01,960
Speaker 1: to be the best soldier I could be. And that's

807
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: the furthest thing from my mind at that point. And

808
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you guys were uh young men

809
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: back then, but it was the furthest thing from everybody's

810
00:47:10,239 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 1: mind at that point was conflict. So it was easy

811
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, I mean this is before my time,

812
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,279
Speaker 1: of course. Um, but you know, I remember actually one

813
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,400
Speaker 1: of my first memories is watching the Golf War on

814
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 1: television on CNN, and I that was my first deployment,

815
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 1: uh into a comflex conflict zone. But I was far

816
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:33,319
Speaker 1: from the conflict my first three years in the Army

817
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:39,319
Speaker 1: was I was not an action guy, if you will, Yeah,

818
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:43,880
Speaker 1: you're in a air defense unit, right, Yeah. For um,

819
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:46,919
Speaker 1: most of your listeners, I'm sure that that they all

820
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 1: know that the air defense was is essentially not a

821
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:52,120
Speaker 1: branch anymore. I think the only things that are around

822
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:55,680
Speaker 1: their defense was the Patriots, which was a superstar of

823
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,160
Speaker 1: the Desert Shield and Desert Storm if you remember back.

824
00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 1: They were shooting down the Discud missiles and stuff. What

825
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 1: a great system. But I think the only systems there

826
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:08,800
Speaker 1: are the Patriots and and the Stingers and the Avengers

827
00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 1: of the man portable stuff and the mobile the vehicle

828
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:15,840
Speaker 1: mounted stuff. So I guess from there we talked about

829
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,880
Speaker 1: your ambition to become a ranger like that it sounds like,

830
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: and that was something that you always wanted to do

831
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 1: and that you dreamed of. You know that you were

832
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: learning how to be a soldier in air defense, but

833
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: really you had something bigger in mind. Yeah it was.

834
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:33,960
Speaker 1: It was when I first joined the Army, I thought,

835
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,520
Speaker 1: you know, I was going to be a paratrooper jumping

836
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 1: out of airplanes and I was going to be like

837
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: the guys in the Longest Day and fighting on the war.

838
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 1: Because my job description when I enlisted was, I think

839
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 1: it was Air Defense, Artillery Operations and Intelligence assistant. And

840
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:54,600
Speaker 1: then I was I was going to airborne school, so

841
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 1: I thought, hey, yeah, this is it. Little did I

842
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:00,480
Speaker 1: realized I'd be jumping out of the airplane with a

843
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:05,479
Speaker 1: typewriter instead of a rifle. And but on my first

844
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,400
Speaker 1: three years, during a half years in the army, um,

845
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:10,880
Speaker 1: we're a struggle for me because I do all I

846
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 1: wanted to do was be the best soldier I could

847
00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:16,520
Speaker 1: be and be around soldier other soldiers who wanted to

848
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 1: be like me. And as you all know, that's hit

849
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:24,960
Speaker 1: and miss in the military, and most of the soldiers

850
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: around me at that point in time just wanted to

851
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 1: do their thing and then be done with it. I

852
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 1: I poured my heart and soul into what I was doing,

853
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 1: and I had an issue with people who are around

854
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: me that weren't like me. And during my first three

855
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 1: and a half years in the Army, I learned of

856
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:43,279
Speaker 1: the rangers, and I was like, all right, that's that's

857
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:45,600
Speaker 1: my goal. That's where I want to go. That's where

858
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: I'm going to be, and and I put my head

859
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:51,359
Speaker 1: down and push forward and eventually got there. One thing

860
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 1: I was kind of blown away from our blown away

861
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,799
Speaker 1: by was when you got to uh, well they call

862
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,120
Speaker 1: it rasp now, but back in the day, you know

863
00:49:59,239 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 1: what I went through. You went through is called the

864
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:05,560
Speaker 1: ranger indoctrination program. When you went, you said you couldn't swim,

865
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 1: you have to take a combat survival test, but you

866
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 1: literally showed up being unable to swim. Yeah, I I

867
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: it was your heart and desire because I had no

868
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,959
Speaker 1: skill to survive in the water. And I'm just beating

869
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:22,880
Speaker 1: brutally honest with you, is it was my passion to

870
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 1: be a ranger, and I was, to be honest with

871
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:27,600
Speaker 1: you to that point in my life and even up

872
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: to probably selection and post selection, that that was the

873
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 1: biggest hurdle in my life. And it seems simple for

874
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 1: people who can swim, and they look at me and

875
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,399
Speaker 1: made me listen and say, what is he talking about? Well,

876
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 1: the reality is I was thinking to the bottom, and

877
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,479
Speaker 1: I plod and kicked my way and I never quit,

878
00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:52,520
Speaker 1: just like my dad taught us. And I got to

879
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:54,760
Speaker 1: the end and it took me about four times longer

880
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:57,800
Speaker 1: than the lowest, the slowest swimmer around me. And I

881
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: grew up in New mac Cico to where I mean,

882
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:03,080
Speaker 1: and you, like you said, you had a you know,

883
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,520
Speaker 1: a kind of a poor upbringing. Uh, you didn't have

884
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities. I mean, there weren't like exactly

885
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: ocean sides and swimming pools. Uh, you know that you

886
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 1: grew up around right right, And I think a part

887
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:19,840
Speaker 1: of it was when I was in so Nordo, Mexico.

888
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 1: We we would run around the villages all day long

889
00:51:25,160 --> 00:51:31,399
Speaker 1: without parental supervision. And one particular time we um we

890
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: were with the village kids and we ran to a

891
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 1: canal and there was it was a large canal, was

892
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 1: probably fifteen or twenty ft wide, and it was probably

893
00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 1: ten and there was a water pipe going across it,

894
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 1: and all the older buys from the village would climb

895
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 1: on the water pipe and then jump into the canal. Well,

896
00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 1: I did that too, but I couldn't swim. When I

897
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 1: sank to the bottom, and I can remember looking up

898
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 1: through the water and it was just like in the movies.

899
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 1: It went black oh and I basically drowned, and one

900
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,239
Speaker 1: of the village boys saved my life. I still I

901
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 1: don't know the guy's name, and um he. I felt

902
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:10,880
Speaker 1: pain on the top of my head and the next

903
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: thing I know is I'm coming to on the side

904
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 1: of the canal and all the boys are looking at me,

905
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:18,400
Speaker 1: like what's going on? And then they were speaking in

906
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:21,400
Speaker 1: Spanish saying he jerked him out. He basically grabbed the

907
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:24,000
Speaker 1: top of my hair and dragged me out of the

908
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:26,120
Speaker 1: water and saved my life where I would have been dead.

909
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:28,239
Speaker 1: That's got to be a crazy thing to reflect on,

910
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:30,840
Speaker 1: because when you think about it, it's like your story

911
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:32,920
Speaker 1: and all these great stories you tell from there and

912
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 1: your military career. It could have ended right there, right yeah,

913
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:40,320
Speaker 1: And not a whole lot of people know about it.

914
00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:41,960
Speaker 1: I didn't tell my mom too. I was a man

915
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 1: that that happened because I was because as a kid,

916
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:47,479
Speaker 1: I didn't want to get whooped when I got home

917
00:52:48,160 --> 00:52:51,600
Speaker 1: you know, by my by my dad. Well, like you said,

918
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 1: I'm running around doing crazy stuff with the kids. You know,

919
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 1: you pushed through it because you had a passion for

920
00:52:57,200 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 1: you for your job, you know, and put your heart

921
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: into it. And um, and you also talked about, you

922
00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 1: know in the book, your your ranger buddy helping you

923
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:07,760
Speaker 1: learn how to swim and getting you ready for that event.

924
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:12,839
Speaker 1: Right yeah, I tell you what I learned so much

925
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,280
Speaker 1: in that short amount of time. Um. And the biggest

926
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 1: influence at that time was my ranger buddy, Michael J. A.

927
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 1: Box And where we stay in contact to this day.

928
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:25,960
Speaker 1: And and what was unique about Mike and I We

929
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 1: were ranger buddies in the Ranger Inductor Nation program, and

930
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:32,600
Speaker 1: then we went to pre ranger together because he was

931
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:34,799
Speaker 1: in the same boat that I was. We went to

932
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:37,799
Speaker 1: Ranger school together, got as signed to the same team,

933
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,879
Speaker 1: which is incredible. Yeah, so we were ranging buddies through

934
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:44,399
Speaker 1: the entire process. I don't know how that happened, but

935
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:51,040
Speaker 1: we saw everything together and he helped me more probably

936
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:53,480
Speaker 1: than I helped him through all of that, all of

937
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:58,239
Speaker 1: those challenges, and I'll never forget my super cool and um.

938
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 1: And then the other thing I want to ask you back,

939
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:03,040
Speaker 1: because this is a little bit unique by comparison to

940
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 1: most Rangers, was that you were what we would we called,

941
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,239
Speaker 1: you know, a quote unquote import um, which are as

942
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 1: you write about in the book are not always viewed

943
00:54:11,239 --> 00:54:15,320
Speaker 1: favorably because for people who aren't aware in the Ranger regiment,

944
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:18,280
Speaker 1: most guys um are raised in the regiment so to speak.

945
00:54:18,320 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 1: You come in from basic training, you go to Airborne School,

946
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 1: you go to RIP and then you end up in

947
00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 1: Ranger Battalion if you graduate, and uh, Rob, you know,

948
00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: as we talked about, served in the Air Defense Unit reclassed.

949
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,400
Speaker 1: His infantry went to RIP so he was a uh

950
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: and then you went to ranger school too, so you

951
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,560
Speaker 1: were a tab speck for a coming to Ranger Battalion.

952
00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,520
Speaker 1: You want to talk about, you know, you had as

953
00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:41,360
Speaker 1: far as gaining the respect of your peer group. You know,

954
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:45,879
Speaker 1: kind of the odds were stacked against you. It felt like, yeah,

955
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:50,920
Speaker 1: And just to kind of preface my statements, here's I

956
00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:54,560
Speaker 1: got to the Ranger Regiment and in ninety two I

957
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:58,640
Speaker 1: was to find the second Battalion, Alpha Company, second Tune

958
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 1: black Sheet, and there was no conflict, So it was

959
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 1: we were essentially a band of warriors looking for a

960
00:55:08,640 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: fight and we were trying to you know, people were

961
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,759
Speaker 1: held in high regard in that unit who were physically fit,

962
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:20,640
Speaker 1: um mentally tough and kind of knew their job very well.

963
00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:24,120
Speaker 1: So I come in there, I'm physically fit. They don't

964
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:27,560
Speaker 1: know anything about my mental status or or anything else

965
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 1: about me. And I had no experience none. I was

966
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:34,839
Speaker 1: pushing paper for three and a half years and then

967
00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 1: I'm going to go be a Ranger. So I wasn't

968
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:39,920
Speaker 1: viewed favorably. And also the fact that when you grew

969
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:43,759
Speaker 1: up in the Ranger in the range of community. Um

970
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:46,560
Speaker 1: you basically you earned your way to be a leader

971
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:50,919
Speaker 1: there and being a range of private that I would

972
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: say today and even more so, you know, when I

973
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 1: got there in the early nineties, there's life as a

974
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 1: range of private was. It was hard. I don't want

975
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:05,640
Speaker 1: to test everything, but it's health, it's living, living hell.

976
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 1: And I never experienced any of that. I never lived it.

977
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 1: I never lived through that. And it took me, you know,

978
00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:19,120
Speaker 1: four months, five months for for everybody around me to

979
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:22,800
Speaker 1: realize that that I was a leader of character and

980
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:24,759
Speaker 1: I had the ability. And I think what they all

981
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:26,319
Speaker 1: wanted to see was the fact that I wasn't going

982
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:30,160
Speaker 1: to quit them or or fall short of being a

983
00:56:30,200 --> 00:56:33,600
Speaker 1: good ranger. And once they realized that, they opened their

984
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:36,400
Speaker 1: arms to me. And and boy tell you what, it

985
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:40,520
Speaker 1: was the best time in my life to that point

986
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:44,320
Speaker 1: in my career and my life just to be serving

987
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:46,720
Speaker 1: there because I was where I wanted to be around

988
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 1: the people that I wanted to be. They they were

989
00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:51,240
Speaker 1: all just like me, and I loved it. You found

990
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:54,880
Speaker 1: what you were looking for in the regiment absolutely right.

991
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,200
Speaker 1: And I grew up so much. I became a man,

992
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 1: if you will, And and all of my tactical background

993
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 1: and knowledge and and everything I learned in the Ranger Regiment.

994
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:10,040
Speaker 1: What what a wonderful, wonderful place. The friends that I

995
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:12,840
Speaker 1: have there are still friends with me to this day,

996
00:57:13,200 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 1: and the best friends that I will ever have. Yeah,

997
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,200
Speaker 1: what a wonderful part of my life. I loved it.

998
00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:25,640
Speaker 1: Pat McNamara is becoming a favorite of the podcast I

999
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:29,080
Speaker 1: had of on more recently UM with Seawan the butcher

1000
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:32,560
Speaker 1: from Sirius XM, just to talk metal. But we didn't

1001
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:35,200
Speaker 1: really talk much more than that. It was just kind

1002
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 1: of a fun thing I wanted to do because Pat

1003
00:57:37,160 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 1: is a major metal head. But on the episode three

1004
00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: thirty six, which this excerpt is from, talking about a

1005
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 1: Halo jump, uh, serving with George Hand in the unit.

1006
00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 1: You'll hear that story. Let's get right to it. From

1007
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 1: episode three thirty six, The One and Only Pat McNamara.

1008
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 1: I have a few people in common, people we've met

1009
00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:00,320
Speaker 1: in a cross paths with. One of them was, um,

1010
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 1: George Hand and uh, you know, I always well, I

1011
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:06,200
Speaker 1: don't always do this, but sometimes I do this, which

1012
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:08,880
Speaker 1: is a little embarrassing. Like when we had Mark Boyatt

1013
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 1: and I asked some of his former teammates, you know,

1014
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 1: some of what we are some questions I should ask Mark,

1015
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:15,840
Speaker 1: And so he told us a story about how he

1016
00:58:15,880 --> 00:58:19,160
Speaker 1: accidentally said his Halo shoot on fire with a smoke grenade.

1017
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,080
Speaker 1: But I asked George, I was like, what should we

1018
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:26,000
Speaker 1: ask pat? Um? He mentioned some story about um, oh

1019
00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:28,520
Speaker 1: what was it? Somebody going right through your suspension lines

1020
00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 1: on a Halo jump? Yeah, dude, see George, George and

1021
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:38,120
Speaker 1: I go way back. I'm talking eighty four eighty five,

1022
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:41,000
Speaker 1: and plus we went to selection together. We went to

1023
00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:46,880
Speaker 1: combat dive school together. UM. I mean, so a good

1024
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 1: and bad thing about a guy like that is he's

1025
00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:50,800
Speaker 1: seen you at your best, but he's also steening at

1026
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:54,000
Speaker 1: your worst. I don't mean asking anything embarrassing. You don't

1027
00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,280
Speaker 1: have to answer, of course. Yeah, no, no, no, no

1028
00:58:56,280 --> 00:59:00,160
Speaker 1: no no. This was uh, it's uh. I was this

1029
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:03,640
Speaker 1: close to retiring and UM wanted to get one more

1030
00:59:04,160 --> 00:59:07,600
Speaker 1: uh jump in just to stay current. And in order

1031
00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:10,120
Speaker 1: to do that, it was like an ash and trash jump,

1032
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 1: you know, where you had to strap hang with a

1033
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 1: bunch of freaking people you don't know, um and uh

1034
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:20,600
Speaker 1: which freaking hey, Because I loved free fall and doing

1035
00:59:20,760 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 1: MFF with guys. I know because uh, well people you trust,

1036
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:30,640
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's it's dangerous. You could die intoing that ship. Um.

1037
00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:35,760
Speaker 1: So I got on this pay Hurt jump and um

1038
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:39,200
Speaker 1: there was this gal who is who is on Halo

1039
00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 1: status and she sat on the plane next to me,

1040
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:45,560
Speaker 1: and this is all the way up by the cock

1041
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:48,160
Speaker 1: and I'm going, oh my god, because I knew she

1042
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:50,400
Speaker 1: was super sandwich. I knew she was a football back,

1043
00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:52,480
Speaker 1: that she was a shitt eating turnip, that she was

1044
00:59:52,480 --> 01:00:00,080
Speaker 1: a chicken wire canoe hockey cleave. And so I I

1045
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:05,160
Speaker 1: broke protocol and I achieved separation in the aircraft. Uh.

1046
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:07,480
Speaker 1: And I walked all the way down to the tailgate

1047
01:00:07,560 --> 01:00:11,520
Speaker 1: and buddy of mine was JM And and I said, hey, Sam, uh,

1048
01:00:11,560 --> 01:00:14,440
Speaker 1: if you want, I could poison or I could poise

1049
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:17,240
Speaker 1: out and you guys can dock on me because my

1050
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:19,480
Speaker 1: free fall skills were really good because I had like

1051
01:00:19,520 --> 01:00:22,919
Speaker 1: six hundred jumps at the time. Uh. And he was okay, good,

1052
01:00:22,960 --> 01:00:26,200
Speaker 1: and we're short final. So I'm standing on the ramp

1053
01:00:26,200 --> 01:00:30,880
Speaker 1: looking down. He's doing his last commands and I turned

1054
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,439
Speaker 1: around to look in the aircraft and this freaking chick

1055
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:37,560
Speaker 1: achieved separation. She closes the gap in the aircraft. She

1056
01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:39,919
Speaker 1: walked all the way up and I'm face to face

1057
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:43,400
Speaker 1: with her. So I look at saying and I said, Sam,

1058
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:47,120
Speaker 1: scratch the poise. I'm gonna dive out. He goes, all right,

1059
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:50,120
Speaker 1: He's so freaking confused at that point. So I dive

1060
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:52,760
Speaker 1: out and I am tracking. Man, I am freaking whoa,

1061
01:00:53,240 --> 01:00:55,960
Speaker 1: I am getting away from that aircraft because this is

1062
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:59,800
Speaker 1: probably my last jump. Um, so I am boogy and man,

1063
01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:03,040
Speaker 1: I'm full dellata. I am boogying. Put on the brake, spooge,

1064
01:01:03,520 --> 01:01:06,360
Speaker 1: and I turned around and here comes this freaking chick

1065
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:11,040
Speaker 1: right at me because she's flying like this, one hand

1066
01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:15,680
Speaker 1: or her basically facing the altimeter and hand on rip cord.

1067
01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:18,320
Speaker 1: So she's in a full track and she doesn't even

1068
01:01:18,360 --> 01:01:22,720
Speaker 1: know it, and she's not paying attention, completely oblivious to

1069
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:26,640
Speaker 1: her surroundings. So I freaking I back with her boom

1070
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:29,000
Speaker 1: and I give her one of these and I said

1071
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:32,320
Speaker 1: pay you know, basically pay attention, and she gives me

1072
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:36,680
Speaker 1: a nod, and I booge. I achieved separation again. I'm booking, man,

1073
01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 1: and I'm looking out there in her check and check

1074
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 1: and check and checking, wave off. Nothing I deployed my shoot,

1075
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:46,440
Speaker 1: and like seconds after that, I deployed because I'm up

1076
01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:50,560
Speaker 1: trying to break the ill get the brakes out, and

1077
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,240
Speaker 1: I felt something, you know, I felt my shoe wobble

1078
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:57,200
Speaker 1: or whatever, but I couldn't see anything because my arms

1079
01:01:57,200 --> 01:02:00,120
Speaker 1: were up like this. So I I go went to

1080
01:02:00,240 --> 01:02:04,040
Speaker 1: my uh my canopy, check my um um, what's it called,

1081
01:02:04,120 --> 01:02:09,120
Speaker 1: my your four point controllability checks and I'm looking up

1082
01:02:09,160 --> 01:02:11,240
Speaker 1: and I got closed end cells on one side and

1083
01:02:11,280 --> 01:02:13,919
Speaker 1: I'm like, huh, I've never had closed end cells before.

1084
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:17,280
Speaker 1: That's weird. Um. So I'm thinking, well, do I cut away?

1085
01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:20,280
Speaker 1: You know you've got You've only got this much time

1086
01:02:20,320 --> 01:02:22,400
Speaker 1: to think about it. Uh. So I'm looking at the

1087
01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:27,480
Speaker 1: l timer. I'm going, I'm at I'll wait another five

1088
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:31,520
Speaker 1: feet and it's still controllable. And now I'm at two thousand.

1089
01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:35,160
Speaker 1: I gonna I'll wait till it's still can still growing

1090
01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:38,200
Speaker 1: away if it's a piece of ship. And uh but

1091
01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:41,880
Speaker 1: it was controllable, and I end up landing right on um,

1092
01:02:42,160 --> 01:02:45,200
Speaker 1: right right in the pit area. And one of the

1093
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:51,440
Speaker 1: UH guys from the UH that the riggers, one of

1094
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:54,120
Speaker 1: the riggers, he caught my shoot before it hit the

1095
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:56,400
Speaker 1: ground because they saw me coming in with end cells

1096
01:02:56,840 --> 01:02:59,320
Speaker 1: and he's inspecting it and he goes, holy shit, and

1097
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:02,760
Speaker 1: there was a freak gigantic hole in this thing. And

1098
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:06,360
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what in the hell And here it comes

1099
01:03:06,440 --> 01:03:09,040
Speaker 1: this freaking chick with her gent techs helmet on, big

1100
01:03:09,080 --> 01:03:12,160
Speaker 1: red face and a huge chunk of my canopy sticking

1101
01:03:12,160 --> 01:03:18,160
Speaker 1: on it. Oh my god, man, that sucks. And I go,

1102
01:03:18,240 --> 01:03:21,720
Speaker 1: you too, you too. You flew through my fucking candy.

1103
01:03:21,760 --> 01:03:23,640
Speaker 1: I was so freaking pissed. I want to punch your

1104
01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:26,840
Speaker 1: right in the head. Oh my god. It was horrible. Yeah,

1105
01:03:26,920 --> 01:03:29,640
Speaker 1: but that the evidence was still clinging to her face

1106
01:03:29,720 --> 01:03:32,280
Speaker 1: when she came down. It was it was stuck in

1107
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:34,760
Speaker 1: her gin techs. Hell. There's no denying that. There's no

1108
01:03:34,880 --> 01:03:43,360
Speaker 1: denying that. Yeah, thanks for that one. The other funny thing,

1109
01:03:43,520 --> 01:03:46,320
Speaker 1: I can't remember what I what I asked George, but um,

1110
01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 1: something about hand to hand combat and he just made

1111
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,000
Speaker 1: this off hand comment. He's like, yeah, for PTE in

1112
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 1: the morning, I used to have to box Patent mcnamera

1113
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:59,240
Speaker 1: and Josh Collins lucky at me? Is that this funny comment?

1114
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:01,520
Speaker 1: I think want to just cut himself short, because that

1115
01:04:01,560 --> 01:04:05,280
Speaker 1: guy's are really good man. He was. His kickboxing skills

1116
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:09,000
Speaker 1: were ridiculous, So I was I was bought. I'm wrong

1117
01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:11,520
Speaker 1: compared to those of you guys. I was bigger and stronger,

1118
01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:16,360
Speaker 1: but those guys could hit and box well. But yeah,

1119
01:04:16,360 --> 01:04:18,840
Speaker 1: I'm getting hit by Josh Collins, who was pro you know,

1120
01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 1: he had Pro five. That guy. I mean when he

1121
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:24,920
Speaker 1: hits you in the bread basket, he comes around, booge

1122
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:28,560
Speaker 1: with the massive freaking hooks. You are going down. I'm

1123
01:04:28,600 --> 01:04:32,320
Speaker 1: delayed effect you, I mean his Yeah, so I I

1124
01:04:32,360 --> 01:04:34,440
Speaker 1: definitely know what it feels like by getting punched and

1125
01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:37,760
Speaker 1: faced by both of those guys and any fun. Maybe

1126
01:04:37,760 --> 01:04:40,160
Speaker 1: Georgia's downplaying it because he made it sound like he

1127
01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:41,840
Speaker 1: was the one who had a handful with both of you,

1128
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:46,479
Speaker 1: and he he way, he's way better, way better, way better. Yeah,

1129
01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:51,200
Speaker 1: his boxing skills were ridiculous back then. Yeah, yeah, he's

1130
01:04:51,240 --> 01:04:55,960
Speaker 1: being humbled. Yeah he is. All right, you heard Pat McNamara.

1131
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:59,240
Speaker 1: They're telling a great George Hands story, So why not

1132
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:02,919
Speaker 1: end this with George Hand. George Hand is an amazing writer.

1133
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:05,440
Speaker 1: You could check out his work at the News rep

1134
01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 1: dot com. Uh, He's been doing amazing work for us

1135
01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:11,160
Speaker 1: for a very long time, and we love having him on.

1136
01:05:12,040 --> 01:05:14,400
Speaker 1: Usually when he's on, he talks about his current work

1137
01:05:14,440 --> 01:05:16,640
Speaker 1: with human trafficking, but we were able to coax him

1138
01:05:16,640 --> 01:05:18,960
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about his time serving

1139
01:05:18,960 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 1: in Delta Force, and uh yeah, we're gonna wrap it

1140
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:24,919
Speaker 1: up right here. This is an excerpt from episode three

1141
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:31,080
Speaker 1: forty one. George Hand, check it out after having your

1142
01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:34,440
Speaker 1: teammate Pat McNamara on the show, and it just kind

1143
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:36,680
Speaker 1: of sparked the idea. I think for Jack and I

1144
01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:38,720
Speaker 1: have like we've never gotten a chance to hear all

1145
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:42,080
Speaker 1: these awesome stories from George's perspective. Whenever you're on, we

1146
01:05:42,160 --> 01:05:44,640
Speaker 1: talk about what you're up to now with human trafficking.

1147
01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:47,320
Speaker 1: So I just think it would be worth to get

1148
01:05:47,320 --> 01:05:51,120
Speaker 1: into a full episode on like the origin of George

1149
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 1: Hand and and you know, being a part of of

1150
01:05:53,920 --> 01:05:59,440
Speaker 1: Delta Force. That's that's fine, It's it's actually starting to

1151
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:03,280
Speaker 1: put me to leap already. I'll do my bed. I think,

1152
01:06:03,720 --> 01:06:06,920
Speaker 1: you know, you fault it with Pat mcnumary. It's probably

1153
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:09,200
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting either way you look at it. Pat

1154
01:06:09,280 --> 01:06:11,880
Speaker 1: was awesome. So I guess the natural way to start

1155
01:06:11,880 --> 01:06:15,280
Speaker 1: this interview, I would think would just be your background,

1156
01:06:15,320 --> 01:06:18,080
Speaker 1: growing up and and being a part of Delta Force,

1157
01:06:18,200 --> 01:06:21,320
Speaker 1: and if I'm correct here, you you made the decision

1158
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:23,520
Speaker 1: to join the army, right this was this was a

1159
01:06:23,560 --> 01:06:27,600
Speaker 1: few years after there was a Yeah, George, he started

1160
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:29,400
Speaker 1: off in first group too, so we kind of like,

1161
01:06:29,480 --> 01:06:32,880
Speaker 1: we have to back up. Let's go before we get there. Yeah,

1162
01:06:32,960 --> 01:06:35,240
Speaker 1: let's go from growing up all the way up to that.

1163
01:06:35,280 --> 01:06:38,360
Speaker 1: I think would be cool, right, yeah, if you're willing, George,

1164
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:43,000
Speaker 1: Uh sure, well, I mean, you know, just with respect

1165
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:48,600
Speaker 1: to the army part. Um, I wrote in a story recently. Um,

1166
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:50,320
Speaker 1: I've got a few backed up in the queue, but

1167
01:06:50,400 --> 01:06:52,840
Speaker 1: I think I think this one has already come out.

1168
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 1: But I've made mention of the fact that I can

1169
01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:58,840
Speaker 1: remember as far back as five years old wanting to

1170
01:06:58,880 --> 01:07:01,800
Speaker 1: be in the army, you know, like that's that's what

1171
01:07:01,840 --> 01:07:03,640
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. You know, I gotta do that,

1172
01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:06,600
Speaker 1: I gotta do that thing. And um, you know, I

1173
01:07:06,600 --> 01:07:09,280
Speaker 1: mean the depth of my knowledge of the army was

1174
01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:12,200
Speaker 1: basically just you know, a guy wearing a uniform holding

1175
01:07:12,200 --> 01:07:14,440
Speaker 1: a rifle, and that was the extent of it. You know,

1176
01:07:14,480 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 1: I had no idea about the rest of it, about

1177
01:07:17,120 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 1: the you know, the crap that goes along with it

1178
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:24,160
Speaker 1: and boredom. But I knew I wanted to do that,

1179
01:07:24,400 --> 01:07:27,200
Speaker 1: and uh, all the way up to by the time

1180
01:07:27,240 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: I was like at about nineteen years older, so um,

1181
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:34,600
Speaker 1: you know, I was I was talking about going into

1182
01:07:34,640 --> 01:07:36,680
Speaker 1: the Air Force because my dad was a career Air

1183
01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:39,800
Speaker 1: Force guy. Um, and I was trying to make it

1184
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 1: sound a little bit more palatable to my to my

1185
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:45,600
Speaker 1: folks and to myself. You know, it's it's like, well,

1186
01:07:45,640 --> 01:07:48,600
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a grunt. Actually do want

1187
01:07:48,600 --> 01:07:50,560
Speaker 1: to be a grunt. I want to be an infantry

1188
01:07:50,880 --> 01:07:53,680
Speaker 1: soldier at carry rifle and dig a foxhole and eating

1189
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:57,400
Speaker 1: the chow hall and all that that stuff. But it

1190
01:07:57,520 --> 01:08:00,800
Speaker 1: just didn't seem like a bi us enough to tell

1191
01:08:00,840 --> 01:08:04,560
Speaker 1: people about. So but when the Air Force would have,

1192
01:08:05,080 --> 01:08:06,680
Speaker 1: when it came right down to it was like, yeah,

1193
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:08,760
Speaker 1: I went to the recruiter's office and sat out with

1194
01:08:08,840 --> 01:08:11,560
Speaker 1: him and he started throwing out all the things that

1195
01:08:11,640 --> 01:08:15,640
Speaker 1: I was qualified to do. And I picked combat engineer

1196
01:08:15,760 --> 01:08:18,759
Speaker 1: like Buck Clay. I mean that's a twelve BRABO combat engineer.

1197
01:08:19,320 --> 01:08:21,679
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I want to do this combat engineer

1198
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:24,160
Speaker 1: thing because it's got combat in the front. And then

1199
01:08:24,160 --> 01:08:29,160
Speaker 1: it's got engineers, so there's actually a skill set involved there, um,

1200
01:08:29,200 --> 01:08:32,000
Speaker 1: you know, and my parents would probably like that better.

1201
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:34,240
Speaker 1: And the guy looked at me and said, well, you know,

1202
01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:37,080
Speaker 1: we don't have any thing open for combat engineers right now.

1203
01:08:37,120 --> 01:08:39,840
Speaker 1: We're just all full, you know, yank, yank, right Jack,

1204
01:08:40,240 --> 01:08:43,200
Speaker 1: and he goes, but we're wide open for the infantry.

1205
01:08:43,680 --> 01:08:46,920
Speaker 1: So I, you know, I'm an idiot at this time.

1206
01:08:46,960 --> 01:08:50,960
Speaker 1: I'm like, really, no, kid, no combat engineers, but infantry

1207
01:08:51,040 --> 01:08:54,439
Speaker 1: is open. Well, ship, I guess I'll take that. And

1208
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:57,680
Speaker 1: so they signed me up another one. Yeah, I got

1209
01:08:57,720 --> 01:08:59,760
Speaker 1: another one. Man. They could still the infantry all day.

1210
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:03,479
Speaker 1: Guys like me. But I was, you know, like, yes, yes,

1211
01:09:04,479 --> 01:09:07,320
Speaker 1: you know, little did I know? So? But that's that's

1212
01:09:07,320 --> 01:09:09,679
Speaker 1: how it went down. And um and I was only

1213
01:09:09,720 --> 01:09:12,439
Speaker 1: in for two years. I took the shortest amount of

1214
01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:17,080
Speaker 1: time possible in case. I just absolutely hated it. Um

1215
01:09:17,120 --> 01:09:21,080
Speaker 1: and I really did. I pretty much absolutely hated it

1216
01:09:21,400 --> 01:09:24,200
Speaker 1: just because of the culture at the time. You know,

1217
01:09:24,240 --> 01:09:26,160
Speaker 1: it was like there was nothing going on in the world.

1218
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:30,360
Speaker 1: There was no wars, the the the the infantry in

1219
01:09:30,400 --> 01:09:34,440
Speaker 1: particular was swelled with guys that were forced in there

1220
01:09:34,439 --> 01:09:38,320
Speaker 1: through courts, the court system. You know that the judges would,

1221
01:09:38,680 --> 01:09:40,880
Speaker 1: you know, here's a guy, he did all this petty

1222
01:09:40,960 --> 01:09:45,840
Speaker 1: thievery or whatever, crimes, drugs, blah blah blah, misdemeanor stuff,

1223
01:09:45,880 --> 01:09:49,120
Speaker 1: not not like federal stuff, you know, and they would

1224
01:09:49,160 --> 01:09:51,240
Speaker 1: give him the choice as like, son, you can go

1225
01:09:51,240 --> 01:09:52,920
Speaker 1: and you can go to jail, or you can go

1226
01:09:52,960 --> 01:09:56,439
Speaker 1: in the army. And that's almost a coin flip if

1227
01:09:56,439 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 1: you ask me, it's like they're kind of the same

1228
01:09:59,040 --> 01:10:02,240
Speaker 1: anything but no. But but it was filled with those

1229
01:10:02,280 --> 01:10:04,439
Speaker 1: guys and they didn't want to have anything to do with,

1230
01:10:04,600 --> 01:10:07,400
Speaker 1: you know, being soldiers. It was it was I'm not

1231
01:10:07,439 --> 01:10:09,720
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna dwell on it, but it it

1232
01:10:09,760 --> 01:10:13,799
Speaker 1: pretty much sucked. So and I started looking at my

1233
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:17,040
Speaker 1: my options for getting out or for getting out of

1234
01:10:17,080 --> 01:10:20,600
Speaker 1: at least getting out of the infantry, because it was

1235
01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:22,519
Speaker 1: that was the worst. It was just the word well

1236
01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:25,840
Speaker 1: maybe MPs was worse than that. The infantry was pretty bad.

1237
01:10:26,560 --> 01:10:30,600
Speaker 1: And and I said, well, I came to learn that

1238
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:33,280
Speaker 1: if I went to jump school, all these things that

1239
01:10:33,360 --> 01:10:36,120
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, like rangers, you know, which I

1240
01:10:36,120 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 1: couldn't even fathom rangers. I thought that was just too

1241
01:10:38,520 --> 01:10:42,599
Speaker 1: difficult for me, you know, but but green Berets. Uh

1242
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:46,320
Speaker 1: somehow I got myself wrapped around that axle thinking I

1243
01:10:46,320 --> 01:10:51,439
Speaker 1: could try that. But everything was you know, uh, everything

1244
01:10:51,520 --> 01:10:53,960
Speaker 1: was precluded to me because of jump school, because I

1245
01:10:53,960 --> 01:10:58,040
Speaker 1: have a clinical fear of heights, you know. Um, so

1246
01:10:58,640 --> 01:11:00,719
Speaker 1: that was out of the question. But you know, after

1247
01:11:00,760 --> 01:11:04,519
Speaker 1: two years of being in that that environment, UM, I

1248
01:11:04,600 --> 01:11:07,040
Speaker 1: was ready to jump it out a parachute. Man. I'm like,

1249
01:11:07,200 --> 01:11:09,920
Speaker 1: just I gotta get out of here, you know. So

1250
01:11:09,960 --> 01:11:13,640
Speaker 1: I signed up and went sucked up jump school and um,

1251
01:11:13,920 --> 01:11:17,639
Speaker 1: you know, went to I took twenty five guys because

1252
01:11:17,680 --> 01:11:19,400
Speaker 1: I was in EAT four corporal at the time. I

1253
01:11:19,439 --> 01:11:23,639
Speaker 1: took twenty five guys from jump School and we went

1254
01:11:23,720 --> 01:11:26,599
Speaker 1: by bus to Fort Bragg to start s f QC.

1255
01:11:27,920 --> 01:11:32,680
Speaker 1: And there are the Special Forces Qualification Course. And at

1256
01:11:32,680 --> 01:11:37,000
Speaker 1: the end of that five six months that we were there,

1257
01:11:37,560 --> 01:11:39,960
Speaker 1: there was me and there was one other guy private

1258
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:43,080
Speaker 1: that was that was left from that group. Everybody else

1259
01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:45,720
Speaker 1: had followed by the wayside. In fact, one of the

1260
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:49,519
Speaker 1: guys he he quit on the bus ride to Fort Bragg,

1261
01:11:50,479 --> 01:11:53,120
Speaker 1: you know, I mean we were I was sitting in

1262
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:54,559
Speaker 1: the back of the bus, you know, so I could

1263
01:11:54,640 --> 01:11:57,400
Speaker 1: keep an eye on my men, and every one of

1264
01:11:57,439 --> 01:12:00,200
Speaker 1: them was wearing was wearing a green beret with a

1265
01:12:00,240 --> 01:12:04,560
Speaker 1: flash on because they because they could. And I was

1266
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:06,800
Speaker 1: wearing a garrison cap. I'm like, I'm not gonna wear

1267
01:12:06,880 --> 01:12:09,479
Speaker 1: I'm not wearing that beret. There's no way I'm gonna

1268
01:12:09,520 --> 01:12:12,840
Speaker 1: wear that beret without being qualified. I sat in the

1269
01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:15,200
Speaker 1: back of the bus and we stopped at it like

1270
01:12:15,240 --> 01:12:18,960
Speaker 1: a Denny's so the guys could get lunch. And some

1271
01:12:19,120 --> 01:12:21,880
Speaker 1: dude comes walking back to his corporal hand. I wish

1272
01:12:21,960 --> 01:12:25,120
Speaker 1: to terminate, and I said, could you wait till we

1273
01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:28,000
Speaker 1: get to Bragg At least I don't know how to

1274
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:31,280
Speaker 1: need the paperwork from the bus. But yeah, I had

1275
01:12:31,280 --> 01:12:36,719
Speaker 1: guys terminating just on the ride over there, and and um, yeah,

1276
01:12:36,760 --> 01:12:40,280
Speaker 1: so just me and one other private made it and

1277
01:12:40,320 --> 01:12:42,720
Speaker 1: I went to seventh Group, and then I hated that

1278
01:12:43,360 --> 01:12:46,519
Speaker 1: quite a bit, but it was definitely a step way

1279
01:12:46,600 --> 01:12:49,600
Speaker 1: up from being in the infantry. But but again, you know,

1280
01:12:49,600 --> 01:12:51,599
Speaker 1: it was like I was in seventh Group and our

1281
01:12:51,960 --> 01:12:56,639
Speaker 1: area of operation was You're like going to Korea several

1282
01:12:56,680 --> 01:12:58,759
Speaker 1: times a year and a little bit of South America.

1283
01:12:59,040 --> 01:13:03,200
Speaker 1: Because this was when First Group had been deactivated. Yeah,

1284
01:13:03,240 --> 01:13:06,320
Speaker 1: they were not even activated yet right, Okay, so seventh

1285
01:13:06,320 --> 01:13:09,439
Speaker 1: Weep had to cover down on Asia. Yeah, so I was,

1286
01:13:09,840 --> 01:13:12,160
Speaker 1: and they did cover down on Asia. I mean they

1287
01:13:12,200 --> 01:13:15,120
Speaker 1: were really they were only going to Full Eagle, and

1288
01:13:15,160 --> 01:13:18,200
Speaker 1: I know, I know Jack knows what that exercises. It's

1289
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:22,920
Speaker 1: kind of a special operations, uh joint exercise in Korea

1290
01:13:23,000 --> 01:13:26,920
Speaker 1: once a year, like around November time frame, and uh

1291
01:13:27,160 --> 01:13:30,559
Speaker 1: uh seventh would do that. But other than that, they

1292
01:13:30,560 --> 01:13:34,400
Speaker 1: were they were just busy in themselves with South America,

1293
01:13:34,479 --> 01:13:36,760
Speaker 1: so you know, with to Panama on some other spots there.

1294
01:13:37,479 --> 01:13:40,479
Speaker 1: But but the rumor was that first group was opening

1295
01:13:40,560 --> 01:13:43,880
Speaker 1: up and that their areas of operation you know, Southeast

1296
01:13:43,880 --> 01:13:46,800
Speaker 1: Asia and so forth. And I you know, I came

1297
01:13:46,840 --> 01:13:52,439
Speaker 1: into the Army already speaking uh Chinese. I spoke Cantonese basically,

1298
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:56,400
Speaker 1: not Mandarin at that point, not quite. And you grew

1299
01:13:56,439 --> 01:14:00,400
Speaker 1: up speaking some French, too, didn't you. Yeah? My yeah,

1300
01:14:00,439 --> 01:14:04,680
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Um basically my grant from

1301
01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:09,280
Speaker 1: my grant, my mother's side, her parents are I screwed

1302
01:14:09,280 --> 01:14:12,280
Speaker 1: that up. It's my dad's side. His his mother only

1303
01:14:12,320 --> 01:14:17,920
Speaker 1: spoke Cajun French for the for an entire her entire life,

1304
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:21,799
Speaker 1: so he spoke French until he was five and started

1305
01:14:21,800 --> 01:14:23,679
Speaker 1: going to school. Then he had to knock it off.

1306
01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:26,439
Speaker 1: And the same thing with me. He was like when

1307
01:14:26,479 --> 01:14:28,360
Speaker 1: I went to school, you know, it just kind of

1308
01:14:28,400 --> 01:14:31,599
Speaker 1: slipped away. Um. But it was a little bit more

1309
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:34,040
Speaker 1: harsh environment when he would went to school. It was

1310
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:37,479
Speaker 1: like you would get punished, literally punished for speaking French.

1311
01:14:37,479 --> 01:14:39,840
Speaker 1: And it wasn't I mean there there just wasn't anybody

1312
01:14:39,880 --> 01:14:46,160
Speaker 1: else speaking French in school. Uh So, but he tried

1313
01:14:46,200 --> 01:14:48,639
Speaker 1: to pick it back up as a as a man.

1314
01:14:49,520 --> 01:14:51,640
Speaker 1: Like basically he was going to school when he was

1315
01:14:51,680 --> 01:14:54,280
Speaker 1: still in the Air Force, and he he took French.

1316
01:14:54,320 --> 01:14:56,920
Speaker 1: He feared he could make a quick a and and

1317
01:14:57,000 --> 01:14:59,160
Speaker 1: picked the language back up again. He ended up dropping

1318
01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:02,280
Speaker 1: it completely. It was just too hard. I'm like, that's

1319
01:15:02,360 --> 01:15:06,439
Speaker 1: that's bizarre. But and I was able to pick it

1320
01:15:06,479 --> 01:15:10,400
Speaker 1: back up again, uh really easily, very easily in fact.

1321
01:15:12,080 --> 01:15:14,879
Speaker 1: But you tell us then how you were in Chinese,

1322
01:15:14,920 --> 01:15:20,360
Speaker 1: because I mean you have a year from languages. I uh,

1323
01:15:20,760 --> 01:15:23,559
Speaker 1: I suppose I do. I'm not. I'm not. I'm still

1324
01:15:23,600 --> 01:15:27,519
Speaker 1: not convinced about that yet. But I got a job.

1325
01:15:27,640 --> 01:15:30,640
Speaker 1: I just somehow got a gig from a from a

1326
01:15:30,680 --> 01:15:33,559
Speaker 1: guy that was in high school with me, and I

1327
01:15:33,600 --> 01:15:38,080
Speaker 1: was thirteen years old at the time, and for somehow

1328
01:15:38,120 --> 01:15:42,080
Speaker 1: I had gotten latched onto Chinese writing. You know. I

1329
01:15:42,120 --> 01:15:44,880
Speaker 1: was like, that's fascinating, and that's unbelievable. You know. It's

1330
01:15:45,240 --> 01:15:47,439
Speaker 1: it's the hardest thing in the world as far as

1331
01:15:47,479 --> 01:15:50,320
Speaker 1: I know, to learn. So I'm gonna try to learn it.

1332
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:52,719
Speaker 1: So I would. I did it for like a summer.

1333
01:15:52,760 --> 01:15:54,240
Speaker 1: I got a book from a library and I was

1334
01:15:54,320 --> 01:15:58,559
Speaker 1: just practicing every freaking day, and um, I got to

1335
01:15:58,600 --> 01:16:01,320
Speaker 1: where I could write several hundred, you know, characters, and

1336
01:16:01,360 --> 01:16:04,320
Speaker 1: that was great. But this this guy was working at

1337
01:16:04,360 --> 01:16:08,160
Speaker 1: the one and only Chinese restaurant in town. He was

1338
01:16:08,200 --> 01:16:10,560
Speaker 1: a you know, washing dishes, and he just fixing to

1339
01:16:10,840 --> 01:16:14,200
Speaker 1: uh he was fixing to drop school, to drop out

1340
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:17,639
Speaker 1: and go race off to California and do whatever. And

1341
01:16:17,800 --> 01:16:19,760
Speaker 1: um so he was gonna leave that job. And he

1342
01:16:20,439 --> 01:16:22,360
Speaker 1: him and I had shop class together and he could

1343
01:16:22,360 --> 01:16:25,080
Speaker 1: see the scribbling on this paper and he go, hey,

1344
01:16:25,200 --> 01:16:28,719
Speaker 1: what the hell is that ship and nothing? That's just

1345
01:16:28,720 --> 01:16:31,120
Speaker 1: just trying to sharpen my the lead of my pencil,

1346
01:16:31,360 --> 01:16:34,720
Speaker 1: you know. And he but he saw that, and um

1347
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:36,800
Speaker 1: it just he just put the two together and goes, hey,

1348
01:16:36,800 --> 01:16:39,000
Speaker 1: I'm dropping out, man, I'm leaving, like next week. You

1349
01:16:39,040 --> 01:16:42,599
Speaker 1: want my job? I was like, job, Yeah, I'll take

1350
01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:45,040
Speaker 1: a job, and he said it was at the restaurant.

1351
01:16:45,080 --> 01:16:49,000
Speaker 1: I was like, holy crap. You know, I'm like your teeth,

1352
01:16:49,280 --> 01:16:51,840
Speaker 1: you know, So I'm gonna So I went there and

1353
01:16:51,920 --> 01:16:54,840
Speaker 1: interviewed with the boss, and she started working there. And I,

1354
01:16:55,040 --> 01:17:00,120
Speaker 1: you know, I kept practicing at at the restaurant, and

1355
01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:01,960
Speaker 1: the boss and the cooks they would look at me

1356
01:17:02,000 --> 01:17:04,200
Speaker 1: and they would just kind of roll their eyes or

1357
01:17:04,520 --> 01:17:07,880
Speaker 1: or laugh whatever. But I just kept at it, kept

1358
01:17:07,920 --> 01:17:12,880
Speaker 1: at it, and uh remember one day the back door

1359
01:17:12,960 --> 01:17:14,800
Speaker 1: rang the butt that we had a buzzer back there,

1360
01:17:15,240 --> 01:17:17,720
Speaker 1: and I, you know, the dishwasher answers the door. So

1361
01:17:17,800 --> 01:17:20,439
Speaker 1: I ran back there and it was police. They were

1362
01:17:20,439 --> 01:17:25,559
Speaker 1: there to uh interview some of us about breakings of

1363
01:17:25,640 --> 01:17:28,960
Speaker 1: cars in our parking lot, you know. So I was like, oh, yeah,

1364
01:17:29,080 --> 01:17:30,920
Speaker 1: let me just a second. I ran up to the boss,

1365
01:17:32,040 --> 01:17:34,160
Speaker 1: the cook, and I told him in Chinese, I said, hey,

1366
01:17:34,200 --> 01:17:37,360
Speaker 1: there's the police are at the back door, and he

1367
01:17:37,479 --> 01:17:39,639
Speaker 1: just looked at me, you know, he took a cigarette

1368
01:17:39,680 --> 01:17:40,960
Speaker 1: out of his mouth and looked at me for a

1369
01:17:41,000 --> 01:17:44,200
Speaker 1: second and then he walked to the back door, but

1370
01:17:44,240 --> 01:17:45,760
Speaker 1: he was looking at me the whole time. He walked

1371
01:17:45,760 --> 01:17:48,920
Speaker 1: to the back door and that that was over, and

1372
01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:51,360
Speaker 1: he came up to me again. He came up to me.

1373
01:17:51,439 --> 01:17:55,040
Speaker 1: He goes, hey, boy, they called me boy. He said, boy,

1374
01:17:55,080 --> 01:17:56,960
Speaker 1: what did you say? I go, what do you mean?

1375
01:17:57,360 --> 01:18:00,000
Speaker 1: Because what did you say when you came in from

1376
01:18:00,000 --> 01:18:01,760
Speaker 1: the back door? And I said, well, I said the

1377
01:18:01,760 --> 01:18:03,439
Speaker 1: police were here. He goes, no, no no, no, you said

1378
01:18:03,439 --> 01:18:05,840
Speaker 1: it in Chinese. Let me hear you say it again.

1379
01:18:05,880 --> 01:18:07,920
Speaker 1: And I said, so I said it to him, you know,

1380
01:18:08,800 --> 01:18:12,759
Speaker 1: and he goes and he corrected it right. He goes, okay, listen,

1381
01:18:12,800 --> 01:18:16,120
Speaker 1: here this word and he he went word by word

1382
01:18:16,120 --> 01:18:19,960
Speaker 1: and he corrected me. And from that point basically he

1383
01:18:20,040 --> 01:18:24,360
Speaker 1: was they were taking me serious. So instead of rolling

1384
01:18:24,400 --> 01:18:26,479
Speaker 1: their eyes, you know and whatever, it's like that, every

1385
01:18:26,560 --> 01:18:28,880
Speaker 1: chance they got, you know, they would hold ship up,

1386
01:18:28,920 --> 01:18:30,639
Speaker 1: you know and say it in Chinese and I would

1387
01:18:30,640 --> 01:18:34,840
Speaker 1: repeat it, and uh. Every night afterward, the boss would,

1388
01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:37,280
Speaker 1: you know, take the cash register, and he started he

1389
01:18:37,360 --> 01:18:40,400
Speaker 1: started tallying up the receipts for the day, watching TV,

1390
01:18:40,520 --> 01:18:43,160
Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes. And I would sit behind him with my

1391
01:18:43,160 --> 01:18:46,200
Speaker 1: books and I would read out loud, and you know,

1392
01:18:46,240 --> 01:18:47,960
Speaker 1: I would go on and on, and I think he's

1393
01:18:48,320 --> 01:18:50,559
Speaker 1: he's this guy listened to me. He's doing math and

1394
01:18:50,600 --> 01:18:54,519
Speaker 1: he's watching TV and he's sucking on a cigarette. But

1395
01:18:54,800 --> 01:18:56,519
Speaker 1: he would hold his hand up every now and then

1396
01:18:56,600 --> 01:18:59,360
Speaker 1: stop and say repeat that, and so I'd go back

1397
01:18:59,360 --> 01:19:02,559
Speaker 1: and repeat it, so that so he actually was listening

1398
01:19:02,560 --> 01:19:05,600
Speaker 1: to me. And I did that for We did that

1399
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:07,280
Speaker 1: for like, you know, if I worked there for five

1400
01:19:07,360 --> 01:19:10,400
Speaker 1: years basically, and when I got out and went straight

1401
01:19:10,439 --> 01:19:14,320
Speaker 1: into the army, Um, I was you know, I didn't

1402
01:19:14,320 --> 01:19:17,080
Speaker 1: know how well I could read, write and speak, but

1403
01:19:17,439 --> 01:19:20,920
Speaker 1: it kind of just something I kept secret because nobody

1404
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:22,680
Speaker 1: wanted to hear about it in the in the in

1405
01:19:22,720 --> 01:19:25,559
Speaker 1: the infantry. You know, they didn't I mean they didn't

1406
01:19:25,560 --> 01:19:27,400
Speaker 1: want to hear about it. No one cared. But when

1407
01:19:27,400 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: I got to group, it was a different story. You know.

1408
01:19:30,720 --> 01:19:34,000
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I went and took the d

1409
01:19:34,200 --> 01:19:39,840
Speaker 1: LPT for it and scored really high, and I said, yeah,

1410
01:19:39,840 --> 01:19:40,840
Speaker 1: I want to you know, I want to go to

1411
01:19:40,960 --> 01:19:44,719
Speaker 1: first group. And uh, because they have they have Chinese

1412
01:19:44,720 --> 01:19:47,360
Speaker 1: speakers there. They need that language. And that's what I

1413
01:19:47,439 --> 01:19:50,800
Speaker 1: ended up. That's how I got to first group. You

1414
01:19:50,800 --> 01:19:54,080
Speaker 1: got to get away from seventh Group and because you know,

1415
01:19:54,240 --> 01:19:58,720
Speaker 1: they had an area of responsibility that piqued my interest. Um,

1416
01:19:58,760 --> 01:20:00,519
Speaker 1: and I thought I could do you know, these great

1417
01:20:00,520 --> 01:20:04,160
Speaker 1: things by having a Chinese already. You know, they didn't

1418
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:05,800
Speaker 1: have to send me a way to deal I for

1419
01:20:06,760 --> 01:20:11,240
Speaker 1: a year. Basically, I guess that's what that is. Um. Yeah.

1420
01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:13,599
Speaker 1: But anyway, so I was there with Chinese, never did

1421
01:20:13,680 --> 01:20:18,479
Speaker 1: anything with it because all we did was go to Korea. Basically. Yeah,

1422
01:20:18,479 --> 01:20:22,400
Speaker 1: you had told me once about the rivalry. I guess

1423
01:20:22,439 --> 01:20:24,920
Speaker 1: you could say, because there's one battalion in first group

1424
01:20:24,920 --> 01:20:27,120
Speaker 1: that got to go to Thailand and then there was

1425
01:20:27,240 --> 01:20:30,880
Speaker 1: your battalion that got to go to Korea in Alaska.

1426
01:20:31,600 --> 01:20:33,640
Speaker 1: So Jack, you have a good memory, man, that is

1427
01:20:33,760 --> 01:20:38,320
Speaker 1: exactly right. I mean I was in the second battalion,

1428
01:20:38,600 --> 01:20:41,840
Speaker 1: and Pat McNamara was in third battalion. The good deal

1429
01:20:41,880 --> 01:20:47,880
Speaker 1: boys and Mac went to Thailand and Philippines. Uh, you know,

1430
01:20:48,439 --> 01:20:51,000
Speaker 1: they got to go to all the good deal places,

1431
01:20:51,040 --> 01:20:53,920
Speaker 1: and we were just yeah, going to Korea. That was

1432
01:20:53,960 --> 01:20:59,479
Speaker 1: it in Alaska. And even we are lived living in

1433
01:20:59,520 --> 01:21:02,760
Speaker 1: Washington the state, and I think Jack, you were second right.

1434
01:21:03,400 --> 01:21:10,040
Speaker 1: I was in Washington State. I mean the ski areas

1435
01:21:10,040 --> 01:21:13,479
Speaker 1: and the mountains and the snow are all year round. Uh,

1436
01:21:13,760 --> 01:21:16,640
Speaker 1: not a very long drive, and so we ended up

1437
01:21:16,680 --> 01:21:20,559
Speaker 1: getting sent you know, just slightly north to mess around

1438
01:21:20,560 --> 01:21:23,040
Speaker 1: in the snow and practice our skiing and that sort

1439
01:21:23,040 --> 01:21:25,400
Speaker 1: of thing. But when me and Mac we you know,

1440
01:21:26,720 --> 01:21:28,840
Speaker 1: uh catch each other coming and going, you know, we'd

1441
01:21:28,840 --> 01:21:31,360
Speaker 1: get together and Mac would tell me stories about what

1442
01:21:31,439 --> 01:21:34,120
Speaker 1: he did in Thailand and he throw some tie phrases

1443
01:21:34,160 --> 01:21:36,760
Speaker 1: out at me, and I'd beat jealous as hell, you know,

1444
01:21:39,600 --> 01:21:41,519
Speaker 1: and it was great. But but we hardly saw each

1445
01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:43,720
Speaker 1: other because just because of the op tempo and the

1446
01:21:43,760 --> 01:21:48,519
Speaker 1: different areas. Um, yeah, me and Mac, like I never

1447
01:21:48,560 --> 01:21:52,519
Speaker 1: saw each other, not until we like years later. We

1448
01:21:52,600 --> 01:21:55,920
Speaker 1: just you know, dumb luck. Me and Max showed up,

1449
01:21:55,960 --> 01:22:00,080
Speaker 1: you know, in delta selection together. It was like, holy it,

1450
01:22:00,240 --> 01:22:05,040
Speaker 1: look at you, damn George, what are you doing? Mac?

1451
01:22:05,080 --> 01:22:07,160
Speaker 1: He looked great, you know, So we went through that together.

1452
01:22:07,280 --> 01:22:10,040
Speaker 1: We made it. That was his second time, Yeah, the

1453
01:22:10,080 --> 01:22:12,479
Speaker 1: second time. He'd like rolled an ankle really bad this

1454
01:22:12,600 --> 01:22:14,800
Speaker 1: first time around, but he was right back in the

1455
01:22:14,800 --> 01:22:17,720
Speaker 1: saddle as quick as he could, and we got to uh,

1456
01:22:18,280 --> 01:22:20,360
Speaker 1: we got to go to selection together and it was

1457
01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:23,000
Speaker 1: really great. It was really really great having Mac don

1458
01:22:23,040 --> 01:22:26,280
Speaker 1: see a familiar face. Yeah. See, if we hung out

1459
01:22:26,320 --> 01:22:28,760
Speaker 1: all the time, you know, all the all the freaking time,

1460
01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:32,280
Speaker 1: which went two meals every day, kept each other really

1461
01:22:32,400 --> 01:22:36,320
Speaker 1: entertained and you know, basically caught up. Uh and and

1462
01:22:36,360 --> 01:22:40,599
Speaker 1: we we both made it. I hope you guys enjoyed

1463
01:22:40,640 --> 01:22:44,040
Speaker 1: this special. I certainly enjoyed putting it together. There's some

1464
01:22:44,160 --> 01:22:48,200
Speaker 1: just excellent guys in here with some really cool stories.

1465
01:22:48,280 --> 01:22:50,320
Speaker 1: And if you liked it, listen back to the full

1466
01:22:50,360 --> 01:22:52,720
Speaker 1: episodes because you get into a lot more than I

1467
01:22:52,720 --> 01:22:56,320
Speaker 1: could put in this one episode. Um As always follow

1468
01:22:56,439 --> 01:23:00,720
Speaker 1: us on Twitter and Instagram at soft Wrap Radio. Many

1469
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:03,000
Speaker 1: of you may be wondering where is Jack Murphy. Jack

1470
01:23:03,080 --> 01:23:06,920
Speaker 1: Murphy will be back next episode. Be prepared for it.

1471
01:23:07,400 --> 01:23:09,680
Speaker 1: I've missed seeing Jack and studio, so we've got a

1472
01:23:09,680 --> 01:23:12,559
Speaker 1: lot to catch up on. Hope you enjoy. Let me

1473
01:23:12,640 --> 01:23:14,800
Speaker 1: know what you think, and maybe next time I do

1474
01:23:14,840 --> 01:23:17,360
Speaker 1: a special like this, will do Navy seals. You've got

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01:23:17,400 --> 01:23:20,679
Speaker 1: some great Navy seals recently from Brent Leason to Jack

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01:23:20,760 --> 01:23:24,320
Speaker 1: barr h So maybe we'll do that one next time.

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01:23:24,439 --> 01:23:27,880
Speaker 1: All right, keep kicking ash out there and have a

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01:23:27,920 --> 01:23:32,559
Speaker 1: great one guys, you've been listening to self red Radio.

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Speaker 1: New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show

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01:23:37,439 --> 01:24:01,040
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at self red Radio.