1
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:19,400
Speaker 1: Ah beaut Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not

2
00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:25,440
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, military

3
00:00:25,520 --> 00:01:08,880
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community,

4
00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,560
Speaker 1: superf dot Com on Time on Target. A lot of

5
00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,760
Speaker 1: people really like the episode of Curtis albert Is back

6
00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:19,760
Speaker 1: on episode three eleven, so we're having him back on

7
00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:22,520
Speaker 1: UM if you've never heard it, that was a really

8
00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,000
Speaker 1: in depth discussion. It might be the longest soccer rating

9
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,399
Speaker 1: we've ever done. UM So. I feel like he got

10
00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,280
Speaker 1: very in depth of his history, but he had a

11
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,200
Speaker 1: few other things he wanted to add, so we'll hear

12
00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,160
Speaker 1: about that, um Jack. I think the first thing to

13
00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:40,039
Speaker 1: talk about would be Syria. I mean, this is obviously

14
00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 1: huge news and uh, you know, there's there's a wide

15
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,200
Speaker 1: range of opinion on how the president acted, not only

16
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,600
Speaker 1: how he acted, but the way he acted. There's Republicans,

17
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 1: for example, in Congress saying, you know, no congressional authority.

18
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: This is the same type of stuff that Obahama was

19
00:01:56,160 --> 00:02:01,560
Speaker 1: criticized for and every other president. Yeah. President uh, you

20
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:06,440
Speaker 1: know ordered air strikes against suspected al KAINEA targets in

21
00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:13,520
Speaker 1: um was it Sudan and also Afghanistan. Uh, George W. Bush,

22
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:18,720
Speaker 1: certainly you ordered attacks in places without congressional approval. Barack

23
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:23,640
Speaker 1: Obama absolutely did. So, I mean Trump is kind of

24
00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,640
Speaker 1: continuing that trend. Um. It's another one of those things

25
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,840
Speaker 1: like yeah, everyone's like, I hate Trump, blah blah blah. Okay,

26
00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:32,240
Speaker 1: cool man, But I mean you can hate him if

27
00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:33,960
Speaker 1: you want. But I mean it's the same thing that

28
00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,960
Speaker 1: every other president did, which doesn't excuse it, um if

29
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,360
Speaker 1: you think it's constitutionally wrong. But I just say, let's

30
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,520
Speaker 1: being consistent and how we condemn our presidents and not

31
00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,080
Speaker 1: just because he's this party or that party. But wasn't

32
00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,320
Speaker 1: it only I think a week or two ago that

33
00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,760
Speaker 1: he was saying we need to draw back in Syria? Yeah, well,

34
00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:53,920
Speaker 1: I mean we talked about that on the last podcast, right,

35
00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,720
Speaker 1: I was saying that Trump doesn't even take himself seriously,

36
00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:00,480
Speaker 1: like the things he says he doesn't take seriously. Um.

37
00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,480
Speaker 1: So yeah, he was talking about we need to withdraw

38
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,840
Speaker 1: everybody out of Syria, all of our American personnel, and

39
00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,200
Speaker 1: then General Votel was like, uh no, like we don't

40
00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,400
Speaker 1: have any plans to do that. We need to stick around.

41
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,960
Speaker 1: And then Trump's like Oh well, we're reconsidering, we're thinking

42
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 1: about it. And but I mean that's how he thinks.

43
00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:20,680
Speaker 1: He thinks in terms of like that reality TV social

44
00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,840
Speaker 1: media like is it gonna happen? Is it not gonna happen?

45
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,920
Speaker 1: Wait until after the commercial break to find out. You know.

46
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,880
Speaker 1: It's that kind of you know mentality, that's his approach

47
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:36,080
Speaker 1: to governance, and it creates fucking chaos for all concerned. Um,

48
00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:40,840
Speaker 1: certainly an interesting first week for John Bolton. Jeez. Yeah.

49
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 1: Also I was um pointing this out, um, much to

50
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,360
Speaker 1: the dismay of some people that you know, Trump really

51
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:53,160
Speaker 1: criticized Obama for a quote unquote telegraphing our moves right

52
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,920
Speaker 1: so like in Missile, like it was announced like there's

53
00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,640
Speaker 1: gonna be a battle for Missile, We're gonna retake the city.

54
00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:00,840
Speaker 1: And he was like, why are they announcing? Why are

55
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 1: they saying that ahead of time? And I tried to

56
00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:04,440
Speaker 1: point out the people at the time. I was like, look,

57
00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:09,680
Speaker 1: it's not really possible to hide large troop formations in Iraq.

58
00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,160
Speaker 1: It's in the desert. Everybody's got a cell phone. You

59
00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:15,880
Speaker 1: start moving all the pieces around the chess board, I mean,

60
00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,080
Speaker 1: there's no way to keep that secret in this especially

61
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,760
Speaker 1: in this day and age. You know, maybe, like you know,

62
00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,680
Speaker 1: five years ago, you could wake up the troops and

63
00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,080
Speaker 1: have them march through the night and launch a surprise attack. Um,

64
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:28,760
Speaker 1: these days, it's a hell of a lot harder to

65
00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,479
Speaker 1: pull that off. Right. You can do like you know,

66
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,640
Speaker 1: Seal Team six on stealth helicopters, insert a small team

67
00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:36,080
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night and get the drop

68
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:38,400
Speaker 1: on them that way. Yeah, you can do that, But

69
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,279
Speaker 1: like having an army attack a city, like, you're not

70
00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:42,799
Speaker 1: gonna be able to do that in a in a

71
00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,280
Speaker 1: clandestine manner. Um. So I mean I understood why they

72
00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:49,200
Speaker 1: were making those announcements. Um, They're also trying to prepare

73
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,440
Speaker 1: the Iraqi government as best they could, and it was

74
00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 1: a long drawn out process. I would criticize the American

75
00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,960
Speaker 1: government more, in the Obama administration more because they announced

76
00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:02,880
Speaker 1: We're gonna retake Mrs Well and then like a week later, like, uh,

77
00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,880
Speaker 1: the Iraqi army needs like another six months of preparation.

78
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,720
Speaker 1: It's like, what what a clown show this is? But um,

79
00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,400
Speaker 1: you know, nonetheless, Trump was on Twitter like a day

80
00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,920
Speaker 1: and a half before he launched the air strikes, like, oh, Syria.

81
00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,599
Speaker 1: Better watch out here. Come are smart strikes. They're coming

82
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,599
Speaker 1: in Russia. You better behave And then you know, you know,

83
00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,400
Speaker 1: what was the twenty four hours or maybe a little

84
00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:30,600
Speaker 1: bit more, maybe a day and a half, he launches

85
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:33,120
Speaker 1: the air strike. It's like, this is exactly what you

86
00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:36,960
Speaker 1: criticized Obama for. So again, it's like just a question

87
00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:40,240
Speaker 1: of being consistent. And I know I'm not trying to

88
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,040
Speaker 1: be like a thirteen year old. I mean, we live

89
00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:47,040
Speaker 1: in an inconsistent world. People are inconsistent. Um, So that's

90
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:52,400
Speaker 1: again not necessarily an excuse, but I understand an inconsistent world.

91
00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,120
Speaker 1: But it's just hard not to notice these things when

92
00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:59,880
Speaker 1: people are so allowed and obnoxious about their claims and

93
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,360
Speaker 1: then they do the exact same thing that they criticize

94
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:04,280
Speaker 1: people for. And it was funny to see the Trump

95
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,279
Speaker 1: supporters come out and defend them, like, oh oh, but

96
00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,760
Speaker 1: he didn't give any details at all about the strike.

97
00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,480
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, but he told them the strike was coming,

98
00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,200
Speaker 1: which tells the Syrian government they need to move all

99
00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,480
Speaker 1: their airplanes and all their chemical weapons before the strike comes.

100
00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,280
Speaker 1: That's kind of the most important part. Um as far

101
00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,559
Speaker 1: as the strikes themselves, Um, I talked to a source

102
00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:30,840
Speaker 1: of mind who has very good access in Syria. UM.

103
00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,280
Speaker 1: I can't really get any any deeper into it than

104
00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,479
Speaker 1: that right now, but UM, they were telling me that

105
00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,839
Speaker 1: the air strikes were mostly symbolic, that they didn't do

106
00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: a whole lot of damage. And it seems like there's

107
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,840
Speaker 1: a lot of other analysts out there, UM with their

108
00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,159
Speaker 1: own sources and also looking at open source information, who

109
00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:50,960
Speaker 1: more or less concur with that that it was more

110
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,839
Speaker 1: symbolic than anything else. Just like the first air strike

111
00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,920
Speaker 1: that Trump ordered against Syria for the use of chemical weapons.

112
00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,880
Speaker 1: It's not war, and the convention no sense that like

113
00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,640
Speaker 1: we're going to war with this country. It's messaging on

114
00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:08,080
Speaker 1: the international stage like you're slapping the guy's pp like, no,

115
00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,200
Speaker 1: don't do that, don't use the chemical weapons. They're bad.

116
00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,160
Speaker 1: Slap him on his penis, take a ball, like a

117
00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:17,680
Speaker 1: big ballpoint pen and just what whack. That's basically what

118
00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,640
Speaker 1: what Trump was doing. You have an interesting perspective on

119
00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:23,560
Speaker 1: this because for the audience that doesn't know. I always

120
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:25,400
Speaker 1: try to keep in mind there's new people listening all

121
00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:28,800
Speaker 1: the time to urs it. Three years ago, you were

122
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,000
Speaker 1: in Syria. You got to sit down with presidents. That

123
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,640
Speaker 1: was like two years ago now yeah, yeah, UM, so

124
00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,560
Speaker 1: I've yeah, I've been to Syria twice during the war. UM.

125
00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,600
Speaker 1: The first time I got smuggled into northern Syria with

126
00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:47,080
Speaker 1: the p k K UM, the Kurdish fighters, guerilla fighters, UM,

127
00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:49,760
Speaker 1: and spent a lot of time with the YPG and

128
00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:57,760
Speaker 1: YPJ militias. UM. That was twenty fourteen late UM. And

129
00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:01,000
Speaker 1: then I went and and then I was in Iraq

130
00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:06,880
Speaker 1: uh in reporting UM with the Peshmerga. And then twenty

131
00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:11,520
Speaker 1: six yeah, I guess it was. I was in Damascus

132
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,920
Speaker 1: this time with the under the auspices of the Syrian

133
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: government UM and UH. Those were all interesting trips. And

134
00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:26,960
Speaker 1: the use of chemical weapons, Yeah, it's really interesting and

135
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:28,960
Speaker 1: I think like a lot more research needs to be

136
00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,160
Speaker 1: done on this. UM. For sure, ISIS and the rebels

137
00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:36,360
Speaker 1: have used chlorine gas. I do believe that the regime

138
00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:41,760
Speaker 1: has also used chemical weapons UH in multiple instances. But

139
00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:47,160
Speaker 1: the question is why it's you know, but shar al

140
00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,840
Speaker 1: Asad is not a dumb person by any means. Why

141
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,120
Speaker 1: would he use chemical weapons when he knows this is

142
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:58,360
Speaker 1: going to incite the anger of the entire international community. UM.

143
00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,160
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to make sense, Like, Kay, maybe you,

144
00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,960
Speaker 1: you know, kill some bad guys, you kill some rebels, um,

145
00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:07,400
Speaker 1: but you're also going to kill a bunch of civilians.

146
00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,480
Speaker 1: And it's just you know, return on investment or risk

147
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,120
Speaker 1: versus gain analysis, Like it just doesn't add up. And

148
00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,960
Speaker 1: the Assad government and the Aga White regime are smart

149
00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,880
Speaker 1: enough to know that they're not dumb. So it brings

150
00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,319
Speaker 1: about the question why are there players on the ground

151
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,040
Speaker 1: who are using these chemical weapons? And the only thing

152
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:31,320
Speaker 1: I can really come up with is I think that

153
00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,880
Speaker 1: for some colonel or some major or captain or whoever

154
00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,160
Speaker 1: has you know, they have some access to some limited

155
00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,240
Speaker 1: chemical weapons, and for them it makes tactical sense to

156
00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:46,800
Speaker 1: use that weapon, even though for Syria as a whole

157
00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:50,280
Speaker 1: it doesn't make any strategic sense whatsoever. So I have

158
00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:54,040
Speaker 1: to wonder if there aren't mid level Syrian military officers

159
00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,679
Speaker 1: who are freelancing some of these decisions and doing it

160
00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,439
Speaker 1: on their own. Um. The last big, big one that happened,

161
00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:04,600
Speaker 1: um was it in Gauda, the big chemical weapons strike,

162
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,480
Speaker 1: and and Trump ordered the air strikes and retaliation for

163
00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,120
Speaker 1: that as well. Um. It was weird because Nicki Haley

164
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:14,560
Speaker 1: was at the U n UH saying like, look, we're

165
00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:18,600
Speaker 1: reversing the Obama era policy. Um, we're gonna reach some

166
00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:21,880
Speaker 1: sort of accommodation with the Syrian government and with Russia.

167
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,520
Speaker 1: And this was Michael Flynn in the background pulling some

168
00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 1: of the puppet strings on that as well. And it

169
00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:30,480
Speaker 1: was like a day or two after NICKI Haley said

170
00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,200
Speaker 1: that that the chemical weapons were used. It was almost

171
00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:39,880
Speaker 1: like somebody was deliberately sabotaging this reconciliation policy that the

172
00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:43,880
Speaker 1: Trump administration was trying to advocate for. And I know

173
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:46,040
Speaker 1: I'm getting my tinfoil hat on a little bit there.

174
00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,040
Speaker 1: I'm just and I don't know the full story by

175
00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,080
Speaker 1: any means. I'm just saying I think we need to

176
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,080
Speaker 1: take a closer critical look at that and that whole

177
00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,200
Speaker 1: sequence of events and the more recent sequence of events

178
00:10:57,200 --> 00:10:59,440
Speaker 1: that happened with this chemical strike. I do believe a

179
00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:02,680
Speaker 1: h chemical weapons are being used on the ground. I

180
00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:04,800
Speaker 1: think the rebels have used them. I think the regime

181
00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,160
Speaker 1: has used them. I think Isis has used them. I'm

182
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:09,760
Speaker 1: not you know, a denier or or something like that.

183
00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:12,560
Speaker 1: I think we just need to take a really hard

184
00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:16,400
Speaker 1: look at what's going on over there. Because whatever the cases,

185
00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:18,640
Speaker 1: we have not gotten the whole story yet. There's more

186
00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:21,559
Speaker 1: to and there's a lot of propaganda and yeah, and

187
00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,800
Speaker 1: the Russians are spouting off propaganda left and right. They're

188
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:29,440
Speaker 1: saying that, um, it's all you know, the UK um,

189
00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:31,760
Speaker 1: you know, basically doing some sort of like false flag

190
00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,960
Speaker 1: attack or something like that, like it's all staged, that

191
00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:37,319
Speaker 1: the White Helmets staged it. And I mean, the White

192
00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,480
Speaker 1: Helmets is a very dubious group. I mean, I know

193
00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:41,880
Speaker 1: I'll catch flak for saying this, but I mean they're

194
00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,160
Speaker 1: you know, wolves in sheep's clothing and they are sponsored

195
00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:46,920
Speaker 1: have been sponsored at least in the past by this

196
00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:52,200
Speaker 1: UK firm. That whole documentary that was made about the

197
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,880
Speaker 1: White Helmets is very odd. Um, and they operate inside

198
00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,880
Speaker 1: is Lamist controlled areas, So just is is the question

199
00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:04,880
Speaker 1: raises a lot of questions, frankly, But I mean, I

200
00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:08,120
Speaker 1: don't believe that all of these chemical weapons attacks are staged.

201
00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,400
Speaker 1: I mean that's nonsense. But what about people who are

202
00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,320
Speaker 1: out there saying there's no proof that the Assad regime

203
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,200
Speaker 1: is using chemical weapons? Is that pure conspiracy theory at

204
00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:19,400
Speaker 1: this point or is it? I mean, it depends on

205
00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:21,360
Speaker 1: what proof is. I don't think that we have a

206
00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:23,920
Speaker 1: percent proof. UM. I'm not sure if we're ever going

207
00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:26,640
Speaker 1: to get a percent UM. You know, it's much like

208
00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:30,520
Speaker 1: when UM, when the Russians shot down that Malaysian airline

209
00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:35,080
Speaker 1: or over Ukraine, they liquidated all the people who knew

210
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:38,720
Speaker 1: stuff about that, because you remember how all that went down,

211
00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,480
Speaker 1: and then there's like international like tribunal hearings and stuff

212
00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:44,920
Speaker 1: like that. My information about it was that the Russians

213
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,600
Speaker 1: they liquidated all the commanders on the ground, like they

214
00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,240
Speaker 1: disappeared into shallow graves somewhere so that they can never

215
00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:56,319
Speaker 1: offer testimony. And that's not conspiracy theory, that's I mean,

216
00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,080
Speaker 1: I don't have facts I could improve. I mean, I

217
00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:02,800
Speaker 1: have what sources in the close to the situation have

218
00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:04,800
Speaker 1: told me, but I don't have I could not prove

219
00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,679
Speaker 1: in a court of law UM. And I suspect that

220
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:11,160
Speaker 1: when somebody in Syria uses a chemical weapon and pisses

221
00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:14,080
Speaker 1: off the world like this, that there's a similar type

222
00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:18,320
Speaker 1: of cover up taking place. UM. And it's also telling

223
00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:22,120
Speaker 1: that the government, the regime will not let the UM

224
00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:26,760
Speaker 1: Organization for the Protection against Chemical Weapons UM. What is it?

225
00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,120
Speaker 1: O P I W won't let them inside the area

226
00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,600
Speaker 1: where this chemical weapon attack took place. They let in

227
00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:38,160
Speaker 1: some weird news agency, they yeah, but they won't one

228
00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,199
Speaker 1: American news. I think, yeah, yeah, they So they're running,

229
00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,040
Speaker 1: they're running away, and I probably the act. They're running

230
00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:48,640
Speaker 1: their disinformation campaign, but they won't let the actual chemical

231
00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:52,520
Speaker 1: weapons experts in to test to see if chemical weapons

232
00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:54,800
Speaker 1: had been used, and if not, then okay, then we

233
00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:01,360
Speaker 1: move on. You know, Um, but if if they weren't used,

234
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,240
Speaker 1: if chemical weapons weren't used, what possible motivation would the

235
00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,040
Speaker 1: regime have for not letting them in. Yeah, it doesn't

236
00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,319
Speaker 1: make sense. No, it doesn't make sense at all. I'm

237
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,440
Speaker 1: just wondering. On a personal note, does it ever blow

238
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,559
Speaker 1: your mind that you got to sit down with this guy? Um?

239
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,720
Speaker 1: Because I think of that scenario. Like even during the

240
00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: last presidential debate, they started to ask candidates like I

241
00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,320
Speaker 1: remember they asked Jeff Bush if you could sit down

242
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,640
Speaker 1: with like baby Hitler, would you Hitler? What kind of

243
00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,680
Speaker 1: question is that? Baby? You remember that I asked him.

244
00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,920
Speaker 1: They were like, would you kill baby? You remember? Je Bush? Like, yeah,

245
00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,840
Speaker 1: like a little baby with a little Hitler mustaf But

246
00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,680
Speaker 1: you know you probably I would think contemplate, you got

247
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,200
Speaker 1: to sit down with a guy that is, you know,

248
00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,320
Speaker 1: one of the most hated someone say, dictators in the

249
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,160
Speaker 1: world right now, Hey, he's definitely I mean not doing

250
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:55,720
Speaker 1: so hot in the international or Um. I'm just thinking

251
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,880
Speaker 1: reflecting on it now, the fact that you got to

252
00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,400
Speaker 1: sit down and have it as goushion with him, I thought,

253
00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:03,480
Speaker 1: I mean, it was, it was interesting, It was, it

254
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,200
Speaker 1: was fascinating, uh, in a few different ways. But I

255
00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:11,240
Speaker 1: mean you have to keep it all in perspective. UM.

256
00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:13,400
Speaker 1: You know, there are many people out there doing many

257
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:18,680
Speaker 1: weird things. I think that with Assad, and what came

258
00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,160
Speaker 1: out of that trip from me is that the government

259
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,920
Speaker 1: is way more fragile than people think. UM, and they

260
00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:31,440
Speaker 1: are not nearly people. It's a it's a personalized regime

261
00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,480
Speaker 1: in so many ways. If you drive around Damascus, you're

262
00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:38,800
Speaker 1: gonna see pictures of Assad all over the place. UM.

263
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,880
Speaker 1: You'll see even statutes. When I was in northern Syria,

264
00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,040
Speaker 1: the area that was controlled by the Kurds, you'd see, Um,

265
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,960
Speaker 1: the Kurds have their own UM. You know, pictures and

266
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:53,120
Speaker 1: propaganda everywhere, YPJ flags, UM, pictures of adela Oglan all

267
00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,680
Speaker 1: over the place. UM. But you'll also see like in

268
00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:02,840
Speaker 1: the town square statue of Huffee's al Assade was Bashar's father. Um.

269
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,920
Speaker 1: So it's a very personalized regime in that sense that

270
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,600
Speaker 1: there's a conflation of Assad is Syria. There there's no

271
00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:14,960
Speaker 1: distinction between the two. Like in the United States, Donald

272
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,320
Speaker 1: Trump is not America, Barack Obama is not America. We

273
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,320
Speaker 1: see these are elected leaders. They're gonna be our president

274
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,840
Speaker 1: for a little bit, then they're gonna go away. Um.

275
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,280
Speaker 1: But when push comes to shove. It was interesting to

276
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,480
Speaker 1: see some of you know, my experience trying to travel

277
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,760
Speaker 1: even just travel around Damascus, and I had permission to

278
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 1: go into a neighborhood UM called Katzia from both the

279
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:43,560
Speaker 1: Ministry of Defense the Media office UM. And I was

280
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:45,880
Speaker 1: there at the invitation of the Syrian government. So like

281
00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:49,040
Speaker 1: I had all the permissions you could possibly get, and

282
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,600
Speaker 1: I still couldn't get into this neighborhood because it's like

283
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:58,360
Speaker 1: some random checkpoint guard has more power than the government itself.

284
00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,360
Speaker 1: And I've come to find out that the reason wise

285
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:04,240
Speaker 1: because the Syrian government cuts all these deals with rebel

286
00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:06,760
Speaker 1: groups to try to like, oh, come on back into

287
00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,480
Speaker 1: the fold. So it looks like the Syrian government has

288
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:12,960
Speaker 1: control over these areas, but really they don't. UM it's

289
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:16,000
Speaker 1: a it's a negotiated sort of settlement, and it just

290
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:19,000
Speaker 1: leaves kind of the large swaths of the country in limbo.

291
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,400
Speaker 1: I imagine that hasn't changed that much as they're still

292
00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:24,320
Speaker 1: at war and they haven't really had a chance to

293
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 1: um have some sort of reconciliation process and consolidate the nation.

294
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:33,200
Speaker 1: That's a project that's going to take several decades UM.

295
00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:35,480
Speaker 1: But that's that was just one of the observations for

296
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:40,399
Speaker 1: me that while you have this very personalized regime, who's

297
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:47,240
Speaker 1: really in control inside Syria? And that's the question. Interesting man, Yeah,

298
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:50,200
Speaker 1: I just think it's got to be crazy that that

299
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 1: you met the man, spoke with him, and we're civil

300
00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:56,159
Speaker 1: and this is a guy that our government will like

301
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,159
Speaker 1: to see dead. So well, no, well, we wanted to

302
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,280
Speaker 1: see him under a bomba we want to topple the

303
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: Assad regime. But I don't think our government wants to

304
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:08,479
Speaker 1: kill Assade. I think we're even now, no, because if

305
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,360
Speaker 1: we wanted him dead, we could we I mean, we'd

306
00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:12,639
Speaker 1: go to war, or we we'd bomb all of his

307
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,639
Speaker 1: presidential palaces. We try to kill him, but that you know,

308
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,639
Speaker 1: that also leads to a lot more. It's it's not

309
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:21,280
Speaker 1: so easy to do. Yeah, we have to rebuild the nation. Yeah,

310
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,280
Speaker 1: we don't think we don't. We don't do good with

311
00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 1: regime change to begin with. And it's as I said, Um,

312
00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:29,560
Speaker 1: I said a couple of years ago, which remains true.

313
00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:32,440
Speaker 1: Is the alternative to Assad right now is just chaos.

314
00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,520
Speaker 1: I mean okay, yeah, great, you removed Asad. Now what

315
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:38,600
Speaker 1: do you think we should be involved there at all?

316
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:44,439
Speaker 1: In Syria? Yeah? Um, I think that our engagement is

317
00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:50,960
Speaker 1: more or less correct. Um. It's a complicated subject, of course,

318
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:55,359
Speaker 1: And the question becomes what after Um, it's what are

319
00:18:55,400 --> 00:19:01,000
Speaker 1: our priorities? And um, first and foremost, the projected reason

320
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,159
Speaker 1: for being there, what we articulate and expressed to the

321
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,840
Speaker 1: public is that we're there because of Isis. Well, I mean,

322
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 1: how much of Isis has really left? Um? We of course,

323
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 1: we also don't want Isis to return. Okay, so now

324
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,000
Speaker 1: how long are we going to return? Are we going

325
00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 1: to remain in Syria because Isis could return? I mean,

326
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 1: you see how we can corrupt and inept the Iraqi

327
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,240
Speaker 1: government is and the Syrian government their their capacity is

328
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:29,399
Speaker 1: not much better. They got their asses whipped by isis also,

329
00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:34,639
Speaker 1: so how long are we gonna hang out? Right? UM?

330
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,040
Speaker 1: Now that then there's a question, and this is in

331
00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:40,159
Speaker 1: the Kurdish community is literally known as the Kurdish question.

332
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:44,359
Speaker 1: And the Curds are there, what what's the answer to

333
00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:48,240
Speaker 1: the Kurdish question? Are they going to have their own state? UM?

334
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,600
Speaker 1: How's that going to shake out? What the Kurds want?

335
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:52,679
Speaker 1: My understanding of it is that the Kurds want their

336
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,920
Speaker 1: own semi autonomous UM state inside Syria and this area

337
00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:03,280
Speaker 1: they called Java UM. And when I say semi autonomous state,

338
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,479
Speaker 1: they would talk about like a canton UM, which is

339
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,400
Speaker 1: like in Switzerland, but sort of we have the tradition

340
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:12,399
Speaker 1: here in the in the United States where our states

341
00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:16,320
Speaker 1: have some individual rights. There are not individual rights but

342
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,560
Speaker 1: states rights that that concept. So they want something like that,

343
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:24,120
Speaker 1: like there's some UM respect and UM in equal rights

344
00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:27,239
Speaker 1: for the Kurdish people who are second class citizens in

345
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,600
Speaker 1: Syria for the longest time. UM. They want some like

346
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 1: local decision making autonomy that they can kind of figure

347
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:36,879
Speaker 1: things out for their own UM, but they'd still be

348
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: part of the Syrian federal government. UM. And that's what

349
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,399
Speaker 1: they're pushing for. Now, how does the United States center

350
00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 1: into that at all? Are we gonna um safeguard or

351
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 1: guarantee some of these? Uh? This answer to the Kurdish question,

352
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 1: we don't know. Yeah, That's what I've been saying since

353
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,280
Speaker 1: the beginning of this campaign. Isis is just a little

354
00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,400
Speaker 1: blip on the radar. The question is what comes after ISIS?

355
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,800
Speaker 1: And I don't think our government still to this day

356
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,560
Speaker 1: has not thought that through. What is this region going

357
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,359
Speaker 1: to look like after isis? What the hell are we

358
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 1: going to do there? Sure, and we have not put

359
00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: the thought into that that it needs. Yeah, No, and

360
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,840
Speaker 1: we need to see a lot further ahead when we

361
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: take these actions. So you have you had two articles

362
00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:25,360
Speaker 1: that you wanted to discuss before we bring on Curtis. Uh.

363
00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:29,359
Speaker 1: First of which American who joined the Viet Cong in Vietnam. Yeah,

364
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 1: it's called when a Marine recom Patrol got into a

365
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:35,800
Speaker 1: firefight with an American viet Cong. I think that's the

366
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: name of the article. Um, but you check it out

367
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,960
Speaker 1: on SOFTWAREP and the gist of the story is there's

368
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,040
Speaker 1: a Marine recon patrol out in um area called Fu

369
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,200
Speaker 1: Bay in the jungle and UM they were doing their

370
00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 1: standard area reconnaissance looking for enemy troop build ups. Um. Uh,

371
00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:57,320
Speaker 1: enemy bunker systems, just a reconnaissance if the enemies out there,

372
00:21:57,640 --> 00:21:59,879
Speaker 1: and if they find them, they calling some air strikes.

373
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,119
Speaker 1: What happened was they were patrolling for like two days.

374
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 1: The boys, the Marines are getting tired, they're running out

375
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 1: of water. Um. Their team leader was a guy named House,

376
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:15,359
Speaker 1: Corporal House, he pauses the patrol. It's like ten guys.

377
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: So they get into a perimeter, they pull pulling security. Um.

378
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 1: They're right next to a stream. There's a waterfall coming

379
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,120
Speaker 1: down into a stream. UM that creates like a little

380
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:26,679
Speaker 1: pool at the base of this cliff. Um. There's some

381
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 1: boulders around, things like that. And they go and they

382
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 1: refill their canteens. UM, refill up on water and they're

383
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,280
Speaker 1: in the security halt for about thirty minutes, taking a

384
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,320
Speaker 1: rest like they need it. At this point UM, one

385
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,479
Speaker 1: of the other guys, a lance corporal, was putting on

386
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,320
Speaker 1: his his his pistol belt again, putting his kit back

387
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:50,399
Speaker 1: on and uh as he looks up, he sees something

388
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 1: and his team leader House it sees this strange look

389
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 1: on his face and it's like what in the world

390
00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,199
Speaker 1: are you looking at and turns and looks, and in

391
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:01,240
Speaker 1: the pool of order where they had filled up their

392
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:07,680
Speaker 1: canteens is a Vietcong VC, right, But this Viet Cong

393
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,160
Speaker 1: the guy is dressed in like green cut off shorts

394
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: uh o d green top. He has like this red

395
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:18,399
Speaker 1: sash across his chest. He has a K forty seven

396
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 1: slung over his shoulder. He has his haircut. I'm sort

397
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 1: of the same style the VC have where it's like

398
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 1: shaved on the side, kind of long on top. Um.

399
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,239
Speaker 1: But this VC is clearly a white guy. It's not

400
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 1: The guy is not Vietnamese or even Asian. He's Caucasian.

401
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: And at that point, another VC, an actual North Vietnamese dude.

402
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,040
Speaker 1: Um Viet Cong comes walking around from behind the boulder.

403
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: Um that corpse, that lance corporal who saw the white

404
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,680
Speaker 1: guy in the pool. They were both like just looking

405
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 1: at each other. And then the American marine he lanes

406
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: for his rifle, picks it up. They get into a firefight.

407
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 1: The guy fires at the UM. White Vietcong dude goes

408
00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 1: to own under a hail of gunfire, so it seems

409
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: falls back into the stream. The Marines get into a

410
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: big firefight with what they estimated about Viet Cong. UM.

411
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,840
Speaker 1: The firing grenades, throwing grenades, M sixteens jam and all

412
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:15,200
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards. They try to break contact, get

413
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,320
Speaker 1: the hell out of there. UM. On the way out,

414
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 1: they get ambushed by another force. UM. One of their men,

415
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: Private first Class Brown, is killed. UM. The team leader,

416
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 1: Corporal House, then kills the guy who killed Brown. UM.

417
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: They evac out of there. They get hoisted out by

418
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 1: a helicopter, and as they're on the helicopter, they start

419
00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: talking a little bit about what they saw, because like

420
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: maybe like a handful of these guys actually saw the

421
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 1: white viet Cong dude with their own eyes, and they

422
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: were just in like stunt disbelief. And I got ahold

423
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,880
Speaker 1: of the after action reports that House had typed up

424
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: after this patrol where they talk about the Caucasian viet Cong.

425
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 1: And now the question becomes, who the hell was this guy?

426
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: The Marines reported him as dead. They thought they had

427
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:09,919
Speaker 1: killed him in that firefight. Uh that turned out and

428
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: I believe that that Um, that is not the case,

429
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: that actually he survived. That What was widely suspected, UM,

430
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: at least by people who were familiar with this incident

431
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: with his firefight was that that Viet kng was somebody

432
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:30,399
Speaker 1: named Bob Garwood, who was also a marine. Uh. Garwood

433
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:34,639
Speaker 1: was reported captured UM a couple of years prior. UM.

434
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: How exactly Garwood was captured is um something that's disputed.

435
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,159
Speaker 1: No one really knows for sure. UM. He was driving

436
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: a jeep around De Nang. UM. You know, maybe he

437
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,239
Speaker 1: was looking for hookers or something, and he disappeared. This

438
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 1: guy already had kind of an unsavory past, UM, and

439
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: I wrote about in the article a little bit about

440
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,680
Speaker 1: that and who he was and where he came out of. UM.

441
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 1: Kind of an odd guy, UM smart but UM, well

442
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,640
Speaker 1: you'll you'll get the gist from the story. But anyway,

443
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,360
Speaker 1: he gets captured by the Viet Cong. UM, and at

444
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,399
Speaker 1: some point he goes over to the other side. He

445
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: actually defects and he's like, okay, I'm one of you now, UM.

446
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 1: And what we have his accounts from other American POWs

447
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,399
Speaker 1: who were in pow camps with Garwood, and Garwood became

448
00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: like the trustee of the Viet Cong. He was like

449
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 1: the informer. He would go and inform on the other

450
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,640
Speaker 1: prisoners and be like, oh yeah, yeah, those Americans are

451
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 1: doing this. There are Americans he was with UM the

452
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:35,159
Speaker 1: first year. One of them was a Special Forces captain

453
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: UM who tried to escape. And both times these guys

454
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: tried to escape, Garwood would go and inform on them

455
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: and tell the VC, like all the Americans ran, you

456
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 1: gotta go get him. So this guy was a sellout.

457
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 1: He was. He was a patsy for the communists UM

458
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: and the other POWs. The way they described him as

459
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: that he wasn't an ideologue. He he wasn't actually a Communist.

460
00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: He was just a guy who he saw how harsh

461
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: treatment was in the pow camps and literally like people

462
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: are starving to death. Uh, it was. It was brutal.

463
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: And for for Garwood, he looks at this and it's like, well, okay,

464
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 1: my best chance of survival is to just allow myself

465
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 1: with the VC. And that's what he did. UM. You know,

466
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: And there are so many other American POWs who they

467
00:27:20,040 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: kept their faith with their fellow POWs, their fellow Americans. UM.

468
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 1: They suffered through torture, all sorts of horrendous things, but

469
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: they still came back home with their honor. Intact. Unfortunately,

470
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:36,439
Speaker 1: Bob Garwood was not one of these people. Now. Initially

471
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 1: I thought that, um, perhaps the Marine Corps and others

472
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 1: were using Bob Garwood as a scapegoat. Um, it's kind

473
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: of like Bob Bou bird Doll, right, Like everything that

474
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 1: goes wrong in Afghanistan, that's that fucking bird Doll, you know,

475
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:54,640
Speaker 1: it's his fault. I thought. I felt that maybe that's

476
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: what was going on in this case. Also that maybe like, yeah,

477
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: Garwood was a sellout. What was he really going out

478
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 1: on patrols with a Viet Cong like that? Um? And

479
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: as I did more and more research, I have come

480
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 1: to believe that no, actually they're quite correct, that that guy,

481
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: that white Vietcong was Garwood. It all begins to line up. Uh.

482
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: In the Pow Camp. Garwood left with the viet Cong

483
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: for about three weeks. He would he told people later

484
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,360
Speaker 1: that he went out with allowed speaker and they would

485
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: go near American basis and he would talk to an

486
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,360
Speaker 1: American trying to get other g I's to defect in English,

487
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: right American? Oh, well, I should say American accented English,

488
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 1: because there would be there could be Vietnamese who speak English.

489
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 1: But when you hear Garwood talk, you would know, you know,

490
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: he's one of ours, right, Um, so he would he

491
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: he had done that before. And then in July of

492
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: that year, uh, in sixty eight, he disappeared from the

493
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: camp for three weeks. This was the period of time

494
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: when the recon Marines encountered the White Viet com. Another

495
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 1: interesting detail was the guys the Marines who saw who

496
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: saw the White viet Cong. They describe him as wearing

497
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: green cut off shorts the POWs and the Pow camp

498
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: also described Garwood as wearing body green cut off shorts.

499
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 1: So the short center themselves don't mean anything really, but

500
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: it's just one of those like that's a very interesting

501
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: specific detail to remember. Yeah, you know, we have John

502
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: Mayer coming back on I think next week. Do you

503
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: think he is any more insight into I I brought

504
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: it up with him. Actually, Um, he had never heard

505
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: of it. Actually, when he's he's pretty much, you know,

506
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 1: not only a veteran kind of a historian of the Vietnam.

507
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: I mentioned it also. I reached out to some Forest

508
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: recon Marines who served in Vietnam. Um, apparently the Forest

509
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 1: Recon Association was not even aware of this instance. You're

510
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 1: breaking news. No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not really

511
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 1: breaking news. Um, the story has been out there for

512
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: a little while. UM. I think maybe, if anything, I

513
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 1: just put a few things together that weren't there before.

514
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: Um So Garwood, I mean, I'm I'm personally convinced that

515
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: was Garwood that they encountered in the jungle that day,

516
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,880
Speaker 1: who had taken up arms with the enemy. Um. Now,

517
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: when he came back to the Pow camp after those

518
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: three weeks, he wasn't injured. So what exactly happened in

519
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: that firefight? Obviously there's some confusion. Did uh they saw

520
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 1: him fall down in the stream, did he trip? Did

521
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: he stumble backwards? And in surprise when he saw the

522
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: guy go for his rifle after the first shots were fired. Um,

523
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 1: you know, the Marines thought he was dead, probably with

524
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 1: some justification, but UM, you know, it's things get pretty

525
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: chaotic in a firefight. It's hard to ascertain exactly what happened. Um.

526
00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: But whatever the case, gar would clearly survived that. And

527
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 1: also when he came back to the Pow camp after

528
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: those three weeks, he uh, he told the other POWs

529
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: that they had run into an American patrol and they

530
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: had taken fire, and he said the VC saved his life.

531
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: So again it all comes together, it all makes sense. Um.

532
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: And then there's a whole like after story, epilogue to

533
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: this whole thing. Um. After nineteen seventy three, Henry Kissinger

534
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 1: negotiated with the Vietnamese government to release all of our

535
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: POW's UM. Garwood did not come home. He voluntarily stayed

536
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: in North Vietnam. And there's this from like sixty nine

537
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:42,360
Speaker 1: to seventy nine or so, there's this whole like black

538
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: hole in Garwood's timeline. Nobody really knows where he was.

539
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: He talked about going to Hanoi. There were rumors that

540
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: even went to Russia. No one really knows what the

541
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,120
Speaker 1: hell was going on during that decade. UM, But he

542
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 1: did eventually up periscope. He us slipped a note to

543
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 1: an employee of the World Bank UM in Hanoi at

544
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: a hotel. UM, lying again, this guy was a compulsive liar, UM,

545
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: saying that he was a pow and that he knows

546
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: where other American POWs are still held in Vietnam. And

547
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: both of those things were lies, Um, but they got

548
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: the attention of the American government. Um. We did repatriate him. UM.

549
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: They you know, flew him out, picked him up in

550
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: uh In, Bangkok, then flew to Okinawa, then back to

551
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: the United States, and he was brought up on charges. Um.

552
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: Some of the charges were thrown out, UM, but he

553
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: did get charged on communicating with the enemy and um

554
00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: there are times where he even hit other American POWs

555
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 1: at the behest of the Vietcong. He was convicted of that.

556
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: So he never served any jail time. He was just

557
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: stripped of his rank, his veterans benefits, all his back

558
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: pay that was all gone. They're like, get the hell

559
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 1: out of here. Garwood is one of these guys, like

560
00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: he was such a disgrace to the Marine Corps. I

561
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 1: think they tried to just sweep it all under the

562
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 1: rug as fastly as they possibly could. I don't think

563
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 1: they really wanted to deal with it if they didn't

564
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: have to. So you can read that at soft rep

565
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: dot com. Very interesting to It's a weird story, man, Yeah,

566
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: it's super weird. And you can draw comparisons to John

567
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: Walker Lynde, the American Taliban um or boburg Doll in Afghanistan.

568
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 1: And I don't want to make a direct comparison. Um.

569
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: The only thing I would say, really stands out between

570
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: Garwood and berg Doll is these are people who should

571
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: not have been in the military in the first place.

572
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: It shouldn't have been there. Um, that's what I would

573
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 1: say about them. Um. But otherwise otherwise the cases differ significantly.

574
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 1: Do you think that's sometimes a consequence of having a draft? Uh? Yeah,

575
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: that well, that's a good point you make too, Rite

576
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 1: we had a draft, although um Garwood was not drafted

577
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: be enlisted. This is interesting too. He was in a

578
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 1: juvie home. His father had him put in a juvie home,

579
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: and the local Marine Corps recruiter would use the juvie

580
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: home to fill his quota, so go there and be like, hey, boys,

581
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: come join the Marine Corps. And Garwood was one of

582
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 1: those guys. Um, which is still in a way done

583
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: today right where troubled youth. It's kind of a way

584
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:18,879
Speaker 1: for them to see discipline and join the Yeah. Um, yeah,

585
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,880
Speaker 1: for kids who are in trouble, um, you know, whatever

586
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 1: your background is. I mean, you could be inner city youth,

587
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: you know, in trouble with the law, or even in

588
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: more rural areas. You know, life's not going anywhere for you.

589
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 1: You know, the military offers a way out and from

590
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 1: what I know, you know, when we have like troops surges,

591
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:40,320
Speaker 1: you know, we we need to fill those quotes. And

592
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 1: that's what happened with bergdahl Um. He came in during

593
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: the surge. Who was one of those guys who should

594
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 1: not have been let in Garwood? You know, they were

595
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: ramping up the Vietnam War. He had already and this

596
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 1: is another aspect of the story that I didn't even

597
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: get that deep into. But he got into trouble in Okinawa. See,

598
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: he was stationed in Okinawa before he went to Vietnam,

599
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 1: and allegedly he pursued a relationship with a thirteen year

600
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: old girl in Okinawa, daughter of an army family. So

601
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 1: he and he was going a wall. He was getting

602
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 1: in all kinds of trouble in Vietnam or I'm sorry

603
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: in Okinawa. And then he gets sent to Vietnam. So

604
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 1: the question also becomes what happened there? Why wasn't he

605
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:21,680
Speaker 1: brought up on charges in Okinawa? Uh? Did they send him?

606
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:23,359
Speaker 1: Maybe they sent him to Vietnam to try to get

607
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 1: rid of him, you know, moving the problem around, like

608
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: just get him out of here, get him off the base,

609
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:31,439
Speaker 1: send him in a Nam. Yeah, interesting man. Yeah, there's

610
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 1: a lot of unanswered questions. Like I said, there's a

611
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: whole ten years of this guy's life that are just missing.

612
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: And he did come back to the United States. He's

613
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: still here somewhere. I read this whole Um do you

614
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 1: think under a different alias? And I really don't know. Um,

615
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: there's there's a huge, long blog post written by this

616
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: guy who claims that Garwood moved in next door to

617
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 1: him and stole his wife. Yeah, it's it's so weird,

618
00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,319
Speaker 1: but I mean it's the tiger doesn't change its stripes, right,

619
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: he's him. I would I would think that he's got

620
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 1: to be under if he's back under some type of

621
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:07,320
Speaker 1: witness protection or something. Now, he wouldn't be giving witness

622
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: protection or living under a different name. He could. He's

623
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: probably hiding out somewhere. Um. And then there's another article

624
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:16,799
Speaker 1: for it once again for those who don't know. Since

625
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:18,160
Speaker 1: like I said, I always try to keep in mind

626
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: there's new listeners every episode. A year ago, you were

627
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 1: in the Philippines, and so you put out there that

628
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 1: the Philippines have created their own so calm. Yeah. So

629
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:33,279
Speaker 1: when I was in the Philippines interviewing guys UM interviewing

630
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 1: members of the Philippines Special Operations Community UM, including all

631
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 1: of the army units, the Scout Rangers, Special Forces, the

632
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,200
Speaker 1: Light Reaction Regiment UM. I got to interview the so

633
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:49,600
Speaker 1: Calm Commander, General Pomona. I got to go hang out

634
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 1: with the NAVSAD guys, the Philippine Seals UM. They all

635
00:36:55,880 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: advocated and talked about wanting to establish UH so Calm,

636
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,680
Speaker 1: like we have Special Operations Command that unifies the special

637
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:07,839
Speaker 1: Operations units of all the branches of service in one UM.

638
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 1: At the time I was there, they had an organization

639
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: called so Calm at Fort Meg Say Say. But the

640
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 1: problem was that there's version of SOCOM was just for

641
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: the army units so as the Scout Rangers, Special Forces

642
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: and the l r R. It didn't include the other

643
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:32,440
Speaker 1: services UM. So creating a unified SOCOM that includes all

644
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: of the services was really the dream of General Pomona.

645
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:39,799
Speaker 1: He was somebody who believes and continues to believe in

646
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 1: UM the spirit of jointness and how important it is

647
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 1: to run joint operations. He saw how powerful it was

648
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,919
Speaker 1: to unite these three army units together instead of having

649
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:52,000
Speaker 1: them fight each other and compete with one another for

650
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: resources and things. Bring them in under one roof, you know,

651
00:37:55,920 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: make them all brothers, get them fighting together against the enemy. Um.

652
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: And you've already had for years, the Philippine Seals and

653
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: the Light Reaction Regiment, which is like their version of

654
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: Delta Force. They worked together a lot in combat. Um,

655
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 1: you know, in the Philippines, So they already had a

656
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 1: very strong working relationship. And both sides like they're ready.

657
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:23,319
Speaker 1: They're like, let's come together, let's create a unified SOCOM.

658
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,760
Speaker 1: UM and Navsack really really wanted this because they felt

659
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: like they were constantly short sighted, short changed, I should say.

660
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: So it finally happened just recently. Um, it's gonna be.

661
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 1: It's a f P SOCOM. Armed Forces of the Philippines

662
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: Special Operations Command has been created. Um, I'm gonna. I

663
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: had a brief email with General Pomona. I got be

664
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 1: able to talk to him a little bit more later

665
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 1: because he's had a symposium right now. UM, so when

666
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 1: he's back, we'll talk a little bit more. But I

667
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 1: wrote a brief article about Um, the this this new

668
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 1: develop mint that they're creating. So calm, it's gonna bring

669
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:06,879
Speaker 1: together all the army units, the Seals, uh, the new

670
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: Air Force Forward Air Controller unit. I'm not sure if

671
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 1: the Marines, if their Marine Force recon is going to

672
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:16,360
Speaker 1: be brought in or not. I still have to figure

673
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:18,879
Speaker 1: that one out. Um, but this is a really good

674
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:23,319
Speaker 1: thing for the Philippines. That's great. Yeah, so people could

675
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: look forward to seeing more of that on softwarep dot com.

676
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 1: I guess as you talked to General Pimonag and have

677
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: more uh to advance on that story. Yeah, yeah, it's

678
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:35,200
Speaker 1: really cool. Cool. All right, Well with that, let's get

679
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: over to Army Ranger Curtis Albert's. Um, last time we

680
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: had you on was episode three eleven, which was really

681
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:44,440
Speaker 1: one of our longest episodes. So if people want to

682
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 1: go back to that and hear your full background, I mean,

683
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 1: I think the story is all there, but it sounded

684
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 1: like you wanted to come back on and talk about

685
00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 1: what happened to you post service and and from those

686
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: experiences that you detailed with us on that episode. Yeah,

687
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, absolutely, I mean I I'd love to

688
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 1: do that. Um. If that's okay, I hope it's not

689
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:11,280
Speaker 1: too boring for everybody. Okay, So, after after I got

690
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 1: out of range of Regiment I ended up going back

691
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,440
Speaker 1: to Minnesota, which was a mistake. Um, I shouldn't have

692
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,439
Speaker 1: done that, and I started hanging out with I guess

693
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 1: some of the guys that I shouldn't have been hanging

694
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: out with still, And essentially for like the first three

695
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: or four months after after I got back, it was

696
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:31,920
Speaker 1: everything was pretty much slow. I wasn't really doing anything.

697
00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 1: I was I was looking for some sort of purpose, UM,

698
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 1: and I was trying to convince my sister to file

699
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 1: a lawsuit. And UM, when that that lawsuit started, that's

700
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 1: when I realized, Okay, you know, I have an opportunity

701
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: here to start pushing UM for awareness in terms of

702
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,600
Speaker 1: foster children and what we actually go through in the system.

703
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: And just to give background, I'm thinking for people LA

704
00:40:57,560 --> 00:40:59,799
Speaker 1: haven't listening to the previous episode with you. So this

705
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 1: is a lawsuit against foster parents who you guys had

706
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:08,720
Speaker 1: some abuse at the hands of Yeah, there was actually three.

707
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: Well there's two different lawsuits. There was a lawsuit against

708
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 1: the the insurance company that was UM that the foster

709
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:18,800
Speaker 1: parents were insured by, and there is a lawsuit against

710
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: the foster parents and the social workers and and the

711
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,040
Speaker 1: agency that represented the foster parents and and and all

712
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: of this. Um, the lawsuit was actually because my sister

713
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: had been unfortunately before I, before I joined the military,

714
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 1: my sister had been sexually abused by a homeless guy

715
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: that was living there. Yeah, and when I even when

716
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,440
Speaker 1: I shipped off the basic training, this was happening. And

717
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,840
Speaker 1: I interacted with my sister a few times before that,

718
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,360
Speaker 1: but she never told me. I found out an airborne

719
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 1: school by a Red Cross message. And so when this

720
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 1: stuff was going on or yeah, I'm sorry, that's what

721
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:06,760
Speaker 1: the lawsuit was primarily about. UM, all of the other things,

722
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 1: the the abuse that we were going through, that was

723
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: sort of like like a tertiary thing. I mean it

724
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: was in the lawsuit, they recognize it, but it wasn't

725
00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:21,279
Speaker 1: the main reason for the lawsuit. And so UM, and

726
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,240
Speaker 1: so as this lawsuit was going on, I decided to

727
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,360
Speaker 1: re enlist in the military. I just joined the Army reserves.

728
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 1: I want on active duty. After maybe a year of

729
00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: of of debating it back and forth, and I was

730
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: stationed at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, training you know, regular Army

731
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:45,399
Speaker 1: and and Air Force people for deployment. UM. And that's

732
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: what I did throughout and so after that, UM, I decided, Okay,

733
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: you know what, I need to actually start trying to

734
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,040
Speaker 1: do something with this. I need to I need to

735
00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 1: tell people this story. I need to bring it out.

736
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 1: And because I know my sister wasn't going to My

737
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 1: sister was already talking about, um, about settling. This is

738
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:09,040
Speaker 1: four years of litigation that we're in. And then she

739
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 1: was like, well, you know what I'm thinking about, I'm

740
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 1: just gonna settle because I'm I'm tired of having to

741
00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:16,640
Speaker 1: relive this, you know, the sexual abuse stuff over and

742
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,240
Speaker 1: over again. And I and I understood that, I got it.

743
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,480
Speaker 1: But what made me a little bit irritated about that

744
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:25,400
Speaker 1: decision was that I really wanted her to make a

745
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:29,920
Speaker 1: better choice. Had she taken this to court, Um, we

746
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,879
Speaker 1: could have exposed the entire foster care to bacle and

747
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 1: maybe laws could have been changed, people would have became

748
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 1: more aware of it. Um, you know, and and and

749
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: that's what I really want to do. But unfortunately I

750
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:45,840
Speaker 1: didn't get that far. And so the other alternative was, Okay, well,

751
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:49,319
Speaker 1: I can reach out to some people in foster care.

752
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 1: Are some people that have experienced in foster care, and

753
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: sort of I guess asked them what I could do. Um.

754
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: So the first thing I did was I reached out

755
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:02,280
Speaker 1: to Antoine Fisher, right, So I exchanged a few emails

756
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: with him. I got a lot of feedback from him,

757
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of inspiration to you know,

758
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 1: to write a book, to put together a book, and

759
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,840
Speaker 1: to to get it out there. Um. But the problem

760
00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:15,719
Speaker 1: was I just didn't know how to do that. You know,

761
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:19,440
Speaker 1: I didn't know any any writers, or any professional writers

762
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:24,239
Speaker 1: at least, and I was stuck. So I decided to

763
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:28,120
Speaker 1: which was a mistake. I decided to hire a quote

764
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 1: unquote manager guy and entertainment manager. He owned his own

765
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:35,880
Speaker 1: entertainment company somewhere in New York and he and he

766
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, Curtis, this is the deal. I will,

767
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: I guess, manage your career. I guess you could. I

768
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: guess you could say that, Um, I'm going to find

769
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 1: you a ghostwriter and then I'm going to pay that

770
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:49,840
Speaker 1: ghostwriter to write your story. So your whole job is

771
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,320
Speaker 1: to work with that ghostwriter to put together three chapters

772
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,000
Speaker 1: of this book. And I said, you know, okay, that's

773
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: that's easy, that's fine. And I kind of trusted this

774
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,040
Speaker 1: guy because he worked with my aunt on a lot

775
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:07,520
Speaker 1: of nonprofit organization stuff that they did together, and so

776
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 1: I kind of trusted him, and so we started working

777
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 1: on this and and maybe two months into it, we

778
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,759
Speaker 1: started to see I started to see problems, like the

779
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,200
Speaker 1: ghostwriter was fighting with him because he wasn't he supposedly

780
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: wasn't paying her on time. But um, when I was

781
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 1: working with the ghostwriter, I had a problem with how

782
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 1: she wrote the first three chapters. She just she didn't

783
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:31,799
Speaker 1: listen to any input from me. She just did what

784
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,279
Speaker 1: she felt like doing. So it's safe to say that

785
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,359
Speaker 1: that's not the route that you're going right now. You're

786
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 1: going to be working on possibly doing a film, right Well,

787
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 1: that's the plan, um, And it's it's it's what I've

788
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: been I've put a lot of time and effort into um.

789
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm stuck in a number of different places.

790
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 1: And what I'm getting from a lot of entertainment people,

791
00:45:56,200 --> 00:46:00,719
Speaker 1: UM is the story is good. Everything is there, but

792
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,800
Speaker 1: we want you to add. You know, some people, for example,

793
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 1: say we want you to add more more, more ranger stuff.

794
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 1: You know, we want more Rambo, more explosions, more guns,

795
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:13,320
Speaker 1: and you know, all this other stuff which really takes

796
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,520
Speaker 1: away from the story that I'm actually trying to tell.

797
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 1: Then there are people who say, well, take off all

798
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 1: of the military to take it all out, just concentrate

799
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 1: on the foster care thing. So I'm I'm in that

800
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 1: kind of you know, uncertain position where I'm not sure

801
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:35,840
Speaker 1: exactly how to make the screenplay. Um, what these people

802
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: want can write the write the book that you want

803
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,840
Speaker 1: to write. I mean you can see like some wildly

804
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 1: popular stuff like uh, like that American Sniper movie. Was

805
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 1: that an action film or was it a love story

806
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:58,400
Speaker 1: an action film? They combined the two. Okay, yeah, yeah, okay,

807
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,520
Speaker 1: that's true. But there's also and I hate to say this,

808
00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:05,400
Speaker 1: I really do because I don't think it's about the

809
00:47:05,440 --> 00:47:08,719
Speaker 1: color of my skin. But sometimes sometimes it feels like

810
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:12,240
Speaker 1: Hollywood is more open to telling those types of stories

811
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 1: because the portrayal of the Special Operations guy is not

812
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:18,279
Speaker 1: normally a black guy with a beard and sunglasses. It's

813
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:21,759
Speaker 1: and what's funny because doing this show, um, I think

814
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,640
Speaker 1: you and I Jack like make an effort to reach

815
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 1: out to Obviously, females are not in Special Operations, but

816
00:47:28,160 --> 00:47:31,040
Speaker 1: we'll have female guests some when we can. Um, and

817
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,839
Speaker 1: if there are minorities who are in special operations. Try

818
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 1: to get those guys on. But I mean you would

819
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,400
Speaker 1: you guys would know better than me is special operations

820
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,879
Speaker 1: like is it safe to say eighty plus percent white male?

821
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:47,240
Speaker 1: It's more Yeah, it's I've told this to Nick Irving before,

822
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: not exactly politically correct. By you've probably heard of two

823
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 1: Curtis in your travels that there ain't nothing stranger than

824
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,399
Speaker 1: a black ranger. Yeah. I've heard that a couple of times.

825
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,880
Speaker 1: I thought that was a joke. That's that's crazy, that's true.

826
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,000
Speaker 1: There's some truth too. I mean, we had there's one

827
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:05,520
Speaker 1: black guy in my in my platoon who became a

828
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 1: squad leader. Um, we had a black first sergeant for

829
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:15,000
Speaker 1: sergeant Seely in Charlie Company. Uh. And that's about it, Curtis.

830
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:17,440
Speaker 1: That's about it. Man. What do you guys think is

831
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 1: the reason for this? Because I mean, you would think

832
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:22,919
Speaker 1: that there's all different types of guys who could exceell

833
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 1: in special operations, and especially you look at i mean

834
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: just black athletes. I'll I'll like Curtis, answer that one.

835
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:32,400
Speaker 1: You want much better insight than well, thank you, thank you.

836
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 1: I appreciate you know more about what it's like to

837
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 1: be a black man. Then he knows a little bit,

838
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 1: a little bit better insight on that one. Okay, so

839
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: here's the deal. You know what's funny. This reminds me

840
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 1: of a story. I'll just tell quickly. I was in

841
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: Scotland and we were staying in and somewhere in Inverness

842
00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 1: or no, it was actually in the Isle of Sky,

843
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 1: and a Scottish person we were actually talking about this

844
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: the Special operations community the United States. I don't know

845
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,000
Speaker 1: how it came out, but anyway, he's like, what is

846
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 1: the reason I am through a whole lot of black

847
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: guys in special operations special Forces? And I answered him

848
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 1: exactly how I'm gonna answer to you guys. The problem

849
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:11,760
Speaker 1: isn't that the Special operations community is racist. The problem

850
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 1: is and and I know people are gonna hate me

851
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 1: for saying this, but it's the truth. It's just black

852
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,200
Speaker 1: guys don't want to do it. They don't they I

853
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: talked to quite a few black guys like friends of

854
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 1: mine who joined the military, but they wanted to do

855
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:30,799
Speaker 1: something that wasn't I mean, it's more about a paycheck

856
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 1: than you know, serving the country sort of like I mean, well,

857
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:42,480
Speaker 1: I think there have been some studies even that show

858
00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 1: that um minorities are buying large are joining the military

859
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:51,480
Speaker 1: for job training, skills training. Yeah exactly. But you can

860
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:53,520
Speaker 1: get a bunch of like corn fed white guys to

861
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:56,279
Speaker 1: join for like patriotism, come die for your country, and

862
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: you know, we're like, oh, yeah, I'll charge that machine

863
00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:02,680
Speaker 1: gun bunker. Let's do it. But yeah, I mean, but

864
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:05,600
Speaker 1: that's but that's that's true, you know. I mean, I

865
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:07,800
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to go into the range of regiment.

866
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:10,880
Speaker 1: But when I when I was in basic training, whenever

867
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,319
Speaker 1: I heard ranger, I thought, yeah, a white guy with

868
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:15,040
Speaker 1: a beard living in a cabin in the middle of

869
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:17,919
Speaker 1: the words carrying the ax. You know, that's the first

870
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 1: thing I thought. And I was like, yeah, you have

871
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:22,719
Speaker 1: to live and breathe army, you know. And that's why

872
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:24,959
Speaker 1: I was a little bit hesitant about about going in.

873
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:27,360
Speaker 1: And then I started seeing, you know, a couple of

874
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 1: black rangers, a couple of Hispanic ranges, and I was like, oh, man,

875
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: it is it is pretty diverse, I guess. I mean,

876
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:36,920
Speaker 1: we we had tons of Hispanic guys at least when

877
00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: when I was in uh in a co three seven

878
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: five this was like two thousand five, two thousand four,

879
00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 1: two thousand five, that time frame, like probably half of

880
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:53,040
Speaker 1: our platoon was, you know, Mexican American. Yeah. Wow, I

881
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:56,120
Speaker 1: mean that's that's that's awesome. I mean when I was

882
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:59,680
Speaker 1: in I think I was like the next to Sili

883
00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:02,279
Speaker 1: and a couple maybe like one other guy. I think

884
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 1: it was like the third the only they were like

885
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,560
Speaker 1: three black guys in the well. Dr Nicholson, I don't

886
00:51:07,560 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 1: know Doc, Yeah, I knew him. Just kidding, are you

887
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:17,520
Speaker 1: are you making fun of the skin tone of Nicholson? Yeah?

888
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:19,839
Speaker 1: I love Nicholson. I like him. I liked him too.

889
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:23,239
Speaker 1: We um. We used to joke about him every time

890
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: he came into our our a O. We'd be like

891
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:32,200
Speaker 1: Dr Nickerson my favorite good evening, you know, was just crack.

892
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 1: It was so funny. So I'm assuming this is a

893
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:38,959
Speaker 1: darker white dude. No, No, he's He's a white, lighter

894
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:43,160
Speaker 1: skinned African American gentleman. Oh okay, he was our medic.

895
00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:46,799
Speaker 1: He He's awesome. He's a great. Yeah, if I remember correctly,

896
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I either went through RIP or I

897
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:52,760
Speaker 1: went through like pre Ranger with him. I can't remember which,

898
00:51:53,040 --> 00:51:56,640
Speaker 1: But Yeah, really good guy. Yeah, he's freaking awesome. I

899
00:51:56,640 --> 00:51:58,719
Speaker 1: hope he doesn't hate me for saying that. But yeah,

900
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:05,080
Speaker 1: but it's a pretty unfas so, I mean, it's it's

901
00:52:05,600 --> 00:52:08,440
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a fear of racism the special

902
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:11,240
Speaker 1: operations community. If if if someone says, if the minority

903
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:14,280
Speaker 1: says they have a like a legitimate fear of of

904
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 1: of being you know, persecuted, and the range of regiment

905
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,320
Speaker 1: or or or or or Green or any of the

906
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 1: other special operations, I think that's just like I don't know,

907
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:24,560
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that it's a lie, but I think

908
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 1: it's a little it might be a little bit fabricated

909
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:31,040
Speaker 1: article about that on SOFTWAREP like early on and a

910
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:35,799
Speaker 1: long time ago. Yeah, I mean that's that's that's crazy,

911
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:37,680
Speaker 1: But that that would be my answer. I know that's

912
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:41,279
Speaker 1: probably not politically correct, and I'll probably get you know,

913
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: I'll probably someone will probably say something to me about that.

914
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,879
Speaker 1: But that's just my perspective. And I mean I've talked

915
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:48,439
Speaker 1: to a few people about that. So the only other

916
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 1: thing I would ever have to say about this subject

917
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 1: is just my personal observation. Was there weren't that many

918
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:58,480
Speaker 1: as you were saying there weren't that many black guys

919
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,799
Speaker 1: who showed up at RIP in the first place. Oh yeah,

920
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 1: so I mean, and then RIP the attrition rate was

921
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:11,960
Speaker 1: probably like what seventy or so. Um. So, of course,

922
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:15,279
Speaker 1: you know, it's not that from my opinion as a

923
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,040
Speaker 1: white guy, Okay, I don't have that much credibility on it,

924
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:20,800
Speaker 1: but I did not I did not see any discrimination.

925
00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:24,080
Speaker 1: It was just that there weren't that many black soldiers

926
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,560
Speaker 1: who showed up for selection in the first place. Yeah, exactly,

927
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:30,080
Speaker 1: do you think, I'm sorry, do you guys think it

928
00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:34,880
Speaker 1: could possibly be also a generational thing? Because all right,

929
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:37,799
Speaker 1: for example, Frohoman Terius, who we've had on before, his

930
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,279
Speaker 1: dad was a seal, right, and I believe his grandfather

931
00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:42,560
Speaker 1: was a seal. Am I correct on that, or or

932
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: his son. I think he comes from a seal family. Yeah,

933
00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:49,680
Speaker 1: so it's almost I would think, you know, I I've

934
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 1: seen before that the New York City firefighters, for example,

935
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:56,800
Speaker 1: are mainly white, and they were actually talking about raising

936
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 1: the age limit, and they're saying that, you know, like

937
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 1: if your father it was a firefighter, you're likely to

938
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:03,799
Speaker 1: go into it. If your dad was in special operations,

939
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:07,680
Speaker 1: that's a more recent trend, as I understand it, in

940
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:12,440
Speaker 1: with UM with with military service becoming generational. It used

941
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:14,319
Speaker 1: to kind of be like you were conscripted or not.

942
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,000
Speaker 1: But I think that they're finding nowadays it's more like

943
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 1: if you join the military, um, and especially if you

944
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,520
Speaker 1: want to have a career in the military, more often

945
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:27,120
Speaker 1: than not, it becomes because your dad was an army

946
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:33,320
Speaker 1: or or maybe your mother even yeah mm hmm, but anyway,

947
00:54:33,360 --> 00:54:37,359
Speaker 1: I please continue, Curtis. Uh, I'm definitely interested in your

948
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: point of view on this. It's I like I said,

949
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:45,800
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's for I mean, I've heard people

950
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:48,960
Speaker 1: say that it's probably because of the swim test, and okay,

951
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:51,439
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I I failed the swim test

952
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: the first time I took it, and rip. It was

953
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:57,399
Speaker 1: hard for me, but then I came back. Actually, all

954
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:00,840
Speaker 1: the black guys in my class were like four black guys. Uh,

955
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 1: we all failed it. And then I'm going to show

956
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:11,920
Speaker 1: you're not going speaking story. I don't know if you know,

957
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,560
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know Dark not. I

958
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,319
Speaker 1: used to call him dark Chocolate, but it was Darc Melvin, Um,

959
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:22,760
Speaker 1: Mike Melvin. Okay, well, it was me and him that

960
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 1: that that decided to try rip again, like you know,

961
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 1: because after we felt the swimtimes, we had to be

962
00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:30,520
Speaker 1: recycled and we had to wait for the next class

963
00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: to start, and we decided to do it again. The

964
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:36,840
Speaker 1: other two black guys decided to quit it out, and

965
00:55:37,120 --> 00:55:41,080
Speaker 1: I I don't know, I mean, to be personally honest,

966
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 1: I think just a lot of black guys don't want

967
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: to go into the special operations because yeah, like you

968
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:49,640
Speaker 1: said before, and it's more, you know, let's try to

969
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 1: you know, find uh something that's going to give us,

970
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,480
Speaker 1: you know, opportunity after relieve the service. And that's why

971
00:55:57,520 --> 00:55:58,799
Speaker 1: you see a lot of you know, a lot of

972
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:01,520
Speaker 1: black guys and transfer rotation. I mean that's it's like,

973
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:04,799
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like black over there from from

974
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 1: from what I've seen. Yeah, and it really stands out.

975
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:10,799
Speaker 1: I mean, you were in you were in three Curtis, Yes, yeah,

976
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 1: you would have yeah, because of the names that were mentioned,

977
00:56:12,719 --> 00:56:15,120
Speaker 1: you would have had to have been. But um, it's

978
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:19,160
Speaker 1: really stark at Fort Benning when you see a whole

979
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:22,399
Speaker 1: platoon of white dudes running around in their pts. Those

980
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:24,959
Speaker 1: are the rangers and then a whole platoon of black

981
00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:28,239
Speaker 1: guys running and that's the you know, that's the transportation

982
00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:31,520
Speaker 1: unit down the street. Did it actually happen? Yeah, I've

983
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:35,479
Speaker 1: seen that crazy many many a time. Yeah, oh man.

984
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 1: And like do people say that it's it's it's a

985
00:56:39,520 --> 00:56:43,719
Speaker 1: prime example of segregation. That's that's where the allegation. A

986
00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:46,680
Speaker 1: lot of the allegations come from. Um, because it just

987
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:50,760
Speaker 1: doesn't look good. I mean, honestly, it doesn't. You know,

988
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 1: it's not a great look. That's that's but that's how

989
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 1: it is. It has nothing to do with segregation. And

990
00:56:58,640 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 1: the question becomes you try to lie force it as

991
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 1: some sort of like affirmative action, like oh, we need

992
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,239
Speaker 1: more women in the ranks, so you know, let's you know,

993
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 1: and then you find a bunch of women who have

994
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: no interest in special operations and throw them in there

995
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:13,279
Speaker 1: so that we can say we're more PC. Um, what

996
00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:16,600
Speaker 1: does that do in the long run? I mean is

997
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 1: it destroys the unit? Destroys the unit because you have

998
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 1: people who don't want to be there, and it's a

999
00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: range of battalions, an all volunteered unit. That's why it

1000
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,520
Speaker 1: didn't matter if the guy was black or white or

1001
00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 1: hispanic or whatever. They all went through the exact same

1002
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:32,200
Speaker 1: selection process exactly, so you know, you know, they're good

1003
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:39,440
Speaker 1: to go exactly with the same standard. That's uh that

1004
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:44,320
Speaker 1: that kind of makes me angry because it's it's but bro,

1005
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:47,560
Speaker 1: our our unit was always under some kind of congressional

1006
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:51,560
Speaker 1: investigation because of those racial allegations. They they've always been there,

1007
00:57:52,840 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 1: wow yea all the time. And I mean you would

1008
00:57:57,000 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: think that these the people that make all of these

1009
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:01,640
Speaker 1: rules and stuff would come down and observed, you know,

1010
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 1: and and sort of and and and look to see

1011
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 1: what the actual core problem is. But I think people

1012
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:10,320
Speaker 1: just want to you know, like make like develop some

1013
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:14,360
Speaker 1: sort of instant solution that doesn't actually fix the problem,

1014
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:16,959
Speaker 1: just just so that the society can say, oh, look

1015
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:20,520
Speaker 1: we're not range regument is not racist. We we have

1016
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:23,920
Speaker 1: you know, five or six black guys that don't want

1017
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:27,520
Speaker 1: to be here, and we're rather be in transportation. That's

1018
00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:30,400
Speaker 1: that's what That's whatdiculous. I mean, I have to laugh

1019
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:34,520
Speaker 1: at that. Oh man, it's it's so well. I say,

1020
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 1: if if the range regument is just all whyet and

1021
00:58:36,840 --> 00:58:39,360
Speaker 1: maybe there's a couple of black people that you know,

1022
00:58:39,400 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: black guys that want to be there. I say, leave

1023
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 1: that ship alone. As long as the unit does its mission.

1024
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: I don't see what the problem is. So this is

1025
00:58:47,520 --> 00:58:50,360
Speaker 1: an interesting perspective coming from you because you spoke about

1026
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 1: in the last episode. You know, you were adopted by

1027
00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:55,920
Speaker 1: black foster parents at some points, and it sounds like

1028
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:59,760
Speaker 1: you experienced more racism there than in special operations of

1029
00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:05,200
Speaker 1: just about all white guys. Okay, that's a great point.

1030
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:07,440
Speaker 1: I really want to make this. It's really important that

1031
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:09,680
Speaker 1: I make this point, and maybe people will get angry.

1032
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 1: But Okay, racism doesn't have a color, right, it doesn't.

1033
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 1: My I've had in my entire lifetime, I've had four

1034
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:22,480
Speaker 1: white men walk up to me and call me a

1035
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:26,160
Speaker 1: nigger to my face. Right, But guess what, there was

1036
00:59:26,200 --> 00:59:29,720
Speaker 1: no oppressive factor. I wasn't being oppressed. I had the

1037
00:59:29,800 --> 00:59:31,960
Speaker 1: freedom to eat what I wanted, I had the freedom

1038
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:34,160
Speaker 1: to walk away. I had I could make my own

1039
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:38,080
Speaker 1: decisions at any point in time during that interaction. Right, So,

1040
00:59:38,160 --> 00:59:40,120
Speaker 1: I look at when someone calls me a nigger, if

1041
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 1: they're not empower over me, then it's just name calling. Now,

1042
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:47,920
Speaker 1: my black foster parents, they called me a nigger. They

1043
00:59:47,920 --> 00:59:51,880
Speaker 1: made me lick the toilet clean. You know, they made

1044
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: me they locked the refrigerators so I couldn't get food,

1045
00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:56,960
Speaker 1: They made me sleep outside, they made me do all

1046
00:59:57,000 --> 01:00:00,680
Speaker 1: these these bullshit tasks. So so, so what am I

1047
01:00:00,720 --> 01:00:04,040
Speaker 1: gonna consider more racism that this? This name calling? This

1048
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:06,320
Speaker 1: guy called me a nigger? Oh okay, what's a nigger?

1049
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:08,960
Speaker 1: No one actually even knows what the definition means. Apparently

1050
01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:12,480
Speaker 1: there isn't one. People expect me to emotionally get attached

1051
01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:15,920
Speaker 1: to that word and respond irrationally, Well, sorry, it's just

1052
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:19,040
Speaker 1: name calling, right, But if black people call me a

1053
01:00:19,080 --> 01:00:21,200
Speaker 1: nigger and they're putting me down and making me feel

1054
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: like shit, that's that's that's that's more racist than than

1055
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:27,920
Speaker 1: the white person calling me nigger. That's my perspective. Well,

1056
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:30,280
Speaker 1: your your skin must have been pretty thick too, by

1057
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:33,120
Speaker 1: the time, you know, somebody calls you a racial sort like,

1058
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:35,320
Speaker 1: you know, I've been through some ship. You know this

1059
01:00:35,320 --> 01:00:38,880
Speaker 1: this isn't exactly, uh, you know, a tragedy. I mean,

1060
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:40,880
Speaker 1: from your perspective, I guess at that point you've been

1061
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:44,080
Speaker 1: through a lot worse. Yeah, And and the combination of

1062
01:00:44,120 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 1: logically thinking of it, I mean, yes, I have thick skin,

1063
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 1: but I also try to think about things in a

1064
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 1: logical way. You know, if if if someone comes up

1065
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:56,520
Speaker 1: to me and yeah, exactly perfect example, someone comes up

1066
01:00:56,520 --> 01:00:58,160
Speaker 1: to me and calls me a nigger, I have to

1067
01:00:58,200 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 1: decide whether or not that we're that they say impacts

1068
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:05,320
Speaker 1: or changes or alters my how I feel about myself.

1069
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:10,000
Speaker 1: If I mean, it shouldn't impact how I feel about myself. Myself,

1070
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 1: so the word shouldn't hurt, it shouldn't have any emotional impact.

1071
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:18,720
Speaker 1: But you know, like I understand why people get angry

1072
01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:22,240
Speaker 1: and upset, but when you start showing emotions to to

1073
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,560
Speaker 1: people who call you racist names, that means you just

1074
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:30,640
Speaker 1: don't have any self control. I'm sorry, I know that

1075
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:35,720
Speaker 1: sounds that, maybe sounds crazy, you know. I mean, of course,

1076
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,680
Speaker 1: I'm still going to be offended. But if I don't

1077
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:40,600
Speaker 1: think that if someone calls me a nigger, if it doesn't,

1078
01:01:40,680 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 1: if it doesn't change or alter the status quo, right,

1079
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 1: it doesn't affect my self esteem, then then I'm good

1080
01:01:48,120 --> 01:01:53,280
Speaker 1: to go. Okay, Well, I mean not to make light

1081
01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 1: of any sort of derogatory terms being used, but if

1082
01:01:57,160 --> 01:01:59,440
Speaker 1: we get to the point where there is no actual

1083
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:03,920
Speaker 1: physic goal oppression or describe like actual discrimination against people,

1084
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:07,760
Speaker 1: and it really does just become name calling. That's probably.

1085
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:10,960
Speaker 1: I mean that might be as good as we get

1086
01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:13,280
Speaker 1: as far as getting along with each other socially, right,

1087
01:02:13,320 --> 01:02:14,840
Speaker 1: I mean that that we're just going to call each

1088
01:02:14,840 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 1: other names. But you know, more or less society is equal.

1089
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: Well that's impossible. Well no, okay, it's close to impossible.

1090
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:26,840
Speaker 1: It's close to impossible. I don't want to say that,

1091
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:30,520
Speaker 1: but you can't. Society will never be equal. It's impossible.

1092
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:33,720
Speaker 1: It is impossible because there are so many different What

1093
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:36,240
Speaker 1: are we talking about when we're talking about equality? Like

1094
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:39,240
Speaker 1: when and I hope you guys don't get so many

1095
01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:41,360
Speaker 1: angry emails and I'm just sort of venting right now.

1096
01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:48,880
Speaker 1: But when women, when women say we want to be

1097
01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:53,880
Speaker 1: treated as equals as men, sometimes I don't completely understand

1098
01:02:54,240 --> 01:02:59,040
Speaker 1: what's being said. There's so many components of equality. What

1099
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:03,480
Speaker 1: exactly are you talking king about? I? For example, okay,

1100
01:03:03,560 --> 01:03:05,040
Speaker 1: I want to be as equal to I want to

1101
01:03:05,080 --> 01:03:08,720
Speaker 1: be equal to Bill Gates? Right, Okay, Um, what are

1102
01:03:08,720 --> 01:03:11,960
Speaker 1: we talking about? Socio economic status? Okay? Bill Gates is

1103
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:16,120
Speaker 1: a billionaire? Am I a billionaire? No? I recognize and understand,

1104
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,040
Speaker 1: and I'm content with the fact that I'm not equal

1105
01:03:19,120 --> 01:03:24,800
Speaker 1: to Bill Gates socio economically attractiveness. Some women might say

1106
01:03:24,840 --> 01:03:27,360
Speaker 1: I'm more attractive than Bill Gates. Some women might say

1107
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:30,200
Speaker 1: Bill Gates is attracted to me. Okay, I have to

1108
01:03:30,280 --> 01:03:33,200
Speaker 1: be content and accept the fact that I may or

1109
01:03:33,240 --> 01:03:36,360
Speaker 1: may not be as equal in terms of attractiveness to

1110
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:41,600
Speaker 1: Bill Gates. That that's that's rational thinking. If I make

1111
01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:43,440
Speaker 1: I don't know, Let's see what did I make in

1112
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:46,600
Speaker 1: the army. I don't know as a I don't know,

1113
01:03:46,640 --> 01:03:49,640
Speaker 1: like make twelve yeah, exactly not much. If I make

1114
01:03:49,720 --> 01:03:54,160
Speaker 1: twelve dollars and thirty cents an hour, right, I have

1115
01:03:54,320 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 1: to be content with the fact that that's how much

1116
01:03:56,800 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 1: I make. If a woman makes a little bit more

1117
01:04:00,080 --> 01:04:02,040
Speaker 1: than me, and she's in the same job, but maybe

1118
01:04:02,080 --> 01:04:04,920
Speaker 1: she's been there longer, or maybe she was there a

1119
01:04:05,000 --> 01:04:07,280
Speaker 1: day longer than me, I don't know. There's a number

1120
01:04:07,320 --> 01:04:10,000
Speaker 1: of different factors that play into that. I have to

1121
01:04:10,040 --> 01:04:15,080
Speaker 1: be sort of content and accept that equality. It's not

1122
01:04:15,120 --> 01:04:18,800
Speaker 1: a it's not this this this constant thing you know

1123
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 1: you I don't know. I don't understand when people say

1124
01:04:21,960 --> 01:04:26,400
Speaker 1: I want equality. Equality, by the way, is not um

1125
01:04:26,440 --> 01:04:28,400
Speaker 1: It's not what is this What is this term people

1126
01:04:28,520 --> 01:04:32,120
Speaker 1: use where they let certain minorities into like the ivy

1127
01:04:32,160 --> 01:04:37,400
Speaker 1: leagues action affirmative action is not equality. It is it

1128
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:41,560
Speaker 1: is I don't know, it's it's it's digression is what

1129
01:04:41,600 --> 01:04:44,840
Speaker 1: it is. It is the perfect example of digression. Well,

1130
01:04:44,880 --> 01:04:47,680
Speaker 1: the next the next episode, we actually the Amber Smith

1131
01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:49,920
Speaker 1: coming on, who is a fighter pilot, so it'll be

1132
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:54,520
Speaker 1: interesting a fighter pilot or a helicopter pilot. Helicopter Okay,

1133
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:57,640
Speaker 1: so I believe she was a Hellica my fault, but

1134
01:04:57,720 --> 01:04:59,880
Speaker 1: so um we have her coming on, but she has

1135
01:04:59,880 --> 01:05:03,360
Speaker 1: a not bad veteran. I'd like to hear her perspective

1136
01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:06,720
Speaker 1: on women and special operations because we could definitely be

1137
01:05:06,760 --> 01:05:09,960
Speaker 1: accused of man explaining on here women in special operations.

1138
01:05:10,120 --> 01:05:12,800
Speaker 1: I would like to hear a combat better. I'm actually

1139
01:05:12,840 --> 01:05:17,200
Speaker 1: not like totally opposed to women in special operations if

1140
01:05:17,240 --> 01:05:20,200
Speaker 1: they go through the same selection process that I was

1141
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:22,160
Speaker 1: talking about before. I don't care if the dude is

1142
01:05:22,160 --> 01:05:24,120
Speaker 1: black or white or if a woman is black or white,

1143
01:05:24,160 --> 01:05:26,280
Speaker 1: which do you think is possible? You know Brandon has

1144
01:05:26,320 --> 01:05:28,240
Speaker 1: talked about this earlier on in the show, where he's like,

1145
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:31,240
Speaker 1: there's probably an anomaly like a Rhonda Rousey who can

1146
01:05:31,400 --> 01:05:36,560
Speaker 1: go through seal training. Yeah, there's like one in a million. Yeah, sure, Yeah,

1147
01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:39,840
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I think that there are women who Wait,

1148
01:05:39,880 --> 01:05:41,400
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I have to agree with Jack, and I

1149
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:43,440
Speaker 1: want to I want to clearly say this all the

1150
01:05:43,640 --> 01:05:44,920
Speaker 1: you know, all the people that are probably going to

1151
01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:50,400
Speaker 1: be listening. UM is that. Yeah. I think that women

1152
01:05:50,400 --> 01:05:53,160
Speaker 1: and men, in terms of fairness, should be treated equally.

1153
01:05:53,760 --> 01:05:56,920
Speaker 1: I also think that if a woman can do the same,

1154
01:05:57,120 --> 01:05:59,960
Speaker 1: you know, she's held the same standard in the select

1155
01:06:00,040 --> 01:06:02,520
Speaker 1: from process as the men, and she makes it through,

1156
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:07,640
Speaker 1: absolutely I totally support her, you know, fighting alongside me

1157
01:06:07,800 --> 01:06:10,880
Speaker 1: and the battalion or you know whatever. I think she'll

1158
01:06:10,880 --> 01:06:12,960
Speaker 1: do probably a better job than some of the men

1159
01:06:13,240 --> 01:06:17,240
Speaker 1: can do, to be honest. Yeah, and I've I've heard

1160
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 1: that perspective. Yeah. I mean, if a woman goes through

1161
01:06:19,440 --> 01:06:21,640
Speaker 1: the same damn process I went through, then she has

1162
01:06:21,680 --> 01:06:24,880
Speaker 1: the same right to wear the beret that anybody else does.

1163
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:29,160
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you know, it might be another question

1164
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:31,840
Speaker 1: of like, are there women who even want to do it,

1165
01:06:31,960 --> 01:06:36,240
Speaker 1: that can do I think that is the question, because damn,

1166
01:06:36,240 --> 01:06:39,360
Speaker 1: I haven't been keeping track, but I believe hasn't. Um,

1167
01:06:39,440 --> 01:06:42,160
Speaker 1: Bud's been open to women like the last couple of years,

1168
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:46,840
Speaker 1: and none have attended. Oh, I have no idea. I believe,

1169
01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:50,680
Speaker 1: I believe. So I'll have to double check on that. Yeah,

1170
01:06:51,560 --> 01:06:53,720
Speaker 1: well here Amber's perspectives. I think it'd be a good one.

1171
01:06:53,800 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 1: What we're saying, Curtis, what about RASP? Any women made

1172
01:06:57,240 --> 01:06:59,480
Speaker 1: it through RASP? I thought I thought I read somewhere

1173
01:06:59,480 --> 01:07:02,880
Speaker 1: that there was one one um female that made it

1174
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:05,080
Speaker 1: through RAPS? Is that true? I heard there was a

1175
01:07:05,160 --> 01:07:11,120
Speaker 1: woman working in like battalion staff. Now but okay, um, again,

1176
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:13,200
Speaker 1: I'd have to check up. I haven't been staying current

1177
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:15,080
Speaker 1: and the Army has been trying to keep a lot

1178
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:20,240
Speaker 1: of this stuff under wraps too. I feel so wrapping

1179
01:07:20,280 --> 01:07:22,800
Speaker 1: stuff up, Curtis. So what is it that you, um,

1180
01:07:23,200 --> 01:07:25,440
Speaker 1: you know, plan on doing from here with your story?

1181
01:07:25,560 --> 01:07:29,880
Speaker 1: And is there anywhere that people could contact you? Yeah? Okay,

1182
01:07:29,960 --> 01:07:33,600
Speaker 1: so so really quickly, um like right now, I'm I'm

1183
01:07:33,600 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 1: a little bit stuck in the film area, like I said,

1184
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:39,840
Speaker 1: because primarily I don't know what to do with the script. Um,

1185
01:07:40,120 --> 01:07:41,520
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's I think it's one of the

1186
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:45,560
Speaker 1: top most frustrating things. And then um, with the book.

1187
01:07:45,680 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 1: The book is progressing. You know, I'm working right now

1188
01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:51,800
Speaker 1: with the former creative executive at Lionsgate. She's probably listening

1189
01:07:51,800 --> 01:07:54,400
Speaker 1: to this when when air Shall probably listened to it

1190
01:07:55,080 --> 01:07:58,160
Speaker 1: on the book. We're co writing the book together. She Um,

1191
01:07:58,360 --> 01:08:01,120
Speaker 1: She's been very very supportive, has been exciting to work

1192
01:08:01,160 --> 01:08:02,880
Speaker 1: with her, and and we're gonna I think we're gonna

1193
01:08:02,880 --> 01:08:05,960
Speaker 1: do really good things together. I also think that, um,

1194
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:09,120
Speaker 1: after this book is finished, will probably hopefully maybe start

1195
01:08:09,160 --> 01:08:13,600
Speaker 1: another one. Um. But yeah, I mean, people can just

1196
01:08:13,760 --> 01:08:15,680
Speaker 1: I guess you can just reach out to me on Facebook.

1197
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:19,559
Speaker 1: I do have an email. It's it's just Curtis Alberts

1198
01:08:19,560 --> 01:08:21,680
Speaker 1: at outlook dot com. You can you can just send

1199
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:24,040
Speaker 1: me a messager, you know, a message of support or

1200
01:08:24,080 --> 01:08:26,639
Speaker 1: something like that. But but yeah, I mean, and also,

1201
01:08:26,680 --> 01:08:29,040
Speaker 1: can I just take one second if there's anybody out there,

1202
01:08:29,120 --> 01:08:33,759
Speaker 1: like in the film industry, who who actually has knowledge

1203
01:08:33,760 --> 01:08:36,760
Speaker 1: in terms of how I could develop this script and

1204
01:08:36,840 --> 01:08:39,880
Speaker 1: make it more marketable or how you want me to

1205
01:08:39,920 --> 01:08:44,960
Speaker 1: introduce you to my agent? Well, yeah, that would be great, Yeah,

1206
01:08:45,800 --> 01:08:47,920
Speaker 1: that would be awesome. Yeah, I have a guy, and

1207
01:08:48,400 --> 01:08:51,320
Speaker 1: this dude actually represents a lot of other rangers, not

1208
01:08:51,479 --> 01:08:55,000
Speaker 1: just me. Wow, Well, I definitely need one. I need

1209
01:08:55,080 --> 01:08:59,519
Speaker 1: some serious advice because well, well we'll wrap later and

1210
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:03,639
Speaker 1: I'll intro you to that guy. Thank you. Thank Yeah, absolutely,

1211
01:09:03,680 --> 01:09:06,760
Speaker 1: i'd be happy to you guys are awesome And I

1212
01:09:06,800 --> 01:09:09,080
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you so much for allowing

1213
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:11,080
Speaker 1: me to come back on software and then and talk

1214
01:09:11,160 --> 01:09:13,280
Speaker 1: to you guys for a little bit. Man. It's it's

1215
01:09:13,320 --> 01:09:16,040
Speaker 1: always badass to talk to rangers and and and and

1216
01:09:16,120 --> 01:09:18,280
Speaker 1: people who know, you know, what the heck is going

1217
01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:21,000
Speaker 1: on in the world. Yeah, You're more than welcome on anytime, Curtis.

1218
01:09:21,040 --> 01:09:23,840
Speaker 1: It's great to hear from you. Hey, you, thank you

1219
01:09:23,880 --> 01:09:27,320
Speaker 1: so much, man. Thank you for having me, No, for sure, man,

1220
01:09:27,360 --> 01:09:29,240
Speaker 1: And I should say for people who want to hear

1221
01:09:29,280 --> 01:09:31,000
Speaker 1: the full story, I mean, we didn't get into all

1222
01:09:31,040 --> 01:09:33,040
Speaker 1: of it this episode, but go back to episode three

1223
01:09:33,080 --> 01:09:36,400
Speaker 1: O eleven. Uh, it went over two hours, Like we

1224
01:09:36,479 --> 01:09:39,639
Speaker 1: really went in depth with your whole story. So people

1225
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:42,200
Speaker 1: who might just be tuning in now that just heard

1226
01:09:42,240 --> 01:09:44,439
Speaker 1: the story of you, like you said, kind of the

1227
01:09:44,439 --> 01:09:46,519
Speaker 1: punishments that you had to do as a foster kid,

1228
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:49,720
Speaker 1: there's a lot more of that on episode. Yeah, and

1229
01:09:49,800 --> 01:09:52,479
Speaker 1: I think you know, continuing with your project Curtis, I'd

1230
01:09:52,520 --> 01:09:55,800
Speaker 1: like to have a conversation sometime about what we can

1231
01:09:55,840 --> 01:09:59,560
Speaker 1: do to improve the foster care system and professional it

1232
01:10:00,120 --> 01:10:03,000
Speaker 1: um as. I've done some work on counter human trafficking

1233
01:10:03,040 --> 01:10:06,400
Speaker 1: stuff also, and that all it all plays into it,

1234
01:10:06,479 --> 01:10:09,080
Speaker 1: like all these things are related because these kids who

1235
01:10:09,080 --> 01:10:12,160
Speaker 1: are at risk, they stay inside that cycle, they're not

1236
01:10:12,240 --> 01:10:15,120
Speaker 1: able to break out. Those become that abuse child in

1237
01:10:15,160 --> 01:10:18,840
Speaker 1: the foster care system, becomes the traffic child, the traffic

1238
01:10:18,920 --> 01:10:23,719
Speaker 1: teenager down the line. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I'd

1239
01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:26,639
Speaker 1: definitely like to get into that with you, absolutely man.

1240
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:28,680
Speaker 1: It's just one of the few things that I'm very

1241
01:10:28,720 --> 01:10:31,360
Speaker 1: passionate about and I can't wait to you guys open

1242
01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:33,679
Speaker 1: that opportunity up for me, and I'll definitely be back.

1243
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:38,080
Speaker 1: Absolutely right. Great, thanks Curtis, appreciate it. Man, Hey, no problem, ma,

1244
01:10:38,520 --> 01:10:42,639
Speaker 1: thank you guys. All right, we're talking against great having

1245
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:45,479
Speaker 1: Curtis Albert's back on and uh, that's cool that you

1246
01:10:45,560 --> 01:10:47,720
Speaker 1: kind of a hook up for him, hopefully with or

1247
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:49,439
Speaker 1: at least could throw somebody. I hope I have a

1248
01:10:49,439 --> 01:10:51,840
Speaker 1: hook up. Hopefully it works out at the very least,

1249
01:10:51,960 --> 01:10:54,640
Speaker 1: like you know, he could ask them some questions that

1250
01:10:54,640 --> 01:10:58,320
Speaker 1: will probably guidance. Um, because it is. It is a

1251
01:10:58,400 --> 01:11:01,920
Speaker 1: great story for sure. A foster kid turned army ranger

1252
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:05,120
Speaker 1: now living in Germany. Um, pretty cool. I think it's

1253
01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:07,560
Speaker 1: a good story, and I think, uh, I don't. I

1254
01:11:07,560 --> 01:11:09,400
Speaker 1: don't think you should be so hesitant to cross the

1255
01:11:09,439 --> 01:11:12,679
Speaker 1: stream so to speak right about being a foster kid

1256
01:11:12,680 --> 01:11:16,759
Speaker 1: and write about being an army ranger. Yeah, I agree. Um,

1257
01:11:16,800 --> 01:11:19,360
Speaker 1: all right, a ton of emails here, I'm gonna get

1258
01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:21,920
Speaker 1: to these three. I'm gonna start with the one that

1259
01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:25,080
Speaker 1: I liked the most, uh Ian and Jack. I know

1260
01:11:25,200 --> 01:11:27,519
Speaker 1: this is a little lengthy, which is why I'm emailing

1261
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:29,880
Speaker 1: you instead of just posting the review on iTunes. I

1262
01:11:29,920 --> 01:11:32,280
Speaker 1: just felt I needed to say some things about software

1263
01:11:32,520 --> 01:11:34,960
Speaker 1: radio that were of concern to me. I hope you

1264
01:11:35,000 --> 01:11:37,920
Speaker 1: take the time to read this. This podcast is the

1265
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:40,840
Speaker 1: worst I started listening to it, and now all I

1266
01:11:40,920 --> 01:11:43,680
Speaker 1: do is stare awkwardly at people as they try and

1267
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:47,519
Speaker 1: regurgitate false or i'll informed news stories. People probably think

1268
01:11:47,560 --> 01:11:50,120
Speaker 1: I'm an idiot that can't comprehend with their speaking about

1269
01:11:50,439 --> 01:11:53,160
Speaker 1: just because I'm better informed. So thanks for that, fellas.

1270
01:11:53,439 --> 01:11:56,040
Speaker 1: Jack talks about all the books he reads or has read,

1271
01:11:56,240 --> 01:11:58,200
Speaker 1: which makes me want to know how good they are,

1272
01:11:58,320 --> 01:12:00,800
Speaker 1: so I buy them. I'm up to three books a month.

1273
01:12:00,880 --> 01:12:03,439
Speaker 1: That's all the money that could be going towards Unicorn

1274
01:12:03,439 --> 01:12:07,960
Speaker 1: for appuccinos. Somewhere there's a barista that can't go to

1275
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:10,719
Speaker 1: college because I'm spending money on books. Not to mention

1276
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:12,840
Speaker 1: the Create Club book, which I think he means the

1277
01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:16,040
Speaker 1: sofere book club I get every month that is handpicked

1278
01:12:16,040 --> 01:12:18,439
Speaker 1: by professionals because they think they know what I want

1279
01:12:18,479 --> 01:12:21,720
Speaker 1: to read, and they're never wrong. I don't know how

1280
01:12:21,760 --> 01:12:24,000
Speaker 1: you government spies got in my head to know what

1281
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:26,800
Speaker 1: I like, but get out. I'm reading three to four

1282
01:12:26,840 --> 01:12:28,960
Speaker 1: books a month. Now. Do you have any idea what

1283
01:12:29,000 --> 01:12:31,760
Speaker 1: that is done to my video game? Hobby wrecked it,

1284
01:12:31,880 --> 01:12:34,400
Speaker 1: That's what it's done. I'm buying books on topics I

1285
01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:36,640
Speaker 1: never knew I wanted to know about from authors I

1286
01:12:36,640 --> 01:12:39,320
Speaker 1: didn't even know I liked, from Nick Irving to Hughes

1287
01:12:39,320 --> 01:12:43,000
Speaker 1: Sladder and Timothy Backs, Jason Delgado to Mike Ritland. I

1288
01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:44,960
Speaker 1: don't even have a dog to train, but I'm buying

1289
01:12:45,040 --> 01:12:48,000
Speaker 1: dog training books, all thanks to the boys at Softwrep Radio.

1290
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:50,720
Speaker 1: While I'm on the subject, thanks to Jack Murphy, I

1291
01:12:50,720 --> 01:12:54,439
Speaker 1: now read fiction books like like some nerd, I own

1292
01:12:54,520 --> 01:12:57,400
Speaker 1: every Deckard novel and I've even branched out to a J.

1293
01:12:57,560 --> 01:13:00,519
Speaker 1: Tata Ian Don't think You're innocent and all this either.

1294
01:13:00,640 --> 01:13:03,920
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, I've started reading Dame Gordon What's Next?

1295
01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:07,440
Speaker 1: Tom Clancy? Thanks guys, not to mention the extra gigabytes

1296
01:13:07,479 --> 01:13:10,160
Speaker 1: taken up on my iPhone on my phone now from

1297
01:13:10,200 --> 01:13:12,880
Speaker 1: other podcasts that have steered me towards, like The News

1298
01:13:12,960 --> 01:13:15,600
Speaker 1: Round Up with b K and The Mic Drop, I

1299
01:13:15,600 --> 01:13:18,920
Speaker 1: could use those gigabytes for numerous memes not now, though.

1300
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:21,679
Speaker 1: If you guys keep this up, I may stop watching

1301
01:13:21,680 --> 01:13:24,200
Speaker 1: TV altogether. So if you want to hurt the local

1302
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:29,080
Speaker 1: cable economy, keep up the great work. Regards James, subscribe

1303
01:13:29,120 --> 01:13:31,000
Speaker 1: to the spec ops channel and then you can unplug

1304
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:35,240
Speaker 1: your cable also, yes, sir, yeah, and um, Drew Wallace

1305
01:13:35,320 --> 01:13:37,000
Speaker 1: is working on some great stuff there. But yeah, now,

1306
01:13:37,080 --> 01:13:40,320
Speaker 1: thanks for writing that. And the reviews on Apple podcasts

1307
01:13:40,360 --> 01:13:42,559
Speaker 1: keep them coming, and they do not be lengthy at all,

1308
01:13:42,720 --> 01:13:45,000
Speaker 1: just like one sentence of what you think of what

1309
01:13:45,040 --> 01:13:49,400
Speaker 1: we're doing? Um, all right, here's another one from Mark

1310
01:13:49,520 --> 01:13:53,479
Speaker 1: Beaver's uh I'm a civilian and avid softwareper listener I've

1311
01:13:53,520 --> 01:13:55,519
Speaker 1: worked in jobs in the past that have put me

1312
01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:58,720
Speaker 1: in close relationship to people in the military, so I'm

1313
01:13:58,760 --> 01:14:01,600
Speaker 1: always interested in keeping up with what's going on with

1314
01:14:01,640 --> 01:14:05,679
Speaker 1: their arms forces and service members. I'm definitely thankful for

1315
01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:08,280
Speaker 1: all that they do. Jack mentioned the New York Times

1316
01:14:08,400 --> 01:14:12,439
Speaker 1: article about Rhodesian imagery being used by racists. That is

1317
01:14:12,479 --> 01:14:16,400
Speaker 1: probably the there. There is probably some grains of truth there,

1318
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:19,440
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of reaching and non evident conclusions

1319
01:14:19,520 --> 01:14:22,960
Speaker 1: drawn by the author. For example, Delta veteran Larry Vickers

1320
01:14:23,000 --> 01:14:26,400
Speaker 1: is a major military history buff and firearms collector. His

1321
01:14:26,479 --> 01:14:29,320
Speaker 1: images of the Rhodesian f al were no more than

1322
01:14:29,360 --> 01:14:31,840
Speaker 1: his bragging about being able to acquire such a rare

1323
01:14:31,960 --> 01:14:34,920
Speaker 1: version of the weapon and the unique history it represents.

1324
01:14:35,280 --> 01:14:38,160
Speaker 1: While I can see some of the apparel dealers maybe

1325
01:14:38,200 --> 01:14:40,960
Speaker 1: having some racial motivations, I would say that it's not

1326
01:14:41,080 --> 01:14:44,200
Speaker 1: true about all of them. There's definitely a military history

1327
01:14:44,240 --> 01:14:47,320
Speaker 1: and nostalgia to some of these items. But also I

1328
01:14:47,360 --> 01:14:51,800
Speaker 1: believe there's an interest among the firearms tactical tactical community

1329
01:14:51,800 --> 01:14:55,280
Speaker 1: to have brush stroke camel hats, sure it's etcetera. For

1330
01:14:55,320 --> 01:14:57,760
Speaker 1: some reason, certain people want to have an operator cap

1331
01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:01,680
Speaker 1: in every shade of camel available, tech tiger stripe, he

1332
01:15:01,800 --> 01:15:04,760
Speaker 1: names them all, multi camp, traffic, you name it, there's

1333
01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:06,800
Speaker 1: a market for it, so I think there's a niche

1334
01:15:06,840 --> 01:15:10,599
Speaker 1: being filled there as well. Thanks for the great episodes recently.

1335
01:15:10,680 --> 01:15:13,759
Speaker 1: Guys should definitely get Larry on sometime and also looking

1336
01:15:13,800 --> 01:15:17,559
Speaker 1: to getting Ranger veteran John Lovell on for an episode.

1337
01:15:18,000 --> 01:15:20,160
Speaker 1: And then he writes a ps because he attached some

1338
01:15:20,760 --> 01:15:24,240
Speaker 1: pictures when he was working in journalism on the U

1339
01:15:24,439 --> 01:15:28,320
Speaker 1: s S. Rhode Island. Uh. And that's from Mark Beaver's cool. Yeah,

1340
01:15:28,360 --> 01:15:30,439
Speaker 1: thank you, and you seem to echo what he said

1341
01:15:30,439 --> 01:15:34,320
Speaker 1: about the Rhodes. Yeah. I mean if you like collect,

1342
01:15:34,600 --> 01:15:38,559
Speaker 1: you know, weapons, and you buy like a German Luger pistol,

1343
01:15:38,680 --> 01:15:42,880
Speaker 1: does that mean you're a Nazi? Yeah? Really Yeah, I'm

1344
01:15:42,960 --> 01:15:45,320
Speaker 1: in agreement with you for sure. And that article did

1345
01:15:45,320 --> 01:15:47,919
Speaker 1: a lot of reaching from the New York Times. Um,

1346
01:15:48,000 --> 01:15:51,040
Speaker 1: this is from Chris Ian and Jack. I wanted to

1347
01:15:51,040 --> 01:15:53,440
Speaker 1: start off by saying that I really enjoyed the podcast.

1348
01:15:53,520 --> 01:15:56,000
Speaker 1: You guys do a phenomenal job, and I right not

1349
01:15:56,080 --> 01:15:58,599
Speaker 1: finding it sooner than I did. I wanted to email

1350
01:15:58,640 --> 01:16:00,720
Speaker 1: the show and kind of highlight them. Moment from your

1351
01:16:00,760 --> 01:16:04,200
Speaker 1: most recent podcast with George Hand, he talked about deploying

1352
01:16:04,240 --> 01:16:07,320
Speaker 1: as a ranger in Somalia. Specifically, it was a delta

1353
01:16:07,400 --> 01:16:10,120
Speaker 1: operator and yeah, that's right, delta operator, he wrote, ranger,

1354
01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:14,480
Speaker 1: but delta operator. Specifically, when he selected the pavilion pavilion

1355
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:17,040
Speaker 1: that his team worked out of, he mentioned that some

1356
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:20,280
Speaker 1: Air Force Red Horse guys came in and helped them

1357
01:16:20,320 --> 01:16:23,920
Speaker 1: close up the close up the compound and installed some

1358
01:16:23,960 --> 01:16:26,519
Speaker 1: air conditioning units for them. This is a really cool

1359
01:16:26,560 --> 01:16:28,559
Speaker 1: moment for me, as I am a civil engineer in

1360
01:16:28,600 --> 01:16:31,360
Speaker 1: the United States Air Force. I recently deployed to the

1361
01:16:31,360 --> 01:16:34,559
Speaker 1: Middle East filling a position that backfilled some shortfalls in

1362
01:16:34,600 --> 01:16:37,400
Speaker 1: a Red Horse unit. Doing some work outside of our

1363
01:16:37,520 --> 01:16:39,960
Speaker 1: op board was some of the best stuff we did,

1364
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:43,280
Speaker 1: making life easier for people making the mission happen. I

1365
01:16:43,360 --> 01:16:45,880
Speaker 1: was honored to work beside those guys, and I made

1366
01:16:45,920 --> 01:16:48,400
Speaker 1: memories I will never forget. I guess I just wanted

1367
01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:49,920
Speaker 1: to say how cool it was to hear about a

1368
01:16:49,920 --> 01:16:53,120
Speaker 1: little known elite Air Force engineering force. Thanks for all

1369
01:16:53,120 --> 01:16:56,880
Speaker 1: you guys do, Chris cool. Yeah, so keep those coming.

1370
01:16:57,080 --> 01:17:00,559
Speaker 1: Soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com. Uh.

1371
01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:03,400
Speaker 1: Of course, there's only one club out there. With gear

1372
01:17:03,479 --> 01:17:08,000
Speaker 1: hand picked by special operations veterans from several branches, and

1373
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:10,880
Speaker 1: that of course is Create Club. Past items we've had,

1374
01:17:11,120 --> 01:17:13,639
Speaker 1: uh the E d C MED kit that Chris Speranto did,

1375
01:17:13,680 --> 01:17:17,519
Speaker 1: the cry Precision ballistic shields for your backpack, Uh, the

1376
01:17:17,560 --> 01:17:20,400
Speaker 1: insert you can put in there, which was awesome, Great clubs.

1377
01:17:20,479 --> 01:17:23,200
Speaker 1: Stepping it up right now is twenty team progresses. As

1378
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:24,960
Speaker 1: I've been talking to Scott Whitner, who is doing a

1379
01:17:25,040 --> 01:17:28,320
Speaker 1: lot there. Um, we're putting out custom products that you're

1380
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,639
Speaker 1: not going to find anywhere else. We have different tiers

1381
01:17:31,640 --> 01:17:34,240
Speaker 1: of membership depending on how prepared you want to be.

1382
01:17:34,680 --> 01:17:36,880
Speaker 1: Gift options are available as well, and you can check

1383
01:17:36,920 --> 01:17:40,639
Speaker 1: that out all at Create Club dot Us. Once again,

1384
01:17:40,680 --> 01:17:44,040
Speaker 1: that's Create Club dot Us for your dog owners. Check

1385
01:17:44,120 --> 01:17:46,759
Speaker 1: this out. You're gonna love this. We've just launched Kuna.

1386
01:17:47,120 --> 01:17:50,160
Speaker 1: We have a team of trained canine handlers picking out

1387
01:17:50,160 --> 01:17:53,240
Speaker 1: a box for your dog every month of healthy treats

1388
01:17:53,280 --> 01:17:56,080
Speaker 1: and training aids. It's custom built for your dogs size

1389
01:17:56,080 --> 01:17:59,320
Speaker 1: and age as well. The products are US sourced, all

1390
01:17:59,439 --> 01:18:02,920
Speaker 1: natural and not only promote a healthy diet, but also

1391
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:05,679
Speaker 1: promote being active with your dogs. So whether you're talking

1392
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:08,680
Speaker 1: to pitbull at Chihuahua. This is what you're looking for.

1393
01:18:08,720 --> 01:18:10,719
Speaker 1: You can see all of that at Kuna dot Dog.

1394
01:18:10,760 --> 01:18:15,400
Speaker 1: That's Kuna dot Dog. It's efficient and uh. It's also

1395
01:18:15,680 --> 01:18:19,200
Speaker 1: great for your dog. He's gonna appreciate he or she. Uh.

1396
01:18:19,280 --> 01:18:22,479
Speaker 1: And that spelled seu n A dot d o g.

1397
01:18:24,600 --> 01:18:27,160
Speaker 1: Once again see u n A dot d o G.

1398
01:18:28,400 --> 01:18:31,439
Speaker 1: And as a reminder, is Jackana mentioned earlier for all

1399
01:18:31,439 --> 01:18:33,120
Speaker 1: of you listening for a woman of time, you can

1400
01:18:33,200 --> 01:18:36,559
Speaker 1: receive a fifty percent membership to the spec Ops Channel,

1401
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:41,559
Speaker 1: our channel that offers the most exclusive shows, documentaries and

1402
01:18:41,760 --> 01:18:46,200
Speaker 1: interviews covering the most exciting military content today. The spec

1403
01:18:46,200 --> 01:18:51,000
Speaker 1: ops channel premier show Training Cell follows former Special Operations

1404
01:18:51,040 --> 01:18:54,800
Speaker 1: Forces as they participate in the most advanced training in

1405
01:18:54,840 --> 01:18:59,080
Speaker 1: the country, everything from shooting schools, defensive driving, jungle and

1406
01:18:59,160 --> 01:19:02,320
Speaker 1: winter war, a fair, climbing and much more. Again, you

1407
01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:05,960
Speaker 1: can watch this content by subscribing to the spec Ops Channel.

1408
01:19:05,960 --> 01:19:09,639
Speaker 1: And that's that spec ops channel dot com. Take advantage

1409
01:19:09,760 --> 01:19:11,960
Speaker 1: right now of a limited time off for a fifty

1410
01:19:12,000 --> 01:19:15,880
Speaker 1: percent off your membership only for a month spec ops

1411
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:19,160
Speaker 1: channel dot com. Or, as we've mentioned the past few episodes,

1412
01:19:19,200 --> 01:19:21,720
Speaker 1: if you're a softwarep team room member. You'll get that

1413
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:25,200
Speaker 1: included as well. Um wrapping things up here, I felt

1414
01:19:25,439 --> 01:19:30,000
Speaker 1: we have to mention rescue piece Arley Ermie. Yeah he's

1415
01:19:30,000 --> 01:19:32,000
Speaker 1: a legend. Yeah. Never got to have him on the show,

1416
01:19:32,040 --> 01:19:34,240
Speaker 1: but Andrew Wilkow did. I posted that picture and he

1417
01:19:34,320 --> 01:19:37,800
Speaker 1: was a real legit marine too, Yep, legit marine, very

1418
01:19:37,800 --> 01:19:42,560
Speaker 1: big n r a guy. Yeah, he was a drill instructor.

1419
01:19:43,240 --> 01:19:45,479
Speaker 1: He wasn't a gunny. That's interesting. He was. He was

1420
01:19:45,479 --> 01:19:48,839
Speaker 1: a staff sergeant, but he was a drill instructor. And

1421
01:19:48,840 --> 01:19:52,920
Speaker 1: then later he get he was like uh as an honorarium.

1422
01:19:53,160 --> 01:19:56,640
Speaker 1: He was promoted by the Marine Corps of gunny um

1423
01:19:56,760 --> 01:19:59,920
Speaker 1: but no great character actor too. Yeah, so it was

1424
01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:01,840
Speaker 1: a shame to hear that. And I saw all the

1425
01:20:01,840 --> 01:20:05,559
Speaker 1: pictures going around. Dakota Meyer posted a picture with with

1426
01:20:06,360 --> 01:20:08,800
Speaker 1: Arley Ermony, so the people who met him seemed to

1427
01:20:08,800 --> 01:20:12,519
Speaker 1: speak very highly of him. We missed. I mean, he

1428
01:20:12,600 --> 01:20:15,960
Speaker 1: made such an impression in the Stanley Kubrick film and

1429
01:20:16,280 --> 01:20:20,599
Speaker 1: probably even though it's you know, certainly a pretty graphic film,

1430
01:20:20,680 --> 01:20:23,360
Speaker 1: it probably led some people to join the military. Bro

1431
01:20:23,600 --> 01:20:26,160
Speaker 1: That movie put so many dudes in the Marine Corps.

1432
01:20:26,439 --> 01:20:28,840
Speaker 1: You can't even begin to imagine and it's kind of

1433
01:20:28,880 --> 01:20:32,360
Speaker 1: like an anti war film that Stanley Kubrick was kind

1434
01:20:32,360 --> 01:20:36,360
Speaker 1: of pointing to the absurdities of of the military and

1435
01:20:36,400 --> 01:20:41,120
Speaker 1: of war, right. Yeah, that's because it's not like a um, yeah,

1436
01:20:41,280 --> 01:20:45,320
Speaker 1: like America, you know, type of recruiting tool. Yeah, no,

1437
01:20:45,439 --> 01:20:47,519
Speaker 1: not at all. It's about the to me anyway, it's

1438
01:20:47,520 --> 01:20:51,639
Speaker 1: about the absurdity of war. Um. And but I mean

1439
01:20:51,720 --> 01:20:55,519
Speaker 1: so many young people saw that movie, including myself, like, yeah,

1440
01:20:55,560 --> 01:20:59,560
Speaker 1: that looks really cool. Let's go do that. Yeah. Um,

1441
01:20:59,600 --> 01:21:01,760
Speaker 1: all right, well, great show and looking forward to having

1442
01:21:01,760 --> 01:21:04,559
Speaker 1: an Amber Smith on next show. And you know what

1443
01:21:04,560 --> 01:21:08,080
Speaker 1: I forgot to ask Curtis Albers, I didn't ask you've

1444
01:21:08,120 --> 01:21:14,719
Speaker 1: ever seen The Big Bang in Cony in somewhere You've

1445
01:21:14,760 --> 01:21:18,880
Speaker 1: been listening to sulf Rep Radio. New episodes up every

1446
01:21:18,920 --> 01:21:22,280
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday for all of the great content from

1447
01:21:22,280 --> 01:21:25,599
Speaker 1: our veteran journalists. Join us and become a team room

1448
01:21:25,680 --> 01:21:29,280
Speaker 1: member today at soft rep dot com. Follow the show

1449
01:21:29,360 --> 01:21:33,320
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at soft Rep Radio, and be

1450
01:21:33,439 --> 01:21:36,520
Speaker 1: sure to also check out the Power of Thought podcast,

1451
01:21:36,960 --> 01:21:41,640
Speaker 1: hosted by Hurricane Group CEO and Navy Seal Sniper instructor

1452
01:21:42,120 --> 01:21:43,040
Speaker 1: Brandon Webb.