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Speaker 1: This week on The David Rutherford Show, Captain Andrew Parks,

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Speaker 1: Bronze Star winner from his time in Iraq in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and six. This is one more in my series

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Speaker 1: of interviewing the real grunts of the g WATT, the

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Speaker 1: guys that were in the trenches doing the job and

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Speaker 1: getting it done. Semper five. All right, all right, so

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Speaker 1: again I'm so excited to welcome everybody back. You know, again,

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Speaker 1: I want to reinforce this called action that emerged out

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Speaker 1: of Clay Matthews, my g green Berave buddy, who said,

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Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot more stories out there

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Speaker 1: that are important to understand, not just the history of

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Speaker 1: the g WATT and the challenges that we're faced at

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Speaker 1: every level. There's a lot more stories than just the

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Speaker 1: soft community, that is for sure. In fact, I believe continuously.

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Speaker 1: And Jordy was joking with me before, He's like, hey, man, uh,

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Speaker 1: people are going to start to think that you have

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Speaker 1: some weird uh uh fascination with marines and and the

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Speaker 1: reality is I do. I don't think any other unit

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Speaker 1: builds a camaraderie in a brotherhood better and more in

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Speaker 1: a faster way, and and really expects more of each

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Speaker 1: other than I, than than the Marine Corps units do

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Speaker 1: and so, and continuation of that promise to to want

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Speaker 1: to get out and bring other stories, other historically relevant

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Speaker 1: story but more important, uh more, more stories directed towards

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Speaker 1: the young man of America who are seeking the right

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Speaker 1: types of influences. And that's why it was a no brainer.

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Speaker 1: Uh when when Andy Parks reached out direct messaged me

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Speaker 1: on X and said, Hey, I would love to come

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Speaker 1: on and share my story. So without further ado, Uh, Andy,

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Speaker 1: it is such a privilege to have you on my show.

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Speaker 2: Such a pleasure to be here, David, and I want

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Speaker 2: to save you some some heartache, I think you said

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Speaker 2: Clay Matthews, the football player Clay Martin.

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Speaker 1: He's gonna kill me. I'm sorry, Clay, I got home

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Speaker 1: last night. I deserve that. I'm I'm just I'm like

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Speaker 1: exhausted right now. So I apologize. Clay. You can definitely

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Speaker 1: beat me up in the comments. I love you, buddy.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Andy for correcting that. All right? Brother? Like

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Speaker 1: I I guess I was thinking about reading your citation.

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Speaker 1: But what what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna post

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Speaker 1: a link to that. Once we released the show, just

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Speaker 1: so people can read it for themselves.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I know you're like, hey, man, I didn't do

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Speaker 1: it to get the award, but it is, in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: it's a It's indicative of of of you as a

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Speaker 1: leader in combat, and I think for me that's really

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Speaker 1: the inspiring stuff. But before we get into that incredible

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Speaker 1: deployment that you I've learned a little bit about, can

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Speaker 1: you just let's start at the beginning, like why would

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Speaker 1: you ever want to join the military, well, and in

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Speaker 1: particular to become a marine and then on top of

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Speaker 1: that to bring a marine officer.

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Speaker 2: You know, I think my story is is weirdly typical,

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Speaker 2: especially in the Marine Corps. There are a lot of

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Speaker 2: family lineages and I'm one of them. My dad was

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Speaker 2: was an enlisted marine in the Vietnam era, and so

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Speaker 2: I just grew up watching Sansaviwajima and shit, I could

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Speaker 2: I could recite Full Metal Jacket cadences at ten years old.

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Speaker 4: So I don't know. I don't know that there was.

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Speaker 2: Ever much of a choice for me, although along the

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Speaker 2: way I certainly thought I was going to be a

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Speaker 2: Major League baseball player, and so I went to college,

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Speaker 2: got to play ball, in college kind of bounced around

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Speaker 2: a little bit.

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Speaker 4: In fact, my the first stop I.

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Speaker 2: Made, the the only Division one offer that I got

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Speaker 2: out of high school was to the United States Naval Academy.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow.

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Speaker 2: And the reason you don't know that is because I

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Speaker 2: didn't make it through the United States Naval Academy. In fact,

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Speaker 2: I never even got in the front door of the

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Speaker 2: Naval Academy.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 4: A lot a lot of the athletes out of high school.

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Speaker 2: If they don't either make the mark on the SAT

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Speaker 2: side of the house or the GPA side of the house,

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Speaker 2: the Navy sends you to a place called the Naval

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Speaker 2: Academy Preparatory School.

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Speaker 4: And uh, it's actually a pretty awesome place.

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Speaker 2: You got kind of a mix of half athletes and

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Speaker 2: the other half are guys coming right out of the fleet.

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Speaker 2: So a lot of enlisted folks that have that have

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Speaker 2: gone through those enlisted Meritorious commissioning programs. So you got,

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Speaker 2: you know, a bunch of enlisted sailors and enlisted marines

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Speaker 2: and that was kind of my first real taste at

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Speaker 2: hanging out with real marines.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and they didn't.

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Speaker 4: Let me down.

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Speaker 2: The boys that I met there at NAPPS were some

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Speaker 2: hard Chargers and I really really really became good friends

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Speaker 2: with quite a few of them. So when I left

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Speaker 2: and just continue to pursue baseball, I still knew if

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Speaker 2: baseball didn't work out, man, I think that's still the

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Speaker 2: route that I want to go.

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Speaker 4: So that's exactly what happened.

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Speaker 2: I realized I probably wasn't the next Mickey Mantle about

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Speaker 2: my junior year in college and said, we're gonna have

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Speaker 2: to find a job at some point. And that's when

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Speaker 2: I went out and found an officer selection officer. That's

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Speaker 2: kind of the mechanism for young men that were young

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Speaker 2: men and women that want to go become officers in

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Speaker 2: the Marine Corps.

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Speaker 1: And where were you at, what school were you at,

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Speaker 1: where that was available to you, and how did that

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Speaker 1: process work? Was it seamless or was it did you

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Speaker 1: have to do some work to find that guidance?

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Speaker 4: You know? I think I made a call.

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Speaker 2: I think I got on the website and made a

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Speaker 2: call and they said, hey, you need to find your

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Speaker 2: officer selection officer.

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Speaker 4: There's one on your campus.

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Speaker 2: I was at Ohio University at the time in Athens, Ohio,

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Speaker 2: And if I remember the captain's name, I think the

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Speaker 2: guy's name was Captain Spree Uh. And he looked the

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Speaker 2: part jacked up brother. Uh looked good in his uniform.

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Speaker 2: And and you know, at that point, I was in

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Speaker 2: pretty good shape. And and and I think that's that

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Speaker 2: we don't need to lie about it. I mean, that's

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Speaker 2: the first impression you make. What does this deal look like?

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Speaker 2: And I think he liked what I looked like. And

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Speaker 2: I said, nah, my dad was a marine. My dad

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Speaker 2: had since passed away, but he he had a pretty

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Speaker 2: successful career in the FBI. So I had a lot

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Speaker 2: of a lot of his friends that were able to

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Speaker 2: kind of guide me in the right direction. A bunch

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Speaker 2: of Vietnam Marines, Battle of Casan guys and things like that.

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Speaker 1: So, so you grew up with with the pipe hitters

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Speaker 1: of the marines from from Vietnam as your uncle's your influence.

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Speaker 1: What were I mean? Were you sitting around while they're

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Speaker 1: you know, smoking cigars and telling stories. Did you have

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Speaker 1: access to that or was your dad a little bit

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Speaker 1: more protective of you? Or how did it work?

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Speaker 2: You know, we did, but we were always on the periphery,

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Speaker 2: you know, the grown ups back in those days, grown

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Speaker 2: ups and kids didn't really hang out too much together

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Speaker 2: like nowadays. You know, shit, the moms got the all

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Speaker 2: the kids involved in every conversation. You know, it was

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Speaker 2: very very separated at that time. But it would be

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Speaker 2: me and my crew of buddies and all of these

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Speaker 2: guys Green Beret dads, Marine dads, all Vietnam dudes, you know,

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Speaker 2: so and then guys that went on to start HRT

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Speaker 2: for the FBI, the original SWAT guys in New York City,

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Speaker 2: in LA So we would hear the stories and then

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Speaker 2: we would go and run out in the woods get

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Speaker 2: our BB guns and have BB gun wars.

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Speaker 4: And you know, we didn't want to be the kid

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Speaker 4: to come back crying.

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Speaker 2: So they would just let let these little maniacs do

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Speaker 2: their thing.

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Speaker 4: We're gonna have a chat. And that's kind of how

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Speaker 4: it was.

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Speaker 2: So nothing was ever really pushed on me, but I

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Speaker 2: grew up with the influence and that it was just

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Speaker 2: always attractive.

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Speaker 4: I don't know why it wouldn't be to a young

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Speaker 4: man or woman.

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Speaker 1: Rightly, Okay, Andy, this is awesome, But before you get

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Speaker 1: into going to OCS, I just got to give a

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Speaker 1: switch today. Po. Yah. Well, that's that's what it was like.

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Speaker 1: And I I, you know, I have service in my family,

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Speaker 1: but it's very disconnected, you know, through two General Ago

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Speaker 1: and and then everybody became you know, a professional, a

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Speaker 1: lot of lawyers in my family. And I knew early

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Speaker 1: on there was no way in hell I was gonna

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Speaker 1: want to be a lawyer. I just couldn't do it.

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Speaker 1: And but there was always this allure, right, this this

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Speaker 1: thing that that was being portrayed, whether in film or books,

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Speaker 1: and it was it was that that sense of like, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is what a man is like, this is what

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Speaker 1: a man does. This is this ability to uh have

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Speaker 1: other people believe in you in the most complex, scary

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Speaker 1: situations imaginable. And yet everybody's just like, let's go and

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Speaker 1: and for me like that that I think you you

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Speaker 1: experienced some of that in sport, but it's not quite

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Speaker 1: the whole thing. And you know that. And and I

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Speaker 1: think I was the same thing I did once I realized, well,

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Speaker 1: my my athletic career is pretty much over in college

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Speaker 1: and what do I am I gonna do? Because I

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Speaker 1: don't feel the sensation and I know I want that feeling,

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Speaker 1: and that's what that pulled me into. So it was

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Speaker 1: it was it after this call, did did it feel

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Speaker 1: like it was an insurmountable task or it was just

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Speaker 1: like all right, it's just it's just checking off the box, ea,

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Speaker 1: or what I have to do.

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Speaker 2: I think at that point I was I just knew

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Speaker 2: it was going to happen. I couldn't see my life

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Speaker 2: going any other direction, you know, frankly.

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Speaker 4: So then it was just you know, don't quit. That's

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Speaker 4: all you got.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's that was the guidance that I got

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Speaker 2: from anybody that had been there and done that, like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you can do it physically, just don't quit. And I

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Speaker 2: think generally speaking, that is the correct message to give.

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Speaker 2: I mean, physically, your body will allow you to do

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Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that your mind doesn't think it can.

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Speaker 4: It can, just don't quit.

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Speaker 2: And I mean you guys and your brotherhood know that

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Speaker 2: about as good as anybody, because in terms of gut checks,

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Speaker 2: you know, ain't really much out there like buds.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I certainly believe you know that twenty

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Speaker 1: one days in a swamp at Ranger School. There are

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Speaker 1: aspects of the Q course that are kicking the knots right,

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Speaker 1: every you know, Mars Socks program has gotten phenomenally difficult, right,

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Speaker 1: And it's you're right though, It's it is that simple.

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm sure we chat a little bit

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Speaker 1: before you came on. You try to mentor young young

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Speaker 1: men into the recognition that this could be a phenomenal

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Speaker 1: footstep towards the development of your life and the meaning

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Speaker 1: and of your life and whatever other pursuits you want

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Speaker 1: to engage in professionally after your service. But there's something

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Speaker 1: in it that teaches you that where that space is

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Speaker 1: of quitting, right. I think as a young person it's

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Speaker 1: so relative to the tangibility of physical pain or discomfort. Right.

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Speaker 1: You feel it and you're like, okay, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: push back. Well, in these programs, the physical pain, the

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Speaker 1: physical existence of pain is perpetual by the nature of

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Speaker 1: the job itself, so you're automatically forced to do that deeper,

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Speaker 1: the deeper evaluation of what you believe the mental never

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Speaker 1: quit space is, and that for me is like the

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Speaker 1: most the coolest thing to witness in part and see

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Speaker 1: as whether your peers you're going through it or when

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Speaker 1: you become an instructor or a senior level like you

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Speaker 1: watch it unfold, that expansion of perspective that says, oh wow,

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Speaker 1: that there is this whole other gear that's available to me.

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Speaker 1: How soon did you really start to feel that in

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Speaker 1: yourself after you got engaged in the program?

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, pretty early.

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Speaker 2: On Marine Corps ocs, there's a couple of different avenues.

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Speaker 2: You can get commissioned through the Marine Corps or I

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Speaker 2: went through a program called PLC Combined, so atoone Leaders

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Speaker 2: Class Combined essentially that that's a program you do the

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Speaker 2: summer before your senior year in college, and it's it's

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Speaker 2: the full it's the full program.

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Speaker 4: So you got twelve weeks combined.

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Speaker 2: Uh PLC junior seniors you do six weeks before your

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Speaker 2: junior year and then another six weeks before your senior

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Speaker 2: year slightly different approach, but regular OCS twelve week program,

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Speaker 2: and I think, I mean, it is a it is

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Speaker 2: a physically grueling event.

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Speaker 4: You don't learn a whole ton.

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Speaker 2: You learn the basics, you learn the march, you know,

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Speaker 2: you learn drill, immediate response to orders, those types of things.

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Speaker 4: But basically it's like, you know, how much shit can

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Speaker 4: you do in today?

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Speaker 2: Boy? And and and survive? And that's really it. And

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Speaker 2: I I was talking to a buddy the other day

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Speaker 2: when I told him I was going to do this program.

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Speaker 2: I was like, dude, do you remember what what our

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Speaker 2: attrition rate was back then? And I think regular OCS,

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Speaker 2: which doesn't get a lot of hubb I mean, I

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Speaker 2: still think OCS is about a fifty percent attrution rate, forty.

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Speaker 4: To fifty percent. It's significant.

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Speaker 2: So you get a lot of folks in there that

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Speaker 2: I think they they come in there in shape because

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Speaker 2: there's minimum requirements for showing up. They think they're in shape.

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Speaker 2: But it's just like you said, it's working past being

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Speaker 2: in shape. Everybody's in shape now everybody's exhausted.

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Speaker 4: Your muscles don't work anymore, you can't do any more pushups.

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Speaker 2: What do you have to keep you there, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of folks talk about the why now, and mine

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Speaker 2: was just I got to get that ega. You know,

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Speaker 2: I can't let the old man down, the legacy, that

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Speaker 2: kind of thing.

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Speaker 4: So I think that was definitely a driving factor for me.

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Speaker 1: Well, I love that. One of the things that the

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Speaker 1: probably one of my favorite aspects of my service was

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Speaker 1: when I became an SQT, a reluctant SQT instructor. I

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Speaker 1: always found it fascinating, right. I think what I love

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Speaker 1: so much about our program is that officers are integrated

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Speaker 1: from the beginning every you know, and and and they

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Speaker 1: actually take, you know, more punishment than than the enlisted

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Speaker 1: guys do, just as in that that that has to

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Speaker 1: be the case, right, because the the responsibility is exponentially

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Speaker 1: greater when you're when you're responsible for other people's lives.

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Speaker 1: And what what what? I think I had this great opportunity.

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Speaker 1: My boss, my senior chief, Bruce Cunningham, was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: why don't you start working with the junior officers because

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Speaker 1: one of the things that you know, I've seen over

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Speaker 1: my twenty plus year career is that junior officers sometimes

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Speaker 1: get rooted in a particular frame of leadership that doesn't

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Speaker 1: evolve into their own and and I think that's that

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Speaker 1: was the thing for me that really was fascinating, is

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Speaker 1: that being a leader of other men in these units,

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Speaker 1: whatever combat unit you're part of, or even just a

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Speaker 1: supportive unit too, Like you really have to figure out

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Speaker 1: who you are like how and to get other people

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Speaker 1: that are your peers, your same age to want to

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Speaker 1: follow you, like and not just like, hey, follow me,

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Speaker 1: clean the head or clean the shitters like it's it's like, no, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna go assault that building that has a bunch

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Speaker 1: of savages in it who want to kill us. Trust

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Speaker 1: me when I tell you follow me. How quickly did

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Speaker 1: you start to realize that that was going to be

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Speaker 1: a huge component of this, Like you needed to assimilate

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Speaker 1: not just the the legacy of Marine Corps leadership and

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Speaker 1: what had been the lessons learned, but also your own

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Speaker 1: yourself and growing into it.

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Speaker 2: That's a great question, man, And I think I think

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Speaker 2: that's the answer to that question is something that every

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Speaker 2: young Marine author has to figure out on their own

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Speaker 2: and in their own time. The Marine Corps does a

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Speaker 2: phenomenal job of hammering this idea into your head from

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Speaker 2: day one. You gotta be uh tactically sound and technically proficient.

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Speaker 2: You have to know your job. You can't fake it.

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Speaker 2: There is no faking it, not in a life and

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Speaker 2: death scenario.

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Speaker 4: So that's number one.

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Speaker 2: You gotta be technically sound, technically proficient, but you also

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Speaker 2: have to do it in your own way. I personally thought,

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Speaker 2: and I actually did this at OCS.

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Speaker 4: This is kind of a hilarious story.

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Speaker 2: But right when you get there, like any boot camp,

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Speaker 2: if you have glasses or contact lenses, they're gonna issue

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Speaker 2: you BCGS birth control glasses. And I legitimately thought, if

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Speaker 2: I put these glasses on, these drill instructors are gonna

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Speaker 2: jack with me even more because I'm gonna look like

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Speaker 2: a nerd. So I wore my contact lenses for a

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Speaker 2: month straight. I would wake up in the morning and

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Speaker 2: I didn't tell anybody, of course, but I would wake.

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Speaker 4: Up in the morning. I couldn't see shit, my eyes

350
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Speaker 4: are so dry.

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Speaker 2: But I did it because I didn't want anybody knowing

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Speaker 2: that I had like a weakness that they could pick on.

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Speaker 2: And so that was my kind of concept, like you

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Speaker 2: had to look like Billy badass for marines to respect

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Speaker 2: your number one.

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Speaker 4: Once I got.

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Speaker 2: Done with my tour that we're going to talk about

358
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Speaker 2: here in a second, I realized that that is total bullshit.

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Speaker 2: All marines care about is that you are technically sound

360
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Speaker 2: and tactically proficient and you can get them. You can

361
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Speaker 2: make the right call, You know how to employ the arms.

362
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Speaker 2: You know your marines are your best asset. All you

363
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Speaker 2: got to do as an officer is really put them

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Speaker 2: in a position to succeed.

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Speaker 4: Most violently and they will love you for it. I

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Speaker 4: didn't really get that until I had come back.

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Speaker 2: And then I'd seen some dudes who maybe I thought

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Speaker 2: were kind of nerdy kick ass, and then I was like, Okay,

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter what you look like. It matters what you

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Speaker 2: do and what you act like. And so that took

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Speaker 2: me some time to figure that part out.

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Speaker 1: And that's the beauty of it, right, And I really

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Speaker 1: think that You're like, that's the beauty of leadership when

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Speaker 1: you have the sell self awareness to say, all right,

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Speaker 1: what I'm doing right now is not resulting in the

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Speaker 1: level of commitment from those I'm in charge of, like

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Speaker 1: I'm not seeing it, and to have that self reflection,

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Speaker 1: go what am I doing wrong? What am I not doing?

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Speaker 1: To help this young marine improve their ability, make them better,

380
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Speaker 1: and to prepare them for those you know, more difficult situations.

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Speaker 1: Was there a particular part of your training and that

382
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Speaker 1: and OCS or anything that kind of stood out to

383
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Speaker 1: you that that really kind of you like those light

384
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Speaker 1: bulb moments, right, those are my favorite moments in any

385
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Speaker 1: educational processes. Like you look at like you deliver a

386
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Speaker 1: piece of of a message or an idea or a

387
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Speaker 1: training module or whatever it is, and you see the person, oh,

388
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Speaker 1: like they get it and it just and then all

389
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Speaker 1: of a sudden you watch those that you know, those

390
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Speaker 1: the ascension of of of their abilities improve more rapidly. Right,

391
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Speaker 1: did you have one of those moments?

392
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Speaker 2: Yeah? You know after OCS, that's that's when the real

393
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Speaker 2: training comes.

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Speaker 4: You go to a program every Marine officer.

395
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Speaker 2: You could be a lawyer, you could be a pilot,

396
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Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. And this is one of the really

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Speaker 2: cool things that really makes the Marine Corps unique and special.

398
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Speaker 2: Every Marine officer goes to something called the Basic School

399
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Speaker 2: and that's in Quantico, Virginia. That's six months. Regardless of

400
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Speaker 2: what your mos is. Marines have funny little nicknames, you know,

401
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Speaker 2: the the acronym TBS, the Basic School.

402
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Speaker 4: A lot of guys will call it the Big Suck.

403
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Speaker 2: I mean there's a lot, there's a lot of things

404
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Speaker 2: going on there.

405
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Speaker 4: Man. My class was so blessed I went.

406
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Speaker 2: I went to TBS and got there in November of

407
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Speaker 2: two thousand and three and stayed, you know, through the

408
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Speaker 2: good part of two thousand and four. All of our instructors,

409
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Speaker 2: the majority of our instructors were captains that had just

410
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Speaker 2: gotten back from either a platoon command or a company

411
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Speaker 2: command tour in a round Afghanistan. So we had all

412
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Speaker 2: of this awesome real world, real life experience, and having

413
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Speaker 2: with some of those folks is what really opened our

414
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Speaker 2: eyes and made us real, Okay, this is real. We're

415
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Speaker 2: getting it right from the dudes who've been there closest

416
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Speaker 2: to the position we're about to, you know, enter into,

417
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:21,960
Speaker 2: and they either succeeded or failed, and they can give

418
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Speaker 2: us all that information.

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Speaker 1: Well that's for me, Like that was the change of

420
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Speaker 1: the whole time for me, Like that's when everything altered,

421
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Speaker 1: because I remember, like I'm going through I was lucky

422
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Speaker 1: if I had I got to spend times with guys

423
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Speaker 1: that were in Panama a little bit, right, I had

424
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Speaker 1: some guys that we had this warrant officer Bougelai, who

425
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Speaker 1: was the guy that actually did the combat swimmer op

426
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Speaker 1: that blew up No Diego's boat, which we would care that,

427
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: you know. But it was like onesies, twosies, right, And

428
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 1: and the real big days were when the team guys

429
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Speaker 1: from Vietnam would come in and tell about their knife

430
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,919
Speaker 1: like they're five knife kills and you're like, what you know,

431
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: like right right, and so like, but there's this distance

432
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:13,679
Speaker 1: from it, and and and also obviously as we now know,

433
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Speaker 1: and fuck, I can't even imagine what the the young

434
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,320
Speaker 1: guys are being taught now in terms of drone warfare,

435
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: the integration of drones all just changing everything. You know,

436
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:29,680
Speaker 1: is like now you're in the midst where your peers

437
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,720
Speaker 1: that people that are you're your same age or you're

438
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: too older, you know who just six months before were

439
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 1: in combat for the first time in a lot since

440
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,639
Speaker 1: the Gulf War. And now like there there must have

441
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: been like this excitement, like this newness to everything that

442
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,920
Speaker 1: it wasn't before, Like, oh, we're going through training and

443
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 1: we'll have fun and party on the weekend and and

444
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 1: you know, maybe someday we'll you know, we'll do some

445
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: kind of FID that is little has a potential of

446
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: something connected. But now it's like, no, you are finishing

447
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: and you are going to combat it described that sensation, uh,

448
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,360
Speaker 1: with the with the information like it was palpable.

449
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 2: I would imagine, Yeah, it takes the you know, you

450
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,880
Speaker 2: know that term notional. Hey, this is a notional accident.

451
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 2: It used to disgust me. You know, you're you're on

452
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 2: the objectives. Now what are we doing notionally?

453
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:27,479
Speaker 4: You know?

454
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,679
Speaker 2: Now, when we were at TBS, these guys would stop

455
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,640
Speaker 2: you in the middle of the patrol and ask you

456
00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 2: why are you doing this? And the why becomes everything.

457
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,240
Speaker 2: The why, this concept of commander's intent. Why are we

458
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:43,360
Speaker 2: executing that this patrol? Why are we conducting this assault?

459
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 2: The why has to be understood to the lowest.

460
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 3: Man, or.

461
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 4: You'll lose the effect on target.

462
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 2: You lose, you lose your ability to win in the

463
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:57,360
Speaker 2: absence of orders, You lose your ability to win if

464
00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 2: the whole command suite gets their ass kicked and killed.

465
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,959
Speaker 2: And that we saw firsthand in Iraq. Iraqi, you had

466
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 2: a country of population. I think they had ten thousand generals.

467
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,719
Speaker 2: I think they had the second most generals on planet

468
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,879
Speaker 2: Earth at the beginning of that thing, and we saw

469
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 2: if you cut the head off that snake. Their Jundi,

470
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,400
Speaker 2: the young soldiers, they had never seen an operations order.

471
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 2: They didn't understand a why. They knew what you go

472
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,760
Speaker 2: to that wall and look that way. That was the

473
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 2: extent of the order's process. We got firsthand the why

474
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 2: from these guys. As we're running a patrol, as we're

475
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 2: on the objective, as we're got to setting up a

476
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 2: support by fire position, we would always be stopped, why

477
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 2: are you doing this? You would give them an answer,

478
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 2: didn't matter if it was right or wrong. They just

479
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 2: wanted the opportunity to say no, no, think of it

480
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 2: this way.

481
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 4: And man, when they.

482
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 2: Could give you that real life information, eyes wide open

483
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 2: moments every time, Oh my gosh, geometry of fires. That's

484
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 2: why I don't want to set up my support by

485
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 2: fire position here, because I got guys running in right here.

486
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 2: Maybe if I moved the over fifty meters and got

487
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,360
Speaker 2: on this high ground, that's going to give us way

488
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 2: better effects on targeting. And so that kind of stuff

489
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 2: was the good stuff. Man, That that was. That was

490
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 2: really really what what hit home with a bunch of us.

491
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 1: So I always thought of it like this as the

492
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: closer you could you could connect to the the the

493
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: actual outcome of what what the effort you were putting in,

494
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:30,360
Speaker 1: right if if if if I, if I invested, you know,

495
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: countless hours conducting you know, close quarter battle or close

496
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: core combat, whatever the fuck you want to call it,

497
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: and then if I know that's going to happen, like

498
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,679
Speaker 1: the're in, I'm getting the feedback, Oh, this is the

499
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: way it goes down from somebody who was just there,

500
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 1: and it is like, oh, now I believe it, Like

501
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:53,480
Speaker 1: it's inevitable. There's an inevitability that I'm going to be

502
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: tested on whether or not I paid attention. Right, Whereas

503
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,200
Speaker 1: prior to nine to eleven you never knew and so

504
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: it lacked this not that the training wasn't great and everybody,

505
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: but there was this something missing. And now that it wasn't,

506
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 1: it was fulfilled like you were going to fulfill that uh,

507
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: that requirement uh, and it was going to happen sooner

508
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 1: or later. What what was the sequence after you graduated OCS?

509
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: How did you get aside? Where what what what was

510
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: the next sequence before you were uh in your unit

511
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: to where like, oh, this is a group we got

512
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: to start training to go to war and we'll talk

513
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 1: about that.

514
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, brother, So you know.

515
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,919
Speaker 2: You go to OCS, you come back home, graduate college,

516
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 2: you get your commission, then you wait on a school

517
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 2: slot to open a TBS. I think every TBS company

518
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 2: probably has I don't know, two hundred and fifty three

519
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 2: hundred folks in it. You graduate that at the end

520
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,719
Speaker 2: of six months. Here I've heard, I've actually heard JOCKO.

521
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 2: He's like the only guy that I've ever heard that

522
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 2: has explained this.

523
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,719
Speaker 4: And I was I was a SOB story from this.

524
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 2: So at TBS, there's something called the quality spread. And

525
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 2: what the quality spread does. It breaks down the company

526
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 2: into thirds. The Marine Corps is trying to make sure

527
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:16,640
Speaker 2: that every MOS, every MM. I think there's twenty two

528
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 2: to twenty five military occupational specialties that you can get

529
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 2: as a Marine officer. You rank them one through twenty five.

530
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:29,640
Speaker 2: The Marine Corps wants to make sure that higher achievers

531
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 2: get spread out through the entirety of the force.

532
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 4: And brother, I was that guy. Man, So.

533
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 2: I was in the top third, but I think I

534
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 2: was like sixty eight out of seventy in the top

535
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 2: third something like that. Yeah, So I list my one

536
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 2: through twenty three two, and the instructors will tell you, you know,

537
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 2: you want to be at the top of any third.

538
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 2: You number one in the bottom third, you're getting your

539
00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 2: pick first shot one hundred percent of the time. So

540
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 2: I ranked my one through twenty whatever.

541
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 4: And I remember I.

542
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 2: Had my SPC staff PLATOO commander call me in and

543
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 2: I didn't even realize it. Dude, and I love being

544
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,480
Speaker 2: a marine and I love training hard, but I also

545
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 2: love playing hard, and so I just kind of, man,

546
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 2: I just kind of thought it was all going to

547
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,719
Speaker 2: work out, like surely they recognize that, Like I'm an

548
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 2: infantry guy and then I'm a fourth recon guy and

549
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 2: that's just what it's gonna be.

550
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, dude, call me.

551
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 2: In the office and he goes, hey, Parks, just want

552
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 2: to make sure you're top five.

553
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 4: You're good with anything.

554
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 2: So now I was like, well, shit, I'm not gonna

555
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 2: get my top My first pick was infantry. My second

556
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 2: pick was something called ground intelligence. Ground intelligence officers go

557
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 2: to Infantry officer course. Then they also go to They're

558
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 2: the ones that are like the scout sniper, PLATOO commanders

559
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 2: they also usually will then go on to recon.

560
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 4: So so those are my first two. But then it

561
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 4: was like tanks.

562
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 2: I was like, shit, if I'm not infantry man, I'll

563
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 2: be a heavyweight champion of the World. Tanker you know

564
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 2: how to do that. And then tracks. I actually had

565
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: my fifth pick. I had in front of artillery. Looking back,

566
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 2: maybe I wouldn't have done that, but I was like,

567
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 2: artillery man, you're kind of in the rear a little bit,

568
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 2: You're still you're still in the fight. At the time,

569
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 2: it was an all male MOS, which.

570
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 4: In my mind represented like combat there.

571
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:22,040
Speaker 2: You know that you got to be in one of

572
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 2: those to get to get some My number fifth choice

573
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 2: was something called low altitude Air Defense Stinger missiles, and

574
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 2: I'd heard that those guys, because there's no air threat,

575
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:36,239
Speaker 2: they were just using those guys. It was an all

576
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 2: malems and they were only using them. Is like provisional

577
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:42,480
Speaker 2: rifle companies in Iraq, right, like, go you're gonna go

578
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 2: guard something. You're you're basically an infantry guy. Basically if

579
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 2: you're not anyway, School Circle spc's reading right down the

580
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 2: list and you could have heard a pin drop when

581
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 2: he said parks seventy two oh four.

582
00:30:57,800 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 4: Every guy in the room turned it just looked right

583
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 4: at me, like what what is that?

584
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 2: And I was the same way, man, and I was like,

585
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 2: oh my god, I'm gonna miss this whole thing.

586
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 4: I mean, that's really what I thought.

587
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 2: I thought the whole reason I joined was to go

588
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 2: to war, man, and I'm gonna miss this whole freaking thing.

589
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: Holy smokes, Oh my gosh.

590
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,200
Speaker 2: And so that's how it worked out for me. Man,

591
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,479
Speaker 2: I was a lad again. There's there's no fighting it.

592
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: There's not like sure, y'all, jack, this went up.

593
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 1: What are you talking about?

594
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 4: The numbers are the numbers, you know. The numbers are

595
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 4: the numbers.

596
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 2: And that's where my things shook out. And so I

597
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 2: went to, uh, got to go to Fort Bliss, Texas

598
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 2: for Stinger missile school.

599
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 4: There was three officers.

600
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: Uh.

601
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 2: It was a gentleman's course if there ever was one.

602
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,959
Speaker 2: I mean, you show up to class ten am if

603
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 2: you want to, there's one gun re sergeant.

604
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 4: They're teaching.

605
00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 2: You're basically learning to identify enemy threat aircraft just by

606
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 2: their profiles.

607
00:31:58,480 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 4: And at the end of.

608
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 2: Six weeks you get to go and shoot a Stinger

609
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,959
Speaker 2: missile that was the main part of the training. I mean,

610
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 2: I hate the I hate to bash it like that,

611
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 2: but there was there just wasn't a lot to learn

612
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 2: on the back of what we learned. You know, you

613
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 2: kind of learned that you got you're gonna want to

614
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 2: tie into the radar at some point and okay, and

615
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 2: uh you know, I I just grew up liking aircraft

616
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 2: and threat vehicles and stuff. So I was the honor

617
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 2: gro out of that school. Uh so I got to

618
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 2: I got to pick where I wanted to go.

619
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 4: I got to go.

620
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:30,520
Speaker 2: So I was like, well, at least I want to

621
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 2: go to Camp Pendleton, California.

622
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I got to go out.

623
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 2: There to third lad Battalion. This is where my story

624
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 2: is so weird. I show up and my my battalion

625
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 2: is deployed there. They got about two months left on deployment.

626
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: They're not gonna send me out there to meet them forward,

627
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,200
Speaker 2: there's no need and what.

628
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 4: What what year?

629
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: And what time frame in the year is this? Yeah?

630
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, sorry about that. This is late two thousand and four.

631
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: Okay, so talking all winter two thousand and four, so

632
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: Fallujah's already gone down the Yeah, I love you.

633
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 4: I love that you bring it up.

634
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 2: So third Battalion, fifth Marines where I end up going, Yeah,

635
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 2: you know, they're They're one of the six assault battalions,

636
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 2: and in Operation Al Fager the Battle of Fallujah, two

637
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 2: of my closest personal friends that I'd gone to O

638
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 2: C S and TBS with are there.

639
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,959
Speaker 1: Oh wow, And like you know, you have your hierarchy

640
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:24,600
Speaker 1: as a group.

641
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 4: It was always understood that Parks is like the dude.

642
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 2: And now I'm having to watch these guys just hooking

643
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 2: jab get it on, you know, both drawing stars out

644
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 2: of the deal, and I'm just like, oh my gosh,

645
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:37,760
Speaker 2: what is happening.

646
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 4: To my my career? What is going on?

647
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: They're just in it.

648
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 2: But it ended up working out great, man, lad Is

649
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 2: is actually.

650
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 4: A great unit. Like I said at the time, all

651
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 4: male m os and you had.

652
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 2: You ended up having a bunch of folks, a bunch

653
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 2: of Marines that were similar in mindset to me. You

654
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,240
Speaker 2: know a little bit of that disgruntled you know what

655
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 2: about us kind of mentality. We could fight two kind

656
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 2: of deal and because the mission had changed, we weren't

657
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 2: doing a lot of stinger stuff. I spent pretty much

658
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 2: my entirety as a platoon commander, executing kind of infantry

659
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,320
Speaker 2: stuff with my guys, tons of patrolling, ambush training.

660
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 4: We did a battalion package to the.

661
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 2: Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. You know,

662
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 2: up at ten thousand feet. That's a hell of a

663
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,080
Speaker 2: course that the Marine Corps has, So we got to

664
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:36,799
Speaker 2: do all of that.

665
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:38,400
Speaker 4: Stuff, good hardcore training.

666
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,919
Speaker 2: And then this brings us to probably you know, late

667
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:46,319
Speaker 2: two thousand and five, my platoon commander tour is over.

668
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 2: I am now an XO, and the Marine Corps at

669
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:55,359
Speaker 2: large has decided, okay, we are now in a counterinsurgency fight.

670
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 4: We got to do this thing a little different, and

671
00:34:58,400 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 4: that's where.

672
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 2: This whole military transition team concept came about. It came

673
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 2: about late two thousand and five the Marine Corps and

674
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 2: the Army together decided, we're gonna start chopping up small

675
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 2: teams very similar to what the Marine Corps did in

676
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:19,400
Speaker 2: Vietnam with the combined action platoons, where you know, just

677
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 2: a couple of US Marines would partner with you know,

678
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 2: twenty or thirty indigenous folks and they would in a

679
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 2: small area, they would work to pacify the insurgency in

680
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 2: that area, and there were times in Vietnam that those

681
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,759
Speaker 2: guys were getting into more fights than Big Art the Hunter.

682
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:38,879
Speaker 1: First Airborne for instance, Oh myke when a guy went

683
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: through boot camp with who ended up passing unfortunately early,

684
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,400
Speaker 1: but his father was one of those guys in Vietnam,

685
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: and that that career leveraged him up to where he

686
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: ended up becoming part of McVie SAG, like because he

687
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:58,280
Speaker 1: was so good with his units, they inflicted so much

688
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: havoc on on on their their areas, Like they're like

689
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: these guys like they're they're they're crushing the larp stuff

690
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: and and like they they are they set the standard,

691
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: the standard operating procedures for this. So you know, when

692
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: when I heard about it taking place, I was like, oh,

693
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 1: this makes all the sense in the world, right because

694
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 1: you're working with UH an indigenous force that somehow has

695
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 1: to uh figure out how to take the weight and

696
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 1: the bearing, and and who better to do that than

697
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: than marines, Like this is this is how you fight,

698
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 1: This is how you do it. And there's and then

699
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 1: also the camaraderie that just bleeds off you guys, I

700
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: think is is so much more uh powerful for indigenous people.

701
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 1: They just see it, right, that that regimented approach to

702
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: how you conduct operations. Right, it's so much different than

703
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 1: what the fit is within SF and all that. But

704
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,760
Speaker 1: it's it's the same thing, but even more intense because

705
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: you know, it's that hardcore combat role. I mean, you

706
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 1: guys essentially took on a soft role in in probably

707
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,839
Speaker 1: the most difficult time in the history of the Iraqi War.

708
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 2: It's it's true, and we did it because there just

709
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:20,319
Speaker 2: weren't enough Green berets to do it, man, I mean,

710
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 2: they just didn't have enough. The space was the battlespace

711
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 2: was too large. They didn't have the manpower. So what's

712
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 2: the next biggest thing. And here's what the Marine Corps decided, Well.

713
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:32,439
Speaker 4: Task organized this thing.

714
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,800
Speaker 2: Let's you know, if you've got four Iraqi infantry companies

715
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 2: in a battalion, here's what we need.

716
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 3: We need.

717
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 2: Let's go throughout the whole Marine Corps and find basically

718
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 2: executive officers, so you know, lieutenants that have already done

719
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 2: their platoon commander time, that have done well.

720
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 4: Let's grab those guys.

721
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 2: They'll be the senior company advisor and let's grab some

722
00:37:55,719 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 2: badass three sixty nine Infantry platoon leader usually staff sergeant,

723
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 2: a gunnery sergeant. We'll make them their number two, and

724
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 2: then we'll staff it with support guys, some law guys,

725
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:10,359
Speaker 2: calm guys, corman, et cetera, to make sure they can

726
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 2: take care of their ass, you know, when when there's

727
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 2: an issue. And that's kind of how they formed the team.

728
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 2: And by the grace of God, I had some really

729
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 2: great friends at three five.

730
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 4: That told the guy who had been.

731
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 2: Slated to be the team leader, Hey, I got another

732
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 2: guy that might be able to fill this role. He's

733
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 2: in a totally another unit. It's gonna be tricky. You're

734
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 2: gonna have to call over there, get him to cut orders,

735
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 2: chop this kid away from the unit. But I think

736
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:42,240
Speaker 2: you'll like him. And you know, you hear about cracked.

737
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 2: You hear you hear you go to a VFW. Not

738
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:47,399
Speaker 2: that I go to a VFW, but if I did,

739
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:49,560
Speaker 2: you hear these stories at the bar that you're just like,

740
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,920
Speaker 2: that's for shit, there's no planet that that would happen

741
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 2: on In my particular case, this is really how it happened.

742
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,680
Speaker 2: And so, uh, I got shopped and it was basically

743
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,279
Speaker 2: like a tryout. I got to go to what they

744
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:05,920
Speaker 2: call now or what they called then Mojave Viper. But

745
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,279
Speaker 2: it's basically like the month long work of at twenty

746
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 2: nine Palms. Yeah, you're you know, you're operating every day.

747
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 2: You're really executing those tasks that you're gonna have to

748
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 2: execute and comment. And so I got shopped to this team.

749
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,440
Speaker 2: One of my closest personal friends was the intel advisor

750
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:25,840
Speaker 2: on the team. He introduces me to the boss. I

751
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 2: think our personalities just meshed. I was kind of competing,

752
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,239
Speaker 2: I think with a few other folks organic from theurb

753
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:38,560
Speaker 2: Italian Fifth Marines, and uh, I just took that tech

754
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 2: you know, that technical and tactical proficiency stuff seriously by

755
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 2: that point because I really wanted it.

756
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 4: I really wanted to go to war and.

757
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 3: I was.

758
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 2: I became our kind of our fires officer. So I

759
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 2: had to prove myself that I that I knew what

760
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 2: I was doing calling for fire and you got to

761
00:39:57,920 --> 00:39:59,799
Speaker 2: do it live a bunch of times. And you got

762
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 2: all these instructor observers there that are you know, make

763
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:04,759
Speaker 2: you better have your head and ass wire together or

764
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 2: they will jump on you.

765
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 1: Uh.

766
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 2: And then I also did the jtach primer stuff. So

767
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 2: I got to learn how to do all that stuff.

768
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: Who gave you the inside skinny that that's a guaranteed

769
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: way to get on the battlefield. Did somebody tell you that?

770
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:20,839
Speaker 1: Did one of your buddies saying?

771
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 4: My boss man?

772
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 2: My boss was like this, He goes, what are stingers?

773
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 2: And I go, sir, the freaking surfaced air missiles he goes.

774
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 2: He goes, so you probably have to like do some

775
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 2: coordination with aircraft And I go, oh, yeah, for sure,

776
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:34,359
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, big sky, little bullet is what

777
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 2: we tell the pilots, but they don't want to.

778
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,319
Speaker 4: Hear that stuff time and space, you know.

779
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 2: And and so once I could speak the language to him,

780
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,319
Speaker 2: he was like, all right, yeah, you're gonna be our guy.

781
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 2: Go well, go go do it and prove to me

782
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 2: you can do it.

783
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,799
Speaker 4: And I was able to. And then that's really how

784
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:50,640
Speaker 4: I hurt in the spot on that team.

785
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: So it's funny, even though you know it spiraled out,

786
00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 1: it ended up spiraling back.

787
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 4: And to be lucky than good man, better be lucky

788
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 4: than good.

789
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,000
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I think that's the way all, you know,

790
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: great humble leaders describe themselves. But obviously from what I'm

791
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 1: hearing you had a reputation amongst your your peers that

792
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: were like, hey, this guy, we need to have this

793
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:20,319
Speaker 1: guy in a leadership role in a combat situation. And

794
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 1: so you know, you created that luck for sure with

795
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: how dedicated you were to it, to really being proficient

796
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 1: at whatever they put in front of you, regardless you

797
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: want it or not. You realize that I'm gonna have

798
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:36,239
Speaker 1: to do it the best I can do it to

799
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: get to where I want to go. And that's part

800
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: of that meritocracy that I think is so critical for

801
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:46,080
Speaker 1: young people to realize that you can enter into into

802
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 1: the service and if you drive yourself, you establish yourself,

803
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: you work hard, you learn the skill set, and you're,

804
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: for lack of better, your gung ho about your career.

805
00:41:58,000 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 4: Like you it.

806
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 1: It works that way, and that's the thing that I

807
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:06,200
Speaker 1: failed it. That's the beautiful aspect of the service.

808
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 2: That was always my message to my Marines, and that

809
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 2: has always been the message that I, you know, try

810
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:15,800
Speaker 2: and push to my son his peer group. It doesn't

811
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:20,040
Speaker 2: matter what you get assigned in initially, if you want

812
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 2: something bad enough, there are absolutely opportunities in that great

813
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 2: meritocracy that you talk about and that's always been the

814
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 2: most beautiful thing about our nation's military as far as

815
00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 2: I can tell.

816
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:34,919
Speaker 4: And I hope it continues down that road.

817
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 2: You know, we've seen some challenges over the last ten

818
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 2: or fifteen years where maybe we're getting away from that

819
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 2: merit based solution.

820
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 4: But if they just stay on that track.

821
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 2: There's literally nothing you can't do if you want to

822
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,600
Speaker 2: work hard enough and try hard enough in that space.

823
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:54,279
Speaker 2: And that's what makes it so cool. That's what makes

824
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,759
Speaker 2: it the ultimate opportunity for young men and women.

825
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 4: It really does. And I hope it never changes.

826
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:01,960
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think, you know, I think I

827
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: and this is a sidebar. We can talk later if

828
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 1: you're interested, But like you know, I, I think it

829
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: just took the right person to go back in and

830
00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:12,400
Speaker 1: and re establish Hey, we're here for the war fighter,

831
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 1: and that's what Pete and his crew are doing. I've

832
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 1: got a lot of friends in and around him, you know,

833
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 1: Sean Parnell having him to articulate that at the highest level,

834
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 1: he's I mean, four hundred and eighty five day deployment

835
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 1: with with.

836
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:31,400
Speaker 2: Army Infantry, four Army guys man extend, extend.

837
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 1: Rushed, crushed and and he's right there pitching this the

838
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:38,359
Speaker 1: thing that made his law platoons so good. He's he's

839
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: expressing that now, you know, the big veteran state thing

840
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 1: he did with Sean, and I love to see what

841
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 1: they were reinforcing. And I think that's what we all

842
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:46,279
Speaker 1: want to do.

843
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 3: Uh.

844
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 1: Before we get into your combat deployment. Uh, I just

845
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 1: want to make some time for one of our great sponsors,

846
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:55,600
Speaker 1: Hillsdale College.

847
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 4: Man.

848
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,280
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. One of the great incredible courses

849
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:03,320
Speaker 1: they got out there right now is this American Revolution course.

850
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 1: And it's so good when I tell you, if you

851
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 1: really want to do a deep dive on how our

852
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:13,759
Speaker 1: country got started and why, you know, there's one hundred

853
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: and fifty years of history that led up to it.

854
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 1: In Hillsdale College is a place that you can really understand.

855
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 1: If you're a real American patriot, then this is the

856
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:28,520
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857
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:31,799
Speaker 1: let me tell you what. There is a brand new

858
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 1: six part documentary series at Hillsdale College that professors will

859
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,960
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860
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:45,359
Speaker 1: shaped a uniquely American culture during the colonial period. You'll

861
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:50,840
Speaker 1: learn why the idea of liberty, especially religious liberty, inspired

862
00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:53,880
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863
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 1: This is how Americans organize local governments to rule and

864
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 1: protect themselves and why America has in the land of

865
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,640
Speaker 1: where virtue can lead to peace and prosperity. And most

866
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 1: of us know that the Declaration of Independence marks the

867
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 1: beginning of America as an independent nation. But the Hillsdale

868
00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:15,320
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869
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: that made the Revolution possible and why it's more important

870
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Speaker 1: than ever to remember and reclaim that character today. Exactly

871
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:26,799
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872
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873
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:36,760
Speaker 1: Hillsdale offers more than forty other free online courses, including

874
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,279
Speaker 1: a course on C. S. Lewis, the stories in the

875
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Speaker 1: Book of Genesis, the rise and Fall of the Roman Republic,

876
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Speaker 1: and you can go even deeper on the American founding

877
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Speaker 1: and the Constitution, all for free. All right, here's the deal.

878
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879
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 1: slash David to enrolled in a There's no costs, it's

880
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881
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 1: Hillsdale dot edu Ford slash David to enroll now for free?

882
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,920
Speaker 1: Who yah Hillsdale Way way to go? All right, you

883
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 1: now get into the place you want to be. Third PATAI,

884
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:18,440
Speaker 1: fifth Marines. When was the when did you get the

885
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:22,399
Speaker 1: team that you were gonna go be going to Iraq with?

886
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,239
Speaker 1: And did you know, like walk walk me through that

887
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 1: how you got the command and then when they told

888
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:30,319
Speaker 1: you when you're leaving? And then what what that whole

889
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 1: process was like?

890
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we probably ran that Mojave viper exercise that

891
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 2: I was talking about in October of five. I think

892
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 2: at the back end of that, I think Bill McCullough

893
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 2: was my boss's name.

894
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 4: Had Bill McCulla stayed.

895
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 2: In commandant of the Marine Corps, I do not my

896
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 2: words the last commandant's words upon his retirement.

897
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,840
Speaker 4: I was there. He retired as a colonel regimental commander.

898
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 2: But I think he selected or had his team at

899
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 2: the end in a Mohabi viber, he made his selections.

900
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 2: At that point, we got to do some really cool stuff.

901
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:08,520
Speaker 2: We'd had a little you know, got a little intel

902
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 2: from the front that we're probably going to be a

903
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 2: pretty active unit. So the Marine Corps was willing to

904
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,799
Speaker 2: spend some money. They sent us out the Gun Site Academy.

905
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,920
Speaker 2: We became foreign weapons. We went through their Foreign Weapons

906
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:23,799
Speaker 2: instructor packaged civilian school, but really high end. You know,

907
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:26,400
Speaker 2: most shooters know about gun Site and Bill Cooper and

908
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,080
Speaker 2: that stuff. Unbelieveab got to go out there for the

909
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 2: for a week and that was really cool because we

910
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 2: really got the bond that and and you know, our

911
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:39,239
Speaker 2: team twelve folks at the Corps. I think we brought on,

912
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 2: you know, three or four other support folks as the

913
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 2: year forward went on, but those core twelve guys we

914
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 2: got to trade and shoot together, have beers together, have

915
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 2: stakes together.

916
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 4: We really started to realize.

917
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:55,839
Speaker 2: You know, so you got senior enlisted guys and then

918
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 2: you got the junior officer types.

919
00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 4: But that point all pros. I was the only new guy.

920
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:04,239
Speaker 2: I was the only guy on the team that had

921
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 2: not deployed before.

922
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,160
Speaker 4: How guys are all Fallusiah of vs Man. So it

923
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 4: was pretty easy for me to just.

924
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,920
Speaker 2: Sit back and shut up and let them let them

925
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,080
Speaker 2: talk about what needed to be talked about. Regardless though,

926
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 2: Davi's really good bonding time and it lasts to this day.

927
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 2: I mean, we got our twenty year anniversary from this

928
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 2: tour coming up this year. I got maniacs already figuring

929
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 2: out where we're gonna go, what we're gonna do. Uh,

930
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:32,160
Speaker 2: you know they recently divorced guys are the ones that

931
00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 2: have all these exactly right.

932
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about you talk about the shooting

933
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:45,880
Speaker 1: and the barbecues, the beers together. Why is that so critical?

934
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 1: Obviously the training itself make I think Pete, a lot

935
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 1: of people understand. You know, obviously you're in a high

936
00:48:55,800 --> 00:49:00,839
Speaker 1: stress situation. You're it's it's very taxing physically mentally, right,

937
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 1: and you accomplish something great as a group, you feel

938
00:49:04,239 --> 00:49:07,680
Speaker 1: that there's an immediacy to that. But there's an underlying

939
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 1: component that I believe which is the real secret of

940
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:16,400
Speaker 1: what it means to be part of a really good unit.

941
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:20,440
Speaker 1: And that's that brotherhood, that bond that takes place. So

942
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:25,319
Speaker 1: can you describe a little bit of that? And obviously,

943
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:28,720
Speaker 1: you know these guys were able to bring that really,

944
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:31,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I believe that was the real kickoff to

945
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:36,160
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Was was Fallujah and what the Marine

946
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: Corps did, and that is nothing short of just you know,

947
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,480
Speaker 1: one of the greatest feats in I think our nation's

948
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:45,600
Speaker 1: history and to have that influence. Can you describe that

949
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 1: a little bit for what.

950
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I mean, I think there is a big

951
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 2: distinction between big army, big marine corps and kind of

952
00:49:55,560 --> 00:50:00,279
Speaker 2: the more specialized operations that are required for what we

953
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 2: had to do.

954
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 4: We knew we were going to be away from the flagpole.

955
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 2: There was no higher so you know, no saluting rank,

956
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:10,759
Speaker 2: it's all out the window. So we really embraced and

957
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,640
Speaker 2: I think most of the teams really embraced this kind

958
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 2: of special operations mindset. And it ain't hard to figure

959
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:22,840
Speaker 2: out what SF is great at and it's kicking ass,

960
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 2: but then it's also creating this brotherhood through all the

961
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:28,280
Speaker 2: extra curricular stuff.

962
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 4: You've really become you.

963
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 2: Know, you know, you know, wives, you know kids, you

964
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:35,680
Speaker 2: know all that stuff. And our boss was smart enough

965
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 2: to realize this is going to be important over the

966
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:38,919
Speaker 2: course of the next year.

967
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:40,479
Speaker 4: So we got to start it now.

968
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 2: Because you know, standard battalion level infantry operations, I mean,

969
00:50:45,239 --> 00:50:49,040
Speaker 2: it's relatively regimented. Chain of command has to be the

970
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 2: way it is because you need immediate attention to orders

971
00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 2: when you're assaulting you know, Mount Suribachi.

972
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:56,920
Speaker 4: We can't. We can't have time.

973
00:50:57,160 --> 00:50:59,279
Speaker 2: I don't have time for you to turn around and say, well, sir,

974
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:03,759
Speaker 2: last night over beer you said, you know, blah, you know,

975
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 2: it's got it's gotta be more what's the term I'm

976
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:12,840
Speaker 2: looking for? More parochial? I guess it just has to be.

977
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:14,960
Speaker 2: It has to be that way. But on on on

978
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:17,400
Speaker 2: the special operations side of the house, and I'm not

979
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:20,320
Speaker 2: saying we were special operations, but the mission we conducted

980
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:21,440
Speaker 2: certainly became that.

981
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely that right, So that's the pinnacle of special operations. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

982
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:31,399
Speaker 1: all unit leading foreign forces in their own war. I mean,

983
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,600
Speaker 1: that's that's that's what special operations grew out of. That,

984
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 1: that's the core mission. I love.

985
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So we we had to be able

986
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:43,640
Speaker 2: to put all the all the flagpole stuff aside and

987
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 2: really get to know each other as as men and marines,

988
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:49,200
Speaker 2: and and there's no better way to do that than

989
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:54,480
Speaker 2: outside of work in a more flexible, kind of relaxed environment.

990
00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 2: That's when you really get to know the heart of

991
00:51:56,360 --> 00:51:58,960
Speaker 2: part of the dudes you're working with. And so, like

992
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,720
Speaker 2: I said, my boss was just a really sharp dude.

993
00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:07,200
Speaker 2: He actually is the Superintendent of Norwich Military Account Norwich University.

994
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:10,400
Speaker 2: I took that job in retirement and those those cadets

995
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,640
Speaker 2: are gonna be way better because of it. But anyway,

996
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:16,120
Speaker 2: he recognized that early and we we took to it.

997
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 2: You know, you didn't have to twist most of our

998
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:20,279
Speaker 2: arms to sit out and drink beer with each other.

999
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:24,359
Speaker 2: That came pretty easy. So yeah, so working hard during

1000
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:28,600
Speaker 2: the day, playing hard at night, and and then we'll

1001
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:32,280
Speaker 2: get to how we how we got to country. Basically,

1002
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:34,920
Speaker 2: the team was split up kind of the the the

1003
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:38,919
Speaker 2: enlisted guys. Unlucky for them, they had to fly over

1004
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,440
Speaker 2: with the battalion, and the battalion had a totally different mission,

1005
00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:46,399
Speaker 2: the same similar AO, but totally different mission that we had.

1006
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:51,440
Speaker 2: So they flew forward. We flew forward also on commercial aviation.

1007
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:55,840
Speaker 2: And this is where the party really gets started. We

1008
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 2: we got to get to get to go to Kaway,

1009
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:01,560
Speaker 2: get to Iraq, and for the Mints, they sent all

1010
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,800
Speaker 2: the MIT teams to a place called Camp Taji close

1011
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:10,160
Speaker 2: to bagdad Uh and they had something called the Phoenix Academy.

1012
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:12,680
Speaker 4: And I remember showing up and I was like this

1013
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:13,400
Speaker 4: is awesome.

1014
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 2: And I remember thinking like, oh, this is gonna be

1015
00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 2: like what Martin Riggs went through, because I think you were.

1016
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:23,560
Speaker 4: He talks about Phoenix Company and weapons.

1017
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so everything you know, and back in those days,

1018
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 2: everything's a movie you don't have. You didn't have your

1019
00:53:29,719 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 2: cell phone and YouTube. It's all whatever movie you got.

1020
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:40,080
Speaker 2: So we're all watching the same bullshit movie speed school School.

1021
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:42,279
Speaker 2: They're gonna teach us all the real ship that we're

1022
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:48,839
Speaker 2: gonna need to do. We learned some calm stuff, some

1023
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 2: basic cultural uh stuff that we might have to face,

1024
00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:56,399
Speaker 2: but the real the thing that every you can ask

1025
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:58,359
Speaker 2: any dude on my team, what do you remember from

1026
00:53:58,400 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 2: Phoenix Academy.

1027
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 4: Everybody will have the same story. It was like the

1028
00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:02,760
Speaker 4: last night we were there.

1029
00:54:03,640 --> 00:54:07,879
Speaker 2: We're on an Iraqi portion of the base and they

1030
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:11,160
Speaker 2: have somebody from the team you're going to replace, come

1031
00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:13,360
Speaker 2: back and give you kind of like a just a

1032
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:16,840
Speaker 2: real quick spin up data dump on what they're dealing with,

1033
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:20,000
Speaker 2: a little quick intel brief. And I think we were

1034
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,240
Speaker 2: the last team to go at least that's how I remember.

1035
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 2: So everybody's coming through and you're gonna go to this

1036
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 2: area and relatively pacified, and you know the team's doing well.

1037
00:54:29,160 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 4: A couple of firefights here and there.

1038
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,880
Speaker 2: We get our guy comes up and he's a pilot

1039
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:38,279
Speaker 2: and he's a major, and I'm I know OURTL. I'm like,

1040
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 2: what the hell's that guy doing as part of this team?

1041
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 2: And he goes, who's going to uh?

1042
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:43,040
Speaker 3: One?

1043
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:43,799
Speaker 4: Three to one? One?

1044
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:47,480
Speaker 2: Three to one was our Iraqi unit, first Battalion, third Brigade,

1045
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:52,359
Speaker 2: first Iraqi Army Division. We all raise our hands and

1046
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:56,040
Speaker 2: he goes on to just tell us the most graphic,

1047
00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:59,319
Speaker 2: brutal war stories any of us have ever heard. They

1048
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,440
Speaker 2: started with guys. There are four guys left on the team.

1049
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:05,759
Speaker 2: Everybody else is the two k I A. The rest

1050
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:08,680
Speaker 2: have been wounded in Metavact. Back to the US. He

1051
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:11,000
Speaker 2: had to come over because he was an air officer

1052
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 2: for the battalion. They weren't really doing anything, so now

1053
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 2: he was the number two on that team. We just

1054
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:21,880
Speaker 2: sat back and were we had just watched Armageddon and

1055
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 2: there's a great scene in Armageddon when Owen Wilson's character

1056
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:27,840
Speaker 2: he just stops the guy and he goes, Oh, so,

1057
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:31,240
Speaker 2: scariest environment imaginable, That's all you have to say. Scariest

1058
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:34,719
Speaker 2: environment imaginable. We we literally said that shit to him.

1059
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 2: We go Oh it's all you had to say. Scariest

1060
00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:40,400
Speaker 2: environment imaginable. Yeah, but that's how that's literally how we

1061
00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:41,680
Speaker 2: found out where we were going.

1062
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:44,960
Speaker 4: We were like, Okay, what a wake up call. Man,

1063
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:45,640
Speaker 4: it's sure.

1064
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 1: And he wasn't holding anything back. He's like, you are

1065
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 1: going to hell.

1066
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:53,640
Speaker 4: That's exactly what the story was, all right.

1067
00:55:53,719 --> 00:55:56,640
Speaker 1: Honestly, when you heard that, were you a little fired up?

1068
00:55:57,719 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 3: Listen?

1069
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:00,000
Speaker 4: Man, I couldn't believe it.

1070
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:03,440
Speaker 2: I think I was newly engaged at the time, and

1071
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:05,160
Speaker 2: one of the cool things about being on this team

1072
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 2: we had sat phones. We had a couple of SAT phones,

1073
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:10,960
Speaker 2: so we could make calls home pretty frequently. And I

1074
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:13,279
Speaker 2: remember I think I called my my wife and maybe

1075
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:15,840
Speaker 2: sent an email to or my fiance, maybe sent an

1076
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:19,319
Speaker 2: email to my mom, and I was just like, Hey,

1077
00:56:20,120 --> 00:56:23,160
Speaker 2: this is gonna be awesome. And my my wife now

1078
00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:26,200
Speaker 2: my fiance at the time, Oh, that's superb, so super glad.

1079
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 2: You're gonna have fun, and my you know, just like, yeah,

1080
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:31,600
Speaker 2: it's gonna be fun.

1081
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:33,840
Speaker 4: Let me let me tell you this. We had a

1082
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:35,120
Speaker 4: I told you, you know.

1083
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:37,520
Speaker 2: It was mainly like the team was built around kind

1084
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:40,360
Speaker 2: of eight infantry type guys. We were gonna be the

1085
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:42,759
Speaker 2: dudes going out and operating. And then we had some

1086
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:49,120
Speaker 2: support staff, our S two Alpha, so our intel number

1087
00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:54,400
Speaker 2: two was a recently meritoriously promoted staff sergeant and he

1088
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:59,200
Speaker 2: was from Marine Corps Aviation. His job previous to joining

1089
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:02,560
Speaker 2: our team, he would give like weather reports to pilots

1090
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 2: in the morning. His real job, he was on the

1091
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,359
Speaker 2: All Marine Corps softball team.

1092
00:57:08,360 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 4: But this dude would travel around the world.

1093
00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:13,440
Speaker 2: He had just gotten back from Thailand playing in some

1094
00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:17,400
Speaker 2: softball tournament. He came up to me that night. We

1095
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,280
Speaker 2: hit it off. He had a great personality. Yeah, and

1096
00:57:20,560 --> 00:57:23,280
Speaker 2: he came up to me that night, and I know

1097
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:25,600
Speaker 2: he won't mind me sharing this. He's a great dude.

1098
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:29,680
Speaker 2: But he was like, Sir, I ain't ready for this ship.

1099
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:34,440
Speaker 2: And I was like, dude, you're a fucking Marine. You're

1100
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,360
Speaker 2: ready for anything. We got you, dude, don't worry about it.

1101
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:39,600
Speaker 2: You know, bad guys in front of you shoot that way.

1102
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:42,400
Speaker 2: This ship ain't rocket science, you know, just bring the fight,

1103
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,160
Speaker 2: and and and and he ended up doing great for

1104
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,800
Speaker 2: us and everything, but that, but that that really did happen.

1105
00:57:49,200 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 2: And because he he was like, man, I got this career.

1106
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 2: I've only been in six years. I'm already a staff

1107
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:57,400
Speaker 2: sergeant and I know I want to retire, and I go, dude,

1108
00:57:57,440 --> 00:57:58,680
Speaker 2: you're fine, take of breath.

1109
00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:01,560
Speaker 4: Everything is great. But that's how it started for us.

1110
00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:06,120
Speaker 1: Taking the face outboard, taking drinking water. That e g.

1111
00:58:06,240 --> 00:58:06,919
Speaker 1: A on your chest.

1112
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:08,880
Speaker 4: You're not some dude off the street, bro, that's.

1113
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:11,840
Speaker 1: Right, that's right, all right. So you get this brief.

1114
00:58:12,040 --> 00:58:16,200
Speaker 1: How how long before you left did you guys have

1115
00:58:16,320 --> 00:58:19,120
Speaker 1: to do co training with this Iraqi unit you were

1116
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:19,600
Speaker 1: taking out.

1117
00:58:19,680 --> 00:58:22,040
Speaker 2: Did they give you that that that that unit was

1118
00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:23,160
Speaker 2: actively engaged?

1119
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:23,720
Speaker 1: Wow?

1120
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:26,680
Speaker 4: So got that brief. Let's call it Sunday night.

1121
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:31,600
Speaker 2: Monday night, we got on helicopters and flew to Habania,

1122
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:36,400
Speaker 2: which give you give you just a little background geography,

1123
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:40,400
Speaker 2: uh that that time and place. So Felujah had essentially

1124
00:58:40,440 --> 00:58:45,560
Speaker 2: fallen at the beginning of five, Ramadi was in the

1125
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:48,200
Speaker 2: midst of getting hit right when we get there early

1126
00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:50,280
Speaker 2: oh six, Ramadi was really building up.

1127
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 3: Man.

1128
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 2: So this place that we went, called Jazeira, was very

1129
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 2: close to Habania, very close.

1130
00:58:57,520 --> 00:58:58,800
Speaker 4: To Camp to Cottam TQ.

1131
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:03,040
Speaker 2: But those that area falls kind of right in between

1132
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 2: Ramadi and Fallujah. Ramadi is the north Fallujah to the

1133
00:59:06,040 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 2: south and we're right on Route Michigan, which connects those

1134
00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:11,880
Speaker 2: two cities right on the Euphrates River.

1135
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 4: And so we flew in.

1136
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:20,720
Speaker 2: Helicopters, got on fifty threes, flew to Camp Habania and Habania.

1137
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:24,000
Speaker 4: We go right to the Iraqi side of the base.

1138
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:27,880
Speaker 2: Habania had a had a National Guard contingent I think

1139
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:30,960
Speaker 2: from Pennsylvania and Utah at the time. I got a

1140
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:32,960
Speaker 2: great story about some of those guys shooting for us

1141
00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:35,920
Speaker 2: here in a bit. But we went to the Iraqi

1142
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:38,560
Speaker 2: side where we linked up with our brigade headquarters.

1143
00:59:38,880 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: Okay, and the Marine.

1144
00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 2: Corps doesn't have brigades, but the Iraqi Army has brigades.

1145
00:59:43,360 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 2: So we're talking to kind of Iraqi formation lingo and

1146
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:50,640
Speaker 2: I think we were there maybe one day where we

1147
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 2: got kind of the intel data bron data brief from

1148
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 2: the from the brigade intel guys and you know, hey,

1149
00:59:57,840 --> 00:59:58,520
Speaker 2: same story.

1150
00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 4: This is as active as again. It's boys and girls,

1151
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 4: so get ready to party.

1152
01:00:03,080 --> 01:00:06,400
Speaker 2: And that was kind of a message that that that

1153
01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:10,000
Speaker 2: part of the story is really funny. We we always

1154
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:13,480
Speaker 2: had like a group of barracks at a place called

1155
01:00:13,480 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 2: the Alamo back on Hobania. It was on the Iraqi side,

1156
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:20,120
Speaker 2: but the American staffing it and we would actually send

1157
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 2: guys off the line.

1158
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:21,840
Speaker 4: Uh.

1159
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 2: Two marines try to do it every month. Two marines

1160
01:00:24,720 --> 01:00:27,400
Speaker 2: every month got to go back to Habania for two days.

1161
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:32,080
Speaker 2: And it wasn't like any of the big fobs, you know,

1162
01:00:32,200 --> 01:00:34,280
Speaker 2: no great shower or anything, but it was just like

1163
01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:36,520
Speaker 2: just a couple of days to take a breath.

1164
01:00:36,800 --> 01:00:41,920
Speaker 1: A shower, just sh That's that's what it was like.

1165
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:43,560
Speaker 1: A shower was the ship.

1166
01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:46,640
Speaker 4: And ship that time of year, the shower was your heater.

1167
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:50,840
Speaker 2: Because January, I'm like, man, we're going to iraqets hot desert.

1168
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,680
Speaker 4: It was free. We frozen over the first couple of months.

1169
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:58,320
Speaker 1: All right, so you get in, you get one day.

1170
01:00:58,600 --> 01:01:02,720
Speaker 1: How quickly was the first operation? And just tell us

1171
01:01:02,720 --> 01:01:06,200
Speaker 1: a little bit about what you witnessed in your people

1172
01:01:06,280 --> 01:01:09,000
Speaker 1: you were with. You said they were all experienced before.

1173
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:11,400
Speaker 1: What was like kind of the mentality of all right,

1174
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:14,120
Speaker 1: let's go, let's start, let's dig in, and let's get going.

1175
01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:14,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got we.

1176
01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:18,440
Speaker 2: Got about three or four days, as my memory remembers.

1177
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:22,800
Speaker 2: So do left seat, right seat, patrolling with the unit

1178
01:01:22,840 --> 01:01:25,640
Speaker 2: that was already there. And like I said, they had

1179
01:01:25,640 --> 01:01:28,520
Speaker 2: been at trended massively. They only had four of their

1180
01:01:28,560 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 2: original members left. They got backfield. I mean they had

1181
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:33,160
Speaker 2: a full team at this point, but a lot of

1182
01:01:33,160 --> 01:01:35,480
Speaker 2: backfield guys. But there was a couple of dudes that

1183
01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:40,600
Speaker 2: were extraordinary Marines. One of them was a gunner. The

1184
01:01:40,640 --> 01:01:43,760
Speaker 2: Marine Corps has these things called gunners that are chief

1185
01:01:43,800 --> 01:01:46,120
Speaker 2: warrant officers of the Infantry.

1186
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:48,200
Speaker 4: They're kind of the gods of infantry, right.

1187
01:01:49,040 --> 01:01:52,600
Speaker 2: They're called weapons officers, that's the actual name, but a

1188
01:01:52,680 --> 01:01:55,760
Speaker 2: chief worn officer from the infantry. Those are that's kind

1189
01:01:55,800 --> 01:01:59,480
Speaker 2: of like the tech the subject matter expert at all

1190
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:02,440
Speaker 2: Marine gun gunnery and employment of all Marine gunnery.

1191
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:07,040
Speaker 4: And that team had a CW three man.

1192
01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:08,680
Speaker 2: I wish I could remember his name off the top

1193
01:02:08,720 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 2: of my head. Henniston maybe comes to mind.

1194
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:13,479
Speaker 4: But anyway, this.

1195
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:15,760
Speaker 2: Guy was as hard as nickel steak, and he kind

1196
01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:18,040
Speaker 2: of grabbed all of us team guy, all the guys

1197
01:02:18,040 --> 01:02:20,600
Speaker 2: that were going to run companies, Yeah, and really gave

1198
01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:23,160
Speaker 2: us the down and dirty and he, you know, he

1199
01:02:23,400 --> 01:02:24,680
Speaker 2: just hammered all the right things.

1200
01:02:24,720 --> 01:02:24,959
Speaker 4: Man.

1201
01:02:25,320 --> 01:02:29,439
Speaker 2: You know, hey, ninety percent solution executed violently wins most

1202
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:33,280
Speaker 2: of these fights. Just whoever's more violent, your your Iraqis

1203
01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:36,480
Speaker 2: are gonna follow. You don't trust any of them to

1204
01:02:36,720 --> 01:02:37,320
Speaker 2: lead the way.

1205
01:02:37,480 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 4: It's all on you.

1206
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:40,880
Speaker 2: You want to close with and destroy, They're gonna have

1207
01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:43,040
Speaker 2: to follow you to do it. And so that was

1208
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:45,360
Speaker 2: that was like okay, man, okay, that that that really

1209
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:48,520
Speaker 2: really opened our eyes. I'd heard stories from other units

1210
01:02:48,760 --> 01:02:51,200
Speaker 2: that maybe didn't have that same guidance. They took a

1211
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:55,200
Speaker 2: more hands off advisory role, just didn't have the same

1212
01:02:55,320 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 2: kind of effects that.

1213
01:02:56,480 --> 01:02:58,240
Speaker 4: We did in Rao at the time.

1214
01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:00,840
Speaker 2: So anyway, he had that FO or five days with

1215
01:03:00,960 --> 01:03:04,720
Speaker 2: him and then here we go. So you know, boss

1216
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:08,640
Speaker 2: comes down with the working schedule. You know, we had

1217
01:03:08,640 --> 01:03:11,520
Speaker 2: patrols out pretty much twenty four to seven. No, you're

1218
01:03:11,560 --> 01:03:15,680
Speaker 2: either you're either patrolling, you're on QRF, or you're out

1219
01:03:15,680 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 2: on an ambush at night repeat, unless there was a

1220
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:23,480
Speaker 2: major operation, and then those things would happen some sort

1221
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:26,000
Speaker 2: of intel driven stuff. That took us a while to

1222
01:03:26,040 --> 01:03:28,720
Speaker 2: get there, but we did get there, and some of

1223
01:03:28,720 --> 01:03:31,320
Speaker 2: your boys even wanted to join our party because we

1224
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:33,040
Speaker 2: got so we got engaged so frequently.

1225
01:03:33,080 --> 01:03:35,000
Speaker 4: But you know, I think we were probably there.

1226
01:03:35,800 --> 01:03:37,560
Speaker 2: I think it was maybe a week before we had

1227
01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:39,240
Speaker 2: our kind of first shooting engagement.

1228
01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:41,960
Speaker 1: Wow, all right, talk about that a little bit as

1229
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:42,320
Speaker 1: you are.

1230
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:43,520
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1231
01:03:43,560 --> 01:03:47,640
Speaker 2: One of the really cool things about our ao we

1232
01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:50,400
Speaker 2: were not in a built up area, so picture kind

1233
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:54,440
Speaker 2: of collections maybe ten or twenty houses and then you know,

1234
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 2: a quarter mile a half a mile before the next

1235
01:03:58,280 --> 01:03:59,280
Speaker 2: collection of houses.

1236
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:03,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's dead flat right on the river. Man.

1237
01:04:03,160 --> 01:04:06,360
Speaker 2: Almost felt like Vietnam at times. A lot of palm groves,

1238
01:04:07,400 --> 01:04:11,240
Speaker 2: so very cool. You know, sometimes you just you know,

1239
01:04:11,320 --> 01:04:13,640
Speaker 2: take a security halt and just look around and be like, man,

1240
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:16,280
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm in Vietnam all the movies.

1241
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 1: I wanted just kind of like that, this is the feeling,

1242
01:04:18,720 --> 01:04:20,440
Speaker 1: that's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah really.

1243
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:23,919
Speaker 2: But one of the one of the great things about

1244
01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:27,080
Speaker 2: having that kind of open space is that it gives

1245
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:30,480
Speaker 2: you more access to effects from higher So we had, uh,

1246
01:04:30,880 --> 01:04:35,640
Speaker 2: you know, we had artillery at Camp Pavania. We had

1247
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:38,520
Speaker 2: some duce from the Utah National Guard a palette and

1248
01:04:38,520 --> 01:04:41,960
Speaker 2: howitzer section there. So we had two palette in one

1249
01:04:42,040 --> 01:04:46,520
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty five millimeters self propelled howitzers, and it

1250
01:04:46,560 --> 01:04:48,400
Speaker 2: got to the point where they were kind of just

1251
01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 2: working for us because, you know, getting fires cleared in

1252
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:58,160
Speaker 2: the built up urban areas really tricky to do, you know.

1253
01:04:58,920 --> 01:05:00,720
Speaker 2: And then of course we had all the fast movers

1254
01:05:00,720 --> 01:05:03,640
Speaker 2: for troops and contact situations. We had t Q and

1255
01:05:03,680 --> 01:05:07,280
Speaker 2: Airbase real close by. Wow, so we we would we

1256
01:05:07,320 --> 01:05:09,800
Speaker 2: would get the at least the rotary wing. Guys would

1257
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:13,040
Speaker 2: be honest quick And that was awesome and our boss

1258
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:15,960
Speaker 2: really really made sure, Hey, boys, we need to employ

1259
01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:18,880
Speaker 2: all of our ass kicking ability. This isn't just you know,

1260
01:05:18,920 --> 01:05:21,560
Speaker 2: this is not you shoot ice, shoot you know, you

1261
01:05:21,600 --> 01:05:24,240
Speaker 2: shoot me with a seven six two by thirty nine,

1262
01:05:24,520 --> 01:05:26,680
Speaker 2: I'm gonna drop a five hundred pounder on your Yes.

1263
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 1: Yes, And that's a thing right to know that your

1264
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:36,680
Speaker 1: commanding officer is like, hey, yeah, there there's this this

1265
01:05:36,680 --> 01:05:40,840
Speaker 1: this presence of Roes over here. But we just went

1266
01:05:40,880 --> 01:05:41,760
Speaker 1: through for Lujah.

1267
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:43,840
Speaker 4: Ramadi is blowing up.

1268
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:46,880
Speaker 1: People are getting injured all the time, We're taking casuals.

1269
01:05:47,640 --> 01:05:51,040
Speaker 1: We're done, We're we're gonna, We're gonna destroy the anime.

1270
01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:54,640
Speaker 1: Did that give all of you guys this this grander

1271
01:05:54,800 --> 01:05:58,400
Speaker 1: sense of that there was this support behind you.

1272
01:05:59,280 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 2: It absolutely did. We you know, again, time and time

1273
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:05,480
Speaker 2: and place luck of the draw. We certainly in terms

1274
01:06:05,480 --> 01:06:09,760
Speaker 2: of ROE, we probably had it as good as anybody,

1275
01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:13,600
Speaker 2: uh in that Iraq wartime. I mean the three guys

1276
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:15,840
Speaker 2: on the invasion, of course, that's a whole different story.

1277
01:06:16,120 --> 01:06:19,520
Speaker 2: But but you know, the lawyers were there, they were

1278
01:06:19,520 --> 01:06:22,400
Speaker 2: making sure, you know, there was some escalation of force

1279
01:06:22,520 --> 01:06:26,880
Speaker 2: criteria that had to occur. But we always understood that

1280
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:31,080
Speaker 2: we had the support and the trust that that you know,

1281
01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:34,720
Speaker 2: the special trust and confidence that the President gives us

1282
01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:38,160
Speaker 2: as commission officers. We we really felt that in a

1283
01:06:38,200 --> 01:06:41,880
Speaker 2: big way. So uh it took all the hesitation out

1284
01:06:41,920 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 2: of the game. And I you know, my heart broke

1285
01:06:43,920 --> 01:06:46,800
Speaker 2: for some of my teammates that that then didn't follow

1286
01:06:46,800 --> 01:06:50,920
Speaker 2: on tours to Afghanistan, you know, in in the you know,

1287
01:06:51,080 --> 01:06:54,720
Speaker 2: early teens, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and to hear, to hear

1288
01:06:54,760 --> 01:06:57,080
Speaker 2: what they had to do just to get a javelin

1289
01:06:57,120 --> 01:06:57,680
Speaker 2: shot off.

1290
01:06:57,800 --> 01:06:58,800
Speaker 4: Man, it was heartbreaking.

1291
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:03,720
Speaker 1: Hey. I was there right around the Marja push. I

1292
01:07:03,840 --> 01:07:07,480
Speaker 1: was operating with the agency in south central Afghanistan during

1293
01:07:07,520 --> 01:07:10,200
Speaker 1: that time. And one of the one of the ground

1294
01:07:10,240 --> 01:07:14,240
Speaker 1: branch uh P mc os was a former high ranking

1295
01:07:14,600 --> 01:07:19,880
Speaker 1: uh OR Marine officer and you know, his son was

1296
01:07:19,920 --> 01:07:22,920
Speaker 1: a Marine officer that had gotten hit with these stupid

1297
01:07:23,120 --> 01:07:27,040
Speaker 1: overt daylight patrols in the same area that that they

1298
01:07:27,040 --> 01:07:30,440
Speaker 1: had cleared the day before. And and I remember just

1299
01:07:30,960 --> 01:07:33,640
Speaker 1: like him shaking his hand. This guy had was a

1300
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:37,120
Speaker 1: very very highly respected guy within within the court itself,

1301
01:07:37,200 --> 01:07:40,120
Speaker 1: and you know, now he's at this this this this

1302
01:07:40,240 --> 01:07:43,440
Speaker 1: program with S A D and and him just shaking

1303
01:07:43,480 --> 01:07:47,840
Speaker 1: his head like I don't understand this, I don't get this.

1304
01:07:48,080 --> 01:07:51,280
Speaker 1: And so you know, I always love to hear the

1305
01:07:51,360 --> 01:07:56,840
Speaker 1: stories from four to eight really because I think that

1306
01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:01,000
Speaker 1: was the time where if you look at it, you know, yeah,

1307
01:08:01,040 --> 01:08:06,000
Speaker 1: the insurgency caused some challenges, but the adaptation for the

1308
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:09,480
Speaker 1: coin initiatives that spread out to units like yours and

1309
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:14,680
Speaker 1: everybody else. They gave you guys that support, that overhead

1310
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:17,519
Speaker 1: support that no, go engage the enemy and kill the enemy,

1311
01:08:17,720 --> 01:08:22,679
Speaker 1: and that that that's what America is about, right, That's

1312
01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:26,040
Speaker 1: when you have that sensation you're on the front and

1313
01:08:26,120 --> 01:08:29,800
Speaker 1: you know that the guy behind you, the officer behind you,

1314
01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:32,280
Speaker 1: is going to be like, No, I told my men

1315
01:08:32,360 --> 01:08:34,680
Speaker 1: to go get in the fight, and I'm getting them

1316
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:36,240
Speaker 1: the assets they need and deserve.

1317
01:08:37,600 --> 01:08:40,000
Speaker 2: Couldn't agree more. It's in fact, it's the only way.

1318
01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:43,160
Speaker 2: It's the only way, and it just goes back. I mean,

1319
01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:46,439
Speaker 2: it's the special trust and confidence placed into you by

1320
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:49,600
Speaker 2: the President of the United States. That's what everybody's commissioned

1321
01:08:49,600 --> 01:08:54,160
Speaker 2: document states. So then to go back and yeah, I

1322
01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:56,640
Speaker 2: know the president said that, but we don't really mean it.

1323
01:08:56,840 --> 01:08:58,360
Speaker 4: X Ye get out of here.

1324
01:08:58,360 --> 01:08:58,559
Speaker 1: Man.

1325
01:08:58,760 --> 01:09:00,880
Speaker 2: You invested all this time and money in my training.

1326
01:09:01,120 --> 01:09:03,600
Speaker 2: I'm fully bought in and committed. I'm the one in

1327
01:09:03,640 --> 01:09:05,720
Speaker 2: the boots here at this time, with my ass in

1328
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:08,760
Speaker 2: the breeze, trust that I'm going to do the right thing.

1329
01:09:09,760 --> 01:09:13,120
Speaker 2: And you know, you have a few stories, my lie,

1330
01:09:13,240 --> 01:09:15,680
Speaker 2: let's say, I mean, really one of the few that

1331
01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:17,839
Speaker 2: you can come up with in the last fifty years.

1332
01:09:18,240 --> 01:09:22,080
Speaker 2: You know that some lawyer will say, well, maybe, okay, okay,

1333
01:09:22,160 --> 01:09:25,080
Speaker 2: you know, things happen, but we don't. We don't shut

1334
01:09:25,120 --> 01:09:27,120
Speaker 2: down the program, We don't shut down the trust that

1335
01:09:27,200 --> 01:09:29,280
Speaker 2: we give these folks because of one bad apple.

1336
01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:30,840
Speaker 4: And yeah, you kind of see that with.

1337
01:09:30,880 --> 01:09:33,800
Speaker 2: Policing here in the States in the last ten years.

1338
01:09:33,880 --> 01:09:38,439
Speaker 1: It's it's crutal, it's absurd. There's three point five million

1339
01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:42,680
Speaker 1: officer engagements a year or something even crazier than I mean,

1340
01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:46,759
Speaker 1: it's an astronomical number. And you look at the FDI

1341
01:09:46,880 --> 01:09:51,240
Speaker 1: crime statistics for cops firing on our males, both white

1342
01:09:51,240 --> 01:09:54,000
Speaker 1: and black or Spanic, whatever it is, and the numbers

1343
01:09:54,040 --> 01:09:57,400
Speaker 1: are so fricking low. It's a it's a testament to

1344
01:09:57,640 --> 01:10:02,040
Speaker 1: the control of and the responsibility placed in these people

1345
01:10:02,080 --> 01:10:05,320
Speaker 1: that are on the streets engaging in a very hostile environment.

1346
01:10:05,960 --> 01:10:09,240
Speaker 1: You know, And I look back at all the stories

1347
01:10:09,280 --> 01:10:12,160
Speaker 1: from you know, I never got to go to Iraq,

1348
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:16,520
Speaker 1: and so you know, it was a completely different experience

1349
01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:20,040
Speaker 1: than everybody else that had. You know that those times

1350
01:10:20,080 --> 01:10:23,479
Speaker 1: from four to eight man in Iraq, if you had

1351
01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:28,519
Speaker 1: the luck and the unfortunate reality that that was your time,

1352
01:10:29,080 --> 01:10:32,080
Speaker 1: you know, that was what you had to work with,

1353
01:10:32,320 --> 01:10:37,840
Speaker 1: was the the trust and the people it seemed that

1354
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:40,479
Speaker 1: were behind you guys to allow you to go do

1355
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:43,480
Speaker 1: this job which was insanely difficult.

1356
01:10:44,240 --> 01:10:45,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, exactly that.

1357
01:10:46,200 --> 01:10:48,920
Speaker 2: I mean, it just brings to mind the old quote

1358
01:10:48,920 --> 01:10:50,880
Speaker 2: from Colonel Jessup and a few good men.

1359
01:10:51,360 --> 01:10:53,880
Speaker 4: I would rather you just say thank you and move along.

1360
01:10:53,920 --> 01:10:56,439
Speaker 2: I think I think most of us would do way

1361
01:10:56,439 --> 01:10:59,280
Speaker 2: better to just thank our local police department for doing

1362
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:02,040
Speaker 2: what they're doing, or thank our marines and seals.

1363
01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:04,760
Speaker 4: Just thank you, guys. I didn't do it. I didn't

1364
01:11:04,800 --> 01:11:06,760
Speaker 4: have to do it. You kept the wolves a day?

1365
01:11:07,280 --> 01:11:07,720
Speaker 4: Thank you?

1366
01:11:08,080 --> 01:11:11,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, you're now you're you're in. Within a

1367
01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:13,880
Speaker 1: few days, you're out. You're getting into your first ticks,

1368
01:11:13,960 --> 01:11:17,479
Speaker 1: you're getting the support. When did you realize, all right,

1369
01:11:17,560 --> 01:11:21,040
Speaker 1: this op tempo is going to be significant? And what

1370
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:23,200
Speaker 1: were the things that you started thinking about from a

1371
01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:27,320
Speaker 1: leadership perspective for not only your team, but but for

1372
01:11:27,360 --> 01:11:30,040
Speaker 1: the Iraqis too, Because what a lot of the listeners

1373
01:11:30,080 --> 01:11:34,479
Speaker 1: you have to understand this, this this is the time

1374
01:11:34,560 --> 01:11:38,960
Speaker 1: where we the headshed realized we have to inspire the

1375
01:11:39,040 --> 01:11:42,920
Speaker 1: locals to want to fight for whatever it is they're

1376
01:11:42,960 --> 01:11:46,320
Speaker 1: fighting for, which is, you know, to pull away from

1377
01:11:46,360 --> 01:11:50,000
Speaker 1: the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's regime, right, and and to

1378
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:53,320
Speaker 1: be able to fight for that it's I don't know

1379
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:57,959
Speaker 1: if it's independence, but the fight for the national pride

1380
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:01,160
Speaker 1: of what was emerging right, and that's what it is.

1381
01:12:01,160 --> 01:12:05,639
Speaker 1: You're fighting for this deeper construct of of meaning and

1382
01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:07,920
Speaker 1: and for them, they they didn't know what any of

1383
01:12:07,920 --> 01:12:10,960
Speaker 1: that is. So what were what were the things that

1384
01:12:11,240 --> 01:12:16,000
Speaker 1: you were relying upon as the the the intensity increased,

1385
01:12:16,160 --> 01:12:18,040
Speaker 1: What were you telling your team, And what were you

1386
01:12:18,080 --> 01:12:19,080
Speaker 1: telling the iraqis.

1387
01:12:20,560 --> 01:12:24,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this team was not in a training you know,

1388
01:12:24,520 --> 01:12:30,200
Speaker 2: uh status the operational from the start, So we had

1389
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:32,559
Speaker 2: to look at it. Okay, how much change can we

1390
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:34,360
Speaker 2: really affect in a short period of time.

1391
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:37,240
Speaker 4: Marine Corps does a pretty cool job of.

1392
01:12:37,280 --> 01:12:42,519
Speaker 2: Teaching UH leaders to back plan uh when when, when

1393
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:45,120
Speaker 2: you're doing any kind of planning things, back plan from

1394
01:12:45,800 --> 01:12:49,360
Speaker 2: the most deadliest scenario and then then plan all the

1395
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:52,120
Speaker 2: things that are most likely to get you killed. You know,

1396
01:12:52,200 --> 01:12:55,040
Speaker 2: eventually you'll get to those those things that are you know,

1397
01:12:55,080 --> 01:12:57,080
Speaker 2: that you still need to train for, but they're not

1398
01:12:57,120 --> 01:12:59,760
Speaker 2: as important on the objective. So that that's kind of

1399
01:12:59,800 --> 01:13:02,640
Speaker 2: what did you know? Did a ton of shooting? Let

1400
01:13:02,680 --> 01:13:05,760
Speaker 2: me take it even a step back. We we realized

1401
01:13:06,479 --> 01:13:10,000
Speaker 2: everybody realized that at this time there was no NCO

1402
01:13:10,160 --> 01:13:11,559
Speaker 2: Corps in the Iraqi Army.

1403
01:13:11,600 --> 01:13:12,479
Speaker 4: That didn't exist.

1404
01:13:12,720 --> 01:13:15,559
Speaker 2: Oh wow, they had, they had sergeants, if you will,

1405
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:18,799
Speaker 2: But that not like what we understand as an NCO

1406
01:13:18,960 --> 01:13:22,080
Speaker 2: here in the American military. And this is even true

1407
01:13:22,360 --> 01:13:24,799
Speaker 2: as you look at the American military versus the Russian

1408
01:13:24,960 --> 01:13:29,960
Speaker 2: or military for instance, again another very Chinese military for instance.

1409
01:13:30,040 --> 01:13:33,880
Speaker 2: These are these are top, drowned down driven organizations that

1410
01:13:34,120 --> 01:13:40,000
Speaker 2: depend on all advice, instruction, orders coming from on high.

1411
01:13:40,680 --> 01:13:42,160
Speaker 4: Well, that ain't gonna happen.

1412
01:13:42,360 --> 01:13:43,960
Speaker 2: When you got ten dudes in the middle of a

1413
01:13:43,960 --> 01:13:46,520
Speaker 2: field in a firefight, it's just you guys.

1414
01:13:46,520 --> 01:13:47,240
Speaker 4: Now, what do you do?

1415
01:13:47,800 --> 01:13:48,000
Speaker 3: You know?

1416
01:13:48,080 --> 01:13:50,760
Speaker 2: So we had to instill that sense of pride and

1417
01:13:50,840 --> 01:13:54,599
Speaker 2: ownership of the operation to that very junior level, so

1418
01:13:54,640 --> 01:13:57,680
Speaker 2: that when Dad gets killed, you know, the rest of

1419
01:13:57,720 --> 01:14:01,160
Speaker 2: you don't die. You still understand the intentity operation at

1420
01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:03,000
Speaker 2: the end of today what needs to be done, and

1421
01:14:03,040 --> 01:14:05,120
Speaker 2: you can move forward through the objective and win.

1422
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:07,719
Speaker 4: And so that's that's.

1423
01:14:07,479 --> 01:14:10,120
Speaker 2: What my my team of staff NCOs we had a

1424
01:14:10,120 --> 01:14:14,040
Speaker 2: gunnery sergeant and three bad ass four badass staff sergeants,

1425
01:14:14,360 --> 01:14:18,040
Speaker 2: and those guys really took it upon themselves to.

1426
01:14:18,080 --> 01:14:19,920
Speaker 4: Take time out of their day. So, like I said,

1427
01:14:20,360 --> 01:14:22,720
Speaker 4: tempo was high talk.

1428
01:14:22,920 --> 01:14:25,760
Speaker 2: An average patrol would be four or five clicks, well

1429
01:14:25,880 --> 01:14:29,080
Speaker 2: four or five click patrol in Iraq, especially once we

1430
01:14:29,160 --> 01:14:30,400
Speaker 2: moved into the summer months.

1431
01:14:30,560 --> 01:14:31,960
Speaker 4: You know, that could take you three or four or

1432
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:33,200
Speaker 4: five hours.

1433
01:14:34,600 --> 01:14:37,080
Speaker 2: And then if you had contact in there, you know,

1434
01:14:37,800 --> 01:14:42,639
Speaker 2: then it just extends forever. While you're not patrolling, while

1435
01:14:42,680 --> 01:14:44,559
Speaker 2: you're not you know, up and you're in your two

1436
01:14:44,720 --> 01:14:48,200
Speaker 2: RF status. It wasn't just time to sleep and play

1437
01:14:48,280 --> 01:14:51,000
Speaker 2: video games. That's the time to get with your units

1438
01:14:51,479 --> 01:14:53,839
Speaker 2: and really talk through this stuff.

1439
01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:56,479
Speaker 4: And it's made even harder because you're talking through an interpreter.

1440
01:14:57,520 --> 01:15:01,480
Speaker 2: But that that's where we really formed these incredible bonds,

1441
01:15:01,520 --> 01:15:04,680
Speaker 2: some of which have lasted to this day. So my

1442
01:15:05,400 --> 01:15:08,679
Speaker 2: you know, my staff Sergeant Carl Newman, who was my partner,

1443
01:15:08,960 --> 01:15:11,519
Speaker 2: he would go and talk to my to my companies,

1444
01:15:11,600 --> 01:15:15,840
Speaker 2: enlisted guys. They'd have powwows over chai and just talking

1445
01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:18,599
Speaker 2: through you know, you're running hot washes. Hey, what worked

1446
01:15:18,600 --> 01:15:21,120
Speaker 2: well in our in our patrol today? What didn't go

1447
01:15:21,200 --> 01:15:23,559
Speaker 2: well if we got kinetic? You know, did we get

1448
01:15:23,600 --> 01:15:26,720
Speaker 2: guns up quick? I better hear those machine guns immediately,

1449
01:15:27,040 --> 01:15:30,880
Speaker 2: you know, we have to get fire superiority immediately. And

1450
01:15:31,320 --> 01:15:33,320
Speaker 2: I'll start telling stories here in a second. But that

1451
01:15:33,400 --> 01:15:36,160
Speaker 2: took some hard lessons to learn that for those guys.

1452
01:15:36,320 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 2: And then I'm with my company commander and we're walking

1453
01:15:39,400 --> 01:15:42,920
Speaker 2: through planning. I'm teaching them how to conduct rehearsals. You know,

1454
01:15:43,800 --> 01:15:45,680
Speaker 2: how do I run a rifle range? Do we even

1455
01:15:45,680 --> 01:15:48,400
Speaker 2: know if these guys rifles are zeroed, you know, So

1456
01:15:48,479 --> 01:15:50,599
Speaker 2: there was a lot of things we had to build

1457
01:15:51,320 --> 01:15:53,160
Speaker 2: into our daily lives.

1458
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:55,360
Speaker 4: To get these guys up to snuff. We had to

1459
01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:58,160
Speaker 4: do that. Also, there there's a lot of ego in

1460
01:15:58,200 --> 01:15:59,760
Speaker 4: that world, in.

1461
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:03,519
Speaker 1: That area or culturally. Yeah, yeah about that talk, because

1462
01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:08,600
Speaker 1: I think for me, anytime I worked with a foreign counterpart,

1463
01:16:09,080 --> 01:16:12,960
Speaker 1: that was the most frustrating aspect of the whole thing.

1464
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:17,760
Speaker 1: Our programs are all designed to humble you instantaneously, to

1465
01:16:18,280 --> 01:16:23,479
Speaker 1: knock the arrogance out of you right from the get go. Yes, well, well,

1466
01:16:23,479 --> 01:16:27,200
Speaker 1: their whole culture is indicative of never losing face aroungst

1467
01:16:27,280 --> 01:16:31,599
Speaker 1: your peers, and talk a little bit about that struggle,

1468
01:16:31,600 --> 01:16:34,719
Speaker 1: if you could, before we get into some of the Yeah, man.

1469
01:16:34,600 --> 01:16:39,479
Speaker 2: So Afghanistan, this concept of Pashtu Nuali that I learned

1470
01:16:39,479 --> 01:16:43,200
Speaker 2: about after I couldn't have operated the same way in

1471
01:16:43,200 --> 01:16:46,600
Speaker 2: Afghanistan as I did with my iraqis because of what

1472
01:16:46,640 --> 01:16:49,760
Speaker 2: you're talking about, this this kind of cultural pride. If

1473
01:16:49,960 --> 01:16:54,080
Speaker 2: if if Afghani man feels like he's been slighted, you know,

1474
01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:55,960
Speaker 2: that's where a lot of those green on blue attacks

1475
01:16:56,000 --> 01:16:56,599
Speaker 2: came from.

1476
01:16:56,800 --> 01:16:59,040
Speaker 1: Yep, I took offense.

1477
01:16:58,640 --> 01:17:00,360
Speaker 2: And now he makes his his mission to kill the

1478
01:17:00,360 --> 01:17:01,519
Speaker 2: guy that he was offended by.

1479
01:17:01,760 --> 01:17:03,719
Speaker 4: The iraqis they will take offense.

1480
01:17:05,240 --> 01:17:07,479
Speaker 2: But I think just through force of character and the

1481
01:17:07,479 --> 01:17:12,160
Speaker 2: fact that we were Marines, they respected that enough to realize, okay,

1482
01:17:12,200 --> 01:17:15,559
Speaker 2: maybe I should listen up and and they basically did that.

1483
01:17:15,720 --> 01:17:17,479
Speaker 2: But I had a couple of run ins, and I'll

1484
01:17:17,520 --> 01:17:21,519
Speaker 2: share one with you. We'll kind of jump ahead. Once

1485
01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:23,439
Speaker 2: it became clear that we were going to be kind

1486
01:17:23,439 --> 01:17:26,120
Speaker 2: of the most fightingest unit in the area at the time,

1487
01:17:27,120 --> 01:17:29,920
Speaker 2: that's just what we did every day. So we're we're

1488
01:17:29,960 --> 01:17:33,479
Speaker 2: taking l p ops cover of darkness, we know where

1489
01:17:33,479 --> 01:17:38,639
Speaker 2: they're putting, planting IEDs, et cetera. And you know, we'd

1490
01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:41,400
Speaker 2: wake up in the morning, send a patrol out, security

1491
01:17:41,400 --> 01:17:43,880
Speaker 2: patrol out with the intent to get into a fight,

1492
01:17:44,280 --> 01:17:47,599
Speaker 2: and me, you know, we started getting real technical, using

1493
01:17:47,640 --> 01:17:51,320
Speaker 2: all the tools in our toolbox. But this one particular fight,

1494
01:17:51,400 --> 01:17:56,840
Speaker 2: I had this Iraqi major with me. He refused to

1495
01:17:56,880 --> 01:17:59,680
Speaker 2: shoot in front of his troops. He refused to come

1496
01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:03,640
Speaker 2: to any of the rehearsals, just refused, absolutely refused. And

1497
01:18:03,680 --> 01:18:06,000
Speaker 2: of course I tell my boss, and he'd tell his

1498
01:18:06,040 --> 01:18:08,800
Speaker 2: boss and they'd smack him a little bit. But it's

1499
01:18:08,880 --> 01:18:11,080
Speaker 2: you know, it didn't seem to be changing quickly enough

1500
01:18:11,080 --> 01:18:15,519
Speaker 2: for my liking, at least anyway, send out a security patrol.

1501
01:18:15,520 --> 01:18:17,639
Speaker 4: In the morning, I talked to Carl and I said, hey, dude,

1502
01:18:17,800 --> 01:18:18,839
Speaker 4: you guys take shots.

1503
01:18:18,880 --> 01:18:21,280
Speaker 2: We had an idea where the bad guys might be

1504
01:18:21,280 --> 01:18:24,599
Speaker 2: because they're always doing the same stuff. And I said, hey,

1505
01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:27,160
Speaker 2: I want you to break contact. I'm gonna call ahead.

1506
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:30,280
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get these guns laid, so we're gonna have

1507
01:18:30,320 --> 01:18:31,400
Speaker 2: a fire mission.

1508
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:31,599
Speaker 4: Ready to go.

1509
01:18:31,640 --> 01:18:33,800
Speaker 2: As soon as you guys get into contact. We're gonna

1510
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:36,360
Speaker 2: have a trigger line at this road. As soon as

1511
01:18:36,360 --> 01:18:38,599
Speaker 2: you guys clear that road, I'm calling that fire mission.

1512
01:18:39,160 --> 01:18:39,800
Speaker 4: We did it.

1513
01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:44,000
Speaker 2: It worked perfectly, so they ben gang naan gun start.

1514
01:18:44,040 --> 01:18:46,479
Speaker 4: We're all up on the roof watching it happen.

1515
01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:50,559
Speaker 2: I see my guys, last guy, last man clears the street.

1516
01:18:50,880 --> 01:18:53,800
Speaker 2: As they're clearing the street, I get a bad guy

1517
01:18:53,920 --> 01:18:56,680
Speaker 2: truck comes hauling ass down the street right at him.

1518
01:18:56,720 --> 01:18:58,240
Speaker 2: So now I know they're getting shot out from here.

1519
01:18:58,439 --> 01:19:02,040
Speaker 2: They're getting shot out from this truck. We engage, the truck,

1520
01:19:02,120 --> 01:19:05,559
Speaker 2: truck crashes into a ditch. My guy's clear. I get

1521
01:19:05,560 --> 01:19:08,519
Speaker 2: that fire mission called. We had a priority target, which

1522
01:19:08,520 --> 01:19:10,240
Speaker 2: is hard to get, but we had those guys.

1523
01:19:10,400 --> 01:19:12,559
Speaker 4: So the guns are laid. So the time that I'd

1524
01:19:12,600 --> 01:19:13,479
Speaker 4: say hey, fire.

1525
01:19:13,320 --> 01:19:17,639
Speaker 2: Priority target number one zero zero one, about thirty seconds

1526
01:19:17,640 --> 01:19:18,559
Speaker 2: first rounds are out.

1527
01:19:18,720 --> 01:19:20,759
Speaker 1: Wow, so bing.

1528
01:19:20,640 --> 01:19:25,000
Speaker 2: Ding ding, you know, ten or fifteen minutes goes by.

1529
01:19:25,400 --> 01:19:29,519
Speaker 2: It's quiet. Now we're gonna send another patrol out to

1530
01:19:29,640 --> 01:19:33,040
Speaker 2: look at the engagement area, do a battle damage assessment.

1531
01:19:32,960 --> 01:19:33,280
Speaker 1: And.

1532
01:19:35,000 --> 01:19:36,360
Speaker 4: We come out on this bda.

1533
01:19:36,560 --> 01:19:38,360
Speaker 2: The whole time, by the way that we're in this fight,

1534
01:19:38,479 --> 01:19:41,760
Speaker 2: this major that refuses to come on anything or acknowledge

1535
01:19:41,760 --> 01:19:45,160
Speaker 2: any of his soldiers is in the fetal position on

1536
01:19:45,200 --> 01:19:49,040
Speaker 2: the ground doing nothing. So I say, hey, major, you're

1537
01:19:49,080 --> 01:19:51,040
Speaker 2: on me, and I'm talking through my interpreter and he

1538
01:19:51,160 --> 01:19:53,960
Speaker 2: comes walking with me. We're going through the engagement area

1539
01:19:53,960 --> 01:19:57,680
Speaker 2: and it's not a large area, but it's there's a

1540
01:19:57,680 --> 01:20:00,360
Speaker 2: lot of trees, so you can't really see it from

1541
01:20:00,360 --> 01:20:02,200
Speaker 2: where we were, so we patrolled through.

1542
01:20:03,240 --> 01:20:06,320
Speaker 4: We find it was the most beautiful.

1543
01:20:06,080 --> 01:20:08,519
Speaker 2: Battle damage assessment I ever got to report back to

1544
01:20:08,560 --> 01:20:11,800
Speaker 2: my Lardi brothers because we we had two k I

1545
01:20:11,880 --> 01:20:14,320
Speaker 2: A and we think we had another one that got it.

1546
01:20:14,400 --> 01:20:17,160
Speaker 2: We saw drag marks, uh. The reason we figured he

1547
01:20:17,240 --> 01:20:19,920
Speaker 2: probably died is because we had the entirety of his

1548
01:20:20,040 --> 01:20:23,040
Speaker 2: leg from just above his knee laying there on the ground.

1549
01:20:23,160 --> 01:20:26,240
Speaker 2: So he probably lost that blood pretty quick and ended

1550
01:20:26,320 --> 01:20:29,479
Speaker 2: up expiring on the other side of the river. Then

1551
01:20:29,520 --> 01:20:33,320
Speaker 2: as we come back, and I hate to do this,

1552
01:20:33,360 --> 01:20:35,880
Speaker 2: but the marine mind in those days we were it

1553
01:20:35,920 --> 01:20:39,599
Speaker 2: was all movie quotes, man. So uh so we had

1554
01:20:39,640 --> 01:20:43,920
Speaker 2: just watched this movie seven Brad Pitt, cool movie.

1555
01:20:44,520 --> 01:20:46,680
Speaker 4: And there's a scene in it and I'm gonna I'm

1556
01:20:46,680 --> 01:20:47,560
Speaker 4: gonna describe.

1557
01:20:47,280 --> 01:20:47,600
Speaker 1: What I do.

1558
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:49,800
Speaker 2: So we're we're coming through and I'm up on my

1559
01:20:49,880 --> 01:20:52,760
Speaker 2: gun and the last thing we do is hit this truck.

1560
01:20:54,160 --> 01:20:55,280
Speaker 4: To make sure it's clear.

1561
01:20:56,360 --> 01:20:58,240
Speaker 2: And I'm coming up and I'm looking over the door

1562
01:20:58,760 --> 01:21:01,600
Speaker 2: and uh, I can't really tell it.

1563
01:21:01,680 --> 01:21:03,639
Speaker 4: The guy is slumped over and he's got.

1564
01:21:03,439 --> 01:21:07,360
Speaker 2: His ak right down in his lap, and uh I

1565
01:21:07,400 --> 01:21:09,600
Speaker 2: opened the door. And as I opened the door, he

1566
01:21:10,280 --> 01:21:15,080
Speaker 2: raises his head and his head is canoue oh, he

1567
01:21:15,400 --> 01:21:18,000
Speaker 2: raised his head. He was just you know, in in

1568
01:21:18,040 --> 01:21:21,160
Speaker 2: the throes of death. He wasn't quite dead. He had

1569
01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,040
Speaker 2: a pulse and he was still alive. So I made

1570
01:21:24,040 --> 01:21:27,120
Speaker 2: that a RAQI major treat him. He had this really

1571
01:21:27,640 --> 01:21:30,880
Speaker 2: uh high speed jacket on that he loved. He kept

1572
01:21:30,960 --> 01:21:32,960
Speaker 2: him warmer than everybody else. I made him take his

1573
01:21:33,040 --> 01:21:34,840
Speaker 2: jacket off and treat this guy.

1574
01:21:35,040 --> 01:21:38,040
Speaker 4: I mean, he's alive. We don't murder dudes after the

1575
01:21:38,080 --> 01:21:40,479
Speaker 4: battle's over, so treat him. And uh.

1576
01:21:41,200 --> 01:21:44,040
Speaker 2: He complained about that, but my boss didn't care, and

1577
01:21:43,720 --> 01:21:45,800
Speaker 2: his boss ended up sending him away.

1578
01:21:45,840 --> 01:21:47,519
Speaker 4: We actually never saw him again after that.

1579
01:21:47,600 --> 01:21:52,480
Speaker 1: Op dude. I for me, it's it's it's you realize

1580
01:21:52,800 --> 01:21:57,200
Speaker 1: just the nepotism of of how profound it is when

1581
01:21:57,400 --> 01:22:00,840
Speaker 1: you're dealing with these like and you get somebody like

1582
01:22:00,880 --> 01:22:02,840
Speaker 1: a urf who's good and you're like, all right, dude,

1583
01:22:02,880 --> 01:22:05,920
Speaker 1: what's the deal with this? Oh that's the other general

1584
01:22:05,960 --> 01:22:07,920
Speaker 1: who's in bagdad, that's where you get all your great

1585
01:22:07,960 --> 01:22:13,120
Speaker 1: intel try' that's his first cousin, that's his other buddy.

1586
01:22:13,240 --> 01:22:15,599
Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, how much time does he have

1587
01:22:15,680 --> 01:22:17,800
Speaker 1: in combat? Not? And he just got here, you know,

1588
01:22:17,840 --> 01:22:20,559
Speaker 1: and it's just like and you start going, well, God,

1589
01:22:20,680 --> 01:22:23,160
Speaker 1: what am how am I going to do this? How

1590
01:22:23,160 --> 01:22:25,320
Speaker 1: am I going to work with what I got? But

1591
01:22:25,400 --> 01:22:28,960
Speaker 1: it sounds to me like the other iraqis that you had.

1592
01:22:29,320 --> 01:22:33,040
Speaker 1: They sounded pretty tough and they were they were gravitating

1593
01:22:33,080 --> 01:22:36,920
Speaker 1: towards that those you know, your your NCO influence to

1594
01:22:37,320 --> 01:22:38,080
Speaker 1: a pretty.

1595
01:22:37,920 --> 01:22:43,200
Speaker 2: Identified We made a conscious effort to identify kind of

1596
01:22:43,200 --> 01:22:46,960
Speaker 2: the best of the bunch, and we made them Okay, hey,

1597
01:22:47,439 --> 01:22:48,960
Speaker 2: you're the company gunnery sergeant.

1598
01:22:49,479 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're the company first sergeant.

1599
01:22:51,800 --> 01:22:56,160
Speaker 2: Like we gave them roles and responsibilities that forced the

1600
01:22:56,200 --> 01:22:57,400
Speaker 2: other soldiers to look.

1601
01:22:57,240 --> 01:22:58,840
Speaker 4: At them like, oh my god, maybe this is the

1602
01:22:58,840 --> 01:22:59,759
Speaker 4: guy I need to follow.

1603
01:23:00,120 --> 01:23:00,320
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1604
01:23:00,400 --> 01:23:04,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, these guys weren't all rambo in fact,

1605
01:23:04,800 --> 01:23:06,839
Speaker 2: you know, if I could just get him shooting generally

1606
01:23:06,880 --> 01:23:08,719
Speaker 2: in the same direction, that was kind.

1607
01:23:08,560 --> 01:23:10,640
Speaker 4: Of a win. We didn't care. We knew we were

1608
01:23:10,640 --> 01:23:15,839
Speaker 4: gonna win the fight anyway. But the few.

1609
01:23:15,640 --> 01:23:18,360
Speaker 2: Good ones that we did find, man, we really rode them.

1610
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:21,320
Speaker 2: They didn't believe and made and they ended up being

1611
01:23:21,360 --> 01:23:24,240
Speaker 2: great leaders. I don't know how much time we have left,

1612
01:23:24,240 --> 01:23:27,639
Speaker 2: but the guy that I was partnered with, my company commander,

1613
01:23:27,680 --> 01:23:28,840
Speaker 2: he was the best of the bunch.

1614
01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:30,679
Speaker 4: Uh.

1615
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:32,880
Speaker 2: Everybody acknowledged that by the end of our time, and

1616
01:23:32,920 --> 01:23:35,759
Speaker 2: it had nothing to do with my guidance or leadership.

1617
01:23:36,000 --> 01:23:38,839
Speaker 2: It had everything to do He was the only sunnie

1618
01:23:39,880 --> 01:23:42,120
Speaker 2: in in our formation, the only student officer.

1619
01:23:42,120 --> 01:23:45,439
Speaker 4: Everybody else was she. So the way that he grew up,

1620
01:23:45,680 --> 01:23:47,639
Speaker 4: his kind of sect was in.

1621
01:23:47,640 --> 01:23:51,200
Speaker 2: Charge, so he kind of was used to being in charge.

1622
01:23:51,520 --> 01:23:54,040
Speaker 2: He didn't have to like figure out his way through it.

1623
01:23:54,320 --> 01:23:55,840
Speaker 2: And he was courageous by.

1624
01:23:55,800 --> 01:23:58,559
Speaker 1: Nature's you know how it is.

1625
01:23:58,640 --> 01:24:03,680
Speaker 2: Brother on the battlefield is contagious, just like cowardice is.

1626
01:24:04,160 --> 01:24:05,920
Speaker 2: So if you if you got if you got some

1627
01:24:06,000 --> 01:24:08,160
Speaker 2: dudes that you really look up to and they're showing

1628
01:24:08,200 --> 01:24:11,160
Speaker 2: that real courage like he did. I think that's what

1629
01:24:11,280 --> 01:24:14,960
Speaker 2: made our unit in particular so so successful and deadly

1630
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:18,600
Speaker 2: to the to the enemies we were fighting because the

1631
01:24:18,960 --> 01:24:21,360
Speaker 2: june that would have normally just been smoking a cigarette

1632
01:24:21,360 --> 01:24:24,240
Speaker 2: and hide and try not to die. Uh, they they

1633
01:24:24,280 --> 01:24:26,960
Speaker 2: they were willing to follow because they saw that courage

1634
01:24:27,240 --> 01:24:28,479
Speaker 2: from my advisor team.

1635
01:24:28,920 --> 01:24:29,160
Speaker 3: Uh.

1636
01:24:29,160 --> 01:24:33,120
Speaker 4: And some of these Iraqis that we identified early on.

1637
01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:36,679
Speaker 1: I love it all right, So how how far into

1638
01:24:36,720 --> 01:24:39,360
Speaker 1: this deployment for you did you feel like you guys

1639
01:24:39,439 --> 01:24:43,160
Speaker 1: hit that real efficient battle rhythm. Whereas just like, all right,

1640
01:24:43,200 --> 01:24:45,800
Speaker 1: we know the mission, we know what works, we know

1641
01:24:45,880 --> 01:24:48,640
Speaker 1: what doesn't, and then you you what you start to

1642
01:24:48,760 --> 01:24:52,479
Speaker 1: tighten up, like the proficiency of your operational ability just

1643
01:24:53,080 --> 01:24:57,360
Speaker 1: becomes like this, Uh, it's this poetic thing that emerges.

1644
01:24:57,479 --> 01:25:00,960
Speaker 1: When when did you feel that? And and and and

1645
01:25:01,080 --> 01:25:03,880
Speaker 1: then what were some of the things that resulted of

1646
01:25:03,960 --> 01:25:06,960
Speaker 1: how effective you guys were?

1647
01:25:07,479 --> 01:25:08,280
Speaker 4: Exactly right?

1648
01:25:08,360 --> 01:25:11,360
Speaker 2: So my boss was smart enough to understand, after every engagement,

1649
01:25:11,720 --> 01:25:13,760
Speaker 2: we're going to have a hot wash. We're gonna talk

1650
01:25:13,800 --> 01:25:17,080
Speaker 2: through this thing. Good things, bad things. How do we

1651
01:25:17,120 --> 01:25:20,639
Speaker 2: become more deadly on this battlefield? And for the first

1652
01:25:20,640 --> 01:25:23,240
Speaker 2: three months we kind of worked our way through that.

1653
01:25:23,439 --> 01:25:24,080
Speaker 4: How can we.

1654
01:25:24,000 --> 01:25:28,280
Speaker 2: Employ arms better, How can we get artillery shooting faster

1655
01:25:28,400 --> 01:25:30,360
Speaker 2: on our behalf? How is there is there a way

1656
01:25:30,400 --> 01:25:34,240
Speaker 2: to get helicopters up quicker? Maybe if we start doing

1657
01:25:34,280 --> 01:25:38,360
Speaker 2: intel driven operations, sending some requests to hire, they'll have

1658
01:25:38,760 --> 01:25:43,000
Speaker 2: units on standby for us in the form of cobras, Huey's,

1659
01:25:43,080 --> 01:25:46,920
Speaker 2: things like that. And that took about three months. In

1660
01:25:46,960 --> 01:25:48,680
Speaker 2: those three months, we did a lot. We had a

1661
01:25:48,680 --> 01:25:51,040
Speaker 2: lot of practice, if you will. We were fighting quite

1662
01:25:51,080 --> 01:25:55,000
Speaker 2: a bit, and through those fights we really did figure out,

1663
01:25:55,320 --> 01:25:57,200
Speaker 2: you know, how to employ our q R F faster?

1664
01:25:57,320 --> 01:26:00,360
Speaker 2: Can we drive them here? You know, kaza vacs? Are

1665
01:26:00,360 --> 01:26:02,720
Speaker 2: we saving as many lives as we can? You know,

1666
01:26:02,840 --> 01:26:05,400
Speaker 2: I mentioned before we got on air, I was on

1667
01:26:05,439 --> 01:26:09,799
Speaker 2: a twelve man team. This twelve man team was decorated

1668
01:26:09,800 --> 01:26:11,000
Speaker 2: with fifteen purple hearts.

1669
01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:13,040
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah.

1670
01:26:13,080 --> 01:26:15,519
Speaker 2: So I mean in terms of like running guys to

1671
01:26:15,640 --> 01:26:19,479
Speaker 2: shock trauma, that was a that happened a lot, and uh,

1672
01:26:19,840 --> 01:26:24,720
Speaker 2: you know, the Golden hour is everything on the battlefield,

1673
01:26:25,080 --> 01:26:27,880
Speaker 2: and so we started getting really drilling down on how

1674
01:26:27,880 --> 01:26:30,439
Speaker 2: to how to make sure we're getting guys to that

1675
01:26:30,479 --> 01:26:33,240
Speaker 2: second level of care better. We had an amazing Corman

1676
01:26:33,360 --> 01:26:36,240
Speaker 2: on our team, a Navy doc still a personal friend

1677
01:26:36,280 --> 01:26:36,719
Speaker 2: of mine.

1678
01:26:36,800 --> 01:26:38,920
Speaker 4: We all love him. Although he drops off the net

1679
01:26:39,040 --> 01:26:40,400
Speaker 4: here and there from time to time.

1680
01:26:40,439 --> 01:26:42,679
Speaker 2: He's a he's a maniac, you know, if you could

1681
01:26:42,720 --> 01:26:44,840
Speaker 2: just bottle him up and just break for war kind

1682
01:26:44,840 --> 01:26:47,720
Speaker 2: of guy, personal life all over the place as long

1683
01:26:47,800 --> 01:26:50,479
Speaker 2: as I've known him. But on that battlefield he is

1684
01:26:50,640 --> 01:26:53,280
Speaker 2: as cool an operator as I've ever seen when it

1685
01:26:53,320 --> 01:26:57,080
Speaker 2: comes to treating dudes. And I think, I think, really

1686
01:26:57,200 --> 01:27:00,800
Speaker 2: he became a force multiplier because the Iraqis became less

1687
01:27:00,840 --> 01:27:03,679
Speaker 2: scared to try out and get wounded because they knew

1688
01:27:03,680 --> 01:27:06,120
Speaker 2: if they did. Man, we got Doc Wig in the back,

1689
01:27:06,160 --> 01:27:08,080
Speaker 2: and he's going to fix you up. At least fix

1690
01:27:08,120 --> 01:27:10,280
Speaker 2: you up well enough to get you up to you know,

1691
01:27:10,400 --> 01:27:12,880
Speaker 2: teach you and go to shot trauma things like that so.

1692
01:27:13,080 --> 01:27:17,960
Speaker 1: Well that it was the history of the Navy Corman

1693
01:27:18,040 --> 01:27:20,479
Speaker 1: and the Marine Corps that really joked me to want

1694
01:27:20,479 --> 01:27:23,400
Speaker 1: to be a corman. Like that was the thing. It

1695
01:27:23,479 --> 01:27:26,280
Speaker 1: was like, Man, I want to be I want to

1696
01:27:26,360 --> 01:27:29,960
Speaker 1: have that, you know, I want to have that trust

1697
01:27:30,040 --> 01:27:33,240
Speaker 1: in my guys that you know that I'm going to

1698
01:27:33,280 --> 01:27:35,080
Speaker 1: be there in the middle of it and I'm going

1699
01:27:35,160 --> 01:27:38,759
Speaker 1: to be helping save their lives. Because there's just something

1700
01:27:38,840 --> 01:27:42,600
Speaker 1: about that reality. And I I what I do is

1701
01:27:42,640 --> 01:27:46,200
Speaker 1: I commend the entire military for the advancements they made,

1702
01:27:46,760 --> 01:27:50,680
Speaker 1: you know, post Mogadishu and developing T Triple C and

1703
01:27:50,720 --> 01:27:54,519
Speaker 1: Tactical Compact casually care. People always ask well, why were

1704
01:27:54,560 --> 01:27:58,559
Speaker 1: there so few casualties in the GWATT and And my

1705
01:27:58,720 --> 01:28:02,360
Speaker 1: response is is because medical training that took place at

1706
01:28:02,439 --> 01:28:06,360
Speaker 1: every level, at every unit was so efficient and so

1707
01:28:06,400 --> 01:28:10,000
Speaker 1: squared away that that was the results. That's why we

1708
01:28:10,320 --> 01:28:13,760
Speaker 1: even though we were in a war longer than Vietnam, like,

1709
01:28:13,840 --> 01:28:17,160
Speaker 1: we didn't even get close to their casually count fifty

1710
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:21,080
Speaker 1: eight thousand, because because I think the proficiency of those

1711
01:28:21,160 --> 01:28:23,720
Speaker 1: medics that were on the battlefield, and then how they

1712
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:27,839
Speaker 1: trained their counterpart, how they trained their team to address trauma,

1713
01:28:27,960 --> 01:28:31,719
Speaker 1: and and then and then the response. Right those those

1714
01:28:31,800 --> 01:28:35,519
Speaker 1: medical stations and aid stations that were scattered all over

1715
01:28:35,600 --> 01:28:39,120
Speaker 1: at all those theaters. Man, they were just incredible with

1716
01:28:39,160 --> 01:28:39,840
Speaker 1: what they did.

1717
01:28:40,880 --> 01:28:43,840
Speaker 2: Yes, two things come to mind. First off, you know this,

1718
01:28:43,960 --> 01:28:46,439
Speaker 2: I mean, you know that the DOC on any team

1719
01:28:46,520 --> 01:28:49,280
Speaker 2: is the most protected member of that team. You are

1720
01:28:49,360 --> 01:28:52,639
Speaker 2: the most beloved, and we will whip anyone's ass who

1721
01:28:52,640 --> 01:28:53,800
Speaker 2: tries to mess with our doc.

1722
01:28:53,840 --> 01:28:56,479
Speaker 4: That's just number one. But number two, I.

1723
01:28:56,439 --> 01:28:59,519
Speaker 2: Will say that our doc and and just the training

1724
01:28:59,560 --> 01:29:01,920
Speaker 2: we got. And I skipped over it because the shooting

1725
01:29:01,920 --> 01:29:05,320
Speaker 2: stuff sounds sexier at times. But we did a full

1726
01:29:05,640 --> 01:29:07,439
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if they were calling a teacher,

1727
01:29:07,520 --> 01:29:09,360
Speaker 2: we'll ce at the time, but we went to we

1728
01:29:09,360 --> 01:29:10,360
Speaker 2: did our pig lab.

1729
01:29:10,680 --> 01:29:12,360
Speaker 4: We were running ivs on each other.

1730
01:29:12,439 --> 01:29:14,320
Speaker 2: So he made sure we got really good at that

1731
01:29:14,439 --> 01:29:17,960
Speaker 2: early because you know, you are your own first, best,

1732
01:29:18,439 --> 01:29:21,719
Speaker 2: best first responder in a lot of these cases, especially

1733
01:29:21,760 --> 01:29:24,200
Speaker 2: when you're operating like we were with just two dudes

1734
01:29:25,160 --> 01:29:25,799
Speaker 2: and ten.

1735
01:29:25,720 --> 01:29:29,800
Speaker 1: I rakis all right, So now, how long was the deployment,

1736
01:29:29,960 --> 01:29:33,839
Speaker 1: and was there a moment in time where you start

1737
01:29:33,920 --> 01:29:39,080
Speaker 1: to see the fatigue of operations take to present itself.

1738
01:29:39,200 --> 01:29:41,800
Speaker 1: What were some of the signs you were looking for?

1739
01:29:42,240 --> 01:29:44,679
Speaker 1: And then also like how do you keep your guys

1740
01:29:44,800 --> 01:29:47,080
Speaker 1: motivated to stay in the fight. It sounds to me

1741
01:29:47,200 --> 01:29:49,559
Speaker 1: like your group didn't need any of that motivation. They

1742
01:29:49,560 --> 01:29:53,200
Speaker 1: were in it regardless. They they were dedicated job. But obviously,

1743
01:29:53,240 --> 01:29:56,720
Speaker 1: as as a leader, you're looking for those things, right,

1744
01:29:56,800 --> 01:30:01,360
Speaker 1: You're looking for the crowd in the armor that could

1745
01:30:01,360 --> 01:30:05,640
Speaker 1: potentially jeopardize the safety of HUTURE operations.

1746
01:30:05,760 --> 01:30:08,639
Speaker 2: I think our tempo was so high that it kind

1747
01:30:08,640 --> 01:30:13,559
Speaker 2: of it kind of prevented some of that stuff from

1748
01:30:13,640 --> 01:30:16,040
Speaker 2: coming in. I also believe that, you know, the Marine

1749
01:30:16,080 --> 01:30:20,280
Speaker 2: Corps deployment cycle. Thank god I wasn't in the army man.

1750
01:30:20,840 --> 01:30:24,519
Speaker 2: Like you said about Secretary of Parnell, I mean like

1751
01:30:25,840 --> 01:30:27,519
Speaker 2: four hundred days, the Marine.

1752
01:30:27,320 --> 01:30:29,000
Speaker 4: Corps was doing seven month deployments.

1753
01:30:29,439 --> 01:30:31,840
Speaker 2: So you know, by the time you really feel like

1754
01:30:31,840 --> 01:30:36,160
Speaker 2: you got it figured out, time to go home boys. Yeah, So,

1755
01:30:36,160 --> 01:30:39,200
Speaker 2: so I think we missed some of that that fatigue.

1756
01:30:39,240 --> 01:30:40,840
Speaker 2: I'll tell you at the end, it started to get there,

1757
01:30:40,920 --> 01:30:43,280
Speaker 2: but our deployment was really broken down kind of into

1758
01:30:43,320 --> 01:30:46,519
Speaker 2: three three sectors if you will. You know, the the

1759
01:30:46,560 --> 01:30:48,800
Speaker 2: initial phase where it's just like, oh my god, this

1760
01:30:48,880 --> 01:30:49,759
Speaker 2: is really happening.

1761
01:30:50,600 --> 01:30:52,559
Speaker 4: Everything is new, every fight is new.

1762
01:30:53,000 --> 01:30:55,160
Speaker 2: Then then you get into the kind of the three

1763
01:30:55,200 --> 01:30:58,200
Speaker 2: to six months mark where you're like, man, I think

1764
01:30:58,200 --> 01:31:00,559
Speaker 2: I got this thing figured out. Now only do I

1765
01:31:00,560 --> 01:31:03,040
Speaker 2: have it figured out, I think other people are realizing

1766
01:31:03,080 --> 01:31:04,760
Speaker 2: we're doing such a good job they want to become

1767
01:31:04,760 --> 01:31:06,280
Speaker 2: a part of it. You know, I mentioned to you

1768
01:31:06,320 --> 01:31:08,080
Speaker 2: before we got on the air that we had parts

1769
01:31:08,120 --> 01:31:11,240
Speaker 2: of Team one and Team three that they would shop

1770
01:31:11,880 --> 01:31:14,439
Speaker 2: parts of parts of a platoon out to us.

1771
01:31:16,160 --> 01:31:18,600
Speaker 4: One of the ways we started this interaction there.

1772
01:31:18,800 --> 01:31:21,280
Speaker 2: They're a guy named Nick Norris, was a young lieutenant

1773
01:31:21,280 --> 01:31:23,519
Speaker 2: on one of these seal teams that was out with us.

1774
01:31:23,600 --> 01:31:27,360
Speaker 2: Him and Seth Stone. I know Sethstone is since past,

1775
01:31:27,880 --> 01:31:29,519
Speaker 2: but you want to talk about a guy that looked

1776
01:31:29,520 --> 01:31:30,120
Speaker 2: the freaking part.

1777
01:31:30,160 --> 01:31:31,880
Speaker 4: I remember beating him. I was like, goddamn, who was

1778
01:31:31,880 --> 01:31:33,520
Speaker 4: this guy? This guy's a big strum.

1779
01:31:33,320 --> 01:31:39,200
Speaker 1: Motherfucker the etitomy of a Navy officer, the indeed, indeed

1780
01:31:39,560 --> 01:31:43,599
Speaker 1: any guy for the audience that doesn't know. Also, seths

1781
01:31:43,600 --> 01:31:46,920
Speaker 1: Stone was a part of Task Force Bruiser, which was

1782
01:31:47,000 --> 01:31:52,240
Speaker 1: Jocko willing uh Seth and Leif Babin or platoon commanders

1783
01:31:52,320 --> 01:31:55,559
Speaker 1: running those guys in Ramadi Uh And so you know,

1784
01:31:55,840 --> 01:31:59,080
Speaker 1: to to you know the fact that you guys were

1785
01:31:59,120 --> 01:32:01,479
Speaker 1: as operate and at the level you were doing. For

1786
01:32:01,520 --> 01:32:03,000
Speaker 1: them to come out and be like, hey, we want

1787
01:32:03,040 --> 01:32:06,280
Speaker 1: to come fight with you again, that speaks volumes as

1788
01:32:06,320 --> 01:32:08,200
Speaker 1: to what you guys were doing in the efficiency.

1789
01:32:08,240 --> 01:32:10,720
Speaker 2: We had a gigantic water tower in the middle of

1790
01:32:10,760 --> 01:32:13,840
Speaker 2: our combat outpost, so figure you know, a collection of

1791
01:32:13,840 --> 01:32:16,479
Speaker 2: maybe ten houses. We had the engineers come out and

1792
01:32:16,479 --> 01:32:20,040
Speaker 2: put a hesco around it so we, you know, relatively secure.

1793
01:32:20,400 --> 01:32:22,559
Speaker 2: Right in the middle was his giant water tower. And

1794
01:32:22,600 --> 01:32:25,120
Speaker 2: I came home from patrol one time. I didn't know

1795
01:32:25,120 --> 01:32:27,080
Speaker 2: all the coordination that my boss was doing a lot

1796
01:32:27,080 --> 01:32:29,400
Speaker 2: of times, so he had Jocko out there and they

1797
01:32:29,439 --> 01:32:32,120
Speaker 2: were chatting about what they can do to help us

1798
01:32:32,160 --> 01:32:33,160
Speaker 2: whip some more ass.

1799
01:32:33,560 --> 01:32:36,960
Speaker 4: And I come home from this patrol and I'm just having.

1800
01:32:36,800 --> 01:32:38,960
Speaker 2: A glance up at the water tower and I'm like, man,

1801
01:32:39,000 --> 01:32:42,559
Speaker 2: those what are these black spots up there? They knew anyway,

1802
01:32:42,640 --> 01:32:44,360
Speaker 2: some of your brothers had gone up there and cut

1803
01:32:44,400 --> 01:32:47,520
Speaker 2: out these spider holes and then so they started sniping

1804
01:32:47,560 --> 01:32:50,439
Speaker 2: on our behalf, you know, just providing us overwatch as

1805
01:32:50,479 --> 01:32:53,360
Speaker 2: we're meandering through these fields. Now the bubbles are up

1806
01:32:53,360 --> 01:32:55,639
Speaker 2: on you know that whatever they were shooting at the time,

1807
01:32:55,680 --> 01:32:58,160
Speaker 2: they were up on the big guns, you know, giving

1808
01:32:58,240 --> 01:32:59,719
Speaker 2: us the little Guardian Angel support.

1809
01:33:00,160 --> 01:33:02,880
Speaker 1: It was freaking awesome. That's cool, all right. So you

1810
01:33:02,960 --> 01:33:05,400
Speaker 1: get to the end of it, was it was it

1811
01:33:05,520 --> 01:33:06,439
Speaker 1: hard to leave.

1812
01:33:07,880 --> 01:33:09,719
Speaker 4: It became you know, you know, the bonds.

1813
01:33:09,760 --> 01:33:12,759
Speaker 2: It's it's just those battlefield bonds that become hard to leave.

1814
01:33:13,240 --> 01:33:17,440
Speaker 2: And so our iraqis they were They were pretty emotional

1815
01:33:17,479 --> 01:33:19,760
Speaker 2: when we were leaving because you know, just like it

1816
01:33:19,800 --> 01:33:22,479
Speaker 2: had been some big time fighting for us. You know,

1817
01:33:22,520 --> 01:33:24,439
Speaker 2: these were the biggest fights that any of these dudes

1818
01:33:24,439 --> 01:33:26,160
Speaker 2: had been into up to that point.

1819
01:33:26,439 --> 01:33:28,679
Speaker 4: And you know, so that that was hard.

1820
01:33:29,600 --> 01:33:32,680
Speaker 2: We had you know, it became our task to uh

1821
01:33:32,920 --> 01:33:36,280
Speaker 2: introduce them to our replacements, and you know, once we

1822
01:33:36,360 --> 01:33:37,920
Speaker 2: got a good warm and fuzzy that we had a

1823
01:33:37,960 --> 01:33:40,960
Speaker 2: great group of dudes coming in behind us, and we did.

1824
01:33:41,800 --> 01:33:45,120
Speaker 2: I think they were My memory might betray me, but

1825
01:33:45,160 --> 01:33:48,639
Speaker 2: I think they were from third Battalion, Second Marines three two.

1826
01:33:48,800 --> 01:33:52,200
Speaker 2: If I remember correctly, and uh, you know, the bunch

1827
01:33:52,240 --> 01:33:54,760
Speaker 2: of great experience guys that came in on the on

1828
01:33:54,840 --> 01:33:56,320
Speaker 2: the came in to replace us.

1829
01:33:56,680 --> 01:33:58,160
Speaker 4: And so once once we were.

1830
01:33:58,080 --> 01:34:01,320
Speaker 2: Able to make those introductions and you know, I could point, hey,

1831
01:34:01,320 --> 01:34:03,719
Speaker 2: this dude's already been in Ramadi or Falloujah or something.

1832
01:34:03,800 --> 01:34:06,000
Speaker 4: You know, once I kind of explained that they had

1833
01:34:06,000 --> 01:34:07,040
Speaker 4: a lot of a lot.

1834
01:34:06,840 --> 01:34:11,120
Speaker 2: Of good operational working experience in country are Iraqis settled in.

1835
01:34:11,320 --> 01:34:13,160
Speaker 4: But you know, one of.

1836
01:34:13,080 --> 01:34:16,280
Speaker 2: The real sad stories. You work so hard to bring

1837
01:34:16,320 --> 01:34:18,479
Speaker 2: these guys to a certain level. I think I think

1838
01:34:18,520 --> 01:34:21,040
Speaker 2: in my company, I probably had I probably lost twelve

1839
01:34:21,479 --> 01:34:26,000
Speaker 2: somewhere around twelve ka under under my command, if you will,

1840
01:34:26,160 --> 01:34:29,240
Speaker 2: not Americans, but Iraqis, and they were doing they were.

1841
01:34:29,160 --> 01:34:31,800
Speaker 4: Executing the fight that I was calling on them to fight.

1842
01:34:31,920 --> 01:34:33,519
Speaker 1: So you know, those are.

1843
01:34:33,439 --> 01:34:34,360
Speaker 4: All hard losses.

1844
01:34:36,000 --> 01:34:37,960
Speaker 2: Well, let let me just let me just add this

1845
01:34:38,000 --> 01:34:42,160
Speaker 2: one story because I guess it paints a picture for

1846
01:34:42,200 --> 01:34:44,960
Speaker 2: the love that I really had for these guys and

1847
01:34:45,120 --> 01:34:47,920
Speaker 2: kind of, you know, even though we were the main

1848
01:34:48,000 --> 01:34:52,639
Speaker 2: effort according to the president and the commandant, the rest

1849
01:34:52,680 --> 01:34:56,639
Speaker 2: of the normal formations in big Army, big Marine Corps,

1850
01:34:56,680 --> 01:34:59,000
Speaker 2: they really didn't even know we were out there operating.

1851
01:34:59,400 --> 01:35:02,200
Speaker 2: So I had I think I think we had two

1852
01:35:02,280 --> 01:35:04,880
Speaker 2: k I A s and I had two urgent surgicals.

1853
01:35:05,320 --> 01:35:09,040
Speaker 2: And you know, for anybody in that AO to operate,

1854
01:35:09,680 --> 01:35:13,400
Speaker 2: it was it was a doctrine, doctrine that you could

1855
01:35:13,400 --> 01:35:16,360
Speaker 2: not run a convoy on that route of Michigan. That

1856
01:35:16,360 --> 01:35:19,200
Speaker 2: that put particular stretch a route Michigan with less than

1857
01:35:19,200 --> 01:35:22,080
Speaker 2: a twelve vehicle convoy and it took two days of

1858
01:35:22,120 --> 01:35:24,479
Speaker 2: coordination to get anybody on the road there.

1859
01:35:25,320 --> 01:35:26,960
Speaker 4: I had four trucks on my whole team.

1860
01:35:27,439 --> 01:35:30,559
Speaker 2: We were running guys with two vehicle convoys all day,

1861
01:35:30,600 --> 01:35:32,680
Speaker 2: every day up and down that road, just you know,

1862
01:35:33,160 --> 01:35:35,479
Speaker 2: a little sign of the cross. Let's let's run it, boys,

1863
01:35:35,560 --> 01:35:39,000
Speaker 2: Let's go as fast as we can here. And Uh, anyway,

1864
01:35:39,000 --> 01:35:42,320
Speaker 2: I'm running a I'm running a metavac to t Q.

1865
01:35:43,280 --> 01:35:45,160
Speaker 4: I got blood all over me. I had a I

1866
01:35:45,160 --> 01:35:46,680
Speaker 4: had I remember, I had a T shirt on.

1867
01:35:46,640 --> 01:35:49,800
Speaker 2: In sweatpants because I was kind of you know, on

1868
01:35:49,880 --> 01:35:52,120
Speaker 2: q RF status at the time when we got hit.

1869
01:35:52,840 --> 01:35:55,679
Speaker 4: And uh, running these boys up through.

1870
01:35:55,720 --> 01:35:57,960
Speaker 2: I got me and another American in my hum V

1871
01:35:58,160 --> 01:36:01,200
Speaker 2: and then I got an iraqi V behind me carrying

1872
01:36:01,240 --> 01:36:04,599
Speaker 2: all the wounded, well, the two wounded, two killed. And

1873
01:36:05,720 --> 01:36:07,600
Speaker 2: they stop us at the gate and we've done this

1874
01:36:07,720 --> 01:36:11,120
Speaker 2: many times before, and they go, sir, I need your.

1875
01:36:11,080 --> 01:36:12,759
Speaker 4: Rakis to all step out of the vehicle.

1876
01:36:12,840 --> 01:36:14,840
Speaker 2: I need him to show, you know, unload and show

1877
01:36:14,880 --> 01:36:16,679
Speaker 2: clear on their weapons and such.

1878
01:36:17,520 --> 01:36:19,720
Speaker 4: And I go, dude, time is money. I got two

1879
01:36:19,800 --> 01:36:21,080
Speaker 4: dudes bleeding to death. Fuck no.

1880
01:36:21,640 --> 01:36:24,880
Speaker 2: My name was Lieutenant Andrew Mulligan Parks, United States Marine Corps.

1881
01:36:24,960 --> 01:36:27,479
Speaker 2: I will be at shock trauma. Send whoever you want

1882
01:36:27,479 --> 01:36:31,040
Speaker 2: to come and chew my ass. And that's what we did. Yeah, press,

1883
01:36:31,520 --> 01:36:35,640
Speaker 2: and we got there and they got my guys in immediately.

1884
01:36:35,960 --> 01:36:38,639
Speaker 2: We had developed a really close working relationship with those

1885
01:36:38,680 --> 01:36:39,799
Speaker 2: guys at Shock Trauma.

1886
01:36:41,240 --> 01:36:43,760
Speaker 4: There was a Navy Master chief petty officer.

1887
01:36:43,400 --> 01:36:47,519
Speaker 2: That was running that thing, and anyway, I told him,

1888
01:36:47,520 --> 01:36:49,960
Speaker 2: I said, master Chief, I apologize, you may be catching

1889
01:36:50,000 --> 01:36:52,120
Speaker 2: some hell over this. He goes, dude, you did the

1890
01:36:52,200 --> 01:36:55,920
Speaker 2: right thing. I'll crush anybody who comes here. Well it

1891
01:36:56,080 --> 01:36:59,639
Speaker 2: wasn't fifteen minutes later that this freaking army guy comes

1892
01:36:59,720 --> 01:37:02,600
Speaker 2: rolling up. I don't know, sergeant first class type, and

1893
01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:04,800
Speaker 2: he look, he's doing his job. I don't know him,

1894
01:37:05,800 --> 01:37:08,800
Speaker 2: but he comes up, where's Lieutenant Parks? And I go,

1895
01:37:08,920 --> 01:37:11,160
Speaker 2: I'm right here, and like I said, bloody T shirt

1896
01:37:11,439 --> 01:37:13,559
Speaker 2: and sweatpants with my flag and kevlar, you know.

1897
01:37:14,240 --> 01:37:17,960
Speaker 4: And he goes, well, you're not gonna turn blah blah blah,

1898
01:37:18,000 --> 01:37:20,000
Speaker 4: and I go, please stop.

1899
01:37:21,240 --> 01:37:23,760
Speaker 2: I said, first of all, you're talking to offshore the

1900
01:37:23,800 --> 01:37:28,400
Speaker 2: United States Marine Corps. Secondly, I'll do what I did

1901
01:37:28,439 --> 01:37:31,120
Speaker 2: every day twice on Sunday. Comes to you my ass.

1902
01:37:31,120 --> 01:37:34,360
Speaker 2: That's fine. He goes, well, you're not gonna talk to

1903
01:37:34,360 --> 01:37:36,720
Speaker 2: me like that. I'm just like I just did talk

1904
01:37:36,760 --> 01:37:37,240
Speaker 2: to you like that.

1905
01:37:37,360 --> 01:37:39,360
Speaker 4: So take it up. I go run it up your chain,

1906
01:37:39,360 --> 01:37:41,800
Speaker 4: I'll run it up mine. We'll see who wins. Dude,

1907
01:37:41,800 --> 01:37:44,160
Speaker 4: I mean, he wouldn't let it go though.

1908
01:37:44,200 --> 01:37:46,680
Speaker 2: He wouldn't let it go, And so he's yelling and

1909
01:37:46,760 --> 01:37:49,599
Speaker 2: this master chief comes out and just got in his

1910
01:37:49,760 --> 01:37:52,360
Speaker 2: ass and ran him the hell off.

1911
01:37:52,720 --> 01:37:54,479
Speaker 4: And I love that guy until the day I died

1912
01:37:54,479 --> 01:37:55,320
Speaker 4: for doing that for me.

1913
01:37:55,560 --> 01:37:56,200
Speaker 1: He was awesome.

1914
01:37:57,320 --> 01:37:59,720
Speaker 4: But anyway, you know, we love those guys, and that's

1915
01:37:59,720 --> 01:38:01,439
Speaker 4: the only way you can operate that environment.

1916
01:38:01,520 --> 01:38:03,960
Speaker 2: Of course, you're gonna form bonds with the dudes you're

1917
01:38:04,000 --> 01:38:06,960
Speaker 2: fighting with, doesn't matter, you know, raise color or creed,

1918
01:38:07,400 --> 01:38:10,519
Speaker 2: it don't matter. Everybody bleeds red. And we're all on

1919
01:38:10,560 --> 01:38:11,880
Speaker 2: the same team here, you know.

1920
01:38:12,720 --> 01:38:15,600
Speaker 1: And I think that for me, that's the essence of

1921
01:38:15,640 --> 01:38:17,960
Speaker 1: this whole thing, because obviously you go and you're in

1922
01:38:17,960 --> 01:38:21,800
Speaker 1: this high thread environment. People are getting killed, right, but

1923
01:38:21,960 --> 01:38:24,760
Speaker 1: you just you keep going back into the fight. You

1924
01:38:24,920 --> 01:38:28,080
Speaker 1: just keep going. You don't quit, right, And that's what

1925
01:38:28,120 --> 01:38:30,920
Speaker 1: it is. What was it? What was it like when

1926
01:38:30,920 --> 01:38:34,960
Speaker 1: you came back, your your team gets dispersed, You made

1927
01:38:35,000 --> 01:38:38,000
Speaker 1: the decision to get out. What were some of the

1928
01:38:38,000 --> 01:38:40,960
Speaker 1: things that you were going to take with you that

1929
01:38:41,040 --> 01:38:45,360
Speaker 1: you knew that were critical for whatever that the next

1930
01:38:45,439 --> 01:38:47,000
Speaker 1: chapters of your life were going to be.

1931
01:38:48,400 --> 01:38:52,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I got back in uh what have we

1932
01:38:52,040 --> 01:38:54,720
Speaker 2: got back? Late two thousand and six? And I was

1933
01:38:54,800 --> 01:38:56,920
Speaker 2: kind of a guy without a home at that point.

1934
01:38:57,160 --> 01:39:02,360
Speaker 2: I but I had I had made enough of the

1935
01:39:02,479 --> 01:39:05,720
Speaker 2: right people happy that I was at I got to

1936
01:39:05,760 --> 01:39:08,519
Speaker 2: meet General Madis and he said, Parks, what do you

1937
01:39:08,560 --> 01:39:10,600
Speaker 2: want to do in the Marine Corps? You get to

1938
01:39:10,600 --> 01:39:12,920
Speaker 2: write your ticket? Where do you want to go? And

1939
01:39:15,040 --> 01:39:17,280
Speaker 2: this is going back to just being kind of silly here,

1940
01:39:17,320 --> 01:39:21,680
Speaker 2: but my first two platoon sergeants had seven marriages.

1941
01:39:21,240 --> 01:39:23,480
Speaker 1: Between the two of them, Oh my god.

1942
01:39:23,880 --> 01:39:28,600
Speaker 2: And I just saw what a heavy burden the Gwatt

1943
01:39:28,800 --> 01:39:32,439
Speaker 2: was on a family. And I knew at that point

1944
01:39:32,479 --> 01:39:34,519
Speaker 2: that I wanted to get married and have a family,

1945
01:39:34,960 --> 01:39:36,720
Speaker 2: and I really felt like it was going to be

1946
01:39:36,800 --> 01:39:37,479
Speaker 2: hard to do.

1947
01:39:37,439 --> 01:39:38,760
Speaker 4: That in that lifestyle.

1948
01:39:38,920 --> 01:39:41,840
Speaker 2: This is not to say that there aren't thousands of

1949
01:39:41,880 --> 01:39:44,840
Speaker 2: folks that did exactly that and it worked out perfectly.

1950
01:39:45,360 --> 01:39:47,600
Speaker 2: It just in my mind, in my twenty six or

1951
01:39:47,640 --> 01:39:50,240
Speaker 2: seven year old brain at the time, I just didn't

1952
01:39:50,400 --> 01:39:53,760
Speaker 2: I didn't see how it could possibly work. So I said, well, sir,

1953
01:39:53,920 --> 01:39:55,639
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna get out, and he was like, well,

1954
01:39:56,080 --> 01:39:57,600
Speaker 2: we're gonna get as much out of you as we

1955
01:39:57,640 --> 01:39:58,679
Speaker 2: can before you leave.

1956
01:39:58,720 --> 01:39:59,519
Speaker 4: So they threw me.

1957
01:40:00,400 --> 01:40:03,160
Speaker 2: I got to be like the operations officer as a

1958
01:40:03,200 --> 01:40:07,959
Speaker 2: first lieutenant the entirety of the West Coast training operation

1959
01:40:08,120 --> 01:40:10,080
Speaker 2: for all the new advisors going forward.

1960
01:40:10,600 --> 01:40:10,800
Speaker 1: Cool.

1961
01:40:10,840 --> 01:40:13,360
Speaker 2: So, I mean, I had a major that was my boss,

1962
01:40:13,720 --> 01:40:16,960
Speaker 2: but he was a pilot, a harrier pilot, so he

1963
01:40:16,960 --> 01:40:19,439
Speaker 2: didn't really he didn't really have a lot of ground

1964
01:40:19,520 --> 01:40:22,120
Speaker 2: stuff to impart to the teams. So I got to

1965
01:40:22,280 --> 01:40:24,559
Speaker 2: I mean me, I say, I it was me in

1966
01:40:24,640 --> 01:40:27,360
Speaker 2: a collection of badass senior enlisted. I had a master

1967
01:40:27,439 --> 01:40:30,880
Speaker 2: gunnery sergeant, two master sergeants, and a gunny. They were

1968
01:40:30,920 --> 01:40:34,599
Speaker 2: all sign seriously wounded guys. They were going through their

1969
01:40:34,640 --> 01:40:36,840
Speaker 2: rehab and it was like the five of us that

1970
01:40:36,880 --> 01:40:40,360
Speaker 2: would come up with the training plan for all these folks.

1971
01:40:40,560 --> 01:40:42,519
Speaker 2: You want to talk about feeling like you're way over

1972
01:40:42,560 --> 01:40:45,360
Speaker 2: your head. I mean every team is led by at

1973
01:40:45,360 --> 01:40:49,760
Speaker 2: a minimum major at a maximum carnal. So it's Lieutenant Parks,

1974
01:40:50,320 --> 01:40:53,479
Speaker 2: you know, not ordering, but go you know, basically in

1975
01:40:53,640 --> 01:40:57,759
Speaker 2: charge of all these senior dudes. Yeah, anyway to answer

1976
01:40:57,800 --> 01:41:01,320
Speaker 2: your question, that last year allowed me to leave the

1977
01:41:01,360 --> 01:41:04,800
Speaker 2: Marine Corps feeling like whatever came in front of me

1978
01:41:04,880 --> 01:41:05,719
Speaker 2: from here on out.

1979
01:41:06,080 --> 01:41:07,720
Speaker 4: And I kind of still feel like this, Dave.

1980
01:41:07,800 --> 01:41:11,160
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of easy compared to the stuff

1981
01:41:11,160 --> 01:41:15,559
Speaker 2: that I did back then. So, you know, in terms

1982
01:41:15,600 --> 01:41:17,679
Speaker 2: of in the job that i'm I'm a sales guy

1983
01:41:18,080 --> 01:41:20,360
Speaker 2: for a military company and you know, so I do

1984
01:41:20,400 --> 01:41:23,680
Speaker 2: a lot of high level briefings, could be on the

1985
01:41:23,760 --> 01:41:27,719
Speaker 2: hill or with you know, senior level officers, generals, et cetera.

1986
01:41:28,960 --> 01:41:32,640
Speaker 2: You know, just communicate the point, know your stuff, be

1987
01:41:32,880 --> 01:41:36,360
Speaker 2: technically proficient, tactically sound, you know, know your stuff and

1988
01:41:36,640 --> 01:41:37,400
Speaker 2: you know trust it.

1989
01:41:37,439 --> 01:41:37,639
Speaker 1: Man.

1990
01:41:37,800 --> 01:41:40,320
Speaker 2: You know, well, nobody's gonna shoot you over it, so

1991
01:41:40,400 --> 01:41:41,960
Speaker 2: it's it's all relatively easy.

1992
01:41:42,520 --> 01:41:42,840
Speaker 3: I love.

1993
01:41:42,960 --> 01:41:44,040
Speaker 4: That's just kind of how it's been.

1994
01:41:44,280 --> 01:41:48,080
Speaker 1: All right. Last question for you, if what advice could

1995
01:41:48,160 --> 01:41:51,960
Speaker 1: you give to a young man right now that's contemplating

1996
01:41:52,760 --> 01:41:56,080
Speaker 1: joining they're not quite sure if for through the craziness

1997
01:41:56,080 --> 01:41:58,760
Speaker 1: of what we just went through there, you know, maybe

1998
01:41:58,760 --> 01:42:01,040
Speaker 1: they're a little nervous about what's out in front of

1999
01:42:01,120 --> 01:42:03,040
Speaker 1: us with some of the other things that are going

2000
01:42:03,080 --> 01:42:06,320
Speaker 1: on around the world in Ukraine or in the Middle East,

2001
01:42:06,560 --> 01:42:09,440
Speaker 1: Like what is the thing that you could what information

2002
01:42:09,560 --> 01:42:13,200
Speaker 1: or wisdom that you could bestow on them that would

2003
01:42:14,160 --> 01:42:16,880
Speaker 1: kind of help push them over the edge to say, no,

2004
01:42:17,040 --> 01:42:20,719
Speaker 1: this is this is a career or just a short

2005
01:42:20,800 --> 01:42:24,160
Speaker 1: portion of my life that will really be transformational.

2006
01:42:25,600 --> 01:42:27,720
Speaker 2: Man, you will never know how good you can be

2007
01:42:27,840 --> 01:42:31,680
Speaker 2: unless you try. And they're the great crucible. I mean,

2008
01:42:31,760 --> 01:42:35,480
Speaker 2: and this is I fancy myself a bit of a historian,

2009
01:42:35,479 --> 01:42:37,120
Speaker 2: you know, I love to read and stuff.

2010
01:42:37,120 --> 01:42:40,040
Speaker 4: I mean, these are these are almost.

2011
01:42:39,640 --> 01:42:43,559
Speaker 2: Biological kind of archetypes at this point. I mean, did

2012
01:42:44,360 --> 01:42:47,240
Speaker 2: the heroic archetype just to see what you can do

2013
01:42:47,320 --> 01:42:49,040
Speaker 2: on the field of battle. I mean, this is what

2014
01:42:49,400 --> 01:42:53,800
Speaker 2: ancient our ancient Indian tribal leaders would sit around campfires

2015
01:42:53,800 --> 01:42:56,200
Speaker 2: at night and go over this. You know, you weren't

2016
01:42:56,240 --> 01:42:59,479
Speaker 2: a man in some of these ancient cultures until you had,

2017
01:43:00,479 --> 01:43:03,400
Speaker 2: you know, proven yourself on the field of battle and

2018
01:43:03,840 --> 01:43:05,799
Speaker 2: been with a woman and had children.

2019
01:43:05,960 --> 01:43:08,960
Speaker 4: I mean, those were kind of the three pillars of manhood.

2020
01:43:09,360 --> 01:43:11,559
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that every man has to do

2021
01:43:11,600 --> 01:43:14,840
Speaker 2: that or every woman has to experience these things. But

2022
01:43:14,920 --> 01:43:18,080
Speaker 2: I am saying it's not bad for you. And I

2023
01:43:18,160 --> 01:43:19,800
Speaker 2: mean I mean, I mean that in the in the

2024
01:43:19,840 --> 01:43:23,080
Speaker 2: biblical sense, yeah, in the worldliness sense. It will give

2025
01:43:23,120 --> 01:43:26,400
Speaker 2: you a greater perspective for everything you do from here

2026
01:43:26,439 --> 01:43:29,120
Speaker 2: on out than having not done it. I have plenty

2027
01:43:29,160 --> 01:43:31,559
Speaker 2: of friends that thought about doing it, that wanted to

2028
01:43:31,600 --> 01:43:34,000
Speaker 2: do it, that would have been phenomenal at it, but

2029
01:43:34,080 --> 01:43:36,840
Speaker 2: they didn't know or they didn't do it, and they

2030
01:43:36,880 --> 01:43:39,920
Speaker 2: always have that thing in the back of their head. Man,

2031
01:43:39,960 --> 01:43:42,280
Speaker 2: I wish I wish I would have tried it. Man,

2032
01:43:42,320 --> 01:43:44,120
Speaker 2: I bet I would have been good. You know, the

2033
01:43:44,400 --> 01:43:47,559
Speaker 2: folks that do sign up answer the call. You never

2034
01:43:47,600 --> 01:43:52,480
Speaker 2: have to question that you did it, and the opportunities

2035
01:43:52,479 --> 01:43:55,200
Speaker 2: are boundless, as you and I both know. I mean,

2036
01:43:55,360 --> 01:43:57,840
Speaker 2: if you want something bad enough, if you get in

2037
01:43:57,880 --> 01:44:00,439
Speaker 2: the door, you make it through the original screening process

2038
01:44:00,439 --> 01:44:04,200
Speaker 2: of boot camp, uh, which which is challenging for anybody.

2039
01:44:04,280 --> 01:44:06,880
Speaker 4: I mean, you know it just that that's the first crucible.

2040
01:44:06,920 --> 01:44:09,760
Speaker 2: But all of I think any hard thing you can

2041
01:44:09,800 --> 01:44:14,320
Speaker 2: do in life only makes things easier going forward.

2042
01:44:15,160 --> 01:44:16,479
Speaker 4: I had an old old leader.

2043
01:44:16,479 --> 01:44:17,880
Speaker 2: He was like, every hard thing you do is like

2044
01:44:17,960 --> 01:44:21,439
Speaker 2: a marble in your You put a marble in a cup, and.

2045
01:44:21,360 --> 01:44:23,679
Speaker 4: You know, right now, you got like three marbles in there.

2046
01:44:23,760 --> 01:44:25,080
Speaker 4: But one day you're gonna look at that cup.

2047
01:44:25,120 --> 01:44:27,280
Speaker 2: There's gonna be fifty of them, because in the later

2048
01:44:27,320 --> 01:44:29,000
Speaker 2: part of life, you're gonna have to start drawing from

2049
01:44:29,000 --> 01:44:30,639
Speaker 2: that because you're not gonna be able to do hard

2050
01:44:30,640 --> 01:44:32,599
Speaker 2: things anymore, and you're gonna you're gonna have to live

2051
01:44:32,640 --> 01:44:35,160
Speaker 2: off of those memories and you want a cup really full.

2052
01:44:35,200 --> 01:44:36,960
Speaker 2: So you got a great story to tell. And I

2053
01:44:37,040 --> 01:44:39,280
Speaker 2: was like, shit makes sense to me, Makes sense to.

2054
01:44:39,240 --> 01:44:43,880
Speaker 1: Me, man, Andy Man, that is true genius right there.

2055
01:44:43,960 --> 01:44:44,200
Speaker 3: Man.

2056
01:44:45,040 --> 01:44:48,160
Speaker 1: I have a big jar of marvels that each represents

2057
01:44:48,240 --> 01:44:52,720
Speaker 1: something badass. I love it. Hey, uh, I thank you

2058
01:44:52,800 --> 01:44:57,720
Speaker 1: so much for coming on. You know, uh, your story

2059
01:44:58,000 --> 01:44:59,960
Speaker 1: and the story of the guys that you went to

2060
01:45:00,120 --> 01:45:05,120
Speaker 1: war with and including those Iraqis. It's meaningful, it's historic,

2061
01:45:05,240 --> 01:45:09,880
Speaker 1: and I just I really appreciate you wanting to come

2062
01:45:09,920 --> 01:45:12,400
Speaker 1: on and share a little bit of your your history

2063
01:45:12,439 --> 01:45:13,880
Speaker 1: with us. It means the world to.

2064
01:45:13,880 --> 01:45:15,599
Speaker 4: Me, man. Thank you so much.

2065
01:45:15,680 --> 01:45:19,240
Speaker 2: Really special opportunity, probably maybe even more special.

2066
01:45:19,280 --> 01:45:23,040
Speaker 3: We're two or three days removed from the birthday two

2067
01:45:23,080 --> 01:45:25,760
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty years and just big shout out to

2068
01:45:25,840 --> 01:45:29,280
Speaker 3: my brothers, Mit, three, five cowboys.

2069
01:45:31,479 --> 01:45:34,360
Speaker 4: We're legends in our own mind if nothing else, and

2070
01:45:34,640 --> 01:45:35,680
Speaker 4: that's good enough for us.

2071
01:45:35,720 --> 01:45:37,840
Speaker 2: So can't wait to see you boys. Hope I did

2072
01:45:37,880 --> 01:45:40,360
Speaker 2: you proud and thanks so much. Dave, You're awesome man.

2073
01:45:40,640 --> 01:45:48,080
Speaker 1: Giddy up all right,