WEBVTT - Bad Paper 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.040 Third Squad is a podcast about war. Every episode contains 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.680 strong language and descriptions of violence that may not be 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.399 suitable for all listeners. When I got kicked out and 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.280 I had no benefits or no direction or guideline or 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.360 none of my friends I had served with around me 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:21.200 or in my life, I started selling cocaine, so I mean, 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.200 and I was going to school as well. But how 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:27.040 the hell else am I going to paper? I'm back 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.080 to square one. What did that feel like for you? 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:36.959 Suck felt like fucking defeat. I would describe it like 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.040 the same way a guy feels when he walks in 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.280 on his fucking wife lane in bed with another dude. 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:52.200 It felt that shitty. Fi'm Elliott Woods. This is Third 0:00:52.240 --> 0:01:08.560 Squad Episode eight, Bad Paper. After my trip to see 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.440 David rich Bolsky in Alaska, I knocked out a sevent 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.880 mile drive from my home in Montana, across the barren 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.360 corn and soy fields of the Midwest to Kentucky horse Country, 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.600 where spring has arrived and the trees are bursting with 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.640 pink and white blossoms. I picked up Tommy along the way, 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.160 and now we're rolling through a tidy subdivision north of 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:33.240 Lexington like the most Edward Scissor Hansey neighborhood we've been 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.280 too so far. I think it's nice. Is nice? We're 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.760 looking for third Squad veteran Scott mckitchen's house. Dang, Gina. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:43.800 Is this his house? Yeah, that's his house. Look at 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.319 the Marine Corps thing on the license plate. Does he 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.200 live here by himself? I guess we'll find out. Maybe 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.280 he lives here with this dog's probably like everybody else. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.760 Mckatchen was a troubled kid before he joined the Marine Corps. 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:58.960 I remember him telling me about it back at Patrol 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.640 based Fires when I reviewed him on his cop I'm 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:06.120 PFC Scott mccatchen. I'm twenty years older from Pleasant in California. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.360 He was stripped down to his shorts and had a 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.639 big wad of grizzly snuff in his lip. So then 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.960 the first question is why did you joined the Marine Corps. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.119 I joined the Marine Corps because I was kicked out 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.519 of my house while I was going to college and 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:27.160 just started being financially unstable. So I joined the Marine 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:32.079 Corps so I could basically have a stable lifestyle, I guess, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.680 and get away from home. His reasons for enlisting. We're 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.560 almost identical to my own. Tell me a little bit about, 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.080 just very briefly, about the kid that you were, that 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.200 that didn't do so out of college, because I was 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.679 actually that kid too. I was a kid in college 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.440 that I went to college and just wanted to party, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:54.440 didn't care too much about school or think what I 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.840 could possibly lose if I were to just do nothing 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.760 but party. And sure enough I lost it. But I 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.440 fucking manned up when I joined the military. And here 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:13.280 I am saying in Afghanistan, things seem to be looking 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.720 up for Mketchen. His house is large and well maintained, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.040 like all the others in the neighborhood, with a perfect 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.080 lawn and happy little shrubs. The two car garages wide open, 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.480 and there's a new looking white Infinity parked inside, and 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.320 there's Mcatchen swinging open the door to greet us. Are 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.480 you doing good? How are you? I'm good. He's wearing 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.120 a gray Marine Corps hoodie with the sleeves pushed up, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.120 showing skull and spiderweb tattoos running up his arms, and 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.320 he's got a German shepherd by his side that's the 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:51.119 size of a small pony. The dog's name is Rugan. Excited, dude, 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.960 I got I got here like basically as soon as 0:03:53.960 --> 0:04:01.120 I got When was that so? Yeah? Dude, He's he's 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.160 been my like WindMan ever since. When I met m. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.840 Catchen in two thousand eleven, he was stick skinny and 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.160 looked like a child. Now he's thirty and he's still 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.000 a string bean. His jeans are falling off his hips. 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.080 And even though he's got the same bright smile I 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.960 remember from Sangin, the youth has gone from his face. 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.440 He's got a shadow of dark stubble and circles under 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.840 his eyes. Tick our shoes off. Now it's all right, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.080 But Ketchen's house looks barely lived in, and I just 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:38.000 got the place in May so great neighborhood. There's a 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.760 big TV on the wall above a gas fireplace, with 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.119 an Xbox on the shelf underneath, and an overstuffed couch 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.720 under a large print of graffiti. Ruger the dog has 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.719 an entire bedroom to himself, complete with a queen bed 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.719 and his very own flat screen TV. The place is immaculate, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.400 almost like a realtor prepared it for an open house, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.240 except for one little thing. Sorry about all the pot 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:06.919 I'm a bit of a stoner. Back when mckatchen was 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.800 living in the squalor of patrol based fires, he told 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.000 me he wanted to hit the big time someday after 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:17.040 my contracts up, I plan on leaving the Marine Corps 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.039 and then I'm I want to use my g I 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.640 bill and go to go back to college and hopefully 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:26.480 get a degree in business graphic design something and then 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.240 get rich one day. By all appearances, he's on his way, 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.040 even though he's not currently employed. Well, I just got fired, dudes. 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.200 The Ketchen tells me he was working part time at 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.560 a nursing home, but he got let go after an 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.680 argument with another employee. It was a shitty job. The 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.039 details are kind of vague anyway, Mketchen says he's not 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.320 too worried about it, but financially I'm great, So like whatever, 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.680 it's a relatively minor bump and the road he has 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.480 been traveling since sangin. When I got back from Afghanistan 0:05:57.520 --> 0:05:59.880 a few months after we returned to him, I got 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.400 JPD and stuff, and that was scary. That's where it 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.719 began since the last time I saw you. So what 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.040 does m JP mean? Non judicial punishment? It's it's not good. 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.200 Are you able to tell us what happened? Yeah, Um, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.479 the whole unit knows. So it's no secret. I have 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.080 no shame in it. Honestly, I can think if anything, 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.200 I grew from it. I just turned twenty one. We've 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.719 been back in the States for about the months or whatever, 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.200 and it was New Year's and we had a lead 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.760 block in ninety six hour lead block and one of 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.600 my friends had some cocaine in San Diego, and so 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.120 I did some blow and uh, you know, I thought 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.400 I had enough time to get clean. Um, and we 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.080 had a great test that after we got back from 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.840 that lead block, and I failed it, and uh gotten 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.159 some serious trouble with the Marines and stuff, and uh so, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.720 long story short, that's what got me out of the 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.440 Marine Corps. That vacation funk up cost mccatching more than 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.280 his job. He got kicked out with an other than 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.960 honorable discharge, staying on his record known in the military 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.359 is bad paper that followed him back into civilian life. 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.760 There are five main categories of military discharge. Of the five, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.520 honorable is the only one that doesn't have negative consequences. 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.800 The others are general under honorable conditions other than honorable 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.760 bad conduct and dishonorable. Guys who like rape people will 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:31.240 get sucking bad contexts. So do you get a dishonorable discharge, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.160 you have to like pretty much kill somebody now. The 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.560 other than honorable, it's basically just a hey, thanks, we 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.520 used you. We're not going to give you any benefits. 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.480 Thanks for your fucking time. That's it. That's what you got. 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.200 That's what I got initially, which means, and this is 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.120 the important thing, that means you're cut off from via benefits, 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:56.880 any health care benefits, mental health, any anything, conosation, college, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.280 educational bents. Everything you joined the ser is for that 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:06.160 your recruiter lurge you in with you're no longer entitled to. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.920 So I'd gone through everything, I've gone through the combat deployment, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.280 and now I'm being looked at like a piece of ship, 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.480 which I know I'm not. You know, even at the time, no, 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.760 I'm not. I think they're pieces of ship for not 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.280 give me a chance. Because I was a fucking good marine, 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.920 and I know my marines would attest to that. I 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:27.960 got kicked to the curb because I made one poor 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.320 choice after fallless service I would say getting kicked out 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.160 of the Marine Corps derailed in the catching, it's fucking crazy. 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:41.280 You're going, you know, six ft into the deep end, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.520 quicker than like anything, and and you have no clue 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.480 where to get a footing in life when they fucking 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.320 throw you out on the streets and you can't even 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.920 go see a therapist after you just got back from 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:08.800 seeing your friends blown in half. That's fucked up. In 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.200 a matter of months, he'd gone from fighting for his 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.240 life and sang in alongside the insanely type brotherhood of 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.640 Third Squad to being out on his ass with the 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.760 stigma of an other than honorable discharge hanging around his neck. 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.160 He was totally isolated, and he was desperate. When I 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.120 got kicked out and I had no benefits or no 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.360 direction or guideline or none of my friends I had 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.200 served with around me or in my life. I started 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:37.720 selling cocaine, so I mean, and I was going to 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.480 school as well, But how the hell else am I 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.880 going to paper? I'm back to square one? What did 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:50.200 that feel like for you? Suck felt like fucking defeat. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.480 I would describe it like the same way a guy 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.559 feels when he walks in on his fucking wife Lane 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:03.920 in bed with another dude. It felt a shitty. Because 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.880 of his bad paper discharge, Mketchen wasn't eligible for the 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.160 g I Bill, which pays education expenses for veterans with 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:15.040 honorable discharges. His parents, Cindy and Doug, were outraged by 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.439 the Marine Corps decision to throw their son out with 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.840 no benefits. They told Scott they would cover his tuition, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.640 room and board as long as he was earning passing grades. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.520 So he enrolled at Santa Barbara City College and everything 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.760 went okay for one semester. But when m Ketchen started 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.600 partying and doing drugs instead of going to class, his 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.280 parents cut him off. That's how he wound up selling cocaine. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.839 Mketchen knew he was hurtling towards self destruction and needed 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.280 to get out of the Santa Barbara party scene, so 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.520 he decided to move to a place where nothing could 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.760 possibly go wrong. I decided Las Vegas a good spot 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.280 to go because my uncle's successful doctor out there. He's 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.040 got his own private practice stuff and probably just pay 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.600 me to do some bullshit job or whatever. So I 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.080 was out there just doing just that, just bullshit work. Um, 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.679 but I was still lost, and I was doing drugs 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:16.400 and uh, just self medicating. Mckatchen had been out of 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.240 the Marine Corps for about a year and a half 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.320 when he got to Vegas, and he was still in 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.800 a dark place, but he wanted to get his feet 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.800 under him. His mom found out it might be possible 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:27.959 to get his discharge upgraded with the help of a 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.319 nonprofit called am Vets, which would mean getting his v A, 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.640 healthcare and education benefits restored. She helped mkeatchin get in 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.120 touch with them and they supplied a pro bono attorney 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.240 to start the process. In the meantime, mketchen was self 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.240 medicating with Xanex, which he tells me led to back 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.880 to back arrest for driving under the influence. I got 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.680 a couple of d U E s while I was 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.400 in Las Vegas, and uh that was another kick in 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:59.160 the fucking gut. It was a very expensive ordeal. Uh 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.520 then A labeled as like basically a criminal and I 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.600 had to, uh, you know, lose my license. So I 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.000 was forced to you know, take public transportation and is 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.880 getting old real quick. You know. The first time he 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.400 got a d U I, he wrecked his girlfriend's car. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.040 The second time, a neighbor called the cops when she 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.199 saw him passed out behind the wheel in his driveway. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.920 After that second d u I mckatchen spent ten days 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.040 in jail. That's where he saw an apparition from his 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:34.880 troubled childhood that was in jail for a little bit. 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.160 This junkie comes up to me clearly like he's coming 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.240 off a heroin and no doubt about it, because he's like, Hey, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:44.600 do I know you from somewhere? And I hadn't lived 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.600 in Las Vegas that long and I'm just like no, 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.040 I'm like, I don't know you, you know any anyone 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.240 to associate with this, any of these people. To be 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.640 honest with you, um, I'd like to hold myself to 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.640 a higher standard than them. He's like, no, no, man, 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.920 I know you from somewhere, and I'm like, dude, I 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.160 don't fucking know you, Like what are you talking about? 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:11.040 And then he's like Red Rock Canyon School, I was 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.920 there with you, and I'm thinking, like what, And then 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.280 I started putting two and two together and the kid 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.840 just looked like shit because he'd been using so much heroin. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.640 But I did recognize him once he had said that, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:31.400 and I was like, oh my god. Seeing his former 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.480 classmate was a wake up call. The catching was fucking 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.320 up again, and he knew better than anyone how much 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:48.720 uglier things could get. We'll be back after the break. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.440 Scott mckittchen was adopted as a baby. He grew up 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.959 in a Bay Area suburb called Pleasanton, California. But the 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:22.040 way mckatchen tells it, his childhood wasn't always pleasant. I 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.360 was kind of a ship headed kid, and I've always 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.640 kind of gotten trouble here and there. I was just 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.400 getting fights and stuff at school and slacking off just 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.200 you know, not going to school and stuff like that. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.400 At some point in his teenage years, he started fighting 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.520 a lot with his parents. Things at a low point 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:42.960 when a policeman showed up at the house after mckitchen 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.560 got caught stealing from his neighbor's yards. It was around 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.600 that time that his parents planned a special sixteenth birthday 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.040 party for him at his uncle's house in Vegas. He's 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.680 got a secret sick house and stuff, and my parents 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.720 were like, hey, you want to go to stay with 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.560 your uncle Baldy for your sixteenth birthdam Like hell yeah, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.800 mckatchen thought maybe things with his parents were taking a turn, 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.960 and he was right, just not in the way he expected. 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.920 They tricked me. Actually, I got woken up in the 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:16.240 morning of my birthday by two probably an investigators, took 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.200 me up there, up there to his new home away 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.840 from home. It's called Red Rock Canyon School and it 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.800 was in St. George, Utaw. Was it a boarding school 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.400 for kids who are getting in trouble? Yeah, for sure. 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.880 Mckatchen and I have this in common too. I got 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.600 sent to a military boarding school when I was a teenager, 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.640 but no one tricked me. I went voluntarily. Mckatchen says 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.840 he felt betrayed. I couldn't believe my parents did me 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:50.040 like that. Dude. You know, it's important for you to 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.680 know that I contacted mketchen's mom and dad to get 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.760 their side of the story. They told me sending Scott 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.200 to Red Rock Canyon School was the most difficult thing 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.560 they'd ever done as parents, but it felt like they 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:05.600 were out of options. His mom told me he was 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.440 so out of control, stealing and lying to us that 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:10.800 we were afraid he would end up either dead or 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:15.400 in jail. Mcatchin tells me that for an adopted kid, 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.520 being lied to and left behind was particularly rough. He 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.680 felt abandoned and no one was giving out hugs. At 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.440 Red Rock Canyon School, it was housed in an old 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.320 hotel that look kind of like your average Laquinta in 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.880 Beija exterior terra cotta roof tiles and palm tree landscaping. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.640 It was billed as a therapeutic center for troubled teenagers, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.280 but as mcatchen tells it, the place was more like 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.880 a prison. Yeah. It was insane for sure. Um they 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.840 beat the crap out of kids up there. Mckatchen says 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.200 he got thrown around by the staff and saw other 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.000 kids get hit, and he noticed that he had something 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.200 in common with a lot of his fellow students. Most 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.520 of the kids up there were adopted, and so that 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.960 school had contract from the like state of California and stuff. 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.440 If you were adopted, the state of California would pay 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.879 for the kids stay there. Oregon and Washington also contracted 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.359 the school the How's foster kids. What mcatchen and his 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:15.960 parents didn't know at the time was that Red Rock 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.320 was in the midst of a lawsuit over allegations of 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:23.800 child abuse by staff. More complaints piled up over the years, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.720 until the state of Utah finally shut the facility down 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:36.159 in two thousand nineteen. Mcatchen went there in two thousand six. 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.200 His parents enrolled him in a nine month program. If 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.640 he could shape up during that time, he could come 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.960 back home. It reminded me kind of of like something 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.280 like boot camp, you know what I mean, where you 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.480 get up at the same time every morning, everyone does, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.959 and then you go get your breakfast, after you do 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.320 your personal hygiene and whatnot, and then you'd go from 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.640 breakfast to you. I think they made escape DoPT um 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:08.560 after breakfast, and then it'd be school um and school. 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.480 There was just a joke, it was. It was a 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.800 good place for kids to really get ahead in school 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.199 because it was easy and you could catch up on 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.240 your credits and stuff. So I actually got a lot done. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.160 There was nothing to like about the school, but Mketchen 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.280 did well in the highly structured environment. He finished the 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.600 program on schedule and was back home in time for 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.080 his junior year. But after everything that happened, he says 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.720 he never really felt comfortable in his parents house again. 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.760 I felt like I was faking who I was, so 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.120 that I could just have a brief over my head, 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.560 my my parents house, you know what I mean, which 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.000 I don't think any kids should have to do, but 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.800 I mean, yeah, ship, dude. I faked the funk, and 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.639 then once I graduated high school, um, I got the 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.920 hell out of there immediately. Mckatchen's relationship with his parents 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:01.439 was strained, but they helped him find and pay for 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:03.800 an apartment when he moved out, and they paid his 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.640 tuition at Las Pasidas Community College in nearby Livermore. Mketchen 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.399 did well his first semester, but he wasn't quite as 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:16.399 ready for adulthood as he thought. I was working a 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.040 shitty job at Jack in the Box and uh, you know, 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.720 living in the San Francisco Bay area eighteen years old 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.320 and then trying to go to college. It was a 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:32.880 shitty life. Man. In a second semester, mketchen lost interest 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.040 in school. He was still fighting with his parents, and 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.000 the self discipline developed at Red Rock Canyon School was 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.480 failing him. The military suddenly seemed like a way to 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.480 get back on track, and in Mketchen's mind, there was 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:51.920 only one branch worth joining. I loved the old school 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.359 Marine Corps commercials you know that every kid would watch 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.480 and it's got like the Marine skill in the clip, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.720 the passage is intense. But if you complete the journey 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.080 and then he gets his n c O swords at 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:17.000 the top, Like, I just thought that was the sickest uniform. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.200 That's why I picked the Marines. The Marine recruiters had 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.119 mccatchin right where they wanted him. In need of an 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.639 injection of self confidence and a kick in the ass. 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.119 You go into the service because of some incentive that 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.960 they're offering you. I mean, why else would you fucking 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:37.480 do it? You know what I mean? Like, so I'm 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.080 going in there, Yeah, I need something to build my 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.840 life on. I don't really have shipped going for me. 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.480 They're gonna pay me. They're gonna pay for my school 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.760 when I get out. So those are the Those are 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.440 the big incentives for I think most guys to join, 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:54.960 and they just want to serve their country too, and 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:58.360 they think it's honorable. I do think it's honorable. When 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.280 mcatchin began the recruitment process in the spring of two 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.360 thousand and ten, he wasn't exactly a dream recruit. Basically, 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.200 they're kind of monitoring you before you go to boot 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.199 camp and they're making sure you're still in shape and 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.480 fit to go and basically not getting in trouble. New tattoos, 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.600 And I got new tattoos, and my recruiter was Piste. 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.760 It wasn't just the tattoos either. At the time, I 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:23.879 was a piece of ship in the eyes of a 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.959 Marine Corps recruiter. Like I was still smoking heed, you know. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.960 But they're trying to drill into your head get claimed 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.720 because we're we can take you you do, And like 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.600 I was showing potential. I was. I was in shape. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.720 I was running probably four or five, maybe six miles 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.080 every day before I went to boot camp, because they 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.720 were like, I don't want to be struggling too hard, 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:49.360 you know what I mean. If you go there out 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.960 of shape, it's gonna be way more difficult. Well, mccatchin 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:54.920 first told his mom and dad that he wanted to 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.080 join the Marines. They didn't fall into a patriotic swoop. 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:00.960 It was two thousand ten and there were two wars 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:06.400 going on. My parents were fucking so against it, so 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.480 against it. Cindy and Doug mckittchen had ample reason to 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.600 worry because Scott was dead set on becoming a Marine 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.440 Corps infantryman. Along with the extreme danger he would likely 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.840 face on the front lines, they worried that he would 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.680 finish his enlistment with no marketable skills. There just aren't 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.480 a lot of jobs for trigger poolers in the civilian economy. 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.439 My dad, when I enlisted, he tried to pay me 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.159 not to go. Basically, mckittchen's dad offered to pay him 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.320 to do odd jobs and stay in school. Doug had 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.639 another reason for wanting to keep Scott out of the military. 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:43.280 As a working class teenager with a draft card in 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:47.000 the late nineteen sixties, he marched with anti war demonstrators 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:51.199 in San Francisco. Doug's draft number never got called, but 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:53.199 he says he probably would have gone to Canada if 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.480 it had. He didn't think the Vietnam War was worth 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.840 his life, and when it came to his own son's life, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.520 he didn't feel differently about a Rock and Afghanistan. But 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.439 the father's opposition only made the son dig in. I 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:09.560 kind of always looked at him like he dodged the 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:11.960 draft a little bit. You know, he didn't want to go. 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:14.399 I get it. I don't think anyone should have to 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.280 go do that if they don't want to, you know, 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:22.200 But then again, you know, I I didn't really have options, 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.399 So this was my option, was that I'm creating for 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.800 myself to go into the service to better my life basically. 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:31.800 But then the second I'm doing something for myself, I 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:33.920 get my father trying to pay me not to do it, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:38.199 and I'm just like, well, what the fuck? Like, you know, 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:41.479 hell no, And you were eighteen, so you didn't need 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:46.600 them to sign the catchin ship to Marine Corps Recruit 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:50.480 Depot San Diego in June two. Tell me about what 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:52.040 it was like for you when you showed up. What 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.320 are your first memories of getting there. It's the same 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.360 as every single Marine Corps recruit. So you get off 0:23:57.359 --> 0:23:59.400 of a bus and they line you up on these 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:04.520 yellow foot prints and they basically strip every bit of 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:08.680 individuality out of you. So everyone gets the same haircut, 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.959 they get their civilian clothes taken away. You're all dressed 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.600 the same, and you just get accustomed to being yellowed at. 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:19.240 So they're trying to make you a little tougher. I 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.560