WEBVTT - Ep. 35: Morgan Mason 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:06.359 Hey, everybody, welcome episode number thirty five of The Hunting Collective. 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.960 And of course I'm Ben O'Brien, and this week we 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:15.240 are in Bozeman, Montana on a Saturday afternoon in the 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.680 Mediator Offices, the lovely brand new Mediator Offices full of 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.160 plastic tables and no office furniture, and I'm hanging out 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:29.040 with our new associate editor, Morgan Mason. And Morgan came 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:34.040 to this company from gear Junkie and moreover from Wakefield, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.680 Kansas as a small town farm kid who's got a 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.720 pretty badass story to tell us about joining the army, 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:47.159 headed to Iraq, coming back and spending time outside and 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:51.080 then finally, after many years, find his way to this 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.080 company and it will be creating some content alongside this 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.240 podcast and others for all of you, so hopefully you 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:09.840 enjoy that. So, without further ado basin Morgan, Yes, sir, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.160 what's going on man? Not too much, just packing up, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.119 getting ready to hit the road. That's right, that's right. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.760 I'd like to start podcasts off with people you like, 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.480 describe your surroundings. Normally the surroundings are way more exciting 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.080 than their current surroundings. But still, I think a lot 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.959 of people are interested in where we are learning about 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.400 it to give your best pros describing where we are. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.600 We are in the Canary District in Bozeman, Montana. In 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.840 our offices. Don't give out any addresses because people want 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.959 to come in and there all the women are gonna 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.480 want to come especially with these dogs laying around like 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.080 continue anyways down here in our office in our corner 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.160 that they stuffed us in the editorial team, you know, 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.320 and just hanging out at our fancy tables. Yeah, there 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:03.440 are plastic tables and they came probably from Target and 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:09.280 they probably cost about yep. When you're a startup, that's 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.919 kind of how it goes. That's life. Yeah, that's startup life, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.520 and that's what we are. Um. But we have two 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:19.760 dogs laying sleeping under these plastic tables. Puppies by the 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.360 name of Arlow and by the name Opinion Opinion, being 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.200 the office dog. He's claimed it. Tell us about tell 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.079 us about Opinion. So the Opinion is a wire hair 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:35.400 pointing grayfawn that I picked up in June and he 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.200 is my little bird dog, amigo. So he just got 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.280 him trained up and we're gonna hit the road here 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.120 pretty soon. And head back to my home state of 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.919 Kansas and go chase birds around. And I've got his brother, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.960 Arlow from the same litter that I'm dropping off with 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.480 my brother, So we're gonna go take these little hooligans 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.040 out and chase quail around out there. Dude, these wire 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.360 hairs are just like they come in here and they 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.600 just sleep. And if if a fucking quail wandered into 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.200 this office, ship would erupt, it would erupt. And I 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.079 wish if we were in a situation where a quail 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.840 would wander in to our office. I watched Opinion down 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.320 at the front windows looking at a little tweet bird 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.040 and almost getting ready to blast through. That's a good dog. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.000 I imagine we should talk about because you know, you 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.760 and I both work for this company, right, so, but 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:29.359 it's early on, so we have an opportunity to shape 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:34.119 some things, primarily in this case what the office looks like, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.760 but also what's in it. Yeah, I have a pretty 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.520 gnarly case of a d D when it comes to work, 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:42.400 Like I don't have a d D in any other 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.200 person in my life, and then when I'm working, I 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.000 always want to be doing something else. So I have 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.640 a d D. We currently have a putting green. If 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.360 you go to my Instagram you'll see a photo of it. 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:57.680 It's very popular. Mr Stephen Ronella, founder of this whole venture. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:04.800 He's always anti I golf, but me, I'm terrible black golf. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.720 But my brain needs a distraction. MM. So what do 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.080 you feel like we should like? What kind of things 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.400 should we build around the office to keep our minds 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:19.880 off work? Um, we definitely need to get the kitchen 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.800 up and running so we can tinker around with recipes, right, yep, 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:27.080 tune into the tune into the meat eater platform. At 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.800 some point we'll just cook ship at random times of 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.080 the day and everybody should love that. It will be 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.040 like on fire. Just set the little switch and go 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.839 live and show that a bottle that's going on drunken 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.599 mess that it will hopefully be anything else any like 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.320 other awesome things. And I don't know like a new 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.760 startup office should have, especially this one. We should have 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:55.960 boatloads of taxidermy everywhere, and we should probably have bows 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.560 and arrows, with the arrows having little belcrow tips that 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.920 we can shoot at the taxidermy for the kill shots. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.400 That's a good point. Maybe at each other. Is that unsafe. No, 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.920 I think that's fine. Okay, we can do that well. Also, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.200 we were talking about having a kegurator. Yep, I feel 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.560 like that would be good. Um, pretty much anything we 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.560 want at this point are lords of this tiny little 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.719 domain in which we sit. Yeah, that's that's the Media 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:24.360 Incorporate office is. Hopefully, Uh we'll soon have podcast studios 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.200 and video areas where we can go live and show 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.560 you what we're doing over here, and hopefully that ship 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.920 is interesting. So you out there, that's that's our job. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.320 You're out there on the internet world. Uh, we would 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.560 want to read it or learn about it. So tell 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:45.400 us about your position here at Meat Eater Incorporated. So 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.200 I was brought on as an assistant editor and constent creator. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.839 So my job is to work with some of the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.279 individuals that we're working with in the meters, so like 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.320 April Ooki and others that are writing in and slip 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.000 and bringing in pieces and going through and editing those, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.600 getting ready for the web and all of that, and 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:10.480 then also looking for interesting stories and putting things together, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.160 whether it's out twos or recipes or what have you, 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.880 and whip those up for the company and just drive 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.640 that website traffic and just keep looking for interesting things 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.560 going on. Yeah. See, this is at some level I think, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.640 live in the dream. Yeah, because some of the things 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.480 you listed aren't like dream like scenarios. But the dream 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.960 like scenario was very much that we can kind of 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:31.560 like wake up in the morning, like I'd like to 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.159 write about that, and then you dear audience out there 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.440 listening can then decide whether we're good at our jobs 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.240 or completely terrible at them, and that we should be 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.359 We should go away and stop bothering you with this 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.560 content and put all those hate comments on the on 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.359 the internet. Yeah, you can do whatever you want on 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.520 you as a free country. But hopefully you like the 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:52.440 things that we come up with, the crazy ideas that 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.159 we spawn in this room or room similar to it, 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.880 and uh, we keep our jobs and you guys, you're entertained. 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.080 I think that's an easy one. But for me as 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.200 a journalist, that's pretty pretty much a dream scenario. Yeah, 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:09.440 just wake up and research find interesting things, or take 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.280 off for Kansas and go round up a bunch of 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.520 interesting things there. Yeah, which is yeah, so you're leaving 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.240 here tomorrow to go back to your home place or 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.440 a m pushing off Oh man, you're that's hard. That's 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.560 hardly gonna have to have more coffee than booze in 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.280 the cop in the morning. It's a party. That's a 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.440 hardy trip right there. How long a drive is that? Um, 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.240 I'm gonna stop three quarters of the way down in 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.520 Nebraska and do some pheasant hunting there with a buddy, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.040 and so that should only be like ten and a 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.160 half hours, but with the puppy stops, that might turn 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.080 into about a twelve hour situation. Hang out there for 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.440 about forty eight hours and then drop down another four 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.920 hours down to the little quarter section family farm and 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.200 chase birds with my brother. Yeah that's pretty cool, man, Yeah, 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.440 pretty cool that. See, if you can round up some 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.040 white tails and spend the month, they're just kind of 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.120 whipping up content. Yeah, well, I think it'd be are 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.280 gonna be reading your content that we did. They need 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.360 to know what the hell you know? You came from Kansas. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.000 We learned that part. You have awesome dogs. We know 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.000 that we work here. We also know that, Um tell 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.360 us about your upbringing. So I grew up out in 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.520 northeastern Kansas on the edge of the Smoky Hills and 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.520 the Flint Hills on the side bordering the Flint Hills. 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.640 And I grew up on a quarter section farm hundred 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.840 sixty six acres that was passed down from my great uncle. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.120 UM and Dad brought us up out there, bought my 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:37.720 brother and I up working behind bird dogs, bucking hay bales. UM, 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.160 just kind of living the little country homestead dream out there, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.559 working cattle and and doing that. So did that. Grew 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.040 up through high school and played ball in high school, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.000 and then shipped off for the Army. UM shortly after 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.320 signed in between my junior and senior year, and spent 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.760 that time just kind of working through the reserve unit 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:00.920 that I signed up for. And then let's not go 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.080 too quick. Let's go back to when you were working 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:08.000 on the farm. UM. I grew up in the suburbs 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.560 where there was no farms. I mean there were farms, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.400 but I just hunted on them. I didn't work on them. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:15.720 Do you feel like you learned anything growing up on 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:17.120 a farm, or like you have a little bit of 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.480 grit you might have not had otherwise. Absolutely, part of 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.280 it from the farm and part of it from my dad. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.680 He's a kind of guy that doesn't say a whole 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.240 lot but when he does, it's very strong points. Yeah. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.000 Um pe he deals with people all day. He works 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.280 at this little gas station mechanics shop in town, and 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.360 so there's people coming in and coming out all the time, 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.920 and he's just learned a way to effectively use his 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:47.960 words to tell you to get the hell out. Um. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.600 That's usually a good dad, a good version of a dad, 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.280 kind of like that old school dad. Yeah, very much so. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:55.920 But he's a good guy. He's got a soft heart. Um. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.880 But yeah, he's a good dude. And just one brother. Ye, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.040 one brother, Joel. You guys close, Yeah we are. We 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:03.839 weren't so close growing up. I was kind of that 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.640 an asshole older brother. Yeah. Yeah, I had one of those. Yeah. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.560 How what's the age of difference, uh six years? Yeah, okay, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.960 well I was a year and a half my brother. Yeah, 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:16.760 we weren't really friends until we got old enough to 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.160 like not be assholes to each other. Yeah. I think 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.080 he's got some emotional scars from when I like pinned 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.280 him down and put baby mice down a shirt. Everybody listen. 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.000 He's probably better off for that. Yeah. No, my brother 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.319 used to go online and back when there was like 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.080 a O L and semester and I show up high 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:32.640 like my freshman year of high school, and he was 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.720 a junior, maybe your sophomore, and I'd be going to 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.280 class and some young lady would approach that I had 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.160 no interest in dating and be like, I can't believe 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.880 here dating, I can't believe we're growing out, Like what? 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:47.719 And it turns out my brother had hacked my well 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:52.400 screen name and made girlfriends for me at various times. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.280 Good for him, Yeah, he's a nice I love, lovely fellow. 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.280 I admire him now. But yeah, I mean that's just 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:01.920 growing up man. Yeah, you're either doing the beating or 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.760 or or seeing it. Yeah. Yeah, it's been awesome just 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.079 developing that relationship with Joel and coming back to it 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.000 is like at the very core of our relationship and 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.160 and our father's relationship with us is hunting. It's like 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:18.960 he barely had any time to do anything because he 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.400 was hustling his ass off at the gas station and 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.400 then coming home and work in the fields until like 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.080 ten o'clock at night, and so we didn't see him 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:27.839 a whole lot. But when we did, it was on 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.680 Sundays and we would be walking the fields or we'd 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.760 be driving around country roads with binoculars and hands and 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.079 looking for deer at first and last light. And that 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.120 was just how we were brought up an ingrained and 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.240 so it's it's been a really cool situation. Uh, once 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.840 Joel and I have gotten past all that other bullshit 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.800 to share this, and I'm exceptionally excited excited to come 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:52.600 home and have these two bird dogs and for us 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.400 to walk the fields together. It would be really cool. Yeah, 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.560 that's a good part of life. Man. You're in a 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.920 good part of life for sure, where you can kind 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.600 to return to the place where you know, having fond 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.679 memories is important. Not everybody's homes gather up fond memories, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:10.480 but a lot of us, my mind does. I'm sure 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.080 you're years does too, and um returning to those places, 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.240 especially around hunting. Like I have a strong hunting bond 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.760 with my dad. My brother never took it up, like 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.480 just never. I think he just he was out partying 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:27.720 and running around when I was up on Saturday mornings 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:33.160 chasing deer. He was out chasing, yeah, chasing different kinds 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.400 of tale, which is never. He never really took to 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.080 it and to this day really doesn't have much interest 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:40.760 in it. I even guess some interest in it because 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.360 I do it. Like he is aware that it is something, 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.880 but he's also not all fully on board with the 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.560 situation and like questions things all the time like why 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.520 would you shoot that fox? Or why would you do this? 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.640 And um, I've come to value that part of our 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:58.800 relationship because I spend so much time in a bubble. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.520 Sure you do as well around him. You shround yourself 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:03.839 with people that like to do the ship you like 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.640 to do. And uh, it's nice. Everyone's a while for 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:08.160 me at least to go back and have that. But 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.280 you have to get those checks and balances. So so, uh, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.199 you're in high school, you play ball, football, baseball, all 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.080 all balls, pretty much everything. It was small town Kansas. 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.400 We had eight hundred people in the town and so 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.040 it's just like you want to play something here, you 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.560 go go sign up. And then army. So that's a 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.800 big stage of your life. Was it the army? Correct? Yes, 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.720 Army reserves. Army reserves. So tell me about why and 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.680 how on that one. Oh, there's a lot of why 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.120 in that one. There's a lot of family history. It's 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:43.120 just very rich in military. Um, so there was a big, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.360 big element of like my upbringing of looking back to 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.120 my grandfather and my great grandfather, UM, and just all 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.120 over in our our family tree, there's history of the military, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:56.880 and so that's always something that had been on my mind. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:58.720 But at the same time, I was also looking for 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.080 opportunities because it was very much small town Kansas, not 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.120 a lot of opportunities to to get out to go 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.679 to college. UM didn't come from a wealthy family, and 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.000 tuition was not spoken for. It was figure this out, 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:18.160 find your way. So between all of that, the just 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.600 the feeling of wanting to serve and and do something 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.800 with my life that was meaningful, and also just creating 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.480 that that opportunity to break out into the world and 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.360 and see what I can do to give it a go. Yeah. No, 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.600 that's that's an impressive thing. I mean I never had 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.280 inklings of that, and I don't think I would have 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.560 listened somebody told me to stand in line. I think 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.360 I probably would have been kicked out pretty early on. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.120 It was it was difficult. There's a lot of teeth 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.480 written in there. Yeah, particularly what was hard is for 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:51.280 you mm hmm, Yeah, just breaking because I was just 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:53.240 like running around like a wild child in Kansas. Just 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.640 running around, mashing the accelerator down on my little pickup 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.000 truck everywhere I went, and just kinda running around without 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.920 cause and and then jumping in and getting that discipline. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.480 It was. It was good for me. Yeah. So what 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.640 happens during your your army tenure? Did you go fight? 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.800 Did you give me the full full experience? Yeah? So, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.120 like I had mentioned, I joined in between my junior 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:20.920 senior year, so I got to have a little bit 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.680 of a half step in where I went to drills 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.840 and kind of learned the lay of the land before 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.600 jumping on full throttle. And then after I graduated, shipped 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.920 off to Fort leonard Wood, Missouri and ran through basic 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.160 training there. Did that, went down to a i T 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.680 which is Advanced Individual Training UM, and I was in 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.800 ninety six Bravo, which was an intelligence analyst, And so 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.840 did that training down in Arizona and finished up with 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:48.960 that and then went back to Kansas to jump in 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:53.040 a school into college and really had no fucking clue 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:54.760 what I wanted to do with my life. I was 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.960 still like fresh off the farm, having a clue, still 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.760 super green, and I just did that and just kind 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.240 of puttered around in school didn't do much. And then 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.800 one day I was litting or laying around in my 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.000 room and on my little thirteen inch TV screen I 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.880 watched news clips of the planes in the towers and 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.160 I was just like, oh shit, my life has just changed. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.040 And like I just got goose bumps right now thinking 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.680 about it. UM, just knowing that something was going to 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.000 happen at that point in time, my life was going 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.800 to be different. And sure enough, two years later, our unit, 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:35.240 which was a FOTE Movement Control battalion out of Manhattan, Kansas, 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.520 we got deployed and we were in. We went basically 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.200 like right behind the Marines UM, coming in from Quait 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.960 into Iraq. So I spent fourteen months over there on undemployment. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.600 And I went from a small town Kansas boy with 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.880 no clue about the world too rude awakening of life 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:59.400 and politics and third World country dynamics UM and just 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.840 running around the desert with a machine gun on my 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.080 hip and learning this all in. Wow, how old were 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.800 you then? I was twenty? So I had my twenty 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:12.639 first birthday Jesus interact, Oh boy. And this was in 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.480 this was during the Shock and all the initial invasion. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:18.800 So we were in Fort Riley, Kansas when the shock 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.600 and all went down, But we were shipped out like 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:23.840 very soon after that. So we were like in our 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.920 deployment stages as that, like as the blasts we're going off, 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.399 and then when when give me the moment prior to 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.480 any you know, firefights or any Browns going off that 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.840 you realized ship was about to be different, Like you 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:40.159 was it when you got on the plane to go 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.399 over or did you land and look around or what? Like? 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.200 What was the realization moment? And maybe in the military 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.199 training you have to be prepared with that prior. You know, 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.000 we definitely were a little bit prepared for that, um 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:53.600 but I think it was when we were on the 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.160 plane and I think I think we're on a Sea 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.359 one thirty flying over. I can't remember exactly, but it 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.280 was a pretty eizable plane and as we were sitting there, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.119 we were loaded in wearing full battle rattle, so we 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.000 had kevlar helmets on, we had our flak jackets on, 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.160 We're holding our sixteens, and we were all sitting shoulder 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.080 to shoulder on this little like twelve to fourteen inch 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.760 cargo strap that was on the side of the plane 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.919 like running down and we sat there and it was 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.199 just like a complete bear airplane on the inside, and 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:26.800 all of our gear was piled up in the middle. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:28.679 There's a couple of humbies in the back of the middle, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:30.840 and we're just sitting there for I don't even know 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.080 how many, like fourteen hours or something, just looking at 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.800 each other and like the freezing cold as we flew over, 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:42.320 and I'm just like, huh, this is life uncomfortable. Yeah, um, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.480 so yeah that And then so when we dropped in, 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.760 we dropped into Kuwait, which things weren't too crazy there. 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.440 It was a very westernized base. Um, it was very 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.800 safe and secure within the base that we were staging 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.320 at for deployment. But then as soon as we got 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:58.320 the call and we're just like we're heading boys, get 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.760 your stuff, get get everything ready to go. It was 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.000 jumping the humbies. And as we approached the border, that 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.840 was like that was the moment. And we approached and 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.879 there like the border was this big burn that was 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.160 going down the line and they were just in one 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.840 Abram tanks all pointed, dozens of them pointed into a rack, 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:17.760 and at that point in time, I was just like, 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.639 holy fucking shit, like what are we what are we 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.280 getting into right now? Um? And yeah, that was wild. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.320 And then I was in the convoy at the very 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.240 rear and my job was as a saw gunner as 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.280 well to pull rear security on the convoy. So we 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.120 had a lot of reports that there were attacks coming 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.159 up from the rear, and it was my job to 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.399 make sure that nobody came up and got after us. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.560 So I had a saw in him two four nine 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.479 hanging out the back of the humby and just pointed 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.040 backwards down the road making sure we didn't get hit. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.800 So I chewed on a lot of dust that day. Yeah, 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:58.560 but you did. And do you feel how long from 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.320 when you crossed the border to when you fire the 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.800 first round? You know? Actually when I went over there, 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.840 I never squeezed off my trigger. Really great. Yeah, So 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.159 I'm I'm thankful for that, But I'm also thankful for 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.720 the guys that that had to and had to do 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.040 what they had to do and came back, and you know, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.240 always thinking of the guys that didn't come back and 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.840 the gals that didn't come back. But I'm I'm very 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.000 much blessed of the fact that I don't have that 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.479 hanging over me. Um, that I'm not dealing with that. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.800 So you have friends that did or folks that's tough. Yeah, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.280 And I think from somebody like me or a lot 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.440 of people listening, just you can't comprehend that, Like there's 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.239 no comprehension of of that kind of stress and that 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.160 environment and what that does to your perspective, let alone 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.320 in your mind. Yeah, it was. There was definitely a 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.680 lot of emotions to to filter through coming back after 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.800 that one. Yeah, So you spent how much time in combat? 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.919 I was in? Our deployment was fourteen months, so we 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.320 had orders for six months and then as soon as 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.800 we got over there, before we jumped in, they're just 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.640 like up by the way orders changed were three six 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:06.560 boots on ground. So wow. And so two thousand three 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:11.080 to two thousand four we were there the entire time. Um. 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.280 And so at some point you come back home, yeah, 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:15.920 and tell us about you know, you cycled through, You've 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.240 done your time, You've done your fourteen months, and then 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:25.080 it's time to come home. What's that like? That? That 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:29.119 was wild. That was a lot to digest and filter 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:33.720 through and marinate on. And just all the things that 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:35.760