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Speaker 2: listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails on straight
Speaker 2: talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to another awesome episode of soft Reap Radio.
Speaker 3: I am your host, rad and today I have very
Speaker 3: special guests, actually have two guests. But before I introduce
Speaker 3: you to the first guests on the show today, I
Speaker 3: want to talk about our merch store. Right, you guys
Speaker 3: have supported us. You've been keeping the lights on and
Speaker 3: the fireplace lit by going into the merch shop on
Speaker 3: softwap dot com. Keep buying some stuff, picking it up.
Speaker 3: I really appreciateiate it. We all do. Brandon Webb says thanks.
Speaker 3: I say thanks, all of the guys behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: ore producers. We really appreciate you picking up the merch,
Speaker 3: the coffee mugs, the torch lights, all that stuff. I
Speaker 3: also want to reference our book club. We like to
Speaker 3: read around here. We have lots of books that just
Speaker 3: hang out, like let me just grab some here, like
Speaker 3: call me hunter. We have Androne right here. I got
Speaker 3: lots of books. Okay, steal fear from Brandon Webb all
Speaker 3: these books. Go check out our book club that is
Speaker 3: soft rep dot Com Book hyphen Club, as I put
Speaker 3: away the rest of my books here. Now with that said,
Speaker 3: I have a command start major with me today. Goes
Speaker 3: by the name of Charles V. Sassar, Junior, Command Sergeant Major, Retire, retired.
Speaker 3: Charles V. Sassar, Junior, is whose career in the United
Speaker 3: States Army span three decades. He served in a multitude
Speaker 3: of leadership and duty positions. Born in nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 3: Charles entered the Army in August of eighty four with
Speaker 3: a deep commitment to serve his country. His early years
Speaker 3: in the military saw him undergo training at Fort Benning
Speaker 3: now for Liberty, Georgia, where he completed basic training and
Speaker 3: Infantry Advanced Individual Training or AIIT, setting the foundation for
Speaker 3: a career that would take him to the far corners
Speaker 3: of the world. Throughout his military career, Charles had numerous
Speaker 3: assignments and deployments. He served in various divisions, including the
Speaker 3: twenty fourth, one hundred and first, eighty second, twenty fifth,
Speaker 3: second fourth, and the first Infantry Division, where he ascends
Speaker 3: to the pinnacle of enlisted leadership as the divisions divisions
Speaker 3: Command Sergeant Major. Charles's leadership journey also included roles such
Speaker 3: as Brigader Operations Sergeant, Major, small Group leader at the
Speaker 3: hundred and first NCO Academy, Recruiter in Southern California, and
Speaker 3: an observer controller at the National Training Center. Charles's commitment
Speaker 3: to professional development was unwavering. He completed all the non
Speaker 3: commissioned officer education courses, the first Sergeant Course, and pursued
Speaker 3: additional specialized training that included the Ranger Course, air Assault
Speaker 3: Repel Master Course, Airborne and Jumpmaster Course, Pathfinder Course, and
Speaker 3: the Joint Firepower Control Course. These courses enhanced his skills
Speaker 3: and knowledge, making him a well rounded leader in the military.
Speaker 3: Throughout his career, Charles embarked numerous deployments to regions such
Speaker 3: as Panama, the Sinai, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. His
Speaker 3: combat experiences and leadership in these diverse and challenging environments
Speaker 3: demonstrated his unwavering dedication to his country and the defense
Speaker 3: of its interests. Charles dedication and exemplary service were recognized
Speaker 3: through a myriad of prestigious awards and decorations. His accolades
Speaker 3: include two Legions of Merit, three Bronze Stars, medals and
Speaker 3: numerous other honors. These awards were a testament to his
Speaker 3: outstanding contributions and leadership in the army. Upon retiring from
Speaker 3: the military in twenty fourteen, Charles transition seamlessly into the
Speaker 3: field of defense contracting, where he continued to make a
Speaker 3: significant impact. His expertise in military training and development led
Speaker 3: him to roles where he trained and advised military forces
Speaker 3: in countries like the United Arab Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq,
Speaker 3: Nigeria and Afghanistan. He played a crucial role in enhancing
Speaker 3: the capabilities of these forces and contributed to their readiness.
Speaker 3: Charles post military career was marked by versatility and adaptability.
Speaker 3: He served as a protective security specialist at the US
Speaker 3: Consulate and British Iraq, where he was responsible for coordinating
Speaker 3: protective operations and assessing security threats. His certifications in firearms training,
Speaker 3: compound defense, explosive counter terrorism measures, and personal protection reflected
Speaker 3: his comprehensive understanding of security measures and the risk of mitigation. Furthermore,
Speaker 3: Charles ventured into strategy and operations consulting, drawing on his
Speaker 3: extensive military experience to provide invaluable insights and guidance. Charles's
Speaker 3: commitment to personal growth was evident in his graduation from
Speaker 3: the prestigious National Defense University Keystone Course. This program, designed
Speaker 3: for Commands senior enlisted leaders called see Cells, honed his
Speaker 3: leadership skills and provided invaluable insights into joint operations and
Speaker 3: national security, further expanding his knowledge and capabilities. Charles and
Speaker 3: his wife, Francis. Hello, Francis have a daughter, Amanda, and
Speaker 3: a son, Sean. We have sewn on the show with us.
Speaker 3: They have been married for nearly forty years, and I
Speaker 3: think commands our major. At the end of all of that,
Speaker 3: that forty year commitment is your best business contract you've
Speaker 3: ever been a part of. Absolutely well well, well, Sean,
Speaker 3: I'll get to you in just a second. All right,
Speaker 3: you came from this man's resume. Alright, you are the
Speaker 3: spawn he pestered your mom the right night, at the
Speaker 3: right time, and here you are. Okay, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of I'm tired, bro, I don't know, Sean. You know,
Speaker 3: Mother's Day is totally about the mom, but Father's Day
Speaker 3: is thanks Dad, thanks a lot. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 3: both of you, Sean, Charles. That's all the time we
Speaker 3: have exactly Edward out. No, it's wonderful to have you now, Sean,
Speaker 3: being the son of Charles here, I haven't even looked
Speaker 3: at your dot sia yet. You know. Let's just read
Speaker 3: it cold, shall we should we hit it? Let's do it,
Speaker 3: do it? Okay, it's not I'm just kidding, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm going to read into Shawn's background so you guys
Speaker 3: know who we're talking to. Shawn was born on June tenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty eight, and Frankfurt, Germany, to Charles and Francis
Speaker 3: his older sister, Amanda. His parents chose to name him
Speaker 3: the Irish Version, after their best friend and army buddy John,
Speaker 3: who coincidentally shared the same birthday. He started preschool in
Speaker 3: Kindergarten and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, after his family moved there
Speaker 3: from Germany. Being a military brat, Shawn's parents encouraged him
Speaker 3: to explore various sports and activities to find his passion.
Speaker 3: Soccer and chess captured his attention, revealing his innate strategy
Speaker 3: thinking and aptitude for math. These formative years laid the
Speaker 3: foundation for his love for competition. The family relocated to
Speaker 3: southern California. Where Shawn attended school in Highland. During his
Speaker 3: time there, he dealt into sports, participating in swimming, chess,
Speaker 3: and other activities. Shawn's strategic mind continued to shine, particularly
Speaker 3: in chess, where he excelled. Next, they moved to Fort Bragg,
Speaker 3: North Carolina. Again you know those names are changing with
Speaker 3: the bases, but again where Shawn attended fifth and sixth grade.
Speaker 3: His academic excellence led to his enrollment in advanced classes.
Speaker 3: Retrained at California and later settling in Hawaii for his
Speaker 3: high school years, Shaw became deeply involved in sports. He
Speaker 3: also explored new hobbies, including skateboarding, dirtbike riding, and wrestling.
Speaker 3: Now in Hawaii, he played baseball, ran track, and developed
Speaker 3: a fever for football. His passion for football grew and
Speaker 3: he immersed himself in the sport, gaining extensive knowledge, especially
Speaker 3: in college football. Now, after graduating from high school, Seawn
Speaker 3: decided to follow in his family's tradition of military service.
Speaker 3: Although he initially considered the Special Forces program, he opted
Speaker 3: for an intel job with the Army, heeding his dad's
Speaker 3: advice to volunteer for the Ranger Regiment. Shawn served as
Speaker 3: a human or a human Intelligent Collector interrogator and spent
Speaker 3: time at the regiment's Special Troops Battalion, also known as
Speaker 3: the STV. His dedication and skills were recognized, and he
Speaker 3: worked alongside of Navy Seals the Navy Seal Teams during
Speaker 3: his deployment to Iraq in two thousand and eight. Throughout
Speaker 3: his military service, Shawn received valuable training and experiences in
Speaker 3: the special operations community. He was stationed in various locations
Speaker 3: including Fort Lewis, Washington, and Hawaii. Despite facing injuries during
Speaker 3: his deployment, he left the Army as a sergeant. After
Speaker 3: leaving the military, Shawn embarked on a journey of self discovery.
Speaker 3: As we all have sewn. He traveled across the United States,
Speaker 3: stayed in Nebraska for a time, and eventually settled in
Speaker 3: the Fort Carson, Colorado Springs area. There he pursued a
Speaker 3: degree in kinseology and Strength Training. Did I say that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, My degree isn't exactly kinesiology, it's I have a
Speaker 1: bachelor's and Health Sciences with a focus off.
Speaker 3: So okay, perfect, perfect, and now let me just let
Speaker 3: me finish the rest of this little intro here. During
Speaker 3: his junior year, shawna earned an internship with the University
Speaker 3: of Colorado Buffalo team, which is very much popular right
Speaker 3: now for sure, right solidifying his passion for the sport.
Speaker 3: The team appreciated his dedication and invited him back for
Speaker 3: all of the home games. Shawn's love for football and
Speaker 3: his extensive knowledge of the game grew stronger throughout his life.
Speaker 3: Shawn's love for reading and his interest in philosophy have
Speaker 3: remained constant. He aspires to earn his master's degree in philosophy,
Speaker 3: combining his intellectual pursuits with his passion for football. Shawn's
Speaker 3: journey from his early years in Germany to his time
Speaker 3: in the military and his dedication to football and education
Speaker 3: pat's a wonderful portrait of a resilient and intellectually curious individual.
Speaker 3: His experiences have shaped him into the person he is today,
Speaker 3: combining strategic thinking, physical fitness, and a thirst of knowledge
Speaker 3: in his pursuit of success and fulfillment. Okay, I just
Speaker 3: want you to know, this is the biggest introduction I've
Speaker 3: done for anybody on my show, the longest. I would
Speaker 3: love to see these. If you want to write in
Speaker 3: and be on the show, send me one of these
Speaker 3: I'd love to introduce you like that because we get
Speaker 3: to know you on the show. Now I have both
Speaker 3: of you here, Charles, you joined the military at a
Speaker 3: young age. You decided that this is what you were
Speaker 3: going to do. Was that something that you always dreamed
Speaker 3: about doing? Was just being in the military or were
Speaker 3: you looking at like baseball.
Speaker 4: So my father was in the Air Force, got uncles
Speaker 4: in the Air Force, uncles in the Army, an uncle
Speaker 4: that was in the Marines.
Speaker 5: One of my grandfathers was in the service.
Speaker 4: So it was kind of like a natural step to
Speaker 4: join one of the services. We ended up when I
Speaker 4: was in elementary school, fifth grade around a Pope Air
Speaker 4: Force Base and Fort Bragg. Now, as you said, Ford Liberty,
Speaker 4: and so we round a lot of the eighty second,
Speaker 4: one of the Army folks, and so I decided to.
Speaker 5: Go the Army route.
Speaker 4: Now, when I first went in, I didn't Francis and
Speaker 4: I got married right out of high school. I went
Speaker 4: off the basic in at and got stationed at Fort Stewart,
Speaker 4: and the plan was unknown. I didn't know if I
Speaker 4: was going to stay in for that four years that
Speaker 4: I initially enlisted.
Speaker 5: For or continue.
Speaker 4: Of course, I you know, did reenlist and then even
Speaker 4: up to about ten years. After ten and I became
Speaker 4: a senior and CEO and kind of started maturing in
Speaker 4: the military.
Speaker 5: You know, I decided I was going to stay in
Speaker 5: at least twenty to retirement.
Speaker 4: Of course, twenty hits and I'm doing well, then nine
Speaker 4: to eleven hits and it's you know, deployment back, deployment back,
Speaker 4: deployment back, and before you know it, thirty years is up.
Speaker 4: And I had done exceedingly when exceedingly further than I
Speaker 4: ever imagined, you know, blessed to become the classar major
Speaker 4: like you said, for the first Satory Division. And even
Speaker 4: then I was going to stay in past thirty I
Speaker 4: was actually going to come out of the program. For
Speaker 4: anybody that works for a general commands our major it
Speaker 4: works for a general, it's known as the nominative program.
Speaker 5: So I was going to come out of that because
Speaker 5: I just needed a break.
Speaker 4: I deployed and back into quart back and the quot back,
Speaker 4: and I was just tired. I was going to go
Speaker 4: down to Forms to the Stark Major Academy and run
Speaker 4: the international program. And I discussed it with a commandant
Speaker 4: down there, and the starting Major of the Army, and
Speaker 4: you know, he said fine, he said, you know, go
Speaker 4: down there refreshed, and when you want to go back
Speaker 4: into the program, let us know, and then I COM
Speaker 4: could compete for three and four star nominated positions. Then
Speaker 4: we came out to Florida to watch promotion ceremony for
Speaker 4: a guy named Randy George, who is now the Chief
Speaker 4: and Staff of the Army. The brand new Chief of
Speaker 4: Staff just confirmed he was my brigade commander, the one
Speaker 4: that hired me. He has the brigade commass our major
Speaker 4: under the old system of how they used to select,
Speaker 4: and uh so we came out there watch him get
Speaker 4: his start hit he made general officer and we were
Speaker 4: just tooling around the Tampa area where he was he
Speaker 4: was stationed down there working at SITCOM, and we kind
Speaker 4: of looked at each other, and everybody always says in
Speaker 4: the Army, and I'm sure they say it everywhere, you know,
Speaker 4: you kind of know when it's time it's time to stop,
Speaker 4: when it's time to retire, when it's time to quit
Speaker 4: doing it. It's almost like, you know, we both had
Speaker 4: the same light bulb. Yeah, I might go back and
Speaker 4: call the summaged Army and with him, I'm just going
Speaker 4: to retire yea, So it was there was the right choice,
Speaker 4: a good choice.
Speaker 5: Again. I got into defense contracting, so I didn't get
Speaker 5: far away.
Speaker 4: I like getting around any military and training is u
Speaker 4: is my passion, especially training, military, teaching and instructing.
Speaker 5: Sean enjoys it as well.
Speaker 4: Back when I can coach to the high school football
Speaker 4: for a while there in the in the color Ros
Speaker 4: Springs area. One opinion putting on his uh on his
Speaker 4: I know, yeah, I mean that's kind of brought me
Speaker 4: to where I'm at now. Still still going doing some
Speaker 4: security work here around the Ormando area. I'm not sure
Speaker 4: if I'm gonna go back overseas or not. I've got
Speaker 4: some offers for that and for some other other things.
Speaker 4: But have a good time still and you know, still
Speaker 4: still fit, even though you know, I had some some
Speaker 4: injuries and some authritis and some other things to go
Speaker 4: along with you know, getting older.
Speaker 3: But are you sure about that? Are you sure about that?
Speaker 5: Still enjoying life.
Speaker 4: And then Seun John just moved out here to uh
Speaker 4: to the Orlando area this past year. So if we
Speaker 4: could convince his sister family to move down here, we'll well,
Speaker 4: we'll all.
Speaker 3: Be Florida, Amanda, Is that right? Remember that? Yeah, you're Amanda.
Speaker 4: Three little boys and they live up in Illinois, so
Speaker 4: we're trying to convince them to come down here to Florida.
Speaker 3: But that's where grandpa is a built in babysitters right there,
Speaker 3: Uncle and Grandpa right there, Amanda, you know you want
Speaker 3: some free time, try to help sway the scales here
Speaker 3: right now. Following in your father's footsteps, you know, I
Speaker 3: also come from my father behind me on this mantle
Speaker 3: with his flag. He's a former Green Beret passed away,
Speaker 3: you know. And I also had the relatives that were,
Speaker 3: you know, in the military, grandfather, World War two, et cetera,
Speaker 3: you know, all the way to like Napoleon. I'm related
Speaker 3: to these guys that are, you know, military. So it's like,
Speaker 3: did you think military? Was that seventeen high school? You're like,
Speaker 3: that's it for me. I'm going I.
Speaker 5: Think from the moment that I could conceptualize a career,
Speaker 5: I think that's what I wanted to do. That was
Speaker 5: always in the back of my mind. This guy was always,
Speaker 5: you know, my hero from.
Speaker 3: Right me same yeah, yeah, and I didn't.
Speaker 1: And like he has said his dad was in the
Speaker 1: Air Force too, so we always had military.
Speaker 5: Our family run up a military prat.
Speaker 1: I was always around the military, all of our friends,
Speaker 1: all of his friends were military, so.
Speaker 5: I was always around it.
Speaker 1: There was always in the back of my mind a
Speaker 1: sense of this is what I'm gonna end up doing.
Speaker 5: Once I got to high school, though I really wanted to.
Speaker 1: I really got obsessed with football, and I really wanted
Speaker 1: to play college ball, and that didn't pan out. I'm
Speaker 1: thankful for it now, but I wanted to follow in
Speaker 1: his footsteps.
Speaker 5: And go infantry.
Speaker 1: And this was always you know, as a kid, you
Speaker 1: don't really know that much about what you know, the
Speaker 1: difference between military jobs and the trajectory that sends you
Speaker 1: after you get out. But I didn't care. I wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking about that, and he wouldn't let me do it.
Speaker 5: He talked me out of it.
Speaker 1: He said, because of my you know, ASVAP scores wherever
Speaker 1: they ranked, and because of the need the military need
Speaker 1: at the time for intel.
Speaker 5: He basically said, no, you're not going You're not going infantry.
Speaker 5: You're doing this human rout.
Speaker 1: And so I trusted in his word, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: I did because it led me on. It led me
Speaker 1: on a fun fatht in the military, and I highly
Speaker 1: enjoyed my job.
Speaker 3: You know, that's good advice, you know, to say, hey,
Speaker 3: try to actually come out of the military with more
Speaker 3: than just a ground pounding resume, which is no offense,
Speaker 3: you know, ground pounding, but you know, coming out with
Speaker 3: something a little bit more technical that the armies put
Speaker 3: into your brain cells. That's what's up, right, because it's
Speaker 3: in there, right, they made sure you read those books
Speaker 3: and that you pass those courses on that subject, right.
Speaker 1: I think, I think everybody that is a fan of
Speaker 1: the military or has military background.
Speaker 5: You know, we got some Tom Clancy novels back here.
Speaker 5: You read, you read like the Jack Cars coming out
Speaker 5: with these new novels.
Speaker 1: You read this and you want to be Every boy
Speaker 1: that grows up in a military family wants to become this,
Speaker 1: this operator, you know, this bad ass. And again I'm
Speaker 1: I spent some time amongst badasses. I was myself.
Speaker 5: You know, I was thankful to be in regimen and work.
Speaker 1: With work with seals and all these guys, and but
Speaker 1: I'm glad, you know, in a sense, it's kind of bittersweet.
Speaker 5: You know I would have.
Speaker 1: I would have liked to, you know, see into that
Speaker 1: realm a little bit. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I'm glad that he you know, talket
Speaker 1: some sense into me. And like I said, I really
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. It was it was different, and it was
Speaker 1: what would you say, it was interesting to say the.
Speaker 5: Least dealing with me.
Speaker 3: Let me probe a little bit.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Let's okay, So we know right now that recruiting and
Speaker 3: retention in the army and in the military across the
Speaker 3: boards looking for a few good men be all you
Speaker 3: can be, you know, you know, go Navy, join the
Speaker 3: coast Guard. Would you redo it? You know, would you
Speaker 3: go back and say, hey, it was worth raising my
Speaker 3: hand making that decision to join and going through all
Speaker 3: of what you went through and doing it again, you know,
Speaker 3: for the listener out there who might be on the fence,
Speaker 3: they might be on possibly walking into a recruiter's office,
Speaker 3: I would do it again.
Speaker 1: Personally, Yeah, I I you know, like everybody, I think
Speaker 1: that is a veteran that's deployed, you know, dealt with
Speaker 1: some issues and I'm still dealing with some of those issues.
Speaker 5: But I would do it all over again.
Speaker 1: The I think if you're able to parse out, you know,
Speaker 1: the good from the bad, learn your lessons from the bad,
Speaker 1: help them, you know, allow you to grow as a
Speaker 1: as an individual, It's worth it at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. And I wouldn't trade you know we I'm
Speaker 1: sure one day we'll all share a beer in person.
Speaker 5: We can trade some more stories.
Speaker 1: But when you get those that kind of build your character,
Speaker 1: and you know, when you're when you're writing your memoirs
Speaker 1: in your head towards the end of your life.
Speaker 5: Here, I think those are worth it. So I made
Speaker 5: some really amazed I met some really amazing people.
Speaker 1: Raising you know, some of the closest friends in my
Speaker 1: life are still They never lived near me, but they're still.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like I can go years without talking to these guys.
Speaker 1: And because you know, you share these deployments together, you
Speaker 1: pick up a phone or you just the city.
Speaker 5: Hey, Bone, hey Hank.
Speaker 1: Hey, I need I need, I need a couch, I
Speaker 1: need I need a bad today.
Speaker 3: I got you.
Speaker 5: I agree. That's why That's why people will.
Speaker 4: Typically, you know, nine nine percent will say they do
Speaker 4: it again, not because of or in my opinion anyway,
Speaker 4: not because of everything that they did and all the
Speaker 4: things that they achieved, but mostly because of just the
Speaker 4: people and without if you if in your mind, if
Speaker 4: you go, well, if I say I wouldn't do that again,
Speaker 4: then I wouldn't have all these great friends. We were
Speaker 4: coming back from I was driving down from Washington to
Speaker 4: here with him when he moved out here a few
Speaker 4: months ago, and we stopped by a guy's house that
Speaker 4: he knows because he was my betunity leader in eighty
Speaker 4: second and stayed in taught chet I.
Speaker 5: He went to your basic training adulation. I think that
Speaker 5: was deployed show. Yeah, Darrell.
Speaker 4: So he lived out in the Uh, dear Dallas and
Speaker 4: mckittie hadn't talked to him, hadn't seen him other than
Speaker 4: you know, some texts and things like that. Walk in
Speaker 4: and it's like, you know, we just saw him yesterday,
Speaker 4: and then you know, we started telling more stories next time,
Speaker 4: you know, and it's you know, two o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 4: needless the same. We didn't drive the next day, and
Speaker 4: so we stayed an additional day.
Speaker 5: We covered a little and UH and chatted with him.
Speaker 4: But you know, we've got we both got those friends,
Speaker 4: you know, and my friends or his friends as well.
Speaker 4: Big John McComb, who has the same birthday, you know,
Speaker 4: lives out in Kansas. He was in the army for
Speaker 4: a while and you know, great guy, and he did
Speaker 4: the same thing with him and many others.
Speaker 3: So it's really just a bond of the person next
Speaker 3: to you, like in a Blackhawk Down the movie where
Speaker 3: they which is kind of you know, it's the anniversary
Speaker 3: right around Operation Gothic Serpuit, you know, Danny McKnight and
Speaker 3: all of them. I think there's a quote in there
Speaker 3: where he's like, you know, we do it because of
Speaker 3: the guy next to us. You know, most people don't
Speaker 3: understand why we do it. It's because of the guy
Speaker 3: next to him is doing it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at the end of the day, when you get
Speaker 4: there in those situations, that is what you're doing it for. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean you know, yeah, you're doing it for your
Speaker 4: country and you know, the nation and other people. But
Speaker 4: mostly at that point it's just you know, you're thinking
Speaker 4: about the person next to you.
Speaker 3: You want Bobby to come home, and Bobby wants you
Speaker 3: to come home, so it's like you're doing it for
Speaker 3: each other. It's like, oh, I want you know, the
Speaker 3: heart's there, the patriotism's there. But once you're in it,
Speaker 3: I'm sure it's like, uh, we're just gonna get home, bro,
Speaker 3: and then I'm gonna meet your wife and you're gonna
Speaker 3: meet my wife, and we're gonna get We're gonna have
Speaker 3: our kids, are gonna hang out, and uh, we're gonna
Speaker 3: have these great relationships. And then, like you said, a
Speaker 3: few years goes by after you get out and you
Speaker 3: guys still click and it's still like, hey, we still
Speaker 3: have that love for one another, that that bond right
Speaker 3: never broken.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you know, back to show I'm going in.
Speaker 4: He's got such a strategic, forward thinking mind that you
Speaker 4: know he needed to do do something more. It's funny
Speaker 4: because my aspect scores my best, the best part of
Speaker 4: my aspects when I ran, we're clerical, which it helped
Speaker 4: me in the in the end because as you you know,
Speaker 4: as you grow in your army, you have to do
Speaker 4: more administrative stuff and so you know, I got pretty
Speaker 4: good at it, and.
Speaker 5: The asbad told me that I would be good at it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, he you know, I knew that the Randy
Speaker 4: regiment was standing up is brand new. It was the
Speaker 4: first you know, first Command Team vert commanding was a
Speaker 4: guy named Jim Mingus, who is now the Vice Chief
Speaker 4: of Staff of the Army, who.
Speaker 5: Was the Vergade commander right after Randy George. So I
Speaker 5: ended up knowing him.
Speaker 4: But before that time, I'm sitting in uh Iraq or Afghanistan,
Speaker 4: Shawn's and Iraq, and I used to call him and
Speaker 4: talk to him, and I said, hey, he had met
Speaker 4: Randy George. I say this, this, this guy named Jim Mingus,
Speaker 4: this guy named Jim Minus is going to replace Randy
Speaker 4: as a BREVIDI commander. And I said, I've heard that
Speaker 4: name somewhere before. And Sean said, you know, I know
Speaker 4: where you know it from. I'm like, hell, do you
Speaker 4: know where I know it? He hadn't been in the army,
Speaker 4: but you know, a few days and he said he
Speaker 4: was my battalion commander.
Speaker 5: So he was Shawn's battalion commander.
Speaker 4: The very first Radie mind STV commander. And then as
Speaker 4: you made pul colonel, he replaced Randy George. So this
Speaker 4: guy was his commander and my commander both so small world.
Speaker 3: The last name Sasser. You're a sergeant. He's a you know,
Speaker 3: sergeant major, like is there a shadow that you're getting.
Speaker 3: So I go to the VA and they look up
Speaker 3: my last name and they're like, are they look at
Speaker 3: my Okay? My dad went to the VA and they
Speaker 3: looked up the last name and they're like, are you Aaron?
Speaker 3: And he's like, do I look like a leg to you?
Speaker 3: That's what he said, okay, because I'm I'm the Aaron,
Speaker 3: right and I'm the leg. And he said that to
Speaker 3: the clerk. And my mom's like, he sure have heard
Speaker 3: what your dad said when they asked if he was
Speaker 3: you because we're both in the VA. Now, what about you?
Speaker 3: Do you have any of those types of like, hey,
Speaker 3: Sasser cam here is your dad? Is this your dad?
Speaker 1: You know it's such an uncommon name outside of outside
Speaker 1: of him?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 5: Yes, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever crossed path with anybody
Speaker 1: that worked with him. Won't trying to think outside of
Speaker 1: Colonel Vengus or us now, I don't know if we
Speaker 1: ever if I ever crossed baths with anybody. We got
Speaker 1: a funny, uh indirect story where his uh you say,
Speaker 1: his his inspiration cross paths with some of the guys
Speaker 1: that I worked with.
Speaker 5: So we're sitting around We're sitting around one day in
Speaker 5: the office. I'm pretty sure at the Friday, you know
Speaker 5: most Fridays we come back from lunch.
Speaker 1: And this is when I was in when I was
Speaker 1: at betting and regiment still and on Opportunity starre in
Speaker 1: Farm Burskin. We called him Teddy b Teddy be sitting
Speaker 1: there behind his desk and I hear him chatting with
Speaker 1: some of the squad leaders and team leaders. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a jee at the time away to
Speaker 1: private or at PFC, and they're talking.
Speaker 5: About this how they were at the they were at
Speaker 5: the bar of the club or something, and they're doing
Speaker 5: this uh jump master dance, and I'm like, huh, that's funny.
Speaker 1: And you know, flashback outside of the story years ago,
Speaker 1: him and his buddy, I don't even know, was it
Speaker 1: in Brag or Buffalo, it was it.
Speaker 5: It was somewhere. It was at a club and in Brag.
Speaker 1: So in Brag him is Daryl. Darryl's before mentioned. Darryl
Speaker 1: started this jump master dance where they would where they're
Speaker 1: at the bar, digging around and yeah, they're they're well,
Speaker 1: they're da Yeah, we were.
Speaker 5: The music is playing. We were both going through drum
Speaker 5: Baster School at the same time.
Speaker 4: So we started doing this kind of you know, uh
Speaker 4: a deal with you know, using the using the JMPI as.
Speaker 3: A dance, like looking out the door, making sure it's
Speaker 3: all clear, you know, making sure there's a huge.
Speaker 5: You know, huge circle around the bar.
Speaker 1: And so they start talking about this and I'm just
Speaker 1: you know, listening, like I'm sure I got a ship
Speaker 1: eating grin on my face. I'm like, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I throw it in there casually, like hey, my my
Speaker 1: dad and his pl they they invented that. They start
Speaker 1: they started that back in the day, and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh man, there's no get out of here.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I'll prove it. So I get them on
Speaker 5: the phone. I don't say anything. I say, hey you, Darryl,
Speaker 5: you know, dance or bar anyway.
Speaker 3: So yeah, jmp I dance and I hang up and
Speaker 3: everybody's like, so it's become a lore legend.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So that's you know, you see the influences of that,
Speaker 5: and that was you know, we had a kick out
Speaker 5: of that.
Speaker 1: But going back to your question, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I ever crossed path with anybody that worked with you,
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to think.
Speaker 5: I'm sure I did, but I can't think of it.
Speaker 3: It didn't dawn on them, and now maybe after they're like,
Speaker 3: wait a second, Okay, this is all making sense, right. No,
Speaker 3: you you ran your own rucks. You ran your own
Speaker 3: you know, did everything you had to do, did your
Speaker 3: own push ups, did drone pull ups. You had to
Speaker 3: do all those things to do what you had to do.
Speaker 3: Dad just had to bug mom to get you to
Speaker 3: do those things. That's so awesome. Now I want to
Speaker 3: talk about Charles has a rack. Okay, when I mean
Speaker 3: a rack, I mean like, I know your eyes are
Speaker 3: up here, okay, so major, but like right over here,
Speaker 3: see what's side I oh yeah, left side. Okay, You've
Speaker 3: got more than jump wings. You got more than like
Speaker 3: a civ or cab badge. You got more than a
Speaker 3: Pathfinder badger. You got like four or five Pokemon collectibles
Speaker 3: there that uh I like to call, you know, awards
Speaker 3: you've earned. Can you is it Pathfinder? Right? Pathfinder?
Speaker 5: Yep?
Speaker 3: Okay, Airborne.
Speaker 4: Everything that I people will go to, you know, they'll
Speaker 4: just get these you know, locks and chances to go
Speaker 4: to these places which.
Speaker 5: Look a little bit.
Speaker 4: But I went to Airborom School right before I went
Speaker 4: to the eighty second, but I had to go, so
Speaker 4: I didn't go to airbroom School right away. In the military,
Speaker 4: I went to Jump after school because I was there
Speaker 4: in the eighty second. I went to eriksol at school
Speaker 4: in a promoster courts because I was part of.
Speaker 5: The hundred and first. I was in a path finding
Speaker 5: position out at.
Speaker 4: INTC all over your ROC's and kind of you know,
Speaker 4: managing the and evaluating the units to come to or
Speaker 4: helping them evalue with theirself. The position that I that
Speaker 4: I was in, I was a OCI for Scout and
Speaker 4: uh you know it was they had that uh embedded
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 5: So I did it then, so you.
Speaker 4: Know all that And of course Ranger school, I mean
Speaker 4: you had an infantry guy, you know, you you kind
Speaker 4: of want to do it just to get that experience
Speaker 4: and uh, you know, see off you can push yourself
Speaker 4: and and do that. And I actually went to range
Speaker 4: school twice because I was injured the first time and
Speaker 4: uh and left, so I knew what was was expected
Speaker 4: up to then. But all, you know, all that stuff
Speaker 4: I did was was because of the aid position I
Speaker 4: was in kind of just all added up to.
Speaker 3: The big you know stack as you say, yeah, you
Speaker 3: kind of just went step by step by step of
Speaker 3: your day, daily life and the next day you're now, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: I'm going through ranger you know, in dock or whatnot,
Speaker 3: and trying to push that. That was like a two
Speaker 3: week program to get through the ranger in doctor Nation
Speaker 3: to go to ranger school. Is that right?
Speaker 5: So when I went to Ranger school, I didn't do
Speaker 5: a RIP.
Speaker 4: Now a lot of units require people to do a
Speaker 4: little pre ranger course before they go, but I didn't
Speaker 4: do it. They did have I don't know if they
Speaker 4: still have it, but they did have zero week, which
Speaker 4: didn't count towards anything except for you got the chance
Speaker 4: to get out on the land of course, go ahead
Speaker 4: and pike the PT test, the swim test, practice on
Speaker 4: the optical courses and you know, do a twelve miller
Speaker 4: and all that. So when everybody else came in after
Speaker 4: zero week, you had already knocked out quite a few things.
Speaker 5: So that did did make it easier.
Speaker 3: So let me ask you something about that. Let me
Speaker 3: let me ask you something about RIP real quick, or
Speaker 3: about like going through the course as someone who's possibly
Speaker 3: in the military, right now wanting to go through the
Speaker 3: ranger course and they're thinking about it, and you've done that,
Speaker 3: do you have access to run the cue the course
Speaker 3: and like train on it priority? Like are you going
Speaker 3: in blind not knowing that you got to swing across
Speaker 3: X y z? I mean, is the weaver or any
Speaker 3: of that kind of stuff, Like do they give you
Speaker 3: access to that? Is there like some kind of preconditioning
Speaker 3: work up where you can get familiar with those movements?
Speaker 5: So, I mean obviously you.
Speaker 4: Need to you got to know how to swim, so
Speaker 4: you know, practicing the swim test that they do there
Speaker 4: is absolutely you know, a good idea because you might
Speaker 4: go all the way there and fail that. You know,
Speaker 4: you need to be able to pass the PET test,
Speaker 4: which their PEG test includes, and I believe it's still
Speaker 4: the same way chin ups or pull ups, So you
Speaker 4: got to be able to do that. Land navigation get out,
Speaker 4: you know, and be familiar with that because once you
Speaker 4: get through what they call the rapport the radio assessment
Speaker 4: phase portion of it, where they kind of weed out
Speaker 4: everybody that that that it shouldn't be there because they
Speaker 4: got weeded out be ready or mainly ready or whatever,
Speaker 4: then you kind of just get on with the patrolling
Speaker 4: and all that, and there's not a lot of I mean,
Speaker 4: there's still the you know, the small fest where they
Speaker 4: you know, uh, you know, doggy out, but it's all
Speaker 4: learning and patrolling then and then then it's just a
Speaker 4: matter of hey, I got to suck it up without
Speaker 4: the sleep.
Speaker 5: And then the worst thing for me was the food
Speaker 5: because I love to eat. The sleep wasn't It didn't
Speaker 5: get me that bad, although you know.
Speaker 4: I did struggle a few times, but just just eating,
Speaker 4: I think I lost twenty twenty something bounce. But Army
Speaker 4: got some great The national Guard actually runs. When I
Speaker 4: was in we were sending people to a National Guard
Speaker 4: had a pregranger right forbidding or an't remember what it's
Speaker 4: called now, anyway, they've got to run there. That I
Speaker 4: think it was had the highest rate of first time
Speaker 4: goes or passing all the way.
Speaker 5: Through of any other pregranger. Because if you run a
Speaker 5: pregranger as first every division.
Speaker 4: Or the eighty second or sport, you got to take
Speaker 4: those instructors and all those people out of hide.
Speaker 5: You know, you're not task organized with did those people
Speaker 5: that do that? So you actually have to do it
Speaker 5: on your own.
Speaker 4: So it's a great it's a great deal to be
Speaker 4: able to send people somewhere where that's all they're focused on.
Speaker 4: One of the guys that runs it used to work
Speaker 4: out at the ranger camp. He's now to billion. That's
Speaker 4: they're kind of their EXO or deputy commanding officer or something.
Speaker 4: Now I was never into rangers, but Seawan had to
Speaker 4: go through and I want to call it now RASP
Speaker 4: and or Rangers Injury Assessment solection program. Certain leader leaders
Speaker 4: have to go through RAFT and used to be.
Speaker 5: Listed and uh go through the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you went through also the Ranger program, right, Seawan, I.
Speaker 5: Never got tabbed, but I went through where it was.
Speaker 5: It's called RASP. Now it's the selection process to get
Speaker 5: into to get into regiment.
Speaker 1: But it's probably one of the only, if not the
Speaker 1: only regret of my military careers because this this one
Speaker 1: gets to talk smack on me, is I never got tabbed.
Speaker 3: So I'm a leg I have to live with a
Speaker 3: green berry calling your leg but on his leg, so
Speaker 3: you're his.
Speaker 5: But four weeks of RIP was was no joke.
Speaker 1: It's you know, we started out with one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty seven and fifty five made. It's so about to
Speaker 1: do third nutrition rate in the in the rip program
Speaker 1: there and it was hell.
Speaker 3: I've heard stories of guys going through you know, the
Speaker 3: in doc and some things that I still want to
Speaker 3: say because I don't know, but you know, it just
Speaker 3: sounds like a good time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was the best weeks of my life. We'll say, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3: Right, it's a good way to sum it up, right,
Speaker 3: So I don't want to scare someone on the Fenceive going, ranger,
Speaker 3: Go do it right, Go check it out, Go see
Speaker 3: go get tabbed, Go get in the regiment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you have the intestinal fortitude, it's that's the
Speaker 1: place to you know, that's the place to test it somehere.
Speaker 5: You just got to laugh when you're when you're there,
Speaker 5: you just gotta you gotta give it in.
Speaker 4: And lou mean and I used to tell a great instructor,
Speaker 4: you know, quit tomorrow because they were all I quit tomorrow.
Speaker 5: They came, you know, you already tomorrow. Because there are
Speaker 5: people you could just.
Speaker 3: Walk away like maybe tomorrow. Maybe I got through today,
Speaker 3: but maybe tomorrow. And they're just like God, fine, be
Speaker 3: one of us. Now let me ask you this. Let
Speaker 3: me go back real quick, for our listener and for anyone. Uh,
Speaker 3: they have changed a lot of bases in the US
Speaker 3: military because of past names Confederate and things like that.
Speaker 3: So now Fort Benning it's called Fort Moore, and uh
Speaker 3: that's right. Yeah, I just wanted to put that out there,
Speaker 3: you know, because they are making I want to get
Speaker 3: real with it and start appreciating what they're doing here.
Speaker 3: So Fort Moore was Fort Benning and uh wow, I
Speaker 3: mean that's a whole nother phase right there. You know,
Speaker 3: I grew up in an armory in Utah with my
Speaker 3: dad running the armory and all the guys, and uh,
Speaker 3: it was a very different day. And now we've flipped
Speaker 3: that page and a lot of the same brick structures
Speaker 3: are still on bases that are from those eras, and
Speaker 3: you know, all of that juju of trying to do
Speaker 3: the right thing with naming these bases, and now they're
Speaker 3: going say, hey, we got to get rid of that
Speaker 3: and that stigma on it. So what do you think, Yeah, well,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know.
Speaker 5: They things changing the in the in the military.
Speaker 4: I mean I wore five or six different types of
Speaker 4: uniforms just in thirty years.
Speaker 5: You know, so much changes. I think Uh.
Speaker 4: Fort Bragg was the only one that didn't name it
Speaker 4: after somebody someone because they call it for livery. But
Speaker 4: the rest were named after great Americans that served either
Speaker 4: as infantry guys or you know, the aviators.
Speaker 5: That they named for Rucker after, you know, and uh
Speaker 5: and you know greats. Hey, you know, build flow me
Speaker 5: And it's I still say full Bragg a lot, just
Speaker 5: because it's embedded in me.
Speaker 4: Not but and bending because I couldn't remember it was
Speaker 4: more to live but uh yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5: They're all still the same. And and the structures and
Speaker 5: the people make it anyway, like you said, and and
Speaker 5: some of those places are they're just timeless.
Speaker 4: I mean I love going it for betting before More
Speaker 4: and just seeing seeing the jump tower and all those
Speaker 4: you know, the whole barracks and you know some of
Speaker 4: them are gone now, you know, been driving around those.
Speaker 3: Places when you were at four More Fort Benning, Okay,
Speaker 3: it's almost like Twitter and X I swear it's like
Speaker 3: when you were there though, Okay, when you were there.
Speaker 3: Were you there during the time that the Tank Division
Speaker 3: was merged into the infantry base there and they had
Speaker 3: a mechanized unit and then all of a sudden outside
Speaker 3: the base and when Abrams was painted light blue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I I yeah, No, I wasn't.
Speaker 4: They did have an ententry unit there when I went
Speaker 4: through there just one to tie. And when they moved
Speaker 4: the Armor school before Knox, I was actually still the
Speaker 4: division commands our major for one ID and we had
Speaker 4: more brigades in that division at the time than any
Speaker 4: division in the Army.
Speaker 6: Of the eight brigade and three of them were outside
Speaker 6: of Fort Riley, five on Fort Riley and then one
Speaker 6: at Fort Knox where the armored schools at, one at
Speaker 6: Fort Seal, and one at Fort Linnarpoot.
Speaker 4: And we actually go out and visit the folks at
Speaker 4: uh at Fort Knox, and I think I was chatting
Speaker 4: with one of the senior leaders there, can remember who,
Speaker 4: but they had just had a meeting and with one
Speaker 4: of the congressmen or senators from Kentucky. And we at
Speaker 4: our we already knew this at Fort Riley that they
Speaker 4: were really upset that the Armor school was moving away
Speaker 4: from Fort Knox because, I mean, as you know, as
Speaker 4: everybody is aware, I mean, a military organization brings a
Speaker 4: lot of money to a state.
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of money. They want to Fort
Speaker 5: Knox is.
Speaker 4: Still open, but there's human resources in the RTC command.
Speaker 4: I think it's all that's up there. I've got a
Speaker 4: We've got a good friend, Jimmy Locke. It was my
Speaker 4: EXO and US three at the TIA Brigade that works
Speaker 4: up there in the HR area. I haven't talked about it,
Speaker 4: but I imagine it's a pretty, uh like a ghost town.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was a huge That was a huge footprint
Speaker 5: that moved away from there. Of course Georgia was happy, but.
Speaker 4: More got really big, a lot of new you know
Speaker 4: buildings and you know, new infrastructure and.
Speaker 3: A whole new payroll from a whole new brigade moving
Speaker 3: in right within that two mile splash zone of a base,
Speaker 3: right there's usually you know, going off base within two miles,
Speaker 3: you go to the local pub, get somebody, the tailor shop.
Speaker 3: You know, you got your you know area that those
Speaker 3: those businesses right there, the economic burden that they have
Speaker 3: to sustain, you know, of losing all of those patrons
Speaker 3: because you know we're gonna shift them. And I'm glad
Speaker 3: there's a base open here. Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Speaker 3: We were talking briefly about how you stayed here or
Speaker 3: came out here to do some stuff. You know, it
Speaker 3: was always on the it was possible. It was always
Speaker 3: on the chopping block at one point. And they're always like,
Speaker 3: we won't let it happen. And when I was released,
Speaker 3: when I was re doing my lease for my shop
Speaker 3: up there right outside hill, I said, hey, I want
Speaker 3: a close in here that says I can back out
Speaker 3: of our contract if the base gets shut down. And
Speaker 3: landowner looked at me, like, what, that'll never happen. I
Speaker 3: was like, well, then put it in the contract. Especially
Speaker 3: with my business that you got the war games I do,
Speaker 3: war games I sell. Yeah, I have like a whole
Speaker 3: I have a couple of stores. I have an indoor
Speaker 3: shoot house up there that uh you know, we have
Speaker 3: all the guns on the wall, all the combat battle
Speaker 3: rattle everything. Yeah, it would be. It would affect all
Speaker 3: It would affect all the pizza places literally, you know,
Speaker 3: like these guys that get you know, five six pizza
Speaker 3: set up to the squadron would be gone.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I might ever during ways be very poor Campbell during
Speaker 4: when the first ball of war went down. I mean
Speaker 4: probably fifty percent of the businesses around for Campbell just
Speaker 4: either just took a break and stopped and then open
Speaker 4: back up, or just now look like COVID, I guess,
Speaker 4: you know, just just everything shut down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and living through that and knowing that, I
Speaker 3: think I've put myself in my company in a good
Speaker 3: spot for that again, you know what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 3: why I said, hey, if you're if you're willing to
Speaker 3: say it'll never shut them, they'll never shut the base down,
Speaker 3: then put it in the contract. If you're not scared,
Speaker 3: then don't be scared. Right, It's okay. Yeah, Now now
Speaker 3: now that you're out of the military, okay, the both
Speaker 3: of you are out, are you re enlisting it all? Sean?
Speaker 3: Is this something in your life? Or you're done?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 5: I actually got med board, So I went through a
Speaker 5: medical chapter and that pushed out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, gratulations, Yeah, you know, it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a bettersweet ending, but I'm done.
Speaker 3: How many med boards did you have to go through
Speaker 3: before you got the rating that you deserved?
Speaker 1: You know? I did the initial med board to get
Speaker 1: pushed out, and then I think one or two after that.
Speaker 1: You think reevaluating twice, you know, I think I got
Speaker 1: re evaluated twice, and then that was the.
Speaker 3: Do you think that you really needed to be reevaluated twice?
Speaker 5: Are you asking it?
Speaker 3: I'm I'm asking you. See, so going through an emty
Speaker 3: B board, you have to, you know, go through they're
Speaker 3: gonna give you a rating h X y Z, you
Speaker 3: know when you get out of the military or d
Speaker 3: D two fourteen gets stamped with whatever. That's what I'm
Speaker 3: saying is like, you know, I've dealt with a MED board.
Speaker 3: It was a bit of a back and forth circus. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, you know, who are these people
Speaker 3: that are running these things?
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's there's.
Speaker 4: Been bad I mean, some stuff, you know, obviously gets
Speaker 4: re evaluated because you could get better. I got a
Speaker 4: letter one time saying that, you know, they were gonna
Speaker 4: take a look at the portion of my via disability
Speaker 4: that my back right, your back is combined into everything.
Speaker 4: So all the stuff by your back is really just
Speaker 4: one thing. But one of mine is degenerative disc u
Speaker 4: s order and authoritis. And you know, just by virtue
Speaker 4: of the name degenerative, it's not going to get any better.
Speaker 5: And so that was kind of odd to me. But anyway,
Speaker 5: it sorted itself out. I know a lot of great
Speaker 5: people working at the VA doing these things.
Speaker 3: And did you have to get any outside council to
Speaker 3: help you with your METB board or did you guys
Speaker 3: just get it done with your own ingenuity? Right?
Speaker 5: No, actually, you know I got the DAV helped me out.
Speaker 5: And then what was that other organization again? Remember the name, Yeah,
Speaker 5: that's the one you gave me. Yeah, there was another
Speaker 5: company that our organization that got involved. Yeah, so you
Speaker 5: can only have one advocate as far as the VA
Speaker 5: is concerned, So you have to go in and change yourself.
Speaker 5: Mine is still the.
Speaker 4: DAV, but they've got an office out here at the
Speaker 4: at the VA hospital that we both go to.
Speaker 5: The DAV has actually got an.
Speaker 4: Office there, So it's a good it's a good one
Speaker 4: to have person, you know. Yeah, the BA in Ornando
Speaker 4: area is great.
Speaker 3: I mean, and I bring that up because you know
Speaker 3: here we are, right, It's it's a real thing. It's
Speaker 3: a conversation of after the military. There's others that are
Speaker 3: probably listening that have been through the same exact office,
Speaker 3: you know, the same exact you know process, and it
Speaker 3: might have been frustrating for them. And I'm just trying
Speaker 3: to or not. It could have been seamless. It's like, hey,
Speaker 3: obvious injuries, it's one hundred percent, you're out, you know.
Speaker 3: Or it's hm, you're thirty thirty percent, Well now you're
Speaker 3: forty fifty percent. Now if you keep getting now you're
Speaker 3: sixty percent. Well we'll just roll you into one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I'd like the VA just to kind of like say, hey,
Speaker 3: you did your time, You're good to go. Here's your
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know what I'm trying to get at.
Speaker 3: Maybe you can hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I probably didn't have as much as much angstra problems
Speaker 5: as a lot of people just because of my virtue
Speaker 5: of my position.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: So I sat down with one of the doctors at
Speaker 4: the hospital at Fort Riley and they went through and
Speaker 4: anybody can have this done. But I mean, you know, basically,
Speaker 4: I you know, I said, hey, I'm gonna sho O
Speaker 4: for this, and they had, you know, one of the
Speaker 4: senior doctors went through page by page, you.
Speaker 5: Know, with me on thanks, and then you know, went
Speaker 5: to the VA and.
Speaker 4: Was it at in Kansas anyway, went to a V
Speaker 4: hospital in Kansas and kind of finished everything up, and.
Speaker 5: There was a couple of things that I had never
Speaker 5: had done before.
Speaker 4: I had some high speed hearing tests that I had
Speaker 4: never done before, you know, more than the standard hearing
Speaker 4: test that determined I had Like I knew I had
Speaker 4: tonight itis anyway, the ring, but it actually you know,
Speaker 4: the was able to people feed it.
Speaker 5: Down on paper.
Speaker 1: So I think the system now is a lot better
Speaker 1: because they I think they started this before you got
Speaker 1: out to where before you would get out and have
Speaker 1: to continue the process of doing everything, and then they
Speaker 1: change it to where all right, you're going to have
Speaker 1: everything done before.
Speaker 5: You get out of the army, you know, the final
Speaker 5: sign out so to speak, or day out. I think
Speaker 5: that's what kind of you went to it, and why.
Speaker 3: No, it's crazy And I would say that at the VA.
Speaker 3: You know, what I'm trying to point out is that
Speaker 3: you know that it might sometimes get a bad rap
Speaker 3: from people who don't go through the process, like the
Speaker 3: outsiders that are saying the VA is it supporting its
Speaker 3: veterans or the you know, the processes is very convoluted
Speaker 3: with you know, hurdles, and I know it is right,
Speaker 3: it's red there's red tape involved with you know, going
Speaker 3: through the process. But I still want to say that
Speaker 3: we still have something that is better than nothing, right
Speaker 3: going to the VA, being able to go there. I've
Speaker 3: been to England and I've been to other places and
Speaker 3: they don't quite have the same infrastructure for the veterans'
Speaker 3: services what we kind of take for granted here in
Speaker 3: the US as an American, we are like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: just not good enough. But if you go and just
Speaker 3: take a second and look outside of ourselves and see
Speaker 3: what anybody else has for their veterans, It's like, that's right, mate.
Speaker 3: You get one day a week, one day a year
Speaker 3: with your medals, and that's cool with us. The rest
Speaker 3: of the day, it's like, where's their veterans? So it's
Speaker 3: good to hear that you had a good experience and
Speaker 3: that you've had decent experiences.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I've always, like I said, I've gone to the VA.
Speaker 3: I've taken my dad to the VA. Actually my mom
Speaker 3: was the VA caregiver. Holy cow, power to the moms
Speaker 3: out there that are pushing around all the dads that
Speaker 3: are two hundred and forty five fifty sixty pounds now
Speaker 3: because they can't help it in a wheelchair.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you see a lot of out there. You talking
Speaker 5: about other militaries.
Speaker 4: I uh, my last overseas gig was Brandon Nigerian soldiers
Speaker 4: and although they have a volunteer army, they really do
Speaker 4: not get treated well at all of the I was
Speaker 4: teaching patrol and techniques over there, and there guys show
Speaker 4: up and maybe sitting under a tree, and they say,
Speaker 4: with him, he's got a malaria or he's got typhoid.
Speaker 5: So much is he doing out here? Sending back to
Speaker 5: the barracks put.
Speaker 1: On him.
Speaker 5: And then you know they they had a protein shape
Speaker 5: and a loaf of.
Speaker 3: Bread for their meals and they were content.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they were happy.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, they're fighting the bocah Rama up north,
Speaker 4: you know, a brutal insurgency, and you know they're actually
Speaker 4: they're joining and fighting for their country literally because they're
Speaker 4: you know, they've got people that you know are inside
Speaker 4: it and invaded and that you know, we're trying to
Speaker 4: the change things.
Speaker 5: Of course, there's a lot of corruption over there.
Speaker 4: They've got a lot of money. They've got enough money
Speaker 4: to oil for it to be a you know, well
Speaker 4: stre all the corruption keeps it from happening.
Speaker 3: And there's the half to the half the hots right,
Speaker 3: because if there's any humanitarian food coming in, it's getting
Speaker 3: collected by whoever wants the humanitarian effort if there's any
Speaker 3: right and then they're going to distribute it out to themselves.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it never works. That never works too well. Unless
Speaker 5: we're on the ground.
Speaker 3: What's the situation where you were at? What was the
Speaker 3: water like?
Speaker 4: Was it like?
Speaker 3: Did they have wells? Did they did the places you were.
Speaker 5: At have So we drank bottle of water. Nobody drank
Speaker 5: out of the much some people may have drank out
Speaker 5: of Wales.
Speaker 4: But they have these little uh they would carry the
Speaker 4: perried around the big carts and sell it. There's little
Speaker 4: plastic bags of water, I mean really soft, so they
Speaker 4: just punch a hole in it.
Speaker 3: We had like a Caprice sun or something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and I ate a.
Speaker 5: Lot of chicken over there and a lot of rice
Speaker 5: of variety.
Speaker 3: Pretty good though, pretty good cooking. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They they one of the big steakles of their diet
Speaker 4: are these huge football sized swing potatoes. And they allowed
Speaker 4: them to farm on the military installation. So as we're
Speaker 4: out there training on the ground.
Speaker 5: Patrolling and farming and picking and doing their things, and
Speaker 5: they do a lot of it by hand.
Speaker 3: There's it's like low crawling, but he's like just clearing
Speaker 3: out the cucumbers, moving along. Yeah, I love it. I
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 4: We tried not to, you know, get into farmers way
Speaker 4: because we didn't want to upset them. But you know,
Speaker 4: sometimes we had so many things going on that you know,
Speaker 4: they had to they had to, you know, put a
Speaker 4: little halt of their.
Speaker 3: Farming.
Speaker 5: I mean I enjoy training them a lot. I you know,
Speaker 5: I made some differends over there. It was it's a
Speaker 5: state department run thing all across Africa.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, taking an Elk trade military where you
Speaker 4: just try to teach some US tactics which are a
Speaker 4: lot better than the old tactic.
Speaker 5: So they're using so that they're able to fight a lot,
Speaker 5: a lot more productively, a.
Speaker 3: Lot better probably moving in like a call information, lining up,
Speaker 3: just like getting the bas a lot of old.
Speaker 5: Kind of you know, a lot of British influence there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like they want to probably like watch yeah yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5: But the first battalion we trained, they went straight up
Speaker 5: to up north to fight.
Speaker 7: And you know we're doing reports that they were doing
Speaker 7: really well. So we were pretty happy to hear about that.
Speaker 7: We did patrol in convoy. Uh, you know, hit the
Speaker 7: ranges and try to make them a little better. They
Speaker 7: carried eight forty seven's arbig's and.
Speaker 4: And Soviet U style weaponry systems, CITs and land navigations
Speaker 4: and leadership training and things like that. So that's that's
Speaker 4: my passion training, you know, teaching, training, instructing, and you
Speaker 4: know Sean.
Speaker 5: Enjoys that well, you know, coaching all this. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's just that's just my favorite thing to do, no
Speaker 5: matter if it's a little kid, you know, the grandsons
Speaker 5: or or somebody else.
Speaker 3: We do that all the time at the arena. You know,
Speaker 3: we're always instructing and coaching. Massive amounts of just regular
Speaker 3: public people showing up sixteen to twenty to time and
Speaker 3: it's like they never met each other. Maybe a couple,
Speaker 3: but here we are. First thing we do is we
Speaker 3: install install like a handshake or a high five. We're
Speaker 3: all on the same team and we're gonna split up
Speaker 3: and shoot each other. You're still on the same team. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: we want to do that.
Speaker 5: So we gotta make our way out to Utah and
Speaker 5: get out and check out your glaze.
Speaker 3: I would open the door for you. You just have
Speaker 3: to just show up. It would be no problem, Okay,
Speaker 3: especially if you've been on the show. That's a pass.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. I mean we do night vision,
Speaker 3: We go out in the deserts, We got nods. We
Speaker 3: got guys that have got more in their eyewear than
Speaker 3: they have in their vehicles. Yeah, white foster civilians, former
Speaker 3: guys like yourselves. Maybe they don't. They're looking for some camaraderie.
Speaker 3: They can't find a hobby that they fit in. Then
Speaker 3: maybe they don't want to go snowboard because there's no
Speaker 3: snow Maybe they can't skateboard because they just can't. Maybe maybe, maybe,
Speaker 3: But you can go airsoft. You could come out to
Speaker 3: the desert. You can walk around with me and forty
Speaker 3: other people who all want to walk around the desert
Speaker 3: with rifles, and then we wave at each other and
Speaker 3: if you don't wave back, we shoot you. And then
Speaker 3: it just keeps going. So it's like it's really a
Speaker 3: nice day walking in the Utah desert or the mountains, exploring,
Speaker 3: looking for cucumbers to weed, and then coming into contact
Speaker 3: and then that happens so fast, and everything happens. Then
Speaker 3: he settles if you will, like the dust and you
Speaker 3: kind of like, all right, all right, he got shot,
Speaker 3: he's walking back, he's dead. Okay, he'll learn from that.
Speaker 3: I'm still alive and the rounds are still coming over
Speaker 3: your head. So you get this camaraderie. This like shoulder
Speaker 3: to shoulder. It's like I'm out of AMMO. It's like here,
Speaker 3: here's some AMMO.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like, hey, then we got a grenade. Yeah, here,
Speaker 3: better to have one than not have one.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like, so I find that, you know, today's air softer,
Speaker 3: whether they're fifteen year old who's playing wholeheartedly, just like
Speaker 3: they got it down, they got all the gear, they're
Speaker 3: all decked out, and they might become tomorrow's you. Right,
Speaker 3: So this is this is a good segue for them
Speaker 3: to say, Hey, you know, these guys did it. They're successful.
Speaker 3: There's life after what they did. They've made it through
Speaker 3: by listening to their instructors and using their training wisely
Speaker 3: and just you know, being smart. Right, that's what we
Speaker 3: want to show. I'm giving you these credits.
Speaker 5: We've been on a.
Speaker 1: Kick recently where we're watching a few videos from this
Speaker 1: this guy on YouTube kicking.
Speaker 3: Mustang Yes is channel Yes.
Speaker 1: Former former British says sniper I think and he does
Speaker 1: these videos and every time we watch it, well, I
Speaker 1: don't think either of us have ever done it or Soft.
Speaker 5: I've done pain ball, you telling them nurse. Every time
Speaker 5: we watch these kicking musty videos, we're like, yeah, we
Speaker 5: got it. So, by the way, it could be pricey
Speaker 5: and it could be time consuming, but that's something we
Speaker 5: got to get into.
Speaker 3: I tell my guys that kind of like, there's this
Speaker 3: there's this fine line where people are like, I shoot
Speaker 3: real guns. I'm like, that's cool. Who do you shoot
Speaker 3: them at? That's what I say. I'm like, you shoot
Speaker 3: real guns. Okay, cool? They want to come at me.
Speaker 3: It's like I shoot real guns. I'm like that's great.
Speaker 3: Nothing will ever replace the smell or the violence of
Speaker 3: a real rifle or a real gun. Nothing. Okay that
Speaker 3: you need to know that, But Airsoft. Airsoft in wargames
Speaker 3: is a whole nother game. It's cardio conditioning. I'm moving
Speaker 3: with my equipment.
Speaker 5: I have it on me.
Speaker 3: I know how it's going to work on my body.
Speaker 3: My headsets all set up, I'm dialed in and the
Speaker 3: fifteen twelve year old, thirty seventy year old, they're all
Speaker 3: dialed in, right, And so I.
Speaker 1: Think getting into that mindset of you know, the heightened
Speaker 1: state of awareness where you're thinking about tactics constantly.
Speaker 5: Like you said, it's not just a stroll in the
Speaker 5: park or whatever. It's no, it's tightened awareness for an
Speaker 5: extended amount of time.
Speaker 1: And getting yourself into that mindset is a sense of training,
Speaker 1: and it so fitness.
Speaker 5: For your brain.
Speaker 3: And if you haven't put face paint on in anticipation
Speaker 3: of hunting somebody, there's nothing like it. And I look
Speaker 3: at your dad, start major, and you've got a skull
Speaker 3: for some stripes, you know what I mean? Only imagine
Speaker 3: I like to go all green with three black stripes.
Speaker 3: A little commando meets the green. Okay, that's me. And
Speaker 3: I pull my hair back just like this, put it
Speaker 3: into a ball. I braid my beard into two braids
Speaker 3: just like this, and then I just become small and
Speaker 3: just go at it with three hundred of us.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we'll use military a recruiter.
Speaker 5: On your area. I'd be taking guys out of here.
Speaker 3: So I'm not paid by anybody, right, I actually choose
Speaker 3: this path of life where they have said, hey, rad,
Speaker 3: how can we? How can we? And I'm like, there's
Speaker 3: not We don't want to actively ruin the game by being,
Speaker 3: you know, like you gotta join. I'm I'm a recruiter
Speaker 3: on a Saturday. It's like, Yeah, if you're a recruiter
Speaker 3: and it's a Saturday and you got to do something,
Speaker 3: you should go play Airsoft. And I don't mean poach Airsoft.
Speaker 3: I mean you should play it. You should go there
Speaker 3: and you should just shoulder to shoulder with these guys
Speaker 3: and gals and just kind of buddy up and say, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm just I'm not here to do anything.
Speaker 3: I just want to play. It'll, it'll happen. I've put
Speaker 3: in over probably seven hundred and fifty different people in
Speaker 3: my twenty years of Airsoft with as a COI as
Speaker 3: a center of influence for the army, as a you know,
Speaker 3: and and that was in two thousand and seven, two
Speaker 3: thousand and nine, twenty ten, and I've just kind of
Speaker 3: done it now. Just if you want to join, if
Speaker 3: you're on the fence, if you're at a one or
Speaker 3: a ten on the scale of joining, just go ten.
Speaker 3: That's how I say it. If you're even on the scale,
Speaker 3: if even stepping on that mofo, just go for it.
Speaker 3: Just step into an office, talk to somebody and see
Speaker 3: if they talk to you the way you want. And
Speaker 3: if that's what you get, then that's what you got.
Speaker 3: That's me. And there you go, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine,
Speaker 3: Space Force. There you go from soft rep and love here.
Speaker 3: I'm all about it.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like if I didn't try and go as far
Speaker 3: as I did, if you didn't try and go as
Speaker 3: far as you did, if you didn't try and go
Speaker 3: as far as you did, we wouldn't have. Like you said,
Speaker 3: these bonds, these stories just who we are, so we
Speaker 3: need go ahead.
Speaker 5: And I learned a lot about and then uh.
Speaker 4: The best advice I got from the first station that
Speaker 4: I had years and stay out to keep them infantry,
Speaker 4: but was.
Speaker 5: Just to be yourself.
Speaker 4: And that worked well for me in UH in recruiting,
Speaker 4: and you can't be two uh yellow recruiters that come
Speaker 4: across as uh, you know, the like they need you.
Speaker 3: They gotta have, they got to selects.
Speaker 4: And you know, I just act like you know, it
Speaker 4: didn't matter to me, give you all the information and
Speaker 4: I stay guys up to and yelled up to whatever
Speaker 4: when that was the closest army base.
Speaker 5: And I tell them I just pick somebody and will
Speaker 5: talk to them. You know, I got no influence. I
Speaker 5: didn't talk to anybody. Fix somebody to talk to them
Speaker 5: about it.
Speaker 4: And decide, you know, what you want to do. I mean,
Speaker 4: here's the here's the benefits. I mean, And there are
Speaker 4: certain things that you can't change. You know, I don't
Speaker 4: want to cut my hair.
Speaker 1: You have to.
Speaker 5: You know, they taught us to feel felt feel felt fine,
Speaker 5: or some method. I know, I feel I felt the
Speaker 5: same way, but I found that this sure, you know.
Speaker 4: And then there's all the things that people just they
Speaker 4: think the army or military service is like being.
Speaker 5: In jail, like you can't do anything, you know, on
Speaker 5: the weekends or whatever. They're talking to their uncle, you know,
Speaker 5: who's a Korean war vet, and you know he's telling
Speaker 5: them this and that.
Speaker 3: About it, and he's like, my toes. You don't understand
Speaker 3: about Korea Army and my toes. You're like, oh, you're like, damn,
Speaker 3: sorry war vets, but no, no, I love you Korea.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're out there, think you call me,
Speaker 3: hit me up and drop me an email. Let's get
Speaker 3: you on the show Korea. If you're out there, hit
Speaker 3: me up. I'm down to interview you. But I would
Speaker 3: say that I forgot, Well, I didn't forget. I just
Speaker 3: realized that you're also a recruiter, that you had done
Speaker 3: that and warn that hat and so I just like passive.
Speaker 3: I just want them to come out and have a
Speaker 3: good time. They can drive their GUV car with their
Speaker 3: GOV plate, I'll know who they are. But you know,
Speaker 3: these guys out there, they're young kids who are emulating
Speaker 3: the best, which is like a green or a Navy Seal,
Speaker 3: our number one export. Okay, let me put it this way.
Speaker 3: In other countries like Japan, Airsoft is huge and they
Speaker 3: want to dress up like the best. And the request
Speaker 3: is all the time, do you have any Navy Seal
Speaker 3: or Green Beret load outs? That's what I hear. And
Speaker 3: that's because that's our number one export. It's the best.
Speaker 3: That's the number one thing that the America has. The
Speaker 3: number one best thing we have is our military with
Speaker 3: its machine and it's exporting it. We send it all
Speaker 3: over the world. So here they are wanting to be
Speaker 3: Navy Seals and Green Berets. So I'm not mad at
Speaker 3: the young kid who's dressed like that. It's the guy
Speaker 3: that's trying to get on a base using that image
Speaker 3: to try to say he is something to gain ill things. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's where I have this stolen valor situation. It's it's
Speaker 3: not a kid. Kobe Bryant would not walk up to
Speaker 3: the basketball court and say take my shoes and my
Speaker 3: jersey off, little kid. You're not Kobe. He would not
Speaker 3: do that. He'd be like, oh, hey, here's a headband,
Speaker 3: and here's some sweats, and here's this. You're wearing my gear.
Speaker 3: You know. So these guys that are in this world,
Speaker 3: you guys, they don't have a problem with the youth
Speaker 3: wearing like, you know, a s Navy seal trying it
Speaker 3: on their shoulder because they want to be one. They're like,
Speaker 3: just take that step, go for it, try it. But
Speaker 3: then you get the kids in airsoft that have asthma,
Speaker 3: that can never join, that never have the option to,
Speaker 3: and so here they are getting to fight alongside of
Speaker 3: someone like Sean Okay who has been in at a
Speaker 3: sergeant level, and now they're like, wow, I'm actually like
Speaker 3: shoulder to shoulder with this dude and he's tossing me
Speaker 3: a grenade. You know that's something that they would never
Speaker 3: ever have gotten that experience of doing. That's me. I'm
Speaker 3: just letting you know. I love a happiness, I love
Speaker 3: my AK, I love redwood forest trees and my military,
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm cool. If they just want to
Speaker 3: be free and freedom of choice for yourself, you can
Speaker 3: tattoo yourself, but just don't tattoo me with your tattoo.
Speaker 3: It's it. Remember the AK. Well, I know I've had
Speaker 3: you on for a little over an hour and we're
Speaker 3: just talking as a casual conversation, and I want my
Speaker 3: listener to know out there that you can just talk
Speaker 3: to somebody, like he said, go on base. If you
Speaker 3: have a question, ask somebody who's in. You don't have
Speaker 3: to ask your recruiter. Ask somebody else who's in. Say hey,
Speaker 3: what do you think you're in the Navy? I'm thinking
Speaker 3: about going army? Why'd you go Navy? You know what
Speaker 3: I find is that a lot of people join the
Speaker 3: Air Force after seeing a Navy commercial of the ocean
Speaker 3: washing away the sand footprints of the Navy seals that
Speaker 3: are sneaking. But then They're like, where's that at And
Speaker 3: I'm like, but you joined the Air Force. I'm like,
Speaker 3: come play some airsoft, come here, come on. But at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, you know, if you want
Speaker 3: the Navy Seal, you gotta go Navy Seal. If you
Speaker 3: want infantry, you gotta go infantry. You got to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I used to even I bring in the folks
Speaker 4: that were so much that we had no choice but
Speaker 4: to put them out, you know, chatter.
Speaker 5: Them out or whatever. They've been in so much trouble,
Speaker 5: so many brog bringing in that.
Speaker 4: All the time, and you know love them, know like Herry,
Speaker 4: well you know them after you know what they're trying
Speaker 4: to figure out what their plans were, or someone didn't
Speaker 4: didn't want to have anything to do with it because they.
Speaker 5: Were so you know, upset about you know, being put out.
Speaker 5: But then then what others they would listen, and you
Speaker 5: know I would tell them, I said, you know, when
Speaker 5: you go out there and.
Speaker 4: You can still be a recruit where the army even
Speaker 4: though you know it wasn't for you or you got
Speaker 4: so much trouble.
Speaker 5: Maybe if you show up together. But you know, if
Speaker 5: your cousin Johnny comes up to you you know, and
Speaker 5: it says, you know, what do you think.
Speaker 4: About me joining the army? I mean, don't you know,
Speaker 4: don't don't project your experiences you know on him. Let
Speaker 4: him know, hey, you know it wasn't for me. You know,
Speaker 4: if he knows or you don't have to tell him,
Speaker 4: you know, tell him, tell him the truth about you know,
Speaker 4: the military, you know, the goods them the bad, because
Speaker 4: people need to know.
Speaker 5: Don't be so you know negative that you go out
Speaker 5: and just bad amount of its nervous all the time.
Speaker 5: That would just you know, a piece of advice that
Speaker 5: I did to.
Speaker 4: Usen because this might be something that really works out
Speaker 4: for a friend of yours or relatives or something.
Speaker 5: This might be something that they need or that they
Speaker 5: want or they would do well. That just because you
Speaker 5: didn't doesn't mean that, you know, just for you, doesn't
Speaker 5: mean you know, not for somebody else.
Speaker 3: So you know, and also to the parent out there
Speaker 3: that I know this exists because I hear. I know
Speaker 3: this right because I deal with all these younger kids
Speaker 3: sixteen seventeen's and the parents put them on an adderall
Speaker 3: or on a other style of like you know, ady
Speaker 3: D style pill that just prevents them from being able
Speaker 3: because they want to go. These kids are like seventeen
Speaker 3: and they're just like chomping at the bit to get in.
Speaker 3: They got all their gear and the parent probably knows, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna lose little Billy, right, So I just am
Speaker 3: like Anyways, there's only so much a waiver can do.
Speaker 3: But go talk to a career professional for our United
Speaker 3: States military. If you're listening, right, and you heard it
Speaker 3: here from from myself and from Sean and from Charles,
Speaker 3: you know, give it a shot. If it's something in
Speaker 3: your in your thought process, right, you never know until
Speaker 3: you try. Boy. I mean again, I've had you for
Speaker 3: a long time and I can always have you back.
Speaker 3: You guys are always welcome to come back. And this
Speaker 3: isn't like the last time we can have a conversation.
Speaker 3: We can even get more depth about the that you're right,
Speaker 3: and that you're an author and that you have all
Speaker 3: these things right, don't you have books that you've written.
Speaker 5: I've got some stuff that I'm working on and uh
Speaker 5: and one of the military stuff that that you know
Speaker 5: I did. But yeah, Matt mcne and Chalmer, you know,
Speaker 5: bounce around these ideas.
Speaker 3: I got.
Speaker 4: The latest one is to just the stories of stupidity
Speaker 4: from you know, the military and meet him.
Speaker 3: Both got plenty of let's put that in our book club.
Speaker 5: Stories.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, please please please everybody.
Speaker 1: I think people that have never and this is the
Speaker 1: idea that is, like he said, we meet him and
Speaker 1: I bounced around, and I bounced around with my best
Speaker 1: friend from the army when we first got in. You know,
Speaker 1: I was only in a year or two when we
Speaker 1: started bouncing this idea round because we saw it already.
Speaker 1: People that don't really have any affiliation with the military,
Speaker 1: they think typically one of two things. They think, like
Speaker 1: you said, earlier, military people are like you guys were
Speaker 1: talking about earlier. Life in the military is just so
Speaker 1: completely structured and it's like a jail where you know,
Speaker 1: there's no fun, you know, no family life.
Speaker 5: None of that.
Speaker 1: But the other side of that, it's people think that
Speaker 1: they're everybody in the military is very squared away. They
Speaker 1: all have you know that SAIDs on their shoulders and
Speaker 1: there's never any problems. And you know, my experience with
Speaker 1: the people that I was really close with, and a
Speaker 1: lot of his experience was you know, it's a complete opposite.
Speaker 5: You know a lot of people a lot of veterans
Speaker 5: could attest that most people.
Speaker 1: Of the military are you know, they're kind of maniacs
Speaker 1: in sent and but that's you know, it takes that
Speaker 1: sort of person to be I don't know, well adapted.
Speaker 5: To the right word, but too you know, the job. Yeah,
Speaker 5: to do the job, to thrive in that lifestyle. And uh,
Speaker 5: what that kind of equates to is sort of what
Speaker 5: that ends up with is, like you said, some some
Speaker 5: stories of stupidity, and that's to me, that's you know,
Speaker 5: the stuff.
Speaker 1: That will that will live forever in my memories is
Speaker 1: the it's funny stories with with your with your buddies
Speaker 1: and you're.
Speaker 3: You know, I was once told we don't always need
Speaker 3: the boy scouts on the team rat. He's like, someone
Speaker 3: has to kill grandma still car and complete objective. And
Speaker 3: I was like, damn, yeah, you're right. Huh, someone does
Speaker 3: have to kill Grandma still the car and complete the objective.
Speaker 3: So okay, I'm just that's Look, it's crazy. I loved
Speaker 3: having you guys on the show.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Soft rep is a welcome platform for you to come
Speaker 3: out here anytime and just have a nice conversation and
Speaker 3: we can just I hope you guys have had a
Speaker 3: great time and enjoyed the fireplace. That's real. It's not
Speaker 3: a green screen, you know, Yeah, it's real. I'm in Utah, baby,
Speaker 3: that's a nice rock wall and everything. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: got a background.
Speaker 5: Well down in the sixties.
Speaker 3: It just snowed in high elevations here and you'd snowbird
Speaker 3: Alta and Brighton just got six inches of snow. I
Speaker 3: ride at Brighton is really just lead throughout this winter year.
Speaker 3: So in thet you're lucky to get. We're lucky to
Speaker 3: do this podcast now because ten am. Any other day
Speaker 3: during the winter, I'm up on the mountain, so it's
Speaker 3: usually a night shoot. I'm like seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 3: Does that work for you? All right, well, listen, I
Speaker 3: just want to say thank you on behalf of Charles
Speaker 3: and Sean Sasser, both awesome veterans of our United States
Speaker 3: Army and military and get human beings that are trying
Speaker 3: to do the right thing in life. And my name
Speaker 3: is Rad as your host for soft Rep. I want
Speaker 3: to remind you go check out our merch go check
Speaker 3: out the book club which is soft rep dot com
Speaker 3: book hyphen Club, and just enlist. And I want to
Speaker 3: say shout out to Brandon Webb, to Anton and to
Speaker 3: Mark and everybody on the back end that always make
Speaker 3: the show what it is. I really appreciate it, and
Speaker 3: I'm truly blessed to be here so on behalf of
Speaker 3: my two guests. I just want to say thank you
Speaker 3: and peace.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to Self Rep Radio