Speaker 1: H ah beautiful. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to software radio, special operations, military
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys in the community,
Speaker 1: Army Ranger and Green Beret Jack Murphy Lasagna. Don't get
Speaker 1: any on your Marine Scouts Sniper Jason Delgado is just
Speaker 1: something we believe it. I associate that with taste, but
Speaker 1: I like freaking chocolate chi may Why is it flavor? Boring?
Speaker 1: The whole Lively board And now here's your co host
Speaker 1: and producer of this operation, Ian Scott l soft rep
Speaker 1: dot Com on Time on Target. The last time you
Speaker 1: were on was the Jack Divine episode, which got a
Speaker 1: tremendous response. I got like a bunch of tweets and
Speaker 1: um emails saying that they've thought it was one of
Speaker 1: the best episodes we've ever done, and I would agree.
Speaker 1: Fascinating guy. Yeah, by far, probably one of the most intricate.
Speaker 1: I guess, one of the one of the most intricate
Speaker 1: guests we have. You know, like as far as you
Speaker 1: know his hand or his um participation within a lot
Speaker 1: of significant events within c I a history, so many
Speaker 1: significant events. Yeah, just to think of all that history,
Speaker 1: they're from the sixties up to now. Uh, you don't
Speaker 1: meet people like that every day, so hopefully we've been
Speaker 1: the studio. It's soundable, awesome. Yeah, I really dug that. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, for those who don't know the reason you
Speaker 1: weren't here last episode, I know, your daughter or some
Speaker 1: health issues going on. It's what's it's just a concern,
Speaker 1: you know. We're just waiting for lab work, you know,
Speaker 1: and nothing big. It's just you know, something awry, something
Speaker 1: out of the out of the ordinary, and you know,
Speaker 1: being the holiday season, we gotta wait a few days
Speaker 1: before we get the lab results back. So that's you
Speaker 1: got us on edge a bit. So as long as
Speaker 1: she's okay, No, she's chilling. She looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with her whatsoever, you know. But it's
Speaker 1: not normal to us, you know. So and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna ask any more than that. Man. Yeah, not personal
Speaker 1: life stuff. But I just want to mention it. It's
Speaker 1: people are invested in us, just as people I feel
Speaker 1: like they you know, sometimes I forget if it's like
Speaker 1: this is what they listen to when their commute to work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe they're going through something similar. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: I totally get it. So you know, any parent out
Speaker 1: there knows when you know something happens to a child
Speaker 1: or you know something strange is going on, you know,
Speaker 1: you kind of start running a running wild you know,
Speaker 1: in the mind, and you know, you start thinking about
Speaker 1: all these different diagnosis and stuff like that. So it's
Speaker 1: it's nuts. So yeah, it's hard not to be paranoid.
Speaker 1: You know, I realized sometimes invested people are and just
Speaker 1: you as a radio personality when or a podcast host. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm no longer doing Appetite for Distortion my
Speaker 1: side podcast, because I have have a bunch of other projects
Speaker 1: and you know, I talked about how early January I
Speaker 1: stepped away from doing a bunch of shows. It was
Speaker 1: going through a very serious depression and have been back
Speaker 1: to myself for a very long time now. Um, but
Speaker 1: I got all these tweets about like, oh, I relate
Speaker 1: to the same thing, and like you forget these people
Speaker 1: feel like they know you, which is cool, and I
Speaker 1: could totally relate to me and just being like a
Speaker 1: Howard Stern fan. I just saw Artie Lang's most recent
Speaker 1: arrest for all these bags of heroin and it's like shit,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's hard to break. You know, it's
Speaker 1: heartbreaking something so talented, it's so but you know, it's
Speaker 1: like that downward spiral when some people just get caught
Speaker 1: up in that and they're using those substances to kind
Speaker 1: of like desensitize themselves to this tremendous you know, pain
Speaker 1: or whatever they're holding, you know, and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: hard when you admire the individual going through this and
Speaker 1: you have to sit back on the sidelines and watch
Speaker 1: because you know what, you can bring a horse to water,
Speaker 1: but you can't force him to drink right. And you
Speaker 1: can try to get you know, your best friend or
Speaker 1: your your your loved one, your family member, all this help,
Speaker 1: but the truth is if they don't want them, they
Speaker 1: don't want to help themselves. You just gotta sit back
Speaker 1: and watch him. You know. It's crazy, it's painful, and
Speaker 1: I get it, man, and people want to relate to
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And that's why it's cool when
Speaker 1: we have people like Nick Irving, who was really um
Speaker 1: candid about getting through all that in the most recent podcast.
Speaker 1: I felt like, I think that's you know, in part
Speaker 1: of what we do as far as you know, special ops,
Speaker 1: you know, news and stuff like that. I think we
Speaker 1: bring more of reality to our audience because we have
Speaker 1: guys like freaking Steve Ralston, you know, and and wow,
Speaker 1: this is one of the realist dudes I've ever met
Speaker 1: in my life. And people hear his story and how
Speaker 1: resilient he is, and you know how he continues to
Speaker 1: wake up and strive to be better daily considering all
Speaker 1: that stuff he's been through. If he can get through
Speaker 1: that ship, or you know, Nick could get through the
Speaker 1: ship he's going through, you know, vice versa. Wow, man,
Speaker 1: like anyone could do anything, you just gotta you know
Speaker 1: that sometimes you just need that little push that and
Speaker 1: sometimes the stories is what does it for our audience.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm cool man, if you take it
Speaker 1: as that, I appreciate that more than you're coming on
Speaker 1: here and just trying to you know, have a good
Speaker 1: laugh or so yeah. Yeah, and inspires people to get
Speaker 1: off their ass and and make something themselves. Um alright,
Speaker 1: So first thing I was gonna mention Jack Murphy's show.
Speaker 1: This isn't like a paid live read or anything. I
Speaker 1: just want to mention it because I figure our audience
Speaker 1: wants to hear about it. Um is test was Death
Speaker 1: Ray a Murder de Classified and the premiers January second,
Speaker 1: at ten pm on the Discovery Channel. I think that's
Speaker 1: ten pm Eastern. Check your local listings, of course. But
Speaker 1: Jack will be back in January. That's what he's been
Speaker 1: up to, recording on Long Island, recording everywhere, and I'm
Speaker 1: just like to see it. Man, It's cool to see
Speaker 1: him just doing something way different than what he does
Speaker 1: here when we're doing big things. Well, when people already Tesla,
Speaker 1: they're like, what does this have to do with Special Forces?
Speaker 1: And the answer, but exactly doesn't have to, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like, Okay, there's so many journalists
Speaker 1: with like a military background. You know, just because you
Speaker 1: know they have a military background, doesn't mean they have
Speaker 1: to stay within that you know area, that field, you know,
Speaker 1: the brandchild do other things. And Jack is super intellectual, dude, man,
Speaker 1: I get it. Yeah, I agree, Like Terry Shepherd has
Speaker 1: done so much TV and and some people know Terry
Speaker 1: Shepherd more from Shark Week than from being in Special Forces,
Speaker 1: and you know, and that's what we gotta explained. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, So if Curtis Albert's coming on, uh, really
Speaker 1: awesome article written about him by Luke Ryan. So I'm
Speaker 1: excited to get into that. Um, we have some emails.
Speaker 1: We're getting to him in a little bit, so i'll
Speaker 1: see what we can get to. We don't get to,
Speaker 1: we'll do in the outro. But every now and again
Speaker 1: i'll mention, like a quick correction or someone who takes
Speaker 1: issue with something that we said, that type of thing.
Speaker 1: And I was treating common and especially with me because
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I don't know it happens to me.
Speaker 1: So I remember you've mentioned it a couple of times
Speaker 1: on the show, the whole fossil fuels thing, and I
Speaker 1: remember saying to you it was like, I don't know
Speaker 1: enough about this, but I'm not sure if you're completely correct. Um.
Speaker 1: So Michelle B, who actually comments on a lot of
Speaker 1: our articles on softwarep dot com, UM wrote a comment,
Speaker 1: and to be honest, I think that's a long comment.
Speaker 1: She seems to know this subject way better than both
Speaker 1: of us. Oh damn, what is that thing? So, just
Speaker 1: judging by reading this, she seems to know our alright.
Speaker 1: So sounds like an excellent book. Which she's talking about,
Speaker 1: Scott Houston, because this is the ore the episode you
Speaker 1: mentioned it on That's one of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: this site is the interviews you guys do that let
Speaker 1: us know some of the background of so many interesting
Speaker 1: authors of their books. Jason. Unfortunately, oil isn't a renewable
Speaker 1: resource on a human time scale yet. Yes, it is continually,
Speaker 1: continually being made, but it takes a few hundred thousand
Speaker 1: years to bake under ideal conditions, and most of the
Speaker 1: really good stuff comes from the cre Cretaceous. Hopefully I'm
Speaker 1: saying that right. I think post Jurassic Park around one
Speaker 1: ish million years ago, back when the temperatures were under
Speaker 1: four degrees celsius warmer or four degrees celsius warmer, and
Speaker 1: there were plenty There was plenty of CEO two in
Speaker 1: the atmosphere, and there was much more abundant plant and
Speaker 1: marine life that breathed deeply of that CEO two, and
Speaker 1: after a happy life, was quickly buried in an anox
Speaker 1: annoxius environments instead of decaying and releasing their CEO two
Speaker 1: back into the atmosphere. Not a coincidence. But that said,
Speaker 1: there's enough of it in sufficient sufficient quantities, and our
Speaker 1: technology keeps advanced and quickly enough to access new reservoirs
Speaker 1: that we are unlikely to run out in our lifetime,
Speaker 1: despite the dire predictions of the nineteen seventies and nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties two thousands, which yeah, we're all familiar with that.
Speaker 1: Hopefully in the meantime, green technology will have sufficient time
Speaker 1: to make great strides forward because it still falls far,
Speaker 1: far short of the benefits that fossil fuels provide. And
Speaker 1: bless those wonderful truckers and all they do to bring
Speaker 1: us bundles of happiness and joy and uh so many
Speaker 1: different forms. So I guess that's the explanation. That was awesome,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Michelle. That was serious, and I'm sure our
Speaker 1: readers would appreciate a little insight on to one of
Speaker 1: the subjects we cover or talk about here at least.
Speaker 1: And now I just learned. Now you know, I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be talking crap no more. Well, you know, And
Speaker 1: it's one of those things. I we have another email
Speaker 1: that kind of criticizes me, and I'll get into that
Speaker 1: and you, I'll read anything as long as you're not
Speaker 1: an asshole that which I feel these people were. Um,
Speaker 1: But if I don't know the answer to something, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to pretend like I know more than you,
Speaker 1: because I the CEO two stuff. All that I could
Speaker 1: say is what I do know is climate change is
Speaker 1: a real thing. It's absolutely happening. What I'm not completely
Speaker 1: sold on is, for one, how much of it is
Speaker 1: due to human impact? We I don't think we really know.
Speaker 1: And also what changes in policy would really make a difference,
Speaker 1: because when I hear about cap and trade and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, I mean just logically, I think to myself,
Speaker 1: all right, we might go on to these um regulations,
Speaker 1: but as China is India, who is a far bigger
Speaker 1: population than us, and if we start, you know, burning
Speaker 1: west carbon into the atmosphere, is it really going to
Speaker 1: make that much of a difference when you have India
Speaker 1: and China probably doing whatever the all they want. That's
Speaker 1: just my fake on it. Yeah, And we get criticized
Speaker 1: so much for you know, our standard e p A standards,
Speaker 1: but I think we have like the highest EPA standards
Speaker 1: you know the world. Honestly, you go to other countries,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, granted you have some that are you know,
Speaker 1: super awesome, like you know, whatever, Germany, you know, Canada.
Speaker 1: The criticism I always here is like that we didn't
Speaker 1: sign onto the Kyoto Protocol. But what what what what's in?
Speaker 1: What's in that though? What are out what? What? What
Speaker 1: are our obligations to that? And is it beneficial to us?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Because we're doing the best
Speaker 1: we can over here. And I know it's a global issue,
Speaker 1: but if we have to sign on to an agreement
Speaker 1: yet we're the only ones, you know, fulfilling our end
Speaker 1: of the agreement and no one else is, then that's
Speaker 1: just a waste, like, you know, unless someone could guarantee
Speaker 1: that these other countries like India, which have the highest,
Speaker 1: you know, the highest rates of pollution you know, in
Speaker 1: the world. That's a lot of people over there, you know,
Speaker 1: and if they're not going to hold their end of
Speaker 1: the bargain up, why should we? So, you know, why
Speaker 1: you even get involved in something like that. Let's just
Speaker 1: worry about what we can, you know. Yeah, it goes
Speaker 1: to that saying, of course that it is a global issue.
Speaker 1: And I think for like Americans a lot of time,
Speaker 1: it's out of sight, out of mind thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you see all this stuff, some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: pops up on Facebook, but like you think to yourself,
Speaker 1: you know, we were cycled, we do all this great stuff.
Speaker 1: But then you realize some of the stuff we were
Speaker 1: cycle is sent to these poorer countries where they're not
Speaker 1: really recycling it. And you see like rivers and streams
Speaker 1: filled with gatorade bottles, well that's also that's also their
Speaker 1: their trash as well, you know, but it's just a
Speaker 1: shame to see, man. And honestly it's you know, in
Speaker 1: like Afghanistan, I've seen or even in Iraq, I've pricing
Speaker 1: it more over there. We tried putting stuff darting ah,
Speaker 1: my last deploy so crazy. We tried starting some type
Speaker 1: of sanitation program over there where we were putting fifty
Speaker 1: gallon drums on the corner. And then we like got
Speaker 1: this like team of Iraqis to have a bunch of
Speaker 1: trucks and you know, get them to like work like
Speaker 1: you know, you know, sanitation department a sanitation great idea, right,
Speaker 1: especially if you're higher of like, oh man, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take care of this trash issue. And what they were
Speaker 1: thinking was, Okay, if we had a place for them
Speaker 1: to deposit their trash, thank you. Um, if we had
Speaker 1: a place for them to deposit their trash, maybe there
Speaker 1: wouldn't be as much trash on the side of the
Speaker 1: street where they can conceal you know, I E. D
Speaker 1: s and stuff like that, but they started using the
Speaker 1: trash cans to hide E s. Jeez. Yeah, what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say is the whole thing just kind of
Speaker 1: makes me sad because it's like, I don't know, just
Speaker 1: on on a level of us being humans with this earth,
Speaker 1: like we're giving this one planet to live on, and
Speaker 1: it's like, why did why don't we have to fuck
Speaker 1: it out? It's it's crazy. I wish that there was
Speaker 1: there were easy solutions, but not every not everyone is
Speaker 1: is socially a where like that. You know, like other
Speaker 1: there's other countries out there where they're just so into themselves,
Speaker 1: into their direct immediate family, their tribe there. They don't
Speaker 1: think globally. You know a lot of us in America
Speaker 1: don't either. That's fine, but but our government does, you understand,
Speaker 1: So many of us can walk around aimlessly, but our
Speaker 1: government is you know, at least talking about it, whether
Speaker 1: it's the right thing or not. Whatever they put forth
Speaker 1: as far as you know, passing bills when it when
Speaker 1: you know, concerning you know, emissions and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, they're doing that we can be we can
Speaker 1: be mindless about it. But you go to other countries,
Speaker 1: they're not doing that. I know what I would agree,
Speaker 1: but you know, and this will be an issue that
Speaker 1: we'll get into after the interview. But it was mentioned
Speaker 1: how like climate change is not brought up in in
Speaker 1: what Trump has been talking about in terms of new
Speaker 1: strategy um and Trump has also been on the record
Speaker 1: saying a lot of like really crazy pseudo science ship
Speaker 1: about climate change. Like I am not someone who believes
Speaker 1: we need to curb our curb our our entire lifestyle
Speaker 1: to combat this problem. However, it is a problem because
Speaker 1: it is happening. And when I hear it's causing effect.
Speaker 1: But when I hear the current presidents say that it's
Speaker 1: conspiracy made by the Chinese, like, it's a little because
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't care about none of that.
Speaker 1: But you know, all I know is it's causing effect.
Speaker 1: We're putting something out there. Obviously there's gonna be repercussions
Speaker 1: to what we're doing, especially when it comes to the
Speaker 1: emission and stuff like that. We're smart now, we have
Speaker 1: enough scientific evidence to suggest that in mass quantities. Of course,
Speaker 1: we're going to start degrading you know, our our O
Speaker 1: zone or you know whatever. And so whether we can
Speaker 1: you know, actually hone down a number and consider it
Speaker 1: significant or not, that's I'm completely on the same end,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I don't think we can
Speaker 1: do that, but we know we're doing something to it.
Speaker 1: And the climate has been changing before there was ever humans,
Speaker 1: before there was ever a car. Yeah, there was the
Speaker 1: ice age. So I'm I'm actually in agreement with you.
Speaker 1: I'm not for all these policies like cap and trade, However,
Speaker 1: I think it should go without saying, like I would
Speaker 1: like to see a president who could at least take
Speaker 1: this issue seriously and and and but look what they do.
Speaker 1: But look what they do politically. The problem is what
Speaker 1: they do politically is is they throw money at the problem,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that that destabilizes our own economy in the
Speaker 1: time and for the time being, not not for the future.
Speaker 1: My my issue is not that it's it's a rhetoric issue,
Speaker 1: but that's what I'm saying. But rhetoric or not. The
Speaker 1: only thing a president could really do in the span
Speaker 1: of four years, considering he has resistance on the hill,
Speaker 1: the only thing he could really do is just signed
Speaker 1: into legislation and move money around. Yeah, but so this
Speaker 1: is my issue. The president is a figurehead, so what
Speaker 1: he's gonna say is going to resonate. And it's the
Speaker 1: same way as people criticize Barack Obama. What I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Let me just finish this. People criticize Barack Obama for
Speaker 1: not using the words as Wama terrorism, and they said,
Speaker 1: why don't you call it what it is? So on
Speaker 1: the same on the same level with this current president,
Speaker 1: why can't you say climate change is a real issue,
Speaker 1: it's happening, and maybe you have a different stance on
Speaker 1: how to agree with and how The biggest problem with
Speaker 1: this guy is, you know, since day one is his
Speaker 1: speeches is a rhetoric. That's it called things like you
Speaker 1: see it like, I don't totally write it off. I
Speaker 1: completely get why people were mad at Barack Obama when
Speaker 1: the Nadallasan situation happened and he called it workplace violence.
Speaker 1: Is that a change in policy? No, But his rhetoric matters.
Speaker 1: I think the president's rhetoric matters. So no matter it's
Speaker 1: climate change of its terrorism, I don't care, you know. So,
Speaker 1: uh yeah, so I thought that was an interesting one. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a short intro, but we do
Speaker 1: have emails to get to, we do have news to
Speaker 1: get to. But first let's get to Curtis Alberts. So
Speaker 1: joining us for the first time on Software Radio Curtis Alberts,
Speaker 1: which was suggested to me by Luke Ryan. And if
Speaker 1: you're a reader of the site, you may have seen
Speaker 1: Luke's article about Curtick Curtis which is called the American
Speaker 1: Dream and a foster kid turned Ranger. It's a really
Speaker 1: fascinating article. I mean, it's short, but that's why it's
Speaker 1: cool that we'll be able to go more in depth
Speaker 1: and and get to hear your whole story. Um, the
Speaker 1: first thing I was wondering. Luke is a fellow Army
Speaker 1: ranger now copy editor and writer on the site. Did
Speaker 1: you serve with Luke? I didn't, Unfortunately, I think Luke.
Speaker 1: I think Luke joined battalion maybe like a year or
Speaker 1: two after I left, I want to say, but I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, but yeah, but I did. Unfortunately I didn't
Speaker 1: get to serve with Luke. I would have loved to,
Speaker 1: but I didn't. Yeah, And and I loved what he
Speaker 1: wrote about you. So I'm excited to to hear all
Speaker 1: about it before we get into your whole story, which
Speaker 1: is fascinating. And it's like Jason and I were talking
Speaker 1: prior about resilience, and I think your story is definitely
Speaker 1: one of resilience. But when did you join the army?
Speaker 1: I joined the Army in two thousand four, so it
Speaker 1: was obviously a long time ago and you're still serving. No. Well,
Speaker 1: actually I got out well when I left the Ranger
Speaker 1: regime and I I left him like two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: December January two seven, and then I re enlisted eleven
Speaker 1: days later up until um twenty yeah, and then that's
Speaker 1: when I officially got out, So like a few years ago,
Speaker 1: like four or five years ago, I got out. Very cool.
Speaker 1: So the first thing to get into, of course, is
Speaker 1: just your story in general. And like I said, Luke's
Speaker 1: article is only a few paragraphs long, and reading it,
Speaker 1: my feeling was there has to be way more to this.
Speaker 1: So it's cool to be able to have you on
Speaker 1: with no time constraints. So I'll let you have the
Speaker 1: floor on just uh growing up and having a really
Speaker 1: rough childhood and letting the audience know all about that background,
Speaker 1: all right, thank you so much. UM. So, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's a little bit difficult for me,
Speaker 1: of course to talk about UM. And I'll try really
Speaker 1: to stay on topic here because I you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: I I go off on a tangent. Well that's the
Speaker 1: great thing about the podcast though we don't have time limits.
Speaker 1: We don't have you know, this isn't like doing in
Speaker 1: one of these media appearances like you've done Jason on
Speaker 1: Fox News or something where it's so short, like I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear the full story. Oh thank god. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you know, I first want to start out by saying, um,
Speaker 1: you know, when people think of of of of of
Speaker 1: abuse or torture or being um, pretty much psychologically pummeled. Um,
Speaker 1: it's hard for them to to really put that in
Speaker 1: perspective unless they've actually lived it. Okay. So for so
Speaker 1: from my point of view, everything that I tell you
Speaker 1: guys tonight, and everything that I tell your listeners is
Speaker 1: is a little bit it's traumatic for me, and and
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that I can provide enough detail to where
Speaker 1: you can, you know, sort of put yourself in my shoes. UM.
Speaker 1: So it all starts out I was born in southeast Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't know, that's in Minnesota. And
Speaker 1: my you know, biological mother, I don't call her by
Speaker 1: her name. Um. And there's a reason for that, a
Speaker 1: personal reason, and we'll probably discuss it later. But my
Speaker 1: biological mother was addicted to crack, right. She she was
Speaker 1: addicted to alcohol. She spent days to almost weeks at
Speaker 1: a time just outside partying with the can I swear
Speaker 1: in the show right with the douce bag she called
Speaker 1: her friends, right, and then me and my sister and
Speaker 1: my brother. At the time, I was six years old,
Speaker 1: my sister was four, and my brother was eight, you know,
Speaker 1: so we're generally two years apart. Um. She would lock
Speaker 1: us in this apartment, this two bedroom apartment in southeast Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: alone for days, two weeks at a time while she
Speaker 1: went out and she parted. When she came back. That
Speaker 1: was the time that me and my sister my brother
Speaker 1: could actually venture outside of the apartment, you know, like
Speaker 1: there would be days or weeks where we would never
Speaker 1: even see the sun. Um. And you know, looking back
Speaker 1: right now, I kind of think, well, you know, our
Speaker 1: biological or my biological mother wanted to protect us from
Speaker 1: you know, the violence that was going on in the neighborhood. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's why she locked us in there. But but anyway,
Speaker 1: after she came back and she, you know, she unlocked
Speaker 1: the door, we were able to go outside and and
Speaker 1: you know, dig through the garbage cans and the dumpsters
Speaker 1: for food. I remember. I remember going to my neighbor's house,
Speaker 1: or our neighbor's house and looking in their trash can
Speaker 1: and finding, you know, a half eaten McDonald's cheeseburgers and
Speaker 1: thinking nothing of it because I was so hungry. I
Speaker 1: just took this, you know, this really huge bite out
Speaker 1: of it, and you know, I could feel something crawling
Speaker 1: around in my mouth, and I could smell that the
Speaker 1: burger didn't actually smell like you know, your typical McDonald's cheeseburger.
Speaker 1: And I opened up, opened it up, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: you know, it was soaked with maggots. When I when
Speaker 1: I say soaked with maggots, there were They were like
Speaker 1: at least a hundred maggots in there, you know, but
Speaker 1: I didn't care. That's how hungry I was. And so
Speaker 1: after a few years of living like this, Um, it
Speaker 1: was me, you know that called the police and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, well, our mom's not feeding us. And then
Speaker 1: you know, like I honestly don't remember how long it took,
Speaker 1: but like a few minutes later, an hour later, you know,
Speaker 1: the Minneapolis police came over. And at that point, you know,
Speaker 1: our my biological mom was sleeping, because that's typically how
Speaker 1: it was. You know, she'd be out for a few
Speaker 1: days or a week, and then she would come back
Speaker 1: stoned or you know, high, and then she would just
Speaker 1: go to sleep for a couple of days. Um, she
Speaker 1: wouldn't even say hi to us, by the way, acknowledge us.
Speaker 1: And so when you know, the police came in, they
Speaker 1: went immediately to well, they saw us first, and then
Speaker 1: they went immediately to her room and they you know,
Speaker 1: they noticed crack paraphernalia and you know, um other other
Speaker 1: types of drivers kind of laying around, and they were
Speaker 1: you know, they tried to wake her, and then when
Speaker 1: they finally woke her, you know, she tried to run
Speaker 1: out of the apartment, right, she tried to escape, and
Speaker 1: so you know, they obviously they caught her and they
Speaker 1: arrested her and they put her in the cop car
Speaker 1: and then me, my sister, and my brother were taken
Speaker 1: to the Minneapolis UM Health and Welfare UH section of
Speaker 1: the Minneapolis Police Department. And then that's when they were like, well,
Speaker 1: if those kids would have stayed in there for another week,
Speaker 1: they would have been dead, you know. And and when
Speaker 1: I read all of these records back now, I'm just like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's crazy, you know, like I we could have
Speaker 1: died if we would have stayed there for a week
Speaker 1: because we were so malneverished. And and then you know,
Speaker 1: after that portion, um, me and my sister and my
Speaker 1: brother were introduced into foster care. And and people probably
Speaker 1: right now like if I say this, and I am
Speaker 1: just being honest, Okay, so I'm I'm I'm a black man, right,
Speaker 1: And everybody has this idea that racism is more or
Speaker 1: less you know, if you're like, you know, like a
Speaker 1: white person, or someone else comes up to you and
Speaker 1: they call you, you know, a nigger or something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, like like we we all defined racism by
Speaker 1: the skin color, somebody saying something negative because of your
Speaker 1: skin color. Right. But I was introduced into pretty much,
Speaker 1: well primarily black foster homes, So like nt nine percent
Speaker 1: of all my foster homes were black, and me and
Speaker 1: my sister face the most brutal racism that you could
Speaker 1: possibly imagine. I mean, we were. I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: even began to like explain to you the abuse. I
Speaker 1: mean it was. It was every type of abuse you
Speaker 1: could think of, you know, Um, it was sexual, it
Speaker 1: was it was physical, it was emotional. Right, So we
Speaker 1: went through almost a decade and a half of abuse
Speaker 1: of foster care. And you know, we we never had
Speaker 1: people tell us that, hey, I love you, I care
Speaker 1: about you. You're important to me. You know, we never
Speaker 1: had that. So it's so that's what I mean. We
Speaker 1: just a backtrack though, when you were saying, you know
Speaker 1: that you've experienced racism through that, I'm the only thing
Speaker 1: I'm confused with you. You were saying you brought into
Speaker 1: black foster homes and you're black yourself. So who what
Speaker 1: was the racism aspect? Well, I mean, the way I
Speaker 1: could kind of frame the scenarios is like, like, when
Speaker 1: we think about racism, what do we normally think about,
Speaker 1: I mean besides lynching, I mean, because this isn't the
Speaker 1: Jim crowl era. But but but right now, in the
Speaker 1: twenty one century, we think about racism as being um,
Speaker 1: you know, name calling, right, name calling. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe you don't um, maybe you don't get rights or
Speaker 1: maybe you know certain privileges aren't open to you primarily
Speaker 1: because of your skin color. Right, But let's focus on
Speaker 1: the name calling. For example, like in my foster homes, Um,
Speaker 1: the foster parents always referred to us as niggers. It
Speaker 1: was completely irrelevant whether or not they were black or not. Okay,
Speaker 1: so most of them were black. But when they called
Speaker 1: us niggers, like, they didn't say, oh, well, I'm black too,
Speaker 1: so by default I'm also a nigger. Right, And it
Speaker 1: wasn't that, but but they always made it seem like
Speaker 1: me and my sister and my brother were you know,
Speaker 1: subhuman more or less like subterranean. You know. They would
Speaker 1: always tell us things like, oh, you're black, so therefore
Speaker 1: you're a nigger, so therefore I'm going to treat you
Speaker 1: like you're a piece of ship. Do you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? I mean, it's it's I I mean, I
Speaker 1: you know, I guess it can go back to someone
Speaker 1: who was victimized, you know, then victimizing another person, you know,
Speaker 1: because they probably guessing that they probably experienced racism through
Speaker 1: the hands of someone else. You know if if that's
Speaker 1: just how they looked down at people that were of
Speaker 1: the same skin color, I mean differ, I mean, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm also I'm also a white guy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, you guys are both minorities. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean to go from one, like you said it, to
Speaker 1: go from one terrible situation into a situation where, you know,
Speaker 1: a very minimum, you know, they only had one individual
Speaker 1: mistreating them in the previous situation, and then now in
Speaker 1: the new situation, you've got multiple individuals on a consistent
Speaker 1: you know, barrage of verbal abuse. And it's crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: to even like think about it, like it's like out
Speaker 1: of the frying pan into the fire kind of thing. Well,
Speaker 1: exactly fired a frying pan, I guess in this situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's but it was a consistent I mean, it
Speaker 1: wasn't just the N word. I mean, it was it
Speaker 1: was just ultimately the way they treated you. They they
Speaker 1: somehow rationalized that this idea that you are a nigger
Speaker 1: primarily because of your skin color, but well additionally it's
Speaker 1: also because of your history. You come from a broken home, right,
Speaker 1: and they didn't just use your history to to to
Speaker 1: I mean to be racist towards you, it's more well,
Speaker 1: you know, because of your history and because of who
Speaker 1: you are, you're going to end up like this, Like
Speaker 1: I'm not going to put any energy into raising you.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to show you how life should be
Speaker 1: you know, lived or or I don't. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to show you how to do things and how to
Speaker 1: sort of you know, you think it was their version
Speaker 1: of tough love, just absolutely not. If tough love means
Speaker 1: being socially isolated for weeks, two months at a time,
Speaker 1: if it means being denied hygiene products, if it means
Speaker 1: being whipped right for for for stupid reasons like looking
Speaker 1: out of the window. Me and my sister were never
Speaker 1: allowed to look out of the window. We were never
Speaker 1: allowed to eat actual food. You know, Like if if that,
Speaker 1: if that's their version of tough love, then I'm confused.
Speaker 1: That's what we're missing. We were missing that extra part,
Speaker 1: you know, because you just know it's cool now we
Speaker 1: get it, you know, and you know what I experienced,
Speaker 1: like coming up, you know, some of my friends would
Speaker 1: be a forced kids. You know, they'll just you know,
Speaker 1: get to hang out every now and then and they'll
Speaker 1: tell the stories and what I gathered. A majority of
Speaker 1: the individuals I get into the foster parenting program. I
Speaker 1: mean they're significant gains there. You know, you get paid
Speaker 1: I guess from uh, you know whatever, the municipality or
Speaker 1: the local government or whatever. You get paid somewhere for
Speaker 1: you know, each child you foster, So it becomes like
Speaker 1: you know, a salary almost, you know. In course, the
Speaker 1: truth is you're you're really not giving these kids with
Speaker 1: their basic needs. You're just collecting that check and telling
Speaker 1: them to fend on themselves, you know, of course, But
Speaker 1: do you also know that the more problems, the more
Speaker 1: psychological or you know, like the more disability that child has,
Speaker 1: the more money the foster parents get aweso. Right. So,
Speaker 1: so in my situation, and I'm sure it's with other
Speaker 1: people too, right, But in my situation, the foster parents
Speaker 1: kept engineering reasons why we were so we had so
Speaker 1: many problems. They kept making them up right, and the
Speaker 1: social workers would say, oh, okay, they have more problems,
Speaker 1: We're going to give you more resources and more money
Speaker 1: to take care of that right now. And I'll give
Speaker 1: you a perfect example, perfect example. So our foster mothers,
Speaker 1: they didn't believe in buying us anything, right, So like,
Speaker 1: for example, socks, like socks, it's pretty easy. Socks aren't
Speaker 1: really expensive. But our father, our foster parents didn't want
Speaker 1: to buy us socks. So when I was at school
Speaker 1: and I was going to gym class, and you know,
Speaker 1: I took off my shoes and my gym teacher was like, hey, Curtis,
Speaker 1: you know, why do you have holes in your socks?
Speaker 1: You know? And I was I was embarrassed, obviously, and
Speaker 1: I tried to explain to him why okay, and my
Speaker 1: gym teacher would then go ahead and go to my
Speaker 1: my my social worker and ask, well, you know, Curtis
Speaker 1: or you know, he would have an inquiry and then
Speaker 1: he would ask. He would be like, well, Curtis comes
Speaker 1: to school and he always has holes in his socks.
Speaker 1: He's you know, it's been a whole year and he
Speaker 1: hasn't had socks without holes. And then the social worker
Speaker 1: would say, well, let me ask his foster mother, right
Speaker 1: she he or she would ask my foster mother, and
Speaker 1: my foster mother would say, well, the reason Curtis has
Speaker 1: holes in his socks is because he eats holes in
Speaker 1: his socks. That that's exactly what she said. He nibbles
Speaker 1: holes in his socks. And now the foster the social
Speaker 1: workers would be like, oh, that's interesting. It sounds like
Speaker 1: Curtis needs more medication, he needs more therapy. Right. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't investigate, They wouldn't investigate. How bizarre, uh, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: So the foster parents said, how bizarre that sounded. They
Speaker 1: would then go back and tell the teacher, well, you know,
Speaker 1: Curtis has psychological issues of which we are currently dealing with.
Speaker 1: We're going through a process of behavior modification. You know,
Speaker 1: eventually he'll be normal. And then the teacher will be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: but but but this is the exact scenarial for so
Speaker 1: many different things. That's exactly what happened. So when you
Speaker 1: say that that's how they were handling it. Did they
Speaker 1: have you on on a bunch of drugs that you
Speaker 1: didn't need to be using? Absolutely? I mean it was
Speaker 1: it was. There was always increase. There wasn't always there
Speaker 1: was always an increase of a dosage of something. It
Speaker 1: was either paxel or some other um um like anti
Speaker 1: anxiety medication. Like because it was always like I would
Speaker 1: tell the social workers what was really going on. I
Speaker 1: would say, well, look um, you know we're We're not
Speaker 1: I'm not stealing food for example, that was a big thing. Right,
Speaker 1: So the question is can you can you still food
Speaker 1: in your own home? Can you guys answer that, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say now, I mean logically no, you can't write correct.
Speaker 1: But in my foster home, because me and my sister
Speaker 1: weren't eating so much, right, they weren't feeding us so much.
Speaker 1: In the middle of the night, we had to go
Speaker 1: and sort of scavenge for food. Right, So the you know,
Speaker 1: the foster mom would say, she would tell the social workers, well,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're stilling food. I don't understand I
Speaker 1: feed them, right, So those are the creek the key words.
Speaker 1: We feed them, but yet they still food. So then
Speaker 1: when the social workers are asking, well, the you know,
Speaker 1: the you know these the kids say that they're they're
Speaker 1: always hungry and they're not getting enough food. Then the
Speaker 1: foster parents will say, we feed them, right, But the
Speaker 1: social workers don't ask how much and how often? Right, So,
Speaker 1: so the truth is kind of the truth is there,
Speaker 1: and there's no reason for them to investigate more. So,
Speaker 1: then when the foster parents say, well, they still food,
Speaker 1: the social workers have no other choice but to say, well, okay,
Speaker 1: this is awkward behavior. You're we're gonna go ahead and
Speaker 1: increase you know, his paxe dosage or whatnot. We're going
Speaker 1: to try a different medication. We might increase the therapy
Speaker 1: sessions from one, you know, one time a week to
Speaker 1: two and see how that goes. But nothing ever gets better, right,
Speaker 1: you know, it's I would I would also think it's
Speaker 1: it would get worse if you're on drugs that you
Speaker 1: really don't need to be on. That's exactly how it
Speaker 1: was there. There. You get to a point eventually where
Speaker 1: you're you're you're constantly being i would say drugged, and
Speaker 1: you're constantly going through, like you know, therapy sessions that
Speaker 1: you don't really need. That you just ultimately give up.
Speaker 1: There's there's no reason, there's no reason for you to
Speaker 1: continue because you lost, and you acknowledge that you lost. Um,
Speaker 1: because no one's going to help you. No one wants
Speaker 1: to help you. You understand that the situation that you're
Speaker 1: in is is untenable. UM. It doesn't matter what you
Speaker 1: say or how often you tell the truth, it's going
Speaker 1: to go against you. So the only the only option
Speaker 1: really is to shut down and just take it and
Speaker 1: just hope one day that like you know, you can
Speaker 1: you can get out of it alive, or you can
Speaker 1: you know, sort of move on, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: So at what point did this start to turn around
Speaker 1: for you? Because in the article we hear about you know,
Speaker 1: someone being there for you and then you eventually going
Speaker 1: on to join the army. Well, eventually I found Jan,
Speaker 1: and I mean it was after my The article doesn't
Speaker 1: really mention, um, how many times I was homeless, but
Speaker 1: I was homeless twice and after the second time, um,
Speaker 1: I managed to find you know, Jan, who who pretty
Speaker 1: much help me sort of get back on my feet,
Speaker 1: you know, help me find a reason to sort of
Speaker 1: move forward and to live, because I'm pretty sure when
Speaker 1: I wasn't well I felt when I was in homeless
Speaker 1: and after coming out of foster care, I felt like,
Speaker 1: you know, the like the strongest feeling of forlorn you
Speaker 1: could possibly feel. I felt so hopeless, and you know,
Speaker 1: she brought me back on track, you know, by sort
Speaker 1: of showing me, um, how things could be, you know,
Speaker 1: how the world and some respects really was, by showing
Speaker 1: me some amount of emotion, some amount of love, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and and she cared for me. And so
Speaker 1: that's that's when I was like, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna join the military, the military of the Army.
Speaker 1: I've wanted to do it for so long and now
Speaker 1: I have sort of that support, that support structure to
Speaker 1: move forward in that. Um. So, so was Jen a
Speaker 1: foster parent. No, she wasn't. She was just pretty much
Speaker 1: someone who found me on the street. Got you Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's amazing people out there. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: that's just can you elaborate when she just found you
Speaker 1: on the street? Well, like, I'm sorry, I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just curious. No, no, no, Well I was homeless and
Speaker 1: she was kind of walking by and she said, hey,
Speaker 1: I see you there. You look homeless. Is there anything
Speaker 1: I can do for you? And I kind of jokingly said, well,
Speaker 1: is there any way I can you know, you can
Speaker 1: give me a house and she laughed and then like
Speaker 1: from there she was like, no, but you can come
Speaker 1: and stay with me. And then yeah, I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is unreal. Um, are you sure? And then she
Speaker 1: was like you know, she seriously said yeah, sure, why not?
Speaker 1: And then from that moment that I lived with her
Speaker 1: we baked cookies together, we like when shopping together. It
Speaker 1: was really incredible. Yeah, I was just gonna say, um,
Speaker 1: it's amazing that that there's people who do that, because,
Speaker 1: you know, walking around New York City where I am
Speaker 1: with Jason, like she homeless people all the time, this
Speaker 1: opioid epidemic and rowin and all that. It's it's just
Speaker 1: all over the place. And I would like to think
Speaker 1: of myself as like a good caring person. But am
Speaker 1: I going to bring any of them into my home? No?
Speaker 1: You know, so I think it's amazing that there's someone
Speaker 1: that would do that for you, because it seems like
Speaker 1: this one person made such an impact that that you're
Speaker 1: that's the reason you're talking to us right now, and
Speaker 1: you're doing great things. Yeah. And I always ask myself
Speaker 1: that question. I mean, you know, we we always in society,
Speaker 1: like how do we define ourselves as a society? I mean,
Speaker 1: like I I I always when I allan, whenever I
Speaker 1: see homeless people on the street or people that don't
Speaker 1: have the means to succeed, you know, I always try
Speaker 1: to force myself to not stereotype them, you know, because
Speaker 1: they could have gone through god knows what to get
Speaker 1: where they are, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: I think it's really really important to just automatically help people,
Speaker 1: Like if you can't offer them a home because you
Speaker 1: feel unsafe, and give them something man get you know, hope.
Speaker 1: If you can give a person hope, you could change
Speaker 1: their entire life. Doesn't have to be money, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be you know, um like anything materialistic, but
Speaker 1: just just hope. I hope that tomorrow could be better.
Speaker 1: That's that's really all I needed. And that's yeah. And
Speaker 1: so how did this lead to you joining the army?
Speaker 1: And and I want to hear that whole story. So
Speaker 1: joining the army for me was you know, I had
Speaker 1: a strong interest in joining the military, but initially it
Speaker 1: wasn't because I wanted to fight for my country. Um.
Speaker 1: When I when I started out, I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if I get deployed, I could be killed.
Speaker 1: To be let's I'm going to be completely honest that
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to happen. I was more I had.
Speaker 1: I was at a point in my life where I
Speaker 1: was like, well, this sucks. I can't continue anymore. I'm alone.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't understand what God or whatever, what
Speaker 1: other you know, religious entity wanted from me. I didn't understand,
Speaker 1: and so death was pretty much where I was until
Speaker 1: I got to basic training. So I joined the army
Speaker 1: gradually because it's something that I saw as a means
Speaker 1: to some form of recognizable death. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: What you wanted to go out in a blaze of
Speaker 1: glory because you already wanted to get it over it?
Speaker 1: So like you said, you joined it as a means
Speaker 1: to an end, but you also wanted something to your
Speaker 1: name before you go well yeing, that's German, that's German
Speaker 1: ying and nine um yes, kind of like it was
Speaker 1: more basically like I didn't really care about like a
Speaker 1: blaze of glory. I just wanted to to end, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted my life to end because I didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: see the point. Right. So like after you get out
Speaker 1: of abuse, fast care in your home and like you
Speaker 1: have like one person that sort of gives you hope,
Speaker 1: you're sort of fighting between sort of two I guess
Speaker 1: really two realities. Reality A is okay, I'd rather just
Speaker 1: go ahead and just die so then I don't have
Speaker 1: to fight anymore. And then reality B, yes, I can
Speaker 1: continue fighting on for something. For example, Jan, I can
Speaker 1: you know, use her as as a way to sort
Speaker 1: of move forward and have something to fight for. So
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of where I was. But but gradually, UM,
Speaker 1: as I started to move towards the range of regiment,
Speaker 1: I started to realize, UM, how important I was, you know,
Speaker 1: like I guess it started. It was more about UM
Speaker 1: sort of seeing I guess where I should be and
Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, that's important. I should move towards to that.
Speaker 1: I should try to put energy into being positive and
Speaker 1: being focused and trying to find things that would that
Speaker 1: would make me feel more I don't know, more relevant.
Speaker 1: I guess it doesn't make sense to UM. And then
Speaker 1: and then joining the regiment like joining the ranger battalion,
Speaker 1: I like, for the first six months, I was kind
Speaker 1: of like, well, I don't know, this sucks. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was a strong ranger. For the first six months,
Speaker 1: I was the strongest ranger you would ever see. But
Speaker 1: I always tried to keep myself away from the team,
Speaker 1: you know, the squad. I'd never really talked to anybody.
Speaker 1: I kept myself pretty much alone in my barracks room.
Speaker 1: Um M, and I don't I hope that why not
Speaker 1: going on a tangent by why why did you why
Speaker 1: why do you felt ostracized or you felt to ostracize yourself?
Speaker 1: Like why did you do that? Well, the biggest thing
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out how I could be close
Speaker 1: to the team without exposing what was going on in
Speaker 1: my actual life, like you know, in reality, like because
Speaker 1: it was airborne school where I found out that my
Speaker 1: sister was raped, right, and and getting into battalion. Like,
Speaker 1: first off, when I was an Airborne school and I
Speaker 1: found out that my sister was raped, I got into
Speaker 1: a fight with a with a Marine captain, right, so
Speaker 1: he was he was sitting behind me, or not sitting
Speaker 1: behind me. We were doing push ups and he was like,
Speaker 1: come on, Hammer, you can do it. And I turned
Speaker 1: around and I said, you know, fuck you cocksucker, you know,
Speaker 1: and and then he was like, you know, he was
Speaker 1: like he got all pists and stuff, you know, and
Speaker 1: like the Marines usually do. And then um, you know,
Speaker 1: he talked to stars in Airborne and I was sitting
Speaker 1: in the office at Parade Rest, you know, pretty much
Speaker 1: being you know, yelled at and stuff, and and you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, crap, you know, like I can't say
Speaker 1: anything because you know, I'm thinking about my sister being
Speaker 1: raped and whatnot. And that was all in my mind
Speaker 1: until I went to um, you know, ranger or rip
Speaker 1: hold and then I had a tough time there and
Speaker 1: then even you know, I remember like, um, I was
Speaker 1: on this on the range. When I finally got to RIP,
Speaker 1: I was on the range and Stargant straight with her
Speaker 1: right and you guys know Sargeant straight like you know,
Speaker 1: and I was I was sitting there on the range
Speaker 1: and I could see him watching me, and you know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't I couldn't focus, you know, I couldn't focus
Speaker 1: with this, you know, the shooting. And then I had
Speaker 1: my sister being raped, and I was really trying to
Speaker 1: like concentrate on what I was doing as a potential ranger.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I I didn't take a knee
Speaker 1: when I reloaded, and Stargeant straight came over. It's like
Speaker 1: what the funk hammer? What the fund are you doing?
Speaker 1: You know, and then he smoked me there on the
Speaker 1: range and then um, I remember doing um, you know
Speaker 1: RIP graduation. He was like, you know, in front of
Speaker 1: the entire RIP class, he was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't think hammer should graduate. And then and then at
Speaker 1: that point I was like, man, you know, I really
Speaker 1: have to bring this in focus. Um. And so you know,
Speaker 1: at that point I tried to fight that's overwhelming, UM.
Speaker 1: Need to to to worry about my sister and to
Speaker 1: make sure that she was okay with you know, making
Speaker 1: sure that I, you know, I was an effective ranger.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's I'd say it all the time when
Speaker 1: when you when you have aspirations for you know, special
Speaker 1: forces or you know, specialized units, it's it's hard because
Speaker 1: you can't really dedicate that much of your own personal time,
Speaker 1: of your time to your personal matters because it just
Speaker 1: of course a wires so much, so much studying, so
Speaker 1: much actual you know, field work and training. It takes,
Speaker 1: you know, it's truly a few years, a couple of
Speaker 1: years of training to get to a point where you're operating,
Speaker 1: you know, afficionately. So you have to your your your
Speaker 1: personal life really takes a back seat. And it's tough
Speaker 1: because that your example is a very very strong example
Speaker 1: of what I've been saying, and you have to put
Speaker 1: something in atrocity like that, something is so horrible in
Speaker 1: the back of your mind just to freaking of course,
Speaker 1: get through what you have to get through. And you know,
Speaker 1: and that in part takes a toll. You know, you
Speaker 1: feel kind of crappy about that too, you know, of course,
Speaker 1: absolutely no, you're you're absolutely right, and you know, like
Speaker 1: there were so many times where I wanted to tell
Speaker 1: my you know, my team leader or my squad leader
Speaker 1: or you know, even the platoons are and hey start
Speaker 1: and look, you know, this is what is going on.
Speaker 1: I can't handle it. But you're you're always looking at
Speaker 1: like at least when I was in battalion, I was
Speaker 1: always looking at my team, you know, like I always said,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to be the best fucking ranger
Speaker 1: I could be. There's no reason why I need to
Speaker 1: be in a weekend state because of what's happening to
Speaker 1: me on the civilian side. You know, Okay, it's my sister,
Speaker 1: but these guys are trusting me with their lies. I
Speaker 1: need to be you know, ball. Also, the law is
Speaker 1: effective there there's you know, otherwise I shouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: Do you think having all that responsibility and needing to
Speaker 1: be on top of all this in order to be
Speaker 1: effective was was like a good thing for you because
Speaker 1: I think in society today, we emphasize, you know, talking
Speaker 1: about your feelings, talking about things that are going on
Speaker 1: in your life, and it seems like for you being
Speaker 1: able to put that on the back burner in order
Speaker 1: to become an effective ranger may have saved your life
Speaker 1: on on some level. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: something that I mean that should be pretty clear. Like
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're at the time, look, okay, so
Speaker 1: like the State of Minnesota was worried that I would
Speaker 1: come up and I would kill the guy. That's how
Speaker 1: that's that's how classified the information was for what you're
Speaker 1: talking about the guy that the State of Minnesota was
Speaker 1: so afraid that they hit all of that information from me, right,
Speaker 1: and so understanding too. I mean, especially if they see
Speaker 1: that you're a guy who's you know, becoming a special operator,
Speaker 1: you know, special operations in the military, they would think
Speaker 1: like this, this is a trained killer on some level. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so they were afraid, okay, and so like, but
Speaker 1: when you're in the range of regiment, you're like when
Speaker 1: I said that, I was like a strong ranger for
Speaker 1: like the first six or seven months. Um, that pretty
Speaker 1: much forced me to think about what I needed to
Speaker 1: do here in the in the battalion, because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be one of those rangers that was like
Speaker 1: you know that that kind of like sort of did
Speaker 1: his job. Like you know, I knew these guys dependent
Speaker 1: on me. You know, I needed to be effective with
Speaker 1: the team and the squad. So it was hard for
Speaker 1: me to to take my sister out of the equation.
Speaker 1: But I realized the importance of me doing that. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's it's hard, but you you have
Speaker 1: to you have to look at it like this. You know, yes,
Speaker 1: my sister was raped. Okay, I'm pissed as funk about that,
Speaker 1: but I'm here with the team. They need me in
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and Iraq. These guys need me. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: be honest. That's why you made it. You made it
Speaker 1: because you were able to, you know, make that distinction.
Speaker 1: And that's that's what that's what is looked for in
Speaker 1: a candidate. You know that you're able to focus on
Speaker 1: the job and the mission at hand and leave all
Speaker 1: the other ship in the in the back, you know,
Speaker 1: and and that's why you made it. And I would
Speaker 1: also attach to that that it was heart, Like a
Speaker 1: ranger has to have heart, if like I I mean,
Speaker 1: I've seen oh man, I've seen so many rangers that
Speaker 1: don't have heart. You know, you gotta you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's so it should be so easy to explain,
Speaker 1: but it's it's it's about commitment, you know. It's about
Speaker 1: really looking at what you need to do what you
Speaker 1: have and just working with it and and and loving
Speaker 1: what you do, loving who you are. I think, to
Speaker 1: put things in a perspective for me, I'm thinking, since
Speaker 1: you were a child, you're the one who called the
Speaker 1: police to get your siblings and yourself out of the
Speaker 1: initial situation. And then it sounds like you were the
Speaker 1: one who was initiating the inquiries or you know, trying
Speaker 1: to initiate investigations into your forster parents once again, trying
Speaker 1: to you know, find a better situation for you and
Speaker 1: your siblings. It sounds like to me you've been the
Speaker 1: one kind of caring after your siblings. So at this
Speaker 1: point to make that decision was really to say I
Speaker 1: gotta let go. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, definitely, you
Speaker 1: can definitely put it like that. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: hard and inside, that's just that just a test to
Speaker 1: how hard your your commitment was or your transition was.
Speaker 1: That's difficult, but it was still a priority. I mean
Speaker 1: I never I never forgot about that. I never forgot
Speaker 1: what I needed to do for my sister. Um, but
Speaker 1: I understood that what my sister was going through. Um,
Speaker 1: why I'll important my job here right because there are
Speaker 1: other there are people's lives on you know, basically in
Speaker 1: my hands. Like if I'm if I'm a weak part
Speaker 1: of a you know, a team flowing into an objective,
Speaker 1: you know, then we might lose a guy. So I
Speaker 1: had that sort of trumped everything that I was worried about.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you it was. It was freaking hard.
Speaker 1: It was my squad leader, team leader and freaking platoons
Speaker 1: are and will tell you, um, you know for me,
Speaker 1: it was it was it was really it was a
Speaker 1: struggle to be on so post RASP and you know,
Speaker 1: now being an army ranger, what are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you got to do? What deployments, uh and
Speaker 1: and all that. Al Right, So I went to let's say,
Speaker 1: my first appointment was Afghanistan. Um, Afghanistan was a little
Speaker 1: bit interesting. Um, but I would I don't know, like,
Speaker 1: and then I went to Iraq. I was in missoulira
Speaker 1: I do want to hear why why afghan understand it
Speaker 1: was interesting? Well, Afghanistan was interesting because I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a point at which um I
Speaker 1: wasn't online simply because during our rotary wing training at
Speaker 1: Fort Campbell, um I failed to engage a target. And
Speaker 1: like that kind of feeds into, UH, the whole thing
Speaker 1: with my sister. I don't want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: That's like one of the most difficult parts. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I get it. It's up to you. I just you know,
Speaker 1: when I hear you laugh and say that it was interesting,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard not to. You know, if you're hearing
Speaker 1: reasoning behind me, you're you're open up, open up about
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you want. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we love hearing your story, and I feel like you've
Speaker 1: already opened up about a lot of things that most
Speaker 1: people wouldn't and that's kind of the beauty of doing this.
Speaker 1: You know. If you listen to like our recent interview
Speaker 1: with UH Steve Ralston, who was a Navy seal, he
Speaker 1: opens up about some pretty crazy shit, and I think
Speaker 1: it's therapeutic for a lot of guys. Alright, So I
Speaker 1: mean then I then I'll talk more or less like
Speaker 1: to talk about Iraq UM. So Iraq was probably one
Speaker 1: of the most difficult deployments. I mean, I've only had
Speaker 1: two deployments in the Range regiment UM, but Iraq for
Speaker 1: me was was difficult because like we like we were
Speaker 1: in a country for like four or five weeks, and
Speaker 1: we we had this regular Army like I think they
Speaker 1: were a regular regular like striker mechanized unit that like
Speaker 1: that is they were in country for like two years.
Speaker 1: And my I think it was the team. You know,
Speaker 1: it might have been the squad we were supposed to
Speaker 1: like go and sort of get familiarized with Missoul, you know,
Speaker 1: like where all the potential i e. D. Places were,
Speaker 1: and and you know we're the you know, we're the
Speaker 1: most common likely ambush points were. And we went with
Speaker 1: this regular army striker unit and we we got to
Speaker 1: I don't know, like for whatever reason, the medic of
Speaker 1: that unit was a fifty cow gunner. Now I don't
Speaker 1: understand it, but okay, and uh, I guess like someone
Speaker 1: threw something at him or he saw like a weapon
Speaker 1: or something like that or he saw a potential ambush site.
Speaker 1: And so we like the strikers came to a stop.
Speaker 1: They were like three strikers, and we got out and
Speaker 1: I was pulling I was pulling security down this alleyway.
Speaker 1: Well I actually wasn't really much of an alleyway. It
Speaker 1: was pretty it was pretty big for an alley way.
Speaker 1: But and um, I was sitting there on a knee,
Speaker 1: and you know, my my eye pro was starting to
Speaker 1: sweat and like you know, like my my my gloves
Speaker 1: started to etch my hands, and you know, I was
Speaker 1: a little bit nervous, and I was pulling security really hard.
Speaker 1: And like I saw this little girl she had been
Speaker 1: like eight years old, and it was a little bit dusty,
Speaker 1: and she started walking towards me, you know. And like
Speaker 1: before we got to well not actually not before, but
Speaker 1: when we were in Iraq, we had this you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of days where you get the briefings about
Speaker 1: what the fox is going on, and and you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about how you know, the kids were like
Speaker 1: throwing grenades, like you know when you go over and
Speaker 1: under a pass and like you know, the kids are
Speaker 1: dropping grenades in the hats or something like that. Or
Speaker 1: they're just walking up to you, you know, asking for
Speaker 1: water or m r e s and you know, then
Speaker 1: suddenly they blow up. Well, we got these briefs, and
Speaker 1: I was really nervous because I surely thought that would
Speaker 1: happen to me, because I was one of those guys
Speaker 1: that you know, I love kids, you know, coming from
Speaker 1: my background, I've I've always been you know, pro you know,
Speaker 1: pro kids, and so this, you know, this this she,
Speaker 1: I mean, she had black hair. She you know, she
Speaker 1: was wearing like a thick jacket or you know, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know what it was, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty thick. And she was walking towards me with you know,
Speaker 1: her right hand covering her face, and as like great,
Speaker 1: you know, and she was like at least in front
Speaker 1: of me, and you know, I clicked my in for
Speaker 1: you know, to from you know, from safe to semi,
Speaker 1: and I was so I was so scared. I was
Speaker 1: so nervous, you know, my hand was shaking, you know,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make sure that my team was safe.
Speaker 1: And then I had this girl walking even closer, you know,
Speaker 1: and I saw a little tear come out of her
Speaker 1: eye and then you know, and then like I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was about the shoot her, right, I
Speaker 1: was about the shoot her because you know, SLP dictates
Speaker 1: that I should have shot her a long time ago, right,
Speaker 1: she should have never gotten that close to me. But
Speaker 1: when she got like within six or seven feet of me,
Speaker 1: when I was about to fire, a hand, um, like
Speaker 1: a woman or a man's hand from behind because I
Speaker 1: couldn't see, Like there was like a wall in front
Speaker 1: of me, and like this hand came out from behind
Speaker 1: this wall and it grabbed her and pulled her inside,
Speaker 1: you know, and then like then my sector was free again.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh man, that's that's crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I I you know, I never got over that,
Speaker 1: to be honest, Um, I mean, of course nothing happened, um,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was It was probably one of
Speaker 1: the most traumatic traumatic things I've ever experienced. UM. I
Speaker 1: also remember like a last exit vowel, um before Iraq.
Speaker 1: Actually no, actually this was yeah, this was before IRAQ.
Speaker 1: There's a last exit vowel and UM, me and this
Speaker 1: new guy we're going into the shootouse and like you know,
Speaker 1: I was the sawgunner or whatnot, and he stepped in
Speaker 1: front of me just as I was about to blow
Speaker 1: away these targets, and our team leader, it was Sergeant
Speaker 1: Carlson at the time, you know, he he grabbed him
Speaker 1: and he pulled them back just as I fired, and
Speaker 1: I was like, God, damn, this is this is real.
Speaker 1: This is you know, I don't think I could do
Speaker 1: this job anymore. It's no joke, man, it is no joke.
Speaker 1: It absolutely is not. And I mean they were there
Speaker 1: were times in Iraq where I just, you know, I
Speaker 1: felt maybe this, this, this job as a ranger wasn't
Speaker 1: for me because I couldn't. You know, you look around,
Speaker 1: you see your squad, and you see your team, and
Speaker 1: you see other platoons, and you know, those guys are
Speaker 1: all tough motherfucker's, you know, like and then when you
Speaker 1: hit an I D or you know, you you get
Speaker 1: contact for the first time. You know, on the one hand,
Speaker 1: you're you're really really trying hard to be a hard ass,
Speaker 1: and then on the other hand, you're, you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're pretty much an emotional ball. You're you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I wouldn't say that you're you're scared, but
Speaker 1: you're just yourself. You're nervous of failure. Would I would
Speaker 1: say it's you're self aware. You know that you have
Speaker 1: to shoot. You know that eventually you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: peek over that burm that's getting exactly. You know eventually
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to look into windows while bullets are
Speaker 1: past your face. But you also know that you're fucking scared.
Speaker 1: It's self awareness, that's all it is. And you have
Speaker 1: to muster down, deep down and side pull that shipped
Speaker 1: out and do what you gotta do. And that's the
Speaker 1: crazy part, and that's the hard but yeah, that is,
Speaker 1: but that is also the very hard part. And that
Speaker 1: is the hardest part that I ever You know that
Speaker 1: that I felt, at least because it wasn't. I was
Speaker 1: always really worried about just doing something wrong. You know,
Speaker 1: I knew what my job was, I knew how to
Speaker 1: clear I knew you know how to do this ship.
Speaker 1: But but you're always so you're always so scared. I
Speaker 1: mean everyone, everyone goes to that, especially in those situations.
Speaker 1: I've been scared numerous amount of times. The difference is
Speaker 1: is it just the training, you know, the condition response
Speaker 1: to these situations. You know how much meticulous attention you're
Speaker 1: paying to the things you're doing, because once you start
Speaker 1: ingraining that into your system. Your your fight or fly
Speaker 1: becomes fight and fight, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: becomes you know, I have to do what I have
Speaker 1: to do in this situation. Naturally you go into it
Speaker 1: and that's where training comes in. But there's no there's
Speaker 1: no two ways about it. Everyone is fucking scared, but
Speaker 1: you have to you have to act. That's what we're
Speaker 1: there for, you know. You gotta learn how to push
Speaker 1: that ship down. And that's why a lot of our
Speaker 1: training is fucking relacious. A lot about training brings you
Speaker 1: to that point and back several times, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: so that when you're there, you recognize that, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: just bugging right now. I need to do what I
Speaker 1: gotta do. Yeah, no, that's that's absolutely right, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, like when you're at least when
Speaker 1: I was in those scenarios, and it was more like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I guess I felt overwhelmingly like I
Speaker 1: felt my sister, you know. And so like when you're
Speaker 1: in a combat situation Iraq or Afghanistan, or you're in
Speaker 1: a situation where your team depends on you, then there's
Speaker 1: there's more pressure. I would say, like I felt so
Speaker 1: overwhelmed with pressure, you know, like I don't know, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's maybe that's what's hard too, is to even think
Speaker 1: about the situation, you know, not just just keep harping
Speaker 1: on it, but to think about the situation and yet
Speaker 1: know what you as an individual are capable of, and
Speaker 1: having to have that self awareness to refrain from doing that,
Speaker 1: because it's fucking whether anybody wants to sit back and
Speaker 1: think about it and say it'll be right, And honestly,
Speaker 1: if you did it, I'm sure you probably would get
Speaker 1: somewhat of a slap on the fucking wrist, you know,
Speaker 1: at that time, but you still know it's wrong and
Speaker 1: you have to eat that. But then you know you
Speaker 1: could easily fucking end this guy's life, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's something you struggle with, especially going through what you're
Speaker 1: going through. Then when you go to another fucking country,
Speaker 1: like you said, you're you're so willing to fucking smoke
Speaker 1: a kid, and you would have been justified. But then
Speaker 1: over here in this fucking country, someone will directly disrespect
Speaker 1: you and put your fucking family in harm's way, and
Speaker 1: yet you can't react the same way. That it is
Speaker 1: that that that that line that that that that line
Speaker 1: is crazy. That's what I didn't completely understand about US law.
Speaker 1: And I know we're probably going off on a candidate,
Speaker 1: but no, I mean people think about this, especially US
Speaker 1: veterans that have been you know, fucking hooking and jobbing,
Speaker 1: and you know, I have killed people for much less.
Speaker 1: We struggle with that. Over here, someone could bug you,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know you might see that kid
Speaker 1: on the street to three days later and like, this
Speaker 1: is the motherfucker that mugged me, And yet you will
Speaker 1: go to jail for premeditated murder if you killed him
Speaker 1: right then and there. But I you know, people have
Speaker 1: asked me on Facebook, like, you know, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of well I don't have a lot of black friends.
Speaker 1: It's so sad to say, but it's true. But you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people have asked me like why
Speaker 1: is it that that you know, in the United States,
Speaker 1: like you can't really defend yourself, you know, like you well,
Speaker 1: it's because it's a civilized society, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: it'll deconstruct you know, if people were able to, you know,
Speaker 1: do the whole eye for an eye thing. I get it.
Speaker 1: And where we're going is war That's what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: I get it, you get it. I hope you get it.
Speaker 1: But there is no such thing as civilized society. What
Speaker 1: is civilized? Well, we set the standard, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And you've been to other countries, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You live in a civilized country. You
Speaker 1: live in Germany, that places. But when but when we
Speaker 1: say civilized, okay, there are a lot of countries that
Speaker 1: don't have you know, are super high death rate in
Speaker 1: terms of gun violence in the United States. Now, I
Speaker 1: I love guns, oh trust me, I love guns. But
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is the United States has
Speaker 1: the highest incarceration rate in the world, right and we
Speaker 1: have to ask ourselves, is that civilized? Okay? Yeah, pretty much?
Speaker 1: The people in jail, in prison, we can justify that,
Speaker 1: except for, of course, you know, the massive people incarcerated
Speaker 1: for non violent drug offenses. And that adds to it.
Speaker 1: And and we're talking to put addicts in a you know,
Speaker 1: in a change. You know, it's like we're talking on
Speaker 1: this podcast us about rapes, about violent situations. You know,
Speaker 1: those are the people who deserve to be put in
Speaker 1: a page, not you know, many times, like a black
Speaker 1: kid in a bad neighborhood selling a bag of marijuana
Speaker 1: or in some cases some guy who's addicted to whatever
Speaker 1: it is, heroin crack. Like, I don't see the reason
Speaker 1: that those people should be in jails. And that's like
Speaker 1: a whole another issue of the private press prison system
Speaker 1: that there's you know, a financial incentive to keep these
Speaker 1: people in jail. Of course, but is that civilized well
Speaker 1: that that you know, that that that's up for discussion
Speaker 1: or argument, you know, I think that's all of the topic,
Speaker 1: you know. But of course, I mean, we're okay, we're safe,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. We can't we can't bring
Speaker 1: that back with us. You know. It's a totally different
Speaker 1: situation that war is is, war is out of control.
Speaker 1: War is you're literally committing to killing each other until
Speaker 1: someone wins. And then when that person or that that
Speaker 1: entity wins, you know, then he becomes the lawmaker or
Speaker 1: he becomes the head chief, you know, so my, my my,
Speaker 1: but everything in between. There's there's no really no rules
Speaker 1: to it. It's life and death. I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: there's really not a lot of honor. And do you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, when you look at it, it's
Speaker 1: we're out here and we're gonna kill each other. That's
Speaker 1: the point. And then when you get out of that
Speaker 1: situation into the real world, the distinction between the two
Speaker 1: universes are totally totally different. You have to learn how
Speaker 1: to leave that alone. And I try. And what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is, I don't even ask those questions to myself
Speaker 1: anymore because those questions drove me mad. So I just
Speaker 1: stay away from that. I don't know if that's a
Speaker 1: good thing to do or not, but that's what I do.
Speaker 1: I don't even ask why anymore. I would say it's
Speaker 1: important to I mean, I guess it's it's it's very
Speaker 1: very relevant to figure out what your position is on war,
Speaker 1: to understand it. It's important to understand it, Like I
Speaker 1: don't think that when like for example, when when when
Speaker 1: you know pick it, you know, through fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers,
Speaker 1: you know, against the Union Center at Gettysburg. He he
Speaker 1: sat there and said, oh, war is bad, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's important to really sort of
Speaker 1: understand why you as an individual are currently at war.
Speaker 1: No political reasons, no religious reasons. Why why do you
Speaker 1: think personally that you are? You know, how can you
Speaker 1: justify where you are and what you're doing. And so
Speaker 1: I've managed to do that. I've managed to sort of
Speaker 1: justify why I was in Afghanistan and why I was
Speaker 1: in Iraq because ultimately it came down to protecting the
Speaker 1: American people. I didn't concern myself with how I was
Speaker 1: protecting the American people. The fact is my leaders said
Speaker 1: that I should be here, everyone from my my team
Speaker 1: leader to the President of the the United States, so that
Speaker 1: me being here protects the American people. So I don't
Speaker 1: argue with that. If I wanted to argue with that,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be in the military. I would be a politician, right,
Speaker 1: So there has to be I mean, I know people
Speaker 1: probably won't agree with that, but there has to be
Speaker 1: you have to sort of justify it to yourself and
Speaker 1: anybody else the way that also you're protecting the American people.
Speaker 1: That I always go back to is like, if it's
Speaker 1: not for people like you joining or people like Jason joining,
Speaker 1: then we would have to have conscription. It would have
Speaker 1: to be like Israel, where you know at a certain
Speaker 1: age you'd have to go in. So I do think
Speaker 1: when civilians are very critical about UH people who joined
Speaker 1: the military, you know, not not the reasons were there
Speaker 1: or the war, but the people who go there. It's like,
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for you guys, then you know, the
Speaker 1: foreign policy that we have is not going to go
Speaker 1: away anytime soon. So of course, of course, and then
Speaker 1: and then the other thing is, you know, um, for example,
Speaker 1: obviously I live in Germany, right, and so I always
Speaker 1: I always run into Germans who are like, well, we
Speaker 1: don't want foreigners in our country, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: and I'm always asking myself when I always ask them,
Speaker 1: you know, so you know, what's a foreigner? You know?
Speaker 1: And they're like you and I'm kind of like, I
Speaker 1: laugh at that, because you know, they consider themselves patriots, right,
Speaker 1: And so the idea of a patriot is, well, I
Speaker 1: can sit in my house and and and wave the
Speaker 1: German flag and and and watch the German soccer games.
Speaker 1: But that's that's where my patriotism ends. I don't have
Speaker 1: to join the German military. I don't have to you know,
Speaker 1: be a firefire fire fire or a police officer. And
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of the mindset that a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans have. Oh I'm a patriot because I sit at
Speaker 1: my house with at least three or four guns, and
Speaker 1: I waved the American flag, and I tell foreigners they
Speaker 1: can't live in my country. But that's ridiculous. You've never
Speaker 1: sacrificed anything for the United States of America. You've not
Speaker 1: you've you've not been a firefire firefire, you've not been
Speaker 1: a public servant, You've not thought in war against America's enemies.
Speaker 1: So how can you honestly call yourself a patriot? Well,
Speaker 1: I own a gun and I I wave a flag.
Speaker 1: That's not patriotism. That's the illusion of page ratism, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like it's it's oh, that's frustrating.
Speaker 1: But do you understand. Yeah, no, I personally get it,
Speaker 1: you know, even as a civilian. I I agree with you.
Speaker 1: It's funny what you're saying about German though, in the
Speaker 1: attitude towards foreigners, because I think we're often told in
Speaker 1: America by like a certain segment, we have to be
Speaker 1: more like Europe. They're more accepting we have all this
Speaker 1: racism here, and I think according to a lot of
Speaker 1: people in Europe that's not really the case. And in
Speaker 1: America is probably one of the most, if not the
Speaker 1: most diverse place to live in the most tolerant. Well.
Speaker 1: I yes, Um, I've lived in Europe for like five
Speaker 1: years now, and I've traveled to quite a few Western
Speaker 1: and European or Eastern European countries, and what I can
Speaker 1: tell you is racism in the United States is pretty
Speaker 1: It's like the god of racism worldwide. I hate to
Speaker 1: say that, but it's true. Like in Europe, it's people
Speaker 1: are more us racist based on where they think you
Speaker 1: come from. Like if you're for example, obviously I'm black
Speaker 1: and I'm living in Europe, Germans treat me far differently
Speaker 1: than they would treat a black person from Africa. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's more if they look at you and they say, well,
Speaker 1: he's only he or she is only in Europe because
Speaker 1: they need a better life than they're prone to trade
Speaker 1: treat you, you know, sort of in a racist manner there.
Speaker 1: They're they're going to treat you like, you know, you're
Speaker 1: a low life or your subterranean um. You know. But
Speaker 1: like I said, if you're American, they treat you far differently.
Speaker 1: And and like I said, it's all dependent on where
Speaker 1: you come from. You can come from um, you know,
Speaker 1: Italy or Greece and and people in Western Europe will
Speaker 1: treat you like like like your ship, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily all based on skin color. But I
Speaker 1: think you told me you experienced something similar in Japan, right, Jason,
Speaker 1: with like racist issues. Yeah. It was just walked into
Speaker 1: a bar and Okinawa, and it was the first time
Speaker 1: I was told that, you know, this is a Japanese
Speaker 1: only bar. I was like, I've never felt that before.
Speaker 1: That was crazy. I can't be here because of who
Speaker 1: I am. That's crazy. Yeah, that nuts. Yeah, in Japan,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, holy crap. I didn't know they were
Speaker 1: like that over here. It's like he said, it's just
Speaker 1: I was a foreigner and they didn't want to say
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't. They weren't. We weren't very popular
Speaker 1: in Okinawa. We still are, of course. So let's hear
Speaker 1: about you leaving the military and and what you're up
Speaker 1: to now. Alright, So when I got out of the military, um,
Speaker 1: and what made you decide to leave the military, Well,
Speaker 1: my sister, Um, there was a I was wondering that too.
Speaker 1: I want to hear if you ever made contact again. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: I decided to leave. Um battalion like two months earlier. UM,
Speaker 1: and then I went back to Minnesota and I started
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against the foster parents, the the social workers,
Speaker 1: the foster agency, and the and a farmer. Well the
Speaker 1: insurance company. Yeah, I was piste, trust me like I
Speaker 1: When I got back, I had to put all the
Speaker 1: evidence together. I had to look at all the information
Speaker 1: that I had, Uh, you know, I looked at the
Speaker 1: police report and all the information that I had regarding
Speaker 1: my sisters you know, rape, and then I decided, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to an attorney. So UM, after
Speaker 1: like two or three months of trying to convince my
Speaker 1: sister to go with me, we we finally went and
Speaker 1: we told um the attorney everything that happened, and then
Speaker 1: pretty much that day we were able to start a lawsuit,
Speaker 1: UM against the people that abused us. And that lawsuit
Speaker 1: dragged on for about four years and we ended up winning.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I can't tell you the amount, UM, but we
Speaker 1: end it up winning. And then after that, I made
Speaker 1: it I kind of made it my mission to sort
Speaker 1: of you know, bring foster care abuse to the to
Speaker 1: the public so that they they're they're aware of what's
Speaker 1: going on in foster care and and hopefully with some luck,
Speaker 1: I could change some of the laws and um, you know,
Speaker 1: place more of the emphasis on protecting foster children in
Speaker 1: foster care. Yeah, that's what it's all about, more so
Speaker 1: than than making money of the situation. Like if you
Speaker 1: could change the culture, of course, that's like the most
Speaker 1: impact that you could have as a person, really, you know,
Speaker 1: I think people get so I talked about this on
Speaker 1: the podcast fairly Off, and we get so wrapped up
Speaker 1: and voting for this person or voting for this person.
Speaker 1: But I think the real impact we could have is
Speaker 1: went on a local level and then hopefully on a
Speaker 1: national level we could do something that changes the dialogue
Speaker 1: and then of course and then possibly even changes our policy.
Speaker 1: Absolutely that that should be the whole point, you know,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people nowadays don't care about that.
Speaker 1: They I would really hate to say this, but I
Speaker 1: have to. Like one example of this where it's like
Speaker 1: it's all funked up is the double A CP. Like
Speaker 1: they if you've ever noticed, if you've ever really looked,
Speaker 1: they always sort of monetize um racism, you know, like
Speaker 1: they always say something like, well, black people shouldn't travel
Speaker 1: to Missouri. And then like like for example, like the
Speaker 1: the you know, you shouldn't take this airline's flight. Black
Speaker 1: Americans shouldn't take this airline's flight. And then I'm sitting
Speaker 1: here wondering why because like, well, three people, three black people,
Speaker 1: in the span of seventeen years of experienced racism on
Speaker 1: this flight. So then therefore all black people shouldn't go.
Speaker 1: And then and then you have the double A CP
Speaker 1: going down to the airlines and sitting there with the meeting,
Speaker 1: you know, in a meeting with them and saying, well, well,
Speaker 1: you're racist. And you know, you have these these airlines
Speaker 1: trying to sort of appease the Double A c P
Speaker 1: as if they're the voice of all black Americans. That
Speaker 1: infuriates me. Yeah, I get it, you know. And on
Speaker 1: kas is racism, and it's like, you know, you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do this or you have to make
Speaker 1: this donation to what is it the Rainbow Coalition? Is
Speaker 1: that Jesse Jackson's thing? Um? You know? And then you
Speaker 1: look at what was the guy from the Clippers who
Speaker 1: had made all those racist comments, and then we looked
Speaker 1: back in his history and he won a n double
Speaker 1: A CP image, right, yeah. Yeah, the the guy who
Speaker 1: was on the phone with like his his chick on
Speaker 1: the side, the owner of the team I forgot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna look this up real quick.
Speaker 1: Wait who was that one of the yeah you remember
Speaker 1: the owner man? Really? Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah? Um
Speaker 1: shoot shoot shoot? Did he have the black girlfriend? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Donald Donald? Well, his whole thing was he was like,
Speaker 1: I don't He was like, I don't care if you're
Speaker 1: fucking any black guys, but don't take pictures of them
Speaker 1: on Instagram. It's like, really, that's what this guy is
Speaker 1: a problem with. You know, I remember that whole thing. Yea,
Speaker 1: I remember that, but like yeah, and then they looked
Speaker 1: back and they're like, sure enough, this man won an
Speaker 1: end double a CP Awards. So it really doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what you say. I think. It's just like, oh, are
Speaker 1: you gonna give us money for this political donation? Sure?
Speaker 1: So yeah, everything becomes politics, man. It's it's completely fucked up.
Speaker 1: And you can monetize racism. I mean, so that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty much how it is, and and it bothers me.
Speaker 1: But I hope I answered your question. I don't know
Speaker 1: I can I original question going back to it I
Speaker 1: was wondering, Um, well, actually, you know now I'm just
Speaker 1: intrigued of what your relationship is like with your sister.
Speaker 1: But then also just why do you leave the military
Speaker 1: and then and then living in Germany getting married? I
Speaker 1: want to hear all that, all right, So well I'll
Speaker 1: start with the relationship with my sister. Um m hmm.
Speaker 1: My relationship with my sister isn't really a typical brother
Speaker 1: sister relationship. Like if you've lived in a like a
Speaker 1: happy household your entire life, and you can imagine what
Speaker 1: the relationship between you and your sister would be, you know,
Speaker 1: like occasional fighting, but it's like more love fighting. I
Speaker 1: guess you can say, Um, me and my sister are
Speaker 1: more like I don't know, sometimes I feel like we're
Speaker 1: more of acquaintances, like you know, we're we've never been
Speaker 1: able to develop you know that that that close knit
Speaker 1: dynamic that siblings have, and so for us, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty much still a work in progress. I guess, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's more like you know, how how you're doing,
Speaker 1: I'm good, How are you? I'm fine? And then like
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a few months later we talked to
Speaker 1: each other. That's that's pretty much how to be honest.
Speaker 1: That's how it how it is, and that's not wrong either.
Speaker 1: I mean, as long as you know you got you
Speaker 1: guys are there for each other. I mean I'm the
Speaker 1: same way. I'm a little maintenance. You know, you don't
Speaker 1: you don't have to call me every once in a
Speaker 1: blue moon and reassure me you still love me. I
Speaker 1: don't need that, you know. Yeah, yeah, but it's for us.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's almost really like we're not really brother
Speaker 1: and sister. I mean, I don't know, it's good. I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys went through some ship together, you know, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: That's that's how it is. It's it's difficult. Germany explained that. Alright,
Speaker 1: So Germany was more of like a well a thirty
Speaker 1: second decision, Like me and my wife Julia. I. I
Speaker 1: met Julia in the United States, and like we decided
Speaker 1: to move, Like we lived in the United States for
Speaker 1: like three or four years together, and then we decided
Speaker 1: to move to Germany because I didn't have any family
Speaker 1: in the US. Um and she hated, I guess she
Speaker 1: hated like basically spending every Christmas season and every holiday
Speaker 1: alone and when I had to work, you know, I
Speaker 1: was contracting out at Fort Benning, and um, like, she basically,
Speaker 1: you know, she had to stay home with our newborn
Speaker 1: the entire time time Monday through basically Saturday and sometimes
Speaker 1: even Sundays. And she couldn't handle that by herself. I mean,
Speaker 1: usually my wife's a strong woman. Um, but I get it.
Speaker 1: You know, most of the time she was alone, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't, you know, obviously there. And so we decided,
Speaker 1: like we were driving back from Atlanta one day, and
Speaker 1: like we spent thirty seconds talking about moving to Germany
Speaker 1: and how feasible it was. And then you know, when
Speaker 1: we got home, we're like, yeah, let's move to Germany.
Speaker 1: So her and you know, my my daughter Yana, got
Speaker 1: on a flight. They flew to Germany. I sold everything
Speaker 1: back in the United States and or donated stuff and
Speaker 1: then I jumped on a flight and we moved here.
Speaker 1: It's that sounds awesome, you know. I mean it was,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was pretty much a spur of
Speaker 1: the moment thing. Yeah, I mean, I don't regret it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I hate Germany, but of course that's expected. You'll
Speaker 1: hate America too. Sometimes if you alway here anyway you go,
Speaker 1: you know, you'll always have that. I can't believe it's
Speaker 1: got cut me off in traffic, all right, But the
Speaker 1: United States is nice or compared to the rest of
Speaker 1: the world. I've been trying to tell people it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's more. I mean, it's it's better in every conceivable.
Speaker 1: M hmm, like you know way, I mean, it's nice. There.
Speaker 1: I miss it, I really do. So why do you
Speaker 1: ultimately leave the military. Why did I leave the range
Speaker 1: of regiment or the military overall? I guess both. Um.
Speaker 1: So the range of regiment, it was pretty much for
Speaker 1: my sister. I was offered an opportunity to re enlist
Speaker 1: when I was in Iraq, um, but I really wanted
Speaker 1: to take care of my sister first. Um. I think
Speaker 1: my biggest fear was that she would forget me. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: after the rape, she went through, um the what is
Speaker 1: this therapy? When that therapy? Shock therapy? She went through
Speaker 1: shock therapy, and she forgot a lot of stuff. And
Speaker 1: my biggest thing was, Okay, you know, is she going
Speaker 1: to forget me? If she is going to forget me,
Speaker 1: then I need to at least help her start a
Speaker 1: lawsuit so that she can have some money or you know,
Speaker 1: where she can start her actual life and then uh,
Speaker 1: ultimately leaving the military was more. When I got into
Speaker 1: the regular Army, I hated it. It was very it
Speaker 1: was very confusing to me. Um A lot of the
Speaker 1: times you had, um, you know, the higher ups like
Speaker 1: you know, the e sevens and eights doing absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: and they would expect everybody below them to do stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it was it was too much bureaucracy
Speaker 1: for me. Also, i'd imagine, you know from most of
Speaker 1: the Rangers. I know, Ranger regiment is very um, very strict,
Speaker 1: you know, very locked down, disciplined, and you know everyone
Speaker 1: knows regular Army is a little bit more like way
Speaker 1: more lacks. You know, that's a hell of a transit.
Speaker 1: It's retarded lacks and the regular Army I I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't like when I first got there, I couldn't
Speaker 1: take it. I could not take it. It was um.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the regular Army, but working in
Speaker 1: the regular Army is something that I absolutely hate it
Speaker 1: because it was like no one, no one understood what
Speaker 1: their responsibility was. Like I had a few guys in
Speaker 1: my unit who were you know, infantry, you know they
Speaker 1: were they were armored guys. They understood, right. But then
Speaker 1: you had a lot of people in the military and
Speaker 1: in my unit who, for example, work twenty years in laundry.
Speaker 1: What laundry that's still an MS Like, you know, you
Speaker 1: have these guys. It's crazy. Yeah, you have these guys
Speaker 1: telling you to do telling you to do to do
Speaker 1: push ups because you were late two minutes coming from breakfast,
Speaker 1: you know, and like they don't like you're you're you
Speaker 1: know you you have to Like I had to sit
Speaker 1: in the class and I had to teach the saw, right,
Speaker 1: I had to, you know, I had to explain to
Speaker 1: a bunch of Air Force people, well, this is how
Speaker 1: you know you put the saw on the operation. This
Speaker 1: is you know, yeah yeah, yeahda. And then you know
Speaker 1: this E six seven was supposed to take over for me.
Speaker 1: He was you know, he was supposed to explain, um,
Speaker 1: you know, how to load unload the saw. He couldn't
Speaker 1: even do that. He sits up there fumbling with with
Speaker 1: with a piece of paper or his notes that are
Speaker 1: all funked up, and then he looks at the back
Speaker 1: of the classroom and says, Hammer, why don't you come
Speaker 1: up here and explain this to him. Why the whole
Speaker 1: class is like dumbfounded. Seriously, That's exactly how it was,
Speaker 1: you know. And then after um, like I was supposed
Speaker 1: to do, you know, Soldier of the Year right for
Speaker 1: this unit, and like I'm going through the process of
Speaker 1: trying to learn all this material myself, and then none
Speaker 1: of the like, none of the like E five, E
Speaker 1: six is, E sevens on the team wanted to help me,
Speaker 1: you know, get this ship done. They didn't didn't want
Speaker 1: to explain anything to me, right, They just they chose
Speaker 1: me to do, uh, Soldier of the Year because I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was the fucking I was the lowest ranking.
Speaker 1: So when I get in front of all these sergeant
Speaker 1: majors and the sergeant major fucking Ashton Felters like, hey, hammer,
Speaker 1: uh you know name the four or five different types
Speaker 1: of you know communication you can use out in the battlefield,
Speaker 1: I'm like a B C D and text messaging. Sorry, major,
Speaker 1: you know, like like I don't know, the regular army
Speaker 1: is like place where I lost a certain amount of discipline.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I couldn't take it anymore. It's understandable,
Speaker 1: and and so what are you doing currently in Germany
Speaker 1: right well, right now, I'm I'm I'm still going to
Speaker 1: school like I go to Troy University. Well but most
Speaker 1: like I'm I'm partially finished on actually pretty finished with
Speaker 1: my major, which is a bachelor's degree in social work.
Speaker 1: And I did go to school a little bit in
Speaker 1: the United States, which is why I'm pretty much finishing
Speaker 1: most of my degree online. And then um, I'm taking
Speaker 1: German and Chinese. And then I'm I'm I'm planning on
Speaker 1: applying to the Harvard School of Social Policy and um
Speaker 1: with the Columbia School of Social Work, so that could
Speaker 1: be out here in New York. And I also be
Speaker 1: a alumni if you do it. Along with Jack Murphy.
Speaker 1: I mean, we need people like you to to do
Speaker 1: that type of stuff. And it's great to see guys
Speaker 1: who were in special operations getting higher education at these
Speaker 1: like Ivy League universities and showing versatility and yeah, getting
Speaker 1: into social work to considering that you have direct firsthand
Speaker 1: knowledge of the pitfalls of that whole program. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna ask you. What are you
Speaker 1: doing specifically for you know, um, your plan on bringing
Speaker 1: attention to the social I mean to foster programming and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Well as as as bad as this sounds, um,
Speaker 1: I like, okay, So I didn't really think about this
Speaker 1: um in detail until I happened to speak to Antoine
Speaker 1: Fisher um and yeah, and like he shared a little
Speaker 1: bit of advice for me in terms of getting my
Speaker 1: story out there. And to be honest, initially, I wasn't
Speaker 1: focusing on trying to, um, you know, turn my story
Speaker 1: into a movie or or a book. I wasn't interested
Speaker 1: in that at all. I was. I was primarily set
Speaker 1: on exposing my story so that I could somehow help
Speaker 1: other foster children that were transitioning out of foster care
Speaker 1: or other foster children that were being abused. Um. And slowly,
Speaker 1: over the years, I start finding myself in the entertainment sphere.
Speaker 1: Um you know you probably know, but like I'm currently
Speaker 1: working on a you know, a book about my life
Speaker 1: with the former creative executive at Lionsgate Studios. And the
Speaker 1: article that that Luke wrote that's all I've seen. Okay,
Speaker 1: um okay, So like like how it started was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I started talking to Antoine Fisher and he gave me
Speaker 1: some guide some some pretty much guidance on how to
Speaker 1: like get my story out there, and like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about the military and then um, like a
Speaker 1: year later, I got a call from Lucas Films. Like
Speaker 1: I got a call from someone at Lucas Films who
Speaker 1: heard my story, right, and she was like, Curtis, you
Speaker 1: know you need to tell this story. It's inspirational. Like
Speaker 1: it made me cry. And and then after that I
Speaker 1: was pretty much set on like trying to get the
Speaker 1: story out there. Um. And then I had um the
Speaker 1: had Debora Gregory. Um, she is the CEO of Cheetah Rama,
Speaker 1: but she also did a movie or she wrote the
Speaker 1: the entire um. There's these books that she wrote. Um crap,
Speaker 1: I forget. There were these books based on like the
Speaker 1: singing group three ll W. I don't I forget. But anyway,
Speaker 1: she came to me and she yeah, the Cheetah Girls. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the book. That's that's the book series. Yeah. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing reading this? I got Yeah, So
Speaker 1: she came to me and like we discussed like her
Speaker 1: co writing the book, and then like from there it
Speaker 1: kind of got into this whole entertainment industry thing where
Speaker 1: like I have um, you know, I have certain people
Speaker 1: and for you know, I won't name them, but I
Speaker 1: have certain people from Hollywood and from the entertainment you know,
Speaker 1: realm um, you know, talking to me about how interesting
Speaker 1: and inspirational my story is and like how I should
Speaker 1: you know, um put that into you know, a screenplay
Speaker 1: and a book. And you know, I had quite a
Speaker 1: few offers and I don't know, I guess I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of people, so a lot of legitimate interests
Speaker 1: in it. Um. Yeah, And so now I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 1: actively working on a screenplay with um tem Stabinski and
Speaker 1: and and ry In or Luke right, And I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: obviously Luke started this whole thing. Um. He really really
Speaker 1: sort of sort of let the groundwork for me to
Speaker 1: move forward with this. And and we're you know, currently
Speaker 1: working with a few people who are well known in
Speaker 1: the industry, who are who are helping us get to
Speaker 1: that next level. So UM, I mean, my my ultimately,
Speaker 1: my whole goal is to really you know, established from
Speaker 1: sort of a platform in order to get out there
Speaker 1: and and and and help foster kids, you know, talk
Speaker 1: to them and you know, like let them know that hey,
Speaker 1: I'm here with you. We're going to get through this,
Speaker 1: and I guess ultimately I would like for um I
Speaker 1: would like to help foster children sort of break into
Speaker 1: the Ivy League, you know, and and and and do
Speaker 1: something like concretely do something with their lives, and maybe
Speaker 1: combine a nonprofit organization that I want to start, which
Speaker 1: I've already sort of you know, named Human by Design
Speaker 1: with that of astronomy. I want to I want to
Speaker 1: get foster chosen out there to look at the stars
Speaker 1: and and and find some inspiration in themselves. UM so
Speaker 1: they can do great things, you know, to to advance humanity.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that sounds like a long shot, but
Speaker 1: that's pretty much. Yeah. But you got a dream, big man.
Speaker 1: We'd love to make it happen, and we'll see it happen.
Speaker 1: And I knew Luke did some stuff with film. I
Speaker 1: don't personally really know Luke, so um I mean that
Speaker 1: makes sense that you guys are are looking into that.
Speaker 1: Um last question I have before we wrap things up,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, more of a deeply physical philosophical question,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it just is appropriate with everything
Speaker 1: that you just laid out for us in the past
Speaker 1: our plus, um So do you believe that everything happens
Speaker 1: for a reason, or do you believe more it's just
Speaker 1: that you have to make the best of your circumstances,
Speaker 1: because it's like, look at this point that you're at now,
Speaker 1: and it probably wouldn't have happened without all these terrible
Speaker 1: things that you just discussed with us. I would say
Speaker 1: it everything from my perspective, it feels like everything happens
Speaker 1: for a reason. Um. I can't say that everything that
Speaker 1: I've gone through has been because it just is like
Speaker 1: I feel like everything that I've I've gone through has
Speaker 1: prepared me for a certain point that I've reached and
Speaker 1: that I've I've managed to overcome. Um. I mean it
Speaker 1: could be um, you know, for example, you know, going
Speaker 1: to the range of regiment. You know, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to do that, But at the same time, if I
Speaker 1: had enough strength to overcome the anger I felt and
Speaker 1: the blood lust I felt for for hurting my sister's rapist,
Speaker 1: which is impressive, I'm more surprised than anybody else, um,
Speaker 1: you know. And and if getting into range of regiment
Speaker 1: and being able to do everything that I did there
Speaker 1: and being able to be successful and being able to
Speaker 1: handle the stress um, and getting to where I've gotten
Speaker 1: to now, you know, I mean I would, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: absolutely would have to say that it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: all based on on UM shooting. I totally happening for
Speaker 1: a reason, right, Yeah, exactly, it's for a reason. Everything
Speaker 1: is for a reason. And I mean I'm not a
Speaker 1: god fearing well no, I am god fearing, but I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily religious. I'm more spiritual. But in my entire life,
Speaker 1: I've I've always felt that yeah, it's I'm being forced
Speaker 1: somewhere and everything that I that I've been exposed to
Speaker 1: an experience, some entity knows that I can handle it,
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm living it live. That's a great philosophy, man. Um,
Speaker 1: any any social media or or anything you're promoting before
Speaker 1: we wrap this up, UM, I would just say go
Speaker 1: to uh Luke's soft Rep article about me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not the big promoter. I I don't promote
Speaker 1: really any anything at all. Um. I mean, surely you
Speaker 1: can add me on Facebook if you want. It's Curtis Albert's. UM.
Speaker 1: I would just can I say some thanks? I guess, Um,
Speaker 1: I would you know, I would ultimately say thank you
Speaker 1: to Soft Rep Radio for giving me this opportunity to speak. Um,
Speaker 1: I would thank Luke Ryan for for for being there
Speaker 1: and supporting me throughout this entire um, this entire endeavor
Speaker 1: that we're trying to do ultimately bring awareness to foster
Speaker 1: care abuse in the United States. UM. And I would
Speaker 1: also say, you know, thank you to the I guess
Speaker 1: the you know, the seventy range of Regiment third range
Speaker 1: of Italian c CO for forgiving you the tools necessary
Speaker 1: to sort of move on in life and and understand
Speaker 1: and and and and realize what I'm capable of. Oh
Speaker 1: and and Raina Ellison right well, her name used to
Speaker 1: be Raina Hind. But Raina Without rain I really honestly
Speaker 1: could not have gotten this far in terms of being
Speaker 1: absolutely involved and absolutely in love with this whole endeavor.
Speaker 1: So I absolutely thank you. All right, man, I feel
Speaker 1: like you're at an award show or something. I know
Speaker 1: I want to give you something, but I know we
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming on. And if you do make it
Speaker 1: out here to New York, it would be awesome. Navvy
Speaker 1: and Studio. I will definitely and keep and keep us
Speaker 1: in touch. You know you're you're holding back to Hollywood stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta let us know. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to sound arrogant, you know, it's it's I'm
Speaker 1: trying not to be that guy. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be that ranger that that sells out to Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Well you know that's not wrong with that either, but
Speaker 1: you know you keep true to you're calling and you're
Speaker 1: calling us to help those kids out. Man. Hey, thanks man, absolutely, apprecia.
Speaker 1: Thanks Curtis. All right, Hey, no problem, Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for the opportunity. Talk to you soon. All right, buddy,
Speaker 1: great having h Curtis on with us, um, really in
Speaker 1: depth to interview, and thanks to Luke for giving that
Speaker 1: to us. All right, getting into emails here, I never
Speaker 1: thought that you would be called the communist, like crazy
Speaker 1: right winger. Maybe not not a communist though, So you
Speaker 1: want to hear the guy who called you a communist?
Speaker 1: All right? So this is from uh, Well, he didn't
Speaker 1: sign it with his name, so I won't say his
Speaker 1: name just because you know, I always worry about if
Speaker 1: people are secretive. I mean, his name is Robert, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot of Roberts. I can say that much. Um,
Speaker 1: he did leave his phone number and everything, so if
Speaker 1: you if you want to call it. Uh. When we
Speaker 1: got back from the annual reunion in Vegas, which was
Speaker 1: the s o A Special Operations Union, I was interested
Speaker 1: in following up, following on a lead to get in
Speaker 1: the loop for current affairs. Thus, I've been evaluating your
Speaker 1: podcast trying to decide if I will earn anything which
Speaker 1: interests me. And by the way, you'll you'll see what
Speaker 1: he says. But like, I have your back on this
Speaker 1: because I know where you were coming from with what
Speaker 1: you said. But he said, all right. Podcast three oh
Speaker 1: eight today shows me the communists, Uh shows me the
Speaker 1: communist site took great pleasure and removing might be influencing
Speaker 1: your writers. Come on, guys, you're open backing of Schumer
Speaker 1: and your remarks about how well in New York City runs.
Speaker 1: Lets me know that you also support other communists to
Speaker 1: Blasil and Bloomberg. It seems well, I just thought, it
Speaker 1: seems other ny sears are unable to defend themselves, have
Speaker 1: no ability to think for themselves, and need to hire
Speaker 1: socialists to think for them. Please stick to informing us
Speaker 1: about Sally and events affecting SAG science. Hawk thirty two
Speaker 1: c C N five three. Your response, I love you, bro,
Speaker 1: all right, and yeah, this ship was hard for me
Speaker 1: to have to swallow that pill and say something positive
Speaker 1: about Chuck. But the truth is, I was here when
Speaker 1: New York was a fucking mess. I was here when
Speaker 1: my family members were being blown away with shotguns stab
Speaker 1: you know, buck fifties across their face. I was here
Speaker 1: when cops didn't even patrol in my neighborhood. I was
Speaker 1: here for all that. I watched a lot of ship
Speaker 1: go down, you know, and you know, excuse the the emotion,
Speaker 1: and I'm but you gotta understand what what they did
Speaker 1: this quote unquote socialist regime that came in starting with
Speaker 1: you know, Juliani, then so on so forth. Fair there.
Speaker 1: I think Schumer has been here through all that, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: But my point is to where it's at right now.
Speaker 1: I have to get credit where credit is, dude. That
Speaker 1: New York is nothing like it was in the nineties
Speaker 1: and the eighties. And that's I'm just calling it the
Speaker 1: way I see it. Yeah, I was gonna say, so
Speaker 1: I know you better than someone who just listens to
Speaker 1: one listen to one pod. What it sounded like, so
Speaker 1: I already knew that you were not like some big
Speaker 1: Chuck Shumer family. In fact, he needs to take a
Speaker 1: see he needed you need to retire, you know. So
Speaker 1: the way that I interpreted what you were saying, we
Speaker 1: were just talking about like why are we were talking
Speaker 1: about incumbents and like why hasn't Schumer been voted at?
Speaker 1: And I think you were just saying to the people
Speaker 1: in New York City, it's like, if things are going well,
Speaker 1: there's no other tariffs attack, they just kind of go
Speaker 1: with what they know and this is who they because
Speaker 1: we've always had strict gun laws in New York. We've
Speaker 1: always had strict laws period. I mean, you know, we're
Speaker 1: highly regulated. This is you would consider a New York
Speaker 1: City a police state. You know, it is controlled by
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of police officers, and they do it
Speaker 1: well because they've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker 1: And the average citizen in New York is used to
Speaker 1: walking a very thin line. But the fact that the
Speaker 1: matter is, you're not going to get someone inspired or
Speaker 1: or or excited about the Second Amendment that's never lived
Speaker 1: with the privilege of the Second Amendment. It's just a
Speaker 1: lot of New Yorkers are like that. All they care
Speaker 1: about is when they're you know, how much money they
Speaker 1: have for their coffee and if you know the train
Speaker 1: is going to be delayed or not. It's like we
Speaker 1: we live in such a this is such a such
Speaker 1: a bubble, such a hustle and bustling bubble, that we
Speaker 1: don't have time to look past in front of us.
Speaker 1: You know, we just is now cool? Yeah, now it's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm good, you know. And that's that's the basic New
Speaker 1: York mentality. I agree with that. Yeah, I didn't take
Speaker 1: what you were saying as an endorsement, but I like
Speaker 1: to see what I what. I like to see more
Speaker 1: Republicans in charge of municipality. Fuck yeah, hell yeah. I
Speaker 1: want I want to be able to carry, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be able to defend, you know, even
Speaker 1: with the strict gun laws which aren't going away. I
Speaker 1: would think it isn't the most farfetched thing to say
Speaker 1: that if someone is a highly decorated Marine Scott sniper,
Speaker 1: someone is a Navy seal like Brandon Webb, they're as
Speaker 1: trained as you could possibly be with firearms. Like, if
Speaker 1: you don't want to allow someone like me to carry,
Speaker 1: I get it. But guys like you, honestly in most cases,
Speaker 1: are more trained than the police. So why shouldn't you
Speaker 1: be allowed to open carry or concealed carry Because I
Speaker 1: feel like if there is an emergency scenario, would want it,
Speaker 1: would probably be the better guy than the average police officer.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's or the average citizen. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: because you know what I mean. But what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is all the money that went into my training or
Speaker 1: you know, vice versa. I mean in another veteran like
Speaker 1: Brandon or you know, so everything that went into that
Speaker 1: person to to the point where, like I said, I mean,
Speaker 1: if he's up to par with his skill set, you know,
Speaker 1: he has a conditioned response for these crappy situations that
Speaker 1: require someone to respond with weapons. So yeah, I get it,
Speaker 1: and it's a hundred percent percent right. I think what
Speaker 1: they're fearing is, you know, having that that that direct,
Speaker 1: open acknowledgement of a veteran being able to help in
Speaker 1: a situation like that, and also having to accept that's
Speaker 1: that that arena comes with guys with mental issues, and
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's the big problem. No one
Speaker 1: wants to address that, and no one wants to separate
Speaker 1: the two. And I've been a big advocate of separating
Speaker 1: the two. Where there's guys that are completely distraught that
Speaker 1: some can't function. I get it. There's some veterans that
Speaker 1: are really tore up, you know, I get it. And
Speaker 1: it's a scary thing, you know, having to separate that.
Speaker 1: There's veterans that are not tore up. That's veterans that
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. It wouldn't be unfair to say that if
Speaker 1: you want to conceal carrying your veteran go through psychiatric evaluations.
Speaker 1: I'm sort of me if you want to do it,
Speaker 1: I don't think it would be uh an unacceptable thing.
Speaker 1: And also, you hear about these look NYPD are great,
Speaker 1: we love them, but you do hear about in instances
Speaker 1: these crazy shoots where they just they and the whole
Speaker 1: magazine and yeah, and and like you is not going
Speaker 1: to do that. So anyway, I figured would clear that
Speaker 1: one up. This one the right wing thing. I could
Speaker 1: at least see this guy's response here. Uh So, this
Speaker 1: is from Bob sent to Softwrep dot Radio Softrep dot
Speaker 1: com as well. Um, and I take issue with a
Speaker 1: little bit of what you said, but here's what we'll here,
Speaker 1: we'll get into it because I like to read the
Speaker 1: positive and the negative guys. I I read all the emails. Um,
Speaker 1: it seems that both of you, I guess meaning both
Speaker 1: of us, Yet, says Ian and Jason still don't understand
Speaker 1: that there are many liberal Democrats that are serving active
Speaker 1: duty and all the armed forces branches. And Jason still
Speaker 1: doesn't understand that the U. S. Military is not a
Speaker 1: private republican party club that is exclusive to only right wingers.
Speaker 1: You Ian never call him on a ship because of
Speaker 1: whatever fear you may have of Delgado. I do not
Speaker 1: fear choose my ass on like four times a week.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not lying. I get chewed out by Ian
Speaker 1: a lot. Well, I'm gonna I'll give my explanation for
Speaker 1: the rest of this um. Will Cow also seems to
Speaker 1: think there are no liberals and Democrats getting shot at
Speaker 1: overseas well. To be fair, Andrew will Cow is a
Speaker 1: right wing radio talk show host. He's always gonna have. Also,
Speaker 1: both of you no mention of the private meetings of
Speaker 1: politicians on the right and right wing organizational reps meeting
Speaker 1: to dismantle the VA Hospital system Associated press article research
Speaker 1: It Um, all right, I'll address that last point first,
Speaker 1: which you might have some insight into as well. The
Speaker 1: Republican UM standpoint on this, whatever you may feel about it,
Speaker 1: because I've heard it many times that they want to
Speaker 1: give vouchers so that these guys don't have to go
Speaker 1: through the v A and that they can go through
Speaker 1: the private health care system. So to say that they're
Speaker 1: just dismantling the the VA hospital system, it's kind of
Speaker 1: half of the story. Because we hear all these complaints
Speaker 1: about the v A. So it's a Republican solution which
Speaker 1: you might agree with you might not agree with, of
Speaker 1: them saying all right, give them a healthcare plan and
Speaker 1: they go through the free market like everybody else. But
Speaker 1: it's not like we're gonna take away your healthcare completely.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that's the most fair. So I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm still service connected. So UM I have a
Speaker 1: card that allows me to go to a private doctor
Speaker 1: if I want to say I'm traveling or something, and
Speaker 1: if that doctor is accepting of the program, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: They have to be a part of it, have to
Speaker 1: be accepting participant of the program. They can see me
Speaker 1: and build a v A. So that's that's awesome, because
Speaker 1: you know the v A is let's just say, the
Speaker 1: v A and the Bronx. How many hospitals are in
Speaker 1: the Bronx. That's probably Let's see, you got uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you got Monte Fury, you got St. Barn and blah
Speaker 1: bla blah blah whatever, like three or four, all right,
Speaker 1: and one of them is the VA. So if you're
Speaker 1: looking at it from a veteran's point of view, out
Speaker 1: of those four or five that I that you know,
Speaker 1: we have in one uh one city, we are only
Speaker 1: capable of going to one, where every other person with
Speaker 1: healthcare is capable of going to the other four. So
Speaker 1: that being said, how overwhelmed is that one v A facility? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I always hear about the way times from my veteran fen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is the only v A U in this
Speaker 1: Tristate area, you know, and on that tri state. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry that gone. Um Yeah, the five barrels. So that
Speaker 1: is an extremely overwhelmed hospital. Yet they do a good
Speaker 1: enough job. I have none complaints about the VA. Oh.
Speaker 1: Here in New York, I hear half and half. I
Speaker 1: feel like, I don't know, personal experience. Yeah, not in
Speaker 1: New York. I just mean in general in the podcast,
Speaker 1: cause I hear it. You. Half the guys I hear complainants.
Speaker 1: Half the guys that hear that they not it. I
Speaker 1: hear it too, And I'm not gonna say, oh, that's
Speaker 1: not my experience, so you're lying. Yeah, it's also you
Speaker 1: don't you don't know what the v A is like
Speaker 1: in Texas. I don't know, yeah, which I heard. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Brandon, I remember wrote an article that was
Speaker 1: basically like, if you want to honor Chris Kyle, fix
Speaker 1: the v A system where he's from? And is it Houston?
Speaker 1: I know he's in from Texas, but either way where
Speaker 1: he is apparently they're having a lot of issues. So
Speaker 1: he was like, who cares about making this national Chris
Speaker 1: Kyle there or whatever? I think he would want to
Speaker 1: fix the v A system, was his point. I remember
Speaker 1: him writing that. All Right, I'm gonna address the point
Speaker 1: about me real quick, and then I'll let Jason it is.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. I kind of addressed this earlier
Speaker 1: on the show. Um, I don't agree with what everything
Speaker 1: Jason says on the podcast or everything Jackson's on the podcast,
Speaker 1: But the thing is, I've kind of taken a back
Speaker 1: seat because this is not really a debate show. If
Speaker 1: I were to debate every point that Jason says, like,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be able to get into the interviews or
Speaker 1: or the Jackson's Like we had Derek on recently, it
Speaker 1: was definitely more left wing, and I'm not gonna waste
Speaker 1: my time debating every single point that he makes. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember early on in the podcast, I
Speaker 1: actually did spend more time giving opinion on things, and
Speaker 1: I would get so many emails that were like, We're
Speaker 1: not here to listen to your opinions. You weren't special operations.
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, cool, point take it.
Speaker 1: And now I get shipped for doing the opposite, which
Speaker 1: is just kind of funny to me because I actually
Speaker 1: think the original point makes sense. The only time I
Speaker 1: do call people out is when I factually feel like
Speaker 1: they have something completely wrong and we'll address it later.
Speaker 1: I mean, the most recent example I could think of
Speaker 1: is I had to I just I was eating it.
Speaker 1: I had to say something when Brandon mentioned the the
Speaker 1: gender pay gap, because the gender pay gap stuff has
Speaker 1: been really disproven. You can look at the statistics of
Speaker 1: like the majors that women go into. They go to
Speaker 1: childhood education and things like that that don't pay a
Speaker 1: lot by choice, they don't go into like petroleum engineering.
Speaker 1: That's a male dominated field, and trust me, they would
Speaker 1: love to have women there, but women don't want to
Speaker 1: risk their lives to be a patroleum engineer. So I
Speaker 1: like if it's something like that, but if it's a
Speaker 1: matter of opinion, or if it's something you know, you
Speaker 1: made that statement about the renewable oil style, yea, I
Speaker 1: personally don't know enough, so I'm not going to spend
Speaker 1: my time debating you on something that I'm really not
Speaker 1: an expert on. Um. But yeah, I don't like this
Speaker 1: to be a debate show, like to be a forum
Speaker 1: for guys to get it to be quite honest, and
Speaker 1: if we were really truly a hundred percent worried about
Speaker 1: what every human being had to say about as positive
Speaker 1: or negative, we wouldn't even be speaking. Yeah, this podcast
Speaker 1: will probably be not a podcast. I was gonna say
Speaker 1: typed out, but no, you probably still you know, it'll
Speaker 1: be like one like back and forth chat room. Dude.
Speaker 1: I'll give you. I'll give you a perfect example right here. Um,
Speaker 1: when we had Kristen back on the on the podcast.
Speaker 1: The first time, I remember, we got all this ship
Speaker 1: that we're like, why are you um endorsing this whole
Speaker 1: transgender agenda? Why would you have someone like this in
Speaker 1: the podcast? We got a whole bunch of crap for it.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. I love having Kristen back on
Speaker 1: the podcast, and I love hearing about Kristen's experience. Now,
Speaker 1: if you want to know my opinion on the whole
Speaker 1: transgender issue, I'll just say it differs very much so
Speaker 1: from how Kristen would view this. But but the reason
Speaker 1: we'd have someone like Christen on the podcast is to
Speaker 1: talk about their experience. It's not for me to have
Speaker 1: a debate over, you know, if you could be born
Speaker 1: into the wrong body or not, because you could turn
Speaker 1: on the mainstream media and here then we're supposed to
Speaker 1: be like a departure from that. Anyway, what you have
Speaker 1: before on on what this guy said about you and
Speaker 1: not know and then I don't know what did you
Speaker 1: say about talking? Why why don't we talk about the
Speaker 1: secret meetings or something like that? Well, the v A
Speaker 1: hospital private meetings and politicians about that private meeting crap?
Speaker 1: Why are we not talking about the private meetings held
Speaker 1: on tarmax, you know what I mean? Like, I also
Speaker 1: don't think you know where he says. Jason still doesn't
Speaker 1: understand the US is not a private Republican party. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he thinks. I I think everyone in the military is
Speaker 1: a Republican. No, but the majority of people that have
Speaker 1: served in combat don't come home and expect handbouts, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's crazy, because if anybody in this society deserves handbouts,
Speaker 1: it's someone that put their life on the line and
Speaker 1: was injured as a result of it, so on and
Speaker 1: so forth, or even went to some sort of mental distress.
Speaker 1: You know. My point is, if anyone should ask for handouts,
Speaker 1: it would be a veteran right. But yet we don't,
Speaker 1: you know, And then we have people that are just
Speaker 1: you know, disenfranchised, you can say whatever, and they just
Speaker 1: get stuck into this system where it's just, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: government's got me. I really don't have to set forth
Speaker 1: any effort, and if I do, you're gonna get penalized
Speaker 1: for it, you know. Like I don't agree with that,
Speaker 1: But on average, the average veteran has sacrifice, sacrificed so
Speaker 1: much when they come home, they're not a liberal. Even
Speaker 1: if they are, they're probably more libertarian. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Well, yeah, because I was gonna say, I
Speaker 1: the whole there's if you was a refrigerator mechanic in
Speaker 1: the army, yeah, you could be on it because you
Speaker 1: didn't do ship. Okay, I'm gonna be on it, Puss,
Speaker 1: and honest with you, you can be an a black
Speaker 1: activist and be in the army, but I guarantee you
Speaker 1: you haven't fought next to that white boy that fucking
Speaker 1: saved your life. I'm gonna say that right now, because
Speaker 1: then you realize that that true honor, true patriotism, true
Speaker 1: respect for your country, transcends color and race. And then
Speaker 1: once you understand that, that goes beyond, you know, any
Speaker 1: political affiliation. It's just hard work. The more hard work
Speaker 1: you put in, the more you get back out of life.
Speaker 1: And we see that and because of the military forces
Speaker 1: you to learn that unless, like I said, you weren't
Speaker 1: doing jack ship. Another thing I was gonna say is
Speaker 1: just that I think we limit ourselves with the labels
Speaker 1: of like conservative, liberal, because most people are not on
Speaker 1: one thing. But I do think the military leans conservative.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say on this one thing is
Speaker 1: that they like politically correct agenda being shoved down everyone's throat.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't appeal to people in the military in general. Um,
Speaker 1: because I've talked to you guys like guys in the military,
Speaker 1: regardless of color, aren't could be going to be offended
Speaker 1: by every little thing that you say as opposed to
Speaker 1: like I see these millennials. Yeah, so, but you know
Speaker 1: that's one issue, like what are military veterans positions on, um,
Speaker 1: you know, tax reform or abortion or like it has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the military, so that the answers
Speaker 1: to that are probably all over the board. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: what does that have to do anybody serving or what
Speaker 1: their political affiliations. And my point is the majority. I
Speaker 1: would say, you can't say here and tell me the
Speaker 1: majority of the military is liberal. That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: I would agree with that, And just as a guy
Speaker 1: who's talked to guys in the military, that's my point.
Speaker 1: But I will give you that I'm not. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: it came across as if I am a thousand percent
Speaker 1: certain that everyone in the military is a conservative, I
Speaker 1: I apologize. That's not the message. I was I. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty open, dude, I think I am. If you want
Speaker 1: to be gay, you want to be a liberal, you
Speaker 1: want to be a conservative, you want, I don't care.
Speaker 1: You kind of have to be living New York for
Speaker 1: the most part. You crazy. And I can't wave my
Speaker 1: flag around everywhere I go either over here because it's
Speaker 1: not popular. It's actually fun, you know, I'll say this,
Speaker 1: man during UM and I'm all for everybody too, but
Speaker 1: during like gay Pride, is it just week or month
Speaker 1: or I don't even know, but you genuinely will see
Speaker 1: rainbow flags everywhere, way more than you see the American flag.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of weird. No, it is crazy
Speaker 1: because I have no problem with people who are who
Speaker 1: are proud of um, you know, what their sexual orientation
Speaker 1: is and all that. But like I do think, first
Speaker 1: and foremost we're Americans. Yeah, you know, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't see the craze on the fourth of July. You
Speaker 1: don't see you know, all up and down you know,
Speaker 1: these large avenues. You know, American flags left and right now,
Speaker 1: but you see, you know, the gay flags, gay pride flags.
Speaker 1: That's cool with me, I get it, but come on,
Speaker 1: you know, give give give the give America where you're
Speaker 1: able to exercise this you know, uh, this freedom of
Speaker 1: being sexually uh free. Give give America the credit and
Speaker 1: do the same thing for America. Let's see some flags
Speaker 1: out here. Let's be proud of what we got, which
Speaker 1: is why we need more guys like Amatoloney damn straight. Um.
Speaker 1: All right, and we'll go over these real quick, because
Speaker 1: we're doing a long show here. But Curtis was great, Um. Trump.
Speaker 1: You know, the new national security rolled out. I heard
Speaker 1: Morty scope and talking about the new policy in Afghanistan
Speaker 1: with Andrew will Cow actually yesterday. So I'll just read
Speaker 1: from this article, um, which I believe is originally from ABC. UM.
Speaker 1: Our new strategy is based on a principle of realism,
Speaker 1: guided by our national interests and rooted in our timeless values.
Speaker 1: The strategy recognizes that, whether we like it or not,
Speaker 1: we are engaged in a new era of competition. Trump said.
Speaker 1: The strategy outlined three major threats to the United States.
Speaker 1: Rogue regimes including North Korea and Iran, that support terror
Speaker 1: and pursue weapons of mass destruction. Rival powers including China
Speaker 1: and Russia that seek to challenge American influence of values
Speaker 1: and wealth, and transnational terrorist organizations, including radical Islamist groups
Speaker 1: that constantly seek new ways to attack the United States. UM.
Speaker 1: And then it has a few other things in here.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a longer article, but you know
Speaker 1: what I got from Marty Scoveland was that, for one,
Speaker 1: he said that Afghani special forces when he was over
Speaker 1: there really were nothing impressive. They've made great strides. And
Speaker 1: also he feels that this kind ends the um free
Speaker 1: handouts for this part of the world, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to show us that you're making progress
Speaker 1: on your own. But he also said to Andrew, I
Speaker 1: don't see us leaving there anytime soon enough. We'll have
Speaker 1: a long term presence there, the same way we have
Speaker 1: in Germany, Japan, etcetera. And it's that is exactly what
Speaker 1: I gathered from what was put out, and it's but
Speaker 1: what I see more is a focus on the training
Speaker 1: aspect now that that to me is outlined as a priority.
Speaker 1: It was always the mission, especially as push special operations
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, it has always been the mission to train
Speaker 1: the foreign nationals how to defend themselves so that they
Speaker 1: can in turn do it for themselves. You know, teach
Speaker 1: them how to teach them how to fish, and they'll
Speaker 1: be fed forever, you know. So that's what our that's
Speaker 1: what our idea is. But this time around it became
Speaker 1: a highlight, came a priority. Now, So that being said,
Speaker 1: numbers wise, we're not gonna see any changes. In fact,
Speaker 1: it will probably increase a bit. But what I believe
Speaker 1: is now that that is priority, that is going to
Speaker 1: be scrutinized to a certain degree. So um, now you're
Speaker 1: gonna get people, like you said, requiring results for that.
Speaker 1: So if I'm training you to be special operations, I'm
Speaker 1: training you to do raids and you know, pick up
Speaker 1: hvt s high value targets. I want to start seeing that. Now,
Speaker 1: don't give me crap. Don't tell me you don't have
Speaker 1: any intel. Here's here's the intel. Show me what you
Speaker 1: can do. So could you know, we want to make
Speaker 1: sure that they're you know, they're just not taking our money,
Speaker 1: not taking our our very valuable lessons and just saying
Speaker 1: all right thanks. And you know it's in other words,
Speaker 1: we're trying to prevent another missoul. Why pull out? You
Speaker 1: see what happened over there? We left that power vacuum
Speaker 1: and next, you know, the birth of ISIS and now
Speaker 1: we have to deal with what we're dealing with now
Speaker 1: because of a result of that, if we pull out
Speaker 1: of Afghanistan, now, holy crap, it is gonna be the
Speaker 1: craziest resurgence of Islamic terrorism in the world because Afghanistan
Speaker 1: is huge and the the the government of Afghanistan, you know,
Speaker 1: granted they have a big brother the United States there,
Speaker 1: but without US, I mean I see a lot of
Speaker 1: factions coming in and taking over and even think about it,
Speaker 1: a lot of them working through the politics as well.
Speaker 1: You know, that's their goal. They want that caliphate and
Speaker 1: I don't see what out our help, it's not going
Speaker 1: that way. So you know, if we leave, that region
Speaker 1: is going to turn into one of the biggest producers
Speaker 1: of its Lamicer streamers we have, hands down. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think the uh, you know, politicians have this incentive to say, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pull out because people in America almost have
Speaker 1: their blinders on, like we're not over there. We don't
Speaker 1: see what's gonna happen. We just know that we have
Speaker 1: possibly friends and family members over there, and we want
Speaker 1: to see them back home. You don't think of the
Speaker 1: long term implications of that. UM Marty also brought up
Speaker 1: a really interesting point about Afghanistan and the reality of
Speaker 1: the situation was that what's funding terrorism is the opioid stuff.
Speaker 1: And he was talking about how we have to based
Speaker 1: it in America. We are by far, he was consistent
Speaker 1: of opioids, like and it's not even close. He was
Speaker 1: reading all the statistics of of how, you know, how
Speaker 1: uh far ahead we are in terms of the rest
Speaker 1: of the world of just consuming off the street opioids,
Speaker 1: and he was saying, like, if you're buying this stuff
Speaker 1: off the street, you're supporting terrorism. So I thought that
Speaker 1: was a pretty uh crazy reality. And and more so, um,
Speaker 1: we're talking about direct policy with Afghanistan and what whatever
Speaker 1: we allowed to occur, what what um, what outcome that
Speaker 1: has on our potential goal? Right? So you know we've
Speaker 1: experienced we've experimented with a lot of programs over there politically. UM.
Speaker 1: One was that Heroin buyback program, you know, and that
Speaker 1: was crazy because we promised to buy up to a
Speaker 1: hack hector of opium or poppy from the farmers that
Speaker 1: were already established poppy growers, right, and what they said,
Speaker 1: and this the goal was the long term goal was
Speaker 1: to prevent them or to keep them from selling to
Speaker 1: Taliban and then Taliban being able to intern sell that
Speaker 1: and make bank right. So that was our rationalization of
Speaker 1: buying the oil opioids. Right. Turns out that they're like cool,
Speaker 1: America just signed on to be a consistent client every
Speaker 1: month and they're gonna buy a hector, but they'll grow
Speaker 1: another freaking two three hectors and sell it to Taliban
Speaker 1: and still collect American money. So that policy alone was
Speaker 1: just bananas, you know what I mean. And when you
Speaker 1: think about stuff like that, like, who the hell doesn't
Speaker 1: play these situations out to the end in their mind
Speaker 1: and say, yeah, this, let's go with. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be great. And I think, I think, now it's going
Speaker 1: to be different. Yeah, you know what I was thinking about.
Speaker 1: It's like this vicious cycle of like you have the
Speaker 1: guy who joins the military, goes over there um to
Speaker 1: fight the Taliban, to fight terrorists, to fight isis um,
Speaker 1: possibly comes back with PTSD, possibly gets addicted to this stuff,
Speaker 1: and then is buying the drug from the people that
Speaker 1: he was over there fighting. That came to my mind,
Speaker 1: that's happening. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's happening. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's we say in my last last gig contracting whatever,
Speaker 1: my first gig contracting, we had a team leader in
Speaker 1: his favorite saying was too easy, that's all too easy.
Speaker 1: And I mean when you go when you go to
Speaker 1: Iraq or Afghanistan or ship in Mexico, when you go
Speaker 1: to another country, relax regulations and standards, like you could
Speaker 1: literally like buy drugs over the counter. You know, it's
Speaker 1: too easy over there to get that stuff because there's
Speaker 1: really no regulations to that crap, you know, and and
Speaker 1: it's it's such a big pot. In fact, alcohol is
Speaker 1: more regulated in Afghanistan and Iraq than hash or heroin
Speaker 1: or whatever it is of the region. You know, alcohol
Speaker 1: is like, oh that's ultimate sin. But yet does the
Speaker 1: government nazee money from that? Is that why? I don't know.
Speaker 1: And they don't want to like agree to sell it
Speaker 1: or it's against the religion, the prominent religion or the
Speaker 1: dry In America, you know, um, marijuana is vilified more
Speaker 1: than alcohol. And since you're it's really a money issue,
Speaker 1: government makes a ton of money off alcohol and it's
Speaker 1: totally not about them getting drunk and getting into the
Speaker 1: U S and stuff like. No, it's just just literally
Speaker 1: literally a religious thing. So because it's a really you know,
Speaker 1: it's a predominantly Muslim aria, so alcohol they're not allowed
Speaker 1: to drink alcohol. Um. But that yeah, because what happened
Speaker 1: here during prohibition it opened up the underground for I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it opened up the entire network of underground
Speaker 1: you know brothels and speakeasies. And next to you know,
Speaker 1: that becomes big, big money, you know, selling alcohol. It's
Speaker 1: the same things going on over there. And then the
Speaker 1: thing is like Americans could get Afghanis and Iraqis alcohol, right,
Speaker 1: and in turn Afghanis and Iraqis could get Americans what yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean it's crazy. And then the crazy thing
Speaker 1: too when you talk about that that this is why
Speaker 1: you know it's it's going on because it's banned in
Speaker 1: all at The connection in my mind is you also
Speaker 1: hear about I've heard from friends of mind. I think
Speaker 1: it's been brought up on the podcast like very anti
Speaker 1: gay there don't have the sex you know, bro it
Speaker 1: is and here it goes down there, you know, out
Speaker 1: in the open, and it is the most anti gay region,
Speaker 1: one of the most anti gay regions in the world
Speaker 1: quote unquote air quotes, but you see the gayest stuff
Speaker 1: going down, dude. These guys will hold hands and kiss
Speaker 1: each other on the lips because they can't have sex
Speaker 1: with you know, non virgin they would hug each other
Speaker 1: and grab each other's butts, like, yo, you're looking at
Speaker 1: this and you're like, yo, I don't care how many
Speaker 1: times you're gonna tell me, and the sofa breeze. This
Speaker 1: is their culture. You're not gonna know. You're not fooling me.
Speaker 1: These two dudes are fiddling each other, you know, like
Speaker 1: hands down, and that is a thing. You know, it's crazy. Um,
Speaker 1: But if you're openly gay, then that's you know, oh no,
Speaker 1: we're that's intolerable, which is not like it's so crazy.
Speaker 1: And it also goes back to are they doing this
Speaker 1: because they're gay or because they're sex really deprived, because
Speaker 1: it goes back to, well, they're not sexually deprived. Their
Speaker 1: women are super submissive in because I'm thinking of it
Speaker 1: as the same way as like a guy goes to
Speaker 1: prison for life, all of a sudden he's having sex
Speaker 1: with men and you're like, how, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: a part of the culture. It's hard to explain. But
Speaker 1: like since they were since they were kids. You know,
Speaker 1: they're fiddling each other boys because the boys. But you
Speaker 1: gotta understand, boys and girls are separated since birth in
Speaker 1: those in those countries, like since the day they were born.
Speaker 1: There's no co ed schools. But boys don't go to
Speaker 1: schools with girls, so they don't have that chance to
Speaker 1: build romantic relationships with the opposite sex. Yet they're still
Speaker 1: going through puberty. They're still you know, experiencing all all
Speaker 1: those things that adolescents experience, and the only confidence you
Speaker 1: have are other like, uh, other men or other women whatever.
Speaker 1: Because it's also a thing for lesbians as well. Um,
Speaker 1: so they start experimenting with each other because they're in
Speaker 1: the freaking phase of experimentation. You've seen that show on Netflix,
Speaker 1: Big Mouth. Oh my god, it's so funny. Basically, it's
Speaker 1: a cartoon. It's a it's in the tradition of South
Speaker 1: Park and all. This is so nuts. It's a cartoon
Speaker 1: that like kind of like tries to explain a teenage
Speaker 1: puberty and stuff. Oh it's so funny. John Bush was
Speaker 1: telling you, Yeah it is. You got to see it.
Speaker 1: I loved it. It was so crazy. But like they
Speaker 1: depict the as pure puberty, as this freaking monster that
Speaker 1: is always like influencing your thoughts. And the thing is
Speaker 1: it's like gay and not gay to you know, it's
Speaker 1: like to watch this because within one week you have
Speaker 1: brought this up, You're gonna have a blast. And it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: From what John Bush said to me, who we've had
Speaker 1: on the podcast Restaurant Onner, very cool guy. Uh and
Speaker 1: you know him as well, he was like the first episode,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I don't know how I feel
Speaker 1: about this. Then he's like, next thing, I know, I'm
Speaker 1: binge watching the dude, you're gonna binge watch this. It
Speaker 1: is sick. I was sad that it ended. That's one
Speaker 1: of those it was like, oh, no, episode ten, it's over.
Speaker 1: But you know that's so that's in their culture. They're
Speaker 1: raised to, you know, sexually experienced men, but they're told
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to procreate with women. So throughout there
Speaker 1: and all those generations of that freaking goddamn psychotic nous,
Speaker 1: they have developed some sort of a mantra. I've heard
Speaker 1: it a thousand times before. I'm not sure if this
Speaker 1: is like open or whatever, but I've heard it a
Speaker 1: hundred times over. They say men are for pleasure and
Speaker 1: women are for procreation. And I've seen it and they
Speaker 1: reflected in their actions with each other. So it's so nuts.
Speaker 1: It's like so hypocritical. Yeah. Absolutely. Um last thing, Melbourne, Australia.
Speaker 1: I'll just give you the article. Uh, this is from CNN.
Speaker 1: The driver of a car which plowed into Christmas shoppers
Speaker 1: in Melbourne Thursday had a history of drug use, health
Speaker 1: ish of drug use, mental health issues, police said. Acting
Speaker 1: Chief Commissioner Victoria Police Shane uh Patent told reporters that
Speaker 1: while the crash was considered to be deliberate, there was
Speaker 1: no evidence of a link to terrorism. Eighteen people were injured,
Speaker 1: including at least one young child, when the car hit
Speaker 1: pedestrians outside Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street station just after four
Speaker 1: or forty pm local time. So it's a thirty two
Speaker 1: year old driver who was driving a white Suzuki for
Speaker 1: w D, Australian citizen of Afghan descent, who was known
Speaker 1: the police by only but only for minor offenses. And
Speaker 1: then a second man arrested at the scene who's believed
Speaker 1: to have been connected with the incident. There's been no
Speaker 1: change in the state's threat levels. Um. And this this
Speaker 1: happened recently. I mean by tomorrow, when this goes up,
Speaker 1: they'll probably be uh some progress. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're feeling of if it is terrorism or not. I mean,
Speaker 1: you do hear Afghan descent raises a red flag. Well,
Speaker 1: it sounds like what happened in Jersey a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, where this um, this Muslim individual dressed in
Speaker 1: full dish national just ran up on a police officer,
Speaker 1: yelled alakbar, and shot the police officer while he was
Speaker 1: sitting at his cruiser and ran away. They caught the
Speaker 1: guy eventually, and the guy said he was doing it
Speaker 1: in the name of Allah and all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: he's admitting that this is his jihad or his act
Speaker 1: of terror, and uh they I think the mayor of
Speaker 1: that town was quick to denounce it as a terrorist activity.
Speaker 1: So I guess what this does because it is quite
Speaker 1: a similar situation. Um, but in classification you know, but
Speaker 1: you don't know that because it just happened. Okay, But
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is the situation of the classification of this.
Speaker 1: My question is is that where we're gonna keep saying
Speaker 1: for these lone wolf attacks, if they don't have no
Speaker 1: ties to an ISIS cell because you know, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: ISIS is quite unconventional because they use their media platform
Speaker 1: to influence. So now they're actually out there influencing individuals,
Speaker 1: and these individuals are committing these atrocities. Are we just
Speaker 1: gonna keep giving them that blanket check saying that, Oh no,
Speaker 1: he's just crazy. Oh no, you don't have a direct
Speaker 1: link to any ISIS bank accounts or major players. So
Speaker 1: this isn't an act of terror. No, it's I think
Speaker 1: it's still an act of terror, whether it's a lone
Speaker 1: wolf attack or not. His inspiration was the destabilization of
Speaker 1: our society or proving a point. You understand, I haven't
Speaker 1: heard much more than reading this article and what it
Speaker 1: just happened. Yes I haven't. I haven't heard enough yet,
Speaker 1: But by tomorrow, I'm sure the lead progress in the situation.
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's a tough one to call because,
Speaker 1: like they said, there's mental history, mental issues in his history,
Speaker 1: there's drug abuse in his history. You know, um, but
Speaker 1: what you know, what was his motivation if it was
Speaker 1: in fact and you know, anti Western society motivation then,
Speaker 1: I mean it is what it is. I think that
Speaker 1: was a terrorist act. Yeah, well we'll hear more about it,
Speaker 1: um and and we'll see if you're correct on this.
Speaker 1: Uh and whatever progress has made getting out of here,
Speaker 1: got to mention you guys. Of course, as a reminder
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Speaker 1: Hope that all of you have a very merry Christmas,
Speaker 1: and the day after Christmas will have General Tony Tata
Speaker 1: coming in in studio a J. Tata who's co writing
Speaker 1: the next book with Nick Irving, which might be loosely
Speaker 1: based on him from the interview we did. I'm excited
Speaker 1: for that. I love having him in studio. It's it's
Speaker 1: been quite a while and He's excited to come in.
Speaker 1: Anything else you wanted to get to. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: want to say thank you to Tremonton, New Jersey, Tremonton
Speaker 1: Harley Davis. Right, Nancy osk you about that. That was
Speaker 1: awesome in his book signing. Um, I met Nancy during
Speaker 1: the Vett ride, uh, the WOCO event. Yeah, Amato Loony's
Speaker 1: and you know, she invited me down to her dealership
Speaker 1: to do a book signing. She said she she has
Speaker 1: a lot of people, you know, kind of intrigued in
Speaker 1: the whole, you know, the whole, the idea, and I thought,
Speaker 1: that's cool, let's do it. And you know, she was super,
Speaker 1: super gracious, awesome hostess, and um, the people that came
Speaker 1: out are amazing. One in the individual, Rick Merchant he
Speaker 1: uh is a motorcycle rider for Warriors Watch Riders. And
Speaker 1: these guys are the guys that you see putting up
Speaker 1: the flag wall at funerals so people don't disturb thee
Speaker 1: what are they called the West Baptist Church. Well know
Speaker 1: these guys, well, there's a couple of groups that do
Speaker 1: this and this this is just one of those groups.
Speaker 1: And they oh that was protesting and then yeah, so
Speaker 1: these guys who put up the American flag wall to
Speaker 1: keep the families from seeing them doing that. And they
Speaker 1: also um they also do um the the rides, the
Speaker 1: escorts from the airports where um, you know, k I A.
Speaker 1: You know, veterans or soldiers come in and they'll do
Speaker 1: the escort all the way to the the funeral parlor.
Speaker 1: So um, if you guys know of any situation where
Speaker 1: you would need these fine, fine, fine, fine gentlemen, these
Speaker 1: these awesome bikers that are true patriots. If you would
Speaker 1: need them to do something like that for you, for you,
Speaker 1: you know you're returning veteran or you know you need
Speaker 1: someone to block a funeral or whatever, call these guys, man,
Speaker 1: They're awesome. Or just go out to their website and
Speaker 1: and j W w R at gmail dot com. That's
Speaker 1: I think Northern New Jersey Chapter of Warriors Watch Writers
Speaker 1: and these are the guys that will do it. Man.
Speaker 1: I just had to give him a shot because I
Speaker 1: that was that was awesome. The fact that they do that.
Speaker 1: I agree, And it's despicable that you know, there's these
Speaker 1: people protest soldier spirits. What I mean, it's like that
Speaker 1: double edged sword of freedom of speech. But the fact
Speaker 1: that people want to do that is horrible, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great to see. If there's cake freets out there
Speaker 1: doing that, I guess that's it. And then we've gone
Speaker 1: over two hours for you people, So please leave us
Speaker 1: to review on Apple Podcasts. Uh, you know, leave us
Speaker 1: a five star review on there. It really helps us out,
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Speaker 1: that's sure right on. Guys, A merry Christmas. You've been
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