Speaker 1: Ah, beaute force. 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 and the community
Speaker 1: Software Radio on Time on Target. I actually first wanted
Speaker 1: to say, episode four thirty three, our last episode. I've
Speaker 1: never heard an episode of or seen an episode of.
Speaker 1: Hours gained so much traction so quickly. I was looking
Speaker 1: at the numbers, and before we're recording this, it's already
Speaker 1: at like twelve thousand lessons, um. And that's between the
Speaker 1: RSS feed and then which is you know, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: Google podcasts, uh, Spotify, and then also our own internal website.
Speaker 1: It just blew up very quickly. And look, I do
Speaker 1: think it has a little bit to do with a
Speaker 1: more provocative title Navy Seals arrested in eighty which I
Speaker 1: purposely put. You know, you can call it that quick
Speaker 1: bit or whatever, but um, well, that is what it's
Speaker 1: the first part of the episodes about exactly. And and
Speaker 1: then I you know, people are gonna hear about Mike Lampy,
Speaker 1: so uh yeah, I mean the second part is more
Speaker 1: interesting in my opinion, but hey, yeah, I just know
Speaker 1: that when news like that blows up. A lot of
Speaker 1: people want to hear your perspective and the perspective of
Speaker 1: the guys, and and since we have Chris Paranto on,
Speaker 1: I haven't asked him, but I wouldn't mind hearing his perspective,
Speaker 1: just as a guy who's pretty much, I would say,
Speaker 1: one of the most famous military contractors. I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: knows about what happened to Benghazis. Yeah, honestly, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's kind of fair to say. Yeah, yes, I'd
Speaker 1: like to hear Chris's take. It's been a while since
Speaker 1: we've had him on. I'd like to hear what he's
Speaker 1: up to. I know that he's doing this project on
Speaker 1: this show War Heroes, which spotlights different military members um,
Speaker 1: some of them passed on, some of them still living,
Speaker 1: and they have a premier going on, so we'll get
Speaker 1: into that with him. Uh. First thing I actually wanted
Speaker 1: to mention, and this is kind of random. I'm pulling
Speaker 1: up my Instagram right here. Every day I try to
Speaker 1: do a new Instagram post on ats off Prep Radio,
Speaker 1: and I figured I would do something different one day.
Speaker 1: And know, we spoke about the Punisher, UM, which I'm
Speaker 1: not even completely in the know about the Punisher. But
Speaker 1: the reason I decided to post a picture and get
Speaker 1: people's take was I realized, this is um a really
Speaker 1: big issue of them canceling the show. And what made
Speaker 1: me think of that was on social media, especially. The
Speaker 1: biggest person was Eminem, who rarely tweets, put out a
Speaker 1: tweet that said, uh, Dear Netflix, I believe this is
Speaker 1: what it's said to say, you know on side, I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, but it's like deer, Netflix, you're blowing it.
Speaker 1: Sincerely a concerned fan, And it got a lot of traction.
Speaker 1: Um And so what I wrote on Software Radio's Instagram
Speaker 1: was on the podcast last week. We took a break
Speaker 1: from our usual talk to for a few to discuss
Speaker 1: the Punisher getting the acts from Netflix. Eminem, for one,
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be happy with the decision. What do
Speaker 1: you guys think? Good move? Bad move? Question mark and
Speaker 1: actually a lot of people seem to disagree with your take.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read all of these. Uh, there's there's a bunch,
Speaker 1: but uh uh, Phil wrote wanted season three for sure
Speaker 1: Software Radio, Uh short barrel daddy only Netflix show. I
Speaker 1: actually like Robby Bennett one for three. If they bring
Speaker 1: back all of the Marvel series to the new Disney
Speaker 1: streaming service. I'm okay, but rumor has it they're not,
Speaker 1: which is a huge mistake given their polarity popularity. Jeeping
Speaker 1: Out wrote that was such a great show. I liked
Speaker 1: how they stuck reality in the show. It was almost
Speaker 1: as if it wasn't a comic book character. I just
Speaker 1: remembered this, but I remember reading somewhere that either Hulu
Speaker 1: or FX wants to bring them back to their networks,
Speaker 1: and then he posted an article about it. Uh, this
Speaker 1: guy seems to agree with you, are Hagar four? Season
Speaker 1: two's plot was got awful. Uh, Southern Cross plays who
Speaker 1: we actually had on the show before. Um, he's the
Speaker 1: guy who was a marine. Nick Kofman told us about him.
Speaker 1: Name is escaping me at the moment. But um, he wrote.
Speaker 1: Season one was great. Season two has not impressed me
Speaker 1: so far. Are Cristinado seventy? Absolutely horrible move by Netflix.
Speaker 1: Hopefully the new Disney streaming channel or another streaming service
Speaker 1: will bring them back. I was sprised to hear Disney
Speaker 1: brought up. Is there an affiliation there? Because I didn't
Speaker 1: even know Disney owns Marvel did not know that, okay.
Speaker 1: As I said, I'm kind of an outsider on this one,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad we talked about it because there's obviously
Speaker 1: a cross section looking at these comments. Um Harrera marc
Speaker 1: Ario wrote, I enjoyed both seasons, Josh crown over. It's
Speaker 1: not like they had much further to go with the storyline.
Speaker 1: The end of the second season turned him into a batman,
Speaker 1: asked vigilante. Uh t there's so many comments here. I'll
Speaker 1: see if you can get to them all. There's just
Speaker 1: a few more t fell in. Uh Russo is dead,
Speaker 1: so it's a good place to end. There's a storyline
Speaker 1: to be followed. But apparently there's an issue between the networks.
Speaker 1: I don't give a funk what eminem thinks the show
Speaker 1: should continue. Uh Walper style, it's all going to be okay,
Speaker 1: the expanses coming back. I'm not familiar with a sci
Speaker 1: fi show. I think it ran only one season. Thought
Speaker 1: you uh Ma Willer, horrible decision. Uh mentalists one wrote
Speaker 1: bullshit stuhm at thirty five bad bad move. They think
Speaker 1: they do so much better with their full length features
Speaker 1: than series, and not everyone wants that bad move. Uh
Speaker 1: Naco Season two was whack. It went on way too long.
Speaker 1: Some shows this is yes, this guy's in your camp. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some shows ideas are better off as a smaller standalone
Speaker 1: mini series and shouldn't go on forever. I was dragged
Speaker 1: it out as so long as they possibly could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then there's the last one here, Ndy Hooligan. I'm pitched.
Speaker 1: They cut all the Defenders Punisher included, so a lot
Speaker 1: of people in our audience apparently we're fans of the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how they did it. I
Speaker 1: mean it was kind of hard to sit through the
Speaker 1: first season. I didn't even see the whole thing because
Speaker 1: I literally fell asleep watching it. I think my wife
Speaker 1: watched the rest of it. Um season two, I watched
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and I mean there are good scenes
Speaker 1: in both the first and second season, but like overall,
Speaker 1: it's like, man, this should have been like five episodes
Speaker 1: rather than you know, eight or ten or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: It's like the show is kind of I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a boredom generator because what they did is they try
Speaker 1: to turn into a soap opera. And like I was
Speaker 1: saying before a few podcasts back, I was like man,
Speaker 1: who the hell wants to watch The Punisher feeling sorry
Speaker 1: for himself and being sad for like hours on end.
Speaker 1: You know, I can be sad and depressed all on
Speaker 1: my own. I don't need a fucking, you know, superhero
Speaker 1: TV show to do that. Well, considering the fact, you know,
Speaker 1: comments like those, and you have someone with the notoriety
Speaker 1: of an eminem saying he wants to see more, I
Speaker 1: would think it will be brought back somewhere. I mean,
Speaker 1: like I said, John Burnthall is a good actor and
Speaker 1: and I actually he was really good as the Punisher.
Speaker 1: It's not his fault that the series sucked, it's whoever
Speaker 1: wrote it. Yeah, all right, well, I'm I'm glad to
Speaker 1: see that we mentioned something that you know, got some
Speaker 1: traction with you guys. Maybe I'll do that more often
Speaker 1: when we mentioned something in the pop culture field, get
Speaker 1: your take on Instagram and read it on the show.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of cool. I like hearing from
Speaker 1: the audience. Um. Next thing, we had some great emails,
Speaker 1: some questions for you for you really, um so I'll
Speaker 1: get to these. These are sent as always um to
Speaker 1: soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com. That's
Speaker 1: where you guys should send your emails. This one is
Speaker 1: from my Jake. Hey, guys, new listener, Really like what
Speaker 1: I hear so far. Just listen to the podcast with
Speaker 1: p J Doug catch CATCHI Jian Am I saying his
Speaker 1: name right? So hard to say catchy in catching? Is
Speaker 1: that how you say it? Well? I think it's catch.
Speaker 1: All of them have an ean at the end, all
Speaker 1: Armenian names they do um and heard you call u
Speaker 1: a v S quote toys. Just wondering if you guys
Speaker 1: actually think these are the little quadra copters or if
Speaker 1: you know the capabilities. I know a lot has changed
Speaker 1: over the last few years with them big time. Not
Speaker 1: sure if you were just brushing them off for op
Speaker 1: SEC or you think they're not a big part of
Speaker 1: warfare today. I'm going continue to listen to previous episodes.
Speaker 1: You guys seem to have some really interesting folks on here,
Speaker 1: and it's cool listening to guys from other jobs talk
Speaker 1: about what they do and what they did. Take it easy, Jake,
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what it is that he's referring
Speaker 1: to that I was referring to. Maybe he said it um,
Speaker 1: Maybe I mean I don't I mean drones are a
Speaker 1: part of modern warfare. I don't think. I think we
Speaker 1: obsess about drones and act like sometimes act as if
Speaker 1: drones are going to save the world and drones can
Speaker 1: do everything. You know, it's like one of those you know,
Speaker 1: things that people get obsessed with because it's like this
Speaker 1: new ish capability. Um. You know, I've seen that many times,
Speaker 1: where like there's something that seems new to us, and
Speaker 1: so we just get obsessed with it and we think
Speaker 1: that's like the cool new thing that's going to save
Speaker 1: all of us. I mean, drones are just another tool.
Speaker 1: They're just another element of what you're gonna find on
Speaker 1: the battle space of today and tomorrow. Um, i'd have
Speaker 1: to listen back, which I didn't. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was you called them to boys or if it
Speaker 1: was dug there. I mean, they're fucking remote control airplanes. Like,
Speaker 1: let's not build them up to be something they're not.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, toys don't kill people. Typically, guns
Speaker 1: don't kill people. Ian people kill people. Yeah, what good
Speaker 1: is the nuclear weapon if the hand is disabled? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I get his point, though. You know,
Speaker 1: when you hear the word toys, you think of it
Speaker 1: you know, not being that effective, not being a big deal,
Speaker 1: you know, Okay, I mean, well at some point we're
Speaker 1: splitting hairs here. I mean, is this guy. Is this
Speaker 1: guy like a drone enthusiast and and he took offense
Speaker 1: to me calling them toy airplanes. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, all right. Um. Anyway, this is another one.
Speaker 1: And by the way, thanks for sending these and we
Speaker 1: we love getting all these. Um. This one is from
Speaker 1: Michael Jack. On episode four thirty. You mentioned that you
Speaker 1: got out of the service because of what you were
Speaker 1: seeing and that you could no longer be invested and
Speaker 1: committed to special operations. I was hoping you could expand
Speaker 1: on the statement. What did you see that made you leave?
Speaker 1: What did you feel that leaving? What did you I? I, oh,
Speaker 1: why did you feel that leaving was the best option?
Speaker 1: I am curious because I joined. When I joined the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps in two thousand three, I went in thinking
Speaker 1: I was going to serve twenty years, retire, and then
Speaker 1: go on to work in law enforcement. That did not happen.
Speaker 1: I left in two thousand seven honorable discharge because I
Speaker 1: was tired of the little funk fun games that were
Speaker 1: being played by the leadership and the Nazi a positive
Speaker 1: option at that time other than leaving. Just wanted to
Speaker 1: know what made you say fuck it, I'm out and
Speaker 1: pop smoke. Keep up the great work. Love listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast too and from work every day. Tell Ian
Speaker 1: to send Jane Geene Forignsworth a Pelican tumbler. If we
Speaker 1: have any maybe it should. Jean deserves one for the
Speaker 1: great voice messages. He sends in. That's true. See if
Speaker 1: we have anymore. But anyway, you're responsible. Yeah, um, I
Speaker 1: mean this is like a whole book and of itself.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a whole podcast episode one day, but um,
Speaker 1: it's a whole number of things. You know. I had
Speaker 1: served in two special operations units at that point. I
Speaker 1: had seen both the good and the bad. Um, had
Speaker 1: a lot of positive experiences, had some negative ones. But
Speaker 1: I think the frustration really grew from the fact that
Speaker 1: I was selected and trained and deployed to do a
Speaker 1: certain job. But then when you get over there, it's
Speaker 1: like the levels of bureaucracy being thrown up in front
Speaker 1: of you. It's like the army is trying to sabotage
Speaker 1: the mission for which you were deployed. To do. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, just like one example of many. You know,
Speaker 1: my job in Iraq and O nine was to train
Speaker 1: Iraqis and to get them. The stated deal was we
Speaker 1: were pulling out of Iraq. We need to get the
Speaker 1: Iraqis able to run their own operations and be self
Speaker 1: sufficient so they don't need us anymore, which is a
Speaker 1: perfectly legitimate mission for us to have. But then the
Speaker 1: army has all the big army, the conventional military, their
Speaker 1: mentality is their job over there isn't to make a
Speaker 1: sustainable Iraq. Their job is to just not die. So
Speaker 1: they would have us confiscate all the Iraqi's weapons every
Speaker 1: time they came on the base. Um. So like, how
Speaker 1: the funk is this making them sustainable? We're treating them
Speaker 1: like little children and they know that. They're like, you
Speaker 1: guys are you know, it's like you're chopping our balls off.
Speaker 1: You don't trust us with guns on your base, you know.
Speaker 1: But for the regular army, they're worried about you know,
Speaker 1: uh what do they call it? Green on blue? Um?
Speaker 1: We never had any of that, by the way, but
Speaker 1: that's what they're worried about. Um. To go and just
Speaker 1: like take them into the one of the classrooms on
Speaker 1: the base and give them a class like power point
Speaker 1: slides on like how to do um combat trauma. I
Speaker 1: had to get like a signed memo from a Klonel.
Speaker 1: It's just like, what the funk is this? The battle
Speaker 1: space owner is like some field artillery guy who knows
Speaker 1: nothing about counterinsurgency. Uh. But like I said, it's not
Speaker 1: any one of those single things. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: number of things that compound upon each other over and
Speaker 1: over again. And I feel like I was fighting this, uh,
Speaker 1: this battle against not just the Iraqi bureaucracy that's to
Speaker 1: be expected, but the American bureaucracy as well, and they're
Speaker 1: all basically trying to slow you down and stop you
Speaker 1: from doing your job with risk assessments and risk mitigation.
Speaker 1: And then you know, you get back to the States
Speaker 1: and it's like of our job is doing these fucking
Speaker 1: online training modules. Like you know, like what are they
Speaker 1: say in business? Like you are what you measure? Isn't
Speaker 1: there some saying like that, like or you can tell
Speaker 1: what's important to a business based on what they measure.
Speaker 1: In the military, what they measure, the metric they measure
Speaker 1: is just is everyone on these online training modules, which
Speaker 1: goes back to the episode we did with that's and
Speaker 1: exactly what he was talking about on that episode and
Speaker 1: exactly what he talks about out in his white paper. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that the white paper was lying
Speaker 1: to ourselves dishonesty in the army profession that uh. I
Speaker 1: mean that explains to a tee my experience and what
Speaker 1: I observed and why I got out of the military,
Speaker 1: because it's like, Okay, we're deploying. Um, you know, in
Speaker 1: some cases we're doing some pretty dangerous things. You know,
Speaker 1: you could get killed by an I E. D. And
Speaker 1: you know, we still lose soldiers overseas, and it's like,
Speaker 1: why am I risking my life for this? Like and
Speaker 1: why I come to work and I'm giving every day
Speaker 1: because I really believe in our mission and what we do.
Speaker 1: Um Can I keep doing that? When I see what's
Speaker 1: going on and I don't really believe in it anymore,
Speaker 1: maybe I believe in it and maybe believing in it
Speaker 1: fifty It's good enough if you do an office job,
Speaker 1: you know in the Pentagon you're a staff guy or something.
Speaker 1: But at least for me as a as a Special
Speaker 1: Forces soldier, I can't be halfway in it, like you
Speaker 1: have to be all in or not at all. Um.
Speaker 1: So from my perspective, I I could not see myself
Speaker 1: sticking around to do that. I couldn't see any reason
Speaker 1: why I would give a d percent when the bureaucracy
Speaker 1: I work for absolutely is not giving. And honestly, what
Speaker 1: the bureaucracy does is it takes advantage of guys like
Speaker 1: me and other soldiers who are super patriotic and are
Speaker 1: willing to you know, do whatever it takes to get
Speaker 1: the job done. That that's SF mentality um. And the
Speaker 1: bureaucracy just sees that as Hey, these are some guys
Speaker 1: who you know, are good workers, and we can use
Speaker 1: them to get our promotion points, so you know, we
Speaker 1: we get our command time in these guys will complete
Speaker 1: the mission for me, and then I get to move
Speaker 1: on to my next command. I get my bird or
Speaker 1: my star or whatever. It's like, man, like this is
Speaker 1: a vicious cycle, Like do I really want to be
Speaker 1: a part of this? And and then I mean you
Speaker 1: can also just look at the sergeant majors or sergeants
Speaker 1: major um. If we want to get you know, technical
Speaker 1: about it, Uh, who are the senior enlisted guys in
Speaker 1: the army um finding a good sergeant major, finding a
Speaker 1: good one. They're few and far between. Most of them
Speaker 1: are these dweeds that nobody likes, and they run around
Speaker 1: yelling at soldiers for walking on the grass, or because
Speaker 1: their boots aren't blouse the right way, or you're not
Speaker 1: wearing the right belt. Uh. Someone remarked to me once,
Speaker 1: and there's some truth to this, that the people who
Speaker 1: make sergeant major are the guy on the O D
Speaker 1: A that everyone hated. And there's some truth to that.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily true. Across the board. There are some
Speaker 1: great sergeant majors who are terrific role models for their men,
Speaker 1: but they are few and far between. Most of them
Speaker 1: suck and they would come and I remember getting these
Speaker 1: war speeches when I was in s F from these
Speaker 1: sergeant majors, and like, you just see the look in
Speaker 1: their eyes. They don't even believe what they're saying anymore.
Speaker 1: Like that's how broken this system is. Like they're trying
Speaker 1: to give this rousing war speech, but they didn't even
Speaker 1: effectively sell it because they don't believe it themselves. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I was what twenty three no, No,
Speaker 1: by the time I got out, I was twenty seven.
Speaker 1: I was like twenty three when I went to SF,
Speaker 1: so I was like twenty seven by the time I
Speaker 1: was getting out of the army. And you just see
Speaker 1: this and look around and like, man, do I want
Speaker 1: to become this guy up on the podium making this
Speaker 1: fake war speech to a bunch of twenty, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty two year olds, Like I can't do that. That's
Speaker 1: not me. So again, I mean, it's like a whole
Speaker 1: podcast and of itself, but you know, I could see that.
Speaker 1: I could see the trajectory, and it's like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: become a team sergeant and like I yell at my
Speaker 1: men because they're not all in the green all the
Speaker 1: time on their online safety awareness survey. And then I
Speaker 1: get to become a sergeant major and I like, I
Speaker 1: remember I came in on a veteran's day to do
Speaker 1: PT on our day off, and a sergeant major pulls
Speaker 1: over and it's Harley and he's like, hey, troop, come
Speaker 1: over here. He's he's a fifth Group sergeant major, and
Speaker 1: he proceeds the chastise me because I was wearing a
Speaker 1: uniform with sneakers on, which is like a normal PT uniform,
Speaker 1: you know, because I was out like doing runs and
Speaker 1: rope climbs and you know, all that kind of ship
Speaker 1: and like you're in the wrong uniform and you know,
Speaker 1: these other guys and hundred and first they see people
Speaker 1: like you and they think that's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: You can't be walking around like that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I say a bunch of Roger sergeant majors and until
Speaker 1: he goes away and then go off about my business.
Speaker 1: It's just one of those things. It's like, is this
Speaker 1: what I have to look forward to? You know. It's
Speaker 1: interesting because that goes back to um the last episode
Speaker 1: with Fred Galvin, because his philosophy though was, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want good leadership in the military, it's almost
Speaker 1: like you do have to stick it out because the
Speaker 1: guys with your philosophy will leave and then the people
Speaker 1: who you know, aren't the best of the best stick
Speaker 1: That's what I was commenting on two because there's two
Speaker 1: ways to look at that, and I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: Fred is wrong. I think brings up a really valid point,
Speaker 1: like if all of the good guys, like all the
Speaker 1: dudes who want to kick some acid, win the war,
Speaker 1: if all of those guys get out, then what do
Speaker 1: you think the Army is going to be left with
Speaker 1: or the Marine Corps in that case. Now, on the
Speaker 1: other the flip side to that is my point of view,
Speaker 1: is why am I going to stay in and support
Speaker 1: a broken system that you know which I mean, Look,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna call it as I saw it. I
Speaker 1: think it's a corrupt system. And I think it's corrupt
Speaker 1: to deploy soldiers over and over and over again in
Speaker 1: this manner without any effective strategy, without any when we're
Speaker 1: when we're using these ineffective tactics, we all know they're ineffective,
Speaker 1: but we keep doing the same fucking thing over and
Speaker 1: over and over again and wondering why it's not working.
Speaker 1: That's unethical and it's in moral uh. And I will
Speaker 1: I would call that corrupt. And I think it's criminally
Speaker 1: negligent for the people who are in the military to
Speaker 1: not fight back against this kind of bullshit. Um. So
Speaker 1: I just did not want to support that kind of system. Um.
Speaker 1: And I'm very supportive of the military and of of
Speaker 1: the troops. And my heart is with that eighteen year
Speaker 1: old American Marine or infantrymen who is carrying uh M
Speaker 1: to forty machine gun up the side of a mountain somewhere,
Speaker 1: because I know, I know that kid. I mean I
Speaker 1: was that kid at one point, and I saw so
Speaker 1: many others and I have the ultimate respect for them.
Speaker 1: But as far as the system itself and how it's
Speaker 1: constructed and how it functions or does not function, UM,
Speaker 1: I don't respect it and I couldn't support it any longer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a tough question, but um yeah,
Speaker 1: keep sending those two soft up dot Radio at soft
Speaker 1: up dot com. Any question you have, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if it's concise, it's a good question. We try to
Speaker 1: get to it. Um. Before we get over to Chris.
Speaker 1: As always, I like to let you guys know we
Speaker 1: have going on here at Hurricane Group. UH. And you
Speaker 1: go to Hurricane Dot Media if you want to see
Speaker 1: everything that we're up to be sure to check out
Speaker 1: Create Club. We have different tiers of membership depending on
Speaker 1: how prepared you want to be, and gift options are
Speaker 1: available as well. The guys from the load out room
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Speaker 1: other guys here at Hurricane involved in Create Club are
Speaker 1: putting together great year doing a lot of custom made
Speaker 1: product everything from sunglass cases to E d C bags
Speaker 1: and other manly products. It's a club four men Buy Men.
Speaker 1: You can check that all out of Create Club dot Us.
Speaker 1: Once again, that's Create Club dot Us. And as a
Speaker 1: reminder for those listening, now is the time to sign
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Speaker 1: at the top of the news rep dot com to
Speaker 1: sign up. That's finn Rep on the news rep dot com.
Speaker 1: Just go right there to the top of the page
Speaker 1: and you'll be able to check that out. Um, and
Speaker 1: with that, back on the podcast for the first time
Speaker 1: in a really long time, and I'm excited to hear
Speaker 1: what you're up to. Is Tonto Chris Farranto. You guys
Speaker 1: all know him from you know, the book Thirteen Hours
Speaker 1: and the portrayal of him in Thirteen Hours and former
Speaker 1: Army ranger, former contractor. But the latest project that you're
Speaker 1: hosting is War Heroes, which is a new military documentary
Speaker 1: series spotlighting individual service members and their unique lives service
Speaker 1: and sacrifice. We'll get into that, but I think just
Speaker 1: first and foremost, this audience might be wondering what you're
Speaker 1: up to, because I feel like you you went like
Speaker 1: on a rampage with media stuff. You have to do
Speaker 1: so much in such a short period of time, and
Speaker 1: then you kind of, uh, you know, it took a
Speaker 1: long break from it, well deserved break from for a while.
Speaker 1: It seems like, yeah, well, you know, to be honest, further,
Speaker 1: you kind of get into that it is. It's a vapid,
Speaker 1: insecure environment. When you get into the public figure world,
Speaker 1: you do and and either can can accept it and
Speaker 1: buy into it, and I'll be honest, I become shallow
Speaker 1: or you can remember who you are and back away
Speaker 1: from it. And it's it's not easy to do too,
Speaker 1: It really isn't. It's it's almost like you get you
Speaker 1: get addicted to a drug and you do like and
Speaker 1: I've never been addicted to cocaine or things that I
Speaker 1: don't want to compare it to that, but you do
Speaker 1: get addicted to to that spotlight and the people telling
Speaker 1: you the things that they want you to hear, and
Speaker 1: and some people like that, and we would like to
Speaker 1: stay in there. I didn't. I don't. So I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, heal with this, I'm gone, I'm out.
Speaker 1: And I needed to get away from some really really
Speaker 1: bad people that I've surrounded myself with. Um particularly there's
Speaker 1: a couple of couple of extra girlfriends that were really
Speaker 1: weren't there with me because they wanted to be with me.
Speaker 1: They wanted to be with me because and you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: you you get offended because I'm saying it, well, you
Speaker 1: know it's Tonnel. So I'm gonna say what I want
Speaker 1: to say if you want, but you know, you get
Speaker 1: away from because they want you there because they want
Speaker 1: not because they love you, even though they're gonna say
Speaker 1: they do, not, because they really want to be part
Speaker 1: of your life and experience you with it. They want
Speaker 1: you there because you can help them, or you can
Speaker 1: help them financially. Can and I and that was me.
Speaker 1: I got wrapped up in some very bad in some
Speaker 1: very bad situations, and the only way that you can
Speaker 1: get out of it is. You got to look at
Speaker 1: yourself and you look in the mirror and go, okay,
Speaker 1: wait a second, who's this guy I'm looking at? Is
Speaker 1: this somebody I want to see every morning for the
Speaker 1: rest of my life? This this person who is no
Speaker 1: longer Chris, is no longer Tonto, is no longer that
Speaker 1: contractor that ranger. It's somebody that's looking to get more attention,
Speaker 1: whether social media or whatnot and be and be basically
Speaker 1: a weaker person or do am I going to just
Speaker 1: excuse my language, but ship can all that and go
Speaker 1: ahead and be that person again that I that I
Speaker 1: once was, even though I'm gonna have to pretty much
Speaker 1: just nuke the last three years of my life well
Speaker 1: and return back. And that's what I did. That's uh,
Speaker 1: that's great that you had that kind of foresight, though,
Speaker 1: I mean, now that you're you're in you've been in
Speaker 1: that position. Can you see how like other celebrities, people
Speaker 1: who are famous, like how they have these incredible rises
Speaker 1: and then these incredible falls like is that something like
Speaker 1: you can see how that could happen? Now? Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: my gosh, that's what I saw. And and the problem
Speaker 1: is those incredible falls once you have those incredible falls.
Speaker 1: You still are stuck in that public figure life, but
Speaker 1: now it's now you're kind of like a reacher in yard.
Speaker 1: You're kind of like a retreat and now you're trying
Speaker 1: to get back. I'm trying to get back to that
Speaker 1: spot I was before and and you're never going to
Speaker 1: get there, and then you again you lose yourself and
Speaker 1: that's not me and homs I don't care about the spotlight.
Speaker 1: It was easy for me to sit back and just
Speaker 1: nuke and just get rid of all that social media
Speaker 1: for that two month period where you know whatever, I
Speaker 1: had a half a million followers or a big, big
Speaker 1: freaking deal. But that's a big deal in today's society,
Speaker 1: all those followers, who's looking at all your stuff? And
Speaker 1: it was, no, I don't want to be that person.
Speaker 1: I'm not Tono anymore. And Tana was not Tono when
Speaker 1: thirteen Hours came out, Tono was and I was Tono
Speaker 1: when I was a contractor. That was tannas So when
Speaker 1: I speak of myself as Tono, I don't speak of
Speaker 1: myself as that thirteen hours public figure. It was that
Speaker 1: guy that was going down range of working. That was
Speaker 1: Tono and I lost that and honest, I'll be honest.
Speaker 1: What I did is I watched Thirteen Hours and I
Speaker 1: watched Pablo portraying me in the movie, and I looked
Speaker 1: at that, I'm like, holy crap, what happened to that
Speaker 1: person that that used to deploy all the time? What
Speaker 1: happened to that guy? And I just made a decision
Speaker 1: and and I've really pretty much just cut everybody out
Speaker 1: of my life because I knew the ones that really
Speaker 1: cared they were going to be there regardless. And I
Speaker 1: knew the ones that didn't care they were going to
Speaker 1: leak and be gone because they were using me. And
Speaker 1: that's what happened. And it's great. I'm back to that
Speaker 1: little smaller inner circle and I like good people like
Speaker 1: Ian here, he's hit me up, Hey, what you're doing now?
Speaker 1: I know NaN's got my back on the show. But
Speaker 1: I've known you for a while now. It's it's crazy
Speaker 1: to think, but it's probably been a good five or
Speaker 1: so years. And I thought you were cool guys since
Speaker 1: I met you. I mean at the height of the popularity.
Speaker 1: I I thought it was pretty cool that there was
Speaker 1: one time where I could not go to the gym
Speaker 1: without seeing a TV with you advertising those sunglasses. It
Speaker 1: was every two seconds those things and people out there,
Speaker 1: you can do all you want. Those are the ones
Speaker 1: I work, the range people like. Are those for real?
Speaker 1: We'll go look at every battle line picture, every range
Speaker 1: picture I've been in. I'm wearing those sunglasses. They work, guys,
Speaker 1: they work, and broughtle line is if I lose twenty
Speaker 1: dollar sunglasses, I'm not pissed when I used to lose
Speaker 1: my hundred. That makes sense, were sitting. But they're awesome
Speaker 1: and they work and they work well. So I don't
Speaker 1: rep anything that I don't use, whether it's five bucks
Speaker 1: or whether it's bucks. I use everything that I rep,
Speaker 1: and I'll always do that because if you don't, you're
Speaker 1: you're labeled as a sellout, and you and you really
Speaker 1: are if you and I won't, I don't do that.
Speaker 1: And I don't care if it's locally or not. If
Speaker 1: they work, they work, man, I don't know Walmart specials,
Speaker 1: and that's what those those things are. But well, I
Speaker 1: tell you what, I should have took a nickel for
Speaker 1: every one of those those things sold. I'd be a
Speaker 1: ghoes billionaire. Right, you're killing it. Still still out there
Speaker 1: and the people hating on that too. I mean, who
Speaker 1: wouldn't take you know, honestly probably I assume a nice
Speaker 1: paycheck to do an ad and you know, get your
Speaker 1: face out there. And also then people go to your
Speaker 1: Instagram and then see like the charitable work that you're
Speaker 1: promoting and and things like this show that are doing
Speaker 1: good things in the community. I mean it has like
Speaker 1: a positive effect. It does, and you know, you say
Speaker 1: some of those things for all all all disclosure out there,
Speaker 1: I did it because it was an experience. I always
Speaker 1: did everything in my life to experience it. I did it,
Speaker 1: Like you know what, I wonder when I die on
Speaker 1: my deathbed, I don't want to look back at my
Speaker 1: life and go, you know what, I didn't try that. Gosh,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have tried that. Gosh, I wish
Speaker 1: I would have tried that. I want to go back
Speaker 1: and you know what I did that it went out
Speaker 1: great or I did that. God, that wasn't a really
Speaker 1: smart idea to do, but I did it anyway, and
Speaker 1: at least I can say, you know what, I tried it.
Speaker 1: The worst thing to do is sit around and and
Speaker 1: think so highly of yourself. Oh, what are people going
Speaker 1: to think of me if they see me on TV
Speaker 1: the sunglasses. You know what, I don't give two crops
Speaker 1: what you think of me. I did that. That was fun.
Speaker 1: I and they were so nice. The Idea Village people,
Speaker 1: you know, they're the ones that do the copperfit the shavers.
Speaker 1: They're that group. That's them, that's that big group. And
Speaker 1: I was like, this is the opportunity to work with
Speaker 1: these guys. Started with the Blue Blockers. Remember the Blue Blockers.
Speaker 1: Who remembers those? That was this group, that's what they
Speaker 1: started computer Blue Blockers. And be like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I got to work with these people, have fun. And
Speaker 1: it was in the desert. It was it was a blast.
Speaker 1: I had had a great time. And I did a
Speaker 1: copper fit commercial for him too that should be coming
Speaker 1: out here shortly too. Um. So you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: an experience. And I will always tell people out there,
Speaker 1: get over yourself, man, get over your bravado and all
Speaker 1: this machismo. If you want to try, go do it
Speaker 1: and don't give a crap what other people think about you.
Speaker 1: If you're going to do it, do it, and then
Speaker 1: you can say, you know what, at least I gave
Speaker 1: it I act I have to agree with you there
Speaker 1: in the sense that you know, I was having lunch
Speaker 1: with a friend of mine who's paramilitary contractor the other
Speaker 1: day and uh, we're talking about this subject came up
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know a lot of the
Speaker 1: people who are like like our guys who know other
Speaker 1: veterans who are like naysayers and stuff. They're like some
Speaker 1: dude who used their military career as a Ranger to
Speaker 1: get a job as a contractor at like Socks Scent
Speaker 1: or Centcom or something like that. And then they're turning
Speaker 1: around and they're like chastising guys because they open a
Speaker 1: cross fit gym or they're selling like a Ranger coffee mug,
Speaker 1: and it's like, man, who the hell are you to
Speaker 1: to criticize some kid making Ranger T shirts? And you know, why,
Speaker 1: why would you? If you know, maybe you should have
Speaker 1: thought of that the other then then you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to go contracting or but maybe that was his choice
Speaker 1: or her choice. And you know, I make fun, don't
Speaker 1: give it. I believe you guys know med Ian and Jack,
Speaker 1: you know me in the Ranger and the Ranger way
Speaker 1: of doing things about way we make fun of everything.
Speaker 1: We don't care if you delta, we don't care if
Speaker 1: you we don't care if you work at nine to five.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make fun and we expect to get ripped
Speaker 1: back to But you know, and that's that's okay. But
Speaker 1: in the bottom line is if that's your choice and
Speaker 1: that's what you want to do, then more power to you.
Speaker 1: Go go do it. Just if you're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: give a hundred ten percent, do whatever you do. That's
Speaker 1: that's what I admired about. The actors that were I
Speaker 1: always willing into the movie. My gosh, these actors. I
Speaker 1: don't want to deal with these guys that are gonna
Speaker 1: be pretentious. They're gonna be just the liberal. None of them,
Speaker 1: at least in our shop on our movie were were
Speaker 1: they all gave a hundred ten percent And were their
Speaker 1: politics the same as mine? No, they've in fact, very
Speaker 1: few of them were, aside from Max Martine even Pablo
Speaker 1: and Ice politics, So don't mesh. But they gave a
Speaker 1: hundred teen percent and they worked hard at their craft
Speaker 1: and they put everything they put into it, and you
Speaker 1: know what, politics, I could give a crap. That's what
Speaker 1: I admire. So if these guys are going out there
Speaker 1: and doing a cross bit GM. I'm not a big
Speaker 1: cross bidder. You know. I do make fun of guys
Speaker 1: that were the rogue T shirts like I do that
Speaker 1: guy do Guys in Omahao either were you were a
Speaker 1: roque T shirt driving F one fIF didn't have those
Speaker 1: flat brand casts and they were a G Shop watch
Speaker 1: my Halo operas the Shop watches. Even though you'll never
Speaker 1: do a Halo opera ever, go ahead and do any
Speaker 1: scoot bos, but you're gonna wear that G Shop watch anyway.
Speaker 1: I'll make fun of you. But if you're putting your
Speaker 1: heart and soul into what you're doing, and you're giving
Speaker 1: a hunter pretty camp percent and you're being honorable and
Speaker 1: you have values, yeah yeah, I'll support you. I will.
Speaker 1: I will back you up there. I'm still gonna make
Speaker 1: funny a little bit. It's just how I am speaking
Speaker 1: of of making fun of stuff. What what what magazine
Speaker 1: was it that you were on the cover shirt list?
Speaker 1: Because I remember, dude, you're saying that because you know
Speaker 1: I was sexy on that man? Yeah, you know it's
Speaker 1: because you know what's funny? I remember, well, our mutual
Speaker 1: friend Will cow is breaking your ball is about it
Speaker 1: on Twitter and like every female follower of Andrew because
Speaker 1: because Andrew was like, all right, can you stop taking
Speaker 1: your shirt off every two seconds? And then like every
Speaker 1: female follower replied to that, Bread was like, no, Chris,
Speaker 1: please keep your shirt off. Ballistic, great guy, part of
Speaker 1: Athlon Outdoors, Ballistic Magazine and aid to all you all
Speaker 1: you people, all you ladies out there too. I actually
Speaker 1: and this is a good thing. This is where I
Speaker 1: came around and won't let you know. I have reconciled
Speaker 1: with my former ex wife, Tanya, the when I have
Speaker 1: three kids with the one I married and they don't
Speaker 1: write to Ranger School. Basically we've never had a honeymoon
Speaker 1: because I mrried her and then went to Ranger School
Speaker 1: the next week. She was the one I was in
Speaker 1: with Benghazi and everything. But that being said, my body
Speaker 1: is actually a lot nicer now that he was on
Speaker 1: a ballistic magazine. I'm just not going to do my
Speaker 1: own horn. I'm just I'm not trying to do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm also almost forty eight years old, So there
Speaker 1: you go. There's the ton of arrogance that finally has
Speaker 1: come back. When you and when you first met me
Speaker 1: and I lost that for three years. It's back in
Speaker 1: with a vengeance. The arrogance a little bit. But if
Speaker 1: you can back it up then it is it really
Speaker 1: arrogant or is it confidence? You're the day you're the
Speaker 1: David back on the tactical world. I love that, dude,
Speaker 1: But my voice, at least, I don't. I don't talk
Speaker 1: like that. Ye's a little bit better. Like I've been
Speaker 1: stuck on helium for about five days. I see it.
Speaker 1: I do kind of sound like that, don't I on
Speaker 1: the on the radio, Yes, sir, I sound good man. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I want to get into what you're actually up to
Speaker 1: right now, and you're I believe, in New Jersey. Oh no,
Speaker 1: you're going to be in New Jersey in the next
Speaker 1: few days. I mean by the time this is up,
Speaker 1: you'll be in New Jersey. Because by the time this
Speaker 1: is up tomorrow, which will be Thursday, February, you're going
Speaker 1: to be in town for screening for your new show,
Speaker 1: War Heroes, which, as I said earlier, it's a new
Speaker 1: military documentary series. It's spotlights different guys who have served
Speaker 1: in you know, unique ways, guys who are no longer
Speaker 1: with us. UM in some aces you know the pilot
Speaker 1: episode is going to focus on Sergeant Ryany Adults. He's
Speaker 1: a new Jersey National Guard member, but he lost his
Speaker 1: life in service in Baghdad in Iraq in two thousand four.
Speaker 1: So the reason I found out about this was Jack
Speaker 1: Thomas Smith, the creator of the series, reached out to
Speaker 1: me and was pitching you to come on, and you know,
Speaker 1: being that I know you, I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go through Chris as people. I mean just
Speaker 1: text him and uh, you know You're like, yeah, come on, man.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'd love to hear all about it because
Speaker 1: it looks like a really positive show, you know, bringing
Speaker 1: the spotlight to guys who have never had the spotlight
Speaker 1: on them and puts a face to all these names
Speaker 1: we hear about who have died in combat and or
Speaker 1: or made it through combat. And I agree with you whoheartedly,
Speaker 1: Jack's fantastic man. He's an awesome guy. And you are
Speaker 1: to Jack, not not but Jack, but also Jack Murphy
Speaker 1: as a great guy. But you know he just to
Speaker 1: to want to do this and and to and to
Speaker 1: go ahead and put another and there is it is
Speaker 1: another documentary about about people are soldiers that sacrifice themselves
Speaker 1: in the global war on terror, which they should. There
Speaker 1: should never be enough of them, there should be always be.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying there's too many, because there's not. But
Speaker 1: what Jack did and what his is, why his is different.
Speaker 1: Why I really loved this one and the one I'm
Speaker 1: in uh and now because I'm in it because I
Speaker 1: don't care if they put somebody else to do to
Speaker 1: do the remaining shows or if they keep use them
Speaker 1: or not. It makes no difference to me. If if
Speaker 1: they don't, that's that's fine, because I want the show
Speaker 1: to keep going regardless. Is they focused on the families,
Speaker 1: So they're focusing on the gold Star family, and that
Speaker 1: is something you don't see a whole bunch. Yes, you
Speaker 1: see them honor the soldier, the Yerman, the semen, the sailor,
Speaker 1: whoever passed away, because they should be their heroes, but
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't seem to come back and really
Speaker 1: put the focus on the families and what they believe in,
Speaker 1: what they thought, and what they've done, gone on and
Speaker 1: done after they they've lost their loved ones. And that's
Speaker 1: where this one is different because it does focus on
Speaker 1: adults family and and miss adults as Indy she is.
Speaker 1: She is so much stronger than I could ever dream
Speaker 1: to be. And when I interviewed her, and I was
Speaker 1: doing the interview and doing this pilot, I was at
Speaker 1: a low point in my life that just talking here,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I thought I was strong.
Speaker 1: This woman is ten times stronger than I ever could
Speaker 1: dream to be. I need to help my game a
Speaker 1: little bit. And and that's where I think people can
Speaker 1: admire this, so they can see that what the families
Speaker 1: going through continually for the rest of their lives, and
Speaker 1: they have found out how way to put a positive
Speaker 1: spin on it, and she even forgave the meat. I'll
Speaker 1: let let people watch the series. But there was a
Speaker 1: news Newsweek, which I don't have a good relationship with
Speaker 1: them anyway. I don't think highly of Newsweek. But she
Speaker 1: had an incident with Newsweek where where they did her wrong,
Speaker 1: her her family wrong, and she forgave them and I
Speaker 1: was there going, how could you do? This? Woman is
Speaker 1: an angel. I need to be more like her. And
Speaker 1: so it's just the wa people to see. It is
Speaker 1: a series, but watching how the family members, how they
Speaker 1: handle traumatic experiences in their life and how they continue
Speaker 1: to drive on and how the adults family made something
Speaker 1: positive on it. Those are like the real costs of war,
Speaker 1: because I mean sadly that you know, the soldiers they're
Speaker 1: they're gone, they feel no more pain. Well hopefully they're
Speaker 1: in a happy or better place, but the family members
Speaker 1: really have to live with the consequences and all the fallout.
Speaker 1: Well said, No, you're well said, and that's that's what
Speaker 1: this focus is more on the family and and uh,
Speaker 1: but it is on also sergeant adults as well. Hi buddy,
Speaker 1: we can record that. Hi buddy, if my threal. We
Speaker 1: just want to get Sis, Sisty and Bubbo. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: he's good. He's good as you know for mommy. Wait,
Speaker 1: he's good to go, my thur Real. I love that
Speaker 1: little boy. All right, guys. No, that's that's awesome man.
Speaker 1: And it's great that to see that you're still you know,
Speaker 1: connecting with you know, these family members as you had
Speaker 1: reconnected with your wife at the time and hanging out
Speaker 1: with your kids. And well, it's important the family. Family first, Bride.
Speaker 1: I've you know one thing, I don't want to put
Speaker 1: this out there. I'm sorry you and I know we're
Speaker 1: getting off, but there there was a local unit here,
Speaker 1: that the local department here, that that I told told
Speaker 1: A was telling recruits that the department comes first and
Speaker 1: family comes second. And I tell you what, brother, I
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a disappointment. If you're and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell guys out there, if you ever join
Speaker 1: a unit or department or anything, and you go there
Speaker 1: and you go at the academy and they tell you
Speaker 1: that that department comes before family members, you walk your
Speaker 1: butt right out of the room a rank of Italian
Speaker 1: and I know jack as steals And not once was
Speaker 1: I ever told that the family comes second before the
Speaker 1: In fact, they made sure that the family was included
Speaker 1: on everything, and that they knew that they were more
Speaker 1: important than the unit itself. So I just want to
Speaker 1: put that's my little I've got on my soapbox there.
Speaker 1: I know that out there, and if your family life
Speaker 1: is messed up, then your work life can't be straight.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just empaceful here. You hit the nail
Speaker 1: on the head. Brother, all right, we got up set,
Speaker 1: just a little bit sorry about that. He is, I'm
Speaker 1: all over the place. It honestly makes sense because, as
Speaker 1: you said, I think that there is some connection there
Speaker 1: because this series is honoring the family members of these
Speaker 1: guys who died and in this case, for the pilot episode,
Speaker 1: Sergeant Ryan Adults. Um, how did you get hooked up
Speaker 1: with this show? How did Jack Thomas Smith reach out
Speaker 1: to you? You know why? I had and you've met
Speaker 1: her before. I had a former publicist. She's no longer.
Speaker 1: We we've part of ways. Her name was Judy Um.
Speaker 1: He reached out to her and asked. And that's how
Speaker 1: it always is. You. People will come and they'll they'll
Speaker 1: ask if I want to do something I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't never look to be on TV. I never wanted
Speaker 1: to put myself out there to be on TV. But
Speaker 1: if somebody comes and approaches me, just like with the commercial,
Speaker 1: Hey can we have Chris for this? Okay, well what
Speaker 1: is it? And if it's something that sounds something that
Speaker 1: I could is in my wheelhouse and I can. I
Speaker 1: can think I can handle and portray well enough to
Speaker 1: make the person happy, like like Mr Smith off say yes,
Speaker 1: So that's all it was. Uh, You're not not. All
Speaker 1: of us are out there trying to get gigs on
Speaker 1: TV and commercials. In fact, if they come, they come.
Speaker 1: If they don't, they don't. That's fine with me. And
Speaker 1: and you know, I think it's God's way. God said, hey, Jack,
Speaker 1: I brought Jack and said, hey, here's here's Jack Thomas Smith.
Speaker 1: You want to do this, you want to do this
Speaker 1: documentary and it will sounded like something that I could
Speaker 1: honor another fall in fall in comrade, and so I
Speaker 1: said yes. So it really it all to me, brother,
Speaker 1: It's always just it's luck. It really arn't anything. It's
Speaker 1: just just if stuff comes up, it comes up. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't, it doesn't. But when when you do it
Speaker 1: that way, I think the stuff that you should do
Speaker 1: usually is what comes up when you're going out there
Speaker 1: and looking for things all the time. That's when you
Speaker 1: start getting wrapped up in some in in in maybe
Speaker 1: a bad situation which you don't want to be in,
Speaker 1: which this one is not. This one was fantastic. And
Speaker 1: Jack is He is an amazing patriot, amazing man and
Speaker 1: such the greatest, most honorable man and uh in the
Speaker 1: media community that I have ever met. And I've met
Speaker 1: some slimeballs, believe me, and he is not one that man. Yeah, this,
Speaker 1: this pilot needs to be picked up. It does just
Speaker 1: for the sake of Jack. Will always do it right
Speaker 1: and treat the fan members right and honor honor them correctly.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Once again, for those listening, if you're in
Speaker 1: the area, you know, in the New Jersey area, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be this Thursday, So tomorrow because I'm putting this
Speaker 1: up tomorrow, UM, you know, for those listening February, and
Speaker 1: all the details are at War Heroes tv dot com.
Speaker 1: There's also a meet and greet package so you can
Speaker 1: purchase that hang with Chris um and you know what
Speaker 1: I wanted to get to with you. Actually I didn't
Speaker 1: mention that that we talked about this, so I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know your take, but I just kind of
Speaker 1: wanted to hear your take if you have any UM.
Speaker 1: A few episodes back, we had dal Com Stock on
Speaker 1: to talk about his contracting situation UM in Yemen and
Speaker 1: those details leaked, and then more recently we talked about
Speaker 1: the situation that went on with the a V Seals
Speaker 1: and Haiti getting arrested. The reason I want to ask
Speaker 1: you about this, and you know, whatever your take is, UM,
Speaker 1: is because you're the guy who's just known for contracting.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people prior to thirteen hours
Speaker 1: in America, were unfamiliar with what goes on in the
Speaker 1: contracting world. And as far as I know, you're not
Speaker 1: a guy who's worked for foreign governments and contracting. But
Speaker 1: I just wanted to hear your opinion on you know,
Speaker 1: Dall's situation or the Seals situation with Yemen Haiti. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty controversial in both, you know. And I'll
Speaker 1: put this out there. I have done and actually I
Speaker 1: just did, or recently did an a kidnapping contract in
Speaker 1: South America. I still go overseas a contract every once,
Speaker 1: while I don't, I don't put that out there, um,
Speaker 1: but it was for an American company of course in
Speaker 1: American was was kidnapped in South America and I went
Speaker 1: to help see if we could find him and also
Speaker 1: offer some protection for his family. So so I still
Speaker 1: do that as a private you know not and it's
Speaker 1: not they're not government sanctioned contracts. So and I did
Speaker 1: that quite a bit in between RS contracts as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, and I never never did anything
Speaker 1: for foreign government, but I've done they have private organizations
Speaker 1: in this country that handle things like that. Um. And uh,
Speaker 1: that being said, when you go over these countries, you
Speaker 1: know that you have no If you don't know, you should,
Speaker 1: you have no top cover. If you get wrapped up
Speaker 1: over there, You're going over there knowing that if a
Speaker 1: local police or local military or anything happens to you
Speaker 1: over there, you're over there just basically as a tourist
Speaker 1: under the guys of under the guys of being a tourist,
Speaker 1: and you're going to fall under their laws. So if
Speaker 1: you're doing something shady over there, brother, you don't have
Speaker 1: the state department cover anymore, you don't have the agency
Speaker 1: cover anymore. You're you're gonna get wrapped up and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get locked up because they know what's going on,
Speaker 1: and most of the time the law enforcement in the
Speaker 1: area are correct. So you don't have a good legal
Speaker 1: system there. And you're American, and I guarantee that these
Speaker 1: guys went over there with their big old beers and
Speaker 1: and and still woking American as health as well. You can't.
Speaker 1: You're gonna stick out like a store thumb. So you don't, brother,
Speaker 1: without second guessing what you know the Seals did over there,
Speaker 1: what Chris did over there, what he was doing, I
Speaker 1: I know I read the report, or what Constock was doing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they're the only ones that can tell you the
Speaker 1: truth of what was going on, what they're actually doing there,
Speaker 1: what for. Just know that if if you're going over
Speaker 1: there to do that mark role and something happens, you're stuck,
Speaker 1: you're done, and don't don't come back and look for
Speaker 1: the state department to come help you out. Um. And
Speaker 1: I know that when I go over and do my
Speaker 1: contract and I'm working for I am working for an
Speaker 1: American government. I'm an American going I started American company. Uh. Now,
Speaker 1: granted I'm not trying to move weapons or anything like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that's what they were doing either.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I have no idea. Um, But if
Speaker 1: you're going over, just know as a contractor that you
Speaker 1: do not have that backing and you better have that
Speaker 1: your own escape and evade plan to get out of
Speaker 1: that kind sure if you need to, because even if
Speaker 1: you're doing over there doing the right thing, like my
Speaker 1: just just to tell you a little bit, when I
Speaker 1: do in the end of kidnapping stuff, sometimes the local
Speaker 1: police are involved and you're over there doing surveillance on
Speaker 1: the local police just as a civilian, as an American civilian.
Speaker 1: All they have to is turn around and wrap you
Speaker 1: up and thority in that local jail and guess what,
Speaker 1: you ain't coming out. So just know that no, but
Speaker 1: that that's also kind of the guy's like some contractors,
Speaker 1: And why even kind of do it? You're you're witch
Speaker 1: are up? You gotta you gotta work with your wits.
Speaker 1: You don't have gun and sometimes you don't have guns.
Speaker 1: And if you're carrying a long rifle in some of
Speaker 1: these countries to be ready to be wrapped up, I
Speaker 1: don't know how. I don't know what the seal over
Speaker 1: thinking in Haiti, that's just I don't know, if you know,
Speaker 1: carrying a long rifle out there is just you're just
Speaker 1: asking to get wrapped up unless you're doing something that
Speaker 1: has to do with long rifles and in the sale
Speaker 1: of But again I don't know, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to say they were because I have no idea. Actually,
Speaker 1: I am friends with Chris, I know Brandon and have
Speaker 1: have beef. I'm friends with both of them. I don't
Speaker 1: get into the middle of that. But that being said, well,
Speaker 1: I want to look at Chris go and when the
Speaker 1: hell maybe if I ever see him and say, dude,
Speaker 1: what were you thinking? But again, maybe maybe he was
Speaker 1: doing something that he was supposed to be doing over there.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and maybe somebody just left him hanging.
Speaker 1: But I know that if you do do these things
Speaker 1: in these countries that you're not going effort into the
Speaker 1: CIA or State Department d D and you're going on
Speaker 1: your own. Just just be ready to have the tables
Speaker 1: turn on you and the heartbeat and you may be
Speaker 1: stuck over there for a while. Yeah, is it worth it?
Speaker 1: There's really no protections at all. You're not you're not
Speaker 1: you know, you're not working under Title ten of the
Speaker 1: US Code, you're not protected by the Geneva Conventions. And
Speaker 1: American law stops at American borders, of course. So I
Speaker 1: mean you're really out there flapping if if you get
Speaker 1: in trouble. And I think that's what I was saying
Speaker 1: on the last episode we recorded, is that you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a young veteran thinking about doing private security contracting,
Speaker 1: that's just something you've got to be really cautious about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you really do. I I worked on one where I
Speaker 1: had a young Navy seal come over and and I've
Speaker 1: been doing it for a while I did. I did
Speaker 1: some of that stuff for a company called Graystone. If
Speaker 1: you go back, Graystone was kind of like Blackwater Erik
Speaker 1: Prince's little little executive outcomes company. And I saw I
Speaker 1: did stuff for a while and he came over brand
Speaker 1: new and he was he was working some CIA contracts
Speaker 1: and he's like, he comes in and he's he's he's
Speaker 1: he's like, where are we staying? Like, well, you stay locally.
Speaker 1: You just go find you a place to live. Well,
Speaker 1: what happens if we get wrapped up? Well, don't get
Speaker 1: wrapped up, because if you do, you're not coming out
Speaker 1: of there. And I like to do and I had
Speaker 1: to ask, do you have a plane ticket out? No,
Speaker 1: I was waiting for the company to buy it. Nope,
Speaker 1: you go get your old plane ticket and you have
Speaker 1: a plane ticket out of here, so if you have
Speaker 1: to get to the airport, you can get there like that.
Speaker 1: He was just very he was very unprepared because he's
Speaker 1: thought it was a government type contract where you have
Speaker 1: really all your logistical stuff is done and you have
Speaker 1: that you're right, that title tan top cover, that Geneva
Speaker 1: convention top cover. And I had to explain it to him.
Speaker 1: We don't brother, you're you're on your own and now
Speaker 1: being a seal, he he was okay, he got he
Speaker 1: took it. He took him a few weeks to finally
Speaker 1: just get wrapped around it. But once he did, he
Speaker 1: was fine. But initially he was very unprepared. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad nothing happened to us the first two weeks were there,
Speaker 1: because you know, I don't I don't know what he
Speaker 1: would have been able to get out of there at all.
Speaker 1: Um But you're you're exactor, right. But if you're gonna
Speaker 1: contract guys and you're gonna do these private contracts out there,
Speaker 1: just know that that you're you're essentially on your own.
Speaker 1: But that's part of the draw in the romanticism to them.
Speaker 1: That's why they're fun, because you are essentially on your own.
Speaker 1: That's what makes him fun. That's what makes the adrenaline go.
Speaker 1: Um So, But but be careful, you know, just just
Speaker 1: and know that that that company that you're working for,
Speaker 1: if you do something bad where you're out there and
Speaker 1: you're and you get caught, they probably are they're a
Speaker 1: private corporation. They're probably gonna deny you even work for.
Speaker 1: And but that's again that's part. That's part of the contract.
Speaker 1: That's why you do it. That's why we that's we're adrenaline.
Speaker 1: Junky's right, that's why we go do it. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: well said man. I think people would want to hear
Speaker 1: your take on that, So I'm glad that that you
Speaker 1: gave it to us. Um, it was funny that you
Speaker 1: were mentioning that Max Martini was the one guy in
Speaker 1: Thirteen Hours that you agreed with politically. We just had
Speaker 1: him on the podcast and he was He's a cool guy.
Speaker 1: He is, I think, isn't he. He's part of the
Speaker 1: Friends of Abe and Friends of Abe right that Gary
Speaker 1: Sine's the actor's guild that they're all very conservative. I
Speaker 1: think it's called Friends of Abe. I've heard he's part
Speaker 1: of that. Okay, I think that's what it's called good Crime.
Speaker 1: I believe so because I've heard of what you're talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he definitely if you listen back to the interview,
Speaker 1: you could you could tell, yeah, he does not fit
Speaker 1: in with the agenda of most of Hollywood. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and a lot of that is it kiss the
Speaker 1: death to most But Max has been able to to
Speaker 1: to you know, get through it. And become a very
Speaker 1: well established Actressess continually used, whether it's a starring roles
Speaker 1: or as a as a as a supporting actor. And
Speaker 1: again with Max, just knowing him and meeting him personally
Speaker 1: and hanging out with him and drinking some beers with him,
Speaker 1: drinking some whiskey with them, having them leave me in
Speaker 1: Malta by myself at three in the morning when they
Speaker 1: all bolted and I didn't know how to get home
Speaker 1: back to the hotel. He's a great dude, just a great,
Speaker 1: great person. And I again another actor that took his
Speaker 1: craft seriously and did a phenomenal job portraying oz and
Speaker 1: and everything else. He doesn't you remember him in the Unit?
Speaker 1: He was fantastic in the Unit. So that TV show
Speaker 1: about the Delta Commandos. So Max and Max is just
Speaker 1: generally just a just a really nice nice guy and
Speaker 1: I liked him a lot. So I got nothing a
Speaker 1: good thing to say about Max Martini. Yeah, there there
Speaker 1: seems to be more and more guys who I think
Speaker 1: are pearl military or former military coming into Hollywood. We
Speaker 1: just had Michael Broderick on who's in Detective and he's
Speaker 1: a former marine and good in review with him, So
Speaker 1: I think there are some of those guys, you know,
Speaker 1: regardless of what's portrayed out there. As you were saying,
Speaker 1: you kind of deleted all your social media for a while,
Speaker 1: so a lot of that following has gone. So if
Speaker 1: people want to refollow Chris on Instagram, it's at real
Speaker 1: Underscore Chris Underscore to Toronto. And then I know you
Speaker 1: wanted to promote what you're up to between battle line
Speaker 1: and four hours, So if there's anything you want to
Speaker 1: talk about with that, you feel free. Well, you missed
Speaker 1: the Todd although I think it's real underscore Cris Underscore,
Speaker 1: Tondo Underscore Toronto. But we look back if you just
Speaker 1: make sure it says real and there and there's only
Speaker 1: a few posts right now. Yeah, I'm getting stuff back
Speaker 1: up um and and you. It sucks because as a
Speaker 1: public figure more or less, you still kind of have
Speaker 1: to have that stuff going. But now at least I
Speaker 1: know how to navigate it the right way. I still
Speaker 1: I have a new Facebook pays us up to and
Speaker 1: Facebook and then Twitter. I haven't done yet. I haven't
Speaker 1: got back on Twitter yet because that makes me angry.
Speaker 1: Just don't well, you've gotten banned a few times you're
Speaker 1: in the same club with Yeah, I mean, yeah, just done.
Speaker 1: I'll Probaceta away from that and then but yeah, I
Speaker 1: still have the training company battle Line Tactical, and that's myself.
Speaker 1: Ben Morgan, who I was went to high school with
Speaker 1: actually were I shouldn't say that. We went to rival
Speaker 1: high schools. I just dated all the girls from his
Speaker 1: high school. So we just didn't like me back then.
Speaker 1: But now we're friends. And he was with me. He
Speaker 1: was a first Ranger back guy, and he was with
Speaker 1: me at fifth Italian nineties Special Forces Group. We're both
Speaker 1: on ODE and he helps me run the company. In fact,
Speaker 1: he pretty much runs battle Line logistical aspects of it
Speaker 1: because he's he just he's talented at and very brilliant.
Speaker 1: Has a dry fire training system called the Morgan Morgan
Speaker 1: Timing System. But battle Line and them. I have Larry
Speaker 1: the Blackbreaded Cowboy Larry Stevenson, who was a former Denver
Speaker 1: police officer. Um. He has a story within his own
Speaker 1: right about how he had to deal with with a
Speaker 1: a suspect that he had that was on tar heroin
Speaker 1: and he actually I'll get into him, but he's going
Speaker 1: to get into him more in a little bit because
Speaker 1: he's gonna be in my new book. I have a
Speaker 1: third book coming out and Larry's story is going to
Speaker 1: be part of that. But where he had to apprehend
Speaker 1: a suspect on tar heroin and he got cut and
Speaker 1: stabbed sadly and still managed to apprehend the suspect. And
Speaker 1: but I don't want to I don't want to steal
Speaker 1: his thunder. But he's one of the instructors as well.
Speaker 1: He does a pistol. But what I love about Larry
Speaker 1: is Larry does the hand hand stuff. And when you
Speaker 1: come to those courses, he doesn't And he doesn't do
Speaker 1: that the the the in the studio, here's the octagon
Speaker 1: hand had stuff. He does what Pooky would do on
Speaker 1: the street, hand to hand stuff. So you're gonna learn,
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn how to fight Pooky if you're on
Speaker 1: the street. And Larry doesn't mess around. Larry doesn't mess around.
Speaker 1: And and people come away after learning from Larry and
Speaker 1: he's such a great guy that they're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I gotta train with this guy again. And he's just
Speaker 1: says he's just huge. He's just huge black cowboy. He's
Speaker 1: a big, big dude and Larry the blast Way is
Speaker 1: Larry the Black Bearded Cowboy. And then we have Benny Glossop,
Speaker 1: who's another hand to hand m M, a guy that
Speaker 1: does a lot of our hand has stuff amazing, amazing
Speaker 1: teacher as well. And then I'm Jeremy Mitchell, James Zampier,
Speaker 1: a couple of couple of farms guys that know their
Speaker 1: stuff as far as farms, and then little old Me
Speaker 1: and and Boon Boone actually doing his own thing now.
Speaker 1: Boon stepped away from battle Line. Boone and I are
Speaker 1: still he's still one of my best friends. And still
Speaker 1: Boon still training in Florida, so always recommend to go
Speaker 1: training Boone, but he's not doing the battle line like
Speaker 1: he did last year. It's just it's just too much,
Speaker 1: too much travel and too taxing. So I'm pretty much
Speaker 1: every course from here on out, I'm gonna be there
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be running running them. So and we
Speaker 1: rather we're still out there going around, going around to travel,
Speaker 1: and you can find our schedule on battle Line Tactical
Speaker 1: and then the fourteenth Hour Foundation which actually I don't
Speaker 1: I don't do the handshaking hand and here's your check
Speaker 1: sort of thing too people. But we have given out
Speaker 1: quite a bit of money to other foundations and and
Speaker 1: people that are in need of assistance. And I would
Speaker 1: say probably about fifty dollars over the last year, um
Speaker 1: that we've given out. But I do want people to
Speaker 1: know that I'm sorry, guys, I don't go along. I
Speaker 1: do want people know that if you do apply for
Speaker 1: a grant from a foundation, it's it's a it is
Speaker 1: a lot of pay for it, guys. It's not like
Speaker 1: just putting up a go fund me and uh um,
Speaker 1: you have to have all your ducks in a row
Speaker 1: because we have We have to as a foundation, have
Speaker 1: to show need. We have to show that there's no
Speaker 1: other way that you can make this money, whether it's
Speaker 1: from Social Security benefits, whether it's from a part time job,
Speaker 1: whether it's why don't you have a part time job,
Speaker 1: whether it's from scholarships that you may have a college. Um,
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. I have a marine that
Speaker 1: that needs money. He says he needs money for his schooling,
Speaker 1: but I have no tax information from him, and from
Speaker 1: what I understand how he doesn't have any disability. So
Speaker 1: it's yeah, bro, I want to give you ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: But the RS is going to come to me and say, hey,
Speaker 1: why are you giving this guy money when he actually
Speaker 1: just he could go out there and get a work
Speaker 1: study job. Because when I was going to grad school,
Speaker 1: I had a full time job with by and I
Speaker 1: did work study, so I didn't have to take money.
Speaker 1: So they said, guys, if you are going to apply
Speaker 1: though as an individual, if you can just show the
Speaker 1: needs there and I believe me, I'll give it. I'll
Speaker 1: give you the money. I gave money to a police
Speaker 1: officer whose son needed to go to a special needs school,
Speaker 1: but he gave me all the highr S tax forms
Speaker 1: that I needed to do it. You know, I gave
Speaker 1: him it was he was given to so his son
Speaker 1: can go through a special needs school. That was given
Speaker 1: to New York police officer did that last month. But
Speaker 1: it is a I'm not gonna lie to you. It
Speaker 1: is a pain in the ass. But if you really
Speaker 1: do need it, and you could prove that you do,
Speaker 1: you're going to get the money. I'm not even going
Speaker 1: to second guess. It's like, here's your check, and because
Speaker 1: it's necessary, you deserve it. You deserve it. But it's
Speaker 1: just I think That's why a lot of people, a
Speaker 1: lot of veterans don't do do go fund me and
Speaker 1: don't apply for for grants because it's it a lot
Speaker 1: of paperwork. If I was going to do it, I
Speaker 1: would be a paid in the ask for me to
Speaker 1: Like God, that is a lot of paperwork. But that's
Speaker 1: the I r s. What can I do? I can't
Speaker 1: get around it. But fourteen Hour Foundation guys go to
Speaker 1: go to and you can go to my Facebook page there.
Speaker 1: And also we have a website fourteen hours dot org
Speaker 1: fourteen hours dot org, and we may I may forgive
Speaker 1: me if I may have updated it because of my
Speaker 1: old publicist kind of hijacked all my websites. So Ian,
Speaker 1: we may want to double check that trip I could
Speaker 1: do it right now, you're saying fourteen hours dot org. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think she hijacked all those sides from you. Never
Speaker 1: have never never worked with the vindictive publicist. If I
Speaker 1: go to fourteen hours dot org, it's still up there
Speaker 1: with you. So is it still up there? Okay, Well
Speaker 1: she hijacked the other one. So my old website, remember
Speaker 1: it was Chris tonal parano dot com. Now it's Kris
Speaker 1: tona Parano dot net. I had to change it because
Speaker 1: she she left and just basically basically didn't thing she
Speaker 1: could to to subvert myself in the pity. But you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's how people are using. You've rolled through it
Speaker 1: and you just keep driving on. You keep moving forward
Speaker 1: that you don't quit on it, you don't cry about it,
Speaker 1: just keep making a positive step forward. I hear you, man,
Speaker 1: Well you sound great. You know. I hope that you
Speaker 1: don't get involved in too much stuff and then get
Speaker 1: burnt out, you know, because it sounds like it's a
Speaker 1: lot on your plate. But it's at Real and I'll
Speaker 1: get it right this time at Real Understoore Chris Underscore
Speaker 1: Tonto Underscore Toronto on Instagram. Uh, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: just starting this whole thing up again. And dude, it's
Speaker 1: been great talking. If I could come out on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I will. I don't know how far this place in
Speaker 1: Jersey is from me. I'll check it out, but I
Speaker 1: haven't seen you in a while and would love to. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'll see how far out it is. But
Speaker 1: once again, for the audience, it's a war. Heroes TV
Speaker 1: dot Com tickets are still available, as well as meet
Speaker 1: and greet, and if you do the meet and greet,
Speaker 1: Chris is a great guy. You always take time to
Speaker 1: you know, really like shoot the ship with the fans
Speaker 1: and people like your stuff and on the on that note,
Speaker 1: just interrupt one second. I owe you an oblique thank you, perhaps, Chris,
Speaker 1: because when I went to your book signing here in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: which was at Emmet Old Ones, Yeah, I packed with
Speaker 1: people there to see Chris. When I when I was there,
Speaker 1: I met an editor. I guess it was your editor
Speaker 1: from Simon and Schuster, and uh I signed a book
Speaker 1: deal with her. And uh, my book is coming out
Speaker 1: in April. Now, oh, that's that's awesome. You whatever good
Speaker 1: things come about from whatever I do. I I'd love
Speaker 1: to see that with help other people. That's that's because
Speaker 1: of you, Chris. I'll get through it. But brother, that's
Speaker 1: that's fantastic. Congratulations. And I hope I've got a third
Speaker 1: book called The Patriots Creed coming out on the tent.
Speaker 1: I hope, m it's stuff places still there because it is.
Speaker 1: We're going to do another book releases. I love. If
Speaker 1: you're New York City, you gotta go to Amati s M.
Speaker 1: It's an awesome guy. Graduations, Jack, Yeah, thank you. And
Speaker 1: it's also it's kind of funny or you're talking about
Speaker 1: guys in Hollywood who don't fit the usual stereotype like
Speaker 1: of a New York business owner. He definitely does not
Speaker 1: like fit that student in the theater District two, which
Speaker 1: is awesome, I know. And you go in there and
Speaker 1: you see like the at like shrug stuff and the
Speaker 1: world cow stuff and all of you guys, you know,
Speaker 1: our covers, and he has the best the best food,
Speaker 1: the best beast stew in the whole city. I love
Speaker 1: the food he's got there. So I mean, you go
Speaker 1: in there, and you walk in and it is a pub,
Speaker 1: but it's a cleaned up, nice, classy pub, but it's
Speaker 1: not so classy that you still can't spill drinks on
Speaker 1: the floor and bump each other's shoulders and get drunk.
Speaker 1: But then you can also go sit down and have
Speaker 1: a fantastic meal with your family and not worry that
Speaker 1: some drunk cooligan is gonna come punch in the face.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's it's I don't know how he's
Speaker 1: got it, but he's got that vibe there that's just
Speaker 1: perfect perfectly well said man. Well thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we were able to do this, and
Speaker 1: as I said, I'll let you know if I can
Speaker 1: come out on Thursday, um, but would love to see
Speaker 1: you again. It's it's definitely been a while. No worries, brother,
Speaker 1: your family first, Okay, I don't I don't expect anything.
Speaker 1: You show up as you can if you can't, because
Speaker 1: you know, I've dotched you probably more than you ever
Speaker 1: dodged me. I don't think you ever. I don't think
Speaker 1: you ever have. I mean, there's a moment there where
Speaker 1: I could tell you were stepping away from everything. But
Speaker 1: for the most part, any time I hit you up
Speaker 1: to come on, you're you're here, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: regardless of like changes in the lineup of who's on
Speaker 1: this show. We were laughing about that, but I mean
Speaker 1: it's been Jack and I consistently the entire time, which
Speaker 1: is cool, and you know, I think that's that's what
Speaker 1: the audience likes, to be honest. It makes it makes
Speaker 1: it easy. And I think you have a good, very
Speaker 1: white voice, dude. Honestly, it makes me all relaxed and
Speaker 1: falling right now in my bed just listening to you talk.
Speaker 1: It's just relaxing, soothing, soothing, very white. That's that's a
Speaker 1: high compliment and I appreciate it, Chris. You're welcome from
Speaker 1: it now, whereas I appreciate again, God bless you you
Speaker 1: and just yeah, let me know, and you know you
Speaker 1: got my direct line. I don't have I do all
Speaker 1: my media stuff. I'm handling it all myself. Tanya my
Speaker 1: ex wife, which is really she's my girlfriend now and
Speaker 1: and well, well I'm sure we'll end up getting remarried
Speaker 1: here soon if we in the nick. But she handles
Speaker 1: a lot of this stuff for me. And it's amazing
Speaker 1: when you finally have that support. You know, as Alpha
Speaker 1: Male's brother, we ain't as tough as we think we are.
Speaker 1: I was tough when I was a ranger, and I
Speaker 1: was tough when I was a contractor because I had
Speaker 1: a good woman that was backing me up. And I've
Speaker 1: lost that the last three years. And and that's you know,
Speaker 1: you'd be shocked how strong you can you can be
Speaker 1: when you actually have a woman that backs you up
Speaker 1: and and and supports you and and really takes care
Speaker 1: of our big, big woosey asses, and how strong it
Speaker 1: can be. It's not us. We're not stronghold. It's that
Speaker 1: woman behind the scenes that's the strong ones. And just
Speaker 1: you know, and all you guys think the grass is greener,
Speaker 1: it ain't. Guys, so don't even don't the grass is
Speaker 1: not green or I'm telling you right now. But if
Speaker 1: you want to go find out for yourself, go find
Speaker 1: out for yourself. Just keep that little bit of strength
Speaker 1: left to get out before before you get overcome. Um.
Speaker 1: But then again, I'm off my soapbox again. He and
Speaker 1: you gotta tell me to stop doing this ship stop.
Speaker 1: I love Ben. Alright, we'll let you go. Great, great
Speaker 1: talk to you Chris. Yeah, Chris, thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the show today. Thanks guys again, ask God bless you.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again soon. Ah yeah, it's great
Speaker 1: hearing from you. Talk to you soon. By dude. Chris
Speaker 1: is uh, I have to say, just such a likable guy. Um.
Speaker 1: There's probably people you know in the audience who haven't
Speaker 1: heard this type of but that's just him being him.
Speaker 1: He's very candid, um, very candidate on this show when
Speaker 1: he comes on and as himself and I dig it, man,
Speaker 1: there's a reason why he's you know, gotten so many
Speaker 1: opportunities and um, I think probably to go right into
Speaker 1: the spotlight the way he did. And you know there's
Speaker 1: people at media matters and stuff who have gone after
Speaker 1: Chris and and you know, he definitely got wrapped up
Speaker 1: into getting fights on Twitter and all that, and I
Speaker 1: could see how it could be very taxing and you
Speaker 1: could say, funk all this, I'm deleting all of the
Speaker 1: social media and and then you know, I'm sure for him.
Speaker 1: You know, you're promoting a business, you're promoting a foundation,
Speaker 1: you're doing good work like this for this this war
Speaker 1: hero's TV series, and you realize like you kind of
Speaker 1: need to have social media. It's like that necessary evil.
Speaker 1: But you know, all of this is kind of designed
Speaker 1: to be addicting. And I see what people all the
Speaker 1: time every day. It's like they're looking for a new
Speaker 1: person to fight on Twitter, and you know, good people. Honestly,
Speaker 1: There's some people I think do it out of fun,
Speaker 1: like b K, who really enjoys it, and then there's
Speaker 1: other people I think it it actually becomes like a
Speaker 1: stressful part of their life. So yeah, I mean, i'd
Speaker 1: be office social media too, frankly if but I mean
Speaker 1: it's business, and it's like, you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: you are your business. You know what, what is it like? Uh,
Speaker 1: like Gene Simmons said, like you treat yourself as a
Speaker 1: name brand. Yeah, you know, that's that's what we we
Speaker 1: are in a way. Um, so it's like not you
Speaker 1: can't really step away from it entirely. And it's definitely
Speaker 1: a double edged sword. So I mean, I get it.
Speaker 1: I mean I think i'd go ahead and delete it
Speaker 1: all to you know, why not? Yeah, no, I hear you.
Speaker 1: It does get it just gets overwhelming. Uh you know what.
Speaker 1: I I actually really appreciate the fact because it wasn't
Speaker 1: something I mentioned to him prior to the interview. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get his real take. I appreciate him giving
Speaker 1: the real take about these contractors working uh for foreign governments,
Speaker 1: because honestly, Chris could have been like, no comment, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get involved in that. But he gave
Speaker 1: us a very real answer to that, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You know, that was like some real talk, you know
Speaker 1: with what like he said, he you know that he
Speaker 1: doesn't know maybe doesn't know the specifics, but like in
Speaker 1: the broader sense of what he was saying, I couldn't
Speaker 1: agree with him more. I mean That's what I've been
Speaker 1: trying to say as well, is like just understand when
Speaker 1: you go over there, you know you're not protected the
Speaker 1: same way you are in the United States, where if
Speaker 1: you're working for the US government, like you're you're out
Speaker 1: on your own. Yeah. And I think the point he
Speaker 1: made is true as well, that you know you're going
Speaker 1: to take a major risk working for a US owned company,
Speaker 1: which he has done, is he said, but it's a
Speaker 1: whole new level of risk when you're working for a
Speaker 1: foreign government or a foreign company. Yeah. Yeah, Well I
Speaker 1: appreciate Chris coming on once again. Um, the man, there's
Speaker 1: so many parts of that that I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: make like video highlights for on Instagram because he said
Speaker 1: a lot there at Real Underscore, Chris Underscore, Tanto Underscore Pronto.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, man, he's he's exactly the way that people
Speaker 1: you know would think he is. And as he said,
Speaker 1: like that, we've known each other a while. I I
Speaker 1: knew him prior to him ever coming on the show, Uh,
Speaker 1: just from working when I was working at Serious Sex.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a very um, you know, genuine guy,
Speaker 1: and you can tell when people are real and people
Speaker 1: are fake. And it comes through and certain things he's
Speaker 1: written about that I think a lot of people would hide.
Speaker 1: You know, when he wrote that piece about him at
Speaker 1: one time being suicidal and woman at the airport saying,
Speaker 1: hey are Utanto keeps speaking your truth and that that
Speaker 1: helps keep him strong. A lot of people would never
Speaker 1: have the balls to write something. You know. I should
Speaker 1: have hold him this when we had him here, but um,
Speaker 1: that was also when we interviewed him last time, when
Speaker 1: he was in studio with us. That was also like
Speaker 1: part of the inspiration for me to write my own
Speaker 1: book because and I saw I was like, here's this
Speaker 1: guy who's being like so candid. He's not just like
Speaker 1: tugging himself off here and like talking about how great
Speaker 1: he is. Like he's really talking to like some real
Speaker 1: talk about like these dark, dark moments. And like for me,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, so it is possible to tell
Speaker 1: your story without it just being a huge ego trip
Speaker 1: and you know talking about these things. Um, So that
Speaker 1: was kind of an inspiration for me. Actually, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Also the way he um the character he portrayed, which
Speaker 1: was really kind of himself, and that all that remains video.
Speaker 1: I thought he did an excellent job with that. You
Speaker 1: probably I think I've shown you, but it was that
Speaker 1: all that remains video We're there in the White House
Speaker 1: and just kind of plays a you know, a vet
Speaker 1: on the brink of suicide. I thought he did an
Speaker 1: excellent job, especially for a guy who's no formal acting
Speaker 1: training or anything. Crazy thing of out with that band.
Speaker 1: By the way, we've had Phili Bonti on the podcast before.
Speaker 1: Um it's been a few months, I believe, but you know,
Speaker 1: the guitarist for that band died. I've been kind of
Speaker 1: following stuff going on in the news about it, and
Speaker 1: Phil did an interview about his guitarist dying, which was
Speaker 1: supposedly from some type of drug induced thing, and basically
Speaker 1: Phil said in the interview that he said that this
Speaker 1: guitarist was never into hard drugs, hard partying. This was
Speaker 1: never his thing. And he's like, he said, we would
Speaker 1: never allow his wife on the road with us because
Speaker 1: he was like, his wife was nuts, and he I
Speaker 1: think he I don't have the quote in front of you,
Speaker 1: but he basically said his wife is a piece of
Speaker 1: human garbage. And they were like, are you, you know,
Speaker 1: insinuating something between your guitarist death and the wife. And
Speaker 1: he was like, because there's an ongoing case, I can't
Speaker 1: speak about it, but I'm gonna be leave it at that.
Speaker 1: So there might be something pretty crazy going on with that. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially as he said, he was like, if anybody knows
Speaker 1: this guy, I do. I've been on the road with him.
Speaker 1: He's been in the band the whole time for I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's over a decade, it might
Speaker 1: even be two decades around. And he's like, this guy
Speaker 1: never got into hard drugs. Was the type of guy
Speaker 1: who drank a couple of beers and that was it,
Speaker 1: howly ship. Yeah, So we'll see. I mean, maybe at
Speaker 1: some point we get um Phil back on if there's
Speaker 1: a case spending after the case has resolved. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it was a it was a real shame to hear.
Speaker 1: And and in this interview that I saw, he said
Speaker 1: that he was telling him many times to get divorced
Speaker 1: from this woman, and he's like, just never, you know,
Speaker 1: got through. So we'll see, we'll see if more comes out. Man, Um,
Speaker 1: great show. And the last thing I'll mention real quick
Speaker 1: is if you haven't already check out Big Mountain Heroes
Speaker 1: on YouTube. The full documentaries on YouTube. Now, those guys
Speaker 1: did a great job. And while I was on here,
Speaker 1: I saw that Kristen Beck got back to me on
Speaker 1: my comment on Instagram. Kristen Beck is in New York
Speaker 1: City doing something and I was like, hey, stop by
Speaker 1: the podcast and and Kristen said, I'll shoot your text
Speaker 1: about it. So maybe we'll Christen on on Thursday. We
Speaker 1: have and Andy Paulski who's a historian who wrote a
Speaker 1: book about um the presidents and times of war. But
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe we could do a pretape with
Speaker 1: Christian and report two things. We'll see. I'll get back
Speaker 1: to Christian because I think it'd be great. It's someone
Speaker 1: that we've we've covered a lot on the show, have
Speaker 1: never had in studio. I've never been to come in.
Speaker 1: That'd be fu Yeah, So we'll see. Um, you know
Speaker 1: that's the possibility. Guys. As always, thanks for checking out
Speaker 1: the show. Thanks especially for checking out the last show.
Speaker 1: It's really boosted our numbers and want to boost our numbers.
Speaker 1: That raises our visibility and keeps us going strong. So
Speaker 1: keep spreading the word. Guys, you've been listening to Self
Speaker 1: Red Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow
Speaker 1: the show on Instagram and Twitter at self red Radio